#i literally grew up with main squid characters as they did

[purplerose244]

My thoughts on Seabound!!! 🌊🌊🌊 (1/4)

SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Finally Nya's season! Our queen, our water goddess, our amazing girl gets what she deserves! 😍😍😍

What I know about the season beforehand is that Nya's powers apparently are getting problematic for some reasons? Which is a pretty common topic in other shows but it's a first in Ninjago, usually the elemental powers don't have focus and I LOVE that we now get to see stuff like that 💕💕💕

I know there should be Wojira involved, trusting The Island to deliver that little foreshadowing at the end of the episode 🤷‍♀️ Also Maya is back... MAYA IS FINALLY BACK AFTER SEVEN SEASONS YES!!! 😭😭😭

I have nothing else to say, I have no idea what this will bring, hopefully something as good as Master of the Mountain! 🖤

Alright, here we go!

GENERAL THOUGHTS

Warning reader, I might be fangirling to an extreme because I love mah girl Nya and I've been wanting Kai and Nya's parents to be back ever since Hands of Time ended. So yeah... screaming alert 😅

At this point I don't doubt that the intro is great, we reached such a level of animation and we got The Fold 😍😍 Love the marine vibe and how it's similar to The Island, because it's a great intro 👌

NOW I like the writing! Maybe they rushed the dialogue's quality for The Island to get here? It's just fun and in character, maybe it's just me but I'm enjoying it a lot for now

How many episodes are in this? Wiki says ten, then I checked again and it's sixteen like with Master of Mountain... eh, it looks good so far so it's fine whatever happens 🤷‍♀️

A BIG SPLASH

Oohhh, new villain! One that uses... flames... huh, does she know there's literally a master of fire in the ninja team? Eh whatever she looks cute, give it up for Miss Demeanor!! 👏👏

Wait... OMG IS THAT ERIN MATTHEWS??? WE GOT MACY!! ❤❤❤

Whoa, we're finding out where did the order of the vengestone from season 13 come from?? YAS! CONTINUITY!

Yep, there it is, Nya lost control... her attacks look so cool 😍

Lol that kid trying to be a nindroid and Zane being offended 😂😂 Sorry hun, you're that popular

Aaahhh, thank you Ninjago! You gave me back Nya the perfectionist 😂 I was worried her reaction to her powers wasn't going to be in character but it looks fair so far. Brings me back to Possession, my favorite season 💙💙💙

WE GOT BACK THE FACT THAT SHE CAN MAKE IT RAIN!!! YAS!!! I might be easy to please but I love these details 🤩

🤯🤯🤯 Okay they are definitely going somewhere this time and I LOVE IT, because wow. WOW. Are we actually addressing the forever questioned fact that wind and water weren't elements that Chen needed at the Tournament? Are we giving a reason for them to exist outside the main set of elements and the elemental masters?? Duuuude, season 15 don't let me stop you, keep going 😍

Mm, so water and wind are connected to Wojira (now I see the connection with the special). Are we setting the ground for a new master of wind? 😏😏 It's risky going for a Morro replacement but it's a super intriguing idea! Oooor Edgy Boy TM might come back? WHO KNOWS I'M CURIOUS ANYWAY 🤩

Love how it is universal knowledge that Nya is super indipendent 👌

YES YES FINALLY WE'RE TALKING ABOUT MAYA!!! 😍😍😍 Is it too much hoping into a Ray cameo as well?? Pleaaaase? Also addressing Krux after so many seasons, this feels exciting!! 😊

This is what I'm talking about, training, fighting scenes, show me everything that water goddess can do! 🌊🌊🌊

Aaahhh, Nya flexing her mightiness through anger, just to remind us that she is the descendant of a water master as much as of a fire master 😅

YES YES YES YES IT'S HAPPENING FINALLY AFTER SEVEN SEASON THE FIRE WATER PARENTS ARE FINALLY BACK!!! 🔥🌊🔥🌊🔥🌊 I'M SO HAPPY I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR SO LONG!!! 😭

RAY IS THERE TOO HECK YES!!!! 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 I shouldn't get this excited at only the first episode... WHO CARES RAY IS BAAAAACK!!! ❤❤❤

Omg Maya is definitely different from what I expected, turns out Kai's enthusiasm came from her 😂

Oh look at my flame babe 😍

He's so happy his parents are here, he's a total family man ❤❤❤

Nya is maaaaad... 😅

THERE SHE IS

WELCOME BACK JILLIAN I MISSED YOU 💚💚💚 Would it be too much having a "Your voice sounds familiar" moment with Maya and Lloyd? 😂

I'm so stoked for this! I want all the interactions I've missed for all of this time, asap!! HECK yes!! 😍😍😍😍

Oh, are we looking over the Miss Demeanor, vengestone situation? Mm... for now at least... WHO CARES FIRE WATER PARENTS!! 🔥🌊🔥🌊🔥🌊

THE CALL OF THE DEEP

Imma just slow clap for The Fold because this is another amazing intro, one of those things in this show that stays awesome no matter what happens 👍👍

So Maya gave Nya her discipline and perfectionism, but not the passion behind it 😂 I like this, it's not your conventional master of water, although I'd say it's different from the impression she gave me back in HoT. Maybe this is how she is when she's not trapped for fifty years? 😅😅

Is it too much asking for Kai and Ray bonding while the water women get the work done? 😅😅

Is this the sequel of Green Eggs and Ham?

Green Pancakes and Ham? 😂

Oh it's seaweed nevermind... at breakfast? I'm all for sushi rolls but this is a little 😅 Although since Maya missed their childhood she probably never cooked meals for them... how did I get myself sad 😢

Whoa, Maya is a strict teacher! I got flashbacks from my first and only dance lesson, teachers nitpicking every single pose, uuurrrggg I feel ya waterlily 😡

Again, not a fan of Misako, but coming from her the whole speech about wanting to be there for her child makes a lot of sense

Yes. YES.

YEEEEESSSS KAI AND RAY FAMILY BONDING THIS IS EVERYTHING I'VE EVER WANTED I'M GETTING ALL OF MY WISHES GRANTED FOR THIS ONE ❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤

AND MY FLAME BABE IS SO GLAD HE GOT HIS PARENTS!!! 😭😭😭

Lol with Kai's new hair they look even more related 🤣

Ray also sounds so happy he gets to have his moment with his son 😢 I feel so blessed in this moment 👍

Also this scene makes a lot of sense. Nya grew up to be indipendent, one that succeed in most of stuff without problems, she built her life without any help and doesn't look for it. Kai grew up more insecure, he got some walls up but loves to take care of others and be taken care of. With a childhood lost he looks forward to a bit of softness ❤❤

Did Maya make real bacon for that sandwich? Do I smell some favoritism? 😅 Or maybe she really wants Nya to get onto the water mind setting idk 🤷‍♀️

Little tiny complain, why isn't Jay doing the fixing? Did he give up mechanics completely? It feels like we haven't seen him do tech stuff in so long, I miss techy boy in action 😞

And no, having to check on the bathroom doesn't count 😅

Aww robot date 💜🤍💜🤍

AAAHH ROBOT DISASTER 😱😱😱 ZANE DANG IT YOU WERE DOING SO GOOD NOT TRYING TO DIE IN THE LAST TWO SEASONS!!

Oh that was weird, weird magic purple wave thingie?

I DID NOT ASK FOR A SEASON WITH A BEST GIRL AT THE EXPENCE OF ANOTHER BEST GIRL PIX DON'T YOU DARE DO THIS TO ME 😱😱😱😱😱

"Well this is troubling." I love this samurai so freaking much 💜💜💜

GUYS THIS IS ONLY THE SECOND EPISODE, I'M A LITTLE SCARED NOW 😢

Okay Nya admitting that something's wrong looking so apologetic, girl you don't need to do that you already own my heart 😭

Alright, I'm guessing this is Wojira's power or something, and they will have to go down below and find out why... just throwing this in, maybe Maya did something? Because she wanted to finally be with her family and needed an excuse? JUST A THEORY WITH NO BASE I REALLY HOPE I'M WRONG!!!

Okay, two episodes and I'm BEYOND engaged, let's keep it up! 😍

UNSINKABLE

Getting an idea how this episode might end already 😂😂

Look, I love best girl Pixal, but I'm kinda sad that she seems to be the only one tinkering at this point. Like, I saw Nya fix little stuff, while Jay dropped engineering altogether, I miss my engineers team 😭

Aww, the guys didn't want to crush Pixal's dream of an unsinkable boat 💜 But honestly yeah, I agree with Cole, this might end badly 😅😅

Thank goodness

I was worried they forgot about Jaya ❤💙❤💙 Jay is such a cutie omg

Nya: Mm, going on a potentially dangerous mission with unstable powers in the heart of my element or... mom's tofu pancakes... *yeets herself over the ship*

I'm making too many screenshots of the Smith family... WHO CARES THEY ARE BACK AND THEY ALL LOOK SO GOOD!!! 😍😍😍😍

Aww Ray wants to play with his son and his friends so CUTE ❤❤❤ Still can't believe they play Prime Empire after everything that went down 😂😂

Whoa whoa whoa, Kai and Cole are sitting this one out? That's actually interesting, I'm pretty sure I saw Cole's scuba suit in the sets though so I didn't expect it... lol it's actually kinda fair that the two that used to be afraid of water aren't going 😂😂

Bet Kai is happy to stay behind because he gets to spend time with his dad 😭

Also studying the fire elementals?? Uhm, yes please?? TELL ME EVERYTHING ABOUT MY FLAME BABE!!! 😍😍😍😍

I'm sure this one scene...

... made so many lavashippers happy ❤🖤❤🖤 Cole you got Ray's blessing

Ninja team acting cool while Jay is being Jay, it's how it always goes, it's the entire show's description and I absolutely love it 😂 That wink though 💙

PIRATE ZANE IS BACK 😂😂😂 Haven't seen him since Possession, and this time he's not even malfunctioning 👌 Pixal is so done with his dorky boyfriend 😝

Of course Jay already has a ghost butler theory going on 😂

OF COURSE IT'S MAYA 😂😂

To be honest muffins would sold me too 😅 Not sure if she will make them out of tofu again though...

