SOLD!

It's the morning after the auction, and I'm just flat exhausted. I have never before seen the kind of amazing display of generosity, good will, friendly competition, excitement, and a coming together as I did last night in Imperial Ar, and I am humbled by it. I hope you don't think I'm exaggerating. I have known many, many folks who participate in the auction by either putting themselves up and/or buying, and I know what kind of trials they've been through, how many times they've been burned or jaded about things, and how really unlikely it is that they would all be brought together for this kind of common goal. By all accounts, we should probably all be done with SL Gor.

But we aren't, and we're still having fun, and last night was proof positive. The sim brought in about 380,000 Lindens altogether, from start weeks ago to the incredible finish last night - to help with tier and for events on the sim. I can't tell you how much it's appreciated. When the sim was offered to me to buy, I wasn't really prepared for it, hadn't been saving up or trying to make a decision like most sim owners do. It was just... one day, I was contacted, and it was offered to buy. And when that happened, I was overwhelmed, called Primus immediately and spoke with him, and we thought – it will be tight, but we can do this. It really needs to be done. Ar has been my dream for a long time, but not just mine – it's been the dream of many of you too, whether or not you called it “Ar.” It was your collective home that you wanted. It's what we're beginning to see now in the way our community is forming. What happened this weekend with the auction confirms we made the right decision in buying the sim, and ensures that it's going to keep going now that we have some security to put behind our investment. In short: We're committed to this. Ar isn't going away.

The bidding was fierce last night. At one point, during Willow Jupiter's auction, I really wondered how long the whole thing would take. There were three men bidding on her auction, one right after the other, so much, in increments of 50, then 100, then 1000... I just sat back, amazed. Then of course, Xaz's auction, which I really did not think would be outbid at 50,000 lindens ended up going to 96,000. I actually think it might have gone even higher, but the evening was growing late, and the bidding had to stop sometime. Brighid/Lucretia and Kiana's auctions ended up causing quit a stir as the bidding war really kicked in there. And Torrid Streeter's auction blew everyone away as it went from 10,000 to 30,000. At the end, we even did a comical “live auction” of Radix Ohl (my guard, who by the way is a consummate roleplayer), and Dillusion Resident (the owner of the now-famous new Pani sim). The banter was enjoyable, the good will was incredible, and once again, though exhausted, I'm so thrilled with how it all turned out. Thank you, Imperial Ar roleplayers. And thank you, SL Goreans, for stepping up and being part of the magic.