#turned out it was even weirder to buy a book

[confused-book-noises]

One time I was at a bookstore and I was feeling ✨dizzy✨(read: about to pass out), and I leaned on a table for a second and almost knocked down an entire book display.

I managed to only knock down two of the books, and ungracefully put them back while making eye contact with the employee who was there.

[rhaenin-time]

The thing is I can really empathize with Jace because somehow I came out paler than either of my parents which led to me getting asked if I was adopted or if my dad was my stepdad and it got me so paranoid that I saved to buy a dna test to see if I'd be matched online with my dad's cousin who had taken it and while it did kill my paranoia I also wasted $99 and now the Mormons own my dna for their quest to legitimize themselves by buying all the native dna data they can so they can 'prove' that the Book of Mormon was correct and that natives are all indeed a tribe that left Israel for the real promised land before turning to darkness and being cursed with red skin.

And that's why you shouldn't question the biological parentage of children. I can only imagine the even weirder shit kids had to do before dna tests.

[malaierba]

Helloooo, KaraNozo lesbians anyone?

Ingredients for this recipe:

"She was doomed from the start" character trope, but be frustrated enough about it to want to force a character to join forces with the doomed person to change that.

DunMesh "girl brings back girl from a seemingly dead end through forbidden forces" brainrot

This beautiful, beautiful Karako from the witchy HesoWars set:

So the way the story would go is:

Nozomi and Karako meet in magic school, back when Karako was still quite shy (like 18!Karamatsu) and Nozomi hadn't found anything that would fuel her magic beyond basic spells. They're paired up together in potions and hit it off... Eventually. I think they'd both be very curious about the other, but would struggle at first to really strike conversation.

It'd be a very soft friendship, where Nozomi encourages Karako to try all the things she feels too self conscious to try (magic sports and magical chorus being the main ones), and in turn Karako happily helps Nozomi with odd little quests, like helping her talk to someone new, finding odd books in parts of the library they shouldn't be in, tailing rare magical creatures (like bird watching, but make it AU relevant) which usually lands them in weird places and leads to even weirder adventures.

During one of those adventures trying to find a lake monster or something equally rare, they accidentally run into a mischievous Kappa. Nozomi's first impulse is to simply ask him if he could help them find it, to which the Kappa tells them to ask his Destiny Oracle. The Kappa unrolls the parchment in front of Nozomi and tells her that if she writes her name and asks a question, the paper will tell her when that event will happen, if it's in her destiny to happen.

Nozomi only gets as far as to write her name, when the paper provides a date. The Kappa laughs and sinks back into the lake, leaving the girls with a paper with a date that's about 10 years away. Karako gets a bad feeling, and grabs Nozomi to drag her back to the school, weird paper in her other hand.

Back at the school they learn from a trusted teacher that the Destiny Oracle only serves one purpose: to disclose the date of death of a given human. It's not 100% accurate, since sometimes people die earlier, but they never outlive the date on the paper.

Obviously no one wants to be burdened with the knowledge of their expiry date. Nozomi takes it quite hard, and Karako quickly finds that nothing she says can cheer her up. Logically. She doesn't even believe half of the things she's telling her after all.

So she recruits Ichiko so she'll help her try to find a loophole, which really ends up coming (accidentally) from Osoko who, upon learning the whole story, comments "well... that's human life to you. can't live forever"

Human lives. Human lives. The Destiny Oracle only works on humans, according to the teachers and all the reference books. So if Nozomi wasn't a human anymore, wouldn't that buy her some time?

Ichiko is quick to say, hold on a second, that's an assumption on your part — pretty much everything in the school's library is written from the POV of humans, by and for human witches, what if the author simply doesn't know the true scope of the oracle's power? But Karako is out of options, which means that so is Nozomi, so isn't it worth a shot?

Cue Karako running to Nozomi's room and hurriedly (and ever so slightly hysterically) explaining the likely loophole she's found. And she knows, she knows she's suggesting something insanely dangerous, forbidden, quite likely taboo, I mean, changing the nature of someone's soul? That's only ever been done by wizards who wished to defy nature, which is... Well. What Karako is ready to help Nozomi with, if she wants it too.

And Nozomi is scared, because she only has 10 years left, because the alternative is gambling with her soul, because she wishes she hadn't known what she now knows... But then again, what are the chances that they'll succeed? That two highschool girls will find a ritual that powerful in the first place? She looks at Karako's half hopeful, half desperate eyes, and decides that trying to keep her options open is a good use of her time for more. At least until the shock passes. At least until she can think of something better to do with her ten years.

The twist is, of course, that they do find something that looks like it may work. The moment they learn about Animagus (<- there's a link there that explains some stuff that helps the plot move along), Ichiko hyperfixates on it... for obvious reasons. She researches extensively the proper way to perform the Animagus ritual (which is complicated and needs to meet a whole bunch of precise criteria), and in doing so finds a lot of cases that detail all the things that can go wrong. As they often do, since it's a complex spell and all.

One of the things that can go wrong is that the nature of the soul of the person can be fundamentally altered. By the looks of it, it often happened either because the wizards messed with the potion by adding extra herbs or animal parts, or by making a mistake when reciting the charging spell, "Amato Animo Animato Animagus" (My love brings me life, I am obliged to become an animal wizard).

(When Ichiko catches the glint of interest in Karako's eyes, she promptly regrets infodumping about this sort of subject on her lol. Because the way the cogs started moving in that head of her are glaringly OBVIOUS, and no trying to backpedal, no trying to get her to promise not to do anything stupid seems to be enough to undo the damage. Serves her right for trying to cheer her up, or at least distract her, with something unrelated to Nozomi...)

Karako brings that information to Nozomi and they brainstorm around it for a few weeks. There's two things they can agree on: 1. For the modification to the Animagus ritual to have a higher chance of working, they should alter both the potion AND the chant, and 2. They must be altered in such a way that portrays, as clearly as possible, what their objective is. Which is to change the nature of Nozomi's soul, but preserve as much of Nozomi's essence as possible.

Nozomi suggests adding some Bakeneko fur, since that way they'd doubly ensure that she's able to switch from being human to being an animal. For the spell, Karako comes up with a simple adjustment: "Amato Animo Animato Anima", anima meaning "soul" in latin, so the spell now says I am to become an animal soul at the end.

By the time they're able to perform the ritual, which must be done under very, very specific circumstances (thunderstorm) 5 years have passed. I think that by now it's very obvious to the other sextuplets what Karako is doing, but she and Nozomi are also in so deep that it's pointless to try to stop them.

The ritual succeeds in that Nozomi does transform in a green-eyed cat by the end of it, and when she transforms back and tries to use the Destiny Oracle again, it simply replies "I can't tell", meaning that her soul probably DID change.

The ritual slightly backfires in that Nozomi starts behaving more like a Bakaneko, being drawn to mountains and wandering through them for hours at a time, avoiding humans and holy places, etc. Her human form also starts looking less human and more like an spectre that mixes human and cat features at random. But her soul, her kindness is still there, and when she talks with Karako late at night they can connect like they did all those years ago in the academy.

And that poses a huge problem, because Nozomi and Karako had promised that if they managed to buy Nozomi more time, they both would go to college and enrol in an undergrad in Magical Creatures together (definitely inspired by her love for creatures. and also, she just thinks dragos are cool lol). Nozomi can't get caught though, since what they did definitely counts as some sort of forbidden magic -- Nozomi's soul as of now is probably that of a type of chimera that's part human and part youkai, after all. As far as anyone knows she's probably immortal, and the youkai part is DEFINITELY growing more dominant with each day, a process that they should probably try to halt anyway.

As it turns out, after hours spent researching (this time with Choroko's extra aid too), they find that there's apparently only one way to turn an animal soul more human, and that is to make a contract so it becomes a witch's familiar. The souls would become entwined after that: the link would normally allow the familiar's soul enough humanity to be able to communicate and help their witch, the soul-link would mean that they'll always be aware of each other even while apart, and both magic's would become stronger.

Cue Karako becoming an anxious, flustered mess for days on end, because that sounds really intimate? that sounds super intimate, doesn't it? we're talking soul-linking here! and she's 100% giving this all sorts of meanings and shades that go beyond the strictly platonic because, okay, maybe it started that way, but she's now realising that maybe the affection that she has for Nozomi acquired some romantic shades along the way.

When she eventually manages to get herself together, enough to track down Nozomi in some mountain, and explain what they can do to keep their promise, and ask her to "agree to be her companion and entwine her soul with hers, ah, but strictly as friends if that's what she wants! she knows it sounds very romantic after all but it doesn't have to be like that, it's just weird in this instance since they've known each other for so long and Nozomi is Nozomi, not a random animal sprite, wait she's getting off track, let her try again--"

Nozomi's answer ends up being just a honest laugh, because Karako flustering herself and giving her thoughts away is a very Karako move of her, and honestly Nozomi already had a feeling that their bond had changed a bit, ever so slightly over the years. Or at least, she was aware of how her feelings morphed, and she had a hunch that it was the same for Karako, she just never dared to ask her directly since there were time concerns, and then "would she be accepting of someone that's now wholly human?" concerns.

All things considered, getting laughed at by the girl that had Karako being a willing accomplice in dark magic practices, all because she had a throughly uncool yet very candid moment, is... not the worst outcome. Far from it, really. It's enough to give Karako enough courage to grasp Nozomi's hand in hers, kneel down, and state while looking up at her, "I'm serious. I'll have you, if you'll have me".

And that's the story of how those two performed a second ritual that ended up with Nozomi becoming Karako's familiar, which allowed her to go to college and get a Phd in magical birds :-)

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

The discussion of Pixar and sequels tends to be a heated thing. Here's a list and some stats, showing the stark differences between last decade for the studio and this decade so far...

The 2010s:

7 sequels: TOY STORY 3, CARS 2, MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (prequel), FINDING DORY, CARS 3, INCREDIBLES 2, TOY STORY 4

4 originals: BRAVE, INSIDE OUT, THE GOOD DINOSAUR, COCO

The 2020s, so far:

3 sequels: LIGHTYEAR (spin-off), INSIDE OUT 2, TOY STORY 5

7 originals: ONWARD, SOUL, LUCA, TURNING RED, ELEMENTAL, ELIO, UNTITLED 2026 FILM (presumably original)

We're not even halfway through this decade, and it looks like the amount of original films made at the post-Lasseter Pixar already equals the amount of sequels they let out in the 2010s.

