Fury of the Furry

Sometimes you can tell a lot from a character's portrait.

After Agent Tisiphone Dira smashed an autopiloter's 40 million isk pod, she just wanted to pop in for a nice little chat to see how he was doing. Isn't that obvious from Tisiphone's portrait? FurryDragon was a sullen grump--which was equally obvious.

Tisiphone had more than mere pleasantries in mind, though. She was also there to enforce the Code's "Keep local clean" provision.

Tisiphone wanted to make sure highsec was a safe, family-friendly environment. After all, we know that carebears sometimes bring their young children into highsec and force them to mine. This, too, is an illegal practice, but as long as small children are in highsec, they need to be protected from inappropriate content.

FurryDragon had other priorities.

The stubborn carebear tried to make this into some kind of First Amendment issue. But the U.S. Constitution doesn't govern highsec; the Code does. Freedom of speech is a concept that's easily abused. Its flaws have been closely studied over the centuries. Highsec has an upgraded version of free speech which incorporates the lessons we've learned since the 1700s: Code speech.

FurryDragon vowed revenge, threatening to attack Tisiphone with a capital or even supercapital ship.

Tisiphone wasn't afraid. She'd beaten FurryDragon's shuttle (and pod), and would beat his titan, too, if necessary.

Nevertheless, our Agents prefer to resolve their conflicts peacefully. FurryDragon was too stubborn for that.

The carebear doubled-down on his losing anti-Code strategy.

Thus far, FurryDragon had played coy when it came to the furry issue. No more. FurryDragon revealed the existence of a massive conspiracy of underground furries in highsec. They'd remained hidden--and now they would be mobilized.

Cue the villain monologue.

Once a carebear begins a villain monologue, his chances of buying a mining permit precipitously decline.

Though Tisiphone Dira wasn't counting on getting the 10 million isk she was owed, she breathed a sigh of relief: At least FurryDragon was contained to a private convo. She'd hate to see him spreading these ideas in local.

I've often said that the New Order's mission in highsec is more like a marathon than a sprint. Sometimes it's better to take a break and let a carebear tire himself out. On some later occasion, when the carebear is in a better mood, a different Agent can renew the quest for the carebear's compliance.

FurryDragon declared that the secret army of furries would rise up and drive the New Order out of highsec. Carebear threats of this nature never materialize, but our Agents always stand at the ready. Ever vigilant.