#familiar of zero

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Tale of the Cursed Raven -- Author’s Notes & Afterthoughts

The full series:

Part 1 I Part 2I Part 3 I Part 4 I Part 5 I Part 6 I Part 7 I Part 8 | Part 9 I Part 10 I Part 11 I Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20

Miss Raven sketch is by shimmeryspark!

Well, it’s been quite the journey but we’ve finally made it to the end of ✨ Raven’s origin saga ✨. It was such a wild experience to write it all and hear your feedback for each installment. I hope that you all enjoyed reading it as much as I loved creating it... and I hope that it sheds more light on why Raven is the way she is.

Now that the series is done, I’m feeling really nostalgic about it (maybe it’s Mis Raven’s enchanted inks working their magic on me)💦 so I wanted to relive the memories a little, and share some of the feelings, insights, and thoughts I had before, during, and after writing the saga.

If you’re interested in reading that, it’ll all be below the cut for your convenience.

“May those who accept their fate be granted happiness, may those who defy their fate be granted glory.” — Edel, Princess Tutu (2002)

The Origins

I’ve always loved stories—more specifically, fairy tales. When I was little, they’d always be on my mind. Actually, they still are to this very day. If I wasn’t reading them, I’d be watching them or thinking about them, making theories and spinning stories of my own.

I loved the fantastical elements, the whimsy of magic and talking animals, the witches and the monsters, the royals and the warriors that protected them... I loved it all. That childhood love of fairy tales followed me into adolescence and adulthood. That’s really where this all began.

Of course, I gravitated towards media that prominently featured elements of, or borrowed from, fairy tales. This would lead me to the rabbit hole that is Twisted Wonderland 😷 (you all knew this was coming). Due to the blank slate nature of the game’s protagonist, Yuu, TWST was ripe for an OC community to crop up.

I saw a lot of unique characters in the fandom, so I wanted to create a character too. However, no matter how hard I tried, I struggled to develop a “Yuu” that I was satisfied with. At times, I even felt uncomfortable because I felt I was either putting too much of myself into “Yuu”, or not enough. It was then that I realized I would have much more fun making a character based on a preexisting story. A theme, a concept—they’d all be pre-set for me, and I could let my imagination run wild from those.

I didn’t want to adapt a character from a Disney movie (say, the Mad Hatter or King Triton). While I had seen many cool interpretations made by other people, I didn’t want to limit myself to personalities and character traits that were already determined by the movies or stories for me. I started looking into fairy tales themselves, looking for a character or a concept vague enough for me to base my OC on—and I found it in the wording of a riddle from Alice in Wonderland.

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

It captured the spirit of whimsy I wanted to evoke in the OC. Ah, but there's also an underlying sadness and dread to her character. It's mostly Alice in Wonderland with a whisper of Edgar Allen Poe.

And thus, Raven was born.

Tsunderes — but why???

At first glance, you might look at Raven and label her personality as “tsundere”. It’s a popular trope in Japanese media where a character that is initially cold and harsh shows or develops a warm, friendlier side over time. One problem that I’ve always had with the tsundere archetype is that the media that employ it rarely, if ever, explain the reasoning for why a character is a tsundere. More often than not, tsunderes are used to comedic effect nowadays, with the tsundere characters acting violent towards their supposed love interests—and that’s something that has never really sat well with me. I don’t think that’s necessarily good writing, but I won’t fault the people who do enjoy that kind of thing. I personally prefer it when we get to know the characters and the reasoning behind their personalities and decisions more. Character-driven storytelling is my jam.

Familiar of Zero’s Louise lacks the magical power to back up her noble lineage, and she has an inferiority complex as a result of that. Toradora’s Taiga has a complex family situation which has left her distrustful of others. When writing Raven, I didn’t want her to fall into the trap of “no explanation” tsundere. I wanted to outline a clear reason for why her personality is “hot and cold”, like Louise and Taiga. Even more than that, I wanted Raven’s reason to line up with the concepts of “freedom” and “expression” that tie with her bird and storytelling motifs.

And so, her story started taking shape in my head. (If you want to read more specifics on my thought process, I’d check out this post. I also talk more about the concepts behind her there.)

