#Red Penguin Marketing

[intheupside]

• Penguins sources said multiple teams have made strong pitches for Bryan Rust, who owns a full no-movement clause until July 2025. Rust is injured and has dealt with three separate injuries this season, all of which have caused him to miss time. However, he’s been excellent this season and has a deserved reputation as one of hockey’s best big-game performers.

The Detroit Red Wings have shown the most interest in Rust, perhaps not surprisingly. Rust is a Michigan native, and the young Red Wings are on the verge of making their long-awaited return to the postseason. Rust, a wonderful two-way player whose trademark speed remains, would be a veteran presence who could make the Red Wings better this spring.

However, Dubas did not ask Rust to waive his no-movement clause.

It remains to be seen if Rust will remain in Pittsburgh for the entirety of his contract, but don’t expect him to be dealt this week. The Penguins greatly value him, and, while much is rightfully made about Crosby’s preference for Guentzel as a linemate, the same can be said of Rust.

• While it’s not a certainty that Guentzel will be traded, it’s very likely.

A bidding war is ongoing. The Edmonton Oilers have aggressively inquired about Guentzel and would love to add him to their already potent top-six forward mix.

The Vancouver Canucks are also interested. They don’t have a first-round pick to offer this season, but again, that’s not necessarily a dealbreaker if the right young players or prospects are included.

Rutherford, now the president of hockey operations in Vancouver and Rick Tocchet, the Canucks head coach, have obvious Pittsburgh ties and have a particular affection for Guentzel.

The Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers also have interest in the 29-year-old forward.

This time of year, most teams inquire about players. General managers aren’t doing their jobs if they don’t at least gauge the market. But the interest in Guentzel is very significant.

• It wouldn’t come as a surprise if the Penguins were to deal a goaltender, with Alex Nedeljkovic being the most likely to be dealt.

It’s not inconceivable that Tristan Jarry could be traded, but that seems unlikely unless a team blows Dubas away with an offer he can’t refuse.

pens trade chatter from the athletic

[pastafossa]

Happy Birthday and a merry 6 years to TRT! 🎂 🎁 🎈 🎉 🍰

🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯 🕯

Some FUN TRIVIA FACTS:

TRT's sun sign is VIRGO and its moon sign is LEO!

After 6 years, its current wordcount is 932k words. If you put that in size 12 arial font, single-spaced, this would come to about 2000 pages, and even more if the pages were the usual mass market paperback size!

TRT is now 40 in cat years!

The Man in the White Coat is my tribute to the Mad Scientist trope common in scifi, which is one of my favorite genres!

It is old enough developmentally to tie its shoes! Keep going, TRT!

Ciro is partially inspired by John Marcone from The Dresden Files!

TRT shares a birthday with literary great Agatha Christie! Maybe I'll introduce poison-based murder into the fic in her honor...

The idea of seeing threads came to me after seeing a meme about red threads tying soul mates together. Everything that came after - the other threads, the thread world, how it works, is unique to TRT!

TRT is now longer than War and Peace, and Crime and Punishment combined! So if you've read all of TRT so far, then you have the perfect middle finger to anyone who tries to say you can't focus on longer stories!

The inciting penguin documentary that Foggy drunkenly watched (which led to him declaring Matt and Jane 'penguins') was about Adelie penguins specifically!

Jane has a leather jacket because I love leather jackets and think all badass characters should have a leather jacket! And so you should you! EVERYONE DESERVES A COOL LEATHER JACKET.

The long hiatus between Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 was because I had life things pop up. During that hiatus, I realized the plotline/ending needed some work, so I spent those two years outlining, and I also wound up doing a bunch of additional novel writing classes just because I wanted to learn. A lot of this wound up influencing TRT!

The grey threads are one of the only threads that no one has solved yet!

There are absolutely some bad people working for Cyrus James. There is also a guy named Kyle. He is there not for Evil Purposes (tm) but instead because this was the only place he could work that would allow him to pay off his student loans.

When I started TRT, I thought maybe 5 people total would read it. I was told five people total would read it by some shitty people. So I wrote it expecting five total people would read it, and told myself at least I'd enjoy it, and I could use it to learn. In other words: I had ZERO idea TRT would take off like this. None. Nada. Zip. AND LOOK AT US NOW, BABY. FUCK THE HATERS, 6 YEARS AND GOIN' STRONG.

Based on my outline, we're a bit over halfway to the end!

I hope you enjoyed these TRT funfacts. And I hope you know: this fic isn't just me. It's you, too. This fic has become so much larger than just me. It's the TRT playlist you've sent songs in for that keeps me inspired when writing. It's the fanart I look at to give me a boost. It's your sweet comments and likes and kudos and messages that encourage me when I'm sick or depressed. It's the people who've made friends over this fic, or who've been inspired to write fic themselves, adding beautiful works to the community that we all use to keep going. It's all of this love for both TRT and Matt, and I'm so happy that I've been able to contribute in at least a small way in keeping Charlie!Daredevil love alive even after the show's been gone for years now. I love you all so, so goddamn much. I love this fandom. I love TRT with all my heart. Thank you so much for being a part of these past six years through cancelations, through your high school and college years and beyond, through my ups and downs of moving and sickness and fiberglass and pandemic craziness, through late night chapter drops and wild twists and turns.

And I hope the next few years as we enter the second half of this story are just as amazing!

[wishfishy]

When I first heard that a new Endless Ocean was going to be released, I was incredibly excited. Just absolutely over-the-moon excited. You see, Endless Ocean 2: Blue World (also called Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep) is one of my favourite games of all time. Scratch that: it is my favourite game. It was far from perfect, but I loved it dearly and happily sank hundreds if not thousands of hours into it.

EO2 is a diving game for the wii that was released in 2010, and I have never been able to find a game quite like it. The main story was a bit cheesy, but charming and engaging, with a bevy of likeable if occasionally one-note characters, and the game itself had surprising depths (diving pun fully intended). The game had 12 different diving maps in 6 locations and while the specific areas were fictitious, they were based on very real places (the South Pacific, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, as well as a freshwater river in the Amazon) and this was reflected in the species found in each area, with a few exceptions here and there.  You could explore shallow coral reefs, a sunken castle, ancient temples, abyssal depths, a kelp forest, sandy beaches, riverbanks, hidden coves with murals, and much more. You also had a small private island as a hub location, a personal reef you could decorate, and a public aquarium which you could fill with any of the non-legendary species you discovered.

Speaking of which, the game featured 340 different species of marine and freshwater fish, sharks, rays, marine mammals, penguins, shore birds, reptiles, crustaceans, cephalopods and other invertebrates. Some of these also had different models for young or different genders. You could find truly miniscule species that most other diving games overlook entirely in zoom-spots (such as gobies and nudibranchs), and you could interact with most by feeding, touching or even riding in the case of large marine life. And on top of this you could also find legendary creatures, which could be individuals of extant species with unusual colouring or size, or even extinct species, and could be exceedingly hard to find but entirely rewarding.

This is already getting to be much too long but on top of all this you could customize your diver character, buy things for your island hub, decorate and populate a private reef to propagate and release fish, create various aquarium exhibits, discover a great many side-quests, upgrade equipment, take and sell photographs, heal sick animals, search for and sell salvage, find collectable coins, train dolphin partners, take requests for guided tours, dolphin shows, salvage and photos, dodge or placate aggressive sharks, and more that I am probably forgetting. It’s been a while since I’ve played the game, as I no longer have a wii and don’t have the first clue on how to emulate games on my PC. All this is to say that this game was something special, and I have never been able to find anything remotely close to it. And seeing as how the last one was released almost 15 years ago, I had long given up hope for an Endless Ocean 3.

And then lo and behold, a trailer dropped from out of nowhere for Endless Ocean Luminous! And it was releasing in a month! Holy Shit! What!? Yes!

