#NIGHTCAT IS FINALLY REAL

[jguytime]

Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh

EXCITEMENT

[slugcatmusings]

YOOOO NEW DLC ANNOUNCEMENT HELLO???

[flickering-nightfall]

Happy rain day! And congrats to Nightcat/the Watcher for finally becoming a Real Slug™️

I wonder what their campaign will be like. Seems like there's some rot and nature stuff going on in their title text.

I wonder if it'll be connected to, or independent of Downpour? Since Watcher's grouped up with the other three vanilla slugs (or referred to as the fourth) it's possible it'll have nothing to do with DP. It is another DLC with modders involved, but I hear Videocult will be more involved this time.

I wonder where in the timeline they'll sit. Maybe post-Saint, if DP is relevant? Or even if not (post-Monk in that case). It could also be a different timeline.

"Unknown creatures stalk and climb and dive and hunt. New breeds rip and pluck and burrow and hide. Predator and prey redefined." So there's definitely new creatures... the phrasing makes me think it could take place after Surv+Monk, but I'm not sure.

"Journey beyond to something, somewhere only ever glimpsed." Are all the regions new? It would be really neat if this didn't take place on Pebbles' and Moon's territory, though I'm not sure how feasible that is. I'd love to see more of the world outside of their grounds, and I'm not sure what else can be done with their stories other than AUs. They could also be dead, like completely dead, in this campaign. Ice age passed, growth overtaking everything. Perhaps the void sea would have risen. That would be bittersweet...

If it does take place in an entirely new setting, then the timeline wouldn't matter as much, I think. But the suggestion of rot makes it seem like it'll still be in the same area to me. Rot is a very "Pebbles thing" at this point, even though other iterators may have gotten it before too. I feel they'd need to come up with a new twist on it if they wanted to explore it with another iterator.

Quotes are from the Steam DLC page description by the way: [link to page]

[spookyforestcryptid]

I'm so excited about the watcher dlc!!

Nightcat's back yall! He's real!

He will always be nightcat to me. Im not calling him watcher lmao

Throwback to the time me and @moistrodent took a 'which slugcat are you quiz' and I got Survivor, and they got Nightcat, and I said "I have a better campaign than you haha"...

Gonna work on a comic of nightcat finally returing and the main scugs throwing him a party

Whenever I drew an artpiece with all the slugcats, I included nightcat because I KNEW /j

[run3helldump]

Suprise! It's not Run 3. Recently, one of my favorite games of all time (AKA rain world) had its seventh anniversary, so I felt that I should draw something for it. (Also nightcat is finally real)

[cheddar-inq]

gourmand dark au design real ????

finally finished this one !! survivor and saint are next, i might throw some slugpups in there for fun and maybe nightcat/inv

any pronouns

hes very kind, understanding, and welcoming, rarely taking offense to anything

she loves helping out when they can, and are really good at calming the other scugs down if they start arguing or getting worked up about something

im taking my friend's idea on this, where the more food he eats, the more they glow, but the slower they gets she can technically eat as much as he wants, but as mentioned, the more food they eat the slower they'll become, although the glow is helpful

more food equals brighter glow but more food also equals slower movement

they love sharing and enjoy finding new foods to show his friends !!!!

[viirium]

congrats to nightcat rainworld for finally becoming A Real Boy

[justdealingwithsomeissues]

Oh man... Nightcat... This sure is a thing...

So when they made Dazzler, it was actually at the request of a music label who wanted to create an animated film based around a real life singer, and then crossover with Marvel, but the whole thing fell through in the end, and instead we got the Dazzler we know today...

Well they kinda tried the same thing with Nightcat in the 90s, and this time they did actually make an album (you can listen to it here on youtube.) The album is ok... a kinda pop affair... I actually own the single from this, “#1 house rule”, on Vinyl as a fun little conversation piece.

Since I have a feeling a good chunk of you are just now learning about this here, you can guess that the character wasn’t exactly a break out success and didn’t really go anywhere. I think she only has 3 appearances and one is in a Year in review book (and the other is as a background character in a damage control book.)

