#but also niko is just so sweet and its perfect with how she already helped nudged him to confessing

[ahomeganeyatsu]

IDK why but I want Niko to teach Edwin everything about modern culture. She's already starting on him with the pop culture and that just opened up so much avenues on what their bonding time looks like.

But also the idea of just Niko potentially giving Edwin culture shock.

#niko handing Edwin one of her BL mangas #starting him off slow and sweet #before she nudges him to the deepend #but also niko is just so sweet and its perfect with how she already helped nudged him to confessing #i just think she has the touch that edwin needs #admittedly i just love that dynamic they have #niko sasaki #edwin payne #dbd #dead boy detectives

[crazyyanderefangirlfan]

Calypso voice lines

Normal voice lines

Hello - "Oh, hello. I'm Calypso Nikos, very nice to meet you. If you have any wounds that need to be treated, let me know."

Chat (Traveling) -"I travelled to many a places to learn all I can about healing and helping others too."

Chat (Healing) -"I'm always been gifted in healing, it makes me happy my abilities makes others happy."

Chat (Dancing) -"Dance is a wonderful form of expression and a thing of beauty. But use correctly, it can be a powerful weapon."

When It Rains: Excitement - *Gasp* It's raining! Perfect time to feel hydro in it's purest form."

After the Rain: Disappointment - "Aw, it stopped already? I didn't get a chance to dance."

After the Rain: Calm - "*Inhale* Mmmm I love the smell of rain, it's so soothing and everything so calm."

When It Snows - "Dancing under frozen rain is always interesting experience though I don't do it too often."

When the Sun Is Out -"Its so hot, let's find a body of water to cool off."

When the Wind Is Blowing: - "This breeze...It reminds me of home. "

Good Morning - "Good morning, did you take your breakfast? Oh your not hungry, well at least take a light snack, its bad for you to go with an empty stomach."

Good Afternoon - "Don't worry about lunch I'll take care it. My cousins always love my cooking, and learning new recipes is fun."

Good Evening - "Dancing under the starry sky is just as amazing as dancing under the rain, cause Celestia is your audience."

Good Night - "Ahh, it's getting late, let's head to bed. Staying up too late will damage your energy levels. Sorry for being fussy, night"

About Calypso: Nymphs - "Back where I live there are nymphs to hold rituals for our local god. They're known for their beauty and act as priestesses, but they are also ruthless, I can't how many times the screams I heard at night who dare to anger them."

About Calypso: Healing - "I studied to be a healer by my uncle, he was also a travelling doctor as well. He's my hero."

About Calypso: Family - "My uncle is a travelling doctor, he's been to many places and experience many things which he teaches to me. I also have two aunts who worked in Fontaine's police force and 12 cousins. Whenever the two oldest ones go out for commissions I look after the rest, which they listen to me more."

About Vision -"Some people often mistake a vision as a tool for more power, while it is true; the purpose of it is to protect the one closes to your heart, and I am thankful to my Archon I am gifted with one."

Something to Share: Windblume -"My uncle told all about the Windblume festival, its a day to improve all relationships people have with one another, not just romantic. Diluc took me to Mondstadt to experience it, he may look grumpy but he's sweet."

Interesting Things -"Recently, I've been experimenting. I came to an understanding that all life contains water, so I practiced my technique with some hilichurls. It took long and I hade some close calls, but I did it, I'm able to control them using blood. Don't make that face I'm only using this for medical purposes and as a last resort, so don't worry"

About Diluc - "Diluc, he's always a hard worker, running Dawn Winery, working in Angel's Share and his other secret job, that gus has no break. But, I admire his diligence and it's honestly it's attractive."

About Hydro Archon: “She’s uhhh.. a bit intense. She’s kinda a reason me and my family moved.”

Calypso's hobbies: Reading -"Reading has always been a favorite past time of mine ever since I could remember. I love to read all kinds of books from fictional to non-fiction. But recently I've been interested in more...Mature literature."

Calypso's troubles: Common sense -" Sometimes I just can't understand people. Like, person has a problem and ask for some advice; one gives good reasoning and backed up with logic while the other is just guessing and gives bad advice. It makes my blood boil to see the person agree with person with bad advice, I mean where is their common sense?"

