I should have seen this coming, really

So, after a long period of Shenanigans, I have a new apartment, which I'm just finally getting settled into.  The gang's all here -- everyone from the Northern Domicile, anyway -- and I really ought to get around to explaining what they've been up to for the last while, before long.  I was kind of distracted by all the Shenanigans.

But one thing must be mentioned first.

I decided to buy a new mattress.  I've been sleeping on a perfectly nice twin, but, well, the Northern Domicile has become pretty large.  At the moment, a lot of them are posted on my various bookcases, but a lot of the space they're occupying exists as room for expansion, and it's not going to last forever.  I acquire books at a pace even more rapid than the one I acquire new animals, if you can believe it.  So I'm going to need room for them somewhere else before too long, and the obvious solution was to just get a bigger mattress.  (Also an actual bed, which will enable me to twine faery lights around it: that is a thing I have always wanted to do.)  Thus, I have upgraded to a queen.  It's basically the larger and fluffier version of the twin I had.

The new queen mattress arrived today, tightly rolled into this tube shoved into a canvas cocoon.  They must have used a machine to do it.  It would have taken me hours to extract it had I not had some experience with this phenomenon: the trick is, you cut the canvas and plastic off.  Then I had the pleasure of watching the formerly-compressed mattress spring to life in its actual dimensions.  Turns out I chose well.  I lay down on the thing to test it and had to pry myself off it, because I didn't want to get up. 

Unfortunately, I made a tactical error: I completely forgot that in leaving the room, I'd left Gilly behind in my bedroom with the new mattress unattended.  AJD mentioned this oversight when I posted about the new mattress on LJ -- wondering if it were really me, or if Gilly had finally got hold of my credit cards -- and I dashed back into the bedroom immediately, but lo, I was too late.

Gilly thinks he really does need all that space.  I mean, just look how crowded he is.

Gilly rushes to defend his new territory.

The moment I came back in, he knew I was going to attempt to reclaim it, and he came dashing over.  Look at that determination on his face.  He's not going to let me have it back.  If I try to pull him off, he'll dig his claws in and rip it.

I really liked this mattress, too.  It's really quite comfortable, and look at that lovely leaf pattern on it (which I will shortly have to cover up with an anti-bed bug mattress cover, sadly).  I can't really blame Gilly for grabbing his dreams, but, like, damn.

Tomorrow my boxspring and bed are being delivered.  This might be my chance to reclaim it, but I may have to promise him custody of the twin first.  (Current plan is for the twin to live under the new bed, so that ASD can sleep on it when he visits).  It could very well be that this has been Gilly's clever scheme all along...

Rochester Had a Big Night

AJD got home last night to discover that Rochester had apparently been invited to party with one of AJD's roommates.  AJD reports that this is exactly how he found him.  Looks like he had quite the night.

Rochester appears to have had one too many.

AJD did not report whether there were other bovines in attendance, nor what the party was celebrating.  I hope this doesn't mean Rochester's not paying due attention to his duties... or that the responsibility of leading the Southern Domicile has gotten too stressful for him. I also hope Barry, in particular, isn't too jealous that Rochester was invited to a party and he wasn't.

A Refugee Seeks Asylum

Those familiar with this blog should, by now, be familiar with the mess that is the Wild Fascist Dictatorship - that haven for lunacy, tyranny, atrocity, and drama where torture and sadism run rampant and the mad sheep Ebenezer Popcorn governs with an iron fist, and where Angel Joe and Winidavefred performed their stunning acts of heroism for the sake of liberty, security, and the Monarchy.

Well, guess what!  A very high-profile figure from the Wild Fascist Dictatorship has recently taken up residence in our very own Greater New Jersey chapter, upon fleeing the WFD to seek political asylum in the Wild Republic's bastion of sane neutrality.  The request for asylum was granted, and for some reason the local chapter was selected to have the honour.  We're becoming more important all the time, over here.