It's actually really interesting that we still haven't met the actual enemies, it does build up excitment! Very curious about these squid guys 👍

Well what do you know, the Unsinkable sank. Who would have thought?

... yeah same, sorry Pix 😅

FIVE THOUSANDS FATHOMS DOWN

Aaaahhh, Nya fixing stuff! That's more like it!! 😍😍

Oww, that one speech, I've been waiting for so long for that! Maya just wants to catch up with her daughter and it's not her fault she was separated from her children, but Nya did everything on her own with Kai. Only fair she isn't seeking for her help right now... still sad 😢

Pff, with this ninja team there's not a moment of privacy 😂😂

Maya cleaning his future son-in-law's laundry what the HECK 😂😂😂 To be fair Jay has a bit of a history of having to change underwears during sea travels 😝

Zane was attached to a battery? When?... are you talking about that one scene in Prime Empire? Cause that's not really a flashback I wanna ha- whoops never mind got the flashback 😱

Maya looks more calm now, I think she's trying to act more reasonable and she's got good points 👍 I know people were a little weirded out by how more cheerful she looks in comparison to Hands of Time, but I think she gets the most serious and rational when time needs. That's actually fascinating of her 🤔

CALLING OUT AN ATTEMPTED MURDER

THIS GIRL IS TOO GORGEOUS MY HEART CAN'T TAKE IT 🤩🤩🤩 Like my gosh that smirk, what the heck Pix 💜💜💜

Okay but Jay looking at Nya until the doors are completely closed?? CAN YOU FEEL MY JAYA HEART BEATING?? ❤💙❤💙

Whoa green gas I thought this was Nya's season 😂

MAYA WHY ARE YOU SAYING THIS STUFF YOU'RE SCARING ME 😱😱😱 I SWEAR LEGO IF YOU BROUGHT BACK WATER MOM JUST TO KILL HER OFF I'M GONNA SUE YOU 😭😭😭

I really REALLY like the atmosphere of the entrante of the temple! Super sealike and ancient! 🌊🌊🌊

Maya: off we go, into the spooky old temple! (Why does it feel like something Kai would say? 😂)

Oh gee, someone sleeping in the deep, who could that be? Coff Wojira coff

Whoa the jellyfishes look pretty lifelike!

HERE HE COMES

WELCOME BACK GILES!!! ONCE AGAIN ON A LEGO SHOW I MISSED YOU SO MUCH YOU AND YOUR GODLIKE VOICE!!! 😍😍😍😍 Gosh he's a villain but he's got Clay's voice, how can I even try to hate him?? 😅

Alright, knocking down my water girls, that is pretty hateful material... BUT CLAAAYYY 💙💙💙

So they need the two amulets to wake up Wojira? Isn't one on the island? Fire dad and son coming to the rescue? WHO KNOWS BUT I'M ENJOYING THIS A LOT SO FAR KEEP GOING SEABOUND 😍😍😍

[scoundrels-in-love]

Exit Rant & Rave of Extraordinary You

Because I was watching with a friend and often had to go to sleep immediately after, I did not blog much commentary as I watched the series, but tonight I’m saying fuck sleep and writing some thoughts as I’ve just wrapped up the series.

Obviously stuffed with spoilers to the brim. (It’s long and I probably forgot something.)

Every character in the story believed that the changes they made had some superb effect one way or another the WAY they WANTED or BELIEVED they went/would go, without any proof. Dan Oh believed from get go she could save herself through changing her story. Without a single proof. Similarly, Kyung believed changing her story would kill her. Also without proof, other than his want to keep everything same as on stage. Meanwhile, to a reader it seemed obvious that while Saeguks are all about the tragedy, high school romcom is not likely to have a death of a character on whose romance there’s been quite the focus. Of course, that’s an outside POV. And desperation to live could spark such an idea in Dan Oh, I imagine. But it really got very frustrating around ep 24-26, how all of them kept blaming each other for ‘changing the story’ and dooming Dan Oh, even for things that happened in Trumpet Creeper when neither even REMEMBERED if any of the Stages got changed!!! This made the eps/that part drag for me and frustrate me and it deducted points from story, for me.

Similarly, as watcher/reader it was obvious Writer very much liked Kyung and some readers had been upset with the outcome, so Writer wanted to redeem him through a properly done romance where he Learned to be kinder/had happy ending, and the way to do it while telling a fresh story was to write Haru out and put them in background. More points in ‘Dan Oh ain’t gonna die’ goal. At one point I wondered if messing with the story really wouldn’t end up killing her because maybe grandma was meant to die and she wasn’t.

I still like @gizkasparadise​ theory his little brother was Writer’s self insert. The other option was he had mad crush on sulky Kyung.

This is how to do a Soulmate trope without mentioning soulmates right. While essentially nothing changed from Writer’s plan, Haru’s and Dan Oh’s feelings were so strong they basically drew him back into existence. His consciousness was tied to hers, it materialized in attempts to protect her and then into the world. Not to mention, all the lines they finally got to say as they had wanted to, the way they couldn’t forget each other. This is something that Dried Squid Fairy glossed over when they spoke of ‘mere extras that can be erased’ when they spoke of comic ending. That he already broke through it once just because he loved so much.

Also the cinematic parallels of him Remembering her and going into the next world versus her Remembering him as she goes into the next world. Whew.

Some more points are docked from the story for the way Do Hwa could NOT keep his mouth shut about anything and how much trouble he caused, but while that made sense for his character overall, the way Dried Squid Fairy told Kyung about erasing one’s self awareness was entirely plot-serving and made no sense.

DSF as narrative foil to Haru and Kyung as narrative foil to Do Hwa was gorgeously done.

Joo Da is Aro, in my head. While I can see it as Polyamorous thing, for me it’s more of an Aro being confused as what counts as ‘liking’ and ‘loving’ someone romantically, so intense care and friendship gets mistaken as one and therefor she just wants them all 3 to be together, happy, and can’t pick one, sticks with the one that needs her more as friend. She really seemed to struggle with word love and also never saw any kisses, on Stage or otherwise!

As a clear proof of being extensively spoiled for story doesn’t replace watching experience, I did not expect to have SO many feelings about DSF and his lady. I think I teared up over them before our main couple, oops, when he treated her to a meal. The YEARNING. Somehow, the way she played a soft matchmaker when Dan Oh forgot, the way they mirror each other... They were very powerful baseline for what the show was telling, putting it all in a sharp and cutting focus.

“Congratulations on graduating from this world” was one of the, if not most, powerful line in the series for me, somehow. The bittersweet taste of it. ‘You endured through the pain and the longing. You learned. You grew. You are leaving it all behind. And maybe there will be no more you, or me, ever. Congratulations. You did well.’ Oh god. I just can’t deal. (I need this on gifset)

Kyung is Fuckyung as my friend deemed him. That’s all. While I did feel sympathy for him at various times and was like “Dan Oh, if only you gave him chance to speak/didn’t literally run off to Haru quite in most brusque/fuck you way”.... He still Fucked up, he was still messed up and chose some really messed up things even full aware of making those choices and consequences. His ‘redemption’ was short and without proper momentum and idk. I hope he can be happier and more whole in next volume.

Speaking of which, I am so upset most of their belongings and memories like photos and such disappear. And that we can never know who will live through iterations, how many lifetimes Haru and Dan Oh will have. The thought Sae Mi might’ve gotten through to uni life and DSF and Do Hwa might not have... Fucks me up, in a bad way.

Also what’s the deal with ERASING a world? I’d never erase my own worlds. And I like to think that after story is finished, if you think about it and things like fanfiction keep it not being ‘shut down’ like this.

Also it’s a SOFT COVER BOOK, it’d not shut so loudly, lol.

I really loved the softness of our couple. Like, YESSS. Perfect. Overall, this did so many of things I love right and even when it went into territories I wasn’t fond of, it was still quite good. I can say, yeah, this goes in top favorite drama list. It’s hard to say good bye to it and watching it with my friend was a huge highlight of my April.

[realityhelixcreates]

Beta, Theta, and Me

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Thor (Movies), Avengers (Movies) Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating: PG Warnings: Swearing, Homelessness, Minor Nudity Relationships: Loki x Reader (But not right now) Characters: Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Pepper Potts, Thor(Marvel), Loki(Marvel) Additional Tags:  A/B/O, Sorta, More Of An Exploration Of Life And Self Expression Within An A/B/O Framework, Loki Does What He Wants, But Loki Does Not Actually Do What He Wants, This First Chapter Is Mostly Setup, Bear With Me

Summary:  A homeless drifter enters a building, and wanders into a new life.

It was starting to get warm again. The danger of freezing to death on the streets was passing, but that meant a new danger approached: people. More people out and about meant more opportunities for you, but more danger as well.

More people meant more to beg from, but also more people that would be willing to hurt you in some way or another. It also meant more competition from other street people, who you knew from experience, absolutely were willing to hurt you.

You were surprisingly good at surviving out here on the streets. It wasn't ideal, not by a long shot. You suffered, you shivered, you starved, just like everyone else out here. But you didn't get sick as much as the others, you always seemed to know the best places and targets for begging. You were still relatively young, and could feign cuteness.

Most of the people out here were betas. Alphas didn't generally end up homeless, and Omegas were usually snapped up before it could happen to them. Just another example of social inequality.

You were no Omega, but you had the same, strong sense of smell. It helped you avoid danger sometimes, and choose begging targets-mostly Omegas, who were soft. Your dumbass, prepper parents had at least taught you some useful survival skills: climbing, rough shelter, even what weeds could be eaten. Sure, you weren't supposed to eat things that grew close to roads or buildings, but you were also eating literal garbage sometimes, so you were in no position to worry about that.

While the city center wasn't your usual haunt, with its hostile architecture, and its increased police presence, you had accidentally fallen asleep on the subway, and this was where they had kicked you out. It was a long walk back to the suburbs you liked to hide in, and you really had to pee.

The Avenger's Tower Museum was a landmark now, and a tourist trap. It was easy to slip in and find a restroom. With everybody so caught up in learning about famous heroes, no one paid attention to a random patron, even if she was dirtier that the usual visitor.

You knew the Avengers had a separate training compound somewhere out in the countryside, but that they could sometimes also be found here. You knew Tony Stark, in particular, had moved back to the upper reaches of the tower, after his house had been blown up. Perils of being a superhero, you supposed. You hoped they weren't here today. You were going to take advantage, and it felt a bit wrong if the heroes were here.

