#( this is a big one

[uhbasicallyjustmilex]

🌸 !!CHAPTER ELEVEN POSTED!! 🌸

Title: Four Walls

Tags: slow burn, domesticity, friends to lovers, smut, pining post sias/pre am era

Summary: Disillusioned with LA and on the heels of a breakup, Alex goes to stay with Miles in London.

[butterflysweety]

JWCT S2 SPOILERS

THIS. OMG. I GOT JUMPSCARED I WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS NGL LOL

[beautifulterriblequeen]

TDP autistic-coded characters: Runaan

Inspired by this post, which gave me the kick I needed to create my own for Runaan. I’ve always kinda pictured Runaan as “Zuko but instead of befriending Aang he grew up and married Ethari.” 

I’m not going to go into how precious this headcanon is to me. You have headcanons that are near and dear to your heart. This one is near and dear to mine. Let’s go:

Physical traits

Sensory dampening

Autistic people often have sensory issues that result in them feeling overwhelmed, overloaded, or hypersensitive. It can result from a combination of mental and physical input, and autistic people develop a variety of coping mechanisms to deal with it.

One way to dampen an overload of physical sensation is with clothing. Loose and baggy works for some, tight and gently constricting works for others. It can turn overwhelming nerve input into a kind of white noise background so it’s easier to focus on other information.

Runaan wears a lot of clothes on missions, leaving only his face and upper arms exposed. I’m not talking about layers so much as skin coverage. While there’s a variety of coverage among the assassins, Runaan is the only one with long hair covering his neck, long pants, high boots, and gloves.

Though Rayla’s dressed very similarly to him, her hands are bare, giving her a more approachable and vulnerable look, as befitting a character trying to find out who she is. 

With all his layers of insulation, Runaan appears as if he’s trying to separate himself from, or protect himself from, the world around him.

About those gloves and leather gauntlets. It seemed a little odd (read: foreshadowingly important) that those gauntlets would get a mention in Callum’s Spellbook as part of Runaan’s look, but they’re in there. Runaan’s gloves are black, a nice dark undistracting color. When he moves his hands around in front of him, he won’t be visually distracted by the light hue of his own gloves. And he does use his hands a lot, as a major form of his communication with others, so keeping that contact to a comfortable level, both visually and tactilely, lets him touch and move as much as he needs to without overwhelming himself in the process.

Meditation

Meditation is another way to calm an overload of input, or to psych oneself up for something that will require a lot of focus.The first time we meet Runaan, he’s meditating while the others set up camp. 

Rayla’s been gone a while and he’s probably worried. It’s her first mission, and he vouched for her skills, so he can’t just go traipsing off to find her. He has to wait and trust her, so he spends his time calming and focusing. 

We also see him meditating in the dungeon, several times.

Even though the room was dark and quiet, all that sensory input from his injuries must’ve been intensely stressful. Falling back on his meditative coping mechanism was the only tool he had to handle the stress and pain of his environment and situation. But all his years of using this technique means that he’s pretty good at it. Every time Viren came in to pester him, Runaan was always able to keep his wits about him.

Stimming

Autistic people stim as a self-soothing technique when they’re hit with intense emotions--good and bad alike. They’re basically a way to anchor during a storm of feels until it passes, by doing something familiar and repetitive.

Runaan’s stim is clenching his hands. His hands are very clenchy when he’s stressed. With those dark gloves on, it’s not terribly noticeable, but they’re opening and shutting constantly when he’s worried over Rayla and how she’s endangering herself/messing up his mission.

Runaan is an elf of action. His skill set is entirely physical. When Rayla acts insubordinate on the mission, he knows he should punish her--a harsh physical tactic--but he quietly refuses to do so. Instead, he talks to her. And though he keeps his voice calm for the most part, he’s upset, nervous, off book. It takes him a while to be able to make eye contact with her (more on that later). And his hands start twitching, possibly because he’d be far more comfortable with a  physical fix to the situation, a tactic he’s far more familiar with but in this case he’s deliberately choosing not to employ.

