#and now he’s teaching Alberto

[santaricotta]

*＊✿❀ They’re making flower crowns ♪( ´▽｀) ❀✿＊*

[fatehbaz]

“He was the messenger of a great spirit,” says René Montaño, a Comcaac linguist. [...] Montaño is addressing the entire community at a cultural festival in the Comcaac territory in what is today northwestern Mexico. He talks about how their ancestors learned that xnois (Zostera marina), a type of seagrass also known as eelgrass, could feed their people.

“Zostera marina is paramount for us,” Montaño says. “There are other parts of the world where it barely exists, but here, in this channel, there’s plenty. [...]”

Comcaac [...] fishers learned that it was a food that would give them the necessary strength to survive long ways at sea, and the different ways it could be prepared were passed down from generation to generation. In the past few decades, this knowledge has been largely neglected. Today, the Comcaac people are breathing new life into it.

Comcaac environmentalists Alberto Mellado and Erika Barnett [...] have been developing a study since 2020 [...]. The Infiernillo Channel, located between the Sonora coast and Tiburón Island -- the largest island in Mexico and a sacred site for the Comcaac people -- is a Ramsar site, meaning it’s a wetland of key global importance. It features seagrass meadows, mangrove estuaries, and small patches of coral reefs where various marine species feed. [...] The channel is also home to 81 species of invertebrates endemic to the Gulf of California, and various threatened species, like totoabas (Totoaba macdonaldi) and sea turtles. [...]

In early 2022, as part of this initiative, the team created an event that brought together chefs and biologists from Sonora, the U.S. and Spain who were interested in the culinary uses of xnois and in the conservation of seagrass. There, the Comcaac cooks shared their knowledge about the ancestral ways of preparing xnois: ground by hand to make flour for tortillas or tostadas, or as a drink made with warm water combined with honey [...]. Newer ways of preparing xnois were also on show, such as in energy bars, hotcakes, and bread in combination with wheat flour. [...]

Today, it’s Comcaac [...] like Laura Molina working to promote the benefits of xnois [...]. In a workshop [...], she flattens small dough balls into tortillas and toasts them over a fire. She says the first time she heard about this ancestral food was from her grandmother. Years later, she asked her mother to teach her how to prepare it. [...]

Erika Barnett says her great-grandparents were probably the last ones in the family to harvest eelgrass for the seeds. She says the fact that her father, now 76, can once again eat food prepared with xnois represents a great success. “The last time he’d eaten it, he was 7 years old,” she says. “Most young people have never tasted it, so this effort is really rescuing our culture.” [...] “The guys and my colleagues didn’t know how to prepare xnois, but I’m happy because we’re teaching them and the kids and adults who want to learn,” Molina says. “This is thanks to our ancestors. [...] [T]hey opened the path that led us here.”

---

Headline, images, captions, and text as published by: Astrid Arellano. “Indigenous Comcaac serve up an oceanic grain to preserve seagrass meadows.” Mongabay. Translated by Maria Angeles Salazar. 3 March 2023. [Photos by Asstrid Arellano. This story was reported by Mongabay’s Latam team and first published on their Latam site on 6 June 2022. Some paragraph breaks added by me.]

[nanowrimo]

30 Covers, 30 Days 2023: Day 1

Happy November! Let's start out 30 Covers, 30 Days strong with Kuberia: The Alluring Abyss by Arpan Mondal, a Science Fiction novel full of intrigue! This novel cover was designed by the amazing returning artist, Alberto Rigau!

(For those of you who don’t know, 30C30D stands for 30 Covers, 30 Days in which 17 Wrimos and 5 YWP Participants get the chance to win a professionally designed cover! The rest of the days are being filled by community features. We’ll be posting a cover a day throughout November, so make sure to check them out!)

Kuberia: The Alluring Abyss

As a deadly gamma-ray burst threatens Earth, scientists propose evacuating a chosen group to the newly discovered planet Kuberia, named after the Hindu God of wealth, Kubera. This world seems perfect for humans, but a single question remains—Why is it devoid of inhabitants?

Upon arrival, the human pioneers are struck by the planet's strange beauty. Purple and red flora blankets the landscape, some vegetation seems to have a reddish brown glow in the darkness, and everything has a captivating, twisting shape. However, they soon realize this very allure is what keeps Kuberia empty of life.

About the Author

I'm Arpan, an aerospace engineer who absolutely loves everything about space. A few years back, I got hooked on science fiction books, and that's when I decided to start writing my own stories. My sci-fi stories are a way to share my knowledge about space and the universe with the world. 'Kuberia: The Alluring Abyss' is my first attempt at turning one of my story ideas into a complete novel!

About the Designer

With over 18 years in practice, Alberto Rigau crafts and conceptualizes brands, exhibits, way-finding systems, publications, books, photographic projects, and environmental graphics. As a former Co-Chair of AIGA’s Design Educators Steering Committee, he collaborates with nationwide design educators in developing content and programming to further academic research, teaching practices, and conversations within the field. Alberto has a Master’s Degree from NC State University's College of Design and currently engages the field from his home studio in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Cover Design Process:

This year. we gave designers the optional prompt to explain their design process for the cover! Here's Alberto's:

I instantly decided that I did not want to give a visual voice to Kuberia. Now knowing anything about it is part of the mystery that drew me to the summary. I focused on the physical interrelation between these planetary bodies as main actors who are sparking the narrative and reality of this particular story.

[eowynstwin]

For the gaz request thing, how about a latina! Reader whose teaching him how to dance but hes failing miserably (the reader is supportive and patient but also cant help but tease him little) and hes getting flustered over all the spanish petnames the reader calls him (amor, corazón, precioso, principe)

Maybe gaz wanted to learn how to dance so he can make a good impression on the reader parents and family on Next week's family bbq/get toghether. And maybe hes feeling a little bit bad and ashamed that he cant get the steps right (he does eventually!)

Thanks in advance!

You are not worried in the slightest about this weekend, but Gaz is worrying enough for the both of you.

“Come on, just show me the steps again,” he says, shoulders sloped, annoyed as you grin at him.

All it is is an uncle’s birthday, and not even a special one. Sure, your family doesn’t know how to celebrate anything quietly, and sure, your great aunt may or may not have a band on speed dial, but that was no reason for Kyle to be so nervous.

“You know you’re not gonna get banned from the family just because you can’t dance, right?” you say. “My mom likes you too much, guapo.”

He holds out his hands. “Still.”

You step into position, guiding his hands to the right place. “Baby, no one’s gonna blame you if you can’t salsa like a pro.”

“Doesn’t your cousin compete?” asks Gaz, leading you a little clumsily into the first three steps. He gets the spin right—it’s his favorite part, he’s told you—but somewhere after it he loses the rhythm, and you have to lead him back to it.

“He doesn’t win,” you answer. “Besides, the dancing doesn’t start until after drinks. I promise you’re not gonna embarrass yourself.”

