When Second Life Relationships Become Real - Milae Abbot Reporting…

Relationships are complicated things, in the real world you meet someone you date them a few times, Cinema, Romantic Meal, Clubbing, Bowling and if you’re lucky it all works out and you become a steady item, a couple.

If you play your cards right you fall in love and well the rest as they say is History. Second life Relationships are quite similar except well everything happens much quicker. So what happens when the two worlds collide?

So in January 2013 I created Milae Lionheart, she was my 2^nd main AV in the SL world and is now my main AV. I need to explain a little bit of background so you can understand how this unfolded.

In September 2009 I joined SL (this was my second attempt the first was rather unsuccessful) and within a couple of weeks I met a US based man on SL and slowly we developed quite the relationship. We explored SL together got into the Dominant/Submissive lifestyle and as we grew together on SL our relationship grew closer off line to. We fell in love and started to make real life plans.

Now I am based in the UK and so we were long distance but all the communication via the internet through SL and other web based programs, as well as email, meant we were never really apart except when sleeping. I went to America, he came to England, we made plans for me to move to the US to be with him while in SL we were married and had kids. Our life was perfect and we were living the fairytale. Then things went sour and I watched as the man I loved was diagnosed with Cancer. While he was brave and fought for a year to beat it, in the end, he passed away and I was left heart broken. My world was bleak and I had no idea what my future on or off line held.

Before he passed away, in the March of 2013, I created Milae on New Years, following a few to many to drink. She was my way to get escape from the pain of seeing my character without my partner by my side. By then in my heart I knew he wouldn't be back in SL. When he did finally pass away it was my SL family and friends that held me up. Especially my wonderful SL sister and her partner who literally held my hand and helped me to breathe in the early days.

Fast forward a few months later and I am working at a club in SL as a DJ. No way was I looking for a relationship. I was kind of seeing someone online only just so I wasn’t totally lonely it was good but no way would I ever have made plans to be with him. As it turned out that was also to turn sour for reasons I won’t go into except that it taught me to make sure my SL Password was not so easy to work out. Being online and having another person change my name via Dashboard to something nasty was not a nice experience.

So back to my DJ gig it’s a busy Saturday early morning set and it’s all going wrong. I mean horribly wrong. I put out an SOS in staff chat and then it happened….my knight in shining armour. Mackenzie Abbot walked into my life and from there on I have not looked back. Remember what I said earlier on in this piece about things happening in SL quicker? Well to prove the point read this next sentence. Within a few weeks we were an item and soon expecting an SL baby and married. Milae Lionheart was now Milae Abbot. In the time we have been together we have moved sims a few times and tried our hand at our own club and entertainment sim.

In the real world meanwhile with us both in the UK our SL love soon turned to RL love and in March of this year 7 months after we got together online and off, following meeting up twice, we took the plunge and moved in together. Yes that’s right our own flat for just us 2 and our 2 dogs.

So what’s it like to mix SL and RL? Well for one thing we don’t get as much chance on SL as we used to but after just over a month of living together we are now establishing a pattern. We both have friends and work in SL so there was never a thought that we wouldn't be online. It’s brilliant to wake up beside him and be able to cuddle up to him and of course more than all that I get to plan my life with him.

Some people say I finally have the fairy tale I dreamed of. I say I have better than that; this isn't a fairy tale it’s real every second of it. Every day I think myself extremely lucky. While not every day is, as my SL sister would say, ‘Hearts and Flowers’ it’s real and it’s ours. No relationship is perfect, everyone knows that, but this is perfect to me. I wouldn't swap it for the world.