#corona chronicles

[sirquacklesdefoof]

Should I just go to sleep

[twisting-echo]

I played Disney Mirrorverse for the first time!

So, I had been wanting to play Disney Mirrorverse ever since I first saw the official announcement trailer about a year ago. I've been obsessed with the universe of this game for a while now, but for some reason my tablet couldn't download it. But that all changes now because I downloaded it last night, played it, and plan to chronicle everything, so here we go! I'm so excited to share this with you guys! X3

This is the loading screen. 

After I set up my account, I was ready to go.

The pictures below will show you the opening intro.

(There's my baby girl! X3)

So that's the intro! After the intro, we fade to black and get the opening title.

The game starts off with Mickey summoning a guardian, who turns out to be Rapunzel. 

I love her pan pun! X3

So then I start off by learning the basics of the game and how to fight. But I take a lot of damage fighting a goon, so Mickey comes to my aid.

Mickey shows up, wrecks some fools, and heals me.

After we defeat the goons, Mickey decides that it's time to summon more guardians.

So, this is what I thought was pretty cool. I got to pick one out of three melee guardians, who were Ariel, Mulan, and Hercules.

Of course, I chose Mulan.

She's a badass warrior!

After I chose my new guardian, a new picture popped up, telling me about how each guardian has a role, specifically what Melee Guardians are and what they do. (Which I already knew hehehe)

So, this is where my journey begins.

This is the location on the map of my first mission.

I didn't start the mission because my tablet was dying, and I thought it was a good place to stop.

I'm so excited to play this chapter as well as unlock the other chapters. Well, this is all the pictures Tumblr will allow me to put up, so thankfully, this is all I had.

I'll keep you guys up to date on what's next in store! See you in the next post!

[quirk-nova]

Theia Tanika

A supportive and bubbly witch who represents Corona Australis. Like her son, Nalani, Theia used to love going to parties at his age. She has yet to tell her son about his biological father, who happens to be a witch she met at a party.

Headcanon Voice: Jill Talley

Mom Voice - The Loud House (TV Show) - Behind The Voice Actors

[not-magdi]

"Us, Forever"

Summary: Pablo can't believe how lucky he got with you, he really can't believe it 

Word Count: 1.1k

A/N

I managed to get Corona! The one time I would have had time to write something I got Corona and a Fever that cooked my brain. But, now my test is negative again and my brain is producing ideas like crazy! 

Hope you like this one though,

Love you guys Magdi <3

You didn't know what to think when you saw his pain-filled expression on TV. You sat there, completely frozen, worry the only thing on your mind.   

When you heard his sobs over the phone as he told you how bad it was, your heart shattered into a million pieces. That day made you realise that from that moment on, you had to be the strong one in this relationship. 

It made you realise that he needed you to be the one he could lean on, the one Pablo could let his guard down, somebody that could be strong for him too. So he didn't have to be all the time. 

You made it to your mission to do everything in your power to help him in any way possible. You rebuilt your living room into a bedroom, so he didn't have to go up any stairs. You held him day and night when the pain got too strong, and the only thing he could do was cry. 

"Baby, I'm here ... I'm here for you. Let it all out I got you."

His grip on your hoddie was so hard that his knuckles turned white. You wrapped your arms around him like you wanted to protect him from everything terrible that this world threw at him. 

Pablo felt safe in your arms. Your sent calmed him down. The warmth of your body engulfed him in a comforting manner. 

He buried his face deeper into your neck as he felt his breath starting to slow down again. 

"T-Thank you, I-I'm sorry. I don't know what happened."

You grabbed his head to make him look at you. You assured him, "Hey, it's completely ok to feel like shit sometimes. What you are going through is nothing easy. Sometimes you just have to let it all out." 

Kissing his head, you stand up to grab something to eat for the two of you. Seeing that it was already 6 in the morning, you decided to start the day, knowing you two wouldn't fall asleep anymore. 

Pablo kept lying on the couch. The pain in his knee was now only a dull ache. He sat up a bit to be able to see you rummaging through his kitchen drawers, trying to find something to eat.

An unconscious smile makes its way onto his face. He can't get his head around how you are willing to do all of this for him. Like he really doesn't know what he would do without you. You'd do everything for him, he doesn't even have to ask for it. 

But it scared him that you wanted to help him so much. It frightened him that one day, you could wake up and realise how much work it was to be in a relationship with him. And that you would leave him because of that.

Realistically, something like that would never happen, but he was a chronicle overthinker, so let him be. 

When you came back from the kitchen with two plates in your hand, you sensed something was bothering him, but you wanted him to tell you on his own. 

You two ate your breakfast in silence, it was a weird kind of silence. You felt that Pablo wanted to tell you something the whole time, but nothing came. He just sat there and played around with his food. 

"You not hungry?" 

Looking like a child who got caught doing something stupid, he shakes his head and lowers his gaze again, not able to hold eye contact with you for so long. 

Thinking he wouldn't say anything at all. You were about to say something when you heard him say. "How do you do it?" 

Confused, you look at him. "What do you mean?" 

"I mean, like ... like how do you keep up with me?" 

Your confusion didn't get any better. You looked up from your plate and saw Pablo already staring at you, a curious yet slightly sad expression on his face. 

Pablo noticed your confused expression and continued to talk. 

" I mean, how can you keep up with literally having to be my server? You are cancelling your plans to stay home with me and do everything to keep me comfortable. You put my life before yours. Why do you do that? I-I don't understand. "

You loved him deeply and didn't see your efforts as a burden. It was natural for you to do what you could to help him. You couldn't enjoy yourself while he was suffering because it felt wrong to you.

Your silence made Pablo panic a bit, maybe he made you realise that you didn't want to live like that. What if you were actually sick of him needing care 24/7 now? 

Your voice interrupted his inner monologue, " I have no clue, to be honest. It's just - the second I heard you were injured, I felt like I had to take care of you, to help you somehow." 

You took a second to think of your following words. "When I heard you crying on the phone that day, I just felt the need to protect you, to take care of you. I know that you are a capable individual who can handle things on your own, but I want you to know that I love you with all my heart. When you care about someone deeply, it's natural to want to do everything in your power to ensure their well-being. So, even though I trust your abilities, I just want to remind you that I'm here for you if you ever need help or support. Your happiness and safety mean everything to me, and I'll always do my best to make sure you're feeling okay."

Hearing Pablo sniff made you stop your rambling and look at him. 

"Dios mio, these medications make me emotional." 

Pablo let out a wet chuckle as he wiped his tearing eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie. 

You smiled at the boy before you and leaned down to place a kiss on his red nose. "I don't care, I love you one tear more or less isn't gonna change that."

"I love you too, so so much." 

[crazykacey]

HELLO I'M BACK WITH MORE CHRONICLE PAMPHLET TRANSLATIONS

Life has been more chaotic than I expected so that is why I've been MIA but Super Live and Chronicle DVD have summoned me to do more translations! This time it's the cast introduction and a small Q&A! First is the Inners + Chibi Moon! Outers and the rest of the cast will be translated at a later date lol

Disclaimer: there might be some errors and/or grammar mistakes. Enjoy!

Sailor Moon/Super Sailor Moon/Usagi Tsukino

Riko Tanaka

Q: What do you remember of being selected to be part of the Sailor Moon musicals?

When I heard that I was cast as Sailor Moon, it felt really unbelievable. But then due to corona, I had to wait a year before that news could be shared so it didn't feel very real at all. But finally when i went to costume fitting, I really got the feeling that I have become Sailor Moon.

Q: If you ever have to fight villains like Sailor Moon and her friends, what would be your fighting style?

Manipulating thunder like Sailor Jupiter, making them feel so much regret that it'll leave them numb lol. Supreme Thunder!!! And I also yearn to fight with huge items like Sailor Pluto and Sailor Saturn!

Q: A few words about the character you play.

She is clumsy but also strong, energetic, honest and a very hardworking girl. I will always admire her. I'm really happy to play character who is loved by many people! I will do my best for Sera Myu Fes(Chronicle) as well!!

Born 27th of February, Tokyo

Has appeared in commericials since she was 6 years old, such as Pokemon and others. She was won an ACC from her radio commercial Morinaga in-Jelly. She has also appeared in movies and played the role of a heroine's childhood self. She has been more active as an actress since high school and has appeared in many performances, such as ...from the moonlight ~A Delivery from the Moon~ and others.

Sailor Mercury/Ami Mizuno

Kanon Maekawa

Q: What do you remember of being selected to be part of the Sailor Moon musicals?

It was my stage debut so I was very honored. After the final audition, I went home together with Sailor Jupiter, Kisara Matsumura, who I have been good friends with for a while now and she said that "it would be nice if we could perform together."

Q: If you ever have to fight villains like Sailor Moon and her friends, what would be your fighting style?

I love pickled plums, so I would be Sailor Vinegar, protected by acid. With my powers of sour stimulus, I would weaken my enemies taste buds.

Q: A few words about the character you play.

Congratulations on the 30th anniversary! Please keep on loving Ami Mizuno and as for Sailor Mercury who I admire so much, i hope you shine forever. I love you!

Born 23th of February, Osaka

in 2018 she was accepted into the Yasushi Akimoto x TV Tokyo Project, Seishun High School 3-C so she moved to Tokyo after she graduated high school. She wast part of the 1st generation and appeared in the program for three years. She had her CD debut from EMI Records in Universal Music. She has also appeared in several TV dramas such as, Ore no skirt, doko itta?(Where did my skirt go?) and Anata wa hannin ja arimasen. (You are not the culprit.)

Sailor Mars/Rei Hino

Rei Kobayashi

Q: What do you remember of being selected to be part of the Sailor Moon musicals?

From the very beginning i have loved Sailor Mars and my manager knew that I wanted to play her so when the call came that I got the role, we both screamed with excitement. And when I told my mom and grandma about it, both of them started crying tears of joy which made me very happy. Seeing this made me want to work even harder!

