#it's like 500 people in the same family tree

[idkimnotreal]

me: searches for people born in the roman empire on familysearch.org

also me: shocked when i see actual thousand year old lineages

[neolithicsheep]

I've been meaning to write this down for some time because there are some fundamental errors that people keep making in crowdfunding/sales that shoot their campaigns in the foot. So here's a list of easy principles.

Who am I and why should you listen to me? I am a freelance chaos marketer who has raised well over $100,000 when totaling up various crowdfunding campaigns, mostly for aid to Afghanistan. In addition I've managed to successfully market everything from stuffed plush koalas to hydration salts. Why am I putting this out here for free? Because despite a years long track record of success in social media marketing no one will hire me because I don't have a college degree, so I might as well help people out who can't afford to hire full time marketing. 

If you'd like to hire me to help you evaluate your marketing and sales and teach you better skills on a 1 to 1 basis then hit me up, I am often willing to barter, esp with artists in a variety of mediums! 

Anyway on to HOW TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO GIVE YOU MONEY:

TL;DR: use positive messaging that humanizes everyone involved and make it as easy as possible for people to give you money.

1. Shame and guilt are demotivators. They will not inspire people to give you money. “Why aren't people helping” “I guess people don't care” “This isn't getting enough shares/donations” etc etc. Online fundraising is often frustrating, heartbreaking, and will make you angry, especially when there's a humanitarian crisis involved. It is critical that if you are raising funds for someone else that you have a place to vent that is not the audience you would like to donate to the cause. 

2. Use motivating messages instead! “You can help!” “Even a small donation is important because it tells Recipient they're not alone, and people care” “We can't fix the whole world, but we can make this one thing right, and that means something”. Emphasize that this is a problem that the reader can help fix with even a small effort. With items for sale, tell a story. "I drew this thinking about how safe I always felt under a tree in my childhood backyard". "I chose the colors in this shawl to remind me of sagebrush and piñon pine in my favorite place."

3. Make it easy for people to give you money. Never talk about your product or cause without a link that leads directly to where people can give you money. They should be able to click one link on your post and land at the fundraiser or your shop. Every required click is going to lose people, so minimize the number of them required. This also means if you have a list of fundraisers for people to choose from the ones at the bottom will be neglected - people will hit the ones at the top. Be sure to take those off when they're met or periodically shuffle the list around to make sure everyone gets a chance to be in the first 5 spots. In online stores people will often only look at the first page or two of items so be sure to shuffle things around and remove out of stock items that are taking up prime real estate.

4. Humanize the recipient - this can be tricksy when raising charitable aid because you don't want to be exploitative. But to use my last Afghan campaign as an example, “We need to raise $500 for an Afghan family” is less effective than “This Afghan family's home was damaged in heavy rains that caused extensive flooding. They only need $500 to repair and rebuild so they can stay in their home and not become displaced.”  If possible, tell as much of the recipient's story as they consent to. Eg “Fred is seven and loves dinosaurs. His favorite is brontosaurus, and he carries a stuffed one with him everywhere. He wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up and discover a complete brontosaurus skeleton that he can give the same name as his stuffed friend. Unfortunately he's also a trans boy living in Texas and his family needs $1500 to rent a Uhaul and get to Colorado so he can grow up in safety and do that.”

5. If you're not the recipient, humanize yourself while you're at it! “I'd be really grateful if you all could share or donate” “This fundraiser really means a lot to me because…” “Thank you so much for any help, whether sharing or donating” 

6. Treat the audience like humans. Speak to them like they are people you're having a conversation with, not ATMs. This ultimately is the goal of not using shame/guilt and humanizing yourself and the recipient. 

7. Set low goals and bump them up when met. One of the weird things about people is they prefer to give to successful fundraisers. Yeah I don't know either. So you're more likely to get the full amount you need if you set a partial goal initially and then raise it when that's met. Raise it in small increments and raise it repeatedly as those goals are hit to keep momentum going. You can't always control this so if you're boosting someone else's fundraiser you can do it artificially via asks like “Hey y'all can we get together and put $500 on this?”

[m1ckeyb3rry]

i just read your sae fic and it was absolutely amazing, gorgeous, life-changjng! and when i went on to check your masterlist for bllk, i was shocked when you were the one who wrote the nagi x reader x kira fic bc I've been following it for a while and then i immediately tapped the follow button :x but if you can (only when you have the time and energy), can you write rin whose family is a host for exchange student! reader from another country? it could be hs or college, depending on whichever you're comfortable with. thank you <33

── CHERRY TREE

Synopsis: You are one hundred percent convinced that Rin Itoshi hates you — and he does, but not exactly in the way you think.

Event Masterlist

Pairing: Rin x Reader

Chapter Word Count: 6.2k

Content Warnings: cheesy and cliched asf, otoya and KARASU <3 make brief appearances, rin is rude ngl but reader is as well, rin does not know what a “crush” is, he’s probably ooc as well atp i should just include that on all of my works jic

A/N: i can’t believe i started bllk because of a rin edit and yet i’ve never written for him…also i’m glad you liked seabird and peregrine anon!! thank you for following 💖 sorry it took me a min to respond to this

Additional: part of my 500 follower event! see the event description and rules to make a request of your own.

If you didn’t know that your parents would probably put you in an early grave for wasting their money, you would’ve caught the next flight back home from Japan in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, you were far too afraid of their ire, which meant you were stuck in this hostile environment until the end of the semester — assuming, of course, that you managed to survive for so long.

Over the summer, applying to your university’s special first-semester-abroad program had seemed like a good idea. You were already going to be traveling far from home to stay on campus regardless, so your reasoning was that you might as well experience a different culture while you were at it. Besides, the program claimed to pair participants with a host family that would be good fits for their personalities and needs — based on a survey, which in hindsight you really should’ve lied on — so you would be living in relative comfort, at least compared to the ancient dorms on the main campus that probably had thirty different species of mold growing on their walls.

Or, well, that had been the plan. Maybe it was even a reality for the rest of the people in the program, who had no doubt been placed in normal homes, with normal people, who had normal children and normal lives. For you, though, it could not be further from the truth — because you had had the great misfortune of being chosen to live in the same house as Rin Itoshi for the duration of your stay in Japan.

To put it simply, he hated you. He had started hating you from the moment you stepped foot into his house and put your things in his brother’s old room, and he had not stopped since. If you happened to cross paths with him, he’d scoff at you, and considering the fact that the two of you lived in the same house, this was a frequent occurrence. Whenever you tried speaking to him in Japanese, he’d wrinkle his nose and respond in English, telling you that you were so terrible at the language, you might as well give up now and move back to your country early. Once, his mother had suggested he take you to hang out with his friends, as you were all roughly the same age, and he had rolled his eyes so hard that it was a surprise they didn’t get stuck in the back of his head.

There was no doubt about it: your mere existence was a burden to Rin. You couldn’t explain it in any other way; after all, how could he have decided he disliked you before you had even spoken? So you did your best to be as helpful and kind as possible, keeping the house neat, cooking food whenever the elder Itoshis had to work late, staying silent if he happened to enter the same room as you, and offering nothing but slight smiles if you were forced into an interaction with him.

“You know,” Mrs. Itoshi began one day, as you were eating the dinner she had made for all of you. Rin was on your right, and Mr. Itoshi was across from him, his jovial face such a contrast to his son’s dour look. “Rin’s on the Japanese soccer team.”

“Wow,” you said noncommittally. You hadn’t known that; you had assumed that Rin’s hobbies involved throwing stones at unsuspecting children and tripping old ladies as they crossed the street. Soccer had been the last thing you expected, though it did explain his admittedly splendid physique. “Very impressive.”

“Not really,” Rin said. 

“Why don’t you take her to watch your practice over the weekend?” Mrs. Itoshi pressed. 

“She’s not interested,” Rin said. Of course, you really weren’t — why would you want to watch Rin and his friends kick around a ball for a few hours? It would be a waste of time, time that you could spend working on homework or clearing your ‘to-be-read’ list. But you also weren’t fond of people speaking for you, especially not him. He was the last person who could claim to know anything about you, so by what right could he say that you weren’t interested?

“Actually, I wouldn’t mind going,” you said, batting your eyelashes at him innocently when he glared at you out of the corner of his eye, his expression one of utter disgust and incredulity.

“There you have it! Be sure to introduce her to your teammates. I’m sure they would love to show her around,” Mrs. Itoshi said. Rin snorted.

“Oh, I’m sure they would,” he said, though when he did, it sounded different than what Mrs. Itoshi had surely meant. But you were obviously the only one who picked up on it, and you didn’t want to make dinner unpleasant, so you could only ponder what he might’ve meant in your head instead of asking him outright, as you really wanted to.

Although it was the weekend, Rin’s practice was early in the morning, before the day could really heat up and make exercising unbearable. That meant it was before even the sun’s rise that you were following after him, your books clutched in your arms as you waited at the bus stop.

“Why’re you bringing all of that?” he said when the awkward silence grew to be too much for either of you to bear.

“I’m planning on getting some homework done while I’m there,” you said.

“Why didn’t you just stay home if you wanted to do homework?” he said as the bus pulled to a stop in front of you and the doors flew open. Due to the early hour, there was almost no one else on the bus, but given your unfamiliarity with the route, you still followed after Rin, sitting across the aisle from him and putting your things on the seat beside you.

“I dunno,” you said. “I guess I wanted to meet your teammates. Since they would just love to show me around.”

“Stay away from them,” he said. “They’re a bunch of NPCs. All of them are probably the worst people you could ask to show you anywhere.”

“NPCs?” you said. “That’s pretty harsh to say about your own peers.”

“It’s not like we’re friends or anything,” he muttered, crossing his arms petulantly. “I’ll call them what I want.”

“Sure, whatever you say,” you said, massaging circles into your forehead to ward off your impending migraine. Rin raised his eyebrows.

“Got a headache?” he said, in that same clinical, detached voice he always used.

“Yeah,” you said. And you’re making it worse. You wanted to add that, but you thought it probably wouldn’t be prudent, so you kept your mouth shut.

“Don’t stay up so late on your phone, then,” he said. 

“It’s the only time I can call my friends and family. They’re in a different time zone,” you explained before pausing. Why did you feel the need to justify yourself? It wasn’t like Rin particularly cared either way. He was just giving you that advice because he wanted to boss you around and be rude to you. It was a symptom of dislike, not worry.

You had imagined Rin to be an obsessively punctual person, but to your surprise, it seemed like you both were actually some of the later ones to show up. Perhaps the rest of the team was even more concerned with earliness than him, or maybe you had somehow caused him to be later than he typically was, but either way, by the time you walked onto the field, the others had already gathered, chatting amongst themselves while they waited for their coach to arrive and start the practice.

“There he is! We were beginning to think the world might’ve ended,” a boy with dark, styled hair and a beauty mark beneath his left eye said with a grin. “Nothing less could get you to miss practice, eh, Rin?”

“It still might have,” another boy said. His pale hair was streaked through with green, and he wore an inviting smirk as he pointed at you. “Yo, girl. What kind of blackmail does he have on you? Blink twice if you need help. We’ll get you out of there.”

“Um, he’s not blackmailing me or anything…” you said, glancing at Rin for aid before remembering that he would probably rather jump off of a cliff, backwards and into the jaws of a dozen waiting sharks, than help you out.

“So you’re hanging out with him willingly?” the pale-haired boy said. “Yikes. You can do much better.”

“I kind of have to hang out with him,” you said. “I’m staying with his family for the semester.”

“Oh, you’re the exchange student!” a third boy, this one with icy blue hair and wide, pretty eyes said. “We’ve heard a lot—”

“All of you, be quiet and leave her alone,” Rin said, finally, thankfully speaking up. “Otoya, don’t even look at her, or I’ll make sure you’re benched for the rest of the season.”

The pale-haired boy — Otoya? — held his hands up in the air and whistled innocently, shooting you a wink when Rin turned to address the rest of his team. You raised your eyebrows but suppressed your giggle, not wanting to condemn him to further rebuke from Rin.

“This is Y/N L/N. She’s the exchange student my family is hosting. She wanted to come watch our practice because…actually, I don’t really know why,” Rin said shortly. “But she’s just going to be doing homework on the bench, so if any of you were planning on showing off to impress her, then you can give up on that idea now.”

Otoya noticeably wilted at this, but the others didn’t seem to mind. The first boy, the one with the beauty mark and the strange hairstyle, gave Rin a thumbs up.

“Don’t worry, Rin, we’ll leave the showing off to you. It’s about time you—”

“Shut up!”

They must’ve begun practicing at some point, but you hardly took notice, too busy typing up the outline for an essay you had due in a couple of weeks to care much about what they were doing. Occasionally, someone would shout out a particularly creative insult, and you would have to pause your work to identify the trash talker in order to be able to congratulate them later, but for the most part, you were lost in your own world.

