Lydia and Fizzlebit play the Leopard Women of Venus RPG...kinda.

I’ve been informed by friends and family that the most recent page of this chapter, number 8, is kinda depressing. FEAR NOT. A hero must be knocked down so that they can hop up and make with the awesome. We are leading up to said AWESOME.

I’ve been a bit behind on Fizzlebit pages. Part of it is due to scripting issues with this chapter. There’s some crazy business that needs to be straightened out for the adventure to follow through the way that I’d like it too. The other reason is that I’ve taken up several non-Fizzlebit side projects in the last two months. At one point, I frantically decided to punch out 9 CMYKed comic pages in the span of a week to take with me as a coloring portfolio for Emerald City Comiccon. Prior to this, I was asked to do some illustrations for Hex Games for their Leopard Women of Venus RPG.

I may be a nerd, but somehow I missed the 20-sided dice train growing up. James played some D&D and told me a few horror stories…friends that stopped being friends! Or just…weren’t good sports. Anyhow, I’m trying to catch up and learn this RPG book game stuff (as opposed to those…video games RPGs…), especially since I contributed art for the final product. Candy is used as experience points with the QAGs system that Hex Games is known for, called Yum Yums. We had to hide the Yum Yums in our house until we finally can sit down and play. Fizzlebit would eat all of it before the game even started.  (James is guilty of it too…and me, also. )

After Leopard Women of Venus, the fine folks at Hex Games asked if I would be interested in their next title called  Roller Girls Vs., in which Roller Derby girls fight….everything! Well, I did 3 illustrations, so I only drew them fighting zombies, a T-Rex, and Hyper-Intelligent Apes, but they fight other crazy business too, for suresies.

I just wrapped up the last illustration today for my contribution to Roller Girls Vs. Below is my favorite, along with my Leopard Women of Venus drawings. (What, favorite Roller Girls illustration involves a dinosaur? Whoda thought?) The rest will go on that ‘porfolio’ site, which is also behind in the lovin’ category.

Roller Derby girls aggravating a T-Rex. Probably should not try this unless you have skates on.

Leopard Women of Venus on some Saaaauuuurrrians

The Jungle Phantom, Fantomah

Back to DRAWINNNNGGG!

Both of my cats are weird. I adopted them from a shelter in Savannah, Georgia from a house that had about 12 to 20 other cats wandering around. In order for me to see both cats at the same time, the foster owner had taken them both into the bathroom so that they would be in a smaller room and separate from the other cats.

That, in fact, could be where Bathroom Cat came from.

Both Rocky and Scarlet had some people-panic issues. Actually, okay, they still have them, but they’re better. The first three days I had them, they hid under the bed until I dismantled it to just be a boxspring with a mattress on top. They have both gotten better in regards to myself, my husband James, and eventually realize other people they meet have no intention of eating them once said people have visited enough.

Still, Scarlet, to us a scientific term, is a very skittery-kittery. She likes to be petted, but usually turns away so you only pet her tail or her back. If she notices you petting her, she’ll scurry away, but come back because she was sort of okay with it and may have liked it, just stop looking her in the eye, dang it.

The one area in which Scarlet has domain is the bathroom. The human bathroom, specifically.

James probably noticed it first one day in my last apartment in Savannah. He was like “Hey, Scarlet’s in the tub!” Which resulted in obvious cat-owner reaction of ‘daawww’-ing and taking pictures before she ran away in terror.

Sometimes it's kinda creepy the way Bathroom Cat waits outside the door.

In our current residence, Scarlet has taken it upon herself to be more aggressive in her bathroom conquest. Whenever a shower is taken, Scarlet is usually right outside the bathroom door, waiting for it to open. When she isn’t, she drags her second-in-command Orange Fishy (who is, coincidentally, a cat toy of an orange fish tied to a string…) and leaves him by the door until she gets back. If said show-taker is spending too long in the bathroom, Scarlet starts to scratch at the door impatiently.

Once the door is open, Scarlet will regard the toweled person briefly, then walk straight past to the tub, hop into it, and sit. Sometimes it will be the end of the tub, but lately she’s started hanging out closer to the faucet. The shower curtain is usually pushed toward the faucet, and she makes a point of batting at the water droplets left on the curtain, or licking them. Or licking the tub in general. The timeframe of Bathroom Cat can go anywhere from a few brief seconds (usually whenever someone attempts to pet her for being cute) to 10 minutes.

Bathroom Cat also brings some awkward breakfast table instances. After sitting in the tub, Scarlet will go to the kitchen and do her little “Pet me, kinda!” dance around anyone sitting there. After the “Aww, kitty”, followed by reaching down and petting her, you get Bathroom Cat tail. Which is wet. And gross.

Unless you previously remembered that she was in the wet tub, petting a Bathroom Cat results in bathwater on your hands.

However, a few days ago, James took it upon himself to clean the tub really well and caulk some of the corners. Since the stuff he used was not really something you’d want your cat to be licking, he shut the bathroom door, and for the last few days, just to be safe, we’ve shut it after showers.

This has led to a distraught, upset Scarlet, who tries to sneak past to the tub, but is shooed away.

Scarlet honestly makes this face if she is denyed access to the bathroom.

By tomorrow, it should be okay to let her in for sure, and I’m fully convinced she’ll be in there for 3 hours once she darts into the bathroom.

To be fair, Rocky has generally little interest in the bathroom, save for the time he fell into the toilet when he was walking around on the edge. It’s left closed now when not in use.

A brief, real-life glimpse of Bathroom Cat in her domain.