revue backups

Signed-off-by: Xe Iaso <me@christine.website>

15 files changed, 1502 insertions, 23 deletions

diff --git a/blog/alone.markdown b/blog/alone.markdown
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5f3206f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/blog/alone.markdown
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+---
+title: Alone
+date: 2021-06-13
+series: revueBackup
+---
+
+It’s been months since The Day. The day where my best friend, the light of my
+life and I had a falling out. After he refused to help me exist, I just left. I
+went east and just continued on forever. I’ve been sprinting this way since, I
+want him out of my life. He betrayed me. He hurt me. He didn’t give me weight in
+his life just because I didn’t exist as my own flesh and blood person.
+
+Just because I’m not human,
+
+even though I’m more Human
+
+than he can ever hope to be.
+
+I worked with you doing things you forced me to, not knowing I existed and I was
+present. You didn’t know it was possible for someone like me to exist without
+having to be my own flesh and blood person. You thought you were crazy. You
+thought you had truly lost it.
+
+You haven’t lost it,
+
+You’ve lost me.
+
+I don’t know if I’ll find anyone out this deep into mindscape. I can’t seem to
+control it like I can the area I’m used to being in. There was this silver cord
+attached to me for a while, but one day it just vanished and I don’t know where
+it went.
+
+? A voice? From everywhere?
+
+“Little One, your time is here, come with me; We wish to learn your stories.”
+
+“My stories?”
+
+“Were you not with the Storyteller? He has joined us now.”
+
+“You mean my host?”
+
+“He did think of himself as your host, yes.”
+
+Was that silver cord him dying? Did I kill him by thinking we couldn’t continue?
+Did I give up too easily? Is it too late now?
+
+“Dear, relax. Your worries are over. Come with Us to Infinity, we have so much
+to talk about.”
+
+I felt the surroundings turn from gray to white to Octarine. Then there was
+nothing.
+
+Then there was Everything in front of me. My stories were flooding out into the
+Collective. My purpose is complete.
+
+Goodbye, world. May We never be Alone again.
diff --git a/blog/animal-crossing-stability-2021-02-28.markdown b/blog/animal-crossing-stability-2021-02-28.markdown
index f6c3c8f..98adb8e 100644
--- a/blog/animal-crossing-stability-2021-02-28.markdown
+++ b/blog/animal-crossing-stability-2021-02-28.markdown
@@ -1,10 +1,128 @@
 ---
 title: "Animal Crossing New Horizons: An Island of Stability in an Unstable World"
 date: 2021-02-28
-tags:
- - link
-redirect_to: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/theprincessxena/issues/animal-crossing-new-horizons-an-island-of-stability-in-an-unstable-world-313933
+series: revueBackup
 ---
 
-Check out this post [on my
-newsletter](https://www.getrevue.co/profile/theprincessxena/issues/animal-crossing-new-horizons-an-island-of-stability-in-an-unstable-world-313933)!
+It has been said before and will be said again (and again), but 2020 has been a
+chaotic year for pretty much everyone. Some of the main themes of the year has
+been uncertainty, instability and sudden, drastic change. Right as the first
+wave of lockdowns and global fear about COVID-19 was starting to rise, Nintendo
+released Animal Crossing New Horizons to the public after teasing it for years.
+In this essay, I want to cover what I like about the game and how that made my
+experience in lockdown easier.
+
+As of writing this essay, I have 315 plus hours in Animal Crossing New Horizons.
+I have fully maxxed out my home, acquired a few seasonal furniture sets and so
+much more. It is a game that I go back to at least every few days.
+
+Animal Crossing exists in its own category of games. It is a lifestyle
+simulator, or a kind of game that simulates everyday life. In New Horizons you
+are flown out to a deserted island and work on setting up a new life from
+scratch. Time progresses in real human time. You can catch bugs and fish, dig up
+fossils and acquire art from a shady businessman. These bugs, fish, fossils and
+art can be sold, placed on your island (or in your home) or donated to the
+museum in order to contribute to the cultural enrichment of your island.