Favorite food -"Have you tried Fontaine's special mixed berry cake? It's truly magical."

Least Favorite food -"Alcohol and me never mixed well together, and it gives bad memories."

Birthday -"Happy birthday! I made a dance specifically for you, I hope you like it."

Combat Voice lines

Elemental skill

"Like waves of the sea."

"Someone called a doctor?"

"Time for a pick me up."

Elemental Burst

"Drown!"

"Be one with the sea!"

"Let the sirens cast your judgement!"

#genshin impact #calypso nikos #voice lines

[norgestan]

I'm going back for seconds! Viri/Hugo, Nora/Miquel, Lucasim, Emma/You. Lol tbh I just want an Emma ship and I feel like we haven't properly settled for one. 😔 Who should end up with Emma, Mia excluded since you haven't watched Druck yet?

ardi round 2, i loooove this :)

VIRIHUGO:

i think at the end of the day i’m just resigned to virihugo’s existence. do i hate that they just Start pining for each other with no setup at all? yes. do i hate that their relationship was a noorhelm+vilde esque get-together where dylan is the one who ends up alone? yes (imagine if noora had told william something like “oh lol vilde is just some slut that goes for every boy around her, she’ll get over it soon and she doesn’t really care about us being together ;)”. bc that’s essentially what virihugo did LOL). do i hate that half of their clips are they just standing still and monologuing about each other? oh yes. do i care? not really. i would resent them a lot more if viri had been the protag of s3, but eskam had really compelling couples with noriquel and norandro so i just spend my time focusing on them and not the lesser part of the season.

viri is an endearing character, and although i didn’t like most of her subplot in s3, i do think eskam made her an interesting character with what they had and i’m happy she got a nice boyfriend that she has lots of fun with. moreover, norandro was lacking the enemies-to-lovers snarky interactions (too busy being a really compelling couple!) and the trope was picked up by hugo and viri. which i kinda dig, because those interactions were the only things that i enjoyed about various noorhelms in the skamverse - if most of them were like that and less bad abusive boy feminist girl jerk-fest, i wouldn’t loathe noorhelm as much as i do. although this also makes me wish viri and hugo had been that kind of dynamic from the start, and just gotten a lot of will-they-won’t-they glances from their friends throughout the show until they finally got into each other on s3. but i guess that would’ve made it impossible for eskam to use dylan just to *checks notes* make every person in the love triangle insanely infuriating, oh well.

tl;dr: they are allowed to exist.

NORIQUEL:

ardi, you just want to see the world burn LMAO

to me it’s hard to dislike any pairing with nora on it because she’s a very good character and that just means she’ll always have great dynamics with other good characters. and oh is miquel a good character. in a lot of ways, eskam gave us two great williams in one season: my boy alejandro, who is the perfect candidate for a nora love interest, who earned his place and then helped nora earn her place as the best candidate to be his love interest as well, and then miquel, that has just enough characterization to be exactly what the narrative of the season needs him to be - not only a mustache-twirling antagonist who will punch out then smirk his way out of situations, but a real person.

see, they could’ve made miquel into a one-dimensional asshole that nora is stupidly into because he’s hot (does that sound familiar to you? LOL) but oh no, miquel is way more than that. he earns nora’s trust because he’s not an asshole, he resents olga for cheating on him and you can see how nora waits until the moment where he’ll call her a slut but it NEVER comes, he defends nora in front of his friends... he gives her what she needs, and he fits right where she expects him to. and that’s so important in a season where every other character is challenging nora in one way or another: alejandro doesn’t fit in her box of “incorrigible fuckboy”, viri doesn’t fit in her box of “helpless friend who needs my pity”, emma doesn’t fit in her box of “s/a victim”. being with miquel is easy, when he just humors her and spits out thoughts that nora agrees with all the time. it’s just REALLY great to watch. not only is her season a display of how emotional abuse looks like, but also her entire relationship with miquel showcases her shame, her flaws, the things she needs to work with to better her relationships with the people who ask more of her because it’s only fair.

