#travis: the lab rat

[wednesdaythesecond]

no because you're so real on the travie killjoy thing. i had an au once where i put a bunch of dcd people in the killjoy universe but it wasn't very good. i did make travies killjoy name Kid Nothing Boy because i like that song a lot and it sounds like an alter ego name of some form.

i should revive that au just so i can design travies outfit again. the first one was not very good

also studying you in a lab on a scale of 1-10 id say six maybe. if you were a rat in that one experiment would you let the scientists get you addicted to gambling

KID NOTHING BOY VS. THE ECHO FACTOR MENTION!!!!!! I'm listening to that song rn and wooooooof Travie!!!! Travie!!!!! The bars?? His flow??? The beat???? The everything????? Man i could talk about Travie and GCH forever and ever (and i will but not here). You were real as fuck for choosing that as his killjoy name, that fucks.

i should fuck around with the Travie i made in Sims 4 (which is up on the gallery if anyone wants to see it, i'm one of 3 bitches in the #rpf tag) and see if i can't make a killjoy look for him. i was also toying with thoughts about Travie inside Battery City, y'know? Simple Living kind of vibes, y'know? it's shit and it sucks but there's stability and sterelax and he's def not going back to re-education <3

also no, if i was a rat, i would not get addicted to gambling. i'd be one of those rats that the scientists taught to drive but i'd also have cocaine put in my water to see if rats like DUIs too. spoiler alert, i would get so many rat DUIs.

[wetleavesandfeathers]

Books I Read in 2023

Nonfiction:

"Why Fish Don't Exist" by Lulu Miller

"Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble" by Daniel Lyons

"Lab Rats: How Silicon Valley Made Work Miserable for the Rest of Us" by Daniel Lyons

"Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington" by James Kirchick

"Token Black Girl" by Danielle Prescod

"The Geography of Nowhere" by James Howard Kunstler

"Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II" by Liza Mundy

"The Devian's War: The Homosexual vs. The United States of America" by Eric Cervini

"The Family Next Door: The Heartbreaking Imprisonment of the Thirteen Turpin Siblings and their Extraordinary Rescue" by John Glatt

"Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation" by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

"Cults: Inside the World's Most Notorious Groups and Understanding the People Who Joined Them" by Max Cutler

"Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs" by Jamie Loftus

"The Domestic Revolution: How the Introduction of Coal into Victorian Homes Changed Everything" by Ruth Goodman

"How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England" by Ruth Goodman

"What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat" by Aubrey Gordon

"'You Just Need to Lose Weight' and 19 Other Myths About Fat People" by Aubrey Gordon

"Hollywood's Children: An Inside Account of the Child Star Era" by Diana Serra Cary

"Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult" by Bruce Handy

"The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation" by Cory Doctorow

Fiction

"What Moves the Dead" by T Kingfisher

"Illuminations" by T Kingfisher

"Can't Spell Treason Without Tea" by Rebecca Thorne

"Coffee, Milk and Spider Silk" by Coyote JM Edwards

"Legends & Lattes" by Travis Baldree

"Unbury the Bones" by Coyote JM Edwards

"Chase: The Boy Who Hid" by Z Jeffries

"Encore in Death" by J. D. Robb

"Escape from Incel Island" by Margaret Killjoy

"The Bookshop and the Barbarian" by Morgan Stang

"A House With Good Bones" by T Kingfisher

"Sorcery & Scones" by S. R. Meadows

"Humans Wanted" edited by Vivian Caethe

"Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler

"A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeline L'Engle

"Boneless" by Coyote JM Edwards

"Red White and Royal Blue" by Casey McQuiston

"Toad Words" by T Kingfisher

"Camp Damascus" by Chuck Tingle

"The Halcyon Fairy Book" by T Kingfisher

"Jackalope Wives and Other Stories" by T Kingfisher

"A Killer's Game" by Isabella Maldonado

"Payback in Death" by J. D. Robb

[neon-green-reagent]

UFO Abduction Movies That Shoot Me Into Space

When I discovered The X-Files so very many moons ago, I developed a hyper-fixation on UFOs and extraterrestrials and people who claimed to have been abducted. My opinions have changed a lot over the years, to be sure. But one thing hasn’t changed. Regardless of what I believe, the notion of an incredibly advanced group of beings kidnapping you and taking you apart like a toaster... I mean, it scares me. It did then, which is why I was fascinated probably. And I still think it makes for a damn good story. Which is why I made this list. So let’s go. 

Fire in the Sky | I saw this one around the time of my X-Files craze. I think it owes a lot of its popularity on cable at the time to the rising ratings of that show. It covers the real life case of Travis Walton. He was leaving a logging job with his coworkers when he was abducted, and his friends drove away in fear. By the way, what a bunch of dicks, but I digress. The movie takes liberties. The biggest one being that quite memorable scene toward the end where Walton fully remembers what the aliens did to him. I’ve mentioned this movie in a list before, I think, as pants-browningly scary, and I stand by that regarding that scene alone. It transforms a dark drama about PTSD into full-on horror. 

Communion | This one’s about Whitley Strieber’s supposed abduction story. It stars Christopher Walken, who plays Strieber like a person who was living on another planet long before the E.T.s every arrived. Which the author didn’t take kindly to, but it results in an absolutely riveting performance. You seriously cannot look away from the bizarre choices Walken makes with his acting. Couple that with “this is what Scientologists actually believe” levels of wackiness, and it becomes one of the darkest comedies to ever see the light of day. 

Alien Abduction | Simply named. This one is all about the Brown Mountain Lights. A family goes into the mountains of North Carolina for a little vacation, and they get bodied by a bunch of grays. This one hits the spot in a way that I didn’t know I needed until I watched it. If you read the actual accounts of these experiences, it’s ambiguous what the creatures want, and they tend to insist they don’t mean the abductee any harm. THESE GRAYS MEAN A LOT OF HARM. They dish out some fucking HARM. Not ambiguous. You’re a lab rat. Get ready to be ripped off this earth by a tractor beam that will break all the bones in your body as it hurls you through space and into a greasy ship to be turned inside out by evil, monster doctors. YEAH. Yeah, it’s that kind of movie. 

The MacPherson Tapes | As mentioned in the found footage list, people thought this was real. That’s so charming to me, I can simply never let it go. I just love that. These kids in costumes... People went, OH MY GOD THAT’S A ALIUM. And It’s just adorable. I say that, but I can see that without credits or a title sequence, the film comes off as horrifyingly sincere. Just a family celebrating a birthday, when all hell breaks loose. The most chilling part being the mind control bits. Grays are famous for being able to speak to humans without moving their mouths, implying psychic powers. This movie takes it to the next level, turning them into little Professor Xs who can lure you outside when you lock yourself up in your house. 

Dark Skies | What I love about this one is the way that it mimics a paranormal film. Tweak a little of this, and you’d assume ghosts or demons. But the film turns a corner, and we’re in UFO territory. The extra special thing about that is, what can you do in a ghost movie? What tropes do you use to protect yourself? Move out of the house. Get a priest. Some paranormal investigators. Holy relics. Meanwhile, if your problem is extraterrestrial, there’s not a damn thing you can do. They have better tech. They’re way smarter than you could ever hope to be. And they’re tenacious. The movie sort of chews you up and spits you out in that sense, when you’re used to the ghosts being banished by the end. 

I know, it’s a short list. The X-Files might’ve made it popular, but not many people have been willing to tackle it for horror. If you know of more, tell me. I’ll try them. Though not The Fourth Kind. Wasn’t too fond of that one. Otherwise, fire away! 

[crashbabies1990]

Mercedes, Red Bull, and the Spirit of the Regulation

Ok, so I’m just another tumblr user yelling into the void, but I’ve been thinking about this alot and I do not understand why no one is talking about this. I’ll try to be as objective about this as I possibly can, but full disclosure: I’m a Red Bull fan. That’s my team, always has been, ever since Red Bull sponsored Travis Pastrana.

Anyway. So the thing I love the most about Formula one is that it is, at it’s core, nerds and athletes fighting in the same corner. That doesn’t happen very often and I think the unity of that, of these sporty daredevils and like. People who will brood over timesheets, telemetry and flo-vis images is so cool, and so human. Like you need people with very different qualities to be the best, and the math genius will need Ricky Bobby to be fast and vice versa. I love that.

Now the thing is that, in conclusion of that, I really, really care about the constructors championship. I feel like the media in general, but especially on tumblr, mainly the WDC gets attention, and of course the drivers get the most attention. I get that, but between Lewis and Max I think ultimately the better car WILL make the difference. I think you have to be completely eaten up by tribalism to dispute that both of them are absolutely amazing drivers who extract the maximum of their package. They might excell at slightly different areas, but overall they are brilliant drivers. Both. so let’s look at the cars.

Now what Mercedes has done with their new engine is crazy clever. Obviously we don’t know the details, but using their motor wear to their advantage by taking the necessary penalities and then use the motor mappings to turn it up all the way to get a temporary boost of speed at the end of the season is really smart, making the most of what they have, and amazingly cheeky. If that was my team I would be over the fucking moon, what excellent shithousery. Poor Valtteri of course had to be the lab rat to test the whole thing with all his new engines, but they are still leading the WCC, they would be leading by even more if it wasn’t for the puncture in Qatar. Their success at the minute proves them right. It’s excellent out of the box thinking. We love to see that in the constructors, especially since it has become very over regulated.

However, as we have established, I’m a Red Bull fan. And as such I just have to talk about the infamous “spirit of the regulation.” The thing is, this little sentence is part of the overall regulation of car parts. It’s essentially there to cover everything the engineers overlooked when writing the regs, to have a tool against teams thinking so out of the box it completely breaks the formula and gives them an unfair advantage. It has been used to appeal against things like the double diffuser, double DRS and if I understood correctly, ironically even Red Bull’s flexy wings at the beginning of the season. Basically it is used against unfair parts that are technically legal - aka they will pass the tests developed for that part, but that will circumvent the intention surrounding it. Obvioulsy this becomes a bit of a grey zone — a point of argument. When does a part loose the “spirit” of the regulation? When can it be appealed? When is it just clever? It’s hard to pin point, and ultimately a decision for the FIA, race direction and the stewards.

But.

Let’s talk about that. I don’t want to get into why F1 puts a limit on the number of Power Units used, because that would lead a bit too far. However, we all know, as indicated by the penalties if you don’t comply, that the intention is for the teams to not only build a fast and powerful engine, but also one that lasts. It makes sense — especially if the sport wants to become more sustainable. It’s a mark of good engineering to build something effective — and then make it long lasting. Plus, to make it fair — teams can exchange them with a penalty if they have to, if they don’t succeed or have an accident. But I dare say, when writing that regulation, noone had in mind that people would purposely use more engines to be faster. What Mercedes has been doing is almost like tire strategy but applied to the PU: Take a hit (the box/the penalty) to be faster again afterwards. They did a two to three stopper, basically, in a race where most other teams were doing a one stopper. ONLY, other than tire strategy which purposely forces them to at least use two compounds to make it interesting, they are kind of not supposed to do that. They’re supposed to use as little tire, aka engines, as possible to get to the end. That’s the intention of the regulation. Poor Bottas had to be sacrficed for it to work, too. In my opinion, Mercedes operates against the spirit of the regulation. It’s smart, though.

Now, does Red Bull stand a chance to appeal on this ground? Unlikely. Again, it’s a grey zone, Mercedes remained pretty clear within the formulated regs, and it WAS very smart. Well played Mercedes. Now would you please suffer a few very safe, harmless little DNFs please, thank you. (This is a joke. Please have some humor.)

But, as a Red Bull fan: Honda built an engine that doesn’t degrade. They said it would only bring them a very few extra few kws if they exchanged it now, which means it’s still super strong. Considering that both Max and Checo’s PUs were still just one or two races old when they got damaged in Silverstone and Hungary, we can assume that they would have gone to the end of the season with just those 3 allotted engines. They built an amazing car, and they played it cleaner. They had the better car — even if they loose.

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Miscellaneous OCs

Name: Ginevra ‘Ginny’ Watson. Title: Bumblebee: No Rest For The Wicked. Fandom: Transformers. Summary: TBA. Faceclaim: Sofia Wylie.

Name: Princess Ruth of Camelot/Morticia of Ravenbow. Title: The Prophecy of Camelot. Fandom: The School For Good and Evil. Summary: TBA. Voiceclaim: TBA.

Name: Princess Helen of Camelot. Title: The Prophecy of Camelot. Fandom: The School For Good and Evil. Summary: TBA. Voiceclaim: TBA.

Name: Eva Anderson. Title: Kick Ass Lives On. Fandom: Kick Ass. Summary: TBA. Voiceclaim: TBA.

Name: Dawn. Title: Seldom All They Seem. Fandom: Maleficent. Summary: TBA. Faceclaim: Malina Welssman. 

Name: Luna/Willow. Title: Seldom All They Seem.  Fandom: Maleficent.  Summary: TBA. Faceclaim: Millie Bobby Brown. 

Name: Samantha ‘Sam’ Tennyson. Title: Young Plumbers. Fandom: Ben 10 (Classic Continuity). Summary: TBA. Voiceclaim: TBA. 

Name: Rook Shing. Title: Young Plumbers. Fandom: Ben 10 (Classic Continuity). Summary: TBA. Voiceclaim: TBA.

Name: Skye Thordottir/Sky Foster. Title: Princess Protection Program: Beyond Earth. Fandom: Princess Protection Program. Summary: TBA. Faceclaim: Millie Bobby Brown.

Name: Tess Carmen. Title: Princess Protection Program: Beyond Earth. Fandom: Princess Protection Program. Summary: TBA. Faceclaim: Peyton Elizabeth Lee. 

Name: Cecelia ‘Cece’ Ross.  Title: Welcome To The Owl House. Fandom: The Owl House. Summary: TBA. Voiceclaim: TBA.

Children Of The Moon: Summary Of The Story: When the Guardians defeated the Boogeyman, they believed they had defeated him for good and that it was over. How wrong they were. Soon, fear is being risen by Pitch Black somehow despite him being dead last they saw of him, and nightmares are growing as darkness threatens the world once more. The Guardians aren't alone in this fight though, as the Moon appears to have decided to take matters into his own hands, and chosen new guardians to be trained to be the new guardians. But can they be trained in time to defeat the darkness, or will the world finally be taken over by fear once more? Fandom: Rise of The Guardians. Quotev Link

*Alix- Eventual Guardian of Freedom- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Puck- Eventual Guardian of Mischief- Voiceclaim: TBA.  *Isleen- Eventual Guardian of Illusions- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Noelle- Eventual Guardian of Laughter- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Hyacinth/Hya- Eventual Guardian of Will- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Lavernia/Nia- Eventual Guardian of Wisdom- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Jemma Bennett- Child of Jamie- Voiceclaim: TBA. 

Upside Down: The Power Within: Summary of Series: TBA.  Fandom: Winx Club. 

*Lilith/Lily- Fairy of The Shadows- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Pandora- Fairy of Myths and Legends- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Holly- Fairy of Snow- Voiceclaim: TBA.  *Sonata- Fairy of Music- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Juliet- Fairy of Stars- Voiceclaim: TBA.

*Aurora- Witch of The Sun- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Lucine/Luci- Witch of The Moon- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Beryl- Witch of The Jewels- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Fauna- Witch of Animals- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Cinderella/Ella- Witch of Fire- Voiceclaim: TBA.

*Alexandra- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Charlotte/Charlie- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Grace- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Elijah- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Oliver- Voiceclaim: TBA.

The Next 9th Grade Ninja: Summary of Series: TBA. Fandom: Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja.

*Wendy Burton- The New Ninja- Voiceclaim: TBA. *Mildred Watts- Best Friend- Voiceclaim: TBA.

Rising From The Ashes (Hunger Games What If): Summary of Book: TBA. Fandom: Hunger Games.

*Willow Hawthorne- Middle child of Prim and Rory- District 12 Tribute. *Fern Hawthorne- Eldest child of Prim and Rory. *Avina Barry- District 11 Tribute. *Grover- District 11 Tribute. *Elena and Finley- District 10 Tributes.  *Knox and Anya- District 9 Tributes. *Winter and Andres- District 8 Tributes. *Harlee and Damien- District 7 Tributes. *Tanner and Joelle- District 6 Tributes. *Mallory and Jensen- District 5 Tributes. *Jack and Lizzie- District 4 Tributes. *Daxton and Charlie- District 3 Tributes. *Roman and Clarisse- District 2 Tributes. *Quartz and Jasper- District 1 Tributes.

The Tale of Two Avatars: Summary of Series: TBA. Fandom: Last Airbender/Korra.