But alas, the more information came out about the game, the more that excitement started to wane. A focus on multiplayer? Procedural generation? Only one map? The only character being an AI that sounded like all those awful tiktok voices? To be clear, I wasn’t expecting Luminous to be the next GoTY. I wasn’t even expecting it to be an exact replica of EO2, or continue the storyline. If it had even a fraction of what I liked about the previous game I was going to be one happy camper. I assumed that the marketing was focusing on the multiplayer aspect instead of the single-player story, that hopefully the procedurally generated map was exclusive to that multiplayer. Surely the single player mode would extend past what little was shown in the trailers. Some things seemed promising, such as an advertised 500+ species, and even more prehistoric marine life. But again, alas, what I have seen since the release is the barest and palest reflection of what I enjoyed about the previous game. I could understand cutting some content, such as the dolphin training and shows, considering the controversy of cetaceans in captivity. But it seems like there is no aquarium, no central hub of any type, no characters beyond the aforementioned AI and a single faceless diver, salvage reduced to a single click, an incredibly reduced story consisting mostly of scanning fish, no ability to feed or interact with fish and fish behaviour also seems to be quite reduced. At least photography still appears to be in the game, though its unclear to what point. Are there still photo requests? The ability for some critters to swim along with or attach to your diver looks cute at least. But everything I’ve watched so far just feels so… lifeless. Empty. As if the whole game was AI generated, which I’m at least %75 sure isn’t the case.

But I’m left kind of baffled by the direction that this game was taken in. I’ve been trying to find any information about it’s development with little to no success. Why the focus on multiplayer to the exclusion of a single player story beyond the bare minimum? What lead to the choice to have a single, procedurally generated map instead of separate, smaller, but more scientifically accurate maps? Or even a single smaller but purposefully designed map? Was this game more like the previous games at any point in its conception or development or was it always intended to be such a departure?

[ddarker-dreams]

Nexus Character Database.

"Hey, Lear, why are you ignoring my texts again? What if I was getting robbed at gunpoint and needed your help?"

"Why would they let you use your phone during a robbery, Nona?"

"Stop getting all wrapped up in the little details. The important thing is that you check what I sent."

"Alright, alright, let's see... huh. A personality test? Aren't those a pseudoscience?"

"What a lame thing to say. Just take it already. I'll tell you what Our-Lord-And-Savior-The-Exalted-One got if you do. Woah, geez, calm down, at least let it load!"

Nexus index.

Name: Lear (Nickname given by Miss Phaeales, birth name name is Vincent Metellus) Age: 118 Species: Nymphalian Faction: LOTUS-EATER World: Eris Path: Abundance Combat type: Ice Birthday: June 28th Sexuality: [First] Phaeales (he’s het) Height: 5′8 Hair color: Sandy blonde Eye color: Blue, with a white ring around his pupils Favorite animal: Penguins Favorite food: Pasteli, hot cocoa with marshmallows Least favorite food: Gummies, green olives Favorite things: Cooking, baking, gardening, sewing, mixology, sales at the food market and his red hairpins. Least favorite things: Group chats with more than three people, ads, sports and anything that causes Miss Phaeales distress. Clothing style: Casual. Lots of sweaters, turtlenecks, and the occasional trench coat. Prefers warm neutral colors. MBTI: INFP

Lear is considered by his co-workers to be a diligent yet reserved worker. He rarely calls out sick, never slacks off, and can get along with anyone. Most sigh in relief when they're put on the same shift as him. He wordlessly carries out tasks without anyone's prompting. Despite his solid reputation at the LOTUS-EATER, not much is known about him. He doesn't accept invitations to social outings or seek the companionship of others. These requests are turned down with a soft smile and apologetic look, which makes harboring any ill-will toward him difficult.

In his heart, he can't bring himself to enjoy the freedoms deprived from the one he treasures most. He swore he'd remain by the side of a girl who abruptly stumbled into his melancholic life. This unruly girl would go on to bring excitement and adventure wherever she went. Those boring cycles spent on his lonesome were no more. Her happiness became his, a fact that's never changed. He contents himself on caring for those who he's come to be close to.

Name: Nona Age: 113 Species: Nymphalian Faction: LOTUS-EATER, Arc's Pinion (formally) World: Eris Path: Nihility Combat type: Fire Birthday: November 3rd Sexuality: Pansexual Height: 5′3 Hair color: Chestnut brown Eye color: Amber Favorite animal: Octopi (specifically the dumbo octopus) Favorite food: Red velvet cake Least favorite food: Legumes, fatty meats Favorite things: Punk rock, video games (racing in particular), drumming, clothes, accessories, makeup and plushies Least favorite things: Work, 99% of the people she meets, capitalism and the IPC Clothing style: Gothic lolita and sweet lolita, anything super cute MBTI: ESFP

"A place where anyone can enter, but few can leave."

This would best describe Arc, the purposefully forgotten quadrant of Perianth II. Most who are born here never get to see light, artificial or otherwise. Although Nymphalian's have excellent night vision, Nona was never able to accept navigating a world of darkness. She joined a group of likeminded folk who supposedly sought to better the conditions in Arc. For many years, she sacrificed plenty to realize this dream. After overhearing two of the most prominent leaders squabble over the most insignificant things, she realized the futility of relying on others for a better future.

There had been talks of Nona infiltrating the LOTUS-EATER, as she exhibited the traits necessary for an Arbiter's field of work. Her application for Thelx citizenship was readily accepted. Instead of carrying out her group's wishes, she decided to live for herself. Though Nona was initially standoffish toward her fellow LOTUS-EATER co-workers, she soon formed a bond with her mentor, [First] Phaeales and the bartender Lear.

[whalehouse1]

The sad thing about the flaws in the writing of Batman characters by character:

Batman: Bruce Wayne erasure, edge lord writers who like toxic masculinity and no concept of Bruce’s money as plot.

Dick: His sexualization being used as a joke and nowadays making him a dumb blond stereotype.

Jason: Edgelord writing.

Barbara: Keeping her young and a deeply unsettling thought process of feminism where she is actively being toxic to Dick and just is nasty to Cass and Steph (pre-Batgirls I hope she is better to them in that).

Tim: His writers keep trying to make him relatable by making him chauvinistic, misogynistic, and when they do something interesting it’s either hollow (Sum of Our Parts) or seems like it belongs in an Else World (Red Robin and Gun Batman).

Stephanie: Gets treated like she’s useless.

Cass: Took an extremely nuanced character and reduced her to the pretty Chinese girl who doesn’t speak stereotype which is horrific.

Damian: Trying to mass market him with manga and romance, magic is here for some reason and with the looming potential of his origin being part of the upcoming movie, potentially the destruction of Talia’s reputation again. Have fun with that one Talia fans…

Duke: He doesn’t get written about.

Joker: DC puts him in more stuff than necessary and it dilutes him.

Harley Quinn: Fundamental misunderstanding of her character and the same stupid blondification they give to Dick.

Poison Ivy: The most misanthropic villain is an anti-hero and like Tim is only defined by her relationship (I hope the new Ivy series focuses on her but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet).

Riddler: Lazy in the thought process which you cannot be with him.

Scarecrow/Mad Hatter: Always a lackey, never the rogue.

Killer Croc/Bane: You know they do have brains right? Sure Croc is dumber, but Hannibal Lectoring him to make him scarier doesn’t work when everything is cannibalism and doesn’t fit his history or personality at all.

Two-Face/Catwoman/Penguin: No notes you’re not going too bad with them imo atm.

[rarespawnwrites]

pt 3 - no hearts in my hands but i've got diamonds up my sleeve

The Beginning - Prev

Now with an AO3 version you can subscribe to! Because I'm pretty sure like half of you are bots, but I'm doing my best to tag the folks who asked anyway.