Q: If you ever have to fight villains like Sailor Moon and her friends, what would be your fighting style?

At first, I'll try to talk to them and get along with them. Maybe I will find the good points in them, there is a high chance that they will change their mind! But if they keep on doing evil deeds, I will give it right back at them, Evil Spirit, Begone!!

Q: A few words about the character you play.

When I was 4 years old I fell with the canny and cool Rei. And when I found out that we had the same name, I felt it was fate. I love the Rei-chan who has a lot of charms, such as the way she hides her passion, the way she says things clearly and honestly, and the fact that she is kind and cares about her friends! Through the Sailor Moon musicals, and by playing Rei, I have met really wonderful and important friends. I'm really grateful. I will cherish each and every performance with love!

Born 29th of November, Saitama

in 2010, she made her model deubt by becomeing and exclusive model for the fashion magazine "Pichi Lemon". After that she joined the idol group, Yumemiru Adolescence. After graduating from the group in 2019, she started to be more active in stage performances and TV shows as an actress and model. Her main performances have include, Kishiryuu Sentai Ryusoulger on TV Asahi, Suiensaa on NHK, Peach Boyz (Ariake Garden) in XFLAG PARK 2020 and others.

Sailor Jupiter/Makoto Kino

Kisara Matsumura

Q: What do you remember of being selected to be part of the Sailor Moon musicals?

When I heard from my agency that I was cast as Sailor Jupiter, I remember being so surprised and full of joy that i couldn't stop trembling. And when we, the 5 Inner Soldiers, finally met face to face, all of them were those who had left a strong impression on me from the auditions. At the beginning, it was. a bit difficult to communicate due to the tension and corona but now everyone has become irreplaceable friends to me!

Q: If you ever have to fight villains like Sailor Moon and her friends, what would be your fighting style?

If I fight, I will fight like in my favorite RPG games and defeat evil! In the game, I can become as strong in mind and body as the Sailor Soldiers. I want to collect the strongest characters from all over the world and defeat evil and protect the world! Or course if possible, i would rather discuss and solve the problem without fighting.

Q: A few words about the character you play.

At first I was very nervous and worried if I could properly play such a cool character as Sailor Jupiter. But soon after, I started to admire her, who is by far the most powerful, the most sweetest and kindest of all. I learned to believe in my friends, to protect and love them. I will also continue on loving Sailor Jupiter so that I can get step by step closer to her.

Born 21th of July, Shizuoka.

Made her debut in 2019 in the NTV drama, Ore no skirt, doko itta?(Where did my skirt go?). She was also a regular in the CX TV show, Mezameshi TV Imadoki Girl. From June of 2021 to February of 2022, she appeared in three parts of AmebaTV's show, Kyou, Suki ni narimashita.(Today I fell in love). In 2022 she appeared in Kao's Essential THE BEAUTY advertisement and AbemaTV drama series　Fukumen D. She is active in a wide range of fields, including stage plays, modeling and movies.

Sailor Venus/Minako Aino

Marin Makino

Q: What do you remember of being selected to be part of the Sailor Moon musicals?

When I found out I was chosen, I was so happy and immediately told my family about it!! At the final audition, I remember Rei Kobayashi-chan talking to me when I was nervous. So I was really happy that I was able to become a Sailor Soldier with Rei-chan and everyone else! When I'm with the rest of the 5 Sailor Soldiers, I'm just so happy <3 Unlike Minako-chan, I'm far form being a leader, but since she is, I'll do my best to make everyone to able to rely on me!

Q: If you ever have to fight villains like Sailor Moon and her friends, what would be your fighting style?

Special Attack!!; Even though we meet for the first time, it feels like we have met before!! And then we become friends ♪ I call this special attack "Becooome my friend"!

Q: A few words about the character you play.

Please lend me your power so I can play the cute Minako-chan that everyone loves &lt;3

Born 25th of November, Nagano

Received the Glico Award at the Pretty Girl Museum2 audition held in 2011. Moved to Tokyo when she entered junior high school. After taking lessons in dancing, singing and acting, she made her debut in 2016 in Eki Stage A (Ace). She actively performs LIVE activites and from 2021 she started to properly work as an actress.

Sailor Chibimoon/Chibiusa

Chise Niitsu

Q: What do you remember of being selected to be part of the Sailor Moon musicals?

When I went to the audition for the first time, it was the winter of my last year in kindergarten, so only 6 years old. That audition was for Chibi Chibi and when I was asked what my special skill is, I remember saying it was doing tricks with a ball and I started doing it lol. I was so happy when I passed was chosen to play Chibi Chibi! And now that i'm 12 years old, I'm really excited to play Chibiusa!

Q: If you ever have to fight villains like Sailor Moon and her friends, what would be your fighting style?

When I'm around town, I take notice of the license plates of the cars and phone numbers written on signboards of different shops and create them into mathematic formulas and solve them! I find it very enjoyable. Even in math class, I feel very accomplished when I understand a difficult problem. I once heard that "mathematics is connected to the mysteries of the universe". Because of that, if I were to fight evil, I would like to fight them with mathematics! I would challenge them by giving them complex figures and formula problems!

Q: A few words about the character you play.

My beloved Chibiusa, who I admire since she is adorable, strong and brave. Like Chibiusa, I will never give up no matter how small I am! With these strong feelings, I want to do my very best in singing, dancing, and acting to play Chibiusa on stage to the fullest!

Born 23th of May, Tokyo

She made her debut when she 4 years old in the musical Miss Saigon. She played Chibi Chibi in the Sailor Moon musical, Le Mouvement Final. She is part of the music unit Foorin. She is active in my other ways such as, the movie 3-gatsu no Lion (March Comes In Like a Lion), and NHK show Come Come Everybody.

[pad-wubbo]

Because I felt like doing so, I've compiled a full list of character names is French for The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (Les Grandes Chroniques de Ace Attorney), which doesn't have an official French translation. Japanese names and Sherlock Holmes character names are unchanged, while most English pun names and faux-Japanese English-pun names are changed.

Here it is:

Ryunosuke Naruhodo (unchanged)

Susato Mikotoba (unchanged)

Kazuma Asogi (unchanged)

Yujin Mikotoba (unchanged)

Seishiro Jigoku (unchanged)

Taketsuchi Auchi (unchanged)

Satoru Hosonaga (unchanged)

John H. Wilson (unchanged, from Arsène Lupin)

Owimasu Nomasu (Iyesa Nosa)

Jinesipa Nomasu (Aido Nosa)

Korekushona Dekyuryosichi (Kyurio Korekuta)

Balta Jezaille (Jezaille Brett)

Herlock Sholmes (unchanged, from Arsène Lupin)

Bov Strogenof (Bif Strogenov)

Grimesby Roylott (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Nikolina Pavlova (unchanged)

Pirozhko (unchanged)

Novara (Darka)

Kurt Maelstrom (Mael Stronghart)

Brock Sephenie (Barok van Zieks)

Magnus O'Dore (Magnus McGilded)

Mason "Tiré-Trois-Fois" ("Thrice-Fired" Mason)

Mason Milverton (unchanged)

Beppo (unchanged)

Bruce Fairplay (unchanged)

Fender Bord (Lay D. Furst)

Iris Wilson (unchanged)

Tobias Gregson (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Soseki Natsume (unchanged)

Wagahai (unchanged)

Vera Jade (Olive Green)

John Garrideb (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Joan Garrideb (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Patricia Batterman (Patricia Beate)

Ruiz Batterman (Roly Beate)

Alain Windibank (Pop Windibank)

Hoff Benedict (Eggert Benedict)

Greece Saunders (Ashley Graydon)

Greece Milverton (Ashley Milverton)

Nash Schroeder (Nash Skulkin)

Ringo Schroeder (Ringo Skulkin)

Myrtle Rhea (Asa Shinn)

Ryutaro Naruhodo (unchanged)

Subi Anutema (Rei Membami)

Sukuriba Akumemo (Raiten Menimemo)

Bill Bardguy (William Shamspeare)

Abel deRhone (Adron B. Metermann)

Brenda Altamont (Quinby Altamont)

Duncan Ross (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Selden (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Nikolai de Beale (Albert Harebrayne)

Testa Blomme (Odie Asman)

Toby (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Mahonia Sire (Esmeralda Tusspells)

John Clay (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Ottermole (unchanged)

Jane the Ripper (unchanged)

Gustav Sephenie (Klint van Zieks)

Sara Valerie (Evie Vigil)

Balthazar Lonzi (Balthazar Lune)

Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond Ormstein (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Enoch Drebber (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Corona Stephens (Courtney Stevens)

Corona Sissel (Courtney Sithe)

Mia Cabre (Maria Gorey)

Genshin Asogi (unchanged)

Quentin Valerie (Daley Vigil)

Hugh Boone (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Barry Hare (Barry Caidin)

Venus (unchanged)

Rags (Gossip)

Sandwich (unchanged)

Fabien de Rousseau (unchanged)

Peppino de Rossi (unchanged)

Paulov Strogenof (Tchikin Strogenov)

Lady Baskerville (unchanged)

Queen Victoria (unchanged)

Tadashi Sodenoshita (unchanged)

Chalan Musgrave (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

Polan Musgrave (unchanged, from Sherlock Holmes)

See if you can decipher all the puns in the changed names.

[sun-in-retrograde]

A star is about to explode

The Blaze Star is about to go nova in the Northern Crown. For a day, this faint star will become as bright as the North Star. In the past, a new star appearing in the sky was a major omen and people would pay close attention to it, but people rarely understood that it could be a recurrent phenomenon.