“Hey.” Just the sound of Rin’s cool voice was enough to send shivers of fear down your spine, and you hastily closed your laptop as you looked up at him. “Practice is over.”

“Okay,” you said. “Will you introduce your teammates to me now? I know you told them who I was, but I’d like to at least meet some people my own age.”

“Nope,” he said. “Let’s go.”

“Hold on, I only even came because I wanted to meet them!” you said. “Outside of school, you’re the only one I know. I get that you don’t want me infiltrating your friend group or whatever, but you literally said you don’t like these guys, so why’s it a problem if I become friends with them?”

“They’re so dull and half-baked that your opinion of this country will actually fall if you interact with them further,” he said. “This is just my national pride talking. Come on.”

You stomped after him. What was his problem? He didn’t want to be nice to you, but he also didn’t want anyone else to, either. Was he that determined to make you miserable? Why couldn’t you have been placed in a family with children who weren’t so weird and annoying? Which question had you answered incorrectly on the survey that had resulted in your match-up with the Itoshis? You wished you could retake that stupid quiz and end up somewhere else. You wished that Rin had been the one sent to Spain instead of his older brother, who was certainly more well-adjusted. You wished that you hadn’t chosen to study abroad at all, that you had instead stayed at home with your friends and had a typical first semester like everyone else.

After that day, you stopped even pretending to be polite to Rin. Both of you were cold, hissing insults whenever you passed in the hallways of the home, leaving the room if the other happened to enter, and generally doing what you could to make each other’s lives difficult. It was only in front of Rin’s parents that you maintained some semblance of civility; after all, making Mr. and Mrs. Itoshi choose sides in your silent war would be unethical and wrong.

“I really don’t get it,” you said to your best friend one night, the covers pulled up over your head, your phone screen dimmed so that you were not blinded by its light. “He’s such a jerk, and for what?”

“Boys suck,” she said, hunched over a calculus problem set. The time difference meant that sun streamed in through her window as she wrote, illuminating the shining graphite of her neatly penciled answers. “Did his teammates mention anything suspicious the one time you met them? They’d probably know better than you or I why he’s acting the way he is. Maybe this is just how he is with everyone — if that’s the case, then you can be reassured that it’s not something you’re doing wrong.”

“Not really,” you said. “He forbade all of them from talking to me. Which, by the way, is a real tragedy, because some of them were super cute.”

“Really?” she said.

“Want descriptions?” you said.

“As much as I would like to say yes, I need to focus on this problem set, and anyways, it’ll just make me jealous, so no,” she said.

“Jealous? Let’s trade places, because at the moment, I’m jealous of you. Maybe all of the guys at your school are ugly, but at least you don’t have to deal with Rin!” you said.

“Is Rin attractive?” she said. 

“No — actually, yeah, I can see why a person would think he is,” you said. Personal biases aside, Rin really was very handsome, and that combined with his aloof arrogance afforded him the aura of a YA novel’s male lead. There was no doubt in your mind that he was popular with girls; however, you doubted he himself was aware of this fact. “He’s such a dick that it cancels out, though.”

“Personality is important,” your best friend said. “Oh, fuck!”

“What?” you said.

“I’ve been forgetting to add the integration constant to my answers. Easy fix, no worries. You can keep talking,” she said.

“Thanks,” you said. “There isn’t really much else to say.”

“Well, if you couldn’t get anything out of his teammates, why don’t you try talking to him?” she suggested. “Ask him to his face why he doesn’t like you.”

“Isn’t that kind of uncomfortable?” you said.

“Not like things can get much worse than they already are,” she said.

“True,” you said. “But the thought of confronting him is actually sickening. I’ll pass. This is character building, isn’t it? I’m going to come back home as an entirely new woman. You won’t recognize my mental strength and fortitude.”

“Sure, looking forward to it. I miss you,” she said.

“Miss you more, but it’s pretty late here, so I’m going to have to hang up,” you said, yawning.

“Goodnight, Y/N, and sleep tight. Don’t let Rin Itoshi bite!” she said.

“Oh my god. Go do your homework,” you said, hanging up before she could respond and almost immediately passing out as the moon rose higher and higher in the sky.

Things between you and Rin continued on in that tense manner for the next few weeks, until you became convinced that your heart might give out from the stress. You couldn’t continue to live in this way. You were supposed to be enjoying your time abroad, not counting down the days until you could finally go home.

Rin was watching a horror movie on the computer when you barged into his room. A woman screamed in sync with your entrance, and you jumped at the jarring sound. Rin did not react, clicking on the mouse to pause the film and then turning in his chair to face you.

“What?” he said.

“What? What? What do you think?” you said.

“I wouldn’t have asked if I had the faintest clue why you were storming into my room in the middle of the night,” he said coolly, crossing his arms. “The movie was finally getting exciting, too. So, what do you want? Hurry up and say it.”

Your eye twitched. “I want to know what your problem is.”

“Huh?” he said. 

“Why do you hate me? What have I ever done to you that’s made you so determined to ruin my life? I could even understand if you didn’t want to hang out with me, but you brought me to your practice and then refused to let me talk to just about anyone! What’s the big idea? I just want to enjoy my semester!” you said.

“Oh,” he said. “That’s easy. You’re ruining my soccer career.”

“I’m ruining your soccer career,” you repeated dubiously.

“Yes,” he said.

“Care to elaborate on how I am accomplishing that, exactly?” you said, your hands on your hips. “I went to one practice, and I didn’t even speak the entire time. If your career can be ruined so easily, then it isn’t much of a career in the first place.”

He huffed in aggravation. “I keep thinking about you. It’s messing with my head. I need to focus on soccer and getting better, but for some reason, I can’t stop my thoughts from wandering to places they shouldn’t. It’s worse because I can’t escape you. If I could have just one day to clear my mind, I could forget about you and get back to considering more important things, but you’re always there, worming your way back in.”

Now it was your turn to be confused. “What?”

“I don’t get it, either. You’re not that special, so why can I quit it? Even my teammates have begun to notice. The other day, Isagi told me to go home early because I was ‘bringing nothing to the team.’ Isagi said that! Yoichi Isagi said that I was useless!” he said.

“That would be a lot more impactful if I knew who that was,” you muttered.

“You’re only here for a few more months, right?” he said. “After that, I can get back to my earlier performance and things will return to usual. Just leave me alone until then.”

Confronting Rin had the opposite effect that it should have. Instead of making things better, they actually became worse. What did he mean by saying that you were ruining his soccer career because he couldn’t stop thinking about you? What a stupid excuse! You weren’t that tiresome, so for him to claim that you were taking over his mind because of that was an offense. 

“Y/N, Rin, will you be alright by yourselves for the week?” Mrs. Itoshi said when, once again, you all were gathered to eat dinner. The Itoshi parents had thankfully not yet noticed the enmity between you and their son, so family meals were a regular occurrence — meals in which you and Rin were made to sit by one another and act kindly, lest you make things awkward for Mr. and Mrs. Itoshi, too.

“It’ll be fine,” Rin said, answering for the both of you, the downturn of his mouth daring you to argue. “You guys should have fun in Spain.”

Apparently, Sae had invited his family to visit him in Madrid for the week that he had off from training, but unfortunately for the both of you, Rin was unable to go due to his practice schedule. It was unfortunate for Rin because it meant he couldn’t see his older brother, who he had the world’s most complicated relationship with, and it was unfortunate for you because it meant you couldn’t get a break from Rin’s dramatics.

The week started off normally enough, which meant that you and Rin did not speak, leading your lives with as much separation as was possible. It was actually easier than you were expecting, mainly because Mrs. Itoshi had left you both enough food to last the week, so you could eat when you wanted to instead of having to sit with one another. Gone were the days of turbulent coexistence at meals; now, you could finally enjoy eating without worrying about the boy beside you! You almost wished his parents would never come back, just because of that rare peace.

The fourth night was when it all went wrong. You were video calling your best friend as a storm raged outside, ranting to her about your professors and the heaps of homework you received every day, when the lights flickered.

“Is something wrong with your wifi?” she said. “You’re breaking up.

“It’s raining,” you said. “Pretty hard. The power’s kinda spotty, but I’m hoping it holds—”

The universe must’ve heard your words and decided to play a joke on you, because in that moment, the lights turned off and your call disconnected with a sad beeping sound, alerting you that your poor connection was what did you in. Pouting, you set your phone aside and stared up at the ceiling of the room, deciding you might as well try to fall asleep, given the late hour. Even if the power was out, you wouldn’t be able to tell with your eyes shut, so it was really the best option.

There was a scratching sound on your window, causing you to jolt into a sitting position once more. Rin had watched a horror movie just like this the other day. You remembered it clearly because you had turned on a rom-com once it had finished, and he had called it lukewarm, which made you so mad that you had turned the TV off and gone to take a shower instead.

What had been the plot, again? Oh, right. The power had gone out, and the victim thought that it had been because of a storm, but it had actually been a serial killer taking advantage of the weather to mess with her house’s fuse box. He had done it so that the cameras didn’t catch him as he climbed into her house through her unlocked window and stabbed her in her sleep. The resolution was that her neighbors saw him and called the police right before he killed them, too — yeah, it was a pretty gory film. Lots of blood and knife wounds. You weren’t sure what enjoyment Rin derived from watching it, but you figured it was another one of his irrational attributes that defied explanation.

Another scratching sound. Had you locked the window? What if the power outage wasn’t due to the storm at all? What if Rin had accidentally manifested the same ending for you as that stupid movie? And you were home alone, too, the scenario was just so similar…

This time, the scratching sound was more like an eerie drag of fingernails against the glass, and you couldn’t help yourself. Squealing, you turned the flashlight of your phone on to guide your way as you sprinted out of your room, racing towards the only other inhabited place in the entire lonely house.

“Rin!” you shrieked, convinced that the shadows were actually ghosts come to haunt you and strangle you and bury you alive. “Rin, wake up! We’re both going to die!”

The door to his bedroom banged open, and you pointed your phone at him, the harsh white glow sharpening the angles of his features, the awkward hang of his pajamas off his body, the way his normally neat hair stuck up in every direction. 

“What are you talking about?” he groaned, using his hand to shield his vision from the blinding radiance of your flashlight.

“Do you remember that movie you were watching the other day? The scary one, with the fuse box?” you said.

“Yeah?” he said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and yawning. “Point your flashlight at the ground, stupid, or you’ll blind me.”

You did as he directed, belatedly remembering that the two of you very much did not like each other. But beggars could not be choosers, and it remained that at the moment, Rin was your best chance at survival, so you had to stick close to him.

“It’s happening,” you whispered. “It’s literally happening to us right now, as we speak. The serial killer already cut our power, and now he’s trying to break in through my bedroom window, and then — and then he’s going to kill us!”

“I cannot believe you woke me up for this,” he said.

“I’m serious!” you said.

“Seriously dumb,” he said. “Why would somebody try to kill us?”

“Don’t you have any rivals that hate you? Maybe they’re taking advantage of the storm to do you in while they have the chance!” you said, creeping closer to him.

“I play soccer. I’m not in a gang,” he said dryly. “No one’s going to come murder me for being better than them, trust me. Or else I’d already be dead.”

“Go see for yourself, then!” you said. “Wait. But I’ll go with you. People who split up in horror movies always die. There’s real merit to the ‘safety-in-numbers’ theory.”

“How many horror movies have you watched, to make you such an expert on them?” he said.

“You always have them playing, so of course I’ve learnt by osmosis!” you said, inching along behind him as he trudged towards your room. He gave no response bar a click of his tongue as he yanked open the door you had slammed shut in your haste, striding in authoritatively, grabbing your phone and lighting his own way with it instead of relying on your shaky hands.

He pulled the curtains open with a flourish, and you cringed, using his broad back to hide yourself, expecting to see some grotesque face and keeping your eyes screwed shut so you didn’t have to be met with the visage that would spell your death.

“Hey. Y/N. Open your eyes, dumbass. You made me get up because of a damn tree,” Rin said, shaking you by the shoulder. 

“A what?” you said, opening your eyes against your will and then blinking properly when you saw there was nothing there but the boughs of the cherry tree planted in front of Sae’s room. The frenzied wind caused the branches to rub against the window, and this, you realized, was the source of the sound you had been so afraid of. “Oh. A tree.”

“I’m going back to bed,” he informed you. “Wake me up again and you really will be dead, but it’ll be at my hands, not some imaginary serial killer’s.”

You tried. You really tried to stay asleep — you were an independent woman, weren’t you? You had gotten full marks on all of your midterms. You had flown to a different country and learned to live there without much trouble. You had shared a house with Rin Itoshi for the past couple of months, and he was more like a creature out of a nightmare than anything else ever could be. Sleeping alone when the power was out was a piece of cake. You could do it. 