*Anzu- Twin Fire Avatar. *Yuina- Twin Fire Avatar. *Minato- Firebender- Ally of Yuina.  *Silla- Waterbender- Ally of Anzu. *Xia- Earthbender- Ally of Anzu. *Dawa- Airbender- Ally of Anzu. *Youta- Airbender- Ally of Yuina. 

The Path of The New Avatar: Summary of Series: TBA. Fandom: Last Airbender/Korra. 

*Gui- Believed Earth Avatar. *Cuifen- The real Avatar. *Arya- Jinora’s and Kai’s Child- AIrbender. *Yua- Korra’s and Asami’s Adopted Child- Firebender. *Panuk- Waterbender. *Rong- Twin Earthbender. *Suen- Twin Earthbender.

The Legacy of Magic: Summary of Series: TBA. Fandom: Wizards of Waverly Place.

*Jenna Russo- Child of Justin and Juliet. *Sara Russo- Child of Justin and Juliet. *Kyle Russo- Child of Justin and Juliet. *Zoe Greyback- Only child of Alex and Mason. *Parker Beakerman- Child of Zeke and Harper. *Cooper Beakerman- Child of Zeke and Harper. *Harry Russo- Child of Max. 

Star Wars: The Force Lives On: Summary of Story: TBA. Fandom: Star Wars.

*Ailyn Skywalker- Adopted child of Rey and Finn- Jedi. *Solia Skywalker- Adopted twin child of Rey and Finn. *Vera Skywalker- Adopted twin child of Rey and Finn. *Tycho Skywalker- Adopted child of Rey and Finn. *Mide Skywalker- Adopted child of Rey and Finn.  *Daro Dameron- Child of Poe and Zoe. *Darth Rel/Crix Harend- Sith- Bad guy. 

Prime: The Next Geneation: Summary of Series: TBA. Fandom: Transformers Prime. 

*Joseph ‘Joe’ Darby- Eldest child of Jack- Guardian: Arcee. *Jane Darby- Youngest child of Jack- Guardian: Arcee.  *Randy Esquivel- Only child of Raf- Guardian: Bumblebee. *Markus Lelung- Twin child of Miko- Guardian: Bulkhead. *Maisey Lelung- Twin child of Miko- Guardian: Bulkhead.

The New Mystery Gang:  Summary of Series: TBA. Fandom: Scooby Doo. 

*Dominic Jones- Eldest child of Fred and Daphne. *Frances Jones- Middle child of Fred and Daphne. *Donald Jones- Youngest child of Fred and Daphne. *Samantha ‘Sam’ Rogers- Child of Shaggy. *Stacey Rogers- Adopted child of Shaggy. *Vincent Dinkley- Child of Velma. *Vivian Dinkley- Child of Velma. *Swiper- Pup of Scooby. 

Once Upon A Time...: Summary of Series: TBA. Fandom: Regal Academy.

*Felix Snowwhite- Eldest child of Rose and Hawk. *Lily Snowwhite- Middle child of Rose and Hawk. *Hugo Snowwhite- Youngest child of Rose and Hawk. *Suyin Beast- Twin child of Travis and Ling-Ling.  *Juan Beast- Twin child of Travis and Ling-Ling. *Nicholas Beast- Child of Astoria and Shawn. *Casper Beast- Child of Astoria and Shawn. *Hope Frog- Child of Joy and Esquire.  *Rickey Broomstick- Child of Vicky. *Mary Broomstick- Child of Cyrus. *Emerald Stepsister- Twin child of Ruby. *Jasper Stepsister- Twin child of Ruby. *Donna Ugly Duckling- Eldest child of Gerald. *Linda Ugly Duckling- Youngest child of Gerald. *Luke Whale- Child of Finn. *Hanna Tom Thumb- Child of Leene. *Rosette Swan- Eldest child of Odette. *Paulette Swan- Youngest child of Odette. *Pinocchian- ‘Child’ of Pinocchia.  *Ivy Ogre- Child of Violet.

Beyblade: Battle X: Summary of Series: TBA. Fandom: Beyblade Metal Saga.

*Niko Goto- Female lead. *Asahl Sakurei- Computer user friend. *Sakura Tamura- Friend. *Emiko Imar- Rival.

Beyblade: Heirs: Summary of Series: TBA. Fandom: Beyblade: Metal Saga.

*Pegasau Hagane- Eldest child of Gingka and Madoka. *Runa Hagane- Twin child of Gingka and Madoka.  *Seisho Hagane- Twin child of Gingka and Madoka. *Hoshi Hagane- Youngest child of Gingka and Madoka. *Ririsu/Yuri- Only child of Ryuga. *Reon Tategami- Eldest child of Kyoya.  *Shibere Tategami- Youngest child of Kyoya. *Unmei- Only child of Hyoma.  *Kayo Tendo- Only child of Yu. *Ajun Hazama- Eldest child of Hikaru.  *Demetora Otori- Only child of Tsubasa. *Heza Yumiya- Twin child of Kenta. *Maku Yumiya- Twin child of Kenta. *Deruta Kadoya- Twin child of Masaume.  *Jemini Kadoya- Twin child of Masaume.  *Evurin- Child of Doji- Leader of Nebula- Villain.

A Different Kind of Normal: Summary of Series: TBA. Fandom: Lab Rats.

*Viola Davis- Bionic Girl. *Benjamin ‘Ben’ Jones- Bionic Boy. *Mariana ‘Mari’ Gonzalez- Bionic Girl. *Levi Owen- Crush of Ben. *Evelyn ‘Eve’ Tee- Crush- Friend-later-Crush of Viola. *Cameron Jackson- Friend of Mari. *Bella Newman- Best friend of Ben. *Milo Kingston- Bully of the three. *Wyatt Watson- Later villain. *Juliana Parker- Villain. *Trinity Stark- Main villain. *Hazel Reilly- Neighbor. 

Welcome to Sky High: Summary of Story: TBA. Fandom: Sky High. 

*Azalea ‘Aza’ Peace- Eldest child of Warren and Layla. *Florian Peace- Youngest child of Warren and Layla.  *Rachel Stronghold- Only child of Will. *Zane- Twin child of Magneta and Zach. *Seth- Twin child of Magneta and Zach. *Paige- Only child of Ethan.

Legacy of The Charmed Ones: Summary of Series: TBA. Fandom: Charmed (Original). 

*Wyatt= Matthew, Pandora and Poppy Halliwell. *Chris= Penny, Pamela and Prudence Halliwell. *Melinda= Petra, Arthur and David Halliwell. *Peyton= Carter, Paulina and Patience Halliwell (all adopted). *P.J= Pearl, Hayden and Primrose Halliwell. *Parker= Jackson, Chase and Bailey Halliwell. *Tamora= Imogen, Maxwell and Lilith Mitchell. *Kat= Reed, Luke and Skylor Mitchell. *Henry. Jr= Simon and Jane Mitchell. 

Maddie 10: Summary of Series: TBA. Fandom: Ben 10 (Classic Continuity). 

*Cameron ‘Cam’ Tennyson- Eldest child of Ben and Julie. *Madeline ‘Maddie’ Tennyson- Youngest child of Ben and Julie. *Roxanne ‘Roxie’ Tennyson- Only child of Gwen and Kevin. *Rook Quill- Eldest child of Rook Blonko.

The New Ninjago: Summary of Series: TBA. Fandom: Lego Ninjago.

*Aine- Child of Skylar and Kai. *Ruth- Only child of Lloyd. *Frtiz- Robot child of Zane and P.I.X.A.L. *Orion- Eldest child of Cole. *Terra- Youngest child of Cole. *Clara- Eldest child of Jay and Nya. *Miles- Twin child of Jay and Nya. *Tobias- Twin child of Jay and Nya.

Danny Phantom: Next Generation: Summary of Series: TBA. Fandom: Danny Phantom.

*Freddie Fenton- Eldest child of Danny and Sam. *Regan Fenton- Middle child of Danny and Sam. *Spike Fenton- Youngest child of Danny and Sam. *Harley Foley- Eldest child of Tucker and Valerie. *Roxy Foley- Youngest child of Tucker and Valerie. *Harper Fenton- Only child of Jazz. *Poe Fenton- Only child of Dani. *Martin Baxter- Eldest child of Dash and Paulina. *Victoria Baxter- Youngest child of Dash and Paulina. *Hunter- Only child of Star and Kwan. *Joey- Only child of Mikey. *Aaron- Only child of Tiffany and Nathan. *Dylan Shaw- Friend of Freddie. *Wyatt Roberts- Friend of Freddie. *Ace Hyde- Friend of Freddie.

Zombies: Next Generation: Summary of Story: TBA. Fandom: Disney Zombies. 

*Zadie Necrodopolis- Twin child of Zed and Addison. *Zayne Necrodopolis- Twin child of Zed and Addison. *Zayla Necrodopolis- Youngest child of Zed and Addison. *Winona Zambi-Lykensen- Only child of Eliza and Willa. *Whitney Lykensen- Only child of Wyatt. *Wayne Barkawtiz- Only child of Wynter. *Bucky Buchanen. Jr- Eldest child of Bucky. *Briella Buchanen- Youngest child of Bucky. *Braxton- Twin child of Bree and Bonzo.  *Bryce- Twin child of Bree and Bonzo. *Kacey- Only child of Lacey. *Macey- Only child of Stacey. *Dacey- Only child of Jacey. *Gracey- Only child of Tracey. *Doris Dumpson- Villain. 

Winx Club: Next Generation:  Summary of Series: The Magic Dimension has long since remained to be safe ever since the Winx Club moved on with their lifes, a few becoming queens, a few becoming rich and a few remaining happy enough with their families. It is now a new year for schools like Alfea, Red Fountain, Cloud Tower and even one of the known Wizard schools, Boderra. Attending the schools are none other then the Winx's children, and many of their allies children too. But so are the Trix Children. Just as the new school year looks ready to be another typical one, the new generation finds themselves suffering under legacies, and most of all, the wrath of the new Trix. The Winx Children will have to reform their parents teams, gain allies and stop the Trix Children once and for all, before Magix turns into something its not.... Quotev Link Fandom: Winx Club.

*Aideen Daphne- Eldest child of Bloom and Sky- Fairy of Fireworks. *Ember Vanessa- Child of Bloom and Sky- Fairy of The Dragon Flame. *Kadence Martin- Eldest child of Musa and Riven- Fairy of Music.  *Luciana Luna-  Twin child of Stella and Brandon- Fairy of The Moon. *Azalea Miele- Child of Flora and Helia- Fairy of Art. *Maxima Musa- Child of Tecna and Timmy- Fairy of Technology. *Halzea Marion- Child of Daphne and Thoren- Fairy of Air. *Eva Morgana- Child of Roxy and Nex- Fairy of Mythological Beasts. *Nimue- Only child of Selina- Fairy of Snakes. *Rosabeth- Eldest child of Krystal and Roy- Fairy of Nature.  *Aurora Stormy- Child of Icy and Darko- Fairy of Snow.

*Kyra Bloom- Twin child of Stella and Brandon- Witch of The Sun. *Ursa Darcy- Eldest child of Ivy and Darko- Witch of Ice. *Tove Icy- Twin child of Stormy- Witch of Lightning. *Ophelia- Only child of Mirta and Lucy- Witch of The Burning Stars.  *Lilith- Only child of Diaspro- Witch of Jewels.

*Castor Mike- Child of Bloom and Sky. *Skylar Elizabeth- Child of Bloom and Sky. *Blair Tecna- Child of Musa and Riven. *Neron Radius- Eldest child of Stella and Brandon. *Lazuli Saladin- Eldest child of Flora and Helia. *Linux Jako- Eldest child of Tecna and Timmy. *Ethan Nex- Child of Daphne and Thoren.

*Kai Teredor- Twin child of Aisha and Nabu- Wizard of Waves.  *Musa Niobe- Twin child of Aisha and Nabu- Wizard of Healing. *Vulcan Oritel- Eldest child of Daphne and Thoren- Wizard of Fire. *Uri Sky- Child of Daphne and Thoren- Wizard of Legends. *Dillon Klaus- Eldest child of Roxy and Nex- Wizard of Animals. *Valhalla Riven- Only child of Darcy- Wizard of Illusions. *Raiden Crow- Twin child of Stormy- Wizard of Thunder.

*Hayden Thoren- Youngest child of Bloom and Sky. *Riya Flora- Twin child of Musa and Riven- Fairy of Sound. *Jaron Sky- Twin child of Musa and Riven- Wizard of Sound. *Thea Musa- Youngest child of Stella and Brandon- Fairy of Twilight. *Gale Rosabeth- Youngest child of Flora and Helia. *Zeno Nabu- Youngest child of Tecna and Timmy- Wizard of Electricity. *Corventina Ligeo- Youngest child of Aisha and Nabu.  *Jorck Aidan- Youngest child of Daphne and Thoren. *Lyall Thoren- Child of Roxy and Nex. *Kefira Nebula- Youngest child of Roxy and Nex. *North Valtor- Youngest child of Icy and Darko. 

Name: Clara Heafley. Title: Bodyguard: Prey. Fandom: Bodyguard. Summary: In a constantly changing world, the need for protection grows. A teenager is the least likely suspect for a protector- but that's exactly what Clara Heafley relies on to do her job. Her job? Being a professional bodyguard trained in surveillance, anti-ambush techniques, hostage survival and unarmed combat. When she's given the task to protect the Prime Minister's daughter, her protection skills face the ultimate test. Carla however, doesn't want protection. She just wants to have a normal life. Unaware that Clara is her bodyguard, she tries to hide from security while taking Clara along for the ride. But unknown to her and Clara, her father's rival is not willing to accept defeat. And with a common tactic being to target enemies loved ones, this anger slowly morphs him into a vulture, with the Prime Minister's daughter being his prey. Quotev Link Faceclaim/Voiceclaim: TBA. 

[pushspacetocontinue]

TF2 Verse - Updated Personnel File

Please be warned for a mention of suicide and alcoholism below. (To be honest, this is only really listing his new loadouts and that he’s a Spy now)

Full Name: Russell Charles Anderson Tolbert

Age: Twenty-Seven (Missed a birthday due to being dead)

Birthday: October 9th 1949 (Starsign: Libra)

Gender: Cis Male (He/Him/His pronouns)

Hair: Dark Blonde, kept in an undercut with volume and fluff at the top.

Eyes: Blue.

Skin: Slightly tanned as a result of being outside so much.

Height: 5’6”

Weight: 125lbs (most of this is muscle; slightly fluctuates often.)

Distinguishing Physical Features: Scarred skin on the back and front of his right shoulder and torso, spread quite far, which came from a car accident he and his brother Travis were in, multiple tiny puncture marks on his shoulders and neck from repeated injections from previous experiments with his old Medic when he was the lab rat. A few cigarette burn scars behind his right ear. All of these scars are usually hidden by his clothes or hair.

A set of permanent dark marks on his back due to being run over by a train. He had committed suicide by allowing himself to get hit by it. He respawned two years later because he had done the maths a little wrong and was half a mile short of dying permanently. However, the scars were saved as part of his default appearance. He is disgusted and ashamed of them.

A tattoo on his left arm which starts at the top of the shoulder and ends just above his elbow. It’s designed like a detailed galaxy has been painted onto it, much like this. (click link to see). It has flecks of green as well. A watercolour Luna Moth on his back. (click link to see)

Nationality: French-American. (Half French on Father’s side. Raised in the US.)

Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

Sexual Orientation: Homosexual, he now accepts this through and through. However, he knows not everyone will.

Build: Legs are muscular and powerful as a result of running so much. While his arms aren’t as powerful as his legs, but he can swing a good punch and use a knife well. True, he isn’t built like a Heavy or a Soldier, but he is no slouch when it comes to fighting. He wouldn’t be a mercenary if he couldn’t fight after all.

He is still rather skinny for the moment, but is becoming more muscular in his upper body. It’s definitely starting to show on his chest, his abdomen and his arms, although he hasn’t noticed this himself yet.

Personality: Very polite (tries to be,) very amiable, will pretty much talk to anyone, although he can be tense around certain classes. Outside of battles, he’s someone who tries to reason and find a merciful solution first before resorting to more violent tactics. If you treat him nicely, he’ll relax around you and be friendly and cheerful. He’s also kind, helpful and compassionate, yet he tends to be guarded around people he doesn’t know. However, he can have a bit of a temper which can flare up if he doesn’t have a healthy way to vent it out. If you become his friend, he’s incredibly loyal and will gladly put himself between you and any danger that comes your way.

Sadly, underneath his kind exterior, he suffers from depression and trauma related to abuse before he started working the industries and his time there. He has yet to be diagnosed. But this has lead him into being trapped in his self-hatred, nervousness in social situations, and a loop of self-isolation and low confidence. He’s been trying to get out of it by making changes (giving up drinking alcohol, trying to get out more etc.) but he might need a little more help yet.