Almost on cue, Gaz nearly trips on his own feet.

You keep a tight grip on his hand so he can’t pull away from you in frustration, and catch his gaze as he tries to stare down at his own feet as you start again.

“Listen, this is how it’s gonna go,” you say. Your feet find the steps easily. “Dad will make way too much food, and mom will try to feed you until you explode. My grandparents will try to ask you too many questions about work.”

He spins you, and this time he doesn’t trip over himself. When you meet his eyes again, they’re fixed on you, gorgeously dark and still filled with anxiety. You smile, and let the music carry you along as you put a hand on his cheek.

“My cousins will try to pour you too many drinks. Don’t drink Alberto’s tequila, it’s awful. Tio Miguel will want to cut the cake early, so we will, and then Alma will get the music started because she doesn’t know how to sit still.”

You can feel it when Gaz starts to step to the rhythm—one, two three, pause, one, two, three. All of his attention is on you, and the nervous energy that has suffused him all evening is visibly dissipating.

You pull him into a turn. “And then, as long as we’re dancing, I’ll get to have you all to myself.”

The furrowed line of his brow softens. “You always have me.”

You lean in to flick the tip of your nose with his—something that had happened on accident, the first time he kissed you, that had sent you both into nervous giggles. The last of the tension keeping Kyle’s spine unusually straight leaves his body, and he kneads his fingers into your back.

“And since I know you can do it now,” you say, as the two of you make it back to the dance’s beginning, “I won’t be afraid of getting stepped on.”

Kyle’s brows lift. “Oh!” He looks down at his feet, then back at you. “Oh. Huh.”

You grin. “Next thing you know, we’ll be sweeping competition season.”

“Wouldn’t go that far, doll.”

[elie2]

A little preview for a Luca fanfic I'm sitting on, where Luca begins school and learns he's in over his head. The drawing belongs to Chelsiegeorgie.

Luca stared at the pre-algebra problems with a rising sense of dread. Maybe the textbook’s cover and the first page were misprints? He flipped to the second page, and the third, only to find more of the same. Oh carp. 

He had expected basic multiplication and division – the things his mother had planned to teach him before Alberto had made his way stealthy appearance. But numbers surrounded by curved lines and fused with letters? Rational numbers? Putting equations in slope intercept form? He may as well have been reading hieroglyphs. 

Were the other kids unprepared too? Right now, they were chatting up a storm about calcio try-outs, who had the most amazing summer vacation exploits to share and the latest fashion trends for the upcoming fall and winter. But could it be that in a few minutes, they would discover their textbooks and then howl in anger about how the teacher had skipped ahead in the curriculum? 

Luca was about to ask Giulia that when an odd-looking man – bearded, half-bald, and with a pointy chin – appeared in the doorway. The chatter died away instantly. So did the enthusiasm. Now that was class was starting in earnest, most of the students looked like they’d made a dreadful mistake coming here. 

 Mr. Aregio locked eyes with them, wearing a perfectly neutral expression.  “The eager young minds of tomorrow. At least that’s what I intended to say. But the only thing you kids seem eager for is more summer vacation. 

He brushed his fingers over his beard. “Tsk, tsk, tsk.” 

He went to the board and wrote down ‘PRE-ALGEBRA’ in super-sized letters. 

“Pre-algebra is like all branches of math, really. It’s a basic survival skill. It will follow you in whatever career you end up choosing.” 

Mr. Aregio paused, perhaps for dramatic effect. 

“But it should also be fun. And so, in this class, we’re going to be playing lots of games.” 

Luca saw the girl sat to his left sit up straight in his seat, and a smile tug at Mr. Aregio’s lips.

“Let’s get down to business. I’m going to give you twenty problems to solve. If you get 15 out of 20 correct, you’ll be exempted from homework tonight.”  

He jotted down some hieroglyphs on the board:  (2,1) and (-1, -5) 

“I’d like someone to write me an equation of the line that passes through these points.” 

Behind Luca came the sound of many more students righting their postures.   

“Who wants to go first?” 

Six students raised their hands, including Luca and Giulia.  Four of them did so somewhat half-heartedly, while Luca positively cringed with fear. Meanwhile, Giulia was wriggling like a fish. Nonetheless, it was on Luca that Mr. Aregio’s eyes settled. 

“Ah yes, the sea-monster! Come on up here.” 

“Actually sir,” said Luca, in the most polite voice he could muster, “I’m not sure if I can- 

“Solve the problem alone? Not a problem! We’ll do it together.” 

Luca had little choice but to shuffle his way to the board and pick up a piece of chalk. He hadn’t the faintest idea of what to do next. 

“First, find the slope using the given points” prompted the pointy-chinned man. 

You should have bought back the vespa, a voice whispered in his head. Now it's too late.

Luca fought to keep his cool. If Mr. Aregio could walk him through the problem, he might yet avoid public humiliation. Or anything worse, like getting expelled. “Um…how do I do that?”

“You’ll want to put the points in fraction form.”

“What’s a fraction?”

He guessed, from the way Giulia’’s eyes were flickering with concern, that his answer would set Mr. Aregio off, and it did. 

“Oh come on, Luca, that’s second grade!” shouted the teacher. 

Luca swallowed hard. His voice dropped to a half-whisper. “Yes sir, but, um, I haven’t learned about them yet.” 

It took a seeming eternity for Mr. Aregio to respond. The sight of several students tittering through their hands made the time stretch longer still. 

“My dear Luca” the teacher asked finally, “how much math did they teach you under the sea?” 

[eretzyisrael]

The Moroccan cemetery fighting oblivion

Because of a tradition that held only descendants of a deceased family member could locate their grave, it was a miracle that the tombs of three distinguished rabbis in the Tetuan Jewish cemetery were discovered after a 60-year search. Jacob Marrache and his cousin are running a campaign to restore the cemetery, he tells JNS reporter Georgia Gilholy in this profile of the near-extinct community in  the former Spanish protectorate on the north Moroccan coast. (With thanks: Imre)

The Tetuan Jewish cemetery (photo: Alberto Hayon)

Marrache and his distant cousin, Andrew Strum, an Australian judge, have raised more than $3,000 of a target of nearly $11,000 to restore Tétouan’s Jewish cemetery, whose name, Cementerio de Castilla, recognizes the fact that Jews were first buried there after being expelled from the Iberian kingdom in 1492.

“My family left Morocco for Gibraltar in 1758, but like many Jewish families, we kept close contact with Tétouan for many generations, as different communities would look to one another for halachicguidance,” Marrache said.

“We even call Tétouan ‘Pequeña Jerusalen’ [‘Little Jerusalem’] because of its former significance as a center of Sephardic life,” Alberto Hayon, the community’s president, told JNS.

Only about a minyan of Jews live in the area of the cemetery now, according to Marrache, who calls Hayon “a real trailblazer.”

