Inspiration can be a fickle thing. The muses may guide our hearts towards a particular passion, but they don’t always stick around to see us through it. As a child, Kousei Arima felt a natural attraction to the piano. He could play music by ear, was a gifted mimic, and had boat loads of potential to one day dominate the instrument. With the help and encouragement of a family friend, Kousei’s mom set him on his desired path, but life as a pianist was harder than he thought. Rather than playing for fun and expressing himself through music, she wanted him to be able to make a living through his music, so she went as hard on her little pianist as possible, going as far as to beat and abuse him if he underperformed or tried to play a piece in his own way. By the time the terminal illness she’d hid from him took it’s toll on her, his passion was gone, replaced with the cold, robotic delivery of one who could deliver a piece perfectly, but found no more joy in doing so. He lost his mother, along with his ability to hear the notes he was playing.
Two years later and about three feet taller(I’ll GET to that), Kousei still tinkers around with the piano, but hasn’t played it seriously, to the chagrin of all who enjoyed his work, or just hate to see him so incomplete. It’s at this point, like all down-trodden men who’ve lost their luster for life, that along comes that one girl to bring color back into his world. Her name is Kaori Miyazono, and she’s a violinist who cares nothing for rules or convention, finding childish but somehow wise joy in every aspect of life, and with this one chance meeting, Kousei finds a new muse… A capricious, cheerful beauty whose revisionist musical performances instantly connect with the crowds she plays for, and whom seems singularly obsessed with performing alongside Kousei, and helping him to relaunch the career that he’d so recently abandoned. But her dedication to helping him to overcome his tragedy hides a secret tragedy of her own, and one simple lie she told back in April will live on to define their relationship as they change each others lives through mutual inspiration.
I haven’t seen everything that’s been produced by A-1 pictures, but I honestly can’t remember seeing anything they’ve done that looked outright bad. Sure, Sword Art Online and From the New world looked a little sloppy at times, resorting to broken character models to show fluid motion at reduced costs, but if that’s the worst they can do, then they could do a lot worse. They seem to take a lot of care with their work, putting an admirable amount of effort into quality control, like letting a low budget get the better of them would be an insult to their pride or something, and if that observation is correct, then I like the way they think. I’ve noticed that they generally have a penchant for putting a lot of energy into special effects, and then using just enough budget saving tricks to compensate without going overboard or letting it become noticeable. Key frames are well drawn and pleasing to the eye, and they feature a little more than just flapping mouths, with occasional shifts in posture to keep the characters expressive.
Of course, there don’t need to be special effects in a show about musicians, right? Wrong. Not only are special textures like water given special treatment, but we often get visual representations of the emotions brought out by a piece of music, which use environmental and 3D effects to keep our attention during the sequence, especially towards the end when Kousei and Kaori are playing together in a fantasy sequence, and the camera liberally revolves around a beautifully 3D animated piano. The characters also have a lot of inner monologuing that’s shown to us in artistic fashion, reminiscent of His and Hers Circumstances, but what I found the most impressive was the actual animation of the characters playing their instruments on stage. I can’t confirm this, but I have heard from a few people that A-1 pictures used a technique similar to rotoscoping, and I feel no justification for doubting this rumor, as every movement of the performing musicians, from fingers on the keys to the way the bow’s movements perfectly matches the music of the violin.
It would be so easy to get away with having a still image on screen while only the performers arms moved, and more intense note being played offscreen while only the audience’s frozen faces of adoration are showcased, but as I said, that would be an insult to A-1. Kousei, Kaori and several others put their entire bodies into their performances, losing themselves in it, and you feel every drop of their adrenaline. Character designs are beautifully polished and easy on the eyes, with it’s only major departure from reality being that the musician characters look a little more distinctive and exuberant than non-musicians, like Kousei’s friends. Well, okay, there is one other unrealistic detail that bothered me a bit… The difference in height between 14 year old characters and themselves at 12 is fucking insane. My jaw dropped when they said that Kousei quit the piano at 12, because he was so short that when he sat on the bench his feet didn’t even touch the ground. I could have sworn he was, like, 6 or something. It’s my only real issue with the visuals, but it’s still a pretty jarring one.
The music of the series… Do I even have to say it? It’s a series about musicians, and you can’t do something like that if you don’t have the knowledge or resources to pull it off, and they seriously pulled it off. Not only is it full of classical music, you can tell the difference in the way these pieces are being played, and the music that is meant to inspire and astound people does exactly that to the audience as well as the characters. From what I gather, Yuna Shinohara, a decorated Japanese violinist who was only 21 at the time, played the music for Kaori, and her wealth of training and experience did not go to waste. I can’t find as much information on Eriko Kawachi, who played all of the piano pieces, which is unfortunate. The show’s actual soundtrack was composed by Masaru Yokoyama, and while it isn’t as memorable or powerful as the character-based performances, it’s still solid and well-orchestrated, so it’s a shame it gets overlooked in favor of the insert tunes.
The English dub was produced by Aniplex, and features a lot of newer actors from this decade, alongside a few industry veterans. I’d like to say these newcomers step up and use this show as a platform to make a name for themselves, but I’d be stretching the truth a bit, mostly on account of the many loops that Your Lie’s text throws them for. Their performances were not consistent, which is a direct result of their material not being consistent, and I don’t really think it was fair for them to be thrown into something this eclectic. For the most part, they do a fine job voicing the characters while nothing’s really happening. It’s just characters talking to each other, sounding like natural teenagers going about their lives. Where they really shine is during dramatic scenes, and ho boy are there a lot of dramatic scenes in this anime. There’s a lot of pain, insecurities, confusion, all of that fun adolescent stuff, but with a much harsher but still believable edge to it once you realize the kind of real life circumstances that they’re dealing with.
While some of these issues may be worthy of an eyeroll from the viewer… Most of the characters who are in love with Kousei fall into this category… They’re going through issues that you probably had to deal with as well, and you can scoff at it from your seat as a grown up, or laugh at how silly it is for this obvious harem to try and be something more, they’re feeling something you’ve felt at some point, whether you remember it or not, and they damn well make you feel it. The exception, where several otherwise amazing actors begin to falter… Is with the gag humor, when the characters go SD Chibi for exaggerated reactions, and I don’t think they were ready to transition the specific roles they were playing into it. Max Mittelman, for example, is one of the best voice actors to come out of the 2010’s, and even though he hasn’t been acting long, his voice control and dramatic chops have landed him plenty of leading roles. He can do comedy under the right circumstances… You’d know what these circumstances are if you’ve seen One Punch Man… But he sounds horrible during the gag jokes.
It’s even worse for Erica Lindbeck, who had a tough job playing such a nuanced character as Kaori, whose happy-go-lucky persona hides a darker interior, and she does a great job of it, but the gag scenes just make her sound like a despicable asshole. Smaller characters face the same issue, albeit on a smaller scale, but the few veterans are able to navigate the minefield a lot more skillfully, like Wendee Lee(Who, in all fairness, never has to do a gag scene), Stephanie Sheh and Carrie Keranen. They have the experience to stretch their roles beyond the appropriate tones, which comes in handy here. The adaptive script is loose, but still accurate enough, and changes the vernacular so everyone sounds more like contemporary English, without ever sacrificing the intent of the text. They make a handful of charming and character-appropriate references, like occasional nods to Charlie Brown and The Phantom of the Opera, although they also use the phrase ‘as you know’ a few too many times. They probably should have changes some of the text, as a lot of it, when translated, sounds weird coming from 14 year olds.
Okay, so, here we are again. It wasn’t too long ago that I was calling out modern anime fans for letting their emotions cloud their judgement, saying that they often give perfect scores to any anime that makes them cry. Seriously, you could give a critic a massage, a home cooked meal and the best sex of their life and you’d still be working harder for a 10/10 than most anime do. Back in 2016, I’d just uploaded my reviews of Clannad and Clannad Afterstory, and I asked social media to recommend an anime that had genuine feels… nothing manipulative, nothing manufactured, nothing too formulaic, just an anime that would touch me emotionally and make me cry with sincerity. The overwhelming answer was Your Lie in April, a show I’d been avoiding due to all of the hype. I finally gave it a watch, and did it stand up as a heartfelt masterpiece, or did it offer the same old same old? Well, to be honest,it’s a little of both. My feelings on this show were mixed the first time around, and the second viewing hasn’t changed that.
Unfortunately, Your Lie doesn’t get off to a great start. The first thing we see is a foul ball hitting our man character in the head, lying on the floor and bleeding with what has to be a serious concussion, but not only does he heal immediately, but he shares the blame for the broken window the ball flew through. That’s not just bad, that’s disturbingly bad. It sets an early precedent for him being a sad sack with no will of his own, which I guess is kind of accurate, but it also makes his closest friend look like a monster for taking advantage of it(Trust me, this feeling is only gonna get worse.) I try to move past this, but almost immediately, it becomes apparent that all three of Kousei’s friends are some of my least favorite cliches in anime history. His two primary friends are Tsubaki and Watari, and they are… Respectively… A childhood friend who’s hopelessly in love with the main character, and a girl crazy guy who exists to make the main character feel desirable in comparison. I am so sick and tired of these two archetypes being stuck in orbit around at least half of the main characters in the medium.
And Kaori’s worse, because she’s a trope that I usually don’t see in anime, and I’m not complaining about that. She’s happy-go-lucky, she’s childish, she’s an enlightened soul who’s able to see all of the simple joy in life, and she comes out of nowhere to dedicate her life to dragging the main male character out of the slumps. She is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, which is to sexism what the Magical Negro trope is to racism. Granted, she deconstructs the trope a little bit, as she actually has a backstory and a reason to help Kousei, but she makes up for that small silver lining by taking the “Life begins at man” trope to a new extreme, as “Life begins AND ENDS at man.” I’ll give her this, she IS the reason I kept watching the series, as I was entranced by her violin performance in episode 2, and she made me want to keep watching so I could hear more of her work, which sounded even better when she played with Kousei. On top of that, she plays an important… Dare I say instrumental… Role in Your Lie’s deeper themes.
Your Lie in April is a story about inspiration, and it attacks this concept from every possible angle. As annoying and cliched as his friends may be, Kousei is a good character who has a great arc that deals with this theme. He begins as a child, having fun doing something that he’s gifted at, until he stops doing it for fun and starts doing it as a future career, being forced to perfect it and take it seriously by his mother, who pushes him to the point of abuse. She controls his life, making everything he does revolve around the piano, even taking away his cat and abandoning it somewhere so it can’t scratch his hands. He loses the ability to hear the notes he’s playing, and quits altogether to avoid his mother’s tyranny along with the intense pressure she put on him for not being good enough. On the surface, this is a very mature look at child abuse and the way it can have long term psychological effects on the developing mind, such as Kousei’s performance anxiety, and especially the fact that cats pose a trigger for him(And I mean the actual definition of trigger, not the bullshit internet definition), and the abuse in question is realistic, rather than cartoony or melodramatic.
Below the surface, this is a story for anyone who’s ever lost their passion for something they once loved. The idea that expressive and interpretive music is frowned upon, and only literal performances are acceptable in competition, which is enforced by both the competition committee and Kousei’s mother, gives an understandable reason for his loss of inspiration. His music was becoming routine, and pointless. I don’t think his inability to hear the notes he’s playing is realistic at all, but it’s symbolic for that loss of passion. When your work becomes routine, it becomes repetitive, and it finally becomes robotic. When your hobby becomes work, you fall out of love with it, which is why Kaori coming into his life was such a major turning point for him. She showed him that there was another way to play. She inspires him, breathing new life into his abilities, and helps him to separate his passion from the pain and sadness that he’d come to associate it with, and it changes his life in so many ways… He starts playing again, he comes out of his shell, and he even begins teaching a younger pianist… That he winds up inspiring her in return.
They also make an argument that you play even better when you’re playing for other people, and while I’ve never personally agreed with that, they make a compelling case. Your own music, your own performances, are not your only legacy. The music you inspire others with is just as important, as your work also lives on through their work. They make a great point when they say that it’s hard to play the piano when you compare yourself to Beethoven, but it’s not nearly as hard when you remember that Beethoven was once just like you, a rookie trying his best to measure up to the greats who inspired HIM. It’s a shame they had to resort to a manic pixie dream girl in order to pull this off, but it’s largely forgivable, especially considering certain reveals that happen in the final episode. So yeah, this is not a shallow series. There is meat to the story, and something meaningful that you can get out of watching it. I’d be happy to say that the series was also executed well, but sadly, this is where things start to break down.
The text of the series, for example, is severely lacking. The idea of inspiration and Kousei’s character arc are well written and exactly as subtle as it needs to be, but the other subplots… The romantic ones in particular… Are annoyingly obvious, and frankly, kind of arbitrary. I mentioned Tsubaki as a ‘childhood friend’ earlier, and while this should instantly telegraph that she’ll never get her guy… They never fucking do… She does absolutely nothing else to justify her presence. Everything about her revolves around her love for Kousei and why he won’t respond to it. Every aspect of her life ties in somehow to her love for him, and since it amounts to nothing, she could have been written out in the first half of the series. I won’t go into too much detail about the other romantic subplot, or how it offers Watari his only relevance to the plot(although he does have a few moments relating to the theme), but they commit one other huge mistake… They use constant, and I mean constant, voice over narration from the characters as they explain their feelings to the audience. It’s lame, it’s tedious, and it seems to be trying it’s best to keep YOU from thinking too hard about what you’re watching, because it doesn’t want the pointless teenage melodrama to lose it’s effect.
Another huge problem is the gag humor, which feels viscerally inappropriate and out of place. It makes the heavier themes of the show harder to swallow, and not just on an aesthetic level. For example: We see Kousei sustain head injuries during two of these gags, that result in him lying on the floor and bleeding out. We also see Kaori hit him right in the crown of the head with an axe kick, driving her heel down into his skull. Now, if these instances didn’t cause any lasting damage, and the people doing it are supposed to be seen as likable, how am I supposed to feel when his mother beats him in the head with her cane? I’ve seen him shrug off shit like that before, so I don’t care. Am I supposed to feel different because of the tone of the scenes? This isn’t the fucking Looney Toons. Hell, even the Looney Toons had consistency. I can’t be expected to believe that a portion of the material shown to me doesn’t count just because the writer was making a joke. That’s disgusting. I’ve complained about Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood making this mistake, but Your Lie is just as bad.
And then you have the plot, which did not work for me at all. Like, I said the themes were strong in this series, but they suffered one major setback. Kousei’s mother physically abused him and forced him to play music the way she wanted him to, all because she thought it was in his best interest. His friends, however, do exactly the same thing. Sure, they might not take away his beloved pet, but they still harass him, assault him, chase him, break into his room and generally act like complete assholes in order to get their way. He warns that his performance might not be good, he falters due to a psychological breakdown, Kaori has Tsubaki and Watari start roundhouse kicking him, and HE apologizes. How are they any different than his mother? Because it’s supposed to be comedic? I’m not exaggerating when I say that most of the interactions he has with his friends make me cringe, with their only justifications being ‘comedy,’ and the fact that they just happened to wind up being right. So the ends justify the means.
And then you have Kaori’s entire plot, which… Okay, I’m going to try not to go into spoilers, but if you’ve seen the show, you know damn well what I’m talking about. And this is the big one, the one that makes everybody praise the show out the wazoo, so I’ll try to be gentle. At the end of episode 4, Kaori faints on stage. At that moment, even though I was trying to enjoy the series despite it’s flaws, I couldn’t help it. I knew where this was going. I said, “Oh fuck, she’s gonna (censored), isn’t she?” I am dead serious about that. The beginning of the fifth episode featured her in the hospital, and folks, I predicted everything. I knew what was going to happen to her, i knew she was keeping it secret, I knew that it was going to be kept deliberately vague all the way to the end, I knew I’d never hear her play again(outside of maybe a dream or fantasy sequence), I knew what her backstory and connection to Kousei was going to be.
Knowing this stuff in advance took a huge damper off of the emotional impact of literally any point of the show. Granted, I did make one prediction that wasn’t true. I predicted we’d never meet her parents, which I wish had turned out true, because her parents are… Brace yourself for this… They’re Nagisa’s parents from Clannad. They are literally that. They own a pastry shop, they’re wacky and over-the-top, they live in said shop, and… Well, there’s one other spoiler connection, but that, along with a painful firefly sequence, made your Lie feel TERRIBLE at foreshadowing. I found myself, in both moments, shouting at my TV screen, “Okay, I get it, she’s gonna (censored), shut the fuck up about it!” So did the big bad tragedy work on me? No, of course it didn’t. The only part I got choked up at was a late scene when a cat died at a vet’s office, because it brought up painful memories for me. Don’t get me wrong, there’s something here, and it does make the experience a rewarding one, but it just couldn’t stick the landing.
Your Lie in April is available as a Rightstuf Exclusive, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the price is offensively high. Even on sale as part of the site’s holiday deals, it’ll still costed 130 dollars for each HALF of the series, down from 160 dollars regular price. Used copies on ebay go for as low as 60 dollars for each HALF, and I can not recommend you pay that much for an overrated series. You can watch it for free on Netflix, but if you absolutely need a physical copy, I’d actually go against my better judgement and recommend the Malaysian bootlegs on Ebay, which do come with a dub for a fraction of the official price. The manga is available from Kodansha comics, and volume 1 even comes with a sweet exclusive cover if you get it from Loot Crate. The live action movie is probably available stateside, but from what I’ve heard about it, I don’t care enough to check.
Your Lie in April isn’t a great anime, but it’s also not a terrible one. So, overall, is it good or bad? Well, to be honest, I didn’t enjoy the vast majority of it. I found the gag humor annoying and in bad taste, I found the comedic violence way too similar to some of the tragic material, there are too many cliches, and I caught on to some of the more important plot points way too early to fall for them. Having said that, I can’t say the experience was a bad one. The themes of Kousei’s character arc resonated very strongly with me, as someone who’s currently falling out of love with a long time hobby, and while I found his friends to be wholly unlikeable, his piano rivals were much more interesting, and I actually want to see more of him interacting with them. The final tragedy would have been a lot stronger if it hadn’t been so obvious, or if it at least had a proper explanation, and you can’t possibly deny that the audio and visual production went beyond top notch. It had a lot of problems, but honestly, it’s an okay show. It doesn’t live up to the hype, but it’s worth checking out. I’m being generous here, but I’ll give Your Lie in April a 6/10.

