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[the-dan-sargent]

i learned nothing from you.

by Daninne Sargent

i would say i learned nothing from you but that would be a false statement

in fact i learned how to hate myself from you

i learned to undermine myself and expect failure and keep my dreams nice and small from you

because of you i’m more pessimistic than I ever was before

because of you i don’t like my reflection i complain often i’m always angry

because of you i have a crippling lack of self-confidence

so hey i guess you did give me something after all

that said, i am glad that i left you.

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[the-dan-sargent]

i never listen.

by Daninne Sargent

*CW: slight self-harm mention*

i forgot to clean the shower when i left the bathroom today.

i forget things a lot.

do you want to know why?

i’ll tell you why. it’s because i don’t listen. i     never                  listen.

i didn’t do much of my homework this week.

in fact, i’m very behind.

i tell myself to do it.

yet it remains undone, because i won’t listen. i     never                  listen.

a little voice spoke to me when i woke up yesterday.

she told me a secret.

she told me she hated me.

she told me to hurt myself. i didn’t listen. i     never                  listen.

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[the-dan-sargent]

Moffle Phillips is a Normal Human: Part II

by Dan Sargent

This semester I took a creative writing class, and began writing a story about one of my characters, Moffle the Alien, for the final assignment. I wanted to share it, so I decided to drop it on here! Hope you enjoy, and feedback is highly appreciated!!

Click here to read Part I (in which Moffle nearly destroys his chances of being able to attend human school)!

Part II under the cut!

“It was a sunny morning in early June. I awoke to my alarm clock ringing, and quickly reached out to stop it as I opened my eyes. While coming out of my groggy state, a sense of excitement washed over me as I realized that it was my first day of space camp! My entire life I’d wanted to be an astronaut and explore the universe, and I had been begging my parents to let me go to space camp. It was my dream.

Another thing I was extremely excited for was getting the chance to meet other kids my age for the first time! My life was a pretty lonely life to live, but I managed. Being by myself all the time gave me lots of free time to find myself. And in that time I discovered two things: that I love outer space and that I really want to get some friends. And now I was going to be attending space camp! Where I would meet a whole bunch of other kids who liked space, just like me! It was going to be perfect!

I turned over in my bed to stare at my wall. It was plastered with posters I’ve collected over the years. There were posters of the moon, of the solar system, and of stars and galaxies. Among my favorites were the music and film posters. My gaze landed on a poster featuring cover art from my favorite album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. I felt a smile spread across my face as I jumped out of bed to turn on my stereo, popping my CD of the album out of its case and into the device. From there I skipped ahead until I landed on my favorite song, “Starman”. I let the song play as I strutted over to my closet.

Something about Ziggy Stardust had always resonated with me. But I guess it would make complete sense for me to resonate with someone who took on the form of an androgynous alien from outer space. For you see, I myself was also an androgynous alien and my ancestors were definitely not from planet earth. There was nothing human about me, and I was okay with that. Compared to others I was strange, but I didn’t care. Sure I was different, but it was an easy enough thing to hide. As soon as I learned to control my form, my mother made sure I knew to hide my true form and present as a human whenever I was around other people. In her words, it would be “very dangerous--or at the very least, extremely awkward” if anyone saw me in my alien form, so I knew to hide. Presenting myself as a human was second-nature to me by that point in my life. But as I said before, none of this ever bothered me because it was just a normal aspect of my life. Sure, I was essentially hiding a huge secret from the world as well as rejecting a huge part of myself, but really it was better off that way.

I made my way to my floor mirror, with a shirt in each of my olive-green toned, three-fingered hands. I looked at my reflection for a moment. My skin clashed with the bright orange t-shirt I was wearing, and my honey-yellow eyes glowed in the mirror as they scanned my appearance. My long (some might say cat-like) tail swayed back and forth in my excitement, and the deep green hair on the top of my head was matted together in a very apparent bedhead. Woven into the strands of hair were my ears, both of which were half a foot long and typically drooped down to my shoulders. I chuckled a bit as I gazed up at the beautiful mess of hair atop my skull, then closed my eyes as I changed into my human form.

My tail shrank away, as did my long ears as they became human-like in shape. My skin went from green to a more human-appropriate warm tone. My fingers split from three to five. My hair fell over my eyes as it straightened itself out and turned a dark, muted brown. When I opened my eyes back up, they were a very normal white color with dark green irises around the pupils. Looking back at myself, I looked like just a normal human kid stood in their heavily space-themed bedroom. With a huge smile across my face, I lifted up one of the two shirts in my hand. It was a navy blue tank shirt with stars plastered on every inch of it. Deeming it the perfect thing to wear, I paired it with a pair of black knee-length shorts, white socks, and dark blue high-top shoes. Soon after putting my outfit on, I checked my appearance before turning off my stereo and making my way out of the room.

