Claires abortion happens about half in hour after the inmate Carls execution, both of the scenes take place in a gurney in which they are both put to sleep. During the execution scene Carl and his daughter Allison look at eachother for the last time as she watches him die.
After the execution opening scene it cuts straight to Nate and the baby Maya who's mother is missing from her life shown by the missing signs Nate was looking at. Right after that scene it cuts to Claire looking at her alarm depressed about her situation.
A little bit later Claire is having a consultation with the nurse about her abortion the next day, right after this it cuts to parrelel scene only this time of a consultation with Allison about her fathers funeral. After Rico leaves the room in this scene uncomfortable with hosting the funeral, similar to how many doctors would be uncomfortable or unwilling to peform lethal injection or an abortion for that matter, Nate and Allison strike up a conversation about the tatoos on both her tighs, the tatoo seems to lead to her vaginal region or close.
The tatoos consist of a pipe (vacuum) in which little people (fetus's), fall into a pipe (sucked in), then they are broken apart into many pieces in the pipe (force of the vacuum) and go into anothe pipe which they are put back together and come out into the other side(heaven). In the following episode Claire is given a vision of heaven which shows Lisa taking care of Claire's baby for her in heaven and Claire agrees to do the same for Maya.
In my opinion I think Claires abortion scene parrelels the execution scene a lot, the whole storyline does in general. Let me know what you think? Fyi i'm didn't post this for the pro life/choice debate, I posted it because I think it had to be on purpose or atleast parts of it.

Using the metrics outlined by the RIAA, the numbers for some singles are staggering when it comes to worldwide figures. According to the RIAA, 1 sale for a single is equivalent to 150 streams. The IFPI is supposed to be the only official body to certify singles on a worldwide level, but they only use stream equivalents that figure in overall sales. These numbers are official given the metrics, but there is no recording association that certifies them on such a level for worldwide figures. The RIAA only counts domestic sales and the IFPI goes by stream equivalents. In this list we have converted the overall streams, digital sales (Itunes, Amazon mp3 etc…), and physical sales into an estimate. These estimates will be fairly accurate given the data readily available. Also if you are wondering how we calculate the album figures, just realize that 1500 streams equal one album sale.
Urbano singles that have sold over 100,000,000 units equivalent worldwide
None
Urbano singles that have sold over 90,000,000 units equivalent worldwide
Zero
Urbano singles that have sold over 80,000,000 units equivalent worldwide
Luis Fonsi feat. Daddy Yankee & Justin Bieber “Despacito” (original version and remix)* El Dandee got the production credit but I remember reading somewhere that Urba & Rome worked on the song too but went uncredited. At least they collected on "Dura".
There are no more achievements until 40 million.
Urbano singles that have sold over 40,000,000 units equivalent worldwide
Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean – Hips Don’t Lie
Urbano singles that have sold over 30,000,000 units equivalent worldwide
El Chombo – Dame Tu Cosita
J Balvin feat. Willy William – Mi Gente
Pedro Capo & Farruko – Calma (original version and remixes)*
Daddy Yankee feat. Snow & Justin Bieber – “Con Calma” (original version and remix)*
Enrique Iglesias feat. Descemer Bueno & Gente de Zona – Bailando
Bad Bunny feat. Jhayco – Dakiti
Cardi B. feat. J Balvin & Bad Bunny – I Like It
DJ Snake feat. Selena Gomez, Cardi B. & Ozuna – Taki Taki
Shakira & Alejandro Sanz – La Tortura (included because Gocho, DJ Giann Live & Santana the Golden Boy worked on the song and this is an estimate including physical sales.)
Urbano singles that have sold over 20,000,000 units equivalent worldwide
Danny Ocean - Me Rehuso
Anuel AA, Karol G, Daddy Yankee & J Balvin – China
Natti Natasha & Ozuna – Criminal
Enrique Iglesias feat. Descemer Bueno, Zion & Lennox – Subeme La Radio
Nicky Jam & Enrique Iglesias – El Perdon (original version and remixes)*
Rosalia feat. J Balvin – Con Altura
Karol G & Nicki Minaj – Tusa
Nio Garcia & Casper Magico feat. Various – Te Boté Remix
Rauw Alejandro – Todo De Ti
Don Omar & Lucenzo – Danza Kuduro
Shakira feat. Maluma – Chantaje
Piso 21 feat. Manuel Turizo – Déjala Que Vuelva
Becky G feat. Bad Bunny – Mayores
Becky G feat. Natti Natasha – Sin Pijama
Jhayco feat. Bad Bunny & J Balvin – No Me Conoce Remix
J Balvin & Bad Bunny – La Cancion
Nicky Jam feat. J Balvin - X
J Balvin – Ay Vamos
Wisin feat. Ozuna – Escápate Conmigo (original version and remix)*
Daddy Yankee – Dura
Daddy Yankee – Gasolina (when you figure in album sales too, this would be the approximate total… it’s confusing I know.
Shakira & Carlos Vives – La Bicicleta
Manuel Turizo – La Bachata
Aventura feat. Don Omar – Ella y Yo
Don Omar – Dile
Don Omar – Salió El Sol
Maluma – Hawai (original version and remix)*
Maluma – Felices Los 4 (even without the remix it got there)
Ricky Martin feat. Maluma – Vente Pa’Ca
Bad Bunny feat. Chencho Corleone – Me Porto Bonito
Bad Bunny – Titi Me Preguntó
Bad Bunny feat. Drake - MIA
CNCO – Reggaeton Lento (Oneill wrote the song and Bory made the beat)
Luis Fonsi feat. Demi Lovato – Échame La Culpa (prod. By El Dandee)
Wisin & Yandel – Rakata
Ozuna feat. Romeo Santos – El Farsante (original version and remix)
Myke Towers & Farruko – Si Se Da (original version and remix)
Urbano singles that have sold over 10,000,000 units equivalent worldwide
Sech feat. Darrell – Otro Trago
Tego Calderon – Pa Que Retozen
Zion & Lennox feat. J Balvin – Otra Vez
Zion & Lennox feat. Daddy Yankee – Yo Voy
Jay Wheeler feat. Varios – La Curiosidad Remix
RKM & Ken-Y – Me Matas
RKM & Ken-Y – Down
RKM & Ken-Y – Igual Que Ayer
Ozuna feat. Feid – Hey Mor
Ozuna – Se Preparó
Ozuna – Si Tu Marido No Te Quiere
Ozuna – Tu Foto
Ozuna – Dile Que Tu Me Quieres
Ozuna – Síguelo Bailando
Ozuna feat. Manuel Turizo – Vaina Loca
Ozuna – Te Vas
Ozuna feat. Karol G & Myke Towers – Caramelo (original version and remix)*
Chris Jedi feat. J Balvin, Arcangel & Ozuna – Ahora Me Dice (original version and remix)*
DJ Luiann & Mambo Kingz feat. Arcangel, Ozuna, Anuel AA & De La Ghetto (original version and remix)* - La Ocasion
DJ Luiann & Mambo Kingz feat. J Balvin, Bad Bunny, & Prince Royce - Solita
DJ Luiann & Mambo Kingz feat. Arcangel & Bad Bunny – Tu No Vive Asi
DJ Luiann & Mambo Kingz feat. Ozuna, Bad Bunny, Wisin & Almighty - Verte Ir
6ixNine feat. Anuel AA – Bebé
Anuel AA feat. Karol G – Secreto
Anuel & Haze – Amanece
Anuel feat. Romeo Santos – Ella Quiere Beber (original version and remix)*
Daddy Yankee – Lo Que Pasó, Pasó
Daddy Yankee – Limbo (I personally hate this song btw but it was huge because it was used in the Zumba exercise videos)
Daddy Yankee – Que Tire Pa’ Lante (not one of his best efforts either but this was around “Despacito” and “Dura”)
Daddy Yankee feat. Ozuna – La Rompe Corazones
Daddy Yankee feat. Wisin & Yandel – Mami No Me Dejes Solo
Daddy Yankee – King Daddy
Daddy Yankee - Corazones
Daddy Yankee – Shaky Shaky
Daddy Yankee feat. Bad Bunny – Vuelve
Chino y Nacho feat. Daddy Yankee – Andas En Mi Cabeza
Chino y Nacho feat. Farruko – Me Voy Enamorando
Romeo Santos feat. Daddy Yankee & Nicky Jam – Bella y Sensual
Nicky Jam – Hasta El Amanecer
Nicky Jam – El Amante
Nicky Jam – Travesuras (original version and remix)*
Angel & Khriz – Ven Bailalo
Luny Tunes feat. Zion y Lennox – Hay Algo En Ti (when you include physical sales of “Motivando la Yal”, “Mas Flow 1”, and “La Trayectoria” which all included the hit single).
Luny Tunes feat. Baby Ranks, Alexis & Fido – El Tiburon (including physical sales of Mas Flow 2)
Luny Tunes feat. Daddy Yankee, Wisin & Yandel, Baby Ranks, Hector El Father & Tonny Tun Tun – Mayor Que Yo
Luny Tunes feat. Hector El Father – Castigo
Plan B – Fanatica Sensual
Plan B – Si No Le Contesto (original version and remix)*
Plan B – Candy (original version and remix)*
Sofia Reyes feat. Jason Derulo & De La Ghetto – 1-2-3
Nacho feat. Yandel & Bad Bunny – Bailame (original version and remix)*
Super Yei feat. Myke Towers, Sammy, Lenny Tavarez, Rafa Pabon & Jone Quest - La Forma En Que Me Miras
Alan Walker, Sabrina Carpenter & Farruko – On My Way
Nio Garcia X Juanka X Brrray – La Jeepeta (original version and remix)*
Sebastian Yatra feat. Myke Towers – Pareja Del Año
Myke Towers & Juhn – Bandido
Myke Towers – Lala
Yandel – Encantadora
Reik feat. Ozuna & Wisin – Me Niego
Wisin feat. Jennifer Lopez & Ricky Martin – Sube La Adrenalina
Nio Garcia feat. J Balvin & Bad Bunny – AM (original version and remix)*
Arcangel feat. Sech – Sigues Con Él
Arcangel feat Bad Bunny – Me Acostumbré
Yng Lucas & Peso Pluma – La Bebé
Calle 13 – Atrevete-te-te (when physical sales tallied)
Lunay feat. Daddy Yankee & Bad Bunny – Soltera
Joey Montana - Picky
La Factoria & Eddy Lover - Perdóname
Karol G – Bichota
Karol G feat. Shakira – TQG
Karol G feat. Peso Pluma – QLONA
Karol G – Provenza
Karol G feat. Mariah Angeliq – El Makinon
Karol G feat. Bad Bunny – Ahora Me Llama
Thalia feat. Natti Natasha – No Me Acuerdo
Natti Natasha feat. Becky G – Ram Pam Pam
Silvestre Dangond feat. Nicky Jam – Cásate Conmigo
Osmani Garcia, Pitbull y Sensato Del Patio – El Taxi
Don Omar – Dale Don Dale
Don Omar – Aunque Te Fuiste
Don Omar – Virtual Diva
Don Omar – Taboo
Don Omar feat. Tego Calderon - Bandoleros
Anitta – Envolver
Anitta feat. J Balvin - Downtown
Black Eyed Peas feat. J Balvin – Ritmo
David Guetta, Bebe Rexha & J Balvin – Say My Name
Tainy & J Balvin - Agua
J Balvin feat. Farruko – 6 AM
J Balvin feat. Pharell, BIA & Sky - Safari
J Balvin feat. Bad Bunny – Si Tu Novio Te Deja Sola
J Balvin – Ginza
J Balvin feat. Maria Becerra – Que Mas Pues
J Balvin – Bobo
Dalex feat. Varios – Pa Mi (original version and remix)*
Alex Rose feat. Varios – Toda (original version and remix)*
Sech feat. Varios – Relacion (original version and remix)*
Maluma feat. Nego do Borel – Corazón
Maluma – El Perdedor
Maluma – Borro Cassette
Maluma – Sin Contrato
Maluma – HP
Thalia feat. Maluma – Desde Esa Noche
Piso 21 feat. Maluma – Me Llamas
Noriel feat. Maluma, Bryant Myers & Juhn – Cuatro Babys
Wolfine – Bella (original version and remix)*
Piso 21 & Micro TDH – Te Vi
Mau & Ricky feat. Manuel Turizo & Camilo – Desconocidos
Cali y El Dandee feat. Juan Magan & Sebastian Yatra – Por Fin Te Encontré
La Secta All Star feat. Eddie Dee – La Locura Automatica (original version and remix)*
Farruko feat. Ky-Mani Marley – Chillax
Farruko feat. Bad Bunny & Rvssian – Krippy Kush
Farruko – Pepas
Rauw Alejandro feat. Camilo – Tatoo (original version and remix)*
Rauw Alejandro feat. Chencho – El Efecto (original version and remix)*
Rauw Alejandro feat. Chencho – Desesperados
Grupo Frontera feat. Bad Bunny – UN X100TO
Bad Bunny – Amorfoda
Bad Bunny – Callaíta
Bad Bunny – Diles (original version and remix)*
Bad Bunny – Soy Peor
Bad Bunny – Yonaguni
Bad Bunny – Estamos Bien
Bad Bunny – SI Estuviésemos Juntos
Aventura feat. Bad Bunny – Volví
Bad Bunny – Moscow Mule
Bad Bunny feat. Ñengo Flow, Jowell & Randy – Safaera
Bad Bunny feat. Daddy Yankee – La Santa
Bad Bunny – Efecto
Bad Bunny feat. Bomba Estereo – Ojitos Lindos
Bad Bunny feat. Rauw Alejandro – Party
Yandel feat. Feid – Yandel 150
Part 2 coming real soon!

What did you think the mark/tatoo/whatever on Blitzø’s forehead was before it was implied(?) that it was a mark to show who worked for his father’s circus, if memory serves me correctly?
I always just assumed it was just a birthmark.

So at the start teenage girl is forced to kill innocent person (I think mother of the kids she just saw), because of something gang related. She runs away from her boyfriend and his gang because she couldn't do it. Than she finds her father and he is helping her escape. They live in a trailer and i think his father is making tatoos.

Stories in reading order. Standalone stories can be read in any order (or not at all), although significant story arcs may mention and be built up from standalone stories. However, the end of certain arcs may require knowledge of characters and events from certain Standalone stories.

Whalesong I: Aster and the World of Brilliant Light

Aster and the False God of Stories (Standalone)
Aster and the Whisperling Storm (Standalone)
Aster and the Harpy King (Part One) - Ogland Bridge Arc
Aster and the Harpy King (Part Two) - Ogland Bridge Arc
Aster and the Numerology of Dead Gods (Standalone)
Aster and the Belly of the Whale (Part One) - Corpse Sea Arc (Standalone)
Aster and the Belly of the Whale (Part Two) - Corpse Sea Arc (Standalone)
Aster and the Harpy King (Part Three) - Ogland Bridge Arc
Aster and the Harpy King (Part FouFinale) - Ogland Bridge Arc

Whalesong II: Aster and the Death of the Ether

Aster and the Lord of the Forest - Standalone
Aster and the Child of Grain (I: Burial Rites) - Child of Grain Arc
Aster and the Child of Grain (II: Poison and Pesticide)
Aster and the Sa Aterro Tomb (Part One) - The Remnant Arc

Aster and the Child of Grain (Part Two)