Recurrent nova explosions basically happen when a star experiences a large explosion that is nonetheless not big enough to destroy it. In the case of the Blaze Star what happens is that a small white dwarf is orbiting close to a much bigger red giant star. The red dwarf has an “accretion disk” of chemicals around it and as the Blaze Star travels through it it takes in more and more glasses until this reaches critical mass and explodes. Then, for a day, the star becomes 1500 times brighter than it usually is. We know of ten recurrent novae but the Blazing Star has one of the longest known periods between recurrences - about 80 years.

The Blaze Star, also known as T Coronae Borealis (or T Crb) is currently at 18°22 Scorpio and it’s moving slowly through the Scorpio. The last time it lit up was 9 February 1946 when it was at 17°16, then before that it was at 16°10 on 12 May 1866. There’s also two documents that discuss the nova before it was properly discovered. It was observed in around 1787/8 and a medieval manuscript mentions the nova in mid Autumn of 1217 when it was at around 7°04. The Ursperger Chronicle reports it like this:

"In the autumn season of the same year, in the early evening, a wonderful sign was seen in a certain star in the west. This star was located a little west of south, in what astrologers call Ariadne's Crown. As we ourselves observed, it was originally a faint star that for a time shone with great light, and then returned to its original faintness. There was also a very bright ray reaching up the sky, like a large tall beam. This was seen for many days that autumn. The preachers also in these times asserted that many other signs had taken place in heaven and on Earth, which it would be too long to enumerate and to add to this brief account."

I share the full text here because I think as astrologers what it shows us is that ancient astrologers took events like novae seriously and if we are seriously making a case for following in their footsteps we need to do the same. But also, they didn’t understand what they were looking at. We are aware of ten recurrent novae in this galaxy and we didn’t have evidence of this phenomenon at all until the 1900s. Most people who saw a recurrent nova before that thought it was a possibly miraculous one off event. I am 100% expecting to find ancient mesopotamian, Chinese, or Indian records that show that someone somewhere noted a recurrence in ancient times. The ancients were so often able to see more and connect more than we give them credit for. But I’ve not yet seen any evidence of this. For now, we have to assume that the recurrence of nova explosions is something nobody understood until modern times.

The Northern Crown

The Coronae Borealis constellation is named after the garland Venus gave to Ariadne when she married Dionysus. It therefore traditionally has some Venus-Mercury themes. In some cases this seems to play out with a connection between the nova event and children. For instance Spiro Agnew had his Sun conjunct the Blazing Star and his wife’s pregnancy at the time of the novae encouraged him to go back to law school. 

In some cases it can also relate to adult experiences of children and succession - for instance the month of the nova architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s son sent him a copy of his book about their relationship. It had the very Saturnian title: My Father Who Is On Earth. Frank was not happy and wrote notes throughout the book, his son responded to his comments. The book was published with the full disagreement available for everyone to read. This is all very Saturn-Venus to me - succession, children, creation, difficulty, and legacy all wrapped up in one story.

Passing the Torch from Conflict to Conflict

The most notable event at the last nova was the Soviet prosecutor giving his opening statement at the Nuremberg trials. A couple of Nazis had key signs on those strongly conjunct the Blazing Star - Wilhelm Frick (the architect of Germany’s anti-Jewish laws) and Alfred Rosenberg (the administrator in charge of occupied Russia). Oddly Frick was one of only two Nazis to refuse to testify in his own defense, and Rosenberg was the only Nazi executed following his trial who refused to give a last statement before being hanged. I don’t know what this is about but Hess, the other Nazi who refused to testify had the Blazing Star strongly trine is ascendent. Maybe the influence of the Blazing Star encouraged them to let their lives end with the mercy that we didn’t have to hear them whine about it. Because honestly, nothing of value was lost when the leaders of the WW2 Nazi Party were executed. 

Passing the torch from one conflict to another seems kind of key to this nova. On the day of the nova Stalin gave his first major post war speech and said that another war was inevitable because of the "capitalist development of the world economy", and that the USSR would need to concentrate on national defense in advance of a war with the Western nations. This is considered by some to be the start of the Cold War. Meanwhile in Britain, Jewish ex-servicemen beat up a group of fascists who were trying to rebuild their movement - this was both a reflection on the war that had just gone and inspired the formation of the 43 group of anti-fascists which was an essential part of the post war anti-fascist movement. One conflict ends, but immediately, another one starts.

What I’m looking out for

We can expect the nova in the next six months so I’m keeping my eye out for conflicts that are ending and sparking an immediate new conflict. The change over from Israel invading Gaza to a more sustained occupation as part of their ongoing genocide against the Palestinians strikes me as a key one to watch for. The Blazing Star is loosely conjunct Ukraine’s MC and Pluto and its at a sensitive part of various Russian natal charts so this is a conflict to watch when the Blazing Star goes up.

Prince Harry is a key celebrity in this - he has the Blazing Star conjunct his MC and it’s interesting that we’re currently in a period where for the first time ever the British press has more complaints about Prince William’s wife than Meghan Markle. The monarchy is less of a joke than we make it out to be sometimes - the ongoing conflict between the Windsor siblings and their wives demonstrates major faultlines in British society on issues like how tolerant we are of secrecy within the executive arm of government, and how a lot of people understand race and racism. A shift in this conversation could be important. 

Of course, with the conception connection some of the most important events of the transit might not become apparent right away. It could be conception, or women finding out they’re pregnant, or starting to tell people. The key thing seems to be how the arrival of a child impacts the parent and this is a really personal thing we might not be aware of unless this hits your personal chart at the right time in the right way.

In general, I’ll simply be watching out for a new star in the sky. Astrology isn’t just about fortune telling, it’s about forming a personal connection to the universe and watching an event like this is one way to do that. I also think astrology is about forming a link to the past. We do this by following the cycles of planets, or in this case, stellar explosions. We also do this by understanding our ancestors who also tried to understand the stars. We have an opportunity to understand the cyclical nature of an event that most past astrologers could only understand as miraculous. I think that’s really beautiful.

Underneath, for the nerds, I have the charts for the three known nova explosions so far:

[missfreija]

title: /// (mi rifiuto di dare un titolo lol)

fandom: vampire chronicles

pairing: armand/marius

romance, fluff, venice era

Il pennello intinto di nero scorreva veloce nello spazio della tela, stretto tra le dita sottili di Marius che, in piedi tra le pieghe del suo abito ampio, dipingeva la fine dell'umanità per mano del Dio cristiano. Le sue labbra si increspavano in un guizzo di nervosismo, mentre gli occhi, ombreggiati dai capelli biondi, gli conferivano un’ espressione assorta. Tra le mura del palazzo echeggiò un lontano rimbombo di passi. “Maestro, non dovrebbe affaticarsi troppo, è da più di una settimana che non stacca le mani da quel lavoro.” Gli occhi pensosi erano mutati in pozze colme di beatitudine non appena il giovane umano dai capelli ambrati ebbe varcato la soglia. “Dovresti sapere che non ti è permesso entrare in questa stanza senza il mio consenso, Amedeo" mormoró il vampiro, accennando un lieve sorriso indulgente. Amedeo si avvicinò alla composizione con curiosità, mentre Marius si accingeva a riprendere la sua meravigliosa opera, dopo aver ripulito frettolosamente le macchie di pittura disseminate sul pallido braccio. “Che concetto si cela alla base della vostra nuova creazione?” domandò il giovane. “È scaturito da un mio sogno.” Precisò. “Devi sapere, Amedeo, che ciò che per gli umani pare molto tempo, dal calar del sole al sorger della luna, per una qualsiasi divinità equivale a meno di un secondo. Così, il sole si abbassa sulla terra sfumando di rosa aranciato il cielo e le nuvole per poi scomparire, lasciando il palcoscenico alla luna ed accendendo le costellazioni davanti agli occhi di Dio. Rifulgono i bianchi marmi dei templi nella notte, colonne scanalate dai capitelli fioriti d'acanto sostengono fregi rappresentanti imprese eroiche e miti del passato. Bassorilievi muti fissano le tenebre della terra sovrastate dalle splendenti stelle accompagnate dal chiaro volto di Proserpina. E un soffio da oriente, vento ormai debole, adagia una corona intrecciata di fiori, in via di appassire, sulla gradinata di fronte all'alta ed imponente statua del Cristo. Io mi trovavo in questo scenario e piangevo, come morte, persone ancora in vita, guardando l'oro delle nuove città bagnarsi del sangue causato dalle guerre e i cadaveri dei morti venir risucchiati nel regno degli inferi, ove si nasconde il più profondo male dell'uomo, nutrimento demoniaco o forma del demonio stesso. Mi trovavo, in questa illusoria macchinazione febbrile, proprio nel cuore della strage, dove gli arcangeli sterminavano le creazioni dell’umanità. Desideravo scomparire, chiudere gli occhi e tornare a dipingere: illuminare il cielo nella raffigurazione per cancellare la notte che tentava invano di rammentarmi tele e dipinti passati, mai dimenticati nel mio cuore.” Il signore del palazzo veneziano sorrise amaramente, posò il pennello e premette una mano sulla schiena di Amedeo, attonito, in un invito a precederlo. Si avviarono lungo un buio porticato che si affacciava sul cortile. Gocce di pittura nera rigavano i volti di cento angeli nel cielo al tramonto.