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Summer 4984, 13 Doumoth
“Ugh! I hate this!” Daisy whined loudly, letting her head fall back to stare at the ceiling.
“Almost done…” Rerves said to reassure her, though he lacked his usual smile.
Ania picked up the last piece of armor, a steel vambrace, and began polishing with a groan to match Daisy’s, “When we aren’t cleaning, we're polishing, when we aren’t polishing, we're cleaning. How is this Paladin training?”
“If I wanted to be a servant, I would've joined their guild…” Thom’s small voice chimed in.
Shon said nothing. The five Squires, Shon, Daisy, Thom, Rerves, and Ania, sat under a shade in the Temple courtyard, polishing the knights' spare armor for the hundredth time. The sun beat down mere feet away, reflecting off the finished pieces as the shadow of their shade crept closer and closer, the sun climbing towards noon. The yard was mostly clear, the Paladins not on duty retreating into the cool stone fortress while those on duty only occasionally coming to check on the Squires' progress.
Ania had the right of it. Ever since they'd moved into the Temple proper and became official Squires, the five of them had done nothing but clean, polish, and memorize armor and weapon vocabulary. And complain… the others always complained. Shon just sighed as the four others continued to gripe. There was no point in it, the work needed to be done, and they were the ones assigned to do it. It didn’t matter how annoying or monotonous it might be.
Sometimes the younger Paladins would join them in polishing, caring for their own armor while the Squires worked on the spare pieces. The spares were used mainly by the enlisted, and only if they hadn’t finished buying their own sets yet. Occasionally a Paladin would check out a set to practice with. Although most of them had a preferred style, they needed to stay proficient with all types. At least that meant only half of the pieces the Squires had to clean were still polished from the day before. If the armor was never used, it really would be a useless task, instead of half useless as it seemed now.
The Paladins never complained…
The Squires hadn’t started out tired and annoyed. Daisy and Shon had been joined after their first week by Thom and Rerves, who both came from the capital city. They'd been friends growing up, Rerves was a noble, and Thom's family worked as their personal stewards, one step up from servants. A week after that, Ania arrived from a small village in the south. Only having known one Paladin and having never seen a proper Temple before, she'd been in awe of the fortress Temple of the city for at least a month. But then the excitement had given way to frustration, and -for Shon at least- boredom. And so the others had started complaining.
Their relationship with each other had started out warm enough. They stayed up late into the night, sharing their histories and dreams of their future as full Paladins. Shon joined them when prompted but mostly preferred to listen. He didn’t think he had any stories worth sharing, though they had bombarded him with questions after Veon-Zih’s first training visit. Just like everyone else, they didn’t seem to know how to deal with Shon’s quiet nature. But unlike everyone else, they hadn’t pulled away and stopped talking to him altogether. Except when they complained. Shon never complained. He didn’t see the point. When asked, he would say that they needed to follow orders. So they'd stopped asking him.
Shon held his last piece of steel plate carefully by the leather straps, wiping the last bit of polish off with a clean rag. He could see his reflection distorted by the curves and dings, and wondered if he could manage to draw the changes accurately when given a chance. The tinking of metal on metal sounded in the distance, and the Squires' heads shot up, followed by their bodies as they scrambled to their feet to salute the woman approaching.
General Rasnah was resplendent as always in her uniform, the chains of office clinking on her shoulders. She walked towards the Squires with her head held high and her hands clasped behind her back. With her was Master Veon-Zih and Shon felt his spirits rise just a little higher.
“At ease, Squires.” Sir Rasnah said as she drew to a stop just outside their shade. She waited until they'd taken the formal 'at ease' position, legs shoulder-width apart and hands clasped behind their back, “Report.”
Rerves took charge, as usual, “Sir, we're nearly done, Sir.”
“Just one piece left, Sir,” Ania added, then blushed furiously as she usually did whenever addressing a high-ranking officer.
Sir Rasnah nodded, then glanced to the sky. She then looked to Veon-Zih, who smiled and shrugged. Her lips turned up on half her face in what could almost be called a grin before she cleared it, serious again as she addressed the Squires, “You may have the afternoon off. Report to the kitchens and evening duties before sixth bell.”
“Sir, yes, Sir!” the Squires spoke in unison, Shon’s four fellows grinning broadly and sneaking happy glances at one another.
They held their positions until Sir Rasnah turned away, walking back to the Temple proper and leaving them to their freedom. Veon-Zih remained behind, smiling warmly at them and addressing Shon, “Lunch? I found a fine eatery a few blocks away.”
Shon nodded, finally smiling with the rest, “And practice?” he asked.
“After food,” Veon-Zih answered, stepping aside and gesturing towards the gates. Shon rushed to help the others put the clean and polished armor away, then jogged to Veon-Zih before falling into step with him as they left the Temple.
Veon-Zih waited until they were well clear of the gates before asking, “So what do you think of your fellow Squires?”
Shon sighed in answer, which made Veon-Zih chuckle for some reason. But the sigh hadn’t really answered the question, so Shon said, “They complain a lot.” he probably could have, and should have, come up with something nicer to say. But after hours of hearing them gripe while they worked, it was the only thing on Shon’s mind.
“There's nothing wrong with complaining, you know.” Veon-Zih mused. Shon merely shook his head. The knights never complained; he'd been watching them. If there was a job that needed to be done, they would do it. His fellow Squires seemed to complain before, during, and after every unpleasant assignment. Though never in front of the Paladin giving it.
“Do you honestly think the knights like polishing armor? Do you like polishing that much? Maybe you should've come to the Monastery after all. We don’t wear armor, but we have many fine statues that all need to be polished every day. Every little nook and cranny scrubbed clean and shining.”
He glanced at Shon with a grin, then leaned over to whisper, “They hate it too, but just like your fellows won’t complain in front of them, they won’t complain in front of you.”
“It needs to be done…” Shon tried to argue, though it sounded hollow considering his own, though silent, annoyance.
“A perfect excuse,” Veon-Zih stated, turning sharply down a side road, so Shon had to jog to keep up, “There are many reasons spare armor needs to be polished. The most obvious is that it's needed to stay in good repair. The task is assigned to Squires because it gets you intimately familiar with armor beyond just naming the parts. And because no one else wants to do it.
“That doesn’t mean we should be complaining about it…”
“Not in front of the officers, no. But amongst each other? Why not?”
Shon furrowed his brow but didn’t have an answer. Veon-Zih gave him one, “Joint misery creates companionship. Even if you have nothing else in common, everyone knows you all hate polishing already clean armor. Right now, I bet your fellow Squires are scratching their heads, wondering if you do actually enjoy the task. Some might even be wondering if they're worthy of being Squires. Since they complain, and you don’t.”
Shon’s steps faltered. Would they really think he was more worthy than them? For something so trivial as chores? He had to rush to catch up and argued, “But there's no point in complaining. We have to do it anyway.”
Veon-Zih sighed and stopped walking. He waited for Shon to turn to him then said, “But my statement still stands. Joint misery creates companionship. Your fellows take a risk in voicing their complaints to you, hoping that they're not alone in their opinions. What if they're the only ones who hate it? What if that really does mean they aren’t meant for the Temple? Just because they can channel divine magic doesn’t mean Hengist will choose them.”
Shon let himself ponder that for a while. The other Squires always seemed so sure of themselves, so excited to begin real training. Did they really have doubts and fears the same as he did? And what did that say about his assumptions? That they would complain and the knights didn’t? Was he actually judging his fellows as unworthy without realizing it?
“The Paladins really complained when they were Squires too?” he asked.
“I guarantee it.” Veon-Zih answered and started walking again, “I know I did, and all the other Monks in my class too.” he chuckled, “Sometimes routines like cleaning and polishing can be meditative. You can let your mind wander while your hands work through the familiar motions. But before you get to that point, or if you would rather be doing something of your choosing, then it's nothing but monotonous work. Necessary work, but still work.”
Following Veon-Zih around another corner, Shon pondered his Master’s words. They got all the way to the little eatery the Monk had been looking for, even took their seats, and gave their orders before Shon spoke again.
“I hate platemail the most…” he said. Veon-Zih arched an eyebrow at him, and he continued, “It’s bulky, and there's just so much of it. Then as soon as you're done, someone moves it aside and gets fingerprints on it again. Chainmail isn’t much better. You can’t see the fingerprints, but it’s hard to get the oil between the links. And yet water obviously has no problem with it because that’s where all the rust is.”
Veon-Zih laughed boisterously, throwing his head back and startling those at the closest table, “I hated the creases in the palms of the statues the most,” Veon-Zih held up his hand, his forefinger and thumb forming a circle, the other fingers extended, “how can so much dust cake itself in such a small space in only a day?” he complained, dropping his hand and shaking his head.
The waitress brought them their stew and drinks, and Shon started eating while Veon-Zih thanked her. Picking up his spoon, the Monk paused as he dipped it into his bowl, musing, “I wonder which parts your fellow Squires dislike the most?” Shon didn’t know, but he wanted to. Would they agree with him that the plate was the most frustrating? Daisy seemed to groan loudest at the leather, but their complaining always seemed to be general moans at the work as a whole…
“Maybe I’ll ask,” Shon mumbled, embarrassed for some reason.
“Or,” Veon-Zih took his first bite, then pointed at Shon with his spoon, “you could just tell them your least favorite, and they will open up and share their own.”
That’s what they expected of him, wasn’t it? They expected him to join in the conversation, not just answer questions… Shon could only nod.
***
Shon had grown so much. It was difficult for Veon-Zih to watch him without smiling. Only a head shorter than his Master, Veon-Zih could still see the ten-year-old oddity he'd spied upon almost four years ago in the church courtyard. And yet, he had grown so much. Veon-Zih wondered if anyone else could see it.
They practiced in one of the parks in the noble’s district. Veon-Zih thought it was important that Shon get out of Temple whenever possible, that he see the city and its people, to remember what he was training for, and why he wanted to fight. Shon was more like Veon-Zih, and his order of Monks than the boy would ever know. Or admit. He strove for perfection. Every punch, kick, and kata they worked through needed to go exactly right, or he would do it again. Like many Monks, Shon found true enjoyment in the process of working and growing better than his past self. But he was also different in a critical way. Shon wanted to use his strength. Wanted to protect people, fight evil. Many Monks never left the Monastery. A single Grandmaster could easily fell a small raiding force alone. Yet, so many chose not to fight outside their sparring rings and training.
Even Veon-Zih hadn’t left the Monastery because he wanted to help those locked outside its walls. He'd left because he believed he couldn't attain the perfection he strove for inside them. He'd wanted to be tested by the world, to rise to the challenges life presented and overcome them with his discipline and practice. Along the way, he'd learned to be more like Shon was naturally. He'd made friends from other orders, and saved countless non-combatants. Only after seeing the results of his fights, the grateful families reunited, had he realized the moral folly in his fellows and in himself.
They practiced and even sparred until well after fifth bell. The display at first earned them a few disapproving glares from the nobles and servants passing the park. Then they'd actually attracted a few spectators, who clapped as though watching a show. Shon blushed furiously at this, his pale cheeks growing pink as he tilted his head down, trying to let what was left of his now short hair slip down to hide his face. Yet, he never lost step or stopped the training. Veon-Zih had barely resisted laughing, though if more at the foolish watchers or his embarrassed student, he wasn’t sure.
Veon-Zih finally called their training to a halt, and Shon glowered at him. The boy had nearly gotten in his first solid hit in their sparring and was obviously reluctant to stop after making such progress. “It’s nearly time for you to get back, and Sir Rasnah will not accept me as an excuse for tardiness.” Shon’s eyes went wide, and fear replaced the look of frustration on his face. He ran his fingers through his hair, looking up at the sky to try and gauge the hour.