Similar to my first day of high school, everything about space camp felt like a dream. The space camp building was on the same site as a space base. Everything I walked by filled me with amazement, and I smiled to myself as I realized that I was walking in the footsteps of some of the greatest space explorers of humankind. I was touring the main space camp building with all of the new campers, and we were being led around by two camp counselors. First we were brought to the dining hall and the residence hall, two areas that weren’t very exciting but were definitely important. Then we were brought to the fun places, starting with the simulation room. This space was enormous and was filled with endless interesting contraptions, from rooms for practice missions to antigravity emulators, among other things. Then we were led to the theater, and later to the research room.

It had hit dusk by the time we had made it to our last stop on the tour, which was the observatory. Upon walking in, I had never been more awestruck by anything else in my life. The cylindrical room was topped off with a dome-shaped ceiling, and there was an opening in it that provided a clear view of the dimming sky. The walls of the room were lined with desks and bookshelves loaded with computers, scale models, knick-knacks, tools, and a massive collection of space-related books. The room’s main feature, stood on a tall platform base, was the huge astronomical telescope placed directly in the center of the space. After scanning the room in utter disbelief and amazement, I had concluded that this very room would be my favorite part of space camp.

From that day on, I would hang out in the observatory whenever I got the chance, looking at the cosmos and everything found within them through the telescope. I felt like the secrets of the universe were at my fingertips whenever I looked through its lens. I could see stars and galaxies I had never seen before. I could see planets I could only dream of seeing with my naked eye. Looking through the telescope, I sometimes found myself wondering if my home planet was one of them.

One night, I had decided to hang around in the observatory before bed instead of going to my dorm room. After eating my dinner, I had gotten my belongings together and prepared to fly over. I swung my bag over my shoulders and cradled a pillow in my arms, prepared to spend the night if I so desired. I then went invisible and snuck my way into the observatory without a hitch. From there, I placed all of my things in a hidden area of the room and got comfy. I pulled out one of my favorite astrology books and rushed over to the telescope. I had planned on studying different types of stars on this night, and went about comparing every star I looked at to every other star. This went on for hours, and when I began to feel an overwhelming sense of exhaustion I decided it was time to hit the hay. Sleepily, I trudged over to my hidden spot and immediately drifted off, with my astrology book still in my arms.

Suddenly, I was awoken by a loud exclamation. The shock that rushed through my body caused me to instantly vanish from sight, and I darted up in the air to see what was going on. A brief glance toward the opening in the ceiling told me that it was early morning. To my horror, I had discovered that I left the telescope in a state of mild disarray, and an astronomer who had just walked in was running up to it. I panicked, realizing that if I was found out, there was a fair chance I could get in a whole heap of trouble. I knew I had to stay out of sight. Fortunately, my invisibility powers made that easy for me. Rather unfortunate, however, was the fact that all of my things were still sprawled out around me, and I wouldn’t be able to pick them up without making noise. Looking down at everything, I knew I had to find some way to get it all out of the room without getting caught. I looked back up towards the rest of the room, and nearly screamed in fear when my eyes immediately met those of the astronomer. His face was mere inches away from mine.

He couldn’t see me, right? I hovered backwards, slowly, looking down at myself as I did so. I was completely invisible. Obviously, there was no way he saw me. He had clearly been looking at my things and not at me. Instant relief fell over me. But now that my spot had been exposed, I knew that leaving with my stuff would be near impossible unless I caused some sort of distraction first. So, fighting against the urge to have a complete panic attack and shut down, I flew over to the other side of the room and pushed a few heavy books off of a desk. This seemed to do the trick, and the astronomer quickly turned his head and approached the source of the sound. Straight away, I made my way back over to my possessions and gathered them up. Every item I picked up turned invisible with me. Once I was fairly certain I had collected everything, I rose back up in the air and stole a swift glance at the astronomer, who was puzzlingly making his way back over. Struck by fear and wondering whether he saw my things vanishing as I picked them up, I rushed out the door and didn’t look back until I was safely back in my dorm room. To my relief, no one had ever come to me asking about what happened that day. I had luckily made it out, completely in the clear.

From that day on, I never stayed overnight in that observatory ever again. I had also learned that I needed to be extra careful to stay far away from humans whenever I was using my invisibility powers. That accident had shown me that one mistake on my end could lead to my alien form being exposed. And once my alien form was exposed, I would never, ever be able to blend in with other humans.”

To be continued in Part III!

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[the-dan-sargent]

Moffle Phillips is a Normal Human: Part I

By Dan Sargent

This semester I took a creative writing class, and began writing a story about one of my characters, Moffle the Alien, for the final assignment. I wanted to share it, so I decided to drop it on here! Hope you enjoy, and feedback is highly appreciated!!