Her Magic

I wanted to tie in her personality and philosophy into her unique magic too. After all, it's a spell that defines who she is as an individual. In the beginning, Raven was excited about the prospect of writing, as it would help her comes to understand others--however, she struggles to come to grips with their emotions and keeps holding herself at a distance. Only when she empathizes with her characters and with the people around her does her unique magic come into fruition. With it, she can see into others' hearts and rewrite their feelings--that is, if her willpower and coaxing can convince them to.

I didn't want Raven to be a particularly gifted magic user; she's someone that had to work hard to come into her own. I think of her humanoid form as something still awkward and developing, which sometimes interferes with her spellcasting. What really makes Raven shine is her determination, and the strong imagination that pairs with it. All she truly lacks is the ambition and the confidence, things that I hoped would be honed at Night Raven College.

The Characters for the Series

Initially, I wanted to feature a much larger cast of characters. At some point, I was ambitious enough to think I could somehow include every NRC student in the plot... but thank goodness I realized that just wasn’t feasible. I saw the narrative mess that happened whenever a creative piece tried to get too many characters involved. It just made it hard to keep track of and care about anyone on an individual level. Sometimes, it also distracted from the central themes and conflict. Now, that’s not to say that Raven has never canonically engaged with other characters (because she definitely has)! It’s just that those interactions aren’t as important to this story, so I left them out of it.

In hindsight, I’m so glad that I kept the core cast (up to a certain point) small. That way, I could dedicate more of my time writing each of their individual thoughts and emotions. Raven remains the main character throughout, while Rook, Crowley, Jade, and, to some extent, Azul, Floyd, and Octa A, are secondary characters. Idia, Vil, Epel, the Fates, etc., are very much tertiary characters that showed up a few times total 😂 but they all played their parts and still contributed the overall story.

A character that was introduced in part 6 was the timid but well-meaning Octavinelle A-kun (whose name is Kon, like konbu, or Japense kelp). He was actually included as a gag character because I couldn’t think of someone from the main cast for the role he ended up filling. I unintentionally got attached to Kon and decided to bring him back later in the story, because I guess I like the irony of a mob character that lacks eyes having more screen time than two Dorm Leaders (Vil and Idia). I think the inclusion of Kon also really helped the themes of the story, because, in a meta way, he’s like Raven. He’s a “background character” who ended up having time in the spotlight (and even earned himself a small but dedicated fan following), which proves that it’s possible for Raven, who also sees herself as a “background character”, to ascend and become a “main character”.

Speaking of semi-original characters, I also had fun doing my interpretation of the Fates in part 10. I doubt that’s what they’re like in canon and watch TWST prove me wrong, but it was super fun to write regardless of that. I think my favorite thing about them was how they bicker when they’re out of the public eye, but it was also interesting to come up with their idol poses and phrases.

The cast noticeably expands around part 15, and that was a very purposeful move on my end. Raven has had her revelation then, as well as a stronger understanding of how her unique magic works. Art that point, the story shifts from Raven being on the outside looking in to the characters witnessing her tale unfold. It's to indicate that Raven has finally properly begun integrating herself with the stories that she has always isolated herself from. Characters that have previously had smaller roles before (Vil, Idia, Azul) return for a reprise and to add their own context to what's happening now, and the characters never previously mentioned (Lilia, Riddle, Kalim, Leona) give their perspectives as people who had no direct involvement. I wanted to show the shades of familiarity that they have with what Raven's been up to on her lonesome, and how these different kinds of relationships and points of view are all important when looking at a story.

I was very excited to introduce the Enchantress (Estella) as an onlooker that has a tenacious history with Lilia; she's an original character I've been working on and hiding in the shadows until her first appearance late in this saga. Estella is a very complex person, whom I would describe as a mix of the Enchantress (Beauty and the Beast), Giselle (in both Enchanted and Disenchanted), Isabela (Encanto), Frollo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), Mother Gothel (Tangled) and Fairy Godmother (Shrek 2). She gives... "tough love", but often acts in morally self-righteous and self-important ways, believing that it is for the "own good" of the people she becomes entangled with. Sadly, I was not able to go into her own background and motives, but someday I'd really like to!

The Plot of the Series

There’s a lot that you don’t see that goes into writing. I went through several iterations of Tale of the Cursed Raven, especially with the rising action and climax. You should see my writing drafts--there’s no rhyme or reason to them! You might see some bullet points to show a sequence of events, but the rest of the document is just random lines or ideas I think would “sound cool” that I just scribbled down while on the bus or something.

