geminiperson

[geminiperson]

Coffee in Peru

This was a story written based off a prompt that I liked. I thought it might be interesting, although I'll let you figure out what the prompt was. Additionally, I do not speak Spanish well at all, and did use translation software to achieve the Spanish conversation. If it feels cumbersome, or if something is not 100% gramatically correct, that is why.

Cars rolled by on the sunlit street a few feet away. Traffic seemed surprisingly heavy for a Wednesday in Lima. No matter how old she got, Katarina could never get accustomed to them. The noise, the rumble of the street, the fact that the vehicles no longer needed straw or a rest. This modern world was very different from the one she had been raised in. As she sat, a server came to her table and delivered her drink. 

“Un cafe con creama para usted señora.” Placing the cup next to her hand on the table. 

“Gracias. ¿Sabes a qué hora comenzará el festival de música criolla?” She asked as she reached for the cup. 

“Lo siento señora, no lo sé. Estoy seguro de que tienen algo publicado en línea.” The server responded apologetically, bowing slightly. 

“Por supuesto. Gracias. ¿Qué te debo por la bebida?” Katarina responded, reaching for her purse. 

At this, the server smiled. “Nada en absoluto. El amable caballero sentado cerca de la entrada se ofreció a pagar su bebida,” the server said, reaching into a pocket on their apron, they produced a small piece of paper. “También me pidió que le pasara esta nota.”

Katarina grasped the note, keeping her composure, and nodded, looking towards the cafe entrance. A man she had barely noticed on the way in waived at her, smiling. He was rather plain looking. Scruffy beard, thick, rich brown hair, with the merest suggestion of gray. He wore a plain white dress shirt over a light blue pair of pants, and a pair of golden brown leather sandals. A notebook sat next to him, where clearly the note had been scrawled hastily, as well as an old fountain pen. A jacket matching the pants he wore hung off the back of the chair. It was hard to tell his age. He seemed to have an agile build, and though you might not have noticed in a passing glance, his body seemed tensed like the string of a bow, ready to move at a moments notice. The scruffy man indicated the note, suggesting she read it with his nod. Katarina nodded, and momentarily grabbed her drink, sipping from the cup as she reached into her purse, checking that her usual knife was ready, should she need it. In all her lifetimes, one thing could always be relied upon, and that was mens propensity for being cads. She then reached for the note, and slowly unfolded it, expecting to see a written love letter in Spanish, or perhaps a phone number and a name. Instead, in English the note read Rodolfo’s funeral, Cementerio Presbítero Matías Maestro, April 13th, 1821 followed by the words Your Spanish has improved greatly. Katarina looked swiftly back at the man, and in a moment, it all came flooding back to her. For a moment, she was sitting on a hill overlooking Lima with Rodolfo, the first true love she had felt in centuries. His laugh still rang in her heart. They wore common clothes back then. No rings, no jewelry. Course fabric and bodice rubbing across her chest. He had been so kind, and so handsome. Now looking at this man, she saw the briefest sliver of him in the eyes. They held that same joy, that same mirth as they had so long ago, sitting opposite her friend Maria on the picnic blanket. The man indicated a request, wishing to join her at the table. Katarina nodded, uncertain of what else to say. He quickly grabbed his things, and made his way to the chair across from her. 

“You’ll forgive me, but it’s been so long, I can’t recall your name anymore.” Katarina said in English. The man smiled, enjoying this. 

“It is well Katarina,” He said with a heavy Spanish accent, “Two centuries is quite a long time to hold onto a name. I only remember yours because it was your name he said with his last breathe.”

The last part he said with a noticeable drop in his joy. He inhaled for a moment, seeming to hold back more than his breathe. Katarina was reeling from her own memory, so gave him a moment to recompose himself. 

“My name is Inigo Montoya. In those days, I was going be Nico. Rodolfo was my best friend. To this day, his is the death that lays heaviest upon my heart.” 

Katarina sniffed, and smiled at the name. “I would have assumed with a name like this, you’d have searched the world over for his killer.”

Inigo smiled as well, hearing the playful jab.

“You know, I normally can’t tell people this, but William named that character for me. In fact, I was the one who convinced him to write the story in the first place. The character was based on the story of me discovering Rodolfo’s true killer if you can believe.”

At this, Katarina gasped. Inigo smiled, holding his drink in one hand, and the fountain pen in the other. She could tell he was serious. There had always been questions as to what had happened. She remembered coming to his home that morning after a wonderful night out, and the night watchmen were standing at the entrance. To this day, the swiftness with which he was buried had astounded her. In those days, there was no investigation, not as it would have been in the present. No matter the reason, when death was involved, only the living could ask why. 