Veon-Zih chuckled, “I’ll race you back.” he said, a hint of mischief seeping through his voice. Shon arched an eyebrow and Veon-Zih could practically hear his thoughts. Run? Through town? You must be joking. “There's no law against running,” Veon-Zih argued with the boy’s expression, “Every moment offers us an opportunity to train. We're late, so this is the perfect opportunity to test our speed against time and run.”
Shon alternated his arched brow to the other side, looking down the road then back to Veon-Zih before confirming, “A race?”
In answer, Veon-Zih ran. He sprinted past Shon -though not at his full speed- before slowing down just enough to keep things fair. Shon bolted after him. Nobles, servants, and even a few guards gasped and called out in indignation as Veon-Zih and Shon swerved around them on the wide roads of the nobles' quarter. They were forced to slow when they reached the more densely packed streets in the city center. Shon was careful to run around the people doing their shopping but kept his eyes set ahead, planning his route and scaring those who noticed him out of the way with his intense blue stare. Veon-Zih was much more confident in his ability not to hit people and so brushed much closer, never quite knocking into them but often brushing their clothes as he passed.
Ahead a cart laden with crates and barrels ambled across the thoroughfare, and Shon slowed to a jog, trying to run around it. Veon-Zih lept, landing on his hands on the cart and propelling himself up and over before hitting the ground again and continuing the race. He heard the merchant curse and the bystanders gasp in surprise but was more amused at the growl of frustration that came from his student, who put on an extra burst of speed to try and catch up. Veon-Zih was half tempted to let him and half tempted to sprint all out and leave the boy in his dust. He chose to do neither and just laughed, continuing at the pace he'd set and soon coming into view of the Temple gates.
The Paladins on watch saw him coming and exchanged confused and nervous glances, drawing their swords but not barring his path. Veon-Zih didn’t slow his run until he reached the knights. Turning to the side and planting his feet, he slid past them on the cobblestones. Turning back as he slid to a stop, he found one of the Paladins facing him as though ready to fight and the other facing out as though looking for whatever force had sent Veon-Zih sprinting for the Temple.
Shon slowed to a jog and stopped before the knight facing him, breathing hard. “What’s going on? Squire report.” the Paladin demanded, still holding his sword at the ready.
Shon had to take a moment to catch his breath but eventually managed to gasp out, “Race…” before looking absolutely horrified at what he'd just done and said. “Sir…” he added quietly as if that might somehow make his unconventional arrival more acceptable.
“And you managed to keep up with him?” Sir Rasnah appeared from beyond the gate, arching a steely eyebrow and drawing sharp salutes from the Paladin guards who finally sheathed their swords.
“I went easy on him,” Veon-Zih assured her, earning a glare from Shon, who passed through the gates, still breathing deeply but no longer gasping for air. Veon-Zih hadn’t even broken a sweat.
Rasnah looked between the Master and student, finally settling on Shon, “Oh, don’t look at him like that, Squire. Master Veon-Zih could beat a riderless horse in a foot race.” which drew a befuddled look from Shon and a laugh from Veon-Zih.
“General Rasnah, Sir,” another man ran towards the gates wearing the uniform of an enlisted. A messenger from the city gates.
“It seems today is a good day for running,” Veon-Zih quipped as the guards allowed the man to pass and give his report.
“A wyvern has been spotted over the woods near Lakeland,”
Sir Rasnah didn’t respond right away. She narrowed her eyes at the messenger and spoke to Shon, “You have duties, Squire, hop to it.”
Shon saluted, though Rasnah still wasn’t looking at him. He glanced at Veon-Zih curiously, then turned to follow the orders.
Veon-Zih hesitated but decided to follow Shon. If he was needed, Rasnah would let him know.
“A wyvern?” Shon asked in a whisper.
“An abomination,” Veon-Zih explained, “Monstrous beasts with a body as large as a wagon, not including the tail. They fly like birds and will hunt anything that strays into their territory, including humans.”
Shon’s brow furrowed, and Veon-Zih patted him on the shoulder, “It'll be alright. They rarely attack settlements unless they're starving.” Which was good because a single wyvern could destroy a small town.
“What will the Temple do?” Shon asked as they reached the back door to the kitchens.
“That depends… most likely, they'll send a group to the village and watch the skies.”
“They won’t hunt it?”
“Maybe, and maybe not. Wyverns are dangerous enough that it’s a real risk to hunt one, but they also can’t be allowed to harm nearby towns. The Temple of Saint Giorgos will want it destroyed, but Sir Rasnah won’t needlessly risk her men if it isn’t necessary.” Veon-Zih explained.
Shon thought for a moment, then asked, “Have you ever fought a wyvern?”
Veon-Zih tried to make his smile reassuring, "Twice. Though I would rather not try a third time if it can be avoided.”
***
“Red, what're you doing?” Ran asked.
She rolled Her eyes, focusing again on what She was doing and not bothering to answer him. Her fingers ached, but She worked them into the cracks between the stones of the tower wall, shifting Her weight from one hand to the other and searching out the next handhold.
Brom laughed, and She heard the slap and woosh of breath as he pat Ran on the back hard enough to knock the air from the thinner man’s lungs, “Can’t you tell? She’s climbing!”
“Sort of…” Ran mumbled.
She wasn’t climbing up the wall, as much as She wanted to. Instead, She was up only about a foot off the ground and working Her way sideways around the tower. “Afraid of falling, Red?” Ran asked instead. That question was even more stupid than the last, and She arched Her neck back, holding tight to the wall and looking at him upside down.
“Really?” She asked in response to his denseness. He should know She wouldn’t be afraid of falling. She had fallen many times when She'd braved climbing the trees around the perimeter. Even broke Her arm once, and that hadn’t stopped Her from trying again with the splint still on. But that was when they used to let Her out more often, about once every other week. No, the thing that kept Her from climbing up the wall was the same thing that had stopped Her climbing trees. The same thing that stopped Her running around the tower at top speed while Brom or Ran kept time and She tried to beat Her record. And the same thing that kept Her from even crossing the tree line to play pretend in the woods.
Ran had the decency to look embarrassed, realizing his mistake eventually. There was only one thing that ever stopped Her from doing what She wanted, and even that often took multiple ‘lessons’ each time. Morndancer had grown increasingly erratic and more often violent of late. He would mutter to himself in draconic then give opposite orders to the journeymen and apprentices in common. Though everyone in the tower spoke both languages. He would lock himself in his room for days and hadn’t been back to visit his family or the Mages Guild in weeks. Shaloon would cover for him, but she wasn’t much better, cutting holes in reality and staring into the outer plains for hours on end, whispering. Half her words in draconic and the other half in common, mixing the languages in the same sentence.
Brom and Ran had refused to talk to Her about it, but She had listened at Her door when they thought She was sleeping. The Archmages were going mad. The eventual cost of power, they said. Though neither seemed upset that the same would happen to them eventually. Perhaps their lack of concern was the first sign they'd already started.
She continued Her climb, putting Her worries about Brom and Ran’s sanity out of Her mind for the time being. She would have plenty of time to stew about it when She was locked in Her room. For now, She wanted to enjoy being outside in the brief summer warmth.
A burst of sudden wind from above set Her hair whipping about Her face and nearly cost Her grip on the stones. Squeezing Her eyes shut, She tried to shake Her hair back, blowing at the strands against another huge gust before something heavy shook the ground behind her. She let Her head fall back again, so Her hair fell away from Her face, and She could see what had come upside down. The sight caused Her to fall off the wall.
Landing hard on Her backside, She scrambled to Her feet in a mix of awe and horror. A monster large enough to fill Her entire room and then some, stood in the clearing around the tower. It had a long sinuous neck and dull brown scales. It walked on great taloned legs in the back and the joints of its leathery wings in the front. It snapped at Archmage Shaloon as she jumped from its neck to the ground, its teeth as long as daggers and looking just as sharp. It didn’t bite the Archmage, who ignored it as she approached the journeymen.
“What are you three doing out here?” she demanded, mixing draconic with common and glaring at the two men who, for some reason, looked ashamed despite the permission they'd gotten to be out today.
The Firewyrm ignored the question, asking one of Her own, “What is that?” She pointed at the monster, not sure if She felt sad or disgusted at the sight of it. Both seemed odd emotions to have at the sight of a beast that could eat Her in two bites.
Fingers snapped, and She flinched, reaching for Her collar. The monster let out a strangled roar, thrashing its head wildly, its own copper collar shimmering with light and magic. “Another failure of our predecessors, thousands of years ago.” Morndancer exited the tower, his robes billowing around him.
Another snap, and the Firewyrm flinched again. But Shaloon just snorted, sneering at the other Archmage after stopping his torment of her mount, “The north-western Talon was gracious enough to lend us this sample after years of training. It should come in handy with the local draken who worship its kind as gods.” the beast snarled at the humans just out of reach but didn’t step any closer, digging its talons deeper into the ground and hissing, “It was a great success after the slaying. We’ve only had one greater.” she glanced at the Firewyrm who tilted Her head at the two of them, curious for more but sure they wouldn’t give it to Her.
Archmage Morndancer dismissed the defense of the monster’s existence with a snort, “And yet we are still facing the same problems as those before us. What information do you have?”
“A storm hit out at sea, and there are signs of another possibly brewing in Halakon.”
Ran swallowed nervously, and Brom stuttered, “Should we…?”
“No.” Morndancer answered the unfinished question, “There is only one thing that can stop these storms, and we are the only ones willing to make the sacrifices to do it.” he turned away from them, returning to the tower door before glancing over his shoulder, “Get back inside, we need more samples if we are to make up for our own successful failure.”
***
“Saint Giorgos says the wyverns are the last vestiges of the dragon’s evil in the skies…” Sir Rasnah sipped her tea thoughtfully.
Father Branston snorted, “Yes yes, and drakes are their evil on land, and leviathans their evil at sea. They are beasts, Rasnah, as old as memory.”
“Branston's right,” Veon-Zih shrugged, rolling his teacup between his hands, “They're terrible beasts with some magic to them, but they're no more intelligent than a drakwalf or horse.”
They sat together in Father Branston’s office to enjoy warm tea and a colorful sunset through his massive windows. But none of them could really relax with the news of a wyvern flying around the woods to the north. Just to the west of Hamerfoss.
“They've been known to hunt for sport,” Rasnah reminded them, her face pained at the memory.
“So do house cats.”
“House cats don’t pick off entire barbarian tribes over the course of a week.”
"I'm sure they would if they could,"
Branston sighed, reaching for his teapot and pouring himself another cup, “What will you do? If you need healers, I have a few skilled enough to go.”
Rasnah sighed, rubbing her forehead and resting her cup in her lap, “Perhaps one. I’ll send a group to watch. If it's sighted again, we'll have to do something.”
Veon-Zih cleared his throat to get her attention and arched a questioning eyebrow her way. The Paladin returned the look with a smile and said, “I will make sure they have a sending stone. If you're needed, I’m sure they'll wait for you to arrive before seeking it out.” her smile faded, and she stared into her cup, “If they really are vestiges of dragons then I suppose Saint Giorgos is right and all of them were evil.”
“Having a crisis of faith, Rasnah?” Branston asked softly, but with a smile, “Legends say Hengist was allied with goodly dragons.”
“Dragons of Gold and Silver and all the precious metals,” Veon-Zih finished for him, then added, “None of that matters anymore. All we can do is face the challenges life presents us with in the here and now.”
“Of course,” Rasnah agreed, looking up at her old friends and managing a lopsided grin, “And now we have a wyvern possibly claiming territory in our forests. Do you think Daunas will want to join the hunt? If necessary,” she added at the end.
“Mung's boy? He’s still stationed at Hamerfoss then?” Branston asked.
Veon-Zih chuckled, “I don’t believe he would forgive you if you didn’t let him.” his chuckle died, and the three gazed mournfully out the window. Remembering their last wyvern fight, and their friend lost in bringing it down. It had been their last adventure together.
-End of Part 1-
--- Table of Contents ---
All comments and are welcome and wanted.