II: Poison and Pesticide
Quint Mognis, leader of the Wander Society was late. He’d called Matt and I back to discuss the matter of finding the surviving members of what he was referring to as the Family.
But Matt and I sat on his weirdly silky couch by ourselves, waiting a painfully long time for the man to appear. This wasn’t typical of him, we agreed- he usually want the details of every case, every spirit practically the second they were dealt with.
It was already a week past the encounter with the Family. And Quint was not one to make delays.
And then a man I hadn’t ever seen before strolled into the office. He wore blue, and suckled on a lollipop.
“And who are you?” Matt sighed, a tinge of bitter annoyance in his voice.
He sat across us, behind the desk where Quint normally sat. Quint hated that. He loved order. This was not. “My name is Julian Page,” he introduced, setting a briefcase on the table, “and I’ll be a sort of liaison for this particular,” he looked around the sunlit room, “matter.”
Confused, I adjusted my posture. He wore a rather professional flannel shirt, and all of a sudden I felt very embarrassed of my whale sweater. Matt, at least had a coat on… with some godforsaken stains across it.
“Where’s Quint?” I inquired. “This seems like a Quint matter.”
Julian murmured something I couldn’t hear. “Ah,” he began, “Quint is busy with… another matter. Think of this as a collaboration between your Wanderer’s Society and-” he tossed us both a card, “a collaboration with my Institute.”
“The Julian Page Institute,” Matt murmured, reading the card aloud. There was a strange symbol dead center on it. A sort of deer.
“Satisfied?” he asked. He rummaged through the briefcase and selected two three binders. I nodded. Matt made a noise. “Let’s get to work.”
We do not live alone in this world. Around us, just beyond the sight of what we are willing to believe is an uncharted, secret layer. A realer, more colorful world is just beyond the reach of all of us, and yet we choose not to believe.
This world is magic. But as we lose faith in our world, as we cut ourselves off from our garden it begins to fade away. This world, the ether beyond us, is built on timeless millenia of stories and hope.
My name is Aster Mills.
I still believe in the old stories. And sometimes, the old stories peer beyond the veil, and look at our greed and exploitation of our world with hatred, with malice, and seek revenge.
I’ve sworn to walk between the worlds as part of the Wanderer’s Society- to settle both the cruel hand of mankind and ease the creatures beyond as they move towards other worlds, to let go of their pain.
“If you take a look at the third section of the binder,” Julian began- I did so, looking right at a map and several photos of the Family, “you’ll see the uh, history and some photos our institute has gathered regarding this matter.”
I paged through the section. Pictures of the one they called Mother all across America, smiling and wandering. “Sorry, you’ve been aware of this Family?” Matt asked. “What exactly is your institute?”
“Your town here, Ogland Bridge studies the strange, yes? Specifically that connected to nature and the theory of belief?” I nodded, this was true. “We’ve been studying the more modern cases. You look for spirits in nature, wander the world- we seek information on the newer deities, newer formed entities propagated by media and legend.”
“I don’t understand,” I confessed. “You study… newer deities?”
He nodded. “You all study things connected to the Five Folk Gods. But not many are connected to them anymore. A whole host of modern gods has risen due to our,” he sighed, “increasing reliance on technology. And back to the matter at hand-” he paged through his binder, “we believe something old is being reborn as something new.”
I hadn’t ever thought that newer deities could be forming. I supposed we focused and attuned are senses so much to the old folk spirits we simply didn’t realize there were newer things.
“So tell me about Mother. And this family,” Matt decided.
Julian nodded and instructed us to follow him as he flipped through the binder. “Mother, once known as Paulette Farrow, we suspect was born between 1952 to 1956,” he began. “During the Vietnam War we believe she went on a little hippie adventure down to California-” I found an image of a young Mother by the bay, “-where she heard the call Mother Whale, the closest folk god to Nature Itself.”
“What?” this confused me. “But the Whale’s dead. I wasn’t called by anything. I merely studied and aligned myself.”
“Not exactly,” he illuminated. “In your belief, the Divine Whale died and became the world, yes?” I nodded, the lore was right. “Once your kind gained powers and your artifacts through connection to the natural world. But as we lose respect for the natural world the Divine Whale is, in a way, dying a second death.”
I nodded. “Like a weird connection to climate change,” Matt poked. “Weird.”
“Anyway,” Page continued, “according to our historians- Mother protested the way in Vietnam and preached connection to the earth. She began a rather small orgnization- the Cleansing Hand- the goal was to restore ruined cities to the environment, that sort of stuff.”
“Let’s skip to the part where we find out where the rest of them are so we can stop… whatever they were doing,” Matt cut in, annoyed.
“If you must,” Julian nodded, agreeing, “turn to to page fifty-seven.” A photo of Mother with Wife and Husband in the desert, though they were young, children. “1988- the Department of Defense tests anti-magic weapons in the desert disguised as nuclear tests. This specific weapon worked against those connected with the ether.”
I remembered what the cultists had said. “So it wasn’t radiation,” I murmured. “She sacrificed her connection to remove this- anti-ether weapon?”
Julian nodded. “After that we suspect Mother felt her connection dying away and recruited others who were part of her previous protest group- Cleanse. She connected them to the other folk gods and continued to work with other environmentalist groups.”
We flipped to the next page. Julian continued to brief us. “But most of her group by then, had already disbanded after the war. Government caught them, see.” He brought us the next page- an explosion on an oil rig. “They staged a few acts of protest.”
I flipped and read to the rest of the binder. More pictures of explosions- the destruction of a car center, the poisoning of meat: ecoterrorism and more- some were ritual attacks associated with grain.
Her death caused a rift, a snap in the mentality of her adopted children and associates- primarily the couple known as Wife and Husband.
Matt shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “So now what?” he asked. “None of this helps us find them. We just know they’re like radical environmentalists.”
“Gone too far,” I murmured. I had other questions now. “How do you know this? This is too detailed.”
“Ah.” He smiled. “I serve a newer god, one born from the machine-wheels of the internet. It’s a nameless thing, now, but we project its power and belief to grow a hundred times by the end of the year.”
There was silence now. Nobody really had more to say. It dawned on us we didn’t really have a way to track them.
Then there was a knock on the door, and at last, our boss, Quint walked in. “Sorry about the delay,” he apologized. He was sweaty, exhausted. “I see our new ally has briefed you?”
“Yeah,” Matt nodded, explaining the past half-hour to him. “Except we’re still nowhere close to catching these people.”
Quint smiled. “Actually,” he started, “we found them.” He paused. “Dead.”
Within the day we were outside a run down motel that looked sloppy, moldly, and unfit for life.
We got ourselves there through magic- we had no time to use modern machines, not even Julian, who seemed intent on serving newer, more modern gods. One of our wanderer’s, my friend Thylum, was an expert in Shape Magic, and so he had designed a way to create waypoints for us.
And Quint, using whatever magic he used to find our cases had led a search team of fellow Wanderer’s in the area. People like Thylum, attuned to size and place. They found them within the week.
They were dead. Both Husband and Wife.
After retreating from the ritual they had rented a small, inconspicuous room at the motel four hours away from where we’d encountered them. The twin Salamander worshippers had, at least.
But something was deeply wrong. It was still not cause for celebration.
There was blood, bone, and grain strewn around the room. The man known to us as Husband lay on a rather small bed, dead, blood still gushing out. Whatever bandages and healing spells had failed.
He wasn’t the cause of the bloody, gore-filled room.
Something had happened to Wife. Her last seen clothes were scattered in bits, and her guts were what covered the room. Grain too, of all kinds, a rainbow of poison covered and stuck to the bloody walls.
A young, shortish man greeted me, a little brown notebook in his hand. “According to this,” he began, “there was a male counterpart to Mother- Father, if you will. He’s what got the Cleanse group disbanded temporarily after the war- something about spiked trees killing loggers?”
“Thylum,” Quint greeted, shaking the man’s hand. My friend, the shape magician grimaced- Quint’s handshakes were always too tough, “how’s the reconstruction going?”
He smiled. “I can start anytime.”
Matt made a face. “I know I’m going to be sick.” Shape Magicians had power over shape- which also meant flesh, bone- and its memory.
Thylum twisted his hand, making a shape and snapping something within him.
The flesh of the dead came twisting and squirming off the wall, swirling and reconstructing a bloody, half-filled facsimile of Wife. Husband squirming and rose, bones snapping back to life.
This was their final moments. Thylum pulled back his arm, and the room twisted to remember what had transpired.
Matt went outside and retched.
The silhouettes of the twin worshippers of the Salamanders appeared made of dust and bits of cloth- this meant they were still alive.
An old woman went up to Quint, and she whispered something. Quint nodded, then turned to Thylum. “Let’s begin.”
Thylum clasped his hands. The scene began, lips moving. Sound, unfortunately, was not preserved. Matt walked back in, disgusted.
They spoke, arguing about something. And then something began to happen to wife- she began to scream soundlessly, and she began to cry tears of grain. Husband did too, suddenly, and the silhouettes of the living members began to back away in fear.
And then there was a burst of grain from wife, shards of sharp grain sending her all across the room, dead. And then the was a pile of grain- Husband got up, strangely empowered, and walked to the grain, smiling.
There was a silhouette from the grain- a baby’s. This was concerning- was this child of grain what the Dream Servant had meant by seed?
And then the baby seemed to draw energy away from Husband, and he collapsed backwards, onto the bed, where we’d found him. He whispered something to the twin worshipers, and then they nodded.
The two took the baby- who had impossibly grown to a toddler, and left. I also noted that their tatoos had shifted- no longer bearing the mark of the Salamander- but something else.
Thylum ceased his movements, and clasped his hands once again. “That’s it,” he concluded, exhausted.
“I hate reconstruction,” Matt bemoaned. “What now?”
A man whispered something to Julian. He nodded. “My people at the institute have just divined video evidence of their car making it to the interstate,” he informed. “They could be anywhere by now. We won’t be able to find them, not until our Watch-Magicians divine their next location.”
Perks of serving the god of the internet I assumed.
Thylum shook his head. “There’s references to this very motel in this notebook,” he informed, revealing it to us. “There’s also a reference to a safe house- a house off the interstate owned by the one they call Father.”
“Father- his name-” Julian ordered.
Thylum flipped through it. “Masuya Dagan.”
Julian shut his eyes and mouthed something, a whisper of a prayer. A connection to his god of information. “I have a location,” he heaved, tired. “Let’s go.”
So we went into cars Julian had prepared and journeyed to the interstate. I took shotgun, with Julian driving. Thylum and Matt took the backseat. Meanwhile Quint and several other wanderers took a second car, trailing behind us.
Julian took a call while driving, keeping us updated as he spoke with his people regarding information on Father.
We passed trees and road- until I felt the sound of grain. “Stop!” I ordered. Julian did so, ending his call. The man informed us there were artifacts in the trunk.
Matt found an enchanted pistol. I opted for my normal weapon- my carved knife with the symbols of the whale. Thylum preferred to use his hands, but collected a bag of sand.
Matt, having the most experience of all of us, led the way, pistol in hand. I followed behind him, and then Thylum.
Julian stayed back, not adept for battle. Quint led his team around the other way, readying his people. I recognized some familiar faces on his team, who smiled and nodded at me.
A house came into view, small, run down. A dog was tied to a small post outside, barking wildly. “I feel them,” I murmured, reaching into the ether. They were powerful, grain rushing quick. “Strange.”
“Hmm?” Thylum asked. “What?”
I reached again. “I feel the properties of both Salamander and Grain,” I hesitated. “I thought they’d been completely converted.”
Matt pointed at a window on the second floor. One of the two were there, speaking over the phone with someone.
Thylum wrenched his hands, sand spilling out and forming a dart. “I think I can take her out.”
Quint radioed back. “No lethals,” he warned. “We need them alive- I suspect we may be dealing with only one face of this group. And- the child.”
“Got it.” Thylum slid his hands across each other and the sand dart shot through the air, piercing the window and-
Fire burst through it, annihilating the dart. The woman looked outside and shouted something to the others inside.
Quint radioed us. “Move. We got them surrounded.”
So we did, Matt leading now, Thylum and I following behind. Quint and three others emerged behind the rundown house.
The dog dropped to silence, whimpering in fear as we advanced-
Fire emerged out of a window facing us- a wall of flame. “My pace,” Thylum commanded, sand surrounding us- we briskly walked through the flames and to the front door.
Matt attempted to kick down the door. Sigils lit up, defending it. Thylum pressed a hand against the door. “I can’t read the enchantment,” he confessed.
I pressed my hand against the door. “It’s Whaletongue,” I realized- a different dialect than the one I studied, but still familiar. “The dead woman, Mother, did serve the Whale.”
I deciphered the runelock and disabled the shielding. Thylum clasped his hands and the door warped and pushed forward, levitating- acting as a shield against a rush of fire.
“She can read Whalesong!” the woman warned.
The man shouted back from a kitchen, dispensing fire at Quint’s team who sieged the house from the outside. “I suggest a tactical retreat.”
She switched from fire to smoke, and our visibility dropped. We remained still, together in the smoke, hearing their footsteps.
Thylum knelt to the ground, his ear to the floor. “One of them’s going upstairs. Sigils are masking the location of the other one- there must be a basement around here.”
I radioed Quint. “We’re going upstairs,” I decided. “There’s a basement, but not in this visibility.”
I looked at the others- they agreed. “You’re clear- I’ll see what we can do about visibility-” there was a pause, “Fern- could you…” and there was something about birds.
Thylum got up, wrenching forth the shape of the wooden floorboards, erecting a sort of shield ahead of us.
We went up the stairs, tentatively, careful not to make too much noise.
Second floor. “Where is she?” Matt murmured, a swear under his breath.
A squeak- my eyes turned to a window in a room- there she was, escaping. “Hey!”
She dropped off to a little section of roof. I chased after, with the two others quickly behind me. She raised fire and lit the room ablaze- but I jumped through the flames as the surged-
-creating a wall between me and the others.
“Where’s the child?” I snapped, raising my knife. In my other hand I reached into a pocket, finding a small round sea marble.
One of my rarer artifacts, but one I brought for times such as this.
She sneered and backed dangerously, tiles slipping as she did. “It’s too late, you’ll never find him.”
I wondered if I should reach for my Whale Bone, the artifact of my patron god- it would allow me to draw truth, after all. But I’d have to beat her first.
Behind me, Thylum worked on the flames- but the woman seemed intent on keeping them burning. “Let’s dance.”
Fire leapt at me- I crushed the sea marble, feeling the energy of the Sea Whisperer rush through me.
The burst of flame passed me, but the artifact had done its work, a shield of thin water rushing around me. I pressed through the heavenly flames, surprising her and gifting her with a punch.
She fell back, nearly off the rooftop. I stood by with my knife- she glowed bright and the roof collapsed- and the two of us fell into the garage. A car sat, old and disused, but it still began to sound the alarm oppressively.
I quickly crawled over and set the knife to her throat. “Yield!” I snarled. I reached into my pocket and found a medium-sized circular object (thank god for enchanted pockets). “Where is the child?!”
The truth of the Divine Whale surged through me and into the extremist.
She smiled. She fought the compelling. “For the cause,” she bitterly growled. “For the Earth itself!”
And then her body leapt into heated flame, so heated my shielding broke, restoring a spent marble into my hand. The fire seemed calm, controlled, never reaching out and lashing at the air.
She had immolated herself.
There was nothing there but charred, blackened bone. I felt her last moments. She had truly believed in the cause. In the cleansing of humanity and restoration of the natural order- it was all there, the truth still spilling into my mind.
Never had anyone fought against the compelling with so much fervor. Never had it worked.
Thylum and Matt joined me a moment later. “Damn,” Matt hissed. I relayed the information to the two.
We walked back into the main hall, where a woman my age, Fern awaited.
She directed us to a hole in the ground. “We blew open the trapdoor,” she informed. “The other guy’s down there.”
I entered the hole with her. Thylum and Matt remained behind, in case the building collapsed.
“What happened to you?” she asked, a dazzled look in her eyes. She seemed new. I’d only seen her a couple times before.
I noted my singed appearance. “She immolated herself,” I explained.
It was not a basement. It was an underground bunker, rife with cans and water and books on magic and nature. There were clear signs someone was living here- or at least, recently.
The man known as Father, I reckoned.
“We didn’t find the child here,” Fern began. I wondered what the child meant. I wondered if the Grain God was within it, somehow.
“Stop right there,” Quint ordered, voice muffled. “Surrender yourself.” His voice echoed through the halls, from deeper in.
Me and Fern quickly caught up with the others. There was a room where the man was corned, hands raised up, threatening fire.
The others were in the tunnel-hall, and Quint was in the room, hands on a pistol. “Aster,” he said, “the bone.”
I shook my head. “Didn’t work on the woman.”
There was a statue of Remiaet in the center of the room, candles lit around it. “Don’t come any closer!” the man snapped. A single piece of grain lay on a small plate which the stone god kept in the air, hands outstretched.
“I won’t,” Quint assured. “But it’s over. We won’t hurt you. We just want to know more about your ideology.”
We also didn’t approve of cleansing the world and restoring the natural order, whatever that meant.
“You know enough,” the man scowled. “If you will not join us in restoring the natural order and respect to the world- then you,” he snatched the single piece of grain from the altar, “are against us.”
I used the Whalebone anyway. “Where’s the child?”
This time, it worked. His resolve was not so strong. “With-” he fought it, “Father.”
I compelled him further. “What are you going to do with the child?! Is the Grain God possessing him.”
He fought, brought a hand up and swallowed the grain. “I really hope you join us, Story-seeker. It’s so rare to have someone truly connect with-”
He coughed up blood, collapsed, and died, falling over and toppling a beautiful paper mural behind him. Flowers grew from him, until he was nothing more than a leafy mess in the silhouette of a person.
Quint was about to speak I quieted him, directing his attention to the chalkboard past the fallen mural that had depicted its story.
It was written in dirty, hurried handwriting.
Once there was a wandering hermit who wished to find peace.
“So he traveled across the five domains of the folk gods to find the Rain Bringer Remiaet, who was said to have known the path towards eternal peace.
There, he studied in both the ocean, where he learned the language of the whales, who had found inner peace to live forever- and the mountains, to listen to the song of the stars.
He found inner peace in his studies, and wished to teach the path to others.
But his age had caught up with him, and many rejected his teachings on removing attachment and listening to the Earth, and so he pleaded to the Sea Whisperer to extend his life, so that he might continue to press on.
She knew humanity would not truly listen, but granted his wish.
He was transformed into a thousand crabs then, and spoke to the minds of many. That is why you can hear the sound of the sea in a hermit crab’s shell. And to truly listen, is to find inner peace.”
Quint looked confused at this. “What the hell does this all mean?”
I shrugged. “I-” Fern began, hesitating, “I think it’s part of his ideology,” she started, afraid. Quint looked to her for more. “I think it means we don’t listen to the Earth anymore, and we have lost peace with the world.”
Quint shrugged, defeated. “So this is their ideology,” he started. He stopped, unsure. I hadn’t ever seen him this unsure. “This-” he wasn't sure what to say next. “Inner peace.”
He remained quiet after that.
I noted a series of photographs lined up on a bookshelf. A young man and a woman in beautiful natural scenes all across the world. The woman aged over time, growing old.
The man did not.
Author Notes:
Thanks for reading! I've had so much fun coming up with this particular arc. Can't wait to bring the next few parts, Open Flame and Consumption. Where the first season of Aster dealt with villains attempting to cut off the ether (a metaphor for the state of the natural world), this arc deals with villains the opposite of that, to cleanse the thing decaying the ether. This inversion from the Company is one of the reasons I enjoy this arc.
But while Aster and the team searches for Father, it's time to lay back and enjoy a tale with a familiar enemy- Canopy Hydrangea. And a new face, Fern.
Next Time: Aster and the Sa Aterro Tomb

For those who like to read, I'm giving you the long version. Lol! (VERY LONG READ)
Growing up with the normal family setting.
At the age of 5 (1978) I became a victim of child abuse from by older brother. At the age of 9 (1982) father and mother separate and she commits suicide, in the middle of the night, on the morning of Valentines Day. The "side girl" moves in, we don't get song AT ALL, my younger sister hates me cause I'm ADD, on the spectrum, and annoying as fuck.
Yep...
At 15 (1988) my father (that has a white collar job and makes good money) had enough of me, and decided to let me know that I was adopted, I was dropped off at a place where my blood father could pick me up, and moved from the hood to the country (yep), and my real father was so much uglier than my fake dad. Lol!
(I'm awful, I know.)
This dad owns country dance halls, recording studio, and many commercial and residential properties, but acts really broke all the time (smart, I know). His wife was [literally] an angel in disguise. My whole life, up until recently, she's been there for me most of the time... that's when my dad told me to stay away. She was my best friend. I always called her my mom.
I was bad, and I was bored out of my fucking mind.
Skipped school, hated girls and only liked being around guys, snuck out at night... the usual teenage girl, right? Ha ha. No drugs or alcohol, just stupid and needed excitement. I did, however, LOVED LOVED LOVED flying across the country western dancefloor. Exilerating.
At 16, go to my first concert (Faith No More), had a date (I'll call him...Juan) that worked as a bouncer. Juan's the tatoo, buzzed hair, half way up his head, and the rest in a long ponytail, genius with auto mechanics (still is today), and really sweet to me.
Anyway, I wanted to sit on the big speaker at the front stage. I looked around for something to sit on between my white tights and the black speaker, I find a small white towel...perfect. Come to find out, it's the same towel from the sound guy that stands 6'8", and looking at me like I was an alien (I'll call him Mike). I felt bad about sitting on it, but he told me be was lucky to have me use it. We had so much fun, and laughed so hard, it hurt. I hadn't had those kind of belly laughs before, not that I can remember anyway.
Long story short, I told my date, Juan, I was leaving with the sound man.
Yep.
That was the beginning of a life of "fuckit, you only live once" kind of mentality.
Things got really bad at home, cps was called on my dad for all the bruising, and I go live with another family from our church....That didn't last. Went to my racist grandmother's to live. Hell no. Juan (my Knight and Shining Armor) came to pick me up... again.
Juan saved me a couple of bad situations, and we became best friends. Got an apartment together, and again, I'm getting bored. Juan and a Cambodian "friend" he had, were having a conversation about a place... dancing... whatever, and I asked "What kind of dancing... I LOVE DANCING". They looked at each other and said "You don't want to know, not the kind of dancing you know". Of course, I'm feeling left out, and asked for an explanation. He says, "We'll just go show her, huh?"
Fast forward a couple of days, I'm getting the outfits and looking to get hired at a strip joint.
Yep.
After a couple of weeks, I'm getting my very own apartment all by myself. So proud! I laid on the bare floor looking at the ceiling forever, seemed like.
For the next 15 years, there were exciting relationships, bad relationships, making love, physical abuse, high end living to hotel living, money was great some days, really bad on others, married twice, and traveled the US. Learned a lot, but very inconsistent, and no accountability. At this point, after 3 miscarriages, I don't think I'll ever be a Mom, either.
I'm 28... Fast forward to 2011, I meet a guy at an old friend's place. He has no car, no place of his own, alcoholic from personal painful issues, 8 years younger than me, fine as FUCK, and I got this feelin... inside my bones... (can't find the music notes emojis), and it was as if the spirit relm had extremely strong plans that I didn't agree with. I fought it hard. We would sit and talk for hours. Tried to date while thinking of him. Couldn't do it, so I went for it anyway. (I'll call him Bret)
His mom, a year later, lost the battle to 4 different cancers after refusing treatment, and it devastated him. She was so sweet.
Bret and I had years of really good days, and really tough days, but he just couldn't put the potatoe juice down.
I'm 40, I get a cyst in my stomach that puts me in the ER. Ambulance takes me, because Bret was too drunk to drive. Dr says, if he removes it, half my reproductive organs go too, and my chances of having a child go down to 15%. For the first time, (after 3 miscarriages) I was really worried about it. So, Dr tries an antibiotic treatment. A month later, didn't work. Back to the ER, mom took me, Bret and I wanted a child so bad. No matter the circumstances, I know he'd be such a great daddy. I had to have the surgery. We were both devastated. But, at least I still had the other side!
I learned how to ask God to [reveal to me] that he was listening, learned how to pray, and learned about the "Prayer of Jabez"
"Oh Lord, Bless me indeed. That you enlarge my territory. That your hand be with me. That you keep me from evil, and I may not cause harm. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen."
I told no one, and asked God to show me 2 cokes with our names on them sitting together in any store. 2 days later, Bret came out of the store with 2 cokes with our names, said they were right next to each other! AH!
From that day on, even though I knew there was a potential storm coming of life change with His Will coming, I prayed the "Prayer of Jabez" every night, without fail.
2 months later I'm pregnant, and got governmental benefits to make sure the baby and were healthy. I found a 750sqft house, and figured out how to negotiate the terms, and bought my 1st house. But still... he continues to get really drunk from time to time, and almost lost her a couple of times from the abuse. Most beautiful little girl I have ever laid my eyes on, but of course I'm bias. But seriously, nothing could have been more perfect.
Every day was another sign that the man above has things handled for me and my daughter. Bret was removed out of my life without me having to do anything, but I still made the effort to make sure him and his little girl see each other, and know each other.
After my daughter gets introduced to the world, I continued to say that prayer... just revised.
"Oh Lord, that you Bless us, indeed. That your hand be with us. That you keep us from evil, and that we won't cause harm. In Jesus name we pray. Amen."
When she could talk, she would say it with me every night, without fail. She would later add...
"Now we lay down to sleep, we pray the Lord our souls to keep. Angels guide us through the night, and wake us in the morning light."
The blessings just kept pouring in. Can I get an Amen?
I got a job at a daycare that Stephanie goes to (30 min drive, but thankful indeed).
I was accepted to move into section 8 housing after 2 months when the waiting list was supposed to be 2 years, in a really nice high end neighborhood, bran new appliances, She has her own room!
Then... I got a better job in the Woodlands at a beautiful daycare just down the street!
A year goes by, and I see Juan on Facebook. (Oh yea) My heart drops. It' ben 25+ years! This is the one guy that never did wrong, never talked down to me, worked hard, and I was trash with the way I treated him.
I did, however, want know how he was doing. I ask his best friend how he was. Curious. Then Juan wrote me. WHAAA!!! He's been married for over 10 years and has a teenage boy. I was so happy for him! We messaged back and forth a bit, and shared that it wasn't as it seemed.
He was so miserable. His wife had bipolar disease and didn't like taking her medicine. He grew to not love her anymore. Then I was really sad for him.
I left him alone though, respectfully (I can't do married and don't want to get involved).
He kept writing me, insistent. He wanted to meet, to just say hello. I was sceptical at first, maybe he wanted to get back to me for what I did. Nope. He assured me that it was innocent and was genuinely curious how I was doing. We met at a McDonald's so my daughter could get a bite while we talked.
Weeks later, he's kicking his wife out, getting a divorce, and shows up at my door with a rose. He said it was like a fairytale seeing me stand before him. I told him that I'm just one shit show, don't get excited. FR. We would periodically talk and hang out, and he tells me he's leaving his wife. WHAAA!!! Not long later, he asks me to move in.
Yep.
I told him upfront... I don't cook and clean like a normal house wife. I work hard, either outside, industrial, remodeling, whatever, but i don't regularly searve others that live with me in my home. I can't. AND, my daughter and I sleep in the same room together. With all the abuse and trauma I grew up with, I can't take my eyes off her for a minute. Not taking any chances.
He was so excited, and understood. And.... How am I going to pass that up??? His divorce was finalized, he's still a really hard worker, he's respectful toward me, the best guy I had ever been around in the history of men in my life. I'm jumping!
I told him... "Get ready... you're going to be Blessed being around me, just sayin."
He isn't much of a believer, but to his surprise though, he got an offer at another store with a 25% yearly wage. He freaked out, and we moved closer to that area. Moved into a bran new house, adopted a cat and dog from the shelter (he hated that) just before Hurricane Harvey hit. The water creeped up the yard, but never flooded, and never lost power. Everyone else in other streets and neighborhoods did. It was League City. One of the worst areas that flooded during Harvey. Crazy, right?
Months go by, and the real Juan comes out. Negative, and walks around like he's got a chip on his shoulder. My daughter is in trouble all the time, his son can't stand her, grampa yells at her all the time, too. Frugal with his money till its interesting to him, then he blows it.
The lawn lady was playing with our dog Humphrey, and he's insane. Really difficult to train. I didn't have the money to take him for professional training, so I just kept working with him. He bit my daughter a couple of times, but nothing serious. Lawn lady asked about him and I agreed to let her adopt him. She was so happy and knew her three older kids would love him. I did tell her about the training difficulties, and she'll need a professional. Months later I get a call that Humphrey, )our dog that was given to the lawn lady), was found, skin and bones. Tore my heart out. I got him back and Juan was pissed, demanded me to get rid of him immediately. I caved and let him go with Juan. I don't know what exactly he did, but he came back alone.
After a year or two, Juan... is finding out that I'm not the kind of girl that is good with cooking, cleaning, and waiting on others (home waitressing Lol). I told him from the start, yet he claims I never did.
Now I know why my father was big on contracts with us kids. Lol!
Relationship got a little rocky, the negativity was really weighing on my daughter and I, and the clutter in the house was getting worse... No thanks to the house that was built with ZERO storage. Remember... I'm ADD and on the spectrum. These conditions, especially with stress, are not new to me.
If something is bothering you enough, you'd think you'd fix it by getting someone to come in a build storage, get a designer or organizer to come in and help me. (Either you're the Solution or you're the Problem) But he was always broke till it came to going out to play, put money in his Jeep, restaurant, or travel.
He also wanted to get out of Galveston County. Property taxes were sky high, so we're looking. I was eyeballing one of my dad's rental properties. Older house, but no HOA, big property, and great schools for Stephanie.
My father passes away, siblings and I get a huge chunk of change, and all I wanted was that house, so a deal was made. Another family member jumped in to make sure it was a fair deal. My siblings all get a lot, A LOT of cash, and they seem to think that a "money pit" house is worth more. Whatever. So now I owe on it.
To be frank, I'm really wanting this house, it'll be MINE, finally something that I own, something that no one can take away from my daughter and I... BUT... Juan is moving in with us, his son is with us, grampa moves in, Juan's long lost son from decades ago needs somewhere to stay with his wife and newborn, his brother needs somewhere to stay...
I LOVE helping, though. This is the first time I can be there for others. It's actually a wonderful feeling. Brings Life to my home. I cooked a little more often, and loved the extra company.
I have an acre, no HOA, and this is technically my house, so I start up a pet daycare and boarding business (Rover). Then... I open a trailer parking lot business (Neighbor). I also help people clean up their credit, cause I'm really good at it (I dated an attorney for a short time, learned a few things). Rescue organizations got wind of how great I am with animals, so I was volunteering for 3 different ones, and getting a lot of donations (food, bedding, medications, etc).
I was absolutely LOVING life. My world was filled with family, animals, business, it was playing all the bills. My daughter and I loved our space. That is until someone whined or complained, and feeling like we're sometimes trapped.
I'm 49. Juan is only a couple of years older. Our relationship gets worse. Not for him, though. He has no idea how much it's all weighing on me. He thinks everything is fine with us, and just continues to whine and complain all the time about little stupid shit. He yells with roadrage, he yells at the attendant at the drive through, and constantly complaining about how he gets the short end of the stick, it's endless. I'm exhausted.
(Bridge of the song)(you'd have to be a musician to understand)
There's a guy (I'll call him Tony) that walks up and down the streets to make money, washing vehicles, mowing lawns, cleaning roofs, power washing, etc. He's in his late teens, and weighs less than 150lbs. He wants to clean Juan's truck. (That's my job! It's therapeutic to go to the car wash and detail my cars, but whatever, kudos for the hustle, and trying to make a buck). Juan later asks me to go check his work. Tony hands me a gold a diamond necklace I left in there. My heart stopped. It's my daughter's grandmother's that was given to me to hold onto for my her. I couldn't BELIEVE myself (I'm always and continuously mad at myself), AND he was honest in not taking it!!! Totally blew my mind! And tbh, was getting this really strong spiritual feeling from him. I can't explain it, I just would pray about it.
Days later, he's still sticking around helping with small jobs, and great company. His work ethicis incredible. (More "Life" in my home!) He doesn't have any family near - in this state, and my daughter adores him. I don't really "know" him, so he's never left alone anywhere, especially with my daughter. They act just like brother and sister, it's uncanny. I'm loving the family scenes my daughter and I get, and a family for him. Tonys mother is a truck driver and travels all around the US. She's really cool. She's grateful for having us to hang with. We will periodically talk over the phone, catching up and giver updates.
Juan could care less. He's always got his face buried in his phone. He doesn't even acknowledge me what I try to talk to him, most of the time. It hurts, but whatever.
It turns winter and below freezing, and Juan knows Tony has no home at the moment, and sleeps in his car. One person that knows and trusts Tony is a guy that owns 10+ cars worth $100+. So... I see Tony just trying to get back on his feet.
Juan asks me if he can just sleep on the couch because of the extreme weather coming, I said "Ummm... that's daring, but okay." It's not new to have a new person on the property, and it's usually Juans family, or their friends. After a few days of the freeze week, I told Tony, as long as he keeps working on something, he can stay inside where it's safer. I made a guest room for him. He earned it. He was an awesome help to many of us on the property. Juan and I felt bad for him and respected his work ethic, and the need to find work. He got a job pretty quickly, and I was giving him a lift to his job, and he was helping me with the gas. Almost like being a Mom! Totally cool!
Weeks go by and notice the "hood" history shine in him, and getting worse. He's like family to my daughter and I, and we love him like family. We have patience, and I try to share guidance. He was also extremely funny. My daughter and I had many many belly laughs with him around. There were questionable moments, but don't want to judge someone that was raised in the wrong part of town. He's a good kid, just had a weird sense of humor at times.
(The following is very draining, so I'll try keep it short.)
No one here likes that side of Tony (the hood rat), and can't stand to be around him. Stereo typing, judgy, and discusted. I'm like, don't be jealous cause he makes us laugh all the time and yall don't. Lol! My daughter and I have so much fun, though. Always having laughs that make your tummy hurt. We haven't laughed that hard so often in so long.
Tony gets into an altercation with someone here, and my family asks me to choose a side, so I told Tony, with a very heavy heart, he had to go. Tore my heart out. He had become family, and I felt so close to him as if God was telling me to be his support system. I was worried about him. I loved him so much. My daughter loves him, and she cried when this was going down. Why was I supposed to choose? Being backed in a corner was so unfair.
I would meet up with him time to time to make sure he was okay. I'd find something he had left, so I'd bring it to him. It was also a time to finally get intellectual stimulation. I have no one to talk to, and he can be really intelligent with some topics.
When we got into this house, I took the master with my daughter, so we could have our private space with everyone living here, I felt it was necessary. I also have a patio couch set in the front yard. I noticed Tony would crash on the couch at night...in the freezing weather... So...I took the cushions off the cheap couch for the pups, put them on the floor in my room, walked out to take his hand, and walk him to the cushions, pillow, and blanket, so he could sleep better. My daughter was so happy that we were able to get him a warm spot. We're being sneaky. Like 2 little girls, reminded me of my younger years. Lol! This went on for a few days till we got caught. Juan was pissed (I don't blame him). He used the word "trespass", I'm like "WAIT A DAMN MINUTE". This is my house, and I invited him in here! He's definitely NOT trespassing.
Well.... Tony put his big boy pants on, and decided to let out his thoughts about our situation, all out on the table. No holding anything back, at least that's what it looked and sounded like. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The truth, but not from me. I wasn't agreeing on the delivery of the message, though. Tony was getting down right "below the belt". I was even telling Tony "Okay, now that's enough!"
So...Juan goes after Tony, ending in them both rolling around on the floor. Boys... I swear... It doesn't matter how old, they all get on my nerves with the "child" in them, and that part never goes away. I'm not got at this shit, so I go outside backyard. Everyone carries... so I'm kinda waiting to hear a shot too. Luckily, my daughter isn't there. Tony leaves, after Juan wore himself down. Calls the cops, said Tony started it (liar), and told them I didn't want to speak to them (while I wait inside for them to talk, then to ask me questions, lied again).
A few days go by, and I'm worried sick about him. He's not answering his phone, and my daughter is asking about him, too. Eventually, he responded. We with friends too their beach house on the beach (later I got to go see it, pretty nice).
Eventually, and no one knew but me, but I missed him so much, it hurt. I ached.
When he first arrived at my home, and when I saw him the very first time (with my necklace), something pierced my heart, but I ignored it because it's in my blood to be... thirsty (yea, I know, and being neglected didn't help). So, what I will do, is pawn the feelings off as a hormonal malfunction, and pray about it. But this time, the prayers seem to be making it stronger.... Whatever this thing was before, it's full blown next level now. I'm addicted. I still hadn't told anyone about it, still ignoring it, and nothing has come of it, but at the time, I'm fighting it, it's sitting on my chest like a 100lb lapdog. It was no fucking joke.
I'm driving from Juan's work to go pick up my daughter from her friend's house, so we can go eat dinner out. I was early. I see Tony walking in the rain, and it's about 55 degrees out. Wtf? I stopped to ask him where he was going. Just down the street, and... got the investor FINALLY on the phone, about options for my house to make money with it, instead of just sitting on it. So, I tried to keep Tony in the car, and the investor on the phone, as long as I could. This was a rarity.
In the mean time, Juan is tracking me with Life360, and had been behind my car most of that time, droning around with the investor on the cars Bluetooth. I parked my car at the house where my daughter is being picked up, still early, and Juan pulls up behind me. He walks to my door and demands that I give him the keys to my car. (I pay for it, but in his name). I handed him the keys, he leaves, and Tony goes to fetch one of the high end cars from his friend. My daughter comes out of her friends house. We start to transfer our belongings to the other car, and here comes Juan... with his brother. They both jumped him, right in front of my daughter. Juan is almost 250 lbs, Tony is no more than 120. I told her to run back into her friend's house till I come get her. After they jump him, they took his firearm, and we called the police. Nothing happened, except Tony gets his piece back.
I'm officially done with Juan. Several of my dogs and cats got shot and rid of, because he hates animals, is trigger happy, and I feel wanted more to have more control. I think he knows he was losing me in a way. We talked about it a couple of times.
A close friend of Tony's put us in a hotel, and this is where it gets tricky......
Tony starts to show his true colors... turns into a full blown gangster. He act like he owns me, and now Stephanie and I are at his mercy. Him and his boys figure out how to get Juan and his brother removed from the house, and after a month of hotel, we finally go back home, but still at the mercy of Tony and his boys. We come home a really trashed out place. The few animals I have left had been closed in one room, the house was rank.
Tony is very protective, possessive, controlling, manipulative, and has his small moments of being loving, caring, and soft. He knows how to make me melt. I have never had something like this before, and it's tearing me up from the inside out.
There were people he knew coming in and out of the house taking what they wanted, or he sold it to make a buck. I've never lived with someone so messy in my life. Outright disgusting.
And the worst part, he thinks he can take over the daddy roll with my daughter. Discipline and all, or I should say, only discipline. The minute he slapped my daughter, and jumped me in front of her, I drove downtown after picking my daughter up at the bus stop, applied for the Kickout and Protective Order, and the judge to sign it.
Fast forward to now....
I finally got a kickout order and Protective Order signed by a judge.
He's finally gone. It's finally just my daughter and I...so peaceful, but not without the repercussions.
I have lost just about everything. I was running 3 businesses here, and had a 4th graveyard delivery job, but because he's so controlling, I couldn't go anywhere, he took the phone, he took the keys, etc. All I have left is my MY HOUSE, my babygirl German Shepherd, my cats, and one business still bringing in crumbs (it'sstill going though!). My auto insurance and home insurance has lapsed, lights got turned off (a friend is loaning me a generator till I can actually pay him for it), our phones got cut off so I got a burner from Walmart, and gas is about to be turned off.
I'm praying that I don't show my daughter what "going to a women's shelter" is like. It wasn't pretty last time I went. I own this house. I don't want to lose it over a few dollars.
I need to get back on the road so I can work. All I need is insurance. It's going to be almost $400 down to get it.
I have a long list of things I need to do, but getting back to work is priority.
Please help.

