“I no longer believe in superheroes,” Mecca Brown writes while relating her tale of being betrayed and taken down by everyone’s favorite Avengers archer and his sidekick on Disney+. And while I’m not willing to go quite that far—I need to know Spider-Ham is real and battling baddies in his own dimension, for instance—it is disheartening to be stabbed in the back by a hero after we were so sympathetic about his family being turned to powder and all.

Anyway, as a friend of mine said when his car was stolen, only to be recovered with its dashboard and steering wheel completely bedazzled, it’s what’s happening. It’s what happens every year, and we do what we can to get through it. Together.

“I went back to bed. What’s the point of getting up now?” dearly departed LDBCer Robert Laughlin said when posting of his own demise. And I get it. I do. Especially on a Sunday evening, when it’s cold and rainy, and I’m staring down the barrel of a Monday that starts with a 6 am alarm and kicks off a full week of work. But so we beat on, and our hope is to beat The Boy.

Who do we do it for? Each other. And Erica Kolh, our First Fallen for 2021. And the 216 other LDBCers who’ve been taken down thus far. And should our heroes continue to let us down, then fine—we’ll be each other’s heroes. As long as I get to be the Silver Surfer.

So that’s it for a Sunday when it’s a little after 6 pm, and it’s been dark for an hour and a half. Below, you’ll find our first batch of LDBC-elfies, turned in by the victims who were unfortunate enough to zig when zagging was clearly called for. Honor them. Fight on. And we’ll be each other’s light.

Puh-rum-pum-pum-pum, people.

For Erica!

LDBC-Elfies: Tragedy Captured