#Along the akesh

[bluemoon1331]

Hello, hello! Welcome to my main blog, where the DCA fascination consumes! My alt blog is @sharetheartman, go check it out if you wanna see the amazing art this community has to offer!

My Ko-fi (if you're able to help a struggling writer, very much appreciated. Can request written commissions if you want): BlueMoon1331

Below is a list of all my current fics on A03 and planned AUs! Give them a read if you love fantasy and the DCA! (Updated to divide between the SFW and NSFW stories)

<<<<<First up, the SFW section!>>>>>>

Finished Works:

One Lost Star- You are a bit of a hermit, living solo off the land since the death of your grandfather. Until you draw certain godly attention, that is.

Scarlet Masquerade- The sole heir to your kingdom, you find yourself caught in the tangled web of the automaton emperor's plans. However, things are about to go from bad to worse when you catch the interest of the deadly automaton assassin sent to end you.

WIPs:

Cosmic Journeys- Trapped in the depths of depression, you seek an unfortunate out. The nearby land owner won't let that happen, though. Thus begins a journey of self-worth and finding hope in a world of madness and compassion, monsters, saints, and everything in between.

Come and Go- A Megamind-inspired AU with Sun as Metroman, Moon as Megamind, and Eclipse as Titan, while you are a delivery driver caught in the middle.

Unusual- An oceanographer, there is no place you'd rather be than scouring the depths of the seven seas, studying its plant life and creatures, in particular the infamous mers, beings most of your co-workers are quite wary of. They don't seem to mind you too much, though, a fact you try not to put stock in until an encounter on the beach near your house flips your entire world upside down. Strings of fate and a battle to rule the oceans with you as the key? Ridiculous. Right?

Of Metal Parts and Roadside Shenanigans- You are a trucker traveling home before unwittingly tripping headfirst into a giant mystery. (More of @deceptiveshadow's Blood Moon cause I love him and cannot help myself.)

One-shots:

Party Crashing 101- A piece inspired by the mafia episode from Helluva Boss. Badass, protective reader ftw XD

Blooming In Adversity- You and the princesses were great friends in your youth, until you had to move away. Years later, you return, your friendship blooming anew. However, dark plots turn in the background, and it may be up to just you to save them.

Phantom Tide- You are a siren, crushed under betrayal. Sun and Moon are brothers recovering from the throes of grief. Perhaps you may be just what each other need.

Connotations- Your duties as a druid are fairly life-consuming, but you have happily devoted yourself to them. Keeping the peace is not the easiest, but you do it all the same. Unfortunately, the arrival of contesting priests threaten your efforts, setting you on a collision course to meet three of the forest's most powerful caretakers.

Diamonds and Iron- Being a rather big-time mafia boss, of course Eclipse needs places to stash away his income. As an outdoor enthusiast, you love visiting the local motorsports arena when you can afford it. Oh, who's that standing in the middle of the track, where you can't see?

<<<<<<<<<NSFW area ahoy!>>>>>>>>>>

Finished Works:

Never Play Cat and Mouse With Vampires- Living alone is a necessity, your skills in hunting, magic, and evasion giving you all you need for contentment, or so you tell yourself. In your newest home you, unfortunately, find that your capabilities only draw the infatuation of three local creatures that are intent to finally capture you and make you theirs. Annoyingly, they may just get that chance.

Dancing In Orbit- The lunar vampire is the last of his kind, a deadly plague on the Earth that refuses to yield despite the uncountable years that have passed since the last of his kin and kind died off. You, running from your intertwined past, seek to finally put an end to that, with some help from friends old and new.

Familiar Constellations- The vampires get a bit quirky about you, especially when you egg them on. Mature. Very, very mature. Good gods they are rough, but you love it. After all, you can get a bit rough with them, too.

Gravity- Featuring another of @deceptiveshadow's lovely OCs, Nova. Normally quite the quiet and cat-like companion, you join him for a round of games in which his behavior becomes increasingly odd. That's nothing compared to when you strangely wake in the tower the next day, having no recollection of how you got there, and what comes after.

WIPs:

Embers and Ash- Ghost hunting is your profession, and you are damn good at it. Which is why you don't think twice when you're hired to cleanse an abandoned mansion of its otherworldly resident. Too bad this job is not the cake walk you thought it would be.

Burning Stars- You run your farm alone on a world teeming with aliens and humans, content with your animal family and helpful community, even if you keep the latter at arm's lengths. Until your peace is interrupted by a certain intergalactic bounty hunter, anyway.

Rosewood's Serenade- The eldest child of your kingdom, you have trained since birth to be all your home needs and more, intent to take the throne when the time comes, marriage or no. However, your parents harbor a secret, a deal struck when disaster threatened to destroy all they hold dear, and you soon find yourself meeting a most intriguing being...

Demonic- The saying of Hell is empty for all the demons are here has never been more apt. Caught smack dab in the middle of the infamous Hell-Day event, you come out with an unexpected passenger woven into your soul. Now, you secretly fight to preserve the fragile balance between mortals and the demons trapped on Earth, all while contending with the fact your new neighbors are the very ones responsible for sealing the gates, the infamous Celestial Graces. They also happen to be the mortal enemies of the one currently living in you. Fun times all around, especially with devil himself on your heels, seeking to reclaim what he lost.