Also keep in mind, Pixar at one point were supposed to make a few non-sequels in the 2010s that got canned for various reasons.

There was an adaptation of William Joyce's THE LEAF MEN AND THE BRAVE, GOOD BUGS from director Chris Wedge, who was allowed to take the picture somewhere else after his work with 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky... So he took it to Pixar... LEAF MEN could've been the studio's first-ever adaptation of pre-existing source material. That was in 2008, and the movie - if it had gotten off the ground there - probably would've been completed around 2012/13. Fox then wanted it back, so Chris took LEAF MEN back and it was greenlit as a Blue Sky movie in 2009. The movie was released as EPIC in 2013. Because Disney would later buy Fox and Blue Sky, shuttering the latter, Disney owns EPIC.

Elsewhere in development was a Henry Selick collaboration called THE SHADOW KING, a stop-motion affair that John Lasseter micromanaged to death and it went over-budget, eventually getting canned by him and a then-new head of Disney's motion picture group in mid-2012. After about 50% of the film was complete, at that. All those sets and props, destroyed.

NEWT, from director Gary Rydstrom, was meant to start a whole line of lower-budget, quirkier Pixar pictures... But we all know what happened to that one. We were also supposed to get an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's THE GRAVEYARD BOOK at one point. Also, there was an edgier picture that was to be directed by Teddy Newton... So that's... What? Five non-sequel films that got canned? If those had all happened, in addition to BRAVE, INSIDE OUT, GOOD DINOSAUR, and COCO? The 2010s would've given us *nine* not-sequel Pixar movies.

We really need a tell-all book on Lasseter's days of being Pixar's CCO. There were all these weird attempts at expanding (a line of smaller movies + possible live-action projects), but then a lot of it flat-lined and we got a ton of sequels. The whole parade of those movies was largely due to the fact that Pixar couldn't make any sequels prior to being owned by The Walt Disney Company. I always love to remind folks that Disney's original contract that Pixar signed mandated NO SEQUELS... but with TOY STORY 2 being the exception, for various circumstances, which Disney head Michael Eisner still wouldn't count as part of their picture deal, much to the chagrin of then-Pixar owner Steve Jobs. It was one of my sources of their ongoing rift in the early 2000s... Then once they were bought in 2006, the sequels all came flowing out, like someone had taken a wrecking ball to a dam.

Pete Docter, current CCO, isn't like Lasseter. He hasn't canned a ton of projects nor battled with directors til they left their projects. ELIO is probably the toughest production that's happened under his watch, but that's still being made by its original director. All it got was a nice long delay so they could figure out its perceived story issues.

So there are five years left to go. TOY STORY 5 is the only other sequel on the horizon, the rest will probably be originals with maybe one other sequel at the very least. That's pretty cool. Maybe a book adaptation, too. I still like the idea of Pixar making smaller, weirder movies too - hope they can resurrect that idea under Docter, because in this climate? Expecting $200m-costing ELEMENTAL and ELIO to pull massive box office numbers out of a hat just like that? Nah.

[marvelmaniac715]

This is part seventeen of my Chucky transferring his soul into a human at the end of Seed au. This fic is shorter, like part ten, but I really wanted to write it anyway. As always, until the twins are 14 they’ll be referred to as he/him and she/her respectively, and in this fic both twins are five. 

————————————————————-

Why couldn’t Tiffany come to this instead? Chucky had begged and pleaded with her, but she couldn’t find a way out of work, so he had to give up his Saturday morning to attend a kids’ ballet class that his kid had begged to come to. The minute he said goodbye to the kid and sat down with the other parents his stomach filled with dread. He was the only father there, the other people sat in the waiting area were all middle aged women- most sporting a blonde bob. As Chucky mentally weighed up the pros and cons of abandoning his child at the class and retreating home, one of the mothers spoke to him.

“It’s so nice of you to babysit your kid and come to the ballet class, is your wife busy or…”

She thought he was single, just because he was watching his kid. He’d always found the idea of fathers ‘babysitting’ their kids to be slightly odd, because he was just doing his job as a father, it wasn’t really anything to congratulate, and he’d tried to worm his way out of it. But instead of acknowledging that, he decided to just shut any thoughts that he was single right down, so he told her:

“My wife’s an actress- Jennifer Tilly, maybe you heard of her? So I’m looking after the little gremlins today- one of them at least, the other one’s at a play date with a friend because the teacher banned them from this class due to emotional distress my child caused. Poor woman, I hope she’s getting some therapy with the money I had to pay her…”

There was a chorus of awkward laughter from the assembled mothers, and Chucky felt even weirder. At least he’d now made it clear that he was off the market, but what would happen next? He didn’t have to wait long to find out, because another mother politely asked:

“When did you enrol your daughter? I thought that the stores were all out of the specific tutus that this class requires? A friend of mine tried to book a place for her daughter and couldn’t because she couldn’t find the right tutu.”

Chucky shrugged and responded:

“I didn’t need to buy a tutu on account of the fact that the child I enrolled was a boy, my daughter’s been banned by the teacher, remember?”

Palpable shock waves ripples throughout the room. Noticing the shock his words had produced, Chucky raised an eyebrow and asked:

“Is this the wrong building? I was told that both girls and boys were accepted at this ballet class, and my son’s been so excited to dance like the ballerinas he saw in Swan Lake last Christmas.”

This silenced many of the women, but one brave mother sneered:

“Is it really a good idea to have a boy in the same changing rooms as the girls?”

Chucky was getting angry now, why was it so wrong that Glen wanted to learn ballet?

“Well, I’m sure something will be worked out by the teacher, especially since I gave her a heads up and she’s taught male students before. And if you’re worried about my son being a Peeping Tom, my wife- a terrifying woman who I love very much, and my Spartan warrior of a daughter have both put the fear of God in my son about messing with women. My kid wouldn’t hurt a fly, he’s probably scared of flies hurting him, so there’s nothing to worry about there.”

The woman still looked concerned, so Chucky smirked and politely enquired:

“Didn’t your daughter get five detentions in a row for biting multiple classmates?”

The woman turned bright red.

“W-what’s that got to do with anything?”

Chucky tried to appear innocent, despite the smug grin that threatened to appear on his face, and simply said:

“Oh, nothing. I’m simply saying that you’ve no place to judge other people’s parenting decisions, instead I think you should think about your own.”

This kept all of the mothers in the waiting area silent for the rest of the class, in fear that their own parenting would be called out. And when Glen skipped out of that class at the end and began rambling about all the fun things that had happened, Chucky felt a lot better about his decision to take Glen to this ballet class.

[bianmao]

Catwoman during the Silver Age of comic books

Reading list + reviews

#1 Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane (November 1958)

- issue 70: "The Catwoman's Black Magic!"

- issue 71: "Bad Luck for a Black Super-Cat!"

After Catwoman's success in Batman '66 she finally makes her official return to the comic books continuity... and with style, as she defeats and traps none other than Superman while meeting Lois Lane, one of her future best friends, for the first time.

We can consider this the first appearance of Silver Age (so Earth-One) Selina Kyle and the fact that we see her cat-costume slightly changed, with a bodysuit instead of a dress, foreshadows Selina's biggest trait during this era: Silver Age Selina will drastically change her catsuit a lot of times before coming back to her traditional garments during the following Bronze Age. Very interestingly, this is the first time Catwoman appears in a non Batman-centric comic book title or story giving her more space to show what her real "super power" is: her wit. With her brains she manages to fool and capture the Man of Steel himself, turning him into a cat and trapping him insite a kryptonyte cage... she does the same to Lois, turning her into a mice, after hypnotizing her to try and frame the Daily Planet's reporter as the real Catwoman.

Along with Selina's cleverness, sense of humor and love for big cats, another thing we see coming back in this issue is her wide range of cat-gadgets with a few new additions. A brand new location for her iconic lair, the Catacomb, appears too: a cat-shaped formation on a mountain, also reachable through the Kitty Car's autopilot feature that we see here for the first time. Knockout bombs, hypnotic jewels and legendary magic wands coming straight out of Homer's most famous poem, the Odyssey, aside, Selina shows us her catarangs for the first time, claiming them to be even more dangerous than their better known counterparts, batarangs.

Although Selina in the Silver Age has a much more villainous presence compared to any other version of her character (for instance, Selina today would never experiment on animals like she does in this issue) I like how empowering she is for women, even all these years ago, not only having male henchmen at her beck and call but also outsmarting and even using the likes of not only Superman but Penguin, who is best known for his cunning, too.

#2 Batman Kellogg's Special (1966): "The Catwoman's Catnapping Caper!"

This is one out of a series of six different short comic book one-shot stories that could be found inside Kellogg's Pop-Tarts as gifts after buying each box.

There's not much to say about the plot... it's basically a remake (rather a summary) of Batman issue 39, "A Christmas Tale!" but I'm happy they decided to remake an old issue in which Catwoman stopped one of her goons from killing Batman.

[- Action Comics (December 1966) issue 344: "Superman's Nightmare Dreams!"

- Detective Comics (June 1967) issue 364: "The Curious Case of the Crime-less Clues!"

Before moving on I wanted to at least mention a couple of Catwoman cameos between 1966 and 1967. In particular, the second one, although it's just a statue and not the real Catwoman, gives us a glimpse of how Catwoman's costume is going to evolve soon...]

[World's Finest Comics (September 1967) issue 169: "The Supergirl-Batgirl Plot - Clash of the Super-Teams!"

In this issue Supergirl and Batgirl, jealous of their "men"-counterparts' much bigger popularity, decide to team up to replace Superman and Batman as the greatest heroes.

Okay so... what about Catwoman?

Well, Supergirl and Batgirl planning something like this? It sure feels a bit off... that's because Supergirl is actually Black Flame in disguise while it was Catwoman who was hiding behind Batgirl's mask, betrayed by her beautiful green eyes.

The story gets even weirder when we realize that there was still more to unmask: in the end it was all a trick by Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptlk but, at least, we got to see Selina's cute purple dress with her green cape one last time in a while.]