Story synopsis:

Raised as a human, Moffle the alien was taught to always put his best foot forward and act as “normal” as possible (by human standards, at least). This includes hiding his more “alien” behaviors and keeping his true form a deep secret. Ashamed of what he truly looks like, Moffle has always had to act and look completely different from who he truly is. But what happens when Moffle ends up getting close to one of his classmates, Mars? Join Moffle on his journey through opening up to others and learning that there’s no better person to be than yourself.

Part I under the cut!

“Hello there, it is very nice to meet you! My name is Moffle, and I am currently having a panic attack in my bedroom. Don’t worry! This kind of thing is normal for me, I have these on quite the regular basis. If you’re wondering why my brain is imploding on itself this time, it is because I made a grave mistake today. I ruined my life completely and can now never show my face to anyone ever again. It all began this afternoon, after my very first day at my new school, Red Valley High.

Being an alien from another planet, I’ve never really gotten the chance to meet many human beings throughout my life. Before high school I had always been homeschooled, and as a result had never gotten close to anyone outside of my family. I’ve had a few friends, mostly from the internet or from space camp, but I’ve never really been very close with anyone. For as long as I can remember, I have dreamed of living alongside humans and going to an actual school. And now I finally had the chance to really do it!

My day started off very well. I got out of bed after hardly getting a lick of sleep, put on my human form (and first-day outfit), ate breakfast, and left for school. Most humans would walk or take the bus to school, but I just flew there instead. Yes, you heard me right. I’ve got flying powers, and they’re very convenient. I’m technically not supposed to be using them, but as long as I’m invisible whenever I’m flying I should be in the clear, right? That’s how I see it, at least. That being said, please don’t tell my mom that I’ve been flying in public. Once I got to school, I made my way to the principal’s office, where I was given my class schedule and sent off on my merry way.

I made it to my homeroom with little difficulty, and once I was seated I looked down at my schedule. At the very top of the page was my name, Moffle Phillips, followed by my year, freshman. I barely paid any mind to the piece of paper as I practically vibrated in excitement out of my seat. I was finally among a whole lot of kids my age, and it felt so right. This was where I belonged. Or, at least, that’s what I kept telling myself over and over. Sure, I was an alien. In that way, I was quite different from all of the people who were surrounding me. That might have led to me standing out a bit, like how I stood out a bit everywhere else I went. But that didn’t matter. I was in my human form, and I was still a fourteen-year-old kid, just like practically everyone else in the classroom (excluding the teacher, of course). As long as I looked and acted like a normal kid, everything would be smooth sailing. It was going to be a piece of cake, since trying to blend in with humans was something I’d been doing all my life. Sitting in silence, I tried to convince my brain that high school was, without a doubt, the place for me. After a few more minutes of doodling and twiddling my thumbs, homeroom was over and I was ready to make my way to my next location.

As it so happened, my first class of the day was astronomy! As someone who is as passionate about space as I am, of course I leapt at the chance to take a space-themed class. My entire life, I’ve always found everything about space to be extremely cool and very interesting. I couldn’t resist taking an class on my favorite thing. Plus, it would give me the opportunity to talk about space with a bunch of other people equally fascinated by it!

I got to class and sat next to the first friendly-looking face I saw. I grinned widely at him and introduced myself. Giving me a friendly smile, he told me his name was Parker. I then talked to Parker about space, about stars, about other planets, other galaxies; and finally, about aliens. I was so happy to be talking about space, that I didn’t even notice that class was beginning until I saw the teacher, and all of my classmates, angrily glaring at me. I turned to Parker and saw that even he was giving me a deadpan expression that told me I had rambled on too much. Let’s just say, that was a little embarrassing. However, before my brain could be hit by a wave of regret, the lesson began, and I instantly forgot my embarrassment. Let’s just say, listening to people talk about space for forty-five minutes straight was dreamier than I could ever imagine!

From then on out, the rest of my day was just as magical. As I went from class to class, everything was going extremely well. Not only was I able to observe humans up close all day, but I was even getting a few opportunities to introduce myself and talk to them! Before today, the only other humans I had interacted with were my family and my friends at space camp. But now that I was in human school, I could talk to a whole bunch of people every single day! It was the most thrilling experience of my whole life!

At the end of my perfect first day of school, I got my belongings together and found a restroom to go invisible in. I slipped into a stall, sat on the toilet, and took a breather to take in the day. I had done it. I had survived my first day of school. And it was awesome! I no longer had any doubts on whether or not I fit in. Not only did I fit in, but a lot of the people I met seemed like they thought I was cool! It felt so good, and at that point I felt absolutely certain that Red Valley high was where I belonged. After sitting for a bit, grinning wildly, joyously screaming into my backpack, and collecting myself, I was all set to fly home. I took a moment to  go invisible, and then flew over the stall door toward the restroom’s exit.

It was then that I immediately messed up everything I had worked so hard for.

