#also hello! yes! i'm still alive! life has just been a lot recently and all my wips are long or multichapters or both

[thedawningofthehour]

Hello. This is the person who talked about the Gothel and song thing. I read your post and kind of sat on it thinking about for the last one or two days.

Now I think I understand it a little bit better. So essentially both Draxum loves Gale and Gothel love Rapunzel. However, Gothel mainly values her youth over Repunzel’s safety and love. But still loves her. While, Draxum actually wants to keep Galois safe and is essentially keeping his plans to keep Galois alive at this point? Also, another difference is Draxum is questioning his decisions more compared to Gothel?

I had not Rapunzel a while until yesterday just to see it, and now I can kind of see how Gothel loved Rapunzel, even if very messed up. I remember when the series came out in 2017 when I was in Freshmen High School. And the whole Cassandra arc, and thinking that was how it was in the original movie of Gothel apparently never loving Rapunzel. So it does kind of give me whiplash a little bit when I watched the movie.

And what reading about how people love something else more kind of is making me realize how some relationships with friends and family were toxic.

I am loving the more complicated inner turmoil with Draxum even if I do not see his perspective in any of the chapters. And really love the recent one.

Thank you for replying to this. It has been interesting.

I mean, yes, the main difference is that Draxum's love for Gale can compete with his own goals, while Gothel's love for Rapunzel was dwarfed by hers. But I think I'm actually going to break down the similarities and differences here, because the Gothel comparisons happen a lot and while I definitely do take some inspiration from how she acted, (Draxum frequently talking over Galois is a big one) I really don't want people to view Draxum through a Gothelite lens.

-Number one, obviously, the isolation. Both Gothel and Draxum literally isolate Rapunzel and Galois from the world, with neither being allowed to leave their home or speak to anyone without their guardian's approval. Fucked up, can't get around that. But Draxum's reasoning and goals differ greatly from Gothel's, and that's where we get the distinction.

Draxum doesn't restrict Galois's communication, for one, actually he openly encourages him to talk to people who aren't his father and wishes that he could spend time with peers his own age. This distinction is important because narcissists isolate their victims to better manipulate them, to eliminate outside influences that might teach their child to stand up for themselves and to keep themselves the center of their child's life. Draxum doesn't want that. He very much wants Galois to have a life outside of him, but for practical reasons he knows he cannot.

Which leads into the second aspect of the isolation, their excuse for doing it. Obviously, the main reason in both cases is the fear of their child learning what they'd done, or being targeted for the thing they themselves kidnapped them for in the first place. (Rapunzel's hair, Galois's brain) Of the two, I think Draxum has a better case for justifying the isolation-but the end result is the same, he's still isolating his son out of his own fear. It's somewhat understandable, and not as bad as Gothel-but still bad.

-Putting down your kid and trying to present yourself as superior. This is just straight-up nonexistent in Draxum. Draxum thinks the world of Galois and tries to convey that to him as often as he can, as he knows Galois struggles with self-esteem and needs that reinforcement. Really, Drax has done a 180 from his original vision of himself saving the Yokai with Donatello at his side-after seeing how absolutely brilliant he is, Draxum now views Galois as the one who will save them all. Draxum's role was to create him, protect him, clear a path for him so he could do what he was meant to do-but he fully believes that he will be just a chapter in Galois's history book, and he's happy with that. Galois will be his legacy and he couldn't be prouder.

-Belittling. Draxum is a little patronizing at times, yes. Talking down to Cass's experience and telling Galois that certain behaviors are beneath him, those are probably the most egregious examples. But in all fairness, Draxum isn't intending to make them feel belittled. In his mind this is actually a compliment, he knows they're so much better than how they're presenting themselves. He is aware that it's a shit move though, and he does apologize when he realizes he's doing it. He's just socially inept.

-Ridiculing. Nope, never. Gothel preyed on Rapunzel's own insecurities, calling her naive, ditzy, fat, and implying she couldn't handle herself outside. Draxum would never. For one, his son is incredible. He'd be lying if he said there was anything wrong with him. And he certainly doesn't want Galois to view himself that way. His son is amazing and smart and badass and Draxum knows Galois will surpass him some day. He looks forward to that.

Some people are under the impression that Draxum doesn't approve of Gale's stimming and info-dumping because he encourages him to act 'normal' with other people, and I would like to clarify-Draxum is perfectly fine with all of that. He actually very much enjoys his info-dumps. But he knows that other people will judge him for it and think lesser of him, and he wants to spare Galois that. As much he'd like to tell them all that Galois is saving their ungrateful asses and they should be kissing his feet instead of making fun of how he waves his hands, he knows he can't. Not yet, at least.

-Shaming. Yeah, he is guilty of this on occasion. He doesn't use it nearly as often as Gothel, but when he gets scared he'll definitely break out the "do you want me to lose my son? They'll murder you and I'll have nothing left in the world!" And he absolutely pulled the 'after all I've done for you' line when Gale was caught talking to Mikey.

-Exploiting or corrupting. Oooooh, yes. Obviously, Draxum doesn't think of it as corrupting Galois-he thinks he's merely imparted the truth on him. But their entire relationship began with exploitation, first when Draxum sought to turn this pancake turtle into a superweapon and then when he kidnapped Donnie to exploit his intelligence. Obviously, their relationship has evolved far beyond that, but it's still a dominant theme that Galois picks up on and influences his own feelings of self-worth more than either of them realize.

But on the corruption bit, in all fairness Draxum has been slightly uncorrupted by fatherhood, and Donnie was kind of a supervillain in the making even before. These two actually reinforce the better parts of each other, ironically in a way that probably wouldn't occur in canon. (at least not right away, but even in good futures they'd probably eventually go "hey we should solve climate change" and their mutual desire to help people through their science would come out) Draxum has softened quite a bit and is more open with his own empathy, which he'd force down previously whenever it bubbled to the surface. So really, net negative corruption has occurred.

-Gaslighting. No.

NO.

For fuck's sake, NO. You guys keep saying this! That's not what Draxum is doing! That's not what gaslighting is!

Gaslighting is a tactic in which someone lies to you about stuff you already know. It's telling you I didn't say X, when I really did say X and we both remember me saying X very well. It's moving the furniture around and telling your spouse that it's always been like this and there's something wrong with them if they remember the couch over there. It was my dad stealing my mom's car keys and trying to convince her she lost them when we'd all seen her keys right where she always kept them the night before. (joke's on him, my mom had a spare set and was still able to go to work, and she kept them in her purse until we moved out) It's a tactic used to exert control over the narrative and make the victim doubt their own perceptions, memory, even their sanity.

Draxum is not gaslighting Galois or Cass. He's just lying to them. Galois didn't have to be convinced he wasn't Donatello and that his memories of Donatello were wrong. Galois doesn't remember being Donatello. Draxum cannot cause him to doubt his recollection because there is no recollection Draxum wants him to doubt. Draxum is simply peddling a false narrative.

Now, what Draxum is doing to Raph definitely counts as gaslighting, as they both know full well that Galois is Donnie and they know the other knows that. But at the same time, Draxum's intention isn't to make Raph doubt his own memory. He's doing it for the bit, essentially, because that's how Galois and Cass and Tigerclaw expect him to act. (and a bit of fatherly roleplay, he really likes gaslighting himself into thinking Galois is his real son) Raph is never going to be manipulated into forgetting what Draxum did or actually believing that Galois is a separate person from his brother, but Draxum doesn't need him to. He just needs him to pretend he does.

But Cass and Gale? No, his ass is just lying.

-Triangulation, telling others you're crazy, aligning people against you, and telling you that everyone is a liar except for them. Nope. He does tell Galois that a bunch of people are lying about his origins, but that's to cover a specific lie and not as a manipulation tool.

-Using something dear to you as ammunition. Absolutely not. He did that a few times when Donnie was on his table, but he felt immensely guilty for it afterwards. And none of it was told to him in confidence.

-Ignoring and neglecting. Man could never leave Galois alone long enough to ever qualify for 'ignoring him.'

That's not to say he's never done it. He neglected Bella when he became her guardian and more recently neglected Cass when she moved down to the Hidden City, but he wasn't doing it because he didn't care. He legitimately thought that 'giving them space' was the best thing to do for them at the time. He was wrong, but he did have legitimately unselfish intentions.

-And finally, terrorizing. Portraying the outside world as dangerous and their inner world as a sanctuary. This is where I'm not entirely sure how fair the comparison is. Because while Gothel's main concern was of course someone discovering Rapunzel's magic/princessness or Rapunzel herself wanting to leave her, she still had legitimate cause to worry for Rapunzel's safety. Considering how much Gothel had lived through herself and how she was perfectly happy to live in partial seclusion, she might legitimately be afraid of the outside world. She is still primarily using this narrative to manipulate Rapunzel, however.

Draxum, on the other hand, completely and 100% believes what he says about the world. He truly thinks that the humans will kill his son if he gives them half a chance, so he is determined to never give them that chance. He does have the secondary objective of minimizing contact with anyone who knew Donatello, but that isn't the driving factor behind his decision. Draxum puts on a tough front but really, he is a man absolutely drowning in fear, and considering the possibility of losing his son after all this, after all the others he's lost, after how far he's come, it paralyzes him. He can barely handle even the possibility. He's terrified of the world above and thinks this isolation is the best way to protect his son.

And the thing is, how much does the intent make a difference? Is it better for Galois that his father's poor parenting practices are well-meaning but misguided? Or is it just as bad as when Gothel does it, because the actions are much the same? It's just...a lot of nuance, and I'm going to say Draxum has never seen Tangled and will not see it at least throughout the duration of this fic because I do not want to write his head exploding as he perceives Mother Gothel.

...Goddamn, I wrote a lot.

[jako-jako]

"Why He Doesn’t Come To See Me" 【Chapter2】

"Why He Doesn’t Come To See Me" 【Chapter2】

This work is translated Japanese into English. My English is not good. I think I make a lot of mistakes, I’m sorry. But if you enjoy it, I'm so happy.

Chapter1 is here↓

―Chapter2

Hob look back on today with a coffee in his hand before going to bed. I had a feeling that there’s someone and then I looked up, he was in front of me who still looks the same before. I remember that I can’t help but smile because I felt happy rising in me.

He faced many hardships in the past 100 years or so. There are many problems caused that, but he recently already cleared them up. He accepts any changes to his daily life and any changes of himself. He looks moving forward now, so I'm relieved.

"Change" Yes, changes...what is Hob felt today. It has mellowed him that about 100 years in captivity and the environment changed by that. It would’ve never imagined before that he apologized to Hob and the word "friend" what he said. He wasn't able to be honest with his feelings because he has high self-esteem, but I think, deep down he wants relationship with others. He able to be honest with his feelings now, and he decided meet me. His changes are glad for Hob. That reminds me, his sister advised him that he'll go meet me. I have to say thank you to her. I don’t know why she knows me.

And then, I’m curious about another change. This is so important.

『“It's not like I don't want do that…”』

『“Now that it's been a while since I've eaten, So I wanna eat dishes what you like.”』

『“Can I, see you again? I mean…not in a hundred years, it means sooner than that.”』

Sometimes, his words make Hob’s heart beat. His slightly blushing ear, his face lit up by the setting sun, his face a little bit looks like blushing when I said goodbye to him and gaze at me when we talk with...all of that, well...make Hob think that

He likes me as I like him.

I kind of knew about my feelings. My feelings for him is getting stronger since I can't see him anymore. I like not only as friend but also as more than a friend.

I can’t keep my feelings in my heart to myself when I see his actions and words like he did today. But convey my feeling to him, so what then? Will he keep come to see me just the same as always? I think, it’s hard to us having a meal and a drink together nonchalantly just the same as before after his old friend suddenly tells him that I like you. At last, he said friend to me, so I don't want to break our relationship now. Worst thing that I can’t meet him forever because I convey my feelings to him. If that happen maybe I’m gonna think about him the rest of my life. For now, I’ll spend time with him the same as always. I really want to tell him what my feelings to him, but whatever our relationship, I’m so happy with him now.

Hob puts away his mug already empty, and then he slept after he took a deep breath once to switch off his brain.

――

One day in September

The day I've been waiting for, but it’s came sooner than expected, because time flew when I've been really busy with work at university.

He is already waiting for me when I alived at THE NEW INN. He is dressed in black like always, and he silently staring at the glass full of beer.

“ Hello Morpheus. Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“Hi Hob. Don’t worry, I just got here.”

“You could start drink without me. I’ll order something soon.”

Hob took his seat, and he ordered beer from a nearby waiter without picking up the menu.

“You said You’ve been busy with work, things have settled down now?”

Morpheus said that with the glass that half of beer in his hand.

“Yeah, for now. Autumn Term had just started, so I'm thinking about different approach in a lecture according to each grade or prepare lecture materials. I observe personal characteristics of students when small class like seminar, because there are freshmen. In addition, I talk with a lot of new teachers about a plan of class and the state of students. A new term is full of new air and I enjoy it, but it is hard because I'm doing trial and error in every day.”

“Are you enjoying fresh air of the new term?”

“Yeah! I am! A change of environment and people’s lives make me fresh feeling, I like that in every age. Well, sometime life has bad times. It means rise and fall, isn’t it? This age has been big change of our lives is COVID. Recently our lifestyles have been back same before, but I was working remotely until last year.”

“Working remotely is working without meeting in person, isn't it?”

“Yes, that’s right. We're doing that use computer or phone or something. It is measure to stop the spread of the Coronavirus, and we not having to commute saves us time, so it is convenient. But after all, I like interact with others face to face.

“You really like interact with others. You keep living so many years, but you don’t seem tired of your life and other humans.”

“I think that is who I am.”

“You trying to be as honest as you can with others, so I think a lot of students look up to you, don't they?”