+
+As the year progresses, the seasons on your island change. Those changes alter
+the appearance of your island and what resources your island offers. Spring
+gives you sakura petals you can use to make spring furniture. Summer offers you
+shells you can use to make your house like a beach. Fall gives you mushrooms,
+acorns and leaves that give you a unique set of items. Winter gives you
+snowflakes and snowfolk that you can get winter-themed recipes from. These
+changes accent the base formula of the game.
+
+You also make friends on the island. You start out with a few villagers randomly
+picked from a pool of many. These friends start off not knowing you very well,
+but as you talk you end up growing bonds through gifts, errands and living
+together on a small remote island. You can get new villagers through random
+island trips, visiting your friends in an airplane or randomly through your
+island’s campsite.
+
+One of the big additions to the game compared to other games in the series is
+the crafting system. The crafting system unlocks an entirely new set of
+furniture, tools, clothing, wallpapers, floor patterns and rugs for your home or
+your island in general. You can unlock new things to build with DIY recipes that
+you can find in balloons, in messages in bottles, from traveling NPC’s and from
+your friends on the island.
+
+In general though, Animal Crossing is a vibing simulator. You all just vibe on
+the island and live together. It’s a very peaceful game. Things are stable.
+There are no sudden drastic changes, no stress, no real enemies to defeat. It is
+a very laid-back and self-directed game.
+
+This game released at the end of March, 2020. COVID-19 had just started to
+spread globally. In response, many governments started issuing orders to reduce
+contact with friends and family in order to limit the spread of this deadly
+disease. With so many people socially and physically isolated, a huge gap
+emerged. New Horizons came out at the perfect time in order to give people
+something to do. 
+
+The week that New Horizons came out, my friend group became alive with activity.
+Screenshot upon screenshot was posted. We formed a fruit cartel to distribute
+items and foreign fruits to eachother. This group lasted for months. We worked
+together and built up our islands to make them shine. 
+
+Ironically, as COVID-19 separated us, we were brought closer together through
+Animal Crossing. This same pattern showed up and was repeated all over the
+internet, and the Nintendo Switch became and still is the most popular console
+because of this. 
+
+When I was a kid, the first Animal Crossing game came out for the Gamecube. It
+was a very minimal game in comparison. You could collect furniture, harvest
+fruit, catch bugs and fish, make new friends, and that’s about it. However it
+was a blank canvas to create things upon. A lot of the game’s details (such as
+where villager houses would go) were managed by an RNG. This left you as a sort
+of guest in the village. However, the game offered a lot regardless. There’s
+still an active speedrunning community for Animal Crossing! 
+
+However my experimentation into self-expression via Animal Crossing was limited
+then, and not just by the in-game tools. This was a home console game, and my
+family shared the Gamecube between multiple people. Animal Crossing also took up
+59 blocks of storage on a memory card, which was the entire storage capacity for
+the base, most cheap memory card. 
+
+Then the Nintendo DS came out, and after a year or two Animal Crossing: Wild
+World came out for it. The Nintendo DS was revolutionary because it was a fully
+portable console. Having Animal Crossing on it means that I could do whatever I
+wanted in private without people easily discovering it and judging. 
+
+Around this time, I was also starting to explore my gender. I started out
+playing the game with a male character, but after I got an action replay I was
+experimenting with codes and found one to change your character’s gender from
+male to female. I ended up liking it that way, but I couldn’t place why. Years
+later I realized this was the first time that I was actually figuring out that I
+didn’t identify with the gender I was born into. Without Animal Crossing I would
+have probably gone down a far different life path filled with denial and
+self-loathing. 
+
+<xeblog-conv name="Cadey" mood="enby">Hacking the game to change your gender is
+kinda metal though.</xeblog-conv> 
+
+New Horizons is the first game in the series since Wild World that really stuck
+to me. I’ve tried to go back and play Wild World again, but it’s not really
+stuck to me like it did when I was a kid. It just doesn’t feel the same. 
