Sky Log #6: Stranger Danger

If there was one thing that all kids have to be aware in Sky, it would be anonymity.

We do not know the actual faces behind the mask of our friends, no matter how true they are to you. This will be breaking the fourth wall (and I will do so in today's entry), but the same applies to real life. Therefore, I cannot stress how important this is but no matter what, do NOT reveal anything about yourself that can lead people to you.

It is dangerous.

You never know what will happen if you reveal any personal details about yourself, regardless if it is a seemingly harmless photo of yourself or your full name. In the worst case, we may never see you again. And I do hope no one will ever meet such an ending.

There are two stories that I wanted to share in this log that proved that no matter how fun and caring the environment created in Sky unlike other games, we will keep seeing such things happening.

And the sad truth is… they will continue to exist.

There was a friend in Sky that I met through a kind friend, Val who claimed herself to be Mosa, a 13-year-old player. There was a sudden dispute between them which I am not fully knowledgeable of. If I recalled, there was an issue about Mosa blocking friends for fun and this was not resolved for quite some time. This argument was the last straw because Val had enough of her blocking repeatedly and Mosa not understanding the problem behind it. Val had Mosa blocked her forever because she was losing patience. Eventually, Mosa disappeared many months after.

It wasn't until a few months ago, when Mosa appeared again.

This time, Mosa was played by a late teenager who is 19-year-old, Wilson. He came on behalf of Mosa. He claimed that Mosa's identity was forged because Mosa is actually his big brother, a 24-year-old man who met a car accident during the period of his disappearance in Sky. In fact, he was lying in the hospital bed in a coma and have yet to wake up. And he came at this moment in time to relay the message that his brother has left before the accident. It as though… Mosa predicted that he was going to meet something unfortunate and left things behind for his little brother to help him fulfil.

This was when the details said by Wilson started to have discrepancies.

He claimed that the doctor diagnosed that Mosa will wake up a month later. Yet, to another friend, he said he will wake up tomorrow. The time discrepancy raised suspicions about Wilson's story. The reason is a few hours later, Mosa woke up when I returned to Sky later in the evening.

While I cannot say much about whether doctors can accurately diagnose the time taken for a coma patient to wake up or how an amnesiac person would react to friends that he cannot remember, one thing I can say for sure is that the identity behind Mosa's Sky kid is… questionable.

It wasn't even after a day that Mosa woke up when Wilson met us. It was also not after a day when Wilson fully took over Mosa's Sky kid and made him his own.

It is certainly hard to believe that everything happened so quickly. I found it hard to believe it myself but it is true.

All of this was happening.

And, I found it frightening.

It is hard to understand this. But if you do not know the Sky kid behind the mask, the person can be any one in this world. He could be young or old, male or female, kind or selfish and the list could go on and on. If he cannot reveal a side of himself truthfully to you, then he cannot be trusted. No matter if the intention is harmless or not, he cannot be trusted because we cannot discern the truth from the lie.

Up till now, the things said by Wilson did not do any one of us harm.

In fact, Wilson's actions also lead many of my friends who knew Mosa firsthand to believe that Wilson is Mosa, that Mosa is fabricating an identity in order to be friends with them, with Val again.

Another odd point I found when I was with Wilson was his reaction to Mosa's friends. When Erikku came online, Wilson suddenly got excited and cried out his name, like an old friend who has not seen his friend for a very long time. Logically, Wilson should not even be close to us because we have never met him.

So… why was he so familiar about us?

The ending of this little story was that I started blocking him. Very soon, the rest also decided to do the same, canceling off all interactions with him. He may not have done any potential harm to us… but, his or her words cannot be simply trusted because of what had happened. Unfortunately, a fair few did not detect the problems in his words and still allowed him to hang around. I can only hope that no harm comes to them.

Sometimes, I do see the kid from time to time when he hangs around the ones who did not block him. And recently, the kid was overtaken by another identity, Luna. The little sister of her two brothers who supposedly comes to defend her brothers.

From what?

I do not know for I ceased all interaction with him or her. I did not want to linger around someone who had mixed lies among truth. Perhaps Wilson is telling the truth. Maybe I or we have mistaken him or her. If that is true, I am deeply sorry for cutting off a possible friendship. However, I have no further wish to associate with someone who I have to keep second guessing every word that he or she said. It is tiring and it defeats the purpose of enjoying Sky.

