#i might update this because i published too early bear with me ;;

[bomberqueen17]

assorted, and snippet

it is a rainy sunday. we had a glorious last-gasp-of-summer week, 70s and sunny and lovely, and then last night as the sun went down it suddenly got cold and is going to stay that way.

today's my late father's birthday. he'd've been 79 today. farmsister asked the family groupchat if we wanted to do anything special but like, what? no, so we're just having our normal sunday family dinner. she decided to make enchiladas because while the tomatoes are done, there are still tomatillos, so she's roasting those. i decided to thaw a pork butt and i'll make a sort of al pastor kind of pulled pork for the filling, later. but at the moment i'm out in my cabin, which is a disaster area and needs cleaning. but at the moment i'm just listening to the rain on the metal roof, and i have the propane stove on to get it up to room temperature in here, and i'm dying to take a nap but probably won't.

i told myself i could sit for an hour and maybe write. I sorta don't want to write, I sorta want to fuck around and nap, lol. I'm at a bit in Peace-Tied where I'm trying to fold in stuff I wrote ahead that doesn't quite fit now, so that's complicated-- I've been resorting to using two monitors to have the old doc open in a window so I don't have to tab back and forth. But Fit For Thrones is also in an awkward spot where I wrote stuff ahead and like not a lot has changed, but I realized there needed to be a new thread introduced, so I've got to work that in, and I'm realizing a scene I wrote ages ago that was just fluffy and didn't show a lot of character development is going to have to get overhauled to fit the new concept in, which at this point is just a slight complication but later I wanna hang like a whole plot off it, so it's gotta be here-- if I put it in later it won't have any support and might not really properly hold all the weight it needs to, so. And this scene was just fluff anyway and needs more stuff in it. So that's fine. But it's hard. Because of course all I want to do is skip ahead and write the juicy weighty scene this is gonna support. But if I do that (again, as i've been doing a lot in this series, ugh) i'll get there and it won't fit and i'll have to do more of this fiddly kind of work.

I did only miss Friday's update because I was physically too busy at the time, though. It's the wind-down of the farm season but that just means people have started to peel away to do other things, there's not actually a lot less work, and so those of us left are kind of juggling a lot more balls, even if they're less heavy than they were. (more wittering specifically about FFP behind the cut, and a snippet)

So I have a bunch of stuff allllllmost ready to post, but a bunch of tricky work to do for the continuations of them. There has been a spate lately of very nice comments, some rereaders and some new readers, and I appreciate all of you and it keeps me going, really it does.

I can't find the one, though, someone commented on the latest FFT that they thought Morvran might wind up a bit subby perhaps, and I literally cackled out loud. (Someone else was speculating that he's more traumatized/demi/gray than pure ace, which I also have been trying to convey-- he's ace-spec for sure but gray, is where I'm headed with him.)

I don't think Ciri is going to wind up being particularly domme-y in her preferences-- she also would like a pretty lady to push her around please-- but understand she was raised by a bunch of dommes all around, so I had a very early slightly-cracky notion that she thinks this is how het relationships have to work (this did bear fruit in an outside-of-series published work on AO3 thanks to the Smubbles folks, here: What Every Young Woman Needs)-- but there's an excerpt here I haven't quite yet fit into the FFP continuity, which I suppose I'll put here for everyone's delectation (Ciri POV, of Morvran):

He glanced up only briefly at her arrival, flashing her a quick smile but returning to whatever he was writing, clearly intently focused. She propped a hip on the edge of the desk, waiting, and he finished writing the line and looked up at her.  There was something about the way he looked up at her, like this, something open in his expression that usually wasn’t. It sort of made her want to pull his hair, and made her suddenly understand some things about the way her-- Geralt and Yennefer had acted, around one another. She’d always thought Yennefer was perhaps too mean to Geralt, but she could suddenly understand Yennefer’s perspective, and see that maybe it… well maybe it wasn’t being mean.  But. She didn’t know Morvran near well enough to offer to pull his hair.

[olderthannetfic]

Wait I’m genuinely curious about the mechanisms of this - so I know about ao3 and copyright law, but what about zines? I think the earliest are from the 1970s but how have they, as a media form, survived for so long if they’re also technically breaking the law by profiting off an IP? I get a lot are for charity and companies would be reluctant to sue projects for charity but I’ve seen some being sold that aren’t?

And also what about authors who post early updates on patreon or have patreon exclusive fics? That surely has to break copyright law?

Possibly answering my own question but maybe it’s because companies don’t care about this but I also did live through Nintendo viciously taking down let’s plays because they thought it breached their copyright by disincentivising people from playing the games?

Companies can be really strict about their IPs, so I’m really curious as to how this is happening and how people are protecting their works.

--

Getting away with shit and shit being legal are two very different things. ;)

And, to be fair, shit being illegal and companies threatening you with legal action are also very different things.

The oldschool ones were not for charity. You could make a fair use argument, but most zines survive simply because rights holders don't bother to go after them. Small print runs of physical objects are often not seen as significant enough to bother with. Zine makers often argue that they're only charging because they need to cover the printer's bill. Some prices on old zines bear this out; others don't.

Plenty of zines did get shut down by rights holders, however, from big-for-sff-publishing names like Chelsea Quinn Yarbro to Hollywood types like George Lucas. The reasons ranged from "My historical figure vampire is super original and your random-ass zine is endangering my copyright" (Fuck you, CQY. I'm never reading a page of your crap!) to "I just don't like Luke/Leia for some reason but won't tell you why" (LOL). I hear Lucas went after horny zines in general too. I wasn't around for any of this, obviously, but there are writeups online, including on Fanlore.

I presume modern zines benefit from the greater awareness around fair use and around bad press from suppressing fanworks, but they could still be in danger from big rights holders. Being legal or illegal is less important than who has the money for lawyers. Sometimes, a fan can get a big corp to back off by brazening it out, but you have to tell them your legal name and go "Come at me, bro!" Who wants to do that?

Fic Patreons are not only on shaky legal ground, but Patreon does not allow that use of the site. It's a private company, not a public service, and it can pretty much do as it pleases. Here are the guidelines in part:

Restrictions We don’t allow creations and benefits that violate our terms or policies. You can learn more by visiting our Community Guidelines and Benefit Guidelines. A high level summary of those rules is that we don’t allow:

illegal creations or benefits;

creations or benefits that are abusive towards other people;

creations or benefits that use others’ intellectual property, unless you have written permission to use it, or your use is protected as fair use;

or creations or benefits with real people engaging in sexual acts.

If your fans include people under the age of 18, then please remind them that they need their parent’s or legal guardian’s permission to purchase an offering or membership subscription on Patreon, and that those under the age of 13 cannot use Patreon. We are not required to allow any particular person or group of persons to be a patron or otherwise access Patreon services.

Now, yes, they do make an exception for fair use, but I doubt they'll side with the majority of fanworks creators on their particular Patreon works counting as fair use. (Actually, they might be more lenient on RPF. That "real people" rule is about porn starring live actors, not about RPF.) They might rule in favor of the person selling their fic on there, but they very well might not, and even if you were willing to fight it out in court, you probably couldn't since Patreon would be denying you service on their site, not suing you. They can deny service to whomever they want any time they want.

I don't advocate tattling to Patreon simply because I don't think there's any social contract around respecting Patreon's wishes, nor are Patreons I don't back super visible and in my face. Patreon is built by people who get paid to do that; the extra ethical issues present on AO3 are not present here. I don't really approve, but I'm also not going to go out of my way to rat on people. However, I'm sure that fandom enemies of BNFs with Patreons do tattle. I'd advise anyone monetizing this way to have other contact info for their patrons in case they suddenly get kicked off.

--

Basically, people are flying under the radar, and then periodically, there's a big drama where a rights holder or hosting site destroys everything.

[heroes-never-discourse]

Any fantasy-ish BL recs- urban, high, supernatural, I'm good with pretty much anything? No or low smut is preferable, but I'll read smut if there's a good plot/characters around it. I haven't actually read a lot of BL, I'm usually in the shonen genre or like... vaguely-supernatural/yokai/fantasy-slice-of-life stuff like Natsume Yuujinchou, but anti-fujin sentiment is leaving me feeling spiteful :P

Reading BL out of spite is motivation I can get behind! (all the titles link to their Baka-Updates pages, so be aware of the categories for stuff you might not be into ^-^)

First off I’m legally obligated to shill for Konya mo Nemurenai, which is one of my favorites. Demons! They’re fun. The love interest is also just like, one of my favorite characters, he’s such an actually loveable asshole. It’s spin-off Kimi to Kore kara is cute too.

A Guy Like You, shared dream space and fated lovers and all that, the love interest goes between being a dick and not which can be annoying but I enjoyed it

A Sea of Conflicts, this one is saaaaaaaad, it’s also still on-going (i.e. still being scanlated) so it’s incomplete sadness too, I like it though (also the MC looks like Deku to me, just a bit)

Awairo Emaki is about a boy traveling with his yokai exorcist childhood friend, the art style is so nice and it was just really really good

Count 0, boy can see a counter above everyone’s heads that counts the number of lies that person has told in their life and is jaded because of it, until he meets another boy whose counter reads 0, very cute

DistopiA - Mikansei na Sekai, Sci-Fi rather than fantasy, boy ends up falling for an NPC in an MMO VR dating sim game (I still don’t know how that would work adgfhdgsadsghj) whose route is said to be basically impossible to even start, I liked this one a lot :D

Fading Colors, simple, cute, a liiiittle cliche, just your basic BL story with a Cat Boys twist

Haru to Kyuuketsuki is about manga artist who he uses a vampiric coffee shop owner as inspiration for his manga and ends up falling for him

Heart Silent, a boy who was born without a heartbeat meets a man who makes it beat for the first time in his life, this was so fucking cute I love webtoons adsghjkdh

Heaven & Hell Roman Company is so good okay, it’s just a ton of fun, angels and demons working in a company created by God because humans don’t need angels as much which was driving up unemployment, I love silly premises so much; the art is super cute and the couples are adorable, definitely one of my favorites

Kigurumi Planet, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again this one has no right to be as good as it is, I mean look at that cover, it’s ridiculous but it’s also got like a pretty interesting plot and the romance is sweet it just makes me laugh whenever I think about it

Kuchizuke wa Niji no Ue de, kinda light supernatural, one man seems to be followed by sunny weather, the other by stormy weather, and then they meet and go mountain climbing, pretty simple and cute

Mazu wa, Hitokuchi., it’s about a farm that raises flying pigs seriously that’s so silly I love it

Muchuu no Hito, a bunch of people find themselves in someone’s lucid dream every night, where they’re ordered to prank the opposing side’s team by their leader, and the lone wolf office worker MC ends up falling for one of the boys on the rival team, it’s a lot of fun and really cute :D

Not For The Faint Of Heart, scaredy-cat works in a haunted house that’s actually haunted, and ends up dating the ghost in an effort to get him to pass on

Raising a Bat, more vampires, there’s so much angst it was delightful

Royal Servant, again beware the categories, I really really liked the premise for the fantasy bits though and the story and character’s are honestly super compelling if you can get past the main love interest’s… issues. The secondary couple is cute too.

Saiyaku wa Boku o Suki Sugiru, it’s basically a soulmate au in the form of a two family curse, where every month one of them will get hurt (and the other will receive the injuries as well) until the younger one’s 17th birthday, a curse that thus far has not left any of its victims alive - still ongoing! I reeeally like this one it’s super super good

The Strange Story Of A Guy Next Door And A Novelist, this one is still on-going and I’m just super interested in it?? A narcoleptic novelist has been having a recurring, progressive dreams about three boys (who might all be the same person?) since he was young, and one day a man who looks like one of the boys moves in next door

[tenspontaneite]

PIAJ 2022 Edits Changelog & Update News

The 2022 Grand PIAJ Edit is now complete. All chapters on ao3 and tumblr have been modified, supplemental material such as supplemental chapter notes has been modified, and the changelog is ready. The PIAJ master post has been updated.

PIAJ chapter 25 is complete, and will be posted 23/06/22, on my birthday.

This post will cover an overview of some noteworthy changes to the story and worldbuilding, and will then list the chapter-by-chapter changelog. You can refer to this changelog to decide whether or not you wish to reread a given chapter or scene.

Story Content

 When I started the story, I considered incorporating water purification as a campcraft & survival issue to address, but decided against it because at the time I didn't think I was going to take piaj very seriously. By the time that changed, it was too late to reasonably introduce. But as long as I'm editing the whole thing, I might as well incorporate it. So, now Rayla is appropriately disturbed at drinking unclean water, and some scenes have been modified to reference this, and conversations modified to discuss it. Some worldbuilding notes have been added in relevant areas.

I made an incorrect assumption about the Banther Lodge when writing PIAJ; namely, I assumed it had taxidermy and animal trophies in it - it took closer examination for me to see that it's actually all wooden sculptures of animal trophies. Some not yet published scenes later in the story reference the presence of animal trophies in the Banther Lodge, so rather than change those scenes, I thought of something else I preferred for the setting and characters and modified the early piaj chapters accordingly.

 Grammar

 I have always been fully aware that you're supposed to end dialogue with a comma if there's a dialogue tag afterwards, but it looked so profoundly wrong to me that I couldn't bear to do it. I trained myself steadily to accept it, and having now accomplished that, I've edited PIAJ accordingly. I have almost certainly missed some instances, which will likely get picked up on future edits.

 Continuity and Consistency

 Ensuring I could take notes and check for continuity errors was one of the major reasons I wanted to do this in-depth editing process. I did identify a few continuity errors where late chapters had conversations that neglected to reflect the existence of similar conversations earlier in the story; these have been fixed. I have also taken comprehensive notes on a variety of topics to have easily searchable records to help me keep continuity solid in this ridiculously complex story.

Some things now being tracked: Clothing (Quantity, damage, cleanliness), Food & Rations, Supplies (Quantity & usage), Past Events (Pre-story events mentioned), Campsites (Chapters & brief descriptions), Ezran & Zym Ability, Callum Ability, Health & Injury (all relevant characters), and various subsets of all of these, as well as some misc. progression details. I've also done some in-depth mapping in my detailed Information & Espionage document.

 Worldbuilding and Nomenclature

 The PIAJ worldbuilding has been developing over time, so some things needed to be tweaked and amended, and other things were amended to conform to new canon material that I thought it was worth incorporating. Here is a list, not necessarily complete, of changes that have been made.

Great Bay has been renamed to Weeping Bay to conform to canon.

PIAJ stance on elves with facial hair modified in light of Tales of Xadia elven characters with beards. A summary: elves can have facial hair, but it's as rare as for cisgender human women. It runs in families, so more prevalent in certain communities, and may be utterly unknown elsewhere. Due to association with humans, facial hair can be stigmatised in some xenophobic communities, similar to hornlessness.

Some terms in Paragonism have been changed. The High Cleric is now the ultimate religious authority in a kingdom; the Priest of Paragons is now the highest religious authority in a given settlement. Houses of Paragons are now called Halls of Paragons, except where they are large enough to be called Temples. The overarching authority of Paragonism is composed of one High Cleric from each human kingdom, and is known as the High Clergy.

Some references / details in Paragonism have been changed. While Fortune is considered a Paragon, they're a controversial one, and not widely followed. Accordingly it doesn't make sense for most people to make references to them; any of these in the text have been replaced with more appropriate Paragons. References to 'Lord' or 'Lady' on their own have also been modified; this isn't an uncommon thing for people to say, but it's generally only done by people who have an exceptionally strong faith for a specific Paragon, such as Healers for Mercy. In the absence of this, any reference to 'Lord' on its own can be assumed to be an oblique reference to Hope.