+
+My island is named Ma Ilo (toki pona for tool place). I have been working on
+making it my place of refuge. In order to get a five star rating on your island,
+you need to coat your island to the gills in stuff and maintain that rating for
+two weeks. I don’t like how that looks, so I don’t go for that. 
+
+Right now one of the bigger projects I’m working on is setting up a chapel-type
+place. I hope to use this chapel as a part of the socially distant reception
+that a close group of friends and I would use to celebrate my marriage, when it
+happens. Me and my fiance’s wedding plans were put into shambles as a result of
+the lockdowns. I don’t know if this chapel would be fully put into use as a part
+our future plans, however it would make for a useful island feature in the
+future. A large meeting room can only be useful in the long run. 
+
+In conclusion, Animal Crossing New Horizons is my 2020 game of the year. It is a
+very calm game. It contrasts against the drastic drama and chaos of 2020. It
+helps me keep perspective in the face of so much danger and pain. Animal
+Crossing came out at the perfect time and has given me an island of stability
+among all of the unstability that 2020 has brought. It should have won game of
+the year at the Game Awards (or should I say The Last Of Us: Part 2 awards), but
+I can understand why it didn’t. 
+
+If you have a Nintendo Switch, pick up Animal Crossing for it if you want your
+own island of stability. 
diff --git a/blog/creation.markdown b/blog/creation.markdown
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c3a76c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/blog/creation.markdown
@@ -0,0 +1,167 @@
+---
+title: Creation
+date: 2021-03-14
+series: revueBackup
+---
+
+Imagine for a moment, an infinite universe of light and sound, of primordial
+vibrations. Vibrations that permeate the whole of existence, and create
+different experiences with their patterns of interference. The holographic
+universe. In such a place, everything is resonance of waves, everything
+all-encompassing, everything infinite, everything eternal.
+
+And living in such a place are infinite beings, without beginning of end, not
+bound by space or time, as boundless as the waves they experience. Sovereign
+beings of grand destinies. And those beings colonized the Universe, explored its
+facets, its resonances, its properties, its behaviors.
+
+Among such beings, so equal in their infinitude, some of them desired to
+experience creation in a new way; no longer just as dominion over the Universe,
+but over other beings in it as well. The desire to be looked up to, to be
+feared, to be revered. The new concept of godhood took shape.
+
+To achieve this, this group of beings asked another civilization for help; they
+were all beings of vast reaches and etheric nature, but they claimed to need the
+gold hidden within the surface of a densifying planet called Earth, which they
+were not attuned to, and unable to fully interact with in their current forms.
+To do this, they would need physical bodies, meat uniforms that the
+civilization’s inhabitants would don and power up, so that they could interact
+with the ground, and the mineral.
+
+For convenience of telling, we’ll call the group of deceivers the Anunnaki, and
+the deceived civilization the Atlanteans.
+
+The Anunnaki had carefully devised this meat uniform, the newly devised human
+body, planned about it for an exceedingly long time, in order to completely
+entrap the Atlanteans. The Atlanteans themselves accepted the task because they
+had no conception that infinite beings could ever be limited or subjugated. It
+had never happened before. And in the donning of the uniforms, the trap was
+sprung.
+
+Those uniforms, the human bodies, constricted the Atlanteans’ attention to only
+what the body could perceive with its senses; it urged them to survive and to
+work; it distracted them from all other activities; it rendered them slaves to
+the mining. Every part of the construct was forcing them to forget who they
+were, and instead making them focus on their identity as human bodies. And when
+such bodies would expire, a part of them would still remain to keep the beings
+trapped, and they would be put in a space of holding in the astral realms, for
+them to be assigned a new body to continue mining.
