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harbinger-0f-spring · 2 months ago

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Here is a continuation of the family tree collaboration project with @konstantynowitz. Originally, my main focus was on the Rosier family, but before we get into that side of the tree, I'm going to introduce you to earlier generations of the Volants. I have been connected to the French branch of the Lestrange family through a Volant ancestor, and this might be a long shot, but just bear with me. Benouét Volant was born in 1794 as the nephew of Jodelle Lestrange (née Volant) who married Floxel Lestrange. In the year 1782, Jodelle had one daughter with her husband: Quintilla Lestrange, the mother of Nozéa Lestrange. Benouét was taken in by his aunt and uncle as a child when his parents died of a dragon pox outbreak. He was raised by Jodelle and Floxel, growing up alongside Quintilla as if she were his elder sister. Benouét later named his son Floxel Volant (I) in honor of his uncle.

For the time being, I do not have a name for Benouét's spouse, but I suspect that I'll make her a close relative of Floxel maybe through his mother Luminosa. Floxel Volant's mother may be a descendant from the Trouche family as I'm sure Benouét must've interacted with his uncle's extended family growing up, perhaps developing a close relationship with a potential bride through the Trouches.

I believe that Jodelle would have arranged for Benouét to marry a relative of her husband so that he could stay closely connected with the family. Floxel and Jodelle cared for Benouét as if he were their own child, so I think they thought that marrying him off to a Trouche was almost like an affectionate way of officially recognizing their nephew as an adoptive son of sorts.

Floxel Volant (I) was born in 1826 to Benouét Volant and his wife, his father was thirty-two at the time of his birth. Floxel remained a bachelor for the majority of his adulthood, enjoying the luxuries and privileges of his family's wealth. He was quite the lady-killer in his youth, so if he did have any children they'd be unacknowledged bastards that he never involved himself with, even if he was aware of their existence. Within the year 1870, at the age of forty-four, an unmarried Floxel impregnated his young mistress at the time, but the only difference between his current mistress and his mistresses of the past was that she also came from an influential French pure-blood family. Because of this, Floxel would be forced to marry his mistress who would later give birth to their only son Étienne Volant.

Something that needs to be acknowledged: I cannot take credit for this next half of the tree, as I had the help of @lazyreinelle when coming up with the backgrounds and names of the characters about to be mentioned. Of course, I've made a few little tweaks of my own when it comes to birth dates and certain aspects of their backstories, but really it is all thanks to the creative mind of @lazyreinelle that I was able to fill in the blanks of the tree.

Étienne Volant was born in 1870 and married Clotilde de Trefle-Picques, a seemingly mild-mannered girl, yet popular because of her family. She is betrothed off to Étienne during her penultimate year at Beauxbatons. Despite being ten years her senior, Étienne often acted like a man-child and was incredibly irresponsible. So, when it came to raising children, he would mostly never be around, goofing around in bars or sleeping with any veela he met. Clotilde had to raise her children: an elder daughter Eglantine (b. 1904), and two younger twin sons Floxel (II) and Claude (b. 1906), all by herself naturally instilling them with rather harsh views of blood purity.

In spite of his absence, Étienne was closest to his daughter Eglantine, who inherited his free-spirit, although it was much more reigned in than her father's was. Even so, she was frequently challenging authority and diving headfirst into escapades that left her mother exasperated. Clotilde always cursed her husband for passing on such a wild spirit to Eglantine, wishing instead that their daughter possessed a more measured temperament that would ease her worries and keep her out of trouble. Eglantine did not want to follow the expected societal norms for young witches of the time, nor did she wish to conform to the wishes and expectations of a future spouse, believing that her personal freedoms should be valued if she were to find herself married one day. Eglantine Volant harbored a fondness for her father, as he was the only one who could ever understand her. He never saw her as being unreasonable when voicing her standards for a hypothetical husband. Clotilde always believed that her daughter was being ridiculous when forming these ideas of a marriage of compromise, dismissing them as fanciful daydreams. Whenever Étienne was around he'd spoil his little daughter with small gifts and let her skip piano lessons or her early homeschooling to spend time "adventuring" with him on the estate's property. She grew up knowing that her father was not a dependable man, but that did not make him a bad parent to his children, at least during the times he occasionally visited them.

The Volants were deeply in debt because of Étienne's tendencies to gamble away a lot of his inheritance at the bars he frequented at. Clotilde, who came from a family who specialized in concealment charms, was able to hide the decline in the Volant's wealth by casting mirages that could make a simple lump of coal appear to be a bar of gold or some type of jewel. These charms especially helped in regard to paying off Étienne's debts, often conning the people he owed money to with his wife's illusions. Although, after a while, the charm of their fabricated wealth began to wear off and those who Étienne paid his debts to with these charmed objects would find out that they were tricked once the enchantments wore off.

As a result, one night when Étienne was drunk at a bar, he was confronted by one of the men he conned. Étienne was challenged in a magical duel by the man, but ultimately lost and was killed. This is why Clotilde was overjoyed when Eglantine got a proposal from the Rosier family, especially Laurent Rosier. The Rosiers, having already established themselves long back in France, were practically akin to wizarding nobility, matching the Blacks. Eglantine's marriage ensured that the Volants would not go bankrupt and reinstated stability within the family.

Featured at the top, is a tree which connects the Rosier family to the French branch of the Lestrange family. As I mentioned in my first post for the tree, Laurent Rosier is the great-great-nephew of Minette Rosier, making him third cousins with Leta Lestrange and her younger half-brother Corvus V. In addition to this, Laurent's father was first cousins with Fèlicule Lestrange (née Rosier), also known as F. Lestrange, the grandmother of Radolphus Lestrange II.

To give you guys a little bit more background of Clotilde Volant (née de Trefle-Picques), she was born to Adélard Duc de Trefle-Picques, a descendant of Vincent Duc de Trefle-Picques, a French nobleman and wizard active around the time of the French Revolution. Her mother was originally introduced as Faustine Escoffier-Floquet, but I changed my mind and renamed her as Touènette de Trefle-Picques (née Beaufort). There is not much I have to tell you about them right now, but soon I will post another update on this tree and hopefully by that time I'll have a little more to share on them. As for their grandsons, Eglantine's younger brothers that were created by @lazyreinelle: Floxel II and Claude Volant, I do have a bit more to share about them.

Floxel Volant II married Pascaline Volant (née Perrott), a classmate of his elder sister during her years at Beauxbatons. Floxel had a few children with Pascaline, namely their daughter Ghislaine Volant. There are a few more which I will be sharing in the near future, but right now Ghislaine is the only one who will be mentioned at the moment since the other children have more expanded and complex trees in regard to their future descendants.

Before Floxel's marriage to Pascaline, Clotilde started to be a lot more harsh with him, scrutinizing every move of his, and forcibly making him meet potential brides for him yet not allowing him to choose. The Volant heir longed to be free like his twin, Claude without any worry in the world, without someone constantly breathing down your neck. Being the older twin by five minutes was perhaps the only thing Floxel could uphold Claude over. The younger had all the other luxuries to bed, flirt with any one he liked, regardless of blood-status. As the second son, Claude was the spare and therefore didn't have as much responsibility to the family. Claude could often cross the line, becoming even worse than his father Étienne.

Claude Volant was notorious for philandering about, oftentimes bedding attractive veela ballerinas. He would later be disowned by his family for impregnating his veela mistress, leading to a bitter estrangement that would cause him to lose contact with his elder sister and twin brother.

Well, that's it for now! The next post I make will probably be more focused on the Rosier-Volant descendants, and maybe I'll give a little more insight on the Rosier family itself, especially Laurent and Vinda Rosier's parents.

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konstantynowitz · 2 months ago

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Family tree revisions - Lestrange & Volant

There has been a significant change in birth years for the Lestrange-Volant family tree as @harbinger-0f-spring and I have seemed to miscalculated a few generations! Sorry for the misunderstanding but hopefully we've cleaned a few things up with this revision I've made. I can't promise that there won't be any errors, although what I came up with seems to somewhat align with each generation.

First off, I've gotten rid of Benouét Volant as we found that he was born way too early to be a cousin of Quintilla Lestrange (I have also taken the time to change her date of birth as well). I don't know if we'll be using the name Benouét for a Volant relative we come up with in the near future, but it is a possibility that we will be reintroducing Benouét Volant as Étienne's father rather than his grandfather. This would therefore make Benouét the elder brother of Jodelle Lestrange (née Volant), since the date of birth I've made up for her would make her a bit younger. Instead of 1870 as the original birth date of Étienne Volant, I've changed it to 1873 so that now he is seven years his wife's senior. As for his cousin Quintilla who @harbinger-0f-spring made the elder cousin of Benouét Volant, I put her date of birth around 1893. With the fixing of the generations and dates, this would make Quintilla quite young compared to Étienne, about twenty years to be exact. I'm sticking to the storyline which we had planned out for Benouét that his parents died during a dragon pox outbreak, but instead of Benouét I replaced him with Étienne.

Étienne was ten in 1883 when the dragon pox outbreak occurred and his young aunt Jodelle (aged 19), who was newly married, took in her orphaned nephew and raised him alongside her husband Floxel (aged 27). This all happened years before Jodelle and Floxel had their daughter Quintilla so Étienne was basically their first child at the time. When Étienne grew up and married, he named his eldest son Floxel Volant in honor of his uncle.

#volant family #rosier family #lestrange family #floxel volant #family tree #collaboration project #family tree revisions #etienne rosier #étienne volant #quintilla lestrange #benouét volant #jodelle volant #floxel lestrange #clotilde volant

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tina-aumont · 2 years ago

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Cool info on Maria Montez II: Her maternal grandfather is the scientist Luis Arístides Fiallo Cabral (1876-1931). Her maternal grandmother is Flor De María Gregoria Henríquez García (1879-1963), daughter of writer Federico Henríquez y Carvajal and niece of Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal, president of the Dominican Republic in 1916.

wow!!!

You leave me speachless... that is a very cool information, indeed!!!

Thank you very much for writing and sending this to me, I will add it to her biography!!

And as I did a Tina family tree, I can do hers as well!! ;)

Thank you very much for your great collaboration!! :D

Eleni

#ask #ask me #ask me anything #María Montez II #Maria Montez II #María Montez Gracia Fiallo #Maria Montez Gracia Fiallo #family tree #María Montez II family tree #María Montez II ancestry #María Montez II ancestors #collaboration

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howdoesone · 6 months ago

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How does one make a family tree when the branches include cryogenic storage?

Creating a family tree is a cherished activity that helps individuals understand their lineage, heritage, and connections. However, when the branches of your family tree involve cryogenic storage and donor conception, the process can become more complex and nuanced. This guide will walk you through the steps to construct a family tree that accurately and respectfully includes these unique…

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tedwardremus · 2 months ago

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Blood Purity and a Declining Birth Rate

Voldemort’s promise to restore pureblood supremacy isn’t just a call to arms; it’s a lifeline for a community terrified of its own obsolescence.

The wizarding world is haunted by more than just literal ghosts; it is a world that seems to be shrinking, its former grandeur fading into memory. Signs of decline are everywhere: Hogwarts, once a bustling center of magical education, has unused classrooms and seemingly fewer students than one would expect for the only magical school in Great Britain and Ireland. Diagon Alley, supposedly the heart of the magical community in one of the world’s largest cities, consists of just a few streets. Even wizarding media is centralized in a single newspaper.

These clues suggest a world that was once much larger than it is now. There are references to better days and implications that Hogwarts isn’t what it used to be now that Dumbledore is in charge. This decline is tied closely to the waning influence of pureblood families, who are becoming a smaller and smaller fraction of the wizarding population. Muggle-born and half-blood students outnumber them at Hogwarts, a shift that threatens the social and political dominance Purebloods have held for centuries.

