Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Hopefully I’ll have the time (and, more importantly, energy) to add something about teaching/Japan/Korea soon. The Mt. Fuji story misses me. ;_;
I had quite a bit of fun as I wrote this, so I might make a series out of it.
1. Things seem like they can’t get any worse, and then they do; but then they get better.
2. Madness is scary.
3. Even temperamental emo guys can have a deeply ingrained respect for etiquette.
4. If you are lucky enough to be recruited by an inter-worldly organization, don’t condemn yourself to sitting inside all day — go explore the other worlds!
5. By the same token, don’t be a hermit, or you’ll miss a lot of important rumors information about the people you work with.
6. Sometimes people don’t need your help, they need your sanity. (And sometimes they think they can get it by sucking out your life force.)
7. If you find yourself in another world, the dangers of which you do not know the full extent, and come across something strange with spikes/horns/thorns/claws/sharp teeth/venomous breath or saliva/radioactive blue skin… poke it with a stick. Regardless of what happens next, you’ll have a story to tell afterward.
8. Acting rashly makes life interesting, but it’s only fun if you survive.
9. Chekhov’s gun. If it catches your attention, better keep it in mind until you can figure out why.
10. It is physically possible to be kicked into a stone wall and come out of it with only a mild concussion.
11. Likewise, it is possible to confront the equivalent of Vlad the Impaler and Genghis Khan’s mentally psychotic lovechild in hand-to-hand combat with literally no experience and win. (But only if your name is Cipher.)
12. Everyone is different; some grow up in a single book, while others take a whole series.
13. There is no such thing as pure good or pure evil. However the rest of the world sees someone, they have their own reasons for acting the way they do.
Sand from a Distant Shore 