Hobbies and Interests: Reading comics and books, cooking things, going for runs and walks, learning how things work, mending things (he can now mend all of his guns successfully,) astronomy, and learning about the supernatural.

Other Notable Traits: Slighty fast-paced speech (especially when nervous or embarrassed,) nervous laughter. A profound stammer that he has some control over. Previous alcohol addiction.

He adopted an abandoned cat who he named ‘Misty.’ Misty is a Ragamuffin cat with long fluffy grey-fur (with some white on her muzzle, chest, tail and paws), green eyes, and a very affectionate and loving personality. She is often see riding on Russell’s shoulders. She is approximately three years of age.

Company: BLU (Builders League United)

Current Base Assignment: Coldfront (was previously transferred from Freight due a starting of developing trauma which was affecting his battle performance; he will not elaborate on what it was unless to warn others.)

Previous Base Assignment: Freight (He won’t talk to you much about Freight. But it is on files that he suffered in performance due to some ‘communication issues’ going on in the base, hence his transfer.)

Job: Scout Spy, applied for the change in the mid-70s. It was approved. 

Serial Number: 120491

Cosmetic Load-Out: BLU Rogue’s Col Roule, Stealthy Scarf in A Mann’s Mint, Rogues Brogues. Currently undecided on a hat.

Secondary Weapon: L’Etranger 

Melee: Big Earner 

Primary PDA: Disguise Kit 

Secondary PDA: Invis Watch

Building: Sapper. 

[theonyxpath]

WOW! What a weekend!

And it started with our Legendlore Kickstarter funding on Friday! Now we’re moving into Stretch Goals – so please, if you haven’t already, check it out! The link is below in the Kickstarter section!

And and, to get you started, here’s a review of the free PDF of the complete text for the book linked on the KS site: https://thetabletopalmanac.wordpress.com/2020/06/15/rpg-reviews-legendlore-manuscript-preview/

Of course, this leaves the rest of the weekend, which just happened to consist of the first-ever Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention!

What a fun time!

We really didn’t know how folks would respond, but now that the three days of panels and gaming are done, I can say that our community was in turns hilarious, supportive, giving, excited, and energized. And that energy really flowed right back into all the events and energized all of us!

I mean, we’re still tired as all get out – who’d have thought that a con I could attend from my own house would do that? – but pretty sure we’re all still feeling the love, too.

Just to pull the giving part out for a second, we are absolutely thrilled that our charity goals were blasted through sometime mid-con, and we’ll be donating over a thousand dollars to each of our excellent causes: The Bodhana Group, and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund!

Now, back to the whooped by the con part, we are and I am, so today I’m just going to pull out some impressions of the events from a bunch of us who normally would have had our Monday Meeting today – we rescheduled it for later this week.

SCENES FROM A VIRTUAL CON:

Matthew: The Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention was the first con I helped organise, and while it had its share of stresses in the setup, it came to excellent fruition due to the fantastic teamwork of everyone working hard behind the scenes and amazing engagement from viewers, panelists, players, and those who donated to our charities and took advantage of our sales on onyxpathcon.com

RichT: I started us off on Friday night with the Opening Keynote speech, and then just sort of chatted with Matt McElroy, Dixie Cochran, Eddy Webb, and Matthew Dawkins about what was coming with the con.

For me, I then rolled into my first game, I played one per day, which was the first Actual Play of Exalted Essence. It really did run both fast and smoothly, and all of the various Exalted types we were playing had their times to shine. I was able to put a different, more easy-going, pie-eating, spin on my bear-totemed Lunar who still wound up grappling with the big bad and bear-hugging them in place for Danielle’s Solar to practically one-shot the sucker!

Ian: Convention was great, despite a few hiccups. I was on two streams early on: one Friday evening and one Saturday morning, and then the rest of the con was “free.” Travis and the GG crew were all-stars. Travis couldn’t get Nightbot working for a bit so I took over the random prize drawing for a few streams. I was often juggling two different streams in different monitors to help keep dialogue going in chat. Kudos to everyone, especially those of you who worked multiple panels and games in a single day.

RichT: In fact, the panel Ian refers to on Saturday morning was the “What’s Up With Onyx Path?” panel that started off the day at 9am. This is a panel where a bunch of developers and I talk about upcoming projects for their lines, and answer questions. Eddy and I started doing them about a decade ago when it was “What’s Up With White Wolf?”, but changed the name for obvious reasons after Onyx Path appeared.

During that panel, a couple of things came up: Matthew teased that we might very well do They Came From (the Old West!, or something more flavorful that fits the genre) as the third They Came From game, and Ian talked about Trinity Continuum: Aeon Mission Statements, a book all about the organizations in the setting that aren’t the Psi-Orders. We also noticed that some folks in the chat were new to Onyx Path and what we create, so that was unexpected but welcome news!

Then, I played my second game of the con, which was a sneak preview of Scion: Demigod! Neall took us through a voyage to the Grecian Afterlife, using the Ready Made Characters from Heroes of the World and I got to play a stern Horace Farrow ala Sam Elliott, while Steffie cut up many, many things with Yukiko’s Grass-Cutter Sword. Then, another panel on Community Content and why it rocks wrapped up my Saturday.

Matthew: I didn’t encounter one instance of bad behaviour in chat or anything dubious discussed on screen in games or on panels, and I attended most that I could as a viewer, if I wasn’t an active participant.

Viewership of panels and games peaked at around 250 to 300 people at one time for a couple of the shows, and bottomed out at around 50 people. Those are good figures. Our subscriptions and follows on Twitch rocketed, with many subscriptions being gifted by viewers and even more just being purchased or acquired via Amazon Prime.

My own highlight is impossible to choose between the games and panels I ran or appeared on, though the “Create Your Best Character” panel, which I suspected would be a sleeper, turned into an excellent talk on not playing harmful stereotypes and break out of dangerous tropes.

Eddy: The convention was great for me. My scheduling was a little odd, and I ran into one minor technical issue, but otherwise it went smoothly and it seemed like people in the chat were excited and appreciative. I felt like we got to dig into topics we aren’t able to do in normal convention settings, and attendance was definitely higher than usual for panels at other shows. I also heard that people had a good time watching the games or playing in ad-hoc games all weekend. I know there were some problems on the back-end of getting this all together, but I don’t think any of our attendees noticed anything but a nice, polished experience.

RichT: Sunday started out just like Saturday, with the second “What’s Up With Onyx Path?” panel, although with a different set of developers. The big news was when Eddy ratted out that he was working on Squeaks in the Dark, the mice/rats supplement for Realms of Pugmire!

I then had my second panel on Sunday, the “Art of Onyx Path” one, where Mirthful Mike Chaney joined three of our freelance artists and I in discussing just how illustrators work for us: how they submit their work, how they are contacted, how art notes work, how artists work, and what sort of music do we listen to while doing illustrations. Lots of great questions from the audience, and a wide range of experience within the panel, made it really interesting.

RichT: Then my Sunday game was the first public playtest of They Came From Beyond the Grave! run by Matthew, and featuring Dixie’s Rose Thorne, a driven vampire hunter with attitude, and 70s hair. She teamed up with B. Dave Walters’ smoooth street investigator to blast the ever-lovin’ hell out of evil cultists, while Ian Mueller’s exorcist (sorta) shot the big bad between the eyes with Rose’s derringer, and my slightly odd professor tried to save as much weird-science lab equipment as he could. Science! We left the haunted house as the superimposed fire effect began to devour it, fortunately for all involved (except the dead 70s prog-rock star sacrificed by the cultists).

I immediately had to log into my last event, but what a special event it was! Added late in the proceedings as we had to work within a lot of people’s schedules, I was thrilled to sit down with a bunch of my old co-workers at the original White Wolf in a “Memories of WW” panel with Bill Bridges, Rich Dansky, Ethan Skemp, Mike Tinney, and my old go-to designer for graphics, Matt Milberger.

Much reminiscing occurred, interposed with questions from the chat, that pretty much focused on our time from the early 90s to the early 2000s, although we did chat a bit about the late, lamented WoD MMO, as most of us worked on that in one capacity or another. Mike talked about how he cozened us an arcade version of Dark Stalkers for our little lunchroom, and we had fond memories of the WW Blood Bowl League.

(My Children of the Khorne chaos team won the cup two seasons in a row, just sayin’).

And although I didn’t want it to end, it did, and my time at the first-ever Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention was over. Which was actually pretty good because my brain was on autopilot at that point.

Ian: Everyone on both sides of the screen seemed to have a great time, and the only real complaints I heard were that there were too many good things happening at once and people had to make a choice on which stream to watch.

Matthew: While many games had a tendency to overrun, I’d say they each ran to optimal length and didn’t cause too much disruption farther up the schedule.

RichT: Which are all good things to happen, actually, with your first online convention, so we’re going to review all the metrics we can gather ourselves and from the super folks at Gehenna Gaming, and see what we can learn from all that.

Will we do another one? We just don’t know yet, but whether we do or not, this one sure did what we wanted to do – folks who attended had a whole lot of fun! If you missed out and want to watch the games and panels, they are currently on the Onyx Path and Gehenna Gaming Twitch channels for subscribers, but will soon migrate over to the Onyx Path YouTube page for all to watch!

So, from all of us to all of you, whether you attended or didn’t, thanks for making it a real joy to walk with you exploring:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

The Legendlore Kickstarter funded right before we started the Virtual Con last week! A really great way to start things off! Now we’re building towards Stretch Goals: the GM’s Screen, and starting the Legendlore Companion book PDF!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/339646881/legendlore-rpg-setting-for-5th-edition-fantasy-roleplaying-0

Grab your friends and escape to another world!

You’ve found an enchanted portal — a transition point — between worlds. The portal, called a Crossing, takes you to a world you thought only existed in novels and films: a magical land where dragons roam the skies, orcs and hobgoblins terrorize weary travelers, and unicorns prance through the forest. It is a world where humans join other peoples such as elves, trolls, dwarves, changelings, and the dreaded creatures who steal the night. It is a world of fantasy — of imagination.

It is the Realm.

It is Legendlore.

Onyx Path Media!

This week: the most exciting episode of the Onyx Pathcast ever, recorded live at the Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

Hi all!

We’ll be back next week with our usual promotion of all the excellent games on our Twitch and YouTube channels, but for now, we encourage you to do what it seems a lot of people are doing right now, and hop over to our Twitch: twitch.tv/theonyxpath

While the convention has ended, but subscribing to our Twitch channel (which you can do for free if you have Amazon Prime), you get access to all the panels and games that ran on it over the convention weekend. So, if you missed a panel or game you really wanted to watch, head on to our Twitch, subscribe, and browse our back catalogue!

Other than our content, we would like to promote a couple more games for those without Twitch:

Occultists Anonymous continue their excellent Mage: The Awakening game here:

Episode 106: Friends & Minions The cabal combats the uninvited guest summoned by an Exarchal Supernal Being. The danger of the Exarchal attention prompts further investigations away from the Supernal. https://youtu.be/YSErlwnC7Nc

Episode 107: Making Promises Songbird reaches out to the Queen of the Vampires of New York about a divine blessing. Wyrd and Atratus hatch a plan to make a car… https://youtu.be/dueYYUl0FrY

And A Bunch of Gamers have just started up a two-part extravaganza of They Came from Beneath the Sea! right here:

The Crabby Lizard from the Murkey Depths

Episode 1: In the small east coast town of Chatham Massachusetts things are easy. The soda pop shop is ready for any of the locals. The city comes together for a bake sale to help their neighbors, and everyone knows each other. All that changes when a strange electrical storm and a booming voice can be heard over the jukebox. Tonight, the strange, the horrid, the damp creatures from beyond the stars and the depths of the sea rise up to meet the people of Chatham.https://youtu.be/UwxzdwVoYQE

The Tabletop Almanac has released a lovely review of Legendlore that you’ll want to see! https://thetabletopalmanac.wordpress.com/2020/06/15/rpg-reviews-legendlore-manuscript-preview/

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is 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 awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

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 from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau 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

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

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

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

Available this Wednesday, we are just a bit embarrassed to say that we’ll be releasing on DTRPG the PDF and PoD versions of Swine and Cheese Party, Et Al., excerpts from The Complete Duke Rollo, for Trinity Continuum: Aberrant!

Also available this Wednesday on DTRPG: the Advance PDF for Quantum Entanglement the Trinity Continuum: Aeon Jumpstart!

Conventions!

Though dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s what’s left of our current list of upcoming conventions (and really, we’re just waiting for this last one to be cancelled even though it’s Nov/Dec). Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with:

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from 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.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Anima

CtL 2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

M20 Technocracy Operative’s Dossier (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

V5 Children of the Blood (was The Faithful Undead) (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

Second Draft

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Under Alien Suns (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

Development

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

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

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

Manuscript Approval

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Post-Approval Development

Editing

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

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

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

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

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Indexing

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Scion Titanomachy – Art coming in.

Tales of Aquatic Terror

WoD Ghost Hunters (KS) – Prepping KS assets.

Aberrant – AD’d. First new comic in.

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2

Deviant – Dividing up among current artists.

Legendlore – KS running.

Technocracy Reloaded (KS)

Cults of the Blood God – Rolling along.

Scion: Dragon (KS) – Waiting on art notes.

Masks of the Mythos (KS) – Some tweaking to art notes and hiring artists.

Scion: Demigod (KS) – Tweaking art notes, hiring artists. Splats in progress.

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (KS) – Finals coming in.

TC: Adventure! (KS) – Cover art finishing.

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Vigil Watch

TC Aeon Terra Firma

V5 Let the Streets Run Red

Pugmire Adventure

Proofing

Trinity Aeon Jumpstart – New artist taking care of finishing missing art.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Finishing Backer PDF errata.

Contagion Chronicle – Going to WW for approval this week.

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

Magic Item Decks (Scarred Lands)

Yugman’s Guide Support Decks (Scarred Lands)

Dark Eras 2 Screen and booklet

At Press

Scion Companion – Shutting down errata.

TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – Prepping PoD files.

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Files at press.

Creature Collection 5e – PoD files uploaded. Traditional files sent to printer.

Pirates of Pugmire – Files at press. Prepping files for PoD.

Pirates of Pugmire Screen – Files at press.

Duke Rollo Aberrant Book: Swine & Cheese Party – PDf and PoD versions on sale Wednesday on DTRPG.

Pugmire Buried Bones – Gathering errata.

Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition Dark Eras Compilation – Gathering errata.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Today is feet up and dozing after the busy, busy, Virtual Con and celebrating its success!

[silvercrystalwhump]

A Hairs Breath From Death

@whumptober Day 3

No. 3 A HAIR’S BREADTH FROM DEATH: Gun to Temple | “Say goodbye.” | Impaled

TW: death, gun mention, noncon touch (nonsexual) implied kidnapping, lab whump, torture, starvation mention

-

Travis’ head slams into the floor, bloody phlegm running down his face. His nose cracks for the gazillionth time today, rattling in his skull. Immediately, he feels it snap back into place. A pained hiss whistles from his nose, curtling the freshly mended bones. 

The cold, sterile machines that hold his frail body force him into the floor, the whirring of clicking of parts is deafening. Everything spins and the glaring lights bend and bow in his eyes. He feels himself be lifted up and his body spread apart as cold metal clamps around his limbs. They dig into his skin, chafing already scarred and broken skin.

The scientist that had kept him here speaks over the intercom, “Depart from chamber.” They sit behind the one way glass that hangs up on the wall. Their voices are never anything other than monotonous. 

Travis’ eyes focus just long enough to watch the machines depart. The mirror side of the window hangs in front of him where the wall meets the ceiling. If Travis focuses hard enough, he swears that he can see shapes moving beyond. Hallucinating has not been beneath him.

The scientist that had been boredly ordering the machines to manipulate him finally, after days, addresses Travis, “Do you have any last words before you are terminated R17?”

Fury, hot and wet, begins to trickle down Travis face as the gag is forcefully ripped from his mouth. The plastic carves into his pallet and he yells as the taste of fresh blood fills his mouth. It is taken by a machine on the wall and disappears into the wall. More clinking echoes behind his head.

“Fuck you and Premier Row,” Travis wheezes as he coughs up for bloody mucus, “Fuck your immortality and fuck your revenants.”

If any of his words resonate with the scientist at all, they don’t come through their speech. The sounds of shifting and clicking of gears in the walls around him. So many noises and yet not loud enough to drown out the sound of the ringing in his ears.

Travis feels hot tears begin to run down his cheeks. Sobs rattle his starved body. He’s far too weak to even try to get out of the metal clamps around him. Crying, he pleads as the bravado evaporates, “Please, I don’t wanna die.”

The wall opens up and the barrel of an automated turret extends from the wall.