Long hair

Devon Giehl confirmed way back when that Ethari braids Runaan’s hair for him (awww), and he’s really good at it. It’s possible that Runaan had a very different hairstyle, or not much of a style at all, before he fell for Ethari. Autistic people sometimes struggle with haircuts or complicated personal hygiene routines. Some very much enjoy the asmr of having their hair brushed, or the comforting weight of long hair. A warrior needs to see what he’s doing in battle. A Moonshadow needs to look stylish. Enter Ethari, who probably still cannot believe he gets to play with all this long glorious braidable hair every day. 

Maybe this beautiful hairstyle that we all love and adore and draw over and over in our art is Ethari’s creation, tactically designed to bother Runaan as little as possible. It’s not hanging in his eyes or tickling his neck or bugging his ears. He has a clear line of sight in all directions. No dangling fringe, unlike almost every other Moonshadow we’ve seen.

Those hair cuffs Ethari made keep Runaan’s side tails out of his way when he’s spinning in battle, too. There’s basically nothing that will get Runaan’s hair in his face.

And he hasn’t cut it in a very long time.

Interaction Issues

Processing time

Runaan comes across as a stoic and calculating character. He uses silence and stillness on the regular. These techniques can be used deliberately to give an autistic person time to process new information. Autistic people can have processing issues, hearing issues, and comprehension issues, and our first instinct upon hearing new information can be to blurt, “What?” because we don’t collect all the details on the first pass. Letting the mind continue to process for a few extra seconds can help to fill in the gaps, though. Remember this iconic moment? 

Runaan takes 17 seconds to make his way from “Give me the egg” to “Don’t do this.” He stands dramatically, the clouds part, it’s all very epic. But he could’ve acted the second that Rayla defied him. He didn’t. Looks like he genuinely needs a minute to process what Rayla is doing and how to handle it. It’s very unlike her. He wasn’t expecting it. He has no plan for this. He has to stop everything and think. So he holds still and keeps his reactions under wraps, until he has formulated a plan. Runaan lives by plans and rules. More on that later, too.

The Kiss

 Autistic people can be sensitive to being approached and touched. And martial arts training does wild things to your personal space. You have none and all at the same time. It’s vastly more comfortable to keep everyone at arm’s length because there are so many options to choose from if they get close enough to touch.

An autistic person and their loving spouse can easily create little rituals--social and verbal cues--to be recognizable indicators of desired behavior. Ethari’s line, “My heart goes out with this one,” acts as a code that Runaan has heard over and over. Ethari’s worried, and he’s seeking comfort. So he prompts Runaan and patiently waits for Runaan to respond and initiate the kiss in his own time. And Runaan does so, with the smoothness of long practice. He reaches out, he steps forward, and then he also steps back, breaking the kiss. 

Ethari chases the kiss as long as he can, but he does let it go when it’s clear Runaan is backing up. It’s clear that Ethari is an enthusiastic lover, and Runaan knows it. Though the kiss is complete, Runaan takes time to reassure his husband that he loves and trusts him, and he does that by ensuring a long moment of close eye contact and physical touch--both things that can take extra focus for an autistic person to offer. But for Ethari, it’s definitely worth doing.

Eye contact

Eye contact can be stressful for autistic people, and we often avoid it when we’re already uncomfortable. When Runaan takes Rayla into the woods to tell her she’s off the mission for being too soft, he can’t look her in the eye for the first part of their conversation.

He keeps looking in her general direction from the corner of his eye, but he can’t look her in the eye and tell her she failed him. It’s too uncomfortable for him. He has to work up to it for a couple of minutes. And though he does manage to meet her eyes for a short while, he ends the conversation by walking away while he’s still talking. As far as his plans extend at that moment, he’s never going to see her again. He believes he’s marching off to die, and he can’t look at her then, either. .

This look is Runaan’s emotional lockdown. Everything is tense and no feels are getting in or out. Hands totally fisted up.

Time Out

Autistic people can get so overwhelmed that we lose our temper, go nonverbal, or otherwise shut down, and we need to step away from the environment that’s caused the overload. Runaan lost his cool and yelled at Rayla when he learned that she’d lied to him about Marcos.

Losing his temper wasn’t good because he yelled at his daughter. But it was also bad because he lost his professional cool in front of his team. He had a little domestic right there in front of them. When you’re supposed to be in charge, especially in a culture that prides itself on cooperation and perfection, falling apart in public has got to be humiliating. 

