Podcasts about comic con

On this TechMagic episode, hosts Cathy Hackl and Lee Kebler break down the latest trends shaping our AI-powered future, as well as the policy and state of AI in DC. From Meta's $100M AI recruitment strategies to their game-changing partnerships with Oakley and Prada for smart glasses, the duo explores how AI and hardware innovation are converging. They unpack the ethical and emotional nuances of human-AI relationships, the rise of AI-generated content, and how companies like Salesforce are integrating AI into core operations. Additionally, they discuss the Nintendo Switch 2's distribution challenges and Meta's ambitious hardware plans. Whether it's corporate AI integration, wearable tech, or the battle for AI talent, this episode offers a sharp look at the risks and opportunities driving tech's next chapter.Come for the Tech, stay for the Magic!Cathy Hackl BioCathy Hackl is a globally recognized tech & gaming executive, futurist, and speaker focused on spatial computing, virtual worlds, augmented reality, AI, strategic foresight, and gaming platforms strategy. She's one of the top tech voices on LinkedIn and is the CEO of Spatial Dynamics, a spatial computing and AI solutions company, including gaming. Cathy has worked at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Magic Leap, and HTC VIVE and has advised companies like Nike, Ralph Lauren, Walmart, Louis Vuitton, and Clinique on their emerging tech and gaming journeys. She has spoken at Harvard Business School, MIT, SXSW, Comic-Con, WEF Annual Meeting in Davos 2023, CES, MWC, Vogue's Forces of Fashion, and more. Cathy Hackl on LinkedInSpatial Dynamics on LinkedInLee Kebler BioLee has been at the forefront of blending technology and entertainment since 2003, creating advanced studios for icons like Will.i.am and producing music for Britney Spears and Big & Rich. Pioneering in VR since 2016, he has managed enterprise data at Nike, led VR broadcasting for Intel at the Japan 2020 Olympics, and driven large-scale marketing campaigns for Walmart, Levi's, and Nasdaq. A TEDx speaker on enterprise VR, Lee is currently authoring a book on generative AI and delving into splinternet theory and data privacy as new tech laws unfold across the US.Lee Kebler on LinkedInKey Discussion Topics:00:00 Welcome to Tech Magic with Cathy Hackl & Lee Kebler04:12 The Dangers of AI Relationships: Why We Need Human Connection11:18 AI Regulation Debate: States' Rights vs Federal Control15:13 DC's Rising Role as a Tech Power Center23:54 Meta's Quest 3S Xbox Edition: A Game-Changing Partnership28:40 Nintendo Switch 2's Success and Hardware Challenges36:50 Meta vs OpenAI: The $100M Talent War43:12 Meta's Smart Glasses Evolution: Oakley & Prada Partnership48:00 Coming Next Week: Dating Robots & AI Love Stories Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sexagésimo sexto programa del spin-off de La Casa de EL. En esta entrega de KyG (Kryptonianos y Gothamitas) hablaremos como cada año por estas fechas con Pepe Caldelas, responsable de la Comic Con de Metropoli Gijón.

Alejandro Caballero, fundador y director de Comic Con by Diario La república

Featuring Anna Capezzera, Colleen Connor, and Serina Gilbert. This conversation pulls back the curtain on our upcoming Comic-Con panel about audio description. Panelists talk about why they signed on, what matters to them in this work, and what they hope the audience takes away. Each brings a different piece of the puzzle. Colleen trains writers. Anna works behind the scenes on production logistics. Serina ensures quality control at the final stage. Together, they paint a clear picture of what it takes to make audio description accurate, effective, and emotionally engaging, especially in complex worlds like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They also talk about the bigger picture: why this work needs more attention, how decisions about AD get made, and what happens when it's done well, or not at all. If you're curious about how blind audiences experience media, and the people making that possible, this is worth a listen.

William Shatner, Montreal-born actor and novelist who portrayed Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchises

We are celebrating Comic Con season at the Last Comic Shop with some great interviews straight from the floor of this year's 3 Rivers Comic Con in Pittsburgh PA!  Listen to some tremendous industry stories from writers and artists creating some of your favorite comic books today! Hosts:  JA Scott & Ethan Larson Interviewers: Andy Larson, Chad Smith, & Mikey Wood   Interview Guests: Tom Scioli (Godzilla Monsterpiece Theater, Fantastic Four, American Barbarian)- Website Trish Forstner- (Stray Dogs, Feral, My Little Pony)- Website Andrew Pepoy (Archie Comics, GI Joe, Fables)- Website Grant Lankard- (Beowulf, League of Cryptids )- Website   Special Thanks to the 3 Rivers ComicCon ! https://3riverscomicon.com/

Grab your coffee and join Megs & DAVY for another episode where we discuss Comic-Con prep, marriage moments, fandoms, Starbucks drama, and listener Q&As. Sadly no video today since this episode was a last minute adjustment, but we'll be back to it next episode!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BERG BOX QUARTERLY!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠JOIN THE CROCHET BAES FACEBOOK GROUP!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠CROCHET BAES MERCH!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠SHUT UP & TAKE MY MONEY!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FOLLOW OUR TIKTOK ACCOUNT!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Got a question or comment? Send The Crochet Baes an email: thecrochetbaes@gmail.comFind Jessica & Berg's Nest Crochet online:-⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-Email: bergsnestcrochet@gmail.comFind Megs & Megs Makes Crochet Online:-⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Etsy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Link Tree⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Thank you to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Chan's Designs⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for creating The Crochet Baes beautiful logo!