“Please,” Travis cries, “I’m sorry.”

A click and then silence radiates the room. Dread, terror, and relief flood his mind as he starts down the barrel of death. He hates how blissful death sounds.

White hot pain and then… nothing. The echoing boom of the gun firing rattles around in his head. Blackness overtakes him like blood on crisp white sheets. Something suspends him yet nothing touches him. The air around him is perfectly warm. He’s not in the lab anymore with its cold air and icy machines. Where his limbs had been pulled back and locked at horrific ankle, they now rest limply at his sides. 

Something grabs him tenderly by the throat, claws taping at his jugular and palm resting at his nape. A second hand (or claw now that he’s focusing) runs across his stomach tenderly. 

His eyes rip open into nothingness, and deep and expansive void. Something, even darker than void, coagulates to his left. Its shape is almost human, sending chills down Travis’ spine. The claws recede into the blackness and a pair of what he assumes are eyes open up. They sit in the void as tiny white lights that shimmer sparks like tears down an invisible face.

Travis can see that it looks remorseful without seeing it at all. It’s confusing.

“I’m sorry Travis,” a voice, completely androgenous and vague speaks, “I wish I could help you.”

“Are you god?” Travis, doesn’t say, but says. 

The entity closes its eyes and an echoing sigh ruminates from it. “No.”

It does not speak but the words make it across the void all the same. Silence, true and complete, engulfs them. Each minute that passes feels like an hour and a second. His other senses are cotton in the jar of his head.

“Then what are you?”

It shifts around him until it's nearly on top of him before replying, “I am Wrythe.”

Travis blinks, “Is it like squirming? Your name is like painful squirming?”

“Yes.”

Silence persists between them for a moment. Travis feels himself metaphorically bite his tongue as the words fully register. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to-’

“Thoughts are how we communicate here, you couldn't hide it if you tried.” Wrythe echoes, “I am not offended.”

Travis rests his head further back and chuckles, “I thought the afterlife would at least be colorful.

“This is not the afterlife.” The black void shakes their head and kneels next to Travis, completely a full revolution around him. “If there was any mercy I could give you, I would without hesitation.”

“I’m dead and in fucking purgatory,” Travis says, “There’s nothing you can do.”

A solemnity washes over Wrythe as they shake their head, a vague gesture in the void. “No, you are not.”

Travis blinks and light floods his eyes. The pain that writtles his body returns in full force. He’s sitting back in the contraption, his legs and arms spread apart. Shivering, his naked body feels the metallic air conditioner blow into his back.

“Fascinating,” the scientist, who stands in front of him, says to no one. They wear their perfectly white lab coat and that damned mack that obscures all but their eyes. They raise their hand and run it across Travis’ side. His skin flinches at the contact.

Travis wheezes as despair fills his lungs, “No, please.”

[collectorscorner]

CC Blogger - New Arrivals @ Collectors Corner : Wednesday 1/15/2020 Complete list of items shipping to the stores, some items may be limited in availability. If you see anything you want to purchase on the list and are not a subscription member at Collectors Corner, just contact us and let us know if you want an item held at the stores. email - collectorscornermd@comcast.net Subscription Membership & Free Membership Card : Collectors Corner's No Obligation (FREE) Membership Card or FREE (In Store) & ONLINE Subscription Membership saves you 10% Off ALL Bagged & Boarded Comic Book Back Issues, Board Games, Graphic Novels, Manga & Special Orders. Plus Never miss a comic again! Computerized and organized + you can add and cancel titles on your subscription list from home on your own time, or in the store when you pick up your comics at : Maryland's Coolest Stores! 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L. Gallant), $$3.99 Rocky And Bullwinkle Seen On TV #2 (Cover B Retro Animation Variant), $$9.99 Underdog And Pals #3 (Cover A Matt Hansel Hero Variant), $$3.99 Underdog And Pals #3 (Cover B Retro Animation Variant), $$9.99 ANDREWS MCMEEL Baby A Soppy Story GN, $$14.99 ARCHIE COMIC PUBLICATIONS Archie #710 (Archie And Katy Keene Part 1)(Cover A Laura Braga), $$3.99 Archie #710 (Archie And Katy Keene Part 1)(Cover B Francesco Francavilla), $$3.99 Archie #710 (Archie And Katy Keene Part 1)(Cover C Emanuela Lupacchino), $$3.99 Archie #710 (Archie And Katy Keene Part 1)(Cover D Paul Renaud), $$3.99 Archie #710 (Archie And Katy Keene Part 1)(Cover E Billy Tucci), $$3.99 ASPEN COMICS Michael Turner Art Edition The Best Of Michael Turner Featuring Fathom Soulfire Ekos (Cover A Michael Turner), $$5.99 Michael Turner Art Edition The Best Of Michael Turner Featuring Fathom Soulfire Ekos (Cover B Michael Turner), $AR AVATAR PRESS Warrior Nun Dora #3 (Cover A Daniel Gete), $$5.99 BIG FINISH Doctor Who Rose Tyler The Dimension Cannon Audio CD, $$63.99 Doctor Who The Eighth Doctor Ravenous 4 Audio CD, $$63.99 Doctor Who The Monthly Adventures Volume 257 Interstitial Feast Of Fear Audio CD, $$24.99 Torchwood Torchwood One Latter Days Audio CD, $$41.99 Torchwood Volume 31 Vigil Audio CD, $$16.99 BOOK PALACE Illustrators Magazine #28, $$24.99 Illustrators Special #5 (The Art Of Commando Comics), $$34.99 Illustrators Special #6 (The Art Of Brian Bolland), $$34.99 BOOM! STUDIOS Folklords #2 (Of 5)(Matt Kindt 2nd Printing Variant Cover), $$3.99 Ghosted In L.A. #7 (Cover A Siobhan Keenan), $$3.99 Ghosted In L.A. #7 (Cover B Sina Grace), $$3.99 Hellmouth #4 (Cover A Jenny Frison), $$3.99 Hellmouth #4 (Cover B Steve Morris Hellmouth Connecting Variant), $$3.99 Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal Age Of Resistance #5 (Cover A Mona Finden), $$3.99 Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal Age Of Resistance #5 (Cover B Kelly Matthews & Nichole Matthews), $$3.99 Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal Age Of Resistance #5 (Cover C Christian Ward), $AR Red Mother #1 (Danny Luckert 3rd Printing Variant Cover)(not verified by Diamond), $$3.99 Red Mother #2 (Cover A Jeremy Haun), $$3.99 Red Mother #2 (Cover B Jeremy Haun Red Variant), $AR Red Mother #2 (Cover C Toni Infante), $AR Saban's Go Go Power Rangers #27 (Cover A Eleonora Carlini), $$3.99 Saban's Go Go Power Rangers #27 (Cover B Amelia Vidal Album Variant), $$3.99 Saban's Go Go Power Rangers #27 (Cover C Miguel Mercado), $$3.99 Saban's Go Go Power Rangers #27 (Cover D Johanna The Mad Social Variant), $AR CAPSTONE PUBLISHING Stan Lee Get To Know The Comics Creator SC, $$7.95 CHAPTERHOUSE PUBLISHING Pitiful Human-Lizard Volume 3 Almost Getting There TP, $$19.99 CHARMZ Amy's Diary Volume 3 Moving On GN, $$9.99 CINEBOOK Route 66 List Volume 2 Missouri GN, $$11.95 Thorgal Volume 0 The Betrayed Sorceress And Almost Paradise GN, $$19.95 Valerian Volume 23 The Future Is Waiting GN, $$13.95 COMIC SHOP NEWS Comic Shop News #1700, $AR COMICMIX Ha.i.ley GN, $$19.99 His Name Is Savage Volume 1 GN, $$19.99 DAIKAIJU G-Fan #126, $$6.95 DARK HORSE COMICS Aliens Vs Predator Thicker Than Blood #2 (Of 4), $$3.99 Disney Frozen True Treasure #3 (Of 3)(Cover A Eduard Petrovich), $$3.99 Disney Frozen True Treasure #3 (Of 3)(Cover B Tommaso Renieri), $$3.99 Dragon Age Blue Wraith #1 (Of 3), $$3.99 Hellboy Winter Special 2019, $$3.99 Skulldigger And Skeleton Boy #2 (Of 6)(Cover A Tonci Zonjic), $$3.99 Skulldigger And Skeleton Boy #2 (Of 6)(Cover B James Harren), $$3.99 Steeple #5 (Of 5)(Cover A John Allison), $$3.99 Steeple #5 (Of 5)(Cover B Robert Ball), $$3.99 Tales From Harrow County Death's Choir #2 (Of 4)(Cover A Naomi Franquiz), $$3.99 Tales From Harrow County Death's Choir #2 (Of 4)(Cover B Tyler Crook), $$3.99 Trout Volume 2 The Hollowest Knock HC, $$19.99 DC COMICS Aquaman #56 (Cover A Brad Walker & Andrew Hennessy), $$3.99 Aquaman #56 (Cover B Skan), $AR Batman The Golden Age Volume 6 TP, $$39.99 Batman's Grave #4 (Of 12)(Cover A Bryan Hitch), $$3.99 Batman's Grave #4 (Of 12)(Cover B Jee-Hyung Lee), $AR Birds Of Prey Black Canary TP, $$19.99 Crisis On Infinite Earths Giant #1, $$4.99 Detective Comics #359 (Facsimile Edition), $$3.99 Dollar Comics Batman Adventures #12, $$1.00 Flash #86 (Cover A Rafael Sandoval & Jordi Tarragona), $$3.99 Flash #86 (Cover B Dustin Nguyen Card Stock Variant), $AR Flash Forward #5 (Of 6)(Cover A Evan Doc Shaner), $$3.99 Flash Forward #5 (Of 6)(Cover B In-Hyuk Lee), $AR Freedom Fighters #12 (Of 12), $$3.99 Green Lantern Legacy GN, $$9.99 Hellblazer Volume 22 Regeneration TP, $$29.99 He-Man And The Masters Of The Multiverse #3 (Of 6), $$3.99 Justice League Odyssey #17 (Cover A Jose Ladronn), $$3.99 Justice League Odyssey #17 (Cover B Ken Lashley), $AR Legion Of Super-Heroes #3 (Cover A Ryan Sook), $$3.99 Legion Of Super-Heroes #3 (Cover B Jim Cheung Card Stock Variant), $AR Low Low Woods #2 (Of 6)(Cover A Sam Wolfe Connelly), $$3.99 Low Low Woods #2 (Of 6)(Cover B Jenny Frison), $AR Lucifer #16, $$3.99 Nightwing #68 (Cover A Travis Moore), $$3.99 Nightwing #68 (Cover B Alan Quah), $AR Nightwing By Peter J. Tomasi TP, $$29.99 Question The Deaths Of Vic Sage #2 (Of 4)(Cover A Denys Cowan & Bill Sienkiewicz), $$6.99 Question The Deaths Of Vic Sage #2 (Of 4)(Cover B Eduardo Risso), $AR RWBY #4 (Of 7)(Cover A Sarah Stone), $$3.99 RWBY #4 (Of 7)(Cover B Stanley Artgerm Lau), $AR Scooby Apocalypse Volume 6 TP, $$16.99 Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #7 (Of 12)(Cover A Steve Lieber), $$3.99 Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #7 (Of 12)(Cover B Ben Oliver), $AR Teen Titans #38 (Cover A Bernard Chang), $$3.99 Teen Titans #38 (Cover B Khary Randolph), $AR DIAMOND PUBLICATIONS Diamond Bookshelf #31, $AR DRAWN AND QUARTERLY Kitaro Volume 7 The Trial Of Kitaro GN, $$15.95 DYNAMIC FORCES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #100 (Kevin Eastman Variant Cover), $AR Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Secret History Of The Foot Clan #1 (Of 4)(Kevin Eastman Variant Cover), $AR DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT Bettie Page Unbound #9 (Cover A John Royle), $$3.99 Bettie Page Unbound #9 (Cover B Scott Chantler), $$3.99 Bettie Page Unbound #9 (Cover C Jerome K. 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(Cover G Roberto Castro Bonus Variant), $AR Vampirella Red Sonja #5 (Cover H Sergio Davila Black & White Variant), $AR Vampirella Red Sonja #5 (Cover I Drew Moss Black & White Variant), $AR Vampirella Red Sonja #5 (Cover J Drew Moss Black & White Virgin Variant), $AR Vampirella Red Sonja #5 (Cover K Drew Moss Blood Tint Virgin Variant), $AR Vampirella Red Sonja #5 (Cover L Leonardo Romero & Jordie Bellaire Virgin Variant), $AR Vampirella Red Sonja #5 (Cover M Leonardo Romero Tint Variant), $AR Vampirella Red Sonja #5 (Cover N Leonardo Romero Black & White Virgin Variant), $AR Vampirella Red Sonja #5 (Cover O Drew Moss Virgin Variant), $AR Vampirella Red Sonja #5 (Cover P Leonardo Romero & Jordie Bellaire Black & White Variant), $AR FULL MOON FEATURES Deadly Ten Presents Femalien Cosmic Crush #1 (Cover A Daniel Pascual), $$3.99 Deadly Ten Presents Femalien Cosmic Crush #1 (Cover B Dan Fowler), $$3.99 GALLERY 13 Strange Ones GN, $$19.99 GHOST SHIP Saki The Succubus Hungers Tonight Volume 1 GN, $$13.99 Yokai Girls Volume 9 GN, $$12.99 Yuuna And The Haunted Hot Springs Volume 8 GN, $$12.99 GOLDEN BOOKS Disney Frozen I Am Anna Little Golden Book HC, $$4.99 Disney Frozen I Am Elsa Little Golden Book HC, $$4.99 HUMANOIDS Strangelands #5, $$3.99 IDW PUBLISHING Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy Volume 27 HC, $$44.99 Disney Comics And Stories #9 (Cover A Marco Mazzarello), $$5.99 DuckTales Faires And Scares #2 (Of 3)(Cover A Marco Ghiglione), $$3.99 DuckTales Faires And Scares #2 (Of 3)(Cover B Marco Ghiglione), $$3.99 DuckTales Faires And Scares #2 (Of 3)(Cover C DuckTales Creative Team), $AR Dungeons And Dragons A Darkened Wish #4 (Of 5)(Cover A Tess Fowler), $$3.99 Dungeons And Dragons A Darkened Wish #4 (Of 5)(Cover B Tess Fowler Character Sheet Variant), $$3.99 Dungeons And Dragons A Darkened Wish #4 (Of 5)(Cover C Ibrahem Swaid), $AR Dungeons And Dragons A Darkened Wish #4 (Of 5)(Cover D Tess Fowler Black & White Variant), $AR From Hell Master Edition #9 (Of 10)(Cover A Eddie Campbell), $$7.99 Gears Of War Hivebusters #4 (Of 5)(Cover A Alan Quah), $$3.99 Gears Of War Hivebusters #4 (Of 5)(Cover B Pierre Droal), $AR GLOW Vs The Babyface #3 (Of 4)(Cover A Veronica Fish), $$3.99 GLOW Vs The Babyface #3 (Of 4)(Cover B Nicole Goux), $$3.99 GLOW Vs The Babyface #3 (Of 4)(Cover C Catherine Nodet), $AR Marvel Action Avengers #9 (Cover A Jon Sommariva), $$3.99 Marvel Action Avengers #9 (Cover B Siobhan Keenan), $AR My Little Pony Omnibus Volume 5 TP, $$24.99 Napoleon Dynamite #3 (Of 4)(Cover A Sara Richard), $$3.99 Napoleon Dynamite #3 (Of 4)(Cover B Photo), $$3.99 Napoleon Dynamite #3 (Of 4)(Cover C Jorge Monlongo), $AR Rising Sun #1 (Of 3)(Cover A Martin Coccolo), $$4.99 Rising Sun #1 (Of 3)(Cover B Chieh Ying Yu), $AR Rom Dire Wraiths #1 (Of 3)(Cover A Luca Pizarri), $$4.99 Rom Dire Wraiths #1 (Of 3)(Cover B Corin Howell), $$4.99 Rom Dire Wraiths #1 (Of 3)(Cover C Guy Dorian Sr. & Sal Buscema), $AR IMAGE COMICS Hit-Girl Season Two #12 (Cover A Declan Shalvey), $$3.99 Hit-Girl Season Two #12 (Cover B Declan Shalvey), $$3.99 Hit-Girl Season Two #12 (Cover C Eve Mae Roman), $$3.99 Lazarus Volume 6 TP, $$16.99 Lucy Claire Redemption #2 (Cover A John Upchurch), $$3.99 Lucy Claire Redemption #2 (Cover B John Upchurch), $$3.99 Outpost Zero Volume 3 The Only Living Things TP, $$14.99 Over My Dead Body GN, $$16.99 Pretty Violent #6, $$3.99 SFSX Safe Sex #5, $$3.99 Spawn #304 (Cover A Francesco Mattina), $$2.99 Spawn #304 (Cover B Todd McFarlane), $$2.99 Spawn #304 (Cover C Todd McFarlane Black & White Variant), $$2.99 Undiscovered Country #2 (Giuseppe Camuncoli 2nd Printing Variant Cover), $$3.99 Undiscovered Country #3 (Cover A Giuseppe Camuncoli), $$3.99 Undiscovered Country #3 (Cover B Greg Capullo), $$3.99 INSIGHT EDITIONS Harry Potter Film Vault Volume 5 Creature Companions Plants And Shapeshifters HC, $$16.99 Harry Potter Film Vault Volume 6 Hogwarts Castle HC, $$16.99 J-NOVEL CLUB Animeta Light Novel Volume 2 SC, $$14.99 Archdemon's Dilemma How To Love Your Elf Bride Light Novel Volume 3 SC, $$14.99 Infinite Dendrogram Light Novel Volume 4 SC, $$14.99 Magic In This Other World Is Too Far Behind Light Novel Volume 6 SC, $$14.99 KODANSHA COMICS Hitorijime My Hero Volume 6 GN, $$12.99 If I Could Reach You Volume 3 GN, $$12.99 Yamada-kun And The Seven Witches Volume 19 GN, $$16.99 LITTLE BROWN BOOK FOR YOUNG READERS Deep And Dark Blue GN, $$12.99 Deep And Dark Blue HC, $$24.99 Plain Janes GN, $$18.99 Plain Janes HC, $$26.99 LO SCARABEO Morbus Gravis Deluxe Edition HC, $$77.99 MAD CAVE STUDIOS Over The Ropes #2 (Of 5), $$3.99 MAGNETIC PRESS Infinity 8 #18, $$3.99 MARVEL COMICS Absolute Carnage Immortal Hulk And Other Tales TP, $$29.99 Absolute Carnage Lethal Protectors TP, $$15.99 Absolute Carnage Miles Morales TP, $$15.99 Absolute Carnage Scream TP, $$15.99 Acts Of Evil TP, $$34.99 Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection Volume 25 Maximum Carnage TP, $$39.99 Avengers #29 (Cover A Ed McGuinness), $$3.99 Avengers #29 (Cover B Emanuela Lupacchino Marvels X Variant), $AR Conan Barbarian The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Volume 4 HC (Cover A Frank Cho Book Market Variant), $$125.00 Conan Barbarian The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Volume 4 HC (Cover B Gil Kane Direct Market Variant), $$125.00 Contagion TP, $$15.99 Crazy TP, $$19.99 Incredible Hulk #180 (Facsimile Edition), $$3.99 Incredible Hulk By Peter David Omnibus Volume 1 HC (Cover A Steve Geiger Book Market Variant), $$125.00 Incredible Hulk By Peter David Omnibus Volume 1 HC (Cover B Todd McFarlane Direct Market Variant), $$125.00 Iron Man 2020 #1 (Of 6)(Cover A Pete Woods), $$4.99 Iron Man 2020 #1 (Of 6)(Cover B Simone Bianchi Connecting Variant), $AR Iron Man 2020 #1 (Of 6)(Cover C Superlog Heads Variant), $AR Iron Man 2020 #1 (Of 6)(Cover D Ron Lim), $AR Iron Man 2020 #1 (Of 6)(Cover E In-Hyuk Lee), $AR Iron Man 2020 #1 (Of 6)(Cover F Khoi Pham), $AR Iron Man 2020 #1 (Of 6)(Cover G Nick Roche Party Variant), $AR Iron Man 2020 #1 (Of 6)(Cover H Pete Woods Premiere Variant), $AR Iron Man 2020 #1 (Of 6)(Cover I Herb Trimpe & Barry Windsor-Smith Hidden Gem Variant), $AR Iron Man 2020 #1 (Of 6)(Cover J Christian Ward Marvels X Variant), $AR Iron Man 2020 #1 (Of 6)(Cover K Gear Design Variant), $AR Jessica Jones Blind Spot #1 (Of 6)(Cover A Valerio Giangiordano), $$3.99 Jessica Jones Blind Spot #1 (Of 6)(Cover B Martin Simmonds), $AR Marvel Masterworks Daredevil Volume 14 HC (Book Market Edition), $$75.00 Marvel Masterworks Daredevil Volume 14 HC (Direct Market Variant Edition Volume 285), $$75.00 Marvel Tales Ravencroft #1 (Cover A In-Hyuk Lee), $$7.99 Marvel Tales Ravencroft #1 (Cover B In-Hyuk Lee Virgin Variant), $AR Marvel's Black Widow Prelude #1 (Of 2), $$3.99 Marvel's Spider-Man The Black Cat Strikes #1 (Of 5)(Cover A Sana Takeda), $$3.99 Marvel's Spider-Man The Black Cat Strikes #1 (Of 5)(Cover B J. Scott Campbell), $AR Marvel's Spider-Man The Black Cat Strikes #1 (Of 5)(Cover C Todd Nauck), $AR Marvel's Spider-Man The Black Cat Strikes #1 (Of 5)(Cover D Adi Granov Game Variant), $AR Oz The Complete Collection Volume 1 Wonderful Wizard Marvelous Land TP, $$15.99 Revenge Of The Cosmic Ghost Rider #2 (Of 5)(Cover A Scott Hepburn), $$3.99 Revenge Of The Cosmic Ghost Rider #2 (Of 5)(Cover B Logan Lubera), $AR Revenge Of The Cosmic Ghost Rider #2 (Of 5)(Cover C Superlog), $AR Revenge Of The Cosmic Ghost Rider #2 (Of 5)(Cover D Ron Lim), $AR Ruins Of Ravencroft Sabretooth #1 (Cover A Gerardo Sandoval), $$4.99 Ruins Of Ravencroft Sabretooth #1 (Cover B Mico Suayan), $AR Runaways #29, $$3.99 Savage Sword Of Conan Conan The Gambler TP, $$19.99 Star Wars The Original Trilogy The Movie Adaptations TP, $$34.99 True Believers The Criminally Insane Gypsy Moth #1, $$1.00 True Believers The Criminally Insane Mandarin #1, $$1.00 Valkyrie Jane Foster #7 (Cover A Mahmud A. Asrar), $$3.99 Valkyrie Jane Foster #7 (Cover B Kris Anka Marvels X Variant), $AR Venom The End #1 (Cover A Rahzzah), $$4.99 Venom The End #1 (Cover B Adam Warren), $AR MYTHOS COMICS Vamp #2, $$3.99 ONI PRESS Courtney Crumrin Volume 6 The Final Spell TP, $$12.99 Fights GN, $$19.99 Rick And Morty vs Dungeons And Dragons Chapter II Painscape #4 (Cover A Troy Little), $$3.99 Rick And Morty vs Dungeons And Dragons Chapter II Painscape #4 (Cover B Kendra Wells), $$3.99 Rick And Morty vs Dungeons And Dragons Chapter II Painscape #4 (Cover C Troy Little & Jim Zub Character Sheet Variant), $$3.99 OSPREY PUBLISHING D-Day Storming Fortress Europe GN, $$26.00 PRINTERS ROW Disney Sweet Dreams Mickey HC, $$9.99 QUIRK BOOKS Comic Quests Knights Club The Buried City SC, $$9.99 REBELLION / 2000AD 2000 AD Prog #2161, $$6.99 2000 AD Prog #2162 (X-Mas Special), $$7.99 Judge Dredd Megazine #415, $$13.00 Ken Reid's World-Wide Weirdies HC, $$24.99 Third World War TP, $$24.99 RED 5 COMICS - STONEBOT Machine Girl #3, $$3.95 ROTHIC Ancient Dreams #9 (Mike Krome 2nd Printing Variant Cover), $$3.99 Southern Nightgown #8 (Sabine Rich 2nd Printing Variant Cover), $$3.99 SEVEN SEAS ENTERTAINMENT Arifureta From Commonplace To World's Strongest Volume 5 GN, $$12.99 Magical Girl Site Volume 11 GN, $$12.99 Sorry For My Familiar Volume 6 GN, $$12.99 SILVER SPROCKET Fanlee And Spatzle Make Something Perfect GN, $$12.00 Teenage Condition Lizard Daddies (One Shot), $$3.00 SKYHORSE Betty Boop Guide To A Bold And Balanced Life HC, $$19.99 STONE ARCH BOOKS DC The Amazing Adventures Of Batman Bane Drain SC, $$5.95 DC The Amazing Adventures Of Batman Reptile Raid SC, $$5.95 DC The Amazing Adventures Of Batman The Big Freeze SC, $$5.95 DC The Amazing Adventures Of Batman The Terrible Twos SC, $$5.95 STRANGER COMICS Niobe She Is Death #1 (Hyoung Taek Nam 2nd Printing Variant Cover), $$3.99 Niobe She Is Death #2 (Cover A Hyoung Taek Nam), $$3.99 Niobe She Is Death #2 (Cover B Jae Lee), $$3.99 Niobe She Is Death #2 (Cover C Jae Lee Virgin Variant), $AR SUBLIME Liquor And Cigarettes Volume 1 GN, $$12.99 TITAN COMICS Life Is Strange #12 (Cover A Claudia Leonardi), $$3.99 Life Is Strange #12 (Cover B Game Art Variant), $$3.99 Life Is Strange #12 (Cover C T-Shirt Variant), $$3.99 Oscar Martin's Solo The Survivors Of Chaos Volume 1 HC, $$29.99 Sherlock A Scandal In Belgravia #2 (Cover A Alice X. Zhang Sherlock Variant), $$4.99 Sherlock A Scandal In Belgravia #2 (Cover B Photo), $$4.99 Sherlock A Scandal In Belgravia #2 (Cover C Jay), $$4.99 Sherlock A Scandal In Belgravia #2 (Cover D Marguerite Sauvage), $$4.99 TOHAN CORPORATION Hobby Japan December 2019, $$20.00 Megami November 2019, $$20.00 Newtype November 2019, $$20.00 TOKYOPOP Goldfisch Volume 3 GN, $$10.99 TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING Best Of Draw Bundle TP, $$39.95 UDON ENTERTAINMENT Stravaganza Volume 2 TP, $$19.99 VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT Bloodshot #5 (Cover A Declan Shalvey), $$3.99 Bloodshot #5 (Cover B Billy Tucci), $$3.99 Bloodshot #5 (Cover C Leonardo Colapietro), $$3.99 Bloodshot #5 (Cover D Dave Johnson Pre-Order Edition Variant), $AR Rai #3 (Cover A Raul Allen), $$3.99 Rai #3 (Cover B Michael Walsh), $$3.99 Rai #3 (Cover C Adam Pollina), $$3.99 Rai #3 (Cover D Dan Brereton Pre-Order Edition Variant), $AR VERTICAL COMICS Knights Of Sidonia Master Edition Volume 4 GN, $$34.95 VIZ MEDIA Case Closed Volume 73 GN, $$9.99 Homestuck Epilogues 2-In-1 Novel SC, $$34.99 Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess Volume 6 GN, $$9.99 Ooku The Inner Chambers Volume 16 GN, $$12.99 Persona 5 Volume 1 GN, $$9.99 Pokemon Sun And Moon Volume 6 GN, $$4.99 Radiant Volume 9 GN, $$9.99 Sleepy Princess In The Demon Castle Volume 10 GN, $$9.99 Splatoon Volume 8 GN, $$9.99 Yo-kai Watch Volume 13 GN, $$9.99 Yona Of The Dawn Volume 21 GN, $$9.99 YEN ON Asterisk War Light Novel Volume 12 SC, $$14.00 Death March To The Parallel World Rhapsody Light Novel Volume 10 SC, $$14.00 Strike the Blood Light Novel Volume 14 SC, $$14.00 YEN PRESS Angels Of Death Volume 9 GN, $$13.00 Certain Magical Index Volume 20 GN, $$13.00 Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon On The Side Sword Oratoria Volume 10 GN, $$13.00 Karneval Volume 9 GN, $$20.00 Reborn As A Polar Bear The Legend How I Became A Forest Guardian Volume 2 GN, $$15.00 Teasing Master Takagi-san Volume 7 GN, $$13.00 ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT Robyn Hood Vigilante #3 (Cover A Drew Johnson), $$3.99 Robyn Hood Vigilante #3 (Cover B Sheldon Goh), $$3.99 Robyn Hood Vigilante #3 (Cover C Alfredo Reyes), $$3.99 Robyn Hood Vigilante #3 (Cover D Igor Vitorino), $$3.99 TOYS - T-SHIRTS & COLLECTIBLES 30 Minute Mission Optional Portanova Armor Set (Dark Red Version), $AR Ace Combat 7 Skies Unknown X-02S 1/144 Scale Plastic Model Kit, $AR Ace Combat 7 Skies Unknown X-02S 1/144 Scale Plastic Model Kit (Model Edition), $AR Amazing Spider-Man #347 Poster, $AR Archie Comics Archie ReAction Figure, $AR Archie Comics Betty ReAction Figure, $AR Archie Comics Jughead ReAction Figure, $AR Archie Comics Reggie ReAction Figure, $AR Archie Comics Veronica ReAction Figure, $AR Batman The Animated Series Batman ARTFX+ Statue (Opening Version), $AR Bearbrick 24 Piece Blind Mystery Box Series 38, $AR BOOM! Studios Short Box, $AR Carbotix Getter 1 9 Inch Die-cast Light-Up Figure, $AR Cowboy Bebop Vicious S.H. 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[flourhurricane]