Argantry Iqbal Elessdill requires no introduction in the various animal kingdoms, but as this is written for a human audience, I'll go ahead and give her one anyway just in case.  She is, of course, the courageous harbour seal who began a peaceful campaign of non-violent protest against the Popcorn regime several years back, inspired by the deeds of great human dissidents like Gandhi or Mandela.  Her career began back when the Dictatorship's university was still an institution of repute; she was a professor of Economic Philosophy (specialising in Game Theory and Rhetoric) who found herself more or less accidentally the leader of the university-wide protest against the worrisome changes demanded by the then-dictator, Popcorn's immediate predecessor.  The protest was, alas, unsuccessful: the entire faculty of the university was dismissed and replaced by unqualified individuals who were friendly to the new regime.  But by the time it failed, Argantry's association with non-violent demonstrations had made her a very public figure, and she decided that the ethical thing to do was use her new reputation and her training in rhetoric for the public good.  

She's been the somewhat-unofficial leader of the local resistance movement ever since, and her fame has spread to the global level; she is the recipient of every single peace-related award presented by the animal kingdom and has written five books on various subjects pertaining to the recent history of the Wild Fascist Dictatorship.  None of the awards have ever been presented to her in person, as she's spent much of her time under house arrest.

It has come as a surprise to many of her admirers that Popcorn and his predecessor have let her live, considering her influence (both local and global) and the success she's had with highlighting the sins of her country; it's generally believed that they feared killing her and making her a martyr would make her even more difficult to deal with.  Now, however, her unexpected amnesty has come to a close: Popcorn has decided that she should be silenced.  

Argantry has friends even amongst Popcorn's adherents - she is that beloved - and therefore she was not only warned of his intentions in time to hurry away, but helped in her escape by individuals high up in the regime.  At least, that's what they told her; she suspects that actually they're hoping that her escape will weaken Popcorn's power and help them seize it for themselves.  At any rate, it apparently took some doing to convince her to flee; she at first felt it would be cowardly for her not to accept her martyrdom.  But then she realised that she could probably do more to help her country if she were alive and in the face of countries with the possible agency to offer aid and assistance to the dissidents, so she fled the country in the dead of night... and now, five months later, she's wound up here.

Alfredo, as you can imagine, is torn between elation at the recognition his chapter is getting and blind terror that this will end in utter disaster (with the help of Plouie or Beppe or the kittens).  Everyone else is delighted to have her here.  Twilby's thrilled to have another academic around; Zebulon's thrilled to have someone he can talk about rhetoric with; the pinnipeds are pleased to have another of their kind around; the Monarchy delegates are over the moon, as she is even more famous over there than she is in the Wild Republic; and there are a number of others here who have long supported her.  This is a big deal.

Not one to sit idle, Argantry is currently writing her sixth book, about the various factions jostling for power in the upper echelons of her country (apparently, Popcorn's control over the country isn't as solid as outsiders believe).  She's also working on some speeches, because she has a number of speaking engagements scheduled over the next six months.  And she's volunteered to do a little teaching, which Jasper's pretty excited about, and a series of monthly lectures on Game Theory for the adults, which has generated a lot of excitement. 

An Expansion of the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy Presence in Greater New Jersey

The ambassadorial delegation from the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy has just been enriched by the arrival of not one, but two new delegates, apparently by direct order of the Monarch.  This has been the cause of great celebration for the members of the delegation already present, as the newcomers are not merely not strangers, but old friends.  So it gives me great pleasure to announce the happy arrival of Sir Winidavefred and Lady Artemisia Lapis-Lyme.

Those who read this blog are probably quite familiar with the heroic saga of Angel Joe and his withstanding of dire torture at the hands of the evil Ebenezer Popcorn, dictator of the Wild Fascist Dictatorship.  You will recall that Angel Joe and his partner in the field, Winidavefred the badger, daringly penetrated the enemy stronghold in order to steal back vital documents which, had they remained in enemy hands, would have put the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy in gravest peril.  But they were unable to both sneak away undetected, so Angel Joe bravely allowed himself to be captured so that Winidavefred could escape with the documents, and underwent all sorts of grim torture until the Monarchy's best agents could recover him.

Well, now Angel Joe and Winidavefred are on leave from active duty, to allow them to recover from their harrowing experience, and they've both been knighted for their heroism, and... as of last night, they have been happily reunited with each other, as it was decided that since they were both on leave anyway, they might as well be posted together.

