PANIC!
The situation has become dire. Confusion, darkness, and the unknown surround you. You dig deep into your bag, hoping for something useful, knowing that the bag will give you whatever fate decides.
Will you find help?
Will you find confusion?
Will you find glazed nuts?
This is the chance you take with BOTTOMLESS BAG!
Close your eyes
Reach inside
FROM WITHIN
This grouping was selected at random from a communally generated master list of four hundred. It is my hope that these ten items can be used as a forecast or guide to your week ahead. You can also use a ten sided dice to turn each weeks items into a miniature oracle. Whether you choose to take these items literally or metaphorically, it’s up to you to find how these things may help. For a more thorough overview go to Introducing Bottomless Bag and Bottomless Bag 01.
Item 111
#307: SMALL CERAMIC BOX WITH DEVIL LADY ON THE LID
Hidden within a small evil
Item 112
#181: CULOTTES
Summer style
Item 113
#215: TEA LIGHTS
Little flames, many uses
Item 114
#204: AN ETCHED ELEPHANT BELL
An alarm against large beasts
Item 115
#257: ICE CHEST
Cold storage
Item 116
#153: CATS
A gathering of hunters and killers
Item 117
#358: INCH WORM
Measured progress
Item 118
#334: A BREAKFAST BURRITO
A condensed meal
Item 119
#143: DOORSTOP
To keep the door open
Item 120
#352: LEARNER CLOWN
The fool, unfooled
DIGGING DEEPER
For DIGGING DEEPER a 10 sided die is rolled and I explore whichever item it lands on. The item we’ll be doing a deep dive with this week is:
#153: CATS
This is a fun one for me. I’ve been a lifelong cat lover and have had cats in my life for most of my life. At this point I would consider myself pretty familiar with them.
For as much as I love cats I chose my description with a sense of intentional dread. I think the image of cats brings about warm, fuzzy thoughts to the minds of most. I would include myself in that group. My wife and I have two cats and they’re both about as harmless as any cat can be. What I don’t think most people think about is what cats are like in the wild, even cats of the domesticated variety.
Let me tell you a story about one of my childhood cats, Lizzy. Growing up our cats were allowed to roam both inside our house and outside. My parents live on a seven acre plot of land in northern Minnesota. It’s all trees and swamps so it provided a great space for Lizzy to wander.
It also gave her a lot of area to HUNT.
Lizzy was the best hunter I had ever seen. We would find her little offerings at our front door most mornings. There were the usual catches such as mice and birds. Sometimes she would bring back things a little more unusual like bats or gray squirrels.
Then there were the truly strange carcasses.
Once, we found her ripping the head off of a rabbit under the deck we were building. She then proceeded to bat the head around like a ball of yarn and later devoured it’s haunches.
Then there was the woodchuck. I didn’t see her kill the woodchuck. I only saw the aftermath. It’s body was laid out on the gravel of our driveway, split open from sternum to anus. Lizzy had her face buried in the red mess, chewing away at something. I approached her and she brought her head up from her meal, her snout was dripping with blood and meat.
Lizzy looked so innocent, save for that bloody massacre.
That’s why I picked my description for CATS.
I love those furry little angels but as far as metaphors go I would hate to be the pests and prey that find themselves on the other end of feline instincts.
To them, CATS truly are a gathering of hunters and killers.
That’s all for now. Come back next week for another dig into the BOTTOMLESS BAG.
As always:
SEE WHAT’S INSIDE
DIG DEEP
AND
HAUNT ON
ABOUT ERIC J. MILLAR
Eric is the artist and writer behind Outlet Press. He has published over 20 books over the last four year with VACA: Outlet Illustrated, Volume 5 being his most recent publication. He is also the creator of The Disruption Generator, the randomly generated bibliomantic oracle, and The Impossible Game, a cleromantic oracle, both published in partnership with We The Hallowed.
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