So, who's ready for Danny to get to the DC universe? Because I sure am!

~~~

Tim was absolutely not going to turn his communicator back on until he’d fished Hood out of whatever plane of reality he’d been blasted into. He would just retrieve the man, safe and sound, and neglect to mention this interlude in his report. Everyone fine, no drama, and no overreactions from overbearing family members. It’s not like the Red Hood was going to file one. This would work out.

He had finally figured out this clunky villain tech enough to get it to use his brother’s energy signature as a point of reference. He was in an abandoned industrial area, so it shouldn’t be a problem if there was an issue with the portal opening. Now he just needed to set a distance from that point of reference to ensure that if the portal did open, it wouldn’t open literally on top of Hood.

He pointed and shot, and a glowing green portal ripped a hole in reality. Something beyond the entrance to the portal was glowing so brightly that Tim squinted. Once his eyes adjusted, the sight he witnessed was eyebrow raising.

Tim hadn’t gotten a good look through the portal last time. What he saw now was a group fighting on a shoreline, a body of water trailing off into the distance. What was strange was that everything in view seemed to be washed in shades of green. It was most intense in the water and the sky; Tim couldn’t actually tell where in the distance the waterline ended and the sky began. He wondered if he was seeing the actual appearance of the other side, or if the green light of the portal was that heavy a filter.

In the fight, the Red Hood and a white-haired teenager faced off against a ghoulish army of… gangsters? Traffickers, too… Though the people were clearly inhuman in appearance now, he recognized some of those faces from case files. Hood was wielding two weapons that burned with such intense light that Tim couldn’t look directly at them, much less make out what they were.

The portal’s opening had drawn everyone’s attention. In the brief lull in the fight, the unknown teenager snagged Hood by the back of his jacket and flew toward the portal’s entrance. Whatever noise Jason made in response to that was unintelligible through the voice changer in his helmet.

“Close it, close it, close it, close it!” the teen chanted urgently, almost before the two had even gotten clear. The crowd they’d been fighting charged after them, and in the lead flew the bodiless heads of eight former lieutenants who Tim definitely recognized. He had a sudden intuition about why Hood, at least, had been fighting that particular crowd of… spirits? Alternates?

He didn’t wait to find out. Quickly, he hit the button to close the portal, eyes wide behind his mask as the heads reached the entrance just as it was closing. In the end, none of them got through, though there was a splatter of green ooze at the portal’s final closing.

Hood was dropped to the ground and landed heavily on his feet before whirling to take in his surroundings. His chest heaved a few times while he caught his breath. Tim noted that he looked injured; his body armor was shredded at the torso. The bleeding seemed minor, so probably low priority, unless Hood showed other symptoms.

“Tell me,” Hood said between breaths, “that this is the right Earth, Red.” He still had hold of the weapons he’d been using before, which splashed eerie light in every direction. Tim could make out the hilts of what were presumably swords in Hood’s hands, but he couldn’t look directly at them, so who knew.

Tim gave him their Earth’s designation, then followed up with, “We were looking into some strange tech that’s been popping up on the black market recently. We found this thing,” Tim waved the handheld device around a bit, “with Penguin. He objected to us examining it, and you got knocked into the portal that opened in the middle of the—ah—disagreement.”

Hood relaxed. He transferred one of his swords to his other hand, holding them both up like torches to illuminate the abandoned factory’s floor space. “Yup, sounds about right.” He rotated a shoulder a few times and yawned loudly. “Ugh, dimension travel is always exhausting.”

Stepping over to his companion, Hood got in the guy’s personal space and waved a hand in front of his eyes. “Hey, Phantom, anyone home? Your pupils are like dinner plates, pal. You get hit with something?”

Tim shifted his attention to realize that the stranger, Phantom, had been floating in place, staring intently at Tim ever since Phantom had put Hood down. When Tim’s eyes met Phantom’s through the lenses of Tim’s mask, there was a strange buzz, like the hiss of static on a bad comm line. His shoulders jerked and he leaned back instinctively, feeling small shocks like static traveling up and down his limbs.

Phantom looked somewhere close to his age, with pallid skin tinged just slightly green, like a highlight. His eyes were also green, as well as luminescent. He was dressed in a black hazmat suit with white accents and a stylized D at the center of his chest. Given his name, the P-shaped gap in the D was likely intentional. He wore a lavender canvas backpack, a splash of color that looked jarring against the rest of him. His white hair had an otherworldly, fluttering texture to it. The last time Tim had seen hair with a texture like that had been… Secret, his old ghostly teammate.

He filed that observation away and realized that he, too, had started staring.

Red Hood looked between the two of them, bewildered. “O~kay,” he said slowly. “Uh, should I go, or…”

Phantom blinked and did a full-body shake, as though he’d been splashed with cold water. He’d opened his mouth to say something when his eyes caught the device Tim was holding. He paused. Then he turned back to where the portal had been and landed, feet on the ground for the first time. Shouldering off his backpack, he held it in one hand and unzipped it partway with the other.

“Hey, so,” he said faux-casually as he dug around in the bag, “what do you guys call that goop that got on the ground?” He pulled out a… hand vacuum? …and wandered toward the puddle.

Tim stared blankly, leaving it to Hood to answer.

“Goop works, I guess?” Hood shrugged. “Ooze, maybe? Ghost blood?”

Phantom knelt by the puddle, turned on the vacuum, and sucked up the puddle in a handful of seconds.

“So it’s not something you’ve seen before?” Phantom shoved the hand vac back in his bag, zipping it up and throwing it back around his shoulders as he stood.

“Actually…” Red Hood trailed off, staring toward where the green puddle had been. Tim had a guess about what he was comparing it to.

“I knew a ghost once,” he volunteered, steering the conversation away from that topic. “When something could actually injure her, I think her blood looked something like that.”

“Hm,” Phantom said as he drifted back, stopping near Tim. “Are there a lot of us out here?”

Tim tilted his head, just slightly. “Us? So you are a ghost then.”

“Oh yeah,” Red Hood said, as though it were just occurring to him. “Guess I didn’t introduce you. Red Robin, this is Phantom, the ghost who decided to spend his time saving my ass in the Ghost Zone.” He flung his free hand out, gesturing toward Phantom, then gestured back toward Tim. “Phantom, this is Red Robin, a weirdo who likes hanging out in unlit abandoned factories.”

“You’re such an asshole.” Tim rolled his eyes at Hood. The lenses covered it, but the way his head moved with it conveyed the intent well enough. He stepped forward, toward Phantom, and reached out to shake hands. “Nice to meet you, Phantom.”

Phantom smiled a small, sharp little flash of teeth, looking Tim in the eyes as he also reached out. Then his hand bypassed Tim’s entirely to snatch the device out of Tim’s other hand.

“Hey!”

“So! Red Hood, Red Robin…” Phantom said cheerfully, dodging out of the way of Tim’s attempts to swipe it back. “Red seems pretty popular with the masked crowd. Should I cave to peer pressure? How does ‘Red Phantom’ sound?”

“It sounds like you might be red-green colorblind,” Tim replied without pausing. “Also: you don’t even wear a mask.”

“Rude.” Phantom flew back out of easy range, looking over the blocky chassis and tracing the name engraved on the side: FENTON. “Yeah, this definitely shouldn’t be here.”

“You know it?” Hood asked while Tim scrambled up one of the machines on the floor and hopped closer to Phantom. Tim’s mind flew back to his days with Secret, ticking off every weakness she’d possessed in the time he’d teamed with her.

Pretty much just magic and electromagnetism, when you boiled it down.

Tim grabbed three electrified batarangs and threw.

“I do! It’s a portable portal.” Phantom said as he dodged the first one. “You know,” he continued, ducking beneath the other two, “one of the first iterations of this was jury-rigged to a—WHOA!” Only one of the next set had been electrified, but would have been hard to tell when they were thrown so close together. They really were just needed to distract Phantom from Tim yanking the first three back with the lines they’d been attached to. They nearly worked; Phantom was singed by the sparks of the returning batarangs as they flew past his hurried dodge. “…a motorcycle handle! Oh geez…”

Phantom’s dodge had taken him into a narrow corridor of metal between machines. He’d looked up to see that Tim had used his grapple to hang from an overhead crane, getting an angle into the corridor from above. Tim sent him a smirk as he sent a barrage of batarangs into the corridor to ricochet like pinballs all around Phantom.

“You’re kidding me,” Jason replied while Phantom bent in inhuman ways to avoid being tagged in a batarang bullet hell. “That’s awesome!”

“I know—hah—right? Too bad I had to—yikes—break that one. Oh come on!” He had finally made it out of the corridor only to see Tim himself launching toward him, a stun gun in hand.

They locked eyes again midair and for a moment, it was like everything was frozen. A weird shudder went through them both and Tim tried to figure out what the strange expression on Phantom’s face meant. The moment stretched.

Then Phantom was turning sideways to avoid getting tazed. He went intangible, and Tim flew right through him. Tangibility returned the second Tim was clear, and then Tim was hanging by the back of his bandoleer in Phantom’s free hand as Phantom returned them both back to the ground.

“She was right,” Tim thought he heard Phantom mutter. Louder, Phantom chirped, “Well, that was nostalgic. Let’s do it again sometime!” As he started to pull his arm out from beneath Tim’s cape, he caught Tim’s subtle movement and yelped, going intangible to free his arm and backing off before he could get tagged. “Yep,” his voice was just slightly strained, “just like old times!”

He flew up to the ceiling and rose through it feet first. Before his head and shoulders had vanished through it, he threw a piece sign and smirked down at Tim. “See ya!”

He was gone.

“You know, you could have helped,” Tim grumbled.

Hood laughed. “Seemed a bit rude to turn on the guy who just got done keeping me in one piece. Besides, you looked like you were having fun.”

Tim gave him a peeved look as he collected his spent batarangs. The edges were ruined on most of them.“I also saved you. You’re welcome. And now there’s a ghost loose in Gotham AND our lead on the weird tech that’s been showing up lately is gone.” He settled everything into the appropriate pouches.

A gloved hand thumped down on his head and mussed his hair.

“Aw, don’t cry, little Timmy. I’ll get your toy back.” The artificial flatness of Hood’s voice modulator only made the words more dry.

Tim swatted his hand away and they both started heading for the exit.

Hood gave his weird flaming weapons a little flourish and they vanished. Then he froze.

Tim stopped and turned after another step, wondering what was wrong. That was the moment when Hood began to glow like a star, right through his body armor. Tim shielded his eyes with his forearm, blinking away tears from the sudden brightness. The glow grew in an expanding aura around Hood, washing over Tim in a searing flood as he squeezed his eyes shut. A hum vibrated around him, so intense he couldn’t tell if he was hearing it with his ears or feeling it in his bones.

It was like touching a hot stove with all his skin at once while simultaneously getting flashbanged. And then it was over, as whatever it was retreated back into the confines of Hood’s body.

Tim checked himself for injuries before his eyesight had recovered. He didn’t seem to be actually burned; there was no residual pain anywhere. No numbness, either, so he hadn’t destroyed his nerves. He could hear his own rapid breaths, so his eardrums hadn’t burst. When his vision started to return, Tim saw Hood sitting on the floor dazedly, leaning his helmet into the palm of one glove.

Tim sat down across from him.

“What happened over there?” he asked, a little hysterically. He was definitely not going to get away with leaving this incident out of his reports.

Hood raised his head. “Well…”

