#and the dt..... hooooo boy is it cool

[thespiralgrimoire]

Black Tea

Hello babes, I know I’ve been short on content lately and it’s time to come clean: I’ve been working on a project I’ve kept under very close raps. And no, it’s not the Disaster Bisexual Fuegoleon fic-- although that is still making progress! It’s something that has come to mean even more to me than that.

Even though it’s not finished, I’d like to share a snippet! I think this is some of my best work yet and I really think that if you like any of my other stuff, you’re going to like this. So here it is: The first look at my absolutely one and only OTP!

It started one fateful day when Nathan Agrippa, feeling bold, decided that he would cross a line with his family's curse magic. He drew the summoning circle with his own black oil magic, and he mumbled the spell through chuckles. He didn't think it would work. He didn't expect it to work.

But it did, and there before him stood Lucifero, a devil whose very presence bowed the walls and made Nathan's knees tremble. The demon peered down at him with sharp, handsome eyes and asked a simple question. "Why have you summoned me?"

Nathan, as terrified as he was intrigued, replied with a simple answer. "Tea?"

Perhaps if Nathan hadn't thought quickly-- or maybe more accurately, if hadn't thought at all --the devil would have killed him right then and there. But he was more clever than even he knew: by bringing the tea to the devil, thus keeping him within his summoning circle, he unwittingly bound him to the spot. Lucifero was annoyed at first, but then flattered. He'd never been invited to a tea party before. And in the 1000 years since he'd last been summoned, human tea had definitely improved in flavor. They had a pleasant chat, and when Nathan bid him farewell, he vanished, returned to the underworld by Nathan's polite command.

Nathan knew that he had just dodged a bullet; that he should have lost his life that day. But the memory of that tea party stuck close. And in a week's time, his curiosity won over. He summoned Lucifero again.

Their tea parties became a weekly event. For maybe an hour, the devil and the poison mage would sit in the summoning circle, sipping tea and discussing the oddities of their worlds. Nathan learned invaluable things about the underworld, contracts with devils, devil politics, and their magic. Lucifero learned where babies came from, and how to make perfect tea, and what it was like being a young human man. It was mutually beneficial for both of them. And it was also the start of a quiet romance.

Perhaps if Nathan had not mirrored the acceptance that Lucifero extended to him when Lucifero told him about the odd man who wanted to form a contract with him, the atrocities of Spade would have never happened.

(pls ignore that Nathan and Jonna met when they were 18 I didn't know that when I started this and I'm not changing it now they now)

Neither of them knew when it happened, but they quickly became the center of each other's lives. Even as Lucifero rose through the ranks of devils, earning a modest but still impressive place among the devil castes. Even as Nathan became a powerful and feared mage, and met a woman he loved very much. Upon realizing his feelings for onna, Nathan was initially guilty, nervous; he felt like he was cheating on his dear friend. But he told himself that that was all Lucifero was to him! A friend! And when he told Lucifero about his darling girlfriend, he was not angry. Curious, skeptical, but not hurt. And so with the devil's blessing (ha!) he married Jonna, and had two beautiful children with her. Lucifero heard all about his friend's happy family, although they both awkwardly agreed that it was better if he did not meet them. And life carried on.

So yeah! There’s your first sneak peek at my greatest project to date. Tell me what you think! Personally, I know it’s amazing, but I always love hearing from my friends!

[sassydaisies-blog]

