Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

@KinkyTurtle

...find a card deck
Find myself a card deck to win with!

#NeverLeaveAComradeHanging

@KinkyTurtle Well, I've been having a tremendous amount of fun with the RPG deckbuilder Griftlands, but I've maxxed out what I can do with my current skills and I'm now familiar with all the (excellent!) storyline content-- so the game was already getting a bit less fun.

So I look at the strategy guides, and apparently the optimal strategy for success at high levels is... you have to (1) murder everybody who doesn't like you, and (2) spend all your money on improving diplomatic relations with each and every other NPC in the game whose "social boons" work with your character build.

The first is unpleasant for such a good-natured game, and works against the deck archetypes I like. The second is just tedious and time-consuming and basically requires playing the game with the wiki open.

It doesn't necessarily ruin the game for me, but... I kinda wish there were some intermediate strategy guides. I need advice that's more like "here are some good cards; here are some bad cards; here are some good combos; here are some mechanics you may have neglected."

I feel like when I look for advice on a game, what I usually find is more like "OK, here is the One True Way to win this game at Prestige Level 99. If you just learn to do few simple homogeneous third-order non-linear partial differential equations in your head, you can do infinite combos that do a quadrillion damage to the boss before combat even starts, but you shall never see daylight nor know the love of a mortal again."

I really should have arranged to make "Postvixen" a hereditary title. Spread the blame around a little. :D

@KinkyTurtle And it only took like TEN YEARS of knowing you to finally figure out what it referred to. :D And I always just figured KT was a hereditary title, like the Prince of Wales or Dread Pirate Roberts or Cher. <3

BAD THING: Nursing day seven of an earache.

GOOD THING: It's probably a clogged eustachian tube and not an infection. Also, I just armed myself to the teeth with decongestants and nasal sprays.

GOOD THING: I have spent the last 5 minutes tormenting Anthracite with "yiffy" filks of "In The Year 2525." ("o/` In the year Fuck-Hundred-And-Twelve... they'll have sex... with anything but elves... o/`")

BAD THING: I have been barred from re-entering Anthracite's studio for the next half-hour. :D :D :D :D

@001zlnv Judge Roy Snyder! You know, he could be the one...

sphinxter

when the rain washes you clean

you'll know

sitting here listening to fleetwood mac's "dreams," tearing up a little, pondering a commission of Kincaid sitting in the rain with her head-compartment popped open, getting all the colorful lava she did her thinking with just... washed right down the sewer drain

It's also really pretty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB7ni1R9gs4

american analog set's "punk as fuck" has just summarized my disgust with american politics better in two stanzas than a thousand on-the-nose protest songs ever could:

"I'm on your side
And we're always right
It's perfect
And worth it"

"And you're on my side
And we're always right
It's the circuit
That gets worse yet"

@JulieSqveakaroo Or these guys. This is definitely what's playing in the background of the Big Hangout Scene of my mob movie instead of some Sinatra or Journey bullshit. XD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m46SN9BwI3g

@JulieSqveakaroo Listen, any mob I'm part of is gonna dress like it's 1982 and we're about to gobble psilocybin and see Klaus Nomi at the Mudd Club, so any suit I wear is just gonna be zebra stripes over zebra stripes anyway. :D

Serious if potentially problematic question:

How, when, and why did the "black judge who thinks your objection is highly unorthodox, counselor, but will allow it and it had better be going somewhere" become a standard trope? I've seen many parodies of it but never any *source*.

@JulieSqveakaroo Oh SHIT I like that. Maybe "Permagloss" instead. Either way, big Future Gay Mob vibes there and I love it.

o/` Princess Peebers
o/` Princess Peebers
o/` She's a cat!
o/` She's a cat!
o/` In the foulest weather
o/` She comes to play Feather
o/` Bat, bat, bat!
o/` Bat, bat, bat!

@JulieSqveakaroo But ooh. on the other hand, I AM Italian-American and I've never had a proper Goodfellas style nickname.

Anybody care to recommend one? I don't have a good Mafia last name, but my maternal grandma was a Pistillo and I think that's pretty damn serviceable. Nicky "Placeholder" Pistillo. :D

@JulieSqveakaroo And hell, just tell the bronze SOB an Orwell fan sent you. <3

@JulieSqveakaroo That's UNCANNY, roo, I was writing a post on that topic just now...

It just dawned on me that for months or years now I've been getting by without a real online moniker.

My legal first name is Nick, for what it's worth. Many of you probably know that. I'm OK with it. Peg calls me that. It's... fine, though it's less fine here than it is in RL, and NOT fine in non-secure places like Twitter.

I used to be Kincaid. But I retired her so long ago and have so many bad associations with her -- and social anxieties about the swath of rhetorical destruction I left as her. I *kinda* miss that Big Lavavixen Energy? But I can't do business under that name anymore, I just can't.

The zebra character is named Valis, after the Divine Space Laser from Philip K Dick's legendary schizoprophetic episode. Most of you probably didn't even know that. He hasn't had a proper RP forum to exist on in like 10+ years. Valis ain't my name, either.

The Martian Tigress is "Rezeya," of course. I would be tickled red-and-black (the canonical Martian regalia) if you called me Rez or Rezy. But nobody does, not even me. *shrug*

"Zebratron" is meh. It's not a name, it's a weak joke. I've gotten "Z84" a couple of times and it does amuse me, though I feel like I am biting a certain humble and lovable robot projectionist boy's style there. (My friend ZX3.) <3

I dunno. Actually, it kinda feels really appropriate for 2021 (or Month 15 of 2020) to not have a name anymore. Whatever. I miss even feeling like one person, let alone dozens.