The next time we see Runaan, he’s taking a break in a tree with his second while the other assassins chill, clearly waiting on him. He might have been here five minutes. He might have been here for an hour or more.

My favorite part about this is how Runaan isn’t alone. His friend has come to sit with him, but silently. He doesn’t ask any questions, he doesn’t try to touch Runaan, he just waits. And eventually, Runaan gets his focus back and talks about the mission. 

This moment is also an instance where Runaan needs time to silently calculate until he creates a whole new plan out of nothing. In this case, he’s deciding to set Rayla off the mission for being too childish to complete it properly, rather than executing her or otherwise punishing her as a full-fledged assassin. But first, he needs the time out, because he can’t make that plan until he’s emotionally calm again.

“Enough Brooding, Elf.”

When Viren dumped the coins out and Runaan saw that they were cursed objects that somehow contained his dearest friends, Lain and Tiadrin, he was so overwhelmed, shocked, and upset that he had his only eyeshake of the whole series, and he ended up going nonverbal. 

Everything that Runaan had done with regard to Rayla over the last several months turned out to be for nothing. She didn’t need to avenge her parents’ honor because they never ran away. Runaan didn’t need to fight with his husband and go into emotional lockdown. And he, his husband, and Rayla never needed to ghost Lain and Tiadrin in the first place. All that stress and emotional suffering was for nothing. And on top of that, the man who’d taken him prisoner had cursed his friends and imprisoned them this whole time. Runaan just can’t catch a single break. His voice drops into a stressed whisper as he says, “You’re a monster.” And then, judging by the next words Viren says a whole scene later, Runaan doesn’t speak again. 

Viren leaves him alone after the coin threat backfires, because he realizes he’s not going to get anything out of Runaan in his condition (and he could recognize this state because Soren is autistic-coded as well!). When Viren returns, he calls what Runaan was doing “brooding.” 

Brooding is generally defined as being two things: quiet, and thoughtful. No one broods out loud. But a nonverbal shutdown while chained to a wall is going to look pretty similar. Runaan can’t do anything to physically escape Viren, so his brain just switches off his mouth for a while. He has a lot of bad things to process and he has no room for responding to Viren in his state of extreme emotional distress.

Courtship Rules and Replies

From interviews with Devon and Iain, we’ve learned that Runaan fell in love first, but that he also needed Lain’s prompting to confess his true feelings to Ethari. One way to describe the difference between autistic and allistic people’s thinking patterns is to call one oft them Microsoft and the other Apple. They can generally do the same things, but the ways they get there are always a little different. Because allistic people outnumber autistic people, they have generally framed the society we live in, and we often feel like we must rote-memorize the rules of the world around us instead of using our own system. This does create a strong reliance on rules, and specifically on knowing the rules before proceeding. 

If Runaan had never courted anyone before--or if he’d tried to and it had gone poorly because Runaan didn’t fully understand the rules--he would be very, very hesitant to make the first move with Ethari. 

Additionally, Runaan was making all his good-faith efforts to show interest in Ethari via the proper channels, but meanwhile, Ethari was skirting the rules. He was interested in Runaan, but he’s a playful elf and was teasing his suitor by pretending not to be interested That Way. This might sound cute, but to an autistic person, such a lack of hoped-for feedback would be intensely exasperating. Runaan was trying to communicate in what possibly felt like a foreign language, and he didn’t feel like he was doing a good job of it. He was probably doubting his metaphorical grammar and accent constantly. Autistic people aren’t always good with reading facial expressions or unfamiliar moods, so he didn’t pick up that Ethari was genuinely interested and just teasing him. He was too uncertain and vulnerable to take the matter to Ethari straight out, but there was an elf he trusted fully: Lain. 

Lain could probably see Ethari’s interest when Runaan couldn’t. (And if I had to guess, I’d say Lain’s clue was Ethari’s intense eye contact, which Runaan wouldn’t notice if he was avoiding eye contact due to anxiety!) If Runaan was really so uptight and protective about his feelings, Lain wouldn’t have encouraged him to share them unless he was confident that Ethari would reciprocate. And because Runaan did trust Lain so much, he took that next step, confessed his feelings, and sure enough, Lain was right! Ethari loved him, too.