Another fun fact about this is that Nightcat’s real persona, Jacqueline Tavarez, is a real person, and she didn’t do much past this (and it is rumored she wasn’t even the singing voice on the album, just the model for the character.) She did, however, do one more movie after the Nightcat situation, a Troma film called Tromeo and Juliet, where she appeared topless... and a final fun fact, the writer of Tromeo and Juliet was James Gunn, of Guardians of the Galaxy fame.

[mondofunnybooks]

'THANOS'S GRANDAUGHTER: GO SUCK EGGS GRANDPA!' DEPT.

'The title means exactly what the words say: NAKED Lunch - a frozen moment where everyone sees exactly what is on the end of every fork.'

-William Burroughs, from the foreword notes for the novel 'Naked Lunch'.

THE GATEKEEPERS!

As may not possibly surprise you lot, we've run afoul of some of the more humourless elements of fandom in our time. This is probably down to the fact that we don't take superhero comics very seriously but are utterly enamoured of some of the more sillier elements of history. True story. We were once told off by a man in Green Lantern fangroup (We were bored.) because we thought that the origin of Kyle Rayner is so nakedly Freudian and 'Will this do?' to be hilarious.

To recap:

On a planet called Oa exists a race of short, bald humanoids with large heads called The Guardians. The Guardians believe in enforcing Order in the universe and go about this by way of selecting the most suitable candidate (called a Green Lantern.) of each sector of the universe to be given a power ring that does whatever the wearer can imagine. This ring had no effect on anything yellow due to a necessary flaw in the design to stop the wearer from having absolute power. Also, it has to be recharged every 24 hours.

Our sector of the universe is 2814, and of the 7200 Lanterns patrolling the universe at any given time, ours was a chap called Hal Jordan. Very strong-willed, very daring. Hal got the ring off an alien called Abin Sur who was on his way to give either him or a ginger bloke with a Moe haircut called Guy. Hal happened to be closer than Guy, so got the ring.

Hal Jordan went onto be a successful Green Lantern for several years but things went terribly wrong when a big yellow space tyrant called Mongul, teaming with a cyborg pretending to be Superman destroyed Hal's home of Coast City, murdering tens of thousands of people and left Hal shattered, feeling he'd failed in his duty as Earth's protector.

The loss of everything Hal cared about sent him insane, and he attempted to resurrect his destroyed home using the power ring, but he could only achieve a replica of what he'd lost and the ring wasn't designed to create that much matter for a presumably infinite period of time. His perceived second failure cemented his full breakdown, and he went on a murderous rampage in order to gather as many Green Lantern rings as possible on the way to returning to Oa is seize the original Green Lantern ring. Things go quite wrong as Hal murders the entire Lantern Corp and all but one of the Guardians: Ganthet.

Ganthet, a wee blue fella cosplaying as Orko off the He-Man cartoons pegs it back to Earth. Once there, he floats to L.A., sees a drunk bloke taking a piss against a wall and gives him the final power ring before sodding off, exclaiming 'The Ring will sort you, mate. No worries.'

A BLUE SPACE MIDGET IN A RED DRESS GIVES A DRUNK LAD ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL WEAPONS IN THE UNIVERSE AND THEN FUCKS OFF IS THE ORIGIN OF KYLE RAYNER, GREEN LANTERN OF EARTH.*

This would be weird as a 1960's comic but at least the DC Editors of the '60s had no idea any of this stuff would be reprinted and pored (Hi, Donald.) over by future generations. Supergirl is having a relationship with a fella who turns into her horse but she doesn't know about it? Fine. There's a space creature from the fifth dimension who has a real thing for winding up Superman every ninety days and can only be stopped by tricking him into saying his name backwards? Gotcha. Batman owns a dog who fights crime but wears a mask on patrol so no one will link Ace The Bat-Hound with Bruce Wayne. Of COURSE. Beppo The Super-Monkey? PRINT IT! Who will care in five years? Who will even remember, right?

Green Lantern 50 (2nd series, 1994) was published post Watchmen, post Dark Knight Returns, post Brat Pack and all of the other silly 'Corporate Superheroes Can Be For Adults' malarkey. We were now aware of subtext, metaphor, aspirational text and either this is a daft attempt at being a mature comic (which given it features a nervous breakdown, genocide, the total psychological breakdown of one of the icons of the DCU and the first example of 'Fridging' quite soon after, it ought to be.) or it's a very bad attempt at pitching a superhero comic at the kids.