I swung the door open to leave, and then instantaneously--while invisible--crashed into a girl who was about to enter the restroom. I would have completely fallen on top of her, too, if I hadn’t used my flying powers to save me at the last minute. Hovering mere inches above her, I turned to face the girl, still invisible, and saw that she had very clearly been crying. Her thick glasses were hastily placed atop her head and there were streaks of mascara running down her cheeks. Her phone had fallen on the ground beside her, and upon accidentally glancing at its screen I noticed she had been in a call with her mother. I wanted to help her up. I wanted to ask her what was the matter. But I couldn’t, not without completely revealing who I was. So I didn’t. Instead, I darted back a few feet before flying away in fear. It felt as if everyone’s eyes were burning into me as I bolted out of the building. I only hope that I managed to stay invisible while all of that happened, or else I’d be in real trouble.

And that’s how I almost ruined everything I had worked so hard to earn. Great first day, am I right? In fact, it reminds me of another incident that happened a couple of years ago during my first summer at space camp.”

Click here to read Part II! 

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[the-dan-sargent]

How to get out of bed.

by Dan Sargent

First, open your eyes. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and rays of light are cascading in through your window and onto your face. Unless the blinds are closed. Remember that you didn’t close them. It was probably your roommate, and they probably closed them after you fell asleep. Yearn for the blinds to be open, for the sunlight to hit your skin, to feel the happy warmth of a new day. Yearn to feel any happiness at all. Wonder if true happiness exists, if it’s a feeling that everyone experiences or just a conspiracy made up by the psychology industry to make you feel like there is a positive side to life. You’ve felt joy before, but never happiness. You probably have depression, and it’s probably pretty severe. You’ve never been to a therapist before, though, so you don’t really know. Therapy is just another part of the psychology industry conspiracy.

In the case that the blinds aren’t closed, that your roommate isn’t home and therefore did not close them, rejoice. Smile softly as the sparkling sunlight tickles your face. Remember that every moment of happiness matters. Lay like this for a while. Think about life, death, how groggy you feel, how you just want to sleep forever because you are definitely not a morning person. Get bored of laying around doing nothing. Realize, however, that you also very much would not like to get out of bed. The bed is too comfortable to leave. So stay there. Give up. Recognize that attempting to rise out of bed at this time is futile, and pull your iPhone off of the nightstand.

The nightstand isn’t an actual nightstand, per se, and isn’t actually even a table. It’s a set of black PVC pipe shelving that would more likely be found in a garage than in a college dorm room. But it works for you, and you store lots of things on these shelves; from your glasses, to your soaps and perfumes, to your first aid kit, to the random odds and ends that you keep on the shelf at the very bottom. Your brain darts to the thought of your glasses, and you remember that you can’t see at all right now. It’s very strange how you are impossibly blind, yet still don’t even notice it sometimes. You reach for your glasses, only to find that they are not in their usual spot. After fumbling around without your vision for a few seconds, you remember--they slipped off of your bed before you went to sleep last night. They’re trapped, likely on the floor, in the crevice between your bed and the wall. You’ll need to get out of bed to grab them. So you don’t. Guess that you’ll be scrolling through Instagram blindly this morning. You hold your phone close to your face, close one eye, and turn on the device. The phone is six inches away from your eye, yet you can only just about make out what you’re seeing on the screen.

Eventually, you’ll put down your phone and get out of bed. You’ll crawl under your bed and dig out your glasses. You’ll put them on, look in the mirror, and groan at just how horrendous you look. You’ll cover up your stubborn acne, draw on your eyebrows, and comb out your hair. You’ll get dressed, realize you’re mad hungry, and decide to go down to the dining hall to eat. It’ll probably be lunchtime. Unless it’s past 1, in that case you’ll have to heat up some food from your fridge. You’ll be fed, and maybe a little happier than before.

This will all happen as soon as you get out of bed. As soon as that moment comes. Now, however, is not that moment.

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If ants got bigger, then cereal mascots would come to life and throw cereal at everyone.

by Dan Sargent

Ah, the great-mega-humungous acid rain storm that raged on for years across the globe. Gotta love the good ol’ days, way back when the earth was being constantly pummeled by poison. Life wasn’t easier, but surprisingly enough, it was a whole lot less annoying. Unfortunately for the surviving humans, the level of radiation that the storm left behind caused many defects in many creatures around the world. The most regrettable of these being the fact that ants grew to be human-sized. It wasn’t the ants that was the problem, though. It was what happened as a result of their growth. Odd as it may seem, the growth of these bugs caused every cereal mascot that ever existed to come to life.

Now at first, one might think that this would be the coolest thing ever. Cereal mascots coming to life? Who wouldn’t want that? It would be so radical. However, these mascots immediately proved to be a nuisance. They would yell at people and call them profanities and slurs, were complete slobs, and had terrible manners and political views. Worst of all, they would continuously throw cereal at every single person they passed. The Trix bunny threw Trix at an elderly woman and called her a boomer. The Lucky Charms leprechaun threw Lucky Charms while taking a massive dump on somebody’s front porch. Count Chocula threw, you guessed it, Count Chocula cereal at people dressed as vampires on Halloween, calling them posers as he did so. This horrible way of living continues on to today, and everybody (except for the cereal mascots, of course) hates waking up every day. All in all, this is a horrible time for everyone who has lived to experience it, and everyone just wants an escape from this seemingly-endless nightmare.