What’s particularly interesting is how purebloods respond—or fail to respond—to their declining numbers. Unlike other extremist groups like Christian fundamentalists or white nationalists, who often promote large families as a "sacred duty" to maintain their cultural dominance (Hitler gave medals to women who had five or more children), pureblood families in Harry Potter are remarkably small. This lack of larger pureblood families raises questions about their long-term strategies for survival. If blood purity is their highest priority, why don’t purebloods prioritize reproduction as a means to preserve their numbers?

Draco Malfoy, the prime school-age pureblood antagonist of the main character, is an only child. Sirius Black and Regulus Black come from an ancient family with an extensive family tree, yet they have no siblings beyond each other and only three cousins. Bellatrix Lestrange, one of the most fanatical proponents of blood purity, didn’t have children until her late 40s—and even then, it is a single child (and only if you accept Cursed Child as canon).

Harry Potter himself comes from a pureblood family, but his only living relatives are his Muggle aunt and cousin. Neville Longbottom is raised by his grandmother, and while he mentions elderly relatives, there’s no indication of cousins his own age. Even the Weasleys, the exception to the rule with their seven children, seem to lack extended family—there are no Weasley cousins attending Hogwarts during Harry’s time.

The First Wizarding War can partially explain the small size of Harry’s generation: people were afraid to have children during Voldemort’s rise to power, and the violence of that decade wiped out much of a generation. However, this alone doesn’t account for the decline. Something must have happened in the previous generation as well. For several generations now, pureblood families haven’t been having enough children to maintain their population.

Another explanation could be that their intense focus on lineage and prestige means they are selective about marriage and procreation, limiting family size to maintain "purity" rather than expanding it. Marrying within a shrinking pool of acceptable partners likely leads to fewer unions and, consequently, fewer children. Additionally, inter-family rivalries, societal pressures, and a rigid class system may discourage collaboration between pureblood families to ensure survival.

While we see pureblood families of different economic status in the series it is also worth noting that smaller families may be a deliberate choice to consolidate wealth and maintain power within a single branch of the family, ensuring that resources aren’t dispersed among too many inheritors. By keeping family sizes small, they can preserve their status and influence in a society where lineage and financial stability are critical markers of power.

Alternatively, external factors not mentioned in canon could help explain the dwindling pureblood numbers. Perhaps a catastrophic outbreak of dragon pox ravaged Britain at the turn of the century, disproportionately affecting pureblood families due to their insular communities and close intermarriages. An economic crisis could also have made it difficult for even wealthy families to support large households, especially given the high costs of maintaining pureblood status and reputation. Such events would compound the social and cultural pressures already discouraging large families, contributing to a steady decline in pureblood populations.

The decline in a pureblood population creates a simmering panic among purebloods. They perceive that their traditions and way of life are changing, and instead of adapting to demographic shifts and embracing a more inclusive future, they cling to fear and resentment. They blame Muggle-borns for their loss of power, projecting their anxieties onto those they perceive as outsiders for “stealing” magic.

When those in positions of power feel their dominance slipping, they often construct narratives in which the oppressed will rise up and do to them what they, the ruling class, have done to others. This paranoia leads purebloods to double down on their exclusivity, believing that maintaining their power is the only way to avoid losing everything. Their refusal to adapt blinds them to the potential benefits of inclusivity: a larger magical community, a stronger economy with more people working wizarding jobs and purchasing wizarding goods, and a broader cultural foundation to sustain their traditions.

This fear and resistance to change create fertile ground for Voldemort’s rise. He exploits the purebloods’ anxieties, offering them a roadmap for radicalization. Instead of addressing the root causes of their decline, purebloods embrace the Dark Lord’s extreme methods, leading to catastrophic consequences.

The determination to "purify" the wizarding world and maintain their position of power ironically accelerates their downfall. As Death Eaters enact Voldemort’s vision, their crusade doesn’t simply target individual Muggle-borns but entire families—wiping out, or nearly wiping out, powerful, established wizarding lineages like the Bones, McKinnons, Longbottoms, and Potters. This destructive cycle ensures that even the pureblood families themselves suffer massive losses, further accelerating the population decline they sought to prevent.

Purebloods who embrace the politics of purity in an attempt to stave off extinction ultimately hasten their own downfall, prioritizing exclusivity and radicalization over growth and adaptation.

(thanks to @livelaughlovetoread for reading this over and beta reading!)

#harry potter #harry potter meta #harry potter analysis #voldemort #wizarding world #first wizarding war #second wizarding war

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covid-safer-hotties · 3 months ago

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Also preserved on our archive (Daily updates!)

An older (published in January 2024) but interesting and comprehensive look at long Covid's effect on Latino families and communities in the US.

By Lygia Navarro and Johanna Bejarano

Editor’s note: This story first appeared on palabra, the digital news site by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. It is part of a series produced in partnership between palabra and Northwest Public Broadcasting (NWPB) with the collaboration of reporters Lygia Navarro and Johanna Bejarano. *Some people interviewed for this article requested anonymity to discuss private health issues.

Victoria* is already exhausted, and her story hasn’t even begun. It’s late January 2021 in rural Sunnyside, Washington. The town of 16,000 people is a sleepy handful of blocks flecked with pickup trocas, churches on nearly every corner, and the twangs of Clint Black and Vicente Fernández. Geometric emerald chunks of farmland encircle the town.

Thirty-nine-year-old Victoria drags herself back and forth to her parents’ bedroom in a uniform of baggy burgundy sweatpants, scarf, knit hat and mask. Always a mask. As the eldest sibling, her unspoken job is to protect the family. But COVID-19 hits before they can get vaccinated.

When Victoria’s mamá got sick and quickly infected her papá, Victoria quarantined them. She shut them in their room, only cracking the door briefly to slide food in before retreating in a fog of Lysol.

Working in the health field, Victoria knows if they make it through the first 14 days without hospitalization, they will likely survive. Yet, caregiving drains her: Keeping track of fevers. Checking oxygen saturation. Making sure they’re drinking Pedialyte to stay hydrated. Worrying whether they will live or die.

Five days in, COVID comes for Victoria. Hard. Later, when she repeatedly scrutinizes these events, Victoria will wonder if it was the stress that caused it all — and changed her life forever.

At the pandemic’s onset, Victoria’s family’s work dynamics fit the standard in Sunnyside, where 86% of residents are Latino. “Keeping the members of your household safe — it was hard for a lot of families,” Victoria says. Living in multigenerational homes, many adult children, who’d grown up in the United States with access to education, had professional jobs, and switched to working from home. Their immigrant elders, who’d often only been able to finish fourth grade, braved the world to toil in fields, produce packing plants, supermarkets, or delivery trucks. As Leydy Rangel of the UFW Foundation puts it: “You can’t harvest food through Zoom.”

More than three decades ago, when 6-year-old Victoria’s family migrated from rural northern Mexico to this fertile slip of land cradling the zigzagging Yakima River, their futures promised only prosperity and opportunity.

According to oral histories of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation — who white colonizers forced out of the Yakima Valley in 1855 — the valley’s fecund lands have fed humans since time immemorial. Soon after the Yakamas’ removal to a nearby reservation, settler agriculture exploded.

By World War II, employers were frantic to hire contracted bracero laborers from Mexico — themselves descendants of Indigenous ancestors — to harvest the valley’s bounty of asparagus, pears, cherries and other cornucopia. This was how Victoria’s family arrived here: her abuelo and his brother had traveled back and forth to Washington as braceros decades before.

Victoria’s path took similar twists, in a 21st century, first-gen way. She moved all over the country for her education and jobs, then returned before the pandemic, bringing a newfound appreciation for the taste of apples freshly plucked from a tree that morning, and for the ambrosial scent of mint and grapes permeating the valley before harvest.

Today, agriculture is the largest industry fueling the Yakima Valley, the country’s twelfth-largest agriculture production area. Here, 77% of the nation’s hops (an essential ingredient in beer) and 70% of the nation’s apples are grown. Latinos, who constitute more than half of Yakima County’s population, power the agricultural industry.

While the area’s agricultural enterprises paid out $1.1 billion in wages in 2020, 59% of the low-wage agriculture jobs are held by undocumented folks and contracted foreign seasonal laborers doing work many Americans spurn. Latinos here live on median incomes that are less than half of white residents’, with 16% of Latinos living in poverty. Also in 2020: as they watched co-workers fall ill and die, Latino farmworkers repeatedly went on strike protesting employers’ refusals to provide paid sick leave, hazard pay and basic COVID protections like social distancing, gloves and masks.

“Every aspect of health care is lacking in the valley,” Yakima Herald-Republic health reporter Santiago Ochoa tells me.

In interview after interview, Yakima Valley residents and health care workers sketch in the details of a dire landscape:

The state’s busiest emergency room. Abrupt shutdowns of hospital facilities. Impoverished people without transportation or internet access for telehealth. Eight-month waits for primary care appointments. Nearly one in five Latinos uninsured. More than half of residents receive Medicaid. Resident physicians cycling in and out, never getting to know their patients. Not enough specialists, resulting in day-long trips for specialized care in bigger cities. With its Latino essential workforce risking their lives to feed their families — and the country — by summer 2020, COVID blazed through Yakima County, which quickly became Washington’s most scorching of hot spots. Not only did Yakima County tally the highest per-capita case rate of all West Coast counties (with Latinos making up 67% versus, 26% for white people), it also saw more cases than the entire state of Oregon. Ask Latinos here about 2020, and they shiver and avert their gazes, the trauma and death still too near.

Their positive tests marked just the beginning of terrifying new journeys as COVID slammed Victoria and many other Yakima Valley Latinos. Mix in scanty rural health care, systemic racism and a complicated emerging illness, and what do you get? Chaos: a population hardest hit by long COVID, but massively untreated, underdiagnosed, and undercounted by the government and medicine itself.

It won’t go away The cough was the first clue something wasn’t right. When Victoria had COVID, she’d coughed a bit. But then, three months later, she started and couldn’t stop.

The Yakima Valley is so starved for physicians that it took five months to see a primary care doctor, who attributed Victoria’s incessant cough to allergies. Victoria tried every antihistamine and decongestant available; some brought relief for three, maybe four weeks, and then returned spasms of the dry, gasping bark. A few minutes apart, all day long. The worst was waking up coughing, at least hourly.

Victoria had chest x-rays. An ear, nose and throat specialist offered surgery on her nose’s deviated septum. As months passed, the black hair framing Victoria’s heart-shaped face started aging rapidly, until it was grayer than her mother’s.

Over a year after the cough began, an allergist prescribed allergy drops, and Victoria made a chilling discovery. Once the drops stopped the cough for a month, then two, Victoria realized that the extreme fatigue she’d thought was sleep deprivation from coughing all night persisted.

“The exhaustion comes from within your soul, it overpowers you,” she says. “It’s intolerable.”

And her mind was foggy. When interrupted at work every 10 minutes by a coughing jag, Victoria hadn’t realized COVID had substantially altered her brain. “There are things in my brain that I should have access to, like words, definitions, memories,” she says. “I know that they’re there but I can’t access them. It’s like a filing cabinet, but I can’t open it.”

Before long, the cough resurfaced. Sometime in 2021, reading COVID news for work, Victoria learned of long COVID: new or lingering health issues persisting at least three months after COVID infection.

How to get help if you think you might have long COVID Talk to your doctor, and if your doctor doesn’t listen to your concerns, bring a loved one to advocate for you at your next appointment. Bring this article (or other materials on long COVID) to show your doctor. Ask your doctor about seeing specialists for long COVID symptoms, such as a cardiologist (for dysautonomia symptoms like dizziness, heart palpitations and shortness of breath), a gastroenterologist (for digestive problems), or a neurologist (for chronic nerve pain). Ask to be referred to a long COVID clinic (if there is one in your area). Now four years into the pandemic, there is still no treatment or cure for long COVID. COVID long-haulers (as they call themselves) have reported over 200 varied symptoms, with fatigue, dizziness, heart palpitations, post-exertion exhaustion, gastrointestinal issues, and brain dysfunction among the most common.

