Contrary to popular expectation and her own good sense, Muffin loves to be groomed. That she's only just discovered this is no measure of the depth of her enjoyment, and now that Newbie's found himself with a Deluxe Grooming Station, she insists he see to her coat and nails at least once a day ( Read more... )

Back in the glory days of med school, his whole future still ahead of him, Rollie figured that once he was a doctor he'd never have to worry doing manual labour again. That was before Africa, where it didn't matter if your were a doctor or a fishseller, if it needed doing and you were the one with hands free you just did it. And Africa was before ( Read more... )

If you had been upstairs in the Compound or in the Hub at six in the evening of December 31, you might have thought your eyes were playing tricks on you, or that you'd once again been whisked off to some strange, new place. Within the blink of an eye, the rooms had changed, sparkling instantly with festive decorations, and it was all so ( Read more... )

Since his birth ten months ago, Octavian has undergone some Changes.

These aren't the changes that one might normally associate with a teenaged, almost grown cat - at least, not if one also happened to be Newbie. He'd prepared painstakingly for the kittens' growing pains: hormones, cat acne (or, if you will, and Newbie does, catne), and the ( Read more... )

Dark have been Eowyn's dreams of late, strange and beyond her understanding ( Read more... )

It wasn't quite the traditional Thanksgiving John had ever had, but nothing had been traditional since he was about ten years old. There was food and there were people he cared about, which was all he really needed ( Read more... )

The bookshelf generally didn't cause Inara much trouble. She had heard it fussed about, and it was true, it did offer her some strange things. For the most part, however, it was cooperative at best and bland at worst. Either way, she had plenty of time to read for leisure these days. She was returning a handful of novels to the shelf and examining ( Read more... )

It surprisingly hadn't taken as much planning as she'd expected. A few selected mentions to a handful of friends and she had people volunteering their services left and right. Word got around pretty fast, too, but still seemed to not have made its way to Jim, which was pretty essential considering it was a surprise party. Of course, if Jim even ( Read more... )

It was hard for a vegetarian, living out here in the wild. At least there was a lot of fruit, and a decent amount of vegetables, but Angela kind of missed tofu and things that gave her some more choice. She was just about to settle on yet another peanut butter sandwich when she heard a noise from the freezer ( Read more... )

So maybe all of this tropical island living was getting to Max. Maybe she was going soft. Zach had always said that she was too soft anyway. Always letting people get too close, getting attached, when Good Old Manticore had taught them that it was all a strategic mistake. But as far as Max was concerned, anything that went against Lydecker's master ( Read more... )