It was not, in fact, a piece of cake, and you could not, in fact, do it. Tip-toeing to Rin’s room, you knocked as lightly as you could, half-hoping that he did not hear. You doubted he had made his earlier threat lightly, after all, and there was a real chance that this action would be your last.

“What now?” Rin said, answering the door a few seconds later. You crossed your arms and stared at the floor obstinately, your pride not allowing you to say anything. He waited for a moment, and then he pinched your upper arm. “Are you sleepwalking? Hello? Wake up if you are, so that I can get to bed myself. I have practice tomorrow, and I need to be well-rested!”

“I’m not sleepwalking!” you said. “I can’t.”

“You can’t sleepwalk? Okay,” he said. “I didn’t really care either way, so there was no need for you to tell me.”

“I can’t sleep at all!” you said. “It’s because of those dumb movies you always watch and those creepy games you play. I keep thinking that something’s going to happen, even though I know that those things aren’t real.”

He narrowed his eyes at you, like he was trying to discern whether you were telling the truth, and then he ran a hand through his hair.

“You have problems,” he said. “They aren’t real, but whatever. Come in.”

“Uh, what?” you said.

“I’ll take the floor, and you can sleep in my bed,” he said, rolling his eyes like you were the ridiculous one for being taken aback by the offer. “That way you can be less nervous.”

It was the kindest thing he had ever done for you, and you almost called him out for it, but then there was another crack of lightning, so you opted not to argue, darting into the room after him and diving into his bed without a second thought.

“Hand me a pillow,” he said, settling on the ground with a blanket he pulled down from the top shelf of his closet. You were about to throw it at him before wavering, considering what he was truly doing for you. Rin Itoshi, who was so careful with his body, who was a pro athlete that required an exact amount of sleep and the perfect balance of nutrients, had woken up in the middle of the night twice and was now offering to sleep on the floor, all because you were afraid of a power outage. 

If only there was electricity! You needed to call your best friend and get her opinion on this. You had avoided telling her the results of your confrontation with him, believing that she would just make fun of you, but for some reason, you thought she might be interested in this development. You thought that she might be the only one who would understand it, because obviously, neither you nor Rin did.

“Um, you can have the bed, if you’d like,” you said, pushing the blankets away reluctantly, your neck protesting at the mere prospect of spending the night on the hardwood. “It’ll be bad for your back if you’re on the floor.”

“It’s not a big deal,” he said. “At least, it won’t be, if you give me that pillow.”

You caved, giving him the pillow and rolling to the opposite side of his bed, which was even larger than the one you were used to. He grunted out a thank you, and then both of you were silent, but it was obvious that neither of you were asleep.

“Rin.”

“Yes?”

“We could share. Your bed is pretty big, so if we put pillows between us, it won’t be weird. Anyways, it’s only until the power comes back, and then I’ll go to my room, so it won’t even be for that long,” you said. The suggestion was met with sputtering from the ground.

“You — me — what — share? No way! No way, terrible idea, why would you suggest that?” he said.

“I just feel bad that you have to be on the floor, that’s all,” you said. “Especially because it’s your room and you’re doing me a favor.”

He didn’t say anything for so long that you were certain he must’ve fallen asleep. “I don’t mind sleeping on the floor for you.”

“Really? I thought you hated me, though,” you said. The bed creaked from an unexpected weight dropping on it, and when you shifted, you saw that he had settled beside you, fluffing up a pillow to serve as a barrier, his face a light pink as he lay on his side to face you. You did the same, peering up at him over the pillow and swallowing when he did not avoid your gaze.

“I do,” he said. “A lot. But I also don’t.”

You furrowed your brow. “I don’t get it.”

“I’ve never been distracted by anyone or anything before,” he said. “That’s why I hate you. I hate things I don’t understand, and I don’t understand why you’re constantly on my mind.”

“Am I that annoying?” you said.

“Yes,” he said flatly. “You’re annoying every time you smile or laugh or say something — say anything, and you’re especially annoying when you act friendly towards my shitty teammates, especially that ninja bastard Otoya. You’re annoying whenever you talk to me, and you’re annoying when you do your homework instead of watching me at the practice you asked to go to. Your lukewarm movies are annoying, and so is your hatred of anything horror-related. It’s annoying that you’re nice to my parents, and it’s even more annoying that you’re better at coming up with insults than I am. You’re the most annoying person I’ve ever met.”

You didn’t need your best friend to translate this for you. Despite what Rin liked to say, you weren’t that stupid — you had been selected to study abroad out of hundreds of applicants, after all, and for the first time, you were so grateful for that fact. Because the thought of somebody else being here, in this bed, hearing these things from rude, haughty Rin Itoshi, was unbearable.

“Do you have a crush on me?” you said. He immediately stiffened, his eyebrows drawing together, low and heavy over his half-lidded eyes.

“No,” he said.

“Sure,” you said. “That’s good, because I’m going to leave soon. It would be problematic if either of us liked one another.”

“Exactly,” he said.

“You’re annoying, too, just to be clear,” you said. “The most annoying guy I’ve ever met in my life. Super annoying.”

“Uh-huh,” he said. 

“I’m telling the truth. Once I go back home, I’ll be incredibly bored. No one back there could ever hope to irritate me even half as much as you do,” you said.

“Good,” he said, and at that you smiled into the softness of his sheets, hiding the expression from him. “They’re not allowed to. You’re the only one who makes me feel like this, so the reverse should also be true.”

“I won’t be able to come here again for a while,” you said after a bit. “Likely years. I’ll be busy with school and work and my friends and family, so it’ll probably be goodbye forever when I go.”

Rin’s voice was sleepy when he spoke, reminding you of the late hour and how early he had to wake up daily.

“Then I can finally focus on soccer again,” he mumbled. “That’s a relief.”

You reached across the pillow to pat him on the cheek. “Yes, you can.”

“After I retire, I’ll come and find you,” he said. 

“That long?” you said. “What if I forget about you by then? Because I might.”

“Don’t,” he commanded. “Wait for me. Let me win the next World Cup, and then…and then…”

 His words trailed off into a soft exhale as he finally succumbed to sleep. You allowed your hand, which still lay against his face, to trace his jawline before retracting it and holding it close to your heart. 

He was definitely still a jerk, but maybe you did not hate him quite as much as you had thought You did. Actually, maybe he wasn’t that bad at all, and maybe you could not imagine what an existence without him, which you had craved so desperately only days earlier, might be like. 

You weren’t sure what would happen if that day he spoke of came, if he did fly across the world to find you after the next World Cup. Would he still be himself, or would he be some gentler version? And what of you? Would Rin Itoshi still be someone you paid any mind to, or, by then, would he just be a not-so-fond memory? The strange boy who may or may not have had a crush on you, who was obsessed with soccer and horror movies, who argued with you constantly and made you more infuriated than you had ever been…well, if you thought about it, then there really was no chance of you forgetting him at all. Not so quickly.

So you sighed, turned away from him and let your own eyes shut as well. The house was dark and still, the familiar hum of the refrigerator silenced, the crushing of the ice-maker temporarily halted. Only Rin’s steady inhales and exhales cut through the blackness, lulling you to sleep despite the atmosphere you had previously found sinister.

“I guess I have no choice, huh?” you said as you, too, drifted off. “Brainless, rude, pesky Rin Itoshi. Fine, then. If that’s how you want it…I’ll wait. Just until the next World Cup, I’ll wait for you.”

[originalwinnercheesecake]

Guess's on How Sasappis died.

Sasappis is the last ghost for us to learn his death. Sass is very private (undead) person, and we have been given no real/clear hints to his death. His ghost power (To enter into the dreams of the livings) could easily correlate to him being a story teller, and not necisarly "He died in his sleep, after catching a sever fever, that also caused him to have very strange dreams. Note I do not believe that Sass died of a fever. They would have incorporated some sign of it into his character. He would be more tired, feel more cold, possibly have a "unexplainable sweating problem". He also does not have any vibsiable gaping wounds, like Pete, Flower, or Stephanie, so that rules out death by attacker. So the question is how did Sass die

Now he could have died of some kind of sickness, but I do not think it is very likely. For one thing he is implied to have had a sudden death, just days before an important tribal ceremony he was planning/supposed to take part in. Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't most sickness take a period of weeks, months, years to do him in. A second thing again he isn't really sickly in the the show. All the cholera ghosts are flushed and still hacking. Issac will sneeze and mention stomach pains. But Sass seems fine, so if he has any kind of sickness then he has been masking it for 500 years. That is really sad.

He also could have could died if he went walk in the woods one night and fell from a cliff or out of a tree... but if that happened well that is kinda anti-climactic for how long we had to wait. I would rate that on the same scale as Thorfinn dying because he went walking with his helmet, through a storm and was struck by lightening. It is just a case of him not being as careful as he should have been. Not nearly an impressive follow up to Alberta or Hetty's more recently revealed deaths.... But you could make it more sad. Sass and his crush Shiki are implied to have died in the same year. Sass says that when they were alive, he was ghosted by Shiki after gifting a freshly killed deer to her family, as a jester of love. What if that was because Shiki actually went missing (i.e. died) shortly after, and Sass went out to search for her?

Another death I have considered was a food related one. A detail of Sass's character is is the most in love with food smells (the closest they can come to eating) of all the ghosts. He hangs out in the kitchen whenever Jay is cooking, consistently begs Sam and Jay to cook more of his favorite smelling food: pepperoni pizza, and I am honestly half expecting him to move into the barn once Jay's restaurant opens... What if Sass's love of food is actually a hint at his death? Maybe he had an allergy and accidentally ate something he was not supposed to? Or, maybe he had diabetes or some other dietary need, a crop or the meat from a particular animal, and Sass died when it was wiped out or disappeared. With so many people in the U.S. having dietary issues, and the countries known love of food, I could see the show choosing to write an episode on dietary importance, and the need for people from all walks of life to have access to healthy food.

My finale theory is one I have actually gotten off Tumblr, from the people who are fans of both the CBS and BBC series. Some people are suggesting Sass got bit by a poison snake or something and died from the poison venom. The puncture marks are small enough for Sass to be able to conceal with his clothing. Apparently something of the similar nature happened to BBC's Kitty? And I actually know a really good way to blend that into Sass's personality and a possible reason for why he became a ghost. Sass as mentioned loves stories and is a gifted story teller. But also as mentioned he is very private person who gets nervous about speaking in front of crowds. A week before the tribes festival Sass's father gave him an eagle's feather, which was believed to help bring confidence and courage. But what if Sass was still nervous/afraid afterwards. What as the days got closer got more more nervous/afraid, until he decided to do something reckless and stupid, to prove to himself that he could be brave. Something like walking through a more dangerous (poison animal infested) part of valley, telling himself "If I can brave this I will have no reason to be afraid of anything anymore". While that would not be the most exciting death, it would be very tragic, and it could set up "Overcoming the fears he had as a living", all of them, as Sass's unfinished business. Essentially, he would need to become a more rounded and confident person. Note that seems to also be Pete's unfinished business. Sass and Pete are roommates, and we have had at least a few really nice episodes exploring their relationship. It would be really cool if that continued to him and Pete having to teach themselves the same thing, but in different ways.

[thesoftestmess]

this might not be canon, but personally i need furina to struggle a whole lot longer and harder with post-prophecy depression and mental illness. She's played the same tiring and painful act for five centuries, was constantly in a life or death scenario and had to hide her true self from the world the entire time and she won't just recover in a few years from that.

There's parts of her that will never ever be compatible with a simple human lifestyle, and parts of her that are irreparably broken. She isn't sure of her personality after everything that happened and the lie she had to live. She slips between personas and her archon temperament comes through like a defensive mechanism at any sign of conflict or trouble.

She's plagued by nightmares. Of the flood, of the trial, of the people closest to her conspiring against her behind her back, and of being found out in a million terrible ways. Of saying the wrong thing, making a wrong decision. Of being found out, of being found out, of being found out.

Lying or keeping a secret feels existential still. Being honest still feels life threatening sometimes. Putting herself first feels like putting both hands on a hot stove.

She doesn't live in the palais anymore, doesn't have to sit through trials anymore, but her heart and soul are still there. In her dreams she's still at the place she spent her entire life's memories at.

Yes, she can make new memories, but it'll take time. More time than she has, maybe, now that she's the closest to being human she'll ever be.

She'll never be human in the way the people around her are.

What sort of human has 500 years worth of memories after all? What human tells personal anecdotes and mixes up their centuries?

What sort of human can feel the absence of their divinity like it's a physical thing? A voice that will never speak to her again, or keep her alive? What human has no family, no childhood?

What human remembers so little, but still remembers death somewhere deep within?

She jerks out of sleep from it sometimes, gasping for air, and spends the rest of the night awake, almost frozen by fear. The flood is over, but it's hard to convince her racing heart that the danger is too.

Humans have entire family trees that go generations back, but Furina was put into this world a solitary creature, her blood heavy with sin ever since she turned human.

