Two Nekos do Second Life -1: Insilico

I recently was in Insilico in Second Life to make a profile picture for Merit. Insilico is a role play place set in a cyberpunk world. For those who do not know what cyberpunk is: it is the world of blade runner.  It is  near future world where advanced technology has become part of human life, but society slowly falls apart. The individual becomes dominant and community suffers. Governments change from providing central services to all, to becoming repressive and undemocratic. On the face of it society still pays lip-service to democracy and equality, but in reality wealth and power determines everything. Central to cyberpunk is the notion that government tasks are being provided by mega corporations. They provide shelter, social services, security, health services, but only to their own employees. Their community is the community of the company and not of society of nationality. Ironically this world does not know discrimination on basis of race, gender, sexual behavior, religion or culture. The only thing that counts is whether one is a employee or not.

While this sounds like a bad world, it is also a world of opportunity. Enterprising individuals can carve out a destiny for themselves and there is still the possibility that the degrading of society can be reversed. Usually cyberpunk world assumes that space exploration has progressed and often planets like Mars have been colonized and often also the larger moons of various solar planets. Intergalactic space travel has not yet been achieved, but space travel in the solar system is well developed and expanding.

This then is the world where Insilico is based. It represent a large megapolis that is reminiscent of the city in Blade Runner, and the cities in Deus Ex, for those who are familiar with these games.  Insilico is truly a beautiful example of what one can do in Second Life and especially with the introduction of mesh the place has achieved a remarkable outlook.

Here are some pictures from Insilico.

This is my avatar Merit. I had her dressed up in a kind of cyberpunk look. This is a Hexatile look from Elixir.

A street at Insilico. Through blade runner the combination of these dark, empty streets combined with the bright  signs have become a kind of trademark. The contrast between the shiny colors and the dark grey streets dominated by towering dark mega buildings create an estranged feeling. It is like this single light bulb in an otherwise dark room. Typical Cyberpunk are the many signs with symbols that  convey no meaning. It is like the Asian text on the signs. People can not read them, they convey no meaning for them.
In Cyberpunk communications have improved, but at the same time it has not.

A bar somewhere in Insilico. Well I needed a closeup from Merit.

Typical Cyberpunk.. A robot looking like an insect is the barman at the Blue Ant bar. Don't you love that.

Somewhere in Insilico is the 7 Seas restaurant.

The inside of the restaurant is made to look like it is underwater. Look at the fishies. I am going to eat you little fishies!

In front of the entrance of the Seven Seas restaurant there are these two blue dragons circles around a large bubble.

Cyberpunk exist of mixing the old with the new, nature with technology. Maybe you remember the artificial snake  from bladerunner? Here is a statue of en elephant. The benches are located underneath a blue ultra modern looking device. No idea what it was for.

The Buddha Bowl is Noodle Bar in Insilico. The mesh stool degraded, but just imagine they are floating. In blade runner there is noodle bar scene. And thus the noodle bar has become a stock item in the cyberpunk world. The dragon like display in the back was beautiful.

Noodle bar close up.

Buddha Bowl Noodle bar.

Atomix Comic a shop for all tastes.. at least as far as the sign above the entrance seems to be saying. An interior shot with a mesh dude standing guard.

Street scenes in Insilico. The makers did their best to capture the mood of a cyberpunk city. Darkness all around, but always offset by sudden bright signs. Perhaps you recall that in Blade Runner there rain seems to fall making the street even more drearier.

At this point I had bought myself some cool cyberpunk glasses.

Even darker and therefore even brighter. A cyberpunk place is actually also a good environment for vampires.


Well uh, a lot of pictures. I hope you liked them. I even got more, but I put them on my website at: www.meritcoba.net.