For those who like to read, I'm giving you the long version. Lol! (VERY LONG READ)
Growing up with the normal family setting.
At the age of 5 (1978) I became a victim of child abuse from by older brother. At the age of 9 (1982) father and mother separate and she commits suicide, in the middle of the night, on the morning of Valentines Day. The "side girl" moves in, we don't get song AT ALL, my younger sister hates me cause I'm ADD, on the spectrum, and annoying as fuck.
Yep...
At 15 (1988) my father (that has a white collar job and makes good money) had enough of me, and decided to let me know that I was adopted, I was dropped off at a place where my blood father could pick me up, and moved from the hood to the country (yep), and my real father was so much uglier than my fake dad. Lol!
(I'm awful, I know.)
This dad owns country dance halls, recording studio, and many commercial and residential properties, but acts really broke all the time (smart, I know). His wife was [literally] an angel in disguise. My whole life, up until recently, she's been there for me most of the time... that's when my dad told me to stay away. She was my best friend. I always called her my mom.
I was bad, and I was bored out of my fucking mind.
Skipped school, hated girls and only liked being around guys, snuck out at night... the usual teenage girl, right? Ha ha. No drugs or alcohol, just stupid and needed excitement. I did, however, LOVED LOVED LOVED flying across the country western dancefloor. Exilerating.
At 16, go to my first concert (Faith No More), had a date (I'll call him...Juan) that worked as a bouncer. Juan's the tatoo, buzzed hair, half way up his head, and the rest in a long ponytail, genius with auto mechanics (still is today), and really sweet to me.
Anyway, I wanted to sit on the big speaker at the front stage. I looked around for something to sit on between my white tights and the black speaker, I find a small white towel...perfect. Come to find out, it's the same towel from the sound guy that stands 6'8", and looking at me like I was an alien (I'll call him Mike). I felt bad about sitting on it, but he told me be was lucky to have me use it. We had so much fun, and laughed so hard, it hurt. I hadn't had those kind of belly laughs before, not that I can remember anyway.
Long story short, I told my date, Juan, I was leaving with the sound man.
Yep.
That was the beginning of a life of "fuckit, you only live once" kind of mentality.
Things got really bad at home, cps was called on my dad for all the bruising, and I go live with another family from our church....That didn't last. Went to my racist grandmother's to live. Hell no. Juan (my Knight and Shining Armor) came to pick me up... again.
Juan saved me a couple of bad situations, and we became best friends. Got an apartment together, and again, I'm getting bored. Juan and a Cambodian "friend" he had, were having a conversation about a place... dancing... whatever, and I asked "What kind of dancing... I LOVE DANCING". They looked at each other and said "You don't want to know, not the kind of dancing you know". Of course, I'm feeling left out, and asked for an explanation. He says, "We'll just go show her, huh?"
Fast forward a couple of days, I'm getting the outfits and looking to get hired at a strip joint.
Yep.
After a couple of weeks, I'm getting my very own apartment all by myself. So proud! I laid on the bare floor looking at the ceiling forever, seemed like.
For the next 15 years, there were exciting relationships, bad relationships, making love, physical abuse, high end living to hotel living, money was great some days, really bad on others, married twice, and traveled the US. Learned a lot, but very inconsistent, and no accountability. At this point, after 3 miscarriages, I don't think I'll ever be a Mom, either.
I'm 28... Fast forward to 2011, I meet a guy at an old friend's place. He has no car, no place of his own, alcoholic from personal painful issues, 8 years younger than me, fine as FUCK, and I got this feelin... inside my bones... (can't find the music notes emojis), and it was as if the spirit relm had extremely strong plans that I didn't agree with. I fought it hard. We would sit and talk for hours. Tried to date while thinking of him. Couldn't do it, so I went for it anyway. (I'll call him Bret)
His mom, a year later, lost the battle to 4 different cancers after refusing treatment, and it devastated him. She was so sweet.
Bret and I had years of really good days, and really tough days, but he just couldn't put the potatoe juice down.
I'm 40, I get a cyst in my stomach that puts me in the ER. Ambulance takes me, because Bret was too drunk to drive. Dr says, if he removes it, half my reproductive organs go too, and my chances of having a child go down to 15%. For the first time, (after 3 miscarriages) I was really worried about it. So, Dr tries an antibiotic treatment. A month later, didn't work. Back to the ER, mom took me, Bret and I wanted a child so bad. No matter the circumstances, I know he'd be such a great daddy. I had to have the surgery. We were both devastated. But, at least I still had the other side!
I learned how to ask God to [reveal to me] that he was listening, learned how to pray, and learned about the "Prayer of Jabez"
"Oh Lord, Bless me indeed. That you enlarge my territory. That your hand be with me. That you keep me from evil, and I may not cause harm. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen."
I told no one, and asked God to show me 2 cokes with our names on them sitting together in any store. 2 days later, Bret came out of the store with 2 cokes with our names, said they were right next to each other! AH!
From that day on, even though I knew there was a potential storm coming of life change with His Will coming, I prayed the "Prayer of Jabez" every night, without fail.
2 months later I'm pregnant, and got governmental benefits to make sure the baby and were healthy. I found a 750sqft house, and figured out how to negotiate the terms, and bought my 1st house. But still... he continues to get really drunk from time to time, and almost lost her a couple of times from the abuse. Most beautiful little girl I have ever laid my eyes on, but of course I'm bias. But seriously, nothing could have been more perfect.
Every day was another sign that the man above has things handled for me and my daughter. Bret was removed out of my life without me having to do anything, but I still made the effort to make sure him and his little girl see each other, and know each other.
After my daughter gets introduced to the world, I continued to say that prayer... just revised.
"Oh Lord, that you Bless us, indeed. That your hand be with us. That you keep us from evil, and that we won't cause harm. In Jesus name we pray. Amen."
When she could talk, she would say it with me every night, without fail. She would later add...
"Now we lay down to sleep, we pray the Lord our souls to keep. Angels guide us through the night, and wake us in the morning light."
The blessings just kept pouring in. Can I get an Amen?
I got a job at a daycare that Stephanie goes to (30 min drive, but thankful indeed).
I was accepted to move into section 8 housing after 2 months when the waiting list was supposed to be 2 years, in a really nice high end neighborhood, bran new appliances, She has her own room!
Then... I got a better job in the Woodlands at a beautiful daycare just down the street!
A year goes by, and I see Juan on Facebook. (Oh yea) My heart drops. It' ben 25+ years! This is the one guy that never did wrong, never talked down to me, worked hard, and I was trash with the way I treated him.
I did, however, want know how he was doing. I ask his best friend how he was. Curious. Then Juan wrote me. WHAAA!!! He's been married for over 10 years and has a teenage boy. I was so happy for him! We messaged back and forth a bit, and shared that it wasn't as it seemed.
He was so miserable. His wife had bipolar disease and didn't like taking her medicine. He grew to not love her anymore. Then I was really sad for him.
I left him alone though, respectfully (I can't do married and don't want to get involved).
He kept writing me, insistent. He wanted to meet, to just say hello. I was sceptical at first, maybe he wanted to get back to me for what I did. Nope. He assured me that it was innocent and was genuinely curious how I was doing. We met at a McDonald's so my daughter could get a bite while we talked.
Weeks later, he's kicking his wife out, getting a divorce, and shows up at my door with a rose. He said it was like a fairytale seeing me stand before him. I told him that I'm just one shit show, don't get excited. FR. We would periodically talk and hang out, and he tells me he's leaving his wife. WHAAA!!! Not long later, he asks me to move in.
Yep.
I told him upfront... I don't cook and clean like a normal house wife. I work hard, either outside, industrial, remodeling, whatever, but i don't regularly searve others that live with me in my home. I can't. AND, my daughter and I sleep in the same room together. With all the abuse and trauma I grew up with, I can't take my eyes off her for a minute. Not taking any chances.
He was so excited, and understood. And.... How am I going to pass that up??? His divorce was finalized, he's still a really hard worker, he's respectful toward me, the best guy I had ever been around in the history of men in my life. I'm jumping!
I told him... "Get ready... you're going to be Blessed being around me, just sayin."
He isn't much of a believer, but to his surprise though, he got an offer at another store with a 25% yearly wage. He freaked out, and we moved closer to that area. Moved into a bran new house, adopted a cat and dog from the shelter (he hated that) just before Hurricane Harvey hit. The water creeped up the yard, but never flooded, and never lost power. Everyone else in other streets and neighborhoods did. It was League City. One of the worst areas that flooded during Harvey. Crazy, right?
Months go by, and the real Juan comes out. Negative, and walks around like he's got a chip on his shoulder. My daughter is in trouble all the time, his son can't stand her, grampa yells at her all the time, too. Frugal with his money till its interesting to him, then he blows it.
The lawn lady was playing with our dog Humphrey, and he's insane. Really difficult to train. I didn't have the money to take him for professional training, so I just kept working with him. He bit my daughter a couple of times, but nothing serious. Lawn lady asked about him and I agreed to let her adopt him. She was so happy and knew her three older kids would love him. I did tell her about the training difficulties, and she'll need a professional. Months later I get a call that Humphrey, )our dog that was given to the lawn lady), was found, skin and bones. Tore my heart out. I got him back and Juan was pissed, demanded me to get rid of him immediately. I caved and let him go with Juan. I don't know what exactly he did, but he came back alone.
After a year or two, Juan... is finding out that I'm not the kind of girl that is good with cooking, cleaning, and waiting on others (home waitressing Lol). I told him from the start, yet he claims I never did.
Now I know why my father was big on contracts with us kids. Lol!
Relationship got a little rocky, the negativity was really weighing on my daughter and I, and the clutter in the house was getting worse... No thanks to the house that was built with ZERO storage. Remember... I'm ADD and on the spectrum. These conditions, especially with stress, are not new to me.
If something is bothering you enough, you'd think you'd fix it by getting someone to come in a build storage, get a designer or organizer to come in and help me. (Either you're the Solution or you're the Problem) But he was always broke till it came to going out to play, put money in his Jeep, restaurant, or travel.
He also wanted to get out of Galveston County. Property taxes were sky high, so we're looking. I was eyeballing one of my dad's rental properties. Older house, but no HOA, big property, and great schools for Stephanie.
My father passes away, siblings and I get a huge chunk of change, and all I wanted was that house, so a deal was made. Another family member jumped in to make sure it was a fair deal. My siblings all get a lot, A LOT of cash, and they seem to think that a "money pit" house is worth more. Whatever. So now I owe on it.
To be frank, I'm really wanting this house, it'll be MINE, finally something that I own, something that no one can take away from my daughter and I... BUT... Juan is moving in with us, his son is with us, grampa moves in, Juan's long lost son from decades ago needs somewhere to stay with his wife and newborn, his brother needs somewhere to stay...
I LOVE helping, though. This is the first time I can be there for others. It's actually a wonderful feeling. Brings Life to my home. I cooked a little more often, and loved the extra company.
I have an acre, no HOA, and this is technically my house, so I start up a pet daycare and boarding business (Rover). Then... I open a trailer parking lot business (Neighbor). I also help people clean up their credit, cause I'm really good at it (I dated an attorney for a short time, learned a few things). Rescue organizations got wind of how great I am with animals, so I was volunteering for 3 different ones, and getting a lot of donations (food, bedding, medications, etc).
I was absolutely LOVING life. My world was filled with family, animals, business, it was playing all the bills. My daughter and I loved our space. That is until someone whined or complained, and feeling like we're sometimes trapped.
I'm 49. Juan is only a couple of years older. Our relationship gets worse. Not for him, though. He has no idea how much it's all weighing on me. He thinks everything is fine with us, and just continues to whine and complain all the time about little stupid shit. He yells with roadrage, he yells at the attendant at the drive through, and constantly complaining about how he gets the short end of the stick, it's endless. I'm exhausted.
(Bridge of the song)(you'd have to be a musician to understand)
There's a guy (I'll call him Tony) that walks up and down the streets to make money, washing vehicles, mowing lawns, cleaning roofs, power washing, etc. He's in his late teens, and weighs less than 150lbs. He wants to clean Juan's truck. (That's my job! It's therapeutic to go to the car wash and detail my cars, but whatever, kudos for the hustle, and trying to make a buck). Juan later asks me to go check his work. Tony hands me a gold a diamond necklace I left in there. My heart stopped. It's my daughter's grandmother's that was given to me to hold onto for my her. I couldn't BELIEVE myself (I'm always and continuously mad at myself), AND he was honest in not taking it!!! Totally blew my mind! And tbh, was getting this really strong spiritual feeling from him. I can't explain it, I just would pray about it.
Days later, he's still sticking around helping with small jobs, and great company. His work ethicis incredible. (More "Life" in my home!) He doesn't have any family near - in this state, and my daughter adores him. I don't really "know" him, so he's never left alone anywhere, especially with my daughter. They act just like brother and sister, it's uncanny. I'm loving the family scenes my daughter and I get, and a family for him. Tonys mother is a truck driver and travels all around the US. She's really cool. She's grateful for having us to hang with. We will periodically talk over the phone, catching up and giver updates.
Juan could care less. He's always got his face buried in his phone. He doesn't even acknowledge me what I try to talk to him, most of the time. It hurts, but whatever.
It turns winter and below freezing, and Juan knows Tony has no home at the moment, and sleeps in his car. One person that knows and trusts Tony is a guy that owns 10+ cars worth $100+. So... I see Tony just trying to get back on his feet.
Juan asks me if he can just sleep on the couch because of the extreme weather coming, I said "Ummm... that's daring, but okay." It's not new to have a new person on the property, and it's usually Juans family, or their friends. After a few days of the freeze week, I told Tony, as long as he keeps working on something, he can stay inside where it's safer. I made a guest room for him. He earned it. He was an awesome help to many of us on the property. Juan and I felt bad for him and respected his work ethic, and the need to find work. He got a job pretty quickly, and I was giving him a lift to his job, and he was helping me with the gas. Almost like being a Mom! Totally cool!
Weeks go by and notice the "hood" history shine in him, and getting worse. He's like family to my daughter and I, and we love him like family. We have patience, and I try to share guidance. He was also extremely funny. My daughter and I had many many belly laughs with him around. There were questionable moments, but don't want to judge someone that was raised in the wrong part of town. He's a good kid, just had a weird sense of humor at times.
(The following is very draining, so I'll try keep it short.)
No one here likes that side of Tony (the hood rat), and can't stand to be around him. Stereo typing, judgy, and discusted. I'm like, don't be jealous cause he makes us laugh all the time and yall don't. Lol! My daughter and I have so much fun, though. Always having laughs that make your tummy hurt. We haven't laughed that hard so often in so long.
Tony gets into an altercation with someone here, and my family asks me to choose a side, so I told Tony, with a very heavy heart, he had to go. Tore my heart out. He had become family, and I felt so close to him as if God was telling me to be his support system. I was worried about him. I loved him so much. My daughter loves him, and she cried when this was going down. Why was I supposed to choose? Being backed in a corner was so unfair.
I would meet up with him time to time to make sure he was okay. I'd find something he had left, so I'd bring it to him. It was also a time to finally get intellectual stimulation. I have no one to talk to, and he can be really intelligent with some topics.
When we got into this house, I took the master with my daughter, so we could have our private space with everyone living here, I felt it was necessary. I also have a patio couch set in the front yard. I noticed Tony would crash on the couch at night...in the freezing weather... So...I took the cushions off the cheap couch for the pups, put them on the floor in my room, walked out to take his hand, and walk him to the cushions, pillow, and blanket, so he could sleep better. My daughter was so happy that we were able to get him a warm spot. We're being sneaky. Like 2 little girls, reminded me of my younger years. Lol! This went on for a few days till we got caught. Juan was pissed (I don't blame him). He used the word "trespass", I'm like "WAIT A DAMN MINUTE". This is my house, and I invited him in here! He's definitely NOT trespassing.
Well.... Tony put his big boy pants on, and decided to let out his thoughts about our situation, all out on the table. No holding anything back, at least that's what it looked and sounded like. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The truth, but not from me. I wasn't agreeing on the delivery of the message, though. Tony was getting down right "below the belt". I was even telling Tony "Okay, now that's enough!"
So...Juan goes after Tony, ending in them both rolling around on the floor. Boys... I swear... It doesn't matter how old, they all get on my nerves with the "child" in them, and that part never goes away. I'm not got at this shit, so I go outside backyard. Everyone carries... so I'm kinda waiting to hear a shot too. Luckily, my daughter isn't there. Tony leaves, after Juan wore himself down. Calls the cops, said Tony started it (liar), and told them I didn't want to speak to them (while I wait inside for them to talk, then to ask me questions, lied again).
A few days go by, and I'm worried sick about him. He's not answering his phone, and my daughter is asking about him, too. Eventually, he responded. We with friends too their beach house on the beach (later I got to go see it, pretty nice).
Eventually, and no one knew but me, but I missed him so much, it hurt. I ached.
When he first arrived at my home, and when I saw him the very first time (with my necklace), something pierced my heart, but I ignored it because it's in my blood to be... thirsty (yea, I know, and being neglected didn't help). So, what I will do, is pawn the feelings off as a hormonal malfunction, and pray about it. But this time, the prayers seem to be making it stronger.... Whatever this thing was before, it's full blown next level now. I'm addicted. I still hadn't told anyone about it, still ignoring it, and nothing has come of it, but at the time, I'm fighting it, it's sitting on my chest like a 100lb lapdog. It was no fucking joke.
I'm driving from Juan's work to go pick up my daughter from her friend's house, so we can go eat dinner out. I was early. I see Tony walking in the rain, and it's about 55 degrees out. Wtf? I stopped to ask him where he was going. Just down the street, and... got the investor FINALLY on the phone, about options for my house to make money with it, instead of just sitting on it. So, I tried to keep Tony in the car, and the investor on the phone, as long as I could. This was a rarity.
In the mean time, Juan is tracking me with Life360, and had been behind my car most of that time, droning around with the investor on the cars Bluetooth. I parked my car at the house where my daughter is being picked up, still early, and Juan pulls up behind me. He walks to my door and demands that I give him the keys to my car. (I pay for it, but in his name). I handed him the keys, he leaves, and Tony goes to fetch one of the high end cars from his friend. My daughter comes out of her friends house. We start to transfer our belongings to the other car, and here comes Juan... with his brother. They both jumped him, right in front of my daughter. Juan is almost 250 lbs, Tony is no more than 120. I told her to run back into her friend's house till I come get her. After they jump him, they took his firearm, and we called the police. Nothing happened, except Tony gets his piece back.
I'm officially done with Juan. Several of my dogs and cats got shot and rid of, because he hates animals, is trigger happy, and I feel wanted more to have more control. I think he knows he was losing me in a way. We talked about it a couple of times.
A close friend of Tony's put us in a hotel, and this is where it gets tricky......
Tony starts to show his true colors... turns into a full blown gangster. He act like he owns me, and now Stephanie and I are at his mercy. Him and his boys figure out how to get Juan and his brother removed from the house, and after a month of hotel, we finally go back home, but still at the mercy of Tony and his boys. We come home a really trashed out place. The few animals I have left had been closed in one room, the house was rank.
Tony is very protective, possessive, controlling, manipulative, and has his small moments of being loving, caring, and soft. He knows how to make me melt. I have never had something like this before, and it's tearing me up from the inside out.
There were people he knew coming in and out of the house taking what they wanted, or he sold it to make a buck. I've never lived with someone so messy in my life. Outright disgusting.
And the worst part, he thinks he can take over the daddy roll with my daughter. Discipline and all, or I should say, only discipline. The minute he slapped my daughter, and jumped me in front of her, I drove downtown after picking my daughter up at the bus stop, applied for the Kickout and Protective Order, and the judge to sign it.
Fast forward to now....
I finally got a kickout order and Protective Order signed by a judge.
He's finally gone. It's finally just my daughter and I...so peaceful, but not without the repercussions.
I have lost just about everything. I was running 3 businesses here, and had a 4th graveyard delivery job, but because he's so controlling, I couldn't go anywhere, he took the phone, he took the keys, etc. All I have left is my MY HOUSE, my babygirl German Shepherd, my cats, and one business still bringing in crumbs (it'sstill going though!). My auto insurance and home insurance has lapsed, lights got turned off (a friend is loaning me a generator till I can actually pay him for it), our phones got cut off so I got a burner from Walmart, and gas is about to be turned off.
I'm praying that I don't show my daughter what "going to a women's shelter" is like. It wasn't pretty last time I went. I own this house. I don't want to lose it over a few dollars.
I need to get back on the road so I can work. All I need is insurance. It's going to be almost $400 down to get it.
I have a long list of things I need to do, but getting back to work is priority.
Please help.