When I write a story, I usually know how I want things to begin and how I want them to end, and I have trouble filling in everything that’s in between. I usually took large chunks of time between the release of each installment to review information from the previous part and make sure the continuity carried over to the part I was currently writing.

It was also common for me to write, rewrite, and rewrite the parts again several times over before I actually put it to the public. Sometimes I would almost be done with an installment, and I’d delete it all and start over because I thought of something much better. I’d be irritated with myself in the moment for wasting all that time and hard work, but I think it ended up working out.

sadibasudbad Okay, I want to talk about some of the plot points that I scrapped, because some of them were actually interesting... They just took the story nowhere or caused issues with other things I had planned, so I had to drop them 😅

After Jade’s betrayal is revealed in part 3, I was going to have Raven become Azul’s business rival. Not in the restaurant sense, but more like she would offer similar “wish fulfillment” services as Azul, mostly because she needs something to do to keep herself positive. Her services were going to be called “Fairy Godmothering” and involved sending wishes on slips of paper in little black boxes she placed all over campus. However, she’d probably need a lot of help or strong magic to make that happen, neither of which really applies to her. I guess the tradeoff would have been that Azul offers more but asks for a price, whereas Raven offers less but works for free. She’d write stories as kind of a “road map” or “plan” for how she would personally fulfill her a wish, as opposed to Azul’s contracts, and which required a mutual agreement to the terms. I also didn’t know where to take the story after this point was introduced, so it had to go.

Part 8 was originally going to open with Raven and Riddle having a tea party and catching up. Floyd was going to emerge from some rose bushes with Cater and Trey chasing after him 😂 and Floyd was going to kidnap Raven from there for the boat scene with Jade. Like I mentioned before, I decided to cut this out to keep the number of characters the story had relatively short. (Plus, I guess Floyd would have had to run a shorter distance to the lake if Raven was already in the forest area than if she were all the way in Heartslabyul?)

There was a large hiatus between part 10 and part 11, because a lot of rewrites had to happen for the latter half of the series. Part 11 in particular went through several different versions—one of which would involve Prince Rielle visiting NRC for a magift game and knocking Raven out cold with the frisbee. Because Raven didn’t remember the face of the “prince” that saved her from drowning when she was a bird, I was going to have her mistake Rielle as that “prince” (similar to how Eric mistook Ursula/Vanessa for Ariel). Djsbsjsbshs But I already took a huge chance by writing my interpretation of the Fates, so I didn’t want to also do my interpretation of Rielle in case TWST gives us more details about him later. Rielle is based on a Disney princess, so I thought it was more likely that he got more details revealed about him over of the Fates, and I didn’t want to make my series too reliant on headcanons or unconfirmed information about a character we haven’t even seen yet.

Finally (and this is the biggest change of all), parts 10 through 20 were originally going to be heavily focused on action and adventure. Raven was going leave NRC in search of the Enchantress (who originally cursed the Storyteller several years go) and ask her to lift the curse, and the Enchantress was going to send her on a series of heroic quests to prove that she is “worthy”. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought the scale was too grand 💦 At the end of the day, Raven is just a bird trying to be a normal human girl... and I wanted her development to be more of a traditional coming of age story instead of a literal hero’s journey where she confronts dragons and saves villages. Something more down-to-earth makes her more relatable, so I went with that route instead of the action-adventure one.

I don’t know if you noticed, but the saga happens alongside the events of the main story (as some main story events, such as Overblots, are referenced). The last 5ish parts happen around the transition from the Ignihyde arc to the Diasomnia arc, sooo... :)) You can think what you like about whether Raven’s happy ending is reality or a dream conjured up by Malleus~

I argued with myself a lot while writing the series, especially about the ending. I had a lot of my friends (and readers, too) telling me “you’d better not kill Raven” and “Raven and Jade should kiss and make up/date each other at the end” (some of which came true, some of which didn’t). I was so conflicted at the time because while I never intended to kill Raven, it was clear that my audience was expecting a perfect “happily ever after”... and I didn’t know if such a conclusion would fit the overall tone of the series. I think what I ended up doing was satisfactory, though. It’s happy, but not overly so, and it keeps the door open for future shenanigans in a light-hearted and hopeful way. I think leaving it open-ended like this suits the theme of the saga and Miss Raven's struggle to find her freedom.

