Christa Spirit

rebirth/baptism

We do. There's no point in planning more sophisticated systems to get rid of something that'll eventually just go away on its own. So they just pile the snow into randomly designated spaces that cars or people aren't supposed to go through, and let it pile up. There's significantly less street parking available in the winter because some spots where you could otherwise park a car are currently the parking spot of a snow pile three times taller than a car.

There would be huge piles of snow at the top of the street that the elementary school kids (who had a stop up there and wore snow gear) would climb on while waiting for the bus.

There are only like two hundred people in the world with a ninth degree black belt in anything and it requires 'dedicated your entire life to it' levels of experience. Most of the time, you'll not only have spent time teaching it, but also will own a martial arts school.

It's also important to note that the exact requirements differ for different disciplines, and advanced black belts require a dedicated understanding of that discipline's philosophy.

The idea that Valerie is a ninth degree black belt is stupid (sorry Valerie) because of the precise experience requirements, which are measured in years (not competence), and even the idea that Maddie is one is pretty questionable. Valerie would be a third degree at most, while Maddie would maybe be a fifth or sixth.

The character implications for both of them, however, are pretty fun! It takes dedication and discipline, and it implies that martial arts was a huge part of both their lives even before ghost hunting was. For Maddie in particular, it implies that actively practicing martial arts was once as big a part of her life as science was - though I imagine having kids dropped it down the priority list.

It took me like four years to go from a white belt to a black belt (COVID delayed stuff). In Taekwondo, the degree of your black belt is how long you need to have that belt and keep training to earn the next degree. One year for first degree, two for second, so on so forth.

Even ignoring the cumulative years from the previous belts, you need to have an eighth degree black belt for eight years to become a ninth degree. Add that to maybe three years to go from white to black and you’ve hit eleven years already. Valarie is 14, and at least at my Taekwondo studio you couldn’t start to properly progress ranks until you were like six or seven.

Whenever Vanessa knows Perry is going to be at a place the Flynn-Fletchers might be, she texts Stacy, who then coincidentally shows up and distracts them.

They have a text chain that’s just them coming up with excuses and corroborating stories.