“I’m trying to be honest with others, but I haven't confidence if I'm doing that. I still make a lot of mistakes when I interacting with someone.”

Morpheus look at Hob who is self-deprecating smile with a gentle face.

“So,thankfully some students look up to me. Oh, there is one second-year student who I’m get along with. We are often exchange ideas about history and make small talk. They is interested in European history, so I teach them something about it and other history.”

“I believe the student met the great teacher. Because he can teach them about real history.”

“Haha, yeah that’s true. Well, they never imagined I’m doing that.”

Because, the man in front of me is only one person who knows my students are learning real history.

――

One day in December

They have met in the pub and drank together several time, also they were drinking together in there today. They just finished it. The season is changing, the weather is freezing and the biting cold wind blowing. The winter sky is high, the sun going down and night falling at the same time, the gradation was absolutely beautiful.

 My friend is walking by my side, his cheek blushing and I can see his breath. Probably he doesn’t feel cold, but he wearing winter clothes now for fit in our side. Hob can see his jet black coat and his white skin, that was lit up by the setting sun. And then, Hob couldn’t take his eyes off Morpheus’s face what seems absorbed in thought.

“Hey Hob.”

“What?”

I sweated it in my mind when he talked to me. What kind of expression did I have on my face when I looking at him? It should be OK, I looked at him out of the corner of his eyes, so he probably didn’t notice my gaze. Hob thinking about that, and he looked at his friend who walking by his side.

“When we are going to go home, you always see me off. So, I thought I’ll see you off today. I remember you telling me that your home near to the pub, Can I go with you a bit longer?”

“Really? Yeah, no problem! My house is about 10 minutes walk from here. Oh, I can talk with you a bit longer.”

Of course, you can. It is good time when I thinking about the day that I spent with him while I’m going home, but I like go home with him better than alone. Hob is happy to hear that, and then he looks like a little nervous, and opened his mouth to he’ll recommend a thing to him.

“Hey Morpheus, I wanna talk about next our meeting. Umm, you know...can we meet next time on Christmas, not a month later?”

“I know, Christmas is the anniversary called nativity in human’s world. Why do you want to meet the day next time?”

“Many people spend with loved ones like family or so on Christmas. They eat a luxurious dinner, and we are relaxing at home while drink champagne or wine or something and eat a dessert. You know I don’t have family and relative right? It's not bad relaxing with drinking while enjoying the town which is Christmas mood, so I’ve usually enjoyed alone time on that day. But I think it is good that I enjoy Christmas with you because my old friend with me now unlike before. Oh, if you don’t want meet on that day, you don’t have to! What do you think?”

“I see...I think that’s good idea. So see you on Christmas next time.”

Morpheus said that with gentle smile. Somehow his expression looks sad a little moment, but the expression disappeared after he blink.

While we decide the date of next meeting, when I realized it we arrived in front of my house. The winter sky already black, street lamp lighting up the street.

“Thanks come with me here. I enjoyed talking with you longer than usual. I’m looking forward to seeing you at the end of month.”

“I’m looking forward it too. Thanks for inviting me to Christmas dinner. So...good night Hob.”

Winter night is so cold, but his gentle voice and smile are making my heart warmth.

“Good night Morpheus.”

Hob walked towards the porch and stoped, and then he looked back at him. There is only the dark that I feel like sucked me in and the sand floating in the air, that’s all.

―NOTE

Thank you for reading the Chapter2 of “Why He Doesn’t Come To See Me” !

Chapter2 is up to the point where they decide the date of next meeting on Christmas. Morpheus’s expression looked sad, when will we know why he did that...?

I researched about UK universities and colleges to write Chapter2. There is Hob’s line “Autumn Term” of this story. According to the information on the internet, In general, UK universities trimester. "Autumn Term" is from September to December. But there is universities that trimester1 is from September to January.

My English is not good, I'm sorry for my poor English. But if you enjoyed it, I'm so happy!

Now, Chapter3 is wirite about their Christmas! They’ve become closer, and what will happen to them next? See you next part!

[monratarot]

hiii i’m elli!!

So firstly hii how are u??? today i was supposed to go to a concert but it got cancelled 🙄

Anywyas ahaha

My question is Why is Kost not answering my texts? Kost is a friend but recently he has gone completely silent, we are long distance but honestly the distance has never been an issue. We don’t even argue the last time i spoke to him was about me guessing the birthday gift he got me. I just kinda wanna know whats up tbh 😭 because i swear there’s no bad blood :/

Hello, dear! Thank you for your request. I'm fine, trying to help as many people as I can with my readings! Hope that my reading will help you and bring clearance to your situation. 

Feedback is very much appreciated and if you consider tipping me, you can do so on my ☕️ko-fi.

Count of supplementary questions/requests and answers 3/5.

Without wasting any time, let's get into your reading!🎀💌💓

I think your person isn't answering you because they are focused on work or money problems right now. They want to have a secure home, even buy a property and they are investing all their time in this problem. I can see that they are a loyal and dependable person, someone who is nurturing and patient but he doesn't care about others too much when it comes to achieving their goals. More like they tend to take care of their problems and forget to speak to others. 

Also, there are signs that he might be bored with this connection and it's a little bit different if you are going to talk or not. They are accepting the situation as it is without seeking growth or progression. They aren't appreciating what they have, they are focusing on things that they can't have. This person doesn't want to let go of other stuff so they have chosen to put all their energy into other things. The bad part is that in your connection there is a lot of desillution especially if you want to be more romantically involved with them. A lot of signs of boredom, and static situations that don't make them make any more anymore. They are hostile to those around them. acting stubbornly or ignoring any advice from those who have the best interest at heart(this can be you), but this is not their fault. It's their fault because they don't dare to talk to you...They aren't willing to open up and talk about the fact that this situation isn't serving them anymore, they are just disappearing thinking that this will solve everything. 

The good part for you is that this lesson will make you stronger and you won't repeat past mistakes. After seeing this person for who they are you will find balance, harmony, and a new stable ground because bad behaviors are punished and the good ones rewarded. Justice and order will be restored and a decision will be made in your favor. So if they have been treating you badly things will be repaired. Yes, they can even come back to communicate with you because now you will become stronger, and focused, your life isn't as chaotic as theirs, your projects get the support you need and the right things are happening to you because you have learned from your mistakes. But... I think they will leave you as soon as they are dealing with a minor inconvenience. They still want to focus on their life, they probably would be only curious about yourself and why aren't you affected by their silence. So there won't be any evolution when it comes to communication, only some small talk but that's all. 

Angel message: Life is full of changes and surprises. Your guidance is to move with the current, for it is resisting the flow which creates problems. Ask your angel to help you open your mind and heart to new ideas and fresh options. There is a solution to every problem, so look at all things with eyes of love and expectation. Then life force will flow freely through you. You will feel healthy and alive and can access the necessary resources and wisdom within yourself to help you through change.

Affirmation: I am free and flexible.

Wish you only the best!🍀

Moni🧚‍♀️

[mllekurtz]

WIP WEDNESDAY

A few days ago (September 26) was the anniversary of my first Shadowgast fic, a better man than me. I was determined to celebrate, and then life happened! Still, I'm proud of that fic, and also grateful, because it led me into a wonderful fandom full of lovely people, some of whom have become dear friends.

So I decided to post the first paragraphs of chapter 1 of the sequel, set a year after the ending of a better man, as a WIP Wednesday treat! The wizards are in Port Damali, trying their best to live a normal life despite--well, you'll see.

(tagging @floatysparrowthing and @kmackatie who are kindly betaing this, and also @annundriel and by extension @marsastronomica because this is the wip I was telling you about!!)

~

The Hidden Pearl, a little shop of enchanted curiosities and books in the Beaded Alley, is — as the name suggests — a lovely, quaint place. The selection is a bit generic, but Caleb is sure there are worse ways to make a living. Port Damali is a place for merchants more than scholars, but there’s always some traveller in need of magic items, or looking for an odd bit of literature.

And Caleb is, most of the time, happy to help.

The half-elf woman in front of him knows what she’s looking for. She even looks a bit bored as she explains to him the exact kind of enchanted spyglass she wants. As Caleb brings out and puts back one spyglass after another, none of them meeting her increasingly detailed requirements, he can almost hear Pumat’s voice. He wonders where the actual owner of this shop got all his patience when he had to deal with him and the other chaotic chuckleheads who called themselves the Mighty Nein.

When the bell above the door rings, announcing the arrival of another customer, Caleb thinks that he might just kiss them. He glances at the door and fights back a smile at the irony of the situation, because the man who just entered wouldn’t in fact be opposed to that.

Essek’s usual disguise is fairly transparent, if one knows where to look. The small, tan-skinned human has sapphire-blue eyes, and his hair has the same length and texture as the real deal, but it’s dark brown instead of white. Not enough people in this city are familiar enough with the Mighty Nein to make the connection to Jester’s eyes, Beau’s skin tone or Veth’s hair colour, but Caleb is, and he does.

It wasn’t easy to persuade the monks at the Cobalt Soul to let Essek leave the Archive annex where he’s been living for the last year. He’s supposed to stay tucked away in there, as a sensitive political figure, both for his protection and so the Soul can keep a close eye on him. And as far as cages go, that’s a properly gilded one, with a stunning view of the sea and unlimited access to the Soul’s library. Still a cage, though, and Caleb can’t blame the man for rattling at the bars and missing freedom.

While they were all waiting for the other shoe to drop, though, weeks passed, then months, with the Dynasty either failing to do the math and realise Essek was still alive, or deciding he wasn’t worth the trouble. No Soul operative could probe deep enough to ascertain which it was, but the fact that Essek’s lot didn’t seem to be discussed at all was encouraging in a ‘no news, good news’ kind of way.

So the former Shadowhand of the Kryn Dynasty was allowed a daily walk, provided he Disguised himself and returned within an hour.

As he turns towards his half-elf customer again, Caleb lets his thoughts wander. The first and only time they broke the Soul’s curfew, there was a very unimpressed monk waiting for them back at the Archive. They hadn’t said anything, they just levelled a disappointed, put-upon look at the both of them. The Disguise spell had faded at some point during the night, and neither of them had cast it again. The night was warm, the vintage excellent and the company lovely, and they were both inebriated on the wine and each other. Being treated like unruly teenagers by a monk looking half Caleb’s age had been hilarious and humiliating at the same time. They thought it best not to stretch those boundaries again.

Essek’s Disguise hasn’t altered his height nor, as far as Caleb can tell, his clothes, which are the ones he wears in the Archive: a sleeveless blue surcoat over a white shirt with wide, billowing sleeves, turquoise trousers, loose and comfortable but tight around the ankles, and black shoes that look more like slippers, embroidered with shiny silver thread. It’s as far from Dynasty fashion as it can be, and he doesn’t look out of place in Port Damali, but then again nobody really does, in a mishmash town like this.

As the door closes behind him, making the bell ring again, Essek tilts his head towards him in polite acknowledgement, then turns around to peruse the shelves. Caleb has to wait another whole minute before the half-elf finally settles on a spyglass and leaves.

As soon as she disappears down the street, Caleb circles the desk and walks up to Essek in two long strides, pressing a kiss on his cheek. “I wasn’t expecting you,” he says, breathing in his scent: brine and sweat from the walk, something dusty and pleasant classified as ‘library books’ in his mind, and then a faint flowery note.

The last one jogs something in Caleb’s memory, but it’s just beyond his grasp. He’s determined to figure it out before he admits his defeat and asks Essek, whose features — a close match to his own, if a little less sharp — soften visibly when Caleb pulls back and smiles at him.

He’s always a little surprised by how Essek, who used to present such a closed-off, warded demeanour when they first met, now just soaks up physical affection like a sponge, always craving for more. Still, there are limits to what can be done in a public establishment, and despite what someone at the Archive might think, they’re not always behaving like lovestruck teenagers.

“How was your walk?”

[haleigh-sloth]

Hello,

I just found your page and after reading some of your mha posts had a couple things I wanted to ask if that's ok.

1. Since you feel Hawks is not justified because he could have chosen options other than killing Twice, do you think he would have been had he genuinely been made to choose between killing him and saving others? I.e. do you think it's just this killing in particular that was not justified and thus murder, or do you think heroes killing can never be justified, even if in self-defense or defense of others? If we take the "Heroes save people" maxim to its limits, it might be reasonable to argue for a deontological approach to ethics rather than a utilitarian one, so that killing one to save others is not justified because you actively break your code (as opposed to risking not being able to save others, which would be considered a lesser moral wrong under this mindset).

2. This might very well be a stupid question, but if we consider that heroes shouldn't treat others as an it and put them down for the "sake of society", do you feel this ought to extend to AFO too? I really don't mean to use this as a gotcha moment or anything like it, but I feel like if MHA is trying to move away from a punitive justice system in favour of a rehabilitative/restorative one, we ought to consider where people like AFO fall into this system as well. AFO is seemingly entirely unlike any of the other villains in the show, but if we judge that he deserves a different fate for this it also feels like playing into the "Some people just can't be saved" notion that's been perpetuated by hero society. It is of course entirely possible, if not likely, that he'll fall in battle, or that Shigaraki himself will kill him eventually, but I feel like that skirts the issue rather than answer it. As someone who does not seem to show any remorse, desire or even ability to be saved, and in fact feels rather inhuman, what should a reformed society even do with him? Even if we could convincingly argue him to be fundamentally different and thus deserving of punishment, it is much easier for us readers who have more information to make this call, rather than in-universe characters whose judgement will inevitably be based on something less than the full truth. So even if AFO's case in particular was easily answered, it would set a precedent for cases that may appear similar, but in truth be less clear cut. Basically, I believe you feel the villain league deserves another chance because they were victims of their circumstances, and thus not necessarily beyond salvation, because they never knew normality to begin with, but what about those who were not victims, those who by their nature have insurmountable trouble fitting into a peaceful society? Perhaps it's just my mistaken assumption that such people exist and I'm reading AFO wrong, or perhaps it's the opposite and I'm giving people like AFO undue consideration, or perhaps my assumption that AFO ought to be treated as a person rather than a carocature, a symbol, is flawed to begin with, but I just really don't think a manga that wants to argue that villains are people too should go "but here's THIS vile piece of shit, let's kill him!". Am I making sense here?