Marius entrò nella stanza e i suoi occhi non ebbero bisogno di attendere qualche istante per abituarsi alla nuova atmosfera dalla scarsa luminosità. Il tenue bagliore sprigionato dalle poche candele sul tavolo era più che sufficiente per illuminare il suo mondo circostante. Pian piano andò notando la radiosa ed armoniosa figura che rimaneva semi sdraiata sull'ampio letto dai cuscini di prezioso velluto. Era abbastanza longilinea e sorrideva verso il vampiro, il ritratto della paziente attesa. La pelle chiara rifletteva la luce soffusa delle candele che sprigionavano profumi delicati di spezie e di sandalo, le gambe distese sui soffici cuscini erano leggermente piegate per dare una postura eretta al bacino. Marius mosse un passo verso l'oggetto del suo desiderio. Un sottile velo di seta, che copriva le spalle del giovane ucraino, era scivolato lentamente di lato nascondendo in parte i capezzoli che risaltavano più scuri nella sua trasparenza. Un braccio in tensione, il sinistro, reggeva il busto affondando la mano tra i cuscini mentre l'altro si scaricava rilassato su di un fianco mostrando l'avambraccio. Il giovane portava al dito un onice di piccole dimensioni. Lo sguardo limpido di Amedeo pareva ebbro di gioia, le sue palpebre inondate di una misteriosa polvere dorata che scuriva il contorno dell' occhio dando un' apparenza di intensa profondità. Le mani statuarie sul suo bacino fecero perdere l'equilibrio a quella postura precaria; il suo corpo si distese sui cuscini e la pelle fremette a quel contatto, bramando una connessione più penetrante e appagante. Il capo era reclinato sulla spalla sinistra, gli occhi ora semichiusi e ombreggiati dalle ciglia scure. ''Siete finalmente tornato, Maestro'' mormorò il cherubino. Quell'amore rendeva completa e significativa tutta la sua esistenza di giovane ragazzo umano, e Marius in qualche modo lo sapeva. Posó baci morbidi come petali sulle gote e sui capelli di Amedeo, con immensa gentilezza mentre il giovane si metteva a sedere e reclinava il capo in avanti per accogliere quel gesto, lottando contro le lacrime che minacciavano di rigargli le guance e contro l'emozione che gli serrava la gola. Le sue mani cercarono il petto ricoperto dalla tunica di Marius. Era troppo forte il desiderio di far scorrere le labbra sulla pelle marmorea del suo signore, in una scia di baci adoranti. Le labbra rosee si socchiusero in un respiro più profondo degli altri; il giovane alzò la testa con un movimento quasi felino, trascinante, e incontrò lo sguardo di Marius. Le iridi brune simili a granato parevano celare arcani antichi ed impenetrabili. Il potere insito in quello sguardo lo sopraffece. Armand serrò gli occhi al socchiudersi delle labbra fredde sulle proprie, baciando con trasporto il suo signore. Sotto il peso del corpo del vampiro, l'umano alzò involontariamente una gamba e la seta strusciò contro il suo fianco. La mano destra di Amedeo corse a sistemare una ciocca dei capelli chiari del maestro dietro l'orecchio; erano setosi e parevano vivi, sciogliendosi fino alle spalle in una morbida cascata color miele. Le sue labbra lasciarono intravedere visibili per un attimo i bianchi denti in un sorriso, la lingua rossa per un istante passò ad inumidire il labbro superiore, ma fu fermata, come animale intrappolato, tra canini aguzzi. Marius scoprì le parti nascoste di quel corpo che aveva imparato a conoscere; con adorazione, passò le dita tra i capelli profumati che giacevano sparsi sulla superficie morbida delle lenzuola. ''Esprimi i tuoi desideri, Amedeo''

Marius parlò con inflessione melodiosa, quasi vibrante, e con una punta di decisione nel tono, ma parve infinitamente dolce alle orecchie rapite di Amedeo. Gli attimi di felicità che aveva condiviso con lo scomparso Andrei gli restarono nei ricordi.

[angelicswagsummit]

Bracket Reveal!

I arranged the bracket with a random number generator, so any strange or unbalanced pairings are to be blamed entirely on the random number generator. I'm going to stagger when I put out the polls- I'll put out section A on monday (5/8), section B on tuesday, etc. I tried to make who was who as clear as I could on the bracket, since there are ten Lucifers and ten more Gabriels (give or take), so the matchups are below the cut! May the swaggiest angel win.

Section A

CA Cupid (Ever After High/Monster High) Vs Charlie Morningstar (Hazbin Hotel)

Lucifer (Megami Tensei) Vs Gabriel (Shaman King)

Gabriel (Christianity) Vs Islington (Neverwhere)

Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer) Vs Lucifer Morningstar (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina)

Gabriel (ultrakill) Vs Michael (Granblue Fantasy)

Kaworu Nagisa (Evangelion) Vs Erika (Welcome to Night Vale)

Gabriel (Mandela Catalogue) Vs Skellig (Skellig)

Angel of Death (Prince of Egypt) Vs Manny (Constantine)

Section B

Crowley (Good Omens) Vs Raguel (Murder Mysteries)

El/Eru (Shugo Chara) Vs Sandalphon (Granblue Fantasy)

Finn Fish (Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne) Vs Guardian Angel (Adventure Time)

Winged Girl (On Your Mark) Vs Angemon (Digimon)

Michael (Michael (1996)) Vs Gabriel (Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint)

Michael (Stan for Salvation) Vs Uriel (Shaman King)

Shachath (American Horror Story) Vs Angela (Marvel Image Comics)

Rosie (Wizards of Waverly Place) Vs Sera (Marvel)

Section C

Gabriel (The Bible) Vs Lucifer Morningstar (The Sandman)

Aziraphale (Good Omen) Vs Allison Angel (Bendy and the Ink Machine)

Gabriel (Supernatural) Vs Wedding Peach (Wedding Peach)

Ryo Asuka (Devilman Crybaby) Vs Courtney (Dead End: Paranormal Park)

Simeon (Obey Me) Vs Gabriel (Stan for Salvation)

Uriel (Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint) Vs Zauriel (DC comics)

Barbella Sasparilla Gainglynn (Dimension 20) Vs Pit (Kid Icarus)

Castiel (Supernatural) Vs Lucifer (Obey Me)

Section D

Venus (We Know the Devil) Vs Whis (Dragon Ball)

Amenadiel (Lucifer) Vs Stocking Anarchy (Panty and Stocking)

Fingers (Dead End: Paranormal Park) Vs Panty Anarchy (Panty and Stocking)

Access Time (Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne) Vs Kohaku (Wish)

Exandroth (Just Roll With It) Vs Hanekoma Sanae (The World Ends With You)

Uriel ( The Dresden Files) Vs The Angel (The Mechanisms)

Ithuriel (The Shadowhunter Chronicles) Vs Corona Andromede (Oceanfalls)

Lynn (All Saints Street) Vs Galacta Knight (Kirby)

[wanderingthedesertalone]

Corona Alone a Diary Revisited: An American’s Experience of the Covid Lockdown in Mumbai 

Lockdown In Retrospect

Mediocre Graces: In any case, by the end of the Pandemic, I had somewhat been restored to good graces, not that I was ever greeted in Anand Nagar(8) at least with the Atithi Devo Bhava(11) spirit, I got on the good side of the local gang and befriended a Muslim woman who sells fish in a roadside stall, but it was too late, lonesomeness and faithlessness in humanity had grabbed a hold of me. Sadly, I am no longer able to speak to the fish merchant. She married, her husband is conservative and doesn’t allow her to speak to men.

On Lonesomeness: It’s worth noting that many endured the Corona epidemic in complete isolation. According to The Wall Street Journal, 35.7 million Americans, including myself, lived alone (Byron) around the time of writing the first journal entry. However, not just did I live alone, I was an expat, I lived alone in Mumbai, India. Regardless of the negative stigma that goes along with living alone, solitude never bothered me, in fact, ever since I was divorced, in 2012, I’ve preferred to be alone. Besides, I could always grab a cup of coffee and talk to strangers, I have the gift of gab when needed, but the double-whammy of isolation and becoming a pariah had pushed me to the brink of insanity. I’ve come to believe that those things that don’t kill us make us weaker and since the Covid outbreak I’ve become impatient, nervous and have lost faith in humanity, as I’ve already said.

Too Much Fluff: In all, the NPR article is woefully misguided and simply tried to make a buck off of Covid lockdowns, like so many other news outlets were doing at the time. A better story would’ve been on those who live alone before the Pandemic, whether for reason of mental health, a willful solitude or social ineptitude, that chronicled each persons’ descent into madness; I despise fluff journalism, maybe because it reminds me of the way that Bollywood paints India as an endless serene landscape of humorous follies in love that can easily be overcome when it’s something else all together, not easily, or that I would like to, put into words. This isn’t just fluff, there’s comedy for sure, there’s humor in all tragedy but there’s a reason for sharing the gritty details of lockdown in India, I feel it’s important to share these stories lest we live them again! In the past year, I’ve filled 6 volumes with recollections of lockdown, I hoped to get them published by a newspaper, that failed.

Diary Excerpts and Commentary

A Note to the Reader: The following excerpts are from the journal of an expat living in Mumbai (recorded between Feb 2019 and Feb 2021), during Covid lockdown(1). Dates have been replaced with titles because, unless indicated in commentary or prose, they’re irrelevant:

It Begins: There’s a few cases of Covid in China and other places but I’m not too worried, this will have as much effect on me as the 2003 SARS outbreak(6), there’ve been many such scares in my lifetime. Besides, I caught the virus from a wedding party in Sri Lanka, it was like the Flu, high fever, mild delirium and a little trouble breathing. Interesting thing about Sri Lanka, all of the land and wealth seems to be in the hands’ of the Nords, the locals have very little and the price of food is like that of America or Europe. Also, airport authorities took a child’s Queen Conch shell away right before boarding, she was clearly enamored by her seemingly magical wave machine. After they took it from her, she cried all the way back to Mumbai.