Raven’s Growth and Development

Raven has come so far.

The saga here is written kind of like “oh, this is her main story”, but it’s meant to be supplemented by “vignettes” and “event stories” (ie all the side content of Raven which fleshes out her relationships with other characters). The idea is that all her experiences at NRC helped her to develop her own sense of self, and granted her the confidence to fly in the face of her own fate, which she was once so hopeless about. When I look back on the last few years, I’m amazed at how much of it there is, whether produced by myself, by friends, or by fans. It’s really humbling that I get to share this journey with you all.

Raven used to be scared and shy, a timid bird with little to no understanding of the world, or of the creatures in it. Then she picked up a quill, ink, and paper—and a whole new world opened up to her. Her story is one of how freedom of self expression and creative works can connect us not only with others, but with ourselves. Because of that, Raven was able to grow and become a much more mature person (with the support of her friends and family, of course)!

Just because the saga is over doesn’t mean Raven is suddenly perfect, though. She still very much struggles to be emotionally expressive and honest with her feelings of affection (since she has gone so long burying those), so she’s still got a long way to go in that regard 💦 She also has some lingering self-esteem issues that she’s got to work on. Raven’s always changing...! Always willing to learn! Jade and Rook, please help her—

When people read Tale of the Cursed Raven, I don’t want them to “just see it as a love story” or “TWST OC x TWST Boy” fanfiction 💦 because the focus isn’t just on romance, but on Raven discovering herself, and her voice, in a world that once confused and scared her. It’s not just a story about finding love, it’s also about a girl growing up, gaining confidence, finding new family and friends to support her... It’s a lot of things, and I feel that it’s doing the saga a disservice by calling it just a love story.

I’ve mentioned this a few times before, but while Raven is not meant to be a self-insert character, I feel that her struggles are very relatable and I hope that you, too, can see some part of yourself in her and her journey. A lot of the writing process involved me analyzing and coming to terms with difficult feelings, particularly ones of self-loathing, self-acceptance, coming to terms with emotions, and trying to find one’s place in a world that can be confusing and scary to navigate. I feel that writing Raven’s tale was able to help me through those tough times in my life. For that reason, this saga will always hold a lot of sentimental value to me.

So... What’s next?

There were originally plans for me to make a follow up/spin-off series where Octa A/Kon was the main character. The theme of that series was “even the unnoticed and ordinary can be noticed and extraordinary!” It was going to focus on Kon and his mob student friends (one from each dormitory), along with their struggles of being “noticed” (as they are often just one face in a sea of mob students) and “fitting in” with their respective dorm’s ideals. I think it would have been a series that resonated a lot with introverts and people who see themselves as “less than” others or as “not fitting in” with others’ expectations. I might still do this, but it would probably be another huge project that would take months of planning and revision.

Another idea I had was to write a series of stories that are just flashbacks of Raven’s life prior to Night Raven College, whether as a bird or whether as the Storyteller’s apprentice. I also considered writing in-depth about how the Storyteller was originally cursed, and about the Enchantress responsible for it. I would like to get into her backstory and her motivations for spinning the Storyteller’s curse to begin with. (Maybe I’ll do those as blog anniversary or follower milestone specials?) Some friends of mine also jokingly suggested I write a sequel series focused on Raven and her relationship with L*ONA 🤢 dfhlbahefvqoeuq Lots of ideas, lots of possibilities!

As for Raven, she’s definitely not going away just because her origin saga is done. She’s still the beloved poster child of this blog, so of course I want to continue writing about her! It’s just that she’ll be a little freer to speak her mind now that her curse has been lifted. After all, "the end" is just "the beginning" of another story!

I kind of feel like a proud parent, seeing my bird daughter growing up, making friends, finding love, and developing her own sense of agency and independence 😭 I’m excited to see where this next chapter of Raven’s life takes us.

Before I sign off, I’d like to thank you, dear readers, for following Miss Raven’s story until the very end. None of this would be possible without you!

[do-you-ship-it-polls]

Do you ship it?

