Hello, everyone! I have returned from my journey home, as well as from all of the surprises that met me when I came back to university (including daffodils, a hurried overview of the life and death of Ilya Muromets, the connections between Russian and Greek epics, an unexpected article in French, and a JSPS survey).¹

Special welcome to baelheit, ianthefira, and kaiyashe, whom I met in the Baten Kaitos thread in a "Small Fandoms" friending meme. If you added me to your friends list because of that meme, and I failed to add you back, please comment here so that I can go ahead and do so.

( A road to the dignified future. )

¹The research coordinator promised the participants a free Japanese handkerchief, retail value 15 USD, with the return of the surveys. They were even designed by a Living Natural Treasure! Wonderful!