Helen Krummenacker wrote:
That may actually be part of it. People like defined spaces and boundaries.
True. And some people don't like to stray too far from the kind of thing we saw in canon, not because of lack of imagination, but because they enjoy making their B7 fic as "B7-like" as possible. ("Reprographic," like Neil said.)
Virtual reality makes anything possible, but where anything is truely possible people become uncomfortable. Is anything what it seems to be? Can you expect the laws of physics to stay in effect?
Although, truthfully, things turning out to be exactly what they seem to be and consisitency in obeying the laws of physics are not exactly major properties of the show itself... :)
Likewise a caper story with Avona nd Vila might turn out to be a consensual shared hallucination they are using to speed-train each other in their respective skills, because Avon would be seeing through Vila's eyes and feeling through his fingers as he handled his lockpicks, and Vila was shadowing Avon's movements through computer screens. The cross-skilling would be valuable and if they had the equipment and trust, they very well might try it. But the rebel-cheering enthusiast might feel let down that no power plant was really blown up in the making of this shared hallucination.
Actually, I rather like that idea. Though I'd certainly like it much better if it was clear from the outset that this *was* a virtual caper. (But then, maybe I don't count as a "rebel-cheering enthusiast," if that's meant to contrast with "character junkie.")