The real answer was of course that DC were trying to get attention back they'd lost to the Marvel Superstar period and subsequent formation of Image. Superman grew a mullet, Batman needed a wheelchair and was replaced with a religious nutter wearing Vatican levels of gold, Wonder Woman was replaced with a giant legged redhead, The Flash broke his leg. It was all kicking off.

But we always found the whole Kyle thing hilarious, and when making our usual jokes about it ('Good thing Ganthet didn't run into Richard Pryor!', etc.) we were scolded. It turns out the story had been rewritten a bit as part of something called Green Lantern: Rebirth so it made a bit more sense. Lord knows some of our best friends are comic fans, but when they start quoting the continuity of a DC comic with capitals like they WERE reciting THE Bible and Geoff Johns DID make it GOOD, we get a bit scared.

All that was a recap of 5 comics. (Green Lantern 47-50 and Superman 80) and was almost impossible to recap straight. When we tried to give a factual, chronological accounting of these comics, we weren't capable of throwing in a few puns. And circa 1989-1993, nor were the staff of Marvel Year In Review.

When people try to contemplate the early 90's and Marvel, they think of Spider-Man 1, X-Force 1, X-Men 1. If you narrow the field down to Marvel Magazines, probably the movie adaptations, poster specials and most likely the BEAUTIFUL Marvel Illustrated Swimsuit Editions. Few will remember the spectacular Marvel Year In Review annuals. That's a shame, because with one notable exception* it was the last time they displayed an ability to take the mick out of themselves beside the better issues of John Byrne's run on She-Hulk or the comedy title 'What The--?!' (also canceled, sadly in 1993.).

Marvel Year In Review, in theory, was probably originally designed to be exactly that: A chronological overview of every comic published by Marvel over the previous 12 months. That sounds simple enough but can you imagine being the poor saps who not only have to read all those comics but attempt to sum them up as a factual synopsis. The work and time we just put into four issues of Green Lantern was murder and at least interesting things happened in those books. 'Hey, Dwight here's all of Acts Of Vengeance to work out, and see if you can explain what a Captain Universe is and why Spidey might become possessed by his powers, there's a pie in it for you. Barry, you got Atlantis Attacks.' Interns were probably diving out of the window at the sight of editor Bobbie Chase approaching them with a stack of Alpha Flight.

So rather than put out another dry, just the facts ma'am comic to sit along Marvel Age, The Offical Handbook Of The Marvel Universe or Marvel Preview, they changed gears. Marvel opted for a magazine format with covers emulating the likes of Time and later National Lampoon and sadly unnoticed New York-centric mag Spy. The early issues provided something of a review of the year but in journalistic form for some of the bigger events juxtaposed with pieces on 'Best and Worst Dressed' and ads for products like Damage Control, who would sort out your house if it'd been trashed in a fight between The Hulk and The Wrecker, a tourist ad for Latveria, posters for the new Simon Williams film or a flyer for the next Dazzler disco compilation. Long before Alex Ross painted every last rock on Ben Grimm's back, Marvel TYIR gave you an insight into what it would be like to be a resident of the Marvel Universe reading a 616 style issue of National Lampoon.

MYIR also ran interviews with various superheroes, (Including Rick Jones recounting the time he met Elvis, by far the best thing to come out of Infinity Gauntlet/War/Crusade.) a review of Nightcat's debut album, an appetite suppressant for Galactus, the 'Who Died This Year, Who Came Back From The Dead and Who Managed To Stay Dead' update, an expose of Genosha's tourist, a create your own 90's superhero name and origin generator (which turned out to be surprisingly accurate.) an account of two disenfranchised rival employees's visit to the Marvel Offices and ooh, loads more.

This is speculation on our part, but the knife gets a lot sharper around the 1992-1993 editions. The full chronology is written with a weary black humour of someone's who just seen too much and is getting bitter. The full-on assault on the 1993 annuals, certain top-tier artists 'showing their influences too clearly' and inadvertently predicting the future of more brutal and uncaring superhero comics in the article 'Bring On The Bad Guys' from MYIR 1993.