I'm 18+ and all characters will be 18+
I'm Roni, 22, Leo. I have absolutely no life. I like to write, I like shitty drama. I like torturing my characters.
I am looking for a good story with a fair amount of smut but the STORY is very important to me.
I write in 3rd person past tense and need you to do this too.
I only roleplay on discord
I'm not looking for a boyfriend
I don't want to send you pics
I DO like using realistic faceclaims, art, music and mood boards
I like building a world and playing side characters too so I guess you would call that GMing
I can be quite kinky but I'm looking for a longterm story with a good amount of plot.
Kinks: Impregnation, harems, gangbangs, cumplay, cock worship, rough sex, Interested in maybe trying beast, branding/tatooing, CNC, Incest, Realistic dicks
The last ad I posted got a lot of responses asking me to do FxF pairings. I am looking for FxM
To show that you have read this send me a chat with the word dinosaur in it.
I had an idea I wanted to explore: Basically it would be a father daughter pairing only it would start with CNC and grow into her wanting it. I had planned to involve mom in the story too. The basic idea is that mom is having an affair which leaves dad frustrated and feeling neglected. The idea was for her to be in her senior year so 18, she's a typical girl, she has friends, maybe she has a boyfriend.
We can go into details about characters in Chat.
We can even grow this into a harem! (I love harems!) Maybe he adds her friends or other girls.
I must stress again
I write in 3rd person past tense and need you to do this too.
I only roleplay on discord

*I went through rapid switching and other effects from the Personality Disorders I have now. That's why some may not make sense or may be really poorly written. My offering to the Hoodoo Spirits*
My Journey to the End Where I begin......Part I of II in honor of the Awesome Spirits of The Hoodoo and Loa. Ase Thank You. I love you all so much Im so glad to serve you!
So I now sit here, fighting off the entrance of another sudden storm of panic and anxiety. I don't know what triggered it this time but as I breathe I begin this journey into my darkest memories to offer myself before the people who are lead by spirit to me. As I prepare for a sacrifice of myself unto myself, I am asked by the spirits to sacrifice myself to you.
This is the recounting of my recollection of how I got here in front of you now. It is my self sacrifice for the awesome spirits I have the honor to serve eternally.
Be warned that my path was a dark and twisted expereince. I don't know why I was chosen but spirits claimed me at before birth. As I make my way to you with secrets and access to spirit knowledge and power I must tell you, It nearly cost me everything. I did what I was set out to do and now I am so ready to share it.
The panic is over, just the thought of reliving some of these things triggered it. I must remember to greet panic with love its hard to think when the spirit arrives though...I digress my story begins in Mobile, AL in 1990......
My mother was raised in a strict Southern Baptist Faith while my Dad was raised in a family of Mafia Shot Callers and Drug Lords. I don't know how they ended together but few years later I was born.
I remember when I was a baby very clearly knowing English in full. One year old maybe and I remember trying to talk but just coming out "ga ga ba" or something. I could understand everyone around me and I had a lingering addiction to Alcohol and Cigarettes from another life.
Watching the adults not hear me screaming for them to share beer and cigarettes with me was tiring and aggravating. I couldn't enjoy my childhood really because my mind was still turned on or something.
I recall being a baby still. At this point I had figured out baby's like me aren't allowed to speak. I felt they knew and I just wasn't supposed to use their grown ups language yet.
One glistening day we are driving down the road in a car seat my mom in front and dad driving, my sister was in a car seat next to me. My favorite song was put into the cassette player and "Awesome God" came on! I remember being so happy to hear it I LOVED THE SONG. Still a small baby then and the song went to the main part.....I leapt forward and screamed "AN AWESOME GOD HE REIGNS!!!!" very clearly and passionately.
My mom and dad immediatly looked at me in honor, my little heart shrieking in fear that I got caught using adult talk instead of baby talk. My memories of another life were quickly fading but I was unaware. I had a few visions and that was gone from me and I though I was "normal".
Childhood goes by with strange trauma for me. My dad was raided and our home destroyed again by the police. This time they got him with 200 pounds of marijuana and other stuff. I was so tormented by the police as a child I hated them so much. They were trying to take my daddy. I would run to the door happy and free until I saw them and freeze in terror crying. I hated seeing them then.
We left of course to be with my mom at her mothers house. We had known nothing but the sweet and quick joy of drug money our whole lives. Now me, 5, and my sister, 6, had to lose our father and all stability and support except what my dear mother could provide. She went to work and she worked hard for the years to come.
He got out and we started moving around the country. I have lived in Texas, DC, Bama, Mississippi, and Colorado. My childhood grew into a cold neglected environment. My father was in and out of prison and jail since 12 so I was let down by him in the worst ways.
My mom got with a black guy and where I am from at that time was very unaccepted, especially by my dad and my moms family. She was shunned and I was left with no main supporter. I had my grandma and she was very limited in her abilities at that point. I had to help her with most basic functions.
Sorry I just got back, I went blank everything left me and I found myself typing cluelessly gazing past the keyboard just now. Damn symptoms of the disorder these things caused in me are unbearable sometimes. Where was I....
I'm neglected and abandoned pretty much the rest of the time until I could work at 16. At 12 I was sent to my dads because someone didn't approve of the black step-dad and tricked me into going back to Alabama. Shell likely read this and now my panic sets in this time im getting dizzy and sight is glowing almost.
It didn't take me....
I was far away in DC and this loved one of mine (which is always loved and forgiven and makes me proud honestly) she let her emotions run her actions. No thought....I can only speculate. Well we had to leave and go to Woods of Deep Alabama again. I left school and friends and home and dog I loved to ride a mislabel 24 hours to the humidity again.
She left with our cousin, I had to go to my dads because few other options would want me. Yea I could have went but who wants to go be made to be unwanted, deal with it, type of place. I went to my dads at least he wanted me I thought. I went to immediatly be introduced to crack cocaine. I was 12 remind you and had 25 ones. In the house I now lived crack and money ruled.
My grandpa wanted dope so he convinced me to spend my last money on trying crack with him and my cousing who was like a sister to me in my mind. She was 15 and a full blown experienced street worker and crack smoker. My dad came home later that day and it was too late crack won. I gave up on everything but the next hit of dope.
Haha I remember expecting him to care or something still. I remember being happy that someone was going to come correct me. I craved what I was refused all through life like other kids knew. Discipline some one who loved me and cared.
My grandma did play that role but she was so old and she couldn't do it. I had to lift her off the toilet every time when I was there caring for her, I could have easily rebelled but thank god I didn't. I would hate myself for doing that to my sweet grandmother.
Her memories flood my psyche now with radiant warm dull pain of acceptance. There are five stages to grief. I would know. I am blank then suddenly brought to a very different feeling and sight in my minds eye. God the switching is unpredictable right now still. Anyway let me finish Im suffering to do this truly.
Years go by and I watch my sister barely make it through her prolonged exposure to trauma and rejection also yet some reason she gets the attention from adults. I wish someone would put my in a rehab for drug addiction before its too late. I wanted to go to school and do shit I felt that I was supposed to do!!! I was in the most back wood incest drug infested dirt roads of the south with no hope to be held in being normal ever again!
I consciously remember walking alone strung out from crack every minute of the day and no food no nothing! I talked out loud and explained to my shattered self there is no future. I wanted to be the first educated and successful person from my family. That's my only hope this whole upbringing, I knew I just had to take the hurt and give up on myself and future.
So I'm trying and to my discovery most of the stuff is blank until around 19 when I finally found someone who cared. I was a prostitute at this time and accepted my worthlessness. Giving myself away for survival in a wicked world. I was off the hard drugs I think, I don't know but I was fucked up. Worked and had a car I was experiencing the American dream at this point.
I never said anything about how I made it by but I didn't care at that point, no body ever invested emotion in me so I was cheerfully alone in my reality still trying to sleep in the same place a few nights in a row without getting that angry fucked up energy from the "friend" or "family" I thought loved me in some strange way they could never understand.
I was to fucked up from trauma to care about anything but the momentary thrills I could aquire. Sex drugs crime whatever. Someone found me and cared. My first relationship. He was in the air force yada yada he was the dream, I thought.
We are together from aage 17 to 22 or something like that for me. I alwasy thought he was five or six years older like he said he was, I mean who checks their spouses ID....I din't. I was crushed to find out that he was 42. Buying some beer im walking out and the cashier tells him, you dont look 42 he laughs nervously and follows me.
Well he never would explain and I was fucking blown but that was ok until I find him a few months later pretending to be an 11 year old boy flirting with very young kids profiles on some site. Ugh I was threw finally. So I started being a prostitute again while he was at work and gave up on the college program and internship and all and sank my ship hurt.
I end up getting peppered with love bombs by a black guy who did everything I needed to fill my emotionally damaged holes in myself. Straight from the projects with tatoos on his neck and strong stout body, I looked past his crazy ugly face and deformed eyes to unite with his hurt self. Only someone from that place, Creighton neighboorhood, only they could know feelings and share the sourness of rejection yada yada it was a beautiful fairytale in my head.
We were tgether two years Yay gay marriage is legalized so we ran and eloped. A few weeks later the psycho was unmasked. The violent beatings began. I was shocked the first few times, face stinging or ears ringing tasting blood and taking blows thinking wait your supposed to be the healing one.
I lost my self in the attacks, violently and unprovoked but ALWAYS screamed it was my fault. That bastard hurt me in the most fucked up ways he could all out of hate and jealousy. I got trapped and addicted to the super high place that I could go when he would kiss me and gently tell me he will help me bandage my wounds or take me to the hospital for the broken bones whatever.
I was obviously very sick at the time. No one can ever help that person who carries the sickness of domestic abuse and control. I underwent some of the most violent attacks and was hospitalized over and over.
Wow its snowing out of nowhere, Kari is someone you may get to know, if your here you likely will meet my awesome spirits. Kari is the father of Frosty that's snow. Kari is the Northern Wind. 12:12 catches my eye just then. The message is clear noticing both at the same time (the synchronicities). Frosty tells me that he encourages what I am doing.
After receiving the truth that no one will ever care it hurts me when the spirits care. I am not programmed to receive loving concern only distant caring if that. I have a hard time when they deeply touch me and they do it a lot but they cant help it.
I love you Kari and Frosty thank you for coming to me and being with me in my Temple Family!
Well this is almost over becuase I am simply to tired to keep going. Ill make the rest of my journey here short and sweet.
Me and Marco (my psycho hater) have now went homeless in Colorado during a snowy winter we were unfamiliar with. It never snows where we are from. Very traumatic and I may share details along the way if spirit needs me to but the winter cold homeless, it really drove the insecurities of rejection in my soul. Now I experienced an entire society reject me. They didnt care If I died in winters grip outside, they wouldnt care to know much less save us.
I survived all of his anger being taken and knew how to try to not set him off. I had to even watch subconscious quirks like liking my lip when its dry, which he hated and always lunged on me for. I got ok at fighting, I never thought I could but I did lose the fear of getting beat up now. I hate fighting always did then I ended up in what I hate.
Yada Yada one day when we are in the tent homeless and I can't recall what triggered him (everything is still my fault in my mind because of the psyche control and manipulation damage). Somehow he got raged and before I could react my vision went out and the familiar ring started. It was almost a comforting sound to me becuase I felt the attack was that bad usually he will stop. I could never win he was too strong and tactful in his assaults.
My face was broken that time. Swollen eye and cheek and forehead instantly. I looked disgusting and all I could do was shriek how could you. Oh shit I can feel the numb again as I see it in my minds eye, we were in public. He did that because I insisted on taco bell for breakfast. It was all I could get or something I don't know I have to let that memory fade now its to hard to give the horrifying details.
I was forced to lead as provider for us the whole time also. He never could earn much and any bills he had to pay for us I was attacked for soon after. I fought I did all I could. When I got back to the tent about an hour after I walked away sobbing hoping he would care, he tried to look at my face. His lack of concern for how I looked finally lit something in me strange. I didn't feel worth anything yet I felt instincts drive me to not take that. Shit I'm twitching now I don't want a seizure I fear the fuckage might cause one someday but I fight those weird twitching episodes off most times.
Now I get free from him and make it on a plane in Denver miraculously. People started caring it was weird and its so touching now. I just wish I rememebred and showed her the same care back when I had the chance, hey I STILL DO!!! I can help her now YAY! Thanks spirits, I love you megan Im gonna get you some food money for prison when Im done writing. That made me smile.
Ugh anyway. I literally leave him at security go to the bar there in the airport and sit down kinda proud. Very uncertain of my fitire alone, deeply scarred and hurt but I did this fucked up shit haha. Ordered a beer and it was so fucking delicious and cold I felt normal almost. Proud to sit in a normal humans place.
My phone dings a text its my mom. She says nothing just send me a news clip. It was my cousin who was there with my grandpa when I ws given crack. She handed it to me while my grandad pretended to not know and smoke his in the bathroom. Haha a literal fucking actor of love and concern and very selfish people. Whatever I still love him
The news clip was teling the sick story of her discovery. Along the fucked up way la'Rie went missing some years ago like 10 or 15 I don't know. Soon after my crack life was over thank to whatever happened to make me stop, she went missing.
I always looked for her. I dreamed she would arrive and someone who understood me and knew me and was fucked up to could be around. She surely wised up and hated her family becuase of the life she had to live. They sold her to men for crack starting at like 11. Fuck, that was a new weird feeling that felt like a werewolve hit my brain with a cinderbrick. I heard an argry hurl scream at me shit twitching fuck.
Ok that passed. Im blank again. Im sorry but here is the end of this story at the beginning. We always End at the Beginning and end in the beginning.
This was the night I arrived home after the cold beatings, I left the ER and had to go get marco of course. While I was getting investigators flashing cameras measuring my wounds in the hospital Marco was fucking a hook up. He came out to play concern in the car while Megan dropped us off at the airport. He had no money so I had to hustle up one last time, I couldnt bear to leave him he acted like a child to me that I was responsible for.
Anyway here's the stories and you can see where I am now at in this journey to have you at my temple doors......
This was me in my aunts front yard where I was allowed to stay temporarily becuase my mom lived there and she was the only person who could get me a place to sleep
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvwEEWfPXGY
This was the next morning when the other stations came so the city could gawk at this fuckage Im now in the middle of its unfolding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfMYDlHq8sI
That was the End of the old me. That was my initiation that I didn't come to realize for several years. I was so blown by how much I could take, no, how much I was given by the world around me. Why was my life so fucked!!!?!?!?!
You can see the death in my eyes that day. I was at the end, where I had to be to begin!
The mermaids are sounding off now. I will close on this note. Welcome to my Temple of Hoodoo I am in service of some awesome all powerful spirits. I don't know why they didn't save me but I guess to get here. They speak to me now of doing great things now. Affecting lots of people. Raising the dead Jesus kind of powers.
I know ive seen it ive been hit with gods lightining and flung out of bed oh god the calling isnt for the young soul or the weak at all. I needed a broke brain maybe who knows.
Sorry spirits told me to close and now the second surrender of my fucked up self to you for my spirits to use will have a part two. At the time you will be with me at the doors to my temple. I assure you dear reader, your in the right place. You needed to be here and I pray I left you with suspense becuase I am here now the same one who lead you here! I know you deny that, everybody but me, no way he knows who I even am. Im a reader how could he?!?! I see you :) I love you:) Your Crazy Ipoh
Oh Joy finds me at the end of Part II, they are reading this now. Joy is here!!!!!! I want to share what I have held alone with someone so bad. Finally we can share the power of spirits and magic!!!!
Eko Hecate Einalia! Who Guarded the Child!
Eko Hecate Einalia! Who Screamed Justice at Every Blow She Saw From Her Cave!
Eko Hecate Einalia Who Brings Our Salvation!
Please listen to the songs if your wanna hear the mermaids I encountered during this journey to the End!!!
SIRENS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV4atJUnm64
SIRENS
(I shaped that like a dick if you look again haha the altars are actually CRAZY HAPPY later doo)
.......hoo me?
Dr. damn cant remember the doctors name now must have switched -Zac