Along the Akesh- Blessed with visions since your youth, you were taken and raised by the temple, becoming one of the highest-ranked priests, second to only the grand heijut himself. With an awe-inspiring festival and ritual that happens only once every five centuries under way, you are eager to meet the moon god, one of the many you have had the pleasure of conversing with throughout your prayers and oracles, in person. Things take an unexpected turn, however, when the temple must pay recompense for an accidental screw up with a gift left by an old friend. You are about to learn just how intrigued you and the moon god truly are with each other.

One-shots:

Bleeding Feathers- You weren't supposed to go into the exclusionary zone, but that's never been a problem for you before. This time, however, you might just get more than you bargained for. Fan piece for @deceptiveshadow's harpy au! (Not TSAMS)

Color Theory- Moving back to your late grandma's cabin, you pray for things to finally settle down. Unfortunately, her myriad of secrets seek to come back and haunt you, but hey, it might not be all bad this time. You could use the comfort of an old friend. Another fic inspired by @deceptiveshadow! Their god Blood Moon this time. (Not TSAMS)

<<<<<<<Lastly, miscellaneous potential AUs!>>>>>>>

Lich King AU- With the three realms in shambles, cut off from each other, it is up to the most powerful warriors of Earth to fend off the lich king and his Elite army, including his own brothers. You, whom offers them a secret safe haven and relaxation when they need it, cannot deny your love for Sun and Moon, nor they you, but with Eclipse hounding for any weakness he can use against his kin, is the danger really worth it? You find the answer may be coming sooner than you would like when the two go missing after a fight.

Spirited Away AU- You have moved to a more remote region in hopes of forgetting a troubled family life. Content to spend your time among the lush jungles of the land, you inadvertently stumble upon an obviously long-forgotten temple. Curiosity eats at you, and you cannot help get closer, initially unaware of the myriad of eyes watching you, until you spot...an icy blue leopard? It's a good thing you helped those snakes and that spider on your way here.

Harem AU- You saved them from certain death, and now the clan of vampire brothers serve you. For years uncountable, you have pulled the strings, quite happy to cause chaos around the world when it becomes too dull for your liking, going from hero to hero. On blood soaked ground, you are content with your helpful vampires, though can things really stay the same forever?

[tauers-go-dutch]

Norway to go but up!

Norway has been on the list for a while. One look at the photos of the fjords was enough to put it on the top of my bucket list. I wanted to hike around and see the beauty of Norway myself. Of course, being so north, we had to wait until summer to do so, which limited the window in which we could go. We couldn’t make it work last summer, so we had to wait to make this adventure happen. And the wait was worth it!

We flew into Bergen, Norway early in the morning. Bergen is not a small city, though it is also not a main destination within Europe. This was emphasized by the large welcome sign outside the airport, which simply said: Bergen? Yes, the question mark was included in the sign, as if the entire city is wondering why we were there. We were lucky enough to be meeting our friends Rachael and Andy, who were going to spend a two week Europe adventure with us. We had some time to kill, so we explored the duty free shop, which was pretty great in Bergen. The goods were actually discounted, and they had great stuff. I bought some Norwegian craft beer and the legendary Fazer mints! Look for the Finnish Fazer mints in your local Mountain Man Fruit and Nut shop- they will change your life!

Rachael and Andy arrived about two hours after we did, and we rented a car so that we could drive out to the even smaller towns that would be our staging grounds for the hikes. But first, we drove into Bergen proper for lunch. The city is gorgeous, and is built on the cliffs of the fjords. The colors of the houses pop against the green and blue backdrop, giving us our first taste of Norway’s beauty. After lunch we set out to Odda, which is nearest town to the famous Trolltunga hike. Surprisingly, and a bit disappointingly, a lot of the drive is tunnels, rather than along the fjords. But the tunnels themselves were very impressive- much, much larger than Eisenhower tunnel. It is impressive to see the quality and breadth of the infrastructure that a country can develop when it actually invests in that sort of thing over about 50 years.

Again, the beauty of Norway is stunning. When we weren’t in the tunnels, we were blessed with views the most gorgeous waterfalls. So many waterfalls. Seriously, so many. And fjords. So many fjords. Eventually we got up to our first ferry. It is a pretty cool experience, though truthfully the experience wore off quickly as the trip went on. Eventually, we got into Odda and checked into our Airbnb. The place was gorgeous. And apparently seized by the Nazis to house troops during the occupation in WWII. Our host was also really cool. I noticed his brewing equipment, and we got to talking shop. He made friends with a local monastery and borrowed their cider yeast strain. His set up was serious, and he even shared some of his home brews- including one of his few remaining holiday celebration beers. It was really good. We carb-loaded with some fairly awful spaghetti, and hit the hay.

The first waterfall on our drive. Little did we know they’d be everywhere!