The bathroom was big, and the stalls were spacious and sparkling clean. You felt like a mud smear on the immaculate walls. Well, that was okay, you were hoping to take care of that problem, at least a little bit.

You hid out in one of the stalls, stripping your shirt off, but leaving your jacket on. You'd done this a few times before, and it was always risky, and took forever, but you had to clean up somehow.

When there was no one in the bathroom with you, you rushed out of the stall, soaked your shirt in the sink, wrung it out slightly, then dashed back into the stall. With the door locked behind you, you stripped off your bra and jacket, then began scrubbing yourself with your wet shirt. Darting back out, you got some soap, and rubbed it all over yourself back in the stall. You cleaned your whole body this way, drying yourself off with your sweatpants.

Now for the hard part.

Partially dressed, you soaked, soaped, and scrubbed each article of clothing in turn, hanging them around the stall to dry. This part took forever, and was extra risky, but it wasn't as if you had anything else to do today, and you didn't get the opportunity to clean your clothes very often.

It proved to be too risky. Someone must have noticed that you were acting suspicious, because the next thing you knew you were being hauled, half dressed, out of the bathroom and across the main floor. They were actually going to toss you out on the street without even all your clothes on!

“Oh hey, what do we have here?” Someone asked. It was a voice that didn't seem used to being ignored.

“Just a drifter, Mr. Stark. We caught her shooting up in the bathroom.” One of the security guards said. You both bristled at the total lie, and sank at the sound of the mans name. You hadn't wanted any of them to see you.

“I was not!” You protested. “I was washing up! There's nothing against the law about getting clean!”

“Is that why she's naked?” Stark asked, a little incredulous over what he was seeing.

“I was drying my clothes, but they pulled me out of the stall before I could get them back on.” You grumbled, not expecting anything to come of it. Maybe he would get you your clothes back before you were tossed out. Otherwise, you would be needing to dig around for a pair of pants.

“Seriously? All those training videos I pay for, and you really think throwing a half-dressed woman out on the street is part of acceptable procedure?” Stark snorted. “No, no, no. You-” He pointed at you with a flourish of his hand. “Come with me. And you two get ready for some sensitivity training sessions.”

He led you away from the security guards and staring tourists, into the back hallways used by staff. It vaguely occurred to you that you ought to be distrustful of being a homeless, half-naked woman practically alone in a hidden hallway with a powerful man, but...well, he was Iron Man. Yes, he had a reputation as a former womanizer, but no one had yet come forward to say that any of it hadn't been consensual.

Besides, if he really was like that, Mrs. Potts probably would have torn his spine out through his ass. As Alphas went, she seemed the very no-nonsense type. Maybe not arrogant, so much as not willing to put up with much in the way of shenanigans. Perhaps she'd chosen the wrong mate. Or perhaps her influence kept him from getting into even more trouble than he already did.  

“Were your clothes dry? Do you want me to send someone to get them?”

“Nah, they were still pretty wet. I was just gonna put them on and leave. I really wasn't doing anything wrong, seriously. I just wanted to wash up and get out. Didn't wanna bother nobody. But they are still hanging in the stall, so someone oughta get them.”

“Okay, can do. Here.” He tapped a code into a pad, and a closet door opened up. Peeking inside, you saw a lot of very organized janitorial equipment, including carts, vacuums, waxing machines, and uniforms. Stark pointed at those. “Get yourself some pants, please. I feel like a sleazebag here.”

You grabbed some pants as he turned his back.

“Get yourself a shirt too. And one of those vests. And a hat.” He said, and you did, putting on the new clothes. “I swear, my whole security team makes me look like some kind of tyrant. They're so severe! I mean, I guess that's what I should have expected, hiring on former S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. But they needed jobs after Nat dropped that truth bomb about HYDRA all over the internet...You knew about that, right?”

“Yeah, I think squids living under a rock at the bottom of the ocean even heard about that.”

“Well, they're good people, mostly, but they're just so serious. They had to be, to do their former jobs, and they just brought it with them into this job. It doesn't occur to them that tossing a naked lady out onto the street makes me look really bad, and isn't very nice to you either. Even if you were getting high in the bathroom, I don't really care. I'm not perfect, I've indulged in the occasional magic brownie. Can't judge. Grab that cart will you? Wall chart says it's about time for that bathroom to get cleaned.”

The man was an absolute chatterbox, and you had your hands on the cart before it registered that he had even said it. Was that how he always got his way? You were no Omega, and he was no Alpha, but he was powerful nonetheless, and he overwhelmed you with words. You just found yourself doing whatever it was he said.

You followed him out to the bathroom, fully dressed, and dragging the cart behind you, expecting to collect your wet clothes and leave.

“Now, don't forget to put on your gloves, and one of these masks here, so you don't breathe in the cleaners. You know,” He said at your bewildered glance. “Since you like cleaning things so much.”

“U-um...”

“Code's twenty-four thirty, check the wall chart for what's next. You can read and write?”

“Yes...?”

“Great! I'll get an application sent to you at the end of the shift. Have fun!”

He strode off into the crowd without a second glance back, and disappeared into the crowd, leaving you deeply confused, hopeful, and just a little repulsed.

You had a job now, it seemed. All of a sudden, you were gainfully employed. He had the power to completely reorder your life on a whim. That was terrifying, but also an opportunity you didn't want to let slip. If he was feeling generous, you would take advantage of it.

You put on a pair of gloves, and slipped a paper mask over your face. It was time to go to work.

                                                                                                                                                  *****

This was a little harder than you had thought it would be. Since you hadn't done this before, or gotten any training at all, you were mostly just guessing what cleaners to use, and what proper toilet cleaning procedure might be. You weren't sure how to open the automatic paper towel dispensers in order to put in new rolls, or where to put the wet floor sign when you mopped. Also, people kept coming in and ruining your work, though you supposed that was part of the point.

It took about an hour for you to get the whole place scrubbed, restocked, and shining. You had cleaned every speck of dust or dirt, and paid close attention to every tiny detail. That ought to be satisfactory.

You wheeled the cart back into the Employee's Only halls, only to be stopped by a tall, frowning woman.

“Who are you?” She demanded. “Who told you you could take this cart?”

“New hire.” You said, hoping she would see that you were busy and let you go on your way. You didn't like the look of her.

“I wasn't informed of any new hire!”

“Very new. Just came on this morning.”

She grasped the cart, stopping you in place.

“I run the janitorial department. I wasn't informed of any new hire. I'm notifying security.”

“Mr. Stark brought me on himself!” You protested. “Just this morning! It was real sudden, but that's what happened.”

“Bullshit. I'll just ask him directly, shall I?” She whipped out a very smart looking phone, and pressed a single digit on its nearly flat face.

A minute passed. Dragged. Stretched. The woman's' frown grew deeper, and you struggled to refrain from sarcastic comments about her perceived self-importance.

Finally, the phone picked up.

“Yo.” Came Stark's bored voice.

“I've caught a vagrant in the D-3 hallway. She's either trying to steal or to spy. She says you personally hired her this morning.”

“Huh? Who?”

Your heart sank. Seemed like the game was over.

“Oh yeah! She's our newest janitor. Real passion for cleaning.”

“Wh-really? But sir!”

“Don't worry. Florence. Didn't you just send me an email suggesting you were short-handed since Anne got married? Well, there you go! Problem solved, and almost immediately. Get along now. Bye!”

“But-” The phone went dark again. You were honestly surprised he had answered in the first place. The man was a billionaire, on top of the world, a hero and one of the most famous figures mankind had ever known. Smash together King Tut, Einstein, and Elvis, and the resulting super-person would still have nothing on the fame of Anthony Stark. And 'Florence' here was a grump who seemed to think a bit too much of her own importance.

She glared at you. You shrugged.

“Fine. Show me what you did.”

You took her to the bathroom, proudly showing off your sparkling work.

“So you took this cart at nine fourty-six, and have only gotten back now...it took you an hour to do this?”

You weren't completely in love with her tone.

“Where did you get your training?”

“Uh...”

“Thought so. He just grabbed you and tossed you into this didn't he? Look, taking a whole hour to clean one bathroom is not going to cut it. This building is ninety-three floors, and each one has several bathrooms which, incidentally, will not be the only things you will be expected to clean. You will have to speed up.”

She glanced around. “I see what you've done here. You've scrubbed literally everything. Behind the toilets. The underside of the sinks. The trash cans. You can't do this every time. It'll just take too long. You need to learn the basics before you start doing all the extra stuff.”

Well that was new. Getting reprimanded for doing your job too well.

“Come along. We'll do another bathroom. I'll show you the basics.”

You followed her out of the bathroom and into the hidden halls.

“We don't go wheeling the bathroom carts out among the museum tours.” She lectured. “Even though we are cleaners, anything associated with toilets becomes associated with filth, in the laymans eyes. There are maps here and there, but if you think you're going to work here, you'll get the layout memorized quickly.”

You spent another hour and a half learning basic bathroom cleaning techniques. This was apparently what you would be spending most of your time on. Every bathroom on the ten museum floors was scheduled to be cleaned once per two hours, and every bathroom on the dozens of office and lab floors at least three times per day. You would not be alone in doing this task, but since, as had been pointed out, the janitorial team was shorthanded, you would have to do many of them, and you would have to learn to do it fast. Florence didn't seem terribly convinced that you would be able to.

She sure had a lot to say about you; carefully cloaked jabs at your appearance, hygiene, and intelligence. She even seemed to insinuate that you smelled bad, on the elevator up to the highest level of labs that you would be given access to. You felt that was rather unfair; you had technically just washed, and you were even wearing fresh clothes!

Upon disembarking the elevator, Florence led you to each of the bathrooms on the floor, and you glanced into the labs. Away from the museum, you didn't have to sneak through hidden halls to avoid being spotted by the general public, and could see what was going on around you.

There was a lot of...very sciency stuff going on in those labs, and you didn't understand a lick of it. But it might be nice to learn sometime.

A loud, but faraway sound penetrated the lab, like a roaring wind. You'd have guessed that it really was nothing but the wind, rushing around the building, dozens of floors higher into the air than you'd ever been, except...