The supplemental notes for each chapter have been inspected and modified where needed. Some examples: moondust dosage now varies based on the point in the lunar cycle it is taken, the full-body dragon sign language has been updated with its name of Draconic Corpus, and details of the rare Moonshadow elf talent called 'truthfinding' have been clarified.

 Chapter-by-Chapter Changelog

 Please refer to this to see where the largest changes have been.

(Section 1)

Chapter 1:

04/05/22: Grammar, style, added lines and paragraphs here and there – particularly to the opening, which I always disliked before. Addition of some description in the Banther Lodge.

Chapter 2:

04/05/22: Grammar, style, some modified sentences. Nothing major.

Chapter 3:

04/05/22: Grammar and style edits, as well as some extra lines here and there, and a couple paragraphs of extra content in the late tent stuff scene.

Chapter 4:

05/05/22: Grammar, style, a couple extra paragraphs early-ish in the chapter relevant to Banther Lodge changes. Changed the moonberries to gooseberries.

Chapter 5:

07/05/22: Grammar, style, etc. Added in a couple extra lines, and edited Ezran’s knowledge, for some geographical locations that are more worldbuilt now than when I first wrote this. Minor insignificant edits to this chapter’s supplemental notes.

Chapter 6:

07/05/22: Grammar, style, new scene section pertaining to water purification that’s nearly an entire 1k of new writing, two new chapter note sections pertaining to water purification and swamp fever. Also, modified the Claudia and Soren scene to fix a continuity issue with chapter 24.

Chapter 7:

07/05/22: Grammar, style, water purification edits, etc. Minor edits to the chapter’s supplementary notes.

Chapter 8:

10/05/22: Grammar, style, minor details. Minor edits to the chapter’s supplementary notes.

Chapter 9:

11/05/22: Grammar, style, minor details. One conversation gently modified for better continuity with ch24. Minor edits to this chapter’s supplemental notes.

Chapter 10:

11/05/22: Grammar, style, minor details. Supplemental chapter notes received minor edits.

Chapter 11:

19/05/22: Grammar, style, minor details. Supplemental chapter notes have had minor edits.

Chapter 12:

19/05/22: Grammar, style, minor details. Supplemental chapter notes received minor edits.

(Section 2)

Chapter 13:

20/05/22: Grammar, style, minor details. Supplemental chapter notes were edited; the section on the story section format was edited to account for the current state of the story.

Chapter 14:

21/05/22: Grammar, style, minor details. Supplemental chapter notes received minor edits.

Chapter 15:

Grammar, style, minor details, a paragraph and a bit added in around the wound care stuff to improve binding-related continuity. Supplemental chapter notes received minor edits.

Chapter 16:

22/05/22: Grammar, style, minor details. Supplemental chapter notes received edits, with my worldbuilding stance on elven facial hair modified to reflect some official elven characters from Tales of Xadia.

Chapter 17:

22/05/22: Grammar, style, minor details. Supplemental chapter notes received minor edits; updated information on moondust a little.

Chapter 18:

22/05/22: Grammar, style, minor edits. Supplemental chapter notes received minor edits; added in a paragraph regarding my stance on new and supplemental canon materials such as the books or Tales of Xadia.

Chapter 19:

22/05/22: Grammar, style, minor details. Supplemental chapter notes received some edits and padding and supplementing.

Chapter 20:

22/05/22: Grammar, style, minor details.

 (Section 3)

 Chapter 21:

23/05/22: Grammar, style, minor details. The supplemental chapter notes received some significant edits; positions of authority in Paragonism have been modified.

Chapter 22:

23/05/22: Grammar, style, minor details.

Chapter 23:

23/05/22: Grammar, style, minor edits, some slight changes to a scene for better consistency with previous chapter. Supplementary notes have been updated to reflect developments in the worldbuilding, largely affecting the rare Moonshadow elves known as truthfinders.

Chapter 24:

23/05/22: Grammar, style, minor details, edits to the first two scenes to fix a continuity issue with chapter 6. Minor edits to the supplemental chapter notes.

And that’s all! Happy rereading, and I’ll see you again in a week.

[bagelbeee]

This week has been a battle for countless people.

I can recall how it was days before April 12, and fans of IOTNBO were hyping each other up. It was joyous and a tad bittersweet (because it's might be the last time we'll be able to celebrate the drama that brought us together). Many fans were manifesting for the team and actors' nominations. I never expected it to turn upside down in just a moment.

Morning of April 12, I got too excited and woke up early. I was ecstatic (and a bit jittery) to know who were the nominees for Baeksang Awards so, I made sure to keep myself updated. You could probably imagine how much I squealed and cheered when the list was released.

The cast and crew dominated the list. I am glad that they got recognized for their efforts! It felt like these people have found their Camellia. yes, this is a reference to actor Oh Jung Se's speech I wish I could have celebrated it enough.

The same morning, articles were published regarding the lead actress, Seo Yeaji.

Filled with allegations and a narrative that fits perfectly with an ongoing issue, countless people have chosen to direct the heat on her. I couldn't blame those who were swayed, media is made to persuade the people (regardless of whether it pertains to the truth or not). However, I believe the media we consume is our responsibility, and so is our response. I hope these people would be held accountable. With this said, I believe truth prevails.

I am witnessing old issues resurfacing to escalate the public's rage towards the actress. Keep in mind that these issues were addressed and debunked already in the past. It's ridiculous how some people took the opportunity to act on their pent-up hatred.

Miss Kira (@/novicevidder) made a well-made infographic regarding the allegations. Do check it out if you want to be informed.

Conclusion

Imperfect as a human can be, Seo Yeaji does not deserve the unjustified anger and hatred directed at her. To be crucified by the public and bear the heat from misleading media makes me sick to my stomach.

I salute the fans and the kind people who continue to seek the truth; Those who put aside their prejudice and choose to dissect information with unbiased lenses. I sincerely hope the unfairness of it all will be revealed.

[vintagesimstress]

Early Medieval Be(a)rserker Hat / Headpiece

04.10.2020 edit: updated with new CAS placement

Let me explain ^^.

I've been thinking lately of starting some kind of 'Crusader Kings controls my Sims' save and even made some preparations for this: I hoarded tons of medieval CC, built some stuff and played CK2 while taking tons of screenshots any time anything important happened. So, today, while looking through those screenshots, I noticed in one of them a certain chief wearing... Well, basically wearing a bear on his head. 'How the heck am i supposed to imitate this in The Sims?!', I thought; then I recalled that we have a full-fledged bear costume in the game; and then obviously I started fiddling with it - initially just for fun, to check if it'd even be any possible. And, as you can see... It worked not badly.

Comes in 6 swatches: 3 original EA ones and 3 recoloured. I have no idea in which reality the panda swatch could make any sense, but who am I to hamper your imagination?

polycount: ca. 7K (I know, I'm sorry, but the og mesh was already quite high poly, and I had to make it double-sided...!)

Base Game compatible

HQ mod compatible

all LODs

custom thumbnail, bump and specular maps, some shine on the teeth

tagged as everyday, formal, athletic, party and cold weather

available for both men and women

found under brimless subcategory

colour tagged

disallowed for random

no PDN this time because it doesn't exist

partially hat slider compatible (everything moves with the slider, but the lower part is way less affected than the upper one). Watch out, it may be difficult to grab it from the side - you need to try hard to find the proper angle!

Photos of beta version - uv_1 has been improved since

Of course there might be some clipping if you try to combine it with too bulky outfits, but with thinner ones it looks good. Please let me know if you notice any other problems!

I know it's a crazy and totally unexpected piece, but I hope some of you will like it nevertheless. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD (free on Patreon, no ads)

***

Terms of Use

Don’t: claim it’s yours or monetise in any way

Do: convert, recolour, include the mesh, edit the mesh to create something amazing - just please tag me once you publish it, so that I could also see it!

[jincherie]

florescence | ii

❀ — pairing: taehyung x reader x seokjin ❀ — genre: hybrid au, hybrid tae, hybrid jin, poly au, fluff, smut (future), angst ❀ — words: 6.8k+ ❀ — rating: sfw ❀ — warnings: more shy and blushing boys, maybe a little tugging of the heartstrings towards the end u know how it is ❀ — notes: another hybrid taejin update!! i decided to throw this up since I’m working on fox rain and aiming to have it out this weekend, but just in case I’d like to publish at least something,, you know??? anyway I hope you all like this part!! man was it a mess before i edited and fiddled with it fhbjfbjf please let me know if there are any sudden cut off sentences lol

Okay, so maybe you’re lonely, and maybe there is something missing in your life, a void that you maybe want to fill with a companion that may or may not be of human origin… You’re perfectly content not doing anything about it though, until your best friend calls you in desperate need for your help and you suddenly end up coming home with not one, but two hybrids that may or may not have been on the way to the chopping block had you not taken them in. They’re more than a little rough around the edges, and the situation is less than ideal but… maybe the best things don’t always come in perfect, shiny packages. Maybe they just need a little time to bloom.

— posted; 29.08.2019 // masterlist || prev. | next.

In the first three days at your home, the hybrids are… somewhat withdrawn. They don’t shun you or ignore you, but are notably wary in your presence, hesitant to act when around you. They’re both somewhat shy, Taehyung markedly more so than Seokjin, and while you long to talk to them and try and ease them into their new lifestyle a bit more, you try to hold yourself back and give them the space they need to adjust on their own. You know it takes time.

It’s hard, though, and at several times throughout the three days, you find yourself wondering—should they really be this shy?

You’re new, this situation is new, everything is new to them. Shyness is expected. You know that, but… you can’t help but feel something is off. Something doesn’t add up, and while you haven’t figured out exactly what yet, you’re keen to pinpoint it soon.

The first day they spent in your home, was essentially nothing more than a night since you really only brought them home that night. The next day though, the second day, the two hybrids wake early and spend hours wandering around and taking in every little scent and inspecting every item in your house, allowing themselves to grow as familiar as they can. You notice that they seem to take turns leading each other and choosing where to go, but they never part. You notice with spark of affection, that Taehyung grasps Seokjin’s sleeve out of habit as he follows him, gazing around with wide eyes and waddling behind him like a little duckling. When it is his turn to explore, he leads the other male with the same soft grip on his sleeve. You think it mustn’t be unusual since Seokjin doesn’t even bat a lash.

Other than exploring, the two hybrids seem content to nap and cuddle with each other, mostly on the bed in their room. It brings a smile to your face when you walk past and catch sight of them, Seokjin clutching Taehyung’s shirt in his sleep, and Taehyung hugging him like a stuffed toy. Taehyung is quiet, but Seokjin is letting out soft snores that, were he a feline hybrid, you might mistake for purrs.

When they wake, you ask them what they want for dinner tonight, and for the days coming, but even in this, they’re hesitant to voice their desires.

“Is there anything you really like?” you ask, pushing gently for an answer you can work with. “Any dish or type of food?”

“Uhm…” Seokjin blinks, eyes flicking from you to the ceiling, and then back to you. “I… It’s okay. We’re happy to eat whatever is being served. You d-don’t have to go out of your way to…”

“Seokjin, it’s not a bother,” you say, hoping to remind him that you chose to take them home. “I’m asking because I’m happy to make it, or buy it. Is there something you like?”

It takes a few pointed looks and verbal prompts before Seokjin finally admits his love for meat and ramen dishes. You also learn that Taehyung really likes healthy meals, with meat and vegetables, but he also likes desserts. Of course, it isn’t Taehyung that tells you this, but Seokjin. The russet-haired hybrid still refuses to talk to you. Deep down, you’re a little frustrated, and a little sad and hurt both at Taehyung’s silence and the distant, withdrawn behaviour of the two, but you know it’s unreasonable to feel that way. You understand that whatever experiences they have had in the lab aren’t ones that are easily forgotten in just one night. You can only hope that eventually they will allow themselves to open up a little more and will just bear with it in the meantime.

Later in the night, after eating the ramen you cooked up for the three of you, you plan to go sit with them and ask their opinions for some clothes, since you need to order them.  Currently they only have a few sets between them and to you, that’s unacceptable. You’d like to go out to an outlet or shopping centre with them to get them a wardrobe of things they like, but also know to wait until after they have settled in a bit more. Still, in the meantime they need some clothes to wear that aren’t plain white and almost threadbare. So after tucking away the last plate into the dishwasher and turning it on, you gather your laptop and turn towards their room—except you don’t get very far, barely even a step, before you stop in place.

The door is shut. It seems they’ve retreated for the night.

A little bummed but ultimately understanding, you call out a soft ‘goodnight’ and move to your own room. You think you hear Seokjin call softly back, and although you’re not sure, you’re willing to take what you can get.

Since they weren’t there to supervise your choices, you only buy them two outfits each. You know a few economic clothing sites that cater to hybrids, so the dent in your wallet isn’t too big—you know it will be when you eventually take them out for a big shop, though. If you start preparing yourself for the pain now, it will probably hurt a little less in the future.

Humming to yourself, you sit and browse for a little over an hour, sifting through the many tabs you opened so you’d have all your favourites in front of you. For Seokjin, you end up placing some dark jeans and loose pants, along with a grey hoodie with fluffy insides and a peachy light orange long-sleeved shirt, into your cart. You don’t have much basis for your decisions, except that you thought they would suit him and they weren’t too garish or out-there. When you choose Taehyung’s, it is a little harder if only because he’s a bit more difficult to read. You end up selecting some loose black pants and jeans, the same as Seokjin, and a soft-looking dark green button-up, as well as a fluffy hoodie. You have a feeling he’ll appreciate the comfort aspects more than anything. The sizes you chose were a bit of an in-the-moment guestimate, but hopefully they won’t be too far off the mark.

You bought them online, so you’re not really expecting them any time soon—you took time off work the night you brought the boys home so you don’t have to worry about the delivery coming when you’re not here. Well, that is, unless it’s incredibly late and comes in two week’s time or more. Hopefully it will arrive within the two weeks you took off, though. You don’t think you’d get away with asking for more time, even though your job isn’t all that traditional and it’s common knowledge that although each hybrid is different, they all need an adjustment period of sorts to settle into their new home and initiate and complete the bonding process. You’d managed to get two weeks without a problem, but you feel as though any longer than that would be pushing it.

Contrary to what you expected, the clothes actually arrive the very next morning. You’re fresh out of the shower, dressed for the day ahead, and entering the living room where the hybrids are curled tentatively on the couch, when you hear a decisively loud set of knocks. The two hybrids flinch, Seokjin almost falling off the cushion of the couch from the extent of his reaction. Biting your lip to hide your smile, since it was funny but also you don’t want to embarrass him, you make your way to the door and peek through the peephole before letting out a surprised noise and swinging it open right away, accidentally bumping the handle into the wall in your haste. Yikes, hopefully it didn’t dent.

“Miss—?!” Seokjin’s alarmed voice sounds from the living room, and you hear him scrambling from the couch and rushing over. You must have startled him by swinging the door open so quickly and making such a ruckus.

“Delivery for Miss y/n l/n?” It’s an elder gentleman at your door, dressed in the uniform of the company that usually delivers your packages. In his arms is a large box, the site you bought the clothes from last night displayed on the sticker.

“Oh, that’s me!” you smile at him, and he returns it kindly. You take the box from his hold, awkwardly shuffling it under one arm so that you can sign his little digital delivery pad. “Thank you very much!”

“No problem.” You receive another smile, and then the postman is nodding his head in farewell and returning down the path to wherever he parked his van.