Quaranteam – Book 1: Part 17 Andy has his interview for primetime. Based on a post by CorruptingPower, in 25 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.   It turned out that a dozen women all getting ready for television appearances was, in fact, a major operation. The master bathroom was large enough that four of the girls could use the mirror at the same time, but beyond that, they had to party up with "prep buddies," each making sure they were getting themselves ready as well as their prep buddy. Andy was, of course, ready long before anyone else was, even with Emily, Sarah, Ash and Niko sharing him in the shower. He left the four of them in there, although they emerged not long after, each running a hair dryer while they applied their make up and got into their outfits. He was glad to escape the bathroom as early as he did. The girls were in go mode now, and the last thing he wanted to do was get in anyone's way, so he took the time to prep the house. The house had a large empty room that seemed like it was meant to be used as a ballroom. They'd used it as their poker room on and off, but it was also just a nice place where lots of people could stand around and talk. It also had French windows opening into the garden, so the lighting of the room was excellent. Andy figured it would be the best place for the group interviews to take place. Katie and Nicolette helped him get enough chairs for everyone into the room, while Jenny was prepping a large lunch for all of them, a massive batch of jambalaya, so they would have a bit of leftovers in case the 60 Minutes crew arrived hungry. They were scheduled to arrive at one in the afternoon, and had asked them not to make plans into the evening, so clearly the interviews would take as long as they took. Nicolette had been doing cleaning a bit at a time for the last two weeks, so the only thing that really needed to get a major touch up was Andy's writing room, which the 60 Minutes people had asked to use for their one on one interviews, something he'd agreed to, although he was going to lock his laptop away before they arrived. He didn't imagine they'd want to steal his writing, but he was notoriously paranoid when it came to that sort of thing. The cats seemed extremely confused by all the hustle and bustle, but also seemed content to just rub up against the leg of whoever was closest, and follow people around when it seemed like they were going from one place to another. Andy also took time to check in with both Tala and Jade, making sure they doing okay and still on board with talking to 60 Minutes, something he was glad he did. Tala, as expected, was starting to feel the mental itch from having been primed the day before but not yet imprinted, though she was handling it far better than Sheridan had, even if she wasn't as far along with it. She said she'd never felt quite so sexually frustrated before, but that it was a great feeling to have, and that she enjoyed her body acting with wills and wants of its own. Jade had news for him as well. "I want you to imprint me as soon as you're done imprinting Tala, Andy," the bubbly blonde said to him. "And I want you to record it. Not for 60 Minutes, though, but for my father. He has tried to control me my entire life, and I'm just friggin' sick of it, so I want him to see that his dang control is broken, and that I'm giving that control to another man, a better man. So you can use my phone to make the video of it, and I don't care what it shows and what it doesn't, as long as he sees my face when I'm taking that orgasm, when I'm starting that imprinting process, so he knows that he can't push me around any more." She'd been talking with a sort of intensity that he'd never seen from her before, and he let her finish. When she stopped talking, it was almost as thought it dawned on her how forcefully she'd been lecturing him on what to do. "That's, that's okay, right?" "You're sure about this, Jade?" he said, taking her hand in his own. "I'm sure he's done some rough things over the years, but he's still your father, and you want to be careful not to do anything you'll come to regret." "The only thing I regret is being that asshole's daughter," she said, wrath in her voice. "I know it's a lot to ask, especially since I'll be sucking you off, which means that it'll be hard not to get your cock at least a little in the shot, but it's important to me, okay? I'm, I'm reclaiming a part of myself that bastard's taken from me. So you asked me earlier what I wanted, and that's what I want. And I want him to see it while I'm imprinting, so there's no way he can talk to me about it." He nodded. "Alright then. You can change your mind at any time between now and then, but if you don't, then that's what we'll do, just for your father, just at your request. Although, you probably also want to record a message for him to go along with it before hand, so he's not just randomly getting that video without any context." She bristled in mirth, nodding quickly. "Good point. I'll record that on my phone after lunch." "Or during the time they're doing one on one interviews with anyone else. I know they're planning on doing smaller interviews, one with Emily and Sarah and one with just me, but I don't know who else they're going to want to talk to." "If they want to talk to me, they can, and if the 49ers organization has a problem with it, well, the heck with them, I don't have to continue being a cheerleader for them anymore." "Give it some thought. You've still got time." By lunchtime, everyone was ready except for the staff, who'd gone to get themselves ready once lunch had been served. Nobody was sure if the 60 Minutes crew would want to talk to them, but Andy felt it best to make sure that anyone who was willing to have a conversation with Katie Couric was in a state where they could. Nicolette had said she didn't care one way or another, and while Katie wasn't thrilled about the idea of being interviewed, she agreed that if Katie Couric wanted to talk to the two of them, she and Jenny would make themselves available for it. Over the course of lunch, it was clear the girls were doing everything they could to keep Andy's mind off the interview, as the family got to know both Tala and Jade better, while Whitney was still in Nicolette's chambers, in the middle of the imprinting process, and Fiona and Moira were in the early stages of it in the master bedroom. Tala had decided that her first project, once she got her workshop set up in the poolhouse, was going to be to make Andy a puzzle desk of his very own, and once that idea had been voiced, all the girls had thoughts and ideas on things to incorporate, with Sarah filling in suggestions based on his books, and Aisling filling in suggestions based on his life. Niko thought it should also incorporate all the girls' names, so that he might have a better time remembering everyone, which made everybody laugh, simply because the family had indeed grown so large. They were just finishing cleaning up after lunch when the doorbell rang, and Andy's heart felt like it stopped just a little. Ash poked him with a smile. "It's just the media, babes," she teased. "You'll do fine. Go say hi." He headed up from the dining room and down to the front door, where Nicolette was standing in the doorway, greeting the visitors. Standing in the doorway was Katie Couric, one of the best known journalists in America, with a couple of crew members behind her. "Hey, Ms. Couric," he said to her as he approached. "Welcome to my home." He held out his hand and she seemed thankful for the normalcy of shaking hands. "Please, Mr. Rook, call me Katie," she said, "and thank you for inviting us for the interview. I know the President's office had something to do with it, but you could have said no if you didn't want to. Having a couple of famous faces like Miss Stevens and Miss Washington selling the new normal will help the general population of the nation make more sense out of this tragic new normal." "Well, I'll call you Katie if you'll call me Andy," he said. "How's your tour of New Eden been so far? Niko mentioned you did a short interview with her at the base, although you mostly just talked with Dr. Varma and my boy Phil." "You're friends with Mr. Marcos?" she said. "Is that how you got in here?" "Well, there's a story behind that. I can tell you now, but I suspect you'd rather get it down on camera. It's not all that long a story, nor is it really that interesting. I suspect Phil's story was a lot more engaging than mine will be." "Did you get your writing room all set up for our interview?" "I did," he said, "and we also set up our ballroom with chairs, so you can talk to all of us together first. I know Em and Sarah are willing to talk to you either in their little studio, or you can use my writing study instead. It's up to you." "I'll have my team take a look at both locations while we're getting set up in the ballroom. Is everyone in the house willing to take part in the interviews?" "Two of my partners have chosen not to take part, simply because they aren't sure how their employers would react to it, but everyone else in the house is willing to chat," he said, as he felt a hand sliding onto his shoulder. He turned around to see Lauren standing behind him. "Actually, Andy, Sheridan and I have decided we're going to do it anyway, and if the Niners or the people at Cirque have a problem with it, fuck'em, we'll sue their asses into the ground," the tall blonde Aussie told him. "If this is gonna be the new normal, pretendin' like it's not is just as bad as sayin' it ain't, so we'll be there." "You're sure, Lauren?" he asked her, smoothing his hand over her hip, knowing it usually soothed her nervous when she was wound up. She placed her hand over his and gave it a soft squeeze, smiling at him. "Yeh, 'sides I dunno how much of management's gone at this point already. You gambled with us, so let us have a turn at the plow fer a change." He leaned up and kissed her softly. "Well, I've known you long enough, hon, to know if your mind's made up, there's no point in trying to talk you out of it." Andy glanced back at Katie Couric, shrugging. "Guess you get your pick of the litter then." Behind her, the crew had started ferrying in lights, tripods and camera equipment. While Andy had thought he'd only seen two additional people at first, it turned out Katie Couric traveled with a crew of nine, and there had been a second and third S U V behind the van that he hadn't seen. It felt a little like his house was being invaded, but he did his best to not get in anyone's way, as Nicolette started to lead a producer away, to show her where both Andy's writing room and the actresses' little studio were located. "C'mon, I'll take you down to the ballroom, and we can get settled there," he said, starting to lead Katie and her two companions down the hallway. One of them, Geraldine Amato, was the unit's head producer, and the other, Poppy Delgato, was the lead camera woman. "Was your crew mostly women before the plague hit?" "Mostly," she said, "although I've got a couple of men in here as well, and thankfully, they've been given the treatment via their wives. My husband has been getting it through myself as well, for about a month now." "I'm a little surprised they let your whole crew into New Eden," he said, as they headed down the stairs to the lower level. "They've been fairly paranoid about letting people in, I've been told, so I imagine you had to quarantine for a little bit after you got here." "We did," she said, stopping to look at one of the promotional posters on the wall, this one in particular for "The Trouble With Werebears." She glanced over at him with that winning smile she loved flashing on the news regularly. "In fact, Geraldine here's now sharing my husband with me, because she didn't have anyone before hand, and needed someone she could count on to be around while doing her job." She reached up and tapped at the words 'New York Times Bestselling Author' on the poster. "It says here you're a bestselling author, but I have to admit that before preparing for this interview, I'd never heard of you." He shrugged with a little smile. "There's leagues of difference between a Bestselling Fiction author and a Bestselling Genre Fiction author, I'm afraid. When you're talking non genre, you're talking hundreds of thousands of copies, but for genre, well, drop a zero off there, so if you're not into urban fantasy, I won't take it as a slight. Jim Butcher, who's probably the most popular of us working in the field, only sold a couple hundred thousand copies for his most recent Dresden Files book, and that series has a huge following, far bigger than my little corner. Hell, I think the reason a publisher finally took a gamble on me was that I was playing in a similar wheelhouse and they were hoping to piggyback off his success." "E. F. Winston is a genre writer, but her books have sold in the hundreds of millions," Katie countered. "So clearly there are breakout stars." "Ah, but those are young adult books, and the teen fiction genre has a handful of crossover success that never seemed to roll over into other things in our genres," he sighed. "The Dagger Academy books were definitely science fiction, but you didn't see a spike in sales for people like John Scalzi or William Gibson when those books took off, did you? The same for those Harry Potter books. Sold by the truckload, and yet, did many of those kids go and read works from Roger Zelazny, Fred Saberhagen, Emma Bull, Terry Pratchett, Steven Brust, Simon R. Green or any of the other massively prolific fantasy masterminds we've had working for decades? No, we're not all that different than any other form of entertainment,  everyone's just hoping that they get one big bite from the apple at some point during their career." "But I heard they're making a movie based on your books?" "Well, when two high profile actresses are willing to sign onto a project, that goes a long way into pushing it out of Movie Hell," he laughed. "The option had been signed years before that, but once Sarah and Emily expressed interest in playing supporting roles, well, that got the whole thing into turnaround quite quickly. It's like the screenwriter William Goldman always said, 'Nobody in Hollywood knows anything.'" Andy shrugged a little bit as they entered the ballroom. "Besides, I figured you'd want to get all this out during the on camera interview." "Oh, we'll go over it again then, but it doesn't hurt to do a little pre camera screening, just so I know what kinds of things you're likely to say, so I can facilitate the conversation in moving in the right directions," she said. "You've been interviewed several times before. Hasn't anyone ever done that?" "Nope," he said, moving to sit in one of the chairs in the front row. "But then again, I've never been interviewed for television before." They'd originally set up the 17 chairs as one chair facing two rows of eight, but Geraldine started moving the two rows of eight into four staggered rows of four. "We'll bring in some risers, so we can get everyone into one big shot," Geraldine told Katie. Poppy nodded. "We'll need to set up four cameras in here," she said, as she started to help Geraldine block out the room. "One for the group shot, one for Katie, one for Andy and one to rove to whoever's answering questions in the group setting. We can use fixed cameras for the first three, and I'll manage the fourth. We'll have them all rolling all the time and you can just pick and choose what you want in the editing room." "How do you want to order them, Katie?" Geraldine asked her. "Well, Andy here in the front corner, then Niko, the woman we interviewed yesterday next to him. That'll be our link between the segments. Then Sarah and Emily next to her, because star power up front. Beyond that, we can figure it out." "I'd like to insist Aisling, my first partner, be up front with me," he said, just as Ash was walking into the room, along with Emily. "The balance might be a little weird," Poppy frowned. "No no," Geraldine, "we can make that work. We'll just do five in front and three in the top row, so we frame Andy in the center, with Niko and Aisling on one side, Emily and Sarah on the other." "Good," Katie said, "that reinforces the whole 'large family' front and forward as our first visual cue, so that the viewer has to confront it right away. Does that work for you?" she said, asking Andy his opinion for the first time. "That'll work," he replied. "You can even put the three staff at the back, since they're willing to be here for this, but aren't likely to volunteer much in the way of answers." "Jenny and Katie, er, Kate might not, Master," Nicolette said, entering the room with the rest of Katie Couric's crew in tow, "but I'm certainly planning on speaking my mind given a chance, because I don't want people to be given the wrong idea." "What's the wrong idea?" Katie asked, tilting her head just a little bit. "That we're here involuntarily, or that this isn't what we wanted, or, hell, even that Master Rook here wouldn't let us change if we wanted," the French maid teased. "You know if I had a nickel for every time he's sort of reminded me I don't have to call him Master, and I've had to remind him that I like calling him Master, well, I could enjoy a nice two week stay in the Bahamas, once it's opened up again. In fact, little secret, every time he reminds me of it lately, I've just gone out of my way to say it even more, so I can watch him blush." "I think you like watching him blush," Ash said, moving to close in around Andy. "Katie Couric," Andy said, "this is my first partner, Ash Blake, and I'm sure you've probably already met Emily Stevens." Katie made it a point to shake Ash's hand first. "A pleasure, Miss Blake." She then turned to Emily, taking the tiny blonde's hand and shaking it as well. "I've actually interviewed you before, Miss Stevens, although I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't remember. You seemed quite busy on that press junket, and I know they were just wheeling journalists in and out for you." "I keep a diary of anyone who's interviewing me, Ms. Couric," Em said, a wry grin on her face, "so I assure you, I remember the interview quite well. Any surprises we should be wary of?" "Oh, I've always got a few things planned to lighten up an interview," the journalist said, somewhat evasively. "It's not like I'm interviewing Vladimir Putin or anything. You're not going to have me murdered for a question you don't like." "Well," the Brit said, "I still wouldn't anger Sarah too much. She's, excitable, and prone to fits of exaggeration." "I'm fairly certain she's never poisoned anyone to win a role, Em," Andy said to her. Emily clicked her tongue in amusement. "Let's not be too hasty with that judgment, Andy. Anyway, shall I round everyone up and we can get started?" "Yes, I think my team will be ready to start in about twenty minutes, so if you can get everyone together, that would be excellent." By the time all the girls were in the ballroom, risers had been placed under the seats, the lights and sound were set up, a boom microphone used to cover the majority of the girls, although clip on mics were used for Katie and Andy. They also had a handheld microphone that the girls could pass around if anyone wanted to give a detailed answer. They were structured as had been discussed, with Niko and Aisling to Andy's left in the front row, and Emily and Sarah to his right. Behind them, Lauren, Taylor, Sheridan and Piper sat. The third row had Asha, Hannah, Tala and Jade. In the back row sat the staff, Kate (his Katie), Jenny and Nicolette. All of the fiancees were up front, and everyone else was sat in order of arrival, with the exception of the staff, who were at the back, at their own request. It felt right that Ash was on one side of him and Emily was on the other, as if the two of them wanted to be close in case he needed support. It wasn't until Andy saw it framed up in the monitor as they were showing Katie that it dawned on him just how big his household was growing, and even still, he knew there were already three more in the house not in this shot. He was always aware of how big his family was, but seeing everyone together in one single framing shot, it really drove the size of it home, and it felt huge. "Okay, Andy, let's start with how you telling us a little bit about yourself and how you got here." For the next few minutes, Andy gave the shortest possible version of his bio, how he'd moved to California a decade and a half ago, his writing for the Silicon Valley companies, as well as his novels, which transitioned nicely into him talking about how he got his vaunted level 5 status, regaling 60 Minutes with the story of how the guy who'd come to test them, Dave, had been a big fan and given he and his then roommate Eric level 5 status as a return gift for Andy having given him an advanced copy of his next novel. "I hope I'm not getting Dave in any trouble by telling that story," he finished. "No no, each member of the initial Bay Area team was given five level 5 statuses to give away as they saw fit," Katie Couric told him. "Most of them just gave them to friends or family, but Dr. David Straussman hadn't used any of his until he met you, and there were no rules on who he could or couldn't give them to, so that's fine." "Straussman," Andy repeated. "Huh. You know, I didn't even know his last name until right now. I hope he's doing okay." "He's doing quite well," Niko said. "I see him every so often wandering around the base." "So Andy," Katie said, bringing them back on task, "how did you fill out the form you were given with the testing process?" "Well," Andy said, "Dave stressed to us when he gave us the link that we should be honest, and to answer the questions knowing we wouldn't be judged for our responses. I don't actually remember a lot of it, because it was a very long questionnaire, like, ridiculously thorough. But I suppose what you're getting at is what key things do I remember answering." "Yes, that's what I'm asking." "There were definitely questions about my sexual preferences, like, a lot of those, but there were also basic demographic questions about what range of people I felt comfortable dating, was I into women, men or both, and how did I feel about polyamory." "Did that surprise you?" she asked him. "Sure, but not as much as I expect it probably shocked people back in the Midwest. It's not what I would call common place around here, but you see it mentioned often enough in people's online dating profiles that most people have at least some awareness of it here in the Bay." "And how did you answer the polyamory question?" "I actually put 'no preference,' but you have to remember, to some extent when this started, we thought this was all some temporary thing, and we certainly didn't know that the casualties to men in America were going to be as high as they were," Andy said, sighing a little bit, Ash taking his hand, squeezing it reassuringly. "Do you remember what ages you put that you would be comfortable with?" "The low end was set to 18, and I didn't adjust it, and I set the high end to 35. I suspected no one younger than their mid twenties would be interested in me, so the low end didn't really matter." "You can start to see how his mind works," Hannah teased, "and how he just misses things sometimes." That let the girls have a soft laugh, releasing a little bit of the tension. "Were there any things that you said were absolute deal breakers?" Katie asked. "Just two," Andy admitted. "Must not be allergic to cats, and must not smoke, although we ended up with someone who vapes." "And who is that?" "That'd be me," Sheridan said, "but I'm working on quitting, so, it's a stopgap on the way to that. And it's been much easier stepping down from that than it was stepping to that from smoking." "Who showed up first?" "Aisling showed up I think it was actually the very next day," Andy said. "I was a little surprised how quickly everything moved. Usually anything the government's managing is a total clusterfuck, but I think since we were basically right by the site where the treatment was developed, they were rushing it out in order to keep as many people safe as they could." "Aisling, let me ask you Aisling, was Andy the sort of man you dreamed about ending up with when you entered into the process?" "At first, my head was a little clouded, because the process when it started wasn't as refined as it is now, so when I met Andy, my mind was a little fogged up with lust, but he ticked all the boxes of what I wanted out of a man. He didn't look exactly like I expected him to, but yeah, within a couple of days, I knew I loved him pretty hard. Still do." "Would he have been the kind of person you would've gravitated to in a bar?" Katie asked her. "I would've thought he was cute, but I was horrible at dating, and only had a couple'a boyfriends before him, so I'm a bad judge of character for that sort of question." "How many of you would've approached Andy in a bar?" Katie asked the group of them. Andy chuckled, rolling his eyes. "Be honest." Sarah put her hand up immediately, and Tala raised her hand as well, as the rest of the group giggled a little bit. "As progressive as we all like to think we are, Katie," Niko said, "women still generally don't approach men in bars, so maybe that's more on us than saying anything about our tastes." "Sarah, I saw you put your hand up," Katie asked. "You're an Oscar nominated actress who's know worldwide. What about Andy would've made you approach him?" Over the next couple of minutes, Sarah and Emily related the story of how they'd attended one of Andy's Q&As at ComicCon in costume, so that nobody would recognize them, and talked about how she'd had a crush on him because of his writing for a long time, which Katie laughed about, and Andy was certain would make for good television. "So how many of you would say you're in love with Andy now?" she asked the group after Sarah finished her story. About half of women raised their hands, although several of the others looked like they were considering raising their hands. The front row all raised their hands, as expected, but Lauren and Piper also raised their hands, which surprised Andy a little. "So those of you who wouldn't say you're in love with him, how would you describe your relationship with him?" "Deep respect and affection, but not at the love stage, not yet anyway," Sheridan said. Most of the other girls seemed to nod and agree with that. "Why do you say 'not yet,' Sheridan?" "You have to keep in mind, Katie, a lot of us have only known Andy a few weeks right now," she said, leaning forward just a little bit. "We had to make probably the biggest choice of our lives, and we had to do it basically on a hunch. Our choices were to defer treatment and go on being afraid we were going to die, or take the treatment and get paired up with a man for the indefinite future. That's a hell of a gamble to ask of anyone." "Who's unhappy with the decision they made, raise your hand," Katie said, only to get no hands raised in response. "Everyone's happy being paired with Andy, maybe for the rest of your lives?" "Look, Ms. Couric," Hannah said. "You're going to find every one of us girls has a different story, a unique story, and each one of us came to where we are now on an entirely different path, m'kay? But we'll all tell you the same thing,  Andy's treated us with an immense amount of respect and affection, and he's made sure that nobody's doing anything they aren't comfortable with. Shit, he's even done stuff he's been a little uncomfortable with because it's made us feel more comfortable, and how many women can say that about their partner? So while a bunch of us aren't in love with him, yet, we all admire and respect how much he's gone out of his way to make sure we feel like we're part of a goddamn family, a good goddamn family." "Do you want to continue to grow the family, Andy?" "If you ask him," Em said, jumping in before he could respond, "he wanted to stop growing it a while ago." All the girls laughed at that. "But at this point, I think we're all doing what we can to stick together, and a lot of us girls wanted to protect our friends, to keep them safe, so we took turns presenting them all to Andy, trying to convince him to bring them into our home and into our family." "Everyone had someone they wanted to pitch?" Katie said, smiling at Andy. "That must have been overwhelming." "Not everyone wanted to pitch someone, but almost everyone," he said with a laugh. "And it was a lot of names and faces that were presented all at once. I said upfront, though, that I wasn't going to bring everyone on, and that there was only so much of me to go around. In the end, I think we mostly made it work to everyone's satisfaction." "So how many more people are coming?" "Well, we have three people who are in the imprinting process right now, and two more people arriving tomorrow, and if I have any say in the matter, that will absolutely, positively, definitively be the limit of women I can handle in my life," he chuckled. "And how much say do you actually have in that matter, Andy?" "Very little!" Emily joked, and all the girls laughed, as did Katie. "It would take a super compelling case for us to add, like, anyone else to the family past that," Sarah said, "but I think it's totally for the best that we never say never. Sometimes exceptions have to be made." "Like I told you yesterday, Katie," Niko said, "I think if Andy had total control of the matter, he would've probably put a hard limit in after myself, Ash and Lauren were in his life. He told me multiple times early on that he barely felt like he deserved one amazing woman, and at that point, he already had three, so it's been a growth process." "But this is the new normal now," Katie said. "Or at least it's going to be. Families with one man and several women, because so many men in the US have died. Raise your hand if you know a man who's lost their life to the plague here in the US." All the women raised their hands, and of course Andy had his raised as well. "How does that feel?" "I think we're all suffering from some degree of post traumatic stress disorder," Piper said. "The losses, they're too big for any of us to process, so we're sort of clinging to one another, holding on to the only family that we know for certain that we can protect." "Piper, you were actually supposed to have competed in the Olympics by now. How does that feel, knowing that when it starts up again next year, the US basically doesn't have almost any of their male athletes to compete?" "At this point, it's impossible for it to even make sense in my head any more, Katie," she sighed. "Most of the people I trained with have died over the last several months. A lot of my trainers died. I've lost colleagues, friends and family members. I don't even know where to start mourning, because there's so damn many people to mourn. I consider myself lucky that my sister's husband took everything seriously, and completely refused to leave the house this year since the word of the plague got out." "It's something we've talked about in here a bunch," Andy said. "And we sort of keep coming back to that famous Stalin quote. 'A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic.' It's so many dead men that the mind can't even make sense of it. It's like 9/11, but if each of the Twin Towers was holding exclusively almost every man each of us knew and loved. My own brother died a few weeks back, and he was one of the kindest and most careful souls I know, but he ran out to help someone get their storm shutters up before a particular bad thunderstorm rolled through, and a few weeks later, he was just gone, almost overnight. It happened so fast, I didn't even hear about it until after he was already gone." "It's actually unproven that's a real Stalin quote," Tala said. "I read an article that said it was attributed to a French humorist." "Sure, but even if Stalin didn't say it," Andy said, "it's still pretty relevant here. It doesn't really matter who said it, it's the sentiment that's important. We're talking about a matter of scale, and the human mind's capacity to comprehend that scale. At the end of the day, that's a hell of a lot for anyone to handle. So we're all just doing our best." "Normally," Emily said, "when a friend or loved one dies, there is typically a funeral or a wake, a gathering of all that person's surviving circle coming together, to celebrate their passing and remember them, but we have been denied that, and it has made all their passings that much harder to process, somehow transformed them all into seeming less real, because our normal emotional milestones haven't happened along the way. We are adrift in our emotional morass." "That's true," Katie said. "We, as Americans, haven't had to confront all the deaths simply because we aren't allowed to go out and do so, and that somehow makes it feel less concrete." "It hits you every day," Jade said, "little by little. Lauren described it to me a few weeks ago as a slow motion car crash that we're all stuck in, and nobody can get out of." "So, Jade, I understand you're one of the newest arrivals here," Katie said. "Have you gone through the imprinting process yet?" "Not yet," she said. "Tala and I arrived yesterday, but we wanted to wait a little bit, to spend some time with Andy and his family, to makes sure that we would be happy getting melted into their pot. I'm happy to say we're both going to do it, but it's the kind of commitment you gotta be certain of, you know?" "Have you seen what the imprinting process is like?" "Um, yes?" she said, trying not to blush a little. "When we arrived yesterday, we had a third person with us, another woman who was joining the staff and faculty of the house, but not the family itself, a young woman named Whitney." "So, Andy, explain to me the difference between family and staff, and how you decide that." He immediately put his hands up, almost like he was at gunpoint. "First and foremost, I do not decide that," he laughed, and all the girls laughed with him. "When the military came and relocated us from our little condo and brought us here to New Eden, the house also came with three members of staff attached with it, all of whom I was told had been selected to mesh with me, and whose boxes I would tick as well." "That was the three of you in the back, Nicolette, Jenny and Kate, yes?" Katie asked. "We had all been told a bit about Andy before he arrived," Nicolette said, "and his answers to the questionnaire implied that he would eventually be willing to play into our tastes." "Eventually?" Katie asked. "Well, sure," Nicolette giggled. "I know the first few times I called him Master, it rattled his cage a little bit, but he eventually realized I liked saying it, and nobody was making me do it. One of the things that we girls all figured out early on was that just because Andy was okay with something didn't mean he had any real experience with it, so we would need to hand hold him a bit through it. So while Andy said he was okay with bondage and discipline stuff in his questionnaire, he didn't have any real practical experience in it. So we've found ways to teach him about that kind of thing without it ever feeling like we were lecturing to him. He sort of set that expectation up front when he told us communication was everything, and he couldn't have been more right." "And Kate? I hear that you and Jenny had a different experience," Katie asked. "Damn, uh? Andy?" Kate (his Katie) asked. "How real you want us to get here?" "We're not hiding anything," he chuckled, "so fire away." "So, uh, Katie," Kate coughed. "I'm actually a lesbian. Not a bisexual who mostly identifies as a lesbian, I mean straight up, hardcore, one hundred percent, unrepentant fully committed lesbian. And Jenny here is my wife, but she's bisexual." "Hi!" Jenny cheerily said with a wave. "When we signed up for this, we, ah, we were planning on hiding that from Andy, and I was simply going to fake it, and go along with the ruse, so that we could stay together, and we could still get the treatment, which, as you already know, takes both a female and a male component to work," she sighed. "So I, er, we lied, and claimed we were both bisexual. Since we were married, wherever we went, we were going to go together, and we figured we could just keep up that lie as long as we needed and make it work." "And what happened?" Katie asked. "Day two, I folded, before we'd even been imprinted," Jenny said with a shrug. "When we met him, Andy wasn't at all what any of us were expecting him to be, but I mean that in a really good way. It didn't feel right lying to him. We'd had a few days together before he showed up, the three of us, us two and Nicolette. We'd talked about it, and Nicolette volunteered to go first, so that if it didn't go well, my Katie and I could request to be moved elsewhere, since we were a little more particular than she was about how we got paired up." "What do you mean, you folded?" "I started talking to Andy, and, and it all just came tumbling out, how we were a little unsure, how my Katie wasn't really into men, and, I just felt like I had to tell him everything before we were committed to anything." "How did you react to that, Andy?" "I could tell they were afraid that I was going to be angry," Andy said, his tone as breezy and relaxed as he could keep it, "but I wasn't. Why would I be? I simply wanted to talk with them about how they wanted to handle it, because at that point, I knew a bit more about the physiological affects of the treatment than they did, so I wanted to prepare them for it, if they wanted to move forward." "Do you still consider yourself a lesbian, Kate?" Katie asked her. "Absolutely. I don't feel any sexual attraction to Andy what so ever," she said. "Now, with that said, I can also admit that I have received biochemically induced orgasms from him regularly as part of the treatment process, and I don't think that affects my sexual identity in any way. But Andy and I haven't ever had direct sex. He's offered, but he's also never pressured. I might take him up on it some day, to see if the chemical and neurological changes the treatment have made to me might compensate for my lack of sexual attraction to him, but then again, I may not. That's my decision, well, our decision, to make," she said, taking Jenny's hand in hers. "And nobody's going to tell me who and what I am. I get to decide that, and fuck anyone who says otherwise." "So if you haven't had direct sex with him, how are you getting what you need from him to keep your treatment managed? Go ahead and be as direct as you want, and we can bleep parts of it out if we need to, but I think they're just going to air it as we send it." "Well, to be frank about it, I don't ever actually fuck Andy, but that doesn't mean I don't swallow his semen. I do that around once a week, either directly from him, or second hand from my wife. I consider sucking his cock just to be another task around the house that needs doing now and again. No offense, Andy." He laughed, waving a hand in his air. "None taken, but you already know that." "And that's enough?" Katie asked. "Just swallowing semen, either directly or second hand?" Kate nodded. "It's fine. I haven't had any adverse side effects, and it's easy enough right before he's about to pop for him to point it elsewhere, or for Jenny and I to split it after he does pop. I'm never going to have an encounter with Andy without Jenny present, and she's always my focus, not him, because she's my wife, and he's just, my boss." "And everyone in the house is okay with that?" "This is the world we live in now," Lauren said. "Lotsa fellas used to get all hung up onna things that they did and didn't like, but who's got time for that anymore? Life's too short to hold onta old grudges, so if we can, we're all gonna take it on the chin and just keep movin' on together." "Now Lauren, I understand you're also a lesbian." "Nah Katie," the tall blonde Aussie corrected. "I'm definitely bisexual, but I just lean a lot more towards the ladies than I do the fellas. I very much enjoy my sexual encounters with Andy, but I'm not one of his primary partners, despite showing up so early. I'm in love with him, like he is with me, but he's not my Big Love, if you folla. I've got me own primary partner here, in Taylor. We'd split before New Eden, and when she came back, I was right pissed off, but we've worked it out, and now she and I are back to being a couple again." "Does that put you on the outs with Andy?" "Nah," she laughed, "it just means the master bed doesn't need triple reinforcement. I love Andy and all he's done for me, for alla us, but I ain't interested in being one of his wives. I wanna marry Taylor at some point, but that doesn't mean I don' wanna stay part of this family. That works for us, so, y'know, fair play." "How many people do sleep in bed with you on any given night, Andy?" "There's always at least five of us in the bed," he answered. "Myself, Ash, Niko, Emily and Sarah. But sometimes more people want to cram in, and we never say no." "What's the most the bed's ever held for a night?" "Oh, uh, everyone who isn't staff, I think, but last week, so before some people had arrived," he said, trying to remember, "so, what, 11?" "Yes, that was the maximum. On the day when we found out Andy's brother died," Emily said, "we all crawled into bed with him and just wrapped our arms around him, as we all shared a good cry, then fell asleep holding one another, but that's extremely uncommon." "Five or six would definitely be the average," Ash said. "So the four of you would say you're closer to Andy than the rest of the women in the house?" "Well, we're all his fiancees, so we'd better be, Katie!" Sarah laughed. "He asked Ash first, and then Niko asked him before he could even get the words out to her, so once he freakin' told us, me and Em, we both demanded he propose to us as well immediately, because we come as a package deal." "What do you mean by that, Sarah?" "Okay, well, here's the thing. Emily and I have been a couple for almost two years now, but we're both, well, we're both totally into dudes and chicks. So while we super love each other, we also knew we were going to need a regular cock in the equation. When we found out that the writer of my favorite freaking book series of all time was in play, we decided we had to freaking have him." Andy was a little amazed Sarah could do so much to self censor, but realized she'd probably been doing it for interviews forever. "So you put in a request for the two of you to be paired up with Andy, and the government made that happen?" There was a long pause, as everyone was trying to decide what to say and how to say it, but eventually Emily broke the silence. "Something like that, yes," she lied. "We'll put a pin in that and come back to it later," Katie said, and Andy's guard was immediately up. He'd been wondering what sort of problems this interview was going to throw up, and now he felt like he knew what one of them was. "Have you had to send anyone back, Andy? Had any partners show up that you didn't think would be compatible?" "Just one," he admitted. "My ex girlfriend was sent to me, because she hadn't disclosed that we'd been together about a decade ago. She was eager to rekindle the relationship, but I was not. It ended on terms that made me unwilling to revisit it again, so we helped her make other arrangements. We hadn't been compatible back then, and I didn't feel comfortable gambling that she'd grown enough that I would've been compatible with her now." "You didn't send her back to the government?" "New Eden isn't that large of a community, so sometimes we just see if we can make things work among ourselves first, and we found a solution that everyone seemed happy with, including my ex. In fact, the people that my partners here pitched to me that I didn't think would be good matches for our family, we worked to pair them up with other people here in New Eden instead, so they were still local and safe. It's a small town, so we have to look out for one another. Problems here are rare and generally manageable." "Not always, though, we've heard," Katie said. "I take it you've heard about the fatality that New Eden had last week?" Everyone nodded. "It was horrible, hearing about someone dying from something so easily preventable," Hannah said. "Like, they totes warned us about that ish before we left the base, so why the hell would someone chance it?" "They did warn you?" "Very thoroughly," Emily insisted, horror in her voice. "They told us multiple times, again and again and again, that if we took in semen from any man other than the one we were paired up with, it would be toxic, if not fatal. They even showed us a recording of a woman who'd already been imprinted getting semen from a man she wasn't paired up with on her skin, and the large, violent rash that immediately broke out. I am told they show that footage to everyone, to drive the point home. Seeing that sort of instantaneous reaction should've been enough to discourage anyone from testing those boundaries." "They're talking on base about showing some of the autopsy photos from the fatality to the people who are getting the treatment now," Niko said, "to make sure everyone understands how serious it is not to dally outside your family." "Have any of you ever been tempted?" "I think we all value our lives too much for that," Sarah joked. "And love Andy far too much for that," Ash said. "Definitely," Emily agreed. "Why would anyone task such a pointless risk?" "Did any of you know the woman who died, or the man she partook from that killed her?" Katie asked them. "I met her briefly," Andy said, "but I wouldn't say I knew her. And none of us ever even met the man accused of doing it to her." "Major Peters told us yesterday he's currently imprisoned at the base, pending local law enforcement being able to take custody of him. They're going to charge him with murder, they were telling us." "They should," Sarah said. "They told everyone when they brought them here to New Eden what would happen if people engaged in any form of sexual activity with anyone they're not paired with, and they fucking did it anyway!" "The problem," Andy sighed, "is that the man, whoever he is, already has multiple women paired up with him, which means that whatever they do to him is going to affect those women as well, even if it's just that they have to come to a prison for their weekly intake. Those women are already tied to him. I'm sure they're looking into some way to remove the binding and reimprint a woman onto a new person, but there's only so many problems they can solve at once." "Does it bother any of you that your health is tied to Andy's?" Katie asked the group. "Bother is the wrong word," Sheridan said, annoyance in her tone of voice. "Concern is the right word. We're very protective of Andy, because he knows our lives are all fully dependent on his for the time being, and that if he dies, we all probably die with him. So, sure, we're concerned, but I think all of us feel comfortable in knowing that Andy's got our best interests at heart, and is keeping that all in mind." "One of the two people arriving tomorrow is going to be his bodyguard," Jenny said. "A friend of mine from college, who's going to guard his life with her own." "Who's the other?" "A director friend of mine," Emily said, "whom I thought would be an excellent addition to the house. She was one of the AD's on some of the latter Dagger Academy movies." Katie Couric clapped her hands together. "Okay, why don't we take a break, then do some of the one on ones, and then we can circle back and do another group interview to close out the day. Our team can leave you one of our cameras here tonight, so you can get that video of someone being imprinted, and we'll come by and pick it up tomorrow before we leave town. We appreciate you trusting us with that, as I know it can't have been an easy decision to make, but I think that footage will go a long way to convincing people this treatment is in their best interest. As for today, we'll go ahead and finish getting set up in Andy's office, and when you're ready Andy, we can sit down and do our one on one and drill down on some things I've got further questions on." "Sure," he said, as all the girls were standing up and stretching. "Let me go grab a quick drink, and I'll meet you in my office in about ten minutes, okay?" "Sounds good." Katie and her crew were escorted by Nicolette down to Andy's office, while the girls stood up and started chatting among themselves, while Emily and Ash closed it around Andy. "That went about as well as can be expected," Emily said to them. "I feel like we've got some kind of curveball coming," Ash said, taking Andy's hand in her left and Emily's hand in her right. "After you're done, Andy, we'll talk a bit again. I'm sure you'll get surprises before any of us do." He took his time, grabbed a bottle of Vanilla Coke, drank it then headed down to his office, which today felt a little like going into a lion's den. With all the girls in the ballroom, the large group session had allowed the attention to bounce around a great deal, and he felt like he could catch his breath, but here, it was just going to be the two of them, and he didn't have anyone to run interference for him from time to time. Andy headed into his office and saw that even his cats weren't in there, likely having been moved by the production crew, as Andy moved to sit down in his writing chair, Katie Couric sitting across from him. "Are you ready?" she said to him. "Yep," he answered. "Let's do it." After the mics were checked, the cameras were tested and the lights were adjusting, Andy's one on one began with a softball question. "So how'd you fall into writing urban fantasy, Andy?" "The best advice I ever got was 'if the stories you want to read don't exist in the world, it's your job to put them there,' so I've stuck with that," he said. "I knew what kind of stories I wanted to read, and nobody was really writing those, a sort of fantasy western/samurai hybrid. I mean, you had Butcher's Dresden books, but those were more of fantasy noir hybrids, and I wanted to get into the sort of stories that people like Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone used to tell, where you could kill off characters, where actions had consequences and where you never really knew when the next gunfight was coming, because it felt like they could happen at any time. Joe Abercrombie does it in high fantasy, but I wanted something that was happening in our time, in our world.&am