The Flasher: A few Covid cases have been confirmed and I’m beginning to feel like an unwelcome guest in a foreign land, an unusual notion in a land where the locals say “Atithi Devo Bhava(11).” Typically, Indians are hospitable, on my travels to the South they were, of course, taxi drivers tried to scam me there, but cabbies the world over are a special breed of scum, you should’ve seen the way they took me to the wringer in Hong Kong, hospitality is a source of national pride here. This afternoon, there was a knock on the door, it was my landlord. I found myself baffled by what he said. I opened the door and he began to speak, timidly and slowly in broken English: “there’s been a complaint,” he said. “What’s wrong?” “A man is walking around outside naked.” “Oh, I see. Thanks for informing me,” I said and shut the door, believing that he was telling me of a dangerous predator lurking among this slum’s numerous tightly knit alleys at night. Later, I came to find that the landlord was attempting to tell me that the neighbors had accused me of going on moonlit strolls in the buff, I was the predator. I was shocked and enraged when I found that I was, according to gossip, a flasher, but consoled myself by telling myself that none of this is the landlord’s fault, he just wants to prevent other tenants from rioting. People are scared and looking to point a finger at an invisible assailant. This will be forgotten quickly and my name restored, I guess it’s not contradictory to be both hospitable and two-faced. Why do I care about my reputation in a slum? I don’t want any trouble.

Last Days of Freedom: Worry has set in, even chain restaurants no longer accept cash, not from me at least, I tried to buy something to eat with good ol’ paper money at McDonald’s and they refused to serve me. Worse luck, as the Chinese say. I’m working on a project here and I’m paid in cash, so credit isn’t something I have access to. This doesn’t just affect me, a large portion of the population is paid, untaxed of course, in cash and most likely doesn’t have a bank account. Also, everywhere I go my temperature is taken.

Days of Optimism: Lockdown began, I went to get groceries for the 2 days that we are told we must shelter in place and plan to go to bed early. There was hoarding and ransacking of shelves at the local grocer, but I’m sure that it’s just hysteria and this whole thing will end soon. Another interesting thing happened at the store today, two women got in a fight over the last box of cookies, the first woman, a pudgy mother with a bad attitude towards everyone that I had had the bad luck of having a few encounters with before, used to admonish me saying “smoking is a bad addiction,” I wagged my finger and said “sugar is a bad addiction,” laughing my way out of the store. It was the first time I’ve laughed in days, I’ve been in a daze, everything is quickly changing and feels so dire. The fowl woman, she lost the battle and the box of cookies. A word about change, I’m often told that nothing changes in this little hamlet and I believe it. It’s hyperbole, things change here, but slowly, there’s digital gadgets for sale, but there are also oxcarts that sell food and other remnants of the past. It’s not that nothing changes, It’s that time seems to go by slower here, like the locals heartbeat at a slower pace. I always feel rushed but they take as much time as the seasons.

Two Days In: The two days passed, but lockdown continues, the food I bought didn’t last. Even worse, I wasn’t informed that lockdown part 2 had begun without the first installment ending, I slept through the grocery shopping time, 6AM. I snuck out for an evening walk despite lockdown, 2 interesting things happened on my covert walk, I saw many others outside as well, they all spoke of the cow that wandered into the open air temple that’s adjacent to my apartment complex, some are feeding here, even the Muslims, having taken up many of the folk traditions of the Hindus they live among, agree that a sickly heifer wandering into the temple is a good omen, the other interesting thing, The Green Eyed Lady (an Indian with green eyes) made me some Khichdi(24). There were also Chinese in Haiden, Beijing, a district home to many Russians, who have green eyes. Isn’t genetic splendid? In any case, the woman asked me if I had eaten, usually more of a salutation than invitation here, I said “no,” so she brought me a bite to eat. The food supposedly heals the sick.

Big Changes in a Little Town: Since implementation of the Janata(5) Curfew, many continue to sit along alleys in large groups or participate in sports, not wearing masks(4). Yet, as I walk enroute to purchase groceries, these intrepid individuals say “here comes Corona” and cover their faces with their dupatta(7) or a handkerchief. This change of attitude towards me is, although slight, I’ve always had my fans and detractors here, is palpable. Maybe it’s just my nerves. Before lockdown, I sometimes played Teen Patti(19) with neighbors at least, never understood the rules though. Anyway, the shelter-in-place decree will be lifted on Passover, this must be a good omen, not that I sincerely believe in such things, I think to myself and reiterate my resolution to weather the storm in Mumbai. One concern about the transmission of Covid, Indians don’t have a sense of proximity, they always crowd.

One Good Deed: The endless bad news has left me exhausted. A few thoughts before bed, having lived in other parts of Asia and meeting many people from Europe, India is like America in one way, heterogeneity. It’s a type of melting pot, not a melting pot of strangers from far off lands but a mixture of old kingdoms, who have their own languages and cultures, forced under one, possibly too small, umbrella. Adding it up, Indian society, due to its long history, caste system and numerous religions is exceedingly complex, for example Muslims created the first free public institutes of higher learning, yet in some regards they’re treated like would-be separatists (Khurshid). Thinking about the day’s event, I sit on the small broken cot that’s my bed, I have to get this fixed soon, it’s interesting, the cost of handwork is very cheap here, in the US, anything that artisan might do is expensive and it’s more cost effective just to throw the old away. I’m reminded of this Chinese woman I met in Beijing, she told me “I’m not Han(23).” “Interesting, which ethnic group do you belong to?” “I’m Miao.” “Is there anything unique about the Miao?” “We don’t eat dogs. All Chinese people are the same, we are one people, the only difference between Han and Miao is that we don’t eat dogs.” I was teaching adult English at the time for extra income. India is more like America than China or Europe, diversity is endless.

Anand Nagar Has a New Song: The decree wasn’t lifted. Another day, thousands more Covid cases and locals have begun to shout “go home Corona!” Despite the taunts, I’m staying where I am. I don’t have much of a choice, there aren’t any flights anyway, the airports, in a panic, have shut down, everything, with a mere 2 day warning, has come to a grinding halt. I guess this isn’t merely more sensational media. Besides, the situation is becoming bleaker in the US and airports are havens for communicable diseases, they pack people in, from all over the world, like sardines. Have you ever seen the projected distribution of an epidemic? It all starts with airports. Resolute that this virus will blow over, I buckle down for the Summer of Corona in India.

Foreigners Have it Too: Nothing good has come from lockdowns so far, it has fostered hysteria, mob mentality, greed and anti-foreigner sentiment. This “City of Dreams,” has become a nightmare! The nation has fallen into the clutches of fear of contracting the virus from a foreign national. Hysteria, I tell you! I only hope that this all ends soon. Despite an anti-foreigner hysteria, according to The World Health Organization there are a total of 1637 people infected by Covid-19, a mere 49 of which are aliens(3) (The WHO). Yet, the locals blame it all on Tablighi Jamaat(13)(BBC), why not? Trump is calling this outbreak “The China Virus.” The borders have closed, looks like I’m staying here for a while, I didn’t plan on leaving anyway. Besides, there’s talk of easing restrictions. Back to the human condition, I had always been considered an outsider here, I had always been greeted with mocking and mistrust, to some degree, but there were those who accepted me. The first day I arrived the children called me names and adults mimicked the way I speak with derisive tones and gestures, I guess imitation is the highest form of flattery? I despise epigrams, I really do.

Nostalgia for Slightly Better Days: Before lockdown, there was a woman with a fish tattoo on her arm who often invited me to play cards but I shied away from her after neighbors had told me that she “accuses people of rape to blackmail them for money.” I don’t usually listen to gossip but wanted to play it safe. Other than that, I was at least invited to weddings, funerals and dances during the Graba(22) celebration. Funny story, the first year I refused to dance, a man jokingly told me that if I dance with a girl I have to marry her. I didn’t actually believe him, I’m not that gullible, I’m just not fond of Indian music. Back to the present, it’s not the time for nostalgia, although I can’t think of a better pastime right now, maybe if foreigners in India practice social distancing, unlike the locals, they won’t catch the virus and the stigma will dissolve. The other night I went for a walk just to break the monotony of watching time go by and hoping the world would heal. This morning, I was again accused of perverse behaviors by my landlord. I wasn't walking the alleyways naked, but I am being watched. On the walk, locals barred the alley and told me “no foreigners allowed.” Yet, they daily gather to play Cricket while sentinels watch for cops so that they can quickly disperse.

There’ Gestapos In This Movie Too: I guess I should mention something good too. Lockdown has caused a sort of hush here and now daily I can hear the sound of an infant being bathed through the one tiny window my studio apartment has. Through the 4 foot square aperture I can hear the infant laughing as warm water rushes over it. I now hope that things will return to the way they were before, just subpar not “holy crap the world is on fire and we are all going to die!” A combination of police and concerned citizens, working with the police, now stand along the main road with bamboo canes in hand. They remind me of stories my grandfather told of the Gestapo. Both are poised for violence. The police, they resound the sentiment of the concerned citizens, ridicule the foreigner. Now, I usually get an escort, something that is only afforded to me, to stop “roaming” as I go to get essentials. There are now dots painted on the sidewalk, we are supposed to stand on them to ensure social distancing, the locals don’t obey this. If I do the same, I’m informed, thwack would go the cane. I’ve begun to see in black and white, not metaphorically but literally, I feel as though I’m watching a movie about a distant authoritarian time. The brutalist architecture(24) is reminiscent of Russia and North Korea, it doesn’t take much imagination for the arabesque attributes to obscure. I haven’t slept much.

Building a Wall: This hamlet is bluffed by a river by a river on one side with a small foot bridge for crossing into Neilam Nagar. The police have blockaded the entrance to the crossing and are building a wall to, I believe, keep the several hundred thousand impoverished residence of this hamlet trapped like mice on a sinking ship. I truly fear the wall, perhaps it’s because of my education, having been forced to read the line ‘Something there is that doesn’t love a wall(20),’ throughout school, it’s almost a national anthem. Walls and golf courses have always seemed as despicable things to me. Neither the rich nor the influential politicians are suffering the same as we are in the slums. They play golf in their gated communities…

The First Stone Tossed: As the situation in India worsens, so do the jeering. Now, a few individuals throw rocks at me, a tactic usually reserved for thwarting the region’s menacing wild dogs, as I venture into the ever more dangerous streets at the permitted time, 6AM, to get essentials, in an attempt to diffuse their frustrations over the region’s spreading epidemic. Yet, returning to the political quagmire that is America keeps me hopeful that sheltering in Mumbai will become easier. Rocks tossed or not, I’m staying in place. Oddly, despite not eating much, I’m gaining weight, it must be stress. Supplies have run thin, some are hoarding and there’s talk of a 2 week prohibition on supply trucks entering Anand Nagar.