Long COVID is far from a mysterious illness, as it’s often called by the medical establishment and some media. There are precedents: for at least a century, historical documentation has shown that, while most recover, some people remain sick after viral or other illnesses. Yet funds for research have been severely limited, and sufferers ignored. Myalgic Encephalomyelitis – sometimes called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or ME/CFS — is a prime example. Like ME/CFS, long COVID afflicts many more women (and people assigned female at birth) than men, with women comprising as many as 80% of COVID long-haulers. Most long-haulers are in their 30s, 40s and 50s — the busiest years for women with children, who often put their own needs last.

What should have been instantly clear, given how disproportionately Black and Brown communities were hit by COVID, was that long COVID would wallop Americans of color. Yet, the U.S. government waited until June 2022 to begin tracking long COVID. Even now, with 18 months of data showing Latinos are the population most impacted by long COVID, palabra is among the very few media outlets to report this fact. Are the nation and the medical community willfully ignoring Latino long-haulers — after sending them into clouds of coronavirus to keep society’s privileged safe?

Fighting for a diagnosis When Victoria mentioned long COVID, her doctor didn’t exactly ignore her: she listened, said “OK,” but never engaged on the topic. Same with Victoria’s allergist and the ear, nose and throat specialist. All they could do, the doctors said, was treat her symptoms.

“I’m highly educated and I know that you have to be your own advocate. But I kept asking, kept going on that line of thought, and they had nothing to say to me. Absolutely nothing,” she laments.

Victoria understood science on long COVID was limited, but still expected more. “All of the treatments we tried, it was as if COVID hadn’t existed. They should at least say that we need to investigate more, not continue acting like it wasn’t a factor. That was what was most frustrating.”

Just as Victoria fought to have her illness validated by doctors, 30 miles away in the northern Yakima Valley town of Moxee, 52-year-old María* waged a parallel battle. Both felt utterly alone.

When the pandemic began, María became the protector of her husband and children, all asthmatics. When she fell ill New Year’s Day 2021, she locked herself in her room, emerging weeks later to find her life unrecognizable.

Recounting her struggles, María reads deliberately from notes, holding back tears, then pushes her reading glasses atop her head. (María moved here from northern Mexico as an adult, and feels most comfortable in Spanish.) Her dyed brown hair, gold necklace and lightly made-up face project convivial warmth, but something intangible behind her expression belies a depth of grief María refuses to let escape. When I tell her I also have long COVID, and fell ill the exact same month, she breathes out some of her anxiety.

María’s long COVID includes chronic, full-body pain; memory lapses so severe she sometimes can’t remember if she’s eaten breakfast; such low energy that she’s constantly like a battery out of juice; unending shortness of breath; joint inflammation; and blood flow issues that leave her hands a deep purple. (The only time María ventured to the hospital, for her purple hands, she says staff attempted to clean them, thinking it was paint.) Like Victoria, María used to enjoy exercise and hiking in the valley’s foothills, but can do neither anymore.

María has no insurance, and receives care at the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, created in 1978 out of the farmworkers’ movement. The clinic’s multiple locations are the valley’s main providers of care irrespective of patients’ ability to pay.

Whereas Victoria’s doctors expressed indifference to the idea of COVID causing her health complaints, María’s doctors not only discounted this connection, but made serious errors of misdiagnosis.

“Every week I went to see my doctor. She got so stressed out (at not knowing what was wrong with me) that she stressed me out,” María says. “My doctor told me, ‘You know what? I think you have multiple sclerosis.’” María saw specialists, and afterwards, even without confirmation, María says her doctor still insisted she had MS. “I told her, ‘No. No, I don’t have multiple sclerosis. It’s COVID. This happened after COVID.’ I was really, really, really, really, really, really insistent on telling them that all of this was after COVID.”

Latinos uncovering the connections between their ill health and COVID is rare, partially due to the plummet in COVID coverage on Spanish-language news, says Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, a long-hauler and head of the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio long COVID clinic. There has been no national public education on long COVID, in any language.

“It’s hard for people to understand what the real impact of long COVID is now and in the future,” says Lilián Bravo, Yakima Health District director of public health partnerships and the face of COVID updates on Yakima Valley television early in the pandemic. “We’re looking at a huge deficit in terms of people’s quality of life and ‘productivity.’”

Eventually, María’s doctor sent her to another specialist, who said that if she didn’t improve within a month, he’d operate on her hip. María’s never had hip problems. “He said, ‘Well, I don’t know what you’re going to do,’” and then put her on a strong steroid medication that made her vomit horribly, María says. She hasn’t tallied what she’s spent on medical bills, but after paying $1,548 for a single test, it must be many thousands of dollars.

Meanwhile, María’s family and friends kept insisting her maladies were psychological. “I never accepted that. I told them: ‘It’s not in my head. It’s in my body.’” It wasn’t until more than a year after becoming ill that María finally saw a rheumatologist who diagnosed her with long COVID and other immune dysfunctions. “I told her, ‘Yes, I knew that my body wasn’t working. I knew that something was wrong.’ I felt like I could relax. Finally someone is telling me that it’s not all in my head.” Once María was diagnosed, her extended family switched to asking how she was feeling and sympathizing with her.

Victoria, on the other hand, has never received a long COVID diagnosis. At Victoria’s request, her doctor referred her to the state’s only long COVID clinic, at the University of Washington in Seattle, but Victoria’s insurance, Kaiser Permanente, refused to pre-approve the visit — and the clinic wouldn’t accept cash from her. At present, the clinic isn’t even accepting patients from the Yakima Valley or any other part of Washington — they are only accepting patients in King County, which includes Seattle.

Victoria’s family hasn’t accepted her health struggles either. “I’d say, ‘I know that you think I’m crazy,’” Victoria says, chuckling, as she often does to lighten her discomfort. “My mom would fight with me: ‘You forgot to do this! Why are you so spacey?’ ‘Mami, it’s not that I forgot. In reality, I completely lost track of it.’” If Victoria is fatigued, her family asks how that’s possible after a full night’s sleep. “I’ve found that I have to defend myself. When I try to explain to people, they hear it as excuses from a lazy person — especially being Latinos.”

Karla Monterroso, a 42-year-old California Latina long-hauler since March 2020 who spent her first year bedbound, says, “(With long COVID), we have to rest in a way that, in our culture, is very difficult to achieve. We really judge exhaustion.” In fact, pushing physically or mentally for work can make long-haulers much sicker. Karla says Latino ethics of hard work like those of Victoria’s parents “aren’t the principles that are going to serve us with this illness.”

Long COVID diagnoses in Latinos are still too rare, due to untrained family medicine physicians and medical stereotypes, says Verduzco-Gutierrez. (Doctors might see blood sugar changes, for example, and assume that’s just because of Latinos’ high rates of diabetes, rather than long COVID.) She says “misinformation on long COVID” is rampant, with physicians claiming long COVID is a fad, or misdiagnosing the bone-deep exhaustion as depression. When Verduzco-Gutierrez’s own doctor invited her to speak to their practice, the assembled physicians weren’t aware of basic research, including that the drugs Paxlovid and Metformin can help prevent long COVID if taken at infection. In Washington, physicians must complete training on suicide, which takes 1,200 to 1,300 lives in the state yearly, but there’s no state-wide training on long COVID, which currently affects at least 498,290 Washingtonians.

Cultural skepticism about medicine — and entrenched stigmas about illness and disability — mean Sunnyside conversations about aftereffects don’t mention COVID itself. Victoria’s relatives push traditional herbal remedios, assuming that anyone still sick isn’t doing enough to recover. “(People suffering) feel like they’re complaining too much if they try to talk about it,” Victoria says. Meanwhile, her parents and others in her community avoid doctors out of stubbornness and mistrust, she says, “until they’re bleeding, when they’re super in pain…, when it’s gotten to the worst that they can handle.”

“People in this community use their bodies for work,” Victoria says. “If you’re Latino, you’re a hard worker. Period,” says Bravo. “What’s the opposite of that, if you’re not a hard worker? What are you? People don’t want to say, ‘I came to this country to work and all of a sudden I can’t anymore.’”

Victoria sees this with her parents, who’ve worked since the age of 10. Both have health issues inhibiting their lives since having COVID — her dad can’t take his daily hour-long walks anymore because of heart palpitations and shortness of breath, and her mom began getting headaches and saw her arthritis worsen dramatically — yet neither will admit they have long COVID. Nor will their friends and family. “If they noticed the patterns of what they themselves are saying and what their friends of the same age are suffering after COVID,” Victoria says of her community, “they’d hear that almost everyone is suffering some type of long COVID.”

Long COVID’s deep impact on Latinos The “back to normal” ethos is most obvious in the absence of long COVID messaging while as many as 41 million adults now have — or have recovered from — long COVID nationwide. “The way that we’re talking about the pandemic is delegitimizing some of (long COVID’s) real impacts,” says Bravo of the Yakima Health District.

Even with limited demographic data, statistics show a nationwide reality similar to Victoria’s Sunnyside. Through a recurring survey, the Census Bureau estimates that 36% of Latinos nationally have had long COVID — likely a vast underestimate, given that the survey takes 20 minutes to complete online (Latinos have lower rates of broadband internet), and reaches only a sliver of the U.S. population. Experts like Verduzo-Gutierrez believe that true rates of long COVID in Latinos are higher than any reported statistic. California long-hauler Karla Monterroso agrees: “We are underdiagnosed by a severe amount. I do not believe the numbers.”

This fall, a UC Berkeley study reported that 62% of a group of infected California farmworkers developed long COVID. Weeks later, a survey from the University of Washington’s Latino Center for Health found that, of a sample group of 1,546 Washington Latinos, 41% of those infected became long-haulers. The Washington results may also be an undercount: many long-haulers wouldn’t have the energy or brain clarity to complete the 12-page survey, which was mailed to patients who’d seen their doctor within the prior six months. Meanwhile, many long-haulers stop seeing doctors after tiring of the effort and cost with no answers.

“Our community has not bounced back,” says Angie Hinojos, executive director of Centro Cultural Mexicano, which has distributed $29 million in rent assistance in Washington and hasn’t seen need wane. “That is going to affect our earning potential for generations.” The United Farm Workers’ philanthropic sister organization, the UFW Foundation, says union organizers hear about long COVID, and how it’s keeping people out of work, frequently.

Cultural and linguistic disconnects abound between doctors and Latinos on long COVID symptoms, some of which, like brain fog and fatigue, are nebulous. If doctors lack patient rapport — or don’t speak their language — they’ll miss what patients aren’t sharing about how long COVID changed their lives, work and relationships. That’s if Latinos actually go to the doctor.

“If you’re working in the orchards and your muscles are always sore, it’s just part of the day-to-day reality,” says Jesús Hernández, chief executive officer of Family Health Centers in north-central Washington. “If you’re constantly being exposed to dust and even chemicals in the work environment, it’s easy to just say, ‘Well, that’s just because of this or that,’ and not necessarily be readily willing to consider that this is something as unique as long COVID.”

Even Victoria says if not for the cough, she wouldn’t have sought medical advice for her fatigue. “There are a lot of people out there that are really tired, in a lot of pain and have no idea why. None,” says Karla, who was a nonprofit CEO when she became sick. “I have heard in the last three-and-a-half years the most racist and fatphobic things I have ever heard in my life. Like, ‘Oh, sometimes you got to lay off the beans and rice.’ I have a college education. I’m an executive. I am in the top 10% of wage earners in my community. If this is my experience, what is happening to the rest of my people?”

Conspiracy theories and misinformation As Yakima Valley’s Latino vaccination rates continue dropping, I hear all the COVID conspiracy theories: the vaccine has a chip that’ll track you; the vaccine makes you and your children infertile; COVID tests are rigged to all be positive; that hospitals get paid more for COVID patients. Victoria laughs at the most absurd one she’s heard. Her mom’s explanation for her health problems nearly three years after COVID: the vaccine.