ComicCon vibes! Healthy vibes! Productive vibes! Brady vibes!

Presented with limited interruptions by:http://patriot-protect.com/KYLE (15% off Protecting yourself from scams/Identity theft)************************Shamgar Connors could die any day, but kidney failure and daily dialysis doesn't stop him from living a life most don't have the courage to live. Shamgar pushes for the world he wants his children to inherit, and pushes himself physically and spiritually towards making his time on the planet count.His efforts at school board meetings and for medical freedom have resulted in being kicked from the Virginia transplant lists. Despite a dire and life threatening situation, this is an interview full of humor and irreverence necessary to take a stand against the really dark forces dividing our country.Follow Shamgar on X:https://x.com/ShamgarConnorskeywords: corruption, whistleblower, health, activism, parenting, masculinity, Comic-Con, media, injustice, school, board, activism, humor, vaccine,faith,

While Dave Kellett was at Alaska Comics Camp, he had the opportunity to speak with Jarad Greene, a cartoonist who works on staff at The Center for Cartoon Studies and has helped color many graphic novels for younger readers. He is the author and illustrator of the graphic novels A-Okay, A for Effort, and Scullion: A Dishwasher's Guide to Mistaken Identity — available wherever books are sold and through his affiliate Bookshop.org shop. He talked with Dave about the joys of learning to use a brush for inking.MORE ABOUT JARADWebsite  | TikTok | Instagram | YouTube You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon$2 — Early access to episodes$5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.If you'd like a one-on-one consultation about your comic, book it now!Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.

In this on-the-road edition of The Marvelists, Eddie Wilson heads to New York's capital city for a day packed with comic book conversations! Recorded live on June 8th, Eddie catches up with an all-star lineup of creators including Mike McKone, Steve Orlando, Val Semeiks, Paul Pelletier, Kevin Conrad, Ron Marz, and John Hebert. From legendary runs to behind-the-scenes stories, each guest brings their own unique perspective on the world of comics. It's a creator-packed episode you won't want to miss!