She owns a hydro vision now and doesn't know how to yield it, but the ocean still calls out to her some days. Sea creatures flock to her like they can smell she's not human enough.

She learns how to make little hydro companions for herself, so the darkness and emptiness of her apartment feels less ominous when she lies awake at night.

She can't turn her vision into a weapon quite yet, but when it rains the droplets seem to cling to her. She's watched them roll upwards along her arm, watched them gather in her palm like kin. She wonders if sea creatures flock to neuvillette in a similar way, or if his immense power makes them recoil. She wonders if elemental dragons can feel regret. Wonders if he, too, ever feels entirely foreign in that human body he was given. If he, too, lies awake trying to grasp faint memories of a past life.

She's extremely human in the way she's plagued by body pains from not being able to relax just one day in five centuries. The years catch up with her once she gets out of survival mode, and fatigue is a constant companion now. Sleep comes difficultly and getting out of bed was easier when the fate of a whole nation depended on it. On her. She's never lived for just herself before and some days she's not sure she wants to.

She did her duty and earned her retirement and the story turned out well, all things considered. She still has people by her side, some of them.

Still, she feels raw and tired and overwhelmed by the life lying ahead of her. As a human and as someone who will always be Something Else.

[embrosegraves]

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕚𝕕𝕠 𝕋𝕠 𝕄𝕪 𝕃𝕦𝕚𝕘𝕚

Alessandro Fusaro x Fem!Reader (she/her) Where taking your niece to a race has an unexpected, very stressful (but eventually very welcome) outcome.

Warnings: None! Maybe some brief talks of the dreaded emotions!! (also probably some bad Italian translations 😅)

Ember's Notes: I really hope you like this one @pear-1206 because I actually loved writing it so much oml 🫶🫶

(I left it kind of open ended so if there’s a decent demand for it, I can write a part two that focuses mainly on the pairing)

For as long as you could remember, your family had been staunch Ferrari supporters. You had been part of the Tifosi for your whole life. It was something that you had found so much joy in, being able to cheer and root for the same team as the rest of your family. Which is why you had asked your younger brother if you could take your 7 year old niece, Gianna, to the Imola Grand Prix. He had told you a few months ago that he was trying to get Gianna to be a Ferrari fan (a fan of motorsport in general) but it was turning out to be tough work.

Originally your father had planned to take you with him, but given the circumstances, he had told you to take Gianna. So you brought it up to your brother and his wife. Your sister-in-law had been worried that something might happen to Gianna (and you of course) but she swiftly agreed to let you take her daughter when you promised to facetime every morning and every night that you were away. All that was left to do was to tell Gianna that she would get to spend a whole weekend with her Zia Y/n. [Auntie]

A few weeks have gone by and it was finally time for you to introduce your niece to the world of Formula One. You hoped that she would have fun, especially given just how excited she was when her parents told her about the trip. You desperately didn’t want that excitement to have been for nothing.

“How long will we take this weekend, Zia?” You heard her ask from the backseat of your car, your beloved 1959 Fiat 500. Your car had been another thing that Gianna was excited about for the weekend, as you usually only drove it around on special occasions.

“We’re going to be here all weekend, Bambina. Nonno was kind enough to get us passes into the garage for the whole weekend.” You told her. [Baby] [Grandpa]

“Are we going to meet important people?” She asked, twiddling with her thumbs timidly. You became worried as this was so far away from how she usually was.

“Mmm, I’m not sure Fiore. Why? Are you nervous?” [Flower]

“Un po’” [A little bit]

Your heart melted and seized simultaneously. You reassured her that being nervous was normal, because she had never gone to a race weekend before. Wanting to see her smile again, you offered to teach her about who was who in the paddock as soon as you settled into your hotel room. Gianna quickly agreed and was back to her vibrant, excited self in no time.

Walking into the paddock on Friday morning was a feeling that you would happily get used to. Gianna had asked if you could try and get there earlier than all the drivers. When you asked, she told you that she still wasn’t 100% confident about who was who, despite spending well over an hour the night before looking up pictures and matching them to names. Gianna said that by getting there earlier than the others, the two of you could find a nice spot somewhere near the entrance where you could point and tell her who was walking through.

Thinking about it, you couldn’t fault her logic. So here you were bright and early. You had arrived with enough time to buy some breakfast and find a nicely shaded spot where you could settle in while you waited. Gianna had insisted that you both sit at a table that was both directly opposite the paddock entrance and under a rather large tree. Sitting down you gave Gianna her breakfast, a freshly toasted bacon and egg croissant, and made sure that she was drinking enough water from her Cars themed bottle. Similarly you also began to eat your own croissant while you sipped your scalding hot coffee.

Gianna spoke to you about what she was most excited for this weekend while you both ate. Occasionally someone would walk through the entrance that she recognised. You were surprised just how often she had noticed someone that you mentioned the previous night. So far she had pointed out some drivers, a few of the team principals and the occasional mechanic or engineer.

When Hannah Schmidt had walked through though, Gianna had nearly fallen off her seat as she pointed and told you that she had recognised and remembered the iconic woman. Said woman had heard Gianna excitedly cry and she had smiled and waved at your niece as she walked to the Red Bull garage.

You smiled when you noticed that Hannah had waved at Gianna. Happy that this trip was definitely living up to what you had promised your niece. Seeing that the two of you had long since stopped eating, you packed away your rubbish and cleaned up the area you had been sitting.

“Should we walk around for a bit, Gigi? Stretch our legs a little?”

“Yes please, Zia.”

So you packed away your things and threw away your rubbish in a nearby bin. You held Gianna’s hand and walked around for a bit as you didn’t need to be in the garage for a little while still.

Walking around the paddock with your niece made sure to point out all the things she thought were interesting. You were giving her little tidbits of information throughout the whole walk, about a bunch of things that had to do with motorsport. Granted most of the information was directly about Ferrari but hey, you were trying to induct a brand new member of the Tifosi.

Unbeknownst to you, just as you were starting to tell Gianna about the extensive history of Ferrari, a member of the Scuderia Ferrari media team had strolled past you and had heard you speaking about Enzo Ferrari. They had quickly turned around and you found yourself being approached by a small media team no less than 2 minutes later.

“Hi, I’m Sophia. I’m part of Ferrari’s media team, I was just wondering if we could film you answering some Ferrari related questions for a youtube video?”

Having not expected this change of events at all, but also knowing you wouldn’t get another chance, you agreed to let them film you. So long, of course, that they didn’t get Gianna’s face in the shot. As they started to set their equipment, you gently kneeled next to your niece and asked her to stay within a few metres of you so that she wouldn’t get lost.

“Te lo prometto Zia!” [I promise Auntie!]

“Bene.” [Good.]

As you stood up they told you that they were ready to film when you were. Giving them the go ahead they pressed record and started asking you questions. First general questions about Formula One but soon they started to ask more obscure questions about Ferrari specifically. You smiled and gave as many answers as you could. Which was a lot. Later when the video would come out, a lot of people would comment that had you not introduced yourself at the beginning they’d’ve thought you were related to Enzo himself.

The questions had ended after almost twenty minutes. Sophia had apologised because she wasn’t aware how long that would take but you assured her it was no problem at all. You readjusted your shoulder bag and went to grab Gianna’s hand, only to not see her where she was supposed to be standing.

“Gianna?” you called, trying not to panic. She was right beside you, where could she have gone?

“Gigi?! Fiore, this isn’t funny!” you tried to call out again. “Zia’s getting really worried!”

Having already excused yourself from the media team next to you, disregarding their shocked and worried looks, you quickly started walking around trying to find your niece. Walking towards the end of the paddock you kept calling out for her, hoping that someone would take pity on you and help you look. Thankfully you had taken a “fit check” photo with her this morning, meaning that when you went up to people asking if they’d seen her, you could show them a picture of what she was wearing that day.

Too many people had said they’d not seen her at all for you to be comfortable. You were starting to get frantic when another 10 minutes had gone by. There was no way you were returning home without your niece. You’d turn into Liam Neeson if you found out that someone had taken her. Speed walking past the Ferrari garage, you finally heard the sound you had needed to hear.

Gianna’s giggles.

Letting her giggling lead you to her, you ended up in the garage where you needed to be for the beginning of the practise sessions. Looking around for Gianna, you noticed that one of the mechanics was crouching down but not facing the car at all. Walking closer you finally saw that the mechanic was entertaining you niece, whose face was lit up with the biggest smile you had ever seen.

Emotions washed over you like a tsunami. She hadn’t been taken. Tears welled up in your eyes at the utter relief you felt finally knowing that she had been safe the whole time.

Rushing over to her, you quickly scooped her up into a hug, wrapping your arms around her tightly.

“Gianna! Mia cara ragazza, non hai idea di quanto fossi preoccupato! I thought someone had taken you away and you were lost forever! Sono così felice che tu stia bene!” By now your tears had begun falling down your face. [My darling girl, you have no idea how worried I was!] [I’m so glad you’re okay!]

“Zia! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to break my promise but someone pushed into me and I fell and when I got up again I couldn’t see you and then I bumped into Alessandro and he asked me why I was crying and so I told him that I couldn’t see you and that we were supposed to go to the Ferrari garage for practise so he made sure I got here without anyone else pushing me!” She rushed to tell you everything that had led to this moment. You finally let go of her, moving your hands to stroke the hair away from her face. In the back of your mind you noted that she had bumped into Charles Leclerc’s head mechanic, but that could be focussed on later.

“It’s okay Principessa. You found help, I’m proud of you. I was just worried when I couldn’t see you, that's all.” You said, finally able to wipe your own tears off of your face. “Did you say thank you to Mr. Fusaro?”

Alessandro decided to cut in before Gianna could tell you that she had indeed said thank you. “Please, there’s no need for thank you’s. I didn’t want her to get more lost or upset.”

Standing up, you gently placed a hand on Gianna’s shoulder as you faced the man in front of you. “I must insist, you just saved me from a horrible phone call with my sister-in-law.”

You both chuckled a little as you spoke. He brushed you off again saying he loved hanging out with Ferrari’s biggest little fan.

“Zia, he has a tattoo! It’s so cool!” Seeing Alessandro get a bit bashful when your niece spoke made you curious, but you decided to not bring a lot of attention to that.

“Does he?” You said. Of course you already knew. Being part of the Tifosi for as long as you had, Alessandro’s Guido tattoo was common knowledge. Funnily enough it was one of the questions Sophia had asked you. Which ferrari mechanic has an iconic tattoo and what is the tattoo? It was your favourite question to answer as it allowed you to bring up your precious Fiat 500 that you had named Luigi after the Fiat from the Cars movie. It technically also allowed you to bring up your own tattoo which was, again, based on Luigi from Cars. Not that you did bring it up. You’d never hear the end of it from your father.

“Uhuh! It’s a red Guido from the same movie as yours!” Trust your innocent niece to blurt to all Ferrari that you also had a Cars themed tattoo.

Alessandro was now less bashful and more intrigued about your tattoo.

“The same movie as yours?” He asked.

You chuckled and continued to smooth out Gianna’s hair as you faced Alessandro. “Yeah, a few years ago, maybe a month before Gianna was born, I got a tattoo of Luigi from Cars. In a pale red instead of the usual yellow.”

Gianna nodded her head quickly and began to excitedly tell him all about how the first movie she had ever watched with you was Cars and how it had become your thing together.

All too quickly time caught up and it was soon time for Alessandro to go back to work. Gianna had deflated a little at the knowledge but she perked up again when Alessandro had said that he would try and talk to them again after both practise sessions had finished.

“After all,” he said, kneeling in front of her but looking up at you, “I’d love to get to know you better.”

I actually love this so much (When I get back home, I'll be making a new masterlist for the non-drivers that I'm gonna be writing for) ((also, while i’m away from my computer i’m gonna be typing up some dusty requests and maybe some drafts as well on my phone so please excuse any irregular formatting i’ll try and fix them before i post them))

this is also being posted a lot later than i initially thought it would be. i had planned for it to be posted before Monaco but 😅 (also something will be coming for the monaco race but i want it to be perfect so it might be a while before that comes to light)

[moon-snailsss]

Flying foxes

Basics

Bats make up the taxonomic order Chiroptera. They are traditionally categorized into two groups. There are small micro bats (Microchiroptera) and MUCH larger mega bats (Megachiroptera). Only Micro bats have the ability to use echolocation! Mega bats do not, they actually rely on eyesight and smell to navigate!

Flying foxes or more formally Pteropus is a Genus of megabats which are some of the largest bats in the world! They are often referred to as “fruit bats” or “flying foxes.” I will be referring to them as flying foxes. They can reach a wing span of 5 feet. There are currently 60 extant(living) species of flying foxes! They inhabit, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Australia, East Africa and some islands in the Pacific and Indian Ocean. Most flying foxes are nocturnal. Unlike the majority of other bats, flying foxes don’t rely on echolocation to find food! They rely on their keen sense of sight and smell. They fly 9 to 40 miles every night to hunt. When feeding they spit out seeds, enabling plant growth!

