I see absolutely no reason why your Second Life should be any less obsessive than your first, and apparently neither do these people.

Second Life is an immersive 3D environment where you create an avatar to represent yourself, and you travel through the worlds interacting with other avatars and reshaping the world to suit yourself. People design their own luxury mansions, their own skyscrapers, their own amusement parks and nightclubs and sex grottos. So, naturally, some virtual Browncoats got together to make the crappy little town where Wash is a hero. And now they have their own Firefly.

Washtown is a pleasant place and one where you can always run across a fellow flan. Above you can see me — just as dashing in SL as in real life — in front of the Wash statue. On the right is one of the weekly Sunday in-character shindigs at the Hoban Saloon. From the left: Anastasia, Dieter, Jadi, me (in the browncoat and Peter Pan stance), Gabriel, Roland, and Sabrina. The saloon also has game tables and a shooting range downstairs.

But their big attraction just showed up last night – a full-size Firefly, designed by SL builder Fenix Eldritch. I don't mind telling you, I completely geeked out walking through this thing. C'mon, I'll show you around.

Made of 700 different shapes ("prims") with individual textures applied for realism, this ship is a beauty. It is unfurnished at the moment — they just got it set up — but walking through still gives you a familiar, "I'm home" feeling.

It's to scale, pretty much, and is remarkably accurate. I had no problem navigating around by memory (although I did have to become several inches shorter to get through the doorways).

It also came complete with an operable mule (movie version). Here's the sickbay and the guest compartments.

The engine turns! How cool is that? It's also oddly hypnotic, although I may have just gotten dizzy trying to find the catalyzer. It's patterned after the movie version, but I have to admit I miss the big hand crank.

The dining room is all ready for lounging, eating with the family, or cleaning your weapons. No storage area to lock up your crazy psychic ninja girls (that I noticed), whch may be just as well.

The crew quarters can be entered (walk over the gap and drop in) and, just like the real ones, are pretty cramped. I'm looking forward to seeing them decorated.

Here you can see me in the pilot's seat on the bridge making vroom vroom noises and  checking out the instrumentation (including a few panels that look like Whitefall designs). Nicely done bridge, complete with lockers and big, obvious tubing.

The ship will be used for role-playing or just hanging around, and you're more than welcome to drop by and check it out. Remember, shindigs every Sunday! If you have Second Life installed, you can go straight there.

If you don't have Second Life installed, maybe you should. Where else are you gonna find a Firefly?

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