[would-they-be-good-at-asmr]

Propaganda:

Here she is singing, so you know what her voice sounds like:

[media-girls-with-glasses]

Longuevuille

From: The Familiar of Zero

[couldinfinitytrainhavesavedthem]

Not gonna fix this one just know it's supposed to be she and I'm dumb

[waffliesinyoface]

Familiar of Zero is one of those series where it is literally the perfect storm for fanfiction to arise.

1 - the series literally opens with “and then louise did a magic spell to summon a familiar, a spell which has no fucking limitations on it”. You do not have to lift a single finger to justify why a crossover is happening. How convenient!!!

2 - the setting is a veritable powder keg waiting to go off, and is, in fact, about five minutes from doing so in canon. Albion’s in the ending stretch of a civil war, Gallia is run by a madman, Romalia is doing secret spy shit all the time, Tristain is on the verge of being absorbed by Germania, the leaders of the Albion revolutionary army are fucking around behind the scenes with dark magic, and Tristain itself is essentially bizarro fantasy France circa. the early 1600s, with Henrietta taking the place of Louis the 13th. There is infinite fucking potential for shit happening, and Louise is in a prime position to interact with all of it.

3 - Louise has Pre-Timeskip Sakura Syndrome, which is to say, her potential is very high, she has little to no direction from her mentors, and is rather desperate to prove herself. She can grow in so many different directions and not be OOC. The only really defined part of her is that, due to the way she was taught growing up, she is an incredibly hard worker and she has a moral backbone of solid fucking steel.

4 - this is, perhaps, the most important part: the canon storyline squanders nearly all of that potential to focus on dumb hijinks and harem comedy antics, and by god, there’s nothing more tempting setting wise than a fixer-upper.

[llycorys]

holy shit, i decided to start rewatching familiar of zero for the first time in like ten years and i didn't realise Louise was voiced by Compa!

ALL I CAN HEAR IS COMPA AND IT'S SILLY TO ME I LOVE IT

(also this show is still cute like i remember ^ω^)

[huggableanimecharacters]

Would You Hug Them?

[inkcross]

Year of the dragon day 5

[katykakasmaeda]

i love them so much

[pulaasul]

Zero no Tsukaima - Familiar of Zero: Hiraga Saito and the runes of Gandalf.

This came up with a discussion I had with @rainixdra.

But

Why doesn't Saito just pick up a wand and learn spells, if he even needs to learn them?

Wands in the world of Halkegenia are considered weapons, and the runes that were inscribed on him that identifies him as Gandalf made it possible for him to be able to use any thing that is crafted as a weapon.

Saito legit was able to pilot a fighter jet without any prior training or knowledge and if he had the wand, he'd be able to attack and defend himself with magic

I don't see why he couldn't just do that, I think he'd be a much more effective protector if he was able to pick up a wand and fire spells left and right.

[do-you-ship-it-polls]

Do you ship it?

[hypnolordx]

So I'm not a familiar of Zero fan, but this screenshot was too good to pass on, so I made a manip from it. The main goal was practicing the look of whitewashed eyes. As usual, I felt like I could go further than that, hence the dialogue and music notes. Enjoy!

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Zero no Tsukaima 1

Author: Noboru Yamaguchi

Illustrator: Eiji Usatsuka

Label: MF Bunko J

Release Date: 22 June 2004

My Score: 3/5

Premise: Saito, a boy from Japan, gets summoned by Louise, a noble student of magic school. Louise is known as Louise the Zero as all of her attempts at magic end up in failure. This time, that failure comes in the form of summoning Saito as her familiar. With no way of going home, Saito must adjust to this life in another world.

This series is so nostalgic for me. The anime was super popular when I was getting into the culture and it was one of the first that I watched. I loved it at the time. I really wanted to rewatch it for this review, but it's not available legally to stream anywhere in Australia and the site that I was using for series like that went down and I have yet to find another one. Based on the episode descriptions on wikipedia, it looks like they moved events around a lot and I'm sad I couldn't check it out to see for myself. From what I remember, Rie Kugimiya's performance as Louise is iconic. I also feel like Louise was more abusive in the anime. Like she still treats Saito poorly here, but I don't recall her ever getting out the whip. Maybe that comes later.