Except that everyone, Florence included, paused in what they were doing, and looked toward the ceiling. As if they'd heard it before, and knew it heralded something. One man, far down the hall, left his lab and booked it to another elevator.

“What was that?” You asked, mildly nervous.

“Nothing we need to concern ourselves with.” She answered. “We should go back downstairs. Khalil should be getting in soon; I'll have him show you how the floor waxers work, and where the box and trash compactors are, while I scrape you up an application, and get you entered into the system.”

As she led you away, a column of prismatic, screaming light faded from a special platform, far, far above you, and two people stepped onto the very top floor of the tower.

[geek-gem]

Rampage 2 Monster Ideas Or Possibilities

Because this is something well I wanted to make a joke at first of how Davis would react in the situation I’ve thought of for a sequel to Rampage 2018. But over time I started to think more. Basically more details, and changes to my ideas. Spoilers from the 2018 film just in case.

Including I wanted to make this list of ideal monsters. Because the video games have a huge roster that a franchise can use for the games. Along with I wanted to write my own twist on them. Considering the direction the movie took with George, Ralph, and Lizzie. If your a fan of the games you might like these ideas. But give me your thoughts on these. Especially I intend to some how Ralph and Lizzie back. Because along with George are the main trio of the franchise.

This isn’t all for one movie. But again I’m just giving out ideas. In fact I decided to study and look into stuff. Mostly about wolves because I’ve thought more in depth about Ralph 2.0. Including looked up some stuff on Crocodiles, but mostly looked up stuff about wolves. Along with I looked on the Rampage wiki on some characters. Again give me your thoughts, this is all fan fiction. Especially it seems weird with the Ralph one.

1. Ralph or humorously called Ralph 2.0 by Harvey Russell. A 7 month old Grey Wolf taken in by the Wolf Watch UK. Named Ralph by a woman who works there after she found him as a pup laying next to his dead mother who was killed by poachers. Ever since then, even being a wild animal he’s looked towards the woman as sort of mother after his died.  

Actually considered a, “Sweetheart” despite his protective nature of the woman. Especially is rather good at protecting itself when aggressive or threatened. After being affected by the same pathogen some how that affected the other animals. Growing in size, and gaining certain abilities. But compared to the original Ralph in 2018, Ralph 2.0 while aggressive, seems to be less violent than the original. Mostly because of being taken care of by humans, and his relationship with the woman who rescued him. Especially he still retains his memories.

But growing in size and other symptoms have caused him to become scared, confused, and angry. Only listening to the woman who saved him, and eventually Davis as well. He’s in a weird way a giant dog. Yet he will become violent and attack who hurts the woman who nurtured him growing up.

Is able to fly like the original Ralph, and use the needles it grew on it’s back. 

Notes: Originally I wanted this new character this woman to be played by Karen Gillian, but decided Emilia Clarke. Especially I want a joke where Harvey calls her the, “Mother Of Wolves”. Including Ralph 2.0 has a relationship to this woman similar to Davis and George. But with the woman even calling Ralph that he’s kind of like her son. Along with this Ralph is supposedly the youngest of the trio. 

2. Lizzie or humorously called Lizzie 2.0 by Harvey Russell as well. Including actually named Lizzie by Davis. A 5 year old American Crocodile that resides in the San Diego Wild Life Sanctuary, that Davis saved as well. While she doesn’t mind Davis at all. She would rather be left alone. While the American Crocodile may not be as aggressive as other species, Lizzie can be aggressive if agitated.

Affected by the pathogen that made it’s way to the sanctuary, she gained similar abilities like the original Lizzie. She’s the biggest of the three, able to breathe underwater, and has the tusks and more teeth. Especially in a similar situation as Ralph 2.0, confused, and some what scared, but angry as well.

Yet still even growing bigger, she still retained that loner behavior. Even though she’ll follow Davis because he’s the only one she can trust. Later during the film while still aggressive, realizes that her help is needed offers to help the other two against a bigger threat. Especially it’s to protect Davis from harm or any monsters threating to hurt him. Including can get very violent as well.

Notes: There’s this theme for the movie while it sounds ridiculous. Considering the situations with Ralph 2.0 and Lizzie 2.0, especially Ralph 2.0. Davis tries to convince George even if they are different species, and they may not get along. But Davis tells him that Ralph and Lizzie are not like the other two he faced. Along with the fact they are in the same situation they were in 2018. With Davis asking George to see them as like a younger brother and sister or friends, that they are part of his troop, his family, to protect them like they were one of his own. Over the film George understands and risks his life for the other two. Following this, the other two especially Ralph do the same.

Including have a cute scene of George petting Ralph 2.0 or something.

3: V.E.R.N. considered an abomination. A monster that absorbs radiation. Originally a uncomplete monster that was mixed with bat DNA and other animals before Claire was killed by George. But it was mainly top secret and but kept close to the Rampage project. Yet it was stolen by some sort of company who’s name when shortened was titled SCUM. They tried to complete it. But realized there was a reason it was never completed. It was too out of control, It couldn’t be controlled. Especially what’s more shocking and twisted.

The surprise came from the fact during the process of discovering what was in the blood of the abomination. Some how Claire Wyden’s blood was in it. The reveal was possibly one of the parts of DNA was human blood, which was Claire herself. As if VERN could of been a clone. But later revealed Claire wanted to make the ultimate weapon she could sell. But the results were too unstable. Which was possibly the reason why Claire didn’t bother continuing with it. Because it would of proved disastrous, worse than what happened with Project Rampage. While Claire was pleased with how that project went. Vern was something else. 

Including the name V.E.R.N. meant “Violently Enraged Radioactive Nemesis”.

A angry and diabolical monster, a creature that’s very feral and seems to enjoy what it’s doing. It’s as VERN if she was a clone of Claire, this would of been her after she had been killed. Angry after everything that happened. Especially Vern actually being intelligent and understanding what humans can say. That human blood was used to make it more smarter, a terrible choice indeed. Learning of the original Claire’s death, realizing they were almost the same.

Vern is the embodiment of animalistic evil. If Claire was even more unleashed in her wrong doing, proud of her work, and willing to kill anyone to get in her way. It was almost like the original Claire came back from the dead but more worse, as a giant monster. Including with her size and power, she’s a challenge for any monster.

Notes: I kind of went too far with Vern. Because Vern didn’t have more personal info. Especially last year I thought of this idea of I would of liked it if Claire had become this Bat like creature like Vern. As if this final boss so she get her ass kicked by George. Honestly Claire’s fate was well deserved. Including I understand why they didn’t take the human turning into the monster direction.

But yeah I took the route that Vern is some how Claire 2.0. But as some sort of monstrous clone mixed with a lot of animal DNA. Including as a callback Vern is female in Total Destruction. I know Claire isn’t a very good villain, or whatever she was an asshole. I guess I wanted to make a more in depth monster.

I wanted to make the, “King Ghidorah” and I thought now, “Black Hat(From Villainous)” of Rampage. Even though Vern didn’t have like this huge role in the games. But I decided to add more depth to the character. You can be critical of me if you want.

4. Myukus, a one eyed alien monster. For many years has been kept at Area 51 for many decades ever since the 1950′s. Been kept asleep and experimented on. Now with his alien superiors returning to invade the Earth. He is released by them. Angered by the American government capturing him, and keeping his on Earth for many decades. He decides to take vengeance on Earth, by destroying everything he possibly can, while aiding the aliens who freed him.

Originally a monster created by the aliens to take over the Earth. But crashing down towards the Earth weakened him and put him into a coma. Including the American government made sure he couldn’t wake up. Which fueled Myukus with rage even more. Now free, he can do what he was made for again, now with his people.

Notes: I still feel I wanna do the aliens storyline first but I liked what I did with Vern. No wait Vern came first but you can do a trilogy with so many monsters and other shit man.

5: Cal, a giant squid, born in the Florida Keys in what was considered the safest reef in the world. Transformed by massive amounts of the pathogen on the Athena-1. At first he was a small squid now, but now he’s a massive and angry squid, able to take down boats, eat people, and doing much more damage. Literally a horror underwater come to life. 

Including to make it worse, he is able to breathe air for an hour. But still needing to breathe underwater. Making him a threat not to be messed with.

Notes: Yes I’m keeping the end with the squid canon because that was amazing.

6: Larry, a large rat. Including funny enough, the same rat Harvey got from Brett Wyden. Some how the rat got into contact with the pathogen, making it grow larger and more aggressive. Especially with more time, larger than the rat on the Athena-1.

But what’s rather strange about Larry, he has a huge fondness for Harvey. Honestly a good thing. After getting the rat back from the solider later. He took care of the rat as his own. Especially Larry is mainly a annoyance rather than dangerous. 

Yet he can still fight as he’s gotten bigger near George’s size.

Notes: It’s not Curtis but found out from Brad Peyton if there was a sequel, he’ll use that name. So I decided to do just that. :)

7: Ruby, a giant lobster, it’s strangely funny in a way. How does something like a lobster that’s very small, get so big? In a similar situation to Cal, tons of the pathogen got in the water, and she got a huge dose of it. Able to snap metal with her claws, and also pretty strong for a creature like her.

She’s a big nasty bugger that gets pissed real easily if angered. 

Notes: I weirdly wanna see a giant mutated lobster, it be amazing looking to me personally.

8: Boris, a giant rhino, originally a Africian Rhinoceros, again affected by the pathogen. Becoming very large and hostile. Yet after being captured by the government and Davis trying to help. He’s gotten less aggressive over time. But still he’ll get pissed if someone attacks him, and he’ll use his giant body and horns to kill any human or monster. Basically a giant batting ram.

Notes: Not much on Boris, I’ll have him more chill when shit is doesn’t need to be done.

I wrote a lot I apologize, but for anyone interested in ideas for a sequels. We can talk and I hope you enjoy reading this. Again and I’m sorry that I keep repeating this, I want a sequel to Rampage 2018, whatever direction they go with, I’ll probably be happy. But again these are ideas because they have a lot of material mainly monsters they can use. Along with the fact the Rampage games aren’t very lore based so they can do what they want or whatever. Just hope it’s an enjoyable movie like the first one too. 

