with hope in our hearts and bricks in our hands, we sing for change

[16:28] Frurry Fluno: ugh, here we go again at luskwood
[16:28] Frurry Fluno: [16:26] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: Hello I am legitimate furry
[16:28] Frurry Fluno: the troll has appeared around 12 times in the last week now
[16:28] Pinkie Fellini: does that mean his parents were married?
[16:28] Emilly Orr: Okay, what the hell is a "legitimate furry"??
[16:29] Emilly Orr: Gah, July 25th spawndate

I thought about it, and then I said, eh, screw it, I have to know. I likely shouldn't have, but it was just such an odd thing to say--and be ejected for, you know?

[16:32] Emilly Orr: Yeah, okay, I can't stand it, I have to ask--what's a legitimate furry?
[16:32] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: it is the opposite of the illegitimate furry
[16:32] Emilly Orr: Well, duh
[16:32] Emilly Orr: I mean, what do you mean by it?
[16:33] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: Some people say i am not a furry
[16:33] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: these are lies

So, a furry walks into a bar...Seriously, how does one tell--in a virtual world--that you're a furry? You wear fur. Is he wearing fur? No clue, this is all happening long distance. But if he thinks that by walking into fur zones and saying "I am legitimate furry", he's going to get people rushing forward to embrace him into the fold--when he's all of, like, two, three weeks old, besides--well, he's got another think coming.

[16:34] Emilly Orr: I see. Well, a), you have no info on your profile, no pic, no nothing, and you're fairly new, plus Luskwood has had a lot of problems with griefers, so you can see where suspicion might arise?
[16:34] Emilly Orr: And b), you have no info on your profile, no pic, no nothing, so how are most people who aren't looking at you supposed to know what you are?
[16:34] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: If people want to be judgemental so be it
[16:35] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: I have never harmed anyone or used profanity
[16:35] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: I have exposed them for the misguided numbskulls they really are
[16:35] Emilly Orr: Pardon?
[16:35] Emilly Orr: Exposed them how?
[16:35] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: I've shown how judgemental people can be
[16:36] Emilly Orr: Dude. Get real. Furs get burned enough by griefers, they're wary of new people. Even 'legitimate' furries.
[16:36] Emilly Orr: Just be nice, don't come in with attitude, be calm.
[16:36] Emilly Orr: Polite.
[16:36] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: ?

Yeah, of course this confuses him.

[16:36] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: When have i done otherwise
[16:37] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: anyway
[16:37] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: are you a hated minority then?
[16:37] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: furby?

*cackles* Gods, I love that. Am I a hated furby? A furby. Really? That's what he meant to say?

Hells, the people I live with know me. I'm not even allowed to own a Furby. (It's true. It's on my list of never ever ever allowed things. I can't shave off my eyebrows...err, again...or own a Furby, or sew my hands together...again.)

(Okay, upon reflection, these are...probably...good things...ANYWAY, back to the conversation!)

[16:37] Emilly Orr: Well, they're saying you--or someone like you--has come in twelve times this week saying the exact same thing.
[16:37] Emilly Orr: I'm a hated everything.
[16:37] Emilly Orr: Bi poly pagan shapeshifter.
[16:37] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: ha, i've logged in probably 5 times in the pst fortnight
[16:37] Emilly Orr: Do you always say the same thing?
[16:37] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: so there calculations are slightly wrong
[16:38] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: It's like my opening line

Your opening line sucks, dude. Seriously, it's like being black and walking into a Ku Klux Klan rally, and asking where the white women are at. You are NOT going to be making friends this way.

[16:38] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: amazing how the smallest of things annoy people
[16:38] Emilly Orr: Change your line. Try "hi."
[16:38] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: hi, i am legitimate furry
[16:39] Emilly Orr: See, first, nobody knows what you MEAN with that.
[16:39] Emilly Orr: Second, it definitely sets you up with a chip on your shoulder.
[16:39] Emilly Orr: Text: "hi, i am legitimate furry"
[16:40] Emilly Orr: Subtext: "And you're not."
[16:40] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: oh the irony
[16:40] Emilly Orr: How so?
[16:40] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: what is your favourite cheese?

And I honestly thought he was changing the topic. I really, really did. It seemed like SUCH a conversational swerve.

[16:40] Emilly Orr: Lemon Stilton.
[16:41] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: hm
[16:41] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: you can tell a lot about a person from the cheese they favour
[16:41] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: :)
[16:41] Emilly Orr: What does lemon Stilton tell you?
[16:41] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: the most obvious
[16:41] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: i will leave you to work it out
[16:41] Emilly Orr: That I like cheese with interesting things in it?
[16:41] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: i will send it to you by telepathy
[16:42] Emilly Orr snerks
[16:42] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: lemon is very bitter
[16:42] Emilly Orr: Look, you can't exactly insult me by calling me a fruit. Seriously. I date men and women, I'm already there.
[16:42] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: is it not?
[16:42] Emilly Orr: Oh, not always.
[16:42] Emilly Orr: Depends entirely on the lemon.
[16:42] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: but i'm joking, i don't know you well enough to say that

And yet, he did. Implied: that I'm gay (which I told him, unless "bi" for him translates to "willing to have sex with women until a man comes along, AKA 'lesbian for show'). Stated: that I'm bitter. And sure, I could buy the bitter part--if I'd been vicious and sniping in the least! This was polite! What does he want, an egg in his beer?