My wife is a nurse who has been fired from four hospitals for stealing and consuming patients prescribed narcotics. She has had her nursing license on probation 2 times. Addiction is only one of her flaws. She has been with her husband for 18 years, married for 11. In October of 2022 they went away for the weekend to celebrate their 11th wedding anniversary. After returning from their trip, she wasted little time by starting an affair with a co-worker just 2 days later. She had laid the ground work for this affair before leaving town. This winner she cheated on her husband with, is 7 years older than her (50 years old). He is also married, actually been married 3 times. He is also a nurse. She confided or should I say spread lies to her coworker about her husband to gain sympathy and attention from him. She also told him all of her husbands business and secrets.
A little bit abour her husband. They have 3 children 17, 7 and 5 years old. Her husband workes 80 hours a week to ensure that she could buy anything and everything she wanted. He loved her deeply, and tolerated everything she threw at him. Fast forward to 11/29/23. the affair had picked up steam, she spent less and less time at home and taking care of their children. She was 6 weeks in and played her wife role to ensure her husband did not suspect anything. A week prior, her husband was starting to notice weird things like changing passwords, less communication from her on a daily basis and she had become increasing guarded of her phone and spending more time than she ever have had on her social media accounts. Her husband finally had an opportunity on 11/29 when she left her phone upstairs and he grabbed it went straight to recently deleted messages and there they were 490 text messages that chronicled everything, the entire evolution of their affair. By the first week of November they were full blown sexting. She became enraged and assaulted him, saying she didn't love him anymore and didn't want to be with him. He was beyond hurt, he sacrificed his own happiness for years for her. December and January were brutual, she continued to cheat after telling him and the 17 year old daughter that she was sorry, used bad judgement and was going to focus on repairing their marriage. Her treatment of her husband was absolutely disgusting, she would assault him, broke his Imac twice, the 2nd time she hit him over the head with it. She's the one that caused all of this and she felt she had the right to take out her anger on him because he caught her. She had opened up 3 different snapchat accounts because this was her preferred way to communicate with her affair partner. Her husband had been documenting all of her violence and continued to stand by her hoping she would realize how her actions were destroying him and their children. Most of the arguing and fighting took place in front of the 7 and 5 year olds.
By January she was openly cheating in the face of her husband. January 23, 2023, her husband had found a way to have her text messages sent to his phone, that evening she gets home from work, he pours his heart out to her, begging her to stop her affair and recommit to her family. While he is doing this she is texting affair guy lies about her husband, he is telling her how much fun the day before with her was and how he is divorcing his wife and wants her to refinance his house with her, she responds with I need to make plans to leave him and spend the rest of my life with you. The whole time her husband is reading this exchange in real time, he puts his phone down but didn't close out the messaging app, she notices this because the last text sent from her was a blowing kiss emoji. I forgot to mention that in the middle of January her husband got into her snapchat account and found a message from her to him where she proclaimed her love for him. In the beginning of January she was busted by her nurse probation case manager for failing a drug test which resulted in an addtional year tacked on to her probation and mandatory outpatient rehab for 30 days. Anyways after she noticed his phone she got pissed and chased him around the house trying to get his phone from him, grabbing his car keys to prevent him from leaving the house. He shouted for her to stop and not in front of the kids, put the kids to bed and i'll give you my phone he said, but she wouldn't stop. Finally, he grabbed her to get his key from her, he leaves she calls the cops, he is arrested and put in jail for domestic assault. She gets him out the next day, he notices that while he was in jail she spent most of her time on the phone with her affair friend. She tells her husband that she will go to court and not press charges, that was a lie, and on Feb. 3, 2023 she files for divorce telling her husband she was going to have the charges dropped, he knew she was lying because he put a gps tracker in her car and new she as at a divorce lawyers office. February she claimed to have ended her affair, but really it was her lawyer telling her to be more careful with her affair till this is over. Her husband, is devasted by this, but vows to get her to change her mind. she at one point tells him she will stop the divorce and another time says she will pause the divorce to attempt reconciliation. Both these times were straight lies. By this time she is telling her husband "why are you here? No one here cares about you".
She became very emotionally abusive after filing for divorce. So much so her husband contemplated taking his own life and actually staged an event to make it look like he was trying, that all backfired though. Then came March 29th, this was the anniversary of their first date, her husband comes home for work, he notices she has regular clothes on and not pajamas, she always changes into pajamas. She starts an argument on purpose for an excuse to leave and stay the night at her moms house. She leaves, he can't sleep at around 3:30am, he has a funny feeling, looks a her email and notices a hotel receipt from 12:21am that morning. He jumps in the car and races to the hotel, sure enough their is her car in the parking lot of a neighboring hotel and their is his car in the hotel parking lot that matches the reciept. Her husband calls the hotel and asks to be transferred to her room, no answer, he goes in the hotel and asks the front desk to try again, no answer, tries one more time. This time someone picks up but says nothing, he cries to her on the phone asking why? He returns to his car and now can tell what room they are in, he waits, 30 minutes later the punk ass 50 yr old walks out of the hotel and to his car, her husband just stares at him, he drives off. Hours later, she returns home packs a bunch of clothes and moves out to stay with her mom. 3 weeks later her husband has to appear in court for the charge, her divorce lawyer shows up and has the case prolonged for 2 more months. She appears to feel bad and returns home but says no affection or sex and she will let him know if she feels anything. Back up to her moving out, her affair friend started sending text messages to her husband threatening him and bringing up things only his wife knew about him, he crossed the line when the affair guy brought up his daughter's name. By this time it wasn't enough to for her to fuck another man and tell her how much she loves him, she had to mentally torment him and talk of their children to this low life piece of shit.
Now here we are in May, he tries to give her a good mother;s day and she insults him. She is a cheating whore who never had the balls to tell her husband that she was unhappy before spreading her legs for someone else. She has mentally destroyed her husband and their kids, she never has shown a bit of remorse, she is looking for an apartment because their house will have to be sold because her husband cannot afford it by himself. The kids will have to lose their house and change schools. Her husband is in financial turmoil and he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She never put one ounce of energy into saving their marriage and has never apologized for the things she has done. Mediation is not scheduled yet so this is far from over, who knows what the hell will happen next. This is a great example of how one person can destroy another persons life and makes you question if you even know your own wife. I will surely post updates as this seems to be far from over. I apologize for this post being in the 3rd person.