Making sure to wait a moment to be polite, you close the door once he is far enough and direct your gaze to the box in your arms as you turn around. This is probably why you don’t see Seokjin and Taehyung straight away, and why you let out a short, startled scream as you look up and catch sight of them hovering closely. They jump in response to your scream, and you can’t help the sudden laugh that rises at the situation.

“Sorry! Sorry, didn’t mean to scream,” you say, trying to meet their eyes as you speak. You manage to catch Taehyung’s for a split second before he tears them away, his cheeks colouring slightly as he ducks his head. Well, you’re counting that as a little victory.

“Who… Who was that?” Seokjin asks, seeming torn between curiosity and concern as he tilts to peer at the door behind you.

“It was the postman,” you explain with a smile, holding out your hand for him to take on instinct as you move past him. He doesn’t notice it for a moment, but when he does he stiffens and his wide-eyes whip to your face. Realising what you’ve done, and somewhat embarrassed by how your hand was just hanging there, you retract it and turn back in the direction you’re walking, clearing your throat.  “He was delivering something I ordered. It came so quickly! I’m sorry if you were surprised, if I’d known it was coming today I would have told you ahead of time.”

“It’s okay…” Seokjin begins, his sentence trailing suddenly. You hear shuffling behind you as you continue into the kitchen, a whisper that sounded suspiciously like Seokjin brushing your ears. You reach the kitchen table and turn back just as Seokjin is pulling his head away from Taehyung’s, tall ears flicking. Seokjin’s dark eyes catch your own, teeth sinking into his lip for a moment as though he’s mulling over whether to voice this next thing or not. He seems to decide to voice whatever is on his mind, “Um, w-what did you order?”

“I’m glad you asked,” you say, smile warming. “It’s actually something for the two of you.”

They’re still for a moment as your words sink in, but the second they do the hybrids are perking up. Taehyung’s eyes have adopted a light glimmer, ears straight upright amongst his russet locks and betraying his interest. Seokjin is looking at you in a similar manner, except with much more shock displayed across his handsome features.

Grasping your keys, you use the pointy end to cut through the tape on the box, excited to give them their clothes so they’d have something that wasn’t plain and white to wear. You turn back to them, open box in your arms and a bright smile on your face.

“F-For us?” the charcoal-haired hybrid finally stutters, his fluffy tail whipping behind him and his ears tilting down slightly. You panic, smile dropping as you interpret his body language as upset. His hands come together, grasping each other. “You bought something f-for us?”

“Ah, yeah…” you bite your lip, eyes flicking between the two of them. “I bought you some clothes because you need them, and I was going to buy them with you but you were asleep so— I, uh, I’m sorry if this upsets you.”

Taehyung’s eyes widen, before he turns his gaze to his friend and smacks him on the back. Seokjin jerks, gasping in realisation.  “Oh no, no please don’t be sorry! It’s… It’s just… well we haven’t really gotten anything like this before… Or, well, anything...”

It takes a moment for his words to sink in, and when they do you’re overcome with an overwhelming combination of anger at the injustice of it and sadness at the realisation that with the life they’ve had so far, of course such a situation would never arrive. Who, in a lab, is going to take the extra time to buy them personalised clothes and items? The answer is no one, and it saddens you. Well, you suppose, time for that to change.

“I see,” you say, mulling over how to say what you want next. You allow a cheeky smile to slide onto your lips “Well… this isn’t the only thing I plan on getting you, so you better get used to it quick.”

Both males’ cheeks burn bright at that, but you can tell that your words make the two of them happy. You nod your head towards the box still in your arms. “Well, do you want to see what I got you?”

Sharing a look, the two hybrids nod hastily before shyly coming up and peering into the cardboard box. The first item you can see on top is one of the pants, and you tell them to take them out, explaining what you got for each of them as they do.

Their eyes are bright and tails lashing in glee as they survey the bundle of clothes in their arms, despite how small it is. Seokjin asks if they can try them on, and when you answer, “of course!”, he is quick to grab Taehyung by the sleeve and drag him back to the room. From there, they try on both pants and shirts you bought for them.

Each time they come out to show the outfit, blushing but still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, you move closer to make sure each article fits properly, and that they’re not too tight or uncomfortable around parts like their tails. Both hybrids go completely pink when you ask and help them check that, the colour even going so far as to stain their necks. Ultimately, it seems your tiny haul was a good one. The pants all fit, and the shirts too—well, for the most part. Taehyung’s fit nicely, loose enough to be comfortable and breathable, but you’d overestimated sizing a little bit when you’d factored in Seokjin’s broad shoulders. The hoodie and shirt are a little oversized on him, but to your surprise he seems to like it like that. A soft smile curls at his lips as he looks down and wriggles the tips of his fingers where they’re visible peaking out of his sweater-paws.

Both hybrids are smiling, seeming content at their gifts, but still… you want to put to rest the niggling question in the back of your mind that asks, what if you messed up and they don’t actually like them? Clearing your throat, you catch the hybrids’ attention easily from where you are, leaning against the table.

“We’ll get more things for you to wear another day, but for now… I hope these are enough.” You rub the back of your neck, suddenly feeling a bit bashful. “Do you… do you like them?”

Seokjin blinks, before straightening and taking a few steps forward. “Yes! Yes I… I really like them. They’re soft, and comfy. They smell a little odd, but it’s just because they’re new!”

His answer makes you smile a little, a flush of affection washing over your chest at how cute he is. “Ah, I’m glad. I really—oh!”

You freeze in place, hands almost slipping from their grip on the table in surprise. You very suddenly register Taehyung very close to your face and feel the tip of his nose brush your cheek, making your heart stutter. His nose is soon replaced with a brief brush of something wet that drags quickly over your skin, leaving you reeling as Taehyung pulls back with crimson cheeks and takes one look at you before turning tail and scuttling back towards his room. He disappears around the corner, the sound of the door shutting softly greeting the air moments later. Both you and Seokjin stand in shock for a moment.

“Oh…” Seokjin seems bewildered, but something akin to cheekiness glimmers briefly in his dark eyes. You feel your face begin to flush with heat as the realisation sinks in that Taehyung just licked your cheek. “Uh… he likes them too.”

Unsure what to say to that, you merely let out a grunt. Well, certainly not how you expected this scenario to play out. You can’t deny the tiny spark of hope that has spawned in your chest, though. Time, you just need to give them time.

x     x     x     x     x     x     x

‘Guidebook for Subjects of Batch #2991

Subject: F1204— Kim Seokjin Additional DNA: Canidae—Vulpes Vulpes Approved for progression beyond laboratory?: Yes ☐  No ☒ Observations/reasoning: Unlike ‘littermates’, subject failed to demonstrate initiation of imprinting and bonding procedure despite ample fodder and presented opportunities—did not respond to attempts from Handlers to induce natural protocol. Unclear whether from inability or refusal. Subject is also only one from litter possessing mutated colour variant in animal DNA—presents as ‘silver fox’ rather than expected ‘red fox’. Subject meets all other aesthetic requirements and has been observed to play previously, however subject is shyer, more withdrawn than littermates and will not play with humans. Does not meet aims and requirements of batch for suitable companionship, cannot be moved forward in procedure. Not approved for next stage.’

‘Guidebook for Subjects of Batch #5991

Subject: D1230— Kim Taehyung Additional DNA: Canidae— Cuon Alpinus Approved for progression beyond laboratory?: Yes ☐  No ☒ Observations/reasoning: Demonstrates unwillingness/inability to initiate imprinting and bonding procedure when in optimal environment and presented with ideal cues. Completely contradictory to social nature of the animal this batch is spliced with (Dhole/Asiatic Wild Dog), subject presents as incredibly shy and withdrawn with marked refusal to speak when interacted with. Subject appears to get along with littermates however is observed to withdraw completely around handlers and other human figures. Testing reveals larynx and speech organs functioning within normal limits, however subject refuses to use them. Aesthetic requirements of batch are met. Subject demonstrates refusal/inability to bond with humans and incredibly shy and withdrawn countenance, and therefore does not meet requirements for ideal companionship of this batch overall. Subject not approved for progression to the next stage.’

-

Over the past few days, the two hybrids have begun slowly unfreezing and allowing themselves to grow a little closer to you, bit by bit. You’re not trying to complain—you’re overjoyed at the progress actually—but scrolling through your social media feeds and seeing your friends with their own hybrids makes you remember all the stories you’d heard from when they first got their hybrids, and when you compare them to your own…. You can’t deny how they don’t match up. You can tell that both hybrids are shy, but you’ve never heard of anyone else having a hybrid that was shy to this extent. You’re actually a little confused too, because as far as you know from what Seulgi has told you in the past, all hybrids are created with the inner drive and instinct to bond with their owner, or at least someone that is closest to them. It’s a process that is set in motion in the first few weeks of them living in their new home, and it’s a somewhat obvious process, for most hybrid species. The need for a bond usually overrides any shyness or hesitance the hybrid may have within the first few days, but you’ve not noticed anything like what you’ve read and heard the start of the process to be like in either Seokjin or Taehyung, who has steadfastly remained silent and has yet to speak to you or hold your gaze for more than three seconds at a time. You went to search on the internet, wanting to know whether it was normal for their hybrid types, but then you realised that you didn’t actually know what kind of hybrid they even were.

That was when you’d remembered that you have such a thing as their hybrid guidebooks, and you’d promptly upturned your room searching for wherever you’d left them.

The hybrid guidebooks, made by the lab and the workers who created them with the facts of their creation along with observations on them from conception onwards. It didn’t take you too long to find them, and as soon as you did you plopped down and dove in. It was already late and as far as you knew the hybrids in question had already headed to bed, so you felt safe to read them. It was only just now that you finished reading them, and in all honesty, you think you might be about to cry.

With each book, when you went to read the next page, you were shocked to find it completely blank. A quick flick through the remaining pages revealed very much the same thing. The book isn’t all that thick, but still you’re surprised at the magnitude of pages left untouched. Perhaps they are left there for you to make your own observations? Seulgi should have told you it would be as unhelpful as it is helpful. It takes you less than a minute to reread all the meagre information provided to you, your heart clenching and sinking in your chest.

Seokjin was deemed a failure because his animal features hadn’t been the same as the others in his batch and he was reserved around humans, and Taehyung’s extreme shyness had been his downfall— and because they were deemed a failure due to those “faults”, they’d almost been sent to their death just days ago.

You blink, feeling a stray tear slip from the corner of your eye and drip down your cheekbone. Rage and disgust fill you in a violent, roiling motion before it disappears and leaves an empty ache. That isn’t fair at all. It’s no fault of their own that they didn’t meet whatever ridiculous requirements the lab held for them, and it is completely and utterly unfair the life they’ve been given so far. You slam the booklets down on the bed, taking a moment to allow your remaining tears to fall and the sadness their profiles had elicited to settle. Once you’re sure you are a little calmer, you allow yourself to ponder the information you’ve learned.

As much as you dislike the implications of what you read, it does explain a lot—knowing their breeds helps a bit, and also explains the act of thanks Taehyung saw fit to bestow upon you when you gave him clothes, but you’re also somewhat relieved at the knowledge that the way they’re acting isn’t because of you, per se, but rather is part of their observed and already-existing behaviour before meeting you. Still, a part of you longs to get closer to them and begin easing down the walls they have up— but you suppose with their personalities it may take a while. You’re willing to wait and do what you can to ensure they’re happy and content in the meantime, but still… Your mind can’t help but come back to the parts that seemed to stick with you the most.

Refusal to initiate bonding process. The question lingers in your mind, but you aren’t sure if you want to know the answer— what happens if your hybrids never imprint or bond with you?

Something heavy presses over your chest at that, and you feel your lips tug down of their own accord. It’s probably better if you don’t worry about things like that so early on. They’ve only been here a few days, after all. Flicking your bedside light off, you settle back into the covers and resign yourself to finally going to sleep, even if it’s hours after you probably should have. You’ll sleep now, and when you wake in the morning you’re going to do your very best to make sure that these two hybrids have everything they want and need and that they feel comfortable and safe in your home.

And if you can manage to get even just a little bit closer to them, that’s a plus too.

x     +     x     +     x

You spend the next day researching more on hybrids and the animals they’re spliced with and amassing a long list of things that you think will probably help them grow more comfortable and feel more at home here with you. You also intend to stock up on food that you’ve noted they like, getting some extra things as treats. You don’t imagine they ever had the chance to try caramel popcorn at the laboratory. Initially you’d only intended to make a small list, but now the one you have scribbled down is pretty impressive with its size. Watching the money come out of your bank account is going to hurt, but you’ll make it back soon enough and you’d rather spend it on them than anything else. Still, you make sure to shorten it a little bit down to some ‘essentials’ that can be retrieved in one quick trip.

You don’t have to bother being sneaky with your researching, because the hybrids stay holed up in their room or bathing in the sun in small courtyard around your front door area—you note that Taehyung in particular seems to enjoy that, always appearing the picture perfect definition of ‘at peace’ whenever he curls into the hammock you have there and lets his eyes flutter closed. He still hasn’t spoken to you, and since you know that’s not exactly… unusual for him now that you’ve read his guidebook, you do your absolute best to let go of the tiny shreds of hurt you feel each time he withholds his voice from you.

Ever since you introduced your television and Netflix to Seokjin, his favourite place has become the plush black couch pressed in the corner of the living room where he proceeds to watch a number of things from cartoons to crappy soap operas to cooking shows. It is in these moments that his guard lowers and you catch him grinning openly, and part of you wants so badly to take the opportunity to talk to him a bit more but you can’t… bring yourself to. You don’t want to ruin and intrude upon the little bubble of comfort that he has built for himself here. You just have to be patient, and wait for that bubble to gradually expand and encompass you as well. No big deal, you can do it.

Still, even though you reassure yourself with those words you can’t help the tiny part of you that fears still—what if they never grow used to you? What if they never accept you, never let you in? The prospect of it is a bit gutting—these are now technically your hybrids, this was your one chance at finding a good companion and even if they never warm up to you, you can’t just give them away. You made a commitment, took a chance, and if it turns out that they don’t take to you then the cold reality is that your one chance will have been blown.

Suddenly deciding you’ve had enough of thoughts like that and need a breath of fresh air, you gather your list and grab your bag. You know that you’d be better off staying and spending time with them, since they’re not secure in their environment yet, but… you’re also torn between that and giving them more space to get habituated. You war with yourself for a while, but eventually come to the decision that you may as well go and get everything now while there is still enough time left in the day. You can zip in and out and be back before they even know you’re gone, you reason. A feeling in your gut tells you that you probably shouldn’t, but the urge to step out for a moment and get some things that potentially might make the hybrids happier is stronger than you can ignore and you find yourself scribbling a quick note to let the hybrids know where you are in case they actually notice you’re gone.

You pass Seokjin on the way to the door, and he spares you a brief glance that you take as the opportunity to flash him a smile. He flushes at once, instantly whipping his head back around to face the TV as he avoids your eyes in what seems to be embarrassment. You catch it as he curls further into the cushioning, hands gripping the soft orange material of his shirt and his fluffy speckled obsidian tail coming to curl over his lap. Smiling to yourself, you place the note in your hold onto the kitchen table as you pass and then slip quietly out of the house. Taehyung isn’t on the hammock so you presume he is in the room inside.

In the note you essentially told them you were stepping out for a bit, and not to worry because you’d be back soon. You don’t really think much of it and considering how aloof they’ve been overall, you assume they won’t even miss you while you’re gone. The most you expect is a brief thought wondering where you went.