Views from our Airbnb

We got up early (5am) to drive out to the Trolltunga starting point. Fully loaded with our snacks and supplies, my three favorite allies (Red Hot Chili Peppers anyone?) decided to drive up as far as possible, which cut off 2-3 km from the hike. Regardless, the hike was still plenty long. It took us about four hours to actually reach Trolltunga. The hike is stellar- to the point words don’t do it justice. So pictures will have to do- see throughout ;). We were lucky with the weather, at least on the ascent. The sun broke out as we reached Trolltunga, though we had to trudge through two hours of rain on the way down. We also made a friend- Akesh- on the way down. That evening we just rested- which will happen after walking hiking 20 miles in a day!

It’s time to pay the Troll Toll

It’s been a few years since I’ve seen snow...

The freshest water you’ll find

Getting closer!

Made it!

It was still foggy during our turn out on the tongue, but cleared up about five minutes later, making for much better photos on another ledge nearby

Survived!

The next day we drove down to Stavanger, another small city in Norway. Stavanger would be our staging ground for yet another hike. The drive again was filled with fjords and falls and ferries, as well as podcasts. We took it easy when we got in, just getting some lunch (great burgers), seeing the city- including the street art and a playground made up entirely of old oil drilling equipment, and drinking beer. Lots of expensive beer. Norway has great craft beer, and Lervig, one of the country’s best, is located just outside of Stavanger. While the brewery doesn’t have a tap room, several bars have a close relationship and carry several Lervig beers. Not to mention other rare and amazing craft beers from around Europe and the world. Unfortunately, beer is extra expensive in Norway, much like everything else, and my bank account was a bit lighter after this trip. Oh well :).

As a turn of bad luck, the weather was not great the next day. By not great I mean there was a constant rain for the entire morning both in Stavanger and our hike site. We weighed our options, and decided to skip our hike of Pulpit Rock. The hike was only four hours, but would require three hours of driving and would have to be done at the height of the rain. After hiking Trolltunga as the showpiece of our Norway adventure, we decided to just hang around the town instead. First, we walked around the Sverd I Fjell monument, which marks the ninth century battlefield that unified the Kingdom of Norway. Pretty cool. We hung out at our Airbnb for a bit (ie napped), and got up for more exploring. Mariah found a cool park in the middle of the city, which we walked around for a bit. Afterwards, we had some decent Indian food and more fantastic beer (including a way too expensive bottle of Side Project Saison du Pays). The next day we had to drive back to Bergen, but this route had far fewer tunnels, and still plenty of falls, fjords, and ferries.

A solid breakfast

Exploring some nature in the middle of the city

The beauty of Norway can’t be expressed in words. Sure, it rains as much as Amsterdam. And I hear the winters are dark and brutal. But seen in the bright sunlight of summer, the place is breathtaking. I honestly can’t help but think that Norwegians must be fairly disappointed with most other destinations when they travel. I don’t think this we’ll be my last trip to the country, as experiencing the views of a midnight hike in Reine (look it up- amazing!).

Leaving you with a midnight sunset

Tot ziens!

[prelawland]

The U.S. Border Crisis And The Law

By Akesh Shah, Boston University Class of 2022

July 20, 2021

As the Biden administration continues to champion immigration reform as a priority on its agenda, legal battles continue to unfold in Congress. Currently, Democrats are attempting to include Biden’s immigration action — along with funding for many other programs of his — in budget plans. However, in a narrowly divided Congress, it is unclear how much Democrats will be able to achieve.

Immigration law has become increasingly important under Biden. In 2021, the United States has faced rapidly increasing numbers of migrants seeking residence. These rising numbers have increased public awareness of the relevance of immigration law, bringing the issue to the forefront of national discourse.

This article details legal avenues for immigration and the suite of practices ICE uses to enforce immigration law. It also discusses possible causes of this sudden migrant surge as well as Democrat and Republican policy proposals to handle the crisis. It concludes with a brief discussion of popular opinion surrounding the issue of the border as gauged by the Pew Research Center. Taking these factors into account, any hasty speculation on the future of immigration law and the border crisis seems ill-advised. At this time, it seems that the only certainty is uncertainty.

For full article please visit

An Overview of the U.S. Border Crisis

at

Massachusetts PreLaw Land

[bluemoon1331]

I am so abuzz with the Lich King AU right now, I have the entire f*cking plot, I want to write it so bad, but I am also heavily invested in SM and the 10 other WIPs in the background already hahahaha I love my brain

[bluemoon1331]

Thinking so hard about that unnamed AU where the boys are three types of creatures. Eclipse will be so fun in that one. His fae ass have four f*cking appearances for the seasons. Demon Sun be reminding me of Bam's blaze king Sun. And either another vamp Moon or lich. And then Y/N is just an absolute mental mess. Like, there's three different versions of how they meet one of the boys to start, but they all stem from the same way and just...oof. The Moon meeting is the most fleshed storyline, but oh so many heavy topics. Anyway, I really need to stop making f*cking AUs

[bluemoon1331]

Me, rereading my writing: OMG I wrote this? Why did I write this? Oh me, oh my. Jesus. He did what? Good Glob. Hahaha.