“He spearheaded these restoration activities and founded the charitable association overseeing them,” Marrache said. “We hope they will one day result in a full museum.”

Morocco’s Jewish community dates back to antiquity. By 1948, there were about 270,000 Jews living there. That number plummeted to an estimated 2,300 Jews as of 2015. Experts are still piecing together the fractured memories left behind, and the fact that many of the tombs, which line the slopes of Mount Dersa, lack inscriptions compounds the erasure of prior Jewish communities.

“The tradition was that if somebody was married and had children, they wouldn’t put a name on the grave because it was a duty of their descendants to teach the next generations where ancestors were buried,” Marrache said, “and to return there on the date of their death.”

Many tombstones have Jewish symbols, such as Stars of David or Trees of Life, including on the tombs of rabbis.

“The six-pointed star probably did not have the same meaning as today’s Magen David star, which only became a major Jewish symbol in the Habsburg Empire,” explained Marrache. “A lot of the tombs also have the Tree of Life on them.”

Other stones, which originated in Spain and are rarer in Morocco, are shaped like the contours of a person, according to Marrache.

In 1956, Morocco declared independence from France, suspending Jewish immigration and travel abroad. When Moroccan Jews again had the right to emigrate in 1963, more than 100,000 moved away, largely to Israel. As the community gradually dwindled, knowledge of the locations of the tombs of the three rabbis seemed to have been lost.

Marrache has “long been aware” of a rumored tradition of the community praying at the tombs of the three on the eves of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.The cemetery in Tétouan in northern Morocco, where the tombs of three celebrated 17th- and 18th-century rabbis — Jacob Ben Malca, Hasday Almosnino and Jacob Marrache — were rediscovered after more than 60 years. Credit: Alberto Hayon.

“My seventh cousin Andrew Strum heard this firsthand from relatives in the 1980s who had left Tétouan for Israel in the 1960s,” he told JNS. “For years, my family members have wanted to find the tomb of Rabbi Jacob Marrache, and in early 2000, we sent someone to check in Tétouan, but there was no one who could find it.”

There have also been “false starts” in recent years, noted Marrache. Some even remembered the tradition but couldn’t locate the tombs.

Hayon told JNS that Rabbi Joseph Israel, a Tétouan native who now lives in Casablanca, helped provide the breakthrough.

“He remembered this tradition well and during Purim this year, he visited and gathered the strength to walk up the cemetery,” where he showed the community the three graves, Hayon told JNS.

But that place, where several elderly people recalled going, is steep and has become “very overgrown, making it quite difficult to reach,” he added.

Various historical documentation also backs up this year’s discovery, including the writings of former Knesset member Rabbi Shlomo Dayan, who recorded that the community’s leader (the late uncle of today’s “trailblazer”) had shown him the tombs of Almosnino and Marrache in 1993. Writings in the 19th century also recorded visiting those graves.

And in 1955, Haim Ze’ev Hirschberg, an Israeli historian, visited Tétouan, where Moses Hassan, the community’s vice president, showed him the tombs.

“So we definitely know now that in 1955, when there was a continuous generation after generation in the community, they still knew where these tombs were,” Marrache said.

“We still do not know which tomb belongs to which rabbi, as, of course, Jewish law forbids the excavation of human remains for scientific testing, but now we certainly know they are there,” he said.

Although a UNESCO site, Tétouan’s Jewish history tends to be overlooked compared to that of larger metropolitan areas, such as Casablanca. “Since the renewed agreements between Israel and Morocco, a lot of Israeli tourists visit but usually to famous cities like Tangiers or Shefshawan. They rarely stop in Tétouan,” Marrache said.

As the Abraham Accords bring more visitors, and in light of the new discovery, he hopes that more visitors and scholars will find their curiosity piqued.

Read article in full

[magicmindless]

I don’t have a special name for this headcanon list

-Wally used to be a fisherman for cargos and stuff

-Penny has a hidden talent where she has a really good aim when it comes to shooting or hurling projectiles. While starting her job at Freezeria, Alberto kicked a soccer ball at her head accidentally, and being annoyed she kicked it back square in his balls on accident

-Nick is a decent swimmer and has a pool at home. It also has a jacuzzi which he likes to hang out in whenever he’s stressed

-Taylor is working towards a degree in psychology so he can be a therapist

-There have been multiple times where Johnny has been reported “missing” by his friends after 24 hours. Usually he’ll be found after reported in a couple hours tops and he’s usually either gathering wood or he’s just chilling

-Vincent likes inflatable costumes and wears one every Halloween. He also used to use them to embarrass Sasha while picking her up from school. His favorite one is one of an alien abducting him

-Drakson used to be part of a gang in high school, but with the help of proper adult figures he managed to leave the gang with minimal harm done and turn his life around. He now helps his dad run a trinket shop, usually filled with pirate-themed items

-Also Drakson is a big fucking DND nerd and so is his dad so the store also sells dice, game pieces, and medieval looking stuff

-The area around Mocharia is said to be haunted. Sometimes the street lights would randomly burn out for periods of time even if the bulbs were brand new or the trees would rustle with not even a breeze. Inside the Mocharia, the workers would sometimes find cups dropped on the floor with no explanation.

-Treble has dyed their hair multiple times before. People still think their hair is dyed right now but the burgundy is actually natural

-Chase takes care of snakes and other reptiles and also works as an educator in this department which first started as a way to teach people not to be afraid of snakes. He does like to talk about other reptiles of course, along with other animals that people are commonly afraid of like tarantulas.

-Moe likes Roy romantically though he hasn’t said anything yet, mainly because of the whole super villain thing he’s doing right now and he wouldn’t want that to interfere with a relationship

-Mary likes sitting or lying on the floor a lot whenever she’s doing anything like working or relaxing at home doing something

-Skyler is in constant agony over student debt, however she promised her parents she’d pay it all so she’s just gotta stick it out

-A customer losing in the final round of Papa’s Next Chef tournaments is the equivalent of a VERY close call to ending up in some sort of situation where they end up working for Papa Louie in their world. If they were a semifinal loser then it’s just further. If they lost in the first division then they had no chance

-Simone wants to be a voice actress for animations and such, and the preferred character archetype she’d like to play is the villain or antihero, but she’d be up for anything

-Pastrami can find people he’s familiar with through their voice and scent which helps him find Skip or anyone else he likes if he gets lost. He likes being held by mostly anyone, but if he doesn’t like someone, then he’ll bite them.

-Duke considers the Nowtime News crew to be found family but he prefers not to say it because he doesn’t want them getting any ideas

[fryingpan1234567]

Y’all. Guys. Oh no. I’ve done something bad.

Look, I may have just created the most chaotic Disney crossover idea in the history of time, but if this blows up like the Big 4, I want credit.

So. We’ve got Jack Jack, Lilo, Boo, Hiro, Miguel, Mei, Luca, Alberto, Riley. There are more, and I know that’s a lot, but bear with me.

