Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

in the not too distant tiger
next tiger ad
there was a tiger named rez
not too tiger from you or me
she worked at the tiger institute
just a tiger face in a tiger suit
she did a good job tigering up the place
but the humans didn't like her so they shot her into space
we'll send her crazy tigers
the worst we can find
she'll have to sit and rule them all
and that actually suits her fine
now remember the empress* doesn't know
when her empire begins or ends
so she naps on Mons Olympus
waiting for her tiger friends
tiger roll call
miss bitey
hobbes junior
montecore ii
striiiiiipes
if you're wondering why all evidence says
she's just some guy from earth
just repeat to yourself it's mastodon
and don't be a nitpicky jerk
for martian tiger theater 3000

@Leucrotta Yeah, this was a frequent problem for me in Seattle especially, with the large number of... not entirely stable people out on any given crowded public street. I seem to either have a habit of accidentally annoying these people, or it happens to everyone and I just assume it's my fault.

@Leucrotta for someone with as much social anxiety as i have, this story is practically a koan <3

@Austin_Dern i am almost heartbroken if there's never been a toy furry named galoob

@JoyfulSkunk Oh, and don't create a MUCK that has a userbase of around 50 and you're around 45 of them and the other five are a constant revolving door of confused people who registered without realizing it's all just... you... kinda... talking... to yourself. O_o; 'Cause that would be considered a little creepy.

True story. :)

@JoyfulSkunk Oh, and allthat only even applies to ordinary social media.

If you're in an all-furry venue like a MUCK or VRChat, I suspect the etiquette is solidly on the side of "you probably have dozens of characters and that's 100% normal as long as you don't use that to bother anyone."

It was sure the case on TapestriesMUCK; I had over 75 characters in my career and while it did cause sometimes with people I didn't get along with, nobody ever got upset about my huge "wardrobe" in itself.

@JoyfulSkunk If there is any explicit etiquette that recommends against doing it, though, I have never encountered it myself! I think this is one of those situations where the going etiquette is "don't be an abusive jerk and make us have to make up rules about this" and absolutely everything I have ever observed in you tells me this is 0% or less of a risk in your case. <3

@JoyfulSkunk I'm of the feeling it's 100% ethical and permissible unless it's willfully being leveraged to do something *else* unethical like ban evasion. There's nothing wrong in itself with wanting the animating force behind a character to remain anonymous, or with having multiple characters. "Maintaining kayfabe" is a vital part of the spirit of online RP, IMHO, and it REALLY bothers me the sort of suspicion identity-play and anonymity have seem to have on modern Web 6.6.6 social media. ;p

@Phorm Very briefly, Maneki Neko is about a mobile network that assigns people with tiny favors to be done for other network users, without any particular context or explanation-- you just get a message like "Would the closest person to the Nakamura flower shop in Chome 2-7 please pick up the lunchbox there and deliver it to the secretary at the elementary school." It's all very benign and positive except when it isn't.

@Phorm Short version is that I'm imagining a similar network that's entirely mediated and accessed via genie-like entities... all of whom are curiously identical and discreetly have the same hive-mind back-end... and all of whom are discreetly and subversively working to the same greater goal of benevolent world domination, created through fostering genie-dependent populations...

@Phorm (Linking to it on general principle. not to give you reading homework but b/c it's a good story and I want it circulated for anyone in the mood for a neat story about a network gift economy and its unintended consequences...)

https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/maneki-neko/

@Phorm I mean, the overlap between "genie" and "AI assistant" is pretty substantial.

In fact... this is giving me some worldbuilding ideas. Before I get into them, have you read the Bruce Sterling story "Maneki Neko" by any chance? I can reduce the length of my babble by about 80% if so. :D

@xinjinmeng @anthracite "He is beyond question a writer of power; and his power lies in his ability to make sex so thoroughly, graphically, and aggressively unattractive that one is fairly shaken to ponder how little one has been missing." -- Dorothy Parker on Tiffany Thayer.

I am SO in. <3

Today I:

* slagged a colossal number of Trump conspiracists
* got a nearly-clean bill of health for my ear and probably won't need another ENT visit
* had perfect lemon gelato at Angelo Brocato's
* got a quarter of really good trippy weed
* had a really good deep-dish pizza and probably shortened my lifespan by a week
* finally beat a million points in Nova Drift
* pet the hell out of Peebles who loved the shit out of it and wants me to tell you all: "MRAP ​"
* got to have a very nerdy conversation with my coworkers (we collaborated to find an old piece of Second Empire architecture in Salem, MA that one of them saw on an architecture blog and wanted an address for -- i didn't score the goal but i got the assist :D )

@PennyPennyPenny

Spice?

o/` And don't it make my brown eyes blue... o/`

@PennyPennyPenny Clearly your powers are greater than I thought. Even the great Martian chili-priests are not worthy of this elixir. <3

@hystericempress "I, Werner Herzog, approve of your sentiment. Nature is only a colossal shitshow."

if i get one more notice from one more financial entity saying i might owe a completely unspecified amount of money within an unspecified amount of time, i am going to put all my remaining funds into the most nondescript white van i can buy, fake IDs, burglar tools, architectural records, bulk ammonium nitrate, and snack bars

gotta have the snack bars

#LifeDuringWartime

I want a forcible-vaccination twin-stick shooter.

@Austin_Dern Which park? :D