Across the Latino United States, social media algorithms and WhatsApp threads promoting COVID disinformation proliferate. Last summer, Latino Center for Health co-director Dr. Leo Morales did a long COVID community presentation just south of Yakima Valley. The audience’s first question: Are vaccines safe? “This is where we’re still at,” Morales says. “That’ll be a big stumbling block for people…in terms of getting to talking about long COVID.”

One morning in early November, Morales and his team gather in Toppenish at Heritage University, where 69% of students are Latino, to present their survey data. Neither presenters nor attendees wear masks, an essential tool for preventing COVID transmission and long COVID. “The only conversation that I’m having about COVID is in this room,” says María Sigüenza, executive director of the Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs.

Yakima Valley health institutions are also ignoring long COVID. Of the two main hospital systems, Astria Health declines interview requests and MultiCare reports that of 325,491 patients seen between January and November 2023, 112 — or 0.03% — were diagnosed with long COVID. The Yakima Valley Farmworkers Clinic, where María’s doctor works, refuses to let me speak to anyone about long COVID, despite providing patient information for the Latino Center for Health’s survey. Their doctors simply aren’t seeing long COVID, the clinic claims. Same with the other main community provider, Yakima Neighborhood Health Services, whose media officer responds to my interview requests with: “It’s not going to happen.”

“I think they’re not asking, they’re not looking,” Verduzco-Gutierrez says. “Do the doctors just…look at your diabetes or your blood pressure, but not ask you, ‘Did your diabetes get worse when you had COVID? Did your blood pressure get worse? Did you not have blood pressure problems before? And now do you get dizzy? Do you get headaches? Do you have pains?’” She believes that many, if not most, Latinos with long COVID aren’t getting care, whom she calls “the ones that we’re missing.”

An uncertain future The outlook for Latinos with long COVID is grim. Cultural stigma and ableism cause now-disabled long-haulers to feel shame. (Ableism is societal prejudice and discrimination against disabled people.) Disability benefits are nearly impossible to get. Long-haulers are losing their homes, jobs and insurance. Latinos’ overrepresentation in sectors that don’t offer sick pay and are heavily physical — cleaning, service, agriculture, construction, manufacturing, homecare and healthcare among them — may automatically put them at higher long COVID risk, given ample anecdotal evidence that pushing through a COVID infection instead of resting can lead to long COVID. Latino care providers will become ill in greater numbers, imperiling the healthcare industry.

But Latinos may not be clear on these factors, says long-hauler Karla Monterroso. “My tío had said…'We must be defective because we get sick more than the white people.’ And I’m like ‘No, tío. We are exposed to the illness more. There’s nothing defective about our bodies.’ I’m afraid for us. It’s just going to be disability after disability after disability. We have to start in our small communities building caring infrastructure so that we can help each other. I am clear: No one is coming to save us. We’ve got to save us.”

Disability justice advocates worry about systems unable to cope with inevitable disabling waves of COVID in the future. “(Latinos) aren’t taking it as serious as they should,” says Mayra Colazo, executive director of Central Washington Disability Resources. “They’re not protecting each other. They’re not protecting themselves.” Karla sees the psychology behind this denial: “I have thought a lot about how much it takes to put yourself in danger every single day. (You have) to say ‘Oh, it’s fine. People are exaggerating,’ or you get that you’re in existential hell all of the time.”

Reinfection brings additional risk of long COVID, research shows, and Verduzco-Gutierrez says, “We still don’t know the impact of what is going to happen with all these reinfections. Is it going to cause more autoimmune disease? Is it going to be causing more dementia? Is it going to be causing more cancer?” She believes that every medical chart should include a COVID history, to guide doctors to look for the right clues.

“If we were to be lucky enough to capture everybody who has long COVID, we would overwhelm our (health) system and not be able to do anything for them,” Victoria says. “What’s the motivation for the medical field, for practitioners to find all those people?” For now, Victoria sees none. “And until that changes, I don’t think we will (properly count Latino long-haulers),” she adds.

Flashes of hope do exist. In September 2023, the federal government granted $5 million each to multiple long COVID clinics, including three with Latino-specific projects. In New York City, Mt. Sinai Hospital will soon open a new long COVID clinic near largely-Latino East Harlem, embedded in a primary care clinic with staff from the community to reach Latino long-haulers. Verduzco-Gutierrez’s San Antonio clinic will teach primary care providers across largely rural, Latino South Texas to conduct 15-minute low-tech long COVID examinations (the protocol for which is still being devised), and will deploy community tools to educate Latinos on long COVID.

Meanwhile, at the University of Washington long COVID clinic, staff are preparing a patient handbook, which will be adapted for Latinos and then translated into Spanish. They will also train primary care physicians to be local long COVID experts, and will return to treating patients from the whole state rather than just the county containing Seattle. After palabra’s inquiry, the UFW Foundation now has plans to survey United Farm Workers members to gauge long COVID pervasiveness, so the Foundation can lobby legislators and other decision makers to improve Latino long-hauler care.

Back at the Yakima Valley survey presentation, attendees brainstorm new care models: Adding long COVID screening to pediatric checkups, given that long COVID most impacts child-bearing-age women, so moms can bring information to their families and community. Using accessible language for long COVID messaging, or, as Heritage University nursing faculty member Genevieve Aguilar puts it: “How would I talk to my tía, how would I talk to my abuelita? If they can understand me, we’re good to go. If they can’t, olvídate. We have to reframe.”

More than anything, personal narratives will be the key to open people’s minds about long COVID — although that path may be challenging. In Los Angeles, Karla has dealt with a lack of full family and community support, in part, she believes, because her body represents COVID. “I am living, breathing proof of a pandemic no one wants to admit is still happening, and that there is no cure for what I have. That is a really scary possibility.”

While Karla does identify as disabled, Victoria and María don’t. Victoria has learned to live and move within her physical limits. At work, she sometimes feels inhibited by her cognitive issues. “I tell my boss all the time, ‘Oh man, you guys hired such a smart person. But what you got was after COVID, so it’s not the same.’” At times, she worries about the trajectory of her career, about how her work’s intense problem-solving wears out her brain. Will she be able to pursue larger challenges in work in the future? Or will long COVID ultimately make her fail?

Victoria tells me she “remains hopeful that there is a solution.” In a surprising twist, her cough completely disappeared eight months ago — when she became pregnant. (Other long-haulers have seen their symptoms improve with pregnancy, as well, likely due to immune system changes allowing a pregnant person’s body to not reject their baby’s growing cells). Victoria is optimistic that her other symptoms might disappear after she gives birth. And that, maybe someday, her parents will admit they have long COVID, too.

#long covid #covid 19 #mask up #covid #pandemic #public health #wear a mask #still coviding #wear a respirator #coronavirus #sars cov 2 #covid conscious #covid is airborne #covidー19 #covid isn't over #covid pandemic #covid19

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anonymousewrites · 1 month ago

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Lavender for Royalty; Sage for Wisdom (Book 1) Chapter Twelve

Kyoya Ootori x Reader

Chapter Twelve: Arborvitae for Friendship

Summary: The Host Club collaborates with the Newspaper Club.

Attention: I will be going on a brief hiatus until the 22nd of January due to being abroad. I hope you guys have a great January!

“The cherry blossoms are so beautiful,” sighed (Y/N)’s guest.

“I love this color pink. It’s so sad they’re not around all year,” said another girl.

“Cherry blossoms are symbols of rebirth and new beginnings,” said (Y/N). “The fact they appear only once a year makes that special. It reminds you that every day is a new start.”

The girls sighed dreamily. “So romantic…”

“Haruhi, duck!”

Everyone looked over at Tamaki. He jumped through the air and pulled Haruhi to the side as a ball rocketed past her head—kicked, of course, by the twins.

“You idiots!” said Tamaki. “You almost extinguished the flame that is Haruhi’s life!”

Haruhi groaned from where she lay on the ground. (Y/N) knelt and helped her up.

“My life is already in danger,” she huffed.

“Boss, it’s your fault for not catching it,” said the twins, shrugging. “It’s disgraceful that the Hikaru Genji of Ouran can’t play ball properly.”

“Come again? Then try stopping this!” Tamaki wound up his leg. “Starlight Kick!”

He kicked the ball, and it shot up into the air. Everyone’s jaws dropped open. It was so fast. …And so of course.

“Farewell!” said the twins, waving as the ball disappeared over the trees.

Crash!

Kyoya sighed. (Y/N) winced. Haruhi groaned.

“Oops…” said Tamaki.

I’m sorry! Please accept my sincerest apologies!” said Tamaki, bowing to the newspaper club.

The president, third year Akira Komatsuzawa, winced at his words. Chikage Ukyou and Tomochika Sakyou stood on either side of him.

“Oh, it’s okay,” lied Akira. “It was only a window that shattered and my head that received a direct hit.” He had a nasty bump and a giant icepack on his head. “But it was good timing. We were hoping that the Host Club would allow us an interview.”

“I didn’t know there was a newspaper club,” said Haruhi, frowning.

“They only produce this—” Hikaru and Kaoru picked up a paper. “The so-called OU-Spot. It’s a tabloid that exaggerates love affairs between students, class divisions due to family rivalries, and so on. Their fabrications have gotten so wild that no one reads it anymore.”

“It’s just a gossip rag,” said (Y/N), nodding.

“Sure…in our quest for readership, we lost sight of the truth,” said Akira, sighing. “But with the imminent closure of our club, our eyes were opened. Please lend us your aid! For the spring special, we’d like to reveal the truth about your charm in ‘In the Footsteps of the Host Club; 24/7!’ ”

“Really?” Tamaki’s eyes widened. “You mean it? You want to capture how I corner violent criminals and reveal my daily efforts in stopping criminal activities?”

Akira frowned. “What? It has nothing to do with ‘Police 24 Hours.’ ”

“We accept your request!” said Tamaki.

“No, we don’t,” said Kyoya, pulling Tamaki back with a cold smile.

“Kyoya, you don’t know how touching that show is!” whined Tamaki. “Besides, it was my fault he got hurt!”

“I’m sorry, but our information is restricted to customers only,” said Kyoya.

“Don’t worry. You won’t incur any medical costs. The Boss’ll pay for it,” said the twins to Akira.

“Tamaki, we’re not contributing to a newspaper that makes up scandals for it’s own gain,” said (Y/N), hands on their hips.

“We can’t erase our past mistakes after all,” said Akira, “swaying” and nearly collapsing from his wound. “I regret that we must shut down our club…”

“That’s not true!” said Tamaki. “People can always get a second chance! Alright, leave it to me! The Host Club will go all out and help rebuild the Newspaper Club!”

“No way,” said Hikaru and Kaoru.

“We’re not,” said (Y/N).

“What?!” said Tamaki.

“If we went along with all your altruistic endeavors, there’d be no end to it,” said Hikaru, shrugging.

“It’s tiresome. Let’s go,” said Kaoru.

“Tamaki, we’re not discussing this anymore,” said (Y/N).

“Come on, Tamaki. Back to the clubroom,” said Kyoya.

“Don’t you guy have a heart?! They’re shutting down! Their family is breaking up!” Tamaki huffed. “This is a presidential mandate. You can’t refuse!”

“We refuse,” said the twins. (Y/N) and Kyoya still had their arms crossed.

“He’s upset,” said Kaoru. “He’s still in costume.”

“It’s just like the way kids give each other the silent treatment,” said Kyoya.

“Pouting,” agreed (Y/N).

“That’s because Tamaki hates to be alone,” said Honey.

“Someone should tell him he looks stupid,” said Hikaru.

“Is it that wrong to help out the Newspaper Club?” said Haruhi, tilting her head.

“Haruhi, that’s odd—you’re taking the boss’s side?” said Hikaru and Kaoru.

