I thought I should clear up some rumors on my behalf regarding the incident which occoured with Surreal Estates over the past few days. While I believe this personal issue should stay between the people involved it obviously has not done so, despite the fact that I had made no malicious moves against Surreal or Cerze Ophelia. I am forced to explain the situation since it has been agigtated into a public light which I did not intend.
This is not the first time Cerze has retaliated against a worker over a so-called 'conflict of interest." I am a newly enrolled college student and over the past few months I have made advances towards removing myself from the estates so I would be able to focus on my education and my own future for a change. I found new builders to take my place.
I had been working as a sandbox administrator, promoted to a manager over the course of three years. The sandbox was controlled by a completely different management than the rest of the estates because the estates tend to focus on keeping to standard lots and throwing sims out for people to rent and letting them do their thing instead of focusing on a community. This is why it has been so difficult for Surreal to maintain the land that they reclaimed from Intlibber, as the lot sizes were different than their standardized lots and more difficult for them to sell.
Around December Cerze and I partnered. Cerze has a very bad habit of going MIA for large periods of times, sometimes forcing his managers to uncomfortably cover up the situation until he shows up. The year before I began working up with the estates, Cerze went missing for around 8-9 months. During that time I had renters coming to me for help. When he returned I made a vow to try and work with the estates and do whatever I could for his tenants. They deserved better than that. Regardless of not being paid for the work I did, I could show my gratitude to Cerze for giving us the sandbox and give me the opportunity to loan my skills to making Surreal into the beautiful 'artistic' community I had hoped it was. I knew he needed a management who worked well together, was treated fairly and could see eye to eye with his tenants and I was lucky to see this heal and grow again.
Regardless of this, I knew I could not help Surreal forever. I did my best to support the estates from my own wallet with projects and I helped the tenants whenever I got a call. I was the youngest member working up at the office and I realized the drama was not my cup of tea for something I volunteered to do. Cerze had, several months prior to now gotten a slave. She and I got along very well, and we were very alike. She was closer to his age and as time went on I realized that his views of women, nievity and immaturity began to make me feel cornered. I am 16 years his junior and the prospect of a man begging to marry and have children with me and wanting me to up and leave my home was too big for me to think about at this point in my life. I was in no hurry to hop on a plane and fly halfway across the world. I realized he knew nothing about me though he was so adamant to tell me I was young and I didn't know what I was talking about and he knew better. I realized my interests were different and his slave cared about him and wanted the estates to thrive- though the reason for that is part of a whole other story altogether.
I saw my opportunity to slip out of the estate support and allow Cerze to live a happy life with a woman who cared about him and was supportive of his business, which I believed would be wonderful for the tenants. I was ignored twice but finally told Cerze I was ging to unpartner him to allow him to give his slave a chance to be more important in his life, and I explained a few more reasons why I felt this needed to happen. He got very bitter about this and told me he would not partner anyone else. I told him I wanted to handle this civily as not to bruise our friendship. He proceeded to tell me to get out of his life and leave him alone- to which he then went to the sandbox, returned all my things, estate banned me and turned the sandbox access off. This was something I had seen as a worst case scenario. I had known Cerze to react like this towards some of his workers before. I had remarked to friends that he would likely do something to that extent to try and get back at me, as Cerze isn't very stable when he gets frustrated. His decision to punish the builders I care about because of my decision, I believed, was very ignorant and pathetic of him, and solidified my belief that I made a good decision in unpartnering him and getting out of his life.
Later on when Cerze's slave spoke to me, I realized then that he had actually been having a serious relationship with her the whole time, regardless that he had told me she was only a submissive and had warned me to let him know if I was going to tell her off so he could prepare up at the estates for her leaving. He had on many occasions to consider marrying him, moving in with him and having children with him, which was als what he was saying to her- in fact they had plans already to do so, and had a trip planned with her family in RL. This would merit a serious relationship, and why he believed I should have been kept in the dark, I don't know.This gave me reason to believe that he was throwing an immense amount of blame on me for in a sitaution that was occouring regardless of my choice; However since I was the one who made the move I was punished and removed from an estate I had worked three years for, for nothing. I did absolutely nothing to the estates to merit a ban. I did my job and I did nothing to attack the estates. Cerze estate banned me so I was unable to pick up my own copyrighted work. I was suprised to see such shocking behavior from a man who apparently cared about me like he presumed.
That's it on that situation really. I thought I should have a right to defend myself since I've been cut of all means of doing so at the estates. I finally realize why his other workers had been so frustrated when they left, mainly because he did this to people who were by no means trying to be malicious towards him. I realize he's been telling people he made the decision to unpartner and it was not a personal issue to which I was removed. I will say that it was. I did nothing to harm his business or the sandbox that I worked and protected since I joined.
To the tenants, I want you all to know that I did my best to make you all happy, and to my sandbox members I was always proud of seeing your work out in the grid and helping others. I hope you learn as much as I did within Duvillier. Now my prospects in Second Life are to turn away from Surreal and focus on working for the grid's most popular combat sim, New Jessie. I will also be with my good friend Equino at the Ryder Estates to continue to make beautiful themed sims for him and his tenants. I will continue to help at Center of Gravity sandbox and to now help at Curious sandbox. I will work to make updates to my previous store content for Paranoia Ind. The Modshop, and with Funshine. There will be collaborative efforts on inventive new armor and weapons for Awesome Incarnate with Garion Lowenhardt and Liani LeSabre. I will be working on full sim builds and sim building content with the help of a great group of creative friends. School is still the top priority for me at the moment so I believe taking these more casual endeavors will make me happier and allow me to be more productive. I do not regret my decision to unpartner Cerze or leave Surreal. I am back to doing what I love to do, which is to have fun and help others create the world around us. Regardless of this incident I am in no way bitter or regretful of what I have done for Surreal and I wish those I had helped there the best. Thank you.