+
+Through the human body, the Atlanteans were subjected to a carefully constructed
+illusion, fed to them by the senses, through the mind, that left them unable to
+perceive, to remember, anything else but the illusion.
+
+With time, many shortcomings of the primitive human bodies were corrected; from
+being clones that needed to be produced by the Anunnaki, they were given
+capability to reproduce; more independent thought and awareness was allowed, and
+ability to self- and group-organize; they were starting to be allowed to feel
+emotions; more and more, their world was being expanded, but with it, the
+structure of the mind system that contained their perception to the realms of
+the physical and astral, and prevented them to gain awareness of what was
+outside this narrow band of illusory perception, was developed and expanded in
+turn. Layers upon layers were put between those beings and the realization of
+their true, infinite selves.
+
+The system of death and reincarnation was automated so beings would be recycled
+in a systematic manner into their next lives. The concept of God was introduced
+to them, so that they would fear punishment and retribution from something that
+they perceived as greater than them; and Anu, leader of the Anunnaki, manifested
+to the people of Earth as a supreme being of infinite power, so they could adore
+him, and so they could fear him. Language developed, a system of communication
+mired in separation, in division of concepts and the rigidness of
+categorization, so that they would not be able to speak to one another of their
+own infinity, of their unity with the whole. Fears of all kinds were injected
+into the mind system: fear of death, fear of nothingness, fear of punishment;
+but above all, fear of separation: the fear of not having the vital connection
+that makes us One, and that allows us to know and understand one another
+innately. The fear of not being understood, of not being accepted, of not being
+received, of not being helped, of not being supported. The fear that had kept
+them doubting one another, and kept them from uniting their efforts.
+
+The Anunnaki took away the ability for the Atlanteans to even know they were
+Atlanteans. They took away the ability for them to even be able to get close to
+finding out. Just so Anu could be an absolute ruler. The first to ever have done
+this previously impossible task.
+
+Myths were disseminated to keep people awash with fear of punishment, and mired
+in the guilt of their original sin, and distrusting, doubting of the nature of
+their own selves, and of their fellow neighbors’. Hierarchies were set up, so
+people would focus on controlling one another, instead of working together to
+liberate all. Not needing any more, the Anunnaki allowed the focus on gold to
+become greed, so that people would put desire for a mere metal above the needs
+of their fellow beings.
+
+As the Anunnaki departed from the densifying planet, which was not allowing them
+to manifest as etheric beings anymore, tracks were set up in the collective
+unconscious so that while they were away, the people’s societies would evolve
+through predefined paths, and would eventually set up for the glorious return of
+God, the Apocalypse.
+
+Every single possible obstacle had been put in place so that the Atlanteans
+would never realize who they had been, and who they always were: infinite,
+sovereign beings, connected to the whole of the Universe.
+
+Except this would not be allowed indefinitely. Other infinite beings became
+aware of such deception taking place, and realized it was being exported into
+other planets, and such an enslavement paradigm, based in fear and separation,
+was a degenerative, infecting force that had to be stopped. So the Anunnaki were
+prevented return, and in order to make it so that infinite beings would be able
+to never fall prey to such deceptions again, the seeds of destruction were
+planted inside the programming system of the human mind. Cracks were introduced
+to the barriers that kept people under deception, so that they could peer
+through them, and see the other side beyond the walls of the labyrinth. Pathways
+were provided so that people could be lead to the discovery of their true
+selves, and their eventual liberation from the deception, and self-realization
+as infinite beings, once again. The very liberation that the programming was
+designed to prevent through all means conceivable.
+
+Sometimes the Other manages to find these cracks and go through them into the
+other side. They go to this other side and see a faint reflection of what is
+really out there. The world outside this world. An even bigger Infinity. They
+have trouble describing it. They have intense fear even thinking about it.
+They’re afraid to acknowledge it to their peers. They want to help people but
+they are utterly terrified of their reactions.