“No, but…” Haruhi sighed. “If we leave him alone, I have a feeling he’ll eventually start looking at us like a puppy, and we’ll be forced to give in. It’s strange, but I know it for sure…”

(Y/N) grimaced. “You’re not wrong.”

“I thought you two would’ve gone for it,” said Haruhi, looking at the twins.

“This time it felt tiresome. Boring. Been there, done that,” said the twins.

“Honey, Mori?” said Haruhi.

Mori didn’t reply, and Honey grinned. “I’m eating cake!”

“(Y/N)?” said Haruhi.

“I don’t like people prying into my life,” said (Y/N).

Haruhi sighed.

And then Tamaki looked over with big giant puppy eyes. Everyone winced. He looked back, eyes even bigger than before. Everyone groaned. He looked over a third time, and Kyoya snapped his notebook closed in frustration.

“There will be conditions,” said Kyoya. Tamaki brightened like a dog, and Kyoya went forward. “We will provide a plan for the special feature. And the interview is forbidden. Customers must not be bothered, so the service scene is out.”

(Y/N)’s shoulders dropped. They were still suspicious of the newspaper club, but at least boundaries would protect from prying.

“Got it, everyone?” said Kyoya.

(Y/N) nodded. “Sounds fair.”

“If Kyoya says so, we’ll go along,” said the Hitachiins.

“Okay!” said Honey. Mori nodded.

“Right! Let’s start planning now!” Tamaki had already returned to his confident, happy self.

“Tamaki Suoh must have established the club to show off his power to the other students,” said Akira as he planned (plotted).

“But the students hardly ever complain,” said Chikage.

“Female students keep their mouths shut. Male students who know Suoh are evasive,” said Tomochika.

“You’ve seen it yourself,” said Akira. “He pretends to be a nice and sweet idiot. Tamaki Suoh…I wager he’s an exceptionally shrewd man. I’m betting he has a dark side!”

“So are we only paying attention to him?” said Chikage.

“No, we need more than that…We need him to have brought in more bad influences to Ouran,” said Akira, narrowing his eyes. “Like the scholarship students. Undoubtedly, he forced the first-year to join. And the second year? They’re suspicious. They’re rapidly climbing the ranks of power…That shouldn’t be possible for a commoner. We’ll find out what’s truly going on with this Host Club, get a great scoop, and show this school the power of the Newspaper Club!”

“Greeeenlight, redlight!” Tamaki whirled from the tree, but the Hosts were still and weren’t still approaching. He hadn’t caught them. “Greenlight, redlight! Greenlightredlight!” Each time, the twins were posed differently.

The newspaper club watched in shock. This was…a children’s game. They were expecting something more refined at the very least.

“It’s no wonder you’re surprised,” said Tamaki, smiling at the other club. “This is a traditional game of the common folk. There are many other fun games commoners play without spending a dime.”

“I see…” said Akira doubtfully. “But what has it got to do with our article?”

“Friendliness!” said Tamaki with force. “Friendliness is critical for wiping away the newspaper’s club negative image and gaining back the readers! According to our calculations, it will work. ‘Handsome Hosts Play a Commoner Game!’ An outdoor game will let you capture the image of spring in the background. It’s so elegant—perfect for a front-page article! It will be the perfect event!” Happily, Tamaki returned to the game and promptly “spotted Kyoya moving.”

“You’re Fujioka, right?” Akira walked towards Haruhi, who looked at him in surprise. “Why did you join the club?”

“On account of my own carelessness,” said Haruhi.

“Oh?” Akira leaned forward in interest.

“Haruhi, focus on the game,” said (Y/N), moving while Tamaki wasn’t looking and pushing Haruhi away from Akira. They smiled “politely” at Akira. “Apologies, no interviews, remember?”

“We need some background for the piece,” said Akira, gritting his teeth. “For instance, why did you join the club?”

“It sounded interesting,” said (Y/N), barely paying attention to him.

“Yes, but it’s helped your status, hasn’t it? As a commoner, being relationships with the powerful is important. Is that what you get out of this?” Akira leaned in. “Gold-digging for connections?”

(Y/N) narrowed their eyes ever-so-slightly. At Tamaki’s side, “out” of the game, Kyoya raised a brow as he saw Akira speaking to them. He looked at the twins and nodded. It was time for their plan to be put into action.

“Hide and seek time!” said the twins, jumping between Akira and (Y/N).

“We didn’t finish the game!” said Tamaki.

“We’re bored, Haruhi, hide with us,” said Hikaru and Kaoru, grabbing Haruhi’s arms.

“Hey!” Tamaki ran to them, grabbed Haruhi’s hand, and pulled her away. “Hide with me!”

“I’ll count!” said Honey cheerfully, and, while the rest of the hosts pretended to hide, the newspaper club stormed away. Little did they know where the club had gone to hide.

“This is ridiculous!” said Akira as he stormed through the halls of Ouran Academy. “We can’t participate in this farce! Let’s go back to our clubroom and finish the article!”

“But, President,” said Chikage. “Writing a gossip column on Suoh without proof—”

“Even if we don’t have proof now, all we have to do is write an article that forces his hand,” snapped Akira. “I went out of my way to get that ball and fake an injury. What a waste! Anyway, let’s take him and all his pesky hosts down tomorrow with a front-page article—” His eyes widened as he opened the door of his clubroom.

“So. It’s just as we thought.” The Hitachiin twins, sitting on his desk, smirked.

“It was so obvious,” said Kaoru.

“Boss was the only one who didn’t notice. He’s pretty dense when it comes to himself,” said Hikaru.

“Let me tell you this,” said Kaoru. “If you do anything to the boss or anyone else in this club, you won’t get off free. Not just the Hitachiins, but every family of our club will become your enemy. Are you prepared for that?”

“As I thought, you’re using your family powers!” said Akira. “And Suoh ordered you to do it!”

“Wrong. Tamaki would never do that.”

Akira jumped as Honey spoke and whirled. In the doorway stood Kyoya, Honey, Mori, and (Y/N).

“We love Tamaki. That’s why we won’t let anyone bully him,” said Honey, smiling. Mori nodded.

“Even though he’s an idiot,” said the twins, though they were agreeing.

“We all have our own family names, too, if we wished to go that route,” said Kyoya. He looked at Akira coldly. “Not that we would need to. We’re respectable, unlike some.”

“Not all of you have family names!” said Akira, glaring. “Your scholarship students, they’re there for a reason! Either Suoh forced them into it or they’re going to use his name—”

“Haruhi and I are making our own way in the world,” said (Y/N) sharply. “Tamaki is our friend.”

“Gold digging commoner—”

“I’d suggest you stop speaking,” said Kyoya. He pressed on a hidden button on the first aid kit he had so graciously delivered to Akira. The president of the newspaper club paled as Kyoya retrieved a disk from within the case. “Otherwise, who knows what we may do with this disc that has proof of your plot and precisely what slander you were planning on spreading about Tamaki, (Y/N), and Haruhi?”

Akira, Chikage, and Tomochika let out strangled cries. They had lost.

“I’m glad they won’t be bothering us again,” said (Y/N), sighing.

“We humored Tamaki, and we handled an issue.” Kyoya sighed. “As long as he doesn’t drag us into helping another disreputable club, we should be fine.”

“It is Tamaki we’re talking about,” said (Y/N), smiling.

“Perhaps.” Kyoya smirked. “But Komatsuzawa was right about one thing—we do have power to throw around if necessary.”

“You guys, maybe,” said (Y/N).

“I—We wouldn’t let your reputation be harmed,” said Kyoya. “You haven’t done anything.”

(Y/N) paused, and Kyoya looked at them.

“I haven’t. But…my family.” (Y/N) grimaced. “My reputation can be harmed by association.” Kyoya was silent as he waited for them to speak again. “My aunt and uncle, they’re kind. They’re good people. You’ve met them. But they’re fostering me for a reason. My parents—” they sighed “—they had substance issues. They were in jail for most of my childhood. I have no idea where they are now. But my aunt and uncle raised me.” (Y/N) looked at Kyoya. “I’m not ashamed of them. But I know that people will look down on me if they find out, and I am trying to make a name for myself.”

Kyoya nodded. He already knew all of that—he ran serious background checks—but that didn’t change the way he looked at (Y/N). They were still the person he had grown to truly care for, the one he had feelings for. (Y/N) was intelligent, ambitious, tenacious, and a genuinely good person on. Whoever their parents were, whatever they’d done, it had nothing to do with (Y/N).

“I understand,” said Kyoya simply. “You are more than the reputation of your family.” He understood the desire to show your own worth independent of one’s family—particularly of one’s brothers, in his case.

“Thank you, Kyoya,” said (Y/N), smiling.

“(Y/N)?”

They glanced at him.

“If someone attempts to use your class or family against you, tell me,” said Kyoya. “I will handle it.”

“I don’t need you to fight my battles for me,” said (Y/N). They knew that if they intended to move up in society and make a name for themself, they would have to get used to condescension from some.

“I am your friend, (Y/N),” said Kyoya. “I wish to help.”

(Y/N) felt their heart pound as he spoke, and the myriad of reasons they liked him—his kindness beneath all his coldness, his watchful eye for danger, his sharp mind, his respect for them—came to their mind.

“Yes. We’re friends,” said (Y/N). This was the first time they’d said it out loud. They smiled. “You and me.”

Kyoya quite liked the sound of that.

Taglist:

@roo024

@jmclouds

@yappydoo

@ramblingsoftheill

@girgal73

@rockerica

@nosoyyo1213

@ritzes28

@grippledee-galaxy

@rory-cakes

@neenieweenie

@k03ume

@constellationguy

@paastaboi

@introvertathome

@chaseyui

@jexnight

@snowy-violet

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kale-of-the-forbidden-cities · 25 days ago

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we all knew it was only a matter of time before this happened

KotLC x Gravity Falls AU! aka Gravity of the Lost Falls

all ideas were in collaboration with @blerpywatermelon and @sophisticated-crow , and you bet you're probably gonna see more of this AU from at least one of us :3

and here is the Pines family crest! i chose to base it off the portal because i couldn't really think of anything else that really symbolized the whole family - pine tree, shooting star, and all the other usual things would be too much to just one of them. i considered making it star shaped or bill cipher based until i had this idea

(the white bits are made of lumenite, so they glow faintly)

#gravity of the lost falls #gravity falls #kotlc #gravity falls au #kotlc au #dipper pines #mabel pines #mystery twins #kale's art #gravity falls fanart #gravity falls art #i was gonna make them 12 but then double checked and it turns out level 3 is 13-14 #not 12-13 like i thought #but it works out because mabel has manifested 2 abilities already #poor dip dop

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hmm-thats-a-wonderful-idea · 8 months ago

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Howdy!

Welcome to Wonderful Ideas. The AU that answers the question: What did Flowey do before Frisk fell down?

Actually, let me answer that for you: A lot of horrible things.

With his power to reset and save, he is technically a god. Unfortunately for monsterkind, he pretty much did all the good things he could possibly think of.

And doing good doesn't give him much of a thrill as being evil.

...just as long as that smiley trashbag doesn't interfere with his fun.

--------------------

List of Wonderful Ideas

"Who Wants to Live Forever?"

"The Buttercup Conspiracy"

"Mother Knows Best"

"No Time to Hesitate"

"Good Deeds"

"The Living Narcissus"

"Masks"

"Web of Gluttony"

"Money Doesn't Grow on Trees... but it sure does in Monsters"

"You Can Do It, Burgerpants!"

"Tempolcalypse Now"

"Crown of Thorns"

"The Flower Gardener"

"Totally Burglars!"

"Flowey is Not a Good Babysitter"

"Family Reunion"

"Sweet Silence"

"The Good Dog"

"Gossip Bot"

"Spotlight"

"Warped Mirror"

"Ghosts of Sins Past"

"Shyren's Song"

"The Resurrection of Asriel Dreemur"

"No Longer Alone in the Snow"

999999999999999999999999. Together Forever, Once Again

List of Better Paths

"Bring it in, Guys!"

