"The Star-Cat Project was our last, best nope for fleas.
An unselfish, self-contained fusion elemental felinoid,
Five miles tall, located in mutual comfortable proximity.
A port wine poured to go with take-out for home,
No lip service given, jostling entrepreneurs, or wandering stars..."

-2Paw.

Well there did come a time when a shadow(vixen) did come calling...

Hee! 2Paw was doing a riff on the introduction by Commander Jeffrey Sinclair (Michael O'Hare) in the opening credits of Babylon 5's first season. You might be entirely correct, tho'!

-2Paw.

Oh I recognized it. Not quite sure why it was chosen, but I couldn't find something else to riff with :)

I should've picked up on your mention of a Shadow(Vixen) in turn, which was entirely fair. ^_^ It could be argued that the living body of a person is an encounter suit for a living soul, which I suspect JMS was alluding to when it came to the Vorlons and the Shadows, who had stubbornly stayed behind after the rest of the First Ones left the Galaxy and past the Rim, "into Truth", or The Truth, as Sheridan said, not that long before he joined them.

There is another quote, newly-minted with every saying of it, but not anything new conceptually or spoken as sayings go, that I'm fond of: "The soul is not inside the body; the body is inside the soul." It considers perspective, not unlike a giant beholding a smaller being, but the giant beheld by an even larger one. And all are looking at the same thing.

-2Paw.

I mean, I was working on a way to riff on the "Ivanova is God" speech. Unfortunately my creativity is directed in other places right now :)

Oh, fair enough! She did get that lovely plate of eggs and bacon as a thank-you gift from Marcus, the Ranger, while Chief Garibaldi and Captain Sheridan had to eat spoo. And because all three must Shut Up And Eat It (it's in their contracts), and Ivanova is Always Right, well...she had bacon and eggs. <3

-2Paw.

But now you have me remembering the Season One breakfast prank Sinclair and Garibaldi pulled...

This rabbit hole has no end, really, until I drag my Season 3 DVDs out to start over (again) and hopefully finish this time.

Oh, I remember that one, too! <3 I loved hearing Michael O'Hare's (Commander Sinclair) laughter; it reminded me, and still reminds me of my father's.

"My Da and I were very close, and I think I miss laughing with him the most, maybe more than hugging him close to me. It is a good memory, and a good thing. No grieving now; missing, yes, but Da would want me to grieve, and when I didn't need to grieve anymore, then relish the memories that remain. Build further on the foundation he helped draw from within me, continue the great work I've chosen; before then, when I didn't believe I had form or shape in the early days of my illness, when I was an infant again, and required rebirth. Be happy, and remember him in that happiness together, as it should be."

-2Paw.

*chuckles*

I do, admittedly, have a couple of other pictures that narration would likely be a better fit for.

Well, not for the port wine part. That was in the story because I wanted something special for the dinner.

Granted, the person behind the screen does have a port wine stain, but that's another matter.

Well, I hope you enjoyed your glass of wine, then, and possibly company; but if not the latter, then the wine I hope was a tasty one. ^_^ What summoned the dragoness to become a tigress? Or perhaps, the tigress-to-be summoned the dragoness-that-was. It's all a matter of perspective, not that I expect you're anywhere near unfamiliar with that genera of business. <3

(Secretly, the wolf wonders if the dragoness or tigress enjoyed the smaller things in company and life. ^_^)

-2Paw.

Well, she was always a dragon, born that way... she transformed herself into a tigress mostly so she could go visit places that would probably panic if a dragon showed up (it was easier to get shopping done that way), and then got locked as a tigress due to an annoyed goddess for reasons that weren't entirely her fault.

Tigress in particular because she was a bronze dragon with mottled 'stripes' in her scales anyway, so she already looked a bit like one.

Oh, I mark a story therein! <3 A good friend of mine, Venia Liorenth, is a dragoness with similar background and markings (brass-bronze scales and flesh, and greenish 'stripes' for her markings); I don't know if you know her, but she and I have shared a good bit of big-dragon tiny-wolf fun more than a few times. <3

I recall now that dragons by mythic background and modern fantastic creations tend to have innate shapeshifting abilities, not infrequently made use of as Kaari did and does to walk amongst her smaller, more mortal brothers and sisters of their shared world. Kaari's only hindrance at the moment is that her form is locked to her crafted and chosen tigress-shape, then; and I am happy to say, begging both your pardon, she is very beautiful.

-2Paw.

