Last night, while I helped mahjoub open some boxes, I became a bit suspicious, although I first thought it was a language barrier. He is in Tunisia and speaks French. I held my anxiety in check while he told me he was a Bloodlines player, and I couldn't get my HUD to operate, and he wore a sword, neither of which is allowed on HPI. (Yes, I took a break from writing to be a Helper!) His first interaction with me was to offer a Mexican hat that I didn't accept, explaining I don't usually accept gifts from strangers. After I helped him, he told me not to take a Mexican hat because it was a trick. I responded by asking him why he gave it to me; wasn't he a nice person? He replied, "I don't know." Hmmm, I thought...strange answer. I asked him his age and he said 16.
He reminded me very much of "my son" Rohit, a sweet 17-year-old at that time. He looked for me every time I had him removed for violation of age. Finally, I told him if he insisted on coming to me, he couldn't mention his former avi name or age. He obeyed, but I always knew it was him since he called me "auntie," apparently a term of endearment and respect in his culture. Shortly after that, he went on holiday and I haven't seen him. He is 18 now.
About mahjoub, I thought, here we go again. I explained to him as gently as I could he didn't belong in the adult SL and he should try the Teen SL. Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, he believed me when I said he could be taken advantage of, since it had already happened to him. He said he had many friends in SL, even underage ones. I told him to IM the underage ones while I waited and tell them to meet him in Teen SL. He agreed. While he did that, I asked him what time it was and where his parents were. He did tell me his parents were sleeping and he was on holiday from school. But it was 3:16 am, so I told him to go to bed when we finish and go to Teen SL in the morning. Amazingly, he was agreeable to everything I said and didn't become disrespectful. I could tell he was well brought up and his parents cared about him, as with Rohit.
Of course, in the middle of our conversation Laurelle walked by and prayed she wouldn't notice he was a Bloodlines player and wearing a sword. I had his confidence and was thinking let's just take it one step at a time. It really didn't matter about those issues, since he would be gone from SL in a matter of minutes. If she did notice, she didn't mention it.
As I sent him to bed, I told him to stay a nice person, but you know teenage boys...he'll be testing the limits I have no doubt!
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