on June 29, 2011 by BunnyHugger in News, Comments (0)
SpinDizzians Gather to Remember Waydya
A memorial gathering was held June 18 in Memorial Plaza (N1 W1) to mark the [OOC] death of Waydya, squirrel. She (or, rather, her player) died May 30. Many in attendance did not know her, as she had not been a frequent visitor to public areas of SpinDizzy in recent years, but came to pay respects and comfort the bereaved. Those who did remember her took turns sharing stories and memories of her.
Skyler, rabbit, spoke first. He characterized Waydya as “our original albino squirrel” (an apparent reference to albino squirrels Squizzle and Zeta), to which Cadge-Tuesday, squirrel, replied, “She was based on one of the squirrel robots [of Toons, Furr, and Fluff’s Squirrel City]… and one of those was albino.” Skyler recounted Waydya’s authorship of the Rainbow Maze, a difficult puzzle that rewarded those who completed it with a SELOSDAN: “Small Expensive Looking Object that Still Does Absolutely Nothing.” Upon using his wizardly powers to search SpinDizzy, Skyler reported that the Rainbow Maze still exists, but is currently inaccessible to the public, a problem that those present agreed should be rectified so people can continue to enjoy Waydya’s work.
Skyler concluded that Waydya was “a kind, interesting, and sometimes quirky person.” He then asked if others would like to add anything else. Cadge-Tuesday held up a paw and was recognized, and then, after setting her OOC flag, began to speak in Tuesday’s voice. She explained that along with Chit, squirrel, she was one of the co-founders of Squirrel City on Toons, Furr, and Fluff. She had learned a while back that Waydya was originally inspired to create herself as a squirrel (after previously playing other non-squirrel characters such as Huwuda) due to enjoying Squirrel City and the squirrel-robot drone machine therein. Tuesday explained that, sadly, she had no recollection of meeting Waydya, possibly due to being active at different times of day. “But,” she said, “I was thrilled to know that someone else had gotten enjoyment out of Squirrel City, since I have always thought of it as one of my great (lost) building projects, one of my labors of love. I was proud of it, and of the little mythos Chit and I developed together, and I’m pleased that it inspired someone.” She concluded, “I wish that I had gotten to see her in recent years, and show her the rebuilt interior of Squirrel City; and I wish that I had more to say about her. I’m sorry.”
BunnyHugger, devilbunny, admitted that she did not know Waydya either, but interjected anyway, against Chitter’s objections. She said, “I also used to check for her to connect because I wanted Chitter to meet her. Skyler had shown me where she lived, and I was thrilled that it required you to set a size property on yourself to indicate that you’re ‘small enough’ before you can enter. I love that kind of thought put to the IC nature of buildings. So I put her on my watchfor, but I never managed to meet her…. It had always been ages since her last connection and she only seemed to connect briefly.” She remarked that it made her think about how when she is feeling bad or unsocial and hides in a private room, she is depriving people who might like to meet her of that chance. “I’ll take a lesson from my disappointment over never meeting Waydya,” she said. Chitter replied, “I told you not knowing someone doesn’t stop her from giving a speech,” but Austin, coati, seemed to agree with BunnyHugger, remarking that “we take what we do from what we see, even if it’s just what we hoped to see.”
Kantuck, Hindvalin (deer), went next. She said, “Sadly, I knew of the player only from a comic strip, The Cross-time Cafe, and was not aware that they shared a MU* with me until after their passing. Still — in that context, I wanted to say that I enjoyed their postings.” She admitted that she was uncertain whether Waydya contributed to the comic strip as an artist or in some other capacity, but concluded, “I will miss what I did see, and read.”
Austin concluded the ceremony with a eulogy, recounted here in its entirety:
“I do think of Waydya, and her alts Jabari and Huwuda, as part of the original core about which TF&F and then SpinDizzy were first built. I think that part of our legacy of being a place where people become more intensely, more originally themselves, is from their early example.
“The thing I first think of, after them, is of some of their puppets: the Lego Vixen and the Lego Fox, who were just as the name describes. They were cheerful folks who didn’t mind that those around might take a few bricks off or add them and reconfigure them, and they played the results of that honestly and without trying to subvert or cancel the moves.
“One of the things I’m happiest about in our community is that what might be novelty characters are treated with respect and integrity here, and are given the chance to be as fully-fledged as anyone. That doesn’t come to us from Waydya alone, but she was one of those who set the tone and gave us a world richer than it might have been, even for those who knew her only by the way she shaped it. I thank her for that.”
Upon concluding the speech, Austin unveiled a Memorial Cube to serve as Waydya’s monument in Memorial Plaza. The Cube is etched with an image of Waydya the albino squirrel.
Tags: austin, bunnyhugger, cadge-tuesday, chitter, kantuck, memorial, rainbow maze, skyler, tf&f, waydya
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