i honestly never was in the miquel hate train. once you get the point of the character, it’s easy to love him for what he is. as i said before, miquel was also a call of attention because the conversations that he had with nora reminded me of talks with male friends i’ve had in my uni years, and it really put it in perspective and made me realize that i have been humoring numerous miquels by sitting through their “i’m actually a feminist, ya know” think-pieces and agreeing with the general feeling of it. and i don’t think a character like niko could EVER make anyone feel like that.

i’ve checked the middle square because that was my reaction every time eskam made a point to parallel noriquel to noorhelm. like YES. YOU DO GET ME. TRULY A SEASON FROM NOORHELM ANTIS TO NOORHELM ANTIS. what a skamverse treat. this relationship is good for the SOUL. that’s why i never got infuriated watching the couple, despite knowing what the point of their existence was: at the end of the day, i knew that the signs of abuse weren’t pointless and just fillers for an end-of-season sex scene, but they were actually going to do something interesting with them. and that’s exactly what they did. noriquel is actually a perfectly crafted relationship for what its message is and it deserves to be remembered as that.

LUKASIM:

oh BOY.

i just.... kasim is in this relationship. that already makes this REALLY difficult to tackle it. the thing about kasim is... if you only watched the season as the movistar+ channel shows it, kasim is simply a plot device. he’s not a character. he’s only there to introduce conflict and stir some shit and then fuck off to the sunset. he doesn’t have an og counterpart which meant that eskam didn’t have to actually try with him, and kasim is just what they need him to be: a way to introduce the main conflict, a reason for dounia to hate amira, boy on boy action for that sweet fanservice, misogynist microaggressions towards amira, a loose way to wrap things up at the end of the season and absolve her from any guilt or shame, etc. he just shows up when the plot needs him and then walks away very swaggily. and that’s why kasim is an essay kind of topic because to talk about him, you have to tackle the racism in s4 and all the ways they could’ve made a conflict-inducing gay muslim guy actually likable. which i won’t do here.

but then if you look at the lucas extra clips... he’s actually LIKABLE. he’s a character: he has personality, he’s funny, he doesn’t take lucas’ shit, he will only be with him if lucas apologizes and changes first. and as someone who desperately wants to protect kasim from the shit characterization and treatment he got in the show, i treasure those clips immensely - which i don’t think a lot of people do, and i can see why. it’s just sad that the moments where kasim was a likable, real character were hidden behind a paywall, and drown in a convoluted plotline of outing people when they behave badly as a good punishment. the thing about their get-together is that their impact relies only on amira, and is meant to make her life a living hell. other than that, there’s not really a narrative or character reason why they’re both into each other. is it only because they’re conventionally attractive guys and the only recurrent mlm in the show? wow, that shit’s BORING.

sigh, anyway. in a slightly better world, kasim being gay wasn’t actually a nuance as it was presented in the show. rather, kasim was out and confident about it, close to his sister, probably a regular in las labass where he could also work with organizations of other queer muslims in madrid. this also means that lucas and kasim’s relationship wasn’t the typical hidden gay love story that they were in the actual show, but they’re just, ya know. typical gay kids who made out in the club and then became just friends. or lucas’ activism on s2 warranted some instagram dms and then they upgraded to acquaintances. it’s upsetting that lucas is the only eskild who doesn’t really get to hangout or be in queer circles like other eskilds are implied to, so it would be great for him to actually have gay friends that he enjoys just as much as his primarily friend group. like, their version of lucas’ queer lifestyle being going to bars and hooking up with older guys it’s so....................... why. they didn’t have the time to say anything interesting about it and so obviously they didn’t do it lol. at this rate lucas’ only platonic queer companion is cris, which is lackluster to say the least.

the decision of making kasim lucas’ endgame is just another one on the list of things s4 got so, so wrong. what for? why does lucas need (another) boyfriend, again? why does every queer person in this show have to be dating someone and also come out to their parents? again, their relationship is just another rushed hidden gay love story that i found interesting at 13 years old and then never again. they could’ve taken it into ANY other direction, please. i’m begging.