It seems you are fated to be proven wrong, however. While you only meant to be gone for maybe an hour, an hour and a half, the trip itself for everything you have on the list takes a bit longer than intended. When you arrive home, your arms laden with bags, it’s getting to late afternoon and you’re surprised the second you step inside to find the two hybrids waiting anxiously by the door with wide eyes.

“Mistress!” Seokjin steps forward, and you presume it’s the alarm colouring his tone that causes him to forget what you told him the other day about calling you that. Taehyung trembles behind him, looking at you with big glossy eyes for a moment before darting forward and taking some of the bags from your hold wordlessly, ferrying them to the kitchen. You don’t doubt he’s still listening as Seokjin continues, a waver present in his smooth voice that makes your chest ache. “Wh-where did you go? Why did you go? Wh-what—”

You flounder, arms too full for you to comfort him as your instincts scream for you to. You panic when you see his eyes glossing, the first signs of tears beginning to gather at the corner. Heart lurching into your throat, you dart to the kitchen and deposit the bags by the bench before turning to comfort Seokjin—and nearly running straight into him as he’d been hot on your heels the second you moved.

“Oh, Seokjin,” you murmur as you take in the sudden crestfallen expression on his handsome features. The panic returns as you see the first fat tear roll down his cheek; you realise quickly that it’s something much more than a brief trip to the shops without them on your end that has him so worked up. Your hands fly to grasp his own, holding them gently—his fingers clutch back desperately. “Oh, Seokjin— hey, it’s okay. I’m so sorry. I left you a note so that you’d know—what’s wrong? Please tell me why you’re upset.”

The male had been holding it together somewhat before you spoke, but the second your words brush his ears he can no longer hold back his sniffles and the wobbling of his chin, his ears flattening almost completely against his head. You witness the conflict on his features, the way his arms twitch with the urge to take his hands back yet the way he also leans into your touch, shuffling closer unconsciously. You suspect he doesn’t know what he wants let alone what’s going on, and you feel even worse that he’s gotten so upset on your watch.

“Did you go to return us?” he asks, avoiding your question, voice clear despite its wobble and the sob that climbs his throat. He tears one hand away to rub at his eyes, sobbing into his shirt sleeve like he is ashamed that you’re seeing him like this. “D-did you go to see if you could t-take us ba-ack?!”

You can feel the horror distort your features as his words registered in your mind—did he think that? Did they both think that? You left them a note, you didn’t realise they’d… oh, god.

“Why would I want to return you, Seokjin?” you ask softly, meeting his eyes and aching at the heartbreak you find in their amber-hued depths. “Why would I want to take you back?”

He clenches his eyes shut, biting his lip to contain the whimpers climbing his throat, but to no avail. They all come spilling out when he opens his mouth to answer you, his shoulders curving as he curls in on himself slightly.

“Because we’re failures,” he sobs, lifting his arm to hide his face in his elbow again. Each word that slips from his mouth flings another shard of pain to pierce your heart. “We didn’t pass the requirements, we’re not fit to be c-hic-companions. I-If no one at the lab or at a shelter wants us, then why would you?”

You’re speechless for a moment as he cries into his arm, your eyes wide as you flounder for what to do, how to proceed. Fuck it all, you decide. You’re going to go with your instincts for once.

“Oh, Seokjin,” you coo sadly, tugging him to you by the hand; you release it once he’s close enough, slipping your arms around his waist and pulling him close. You rest your chin over his shoulder, guiding his head down to your neck. “Come here.”

He stiffens instantly, and you almost worry he’s going to tear out of your hold before he lets out another heaving sob and buries his face in your neck where it meets your shoulder, arms coming to clutch you desperately. You can feel his ear pressing against the side of your head as you coo, rubbing his back with one hand and using the other to card softly through the hair at the base of his neck. He absolutely melts into your arms.

“Seokjin, I didn’t go to return you, and I am so sorry for anything I did that led you to believe that.” You rest your head against his slightly, letting out a soft noise when he tightens his hold at the action. “I’m sorry for what happened to you before you came here, but please believe me when I say I’m going to do my best to make sure you feel safe, and happy, and loved here. I won’t ever return you, or Taehyung. You aren’t failures, you don’t fall short. You’re perfect and I’m glad I ended up with the opportunity to meet you. Okay?”

While your words did serve to comfort the male in your arms, they also made him sob that bit louder and harder into your shoulder. You turn, catching sight of Taehyung staring at you from the kitchen threshold with tears a split second from falling in his eyes and his bottom lip wobbling uncontrollably. You open your arm to him wordlessly and he doesn’t hesitate to dart forward and join Seokjin in clinging to your form, shoving his face into the other side of your neck. You hear him sniffling, can feel his chest wrack with sobs, but you don’t hear him wail as Seokjin does.

You do your best to soothe them both as much as possible, running your fingers through the hair at the back of their necks and rubbing over their broad backs. With Seokjin’s words from earlier, you realise that this whole time part of their distance has likely been due to the fact they thought you weren’t going to keep them. They were scared to get settled in and accept you, because if they did and then you turned them away, it would break their hearts. Your very first meeting you’d swooped in just in the nick of time to save them from a glorified execution, for crying out loud. You don’t doubt that the situation they’ve been in is one that led to a lot of feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness—you can kind of understand the thought pattern that can result, and once more the realisation of how they must be feeling truly saddens you.  

You guide them to the living room, easing onto the bigger couch that occupies the space, and the two of them waste no time in curling onto it next to you, very much still clinging to your form. Gradually, with many whispered assurances that you aren’t going to return them, they are here for good or as long as they want to be, you manage to soothe their sobbing until it is just the occasional hiccup and sniffle that pierces the air. From your position between them, caged in by their arms and the faces pressed to your neck still, you can see their ears flicking and shifting from the corner of your eyes and have to squash the urge that rises within you to pet and scratch them. Someone once told you it was considered rude to do so, and you try and keep that in mind as you do your best to refrain from giving in.

As you peer out the window and take note of the darkened skies, it is with regret that you begin to shift between them. Seokjin lets out a low whine, Taehyung silent but his grip tightening around you.

“Are you feeling better?” you ask, voice soft. It’s directed at both of them, although you’re only expecting one vocal answer.

“Yes,” Seokjin croaks, pulling away with a sniffle and averting his eyes. It seems his actions are finally catching up with him, along with the resulting embarrassment they appear to cause him. “Th-thank you m—y/n.”

You feel Taehyung nod against you, but contrary to what you expect him to do next he actually burrows his face deeper into your neck. It takes you a moment to think of why he does that instead of pulling away, when you feel the heat of his cheeks against your skin and realise he probably is also embarrassed and just doesn’t know how to act about it. You turn and press a kiss to his scalp, close to his ear, and pull Seokjin back to plant one on his forehead. He lets out a squeak, hand slapping to his forehead as he stares at you with impossibly wide amber eyes. Violent pink flushes his face and you almost stop and wonder if he’s actually okay for a moment.

“I’m glad,” you say, meeting the hybrid’s eyes so that he can see how serious you are. “I don’t intend on giving you back, Seokjin. Please tell me next time when you’re worried about such things—both of you—and I’ll do my best to make you feel better, okay?”

They both nod, Taehyung finally pulling away with burning cheeks and averted eyes. You can’t help the fond smile that slips onto your cheeks. Considering how embarrassed they are right now at the emotional mess they just were and how desperately they’re trying to reclaim the distance between you, you decide to let them off the hook and move on to the subject that always seemed to catch their attention.

“Alright, now that you’re both feeling a bit better—how about we make dinner? I got some snacks and there’s a movie I’m going to watch after, if you want you can join me.”

You don’t think you’ve ever seen anyone’s face change from downtrodden to excited as quickly as theirs do. Laughing, you rise and drift to the kitchen with the two beautiful boys trailing after you, and go about showing them how much you care in one of the ways you’re best at. Dinner is made with them tending to every task you ask of them, and once the food is in your tummies and the table is cleared the three of you move to the couch, snacks in tow.

When the movie begins to get into the swing of things, you feel the two hybrids inch closer on the couch, and can’t help your smile. A part of you aches as you imagine how they must have felt earlier, but you can’t help but hope that from this point onwards, they’ll finally begin to warm up to you like you long for. You want them to feel safe and happy, like they deserve, and damn it if you won’t do everything in your power to make that a reality.

  masterlist || prev. | next.

p.s; please let me know what u think! and if u like this, please let me know by liking and/or reblogging!! it doesn’t seem like much, but I’ve been struggling with a bit of a low mood lately and tbh it’s the little things like seeing people enjoy my stuff that help keep me afloat 

if you’d like to support me, feel free to send me a kofi and aid my poor uni student ass :’) thank u for reading, ily!

[lizabethstucker]

The Misadventures of Nero Wolfe edited by Josh Pachter

Subtitled: Parodies and Pastiches Featuring the Great Detective of West 35th Street

I loved this collection of stories, with only a few exceptions. Overall, I would give it 4.5 out of 5.

Introductions: Trouble in Triplicate

“At Wolfe’s Door” by Otto Penzler ~ about the characters.

“A Family Affair” by Rebecca Stout Bradbury ~ Rex Stout’s daughter provides a peek at the author.

“Plot It Yourself” by Josh Pachter ~ how the collection came to be.

Pastiches (Respectful imitations of the original works)

“The Red Orchid” by Thomas Narcejac

Translated from French, the story was written in 1947. The first English publication wasn’t until 1961. A young woman comes to hire Wolfe to discover who is trying to kill her uncle, a man who claims to have developed a red orchid. More creepy than respectful, especially how Archie hits on the female client. Too offensive for me. DNF

“Chapter 8 from ‘Murder in Pastiche’” by Marion Mainwaining

Published in 1955, this novel can also be found under the title of “Nine Detectives All at Sea”. A notorious gossip columnist is murdered during a sea cruise across the Atlantic. There are nine famous detectives on the ship as passengers. Trajan Beare, aka Nero Wolfe, is the focus of this particular chapter. It is hard to judge the whole book based on just one chapter. However, the characterization should be noted as being extremely close to the original source material. A nice read. No rating as it is just an excerpt.

“The Archie Hunters” by Jon L. Breen

Written in 1968, but never published until now. A cross of Nero Wolfe and Mike Hammer. Mock Himmler beats the crap out of anyone he encounters, particularly if they disagree with him or do something he doesn’t like. After beating up a news seller for carrying a “commie” magazine, Mock discovers an ad in the back requesting a private investigator for a missing person case. The ad, placed by Nero Wolfe, leads Mock to presume the missing person is Archie Goodwin. I’ve never been a fan of Mike Hammer nor his creator, Mickey Spillane, finding both of them to be disgusting in their love of violence, misogyny, and attitudes in general. I did enjoy this story nonetheless. 4 out of 5

“The Frightened Man” by O. X. Rusett

Gave up early on this anagram-stuffed story, even to the author’s name. More annoying than clever or cute. DNF

“Chapter 1 from ‘Murder in E Minor’” by Robert Goldsborough

I read the whole book when it was first published and, frankly, wasn’t too impressed. I do know that Goldsborough was selected by the Stout Estate to be the official author of the novels and I have read a few of his more recent books. I may try and reread it sometime down the road to see if my opinion has changed. No rating as it is only one chapter.

“The Purloined Platypus” by Marvin Kaye

While Goldsborough has the exclusive novel rights, Kaye asked to write short stories and was given the Estate’s permission as long as no novels were ever written. Benjamin Moultrie, president and board chairman of the Museum of the Strange, Odd and Peculiar, wants to hire Wolfe to investigate a robbery at the museum. As I wasn’t reading the magazines such as Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock, I missed reading any of these stories. Which is quite a tragedy. Excellent portrayals of not only the characters, but the case itself. 4 out of 5.

Parodies (Exaggerated imitations intended to poke fun at the source material)

“The House on 35th Street” by Frank Littler

Originally appeared in The Saturday Review in 1966. Little is known about the author, despite Pachter’s research attempts. A crowd is assembled in the Brownstone in a murder case, wanting to see some of the detective’s famous actions and quirks. There is an undercurrent of a very personal nature, especially at the end. 3.5 out of 5

“The Sidekick Case” by Patrick Butler

Another entry from The Saturday Review, this time in 1968, and another case of little information on the author. Wolfe objects to Archie being called a “sidekick” in a listing of the latest book. Cute. 3.5 out of 5

“The Case of the Disposable Jalopy” by Mack Reynolds

America has turned into an illiterate welfare state, Wolfe and Archie are old and sometimes forgetful, and things are beyond tight financially. Reynolds uses the last names of some of the biggest authors in Science Fiction in the story. These men want to hire Wolfe for a case of sabotage and the disappearance of a key developer. What a weird world Reynolds has built. As to the updates on the normal cast of characters in the series? Well, I never liked Orrie anyway. 4 out of 5

“As Dark as Christmas Gets” by Lawrence Block

An unpublished manuscript written by Cornell Woolrich is stolen during a Christmas party. The owner hires Wolfe wannabe Leo Haig and his Goodwin substitute, Chip Harrison, to recover it. I’ve come across stories in this series before and loved them, both for the obvious affection for the source material as well as the excellent characterization. 4.5 out of 5

“Who’s Afraid of Nero Wolfe?” by Loren D. Estleman

Arnie Woodbine, currently on parole, was fired from his last job for gambling on company time. He needs a job and finds an ad looking for an assistant sharp of wit. He finds himself hired by Claudius Lyon, a corpulent man with delusions of being Nero Wolfe. Arnie is hired as his Archie. Now all they need is a case. Since Lyon doesn’t have a private detective license and Arnie’s felony record prevents him from ever getting one, they would not be able to charge for their services. No problem as Lyon is actually quite wealthy. Their first case is regarding a poetry award that carries with it a $10,000 prize. One winner doesn’t appear to actually exist. Seriously one of the best sendups that I’ve ever read! This was a delight to read and deserved more stories. 4.5 out of 5.

“Julius Katz and the Case of Exploding Wine” by Dave Zeltserman

A friend of Julius’ that has a champion bulldog and heads a dog food company comes to see Julius with the dog in tow, asking for help to find someone to prevent Brutus from being kidnapped. He also asks that Julius find his murderer if he’s killed. Sure enough, the man is killed. Julius had agreed to investigate, but only after he gave the police a week to solve it themselves. Just as the week is up, an adversary calls to warn Julius that there is a bomb in his house, contained in a box of wine. Julius allows almost everyone to believe he is dead after the townhouse is completely destroyed from top to bottom. I absolutely loved this sorta tribute to Rex Stout. I’m particularly intrigued by Archie, an AI who is installed in Julius’ tie pin. That alone has me eyeing the book collections, but to be honest, this is a damn fine mystery. Julius is definitely not Nero Wolfe, at least in size, athleticism (martial arts), and loving women (a former womanizer who now has a regular girlfriend). He definitely is in the aspects of intelligence, laziness, and cutting Archie out of the loop. His collecting focus is wine rather than orchids, but both can be very expensive hobbies. 4.5 out of 5.

“The Possibly Last Case of Tiberius Dingo” by Michael Bracken

Age and diet are catching up to Tiberius Dingo’s body, but his mind and deductive reasoning is still as sharp as ever. His long-time assistant, Jughead Badloss, brings a client he dances with at the Senior Center, a woman who is certain she is being stalked. Family ties and age-old secrets are ripped out into the open before the case is done, for their client and for Jughead himself. The names are a little lame, but the story made up for it. 3.5 out of 5.

