A philosophical view of Belliserian homes and alt's personalities

[GinaFreumann]

In a related topic (I hope I'm not hijacking here) has anyone else lost track of a favorite past alt?  Or do you still have your original alt when you first discovered Second Life?  We all were probably very different people that long ago.  I feel so sad that I don't have, & can't find any trace of Whimsy Thirdborn, whom I inhabited unknown years ago. She/I was an Elf, just a starter avatar, & I loved the "duck walk" that people so disdained.  We lived in one of the Elder Glen houses.  It was an incredible thrill to just watch her/me walk along flowered paths, run, & even fly!  (talk about split personality haha)

[Mollymews]

1 hour ago, GinaFreumann said:

I feel so sad that I don't have, & can't find any trace of Whimsy Thirdborn, whom I inhabited unknown years ago

you might be able to get Linden to restore the account. Lindal explains how to this here:

 

[Fay Starlight]

2 hours ago, Sylvia Tamalyn said:

So maybe I'm not the only one who says "Move your a**!!!" to her avatar when trying to decorate? 

No alone, I also tell mine to bugger off..lol

[Maitimo]

I have a premium alt with a Linden home and he is most definitely very different from me.  Over the years, his homes have had a very specific look to them; very rustic, country look, often with a US south-west feel, lots of native american art etc. regardless of where he lives, his homes are always like that. They always have the same parcel name too.  

I only just today realised that my new log home is furnished exactly the way he would have done it. And now I realise that, I wanna change it, lol.  He has a log home too so I might just take all my stuff over there and furnish it for him, and do something different with mine.

Now me, I don't do that. I change my home based not so much on my own personal style, but on the style of the home and region I'm living in. My houseboat was 60s retro bohemian, because of the bright colours available on the interior walls. My Trad was literally traditional, very English. I've had other homes too, on mainland and other rentals, and I change my home style to suit the region and the building I'm in. I've lived in a medieval castle, a fantasy castle made of ice, a beach house, a modern apartment, and others. Each time, the interior decor matches the style of the house. Which is probably why my cabin ended up looking like my alt's.

On 4/18/2020 at 8:14 AM, Garnet Psaltery said:

When you have different people inside you there comes a point when you decide whether to keep them contained or to let them live by their own will.  This is what writers do, or can do.  Does that cause a fracturing of the mind, or was that mind already fractured?  Was it always so?  I know that I, this one that thinks and interacts with the world, am only at the top of an arc.  I am not everything.

I relate to this very much. My alts and I are different people who happen to share the same physical body in RL. Even in RL, some people have alts too. Technically speaking, I'm a "RL alt" myself, and I should really refer to the SL alts as "ours", not "mine". Because aside from one, the others are not really mine at all. Second Life is our way of allowing us to have our own lives in a way we can't in RL.

 

[Morena Tully]

My alts definitely are their own unique person, and I am in line with the "different facets of who I am" aspect, but when it comes to Linden Homes, they're just pawns, the homes are MINE! The one exception is my male alt, I felt compelled to decorate in more of a masculine style that wasn't exactly my own. Not that I've ever leaned toward "fluffy" decor anyway, it just felt like being a male, he wasn't exactly part of who I am, and falls more into a RP frame of mind. It's like I was decorating for someone other than myself.

This really is a fascinating subject to me. Alts to me, besides utility purposes, have always been for RP or a mood, none have ever had an actual life of their own, save for one, which replaced my main for a few years. Maybe if my main ever got something that felt like home, they could do their own thing with the ones they have, but they *always* get the ones I like best, so the boss takes over

[Della Starlight]

11 hours ago, GinaFreumann said:

I think people are like jewels, multi-faceted.  Its only in SL that we get to express them all.

What a beautiful way to describe the true thing. 

Thinking back over my years in SL (since 2007) I would have to agree -- my other accounts (alts) are mostly aspects of myself; certainly the ones who have remained prominent. Some are retired, and a few created only for land ownership/game of homes -- these aren't important and have no personalities.

Thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts and in that way encouraging some self-examination.

[Anidusa Carolina]

14 hours ago, GinaFreumann said:

In a related topic (I hope I'm not hijacking here) has anyone else lost track of a favorite past alt? 

No cause for alarm, Gina. I don't feel hijacked ^^. And no, I never lost trace. They are all still there but "sleeping" since many many years. 
Good luck for getting back your lost one!

Edited April 19, 2020 by Anidusa Carolina

[Anidusa Carolina]

Thank you all so much for posting in this thread of mine. When I started it, I didn't expect so much wonderful thoughts and reactions!

