#Admit Card 2017

[bandoseka-cards]

Imai Lisa (Roselia) Indispensable ★★★ (Untrained) Set: Don't Leave Me, Lisa!!!!

[riaarivic]

HIS - KNJ x F!reader: 1 Into you

💗Pairings idol!NamjoonxReader

💗 Genres idol!AU, Smut, Angst, Romance, Enemies to lovers

💗 Rating 18+ minors DNI

💗 Summary  Four years have passed since the last time you saw Kim Namjoon. But now he was right in front of you, with the same stupid warm smile that made your good judgment (and underwear) disappear without a trace. You haven't seen him for four years. But now here you were working for BTS again. Having to see his insufferably attractive face every day of your life again.

But there's something Namjoon doesn't know. The little girl with almond eyes and dimples in her smile clinging to his ex-girlfriend's hip, not only looked too much like him. But she was… His.

💗  Warnings for the series: Unplanned pregnancy (I KNOW BUT HEAR ME OUT) Unprotected sex, foul language, angst, miscommunications, pinning, SO MUCH PINNING, Hurt/comfort. Will update as the series progress. 💗  Warnings for the chapter: reader has very conflictive emotions about the news of her pregnancy at the begining. This chapter will have some back and forth time skips

💗 A/N: ⚠️ dialogue in BOLD is intended to be in English if not, they are speaking in Korean. ⚠️

Love, Ria

💗 Chapter wordcount 3,4k

💗 Series Index 1 2

His 01: Into you

"And baby even on our worst nights. I'm into you" Into you - Paramore.

💗💗💗MARCH 2022💗💗💗

You have to admit, you've been glued to your computer screen for a solid twenty minutes, utterly motionless.

Hyung-Joon, once your boss and now your business partner, just forwarded an email confirming your company's involvement in BTS's upcoming Permission to Dance on Stage tour. The whole team was buzzing with excitement about the colossal job ahead.

It would be the biggest job in your company.

It really was the opportunity of a lifetime, the pay was enough to take Hana on a Disney cruise vacation.

For a whole year.

Three years in a row.

Heck, you could buy the damn boat.

That's how good it would be.

You should be basking in the joy of this achievement.

Yet, the smallest detail casts a shadow over the happiness—precisely, the leader of the band. The young, talented, millionaire, successful, infuriating asshole Kim Namjoon is your daughter's father.

For the tiniest detail, it must be emphasized that he had no intention of being a part of her life.

Fuck him.

He couldn't even summon the decency to meet your gaze when he sent his mother and manager to deliver an envelope full of money, effectively kicking you and your daughter out of Korea.

The memory of it turned your stomach.

💗💗💗JANUARY 2017💗💗💗

An alien.

That's how all the people saw you when you entered Big Hit as if you came from another planet entirely. An alien who spoke their language perfectly, who had not come as part of a tourist excursion, but to work.

They all regarded you as if you had a second head protruding from your back. The security, while registering your information for your access card; the staff, makeup artists, hair stylists—all whispered things as you walked by.

What the hell were you getting yourself into?

The chance of a lifetime, you reminded yourself. The pay might not be extravagant, but the perks of being part of a K-pop group's staff more than compensated for it.

You were going to travel all over the world, meet new people, eat delicious things and most of all… be as far away geographically as possible from where you came from.

This is the opportunity of a lifetime

After navigating several security checkpoints and maneuvering through what felt like a maze of boxes filled with the group's merchandise, materials, and clothing, you reached the office where they awaited you.

The global press department.

Though the term "department" sounded too grand for the small space—more like a converted broom closet with your boss's desk and yours side by side.

"Oh! Miss… um," you smiled as you saw him struggling with the pronunciation of your full name.

"Call me y/n. You must be Manager Hyung-Joon," the man let out a sigh of relief. Despite his imposing stature, dominating the tiny office, a friendly smile adorned his face.

"Miss y/n, you're just in time. They are about to finish a rehearsal, and we are going to start the first practice interviews for the US tour. Did you bring everything you need?" You nodded, and he motioned for you to follow him.

Probably, nothing you had read about this group could prepare you for what lay ahead. As Manager Hyung-Joon swung open the door, the first thing that struck you was the noise.

That room was pure Chaos.

What you'd expect if you left seven practically teenage men to their own devices. They chatted and laughed, appearing at first glance like a bunch of ordinary kids.

Not like the young men who would become the biggest musical act in history.

"Bangtan, can you please be quiet?" the manager shouted, capturing everyone's attention. "This is y/n; she will be your translator from now on." All seven pairs of eyes turned to you simultaneously, and once again, there it was.

That look that made you feel utterly out of place.

According to what you'd been told, it wasn't common for the company to hire young, let alone single, women to work with BTS. Yet, you excelled at your job, armed with a glowing recommendation letter from one of your college professors.

Fast and precise with translations, you also brought experience as a journalist before accepting this position.

And that you accepted the joke of a salary they offered.

The company deemed you useful enough to overlook the fact that you would be the only woman among these men most of the time.

But your integration into the staff didn't happen before their main manager warned them that any attempt at inappropriate behavior towards you would result in drastic consequences.

Not to mention the uncomfortably awkward conversation you had in the president's office, where terms like contraceptives, confidentiality agreements, and the ominous "If you have any kind of relationship with one of the members, we will sue you for everything you have" echoed.

Though you were sure the suitcase you brought to Korea wouldn't be much help to a music company at the time.

The message was clear:

Mess with one of them.

You're out.

It's not like you were interested in a workplace romance; true, they were all attractive, but you needed this job more than anything else in the world.

At that time, Bangtan was gearing up for their promotions in the United States, and they required someone to assist them in English communication.

So they wouldn't be overly dependent on him.

"Do you even speak Korean?" that was the very first words he spoke to you. He wore an expression somewhere between puzzled and annoyed for a moment before turning to speak to Hyung-Joon as if you weren't there. "Are you sure she's not a stalker?"

"I'm a communications major from Busan National University. I also speak Japanese, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. But my first language is English. I suppose that answers your question," you retorted, meeting his gaze challengingly, and he rolled his eyes as if your response bored him.

At the far end of the room, you heard an amused snort; you recognized him from the dossier—his name was Suga.

"Did that lady just shut up Namjoon-hyung?" the youngest among them stared at you as if you were a unicorn, a mythical creature, the weirdest thing he has ever seen, and the older one nudged him to stop staring.

"Nice to meet you all; my name is y/n. I will be your translator, and I hope you can take care of me." You bowed, and when you straightened, you smiled at everyone. He kept his stare locked at you, irritated and unimpressed by your initial response.

That was the beginning of it all.

💗💗💗DECEMBER 2018💗💗💗

Fool.

A complete fool is how you felt, your heart pounding in your chest as you found yourself on your bathroom floor holding a positive pregnancy test. Four years ago, your heart held a different kind of weight, the weight of a secret growing within you.

Two weeks after he had returned to Seoul.

Exactly two weeks after you had told him to get the fuck out of your life.

No. That's not true.

You know better now. He was already gone before you found the strength to let him go. You just hadn't realized it.

So, here you were sitting on your bathroom floor. The weight of your shared history hanging heavily between you. Looking at the abstract pattern on the tiles feeling like a complete idiot.

Feeling guilty for a child who will grow up without a father.

Because...

You thought you were strong enough to handle it. You believed you could navigate motherhood alone, but...

Should you tell him?

Would it be too selfish to unveil this reality now?

How could you shatter his world, now that his career soared to unprecedented heights?

And the company…

You knew The company would go to great lengths to erase you and this secret from existence if necessary..

Kim Namjoon the leader of BTS.

Korea's pride.

Fathering an unplanned child out of wedlock with a foreigner?

It could dismantle everything he had worked for.

And his group. It will destroy them and he will never forgive you for it.

Besides, did you even have the right to reenter his life?

After what you have said to him? After the wounds you carved upon each other?

You wanted to cry, but the tears remained trapped within your eyes.

Kim Namjoon, the man known as RM, the leader of BTS, was your adversary, your lover, the man who once held your heart, and the one who shattered it into irreparable pieces—

All within a year.

💗💗💗NOVEMBER 2019💗💗💗

This is a terrible idea

It took you too long to work up the courage to tell him that you had had a daughter. But you couldn't tell him by phone call or mail.

You mustered all the courage you had and took a plane from Los Angeles to Korea. You definitely did not imagine how extremely difficult 16 hours on a flight with a one year old baby would be.

You had to bribe Jungkook with buying him 10 cartons of banana milk to get his new number.

Calling him was much harder.

"Hello?" His voice, after a year, stirred emotions you believed buried deep within.

You had no idea what to say.

Hi Namjoon, remember me? I'm y/n, your ex-girlfriend, ex-enemy, ex-translator? Oh, by the way, we have a daughter. I'm in Korea. Sorry for not telling you earlier; I panicked, thinking the company might erase us if they found out. Congratulations on the new album.

Definitely not that.

"Hey, Joonie," you blurted, and somehow felt like worse alternative, "I'm in Korea, and I'd like to talk…"

"Yes," he interrupted, his voice as desperate as yours, "I'm sending a driver for you. Where are you staying?"

Two hours later, a black company van awaited you in front of your hotel. It transported you to a far more luxurious apartment complex than their previous dormitory.

They are doing so well.

That made you proud, they deserved every drop of success they had.

But he wasn't in the apartment.

Waiting for you in the living room was a face you'd only seen once—Namjoon's mother, Mrs. Kim Seolmi. Accompanied by bodyguards and a staff member, her gaze held the same mix of disappointment and anger as the first meeting. Her eyes shifted sourly when they landed on Hana, in your arms.

Hana was the vivid image of her father, every feature, dimples, almond eyes, pouty lips, and even her expressions. Seeing Namjoon in her.

It took Mrs. Kim mere seconds to deduce the baby in your arms was her granddaughter.

"He doesn't want to see you, neither you nor the bastard child you're carrying. Did you think you could pass off just anyone's daughter as my son's?" She pulled an envelope from her bag. You knew it contained money. "Take it and leave. A gold-digger like you, using men for money. How disgusting."

"Madam, I don't need your money. If Namjoon doesn't want to see me, he should tell me himself." You clutched your crying daughter, scared by the woman's shouts.

From a corridor emerged Sejin, BangTan's main manager. He always knew everything about them. And his presence here meant The company was already aware that Namjoon had a daughter.

Shit.

"I'm sorry, Miss y/n, but it's true. He asked us to give this to you," Sejin handed you a sealed letter with your name on it, "and this you must sign. It's the only way to prevent the company from taking legal action against you for involving yourself with a member."

"Ha! As if the half-breed was really my Namjoon's daughter."

Oh you were going to kill that woman.