#3 - Detective Comics (November 1967) issue 369: "Batgirl Breaks Up the Dynamic Duo"

- Batman (December 1967) issue 197: "Catwoman Sets Her Claws for Batman!"

After briefly appearing in Detective Comics to give us a glimpse of her next "plan", Catwoman returns on stage in a new catsuit that strongly resembles the Batman '66 one... but green, and claims to have finally reformed, having now become a hero even Batman and Robin can count on. She calls this new version of herself "Now Look Catwoman" but is this big change sincere?

As I already mentioned, Silver Age Selina is the less heroic version of the character in history and in this story she is driven by possessiveness towards Batman and jealousy towards Batgirl but with this brand new suit she wanted to at least be seen as a hero just like Batman and a better partner for him than Batgirl. When she realizes that becoming a hero still isn't enough to have Batman fall in love with her she starts to become more and more threatening. Although this Catwoman is very far from the idea that we have of the character today I really love, once again, thinking about how special it is for a woman this early in comic book history to be so independent and free to be unconventionally self-centered and evil: in a moment in time in which most women in comics were written either as mere love interests, as sidekicks, as damsels in distress or as idealized heroic figures, someone like Catwoman still feels like a breath of fresh air.

#4 Batman: The Silver Age dailies and Sundays Vol. 1 (1966-1967)

This book collects short Batman stories published as comic strips in newspapers during the Silver Age and this story in particular was published from May to July in 1966. The plot feels just like watching a Batman '66 episode with the same characters, tropes and campiness.

It's still interesting because it gives us the name of her cat (Cleo) and the names of two of her henchmen (Tomcat and Fraidy) and, although she is a full-on villain in this one, threatening to kill Batman and Robin, we see once again how truly smart she is planning her evasion and her vendetta all by herself.

#5 Batman (May 1968) issue 201: "Batman's Gangland Guardians!"

Although Catwoman doesn't have a big presence in this issue I still couldn't wait to talk about this appearance because some modern writers nowadays *cough* Tom King *cough* are somehow trying to convince us Catwoman used to frequently team up with the rogue's gallery: after almost 30 years of Catwoman working alone, at times even opposing other rogues like Joker and Penguin, we see her teaming up with the all the other villains in Gotham... why? To save Batman's life.

A west coast crime syndicate is trying to settle down in Gotham City after killing the Batman and Penguin, afraid they might refuse to coexist and start going after Gotham's criminals next, calls every rogue in Gotham to oppose that and save Batman from death.

Very ironic how the first time Selina decides to team up with other villains is for a noble (well... the effects at least) cause.

#6 Batman (February 1969) issue 208: "The Women in Batman's Life!"

Mrs. Chilton, sef-proclaimed most important woman in Batman's life, reminisces of all the other women who impacted Batman's life: she mentions in chronological order Julie Madison, Linda Page, Vicki Vale, Kathy Kane, Kaye Daye and even Dick's aunt Harriet... then again Patricia Powell, Marcia Monroe, Poison Ivy and lastly Barbara Gordon. Of course Catwoman is in the list too, right after Julie, remembered in her first ever appearance in Batman issue 1, when she became a hero working undercover in Batman issue 62 and when she eventually came back being a villain in Detective Comics issue 203.

Today things are very different for most of the characters mentioned above and their relationship with Batman... but as for Selina? Batman's relationship with Catwoman is still the second oldest and the most relevant one to this day.

#7 Batman (March 1969) 210: "The Case of the Purr-loined Pearl!"

No doubt one of my favorite pre-Crisis Catwoman comic books, Batman issue 210 introduces Selina Kyle in a brand new catsuit (probably inspired by Harvey Comics' Black Cat) but still ambitious and smart as ever.

While Batman and Robin notice that Catwoman has been laying low ever since she came out of jail for over a month, wondering if they should stay vigilant or assuming she's going straight, Selina (with the help of her cat Slinky) invites a group of eight inmates at the Women's House of Detention outside Gotham City at her new "Selina Slenderizing Salon" to receive a V.I.P. service for free on the day of their release from prison. Big Barbara, Florid Flo, Light Laura, Leapin' Lena, Sultry Sarah, Timid Trixie and two more unnamed women that will later become Catwoman's Feline Furies deduce that the one who called them must have been Selina Kyle, the Catwoman, and after attacking her, eight versus one, to show her they don't need her as a leader, Selina quickly overpowers the whole group and begins training them to look and act just like her. Her motivation is payback, to take revenge on the reason they all went astray and ended up in jail: men.

Once again, this issue shows Batman going easy on Catwoman, no matter how evil her schemes might be and the Kitty Car also makes a quick appearance. We also see Catwoman using a pair of her iconic Cat-Goggles for the first time and learn her prison number: 102860.

#8 Adventure Comics (April 1972) issues 418 and 419: "Black Canary: Circle of Doom"

Black Canary finds a job at the Women's Resistance League and starts working for them as a judo teacher for their members. Why? Because they are "tired of being dominated by male strength". Once their training is completed, however, Dinah gets abducted by Bertha Kane, Marcy and the rest of the women-only League they belong to. While stunned, she hears about their secret "Leader" and about a certain plan to break "her" free. After reading the previous issue we analyzed: Batman #210, we can already have an idea on who this secret "Leader" might be...

That's right, their Leader is actually Catwoman, wearing her old purple suit while being transferred a maximum security prison escorted by two police officers (one of them named Hill). To Selina's displeasure Dinah successfully takes the whole group down so the infamous Catwoman can safely reach her destination and stay there... not for long!

#9 Wonder Woman (August 1972)

- Issue 201: "The Fist of Flame"

- Issue 202: "Fangs of Fire"

So early in comic book history and Catwoman has already appeared in a Superman-related series and now we see her making an appearance in Wonder Woman, meeting, fighting and working with Diana Prince, side by side.

While taking a flight to Tibet to find the "Fist of Flame": a mysterious ruby with magical powers she needs to find her ally Jonny Double, Diana sees a woman so pretty she is sure to have seen her somewhere else before... if only she knew that woman was none other than the infamous Catwoman, looking for the same gemstone! When they meet again in the presence of the ruby the thief successfully lays her hands on what she had been looking for, however, taken aback by its powerful hypnotic powers, Catwoman is knocked out and taken away with Diana by the cultists that were watching over it. To atone for the "sin" of simply touching the Fist of Flame Diana and Selina are given swords and are forced to fight to death suspended above a pit of flames. Although Selina always preferred fighting unarmed, or with just a whip at most, it's nice to see she has no problem wielding swords even this early in her character's history... also because this won't be the last time we see her being well-versed with swords! Also it's interesting how Selina, once again, says to be against killing when the circumstances allow it. Anyways, Diana finds a way to save both of them from that horrible fate and, out of gratitude, Selina decides to help Diana in her quest rather than keeping the gemstone for herself. No matter if during the most heroic or villainous moments in her life, Selina always feels in debt whenever anybody does something good for her. So, Catwoman tells the group she previously hired Johnny Double to find the Fist of Flame so she could steal it and, also, reveals to already have an idea about who the culprit might be: I-Ching's daughter, Lu Shan but before they can can do anything about it the magical gemstone teleports them to the world of Nehwon, where they get acquainted with Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, the main characters of a series of stories written by Fritz Leiber. In particular, Selina seems to get along very well with the Grey Mouser and they team up as soon as the two groups reach an agreement as they realize that the Flame Fist has a counterpart: the Eye of the Ocean, a sapphire with similar magical powers in the hands of Lu Shan. They eventually manage to succeed and get back home with Jonny Double while trapping Lu Shan in Nehwon. Although Selina doesn't have much depth, I think this issue still does her justice in several ways.

#10 Batman: The Silver Age dailies and Sundays Vol. 3 (1969-1972)

This third volume collects all the Batman comic strips published in newspapers during the Silver Age between 1969 and 1972. In these strips, Catwoman appears roughly between February and September 1971, when #batman's rogue's gallery sets up crimes based on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. As for Selina, there is a callback to "Claws of the Catwoman!", a story from Batman issue 42 in which, for the first time, Selina was inspired by Alice's Cheshire Cat for one of her crimes and, just like in "Claws of the Catwoman!", Selina leaves Hecate behind with Batman to help him escape. Thanks to Catwoman's indirect help, Batman and Batgirl manage to save their own lives and overpower all the other villains... while letting Catwoman go. Robin, Batgirl and even Batman wonder if that was out of gratitude or out of the same thing that made Catwoman try to save his life.

#11 Batman (June 1974) issue 256: "Catwoman's Circus Caper!"

Robin hears of a murder case at the Tip-Top Circus, one very similar to the one that took his parents away from him. Worried, Batman joins the investigation, and, after beating her henchmen and noticing how her helpers' strength is declining with time, he soon realizes that the beautiful tiger-tamer, who started working at that very circus only one month earlier, Nelias, is actually Selina Kyle, the Catwoman. As she stops the albino tigers she caged Batman and Robin with from attacking them she reveals her schemes to the Caped Crusader: she is planning to "steal" those priceless tigers to free them from captivity in which they are forced to perform to amuse the circus' audience, something very true to her character, one of the most iconic traits that still define her to this day. One of Batman and Catwoman's iconic chases follows and I have to say I really love the writing here: by the way they speak to each other you could say they have known each other for a very long time and have shared some kind of intimacy. Since Catwoman appeared on the scene Robin started being suspicious of her but Batman knew she was innocent of murder all along... even if she indirectly caused it: the culprit was nonother than the victim's brother, jealous of Nelias' attentions towards the brother he took the life of, committing the oldest crime of them all, the crime of Cain.

#12 Batman (August 1975) issue 266: "The Curious Case of the Catwoman's Coincidences!"

In this issue Batman and Catwoman are caught up in a whirlwind of coincidences while playing their usual cat and (winged) mouse game.