anyways, you had really nice headcanons of lucas being the only eskild willing to revert to date a muslim guy, so that’s the only reason why i’m open to the idea of them being a couple. in a better universe, eskam actually made a case for these two being a good couple, and i agreed with it. as it is for now, it’s just really pointless, and rooted on the fact that kasim is not a real character to begin with. so i’m OBVIOUSLY sending them to superhell <3

EMMA/ME:

standard wlw relationship that would probably get sooooo much backlash about how neither of the characters Really feel like wlw and the emma love interest being boring as fuck, tbh.

alright, now that we’ve covered all that.... should dear emma grace even end up with someone in the skamverse? maybe one of the skamau girlies, given the proximity? maybe she’ll hook up with the female eskild that i know so many people dislike? idk. emma deserves a nice love story, in the same wavelength as nora. she deserves someone who is patient, who communicates well, who establishes boundaries and asks for respect, who understands she’s not only the act of crazy party girl and there are really interesting, carefully placed layers around her. maybe someone who went through a similar situation or at the very least sits down with her and tries their hardest to understand all the things going on with her life. like... there’s something about emma dropping the accusations and then dipping to another country, away from her parents and even her hometown in the states, just to throw herself in a city as busy as nyc is, that is desperately asking to be explained and explored. in a lot of ways, emma’s story is the other side of the noora story that couldn’t be told through nora’s perspective. in a perfect universe, there’s a spinoff that takes place right between s3 and s4, where emma gets the news of how much of a shithead miquel actually is and she has to question all of that yet again, and break the sense of normalcy and comfort she had built during all those years. it would be great if that story featured her closest friendships, and a newfound love. yes i was serious when i talked about the emma grace spinoff @ movistar+

#the emma grace spinoff involves updates of nora + therapy and the sekou/lucas endgame that we all crave #skam españa #answered #ardi this reminds me of your druck post about how every druck fan will disagree with at least one of your opinions #i feel the same about this LOL #meta

[moistmailman]

Writer Blake AU

Blake, sighing: Look Ozpin, I’m not asking for much.

Ozpin, drinking his coffee: I know you’re not, Ms. Belladonna, but I just can’t have you leeching onto one of my staff members for a week.

Blake, scoffing: I won’t be leeching! I will just be following them around everywhere they go all day long.

Ozpin, raising an eyebrow:........

Blake, sighing: Okay, I know how that sounds, but I really need this. I’m writing an detective drama book about hunters/huntresses and seeing how one acts will really help me make a better characterization for the main character. So you gotta help me.

Ozpin, sighing: Again, I’m terribly sorry, but I can’t. My staff already has a lot on their plates as it is, and I don’t want to stress them more with having someone watch them as they work. Why can’t you go to another academy for help?

Blake: Because Beacon is obviously the best academy in the world, with the best staff, and best headmaster most importantly. *bat eye lashes*

Ozpin:.....the other academies turned you down too, didn’t they?

Blake, sighing: Maybe.

Ozpin: Look, Ms. Belladonna, I wish I could help you, I truly do, but I just can’t have a civilian walking around my campus all day. I hope you understa—

Glynda, on the pager: Professor Ozpin, Ms. Nikos is on her way up.

Ozpin, smiling: Excellent, the girl’s is right on time too. If you will excuse me for one moment, Ms. Belladonna, I have some important matters to attend to.

Blake, sighing: Sure, go ahead.

*The elevator’s doors dings before opening, revealing a tall redheaded woman with vivid green eyes, and a warm and friendly aura surrounding her*

Blake, slightly blushing: O-oh my....

Ozpin, smiling politely: Ms. Nikos, it’s a pleasure to see you again.

Pyrrha, shaking Ozpin’s hand: Thank you, sir. It’s a pleasure also.

Ozpin: First things first is I’ll like to congratulate you on your graduation. I’m very proud of you.

Pyrrha: Thank you, Sir. It means a lot. Beacon was a very friendly school, and I’m very grateful that I decided to join.

Ozpin: That warms my heart to hear. So anywho, you’re hear for your first huntress mission, aren’t you?

Pyrrha, smiling: That’s why we’re having this meeting now, isn’t it.