Eye sight

As I previously mentioned, flying foxes cant echolocate so they rely on their sense of smell and their sight to hunt! They have really cool eye features/adaptations that enables them to see so well at night! (even better than us!)

Eyesight 101

Every animal has 2 types of cells in their eyes that allow them to see. We have rods, which help us see in low light and detect fast moving objects. They are concentrated in the outer areas of the retina and give us peripheral vision. Rods are 500 to 1,000 times more sensitive to light than cones. The second cells are cones, which allow us to tell the difference between colors and see more detail. There are 3 different cones, which allow us to see red, green, and blue wavelengths of visible light. Since we have all 3 they allow us to see the full color spectrum ( trichromatic vision ).

(Back to flying foxes) Flying foxes don’t have the type of cone to see red wavelengths. This also happens to humans! It’s the same condition that causes us to become red-green colorblind. Everything will appear in a blue or yellow tone. Flying foxes have around 10 times less cones than people, therefore they see less colors. To make up for the lack of cones, they’ve adapted even more rods. This gives flying foxes better low-light vision than people. It allows them to navigate very well at night by using roads, rivers and streetlights.

Chiropterophily

Chiropterophily is the pollination of plants and flowers by bats. More than 500 species of tropical plants are pollinated by nectar+pollen eating bats. There is evidence that trees in the Myrtacaea family have co-evolved with nocturnal foragers and use them to keep genetic diversity over wide ranges. These trees flower and produce nectar at night, and they have bright colored blooms that are easy for flying foxes to locate. Without flying foxes, it would be harder for these trees to maintain genetic diversity over long distances.

Habitat

Flying foxes live in tropical forests, wetlands and swamps. They need to live in large trees as their colonies consist of hundreds to thousands of bats! They live in paperback forests, eucalypt forests, and rainforests.

Diet

Flying foxes are herbivores and frugivores. They thrive off a diverse diet consisting mostly of fruits, leaves, pollen, and nectar. They prefer tropical fruits like bananas, mangoes as well as berries and figs. Flying foxes also consume leaves from a variety of trees and shrubs, and collect pollen from flowers. By feeding on these resources flying foxes aide in the pollination and seed dispersal in their ecosystems. This makes them a keystone species!

Here’s a source that can give you more insight on their eyesight: https://sydneybats.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Flying-foxes_are_very_visible_visual_bats_M_Graydon.pdf

That’s all, I hope you learned something new!!

Ps: The image I used is an Indian flying fox

[hero-israel]

So I'm Christian & I'm Sierra Leonean and Irish & I'm like, the biggest Zionist in my town 😅

Today someone brought up the recent post Bassem Yussef (idk that i spelled that right) (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBIspyMJjZu/?igsh=NzhvOHhkYTA3OHZl) made, about how Jews only tie to the land is religion, but they wanna claim Israel is not a theocratic state. & I sorta blew up at the chick who brought it up & now I'm doubting my accuracy. & since you seem to know your stuff, I figured maybe you could approve or give me a hint, so I can correct my claims before she fact-checks me on it 💀

Basically, my argument was -

He can't be that stupid. History. The answer is history.

In and outside of religion.

It's just like most of Cyprus and Turkey could justifiably be called and claimed by Greece (and has been attempted to do so) (due to historical & archaeological proof, which is based on and revolved around Ancient Greek Religion).

Israel's archaeological history proves the claim and origin of the Jewish people.

Now, no one can really argue that no Arabs today should have any claim to the land, I'm sure Jews converted in Arabic Palestine and when they were slaves in Roman and Christian Europe. & I'm sure at some point genealogy becomes a untraceable mix.

But historical fact also proofs that not many people ever converted to Judaism (it was just not practical, or popular or save to do so.)

So, most Judaism today is the only inherited trait the then slaves taken by the Romans (and possibly refugees) still share.

And genetically, most of them can actually be linked in some way. Judaism is the only/mosy persistent historial tie to the land. The only thing descendants of Roman slaves still have in common.

Black people have skin colour to indicate their heritage and getting rid of melanin takes quite a while.

But take, say native Americans out of the US for 500 years, send them to places like North Korea or Belarus, or Russia or China & allow them to mix with the them - there's not going to be much of a traceable indication of who they were left, except the stories, believes and rituals that past generations pass down them. That doesn't diminish their claim to the land or their history tho.

And it's the same for Jews. I'm sure there's tons of European Christians or Middle Eastern Muslims or Indian Hindus, who have Roman slaves (or Ancient Palestinian/Israeli refugees) as ancestors & have ties to the land.

But we have forgotten our past & let go of our connection, somewhere along the family tree. And that is okay.

We're allowed to forget. We're allowed to accommodate others. But you cannot deny the history or the truth.

Thank you for writing - and for helping to spread the word about our right to live in our homeland in peace!

I try to be patient with Bassem Youssef, I really do. He's very telegenic and he's not at the hatemongering level of a Mehdi Hasan or Mohammed El-Kurd. The question he asked wasn't inherently unfair - it's just that it also wasn't very meaningful and someone who had read a book about Jews and Israel could have firmly answered it in ten seconds.

Yes, as you said - our history links us there. It is very literally the Jewish homeland, you don't have to believe in talking snakes and burning bushes to be able to dig up archeological sites mentioned in the Torah and still bearing Hebrew writing.

Youssef is being disingenuous re: whether the Jews have "more" of a right to the land than Palestinians. Is he talking about in the 1940s, when for decades "Palestinian" had meant Jew and the modern understanding of a Palestinian Arab identity hadn't really formed yet? Or is he talking about today - when Palestinians live under Palestinian governments in Palestinian territories? He can argue for improving Palestinian rights and sovereignty, or he can morally preen and splutter about "how DARE those Jews of all people!" - he really can't do both.

And note that while he's not full hatemonger level, he is pretty explicitly denying that Jews are a people or ethnic group - we can ONLY be a religion, so anyone who is an atheist can't be Jewish and can't press any claim to the land. The concept that Israel is a "theocracy" is in itself laughable, as is the notion that any country with a favored religion must be one; Denmark and the UK certainly aren't. Note that his "all you Zionists in particular are atheists" snotglob is basically a copy-paste from pseudohistorian Ilan Pappe.

[bluesylveon2]

Hello! I have read your work and just fell in love with it! You feel the characters so well that I'm even jealous, hehe. Congratulations on 500 subscribers and I look forward to your creative development and further <3 I hope requests are open for people like me) /this is my first request, I'm a little worried/ May I ask you about Idia+Reader? Where Idia and the reader are very good friends and always tease each other and are not afraid in terms of each other, but they do not understand the feeling of "love" until they are told about it directly. Thanks and sorry for the trouble! Good luck to you <3

Hi and thank you!! I am so sorry for the wait! Don't worry about it being your first request. I made it in the same world as the royal au I have. I tried to get everything you asked but I got most of it! I hope that you enjoy it though. Btw this is long lol

Summary: Watch the love story of Idia Shroud and Yuu Ceres

Note: royal au, childhood friends to lovers, OC's (Alcides is twst Hercules, Demetra, Fira), both Idia and Yuu are implied to be demigods or are related to the Greek gods/goddesses, fluff, some angst, mentions of Ortho's backstory, some tech, and slightly based on Hades and Persephone

Warning: not beta read and possible ooc characters

Word Count: 3.8k

Masterlist: here, Series Masterlist: here

Idia and Yuu age 5

A young boy with pale skin and flaming blue hair wandered through the forest following a shiny light. He had noticed it float by while his father was busy at an annual conference hosted by the Ceres family. Curious about the light and bored from doing nothing, the boy decided to follow it.

"Hey! Wait for me!" The boy called out. The light continued moving farther and farther. His breathing started becoming heavier the more he ran. Suddenly, the light stopped, stood next to a tree, and gave Idia an expected look. Idia ran until he got a glimpse of what the light was. "A fairy.." He said breathlessly. Idia had heard of fairies from his mother and how they can come in many shapes and sizes. This fairy was small and emitted bright light. Nothing like the famous prince from Briar Valley the boy had heard about. 

"Who are you? How do you know my friend?" A new voice asked.

"AH!" Idia screamed and found a girl sitting behind the tree the fairy stood by. The girl wore a dress, and her eyes were red from crying. 

"I'm Idia. I saw this fairy fly by, and I followed it. What's your name?"

The girl smiled sadly. "Yuu Ceres." The girl turned to the fairy. "Thank you, Fira." She then turned to Idia. "I think she was looking for someone to cheer me up."

Idia sat down next to the girl. He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to her. "What happened?" he asked with curiosity. 

"My mom. She is always so overprotective and expects a lot from me. She won't let me have fun."

"Why don't you just tell her or run away?"

"Because she won't let me leave. Even if I did, I don't know who to turn to since everything I hear about the outside world is through books." Fira frowned and said something, although all Idia could hear were bells. "Yes, I have you and the other fairies, but I can't go to your world with you."

Idia hummed in thought until he got a lightbulb. "I know! My dad wants me to come with him to these meetings. Why don't we meet again and play the next time I come?"

"Really?! Do you mean it?"

Idia nodded shyly. "Yeah."

Yuu grinned and pulled Idia in for a hug. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

Idia blushed before slowly hugging Yuu back. Little did the two kids know that this moment set the foundation for the precious friendship between Idia and Yuu. Their friendship would last for a lifetime. 

Idia and Yuu age 6

"Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! Ready or not, here I come!" A 4-year-old Ortho giggled. Meanwhile, Yuu and Idia were hiding closely together behind a giant boulder. 

"Hehe, he is not going to find us now." Yuu laughed as she watched the boy go in the opposite direction from their hiding spot. Her eyes were so focused on Ortho that she did not notice Idia's hair turning slightly pink. 

"Maybe, but he will find us if you keep laughing like that."

Yuu stuck her tongue out playfully at Idia. "Please. We'll be fine."

Idia checked the area before turning to Yuu. "We should split up so Ortho would have difficulty finding us." The boy moved to stand up but was stopped by Yuu grabbing his hand.

"Wait! We should go together!"

"But it is better for us to divide and not stick to one spot."

Yuu slowly let go of Idia and sighed. "I just don't want you to leave me." She looked up at Idia's yellow eyes. "You are my best friend. If we go down, we can go down together."

Idia lightly blushed, and he looked away from Yuu's adorable eyes. How dare his crush be so cute. "I-"

"I FOUND YOU, BIG BRO AND BIG SIS!"

"AHH!" Idia and Yuu immediately clung to each other and screamed.

"Let's run for it!" Yuu exclaimed.

"I agree." Idia nodded, and the two made a run for it. 

All three children ran through the forest without a care in the world. Their innocent laughter filled the air, unaware of the change about to occur.

Idia and Yuu age 10

Yuu sat humming a tune in her designated tree. She was waiting for her best friend, Idia, to return for their annual meet-up. Yuu thought that their first meeting five years ago was not out of luck. She finally felt something similar to freedom by spending time with the Shroud brothers. Her mother was not constantly eyeing her or strict teachers nagging about her mistakes. Yuu could finally be around people besides her fairy friends who did not care about these things.

"I'm so excited, Fira. I can show Idia how my magic has been improving." Yuu smiled as she conjured a tiny daisy from the ground. Fira's bell voice made Yuu laugh. "What? I want to show off my magic."

Fira rolled her eyes.

"Fine. I mostly want to see him. I like seeing his hair be pink when he thinks I don't notice." Yuu giggled while she eyed the flower. "I wonder what it means…" Fira's voice jingled, causing Yuu to look at her in shock. "You think he likes me? There's no way he does, Fira. He only sees me as a friend." 

Yuu traced her fingers along the grass, causing more flowers to grow. It was something to pass the time as she waited. She just had to be patient and wait. 

Minutes passed.

Hours passed.

Finally, the sun was setting. 

Yuu sat there waiting on Idia, only for him to not appear. Fira watched her friend in pity as she left stood up to leave. 

"It's okay. Things happen. Maybe he will come tomorrow?" Yuu said with hope as she walked back home. The girl felt an unsettling weight on her chest with each step. 

Yuu let her feet guide her, and soon enough, she was at the long dinner table eating with her mother and the conference attendants. Usually, this is where she would return to her quiet self but speak to Idia with a code they made up. 

The girl scanned the crowd until she spotted a familiar mop of blue fire hair, only to find one from Idia's father. Despite that, Yuu felt hope that he would return tomorrow. She made a promise to return to their spot to wait for him.

Only to find out he never did, even after the conference ended. 

Idia never returned for years; it was like he was never there. 

Yuu felt the uncertain feeling grow as the years progressed. It was after many years that she realized what it was: heartbreak.