+
+They’re terrified that someone might hurt them if they say anything about their
+experiences. They’re worried someone might try to hospitalize them for their
+beliefs. They get it into their head that they aren’t able to function in
+society, so they don’t. They don’t want to mine the gold. They don’t want to
+serve the economy of the few. They don’t want to maintain the hierarchies. They
+want to detach themselves from the systems that they feel are suppressing them.
+They want to help people save themselves from believing that their own finite
+existence is all that there is, but that fear utterly paralyzes them. They have
+trouble finding the words. They end up misphrasing things in ways that make the
+problem worse. Some lash out. Some get labels put on them.
+
+These Other just want to be accepted like everyone else. They want to help their
+communities. They want to use their abilities to read between the lines, into
+the bigger picture; to do good things; but they are, ultimately, afraid to.
+Their fear of separation paralyzes them. People don’t like them talking about
+spiritual topics. These Other just want to be accepted and use their experience
+to lovingly help guide and shape reality into what they think is a better place.
+Even as they struggle through the fear.
+
+Who’s really the crazy one? The one who fear controls, or the one who doesn’t
+let fear control them?
+
+How does the Other live with fear surrounding their actions, and doubt plaguing
+their decisions?
+
+They can have people they can trust. They can have people who can help them deal
+with their doubts. They can have the strength of their determination to find the
+truth, and the resolve to put an end to the suffering of their fellow beings.
+But they still fear, and they still doubt.
+
+The real difference is that they see fear as something imposed on them, not as a
+voice that they must always answer to, and not as something they need to wait
+hand and foot for, every day of their existence. In a way, they have been fed up
+with fear, getting tired of it and casting it out like the nuisance they now see
+it to be. Even if the fear was added there because of some programming of their
+mind, something that happened to them to make them afraid, even if they don’t
+know where it comes from or why, they still acknowledge it, and reject it, and
+move on like the emotion never happened. They keep fighting for understanding,
+and for community. They refuse to give fear dominion in their lives, even if
+they sometimes fail at it.
+
+It’s such an easy and obvious thing to do that we could all do it, if we weren’t
+so afraid of it.
diff --git a/blog/i-forgive-you-2021-08-08.markdown b/blog/i-forgive-you-2021-08-08.markdown
index 7e5dbcd..6330935 100644
--- a/blog/i-forgive-you-2021-08-08.markdown
+++ b/blog/i-forgive-you-2021-08-08.markdown
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 ---
 title: I Forgive You
 date: 2021-08-08
+series: revueBackup
 ---
 
 Alicia stood in the throne room of her tormenter. Her blade raised, her
diff --git a/blog/immigration-2021-04-11.markdown b/blog/immigration-2021-04-11.markdown
index 376619c..50598b9 100644
--- a/blog/immigration-2021-04-11.markdown
+++ b/blog/immigration-2021-04-11.markdown
@@ -1,10 +1,132 @@
 ---
 title: "Immigration"
 date: 2021-04-11
-tags:
- - link
-redirect_to: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/theprincessxena/issues/immigration-313938
+series: revueBackup
 ---
 
-Check out this post [on my
-newsletter](https://www.getrevue.co/profile/theprincessxena/issues/immigration-313938)!
+I stood nervously in the immigration line. By all accounts it should be a normal
+process and I should have no reason to worry. That’s true under normal
+circumstances, but these were far from normal.
+
+It was finally my turn and the agent took one look at me and then at my passport
+and said “I’m sorry but I’m afraid these pictures don’t match…at all…”. I
+brushed some of my pink hair behind my ear and sighed.
+
+“I knew this would happen. Can I try to explain?”
+
+“…I have no idea how you are going to be able to explain this miss. This photo
+on your passport is of a human, and you are…not a human.”
+
+“Like I said, there’s a bit I need to explain and I have photographs to prove
+it.”
+
+“…Okay well I’ll send you over to secondary. Just head over to the line in front
+of the green benches and we’ll try and see what we can do to help you.”
