Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

I did the most sensible indirectly confrontational thing I could think of: I went to Yelp and left the cafe a five-star review thanking them for dealing with a customer who did not respect my safety.

If she goes there (as she threatened) to slander the cafe, there's an account of how people ACTUALLY behaved waiting there for her.

(Say what you will about the last five years, it's been a grand education in psyops. The secret is to get in there first...)

What do you to do stop a rampaging Karen if she's black and you're white?

I just saw a hell of a tantrum thrown in my favorite cafe, by a woman who apparently was a serial mask-flouter. She was screaming accusations of racism, but it sure sounded to me like she wasn't denying ignoring the signs and getting aggressive when asked to respect the rules.

I hate that it feels like an unbeatable strategy. I hate that it involves nakedly exploiting other people's suffering to justify doing something irresponsible. And I really, really hate the fact that this woman probably has some entirely legitimate background trauma that would explain why she resorts to this.

Hell, she's probably *right* that there's some degree of racism involved here. The cafe owners are discussing whether to call the cops, and... would they be that fast to do so with a white woman the same age? (Christ, I hope so, because Karen vs. Cop is one of the few scenarios where I'd root for the cop. -_- )

I can't pretend that it's not true that *every* commercial interaction between white owners and black customers is a bit racially charged. But it still seems absurd to me to leap into accusations of racism over a mask.

I just honestly don't think there was anything I could do to defuse the situation that wouldn't have just left this feeling *more* racially charged, and I'm really curious if anybody has any insights.

@kistaro been there hun <3

@anthracite Oh, I dunno. Trump certainly didn't fail. He set America back decades and now he's just scoring bonus points. Daddy V is probably very pleased.

@Phorm Fun fact: Have you ever seen the teen comedy Real Genius? Gadget was apparently based on Jordan Cochran, the "hyperkinetic" gal... who was in turn based on a real student at Caltech.

Gadget Is Real.

One of our neighbors has reaffirmed that he might be interested in adopting Olivia and Snowshoe! He was originally only seeking to adopt one, but the woman he was talking to on his porch (not sure if neighbor or partner) good-natured nagged him into considering both. :)

He seems like a super nice guy, and had a very chill old grey porch cat who seemed quite happy and well-fed, plus it means the kids will literally be three minutes away. Cross your fingers (or closest anatomical equivalent) and pray to Bastet! We're not sure exactly how to go about introducing him to the kids what with COVID and their lack of outdoor training, but this could be a real good resolution to the whole thing...

@anthracite @AutumnWyvern These are adorable, great work Autumn!

@anthracite you told her your husband is a jealous monster, right? *flomps and licks self indifferently 🐯*​

look into this guy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Castoriadis

@Soreth (and no, you can't have any of my TEHWA, ERCI, and NCRO, either *hangs up*)

@Soreth

[two days later]

"..."

*puts down her fishwich and glowers at some random stranger on the phone*

"how the hell did you get this number?!" 🐯​

🖼

@chimerror it's just so fucking good

kim is the only cop in the multiverse i might take a bullet for

this is the placeholder entry, about myself, in the document i just worked up to track my underlings' progress at work

i might also be losing my shit there just a little bit too

@hystericempress yeah but i would PLAY that resulting RPG, probably with a hell of a lot more enthusiasm than I have ever been able to play a JRPG. :)

Sigh. This morning, Peg and I had the worst blow up at each other we've had in years.

We're OK. In the grand scheme of things it wasn't that bad. Sugarfoot scratched me up again (sigh), and while I was rushing to the bathroom in a panic to assess the damage, Peg thought it would be a good time to respond to my pleas that I was incredibly stressed by deliberately annoying me for "fun."

She... does that. She's got a contrarian streak like crazy. Like, she's the main model for Olivia in Parallax. If she's in the right mood, "Peggy, NO!" immediately and instinctively translates to "Peggy YES!"

And I lost it for a minute.

I'm actually real proud of myself. I maintained the presence of mind to get all my frustration and stress out vocally. No tableflipping, no self-harm, none of the dumb shit I used to do when I was living with Those People and at the constant brink of confusion, self-loathing, and worry.

It's amazing what a difference it makes, having a partner that will instantly support you when they stress you out -- instead of trying to analyze everything you've done for "solutions," or make it all about how YOU hurt THEM, even though you could have sworn you were the one who came to them with the plea that you were hurting.

The thing that really scared me is that we STILL had to deal with moving the freaking cats back to the kittenarium after that, and it unnerved the shit out of me, being near them and stressed and not 100% sure I was in full self-control.

Everything went okay. I didn't eat nobody. I feel like Sugarfoot even apologized in her way, and it's still really heartwarming and calming that the kittens will still settle in my lap and purr trustingly, even after the fourth time that day I'd been the Bad Guy and had to snatch them away from a toy* (read: "any object whatsoever, preferably a mildly dangerous and quasi-edible one we didn't know was there") and carry them back to their room.

Peg sat down with me and gave me an S-rank reassurance that I'm getting better and better at controlling these "caged tiger poked with stick" panics -- apparently the whole incident lasted all of three minutes, and I spent a bunch of it explaining I wasn't really mad, just really frustrated and overwhelmed.

Still. Then we wound up having a conversation about just how much of the household stuff -- dishes, cleaning, kitten adoption, Peg's *health insurance* -- has been falling by the wayside and how much it's stressing me out.

The cats are having a pretty profound impact on her, and she's apparently putting off major stuff because... well... every time we go from room to room a freakin' cat follows us and demands attention, and if we try to pick Sugarfoot up we gotta roll 1d4 and get bitten on a 1. :p

So right now my big thing is that I'm really torn between "OMG we gotta get these freakin cats out of here for Peg's sanity" and "OMG I saw Sugarfoot snuggling her kittens this morning, she's JUST NOT READY to see them disappear."

I feel like no matter what we do, someone I really care about is gonna get traumatized.

oh shit i didn't even know kate pierson of the b52s is queer ^______^

oh and we're almost out of weed

and i suspect that smoking is part of what's irritating my sinuses and making me dizzy anyhow

i need to pick up a damn vaporizer, but i'm half-afraid to order anything that might be considered "paraphenalia" in this shitty red state hellhole (which, to be fair, has this really quite lovely blue city nestled in it)