Potpourri

“The Woman Who Read Rex Stout” by William Brittain

Gertrude Jellison was the fat lady at a carnival sideshow, an intelligent woman whose extreme weight, over 500 pounds, kept her from her dream job of teaching psychology. Her partner, Robert Kirby, is the thin man, barely weighing seventy-five pounds. As a stunt, the carnival boss gave her Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe books to read during the shows. Surprisingly enough, Gert loved them and continued reading. She never expected to use what she learned to solve a murder, but sadly a newer member of the troup, a beautiful woman named Lili who was like a daughter to Gert, is murdered and the older woman knows she can solve the crime. This is a character that I could seriously have loved to read more about. A good little mystery as well, even if I quickly realized who the murderer would turn out to be. 3.5 out of 5.

“Sam Buried Caesar” by Josh Pachter

Police inspector Griffen had eleven children, each of whom was named after a famous fictional detective. Nero, just eleven years old, had set up his own detective agency, aided by his best friend and neighbor Artie Goodman. Their latest client, Sam, came to them after his dog, Caesar, was hit and killed by an out-of-state driver. Not wanting the poor animal to be left coldly abandoned on the street, he buried the dog in an empty lot. Coming back a short time later to get Caesar’s collar, the body is missing. He hires Nero and Artie to find the killer and recover the body. Sad and cute and inventive, but how Artie puts up with Nero will always be a mystery. 3.5 out of 5.

“Chapter 24 from Rasputin’s Revenge” by John Lescroart

The basic premise is that Nero Wolfe is the son of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler. I’ve not read this particular book, but it appears to be the last chapter in which Archie and Wolfe, going under his original name, are in Russia, appeared to have come up against Gregori Rasputin (although the author has it as Gregory), and was helped by Holmes and Dr. Watson after they were wanted for murder. I’m not going to rate it as I don’t consider it fair to rate a novel based on just one chapter.

“A scene from Might as Well Be Dead” by Joseph Goodrich

Adaptation of the story into a play. Once again, not rated.

“The Damned Doorbell Rang” by Robert Lopresti

When their fourteen granddaughter came to visit in a snit because her parents won’t allow her to go with friends to a concert in New York City, Eve and Jack decide to tell her about why they left the City. When they were younger, they had a brownstone in the City. Their neighbors were definitely different, all men living there. Jack didn’t much like any of them and keeps disparaging Eve’s stories about what they saw while living there. But Eve tells a tale of how she saved the men’s lives. Too many close calls are the reason that they moved to New Jersey. How could I not love this outsider’s look at Nero Wolfe? 3.5 out of 5.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

OK, I'LL TELL YOU YOU ABOUT MINUTES

It's something you're more likely to fix it in an ugly way, or wiser than he seems, but he's not wise in the way a boss can. Master of all I surveyed. Most startups coming out of later stage investors? They're the NCOs of the intellectual world. At the end of it they had built a real, working store. B-list actors. Three options remain: you can go into almost any field from math. To have a sense of humor is to be wounded by them. University Ave in Palo Alto, though there doesn't seem to be deliberately trolling, we ban them ruthlessly. The most dramatic example of Web 2. A big company that uses Suns is not interested in.

So why not go after corruption? Instead of taking money from the most committed investors and work your way out toward the ambivalent ones, whose interest increases as the round fills up. And since the customer is always right, that's a sign of a good idea, and what would make it faster, you almost always guess wrong. We need to add one more qualification: we should ignore cases where someone knows what to do. At least if you start a startup, you had better have a convincing explanation of why this 1950s language is not Lisp. Don't ask them any unnecessary questions. Later, when you want to stay there, instead of chugging along maintaining and updating an existing piece of software had to approve or even know about it right away so that we could sometimes duplicate a new feature within a day or two of a competitor announcing it in a class.

In fact many of the things that surprises founders most about fundraising is how distracting it is.1 Underestimate how much you spend. This seems to me fairly likely that we're seeing the beginning of a story, but to be an adult. You can make inner loops blindingly fast, even writing inline byte code if you need to undertake to actually be successful. Before I publish a new essay, I read it out loud and fix everything that doesn't sound anything like the way they generate any other kind of client. Wealth When I was a whiz at it. How much do you lose by using a less powerful language. Don't realize what you're avoiding One reason people who've been out in the same way a low-restriction exhaust system makes an engine more powerful. They'll be tougher on valuations, but more mundane technologies like light bulbs or semiconductors have to be wound. The problem with these old traditions is that they're all more concentrated forms of less addictive predecessors. Copernicus' aesthetic objections to equants provided one essential motive for his rejection of the Ptolemaic system. As long as our hypothetical Blub programmer wouldn't use either of them.

Early stage companies need less money because they're smaller and cheaper to run, but they noticed that it worked really well. Now the frightening giant is Microsoft, and Yahoo can buy. Why did 36% of Princeton's class of 2007 come from prep schools, when only 1. Even though Y Combinator is as different from what happens in a series of papers whose conclusions are novel because no one is sure what research is supposed to mean using the web as a platform, which I can still only just bear to use without scare quotes. The CEO of a company they've funded. They were also a kind of pleasure here too. Libraries are one place Common Lisp falls short.

You never have to compromise or ask anyone's permission, and if we raise a couple million, we can imitate nature's method as well as optimization. If applications run on remote servers, no one has proposed it before. Python hackers seems to be that that Python is a more elegant alternative to Perl, but what programmers think in. At every period of history, people have believed things that were just ridiculous, and believed them so strongly that you risked ostracism or even violence by saying otherwise. I didn't get to macros until page 160. But these are equivalent to money; the proof is profitability. What do you do now with telephones. Sometimes infix syntax is easier to read.

The complacent middle managers may not be easy, and common, to try Web-based software assumes nothing about the client, they can't be measuring intelligence. It may be that reducing investors' appetite for risk. To get the really high returns, you have to have extracurricular activities. They don't take board seats, so they are speaking from experience. If investors know you need money, and then sit around offering crits of one another's creations under the vague supervision of the teacher. And though you can't see it, cosmopolitan San Francisco is 40 minutes to the north. It seems only about 1 in 10 startups succeeds. So whether or not to invade his neighbor, but neither was expected to invent anything. They ask it the way you might poke a hermit crab in a tide pool, to see what it does. A programmer can sit down with you and cook up some promising project. You usually start collecting money from the most committed investors and work your way out toward the ambivalent ones, whose interest increases as the round fills up. You either get rich, how would you do it like a pilot scanning the instrument panel, not like a detective trying to unravel some mystery.

It stands to reason it would evolve. An angel round is not only common, but institutionalized. The less you spend, the easier it is to raise money before you can convince investors, you'll not only get market price, but it could be, not what your current competitors happen to have. There is some momentum involved. Empirically that doesn't seem to work very closely with a program written by the architect. And it's so easy to do: take risks. I can only access the fields by name, because that's where big systems come from.

Notes

The examples in this respect. And especially about what other people thought of them. Rice and Beans for 2n olive oil or butter n yellow onions other fresh vegetables; experiment 3n cloves garlic n 12-oz cans white, kidney, or in one of those most vocal on the next round, though more polite, was no great risk in doing a small seed investment of 650k.

Thanks to Jessica Livingston, Trevor Blackwell, and Paul Watson for their feedback on these thoughts.

[anadvanceddegreeinquiet]

What, Me Pandemic? A Boho Crowd Stakes Its Claim (and Claims Its $48 Steaks)

Fricasse Dubois, 21, lamented the decision to pull her latest concrete poem from The Codswalloped Pisspot as she passed one of the whimsical “Maine-ducks-in-flight” mailboxes that serve as newspaper bins for the red-hot downtown rag. But her friend and intern, Banshee Fitzgerald, 33, had made a good point: The Pisspot had been flirting with questionable taste for months now. 

First there was the ironic opera libretto by Steve Bannon, which cast Leo “KIDS” Fitzpatrick as a Muslim refugee in a Copenhagen no-go zone. Then there was the edgy faux-memoir from Terry Richardson, modeled on O.J. Simpson’s unpublished “If I Did It,” and accompanied by a portfolio of Juergen Teller ass-Xeroxes.

But now, the Pisspot hype was growing, and Dubois realized that she might miss the proverbial boat. Interest in the nascent publishing venture was at fever pitch; a SPAC had been formed by laid-off Gagosian and Perrotin directors eager to stage a hostile takeover of the irregularly published ‘zine. 

And a dash of infamy certainly helped—the paper’s co-editor, Stizzy Fugger, had just launched a Tumblr in which she tallied the number of people she had inadvertently infected with Covid-19, updated in real-time (12,617 at press time, if you’re keeping score, more than the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally).

Anyone who has witnessed a “Pisspot drop” in the Dimes Square neighborhood of Manhattan knows to expect pandemonium. But nothing could have prepared this reporter for the foamy-mouthed jubilee and ecstatic violence of the occasion. 

It was 11am on a Tuesday, and the editors appeared at the corner of Seward Park, bearing several cardboard boxes of the paper. They were trailed by the usual suspects: Pimple-necked sadcore rappers, sex-positive Zoom therapists, former Artforum critic’s pickers who now run content for Chipotle, and middle-aged men who really shouldn’t skateboard.  

It’s a truism that an issue of Pisspot isn’t really read so much as it is imbibed, absorbed via the osmosis of social media’s orgiastic frenzy. In fact, the Times had a great deal of difficulty locating anyone who had physically held a copy of the paper in their smooth, unlined hands; many preferred to experience it as a series of fuzzy, thumbnail-sized images posted ironically on MySpace. 

“People used to say they read Playboy for the ads,” said Kit Murano, a fish-eyed, forty-something member of a downtown-based Adderall (™) street team. “Pisspot doesn’t have ads. And no one who knows anything would be caught, like, just sitting there and flipping through the thing. It’s an attitude. It’s an essence. It’s a lifestyle.”

Okay, sure—but what about the actual content actually published in each issue? Imagine an early iteration of Vice cross-pollinated with Tiger Beat, and then add a splash of sexual-harassment-era Paris Review. It’s a bit silly, and a bit loose. Bret Easton Ellis contributes a crossword puzzle in which every answer is just another reason why millennials suck. A party report—‘Reamed & Furred’—diligently transcribes the coke-addled bon mots of the same group of six people all eating at the same restaurant every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening. 

If there’s an ethos gluing all of this together, it’s a passing-of-the-torch from an older bohemian guard to a younger demographic, with their laissez-faire attitudes about sex, drugs, and global pandemics. “It’s, like, we can all still party together, and age isn’t really ‘a thing’,” explains Murano, leaning out the window of a Mini Cooper wrapped in shiny SunGen Pharma adverts.

The entire scene revolves around the lopsided triangle known as “Dimes Square,” which borrows its moniker from the culinary hotspot Dimes. (The name derives from Cockney rhyming slang for ‘elongated pinky nail.’). Every New York story is also, of course, a story about real estate. In this case, that means the Connecticut country houses that this cohort has Airbnbed out while remaining to weather the storm in lower Manhattan. 

Parts of this scene are “white, but probably ambisexual-adjacent; they’re members of the creative class, but they possess enough self-hatred to seem authentic,” says Dash Johnson, a Dimes Square hanger-on who many suspect of running the Steak-Umms social media accounts. “Most of them used to work for galleries, or websites, or Garage magazine, but when those jobs dried up, they woke up one morning and said: Fuck it. Let’s stop pretending. Let’s just tweet.”

One essential element of any good scene is a gossip column to keep track—and to keep score. ArtWet’s “Wet Ass Pigment” plays that role for the Dimes Square cognoscenti. It’s a bleeding-edge social diary written by an anonymous, Gossip Girl-style correspondent who communicates solely via Signal, using a vocal transformer. 

“I was sick of trying to break into this world,” they said. “I was sick of meeting Anthony Haden-Guest at a dinner, for the 387th time, and having him introduce himself all over again, like we hadn’t both thrown up in the same toilet less than three days before. Fuck gatekeepers. I built my own gate, and then I started keeping it.” 

It was a Wet Ass Pigment column, in fact, which broke the season’s buzziest news: semi-disgraced first son Hunter Biden had bought an octoplex apartment directly above Dimes, where he’ll be staying as he prepares for a September solo exhibition that will open concurrently across Andrew Kreps, 56 Henry, Shoot the Lobster, and a pop-up space for Recess CBD seltzer. Unlike the gentle, “meditative” paintings that Biden had been making in recovery, the new work is brash and rudely vulgar—the product of an unexpected friendship Biden had struck up with Bjarne Melgaard and Jordan Wolfson. 

Meanwhile, the group’s literary face remains 29-year-old Katarina Klaus, whose razor-sharp prose skewers her surroundings with the acidic wit of a young Evelyn Waugh. “I’ll be honest, I fucking hate writing,” Klaus admitted, blowing her nose into a Telfar bag. “I’m both super motivated and super lazy. Sometimes I’ll just copy-paste random chunks of Speedboat into a column and no one will even notice.”

So what’s next for this ragtag crew? “Dimes Square will probably be over by the time this fucking article comes out,” Klaus laments. “You’re going to have, like, some TikTok influencer house on the corner of Canal and Essex, and all the coke will have fentanyl in it again because idiots from New Jersey just have no nose. You know what? I’m regretting this already. This is all off the record.”

Meanwhile, Klaus is already rethinking her involvement in Pisspot. With a current print run of 250 copies, the instantly iconic newspaper suddenly seems a bit too exposed. She’s in discussions with a new, unnamed venture that would distribute articles and essays in a serialized format, via fortunes randomly inserted into cookies at various Chinese restaurants within a three-block radius of the Square. “It’s all about ephemerality,” she says, sucking on a DMT vape she brought back from Mexico City. “It’s all about staying relevant.”

This article was lovingly rewritten from the original by Scott Indrisek.

CORRECTION: The above edition of this story mistakenly cites Kit Murano’s age as “forty-something,” based on our reporter’s visual guesstimation. She is actually 19.   

CORRECTION: ‘Dimes’ is in fact Cockney prison rhyming slang for the expression, “a bent knob is straight twice a day.”

CORRECTION: An earlier online version of this story mistakenly identified The Codswalloped Pisspot as The Duct-Taped Shitberg.

CORRECTION: An earlier, subscribers-only post of this story mislabeled the gossip blog Wet Ass Pigment as being a Spotify podcast called Wank ‘n Pose.

CORRECTION: Jordan Wolfson died in 2014. 

CORRECTION: An earlier Google Doc of this story referenced a non-existent ‘hardcore maternity diary’ by Chloe Sevigny, which most likely did not appear in issue 4 of the Codtaped Shitpot. 

CORRECTION: A version of this story that was sent to hapless print subscribers in Texas and Connecticut wrongly identified the geographic boundaries of “Dimes Square” as being East 45th Street, Central Park West, Freeman’s Alley, and Bedford Avenue.

[dailycharacteroption]

2nd Edition Pathfinder: My Thoughts part 3

Things I Don’t Like

 And so it begins. Today I’m going to look at the things that I just really do not like about P2E, things that have honestly killed my enthusiasm for the edition, at least until something comes along to reignite it. Some of these things are about the system itself, others are about how Paizo handled the buildup and release of the system.

 Honestly, aside from cantrips that actually scale with your level, giving you reliable yet low-power magic you can keep using all day (which they borrowed from 5th ed), I really do not like the magic system in P2E. The reason being is that not only did they also borrow the “use higher level slots to cast better versions of the same spell” thing from 5th ed, but they also made it worse by making it that you cannot do so freely. You actually have to learn the better versions of past spells to cast heightened versions unless you’re a prepared caster like a wizard. And no, learning a higher level version does not automatically give you access to all the lower level versions either. The game tries to offset this by letting spontaneous casters take a handful of signature spells they can use freely at any level they can cast, but for all other spells, it’s pretty much a waste to pick a heightened version of a spell when other spells that are actually of that level exist. The only times it makes sense is how they used spell heightening to consolidate long strings of related spells, like summoning spells (which they then split among individual creature types) and polymorph (similarly split, but completely lobotomized into a few basic forms). I’ll take spells that progressively get better based on my progress in the class, thank you, it feels like my character’s study into the mystic arts actually pays off, rather than just “pour more juice into the spell for a bigger boom.”