College AU.

Look, Hiro’s done, but he wanted to stay and teach/ use the lab whenever. Jack Jack’s parents want him to get a good education. Miguel is on tour with his music. Lilo and Boo are best friends, bonding over their monster/ alien dudes. Mei’s after a brilliant education herself. Luca wanted to go to school and Alberto couldn’t say no to him. Riley lives in the area.

They end up at San Fran Sokyo Uni, in the same dorm hallway.

Now, they don’t get along great at first. Riley’s used to living in a compact space, Miguel is used to being surrounded by family = no boundaries, Jack Jack is ADHD as fuck and is also a superhero who keeps getting blood all over the carpets in the middle of the night when he gets home from patrol. Lilo feeds peanut butter sandwiches to fish, for void’s sake.

After some rearranging, though, they get settled. That’s how they all meet.

It’s indescribably chaotic. Mei and Riley live together, their dorm room nice and organized and perfect. For their trustworthiness, Jack Jack lives with them as well (he’s ace dw. Also, he doesn’t tell them he’s a hero at first. That was a shitshow). Their apartment is a mix of hockey and Asian culture. There’s a family shrine in Mei’s room, and there’s a mini goal set up in the corner of the living room. Jack Jack’s stuff is kind of everywhere, but he makes up for it by doing dishes every night XD.

Lilo and Boo live with Stitch and a baby monster that accidentally wandered through their door on a field trip to Monsters Inc. Their apartment is pretty aesthetic but also messy. Even though it’s freezing and frankly nasty, Lilo swims and sometimes surfs in the bay, but she drives out to an actual coast (later with the whole friend group) on weekends. Boo LOVES the aliens and is on Lilo’s deep space podcast, a tribute to Elvis.

Miguel, Hiro, Luca, and Alberto live in an apartment together. Because how bad can a bunch of gay/ bi idiots living in one place be? There’s dirty laundry everywhere. The dishes don’t get done unless Mei happens to come over and yells at them for it. Trash from the fish boys, half-finished projects and scraps from Hiro, and scribbly sheet music from Miguel are everywhere. Baymax makes them take care of themselves tho; it’s fiiine :DD

Extra headcanons (SOMEONE PLEASE ASK ME FOR MORE ON THIS AU I COULD TALK FOREVER):

Not a single one of them is straight

They all become at least some part of a hero team later on- once Hiro and Jack Jack tell them all what’s going on, they either join in or agree to help sometimes

(Mei is a super panda, Lilo and Boo take their warrior pets into battle, fish demons, etc)

Once they’re comfortable enough with each other, they start visiting each other’s homes because they’re so diverse

Hawaii was awesome!! Lilo taught everyone how to surf as Luca and Alberto meet the wildlife below. Nani loves them all, but David’s favorite is Jack Jack

Mei shows them all Chinese-Canadian culture, but mostly the Chinese part lol. They get to meet her gf, Miri, and she takes them to 4town. They hate it, but she seems happy

Riley takes them all skating on the pond in her old backyard. Miguel and the fish boys, who have never been anywhere cold in their lives, are miserable. Really the only one who’s fine is Mei lmao. They all try broccoli pizza, and Luca and Alberto actually like it

Jack Jack’s family make it their life goal while they’re visiting to be as embarrassing as possible. Helen and Bob BOTH have to DRIVE THEM everywhere, Dash doesn’t stop talking about Fortnite for a single fucking second, and Violet actively makes out with Tony on the living room couch. You know who they love? Auntie Edna. Edna gains many more nieces and nephews that trip- she takes a special liking to Hiro, although she does criticize the ineffectiveness of his armor

Italy is warm and full of freaking mermaids and Vespa’s and gelato and it’s fucking awesome. Everyone falls in love with the food (obviously). Giulia just… gets used to adopting strange losers by this point.

Mexico is GREAT. Their trip happened to fall near Día de los Muertos, so guess where Miguel took them!! Maybe it meant stealing from the ofrenda, but… in their defense, they put it back. (Before you ask, yes, Tadashi was there. It’s a personal belief of mine that there are different sections to the Land for different cultures’ afterlives. Like all the gateways go to the same realm, just different parts of it.) Stitch and Dante wrestled the entire time XD

Edit: GUYS OH NO I FORGOT TO ADD VANELLOPE BUT SHE’S INCLUDED

[wcmensworld]

(—) ★ spotted!! nicolas torres on the cover of this week’s most recent tabloid! many say that the 26 year old looks like alberto rosende, but i don’t really see it. while the director is known for being gentle natured my inside sources say that they have a tendency to be closed off i swear, every time i think of them, i hear the song heaven by niall horan  {he/him / cismale} - penned by laice

STATISTICS 

full name : nicolas lorenzo torres age : twenty - six job : director  zodiac sign : libra  pronouns : he / him  gender : cismale  tattoos : same as fc  ethnicity : half cuban / half columbian  place of birth : san jose siblings : francesca martinez ( half sibling - unknown ) sexuality : homosexual

BIOGRAPHY 

nicolas was born to a single mother, valencia torres, of course a father was involved somewhere but as far as nicolas was aware, he never existed. it was just him and his mom for the longest time. and he adored her. she didn’t have much, but what she did have she made work. nicolas learned from a very young age not to care about material things. as long as there was a roof over their head, food on the table and love between them, they were happy. she used to sing him lullabies to send him to sleep, protect him fro worrying about the evils of the world, never once did he feel sad for not knowing who his dad was, because he didn’t need him, he only needed his mom.  for a while, his life was good, easy and happy. but that all changed when he turned fourteen. his mom got sick, really sick. too sick that medical bills were too high for them to afford. nicolas desperately looked for work, tried to raise money, did everything he could to try and help him mom. but nobody heard, or nobody cared. they both moved into his grandparents so that they could help him take care of her while she was sick. his grandparents didn’t have a lot of money either. their small house was cramped for a while. his mom held on as long as she could, but two years later, she passed away. she was holding onto nico, singing duérmete mi niño, only she couldn’t finish the lyrics as she passed away. nico’s heart stopped being so full of love after that day. he moved in with his grandparents, kept his head down at school and tried his hardest to work. 

a passion of nico’s had always been filmmaking. of course they could never afford the equipment, but there was a teacher of nico’s who realised his potential and would lend him his own equipment and spend time teaching him how to edit on the crappy school computers. he entered nico in a film festival one year, even paying the fee for him. his film won best amateur short film in the horror category. screamhouse productions had scouts there, looking for talent. and they picked up on nico right away. they offered him an internship working with them for the summer. a summer internship quickly turned into a full blown job and he was propelled into the life of hollywood. by the time he was twenty-three he had directed his first billion dollar movie. nico was now successful, rich beyond his wildest dreams, he’d bought his grandparents a house and made sure they never had to worry. but he now had one question on his mind. who was his dad and why did he leave? 