Send us a textThis week, Wes and Todd sit down with Painter & Illustrator, Kevin Johnson. Kevin discusses his early engagement with art, comic books, Louisville, teaching himself to draw, favorite comic book artists, school, keeping it fresh, the Army, creating and drawing during his time in the service, his journey after retiring from the Army, Comic Con, Full Sail University, the Colorado Springs art scene, Black Lion, taking time serious, graphic design, animation, Craigslist, reinventing yourself, Thomas Blackshear and mentorship, butterflies, imagination, mixed media, growing as an artist, his pencil & charcoal series, Black Art in America, the Solidarity Mobile Mural Project, social media, Flaten Art Museum, his current shows, routine, clouds, critiques, collectors, Rogue Gallery, pricing, and his advice to young artists.Join us for an inspirational conversation with Kevin Johnson!Check out Kevins' website at www.kevjart.comFollow Kevin on social media:Instagram - www.instagram.com/kevjart - @kevjartFacebook - www.facebook.com/KevJArt/ See Kevin's art in person at these galleries: The Vault Gallery in The Mining Exchange Hotel - www.miningexchangehotel.comExhibit runs from June 1st – August 25th, 2025 Auric Gallery - www.auricgallery.com Broadmoor Galleries - www.broadmoorgalleries.com A.R Mitchell Museum of Western Art - www.armitchellmuseum.com Black Art In America - www.blackartinamerica.comArt on tour from Illinois to D.C. “Change That Narrative” on display at the Illinois State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois.Follow us on Instagram: @tenetpodcast - www.instagram.com/tenetpodcast/ @wesbrn - www.instagram.com/wesbrn/ @toddpiersonphotography - www.instagram.com/toddpiersonphotography/ Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/TenetPodcast/ Email us at todd@toddpierson.com If you enjoyed this episode or any of our previous episodes, please consider taking a moment and leaving us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening!

The New Capes & Lunatics Ep #15 (LGY #370): Sukesha Ray Returns This episode your team of Phil and Lilith chat with returning guest Sukesha Ray about her art and music, her trips to cons around the world, and her positive outlook on life. Tune in today and don't forget to review the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere else you can!  Capes & Lunatics Links  → Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/capeslunatics.bsky.social → Twitter https://twitter.com/CapesLunatics → Instagram https://www.instagram.com/capeslunatics/ → Facebook https://www.facebook.com/capesandlunatics → YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/CapesandLunatics   ==================  