[katribou]

I just gotta say, I don't know much about Splatoon (since I don't have any way to play it), but I love the characters you've made. They're all very lovable in different ways. If you haven't answered this question before, what was your inspiration for their personalities and designs?

aww thank you so much!! this is gonna be long because i like explaining processes when i can especially with PICTURES!! so…

my squids are pretty straightforward. i designed dottie just with gear available in the game because i liked it and i used her as a little stand-in to illustrate shenanigans i came across while playing the game. her salty personality grew out of the fact that i used to get pretty bitter while playing splatoon, and also back in the day people used to??? hate on the fact that i mained the inkbrush??? for some reason?? guess it was too quirky… early splatoon days were wild pfft

stripes came about on a whim, since all the gear that dottie wears had a matching counterpart ingame, i decided to make a character that was everything she is but opposited. so, a squid with her ink/eye color inverted that is just always in good spirits. i dont get so mad at splatoon anymore really, so i guess he’s become a good stand-in too! i had a friend say they illustrate what it’s like to play splatoon so well because of that duality, which is a pretty nice unintended side effect :’^)

my octos were a more longterm process… so of course for a long while all we knew about octolings were that they were kind of just all soldiers you gotta fight that look like this:

and though we didnt really know much about octos as a species in the game i, like many people, made octo characters. dude octolings didn’t exist yet, so i just kind of winged it on the lad’s hair and just gave the gal tied-up tentacles. and also since i apparently have a matchy-matchy theme just made the gal’s getup white. (this is the first time i drew them… god that 2015 art)

i figured they were soldiers too since that’s all we knew them to be, so as you can see they basically wear the splat1 armor. i differentiated them a bit by giving them leather jackets which are also something you can wear in the game, just because it seemed to fit their aesthetic hah:

(though theirs are a lot more shredded up and torn because of use and also they have that #rebel vibe pfft)

ANYWAY i didnt do much with them because we didnt have a lot of octo lore plus i wasn’t really pushed to make up any for them partially out of fear of having it all like, retconned if we DID get conflicting lore so i kind of pushed them aside and did nothing with em. till we got the new octo expansion recently!! where u play as a lad who looks like one of these

so obviously with all this new octo info i was inspired to go back to my poor neglected octos to touch them up a fair bit:

darius didnt change much, i just gave him the updated splat2 armor (tbh from the start i just always knew i wanted to make him look like a thot, just cuz fkdjlgf. also considering the game always noticeably but unsurprisingly covers up dudes more smh) sherry, who i finally gave a name, i changed up more. i changed her hair a bit just so it was aCTUALLY FUN TO DRAW and also as you can see i just gave her the octo expansion player character gear except white since that color was her #brand.

personalitywise, i’ll be honest with you, when i originally made them i literally just wanted to make them the anti-dottie-and-stripes so i ripped off my own squids personalites for them. darius scowls like dottie, sherry is loopy as stripes (speaking of which YUP it’s no coincidence their names also start with D and S…)

while revamping darius and sherry tho i didnt want them to be too carbon copy of my squids otherwise i feel like they’d get boring. the thing that rescued me there was some of the octo backstory we were given… which made me reconsider more deeply why each of them may have the dispositions they do. so i aged them up and thought them through. darius’s saltiness is less temper in the way it is with dottie, but more fueled by his resentment of the squidrace that’s kind of left his kind in the dirt. on the other hand, sherry’s loopiness and sleepiness became a result of the fact that she’s one of the many octolings that have been brainwashed and whatnot. also on top of that i gave her alcoholism as a result of how bad the octos have it LMAO sorry sherry

BUT YEAH those are my cephalopod secrets!! hope that was insightful or entertaining to at least someone! nintendo has honestly done such a great job with their world that it’s so fun and rewarding to make up stuff based within it 👏

[inklingleesquidly]

YO-FEST

CHAPTER 2

Lee Squidly gets a special call by the headpriestess of Knifefish Shrine to take part in special preparations for one of the biggest Holidays celebrated by Inkopolis’ ghostly neighbors, Yokai. Yo-Fest is only a week away and it’s up to Lee to prevent the fesitivies from going off without a hitch.

He’s not alone though; joining him is his pals Guist, Juddinyan, and his many Yokai friend who are just a dial away via his Yokai Smartwatch.

Featuring the characters of @askvincent

Chapter 1 can be found here

Word count: 6,656

       “Ohh Honey that’s so great that you want to do community service at Knifefish Shrine and for Olden Days no less. I wish it could’ve fell on a time when you didn’t have school but this’ll be good for you. I’ll be sure to stop on by after work to drop off your toothbrush, clothes, and your pillow. I’ll definitely be there for Olden Days at the end of the week! I’ll see you then, I love you, Lee.”

       Just like that, Lee was locked to the mission granted to him. Anyone like his mother would assume he was helping prepare for Shee-Booyah’s cultural celebration event but there was something much more important at hand. He was charged by the head priestess of the shrine herself to guard the holy bamboo harvest, the key to the success of the celebration.

On paper it sounded like something utterly amazing but like any job the true tedium of the task reared its head after only two days on duty. There may have been the initial theft of the seedlings that he foiled but since then the seeds had taken root and not much else had happened. 

Knifefish Shrine wasn’t in a good reception area so he couldn’t seek much entertainment or interaction with the outside world. With only one power outlet within the shrine and a dozen shrine maidens all needing its services as well, the availability of electricity was limited as well. His portable game system had long since lost its charge. 

He had free range to roam the grounds of the shrine but there was only so much nature one boy could consciously observe. This was definitely going to be a long week… On the other hand there was something he could readily admit was really great; having access to the shrine’s thermal bath whenever he wanted.

Pilgrimages were made by spiritual people from Inkopolis and far beyond to come to this shrine to pray and use the bath. Visitors who came claimed that both their bodies and souls felt rejuvenated. The shrine rested above a hot spring that was chockfull of minerals, making it much different from any other water in Inkopolis.

“Woah-ho-ho, Cus, this water feels so good I feel like I could melt in it.” Guist cooed as he lazily drifted on the surface of the opaque, steaming bath water.

Lee reclined against the bath’s edge and chuckled, “Heh-eh, if you’re not careful Guist, you might just do that.” It was rare to see an Inkling submerged in fresh water but the mineral content of the thermal bath made it remarkably comfortable and even rejuvenating for someone like him. “I mean, you might end up like Juddinyan over here,” he said, pointing off to the side.

There, their other companion, the ghost of Inkopolis’s iconic feline lay in a wash tub filled with water. His body was so relaxed he literally looked like a pile of melted goo in the tub. Unknowing of the eyes upon him he let out a content noise, “Mrrrowr,” he purred in his throat.

       Letting out a quiet laugh, Lee stepped out of the bath to make his way to a washing station and use the handmaid therapeutic soap prepared at the shrine. As boring and uneventful as the job had been for the past couple of days, he was glad to have his two Yokai buddies along with him. Of course that wasn’t to say he was completely bored all the time.

       After lathering himself in the lemon & orange scented herbal soap he gripped the hose connected to the faucet and spun the spigot. Nothing came out. “Huh,” he wondered in response, twisting the valves again. Still nothing; was something stuck in the pipe or was there a kink in the hose? Unsuspecting, he held the hose up to his face to peek inside.

       Big mistake, the hot water suddenly came rushing out, blasting him in the face.  Guist and Juddinyan were alerted to noises coming from Lee, “Glehbluhblehguhbuhbahhh,” he gurgled until he closed off the flow of water. He was soaked, his tentacles fell over his face, and water uncomfortably pooled within his sinuses.

“Yah Hah Hah,” a fiendish laugh reverberated in the bath house, one that made Lee furrow his brow and grind his teeth in aggravation.

Angry, Lee growled, “Grrr, Leakina!”

       Materializing out of the metal faucet, the wispy, watery yokai laughed more at his misfortune. “Yah Hah Hah, gotcha again Leeker,” she congratulated herself before flying up and phasing through the ceiling. Lee let out a distressed groan, this hadn’t been the first time he fell for one of her pranks.

         Earlier that morning when he was getting dressed for the day he noticed his shoes had mysteriously disappeared. He paced back and forth inside the shrine between the common room that served as his sleeping quarters and the main entrance where he was certain he last left them. “Where are they, they were right here I know it!”

Fruitlessly looking over every tile of the small entrance foyer, a voice called out to him, “Yoohoo Leeker!” He peered up; there she was with his hunter hi-tops clutched in her hand. Partially phased through the door, she dangled them, baiting the boy as she went through the door with them. “If you want ‘em, come n’ get ‘em,” she taunted, forcing Lee to throw open the wood & paper door to give chase.

He got down the small, wooden stairs when suddenly… SPLASH! An uncomfortable shiver shot from the bottom of Lee’s feet all the way to the tip of his tentacles as he felt a spreading dampness in his socks. He realized what she made him do, and he couldn’t even shift his eyes to look at her as she giggled. “Gotcha Leeker,” she said, relinquishing his shoes to him. “Shouldn’t walk around outside in just your socks, ya might step in a puddle,” and with that in mind she flew off into the sky.

 Then there was the previous night when Lee was doing his homework before bedtime. Algebraic word problems were rarely difficult for him but he was glad for the silence none-the-less. There was that and the unopened bottle of orange drink he purchased from the convenience store just a walk away from the shrine’s property. Drip, drip, drip, at least he thought all was quiet, maybe he just imagined it. Drip, drip, drip, there it was again. He lowered his pen, looking all around, wondering where and what the source of that noise could be. It was all quiet again just like he wanted. Drip, drip, drip, with that Lee dropped his pencil and darted out of the room.

“All right, who’s making all that noise,” Lee barked, bounding out to where he swore he could hear that racket coming from.

He was met by Guist and Juddinyan questioningly looking over  back at him. The squid spirit quizzed, “Something wrong Cus?” He then dipped a small stick into a bottle he clenched in his tentacle, pulled it out, and then held it up to his mouth. He blew at it, releasing a stream of soapy bubbles. They shortly floated in the air before popping on the blades of grass. Drip was the noise they made when they burst; he very clearly heard it as Juddinyan joined in merrily blowing bubbles as well.