[a-bucket-of-trash]

Hey Bucky 🥰

I read that you were ill so I'm writing to wish you getting better very soon! *places Kelvin next to flu ridden you, pads yours and Kelvin's head*

I'll try to write you a little prompt of Kelvin taking care of a sick reader, hoping that it'll make you feel a tiny bit better 😊

Sending lots of love ❤️

If that ask alone almost made me cry, I will bawl my head off if I read something like that omg I'M NOT EMOTIONALLY READY FOR THAT

I feel a 2% better, part because your sweet words, part because I manage to get SOME sleep (shitty but some) but my body hurts as if the big red cannibal box me all night long hahaha ouchy (not covid tho)

Also, I don't know why I had that mental image of Fisheye (I wrote Shisheyes and I was lmao), is like it suit him SOMEHOW (?). Now I will maybe want to involve him more in the fic or something. And why Fisheye give me latin vibes??? Like, even the 2 frames we see him, for me looks like Juan Alberto Fisheye Gonzales XD

Kelvin like: Juan Alberto Fisheye Gonzales, put that laptop down and kiss me. JUAN ALBERTO I'M TALKING TO YOU!

Fisheye Juan Alberto like: Shut up gringo... I'm watching the game.

He looks like the kind of guy who dance Salsa and who try to teach Kelvin how to dance buy our boy have less coordination than my neurones right now.

(Don't ask, I'm still insane. Oh wait, I born like that lmao)

Thank you again my sweet Raven, you are the best uwu

[sweetillusicn]

[ alberto rosende, cis-man, he/him. ] ✧･ﾟ is that [ sorin denatos ] who just stumbled into town? rumour has it that they’re the [ eternally twenty-four ] year old child of [ dimitri denatos ] from [ mom’s got a date with a vampire ]. i’ve also heard that they’re [ honest ] but [ stubborn ] and have [ 1 adoptive younger sister ] sibling(s). i could almost swear i heard [ the other side - bruno mars ] playing when they appeared. [ sho, 25, est, she/her. ]

Bio tws: Murder, death, kidnapping.

Sorin was born to a loving couple. However, to his misfortune, he doesn’t remember much of them. When he was just six years old, his parents were murdered by a Dimitri Denatos, a vampire who was looking to start a family.

With no parents to object to him, Dimitri took the boy and began to raise him as his son.

However the young boy was defiant and unwilling to listen to Dimitri. As a result, a year later, Dimitri decided that maybe “adopting” a second child might make his son more compliant. One night, Dimitri went out to work, and came back with a young girl.

The two children quickly clung to each other for support, and they became close enough that they consider each other actual siblings.

In their later years, the two were put on a vampire schedule, and Dimitri began to teach them about what it was like to be a vampire. However, if Sorin or his sister disobeyed, he’d punish them and make an example through innocent people.

Sorin was turned at the age of twenty-four, and although he’s actually a bit older now, he still appears to be twenty-four and when asked will give that as his age.

After they were turned, Ylania and Sorin planned on getting out. However, Dimitri found out and Sorin stayed behind in an attempt to convince Dimitri to let Ylania go.

Although Sorin hates living under the same roof as Dimitri, he keeps himself occupied with other things. He watches horror movies, plays computer games and video games, and sits and reads. Dimitri gave Sorin those things long ago with the hope that they’d make him compliant, and even though they never did, Sorin still felt it’d be easier to make use of them.

Overall, Sorin is a giant nerdy dork. He’s pretty awkward since he hasn’t really had much experience in socializing outside of Ylania and the rare conversation with Dimitri. But if you get him talking about a topic he likes, once he starts, he won’t stop talking about it.

Sorin loves horror movies, especially the classics. He especially loves vampire movies, since he uses them as a learning experience and a way to bolster his confidence. Some of his favorites are Fright Night, The Lost Boys, Dracula, Near Dark, What We Do in the Shadows, Salem’s Lot, and the Revenge of Count Krelsky.

Other non-vampire horror favorites are IT, The Shining, Doctor Sleep, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Frankenstein, Chucky, Alien, Ghostbusters, and Carrie.

He’ll often compare Dimitri to horror movie characters, such as Jerry Dandrige from Fright Night, Max the Head Vampire from The Lost Boys, or even Count Dracula. He never calls Dimitri any by paternal term, and will only call him Dimitri or by a horror movie character’s name. If he ever refers to Dimitri as ‘his dad’ or ‘his father’ then something is very, very wrong.

Sorin hates that he needs to drink blood to survive. As a result, he usually opts for a rare burger or steak. If that doesn’t satiate him then the local wildlife might. But he’d never bite a human.

[newstfionline]

Sunday, August 4, 2024

AI-Made Bioweapons Are Washington’s Latest Security Obsession (Bloomberg) Rocco Casagrande entered the White House grounds holding a black box slightly bigger than a Rubik’s Cube. Within it were a dozen test tubes with the ingredients that—if assembled correctly—had the potential to cause the next pandemic. An AI chatbot had given him the deadly recipe. Casagrande, a biochemist and former United Nations weapons inspector, wasn’t planning to unleash a bioweapon in a room full of White House officials. He was there to brief them on the many ways artificial intelligence could teach users to make dangerous viruses. Tools like ChatGPT could help terrorists identify potent biological agents and secure the materials needed to make them, he told a room full of US officials in the spring of 2023. It wouldn’t be long before AI could not only help recreate existing pathogens, but also devise potentially more dangerous ones. “What if every terrorist had a little scientist sitting on their shoulder?” Casagrande said months after the White House briefing. The prospect of AI-made bioweapons was no longer science fiction. “These tools had gone from absolute crap a year ago to being quite good.”

On a path to hit Florida, Tropical Storm Debby forms in Gulf of Mexico (USA Today) Tropical Storm Debby—the fourth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season—has formed in the Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said Saturday. The storm follows Tropical Storms Alberto and Chris and deadly and destructive Hurricane Beryl, which wreaked havoc across the U.S. in July. Debby could drench Florida and parts of the southeast U.S. coast with over foot of rain, and up to 18 inches in some areas, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm is expected to hit the Florida Gulf Coast at or near hurricane strength on Monday, forecasters said Saturday evening. The center warned that some parts of the state will face tropical storm or hurricane conditions on Sunday. Some areas could see up to between 4 and 7 feet of storm surge.

For college students arrested protesting the war in Gaza, the fallout was only beginning (AP) Since her arrest at a protest at the University of Massachusetts, Annie McGrew has been pivoting between two sets of hearings: one for the misdemeanor charges she faces in court, and another for violations of the college’s conduct code. It has kept the graduate student from work toward finishing her dissertation in economics. Some 3,200 people were arrested this spring during a wave of pro-Palestinian tent encampments protesting the war in Gaza. Along with the legal limbo, many of those students face uncertainty in their academic careers. Some remain steadfast, saying they would have made the same decisions to protest even if they had known the consequences. Others have struggled with the aftermath of the arrests, harboring doubts about whether to stay enrolled in college at all.