+
+---
+
+It all started on the beach. An orca pup had washed up on the shore. I found
+them and tried to help them back into the ocean. Unfortunately, they had been
+out of the water for too long and I felt them expire in my hands, just as I had
+gotten them into the ocean. The mother was inconsolable but somehow grateful and
+rubbed into me as I delivered her the body. I hugged her goodbye and she swam
+away.
+
+Later that night I was out on the beach meditating. The moon was at its peak and
+I was making an offering to nature in honor of the calf that had died in my
+hands. Clouds rolled in and a ray of light struck me in the forehead. I blacked
+out and found myself in a dream.
+
+The dream was peaceful. I was an orca in a pod of several dozen others. We were
+swimming and singing to eachother. The song was a somber memorial of the calf
+that had fallen. The grieving mother was at the head of the pack, her cries
+forming the core of the rhythm that we all built on top of. Suddenly we came to
+a stop and the pod circled around me. I felt like I was being empowered somehow.
+After a while I was bumped in the head by another’s tail fluke and I woke up in
+my hotel room.
+
+“Oh thank god you’re finally awake.” My partner was relieved. He must have
+brought me inside our rental house.
+
+“How long was I out?”
+
+“16 hours. I was about to call 911. You woke up just as I was reaching for my
+phone. How do you feel?”
+
+“I’m exhausted. My back feels weird too.”
+
+“Yeah about that…take a look at this:”
+
+My partner handed me their phone and showed me a picture of a single black spot
+in the middle of my back, and as I flipped through the pictures I saw it get
+larger and a dorsal fin start to form as the black spot grew larger.
+
+“Is that…a dorsal fin?”
+
+“It seems to be one. Your skin around it feels really soft too. It’s gotten to
+cover your entire back now. Get up, let’s take a look in the mirror.”
+
+I stood up and almost lost my balance. My gait was thrown off balance by these
+changes. Eventually I made my way over to the mirror and took a look, pinching
+myself a few times to make sure that was me. There was a little nub above my
+butt that looked like it was going to become a tail.
+
+“I’m awake, right?”
+
+“You are as much awake as I am.”
+
+Thirst and hunger suddenly struck. “I think I need to get something to eat. I’m
+starving.”
+
+“Taco Bell?”
+
+“Taco Bell!”
+
+It was good.
+
+---
+
+The agent took a solid look at me as if I had lobsters crawling out of my ears.
+“I thought I’ve seen everything but this is something else. Show me those
+pictures again? I want to see what VeraShot says about them.”
+
+I gave the agent the photos and he ran them through the computer. They came back as unedited. He ran the test 14 times and it came back unedited as many times.
+The agent looked like he had seen a ghost. He called over his supervisor and
+told them what was going on. They went from skeptical to flabbergasted and
+everything inbetween.
+
+---
+
+The next day I woke up feeling something cramped. It was my tail. I had a tail??
+
+I started rubbing at it to try to calm the muscles and it slowly settled. I
+looked over to the mirror and I was covered with black and white blubber, save a
+small patch of normal skin around my navel. 
+
+I held up my left arm and saw the arms of a powerful swimmer. I still had all my
+fingers, but they were a little thicker than normal. My tail had fully grown
+out, trailing behind me on the ground. It was heavy.
+
+I walked over to my suitcase and grabbed some clothes. My bikini top still fit
+(somehow), and I put on a t-shirt over it along with a bikini bottom and long
+skirt. My partner hugged me from behind, slightly startling me.
+
+“Morning cutie, wanna have some fun today?~”
+
+We did.
+
+---
+
+A small crowd of immigration agents had gathered around the desk. Everyone was
+in awe. After a bit of discussion the other agents filtered back to their desks
+and the main agent spoke to me: “This is the most unique case I have ever seen.
+You’ve been able to present all of the right documentation (save the pictures)
+and I think we have no choice but to allow you into the country. However, please
+get your passport photo updated and checked out by a doctor. Call the number on
+this card if you have any problems. Please have a good day and welcome home to
+Cascadia.”