Free Time

Runaan’s birthday post for 2020 told us that he would prefer to spend the day reading alone, but he considers Rayla’s wishes and lets her decide otherwise. Runaan is more introverted than most and he’s perfectly fine entertaining himself, but Rayla drags him to the adoraburr meadow to spend time together, and because he loves her, Runaan lets her do it. If he were truly uncomfortable, he could put a stop to the whole thing. But he understands that this is how Rayla shows love, and so he lets her show her love through shared companionship, instead of shutting her out and keeping to himself.

Special Interest Sharing

Runaan tells Rayla that there’s an instinct to being an assassin. He has it, and he’s realizing now--only now--that Rayla doesn’t.

Callum’s Spellbook tells us that he began training Rayla to fight when she was just a toddler.

Autistic people often have special interests that appeal far above everything else, and can last a lifetime. For some it’s coding, photography, marathon running, or collecting something. Could be anything, really. Runaan’s special interest is combat. He’s a deeply physical elf who feels very present in his world, and sometimes too present (hence the gloves and the meditation). It’s only natural that he takes the body he’s got and trains it as hard as he can. Being ready for battle is a form of freedom for him. He can run anywhere and fight anything. His intense dedication to his training contributed to his promotions through whatever ranks assassins have, allowing him to contribute meaningfully to his community and his society through his service. Runaan’s special interest has made him uniquely qualified to lead the assassins.

When we meet someone we like, we tend to use our special interest as a form of communication and bonding with them: “I like you, so I will share this thing I love with you.”

Lain and Tiadrin had a precious baby girl, and Runaan and Ethari helped them raise and care for her. And the moment Rayla could move around, Runaan was right there, showing her all his favorite little tricks and techniques, steadying her, patiently demonstrating and explaining every little thing. Stances, physics, trajectory, angle of attack, center of balance, weak spots. All the physical things he knows and loves, he shared with his tiny new friend.

Having a full-grown adult pay her the respect of assuming she could learn all these things, even as a little child, must’ve been so important to Rayla and her self-image. No wonder they bonded so tightly. He truly believed she could do everything he taught her--and he was right.

Mental Effects

Hyperfocus

Autistic people can experience hyperfocus on a new and interesting person or thing. The more ways a person, like say, Ethari, appeals to someone like Runaan, the stronger his focus will be on them. All free time--and time that isn’t free--will immediately be diverted to thinking about and experiencing this delightful new phenomenon.

Runaan is described as putting his duty first, and he takes his job very seriously. But this is also the elf who deliberately damaged his weapons in order to have an excuse to see Ethari and ask him to fix them. To Runaan, the one thing he and Ethari had in common was weapons, so that’s where he started. Runaan gave himself a crash course in Ethari and his interests and ways of expressing himself, and found a way to speak the same language in order to ensure they’d connect. He literally hampered his own ability to do his job in order to find a way to connect with the craftsman.

Once they were a couple, he threw himself into learning How To Boyfriend so he could continue to communicate his feelings to Ethari in an understandable way. It was of the utmost importance to Runaan that he be able to speak a language Ethari could understand, so that he could tell him how much he loved him, and so that Ethari would believe it and trust it.

Small Talk

Runaan learned Ethari as a language, and he learned Rayla’s language as she learned his. He probably speaks Lain and Tiadrin fluently. But everyone has slightly different tics and cues in their speech, and they can all seem like separate languages sometimes. It takes true effort to connect with someone, to truly get to know them and all their little quirks. Runaan simply doesn’t have time to learn every single elf in the Silvergrove as a separate language. He’s learned how to connect with those he values most, and that’s all he feels he needs. Everything else is just small talk--a jumble of things Runaan doesn’t have room to care about beyond his special interest, his duty, and the few elves he’s taken such pains to learn so well.

[unfinished tdp meta]

[cornix-the-void-crow]

Here is updated colour design for RHD au Alastor. He became very purple

And here are notes on his design!

The reason why he became more purple is because contracts cause demons to shift their forms under influence of owner of their soul. Therefore Velvette's purple affected/infected Alastor's red and magenta (?) of his hair.