OUTREACH PART 1:NEPAL

Wow I am sorry that this update is so overdue! Outreach has been absolutely insane. Very busy, very stretching and a overall very new experience. It's been a while since my last actual update so let's back track a little bit. The week before I left in Perth I found out my Grandpa Lea finished his battle with lung cancer and passed away. It was very difficult news to get but I had an amazing family with my class mates in Perth that really helped me through it. I had said good bye before I left Canada knowing it might be the last. It was a long battle for my grandpa but I'm so so happy he is no longer suffering and is now running around heaven with Jesus. About 3 days after I got that news I left Australia to head to Nepal! It was the start to a crazy new adventure! We flew from Australia to Malaysia, spent the night in the airport there (yeah I'm a real world traveller I slept on the ground) and then we headed to Nepal early in the morning the next day. The landscape of Nepal from the plane was absolutely breath taking. It is full of beautiful mountains being home to Everest and the Himalayas. As soon as we landed, to say the least I felt a little bit of culture shock. Here are a few reasons why, 1) in Asia for toilets they use these things called squatees, uhh yeah basically exactly what it sounds like you just squat so yeah that was new 2) Nepal + traffic Rules = does not exist AT ALL 3) It's very busy on the streets where ever you go and wherever you go you're drawing a lot of attention for what you look like (for me that was being a blonde white girl haha). Nepal is located in between China and India so those are its two major influences. It's a very culturally strong and religious country. Being my first time in Asia this was something very very new to me. I definitely had a lot of adjusting to do when we arrived but I was eager to see what God had in store for us all! We went from Kathmandu to Ilam where we would be staying. It was about 14 hour drive on a lot of twisting roads up and down the mountains (yes I puked twice wooooooooo hooooo). In Ilam we were staying at a YWAM base/Christian school. The first week our ministry was done painting the school and helping out where we could along with also playing with the local village kids. For about 3-4 days during the first week I was stuck in bed with a fever and feeling pretty rough. But after a few days I was all good and was able to join up with everyone again. Praise God! As ministry continued we started to do a lot of hiking! Nepal is a fairly small country so most of it is remote and spread out. For us to get to the next village it was usually at least a 1 1/2 hour hike. I learnt something very quickly, I suck at hiking haha BUT THATS OKAY, i kept on pushing. One of my team mates Peyton and I were always happy to take up the back of the group haha. When we would arrive in a village we would do this thing called an open air. Basically it is a time where we gather a group of people and share the gospel with them. We do some skits, sing some songs, usually talk with people if they have any question and pray for people. After an open air we'd often get invited to a house for tea. Now let me tell you, I'm almost positive I drank my body weight in tea at least twice while in Nepal. Every where we went and I mean every where we would have tea. I am not complaining because all of it was usually home made so I was blessed by some really good tea about 5 times a day for a month! Generally our time in Nepal was doing a lot of discipleship with Christians in the country. Although we were expecting something different from Nepal, meeting many Christians in the nation was very encouraging. Nepal is an insanely Hindu/Buddhist country. It took me by surprise since I've only ever really experience catholic or Christian nations. Seeing people stand up for their belief in Jesus was very very encouraging when there was so much going against them. It made me so grateful for where I am from and also my family. It is so common in Nepal for people to be disowned by their families, friends and even from their village when they choose to be a Christian. Those who we met though, despite some experiences and circumstances were very full of joy. When they spoke of the blessing that had come into their lives since they had given it to God, it was very obvious how he had been working. We made amazing relationships with many of our contacts in Nepal as well! Our translator that was always with us is named BM. He was our honorary 10th team member and boy did we love him. He was a Christian who was constantly full of both joy and wisdom. We had the privilege to stay with some students from the school as well. There was a group of 8 students that were going to be travelling to the USA in May to study for a year. They wanted to practice their English so they stayed with us! The girls in my room were 13 and 14. They were both such sweet hearts. It was a huge blessing to get to know them both. As I said before it is very shameful for your family if you become Christian so these girls were Buddhist but also Christians. (Side note the really big issue in Nepal is not that they don't believe in Jesus they do but then they believe in 1000s of other gods as well.) When I asked the girls why they were Buddhist the only reason they had was because their parents were. With that being said it was really amazing to be able to spend time with them talking about Jesus and what their beliefs were. Now that was kind of a general over view of Nepal, here's some of the high lights for me! One day we did a 9 1/2 hour hike (all up hill, I basically died) to a village to visit a new church there. This was probably on of the most difficult things I've ever done, the amazing thing was that I really REALLY had to depend on God for my strength. It was a cool opportunity and experience, defiantly one I'll never forget. Near the end of our time in Nepal we hosted a youth conference with local Pastors and alongside the other Nepal team from my DTS. I loved getting to spend time with the other team and also seeing so many Christian youth come together to learn about God and have a great time! There was about 300 youth that showed up! After the three days of the conference we had three days of bible distribution through out the foot hill of the Himalayas! Again haha really really difficult but also really incredible. Through out our three days of bible distribution we would do about 6-8 hours of hiking a day. In this time I found strength physically and mentally in Jesus like I had never before. The Joy of the Lord had evidently shown up because I was happier than ever through out those days even though I was being pushed harder than ever. For bible distribution what we did was basically take up a back pack full of bible in the language of Nepali and hike everywhere and hand them out to everyone we saw or drop them off at every house. At the end of the month we headed back to Kathmandu before leaving for the Philippines. On our very last day we went and visited an organization called Dinadi. Dinadi was a beautiful organization ran by a Christian family. What they do is employ women from off the streets or who can't easily find work, to knit toques, mittens and scarfs. The work they do it absolutely beautiful. The products are then sold and the women are able to support themselves and their family's. I was very inspired and encouraged by their work. It was a very practical and beautiful way to support the women of Nepal and show Jesus love for them. Well that was Nepal! I've now been in the Philippines for a month and I promise that update will be here soon! Thank you so much for the continual love and support through this journey. I love and appreciate you all. ❤️❤️ All the love Ali 😊❤️

[sassydaisies-blog]