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Night at the Butterfly House

by Dan Sargent

“This is so f*cking stupid, man.”

“Exactly, that’s what makes it so fun!”

What do you do when you’re drunk and you want to spice up your night? According to Orville G. Mariposa (or as his friends call him, Orv), you visit a butterfly house. At midnight. So that is what he decided to do, and he dragged his three friends Seffie, Jamie, and Devon along for the ride.

“How do you know you can make it in?” Jamie inquired.

“I don’t. I’m just assuming they haven’t changed the passcode on the door since I used to work here,” replied Orv.

Seffie and Devon trailed behind, with Devon desperately trying to keep Seffie with the rest of the group. “Where are we--are we going again?” Seffie asked, clueless as ever and stumbling over his own two feet.

“You’ll find out when we get there,” Devon replied. If she remembered correctly, Devon was very aware that Seffie was absolutely terrified of insects. “Yo Orv, are we almost there? I can’t wait to see the look on Sef’s face when we--”

“The... what on my face?” Seffie mumbled, turning to face Devon yet over-rotating a bit.

Devon giggled. “Oh, you’ll see,” she coyly replied.

The friends continued on like this for another minute or so, and then finally turned around a corner to face a beautiful little building made up entirely of glass.

“Okay, we’re here!” Orv announced.

“Oh. It’s a greenhouse,” Sef observed, clearly completely unaware that the “greenhouse” housed his greatest nightmare. “Cool, I love flowers!” Cue Devon cackling behind him. “What? Don’t (hic) judge me, man.”

Seeing that Devon is determined not to let Sef know that the building before them was actually a butterfly house, Orv decides to also keep it on the down-low. Smirking slightly, he teases “Oh trust me, bro. This is more than a greenhouse. This is SO much more than a greenhouse.”

Realizing what the others are doing, Jamie interrupts with a brief “Dude…” before she rolls her eyes and decides to just go along and see how everything unfolds.

The four friends make their way to the building’s front door and Orv steps up to the number pad. Everyone stands in silence, watching as Orv fumbles with the buttons. Concentrating with as much energy as his extremely-tipsy brain can muster, he squints at each number as he presses it. 8… 2… 6… 7… 4… Orv takes a quick breath… 7. Much to everyone’s amazement, the friends hear the victorious click of the door’s lock. Excitedly, Devon pushes herself to the front of the group and swings the door open. She bolts several feet into the room and turns around, whipping her phone camera out in anticipation for what she knows is about to unfold.

Sure enough, immediately after Devon, Seffie enters the building. Feeding off of Devon’s excited energy, he runs in after her and stands, arms flung wide, in the room’s entranceway. “I love you flowers!!” he yells, and goes to hug a nearby cluster of flowers. Mid-hug, he goes in for a kiss, and… unknowingly plants one square onto the wing of a bright yellow butterfly. Needless to say, his reaction once he realized what he did was priceless, by the other three friends’ standards at least.

Devon tries (and fails) to hold her phone steady as she is recording the entire incident. Orv is practically on the floor laughing, pulling Jamie down with him. Meanwhile, Seffie is shrinking away from the bush, as well as every single other plant in the room, in fear. “I kissed it, oh my god I KISSED it,” he sobs through hiccups, failing to gain any composure whatsoever.

While Seffie continues to collapse more and more onto himself, Orv gets up and heads toward the recipient of the smooch.

“What a beautiful swallowtail!” he says, gushing over the butterfly while picking it up. Coddling the butterfly, he continues “My friend here didn’t hurt you, did he? He didn’t mean to, I promise, he’s just like that. It is absolutely nothing against you at all, little guy.” Turning toward the others, he clears his throat and holds out the insect. “This, my dear friends, is an Anise Swallowtail.”

Seffie whimpers and covers his eyes. Devon and Jamie, however, pick themselves up. Jamie puts an arm on Sef to comfort him while she sits and stares at the bug. Devon runs up to Orv and gets as close to the butterfly as she possibly can, eyes wide in amazement and fascination. “Wow, she’s so pretty! And bright! I love her,” she squeals in delight.

“I know, right? Aren’t butterflies amazing?” Olv exclaims in equal excitement, and continues on. “These bad boys are most commonly found on the western coast of North America, and are named after the wild anise plant. Once one of these came to my garden at home and sat on my zinnias. You can only assume how entranced I was. Not only had a butterfly come to my garden, but one as beautiful as this one! It brings a tear to my eye, knowing something as precious as this creature right here exists in the world.” Turning to the butterfly, he added, “I love you, little Anise Swallowtail.”