~~~

Jason and Phantom had met near an island in an ocean on an island in the ghost zone. No, Jason was not clear on how that worked; it’s not important to the story. Yes, everything looked like it had gone through a neon green filter, he gets the comparison Red. Ghost dimension, Lazarus pit, he’ll get there. Anyway, at the time, he’d just had a temporary setback in an epic underwater battle between himself and a sea monster. A ghost sea monster.

What kind of ghost sea monster?

Okay, so when an anglerfish and a dragon really love each other…

“Hood, c’mon.”

“Hey, which one of us was there? That’s what it looked like!”

The thing was kaiju-sized, and he’d totally been kicking its ass. But at the point that Phantom had shown up, Jason may have been flung up out of the water, into the air, and was falling on a trajectory into this ugly thing’s mouth.

So, of course, Jason had summoned the All Blades.

“What are the All Blades?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, did you MISS the flaming swords I was carrying earlier?”

“Obviously not, but what are they?”

“My magic swords. What, you don’t have magic swords? B must’ve really half-assed your training.”

Right, where was he? Still fucking falling, jeez. While he was falling, he summoned the All Blades, then used them to slice through his chest armor and cut into his flesh so he could ignite them with his soul. No, he’s not taking questions at this time, close your mouth. It’s not like the body armor was going to help him against a ghost-fish-dragon with teeth longer than Jason was tall.

Then the thing’s mouth froze over, and Phantom swooped in to catch Jason like one of the supers. For a second, Jason actually thought Bizarro had somehow found him. Weirder things had happened. Instead, it had been hazmat Jack Frost.

It almost seemed like Jason had been saved. Turned out: ghosts can fly. Including sea monster ghosts.

So Phantom’s carrying Jason over one shoulder and shooting the flying fish with green energy blasts from his other hand like he’s Hal-freaking-Jordon. Jason’s trying to detonate some plastic explosives he’d gotten the thing to swallow earlier. Hitting the detonator without stabbing anyone or dropping his sword was awkward as hell from the rescuee end of a fireman’s carry.

The fish returned fire—what about shut your mouth is so hard to understand—and Jason ended up falling back into the water.

This was where things got weird.

At this point, Jason was close to shore. Submerged roughly eight feet below the surface was a statue of a winged goddess with a sword and a scale held out in front of her, and he had dropped right into her outstretched arms with a splash.

Now, Jason had actually studied a bit of magic in the past, but even if he hadn’t, he could do simple arithmetic. Undead guy + soul powered swords + blood on a goddess statue + open wounds in a Lazarus ocean = the whirlpool that was suddenly centered on his chest.

Jason had no idea what Phantom and the monster were up to at this point, both because his helmet was being power-washed by the water at the whirlpool’s edge and because he’d found himself the conduit of so much spiritual energy being fed to his swords there were actual pillars of fire blooming out from the whirlpool’s center.

The next thing he knew, he was running along the monster’s back, pillars of flame aimed downward as he filleted the thing.

The remains of the ghost dragon fish sank into the ocean to do whatever ghosts do after getting diced by magic swords. The pillars of fire shrank back to normal sword size. Phantom escorted Jason over to actual land. Then… Jason got a vision.

The scales of the goddess tilted heavily in one direction. At the lower end was a bowl filled with fire. The empty bowl began to fill with blood, and the two sides gradually evened out.

The meaning of the vision was clear: Jason needed to stop getting involved with magic.

“Is that when the ghosts of people you’ve killed started showing up?”