Before you could unleash your thoughts, Sejin spoke again. "y/n, you know what it means to be in a relationship with an idol, let alone having a daughter out of wedlock. This could destroy him and Bangtan. I'm sure you don't want that." His voice carried pity.

"You don't want to go trough this, and we know you don't want to put your daughter through it." He took a breath and sat in front of you. "The company is willing to compensate you for your silence. It's your only option—"

"I don't want your fucking money, Sejin"

"Miss, if you go against the company, we'll have to fight in court, and you could lose custody of your daughter. I'm sorry, but it's true. He didn't want to come when he found out you were coming with your child."

He didn't want to come

When he found out

That you were coming with a child.

Your child.

That phrase echoed in your mind for years. You could still close your eyes and see Sejin's pitiful face—the same one he wore when informing an employee they could no longer work for them.

Because they spoke a second too long with one of them.

Because they smiled at them a little too much.

Because feelings started to emerge.

All were fired and forced to sign mountains of legal documents preventing them from ever speaking about what transpired.

Some were even offered positions at other agencies.

"You're fortunate Bang PDnim decided to compensate you. But it's your decision," he concluded.

Three hours later, you were repacking to return to Los Angeles, vowing never to set foot in Seoul again.

This should never have happened.

As you wiped away tears, your phone buzzed with several notifications.

Message from unknown number: Doll, it's Yoongi. Jungkook told me you were here and you were staying at a hotel in Myeongdon. Message from unknown number: I'm coming to see you.

Message from Cookie 🍪: Y/n Noona, Yoongi Hyung asked me to give him your number. Thanks for the banana milk, you should stop by the dorm and let's drink soju like old times!!!!

Message from NJ: I am so sorry. I hope you can understand.

The last message made you want to throw up.

The phone started vibrating with an incoming call…..

💗💗💗MARCH 2022💗💗💗

"Are you sure you're okay with this?"

Hyun-Joon regarded you with the same concerned eyes he had five years ago when you first met. He had transitioned from being your boss to your business partner and, eventually, one of your dearest friends. A few months after your departure from Korea, he called to share the news of starting their own management agency with a friend.

The startup funds came from the envelope Sejin handed you as compensation for never disclosing the identity of your daughter's father.

At least something good came from shattering your heart into a thousand pieces.

Today, you were the CEO of a flourishing company offering diverse services to music companies in Korea—translators, managers, staff, security; you had it all, and your agency ranked as the best in the market.

It was only a matter of time before you appeared on HYBE's radar.

It was only a matter of time before you found yourself back in the same room as him.

"Of course, this is the best contract the agency has had since we started. We are professionals, and your CEO is no exception," you reassured yourself more than Hyun-Joon.

He scrutinized you, trying to believe your conviction. "Well, let's get ready; they are about to come in."

The sight before you differed vastly from the first time you saw them in the modest conference room at what was then Big Hit. Through the glass door leading to your meeting room, the bodyguards entered first, followed by the new individual managers.

You knew much had changed since your last encounter. Initially, it was just you and a handful of staff members.

Now, it felt as if the President of the United States or Beyoncé were about to make an entrance.

Scratch that, the president's secret service probably had fewer people.

The room was nearly full, yet they hadn't arrived.

Jungkook walked in first. The last time you saw him, he still wore his school uniform. Now, he appeared as if he had stepped out of a novel, exuding a bad-boy aura with tattoos and all-black attire.

Behind him, Taehyung, the shy boy with the innocent smile, wore a designer suit, exuding timeless elegance like the protagonist of an old Hollywood film. You couldn't help but smile at the sight of him.

Jimin seemed unchanged yet transformed simultaneously—beautiful, elegant, with a hint of mischief in his eyes. When he saw you, he smiled discreetly, as if holding back many unspoken words.

Following him, J-Hope entered. His off-stage personality always intimidated you, yet he remained the kindest and most focused among them. That hadn't changed.

Yoongi walked in behind him, smiling genuinely upon seeing you. Among all of them, he was the only one you still maintained contact with. Nonetheless, seeing him in person brought a sense of relief.

Jin came in almost last, and you couldn't help but be amused. Despite not having seen him in person for four years, he hadn't aged a day. Serene as ever, he entered with a respectful bow.

A chill ran down your spine.

They entered in the official order.

From youngest to oldest.

And last.

Him.

Kim Namjoon, always entering last, responsible for introducing them all. Front and center, as always. His now-blond hair caught your attention first. Even beneath his clothes, you could see that he had grown. His arms filled his shirt just like his chest and legs.

Your mind instinctively wandered into territory you almost slapped yourself for entertaining.

You looked up, and he was looking at you. Whether he was surprised or not, his face revealed nothing. With almost a decade in the business, Kim Namjoon knew how to conceal his emotions.

Assuming he had any.

He obviously doesn't care to see you. And who were you to him?—just some woman he was fucking four years ago.

Just

The mother of his daughter.

Your ears buzzed, and you were so deeply lost in your thoughts that you didn't notice when he began talking.

"...it's a pleasure for us to work again with you and your agency," that damn voice, it could still stir emotions in you. "Miss Y/LN, it's also nice to see you again."

Oh, is he going to call you by your last name?

"It's Lee now," your voice sounded cooler than you thought it would, perfect.

"Congratulations, in that case," he stiffened his jaw, and you smiled at him. Simultaneously, several people in the room tensed up.

Ah yes, that was another detail Kim Namjoon obviously didn't know about you.

Eric Lee was your other business partner and your best friend. You had married three years ago so that he could obtain a visa and stay in the US with you.

Eric gave his last name to Hana and had practically raised her with you.

And also.

Eric was completely, totally, and utterly gay.

Your marriage was only on paper.

But that was a detail you weren't going to explain to Kim Namjoon.

By the way… where the hell was he?

Namjoon cleared his throat, snapping you out of your thoughts. "In that case, I think we can start—"

"Mommy!" a little voice interrupted, entering the room. With so many people there, you could only see the top of her dark brown hair. "Uncle said to play hide and seek; can I hide with you?"

Almond eyes.

Dimples in the smile.

The same pouty lips.

Kim Namjoon who was almost 10 years in the industry and knew perfectly well how to hide his emotions, but he looked at the little girl in front of him as if he had just seen an alien.

His face showed a thousand questions.

How old was that little girl?

Why did she have the same eyes as him?

Why had she called you mom?

Did you have a daughter?

The whole room tensed up.

Oh shit, I knew this was a bad idea.

But things happened so fast.

For the first time in her life, Kim Namjoon looked at his daughter's face.

And you were looking at the consecuence of what once was a stolen kiss behind a closed door.

And then evolved to so much more.

A snarky remark.

An irritated snort after others spoke.

A heated argument in a press room.

A few stolen kisses behind the staff room door.

A night in a hotel room.

And despite your reluctance to admit it,

Despite everything.

You would always be

His.

💗💗💗💗💗💗

I KNOOOOOWWWW! Another fic and I haven't finished translating/editing/rewriting/posting Hate!. But Yes, I had to, I had a writers block and decided to pull this one out of the vault of prompts.

Pregnancy troupe? while I'm writing a dark mafia romance? I KNOW But hear me out with this one, it is A RIDE.

I REALLY wanted to write a short agnsty BUT filled with heart clenching romance and.. other things clenching smuttines.

Yes, I'll continue updating Hate! but i would love you a bit if you give this baby a chance... literal baby. AND KIM NAMJOON AS A GIRL DAD!!?? IM NOT GOING TO DEPRIVE MYSELF OF THAT

Ps. If you want to be on the tag list drop a comment below!! 👩🏼‍💻✨

As always love you guys,

Ria 💗

[justforbooks]

British Library to reinstate Oscar Wilde’s reader card 130 years after it was revoked

Exclusive: Pass to be presented to playwright’s grandson after original cancelled over conviction for gross indecency

The British Library is to symbolically reinstate Oscar Wilde’s reader pass, 130 years after its trustees cancelled it following his conviction for gross indecency.

A contemporary pass bearing the name of the Irish author and playwright will be officially presented to his grandson, Merlin Holland, at an event in October, it will be announced on Sunday.

Rupert Everett, who wrote, directed and starred as Wilde in The Happy Prince – the acclaimed 2018 film about the writer’s tragic final years in exile – will play a part in the ceremony.

Holland is an expert on Wilde whose publications include The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde. Asked how his grandfather might have reacted to the pass being reinstated, he said: “He’d probably say ‘about time too’.”

The decision to revoke the pass is recorded in board minutes in 1895, when homosexuality was illegal: “The Trustees directed that Mr Oscar Wilde, admitted as a reader in 1879 and sentenced at the Central Criminal Court on 25th May to two years’ imprisonment with hard labour, be excluded from future use of the Museum’s Reading Room.”

Wilde’s downfall followed his decision to sue Lord Queensberry, who had accused him of being a “sodomite” after discovering that his son, Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas, was Wilde’s lover. It led to Wilde being sentenced to two years of hard labour.

Having been the toast of London society, Wilde died in abject poverty in Paris in 1900, aged 46. After his disgrace and imprisonment, his wife, Constance, fled to Europe with their two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan, and changed their surname to Holland, an ancestral family name.

Holland said: “Oscar had been in Pentonville prison for three weeks when his [pass] to the British Museum Reading Room [now the British Library] was cancelled, so he wouldn’t have known about it, which was probably as well … It would have just added to his misery to feel that one of the world’s great libraries had banned him from books just as the law had banned him from daily life. But the restitution of his ticket is a lovely gesture of forgiveness and I’m sure his spirit will be touched.”

In 2017, Wilde was assumed to be among more than 50,000 gay and bisexual men who were posthumously pardoned, although the Ministry of Justice said no individuals would be named.

Holland said: “Oscar didn’t think there was anything wrong in same-sex love … I’m not absolutely certain he has been pardoned … If I had to ask for a pardon, I wouldn’t, because all it would do is make the British establishment feel better about itself … History’s history, and you can’t start rewriting it.”

The British Library boasts arguably the world’s most significant collection of Wilde manuscripts, including drafts of his major plays, Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest.

Laura Walker, the British Library’s lead curator of modern archives and manuscripts, said this extraordinary collection makes Wilde’s pass all the more meaningful: “We really want to honour Wilde now and acknowledge what happened to him. Section 11 of the law, which related to the criminalisation of homosexuality, was unjust.”

In 1973, the British Library officially separated from the British Museum, although it continued to be housed in the Reading Room until 1997, when the new British Library building opened in St Pancras.

Wilde’s long relationship with the British Museum started while he was still a student and, after moving to London in 1879, he applied for a reader pass. But he was not afraid to criticise the institution. When he published his long poem The Sphinx, he was asked why he had printed only a few copies. He replied: “My first idea was to print only three copies: one for myself, one for the British Museum, and one for Heaven. I had some doubt about the British Museum.”