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Summary:
The UN does not have enough manpower nor the space to put all the children who got separated during the evacuation of the Earth into human care, so they have to rely on the empathy of Venlil kind over the lost children. Theo Willians is one of such cases, but a family of Exterminators is the one who decides to foster him.
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Authors Note's Corner:
Here we have it! The third chapter and sheesh I wrote a LOT because I didn't know how to see my word count with my cellphone, but I decided it turned ou to be a good chapter, so I kept all the words. On another note, the tecnician I took my notebook to does not have the parts to fix it, so I'll need to find them myself (fuck me in particular I guess), so I might have some difficuty writting the next chater an dcan't promise a schedule, but I will update whenver I'm able to!
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy, and buckle up for an angsty ride for the next few chapters! And as always, any and every comment is appreciated!
​
This is a fanfiction based on The Nature of Predators by u/SpacePaladin15!
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Content Warning: Child abuse; Child endangerment; Sentients being treated and referred to as animals; Past Character Trauma; Descriptions of Exterminator Line of Work (involves animal abuse, endangerment, and cruelty)
PLEASE If you have trauma triggers on these warnings I would not recommend you to read this fic to avoid any non-necessary stress!
*If you have any triggers to this fic and decide to proceed I was told that encountering known stressors in a safe environment can be part of therapy but should be deliberate and with no surprises (don't force yourself to try and get better faster, it's not how therapy works)! Be safe out there and take care of yourself first!*
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\Portions of this memory transcript have been censored due to pertaining immensely personal memories correlated to the case and conduct of Transcript N. 756.980.88-5, as such, access to these memories have been made restricted by the Guardian.*
\*Those allowed to see the transcript by the Guardian, and those in a need to know basis to the best conduct of the case and conduct of Transcript N. 756.980.88-5, can utilize the following link to input the necessary password and access the restricted document.* Turning these files to the public eye will have severe repercussions.
[Theo Willians Personal Files]
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Word Count: ~5.000
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Memory transcription subject: Theo, evacuated child 11.136-5
Date [standardized human time]: October 11, 2136
when I woke up the car had slowed down considerably. Dad was always curious about how I always managed to wake up just in time to see our house coming into view, so when I opened my eyes I half expected to see the green house with its brown porch and the many trees on the backyard approaching the car.
I was instead greeted by the vision of a really big light blue house, which had a bubbly-like outside, rounded windows and some white lines and details around. There seemed to be a forest behind it, but all the trees were evenly spaced, and I could see for miles inside of it.
I stirred and moved my head around to realize almost immediately I was not in my Dad’s car... I am not even on Earth to be honest.
“Are you awake?” Venmett asked from the driver’s seat. When I entered the car I had to sit behind the passenger's seat, so I turned my head softly to have him in my field of vision.
“Yeahhh~” I said, a yawn taking over my mouth and making me close my eyes in tiredness, a little bit of water gathering on them with the big yawn.
“Well, we are almost there, so get your things ready” Venmett replied, I moved around to make sure my backpack and duffle bag were close at hand.
Once the car stopped Vryka immediately left without a word and went straight to the front door of the house; one of her eyes seemed to always be glued at me. Venmett seemed to try and say something to her with his tail ebfore she left the car, but she completely ignored him and closed the car door, causing his tail to drop down slightly. I noticed for the first time he seemed to have a big scar on it, hidden under his gray wool that was so trimmed down I managed to see a portion of his pinkish skin below, alongisde the witish scar.
I wanted to ask about it, but remembering what happened right before I drifted off to sleep made me second guess myself, and I decided to keep quiet. Dad also said people can be uncomfortable talking about their scars, so I can’t go around asking about them whenever I see one.
Dad had seemed to be very flustered that time in the city center when I asked the big bald man about the big round scars on his sholder. He had a lot of cool tatoos as well. Dad got red on the face and apologized so much the big bald guy laughed and sai it was fine, but he never told me how he got the scar.
Venmett got out of the car, making me come back from memory lane. He also was keeping one eye on me. I decided to get out of the car with the backpack in my back, and pulled the heavy duffle bag towards me once out of the alien vehicle. The duffle bag slowly but surely came closer to me with each tug, but I could feel my arms burning up. It felt like the bag was more than double my weight!
My arms finally failed me when the bag slid off the car seat, resulting on it falling to the floor with a very heavy thud. Venmett stared at me, but he clearly had no intention to come closer.
The UN teacher had taught us that the gravity on Venlil prime was heavier, warning us how we need to be careful with heavy stuff, and even more careful if we were to try and climb somewhere, because falling in here can break our bones way more easily than back on earth. She said a friend of hers broke her foot on the first week after arriving in the planet when she lost her footing on the first step of the UN staircase.
I looked at my right arm, I had broken it once not so long ago and it took ages for the bone to get better. I do not want it to happen again.
I held my duffle bag from the straps once more and tried to lift it, making some noise from the attempt when I felt my arms wanting to fall over. I managed to give about three steps towards the house, the bag practically being dragged by me, before the blue UN bag fell with a heavy thud on the ground. I gasped air quickly from the effort and felt sweat starting to build over my skin. The sun was not helping me at all.
Venmett kept staring at me strangely from the sidewalk that led to the front door. Some paces further up.
“Sorry Venmentt, can you help me? My arms can’t lift it. It’s way too heavy for me” I finally decided to ask for help. I didn’t want to because of the way he keeps looking at me with a single eye, but I can’t do it alone. It is impossible.
Dad said to also always call for help when needed, that calling for help was not something to be ashamed about. I pouted a little under the mask with the memory, he always told me that, but he always refused to ask for help.
The gray venlil’s tail made some movement behind him as if in thought, before stirring and flicking with his ears. He came closer and I took a step back to give him some room when he stopped a foot from me. He was the one who took the bag to the car before, so I am sure he can manage to take it inside.
When I was a foot away from the bag he got closer and bent to gather the heavy bag, heaving it up as if it was nothing, and moving towards the house. My eyes grew wide, he might be as strong as dad!
“Let’s just get inside” he said with a small whistle, his tail rigid behind him. I followed him without a word.
When we reached the door another Venlil I didn’t know appeared, that Venlil was a bit shorter than Venmett, but taller than me. This Venlil was also gray, but they had specks of white over their chest and shoulders, there was also a white spot near their nose and they had a white purse on them.
That new Venlil tail was moving as if going to say hello to Venmett, but as soon as they saw me they went rigid, their ears pressed backwards and they took a step back, tehir hands gripping the white purse very tighly. The caramel eyes seemed to be switching between me and Venmett. Tails started to move fastly, and before I knew it, this Venlil was tapping their foot down, like when Vryka was talking to Chalsi back at the UN.
Vryka did this when she seemed displeased… Is this the same?
The Venlil huffed and got out of the doorway, giving me a wide berth and even walking backwards into the street when I started to slightly turn to look at them leaving without even sayong a word to me or Venmett. Well, I gues they did talk with Venmett, but I couldn't understand a thing.
“Follow me” Venmett instructed with some tiredness in his voice after a few seconds and I did as such, blinking in confusion. The other Venil was already very far down the street, but even as I followed Venmett inside I felt their eyes glued on my back.
What had just happened?
Entering the doorway made me instantly be greeted by the heaven that was the air conditioning, making me remember just how hot it was outside. Sweat had already started to appear over my body even in the short distance it was to walk from the driveway to the front door. Venlil gravity is not something to scoff at.
Once inside the house something immediately caught my attention at the corner of my eye to the right. Because I was sure Venmett could still see me I decided to simply move my eyes to where I thought I saw something, my vision instantly going to the top of a staircase to my right on the inverted “T” hallway we had entered from the front door.
On top of the stairs there was nothing, so maybe it was Vryka who went upstairs? I could only guess when I had to keep moving to follow Venmett, he had considerably slowed down his pace, but was still taking the duffle bag with him.
To my left from the front door I also noticed an open archway in the wall which led to a big ass living room that had a huge television with very round corners, and two huge brown couches that seemd to be very bubbly and soft. Venlil really seems to also like bubbly themes and corners, because the archway also had no hard lines.
Keeping my pace I followed the gray Venlil further inside the house, we pass by two doors, one to the right under the staircase, and another one a little further down the hallway to the left, before we reached another open room behind another archway at the end of the corridor.
The dinig room in there had a big dining table inside. There was even a hole in the wall making something that looked to be a fireplace, but with a little pond inside, there were a few water plants but no fish, and seems to have humid air filtering on the room to keep it even cooler, because I could see the little streams of condesed air leaving the hole.
Following the room to the right, we arrived at another archway that led to a kitchen. The kitchen itself was an open concept with no left wall, and I could even see a very small electric stovetop there, and a really big sink with some strange nobs. Vryka was inside this room. I didn’t notice when, so maybe when I was sleeping, she had taken the black purse Venmett had when they were at the UN in her arms.
To the left of the entry to the kicthen, there was another small hallway and a very big window that let you see outside, with ample vision towards the back garden and forest. There was a small white fence separating the house backyard from that very open forest. Maybe it is a park? Like those national parks I would visit with dad where they were very cautious of where every single three had to be planted?
When I was looking outside, my head was turned to the big windows, but I saw with the corner of my eyes that Vryka removed something big from the black purse, and quickly threw it in the trash bin. She was so quick with it I was unable to see what.
“You room is just this way” Vemett said when he realized I had stopped following him to look outside.
“Those trees out there, is it a park or a forest?” I gathered the courage to ask. Last time I asked something they got a bit angry, so I was anxious to ask something else. Dad did warn me once that not everyone would always be as patient as him with all my questions, but he also said that was good, that I always wanted to think by myself and ask stuff. He said that some grownups didin't like to answer questions as much as him, so I shouldn't keep bothering them if they didn't like my questions and ask him instead.
Both Venlil seemed to have frozen in place.
“Why do you want to know?” Vryka asked, one of her blue eyes intensely staring me down, Venmett also had stopped, the duffle bag now forgotten on the floor because he was looking at me, his tail flickering around.
I kept staring outside, deciding not to turn my head to fully look at them. I felt like it was the question on the car all over again, as if I was being accused of stealing cookies from the cookie jar and all that was left was for me to confess my crime. But I haven't stolen any cookies!
Yet!
“Well. There are a lot of trees, so I think it is a forest. But the trees are all separate and I can see really far, and because of it, it also looks like a forest reserve” I said, I rubbed my hands together, it was a little too cool inside the house, and I felt my fingers were pretty cold by now.
“Theo, what does either of these words mean to you?” Venmett finally asked, making me feel like Vryka was looking towards him now.
“Huh? Which words?” I questioned, unsure which words he wanted to know.
Teacher had said some of the words on the translator might still not be correct and need adjusting, especially if our mother language was not one of the core five languages on Earth, which included Mandarin, English, Russian, Arabic and Portuguese.
Vryka seems to say something to Venmett with her tail, who answers and then decides to say “You know what, don’t worry about it. Let’s go down to your room”
After saying that he proceed to take the duffle bag from the floor, and kept walking to a open door right next to the big windows, the door seemed to lead to a closet, but then Venmett turned right and started going down?
I noticed that there was actually a staircase there, leading to a… Basement… I shuddered slightly, I never liked the basement back home, it was always dark, the lamp almost never working right, and it stunk of oil and metal. There was also all kinds of machinery that made all sorts of crazy sounds.
It was the stuff of nightmares!
By the time Venmett had almost reached the floor below my legs decided to be stuck in place, impeding me to give any step further.
I don’t want to live down there.
“Why are you waiting?” Venmett asked, he seemed to be paying very close attention to me even with all the distance between us.
“I don’t like basements…” I answered, trembling slightly, which seemed to make Venmett’s tail freeze in place.
He turned to have a single yellow eye facing me, his tail moving as if saying something, but I wasn’t sure.
“Just come down here already” he said after a few seconds with some impatience in his voice. He then turned and entered what I assumed to be the doorway to the basement, disappearing from view.
I looked downstairs again, it didn’t seem to be that dark under there? Maybe there is a window or something? Gathering some courage I breathed deep in and out before giving my first step down, just like dad had taught me whenever I felt scared of the big bad monster under my bed.
It’s not real. It’s not real.
I walked downstairs, repeating to myself I was going to find a normal bedroom right after the door. There is no basment monsters. They are not real.
When I arrived at the last step I noticed my eyes were sealed shut, so I opened them slowly and, to my surprise, it was actually a big bedroom, but it was... Nice!
Venmett was staring at me from the other side of the room, but my eyes simply skimmed over him to look at a big bed with blue sheets to my right, on the left there was a small brown coffee table and a blue couch, near it there were some cabinets to store stuff and a few black metal shelf on the same wall of the door for more storage room.
I couldn’t contain myself and let my head wander as I examined everything, the walls were painted white, and the floor was actual carpet, speaking me feel like I should remove my shoes before going in to not get it dirty. There was also a small window on the top corner of the left wall furthest from me and the entrance, but it let ample light to reach the room.
Venmett came slowly towards me, always keeping at arm's length, his tail strangely rigid behind him after he left the duffle bag on the floor at the far end of the room. I noticed the bag was near another door in the bedroom that was basically opposite from the one I was standing in. The basement also seemed to be under the house, because both doors were very close to the left wall, leaving only a foot of space to the left if I could guess. To the right though, the room was very spacious!
“Well Theo, you should explore your new den right? So I’ll let you to it if you can just let me go through the door. I do not want to dispute it or anything” Venmett spoke camly, his last phrase making me a little confused, but I decided to just do what he asked and move further inside, without going right up to him.
He took a few steps back, before noticing I was going to the bed to get my heavy back pack out of my back. When I turned around to ask what was behind the other door he had already vanished upstairs.
Shrugging I looked around again, this is way bigger than my room back on Earth, so it is very nice.
Deciding to unpack my backpack first I unzipped it and searched for my things, the first object I took out was my tablet, which Dad had given to me on my last birthday when I got really good grades in school…
I blinked, what about school? It’s not like I managed to finish this semester with Dad getting me out of Earth and- Oh no, getting the tablet screen on I saw the date.
Oh this is bad. This is very bad.
I missed Miss Anna’s homework, that math teacher is the devil incarnate, I swear!
Unlocking my tablet I opened the school’s app just to notice I had no internet. Duh, I struck my own forehead. I forgot to ask for the WiFi password. Sighting in exasperating I decided to leave this task for later, it’s not like Miss Anna is going to give me a pass for losing the deadline. She didn’t accept it last time when I submitted it two seconds after the deadline, so she definitely won’t accept it now.
Locking the tablet and leaving it in the nightstand I started to remove other things. I had a small and simple tiger plushie called Mister T that I took out and put neatly seated on the bed. After him came my cellphone, which was dead. Shucks. I opened the front pocket of my backpack and saw I only had the external battery for my tablet, and a few cables which none of them was the right one for the cellphone. And of course it wouldm't be here because I always left it on the nightstand in my room back on Earth.
I will also need to ask if they have any cables I could use for the cellphone then.
Lowering my shoulder I resigned myself to not having my cell phone for a while and started removing my pencil case and my arts and crafts book alongside the no-lines notebook for drawing. I also had my Math, Geography and Science books, those were the ones left from my last day in school before coming here.
The books had mostly images and QR-codes that we could scan with our tablets or cellphones to follow what the teacher was reading on our devices. few pages had some exercices to do by hand in the classroom, to make us actually use some pen and paper once in a while.
There was also a small bag of chips I had forgotten to eat inside the backpack. I took it out and left it on top of the bed.
There wasn’t enough time to get a lot of stuff from my room when Dad came looking at me with fear plastered on his face. He didn’t explain fully to me what was going on, just to throw clothes in my bag, and that we were leaving, before running downstairs and getting a backpack of his own.
By the time he was back I had managed to get only get a few things, including my favorite plushie, my tablet, a few shirts and pants. I wanted to get more stuff, but he came crashing into my room and grabbing me by my armpits before gunning it straight for the car.
On the way to the spaceport on the city I saw a lot of people screaming, fighting, and even running, but I couldn’t understand anything, and Dad just told me to hang on tight and that he was going to get me safe no matter what.
Shaking my head from the memories I decided to put the clothes I had on the metal shelf and went to see what was on the duffle bag, but then the door caught my attention and, with a last look towards the door that lead to the stairs, I decided to see what was behind it.
Opening the door slowly to not make too much noise, I saw a big bathroom! I had my own bathroom in my own room, this is so cool! Oh Malvin will be so jeaoulus when I tell him this! I searched from my cellphone in my pocket and realized it was not there, just to remmeber I left it on the bed, with no battery...
I wonder how Malvin is right now. Did he also come to this planet? I saw him last also during school, and I didin't manage to send him any text with all the chaos before arriving at the space port. I hope he is well by himself.
A heavy thud made my head whip back towards the staircase, my door was still open, so I decided to go closer and I noticed the upstairs door was now shut. Feeling dread washing over my body I sneakily walked up the stairs, as quiet as a mice, and tried to hear for anything.
“What do you mean!?” Someone hissed from behind the door, the voice was familiar enough, but to me all Venlil voices were very similar, so I only knew it was either Vryka or Venmett.
“That’s a predator! How do you think it is going to go down if it finds our children with no one nearby” Someone answered angrily. I also knew the other voice, but couldn’t know who it was for certain. “It has predator instincts even if it is to fight for dominance or whatever it does with the other cubs on its litter. We can’t possibly let it roam free”
I tilted my head in confusion. Predator? Did they find a baby fossa or something in their backyard? Maybe the Venlil equivalent to it?
“This was your idea” The other voice retorted.
“My idea!? Do you have Predator Disease now? Why would I ever want that in here? Are you growing senile?” They hissed back, very angrily.
“Don’t get me started-“ I decided to walk back downstairs.
“You don’t want to tell him? Are you serious? Are you insane to want to leave him in the dark about this?” My father’s stern voice echoed in my mind.
“You are the madman who wants to put our problems in front of him. This concerns me and you alone, and I don’t want him to know it. That is final” Mother’s response promptly followed Dad’s questions.
Memories of overhearing his and mom’s late night arguments flooded me as I slowly made my way to the duffle bag. I never liked hearing them argue like that, and hearing Venmett and Vryka arguing about something made me remember those nights where I was way too young to even understand why mom and dad were arguing.
They fought a lot before mom went away. I held back the tears, blinking to make them go away. She didn’t even let me say goodbye to her.
And I hate her for it.
Getting close to the duffle bag I decided to open it, finding a lot of UN blue clothes made of that strange fabric I didn’t like, two bottles of shampoo and one of conditioner, and finally two bars of soap. There was also a replacement mask, a pair of sunglasses and a reusable tissue mask too if I ever need it.
Opening the containers of body wash products I was glad to discover they smell really good, and then I suddenly got very aware of my dirty clothes and sweaty body. Taking into account the hour and date my tablet showed me, I have been using these same UN clothes now for longer than half a day, and should probably take a shower soon. I took a sniff at my arm pits and instantly regretted it. I should take a bath right now...
Gathering a fresh change of clothes; the ones I brought with me, one vial of shampoo and the soap bar, I entered my bathroom and closed the door behind me-
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-It took me a while to figure out the hot shower from the cold one, and then a little bit more to finally get the water in a good temperature, but after the shower I felt very refreshed.
I looked at the pile of dirty clothes on the floor. Does Venmett or Vryka know how to wash clothes? Dad hasn’t taught me how to use the washing machine yet because he said I am too young to do it, so I have no idea how to clean them.
I got the clothes and opened the door, walking inside my room, just to lightly stumble into something tiny. Looking down and behind the pile of clothes in my hands I saw a very tiny Venlil, their blue eyes were huge, and their wool was completely white.
“Oh, hello there” I said, looking at the Venlil kid.
The kid tilted their head, their floppy ears following the movement, making me feel like this was the most adorable thing I have ever seen. I then noticed their tail moving around, like when the Venlil say hello, and they stretched to try and see behind me.
Noticing the kid might be trying to find a tail, I turned slightly around. “Sorry, I don’t have a tail like you guys, but I think your tails are really cool!” I said, the kid's eyes grew when they saw my back with no tail, before looking back at their own tail. The tip of the kids tail was black, and looking closer they did seem to have some gray specks on their wool here and there.
“I Suika” The kid said, pointing to herself, and then pointing at me “You are?” She asked.
“My name is Theo, nice to meet you Suika” I answered, but the kids eyes narrowed as if confused, and her tail swished behind her.
“Suika, Venlil” She said again, pointing to herself, before pointing at me.
I blinked, can’t she understand me? Then I remembered! There were some babies and very young kids in the UN building, and they didn’t recive any translators because they were too young.
In my case, I wasn’t allowed to do the surgery to have a permanent transplant, because I am too young to have brain surgery and the UN was very against getting kids under 18 to do it, so I was given an external translator, while the youngest kids didn't even receive even an external one, they where gathered to be prioritized into care by other humans.
If I’m not wrong all kids under 7 were taken to the human shelters from what one of the older kids was talking with another one. The kid was very angry because their sister was separated from them, the UN had said they were not big enough to take care of their sibling alone.
Maybe Suika is like those little kids, she doesn’t have a translator yet because she is too young.
Suika poked at my mouth and pulled my lip, making me take a step back. I then grew very much aware that I wasn’t using my mask, which was atop the pile of clothes left on the floor when I saw the tiny Venlil. Oh no.
I blinked and looked at Suika. She was not scared, she actually seemed like she was curious about me, her tail lashing around her as if in impatience, and I saw what I could only describe as the pose of an angry toddler staring at me.
I finally decided to point to myself “Theo” I said, before pointing at her “Suika”, and pointing back at me to repeat my name.
Suika’s eyes grew large and she whistle laughed, her tail wagging behind her in excitement.
“Suika Venlil. What Theo?” She finally questioned when her happiness at being understood died down.
“Theo human” I said. Suika’s tail moved as if in understanding.
“Hu- HyuimAnu” She said, attempting to make the same sound as me, and I realized she probably couldn’t repeat the sound, because she had no translator, and I didn’t know the translation to human on the Venlil language.
I would need to ask either Vryka or Venmett later how to say human in their language. Maybe I could learn a little bit of their language while at it!
Suika decided to poke at my lips again, pulling it. Her tiny claws were hurting a bit, so I tried to hold her wrist to remove the tiny pawns from the sensitive skin on my face. She was laught whistling again at this point.
“GET AWAY FROM HER PREDATOR” I heard a scream and was suddenly thrown to the floor with a huff by something heavy hitting my side.
I gasped from the force of the impact and looked up to see a furious Vryka holding a now screaming Suika in her arms. “You tainted speh! You wanted to eat my kid! Monster!” She screamed before running to the door and closing it behind her, I heard something clicking on it and footsteps hurrying upstairs, where I heard some more screaming.
When I got up my heart was beating a thousand times per seconds. I didn’t understand anything she had just said, but I felt like I was in really deep trouble now. Running to the door to try and open it, but it wouldn't budge.
I was actually locked in here, in this basement.
I felt like my ears were ringing. Why did she say I would try to eat the little kid? It does not make any sense? Teacher had said Venlil are afraid of us, but to this extent? What have other humans done for this to have happened? Or maybe they just feel like I’m an alien invader? Like those old horror movies Dad sometimes watched thinking I wasn’t seeing him?
I shuddered remembering some of the more gruesome scenes, I hated those movies so much, but dad always started watching them late at night when he thought I was sleeping and me being my dumb ass dared myself to watch it as well whenver I say it. Oftentimes ending with me making a late night visit to my dad's room because I couldn’t sleep in fear of the monsters.
shaking my head to clear the memories I tried to open the door again. “Wait, what just happened? I’m sure you have understood something wrong” I said, but I only heard a lot of commotion upstairs.
There were even more people than just Venmett and Vryka, but it seemed like everyone was screaming at each other, and from this distance I couldn’t make out what was being talked about.
I quickly grew tired of trying to speak over the locked door and commotion. It seemed like they wouldn't even hear me, so I decided to slump my shoulders and go sit on my bed, not before I took my mask from the pile on the floor and put it on. I am sure if I had been using the mask nothing of this would have happened. I was really dumb to keep it off when not asked to...
Surely someone is going to come down here soon to try and hear from me what happened. When me and Mathew fought at school the teachers would always hear both sides before punishing someone. I am sure the Venlil will do the same, adults always try to hear both sides first.
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Pomni: An insecure woman with a lot of anxiety. Her fear in general may imply that she has some past traumas. Based on that scene next to Kaufmo's door, when Jax swings his arm and she flinches, I think that she was a victim of physical abuse in the past, maybe in her childhood? Later? We see her starting to have a panic attack before assuming that it was a dream. I think she have panic attacks quite often when things get rough, and I'm pretty sure she'll get some in future episodes.
She's not a social person and don't like physical touch, exceptionally from strangers. She's a lone wolf, not that she appreciates her own company that much, she just likes not having anyone around to deal with, and tends to be a little selfish, not wanting to sacrifice anything for the sake of another person. In Ep. 1 she didn't show much interest in anyone, not even on Ragatha, who was nice to her. She ditched her the first time with Kaufmo, which is understandable because she was scared, her hand getting glitched and all, but after Kaufmo fell and started running after a gloink, she wasn't even going back to see how Ragatha was, she went running to the other way, but stopped, because she felt guilty to leave someone like that, when that person tried to be kind to her. But then she ditched the doll the second time, because even though she promised to get Caine's help, there was priority. The exit. Her security. Herself. The door was right in front of her and Kaufmo was coming. I'm pretty sure that even though her reasons to enter the exit door were rational, she recognizes that she acted selfish, because at the final scenes she looked like she completely forgot about Ragatha before she saw her crawling, then was surprised and looked the other way. And was more interested in her hand getting back to normal than Ragatha. Her discomfort and ashamed gaze when Ragatha wasn't talking or looking to her anymore shows that she recognizes that she acted selfish and felt guilt.
Due to her being over self concious and insecure she tends to be clumsy, breaking objects acidentally, messing things up and cooking pretty badly (confirmed by Gooseworx, but I think despite her clumsiness it's also lack of experience in kitchen, for some specific reason!). I feel that she has been fired from a lot of jobs.
Her insecurities, fear, anxiety etc., + her Jester appearance may imply that she was a victim of bully. People pointed, made fun, abused, ridiculized her in public, called her things like pathetic, useless etc., which made her avoid people and feel that she's a clown to others. Some people said that jesters and clowns are different, that the jester makes jokes about others, but we don't see Pomni doing any of that, so I think she's a jester with clown characteristics? Though maybe she is linked to Kinger in some way. If they really are workers in C&A, I think she's that clumsy worker that others make fun and take advantage of, and spits coffee on the papers quite often.
As a victim of abuse I'm pretty sure she's going to have problems with Jax. She's a nice target for him, because not only she's a scaredy cat, she looks a bit naive too. She may or may not become Ragatha's best friend. And as the protagonist she's going to help everyone in her way.
Ragatha: A mature, sweet and over optimistic woman that likes to take care of others. She tends to bottle her own emotions, because it's her way to deal with problems and reassure everyone. She thinks that way of thinking is the best thing, but sometimes that makes everything worse. Since she's 30, she may have kids already, which kinda connects to her in that scene in the corridor when she says stuff like "you wonder what the point of anything is and why are you even alive". Her whole purpose in life is her children, but she can't remember it. She unconsciously takes care of everyone in the circus because of that. (If she's not a mother, maybe she's a big sister in a big family, and took care of everyone). Since from the actual group she's the second after Kinger, she tried to take care of a lot of people that came after her. And after bottling so much stress and frustrations she's on the edge of abstraction.
Her body being a Ragdoll is because she is a literal pushover. She thinks about other's first, like when she was glitching she managed to apologize to Pomni for her horrible first day in the circus. Pomni even got surprised and confused. This isn't normal. She's always there to help, but when it's her who needs help, people don't make any effort. Some people, like Zooble, treat her badly because they can't stand her positivity when everyone's trapped in the circus hell (I think it was Zooble who told her to shut up in Gooseworx's drawings, when Ragatha asked if everyone slept well). At first she tried to get friendly to Zooble but they shooed her away. She feels a little sad and offended when treated badly, but ignores it and bounces back to being joyful. Sometimes she pretends, we see that when she talks to Kaufmo about when he called her out for fake laughing at his jokes. She has good intentions, but that kind of thing may had put herself in a not very trustful spot to others's eyes.
She has a blind eye in real life, and her dress with patches hints that she's poor. Her blind eye may have been caused by an abusive husband, who was also a terrible father to the kids (option B: an abusive parent who beated her and her siblings?). Before she entered the circus, she may have been a single mother trying to give everything she could for her kids, trying to be very strong for their sake. In C&A maybe she worked as a cleaner, knew little about technology, and was constantly working extra hours, sometimes doing other's work. Tired and underpaid, she still managed to brush everything off and stay happy and joyful.
It's interesting that she's the opposite of Pomni. The jester girl is scared of everything and a bit selfish, while she tries to be reassuring and ignoring problems, and care of others, and is more mature. If they get to be friends they'll complement each other for the best.
Jax: A young man who used to live in a corn farm and hates corn. I theorize that his father (or other parent or boss) made him work a lot,.
His circus body is a tall purple Rabbit. He liked bunnies and rabbits, but these animals are plagues in plantations. Maybe he had a purple rabbit plushie from his early ears that he loved a lot, or secretly had a pet rabbit which he needed to hide from everyone.
About him being a troubled individual:
A: He was forced to work since he was a little kid, sometimes to exhaustion. Maybe he was sold to a farm owner to work all day with other children and/or adults. He was beated and treated really badly when was too fatigued to continue. He hated the corn farm but was forced to spend a lot of his years in there, until someday he ran away to a city. He now hates everything related to corn.
B: Something really terrible happened inside the corn plantations that traumatized him forever. That terrible thing may or may not had happen more than 1 time, and now he hates everything related to corn.
C: ???. I'm really curious about what his canon problem is.
After he started his city life he learned quite a lot of pc technology, and got to work in C&A. He slack off and pushed his work to others, but was useful so he was safe. With his knowlege he managed to get some perks for himself in the circus, like the room keys, and avoid umconfortable situations.
His way of coping with his troubled mind is having fun, not caring with anything, slacking off and messing with others. He likes to bully everyone, but tends to be stressed and aggressive with others when provocated. He was going nuts in the circus at first, but after acceptance he preferred to take the best of it, having his fun, and just don't want to get bored of it. At least he doesn't have to work. He just doesn't care about leaving anymore.
Some people theorize that he is a jerk to others for their sake, to make them sane, of for some plot directed motive. But based on every Gooseworx's posts in tumblr about him, I think he's a jerk and a bully not because he wants to help anyone, but because he just turned in that jerk he and he knows it. I guess he even chose his own name in the circus to ressemble "jackass". Still based on Gooseworx's posts and the Ep. 1, I feel that he tends make others hate him with on purpose, for some reason. On the outside he looks confident and happy while messing with everyone, but there's something really off about him when you consider Gooseworx's posts. Maybe he didn't even want to be that way, and when he's alone he starts to loathe himself.
No one likes him, not even Ragatha (even though she hides it). Before Pomni arrives his favorite target was Gangle, who is fragile and easy to mess up with. His least favorite target is Zooble because they tend to get attack back. Because he appears enthusiastic about the circus activities, he's Caine's little favorite.
Gangle: An insecure woman with little self steem. She uses anime, manga and fiction in general to keep her mind distracted from realitly. She draws and creates stories, inserting herself as the protagonist, a lot of times making herself a Mary Sue with a great life. In real life, she likes to joke about things to hide her insecurities.
In the circus she's a Mask with laces because she tends to hide her true nature being funny and bubbly, to the point of being annoying. The Comedy Mask is fragile, but the Sad Mask is much more resistent, so a lot of times she's using that one. Jax likes to make her break the comedy mask just to ruin her joy. Maybe her body being made of laces is because she liked playing and dancing with laces in the past.
The real Gangle, the one that she hides under the masks is unknown. She has a lot of masks stored in her room and is very afraid of being seem without any. Maybe without any mask she's just that really fragile bunch of laces that could tear apart anytime.
She hates Jax for bullying her, and may have a nice relationship with Ragatha, since she reassures her and even tries to protect her from Jax when she can. She has a so-so relationship with the rest.
Zooble: Based on their form and personality, my theory is that they're from a rich family that always got everything they wanted. Their parents were pretty absent and just left them alone with their expensive toys. After adult they wanted to rebel their parents using drugs, got a whole lot of piercings, tatoos, modified their body in many ways, but never got satisfied with anything. They always feel that something is missing. In the circus they have a endless box of parts to change his body, like their endless box of toys and money. As in real life, no matter how they change their body, they're never happy.
They're spoiled, have a bad mouth, are pessimistic and impatient with others, getting annoyed pretty easily. But they've got a pretty good heart, just don't like showing that. They get very annoyed by Jax's jerkiness and Ragatha's toxic positivity, and gets along a little better with the rest. I think that they'll be friends with Pomni in the future.
When Pomni arrives Jax says that they'll need to redo the theme song and Zooble says that they're not going to do that again, so I guess Zooble was the newest before Pomni and just participed in the theme making once.
Kinger: As a lot of people theorized before, he's a pretty competent worker in C&A. He and his wife helped the circus project with programming and dealing with bugs. The project backfired and he got stuck with his wife in the circus because of the bugs (or other reason), and they got their King and Queen bodies, like in a chess game. They've tried to deal with bugs to try to fix the way to leave (maybe they had to create one from zero since there was none, but it still had its bugs), but his wife couldn't deal with everything for much time and got abstracted, and he got nuts after that, remembering the bugs as his "insect collection".
He gets along well with others. His mind floats from useful knowlege to random craziness. He's the key to solve everything.
Kaufmo: People didn't take him seriously. He tried to cheer everyone up making good jokes, because he really wanted to be a circus star, a real clown. But was bullied by Jax, bad mouthed by Zooble and Ragatha lied to him etc. He felt like an outsider, that's why he wanted to leave.
Someday he found a real door to leave but Caine found out and got in his way, ruining everything, revealing that he won't let anyone leave. That's why he drew Caine in that way in his room.
Caine: I theorize that Caine is lying about some things. He has eyes everywhere, and he knew about Kaufmo abstracting but waited for the others to find out to do something and then acted like he didn't know and no one told him, even thought he saw Pomni looking for him. Pomni could feel he was hiding something. He wants to manipulate everyone, even Bubble and the npcs, in a way that keeps every human trapped with no hopes of leaving, for some bigger motive. He may be obeying others from someone or something above him, even though he likes the people in his AI way.
About the exit door I don't know if he really wanted to make them happy inside the circus, or if he made a false one on purpose, just to ruin any hope left. When he talked about making because they wanted it so bad, he looked like he was trying to fool everyone. Perhaps that door could be real and was the one that Kaufmo saw, but Caine messed it up. Maybe there was some kind of passage/bridge to go throught the Void safely.
Bubble: Caine's quirky sidekick/pet that he underestimates, but Bubble's more smart than he looks. He may be hiding something really important.