The butterfly leaves Olv’s hand and flies off to the other side of the room. Olv and Devon chase after it, and are immediately distracted by another butterfly. Jamie eventually also gets up and joins in on admiring the insects, finding the black butterflies the most fascinating of them all. Devon asked her why she was so fond of them, to which she replied, “They remind me of myself.” She then continued onward, leaving the other two in a state of mild confusion.

The three friends went deeper into the room as they searched for more bugs, and Seffie remained curled in a fetal position on the floor. Olv talked endlessly, spewing fact after fact about every single butterfly he saw. Devon would interrupt with bug jokes and an excess of “ooh”s and “ahh”s. Jamie remained quiet, silently admiring the insects surrounding her.

Jamie looked around the room, taking in her surroundings. The butterfly house was small, yet filled to the brim with flowers of all colors. Jamie personally preferred the color black, but still saw that there was something especially beautiful in the mountains of brightly-colored plants surrounding her friends. Each flower was unique, as was each butterfly, and she was fascinated by it all. As her eyes glossed over the adornment of hanging plants draped from the walls, she caught sight of the building’s front door.

Which was wide open. And butterflies were escaping as she watched.

Jamie rolled her eyes, wondering why her friends were so idiotic, and realized she’d have to be the one to fix everything. She was going to be the only one out of her friends who’d be able to retrieve the butterflies successfully. So she slipped away, her friends completely unaware that anything had even gone awry. After exiting the building and triple checking that the door was closed, she chuckled as she looked into the surface of the glass in front of her. Completely reflective, yet no reflection of her in it whatsoever.

“Well, here goes nothing,” she sighed, slipping into a nearby bush. Seconds later, a bat emerged and flew into the night sky, ready to catch some butterflies.

An hour passes, and the other three friends are still in the greenhouse. Orv is in his own little world. At this point he has moved on from the topic of butterflies, and is currently thoroughly discussing the details on every single plant in the room. Devon has grown extremely sleepy. After barfing in one too many bushes, she’s decided to collapse on the floor next to Seffie, who is also passed out.

Suddenly, Sef sits up, groggily yet quickly enough for him to feel a sharp pain in his head. “Ughhhh,” he groans. “Where are we?” He sees Orv and calls out to him. “Orvie… I want to go home.” This snaps Orv back to earth, resulting in him instantly noticing that he also has a splitting headache.

“Sh*t, my head…” Orv starts. Turning to look at his friends, he continues “That’s actually a great idea, Sef. I think we all need to go home and rest.” He walks over to Devon and rouses her, and the three friends attempt to compose themselves enough to make their way home. In their exhausted, messy state, the three friends make it to the front door and exit the butterfly house.

As they leave, no one notices the black bat resting on the branch of a bush, surrounded by a cluster of black butterflies.

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[the-dan-sargent]

I am tired of this humdrum daily grind. I cannot grind anymore. Can you?

It’s time to create. Let me give you some new inventions–

this one makes peonies bloom every time someone feels love towards you. It never stops blooming.

That one is an instrument that lets the wind sing of its own beauty in words you can understand.

This one is special. It transforms your very nature so you can move through the universe and pet the constellations like cats.

Give Scorpio a hug for me, will you? It won’t sting you, I promise. I made you immune. Tell me what the wind says. Bloom.

[the-dan-sargent]

All organized.

by Dan Sargent

My bed is made. My pillows are fluffed. My blankets are folded. My stuffed animals are seated All organized, side by side In a nice, neat row.

My shelves are straight. My books are placed atop the shelf In alphabetical order. Leroux, Maguire, Shelley. Graphic novels to the left. Nonfiction to the right. The bigger books on the outer edges. To the left of my books are my movies. To the left of my movies my video games. To the left of my video games my sketchbooks. All organized, side by side In a nice, neat row.

More stuffed animals protect my books. Three of them are seated to the right. Panda, Snoopy, Biff. Five of them are seated to the left. Rose, Pinky, Bean, Rafi, Willie. Next to them, on the very end of the shelf Is my yearbook from my senior year of high school. On the very end of the shelf, all the way to the right Are my board games In the corner, on the shelf Leaning against the wall. The entirety of my shelf is All organized, side by side In a nice, neat row.

My closet is nearly overfilled with shirts.

From left to right, we have The crop tops The tank tops The small t-shirts The large t-shirts The short-sleeve button-up shirts The baseball t-shirts The long sleeved shirts The light jackets The sweatshirts The sweaters The Christmas sweaters The flannel button-up shirts The plain button-up shirts The cardigans The vest The trenchcoat All in that very specific order. All organized, side by side In a nice, neat row.

My shoes follow a similar pattern. They sit on four shelves in my closet. The top shelf is where I keep My black slides, my black flats, my checkerboard Vans. The second shelf is where I keep My rainbow slides, my blue flats, my brown dress shoes. On the third shelf lives My blue high tops and my two gray pairs of high tops. And the bottom shelf Is where the rest of the shoes wind up. All organized, side by side In a nice, neat row.

