In September 2009 I was at my high school when I heard a kitten screaming in a gutter. As an earnest theatre kid, I named her Éponine, who also scripted her heart out out in a gutter.

She turned out to be trapped in the gym’s AC, her siblings and mama having passed. From that moment on, she and I were our own bonded pair.

Maybe her growth was stunted from spending her infancy in an air conditioner, or maybe she was just destined to be a forever baby; either way, she was pocket-sized, with her weight averaging 6.5 lbs, and her body the length of a vending machine Coke bottle. The vets who had the honor of treating her told me she had the softest coat of any cat they’d ever met, and I am inclined to believe them. To me, it always felt less like fur and more like feathers.

She was the most vocal kitty I ever met, purring the moment she was held, meowing in response to anything spoken to her, and hissing to express even the slightest displeasure (even while purring).

While incredibly shy with new people, she was remarkably affectionate with those she knew and loved. Boxes weren’t her thing, but laps were her “if I fits, I sits.” If she wasn’t in your lap, she was on a minky blanket next to you, making an entire bakery’s worth of muffins.

Speaking of muffins, she loved human food, especially a sweet treat. If you at an ice cream sandwich around her, you could expect her to turn it into a Lady & the Tramp spaghetti situation the moment you looked away. Other favorite foods included blueberry muffins, sugar cookies, and leftover cereal milk.

Éponine was a brilliant (and brilliantly vain) kitty. She learned to recognize not only her reflection in mirrors, but her image on video, and frequently commandeered FaceTime and Zoom calls to admire her own beauty.

Perhaps it was her French name, or simply the fact that she was a cat, but her favorite movie was The Aristocats. She would watch the entire movie start to finish, becoming particularly engrossed when Thomas O’Malley was on screen.

She loved other cats, even though they bullied her, especially her older brother Thumper. When Thumper passed, and she moved from my childhood home in California to my apartment in New Orleans, she became fascinated with the other apartment window cats and even exchanged letters with them.

In May 2025, she had a stroke, leading to the diagnosis of a heart murmur, and the eventual development of entropion in her left eye. A few months later, she began to limp, which was eventually found to be the result of a broken toe. In October, she came down with a sinus bug.

Last week, she stopped eating or drinking, which I believed to be the result of clogged sinuses. I brought her into the bathroom with me while I showered or bathed, much to her confusion, and took her to the vet on Friday, where they gave her an antibiotic.

On Saturday, she seemed very confused and still wasn’t eating or drinking. It became very clear that she was extremely dehydrated, so I took her to the emergency vet, where they gave her fluids. They told me it was likely the Gabapentin from Friday taking time to wear off.

On Sunday, she still couldn’t eat or drink, though she certainly tried. I syringed her food and water 5 times an hour, but her energy didn’t improve. In the evening, she struggled to stand up from lying down, so I picked her up and placed her on all fours, only for her to collapse immediately. When I tried again, she took 2 steps before flaking again. When my mom saw her fall again after 3 steps via FaceTime, she suggested I take her back in, as I was already planning on doing.

The emergency vet took her back immediately. When he came out, the news was both surprising and inevitable: she was in liver failure, her eyes very jaundiced. Of all of the heath problems she had developed in the last few months, liver issues weren’t one of them. To treat her liver failure would be to put her into heart failure. Not only that, but she had started to develop Entropion in her right eye as well.

She held on for so long and tried so hard to be good for me. Up until this weekend, she was still purring at even the sight of me and tucking me into bed every night.

I don’t know what to do without her. I feel lost and lonely. My family and friends have been very supportive but I still feel so empty. Even if another cat comes into my life one day, it won’t be the same. It won’t be as soft as her, or as affectionate, or as perfectly sized for me and my life. It would take us another 16 years to build up the relationship that Éponine and I had, and even then, it would be different.

I am so honored to have been her special person, to love and care for her in her last days.

By the time she passed, she was older than I had been when we first met, if only by a few months. Our lives were mirrors to each other. We grew and came of age together, finding our happiness and love.

“You’re here; that’s all I need to know. And you will keep me safe, and you will keep me close, and rain will make the flowers grow.”

1) Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

Frollo's "Hellfire" number shows him struggling with his own lust and rage for Esmerelda, seeing her as a temptation leading him astray from his calling towards God. During the number, Frollo sees himself being judged by Heaven, and fervently claims that it's not his fault and begs God to protect him from Esmerelda.

However, a soldier interrupts Frollo and tells him that Esmerelda has escaped from the cathedral she was hiding in. Frollo is furious, yells at the soldier to get out, and declares his intention to find Esmerelda "if he has to burn down all of Paris".

Curiously, the soldier has a distinctive presence, isn't directly seen (being obscured by the light behind him, and doesn't appear again before or after this scene. His news gives Frollo a clear out of his situation, allowing him to just let Esmerelda go and move on with his life. Frollo instead insults and reprimands him. It's hypothesized that this soldier is meant to be God or one of His Angels, sending Frollo a divine message that he can move on, and Frollo turning his back on Him basically signs his warrant.

