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“I want you.” <- platonically

“I want to hold you close, feeling both protective and protected, while nothing of the world exists but us.” <- platonically

“I want to share my darkest secrets with you, and make them lighter through the telling.” <- platonically

“I want to entwine our souls like Borromean rings - never chained, yet securely linked.” <- platonically

“I want to be there for your worst days, and celebrate your best.” <- platonically

“I want to admire your soul like the artwork it is.” <- platonically

“I want to love you.” <- platonically

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((Piccolo then choked on his drink and had a coughing fit.))

Was thinking about how funny things turn out with Piccolo and the Son family and this silly idea came out.

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you can lead a horse to water, teach it to fish, and then look into its mouth

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Pages 29 and 30 of my sketchbook

Drew a bunch of different swords, knives, and spears

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Animated scrap metal figures by Guillermo Galetti

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When I was in college, I got my girlfriend to start playing Magic: the Gathering.

            To be fair, I wasn’t the one to first introduce her to the game. We had several mutual friends who played, and they’re the ones who taught her how, but it was because of me that she actually decided to get into it.

            Her first deck was one that I built for her. A life gain deck, with Oloro as the commander. Her second deck was the Ur-Dragon preconstructed deck from C17. But for her third deck, we built it together. It was, loosely speaking, an eldrazi tribal deck with a gates subtheme. And the commander of the deck was Golos, Tireless Pilgrim.

            I have very fond memories of that Golos deck. I remember going through my collection to find cards that I thought might be good. I spent the better part of year trading for any card I saw that seemed like it would be fun in the deck. When I had a massive stack of cards assembled, she and I sat down and went through them all, finding which ones she liked and which ones she wasn’t thrilled about. And the deck that resulted at the end of it all was super fun. It always did something big and splashy, although what exactly that was would vary quite a bit.

            When she broke up with me, she left all of my stuff that was still at her place with a mutual friend of ours for me to pick up. In with it was her three commander decks. I had, after all, given her almost all of those cards. And she had, after all, played the game because of me.

            Of the three decks, Golos is the one I left alone for the longest time. It sat on a shelf for months before finally I picked it up, made a few small edits to it, and started playing it again. One of those edits was swapping out the commander for Kenrith, the Returned King, because shortly after the two of us had broken up Golos had been banned.

            The Kenrith deck started out basically the same as Golos had been, but over time it of course changed. And then, when Modern Horizons 3 came out, it changed a lot. With actual five color eldrazi commanders available, the deck was converted to center around Azlask, the Swelling Scourge. It felt good to have something in the command zone that really fit with what the original idea for the deck was meant to be.

            Recently, control of the commander format passed from the Rules Committee to Wizards of the Coast. As part of the announcement, WotC said that they would be looking at the ban list for the format and potentially unbanning some cards. Speculation abounds, and no one knows exactly what will come of this, but upon hearing that my thoughts turned to Golos.

            I still have Golos. I could not bear the thought of getting rid of him. But I no longer have his deck, not really. I have something that used to be his deck, but it has changed. Golos no longer fits in it. If they were to unban him, I would be glad and hope that many others could have the fun with that card that I once had. But as much as I reminisce on times gone by, I myself cannot go back.

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Swimming rabbit

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Art by Simone Ferriero

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A little late to the party but after seeing so many Mikus in other cultures decided to do one from my own and well I’m from Pittsburgh and let me tell you our culture is road rage

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So it looks like NaNoWriMo are happy to have AI as part of their community. Miss me with that bullshit. Generative artificial intelligence is an active threat to creativity and the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people in creative fields.

Please signal boost this so writers can make an informed choice about whether to continue to take part in such a community.

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Some writers: *meticulously plan out every plot point and the tone and meanings before they start writing*

Me:

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As a writer, my hobbies include doing anything other than writing.