Ozpin: Of course. *ahem* Okay, well your first mission is a long one, should take around a week to do, but it’s pretty straight forward, simple and pays well. It should be a great first starter mission for you.

Pyrrha, smiling: That sounds grand......o-oh, hello there, ma’am. I didn’t see you there.

Blake, slightly jolting: Huh? What? A-are you talking to me?

Pyrrha, smiling beautifully: Well of course I am. What’s your name?

Blake, blushing: O-oh, uhm, m-my name? It’s uhm....my name is Uh.....er.....m-my name is.....

Ozpin, to the rescue: This young lady is Blake Belladonna, an inspiring writer.

Pyrrha: Oh really?

Blake, grateful: Y-yeah, t-that’s m-my n-name. You’re a pleasure— I-I’m mean it’s a pleasure to meet you!

Ozpin: Blake here is writing a drama detective book about hunters/huntresses, and wanted to know if she could tag along with one of my staff members to learn about them.

Pyrrha: Oh, that sounds really interesting. I can tell you take passion with your work if you’re willing to actually study about hunters/huntresses to make your book better.

Blake, blushing and twiddling with her hair: T-thank you. T-that means a lot.

Ozpin: Unfortunately my staff is too busy with their work to help Ms. Belladonna.

Pyrrha: Oh, that’s unfortunate.

Ozpin: Yeah, it is......*light bulb* Oh wait. I have an idea. How about she tag along with you?

Pyrrha: Hmm?

Blake, blushing madly: Wait what?

Ozpin, smiling: That sounds like a fantastic idea actually. As I said, your first mission is easy, but long, being perfect for Ms. Belladonna to get the research she needs for her story. What do you say?

Pyrrha: Uhm...sure, I don’t mind. I mean, as long as Blake is alright with it of course. Is that alright with you?

Blake: W-wait, s-so I’m going to tagging along with her for an entire week....a-alone?

Ozpin: For the most part, yes.

Blake: *Gay hyperventilating*

Pyrrha: Will that be alright with you though?

Blake, squeaking: Yep! Totally okay! No problems from me! Absolutely non whatsoever! I can’t wait!

Ozpin: That’s great! Anyway, Ms. Nikos, if you will please report to Glynda and she will give you all of the info for your mission. If you will please join her, Ms. Belladonna.

Blake, an awkward mess: R-right! Right-o! Rightoroni! Let’s do this!

Pyrrha, walking out: Well it’s going to be nice to have some company during this. At least I won’t be bored. I hope you can get the info you need for your book.

Blake, walking with her: Y-Yeah, m-me too. Me too! Can’t wait!

*3 days later*

Ozpin, in his scroll: Ms. Belladonna. How has your adventure been?

Blake: It’s been great. Pyrrha is absolutely amazing and sweet. Im glad I could tag along with her.

Ozpin: That’s wonderful news. So, are you getting enough info for you drama detective book?

Blake: Oh, about that, I’ve decided to change the genre of it.

Ozpin: Really? What’s your story about now?

Blake, blushing awkwardly: Its a uhm, a smut piece about a huntress falling in love with a faunus civilian.

Ozpin:...........

Blake:...........

Ozpin:.....alrighty then. Great talk.

Blake: Thanks. You too.

#rwby #pyrrha nikos #blake belladonna #purrha #pussy magnet #jimmy ozpin #glynda goodwitch #imagine your otp #imagine your ship #rwby rarepair

[tripstations]

All over the Aegean: a great Greek island-hopping odyssey | Travel

The bustle of the port is exhilarating: ship’s horns booming, sailors shouting, swarms of taxis on the quaysides. If a shot of adrenaline is required before any island-hopping adventure, Piraeus provides. I park myself in a kafeneio for an hour and drink in – with some bitter Greek coffee – the sheer excitement of travel in a place where millions of odysseys have begun.

When it comes to Greek island hopping, I really thought I’d missed the boat. “You should’ve seen it 30 years ago: it’s not the same now,” people had been telling me, along with tales of ferry chaos, rip-off prices and the blight of mass tourism. But now I’m in Piraeus, 10km south-west of central Athens, and it feels right. I’m going to what I hope are out-of-the-way islands – Ikaria, Kalymnos, Amorgos, Folegandros, Milos and Sifnos – each with a unique character. A great loop of seafaring will, over the next few weeks, take me across the Aegean Sea and back here.