Idia and Yuu age 18

Yuu lay on a sofa reading a book in peace. It was one of the rare moments when her mother was on a trip for days, leaving Yuu to her own devices. Yuu was reading a story about a faraway city in a desert when she heard a knock on the door. She listened to the butler open it and some talking nearby. It was an unfamiliar voice that Yuu was not used to, so she ignored it instead. The girl continued reading until she heard footsteps heading her way.

"My Lady, you have a guest. His name is Idia Shroud."

Yuu dropped her book and turned to the butler. There, standing next to him, was her old childhood friend. He now grew very tall, wore a grey outfit, had long flame-blue hair almost touching the floor, and had a nervous look. His yellow eyes looked at anything but Yuu. 

"Thank you, Mecon. You can go now. I want to speak to him privately." 

Mecon bowed and stepped out, leaving Yuu and Idia alone to sit silently. Yuu had a neutral look while Idia continued to look at the walls. Yuu took a few steps towards Idia and stopped in front of him.

"Hi."

"Why?" Yuu's hands curled up in fists, and she took a deep breath to fight the urge to punch him. "Why did you disappear and not tell me anything?"

"Yuu, I-"

"Let me finish," Yuu responded sharply and glared daggers at Idia. "You left me for years and suddenly showed up just like that? I thought that we were friends?"

 "I know sorry is not going to fix this, but I had a reason." Idia looked away and sighed. "There was an accident at the Isle of Woe, and Ortho did not make it."

Yuu felt her anger mostly drain away, and shock took its place. "I'm so sorry."

"It's alright. The accident caused me to lock myself in my room because I wanted to help rebuild my brother." A small smile graced Idia's face, and he turned to Yuu. "You should see him now. He has become a technomatic humanoid and can now make his own decisions. I can bring him for you if you want."

"So Ortho is now a robot?"

"Initially, but now he has advanced so much that he is more human-like. He did that all on his own." Idia shifted his weight before he spoke again. "Yuu, I know neglecting you was not the right thing to do. However, I know Ortho misses you, and I-" Idia stopped himself. "want to fix our friendship."

Yuu looked at Idia in confusion, but she did not question him. "You know that may take a while.”

Idia looked at Yuu with confidence. "I am willing to take the risk."

---

"WHY DID I SAY THAT?" Idia cried the moment he entered his room. Meanwhile, Ortho closed his book and looked at his brother in curiosity.

"How did your meeting go with Big Sister?" Ortho could recall meeting the girl from his old memories and still referred to her with that nickname despite never meeting her. There was a reason the previous Ortho called Yuu that, and Idia never figured it out. 

"Well, she got mad at me, as she should, and then I made a mistake."

"What did you do?"

Idia sighed and looked at his brother. "I did not tell her I missed her and said I wanted to fix our friendship instead. How lame of me for not admitting it!"

Ortho set his book aside and floated to his brother. "That is still a good start! An important step to a healthy romantic relationship is friendship."

"ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP? Where did that come from?"

Ortho only giggled. "Big Brother, my old memories show you always blushed around Yuu. That means that you like her!"

"Ortho, I was a kid at the time. It was basically puppy love. Besides, she did not like me that way."

"Your heart rate is increasing."

"Because I am being a laughing stock right now!"

Ortho sighed. "There is nothing wrong with having feelings. Your research notes always included Yuu one way or another."

Idia looked at Ortho quizzingly. "You looked at my notes?"

"So you should focus on being her friend and then see where it goes. It could help rekindle your relationship."

Idia sighed. His friendship with Yuu was practically at level 2 and not level 100 after many years had passed. It would be hard, but he needed to work to save it. 

Idia and Yuu age 24

A few years passed since idia and Yuu reunited, and they rekindled most of what they had lost. Both had changed in their own unique ways. In fact, Yuu thought that Idia's shy personality was adorable. Gone were the annual visits. Instead, Idia made an effort (shocking, right) to send in a drone that looked like a bird with a hologram attached so they could keep tabs on one another. 

Yuu was surprised by the number of inventions Idia made during their time apart. He always continued to surprise her at each visit. His latest one was currently a surprise for Yuu. 

"Where are you taking me, Ortho?" Yuu asked. She was currently being led somewhere by Ortho, floating behind her with his hands on her shoulders. A cloth was tied around Yuu's eyes, so she could not see anything. 

"It's a surprise from Big Brother!" Ortho said gleefully, causing Yuu to giggle. Seeing how her friend had grown ever since they first met was nice. Both Yuu and Ortho continued walking until Ortho stopped putting pressure on Yuu. "Okay, we're here." The boy said and proceeded to remove the blindfold. 

Yuu squinted her eyes as bright light entered her vision. She blinked until her eyes became adjusted to her surroundings. She was in the middle of a field, with trees lining up the border, and in front of her was no other than Idia standing next to an odd-looking contraption. 

"What's that?" Yuu asked, pointing to the machine next to her friend. 

Idia's eyes widened, and he twiddled his fingers together. "It's your birthday gift." He replied shyly, pink covering the tips of his hair. 

Yuu examined the machine. "Really? What does it do?"

"Just watch." Idia pressed a button, causing a dome to project from the machine and appear around the field. The machine spilled out various seeds, scattering them amongst the grass. Once it was settled, Idia's hands glowed. Yuu watched as he murmured a spell, causing a variety of flowers to grow. Light fairies appeared like fireflies and flew to each flower, illuminating each one in multitudes of colors. Meanwhile, Ortho flew around like Yuu's fairy friends.  

Yuu's mouth opened in shock as she inspected a few. "Are these marigolds?" She pointed at another nearby, "And is this a snowdrop?" She turned to her friend in amazement. "How did you do this? These two should not grow in the same season."

Idia looked away from Yuu. "Well, it was not hard. This dome creates a greenhouse effect, so you can grow various flowers here. They also stay alive longer." He slowly turned to Yuu. "Do you like it?"

Yuu felt touched for the first time in her life. She felt her heart grow light and tears form in her eyes. "Idia," She wiped the tears out of her eyes. "I love it. This is the best thing you could have ever given me."

"I know how much you love flowers."

"And I cannot thank you enough." Yuu suddenly hugged Idia and rested her head on his racing heart, causing him to let out a small eep. "Thank you, Idia. I love it."

Ortho and the other fairies watched as Idia's hair became pink, and he slowly hugged Yuu back. The two looked like lovers stuck in their own little world. 

"They are definitely in love."

The fairies jingling voices agreed.

---

Two individuals lay in their beds that night, deep in thought. 

"Fira?" "Ortho?"

"What is it?" both replied in their own ways. 

"What is this feeling I'm experiencing? My heart keeps racing when I think of Yuu/Idia. I want to see her/him smile and be around her/him all the time."

"Oh, Yuu/Idia, you are just in love."

A blush filled their faces, and they smiled gleefully. They felt warm in their chest at the thought of the respective crush. It felt nice, like a flame infamous in the Shroud family. 

Both the fairies and Ortho knew what they needed to do. 

---

"Mother, I need to talk to you," Yuu said, entering her mother's study.

Demetra set her wine glass down and looked at her daughter. "What is it?"

Yuu took a deep breath and confidently walked up to her mother. "It is about my marriage. I found someone I am interested in."

Demetra raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Who is the lucky suitor?"

"Idia Shroud."

Suddenly, as soon as the name left Yuu's mouth, the room felt icy. Yuu questioned whether or not her mother had an affinity for ice for that brief second. 

"What?"

"I said that the man I want to marry is Idia Shroud."

"No."

"But mother!"

"No, Yuu," Demetra said, standing up. "The Shrouds are nothing for troublemakers. They deserved their punishment after they rebelled against the Jupiter family."

"But he did nothing, Mother! That was all in the past!" Yuu exclaimed. Her eyes burned in fury as she recalled her dear friend's shy personality. 

Demetra scoffed and shook her head. "Their family does nothing more than play with monsters. I heard that Shroud, whom you love so much, even turned his brother into one after an accident. I've seen your loved one's father shy away ever since."

Ortho's face comes to mind, how he still smiled despite not being the original Ortho. "Don't you dare say that about Ortho! Idia loves him as a brother!" Yuu said with tears in her eyes. 

"Or what? The family is cursed, and if you run to him, you will suffer too. You will be stuck on an island surrounded by monsters." Demetra remained indifferent as she watched her daughter cry. "Yuu, I am doing this for your own good."

"Doing what? I love him!"

Demetra tsked. "You need to get over your puppy love. Besides, I found someone suitable for you."

Yuu froze and looked at her mother. "What do you mean?"

Demetra smiled, the first good emotion during the whole conversation. "I spoke to the head of the Jupiter family, and he agreed that you are to be arranged to marry Alcides Jupiter. He is smart,  handsome, and in line to take over his family. A perfect match for you."

Yuu felt her world collapse as she herself fell to her knees. She knew of Alcides, but she could not imagine being tied down to him because of her mother's doing. She wanted the freedom to go out and see the world outside the little bubble she had been stuck in for 24 years. Sure, she might be stuck on the Island of Woe, but she would have more access to the outside world than she was now. 

Demetra kneeled down and patted Yuu's shoulder. "You will get to meet him next week. Trust me, Yuu. Everything will work out in the end. As they say, mother knows best." She walked out of the room, leaving Yuu by herself. 

Yuu wiped her eyes with her hands. Her eyes wandered to the walls and their flower designs around her. She felt like the walls constricted her and trapped her in a glorified cage. Yuu's eyes caught on an orange light floating in a window. She looked at the light with determination. 

She needed to get out now. 

---

A few days later, at night, Yuu made her move. Packing only a few necessities, Yuu opened her window to find her fairy friends around her. 

"Do you have everything you need?" Ortho asked as he floated to Yuu's window. 

"Yeah, I made sure to" Yuu turned to Ortho, who was wearing a black suit and had a robotic dog beside him. "Ortho? What are you doing here?'

Ortho giggled. "Your friends reached out to me and told me your situation, and I am here to bring you to the Island of Woe." Fira nodded and spoke something that came out like bells. "Fira also wants to come along too."

"But what about your friends? Won't you miss them?" Yuu asked, and her friend smiled. Her bell voice made a sound that sounded something like reassurance. As if she was telling Yuu that she would be okay with it. 

"Alright, I will let you tag along." Yuu smiled as Fira flew to her shoulder. 

"Now that is settled, let's head out before sunrise." Ortho motioned to the robot dog. "Yuu, you will ride Cerberus 1 while I fly us out. I'll make sure to use my magic to cover our tracks."

Yuu nodded and took one last look at her room. That room was full of memories since her childhood. The walls had seen Yuu grow with her mother and late father, cry over strict lessons, and talk to her fairy friends about Idia. Yuu felt a heavy sensation in her chest and turned to Ortho. 

"What about my mom? She would know I went to you to the Island."

"My parents and my grandmother will vouch for us. Don't worry; we will ensure you get the freedom you deserve."

Yuu nodded and hopped on Cerberus. "So long, Mother."

---

"Psst. Big Brother. Wake up."

Idia groaned and turned away from Ortho. "Five more minutes."

"You have to wake up! I have a surprise for you."

"Can't it wait?"

A female voice laughed, causing Idia to wake up instantly. "You want me to wait?" 

Idia threw his blanket off and sat up. Yuu's amused face filled his vision, causing Idia to blush at his embarrassing predicament. "Yuu? When did you come here?"

Yuu laughed. "An hour ago. Ortho gave me a tour of this place and led me here. Thank goodness he was with me, or I would have been lost. I must get used to this place if I plan to stay here long."

"What do you mean?"

"My mother wanted me to marry Alcides since I uhh," she turned to Ortho. "Can you step outside while I explain the next part to your brother?" 

 Ortho smiled, and Idia noticed something in his eyes like his brother kept secret. "Alright. I will show Fira around some more." Said fire fairy magically appeared and followed Ortho out the door. 

Yuu took a deep breath now that she was alone. "My mother told me about the arranged marriage because I-" She looked into Idia's eyes. "Said that I was in love with you."

Idia.exe froze. His body stiffened, his heartbeat increased, and his hair turned pink. "W-WHAT? Are you sure?"

Yuu nodded. "Yes, I am sure." She sat down next to Idia. "You have been my friend for a long time, Idia; even after you shut yourself out, we connected like nothing happened. I want to be by your side doing more than hiding out in a forest. Of course, if you will allow me."

Idia felt as if he was going to burst. "But what about that Alcides guy?"

"I don't know him, but I know you more. My mother could throw many guys at me to marry, but it would not sway anything. I would still choose you." Yuu said, intertwining one of her hands with Idia's.

Idia felt elated despite the very obvious blush on his face. Luckily, Yuu ignored it and rested her head on his shoulder. "That was the cheesiest thing I have ever heard." Idia laughed and squeezed Yuu's hand.