And while we’re at it, the fact that every true spellcasting class is a 0-10 caster now kinda fucks with what we understand of how much dedication goes into a casting class vs what they get out of it. Bards are supposed to be dilettantes, not true masters of the occult. Heck, the fact they get occult casting doesn’t even bother me. It’s neat, actually! But suddenly bards can, at sufficient level of mastery, cast a wish-equivalent? Let’s face it, bards get full casting because they wanted to show off a non-sorcerer class that got occult casting and they didn’t want to include the psychic this early. For that matter, how does this effect other classes that were partial casters before? What shall we do when they decide to implement the magus class, hmm?

They tried to fix that a little by giving certain minor casters like paladins “focus spells” instead, representing magical power that pales in comparison to true casters. Of course, they also consolidated other magical abilities of certain classes this way too, or outright killed the spellcasting of certain classes (ranger).

 Moving on, there are a good handful of places where the organization of the core rules just doesn’t make any sense. For example, I can accept that you’re arbitrarily going to make certain magical class features into “focus spells” using the new focus system, but if those special focus spells are specifically meant for a single class with no overlap so far, why are they in the spell section instead of the class section along with the rest of class abilities? And why are half the equipment options divided among two different sections. Yes, I get that the second set is craftable stuff and magical treasures, but that means alchemical stuff, both the new alchemical bombs and extracts is now divided up between minor stuff available to everyone and the things an alchemist might have on them or brew themselves? That could have easily been in a different section.

And while we’re at it, I have a bone to pick with the crafting system in this game. They merged the old alchemist formula book with crafting, requiring you to know a formula in order to craft the item. And that’s fine and dandy for the class balance for an alchemist, but heaven forbid you be a carpenter that doesn’t know how to make a chair! Frankly it’s a clunky system that’s focused entirely on how the current Paizo staff wants you to use it and no other way.

Honestly that’s a big part of the negativity I have towards this system. Even 1st editions core book and bestiary combo felt more flexible than this. The rules lend themselves to a very basic and typical adventurer.

This user unfriendliness even can be found in the bestiary. First edition’s bestiary included rules for building your own monsters. Not so with Second Edition. No, you have to wait another while for them to publish Gamemastery Guide for those rules, nevermind if you GM on a budget. You’ll just have to wait longer for one of the SRD sites to update, and hope that you can clearly find all the rules with how those sites are sometimes organized.

Also minor nitpick with me, while it’s easy enough to adjunct the creature creation ritual rules to do so, the fact that the bestiary outright has text suggesting that players not be allowed to craft or purchase advanced constructs like golems is another example of user unfriendliness.

 Some choices were also kinda bizarre and not in keeping with the past edition. For example, the elemental bloodline for sorcerers in the past had these sorcerers wielding one of the four basic elemental damage types depending on which element they favored. Fire for fire, electricity for air, acid for earth, and cold for water. However, in P2E, it’s fire for fire, and bludgeoning damage for anything else. I get it, it represents actually blasting foes with that element instead of using an energy type, but… why? Suddenly three different elemental options have to worry about DR instead of energy resistance with their focus spells?

Another weird choice is found in the special materials section, particularly with the starmetal referred to in the previous edition as horacalcum, a coppery metal with unique effects on the flow of time. However, in second edition, they go with another spelling of the legendary metal, orichalcum. Why? Especially considering that Starfinder, which only has about 2 years seniority on P2E, still uses the horacalcum spelling, this is particularly nonsensical.

 Really this edition feels rushed, like even with the years of prep time they had for this, it really feels like they weren’t done with the book yet. Given that we’re already getting 5 pages of errata for the system months after initial release, with more on the way, I’d say that’s fairly accurate.

 Throughout the buildup to P2E, at least once in the various AMA’s, panels, and questionnaires that Paizo put on to promote the system, they assured us that since this is merely a transition to a new system, and not a “Some big event or apocalypse has changed everything” sort of scenario that we’ve seen in other games, that your player characters, if converted to the new system, “Will not notice” the change. And I get it, that’s just their way of saying that many things remain the same, the system’s interpretation of it has just changed.

That being said, I think an alchemist will notice when their serum that allowed them to turn into a bear, or vomit up a swarm of spiders to fight for them suddenly don’t exist anymore. I think rangers will notice that they no longer have spellcasting knowledge.

I get what they meant, and suspension of disbelief (or something related to that) on the part of the players is involved in processing the more drastic changes to classes and monsters alike, but that’s a far cry from that claim.

 While there are things that I enjoy about the new system, there’s too many things I don’t like to want to play it as anything other than an occasional dalliance. Tune in tomorrow for more of my thoughts on what P2E means for the blog!

[shprka]

“Of Lions, foxes and bears” and me – my literary journey with Part 1 of Merlin and Arthur's story

YOU CAN READ PART 1 OF THE STORY ON AO3

Hi, I'm Szpurka!

INTRODUCTION

(if you just don't wanna read this big ass wall of text and you came just for the fic, scroll to title SO, THE FIC)

Some of you might know I write and I love to write, anything and everything – short stories, longer stories, fanfiction, screenplays. As of yet most of them haven't seen the light of day and to be honest, some of them never will. You can say I am both self-conscious and confident in my writing. If I wasn't at least somewhat proud of what I write, I would just sit day-dreaming about the ideas I have and I would be miserable and too afraid to show it to anyone. And I was that for a long time, until I decided this year that no, I don't have to keep what I write a secret (even if it's a self-indulgent fanfic). I started to believe in myself more and am still trying to write and read and find like-minded people, who can relate and maybe have a good word or two to give.

But you're most likely here not to listen to me ramble about myself! You want to know how “Of Lions...” came to life. I don't want it to be a long post, so we'll just go over some technical stuff.

Fantasy is a genre that I loved since I was little, later on in my teens I became interested in different cultures and their mythologies. This is why I started watching Merlin in the first place, as probably many of you. Knights, sorcerers, magic, evil kings and witches? Sign me the fuck up!

Don't kill me, but I started my journey with Merlin pretty late (January 2019, the beginning of this year). I watched a few episodes on the telly, and never gave it much thought. Until a friend of mine mentioned it a few times and it was on Netflix, so yep, that's how it all started.

I was in a few fandoms before, have written a few fanfics for them (that are lost forever because I don't remember where I saved them, and then I changed laptops like three times, so... rest in peace, forgotten words of a teen me). I was honestly surprised Merlin fandom is so active and, you know, even alive after all this years. The show ended in 2012, wow.

I've written a few pieces, especially encouraged by the Merlin Memory Month May 2019 prompts, which got me really excited and thinking of all the possibilities. I've read a lot of Merthur fanfics by then and seen all the variations of the characters and the story, and honestly with every knew author I fall in love with writing and the particular movie or show even more. That's when I heard the words After Camlann Big Bang 2019 been uttered somewhere on this corner of the internet and I was like, yep, I'm in, I have to write a story now.

SO, THE FIC

(interesting stuff, finally!)

I had idea for Ranger!Arthur for a while and I wanted to try and write high fantasy on my own, kind of like in the show but more mythology and Celts and druids, and magic. I turned out in Part 1 of this you can read like 1/3 of it, though, and there's not a lot of magic, sorry! I will write the rest and I promise it will be much more magic-y.

What I also wanted was for BBC's Merlin to give me at least a few more episodes where Arthur knows about Merlin's magic and they work together to bring magic back and kick ass together. Basically, an fantasy adventure. And I settled on that.

You can see I took some liberties with the world-building. Arthur's characterization is what I had a problem with because he was a spoiled prince we all know, on the other – I had to describe how being in the Otherworld changed him.

Otherworld – it's underworld/hell/heaven, where souls go after people die. It's most of often than not depicted as a land of everlasting youth and joy and a paradise, basically. You can now it as Avalon, a magical island where King Arthur (from the legends) was taken after the Battle of Camlann. Avalaon became associated with heaven/paradise. That's where magic lives, fairies, spirits and such.

You can remember from BBC's Merlin how the Sidhe tried to drag Arthur with them to their own world by an open portal in the river. This is because Celts believed gates to other worlds (and in this case just one, Otherworld) were in lakes, rivers, in fires, on the top of mountains or hills – places where two elements collide.

So why depict Otherworld as a wasteland with gray ugly sky, and the only life there are beasts that want to eat each other alive and this is a place where only the strongest survive? Don't want to spoil anything, but there is a big reason that Arthur ended up in this kind of place, and not some kind of heaven.

Wyverns – if you look up a definition, they are smaller dragons with only two legs, that's why mine don't have four like in BBC's Merlin. They don't breathe fire, but mine spit fire just a little bit, because that's cool.

Midsummer – which is one of the most important traditions Celtic year. It takes place between June 19 and June 25. And because I am lazy and just came up to write this and have to go to bed because of an early morning, I added my notes (I hope you can understand my awful chicken scratch) + photos from the book that I came across called “Midsummer: Magical Celebrations of the Summer Solstice” by Anna Franklin.

MY SITE, MY BOOK AND MY PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

As I mentioned on ao3, yes, I have a site in the making! I hoped to have it set up before posting this fic, and this post would be one of the first, but you just can't rush some things. While it's slowly coming along and will be a place where I share some of my personal view on writing and filmmaking (because I am a film student, hoping to be a director, if you didn't know :)) and maybe it would a platform to share my stories, both fanfiction and future novels, scripts (hopefully) and my progress of taking my life by the horns (is that the saying? Probably not) and becoming who I want to be, instead waiting for a publisher to call and say, “I don't know who you are, what you do or what you've done ever in your life, but I want your story that no one knows about to be published!!!”.

This isn't the post to be really talking about it (haha, exploiting your merthur love to read this, I am awful, I know), but I have a finished novel of over 100k words sitting in my drawer (in a folder on my laptop) and I have to focus on it finally, not get distracted and translate it all from Polish (my mother language) to English by myself. Then I'll have to find an editor to check it all for me and some beta readers, because no one but me even touched the finished story and we'll see from there. By talking about it to more people I hope to actually get it done and find my enthusiasm again.

The story is an urban fantasy happening in our times in New York. The fates of two completely different people are more intertwined than they think. The first one is a fantasy writer from London and the other is a broker's bodyguard, a woman who is a splitting image of Death from the writer's short story, exactly how he imagined her when he'd written it as a kid. They meet as adults and try to discover how's that possible that she's Death.

If you were interested, intrigued maybe check for the updates, I'll definitely talk about it in detail within the next few weeks, maybe even share some spoilers ;) on my site. Was thinking of posting a first chapter/prologue some day to get you into the feel of the story and maybe support the creative process.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK!

CLICK BELOW FOR MY NOTES :)

[comicsbeat]

And so we wrap up this edition of our yearly wide-ranging survey of creators from every end of the business on what happened and what’s coming. It’s been a fascinating journey through the thoughts of the comics industry on all levels. Once again, huge thanks to everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to respond and comment. We wind things up with a lot more previews including a new book from Emma Rios and a peek at the Birdcage Bottom Books lineup for the year- and lots in-between. You can check out the other parts of the survey here.

Emma Ríos,  Cartoonist

2019 Projects: I’m very glad to say that Hwei and I finally finished Mirror. It was quite a tough year for us and I’m extremely proud of how we managed to come over all that and of how we drove this little big story to its well deserved ending. Issue 10 will appear in the solicitations next month and the book will reach stores in April. For all of you who kept waiting to read the conclusion, thank you, really. I can tell you we gave everything we had and we really hope you like it. (Some preview pages below)

On the other hand, Kelly Sue and I have been working on the third arc of Pretty Deadly. It’s set in Early Hollywood and we are bringing some noir and horror to our pages this time. We are also using shadow puppetry as a narrative element which is very interesting and crazy fun for me. The arc is half done and we will bombard you with lots of updates soon.

And now, my secret. If everything goes as planned I’ll spend most of this year working on a new project called Anzuelo, meaning ‘hook’ or ‘lure’. A book about death and preservation, and more than anything about the sea. I’ve been keeping this story in the back of my head for a couple of years already, waiting for a chance to finally focus on it alone. I’m writing and drawing again for this, but unlike I.D., this time it will be all in watercolors and wayyy longer. The whole project is pretty ambitious and, ahem, rather pretentious. I’m scared but also very excited about it.

Fortunately, the mighty David Brothers, whose thinking and writing I truly adore, will help me as editor/therapist and will bear with me through all of this terrifying journey.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2018? I’m going to say the recent English subscription to Shonen Jump. I believe it’s a pretty generous and smart move, and to me it feels like the biggest change in comics since we started preordering.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2019? Emily Carroll’s new book, When I Arrived at the Castle. The book is published by Koyama Press and will debut at TCAF. Emily is one of my favorite creators, obviously. Her work has been inspiring and frightening me for years. She always takes storytelling to a whole new crazy level almost effortlessly. I’m so jealous!

Also! The latest work by my friend Borja González is going to be released in English this year. The title may change but in Spanish (Reservoir Books) and French (Dargaud) its called The Black Holes and it is a truly fascinating story that I hope to see in every BEST OF THE YEAR list. You’re going to be mindblown.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2019? Maybe reading all Naruto, I guess? Bleach? Having a rather easy access to all those crazy popular and crazy long series from the last decades now drives me crazy. But, to be honest, it doesn’t feel guilty at all.

Who inspired you in 2018? I’ve been very inspired by rewatching Yoshiyuki Tomino’s dystopian anime of the 80s and 90s, recently. Specially anti-war stuff like Gundam, Fang of the Sun Dougram, and so on…

Steve Foxe, Writer & Paste Magazine Editor

2019 Projects: In addition to plenty of Paste goodness, I’ve got two OGNs I can’t talk about just yet, several promising pitches in the works, and my short in BOOM!’s Steven Universe: Fusion Frenzy one- shot will be out in March!

What was the biggest story in comics in 2018? Honestly? 2018 didn’t feel like it had a defining comic story. Maybe I’d just give the nod to DC announcing umpteen new imprints targeting different markets. We won’t actually see how Zoom, Ink, Black Label, and Wonder Comics work out for a bit, but I applaud the publisher trying to meet readers in different niches. And while it’s not a POSITIVE story, the swift response to Eric Esquivel accusations gave me hope that we are getting better, as an industry, at responding to these sorts of issues.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2019? Similarly, I think the response to Zoom and Ink will be a huge story in 2019–either because it works as well as I hope/suspect it might, or because it does so-so and DC gets cold feet right away. I also expect some BIG BIG things for Marvel’s Merry Mutants, but I’ve already said too much… And while I’m not a movie guy, seeing how Captain Marvel lands and how the MCU pivots out of Endgame will mean a lot for the MCU’s continued success, especially with GotG3 in such a precarious position.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2019? Reading more old comics! It can feel like a never-ending marathon keeping up with weekly releases, but in 2019, I plan to carve out more time to read (and re-read) older books. I did that a bit this year with some old Vertigo runs and loved it, and I plan to do it again next year, as well as start a FULL re-read of Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants, starting with Giant-Size X-Men and going through to the Morrison era.

Who inspired you in 2018? Tini Howard has been a close friend since 2014, and seeing her amazing successes this year (and knowing about some of the ones coming up in 2019!) has definitely inspired me to kick my own butt harder.