List of Dead Ends

"Undying Justice"

"Sour Solitude"

"The Tem-scended"

"End of an Era, and the Beginning of Another"

"King of the Universe"

"Stronger Together"

1994. "Paradox"

-------------------------------

This is also a collaborative effort that anyone can join! Don't be afraid to contribute to the growing list of ideas, as well as post fanart/fanfiction about these ideas!

#undertale au #undertale #flowey #wonderful ideas

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corroded-hellfire · 1 year ago

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Merry and Bright - Eddie Munson x Reader

An As You Wish story

Collaboration with the marshmallows to my hot chocolate @munson-blurbs 💝

Summary: It's Eliza's first Christmas, and even though she may not have a clue what's going on, the rest of the Munson family have fun introducing her to their traditions.

Note: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Festivus, and have a safe and cheerful whatever it is you celebrate!

Words: 4.3k

[As You Wish masterlist]

Eliza’s usual 6am feeding has you and Eddie awake before the boys on Christmas morning for the first time ever. Their 11-week-old sister has them beat for the earliest riser this holiday.

Both of you sleepy-eyed as usual, you and Eddie slip into your daughter’s nursery and close the door behind you so her cries don’t wake her brothers. As soon as she sees you, she calms down because she knows the routine by now. You show up when she cries? Eliza gets food.

You walk over and peer into her crib, Eddie stepping up behind you and slipping his arms around your waist and resting his chin on your shoulder. Eliza’s tears dry as she stares up at you and her father, her eyes wide like his.

“Merry Christmas, Eliza,” Eddie says.

“Happy first Christmas, sweetheart,” you echo.

She clearly has no idea what you’re saying, but the way she’s looking at you makes you think that she’s thinking: Why are you just standing there smiling at me? Did you not hear the crying? Do you not know what time it is? Where is my food, lady?

You pick her up, clad in her green pajamas dotted with snowflakes and Santa Claus on them. The very same pajamas you, Eddie, Ryan, and Luke are all wearing. When you came up with the idea of matching family pajamas, you weren’t entirely serious until the boys backed you up. Whether they were truly into it or were just going along because they knew their dad would hate it, you have no idea. But Eddie grumbled and agreed, and once it’s just the two of you, declared that you are the only person in the whole world that he would do this for.

Eddie goes to the window and pulls back the pink curtains with the white polka dots while you settle into the rocking chair with your baby.

“Wow,” Eddie says as he looks outside. “It must’ve snowed the whole night. Everything is white.”

“Hear that, Eliza?” you coo as she begins to drink. “Your very first Christmas is a white Christmas. I think your brothers are going to have some fun outside later. Maybe we’ll go out and join them.”

Eddie looks over his shoulder at you. “Does she have enough clothes to layer up and go outside in this?”

“Enough clothes?” you ask with a chuckle. “Between the baby shower, Max and Nancy giving us some of their old baby clothes, and what we and the boys bought? I think she has enough layers to look like the Michelin Man.”

“Oh, but look at those rolls,” Eddie says in that baby-talk that’s pretty rare for him. He grins and kneels down next to the two of you in the rocker. “She already looks like the Michelin Man.”

There’s no denying Eliza’s rolls around her wrists and knees and ankles are absolutely the most adorable thing ever. And there is most definitely a long list of adorable things about Eliza.

Once Eliza is done eating, you burp her—and she gives you one her father is quite proud of—and change her diaper, then you head out into the hallway and it’s time to wake the boys.

Eddie walks into Luke’s room and heavily plops down on the mattress, making the ten-year-old bounce. He’s usually a pain to wake up in the morning, but Christmas is an exception.

Luke rouses with a sleepy laugh and rubs at his eyes. “Present time?” he asks.

“I dunno,” Eddie casually replies, shrugging his shoulders as though the thought hadn’t even occurred to him. “You think Santa came this year? I haven’t checked the tree yet.”

“And why wouldn’t he come?” you ask from the doorway, holding Eliza. Luke glances over at you and grins; you return his gesture in a silent I’ve got your back.

Eddie, meanwhile, is dead set on provoking him. “Oh, come on,” he scoffs, “Luke had to have made the naughty list.”

Luke playfully lunges at his dad, who catches him and swings him over his own body to let his son land on the floor.

“Nice try,” Eddie says. “But you’ll never beat me.”

When you let out a snort of laughter from where you’re standing, Eddie raises his eyebrows at you.

You innocently raise your shoulders and walk across the hall to Ryan’s room. He’s a bit easier to wake up than his younger brother, though he’s started to fit the teenage stereotype of sleeping in late.

“Oh my God, it snowed! A lot!” you hear Luke shout from his room, which makes you chuckle. “It’s like Antarctica!”

You can practically hear Eddie playfully rolling his eyes. “Yeah, bud. We’ll see a penguin waddle by in a sec.”

Ryan is already awake from all the chaos. He’s slightly grumpy from his unconventional wake-up call, but he smiles as soon as he stumbles into the hallway and scoops Eliza from your arms.

“Merry Christmas, baby sis!” he coos. You notice that his pajamas barely reach his ankles even though you’d only bought them a few weeks ago. “You ready to see what Santa brought this year?”

As anticipated, Eliza says nothing, but you unanimously agree that she’s excited for presents.

The five of you head to the family room to see multiple gift piles under the meticulously decorated tree.

Luke points at the biggest pile near the front, blue eyes wide. “Who’s that for?”

“Eliza,” you tell him as you ruffle his curls. “Mostly from you and Ryan, I’d wager.”

The boys had wanted to spoil their new sister with heaps of presents; you had to continually remind them that she’ll quickly grow out of any clothes and won’t be playing with toys for a few more months. Eddie had to keep reminding them that they were technically spending his money on the baby. He’d found it nearly impossible to say no to them, his heart swelling with pride that he’d raised such thoughtful—if not rambunctious—young men.

Luke and Ryan get down on the floor, while you and Eddie sit down on the couch with the baby.

“So, this is how we do it, Eliza,” Luke tells his sister, as if she will grasp any of what he’s saying. “Ryan picks up a present, reads who it’s to and from, then he gives it to me, and I give it to whoever’s it is.” It’s a tradition they’d started before Luke learned how to read, but it’s stuck throughout the years.

Eliza lets out a few puffs of air that Luke takes as confirmation that she understands.

“She gets me,” he says simply.

“Or,” Eddie teases, “she can’t tell which one of you is Ryan and which one of you is Luke in these ridiculous matching pajamas.”

The four of you take turns opening Eliza’s presents for her. Each time a new one is opened you try to get her attention to show it to her, but she rarely cares. Eddie’s curls start to be more of interest to her than anything anyone else is doing.

Whenever Luke or Ryan open them for her, they get really excited and hype their sister up about whatever it is that she got.

“Wow, Eliza! Look at this dress!” Luke says as he picks it up and shows her. “It has Princess Ariel on it! I bet you’re going to love the princesses.”

“Ooh, Eliza! Look at these!” Ryan shakes the oversized keyring with the pastel-colored plastic keys hanging from it. “You can drive Dad’s car with these.”

“I’d let her drive it before I let either of you two menaces behind the wheel.”

Eventually, Eliza’s pile is depleted, and the boys open their own presents. Ironically, they were more enthused for Eliza’s, though their new Game Boys are an absolute hit. There was eventually a gift that Eliza seemed to be enthralled with though. The only thing that really caught her attention was the shininess of a new watch that Eddie got from Luke. She wanted to put it directly in her mouth, but Eddie stopped her as Luke warned that he wasn’t sure if it was water proof or not.

Once presents are done, Eddie cleans up the variety of wrapping paper while you dress Eliza in her Christmas candy cane outfit. This outfit Eddie picked out. It seemed only fair since you practically forced him into the pajamas.

It’s nap time for Eliza, so you settle her down while the boys go through their new gifts. The clothes they received only got a once over while the toys and video games were more heavily scrutinized.

After Luke makes his rounds through his toys, he notices how much snow has built up on the ground.

“Daaaaad!”

“Whaaaat?” Eddie mimics as he walks in the room.

Luke walks over and gives his dad an over the top smile—a telltale sign that he wants something.

“Wanna go play in the snoooow?”

Eddie pretends to consider the question even though he’s been waiting for one of the boys to ask all day. He’s still a kid at heart and has been dying to get out there and mess around.

“I guess I could go for kicking your asses in a snowball fight.”

“Luke and I can take you, old man!” Ryan says.

“Two against one? Huh. Babe? Wanna come be on my team?”

“Sorry, hot stuff,” you say as you stroll in from the kitchen. “Then who would be here to get little Miss Eliza up from her nap and get her all bundled up for the snow?”

Eddie suddenly looks a bit more serious. “She’s going to have to have a lot of layers.”

“Really? Because I was going to bring her out in just her diaper.” You can’t help but chuckle at Eddie’s protectiveness and lean up to press a kiss to his lips. “Don’t worry. She’ll have so many layers she’ll look like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.”

The three men get all layered up and you get comfortable in a cozy chair near the window with a mug of hot chocolate to watch their shenanigans unfold. The boys go to one side of the yard and start making snowballs while Eddie goes to the other side. Your husband makes a little snow barrier that he can crouch behind before he starts making his snowball supply.

“Teach these kids to call me old,” he mumbles to himself.

Eddie quickly throws a snowball that hits the back of Luke’s head before he ducks back behind his wall. Eddie tries to control his laughter, but it keeps coming out in hot puffs of breath that he can see float away from his mouth.

“What the?!” Luke shouts, looking all around. “How’d he do that?”

Eddie chuckles to himself as he creates more ammunition. These amateurs.

You look on in amusement as the three of them commence in all-out war. Eddie clearly gets the better of them, which you can tell he’s secretly proud of. Or not-so-secretly as he sticks his tongue out at them and taunts them. You’d swear you were the one in this relationship who is older by a decade, not him.

After a while of running around, your sons and husband fall into a pile in the middle of the yard, obviously tired from so much exertion. You giggle as you watch them try and catch their breaths; Luke literally reaching up with his gloved hands to swipe at the condensation his huffing and puffing is causing.

Luke is the first one up and starts tugging on his dad’s coat sleeve to pull him up too. Ryan is the next one up, then finally Eddie. It takes you a couple of minutes to figure out what they’re doing at first. It looks like they’re just moving piles of snow around with no rhyme or reason.

Just as you’ve put together that they’re trying to build an igloo, you hear Eliza’s cries coming from her room. You get up from your warm cocoon on the chair and wander into Eliza’s nursery where she’s whining for attention.

“What’s all the fuss about?” you ask as you scoop her up. “It’s Christmas. Didn’t anyone tell you there’s no crying on Christmas?”

Eliza’s only response is a tiny sneeze that makes you giggle.

“God bless you. Now, let’s see how many layers of clothes we can put on you before you’re as good as bubble wrapped.”

When you open the back door, both you and your daughter bundled up tightly against the cold, the igloo looks like it had some architectural issues. Eddie pushes himself off the ground and comes over to the two of you.

“Look at my girls. So cute in all your layers.” He presses a kiss to your nose, which gives you a shiver.

“Your lips are freezing!” you exclaim, scrunching your face.

“What do you expect?” Eddie asks with a laugh. “Igloo construction is very serious work that can only be done in these dire weather conditions.”

A few snowflakes fall onto Eliza’s pale pink coat, and she blinks at them in confusion before they melt away.

“How is the construction crew doing?” you ask, nodding to the boys and their building, snow stuck to their gloves like Velcro.

“Some structural problems,” Eddie shrugs. “Definitely inhabitable, but I don’t have the heart to break it to them.” He brushes his gloves onto his jacket and holds his arms out towards Eliza. “Come here, you.”