Platform: PC
Genre: Match 3 vs game
Estimated year of release: I'd say 2005?
Graphics/Art style: Cartoony, 2D side-scroller with 3D models
Notable characters: Cartoony enemies - perhaps carnivorous plants and oversized animals
Notable gameplay mechanics: Single-player match 3 vs game against the AI - first you moved, then the AI moved. You had to match 3 possible stones - crossed swords meant attack, shield meant defence against an enemy attack and there was a third one... possibly heal or coins? Larger sequences meant stronger action, while combos gave you extra move. Your goal was to kill as many monsters as possible. After a kill, you'd go forward against another monster, carrying over whatever HP you had left. The enemy monsters had crazy high HP compared to you, but you had stronger attack. After you died, you'd be able to upgrade your hero and then start from level 1 again.

My wife is a nurse who has been fired from four hospitals for stealing and consuming patients prescribed narcotics. She has had her nursing license on probation 2 times. Addiction is only one of her flaws. She has been with her husband for 18 years, married for 11. In October of 2022 they went away for the weekend to celebrate their 11th wedding anniversary. After returning from their trip, she wasted little time by starting an affair with a co-worker just 2 days later. She had laid the ground work for this affair before leaving town. This winner she cheated on her husband with, is 7 years older than her (50 years old). He is also married, actually been married 3 times. He is also a nurse. She confided or should I say spread lies to her coworker about her husband to gain sympathy and attention from him. She also told him all of her husbands business and secrets.
A little bit abour her husband. They have 3 children 17, 7 and 5 years old. Her husband workes 80 hours a week to ensure that she could buy anything and everything she wanted. He loved her deeply, and tolerated everything she threw at him. Fast forward to 11/29/23. the affair had picked up steam, she spent less and less time at home and taking care of their children. She was 6 weeks in and played her wife role to ensure her husband did not suspect anything. A week prior, her husband was starting to notice weird things like changing passwords, less communication from her on a daily basis and she had become increasing guarded of her phone and spending more time than she ever have had on her social media accounts. Her husband finally had an opportunity on 11/29 when she left her phone upstairs and he grabbed it went straight to recently deleted messages and there they were 490 text messages that chronicled everything, the entire evolution of their affair. By the first week of November they were full blown sexting. She became enraged and assaulted him, saying she didn't love him anymore and didn't want to be with him. He was beyond hurt, he sacrificed his own happiness for years for her. December and January were brutual, she continued to cheat after telling him and the 17 year old daughter that she was sorry, used bad judgement and was going to focus on repairing their marriage. Her treatment of her husband was absolutely disgusting, she would assault him, broke his Imac twice, the 2nd time she hit him over the head with it. She's the one that caused all of this and she felt she had the right to take out her anger on him because he caught her. She had opened up 3 different snapchat accounts because this was her preferred way to communicate with her affair partner. Her husband had been documenting all of her violence and continued to stand by her hoping she would realize how her actions were destroying him and their children. Most of the arguing and fighting took place in front of the 7 and 5 year olds.
By January she was openly cheating in the face of her husband. January 23, 2023, her husband had found a way to have her text messages sent to his phone, that evening she gets home from work, he pours his heart out to her, begging her to stop her affair and recommit to her family. While he is doing this she is texting affair guy lies about her husband, he is telling her how much fun the day before with her was and how he is divorcing his wife and wants her to refinance his house with her, she responds with I need to make plans to leave him and spend the rest of my life with you. The whole time her husband is reading this exchange in real time, he puts his phone down but didn't close out the messaging app, she notices this because the last text sent from her was a blowing kiss emoji. I forgot to mention that in the middle of January her husband got into her snapchat account and found a message from her to him where she proclaimed her love for him. In the beginning of January she was busted by her nurse probation case manager for failing a drug test which resulted in an addtional year tacked on to her probation and mandatory outpatient rehab for 30 days. Anyways after she noticed his phone she got pissed and chased him around the house trying to get his phone from him, grabbing his car keys to prevent him from leaving the house. He shouted for her to stop and not in front of the kids, put the kids to bed and i'll give you my phone he said, but she wouldn't stop. Finally, he grabbed her to get his key from her, he leaves she calls the cops, he is arrested and put in jail for domestic assault. She gets him out the next day, he notices that while he was in jail she spent most of her time on the phone with her affair friend. She tells her husband that she will go to court and not press charges, that was a lie, and on Feb. 3, 2023 she files for divorce telling her husband she was going to have the charges dropped, he knew she was lying because he put a gps tracker in her car and new she as at a divorce lawyers office. February she claimed to have ended her affair, but really it was her lawyer telling her to be more careful with her affair till this is over. Her husband, is devasted by this, but vows to get her to change her mind. she at one point tells him she will stop the divorce and another time says she will pause the divorce to attempt reconciliation. Both these times were straight lies. By this time she is telling her husband "why are you here? No one here cares about you".
She became very emotionally abusive after filing for divorce. So much so her husband contemplated taking his own life and actually staged an event to make it look like he was trying, that all backfired though. Then came March 29th, this was the anniversary of their first date, her husband comes home for work, he notices she has regular clothes on and not pajamas, she always changes into pajamas. She starts an argument on purpose for an excuse to leave and stay the night at her moms house. She leaves, he can't sleep at around 3:30am, he has a funny feeling, looks a her email and notices a hotel receipt from 12:21am that morning. He jumps in the car and races to the hotel, sure enough their is her car in the parking lot of a neighboring hotel and their is his car in the hotel parking lot that matches the reciept. Her husband calls the hotel and asks to be transferred to her room, no answer, he goes in the hotel and asks the front desk to try again, no answer, tries one more time. This time someone picks up but says nothing, he cries to her on the phone asking why? He returns to his car and now can tell what room they are in, he waits, 30 minutes later the punk ass 50 yr old walks out of the hotel and to his car, her husband just stares at him, he drives off. Hours later, she returns home packs a bunch of clothes and moves out to stay with her mom. 3 weeks later her husband has to appear in court for the charge, her divorce lawyer shows up and has the case prolonged for 2 more months. She appears to feel bad and returns home but says no affection or sex and she will let him know if she feels anything. Back up to her moving out, her affair friend started sending text messages to her husband threatening him and bringing up things only his wife knew about him, he crossed the line when the affair guy brought up his daughter's name. By this time it wasn't enough to for her to fuck another man and tell her how much she loves him, she had to mentally torment him and talk of their children to this low life piece of shit.
Now here we are in May, he tries to give her a good mother;s day and she insults him. She is a cheating whore who never had the balls to tell her husband that she was unhappy before spreading her legs for someone else. She has mentally destroyed her husband and their kids, she never has shown a bit of remorse, she is looking for an apartment because their house will have to be sold because her husband cannot afford it by himself. The kids will have to lose their house and change schools. Her husband is in financial turmoil and he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She never put one ounce of energy into saving their marriage and has never apologized for the things she has done. Mediation is not scheduled yet so this is far from over, who knows what the hell will happen next. This is a great example of how one person can destroy another persons life and makes you question if you even know your own wife. I will surely post updates as this seems to be far from over. I apologize for this post being in the 3rd person.