Insomnia: Depression has set in and money has mostly ran out. Immediately before lockdown, I was given a promotion but as of yesterday, the company I worked for has permanently shut their doors. I’ve just now realized that I haven’t left my house, let alone gotten out of the broken cot for days. I look at the clock, it’s 5:50 AM, the allotted time for shopping. Getting groceries at dawn isn’t a matter of waking at dawn; I haven’t slept in days either, just sat on this cot watching time go by. Insomnia is starting to take a toll, I’m beginning to hallucinate, time has lost all meaning, at times days go by in minutes yet other times, minutes last for a small eternity. It has been days since I’ve had a face to face conversation with another human.

Home Invaders: Somewhat dazed, I sit on my bed contemplating the meaninglessness of time when there’s nothing to do. Jolted from my daydream-like state, there’s a pounding sound on the door. The sound is getting louder. I hear shouting. The words come into focus, “foreigner, we’re coming in! We’re breaking the door down,” says the unfamiliar voices. I spring to my feet and bolt the door. The pounding becomes more and more rapid and fear takes a hold of me. But then I hear a familiar voice, the voice of my neighbor, she shouts something in Marathi and the marauders leave. I fall into a sleep and don’t wake for 2 days. Food was cut off for 2 weeks, I had to get a bite to eat from the Hanuman Mandir(18). They handed out plates of rice and lentils.

Vigilantes: Days go by and panic worsens among residents of this Mumbai chawl(8). Due to rising fears, vigilantes begin to safeguard the streets from “roaming.” These sentinels attempt to impose restrictions of their own device on me: they inform me that I am not permitted to walk along certain roads because they are afraid that I carry the virus, this happened once before on a late night walk but now it’s the norm, although I’m merely in search of a store to buy necessities and wearing a mask. In the end, these vigilantes won’t cause a reduction in hanging out on the street, this I know, but a few of this slum’s inhabitants get to feel empowered because they are the new sheriff in town. I guess we all need a whipping-post and there’s good among the wicked, a local temple and a few individuals are handing out grains to the needy. We are all needy here. At this point, the lockdown has gone on for months.

The New sheriffs in Town: Currently, there’s two police along Mumbai’s backstreets, those who were given authority by the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MNC) and vigilantes. Feeling harassed and completely rejected by society, loneliness takes hold of me, I begin to search for a way out of this “city of dreams,” maybe returning home while a buffoonish leader (Trump) who makes a mockery of the US isn’t so bad, I think to myself. All things considered, it’s nearly impossible to abide by laws set by both the government and a hysteric mob anyway.

No Payment Until April: At least I have a roof over my head, I think to myself, an article in Aljazeera, Foreign Tourists Face Hostility in India Amid Coronavirus Panic informs that an Israeli woman was evicted from her home in Goa due to locals fear of contracting COVID-19 and others were forced out of their hotel (Purohit), I can go a day without milk, but not without a bed, not to mention, the police had recently found tourists living in a cave because they are trapped in India and have ran out of money (NBC). I haven’t yet been evicted, but am also out of funds and live under constant threat of eviction. Rent payment is suspended until April (Delhi High Court). I lay on my broken cot, I will try to get it fixed on the black market, and continue to doom-scroll taking note of the day’s death tally and searching for any sign of things getting better. Passover has passed but Covid hasn’t.

Nobody Goes Home for That Price: I do some research and come to find that the US Department of State is offering “repatriation flights,” these flights carry a $2000 price tag (a promissory note for the aforementioned amount must be signed before boarding the plane) and a random port of arrival is where I’ll end up if I choose to return home through the ever so benevolent government, how can anyone pay this price during a Pandemic (this thing has been upgraded to a Pandemic, how lovely words are). Upon arriving at this port, the returning expat must find their way home through barricades and the threat of being infected by Corona (Genter). I harden my heart and again resolve to weather the storm in Mumbai. Besides, if the promissory note isn’t paid, I will be banned from international travel. I’m a Digital Nomad. I travel, work at an incredibly low rate and can only afford to survive in developing countries.

August’s Heat: The death toll jets upward and 75 degree angle, it’s updated daily. While bombarded with an endless stream of bad news, jeering has morphed into threats of violence, sleep is still a rare occurrence, heat rash has caused the parts of my body covered by clothing to become as freckled as Little Orphan Annie, I’m as poor to boot, my field of vision is filled sprawling geometric patterns and my temper is quick.

Worse Than the Daughters of Temperance: As the situation thickens, stores begin to deny me service. A shopkeeper refuses to sell me certain items that are in stock and we aren’t barred from sale, I have just been informed that liquor and tobacco have become contraband. The more than nagging need to satiate addictions during lockdown aside, this proprietor allows Indian nationals to purchase products, but denies me the same goods. He’d have me starve to death! I, like all outsiders, have become the face of a faceless virus that has ruined lives, in fact “Muslims were initially blamed for the spread of infection (Siddiqui),” a group that is no less a part of India than Sikhs(10), yet, like Jews anywhere in the world, are perpetual outsiders. All things considered, this is mass hysteria! Nobody I know has died from Covid yet. A sampling error? Perhaps. Nonetheless, I sit in my room without a breeze (I don’t have A/C) and ponder what society has come to, Freud’s mob mentality.

They’re Trying to Starve Me Out: That shopkeeper has changed his mind, I returned to him to buy groceries but he yelled “go away foreigner white face.” He then insisted that a clerk not give me an old box, although I was carrying a heavy load and had no tote. The hypocrisy of people here is an in the face classism, a rule for me and a rule for them. The Covid cases are increasing exponentially! So are my headaches. They’re not headaches as much as a feeling that every nerve ending in my body is being prodded with a needle and the inside of my brain shrinking. Now, I sit at home alone, the rats scurry across the floor, the heat comes in waves, time stands still and there’s nothing to laugh about, Covid cases are in the hundred thousands and the death toll is staggering as well.

Befriending the Gang: August’s heat, insomnia, constant dread and lack of nutrition are getting to me, I don’t know how much longer I can go on. Even local pharmacists have begun to convey a fear of me and insist that I have a cough when I go in to ask for something for heat rash. Unlike the grocers, the pharmacists sell me goods, but with great hesitation and suspicion in regards to my presence in this chawl. Finding tobacco is now the chief task of every day. It’s sold on the black market, along with chocolate, alcohol and meat, at exorbitant prices. So, like a heroin addict, I slink up to a back alley leant-to and buy a pack of smokes. It’s just like buying illicit drugs: there’s an obligatory period of making small-talk, ambiguity over whether or not the man actually has tobacco, razzing, phone calls and scurrying about to find it. In the end, I walk away with cigarettes at European prices and a dirty feeling.

Suicide Among Death: Lockdown continues and most in this chawl have lost morale. The neighbor sent her son over to tinker on my electric piano. She told me of what has been dubbed The Flower House Girl. A young woman hung herself from rafters due to endless confinement to her home and the bleak picture of tomorrow that the daily news paints. What a shame! I had wondered what the fire department was doing on the main street. They took her out of the third story window with the truck’s ladder.

Another Year Another Onion: Did I mention it’s a New Year? I didn’t even notice that the year had changed, the date passed unceremoniously and with festivities. Again, the police have rebuilt the wall that surrounds this chawl, tightening the perimeter, I’m not sure if it’s to keep Covid out or us in. In any case, food has scarcely made it through the makeshift wall and news is that food supplies will be cut off for 2 weeks, again. In any case, that which makes it in is mostly sequestered by the gangs, anyhow. It’s that I’ve got the most onions mentality(12). Despite rarely eating, I continue to gain weight. Speaking of onions, there are now over nine million confirmed Covid cases and farmers are protesting the price gouging of seeds, stating that “We are the ones who have provided food, milk, vegetables when the whole country was in lockdown, we were still toiling in the fields. It is the government” not gathering in New Delhi “that has put us at risk by introducing these laws during Covid (Hollingsworth et al).” My heart is with these brave men and women and if I had the strength I would be beside them. All things considered, despite the news and friends’ proclamations that a new year brings new hope, this may be an onion of a year too.

The Walls Close In: Yet again, the police have reduced the circumference of the wall. I feel claustrophobic or like I’m slowly, very slowly drowning. I go to bed, but sleep doesn’t come. I hear the rats fight over the last morsels of food in this chawl, when I wake, there’s inevitably a rodent corpse on the footpath in the ally that leads to my house. Food has been cut off for 2 weeks. I gave the last of my supplies to a family, in total it amounted to a pound of rice and a pound of lentils. Now, the cot is less of a fishing net with big holes and more of an empty frame. I lay on the floor instead, will I be able to get somebody to fix it, I don’t know. I have to get my family to send money first.

An Altercation: We are now allowed an evening walk, so I venture out to the usual chants, a ragtag team of would-be thugs follow me. A wave of exhaustion washes over me and my pace slows to a crawl in front of the BJP(14) Office. As I cross in front of the office, beneath the flag, a scrawny slum-bastard walk up and says “are you British?” “I’m American,” I reply. “I hear they call you Hari(15).” I can smell the alcohol on his breath as he speaks. “What of it?” “More like Harry Potter.” “I guess that’s funny,” I say and try to walk away, but he grabs me by the collar and takes a swing, he misses. I return the blow, my fist makes contact with his face. My heart is racing. I fear an all out retaliation when, like roaches from beneath rot-wood, members of the local gang emerge from the alleys and come to my aid. I had been buying tobacco from them, at highway robbery prices for weeks, and so it’s in their interest to act as my vigilante guardians, in some regards, the gangs are better than the police, or at least their corruption and self service is laid out on the table for all to see, where the cops are supposed to protect and serve, protecting and serving often isn’t the case here, it comes down to ethnic and caste schisms.

