So I was telling Joe about this, I call it the Year of the Cat because of the various feral attributes involved, it was the period slightly longer than a calendar year in which I first went crazy in 1999.

The first several months of this I refused to go to Reed because I thought it could only bring trouble, but then spent two semesters in a row with all the kids, learning to speak English again and making lots of friends. Making lots of friends pisses people off, the prominence is something they'd rather have themselves, eventually a few people got tired of me being in their space.

I was seriously brain damaged after all, and completely broke, there didn't seem like there was a very good explanation for me at all.

The thing is though, when the Fall Semester of the following year started up, it was still maybe the first week of school after my being there much of the Summer, Eliot Smith the CSO came up and told me to watch out, he said they were coming to get me so they could beautify the campus, he said they were going after all "high profile" individuals in their line of sight, meaning all people who were there often enough that they defined the character of the place somehow. This meant me. I was in deep shit and had to be careful.

I resisted but Eliot was insistent, he said he was doing me a favor already in the first place so I shouldn't complain, he said he fought for me or else I'd be gone already so just do as he says. It was pretty frustrating.

Immediately afterward I went to the IRC's and saw the Bad Man there, the Bad Man at the root of the Bad Times that resulted in my going crazy in the first place. He was tan and disgusting, at the end of a very tanned and disgusting Summer, I paced back and forth in the hallway outside the computer lab until I could think of what to do.

Clenching fist but not considering violence, I realized that I would be unable to call Community Safety on him because of the conversation I'd just had with Eliot, I realized that on this day of all days, the one and only day that the bad man was down where I spent all my time, that this was the day that I'd just been scolded by the school for being too well known in the Fall of 2000.

That's why it was especially interesting when I saw the New Bad Man in the bookloft in those last few days before the thing we're still calling the storm.

Exactly how did the New Bad Man get involved in all that?

The Ragnarok, or end of the world, has been prophesied. When Mirmir no longer guards his well, Yggdrasil's root will begin to rot. The Nidhog dragon will finally succeed in knawing through the root that ends at Hvergelmer well. The Norns will be alarmed at the pollution of the Urdh well and the yellowing of the leaves of the world tree. Odin's sacrificed eye lies in Mirmir's well and sees what is to come. He knows that nothing can stop Fibulwinter, three years with endless winter, which will be followed by Ragnarok.

The days will grow colder until even Urda well freezes solid. Storm and sleet will pound the World-Tree. One of Yggdrasil's branches will break and fall, striking Jormungand, the world serpent, which immediately will let go of its tail. The Hel ship Naglfar will become visible in the mist. The wolves Skoll and Manegarm will get closer and closer to Sun and Moon, which they have chased for eons. Fenrir wolf and and the Hel-wolf Garm will break their chains. Giants will release Loki from his fetters on the mountain. Nidhoggr will leave the roots of Yggdrasil and head toward Asgard. Behind him will march all the Giants. Heimdall will see all this, and will take up the Gjallarhorn to blow the warning.

Loki will lead monsters and Giants to attack the Gods in the great battle of Ragnarok on Vigrid plain. The leader of the Fire Giants, Surt, will attack Freyr, who will be armed only with a deer's antler. Freyr will stick his deer horn through Surt's eye, but then Surt will kill him with his flaming sword. Thor's son Magni will send a killing arrow toward Nidhoggr's head. Side by side, Odin and Thor will fight Fenrir and Jormungand. Odin will put his spear, Gungnir, in Fenrir's chest, but the wolf will crush Odin to the ground. Thor will kill Jormungand with his hammer, Mjollnir, but then will take nine steps backwards and fall down, poisoned by the serpent's venom. Tyr will kill the wolf dog Garm. Vidar will take revenge for Odin. The enemies Loki and Heimdall will their spears at each other at the same time and both will die. Modi will be surrounded by Giants, but Magni and Vidar will rescue him.

The winds will increase and blow Yggdrasil from every direction until the great World-Tree falls. The Dark Elves forge will tip and the World-Tree will burn. The Bifrost Rainbow Bridge will collapse and one by one each of the Worlds will fall. The remaining Aesir will escape in Freyr's ship, Skidbladnir. It will be almost taken by the Hel-ship Naglfar. Midgard will then be destroyed by fire, and will sink back into the sea.

This final destruction will be followed by a rebirth, the Earth reemerging from the sea. Seven sons of the dead Aesir will return to Asgard and rule the universe.