Everything starts with a foreteller warning Bruce Wayne about the fortuitous events awaiting him in his short future while they are on board of a train which is also transporting a group of prisoners to the State Prison. A repented Selina Kyle, the Catwoman, is traveling among them but, unlike her usual self who would have had an escape plan ready, this time she is just hoping to square herself with the law by serving her sentence in prison... but everything happening after said train accidentally derails shows how something in the Universe thought it wasn't time for the Catwoman to exit the scene just yet: one of her former criminal accomplices, Rudy Stern helpe Selina to escape from the trainwreck, asking her to come back leading the criminal underworld as the Catwoman. As Rudy tries to kiss her during the escape, Selina pulls out her claws once again to remind him and us readers of who she really is, agreeing to wear back her Catwoman costume and guide them just like the old times. On the Bruce front I think it's mandatory to mention how, right after the accident, changing into Batman, he lets Selina escape because he acknowledges how she is no killer, contrary to the other criminals present on the train with her.

A little more than 20 issues prior to this one we saw the first appearance of the legendary Matches Malone (Batman issue 242) but we all know that was hardly the only non-Batman mask Bruce has ever worn. For instance, in this issue, Bruce crossdresses as a wealthy texan woman, Mrs. Bertha Carrington-Bridgewater, right after hearing about a wave of jewel robberies to lure the culprits into a trap by showing off her jewels at the Gotham Plaza Hotel. The plan succeds as two of the crooks working under the Catwoman's lead, Weasel and Jeremiah Jimson, overhear and report the news to their leader who then sends her trained (and well-known) cat Hecate, that we find out being a siamese cat in this very issue.

So, when Batman sees Hecate carrying jewels and approaching a van, knowing the cat must have been trained to always come back to her mistress, he decides to follow said van which leads the Caped Crusader to the Catwoman's new lair, although she manages to escape once again thanks to her henchmen and a pair of ocelots attacking him, but it's still Hecate who inadvertently causes her mistress' capture.

This is also the first time Batman faces Catwoman alone, without Robin's help!

#13 The Joker (October 1976) issue 9: "The Cat and the Clown"

Unknowingly, the Catwoman and the Joker set their eyes on the same targets at the same time: Benny Springer, an actor who plays a clown in his last movie produced at Mammoth Motion Picture Studios, and his cat and co-star Hiawatha, the "Million Dollar Kitty". Joker enters the scene impersonating the actor but Catwoman beats him to the punch, pretending to be a script-girl interested in the still unreleased "The Cat and the Clown" movie, stunning him and kidnapping both actors. This makes Joker add Catwoman to his list of targets, so he finds, kidnaps and tortures one of her goons, Mouth Madigan, to get information about Catwoman's location. Meanwhile, at Catwoman's secret lair, despite Spots the leopard's assistance, Benny Springer manages to escape, although leaving his friend Hiawatha behind. Unexpectedly, Batman makes an appearance too, trying to save the remaining hostage, but, as always, he ends up sharing a kiss with Catwoman... unfortunately that wasn't really Batman but Joker in disguise. Things get even more complicated as a second Joker appears. The two Jokers begin to fight to prove who the real one is until Catwoman gets the idea to use Hiawatha to identify his owner, planning to stun who she believes being Benny Springer with a laser beam shoot from her Cat's-Paw. Unfortunately the actor was always a step ahead of everyone, calling the police and bringing the two criminals to justice. I think it's worth noticing how it's implied that while Joker is taken to the Arkham Hospital, Catwoman is sent to an ordinary jail.

#14 Batman Family (December 1976) issue 8: "The Copycatgirl Capers!"

A new cat steps out into the spotlight, calling herself Catgirl, but cats are territorial creatures and Catwoman knows well there's not enough room for two criminals using cats as the motif for their larcenies. It is mainly Robin who will take care of Catgirl while Catwoman is simply trying not to let the young criminal steal her heist away. Little she knows that Batman is closer than she thinks, undercover as one of her henchmen, waiting for the right moment to stop her, a moment that later comes at the Kit-Kat Klub, an iconic location in Catwoman comic book history that first appears in "The Case of the Purr-loined Pearl!" story in Batman (1940) issue 210 (although it was called the "Kitty Kat Klub" back there), soon after Robin successfully unmasks Catgirl finding out that she was Joker's daughter, Duela Dent, all along.

Selina doesn't have a lot of screentime in this story but this won't be the last time we see her being annoyed whenever a copycat enters the scene.

#15 The Brave and the Bold (December 1976) issue 131: "Batman and Wonder Woman: Take 7 Steps to... Wipe-Out!"

In this issue the Brave and the Bold are Batman and Wonder Woman, teaming up to stop Catwoman from smuggling the blueprint of the most complicated cryptographic machine ever created (known as "Peter Rabbit") split in seven parts, out of the United States. However Catwoman proves herself to be extremely resourceful, constantly outsmarting the heroes by anticipating each and every one of their moves, we even see her snatch Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth right from her hands, repeatedly fool the heroic duo into believing where to find one of the blueprint's pieces and placing a bomb in its place, fake her own death in order to make her plan go smoothly and a lot more. In the end, even if Batman and Wonder Woman timely manage to understand the Catwoman's plot, retrieving the last piece of the blueprint, Catwoman still managed to slip once again from Batman's fingers. In this story Catwoman placed her hideout in the "Felidae Foundation" private building, "felidae" being the scientific family name of all felines, and, as her usual, she is once again helped by big cats in her heist: two jaguars, one of them melanistic, and a tiger. The problem here is she uses her big cats to kill, something she never did before. This caused a non insignificant backlash on the readers' side: Catwoman fans flooded The Brave and the Bold's mailbox with complaints about not only her odd characterization, but also the choice to have her wear again the blue suit outfit we see here for the last time. The fans were so loud and the inconsitency was so big that they thought it was necessary to design a specific Earth to place this issue's universe on: Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover Index calls it Earth B.

Selina's characterization wasn't the only poorly written element in this story though. Did you spot that "Selena", spelled with an "e"? Ugh...

☆ - Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder (September 1968)

- The New Adventures of Batman (February 1977)

In the meantime an animated Catwoman was appearing on TV, even after Batman '66 was concluded, in a series known as The Batman/Superman Hour. Jane Webb was Catwoman's first voice actress in history, voicing her in Batman with Robin the Boy Wonder, while Melendy Britt voiced her in The New Adventures of Batman.

Catwoman appeared in the following episodes:

BATMAN WITH ROBIN THE BOY WONDER:

- Episode 4: "The Nine Lives of Batman"

- Episode 5: "Bubi, Bubi, Who's Got the Ruby?"

- Episode 7: "Partners in Peril"

- Episode 10: "A Game of Cat and Mouse"

- Episode 11: "Will the Real Robin Please Stand Up"

- Episode 12: "Simon the Pieman"

- Episode 13: "From Catwoman with Love"

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BATMAN:

- Episode 3: "Trouble Identity"

- Episode 12: "Curses! Oiled Again!"

- Episode 14: "Have An Evil Day (Part 1)"

- Episode 15: "Have An Evil Day (Part 2)"

#16 Batman (September 1977) issue 291: "The Testimony of the Catwoman!" (part one of the "Where Were You on the Night Batman Was Killed?" storyline: Batman (1940) issues 291, 292, 293 and 294)

Batman is missing and it looks like he's dead.

The news crosses every corner of the american criminal underworld but how exactly that happened or who killed him still isn't clear and a thousand of contradictory rumors and stories are floating around: everyone claims they were the one who killed the Batman. To find out what really happened, the biggest names in crime meet up in Gotham, at the estate of colonel Jake Van Cleeve, also known as "The Claw", a Gotham mobster, to hold a trial. Ra's al Ghul is the judge while the prosecutor is, of course, Harvey Dent, the infamous Two Face. The Riddler, Lex Luthor and the Joker all claim they were responsible for Batman's death but the Catwoman is the first one who testifies in court in widow's weeds, claiming to know how things really went down and accusing herself of having been the cause of Batman's demise.

Now, of course Batman isn't dead and they are all lying about it, so I'm not really sure about how much of Catwoman's testimony is real but she says she recently assumed the identity of Madame Claudine, a celebrated couturière who just moved to Gotham City. She made it look like it was a way to start anew after reforming, leaving her Catwoman persona behind, but it was actually all part of a heist, then disrupted by the Batman. According to what Catwoman testifies, Batman died by drowning when the Batmobile and Catwoman's stolen car both ended up in a river down a gorge and, to save herself, her cats, Hecate and Bongo, her baby jaguar, and her loot, she keeps Batman from holding onto the floating wooden cage that was carrying them... except the brazilian pepper wood the cage was made of couldn't have floated. This inconsistency is what makes Two Face prove that Catwoman is not guilty.

I find it very funny how no villain actually believed Catwoman could have been the culprit ever since she was called to testify because, other than being in love with him, everyone knows she never kills. Even Two Face remarks that in the end (also, by the way, ⚠️SPOILER⚠️ Two Face here is actually Batman in disguise). In this issue we also learn the name of another one of her crooks: Cody, and we see Selina's car too: an ordinary purple car and not the Kitty Car, for the first time.

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 5/5

Book Blurb: Your ride is arriving soon... This wouldn’t be the first time Nolan has been ditched by his coworkers, but it is the first time his rideshare, an actual Griffin, is the witness to it.Reid is also the hottest guy Nolan has ever laid eyes on. So why would he turn down Reid’s offer to show him the city from an entirely new height?He wouldn’t. But while spending the entire night together, they glossed over one crucial detail.Nolan’s only in the city to present his father’s hotel to the shareholders. The same hotel that will be built atop a block of local businesses, including Reid’s.They have one week.One week in which they should be enemies, but Nolan can’t get his mind off Reid.One week in which Reid will do anything to keep his restaurant, but can he keep Nolan at the end of it all, too?

Review:

When your rideshare is a griffin rather than a car things get weird, but what’s even weirder is said griffin is actually a very handsome and charming guy who ends up taking you on the best date of your life.... and to throw in the mix your family business is the one hell bent on shutting said griffin dude’s restaurant down... oops. Nolan hates his job, he’s constantly seen as a disappointment by his dad and wishes he could just escape. One day while being almost late to a company meeting he see’s that theres a rideshare option from a griffin and takes it.... and said griffin is named Reid who just happens to be handsome as hell. When Nolan’s meeting is cancelled, Reid offers to take him out to his favorite places because Nolan’s only in town for a week, and what starts off as just a bite to eat turns into something more as they spend more and more time together. Yet when they both discover that Nolan’s father is the one trying to buy out Reid’s small restaurant things get complicated. Both Reid and Nolan can’t stop thinking about each other but with both their jobs on the line and only one week to sort out the feelings between them, can they really make it work? This was such a sweet and cute read, I adored how much Reid and Nolan cared for each other. Their romance was so sweet!! Seriously this was such a cute book and I can’t wait to read more from this author!!