Venezuela Election Dispute Traps Travelers Trying to Leave the Country (Bloomberg) It’s getting harder and harder, and much more expensive, to find a flight out of Venezuela. President Nicolas Maduro has canceled flights to some countries that questioned his self-declared election victory, including two that in normal times are major hubs for travelers heading into or out of Venezuela: Panama, the hub of carrier Copa Airlines, and the Dominican Republic. Peru is also off-limits now.

Waves of Russian bombings and infantry assaults drive major gains in east (Guardian) Russian assaults are raising pressure on the strategic eastern logistics hub of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, Ukraine says, as waves of guided bombs and infantry lead to some of Moscow’s largest territorial gains since the spring. The push is fuelling a surge in civilians fleeing, with requests for evacuation in the area increasing about tenfold over the past two weeks, according to a volunteer helping people leave. Russia’s gains of about 57 sq km (22 sq miles) in the space of a week are the third-largest recorded since April after they made only modest gains in June, Pasi Paroinen, an analyst with the Black Bird Group, told Reuters.

Taiwan is readying citizens for a Chinese invasion. It’s not going well. (Washington Post) In the imagined blockade of “Zero Day,” a Taiwanese television drama that will be released next year but is already causing a stir, the Chinese military has encircled Taiwan, cutting it off from the world and plunging the island democracy of 23 million into crisis. It may be fiction, but the show’s bleak assessment of Taiwanese readiness to fight touches upon a very real problem facing President Lai Ching-te. The threat from Beijing has intensified as Chinese leader Xi Jinping has declared China’s “reunification” with Taiwan inevitable. He has underscored his willingness to use force to achieve that goal by sending rising numbers of warplanes and navy ships to probe the island’s defenses. Taiwan’s government has been trying to improve its defenses by extending mandatory military service and revamping ongoing training for reservists as part of a broader shift in defense strategy designed to make Xi think twice before taking a gamble on use of force. But young Taiwanese are not answering the call, and Defense Minister Wellington Koo recently acknowledged a lack of equipment and instructors has slowed attempts to professionalize reservist training. China’s military, the largest standing army in the world, has 2 million active personnel and recruits about 400,000 conscripts every year. Its defense budget of $230 billion was 13 times as large as Taiwan’s in 2023 and its military regularly trains to take the island in a sudden overwhelming assault.

Iran Arrests Dozens in Search for Suspects in Killing of Hamas Leader (NYT) Iran has arrested more than two dozen people, including senior intelligence officers, military officials and staff workers at a military-run guesthouse in Tehran, in response to a huge and humiliating security breach that enabled the assassination of a top leader of Hamas, according to two Iranians familiar with the investigation. The high-level arrests came after the killing in an explosion early Wednesday of Ismail Haniyeh, who had led Hamas’s political office in Qatar and was visiting Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president and staying at the guesthouse in northern Tehran, Iran’s capital. The fervor of the response to the killing of Mr. Haniyeh underscores what a devastating security failure this was for Iran’s leadership, with the assassination occurring at a heavily guarded compound in the country’s capital within hours of the swearing-in ceremony of the country’s new president.

Netanyahu, Defiant, Appears to Have Gone Rogue, Risking a Regional War (NYT) As the Biden administration and its allies try to secure an elusive cease-fire in Gaza, Israel appears to have gone rogue. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, came to Washington last week to give a defiant speech. Despite international condemnation, he vowed to continue the war against Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank, where Israel is killing and imprisoning scores of Palestinians each week, without any clear idea of its endgame. The assassinations of senior Hezbollah and Hamas figures abroad have now sharply raised the risks of a larger regional war as Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah prepare retaliation, analysts say. But the deaths of Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander, and Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, will not change the strategic quandary Israel faces over how to end the war, govern Gaza or care for the civilians there. They are more likely to intensify the conflict than diminish it, making progress on a Gaza cease-fire even more difficult. Absent a clear goal in the war, Mr. Netanyahu’s defiance is dividing Israel from its allies and the country itself. It has further shaken trust in his leadership. It is fueling suspicions that he is keeping the country at war to keep himself in power. It is intensifying a deep rift inside the society—about the fate of Israeli hostages, the conduct of the war and the rule of law—that is challenging the institutional bonds that hold Israel together.

US to boost military presence in Mideast (NYT) Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Friday ordered additional combat aircraft and missile-shooting warships to the Middle East in response to threats from Iran and its proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen to attack Israel in the coming days to avenge the death of Ismail Haniyeh, the Pentagon said. The military will send one additional squadron of Air Force F-22 fighter jets, an unspecified number of additional Navy cruisers and destroyers capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, and, if needed, more land-based ballistic-missile defense systems. To maintain the presence of an aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships in the region, Mr. Austin also directed the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, now in the eastern Pacific, to relieve the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt in the next couple of weeks when it is scheduled to return home.

Many of Gaza’s Medical Workers Have Been Detained or Killed (NYT) Dr. Khaled El Serr last spoke to his family in mid-March, a week before Israeli troops raided the hospital in southern Gaza where he worked as a surgeon. “No one has seen or heard of him ever again,” said his cousin, Osaid AlSerr, a surgical resident in the United States. “We do not even know whether he is dead or alive.” Dr. El Serr was arrested by the Israeli military, according to Amnesty International, citing the accounts of co-workers and Palestinian detainees who have been released. But the military has refused to say whether it is holding him. His story is not unique. More than 300 of Gaza’s health workers are in Israeli detention, the enclave’s health ministry says, while others have been detained for a time and then released. And according to the World Health Organization, 500 have been killed in the war, out of a prewar total of about 20,000. “That equates to an average of two health care workers killed every day, with one in every 40 health care workers, or 2.5 percent of Gaza’s health care work force, now dead,” Medical Aid for Palestinians, a British charity, said in a statement.

US warns a famine in Sudan is on pace to be the deadliest in decades as the world looks elsewhere (AP) The newly confirmed famine at one of the sprawling camps for war-displaced people in Sudan’s Darfur region is growing uncontrolled as the country’s combatants block aid, and it threatens to grow bigger and deadlier than the world’s last major famine 13 years ago, U.S. officials warned on Friday. The U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.N. World Food Program and other independent and government humanitarian agencies were intensifying calls for a cease-fire and aid access across Sudan. That’s after international experts in the Famine Review Committee formally confirmed Thursday that the starvation in at least one of three giant makeshift camps, holding up to 600,000 people displaced by Sudan’s more than yearlong war, had grown into a full famine.

Somali beach attack kills 32, police say (BBC) At least 32 people were killed and several others injured after a suicide bomber and gunmen targeted a popular beachfront location in the Somali capital on Saturday, a police spokesman has said. Abdifatah Adan Hassan said around 63 people are wounded, some of them critically. Local media say the attack was carried out by al-Shabab militants who control large parts of southern and central Somalia.