ChocoPro 313: Best Bros Birthday Bash While we’re no longer “Under the Apple Tree” (since Mei’s Anniversary Show is now in the history books), ChocoPro isn’t letting the festivities end just yet! Just like in ages long past, the Best Bros will get one of the roughest birthday presents imaginable: a tag team gauntlet! ChocoPro is known for its solid tag division and intense team attacks, due to the rules of the promotion: Team pins & attacks are legal! If you're looking for a good time tomorrow, this episode will probably be wild all the way through with a chaotic variety of combinations presented. Can the Best Bros survive five different teams? Will we see an appearance from the new Trainee? Let’s Go, ChocoPro!
🍫 CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK! ChocoPro 313 🍫 Best Bros Birthday Bash (Special Tag Gauntlet)! It airs TOMORROW at 6 am EDT / 3 am PDT / 11 am BST / 7 pm JST, Live and Free on YouTube!
This link will be updated with a direct one when available

Don't forget to Adjust Your Volume, Wrestling is Loud!

Change the stage, escape the normal! ChocoPro is built different. Find out why wrestlers like it so much: Discover a new home on the bleeding edge. (This is not your regular wrestling show.) Join us for this episode, or check out the back catalog of 17 wonderful Seasons on the Gatoh Move ChocoPro YouTube channel...260+ episodes with stories and pro-wrestling like you've never seen. New to the promotion? It features a roster of skilled veterans, rising stars, and wonderful guests fighting in the ChocoPro Arena: Ichigaya Chocolate Square. Subscribe for more content than just the live matches! (AEW Watch Alongs, Discussions, Interviews, Food Challenges, etc) Even if you can't catch it live, don't sweat it! It will still be available on the channel.

Best Bros (Mei Suruga 🍎 & Baliyan Akki ♠️)

VS

Sayaka 👗 & Miya Yotsuba 🍀 , Kaori Yoneyama 🍚 & Minoru Fujita 🐦, EGG TART (Chie Koishikawa 🏵️ & Hagane Shinno ⚔️), Black Comaneci (Tokiko “Otoki” Kirihara 💃 & Antonio Honda 🍯), UMA (Sayaka Obihiro 💙 & kojio 🏰)

Best Bros Birthday Special Tag Gauntlet

We're going to be celebrating the birthdays of both the Best Bros once again! (Both of them were actually born on the same day: May 30th! Keep in mind, we're half a day behind Japan's time zone!) Baliyan Akki & Mei Suruga are team with unrivaled chemistry, a pair of rivals turned partners that have risen to the top of the tag division of Ichigaya (in a string of spectacular bouts) and have even taken down some powerful guests! Mei Suruga is a pin specialist and submission connoisseur (not to mention a total goblin), having recently celebrated her Fifth Anniversary (and the appearance of her second Trainee!). Mei is incredibly gifted at pro-wrestling, undoubtedly destined for greatness in the Joshi scene...though she has her eyes set on a different prize: popularity across the world! Baliyan Akki is the Ace of the promotion, a breezy elite level technician who excels at everything that is put in front of him. The way he strings techniques together is truly breath taking. He is at the top of the food chain for a reason, and it is only a matter of time before he holds a belt again! The way these two different mentalities flow together creates a perfect synergy in the ring. Even with their excellent team attacks, individual specializations, and boundless creativity, they will still be in for a brutal challenge.
Just like most celebrations in the Chocolate Square, this one will be quite violent! While there isn’t the threat of a mystery team this time, the random order of enemies makes it hard to prepare. Can they take down five of ChocoPro’s great teams in one go? Can they beat their old score? Will Mei bite someone? Tune in to find out! They will be facing (in no particular order) in 10 minute bouts:
Sayaka & Miya Yotsuba in a first time pairing! Smiling Violence and Ichigaya’s Lucky Charms are both know for their powerful striking ability and tend to compete with one another on how hard they can hit! How will the Bros endure both of the Chocolate Square’s Heavy Hitters in one match?
Kaori Yoneyama & Minoru Fujita, Two of the most frequent guests of the promotion! These two crafty veterans have both held gold in Gatoh Move and together should be an absolute menace. Buckle up for some high technical ability and dirty tricks!
EGG TART (Chie Koishikawa & Hagane Shinno) are one of the longest rivals of the Best Bros! With the speedhouse striker “Ace of the Fourth Generation” Chie and the merciless “Cold Killer” and Super Asia Champ Hagane, this will probably be one of the highest threats in the gauntlet. Expect some spice here!
Black Comaneci (Tokiko “Otoki” Kirihara & Antonio Honda) are entirely unpredictable and could very well show up in a form we’ve never seen. Though this team favors comedic antics, it should be noted that most of the comedy comes in the form of brutal slapstick and shocking weapons. It should be noted that Tokiko kicks very hard. Comaneci!
UMA (Sayaka Obihiro & kojio) represent the invading Monsters in this one. Can the charismatic veteran and the mysterious dark hero utilize their own unnatural chemistry against the Birthday Bros? These two have been impressing with their ability to adapt and overcome setbacks. Also, they are monsters.
Good Luck, Best Bros...and Happy Birthday!
Come and see the wild creativity that produced Two of the Seven AEW Women's World Champions! (Both of which have appeared on ChocoPro!) You'll be wondering if you're seeing future champs, as well. ChocoPro is the Frontier of Pro Wrestling! Match after match of hard hitting, chaotic, fun bouts with a friendly online audience. We're quickly growing, and you're welcome to come along!
Here are some Frequently Asked Questions:

“What is this?”

ChocoPro is a free online promotion run by AEW's Emi Sakura, that takes place in the legendary Ichigaya Chocolate Square! It features a steady pace of live Episode releases, fan interaction, season long story arcs, and much more! A place where the turnbuckles are replaced with 14th floor windows, the ropes are often replaced with fans, unforgiving walls provide creative avenues for skills otherwise unthinkable, and you can take solace in knowing that the referees usually do nothing. While it might be a shocking change at first, the intensity and storytelling will leave you wanting more.

“Why are they fighting in ____?”

Short answer is that it is a cost effective, unique venue with a better availability schedule and allows the roster access for training. Emi Sakura has been using this place for a long time, and you might be surprised at some of the names that have used it (even outside of ChocoPro!). There are a few in-ring Episodes and Gatoh Move has in ring shows with crowds on the YouTube channel. Think of it like the Hart Dungeon but as a promotion, if that helps!

”What are the rules?”

While special match stipulations will usually be explained before the respective matches, the general rules of ChocoPro are simple. Pins only count on the Chocolate Mat and are not broken by the edge or Wall. Submissions usually only count on the Chocolate Mat, and ARE broken by reaching the edge or wall (sometimes ceiling...). Double pins and Double submissions are legal (and encouraged) in ChocoPro Tag matches, meaning cohesive teams will always have the advantage! Count Outs only exist if specified, since many matches stray from the comfort of the Chocolate Square into the streets (and the rest of the building itself!) There is a Time Limit for each bout (based on card placement and importance) and the Referee has discretion (even if they tend to do nothing most of the time!). Every Ref is different, some have different levels of bias and speed.

“How can I support them?”

Watch the show! Even if you can't see it live, the views matter! Like & Subscribe! You can join the Channel's membership for different tiers of perks...but also, you can buy single episode Sponsorship, Digital autographed photos, and more on their shop site as well as purchase shirts from PWTees (which features some great options!) If you'd like to donate or purchase a main wall sponsorship, you can via Paypal or Patreon...and don't forget to cheer for your favorites! (especially if you want to do a superchat!)

”How come there aren’t a lot of comments on the threads?”

ChocoPro is a YouTube show, meaning the discourse happens live...in the chat! Those that comment in the threads on here tend to do so in order to help new viewers that might be intimidated by the fast moving chat. Don’t be afraid to just dive in though, the community is friendly.

“Why are you posting this here? / Are you paid for this?”

This is a wrestling forum, and I'm trying to broaden the horizons of others! There is a lot of good wrestling out there...Plus growing the fan base means more people for me to joke around with! I honestly do believe this is what a lot of fans are looking for, even if it is too different for some! But different tastes are good. Variety is the spice of life. This is a labor of love (it really doesn't take that long) considering how much work they do to put on so many shows...for free!
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me on here or on Twitter, where I’m probably a bit tired! ChocoPro is a Gauntlet again!
Season Tracker: We're 13/18 into Season 18! (Each Season is usually around 18 episodes)