Lee dropped his shoulders and gave a heavy exhal, “No, nothing’s wrong.” He said no more, just closed the door and returned to his seat to tend to his homework. Still feeling a little heated, he decided to cool down with his drink. Reaching for it, he completely misjudged the trajectory of his hand in the dim lighting, accidentally knocking over the bottle. He screeched and scrambled as orange soda dispersed all over the table. In his haste to pick up the bottle first he couldn’t save his sheets of paper from soaking up the liquid. As quick as he was to snatch them away he couldn’t save his homework from being ruined.

Just then, Leakina suddenly materialized in with her hand cupping her cheek. She said, “Tsk, tsk, tsk, wow Leeker that’s no good.”

Beside himself, Lee stuttered out, “Beh—deh—did you make me do this?”

“Hey, hey, hey,” she held out her hands defensively, “Don’t go blaming me just because you’re clumsy and had an accident.” Descending, she stood beside him and whispered, “I did loosen the cap though.” The bothersome jokester laughed, “Yah Hah Hah,” before she slipped away through the wall, leaving Lee with an ever-spreading mess.

That wasn’t the end of her mischief but it was all what bothered Lee the most. He thought about it more and more until he finally expressed his frustration to his friends. “Ucck,” he griped, dropping his basket full of unfolded, clean clothes in the main room of the shrine. One of the shrine maidens who he learned was named Nancy noticed how dirty he was getting so she graciously offered to wash and dry his clothes which he couldn’t be more thankful for.

Guist wondered, “What’s got ya all wound tight, Cousin?”

Lee explained, “Its Leakina and her pranks, I’m getting fed up with them.”

The squid spirit tried to reason, “Hey Cus, don’t take it so personally, I mean, y’know, she is a Yokai an’ like, Yokai, they gotta cause trouble f’people, right?” He said that as if he wasn’t so sure of what he was saying. “I mean, maybe she just likes you, dude?”

Letting out a puff, Lee grew more restless; in his childhood, when he had been bullied that was one of the reasons adults gave to explain why it happened to him. He argued, “You and Juddinyan like me to and you don’t do anything like that to—HEY! Juddinyan what are you doing?” Much to his surprise he found the cat yokai slumbering peacefully in his laundry basket.

“It was fresh out the dryer,” he stretched out his legs, pawing at the air, “I felt compelled to, meow.”

Lee grimaced at his favorite polo, “Aww man, you got fur all over my shirt!”

 Despite looking sloppy with ghost fur clinging to him, Lee was undeterred in a mission he set for himself. He needed to find and confront Lyra and Leakina. Lucky for him he managed to find them both at the bamboo field so maybe he could get something done about Leakina’s constant bullying. Steeling himself; Lee puffed out his chest, squared his shoulders, and stomped his feet as he approached. “Miss Lyra, there’s something important I need to talk to you about,” he said, feeling as confident and firm as possible.

The head priestess peered over her shoulder and so did the watery poltergeist as he announced his presence. They seemed troubled by something as Lyra declared, “Well whatever it is Lee, it’s going to have to wait, something’s wrong with the field.”

Shocked, he let out the breath he was holding, deflating himself before he stuttered, “Wha—what’s going on?”

Lyra worriedly explained, “The crop is blessed to grow fast so the stalks should be at least knee high by now!” She gestured out to the field where very clearly, he could only see the shoots sprouting mere inches out of the ground.

He asked, “What do you think could be the problem? I mean—I’ve been looking after the fields night and day!”

She replied, “I know you have.” She then turned to Leakina who was examining the soil, ”Do you have any idears—err, ahem, ideas, Leakina?”

The yokai let out a hum before she stood up, “The soil is really really dry all over like it hasn’t been watered in days.”

“That’s impossible,” Lee interrupted, “We’ve been watering three times a day just like you said, Miss Lyra.” He was worried she may think this problem might be caused by him and his friends when he was as diligent as possible with his task.

 She acknowledged that as well, putting the boy’s fears to rest, “Yes, I know. You’ve been thorough, don’t worry, but we need to get back on schedule.”

A thought came to Lee, “Maybe the Moleymoreys might know something,” he suggested.

Leakina presented a piece of paper to him, wryly replying, “You mean the ones that left this.”

The note read: Dear Squiddo, the past couple days have been way way too hot. Me n’ the boys r’ headin’ on down to the beach, call us when you get rain up there. It was signed by Boss Moley.

Lee was particularly taken by the complaint about the heat. While they were technically still in summer, the coolness of fall was supposed to set in—but it hadn’t. He began to grow suspicious, “Don’t tell Guist but I have a feeling a yokai might be behind this.”

Whatever the cause may be, Lyra was determined to find it; “We’ll have to keep a close eye on these fields. Leakina, we’re staying at the shrine tonight with Lee and others for a stack out—excuse me, I mean a stakeout.”

 Just as she said, later that night the two squids and three yokai remained at the shrine to keep watch over the bamboo crop. As the night went on they took shifts one-by-one; vigilant in looking out for any anomalies in the field. Lee awoke to the sound of his phone alarm; he took the shift just before sunrise.

On the tatami floor of the dark room he managed to catch sight of Juddinyan and Guist slumbering together. Juddinyan was curled up, purring soundly while Guist lay against him. Lee let out a quiet laugh at Guist; he was still clutching a tiny Splattershot while wearing a bandolier of ink cartridges strapped to his shoulder, and a headband wrapped just above his eyes. In his words, “I’m ready to rock n’ roll, Cus!” For the most part, nothing had happened all night though.

Something he did find peculiar was seeing Lyra asleep on a futon in the room. Aren’t I supposed to take over for her, what’s she doing sleeping? He found Leakina in her stead outside at their designated sentry post; a small veranda overlooking the field and the entire forest.

He cautiously and quietly approached, “Leakina?” When she turned to him, he asked, “Wasn’t it Lyra’s turn to keep a lookout?”

She unveiled, “Lyra was too sleepy to stay up so I took over for her.”

“Ohh,” Lee muttered, “Well all right then.” He approached her and leaned against the railing. “It’s my turn to keep watch so if you want to go to bed, feel free to.”

Staring off into space, Leakina answered, “Nah I got way too much to think about to sleep.”

Lee tapped his fingers on the wooden barricade; as much as he would prefer not to talk to a bully like her—maybe an honest conversation would help. He couldn’t figure out what it would help but it might. He quizzed, “What’re ya thinking about?”

“Just stuff,” she said nonchalantly, “What I’m gonna do for Yo-Fest, what kinda pranks I’m gonna pull, how I died, that kinda stuff.”

Hearing that really shook Lee, he said, “That’s kind of morbid don’t you think?” 

Leakina answered, “I’m a ghost, how I died is in important part of my afterlife.” 

“You know that makes perfect sense,” Lee conceded, though he preferred not to ask about the gory details. After that silence fell between the two with Lee feeling like he had nothing to talk about with her. His glance shifted between the bamboo field they watched below and her as she didn't take her eyes off them. It took a minute for him to work up the courage but he finally asked, “Say Leakina, how come you keep pulling your pranks on me?” 

She readily replied, “Lyra won’t let me cause any trouble for the visitors or the other maidens so that leaves you.” 

He inquired, “You really listen to whatever Lyra says, don’t you?”

“Of course, I don’t want to make her angry, she’ll kick me out of her house if I do, and have you seen her bathroom fixtures? They’re pure brass with a brushed nickel finish, and she keeps them so clean!” Her voice was so—unreasonably excited, Lee thought.

He genuinely wondered, “Is that all?”

“Nope,” Leakina said, “Her fridge has an ice maker to!” Lee shot her such a disconcerting glance that she finally admitted, “Okay, okay, I’m just kidding, happy Leeker? I will say I’m grateful she invited me into her home, and I can definitely admit this—I love being with her and getting to come here to the shrine every day. Not many people would do any of that for Yokai, especially me.”

That might be the shift in topic he could use to voice his troubles, but Lee couldn’t figure out how to approach it so instead he tip toed around the subject. “Maybe—if you thought of why—you could fix it? Then people will let you in?” Lee had half a mind to argue about that but before he could open his mouth she turned to him to show a wide, somewhat bone chilling smile, “But that’s where you come in! I wouldn’t trade you for even a hundred people to prank! You’re really fun. Leeker!” 

“Huh,” he breathed in confusion.

She happily confirmed, “Yeah; you’re such a good sport! You don’t get mad or spiteful or anything, I mean Lyra laid down the law that if I mess with any of the guests she’ll exercise me right then and there. She doesn’t understand that Yokai need to cause trouble and inspirit people, it’s what our afterlife is all about-- but you do!” She turned to him, so giddy that her hands shook, “Every Yokai should have someone like you, Leeker!”

Was that a compliment she was giving? Was it also appreciation? Lee felt like it was but also at the same time he wished those words actually meant something, or maybe they did? One thing’s for sure, if he wasn’t going to go bonkers during this mission he needed to get her to leave him alone.

Before he could try to talk again she suddenly silenced him, “Ho-ho-hold on, Leeker what’s that out there?” She leaned over the veranda railing and pointed out toward the field.

Lee followed her direction only to see a startling sight. Even though it was early in the morning and the waking rays of the sun ushered in the first signs of day there was an unusually bright light coming from the bamboo orchard. “Help me get Miss Lyra and the others up!” Lee hastily ordered; him and Leakina springing into action.

 With the rest of the group awakened, they all rushed to find the suspect, possibly the one who had been affecting the field? They could just barely make out a humanoid shape in the blinding unearthly glow they emitted. “It’s a Yokai,” Lee commented.

Juddinyan’s fur stood on end as he gasped, “Rrow, not just any Meowkai!” Suddenly filled with fear he dove into Lee’s shirt, hiding from the scene.

As Lee screeched from the feeling of nails digging into his skin, Guist wondered, “Juddindude what’s wrong? Is this yokai a bad mammajamma?”

“The meowst,” Juddinyan said, “That’s one of the worst Yokai criminals around, Dehydreaded!” He was certainly quite an imposing looking figure with the appearance of an Agave plant. “He’s facing 10 n’yo life sentences for causing multiple droughts in the Meowkai world.”

Lyra scoffed, “I don’t care how dangerous he is in the Yokai world, if he’s the one harming the harvest then he needs to be stopped.” Bravely, Lyra stepped forward, beckoning   the adversary, “You there! As the head of this shrine I demand you leave these holy grounds at once!” 

