Hiding in plain sight: how doable is this?

[Nightmask]

I'm curious just how well a mutant animal could function in society and get away with it, playing on the human need of self-deception that we often go 'can't be real must be a costume?' Given things like the guy who got his face tattooed like a bengal tiger and even whiskers installed and manages to function (albeit with difficulty because of the 'freak' perception) how well could a more humanoid mutant animal (Full speech, full hands, full biped, none looks) get by pretending to be 'just another nut'? There are a number of jobs anymore that can be worked from home requiring no interaction face to face with humans, a paradigm shift from when the TMNT first came out, and while cell phone cameras and security cameras are ubiquitous anymore again the character has the chance to fall back on the 'yeah it was Bigfoot' dismissal as being real.

[Soldier of Od]

I'm curious just how well a mutant animal could function in society and get away with it, playing on the human need of self-deception that we often go 'can't be real must be a costume?' Given things like the guy who got his face tattooed like a bengal tiger and even whiskers installed and manages to function (albeit with difficulty because of the 'freak' perception) how well could a more humanoid mutant animal (Full speech, full hands, full biped, none looks) get by pretending to be 'just another nut'? There are a number of jobs anymore that can be worked from home requiring no interaction face to face with humans, a paradigm shift from when the TMNT first came out, and while cell phone cameras and security cameras are ubiquitous anymore again the character has the chance to fall back on the 'yeah it was Bigfoot' dismissal as being real.

Good question. I think it would be very easy for a mutant animal to walk down a street or even go shoppping and have everyone assume it was a costume (how could any sane person seriously think it was a mutant animal/alien/demon or whatever?). Everyone would be assuming it was some sort of publicity stunt and be looking round for the cameras. However, I don't think they could function in society on a regular basis - the face is simply too 'realistic'.

Turn and look at your dog's face now. Go on, look at it. Right at it. Stare it right in the face. That's a real dog's face that is. And it smells. You can't do that with wires and fake fur, I don't care if you're Phil Tippet, it still looks fake when you get right up close. No nut could do that on his own. And you can bet that Pedigree Chum or Geico or compare the market.com aren't gonna take that much care when they create a fake dog/gecko/meerkat for their publicity stunt. So now I'm wondering what's going on. Every time I see the 'dog boy', I'll get a little more suspicious. It might be a long stretch until I think 'mutant animal', but some nut job who believes in that sort of nonsense sure will, and then more people will jump on the bandwagon, the press will run a 'jokey' story about the 'animal boy of Weston Super Mare', and soon people who know that mutant animals really do exist will turn up and cart you away for disection.

So... short term, yes, long term, no.

Now, if you found a way never to leave your house, then, yeah, maybe you could function in society. But depending on your view, you're not really 'in' society then, are you? May as well be back in the sewer with Splinter.

Hope that helps!

[G]

psionic invisibilitiy would help.

I think you need to do it on a case by case basis. In the current ATB setting you don't need to hide. You also don't need to hide in HU. That just leaves TMNT.

So, I am just starting an ATB game as a turtle. If this char were in TMNT, he would live outside human society and they would never come into contact with him. The world is a big place and my character is self sufficent (feral background). While limiting gaming possibilities, I don't think I would use this char in TMNT...so it wouldn't end up being a problem.

[Nightmask]

psionic invisibilitiy would help.

I think you need to do it on a case by case basis. In the current ATB setting you don't need to hide. You also don't need to hide in HU. That just leaves TMNT.

So, I am just starting an ATB game as a turtle. If this char were in TMNT, he would live outside human society and they would never come into contact with him. The world is a big place and my character is self sufficent (feral background). While limiting gaming possibilities, I don't think I would use this char in TMNT...so it wouldn't end up being a problem.

Well AtB does have some need to hide (hence why some mutants get Human Looks-Full to try and fit in especially around the human supremacists), as does HU, but I was interested in how well a mutant animal could 'fit in' in what's effectively 'our' world using human 'that can't be real' and general indifference to function. How much could they get away with to interact with humans and not get outed (I remember a comic once with a mutant animal showing up at a con with guards pretending to be one REALLY good fursuiter, but one clever congoer realized otherwise because she yawned and no way you could fake the tongue and other mouth motions that well).

At which point I was wondering if one could get groceries and the like without anyone noticing the truth, and how one might want to act to play up the 'just a kook in a costume' image. Like using sign language or a writing board to communicate (talking would be too obviously 'real', you couldn't do it without it being fairly obviously fairly quickly that the 'head' is WAY too real), wearing oversized novelty glasses to hide the obviously real eyes, and so on.

[G]

You buy groceries (and everything else) over the internet & pay by credit card.

They drop them off in an antleroom or mailbox, etc...never seeing you.