Holland joked that Wilde was “setting heaven and himself above the British Museum in a teasingly arrogant way” – a “slightly naughty throwaway remark about a very august institute, exactly the sort of thing that he would have regarded as being slightly stuffy and conventional”.

He added: “He probably would [be] obliged now to make an apology … on … his rude remark … once they’d given him his pass back.”

The British Library event – on 16 October, Wilde’s birthday – will include a public talk by Everett and Holland, launching the latter’s new book, After Oscar: The Legacy of a Scandal, an account of Wilde’s posthumous life.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[medusamagic]

So you want to know more about Big Barda

As Tumblr's resident expert on all things Barda, and as Kelly Thompson's Birds of Prey run brings far more attention to the character, I figured it was high time someone stepped in and gave the tumblr world a primer on DC's biggest and boldest heroine.

The Basics:

Introduced in Mister Miracle #4 by Jack Kirby, Big Barda was once the leader of Apokolips' premier death squad, the Female Furies. Trained from birth for a life of violence by Granny Goodness, Barda spent the first 250 years of her life as a living weapon. This all changed when she met Scott Free, a gentle Parademon-in-training with a mysterious past and a knack for escapes. Eventually, she and Scott both escaped to Earth, where they fell in love with both the Earth and each other. She's a lover, she's a fighter, she's a Pokémon card expert, but most of all, SHE BIG.

Barda's signature defining attribute is her raw strength. Her raw muscle allows her to keep up with heavy hitters like Wonder Woman. This isn't to suggest that she's a simple-minded brute, however-- Barda has centuries of military experience under her belt as leader of the Female Furies. She's mastered multiple weapons, including spears, swords, and her signature Mega-Rod.

Below are some reading recommendations for anyone interested in Big Barda:

Essential Runs:

Mister Miracle Vol. 1 #4-18 by Jack Kirby (1971-1974)

This was the run that introduced the world to Big Barda, as well as the Female Furies. If you want to know the basics of Barda, there's no better place to start. This run is collected in a trade, as well as a part in The Fourth World Omnibus Vol. 1.

(NOTE: Even though Barda doesn't appear until issue #4, I suggest you start with Issue #1. It'll help you get acquainted with the rest of the mythos.)

Justice League International #14-24 by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis (1988-1989)

Big Barda was on the JLI! She plays off the other characters as well as ever, and a lot of what's great about her in Jack Kirby's original run is still here! Definitely check this one out if you want to see her in another team setting. This has been collected in this omnibus.

(NOTE: Once again, I recommend you start from issue #1.)

Popular Runs:

Mister Miracle Vol. 4 #1-12 by Tom King and Mitch Gerads (2017-2018)

Yeah, I know.

Listen, Tom King is a writer with... idiosyncrasies to put it nicely. The characters in the periphery of his stories tend to act really out of character, and his dialogue can be clunky at times. That being said, The Scott/Barda dynamic in this book is excellent, and this book has some of the best art that the Fourth World has seen since the 80s. The series has been collected in a trade.

(NOTE: Did you know that the CIA has over 2003 files on Tom King? Look up "Tom King CIA 2003" for more info!)

Mister Miracle: The Great Escape by Varian Johnson and Daniel Isles (2022)

If you're at all interested in the idea of a Young Adult reimagining of Mister Miracle and Big Barda's origin story with an all-black cast, this book was made for you. It's a bit heavy on the YA tropes, but the Scott/Barda dynamic is really solid. It was released as a standalone graphic novel.

Birds of Prey Vol. 5 #1-??? by Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero (2023-)

Admit it, this is the reason you're here. The Cassandra Cain & Big Barda is so instantly iconic, I'm surprised no writer has paired them up sooner. It also helps that this book has the single best Barda look since Jack Kirby's original run. Plus, she gets to throw down with Wonder Woman! What's not to love? This run is still ongoing, but the first 6 issues should be getting a trade pretty soon.

(NOTE: I started writing this before BOP #8 dropped, I had no idea about that thing that happens in the newest issue.)

Stories to Avoid:

Action Comics #592-593 by John Byrne (1987)

This is not a comic book-- it's an infohazard designed to cause pain and suffering to anyone who knows of its existence. Its premise is vile and disrespectful on the surface, and it becomes more insidious when you learn the context of its creation. This pair of issues is profoundly evil, rivaling even Avengers #200 in terms of loathsomeness.

For those who dare to investigate this, Content Warnings for rape, mind control, and human trafficking.

Anyway, let's end on something a bit lighter, shall we?

Remember that Mister Miracle YA graphic novel I mentioned earlier? Barda is getting a graphic novel of her own this summer! It's not out at the time of writing, but the preview pages look promising!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that introduction to one of my favorite superheroes ever. Please get back to me on this, I have no one else to talk to about Fourth World stuff.

[pictureday2005]

heres a blast from the past. just...a little more recent.

anyone remember twisted whiskers? they started back in 2001, but as you can see these stickers were produced in 2017. they were a deadstock find at my dollar general.

i must admit. i REALLY hate these. these look a lot cleaner and put together, probably due in part to the TV show. but if you want to be deeply, irreparably disturbed, i implore you to look up twisted whiskers greeting cards. theyre rougher around the edges and very ominous.

i dont know why i bought these...

[bobbie-robron]

Robron Fanfiction Recommendations (Apr-2025)

The below were recommended on both 🦋 and the Voldemort site in April 2025.

It’s a cliche for a reason, honey series (2016-2017) 14.7K words, iwillsendapostcard (zoeteniets)

A set of five standalone fics. They include: Aaron and his shower/bath choices, the fives times Robert called Aaron his boyfriend and a special bonus one, neighbors living across from each other having to contend with a fire alarm regularly, vignettes focusing on Liv and in many moments her dynamic with Robert, and lastly a Cinderella AU with Robert taking lead to Aaron’s prince (we all know who the other nasty characters will be right?)

Sharpen your knife (2016) 1.7K words, Port_in_a_Storm

A deal Nicola has been trying to close appears to be a success with Robert… that is until the client shows his ugly homophobic self and doesn’t want his business ‘tainted’ by his ilk. Afterward, Robert admit to a supportive Aaron this has happened before when he hadn’t yet crossed paths with the Whites (early missing years callout).

Please don’t take my sunshine away (2017) 33.2K words, softlyspoken

Robert and Aaron are put through the wringer in this one. The lads are together again after that woman left the village having lost the baby. It’s been months but Robert is still affected by the loss of the baby (Ollie) and blaming himself for having it occurred but keeps it bottled. Still, Aaron wants a baby of their own and, through surrogacy, Annie is born. Aaron is over the moon but Robert’s moods swing from detached to panic to indifference over Annie. Unfortunately, Robert bottling of his emotions leads to his putting Annie in danger more than once. Robert sees it as karma if he loses Aaron or can’t love Annie properly. What will it take to get Robert the help he desperately needs before he loses his family?

The Prodigal Husband Returns (2019) 22.5K words, robron_til_the_end

Reunion 3.0. Robert was sentenced to eight years for GBH with intent. It’s now five years later and Robert is free. After a few days to get himself together, Robert returns to the village to find Aaron is involved with a paramedic (relatively new so irrelevant bloke) and worried he wants to take Sebastian away from. After reassuring Aaron that is not the case, Robert begins to bond with Sebastian while also getting closer to a still skittish of being hurt Aaron. They have cheerleaders in Chas (definitely AU) and Nicola.

Blind Date (2015) 2.4K words, tenpercentbatteryremaining (Louiseeeee)

Adam and Vic separately manage to convince Aaron and Robert respectively to be each other’s date (blind) to their wedding. Unfortunately, first impressions do not turn out well courtesy of Andy and Katie…

Breaking Free (2018) 6.5K words, TurquoiseTerrior

Alternative take on the must miss Lachlan/that woman in the woods mess. Here, Lachlan took an unconscious Robert to the woods and played minds games on him to believe he was held for longer than it was. The bulk of the story though is Robert’s rescue and the aftermath in hospital with Aaron (who never gave up on him) by his side and others happy he made it out alive.

Saying it With Flowers (2017) 5.4K words, MonkeyLuv

Aaron and his family own Dingle & Dingle, a flower shop which Robert walks into one day wanting an apology arrangement made for wife Chrissie (for events taking place in Apr-May 2015) as well as card for her (his attempts at writing them rubbish). Over six months, Robert keeps returning for more arrangements/cards with clueless Aaron not realizing what is really happening while various family members watch on…

[offender42085]

Post 1302

Frankie E Bybee, Florida inmate S42207, born 1970, incarceration intake November 2017 at age 47, scheduled for release July 2025

Exploitation of Elderly or Disabled Person, Fraud Use of Personal Identification

In January 2021, a former Sarasota County deputy whose sentence was partly reversed was resentenced.

Frank Bybee appeared frail and visibly shaking as he entered court in a wheelchair. He made an emotional plea to Judge Donald H. Mason: “I want to apologize to Marcia Sohl. She should never have had to go through any of this, the court’s distress. I want to apologize to my profession. The Sheriff’s Office is top notch, one of the best in the state of Florida. I used to work with (Assistant State Attorney and prosecutor) Karen Fraivillig. I’m sure it was hard for her and personal to come after me. I apologize for what it’s done to my family and my marriage, my three boys.”

Assistant Public Defender Marc Gilman said Bybee has had two brain surgeries to remove a tumor the size of a grapefruit and a stroke since he was imprisoned in 2017 for crimes against the elderly.

The victim, Marcia Sohl, 82, a former New York City teacher, died in July 2019.

Despite arguments that his health was declining because of poor medical care in prison, Judge Mason resentenced Bybee to 10 years in prison for exploitation of the elderly and 10 years probation for three counts of computer crimes.

Bybee will receive credit for time served on seven counts of fraudulent use of identification information, and five years probation on a count of fraudulent use of identification information. 

"I'm happy the judge took his medical condition into consideration," Assistant Public Defender Marc Gilman said. "I'm happy he got a little time off his sentence. That shows sometimes things can work out in good ways. I understand he still needs to be punished. That's part of what the system is designed to do."

In November 2017, Bybee was sentenced to 15 years in prison for 13 felonies that included kidnapping, exploitation of elderly, three counts of computer fraud and eight counts of fraudulent use of information.

But in an opinion filed by Second District Appeals Judge Susan Rothstein-Youakim in May 2020, Bybee’s kidnapping conviction was reversed. Rothstein-Youakim said Bybee received ineffective assistance from his defense attorneys. Their failure to move for a judgment of acquittal when there were serious concerns about evidence is reviewable on appeal, the judge said.

