Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

@kaputotter @troodon Sugarfoot is such a good kitty. When she finally deigned to let me pet her after weeks of being skittish, it was the highlight of my whole month!

Apparently, her semi-feral mom has had ANOTHER litter and we're kinda angling to "generously" take Sugarfoot off their hands as a "favor"...

@001zlnv I've kinda wanted a Rezy sock puppet ever since we went to the Center of Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. :D

@Austin_Dern My advice: print out this handy diagram.

http://www.vpcalendar.net/Correlations/21st_Century.html

Then staple it to a baseball bat and apply repeatedly to the forehead. ​

It always makes me smile when "LOL YOU WROTE A WHOLE LOT OF BIG WORDS!" is someone's attempt at a parting shot in an Internet debate.

It's like, sorry I couldn't keep this nuanced political issue you brough​t up down at your reading level? Would you like me to set up a kiddie table for you and start over with smaller words? Maybe some hand puppets and a cheerful musical number about socialized medicine? :D

@Austin_Dern ​ : Bite their faces off, cousin!

@Thaminga YAY! Congratulations!

Dammit, John Carpenter is so good at making films that come REALLY CLOSE to being what I want out of psychological horror—then veer away at a crucial moment into "AND THEN THEY WERE ATTACKED BY A SCARY MONSTER! BLAH!"

The concept of Prince of Darkness is so cool, and I'm very proud of how well I unwittingly paid homage to it with Puzzlebox's "Strangevirus."

But the film invokes so many interesting ideas—possession by an sapient and contagious alien liquid, weird obsessive behaviors, quantum physics, the nature of evil, telepathic transmissions from the future, God and Satan as ancient astronauts...

And then it shows a practically Matrix-grade disinterest in following through on any of them. Instead, it's the same old threats of violence and the same old gouts of red Karo syrup, and it just turns out to be so unimaginative. I desperately want to see the *anti-film* of Prince of Darkness, the one that actually gave a shit about its premises, followed through on them, and skipped the stabby bits.

Carpenter, of all the damn people, should know there are MUCH more frightening things than physical harm. FFS, half the movie is building up to those threats, but then it devolves into another goddamn treatise about the Awesomeness Of Hitting People With An Axe.

Luckily, I just so happen to be writing at least two projects with body horror themes. And now I have something to REACT AGAINST. In particular, I am so looking forward to telling one of these stories FROM THE SIDE OF THE POD PEOPLE and actually having an explanation for their actions besides "they are pure elemental evil, because somehow that is a real thing."

I love strapping failed texts like this to a surgical bed and Frankensteining them into something better. *lighting bolts; mad cackles* >:D

@JulieSqveakaroo @Phorm Seriously, someone needs to call for an Adult Swim—as explicitly opposed to an [ adult swim ]. :p

Gangster: "Say hallo to my leetle friend!"

Little friend: "Maow!"

https://www.reddit.com/r/aww/comments/cpg3d3/weapons_of_mass_adorableness/

@Phorm we are still big ms geniefox, it's the internet that's gotten... well, if not small, than at least shallow & narrow

@Phorm (But if you meant in reference to your own isolation and frustration... man, I sympathize, and I've done the best I can to chip at both our walls with a chisel. <3 I've been known to refer to New Orleans as the world's most comfortable (thanks to Ms. Dragon) rehabilitational wildlife reserve on earth. Nice place, but I still miss roaming free in the social wilds of Seattle. Before, you know, I went all Montecore on those people. *sigh*

@Phorm Shunning, I think—and I have to admit that idea has some appeal sometimes too. :)

Come to think of it, maybe we should bring these back to shame hypocritical conservative "moralists," too:

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

I'm also told the original Patriots were very fond of tarring and feathering Tories... *big grin*

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

@Austin_Dern I have been recurringly tempted, actually! There might be a "can't go back to MUCKing" element to it, yeah, but it does sound like a nice place!

@hystericempress OK, I trust your opinion implicitly—gonna see if I can hunt down a PDF sometime soon and start banging ideas around.

@Leucrotta @anthracite I've tried, I really have. I just can't go home again. :(

OK, sounds like the consensus is that small private tabletop games are the best thing going.

Well, I do have that idea for a psychedelic-horror postfurry RPG kicking around, the one that tastes of Scanners, Altered States, The Prisoner, The Tomorrow People, Akira, Beyond The Black Rainbow, Upstream Color, and Plague Dogs.

But every time I've tried running one of these things with my own homebrew system—or none at all—it's gone up in flames. I need structure, somebody ELSE'S structure. Can anyone recommend a really good generic RPG system that might accommodate a weird, TF-heavy low-physical-combat game like this?

No "storygames," please. At least not the sort whose entire rule system is "write something on a card, take a white chip, and tell the group how it made you feel." O;p Like I said, I need STRUCTURE. :) In particular, I want something with really a really robust, flexible character creation system.

Something like GURPS, but that DOESN'T require an accounting degree. :) I keep hearing FATE is really good?

@hystericempress I'm not crazy about 5E, so I think you've inspired me to try Plan B: throw together that psychotronic, Prisoner-inspired transcendent horror campaign I've been talking about...

@hystericempress No real obligations besides wanting to get back into DiS! Lemme think about whether I can really make the commitment, since I don't wanna flake out on y'all if I do join in! 'Bout when and 'bout how long is your typical session?

(Thank you, sis! <3 )

@anthracite Honestly? I'd probably STILL check out a good IC/kink-friendly furry Discord channel at this point. A Buddha must embrace the spiriti of the age, and preach where the people may listen.</upaya_rant>