So Winidavefred the badger has joined us here in the Greater New Jersey chapter of the Wild Republic.  He's not on medical leave - technically I think he's on "personal" leave - and will apparently be helping Nicodemus, the official Administrative Liaison, from time to time, but primarily he's here to hang out with Angel Joe.  They'd been partners in the field for so long, and trusted each other so implicitly, that they'd really missed each other.

You might ask why, given that Angel Joe has perked up considerably since Winidavefred got here, the Monarchy didn't think of this before; but actually they had good reason.  Winidavefred, you see, felt absolutely terrible about having to leave his friend behind - in fact, he would have much rather preferred being the one to stay and take the torture.  They had to draw straws to determine who would go, because both of them felt this way.  So it was incredibly hard for him to see Angel Joe at the height of his infirmity.  For his part, Angel Joe felt a lot of conflicting emotions: genuine gratitude, because by all accounts Winidavefred moved hell to get his friend rescued as soon as possible; relief that he had spared Winidavefred the same treatment; and yet some understandable anger.  It seemed best to separate them until they'd both recovered a bit from their ordeal.

Now they're doing much better, and they feel only relief in seeing each other again.  Their reunion was incredibly poignant; I know I wasn't the only one with tears in my eyes watching it.  (Sithri was so overcome by emotion that she fainted, but of course she's an opera diva and she does that sort of thing a lot, when she's not inhaling Skandar.)

They're probably going to spend the next few days alone catching up, and everyone agrees that this is important and that the kittens and baby polar bears and Beppe need to be kept away from them if possible, despite the clear curiosity Beppe in particular feels towards this new hero.  This is likely to be successful in the case of the kittens, at least, thanks to the identity of the other new arrival.

Lady Artemisia Lapis-Lyme has not previously been mentioned on this blog, but she is best described as "something else."  She is a caracal, and she has been Lady Faraday's best friend ever since they were roommates at school; this could and perhaps should have gone horribly wrong, as Lady Faraday was clearly intended to be the Good Influence on Lady Artemisia, who was something of a hellion.  But in fact they got on swimmingly, even if Lady Faraday was always having to bail her friend out of some sort of ridiculous scrape or other.

Like Lady Faraday, Lady Artemisia is the daughter of an earl, in her case the Earl of Kereswicke.  The Earls of Kereswicke are the highest-ranked noble caracal family in the entire Wild Parliamentary Monarchy, so she is an august personage indeed.  On her mother's side, she's descended from the Tarragon family; the Tarragon family isn't noble, but they're very wealthy and very influential. 

In many respects, Lady Artemisia is to Lady Faraday what Magick is to Sir Tristan: she's the one prone to getting into trouble, and she's the one who has clearly been around the block a few times.  You can tell just by looking at her that she is one tough cat.  By all accounts, she's quite brilliant - Lady Faraday once told me that the only reason Lady Artemisia wasn't expelled from their school (the way she had been from no less than six others) was that the headmistress was impressed by her genuine intellectual curiosity and became convinced she was just too intelligent for her intellect to go to waste.  (Apparently, Lady Artemisia is particularly gifted in mathematics.)  And, again like Magick, it's not really quite clear what she is doing here.  She is known to work for the Foreign Office, but the capacity of her employment is unclear, particularly as this is her first non-domestic posting - unlike Magick.  And, again unlike Magick, her arrival does not correspond to any sort of Unfortunate Incident; she has a reputation for being a hellion, but not for being particularly scandalous otherwise, and she doesn't seem to have been sent here for disciplinary reasons.

Her arrival, therefore, raises some interesting questions.  Why is she here?  Does her presence here have anything to do with Magick's? Did they really send Winidavefred just for Angel Joe's sake, or is something else afoot?  Why is Murchison taking a particular interest in this new arrival?  I really have no idea.  I mean, I still haven't figured out what Magick is doing here, and apparently the plot is already thickening.

So... the other thing is, we now have a female feline with us who is not affiliated with any of the males.  Gasp.  There is so much potential for disaster here.  Lady Faraday keeps trying to stop herself from smirking, and I can't say I really blame her.  I'm actually not so worried about Magick - he and Lady Artemisia have known each other forever and are good friends, and if they get up to anything, I suspect no one will get hurt by it.  But... then there's all the others.  Who knows what will happen.