Yes. As of the end of the first story I wrote with these two, Kaari is no longer locked out of her shape-shifting abilities. I've set up the previous/first/next links to follow through them all. Not sure if I'll write any more with them, as the fourth story did make for a good ending point.

Oh, wonderful! <3 I was hoping the stories you wrote about Kaari and her adventures were here; I hadn't looked back through your Gallery for them yet. Thank you kindly, Star-Cat Friend!

-2Paw.

EDIT: Ack, did it again. The 'Comment hidden by its owner' below was this post to you, misaddressed as a reply to your OP.

No worries. I've certainly fallen prey to skipping over stories and figuring I'll get back to them later and then getting distracted, so I'm definitely not going to complain if people haven't read every story I've posted here.

And I've done the mis-reply thing myself more than once as well.

Pleased to be, and pleased to share them; I enjoy reading your writing, and enjoying what I read, both in your set written work or our shared conversations using the online services on which we chat. When I get more of my writing done, I am more than happy to share what I can with you, and my artwork in the meantime.

My Mum made herself a salad for supper this evening, eating while I was outside putting the green and brown garbage bins by the curb and retaining wall. After finishing that and sanitizing my hands with the pump solution on the mail table, I headed back upstairs; Mum offered me a treat of the last two chunks of her salad's feta cheese, and it really was a treat for me. Every time I have this particular variety of cheese, there's a slight difference in the flavouring; sometimes the vinegar or olive oil is stronger or more bitter, others the spices in the cheese brine are stronger; the cheese itself can be mild or potent in flavour or its own bitterness. This one hit my tongue like a vinegary, richly spiced tidal wave, and I liked it one heck of a lot.

These are the luxuries that make my heart soar, not expensive or particularly luxurious most of the time, but no less precious.

I make a habit of paying attention to whether or not the post above my reply window is 'linked' to the response I'm typing, or is a response to a different post than mine, and I'm better at it than I used to be. If I do goof, a simple explanation as to why there's a stray 'Comment hidden' notation I think is a kindness, when I'm a guest on a friend's page. <3

-2Paw.

Sometimes the best end is the promise of a new beginning :)

Well, yes.

Or as I've heard a few times, "it may stop, but it never ends."

I dunno, I've preferred:

"Everything ends, entropy always wins that battle. But it's not about whether it ends, it's about how it ends. When your story reaches the final page, have it mean something to the people who get to read it."

Yes, I like that one as well. Not quite as pithy, but somewhat more profound.

And, honestly, I've always been generally a 'try to leave the world a better place than I found it' sort of person, at least in the parts that I can actually affect.

Zathras: "All Minbari belief is around three. Three castes: Worker, Warrior, Religious. Three languages: Light, Dark and Grey. The nine of the Grey Council- three times three. All is three. As you are three. As you are one. As you are the One. You," Zathras points to Sinclair, "are the One who was. You," he points at Delenn, "are the One who is. And you," pointing, finally at Sheridan, "you are the One who will be. You are the beginning (Sinclair) of the story, and the middle (Delenn) of the story, and the end (Sheridan) of the story…that creates the next great story.

-2Paw.

Nice.

Been hearing a number of Babylon 5 references lately. I think I still have some of the old trading cards that were done up back when the series was on the air; the one for Zathras was written in that style, and ended with a bit about 'This is why Zathras cannot have nice things. But at least Zathras has this card.'

(And was just watching an art stream where I saw someone get their character drawn in an Earth Alliance uniform...)

Babylon 5 is currently being re-written by JMS in a rebooted series, currently under initial production. And Babylon 5's original format is nowhere near unpopular with science-fiction fans of our generation or others; I first saw 'The Gathering' (the original version pilot) about a year before we first met, in early 1993 when it aired on Fox 29 out of Buffallo, broadcast across the surface of Lake Ontario to Toronto. There was also a 1080p 'remaster' of the whole five seasons out in the last year or so of Babylon 5, offered on digital streaming services.

Tim Choate's (R.I.P., good chummer) Zathras was one of my favourite parts of Babylon 5, and it was partly because of his preference for talking about himself in third person that Twopaw's speech patterns occasionally picked up on met that context when I've written in chat. Zathras reminded me of myself, in a way, like when he proudly and quietly told Ivanova that 'there are things about the Great Machine that Drall (the Minbari living 'processing core' who volunteered for the job earlier in the series) does not yet know'. In other words, a quiet but knowledgeable and skilled Fifth Business (per Robertson Davies) who helps, and carries, and works, knowing much and not questioning his purpose. "A friend, a strange friend, and a quiet friend; but a friend can be all three at least, and there is symmetry."