*Thank you Lana Kole for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[talenlee]

Cancon 2023 Wrapup

Cancon 2023 Wrapup

As I write this, I have gotten home from Cancon 2023. The day started at around 7 AM, then started on the con floor at 8:30, and following that we had to pack down at 12:30 and finally got ourselves on the road at 1:30. It’s now many hours later than that and much of my time has been spent recovering from the drive and the weekend of standing on my two feet and shouting at people a lot. What follows is memories constructed, as best I can, from the notes I took of the time, and the information present to me now.

First things first, this is a convention that differs from most I do by being so far away from my home that I have to sleep near the event. This year, we got lodgings in someone’s spare room, with myself, Fox, and the driver who took us. That driver, who I won’t name on this blog so as to not blow up their spot, was super helpful the whole time, didn’t have to be there and was generally 100% great. I do not know how to repay them the effort they put forth to help us get the convention run.

But anyway, we drove down on Friday morning; this gave us time to get to the convention centre, register our presence, then set up our table area and the display of our goods. Our displays this year featured three 3-meter long tables arranged in a L shape, and we had some card tables as well, that put some of our stock out away from us, and meant that you didn’t have to approach us as people to look at the products we were selling. I thought this was a bad idea because I thought our most useful tool for converting attention to sales was me, talking to people, but I also didn’t think it was good to argue about it, so I just let it go.

Turns out I was completely wrong: By having the table there, we invited people to stop from the flow of traffic, then I saw them slip in closer to avoid being an impediment, then they’d come to the table and just… buy things. Just buy them! No explanation, no hard sell, no rules explainers, just… they’d buy them based on the boxes.

That’s weird enough as it is, but know what made it weirder? The things they chose to buy. There are a bunch of games I sell that are, in my opinion, aggressively weird. Some of our games have a great clear aesthetic that pulls the eye – games like You Can’t Win, Hook Line & Sinker, and The Botch and The Botch Is Back are all based around clear and bright designs that I think hold attention. But Winston’s Archive is a game I made with an incredible niche theme: Sorting books. What’s more, Winston’s Archive is a game where, thanks to trying to incorporate dysexic-free fonts, the cover kind of looks a bit… drafty? Like a first draft. Like the things that would normally make it look more interesting make it harder to read, so the result is a box cover that I feel a little awkward about.

We have one copy of Winston’s Archive left.

I have no story about it, no viral hit, no explanation from some source about a game that infected a group and then they all came back to play it more. I have no story about that. I just know that somehow, left to their own devices, a bunch of people looked at this game box and went ‘oh yeah, I’ll have that for $15’ and they just straight up bought it. That’s really exciting!

Another memorable thing is that on the first day, I wore my This Shirt Says Trans Rights shirt. I did this because I figured it’d be the busiest day and if I was going to get into a fuss over it, I’d rather get it over and done with. What I got instead was a consistent response from strangers, even people I walked past, complimenting the shirt, which was really nice. What’s more, I wound up having a lot of conversations with queer gamers and parents of queer gamers who wanted to be able to connect to people, and also get games that didn’t seem they were going to be likely to shock anyone with anything upsetting.

It reminded me of that awkward phrase I don’t like, ‘find your tribe,’ where the whole point in our disconnected landscape of socially unmoored people-bubbles, there are definitely factors that let us anchor ourselves to one another, and bereft of anything else, finding one another is helpful, it’s a way to be able to say ‘I can connect on at least this.’

We sold a bunch of Queer Coding too; a game that I think of as just an icebreaker, something you want for cons and meetups where you’ll be dealing with people you don’t know. Similarly, Senpai Notice Me flew off the shelves, but it always does: people love a meme and this one is also very pretty. Finally, You Can’t Win continued its weird presence selling itself, because despite the game being very clear about how hard it is, people kept buying it.

The other thing I usually bring back from Cancon, aside from stories of people I yelled at and a sore throat, is a haul of games I bought, and this year I didn’t buy any. It was a conscious decision: I was busy, and afraid of spending money at first, but then as things became more relaxed, and the large stall I was excited by dropped their prices more and more, I found myself nonetheless deciding to instead not buy new games this year. This wasn’t a wholly painless choice: What I wanted to ‘buy’ effectively, was more space in my house; by not buying new things until I had exhausted what I owned, I was making sure I didn’t have an ever-growing stack of games I didn’t know if I wanted any more.

There are a few things I kind of wish I had picked up, but not enough to have actually done it; Red Rising was down to $20, B’Twixt: A Game Of Thrones is a game I want to have a copy of but not a Game of Thrones copy, and that’s all we have so far. Wise Guys, a $100 big box game, was going for $10 and I passed it over, and I even saw games on my wishlist – like Not Alone and Fog Of Love at steep discount, and decided to not get them.

I am thinking about this feeling, this decision to do things this way and about how excited I was to see how many of the games I took to the Bring-And-Buy had sold. I want to make sure I’m not focusing on acquisition and instead on what board games are; Experiences.

The last story of Cancon – at least for now, as I remember it – is of my Tyranids. I have some Tyranids, a whole army’s worth, from 2004. I have played with them once, and then they sat in a drawer, in a box. I decided this year to try and rehome them, to put them in the bring-and-buy and sell them on to someone else. Since it’s a whole army, it’s expensive, and people interested in the field have told me it’s a good price for them… but also someone needs to want to buy a whole army’s worth of Tyranids, even retro metal ones.

They didn’t sell, but I’m not upset about it. I want them to go to someone who wants them, not someone who was afraid of missing out. We’ll try again at MOAB and maybe if they don’t move after enough tries, we’ll find some other place to put them. Who knows, maybe the spaces for play will have opened up enough that I get to play with them. I know One Page Rules is a cool looking system with something Tyraniddy in it. Could be useful there!

But this is the joy of material games: They are material. I can share them with people and I can give them away and nobody controls the central authority on how people play with them.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Diary

[anandapublishers]

Buy Old Bengali Books Online, Ananda Publishers All Book List

Singularity is almost invariably a clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more difficult is it to bring it home.

It was six thirty in the evening. A taxi from Kolkata approached the mansion of the Neogis, the former zamindars of Baikuntthapur and halted before the gate. A stranger got out from the automobile. Upon disembarking, he was escorted to Soumya Shekhar Neogi, who was relaxing in his chair and enjoying the breeze. The latter wore thick glasses and was about to turn seventy.

Soumya Sekhar questioned, ‘Are you Rudrasekhar?’ The man sat down and gave Soumya Sekhar his passport. The latter gave it a short glance and returned it back. His cousin brother Rudrasekhar was someone he had never met before. Soumya's uncle had permanently left home twenty -seven years back. Soumya was drifting way back in his retrospection. He started revealing to Rudra that his uncle had not brought his son along when he later returned to their home in Baikuntthapur, suggesting that there may have been some conflict between the two men. The abrupt entrance of the elderly butler Jagadish ended Soumyasekhar's reminiscence. … ‘What is it, Jagdish?’ Thumri, the last of the fox terriers, had passed away, and Jagadish, with tears in his eyes imparted the news to his master. Its body was found in the bamboo jungle.

How might Thumri have perished? Was it murdered? Why would anyone murder an old pet? Pradosh Chandra Mitter (Mitra) alias Feluda must find out!  

Talent recognises brilliance right away, while mediocrity knows nothing greater than itself. Life is far weirder than anything the human mind can conceive of.

Samaresh Bose's novel Bibar was a milestone in the literary career of its creator. The novel added a fresh perspective to the Bengali writing. Bibar is one of the most critically acclaimed work of the author. According to the late author Santosh Kumar Ghosh, the work is one of the top ten Bengali titles. However, many readers and critics have stated that it is crude or indecent. It goes without saying that such ferocious disagreements can only be sparked by a piece of art that is in every way innovative, daring, compelling. In fact, it is. An entirely different tale about the destiny of a protestant who in the backdrop of crisis tormented humanity chooses to leave the security of traditional beliefs. This novel cannot be assessed using the conventional criteria because it is well ahead of its time.

Visit the official website of Ananda Publishers, www.anandapub.in  and download the ananda publishers all book list. If you buy old Bengali books online, do look for the Ananda classics.

[meandmyechoes]

since there's no serial star wars until august and it's a series i'm not sure i can sit through i'm gonna turn this into sentai brainrot.

i like kingoh this much i've watched every episode at least three times and trying to piece together all the information. i love rita so much i'm planning kingoh FLT and dissecting their costume and sewn a plush and possibly will buy a toy during its run

now i'm just racing to finish kingoh brainrot before May 4 so I can concentrate on Visions vol 2. After Sixth debut I probably had to put things on hold for real to do school work. I hope.

it's plot-heavy and serial unlike your typical sentai but almost typically anime/shonen with a heavy fantasy setting and character designs. but do you need more reason than 'rita kanisuka' to watch it. and the tokusatsu action/direction is so good.

practically:

i started a toku sideblog @mofffun anyway so i will be free-r over there. kinda wanna post opinions here and gifs over there lol. maybe polished gifsets here and random gifs over there. my queue is low in the tens but i certainly have many SW stock. i won't remove that completely just, not actively going for it? i'd still do regular tag searches on top of what came on my dashboard, but i might not write/talk about SW for a while? i still have a couple books to read

it feels weird because i became an SW centric blog since I came back 3 years ago. Not to say I didn't have other stuff chimed in but it's been 95% SW running non stop for 3 years. It's weird to have a sudden shift that stays. It's even weirder when you think when i first started this blog in 2012, it's as multifandom as you can get with 5 regular ones. so fuck it. i care about followers and feel a duty to provide? like an editor to a magazine? but probably just overthinking it. i won't force anyone to continue following if they are not into what i'm putting out. it feels weird but i'm just gonna talk about kingohger as much as i want to now. maybe change the blog description in a bit so that i don't feel disconnected. it's MY blog.