[bigmack2go]

How to make characters reckognisae despite using stylisation? I’m gld you ask.

Like you would for portrait, you will search for the mort markant and important features in the face. Except this time, instead of going more into detail for them, you simply draw everything else normal in ur style and then take those few features and completely exeragate it. You can go completely nuts if u want. This works with every style. It also helps to asogn your characters specific shapes that you think match them, their face, their body or their personality etc pp. Obv u don’t use them just like that. Depending on your style you might not even use them for your poses sketch. But you can still use tham as a guideline.

A good example however would be Angelo! And Luca (generally Pixar). Ofc these are one of the examples that do it to an extreme amount, and almost always use only ONE of said features but that only makes it easier to understand the principle for beginners.

For instance, you see in the original for example: the ears are usually the same: simple amd round. And if you noticed, the fanarts didn’t bring them out either. and the noses and eyes are fairly similar as well unless they are markant. Gulia and Alberto both have iconic hairstyles which on the other hand were in fact used in the arts. Obviously the clothes were a factor in recognising them here as well bit try to focus on the other parts. Gulias Eybrows and nose are always more important than the rest of her eyes. Obviously theres massimo whose eyes -or well- rather, lack there-of make him recogniseable. But there are a lot of characters like these

, to name one. And in a different style massimo would look like this too if we would only concentrate on that single feature. But masimo has hair, and bigger legs. His style of clothing is also completely different.

It also works if you want to age up characters, make AU’s etc. Not only if tou wanna change styles.

Now an example of how to use this.

Here’s how you go abou drawing Davey Jacobs.

Davey’s face is rather long-ish. His nose hoocked. He has small eyes (especially in comparison) and the distance between them is very small. He is also very tall

Or only half a one: Ranboo:

Obv he doesn’t show his full face but the all of prt we do see is actually markant. They have hooded eyes and wavy eyebrows. The mask can actually BE a feature like in this case. Then of course ranboo is very tall so theres that.

What if the character isn’t from a life action or irl thing in the first place? Trust me. They still have that. This is something every professional does even though stylisation isn’t specifically taught (because it’s different for everyone. You can only teach anatomy) lets do Mr Foot.

Mr foot is always slanky, half bold woth his remaining hair curly and red. His eyes, different to all the other eyes in the show, have a normal size (so theire small) he wears glasses and has a longer, bigger nose, which differentiates him from becky.

Okay let’s step this up one last time. They have different appearances? Actors? Etc? I’m sure your find smt they have in common. If not, are they discibed in a book? If still no: just pick one version lmao. Lets go w Dumbledore

This one is actually quite easy and not “stepped up” but its only so i can explain it better. Usually this makes it harder.

Dumbledore obv always has his grey white beard. He has halfmoon glasses but none of these are actually HIM (i mean, the beard is ig). He is also (almost) always shown as the old man he (is). He has wrinkles. You can show old people by indicating wrinkles on the firehead, under/ next to the eyes or laugh folds. The more the older ofc. Dumbledores eyes are very small but still to nig for his glasses and his lips usually can be barely seen

Did you notice how none of those required a specific style of drawing? Each of these things can be stylised in any way. The rest is un important. As long as you give him those features, the people that know him, will recognise him.

We mostly rely on haircuts for this kind of stuff. But what if you have an Alternate Universe? What if your character gets cancer in a fic? What if they change for any other reason.

If you cant find the soecial feature, try seeing it as if you were actually doing a portrait when looking for them. You force yourself to find smt like that.

Uou really think ur character has no soecial features? Fine.

You have several options

1 you dont make anything special. This can BE the special feature to make them look different than the rest.

2 you do it like you would do it for portraits, u just choose one or two or three things and instead of making them special, you make them detailed. If possible: detailed as in “inspired by the character and not just the little.” They have blue eyes? Tgey are now NEON BLUE. They have curls? Tgey flow EXACTLY like they do in the original.

!!!!!!!!!Also look out for beauty marks!!!!!!!!!!

You already knew this but simply same face syndrome still and can’t get rid of it?

Stop drawing realistic. Specially go with existing characters that are fron cartoons or animations etc.

[nanowrimo]

30 Covers, 30 Days 2022: Day 8

It’s day eight of 30 Covers, 30 Days! Time sure flies, but don’t forget to cherish the little moments, okay? Literary novel Dandelion Wishes by Taylor G. White is here to inspire hope. This beautiful cover was designed by returning designer, Alberto Rigau!

Dandelion Wishes

9:11pm, the rain fell and rippled in dark puddles scattered across the sides of the road, making the reflection of the street lamps dance in disarray to nature’s song. Ashley stood there and blinked, having just been stood up by an online date. The image had permanently lodged itself in her memory as the pivotal moment that changed the course of her life. No fantastical adventures needed, navigating new adult friendships and rekindling her love for life is more than enough for any mid life crisis. From a coffee date with her mother to confessing secrets to her high school crush, the ordinary becomes extraordinary if you spend enough time cultivating it into something beautiful.

About the Author

Taylor is a young adult with a deep passion for one too many things in life, most likely stemming from the ADHD. Being bigender and pansexual cost him his country of origin, family, and friends, while simultaneously teaching him how to celebrate the little things in life. Now married and responsible for three tiny humans, he spends most of his time trying to write something as beautiful as he finds the world, or connecting with chosen family.

About the Designer

Alberto Rigau is a freelance designer & co-chair for AIGA’s Design Educators Community (DEC). Alberto currently engages in practice from his home studio in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He crafts and conceptualizes brands, exhibits, way-finding systems, publications, books, photographic projects, and architectural collaborations of an interpretative nature. Alberto carried out his graduate studies at NC State University's College of Design and undergraduate experience at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He teaches graphic design, most recently teaching for NC State University.

[tombeane-blog]

Pizza Is American, Get Over It

Warning for Italians, Sicilians and New Jersians:  Don't read this. Your life will never be the same.

News that is viralating across the nation...

1. "Alberto Grandi, a food historian who teaches at the University of Parma, claims that pizza, carbonara and parmesan (which is commonly produced in Wisconsin) are truly American foods.

He continues,

2. "Italian-American soldiers in Sicily during WWII were reportedly shocked that there were no pizzerias around."

and continues,

3. "For my (Alberto Grandi's) father in the 1970s, pizza was just as exotic as sushi is for us today,"

For decades I was afraid to mention this in polite society for fear that I might end up by (caution: mixed metaphor) having a dirt nap with the fishes while wearing cement flip flops - courtesy of some guy named Giovanni.

But now that science is substantiating my own personal ad-hockian experience - I'm coming out of the pantry.

I was in Livorno, Italy in 1963.  Me and my navy buddies decided to eat at this quaint little sidewalk cafe.  