Question: if you were going to be drawn (or have Jenora or Sara, or one of your characters drawn) in an Earth Alliance uniform, would you prefer the old-fashioned non-breakaway uniform (Season 1 and 2) or the post-breakaway, Babylon 5 officers and crew uniform redesign?

-2Paw.

Yes, I'd heard it was getting rebooted. (That was in fact part of why the person I mentioned above was getting his character drawn in that uniform.) I'll admit I'm a little worried in general because reboots often don't go well, though at least in this case it's being re-done by the same person and JMS showed just how familiar he was with the vagaries of TV production while doing the original. There's a reason he had backup plans for what should happen if any of the actors ever became unavailable and he had to get another character in to take over that part in the plotline. I think he had to use more than half of his backup plans.

I don't know if you heard about the reason Sinclair was replaced with Sheridan when he was, at the end of the first season. The actor (Michael O'Hare) had been having mental health issues of his own. He confided in this to JMS, and specifically asked him not to mention it while he was still alive (because it would affect his living), but to talk about it later because it was something that needed to be talked about and brought out into the open to reduce the stigma against it.

From https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0641365/bio
Only upon O'Hare's death (and at his request) did close friend and Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski confirm that he had, in fact, been battling an increasing debilitating case of schizophrenia. Straczynski also confirmed that O'Hare's difficulty with the illness was the primary reason he was forced to leave Babylon 5 at the end of the first season, a decision which was mutual and very amicable. JMS even went so far as to delay the filming of the series several months to try and accommodate his condition, but O'Hare declined, citing that the delay would adversely affect the rest of the cast & crew, and insisted that they should continue without him.

I imagine that playing a character who had his own case of PTSD probably didn't help either.

As for the uniform... hmm. Having not actually looked over the different uniforms in several years at this point, just based on the events involved, I'd probably say Jenora in the later uniform, and Sara in the earlier. Jenora's much more the free spirit, while Sara would probably stay in the old system as long as she can hold out to try to throw a monkeywrench into things from the inside.

I did find out that Michael O'Hare had been struggling with his mental health, and later on that earlier on he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, the same disease for and by which I've been a mental health consumer since late 1994. I identified with Michael- and JMS, with the great kindness and breadth he showed him, being not unlike my Da, or at the very least a confidant and friend who cared deeply for him- before and after I found out about his mental health struggles; there was something in his manner and tone of voice used in character and in the handful of live recordings I've seen of O'Hare, captured at conventions in the 1990s, that struck me strongly and unexpectedly of myself and how I have been told I come across to others, even my voice and what Jeffrey's voice reminded me of mine.

Again, I may be reading too much into the connections, having never known the man personally and laying overlap of similarity in place between he and I. I don't like to assume unreasonably and I don't want to, however tempting it can be. But Michael O'Hare is a hero of mine, a fellow warrior in our own internal wars, and with comrades in arms, confidants and those beloved of us who we've had the fortune of meeting and knowing, for me and mine and he and his. I have a great deal of respect and admiration for Michael, and JMS for how much he reached out with his humanity and human feeling to Michael and his struggle, not regarding him based on his illness but of the person and man he was and how much he really could do. Glass half-full, not half-empty.

That last part, if I may beg pardon of them in absentia, is what makes me think of my Da towards me and my care, and my person, compared and matched the most to that of Michael and JMS. It was a treat to see the end- and the new beginning- of Jeffrey Sinclair's story, and finally why the Triluminary identified him as having Valen's soul, in 'War Without End', wherein Michael appeared as Sinclair one last time. He did not only have his soul- he was Valen, or soon would be, in the future of the past a thousand years beforehand. And Delenn was a descendant of his, marked by the sacred crystal in similarity.

When I thought about Jenora and Sara and the B5 uniforms they'd pick and you'd pick with them, I honestly thought the very same thing. I could much more see Sara as the traditionalist engineer or wire-tray and hydraulics maintenance officer or enlisted crewwoman; Jenora would be a star summoned into uniform, the shock of the new becoming the set dignity of the present. <3 Command material, or a doctor and healer.

I also add that there were significant variations between the uniforms for Earth Alliance officers and enlisted crew on Babylon 4, compared to those we first see on crewfolk in 'The Gathering' (the episode-zero demo pilot) and 'Midnight On The Firing Line', the series premiere.

-2Paw.