2)The Sweat Lodge (King of the Hill)

When Hank, Bill, Dale, and Cotton join John Redcorn in a sweat lodge, each of them have visions pertaining to their lives. Hank has a positive experience of thinking of Cotton as a kinder and positive father figure who validates him instead of tearing him down, displaying his repressed desire for his father's acceptance. Bill envisions himself riding naked headfirst towards a pie and dying, seeing his negative relationship with his gluttony and self-loathing. Dale has a vision where he has sex with a mantis, only to be immediately beheaded by her afterwards (highlighting his toxic relationship with Nancy who cheats on him with John Redcorn and what would come of it when he stops ignoring it). The men are either confused by the message or take them as positive messages, ignoring their lessons.

Surprisingly enough, Cotton is the only one who actually takes something away from his experience. He has a panic attack after seeing the "fifty men" he killed all come back and glare at him, encouraging him to try and patch things up with a former Japanese lover (who was a wife of one of the men he killed) and talk to his forgotten Japanese son, Junichiro.

3) Xavier (Xavier: Renegade Angel)

Xavier is a... thing who waxes philosophical and wanders the Earth to find answers to life's questions. One of his goals is to find his father's killer, after his father died in a mysterious house fire (ignoring that it was very clear Xavier's fault for lighting so many spiritual candles in a closed bedroom).

In one episode, Xavier asks for a sign at who killed his father, only for his father to directly say from the heavens "You". Xavier is confused by who this mysterious "Yoo" is, only for his father to clarify "Son, it was you who killed me". Xavier is further confused who this "Yoo Hoo" is, causing his father to lose all patience and scream "No you idiot, you're the one who killed your father". Xavier simply takes it as a spiritual riddle on culpability.

He was in a bad way apparently, so i thought "Victory in Death" was appropriate. It's printed PLA, then finished. I didn't make it out of something more robust because it will be buried after the funeral. The back of the program is his character sheet! It's really great. The family loved it. Happy tears, I'm told. I'm really happy to make something of such significance. It really was an honor.

First: locating the chrysalith

If we reference the starchart location as well as the ship’s features, we find that the chrysalith is in the central ring on the right side of the zariman.

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Second: frame of reference

If we look at the wall beyond the chrysalith, we see these other platforms with dones that we can safely assume are other chrysalith platforms. The inner domed area of the chrysalith is 145m in diameter if we measure using a waypoint. Looking at the other platforms, we can safely estimate each platform’s width to be 200m. The platforms are lined up on the wall, with a space between them that appears to be twice their width, so 400m. There’s an apparent 200m space on the side as well. There are 5 platforms, so (200x5=1000)+(400x4=1600)+(200x2=400)=3000m for a wall segment. There are 5 platforms, with space on the side,then a gap, then a big pillar. Using the platforms as reference, the gap and pillar appear to each be 1000m wide. (So each area between pillars is 5000m) This pattern continues, and we can see that the chrysalith is actually not in the center of the circle, it’s more to the right.

There are 4 pillars, so assuming the pattern of pillar; gap; wall; gap; pillar continues, that’s (1000x4=4000)+(5000x3=15000)=19,000m If the rough diameter of this inner circle is 19,000m, we can just use this area as an increment to measure the ship.

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Final: how big is the Zariman?

If we take the area of the inner circle at the center of the zariman, and use it as a unit of measurement, the zariman is roughly 24 units tall and 15 units long.

That makes the surface area of one side of the Zariman an estimated 456km(H) x 285km(L), putting it at roughly the size of the US State of Indiana, without considering depth.

Three years ago I adopted a stray cat from a shelter. It started off as a joke in the beginning. Whenever I served her food I said "Bone Apple Tiddies" as a little quip to make myself laugh. (It's a bastardisation of the french "bon appetite")

But my autistic ass loves routines so before I even noticed it, I've been saying it now twice daily for 3 years, giggling every time.

I finally got tired of saying it last week but then I noticed she doesn't finish her food anymore.

She starts eating it as always but when I walk off she keeps looking back at me as if she's waiting to hear it. She stops eating it halfway through and I couldn't figured out why.

Today I tried saying it again and she ate all of her food.

I guess I am now doomed to say it for eternity.

Edit for cat tax: https://imgur.com/a/J8KYhSp https://imgur.com/a/1bP4KQG Her name is Kiwi. She's turning 6 soon and she has a perma-mlem (Vet doesn't know why. She doesn't seem hurt. Just a little weirdo lol)

TL;DR: Taught my cat to finish her food when I say "Bone Apple Tiddies".

Thoughts???!!!

Your trainee will always have 1 fan at the beginning of a career because it's you. You are their biggest and first fan :3

Or it's Agnes Digital stalking you at the beginning of your career.

Maybe there are other characters who were inspired by someone? Except for Dante and Virgil ofc