#virtualia

through the virtualia, the same place i woke up...

...its still my favorite place. its such a fickle flower to be around, but i still feel at home amongst them

art ramble below ★

I hope that you are well! I very much enjoy your tumblr, and do hope that you keep it up as so much has already been lost. Even if I was always on the periphery of Aristasia, I did enjoy spending time bopping around on my ordie at the Embassy in Virtualia with other pettes or watching kinnies (Olivia!). I feel a trifle guilty since I was one of the late 2000s members to bring in more of the kawaii aesthetic, wearing Lilian uniforms from Maria-sama ga Miteru before even Sushuri-Madonna made the switch.

I think the tip over into Chelouranya was driven by this and even though there were at times hints of Japonisme already there (especially in Arcadia and Trintesse? Is that the other? The one that’s markedly similar to Tellurian 20s. It’s been over a decade, so I don’t remember everything.). The tip into fandom and otherkin nonsense in elektraspace really seemed driven by that, and even though there was some logic to it I believe their (our) youthful ignorance created chaos since there was a profound lack of understanding of the background and humor in Aristasia (the positive parts). Again, I’ve always been at the periphery, but I do have so much theorizing.

I hope that you’re sure to keep backing up your records on the internet archive wayback machine and keep a pdf back up file of your blog (pdfs are very stable).

I’m not Aristasian myself, nor was I ever, but for a while it was good fun dancing at the Embassy and was sad when the land was removed since I’d assumed it was old enough and in an unchanging are of SL that I thought it was staying preserved in time even if it was empty.

À toute à l’heure,

Amitiés

Miss Rosalie

Rayati Miss Rosalie,

Thank you so much for your kind message. I always, genuinely, appreciate any of these firsthand accounts from the girls who mingled with the Aristasians. I think they’re immensely important to archive, as all that remains are tiny amounts of archived forum posts, and even then, they were all in character.

I would love to hear any other memories you might have of your time dancing at the Embassy! As well as your theorizing, if you’re willing to share!

As you may have gathered from my posts or “about” page, I was also never an Aristasian, I never even had the chance to visit their Embassy in Virtualia, as I never could get Second Life to run well. But I watched them from afar with admiration and frustration, and have very appreciative of any insights and stories from those who were there, as well as their filianist sisters.

I’ve been sure to make backups to the Wayback Machine to any websites I still find available, and have been backing up my own works in multiple locations (I’m working on transferring my Tumblr blog to a, slightly more organized, Wordpress blog, since Tumblr doesn’t always play along with the Wayback Machine), as well as uploading whatever PDFs I find to Archive.org. It’s sad that so much has been lost already, but there are definitely other pettes out there trying to keep the memory of Aristasia alive in some way!

Your Humble Editress,

#virtualia lo que fue la primera red social que conocí.