Quaranteam – Book 1: Part 12 The girls continue their pitches to Andy. Based on a post by CorruptingPower, in 25 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels. Nicolette smiled, shaking her head a bit. "I split from Josh the week after the party, because, well, it's not important, beyond the fact that he was a fucking asshole and I was sick of dealing with it. I haven't seen him in years now, and it's actually better that way. If he's dead, good, good riddance, fuck him, he deserved it. As for her partner, well, Bill wasn't a bad guy, although I never really talked much to him, or should I say I wasn't much permitted to talk to him, because he was from the old school of domination, with the leather whip and the iron fist, and he didn't like submissives giving him any back talk. Whitney was mostly happy with him, although she'd admitted to me a couple of times that she could've done without Bill's sadistic streak of inflicting pain on her. Pain wasn't really her thing. She didn't mind it from time to time, but it wasn't something she got off on. Bill did. But Bill died from the virus in April, leaving Whitney sort of lost and directionless." "I'm certainly not into inflicting pain on people, Nicolette, but I don't know that even on my best or worst days I could be fairly described as a dom." Nicolette giggled and waggled a finger in his direction. "You might have the other girls fooled, Master, but not me, and frankly, I don't think Ash buys it either. When I was pitching this to her yesterday, I pointed out to her that sexuality is, well, it's sort of like a menu at a Cheesecake Factory “ there are so many options that you are bound to find things you like just every once in a while, instead of every day. And you are a good and kind man, but I've also seen that sometimes you just want to take something, to claim something. There is a beast in you raging to get out, and I've tried to make sure I'm around to fill that need for you. We all heard it when you were having your first go at Taylor, and even Niko told me afterwards she thought you were holding back a little, like you were worried we might judge you for it, but your household loves you and trusts you, Master." The maid pushed the button and the image changed again, showing a head on almost portfolio picture of Whitney, her wrists bound together in rope, a collar around her neck, still wearing a bra, her hair pulled back into a ponytail, a very lustful look in her icy blue eyes drilling straight into the camera. "She took this photo just for you, Master. Nobody other than the three of us has seen it. Not only does she want to join the staff, she wants you to collar her. Hell, she said if you wanted to, she would even get tattooed or branded for you." "Branded?" Andy gasped suddenly. "I would never!" "Oh, I told her that, and she said that just made you sound even more dreamy, but wanted you to have that option on the table. She doesn't want to be one of your wives, because she says that would put her on equal level with you. She wants to belong to you. She's always going to be submissive, but do you have any idea how hard it's going to be for a single submissive woman to find a sexual partner right now, much less one who isn't a complete asshole? The biggest problem with the BDSM scene, in my eyes anyway, is that too many people don't respect boundaries, that they aren't respectful of one another. Whitney's never going to feel bad about not getting to sleep in your bed, but if you tell her to one night, she will, gladly, as long as it doesn't become a habit. When it comes to the house, she will be the kind of control freak you need running your digital life, but all that desperate need for control, that's why she likes to be completely out of control when it comes to her sexuality. Wearing a collar from you isn't a mark of shame; it's a thing of pride and beauty for her. And all of the women you have in this house, Master, they're all such wonderful and warm women, friendly and inviting, and even though we've told them time and time and time again that we're merely the staff, they're still treating us as friends, because we are their friends, even if we still work for you." Andy had been listening to all of this very intently, because the expression on Nicolette's face wasn't one of concern, but one of excitement, of enthusiasm, of pride. "Why'd she take a picture just for me?" "Because after Bill died half a year ago, she was aimless, and I got, well, to be blunt, I got very worried about her. I couldn't go and check up on her because of the quarantine, but we FaceTimed every day. We still do. And I've told her all about this house, about you, Master, and all your amazing partners, and about a month ago, Whitney started saying something I've been hearing a lot from her lately. 'I wish I had what you have.' She was waking up from her fugue state over the loss of Bill, and she wanted something again, for the first time in months. She wasn't just thinking about what her next meal was, or how to solve some routing problem at work. She had a genuine desire to introduce something, someone into her life again. You. This. All of this," the maid said, gesturing around her. "You two sound very close," Ash said. "I don't know that you made it clear to me just how close when you were presenting to me for practice." Nicolette nodded. "She's, well, she's probably my best friend, the person I can be myself with the most, and I'm worried about her. You have to understand, she's like an old watch that's been wound up too tightly. When I say she's a control freak, I might be understating the case, but before now she's always had that release valve of having Bill to take over for at least a few hours every week, where she wasn't allowed to have any control, and through that, all that pressure got released. You can give that to her again, Master." "Do you really think I'm a good match for her sexually?" Andy said. "I'd hate to bring her here and disappoint her." The French girl's face spread into a mischievous grin. "Like I said, Master, Whitney's going to be like me, not an everyday food, but definitely a delicious treat that you simply must indulge in now and then. And I'm a very good judge of character, so I want you to try and look me in the eyes and tell me that the idea of having a woman who literally will not lift a finger until you tell her to do so doesn't turn you on at least a little bit, to have such total control over a woman that she is waiting with baited breath for you to give her a command. I'll bet everything I own that you can't." Andy smirked and blushed a little bit. "I'm not sure there's many men who could say that. I certainly wouldn't want that if she didn't want that but,” Nicolette nodded vigorously. "But she does, she absolutely, positively, definitively does want that. From you. I think the biggest challenge you'd have with her is the feelings you'd have when you put the collar on her, because I can tell you, her one and only demand is that you collar her when she arrives, and that she only ever takes the collar off to bathe. I know you're going to have reservations about it, which is why I'm spending so much time reassuring you that this is ultimately what she wants. It's an odd thing for a man who describes himself as a feminist to do, collaring a woman, but realize, you are giving her what she wants “ the ability to not have to think for a bit." Ash grinned a little bit. "You forgot to tell him the final thing." Nicolette held her fingers to her mouth, trying to stifle a giggle once more, as she nodded. She then picked up the remote and clicked the button again, as the image advanced one more time. At first, Andy thought the image was the same, but then he saw it, resting atop of her bound wrists. A first edition of "The Demon Dies At Midnight," a small press book he'd done for himself before he'd started writing the Druid Gunslinger books, in many ways the precursor to the whole series. It was a short novel, more of a novella really, that Andy had written just to sort of test the idea of writing long form fiction, and while it shared some similarities with the Druid Gunslinger books, it was a stand alone tale about a freelance demon hunter who traveled the world, trying to find the demon that had laid a curse on him when he was a child. Andy had used a print on demand service for the book, and only 2000 copies had been sold before he had found a publisher for all his work, starting with the Druid Gunslinger books. His publisher had scooped up the rights to his first book along with the Druid Gunslinger books. Once they did, Andy had stopped the print on demand version of it, so those 2000 were all that was ever going to be printed with that cover, a touch more erotic than the publisher was comfortable with. He'd looked and the first editions were worth several hundred dollars on the secondary market now, even though copies of the second edition, the one done by his current publisher with its less racy cover, were available for ten bucks. "She's a fan of yours, Master, going back to the beginning. You can't see it, but that copy of your book is signed, by you, when you were doing signings in Santa Cruz." "She would've been living in Chicago when that book came out!" Andy laughed. "So you can't me she's been a fan of mine since then." "Oh, she bought it on the secondary market a couple of years ago, when she first started getting into your writing, long before I met you. She said it was worth it to have the original rather than a second edition. She reads loads and loads of sci fi and fantasy, but says you're an excellent writer, one of her favorites. When she found out you were my Master, she begged and pleaded with me to find some way for her to be able to join me. I told her I would keep my eye open for an opportunity, but that I didn't want to be disrespectful and ask you on my own." Andy clicked his tongue, shaking his head. "I told you that you could come to me with anything, Nicolette." "I know you did, Master, and thank you for that, but you have been wall to wall busy since you first arrived here a month or so ago, and there just never seemed to be an opportune moment until Hannah started talking to us about you being able to request people, which brings us all up to speed, here and now," she said, gesturing to the image behind her. "I don't just think she's an obvious yes, Master, I think she's the most obvious yes. And if you need a little help stoking the fires of the shades of a controlling bastard that hide inside that warm soul, you know I'm always willing to lend a hand or whatever you might need. Whitney and I have played together sexually before, and if she comes here, I have no doubt that she and I will be play partners again. You have a lot of amazing women on offer for you here, but this one has to be a slam dunk. Thanks for giving me the chance to introduce you to my best friend, and I can't wait to hear you tell me to invite her over." The maid pressed the button and the image of Whitney disappeared to be replaced by "Next: Niko" in white letters on a black background as she stood up and made her way to the door. Andy leaned over to Aisling. "Give me 5 10 minutes, okay?" Aisling grinned and nodded. "You're the boss, boss." He stood up quickly and made his way out into the hallway, closing the door behind him, as he moved quickly to catch up to Nicolette, just as she was about to reach the stairwell leading upstairs. "One sec, Nicolette," Andy said, "I have one more question for you." Nicolette smiled as she turned back to him, standing at the edge of the stairs. "Of course, Master, what can I " As soon as he was within reach of her, he grabbed her by the waist and spun her around, bending her forward until her back was nearly perpendicular with the wall, lifting her dress up and tugging her panties aside with one hand, unbuttoning his jeans with another. Before it even dawned on her what was happening, he lined the head of his cock up against her snatch and just shoved forward with one rough, penetrating thrust, sinking hilt deep as a groan was ripped from her throat, deep and sultry. "Was this what you wanted?" "Fuck yes, Master!" she whined, as he drew back and then thrust forward again with a harsh shove, forcing her cunt to swallow up his cock. Her hands reached before her, trying to brace herself, as he reached forward and grabbed her by the throat, making her stand upright, even while scooting forward as best she can, until her tits were mashed against the wall, her face tilted towards the ceiling, when he drew back and then punched forward again. "Is it wrong of me that your filthy little fuckmaid has been fingering her sloppy cunt thinking of her Master slamfucking her best friend?" Andy couldn't help but laugh about that, as he drew back again. "Is that the only thing you've been thinking about?" "Fuck!" she whimpered as he railed her again, lifting one of her legs to allow him to penetrate a little bit deeper. "You know that it isn't, Master. Your bratty little slut thinks about you all the time, imagining her Master doing so many dirty things to her." He shifted his hips a little bit, making sure he was good and slick, before he pulled her away from the wall and then moved her over to a table, forcing her forward, yanking her panties down to her ankles before tugging it off of her entirely. He grabbed the lacy underthing in his hand and then bent her over the table, pushing her knees to make her get a little bit lower, and before it could even register what he was doing, the head of his thick cock pressed against the rosebud of her asshole and just sunk through, greasing its way deep inside of her ass, lubed up with the drippy juices from her cunt. "Fuck oh fuck oh fuck you're fucking thick, Master, that's such a big fucking cock you've shoved up my tight young ass!" Nicolette whimpered, her voice squealing upward in pitch until it was a shrill shriek, more like a siren than a person. "I've been dreaming about being your stuffed little buttslut, Master, so just fucking hammer me already!" Andy had a weird notion, and he decided to follow through on it, as he reached around and stuffed Nicolette's panties into her mouth, and he could swear she clamped down even more tightly in excitement. Her hands were free, so if she wanted to, she could've pulled them out any moment. And yet, she didn't. Instead, the moans burbling from her throat grew more intense, her hips trying to push her ass back into his firm thrusts as much as she could. She was throwing her body back at him any which way she was able, but for the most part, she was simply getting railed, keeping as much of his cock buried inside of her ass for as much of the time as she could. After a minute or so, she started spasming and clamping down on his cock, and he couldn't resist, so he unloaded a heavy load of cum into her asshole, sweat dripping from his forehead against the back of her neck, until he softened enough to slip out of that tight pucker. When he leaned back, he tucked his cock away and pulled up his boxers and jeans, zipping them up, a wry smile on his lips as Nicolette turned around, an incredibly satisfied look upon her face. She pulled her panties from her mouth and that wild grin was the happiest he'd ever seen on Nicolette's face before. "Now that is how you fucking use me, Master," she purred with as much sensuality as she could. "And you have fucking earned keeping these for a bit." She leaned forward and tucked her panties into the front pocket of his jeans. "And don't worry, I'll fish them out of the laundry later." She tipped her head up and kissed him for a moment. "Thanks so much for that! Jesus! Au revoir!" Andy took his hand and wiped sweat from his forehead and grinned a bit to himself as he watched her head up the stairs. "Well then. Job done." When Andy headed back into the room, he found Aisling waiting with a shit eating smirk on her face. "Got your release valve off with the hired help?" she teased. Andy blushed a little bit, realizing that the door wasn't all that thick, and that he had taken Nicolette not all that far from the room, but then he decided he had nothing to be embarrassed about. "Look, she made it abundantly clear what she wanted from me, and so I damn well gave it to her," he said with a laugh, as he moved to sit down in his chair. "It had been over a week for her anyway, so she was due. You can tell Niko we're ready for her now." Niko was practically coming through the door when he said it. "She already knows. She was enjoying listening in on you giving Nicolette exactly what's she's been waiting for for a week now," she giggled. "And she, uh, I, I'm here now. How's presentations been so far?" Andy was about to answer out of reflex when he felt Aisling's hand on his arm, and heard her say, "No dirty snooker from you, missy. He's not tellin' you nuffin'." "He was about to, though," she winked at the redhead. Niko was in her uniform, something Andy had rarely seen her in, even though she wore it nearly every day. When she headed to the base, she always left before he got up, and she changed out of the uniform before she came home, so it was a little surprising to see her decked out in the formal wear. Her hair was up and pinned back, and she even had the chest candy on her uniform, as she'd been known to call it. "Going to present someone from the base?" Andy asked, suspecting it was the reason for the uniform. "You got it," she said, picking up the remote as she pushed a button as the image changed to a rather stern looking blonde woman in her mid forties with a hawkish nose. "I want to introduce you to Captain Tracy Bells, sir. She's a, y'know, we could do the whole thing, Ash, or we could just,” "It's yer call, Niko," the Irish redhead said to her, a conspiratorial grin on her face. Niko nodded, then motioned for Ash to come and join her, which she did, throwing Andy completely off guard. "Look, I'm not pitching Captain Bells to you, Andy," Niko said with a smile. "Because frankly, she's got a giant stick up her ass. I don't really have anyone to pitch you at all, to be frank. That's not why I'm here. It's a pretense." Andy tilted his head to one side. "Then why are you taking up a pitch slot?" "Well, it seemed like the best time that Ash and I could get you all to ourselves. For this," she said, pushing the button, as the image changed. In its place was a selfie that clearly Niko had taken just a day or two earlier, of her and Aisling. They each seemed to be holding something in their free hands, and just as it was dawning on Andy what they were, both girls spoke at the same time. "We're Pregnant!" Andy pointed a finger at Aisling, who nodded, then over at Niko, who nodded as well, then kept jumping his fingertip back and forth between the two of them as they both kept nodding, wild smiles on their faces. "What, both of you?" "Yep!" Niko said, giggling, as both her and Aisling started walking around the table, one on each side of it, closing in on him like a planned maneuver, leaning against the table, pinning him in his spot. "Most of your girls have synched up their time clocks, love," Aisling said, "So it was bound to happen to a couple of us at the same time. Niko and I are just glad it's us first." "Well, we sort of made sure that we were," Niko giggled. "I thought you were both on birth control still!" he said, although the smile on his face made it clear he wasn't upset. "Did everyone stop taking their birth control?" Aisling shook her head. "So far, I think we're the only ones who have." "We both stopped taking them a few months ago," Niko said. "When I started seeing and hearing the horror stories about the hospitals while I was working on base, I knew that this was going to happen, this or something like it, so I told Aisling and we just stopped taking our birth control pills, and well, here we are!" "I ran into town for the tests Saturday morning, and wouldn't you know it, two buns in two ovens, all from one chef!" Aisling said, as Andy wrapped his arms around both of them, hugging them intensely tight. "And you're both happy? I know you both did this intentionally, but sometimes people get second thoughts. I'm not! Getting second thoughts that is. I mean, I'm happy, I promise you I'm happy, but I want to be sure you're both happy." "We're ecstastic, hon," Niko said to him, nuzzling her face against his cheek. "We weren't sure when the best time to tell you would be, but when the whole pitching process started, we wanted to be sure you understood that maybe getting a nanny into the house wasn't such a wild idea." "Who knows?" Andy asked. "Just us and you," Aisling said. "We haven't told anyone yet." Andy kissed Niko, then Aisling, then Niko again, then Aisling again. "It's damn nice to have to some good news for once. So, should we go get lunch and tell the rest of the household?" "Sounds good to me," Andy said. "Niko?" "Absolutely," Niko said. As they headed towards the door, she leaned over and pushed the button on the remote, changing the slide so it was a black screen again with the words "Next: Piper." The last of the girls' pitches to Andy. Chapter 26 Lunch had been great fun. Once Aisling and Niko had told Andy, they'd wanted to tell everyone as soon as possible, so the moment they'd sat down for lunch, they'd told everyone straight out, which had led into a small celebration, and sort of let Andy slip into the background with his thoughts. Sure, the girls all congratulated him, but they were all much more interested in how Niko and Ash were feeling about everything, so Andy could do a little bit of his own research. When he had half a minute, he asked Katie for both more about Lexi, and what she thought of Jade Dillon. He also did a little bit of talking with Sarah about Maya Steele, since clearly they ran in similar circles. When he had a moment, he also pinged Hannah to see if she'd heard anything about Olivia Shoemaker, Asha's "influencer" friend. Finally, he asked Jenny about Katie's ex, Dr. Morgan Fitch. By the end of lunch, he almost wished he'd brought his yellow notepad with him. It was a lot of names, a lot of opinions and thoughts to keep from getting scrambled around in his brain. But his own opinions were starting to bake in, to settle and coalesce into something more solid. His mind was so wrapped up in his thoughts, he almost overlooked how lunch was, as it always was, amazing. He made sure to tell Jenny just how excellent it was, and she said he could thank her by making sure to bring Alexis into the family. He didn't answer her, but his smile probably gave him away. He didn't mind. When they were walking back towards the meeting room, Aisling slipped her arm around his waist, leaned in and kissed his cheek. "You're happy Niko and I are expectin', right, love?" She had a smile on her face, so she was simply reinforcing what she already knew. "Sometimes you can bit understated 'bout these kinds of things." Andy chuckled a little, leaning down to kiss her forehead. "You know that I am, Ash. I'm sorry if I seemed a little distant at lunch. This is just a lot of information to take in all at once, lots of people to consider, lots of decisions to make. Shit, people's lives and livelihoods hang in the balance of my stupid judgment. The decisions I'm going to make tomorrow have real, genuine consequences, things I gotta live with for the rest of my life, and I don't want to let anyone down. Turning anyone down feels like  " "Stop," Ash said, holding him from walking any further. "I told you up front that nobody was going to hold anything against you, and we're all going to honor that. You didn't have to let anyone have a say, and you're letting everyone have a say. That's all anyone has the right to ask of you." She sighed, then laughed for a second. "Jaysis, if it was me, I'd have thrown the towel in and just taken nobody, but you're not doing that, despite the fact that nobody would've blamed you if you did. Instead, you set down what your reasonable capabilities are, and everyone agreed to them. So stop getting in your own damn way and just get on with it already." He had to laugh with her at that point, nodding in agreement. "Okay, okay, I get it. No more moping about this, and no more overthinking it. Just listen to the pitches, make my decisions and move forward with our lives. I'll hold you to nobody being mad, though." "Everybody knows what's coming down the pipeline, Andy," Ash said. "It'll be alright. I promise you, it'll all be alright. Now let's get these last four underway. There's still a few surprises left to spring on you, and it's always fun to watch your expression when you're caught off guard." "What kind of crazy surprises do you have lined up for me?" he said, as Piper strode through the door confidently, dressed in her Team USA gear, some sort of warm up suit. He was certain she wasn't wearing the full Olympian gear underneath it, but the very presence of the outfit seemed designed to send a message. "You should know she doesn't have anything planned for you, Andy," Piper said, smirking at him. "This is all us." "How are you feeling, Piper? Head starting to clear up? Starting to feel more like yourself again?" Andy asked. "A lot better, yeah. The first few days, it was like, I dunno, like I was walking through fog, like every inch of my body was coated in maple syrup," the brunette volleyball player said, looking around the room a bit before looking back at Andy. "I was living in quicksand, but over the last couple of days, all of that's been lifting and I've felt mostly like myself again. I've been trying to get back on my work out regimen, so that's helped some. But I think the further I get away from that state, the better off I'll be." She looked better, there was no denying. Her eyes didn't have the dark, heavy bags underneath them that they had when they first met. She'd also put a little bit of weight back on, but Andy suspected that was because she had been massively dehydrated when they'd first met. He was glad to see her coming back into being her full self. "A couple more weeks and I'll be right as rain again. But that's not why I'm here today." "Yeah, well, it doesn't hurt for me to ask about you first." "Yeah yeah," Piper said, as she picked up the remote, pressing the button as a Nordic looking blonde appeared on the screen. "I don't know how much you follow the Olympics, but if you do, you might recognize my friend Brooke Maloney here. She's being hyped as the next big thing for the woman's swim team. She's going to enter a number of various swim competitions,  breast stroke, freestyle, relay,  but obviously there aren't any games this year, and she's going out of her mind swimming laps in the compound's pool." The blonde, much like Piper, looked fit, although she looked much shorter in comparison, with broader shoulders and a wide smile on her face, sitting at a table full of athletes. Piper pushed the button again and the screen advanced to a new image, one of Piper and Brooke sitting on a blanket at some outdoor concert. "What do you mean 'compound?'" Andy asked. "A lot of the soon to be Olympians were at the US Training Camp, putting in a hard six months before the Olympics," Piper said. "Me and the rest of the volleyball team were going to be diverted there when the lockdown had been going for a few months, but it was deemed 'too risky' for any of us to be moved. Well, up until our dear Mister Covington decided to scoop me up and tried to make me into his own personal plaything. Thanks again for rescuing me from that, by the by." "I'm just glad you're not mad it's me you're bound to." "We've been over this, Andy," she sighed, a polite smile on her face. "I'm happy it was someone as nice as you. Let's move things forward. Now, one of the dirty little secrets you may not have heard about the Olympics is that after an athlete competes in their particular event, they go back to the Olympic village and they let off all that pent up steam that's been building in them for years. I haven't had a chance to experience myself personally, but our trainers and coaches have been telling us about it for as long as we've been old enough to hear the stories. I don't need that pressure valve any more because, well, I have you. But my friend Brooke, well, she doesn't have that." She pushed the button and the image advanced to another picture of Brooke, this time in Daisy Duke cutoff jean shorts, a white tied up shirt and a wide brimmed stetson hat, somewhere at a country bar, a Corona in hand with a lime. Her blonde hair was done up in short pigtails, which looked odd on her by Andy's reckoning. "Brooke and I have been friends for a couple of years now, and believe me, the Olympics is literally all she thinks about," Piper said. "She wants to win gold medals so much it, it's eating her up inside. Now with the 2020 games being pushed back until at least 2021, she's going out of her mind, like a predator able to see its prey under glass but not being allowed to hunt it." Piper pushed the button and the picture changed to an image of Brooke leaning against a Shelby Cobra, dressed in overalls, covered in grease, a wrench in her hand. "Her only other real passion is classic cars. She's something of a gearhead, and any time she's not training, she's working on cars. She's done more than a couple frame off restorations and more than a handful of heavy mods. She's had a couple of boyfriends over the years, but they never last all that long." "So what's she like in the sack, Pipes?" Ash asked her. "She's about as vanilla as they come," Piper answered. "She likes things slow and steady, smooth and soft. But she'll be a good lover, and a good friend." "Complications you anticipate?" Andy asked. "You're from pretty different worlds, but I've often been told that opposites attract, so maybe that won't be as big an issue as I think it might be," she shrugged. "You're pretty rock'n'roll, and she's a country girl at heart. You're a big city guy and she's a small town girl. She's at church every Sunday and I'm pretty sure you're an aethist. So maybe that's all too much to scale, but then again maybe it isn't. I'm sure whatever you decide, it'll be the right decision." Piper pushed the button and the screen advanced again, back to a black screen, with the words "Next: Sarah" in a cartoonish white lettering. "Any reason you didn't suggest any of the other girls from your volleyball team, just out of curiosity?" Andy asked. "I would've figured they would've been some of your best friends." The brunette smirked, flashing him a little wink. "Oh they are, but there's no way in hell I'm sharing my man with the likes of them. Let'em find their own hunk and they can keep their sticky fingers off of mine." With that, Piper headed out of the room, leaving the door open behind her, striding confidently down the hallway. "So, just to warn you about the next one, Andy, we do know in advance that you have met her a couple of times, but in the pictures we've seen, you always looked friendly, so we're going off that," Aisling said to him, as she texted Sarah to head to the conference room. "If we're wrong in those assumptions, ye can tell us and we'll let the matter drop then and there." "Oh yeah?" Andy said, suddenly wondering what familiar face was going to grace the screen in moments. "Where do I know her from?" The Irish redhead waggled a finger in his direction. "Just be patient, love. She'll up and in front o' ya in just a minute or two." Andy rolled his eyes with a grin. "Then what's the harm in telling me early?" "The harm is Sarah will have my tits in a wringer if I spill the goss before she's here." "Good lord, you girls and your secrets," he muttered in amusement. The statuesque redhead arrived moments later, and she immediately came over to hug Aisling, a giggle slipping from Sarah's mouth. "Congrats again, Ash," Sarah said to her. "I didn't want to say it in front of the others, but I am totally fucking jealous of you right now, you wouldn't even fucking believe me how jealous I am. Today is obviously the day I stop taking my birth control, because, damn, my clock is ticking, girlfriend." Ash shook her head with a mischievous grin. "You don't want to wait until you're a little more settled in first, Sarah? Or until you're married?" Sarah pulled back from the hug, looking over at Andy, licking her lips with a wild smile. "Shit, if I thought I could get him to do it, I'd beg him to fuck me until I was knocked up right here on this table, right here and now. But I've only got ten minutes, so maybe I should just get to the presentation." Andy gestured to the remote with a smile. "Maybe." "One thing first, though." Sarah had come into the meeting in a dress skirt and a dark red silk blouse, but she turned around, did something, then turned back, bringing a glistening finger to Andy's lips before the actress slipped it into his mouth, and he could taste her cunt on it. "Just so you know how much the idea of you breeding me turns me on." She winked at him as she pulled her fingertip from his lips and walked back to the other side of the table. "On with the show, Sares," Aisling poked. "Yeah, totes, Ash, I'm getting' there." Sarah picked up the remote and clicked the button, as the screen behind her flickered to life. "Oh look! It's you! And you're with one of my other total favorite writers, Larissa Cotton!" Andy immediately recognized the shot. It was taken about five years ago, at DragonCon. Andy hadn't wanted to go, but he'd been nominated for a Hugo, an award he'd ended up winning, for "Behind The Darkest Sky," the most successful of the Druid Gunslinger novels, partially because it was the most risky of the books. When Andy had written it, he'd almost thought it might be the end of the series if it didn't work, if the audience didn't trust him to stick around long enough to see the story continue in the next one. He'd left the Gunslinger in a hell of a mess at the end of the book, and while he was over half way through writing the next one when "Behind The Darkest Sky" had come out, he'd still been in a very nervous place about going to a convention. At the Hugo awards for the night, he'd found himself sat with a handful of authors he hadn't met before that night, including Larissa Cotton, a Hispanic woman from Portland who'd written an amazing book called "Ions At Dawn," a technothriller about a woman who finds herself grappling with an archaeological find that threatens to rewrite the basic underpinnings of science. Andy had read all the nominees and found her book fascinating, although maybe a bit too heady for the average reader. Larissa was nothing like any writer he'd ever met before. She was brash, confident, boisterous and outspoken, the loudest presence in any room, and yet, never in a harsh way. She was a plus sized woman, thick but not in an unappealing way. The silver hoop in her nose had been a little off putting, and Andy had found the overwhelming number of tattoos more than a little distracting, almost perhaps no more than the goth Lolita look meets skater punk she'd been rocking at the party. They'd gotten along reasonably well, although Larissa had gotten rip roaringly drunk by the end of the night. Andy and a couple of others had needed to help her back to her hotel room, since she was nearing blackout stages by the end of the night. Andy and Larissa had reminded occasionally in contact since then, but they certainly weren't what Andy would describe as close. They'd met up a couple of times in the years since, but generally it had just been if they'd been in the same town, and then only within a group of people. "Larissa lives up in Portland," Andy said. "Sure, but that can change," Sarah said. "I mean, Emily and I both lived in LA until we moved here. Asha's lived most of her life in London and Piper spent most of her life in Florida. People move, Andy. That can't be an excuse." "Well, no," Andy laughed, "but she was also engaged last I heard." "Wait, what?" Sarah asked. "I talked to her like three months ago, and she didn't mention it, and I didn't see any engagement ring." He shrugged. "Maybe I misheard, or maybe they called it off. It was a couple of years ago, when a bunch of us were getting drunk after our ComicCon panels. She said she'd just sold the film adaptation rights to 'Ions At Dawn' to somebody and we all went out to celebrate." Aisling nodded. "She sold the rights to Sarah, as a matter of fact." The taller redhead pushed the button on the remote and the screen advanced to an image of Sarah and Larissa at a conference table shaking hands. "My production company, Awkward & Dorky Films, to be more specific. We agreed to let her give us a first draft if she agreed to go through the notes and revisions process without too many complaints." "Heh," Andy smirked. "And 'Ris agreed to that? Talk about being prickly to editors. She damn near took my head off when she had me read a first draft of her third book, 'Castle of Yesterdays,' and I gave her notes on it." "It totally couldn't have been as bad as you're making it out to be, Andy," Sarah teased. "Don't be such a baby. Suck it up." "I believe she told me that I could roll up my notes and shove them into my cock until I was crapping them out," he said. "Fuck," Sarah muttered. "You must've been really hard in those notes." "Not really?" He shrugged a little. "I mean, I offered some opinions and I told her that a couple of the chapters went on too long with nothing happening, and that the climax felt overly weak but that it was a great first draft. I mean, I liked the book a lot. But that's what you do with first drafts,  show them to someone, figure out what works and what doesn't, then make a real book out of it." "I liked 'Castle of Yesterdays,' though, Andy!" Sarah whined. "Sure!" he said, waggling a finger at her. "You just read the final version, which went through about six revisions. And, for what it's worth, she ended up using most of my notes. I mean, I didn't hold it against her that she didn't like getting notes. Every author can be a little bit of a prima donna sometimes." "Well, as of July, I don't think she was married or engaged or whatever, and she's completely rad. Also, you two get along, because you've obviously gone out for dinner and drinks before, and she trusted you enough to let you read her first draft of a new book, so that seems good enough to me, don't you think?" "I mean, we weren't close friends, but we were, er, are friendly acquaintances. I don't know that either of us thought the other was their type, though. She seemed to be into people who were way more of the 80s skateboard punk ethos than me." "You saw her with a man at some point?" "Oh yeah," Andy said, "Well, no. I mean, not directly, but she showed me a picture of her and 'her man,' she called him. He was big, fit fellow. Broad shoulders, six pack. About as far from me as any man can possibly get. He looked like he could've bench pressed me for hours without breaking a sweat, and she, well, she looked happy." Sarah shrugged a little bit. "Whoever he was, Andy, he completely didn't last, because when she and I were meeting to discuss our notes for the screenplay, she was sniping about how she hadn't had a proper lay in months. So big and hunky didn't work for her, so maybe you could. I know she thinks you're cute. I told her I had a crush on you and she said 'Well, who could blame you?' so I think she does too." "How well do you know her, Sarah?" The taller redhead shrugged. "Not all that well, but she's been nice to me, and she's someone you know, so maybe that could be something that would work for you." "Do you have any idea whether or not we'd be sexually compatible?" Sarah shrugged with a smile. "It's never come up, so I don't have any idea." "Possible challenges?" "Two writers in the same room might always want to be editing one another?" she giggled. "I genuinely don't know, Andy. But I thought it was a good idea so I wanted to suggest it." "Fair enough then." "One last thing before I go," Sarah said, pushing the button to advance the screen to an image that read "next: Sheridan" on it in a frilly cursive font. "I was telling you at lunch that I think bringing Maya Steele into the family is a great idea, so I wanted to stress that while I haven't changed my mind on that, I did forget to tell you not to ever get into a drinking contest with her. Your head will hurt and your liver will be punching you for days." "And yet, you still think I should bring her in?" Sarah nodded emphatically. "Maya's a bad ass, and you need someone as direct as her in your life. I mean, Neeks handles most of that, but really, Maya's got her beat hands down." "Are you trying to convince me not to bring her in? Someone more direct than Niko?" "It'll be fine, Andy," Sarah said, flipping her hair with one hand. "I already know you're going to pick her, so trust me when I tell you that is the correct decision to make." "And if that isn't the decision I'm making?" "Then you're being a fucking idiot and you'd better come to your senses before your final decision, because no man should be allowed to be that fucking stupid. Obvs. But I know you're totally not and you're really just fucking with me, and that's cool," she said as she walked around the table before leaning down and kissing him firmly, pressing her lips against his for a long moment. "Have fun with the rest of the pitches!" As Sarah walked out of the room, Aisling shook her head while sending the message to Sheridan for her to make her way up to the pitch room. "It can be very hard to remember she's been nominated for an Oscar when she acts like that," the smaller redhead said. "But I guess it's part of her 'girl next door' charm. Anyway, what did you think? You're not mad about Sarah pitching Larissa?" "Why would I be mad?" he laughed. "I just don't know that it'd work. But it's something I'll definitely consider when I'm doing my deliberations, especially since Sarah seems to think Larissa might be into me. I never got that vibe, but  " "But it's well established you barely know a woman's into you even when she's sitting in your lap and whispering into your ear that she wants you to fuck her brains out." Andy gave her a disapproving smirk. "I'm not that bad." "You're not far from it, anyway." Sheridan came strolling into the room, wearing what she had at lunch, far less dressed up than most of the girls, wearing jean shorts over a leotard or a swimsuit, her frizzy blonde hair mostly tucked back, damp but not soaked. Andy half wondered if she'd been swimming in the pool while she'd been waiting. Sheridan had been known to enjoy swimming, even though the weather was dipping into the cooler side. Since her job as a performer was on hold until the pandemic was under control, she'd done her best to find ways to occupy her time. "Heya stud," she said with a wink as she wandered over to sit down in the chair. "I'm not gonna ask you if you've made decisions yet, but I am gonna ask how you're feeling about the process so far. It's hella cool that you're giving us input into that, and it's a big deal, so thanks for that. Anyway, I think you're gonna find my friend a wild ride." "Let's get to it then," Andy said. Sheridan picked up the remote and pushed the button as the screen popped to life, a image of Sheridan sitting with a young woman in her late 20s or early 30s, with jet black hair and skin the color of desert sand. She was a little more on the plump side, with a mischievous smile. They were sitting at a wood table on the patio of some local bar. "This is my friend Tala Jordan," the blonde said. "Her parents immigrated here from Iran in 1970. We met in high school and became besties. She's the one who talked me into quitting smoking. We were roommates in college down at Santa Cruz and we've been roomies on and off again since we both graduated in 2012." "Why do I feel like I've seen her somewhere before?" Andy said, the woman's face looking vaguely familiar in a way he simply couldn't place. "You go to a lot of concerts, Andy?" "Some." "Well, then she's probably been singing with an opening band you've seen at a concert." Sheridan pushed the button and the image advanced, showing Tala playing an electronic keyboard on a stand, and singing into a microphone. He recognized the stage as The Independent, a small but influential club in San Francisco that also tended to get some big name acts. "Boom Goes The Dynamite, Castle Idea, The Grendelles, Lowball Skyscrapers, Girls Gone Danger, hell, probably at least half a dozen more that I can't remember. Every time I talk to her, it seems like she's got some new band she's playing with." "What does she do when she's not playing in a band?" Aisling asked. Andy was certain she probably already knew the answer to the question and was simply asking for his benefit. "She's a carpenter," Sheridan said, pushing a button to advance to a slide of Tala working on a desk. "More specifically, she's a cabinetmaker, most of the time, anyway. She and a couple of her friends opened their own custom furniture house about five years ago, and people really like their stuff, because that's kept her afloat while living in the Bay, although to be fair, she's also gotten a very specific kind of clientele as of late." "What's that?" Andy asked. Sheridan pushed the button again, and the new image showed Tala sitting on top of a desk with dozens of shelves, a hutch atop it that had a number of closed doors on it. "She's become a puzzle maker. Custom puzzle boxes, puzzle desks, that kind of thing. It's a weird little niche, but it pays incredibly well, and she's made stuff for people like Kris Angel, Neil Patrick Harris and Elon Musk. Those projects usually take a month or two's worth of work, but they pay for an entire year or two's worth of mortgage, so she's okay with it." "Fascinating. What's she like as a person?" "She's wicked smart and very funny." She pushed the button and the image advanced again, showing the two of them standing on the Golden Gate bridge, their backs to the Bay. It must have been extremely windy on the day the picture was taken, because both women were doing their best to keep their hair from flying all over the place. Both girls were clearly laughing hysterically. "Some people think she can come across as a bit mean, but they just don't recognize she's only busting their balls a bit. She always told me that the Persian sense of humor can go over the heads of people not smart enough to keep up with her, and that she doesn't mind. She's a lot like Niko, and considering how much you and she get along, I think you'll dig Tala loads." Andy nodded. "Do you think she and I would be sexually compatible? What's she want out of a man?" Sheridan grinned from ear to ear and Andy immediately wondered what he'd said to trigger such a reaction. "If you had asked me two weeks ago, I would've given you an entirely different answer than the one I can give you today, dude. So when I told her about the whole imprinting process, and all about the accident we had with me getting primed early, I expected to see Tala be hella concerned about me, but instead, she got this freaky look on her face, and I realized about half way through my story that she was jilling off, while I told her about it. It turned her on so much she just couldn't help it," the blonde said, licking her lips with wolfish delight. "I'd never known before, but she's always had this pheromone fetish. Like, she gets turned on by the idea of being so turned on that she doesn't have control of her self, that she's turned into some carnal unstoppable beast who is going to fuck even if she has to move hell to get it." Andy swallowed a mouthful of air awkwardly. "When I told her about your first encounter with Piper, I swear to god, she fucking came just hearing about it. She wasn't even touching herself at that point, 'cause she was holding the phone with both hands. I asked her about it, and she said she was kinda embarrassed to talk about it, but admitted that it'd always been a fetish of hers. I found out all of this yesterday when I called to ask her if she'd be interested in me putting her forward for a chance to join you." "And I take it that the tales of the imprinting process only enhanced her interest?" "Totes. Obvs she wants to be here, but she also wants you to edge her all the time." "What do you mean edge her?" "She asked what happens when you try and stretch out the amount of time a girl needs to get her dose, and I told her your story about you and Lauren, and she wants to constantly be going towards that state. That turns her on like you wouldn't imagine. So seems to me like you get multiple ticks in the win column by bringing her here." "Possible challenges?" "Well, being quarantined in New Eden's gonna be rough on her, because she's big into spending time with her parents. She moved into their house when the pandemic started, and I know when people come into New Eden, they can't leave until the pandemic's over, so you'll need to make sure she understands that, but I'm betting the idea of getting to live out her number one sexual fantasy, like, all the fucking time might be enough to convince her that her folks will be okay on their own." "How close are you two, Sheridan?" "She's, like, one of my best friends, maybe my best friend, actually. I think you'd like her a lot. I know we haven't spent, like, loads of time together, but she really wants this, and you've got me, and you seem to like me well enough, so maybe you'd like her too, y'know?" Andy nodded with a smile. "Okay then. Thanks for talking to me about her, and I'll be letting everyone know tomorrow what my decisions are." "Yep, I got the spiel on the rules from Ash before we got started, so I know how it works," she said, pressing the button to advance the screen once more, bold white letters reading "next: Taylor" on the black background. "Just remember, while we all gotta live with'em, you're the one who's gonna have to fuck'em every couple of weeks, so don't take anyone you don't wanna dip your wick into on the regular, y'hear?" With that, Sheridan headed out of the room, leaving Andy and Aisling alone in the room again. "I didn't even know there was a fetish for that kind of thing." "You live near San Francisco, love," Aisling teased. "You more than anyone should know there's a fetish for every kind of thing. And nobody's judging. If it's not your thing, no problem. If it turns you on thinking about it, no problem. To thine own self be true, like Polonius said." "You know it's meant to be bad advice when he says it in Hamlet, right?" Andy replied. "Don't be such a geezer about it." "I'm a writer, Ash. Being a geezer about the English language is right there in the job description." Taylor knocked on the door, and had to be told twice to come in. She was actually dressed in clothing now, Lauren obviously having made an exception for the day, as the girl was still in her time of punishment. Andy wasn't sure that Lauren would make her go the whole month, but as of yet, the Aussie had shown no sign of suddenly doling out leniency. Taylor had on a pair of gym shorts and a white muscle t shirt that did very little to mask her impressive bust, but her hair was drawn back into a modest ponytail, high on her head, done up in a scrunchy. "So I'm the last one, huh?" she said, as she came into the room, looking at the chair then looking at Andy expectantly. "Sit, sit," Andy said. "If she's letting you get dressed to pitch, I'm sure she's fine with you sitting in a chair while you go through the whole process. And if she wasn't, I'm certain she would have said something." "Yeah, I guess you're right," Taylor said, finally moving to sit down in the chair. "Uh, hi! I did want to be sure and say thank you for letting us all do this, sir. I know you've been a little overwhelmed by all the female attention you've been getting, but it's very kind of you to allow us to suggest our friends to you, to make this home a little more like home." "Just as long as none of you get mad if I don't choose the people you pitch," Andy said. Taylor's bright blue eyes widened and she shook her head. "Oh,