A Fallout OC Interview

I snagged this from @life-is-no-sugarlicking because it looked like fun. Tagging: if you want to be tagged, thus you shall be.

Onward to the Q&A!

What is your name? “My full name is Osa Claire Lockhart. Everybody calls me Claire. Sometimes General, or Bullseye. But usually, it’s just Claire.”

How old are you? “Oh, um, do you want my literal age? I don’t like counting the 210 years I spent frozen inside a cryopod, so let’s just say I’m 33.”

What do you look like? “I’m a short gal with long -- longish? yeah, longish -- red hair, blue eyes, and some freckles around my nose and cheeks. And I guess I’m brawny for a woman. Working out helps me keep a clear head. And, you know, alive. But let me tell you: you can have as many muscles as my hubby and you can still end up with a Deathclaw’s claw marks on your cheek. Which... I did. In my defense, the power armor I wore was fitted for some tall dude and it was the first time I’d ever seen one of them beasts.” 

Where are you from? Where do you live now? “I’m from a very small town in Texas called Blue Fields, named after all the bluebonnets that used to grow there. When I turned 18, I joined the army. I was stationed in the Yukon for a while, then Anchorage, Alaska... and then, when I was discharged, I moved back home. Graduated from Texas A&M, then moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts when I was accepted into Harvard Law School. When I got married, I moved to Sanctuary Hills. Nowadays, I live in Diamond City in the Commonwealth... Wow, I’ve lived in a lot of places.” 

What was your childhood like? “It... wasn’t that great, but Mom tried to give me and my brothers as many good memories as she could.”

What groups are your friendly with? Are you allied with any factions? “I’m the General of the Minutemen. I can be friendly with any group that wants to help the people of the Commonwealth. And ‘people’ includes humans, synths, and ghouls.”

Tell me about your best friend. “My best friend? Well... I assume you mean my best friend outside of any family members. That would be Preston. I don’t know what would’ve happened to me if he hadn’t asked me to join the Minutemen. Because I, um, don’t do well alone, and I was in a dark... very dark place when I left the vault. Helping Preston and the Quincy survivors gave me a purpose. One other than revenge. And I... don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay him.”

Do you have a family? Tell me about them! “Growing up, my family was my mom and dad, my older brother, my younger brother, and our abuela. I got married after graduating law school, and Nate and I had a baby boy we named Sean. Almost all of them are gone now, obviously.”

What about a partner or partners? “Danse and I got married a few months ago. He used to be a Brotherhood of Steel paladin but that’s a whole other can of worms. He’s still my hero in power armor, though.”

Who are your enemies and why? “Um... There are groups in the Commonwealth that I dislike and the Institute has been destroyed for months now. But enemies? Not at the moment. Some people see me as the enemy. Lot of Institute refugees won’t accept any help from me or the Minutemen. Can’t really blame them.”

Have you ever heard of the Brotherhood of Steel? What do you think about them? “Oh, I’ve heard of them. I’m still grateful for their help. I’m still good friends with Scribe Haylen, and I guess Knight Rhys, too. But let me just say Elder Maxson and I are currently not on speaking terms.” 

What about the Enclave? “Everything I know about the Enclave are things Danse and Deacon have told me. Apparently, they’re the remnants of the United States’ government. I bet they were all the cowards who sent us soldiers to fight the wars they made.”