3. On another note, what do you think of Endeavor's recent speech and general recent development? I've seen some people who were upset by his "Would it fix everything if we showed you our tears" line, but rather than him being dismissive or callous I just see it as him awkwardly saying that he doesn't think anything other than actions can help him atone for what he did. He's still got a lot to work through, but him recognizing that he's got something to atone for and freely talking about what he did to his family is, as I find, certainly a huge step in the right direction.

WHOO hey! Sorry for taking a while to respond. You gave me some really well thought-out questions and I wanted to return the favor with well thought-out answers. Also I was heckin busy yesterday when you sent this. So, here we go:

To answer this question about Hawks, I first need to clarify what it means to be a hero in the eyes of the story that is BNHA:

This honestly doesn’t even make a dent in the amount of panels in BNHA that reiterate time and time again that heroes SAVE people, but I don’t feel like I should have to spend too much time looking for them, these I used above should suffice. The one with baby Midoriya and baby Tenko doesn’t even have any words in the panel, and it’s still powerful enough to get the message across. And make me cry.

Almost every story has its own “heroes” in it. And every story’s definition of a hero is different. In Marvel and DC superhero comics and movies, the heroes usually end up killing the villains, yes? I can’t say I’m familiar with these stories because they aren’t interesting to me in the slightest, but from the ones I HAVE seen, the final boss at the end dies. But all of the heroes get to keep their title of “hero”. That’s not really the standard we have in BNHA.

“Do you think it's just this killing in particular that was not justified and thus murder, or do you think heroes killing can never be justified, even if in self-defense or defense of others?”

So this is a fair point and I feel that the best way to answer this is by asking what you consider self defense? Say Hawks is at home mad chillin and not prepared for a fight in the slightest, and somebody breaks into his house and starts trying to hurt/kill him. He’s unprepared and at this point just trying to keep himself alive. If he ends up killing the guy, is he wrong? In my opinion, no. In real life this happens to people, and they aren’t considered murderers, as they shouldn’t be. To me, self defense is a situation where:

It’s either you or me. It’s one or the other.

I think it’s fair to say what happened with Hawks and Twice was absolutely NOT self defense. I’m not going to go into detail about how deciding to kill Twice was absolutely 100% premeditated, because there’s a wonderful post by someone else that already explains that in great detail here. But I’ll end this thought by saying that Hawks was not committing an act of self defense.

Nothing about this says “self-defense” to me.

“If we take the "Heroes save people" maxim to its limits, it might be reasonable to argue for a deontological approach to ethics rather than a utilitarian one, so that killing one to save others is not justified because you actively break your code (as opposed to risking not being able to save others, which would be considered a lesser moral wrong under this mindset).”

To make it simple for some people to understand these terms:

“Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on OUTCOMES.“ In a nutshell, utilitarian ethics means you make a decision based on how it will affect everything else.

“In moral philosophy, deontological ethics or deontology is the normative ethical theory that the morality of an action should be based on whether that action itself is right or wrong under a series of rules, rather than based on the consequences of the action.” In a nutshell, deontological ethics means you make a decision based on whether it follows rules or not.

So this is a complicated question, and my answer to this is....both? Throughout BNHA we’ve had this dilemma over and over again:

Break the rules and save the day? Or follow the rules and possibly suffer the consequences? Well, BNHA just says “Yes” lol. Do both. Break the rules and save the day. Make a decision based on the consequences of said decision, but also try to follow the rules as best as you can. Even in reality, people do this to get through life. You really can’t live life under a strict utilitarian approach or a strict deontological approach. If Midoriya hadn’t persisted against his classmates and the law to go save Bakugo, he WOULD have gotten kidnapped AGAIN. They were actively trying to take him with them. If Midoriya didn’t break the rules to save Kota, Kota would have straight up DIED. Muscular was actively trying to kill Kota, not to mention Kota had zero ways of defending himself. But here’s where I don’t think this is a fair comparison:

Hawks claims his killing of Twice was to save others. I don’t completely disagree with this logic, if the situation was more dire and dangerous for Hawks. The league was taking peoples’ lives. Somebody had to do something. The problem is that Twice was RUNNING AWAY when Hawks killed him. Twice wasn’t fighting Hawks back, he wasn’t endangering Hawks himself. Hawks stabbed him in the back. AND Hawks had Dabi to worry about, who was actively trying to attack Hawks. But Hawks chose to murder Twice instead of fending off Dabi. And if you refer back to the post I linked above about how it was a premeditated decision to kill Twice, you’ll see that Hawks had the capability of knocking Twice unconscious. He should have done this from the get go. And honestly? There are other heroes who could have captured Twice. There SHOULD have been other heroes to capture Twice. If Hawks was the only hope for the heroes in that war then jeez, the heroes suck at their jobs.

So TLDR for this question: Hawks’s circumstances were not drastic enough for him to be justified in killing Twice. As I said above, self-defense is one thing, where yes I could understand how if a life is lost while defending oneself is probably inevitable in some cases. But this wasn’t self defense. Twice was running away. Hawks should also be able to rely on his hero comrades to help him out.

Instead Hawks chose to be law-enforcement, judge, and executioner all in one moment.

I hope this answers your question? I tried my best. If I misunderstood or missed a talking point, feel free to shoot me a message or another ask.

Next question:

Believe me. I have thought about this! What about AFO? He’s human too isn’t he? You have a point. Should the restorative justice system extend to AFO? I would say yes. If I’m going to stick to my guns that the villains deserve restorative justice and not punitive justice, I should be fair and say it should extend to all villains.

The problem is not in the idea of exploring saving AFO, it’s just that there simply isn’t enough time to explore this in the story. If Horikoshi had said “I’m not going anywhere guys! We’re in this for the long haul!” I’d say it’s possible to explore that route. We don’t know anything about AFO except from what we’ve seen on screen, and what we’ve been told by All Might and the other OFA holders. Which still isn’t much to go on. You’re not giving AFO undue consideration. It’s definitely a deserved consideration. There are people in the story (and the real world) who may not be victimized in any way and end up being villains. Do they deserve a chance? I’d say yes. It’s in my nature as a social worker irl to give people the benefit of the doubt and give them a chance to learn. You’re right that in the end, the league being saved and the characters not considering what could have led AFO to villainy is just “skirting around the problem.” And honestly, that’s probably what we’re going to get. I wouldn’t be surprised for the thought to pass in Midoriya’s head. After saving somebody like Shigaraki, who everybody in the story (and many readers) considered to be “too far gone”, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Midoriya entertained the thought for a brief moment. “What could have saved AFO from himself?” So honestly I don’t have an answer to this question that qualifies both sides. I can’t say that AFO is “too far gone” without undermining that fact that I never believed Shigaraki was “too far gone”, simply because we don’t get to decide what “too far gone” is.  All I can say is that in the eyes of the story, there are far too many differences between AFO’s circumstances and Shigaraki’s circumstances to compare the two, and say they deserve the same type of sympathy from us readers.

Truly I have no sympathy for AFO, because the story doesn’t ask for it. The story wants sympathy for Shigaraki, Toga, Touya, Spinner, and even a tiiiiiny bit for Overhaul. It asks for NONE for AFO.

Another post I’ll link here that isn’t by me but by another awesome meta blogger (@hamliet​) is this.

In a nutshell it says:

It’s not that AFO can’t be saved, it’s that he won’t. That’s the best answer I can give to that question honestly.

As for the third question:

That press conference was just...eh. I mean yeah, Endeavor not denying the allegations was good. Not that he really could anyway. It sucks for the rest of his family though. But at the same time Touya deserved his revenge, even though it was at the expense of his siblings and mother. It sucks, it’s a double edged sword because somebody is hurting no matter what was gonna happen. Endeavor was an asshole to that lady but I don’t really care too much. I’m really torn on what I think is going on inside Enji’s head because the Todofam is either extremely dense, or Horikoshi is writing their dialogue extremely vague on purpose to keep reader’s on the edge of their seats regarding what they want to do about Touya. I really don’t know. I’m not thrilled with the way the Todofam plot is being written right now, even though I’m 100% sure Touya is going to get his happy ending. But right now anything to do with the Todofam that isn’t Shoto and Touya just bothers me. I don’t think Enji really understands yet what he has to do for Touya. Yes he recognizes that he has to atone, but he’s not recognizing HOW he has to atone. Right now he’s still stuck in that “I have to be a hero to absolve my crimes against my family” headspace and I don’t think he’s going to get out of that headspace until he comes face to face with his son and realizes that he can’t just fight villains and go home to a happy family that he terrorized for 20 years. He’s going to have to let his family go, let them decide when to let him back in, if they ever do (I think they will just because of the way the story is being written.) As a reader, Enji is just a character that I cannot vibe with, no matter what happens. I definitely appreciate his role in the story. His role is vital to Touya’s saving and redemption. Touya is in my top 3 favorite characters from this series and I’m emotionally invested. So while I appreciated Enji’s role in the story, I don’t like his character or anything to do with him, at least until it comes time to help save his son. Also the trio of Hawks, Best Jeanist, and Enji just gives me major back the blue vibes and I just can’t read their chapters and be in a good mood lol.

Thank you for the ask! I hope I answered everything! This was fun to answer!

[a-crepusculo]

Hi Hi Hi! Since tumblr has been a ride the past 12 hours or so, I thought why not go and do something fun with everyone on here. Which is why I am here with some questions about your MCs

• What is your MC's happiest memory that doesn't include their LI?

• If your MC had to choose just one person from their friend group who would it be and why?

• Did your MC ever have any pets before they started their life at Boston?

• If MC's LI had to give them one thing as an apology gift after a not so serious argument what would it be?

• I know Ethan is a role model to many MC's but is there someone else in their life who shaped them into the person today?

• Your MC is humming a song under their breath, so much so that it gets stuck on the LIs head. What kind of song is it (is it a fun one, or a soft melancholic one or something from an obscure tv show, or a particular artist?)

----

It's okay if you can't answer these, the idea is to celebrate our multidimensional MC's beyond their chosen LI and having fun along the way❤

Also, a little reminder, I love and appreciate everyone of you and your presence in our little fandom is extremely cherished by many❤💜

Hello hello, my dearest Dri! 🤍

First of all, thank you so much for thinking of me and sending me this ask. I appreciate it so much. It took me awhile to sit down and get into this, sorry lol, but I do hope it's okay.

What is your MC's happiest memory that doesn't include their LI?

One of Marchia's happiest memory is when she and her siblings spent her summer break at her grandparent's house in Indonesia. She made new friends, seen and learned new things, got to practice her Indonesian, which was super fun!

If your MC had to choose just one person from their friend group who would it be and why?

If it's choosing one person from the Edenbrook gang group, then Marchia would choose Sienna. Over the years, their friendship and bond has grown stronger and stronger, and at this point, they simply have trust and love each other like siblings do.

Did your MC ever have any pets before they started their life at Boston?

Yes, they did! She has three cats back home, all rescued. They are still alive and well until now. Their names are Muffin (7 years old), Paws (10 years old), and Sunshine (11 years old).

If MC's LI had to give them one thing as an apology gift after a not so serious argument what would it be?

Foods. Lots of them lol. Ethan knows that a way to get into Marchia's heart is through foods! Especially sushi and other Japanese foods.

I know Ethan is a role model to many MC's but is there someone else in their life who shaped them into the person today?

Ooooh. A very good question. Besides Ethan and her parents, her grandmother helped her become the person she is today. Her kindness, her resilience, and how she always reminds Marchia to become a better person than yesterday... Those are the things that made her who she is.

Your MC is humming a song under their breath, so much so that it gets stuck on the LIs head. What kind of song is it (is it a fun one, or a soft melancholic one or something from an obscure tv show, or a particular artist?)

Right now, Marchia often hums a song or an audio from TikTok videos she came across askjlakjsla. It'll drive Ethan CRAZY, like recently she keeps saying "MATERIAL GOWRLLLL" over and over, and then when he's all alone in the office... He can't get that sound out of his head. Lol poor man 🤣

Again, Dri, thank you so much for this. I'm sending you all my love and hugs 🤍

[talesofsonicasura]

Diamonds and Voodoo

Brothers and Bandicoots

This was rewritten when I discovered that the document had been nothing but a word salad. This one should be much better!

Taki-Taki returns to Morioh in order to fulfill a particular agreement. Sadly, all she got was her dad walking off, two brothers with daddy issues, egotistical assholes and bandicoot urine on a landmark. Oh joy.

"Yes. I would like to confirm this very information to the Speedwagon Foundation. Apparently defeating Angelo merely revealed a new part of the going ons in Morioh. Something that could only be trouble for everyone living here and maybe even further." Spoke Jotaro Kujo, the man currently on the phone in his hotel room.

Pictures of a now deceased Angelo's mugshot with a report paper taped to the back, another picture of a disembodied hand on a table set with breakfast for one, and a small booklet that read Morioh City's Report. The man could only stare at them with pure concern.

/I wasn't born with this power! No, it was given to me by a man in a student's uniform. He appeared in my cell one night. I was so scared that my balls were in my stomach. In his hand was an ancient bow and arrow, it had to be around 100 years old. Next thing I knew, he shot the arrow into my neck. Saying the reason I survived and got this power because my soul was so strong. If you kill me, then he'll come get you too!/

Information the man had given just before Josuke and Taki-Taki trapped the psycho in his current stone prison. It did answer quite a bit of questions stemming from an incident that happened 10 years ago. One which was entangled in the tragedy of the Joestar bloodline that started over a mere century ago. The blood feud between the Joestars and Dio Brando.