Talking about fixating on kingoh. I love the thrill of collecting clues and unraveling its plot. I love thinking again. I love that it gave me a reachable goal to work towards. Though half the time i'm just shouting RITA KAWAII/KAKKOUI i don't really pay attention to what's being said. It's been saccahrine the past 48 hours and i'm exhausted and elated. they got me crawling my ass up sunday at 8 to watch nitiasa live again.

compared with star wars it's just, ₻₻₻ (<- scribble). Mando s3 was a letdown and nobody cares about tbb. i can't stand how hype ppl are for the ahserka series and it feels like a minefield getting to know others with that hanging. sometimes i had to listen to ill-informed forum bros dissing, and when i look at official stuff, i begin to question who's actually keeping the lore.

it's not all negative. i still haven't done a totj!togruta analysis (even though i don't really want to think about totj itself because all it is to me is episode 5). i'm still super excited about SWC2025. i still love ahsoka (yes holding that throne against rita). I know I will be blown away by Visions as well. But I've been letting that define and govern me for too long it's time to let somebody else have a chance.

I'm crazy scared i won't be able to finish work this time. i'd hate that. i'm working the courage to tell my fam i need some space but, every time i actually said that, it's no use anyway. because i'm special. i'm responsible. what i do will never be enough.

i also try not to think to much about the society or where i will be in five years. it's like, some of the things i ultimately want can't happen unless you give it a few years of effort but i don't dare to dream that far. eh

well good thing ko let me think all that. i like thinking. i like writing.

[bomberqueen17]

hi welcome back

My disorganized-bitch policy of never unfollowing people who go inactive unless a spammer takes over their zombie account is paying off and i’m seeing some ancient blogs come back online and resume their activity now that Certain Events have Transpired in the Greater Context of Social Media so I just sorta wanna say hi and welcome back and listen

listen

shit is weird, and the only way we’re all gonna survive is if we stick together and get even weirder, so like

come on in, the water’s fine, I’m doing my part to keep it unhinged with ya. Shop local, buy small, we can’t activism our way out of this one but we can do good where we can, tip your server, etc. etc., but really above all else remember, be unmarketable-to and as weird as possible.

(My particular part in this nonsense is that I write shockingly-coherent but unreasonably long intertwined epics nominally based on the concept of Witcher fanfiction (netflix? book? video games? yes and no to all three) but by this point they’re mostly OCs. We’re not at a million words yet but not for want of trying. This is not a marketable or rational thing to do. But if you were wondering what I’ve been up to, that’s what I’ve been up to, since March of 2020 when I realized not all of us were getting out of this alive.)

Pull up a coping mechanism. Be nice. Get weird. Ignore celebrities. Dismiss influencers. Avoid algorithms. Turn off the “best stuff first” shit. Look up things your damn self. Reblog all the good stuff you find. Use the queue function or not. Embrace the cringe. Post some titties. (as an aside: i have only seen like one pair of titties since they announced that, are we dead inside or what? come on man. no, no, i’m there with you-- I’m not posting shit until i see something i can believe in. So, free the nipple but like, someone else go first.)

Anyway hi. Some of us are still here. 

Let’s get weirder.

[sluttypatrickstar]

why am i doing this why am i doing this why am i doing this

chapter two was the Exposition Dump chapter, beginning with the fact that sagan is a surprisingly healthy choice of boyfriend for honor because apparently she’s obsessed with dating dying boys after her first boyfriend turned out to have a brain tumour and died

what in the wattpad john green

what’s even weirder is the way that merit treats this as if honor is dating dead people. she describes honor as “bordering on necrophilia”, and then:

THESE BOYS ARE ILL BUT ALIVE AJD IM GONNA BE HONEST IT’S REALLY FUCKED UP THAT MERIT BASICALLY SEES THEM AS DEAD THE WHOLE TIME.

alright, so, more exposition about the voss family. family names include four year old brother moby voss, her other brother utah voss, and her father barnaby voss.

moby voss ............

merit lives with six other people in what used to be a church and – bear with me, because i’m kinda confused about this whole situation. basically, her family used to live behind the church, and the pastor (brian) got a really annoying dog who barked all night and kept merit’s dad barnaby awake and nothing he could do stopped this dog from barking. so when the church is in dire financial straits, barnaby... buys the church?

as a result, pastor brian resorts to preaching out of a barn (...i think) and constantly instructs the congregation to pray for barnaby and for the return of the church to the congregation. even though barnaby is an atheist, for some reason he doesn’t want to be prayed for so bad that he negotiates a deal with pastor brian to buy a cadillac:

i don’t understand any of this tbh

finally, the last two inhabitants of dollar voss (that is the name of their house) are victoria and victoria. yes, despite this being a work of fiction so she could’ve just named them different things, merit’s mother and merit’s stepmother are both named victoria. barnaby divorced victoria 1, who now lives in the basement, to marry victoria 2.

FUCK BARNABY VOSS, RIGHT?

and of course, of COURSE, merit and her siblings, instead of hating their dad who CHEATED ON THEIR CANCER RIDDEN MOTHER, hate victoria 2. ok. men truly get away with anything, and so does the author of this book

liveblogging the horrors: without merit by colleen hoover

this book is dedicated to one of her children and yet there is boob touching on the first page.

the first chapter is about the narrator merit. she’s skipping school at the thrift store when she feels this guy staring at her. instead of finding this monumentally creepy, because he’s staring so hard she can actually feel the weight of his gaze, she’s into it. he follows her to the town centre and she is SO into him and fully fantasising about them being together and imagining him as the perfect man. coho protagonists do the opposite of what any sane woman in reality would do/feel, which would be TO BE ALARMED

this guy drops some wattpad lines – “out of all the places we could be, we’re right here. at the same time” and “you bury me” – and then they, these absolute fucking strangers, PROCEED TO KISS

i know i have my text set super big, but her describing how perfect and magical this kiss goes on for another 3 or 4 of my big pages. cmon he’s a fucking stranger.

and then ...

he gets a phone call. he’s like, is this a prank? what’s going on?

brace yourself, because the narrator merit has an IDENTICAL TWIN SISTER CALLED HONOR, and this means

merit is embarrassed and like girl are you so for fucking real you just kissed a random stranger because he was so hot and stared at you and followed you and you’re only embarrassed because it’s your sister’s boyfriend...

honestly all of this is somehow dwarfed in cringe by the like which follows, which is:

“Sagan? Even his name is perfect.”

SAGAN ? LIKE CARL ? LIKE THE SPACE GUY ? GIRL BE SO FOR FUCKING REAL RIGHT NOW BE SO FOR FUCKING REAL OS THIS A FUCKING JOKE AM I Q FUCKINF JOKE TO COLLEEN HOOVER WHAT THE DUCK THIS IS ONE OD THE BEST SELLING AUTJORS IN THE WORLD AND THIS IS A LINE IN OKE OF HER FUCKING BOOKS SAGAN WHAT HE EUCKX

[bitchyfoxymama]

Coffee Shop Romance(Modern Day AU) - Benedict Bridgerton x F!Reader

Warnings: tooth rottening fluff yall

A/n: Ahhhh my first Bridgerton Fic and for my fav brother too!! I hope yall enjoy this one my loves!!

**********

Is it weird for me to come into a coffee shop every day at the same time so that I can see the cute cafe owner? Maybe. Is it weirder to come in every day and buy a coffee even though I know I really hate the taste of coffee? Definitely.  Will I fail in asking for his number, as I have for the last week? Most certainly. I continue my morning routine, like clockwork I walk to this little cafe down the street from my apartment.

 My best friend introduced me to this little shop one day when we were out shopping and it began to rain. We walked in and there he was in all his glory. A tall, handsome man with kind-looking blue eyes, brown hair, and a smile that could knock you on your feet. I was awestruck when we met eyes, I was on autopilot when we walked up to the counter to order. I ordered a coffee cream and 2 sugars. It wasn't until kate and I made it to a table and only then did I come out of the trance.

"You don't like coffee, why did you order that?” she asks.

"Haha, his beauty distracted me and I ordered something I never do” smiling and sipping my coffee, cringing when it goes down my throat.

Who would have known that one visit would change my life for the better?

“Ok Y/n, you are going to march in there and when you order your coffee, and when Benedict smiles at you, you are going to ask him for his number,” I say to myself as a little pep talk before I walk into the little coffee shop that’s owned by the cutest shop owner. I take another deep breath before going in and waiting in line. I pull out my phone and scroll through Instagram when I hear a distinct whistle. I look up and my eyes are met with beautiful blue eyes, a beautiful smile follows when our eyes meet. I walk up to the counter ignoring the stares I’m currently getting, forgetting to cut in line.

“Good morning Benedict, how is it so far?” I said, smiling slightly.

“Oh you know the usual, here is your cup of coffee, cream, and 2 sugars,” he says placing it down in front of me on the counter. I begin to pull out my money, but he stops me, “Your money's no good here, this one is on the house.” 

This is it, this is my chance to ask him for his number. I open my mouth to speak but nothing comes out, not even a squeak. I can feel a blush begin to creep up my face as I stand there in front of this beautiful man. I just smile once again and go to my usual seat and sip my coffee. The bitter liquid ran down my throat. I pull a book from my bag and pretend to read the book. The entire time that I sat at my little table Benedict and I made eye contact ever so often. 

I continue to absentmindedly flip through the book as thoughts of the gorgeous barista run through my head along with more ways to get his number. Should I use a dumb pickup line? No, that’ll be too weird, and ill probably mess up and make a fool of myself in front of all his customers. Do I just wait until tomorrow to try and ask him again? No, certainly not it has to be today. Do I just swallow my pride and go up there like a big girl and ask him? Hey, maybe I'll get lucky and ask him on a date! Nope, I am not prepared for that yet. I take a deep breath and take another sip of the coffee.

When I take my last sip of the bitter-tasting drink, I get up, and just as I am about to throw away my little paper cup I notice writing. It’s a group of numbers, these numbers form a phone number. Another blush creeps up on my face when I turn towards the counter and see Benedict standing there with a smile on his beautiful skin. His finger beckons me towards him and the feeling of butterflies and pounding in my chest makes me move my feet towards him.

“You come in here every day, order a single cup of coffee and sit in the same place. However, you don't like coffee. Why is that?” the handsome man asks me while he leans against the counter.

Once again I open my mouth to speak but not a sound leaves it. It's as if my vocal cords have been snipped at that very moment.