Dehydreaded whirled around to face her in sheer surprise, “What in the—good gracious, you can see me?” 

“Of course I can, I just said I was the head of the shrine!” Lyra stomped her foot, “Now I order you to leave or I’ll be forced to vacate you from these grounds and this plane myself.” 

The big bad yokai stared her down, in the face of her earnest threat he simply replied, “I can’t do that.” 

“What?” Lyra barked back in disbelief. 

He raised his hands and said, “You can stay and get comfortable if you want but today I drought everything in this field once and for all!” He then emitted a pulse of energy from his hands that spread out all over the field, “And I’ll make sure nothing can grow here ever again! HAAAH!”

The energy wave reached Lee and his friends and they immediately felt the effects of Dehydreaded’s power.  As Guist described it, “Like whoa, did this dude put us in some kinda oven?” He wiped his brow at the sweltering heat and sudden heaviness surrounding him. He dug out his Ypad tablet computer to find a helpful description of the criminal. “No way, totally bogus, his Yokai power is to cause the baddest of bad dry spells.”

“I’ll say, he’s draining all the water out of the soil,” Leakina revealed, “He’s gonna kill the bamboo!”

Startled, Guist shook Lee by the shoulder, begging him, “Yo! Cus we gotta do something, quick, call somebody with the Yokai Watch!”

“Right, phew,” Lee agreed with a sigh, “Huff—huff- huff,” he breathed deeply and dawdled in his actions. “Hey Juddinyan can you get out of my shirt, your fur is making me sweat.” He suspected the cowering cat was a contribution to the discomfort he faced but that wasn’t the case.

Standing beside him, Juddinyan said, “But I’m nyot.”

Lee’s head wobbled slightly as he mumbled, “Ohh, okay, hoiye.” Guist and Juddinyan watched the nerve wracking sight of Lee attempting to reach into his cargo pocket for a yokai card only for him to fall to one knee. His voice was so weak it was practically a whisper, “Huu, can you guys take my phone and call my mom? I don’t feel so good.” They both rushed to his sides as he dropped to his hands and knees, sweat pouring off of him as his breathing became extremely husky.

Juddinyan asked, “Meow, Lee, what’s wrong?”

Guist gasped, “Cus, what’s up, don’t let him bug ya!”

Thought their focus was on Lee, they were alarmed by a scream that came from Leakina. “Lyra, Lyra, what’s happening to you, speak to me, please!” She hovered over the priestess who just like Lee had weakly fallen to the floor; dizzy, weak, and looking nauseous.

She desperately, shakily tried to reach into the neck hole of her priestess uniform. As she rooted around she growled, “I have to—I have—to stop him—I—I can’t let him ruin Yo-Fest…” With that, she collapsed onto the ground.

The heat emitted by Dehydreaded was more intense than any of them thought and it took the worst toll on Lee and Lyra. The trio of yokai watched helplessly and Dehydreaded sneered, “Get them out of here; squids are more fragile than plants ever could be. Look at them drying out!” Sure enough just as he said, their squid forms were releasing visible streams of steam and their bodies began to slowly, worryingly curl up. 

The only response Guist and Juddinyan had to such a dangerous dilemma was to begin running around, sweating and screaming while flailing in panic. Guist cried, “What are we gonna, we’re finished, game over dude, game over!”  

Despite their fear, Leakina wasn’t willing to run around like her head was cut off. Instead she yelled, “Get it together!” With their attention on her she began to act quickly. They watched as she gripped her watery hair at the base of her skull and with little effort—she yanked her hair clean off her head. She shook it open like a plastic bag and instructed, “Put them in here!” Lee and Lyra were swiftly deposited into her hair as Leakina explained, “every part of me is pure water so this should get them both hydrated!” 

They watched the shriveled, unmoving bodies of the two squids gently float in the makeshift bag, miraculously taking in the moisture. There wasn’t time to breathe a sigh of relief as Leakina shoved her reformed hair into Juddinyan’s arms, “Here, hold this for me, Furball,” she said. 

“Meow?” Juddinyan mewed in wonderment as she floated toward Dehydreaded. 

Guist queried, “Whaddya gonna do Leak-babe?” 

With her fist in her palm, she cracked her knuckles, “I’m gonna make sure he pays for this, Squirt.” She was completely and totally different from the laughing, joking prankster they knew her to be over the short time they’d been acquainted. As if to punctuate this shift in character a powerful looking blue aura began to radiate around her.

Standing before Dehydreaded, Leakina challenged him, “All right Dry Bones, you hurt Lyra and the Leeker so now I’m gonna hurt something of yours!”

“What are you going to do little Missy?” He underestimated her, and thrust his hands forward, blasting out another pulse of droughting energy, “Why don’t you just evaporate!” 

Leakina met his attack head on; literally, she bent her barren head down and reflected the hot rays, shining them back at Dehydreaded. He had to stop in order to shield his eyes from the intense light, shouting, “Acck! My eyes! My eyes!”

With that, Leakina raised her fist and howled, “Soak it up— DAM BURST!” With her shout she slammed her fist into the ground, causing the earth to begin to violently rumble. 

Guist shook despite hovering above the ground, “Whoa dude, what kinda gnarly wave is this?” 

Juddinyan explained, “She’s using her Soultimeowte!” 

“Her Soultimate?” Guist repeated.

The power of her counterattack became extremely apparent when a torrent of water fired out of the ground beneath Dehydreaded’s feet. It sent him flying sky high while showering water all over the field. The air cooled with the rain, the soil took it all in, and right before their very eyes the bamboo shoots began to rise. Every stalk grew to a miraculous healthy height, and there in the center of it all was Leakina; victorious over the big bad boss. 

Even more miraculous, Lee and Lyra were revived with the help of Leakina’s hair. They hit their tentacles, motioning to be freed so Juddinyan dumped them out onto the damp soil. 

“Leakina, did you do this,” Lee’s mouth was agape in amazement. 

She rushed, “Forget that, Lyra, hurry up and send this guy to the big kiddie pool in the sky!” She motioned to finish off Dehydreaded who fell back to earth after the geyser Leakina had made ran out of power. He pathetically laid face flat in the dirt, struggling to push himself up to his feet. 

With her strength returned to her, Lyra fished out what she had been looking for within her collar. In her hand was a simple piece of paper. Written on it though was a powerful incantation; one for banishing troublesome poltergeists from the living world. She began to recite a prayer, “By the almighty goodness of our world, I hereby banish you evil spirit from this world, begone with you so sa—” 

“Miss Lyra, stop, please!” Lee jumped and grabbed her arm as she raised the talisman, ready to pin it to Dehydreaded.

Everyone was puzzled by his sudden defense of the big bad boss but Lyra was the first to vocalize her dismay, “Lee, what are you doing? This Yokai tried to kill us and he nearly destroyed the bamboo harvest! What are you thinking?”

“Just,” he stuttered, “Just let me try talking to him!” He tepidly stepped toward him and crouched down beside the weakened ghost. He said, “Umm—Mr.—umm—Dehydreaded sir, are you okay? Can you hear me?” 

Bunching his fist, Dehydreaded replied, “Get away from me, Boy, I don’t need your pity. Get away from me or I’ll make calamari out of you.” 

His allies couldn’t fathom what he was trying to do. Sliding her hair back onto her head and running her hands through it, Leakina asked, “Are you joking, Leeker?” 

Even Guist couldn’t comprehend the mercy he wanted to show, “Cousin are you totally sure about this?” 

Juddinyan hissed, “If he tries anything I’ll scratch his eyes out.” 

Ignoring them, Lee continued speaking with Dehydreaded, “I’m not trying to pity you—can I at least ask why you tried to attack us?” 

The boss yokai said, “I didn’t want to attack you! All I was told to do was destroy that bamboo field and I’d get what I want.” 

“What is it you want,” Lee zeroed in on those words. 

Dehydreaded said without delay, “I’m trying to save my daughter.” 

Lee gasped, “Y-your daughter?” 

Hearing the conversation, Lyra was quick to warn, “Be careful Lee, Yokai are known to lie.”  

“It’s true,” Leakina confirmed, “See watch, hey Furball, who won the Cats vs. Dogs Splatfest?” 

Juddinyan answered, “Cats meow’f course.” 

“See,” Leakina said, eliciting a hiss from him. 

Lee paid them no mind; he could hear it in his voice, see it in his watery eyes, and feel it from the yokai’s trembling fists—Lee knew he wasn’t lying. He just knew it as he hooked his hands under Dehydreaded’s arm and helped him up to his feet. “Do you know where she is,” he inquired. 

By coincidence, the daughter he claimed to be looking for was located right on the grounds of Knifefish Shrine. It was a short trek through the woodlands surrounding the main facility, following the creek that ran through it. They found themselves in an area where the vegetation was far thicker and healthier than all the rest and even for summer this spot felt more unseasonably humid than any other.  Forking the creek was a small shrine that housed a stone statue. It looked like it was crafted by an expert stone carver but Dehydreaded said, “There she is!” 

Lyra revealed, “That’s the Maiden of the Mist!” she recalled a legend passed down between shrine maidens since the founding of the shrine and Shee-Booyah. “She was said to appear on foggy summer days, and she would make the haze so thick that it would make travel along the roads nearly impossible.”

Dehydreaded let out a proud laugh, “Yuk yuk yuk, that’s my girl.”

Furrowing her brow, Lyra spoke to Lee, “Are you sure you want me to help this yokai?  How are you so sure he won’t turn on us and try to destroy the field again?”

       Lee argued, “Sometimes even Yokai need a little faith and trust. I’m sure he didn’t really want to hurt us, just give him a chance Miss Lyra. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do for spirits, to appease them?”

       She let out a huff, then picked up her skirt and waded out to the squat shrine in order to inspect the statue.  “The Maiden of the Mist was sealed away by priestesses long ago. They used particularly powerful enchantments.” She checked, as if to be sure she was correct, “This could take some time for me to remove the seals binding her.”

 Some time was quite an extremely vague description. Lee checked the time on his cell phone to see that they had been here since sunrise and it was currently the early afternoon. Lyra had been reciting a series of prayers and chants for seemingly hours on end. Dehydreaded watched every second of it, silent, motionless, his very being seeming to hedge on Lyra’s every action. Guist, Juddinyan, and Leakina had long since gotten bored waiting and were meandering about to entertain themselves.  One thing was for sure, this was certainly a testament to her fortitude to be able to pray for this long.