The charges against Bybee arose out of his relationship with the then 79-year-old woman and covered a period of about three months. He was sent to her house Oct. 16, 2016, because she was threatening suicide. She was transported to the hospital and involuntarily committed under the Baker Act. Bybee stayed to pray with her, and they exchanged cell phone numbers.

The woman and Bybee began communicating regularly. Over the next few months, the deputy came to her house to do chores such as painting and minor repairs.

As the woman’s health began to decline, she was admitted to the hospital more than once and spent time in rehabilitation facilities, according to court documents.

By December 2016, their relationship had soured.

The woman called the Sheriff’s Office twice to complain about Bybee’s involvement in her life. The agency told him not to have further contact with her.

After interviewing the woman, the Sheriff’s Office opened an internal affairs investigation of Bybee to determine if he was engaging in an inappropriate relationship with someone with whom he had been involved in an official capacity, court documents stated.

Investigators found that Bybee repeatedly accessed the woman’s AOL account and emails, accessed her financial information, accessed her PayPal account and withdrew money using her debit card.

On Dec. 29, after Bybee was told to cease his contact with the woman, she was once again Baker Acted. While evidence exists that Bybee sent a message from the woman’s email account that set in motion law enforcement’s response to her home, deputies and medical staff at the hospital made the decision to Baker Act the woman based on their observations.

“Both the responding deputies and the hospital staff were statutorily authorized to make the determinations that they made,” Rothstein-Youakim wrote.

Assistant Public Defender Karen M. Kinney, who handled Bybee’s appeal, called state prosecutors’ assertions that there was kidnapping a refutable “theory.” However, Bybee’s counsel, John Lakin and Ronald Kurpiers, did not raise an issue with the charge at the right time, she said.

Fraivillig, who represented the state during Bybee’s trial in October 2017, wanted his sentence to remain the same at 15 years for four second-degree felonies. She said the original judgment was a “merciful sentence.”

Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight said at the original trial that Deputy Frankie Bybee had befriended the victim, a 79-year-old Sarasota woman, while responding to a service call.

Knight said when the woman entrusted Bybee -- an 18-year agency veteran and married father of three -- with her dog, whom the deputy sold the dog through Craigslist. The dog was reunited with the woman.

Knight said at the time, Bybee was placed on administrative leave after the deputy’s fingerprint was found on checks totaling $65,000 that the victim said had been fraudulently signed.

Bybee will need constant medical care and CT scans for the rest of his life.

4l

[365sylviaplath]

Week of 2/24 - 3/2

astrology forecast + collective tarot card for the week

Card for this week: 3 of Swords - the return..... (the weekly card back for the week of the Cancer Full Moon in January). as mentioned then- potential for heartbreaks, grief, any flavor of emotional pain coming up this week. in many cases, this won't necessarily be a current event (especially now that we're in and out of Retrograde Land), but something is pointing to an internal hurt that demands to be recognized. give yourself the permission to grieve and mope a little this week. it won't be forever! ~ only way out is through ~

Transits/Astro forecast: GET YOUR SHIT DONE THIS WEEK IF YOU CAN.... everything is direct until saturday! not long but it's something! mercury retrograde shadow begins this weekend, venus retrograde begins shortly after, march begins, still unwinding the mayhem from the mars retrograde (now in the post-retrograde shadow period) but this is a brief moment to catch your breath. goodness. given this week's card, there are likely some emotions catching up with you that need to be processed. address those! no need to mindlessly carry them!

a note about venus retrograde: the last time we had venus retrograde in aries was spring of 2017. take note of any themes from that time that might be re-emerging to be resolved. acknowledge it, let it go!

thursday 2/27 - new moon in pisces square jupiter, mercury sextile uranus - expansive ass day! we're slowly entering eclipse season, in the last lunar cycle of the astrological year, and the transits are challenging us to think outside the box/see ourselves in a new light. the next few weeks will be deeply transformative and this is like a checkpoint. how are you feeling? where are you heading? does anything need adjustment? what do you need?

saturday 3/1 - venus retrograde begins, moon conjunct mercury, neptune and north node - as mentioned above, venus retrograde is picking back up with some old business this spring to ask us to close some old chapters for ourselves. the transits today insist upon feeling those old feelings and releasing them. simply admitting that something happened and immediately trying to push it out of your mind will not do much to resolve it. with the north node joining all of the piscean/retrograde energy, i feel like there's a lot coming together for you that just requires you to clear out the clutter first. this reflection time is important in your self-actualization journey!

sunday 3/2 - sun square jupiter, moon conjunct chiron and square mars - lots of similar energy to yesterday. big feelings and desires to get things moving. potential for some hangups or things to feel like a step backward, but don't let those get to you! you're much further along that you realize. do what you can to ground yourself, lots of volatility in the air this weekend.

potential journal prompts:

What might you be feeling right now that you're judging yourself for feeling? (ie are old feelings coming back up and frustrating you because you thought they were over and dealt with?)

What sort of relational wounds or situations were playing out summer 2023? spring 2017? what would you like to change or recognize no longer applies to you?

What would you like to be doing with your time? Without thinking about any logistics or exactly how it would pan out, where do you find yourself to be most comfortable or what feels most redeeming to you?

[maxverstappensflatbrim]

Show Me Yours | Matty Healy [37]

chapter thirty-seven, act five: the ballad of me and my brain

masterlist

February 22nd 2017

Tommie leaves the bathroom, her dress for the event is on. It’s a long dress that reaches her ankles, reflecting each of the guys outfits. It’s a black colour like Ross suit, with ruffles and lace like Matty’s, some of the lace is the same pattern and colour of George’s outfit and her shoes are made from the same material as Adam’s baby blue suit he’s wearing later on that night.

She has an outfit change for their performance, dress pants and a green and black button up.

Caleb looks up from where he’s sitting in his plain black suit and puts his phone away.

“Ready to go?”

He doesn't notice shoulders deflate at the lack of compliments, she thought she looked pretty good as she’d finished off her hair.

“Yeah, all ready.”

She’d skipped the carpet, letting the guys do it alone as she went on inside to find her seats, forcing Ross to sit beside Caleb as she sat beside Gabby and Carly instead.

“Are you nervous?”

“For the performance more than the award,” She admits quietly to Carly who’s hand is rubbing across her back in comforting circles, “I mean, fucking Radiohead are supposed to be here tonight.”

“They’re not, one less anxiety.” Gabby whispers and she nods leaning back.

She tugs at the neckline of the dress, trying to lift it up to cover her cleavage as she leans back uncomfortably.

Ross is tapping her shoulder harshly and nodding for her to move, “I can’t take it any longer, please.”

Rolling her eyes she says goodbye to Carly and Gabby, promising they’ll get drunk at the afterparty.

Settling back beside Caleb and taking her awkward sitting position again he raises his brows, “You alright?” He ducks his head, whispering as someone accepts their award on stage.

“This material is uncomfortable.”

He brings her drink towards her, “Drink to forget, right?”

She shakes her head, “It’s too tight, I need it off.”

“Few more minutes.” He promises, “Few more minutes and it’s off.”

She nods, shifting again as it scratches her uncomfortably.

Their performance goes by quickly, she’s glad to be out of the dress for a few moments but then she’s being shoved into a dressing room, women picking at the shirt. She requests to keep this outfit, it's more comfortable and loose.

The women laugh at her quiet voice and tell her, “A woman of your beauty should be showing everyone not hiding it behind shirts.”

“I like my shirts.”

The one woman, who she’d learned was called Nikki, shakes her head, “Show off your body, darling, just for the night. Make your boyfriend go crazy for you.”

She nods, giving in too easily and letting them dress her up again like some kind of doll.

Then she’s sitting  at the table, ignoring Matty and George’s giggles as they smoke under the table, ignoring Caleb’s reassuring whispers that she’ll be able to take the dress off soon and focuses on the artists going and coming to the stage.

Until the entire table is silent, watching as Maisie Williams reads from the card.

“The 1975!”

Tommie’s eyes widen, she sits still as their table erupts, Matty hugging Jamie and kissing his girlfriend, Ross moving around the table and Adam and Carly embracing.

Louis is the one to bring her out of it, yelling at her that they won as he hugs her.

She giggles, standing and hugs Louis back swaying him from side to side, she’s about to turn to Caleb who’s tapping Adam on the back when George is grabbing her hand and the pair of them are running ahead of the rest of the band to get to the stage first, both giggling madly like children.

They pause at the bottom of the steps, Adam and Ross kisses Tommie’s cheek as they pass her and when Matty finally gets to her they share a small smile.

Then he’s bringing her into him for a hug as the other three go on up on stage, he lowers his head towards her, whispering in her ear, “We made it yet?”

She hums with a shrug, “Let’s see.”

He pulls back, holding her at arm's length to look her up and down in her dress. Then he’s tugging her closer to kiss her temple, “You look beautiful.”

“I hate this dress.” She whispers back. “I don’t feel comfortable in it.”

He guides her up the steps with a hand on the small of her back, shedding his suit jacket before he takes the mic.

⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ

“Hey, you seen Matty anywhere?” George leans around Louis’ chair to shout over to Tommie and she’s about to turn to Caleb to question him on the singer’s whereabouts but realises he’s missing too.

She looks around and spots them both at the bar a few tables away, seemingly in a heated debate.

“I’m going to get a drink.” She tells the table, pulling a face at George that says ‘I’m actually going to make sure those two don’t end up doing anything they’ll regret’.

When she approaches Matty has the widest smirk she’s ever seen, he leans away from Caleb whose fist is holding his collar of the ruffled shirt close to him.

Her brows furrow and she hits at Caleb’s hand, looking around at all the famous faces and cameras that could’ve seen the moment.

“What are you doing?” She questions through gritted teeth.

Caleb’s anger seems to redirect to her then, his fiery gaze looking her up and down.

She’s still in the dress, but has Matty’s jacket on to cover herself up. The moment he had noticed her discomfort in the dress he’d passed it over without a word.

“Could ask you the same thing.. You…” He lowers his head to meet her eyes directly, “You fucking lied to me, Tommie.”

She raises a brow then grabs his wrist casting a glance back at Matty. Who’s smirk has vanished as he watches them both carefully, as if suddenly realising the weight of his words.

She tugs him into the hallways beyond the main venue, raising her brows and crossing her arms. “What are you talking about?”

“You slept with him?”

She pauses, arms tightening their hold around herself, “Did you cheat on me? With- with him?”

“No!” She shakes her head quickly, hands holding onto his arm, the one that's lifted to rub across his face, “It was years ago, before we started dating.”

“Before you met me?”

She pauses, and then shakes her head slowly, “When, Tommie?”

“Just after the first album came out, when we were on tour. After Texas, before Vegas, doesn’t matter… it didn’t… I met you.”

