@Felthry They could take off someone's 'mask' and put one of their custom ones on there, making a sort of loyal but simple drone. But then they could put the person's 'mask' on that drone and they'd have the base persona of the drone but modified and filtered through their original identity, making them mostly the same but with a deep loyalty, fealty, or obedience to them. There could also be other underlying personalities under there.

@relee @Felthry This sort of face-removal and swapping, and the simplified or blank face underneath, is a fun notion I never get to see played with much. Like, it's easy to see the nightmare/dystopia aspects of it, but as a playful goof? Like that late Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd cartoon with the hats? That's a game waiting to be played.

@Austin_Dern @Felthry A lot of the stuff I like in this comes down to my own weird tastes, so it's arguably good but playing at being bad.

@relee I apologize for missing this; my notifications got flurried under that robot-goth toot.

Good-but-playing-bad is a tough needle to thread, especially if casual people are supposed to see or interact with it (which makes a lot of identity-play scenes vibrant). I don't have a good answer there, unfortunately. Hard to figure how to set the kayfabe so nonparticipants feel okay letting it play out.

@Austin_Dern It's fine!

It can be tricky to do good-but-playing-bad unless the setting is meant for that. I know some superhero settings where the villains aren't so bad, or are just the good guys, but still do villain things. XD

@Austin_Dern they're someone we've found rather interesting in the past! but never happened to be in any of the same circles
--F

@Austin_Dern (if you ever want to introduce us, we'd definitely be open to it!)
-F

@Felthry I was just thinking that, yeah; I think FurAffinity's the only place I've seen you both together. Startling because I do think you'd be a pretty compatible pairing. Well, can toss them a few comments and I can check if they'd be open to notes on FA from you, if you would like that.

@Austin_Dern if you want! though we're noooot the sort to use FA notes for that sort of stuff; here, matrix, or discord would be better
-F

@Felthry Sure! ... Oh, I don't think I knew you were on Discord. I'm Austin Dern#5033 over there, if you'd like.

@Felthry There was a SF novel, Barrington Bayley's _The Garments of Caean_, about a world whose clothes imbued their wearers with special traits, which circles around this idea. I admit not getting the novel myself (the style was a more mood- and image-driven story than I usually parse well), but loving the premise.