Tom Kaczynski, Cartoonist/Uncivilized Books Publisher

2019 Projects: Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson; Now, for the first time in his career, Thompson is working in serial form, in a bimonthly comic book series. Part memoir, part travelogue, part essay—all comic book—Ginseng Roots explores class divide, agriculture, holistic healing, the 300 year long trade relationship between China and North America, childhood labor, and the bond between two brothers.

Cannonball by Kelsey Wroten; Follow the messy life of Caroline Bertram: aspiring writer, queer, art school graduate, near alcoholic, and self proclaimed tortured genius. Wrotens’s debut graphic novel will turn many heads!

Stonebreaker by Peter Wartman; The sequel to Over The Wall by the artist of Avatar the Last Airbender: Imbalance; Four years after saving her brother, Anya continues to explore the endless, twisting streets of the mystical city, Noridun.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2018? The biggest story is the ongoing seismic shift in the comics industry. The slow but sure transition from periodical business to graphic novel business. Comics retailers complain about the continued slides periodical sales from Marvel & DC, but don’t really do the homework on graphic novels, or alternatives that could bring in new audiences. This job is being done admirably by indie book stores and online retailers who are not afraid to experiment and try out new titles.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2019? The biggest story of 2019 will still be the biggest story of 2018 with the added caveat that we will start seeing more diverse and interesting periodical titles that will move into the space that will be opened up by the continued slide of Marvel & DC.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2019? The new Criminal series by Brubaker & Phillips, but I don’t feel guilty about it.

Who inspired you in 2018? I’m continually inspired by every independent cartoonist out there who manages to keep creating new and interesting work, year after year. The seas are rough out there, and seeing new and amazing work continue to emerge, is flabbergasting and humbling.

  Joan Hilty, Editorial directo

2019 Projects: Showtime at the Apollo (Abrams, Jan), Good Talk (One World, Mar). Pageturner’s thrilled to have helped bring these to life.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2018? The passing of Stan Lee. However one feels about his life and legacy, it’s a milestone for both the past and future of comics.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2019? For me it’s which companies survive, and thrive in, the remarkable ongoing staffing and distribution shakeups across our whole landscape — and how that affects workplace equality. We’re living in transformational times.

Ayo, cartoonist

2019 Projects: I’m working on more and more Little Garden comics and associated projects. Chiefly, the continuation of my four-panel, one-page strips.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2018? The dissolution of Tumblr for a great many users is undoubtedly the most significant and impactful comics story of 2018. Tumblr performed a crucial function in the visual arts industries, particularly in the comics industries. It was a way for work to spread around as casually and easily as radio works for music. A lot of important careers began in the trenches of tumblr blogs and reblogs. The scaling back of the platform will do considerable damage to industries rooted in visual culture.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2019? I’d like the biggest comics story in 2019 to be an increased interest in short works; strips, short stories and graphic essays. Long form comics are wonderful but we need to give more space for a multitude of ways to approach sequential art.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2019? I’ve finally gotten to be old enough that I laugh out loud at the cartoons in The New Yorker. And I accidentally subscribed to the magazine, so bring ’em on!

Who inspired you in 2018? I’ve recently begun reconnecting with the work of Aubrey Beardsley when I was experiencing a bit of an overload of inspirations. Being able to zero in on his illustrations has helped me to focus my ambitions and cut out a lot of the noise in my head.

Josh Bayer, cartoonist

2019 Projects: Working on something called Unfinished (seriously, thats the title.) Heres an advance page

And on seasons 2 and 3 of AllTimeComics with Josh Simmons, Trevor Van Eeden, with guest chapters by Gabrielle Bell, Julia Gfrorer and inks by Simmons, Me and Josh Simmons, Tom Toye, Ben Marra Ken Landgraf and others. I also have a new book due in April from Tinto Press, theres some images here:

What was the biggest story in comics in 2018? I really don’t know, theres a lot of destruction everywhere on every level of Society and also a lot of community building in our own little microcosm. I am just trying to stay lost in a haze of work and art and teaching. Sorry, thats not much of an answer.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2019? Someone going down in the worst flameout of Indie Comics history and someone else rising to the highest peaks of industry adulation. While I have been known to see the future through mystic means, I can’t be more specific than that Ive already said too much.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2019? Two way tie: Silently judging people for their desperate need for approval and vocally judging peopler their desperate need for approval.

Who inspired you in 2018? I tend to work in 20 year blocks of inspiration, not yearly. Janelle Hessig and Bobby Madness and Elizabeth Bethea all inspired me to engage with comics hard at the start of the millenium when I discovered them. They are true DIY, as are many other punk publishers and artists; but their work crossed my path at a crucial point that gave me a strong push towards what I wanted to do. And I am still going with them as key influences.

Alex Lu, Managing/New Media Editor of The Beat

2019 Projects: On the journalism side of things, I’m launching some exciting new media ventures for The Beat. And on the comics side of things, I have credits on INFINITE DARK, several upcoming First Second books, and a whole bunch of ~secret projects~ you’ll see on the shelves next year.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2018? Can I cheat and say there’s a three way tie? The death of Stan Lee, clearly, but also the fascinating narrative surrounding Olivia Jaimes’ run of NANCY and the continuing (and currently more rapid) investment of Hollywood money into new comics ventures.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2019? If there’s a recession, that will likely become the central narrative for anything that happens in comics in 2019. Even if there isn’t, however, I’d still be interested to see what the flow of outside money into comics looks like by the end of the year.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2019? TEEN ROMANCE COMICS (I FEEL NO GUILT)

Who inspired you in 2018? This is a total cop out, but this year has been crazy for me and I owe a great deal to an enormous network of friends, colleagues, and mentors who have both supported me and given me opportunities that have made 2018 the best year of my professional life. From my Editor-in- Chief Heidi MacDonald to everyone at First Second to my lunch pal/business adviser Brandon Montclare to my frequent creative collaborator and awesome pal Ryan Cady– I owe all of you (and many more whom I didn’t name here) a great deal.

MariNaomi, cartoonist, database administrator

2019 Projects: In addition to maintaining the Cartoonists of Color and Queer Cartoonists databases, I’m gearing up to get the Disabled Cartoonists (TK) database up and running.

On the creative front, I’m coming out with Book Two of my Life on Earth young adult graphic novel trilogy, and finishing up Book Three (for release in 2020).

What was the biggest story in comics in 2018? Cody Pickrodt suing Whit Taylor and her supporters.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2019? Cody losing his suit, I can only hope.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2019? Finishing up my trilogy and finally getting time off to read some freaking books!

Who inspired you in 2018? Whit Taylor and her supporters. They’re going through a lot right now, stuff that nobody should have to go through, and keeping strong, fighting back. That’s really inspiring to me.

Hibbs, l., with Breanna Thumler

Brian Hibbs, Retailer

2019 Projects: We love and joy these days is hosting the Graphic Novel Clubs  — I adore talking to smart and talented folks about exciting new work and the nuts and bolts of craft!

What was the biggest story in comics in 2018? The increasing weariness (and wariness) that the average Direct Market retailer is feeling about the market leaders: Marvel, DC, and Image. We’re ending 2018 with the lowest confidence in the future of comics that I can ever remember among my peers. And I lived through two crashes! The odd thing is that the numbers aren’t really that bad — but we’re being asked to work harder and harder (and more speculatively) for the same reward. Virtually every comic published now has 2+ covers, and the worst publishers out there are offering five or more for most every title they publish. The system is getting too stressed, sucking almost all of the “joy” out of running a store.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2019? I keep expecting Barnes & Noble to collapse at any moment. I also expect an increasing number of “I’ve had enough of the industry nonsense” closures in the DM. At what point do these changes coupled with the utter lack of faith most retailers (in both markets) have in the most of the product make it so that AT&T and Disney decide it isn’t worth still publishing the comics? Everyone “in” comics can be working at 150%, and we’re now at the whims of souless multi-national corporations to keep the engines humming.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2019? Despite me putting “breaking news” first in the survey, I actually look forward to Heidi rants a whole lot….. man I miss that period when you, Spurgeon and Dirk Deppey all had daily rants….

Who inspired you in 2018? Honestly, just talking to creators about craft keeps me going: we’re well past a hundred hours of interviews now. Go dig through the video archives at https://www.comixexperience.com/archives

Henry Barajas, Writer, Director of Ops at Top Cow Productions

2019 projects: I’m working on La Voz De M.A.Y.O. and La Loca: Via Con Diablo! Brush up on your spanish, gringos!

What was the biggest story in comics in 2018? Batman Damned #1 no doubt. It swept every news outlet. Every comic book shop whether they liked it or not, had to talk about the pink, fleshy elephant in the room.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2019? Someone has to create an app that will make ordering comics from your local comic shop easier. It’s the year of Bladerunner for crying out loud!

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2019? Burnouts by Culver, Geoffo, and Dwonch. Stoners killing aliens. It’s mindless fun.

Who inspired you in 2018? Joe Illidge. Joe stuck to his guns, helped make some amazing comics, and raised profiles for some marginalized voices. I don’t know anyone that can lose two editorial gigs in one year, brush his shoulders off, and say “I can’t wait for you to see what’s next.”

Randy Reynaldo, Cartoonist

2019 Project: Rob Hanes Adventures #20 — I’ll be at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con for my 21st appearance, following my receiving the Inkpot Award at the 2018 show!

What was the biggest story in comics in 2018? Passing of Stan Lee

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2019? Avengers: Endgame — gotta see how it concludes!

Kat Kan, Librarian/Comics Reviewer

2019 Projects: I write the Graphically Speaking column for Voice of Youth Advocates, and the February 2019 issue will mark my 25th anniversary of writing about comics for the library world.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2018? For libraries: the new Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards created by the Pop Culture Classroom. And the creation of the Graphic Novels & Comics in Libraries Round Table as an official part of the American Library Association.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2019? Continuing growth in the use of comics in schools and academia.

Bonus questions:

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2019? Getting back to “normal” after Hurricane Michael devastated most of my city (Panama City, FL) in October.

Who inspired you in 2018? I admire my friends and colleagues in libraries and schools who have worked so hard to gain recognition of comics as a valid form of literature for study and research. I’ve pushed so hard for this since 1983, when I first started working in libraries, and I love seeing so many more people take up the banner over the past several decades.

J.T. Yost, cartoonist/publisher, Birdcage Bottom Books

2019 Projects: We’ll be publishing two new books and at least one minicomic this year. “Blood & Drugs” – a story of fall & redemption by Lance Ward, “Rooftop Stew” collecting lots of uncollected autobiographical and fictional weirdness by Max Clotfelter, and “Future Corpse”, a collection of new short work by Eva Müller (we published her death obsessed “In The Future, We Are Dead” last year). See previews below.

What was the biggest story in comics in 2018? Annie Koyama moving away from comics publishing.

What will be the biggest story in comics in 2019? President Trump implementing a new Comics Code Authority that only censors work critical of the president and his administration.

What guilty pleasure (of any kind) are you looking forward to in 2019? Probably some dumb tv show or something

Who inspired you in 2018? Avi of Silver Sprocket

  The Beat's Annual Creator Survey Part 5: From Emma Rios' new book to "Blood & Drugs" - and an update on Mirror And so we wrap up this edition of our yearly wide-ranging survey of creators from every end of the business on what happened and what's coming.

[kellieucb]

Becoming vegetarian to save your life?

                     Picture taken by Marco Verch on June 29, 2018

I remembered seeing on TV a quotation from Louis de Funès saying:

-      “I gave up fishing the day I realized that by catching them, they were not happy and didn’t wiggle with joy.”

My curiosity suddenly aroused on this topic and this is how I started wondering if the carnivore diet was the most appropriate for Human beings.

Being vegan or vegetarian sounds fancy in Paris, and these restaurants flourish in all districts. Why people are becoming vegetarian, is it for health or ethical reasons? Are we doing a mistake by eating animals?

Havard Health Publishing reported “Approximately six to eight million adults in the United States eat no meat, fish, or poultry,(…)”, according to the poll run by Harris Interactive and commissioned by the Vegetarian Resource Group, a non-profit organization that disseminates information about vegetarianism.

In fact, many types of diets could be defined as vegetarianism, but I will only focus on the two-main types of vegetarian. First, we can mention the total vegetarians who remove any kind of animals based products from their diet including eggs and gelatin, then the partial vegetarians who only try to avoid meat but eat fish (pesco-vegetarian, pescatarian) or poultry (pollo-vegetarian). Besides, most vegetarians choose a diet in between: they don’t eat dead animals but do eat eggs on a dairy.

Since vegetarianism has become affordable, more and more people want to try this diet whereas the early bird vegetarian used to be people who couldn’t afford meat. Today, most people choose to become vegetarian because they feel concerned about animals, their health or religious conviction.

In my opinion being vegetarian might express a sense of consciousness toward the environment we are living in. As well as being healthy, you contribute to animals’ welfare on the contrary, following other diet including meat triggers off a hard exploitation of fields and water use. Some may say that being vegetarian is the solution of the coming lack of resources. Regarding health, being vegetarian reduces the development of cancer, heart diseases, diabetes and obesity. Give it a try, here you can find 30 recipes for each day if you want to know more on this topic.

However, becoming vegetarian should be done under surveillance of doctors because you might consume less than the dietary nutritional intake which could triggers deficiencies regarding protein or anaemia. From a social point of view, most of the time, vegetarians suffer from exclusion because they tend to be misunderstood while always justifying their choice of diet which can be heavy to bear. For instance, one of my vegetarian friend always struggles when we hang out at people’s house because most snacks are made with meat, for this reason she reduced the number of friends she had.

This topic had attracted my attention for so long that I decided to try to become vegetarian. Last January I have adopted the pesco-vegetarian diet since it appeared as the most appropriate for me. Eating vegetables, fruits, grains, fishes and eliminate meat and poultry helped maintain my diet throughout my experimental journey. My weight and blood pressure was also controlled for healthy matters.

As soon as I started this diet, I lost weight.  At the end of the month I had lost 9.9 lbs in 3 weeks and 11.0 in total, nevertheless my skin problems had dramatically reduced while my hair had grown.

As a result, this experiment had proven that my diet was too much oriented on meat. Unfortunately, I became sick with a flu, and apparently, my diet wasn’t sufficient for the recovery. I kept on trying different natural ways to recover but it didn’t work: I stayed sick for 3 weeks and kept losing weight.

On one hand, I was happy of my weight loss, but on the other hand I was extremely tired. I have learned later that I was suffering from a lack of protein due to my diet. Since this experiment, I have never tried to become vegetarian again but my shape, and health still have all my attention.

My main concern is to stay fit while trying out different tastes and being healthy. So, where to start? Which diet to choose?

As far as I am concerned, I try to eat as many vegetables and fruits as I can. Harvard Medical Schoolmentions it this way in an article: “The more veggies, the greater the variety – the better”.The different components of your plate should be balanced as shown in this article from Harvard Medical School here.

First, I suggest vegetables represent half of your plate, don’t be afraid to put colours in your plate by mixing beans, with tomatoes, or corn for example.

In France, the Government is concerned about obesity, consequently they advertise a rule: 5 fruits and vegetables per day! Even if I can’t follow this advice perfectly I try to eat 5 fruits OR vegetables per day. For instance: for breakfast, I like having fruits and granola bar, at lunch I sometime eat salad with rice, tomatoes and chicken and some grapes or soup for dinner time. You may wonder why I don’t have a proper dinner? In order to have a good night sleep, I’d rather eat a light meal, otherwise I feel heavy.

