# do they really like people or merely the feeling of being liked shuffling back from the local co op yesterday one glimpsed a neighbor knock on their front door while dressed in fancy fey finery dang they'd only moved in a two days before but omf our mutual friend was already treating them like their bestest evar pal another deliberate yet compulsive shallow dive as rosali's hey heron plays in the lab background our flabby stomach leapt into knots as we got the strongest feeling they were inviting yet another easy lover into their gentle floating world of synthetic surfaces gee some sure find it easy to get along with strangers don't they yet such instant sociability affability geniality and graciousness feels suspect having departed from their little scene one now finds it draining tiresome and anxiety inducing such markedly pleasant easy and superficial social intercourse only suggests a liking for genuine companionship friendship merely another opportunity for expansive ego expression and continued heavy elf investment rather than meaningful connection engaging more for personal social or emotional gain rather than anything those involved really need or should receive by default exuding a superficial glow of charm a glib sincerity based on a lack of cognitive empathy rather than honest understanding a constant need to come across as friendly precisely in order to tell oneself how i'm x and y such a nice person a genuine person both kind and open hey look everyone see how friendly and honest and whatever i am aren't we swell hey wanna come to our next new hot and happening party we'll be the perfect host so bright and happy and generous the spiders start to sweep up their own webs in quiet admiration as we enter and enlighten the room the hard elf critical work and emotional labor of truly being compassionate and genuine isn't exactly missing so much as displaced not that they aren't simply direct friendly and honest in a generally accepted sense but still researcher do they ever collect friends like baseball cards treating them in a two dimensional manner promises made by the hour to order per customer flipping shut their expensive wipe free photo book on mere images of two dimensional friend simulations at the end of each polite social day all of it somehow a darker sign one is in the mild robotic presence of someone challenged in actual empathy some researchers make friends far too easy one's superficial charms enchanting yet there's little substance behind such vapid gestures of the social lowering personal boundaries only in order to convince all parties of one's stage managed personality rootless social chameleons unwilling to reciprocate merely acting real enough doesn't count it doesn't matter if everyone gets something out of it in greasy capitalistic exchange adepts in social intelligence able to make simple positive impressions yet lacking the sense they ever confront their own truer needs or those of others taking social cues from friends without effort yet only reinforcing the split between realer elf and warm plastic public presentation never once noticing however when their older recent social acquisitions aren't around sucks to know one is only the briefest and most temporary of side attractions when the next new attraction in town comes skipping along another drab thing to be quickly forgotten in the greater more elegant and nicer sphere of one's regular social network of niceness sorry my fresher newer nicer more fashionable fakeface friends are here mind if we unceremoniously dump you on the side of this abandoned ballardian superhighway to techno social heck ok thanks bye now alarmed by the speed and predictable ease with which they invited that new neighbor into their scene to make friends so effortlessly and so often can't help stink like planned spontaneity friendliness as an instant plugin pine air freshener a neurosis of friendship with only barely enough actual human contact to elf justify one's actions as totally rational yes their guest would be politely sat down and the humble host would express all the necessary outward traits of genuine human warmth yet in reality their newest little pal lite would be kept firmly at bay an unspoken critical distance maintained via superficial exposition of all the amazing things one is doing all one's incredible plans how perfectly wonderful sensible and morally inevitable it all is looking back one wonders if that's how everyone in scene does it if we merely want and use other researchers via sick skillz in the social arena some cheap tawdry salesman like charm offensiveness only to be rapidly smoked up and stubbed out as dispensable biosynth stand ins before the next batch arrives mrs dalloway is always giving parties to cover the silence complete with their fog and amphetamine pearls // [[republic of bob contents | imaginary pastime republic of bob]]