She doesn't say what he wants to hear. That it didn't mean anything, because it did.

“Did it mean anything to you?”

Her shoulders deflate and he presses on, asking her again as he steps closer. Her eyes stare at the ground as she assesses her different options, lie again and later let the truth come out or just tell him the truth now.

“He took my virginity, Caleb, it had to mean something.”

“How could you-” He pauses to step away, “You lied to me. You told me nothing happened with any of them.”

She rubs her hands across her face, “Because I knew you’d react like this. You’d freak out and-”

“I’d freak out? I’m not freaking out, Tommie, I’m fucking annoyed.”

She bows her head, like a child being told off and rubs at her arms hidden by Matty’s suit jacket.

“We haven’t since,” She finds herself telling him, “Nothing, not even a kiss.”

“Is that why you let him treat you like shit? Let him walk all over you? For a chance to be there when he needs another good fuck?”

Her posture changes from defensive to offensive in a single second, head snapping up, downcast eyes staring through him. “Are you kidding?”

“No.”

She shakes her head, “Caleb, it was years ago, I chose you. I choose you.”

“But you didn’t,” He shakes his head, lips in a pout, “Not really, whenever he calls you’re there. You drop anything for him, you forgive him no matter what shit he does. Quite frankly, Tommie, it’s pretty fucking pathetic. It’s like you’re in love with hi-”

He pauses, his entire demeanour fades away, the anger replaced with sadness as he looks at the guilty look on her face, “You’re in love with him.”

It’s not a question. It’s a realisation.

She doesn't even try to deny it, to shake her head, to come to terms with it, because until this moment, she didn’t realise she was still in love with him either.

The doors behind them open, Gabby raises her brows as she looks between them, but her gaze settles on Tommie in the end, “You okay?”

She nods quickly forcing a smile as she lifts her shoulders, “We’ll be back in now in a minu-”

Then a door further down the hallway opens, and out comes the topic of discussion, “Here we go.” Caleb says, rolling his eyes.

“Everything alright?”

“Matty, just- leave. You’ve done enough.” Tommie says without looking at him.

He raises his eyebrows, now noticing Gabby and moving to stand beside her. His arm settles on her hip, tugging her into his side as she keeps her eyes on the situation. Her mind goes back to that day in London where she’d found her alone and bruised. She questions if the story of her father was the truth for a few seconds.

Matty looks between them all, making himself look taller as he moves to grab Tommie’s arm guiding her away from Caleb, “The guys are waiting for us.”

“Don’t touch her, man.”

“Cale-” Tommie sighs and shakes her head but Matty pushes her behind him.

“As far as I’m concerned you don’t speak for her.”

“Matt-”

“Just answer me this, Tommie…”

Caleb moves around Matty to look pleadingly at her, brows drawn together, chin wrinkled. The desperation on him is clear, he reeks of it, he also reeks of the cheap alcohol he’d been buying from the second bar out the back that all the fans had to get from.

“Do you love me?”

Gabby shakes her head, “I’m sorry, what’s going on here?”

She stands beside Tommie, hand on her back comfortingly and Caleb scoffs nodding, waving a hand drunkenly around, “Does she know?”

He turns to Matty, the one who’d told him the information- no, the one who’d boasted that he had Tommie before him.

“Does your girlfriend know you’re in love with her?”

Matty scoffs, “I hope so, tell her all the time.”

Caleb stumbles and shoves him back, “You know what I mean.”

“Caleb, you’re drunk, let’s go home, come on.” Tommie says moving to grab his hand but he rips it away and pushes her back from him.

“I’m not going home with you, not right now.”

“Then leave alone, mate.” Matty tells him, puffing out his chest and smirking at Caleb.

“Matty, can you just leave, please?” Tommie begs turning to him and raising her brows.

He stands a little taller looking down at her, “Why? So he can beat you in pe-”

Tommie’s hand moves quickly, smacking Matty across the face, brows furrowed. Not in that playful way she usually does, or in the way she does when she’s laughing too hard and needs something to ground herself with, tears rolling down her cheeks, her eyes squinted and that smile he adores. 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Matty’s brows quickly unfurrow and he steps towards her, his face morphs from realisation to guilt, hand softly rubbing the red hand print forming on his cheek“Tommie, I’m so-”

She shakes her head, “Why would you insulate something like that? What’s wrong with you?”

“Baby, I didn’t mean it I was just-”

“Baby.” Comes the loud American scoff they all ignore.

“Just causing more problems because you can’t stand the fact that someone is happy and you’re not the root cause of it-”

Gabby’s stepping between the two bandmates now, “Guys, come on-”

“No, Tommie, I’m doing it because the two of you are fucking miserable together. And neither of you have the balls to leave. Him because he needs you to make it in the industry and you because you’re so fucking desperate to feel loved, to please people. You need to be a perfectionist, you need people to like you so much you’ll stay in this shitty relationship just to feel it. You’re so afraid of being alone that you’ll suck anyone’s dick to-”

Matty’s head is falling to the side, Caleb’s standing above him, everything is happening, two different arguments, two different people.

She pushes Caleb back, letting Gabby fuss over the barely sober Matty.

“What the fuck?”

“He just called you a whore!”

Tommie’s muttering to herself looking around, chest rising and falling as she tries to decide what to do.

There’s a distant ringing in her ears, muffled by her own racing thoughts.

“I wouldn’t worry about him,” Caleb tells Gabby, “He’ll be fine. He’ll be boasting about sleeping with Tommie again in the next few minutes.”

Tommie pauses looking around at the three of them, “What?” Gabby’s voice is small and fragile. So unlike the young woman Tommie has come to love the past few years.

“You slept together?”

“It was years ago?”

“And get this,” Caleb adds, “She’s in love with him.”

Matty’s stumbling, looking over at her, “You’re in love with me?” His one hand is holding him up on the wall, the other is holding his bleeding nose.

“I-I never- I didn’t-”

“Tommie.”

She breathes in deeply, looking between the three of them slowly.

Gabby shakes her head and sets off towards the exit out into the alleyway, “No, Gabs, wait-” Caleb shakes his head and goes towards the bar then it's just her and Matty alone.

“You’re in love with me?”

He stares at her, waiting for her to say something, anything. His jaw clenches, unclunches, her mouth opens then closes.

He scoffs, shakes his head and walks backs into the hall.

She looks at the three different directions, focusing on the door in front of her the one Matty had just gone through.

Then she makes her decisions and moves quickly, bending down half way through her run to take off her heels and abandon them somewhere.

Sacking the door open, her feet hit the cold wet floor and she looks around.

“Gabby!”

The Australian pauses, but then carries on and Tommie finds herself picking up the pace, “Please, Gabs will you just let me-”

“Let you what, Tommie?” Gabby asks, turning to face her, it’s now Tommie sees the dark tracks of mascara down her cheeks, “Explain that you’re in love with my boyfriend? What was-” She pauses to sniffle and wipe her eyes, “Was our whole friendship just a li-”

“Please don't say that.” Tommie says desperately, hands falling to catch hers, moving to wipe her tears, “You’re my best friend, I love you.”

“Yeah, and you love, Matty too.”

“Of course I do.” Tommie gasps out, “I always have loved him, but I don’t- I’m not in love with him.” She tells her “Not anymore.”

She gulps before explaining, “I used to be, for a long long time, then I realised that… he deserves someone who can love him as much as you do. I can’t, I won’t….”

Gabby shakes her head, “What am I supposed to think, Tommie? Our whole friendship? The whole past two years, were they based on lies? You didn’t tell me-”

“Please.” Tommie’s desperate, she's desperate for Gabby to believe.

“You’re my best friend, you’re like, my only friend, please, Gabs-”

Gabby shakes her hand off of her arm and shakes her head as she walks towards the street, “I-”

“I stopped loving him because- I realised he’d never be able to love me,” She decides honesty will be the best way to get her out of this, to salvage any relationship out of this she can. “He used to bring back the most beautiful women I’d ever seen. I’d be forced to watch them do things we’d never be able to do, normal relationship things, stupid silly childish things that no one really cares about.

They were always so gorgeous, usually models or actress… I used to be so jealous. And then- well, then he brought you along to that stupid New Year’s Party, and- You’re fucking amazing, Gabs. You’re beautiful, fucking stunning, kind, so down to earth, and you love him. You genuinely do love him despite the fact he’s an arsehole and that you get hate, that’s when I realised deep down subconsciously that Matty and I could never be together-”

“Stop… just stop talking… Please.”

Gabby looks up towards the sky, not a single star in sight. “I just- I don’t want to talk to you right now.”

“Are you-” Tommie pauses hands playing with the sleeves of the jacket she wears, “Are you angry with me?”

Her voice is small, like a child’s and her eyes refuse to make any eye contact at all.

Gabby shakes her head, “No.” It’s one word, muttered softly. So softly that the wind carries it away.

The tears in Tommie’s eyes fall, drifting down her cheek as she watches Gabby walk away from her without another word.

“Tom?”

She turns quickly, chest stuttering and falls into his awaiting arms.

“Hey? What’s happened?”

“I fucked it, Ross,” She tells him as she sobs into his shirt, “I fucked everything so bad. I-I’m sorry.”

Ross’ brows furrow as he looks up at Gabby’s figure at the end of the alley, the Australian has turned back for a single moment before crossing the road to the awaiting taxi cab.

“Fucked what?”

“Everything.”

taglist

@thereisaplaceintheheart, @indierockgirrl, @sofaritsalrightt, @julezs-bl0g, @eaglestar31, @sophinthealpss, @noacfemcel, @if-my-heart-bleeds, @befrwime, @fallingforel, @sexorchocolateorpillowsorclouds, @3terna15unshin3, @1975sophie1975, @thesocraticjunkiewannabe, @littlesoldierelleora, @procrastinatinglikeapro

-let me know if you want to be added :)

[saturdaymournings]

Updated New 2DS XL Tour !!

My new carry case arrived today, so I figured I’d made an updated tour of my DS :p I’ve had it since my 11th birthday in 2017, and hacked it almost a year ago.

Here’s my new case! It’s Komasan from Yo-Kai Watch !! It has an attachable strap that turns it into a lil bag which is very fun :) ofc I also have my beautiful keyrings ofc >:) akihiko and kaito loves of my life forever

The evil little console themself chillin in da case :)

Here’s the outside of the DS :) I have a clear TPU case on the outside for protection, and I have stickers underneath it on the bottom half on the console. On the top half, I keep a tarot card I found in a library book, a Dan and Phil photo card and a piece of confetti from the terrible influence tour lolz :p

This is my splash screen! I love it <3 there’s something so nice about having a silly little thing that comes up every time I load the console.