“I’ve been making visits to this city every century since his death to pay my respects. Are you telling me you went on to find his killer?” She said, shaking slightly. 

Inigo nodded, finishing the last of his coffee. He let it settle within himself before continuing. 

“If I had known what you were then, I would have tried to find you. To tell you the truth. I always wished that I could have. It was, at least partially, my fault he died. To this day, I’ll never forget finding him. I went to his home that morning, early on, just as we had always done, so that we could eat breakfast. His mother made a wonderful oat porridge in those days, and they had some fresh made goat cheese that was to be ready. His mother asked me to wake him, as he had been out all night with you, and was sleeping in rather than getting to his work at the farm. I went to his room, and knew as soon as I rolled him over that he was gone. A gash across his heart was clear. He had all but bled out in the night when I found him. He grabbed me close and gasped his last breath, and with it he whispered ‘Iñigo, por favor dile que la amo incluso ahora. Mi corazón, mi Katarina.’ and was gone.”

Katarina let loose a tear, staring off into the distance, remembering how even on the day of his funeral, she could not hold back tears. She began to cry, just as she had before, when the rain had matched her sorrow, flowing across the hillside. She took a moment to live within the memory before asking Inigo the next question. 

“So who was the nine fingered man then? I would assume you had found them by now.” She said as the tears fell. 

Inigo nodded, becoming pensive. There was a heaviness behind his eyes, a burden he would never be able to lay down. A different person sat before her now. An immortal like her, haunted by the past. 

“I thought I had failed until today, when I saw you. I found the trail his killer left. They were skilled, even back then, as if they had trained for a lifetime. But I wasn’t sure until now. So before I tell my story, I only have one question. Why did you do it?”

#creative writing #writing #writers on tumblr #writeblr #writers and poets

[geminiperson]

Spring Renewal

And so begins the start of a new season. Spring has officially broken, and with it, the start of new ideas, new opportunities, and even now, new love. For my own new beginnings, I went through something of a ritual last night, one that for privately discernible reasons, has provided me a needed boost of energy. The ritual itself is simply taking the opportunity to drink away negative emotions, which on the surface sounds unhealthy, but when you consider that, at it's core, alcohol was originally used for medicine to aid in the fighting of certain diseases, I went through a ritual of cleansing the self through the use of original poisons (Also, personal side note, I have been drinking consistently for longer than I can legally admit, and for all the bluster from people also in their thirties, I still have not experienced a hangover, and probably never will, blessings from Dionysus himself).

So how will we begin this new season? I'm thinking a little much needed TLC to my love life. Trying to ask out people that I want to ask out, smiling just slightly more, but not in a vainglorious attempt to force joy where none resides. For once, things feel healthy. The world is still very much in flames, but I seem to have finally found my heat suit, and I think I will greatly enjoy putting out a few fires at a time. For those of you who follow me on tiktok, I made a post just prior to this, discussing how it's time for us to all do something about the foolishness that is the existing social hierarchy. People are abusing us, and I think we should unite under the umbrella of community and let the rain fall around us. There is much that can be done, and much that can be attained from being willing and able to understand our predicament, and I for one think that we as a group absolutely have the power to make changes. Ones that can benefit not only ourselves and our mental well being, but the betterment of other people the world over.

Turning to topics that I think deserve just a little of everyones attention, Point of Pride, the grass roots transgender health and support community fund had their annual Tiktok-a-thon, and did live events all throughout the day yesterday, and raised over half a million dollars in 24 hours, all of which will go to supporting much needed health and medical care for the trans community. Jory, Mercury Stardust, and quite a few other fantastic tiktok creators worked together to host and opperate the event. I would like to say, especially as a member of the community, I am glad that such amazing and hard working people as them are being uplifted and are using that platform for outreach and the benefit of others. They are still presently taking donations, and if you would like to support them, even with small donations, everything helps. For those who are keeping aware, there needs to also be discussions on the ongoing genocide in Palestine. While I understand it can be hard to talk about, it's important that we continue to be aware, and continue to work towards peace and prosperity for the people of Gaza. That collective action that I was discussing earlier is most important to moving towards freeing and uplifting the people from the oppression being perpetrated by the Israeli occupation force. There have been several indications that the Israeli people are being advised that their ill gotten national borders will be expanding soon, and the Israeli government continues to deny the humanity of the people they are attempting to ethnically cleanse from their sovereign land. Continued support for the BDS movement has made great strides. Choose local coffee shops over the overpriced Starbucks when possible. Skip out on the low quality pizza options from Papa Johns, Pizza Hut, and Dominos. I will post below the images for the full BDS list, and you can go to their website here.