It begun when the Joestar Matriarch, George Joestar, had brought in an orphan boy after this boy's father passed. That boy was Dio Brando, a child whose immense hate turned him into the most vile and dangerous person in the history of mankind. Poisoning George Joestar, ruining the life of George's son Jonathan, becoming a vampire and then stealing Jonathan's body.

Those were some of the key facts amongst a lot of the vampiric bastard's sins. Jotaro then side eyed something at the far corner of the room, a picture frame whose photo was obscured by the distance. Sadness, and rage going through the ocean blue for a few seconds before fading. He turned his thoughts to something else.

"With the Arrow somewhere on the loose in Morioh, it won't be long until the town becomes a horror show. There's also that woman, Taki-Taki Bandicoot, I'll be keeping an eye on her. I don't trust her." His thoughts going back to his previous encounter with the greenette as he looked down on the table.

There were highly detailed sketches of her, Lani-Loli, Toxic and Quill, each marked with key details depending on the individual. The drawings were so accurate, it could be mistaken for a printout if it wasn't for the fact they were made using color pencils. Strangely there was one more sheet next to them but it was blank except for two simple words.

Crash Bandicoot.

"Come on Dad! We're supposed to see Josuke and his dickish nephew today!" The Wumpa Islands, a pair of three tropical islands found somewhere in the ocean near Australia. It was a home to all sorts of peculiar creatures, mystical areas hidden in every place wrought with all sorts of danger and full of mysterious magic. It was also where the infamous Bandicoot Clan made their residence.

N.Sanity Beach, which could be found on N.Sanity Island was a spot for the clan members to enjoy fun in the sun activities. A bunch of floaties with a tube one shaped like a purple dragon next to a volleyball net, a small bar set with seats for 5 and various drinks from non-alcoholic to a few different alcohol, a couch with a makeshift roof made from cloth, and strangely a fridge and TV on the sand.

Taki-Taki, currently by the couch, was trying to put a large hoodie on some... thing? Someone? It or he from the pronoun used stood around 4'7 in height, what wasn't obscured by the large jacket was a pair of blue jorts, red tennis shoes, orange fur covered legs and part of a orange furred lean stomach with yellow at the center. Distressed gibberish coming from the neck sleeve almost if the head was stuck.

Lani-Loli was merely watching the little show alongside another floating mask. This mask looked exactly like the small charm Taki-Taki had given Ryohei but larger with more details such as a goatee made of leaves, larger feathers that were funnily taped on the back, and was alive from the eyes and mouth both curved in a 'seriously?' look. There was no doubt that this particular mask was Aku-Aku.

With a strong tug, the hood finally came down over the large head of a...bandicoot. The almost cartoonish looking bandicoot had large ears, bright teal eyes with hints of innocent insanity, a brown mohawk of hair, a yellow muzzle and large brown bushy eyebrows. His hands were four fingered and covered by fingerless brown gloves.

"I don't know what's funnier: The fact two sane people are meeting Crash or about to learn that he's an actual bandicoot." Lani-Loli mischievously chuckled. Taki-Taki only said that Crash was her father but not about him being BIOLOGICAL. The greenette is actually adopted and the only human of a family consisting of bandicoots, living masks and other oddities.

"To be fair, she has been listening to my advice about being limited to her origins. Although from what I heard about your last encounter in Morioh, caution should still be advised. This is a whole new world we stumbled upon and there are rules to follow." Aku-Aku's deep, powerful and wise voice sent a clear message to everyone.

None of them had much knowledge about Stands but do know the consequences of their own powers, the mystical energy they wield known as Mojo. It was an ancient source of magic that not only fueled voodoo but all branches of sorcery. Something that could cause unimaginable damage if abused.

Mojo was what made Crash who he is, the powers that Lani-Loli and Aku-Aku have, and what Taki-Taki is learning to master but also the consequences if abused that made creatures like Quill and Toxic. Creatures with great power but have the potential to cause devastation if they run amok: Titans.

If that Stand granting Arrow is being constantly misused and what powers a Stand could potentially manifest, Morioh wasn't as safe as it should be. And there might be its own Titans lurking in the shadows. For now, their true nature needed to be limited whenever visiting the town lest the situation could become worse.

Who knows what kind of horror can manifest if Mojo mixed with a Stand?

The Higashitaka household was a bit offbeat nowadays. Due to the recent 'stroke' that the older matriarch had suffered, the aura of the home for the family of three was a bit rugged. Ryohei had been laid off of his work for a bit as both his employers and fellow officers were worried about the man's health. He was what kept the force happy and ready to go.

Thus he was stuck at home being looked over by his daughter Tomoko and grandson Josuke from time to time. Taki-Taki was currently standing by the door with her father Crash next to her. Her face was obscured by the large hood of his jacket. Lani-Loli and Aku-Aku were currently hidden in Taki's jacket so they wouldn't be seen.

She knocked on the door politely despite how loud it sounded. "Hold on!" A woman's voice fires back in an instant. In a few seconds, the door was opened by a young woman who both father and daughter could guess was Josuke's mother. Josuke definitely got his soft face and beauty from her but Ryohei's kindness was there too.

Her hair was violet and short, eyes a similar baby blue to Josuke but more fiery, she was slim though there definitely was some muscle hidden by her yellow shirt and dark jeans. "Hello! Are you Josuke's mom? He does have your looks and you do look a bit like Mr Ryohei." Her odd deduction had the purplette surprised for a moment.

Then hearing her father's name was enough to put two to two together. "You're right, I'm his mother Tomoko and Ryohei is my father. Are you by chance Taki-Taki Bandicoot? I heard about you from my dad and son. Dad was right about you being adorable. Whose this with you?" Her voice, although soft and kind, held a ferocity behind it. Josuke's fiery temper had to come from someone.

"This is my dad, Crash. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, I couldn't get home for a few days. Josuke let me stay here until I got back but under the condition that he had to talk about my stay with pops." Tomoko easily remembered her son mentioning that when she had gotten back home later that day.

Although she couldn't help but look at the figure that was Taki's father. There was not a single facial feature to make out due to the darkness of the large hoodie he wore but it was his hands that drew flags. Was the orange section part of the gloves and did he lose a finger in an accident? The hands were very odd and that orange part had a texture that looked more fur than leather or latex. Still...

"I'm sorry to say but Josuke had left for school today. Luckily he should be out by now. He attends Budo-ga Oka which isn't that far from Angelo's Rock, the new landmark which recently popped up." Taki-Taki immediately knew what she was talking about. It was near the place where that adorable turtle in the makeshift pond lived at. Shouldn't be too hard to find.

The Haunt House, an eerie landmark of sorts located near the recent Angelo's Rock. This large home could be recognized from the various broken windows that were either without glass or boarded up haphazardly, old paint that chipped away from even the gentlest of breezes and the vine covered gate with the tilted door marked by a 'No Trespassing' sign.

It was called the Haunt House from the feeling of being watched or the eyes of something watching in the shadows of the window whenever someone walks by. Police often patrolled the place for squatters due to these particular sightings and reports. Coming to the backyard strangely enough was the hoodie form of Crash Bandicoot.

From the glimpse of marsupial's green eyes and lack of companions, it was clear that he was lost. He let out a rumble of pure gibberish obviously annoyed. 'Maybe I should've stayed at that rock weirdo… Then again, Taki probably might not be happy to know I no longer have to go.' Crash let out an impish chuckle. Just because he was evolved doesn't mean he stopped 'marking his territory'.

'Dad, I need you to stay here with Angelo for me. If Josuke still isn't at school, then he'll most likely come through here to get home. It shouldn't take long for us to come back.' His daughter's words echoing in his head.

He felt a bit ashamed for not listening. It just he wasn't used to standing in one place for so long if it didn't involve napping. The bandicoot had a silly smile thinking about a nice snooze in his hammock after a nice slice of Wumpa Fruit pie. The little daydream was popped by the sound of soft skittering that hit his large furry ears.

Crash looked up before tilting his left ear towards the creepy house. The sound had to be somewhere in the upper levels from how it reverberated through the walls. Whatever made it was too big for an insect or small cat to do. Spying an open window with the least amount of boards, the bandicoot giggled to himself as an idea came. Little claws popped from the marsupial's fingers with a simple flex before he leapt onto the wall. Once the talons had a good grip, Crash climbed up the house wall and slipped in through the empty window pane.

"Motherfucker!" "Language!" Heterochromia eyes could only glare at the currently shivering stone convict. Taki had gone over to the school Tomoko mentioned after requesting her dad to stay put. Sadly, they couldn't find any sign of Josuke and looking for Jotaro was impossible without the pompadour prince's help. After visiting the little turtle in the pond, the greenette and her mask companions backtracked to the landmark.

Yet, her mutant bandicoot father was nowhere to be found and a foul smelling puddle was now present on the rock's lips. Normally something as gross as this got her laughing but at the moment the witch doctor was just annoyed. "Guess we were gone for a bit too long. Patience isn't something Crash normally has these days." Lani-Loli said while looking at the wet spot in distaste.

None of them should be surprised that the bandicoot would wander off somewhere. Luckily or disgustingly, there was a scent that could be used to find their lost marsupial. The witch doctor went into her jacket pocket to pull out a small vial that contained a soft luminous blue liquid. Taking off the small cork, Taki downed the tube's contents in a single gulp.

After placing the empty glass tube back in the pocket, the witch doctor then reached into the dinosaur skull she wore. Her hand pulled out a small peculiar object that was hidden in her bone headwear. It appeared to be a fang of some sort but was too thick, too large, and oddly too sharp to belong to any normal animal. Lani-Loli and Aku-Aku exchanged looks then quickly getting a few feet from Taki before she devoured the tooth with gusto.

In an instant, her eyes narrowed into slits and tattoos blazed to life in burning blue. She suddenly hunched down as if in pain followed by the sound of beastial snarling. The statue could only stare in perpetual terror upon the morphing shadow that started to cascade over him. Tears pouring from the frozen orbs from the sight of what could only be best described as a monster.

A distorted scraping noise ripped through the ominously quiet neighborhood before it was quickly followed by the sound of shattering pavement. This ruckus came from the front of Morioh's Haunt House for a battle was being waged at its steps. One of the fighters was Josuke whose uniform was dirtied up a bit along with a few scratches on his face. It was the least of his worries though.

Standing in an defensive position was another teenager around his age and size, a male Stand User from the bright fiery blue aura that flared his form. He had the look of a punk, shaved black hair that looked gray with a mini pompadour which sat at the mods, his eyes that seemed to only have impish pupils alongside a thin but large X-shaped scar or line pattern on his head.

The punk wore a modified blue gakuran with multiple gold pins shaped like money symbols on the fabric. "I won't say this again. Okuyasu Nijimura, you better let me through you bastard! Koichi isn't part of whatever bullshit your up to!" Josuke snarled at his opponent with hot daggers in his baby blue eyes.

The now named Okuyasu merely let out an impish chuckle before speaking with a rough and ruggish voice. "Sorry pal but you'll have to go through me first! Come closer and greet The Hand!" Almost on cue, a white hand with two bulbous baseball patterned protrusions on the palm came from behind the teen's head. The pomp prince quickly jumped to the side as the appendage swatted at his previous position instead, the 'No Trespassing' sign.

Alarms bells went through his head upon noticing the sign wasn't destroyed but it wasn't the same either. The text looked...too short almost if something was missing or had disappeared. It then clicked upon another glance of the item. "That sign! It used to say 'No Trespassing' but now it only says 'No passing'! Your Stand scraped the 'tres' away!"

Josuke's deductions caused his opponent's smile to grow malicious. The spectral arm next to the young man transitioning into something larger. In seconds that limb had fully materialized its true form, a white humanoid puppet outlined by blue armor bearing gold money symbols. The puppet shared a similar build to his master, its colorless hide sharing the same hardened texture of the armor, and his head was held in a white pail bucket that obscured part of its yellow lined eyes and the almost expressionless lips.

"That's right Josuke! My Stand can scrape away anything that it's right hand touches before closing the missing space together. I don't know where it goes or even if it still exists anymore but I do know you'll be sure to follow!" The Hand then scraped the air as a green tear rips right through the dimension. It immediately shuts closed in seconds as the purplette soon found his opponent in front of him at the same time.

He had used the created tear to close the distance between them. Okuyasu held his fist back almost about to speak when… the sound of whistling flew over their heads as a blast of glowing pink had sent Josuke's attacker airborne upon striking his Stand in the chest. The pompadour prince only had the time to blink before a pair of animalistic heterochromia eyes looked back at his.

What stood before had to be one of Taki-Taki's creatures, nothing could have been as odd or mystical like they strangely were. However this one felt off in a familiar sort of way. The creature looked like a bipedal almost anthropomorphic fox. It was monstrous with spindly long arms paired with black paws that held sharp claws, limber and lean build that was perfect for predatory stealth, the face was foxish but could be mistaken for a coyote or cougar from the longer ears and snout, and there were large purple parrot feathers on its back in a leafy plumage manner.

The off signs came from the tattoos around its arm that looked too much like Taki-Taki's, the greenish short hair on its head and the dinosaur skull… It immediately clicked on what or who had just defended his bacon. "Holy shit. Taki-Taki, is that you?" His query being answered upon a large prickly tongue licking his face courteous of the 9 ft beast that once was a human girl.

Josuke's face turned beet red and he honestly couldn't say if it was in disgust, embarrassment or touched by the sticky dog kiss. "Josuke?!" He whipped his head to see Lani-Loli flying over to the two but immediately stopped from the sound of hyena/wolf growling. Eyes were on the now standing Okuyasu who then looked flabbergasted by the new faces.