Not a wrinkle out of place. Not a book on its side. Not a stuffed animal fallen over. Not a shirt on the floor. Not a shoe left behind.

There is no chaos allowed In this space. If there is any hint of mess It is instantly picked up And folded Or lined up perfectly Or hung up on a hanger Or pushed into place.

All organized, side by side In a nice, neat row.

There can be no mess here. If I see a mess I go into overdrive. I hyperfixate on it. It must be cleaned. I need to organize it.

If any part of my exterior world Reflects the disastrous mess That is inside my brain I will go insane.

I can’t have that. I refuse to have that.

Therefore, I will do my best To keep absolutely everything All organized, side by side In a nice, neat row.

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[the-dan-sargent]

"Gift to My Universe"

Once there was darkness

With no visible light

The universe gave me you

Which set everything right.

Dark corners shine brightly

Got rid of my blues

I thank the universe everyday

For someone as wonderful as you.

The stars placed us together

For I see this as fate.

Oh how could the universe grant me

Someone so kind, so gentle, so great? ~JR

[the-dan-sargent]

[the-dan-sargent]

Utopia

Imagine a world,

in which everyone

can be who they want to be,

where they can find their own identity,

separate from the norms of society.

where their personality can flourish,

without being restricted.

Whether it is by tradition,

or by inhibition,

or by social position.

People can do what they desire,

as long as it is harmless,

to anyone else.

A world where people don’t have to fear,

or even shed a tear.

Where people don’t have to follow a peer,

where they don’t have to be pressured,

to have their true selves censored,

forced into hiding,

away from the world.

A world where people are free,

to be who they want to be,

should not be fantasy,

it should be reality.

[the-dan-sargent]

I want to work in the animation field someday.

by Dan Sargent

Warning: Mild language.

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I want to work in the animation field someday. I want to make something cool! Anything!!

Animators are the most magical people They make such awesome things!! Such wonderful things That make me cry And make me laugh And make me care about these characters

And these characters don’t even exist!! They’re concepts that came out of some person’s head And onto a piece of paper. And now I love this nonexistent person Just as much as I would love any real human! And I’m invested in their story, in their life And I fucking loveeeeeeee that.

Animators are the most magical people Because they take these characters And they bring them to life!! They make them move! They give them a voice! They give them a story!! And that is wonderful!!!

Some animators create the most moving, inspirational, perfect shit With so many great messages and wonderful representation!

(I’m looking at you Rebecca Sugar. Rebecca Sugar is THAT bitch who did THAT. Steven Universe is such a defining series With good morals Including talking to people Instead of fighting them. And everyone is redeemable! I love that every single villain in that show is redeemed eventually! And it also has gay characters! As well as main characters who are POC! Anyway, Rebecca Sugar rant over. Just saying, I’d love to be at the same level as her someday. I would fucking love to be THAT bitch too. Her characters make me cry a lot. And laugh.)

Stories are great!! So many animated series (and movies) that I enjoy have such good stories! I wanna meet the boarders/writers who worked on them all!! Because they’re so good!!!! Meet the Robinsons makes me cry And makes me feel like I can conquer my future Every time I watch it! Megamind is masterfully written And plays off of typical storytelling tropes In a way that twists them on their head! And it makes me cry. Yuri!!! On Ice very beautifully tells a love story In a way that also highlights on issues Such as anxiety and mental health issues! It also gives me the gay feels! And it makes me cry. I already mentioned Steven Universe But yes, it makes me cry too. I literally could not imagine a world Without these four movies/series. I imagine I would be very sad in that world. Sadder than Megamind When Roxanne dumped his ass And left him in the rain.

Thank you animators for giving me my favorite things. Thank you for showing me I can make something for myself Doing something I love so much And I care so much for. Just knowing that I’ll be in the same spot as you some day Makes me wanna cry. And laugh. Out of joy.

I want to be a part of your world. I want to make people cry. I want to make people laugh. I want to make people care about things that I care about And characters that I care about. I want to make people feel things. The same things that I feel Whenever I watch Meet the Robinsons Or Megamind Or Yuri!!! On Ice Or Steven Universe Because that is truly a magic power. A magic power I want to possess.

A magic power I will possess.

A magic power I do possess.

And I will share it with the world.

I will make people cry. I will make people laugh. I will be there someday.

Someday very soon.

I’ll see you there!

Love, Dan

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[the-dan-sargent]

 Hi there!

I decided to re-boot up my blog, and to celebrate I thought I’d do a random question challenge to mark my re-introduction to Tumblr!! I’m hoping to post more on here soon, I’m planning on using this blog to mainly focus on my poetry/writing!

