Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

@JulieSqveakaroo OK, that's kinda rad. :D

I was joking yesterdaybefore (time is a little loose right now) that I was gonna take the Artie rescue time off as sick days, because it's technically "Family Emergency Health Leave."

Well.

My boss had a friendly question about a project and I mentioned the Artie situation and asked to cash in some personal time while I had his attention.

He said this is clearly a family emergency. I should take it as family health leave if I need it.

FUCK I lucked out. I am increasingly nearing "would take a bullet for my boss." He is the opposite of the opposite of Kim Kitsuragi.

=== SHORT VERSION ===

Stressed but not frantic. Artie is HERE AND SAFE, that's the most important thing.

And I'm... okayish. I just asked my boss if I can take the week off, since I've got the time piled up. I can figure out Artie stuff, talk to the landlord about pet leases, work on That Parallax Opportunity, maybe clean the house up and regather a little sanity.

I'm okayish. I will probably be leaning on y'all for more support and advice soon. But Artie is safe. That's so important and good. (She is also an idiot who learned NOTHING for three days stranded. That is frustrating and bad.)

=== LONG VERSION ===

And if we do have to let her out and she does it all again, FOR NOW the solution seems repeatable.

For now we're probably gonna try keeping her in for as long as she/we can stand it. I'm kinda looking forward to it, honestly? She's a good kitty and has mostly been taking it well. Main lingering fear is landlord stuff since we aren't supposed to have pets on the premises. (Heh.)

But yeah. I'm okay. I'm mostly okay. Watching my funds drain kinda fast while we're in Just Get Through The Day mode. We'll be fine. Lots of good news on Peg's career front.

So here's what else I'm still ruminating about:

The door in the abandoned apartment gets weaker and weaker each time and might not be reclosable next time. We are pondering installing our own latch and key-- it's not like the rightful owners couldn't get in through the front if needed. And fuck 'em at this point tbh. Failing that... I dunno, a lot of good thick adhesive tape to keep it shut between break-ins?

I'm also not thrilled about asking the rental company for a pet lease, because there is a mention in their online docs about "pet rent" and... it's not like we need an increase in cost of living right now. It's definitely never gonna be a solution for all the cats-- they want the pets DOCUMENTED and VACCINATED and there's no way they'd let us have five in there without charging us a fortune at best.

The "bright" spot: I looked at the lease and unless it's a explicitly an eviction-level offense like non-payment or, like, meth lab, the process for violations is possible fine + a "written notice" that we have five days to comply with. We can only be booted on the SECOND offense and it looks like that might even be legally binding on them? So I'm taking that as "you have one freebie." :p

And we've gone, what, 2 yrs and 8 mos now and nobody's hassled us about the cats? The worst we've ever gotten is "Yeah, could you try not to leave so much extra food out? It's summer and there are flies. Thanks!" I like to hope that if we explained the situation to them and made sad enough eyes at them they'd cut us a break and help us work out a solution... Of all the tenant offenses to commit, I think "Broke lease because worried about cute kitties" is one of the more charismatic.

@Leucrotta I like the helmet design though!

Rezeya Montecore-St-Hobbes, Empress* of Mars offers the humblest available apologies to Shadow, Empress of 500-600 [REDACTED], Mid-City for mistakenly slandering her family for the, quote, "stinky stinky cat poot." Her Majesty* was unaware that she had left her weed vaporizer on.

We once again welcome the errant Princess Artemus back to our shared Terran domain and repledge our eternal devotion to our alliance.

You are kinda stinky though.

Dictated but not read,

​*

@Leucrotta this is the most nakedly self-serving "pics or it didn't happen" i have ever typed ;9~~

We hadn't really let the emotional impact of this hit because of Artie, but now that she's OK...

Yeah. We have news about Parallax that is good enough that we can't go into detail about it. It may or may not pan out, but we may have accomplished a major step towards actually getting this project recognized, here.