There's a huge shift in attitude and editorial policy in the next 12 months. Several publishers have gone bust, Tom Defalco is gone as Editor In Chief and replaced with 5 people in charge of various parts of the publishing line, turning Marvel into a series of little fiefdoms with varying degrees of co-operation between each other. We've just met Peter Parker's robot parents. Aunt May is about to die. Reed Richards is dead. Jim Wilson is dead. Legion resolves to kill Magneto. Dr Strange has an idea for something called 'The Secret Defenders'. Everything is about to get very serious and therefore far more ripe for parody.

And with no word, no goodbye from the editors, nothing in the fan press nor explanation, Marvel Year In Review 1994 was solicited thusly:

'Marvel Year In Review 1994 - Just the facts, ma'am. Gone is the tongue-in-cheek humor of the past; the Marvel Year in Review offers a factual recap of the major Marvel Universe events of 1994. It's short on lengthy text and long on splashy art and fact-filled sidebars. Included are all the happenings from the pages of X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Ghost Rider, plus art by Andy Kubert, Chris Bachalo, Tom Lyle and many others! $2:95. $4.00 CAN'

And it was. Normal comic size. No chatty opener from the editor with puns and gags. No angry letters from readers just wanting to know what happened in X-Force and wanting to be rid of the MODAM jokes. No ads. Not even, truth be told, much in the way of recaps so much as trade dress-less cover repros with dialogue quotes and a paragraph or two to cover the essential plot elements, finished with the most perfunctory 'Er, will this do?' appeal to the readers on the last page. Turns out that no, it wouldn't do at all, as there was no Marvel Year In Review 1995 or any other edition either.

Marvel has put out a few self-parody books since, such as Marvel RIOT!, House Of Hem, Marvel WHAT Now?, Who Won't Wear The Shield, Wha HUH? and obviously Deadpool crosses the lines frequently, but there's not been something that clever nor ambitious since. Perhaps the line between reader, writer and editor aren't as clear as they used to be or simply today's audience wouldn't be as immediately familiar with the formats being parodied and as the recent attempts to parody Marvel fanfiction have shown, sometimes an idea just belongs to its time. As a magazine that featured fun work by the likes of Todd McFarlane, Dan Slott, Sam Kieth, Peter David,  Kevin Maguire and a different angle on a world that takes itself a little bit seriously at times, Marvel Year In Review was a fun little ride while it lasted.

(Note to self. Never, ever look up Marvel fanfiction again. Ever.)

*This may be different now but was certainly the case in 1994. Origins, histories and such might have changed due to 52, Convergence and Rebirth. We were told that Flashpoint was the end of the DC Universe as we knew it, and we took that as a good place to stop reading. Except Section Eight and Batman/Elmer Fudd obviously.

Dedicated to the memory of Steve Ditko.(1927-2018)

[lazarus-hope-project]

Dame Da Ne | Renee | s02e05 | RE: Atsuko, Jackpot, Dan, NIGHTCAT

The honeyed venom of Atsuko, willing to see the worst in Renee and assuming malice. NIGHTCAT keeping her calm, and simply wanting the truth. And Dan and Jackpot, cutting to the heart of the matter- that there was a real chance they were witnessing Renee Vidal's final moments. What voting for her would mean. The murderous elephant in the room.

"Atsuko is right- I didn't confess right away. But let me ask you this- If I had confessed from the word go, if I told you right away it was a terrible accident, would you have believed me? No, you would have called it a cynical ploy for me to try and beg for my own life."

"I had to go through the motions exactly long enough for you all to conclude yourselves that it was an accident. I didn't think it would be believed unless it came from the mouth of another."

She then looks to NIGHTCAT. After a brief pause, she begins her explanation.

"You all more or less have the right of it. I was in the barn with Kisuke. He was keeping me company while I was taking care of the goats- it's something I've been doing regularly to keep busy. While I was carrying that bag of feed," She mimes holding a heavy bag in front of herself, keeping a straight face.

"While I was carrying it, one of the goats- I had named her Abigail, the one I placed the pink ribbon around- she had run under my legs in the blind spot created by the bag, and I tripped over her."