Two Deaths and a Ghost: It’s another day and the death toll has spiked again. Feeling that I escaped death and death being the only thing the news reports on I begin to wonder, had I been killed by a mob, would my death have been reported as a Covid death? Is the death toll real? There’s a little hospital in this chawl, it’s certainly not inundated with the dying and morticians don’t walk the streets singing “bring out your dead,” as they did during the Black Plague of 1665. In fact, of the 3 who purportedly died in Anand Nagar, one was an elderly with Emphysema, the other was a suicide and the last one, I saw him walking down the street the other day, risen from the grave as by some Covid era miracle. Truth be told, he had gone back to his family home and returned. Not an easy task, much like during the Holocaust, traveling papers are required to go anywhere, there’s not even any trains, minus a few for displaced workers. A combination of lack of food, a growing mistrust of the government’s intention with regards to lockdown and dire times brings these lyrics to mind: My wife fixed up a tater stew/ We poured the kids full of it/ Mighty thin stew, though/ You could read a magazine right through it. Always have figured/ That if it’d been just a little bit thinner, Some of these here politicians/ Coulda seen through it(21).

Are the politicians duped or am I? What about herd immunity? I feel like I’m living in the Dust Bowl, except there’s no storm of dust and the sky isn’t black. The enemy is invisible. Or, am I the enemy? So much for relativism.

Police and Indians: On another outing, again attempting to purchase essentials, those things that whether for sustenance or pleasure, an invisible hand has decided that I may indulge in, I find that even local authorities seem misinformed about the number of foreign nationals in India with Covid. Recently, police stopped me for questioning and informed me that “foreigners are the cause of Corona Virus.” After looking for a quarantine stamp on my hands several times and not finding one they insisted that I run back home and followed me on motorcycles. This was witnessed by several locals who cheered the police on. As the police resounded sentiments of this chawl’s inhabitants, it reinforced negative feelings. I didn’t eat that night. The days following the police harassment, locals continued jeering me by saying “the police will come and hit you,” while mimicking the thwack of a cane on their posterior. Not just are they misinformed, they’d like to see me hung.

Read the Sign: In case you feel incredulous in regards to my claims about placing a stamp on the hands of foreigners and the police’s blindingly Orwellian allegiance to the BJP, the party who blamed Covid on Muslims and foreigners, The National Library of Medicine has this to say about it: tourists who arrived in India from affected countries were put in quarantine for 14 days in their port of arrival, their “left hand was stamped with ink” to maintain the date and time of their home quarantine, “a move that could risk assault, due to stigma towards Covid suspects [foreigners].” Individuals violating the quarantine can be penalized via Indian penal code Section 188, 269 and 270 (Siddiqui). The police, like the locals, are looking for a whipping-post and have a draconian view about foreign nationals in India during this crisis, what a hoot it would be to cane them. Bollywood is no “City of Dreams,” in fact, misinformation abounds here, signs, obviously posted by Conservative and nationalistic Hindu Vegans, reads as so: ‘Ways to avoid Covid/ Don’t eat meat/ Don’t smoke/ Don’t talk to foreigners.’ I no longer see the good that I jotted down in an earlier journal entry. Also, tired of the word “misinformation,” not sure who gets to decide what’s misinformation, although I myself used it in this entry, just tired: days crawl by and the feeling of isolation causes a pressure on my cranium and a meaninglessness to all things.

Mending a Bed: Despite having become a pariah, I was able to get the cot fixed, for a small fee, a tailor was willing to come over, and work against the law, they despise me, but like money enough to look past it. The work doesn’t look great, it’s rigged. Most everything here is rigged. I’m never sure if this is the ingenuity of a race of impoverished people or the result of an attitude that declares good enough is good. In the end, most everything is a hodgepodge of corrugated steel, broken bits of wood and rope with exposed electrical wires that run through water and the elements in general. I’ve always said, if the manpower here became a collected force and decided to stop pollution, get the rivers clean, enforce something like an ADA, demand fair housing they would be an unstoppable force. Instead, they divide themselves along ethnic schisms.

A Pickpocket: Food has returned to the stores and shopkeepers are serving me, but I was pickpocketed at the register. I took my wallet out to pay, right before my eyes a man reached in my wallet and took a 500 out, it was the last of the money I had. I came home empty handed. For the first time since my divorce, I broke down and cried. Now I sit wiping my eyes. Is all hope for humanity lost? I cannot answer. Besides Covid, there’s so much political turmoil! It looks as though there won’t be a smooth transition of power this time.

What I’ve Learned From the Steppenwolf: I’m concerned for the nation’s migrant workers, other visiting foreign nationals and those who descend from Mizoram and Assam, these individuals may be more prone to the psychological effects of loneliness than myself. Culturally, Indian life centers around an extended family, whereas I’m more akin to Herman Hesse’s Steppenwolf. All in all, it’s tough to live overseas in the best case scenario and down-right depressing when you’ve become public enemy number one. But, as I said, I have a tough enough skin to survive this, but there are those who’ve been cannibalized by their own society. Anyway, lockdown should end in 3 weeks, the infection rate is on the decline. We are now aloud out in the evenings and I have taken to sitting with friends in front of the Rukhmini(16) Temple. It’s like the opening line of a joke, a Jew, a Muslim and a Hindu… Among us, there’s a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian and a Hindu priest. All in all, I need them not, but it’s nice to have some companionship, even if there’s little communication. I have returned to good graces.

Family Matters: Although I feel alone, I’m not jealous of India’s family structure. Locals often ask me about my family, casual things like “how is your mother?” “I don’t know. I don’t keep in touch with my family very much,” I respond. It’s a matter of privacy and staying out of gossip. Here, grown men never grow up, they are fed and coddled by their mothers. I had recently met a man who can’t cook for himself, nor wash his own clothes and still occasionally sleeps in bed with his mother. Speaking of men, spouse abuse, along with drinking, is on the rise. It’s not uncommon to see and hear it. Too often, after dark, I witness, when I sneak out for a walk to break the munatiny, men hitting women by the open air temple that my house is adjacent to. Speaking of temples, Hanukkah recently passed. I lit a makeshift menorah, but even that gave me little joy. As for now, the best thing is drinking chai by the little Rukmini temple.

Down With the Wall: The wall has come down! Lockdown isn’t over, but the wall has come down. Alas, air travel has returned, the government has announced “air bubbles” and I’m returning to America. After everything, I was never again treated as more than a second-class citizen in that chawl but it matters not, I’m leaving! In the end, the locals’ reaction to me and the psychological impact of the loneliness, their words and actions heave upon me, have caused deep scars. On a more disappointing note, all local newspapers have declined to publish my recollections of lockdown. An earnest question, were we fed false dichotomies, ones that stated wear a mask or everyone dies and get the vaccine or everyone dies, just for some political experiment or agenda? It’s just odd that after the farmers protested the Covid number began to decrease.

Integrity Intact

No Amnesty for the Wicked: One might say, you’ve survived the worst, why bring this up at all? Isn’t it time for amnesty? I feel the answers to this was best put into words in the video Pandemic Amnesty: Do you Forgive and Forget and so I will summarize what the author said, “there were things that happened that there needs to be a recognition of, and there needs to be a public apology. There needs to be a promise that this never happens again. There needs to be people who actually pay for their behavior, potentially criminal behavior. […] Until the people who did harm admit that they did harm this kind of thing will just keep repeating itself. […] Some people were victims, other people were perpetrators, and then there [were] also enablers (Wand).” For instance, The Deccan Herald reports that there have been “attacks on people from India’s northeastern region […], suspecting them of being carriers of the virus.” Assaulting your own people is like cannibalism, that’s all there is to it! As it was written in the newspaper, apart from being called “Corona” or “Chinki(9)” India’s [Asiatic] people were spat on and forcibly quarantined, despite showing no Covid symptoms, all because of their looks and an ignorant fear that anyone who looks different are the root cause of the Pandemic. Also, they were denied entry into their apartment complexes, evicted, merely threatened with eviction or forced out of restaurants to make others comfortable and none wanted to share transport with them (Karmakar). Of all things, it’s not time for amnesty.

Ignorance isn’t an Excuse: There needs to be punishment for these wicked deeds! There’ll be no retribution for foreigners who suffered in India, but locals, those from minority communities, who had just days before lockdown been upstanding citizens, deserve retribution and possibly reparations. There those who died from the virus and those who died at the selfishness and ignorance of mankind, for those who died by the hand of man have this to say: “To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time ( Elie Wiesel).” Ignorance, for good reason, has never been, nor shall it be an excuse for breaking laws and committing atrocities. The Atlantic is wrong in their assertion that we should just forgive and forget (Oster). Perhaps, in the name of healing, it’s time to forgive, but should never forget!

A Clear Conscience: During The Covid Outbreak, I may have lost my mind, found myself in complete isolation and on the brink of starvation at times, but at least I kept my dignity. I threw no stones and attempted to obey the laws, even those that actively brought hardship into my life. I defended myself when needed, I live by the adage “walk gently and carry a big stick.” As for the war of the ethnicities in India, I guess it’s none of my business, alone, I can’t defend the minorities. And in regards to retribution for the wicked, my hands are also tied. However, I won’t give amnesty, not in my heart. Forgetting and moving on, as Oster’s article suggests (Oster) is, to reiterate, akin to allowing the cycle to repeat again. In the end, my travels have provided me with armor to protect against cabin fever, I’ve endured hardships and loneliness in remote villages of Nepal and have been “the stranger” in the metropolitans of Hong Kong, Bangladesh… But there are those among the Indians whose identity and self-worth come from a tightly knit family and friend structure, many of which took their own lives due to isolation. Others starved to death because of lack of income and others died due to the rejection of medical services. Luckily, I was not immune to the effects of isolation, but well insulated from the threat of Corona by a chawl that exists off the radar and societies’ fear of foreigners, local inhabitants keep me at arm’s length and so, I didn’t catch the virus during lockdown.