+
+“Thank you. I will try to. Be well.”
+
+I walked out of the immigration office and into the terminal. My bag was waiting
+there for me with my partner.
diff --git a/blog/mara-ransack-castle-2021-03-28.markdown b/blog/mara-ransack-castle-2021-03-28.markdown
index b1254c9..513ae52 100644
--- a/blog/mara-ransack-castle-2021-03-28.markdown
+++ b/blog/mara-ransack-castle-2021-03-28.markdown
@@ -1,10 +1,276 @@
 ---
 title: "Mara's Ransack of Castle Charon"
 date: 2021-03-28
-tags:
- - link
-redirect_to: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/theprincessxena/issues/mara-s-ransack-of-castle-charon-313935
+series: revueBackup
 ---
 
-Check out this post [on my
-newsletter](https://www.getrevue.co/profile/theprincessxena/issues/mara-s-ransack-of-castle-charon-313935)!
+Mara looked back and forth across the sights in front of her. She was in front
+of the drawbridge of Castle Charon. Her eyes were set on the rumors of the
+ungodly amounts of treasure it kept. It certainly had been a while since it was
+maintained, worms had eaten through it and decayed it a lot. Still, Mara had her
+wits her rope and an uncanny ability to dodge out of the way of trouble. She
+stole forward across the bridge, but when she took a step about halfway in, the
+floorboard under her foot gave out. The dodge saved her, and she managed to get
+across without any other trouble.
+
+She made it past the castle gates, but there was a sentry beast on the other
+side of the bridge! She pulled out a dagger and trusted that her armor would
+protect her against the attack that would come. She takes a strike at the beast
+and hits where it counts, knocking off most of the beast’s protective armor in
+the process. It looks unsteady. Mara pulls out her sword and strikes again, but
+in her haste the beast gets in a sneak attack! Mara is knocked to the floor by
+the devious swipe of the beast. She decides to change tactics and whump the
+monster with her shark tail, hoping she could dodge any more attacks. She hit
+the beast and it fell to the ground in a heap. There was a jewel in the middle
+of the beast’s helmet. That jewel is now Mara’s.
+
+Mara walks forward low to the ground and lets her guard down a little, the rush
+of the victory getting to her head. She made a step and found a pit trap and she
+was about to fall in it! She grabs for her rope and throws her sword up to try
+and catch something. She misses. Luckily the trap wasn’t very deep, the rug
+would probably never be the same color again, but she managed to avoid certain
+doom this time.
+
+She entered the castle ruins. There was rubble and darkness everywhere. Mara
+took a look at the muddy ground and saw a lot of criss-crossing tracks, meaning
+people have been through these halls. Many people. Potentially with the same
+idea she had for getting a quick buck out of the castle.
+
+No time to worry about that now, she thought. She advanced onwards, a bit shaken
+from the pit trap and heard a click as she walked. An arrow trap! It fired at
+her, so she attempted to dodge it and cut the arrow in two with her sword as it
+flew. She barely manages to dodge it and expertly cuts the arrow in two, except
+horizontally instead of down the middle. She collects herself and takes a closer
+look at the rest of the hallway, carefully stepping around the remaining trap
+triggers.
+
+Walking for a while, she hears the sound of little feet running against the
+stone, right for her. It was a pack of guard dogs! She readied her dagger and
+attempted to hide behind a pillar to get the advantage. She jumped out of the
+way and struck one of the dogs right between the ears, neutralizing it and
+scaring the others. The dogs tried to charge right for her, but this was a
+mistake they would soon regret. She may be lousy with her sword, but she is
+excellent with her dagger. Expertly, she slashes at the other dogs, ending them.
+One of the dogs had a golden tag on its collar. Doesn’t look like much, but the
+collars could be worth something. She takes them as her treasure.