How do you feel about Super Mutants? “I listened to some of the holotapes I found in the old Robotics lab...” Claire physically shivers. “All the people they kidnapped, they turned them into super mutants and released them into the Commonwealth. It’s awful. But when one of ‘em attacks you, you don’t have the luxury to feel guilty.”

What’s the craziest fight you’ve ever been in? “Oh God, you’d think it’d be the time I met Cait and fought her in the Combat Zone. But no. It’s got to be that ‘fake’ fight that was meant to give Travis some confidence. I might have broken one of them goon’s nose, and then Vadim refused to pay him and his partner. Don’t tell Vadim I said this but he kinda deserved to be kidnapped.”

Have you ever fought Deathclaw? “Yeah, that’s how I got the pretty scars on my cheek.”

Do you like fighting? “I don’t like fighting but it’s unavoidable in the wasteland.”

What’s your weapon of choice? “A tried and true 10mm pistol and the laser rifle Danse gave me. But if I need something with a bit of oomph, I’ll use a gauss rifle. That thing saved my ass when the Institute attacked the Castle.”

How do you survive? Your wits, your charm, your skills, brute force, or some combination? (a.k.a. what’s your S.P.E.C.I.A.L.?) “I’m a medal-winning sharpshooter -- not that I’m bragging -- I can ran faster than most raiders, and... I listen to people. You might not think being a good listener will help you survive the Commonwealth but people want to be heard. That hasn’t changed in over 200 years.”

Have you ever been in a vault? What do you think about them? “... Yes. I’ve been in a vault. I’m alive because of a vault. I’d rather stay away from most of them, though.”

How do you beat all the radiation around here? Has it affected you? “Well, I haven’t turned into a ghoul, so that’s something. I take a Rad-X every morning and seek shelter whenever a radstorm rolls through. That’s about all anyone can do.”

What’s your favorite wasteland critter? “Probably the radchickens and the brahmin.”

What’s your least favorite wasteland critter? “Mole rats. I don’t care if Deacon thinks they’re so ugly they’re cute, they JUMP out from the underGROUND.”

How do you feel about robots? “Codsworth waited for over 200 years for someone -- anyone -- from my family to leave the vault and find him. Most robots are built to perform one task and they do it well, but Codsworth? He’s irreplaceable.”

How many caps do you have on you right now? “Answering that question is a great way to get robbed.”

Nuka Cola or Sunset Sarsaparilla? “Both drinks were widely available in Texas but I’ve always been a Nuka Cola girl. My favorite flavor Nuka Victory but stores in the northeast only ever sold it during the summer. Unless you went to Nuka World.”

Do you do chems? “No. I remember when in Anchorage our superior officers would overlook any psycho and jet use, but I never touched it. Too worried I’d end up like my dad and my older brother.”

Do you ever think about the pre-war world? “Not as much as I did when I left the vault. I still miss it sometimes.”

What’s your deepest regret? What would you do differently? “... I don’t think I can talk about that right now.”

What’s your biggest achievement? Or what do you hope to achieve? “I used to think my biggest achievement was becoming a lawyer but everything paled in comparison to becoming a mom. Wow, that sounds really cliche, doesn’t it?” Claire takes a deep breath to keep from crying. “I guess my deepest regret and my biggest achievement will always have Sean in common.”

What do you want for your future? For yourself? Your friends? The world? Claire takes a moment to answer. “I want to see the Commonwealth thrive. I want it to be a land for the people. I don’t know how we’re going to do it, but if the West has the NCR, I don’t see why the East can’t have the Commonwealth.”

[omgselinabeckendorf]

F/O Masterlist!

Whoo boy, about time I made one of these! I have a whopping 63 f/os, including Romantic, Platonic, and Familial, and will hopefully soon be making a list of S/I and OCs to accompany this list. Since this is a lot, I’ll be putting them under the cut to save space. They’re also in alphabetical order because it would bother me if it wasn’t. But, enough of my rambling, here we go!

ROMANTIC

Daniel - Aphmau

Gryo Gearloose - Ducktales (2017)

Adam Davenport - Lab Rats

Loki Lauferyson - Marvel Cinematic Universe

Perfuma - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Cedric the Sensational - Sofia the First

PLATONIC

Aaron Lycan - Aphmau

Aphmau - Aphmau

Blaze - Aphmau

Dottie - Aphmau

Katelyn - Aphmau

Kawaii~Chan/Nana - Aphmau

Kim/Ghost - Aphmau

Laurance Zvahl - Aphmau

Rylan - Aphmau

Travis Valkrum - Aphmau

Emily Quackfaster - Ducktales (2017)

Gandra Dee - Ducktales (2017)

Huey Duck - Ducktales (2017)

Launchpad McQuack - Ducktales (2017)

Bree Davenport - Lab Rats

Chase Davenport - Lab Rats

Donald Davenport - Lab Rats

Leo Dooley - Lab Rats

Tasha - Lab Rats

Anthony Stark/Tony/Iron Man - Marvel Cinematic Universe

Bruce Banner/the Hulk - Marvel Cinematic Universe

Clint Barton - Marvel Cinematic Universe

James Rhodes/Rhodey/War Machine - Marvel Cinematic Universe

Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow - Marvel Cinematic Universe

Pepper Pots - Marvel Cinematic Universe

Peter Parker/Spider-Man - Marvel Cinematic Universe

Thor Odinson - Marvel Cinematic Universe

Wanda Maximoff - Marvel Cinematic Universe

Adora/She-Ra - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Glimmer - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Eruptor - Skylanders Academy

Glumshanks - Skylanders Academy

Jet-Vac - Skylanders Academy

Pop-Fizz - Skylanders Academy

Stealth Elf - Skylanders Academy

Princess Amber - Sofia the First

Calista - Sofia the First

Cordelia the Conjuror - Sofia the First

Prince James - Sofia the First

Queen Miranda - Sofia the First

King Roland - Sofia the First

Princess Sofia - Sofia the First

FAMILIAL

Garroth Ro’Meave - Aphmau

Garte Ro’Meave - Aphmau

Vylad Ro’Meave - Aphmau

Zianna Ro’Meave - Aphmau

Zane Ro’Meave - Aphmau

Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera - Ducktales (2017)

Officer Cabrera - Ducktales (2017)

Bow - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

George and Lance - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Master Eon - Skylanders Academy

Kaos - Skylanders Academy

Kaossandra - Skylanders Academy

Spyro - Skylanders Academy

Quirin - Tangled: The Series

Varian - Tangled: The Series

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 17 June 2019

Quick Bits:

A Walk Through Hell #11 gives us a bit more insight into Shaw’s childhood and further fallout from the investigation, even as things seem to get nastier in the hell they’ve found themselves in. The fields of bones from Goran Sudžuka and Ive Svorcina are horrifying.

| Published by AfterShock

Age of X-Man: NextGen #5 is a bit of a gut punch for a final issue in this series. Some great art by Lucas Werneck and Jason Keith, though.

| Published by Marvel

Aquaman #49 concludes the “Mother Shark” two-parter as Arthur gets answers on who he is and how he died. This is a huge one. Kelly Sue DeConnick, Viktor Bogdanovic, Jonathan Glapion, Daniel Henriques, Ryan Winn, Sunny Gho, and Clayton Cowles do an incredible job with this story. Beautiful and heartbreaking. 

| Published by DC Comics

Assassin Nation #4 has the remaining assassins possibly figure out the entire plan as they take down another crime boss in this penultimate issue. Kyle Starks, Erica Henderson, and Deron Bennett have been delivering a highly entertaining series here with great art and a wicked sense of humour. Every book needs a Fuck Tarkington.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Barbarella/Dejah Thoris #4 is the end to what has been a great mini from Leah Williams,  Germán García, Addison Duke, and Crank! Very interesting use of time travel for this story.

| Published by Dynamite

Batman #73 sees Tom King, Mikel Janín, Jordie Bellaire, and Clayton Cowles reveal as to just how demented Thomas Wayne is in part four of “The Fall and the Fallen”. His motivation is understandable, but this is insane.

| Published by DC Comics

Black Badge #11 reveals a lot of the remaining secrets that we’ve guessed about previously as to what exactly is going on with the entire Black Badge organization. Maybe. I’m still expecting more twists from Matt Kindt, Tyler Jenkins, Hilary Jenkins, and Jim Campbell when the series ends next issue.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Captain America #11 sees Steve’s jailbreak from the Myrmidon in earnest, while Sharon and the Daughters of Liberty run the operation. Beautiful artwork from Adam Kubert and Matt Milla.

| Published by Marvel

Daredevil #7 reminds us that Matt Murdock carries more guilt than an entire Catholic archdiocese. There’s a very compelling depth and complexity that Chip Zdarsky is bringing to this story, moving us away from the typical superheroics.

| Published by Marvel

Elephantmen 2261: The Pentalion Job #2 enacts the heist of the pentalions in the second part of this story from Richard Starkings and Alex Medellin. Hip Flask raises some interesting questions as all of the Bond actors seem to meet their end.

| Published by Comicraft

Excellence #2 is another excellent issue. Brandon Thomas, Khary Randolph, Emilio Lopez, and Deron Bennett are developing Spencer and his history, his family, and relation with the hierarchy of the Aegis in a very compelling way.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Fairlady #3 is the first issue that doesn’t really end “clean”. It’s still a single issue story, but the mystery remains and isn’t tidied up by the end. It’s another murder mystery, with an adventurer impersonating a Conan analogue. Like the previous issues, this is a great story from Brian Schirmer, Claudia Balboni, Shari Chankhamma, and David Bowman.

| Published by Image

Faithless #3 continues to be very strange. Very, very strange. As Faith’s roommate is murdered by what seems like a wolf from her phone, her relationship with Poppy, and then she has sex with Poppy’s father. As I said, strange. I’m still not entirely sure what Brian Azzarello, Maria Llovet, and AndWorld Design are trying to do with this story.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Gideon Falls #14 begins playing with time along with the alternate realities as Burke lands in a reality “closer to the centre” and is given a purpose to find “the five”. Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, Dave Stewart, and Steve Wands are doing some amazing work here.

| Published by Image

Guardians of the Galaxy #6 concludes “The Final Gauntlet” from Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, David Curiel, and Cory Petit as the Guardians, all of the Guardians, take on Hela and the Black Order to try to prevent the resurrection of Thanos. It’s suitably epic.

| Published by Marvel

Hit-Girl: Season 2 #5 kicks off the “Hong Kong” arc from Daniel Way, Goran Parlov, Giada Marchisio, and Clem Robins. It may well be the arc with the most narration so far, but it doesn’t detract from the usual over-the-top violence and action in the start of this story of Mindy trying to take down the Liu Triad, with rather humorous results, it rather enhances it with some nice introspection.

| Published by Image

Justice League #26 is part one of “Apex Predator” from James Tynion IV, Javier Fernandez, Hi-Fi, and Tom Napolitano. The Justice League are pitching to the stars in order to stem the tide of Perpetua’s plans and the impending Doom brought on by the “Year of the Villain”. But everyone’s wondering if it’s just shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.

| Published by DC Comics

Last Stop on the Red Line #2 is still very strange. Paul Maybury, Sam Lotfi, John Rauch, and Adam Pruett are crafting an intriguing murder mystery here as Torres and her new partner continue to try to solve the crimes on the subways, but it’s told through a very fluid, stylized way where we’re not sure what’s real and what’s just a character’s perception. It’s a very neat way to tell a story.

| Published by Dark Horse

Little Bird #4 is maybe the most heartbreaking issue yet in this masterpiece from Darcy Van Poelgeest, Ian Bertram, Matt Hollingsworth, and Aditya Bidikar. There’s a lesson of survival, of children supplanting the parents, instilled here in the penultimate chapter as Little Bird and Gabriel have a bit of an understanding as siblings.

| Published by Image

Middlewest #8 attempts to pick up the pieces after Abel’s outburst and near destruction of the travelling circus. Also, more of the sheer monster that his father is. Gorgeous artwork from Jorge Corona and Jean-Francois Beaulieu.

| Published by Image

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #7 is a number of vignettes with Miles checking in with family and Bombshell before setting up the next arc. Wonderful use of guest artists with Ron Ackins & Dexter Vines, Alitha E. Martinez, and Vanesa Del Rey providing segments as well as regular artist Javier Garrón.

| Published by Marvel

Outpost Zero #10 explains all of the cats. It also gives a timeframe for the colony and a lot more questions as to why the old ship structure and tunnels were just completely abandoned by the colonists. Wonderful designs by Alexandre Tefenkgi.

| Published by Image / Skybound

Pearl #10 takes an interesting detour for a bit into “real life” as Pearl tries to hold down a “normal” job. Then we get back to the fallout of her chopping off Mr. Miike’s fingers. Absolutely stunning artwork from Michael Gaydos, with some very interesting layouts.

| Published by DC Comics / Jinxworld

Psi-Lords #1 is another great debut for Valiant. Fred Van Lente, Renato Guedes, and Dave Sharpe update one of the few Valiant properties that haven’t been brought back yet, with a bunch of seemingly newly activated psiots awakening in some kind of “Aztec sex dungeon”. The story keeps you off-balance from the beginning, adding a nice bit of mystery to what’s going on. And the artwork from Guedes is excellent.

| Published by Valiant

Rat Queens #16 begins the run by the new creative team of Ryan Ferrier, Priscilla Petraites, and Marco Lesko in earnest, following on the special. The Queens are essentially tearing themselves apart at this stage and nothing seems to be able to go right.

| Published by Image / Shadowline

Rumble #13 tackles the next Scourge Knight and Timah learns an interesting fact about the bundle of joy growing inside her. Great art as always from David Rubín and Dave Stewart.

| Published by Image

Savage Sword of Conan #6 is a single issue story from Meredith Finch, Luke Ross, Nolan Woodard, and Travis Lanham. It’s a captivating tale of revenge and Conan fighting through some insurmountable odds. Great art from Ross and Woodard.

| Published by Marvel

Usagi Yojimbo #1 begins a new era at IDW...in colour. Tom Luth joins Stan Sakai for the interiors in the first part of “Bunraku”. While it is a bit odd not to be black and white, this is still masterful storytelling, building on some traditional Japanese culture and providing an intriguing supernatural mystery. 

| Published by IDW

Warlord of Mars Attacks #1 begins another property crossover mini-series from Dynamite, this time mixing John Carter with the Mars Attacks aliens, from Jeff Parker, Dean Kotz, Omi Remalante, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. Nice bits of humour.

| Published by Dynamite

Wolverine: Infinity Watch #5 concludes this mini from Gerry Duggan, Andy MacDonald, Jordie Bellaire, and Cory Petit. It’s been a very entertaining follow-up to Infinity Wars, but it’s also served as a kind of weird clean-up to continuity that Marvel otherwise seems to have abandoned.

| Published by Marvel

Other Highlights: American Carnage #8, Age of X-Man: The Amazing Nightcrawler #1, Battlestar Galactica Classic #5, Captain Marvel #7, Clue: Candlestick #2, Curse Words #22, Deadpool #14, Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #9, Farmhand #9, Firefly #7, Go Go Power Rangers: Forever Rangers #1, Goddess Mode #6, Hellboy and the BPRD: The Beast of Vargu, Invisible Kingdom #4, James Bond 007 #8, Lab Raider #1, Livewire #7, Lucifer #9, Lumberjanes #63, Marvels Annotated #4, Mary Shelly: Monster Hunter #3, Monstress #23, Planet of the Nerds #3, Port of Earth #11, Red Sonja & Vampirella meet Betty & Veronica #2, Sabrina: The Teenage Witch #3, Shuri #9, Star Wars #67, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #3, Star Wars: Tie Fighter #3, TMNT: Urban Legends #14, Teen Titans #31, Tony Stark: Iron Man #13, Trout: The Hollowest Knock #1, Uncanny X-Men #20, The Unstoppable Wasp #9, War of the Realms: Journey into Mystery #5, War of the Realms: Spider-Man & The League of the Realms #3, War of the Realms: War Scrolls #3, The Warning #8, X-Men: Grand Design - X-Tinction #2

Recommended Collections: Archie 1941, Dead Man Logan - Volume 1: Sins of the Father, High Heaven - Volume 1, Hillbilly - Volume 4: Red Eyed Witchery from Beyond, Giant Days - Volume 10, Hit-Girl - Volume 4, Low Road West, Lucifer - Volume 1: Infernal Comedy, Marvel Action: Spider-Man - Book 1, Prince of Cats, Rainbow Brite, Shadow Roads - Volume 1, Spookhouse - Volume 2, TMNT - Macroseries, Thor - Volume 2: Road to War of the Realms, Uncanny X-Men - Volume 1: Cyclops and Wolverine, Vampirella/Dejah Thoris, Winter Soldier: Second Chances, X-O Manowar - Volume 7: Hero

[xtruss]

Health: Painkillers That Don’t Kill! Scientists Are Getting Closer To Designing Safer, More Targeted Pain Drugs To Replace Opioids.