But anyway, the local chapter is now happily enriched by two individuals who are old friends of someone or other, and while there is some potential for complications, on the whole everything seems to be pretty good.

Our New Swan

I have not posted in forever, because I am a terrible person.  There are actually quite a few things I could post, which is, ironically, one of the reasons I'm not posting: there's so much to catch up on that it feels very daunting, and I can't always remember what has been posted and what hasn't, &c.  But there is one thing I can post now.

At long last, the Greater New Jersey chapter of the Wild Republic has acquired an on-site psychologist!  And as you can see, he's really quite remarkably beautiful.

Our new psychologist: a black swan

Our psychologist's name is Illarion, but he prefers Ilari.  He is Russian, and in addition to being a psychologist he is quite the balletomane; apparently he was even professional while he was in school, but since acquiring his credentials he has retired from ballet.  But he still likes dancing, both as a dancer and a spectator.  Omri is delighted to have another dancer around, and Magick is delighted to have another gorgeous black creature around.  (They've hit it off quite well already, those two.)

Ilari has his work cut out for him, of course.  He will be spending the next few weeks conducting psychological examinations of everyone in the Northern Domicile.  I don't envy him this job.  He plans to leave Plouie out, though; it's so clear that Plouie needs help that he's just automatically on the schedule.

Many thanks to AJD for assisting with Ilari's journey up here.  He has a few more pictures I will try to post soon.

There have been heating issues in my apartment, so I was wearing my ugly Flyers hat indoors.  Then the heat came on, and I decided to take a shower and wash my hair before it stopped working again.  Alfredo is kindly wearing my hat for me, to keep it warm while my hair dries.  It's very cute, and makes me wish I had a camera.

Quixley Says: It Gets Better

As many of you may know, yesterday was National Coming Out Day, and in honour of the occasion, AJD reports, Quixley decided he wanted to have his picture taken with the gay pride zebra shirt.

It probably hasn't come up on this blog before, but the southern domicile has an iconic gay pride zebra shirt.  My parents sent it to me for my birthday a few years ago without comment - I hadn't realised before that they were actively supportive of the gay zebra community.  We hung it up in the living room in order to indicate to any gay zebras who happened to be wandering in the neighbourhood that they were quite welcome with us.  It has been worn exactly once, when AJD went to a masked ball dressed as a gay zebra.

So, anyway, Quixley decided he should have his picture taken in the gay zebra shirt.  First, however, he wanted AJD to take a picture of himself emerging from AJD's closet beneath the banner of the shirt, as a "coming out" metaphor.

Quixley "comes out" beneath the Iconic Gay Zebra Pride shirt as a Dramatic Metaphor.

 Then he wanted to have his picture taken in the shirt.  Since Quixley is an actual zebra, and the shirt is not designed for actual zebras, but rather for human allies, this did not really work all that well.

Quixley attempts to don the Iconic Gay Zebra Pride shirt.

So instead, he and AJD decided to just have Quixley photographed with the shirt.

Quixley and the Iconic Shirt

Prior to yesterday, AJD and I had not realised that Quixley is gay.  In retrospect, this is primarily because zebras are apparently very supportive of the LGTBZ community, and Quixley himself is a pretty laid-back, chill kind of guy.  He doesn't make a big deal out of his personal life (or most other things), and it's no secret, since he's been out for ages.  So he naturally assumed everyone already knew.  It was partly my fault too, because I saw a photograph he had of himself and a cute girl zebra and leapt to the wrong conclusion as to their relationship, having not got a close enough look at it.  If I'd got a better look, I'd have realised that the female zebra was Quixley's sister Quincilla.  They're really close - he's only a year older.

Anyway, AJD asked Quixley to say a few words in honour of the occasion, so Quixley paused for a second and delivered the following speech, which AJD carefully notated verbatim:

Um, everybody... it gets better.

That's a few words, all right.  It's hard to envision a speech of fewer words, come to think of it.  Very characteristic of a zebra of few words.

Quixley later said that being gay really isn't a big deal if you're a zebra, as long as you're with other zebras.  He encountered a lot more trouble when he started attending high school in a more mixed environment; not all species are as accepting as zebras.  But then he graduated, and started doing his IT training, and found that yeah, it really does get better, even when you're not living with other zebras.