The 20th Anniversary of Yscariot is near. I will finally reveal the reason why Yscariot is an ACTION story. Two true, major events created this moment.

In 1998, the Yscariot story was called PROJECT HAYATO, which was revealed long ago in Yscariot’s bio with Yscariot going to Japan and meeting a girl (based on my Japanese pen pal I had that year). The boy was given powers a little later but only to fight against his bully. I had been bullied before, so I made the character pretty much to just to get through the day. A year later, a friend of mine was quickly beaten by 3 other boys (one being a longtime classmate and former friend of mine) for being Mexican. I stepped in to stop my classmate and the other two stopped and walked off with the fight being a retaliation event. If I hadn’t stopped the fight, it could’ve gotten worse, but I was always wondering what will happen if they came after me next. That is why you see Yscariot’s rivals appear in 3’s. That set off the first event and Liquis was created. The story had a quick finish but nothing too deep.

The second event that turned Yscariot into a deeper superheroic story was after I entered high school some months later. I walked down the street between my apartment complex and a Wal-Mart on a street called Midpark. There, I was surrounded by three males. One had a set of cornrows and a heavy silver chain and some kind of weed-promoting sweater or something. Can’t make much of it out today because the main thing I’ll always remember is the man asking me for money. When I told him, “I don’t have any,” he laughed and told me to give him all of my money. I said I didn’t have any and he pulled out his gun and pointed it at my forehead and then between my eyes and then he said he will shoot if I didn’t give him anything. I told him that I only had $7 and gave it to him from my sock. It was in broad daylight and it happened so fast. I was surprised that the few people in the balconies didn’t do much of anything. I was so scared but I stayed calm and asked if I can go, and he said, “yeah little man, but if you tell anyone, I’ll kill you.” I was supposed to watch the First Pokémon movie with that money as an early birthday present from my grandmother. I didn’t know my father at this time, so money was incredibly hard to come by and that got me really upset. I ran into a Wal-Mart and hid in the magazine section for three hours and ran back home under the lit areas of the other side of the street as fast as I could.

The whole time, I was wondering what would’ve happened if I could fight back? What if I had the power to stop them? I never really thought about the failure, but I hoped that those men would have been brought to justice, because I was only 15 at the time. To commit crimes against children like that was extremely heinous, as if these men couldn’t get normal jobs and support whatever habit they had going on. I had guns pointed at me before, mostly by mistake, but THAT was the time that some people would say I got lucky, especially since that guy robbed more Mexican people, young children, and shot another Mexican man in the shoulder for not giving up his watch. That could have been me. I remember my friend, Tuan, telling me that anyone else would’ve gotten shot the next day and my grandmother said to never go back on that side of the road by myself again, but that was a hard thing to follow. When I had the Yscariot character made, I had a basic beginning, but never did I think he would make it this far. I didn’t count on it being complex as I had other stories made up in my head from preexisting stories. I wanted to join an animation or gaming studio and help tell the next Turok story or be a Power Ranger screenwriter. I think I had basic dreams, but that all ended when my dreams were killed off by the barrel of a gun. I didn’t want to live to make any other story bigger than my own. Being here for almost two extra decades may be why I still carry this story with me for so long. If I had lived a different life, it would’ve been to live for only 15 years, but I am still here. I am Yscariot and without it, I am nothing. Thanks for reading and caring.

~M~