— By Cathryn Jakobson Ramin | March 14, 2022

Travis Gustavson died in February, 2021 in Mankato, Minnesota at the age of 21. The morning of the day he died, he had a tooth pulled at the dentist’s office. Due to a drug history, the doctors didn’t prescribe him strong painkillers, so he was planning to white knuckle it through the day with ibuprofen, according to his mother. Instead, he called a guy who sold him illegal street heroin and fentanyl. In a text to the dealer, Gustavson sent a photo of the amount he planned to take and asked if he had gotten the dose right. “Smaller bro” and “be careful plz!” the dealer wrote back. Gustavson overdosed.

Gustavson, whose death was reported in the L.A. Times,1 is one of the many casualties of an opioid crisis that has ravaged the United States for over two decades. Opioid overdose deaths have claimed more than 600,000 lives in the U.S. and Canada since 1999, more than were lost in World War I and II combined. In both countries, 2020 was the worst year on record, in terms of total deaths and percentage increase from the previous year, precipitated in part by the anxiety, stress, and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic.2

Their discovery opened a major new avenue for the treatment of pain.

The urgent need for safer, better painkillers could not be more apparent. In 2016, as the FDA grappled with how to curb the escalating crisis, the agency wrote new rules that limited opioid prescriptions. But given that no powerful clinical alternatives to commonly prescribed opioids exist, these new rules had the unintended effect of driving more people to desperate measures. Some chronic pain patients, after their doses were cut, died by suicide.3 Others sought relief in illict street drugs like heroin and fentanyl.

Though scientists have tried for decades to design drugs that are both more effective and less addictive than opiates, most efforts have run aground.4 At the heart of these failures lies a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of pain, says Clifford Woolf, a leading expert in pain information processing from Boston Children’s Hospital. It is not a single phenomenon that can be addressed with a universal analgesic,5 but consists of distinct types that demand targeted therapeutic approaches.

Woolf and colleagues at Harvard Medical School are convinced they are finally just a few years away from identifying powerful precision painkillers that could not only safely replace opiates, but effectively target distinct pain types. Their end game is to eliminate chronic pain all together.

Precision Painkillers

In 2006, Alex Binshtok, a young post-doc from Israel by way of Odessa, began a fortuitous collaboration with Woolf, already one of the world’s foremost pain scientists, and neurobiologist Bruce Bean of Harvard Medical School. The three scientists had a bold idea for a way to create targeted painkillers without side effects. Anxious to produce results, Binshtok worked long days in the lab for months, patiently studying the hindpaws of rats, and sleeping among the rodent cages at night.

All neurons express multiple types of sodium, potassium, and calcium ion channels that together regulate their ability to translate stimuli from the external world to the rest of the nervous system. But Woolf, Bean, and Binshtok knew that pain-sensing neurons, called nociceptors, feature unique large-pore ion channels not found on other types of neurons—a discovery made in the late 1990s by David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, who won the Nobel Prize for related work in 2021. Woolf, Bean, and Bishtok soon identified a way to exploit these unique ion channels to shut down signaling on activated mouse nociceptors, while leaving all other neurons untouched.6

“The big problem with drugs is that they don’t know where to go.”

The implications were vast. Because these compounds worked exclusively on nociceptors that were sensing painful stimuli, they could squelch pain at the source without disabling neurons engaged in other functions. By comparison, most clinically used analgesics tend to hit diverse targets in the central and peripheral nervous systems. Opioids, for example, act not just on nociceptors, but the brain, spinal cord, and the nervous system in the gut, which can lead to sedation, physical dependence, respiratory depression, and death.7

The scientists knew that making the leap from animal models and basic science—the research at the heart of human knowledge—to clinical drug development would be challenging, but they also understood that their discovery opened a major new avenue for the treatment of pain. Within a month, Woolf and Bean submitted their first collaborative paper on ion channel behavior to Nature, where it was published in 2007.6

A decade and a half later, their finding remains a big deal to the field of pain science, says Allan Basbaum, a professor at University of California, San Francisco, who studies the biology of chronic pain. “The big problem with drugs is that they don’t know where to go,” he says. Woolf, Bean, and Binshtok had devised a way to direct drugs to their intended pain targets.

I Need a New Drug

Despite the risks of addiction and overdose, opioids have been used to treat pain for millennia. Egyptian medical papyri from 1550 BC show that healers used poppy plants to cure breast abscesses and to calm crying children, and that tinctures of opium were mixed into eye drops and ointments.8 But over the long term, opioids aren’t an effective treatment for pain, not just because of the potential for deadly side effects, but because the brain demands higher and higher doses to produce the same effect. A recent review published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that, across a variety of chronic conditions, opioids reduced pain by an average of less than one point on a 10-point scale.9

Less ancient options for pain mitigation—NSAIDs, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, corticosteroids, and anticonvulsant drugs that are prescribed to suppress nerve pain—are clinically effective in only a minority of patients with chronic pain and are also known to have deleterious effects on cells that are unrelated to their pain targets, including cardiovascular tissue.

In 2006, as Binshtok studied his rats, drug development had come to a standstill. Pharmaceutical companies introduced Cox-2 inhibitors in the late 1990s, only to have them black-boxed or banished from the market after reports of heart attacks and strokes.10 When Merck paid out $4.5 billion in legal settlements related to Vioxx, Big Pharma grew leery of taking further chances.

Fatal Mistakes: Opioid overdose has killed more people in the U.S. and Canada since 1999 than World Wars I and II combined. Efforts to design replacement drugs for opioids have run aground because of a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of pain. Image by globalnewsart.com / Shutterstock

Although few could foresee the oncoming tsunami of opioid-related overdoses and deaths that would unfold over the coming decades, it was already evident that in most developed nations, chronic pain was a serious problem, and that opioid prescriptions meant to treat conditions like bad backs and sore knees were flowing too freely. No one was more aware of this than Clifford Woolf, who had spent much of his career studying the biological mechanisms that underlie chronic pain.

Having revealed, in 1983, the principles behind central sensitization—in which neurons in the central nervous system continue to send pain signals to the brain long after an injury has healed—Woolf spent years searching for therapeutic interventions, compounds that would not carry opioids’ liability for abuse and addiction and whose effects would apply narrowly to a specific target. He found one promising compound in the 1990s, but because it produced psychotic and hallucinogenic effects, it was shelved.11

That failure left Woolf even more determined to find a way to replace highly addictive opioids with safer, better drugs.

The Varieties of Pain

For many decades, the medical profession saw pain exclusively as a symptom of other underlying problems, and treatment choices were determined only by its intensity: mild, moderate, or severe. But pain is various and multifaceted, which is what makes it so difficult to treat. Causes can include cancer, inflammation or tissue injury, injury or lesions of the nervous system, or, as in central sensitization, abnormal amplification of pain signaling in the central nervous system. Or it can manifest as a combination of these subtypes. In some cases, pain is not just a symptom but the disease itself.5

With the diversity of pain in mind, over the past decade Bean and Woolf have devoted much of their energy to learning about different nociceptor cell types. Nociceptors, specialized peripheral sensory neurons that sense noxious stimuli, were discovered in 1906 by Charles Scott Sherrington, an English scientist who later won the Nobel Prize for related work.12 These neurons convert potentially damaging stimuli into electrical signals—action potentials—that are then relayed to higher brain centers. But different types of nociceptors respond to different types of stimuli. Thus, the nociceptors that send messages notifying us of the onset of appendicitis are distinct from those that make our knees and hips feel as creaky as the Tin Man when we get out of bed.13

The urgent need for safer, better painkillers could not be more apparent.

Woolf and Bean have collaborated in their work on nociceptor types with eminent neurobiologist David Ginty, at Harvard Medical School. Ginty’s research has been focused on the neural circuits that are involved in the perception of touch, in all its subtle variations: how the brain perceives the difference between a warm breeze on the cheek and a blow with a blunt object. Of the 14 to 20 neuron subtypes involved in touch, Ginty has found six sensory neurons (thus far) that are specifically tied to pain. These are the nociceptors that Woolf and Bean are studying.

“We study these sensory neurons in great detail,” says Ginty. If they can figure out exactly what kinds of stimuli different types of nociceptors respond to and how they send signals to the spinal cord and the brain, this will help them figure out how to narrowly treat specific kinds of pain. For example, they could selectively inhibit the pain associated with colitis, or with cancer, without blocking pain from the skin, which is protective. Or they could block all nociceptors, and therefore all pain signals, at once, which could be useful during surgery or after major trauma. “That will allow us to consider translational opportunities and think about druggable targets,” says Ginty.

The compounds Woolf and Bean identified in 2007, which they call nocions, are currently being shepherded through clinical trials via a well-funded joint venture called Nocion Therapeutics. But nocions, which can be used to treat pain, cough, and itch, must be administered topically, which limits their therapeutic application. To address the full spectrum of pain, Woolf, Bean, and Ginty are on the hunt for novel analgesic compounds that can work selectively but systemically—drugs that treat specific pain types, but can be taken in pill form.

To really move forward with this work, the three scientists needed a way to eliminate the variables associated with studying rodent models.

In 2006, after the publication of a paper in Nature that explored genetic insensitivity to pain in a Pakistani family with a mutation in the gene SCN9A, which affects the behavior of a specific ion channel,14 pharmaceutical companies invested heavily to develop drugs that targeted that ion channel. The compounds they developed performed very well in rodents. But when those same compounds were tested on humans, the analgesic effect disappeared. “We still don’t really understand why it didn’t work,” says Bean. “It could be that it’s because human nerve cells are larger than those of rats, or that the barrier between blood and nerve cells is different.”

The Harvard scientists knew that they’d have better outcomes if they could conduct their experiments on human nociceptors gleaned from induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSc), which begin as skin or blood cells and can be reprogrammed into any type of cell in the body. This “disease in a dish” model was rapidly becoming the standard in laboratory science, leaving rodent models behind in favor of stem cells in a Petri dish. But despite many attempts, Woolf and Bean had never achieved the enormous supply of high-quality cells required to do large-sale drug screening.

From Dish to Drug—The Long Road Ahead

In February of 2019, at a meeting in Bethesda of the HEAL Initiative (HEAL stands for Helping to End Addiction Long-term) the NIH’s half-billion-dollar plan meant to stem the tide of the opioid crisis, Woolf ran into Don Lo, an old friend from academic scientific circles. Lo, who’d recently been appointed to a key role in drug innovation at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), said that instead of heading back to Boston, Woolf would do well to show up at the post-meeting poster session in the NIH cafeteria. There was someone he should meet.

While other attendees chatted over coffee, Illyas Singeç, who directs the Stem Cell Translation Laboratory at NCATS, stood alone in front of a poster covered with unpublished data. After a few minutes of conversation, it was obvious to Woolf that Singeç knew how to produce the high-quality stem cells that he and Bean so desperately needed, at scale. “It was an enormously important moment for pain science. We needed the wheel,” Woolf says simply, “and he had invented it.”

The overriding goal is to eliminate the need for opioids for pain relief.

The first batch of neurons arrived in Boston in June of 2019. Within a few months, in cooperation with a large Harvard Medical School consortium called STOP PAIN,15 Woolf and Bean could do industrial-scale drug screening in an academic setting, making it possible to study hundreds of thousands of compounds. The cells, made at NCATS, were frozen and shipped, and the final stage of the differentiation process was completed in the lab in Boston.

The Harvard consortium, composed of scientists and laboratories from multiple disciplines, gave Woolf and Bean access to a team of medicinal chemists, who could help them select and optimize the most promising drug targets. “We’re the biologists,” Woolf says. “We devise the screens, and when we get a hit—and we’re getting them steadily—the chemists tell us whether it has what it needs to be a drug: that it’s stable and doesn’t break down in a few minutes; that it doesn’t have adverse effects.” STOP PAIN’s computer engineering arm added computational modeling to the arsenal, making it possible for Woolf and Bean to identify the exact molecular and biological mechanisms by which the screened compounds work.

“If I think back to where I was when I started my career,” Woolf says, “the possibilities that are now available and the pace at which the technology advances—what took 20 years, we can now do in two months. It’s an incredibly exciting time to be working in the nervous system. When I began, it was a black box. Now we can begin to identify the way it changes and functions and identify new therapeutic strategies.”

Although Woolf and Bean have a solid head start, the protocol for making these differentiated cells, developed at NCATS, is not exclusive to Harvard’s STOP consortium, or to any organization. Last year, Bean, Singeç, and Woolf published a paper in Science Translational Medicine that details the process of finding nociceptor-selective treatments.16 “Our goal,” Singeç says, “is to disseminate the technology as much as we can, to academic labs and pharmaceutical companies over the next several years.”

Dirty Designer Drugs

Woolf and Bean hypothesize that previous compounds intended to work in ion channels—including ones in which pharmaceutical companies invested millions—failed because they targeted a single channel, allowing another channel on the same cell to step in and do the work of the one that they’d successfully disabled. For that reason, the investigators are designing intentionally “dirty” drugs—ones that will hit multiple ion channel targets—sodium, potassium, and calcium channels that are responsible for different aspects of function on different types of nociceptors.

The big win, says Bean, would be to develop a compound that is useful for the treatment of persistent pain. The statistics back him up: A 2021 paper in Pain noted that in 2019, 20.5 percent of U.S. adults suffered from chronically painful conditions.17

Once these drug candidates have been fully evaluated—the scientists believe that this will take two or three years—they’ll be submitted to the FDA for new drug designation, at which point hungry pharmaceutical companies will hopefully scoop them up and shepherd them through the multi-year phases of clinical trials, which for pain and anesthesia drugs routinely cost more than $100 million.18 (For the drug companies, it should be worth it: In 2021, the market for pain drugs was worth $31 billion, with projections of $39 billion in sales by 2029.)19

The overriding goal, Bean and Woolf agree, is to eliminate the need for opioids for pain relief, by developing compounds that are far more effective, and still safe, with no liability for abuse. Bean says that if they’re successful in the next two to three years, it would represent the ultimate achievement in a lifetime of work. But even if they’re not, they will develop a better understanding of the biology, and a better foundation for the next try. “Each time you try, you set the stage—you help scientists with the next step. We’re convinced that selective inhibiting of these cells can be done. It will work.”

References:

1. Stobbe, M. U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths Top 100,000 in a year for the first time, officials say. Los Angeles Times (2021).

2. Humphreys, K. Responding to the opioid crisis in North America and beyond: recommendations of the Stanford–Lancet Commission. The Lancet Commissions 399, 555-604 (2022).

3. Szalavitz, M. Cracking Down on Opioids Hurts People With Chronic Pain. Vice (2017).

4. Safavi-Hemami, H. Pain therapeutics from cone snail venoms: From Ziconotide to novel non-opioid pathways. Journal of Proteomics 190, 12-20 (2019).

5. Woolf, C.J. Capturing novel non-opioid pain targets. Biological Psychiatry 87, 74–81 (2020).

6. Binshtok, A., Bean, B.P., & Woold, C.J. Inhibition of nociceptors by TRPV1-mediated entry of impermeant sodium channel blockers. Nature 449, 607–610 (2007).

7. Jayakar, S. et al. Developing nociceptor-selective treatments for acute and chronic pain. Science Translational Medicine 13, eabj9837 (2021).

8. Ross, A.M. Poppy and Opium in Ancient Times: Remedy or Narcotic? Biomedicine International 1, 81-87 (2010).

9. Busse J.W., et al. Opioids for Chronic Noncancer Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Journal of the American Medical Association 320, 2448–2460. (2018).

10. Halpern, G.M. COX-2 inhibitors: a story of greed, deception and death. Inflammopharmacology 13, 419-425 (2005).

11. Woolf, C.J. Evidence for a central component of post-injury pain hypersensitivity. Nature 306, 686-688 (1983).

12. Woolf, C.J. Nociceptors–Noxious Stimulus Detectors. Neuron 55, 353-364 (2007).

13. Dubin, A. & Patapoutian, A. Nociceptors: the sensors of the pain pathway. Journal of Clinical Investigation 120, 3760–3772 (2010).

14. Cox, J.J., et al. An SCN9A channelopathy causes congenital inability to experience pain. Nature 444, 894–898 (2006).

15. Jiang, K. Stopping pain: New consortium aims to transform the treatment of pain. Harvard Medical School (2019).

16. Jayakar, S. et al. Developing nociceptor-selective treatments for acute and chronic pain. Science Translational Medicine 13, eabj9837 (2021).