Anyways, these are the games I’m playing at the moment!

The great ace attorney! I’m having a lot of fun with this one at the moment. I’m on the fourth case and it’s just amazing. I love the whole look of the game, and the ace attorney gameplay in general. Plus, the characters are amazing. I won’t lie though I’m still salty asf cause I was down bad for Kazuma and then he instantly died >:(

I’m fucking insane over persona q, I literally can’t even. I’m on the fourth labyrinth and it sure as hell is the most frustrating one, but I’m just completely obsessed. I don’t even have words it’s so embarrassing lol :’)

Project Mirai DX !! I just like silly chibi kaito and unfortunately it has slightly taken over my life. Getting my mad savings to take kaito on vacation rn ;p and trying to actually get an S+ ranking but I’m too shit for it nyehehehehe

Yo-Kai watch 2 !!!! I’m playing psychic specters cause I’m indecisive I don’t wanna pick a side insert bisexual joke. I love it so much it’s just so goddamn charming, and I love the battle wheel thing it’s so fucking cool! My favourite yo-kai are komasan obvs, kyubi and tengu.

I’m also playing Persona 2 using the PlayStation 1 emulator >:) I love 25 fps and random encounters every 0.2 seconds! All worth it for Eikichi tho

Here’s some of my activity log stats! I’m just showing off my animal crossing hours tbh lol :p not that it’s much of a flex I’ve spent 50 days straight of my life on animal crossing

And here’s some bonus sillies! We got the library online catalogue that I use to reserve/renew books, ao3 which I use on there more often than I’d like to admit, miiverse which I finally got up and running, and fnaf which I have the first four instalments of downloaded as ports :)

I hope you guys think my DS is epic swag! If you don’t you’re objectively wrong and I hate you !!! :D

[shefanispeculator]

Before Gwen Stefani wrote and performed hit songs like “Make Me Like You,” she learned a lot about music and love from her parents, Patti and Dennis Stefani.

The No Doubt singer’s mom and dad met at their high school in Anaheim, Calif., and they raised her and her three siblings — Eric, Jill and Todd — in the same city.

As fans of bluegrass and folk music, Patti and Dennis took Gwen to concerts when she was young, which helped spark her interest in music. This fostered a bond between them that wasn't deterred even when Gwen reached stardom, and she decided to keep living with her parents until her late 20s.

To this day, The Voice coach shares a close relationship with Patti and Dennis. For Mother’s Day in May 2024, Gwen posted a touching Instagram video montage, featuring photos of Patti posing with various members of their family. In her caption, she wished her “beautiful Mom + all the beautiful Mom’s out there” a happy Mother’s Day.

The following month, she shared a sweet Instagram photo dump with throwback shots of her and Dennis to celebrate him on Father’s Day. “Happy Father’s Day to my incredible Dad 🤍,” Gwen wrote in her caption. “I love u !!”

Here’s everything to know about Gwen Stefani’s parents, Patti and Dennis Stefani.

Patti and Dennis met in high school

During a January 2005 interview with Rolling Stone, Gwen shared the story of how her parents first crossed paths.

“My mom and dad met at Anaheim High School,” she said. “After they got married, all they wanted to do was have four children, and they did.”

They married in 1966

Ahead of exchanging wedding vows with fellow Voice coach and country star Blake Shelton in July 2021, Gwen shared moments from her bridal shower with her family on her Instagram Stories.

"The Sweet Escape" vocalist posted a card with a copy of “The Mass on the Day of Marriage” of her parents, which showed that their wedding date was June 11, 1966.

The card served as her "something old," and it read, “Wishing you all the happiness your heart can hold... today, tomorrow, always. We love you so very much!”

They raised Gwen and her siblings in California

After Patti and Dennis tied the knot, they welcomed four kids: daughters Gwen and Jill, plus sons Eric and Todd.

Gwen had a positive experience growing up in the greater Los Angeles area. While speaking with Clash in April 2016, she recalled that her parents were regular churchgoers and described an overall “happy home.” She elaborated, “We were kind of like the most idealistic family that you could imagine.”

The performer lived with Patti and Dennis in Anaheim until she was 26, around the time "Just a Girl" climbed to the top of the charts.

“My parents were quite strict with me and I was living at home even into my 20s, and I would have to come home and knock on my parents’ door,” she shared in a March 2017 video about the meaning of the 1995 hit.

She admitted, "I just wanted to write a song to express how I was feeling in that moment and I never in my wildest dreams thought that anyone would hear it."

Patti and Dennis shared their love of music with Gwen

During her January 2005 interview with Rolling Stone, Gwen recalled her parents introducing her and her siblings to bluegrass and folk festivals.

Folk and country-rock artist Emmylou Harris was one of the first shows Gwen ever attended. “She had just had a baby and she took a break in the middle of the show to go feed the baby," she recounted. "I couldn't believe it.”

Years later, when Gwen started experimenting with her voice and style, she gave her dad a demo tape of a song she wrote titled "End It on This." The artist told Vogue in April 2008 that Dennis would listen to it while going to work and play it for others. He later came back to her with thoughts that immediately stuck with her.

"I remember two things he said to me. One was 'Everybody's saying that your songwriting is really good and you should just keep going,' " she told the outlet. "And the other was 'Don't ever take lessons, because your voice is really unique. There's just something about it.' ”

Dennis is a marketing executive

According to his LinkedIn profile, Dennis has been the executive vice president at the marketing and consulting company, Added Value North America, since 1989.

The marketing executive’s specialties include “brand and innovation strategy” as well as “new product development systems” and “integrating consumer insights to inspire and guide new product identification.”

Dennis earned an MBA from the College of Business and Economics at California State University, Fullerton, and previously worked at DRI International, TBWA Chiat Day and Yamaha Motor Corporation.

Patti was a dental assistant

When Gwen spoke with Rolling Stone in January 2005, she shared that Patti quit her job as a dental assistant to stay home with her and her siblings.

Gwen’s wedding cake was a recreation of Patti and Dennis’

On Gwen and Blake’s wedding day in July 2021, they celebrated with a cake made by Dallas-based Fancy Cakes by Lauren. The business shared photos of the cake on Instagram, which featured bells, sugar flowers, white chocolate cherubs and white swan pillars.

“Our bride wanted to make a sentimental statement by recreating her parent’s wedding cake,” the caption read about the dessert's inspiration. “Both of Gwen’s parents were there to see her honor them with this cake.”

Five years prior, in June 2016, Gwen and her sons celebrated Dennis and Patti’s 50th wedding anniversary with a party and a three-tier wedding-style cake decorated with white roses and gold leaves. Gwen shared glimpses of the special day on Snapchat, posting a photo of the cake and a photo of her parents sharing a kiss.

[ivankahasbeentreatedsounfairly]

The New York Times

By Kenneth P. Vogel

May 27, 2025

As Paul Walczak awaited sentencing early this year, his best hope for avoiding prison time rested with the newly inaugurated president.

Mr. Walczak, a former nursing home executive who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes days after the 2024 election, submitted a pardon application to President Trump around Inauguration Day. The application focused not solely on Mr. Walczak’s offenses but also on the political activity of his mother, Elizabeth Fago.

Ms. Fago had raised millions of dollars for Mr. Trump’s campaigns and those of other Republicans, the application said. It also highlighted her connections to an effort to sabotage Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s 2020 campaign by publicizing the addiction diary of his daughter Ashley Biden — an episode that drew law enforcement scrutiny.

Mr. Walczak’s pardon application argued that his criminal prosecution was motivated more by his mother’s efforts for Mr. Trump than by his admitted use of money earmarked for employees’ taxes to fund an extravagant lifestyle.

Still, weeks went by and no pardon was forthcoming, even as Mr. Trump issued clemency grants to hundreds of other allies.

Then, Ms. Fago was invited to a $1-million-per-person fund-raising dinner last month that promised face-to-face access to Mr. Trump at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla.

Less than three weeks after she attended the dinner, Mr. Trump signed a full and unconditional pardon.

It came just in the nick of time for Mr. Walczak, sparing him from having to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution and from reporting to prison for an 18-month sentence that had been handed down just 12 days earlier. A judge had justified the incarceration by declaring that there “is not a get-out-of-jail-free card” for the rich.

The pardon, however, indicated otherwise. The case of Ms. Fago and Mr. Walczak is the latest example of the president’s willingness to use his clemency powers to reward allies who advance his political causes, and to punish his enemies.

Mr. Walczak’s pardon application was described to The New York Times by a person who received it but was not authorized to share.

Ms. Fago, Mr. Walczak and his lawyer did not respond to questions.

A White House official echoed the framing in Mr. Walczak’s application, asserting in a statement to The Times that he was “targeted by the Biden administration over his family’s conservative politics.”

A $2 Million Yacht

Mr. Walczak, 55, joined his mother’s nursing home business after dropping out of college, eventually becoming chief executive. After she sold the company in 2007, they invested $18 million in a new nursing home venture based in South Florida, where they lived a luxurious lifestyle.

By 2011, prosecutors said, Mr. Walczak had stopped paying employment taxes.

Between 2016 and 2019, they said, he withheld more than $10 million from the paychecks of the nurses, doctors and others who worked at his facilities under the pretext of using it for their Social Security, Medicare and federal income taxes. Instead, he used some of the money to buy a $2 million yacht and to pay for travel and purchases at high-end retailers, including Bergdorf Goodman and Cartier, prosecutors said.

He was charged in February 2023 with 13 counts of tax crimes.

By the time he pleaded guilty to two of the counts and agreed to pay the restitution on Nov. 15, 2024, Mr. Trump had been elected for a second term in the White House.

The family had reason to believe the incoming president might look fondly on a pardon application.

Ms. Fago, 74, had helped host at least three fund-raisers for Mr. Trump’s campaigns. She and her son Joey Fago (Mr. Walczak’s half brother) and his wife attended V.I.P. events at Mr. Trump’s 2017 and 2025 inaugurations, according to social media posts, including one in which she was shown posing with Mr. Trump.

An ‘Unbelievable’ Diary

During Mr. Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, Ms. Fago tried to help the candidate in other ways.

Ashley Biden had left her diary and other belongings in a house where she had been staying in Delray Beach, Fla., when she moved to Philadelphia during the campaign, telling a friend that she planned to return to retrieve the belongings later. A woman who moved in, Aimee Harris, discovered the diary and enlisted Robert Kurlander, a longtime friend and former housemate, to help sell it.

Mr. Kurlander contacted Ms. Fago. When she was first told of the diary, she said she thought it would help Mr. Trump’s chances of winning the election, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the matter.