OUTREACH PART 1:NEPAL

Wow I am sorry that this update is so overdue! Outreach has been absolutely insane. Very busy, very stretching and a overall a very new experience. It's been a while since my last actual update so let's back track a little bit. The week before I left in Perth I found out my Grandpa Lea finished his battle with lung cancer and had passed away. It was very difficult news to get but I had an amazing family with my class mates in Perth that really helped me through it. I had said good bye before I left Canada knowing it might be the last. It was a long battle for my grandpa but I'm so so happy he is no longer suffering and is now running around heaven with Jesus breathing easily without any pain! About 3 days after I got that news I left Australia to head to Nepal! It was the start to a crazy new adventure! We flew from Australia to Malaysia, spent the night in the airport there (yeah I'm a real world traveller I slept on the ground) and then we headed to Nepal early in the morning the next day. The landscape of Nepal from the plane was absolutely breath taking. It is full of beautiful mountains being home to Everest and the Himalayas. As soon as we landed, to say the least I felt a little bit of culture shock. Here are a few reasons why, 1) in Asia for toilets they use these things called squatees, uhh yeah basically exactly what it sounds like you just squat so yeah that was new 2) Nepal + traffic Rules = does not exist AT ALL 3) It's very busy on the streets where ever you go and wherever we went we were drawing a lot of attention for what we look like (for me that was being a blonde white girl haha). Nepal is located in between China and India so those are its two major influences. It's a very culturally strong and religious country. Being my first time in Asia this was something very very new to me. I definitely had a lot of adjusting to do when we arrived but I was eager to see what God had in store for us all! We went from Kathmandu to Ilam where we would be staying. It was about 14 hour drive on a lot of twisting roads up and down the mountains (yes I puked twice wooooooooo hooooo). In Ilam we were staying at a YWAM base/Christian school. The first week our ministry was done painting the school and helping out where we could and also playing with the local village kids. For about 3-4 days during the first week I was stuck in bed with a fever and feeling pretty rough. After a few days I was all good though so I was able to join up with everyone again. Praise God! As misery continued we started to do a lot of hiking! Nepal is a fairly small country so most of it is fairly remote and spread out. So for us to get to the next village it was usually at least a 1 1/2 hour hike. I learnt something very quickly, I suck at hiking but that's okay!! One of my team mates Peyton were always happy to take up the back of the group haha. When we would arrive in a village we would do this thing called an open air. Basically it is a time where we gather a group of people and share true gospel with them. We do some skits, sing some songs, usually talk with people if they have any question and pray for people. After an open air we'd usually get invited to a house for tea. Now let me tell you, I'm almost positive I drank my body weight in tea while in Nepal. Every where we went and I mean every where we would have tea. I am not complaining because all of it was usually home made so I was blessed by some really good tea about 5 times a day for a month! Generally our time in Nepal was doing a lot of discipleship with Christians in the country. Although we were expecting something different from Nepal, meeting many Christians in the nation was very encouraging. Nepal is an insanely Hindu/Buddhist country. It took me by surprise since I've only ever really experience catholic or Christian nations. Seeing people stand up for their belief in Jesus was very very encouraging when there was so much going against them. It made me very very grateful for where I am from and also my family. It is so common in Nepal for people to be disowned by their families, friends and even from their village when they choose to be a Christian. Those who we met though despite some experiences and circumstances were very full of joy. When they spoke of the blessing that had come into their lives since they had given it to God, it was very obvious how he had been working. We made amazing relationships with many of our contacts in Nepal as well! Our translator that was always with us is names BM. He was our honorary 10th team member and boy did we love him. He was a Christian who was constantly full of both joy and wisdom. We had the privilege to stay with some students from the school as well. There was a group of 8 students that were going to be travelling to the USA in May to study for a year. They wanted to practice their English so they stayed with us! The girls in my room were 13 and 14. They were both such sweet hearts. It was a huge blessing to get to know them both. As I said before it is very shameful for your family if you become Christian so these girls were Buddhist but also Christians. (Side note the really big issue in Nepal is not that they don't believe in Jesus they do but then they believe in 1000s of other gods as well.) When I asked the girls why they were Buddhist the only reason they had was because their parents were. So with the being said it was really amazing to be able to spend time with them talking about Jesus and what their beliefs were. Now that was kind of a general over view of Nepal, here's some of the high lights for me! One day we did a 9 1/2 hour hike (I basically died) to a village to visit a new church there. This was probably on if the most difficult things I've ever done, the amazing thing was that I really REALLY had to depend on God for my strength. It was a cool opportunity and experience, defiantly one I'll never forget. Near the end of our time in Nepal we hosted a youth conference with local Pastors and alongside the other Nepal team from my DTS. I loved getting to spend time with the other team and also seeing so many Christian youth come together to learn about God and have a great time! There was about 300 youth that showed up! After the three days of the conference we had three days of bible distribution through out the foot hill of the Himalayas! Again haha really difficult but also really incredible. Through out our three days of bible distribution we would do about 6-8 hours of hiking a day. In this time I found strength physically and mentally in Jesus like I had never before. The Joy of the Lord had evidently shown up because I was happier than ever through out those days even though I was being pushed harder than ever. For bible distribution what we did was basically take up a back pack full of bible and hike everywhere and hand them out to everyone we saw and drop on off at every house we also saw. At the end of the month we headed back to Kathmandu before leaving for the Philippines. On our very last day we went and busted an organization called dinadi