Notes

1: The views herein are not the of WTDA but the author. At WTDA we publish a variety of news, depending on what we deem to be an interesting story at the moment.

2: At the time of writing, Covid hadn’t yet been declared a Pandemic.

3: Citation no longer available at The World Health Organization.

4: The author of this journal wants it to be known that they don’t, nor did they ever, believe that masks are/were an effective way of preventing Covid-19 but were forced to wear a face covering by Indian law. At the time, they obeyed the law.

5: Public.

6: Hyped media, having no real effect on the life of the author.

7: A long scarf worn by Indian women.

8: The Marathi word for neighbourhood which is colloquially used to denote a slum.

9: North Indian slang for India’s Asiatic population.

10: A religion that combines attributes of Islam and Hinduism and originated in India.

11: Guests are G-D.

12: In 2019, due to flooding, there was an onion shortage. An entrepreneur had been hoarding onions. At the time, not only did he declare that “onions are the new gold” he purportedly sold the onions for 3 times the market value. To the author, it serves as a symbol of the selfish psychological state that caused some of the worst aspects of Covid lockdown.

13: A 3 day Islamic spiritual event in India’s capital hosted by a 100 years Islamic Missionary Movement. Due to the cases reaching over 300 after the event, the meme was coined: China is the “producers” of the virus, and Muslims are the “distributors.”

14: A political party, of which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the leader of. Every neighborhood has a BJP office.

15: A common male name in India and regional pronunciation of the Anglo name Harry.

16: The primary wife of the Hindu G-D Krishna.

17: The name of the slum in which the writer lived during lockdown.

18: A temple in the slum in which the foreigner lived during lockdown. The temple is dedicated to the monkey G-D, a deity who helped Rama in the Hindu epic, the Ramayana.

19: A poker-like card game in which the players make melds with three cards.

20: Mending Wall by Robert Frost.

21: Talkin’ Dust Bowl Blues by Woodie Guthrie.

22: A dance form native to the west Indian state of Gujarat, performed in October to honour the Hindu Goddess Durga. It is also celebrated in Maharashtra. People gather on the streets, dancing in pairs of men and women where they rhythmically click sticks together.

23: The largest ethnic group in mainland China, about 91% of the population.

24: A South Indian dish made of rice and lentils. It’s a comfort food that’s supposed to aid in healing.

25: Brutalist architecture emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era.These buildings characterised by minimalism and bare building materials. They are commonly seen today in old Soviet Union countries and Central Asia, reminding many of totalitarianism.

[sirquacklesdefoof]

It would appear. That I have finally been infected. With the plague.

[lefemmerougewriter]

Chapter 2, entitled "The Corona Blues: Cass the Space Pirate, Her Blue-Eyed Pirate Girlfriend, and Raps' Momentous Choice" is finally out! Give it a read if you have a chance. It features space pirates, intrigue, romance, lasers, space ships, and a huge choice by Raps!

[generallynaive]

O Melhor de 2023 - 25 Discos

1. Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd Lana del Rey

"Let the Light In" (feat. Father John Misty)

2. Gótico Português Glockenwise

"Lodo"

3. Javelin Sufjan Stevens

"Will Anybody Ever Love Me?"

4. Sensoreal Rita Vian

"Temos Tempo"

5. The Ballad of Darren Blur

"Barbaric"

6. Zeitgeist The Legendary Tigerman

"Good Girl" (feat. Asia Argento)

7. Black Classical Music Yussef Dayes

"Rust" (feat. Tom Misch)

8. Afro Fado Slow J

"Sem Ti"

9. Leveza André Henriques

"Abriu em Queda"

10. Volcano Jungle

"Candle Flame"

11. Chronicles of a Diamond Black Pumas

"More Than a Love Song"

12. Heaven Cleo Sol

"Self"

13. Três Anos de Escorpião em Touro Filipe Sambado

"Caderninho" (feat. Conan Osíris)

14. The Greater Wings Julie Byrne

"Summer Glass"

15. The Record Boygenius

"True Blue"

16. The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We Mitski

"My Love Mine All Mine"

17. Praise a Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) Yves Tumor

"Lovely Sewer"

18. Se Dançar é Só Depois Ana Lua Caiano

"Mão na Mão"

19. Ressaca Bailada Expresso Transatlântico

"Barquinha" (feat. Conan Osíris)

20. That! Feels Good! Jessie Ware

"Pearls"

21. Cimbron Celeste Acácia Maior

"Catá Bórre" (feat. Cachupa Psicadélica)

22. Arrepiada Júlia Mestre

"Meu Paraíso"

23. Estilvs Misticvs Conjunto Corona

"Fumo na Panela"

24. Supermarket Joy Margarida Campelo

"Aura de Panda"

25. The Age of Pleasure Janelle Monáe

"Float"

[quirk-nova]

Nalani Tanika

A self-centered and carefree witch who represents Corona Borealis. Nalani comes from a family of witches known for their elemental magic and their alliance with the Gravitors. He and his mother are in possession of a crown that grants the wielder temporary elemental magic abilities.

Headcanon Voice: Greg Cipes

Michelangelo Voice - Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Video Game) - Behind The Voice Actors

[chameliyun]

Fic Masterlist

Everything is on AO3 at BookishFlyingGecko unless otherwise stated, and a couple are also on fanfiction.net under the same name.

IN PROGRESS (sorted by update date):

[podfic] Shouyou Hinata and the Mirror of Erised Fandoms: Haikyuu!!, Harry Potter Rating: G Chapters: 16/27 Characters: I'm not tagging everyone it's an ensemble cast lol Pairings: n/a (lots of friendships tho) (Current) word count: 64 (because it's mostly audio) Summary: First book of the Haikyuu at Hogwarts series, narrated by yours truly and written by Jester (Killthespare on ao3)

Varian Is Not a Wizard Fandoms: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure/Tangled the Series, Inn Between (podcast) Rating: G Chapters: 3/? Characters: Meltyre and Varian, several OCs Pairings: n/a for now (Current) word count: 14,009 Summary: Varian's portal to capture Zhan Tiri malfunctions and sends him into another dimension, where he meets Meltyre at his wizard school.

Sent from the Heavens Fandoms: Heroes of Olympus, The Lunar Chronicles Rating: T (currently only on fanfiction.net) Chapters: 2/? Characters: Linh Cinder, Leo Valdez, Calypso, Carswell Thorne, various Greek gods Pairing(s): Leo/Calypso (Current) word count: 4,837 Summary: When the Rampion crash lands on a (seemingly) deserted island, Cinder goes to look for parts. Instead, she finds a giant bronze dragon and a couple new acquaintances. Set post-Blood of Olympus, during Scarlet. On hiatus.

COMPLETED:

Bent out of Shape Fandom: Avatar The Last Airbender Rating: G Chapters: 4/4 Characters: Toph Beifong, Penga, Ho Tun, The Dark One, various OCs Pairings: n/a Word count: 11,726 Summary: Once upon a time, Toph Beifong decided to start a metalbending academy. First, though, she had to find some worthy students. Based on the ATLA comic The Promise, mostly canon-compliant.

Tsuki no Hana Fandom: Haikyuu!! Rating: T Chapters: 1 (with breaks) Characters: Yamaguchi Tadashi, Tsukishima Kei, Tsukishima Akiteru, Miya Atsumu, Miya Osamu, Mother Gothel, Ennoshita Chikara, Hinata Shouyou Pairings: Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi, background Ennoshita Chikara/Tsukishima Akiteru Word count: 20,984 Summary: Tangled AU with Yamaguchi as Flynn Rider and Tsukishima as Rapunzel. Written for the 2023 Tsukkiyama Fic Exchange.

ONESHOTS:

Draw Me Near Fandom(s): Death Note Rating: T Characters: Near, Sayu Yagami Pairing: see above Word count: 2,635 Summary: Post-canon AU where Near and Sayu spend time with each other after Light's death.

Midnight Coda Fandom: Death Note Rating: G Characters: L Lawliet, Watari Pairing(s): n/a Word count: 938 Summary: L celebrates his 24th birthday.

Mmm, Jello Fandom: Death Note Rating: T Chapters: 2/2 Characters: Mello, Joey (see A Shot in the Dark), Near Pairing: Mello/Joey Word count: 3,835 Summary: Unconnected AU oneshots of the pairing getting together. Currently two, but more are possible.

Frosting and Freckles Fandom: Haikyuu!! Rating: G Characters: Tsukishima Kei, Yamaguchi Tadashi Pairing: you guessed it Word count: 2,716 Summary: Mutually pining idiots decide to make Christmas cookies together. You'll never guess* what happens next! *you can probably guess if you've read enough fanfiction

Is it ever over? Fandom: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, Tangled (sort of in between so I tagged both) Rating: G Characters: Rapunzel, Pascal Pairings: n/a Word count: 1,086 Summary: Rapunzel has a dream/nightmare after moving into the Corona castle.

Barfbending Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender Rating: K+ (only on ff.net) Characters: Toph Beifong, Sokka Pairing: hints of Toph/Sokka Word count: 1,156 Summary: Toph wakes up in the middle of the night not feeling well...but she's not the only one. Set during The Painted Lady (s3e3).

[toastedkiwi]

Where can I read the roommate!reader stories you have?

Here’s the Masterlist for Roomies but my navigation which is the pinned post has the Main Masterlist for the people I write for. You’ll wanna tap/click on the Corona Chronicles after going to the main masterlist as that’s the quickest way to get the Roomies Masterlist which you’ll find under the Chris Evans heading. You can also click/tap on the Chris Evans Masterlist and there’s a subheading for Series, it’ll be under there.