Yuu squeezed back in response, and a smile graced her face. "Yes, but you never said you didn't like it."

"I don't."

A/N:

Demetra is inspired by Demeter in Greek mythology and Fira is based on the fire fairies in twst.

Ceres is Demeter's Roman name.

Yes this part of the royal au, but I hc that the Island of Woe is more advanced in technology than the whole world.

Disclaimer: I do not own Twisted Wonderland and its characters. Those belong to Aniplex, Walt Disney Japan, and Yana Toboso.

©: This story belongs to bluesylveon2 2020-23. DO NOT modify, republish, or plagiarize my work.

[jedusaur]

Recs: Clint/Bucky fics with 200-500 kudos

after going through the entire Clint/Bucky pairing tag on AO3, I did a recs post for my favorite fics with under 200 kudos (a range covering more than half of the works in the tag) and now I've decided to do one for fics with 200-500 kudos (another ~quarter of the tag). there are 36 pages of fic with more than 500 kudos, so I figure most people won't get to these on a casual binge.

What Spring Does With the Cherry Trees, by @bittercape (32k) Bucky moves into Clint's apartment building and starts working on figuring out what he likes. this one has that lovely chill vibe where they both kinda know where their relationship is heading and neither of them is in too much of a rush to get there, which is my absolute favorite kind of slow burn, and there's a lot of focus on reflection and healing and self-care and just hangin out being comfortable with each other <3

You Can Never Go Home Again, by @flawedamythyst (49k) Clint and Bucky get sent back in time to 1939, and Bucky slowly unlearns his internalized homophobia and realizes that the "just two straight buddies helping each other out" handjobs they've been exchanging are not actually straight. I did a literal double-take when I saw how few kudos this had, it is one of my favorite fics in this pairing and it has the single hottest first kiss I have ever read in my entire life

Delicate Tension, by @feedmecookiesnow (53k) beautiful, quiet, sweet, sexy road trip fic, with lots of pleasant imagery in Bucky's photography and a satisfying slow-ish burn that resolves about halfway through so there's some nice early relationship navigation too. the tags are accurate but don't really convey the vibe of it, the trauma stuff is fairly low-key and the general feel is uplifting. also, the choice of tattoo on Clint's ass is INSPIRED, just an absolute *chef's kiss* bit of characterization there

Days That Used To Last A Lifetime, by @there-must-be-a-lock (10k) in which Clint is a dog walker and Bucky is a shameless flirt and both of them are a hot mess and do a lot of recreational drugs and end up murmuring secrets to strangers at ass o'clock in the morning in someone else's apartment

Sequestered, by @lizabethl (38k) in which Clint and Bucky are separately sent off to the same beach house for a much-needed vacation, then hop back on duty just long enough to temporarily acquire a child. deals with some tough stuff but it's mostly about healing and connection and growth

Hydra's Bite, by @flawedamythyst (118k) Buffy AU with a long piney slow burn and great found-family vibes. Clint is the Xander who rescues Bucky from a nest of hydras, Natasha is the Slayer, Coulson is kind of the Giles except undead, Jarvis is the ghost butler, Bruce has a demon living in him, and Tony inherited leadership of the Watchers' Council from his dad. also there's a running joke about all the demons Clint has fucked XD

quickly dream away the time; and then the moon, by @cloud--atlas (16k) Clint is housesitting Tony Stark's mansion in the Hamptons when Lucky gets through a hole in the hedge and makes friends with the hot rich neighbor

Gonna Be My Girl?, by @mightymightygnomepriest (46k) Clint and Bucky hook up while Clint is dressed up as a schoolgirl for Halloween, then they both make some assumptions they shouldn't be making and Clint keeps fucking Bucky in girl mode only. I'm not generally a fan of this kind of miscommunication-based plot, but this one really worked for me

The Middle of the Story, by @lissadiane (13k) look. I know you're gonna read the tag "Clint is literally a unicorn" and immediately want to roll your eyes and close the tab. I know. just... *takes you by the shoulders and looks intensely into your eyes* just trust me, okay

Personal Security (Let's Go Steal Ourselves a Remix), by @supervillainny (8k) Clint develops an inconvenient crush on the head of security at the art gallery he and Nat are about to rob

Boris the Soviet Love Hammer, by @bittercape (11k) the title/tags/summary make this one sound way crackier than it is, it's just a fun get-together fic with a few shenanigans. the part where they're fighting bad guys and Steve goes "Hawkeye, NO" and Clint is just like :D "Hawkeye yes" :D made me laugh very very hard

Universal Constant, by @mariana-oconnor (16k) Clint gets knocked into another dimension where Bucky is a stripper, bangs him, then finds that dimension's Clint and bangs both of them together. A+ no notes

how do you want me, by @feathers-and-cigarettes and @sevdrag (6k) deliciously twisted hookup-turned-attempted-murder-turned-back-to-hookup

All Bark, All Bite, by @hawksonfire (6k) he was a werewolf, he was a vampire, can I make it any more obvious

[starryybugs]

i just wanna know more about the worldbuilding in demonoier au, literally whatever occult lore you wanna share. are there different kinds of demons, or angels for that matter? hierarchies? different planes? how do they feel about human beliefs about them, any superstitions they find funny or annoying? (you absolutely don’t have to answer all of these, also i hope you feel better soon!!)

moth I owe you my life for this strap the fuck in. ^_^

okay so! demons and angels used to be like one species, and they split like thousands of years ago. heaven and hell used to be more of what people think of as an afterlife, but now they're really just where demons and angels are born.

because of angels and demons stemming from the same source, it's easy for one to become the other under the right circumstances. like roier just leaving and being happier not being an angel was what turned him from a more feathery fallen angel and into how he is now.

demons and angels integrated into mortal society around 500 years ago by the time the au takes place, so everyone's pretty used to them hanging around. and there's a lot of people with angels or demons in their family trees

heaven and hell aren't accessible unless you've got a portal or a spell to get there. they used to be, like thousands of years ago, but it's not a good look for mortals to somehow fucking stumble into them so they're hidden.

okay so onto types of angels and demons!

so for demons what you are is more of just how you came to be, there's not a lot of demons who are the way they are for a job so to speak.

like roier is officially classified as a fallen angel, he used to be an angel and now he's not. or dapper and ramon who are twin demons, demons who used to be one singular being before they were born. there are demons of lust but nobody in the story is one of those, cellbit just thinks melissa is but she's not.

bad is one of the few demons who is a demon because of what he does, he's a reaper. technically anybody can become a reaper but they're usually demons or angels.

phil is like his angel counterpart, an angel of death. he does the same job as bad, the only difference being he's an angel.

etoiles is another type of angel, a guardian angel. he's a protector of the people around him, they used to be sent down specifically for certain people but now they usually protect an area or their families.

antoine is an Angel with a capital A. his true form is always hidden because it would probably drive any mortal who saw it to insanity. he's honestly just hanging out and there's not a lot of angels like him.

there's also risen demons, aka demons who became angels. that's what kameto is even though I've literally never spoken about him before

there's not really hierarchies in demons and angels anymore, there haven't been since heaven and hell became more like earth.

I'm also gonna talk a bit about summoning, since it's a huge part of the story.

summoning is basically speed dial for demons and angels, and depending on how you do it it's either like facetime or there's now a man in your house. (looking at you cellbit)

roier thought he closed his summoning line ages ago, back when bobby was born, so he was pretty fucking surprised when he showed up in cellbit's attic. he did eventually shut that one down and make a new one, and another one that won't pull him out of his house randomly.

roier's favorite superstition is the idea that he can steal souls. he absolutely can't, but he loves scaring the shit out of people who think he can. getting someone's soul is basically fucking marriage, and there's really only one soul he even wants.

[hulahoopsoupgroup]

more atla/genshin/hsr au headcanons: zuko edition

1. zuko secretly has a sweet tooth and he doesnt really like bitter stuff too much. wanderer has called him a pussy on multiple occasions for not liking his extremely bitter tea

2. nahida took zuko, iroh, and wanderer to liyue for lantern rite and zuko got emotional cause his family is from liyue and he doesnt have many good memories there, except for one year when he and ursa watched the fireworks at lantern rite

3. zhongli and xiao met them there and wanderer, xiao, and zuko went up to the mountains, angsting with every step, while zhongli, iroh, and nahida talked about the good old days

4. zuko has nightmares a lot about his past and he wakes up in a cold sweat at least 3 times a week, unable to go back to sleep, and he'll go outside or something and see wanderer sitting in a tree or something and say "why are you awake?" and wanderer says "i dont need sleep. sleep is for the weak"

5. zuko will go to liyue harbor a lot and rent out a little boat or something for the day and just drift out in the water. one time he fell asleep and ended up in inazuma, awoken by kazuha and aang (and later taken to the tenryou commission and questioned until they found out he left the fatui and let him go, but watched him for the next week)

6. while on his accidental trip to inazuma, kazuha is the one who accepts him the quickest, to aangs dismay, and he teaches zuko to properly meditate

7. after the tenryou commission lets him go back to sumeru when aang and kazuha vouch for him, hes walking through ritou to go back, and he sees a box of tea that he thinks iroh may like. maybe even wanderer. and he brings it back. turns out that type of tea is the same brew that wanderer had 500 years ago when people still called hin kabukimono. he swore he wasnt crying whenever the memories came flooding back to him. he was absolutely crying

[kaspenhoward]

Six The Musical Headcanons - Anna of Cleves:

Time for the german queen ❤️❤️❤️

-Being the most energetic it’s not really expected, but the red queen actually is the peacemaker of the group. She finds the debates petty and stupid. Never really opting to take sides because she honestly just wants one peaceful day with her queens (yet to be found, surprising as it is, putting 6 traumatized queens, ranging from a 17 year old r*pe victim to a 31 traumatized hyperactive woman who got her head cut off, from 500 years ago, some with former rivalries, into the same home to live together can be consistently chaotic with at least something always going on)

-Another unexpected point but Anna is one of the three queens who can drive, along with Catalina and Jane. She actually the best one of the three, due to Catalina driving like she owns the road (leading to dangerous situations) and Jane being a really anxious driver (meaning she always goes a bit under the limit and is extra careful at turns) . This means when the other three need a ride, Anna is always the first option because she can safely and quickly get them to where they need to go.

-If you ask her tea or coffee she’ll say “water” to mess with you. The queen actually somehow finding an addiction to water. (People didn’t understand germs in the 16th century so water wasn’t “purified” meaning water back then was sorta deadly, which is why the way it’s safe to drink now really intrigues the queens, especially Anna)

-Loves going on forest hikes, it reminding her of Germany, usually meaning she drags whatever unsuspecting queen within her reach with her. She although did stop taking Cathy with her cause the queen spent the whole time with her nose in a book and ended up tripping and getting the book stolen by a squirrel, Cathy tried chasing is up the tree but fell and scraped up her arms. She hasn’t been taken with Anna since , Cathy is very grateful for this, enjoying not having to “pointlessly walk”.

-When everyone adjusts to modern day, Anna volunteers at this community center where people are struggling to learn English after moving to England. She’s finds a lot of peace in it, having struggled transitioning from German to English in the past

-Survivors guilt, having outlived the queens probably had a averse effect on Anna in her past and current lives

-Anna has her own insecurities sometimes staring into the mirror too much believing what Henry said to her, once when Catalina finds her like this. She gets one of Catalina’s rare hugs and a group chat where everyone talks through Anna’s problems through with her (that Anna had been ignoring cause she thought her problems were “less”)

-Kat organized something called “Anna Compliment Day” where during a randomized day on the week, each queen has to at least serves Anna two compliments that day. Everytime this day comes around Anna gets really confused not catching on, how still? The queens don’t know but they think it’s because of the randomized day per week.

-Unlike Catalina, Anna adores Sand and the Beach, she could spend days there, having lots of fun with Anna and Kat and enticing conversations with Catalina, Cathy, and Jane. Enjoying the good kind of memories she makes there.

-Anna likes to photograph, everything. Having watched the queens get lied about and forgotten to history makes her want this time around to be very well remembered. Meaning if it’s a stupid family photo in front of a goofy store or a picture of Kat and Jane on the couch cuddled up and napping. She will definitely snap a picture of it. Once her hands are on her camera, there’s no stopping her. Her room remains massively littered with photos from her new life all over her walls and ceiling.

-Anna is a really heavy sleeper. The queens have literally no clue why but once, Anne brought a horde of Animals into the house, Kat had a panic attack and screamed, Cathy dropped a massive piles of books, Jane accidentally over baked something in the oven and set off the fire alarm (Anne’s hoard of Animals distracted her), and Catalina broke a glass right next to Anna’s room, all in the single span of a hour nap Anna had and not even a stir from her.