"What the hell?! Is one of those things that scrawny munchkin's Stand?! Or some sort of monster? No matter, The Hand will scrape you all out of existence!" His Stand manifesting once more with the right hand ready to erase even more space. Sadly, he didn't anticipate what particular creature the greenette was.

Letting out a loud hyena-like cackle Taki threw a large but fast pink orb of energy straight from her hand. It was a glowing magenta torpedo that clipped through the side of the Stand's right wrist in seconds. Okuyasu howled in pain from a chunk of his right wrist exploding outward almost if his body was mirroring the Hand's injury.

"The Snipe, a predatory beast that hunts its targets with high speed projectiles and is a close range fighter's worse nightmare!" Lani-Loli spoke while watching the green haired beast pounce at the off guard teen. Her feet instantly knocked the air out of Okuyasu's chest which forced his Stand to vanish from the lack of breath. He could only look up at the large drooling teeth of the angry beast that currently had him pinned down in fear.

His eyes quickly shut almost if waiting for the end only to scrunch his face in confusion by a soft touch. With a small peek, the young man was greeted to the sight of the large monster's forehead gently pressed against his own. A strange sensation going through his mind in a second before it- no she looked back at him with sympathy.

Taki then looked over to Josuke and Lani-Loli before the feathers on her back started glowing in strange patterns. The purplette was confused by the odd signals but the Quantum Mask knew what it meant. It was a sign of Morse Code Taki had developed for this form. "Josuke! Heal him, this guy isn't your enemy! Apparently he has a reasonable story behind this attack! Something involving his father!"

Lani-Loli's words made Okuyasu's eyes widen in realization. "You...went through my head? You saw the 'thing'." That last word practically quivered in silent despair and sorrow. Taki merely nodded her head before getting off the teenager. She quickly stalked towards the Haunt House. The harsh stench of blood hit her nose full force which turned a small crawl into an urgent run.

Her predatory eyes immediately ignored the man in the darkness for the childlike teenager that was slowly dying on the ground. He had short well groomed silver hair, light almost pasty skin and wore a plain green gakuran but his blue eyes were slowly becoming lifeless from the nasty arrow wound in his neck. Taki knew he would die if he wasn't treated.

"How curious. You the child's Stand or perhaps belong to-" The female Snipe growled before nonchalantly tossing a blast of pink at the unwanted pest. The man must've scurried out of the way from the sound of wood exploding to chips. Knowing there wasn't going to be an interruption, Taki reached for one of her feathers and plucked it off her back.

Holding the item in hand, she let out growls that sounded close to a chant as the piece of parrot plumage began to glow a soothing green. Taki crushed the feather in her hand as it broke into verdant stardust before pouring the powder over the large gouge on the boy's neck. The large wound immediately glowed a vibrant emerald as it steadily shrank. In seconds, the large gash was gone and the young man's eyes regained its vivid color once his breathing had steadied.

He blinked once more before blue eyes settled on the large beast hovering above him. A normal reaction to the sight was to scream but instead he felt his neck and noticed that his injuries were completely gone. Taki definitely knew he was a calculative and reasonable type since he put two to two together. "You...saved me." Despite the youth in his voice, the slight baritone was enough to solidify that this was a teenager and not a child.

"Koichi!" Josuke bursted into the house alongside Lani-Loli and oddly a determined Okuyasu who was following from behind. The punk looking teen no longer had any rips on his clothing or flesh, almost if everything was returned to their previous state. "Big brother, you need to stop right now! These guys can help us! Help d-" He was cut off when Taki quickly got in front of him.

Multiple tiny holes manifesting on her hide and feather plumage as if she was hit with bullet rounds from a tiny minigun. The puncture wounds weren't deep enough to draw blood since she wasn't human at the moment but… they had enough strength to disfigure a normal person like blood swiss cheese.

Taki snarled at the attackers, no, attacker to be precise. The ones to fire the barrage of nasty tiny bullets was an entire shooting squadron that consisted of toy army sized men. Same military clothing but the faces covered in white taping, eyes just beady red headlights and a thick flame of blue around them.

When the witch doctor like this, the number of magic she could use was limited but made difficult spells like mind reading or healing very easy. Okuyasu's memories told her what exactly she was dealing with. The platinum blonde teenager slightly older than Okuyasu, his older brother Keicho and his Stand, a mini army known as Bad Company.

"Big brother…" Was all the younger brother could say upon realization that the attack was aimed for him. Taki gave the three human males behind her a look. 'He's mine.' None of them said a word of disagreement. Knowing what was about to happen, Lani-Loli took it upon himself to get Josuke and his two accomplices away from the approaching battle.

The three humans and mask vanished in a sudden puff of wispy blue smoke. Taki-Taki's sharp nose told her that her friend had taken them to the higher floors of the house. A safe place which made the monstrous witch doctor happy for they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire. She then turned her head to snarl viciously at Okuyasu's older brother.

"I can only guess that little mask has the power to teleport others. No matter, it won't take long for my Bad Company to find them once I finish you off. Then your friends will be next." Keicho's threat was backed further when a swarm of mini helicopters manifested in the air. "Fire!"

The Snipe quickly sprinted into a run as the mini army fired their payloads in the form of raining bullets and mini missiles. Wood chips, glass shards, and furniture stuffing erupted in a trail that hounded the quick Taki-Taki, avoiding the deadly miniature ammunition with impressive. She leapt onto the ceiling fan and flung herself into the air whilst throwing another blast of pink energy from her claws.

A large chunk of soldiers and a few helicopters exploded into magenta tinted flames from a successful hit. However, their owner didn't seem to suffer any sign of damage despite the destruction of his soldiers. "Sorry but my Bad Company is a remote Stand. Destroy all the soldiers you want, you can't harm me!" Keicho's words caused even more miniature men to manifest but these ones were operating tanks now!

Taki knew she couldn't fight here with so many weapons aimed at her hide. She would run out of steam before her opponent did. An idea then clicked into Taki's skull which propelled her to make a quick turn. She tossed a few more explosive shots at the tiny army as she ran. Every bullet was a bullseye as even more of Bad Company's soldiers went up in magenta smoke.

Her opponent quickly caught onto what the larger puffs of smoke that slowly filled the room were. "A smokescreen?!" Eyes looking to find the obscured beastie that ran up the stairs and he quickly glared. "After it!" Multiple tiny helicopters manifested to hound their fleeing target as the blonde followed in pursuit.

On the top floor of the Haunt House, Josuke was currently glaring daggers at a certain blue mask. The sounds of an explosive scuffle happening under his feet and a set of blue spectral chains that kept the door of their current location shut. "Lani-Loli, let us out!"

Despite the pompadour prince's demand, the Quantum Mask only shook his head in nervous defiance. "N-no way! You'll be either swiss cheese from gunfire or human flambe by blasts of Mojo! It's suicide!" Lani-Loli fired back with force despite his slight stutter. Of course, the mask flinched when Crazy Diamond manifested with a snarl on his face.

The only ones not getting involved in the potential scuffle was Okuyasu and Koichi who sat on the bed at the opposite side of the room. In the silver haired teen's hands was a yellowish pale egg with green stripes but also radiated a faint verdant aura. A Stand or Stand Egg that had manifested from Koichi's throat once getting into the room.

"I don't care if Taki can become one of those beasts like Quill or Toxic. She needs backup if her opponent's an army!" The large armored Stand clenched his fists as if ready to let loose a punch any second. "That's enough!" An aged voice immediately had the three teens raise their guard to the point even Okuyasu's The Hand manifested next to his master.

Coming through one of the half sealed windows was Aku-Aku whose appearance made whatever fight in either Josuke or Crazy Diamond vanish. "Aku! Where were you?! First Crash went puff then you go awol on us!" Lani-Loli was quickly hushed by a single look from his companion. Glowing yellow eyes then looked at the other members of the room.

"I had a feeling you were in quite a pickle so I went to find Crash first. He's somewhere in the house on the top floor waiting for you. As for Taki-Taki, her opponent is about to walk right into her 'tripwire'." Aku spoke as his gaze fixated on Josuke and his stand. The pompadour youth speaking up in confusion. "Tripwire?"

The tiki-esqe mask nodded in response at the inquiry. "Correct. Snipes are powerful long range fighters especially in confined spaces like this. Their biggest advantage isn't their ability to blast opponents with magic." A smirk then crossed Aku-Aku's face as if knowing the outcome of the ongoing battle.

Taki-Taki continued her trek up the house as Keicho and his forces relentlessly pursued the female. Every time a soldier or copter was in sight, the greenette blasted it with a pink energy shot before she took the chance to flee further. Her running however came to a halt once she reached a mostly clean room. Not a single shred of furniture or anything to hide the witch doctor's large form in sight.

"Got you now." Keicho's voice echoed through the room for hundreds of small soldiers filled it in seconds. Tanks slipping in from the vents, helicopters pouring from the open windows, armored humvees riding up from the stair railing and their owner walking in from the staircase. Taki-Taki wasn't to blind to the fact she was boxed in.

"I'll admit you're quite the fast runner and a nasty sniper. Sadly, this is the worst place for something as large as you. However, my Bad Company can thrive throughout our home base. I suggest you be a good beast and stay down." The older teen deviously chuckled as he stared down at the beast. His laughter quickly died in seconds when he noticed Taki-Taki was now smiling. A smile that revealed razor sharp fangs in a cunningly vicious way.

"It's the ability to set traps is what makes the Snipe a very dangerous Titan to fight."

Bits of pink began to lit up in sections of the room. Her opponent's eyes flickering to the source before they expanded in pure horror. Each light was coming from one of his soldiers in every group. Not even the quadcopters, tanks or humvees were unaffected. The horrifying part was the lights were blinking and were becoming faster per a second. 'Checkmate.'

The house shook hard as a loud explosion ripped throughout one of the floors, smoke tainted with hints of sparkling pink came pouring from the broken windows. In the large mist, the sound of coughing growls turned into pained ones as the large beast obscured shrunk in the purple haze. The remainder of the colorful screen filtered out as the now human Taki-Taki looked down at her fallen opponent.

Keicho was unconscious, bruises and burns covering his face and arms, platinum locks singed slightly black while billowing bits of smoke poured from the strands of hair and his uniform was charred with multiple holes through it. "The Phantom Bomber, a nice Snipe technique which lets undetectable bombs get planted on the enemy. The more collected in one spot, the bigger the boom." She walked over and hoisted the teen on her shoulders without a hint of strain.

Climbing up the stairs, the greenette could hear the voices of her friends from above. With some pep in her step, Taki ran up the stretch of stairs as the unconscious Nijimura brother shook and bounced. It didn't take long for heterochromatic eyes to stare back at a pair of baby blue. Everyone but her father was gathered outside of one specific door.

That door having the sound of familiar babble from behind its wooden threshold. "Taki-Taki! You're okay?!" Josuke looked ready to hug her if he didn't catch sight of Okuyasu's injured brother slung over the greenette's shoulder. "Big brother!" The teen quickly rushed over to his sibling. "Don't worry. He's alright albeit beaten up. Plus, his ego needed a nice kick so common sense can walk back in." The witch doctor chuckled, smiling with her tongue out.

Before anyone could go through the door, a particular situation needed to be handled first. A soft gold aura from Crazy Diamond enveloped the wounded platinum blonde in its soothing embrace. Wounds and damages done to both flesh and clothing vanished in seconds as the teen slowly woke up.

Keicho looked at all the faces surrounding him before he settled to glare at the woman who was the large beast from earlier. "You're lucky I'm a merciful person and you care about your family more than you let on. So, how long has your dad been cursed?" Taki-Taki's words surprised everyone but Lani-Loli, Aku-Aku and Okuyasu for obvious reasons.

There was a reason why the Nijimura brothers, well mainly Keicho, were using the Stand Arrow to create Stand Users. It was for the sake of their father. From Okuyasu's memories, their father had gotten into 'bad' connections with Dio. A deal of sorts that had more consequences than the man had thought. Upon Dio's death, bits of the vampire's flesh that were implanted in their dad had triggered a transformation of sorts.

A being unable to speak and unable to die that skittered through the halls of their home like a mouse for years. "Are you capable of giving him his eternal rest? We've been searching for someone that could extinguish that mindless 'thing' who used to be our father." His plea shook with pure desperate hope and sincere sorrow.

Reasonable for spending years in a house with a monster that was once your father, especially one mistaken for being mindless. "Have you noticed something odd about your home right now?" The question from the witch doctor was enough to widen the eyes of both brothers. It was the lack of skittering from something large that constantly moved through the house.

"Your father isn't mindless or gone. He's still there." Taki-Taki then opened the door to the room. Everyone was greeted to the appearance of a particular marsupial talking to an odd kappa-like creature. The being had thick green skin, slightly deformed from the lumps on his body such as the head or fingers, what appeared to be a beak for a mouth and wore worn clothes such as a white shirt and black shorts.

This had to be the Nijimura brothers' cursed father but what was strange is that he was showing a hoodless Crash something. An old photograph from the slight yellow coloration that showed a man and two very familiar young children smiling at the camera. The two were conversing in unintelligible babble but both clearly understood the other.

"That's our old family photo… He was searching for the photo of what he used to be…" The fact from Okuyasu's lips was enough to paint the picture for them. Despite the vast deformity, their father still remembered them, of their family before it all went to hell. The other oddity in the room finally hit everyone unaware of it.

"What's with the giant animal? It looks like an eastern barred bandicoot...if it was a living mascot costume." Koichi's question was paired with him pointing at the large marsupial. "Seriously dad? If you want to make friends then tell us instead of going into some rando's house after peeing on a town landmark."