Pomni: An insecure woman with a lot of anxiety. Her fear in general may imply that she has some past traumas. Based on that scene next to Kaufmo's door, when Jax swings his arm and she flinches, I think that she was a victim of physical abuse in the past, maybe in her childhood? Later? We see her starting to have a panic attack before assuming that it was a dream. I think she have panic attacks quite often when things get rough, and I'm pretty sure she'll get some in future episodes.
She's not a social person and don't like physical touch, exceptionally from strangers. She's a lone wolf, not that she appreciates her own company that much, she just likes not having anyone around to deal with, and tends to be a little selfish, not wanting to sacrifice anything for the sake of another person. In Ep. 1 she didn't show much interest in anyone, not even on Ragatha, who was nice to her. She ditched her the first time with Kaufmo, which is understandable because she was scared, her hand getting glitched and all, but after Kaufmo fell and started running after a gloink, she wasn't even going back to see how Ragatha was, she went running to the other way, but stopped, because she felt guilty to leave someone like that, when that person tried to be kind to her. But then she ditched the doll the second time, because even though she promised to get Caine's help, there was priority. The exit. Her security. Herself. The door was right in front of her and Kaufmo was coming. I'm pretty sure that even though her reasons to enter the exit door were rational, she recognizes that she acted selfish, because at the final scenes she looked like she completely forgot about Ragatha before she saw her crawling, then was surprised and looked the other way. And was more interested in her hand getting back to normal than Ragatha. Her discomfort and ashamed gaze when Ragatha wasn't talking or looking to her anymore shows that she recognizes that she acted selfish and felt guilt.
Due to her being over self concious and insecure she tends to be clumsy, breaking objects acidentally, messing things up and cooking pretty badly (confirmed by Gooseworx, but I think despite her clumsiness it's also lack of experience in kitchen, for some specific reason!). I feel that she has been fired from a lot of jobs.
Her insecurities, fear, anxiety etc., + her Jester appearance may imply that she was a victim of bully. People pointed, made fun, abused, ridiculized her in public, called her things like pathetic, useless etc., which made her avoid people and feel that she's a clown to others. Some people said that jesters and clowns are different, that the jester makes jokes about others, but we don't see Pomni doing any of that, so I think she's a jester with clown characteristics? Though maybe she is linked to Kinger in some way. If they really are workers in C&A, I think she's that clumsy worker that others make fun and take advantage of, and spits coffee on the papers quite often.
As a victim of abuse I'm pretty sure she's going to have problems with Jax. She's a nice target for him, because not only she's a scaredy cat, she looks a bit naive too. She may or may not become Ragatha's best friend. And as the protagonist she's going to help everyone in her way.
​
Ragatha: A mature, sweet and over optimistic woman that likes to take care of others. She tends to bottle her own emotions, because it's her way to deal with problems and reassure everyone. She thinks that way of thinking is the best thing, but sometimes that makes everything worse. Since she's 30, she may have kids already, which kinda connects to her in that scene in the corridor when she says stuff like "you wonder what the point of anything is and why are you even alive". Her whole purpose in life is her children, but she can't remember it. She unconsciously takes care of everyone in the circus because of that. (If she's not a mother, maybe she's a big sister in a big family, and took care of everyone). Since from the actual group she's the second after Kinger, she tried to take care of a lot of people that came after her. And after bottling so much stress and frustrations she's on the edge of abstraction.
Her body being a Ragdoll is because she is a literal pushover. She thinks about other's first, like when she was glitching she managed to apologize to Pomni for her horrible first day in the circus. Pomni even got surprised and confused. This isn't normal. She's always there to help, but when it's her who needs help, people don't make any effort. Some people, like Zooble, treat her badly because they can't stand her positivity when everyone's trapped in the circus hell (I think it was Zooble who told her to shut up in Gooseworx's drawings, when Ragatha asked if everyone slept well). At first she tried to get friendly to Zooble but they shooed her away. She feels a little sad and offended when treated badly, but ignores it and bounces back to being joyful. Sometimes she pretends, we see that when she talks to Kaufmo about when he called her out for fake laughing at his jokes. She has good intentions, but that kind of thing may had put herself in a not very trustful spot to others's eyes.
She has a blind eye in real life, and her dress with patches hints that she's poor. Her blind eye may have been caused by an abusive husband, who was also a terrible father to the kids (option B: an abusive parent who beated her and her siblings?). Before she entered the circus, she may have been a single mother trying to give everything she could for her kids, trying to be very strong for their sake. In C&A maybe she worked as a cleaner, knew little about technology, and was constantly working extra hours, sometimes doing other's work. Tired and underpaid, she still managed to brush everything off and stay happy and joyful.
It's interesting that she's the opposite of Pomni. The jester girl is scared of everything and a bit selfish, while she tries to be reassuring and ignoring problems, and care of others, and is more mature. If they get to be friends they'll complement each other for the best.
​
Jax: A young man who used to live in a corn farm and hates corn. I theorize that his father (or other parent or boss) made him work a lot,.
His circus body is a tall purple Rabbit. He liked bunnies and rabbits, but these animals are plagues in plantations. Maybe he had a purple rabbit plushie from his early ears that he loved a lot, or secretly had a pet rabbit which he needed to hide from everyone.
About him being a troubled individual:
A: He was forced to work since he was a little kid, sometimes to exhaustion. Maybe he was sold to a farm owner to work all day with other children and/or adults. He was beated and treated really badly when was too fatigued to continue. He hated the corn farm but was forced to spend a lot of his years in there, until someday he ran away to a city. He now hates everything related to corn.
B: Something really terrible happened inside the corn plantations that traumatized him forever. That terrible thing may or may not had happen more than 1 time, and now he hates everything related to corn.
C: ???. I'm really curious about what his canon problem is.
After he started his city life he learned quite a lot of pc technology, and got to work in C&A. He slack off and pushed his work to others, but was useful so he was safe. With his knowlege he managed to get some perks for himself in the circus, like the room keys, and avoid umconfortable situations.
His way of coping with his troubled mind is having fun, not caring with anything, slacking off and messing with others. He likes to bully everyone, but tends to be stressed and aggressive with others when provocated. He was going nuts in the circus at first, but after acceptance he preferred to take the best of it, having his fun, and just don't want to get bored of it. At least he doesn't have to work. He just doesn't care about leaving anymore.
Some people theorize that he is a jerk to others for their sake, to make them sane, of for some plot directed motive. But based on every Gooseworx's posts in tumblr about him, I think he's a jerk and a bully not because he wants to help anyone, but because he just turned in that jerk he and he knows it. I guess he even chose his own name in the circus to ressemble "jackass". Still based on Gooseworx's posts and the Ep. 1, I feel that he tends make others hate him with on purpose, for some reason. On the outside he looks confident and happy while messing with everyone, but there's something really off about him when you consider Gooseworx's posts. Maybe he didn't even want to be that way, and when he's alone he starts to loathe himself.
No one likes him, not even Ragatha (even though she hides it). Before Pomni arrives his favorite target was Gangle, who is fragile and easy to mess up with. His least favorite target is Zooble because they tend to get attack back. Because he appears enthusiastic about the circus activities, he's Caine's little favorite.
​
Gangle: An insecure woman with little self steem. She uses anime, manga and fiction in general to keep her mind distracted from realitly. She draws and creates stories, inserting herself as the protagonist, a lot of times making herself a Mary Sue with a great life. In real life, she likes to joke about things to hide her insecurities.
In the circus she's a Mask with laces because she tends to hide her true nature being funny and bubbly, to the point of being annoying. The Comedy Mask is fragile, but the Sad Mask is much more resistent, so a lot of times she's using that one. Jax likes to make her break the comedy mask just to ruin her joy. Maybe her body being made of laces is because she liked playing and dancing with laces in the past.
The real Gangle, the one that she hides under the masks is unknown. She has a lot of masks stored in her room and is very afraid of being seem without any. Maybe without any mask she's just that really fragile bunch of laces that could tear apart anytime.
She hates Jax for bullying her, and may have a nice relationship with Ragatha, since she reassures her and even tries to protect her from Jax when she can. She has a so-so relationship with the rest.
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Zooble: Based on their form and personality, my theory is that they're from a rich family that always got everything they wanted. Their parents were pretty absent and just left them alone with their expensive toys. After adult they wanted to rebel their parents using drugs, got a whole lot of piercings, tatoos, modified their body in many ways, but never got satisfied with anything. They always feel that something is missing. In the circus they have a endless box of parts to change his body, like their endless box of toys and money. As in real life, no matter how they change their body, they're never happy.
They're spoiled, have a bad mouth, are pessimistic and impatient with others, getting annoyed pretty easily. But they've got a pretty good heart, just don't like showing that. They get very annoyed by Jax's jerkiness and Ragatha's toxic positivity, and gets along a little better with the rest. I think that they'll be friends with Pomni in the future.
When Pomni arrives Jax says that they'll need to redo the theme song and Zooble says that they're not going to do that again, so I guess Zooble was the newest before Pomni and just participed in the theme making once.
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Kinger: As a lot of people theorized before, he's a pretty competent worker in C&A. He and his wife helped the circus project with programming and dealing with bugs. The project backfired and he got stuck with his wife in the circus because of the bugs (or other reason), and they got their King and Queen bodies, like in a chess game. They've tried to deal with bugs to try to fix the way to leave (maybe they had to create one from zero since there was none, but it still had its bugs), but his wife couldn't deal with everything for much time and got abstracted, and he got nuts after that, remembering the bugs as his "insect collection".
He gets along well with others. His mind floats from useful knowlege to random craziness. He's the key to solve everything.
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Kaufmo: People didn't take him seriously. He tried to cheer everyone up making good jokes, because he really wanted to be a circus star, a real clown. But was bullied by Jax, bad mouthed by Zooble and Ragatha lied to him etc. He felt like an outsider, that's why he wanted to leave.
Someday he found a real door to leave but Caine found out and got in his way, ruining everything, revealing that he won't let anyone leave. That's why he drew Caine in that way in his room.
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Caine: I theorize that Caine is lying about some things. He has eyes everywhere, and he knew about Kaufmo abstracting but waited for the others to find out to do something and then acted like he didn't know and no one told him, even thought he saw Pomni looking for him. Pomni could feel he was hiding something. He wants to manipulate everyone, even Bubble and the npcs, in a way that keeps every human trapped with no hopes of leaving, for some bigger motive. He may be obeying others from someone or something above him, even though he likes the people in his AI way.
About the exit door I don't know if he really wanted to make them happy inside the circus, or if he made a false one on purpose, just to ruin any hope left. When he talked about making because they wanted it so bad, he looked like he was trying to fool everyone. Perhaps that door could be real and was the one that Kaufmo saw, but Caine messed it up. Maybe there was some kind of passage/bridge to go throught the Void safely.
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Bubble: Caine's quirky sidekick/pet that he underestimates, but Bubble's more smart than he looks. He may be hiding something really important.
​

Sooo… it may sound fked up but hear me up sometimes when i encounter rude people cutting in lines staring at me in a bad way or anything rude you can imagine i get petty asf like my sole reason to live becomes to annoy or scare that person for a couple seconds or minutes. Now to start this i’ll have to say i do live in europe and people don’t even carry pocket knives so i do not have so much problems doing the shit i’m going to describe. I realized reacting violent and angry is kinda useless since it provokes the same reaction so i use a different method to scare rude people. How? I open my eyes as wide as i can, no expression and just stare blankly at their eyes for a couple seconds. There are a couple different reactions i’ve noticed and tbh i didn’t expect it to work this good. Example 1: grocery shopping, i was grocery shopping and a dude in his 40-50s was staring at me with eyes filled with disgust… idk why some people do that but yeah anyway i met his eyes a couple times and he was still looking at me so i opened my eyes as wide as i could stared him death in the eyes and the guy pirouetted tf away on another isle smoother than a ballerina. Example 2, i was at a bar and i wanted to buy some cigs. There was this old lady talking at the counter then it was my turn. This mf in his 50s cut me in line in my face and looked at me like “wtf son i have the right to do that don’t you see i was already buying cigs when you were in your father’s balls” type of look. Instead on saying anything i stared the fk down worse than in the first story and he cowered his head once he met my eyes the first time. I was clearly seeing him watching with the corner of the eyes. He left faster than the flash and once i met him outside i continued staring him from my car, slowed down looked for a last time and that’s it. Imma be honest i kinda am an AH for this but i cannot fking stand rude people and in most cases these people are older people. My country is 2/3 old people anyway but most are ineducated/not civilized people. Make my day worse by 1 min and i’ll make yours one of the most awkward 😂💀
P.s don’t this with people who are bigger than you, have half the face covered in tatooes etc… also if you do only in public spaces you never know

I was bored at work this week and I found myself drawing up the possible story beats that the episodes of Season 2 will cover. For these predictions, I'm assuming that Season 2 will have 13-episodes, following the 45-60 minute per episode format that Season 1 did. Needless to say, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS for anyone who is not caught up to the manga/anime of One Piece.
Also, since every episode of the Live Action had a different looking title card for "One Piece" (the Zoro themed one, the fishman themed one, etc.), I will have different title cards for each episode as well.
These were also made FOR FUN, I know that like half of this stuff will definitely be different/half of my predictions will be wrong lol... I just wanted to put these out so I could compare them to the actual season when it eventually comes out.
Episode 1: The Execution of Monkey D. Luffy (Smoker themed "ONE PIECE" title card)

• This episode will cover the entirety of the Loguetown arc. I remember seeing someone else say that the episode will start with Luffy on the scaffolding, being "executed" by Buggy and cuts away right when Buggy begins to bring down his sword, similar to how Season 1 started with the Gold Roger execution. I really like this idea, wish I remember who thought of this idea so I could shout them out. I don't believe there will be any major changes to this arc -- Zoro gets his Sandai Kitetsu III and the Yubashiri and meets Tashigi. Nami, Usopp, and Sanji will run into Smoker before the execution. Buggy and co. will capture Luffy, and attempt to execute him, but lightning strikes Buggy, and Luffy escapes to the Merry with the crew, fighting Smoker along the way. A storm begins to make it difficult to pursue Luffy, and the final shot of the episode is a man laughing in the shadows of an alleyway. Dragon is only shown in silhouette, we never get to see his face.

Episode 2: The Most Loyal Whale (Whale themed "ONE PIECE" title card)

• This episode will cover all of the reverse mountain arc. Starts with the crew stuck in the Calm Belt. Sea Beasts appear, and after a brief scare they are launched out of the Calm Belt. They go up Reverse Mountain, and when they are about the enter the Grand Line, the ship and the crew is swallowed by Laboon. Inside, they meet Crocus, and they learn about the history of Laboon, and Nami receives Log Pose from Crocus. Crocus also mentions how Laboon swallows up ships all the time; recently a young woman and her ship were swallowed, destroying the ship in the process, and leaving her unconscious for the past few days. All of her shipmates, including a man with the number 9 tatooed on his face, died in the accident. Being a doctor, Crocus was able to tend to the woman's wounds, but she has no way of leaving the whale now that here ship has sunk. The crew promises to take the young, blue-haired woman to the next island they come across. The strawhats find a way to exit Laboon, and Luffy promises Laboon that he will return to Laboon one day, giving Laboon hope and purpose once again.

