@cstross I'm in New Zealand King Charles III is nominally our head of state anyway (with the day today task of being a head of state delegated to the Governor-General of New Zealand Dame Cindy Kiro) and none of the alternative seam in anyway palatable (unless Cthulhu is a non sentence plush toy or covid-19 is a literal normal non sentient sample of the virus in which case I'd vote for Cthulhu at least it would be amusing)