The next little story… is another personal interaction through another friend of a friend.

His name is Shoaib, a little moth who clings to another good friend, Anna. It was a short interaction but this time, I was not the one who ended it.

When I entered Sky to start farming, Shoaib teleported to me when I was in Valley. I remembered distinctively that we were in the sliding race because I was finding an out-of-bound (oob) spot. At that moment in time, Anna was not active so that might be the plausible reason why Shoaib had come to me.

I was finding it difficult to communicate with him during the race because he may be confused at what I was doing. Since he was a friend of Anna's, in good faith, I unlocked speech with him.

Within a few moments, I regretted it.

Immensely.

For his next words were to ask about whether the name I had given him was my true name.

Now, I had no qualms revealing my true name when I am close enough with my friends. But most are contented with the name I had given them, believing me and respecting my wishes to be called as such even when they later found out it was not my actual one. Again, breaking the fourth wall, I prefer to separate reality from fantasy. The same is true for my names. My true name when I speak with people in my life; my Sky name when I speak with my family and others in Sky.

Truthfully, I said that the name I had given was not my actual one.

Then, he asked for my true name which I was highly uncomfortable in revealing it to an acquaintance. And he pressed when I did not give a clear answer. It did not end until I snapped and told him directly that my Sky name is good enough for him to call me and that there was no need to ask for my true name.

After all, a name is just a name.

That instantly soured what little friendship we had between each other. In an effort to make things lighter, I took him to Valley's oob spot and one of the most beautiful spots that I ever known in Sky. I had hoped that he would grow excited and be willing to continue to converse with me.

Instead, what I had received was… unexpected.

And disappointing.

His reaction to night time oob Valley was… underwhelming. There was no 'wow's or 'wait, let me take a picture' or even an action to take a picture. It was like presenting a work of refined art to the unappreciated. Better yet, it was like serving a plate of dish made with so much hard work and thought put into it, only for your customer to swallow it whole and give you a look of nonchalance.

It was a complete waste of my efforts to bring him there.

Period.

With feelings hitting to rock bottom, we returned home. One moment, he was there beside me. The next, he was gone. Asleep or what, I do not know but there was no moving circle around his star. It just means, he was temporarily not in Sky.

This simple story would have ended here if I never thought more into his actions.

I felt there was a hidden motive behind the question about the name. And it seemed strangely familiar to tactics used by people when they were looking for partners. Especially his actions when he befriended my friends who have a female outfit.

Conclusion?

Shoaib is not here in sky to play.

He was here looking for a girlfriend. Or a wife.

It was a very possible reason. One that is hard to get out of my head when I relayed to my friend, Jil, who got befriended by him. Her encounter with him lined up with my suspicions. He had befriended her with candles and luckily, none of them unlocked chat before things unfold. Just like before, Shoaib teleported to her when she was farming and tagged along. Only to mysteriously disappear later. She did not connect it to anything until I talked about my suspicions and she mentioned briefly that Mo had tagged along a few moments after Shoaib teleported to her and lighted him up. A theory formed was that Shoaib probably disappeared when he figured that Jil and Mo were a thing and hightailed it out of the way.

Possible but how to prove?

Val advised me that I should reveal my suspicion to Anna because she is the one who have to be around him most of the time. If his intention is not to play but to look for a potential partner, she could get hurt. I was worried about upsetting her but I knew it had to be said. I tried waiting for Anna in Sky but when the wait got to me, I had to contact her through other means.

Luckily, I did not even need any more convincing evidence to prove my thoughts to her.

For what she told me next was simply like a tactic used to get a partner.

Shoaib asked for social media accounts from Anna. Through that, he was started to frequently converse with her. Even to the point of teaching her with his native language even though she expressed disinterest. She expressed discomfort when talking to him and gradually felt that he wasn't genuinely interested in Sky. Eventually, she told me that she would distance herself away from him.

I do not know the results of it but I definitely know that Shoaib would not be coming back for a while to Sky. He has not appeared in Sky for a while now and I hope he continued to do so unless he rediscovers a love for Sky. Then, he would be welcomed.

So…

Beware of who you befriend.

Never reveal your personal details.

For you may invite trouble to your doorstep.