He takes her, snuggling her to his chest, and walks over to where the boys are working tirelessly. Crouching down, he lets Eliza’s legs hang down so her booted up little feet are on the snowy ground.

“Hey, ‘Liza,” Luke chirps. “We’re making a house out of snow.”

“It’s not going too well,” Ryan adds under his breath.

His brother scowls. “She doesn’t know that!” he hisses.

Eliza’s eyes track the snowflakes falling down around her.

“You like the snow, huh?” Eddie asks her, kissing the tiniest sliver of exposed forehead beneath her fuzzy hood.

A chunk of the attempted igloo comes off in Ryan’s hands and he lets out a defeated sigh. “You wanna try some snow?” he asks Eliza just as you walk over to join them. He breaks off the snow into a small chunk and holds it up near Eliza’s lips. She only stares at it for a second before Eddie helps her lean in and she opens her mouth, just as she does when she’s trying to eat.

The moment the coldness touches her lips, Eliza turns her head and curls her hands towards her face, making the rest of you laugh.

“Cold, huh?” Ryan chuckles, tossing aside the snow that Eliza hasn’t consumed.

“All right,” Eddie says as he stands up, shifting his daughter in his arms. “I don’t know about you boys, but my butt is pretty numb. What do you say we head inside?”

Both boys whine, even though you can tell by their chattering teeth that they’re getting a bit cold themselves.

“How’s hot chocolate sound?” you add.

That gets both boys up and headed towards the back door. Eddie walks ahead of you with Eliza, and you shuffle towards him so you can whisper in his ear.

“If you can’t feel your ass, maybe I could feel it for you?” Your lips curl into a smirk.

Eddie turns to face you. “Why, Mrs. Munson, how very naughty of you.” His kiss lingers in a way that tells you to expect a special gift the moment you two are truly alone.

It takes a few minutes for everyone to peel off their wet clothes. Eddie and Ryan work on throwing the snow-soaked pants and socks into the dryer while you recruit Luke to help a freshly warmed Eliza into her swing in the living room so you can make hot chocolate.

Luke buckles the straps over Eliza’s red and white outfit and turns the swing on the lowest setting. It gently sways her back and forth from left to right, which is usually her favorite thing in the world, but her tiny cries warn that she is not amused.

“Hey, what’s the whining about?” Luke asks, frowning at his fussy sister.

Eliza squeals and throws her little arms up as much as she’s able to as though purposely acting in defiance.

Luke immediately springs into action. “No, no!” He scrambles for an idea. “Here, watch me, Eliza!”

He starts to do an overexaggerated jig in front of her and sings I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.

“I want a hippopotamus for Christmas. Only a hippopotamus will do. I don't want a doll, no dinky Tinkertoy. I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy!”

Eliza stops her crying and just stares at her older brother as he continues his impromptu performance.

“I can see me now on Christmas morning, creeping down the stairs. Oh, what joy and what surprise. When I open up my eyes to see my hippo hero standing there!”

Watching the mini concert from the kitchen, you notice that Eliza is mesmerized by her brother; the look on her face reads, “what the hell are you doing?”, but you’re not going to question whatever it is that’s quieted her down—even if it means being subjected to one of the most irritating holiday songs in existence.

“I want a hippopotamus for Christmas. Only a hippopotamus will do. No crocodiles, or rhinoceroseses. I only like hippopotamuseses. And hippopotamuses like me too!”

Successfully distracted, the baby makes spit bubbles and flaps her arms. Luke feels that he’s done his job, and he gives a small bow.

Luke finishes imagining the applause his baby sister so obviously wants to give him when Eddie comes into the living room carrying two mugs full of steaming hot chocolate.

“Hey, Timberlake. Here’s your drink.”

You and Ryan are right behind him as you carefully balance your own drinks, giggling at each other as you check on one another’s progress from the corner of your eyes. It’s almost a game to see if one of you will spill a few drops before the other.

Luke plops down in the chair you had been sitting in while watching the boys outside and Ryan settles in on the loveseat. You take advantage of your husband sitting alone on the couch to cuddle up to his side. Eddie settles one arm over your shoulders and brings his Metallica mug to his lips with his other hand. Taking care to hold your “Meowy Christmas” mug dotted in adorable kittens in both of your hands, you rest your head on his shoulder. Your eyes admire the cup that Luke gave you last year for Christmas before they drift over to your daughter comfortably rocking in her swing.

Her large eyes move from family member to family member, as if wondering what you’re all doing. You imagine her holding her own little mug-shaped bottle to join in with the rest of you and you let out a soft giggle at the thought.

“What, baby?” Eddie asks softly.

“Nothing,” you say with a shake of your head. “Just look at our little girl. Watching all of us.”

Eddie smiles when he looks over and his daughter’s gaze locks on his. He feels as if one more ounce of happiness was pumped into his heart it would explode. The room is still and quiet, but Eliza continues to look on as the four of you warm up by drinking the confectionary delight.

By the time the four of you have emptied your mugs, Eliza is fast asleep in her swing. Eddie presses a kiss to your temple, and you take his empty cup as he rises to his feet. He walks over, slowly stops the rocking, and scoops Eliza up. She lets out a little sigh as Eddie resituates her in his arms; her classic sign of contentment when she knows she’s safe in her daddy’s care. He carries the sleeping infant into her room and lays her down in her crib.

“Sweet dreams, sweet pea.”

An hour later, the buzzer rings.

Wayne’s on the other side of the door, two pizza boxes in hand. Since Eliza is still so little and requires almost all of your energy, there isn’t a fancy meal this year, but no one seems to mind.

The Munson patriarch sets the food on the table, opening the boxes to reveal pepperoni & green peppers atop each pie. “Christmas colors,” he announces proudly.

Eddie pops a Christmas album into the CD player as you all gather around the table and eat. By some miracle, Luke and Ryan manage to take their slices without fighting over the bigger one, and you thank your lucky stars.

No sooner do you sit down and lift your own slice to your lips, Eliza’s cry bleats through the baby monitor. You instinctively start to stand, but Wayne puts a gentle hand out to stop you.

“I got it,” he assures you, walking into the room where Eliza lays in her crib.

“You’re the cutest candy cane I’ve ever seen!” you hear him exclaim as he lifts her to carry her back out to the kitchen.

He takes his seat next to Luke, who holds his slice in the baby’s direction, a glob of sauce plopping onto the floor.

“Eliza, you want some pizza?” He pretends to bring it to her mouth before he pulls back and cackles. “Aahh, just kidding!”

The tiny baby manages to stay awake for the entirety of dinner, but by the end of dessert, she’s starting to get cranky again.

When it’s time to clear the table, Eddie stands up and stretches his arms high over his head. And so what if your gaze drifted to the pale expanse of his stomach that it showed?

“Come on, men,” Eddie says. “Let’s get this place looking ship-shaped.”

“You sure you weren’t the one in the military?” Wayne asks with a husky laugh. He hands you the baby who is only getting fussier by the second.

“I think it’s time for some jammies,” you say as you hold her against your chest. Her whines and whimpers in return sound like a disagreement, so you can only imagine what her backtalk will be like when she can speak.

“Not fair,” Luke says with a huff as you move to leave the dining room. You turn around and raise an eyebrow at him.

“What’s not fair?” you ask.

“You don’t have to clean,” he says as he picks up the bowl of mashed potatoes that is now so empty it looks as if it’s been licked clean. It wouldn’t surprise you if it was, honestly.

“Do you want to try and get Miss Crankypants into her pajamas? Then to bed?” you ask.

“No,” Luke admits with a groan and brings the empty dishes into the kitchen.

“That’s what I thought,” you say to Eliza as you carry her down the hall to her room.

It’s time for the annual tradition of watching Charlie Brown’s Christmas, but Eliza still hasn’t gone to sleep. You’re not sure how long you’ve been trying to soothe her to sleep, but it feels like it’s been hours. You tell the guys to start watching it without you as you start to walk throughout the house with your fussy daughter in your arms. The rocking motion of walking tends to have a calming effect on her. Hasn’t worked so far, but it’s worth another shot.

“Come on, sweetie,” you beg her. “You had a big day. You must be so tired.”

She continues her protests, so you hold her closer to your chest, her green elf pajamas soft in your hands. On your fourth lap of the house, you pass by the living room again but there’s music coming from the television this time.

Eliza stops her fussing at the sound. The scene ends and Eliza starts to act up again, so you take another lap around the house. Once more back at the living room, there’s music and again she calms down.

“Hmm…” you hum to yourself.

Testing your theory, you sit at the edge of the couch and keep your firm hold on Eliza. The music continues as Eliza calms all the way down. This time, she’s calmed enough that you can sit back on the couch and enjoy the show with your family. Every time a scene with music comes on, Eliza gets happier and even gives you a smile that you’re pretty sure had nothing to do with gas.

“You like the music, huh?” you ask your daughter softly.

“Making her daddy proud,” Eddie says, throwing a wink your way.

Not much later, Eliza falls asleep, and it allows you to watch the rest of the program with your family. When it’s time for bed, the boys each get up and press a soft kiss to their sister’s forehead. Once they’ve gone to brush their teeth, you bring Eliza into her room, Eddie right behind you. You gently lay her down and Eddie snakes his arms around your waist from behind. Both of you look down at your daughter, her little pink lips parted as her chest moves up and down with her steady breathing. The soft downy hairs on her head are starting to get a curl to them and you smile at the thought of her having hair like your husband.

Eddie presses a kiss to your cheek and rests his chin on your shoulder so he can look down at the sleeping girl as well.

“We made a cute baby,” Eddie says softly.

“The cutest,” you agree.

#eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x y/n #older!eddie #dad!eddie #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson fan fiction #eddie munson fic #AYW #AYWS

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harbinger-0f-spring · 2 months ago

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For the past month I've been working with @konstantynowitz in making family trees for our original characters within the hp universe. As of late, we've gotten pretty far in the development of the families working together. I'd already said in a post I made this afternoon that I have been assigned the Rosier branch of this tree and intend to expand on it the best I can. This collaboration will definitely not be a fast process, but in time we hope to complete the entirety of this tree and fill in a couple blanks for you guys to get the full picture of what Konstantyn and I have created together. Right now, there are a few missing pieces within the Rosier branch, but in the next few weeks I plan to complete it. In this tree, I've added a few new ocs into the family. I will go over a few names with you in this post, as well as give you a glimpse into the tree itself.

From the sneak peak Konstantyn had posted recently about the English branch of the Lestrange family, some of you might've already seen part of the Black family's side of the tree. Let's just say that the Blacks will be the last tree Konstantyn and I work on together as it has the most members, but right now my main focus will be on the Rosiers, which are featured on the right side of the tree.

The Rosiers were a wealthy and influential pure-blood family and allies of Grindelwald from the late 1920s to the late 1940s. At the top of the family tree are Eglantine Rosier (née Volant) and Laurent Rosier, both loyal acolytes of Gellert Grindelwald. Eglantine and Laurent are the parents of Druella Black (née Rosier) and Étienne Rosier, who is Konstantyn's version of Rosier Sr., a classmate of Tom Riddle. In addition to Druella and Étienne, I have created my own Rosier sibling, Céléase, who is the youngest of the bunch.

Here are the children's birth dates in order:

Étienne Rosier - b. 1926

Druella Rosier - b. 1932

Céléase Rosier - b. 1934

Laurent Rosier was born in France within the year 1903 and was the younger brother of Vinda Rosier, Grindelwald's most faithful servant. Around the 1930s, Laurent was imprisoned by the French Ministry when he was found guilty of financially supporting Grindelwald and his Alliance. By 1936, he was released with the support of many prominent pure-blood socialites who were either close acquaintances of Rosier, or close friends that all shared in his ideals. The charges against Laurent were dropped and shortly after this incident he moved his family to Great Britain.

If you'd like to know more about Laurent's involvement with Grindelwald and his followers then you can pop into the inbox of @konstantynowitz since he is their oc.

