15th
A day in the Second Half Life
I was verifying the authenticity of recent uploads to NCBI’s database of Diseasome when a raven appeared on my screen and began to caw urgently.
It was my son’s Second Half-Life familiar and it was demanding my immediate attention. “Ok, Hugin. I’m following you” I said as I logged into the parent’s portal of Second Half-Life, the children’s only Second Life world.
It was very slow. Ever since the WHO decreed 12assembly, virtual worlds have been swarmed and their servers could barely hold up. Second Half-Life was particularly full as many schools in ReDS zones have had to close their doors.
Once I was logged in, I became Hugin and automatically headed for Munin, who was keeping watch on my son’s avatar. This was how children were kept safe in in the “no adults allowed” Second Half-Life. Parents could pay for the privilege of being a familiar so you could watch and protect your child while being unable to communicate or fully participate.
Being an Viking avatar, it was no surprise that my son was in Asgard. As I flew over the grounds, I began searching for a banner bearing our family’s wildstyle herald as from the sky all viking avatars pretty much look the same. I noticed that there was a crowd of vikings watching a massive video that hung in the sky. That’s why Hugin called me - Asgard had been hacked by The Legion, who, by the looks of things, were trying recruit the naive. I called for backup.
I got closer to the crowd and found my son. Having full parental control, I could have just pulled the plug on his session but I wanted to do something a little more poetic. So I took control of my daughter’s Second Half-Life familiar.
A bright yellow griffin swept over the crowd and picked up with its claws an angry little viking, legs and arms pumping furiously. Now I just had to find someplace safe for my son.
But where was safe anymore?