“Yes, Red. That’s when the ghosts of people I killed started showing up.”

~~~

I hit the cap on tags, so I'll post an overflow list after this. Once again, some of y'all can't actually be tagged. Apologies if that affects you. If I forgot you entirely, I beg forgiveness; I really did try to catch everyone. If you are tagged by mistake or want to be taken off the loot list for future updates, let me know via dm or ask.

Tags Looted:

@skulld3mort-1fan @fantasticbluebirdfan @storm-and-fire @jesus-camp-the-sequel @wisteriavines @jeminiikrystal @busterkeel @fisticuffsatapplebees @starmee-lodurrson @learning-to-fly-on-my-own @ghostreblogging @vortexbox @mlpizza @markus209 @lady-bee-fechin @allee52hrz @may-rbi @yjfk @xysidhe @yurijay @love-has-no-labels-blog @frostedthroughghost @ashenfairytale @lostlightandfoundcrazy @inkyunicorn @ultrageekygirl @kyiomi27 @thefearfullone @redhoneysugarorange @thegatorsgoose @britcision @kyrianclawraith @mimilikey @turquoise-kitten @addie-lover-of-stories @rangerhorsetug @weird-droplet-309 @mrowsters @the-blind-one-speaks @illusionwolfwriter24r8 @ace-aro-as-shitt @seraphinedemort @thatrandomsarahchick @mutable-manifestation @newgraywolf @lostlightandfoundcrazy @omgnectarina @neverlandingbird @thefanficcup @batbootie @crystalqueertea @miniosprey @ekat18 @ghospectr @chaoticchange @chickenscheesencrackers @jaytriesstuff @justalittletotheleftofnormal @iamheretoconsumeandsharethatisit @alixanterm @mariendall @jadedragon1903 @dragonriderv @01101010-01100001-01111001 @dixiwoods @adhd-lesbian @cloudyelysian @cottonscrambles @currant-owo @revnantdpxdclover @fox-sama97 @idontgetpaidenoughforthisshit @the-legal-shipper @tcohacs @nugget-consumer-9000

[korshrimpski]

F1 Drivers and their NHL team

Got bored so we’re adding my two fav things together (this is completely subjective)

FERRARI— Charles Leclerc

Montréal Canadiens (Les Canadiens de Montréal)

Reasoning: Being a Montréal Canadiens brings lots of pressure to perform and has a very large and intense fan base—like the Tifosi's. Furthermore Montréal players have nicknames from their fan base related to God (eg. Jesus Price). And Charles nickname from fans is "il Predestinato" (translation: The Predestined).

FERRARI— Carlos Sainz

Toronto Maple Leafs

Reasoning: He's a Ferrari driver, a team with a big market, like the Maple Leafs. And being on either team also brings a high amount of pressure.

WILLIAMS— Alex Albon

Buffalo Sabres

Reasoning: He's a good driver on a not so good team and people are screaming for him to be on a good team. Like how Buffalo isn't the best team and people want players (eg. Dahlin, Lukkonen) on better teams. (I just slanders both my F1 & NHL teams, forgive me)

WILLIAMS— Logan Sargeant

Florida Panthers

He's a Panthers fan, he even has an Aleksander Barkov and reverse retro jersey.

MCLAREN— Oscar Piastri

Chicago Blackhawks

Reasoning: Him and Connor Bedard are the same person

MCLAREN— Lando Norris

New Jersey Devils

Reasoning: Vibes (also his fans remind me of Jack Hughes fans)

MERCEDES— Lewis Hamilton

Pittsburgh Penguins

Reasoning: Sidney Crosby

MERCEDES— George Russell

Minnesota Wild

Reasoning: Good then bad, but with good player. Like how George is a good driver on an under delivering team.

RED BULL— Max Verstappen

Boston Bruins

Reasoning: vibes

RED BULL— Sergio Pérez

Carolina Hurricanes

Reasoning: How bored are you getting me of saying vibes?

RB— Yuki Tsunoda

San Jose Sharks

Reasoning: WE WILL BE GLORIOUS ONE DAY!!!! (and also vibes)

RB— Daniel Ricciardo

Dallas Stars

Reasoning: Texas loves Daniel and Daniel loves Texas

ALPINE— Pierre Gasly

Ottawa Senators (Sénateurs d'Ottawa)

Reasoning: vibes (Also they're not that successful after glimpse of success)

ALPINE— Esteban Ocon

Detroit Red Wings

Reasoning: i put the leftover teams into a spin wheel and hoped for the best (I feel like i should mention Ocon was the last person i did because i genuinely can't think of a team for him, sorry ocon fans)

ALFA ROMEO— Valtteri Bottas

Calgary Flames

Reasoning: Has success but was never quite good enough (this is from the flames 2000s records)

ALFA ROMEO— Zhou Guanyu

Los Angeles Kings

Reasoning: the vibes match

HAAS— Nico Hülkenberg

Washington Capitals

Reasoning: Can be good but can't quite get there in the end. AKA, Hülkenberg is a good driver but can't get a podium and Washington's 23-24 season was weird, they just got into the playoffs after a mid season, then got swept in the first round.

HAAS— Kevin Magnussen

New York Islanders

Reasoning: idk other than (say it with me) vibes

ASTON MARTIN— Fernando Alonso

New York Rangers

Reasoning: I actually have no reasoning, other than vibes

ASTON MARTIN— Lance Stroll

Winnipeg Jets

Reasoning: He's is barely noticeable until he does something (usually dumb) to put him in the spotlight (sorry jets fans). Also i wanted to put him on a Canadian team. (I know Lance is a habs fan but I tried not to overlap teams)

[jeannereames]

Hello Dr. Reames! When you decide to read a history book on your free time - and a book completely unrelated to your area of expertise - but you know nothing about said topic, you're only interested in learning about it. How do you choose which book you'll read?

FANTASTIC question. Thank you for asking it.

Let’s Talk How to Evaluate the Quality of a Book NOT on/in Your Specialization or Field

I’m going to start with some general bullet points of advice with discussion. Then I’ll give a concrete example of a book (or set of them) that I decided not to buy after a little rummaging.

The Basics

(These may seem obvious, but a lot of folks ignore them, like they skip over reading the introduction. Always read the book’s introduction!)

Who’s the author?

Most books have, on the back cover or inside, a note about the author. Also, google the person. Do they have a professional degree or some form of special training/ experience (e.g., say, they worked on a dig)? If they’re a professor, where do they teach? (But don’t put too much on that; the state of academia today means highly respected scholars could end up in Podunk Mississippi just to find a job.)

What type of book is it and who’s the intended audience?

Is it an academic book meant for other specialists? A book intended for use as a textbook? Something marketed to general audiences: “pop” history, or creative non-fiction? These may all be well-done. Yet if I’m wanting to learn about a topic I’m not familiar with, I specifically seek out a textbook, as they're geared to teach the topic to non-specialists. They won’t go down a research rabbit hole. Specifically in ancient history, those “Companion to…” collections are great, as you get multiple experts weighing in on what they know the most about. And they're intended for interested readers but not specialists in that particular topic. Also they’re curated by an editor who IS a specialist, so you know the chosen authors are respected in the field.

When was it written?

If the publication date is 50 years ago, it’s been superseded. It might be out of date even if it’s 20 years ago—or 10. But newer is not necessarily better.

What press published it?

Princeton, Cambridge, Brill/DeGruyter, Berkeley, Peeters, Harvard, Chicago. Any would be a good sign. But the University of Oklahoma does not mean it’s a bad book. (Beth Carney’s important first monograph on Macedonian women came from UOk.) University presses can corner the market on a particular topic: Univ. of Nebraska does a LOT of native history. Also, it may not be a university press at all. Routledge is perfectly respectable, as are Bloomsbury and Penguin. For local histories or something niche, you may get publication by a historical society, not a major press at all. (I picked up a perfectly fine book about ghost stories in the city of Savannah done by the local historical society.) BUT IF IT’S SELF-PUBLISHED, that’s a big ol’ Red Flag.

Going a Little Deeper

Ask somebody you know, who IS a specialist in the field, if they’ve read the book and what they think

Depending on your personal circle, this may not be possible.

Find a review (or three)

I regularly teach my undergrads (and grad students) to look for reviews.

Look at the bibliography

Probably more important for academic books, but how long is the biblio? Yes, topics can have more or fewer publications, but it should go on for some pages. Also, is it all in just one language? Some fields may tend that way (much American history), but a well-done monograph in, say, Greek or Roman history should not be monolingual in the research.

Actually check (don’t ignore) footnotes

They tell stories. Again, this largely pertains to academic books, but you can find fun (and occasionally catty) scholarly quarrels in them. Very early in my reading on Alexander, I became fascinated by the back-and-forth in footnotes between the “Three Bs” (Badian, Borza, and Bosworth) plus Green and Hammond. BUT some red flags: 1) the author disproportionately citing themself, especially if it’s because 2) the author seems to have quarrels with a large number of colleagues. Maybe the author is just original! But sometimes that tells you their conclusions are questionable. Use your common sense.

Now, for a concrete example … as some of you know, I have American indigenous ancestry, specifically Peoria-Miami (Myaamia). While I know some things about our tribe, I’m far from an expert. On our Facebook page, one of the other members recently dropped mention of a series on the early history of Indiana, and the conflicts between settlers and natives during the French-Indian Wars—including St. Clare’s Defeat, effected by the Myaamia and led by Little Turtle (Mihshihkinaahkwa), the worst defeat [proportionally] ever suffered by American troops.

I thought, Oh, cool, maybe I should pick these up and read them in my “copious” spare time. E.g., probably years from now.