I am of the opinion that powerful demons and overlords can afford to wear less practical for their demonic traits clothing because they can defend themselves just fine without using everything in their arsenal. Other demographic that would wear impractical clothes are those under protection of powerful demons and expectation to look specific way, like actors and models. Average demon cannot afford that luxury, and so have to adapt their clothes to their demonic traits. Therefore, no shoes for Alastor, because he is no longer an overlord and has to use more things to his advantage. He has leg wrap things though.

Alastor, without his intimidation, is really pretty and cute, let's be honest. In fact, this prettiness and cuteness is what caused Velvette to essentially snatch him under Vox's non-existent nose. Because of that, Alastor can't hide his more cute aspects of his appearance, like his tail.

Even worse, under contract's influence, new cute traits started to appear, like fawn spot-like freckles.

The hair was cause of a lot of yelling, after Velvette learned that he has been straightening it almost every day for over 80 years.

High-waisted swing pants and bishop sleeves on Alastor is my favourite type of look, that would be the truth. In lore though, there is some gender fuckery that's going on with Alastor, because he quite literally wears what women wore (if they were to wear pants that were not workwear) in 1920s and 1930s.

The bowtie is actually ascot tie, tied in what is called a strawberry knot. It also has a little deer head tie pin.

Cane is a fashion accessory, but microphone is a conduit of power that is no longer Alastor's. So his microphone was morphed into a cane.

His eyesight was actually aided by his powers, and now, with most of the powers gone, he actually needs prescription glasses. They sit on his nose and have beaded chain looping around his neck, as to not lose them.

Make up is part of being a model, and while the make up stylist that works with Alastor on set is fine with being occasionally eaten, Alastor kinda developed a habit of doing some of make up himself, just to avoid unnecessary touches from others. (And here is where the vintage vanity compacts rabbit hole started)

The ponytail is stylish, and hair bow is cute, that's just it

You would ask, how can Alastor be a model if he cannot appear on camera? Well, he probably can appear on film photographs, shown by that photo with Vox. Therefore the modelling photoshoot would be made initially using early 20th century film cameras, which would be then digitised and posted on the Internet. Polaroids work too, weirdly enough, but not the modern ones that are more digitised

[fangirl698]

Art dump time!! (^o^)／~~

[pe0ple3ater]

please write melissa/etoiles sounding if you want to because that sounds (pun intended) DELICIOUS.

the way you wrote melissa domming him… oh it’s so perfect. i simply adore etoiles content.

- ✒️

YESS sounding...sounding Etoiles specifically. My dream. Okay, this is not the best but I've been thinking about this since it was requested. Here you go!

They've done this a few times, so Etoiles is utterly relaxed in the seat he's tied in. Despite the red ropes around him, he squirms in anticipation. He's wanted to do this forever and been patient and good enough to indulge.

"Miss, I am going to die if we do not start soon," Etoiles whines, typically not one to speak out of turn, especially with Melissa. Still, he's so eager that the buzzing anticipation under his skin is starting to make him restless and uncomfortable. Melissa hums and looks at him, cooing and letting her eyes drag over his body.

Etoiles tries not to preen at the attention. His hands are tied behind him to keep them out of the way, and his legs are tied to the legs of the chair to keep him still. He's entirely naked other than the collar around his neck, bright red leather, the one he uses for Roier and Melissa. He breathes slowly and straightens his back, looking up at her with big eyes.

Melissa laughs at him and pats his cheek gently, cupping his face and smiling when he leans into her touch. He turns his head to kiss her palm, and she moves her hand back to scratch at his scalp.

"Be patient, perrito. I'm almost ready." Melissa says and kisses his cheek; Etoiles' face burns, and he nods. He forces himself to relax, laying his head over the seat's backrest and closing his eyes. He focuses on breathing and the feeling of rope around his wrists to satiate himself.

Melissa's hand wraps around his cock, and Etoiles hums, lifting his head and looking at her. Melissa smiles and drags her hand up his dick slowly, and Etoiles' breath catches. He fights to stay still, pulling at the rope around his wrists and feeling it dig into his skin.