I am sorry that I cannot afford the time needed to answer each and every posting here, but I want to name you all and shout out a big THANK YOU
@Raspberry Crystal, @Garnet Psaltery, @Faydra Foden, @Eirynne Sieyes,  @EmmeElise, @GinaFreumann, @Rolig Loon, @Mollymews, @Maitimo, @Morena Tully,
@DellaLaBella, and everyone I might have overseen while collecting the names. 
I am of course reading each post, and deeply impressed. 
Everyone who wants a hug......feel cosily hugged!

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

Any differences between my avs are largely superficial; Bitsy's the steam punk, flapper, banana, time traveler, lady dilettante pirate and purchaser of full perm things, Paisley's a hippy and bohemian, and lately a puppy. But that's just to make clothing acquisition easier. If they could share wardrobes, then who got to wear what would largely be based on which one was logged in or whose current outfit interested me the least on the day. Officially Paisley is the building alt, but the lack of clear boundaries there says everything  

There is an old, under-used av too. Over the years, she's evolved into a sort of tom-boyish rock chick type clothing-wise, based on the sexiest woman I've ever had the pleasure of knowing in that way and she continues as such to remind me that the common conventions of what's considered sexy in a woman are ridiculously narrow and limiting.

Sometimes I make up wee fragments of meandering stories about them to entertain friends, or talk about the other as if she was a different person. It's always been very fluid and likely to change on a whim. All aspects of myself are present within each. At most you could say Paisley reflects a younger me and Bitsy somewhat older. But then she is presently literally a banana and has just flooded her Linden log cabin to make an aquarium out of the front room, so we might not want to assign relative maturity to either

[Sparkle Bunny]

Current premium alt is a flapper who will quite often sneak one of her gramophones into an otherwise contemporary scheme; i may let her have an art deco skybox when she is relieved of her landholding duties. in the old linden homes i would always chose the style and decorate according to which alt was holding it, but this year it's been dictated more by the style of the house and the season (houseboat for summer, trad for autumn, Vic for winter, trailer for spring.) next up is a boy whom i only made to lock down a midnight mania, so i don't quite know how he or his homes are going to turn out. i've never spent stipend fitting out a malt before so that should be fun.

[kali Wylder]

I love this topic!  Seeing yourself is one of the things I truly love about SL.  My first avatar made her first alt, me, when she was one month old.  I had only just learned that you could have an alt.  And the first thing I did with her was send her off to all the places i'd heard about that sounded somewhat scary to me. 

I was an insanely reckless teenager, who hitchhiked and ran away from home and participated in the hippie thing, exploring the real world fearlessly.  That person had disappeared inside a frightened lonely woman stuck in a marriage that she could see no way out of.  

Then I found SL.  When I first arrived I was timid and terribly serious, but incredibly intrigued by the possibilities. I created Kali to be that person lost inside of me who was so brave and alive.  Then I sent her off to do everything that frightened me. My first partner had a few alts.  In fact he was one of the alts.  We had so much fun. I partnered with his alt, Kali had an ongoing affair with his main and my first male alt chatted with his female alt.

when that relationship ended 3 years later, my first av was heartbroken.  So I retired her and let Kali be the main alt.  I went to new places, made new friends and started my 3rd life.  But even before that I'd been making alts, each one exploring a different aspect of me. 

Edited April 21, 2020 by kali Wylder

[Hendrix Portal]

I made an alt to store all the leftover gachas I had after playing for friends. Since the friends were females, I had a ton of shoes, hair, clothes etc, so I made a female alt to at least get some use out of them. Well... the alt apparently gained sentience, and started making demands. "I have these Slink shoes, I need Slink feet!" "This skin is for a mesh head, I need a mesh head!" "Oh this is only for a mesh body, I need a mesh body!" I've often threatened to park her on a street corner to earn her shopping money. 😆

One thing I did learn is, despite there being a LOT more stuff for the ladies, it is far more difficult for me to make a decent avie, what with tweaking shapes and hair that doesn't impale boobs and which foot shape to use and figuring out head HUDs and so on. I do not envy you all one bit. *puts on jeans and a t-shirt and goes about his day*

Edit to add: I can't say I have felt any female tendencies with a female alt, and I am not very good at "being" one. But I do agree with wanting different things based on which avie I'm on. The fAlt tends to go with more "normal" classic decor, while my own stuff is a little more left-field.

Edited April 21, 2020 by Hendrix Portal
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