I followed the provided link, and immediately thought, This doesn’t look good. Page ran on forever, not well organized, and I had to hunt for info about the author. Although he was a retired schoolteacher, he didn’t seem to have any specific training in doing historical research; I don’t think he was even a history major in college (probably did education). Additionally, the book-covers and purchasing info made it clear all the books were self-published, and the provided text snippets contained grammar errors.

Yeah, I left that page bookless. Maybe the info in them was perfectly fine and he just couldn’t find a publisher who wanted creative non-fiction about an event most people have never heard of led by a chief with a name most can’t pronounce…. But I’m going to bet the research matched the grammar: slap-dash.

Now, that was a relatively easy one to figure out; I spent all of 10 minutes on the page. (And no, I’m not naming the author nor linking to the books, as this is an example, not an attempt to humiliate the person.) But it gives you some idea how I evaluate books in a field very far from my own specialty.

———————

* Although that said, they’re starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel to come up with new topics for Yet Another “Companion to….” Some I’ve seen would be better just sold as a collection on X topic, not “Companion to….”

[sundove88]

A. A.’s First Holy Night- A MementoMori Tale

During the days leading up to the Holy Night Festival in The Duchy of Fran, everyone wants to participate in a gift exchange- except A. A. Will she ever find the perfect present for Mertillier?

Snow fell like petals from a cherry blossom tree onto the little country known as The Duchy of Fran. It was winter, and everyone was looking forward to The Holy Night Festival- a time when everyone shared the spirit with loved ones. And this year wouldn’t be any different- girls known as witches were hurrying about the streets looking for beautiful gifts to share with their friends and family.

“Oh, big sis would love that!”, said a little girl with blue hair in pigtails and a teddy bear, pointing to a massive stuffed penguin in the store window. “Master would definitely be wanting that!” Another little girl said as she pointed to a beautifully crafted sled in another window. Their names were Soltina and Nina- and they weren’t alone. They were accompanied by their friends, looking for stuff for the gift exchange.

But one girl stood at the shop window and sighed. Her red eyes shone like rubies, and she had a gear for a halo. Her name was A. A., which is short for “Artificial Angel”- and she was a Homunculus. This was to be her very first Holy Night Festival, but she had no idea on what it was. “Maybe the Professor would like this?”, she said, pointing to what looked like a chemistry kit. “I’m sure that whatever you give Mertillier, she’d love it.” Replied the Duke of Fran.

“But I want it to be from the heart.” Little A said as she held the Duke’s hand. “I’m sure you’ll find the perfect something.”, he replied as he helped up A. A. onto his shoulders and they began to walk around the town. First, they came across Rean and her friend group at a market stall. “I think we should get some new watercolors for Cherna, a new watering can for Natasha, and probably a stationery set for Amour!” Rean said as she looked through it.

“I don’t think the Professor would like any of these.” A. A. Replied as she let out a sad sigh. “Don’t lose hope. I’m sure we’ll find something that she’ll love.” The Duke replied as he and Little A walked towards the next stall. There was Queen Amleth of The Kingdom of Vyde, who had found a beautiful new chess set for Ophelia, her faithful knight. And not just that, Florence from the Holy See of Hainz had picked up a snowglobe for Fortina. “Hmmmm… don’t see anything.” A. A. said as she moved onto the stall.

Finally, they came to the fountain in the square, which had frozen over. Carol was there, working on a scrapbook that she was making for Rusalka. “Oh! Didn’t see you there, Senpai. And you too, Little A.” She replied cheerfully as one of the butterflies landed on the scrapbook. “May I see your scrapbook?” The Homunculus girl replied. “Absolutely. I’m almost done with it, though.” Carol replied as she let A. A. Flip through the scrapbook.

After finishing the currently incomplete scrapbook, A. A. Felt a spark light up inside her. “I know what to give the Professor.” She said excitedly. “Thanks, Carol! Happy Holidays!” The Duke replied. “Anytime!!” Called Carol as she wrote down what had happened in her notebook. Back at The Duke’s estate, he and A. A. Worked together on Mertillier’s present. With crafting supplies and a photograph of Mert and Little A, they worked together to make a gift from the heart.

Later that night, everyone gathered at the mansion to exchange presents. There was a giant penguin doll for Lunalynn, a brand new glittery pair of dancing shoes for Hathor, and a new fire proof camera for Valeriede. Mertillier gave her present to Little A- a brand new set of winter gear to protect her from the cold. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it, Little A?” Asked Mertillier. “Professor, I have something for you, too.” A. A. Replied, showing a box wrapped in shiny paper. Excitedly; the Professor opened it up. Inside was a picture of her and the Homunculus she had grown to love like a daughter, framed with rhinestones and leftover scraps of foil, it was simple but beautiful.

Not long after that, the Professor and her Homunculus daughter went outside to watch the falling snow. “Thank you, Little A. Happy holidays.” She said tenderly as she let A. A. side hug her. “Happy holidays, Professor.” A. A. Said in return. Now Little A knew why everyone loved the Holy Night Festival so much.

The End

[murderbirds]

Look at me. Look at me right now.

*points at Edward literally hallucinating Oswald singing a romantic song to him in red lighting* This is not the writers fucking forgetting this ever happened.

And this? *points at Isabella looking exactly like Kristen in a season that is all about clones* is not just writers doing things for shits and giggles.

That? *Points at Jim, the main character, mister power fantasy himself, having a character arc that gets dropped half way through after building it up for an entire season* is not the writers being lazy.

These are setups that had to be changed and interrupted and dropped because the people in charge didn't like how they were going, be it homophobia from the studio, be it misogyny from the producers or be it that the team didn't think these things would appeal to their audience because how dare things make sense to non white straight cis men. This is a COMIC BOOK show! Everyone knows that those are the only people interested in these. Not.

Gotham's production was hell. The writers had to constantly rework scripts and the entire show while the marketing team and Fox' directors and whatever the fuck screwed them over again and again and again and it is so easy to look at this show now five years later and go "look at how stupid the writers are, they forgot they queer coded their character lol" when it is so much deeper than that.

I'm not saying don't criticize the final product. You have all the right to be upset with what we could have gotten. What I'm saying is, don't point fingers on the writers, they had it so hard as it is, and they still do to this day. No one respect writers. They always take all the blame when in reality, most times, they don't even know the changes that get made to their show. Want an example? Do you know the infamous "you are like a brother to me" scene? Yeah. It wasn't written in. It was added later to avoid homosexual undertones between penguin and riddler. The writer of that episode didn't even know about it until later.

If you guys want your content to be better, please, stop shitting on the writers. Instead, advocate for them to have a better environment that allows creativity instead of helping broadcasts and capitalist overlords kill it. You deserve to be angry, but learn who to be angry at instead of going for the scapegoat like they want you to.

[louisupdates]

A lucky collector will be able to purchase one of Louis’ white label vinyls through auction to benefit the Brit Trust. [Article]

The White Label Auction in Aid of The BRIT Trust – the world’s only known auction of “white label” test pressings – takes place next week on Tuesday, 6th June 2023. This year it will have more than 200 lots of highly collectible ‘white-label’ test pressings – the most offered in the four editions of the auction to date since it began in 2019.

The online/on-site auction is once again being hosted by music memorabilia and vinyl records specialists Omega Auctions from their Newton-Le-Willows (Greater Manchester) base. The full catalogue can be accessed here.

Fans and collectors can bid from a huge selection of white label test pressings that rarely come to market, with some even signed by the artists such as The Cure, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, New Order, and Wilko Johnson.

The UK’s record labels led by Universal Music UK, who founded the event with the BPI, along with BMG, Domino Recordings, Cherry Red, Sony Music Entertainment UK, Warner Records and others, each year join forces to curate a broad selection of white label auction lots to raise funds for the vital work of music industry charity The BRIT Trust – which promotes education and wellbeing through music and the creative arts to support causes that include the BRIT School and Nordoff and Robbins.

In January the BPI reported that vinyl albums had recorded a 15th year of consecutive growth in the UK, with over 5.5m LPs purchased in 2022. This rising demand for vinyl has in turn resulted in a growing archive of white label test pressings – so called because there is no sleeve artwork at this early stage – which record labels produce ahead of the full release of an album to ensure its audio quality. With only a handful produced, these first-off-the-press copies are snapped up by collectors on the rare occasions they become available, as evidenced by the huge interest in the three White Labels Auctions to date, which between them have raised around £100,000.