“If you ask me, I’d say it was because you want to come in here and see me?” he says after he’s leaned in close to my ear, his hot breath tickling my skin, igniting it like a forest fire. I’m sure at this point i'll become covered in flames of how hot my cheeks are burning.

I swallow, trying to ease my dry throat. I open my mouth this time the sound comes out. 

“You are right, I don’t like coffee, in fact, I hate it, but it gave me an excuse to come in every day just to see you,” I say looking up at him and staring into his light eyes. He smirks back. Aish this guy's duality is insane. 

“Well, how about you and I go on a date, I can treat you to something that doesn't involve coffee, how about we try that new dumpling place that opened up downtown? Then after we can come back here for dessert?” he says looking at me with sparkles in his eyes. 

“Yeah, I would really like that, I’ll call you later so we can set up a time,” I say, stepping back, mid-turn when he says something.

“By the way, you look really cute when you blush Y/n,” he says with a smirk in his voice. This guy I swear. I hurriedly walk from the cafe, his laugh is like music to my ears as the sounds follow me as I leave. Kate will never believe this when I tell her I finally got Benedict's number after a month of coming into the cafe.

[meetmymouth]

Miss Groupie on a DATE ON A DATE omg please check in on that situation because we all know Harry loves being petty and jealous

groupie fic masterlist

warnings: language, oral (m)

word count: 1.3k

She looks at her watch, then at the doors leading up to the toilets. Has he ran away, she thinks to herself, then laughs at how pathetic that sounds. Like it was a film. Then, there he is, jogging towards her with a beaming smile, his crooked teeth making her smile.

“Sorry,” he says, sitting down. “There was a line. A… queue, if you will.”

“You’re funny.”

He chuckles, “I’d like to think so. So, what are we thinking? I heard the smoked salmon is really good.”

“Sure… ah,” she thinks about her later plans. “Or, I’ll just have the sweet and sour chicken.”

“You sure?”

“Yup.”

He nods, then nods at the waiter. The food arrives, and it’s really good. James is funny, and makes her laugh at the smallest thing. Though, she notices, it might be because she’s heard all the silly jokes already from someone else. Someone who would be waiting for her at a luxurious hotel room.

Harry.

When James cuts into his salmon, she can’t help but watch his hands work the cutlery. What’s weird about is that she can’t help but think about Harry’s big, veiny hands and how soft and strong they are. It makes her weak, both in the knees and somewhere deep inside that she can’t quite figure out.

“What is it that you do again,” James cuts through her thoughts and asks, smiling down at her.

She pauses, a piece of chicken still in the hair. “Oh. Um– I’m sort of unemployed at the moment. Well, not really,” she looks down at her food. “I do translation stuff. Work from home and stuff.”

He nods. “Right. Does that earn you money, though?”

“Yes, it does,” she quips, brows furrowed.

“Right.”

“And you,” she nods at him. “You work in logistics, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.”

It seems weird, the atmosphere, and he doesn’t add anything else after that. They sit and eat quietly.

Then, it gets weirder.

James coughs into his napkin. “You’re not seeing anyone else at the moment, are you?” He asks. She raises her eyebrows.

“What?”

“Since you said okay to the date? Should I assume that? That… you’re single and not seeing anyone else?”

“I… we’re not actually together. I don’t get why you’re asking me that.”

“It was a simple question. I gather you’re seeing someone then.”

She swallows, letting go of her chopsticks. “I am not. Not in that way, at least.”

“Oh. Wow.”

“Wow?” She raises her eyebrows. “What’s that–“

Before she can continue, her phone goes off with a text.

They’re quiet after that, her texting back and forth occasionally as they eat. It’s rude, she knows it is, to be on your phone, though she can’t seem to let it go.

James thinks it, too.

“That your boyfriend, then?” He says, grinning at her in a wolf-like manner. She doesn’t like it one bit.

How can she even begin to tell this man that no, it’s not actually her boyfriend. It’s the manager of the person I fuck, she thinks. Pathetic.

“No,” she can only mumble. “Just a friend.”

“Does she know you’re on a date?”

“He. And yes, he knows,” she murmurs, reaching for her glass of water. She downs it in one go, wishing it was something stronger.

“Lovely.”

“Yeah.”

Well, that took a turn.

Just as she opens her mouth to ask something else, to make conversation, her phone goes off again, signalling yet another text from Jeff.

James and her share a look, and she knows their time has come to an end.

James smiles. “I’ll get the bill,” he says, nodding at a waiter passing by. “Thanks for coming tonight, I had a great time,” he says, though she knows he doesn’t mean it.

They leave, James giving her a kiss on the cheek, and she finds herself wandering the streets of Tampa. She gets hotdog, then buys herself a can of Redbull from a convenience store near the arena Harry's performing at, though she decides not to go in.

She finds a club, parties hard until three, and leaves alone.

Just as she's booking an Uber to the hotel, another text comes through.

Jeff: Are you back?

Miss Fabian: Back where?

Jeff: Hotel.

Miss Fabian: On my way.

Jeff: Hurry the fuck up.

Miss Fabian: ????? Excuse me, Jeffrey?

She takes another look at the text just as she's getting into the car. Harry. She knows it's him, because he's actually the biggest coward out there who keeps trying to communicate through his manager. She doesn't respond. Instead, watches the street lights get smaller and smaller as they drive.

She arrives at the hotel at nearly four, and is actually thankful Jeff comes down to get her so she doesn't have to wait at the lobby while they call everyone from Harry's team to ask if she's telling the truth about who she is and why she's here for.

Jeff nods at her, and they walk to the lift. "He's angry," he says, pushing the button for Harry's floor.

"Why?"

"I don't know, but he is."

"It's not like he's my babysitter."

He sighs, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "You two are making things so much harder for me. I'm not getting involved."

When they arrive at their floor, Jeff walks straight to where his room is as she walks towards Harry's. She has the key, so she gets in without any trouble, cringing at the smell of alcohol and weed.

He's in bed.

Naked. Hand on his cock, stroking himself slowly as he watches her take her coat and bag off.

"You look like a lunatic," she says, fingers already working the buttons on her shirt. "Did you get baked and wanked all night?"

Harry snorts, though his hand never stops moving. "I don't smoke while on tour. It was Alex."

"Hm."

"So, how was your date?"

Bingo.

She laughs, taking the last item of clothing off as she walks closer to bed, and gets on her hands and knees.

"I'm here now, aren't I?"

Harry bites his bottom lip as his thumb works the pink tip ever so slowly. "Late, but still."

"Don't make me angry."

"Yeah? We wouldn't want that now, would we?"

She doesn't say anything to that.

Instead, she swats his hand away and gets between his leg, then leans forward.

He's hard and leaking already, so she opens her mouth and takes him into her mouth, smiling with her eyes shut as he groans and tries to buck his hip. She licks underneath his cock, moaning around him when she feels the vein there, and swirls her tongue around the angry tip. The salty taste of him feels familiar to her taste buds, so she licks like she always does, takes him deeper and deeper until his hard cock touches the back of her throat.

Harry grunts, hands coming to rest on her hair. "Fuck," he murmurs, pulling the strands. "Such a cock slut, aren't you?"

When he cums, she takes all of it and swallows, moaning at the taste of him while Harry watches his cum drip down her chin with hazy eyes. With bitten lips, Harry shakes his head and chuckles, hand coming to rest on her neck as she tries to wipe her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Good girl."

"Your best groupie, right?" She tries, smiling down at him as he gets up and grabs the towel from the chair. He hands it to her.

"You're at least in my top three," he says, flicking her on the cheek.

"Oi. Bastard."

"Such a lovely mouth you've got there."

"Only the best for my sugar daddy."

"Yikes. Don't call me that," Harry says, getting his robe on as she wipes her face and chest.

"So," she says, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Will you take me to Disneyland and hold my hand on the rides tomorrow?"

Harry tuts, opening another bottle of water. "Miss Fabian," he says, watching her struggle to wear his dirty t-shirt from earlier. "Fuck off."

–

photo credit

[displacedcreativity]

There’s obviously a lot of chatter going on about Cruella and 101 Dalmatians and ooohhh my god errebody a lot of you don’t know the source material and I really. I really need to share a nut shelled version of the two novels (yes there’s TWO) because it’s absolutely wild from start to finish and it starts out innocent enough and then just escalates from there.  Copy pasting from my twitter thread cause as much as I love this roller coaster I don’t want to type it again HERE WE GO: To start in the original 101 Dalmatians novel, Mr. and Mrs. Dearly have that house because Mr. Dearly never has to pay taxes ever again and was gifted that house because he wiped out the government debt.  They also had two nannies - Nanny Cook and Nanny Butler. Pongo is still there, but the mother of his pups is a dalmatian named Missis.  Perdita is a dalmatian the family took in out of the rain as a 'wet nurse' to help feed the 15 puppies. Perdita apparently means lost. Cruella is also married to a furrier. Because of course.