"...Into Kisuke, who hobbled and tripped over the bucket, and that caused a chain reaction. He fell chest first into a pitchfork that had been knocked over in the mess. My screaming for help was what Aria heard."

"Kisuke was worried I was going to injure myself or die from the repeated shocks. Or he realized the wound was fatal before I did. He tried to calm me down. Said he'd do his best to move to the shed, citing it as 'more sanitary'. I was in a panic. I believed him. I believed there was a slim chance I could save him. Even if it meant touching... touching blood. I thought I'd be... strong enough."

She pinches the bridge of her nose having imagined the blood in her head, and takes a deep breath.

"The list of supplies he dictated seemed legit enough at the time. I think he was vague on some things on purpose, and put some more obscure things for the sake of keeping me down in the first aid room as long as possible."

"But hindsight is 20/20 I suppose."

"Regardless, I didn't see anyone on the way to the First Aid room, or on the way back. And in my panic, my mindset was that the longer I took trying to find someone who could help, the longer Kisuke was bleeding out and the slimmer his odds of survival were. Because I legitimately thought he had a chance. That's why I didn't bother cleaning up after myself, or disposing of the list more thoroughly. Or covering my tracks. Because in my head he was going to live."

"When I returned, I saw Kisuke on the ground dead already, and the pitchfork next to him. Even without seeing the full extent of the bloodshed, I realized if it was pulled out he was dead. It being stuck in there was likely the only thing that kept him alive that long. Presumably Kisuke pulled it out. That would explain the handprint gripping it in a reverse grip, and so close to the prongs of the pitchfork, wouldn't it?  Or it had slid out while I was gone. I can only guess that he wrong 'UTA' on the floor as well, his hands were bloody, remember? Regardless, I fled and hid until the announcement."

She's a bit shocked When Dan declares her intention to abstain. She's not unappreciative, but she also understands where the poor girl is coming from.

"Dan!.... Dan, dear... I... I'm glad that you feel that way. But I'm asking you to consider the situation."

"Yes, if I am voted for as the killer, I will be executed just like Bo was. Even if in a sane court of law this would be considered manslaughter. But if the killer 'failing' is punished in such a way, what do you think happens when the majority fails? What happens if you refuse to vote and someone is executed in my stead? What happens if you all are executed instead of me?"

"You remember the motive before this one, dear. You saw what Clara Futura threatened us all with. What happens if they target people outside of this ship?"

"This isn't about me anymore. Sentinel never promised any type of escape clause. Even if I live, I'm still stuck here, and others once again get hurt because of me."

"When something goes wrong on set, or when a production crashes and burns, the director takes responsibility. This is more dire, but the point stands."

"I care about you all, truly. It would pain me if anything happened to you and it was my fault. Maybe I'm being thick-headed. Maybe I'm being selfish. But... but..."

Her face is calm, but her hands are once again shaking.

[lazarus-hope-project]

17, 18, 19% || NIGHTCAT☆ ||| body reaction

Awakening in a place other than her bed, NIGHTCAT rubs her eyes at the commotion she feels around her, the spaceship was lively in its own way but it had never been because a body was discovered, it’s not exactly the first thing someone expects when waking up, either. She stares at the message blankly momentarily, blinking.

She reads the notification, once, twice, thrice and it finally explodes on her face.

She gets up quickly and scrambles to the designated location with firm steps, her mind racing with a million thoughts, all grim in nature. She picks up the pace the closer she gets, practically sprinting by the end.

Even with her face mask on, the smell is prominent, it manages to get past it and hit her nostrils, filling her with a sense of dread. Reality begins to weigh her down, her legs start to feel weak, her heart begins thumping. It’s real.

It feels like someone or something shrieks on her ear, ground rumbling. She takes a deep breath, even with the smell hitting her still, she does. Calming down. Sentinel’s words manage to go through the buzzing in her head.

Ah… She has to do something, she has to help. Or they’ll all be in danger, judging by the sound of it, CF really was rotten to the core. In her spite for the organization, she finds shelter from her own nerves, she has to help. At least a little bit.

Gripping her CF device, she nods to herself. If nothing else, she should support these people, she tells herself, just like always, she’s a background character but she can still put in work.