The comical looks of eyeballs about to pop out from their sockets and jaws dropping to the floor made the greenette wish that she brought a camera seeing everyone's face. It was even funnier that the pompadour prince's hair looked ready to pop from the intensity of his utter shock. Surprisingly, Josuke was the first to get his speech back.

"T-that's your dad?! H-h-how?!" Now that done it for the greenette began laughing upon the purplette's insinuation. "Hahahaha! I'm adopted silly. Crash raised me ever since I was a baby that got washed ashore on his island. He may be a 'mentally challenged' wacky bandicoot but he's still my dad!"

The marsupial walked over and hugged Taki-Taki before placing a hand on her back. His pose and chest puffed up proudly practically screamed 'Yep, that's my daughter.' Strangely enough, it did make some sense about the young woman's oddness. Both Taki-Taki and Crash carried that same energetic weirdness to them.

"Aw. Such a sweet moment. Sweet enough to make me puke!" An unrecognizable male voice immediately had eyes facing the front. Part of the wall was charged with frantic electricity as if something was inside the wiring. It was easy to tell it was bad news from Keicho's sudden grimace.

One of the power outlets immediately exploded outward in large yellow bolts of electricity. The malevolent energy crackling as it began to form into a near physical entity. This new form resembled a bright yellow kappa from the beak and near egg shaped dish on its head with a long spindly lizard tail, thin almost featureless body and sparks of electricity crackling from its skin.

However it was the items it had that drew up red flags for everyone. In this being's clawed fingers was an ancient bow and arrow. The same ones no doubt capable of granting someone a Stand. "Oh no! Is that the Bow and Arrow, the one you guys have been talking about!?" Lani-Loli's cry made the electrifying entity smile maliciously.

"Guess who's Stand has fully awakened Nijimura? I honestly thought nothing would get you to drop your guard of the Arrow but I guess that chick and her friends was just enough! It was almost easy to snatch it with my Red Hot Chili Pepper's power!" The platinum blonde could only growl at his careless mistake. He was too caught up in his pursuit of powerful Stand Users to realize this kind of outcome.

"Do you really think your capable of wielding the Arrow's power? Your Stand has only just awakened after all! There's no way you can wield it properly!" Keicho hissed while the blue aura of his Stand began to flare up. The enemy Stand or Red Hot Chili Pepper merely laughed before aiming his glare on the blond.

"So naive. My Stand's powers had grown while you were busy. After all, you did say those with a powerful fighting spirit can manifest equally powerful Stands. Here let me show you!" It was quick as a bolt of lightning. One second Chili Pepper was at the socket and the next he was about to punch Keicho's chest. Only if a spin of orange didn't jump in front of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' range.

The Stand merely continued its charge only to cry out in shock when a twirling fist hit his face alongside a glare that were both from Crash Bandicoot. Chili Pepper was smacked back inside the electrical socket from the marsupial's Tornado Spin technique as Crash stood protectively in front of the older Nijimura Brother.

"Lani-Loli!" Aku-Aku's cry wasn't missed as the two masks quickly went into action. Both of them focused a bit of their magic that was quickly released in the form of a violent bluish stream. The shot struck the power outlet as the yellow electricity that threatened to return was shoved back inside the wiring so hard that the sockets literally exploded.

A scream of 'You'll pay for this!' followed until the leftover sparks crackled into nothing. "You saved my life… Why? Why help your enemy?!" Keicho questioned whilst staring at the orange bandicoot. Crash mere made a bunch of hand signals before smiling with a thumbs up. It was sign language.

"He said 'No family should mourn for a death that could be avoided.' Sure you tried to kill me, shot Koichi, created an army of Stand Users and tried to shoot your brother's face but you were only being a big jackass so your family didn't have to suffer. Your lives are already messed up as it is, you don't need it to become even worse."

The older teen who didn't expect the response widened his eyes before he subtly began to chuckle. "You all are insane." The sentence only made a stupid grin pop on the father and daughter duo's face. Everyone's attention was soon back on the blown power outlet.

"I fear that this situation has escalated into unimaginable levels. Creating a cure to the Nijimura matriarch shouldn't be difficult for me to find. However, that Bow and Arrow needs to be recovered as soon as possible. I could only fear what kind of horrors it could create in the hands of that fiend." Aku-Aku's warning wasn't lost on anyone.

Things were only to get more dangerous from now on.

I hope this was much better than my original script! There will be changes to some of Part 4's plot mainly that some deaths will be averted like Ryohei's and Keicho's. I honestly felt it was a dick to kill Keicho instead of using the chance to give him some character.

Taki-Taki's Beast Out ability has made an appearance. This lets her transform into any non-human creature whether it is a familiar or by consuming particular materials with a special potion. Kinda like N Brio's potions but more refined. Her magic is mostly restricted along with speech for particular Titans but she gets access to two powerful spells that can be set on a specific form. Her Snipe form having Mind Read and Advanced Healing Magic.

Crash deflecting an electric Stand like Red Hot Chili Pepper isn't so farfetched if you take the Cortex battle in the first Crash game. He's also more of a forgiving person when you take into consideration his interactions with Cortex in both Twinsanity but also some flashback tapes I heard about in Crash 4.

And Jotaro having trust issues is normal considering how many bad encounters he had with Stand Users especially in Part 3.

Until next time folks! Enjoy this Crash Bandicoot 4 Rap by JT Machinima.

[kprciffdw]

Kim Possible: The Extremely Secret Files-Part 2

Back at the shuttle bay, they had a chance to stand around to take a look at Dr. Possible's shuttle. Ratchet: "Wow, I have to admit, that is one impressive looking ship." Kim: "Yeah, my dad built that, actually. Although, I'm quite surprised that both this and the space station were able to arrive here at such great speed; nothing that anyone back home has ever built came close to anything that phenomenal. Even my dad was surprised by that." Ratchet: "Hm…perhaps we can look into that while we work on it. The only problem at the moment is where to start." Kim: "I'm already on it."

Kim pulled out her Kimmunicator. Kim: "Wade, you there?" Wade: "Hey, Kim, how's the mission going?" Kim: "Um…we're kind of in a snag at the moment. We found the space station, but we nearly fell into another one of Drakken and Shego's deathtraps." Wade: "Yikes! That must have been rough." Kim: "Yeah, it was, thought we would never make it out of there alive. Fortunately, we were saved by someone who lives out here in the middle of space. Here, let me introduce you to him."

Kim held the Kimmunicator in front of Ratchet. Kim: "Wade, this is Ratchet. Ratchet, this is Wade, a 10 year old super genius who works with us on all of our missions." Ratchet: "Um…hello…Wade, it's���good to…meet you…" Wade: "Oh, my gosh! It that…an alien!? A real live alien!? I can't believe it! It's an actual alien! This is so much better than last week's episode of Space Passage and that was the best episode yet!" Ratchet: "Uh…is he OK?" Kim: "I…wouldn't worry about it too much." Ron: "Hey, Wade? You think that's cool? Check this out!"

Ron then held the Kimmunicator in front of Clank. Ron: "There's an actual robot!" Clank: "I beg your pardon, young man?" Wade: "Whoa! No way! A real live robot! And it talks!" Ron: "Yeah! And possibly so much more!" Clank: "I do not feel comfortable right now." Kim: "Guys, focus! We need to get started on how we're going to modify my dad's space shuttle." Ratchet: "Kim's right, there's a lot of work that needs to be done. We really don't have any time to mess around."

Kim looked towards Ratchet in a somewhat surprised manner. Ratchet looked back at her in as he seemed confused. Ratchet: "Uh, Kim? Are you OK?" Kim: "Huh? Oh! Yes…I'm…I'm fine. Let's figure out what we need to do."

Kim walked off, Ratchet continued to keep his eyes on her as she walked off, a small grin appeared on his face. Kim: "Wade, can you analyze the shuttle? Ratchet is planning on doing some modifications to it." Wade: "What kind of modifications does he have in mind?" Kim: "Um…well…he was thinking about some weaponry and I would guess a few other things, too." Wade: "I'll need to look into a lot of the alien technology. That might help with how we're planning to do this." Kim: "That would make sense, actually. Ratchet, you wouldn't mind if we look into a lot of this technology, would you?" Ratchet: "Not at all. What's mine is yours. Help yourself to whatever you need." Kim: "Sounds great. We're good to go, Wade. I…wouldn't be surprised if you were looking forward to…doing something like this." Wade: "Are you kidding me!? This is like a life long dream of mine! I can't tell you how much I have been itching to look into alien technology! I'll get on it right away." Kim: "Thanks, Wade. Let us know when you have finished sorting through all of this."

She placed the Kimmunicator on a nearby crate. Ratchet: "Well…um…sounds as though your…Wade is…very eager to help us out." Kim: "Yeah, to say the least. So…since there isn't anything we can do about the shuttle at the moment, perhaps we can use this time to…get to know each other?" Ratchet: "You know what? That doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. It may help a little with supporting each other through all of this."

Soon enough, Kim and Ron sat down with Ratchet and Clank and spent some time talking with them. Ratchet, within a large amount of time, told them about everything that he and Clank had been through. Ratchet: "So, anyway, after we defeated Drek and saved the entire galaxy, we have been pretty busy with a lot of the festivities. There were parades, press conferences, fancy dress balls." Clank: "And the wiener roast at Al's." Ratchet: "Oh! Yeah, that. And then things started to slow down a bit. After that was…uh…um…" Clank: "There was that Grand Opening at Groovy Lube." Kim: "Groovy Lube?" Ratchet: "It's a dance club…type…place. Don't ask about the name. I thought that was last week or so." Clank: "It was actually 6 months ago." Kim: "Hm, sounds like you guys have been through a lot." Ratchet: "You could say that. Just recently, we had an interview with a show called "Behind the Hero". Told them all of that stuff that we just mentioned to you guys. Seconds later, we were transported here where we spoke with some old geezer who goes by the name of Abercrombie Fizzwidget, who this the CEO of…"

Just then, Ratchet was interrupted by Ron trying to hold back his snickering. Kim looked at him in an annoyed manner, Ratchet and Clank did the same but in a concerned manner. Ratchet: "Uh, is he OK?" Kim: "Don't worry about it, he tends to get like this." Ratchet: "Um, OK…as I was saying, Mr. Fizzwidget, who is the CEO of Megacorp told us that…"

He was interrupted again by Ron snickering. Ratchet this time looked at him in an annoyed manner. Ron stopped after noticing that he was being stared at by both Ratchet and Kim. Ron: "Sorry, it's just Fizzwidget sounds like a funny name, that's all." Ratchet: "Yeah, that's great. So anyway, Mr. Fizzwidget told us about…"

Ron snickered yet again, which was really getting on Ratchet's nerve. Ratchet: "Will you stop doing that already!?" Kim: "Ron, seriously!" Ron: "Sorry, KP, I can't help it." Kim: "Perhaps you should go speak with Wade and check on how he's doing." Ron: "Copy that, KP, maybe he has found something interesting by now."

Ron got up and walked off. Ratchet: "Hopefully, that will be the last of any interruptions for the time being. Now then, Mr. Fizzwidget told us about a secret biological experiment that was stolen from the company by some masked thief and I was asked to get it back." Kim: "And you agreed to take on the mission." Ratchet: "Well, I did, Clank was offered a job as the head accountant of Megacorp, which included a sweet penthouse at a metropolis on another planet."

Ron rushed back over. Ron: "A sweet penthouse? Sounds like an awesome deal! Way to go, Clank!" Clank: "Thank you, Ron, and you are right, it is a great deal. Perhaps you would like to come see it for yourself sometime." Ron: "Would I ever?" Kim: "Ron, we're still on a mission of our own, remember?" Ron: "Oh, right, KP, get back Dr. P's space station, then check out the sweet penthouse on that other planet. Got it!"

Ron rushed off again. Ratchet: "Is he always this out of focus?" Kim: "You have no idea." Ratchet: "So…that's what we have been through. But enough about us, tell me about yourself. I'd like to know about you and the kind of life you have." Kim: "OK, well, first off, I'm still in high school and so is Ron. I'm the head cheerleader at Middleton High, our mascot is the Middleton Mad dogs. I pretty much live an ordinary life as a high school student, but I also live a double life as a teen crime fighter." Clank: "Really? I did not expect that." Ratchet: "Hm…an ordinary high school cheerleader living an extraordinary double life as a teen crime fighter. Sounds fascinating." Kim: "Yeah, you could say that." Clank: "So, Ms. Possible, what sort of things do you do during your double life?" Kim: "Well, I travel all over my home planet, fighting all sorts of criminals and evil masterminds, dealing with other kinds of worldly problems, save the world over and over again. Basic stuff like that." Clank: "Basic stuff? You mean you see this as standard?" Kim: "Pretty much. No big." Ratchet: "And I'm guessing that this is one of your missions, right?" Kim: "Yes, that's right. Although, I've never been to another galaxy before. In fact, going all the way out here isn't seen as something that's possible, yet." Clank: "Possible? You mean your kind is not capable interstellar travel?" Kim: "No, not yet, but we may be someday."

