Too much to handle

A few weeks ago 2021 struck again, and frankly I have been at a loss for words ever since. After a long and serious illness my dear friend and creative soulmate →Natascha Randt has passed, and I am still trying to understand what’s happening. When I first joined the virtual world of Second Life I became friends with two people right away—and Nat was one of them. I will not try to explain how immersive virtual worlds can be, and how behind the avatars real people form real relationships. Just know that we became close friends who had so much fun creating short silly videos and pictures together, who could talk about anything and lifted each other up when needed.

Nat was a knowledgeable, intelligent, extremely funny and incredibly creative person. She was always loyal to her friends and gave everyone a hand where ever she could. Some referred to her as ‘Auntie Nat’, others called for ‘Natipedia’ whenever they needed information on—well, anything. To me she was a caring, lovely friend. My Second Life is very much connected to her, and I feel her absence constantly.

Requiem for Natascha

Natascha Randt is mostly known for her machinimas, short videos shot in Second Life. Nat’s →YouTube channel Aetheris Avidi consists of over 500 works, please do check it out!

→Karima Hoisan, poet extraordinaire and Nat’s machinima partner, set out to create a memorial world for Nat on →Kitely-Virtual Worlds on Demand. Dale Innis will do the scripting, and I am chipping in with some memories of mine. It will take some time before it’s ready to visit, but it will be grand.

Ito Naminosaki set up a memorial site in →LINC City with links, videos and more pictures. The whole city (with moving traffic, thanks to Dale), a large, beautiful park, town houses and more was first built by Nat as a machinima set for →The Changes Changes and has grown ever since. It will be dedicated to her and named after her.

As for me, I feel it’s time to re-upload a short little graphic novel Nat and I did together. →The Adventures of Nat & Joey is a fun, witty sci-fi story about two detectives of Shadow Inc. Security—way out in the Outer Rim of the galaxy: “On what was supposed to be a routine night patrol, Nat and Joey suddenly find themselves caught up investigating a murky conspiration which is set to destroy all of The City — or at least have the both of them fall prey to unleashed alien monsters.”

What started out as a silly idea quickly evolved into nine episodes, seven of which were published online in →Bright Metallic sci-fi cyberpunk magazine from 2015 to 2016. Needless to say, we had tons of fun building sets and piecing together outfits, and if I could, I’d do it all again!

As the pictures were taken six years ago they need some freshening up. I’ll be updating chapters as I go. Feel free to hit Subscribe so you’ll be notified!

Blue skies, Nat. I miss you <3