17. Yong, R. J., Mullins, P. M., & Bhattacharyya, N. Prevalence of chronic pain among adults in the United States. Pain 163, e328–e332 (2022).

18. Ledesma, P. How much does a clinical trial cost? Sofpromed (2020).19. Telugunta, R., Srivastava, A. & Sumant, O. U.S. pain management drugs market. Allied Market Research (2021).

— Cathryn Jakobson Ramin | Posted on March 14, 2022 | Cathryn Jakobson Ramin is an investigative journalist and the author of two books: Crooked, about the back pain industry, and Carved in Sand, about what happens to memory and attention in midlife and beyond. Both are published by HarperCollins.

[iwillbeinmynest]

An Owed Debt- Bucky x May(oc)  Chapter 17

Authors Notes: Okay I’m so sorry this took so long to get out but here it is!! 

Notes/Warnings: fear, anxiety, brief mentions of death and blood, I think that’s it but let me know if I’ve missed anything and I’ll add it!

The instant Wanda’s powers brushed against his skin he had a flash of the chair. Her electricity was nothing compared to that of Hydra’s brainwashing but it was similar in the shock it sent through his body at first impact. He screwed his eyes shut and braced himself for whatever pain he was going to endure. This was for May and he could manage to tolerate it for her. His stomach dropped as the sudden feeling of falling overtook him. He flailed his arms in an attempt to catch himself when, if ever, he landed.

 It didn’t help.

 He collided hard with wet stone and hissed at the pain of hitting his head on the ground. He pushed against the floor and sat up. His hands were soaked so he rubbed the back of his wrist against his forehead. He had intended to check and see if he was bleeding but it was so pitch black, in this freezing cold room, that it was useless. He tried to wipe the water off on his shirt but, when he recognized the sticky feeling between his fingers, he froze.

 The room slowly began to illuminate as his eyes adjusted. He would have been shocked if he hadn’t been so familiar with the gore of death. The bodies in this room had been butchered and he recognized the handiwork as his own but he never killed these people. No. He killed that one, the scientist who had begged him to give May back before he lit the building on fire. He remembered that one.

 Bucky stood up and stepped out of the puddle of blood that he’d landed in. He surveyed the room and saw the chair, broken into pieces, and he sighed. At least that was gone. He started to breathe quicker at a thought that flashed through his mind. Was May one of these bodies? He scrambled to inspect every face and was relieved to not have found her.

 So, she’s not here. Where then?

 He pushed open the double doors that allowed a sliver of light into the stone chamber and squinted as his eyes adjusted to the bright hallway. With no clue of which direction to go he did the only thing he could think of, he called for her.

 “May!” His voice low and loud echoed against the glossed floors and white walls. He waited for a response but didn’t hear one. He shifted his weight and bit the inside of his lip. He didn’t have a lot of time.

 Permanent damage. Wanda’s words settled heavy against his chest.

 “May!” he called again. This time, his voice was a higher pitch and frantic. He bit his lip again and drew blood, but his only reaction was a slight wince. He tried to slow his breathing and increase his chance of hearing her. He focused hard and closed his eyes, keeping his body in a statuesque stillness.

 “Bucky!”

 His head snapped left and he bolted towards her voice. His hands closed into fist that swayed heavily with his run. The boots on his feet stomped against the floors and he hoped she could hear him.

 “May! Where are you?” He came to a cross road and stopped short, breathing heavily. He needed her to tell him which way to go.

 “I’m here!” She cried out.

 Her voice was so faint but just loud enough to guide him. He turned right and listened as the air whistled over his ears with his speed.

 “May!”

 “Bucky!”

 He stopped. Her voice was behind him, now, but he doubled back without hesitation. He kept calling out to her and she continued to answer but each time he heard her voice it seemed to come from a different direction. His expression tightened in his frustration, his brows pulling together and his mouth forming a hard line, but he never stopped running.

 “May!”

 Where is he? She thought. May began to doubt that he was really there. His voice seemed real enough but could it just be another Hydra trick? Could it be Travis? May hadn’t thought about him since she woke up from being in the chair and her hands began to trembled at the though of his fingers running over her arm.

 “May!” Bucky’s voice seemed closer and she jumped in the anticipation of being with him again.

 “I’m here!” She screamed and jerked forward as she began to run again.

 Please, she begged silently, please be here.

 May ran and ran, calling back to Bucky the whole time. She ran down the halls, every one identical to the last. She ran, and for the first time since she woke up in this circle of hell, she looked over her shoulder. She needed to keep checking that the footsteps she was hearing wasn’t Travis closing in on her. She needed to know that she was alone and, surprisingly, she took comfort in this frantic solitude.

 “May!”

 “Bucky!” Her replies were automatic. She needed to hear him as much as she hoped he needed to hear her so, she kept answering.

 It felt as if hours had gone by and her sprint had slowed to a jog. She felt hopeless again. The claws of despair pulling at her from the pit of her stomach. Even if Bucky was here, which he might not be, this place was a maze and one which was clearly designed for driving someone insane. No matter how many turns she made, or how close Bucky sounded, she still hadn’t found him.

 May leaned against a wall for a momentary respite, when a flash of something caught her eye. It had crossed the hallway and the only thing she could identify was a boot disappearing down another hallway. She pushed off from the wall and tried to follow the body that had taunted her.

 “Bucky!” She called after him. She could hear heavy footsteps ahead of her. “Stop! I’m right here!”

 The thudding steps stopped just around a corner and May smiled at the thought of finally being back with Bucky. Bucky, who broke the chair. Bucky, who killed all of those scientists and guards who had tossed her around like a lab rat. Bucky could get her out of here. He could take her home. He was home.

 May rounded the corner with tears of joy in her eyes and a huge grin across her face but she stopped short at the face that met her.

  “Hey, baby,” Travis smiled. “Did you miss me?”

Bucky woke with a start, almost falling off the gurney. Steve caught Bucky and helped him sit up.

 “What happened? “ Bucky drilled Steve angrily. “Why am I out already? I haven’t found her!” Instinctively he turned to check on May but stopped when he saw the state of Wanda. She was passed out in Sam’s arms. “What happened?” He asked again.

 Sam looked at Steve and Steve frowned and tried to figure out how to tell Bucky. Steve opened and closed his mouth a few times before Nat stepped up. Steve put both of his hands on Bucky’s shoulders and Bucky jerked his head up to his best friend at the intensity of his grip.

 “Travis is awake.” Natasha confessed. Bucky inhaled a shaky breath through his nostrils and his upper lip twitched in his rage.

 “Buck,” Steve started. But Bucky didn’t let him finish.

 Bucky had to shut himself down. He had noticed that Tony had left the room, no doubt to deal with Travis, and Nat was on her way out, too. They could handle him physically, what he needed was for Wanda to wake up.

 He slipped off the gurney and cradled Wanda’s face in his hands. He lifted one of her closed eye lids to check the responsiveness of her pupils and took comfort in seeing that she was going to be okay. Sam scooped Wanda up and she lay limp in his arms.

 Steve took her from him, carefully. “I’ll take her to Banner.” He told Sam. “Stay with him, please, and don’t let him go after Travis. He’ll want to.”

 “I got it, man.” Sam nodded. “Go, make sure she’s okay.” Steve nodded and Sam helped open the door on his way out.

 Sam shut the door to May’s room quietly and looked back to Bucky. He was sitting beside May on the mattress with his back to her and his head in his hands.

 “Hey,” Sam spoke to Bucky. “She’s going to be okay.”

 Bucky shook his head. “What if she’s not. Travis pushed Wanda out from how many floors down? He can probably get into May’s head just as easily.” Bucky reached over and grabbed May’s hand.

 He was helpless and he hated it. He could go and kill Travis. He could beat him within an inch of his life. And while that might keep him out of May’s head, it wouldn’t bring her back. All he could do was hold her hand and pray that Tony and Nat could handle Travis and that Wanda would recover quickly. He could only sit there and hope, and the more he thought about it, the less hope he had.

 May’s mind was a maze, hallways that lead to nowhere and doors that wouldn’t open. She trapped herself and she probably wasn’t even aware of it. That place looked like Hydra but it didn’t feel the same to him. It felt scared and anxious, where the hydra he knew was cold and malicious.

 Bucky sighed and Sam shifted his weight with a bite on the inside of his lip. “She still needs you.” Sam reminded. “She’s going to be okay but she still needs you.”

 Bucky looked up at Sam confused so he continued. “While you were under, you mumbled her name. And every time you did, her heart rate slowed down. I don’t know how all of this brain, telekinetic stuff works but I know what I saw and she...” Sam shook his head as he tried to understand it. “She calmed down. Why Steve picked you to take care of her is beyond me,“ He teased. “But she loves you, man.”

 Bucky inhaled to defend himself but Sam waved him off. “I know it’s not like that. Believe it or not, but I do respect you enough to know that much about you. Besides, Steve told me about Rebecca. I get it, I really do. But you two have something and everyone who was in here knows it.”

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[scienceblogtumbler]

Chemotherapy and Cancer Gang up to Cause a Neurological Side Effect

Contrary to common medical guidance, chemotherapy does not appear to be the only culprit in neuropathy, a neurological side effect of cancer treatment, a new study says. Cancer itself contributes heavily, too, and the stresses on neurons appear far worse than the sum of the two causes.

“There was some distress caused by cancer alone and some distress from chemo alone, but when you put the two things together, it was off the charts, seven times the trauma to neurons of the two things added together,” said Nick Housley, first author of the study performed in rats at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “It turned out to be the first-ever evidence that there is this exacerbation going on.”

Every year in the U.S., there are 1.8 million new cancer diagnoses, and about half of patients receive platinum-based drugs, which are very effective. About 40 percent of patients receiving platinum chemotherapy come down with neuropathy, suffering strange sensations, pain, fatigue, or loss of muscle coordination that impedes day-to-day life. Neuropathy can persist for years after chemotherapy ends.

Hope for treatment

The new study also challenges established medical explanations that neuropathy is caused by structural damage to nerves alone and that it is untreatable.

“The idea of damage has been the standard explanation – that these neurons are dying back and that they are retracting. And we have found time and time again zero evidence of this in the neurons we studied here,” Housley said.

“The evidence does not support physical damage as the basis for the disabilities we observe. We find functional problems that might be fixable,” said Tim Cope, one of two principal investigators of the study. Functional problems usually refer to neurons not firing properly versus actual tears or shrinkage in neurons.

Cope is a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Biological Sciences and in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. Housley is a postdoctoral researcher in his lab.

The researchers published their results in the journal Cancer Research on April 28, 2020. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute. John McDonald, the other principal investigator, is a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Biological Sciences and the director of Georgia Tech’s Integrative Cancer Research Center.

Gene expression surprises

To explore neuropathy’s causes, the researchers cast a broad net. They examined gene expression in neurons, protein expression, and neuron signaling, and they measured body movements, which were markedly affected.

Gene dysregulation went into overdrive in reaction to chemo and cancer, including boosting inflammatory responses while suppressing some of neurons’ protective mechanisms. But despite the plethora of gene regulation red flags, there were also surprising signs of intact neuron health.

“Many things the neuron relies on to live and function were unscathed on the gene expression level. That’s potentially good news for patients and for fixing neuropathy because it means there may be just one thing or a few things to fix to restore normal functioning,” Cope said. “The downregulation of just a few genes may be responsible for the problems we’ve seen.”

Ion channel mystery

Clues from one downregulated gene took a twist that led to a new scientific discovery in neuronal biology before arriving at what appeared to be a pathology.

The downregulated gene is responsible for creating protein structures called ion channels that appear in a neuron’s cell wall and enable the neuron to fire electrical impulses, i.e. action potentials. Ion channels abruptly shuttle potassium ions (K+) and sodium ions (Na+) in and out of cells, flipping the net negative and net positive charges on either side of cell walls, which creates the action potentials.

This particular downregulated gene was for a potassium ion channel called Kv3.3, which was not previously known to exist in muscle spindles – neural receptors embedded in muscles to sense when they are contracting or stretching. The researchers found the channel to be prolific there.

“That was a discovery in its own right in basic neuroscience. Finding its involvement in this sensory-motor problem was also profound,” Housley said.

Most Kv3.3 expression disappeared under the combination of chemo and cancer. More research is needed to establish whether the lack of Kv3.3 is indeed an important contributor to neuropathy, but in this study, it strongly correlated with observed neural pathology.

“Despite the neurons still having the ability to fire action potentials, the process of neurons encoding information was really corrupted,” Housley said.

Also read: App Detects Harsh Side Effect of Breast Cancer Treatment

The following researchers from Georgia Tech coauthored the study: Paul Nardelli, Dario Carrasco, Travis Rotterman, Emily Pfahl, and Lilya Matyunina. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute (grants R01CA221363 and R01HD090642). Any findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and not necessarily of the NCI.

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Writer & media inquiries: Ben Brumfield (404-272-2780), ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu or John Toon (404-894-6986), jtoon@gatech.edu.

source https://scienceblog.com/516849/chemotherapy-and-cancer-gang-up-to-cause-a-neurological-side-effect/

[riederstravis]

PRODUCTS LIABILITY-NUCLEAR RADIATION

Estate of Jeffrey H. Ware v. Hospital of the University of PA, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 17992 (3rd Cir. September 18, 2017) Ambro, C.J.  Barbara Boyer, the widow of a cancer researcher who developed a fatal tumor allegedly as a result of inadequate safety precautions taken to protect him from radiation in his lab, sued the University of Pennsylvania together with affiliated persons and entities.1 Before us is the reach of the Price–Anderson Act, see 42 U.S.C. § 2011, et seq., and its remedy-limiting provisions. The Act gives federal courts jurisdiction to resolve a broad set of claims involving liability for physical harm arising from nuclear radiation. Boyer asserts, however, that the Act’s unexpressed intent would exempt her husband’s injuries from its jurisdictional grant.

Her claims fall within the text of the Act, so if we are to limit it to a zone of interests narrower than its text provides, Boyer must offer a compelling limiting principle that would put her allegations beyond the Act’s reach. Although she suggests several implicit limitations, each is either unconvincing or, even if adopted, would leave this case still within the Act’s reach. Thus we must affirm.

Jeffrey H. Ware, Ph.D., was a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania who studied the effects of radiation on biological organisms with the goal of better understanding how radiation affects astronauts while in orbit. In the course of his research Ware used cesium-137 irradiators to track the effects of low-level radiation on mice and rats.

Tragically, Ware suffered in 2010 a rare form of brain cancer called gliosarcoma. Boyer claims gliosarcoma is associated with radiation exposure (however, because she produced no expert reports, there is nothing in the record to support this link). She also alleges that Ware’s cancer specifically resulted from radiation exposure that UPenn failed to monitor properly or protect against. Moreover, UPenn failed to inform Ware of the level of radiation to which he was exposed.

Following his diagnosis, Ware turned to the University’s affiliated hospital for medical care. He underwent chemotherapy and radiation in order to slow the cancer’s progression. Boyer alleges that Ware was not given appropriate information about these treatments;  that, given the advanced stage of his disease, they provided little benefit;  and that, at one appointment where she was not present, a UPenn doctor enrolled Ware in a research study to investigate the effects of chemotherapy and radiation on brain cancer patients without his knowing consent. According to Boyer, UPenn concealed and withheld documents and data related to the study to “cover up its terrible record of radiation safety and to protect millions of research dollars.” UPenn also discouraged Ware from seeking palliative care, she claims, in order to maintain his participation in the study.

Just a year after his diagnosis, Ware died from his cancer at age 47. Boyer filed a complaint in the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas as administratrix of Ware’s estate as well as on behalf of herself and Ware’s surviving children.

UPenn and the NSBRI removed the case to federal court on the grounds that (1) claims against UPenn are covered by the Price–Anderson Act, which provides federal jurisdiction over claims asserting “public liability” arising from a “nuclear incident,” see 42 U.S.C. §§ 2014(q), (w), (hh), & 2210(n);  and (2) 28 U.S.C. § 1442(a) permits removal of claims against NSBRI because it is a federal agency.

Following Boyer’s unsuccessful motion to remand, the District Court adopted a Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation that the Price–Anderson Act applies to Boyer’s claims alleging that Ware was harmed by radiation from cesium-137 used in his lab and that the NSBRI is a federal agency. Boyer responded by dismissing all claims against the NSBRI and amending her complaint to include two counts of “negligence under the Price–Anderson Act” (the “Price–Anderson claims”) and additional counts styled as state-law claims for fraud, negligent infliction of emotional distress, malpractice, and “corporate negligence.”

The Price-Anderson Act governed Boyer’s negligence claims, and the Court did not abuse its discretion in denying her request to withdraw those claims and to remand her others.  We thus affirm its judgment.

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