Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

i read far too much news and social media and am doing the existential equivalent of projectile barfing right now

i feel utter nausea about the world i'm in and the people in it and the things they value

it feels like the only non-palliative cure would be to beat a Proud Boy to a bloody pulp *immediately* after catching him say "you know communism has never worked" for the 700th time

@CorvusRobotica YES. The more off-kilter from real world causality a neo-noir is, the more I like it. Like, Inherent Vice (both the novel and film) is my perfect noir. Same with The Long Goodbye, or the Fargo TV series. David Lynch too, of course. Ideally, Noir is NOT about worlds that make existential sense. :)

This is also making me wonder if I should go pick up some Janwillem Van De Wetering detective stories and see how they've aged -- I was obsessed with them when I was a teenager.

Sky Atlantic's Landscapers is a really interesting show and I'm probably the only person here who would give the faintest shit about it. :) It's... slow. It's like a Joe Pera murder podcast. If you know who the hell that is, it might actually be worth seeing. :)

It's about a doddering middle-aged couple that's completely confused and harmless except that they probably, and perhaps justifiably, killed their parents.

But it's the formalism that's really doing it for me. I haven't seen a show less dedicated to realism since Legion, though it also reminds me of some of the impressionistic scenes from Only Murders In The Building.

It's... ponderous but feels oddly lighthearted. It's a postmodern dissection of a superficially (and perhaps genuinely) very sweet couple with a very big problem. Big CW for parental abuse issues after Ep 3 or so.

@CorvusRobotica And I think the reason is just that it's so much more thematically rich than most American noir, there's usually some undercurrent of politics or social issues and not just a "whodunit" about the Stigmatized But Fascinating Outsider Group Du Jour. It reminds me pleasantly of old Columbo episodes-- it's not about the crime, which is frequently laid straight out for us all, it's about the people involved.

@CorvusRobotica I'm thinking more TV and film than novels, but I really enjoyed The Bridge and The Killing... But I might have conventional tastes and an unusually high tolerance for copaganda/procedural dramas. Plus the fact that par in America is utter garbage like NCIS. :)

@xinjinmeng @anthracite Nah, trust* the changeling. This one tastes like my dragon.

@anthracite Yeah but Noelle(s) and N'Kenge have your back. I instructed them specifically to guard you while I'm gone. <3

@CorvusRobotica Seriously, Scandinavia has all the really good noir these days...

@anthracite Granted, that's probably mostly Cleveland and Columbus I bet? Very different population density game here, though I still don't intend to let anyone but my parents breathe much around me...

Home safe in Ohio!

@JulieSqveakaroo @anthracite Not unless you count lingering booster shot side effects! :)

Hey, folks. Lyft for the airport leaves in 20 minutes. Will be in Ohio until the 26th with questionable bandwidth (but lots of spare time). Getting up from snuggling Peg was one of the hardest things I've done recently.

Still have that dark, deathy, doomy reading from Dawn on the mind. Every deal I've done since has been much more benign, so I've chosen to take it as Dawn fretting over her steptiger traveling without having gotten the booster. (I think the side effects have finally cleared up, wasn't too bad, SUPER glad I got it.)

But yeah, feeling pretty attached to life, such as it is right now, and if this whole post does turn darkly ironic... I love you all a lot and have had a great time, please take care of Peg (and through her beneficence, the cats) and tell the world of my weird, stupid, horny deeds. <3

OK, got off a lot easier so far than I expected. Been woozy and tired and faint all day, but not nearly as bad as I expected. Made it out to a cafe with Peg, though it was a bit of a struggle and I do kinda want to flop over.

The side effects are largely over, I probably just need a nap. Again, that was a Moderna booster, for those of you keeping score at home.

(this is the first scene that's come naturally to me in months and months, so i figured i might as well do it the courtesy of typing it out -- now, brain, could you maybe DO THAT FOR PARALLAX sometime soon?!?)

ARCHER [impatiently strangling a security guard]: OK, buddy, just go to sleep. Go to sl... god dammit, go down, you big baby. It's just a sleeper hold, it's never killed anybody.

LANA: Uh, Sterling? Choke holds kill a lot of people. Especially young BLACK people.

ARCHER: Oh. Seriously? I feel kinda bad now. I've been doing a lot of those. Mostly white people, though.

LANA: This poor guy's probably got brain damage.

ARCHER [laughing]: THIS guy? Come on, Lana, he's like fifty and he's still working as a security guard. I don't think we lost a great mind here.

LANA: Fifty? The guy's not a day over thirty.

ARCHER: No way. Hey, buddy, you coming around? How old are you? Probably fifty?

[He's dead.]

ARCHER: Oh. Well, crap. Sorry, buddy. Lesson learned.

LANA: See?!

ARCHER: Well, I'd never really stuck around to check. I just kinda assumed they'd, you know, go to sleep. I mean, who the hell puts someone in a sleeper hold and just... hangs out with 'em?!

LANA: Dammit, Archer.

ARCHER: Oh, but mostly white people. That I've been, you know, "holding." Is that the proper terminology?

LANA: We should really get outta here.

ARCHER: Lotta Russians. Is that still racist?

LANA: Now.

ARCHER: Wait. [examining the dead guard's ID card] YOU'RE THIRTY-SIX? Buddy. I am so sorry. [sniffling] YOU HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL.

LANA: Jesus Christ. Could I at least get you to leave him his wallet?

ARCHER: [pause] Hard pass.

in case you were ever wondering, peggy and i finally worked out my parents' species:

mom is a bear. stepdad is a moose.

this all feels so... predictably... ohioan but i double-checked our math twice and yup, there's no doubt

haven't really worked out my late dad yet but i have a suspicion here's where i get the big stripey asshole dna from

my dad was the kinda guy you grow up thinking is a complete heartless jerkass and then years too late you figure out what "sarcasm" is and realize he loved you as best he could with the limited toolkit given him

*toasts Dad with a beer mug full of gazelle blood*

here's to you, you stripey asshole. miss you.

@Austin_Dern But your concern is genuinely touching. <3 And rest assured, I will be arriving armed for ENNUI BEARS. I'll have my 4 *terabyte* media collection with me. :)

I think "catching up on Yellowjackets and Evil" sounds more suited to my holiday mood in 2021 anyhow. :>

@Austin_Dern I'll pass. Christmas special allergy. Charlie Brown only exception. :)

@Austin_Dern I... I may be faintly embittered on this topic, sorry. *fangy grin*

@Austin_Dern This... this is gonna be an interesting one, yeah. Stepfather still ailing, stepsister still a vaxx holdout, mother furious, and tiger... has a big opportunity to play The Good Loyal Child here, which aforementioned mooch stepsister richly deserves to have rubbed in her ungrateful no-class face. -__-