"Good boy, stay still for me. I'm going to start," She says, reaching to the side table to pick up a thin metal rod. Just looking at it has Etoiles whining and shivering, body feeling like it's on fire from the anticipation. "We'll start small, okay, perrito? So you can get used to it; if you're good, we'll go bigger," she explains, and Etoiles is so thankful for her gentle reassurance. As much as he's excited, the thought of a metal rod in his dick is enough to put even the bravest men off a bit. Etoiles nods and takes a deep breath, shaking his nerves off and relaxing into the seat. He trusts Melissa; she's the perfect blend of cruelty and kindness for Etoiles—a push and pull between pain and pleasure, just like Etoiles needs.

The sound is drenched in lube, and Melissa pours more over his dick to make sure. She presses the tip of the rod to his slit and looks up at him, gazes soft "You're positive?" she questions, and Etoiles nods again, swallowing hard.

"Yes, please," he whispers, voice already a little hoarse and breaking. Melissa nods and slowly presses the sound into his urethra. Etoiles' jaw clenches at the feeling. The stretch hurts, but the feeling of the rob inside of him feels like nothing he's ever experienced before. Melissa is staring at him, watching his reactions closely to make sure he's okay. Etoiles pants, and once the sound is as deep as it can be, Melissa wraps the hand, not holding the sound does a long drag up and down his cock.

Etoiles gasps, hips twitching up just a little. It feels so good that he's dizzy, close to when Melissa forced him into a prostate orgasm, but still not the same. Melissa coos softly and pulls the sound out a little before fucking it back in. Etoiles groans and whines, nails digging into his palm.

"How's it feel?" Melissa questions, jerking Etoiles off slowly and smiling up at him. Etoiles' brain scrambles for the words to describe it. His eyes flutter, and he whimpers desperately. Melissa doesn't help, moving her hand faster and giggling at him.

"It's-" Etoiles gasps and throws his head back, the feeling washing over him so intense it takes his breath away "-good. So good, miss," he chokes out, voice high and whiny. Melissa smiles at him, and Etoiles shivers. He's so close, teetering on the edge. He whimpers and looks down at Melissa between his legs. His body curls into itself a bit. "Close," he whines, and Melissa coos.

"You're going to cum for me, perrito? Such a good boy, cum for me," she says softly, jerking him off quicker and smiling at the way he thrashes a bit, and his head falls back.

Etoiles' vision whites out, his back arches, and he chokes on his moans. He's shaking like crazy, and Melissa is still jerking him off, sending sharp spikes of overstimulation through Etoiles' body. He gasps and jerks, hips twitching up into her hand, broken whimpers leaving his throat.

It takes a second before Melissa finally decides he's had enough. She very slowly pulls the sound out of him, every inch making him groan in a delicious mix of pleasure-pain. She sets it aside gently and stands, looking down at Etoiles with a smile.

Etoiles falls asleep, satisfied and hazy.

Etoiles is dizzy. His ears are ringing. He closes his eyes and tries to catch his breath; vaguely he registers Melissa untying his hands and legs, cleaning him, and stepping away. Etoiles floats in post orgasm haze and allows Melissa to pour water down his throat and lead him to the couch. Melissa sits and pulls Etoiles to lay with his head on her lap. She pulls a blanket over him and runs her fingers through his hair. Etoiles' eyes close. He melts under her hands and shivers.

[lyriumrain]

Anyone what it means when your brain is constantly flip-flopping between thinking "I'm the best!! I'm amazing!!" And "I'm unbearable and stupid and should just die" ?

[countlessgifts]

Help! Curly hair Luffy is to gosh dang cute! WIP

[colourwhirled-writes]

southern lights - new chapter posted!

read it on ao3 here.

[earthbaby-angelboy]

hi everyone!

you may notice that some things are changing around on my account. i can explain!

i was previously called bellanotchewrites, but i have changed it to a name that is directly related to elvis (see: the song angel. “angel, with those angel eyes; come and take this earth boy up to paradise.)

i am also making the executive decision that i will be deleting all of my non-elvis related works. there will be a select few that will remain posted, but everything else is going. i have no desire to write about anything but elvis and the ecu, so it feels wrong to keep those fics up on my page.

i will be updating the links on my masterlist, as they no longer work. bare with me as i do this!

i love you all, and am so grateful that you’re here on this journey with me.

-hugs and change, calla xx

[lesbian-in-leather]

Audition time lads........

[baby-girl-e]

YOU GUYS!