-When being affectionate with the other queens she almost always accidentally slips into German

-Along with the last one, she has a german nickname for each and everyone of the queens, it gets to a point where you’ll only find Anna using their actual names if the situation is serious

-Anna enjoys giving the queendom content to mess with, much to the chagrin of the other queens. Involving her picture taking habits makes this bring a lot of mischief. (Of course she doesn’t post anything too personal or something the queens hadn’t consented to in the first place) But Anne and Catalina still can’t help but be annoyed when a picture of Catalina carrying Anne on her shoulders ends up on the internet for the queendom to see.

-Anna loves listening to Cathy’s book story rants, it being a nice relaxing part of her day. Listening to the writer to humorous and dramatic retellings of stories, making it really captivating for Anna to listen to. Anna makes sure to listen to Cathy talk about some of her stories everyday, giving Anna a comforting routine. Without having some story time with Cathy, Anna can get really restless, her source of “normalcy” being taken.

-Anna is, really, really, really strong. She does in fact go to the gym, it being a nice part of her routine as well. If any of the queens get injured and need to be carried around, Anna is always the first choice, and she loves having this job, having an excuse to hug her queens and hold them.

-Anna and Catalina in fact get along very well, besides going out together sometimes to have a good time downtown, they also like to have time together to reminisce of their homelands or sometimes Catalina will ask Anna to tell her about Mary. Anna happily indulges, just happy being able to have genuine nice talks with the Spanish queen, also enjoying to have someone to talk to about her emotions and feelings with. Appreciating the calm and reassuring responses Catalina gives, instead of being overbearing like the other queens might be.

-Anna is a feeling bottle upper, the queens have several talks with her over this, to finally drill it into her head that her feelings matter to. Talks with Catalina certainly help but what finally hit it is when Anna accidentally yelled at Kat to leave her alone and Kat has a PTSD attack did they finally click it into Anna’s head that bottling up feelings is bad because it leads to things like this. (Don’t worry btw, Kat completely understood and so did the other queens, Anna was really sorry about it because she didn’t mean it)

-If anyone needs Jane to stop working, because she’s over working herself due to her anxiety of screwing up. And if she refuses to stop and frantically continues, it’s usually up to Anna to pick Jane up and move her to a calmer location. (This has sadly happened way too many times to be okay)

-Germans really like Bread, so does Anna, she has a whole section in the pantry dedicated to all her breads, and the other queens never touch them unless they ask Anna first. (Anne learned that the hard way, when Anna is retaliation put 24 hour green dye in Anne’s toothpaste)

[anotherhumaninthisworld]

I've recently heard about the book The Gods are Thirsty by Tanith Lee. Is it any good or accurate? Thank you.

I’d never actually read the book, but seeing as it could be found for free on Internet Archive I went ahead and read the first 100 pages (three chapters). I figured the historical accuracies and inaccuracies presented there might be able to serve as a sample for the whole 500+ pages book. My findings I think are best presented in a bullet list:

First off, there are things that are clearly made up but I suppose rather harmless at the same time. Here we can for example include Fréron being the one who introduced Camille to Lucile and her family, as well as Robespierre having a dog named Spartan that got run over by a carriage and died in late 1789. We have nothing concreate that stands against these things being possible, but at the same time there’s nothing suggesting they took place either. Someone who doesn’t know that will however be very prone to believe them, which could prove troublesome were they to forget from where they’ve learned it.

Then there are things that, like those listed above, are embellishments, but that I would argue are more problematic, since they actually change, make up or add onto actual people’s beliefs and/or actions. Here we for example have a part about Danton arguing that God doesn’t exist, when, IRL, there seems to be no hard evidence for Danton being either an atheist or a believer. On the eve of the storming of the Bastille, Camille leaves a note for Lucile’s father, telling him to keep his family safe, when no such note has actually been found. In another part, Camille remembers Lucile telling him that she would prefer to never marry, a sentiment that is hard to find when looking over her conserved texts.

There are some instances of the author injecting historical myths without having bothered to check how well backed up they actually are. For example, after Camille has called for the people to arm themselves on July 12, the onlookers go on to take leaves from the nearby trees in order to distinguish themselves as members of the insurrection. If we’re to believe Camille et Lucile Desmoulins: un rêve de république (2018) this is a detail that first appeared in a heavily embellished biography over Camille, written in 1834. Lee also borrows an anecdote right out of the memoirs of Madame Tussaud, where the artist goes to visit the stormed Bastille, trips on the staircase and is saved by Robespierre. Something which is very unlikely to have taken place seeing as Robespierre was still in Versailles when the Bastille was stormed… Still speaking of him, Lee has Camille remember the time when he held a speech to the king and queen in the rain, when the origin of this anecdote doesn’t mention any rain.

Then finally, there are blatant historical inaccuracies, like for example Hébert publishing his journalLe Père Duchesne, Robespierre removing the ”de” in his surname and Camille moving to Rue Thêatre Français already in 1789 (all these three things didn’t happen until a year later), Danton being the inventor of the slogan ”Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” (it’s actually Camille and Robespierre that hold the shared responsibility for it), Charlotte Robespierre being in Paris in 1789 and finally, perhaps the straw that broke the camel’s back for me when it came to the author’s historical research, Saint-Just being there already in 1790.

So is it an accurate book? If the first 100 pages are representative for the entirety of it (and if the synopsis on wikipedia is to believed) then NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Is it a good book? That’s entirely up to everyone’s individual taste. I must admit that the author’s choice of switching between past and present tense, third person and first person narrator as well as referring to Camille as both ”Desmoulins” and ”Windmills,” together with SJ being called a unicorn and a scene where Danton feeds Camille grapes before they have a threesome with an OC, made me feel increasingly like I was reading a fever dream. So if you have a soft spot for crack fics (even though this isn’t actually supposed to be one) I’d say go for it, especially since the book can be read for free. I would however not advice you to try to learn actual history from it, but then I would probably say the same for most historical fiction.

[carica-ficus]

Review: A Day of Fallen Night

Author: Samantha Shannon

Date: 26/07/2023

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

________________________________________________________

After a little more than a month and a half, I have finally finished "A Day of Fallen Night" and it was truly a remarkable experience. I have read "The Priory of The Orange Tree" earlier this year and liked it so much that I wanted to read the prequel as well. What I didn't expect is that I would love this book even more than the first one.

"A Day of Fallen Night" is the second book of "The Roots of Chaos" series. It is actually a prequel to "The Priory of The Orange Tree", but the stories are not directly connected to one another. Instead, "A Day of Fallen Night" offers a deeper insight into the history of the world, dwelling on a particularly gruesome chain of events that conspired some 500 years earlier than the story in "The Priory of The Orange Tree".

The book follows several narrators who are faced with the looming threat of a dragon army. Even though the characters are worlds apart from one another, their fates are tightly interconnected by ancient forms of magic which gives them strength when they most need it. In order to persevere through the seemingly inevitable, fiery end of the world, they have to push through their greatest fears, learn to adapt and be ready to sacrifice what they hold most dear.

The pacing of the book is slow, but steady. There's a continuous build up of tension which follows individual characters and pents up until the very end. Unfortunately, there's not a true great event that brings all the characters together into a great battle, but that's not really what the book is about. There can be no grand finalé because the story is not finished; the same peril continues in "The Priory of The Orange Tree". This in turn makes the ending of the book seem quite anticlimactic, but not necessarily unsatisfying. The characters have their own challenges to overcome which are only loosely tied to the main adversary. Therefore, "A Day of Fallen Night" isn't about defeating the dragons, it is an insight to historic figures who have indirectly or directly influenced the final conflict with the Nameless One, the leading dragon, which takes place in the sequel.

The characters are a vital part of the story, and Shannon proves, yet again, that they are her specialty. Each one offers an insight to a different personality, culture, history and point of view, which help broaden the already fantastic worldbuilding. Even though there's much to love about most characters, Shannon's women are definitely her greatest asset in her storytelling. There's something so particular in the way she allows each and every one of them to be strong in their own way. A lot of authors fail to allow their female characters to be vulnerable because they fear it'll make them seem weak, but Shannon embraces this trait and uses it to her advantage, to show the true depth to her characters. Similarly, Shannon gives herself the freedom to write soft and caring men. Men who are both warriors, but also fathers, brothers, sons and friends. They are allowed to feel and to show those feelings to people they hold dear. Of course, Shannon is by far not the only author who builds her characters in this way, but it's worth to note because it gives them a certain kind of warmth.

Another great, important aspect of the book is its position of LGBTQ+ characters. Shannon doesn't allow the reader a single moment to doubt the integral part of the LGBTQ+ characters in the series. Their identities are simply accepted and, while not the main theme of the book, treated as equals. In hind sight, maybe they shouldn't be, given that the governing bodies mostly rely on immediate family as successors, but Shannon actively avoids acknowledging it as a problem. Because it doesn't have to be. There's other ways to approach this issue, and Shannon wholeheartedly utilizes them. Personally, it's incredibly comforting and satisfying.

The language of the writing is so beautiful. There's something very poetic in the chosen words, in the sentence structures, in the themes and the ideas of the book, which make the story completely entrancing. Although it consequently doesn't allow for fast reading, it makes the experience of the book so much more rewarding.

"The Priory of The Orange Tree" mostly focuses on themes like settling over differences (especially religious) and working together for the common good, while "A Day of Fallen Night" offers a counter view. There's no agreed cooperation against the enemy, rather, the characters mostly work on their own, until the very end when they finally start forming stronger alliances and working towards the future. Seeing as the threat they're up against is almost unpredictable, brings heat, destruction, disease and unnatural phenomena, and is unstoppable until it stands against a higher force, it's easy to draw the parallel to the impact of climate change and global warming in the real world. Shannon also puts a big emphasis on the importance of the new generation, approaching births as a symbol of hope and change. Although the book itself doesn't truly focus on this symbolic as its main theme, I couldn't help but draw such meaning through her words and find that it struck a chord with me.

"A Day of Fallen Night" is an epic tale with fantastic worldbuilding, memorable characters, high stakes, and gorgeous storytelling. It is an amazing addition to "The Priory of The Orange Tree" and a valuable extension in the "Roots of Chaos" series. I definitely consider it one of the most masterfully constructed novels I have ever read, and I warmly recommend this book to anyone seeking a tale about magic, dragons, witches, queendoms, and political intrigues, that offers strong characters, beautiful language and an unforgettable story.

[itwasthisorthemilitary]

March 6, 2024

(Tumblr is testing my patience please for the love of god POST. If this works I'll follow up with pictures separately)

Approaching this topic delicately because as much as I don't want anyone state-side to be concerned, the reality of my situation currently is that my homestay is in a state of evaluation right now. Personally, I feel safe and have not been in any situation that feels unmanageable. However, this town has less than 500 people in it and when a member of my family is not widely respected in town, the Peace Corps has to evaluate if my remaining in this house is safe. I've made it clear that I would really like to stay where I am because we are 4 weeks into training and I have very strong relationships with not only my immediate family but also my neighbors and their volunteers. Moving houses would be the TALK of the town and I feel like I would never regain the same social footing I have right now if I was the volunteer who was relocated. A developing situation that adds to the million things on my brain at all times. I feel supported and I have a feeling that now that it's been addressed things will resolve.

Yesterday I had a 102⁰ fever all night/morning because every Monday we receive vaccines and this one hit me extra hard. A fever like that in this heat is really just adding insult to injury. So yesterday I had a very restful day and today I feel totally fine.

Today was GREAT. I love Wednesdays because I get up at 5 am to do laundry and there's nothing better than having it all be clean. After laundry, Carlo and I walked up the Bueno Vista (it's just a big hill) to watch the sunrise because for two weeks I've been talking about wanting to do it and I finally did! So by 7:30 am I already had like 10,000 steps and was feeling really accomplished. Then I had breakfast and studied Spanish with Liv before we headed to class. Today's afternoon class was my favorite so far, we went on a hike to do tree identification with a local farmer and it was so cool. I saw a SLOTH! I also saw a cinnamon bush and when you scratch the bark it smells amazing. Typically our afternoon classes are info sessions so getting to do this was really hands on and so lovely to be moving around. Then after class I headed to the further river spot (near the chicken farm) because its been days since I've been in the water and even though it's a far trek it's so worth it. This river is kinda running! It gives me the illusion of being cleaner (I try not to think about its proximity to the chicken farm). We saw some of those Jesus lizards that ran across the water on two feet.

Very fulfilling day where I felt challenged both physically and mentally. My sleep schedule here is so consistent and I'm really loving being up before sunrise while it's still so quiet and cool. My next goal is to get a picture of my Teva tan because it's epic. Also I was never really a big pineapple girl but if you're gonna pick it from a bush and then immediately cut it up for me...I'm a changed woman.

Daily I'm reading, journaling, drawing, exercising, and eating the freshest food. Above all, my friends here are unmatched.

P.S. my calves are gonna be TONED 10+ Miles most days up and down these STUPID hills.