ARTIE UPDATE:

In case you missed the previous one... we are in CONDITION YAY. ^_______^

Artie is rescued. She is chilling out with us and we're thinking she's gonna spend the next couple days as an indoor cat. She seems (highly) energetic and healthy if understandably twitchy.

ARTIE UPDATE:

KITTY RESCUE VERY YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She's currently in our apartment having a monster poop. :)

also THANK YOU ALL for all the advice, concern, and help. we're so close and my hopes are at the highest they've been so far. we're taking a break-- we've been up since 7 am-- but might make another attempt tonight.

@JulieSqveakaroo nnnnope :) but see latest, we HAVE ACCESS to her, just can't get her down! she HAS FOOD AND WATER NOW <3 <3 <3 so there is lots of hope -- we're gonna knock off for the day and hit up Home Depot tomorrow in force, probably check on her tonight and make sure she's still intact and stocked up

ARTIE UPDATE:

We haven't rescued her yet, but we made face-to-face contact, even got her close enough for a scritch and a treat from Peg's fingers. She has food and water we have confirmed she has access to. Not remotely resolved yet, the hole we found in the attic is too small and she's SUPER skittish about leaping down (understandably, she's gotta do it from a rafter), but...

WE KNOW SHE IS ALIVE, FED, AND HYDRATED NOW. Tools and Attempt #2 tomorrow morning. May seek carpentry advice soon.

Cat still stuck in neighbor's attic. Fire department was of no help though they did put forth a reasonable effort. See https://twitter.com/zebratron2084 for further information.

This is an all hands on deck situation. Please boost. If you know ANYONE in New Orleans area who might help, please let us know. If you have ANY practical advice (beyond "get a ladder," see twitter, it's too high & not safe) let us know.

Current Plan A: build a ramp out of lumber. Needs to be >20-30'. Advice VERY welcome.

@DrSagan Watching him do sketch comedy is pretty surreal too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Lu0dX0GTg&list=PL4Ss6TCig8hFipHXzxiBGQeghhQcN9JL5&index=1

@Austin_Dern @KinkyTurtle

@Leucrotta => "Dr Booty" from Sifl and Olly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obb8WmKCMUw

@JulieSqveakaroo @Oneironott She does have a point! Li'l bappypaws otter don't know etc etc. <3

Finally reconnected with my therapist. Big breakthroughs today... including finally getting up the nerve to discuss the accusations of abusiveness I got when Transliminal broke up.

We talked a LOT about what was really behind all that, how I long ago accepted my behavior was way unstable and my temper could be very scary to someone with Her background, but there was never ANY desire to control or manipulate behind any of the outbursts. It was all pure fear and self-hatred.

And she agreed. She said it just didn't sound like the usual warning signs at all-- and reassured me that Massive Temper Blowouts due to sheer sensory and emotional overload are really common among people with ADHD.

And I'd been TRYING to internalize that for years and move on, I suspected it's true, but... I guess I never felt morally qualified to be the one to turn off the alarm sensor. And FINALLY I can have a little peace there.

I wish you well, Orrery. I wish your whole family well. I don't think this was any more your fault than it was mine, and I DEFINITELY think a good chunk of it was my fault. I never wanted any of it, and to the last day, I cared so fucking much about you.

I hope we never see each other again, for both our sakes. I don't think the glitches that led us to fight can be fixed, only routed around. And Peggy has proven to be that route and I feel so much safer and more comfortable stuck otherwise-alone down here than I ever did "surrounded by friends" (true tho some of them proved to be <3 <3 ) in Seattle.

@Oneironott So much of Neptunian society has evolved to just be "Kurt Vonnegut's _Galapagos_ Was Right" and while it is So Not A Martian Scene I am so proud of y'all. :D

@Austin_Dern There's something very similar on AirBNB somewhere out west, and @anthracite and I keep pondering a vacation out there... I'll see if I can dig up the information.