In this episode of TechMagic, hosts Cathy Hackl and Adam Davis McGee dive into the cutting edge of spatial computing, AI, and extended reality. Lee is on sick leave this week and we wish him a speedy recovery! Join Cathy and Adam as they unpack Meta's XR partnership with Palmer Luckey, Snap's smart glasses ambitions, and Apple's sleek AR design strategy. Cathy dives into the strange world of vibe coding and discovers anyone can gamify the pitfalls of the dating scene. The conversation also explores AI dating experiments, haptic tech in entertainment, and the evolving ethics of privacy in a spatially connected world. With insights from AWE and ILMxLAB, the hosts reflect on the shift from storytelling to “story living” and highlight key legislation shaping AI security. A must-listen for anyone tracking the future of tech-human interaction.Come for the tech, stay for the magic!Cathy Hackl BioCathy Hackl is a globally recognized tech & gaming executive, futurist, and speaker focused on spatial computing, virtual worlds, augmented reality, AI, strategic foresight, and gaming platforms strategy. She's one of the top tech voices on LinkedIn and is the CEO of Spatial Dynamics, a spatial computing and AI solutions company, including gaming. Cathy has worked at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Magic Leap, and HTC VIVE and has advised companies like Nike, Ralph Lauren, Walmart, Louis Vuitton, and Clinique on their emerging tech and gaming journeys. She has spoken at Harvard Business School, MIT, SXSW, Comic-Con, WEF Annual Meeting in Davos 2023, CES, MWC, Vogue's Forces of Fashion, and more. Cathy Hackl on LinkedInSpatial Dynamics on LinkedInAdam Davis-McGee BioAdam Davis-McGee is a dynamic Creative Director and Producer specializing in immersive storytelling across XR and traditional media. As Senior Producer at Journey, he led the virtual studio, pioneering cutting-edge virtual experiences. He developed a Web3 playbook for Yum! Brands, integrating blockchain and NFT strategies. At Condé Nast, Adam produced engaging video content for Wired and Ars Technica, amplifying digital storytelling. His groundbreaking XR journalism project, In Protest: Grassroots Stories from the Frontlines (Oculus/Meta), captured historic moments in VR. Passionate about pushing creative boundaries, Adam thrives on crafting innovative narratives that captivate audiences worldwide.Adam Davis-McGee on LinkedInKey Discussion Topics:00:00 Intro: Welcome to Tech Magic with Cathy Hackl06:33 Meta's Eagle Eye: Military XR Partnership with Palmer Luckey14:05 Apple's Liquid Glass: Paving the Way for AR Glasses17:25 Haptic Innovation: Apple's F1 Movie Trailer Experience19:18 Human vs AI: Why F1 Racing Needs the Human Element22:27 Browser History Dating: AI's Latest Match-Making Experiment26:27 Snap's Vision: Consumer Smart Glasses Coming in 202631:27 From Storytelling to Story Living: ILMxLAB's Immersive Future33:54 Closing Thoughts: Summer Break Announcement Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Buckle up Fans! We're kicking off Mass-Mass a little early with our latest & greatest/ most-unhinged fan theories from the SJM Universe! Buckle up Fans! The Fan Girls are ready to Dish & Spill the Tea on the hit Marvel Movie "Thunderbolts"! Buckle up fans! The Fan Girls Podcast is headed to Amazing Comic Con Las Vegas at the Plaza Hotel, June 20–22, 2025! And I'm over the moon to announce that I'm hosting my first ever Comic Con panel! ✨ Fandom Forensics: The Art & Science of the Fandom Fan Theory ✨ Get ready for a TED Talk-style interactive panel where we'll dive into how fan theories are born, how they blow up online, and how they bring fandom communities together. Expect fun games, prizes, creative TikTok + Instagram tips, and a whole lot of fandom chaos. Come for the crazy theories, stay for the community — and maybe leave with a few new ideas (and friends) of your own! Get your tickets today at the Amazing Comicon.com for an Amazing weekend of fun and fandom! https://www.amazingcomiccon.com/

