SIP 38 Alert!

[Terry Moore]

Just a heads up notice that SIP #38 is complete and en route to the printer in Canada. Expect it to ship Jan 26 or the following Friday at the latest.

The only tip I can offer is, 38 is the epilogue to the last year or two of story, and marks the end of part 3. Instead of jumping around in the story, this issue shows you what happens in the following 24 hours after 37's climax, and the reality check our friends get when they turn back to their private lives. (forget the money story preview & cover((that was Francine by the way))).

[Vox]

Thanks Terry, I heard a rumor that Francine's mom and Casey opened a womens only kibbutz in Kansas.

------------------
and were chasing sticks and stones like we just dont care~~~The Mel

"They can have their diamonds...We'll have our pearls."

[Oz]

so, that cover was a red herring?? man, are we getting good or are we getting good??

[AsIs]

Thanks for the update Terry!

[mischief]

i told you it was katchoos little piggy on the 38 cover!!! thanks terry, you're a star.

[stideshvn]

yay! i knew it. i can never not reconize francine! she is my dream girl :P can i have a cookie now?

[Branflakes]

Thanks for the update, Terry. And I KNEW that was Francine.
*beams*

------------------
The original ninja lesbian milk getter.
The one called "brain" and "brandiflakes" and....
I'm tired of the silent majority. Silence equals death.
Life is what you make it.
"I believe you can't control or choose your sexuality"-Savage Garden
You're going to have to deal with my ego at some point.
Become beautiful on the inside and it will show on the outside.

[SMITTYGIRL]

OK, look. The next installment covers the 24 hours following issue 37? as the characters return to their personal lives? Let's review a little personal life here.

Just over a year ago, there was a fight. A plane crash. Another fight. A life nearly lost. A life nearly abandoned. A reunion. A kidnapping. Another reunion. A threat of murder, an impersonation, and a rescue.

You know what will happen now? FRANCINE WILL LEAVE KATCHOO. Thinking back, we've seen Katchoo explode and throw dinner across the kitchen. Francine's been kidnapped as bait for Katchoo. Katchoo has kicked down a locked door. Thrown a chair out a window, a chair that would have hit Francine had she not ducked. Put up personal paintings of Francine against Francine's wishes, partly to force Francie to talk to her. Hit Francine with a meal tray and fractured her rib, shouted at her and said things to be cruel. Dissappeared without a trace (three times, now) and finally,Francine has been kidnapped as bait or a pawn again, struck and threatened by her kidnapper, and all because of her relationship with Katchoo. Who does Francie cling to in the back of the SUV, as they drive away from the house of horrors? David. Certainly NOT the woman who now LOOKS like Darcy, as well as ACTS like her.

(Now before anyone starts firing off angry rebuttals or quoting me out of turn, I KNOW that Katchoo did some of these things to protect Francine and I KNOW that Katchoo's had a hard row to sow in life. But what she does to Francine constitutes abuse. Abuse, plain and not so simple. No-one would stand to see a man treat Francine to such emotional , spiritual, and psychological torture, but somehow it's OK because Katchoo's a woman and she loves Francine? I'd say that's the oldest line in the book- 'oh honey, I hurt you because I love you'. Nobody EVER should stay with a person that makes them feel unsafe. Or as the saying goes, Hurt me once, shame on you. Hurt me twice, shame on me.)

So I think to that end Francie is finally going to walk away from this time bomb that loves her. Katchoo, in her grief and guilt, will turn to David ('if you can make the pain go away, I'll drink you'). David, the helper, the soother, the nurturer, the not-recovered subject of abuse ('at least it will be your hands that hit me') will open his arms to the person he hopes will save himself from his own traumatic, violent past. They will marry, live on Maui, even be content for awhile in their melancholy lives. But they will not be happy. Pain can draw people together but it seldom binds them for life. For how long can you look at anguish in the eyes of the one you love, not be able to fix it, and continue to respect yourself? And how long after that until you begin to hate the person that destroys your self-respect?
Francine marries Brad, has a daughter, and always feels the pain of the rending of her heart's fabric. What's right for us doesn't always make us feel good.

OK? Now please- I love Francie, Kat, and David. I love them ridiculously, like they were real. And because I care, I want them to do what's right.

What really interests me is the new person entering the picture. Will it be 1)Kim, the mysterious, painting cover girl? (Wasn't Kim the name of one of the black women working for Darcy, that time right before Darcy died? I'm seeing a fleshy woman in a knee-length skirt, tiny braids in her hair, holding a cell-phone or 2way radio (don't have the issue handy). And on that note, who WAS that crying in the shower after we see Darcy get killed, but before Katchoo finds out?? I always thought it must be Sharon, Kat's asian 'cover' girl, but what's she upset about? She seems pretty cheery when she's telling Katchoo the job is over.)
2)Tambi's 'mole' Beth, who looks an awful lot like Kat in some frames, like Tambi in others, and has a name to fit right in with 'Mary' and 'Sara'?

It's at times like these that I wish I lived in Quebec and worked for the printing press that puts out SIP. The privelege is likely lost on my separatist, francophone countrymates (thats a JOKE, please don't send the PC police my way)

Oh and PS: it's David. When she speaks that poem about 'I think he comes to see me, I know he loves me'? It's David she's talking about. As far-fetched as it seemed at the time, Katchoo really did always know who David was. She's known he's been keeping an eye on her, and she loved him ever since she met him. Katchoo doesn't believe in holding your family against you, so she gave David a chance to show her who he was. Ever had a guardian angel you weren't quite sure you could trust? Now she knows.

------------------
"Hello, you. You don't look so good sober."

[This message has been edited by SMITTYGIRL (edited January 21, 2001).]

[Oz]

smitty, thats a pretty well thought out post. looks like you covered a lot of things. however, i dont know if this will be the course of action taken... we'll see. and yeah, it was david. that was pretty clear. so now you have two girls, at the end of 37, who think that the same guy is their safety. what happenes there?

[the faechild]

smitty, darlin'...
i think you've been paying waaaaaaaaay too close attention to the camera you obviously have stashed too close to my personnal life...thanks for the insight, just start calling me katchoo...