Regardless, my nostalgia for the anime definitely affected my enjoyment of the light novel. That is, I liked it a lot more than I expected to. There are some things that haven't aged well, like one of the teachers has a habit of fondling women's butts, and some of the scenes with Kirche were hard to read, but I enjoyed it overall. The plot was interesting, the characters grew on me, and it even made me laugh more than once. In particular, there's a scene where Kirche is trying to seduce Saito, and her other lovers keep on interrupting saying that she told them to meet her at that time. She keeps on being like, "[ridiculous fantasy name]! Give me 2 hours!" and then to Saito she'll be like, "Oh him? He's just a friend." and it made me laugh so hard.

I've heard that this is the blueprint for modern isekai series as a lot of them started off as fanfiction for this series, and I can definitely see that. There's a lot of tropes here that have become prevalent in modern isekai. But I do think this has more heart than a lot of them. It also doesn't have video game mechanics, mayonnaise, or slavery (yet). I like that that characters feel like teenagers. There are scenes where Saito makes fun of Louise like a high schooler would and Louise is just as immature, but we see both of their good sides. I also like that there is a mystery here about why Saito was summoned and what his powers are. Oh, also the art is really good. It's simple, but it feels like it's working together with the story to reveal things to the reader and help them visualise the scenes.

I liked this volume far more than I expected to and I do want to read more. I remember that the romance got pretty messy in later seasons of the anime, so I'll be curious to see if the light novel is different.

[charrchan]

Louise Gothic Punk Ver.

(- Don't reprint my photos)

[waffliesinyoface]

How would [x] character fare in [y] universe?

Im choosing to interpret this as "gets summoned in place of saito" because the familiar summoning scene is literally the perfect catalyst for ANY kind of crossover fic.

And while *I* think the worldbuilding and setting of halkegenia is neat, Hasami is different enough from me that she would hate it.

Getting isekai'd via reincarnation is one thing, and she's enough of her own person that any emotional connection to her past life is kind of distant. Getting snatched away from her family and her team by random chance? Having to adjust from shinobi village customs to feudal fantasy france customs? Having to deal with people like Louise, Guiche, Montmorency, and Kirche before they got character development? She'd be at her wits end. If Kagemaru came along with her, she'd be very twitchy and angry but willing to mostly chill out on the condition that Colbert or whoever actually attempts to send her back. If Kagemaru is not with her, and she doesn't have even a small connection to home with her, she might very well be on the verge of a complete mental breakdown!!

As for Louise... honestly, some of her more outrageous demands that she makes at the start of the series (ie: telling saito to sleep on a bed of straw and to help her get dressed) are blunted by the fact that Hasami has some experience with shitty clients on C-rank missions, and by the fact that she knows enough about the series that they don't come out of left field. I think Louise would be more put off by Hasami than the other way around. She can do "magic" (Fire Release Ninjutsu), and she has her own "familiar" (Kagemaru), which are both things that Louise really wants, but she's also got tattoos (scandalous!) on her face (extremely scandalous!!), is shockingly willing to Do Violence to people, and has very little in the way of a filter. (IE: the "Guiche duel" which happens in canon and in every ZnT fanfic is started because Hasami catches a whiff of Montmorency's perfume, and goes "god, what the fuck is that smell" within earshot of Guiche AND Montmorency.)

The one positive of their relationship would be the fact that Hasami would give Louise an entirely new perspective on her explosions, specifically along the lines of: "Hey you're from a noble family and expected to Defend the Kingdom" -> "What do you think spells like fireball are intended to accomplish" -> "Do you think you could make an explosion even bigger on purpose?" Until Louise finally gets the message that it might actually be useful to be a walking piece of artillery. Whether that's a positive in the long term... well, that's a problem for later!

Things are also complicated by the fact that I know:

the early plot beats of ZnT (guiche duel, fouqet, talent show, secret mission to albion, wales assassination, reconquista attacking tarbes, zombie prince wales),

some of the later plot twists (Tabitha is princess, Galia is run by an insane dude, the pope is a void mage)

and some of the setting (elves, brimir/sasha/derflinger backstory, whats going on with reconquista)

but i haven't a goddamn clue how the plot ends or how things get resolved or what's actually true to the universe and what is exclusively the product of fanfiction. So Hasami knows she is on a time crunch before things get completely out of hand and she has no idea what to be on guard against. Please get her home before her very limited future knowledge runs out.