Without further ado, here we go!

random asks

what was the last thing you read? Finding Zero by Jackson Terrance -- on Wattpad actually!

favourite movie? Meet the Robinsons. And Megamind. Always.

favourite book? **original answer redacted since it was trash** I’ve really been enjoying the Twilight saga lately! (updated 10/28/2020)

dream date? We take a trip to L.A. together, except you don’t come and I stay there forever.

do you have a crush? Not anymore :’)

what are your hobbies? ART ART ART also writing poetry when there’s a lot of emotion going on in my brain. I also like to watch cartoons/movies just to geek out over every single aspect of them. I also sing a lot and talk to myself often. Bless all of the roommates I’ve had who have had to put up with it.

what’s your favourite time of day? Either afternoon because it’s the best time to take a walk or late at night because that’s when I go off the rails and am the most myself (A.K.A. crazy).

if you could look like anything, what would you look like? An alien, like full on, the generic alien. That shit’s my aesthetic, man.

are you a romantic? Nah not at all, I am very socially inept.

what’s your favourite type of weather? Sun! Heat! It’s winter right now and I very much miss the summertime!

what do you like talking about? See I know it makes me sound narcissistic, but I really like talking about myself. And animation. And dogs.

what are your turn ons? Blue eyes, short hair, sense of humor, responsible, genuine & kind-heartedness.

turn offs? Being an asshole, or just closed-minded and ignorant in general.

if you got a tattoo, what would it be and where would you get it? Honestly it would be a tramp stamp and it would probably be lyrics from an Amanda Palmer song or Ezra Furman’s Love You So Bad.

do you want any pets? Yes!!! Dogs!! Big fluffy ones!!!!!

dream job? Animator, or storyboarder.

dream place to live? Los Angeles!!!

dream vacation? Los Angeles!!! Also France. And Italy. And Japan.

do you want any piercings? I’m actually planning on getting my earlobes repierced this week, haha. Other than that, not really.

if you had kids, what would you name them? Blake, I’ve always really liked that name!

what are your best traits? My talent and my loyalty are the only good aspects of my personality.

worst traits? Hmmm, where should I start? I’m only out for myself most of the time, I’m bad at detecting several social cues, my depression causes me to be extremely forgetful, and I get severe anxiety. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

what’s your worst fear? SLUGS. I know it’s silly. Don’t judge me. I’m also scared of phone calls and multiple social situations.

what do you want to eat right now? Something sweet, like cake. Huh, now I’m really craving cake.

what’s the best vacation you’ve been on? Honestly? Nothing beats my family’s yearly trip to Wildwood, New Jersey. The place is like a second home to me. I love it.

favourite city? At the moment Philadelphia, because it is my home. You can BET the second I step into L.A. I’m gonna love the SHIT out of it though.

favourite social media platform? Instagram!

favourite article of clothing? Button-ups and cardigans! More specifically, I also really like my black slip-on shoes that I can be seen wearing practically every day.

do you play any sports? No, what’s that?

favourite meal of the day? Breakfast, though I don’t like getting up early enough for it.

what are you excited for? Going back to school! I know it sounds weird, but I’m going to a fancy schmancy art school in the city which I absolutely ADORE.

not excited for? Going back to work tomorrow :(

when was the last time you cried? About 2 or 3 weeks ago I believe?

dream house? Large house in Los Angeles. I really want to go to L.A. if you couldn’t already tell.

what’s something you hate about the world? Tbh?? The people in it.

what’s something you love about the world? Dogs!!!

what scents do you like? Vanilla, coffee, the ocean, just to name the ones that sprung right into my head.

what kind of sleeper are you? The 24/7 kind. I don’t like NOT being asleep.

sweet or savoury? Sweet!

are you a cat or dog person? I don’t know, take a guess.

how long would you survive in a zombie apocalypse? I would literally give up and off myself right away.

(free! ask anything) Favorite television show? I would die for Steven Universe. And Yuri!!! On Ice.

when do you feel safe? When I’m listening to music by myself in a place where I feel at home. Or in the arms of someone I trust a lot.

are you trusting? Not anymore :)

what fictional characters do you identify with? Pearl and Spinel from Steven Universe, and Victor from Yuri!!! On Ice.

what labels do you commonly get? Quiet, Skilled, Crazy/Weird.

what song would be your life anthem? Literally so many of them. Just to name one though, Mr. Blue Sky by the Electric Light Orchestra. Because it’s been my favorite song for practically the entire second half of 2019.

what issues are you dealing with right now? My attachment issues, as well as my laziness, complete lack of motivation, and severe anxiety.

how can someone win you over? By having a pretty face and actually having feelings for me.

what’s something about you people don’t know? That although I am and Aquarius and we are known for being cold, weird people who don’t give a shit about what others think about them, I actually do genuinely care and I feel emotions much harder than you think I might. I over-regret things very often. And although I only do it when I know I am completely alone, I do cry, and I cry quite often.

That’s all for now! See ya around!! ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