But first I have a night in the port. I wander up to my hotel, The Alex, and discover that it has opened that very day. I am its first-ever guest. Konstantinos, the excited owner, is bent on proving that Piraeus is a worthy stopover and takes me on a whirlwind tour. Through him I see the magic of the place and the unbroken seafaring traditions that still pull the strings. We finish at sunset in his rooftop restaurant, with a stunning view across the port and all the way to the Parthenon, lit up on its distant hill.

Next morning I am at gate two on the quayside, where boarding is quick, efficient and not at all chaotic. Most people on the boat are going to Mykonos, but I am staying on to a lesser-known island: Ikaria, which has a reputation for its inhabitants living to fabulous old age. It was also, I read on the ferry deck, a place of exile for 16,000 communists after the second world war. Maybe I can weave these two themes together? As I tuck into a spinach and cheese pie, this foreknowledge gives me a sense of relief: the first chapter of my own odyssey is already shaping up.

On the waterfront … the port at Evdilos. Photograph: Alamy

Seven hours later I am sitting in a cafe in one of Ikaria’s two ports. Evdilos is a smartly painted village on a steep mountain slope covered in oaks and plumes of pink oleanders. My guide is Urania, local artist and travel agent, who walks me up through the village’s shady lanes and then back to a cafe by the sea.

“Ask me anything,” she says, ordering iced coffees and local cakes, “except – please – nothing about longevity.” It transpires that a couple of newspaper articles on the Ikarian age phenomenon triggered a deadly deluge of outsiders, all pestering anyone with half a wrinkle to cough up the secret of long life.

“At first we were all very polite,” Urania says. “I even arranged for one American channel to film a 97-year-old having breakfast, but when he rolled a cigarette, the director went crazy, shouting that it was all wrong. Now the old people refuse to tell their age.”

“I’m not interested in longevity,” I assure her, inwardly cursing.

“Good,” she says, cutting up the cakes for us to share. “The other subject to avoid is the communist stuff, but that wouldn’t interest you, would it?”

“Not at all.”

‘We eat a lot of greens’ … a healthy plate of horiatiki (salad) on Ikaria

Later, Urania’s husband, Theo, gives me a lift to my hotel, the family-run Erofili up the coast in the village of Armenistis. I swim, then go for dinner at local restaurant Mary Mary, where Nikos, the owner, recommends the traditional Ikaria pie, filled with mixed greens, and soufiko.

“We eat lots of greens,” he tells me. “Soufiko is really just a mixture of what you have in the garden.” Nikos adds twists to such simple traditions, making superbly tasty dishes. His long-term ambition, however, belies this sophistication: he plans to retire to a smallholding up on the mountain. “I’ll keep chickens, grow vegetables and make cheese.”

Next day Urania and I drive up into the hills, and into the trees. Ikaria is a green island, and for centuries most of the population lived away from the coast. The old stone houses, some still inhabited, all face away from the sea, a relic of the time when pirates would roam the Aegean, looking for settlements to raid. In Christos Raches, the population went one step further, working their fields by night to avoid piratical attention. It still retains some of that nocturnal habit: its beautiful shady square is surrounded by tavernas, and at its liveliest after midnight. All around are oak forests and deep gorges dotted with waterfalls.

On a nearby hillside, local pharmacist Nikos Afianes is developing a vineyard and winery that also harks back to Ikaria’s past. “When I started, people told me that the soil was acidic, totally unsuitable for vines,” he says, “but I knew that in ancient times the island was famous for its wine.”

Nikos Afianes in his vineyard. Photograph: Kevin Rushby/The Guardian

Nikos has dedicated a lifetime to researching this paradox, and rediscovered ancient Greek methods and materials. “We grow forgotten varieties, then ferment the wine in amphora buried in the earth using local strains of yeast.”

The result is organic wines that have won plaudits from both wine connoisseurs and archaeologists. We sit in Nikos’s vineyard, opening bottles. The white begleri is my favourite: its amber colour threatens sweetness, but the wine is as dry as flint, with a rolling symphony of flavours. I notice a clump of trees on a small hill and ask what it is.