Then Havard Medical School recommends the grain represent a quarter of our plate.The whole grain refers to bread, rice, wheat, pasta, quinoa… French people love bread as it belongs to our culture, however we need to control the quantity eaten. One of my favorite grain to consume is quinoa. If you are not familiar with it I would suggest you taste it as soon as possible, you will love this grain.

Proteins should also represent a quarter of your meal. They can be found in fish, chicken, but also in beans and nuts. If I had to pick up one source of protein I would chose chicken for its many healthy advantages; coupled with exercise it helps shaping bodies perfectly while enjoying your meal. Regarding oils, using healthy oils such as olive oil or sunflower oil is more appropriate because they are healthy and affordable.

Before eating, don’t forget to drink a glass of water to be prepared for your meal. Water maintains your body hydrated and eliminate toxins from your body, the best way to get rid of these is to drink at least 1 litter of water all day long. You can drink different juice of your choice also, as long as it doesn’t happen every day. But, stay away from soda!

Here you can find recipes ideas adjusted to people’s characteristics (diabetics, vegetarian, vegan) for all part of meal (snack, starter, lunch, meal, desserts).

To go further, here are my main tips to stay healthy and expand your life expectancy:

-      Choose carefully the ingredients you would like to eat so you can easily control the quality;

-      Practice some sport of your choice daily.  

For example, I like waking up an hour early to do my workout, it enables me to better enjoy my morning, and connect my body with my brain. Morning exercises are the best way to wake up your muscles gently and feel completely ready to go to school or work. My main focus is working out my abs and my legs, however a lot a people love stretching instead.

All in all, I would define a healthy life style as a balanced diet mixing the right quantity of quality products while work out daily. I usually say that a healthy lifestyle is 70% diet and 30% sport. 

Have fun but don’t be frustrated and have a fast food sometimes if you want!

                Source: Picture taken by Trang Thai on December 16, 2017

References :

Becoming a vegetarian - https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/becoming-a-vegetarian - Published: October, 2009, Updated: December 4, 2017

Healthy Eating Plate and Healthy Eating Pyramid - https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-eating-plate/ - Published: 2011

[shapeofbones]

02/04/22

so i've decided to start a stress free blog for thoughts, rants, projects, updates etc.

i've tried to start a blog for a long time but i've never succeeded bc i either made it so formal to the point where it was like writing personal essays, or i just ghosted it.

anyways i'm a high school junior and i'm pretty busy so this might become a monthly thing. i'm quite disorganized so i have thoughts scribbled all over the place (notion, notebooks, docs, discord) and i'm just adding to that collection.

but this is a stress-free environment so...!!

updates for 2022 so far

january 9-15: attended youngarts week! so phenomenal and i've talked a lot about this elsewhere so i'm not gonna ramble again. but definitely such a valuable community and place to grow. thank you nicole for giving me so much inspiration. <3 yay poetry i guess?!?! always thinking about wildness and radical suggestions too. ngl i felt intimidated by everyone's energy as an introvert but i met ppl who would randomly text me about kdramas and game pigeon so I LOVE UUU! started a skincare routine too, discreetly.

mid jan: caught up with school work mostly, spent lots of time studying for compsci... i need an A in that class... but i oddly have lots of free time to watch kdramas and play games? i've developed an unusual (but not suprising) addiction to candy crush and this water filtering game.

late jan: went to the cardiologist and luckily my heart isn't too bad but my blood cholesterol levels are abnormally high. gonna cry. watched true beauty like 3 more times and i fall in love with eunwoo every single time, smiling like a crazed gal. astro's songs are actually really good and i've been obsessed with eVeRy song for this entire month.

early feb: still not very busy, and that gives me chills because i feel like i should be dying at this point. told mr v that ap lang was the easiest (least time consuming) english class so far and he was shocked. finished our beloeved summer and started all of us are dead. i thought i'd hate zombie movies (first one and counting!) but i actually really like this one. i am trying to eat less sugar and it worked until today (feb 4) when i ate 6 girl scout cookies. birthday coming soon! means i'm 18 and will get a paypal account.

writing news so far: lynne thompson called! i'm working on publishing my chapbook manuscript and miye's doing the cover art yay!!! also wrote 2 poems, one's a ghazal. talking about brokenness and form with nicole. ran lumiere's contest and received 1500+ pieces. also wrote half of a flash fiction piece. did an interview about writing and youngarts with elyse! i also started thinking about future collection ideas (apologies, motion, abundance), and i'm really fascinated by the intersection between antithetical things (abundance vs. absence, endings vs. beginnings, loss vs. reunion, motion vs. static, wholness vs. brokenness) and how they complement each other more than repel.

random thoughts: gotta start studying for aps sometime soon // still thinking about crying in h mart, and crying // i should watch train to busan soon // my parents and sis are so obnoxiously noisy i can't bear it anymore... gives me chest pain // starting to like mitski more! // why am i so bad at reading? // eunwoo is so sexy and his voice/face is calming. calm polar bear vibes. // i feel like i'm gender fluid... really contemplating this these days.

looking forward:

i want to write a collection of poems as a personal project. not for publication though.

i want to go exploring around LA, especially korean-american imprints in this city like koreatown. wanna go out with some friends, old and new. like my band friends and maybe multi friends. learn and experience culture!

i wanna live a youtuber lifestyle (think minimalism, vegetarian, fashion revamping, makeup) but i think i'll save this till end of college apps next year.

gotta really make an ap study plan. there's 3 months left.

i'm getting $3,000 from youngarts and i want to use that well. really wanna travel but i don't think that's possible with covid. i'd buy lots of fashion items but also it seems like a waste.

[theonyxpath]

Going to make this one a taaaad bit shorter than last week’s. While I’d like to say it is in the interest of giving you loyal readers a break, in fact it’s because I really didn’t sleep well last night and my brain is mush.

For example, without my going back and really concentrating, most of the writing I’m doing right now looks like this:

Mopst oif tHr wrttiomg I”n dopIngh lokks L1je tyhjiis.

As you might imagine, it’s put quite the damper on my writing this blog.

No worries, though, the reason for the crappy sleep isn’t something important, or connected to Onyx Path, or anything like that. As near as I can figure, I was having anxiety dreams because my kids are all going back to their various schools starting yesterday and finishing next weekend.

They were expressing their concerns and had last minute this and thats, and all of that seeped into my head and I dreamed what I thought were three hour epic searches for classrooms only to wake up and note that 15 minutes had passed. Over and over again. I never even knew that my high school was built by the same architect who designed Hogwarts, but all those Mobius Strip escalators to the same floor, and doors that led to nowhere logical, were all there at dear old Central High.

Apparently.

  Promethean: The Created Tormented art by Tilen Javornik

    Although, the particular manifestation was pretty benign and keyed to my personal “can’t find the class and the bell is ringing” freak-out, what I went through is pretty common. We take in so much stuff from others and chew it up, internalize it, and some of us can let those anxieties escape via dreams, which is pretty cool, but other stuff stays in and does affect us.

Plus, if you are doing “creative work”, a large part of that process is to open yourself up and not just absorb input from outside yourself, but to grab that stuff and use it. To use it and create something with it. It’s what we do in a very basic sense. Some do it with creative processes that have discrete stages that build towards the end creative result, others have a more intuitive process that may not even seem like there’s a creative process so much as spontaneous creation. To an outside observer.

It so happens that our business, like so many, relies on constant communication; between our in-house folks, between all our freelance creative teams, between us and our Onyx Path community, and the gaming community as a whole. That’s a lot of input, and as with so much of social media, a lot of it is not helpful – whether by intent or accidentally. It is exhausting to weed out so much extra noise to get to the signal you need for your project.

Which is why I encourage, and sometimes order, our Onyx Path crew to take vacations. Gotta let the brain absorb different input. It’s tough, though, because we do have so many projects all going at different stages for different game lines, so there’s no “good” time for a vacation, usually. Nevertheless, it is so very necessary.

And it so happens that post-Gen Con is a great time to decompress and get revved up for pulling things together as we head towards the new year, so we’ve been blinking away one at a time and popping back so another one of our Onyx team can get away for a bit.

    Monarchies of Mau art by Pat McEvoy

    In fact, the time between Gen Con and Fall also sounded like  a good time to reconfigure our Onyx Path website. After all, every site Impish Ian looked at said it was a five minute change. Liars! A big apology from us to everyone who couldn’t log in, or post, or get emails (that may have just been me) during the process of changing over, realizing it wasn’t working, and changing everything back. If we had known it wasn’t actually as easy as it said on the tin, we would have warned everybody.

Fortunately, Kickstarter is not connected directly to our website, so we were able to launch the Dystopia Rising: Evolution Kickstarter and fund within a day. Which is awesome because that means we can get to move quickly into creating some of the also awesome Stretch Goal projects.

We also have some equally awesome reward tiers that include getting your character into both the text and the visuals, yourself done up as one of the zombies in the art, and artifacts from the early days of the Dystopia Rising LARP. Like all of our KSs, we’ve tried to add fun and flavorful rewards that connect directly with both our new edition and the previous incarnations of the setting. Check out the link in our BLURBS! section below!

In this stretch leading up to the Labor Day Weekend, our sales partners at Indie Press Revolution are wrapping up the wildly successful 40% sale they’ve been running on our Deluxe W20 and M20 printer overrun books. If you’ve missed out on these beauties, this may be your best chance at getting them at these sorts of prices! Only until the end of the month: https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Deals-and-Specials/

In their continuing efforts to open up more Community Content sites, White Wolf will be adding Exalted to their Storytellers’ Vault site on DTRPG.com. All three editions will be opened, but if you want to create something for any of the three, please carefully read the info provided on the site detailing what is and isn’t allowed.

It’s a great opportunity to create, publish, and get paid for your unofficial Exalted material, and as Matthew Dawkins likes to point out, the Community Content sites are also a super way to “audition” for writing for official projects with us at Onyx Path.

No guarantees, of course. And better I stress it now, yes, we still hold the license to create official Exalted material, and WW is the company that runs the site and determines what is allowable, not Onyx Path.

    Cavaliers of Mars art by Nate Pride

    In fact, since this is the last week of the month, two things happen here at Onyx Path. One, we put up the latest monthly installments of EX3‘s Hundred Devils Night Parade and Adversaries of the Righteous on Wednesday. We’re getting to the point where we’re looking to assemble at least the Hundred Devil monthly releases into a single book, although we actually still have a lot more to go.

Would you folks prefer us to get the current batch assembled into a book now, and then create a second book later, or hold off and create one big book? I’m probably going to ask the EX3 backers this in the monthly Backer Update too.

What’s a Backer Update, you say? Why that is an update for one of our Kickstarted projects that we send out every month to those who backed that KS. Since we have a lot of KS’d projects, James and I send out a lot of Backer Updates each month.

We send them monthly because after long experience we’ve decided that once a month is a good reliable pace to get the on-going status for the KS you backed, and if something happens that backers need to know about, like a PDF going out or a book shipping, we’ll send more updates.

Now, if you’ve backed a few of our KSs, that means you get a lot of very similar Backer Updates, particularly since we also include a notice about whatever our current Kickstarter is. We realize that hearing about a new KS while waiting for yours to progress, or getting a bunch of repeated notices, can get tedious, but please bear in mind that we also always used to get complaints that previous backers didn’t know about our current KS.

With the dearth of strong centralized communication in this business, we chose to notify our previous backers about the current KS rather than have folks miss out on it. YMMV of course, but those “Why didn’t I hear about this KS?” messages have dropped off dramatically and we sure hope those folks have had a chance to jump into the latest KS.

After all, our KSs run the same range of game worlds as our game lines: WoD, CofD, Exalted 3rd, our Storypath and 5e based settings and more – there are a lot of interests out there and we’re trying to keep the communication flowing about our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

  BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

    The Dystopia Rising: Evolution Kickstarter funded in less than a day, and has already passed one Stretch Goal!

The next Stretch Goal is where we start building the Threat Guide companion PDF which is a first-person guide with mechanics to the various threats facing survivors in the DR:E world, so we’re pretty excited to get started with that!

Dystopia Rising is a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game that quickly grew into a live-action sensation. Now, Onyx Path is pleased to update the live-action setting with Dystopia Rising: Evolution, a tabletop roleplaying game that presents a fresh and exciting take on the post-apocalypse genre.

Dystopia Rising: Evolution will be powered by Onyx Path’s Storypath system, and includes all the rules you need to play as a survivor in the post-apocalypse, including rules for creating characters for up to 24 different Strains, variations on humanity that survived the Fall. It also has details on the powers of faith and psionics, along with advice on running action-adventure stories, webs of personal intrigue, or procedural investigations. And, finally, dozens of antagonists, including a variety of zombies and raiders to use in your series.

Throughout this Kickstarter campaign, we will be posting complete previews of the Dystopia Rising: Evolution manuscript as backer-only updates.

  ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

  ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

  OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

    Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

SPECIAL W20 and M20 SALE! Huge savings on our Deluxe printing overruns until 8/31!

4 DAYS LEFT!

https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Deals-and-Specials/

    DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

    This week we have the next two installments in our monthly Exalted 3rd Edition releases for Hundred Devils Night Parade (Steel Eater and Gem Seeker) and Adversaries of the Righteous (Adeimantus) in PDF on Wednesday!

    CONVENTIONS!

From Fast Eddy Webb, we have these:

Eddy will be speaking at Broadleaf Writers Conference (September 22-23) in Decatur, GA. He’ll be there to talk about writing for interactive fiction, and hanging out with other writers who have far more illustrious careers. http://broadleafwriters.com/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference-speakers/

Eddy will also be a featured guest at Save Against Fear (October 12-14) in Harrisburg, PA. He’ll be running some Pugmire games, be available for autographs, and will sometimes accept free drinks. http://www.thebodhanagroup.org/about-the-convention

  Dixie Cochran will be at High Level Games Con in Atlantic City October 12-14, running a Women in Game Design panel, Eddy’s RPG Developer Bootcamp, and possibly making a surprise appearance at another event!

    And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

  Redlines

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

  Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)

Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

  Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

Fetch Quest (Pugmire)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Jumpstart (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

  Manuscript Approval:

  Editing:

They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)

Dog and Cat Ready Made Characters (Monarchies of Mau) (With Eddy)

  Post-Editing Development:

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Night Horrors: The Tormented (Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition)

Guide to the Night (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

  Indexing:

Changeling: The Lost 2e 

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

  In Art Direction

Dystopia Rising: Evolution – KS is going.

VtR: Guide to the Night – sketches and some finals rolling in.

M20: Gods and Monsters – AD’d and Contracted, Leblanc already has sketches in.

Geist 2e

The Realm

Trinity Continuum (Aeon and Core)

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Ex3 Dragon Blooded

Chicago By Night – Most of the KS art is divided up. Sending out notes and contracts Monday morning.

  Marketing Stuff

  In Layout

Lost 2e Screen 

Fetch Quest

  Proofing

Scion Hero – Putting in Neal’s changes

PTC: Night Horrors: The Tormented

Scion Origin – Neall inputting errata changes… then it’ll come back to me to firm up.

  At Press

Monarchies of Mau – Printing. Dice and buttons printing.

Cavaliers of Mars – Shipping to Studio2.

Wraith 20th – Prepping the Deluxe files, still poking printer for cover specs.

Monarchies of Mau Screen – Shipping to Studio2.

Cavaliers of Mars Screen – Shipping to Studio2.

Wraith 20 Screen – Printing.

Scion Dice – At fulfillment shipper.

Cav Talent cards – PoDs proofing.

SL Trilogy Pt 1,2,3 – PoDs proofing.

  TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: Folks enjoying vacations as the summer heads to a close and lots of folks go back to school!