Hello Everybody This week, Ed talks about reviewing AnimeConUK Birmingham 2025 by discussing The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of the event. We chat about the variety stalls, activities to do, the flow of traffic, their creator passes and an ugly of the event! That Maid Cafe Photo Feat: KirkWall Cosplay Instagram // TikTok // BlueSky Music credit – Hotshot, produced by Scott Holmes Artwork by khemmings94 To support my podcast, please visit our Patreon page Food And Cosplay Links Website // Instagram // Twitter // Facebook // Threads

I asked NotebookLM to generate a little NPR style Segment about my posts on Substack.In this sweeping overview, Chris Abraham dives into the key themes explored across 46 Substack entries—spanning American politics, culture, power, belief, and even Barovian necromancy. This episode offers a distilled map of Chris's evolving thought: from metaphors of cosplay and empire, to the weaponization of empathy and the strange resilience of populism. It's part debrief, part polemic, and part spiritual reckoning.Key Themes Covered:

Frank and Mere get a taste of Italy with the delightful Echelon community member Elisabetta Baglio, aka Purple Friend Bear. We talk tiramisu, cappuccino rules, shoutouts, pupdates, and the pure joy of working out! The Disney Virtual Challenge through Echelon is out and people are receiving their medals and completing their 5Ks which we discuss along with Comic Con (somebody on this podcast has been and shares some really cool pictures), and the new 5 favorites we all should prepare our answers for in case a small child asks

Hasbro's Halloween Star Wars reveal has collectors scratching their heads like, “What is this, Shiz?” Plus, McFarlane Toys is giving ROSS an exclusive Superman figure. Basically the toy equivalent of tipping your garbage man. And Hasbro is Sauron over California with this Comic-Con exclusive Savage Land 3-Pack. It's The Reluctant Adult Podcast. Email TheReluctantAdultPodcast@gmail.com Save and get Free Shipping on Entertainment Earth TikTok @TheReluctantAdultPodcast Instagram @TheReluctantAdultPodcast Twitter @Reluctant_Pod Facebook The Reluctant Adult Podcast YouTube The Reluctant Adult Podcast Paul's eBay Auctions  

Zapraszamy na odcinek numer 123, gdzie trochę przeskakujemy między różnymi tematami udając jednocześnie, że to wszystko trzyma się kupy

Its that magical time of year, when all the games are announced, and the big 3 come together! I'm talking about, wait, no, E3 is gone, but its spirit lives on, in this disjointed days of virtual press conferences. Xbox had their Games Showcase and didn't show any of the tentpoles, Summer Games Fest knocked it out of the park with Resident Evil 9, and IGN Live tried to fill in some gaps. Plus, The Phoenician Scheme, Predator Killer of Killers, and Ballerina from the World of John Wick all get reviewed.

Could producing a film be a smarter way to handle your next tax bill than simply writing a check to the IRS? In this episode, Angel Williams is joined by Brian Baniqued, a multi-industry entrepreneur who shares how he blends real estate, finance, and entertainment to create tax-efficient income streams. From leveraging depreciation on laser cutters to investing in movie productions to offset seven-figure tax bills, Brian walks through the mindset and mechanics of using entertainment ventures as a vehicle for wealth preservation. He also explains how his love for comic books and collectibles led him to Saudi Arabia to help organize the first Stan Lee Comic-Con in Riyadh—all while building strategic tax shelters.   [00:01 - 04:42] From Real Estate to Tax Strategy Why identifying the motivation behind a purchase helps structure win-win deals How tax shelters and depreciation play a central role in his strategy The importance of viewing homes and investments as income tools, not just assets   [04:43 - 08:26] How Movies Can Offset Millions in Taxes What qualifies a movie production for dollar-for-dollar tax deductions Why films are ideal vehicles due to long production timelines and capital-intensive The significance of combining entertainment with savvy financial timing   [08:27 - 12:05] Comic-Cons and Career Crossovers What his experience in Saudi Arabia's Stan Lee Comic-Con taught him about dealmaking Why pursuing personal interests can lead to unexpected financial opportunities How the entertainment space connects with licensing, merchandise, and IP revenue   [12:06 - 16:16] Monetizing Hobbies and Building Networks How personal passions evolve into business partnerships What the significance of genuine interest is in professional networking Why exposure to multiple communities accelerates entrepreneurial growth   [16:17 - 22:15] Tax Rebates, Real Estate, and Risk Reduction What the state rebate process looks like for film investors How to time capital deployments to maximize write-offs and minimize audit risk The importance of understanding where you sit in the capital stack   Connect with Brian:   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-baniqued-83637530/     Key Quotes:   “You're going to pay it anyway—so why not pay it into something that can park and potentially make a return?” - Angel Williams   “If you're sitting on a big tax bill, a movie production can be a parking lot that turns into a springboard.” - Brian Baniqued     Visit sponsorcloud.io/contact today and unlock $2,000 of free services exclusively for REI Rocks community members! Get automated syndication and investor relationship management tools to save time and money. Mention your part of the REI Rocks community for exclusive offers. Help make affordable, low-cost education summits possible. Check out Sponsor Cloud today!

We've got mail! Jonathan and Honey answer your questions about cinema, films, family and everything in between. This week, the pair discuss why almost every Netflix original looks cheap but glossy, Jonathan remembers a Comic Con mishap involving Rhys Ifans, and the two discuss what would happen if there was a family artichoke theft?Let us know what you think! You can get involved by emailing us at reeltalk@global.com and follow us on Instagram on @reeltalkrossThanks for listening. Listen and subscribe to Reel Talk on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this high-octane episode, the Geoholics gang sits down with forensic legend turned Leica laser-scanning maestro, Ryan Rezzelle—a man who's equally comfortable at a quadruple homicide scene and in full cosplay at Comic-Con. From his roots in shrinking Erie, PA (home of the world's coldest windchill and warmest hearts), Ryan walks us through a career that spans 800+ homicide investigations, NCAA football, and selling cutting-edge 3D tech like it's hotcakes at a garage sale. Oh—and he once solved a case involving a live grenade. Casual. Career plot twist: Ryan swapped body bags for point clouds and now helps AEC pros digitize the built world, proving that real superheroes don't always wear capes—sometimes they wear high-viz and sell scanning systems. His passions? Hosting 1,000+ movie nights, running an eBay shop, and blogging as the “Reel Rhino”—because who wouldn't need Batman-level escapism after years of CSI work? Plus: we get tech tips, tales of courtroom drama, Leica learning curves, and an inspiring look at the future of digital forensics. Whether you're a geospatial geek, true crime addict, or cinephile with a Leica wish list—this episode's got something for you. Music by Everclear!!!

Mervyn and Nicki dive into the nitty-gritty of convention schedule logistics, which might be helpful for artists who are starting out.  Mervyn discusses some of the history of Artist Alley and advocates for corner booth supremacy as Nicki warns people against heading out the same day as a convention ends (at least if you can help it!) and keeping your eyes peeled for local, non-convention events to participate in.

Irina and Michelle continue their conversation with Southern attorney Kate, which traces the aftermath of her discovery of Doug's true identity. Just how dangerous was Doug? How did Kate unmask him and get away relatively quickly? And how did his cat blow Doug's cover when he was trying to run an empathy scam on one of his sugar babies?? For all that and more on the denouement of a supervillain's tale and Kate's exit from it, tune into part 2 of this caper!SOTI ep. 82: The Comic Con Artist with Kate (Part 1) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hasbro lit up Ghostbusters Day with a tease of more Ecto Glow Ghostbusters, proving once again that when it comes to nostalgia, Hasbro ain't afraid of no fan service. Plus, AMC is tempting moviegoers with a 17-inch Galactus popcorn bucket. Because if you're lining up for Fantastic Four, that might be the only head you're getting. And NECA's Comic-Con exclusive has the Turtles ready to hang 10. But at this point, maybe it's time to just hang it up. It's The Reluctant Adult Podcast. Email TheReluctantAdultPodcast@gmail.com Save and get Free Shipping on in-stock items on Entertainment Earth TikTok @TheReluctantAdultPodcast Instagram @TheReluctantAdultPodcast Twitter @Reluctant_Pod Facebook The Reluctant Adult Podcast YouTube The Reluctant Adult Podcast Paul's Amazon Wishlist Bill's Amazon Wishlist

As we stood there on the shore of San Diego Bay taking in the sights of Comic-Con, Clint looked at me and asked, “Darrell, why do you do all of this?” I took a moment and gave him an answer I wasn't happy with then and I'm not happy with now. I told him that I enjoyed being around the celebrities and learning about all the new stuff that's coming out on TV this season. He looked at me with a dissatisfied expression. I've thought a lot about it since then, and here's the truthful answer he deserved that day. I wanted the recognition. I wanted the notoriety. I was motivated heavily by selfish ambitions. The post 649- Understanding Your Why appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Entertainment Podcasts, Technology Podcasts & More.

After a surprise week off (thanks to a Comic Con trip that never happened), the crew is back in the studio—Dan, Frank, and Rich—ready to unpack the latest in sports and stir up some laughs along the way. This episode honors No. 38, the great Kurt Schilling, and kicks off with the hilarious story of how Rich's Dallas Comic Con plans were foiled… by Michelle.Then it's a deep dive into the NBA Playoffs:The Knicks are out, and Dan and Frank break down what went wrong—turnovers, soft defense, and misfired expectations.Thibodeau is out as head coach. Who's in next? Jeff Van Gundy rumors swirl.A Finals preview: Oklahoma City vs. Indiana. Can the Pacers hang? Can OKC's defense carry them?Next up: NHL Stanley Cup Finals – Edmonton wins Game 1 in overtime against Florida. Can Canada finally reclaim the Cup?In MLB:Mets on a roll, but can Lindor's injury shake things up?Yankees look poised to run away with the division.Phillies fall flat vs. Toronto—Frank's calling fraud.Dodgers hold their ground despite injuries.Astros annoy everyone. Cubs and Tigers surprise.Plus: video game ventures gone wrong, Jim Croce's legacy, Peter Frampton shoutouts, and the eternal irony of Lou Gehrig's disease.Special Thanks to:Fox Brothers Alarms - https://foxbrothersalarms.comFirst Baptist church of Phillipsburg NJ http://www.fbcpburg.org/

0:00 Segment 1: Jackie James of London Tea Merchant on moving the London Tea Room facilities to Belleville, Illinoishttps://londonteamerchant.com/ 18:00 Segment 2: Logan, Andy, and Scotty of Mostly Superheroes break down their experience at 2 Rivers Comic Conhttps://mostlysuperheroes.com/ 34:57 Segment 3: Ballerina Trailer https://youtu.be/yNN2PoilSp4?si=NaAZKBPm1sk-GPR3  Joey V. reviews Mission: Impossible - Final ReckoningMore thoughts on 2 Rivers Comic Conhttps://2riverscomiccon.com/ Check out the ‘Justice League Revisited Podcast' with Susan Eisenberg and James Enstall at https://anchor.fm/justiceleague Thanks to our sponsors Historic St. Charles, Missouri (https://www.discoverstcharles.com/), Bug's Comics and Games (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070575531223)Buy Me a Coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/3Y0D2iaZl Patreon -   https://www.patreon.com/GeekToMeRadio Website -   http://geektomeradio.com/   Podcast -   https://anchor.fm/jamesenstall Facebook -   https://www.facebook.com/GeekToMeRadio/  Twitter -   https://twitter.com/geektomeradio  Instagram -   https://www.instagram.com/geektomeradio/ Producer - Joseph Vosevich https://twitter.com/Joey_Vee 

Put on your latex head-cap and grab your Thermian translator — this week, your starfleet of snark is diving headfirst into the unlikely sci-fi cult classic that beamed itself into nerd hearts everywhere. Jordan and Heigl travel back to 1999 to explore how a fake show about fake space heroes somehow made real Trekkies weep with joy — and earned an honorary place alongside the actual Star Trek movies. You'll hear how Leonard Nimoy accidentally inspired the original script, why Kevin Kline (not Buzz Lightyear) was supposed to lead the crew, and how Alan Rickman — literal Shakespearean royalty — somehow found himself next to a farting Tim Allen...and hated every second of it. (So did everyone on the set.) Heigl delves deep into Allen’s pre-fame life as a coke mule with a prison stint under his belt, Jordan talks about psychologic effects of space travel and Orson Welles’ touching friendship with Winston Churchill (for some reason), and they both luxuriate in the decades-long feuds between Star Trek cast members. The pair go on to discuss the worst-dubbed F-bomb in cinematic history, why comedy legend Harold Ramis prematurely departed the project, and all the reasons why the producers were terrified they were going to get sued. You’ll also discover how the film’s parody became prophecy, predicting not just the rise of fandom, but the emotional power of obsessive nerdery years before Comic-Con went corporate. So whether you’re a diehard fan or just here for the fart jokes, this one’s for you. By Grabthar’s Hammer — it’s podcast time! Support your friendly neighborhood TMI Guys here! https://ko-fi.com/toomuchinformationpodcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

¿Qué pasó en CCXP MX? TUDUM trae una avalancha de anuncios. ¡Sorpresa! Hay cambio de Doctor Who. Fallece el compositor Alf Clausen. Marvel no va a la Comic Con. Y más. Recuerda seguirnos en redes sociales: https://linktr.ee/lacuevadelnerd Para comentarios, escríbenos a contacto@lacuevadelnerd.com Visita http://lacuevadelnerd.com para más noticias y reseñas. No olvides suscribirte para recibir notificaciones de nuevos programas.

Fretz talks about Niagara Falls Comic-Con and reviews Monday Night Raw from May 12, 1997. The night after In Your House Cold Day in Hell. A historic episode where Paul Bearer threatens Undertaker with a secret only they know. Also Faarooq cuts a racially charged promo after being named the #1 Contender to the WWE title and another layer to the animosity between HBK and Bret Hart. (00:00) Intro, Comic-Con, Grapple Surfing(13:33) Hart Foundation Interview(15:32) King of the Ring Qualifier: Ahmed Johnson vs Triple H(18:48) Sunny's Search and Soak Mission(19:48) Stone Cold Interview(21:15) Leif Cassidy vs Scott Putski(24:56) Legion of Doom vs PG-13(28:40) Paul Bearer's "secret"(32:25) Faarooq interview, Savio vs Taker(38:27) Rob Van Dam vs Jeff Hardy, Taker interview(43:21) Headbangers vs CanAm Express vs New Blackjacks vs Owen Hart & Bulldog(44:30) Bret Hart & HBK promo/aftermath(49:25) Outro, plugs

We're back! The fellas discuss Marvel's decision to skip this year's Comic Con. Do they think it's a big deal or not? Join us to find out! We close with a special message from Brian. 