Remember, wallets are the strongest points from which to unseat power. Money speaks, and if we wish to defeat this, taking away support for those directly involved in the benefit and support of this genocide will be the first to feel it. Make sure also that you are reaching out to your congressional and senatorial representatives for both the state and national level and telling them that we as citizens do not support the financial and arms support being provided through our tax dollars to the state of Israel. Good luck to everyone on this wonderful spring, and remember that together, we can overcome those who would seek to oppress us.

#lgbtq community #transgender #point of pride #mercury stardust #Jory #bds movement #free palestine #boycott starbucks #spring renewal

[geminiperson]

[geminiperson]

New Hozier EP fucks, that is all.

#hozier #the hoziest #andrew hozier byrne #Too Sweet #wildflower and barley

[geminiperson]

Expatriation

I started to write a fairly descriptive and well thought out takedown of why I, like many other people I've talked with, want to leave the US for different places. I could wax at exhaustive lengths about the failures of the American dream, the deterioration of American beliefs, the horrible abuses that we experience at the hands of corporate interests, the continued failure of the American political spectrum, and the rest, and others, and so forth, ad continuum. I could describe to you why each of the political candidates in our forthcoming presidential election are some of the least popular and least capable candidates in memorable history, all before mentioning the fact that they are or were at the time of inauguration, the oldest America presidents in office ever. But do you know what? What would be the purpose, if only to frustrate myself and others. All that well intended fury and the use of strong (if decidedly floral) language would be wasted on the reality that, my country of origin is unwilling and unable to commit to revolution and legitimate change. The illusion of comfort oppresses as much as the reality of the gun. 1 What I mean by this is, Americans are willing to forgo difficult actions if they are able to feed their creature comforts. Discomfort immediately creates distaste for the idea of doing just about anything, and I say that knowingly describing myself. But I also recognize that, for my own part in this, there is discomfort that I am willing to undertake to see a better life for myself. Not solely for the idea of finding comfort in other places. I recognize through connecting with the world at large that my ideologies of a more caring and understanding community that respects and more importantly celebrates differences, while still acknowledging core humanity is not only completely reasonable, but already possible. These places exist, and do not require unnecessary sacrifices in order to be achieved. For my considerations, I'm looking at places like Ireland, Iceland, Denmark, the Netherlands, and other similar places, which may be unsurprising to hear to some. I feel it's best to aim for places that reflect my particular European heritage. If you are interested in these things, I want to start a community here on my page that offers resources to those looking to become a part of the international community at large. Here's looking forward to a place much better than this, not of greener pastures, but of better tended gardens.

I promise that is not some pseudo-intellectual, red pill associative quote from Fight Club, although in a quick google search, multiple extremely concerning discussion boards and more than a few Fight Club analysis pieces that I had absolutely no interest in tackling were brought up.

#queer community #expats #world travel #international #expatriation

[geminiperson]

This is the tiny bean Shadow. She has a preference for sleeping on black things, like my bedding, all the other black blankets I have, and of course, any black shirt I happen to be wearing, because I'm almost exclusively wearing black these days. Needless to say, but she has lots of spots for naps, which excludes the quiet, comfortable, and small sized cat cave that I bought her specifically in the darkest color available, because why would she use that. More cat spam to come.

#black cat #witch cat #toe beans #Small bean #city cat #street cat #kitty #tiny cat

[geminiperson]

Akira Toriyama shaped the world, and did so for the better. How rare to see someone whose legacy is so deeply ingrained into the hearts of so many. Words that still stick with me. "People of earth, give me your strength." Even in the height of combat, he knew that there was more power in unifying everyone. There are so few who live up to the legend, but his contemporaries all attest to the man who is a legend. May he rest in peace.

#anime and manga #akira toriyama #Dragon ball #DBZ #Anime #Toriyama sensei #kami #son goku

[geminiperson]

Kicking it Old School

Alright, so the (American) government being the asshole it is, they got mad that we did the things that we have written into the constitution, namely community organizing and using our right to free speech and assembly to voice decent to the existing genocide occurring in Palestine, opposing the misuse of our tax dollars to fund said genocide, and point out that while they can not be bothered to reach across the aisle on any other issue that would benefit Americans, namely utilizing those billions and in some case TRILLIONS of tax dollars to provide help to struggling people in our country, they could agree to attempt to silence the millions of voices across the nation for their use of a platform that was developed outside of the country because of a hypothetical fear that they manufactured of a foreign nation doing the thing that American made social media platforms (including big t that I'm posting from right now) are already doing. Even though the data is housed locally for American users by an American company. Even though the tenuous "fear" they have is that the parent company of Tiktok, Byte Dance, which is located in China, has no direct control over Tiktok itself, which is based in Singapore, an entirely separate country that the Chinese Government does not have sway over (Just a reminder for Senator Cotton, the ignorant racist who refused to listen to the information provided by the CEO of Tiktok, a Singaporian National).