Mr. Kurlander and Ms. Harris brought Ms. Biden’s diary to a September 2020 fund-raiser at Ms. Fago’s home in the exclusive Admirals Cove community of Jupiter, Fla. The featured guests were Mr. Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. and the younger Mr. Trump’s girlfriend at the time, Kimberly Guilfoyle. 

At the fund-raiser, the diary was shown to Caroline Wren, the campaign finance consultant who helped organize the event.

“So I go back there, I start reading through it, and there was just unbelievable stuff,” Ms. Wren recalled last year on a podcast. “I contacted the campaign attorneys, and then that campaign attorneys said, ‘Be very careful, don’t take possession of this.’ They wrote up a whole memo and then they contacted the F.B.I. and said, ‘You need to come pick this up immediately.’”

The F.B.I. did not retrieve the diary. Instead, Mr. Kurlander and Ms. Harris entered negotiations to provide it to Project Veritas, a Trump-allied undercover media group that had been tipped to the diary’s existence by Stephanie Walczak, Ms. Fago’s daughter.

The Justice Department during Mr. Trump’s first term opened an investigation into the matter after a representative of the Biden family reported to federal authorities before the 2020 election that several of Ms. Biden’s personal items had been stolen in a burglary.

Ms. Fago and other family members spent election night 2020 at a White House watch party. After Mr. Trump lost, they were invited back the next month to attend a White House Christmas party.

During his final weeks in office, Ms. Fago was among a slew of loyalists tapped by Mr. Trump for appointment to government boards and commissions. She resisted an effort by the Biden administration to rescind her appointment to the National Cancer Advisory Board, according to her son’s pardon application, which said that she told a board representative that Mr. Biden did not have the right to remove her.

The scrutiny of the diary matter continued when Mr. Biden took office.

In November 2021, investigators obtained a search warrant related to a Project Veritas official that sought information about “potential co-conspirators,” including communications with Ms. Fago, Ms. Walczak, Mr. Kurlander, Ms. Harris and others “about obtaining, transporting, transferring, disseminating or otherwise disposing of Ashley Biden’s stolen property.”

Mr. Kurlander and Ms. Harris would later plead guilty, admitting to conspiring to steal, transport and sell the diary to Project Veritas. Ms. Harris was sentenced to one month in prison. Mr. Kurlander is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

A New Hope

When Mr. Trump won the presidency for a second time, it offered hope to Project Veritas, Ms. Fago and Mr. Walczak.

In January, with Mr. Trump preparing to move back into the White House, Ms. Fago and her family traveled to Washington for the inauguration. They got V.I.P. access to the Trump Victory rally at the Capital One Arena in Washington.

On Feb. 5, Mr. Trump’s Justice Department said it was closing the investigation into the diary. Ms. Fago and Ms. Walczak were not charged, nor was anyone from Project Veritas. 

In the meantime, a pardon application was submitted on Mr. Walczak’s behalf. It suggested that Donald Trump Jr., as well as Ms. Guilfoyle and other Trump allies, supported his clemency.

They all agreed, according to the application, that the only reason Mr. Walczak was prosecuted criminally was that he was the son of a prominent Trump supporter.

Ms. Guilfoyle declined to comment. Mr. Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

The application cited Mr. Biden’s justification for issuing a sweeping pardon to his son Hunter Biden for tax and gun crimes in December. The elder Mr. Biden had claimed in a statement that Hunter “was singled out only because he is my son.”

As Ms. Fago and Mr. Walczak awaited word on the pardon, she was invited to the Mar-a-Lago fund-raiser with Mr. Trump.

An invitation billed it as an intimate “candlelight dinner” with “very limited” space available to people who paid $1 million each. It was sponsored by MAGA Inc., a political action committee that can accept unlimited donations to support candidates and causes backed by Mr. Trump.

The ask was far more than her previous largest federal donation on record — $100,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2002 — and dwarfed the more than $12,000 she had directly donated to Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign committees.

Two people briefed on the candlelight dinner said that Ms. Fago attended. It is not clear whether she donated to MAGA Inc., or how much.

Representatives for MAGA Inc. did not respond to questions. The group has until the end of July to disclose the identities of donors from the first half of this year, which will most likely include those who paid to attend the dinner.

In a brief interview, Joey Fago downplayed the significance of his mother’s connection to the diary saga.

“There was like hundreds of pardons,” he said. “I’m sure there’s plenty of other people you can write about.”

The White House official cited the Biden administration’s effort to oust Ms. Fago from the cancer board as evidence of the political motivations that contributed to Mr. Trump’s decision to issue the pardon.

After Mr. Walczak was pardoned in the tax case, he celebrated with his mother and family while wearing a red Trump-style hat reading “Make Paul Great Again,” according to a social media postcapturing the celebration.

In the post, Joey Fago wrote, “What God has ahead of you, is greater than what is behind you,” along with the hashtag “MAGA.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/us/politics/trump-pardon-paul-walczak-tax-crimes.html

[brigidandair]

Album - Astro Mini Album 6: "Blue Flame"

Moonbin Album Bookmarks - Story Ver. 》 Book Ver.

Moonbin first stole my heart in 2017, when I saw Astro live in DC. I went in hard Jinjin biased, but Moonbin's bright personality and the obvious love he had for his teammates, Aroha, and everything he did captured me so completely that, despite a personal interaction with Jinjin, I stood no chance. The day I got my Blue Flame albums and pulled both Moonbin bookmarks, I was beyond thrilled. I admit that it's been hard to do any work on my Moonbin photocards this past year, but I want to share as much of him with others as possible, because everyone deserves to have his light in their lives. Quick note, the bookmarks and the clear tails are held together by the strings, and the scale isn't exactly portrayed here. In the interest of having a cleaner, more useful scan of each, I shrank the clear tails to fit the width of the front/back/strings. They're approximately 1 2/3 of the length of the bookmark card itself in person.

scanned by me. please give credit to brigidandair or Jasmyr if you use them!

[arqueete]

New Year's Meme 2024

I've been doing this survey for probably at least 15 years now? It's from back in Livejournal days, when we had things that were like ask memes but we just answered all of the questions. Feel free to take this survey for yourself.

1. What did you do in 2024 that you’d never done before?

I saw a total solar eclipse!!! After regretting not seeing it in 2017 I resolved to make plans to see it this year. I ended up traveling to Columbus, Ohio for a couple days and staying with a coworker who lives in the path. We sipped cocktails on her deck as it passed over us and it was exhilarating.

I signed up for a subscription box from Bon Appetit that sends me five ingredients and recipe cards that use those ingredients. Of the 25 recipes I've received, I've made 17 so far, so I think I'm making good use of the box.

I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge on a trip to New York.

I visited the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago.

For half a day, I worked in a store in the mall as part of a program at my job that put corporate office employees in the company's stores.

I adopted a letter through USPS' Operation Santa and sent gifts to some kids anonymously.

I saw The Postal Service in concert.

I started wearing a watch every day.

Two musicals I saw for the first time: Swept Away (on Broadway) and Illinoise (in Chicago.)

I saw Tim Rice host a concert of his music at a local theater.

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions and will you make more for next year?

In 2024, I wanted to get my novel-in-progress beta read, and I did that! Two people read it and I realized I have a lot I'd like to change.

I wanted to figure out a way to start budgeting again now that I share money with my husband, but I didn't manage to follow through on that one.

I wanted to read every book on my book club's schedule--I almost made it, but skipped December's. I also wanted to re-read more books I already own, and I ended up re-reading four things from my bookshelf.

My resolutions for 2025:

I want to continue reading books regularly, and will be setting a Goodreads challenge goal of 20 books again.

I want to try more new video games. I'm going to shoot for playing at least an hour in a dozen games that I haven't played more than an hour in before.

I want to volunteer somewhere. My work gives me a day off for volunteer work and I've never actually used it.

I want to finish another draft of my novel.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Not this year. 4. Did anyone close to you die? Fortunately this year has been easier in that regard.

5. What countries did you visit? No international travel this year. We did go to Ohio for the eclipse (and I went in the summer for work), to Chicago to escape the RNC, and to New York for a bit in the fall. 6. What would you like to have in 2025 that you lacked in 2024? Last year I said I wanted less stress. WELL it was an election year so that was a lot to ask.

Sorry to go and soft launch huge life updates in the New Year's Meme, but the current plan is to start trying to conceive our first and likely only child this coming summer. It's really strange to admit! I don't have many friends with kids and there's this feeling like I am way too young to be planning this when actually I am 34 and this is very much the time to do it. The idea of being pregnant by this time next year is terrifying, though barring anything that makes us change our timeline, the idea of it not happening is also terrifying because that means it will be harder than we hoped. So! We'll see how that goes! 7. What date from 2024 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? November 5th. The election hit me really hard. 8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I guess making the eclipse trip happen? It's weird to think how far back I resolved to plan a trip for a specific day in the future without having any idea what my life would look like. 9. What was your biggest failure? I think this year was a lot of getting by and I wasn't very good at managing "adult stuff." My to-do list was always full of things I was putting off, I had plants die because I wasn't watering them consistently enough, and we didn't keep a budget or keep the house as clean as I'd like. 10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I had a stubborn yeast infection and it took a long time to feel normal again.

11. What was the best thing you bought? I got a new laptop this year and it was really about time. I've been enjoying playing video games even more now. 12. Whose behavior merited celebration? I'm a part of a local community group for bisexuals and we accomplished a lot this year.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? I hate knowing that I had put everyone who voted for Trump back on the 2016 survey and now we're right back here again. 14. Where did most of your money go? Besides bills, probably traveling. 15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? A theater in my city put on the Deaf West version of Spring Awakening! It was so good and I went many times! 16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2024? The top song on my Spotify this year was "Without Your Love" by The Paper Kites ft Julia Stone because I listened to it on repeat so much while writing.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: i. Happier or sadder? Sadder. ii. Older or wiser? Wiser. iii. Thinner or fatter? The same. iv. Richer or poorer? Richer. 18. What do you wish you’d done more of? I meant to do more rollerblading when the weather was nice and then I didn't :( 19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Curling up on the couch with my laptop, especially while working, because it hasn't been good for my body. 20. How will you be spending Christmas? Christmas was a little chaotic schedule-wise this year. On the 23rd, my husband and I went out to dinner and opened our gifts for each other. On the 24th, we had dinner with his parents and brother and opened gifts at their place. On the 25th, we had a late lunch with his extended family, and then left to go have an early dinner with my family where there was some drama over some family members coming despite contagious illness going around in their household. It was a lot.

21. How will you be spending New Year’s Eve? We had dinner at a local brewery that had an event celebrating the Swedish New Year (so that they could toast at 5pm.) Then we went out for cocktails.

22. Did you fall in love in 2024? I celebrated my second anniversary with my husband (we went to a small plates restaurant we love called Odd Duck.) 23. How many one-night stands? None.

