I'm Speechless...

'Hey! y u not voice?'

How many times have I heard that exact phrase (and that exact phrasing) from people in the store, at an event or whatnot...

*sighs*

I do not voice. Voice chat is disabled and no, I do not want to switch it on so you can talk at me while I type replys. My reasons are many... from the practical:

• I don't have a microphone


• My computer volume has two settings - Mute and playing earsplitting METAL


• The latter generally wins as I listen to music constantly and with intent to offend

To the personal:

• My profile states I'm shy... I am... so not forthcoming verbally at the best of times


• ...compounded by the fact that I'm softly spoken, and would have to shout, even with a headset mic to get heard


• ...and unless I really am prepared for a conversation, I'm the proud owner of a nervous stammer


• ...and an acccent that nobody can understand, let alone place, so they perpetually ask me about it... which annoys me

But the main one I guess is simple... Sl to me is a place of peace, and strangely, for a social networking tool, silence. My SL experience has nigh on always been mute (and particularly after I discovered what gesturbating was in earnest when I went clubbing for the first time)... and as such, I know exactly how everybody I know sounds.

Avatars, in my mind, have personalities beyond that of their RL counterparts. I 'hear' them talking to me as I read; and as such I get to know then that way. Only twice have I heard another of my friends speak (as both were streaming for an event at the time.) The latter I knew was Italian, and DJing in English. The accent was unmistakable, the pitch and intonation of his voice was as I expected... if a little higher; but no real surprises there.

The former, a tall, well styled guy with a serious business empire behind him sounded like... and he knows I love him to bits so please don't take this the wrong way... Deputy Dawg.

My vision of the man was shaken. Then I sat down and thought of all the other things playing through my mind, and would I be let down again if I heard the people I knew speak, removing the mystique... the illusion that I've constructed in my warped little mind. And yes... I think I would.

So, being a selfish cow that I am, I refuse to voice. My world... My imagination... and that's the way I'd like to keep it. It also means that my other half has a voice that makes my clothes melt off me, and woe betide anyone who tries to strip me of that illusion... ;P

(A muted) Kalli