My wife is a nurse who has been fired from four hospitals for stealing and consuming patients prescribed narcotics. She has had her nursing license on probation 2 times. Addiction is only one of her flaws. She has been with her husband for 18 years, married for 11. In October of 2022 they went away for the weekend to celebrate their 11th wedding anniversary. After returning from their trip, she wasted little time by starting an affair with a co-worker just 2 days later. She had laid the ground work for this affair before leaving town. This winner she cheated on her husband with, is 7 years older than her (50 years old). He is also married, actually been married 3 times. He is also a nurse. She confided or should I say spread lies to her coworker about her husband to gain sympathy and attention from him. She also told him all of her husbands business and secrets.
A little bit abour her husband. They have 3 children 17, 7 and 5 years old. Her husband workes 80 hours a week to ensure that she could buy anything and everything she wanted. He loved her deeply, and tolerated everything she threw at him. Fast forward to 11/29/23. the affair had picked up steam, she spent less and less time at home and taking care of their children. She was 6 weeks in and played her wife role to ensure her husband did not suspect anything. A week prior, her husband was starting to notice weird things like changing passwords, less communication from her on a daily basis and she had become increasing guarded of her phone and spending more time than she ever have had on her social media accounts. Her husband finally had an opportunity on 11/29 when she left her phone upstairs and he grabbed it went straight to recently deleted messages and there they were 490 text messages that chronicled everything, the entire evolution of their affair. By the first week of November they were full blown sexting. She became enraged and assaulted him, saying she didn't love him anymore and didn't want to be with him. He was beyond hurt, he sacrificed his own happiness for years for her. December and January were brutual, she continued to cheat after telling him and the 17 year old daughter that she was sorry, used bad judgement and was going to focus on repairing their marriage. Her treatment of her husband was absolutely disgusting, she would assault him, broke his Imac twice, the 2nd time she hit him over the head with it. She's the one that caused all of this and she felt she had the right to take out her anger on him because he caught her. She had opened up 3 different snapchat accounts because this was her preferred way to communicate with her affair partner. Her husband had been documenting all of her violence and continued to stand by her hoping she would realize how her actions were destroying him and their children. Most of the arguing and fighting took place in front of the 7 and 5 year olds.
By January she was openly cheating in the face of her husband. January 23, 2023, her husband had found a way to have her text messages sent to his phone, that evening she gets home from work, he pours his heart out to her, begging her to stop her affair and recommit to her family. While he is doing this she is texting affair guy lies about her husband, he is telling her how much fun the day before with her was and how he is divorcing his wife and wants her to refinance his house with her, she responds with I need to make plans to leave him and spend the rest of my life with you. The whole time her husband is reading this exchange in real time, he puts his phone down but didn't close out the messaging app, she notices this because the last text sent from her was a blowing kiss emoji. I forgot to mention that in the middle of January her husband got into her snapchat account and found a message from her to him where she proclaimed her love for him. In the beginning of January she was busted by her nurse probation case manager for failing a drug test which resulted in an addtional year tacked on to her probation and mandatory outpatient rehab for 30 days. Anyways after she noticed his phone she got pissed and chased him around the house trying to get his phone from him, grabbing his car keys to prevent him from leaving the house. He shouted for her to stop and not in front of the kids, put the kids to bed and i'll give you my phone he said, but she wouldn't stop. Finally, he grabbed her to get his key from her, he leaves she calls the cops, he is arrested and put in jail for domestic assault. She gets him out the next day, he notices that while he was in jail she spent most of her time on the phone with her affair friend. She tells her husband that she will go to court and not press charges, that was a lie, and on Feb. 3, 2023 she files for divorce telling her husband she was going to have the charges dropped, he knew she was lying because he put a gps tracker in her car and new she as at a divorce lawyers office. February she claimed to have ended her affair, but really it was her lawyer telling her to be more careful with her affair till this is over. Her husband, is devasted by this, but vows to get her to change her mind. she at one point tells him she will stop the divorce and another time says she will pause the divorce to attempt reconciliation. Both these times were straight lies. By this time she is telling her husband "why are you here? No one here cares about you".
She became very emotionally abusive after filing for divorce. So much so her husband contemplated taking his own life and actually staged an event to make it look like he was trying, that all backfired though. Then came March 29th, this was the anniversary of their first date, her husband comes home for work, he notices she has regular clothes on and not pajamas, she always changes into pajamas. She starts an argument on purpose for an excuse to leave and stay the night at her moms house. She leaves, he can't sleep at around 3:30am, he has a funny feeling, looks a her email and notices a hotel receipt from 12:21am that morning. He jumps in the car and races to the hotel, sure enough their is her car in the parking lot of a neighboring hotel and their is his car in the hotel parking lot that matches the reciept. Her husband calls the hotel and asks to be transferred to her room, no answer, he goes in the hotel and asks the front desk to try again, no answer, tries one more time. This time someone picks up but says nothing, he cries to her on the phone asking why? He returns to his car and now can tell what room they are in, he waits, 30 minutes later the punk ass 50 yr old walks out of the hotel and to his car, her husband just stares at him, he drives off. Hours later, she returns home packs a bunch of clothes and moves out to stay with her mom. 3 weeks later her husband has to appear in court for the charge, her divorce lawyer shows up and has the case prolonged for 2 more months. She appears to feel bad and returns home but says no affection or sex and she will let him know if she feels anything. Back up to her moving out, her affair friend started sending text messages to her husband threatening him and bringing up things only his wife knew about him, he crossed the line when the affair guy brought up his daughter's name. By this time it wasn't enough to for her to fuck another man and tell her how much she loves him, she had to mentally torment him and talk of their children to this low life piece of shit.
Now here we are in May, he tries to give her a good mother;s day and she insults him. She is a cheating whore who never had the balls to tell her husband that she was unhappy before spreading her legs for someone else. She has mentally destroyed her husband and their kids, she never has shown a bit of remorse, she is looking for an apartment because their house will have to be sold because her husband cannot afford it by himself. The kids will have to lose their house and change schools. Her husband is in financial turmoil and he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She never put one ounce of energy into saving their marriage and has never apologized for the things she has done. Mediation is not scheduled yet so this is far from over, who knows what the hell will happen next. This is a great example of how one person can destroy another persons life and makes you question if you even know your own wife. I will surely post updates as this seems to be far from over. I apologize for this post being in the 3rd person.

I loved my job and I'm sad that I had to quit. All names are made up but are based off of real people and it was a 24hr store where I worked.
I started CVS back in November 2022 as Pharmacy Technician, getting paid $18.00 an hour in the East Coast. I was 19(FTM) living with my partner in the state over from where I was hired. It wasn't too much of a drive, just 25 minutes. My coworkers were the kindest, and so were many customers...
At the time we were under Jane Doe's care as she was the pharmacy manager. She hired about three other technicians who started before me, all hired for Full-Time. Jane planned on leaving CVS so she hired a pseudo-manager who worked for CVS prior to his other job, John Doe.
My interview was held upstairs in the storage closet while sitting on a cooler and Jane Doe sitting on a case of Monster, so I don't know what I expected, lol. I was warned in the interview that customers could get very upset, and I told her I understood what I was getting into and that I'm thick-skinned (which I very much am.)
Fast forward a month or so and I'm working about 25-30hours a week, alongside being a part-time package handler at a facility for the holidays for some extra money. I was also a student during this time.
The first time I cried at my job was in December. A customer and her partner came in at 10pm being inappropriate with her and her husband making jokes about how they're gonna do sexual stuff to each other later while I was trying to get her insulin out of QT... It ended up resulting in the wife asking if I was queer, to which I said I'm in a queer relationship. She then asked if I was trans and that she could tell I was before I could even say anything. I was not out to my coworkers as FTM (at the time there was only the Pharmacist and another tech there) and this made me very upset to be outed in this way at my place of work. I am a very cis-passing person (not that it really matters), so I wanted to stay stealth at this job. It was my first job fully identifying as a man, as I had Top Surgery in August and have been on testosterone for a few years.
I wanted to just be seen as a man and keep my personal life at home, not at work.
Having this be the worst experience I've had, I ended up crying in the bathroom and taking my 30 minute break right then and there. This being said, nothing else working at CVS had phased me up until these past three months.
Being the only buff kind of guy at my job, it was my duty to be the bouncer. I would kick people out of they were being inappropriate, rude, or straight up unprofessional. This one customer threatened to key my car, while another customer had threatened to shoot me on two separate occasions. I came home crying to my partner about these instances. For $18 an hour, my life should not be threatened.
I talked to my lead pharmacy tech about this at the time, but there was nothing that could be done because nothing happened. I used to be a manager prior to this job, so hearing this didn't make any sense to me. My last job would take action immediately, regardless if it happened or not because it was a threat. I should've gone to HR, but I know personally CVS HR does not care unless a Lead PT or a Pharmacist calls it in.
I grew to hate my job after this because I was scared. I used to love going in, helping to fill prescriptions and helping families out with their medications. I would cut out the company stickers that were given to us so it'd just be the smiley face without the "customers like you make us happy" shit on it. My favorite ones were the little bear stickers that said "We hope you feel better!" to give out to the kids. I'd let them choose, too! Or the really sweet older ladies who would come in a give me treats from the Costco to try through drive-thru, lol.
My hours started to get cut, and so would my coworkers. Once Jane Doe left, John Doe finally came in. He did make many things better, but with the company-wide hourly cut, it became ridiculous. I started with 25-30hour weeks, then got down to only 14 hour weeks, with coworkers (who weren't the lead PT or Pharm on duty) calling me in to help. Saturdays were the worst because it was just me, another tech, and a pharmacist who usually didn't work at that store. We would get so busy and it would stress me out so much but there was never any extra help.
This ended up with my pharmacist suggesting I travel around for work... I live in a whole different state and the CVS's that needed help were well over an hour away. I did this a couple of times, but it just wasn't worth it because of gas. For every store I was asked to go to, I would give it to my other coworker who was hired around the same time I was because he was only getting six hours a week!
With the hour cuts and the threats, my partner and I decided it just wasn't worth it for me to work there anymore. I miss my coworkers and my customers, but I have no desire to associate with that store anymore. I didn't even put a two weeks notice in, I just quit over text.
I didn't want to air my dirty laundry out, but does anyone else have similar experiences with CVS? Do you think I'm still able to go to HR about the threats, or is it not even worth it since I'm no longer an employee?
I'll answer any asked questions too. :)

I want to get into Sumo Wrestling. But, I don’t know how.
I imagine its somewhat like Wrestling. I’m a big wrestling fan.
In wrestling, in the US at least, youth through HS, you wrestle folkstyle primarily for school. Then there is college wrestling. Which is also folkstyle. So one of the biggest achievements in wrestling is winning a national title at the NCAA National Tournament at the end of the season. Then after college its world wrestling. So freestyle or greco-roman.
However, you can still find clubs and tournaments to wrestle freestyle n greco before that.
In HS you can win counties, divisions, sections, states, then go to a national tournaments. Theres also a lot of competitive tournaments outside of school.
Everyone has their own style. It can be orthodox, unorthodox or even an improvised type of style. Aggressive or defensive.
Or it can vary by country. For example , Iranian wrestlers are known for certain things. Same with Russian or American.
Or even by region
In world wrestling there is the US Open, Final X , Pan Ams, World Cup, and the World Tournament. Different tournaments can qualify a person for other tournaments. But, ultimately , the olympics is probably the biggest stage.
So theres 3 styles that have different rules. Folkstyle , freestyle, and greco-roman. Then each person can craft their own style. These styles can make good matches.
Is this what Sumo is like? Following certain people because you like their style? Then keeping up with the different tournaments going on? Or is it more like boxing or mma?
If this post is annoying, I’ll delete it I’m sorry.

Alright so my parents died in a plane crash when I was young and I had to live with my Aunt and Uncle. On a school field trip I got bit by a mysterious spider and woke up the next morning with a six pack abs and stronger then ever even though I haven’t worked a day in my life. I decided to do a caged wrestling match to earn some extra cash, but when I won the guy who supposed to pay me cut me short a few dollars. The guy ended up getting robbed I could’ve stopped him but didn’t since the guy deserved to be robbed. I walk outside and see my uncle dead on the sidewalk. I chase down the criminal and give him a beating he won’t forget. A few weeks later I attend my uncles funeral and spit in his casket for good luck.