That grit would prove itself as she finally finished. The talismans stuck to the statue peeled away and the stone shell began to crack with them. Fractures appeared all over until it finally crumbled away into nothing, freeing the ghostly being trapped inside. 

“T-Tropicanna?” Unable to believe his eyes, Dehyreaded trudged through  the water to the revived yokai. Just like him she had a plant-like appearance, only instead of being a drought resisting flora, as Lee later identified, she was a tropical canna flower.  

She wobbled unsteadily, unable to focus her vision but Dehydreaded held her still. His hands gently cupped her cheeks and he stared into her eyes, trembling as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “D-daddy,” she weakly managed to stutter. 

That was all he needed, Dehydreaded let out a wail and cried, “You’re back! My precious little flower!” He threw his arms around her and lifted her up into the air. Unable to contain his excitement, he spun around with her in his arms and though she was still weak and dizzied, she smiled. She wasn’t the only one, the audience of squids and yokai watched the reunion in glad reverence. 

Guist wiped his eyes but couldn’t stop the tears from forming in them, “This is totally righteous dude, I think… I don’t… I can’t stop the waterworks, yo.” 

Juddinyan couldn’t handle it either, he bawled, “c’mere mew!” They both cried over each other’s shoulders—unknowing that Leakina was intently watching them. 

Meanwhile, with Tropicanna still in his arms, Dehydreaded approached Lee, ever grateful as he said, “You there, Boy, I can’t thank you enough for bringing me and my precious flower back together!” 

“I didn’t really do anything,” Lee admitted, “It was Miss Lyra that broke the seal on her.”  

Fixing his statement of gratitude, Dehydreaded said, “I’m so very sorry for what I did to both of you, if there’s anything, anything at all I can do for you, I’ll do it.” 

Lyra said, “You can leave, thanks to you we’re so far behind schedule and we’re just days away from Yo-Fest!” 

Hearing that made Tropicanna gasp, “Wait, it’s almost time for Yo-Fest?!” 

 Returning back to the field, none of the party could anticipate what the two yokai had in mind but they were going to do what they could to repay them for their kindness. Dehydreaded said, “My precious flower had the best idea. To make up what I did to your bamboo harvest, we’ll stick around here until Yo-Fest. I can control dryness and she can control humidity, together we’ll make this area like a greenhouse! You’ll have nothing but the perfect conditions to get your bamboo growing just right!” 

Lee happily grinned, “You would do that for us?” 

Dehydreaded reassured, “It’s the least I can do for all the trouble I caused you.” With that he cupped the shoulder of Tropicanna, “You ready to go,” he asked. 

“Just a second, Daddy,” she said before hovering up to Lee. There she said, “I wanted to thank you myself for bringing Daddy and me back together. Whatever he might’ve done—he’s really not a bad guy, I promise, he’s just overprotective—really overprotective,” she added.  

Lee replied, “Trust me. My mom is the same way. Honestly, if I was in the same position as you were, she would’ve turned the whole city upside-down and inside out twice to find me.” 

Tropicanna laughed, “Yik yik yik, well that’s good to know. Still though, you’re the greatest,” she took his hand into her own, “And we can’t thank you enough.”  

“It—it really was no--,” Lee tried to stutter out his reply but was interrupted by the sight of an ethereal glow emitting from between their hands. It faded shortly after but there in his palms was none other than her own Yokai card. 

“Call me anytime,” she playfully winked at him before fluttering back to her father who glared at Lee with a scornful stare. “Ready Daddy?” She held his hand, and while he looked over his shoulder to keep that same look trained on Lee, the two walked off, fading into nothing.  

Even though they appeared to be gone their presence certainly lingered. The area in and around the bamboo field was so temperate and comfortable in stark contrast to the hot, humid air around them. It was just as they said, perfect.

“Meow’s well that end’s well,” Juddinyan concluded. 

Guist agreed, “No doubt, and smooth moves to you, Cousin, you saved the day and totally scored that righteous babe’s Yokai card.” 

His sense of humility made Lee say, “I didn’t do anything, really, it was Lyra and Leakina that made it all happen.” 

“Leakina totally made a mondo move back there, she saved your life, Cousin” Guist wiggled his pale tentacles in glee. 

Knowing that, Lee grimaced, “Yeah—yeah she did.” This was quite a conflicting conundrum for him but then he suddenly realized something, “Wait, where are Lyra and Leakina?” 

As it turned out, they hadn’t gotten far, just a ways up the healthy bamboo field to survey the land. Lyra said, “It looks exactly how it’s supposed to, Leakina you really came through today, in more ways than one.”

The mischievous poltergeist gave a modest shrug, “Hey I wasn’t just gonna roll over while you and the Leeker got washed out!”

Lyra wasn’t sure what she meant by that but she sighed in content, “Well the important thing is we’re back on track for getting ready for Yo-Fest.”

That wasn’t good enough for Leakina, she exclaimed, “Well yeah, that’s important to all Yokai but there’ll be other Yo-Fests, I mean, we’ve been having them for millennia, but there’s only one you.”

“Huh, what do you mean?” Lyra was unclear of what she meant by that statement.

Leakina’s answer was as bold as it was unrestrained, “You heard me! There will be other Yo-Fests but I wasn’t about to let anything happen to you! Just thinking about how that soggy puddle hurt you—my soultimate wouldn’t be enough to give him what he deserves! I would’ve gone until I evaporated into nothing!”

 How to take all that in? Lyra stood there, breathless, her heartbeat quickening as she processed everything Leakina said. Did she really care enough about her as a friend to be willing to go through that much for her? Wondering, Lyra held out her hand, “You would do all that for me?” She wondered if this was the opportunity in which Leakina would finally bestow her with her Yokai card?

“MISS LYRA! MISS LYRA!” They were interrupted by a shark shrine maiden rushing toward her.

Lyra greeted, “Good morning Sister Amy, what’s the problem!”

“THE BATH HOUSE,” she answered anxiously, “YOU HAVE TO COME AT ONCE!”

 They arrived to find the thermal bath had been completely drained. Leakina came clean saying she had to draw from a source of water to unleash her Soultimate and the closest one was the underground spring that the bath drew water from. That explained how the bamboo was able to grow and be healthy so lightning fast but that did not settle well with Lyra. As much as Leakina tried to explain that being a spring it would refill eventually, Lyra still had to punish her for this

She was given an ultimatum, face exorcism or be confined to a glass bottle until the bath refilled. Leakina took the imprisonment in the bottle

“That’s rough, meow,” Juddinyan commented.

“Mega harsh,” Guist agreed, “You think we should do something to help her, Cousin?”

Lee hummed while in thought, “Mmm—nah, she’ll be fine.” As cruel as the punishment was, and as bad as it was for him to think in such a way there was a part of Lee deep down inside him that felt a sense of satisfaction seeing Leakina in such a predicament. One thing was for sure, Yo-Fest was going to be upon them soon enough.

To Be Continued…

[cameiotmagazine-blog]

Sherlock Frankenstein review.

I have to wonder if this entire spin off ... We'll get into that. Was solely conceived by the simple fact that Jeff Lemire came up with a really sweet name for a character and then he had to conceive a whole idea just to use it. Because if I had come up with that name, I would've dedicated myself intensely to try and use it in some place.

In Sherlock Frankenstein, unsurprisingly, it's not about Sherlock Frankenstein. It's about Lucy Weber, daughter of the superhero Black Hammer, who him and his superhero team have mysteriously disappeared and Lucy Weber has decided she's gonna investigate what happened. And her conclusion? Locate her father's arch nemesis, Sherlock Frankenstein.

So it's a detective story, which I love, of course. And it plays into a recurring theme ... I don't really have an objection to it but it's an interesting thing I've noted. A lot of superhero books that aren't mainstream superhero books, and there aren't really that many, but any superhero books that aren't about the main guys, tend to be able older superheroes, and I always find that an interesting thing. That made me wonder if it's common, on superheroes and the nature of them. Like Alan Moore does this a lot, and what? Are you saying a modern comic book is influenced by the work of Alan Moore, That's crazy. That's just insane. That never happens. Anyway.

So like every Jeff Lemire there will always be one panel outline that will blow you away. And this is no different. It's fundamentally a search through peoples' lives, looking back on it, and how ... The story is largely about how people desperately need ... Often in a romantic context, because all of the main characters that she's met so far as defined in some way by their romance with each other or with their loved ones. I guess in the end, what it's really about is family.

I mean, if you look at somebody like, say, Cthu-lu which is another name that I love and is great and I'm exceptionally envious that I did not think of that. He was a normal plumber that got turned into a very Cthulhu-like person who has a daughter who has a squid head like him. And the daughter is Cthu-louse by her mother and it's a bit sad. And Cthu-lu, he's just one of the vaguely saddest things I saw in the comics. Not vacantly just like, aww. Nevermind.

There's the Metal Minotaur who, in the end, the Black Hammer and her grew closer together after she nearly died. One of the interesting things this whole story's been about is how villains are these complex characters, which, I guess, with sympathetic backstory there's even simply to a certain person that I don't want to talk about. But anyways. One thing I always like about Jeff Lemire is that he's a very nice person and his comics are about, fundamentally, people trying to do what they think is right. Most of the time.

So anyways, about the spin-off thing that I can't surprisingly write up but totally got distracted with. I didn't realize this and I guess this is stupid of me. But I didn't realize this, but whatever. I thought it was just flavor text because the whole title series is The Sherlock Frankenstein and the Legion of Evil Force versus the Legion of Evil from the pages of Black Hammer.

I thought the, from the pages of Black Hammer, was just flavor text for  I thought the idea was it's this meta series or something. I don't know. I didn't think Black Hammer really existed. I thought it was like a fictional series that was created. It's from the pages of Black Hammer. The assumption is we all knew what Black Hammer was and it was Like it's a superhero story with decades Anyways. I don't know why I thought. It turns out it's literally just a spin off of a comic book series he wrote called Black Hammer. I'll probably get around to looking at that at some point, because I really like this. If you need a good comic then check out Sherlock Frankenstein. It's just a great name, man. I'd give you a full recommendation just on the name if you want.