"We're in Italy - I want me some authentic Italian pizza!", I slurred. My buddies agreed and we ordered.

Well, it was nothing like the pizza I had been eating back in the States.  It was just thin baked dough.  After baking, they just threw some tomato sauce and vegetables on top.  

It was like they really had no idea what a pizza was! (What do you expect from a country that is missing J, K, W, X, and Y from it's alphabet?)

So, can we really determine the origin of globally common foods?  And why shouldn't they legitimately be claimed by whoever makes them popular?

I can easily imagine some Spartans at Thermopylae on the-night-before taking some thin baked bread and tossing some random food stuff on top.  

Was that a pizza?  Why not?  Today they put anchovies, pineapple, Canadian frigging bacon and even Mexican food on them and they still call it a pizza.

So why not just designate them Mexican style or Hawaiian style or yep - Italian style pizza.  

Maybe slap some cheese grits, pulled pork and collard greens on top and call it Suthen style pizza.

Everyone agrees there are few things more American than a hamburger.  But let's take a look at it's origins from a hysterictical perspective.

In Hamburg, Germany a popular dish was a flat, pan-fried meat patty which became know as Hamburg Steak.

Meanwhile in Great Britain, John Montagu(4th earl of Sandwich, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, Baron Montagu of Saint Neots), gets credited with putting some meat between two pieces of bread - inventing(?) The Sandwich.

One of the many versions of the origin of the hamburger goes like this:

German immigrants in New York and Chicago during the Industrial Revolution served factory workers Hamburg steak from food carts. They were difficult to eat while standing, so one creative cook put the Hamburg patty between two slices of bread... combining a thin flat meat patty from Germany with a 'meat between bread' idea from some posh British aristocratic sissy and,  Voila!   The Hamburger Sandwich.

This combo, just like the pizza, could have been put together by a couple of Spartan Warriors sitting around the campfire.  They could have been having pizza and burgers as a last meal.

So who did make the first actual pizza? We will never know.  

What we do know for absolute certainty is that pizza - as the world knows it today - is as American as Apple Pie - just like the hamburger. 

Believe the Scientist.

Being a generous person, I'll let my Italic paisans keep on bragging about Carbonara, Parmesan, those nude armless statues and Frank Sinatra.

[dc-ocs-200x]

Alberto looked down at the little boy, bandage wrapped right around his forehead. The child almost seemed unblinking, which was kind of freaking him out. He shifted uncomfortably. He had heard about the newest little Falcone addition but when paired with the news that the young family member had been set up for adoption, he never really expected to meet him except perhaps in passing. It made him uneasy.

While mob life was extremely unpredictable, Alberto liked to maintain some level of control and this threw an entire wrench in carefully plotted plans. The more he watched the child, however, the more striking resemblance he saw. Maybe, the wrench wasn't so big, if he played his cards right. He carefully bent down, more to Vincenzo's height.

"Hi there..." he gently murmured.

Vincenzo wrung his little hands nervously, eyes still wide as he stared up at Alberto, anxiety seizing his chest. After a few moments he worked up enough courage, "Hi..." he paused a moment longer before blurting out, "You're my papa?"

Alberto blinked, taken aback, that certainly wasn't what he expected to hear, "N-no I-" he stopped, play his cards right, he reminded himself. There was no need for Carmine to actually get ahold of the boy. Really, it'd probably be for the best.

"I'm... yeah... yeah actually. You can call me that... you're Vincenzo?" he gently asked.

The curly haired child nodded, lip trembling slightly which startled Alberto greatly. What further caught him off guard was the little boy rushing forwards and throwing his arms around him. Alberto tensed before finally wrapping one arm around him, rubbing his back a little, resisting a grimace at the child starting to cry.

"Hey... hey.. what's the matter?" he gently murmured.

"S-so happy!" Vincenzo sniffled out, "Thought- thought I was a-alone now! But 'm not... not alone, cause I have y-you!"

Alberto's breath hitched a moment. Such a large feeling of being needed, of being wanted. He hadn't felt that since... well, maybe that wasn't something he should be thinking of. Instead, he let himself focus on the little mass now in his arms and the words that had just left him. In a clumsy action, derived from no practice, he lifted Vincenzo fully into his arms, resuming in rubbing his back a bit more confidently. He wasn't sure how to describe the feeling he now had pulling at his chest, but he knew right away that he wanted to protect and care for the child, to teach and shape him, that he'd burn the world around them both if it meant this child's happiness.

There was a darker voice somewhere in the back of his mind, telling him to be careful, that even these feelings couldn't stop their plan. He brushed it off though, the voice had been there as long as he could remember but surely for this little person he wanted to dedicate himself to he could keep him at bay.

"I've got you, Vinny," he murmured into the child's hair, "I've got you. You aren't alone... I'm always going to have you. Whenever you need me," he promised softly, walking slightly backwards to sit on his apartment's couch with the child.

Vincenzo sniffled again, slowly settling down in the hold, turning his head to finally peek out, looking up to Alberto as though he'd hung the stars and the moon. Alberto felt his ego, and quite possibly heart, grow a few sizes in seeing the look.

Apparently, Vincenzo was comfortable enough, or perhaps worn enough from the day's events, to drift off to an easy sleep. It was rather early for Alberto's taste, they didn't even get to have dinner yet, but he figured it could slide the first day, the kid had gone through quite a bit. He held him for a good hour or so longer, bouncing between contemplating the situation as a whole and simply admiring the child, silently wondering how he'd already managed to win over his trust. Eventually, however, he opted to lay the little boy in the guest room, the room that would now be Vincenzo's. Seeing the little boy asleep so peacefully put him at ease, stirring long forgotten dreams that he'd thought would never come true. He reached down to pet his hair back and peck his forehead before heading out, leaving the door ajar.

He ended spending the rest of the night plotting until heading to bed himself. The next morning, Vincenzo woke, immediately alarmed that he was in an unfamiliar bed. It took his fuzzy mind a moment to process everything that had happened, feeling the cold bandages over his forehead a moment before bursting out of bed, "Papa!" he called hoping that that portion hadn't simply been a dream. His chest raged anxiously on the inside as he braved wandering around the new territory.

"Papa!??" he called more fearfully.

Alberto stepped from the kitchen, now hearing the panicked little voice, "Here, I'm here, Vin."

Vincenzo's eyes widened in utter gratefulness, racing towards him to wrap his arms around his legs, "You're real! You're really real!" he sniffled slightly.

"Wha-... of course I'm real," he shook his head in bewilderment at the statement.

"Thought you were a dream..." he mumbled, "I'm so happy you weren't, that you're real," he sniffled.

Alberto paused a moment before gently resting a hand on the child's back, "Like I told you yesterday, whenever you need me, I'll be there. You aren't alone, Vinny," he soothed gently, "now then, I made some eggs, I'm sure you're hungry, hm?"