So the manufactured fear has allowed them to oppose a vast network of community organization, with no real enforcement to be had, which is a not so polite reminder that VPN's exist, and can be used to evade all of this. But regardless, not everyone is going to be able to afford the VPN option, and there should be a free option for community organization. So here we are, coming back to our roots, the OG, the classic, rebirth of the 2010's era, the tumblr blog has returned. I deleted my original tumblr years ago. I'm a public person, to the point that my own home is highly visible, albeit a bit tedious to watch since the one space people can see in to is where I sleep and watch tv. But being that my content was always intended to be humerous, if a bit jaded and dark, I figure now is the time to use my extensive talents and creative skills start doing something that I've wanted to do for years. If this takes off, I might transition to a full time hosted blog, but I'm a fan of grass roots starting points, and truthfully, there's not much more grass roots than tumblr. Additionally, the tools and skills of the trade for podcasting are available to me as well, and I'm not opposed to it, since I already knowledgable in the creation, and I could easily do things with it. Who knows, maybe this is the start of my full time professional career, but who knows. Regardless, I'm going to list a few things you can expect from me on my page moving forward. - Anime content

LOOOOOVE me some Anime. I don't interact a ton with the fandoms, mostly because there are some super questionable and problematic ideas (ships) floating around the internet. That being the case, I'll mostly talk about the ones I love most, namely One Piece, because I live for the display of leftist rhetoric and dispensation of Justice and Joyboy Wonder that is Luffy and his crew.

-Politics

I'm more than a little comfortable discussing politics. I've been involved as a volunteer lobbyist in the past, and I engage with and regularly review content revolving around national and international politics, and I think it's important to not avoid discussing it. My takes will not always be perfect, but I generally center them around the ideas that people should always come before companies, and people can generally make decisions for themselves regarding self identity and bodily autonomy. Science will never be political to me, and regardless of my personal religious beliefs, science will make the decisions for me regarding health and wellness.

-Tea

I am a lover of all things tea. I have a talent I have developed for a while now, of making home brewed loose leaf tea, and I enjoy sharing that knowledge and information with others. Tea is very much a special interest for me, on par with One Piece and Minecraft. So you will definitely see stuff like tea recipes and resources from me regularly. I have for some time now had a dream of owning my own tea shop, and I will absolutely achieve that some day. And yes, my love of this stems from my love of Uncle Iroh.

-Cats and Animals in General

I have two cats, Shadow, who is pictured in my current PFP, and Poppie, the gremlin boy. I intend to someday have a service dog again, and when that happens, you will be introduced to said dog, but for now, it's me and my demons. I have this desire to have a small plot of land with a few farm animals to watch over, namely a few hens for eggs, maybe a mini-cow or some goats to produce fertilizer, but also I want live in the middle of the woods, so like, who knows how that will shake out. I'm a four seasons kind of person, and northern woods tend to have that. That is for the future to decide, but for now, it's just me and my cats.

-Lifestyle stuff

The category is broad, but includes all kinds of things. Home tech, cooking, discussions on queerness, and life tips and advice. I tend to write some of these from the perspective of me to my past self, telling things I wish I had known then that I know now.

-Music

Less focused on it's discussion, and more on presentation. I have a decently expansive taste, that only really excludes modern pop country, which I view as terrible. That said, old country, such as Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, and the like, are among some of my favorites. That said, I'm also a hiphop head, and I've been to more underground rap shows than any other type of live show. -Mental Health

I'm mentally ill. I have been diagnosed with three separate mental health disorders, as well as ADD, and although I have never been officially tested, I am more than likely on the Autism Spectrum. I have lived a rather colorful life full of interesting choices, and I was not always given the grace I needed to grow. So from time to time, I'll have things to say on mental health. I'm not one to answer questions for others about their own mental health, because I know this is something that needs to be handled by professionals, but I will always do my best to be up front and honest, because I hate the idea that the stigma of mental health problems would prevent someone from living a full life.

I am looking forward to this. If things on tiktok continue, I'm still going to try to be active on tumblr, because diversifying your engagement can be beneficial. If you want more info about me, check out my other pages, including my link tree.

Stay safe everyone.

#mental health #mental illness #cats #lifestyle #queer community #grass roots #blogging #one piece #anime and manga #art #poetry #writing