“Our village cemetery,” says Nikos, offering to take me to see it. “It’s an interesting place.”

When we arrive, I immediately see why. Each gravestone is marked with dates, many with the age of the deceased. I read: 99, 88, 79, 88, 97, and then I stop. Born 1856. Died 1982. That makes 126.

Nikos is further down the line, shaking his head. “Only 70. Tragic. So young.” At the gate, he leaves me with two facts. “The soil stress on the vines means our wines have very high levels of resveratrol. Also, we use wild yeasts that yield beta-glucans.”

I go away and look these terms up. Resveratrol has been associated with longevity claims; and beta-glucans have been found to reduce cholesterol. Drinking Ikarian wine, it seems, does keep you young and fit.

Circle of life … locals and tourists dancing at the panegyri. Photograph: Kevin Rushby/The Guardian

That evening Urania and I finish up at a panegyri, a local celebration, held under huge ancient trees in the last golden rays of sunlight. We take trays the size of tables and load up with psiti (roast meat), prothesi (goat soup), horiatiki (salad) and longevity juice (wine). I’m introduced to the local sea captain and others. There are tourists here, but they’re heavily outnumbered by locals. Then the dancing starts: a line of people with arms over each other’s shoulders. The music gets louder. What is Urania saying? This wine is excellent! An old lady takes a turn. I lean forward but still can’t catch Urania’s words. She’s probably saying: “There’s Kaliopi. She’ll be 100 next week. Her mum will be down later.”

Next morning I walk into the bakery, where Giorgos, the owner, is wrapping small chocolate cakes in foil. I daren’t ask how old he is, but he tells me his love of history and politics started when he was a boy. “The men came back from the Greco-Turkish war in 1922 and sat around discussing what had happened.”

As he wraps cakes (and eats them), I calculate that he’s well over 90. Giorgios’s friend, who is of equal vintage, arrives, having walked several miles from his village. In his shirt pocket I spot a packet of tobacco. “What we have here,” they agree, “is solidarity. People help each other.”

I leave them chatting and drive to the far west of the island and the village of Karkinagri, with a sheltered harbour, perfect for swimming on a day when the wind is picking up. This area has many clumps of huge granite boulders, recently discovered by climbers. I explore them then, as the sun sinks, drive back up the coast to Nas, a village perched on a gorge above a wild stony beach. I eat fish at a taverna run by Thea . She was born in Michigan but returned to the ancestral island as soon as she could. “I just felt at home here. It’s about as different from the US as it’s possible to be. The food seems simple, but there may be six or seven wild ingredients in a dish. My husband collected that samphire.”

Thea’s taverna, who owner moved back to the island from Michigan

Our conversation leads, eventually, to the subject of long-lived Ikarians: how outsiders have studied the water, wine, olive oil, everything, trying to find a reason. For Thea the secret is in the local mindset. “My husband sums it up well: put life in your years and the years will come to you.”

At sunset I walk out on a high rocky headland to catch the last rays before the red disc sinks into the Aegean. A local man is staring out to sea. “Can you see?” he asks. I look where he is pointing, far out into the waves. Eventually I see it: a head bobbing up and down in the big rolling swells.

“Very danger,” he says. “Not good. Too much storm coming.”

We watch for a long time. Is it a suicide attempt? The swimmer is heading out from the cove towards the swell of purple twilight where the sun disappeared. I lose sight of the bobbing head and eventually clamber down to the beach, in time to see a naked woman emerge from the surf. She walks past me, totally unselfconscious, her face shining with excitement, and disappears into the gloaming. I have no idea if she is a local or visitor, but I’m sure that, in true Ikarian style, she has just put some life in her years.

• The trip was provided by Sunvil which has a week at Erofili Beach Hotel from £978pp B&B, including flights from the UK and transfers. Ferries were booked through ferries.gr (Piraeus to Ikaria €39.50 one-way). The Alex in Piraeus has doubles from €104 B&B. Airport transfers and accommodation were provided by Holiday Extras. More information from visitgreece.gr

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