• she/wolf

we've got til noon, here comes the moon. | 38 | Ξ˜Ξ” | πŸ”ž | πŸ’ž @aviyinglet | icon @kiyonescarlet




Back in June 2020, when it became apparent that the COVID-19 lockdown was going to continue for β€œat least a few more months,” I picked up an Oculus Rift S so I could play Alyx or Beat Saber or whatever other options were available. Social VR wasn't really on my radar at the time, but I installed VRChat and fell in with a couple of groups of friends who were on the platform as well.

As of this last weekend, I've crested 2,000 hours in SteamVR, of which roughly 1,300 hours have been spent standing (or sitting, or laying) in my room, hanging out over the internet with other people, just existing in that space together.

My first virtual convention was technically Furality 2000. I was working through the weekend and I didn't really know anybody who was there. I poked my head into the Dealer's Den on Friday afternoon, sat in on the edge of a conversation for about 20 minutes, and left. I didn't really get anything out of it. I regularly forget that I was even there.

Between then and June 2022, a lot had changed. The occasional hangouts with friends had evolved into a semiweekly event. I'd figured out why I felt so awkward wearing masculine-coded avatars. I'd gotten better at expressing myself. And it had been over two years since my last proper furry convention, which was also the last furry convention for a lot of people.

So when Furality Aqua came around, I leaned into it. I took the weekend off of work, customized my avatar for the event, started every day with a breakfast burrito and had takeout for dinner. I think I spent more time in VR than I did out of it. When the con was over, I came down from it so hard that I had to call out for an extra day.

And so I'm back there now, the day after closing ceremonies for Furality Sylva, looking back through screenshots that feel like photographs of friends and strangers who felt like they were all in the same room, taken in worlds that feel like a place that we all went to and then had to leave. It's Monday evening, I'm jetlagged, sore, and tired, and tomorrow I have to go back to presenting as someone I'm not.


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