Ratchet seemed to be intrigued by Kim's story. Ratchet: "So, Kim, as a crime fighter, you must attract all kinds of danger. Sounds like my kind of lifestyle. You must be some kind of hero on your home planet." Kim: "Yes, that's exactly right." Ratchet: "Me, too! I've been seen as a hero throughout the entire galaxy. I have also done a lot of traveling, but to more than just one planet in actuality." Kim: "So, you've traveled to multiple planets? Hm, we haven't even started traveling to neighboring planets in our star system." Clank: "Traveling from one planet to another is a way of life here. This must seem like something that is new to you, Ms. Possible." Kim: "Yes…it is…very new." Ratchet: "Sounds kind of…primitive, but that doesn't mean you aren't fascinating or anything like that." Kim: "Thanks…" Ratchet: "So, anyway…back to the subject involving you. I'd like to know more about this double life of yours. How long have you been doing this?" Kim: "Oh, I would say a few years now; a little after I started high school." Ratchet: "So, how did all of this start?" Kim: "Well, it was right after my cheerleading tryouts, I was called out to…"

Kim went on to tell them about the story of her first mission. As she continued on, Ratchet became more and more fascinated by her. Clank took notice of his fixation towards her, which sort of concerned him. Kim: "So, after that one mission, my double life as an international crime fighter took flight and my reputation skyrocketed into fame." Ratchet: "Wow, that…is amazing. You're really something special, aren't you?" Clank: "Hm…the nature of your lifestyle sounds very complex. How are you with balancing these 2 separate lifestyles of yours?" Kim: "Well, dealing with high school is no easy feat; I manage the best I can, but crime fighting? That's easy. So not the drama." Ratchet: "So, you think high school is difficult but crime fighting is easy? You really are something else." Kim: "Please, it really is no big. Really. I can do anything." Ratchet: "Yes you can."

Ron walked back over. Ron: "Um, by the way, Ratchet, I've been wanting to ask you this. What species are you? I can't seem to figure out if you're some kind of strange…pointy… eared…tiger or cat person with a lion's tail or if you're some just other type of animal that we have never seen before. So what are you anyway?" Ratchet: "I'm a Lombax."

Ron stared at him with a blank look on his face. Ratchet: "An alien species?"

Ron continued staring at him. Ratchet: "One you've obviously never heard of before?" Ron: "Yeah…I'm trying to determine if you're a part lion, part tiger or some other cat thing or perhaps some other kind of other cat creature…person or something like that. Kim, can you help me out here?" Kim: "Let's just file him under "undocumented alien species" and leave it at that." Ron: "Works for me." Ratchet: "(groan) Fair enough."

Shortly afterwards, Kim did some more talking with Ratchet and Clank. She talked about her and Ron being friends since preschool, Ron's misadventures at Camp Wannaweep, Ron getting his pet naked mole rat Rufus. She eventually went on to talk about Wade, the 10 year old super genius who helps out Kim and Ron on their missions as well as brief them on their missions. Ratchet: "So, Kim, how did you and Ron meet Wade?" Kim: "Oh, well, that's an interesting story, it all started when…" Wade: "Kim, come in, are you there?" Kim: "Oh!"

She got up and walked over to the Kimmunicator. Kim: "Hey, Wade, did you finish up with analyzing all of the alien technology?" Wade: "Absolutely! I have also been looking into integrating all of this into your dad's space shuttle. While I was able to do that, I came across a very startling discovery." Kim: "What kind of discovery?" Wade: "It's something unbelievable! Your dad's space shuttle is partially made from alien technology." Kim: "What? Really? Do you know exactly from where?" Wade: "This is where it gets interesting. I'm picking up multiple traces of technology that originates from the galaxy that you're in now as well as a few others. And it's not just the space shuttle that I'm picking up these traces from, but also the space station." Kim: "No way! The Impossible Space Station of the Future? Did dad know about this?" Wade: "I don't know, I didn't share these findings with him, yet, but judging by how surprised he was by the speed of both of them, I would think he didn't." Kim: "Hm…very odd…" Wade: "But thankfully, from these findings, it should be a cinch to integrate a lot of the equipment that Ratchet planned on having installed." Ratchet: "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get started on suiting up this space shuttle with even more non-Earthly equipment." Kim: "Yes, let's do it. Drakken and Shego won't know what hit them."

Eventually, Kim and Ron worked with Ratchet and Clank on the modifications to the space shuttle. Ratchet: "OK, we should have everything we need to suit up this Earth vessel." Kim: "Yeah, I would think so, too. At least…hm…" Ron: "Well, yeah, sure. We have this thingy, do-hicky for that front part, then there's this thinga-ma-bob for the…that thing, and there's the what-chu-ma-call-it for the uh…what-chu-ma-call-it and then there's this strange thingy…for…the…thingy…I think…"

Ron looked towards Ratchet with a nervous grin on his face, Ratchet stared back at Ron in an annoyed manner. Ratchet: "Why don't you just leave the technical stuff to me, Clank and Wade? You just deal with…screwing in all of the loose ends." Ron: "Um…OK…"

Ron walked off. Clank: "An unusual young man, isn't he?" Ratchet: "Does this guy go on all of your missions with you, Kim?" Kim: "Um…almost…" Ron: "Hey, KP, check this out, I think I found something cool! Oh, no…oh, no! AAAAHHHH! KP! THIS THING IS TRYING TO KILL ME!"

Ratchet placed his hand on his forehead, greatly irritated, Kim was embarrassed. Ron: "AH! RATCHET! DO SOMETHING!"

At that time, they could hear the sound of something tearing. Ron: "Ah! Oh, no! Not the pants!" Kim: "Not again."

Ratchet went over to handle what was happening. Everything eventually quieted down. Ratchet then dragged Ron back alongside everyone else. He then let go of Ron and glared at him, Ron just chuckled nervously. Ratchet: "Don't touch anything! The last thing we need is something getting wrecked!"

Ratchet walked off as Ron watched him. Ratchet returned beside Kim and Clank. Ratchet: "Let's just get started on this before any other mishaps occur."

Everyone else agreed and walked off. Ron, noticing his pants, snatched them back, then was spooked by something and ran off screaming.

[calamity-bean]

Hi !! In your post about "Mad Sweeney through the ages" you noted in the tags that you restrained yourself from going into tangents... I'm super interested about what you mentionned though ! Would you mind wiritng a little bit on the relationship between the Tuatha de and the fairies and the dead ?? Sorry, i'm very curious and I love history and mythology a lot !! (Also sorry for any mistakes, I'm not a native speaker !!) Thank you ! :)

Hello! Sorry it took me all day to answer this; it’s just that, well… this got a bit long, even though I tried to be brief. XD 

Basically, what I was referring to is the same thing Sweeney talks about in the show: the way his identity has changed SIGNIFICANTLY over the centuries because the stories about him have mutated over time. People gradually conflated stories about certain types of beings (such as the Tuatha De Danann) with stories about other types of beings (such as fairies), or allowed elements of certain stories to influence others, and as a result, the very essence of what Sweeney IS evolved along with the folklore.

The cool thing, though — and I guess this is really the crux of what I was getting at in my tags — is that Sweeney’s particular evolutionary path isn’t a concept that’s unique to American Gods. I mean, to SOME extent, it’s AG’s invention; after all, the traditional figure of Mad Sweeney as portrayed in the Buile Suibhne is not a leprechaun or Lugh. He’s cursed, but he’s still just a mortal dude. But I think AG’s decision to MAKE him into those other things makes perfect sense in light of the fact that in certain areas that historically retained a strong Celtic influence (including much of the British Isles as well as Brittany), there really are a lot of intriguing similarities, overlaps, and parallels between the way folklore portrays fairies and the way it portrays the spirits of dead mortals. In Irish mythology specifically, the Tuatha De Danann get wrapped up in the relationship as well. These similarities have inspired a theory that elements of Celtic folklore about fairies might have evolved out of ancient superstitions about the dead and the places the dead were believed to inhabit. Which isn’t to say that it’s a direct evolution, nor that these three types of being are all exactly the same thing — simply that they seem to be related and to have influenced one another over time.

Unnecessarily detailed discussion under the cut, along with more of my thoughts on why I think this whole concept works out really well with regard to Mad Sweeney and lends a lot of weight to his backstory’s arc.

The People of the Mounds

One of the most familiar narratives in a classic fairy story is the human traveler who accidentally wanders into the fairy realm. It’s a story with innumerable variations. Perhaps the traveler simply follows the wrong path, or perhaps they enter a doorway in the side of a hill — either way, they end up in Faerie. It is a liminal space inhabited by beings that, because they are immortal or non-mortal, are not DEAD, exactly, but aren’t quite ALIVE, either, not in the way that mortal human beings are alive. And in many stories, it is also inhabited by dead humans. There are many versions of this story in which the traveler in Faerie is shocked to encounter a neighbor or loved one whom they know for a fact died years ago — like, actually physically DIED. And yet here their spirit is, trapped in this other world! The realm of Faerie is thus a place of great wonder, yes, but also great peril. It’s a place into which a person’s soul might be tragically stolen, though also a place from which they can sometimes be rescued. One such tale of rescue is the medieval poem Sir Orfeo, which is straight-up a Breton/English reimagining of Orpheus and Eurydice — except it’s set in Faerie instead of in the realm of the dead.

In short, Celtic stories often handle fairies and Faerie in a way that strongly evokes death, the realm of the dead, and the spirits of the dead. But for me, perhaps the most interesting aspect goes back to what I mentioned about WHERE these stories often take place. Where do the aos si dwell? Underground, of course — specifically, in hollow hills. It’s right there in the name: “aos si” means “people of the mounds.” Hence the stories in which a traveler enters Faerie through a door in the side of a hill. Coincidentally, where do the Tuatha de Danann dwell? Also underground — not originally, but they were driven underground by the Milesians, who took the above-ground world as their half of the earth in their truce.

But what kind of hill would be hollow? What kind of hill might have a doorway set into the side…?

Well… A hill like Newgrange, perhaps. Or like other hills within the Bru na Boinne complex. Or a hill like Bryn Celli Ddu in Wales, or Maes Howe in Orkney, or the Mound of the Hostages at Tara, or any number of other ancient barrows/tumuli: burial mounds built in prehistoric times as tombs for the human dead. Because the answer to “What other kind of creature dwells underground?” is, of course, dead people, at least in cultures which have tended to bury them.

Thus, the familiar trope of entering Faerie through a door in a hill very much evokes the idea of entering a tomb. This concept is reinforced by the fact that some specific fairy legends are anchored to specific tumuli. Newgrange is said to be the home of the Dagda and other Tuatha De; Cnoc Maedha is home to the fairy king Finvarra. Glastonbury Tor is associated with Gwyn ap Nudd of the Tylwyth Teg, ruler of the underworld of Annwn. Willy Howe is proposed to be the location of a specific version of one of those tales about a traveler wandering into a hill.

Not every fairy legend is associated with a specific hill, not every tumulus is associated with a fairy legend, and not every hill associated with a fairy legend has been confirmed to actually be a tomb. It’s more of a general association based on the tumulus shape. Also, some of these associations seem to have originated much later than others; they might be fairly recent inventions rather than old, traditional myths. But that’s kind of the point in AG, isn’t it: traditions evolve. Over time, they gather new associations and take on new meaning as the stories change. Did the idea that the aos si live in hollow hills evolve directly out of a superstition that specific hills — specific burial mounds — were home to the spirits of the dead? Perhaps! Perhaps not! Perhaps it’s more a case of stories mutually influencing each other, or maybe it’s convergent evolution, or maybe it’s sheer coincidence. But I think that the amount of similarity and overlap in these legends is enough to suggest roots in a common tradition, or at least to suggest that beliefs about these three categories of being have, over time, become intimately associated with each other.

Suibhne, the Dead King?

Which FINALLY brings us back to Sweeney.

I think the idea that the aos si evolved out of the Tuatha De Danann is pretty well known; I don’t think it’s entirely clear-cut from a historical standpoint, but it’s a theory I see mentioned quite often, and I feel like it intuitively makes sense. A transition from one supernatural, subterranean creature to another feels natural; it’s easy to grasp how those legends could be related. So it’s no surprise that American Gods would have a character who starts out as one of them and evolves into the other, especially since it’s been theorized that the concept of leprechauns in general might have evolved specifically out of Lugh. (The names share a possible etymology, and the characters share an association with luck.)

But the primary inspiration for Mad Sweeney — Suibhne, son of Colman Cuar, of the Buile Suibhne — feels, at first, like more of an outlier. Sure, Suibhne was under a curse, but he wasn’t, like, any type of supernatural creature… He was just a mortal human. The whole legend at least purports to be based on a real-life historical man. How does a mortal human get turned into a god or a fairy? How does that stage of Sweeney’s evolution fit in with leprechauns and Lugh?

To me, the key lies in the Annals of Tigernach. As I mentioned in my Mad Sweeney Through the Ages post, these annals record that Suibhne didn’t FLEE from the battle of Magh Rath… he DIED in it. And I don’t know whether AG is doing this on purpose, but in my opinion, this death really fits with the way AG has chosen to tell Suibhne’s story? In the Buile Suibhne, Suibhne flees the battlefield simply because the frenzy and St. Ronan’s curse overwhelm him. The idea that he fled because he foresaw his own death is AG’s own particular twist on the legend. AG’s Sweeney is a character who is haunted, throughout the different versions of himself, by near-deaths and foreseen-deaths and deaths that may or may not have actually happened. By choosing to reference the fact that Sweeney should have died at Magh Rath — possibly even did die at Magh Rath, heck, he supposedly died that night with the seer, too! — American Gods makes the critical decision to recast Suibhne mac Colmain as not merely the story of a king, but of a dead king.

And if you view the Buile Suibhne as the story of someone whose life, historically, ended at Magh Rath, but who through the power of mythology has been given an existence beyond Magh Rath, it becomes a story of undeath: of a mortal who becomes trapped in a strange, supernatural form of existence that is not exactly death but not really life as he knew it, either — sort of like a spirit trapped in Faerie. For me, AG’s decision to connect Suibhne’s legend with leprechauns and Lugh makes the most sense when I view Suibhne as a figure who kind of escaped death, but also kind of didn’t escape death, and always has this specter of death hanging over him for the rest of his cursed “life” after Magh Rath. If Suibhne is, essentially, a spirit persisting in a type of pseudo-life beyond death, then I can contextualize his role in Sweeney’s evolution within this whole theory of how the dead, the fae, and the Tuatha De Danann are intimately entwined.

Conclusion???

…WOW, this got long! Thanks for listening to me ramble. I hope it was interesting to you and that I’ve explained myself in a way that makes sense.