[16:42] Emilly Orr: Some lemons are larger and sweeter.
[16:43] Emilly Orr: Plus, you can always preserve the peel by sugaring it. Not that that happens with Stilton, though there's also apricot Stilton.
[16:43] Emilly Orr: Apricot Stilton is verrrrry odd.
[16:43] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: hm
[16:43] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: the whole fruit in cheese does work well
[16:43] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: are you the legitimate furry?
[16:43] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: If so what creature are you?
[16:43] Emilly Orr: I still don't even know what that means.
[16:44] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: gerbil?
[16:44] Emilly Orr: Are you asking if I have a fursuit in the closet RL? No.
[16:44] Emilly Orr: Are you asking if I have fur avatars on SL? Yes.
[16:44] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: sloth
[16:45] Emilly Orr: So far, fox, lynx, reindeer, faun, various cats...I have a horse av.
[16:45] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: did you know sloths deliberately grow mould on themselves for camoflauge against the trees
[16:45] Emilly Orr: Actually, I have a four-legged horse and an anthro horse.
[16:45] Emilly Orr: Yes.
[16:45] Emilly Orr: That's why some of them are green.
[16:45] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: amazing
[16:46] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: who is the king furry?
[16:46] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: who is like at the top of the pecking order in luskwood
[16:46] Emilly Orr: Oh, goodness, I have no idea.

I still can't shake the feeling that somewhere, in all of this, lurks a griefer who's been blessed with more than two braincells to bang together. Every time I think I'm getting somewhere, he goes sideways back into teetering on that edge of jerklife.

[16:47] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: you are supposed to say me
[16:47] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: like me as in me
[16:47] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: not you
[16:47] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: Augustus
[16:48] Emilly Orr: I'm not you.
[16:48] Emilly Orr: I'm not king of anything.
[16:48] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: awww
[16:48] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: queen?
[16:48] Emilly Orr: I'm just a shapeshifter. Designer.
[16:48] Emilly Orr: Nah.
[16:48] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: well i am actually an emperor
[16:48] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: not a king
[16:48] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: but i don't mind being called king
[16:49] Emilly Orr: One time, I was part of the Unseelie Court, so I suppose that made me fae nobility at best, but never Queen
[16:49] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: Are you famous in your native America?

Now he thinks I'm First Nation? Again, it's like he's trying to push buttons that aren't there. I'm not native American, though there are some wandering bloodlines in the distant past. If anything, I'm closer to the standard American blend--being English, Scots, Welsh and Irish on my mother's side, and English and French on my father's, and even those are just "mostly"; there's everything else in there, too.

And on the grid, who knows? Shapeshifter, remember. Anything and everything, on whim.

[16:49] Emilly Orr: Hardly.
[16:50] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: 220 minutes
[16:50] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: till i can return
[16:50] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: to luskwood
[16:50] Emilly Orr: Why do you want to go back if they've bounced you?
[16:50] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: and say " i am a legitimate furry"
[16:50] Emilly Orr: Yeah, see, and that, right there? Is why they think you're a troll.
[16:51] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: how am i troll for doing one simple little thing
[16:51] Emilly Orr: Tell you what, though--you could probably prove the 'legitimate' part if you had pictures of you at a furcon, or something
[16:51] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: people interpret it as trolling
[16:51] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: it's not
[16:51] Emilly Orr: Beyond that, nobody knows what you mean
[16:51] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: if i wanted to troll then surely i could do something worse
[16:51] Emilly Orr: Oh, I'm sure you could.
[16:51] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: than say a sentence with no profanity
[16:51] Emilly Orr: But why would you want to?
[16:52] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: i wouldn't
[16:52] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: And half the amusement in it
[16:52] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: is no one knows what it means
[16:52] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: it makes no sense

I guess everyone needs a hobby.

[16:52] Emilly Orr gets the feeling you understand what she's trying to say but are being deliberately obtuse.
[16:52] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: but draws a sense of intrigue
[16:52] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: people fear what they do not understand
[16:52] Emilly Orr: Yeah, people in Luskwood don't intrigue easily these days. Their sims have been shut down too often.
[16:53] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: I have no idea about that
[16:53] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: are they like native americans
[16:53] Emilly Orr: Well, you get a group of griefers dedicated to making sure furs suffer, they get shell-shocked.
[16:53] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: being pushed out of their land
[16:53] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: do you not think they should like not get shell shocked over a game?
[16:54] Emilly Orr: Well, someone comes in and rains spamcubes from the heavens on an auto-spawn loop, and the sim crashes as a result, then yeah, I'd say that's being pushed off their land.
[16:54] Emilly Orr: On the one hand, yes, Second Life is a game. Nothing but.
[16:54] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: it's hardly something that shoudl affect anyone
[16:54] Emilly Orr: On the other hand, people have relationships here. Friendships. They work, they play.
[16:54] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: hmm
[16:54] Emilly Orr: It's a game, but it's a game played with hearts and minds.
[16:54] TheGreatAugustusDigital Darkthief: maybe

Did I get through to him? Was it entirely pointless? Was it a waste of my time, his time? I don't really know. Is he a troll? I think maybe, but believe me, I've tangled with idiots on the grid who've been far more offensive; he just sounded like a bored cubicle jockey with nothing better to do.