Sometimes the greatest horrors start with the smallest complaints. Only one thing was missing from Lonnie’s life and his wife never let him forget it. They had a lovely house, money enough to feel secure and have new things, food to eat, and friends to socialize with. But Sarah and Lonnie did not have a child. After trying for years, even going through rounds of IVF treatments, they still had no child.
Had this been a choice they made, perhaps Lonnie and Sarah could have come to terms. But Sarah never made the choice not to have a child. It was all she wanted. And honestly, Lonnie wanted it too. They’d even selected their house on the basis of the lovely positioning of the nursery within.
The day that nursery was converted into a home gym, caused a huge shift in their life.
For a while, Sarah fell into a depression and then she adopted a cat. It was old and had lived a hard life. Sarah seemed to like the idea of caring for it. Lonnie thought that was the end of the baby problem.
Then, one day as they sat on their porch staring out at the sunset, Sarah stopped petting the cat in her lap and turned a darkly serious expression toward Lonnie. “I’m going to get pregnant, darling.”
The odd spark in her eye kept Lonnie awake late that night. He kept picturing her speaking. What new plan had she hatched and how could he get her to talk to him? Over the next weeks, Sarah began making similar unsettling remarks.
“Darling,” she would say, her voice tinged with a disturbed tone. “It will be soon. I’m going to be pregnant. You’ll see.”
Lonnie feared that his beloved wife was losing her grip on reality. Still, life went on and he went to work in the mornings and came home in the evening. As a physicist, he didn’t make what he considered tons of money, but it was enough to support their little household. And that meant, to him, plenty of time for Sarah to find something that gave her life purpose. He imagined painting or gardening. With so much time spent apart, he could almost convince himself that Sarah was normal when she wasn’t making her proclamations.
One evening, after a long day at work, Lonnie arrived home to an eerie sight. A cable-like object extended from the ground and snaked its way into the house. He took a closer look and the material appeared to be organic. Though part of him wanted to inspect the place this cable emerged further, the bigger part of Lonnie instantly thought about Sarah inside the house with this thing, and of her odd statements of late.
The cable reminded him in a way he didn’t like of a giant umbilical cord.
Lonnie hurried inside to find the cable snaked through the house toward the back where the stair up to the upstairs bedroom were. He followed it. At the base of the stairs, Lonnie discovered their cat perfectly still, with the cable attached to its belly. Before Lonnie could react and reach out for the creature, the cable twitched and a pulse of energy rolled out on the air.
The cat began to shrink. With each pulse of energy, time seemed to roll backward for the feline. First all the gray left its whiskers. Then instead of a chubby middle-aged housecat, it instead looked like a lean feral creature, and then it was a kitten, then a smaller kitten, eyes shut as if they’d never opened. Lonnie stared as the last change took place and he was staring at a fetal feline lying at the foot of the stairs.
“Holy…” Lonnie said.
Then, in a jerky movement, something pulled both the cord and the fetus up the stairs.
This was only the beginning.
***
Lonnie’s life now had almost nothing he would want. The world had almost nothing he would want. Including the awful stench that lay heavy on the air.
And as he strapped his diving helmet on, the stench retreated enough for him to think. He reasoned that the complete lack of anything to live for was all the more reason he needed to do something. He’d found the old model diving suit he wore at a local thrift store and left money on the counter for it—though no one was there to take the payment, Lonnie had a delusion of his own now.
“This can be undone. Someone can be saved.”
Sometimes he even managed to believe.
Lonnie hopped onto a road bike and made sure his prize possessions were secured: a chainsaw and an underwater scooter. With these things in place, Lonnie took off toward what he considered the center of this new monstrous world. A huge swell rose from the ground just outside town; this thing looked like nothing more than an overgrown pregnant belly, right down the red stretch marks and veins that peered out through its “skin”. From the apex of this belly grew a towering corpse flower, larger than any naturally grown flower and with a stink grown to match its size.
If only this mound had been ornamental and the stench had been the worse crime. But that was not true. The monstrous belly, with a towering corpse flower atop it, claimed all forms of life. In a few short months, it had reduced the world to a barren wasteland devoid of plants, animals, and people. Men, women, children, animals, plants… anything with life had been drawn into this horror.
Lonnie was seemingly the only survivor, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that his presence was spared because of his connection to Sarah.
He blazed on his bike across the landscape and glanced behind him at the back of the bike where the last item of vital value rested: a handheld container marked with the word “Atonement.”
It might be too late already to rebuild or repair, but atonement was always possible. Or so, Lonnie hoped as the rotting sweet smell of the corpse flower drew nearer. He could smell it even through the partially sealed suit—he hoped once fully sealed and using canned oxygen, the suit would be able to lock that out.
As he rode toward the bloated mass, pregnant with all the life it had been able to steal, he took strength in a memory. It was not a pleasant recollection, perhaps even just a creation of his own mind, though Lonnie didn’t think so. He recalled a dream.
In this dream that had come to him only once, the night before, Sarah appeared before him, her voice echoing through his mind. “The birth of the Second Desecration is near, darling.”
This cryptic message left Lonnie both bewildered and filled with dread. Determined to confront the abomination that had consumed the world, he steadied his path along the deserted highway.
Not that this had been a deserted highway a year before. He’d driven on it with Sarah plenty of times, usually stuck in traffic jams with only her soft, cool, voice keeping him from raging. Now that same voice drove him on in a very different way.
Now Sarah was part of the monster. But even if could save nothing else, maybe he could save her. The fact he was alive implied she was still in there and still cared. That had to mean something.
Driven by love and a glimmer of hope, Lonnie approached the monstrosity on the horizon. The giant pregnant belly, rooted in the ground, appeared ominous and foreboding. The sickly-sweet stench of decay filled his lungs and stung his eyes. As he drew nearer, he could see the giant boulders that had been tossed aside like pebbles as the belly emerged. Now they lay around the base like bubbles in the worst bubble bath ever. Lonnie contemplated his options and the weight of the responsibility he bore. His wife’s essence resided within this abomination, and he alone could determine its fate.
Summoning his courage, Lonnie hooked up the air to his suit. It cut out the awful scent, at least for a moment. Lonnie almost wished it hadn’t since with that oppressive rot gone from his lungs, he had to face his next task. He had to get inside this monstrosity.
He carefully set a hand on the “Atonement” sticker and then pulled his equipment down from the road bike. The chainsaw came first.
He turned it on and listened for a moment to the sound of its blade, half expecting the horror in front of him to respond. It did not. The rest of the world was still—no, still was too light a word. The rest of the world was dead. He walked on the bones of a corpse, begging for vengeance.
Lonnie swung the chainsaw against the mottled flesh of the belly. It squished and oozed, slicing easily. Red fluid leaked out along with a slimy yellowish substance. Some splashed against Lonnie’s helmet, giving the world a blotchy red sheen. He didn’t stop. There was no turning back, and nothing to turn back toward. In short order, Lonnie had opened a gap in the monstrous belly using his chainsaw.
For a long moment, he stood, chainsaw in hand, and stared into this pathway into the unknown. He had predictions for what lay inside, but this was uncharted territory. To know anything, he’d have to go in. Lonnie turned the chainsaw off and set it on his road bike. He doubted he’d see either tool again, but if his was the last living hand to affect the face of the earth, he’d leave as neat a mark as he could.
His hand tightened around the handhold of the “Atonement” container. All his hope was there.
https://preview.redd.it/mglpnseuyt2b1.jpg?width=2409&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=64393445c7963c4df2928472baa2be3e5274ac9a
"Inside the Unholy Womb" music track
Then hoisting the water scooter, Lonnie took in a deep breath of canned air and ventured inside the demonic swell. Darkness covered him. Encased in this tomb, Lonnie moved slowly at first, with only his headlamp to guide him. As his eyes adjusted to the eerie reddish light that filtered in through the skin and muscle of the belly, he saw more of his new surroundings. The interior revealed a cavernous expanse of flesh arching above and in meaty walls around him. He traveled with an eye to get to the center. He had an idea of what was there.
After all, Sarah had promised him a pregnancy, and a pregnancy implied a fetus.
Here inside the cloying heat of the belly, Lonnie could not even pretend that anything he did could bring the world back. There was nothing to restore. He’d always known that. For the first time, he truly accepted it. This was all there was, and he was headed toward the center of that evil.
Sure enough, he came to a central lake filled with amniotic fluid. It was too dark to see anything within the vast waters, yet small waves lapped out, implying some sort of movement within. Without hesitation, Lonnie plunged into the fluid, utilizing the underwater scooter to navigate swiftly through the watery depths.
He kept a firm hold of his “Atonement.”
The air inside his helmet tasted stale. Lonnie was sure he had time left before he ran out of air, but not endless time. And he was certain that breathing the air in this place would be death. He couldn’t afford fear or indecision.
The fluid clung around him, hot and thick. Much thicker than water, more like swimming through blood, though it was clear as water. Clear enough to see the bones that floated mixed in the fluid and the vines.
At the lake’s bottom, he encountered the abomination—the twisted fusion of human, animal, and plant—known as the Second Desecration. Sarah had uttered those words to him. He only believed them. Yet somehow, he’d expected it to be horrid, a creature from the deep recesses of depravity. Perhaps it was, but in its way, the Second Desecration was also a baby, though nearly four times as large as Lonnie already. Its facial features were almost human: large eyes, a human nose, and a mouth. Extra appendages grew from its back and sides. But its limbs still had the frail look of a fetus. This monstrosity was not yet fit to live outside its womb.
Now was the only moment.
Drawn closer by a mixture of curiosity, desperation, and love, Lonnie clutched the container tightly. Within it lay something dreadful and oddly wonderful. Something that had only been possible through his work in physics—a devastating mass destruction device—the first anti-matter bomb. It was a weapon he had never desired to see made real. Yet now he saw its potential as a means to reshape the impending reality.
He’d come to destroy this thing as it had destroyed his world and his life.
Amidst the grotesque scene, a thought penetrated Lonnie’s mind. If his wife had transformed into the vessel for the Second Desecration’s birth, could this creature, in some unfathomable way, be the son she had always longed for? That Lonnie himself had always wanted. Images of the world as it once was flooded his thoughts, a world already lost irretrievably.
Ending the Second Desecration now would not bring that world back.
But to do nothing would have consequences. He imagined the horror that would unfold if he allowed the Second Desecration to come into existence—a nightmarish realm akin to hell on Earth.
In the midst of his contemplation, Lonnie understood the precipice before him. The only thing that remained was to decide: should he release the destructive force within the container, returning everything to the void? Or should he permit his “son” to live, thereby allowing the birth of a distorted and contorted new world?
Either act was an end for Lonnie, an end for the world. In the end, Lonnie didn’t have anything except for a choice.