#we start here

this is personal and not something I'd usually do, but i can't stop myself from wanting to share it.

i just got in the textbooks for the admission test for uni (psychology major) and it just feels surreal to have them in my hands and know this is the first step, whether or not i find a date to take the test this year of the next, this remains an unmistakable proof of all the hope and persistence i have had carried all my life, especially through highschool and in the last 6 months of my shaky path towards the life i want to have

all this just to pinpoint somewhere the beginning (even if the book got here yesterday and we didn't notice them in the garden - postman threw it in the garder without ringing the bell) of this journey, which scares me and excites me all the same!

❝ oh, good ! you're here ! ❞ attribute it to their heightened perception, still keen as a result of several decades' sharpening ― or perhaps even just a simple and innate ability to recognize a pattern, a routine as it begins to form ― but mikaere needn't even look up from the task at hand to know beyond a doubt who has entered his humble menagerie ! a flawless record on his end at catching their approach before they can get the jump on him has left charlie clever ; she no longer uses any of the building's more conventional entrances.

( doors, windows, fire escapes ― all strictly verboten if an undetected appearance is what they desire ! so far, they've yet to catch him off guard. )

tucked under one arm as he spins with a flourish to face them is a rather large copper helmet ; it is but one part of several in a vintage diving suit he's just come across by unexpectedly good fortune ! ❝ you know i lost a pocket watch in 2007 ? right over the side of the george washington bridge and straight to the bottom of the hudson ! little bastard was my favorite — a patek philippe from before the turn of the century. worth a pretty penny back then and surely even more now ! ❞ he tosses the grease rag he's been using to polish the helmet back into its cavity so he can hold the massive thing up on display. ❝ so what say you, huh ? i just found this gem and surely a needle is easier to find in a liquid haystack. ❞