Episode 3: Island of Bounty Hunters (Baroque Works themed "ONE PIECE" title card)

• This episode will cover all of the Whiskey Peak arc. The blue-haired woman wakes up on the Merry, and introduces herself as Ms. Wednesday. The crew explains to her what Crocus told them. She tells the crew she will be alright if the crew drops her off at the next island. The Strawhats come to Whiskey Peak, a party is thrown for the pirates, and Ms. Wednesday tries to make contact with Baroque works and informs them that Mr. 9 died in an accident "during the mission." However, a Wednesday runs into a man who appears to recognize her by the name of Vivi, and he tells her that she must "return to Alabasta immediately." After they speak for a bit, Vivi realizes the severity of the situation and agrees. Meanwhile, the bounty hunters attempt to rob the drunk and asleep Strawhats, but Zoro stops them. He fends off a large number of them. Baroque Works agents Mr. 5 and Mrs. Valentine's Day show up, but instead they get into a scuffle with Igaram and Vivi, calling them traitors that they must rat out of the organization. At this point, Zoro has woken up Luffy, and Luffy and Zoro help fend off the Baroque Works agents from Vivi. Luffy agrees to help Vivi, bringing her onto the ship. Igaram begins to sail on a different ship as a decoy, but is blown up in the distance. Vivi is devastated.

Episode 4: Brave Warriors of the Sea! (Giant themed "ONE PIECE" title card)

• This episode is the first of 2 covering the Little Garden arc. Reeling from the explosion, the crew is immediately confronted by a woman in a cowboy hat with strange powers. She explains the danger the crew is in if they choose to help out Vivi, and regretfully muses that "it's a shame such promising pirates will need be crushed." She expresses a curiosity in Luffy and his decision to help Vivi in the face of such danger, so she leaves them be. They crew sets sail for Little Garden. When they arrive, they disembark to explore. Sanji goes hunting for "rare and exquisite" cooking ingredients. Zoro, Nami, and Vivi guard the ship, and Usopp and Luffy head off to explore. Usopp and Luffy run into the battle of Dorry and Brogy. Usopp is fascinated by the Giants and their culture. Zoro, Nami, and Vivi get captured on the Merry by a man with a 3 tatooed on his forehead. They are trapped by their legs on a wax platform, and Mr. 3 wants to use them to bring out Luffy so he can claim Luffy's bounty, and then kill Vivi. Mr. 5 and Mrs Valentine's Day find that Luffy and Usopp are with the Giants, and so they attempt to kill Luffy by rigging explosives in their food, but Luffy shares the food with the Dorry, hurting Dorry instead. The Giants fight again, Dorry loses, and Usopp is upset by the unfair fight and vows to get revenge on the one who messed with the fight.

Episode 5: Wax-Wax Attacks (Wax themed "ONE PIECE" title card)

• This episode is the second of the 2 covering the Little Garden arc. The episode starts off with Sanji fighting some large creatures/dinosaurs in the jungle of Little Garden. After subduing the creatures, he finds a wax structure in the middle of the jungle. He goes inside to investigate and finds a Transponder snail inside. While looking around, the Transponder snail begins to ring. Picking it up, Sanji discovers he is on the line with Mr. 0. Meanwhile, Luffy, Usopp, and Brogy begin to search for the perpetrators of the explosive food. Brogy spots a clearing with a wax platform in the center, and so the 3 head over in that direction. They find the clearing where Mr. 3, Mr. 5, and Mrs. Valentine's Day have gathered. Mr. 3 trips Brogy and then contains him in wax. Usopp realizes Mr. 5 must have been the one to rig the explosive food, and decides that he will take Mr. 5 down. Luffy tries to set his friends free from the wax, and Mr. 3 intercepts him. The fights commence, with Luffy eventually freeing his friends, and Usopp and Zoro taking down Mr. 5, Nami and Vivi taking down Mrs. Valentines Day, and Luffy beating Mr. 3. Meanwhile, Sanji has obtained an eternal pose to Alabasta and the beat up Unluckies lie nearby him. Mr. 0 has not realized that Sanji is not a Baroque Works agent, and hangs up. We get our first look at Mr. 0 in his office, and he tells Nico Robin to send Mr. 2 to kill the agents that were on Little Garden to "tie up loose ends." Nearby on the ocean, Smoker and his crew have tapped the call between Sanji and Mr. 0. Smoker commands the Marines to intercept the Straw Hats on their way to Alabasta, recognizing Sanji's voice from episode 1. The Straw Hats, victorious, all return to the Merry, and now armed with a Log Pose to Alabasta, make their way to return Vivi to her home. A giant goldfish rises out of the ocean to swallow them, but Dorry and Brogy kill it with a single, powerful attack.

Episode 6: On the Sea (Nautical themed "ONE PIECE" title card)

• This episode sort of covers the beginning of Drum Island, but adds some new stuff as well. Sailing on their way to Alabasta, Nami becomes sick, and crew + Vivi struggle to navigate the ocean with their Navigator bedridden. A couple of days pass, and discussion of needing a doctor crops up, and while crew is discussing what to do they are attacked out of nowhere by a Marine vessel. Usopp, having had time to learn how to shoot a cannon, fires a perfect shot against one of the ships. The Straw Hats engage in a battle on the sea against Smoker and the couple of Marine ships he brought with him. In the middle of the battle against Smoker and the Marines, a new, large ship appears and begins to wreak havoc, attacking indiscriminately. A man by the name of Wapol jumps onto the Going Merry, and he asks if they have anyway to get to the nearby "Drum Islands." He begins to causally eat random objects on the ship that are nearby him, and the Luffy is immediately upset. They get into a small tussle, while the rest of the crew are trying to navigate the naval battle occuring around them. Tashigi and Smoker are seen fighting members of Wapol's crew. Zoro and Sanji are fighting off Marines trying to board, and Usopp and Vivi trying to steer the ship away from everything. Luffy manages to launch Wapol off of the Merry, and using the confusion and chaos of the battle, the Merry begins to sail away from the chaos. After realizing the Straw Hats escaped in the chaos, Smoker and Tashigi are seen giving orders to the other ships to take care of the Wapol "pirates", while Smoker mutters "I'll catch those bastards in Alabasta," with his main ship steering away from the fight. The Going Merry is seen coming closer to a snowy island with odd, flat topped mountains in the distance...

Episode 7: There's only one... (Drum Island/Snow themed "ONE PIECE" title card)

• This episode covers the beginning the Drum Island arc. The start of this arc is mostly the same. Vivi ends up getting injured from bullet, and which causes Luffy to question his brazenness, and in turn his choices as a captain. Upon meeting Dalton, Dalton informs them there is only one doctor on the island at the moment, and that "they say she is a witch with a monster as an assistant." He gives directions to the witch's castle, which lies on top of one of the "Drums" of the island. Luffy and the eager Sanji take off with the sick Nami to find the doctor. Luffy and Sanji's trudge up the treacherous mountainside is shown throughout the episode. Zoro goes off to meditate in the cold. While Vivi and Usopp talk with Dalton, they learn about what happened to the island in the past few months (how their king fled the country when the "Blackbeard" pirates showed up, and how Wapol took all of the doctors). He also mentions the strange arrival of a man who would melt snow just by walking around. We cut to another village on the island where everyone is screaming "witch!" and "monster!" A young boy, coughing up blood is in bed, when his door breaks open and an old woman along with a reindeer enter. She quickly figures out what ails the boy, takes half of toys as payment, and leaves with the reindeer. The frightened family is cowering in one of the rooms as she leaves, and they shudder when the reindeer sadly turns to look at them. Kureha is heard saying "don't worry about them Chopper, they don't know what they are afraid of." Flashes of a monstrous looking beast wandering into a village and scaring people flash onscreen, and then we cut back to Chopper pulling Kureha's sleigh up towards the mountain. The episode ends when we cut back to Luffy and Sanji who are attempting to escape an avalanche. A rock comes tumbling down the mountain towards Sanji. Sanji, who is holding Nami, lets the rock hit him so Nami is not injured. This knocks Sanji unconscious, and now Luffy needs to make the final trek alone.

Episode 8: Doctor (Doctor themed "ONE PIECE" title card)

• This episode is the second of 3 covering the Drum Island arc. Episode starts with Wapol's ship arriving at one of the village ports. Dalton rushes out to stop him, turns into an ox, but is shot down by Kuromarimo and Chess. Chess advises Wapol that his first priority should be to take back his castle, and Wapol agrees, heading off towards the castle on the Drum. Vivi and Usopp rush out to protect Dalton from the rest of Wapol's men. A battered, tired, and injured Luffy barely makes it to the summit of the mountain. As he begins to pass out, in his blurry vision he sees a large furry creature walking out of the castle in front of him. We cut to Nami waking up to find a reindeer tending to her wounds. Startled, she moves to get up, and scares Chopper away from her. Kureha enters, and explains to Nami how she got here, and how Luffy and Sanji are alright. Kureha begins to explain to the confused Chopper what and who he is. The Chopper flashback begins here, only about the first 1/3 of flashback is shown, with Kureha narrating it before we cut back to present. (We learn about Chopper's devil fruit, that he wants to be a doctor, and that he had a father figure before Kureha named Hiriluk). Luffy runs into Chopper, and immediately asks him to join his crew. Chopper denies him, and runs away while Luffy chases after him. Sanji is also bedridden due to the injuries he sustained during the climb. We cut to a bar in a desert country. The bar is full, with one shirtless man sleeping in a chair in the corner of the bar. You see Smoker asking if the barkeeper knows of any "Straw-Hat Luffy" passing through Alabasta. The man sleeping in the corner jerks awake at the name "Luffy." The barkeeper doesn't, and so Smoker grumbles about how "they should have gotten here already if they had an eternal pose." The man who was sleeping smiles to himself, and mutters "It's been a while since I've heard that name..." and then laughs to himself. While Dalton is resting from his injuries, Vivi gets a newspaper with Usopp and reads concerning news about civil war brewing in Alabasta. Episode ends with Wapol, Kuromarimo, and Chess reaching the top of the Drum.

Episode 9: ...On this Snowy Island (Chopper themed "ONE PIECE" title card)

• This is the final episode of the Drum Island arc. While Luffy is chasing him, Chopper notices Wapol has made it up onto the top of the Drum outside. Wapol sees Hiriluk's flag on his castle, and screams "you damn fool of a doctor!" and Chopper begins to panic and gets distressed upon hearing this. We then cut to the next 1/3rd of Chopper's flashback (his life with hiriluk and eventually accidentally poisoning him). Luffy notices Chopper is upset by Wapol's arrival, and decides that he and Chopper will fight them together. He encourages Chopper that he can be helpful in this fight, and the two go out to face Wapol, Kuromarimo, and Chess. The injured Dalton, embarrassed by his defeat, wishes for Ussop and Vivi to take him to the summit so he can help. A brief cut to Zoro is made, where you see that he has been honing his skill with his swords. All around him, trees have been slashed to pieces. (He deforests the woods). Throughout the Wapol fight, the final 1/3rd of Chopper's flashback is sprinkled in. Hiriluk's flag gets damaged but Luffy saves it because he notices Chopper's desperation to keep the flag standing. Chopper shows off his rumble balls. Nami and Sanji are watching the fight from inside, Kureha prevents them from leaving to help. After they win, Dalton and co. arrive, Dalton recognizes Chopper as a hero. and Kureha berates Chopper to get him to join the crew. Chopper joins the Straw Hats as they make their way towards Alabasta. Kureha and Dalton discuss what they should do now that Wapol has been defeated, and mention of the Will of D. is brought up by Kureha, and how Luffy reminds her of another person who has the initial D. in their name...

Episode 10: Alabasta (Desert/Alabasta themed "ONE PIECE" title card)

• This is the first episode of the Alabasta arc. While one their way to Alabasta, Vivi begins to explain what she believes is happening in Alabasta right now. She outlines her fears that Mr. 0 is in fact Crocodile, who is a warlord lauded as a hero in Alabasta. She explains why civil war might happen, and the dissatisfaction with King Cobra. She says Luffy doesn't need to help her, but Luffy and the crew insist. The encounter with Bon Clay at sea happens as well and is mostly the same. After he leaves, the crew put's X's on their arms. They make it to Alabasta, and the crew splits up in town to gather supplies and disguise themselves with more local garb. Zoro runs into Tashigi, who then immediately raises alarm. Zoro tries to stop her, but she gets away and successfully finds Smoker, who then begins to patrol the city by flying above it and searching. Zoro tries to find the rest of the crew to warn them but is lost. Vivi and Sanji look for information around town. They learn that Crocodile's base of operations is at a Casino right outside the capitol. They also learn about the whereabouts of the rebel army that is preparing to attack the capitol. Nami is off shopping for supplies. Usopp, Chopper, and Luffy are all hanging out, messing around town when suddenly Usopp spots Smoker flying above. Smoker sees them too. They dive into a nearby restaurant to hide themselves, sit with a stranger asleep in front of their food, who then suddenly Luffy recognizes as Ace and yells out "ACE!!!" as Smoker barges into the restaurant.

Episode 11: Desert Heat (Ace themed "ONE PIECE" title card)

• This is the second episode of the Alabasta arc. Ace wakes up, Smoker stares in shock, and Luffy is overjoyed. Smoker declares both "Fire Fist Ace, Second Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates" and "Strawhat Luffy" are under arrest. Ace and Luffy both get up to attack Smoker, while Usopp and Chopper run out of the restaurant to get away. Ace and Luffy bonding + catchup while they fight off Smoker. They naturally cause a commotion, leading all of the strawhats to find each other. Ace tells Luffy about his new crew, and that he's glad they could meet here. He says he has to go searching for "Blackbeard," but will fend off Smoker so that Luffy and his crew can escape. During the fight, the audience learns about Seastone because of Smoker's weapon. Luffy and the crew meet up during the chaos, and find that Usopp and Chopper rented a large traveling turtle to get away. Vivi directs the turtle to travel to the casino (rain dinners) town. While traveling across the desert, they pass empty towns and dried up Oasis's. Vivi and Luffy have their famous argument during this. We see the rebel army preparing to attack the capitol, and we see the remaining Baroque Works agents meeting to discuss their plan to take over Alabasta during the rebel war. Luffy makes the decision that Vivi should go to the capitol to help solve the upcoming fight, and that he, Usopp, and Sanji can find Crocodile at the casino. The rest of the crew heads off towards the capitol with Vivi. Once inside the casino, Luffy, Usopp, and Sanji split up to find Crocodile quicker. Episode ends with Luffy almost immediately getting captured.

Episode 12: See you later (AlligatoCrocodile themed "ONE PIECE" title card)

• Episode begins with Luffy and Usopp waking up in a cell together, surrounded by Alligators right outside of it. Mr. 3 is also inside of their cell. Luffy tries to break out, but discovers that it's made of Seastone. Crocodile reveals himself to Luffy, taunting him and telling him that he will die in this room once it floods. It is revealed that Mr. 3 was tortured by Crocodile and revealed who Luffy was and that Vivi was with him. Figuring out that Vivi is at the Capitol, Crocodile leaves, but injures Luffy with his poisoned hook when Luffy badmouths him. Crocodile leaves while the room begins to flood. We cut to the other half of the crew, creating a plan to infiltrate the capitol right before the rebel army attacks. While attempting to enter, Mrs. Merry Christmas attacks from underground. Chopper tells the crew to continue without him, and stays behind to fight Mrs. Merry Christmas. Once inside the capitol, Mr. 1 and Mrs. Doublefinger attack Vivi, Zoro, and Nami. Zoro and Nami tell Vivi to continue on towards the castle. Vivi makes it to the castle, and the rebel army begins to attack. We see that Smoker and Tashigi are in the capitol as well, and are attempting to stop the fighting, but are failing to do so. You hear them mention that they called for reinforcements from Hina but she hasn't arrived yet. Vivi makes it into the castle, and overhears Mr. 2, who is pretending to be Crocodile, explaining his plan to King Cobra. Thinking Crocodile is here at the capitol, she finds Pell and tells him to go to the Casino and retrieve Luffy. Back at the Casino, Sanji is walking around, when he comes across Mrs. All Sunday. She restrains him with her powers and inquires who he is and why he is walking around areas restricted to Baroque Works members. He replies that he is a new member "Mr. Prince." Recognizing his voice from the phone call from Little Garden, she decides to help him find what he is looking for. Sanji, with Nico Robin, find Luffy and Usopp and break them out. The episode ends with Pell arriving at the casino, and telling everyone to get on his back.

Episode 13: Come Again Another Day (Vivi themed "ONE PIECE" title card)

• This is final episode of the Alabasta arc. Episode begins with Pell flying over the capitol, towards the castle where Crocodile is headed. Below, fighting between the rebels and the royal army is seen. Usopp sees Chopper in the distance fighting, and decides asks if he can be dropped off over there to help Chopper. Chopper has been putting up a good fight against Mrs. Merry Christmas, but can't quite manage to smoke her out of the holes she makes. Usopp + Chopper vs. Merry Christmas begins. Similarily, Sanji sees Nami (actually Mr. 2) and decides to go down and help her. Sanji vs. Mr. 2 begins. Nami vs. Mrs Doublefinger continues. Zoro vs. Mr. 1 continues. Nico Robin is dropped off nearby the castle. Pell takes Luffy to castle to fight Crocodile. Crocodile is already there, killing Royal guards and threatening Cobra. Luffy vs. Crocodile begins. Fights go on, iconic moments from the fights are recreated, and eventually Vivi and Pell find the bomb in the city. Vivi quickly takes out Mr. 4, who is guarding the bomb. Pell takes it upon himself to sacrifice himself, carries the bomb up into the air and dies in the explosion. Vivi starts screaming to get the fighting to stop. Luffy and Crocodile are fighting underground, revealing the Poneglyph's location to Nico Robin. Fighting ends when it starts raining. Lots of wrapup in this episode, idk how theyre gonna fit it all to be honest, but they will. Luffy saves Nico Robin from dying underground, and beats Crocodile. Crew leaves Alabasta after a couple of days, season ending on the crew doing the iconic arms in the air pose.

Final Notes:
In terms of cut characters, I do think that a couple of the Baroque Works agents will be cut. In these episodes, I cut out any mention of Ms. Golden Week, Ms. Monday. I do think it's possible that all of the Baroque Works numbered/named agents will show up, but not likely. I also think Karoo has a possibility of being cut, even though I personally love Karoo. I think that Koza (leader of rebel army) might get cut as well. IDK. There is so much in Alabasta I really don't know how they are gonna fit it all.
I may have over indulged a little on Episodes 4 and 5 being Little Garden Episodes. Little Garden is one of my favorite arcs, so I personally want it to get more than 1 episode, but I could see it getting one. I think that my Episode 6 idea could be a cool way to do a more sea/ship focused episode and also include canon content from Drum Island (meeting Wapol), and fitting Smoker into the story a bit more actively, but I know that it could be used instead for another Alabasta episode if needed.
I also kinda gave up on the end of Alabasta predictions too, theres so much that needs to happen (conclusion with Smoker plotline, Bon Clay saving the crew, Nico robin joining, poneglyph lore, ancient weapons in alabasta?) that I think some of this stuff might be included in the beginning of season 3. Bon clay could save them from Marines in the first episode of season 3, and we could see Smoker wrapping stuff up in Alabasta in season 3 as well. Same thing with Nico Robin on the ship.