24. What was your favorite TV program? I'm struggling to remember what TV I even watched this year. I said The Bear last year but I guess I'll say it again?

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I don't know that I knew anything about Robert F Kennedy Jr last year and now I have to worry about him. 26. What was the best book you read? I read so much this year! Last year I finished 18 books and this year I finished 27, blowing through my goal of 20.

The Beautiful Ones by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia enthralled me and I already can't wait to re-read that one next year. Her book Mexican Gothic impressed me a lot but also made me realize that I just can't handle books with horror elements, so I was so happy she wrote this book that is more of a historical fantasy romance to draw me back into her writing.

Some of the things I loved about that book reminded me of Mairelon the Magician by Patricia C Wrede, which was an old favorite, so I decided to track down a copy. I was really worried about picking it up again because what if it turned out to be terrible despite my great memories? But I actually devoured it (and its sequel) like I was a kid all over again.

The best nonfiction I read was How the World Ran Out of Everything by Peter S. Goodman, which talks about the global supply chain through the lens of how things went awry at the start of the pandemic. I came away from it feeling like I had unlocked really important context about how the economy works (and how much we're all getting screwed.) 27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Like seemingly everyone, I got into Chappell Roan this summer.

28. What did you want and get? Last Christmas I preordered a watch for myself (an automatic mechanical watch with a sea lion that swims around and around) and it arrived in the spring. I had some problems with it and ended up needing a replacement at some point, but now I have it and it's a comfort to me.

29. What did you want and not get? After seeing Tim Rice do a fundraiser show at a local theater where they did a lot of Chess songs and he mentioned the plan to bring Chess to Broadway in 2025, I was hopeful that we'd either hear concrete news about that by now and/or that the local theater in question might put it in their upcoming season. No for both. 30. What was your favorite film of this year? Of the films released this year, I saw Challengers, Anora, and Wicked. I enjoyed all three and would see any of them again. It's hard to pick a favorite. I'm leaning toward Anora.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 34. I took the day off work and went to go see Wicked by myself, and then in the evening my husband and I got dinner at a place we love called Aperitivo. My birthday is always a little weird because it's so close to Thanksgiving, so I ate my birthday cake on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and then also saw The Muppet Christmas Carol accompanied by a live orchestra on that Sunday as a birthday activity.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Not staring down another Trump presidency. 33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2024? The summer was all about cute dresses again this year, while in the colder weather I was into oversized sweaters and men's shirts with the sleeves rolled up. I'm gravitating toward looser jeans and more comfort-centered looks. 34. What kept you sane? When I was stressing about the election in the later part of the year, writing postcards for Postcards to Voters was a way I channeled that anxiety. More generally, books and going for walks. 35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I have a little celebrity crush on the stand-up comedian Taylor Tomlinson. 36. What political issue stirred you the most? The rise of fascism in the United States. This year it really felt like anything else I wanted to care about had to be secondary to that. 37. Who did you miss? I no longer have a membership at a pottery studio and while that seems to have been a good move, I do wonder what some of the people there are up to now. 38. Who was the best new person you met? Some new people started coming to the bi book club I'm in this year and I've liked meeting people that way. 39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2024: As we reach the end of 2024 I am feeling very disillusioned and like I learned a lesson about assuming that I live in a uniquely enlightened time where history might not repeat itself. The idea that my country or the world will come together to do hard things is not something I have a lot of hope about right now. I am focused on supporting the people in my community who share my values.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

Some folks are born made to wave the flag Ooh, they're red, white and blue And when the band plays "Hail to the Chief" Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord

Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Fortunate Son"

[1-50thofabuck]

Two of my Marvel Super Heroes(FASERIP) characters with images & homemade trading cards

I had two main characters I played in the Marvel Super Heroes RPG in recent years. I used HeroMachine 3 a lot, for these and other RPG characters and monsters. Sadly it's not available any longer. (There's a way to run it on your PC but I can't get it to work correctly. I see they "fixed" 2.5 so I'm going to check that out after I finish this!)

To the point: I really liked these two characters, and I decided to make a sort of character sheet that was modeled on these old Marvel comic book trading cards we used to buy when we were kids. I'd like to share those, and the backgrounds of the characters. I hope you enjoy them, and feel free to make use of them in your own games if you wish.

The Frank trading card has a different, more friendly/cutesy/cartoonish image than the original I had put together. This is because Frank was an idea I had had several years prior for a game that didn't quite work out, and in the interim I had misplaced the image and had to create a new one! The "cards" were made in 2017. (I also, rather embarrassingly, reversed the shadows and highlights on Frank's pants in the original image - ack!)

The Doodle Bug image doesn't include the "doodle shell" because I just didn't have any way to create it. I'm no artist. I think Doodle Bug is my favorite character. The card has a blank "as a power stunt ___ times" so that I could use the card as a character sheet and track uses of power stunts.

For the record, the character was always intended to have art that could interact with things, but I didn't know it was only an option in Marvel - in DC Heroes, it's a part of the "animate image" power, which is at least partially where I originated the character concept. Even though the Judge would let you have whatever you wanted within reason, and if I had written it down at the beginning they'd have let me have it, and only didn't due to a misunderstanding, they refused it and I had to learn it as a power stunt. As far as I'm concerned, canonically, the character is as intended, with this other individual's game reflecting an alternate universe version. (I never dug the whole "superheroes as cops" thing anyway and it was the second Marvel game in a row I was in that pulled that stuff.)

Doodle Bug

Background: Lori R. Manley and William Scoggins went from teenage friends to down-on-their-luck petty crooks.

It was then that Scoggins(a security guard by trade) revealed what he had created - a suit he had modified based on schematics and parts he had copied and/or pilfered from a company he contracted for. The suit enabled him to fly, gave him radar sense, and three types of gas attacks: a knockout gas, a fog, and most fun of all for a thrill-seeker like Scoggins, a nauseating spray. With this suit, under the identity Stink Bug, they would be able to make a lot more money(and he would get some exciting new kicks).

Lori, both excited at the news and finding a perfect opportunity to reveal her own abilities, admitted that she had a mutant power - she could draw sketches at lightning speed that could come to life! Suggesting that her powers could also match her lovers' bug theme, they set about at once to build her a suit of her own. The result was the Doodle Shell. Made up of interlocking steel plates, they are worn on the back as a shell. As desired, the Doodle Shell will "curl," the plates shifting forward and forming a wheel-shape which protects the whole body and allows the wearer to roll("Hyper-Running") to safety. When not "curled," the wearer is protected by the shell from behind and has the ability to dig, thanks to a harness connected to the hands and attached to the shell.

Taking the name Doodle Bug, she and her partner Stink Bug carried on the lives of petty super villains, never killing anyone or displaying any real sociopathic tendencies. They were like loser versions of Alias Smith and Jones.

This lasted until a job where they were hired by the psychopathic scientist Dr. A. Namoli to combat their mutual arch-nemeses: Fluid, the Grey Hurricane and the Hyena. When the Bothersome Bugs realized Dr. Namoli was actually going to disperse their enemies' atoms into another dimension, they turned on their boss, saving the heroes and quickly escaping.

Deliberating on their careers and considering the newest turn of events, the two unanimously decided that criminals and villains were losers by nature and that being heroes seemed much more entertaining and profitable. Never really having their hearts in being truly "bad" to begin with, they began a new stage in life. The Belligerent Beetle and the Impetuous Insect were no longer petty, selfish supervillains with delusions of grandeur: they were now petty, selfish superheroes with delusions of grandeur. And the world is a slightly better place for it.

Frank

Background: A.I.M., researching the legends of Frankenstein, discovered that the stories were based on fact, and that the "monster" was created not from dead body parts but almost as something of a golem. Reproducing Frankenstein's experiments, they created a monstrosity to aid them in their goals. Unfortunately for them, this creature was not naturally inclined to evil and escaped. Discovering the truth of his past, the creature named itself Frank. Frank, despite being a "monster" and a "freak," is not only good-natured but also possessing a fine sense of humor and a positive outlook on existence, and enjoys defeating the forces of crime and evil while pondering his existence.

Much like the creature of lore, Frank is very tall, muscular and broad, with yellow, translucent skin through which veins, arteries and muscle can be seen, with pale, yellow, watery eyes. Though this differs from the popularized film version of the monster, Frank's powers also differ somewhat from what is expected, such as his ability to separate parts of his body which may act under his power.

[oobleckgargle]

Batman: White Knight #1 (December 2017)

Batman and Joker conversing mid-fight in front of others

Joker: “We’re a team, Bats. Admit it! That’s our dynamic. All that’s missing is the make-up sex. I don’t expect you to acknowledge it. You are, after all, the distancer. I’m the overly complicated one!”

Batman: “You only pretend we’re a team because it gives you purpose and makes you feel special. But your ego won’t let you see the truth.”

Joker: “And what’s that?”

Batman: “You don’t matter. Not to me, not to Gotham. Not to anyone.”

Joker: “Ouch. Cards on the table, huh? Is this the part where we get to be completely honest with each other? Because I don’t have to hold back.”

Batman: “You’re not holding back--you’ve got nothing left.”

Joker: “After all these years, you still have no idea of what I’m capable of? I could have beaten you at any point, turned this city completely against you whenever I wanted. But I chose to hold back--giving you only what you could handle--because I didn’t want to wreck what we had. Admit it--I gave you Gotham City! This corrupt war zone is the home we created together. The only reason Gotham allows you to exist is because they’re so terrified of me! Admit it!”

Batman: “Finished?”

Joker: “I’m the only one who really knows you, Batman! Your vigilantism isn’t about justice--it’s about control: fixing this city is your pathetic way of salvaging the broken bits of your anima. But you’re too stupid to see that it hasn’t worked--crime has become your therapy, and Gotham your victim. You’ve dragged us all into your perpetual halloween!”

Batman: “Enough.”

Joker: “Admit it. You can’t even build a family because the very thought of one terrifies you! How many innocent children will you ruin with your nightmare?”

Nightwing: “Shut up!”

Joker: “Is that Nightwing or Robin? I’ve lost track because they keep disapearing.”

Batman: “Enough!”

Joker: “Even Gordon is fed up, watching his men turned into cannon fodder on the front lines of a war they didn’t ask for. It’s falling apart and you’re incapable of stopping it! Admit it! Face it. The greatest villain… in Gotham City… is you!”

Batman: “Stop talking!”

Joker: “I see Gotham more clearly than any of you… but you won’t admit it. To you, I’m just a psycho in makeup. You left me no choice… but to come here tonight… to probe it to you… with these.” (Joker holding up a pill bottle from where he lay under Batman, beaten and crying) “If I can get better, I can get this city back on track… finally to show you… that you need me.”