Obviously, I don’t know whether Gaiman / the showrunners of American Gods had any of these same concepts in mind when they were creating the book or the show. And I want to reiterate that the proposed relationship between these types of folklore is more of a theory than a concrete historical fact. It’s a theory that I find very compelling and very inspiring, but it’s difficult to really prove that traditional beliefs evolved in this way. Also, much of the actual scholarship I’ve found on this subject is older than I’d like, and I’m not sure whether different interpretations have since gained more traction in the field. Still, the work of Katharine Mary Briggs is a good place to start if you’re interested in reading more on this subject, especially her article “The Fairies and the Realms of the Dead.”

Regardless of whether it’s provable, though, I think it’s a theory that works beautifully with what we see in “Treasure of the Sun” and that fits really well with the mechanics of American Gods. And when it comes to AG, it doesn’t really matter, anyway, whether the dead and the fae and the gods were originally related or not — all that matters is that we humans believe that they are.

[thisnerdsadventures]

a summer to remember

hello friends, i definitely just abandoned this whole blog, now didn't i

well i am happy to report that i am still alive, and am thriving!

Here's a rundown of everything that has been going on:

[inserting a readmore because this is long af]

May

So in May, I was definitely just all over the place because I was 1) trying to finish a paper published in a conference!! it literally drove me insane. anyways, then i had to go and finish a 78 page thesis, which involved a really convoluted timeline because i had to finish it ~ a week before the actual deadline so my PI could read it over, but then i had to finish it a few days before THAT so my PhD supervisors could read it over, which meant that i had like one (1) week to write like. all of it.

Luckily I had most of the first half already written, during whatever shitshow April was (April was a lot of coding for the paper, and then not having time to write my thesis). But THEN i had to organize all the data from my own personal experiments, make figures, and draft the entire results section. AND i had like two final reports to do for my class, so my last weeks of academia looked like....

Of course, the day before my thesis was due, I pulled an all nighter, because, of course. What other way would I ever end my academic career. Submitted it though, and I graduated! [LINK TO MY THESIS]

Also! I got vaccinated and felt like death for a whole day, but then my friend came over and we ate fried chicken and watched this show called Miraculous, which is a kids show from France, but for some reason is actually hilarious and really entertaining. Then I felt better, so I proceeded to work on my thesis.

Also, I guess I should talk a little bit about the class I took this semester, which was an industrial organization economics class. We looked at things like how different markets are organized, why they are that way, what market concentration means, how mergers affect competition, and what kind of effect that may impose on consumers. For the final case study (which, I will say, I wrote like 2000 words in a single day, so . applause for me), I looked at the Nvidia-ARM merger and how that may or may not affect competition in the GPU market, the CPU market, and the mobile chip market. I think my analysis was a little bit more surface level, which was fine for me, since I'm by no means an economics expert or even remotely should have any expectations at all, but I read a lot and learned a lot and that's the goal!

So yes, my brief excursion into the field of economics was overall positive, I feel like I learned a lot and now I can read financial articles about the tech industry and not be completely lost, which, again, was the goal.

But yes, May was a lot of work, and once it wrapped up, I got to spend a lot of time with friends post-vaccination! After the 1 or 2 week mark after my second dose, I started going back to the gym, especially to play basketball with folks, which I had missed a lot. I spent a lot of time at my old dorm just hanging out, and got to have a cute salmon dinner over at my other friend's place. And we made cheesecake too.

June (MA->NY->MA->CA)

I finally went to visit my best friend in New York. I hadn't seen her in > 400 days, so it was really a very anticipated event, except we saw each other across the crosswalk, but then the light took like five minutes to turn green, so it was really anticlimactic. Anyways, we ended up bumming around New York and Long Island for a week, and it was nice to spend some time with her after such a long gap.

We spent a day at a vineyard and I fell asleep so

After getting back to Boston, my mom came back from Taiwan to help me move out of my apartment. It was a lot of finding people to sell things to, sweating because it was very hot that week, and praying everything would work out (it did). I also got to have a few final meals with various friends and my mom and I got to take one last lark down the Infinite, which I was really grateful for because it was the first time visitors got to go inside campus in over a year.

Also got into my school's MBA program! Yes i applied to a deferred program (which is like you get into a program, but you don't have to go for 2-5 years, as a way of getting in right after undergrad/grad school, but then accumulating some work experience first). It was hilarious, I was literally shopping in my campus store for a new sweatshirt and I got a phone call from the admissions office saying I got in. My mom had been pushing me to apply to grad programs, and I didn't tell her about it because I didn't know if I would actually follow through. But I got to surprise her with the news, and she was so happy she did the whole "calling all the relatives" thing again.

After flying home, I told myself I'd read more and exercise more, which I have been doing. I got a membership at Planet Fitness, which has been really good for me (going 3x a week), and I've made my way through at least 5 books this summer so far. My holds list at my local library is literally insane. (For recs, I recently read Normal People, which I absolutely devoured, and In the Dream House, which hit really hard for me.)

This summer was also really about reconnecting with high school friends. All three of us were unemployed, with plans to come in the fall, so we were all free to hang out all the time. We started out at the local library planning out a road trip, and we worked out a few times together, and a few coffee dates too. We took a fun day trip down to LA one day, and we visited Malibu, went to the Getty, hit up some local food places in the city. Driving down the PCH with Taylor Swift blaring and the windows down on a hot June day, just hits so different. There is nothing like it.

My friend's birthday was in June, so we put together a little video for her and bought some jewelry, and had a Zoom call to celebrate. Then I got BBQ with some friends and sat in the parking lot eating ice cream until 11 at night just trading stories from our pasts. It felt like the perfect summer life, just staying out until whenever, grabbing food wherever we wanted, with friends I had had for literally a whole decade.

It was already a really good summer, but then July. July was crazy.

July (CA -> MI -> CA -> NV -> CA -> WA -> OR -> CA)

So one Sunday morning, I woke up to a text

Actually, I'm going to do a separate post on the whole Michigan trip because that sh** was on another level of spontaneous, impulsive, crazy life stuff. But anyways, so July started off with a trip to Michigan to visit my friends, and then I came back for the 4th, had 36 hours of rest before my high school friends and I went on a road trip.

This road trip was a little ambitious. We hit spots all up California, from hiking in Sequoia Nat'l Park to Kings Canyon, driving up to Sacramento and visiting art museums, and then going up to Tahoe but staying in Nevada, going kayaking and hiking and sitting on the beach for hours. It was reallllllly hot, but luckily I don't think it ever broke 90 degrees. The views were beautiful, especially at Kings Canyon. The drive in, you're surrounded by huge rock walls, with a thin river rushing by next to you. The hike itself literally feels like you're in nature, like the trail is somewhat defined but not paved, there are no sounds of traffic, the path isn't heavily trafficked so we were the only ones there for the most part. We even saw a deer and washed our faces in the river. Throughout the whole thing, we climbed into so many waterfalls, trying not to slip on rocks.

I hadn't been to Sacramento in over a decade, but it was a cute day trip. There isn't a ton to do there, but it was a nice reprieve from the constant driving and nature. We visited the Leland Stanford Mansion, the Crocker Art Museum, and Old Town Sacramento. A good chance to get a nice coffee, a sit-down meal, and some air conditioning. At Tahoe, we went kayaking on Pope Beach, with the clearest water I have ever seen, followed up by a hike up to a beautiful view of the Lake.

On our way back, we stopped at a lot of interesting places, like small towns like Lee Vining, where we found an Upside Down House; Manzanar, the site of an old Japanese internment camp during the WWII era (which also hit hard); and Randsburg, a literal living ghost town. Overall, getting to travel with my friends finally was so fun, they were so much fun to be around for five days, and getting to explore so much of California was so fun - even though I'd been here for so long, I never knew these places existed.

So I came back and had around 48 hours to recover before my mom and I took a trip up to the Pacific Northwest!

I've always wanted to visit Seattle, and figured I'd hit Portland on the way too. We originally wanted to go to Hawaii but it got so expensive by the middle of the summer, so we decided to stay a little closer to home (probs the better decision bc I was already so tired by this point).

Seattle! Got to visit Pike Place Market many times, grab some coffee at the original Starbucks, see Mt. Rainier, and grab food with three friends! Also went to Bainbridge Island for a day which was SO cute - got to do an olive oil/balsamic vinegar tasting, which sounds so extra, but is actually really unexpectedly fun. At Starbs, I did a cold brew flight, which resulted in a rough night of tossing and turning for me, but I think it was worth it. Other things included the Pinball Museum, Space Needle, and Chihuly Glass Museum!

So I lowkey really wanted to visit Portland because I wanted to achieve a long-lasting dream of seeing an NWSL game in person. So I went to the Thorns Pride game!!

The Thorns fanbase is actually insane, I cannot express to you, like there's this whole fan section that actually did synchronized cheers and routines and was actually ROARING when they scored the entire game. I swear the audience was actually watching them at points instead of the match. Overall, the stadium was going crazy, like I thought I was at a tied Celtics-Bucks game with how loud it was in there. Also I swear, Ali Krieger made eye contact with me and waved.

In addition to that, Portland also has a huge rose garden, a nice Japanese tea garden, a lot of good donut stores and a huge bookstore, so all very up my alley. We also took a day trip to see Mt. Hood and more waterfalls!!

That's a summary of the SEA - PDX trip. Once I got home, my high school friends and I did not waste any time on reuniting to hang out - we went and played ball, grabbed lunch, and then coffee, and then did the same exact thing like two days later and watched a bunch of TikToks, and then spent a whole day at the beach to send my good friend off to medical school in Arizona. They somehow convinced me to go in the water and I got body checked by a wave.

Saw this sculpture on the beach and teared up a little

So proud of my friends for making it to med school, I am so excited to see them at their white coat ceremonies and beyond, I swear I will cry at every step of the way I'm so happy for them. Now that July is pretty much over, most of my fun summer plans are too, and I finally get a chance to catch my breath from that busy busy month. Spending a lot of time watching the Olympics and trying to muster up the motivation to start a fulltime job in < 1 month!!

Overall, I feel like I've been having a really solid summer given the year that was the covid year. I had a Lot of fun, literally probably two summers worth of fun consolidated into one. I think in the beginning of the year, I really wanted this summer to be good, and I didn't have a lot of set plans for the summer, even by the end of May. But somehow, things came together, like Really together, and I had the best summer of my life in this summer 2021. On top of that, I'm reading more than I have since probably middle school, I feel the most in shape that I ever have, I can DRIVE NOW. Only thing that would've made it better was if I got to go back to Taiwan to visit the fam, but unfortunately I can't go back because of strict travel restrictions there and they had a COVID outbreak too :/ I still got around 3.5 weeks of summer to go, so we'll see how the rest goes :)

[wernerherzogs]

HELLO AGSHDJJSS first of all hi yes I'm still alive and saw your lovely lovely post yesterday I was just so busy up until now that I didn't get a chance to fully respond but anyways!!!

KASIAAA 😭😭😭😭😭 I'm speechless from this, I honestly don't know what to say except thank you. Thank you for being such an amazing friend, for always being so unendingly kind and supporting, and inspiring me with your passion for the things you love. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I wouldn't be here without you and I'm forever grateful I have you in my corner. I treasure our friendship so so much, and the fact that you remembered it was my birthday and then took the time out of your day to write me such a sweet thing means so much to me.

And I did get cake!! My aunt had one delivered to me as a surprise and it is DELICIOUS (OREOS!!!) In fact I'm gonna go have some of the leftovers later. I also got so debilitatingly drunk last night that I've spent most of today recovering but that's how these things are supposed to go I guess lmao. (also speaking of l*ve one of the reasons it took me so long to get back to you is bc there may be A Boy and A Date tomorrow 💀)

ANYWAYS I'M GONNA GO EAT SOMETHING NOW I NEVER SAID A WORD BYE LOVE YOU (also very special shout out to all the lovely people who commented on your post and especially bruddirt for their thoughtful message, I appreciate it a lot ❤️) sending love your and everyone else's way as always xxx - 😘🦄

(oh and ps yes feel free to keep the post public I know why ofc, I'll be there soon but just not quite yet, so much has been changing for me recently that I think I need this to stay the same for a bit longer if that's okay, love you 💖)

hey!!!! the fact that it was your birthday, and you still decided to say something nice back instead of LETTING THAT DAY BE ALL ABOUT YOU??? good to know you remain an ANGEL. you know you didn’t HAVE TO. 😭💖 i’m glad the wishes spoke to you! i meant everything i said, and YOU’VE JUST GOT ME EMO IN RETURN. happy birthday again, darling!!! you deserve to be celebrated always, but ESPECIALLY on your birthdays. 💕 (many thanks to mutuals who joined my wishes!)

an oreo cake? I’M LITERALLY SO JEALOUS askjfhask. EAT SOME OF IT IN MY NAME!!! yay for getting to get drunk, too, THAT’S WHAT BDAYS ARE FOR INDEED. i wanted to drink something in your name, too, but ALAS, my period got here yesterday to ruin it all. :/ smh

but ONTO THE IMPORTANT THINGS. a BOY???? A DATE??????? I FEEL LIKE A PROUD PARENT. GET HIM!!!!!!!!!! HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME!!!!!!! i hope the date turns out to be everything you want it to be! be safe, but HAVE FUN! i’m sooo happy for you. 😭 AND IF HE DOESN’T TREAT YOU RIGHT I’LL TRACK HIM DOWN AND END HIS LIFE. :) just so he knows. ❤️

lastly!!! listen i didn’t even mean it that way, you can stay on anon forever if it makes you more comfortable, it’s not an issue At All. 😘 i just wanted to say that if you wanted them deleted for any reason (i don’t need to know the reason), you got it -- i just needed the confrimation you got to see them first.