White label test pressings by the following artists:

Arcade Fire / Beth Gibbons, Portishead / Black Grape / Blind Faith / Blossoms / Brian Eno / Bryan Ferry / Budgie / Buzzcocks / Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa / Calvin Harris, Katy Perry & Pharrell Williams / Calvin Harris & Sam Smith / Camel / Caravan / Celeste / The Charlatans / Chemical Brothers / Christy Moore / Corinne Bailey-Rae / Cream / The Cure / Daryl Hall & John Oates / Deep Purple / Derek and The Dominoes / Dexy’s Midnight Runners / Diana Ross / Dio / Dirty Pretty Things / Donovan / Doves / Duffy / Dusty Springfield / Ed Sheeran / Emeli Sandé / Eric Carmen / Eric Clapton / The Ethiopians / Eurythmics / The Fall / Fairport Convention / Frankie Goes To Hollywood / ightened Rabbit / Gary Moore / Gaz Coombes / Genesis / George Ezra / Graham Parker / Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five / Gregory Isaacs / Helloween / Inspiral Carpets / Iggy Pop / J Hus / Jacob Collier / Jake Bugg / The Jam / Jamie T / Joe Cocker / John Martyn / John Martyn & Beverley Martyn / John Mayall / Joni Mitchell / Julian Cope / Justin Hayward and John Lodge / Karl Hyde / Kate Nash / Katie J Pearson / Kelis / Kid Creole / Kings of Convenience / Koffee / The LA’s / Laura Marling / Level 42 / Led Zeppelin / Lindisfarne / Linton Kwesi-Johnson / Louis Tomlinson / Ludovico Einaudi / The Lumineers / McAlmont & Butler / Madness / Manic Street Preachers / Marianne Faithfull / Mark Ronson & Miley Cyrus / Mark Knopfler / Meat Loaf / Melt Yourself Down / The Members / The Mighty Diamonds / Mike and The Mechanics / Mike Oldfield / MJ Cole Moby / Monty Python / The Moody Blues / Motorhead / Mott The Hoople / Nathaniel Rateliff / Nazareth / Neneh Cherry / New Order / Nicholas Briteli / Noah and The Whale / Nothing But Thieves / Nova Twins / Orchestra Manouevres in the Dark / Pale Fountains / Paloma Faith / Paul Weller/ Penguin Café Orchestra / Pete Townshend / Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane/ PiL / Pulp / Quincy Jones / Rag ‘n’ Bone Man / Rainbow / Rhys Lewis / Richard & Linda Thompson / Rick Wakeman / Rizzle Kicks / Robbie Williams / Robyn / Roger Waters / Ronnie James / Rory Gallagher / The Ruts / Sam Cooke / Sandie Shaw / Sandie Shaw & The Smiths / Sandy Denny / Scissor Sisters / The Scorpions / Scott Walker / Selecta’s Choice Series / Sex Pistols / Shed Seven / The Silvertones / Simple Minds / The Skatalites / Sparks / The Slits / Soul II Soul / The Specials / The Spice Girls / Squeeze / Status Quo / Stereophonics / Steve Winwood / The Stone Roses / Supertramp / T-Rex / Tame Impala / Tangerine Dream / Teardrop Explodes / Tears For Fears / The Teskey Brothers / Therapy? / Thin Lizzy / Tom Speight / Travis / UB40 / The Undertones / Underworld / UNKLE / The Vaccines / The Vamps / Van Morrison / Various: Blue Note / Various Folk / Various Dance - John Morales and others / Various – Little Big Lies / Various – NOW Yearbooks 1980 - 1985 / Various – The Wanderer / Various – Soul / Various – Sound of the Suburbs / The Verve / The Wedding Present / The Who / Wilko Johnson / You Me At Six

See here for full Omega Auctions catalogue list of featured titles.

[theemporium]

So the octopus tradition started back in 1952 when two brothers, Pete and Jerry Cusimano, who owned a fish market, decided to throw an octopus onto the ice at Olympia Stadium, with the eight tentacles of the octopus symbolizing the eight wins it took to win the Stanley Cup at the time. the Detroit red wings went on to sweep the Toronto maple leafs and the Montreal canadiens en route to winning the cup

Since 1952, people have been throwing octopuses (octopi?) onto the ice whenever the red wings play in the playoffs. The octopuses are already dead when they’re thrown, and people have come up with a specific technique on how to throw them. During the 2008 stanley cup finals, in which the red wings defeated the Pittsburgh penguins, seafood wholesalers in Pittsburgh began requiring identification from customers who purchased octopuses, refusing to sell to buyers from Michigan. I think the nhl has been cracking down on this tradition because I haven’t heard of many instances of people doing it recently

I—

oh my god😭THEY WOULD THROW AN OCTPUS ONTO THE ICE??? god imagine the import for octopus in detriot during hockey season…

[zahri-melitor]

No Man’s Land

I made it back through! As I said before, my last read through was over 15 years ago, so it was a lot of fun seeing what I remembered and what I didn’t. This really is one of the best Batbook events. The departmental level planning and plotting really stands out; there’s only a couple of times events are repeated between titles (most of the duplicates are actually in Azrael, now I think about it; particularly the Azrael-Catwoman storyline. Clearly they understood they couldn’t trust people to read Azrael) and the story flows with very few contradictions/out of order events/obviously skipped bits . The biggest overall ‘wait what?’ timeline issue is ‘how long was Tim actually IN No Man’s Land and how many times did he sneak back in after being rescued’, because the suggestion he was inside for 2-4 weeks before being airlifted out is hilarious given he then proceeded to spend over a month staking out Pettit and got back in for the Christmas Eve summons quite easily.

Highlights from my read: Bruce Wayne (as opposed to Batman) has some really good stories through Cataclysm-Aftershock-Road to NML. I adore when comics take the time to break out what Bruce can do as a Wayne compared to what he can do as Batman, and both are on show here.

Legends of the Dark Knight #125: the conversation here between Jim and Batman is something that’s been building for over 6 years, since Knightfall. And yeah, the payoff is worth it. They both used their words!

Being a big event, we got multiple 'day in a life' comics for outsider PoVs or minor characters, which are one of my favourite things. I'm a huge sucker for an outsider point of view. Lots of ordinary Gothamites just explaining why they stayed and what community means to them (and also that Gotham talks to you when you have bat rabies). I particularly adore the little red headed agent of Oracle's in SoTB #92 who is so EXASPERATED by Clark Kent ruining her stakeout. She's got a job to do! Stop ruining her report!

Among this is also some of THE defining Leslie characterisation in Chronicles #18, of why she's a doctor and her philosophy on care. Now, the way the story used Zsasz to frame it was irritating (please Leslie, O neg is in such short supply I PROMISE you there are half a dozen people in your hospital camp here right now who need it more than Zsasz), but what can you do. "I will provide treatment to everyone" doesn't have to mean "I'm using an invaluable resource on the least deserving/needy person in this hospital" but it does mean "everyone deserves my care and best effort".

Barbara is at her best, here. Not only does this run highlight her skills as an information broker, troubleshooter and dispatcher, but everyone finally starts turning up regularly to the Clocktower to hang out/have meetings! Early 2000s status quo behaviour has been ACHIEVED. The story would not have worked without her.

Just a BUNCH of Gotham Rogues have really good stories here. What Penguin contributes to the city's dynamics is just so very on display as he runs the entire city's black market. Two-Face's trial of Jim Gordon is some iconic storytelling. Ivy is mostly around via her physical absence - she only appears on page for Fruit of the Earth and in the Harley Quinn intro to set up the Harley & Ivy status quo - but she pins a lot of the territory warfare in place via holding Robinson Park, starts her road to redemption, FINALLY gets rid of those terrible 90s tights (ugh I dislike that costume) and honestly probably helped a lot of people survive NML. And uh Black Mask himself doesn't have the greatest storytelling but his HENCHES do. 

Harley finally gets her promotion to the main universe (and her intro doesn't suck). Joker is fine I guess...ok yes I do actually like Endgame and it's solid Joker storytelling, even as shooting Sarah Essen is the most cheap and lazy angst ever (And then! Jim and Bruce are there in front of Joker who is asking to be arrested after he hurts their family! Again! This story has never been told before oh wait it's the 10 year anniversary edition).

Every Bat vigilante (minus Steph) gets a lot of solid character work and stuff to do. Steph's stuck off in her pregnancy arc having Dixon Lectures On Ethics, but does get that Helena team up during Cataclysm at least. We get Cass and David Cain! JPV remains the saddest wet cat in Gotham and the universe causes terrible things to happen to him (seriously how did you end up getting blown up and in worse shape than HELENA for the finale)! Dick confirms he's back in the family full time and will come if Bruce asks! Tim and Dick have adorable sibling adventures together! There’s an entire Dick/Babs hurt/comfort storyline! Tim Having Parents is actually plot relevant and helps end No Man's Land (also his team up with Wally in Keystone is the funniest thing ever. Wally's like 'HOW DID YOU GET MY PHONE NUMBER...oh yeah you asked Dick')! Helena gets masses of page time even as the plot (and Bruce) does her dirty! Even the LANGSTROMS get page time and character changes (that scene where Man-Bat takes Barbara flying is just beautiful).

[formerlibrarian]

Back when I was a Librarian, we lived and breathed by the Publisher's Weekly Bestseller List. It was my responsibility to print or photocopy the list every week and update our bestseller's display. (Also to purchase extra copies of particularly popular bestsellers.)

I haven't looked at the list in YEARS. Some of these surprise me:

A new translation of The Iliad made the list?!

Ken Follett is still alive?? (I looked him up, he's only 74.)