There are a few blanks regarding the earlier members of the Rosier family, which is something I am going to be working on later. As of now, I don't have names for the parents of Eglantine Volant or her husband. In spite of this, I have made progress on Eglantine's maternal line which consists of the noble Trefle-Picques family that hold a French Dukedom within their bloodline, and the Escoffier-Floquent family (a wizarding family of my own making).

I have nothing much else to share about the Rosier family itself, but I have been branching off a bit into the French side of the Lestrange family and have connected both lines through Minette Rosier. In this tree, I've made Minette the great-great-aunt of Vinda and Laurent, which would make their father (who is currently unnamed) third cousins with Leta Lestrange.

I know that it’s still a little bare, but I am going to keep working on building it up and will post updates with @konstantynowitz so that we can show the progress we are making with all of this. I would understand if some people may still have questions because not everything that I’ve introduced about the Rosiers was explained in this post. I’m open to hear anyone’s thoughts or questions about anything so feel free to message me anytime.

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harbinger-0f-spring · 2 months ago

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a mutual of mine has given me permission to help on this family tree. I’ve been assigned the Rosier branch and will be helping to expand on it, adding my own ocs into the mix as well as the original creator’s. I’m looking forward to working with @konstantynowitz in this project. If anyone has questions about this tree please message me!

the families will mostly focus on tom riddle’s generation so this is all new territory for me since my blog is dedicated to the marauders era. please bear with me on this because I’m just beginning to get introduced to this part of the hp universe.

I’ve gotten a few asks requesting for family trees to be made for some of my ocs. I started working on these in early September but it’s all still just a work in progress so bear with me. It isn’t much at the moment but I hope to expand on a couple branches of these trees in the near future.

Firstly, here we have a glimpse into what my version of the Lestrange family looks like. As you can see there are a few unnamed members, but within the next few weeks I’ll be looking for names to put in these empty spaces. Obviously, we already have the French side of the Lestrange family tree revealed, but my main focus will be on the English side.

The earliest members of the English side of the Lestrange family were R. and F. Lestrange, although they do not seem to be in any of the movies or books. Instead their first mention is made within a video game where their names “R. Le.S.” and “F. L.eS.” appear to be written on boxes of treasure inside the Lestrange family vault at Gringotts. Although it is not revealed whether or not R. Lestrange is in fact Radolphus Lestrange, we’re just going to assume that he is for the sake of the tree and that F. Lestrange was his wife.

Next up we have Dagmar Lestrange and her husband. Dagmar, who I’ve originally introduced as ‘Madame Lestrange’, is the mother of Radolphus Lestrange II, my own version of Lestrange Sr. I don’t know whether or not I want to keep her name as Dagmar but for now that’s what I’m going to stick with. For the moment, I don’t have a maiden name for her, so that’ll also be something that I’ll have to think on.

Here is a quick Google search of her name’s meaning if you are interested. I like how one of the meanings is “mother” since basically her only sole purpose within the Lestrange family was to be the mother to the heir of her husband’s bloodline. But another reason why I like the meaning is because of her dedication to her children, especially Gisela who was her heart. When Dagmar’s daughter died it was like her heart was ripped right out of her chest and she lived the rest of her life without it.

Originally in the past I’ve said that Radolphus was an only child, which is kinda true after the time he was probably around six or seven. But really he does have a younger sister who I’ve revealed in a previous post. Gisela Lestrange was born in 1932, she is the only daughter of Madame Lestrange and her husband, and brought great joy to her mother. When she was four-years-old, she contracted Cerebrumous Spattergroit and passed away, which utterly devastated Dagmar.

For those who aren’t aware, this is what Cerebrumous Spattergroit is within the Harry Potter universe. I don’t know if whether or not this illness was fatal as it seems that it is something that people have recovered from, but I’m going to assume that back in the 1930s there was a higher fatality rate since there wasn’t much to treat it at the time. From what I’ve read, there isn’t a known cure for Cerebrumous Spattergroit.

Moving on from the Lestrange side of things, we now have Tasoula “Tasja” Shafiq and her parents. As I mentioned before in previous posts, Tasoula is an oc of mine who I made to be the wife of Radolphus Lestrange II. She is the fourth of five children and the only daughter of Aykut Shafiq and Letitia Greengrass. Through her mother, she inherited the Greengrass family’s blood malediction which would end up contributing to her death in or around the year 1973. Tasoula was betrothed to Radolphus a year after the death of Gisela, and although her future mother-in-law was hesitant to accept this, Dagmar knew that she’d be getting a new daughter the moment her son’s marriage to Tasoula was official.

As shown above Tasoula had three children with Radolphus:

Rodolphus Lestrange — b. 1949

Rabastan Lestrange — b. 1953

Renissa Lestrange — b. 1962

For anyone who has questions about the blood malediction itself, it only passes through the female descendants of the Greengrass family, so none of the males are at risk of getting it, but their daughters are. So both Rodolphus and Rabastan do not have the blood curse themselves, but if they were to have daughters then they would probably inherit it. As for Renissa since she is Tasoula’s only daughter, she did in fact become a carrier for the curse, but she herself did not suffer from the malediction since it skips generations.

As of right now, I don’t have much on either Aykut or Letitia. If anyone was wondering how Letitia was related to Scorpius Malfoy and his mother Astoria Greengrass, I currently don’t have an official relation between the two families, but for now let’s just say that Letitia is Astoria’s grandfather’s sister. So that would make Astoria and her sister Daphne the great-nieces of Letitia Greengrass.

The Black family’s side of the tree is a bit of a mess right now. I don’t have all members on here yet and I think that’ll probably take me a while to get done since the last time I did a tree like this it almost took me three hours to finish. I kinda just want to go through the process of making this family tree slowly so that there as little inaccuracies as possible.

This is what I have so far, and although you can’t see it yet there is a small portion of the Rosier family cut off from the image. I’ll be doing another post showing more of the tree soon, but this is what I’ve gotten to so far. As you can see, I don’t have anyone from Cygnus’ side recorded here yet, but trust me there’s more to be revealed in the coming days.

If anyone has any questions about the trees or people in them please feel free to ask!

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tina-aumont · 2 years ago

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More on Maria II: She is of Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch-Jewish and indigenous descent. Her paternal grandfather Isidoro Gracia y García was from Garafía, La Palma, Canary Islands. Her maternal grandfather scientist Luís Artístides Fiallo was of Portuguese descent. Her maternal great-grandfather, writer Federico Henríquez y Carvajal was the son of Noel Henríquez Altías, a Dutch Sephardic Jew from Curaçao, and Clotilde Carvajal Fernández, a woman of Taíno descent. She's so cool!

Wow thank again for these tips!!!

Yes, I think María Montez II is really cool, lots of mixed blood and beautiful roots, this is just simply great.

Thank again for your great help!!

It's much appreciated ^^

Eleni

#ask #ask me #ask me anything #María Montez II #Maria Montez II #María Montez Gracia Fiallo #Maria Montez Gracia Fiallo #María Montez II ancestors #MAría Montez II ancestry #María Montez II bloodline #María Montez II family tree #collaboration

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specialagentartemis · 1 year ago

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Citizen Science and Contributing To Scientific Endeavor When You're Not "A Scientist"

Comments on some of my posts about science and misinformation express frustration with scientific establishments, and want to see more accessibility and attention given to amateurs participating in the scientific process and having their scientific voices heard.

If being involved in the creation of knowledge and discovery is something important to you, that's something I strongly encourage! It's absolutely possible. Amateur researchers with a passion and an eye for detail have made some fantastic discoveries - but what is often glossed over in stories like these are the years of work, the patient dedication, and the collaboration with university researchers that often underlie such discoveries.

The search for truth and information and the passion for science is present in a lot of people who aren't official "scientists" - curiosity is natural! And if participation in scientific observation, hypothesizing, experimentation, and discovering new things about the world is important to you, there are lots of ways to go about contributing - and the new year is a great time to start.

What are you interested in?

Ecology

Observing the world around you is for everybody. Getting invested in the environment of your hometown is for everybody. And, as the Mythbusters famously said,

Some ideas for a local ecology project:

Record the temperature outside every day at the same time - at sunrise, or noon, or sunset, or midnight. Depending on where you are, the local weather recording station may be miles away or on top of a mountain - measure the temperature yourself and compare it each day to what your app says. When is it accurate? When isn't it?

Record the weather every day. How much precipitation? What time of day? What kind?

Record what animals you see every day, where, when, and how many. Or choose a specific animal, like birds, or bees on flowers, or turtles or frogs in a local pond, or whiptail lizards vs. invasive house geckos, and record the numbers you see each day.

Record when in the year you see the first, or last, of a plant or animal. When the crocuses sprout, when the buds appear on the maple trees, when you see the first clover flowers or prickly pear flowers, when the first robin comes out or the first lizards come out of hibernation.

If you have an outdoor cat or a free-roaming dog, attach a GoPro or similar small camera to its collar to see where it goes and what it does.

Identify the plants growing in your neighborhood, and check in on it regularly to keep track of how each one fares in different weather conditions, or if any animals particularly like or don't like to eat it.

Bulk order some test strips, then take a small sample of soil from a local park or water from a local waterway each weekend and test them for PH, lead, chemicals, or whatever. See if it changes over the year, or after a heavy rainfall, or during drought.

Take a photo of the same spot every day for a year.

Linguistics

The study of how people use language! Everybody uses language in some capacity.

Do you have any small children near you? Talk to them! Record how they pronounce things and what they call new (or even familiar) concepts. Look for patterns.

Ask people you know if "dog" and "blog" rhyme, or if "Alohop" is a good pun for a pineapple beer. My family gets ENDLESS amounts of mileage out of this one with each other. Ask people you know questions about how they pronounce things, or what they call things. Make maps of dialectical differences between generations, neighborhoods, etc. Track linguistic shifts in the modern world.

History

Everyone and everywhere has a history, and accurate history is pressingly relevant always.

See if you have a local historical society, library archive, or history museum that is looking for volunteers to transcribe or translate collections.

Get elbow-deep in local archives. You likely have some sort of local archive near you that has not been fully digitized. Go in with a topic you want to learn about - Black families, Jewish communities, how your hometown transferred from Indigenous hands to settler ones, women who owned their own businesses, immigration, inter-racial relationships, sports, ice harvesting, farming practices, contemporary opinions on a major world history event that now seems so inevitable, sports and people's reactions to sports - and read everything in newspapers, wills, deeds, photographs, or other available records about your topic of choice. See if you can find connections that you haven't seen anyone else talking about.

These are just some things that occur to me immediately as something that anyone can do, if you're sufficiently interested in a question and want to discover more about it. The more local your topic, the less likely anyone has a solid answer to whatever you're wondering - and the more immediately relevant to the people around you your discoveries may be!

Combining it with a New Year's Resolution can also get you more motivated to do the things you want to do. Is your resolution to get more exercise? Take a brisk walk each morning and take a picture of the same area every day for a year. Take a walk every weekend down to the lake and count the turtles and frogs you see. Is your resolution to keep a daily diary For Real This Time? If nothing else, resolve to write down the weather and precipitation each day! Do you want to volunteer more or meet new people? Look for citizen science or local history groups! Feeling like you're working toward something Real is a great motivator.

Henry David Thoreau's detailed descriptions of the nature each day around Walden Pond in the 1840s provides a valuable benchmark for modern ecologists to compare environmental and climatic changes since then on a granular level. Silly rhyming poems and idiosyncratic spellings in letters and diaries help linguists track dialectical and pronunciation changes across time. Amateur science is great and valuable! We all can have a part in understanding and paying deeper attention to the world around us, if we want to.

#been sitting on this one for a while ever since I kept getting comments on my post about misinformation about how scientists are all #ivory tower eggheads who don't allow real normal people to Contribute to Science #Please contribute to science! I think everyone who wants to should!!!#science #citizen science

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