Hey, thanks for coming to the party! Yeah, I can’t believe it’s real and happening either! Oh, you don’t know anyone here and want to be introduced? Gee, my manners - of course, sure, sure, no problem.
This is plantman. We met on findastudybuddy.link when we were both taking calculus in high school. It’s been 14 years since we first connected, but this is the first time we’ve actually shaken hands! Isn’t it wild? Neither of us need calculus in our daily lives now, but you know, our connection was clearly one to keep. Most of our inside jokes? Oh, there used to be this crappy learning platform called smartMathsForYou that, even with its awful UI, really had the most comprehensive math lessons. It doesn’t exist anymore, but by the number of memes plantman has of it on hand, you would have no idea. plantman is great! weirdest obscure fact? Not that weird or obscure. plantman made his username in 2nd grade, but now he’s a landscaper.
Oh, I’m so glad you two are meeting! I thought you might get along. Your digital auras seem similar to me.
Hold on. You guys actually kinda physically resemble each other, huh? I guess a lot of beautiful people look beautifully alike. Carry on.
This is lauraBDennis. Yes, she has the most boring screen name of anyone here today. But also, yes, she has the most boring day job of anyone here. Maybe that’s why her imagination is so wild on the internet - you will not believe the creations she comes up with. Her medium? Oh, anything digital, really. It’s hard to describe. Fantasy dragon-transforming-fairy-transforming-soulsucker skin for your game avatar? lauraBDennis sells it. Custom interface to make all your different profiles spontaneously sing for 13 seconds simultaneously? Yup, she made that too. She might seem shy irl, but don’t be fooled. Oh, you’ve already found her store and profiles? Yeah, I figured it wouldn’t be too hard. Oh okay, you have so many questions already, that makes sense, knock yourself out.
A.L. and I actually met in real life first, which, as you’ll notice, is unusual among the people here. Maybe unsurprisingly, we only got to spend a short time together - 10 days - but we’ve spent far more digital hours together since then. A.L. is one of the most understanding and intellectually interesting people I know. We do watch and talk about a lot of movies together, but sometimes I throw in a question about a controversial political or existential topic and A.L. never disappoints. We’ve never met as avatars online - just holoprojections of our real selves. I guess for some people you’ve met, it’s weird to superimpose this whole other version of yourself once they know you IRL, so that’s how our digitime interactions go.
I don’t generally like to resurface old time, but A.L. was the first person I was willing to do that with: we recently re-entered a realtime of our first virtual meeting. It was 87 minutes, definitely scary, a bit cringey, but mostly funny to see how much both of us have changed since then!
Enjoy the party! This is probably the only time all these people will be in a physical room together. But remember, anyone you meet - look them up, add their profile, keep tabs on their updates, ping them to hang out in space, digibars, or remote linked classrooms and workshop spaces. Wonders abound: just dive into your digital essence!