Danielle Steel is still alive?? ( I just looked her up, she's only 76 and has been married five(!) times. To be fair, I also looked up Ken Follett, he's only been married twice.)

I see some Christmas-themed books on the list!

I see a Disney manga! (“The Battle for Pumpkin King”)

PUBLISHER WEEKLY’S BESTSELLERS LIST: October 5, 2023

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros (Red Tower)

2. “The Running Grave” by Robert Galbraith (Muholland)

3. “The Armor of Light” by Ken Follett (Viking)

4. “Holly” by Stephen King (Scribner)

5. “12 Months to Live” by Patterson/Lupica (Little, Brown)

6. “Tom Lake” by Ann Patchett (Harper)

7. “The Fragile Threads of Power” by V.E. Schwab (Tor)

8. “Bright Lights, Big Christmas” by Mary Kay Andrews (St Martin’s Press)

9. “The Iliad” by Homer/Wilson (Norton)

10. “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper)

11. “Vince Flynn: Code Red” by Kyle Mills (Atria)

12. “The Covenant of Water” by Abraham Verghese (Grove)

13. “The Last Devil to Die” by Richard Osman (Viking/Dorman)

14. “Tom Clancy: Weapons Grade” by Don Bentley (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

15. “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride (Riverhead)

_____

HARDCOVER NON-FICTION

1. “Enough” by Cassidy Hutchinson (Simon &Schuster)

2. “Killing the Witches” by O’Reilly/Dugard (St. Martin’s Press)

3. “The Democrat Party Hates America” by Mark R. Levin (Threshold)

4. “Elon Musk” by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster)

5. “Democracy Awakening” by Heather Cox Richardson (Viking)

6. “Government Gangsters” by Kash Pramod Patel (Post Hill)

7. “Failure Is Not as Option” by Patrick Hinds (BenBella Books)

8. “Thicker Than Water” by Kerry Washington (Little, Brown Spark)

9. “Astor” by Cooper/Howe (Harper)

10. “Build the Life You Want” by Brooks/Winfrey (Portfolio)

11. “Skinnytaste Simple” by Homolka/Jones (Clarkson Potter)

12. “Counting the Cost” by Jill Duggar (Gallery)

13. “The Creative Act” by Rick Rubin (Penguin Press)

14. “Outlive” by Peter Attia (Harmony)

15. “Fast Like a Girl” by Mindy Pelz (Hay House)

_____

MASS MARKET BESTSELLERS

1. “Undercover Operation” by Maggie K. Black (Love Inspired Suspense)

2. “Bad Luck Vampire” by Lynsay Sands (Avon)

3. “Seeking Justice” by Sharee Stover (Love Inspired Suspense)

4. “The Teacher’s Christmas Secret” by Emma Miller (Love Inspired)

5. “Rescuing the Stolen Child” by Connie Queen (Love Inspired Suspense)

6. “Tracked Through the Woods” by Laura Scott (Love Inspired Suspense)

7. “The Boys from Biloxi” by John Grisham (Vintage)

8. “Christmas Murder Cover-Up” by Shannon Redmon (Love Inspired Suspense)

9. “Pursuit at Panther Point” by Cindi Myers (Harlequin Intrigue)

10. “The Whittiers” by Danielle Steel (Dell)

11. “Trusting Her Amish Rival” by Jackie Stef (Love Inspired)

12. “Texas Scandal” by Barb Han (Harlequin Intrigue)

13. “Marked for Revenge” by Delores Fossen (Harlequin Intrigue)

14. “Hunted at Christmas” by Dana R. Lynn (Love Inspired Suspense)

15. “A Companion for Christmas” by Lee Tobin McClain (Love Inspired)

_____

TRADE PAPERBACK BESTSELLERS

1. “House of Sky and Breath” by Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury)

2. “Things We Left Behind” by Lucy Score (Bloom)

3. “The Shadow Work Journal” by Keila Shaheen (Keila Shaheen)

4. “The Battle for Pumpkin King” by Dan Conner et al. (Disney Manga)

5. “Icebreaker” by Hannah Grace (Atria)

6. “Too Late” by Colleen Hoover (Grand Central Publishing)

7. “23 1/2 Lies” by James Patterson (Grand Central Publishing)

8. “It Starts with Us” by Colleen Hoover (Atria)

9. “Mad Honey” by Picoult/Boylan (Ballantine)

10. “Twisted Love” by Ana Huang (Bloom)

11. “Assistant to the Villain” by Hannah Nicole Maehrer (Red Tower)

12. “The Housemaid’s Secret” by Freida McFadden (Mobius)

13. “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig (Penguin Books)

14. “The Husky and His White Cat Shizun, Vol. 3” by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (Seven Seas)

15. “Dreamland” by Nicholas Sparks (Bantam Dell)

[ninhaoma-ya]

24 days of Christmas: Mistletoe

Thanks to @checkinlove and anonymous on tumblr for the prompts that had to do with mistletoe! Hope you enjoy :)

SciTechDaily

“Why are people staring at us?”

Law looked around, perplexed. He and Nami had merely been engaged in an energetic discussion about the latest commemorative coin the rival navigator had managed to find at an antiques stall, before being stopped in their tracks, suddenly surrounded by strangers.

Fine, the last time that had happened, he had relocated half the market and she had singed the rest with quite a hefty bolt of lightning. But the blame was at least two-thirds hers, since she hadn’t admitted to pickpocketing him after selling him the commemorative coin from the Jubilee Revery he had managed to track down.

This time, he had no idea what caused the sudden stop.

Penguin stood off to the side beside an amused-looking Nico Robin, a wide grin on his face. “You might want to look up,” he said, nodding to something above.

The small bunch of bright green leaves hang above him, white berries winking in and out of sight as the sprig of mistletoe gently turned on its red ribbon.

Evergreens were a staple Law had grown up with: when you live on a winter island, you take what pops of colour you can. Back home, it had been holly and pine, but here Viscum albanum, a common medicinal herb, seemed to be in vogue. shook his head with a smile and tried to steer towards Penguin and Robin, but was stopped by a raised hand. The effect was somewhat lessened by the fact that the hand was approximately at the height of his bellybutton, but the determined snot-nosed face peeking out from under a wide brim made up for the owner’s lack of physical stature.

“Can’t leave yet, mister,” the apparition said.

“Why not?” Law inquired, ignoring Penguin who by now was sniggering, shoulders shaking in mirth.

Nami huffed and tried to steer around him. A small child with a gap-toothed smile poked at her with a broom, keeping her trapped under the mistletoe. “Oh, no, miss! You can’t go before you do it!”

“Do what?”

“Kiss him of course!” the child said gesturing towards Law, sounding shocked that someone didn’t know what to do. “You’re supposed to kiss when you meet under the mistletoe.”

“Fine,” she gritted out, giving Law a quick peck on the cheek.

“Noooo,” the children complained, arms folding all around them. “A proper kiss!”

“Nothing for it,” Law sighed, tugging Nami into his arms. Her surprise was evident as her hands came up to rest at his shoulders, keeping her balance.

The snowflakes gathering in her hair hadn’t had time to melt, and then her citrusy scent was all around him and she was warm in his arms and her mouth opened a breath under his.

The quickest kiss in the world was followed by cheers around them and when Law opened his eyes, he saw a fetching blush paint Nami’s cheeks, her eyelashes fluttering open.

She did have beautiful eyes, a warm chocolate brown with flecks of bronze, he noted absentmindedly. He hadn’t noticed that before.

It was with reluctance he let her go, her sweetness slipping through his fingers as she turned away to join the a-waiting Penguin and Robin.

Who both had the gall to look pleased with themselves, Law noted with narrowed eyes.

If he could have torn his eyes from Nami’s retreating form, he would have seen the mistletoe disappear into a flurry of petals, melting into the snow.

AO3

ff.net

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 3/5

Book Blurb: One woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure. High standards never hurt anybody... Marina Spicer has no time to waste when it comes to dating, hence her (rather long) list of dealbreakers. Must love dogs, no smokers need apply, etc. Still, Marina is stuck. Frustrated by the online dating world, she creates Dealbreakers, an anonymous dating review app, to whittle down the depressingly large dating pool man by man and help other women along the way. But after a disagreement at work gets her paired up as the marketer on a project with uppity Irish content writer Lucas Kennedy, she realizes he’s the most reviewed walking red flag on the entire app. The charming ne’er-do-well is the last person she wants to spend time with, but they have to test out date ideas together, the writer of the best pitch walking away with the promotion Marina feels she’s already earned. As Marina and Lucas butt heads mixing cocktails, salsa dancing, and throwing axes, Marina finds herself sharper and wittier in his presence despite Lucas checking every box on Marina’s dealbreakers list. If the Dealbreakers say he’s Mr. Wrong, he can’t possibly be Mr. Right . . . can he?

Review:

She has a checklist for her perfect partner and he’s the exact opposite of what she could want, but can two work enemies actually be perfect for each other? Marina Spicer has a checklist of what she is looking for in a perfect partner and her list of dealbreakers, yet every guy she’s gone out with has been a miss. She creates an app called Dealbreakers where people can anonymously write reviews for their dates for other women to read. When a disagreement at work gets her paired up with her work enemy, Lucas Kennedy, a supremely charming, smoking, and tattooed content writer. They enter into a competition in where they test out date ideas together and the winner with the best pitch gets the new promotion. Marina feels like she has earned this promotion and is going to take Lucas down.. or that was the plan until Lucas charms his way into her heart. From cocktail mixing dates, salsa dancing, and ace throwing, Marina and Lucas find themselves opening up to each other more and Marina begins to realize that maybe despite the fact that Lucas checks off every single one of her dealbreakers.... he is the perfect guy for her. This was a short and interesting read about two people who are opposites but find a way to completely fit one another. 

*Thanks Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*