  Perdita tells Pongo that she HAD puppies, by a dog named Prince, but her owner sold her puppies so she was out looking for them. After the puppies are stolen, and the Twilight bark reveals the location, Pongo and Missis TRY to tell the humans but fail cause they can't say S's.   Pongo and Missis go on the search for the puppies, and Perdita stays behind to watch the Dearly's. When they get to hell hall, there's 97 puppies and Cadpig is a runt and needs to be pulled along in a toy cart supplied by a 2 year old boy in order to escape. When the dogs get back to London, Cruella's PERSIAN CAT who wants revenge for the kittens Cruella drowned, lets them inside the house so the dogs can destroy Cruella's furs.  They return home and it turns out Perdita's puppies were the one's pulling Cadpig, Prince confirms! Since all the puppies were bought and paid for, and not stolen. No one is looking to get them back. Even Perdita's owner sells her to the Dearly's because fuck Perdita I guess smh. Cruella's cat is now HOMELESS because the destruction of the furs has forced Cruella to flee the country and put Hell Hall up for sale so the Dearly's adopt the cat as well. They then buy Hell Hall for their "Dalmatian Dynasty" with money earned by fixing another gov. debt.  They then adopt Prince because they see how much he still loves Perdita and Prince becomes dalmatian 101. TIME FOR BOOK 2. THE STARLIGHT BARKING. They're still living in Hell Hall and the Persian cats are married.  Cadpig now lives with the Prime Minister. Wholesome, right? Happy and cute what could the sequel to 101 Dalmatians possibly entail that's weirder than the first? MY FRIENDS. FAM. BUCKLE UP. The dogs awaken one morning to find out that not a single living thing aside from dogs can wake up. Doors, machines, etc all work on command and the dogs don't need to eat or drink or sleep.  Cadpig is now the acting PRIME MINISTER AND THE DOGS CAN COMMUNICATE VIA THOUGHT WAVES. They soon discover that they can 'swoosh' which is basically hovering over the ground at high speed. So, I mean, flying. They can basically fly. So Pongo and Missis SWOOSH to London with about 50 other dalmatians to meet with PRIME MINISTER CADPIG. But WAIT. Tommy, the kid from the first book, and the farm crew and the Persian cat from the first book are discovered to ALSO be awake because they were dubbed "honorary dogs" after helping the dalmatians in the first book. Because fuck the Dearly's I guess they're just PETS. The Persian cat thinks this is all Cruella's fault somehow so they pull together a team to go to Cruella's home to KILL HER. But she and her husband are both asleep like everyone else. She's now obsessed with metallic plastic and not furs. So they spare her life.  And then! A mysterious voice comes onto the t.v, alerting all dogs that they must all gather tonight by midnight under starlight. The Twilight bark and the TELEPATHY ensures all dogs get this message. Because of course. *INHALES BECAUSE NEXT PART IS A DOOZY.* All the dogs, including the honorary ones are gathered and waiting. Then! At Midnight! Euphoria! The terror! ....... As Sirius, the Lord of the Dog star appears and announces that he's lonely, and he wants to take all the dogs off Earth so they can avoid the future Nuclear War. But the dogs have to come willingly and in the morning he promises that the world will forget dogs every existed so they're not missed. Pongo is tasked with deciding the fate OF EVERY DOG ON EARTH.  Some stray dogs convince Pongo to say no to Sirius, because the decision to go would be unfair to any dog on Earth who is still hoping to find a loving family on Earth.  So Pongo says no, and Siris proud that the dogs are staying so loyal despite the promise of eternal bliss. Sirius lets all the dogs SWOOSH back home and of course they deduce he appeared everywhere in the world at once because he's a star and not bound by. Physics or something. Pongo gives one last message to Sirius saying dogs may leave one day, but for now they like being on Earth. Also in the second book. Lucky has a wife named Gay and they're secretaries to a poodle.  Patch refuses to marry because he doesn't want to pass down his eye spot.  Roly Poly teaches George, a boxer, how to swim and they bond over magical adventures in Paris. I PROMISE YOU nothing Disney makes with 101 Dalmatians can top the source material and honestly they’re cowards for not doing a perfect adaptation or the second book. (Apparently Disney wanted to do more things based on that author’s work when he was alive  and I’m sure he would have had he not died in 1966 since Starlight Barking came out in 1967. Just think, there’s probably a timeline where Starlight Barking is the first Disney animated sequel instead of Rescuers Down Under.)

[nightingaelic]

Companions reacting to the couriers birthday

Thanks for the lighthearted one, anon, lately I've been getting some super plot-heavy, game mechanics-heavy or just plain heavy requests, so a birthday is just what the doctor ordered 🎂 Also a happy birthday to @profess0rjam!

The courier had been acting a little strange. They slept in for once, something that had hardly happened since the mess at the dam. They seemed like they weren't paying attention to anything around them, even though Freeside was in rare form that day with caravan traders, pickpockets and children hunting rats all over the place. It wasn't until the courier tripped over a crate of barrel cactus fruit outside a farmer's trading stand and had to apologize by buying all of the bruised produce that their companion finally turned a questioning eye on them.

The courier looked down at the armful of fruit they had acquired and sighed. "Remember when we went through Primm last month? I stopped in at the Mojave Express branch there, and Johnson told me he got those records in from the Hub. Most of it was stuff I already knew- height, weight, eye color, hair color, shoe size for some reason... but they also had my birth date. It's today."

Arcade Gannon: "Whoa." Arcade straightened his glasses. "Uh... happy birthday. How do you feel?"

The courier looked from side to side and shrugged. "I don't know. I don't feel any different. Is that normal?"

"Um... yeah?" Arcade chuckled nervously. "I mean, you know you're a year older, but it's not like a switch gets turned on or off. You were still getting older even when you didn't know when your birthday was, Six."

"Yeah, but now it's... marked," the courier replied, wrinkling their nose. "Like when Mr. New Vegas talks about me on the radio. I feel weirder about his news bulletins than I do while I'm actually out doing the things he reports on."

"Well, you're alone on that one, Six," Arcade said with a hint of jealousy in his voice. "Not everyone can attract that DJ's attention the way you do. Then again, if I ever wind up on the radio, it probably won't be good news for me."

He patted the courier on the shoulder reassuringly. "Come on. Let's get rid of the cacti fruit and head to the Atomic Wrangler to celebrate. I'll buy you a drink."

Craig Boone: "Did their records tell you anything else?" Boone asked.

"Uh... no," the courier replied. "Well, a couple of things, actually. They kept track of most of my trips when they first hired me. I've been all over the place, apparently: Circle Junction, Fort Abandon, around the Big Circle a few times, even Utah. They also wrote down that I refused to tell them where I came from, so no new info there."

"Mmm-hm." Boone frowned. "It's a start, for sure. Maybe you can retrace your steps, someday."

"Yeah." The courier picked a piece of fruit and held it up, inspecting its color. "We should do something fun tonight. Celebrate."

Boone cracked a rare smile. "For your birthday? Sure."

"Want to go see a show at the Tops with me? I think the Lonesome Drifter is playing the Aces again. Maybe we can catch him after for a drink, ask him about his travels."

Boone moved to accept a few of the cactus fruit and lighten their load. "Sounds good to me."

Lily Bowen: "Well isn't that just grand," Lily said with a smile. "How old are you turning, dearie?"

The courier made a face and giggled. "How old are you, Lily?"

"A lady never reveals her age," Lily answered primly. "Point taken, pumpkin. You should walk that fruit home to the icebox while Grandma gets going on her shopping list."

"Shopping list?"

Lily nodded. "Of course. Flour, eggs, butter, sugar, and a few other things."

The courier gave her a sly look. "What are you up to, Lily?"

"It's your birthday, dearie!" Lily replied, seizing them and the fruit they were carrying in a hug. "We have to bake a cake!"

Raul Alfonso Tejada: Raul grinned. "Feliz cumpleaños, Six. Happy birthday."

The courier looked back at him with frustrated helplessness in their eyes. "What am I supposed to do with that information? What do people do for their birthdays?"

"Well, it's a bit different now than it used to be," Raul answered, scratching his bald head. "But back in my day, we threw a little party if we had the time and money. Some years were better than others, and some were bigger milestones. In my experience, once you got past 18 there wasn't much left to celebrate except staying alive for another year. Or if you were en los Estados Unidos, 21."

"Okay." The courier nodded, then kept nodding. "Okay. Can you do me a favor?"

"Sí."

They dumped the armful of fruit into his hands. "Take those to the Old Mormon Fort and pass them out to anyone who looks hungry. I need to track down some friends and see what they're doing tonight."

Rose of Sharon Cassidy: "It's your birthday?!?" Cass was positively beaming. "Well shit, Six. Could've told me sooner, and I'd have planned some kind of surprise."

"Eh-heh." The courier looked sheepish. "That's what I was afraid of."

"What?" Cass put her hands on her hips. "I didn't think my surprises were that bad."

"No, no, it's not that," the courier reassured her. "It's me. You know what I do, what I've been up to. I wasn't sure I'd... I have a lot of enemies, Cass!"

"Ohhhhh, I get it." Cass threw an arm around their shoulder and steered them through the Freeside marketplace. "You weren't sure you'd make it to today, so you didn't say anything. Gotcha."

"And I'd feel like crap if I told you my birthday was coming up, and then I bit the dust after you'd already bought me a present or something," the courier added.

"Pffft." Cass waved their concerns away. "I'd just give that present to myself, then. Don't let the ones gunning for you dictate how you live your life, Six. Now come on, let's pick out something new and shiny for your gun cabinet up in the Lucky 38. My treat."

Veronica Santangelo: "Six!" Veronica squealed and did a little dance. "Happy birthday! Oh my goodness, there's so much to do, we need to round everybody up, we need to go book a table at the Gourmand, we need to-"

She stopped when she caught the courier biting their lip. "Orrrr we could not do any of that. Whatever you like, it's your birthday."

"Can we just... I don't know." The courier shuffled their feet in the dust. "My life has been kind of crazy lately, and the people on the Strip won't leave me alone if I show my face in one of the casinos. I went up to the cocktail lounge in the Lucky 38 last night and pushed some tables together. I think we can fit everyone, even if the Securitrons will have to squeeze around us to serve drinks."

Veronica's smile returned. "Okay. Yeah, that'll work. But I don't know what kind of food House has in his pantry, nowadays."

The courier answered by holding the cactus fruit up. "This'll help."

"That's not nearly enough." Veronica looked around the marketplace. "Stay put. I'm going to go find some of those kids chasing rats. They'll probably help us carry some groceries back to the Lucky 38 for a few caps."

ED-E: The courier's eyebot bobbed and beeped quizzically, as if unfamiliar with the term.

"Um, how do I..." The courier wracked their brains. "Today is the anniversary of my... creation. My assembly."

ED-E blipped a few times in quick succession, surprised.

"No, no, that's not- no." The courier shook their head. "How do you know what that is, but not understand what a birthday is? Today is the day I came out of my mom, ED-E."

The eyebot blatted understanding and disgust, as if displeased with the mechanics of biology. The courier laughed. "Well, that's what it is. Yes, I know, humans are strange, and no, I don't know why it's important. It just is. Come on, let's go hand these out to those kids we saw earlier."

Rex: Rex cocked his head to the side, tongue lolling happily. A cactus fruit escaped the courier's arms and fell to the ground, but the cyberdog gently picked it up again and offered it to his companion.

The courier smiled down at him. "Thanks, Rex. Let's go see if the King has any more refugees in need of a meal."