My first Red, WHite, And Royal Blue fic is UP ON AO3!!!!!!

This one has big emotions so read with caution!

This is also very personal to me so please be kind this is me being extremely vulnerable!

[theresthesnitch]

Going to answer spoilery asks for chapter 14 of What We Do To Get By soon, so if you want to avoid that, block "WWDTGB spoilers"!

[nullbutler]

ao3 returns and I have a new chapter of Death in the Family

[foxyk7]

I’m got enough peace to draw something. I still have a headache but it have been better now at least.

[hualianisms]

verified ways to donate to gaza directly

[this post is outdated. up-to-date version here.]

Donate to a Palestinian family directly:

gazafunds.com - Donate directly to a Palestinian family in urgent need of evacuation, medical treatment, daily necessities or more. Site run by Palestinians, all GFMs verified (full list here). Spotlights 1 stagnant GFM at a time. (*If you can't decide who/where to donate, just go to gazafunds.com & donate to the 1 GFM they show you!)

masterlist of 200+ verified Palestinian families' GFMs: Operation Olive Branch

Help provide tents:

The Sameer Project: Currently providing tents & transport for families in Rafah who urgently need to evacuate to Deir Al Balah. Has a team on the ground in Gaza who have supplied tents to 1% of the displaced population in Rafah. Run by Palestinians. (paypal) (gfm)

@helpgazachildren: Currently helping Palestinians in a refugee camp in Rafah flee the Rafah invasion to Khan Younis. Funds go directly to Hussam, a Palestinian in Rafah who hosts a refugee camp. Funds will cover the cost of tents & transport fuel. Managed by a Palestinian @.fairuzfan. (gfm)

Food:

Care for Gaza: Palestinian charity on the ground in Gaza distributing food, cash, medicine & other essentials to displaced families. Proof of their work found on their Twitter. (paypal) (gfm)

We Feed Gaza: Team of Palestinian volunteers in the heart of Gaza distributing food & water to 344+ families. More details & proof in their gfm. Vetted & promoted by LetsTalkPalestine on IG. (gfm)

Direct Aid for Gaza: A Palestinian activist on the ground in Gaza distributing food, cash & other essential supplies to displaced families. Proof of their work found on their twitter. (paypal) (gfm)

Water (*urgent and crucial!)

Gaza Municipality: The official Municipality of Gaza is doing vital, life-saving work to rebuild the water pipes in Gaza City to restore access to clean water & waste management services for the people of Gaza.

eSIMs (*very urgent):

guide to buy & send esims to gaza

Crips for eSims for Gaza: donate any amount to this team of volunteers who pool funds to buy & maintain gaza esims regularly (see their financial accountability document).

Medical Aid:

Gaza Wound Care: Palestinian doctors in central Gaza treating injured/sick children & mothers in neglected displacement camps far from hospitals. Facing a severe shortage of medicines, equipment, and medical supplies. Currently raising funds to support their efforts to battle infectious diseases in refugee camps. (gfm) (paypal) (gogetfunding)

international charities: Palestine Red Crescent Society, Palestine Children's Relief Fund, Medical Aid for Palestinians

How to help if you can't donate:

Share & amplify Palestinian fundraisers in your irl & online circles

Organize or help to run an online/irl event to raise funds for Palestine

Boycott

Get involved with a protest/strike/direct action in your area

Contact your reps

Educate yourself & others both irl & online

Daily clicks on Arab.org

(you can even adopt 1 fundraiser campaign to regularly boost it & make materials promoting it online, or print posters/flyers about Palestinian fundraisers to encourage others to donate. (poster/graphic about gazafunds.com: here, flyers about esims: here, flyers about gazafamilyfunds: here)

(longer masterpost of all ways you can help)

(*all these links and more now in this rentry page. will no longer be updating this post, instead refer to the rentry page)

Last updated 3/6/2024 with Gaza Wound Care & We Feed Gaza. Wanted to focus on Palestinian-run grassroots initiatives that will actually reach Gazans on the ground, so all of these except eSIMs, PCRF, MAP are by Palestinians. Donating to international orgs is not ideal rn as aid is still being stopped at the border. Please focus on Palestinian-run initiatives on the ground in Gaza.

Remember, small donations really do add up. Any amount counts, even $1!