What is it to love someone in a virtual world like Second Life®? Is it real? Or just a fantasy? Does the virtual environment, with its alts and animations, affect how we relate to each other? Where is the line between role playing and deceit, privacy and honesty? Is there a desirable balance between fantasy and authenticity in virtual relationships? And how hard is true submission… is it even possible in this context? This blog is meant as a personal reflection on an experience filled with intrigue, heartbreak, healing and grace, dizzying in its possibilities, and breathtaking in its dark beauty.
The topic here is relationships: any human connection that is deeply meaningful to me in some way, be it romance, intimate friendships, buddies, D/s, sexual relationships, colleagues or communities. I write about “the space between” — the interaction, the interchange of emotions, thoughts and actions between me and there significant others. That “space between” could consist of a few wispy strands of fluff, or glow hot with passion, or be mired in dark muck, or run deep and strong like a river. Relationships are diverse in character. And any of them may be topics for this blog.
After more than two decades exploring 3D virtual worlds and their possibilities for relationship and self expression, Camryn Darkstone is leading a life of quiet contentment as a submissive, building and landscaping for Littlefield Grid with occasional projects in Second Life. Camryn has been active in online communities since the early 1980s, and, under other names, has written extensively about the ways that people relate to one another on the internet.
Since 2009 Camryn has enjoyed a loving, consensual D/s relationship as submissive to Walter Balazic in both the virtual world and the “real” world.
the space between 