Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

The SOLFAX stuff got a great reaction, thanks everybody! So I've been in the mood to post some more notes about the 12Fold Universe. Hope these are interesting.

This week: the nanotech system, left behind by the Terrans before their collapse and exile, but cryptographically locked up tight as a "protective" measure for their uplift races.

This and psionics are the closest things to magic in the 12Fold universe, and sometimes they come VERY close-- particularly in the hands of Mercurian mystics, who have modeled most of their nanite decryption keys after various Terran occult traditions.

The known codes and the means of deriving them are co-curated by Mercurian academics and Lunarian civic agencies. The Plutonian shiftcults are violating dozens of interplanetary treaties by using them in their "therapeutic" equinization treatments.

Martians just tend to scoff at the whole concept and there's little or no social or govermental* interest in nanotech, just the occasional eccentric hobbyist. Uranians will put damn near any substance in the universe into their veins but, surprisingly, not this one.

The Venusian ecology is already overrun with nanotech thanks to Terran pollution. They don't have a problem with nanotech, but they consider it one more force of Venusian nature and have granted it the same natural rights as all other life. It is to be negotiated with and not merely "unlocked" and "programmed."

Jovians would LOVE to have access to it but Luna and Mercury have had enough of their neo-libertarian shit and scrupulously keep codes out of their hands. The resulting espionage occasionally threatens to boil over into a cold war. The Neptunians have never met a shiny silver ball of goo they didn't like, but don't really tend to covet nanotech for any practical purpose.

And of course, the Saturnians are innately telepathic and genetically self-reprogramming and feel roughly the same way about nanotechnology that we do about 8-track cassettes and rotary phones: charming and occasionally to be worn ironically.

*all Martians are anarchomonarchists and any claims to title or authority should be regarded with the utmost skepticism except among the most remarkable and respected** of Martian citizens

**i.e., "not Rezeya Montecore-St. Hobbes"

@monsterblue Oh, the 12Fold stuff? Honestly, I owe a huge amount of the worldbuilding debt to Electric Keet, and if her 13 Ribbons stories are still up and around, I strongly recommend them. Her canon diverged from mine, but it's still an excellent realization of my very loose designs.

Still, maybe I should post some more of my worldbuilding notes. There are a lot of neat little things like the "magic" system Keet came up with-- which is basically just "having some partial, fragmentary codes to the nanotech system the humans locked down rather than bequeath to us."

@Oneironott When I was a kid, parents groups were losing their shit over the CARE BEARS having too much "magic" in it. We have come so far. :D

@monsterblue Ah, yeah, that was the story from Pluto. Few people ever really took me up on roleplaying Plutonians, but the couple that did were pretty interesting.

They were basically an equine-centrist religious cult inspired by and named after the ultra-rationalist horses in Gulliver's Travels, Huoyhnhnms.

Electric Keet did a lot to elaborate on them, so this isn't all my worldbuilding, but basically they had gotten hold of some semi-forbidden nanotech from [REDACTED] Terran [REDACTED] and used it to TF people into "objectively superior" pacifist equines under the aegis of a pseudo-medlcal "clinic" on Pluto. The implications were deliberately kind of horrible and were mostly intended as an excuse for a lot of dark medical kink. :3.

@monsterblue Oh good, I'm so glad that one landed as intended. ^_______^

@anthracite That was my little tribute to you and I kinda hope it stuck just the tiniest tiniest bit in a certain somebody's craw. <3

Found this link while looking for something in ancient Gmail.

https://electrickeet.com/Solfax/

Don't share it. It belongs to my estranged adopted sister/exhousemate and I feel like a creeper just being on her server.

But yeah. It's faux-teletext titles she made from (most) my writing for a holiday movie marathon that never happened. The graphic design is all Keet's and it's SO PERFECT.

Honestly, this is some of the best writing I've ever done, especially for the "12Fold" universe which was the basis of one of the three main postfurry RP forums.

It would mean a lot to me if you'd look through it, there's some neat glimpses of what we were up to in those days and I'd hate to have it all be _totally_ lost.

...

Fuck, I miss her.

I forgot to mention the most charming thing about this whole mess:

She pronounces "meme" as "may-may." This whole thing is so twisted and so pure and I feel so much like I've walked into some kind of movie.

"Never trust an honest man." -- Harry Anderson

i think i may have just fixed our air conditioner via percussive maintenance

#aaaaaaaayyy

@JulieSqveakaroo Ooh, good one, roo!

@Austin_Dern I could also take a flyer on Robyn Hitchcock.

@Austin_Dern Oh gosh, you're right. :D

@Leucrotta I wanna see an RPG that has a ratfolk race that's like REAL rats, i.e., tidy, empathetic, altruistic, friendly, and just an all-around swell bunch of guys.

1) "Monongahelium"
Phish.

2) "Pretzel Wagon"
Laika and the Cosmonauts.

3) "I Wanna Be Sinatra's Bitch"
The Dead Milkmen.

4) "Fibonacci's Dairy" [sic]
Jonathan Coulton, DaVinci's Notebook, or someone similarly dreadful. (I kid! I kid! I just OD'ed on that style while dating a 2nd-gen filker. :> )

5) "Four Fried Chickens and a Coke" (but it CAN'T be the Blues Brothers)
Ween.

6) "The 1-Dimensional Man"
Broadcast. (RIP Trish Keenan)

7) "Pottylab"
Foetus.

8) "Rich Corinthian Leather"
Foetus.

9) "I Loved Your Blue Jeans, Nefertiti"
Primus.

10) "♡.14359265358979323846" [sic]
Foetus. Just kidding. Kahimi Karie or maybe Hyperkinako.

11) "Evil-Handed Dinah"
Nick Cave.

12) "Kangaroo Kazoo #2"
Gong.

What real bands recorded each of the following fake songs?

1) "Monongahelium"

2) "Pretzel Wagon"

3) "I Wanna Be Sinatra's Bitch"

4) "Fibonacci's Dairy" [sic]

5) "Four Fried Chickens and a Coke" (but it CAN'T be the Blues Brothers)

6) "The 1-Dimensional Man"

7) "Pottylab"

8) "Rich Corinthian Leather"

9) "I Loved Your Blue Jeans, Nefertiti"

10) "♡.14359265358979323846" [sic]

11) "Evil-Handed Dinah"

12) "Kangaroo Kazoo #2"

if our dealer flakes out on us again there is gonna be hipster doofus spread across the pavement in midcity

j/k i love the little shit but god i'm screaming for a couple hours back in Squidspace

🎵​It is such a good day to meh
It is such a good day for meh
It is such a good day to
Scoobidoo-doobidoo
Scoobidoo-doobidoo
Scoobidoo-doobidoo
Meh🎵

(closed-captioned for the lounge-impaired: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7rh7KffXyw)

@001zlnv I think it may have been Viklas.

@Aradia one of the first things i learned from mainstream sci-fi is that all this identity-change and mental-change shit scares THE SHIT outta the normal humans

one of the first things i learned from furry and postfurry is that it's a political imperative to do as much of it right in their faces as possible