Have you ever noticed how good anti-war films are so dark and dreary and sad and depressing? there's a reason for this, a good one in fact, and we're going to talk about it and why it doesn't have to be this way, and how that relates to Golden Kamuy. the recent "all quiet on the western front" is a world war 1 film that really shows exactly what I'm talking about and honestly I couldn't ask for a better and more recent line of comparison.
Anti-war films and shows have always had a troublesome history of either failing in conveying their themes, or accidentally accomplishing the exact opposite and boosting enlistment rates after their release instead of having the intended negative effect, with one of the biggest examples of this being full metal jacket. in fact I bet a good portion of you watching this had no idea that movie was intended to be anti-war. I certaintly didn't, I was introduced to it as a kid by my coast guard veteran father who loved the movie, and had also never seen combat. the channel storytellers has a video covering this in depth titled "destroying the old lie: what makes a film truely anti-war" a video mostly about all quiet on the western front, and it being a rare example of a true anti-war film. to paraphrase, its difficult to make an anti war movie because most stories still feel a need to conform into a traditional story, with characters we root for. Often in these movies, for all the gritty horror they try to show the audience, the war story still ends with a victory, a moral win that insinuates that the sacrifice was worth something and that there is honor to be found in war. Saving private ryan had a great anti-war representation at the beggining during its horrific depiction of D-day, and completely drops this aspect as the plot of the movie kicks in and instead of pulling private ryan out of the war, they end up voluntarily fighting in the front lines and becoming heroes. Storytellers asserts in his video that by contrast all quiet in the western front shows war at its most gritty and nihalistic, showing the true horror of propaganda fooling young men like the main character into joining the war. The main character does this as an act of patriotism and earning honor, only for them to die a completely meaningless death at the end of the movie, in a battle that accomplished nothing specifically because even though a peace treaty had already been made between both sides in the war, they opted not to announce it right away and let their own soldiers continue shooting and killing each other just so it could be announced and taken into effect at a more dramatic and thematic time. there is no honor in this resolution. no grandiose self sacrifice for the greater good, no meaning behind the protagonists death. And that's exactly the point, and what gives meaning to the entire movie.
But I'm not here to talk about how all quiet in the western front succeeds in being anti-war where others of its kind fail, as I mentioned, storytellers does a fantastic job of that already. Instead, I bring it up to make the point that as fantastic as that movie is, it will never be something that will be seen by the masses, because by nature of its theme, it lacks the appeal of the stories everyone loves, the struggle and fights between ideologies and the heroes journey. How many of you watching this video have seen All Quiet on the Western Front? Now how many of you have seen Iron Man? It's easy to forget that Iron Man is about a rich dude's journey to realizing that making weapons is bad when he solves the issue by making a super weapon better than anything he's ever built, but this time it's okay because he's in control of it. This isn't to say that those kinds of movies are bad, there are hundreds and hundreds of examples of incredible and fantastic stories that follow this exact format. but it is to say that not everyone goes to the movies or watches tv with the intention of purposely watching something that makes them sad, depressed, or angry, and that's the kind of experience you'll get from all quiet in the western front. as a result, the majority of people, who watch movies to more to be entertained and not to take away messages and deep literary themes, will be much less inclined to watch all quiet in the western front, and miss out on being exposed to the message behind it. There is nothing wrong with watching movies purely for entertainment of course, but I think it would not be a stretch to say that this is the most common way people view movies or television, or at least the most common desire to do those things.
But this does create a problem, because if someone wants to make a story ripe with themes of anti-war, the success of all quiet in the western front, and specifically what makes it completely different to other anti war films makes a kind of argument that a piece of media can't be anti-war, and also have heroic characters fighting against villains, can't have goofy cartoonish gags, can't have fun over the top action scenes between the good guys and the bad guys, and can't have meaning in character's successes and failures. But here is the argument I instead want to put forth, that it is possible to have all of these things, and still have strong anti-war themes, and I'm going to talk about how I think this has been achieved by Golden Kamuy.
Golden Kamuy is my favorite anime. It's genre's include historical fiction, action and adventure, drama, and... cooking, of all things. It has equal parts comedy and dark serious subject matter, and has little issue switching between the 2 on a dime. It's not uncommon to have something dark like a serial killer obsessed with human taxidermy and leatherworking being exposed by having his glove made from the skin of human hands found, to suddendly having that same character be a runway model showing off all the fleshsuits he's made, as though this is the future of fashion. This is played totally for laughs despite how horrific the idea of this actually is. It's the kind of show where you're watching the protagonist be mutilated and tortured, and after they escape it immedietely cuts to them shooting the horse they stole to escape with and using meat they got to make an improved version of local cuisine. This scene is wholesome and used to connect the main cast to each others uniquely different cultures, and its full of comedy. Certain aspects of the show are very bizzare for something with anti-war themes, and its because although the show does have anti-war messaging, it's not a war show. So lets talk about the premise and what the show is actually about.
Golden Kamuy takes place a few years after the russo japanese war in the very early 1900s, but the very first thing that we the audience are shown is a flashback showing a glimpse of the battle of 203 meter hill, during the siege of port arthur, the bloodiest part of the war. Our protagonist we are introduced to is sugimoto, a japanese soldier who is being ordered to take part in what is essentially a suicide charge up the hill, running into russian machinegun fire and howitzer artillery bombardment in an effort to raid their trenches and take the hill. Sugimoto has resolved to do whatever it takes to survive and keep living, even if it means resulting to cannibalizing the russians he kills. we see soldiers slaughtered against the russian meatgrinder, and during the battle sugimoto recieves several gunshots cuts and other such injuries, but through sheer force of will and adrenaline makes it into the russian trenches where he proceeds to fight like a wild animal, stabbing and beating everyone he sees in close combat and even gorging someone's eyes out. he survives to see a japanese victory to the battle, and became famous for his resiliance, ferocity, and furious vitality and will to live. he became a well known war hero titled sugimoto the immortal. however, despite this, we cut back to the present to find that much like every other soldier, he has no money and is struggling to pan for gold in the mountains and rivers of hokaido to make ends meet. the war is over and depite accomplishing so much, sugimoto has nothing to show for it, and has nothing but lost friends, traumatic memories, and a body covered in old wounds and scars.
it's here that sugimotos drunk gold panning companion offers him a story about gold , since they were obviously on the subject. several years ago during the height of the gold rush that happened in hokkaido, an obscenely large ammount of gold was amassed by the local ainu population, the indigenous tribes in northern japan, aparently with the intention of funding a war against the japanese for independence. someone killed the owners of this hoard of gold and hid it away shortly before he was captured and improisoned by the japanese at their highest security prison abashiri, which houses some of the most dangerous crminals in japan. his captures proceeded to interrogate him on the werabouts of the gold. this man, noperabo, told them nothing, but instead tattooed a code onto 24 of his fellow inmates that would lead to the gold if they were all used together. this resulted in the government attempting to transport these prisoners and thus providing them an oppertunity to escape during the transit. the prisoners scattered all over the rest of the country never to be seen again. The reason of why noperabo even made this plan in the first place is a total mystery, as they still can't get him to crack to this day.
at first sugimoto understandably thinks this a fairy tail, but is forced to accept its validity when it turns out that his companion is one such tattooed prisinor. This revelation came about as a result of him trying to kill sugimoto upon sobering up and realizing he had said too much. sugimoto then has an encounter with a hostile bear trying to eat the prisoner's corpse, and meets an ainu girl named asirpa. he tells her the story of the tatoos and she reveals that her father was one of the ainu who was killed for possessing the gold when noperabo was taken prisoner. they further come to the realization that the tatoos are actually meant to be skinned off of the prisoners bodies in order to use the code, further adding mystery to noperabo. they agree to work together to find the prisoners and the gold. however, as you might expect, dangerous tatooed serial killers arent the only thing they have to worry about, as there are 2 other factions also out for the prisoners and gold, one being one of the last remaining samurai who wants to trigger a war and bring back the ezo republic, and the other far more relavent faction for this particular video's discussion, the 7th devision, a segment of the japanese military led by lutenient tsurumi.
the 7th devision are completely comprised of veterens and hardened soldiers from the siege of port arthur, and it was them who took the brunt and most of the casualties on the ground, including the battle of 203 meter hill that sugimoto took part in. and just like sugimoto, they returned to their country to little in the way of reward or compensation. feeling like they are being left in a world that no longer needs them, tsurumi instead intends to lead the 7th in finding the gold in order to fund neccessary weaponry to perform a coup, and take down the japanese government and replace it with a military dictatorship focused on treating veterans right and compensating families of casualties of war. through the 7th devision, we get a group of characters who survived and won a war for their country only to get almost nothing for the pain and turture they went through, and are trying to find a meaning and justification in what they went through. they are trying to attain what they believe they are owed and deserving of for the hell they experienced, and they believe in tsurumi both in his ideas of a military dictatorship, and in him as a leader.
one thing thats important to tsurumi's character is that he is... insane. publicly so. like the man is actually crazy and not right in the head, a fact that is fully aknowledged and understood by the people who voluntarily work under him. his head was struck by shrapnel from a howitzer during the siege of port arthur and tore out a chunk of his brain, miraculously not killing him. he is possibly the most cartoonish of all the characters in the show, being shown a tendency to bite whatever is put in front of him, and acting out in bizzare and funny ways. despite being a military dictator villain, he is often the comic relief, a bizzare combination. he is essentially an early 1900s version of the joker put in a powerful militaristic role. however, the show does something amazing with tsurumi's character. through tsurumi, the show has the oppertunity and ability to justify any amount of ridiculous chaos and questionable decisions and tactics. they can make him do literally anything for the story and simply pull the "tsurumi is crazy" card whenever there needs to be justifications for any of his actions. instead however, tsurumi's crazyness is treated instead as a secondary character trait, and is almost exclusively played for comedy. if you think this is weird and kinda messed up, i have a whole section later where i will talk about this and why i think this works. you see however, the thing about tsurumi, is that despite his insanity, he is surprisingly aware and intelligent. he is sharp and picks up on small details and changing and evolving situations, and he draws logical conclusions from what he observes extremely quickly. although often brutal in his methods, he is HIGHLY competent at what he does, even when he is seen doing stuff like this:
"bap bap bap bap bap bap bap"
the other core part of tsurumi is that he is incredibly loyal to his troops. he listens to them, sympathizes with them, does gestures for them, understands them on a personal level. he is a very boots on the ground leader, and is always with them on the front lines. he cares for his troops and their problems. this is is a neccessary part of his character if we are to believe that this coup is about getting what the 7th division deserves for their sacrafice. it also shows why all his soldiers willingly love him and follow him even while fully aware that he's not right in the head. he is a natural leader, and his soldiers are as loyal to him as he is to them. his first face to face interaction with sugimoto after having just caught him poking for information on prisoners was to legitimately offer sugimoto a job working for him in the 7th, because tsurumi sees sugimoto as a fellow victim of the war, a hero who got none of what he deserved. sugimoto refuses this request because of his own sense of loyalty he's build up with asirpa as this point and its only after the refusal that tsurumi acknowledges him as an adversary and resorts to... other methods.
the battle of 203 meter hill is the crux and focus of a lot of characters and their stories and states of mind. despite not being a war story, the war is always in the background, and informs the decisions of everything that happens, since almost half the characters in the show are veterans from that particularly gory battle. to this end, asirpa represents to sugimoto an image of innocence. she is one of the very very VERY few people who hasn't killed anyone else in this show at the beginning of it, as she is neither a soldier from the war, or a deranged serial killer with a map to a mountain of god that everybody is looking for tattooed to their body, and sugimoto makes an active effort to keep her apart from the darker more gory aspects of their quest together. asirpa isnt unaware of what he is doing and what those darker aspects are and can be, but gratefully accepts the gesture regardless, in ways like always letting him be the one to skin the criminals they find. she also makes sure to draw a line and comment when sugimoto is treating her too much like a child, which is good.
about halfway through the second season comes a pair of episodes that completely reshaped my understanding of golden kamuy and inspired me to make this video. up until this episode, I had looked at golden kamuy as a fun action adventure treasure hunt with likable well written characters and equally fantastical and realistic action scenes, and, side tangent, the action in this show is really fun, here, just watch this:
WOOOW you see that? this man just tried to do a judo throw, but the guy reversed it into HIS OWN JUDO THROW HOLY SHIT!!!!
ahem, anyways, this is how I had seen the show up until now, until season 2 episodes 5 and 6. in episode 5, sugimoto and asirpa are separated from the rest of the group and forced to take refuge and shelter from a wind storm by climbing inside the gutted carcass of a deer they just shot in order to stay warm, and are forced to stay put in there for the night. during this refuge, they discuss sugimotos time in the war. sugimoto says here that just in order to survive and stay sane mentally, he and all the other soldiers on the battlefield had to convince themselves that the enemies they were facing in battle weren't human. that they were unambiguously evil and didn't deserve pity, and that they needed to do that in order to be able to kill them and survive. war changes people, and sugimoto relays to asirpa here that he and probably everyone else who survived that battle are no longer the same person they were before that they've undergone deep mental change due to the trauma they all were forced to suffer through, and that some soldiers were never able to turn this forced mindset they self induced off, and are still eternally on the battlefield mentally, even if physically they are away. as sugimoto says this, we see images of all the various characters in the cast originating from this battle, including lieutenant tsurumi. sugimoto laments that he's not sure if he can go back to who he was before the war.
this is going to sound wierd, but trust me this is actually going somewhere. the conversation is interupted by asirpa snacking on the liver of the deer carcas they are hiding in and the conversation topic suddenly turns to some of their favorite foods. food is a commonplace topic in golden kamuy, and around 5 minutes are taken out of every single episode in order to talk about or show food and cultural recipes, or to watch our cast partake in meals together. there's actually a lot done in golden kamuy thematically using food and it honestly deserves its own video (subscribe hint hint nudge nudge), and while this particular video isn't about food, it will be talked about in this discussion.
sugimoto mentions one of his favorite foods he hasn't eaten in a long time is dried perssimons, a local snack to where he grew up. asirpa, having never heard of them, asks for details. the framing and tone of the music returns to the melancholic and sad tones it displayed during the earlier parts of the conversation, as sugimoto lements that because persimmons don't grow in hokaido, he hasn't eaten one since before the war. asirpa asks sugimoto perhaps naively if eating a dried persimmon would turn sugimoto back into who we has before the war. sugimoto, hearing the question, offers no immediate answer as tears well up in his eyes, and we get a short flashback showing a younger, smiling, and unscarred sugimoto enjoying dried persimmons with his friends he grew up with. due to previous episodes, we are aware of the fact that one of the 2 people shown in this cutscene died in the battle of 203 meter hill next to sugimoto, and that the other person is his now widow who is currently rapidly losing her eye sight. back in the present, sugimoto covers his face to hide his crying, and asirpa sleepily asks that after the plot of the show is over, he take her back to his hometown so she can try dried persimmons, and then the episode ends and goes to credits.
this scene is beautiful, and its actually what inspired me to make this video. the symbolism is very on the nose, but that doesn't make it any less meaningful. the show does so much with this single conversation, and i wish to talk about them one at a time. firstly, in this moment when tsurumi is shown as sugimoto discusses how people weren't able to back to who they were, the show subtly asks you to rethink how you've seen tsurumi up to this point. up until and often even after this scene, tsurumi's characteristic insanity and tendancy to bite whatever's in front of him, while deeply entrenched and character defining, has been played for laughs. in fact, there has not been a single time up to this point that tsurumi's insanity has directly impacted the plot. it certaintly adds a zaney and fun flair to everything he does, and defines his overall manners and demeanor, but every single decision and tactical choice has been made because it was the smart and intelligent thing to do. tsurumi makes a deal with edogai, the murderer taxidermist to make make forgery prisoner tattoo skins and circulate them to cause chaos. he does this by intelligently manipulating edogai and coming to him from a place of acceptance for his human leatherworking tendancies and acknowledgement of his skill and passion for the craft, in essence, seducing him. he just so happens to do it with his personal brand of crazy at the forefront in such a bizzare way that results in edogai posing as a psychotic runway model wearing flesh suits to show his talent to tsurumi, resulting in one of the funniest but most disturbing scenes up until that point.
importantly, tsurumi although seemingly defined by his insanity, is largely in fact moreso defined by his intellect and emotional intelligence, with his tedancies being played for laugh and spectacle. but you would be forgiven for not even realizing this aspect of his character until this episode, when the show suddenly makes you rethink how he has been portrayed until now. should you really be laughing at the antics of a clearly capable and emotionally intelligent person like tsurumi for doing things he simply can't help as a result of an exploding ordinance tearing off a chunk of his head and permanently scarring him? is it funny or sad that tsurumi plays with real mini guns and makes gunshot noises like he's 8 years old? up until this point in the show, we haven't seen tsurumi's backstory, and don't know on a personal level just how different he is now compared to before, but tsurumi tells us in his very first scene that his tendencies stem from his head wound. how fast did so many people immediately put this fact away in the closet after hearing about it and simply thought it an excuse to write a crazy quirky villain? in the end, tsurumi's crazyness is still played for laughs even after this scene, but i think that just adds further meaning to this conversation.
As fun aside, I recently started rewatching the show with an online friend of mine labeled Lesbian Fisting S- umm... With an online buddy I call lezz. We were just starting this episode, season 2 episode 5, and this was after I had written the first draft of this script. The beginning of the episode involves the main cast breaking into a military base to rescue one of their friends being held prisoner by the 7th devision. Tsurumi, who is away at another location, is notified by one of his subordinates that an important figure in the government and overall story up to this point had shown up at the base requesting custody of his prisoner. This important figure is not actually there, and is a member of the core cast in disguise. At this point, lez said to me "ohh, I bet the plan will fail, but not because of the disguise, that Tsurumi will fall for the disguise, but the rug will be pulled on the plan because of something silly and impossible to plan for based on his crazyness." Knowing what I had written as a script not 1 week prior, I smiled and kept my mouth shut, and waited for the episode to play out before bringing that up again. It was extremely entertaining to hear. What actually happens is that Tsurumi knows IMMEDIETELY that it's a ruse, because he's an intelligence officer and has spies working closely to the real official who would have notified him immediately if the man had traveled anywhere, a fact that has been made known to us before. He then calls his soldiers in the base and informs them of the plot that's happening, and his characteristic crazyness comes as a form of him trying to speak into the phone while simultaneously biting the microphone. the soldiers react to the situation swiftly and the plan immediately goes to shit, resulting in someone in the main cast's crew getting shot in the head and dying, with another being heavily injured by 2 bullets. then we get a crazy fun action sequence as they try to make their escape, and after they got away but are still being hunted by the 7th, sugimoto and asirpa get separated from their group resulting in the heart to heart this video is about. After the episode, after we had gone through the mental ordeal of that heavy scene, I revealed to Lez that I had been working on a golden kamuy video essay and that this episode was what inspired it, and how funny I had found his comment. I then asked him if there was a single point in any part of the show so far if Tsurumi's insanity had meaningfully effected the plot, and the sudden realization that he couldn't name one and the end scene giving context to that was such an entertaining "oh shit" moment for him, and completely changed his perspective of the character. seeing it happen real time to someone other than me was such a pure joy i cannot express and is honestly the reason I enjoy a lot of reaction content on youtube, assuming it's someone who actually examines scenes. this completely transformed his viewing experience almost immedietely in the following episode 6, which I will tackle in another video. (hint hint nudge nudge, subscribe)
at this point in my own viewing i also started to look at every other soldier character we've met up to this point, and started recontexturalising their characteristics and actions. private ogata is a master marksmen, and is one of the least effected characters by the siege of port arthur, as he was already more or less sociopathic before the war, as we find out in Season 2 episode 7. Anyways at one point early in the show he mentions that if the military had trained a troop of expert long ranged marksmen such as himself, it would have severely lowered the casualties taken from the Japanese on 203 meter hill. in context of the episode it's in, this is in the middle of an action scene and it's a brag from him meant to convey how large of a threat he is, how deadly and precise his gunplay is, and is quickly moved on. but after the context of this scene, doesn't it seem interesting that ogata chooses to use this as an example to convey his skill and threat level? in perhaps any other show this would instead be a brag about the incredible feats he's capable of, for example: "the yuyan archers can pin a fly to a tree 100 meters away, without killing it." what i first wrote off as being a simple explanation of power level suddendly changes with this new context. it matters a lot that ogata, a sociopathic murderer who killed his own brother purely out of curiosity about what his dad's reaction would be, chooses to describe his skill level not by how impressively and far away he can kill people, but by how many of his fellow soldiers could have been saved if there were more people like him. its also a subtle nod to the original fact given to us that the government did not care about the 7th, and failed them both in preparation and compensation. i started seeing little stuff like this everywhere as i watched, and it completely changed my view of the show.
the other character greatly showcased in this scene is of course sugimoto himself. this conversation directly asks the question from asirpa whether sugimoto, and by extension, the rest of the soldier cast, can go back to who they were before the war. we see that the persimmon represents sugimotos old way of life, as through it we see when sugimoto as he was before the war without his scars. and this is further reinforced by the fact that he has not had one since he left for the war. the question of whether sugimoto would go back to who he was if he ate one is gutwrenching because the show gives us an answer, albeit an unspoken one. the 2 characters we see in this flashback other than sugimoto have both gone through changes from the war as well. specifically, one of them is fucking dead, and that is pretty permanent and irreversible. the other character i think however, presents perhaps a slight sliver of hope. she is the widow of sugimotos dead friend, an while she has never been to war, the death of her loved one in the war undoubtedly affected her. she also is losing vision and requires expensive surgery to potentially fix it. this is actually the original reason sugimoto went chasing after the gold, as his friends dying words were a request to get his wife a surgery, a last ditch effort to make his wife have some prospect in life, because as he states, nobody will take a blind widow into their care. this motivation has only scarcely been mentioned over the course of the show as sugimoto gains additional motivations attached to his growing loyalty and relationship with asirpa, but its still there. i don't think its a coincidence that the show frames her illness as though it started only after sugimoto and his friend leave for war. after all, why would sugimoto not know about it until this moment if it started happening before he left. as such, although not directly related, it can be thrown into the pile of changes that happened during that time period, and because of this, in my reading of golden kamuy, presents a sliver of hope for sugimoto, that of couse even if its impossible to go back to the way it was before, its impossible to bring his friend and her husband back from the dead, and its impossible to erase the things he did to survive during the battle of 203 meter hill, progress can be made. if he can earn enough for her surgery, than maybe he can heal himself too. he will always be covered in scars, both physically and mentally, but perhaps its possible to heal regardless. us the audience, the show, and sugimoto himself all know it's impossible to go back to who he was before. dried persimmons will never taste the same again.
Even through this possible positive outcome, it's important to express that this is still anti-war thematically. Nothing was gained from the war, the show only expresses that it might be possible to heal a fraction of the bad that came with it. it's not even directly related to the war at all! no part of her blindness or the characters ability to fix it came as a result in the war. in fact, the mistreatment of the soldiers in the battle is what caused the situation to begin with.
after this conversation and episode, the credits started rolling, and for the first time i felt compelled to watch the credit sequence that plays during every episode. i did this in every episode for season 1, but stopped during season 2 because i just simply didn't like the new song as much. but after watching this episode, i became transfixed with the show and kept watching, and realized that i really should have been paying attention to it far earlier for its visuals. it begins with asirpa holding her hand out as though its pressed against something, blue flashes pulse from her hand slowly in beat with the music. the camera changes and we see that shes pressing her hand to her fathers chest and the pulse is her feeling his heartbeat. the shot cuts away to him disappearing from her life and we are treated to this POV shot of asirpa looking at her now empty hand, showing a sense of loneliness and desire for companionship, specifically with someone who has heart you could say. we get a flash of the various tattoos across the screen to represent the passage of time and the beginning of her quest for the skins and the gold, and come back to her as she is standing before sugimoto. she perhaps hesitatingly slowly puts her hand to his chest and feels the same blue pulses. she feels his heartbeat. sugimoto is silent and unmoving during this sequence and we can't see his eyes or face, a visual que often used in animation to convey convey an inner struggle, or a desire to not make eye contact. but even so its clear to asirpa and us as the audience that sugimoto still has his heart. his humanity. there's room for him to heal through his relationship with asirpa. the sequence then ends with our characters looking towards abashiri prison, a place of extreme plot importance in the upcoming segment of the story and has been built up to for the entire course of the show thus far, perhaps hinting we may get some answers to the many questions the show has proposed in that prison. i really wish i had noticed all of this symbolism earlier, but i suppose there could also be an argument that there was no better episode to notice such a thing than after this one.
i was originally planing on talking about the episode after this one, as it is the first ever piece of media to make me cry, and ive seen marley and me, but this video has gone on for an extremely long amount of time and I think it has enough in it to get its own video entirely, so subscribe for that. despite this being my favorite series, i actually havent even finished it yet, due to the series having not completed. i am aware that i can read the manga, and i do plan to do just that, but because i started with the anime, i desire to finish it with the anime as well, and do not plan to read past where the show currently is, simply for consistencies sake.
one of golden kamuys central themes it explores is what happens after war. how people who fought in wars get treated by society after the fact, how war changes you as a person and what it takes, or whether it's even possible to go back to who you were before, and it does all of this without sacraficing the fun action scenes and asurdest pass out from laughter levels of humor, which is an incredible accomplishment. it manages to take the serious themes and subject matter in anti-war stories while keeping the fun and action packed story its going for, all without accidentally glorifying warfare and making people want to enlist such as full metal jacket. in that regard, i think golden kamuy actually keeps a far larger amount of mainstream appeal to the anime community than all quiet on the western front does for the the general public who watches movies. the only reason golden kamuy isn't more popular and mainstream is cause of THIS STUPID FUCKING CGI BEA-

This game is an obsession.
I can't put my finger on what exactly got me so hoocked. So it feels like I've been infected, by some cosmic horror dissease. Allow me to explain:
I got Bloodborne for free, with the psn Collection years ago. I watched reviews of all the games, and even looking cool and having a great review, I didn't even considered downloading it. Please, forgive me, it wasn't my time. I hadn't heard about From Software as I had become a father and was disconected with videogame news for a while. But when I bought the ps4, terms like "souls" "soulslike" "Miyazaki" started to pop up everwhere. I saw a tv show called "Devs" and some guy played Dark Souls, and the series director talked about his awe for this game. As I loved the show, I took a note.
I also read/heard they were so hard. Many people tried and left. And I'm a bit old, so I wanted to try, but I didn't want the deception of not being good enough to beat the game. Or at least to enjoy the game. So I felt both atraction and rejection... I figured I'd try Dark Souls, as I was more into knights and swords than horror. I bought the trilogy, and waited for a good time to start.
I've read Lovecraft's books, I played the table RPG Call of Cthulhu, I watched the whole Supernatural series (Monster hunters), I like videogames, and I've played my share of hard ones... So I should have liked Bloodborne from the start. Why didn't interest me? And then I tried it, I took an active part, and I was sold. From no interest - to crazy obsession.
I've gone as far as thinking that if I divorced I could play more hours, I'm going to sleep late and waking up in the middle of the night and thinking "should I play a bit before I go to work?". I need to have a community of people talking about this game, it's not that I like that it exists, I need it. I need people who are in the know. I feel people are not in the same reallity if they haven't played the game. I'm secretly reading and writing about the game while at work. I want to have my 1st tatoo, getting the hunter's mark. I try to get interested in other things and my mind goes back to Yharnam.
All of this reminds me of Lovecraft's characters that have lost their sanity after being in contact with supernatural beings. Hence, my question. Are our minds infected, open to a new perception that allows us to see and hunt creatures of the deep?
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Huhuhehahaaa ha haha haa uyyyy