Today's episode is sponsored by Dreamhost. The first step in owning and controlling your own work is building a website, and Dreamhost is there to make that simple, painless, and inexpensive. Go to www.Dreamhost.com/ComicLab for details.The life of a comic artist is often a solitary one. Brad and Dave discuss ways of maintaining social connections for mental health and creativity. Later, they discuss the dangers of setting an artificially low Kickstarter goal.ON TODAY'S SHOWThe lone life of a comic artistUPDATE: Susan MacTaggart's affirmationshttp://www.Dreamhost.com/comiclab for special offers on web hosting for listenersAn artist is reminded of the importance of artSetting an artificially low Kickstarter goalSUMMARYIn this episode of ComicLab, hosts Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett explore the themes of socialization and loneliness in the life of cartoonists. They share humorous anecdotes from a recent trip to San Diego Comic Con, discuss the challenges of working alone, and emphasize the importance of maintaining social connections for mental health and creativity. The conversation also touches on practical tips for finding community, engaging with other cartoonists, and the value of stepping outside one's comfort zone to meet new people. In this episode, the hosts explore the importance of socialization for cartoonists and the healing power of art. They discuss how creative spaces can foster social interaction and the necessity of getting out of the studio.The conversation shifts to the emotional impact of art, particularly in times of personal grief, highlighting how art can provide escapism and comfort. The hosts reflect on their own experiences with art as a source of healing and the responsibility of artists to connect with their audience. In this episode, Brad Guigar and Dave Kellett discuss the significance of the arts in education and the joy of discovering new authors like John Scalzi.The show ends with discussing practical strategies for running successful Kickstarter campaigns. They emphasize the importance of understanding costs, setting realistic goals, and the potential risks of lowering funding targets. The hosts also explore the concept of urgency in crowdfunding and how to engage backers effectively, including leveraging early releases and creating special offers for supporters.TAKEAWAYSCartoonists often face loneliness in their profession.Finding a balance between solitude and socialization is crucial.Social interactions can enhance creativity and humor.Engaging with other cartoonists can provide support and inspiration.Joining groups like the National Cartoonist Society can foster connections.Participating in local meetups can improve mental health.Volunteering can introduce you to diverse perspectives.Maintaining friendships is essential for personal growth.Stepping out of your comfort zone can lead to new opportunities. Cartoonists can benefit from socializing in creative spaces.Art serves as a vital escape during tough times.Engaging with the community can enhance creativity.Walking a dog can lead to unexpected social interactions.Art can be a source of emotional healing.Creativity can be a daily practice, like brewing coffee.Comics can have a profound impact on readers' lives.Doom scrolling can be countered with engaging literature.Art can help maintain mental health and balance.Every artist contributes to the larger narrative of humanity. The arts are often undervalued in education.Discovering new authors can enhance escapism.Kickstarter strategies can significantly impact success.Setting realistic funding goals is crucial.Understanding costs is essential for Kickstarter campaigns.Lowering goals can be risky and detrimental.Project We Love may not significantly boost funding.Engaging backers early can create a sense of urgency.Special offers can incentivize early support.Learning from failed campaigns is part of the process.  You get great rewards when you join the ComicLab Community on Patreon$2 — Early access to episodes$5 — Submit a question for possible use on the show AND get the exclusive ProTips podcast. Plus $2-tier rewards.If you'd like a one-on-one consultation about your comic, book it now!Brad Guigar is the creator of Evil Inc and the author of The Webcomics Handbook. Dave Kellett is the creator of Sheldon and Drive.

Episode Overview: Tony takes listeners on a tour of the biggest headlines and developments in the worlds of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comics. This week's episode is packed with news, opinions, and a touch of industry analysis from Tony's unique perspective. Highlights: Superman Movie Update MPAA has rated the upcoming Superman film PG-13 for violence. Tony shares his early impressions of the trailer and the film's tone. Harry Potter TV Series News Main trio cast: Dominic McLaughlin (Harry), Alistair Stout (Ron), Arabella Stanton (Hermione). John Lithgow cast as Dumbledore. Supporting cast announced; key roles still uncast. San Diego Comic Con: Marvel's Hall H Absence Marvel will skip Hall H; presence focused on “Fantastic Four.” Tony's take on Marvel's “villain problem” post-Thanos. Stranger Things Final Season Season will premiere on November 26, 2025, split in three parts. New cast includes Linda Hamilton and more. Doctor Who Casting Ncuti Gatwa's tenure ends; Billie Piper set to “morph” into The Doctor. Billie Piper expresses excitement about returning. Monster High Live Action Movie Announced Directed by Gerard Johnstone. Movie based on popular doll franchise; potential for franchise expansion. Blumhouse Adapting ‘Phasmophobia' Hit horror investigation game to become a movie. The Sandman Series Finale Second and final season coming to Netflix, with a bonus “Death”-focused episode. Sci-Fi Movie Recommendations ScreenCrush's best sci-fi of the decade, with Tony's commentary on top picks. Industry Insights “Andor”'s $650M budget revealed. Sam Altman's AI ambitions and sci-fi's influence on real technology. “Severance” Season 2 updates and hints at possible spin-offs. Handmaid's Tale Final Season Everett Carradine (Naomi Putnam) reflects on her journey with the show. Scream 7 Reunion Kevin Williamson discusses returning focus to Sidney Prescott. Wednesday Season 2 Sneak Peek Netflix releases first six minutes, featuring creepy new villain played by Haley Joel Osment. Gen V Season 2 Premiere “The Boys” spin-off returns September 17, 2025. Splinter Cell Movie in Development Sydney Sweeney cast; John M. Chu set to direct. List: Worst Superhero Movies Ever Tony reacts to Fiction Horizon's fan-voted list. Start Your Free One Year Trial At Sci-Fi Talk Plus,Today

In this episode of TechMagic, hosts Cathy Hackl and Lee Kebler unpack the latest breakthroughs in AI and their ripple effects across industries. Cathy dives into the strange world of vibe coding and discovers anyone can gamify the pitfalls of the dating scene. They discuss how AI democratizes app creation, they examine Business Insider's bold move toward a 70% AI-driven newsroom, Apple's strategic push into gaming, and XR military collaborations from Meta and Microsoft. From wearable AI to the future of digital work, Cathy and Lee offer a sharp, balanced look at how AI is reshaping our world.Come for the tech, stay for the magic!Cathy Hackl BioCathy Hackl is a globally recognized tech & gaming executive, futurist, and speaker focused on spatial computing, virtual worlds, augmented reality, AI, strategic foresight, and gaming platforms strategy. She's one of the top tech voices on LinkedIn and is the CEO of Spatial Dynamics, a spatial computing and AI solutions company, including gaming. Cathy has worked at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Magic Leap, and HTC VIVE and has advised companies like Nike, Ralph Lauren, Walmart, Louis Vuitton, and Clinique on their emerging tech and gaming journeys. She has spoken at Harvard Business School, MIT, SXSW, Comic-Con, WEF Annual Meeting in Davos 2023, CES, MWC, Vogue's Forces of Fashion, and more. Cathy Hackl on LinkedInSpatial Dynamics on LinkedInLee Kebler BioLee has been at the forefront of blending technology and entertainment since 2003, creating advanced studios for icons like Will.i.am and producing music for Britney Spears and Big & Rich. Pioneering in VR since 2016, he has managed enterprise data at Nike, led VR broadcasting for Intel at the Japan 2020 Olympics, and driven large-scale marketing campaigns for Walmart, Levi's, and Nasdaq. A TEDx speaker on enterprise VR, Lee is currently authoring a book on generative AI and delving into splinternet theory and data privacy as new tech laws unfold across the US.Lee Kebler on LinkedInKey Discussion Topics:00:00 Intro: Welcome to Tech Magic with Cathy Hackl and Lee Kebler03:45 The Rise of Vibe Coding: Non-Developers Creating Sophisticated Apps15:30 Business Insider's AI Adoption and the Future of Journalism25:45 The Hidden Cost of Replacing Entry-Level Jobs with AI35:20 Social Media's Evolution in the Age of AI Content45:15 Apple's Gaming Strategy: Studio Acquisition and Platform Development55:30 XR Military Contracts: Meta, Microsoft, and Palmer Luckey's Partnership01:05:00 Next Week at AWE: Live Broadcasting and Upcoming Conversations Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Comic Misfits, Pedro and Mike dive into a jam-packed episode full of hot takes and fandom news:

Check out this episode of IR Presents: Blerds In The Trap as Free and Dr Jones discuss their plans for Comic Con 2025, recap some of their favorite shows from Apple TV and they also share what new books they've been reading and how they find time for hobbies as they grow in their careers and families. Buy your Blerds In The Trap Merch here: www.inaudibleraucous.com/blerds-in-the-trap

This week on Superhero Slate we find out Marvel is Skipping Hall H at Comic-Con, the DCU's Dynamic Duo Concept art makes its way online, Netflix's TUDUM finally gives us some show updates, and more! News One Piece (6:20) Season 2 coming 2026 and reveals full CGI Tony Tony Chopper Stranger Things (9:55) Final season […]

In this weeks episode: Kev returns with stories from Comic Con; Anna is in a Borderlands mood and Pab has mastered climbing. All this and much more on episode 606 of MGP!Find Sheepdogs game here: https://schnumn.itch.io/prismyckIf you have any messages or questions for the gang then send them over to : Mgukpodcast@gmail.comKev now has an affiliate link with The Lego Store so if you do all your Lego shopping through this link you'll be helping ol' Kev out:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://blockpartyuk.shop/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kev also has an affiliate link with CDKeys; so if you want the latest PC/ console games at low prices click the link below:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/CDKeyslollujo

Thanks for being patient with us during the break! We return with one of our live episodes from con this month. Some pretty crazy stuff ends up happening but not gonna give anything way MUAHAHAHAHA "UwU" Chanel 2021

Welcome to Multiverse News, Your source for Information about all your favorite fictional universes.Last week Disney pushed Avengers: Doomsday from its May 1, 2026 release to December 18, 2026 and Avengers: Secret Wars from May 7, 2027 to December 18, 2027. The studio also removed several unannounced Marvel titles from its release calendar: a February 13, 2026 dated release has been removed entirely while November 2026 and 2027 releases have been rebranded from untitled Marvel films, to untitled Disney films.Memorial Day weekend's $326.7 million haul at the domestic box office was enough to earn it the title of the highest grossing Memorial Day weekend ever, with newcomer, Disney's live action Lilo & Stitch remake leading the way with $183 million, overtaking Top Gun: Maverick's $160 million weekend from 2022. Speaking of Tom Cruise, he was no slouch either, with the Mission: Impossible franchise's latest and supposed final installment, The Final Reckoning, earning a franchise high of $77.5 million.While appearing on a recent episode of The Box Office Podcast, Ryan Reynolds revealed he pitched an R-rated Star Wars film to Disney, saying, “I pitched to Disney, I said, ‘Why don't we do an R-rated “Star Wars” property? It doesn't have to be overt, A+ characters. There's a wide range of characters you could use,'” he said. “And I don't mean R-rated to be vulgar. R-rated as a Trojan horse for emotion. I always wonder why studios don't want to just gamble on something like that.” The Deadpool actor clarified the film would not be for him to star in, but contribute behind the scenes by writing and producing. Notably absent from the conversation is Disney's reception to the pitch.After an extensive search auditioning more than 30,000 actors, HBO's Harry Potter series has finally found its Harry, Hermoine and Ron, as Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton, and Alastair Stout have been cast in the respective roles. Much like their predecessors from the films, our three leads are relative newcomers, with McLaughlin appearing alongside Hagrid-actor Nick Frost in the upcoming Sky comedy, Grow, and Stanton having starred as Matilda in Matilda The Musical on West End from 2023 to 2024, while this will be Stout's first significant role.Kieran Culkin has been cast as Caesar Flickerman in Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively.The reboot of medical comedy Scrubs from Bill Lawrence and ABC currently in development has officially cast Zach Braff who will return to the series to reprise the role of JD, a character he played for 9 seasons.A24 confirmed Alex Garland will write and direct a live-action Elden Ring film with Bandai Namco Entertainment. The acclaimed game won the 2022 Game of the Year Award and has sold over 30 million copies.The Wheel of Time has been canceled after three seasons at Amazon‘s Prime Video. The series, from Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios and based on Robert Jordan's best-selling series of fantasy novels, aired its third-season finale on April 17.James Gunn confirmed DC Studios will attend Comic-Con this year(July 24-27) with a panel focusing on Peacemaker season 2. The new season will feature another dance sequence in its opening credits, like season 1.Marvel and DC will be collaborating on a crossover comic between characters for the first time in two decades. A series of one shot comics will be released in September of this year featuring a crossover between Deadpool and Batman, with more character crossovers planned for next year.

Buckle up Fans! The Fan Girls are ready to Dish & Spill the Tea on the hit Marvel Movie "Thunderbolts"! Buckle up fans! The Fan Girls Podcast is headed to Amazing Comic Con Las Vegas at the Plaza Hotel, June 20–22, 2025! And I'm over the moon to announce that I'm hosting my first ever Comic Con panel! ✨ Fandom Forensics: The Art & Science of the Fandom Fan Theory ✨ Get ready for a TED Talk-style interactive panel where we'll dive into how fan theories are born, how they blow up online, and how they bring fandom communities together. Expect fun games, prizes, creative TikTok + Instagram tips, and a whole lot of fandom chaos. Come for the crazy theories, stay for the community — and maybe leave with a few new ideas (and friends) of your own! Get your tickets today at the Amazing Comicon.com for an Amazing weekend of fun and fandom! https://www.amazingcomiccon.com/

Irina and Michelle have on this episode the wild tale of Kate, a successful lawyer and mom in her 50s in the Southern United States, and the same-aged man she met on Feeld while traveling, Doug (both pseudonyms). Doug seemed like the perfect boyfriend in many respects, and Kate dated him for three months long distance while he lived in a different Southern state. Doug claimed to be working at sci-fi conventions and concert venues, yet he somehow hardly seemed to leave his home and was constantly broke. Nothing could have prepared Kate, however, for the revelations of a group of women known as "The Club" who found her on social media. Did Doug really engage in cancer charity and GoFundMe frauds? Was he dating women his age only to fund his sugar baby habit? And what was up with the rumors that he may have killed his own father? Come join us for part 1 of this breathtaking story! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amy Brownlee provides a behind-the-scenes look at the NEH Summer Institute she attended and all the resources shared by experts.     Junior Library Guild Use the code UNITED15 for 15 FREE books with your 1st shipment   The Librarians documentary @amybrownlee93 on BlueSky & Instagram NEH K-12 Summer Institutes Blog post Resource page Comic-Con 2025 PD with Perks: Travel and Learn article Facebook group: Scholarships, Grants, Summer Institutes & Opportunities for Teachers Blog: BiblioBrownlee.weebly.com Understanding Comics (S. McCloud) Graphic Novels/Manga/Anime Playlist SDSU Center for Comics Studies Pamela Jackson 2025 Mover and Shaker Podcast Linktree Search by title, guest and location! Editable PD Certificate FAQ's and ISO (In search of…) Online Doctoral Programs APA format for citing a podcast/podcast app SLU Playlists Amy's episode: The Importance of PLCs I would like to thank composer Nazar Rybak at Hooksounds.com for the music you've heard today.    

Congratulations Graduates! Rizz has some great advice for you.James of 2 Rivers Comic Con stopped by and gave us donuts.The top 10 worst-paying college majors revealed — with median salaries as low as $40K.‘Apple Pay Prank': Why TikTokers are using sound effects to wind up strangers.‘Dangerous and embarrassing' teens are pretending to rob you with ‘Apple Pay' prank: ‘Way too far.'See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.