Why the long hiatus (Patreon)

Heya lovely people (^^)/

I'm not big on oversharing, but I think I owe you some explanation of why I have to put this comic on a long hiatus.

⊙︿⊙

I've been wanting to write about this but I neither have the energy nor the brainpower until today.

If you know anyone who's perfectly healthy and suddenly spirals into a mental and physical meltdown with no apparent cause, what I experienced might be useful to know.

I summarized the past few years below, so it's a little long:

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Years before I even started Mission Diversion, we moved into this rundown old house that seemed livable after a bucket of fresh paint. It was cheap, but no one wanted it. At the time, we didn't know why cos we were dumb.

At some point, the hundred years old cast iron drain pipe was leaking under the house. The leak caused toxic mold to grow in the crawlspace, under the floor. Since we never look under the house, this went on unnoticed for years.

Convection air current causes the air from the crawlspace to flow into the house from the nooks and crannies, into the air we breathe everyday.

Awesome.

Before covid, we were rarely home and I trained MMA at the gym a few times a week. Regular exercise contributes to a healthy immune system, so the toxic air in our house didn't seem to affect us.

There have been several mysterious illnesses that came and went, but we thought they were seasonal allergies. This started happening more often as I spent more time making comics at home.

When covid hits, we stayed at the house 24/7 and I stopped training at the gym.

That's when all the autoimmune diseases went into overdrive.

Out of the blue, I got swollen feet, hives, chronic fatigue, brain fog and extreme irritability. The worst part of all was the depression and mental breakdown during quarantine. Never experienced that before in my entire life.

Around the same time, one of our dogs who got sick every month, just kept getting worse. We did everything we could, but she wouldn't get better at all. She eventually passed away in December 2020.

Back then, we didn't think there was a connection between my illnesses and hers. Now I remember she was perfectly healthy until a few years ago, around the same time all my mysterious illnesses started.

Thankfully this story has some kind of a happy ending.

( -.-)=3

One day, our friends invited us to go camping in the middle of the desert. We slept in the most uncomfortable tent, but I felt like a million bucks. Haven't felt that awesome for years.

I told my significant other, "There is something in that goddamn house and I'm not fucking crazy!!!"

When we got back, we put on a hazmat suit and went under the house for the first time and found a bunch of white fuzz growing on the wood.

We took care of all the issues and also hired a company to fumigate every nook and cranny of the house with chemicals to kill every single microorganism that may be lurking in it.

The day after, for the first time in many years, my significant other no longer has a stuffy nose. Finally able to breathe clearly like a normal person. All this time we thought it was just an allergy.

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Getting poisoned by toxic mold is one of those things that didn't seem too bad when seen from the outside. We didn't believe it for over a year cos there were no visible signs of it anywhere. Even the professional mold inspector we hired said our place was very clean and the test result didn't pick it up.

From the outside, we look normal and healthy, no missing limbs. Everything looks nice and clean on the surface. Mold is an invisible killer that slowly drives us insane.

I found out that there are people out there who got autoimmune diseases and found out later that breathing in toxic mold was the source, so my experience here may be useful to know.

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So yah... that's mostly what I have to sort out, on top of other issues that arose during covid.

One of the reasons why I got really sick from the mold was vitamin D deficiency from spending every free time I have trying to get this comic done at home. I didn't get enough sunlight. 

The amount of hours I spent on this comic wasn't healthy.

When I have the energy to make comics again (probably next year) I won't hit the speed like I did back in 2017-2019.

I'll have to go at a slower pace that works for my life. To keep it fun, so it won't turn into a burden.

Right now, we are in the process of moving to another state, and that's taking all of my time. I estimated this moving process will take another few months.

I'll keep hitting that pause button in the meantime and give you a few updates to let you know I'm still alive (^^;)

I apologize for the long radio silence. I'm traumatized and tired from the past few years. And now I'm swamped with moving to another state. I hope you understand.

Hopefully your past few years are tolerable .

As we move on from the plague, I wish you all the health and happiness in the world.

Sincerely,

Mo

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