Sunday, October 08, 2006

Wearin' my mask...YAY! Lookin' like a bear... yay.

Here I am as a raccoon, dancing away in Luskwood.

I like my human avatar. (I take that back. I love my human avatar.) Excursions in fur, therefore, won't be common for me. It is fun, though, to see the world from a different point of view. (Not to mention the differences in others' behavior. A 4'5" busty raccoon doesn't receive the attention that a 7'2" busty, leggy redheaded human gets. Why would that be, I wonder?)

Actually, people with furry avatars have my respect just for the practical and logistical considerations. The tail uses the same component as some clothing, and it's another thing to have to keep track of and animate. Then there are the larger-than-human avatars, such as dragons—I imagine those have to be constructed from whole cloth.

(Title from the demented classic, "The Raccoon Song" by Jan Hobson and her Bad Review.)

2 comments:

Mordecai Scaggs said...

This picture puts me in a dilemma! Ok, normally I would not be attracted to a racoon, but I know it's you under that skin, so I am attracted to this one! Does that make me a pervert? Or is this another facet of SL that removes the boundaries that our RL flesh imposes? Given that here on the Grid, communication is through text, with no assistance from facial expressions, and given the fact that although I may be talking to a racoon (albeit one that can walk on its hind legs!) I know that there is human personality behind it, what is to stop me from forming a close bond with a furry, even to the point of falling in love and all that that entails? I think you know the answer to that question where you are concerned, furry skin or not!

Melissa Yeuxdoux said...

I have at least one furry friend in RL, but I don't consider myself one. I don't have a totem animal, and while I feel sympathy for animals (make that other animals; after all, we're not vegetable or mineral!) and loved the pets I had as a child, I don't feel kinship towards them as such.

The easy availability and low cost of a furry avatar probably means that more people like me experiment with them in SL, over and above those who are furry in RL and whose interests thus carry over to SL.