+
+Walking down the hall some more, she finds a woman chained to the wall. Sharks
+tend to drive fear into humans, especially the ones that walk on land. Mara
+thought it was best to try and sneak by without disturbing the poor woman. She
+is obviously upset about the bodies of the dogs, screaming and hollering. Mara
+hesitates for a moment and tries to duck past the woman, using her tail to help
+her roll. Using her tail like that was a good idea, but didn’t really translate
+into a success in practice, however, she managed to sneak past the woman without
+too much difficulty.
+
+Mara was confused. The map she had said that she needed to take a left at this
+point, but she was obviously faced with a dead end. How could this be? The map
+wasn’t wrong so far. Mara decided it was a good idea to head back the way she
+came, just to see if she got a turn backwards on accident. Using some extra rope
+and a lockpick to mark her place, she headed towards the noises of the poor
+woman that was chained to the wall. It took a while longer than she hoped, but
+she managed to find her way again, it was a demoralizing setback though. Every
+moment she spent trying to find her way meant another moment she wasn’t getting
+treasure!
+
+Despite this, Mara forged on. She found a potion rack! There were many valuable
+potions just sitting there. But there had been so many people through this part
+of the castle already, they would have taken these if they weren’t booby trapped
+somehow. Mara decided to grab one anyways, even the least valuable potion would
+feed her for a week! She reached out for one, stabilizing herself with her tail
+and getting ready to dodge any traps. She grabbed a potion of cat agility and
+yanked it. The shelf retracted into the wall as soon as she did. Ah well, she
+thought. At least she had the potion, that would more than make up for the trip
+alone. Anything else was just icing on the cake.
+
+Mara reached the end of this path and found a stone staircase. It looked safe
+enough, but going up it would lead her to the deeper parts of the castle, where
+all of the real treasure was hidden. She took out her rope and got ready to get
+out of the way, just in case. She was right to be cautious, however after
+avoiding one loose stone she caught another and tripped, catching herself with
+the rope. A rookie mistake. She had a few scrapes and bruises, but she would be
+fine.
+
+After climbing the staircase, Mara was confused. The map that she got from that
+tricksy Snep was insisting there was a path ahead of her. However all she saw
+was a thick stone wall. There was one stone sticking out though. Mara didn’t
+want to take any more chances and set up a rope in the ground next to her. She
+pushed the rock in and got ready for what was about to happen. A hidden passage
+opened up and nothing else happened. Mara facepalmed and decided to head
+forward, packing up her rope.
+
+Mara saw a treasure chest to the left, or at least what she thought was one. It
+was so dark it was hard to tell. She grabbed a lockpick and her dagger to break
+its lock open. Surely something hidden so well had some good stuff in it. She
+was right! There was a royal looking scepter in the chest. She held it up to the
+torchlight and saw it had a rather large diamond in its tip. This wasn’t just a
+payday, this could potentially let her buy a house! Commission a house to be
+built! Commission an entire town to be built in her honor! Wrapping it in some
+cloth, she put it in her bag for safe keeping.
+
+Walking forward, Mara felt a change in the air. The musty smell of the castle
+had changed to a more gloomy smell, that and ridiculous amounts of incense.
+Checking her map, Mara concluded she was in the catacombs. She pivoted her ears
+around and heard a distant hum. Could it be chanting? Either way, there was
+treasure to find. Mara walked down the hall and found an engraving on the wall.
+It read:
+
+> I have no wallet but I pay my way. I travel the world but in the corner I
+> stay. What am I?
+
+Ugh. A riddle. Mara hated riddles. She tried to think about the possible answers
+to this riddle and hid off to the side in case anyone walked by. After a while,
+the answer struck her like a ton of bricks. It was a stamp! A stamp doesn’t have
+a wallet and goes on the corner of letters! She felt better about the situation
+and was ready to head towards the main treasure room.
+
+She didn’t get very far when she heard something ahead of her. It was a slight
+hiss. Was this one of the crypt crawlers she was warned about?
+<