The fact that he can take toys that came right out of the box and use them to counteract actual weaponry is a bit scary.
He’s got degrees in more fields than some people knew existed. He’d learned chemistry and tensile strength to test the toys. He’d learned engineering while interning in the R&D department as a teen.

His whole life had been wrapped up in the company his father started. It had been the biggest part of his childhood, sneaking down into the basement to watch his father invent.

And when he’d been six years old and shy, still reeling from the shock of Mother’s death, Father had given him Sissy.

“This is your sister. You’re responsible for teaching her all about life. And she’s responsible for keeping you happy and safe.” Those words had come from the throat of his father’s personal assistant. Because while Father was much to busy to say the words himself, he’d still made Sissy.

On first sight, she was glossy plastic, humanoid in only the generalist of senses.

zzz

Panoply at Amazon

Seriously, it is very professional. Clean friendly people in tucked in polos and nice pants. A neat display of products, all properly packaged and labeled.

They’re running a store.

It’s not a mom-and-pop operation where they’re breaking out the scales and bagging their own stuff as you buy.

They order marijuana from packagers, so it’s all weighed out and trimmed. Everything is sealed up and pretty much quality guaranteed.

There’s something nice about not having to hang out in a car or visit someone’s shady house to get weed. Being able to walk into a store and pick up what you want without having to feel like a criminal… it’s nice.

Because that’s the thing. Weed is legal*.

There is nothing wrong with walking into a store and buying $10 worth of weed and a bag of Pebbles marijuana candy. As long as you’re old enough and you’re not giving it to kids, it’s not against the law.

Just be responsible with yourself and others.

Go suck on a hard candy and relax.

*In my area. Your area may be completely different. Be smart about it, obey your local laws.

Kakushigoto 01 at Amazon

Dear Lola,

I heard somewhere that writing letters is good for the soul. It’s a lesson that I always wanted to learn.

I think of you somewhere out there.

(Watching from the shadows.)

And I can’t wait for my White Knight to rush in and save the day.

And I don’t know what I really want. Companionship? Personal Patreonage? Love? It’s like the rest of the world is speaking a different language. One full of meanings that ask impossible things of me — requiring me to feel emotions that I don’t feel.

I am a shallow bowl. A saucer.

I’m searching for someone to fill me up.

Prairie Fires at Amazon

(There may be spoilers, I don’t know. I haven’t seen the movie, though I haven’t been able to avoid the super dark and depressing trailers.)

The Kid was talking about “Batman Vs. Superman” and said “I wish it was a fight to the death.” To which I responded with “Huh? In what universe would that ever be a fair fight?”

Seriously, unless Superman was cocky enough to say “I’m going to beat you to death with my bare hands,” which Batman could respond by bringing out the kryptonite when Superman got close, there really wouldn’t be much of a fight between them. Real talk, Superman could stay well out of range and use his laser vision to fry Batman alive–that fancy armor wouldn’t last very long with laser vision focused on it, bringing the internal temperature to even just a quarter the heat of the sun. Or Superman could just grab a rock and chuck it real hard.

Anyway, it’s kind of a relief to know that “Batman Vs. Superman” isn’t actually Batman versus Superman. Not that I’m very interested in the movie in question–it seems a bit too dark and downery for my tastes. I mean, they’ve taken all the lighthearted joy of Superman and thrown it out the window. That’s kind of a bummer–but I’m sure I’ll probably end up seeing it once it’s out on DVD or on TV.

Hopefully they don’t include as many wtf-scenes as they left in “Man of Steel” (seriously Jonathan Kent, you were terrible and your death was absolutely meaningless. All you taught your son was how to be a douche and destroy a company’s very expensive truck just because the truck’s driver was a jerk). Though really, I’m not that hopeful. I don’t even think there’s going to be much in the way of good fanfic to fix the situation, since there’s no Jor-El/Zod to save things. (Unless someone writes about the resurrected Zod remembering parts and pieces of his previous life, including the relationship he once had with Jor-El. That could be an interesting and angsty fic.)

So yeah, DC is setting up for their Justice League movie, which means throwing as many characters together as possible and hoping that some of them stick.

And instead of the most unequal fight in history, we get Superman teaming up with Batman and Wonder Woman to take on Lex Luthor and Zod (and possibly Doomsday). Oh, and we also get another Batman origin story, as though we haven’t seen Thomas and Martha Wayne gunned down enough times in our lives. Sigh.

I can’t wait for Suicide Squad.

(Though, I will be honest: If Batman Vs Superman ends up being the “Dawn of the Justice Lords” movie, I will totally be all about it, because I wouldn’t mind seeing a movie where Superman lobotomizes evil President Luthor and there’s an exploration of how dark that world got. Then there could be a crossover with the non-dark/depressing Justice League. Btw, Justice League the Animated Series did a great job with the Flash crossing over into the Justice Lords universe and pointing out that the death of alterna-Flash was no excuse for the Justice League to completely lose their shit. And it was kind of painful to see how affected Batman was by the death of the Flash–and it was cool that he was the only one to maintain his morals while the rest of the Justice League didn’t hesitate to use their powers on the normal humans. He’d tasted loss before, while those “gods” got a little hurt and decided to oppress everyone because why not?)

Powerpuff Trinity by foureyedesign