#selunari

Alexei stared at his reflection in the stream. The boy looking back certainly resembled him – same unruly hair, same dark eyes, same five fingers on each hand (he waggled them at his reflection to make sure). The only thing physically different about him was the large blue gem glittering on his forehead. A small change, really. But it wasn't the outside change that concerned him.

In his eight long years, Alexei had never experienced anything half as strange as what had happened the week before. The caravan had made camp for the night the way they always did, snaking the wagons into a wide circle at the edge of a field. The moon was full and the stars were bright, and Uncle Yishai was cooking a stew over the fire that smelled like magic. Someone was tuning a fiddle nearby, and Alexei's baby sister Lajni was chasing the dog, her peals of laughter echoing around the camp. Alexei remembered thinking how big the sky looked that night; from his place at the edge of the circle, it seemed like the stars went on forever.

As if hearing Alexei's very thought, a strange light had appeared in the sky. It seemed to come from everywhere, as if dawn was suddenly breaking all around him. Every star seemed brighter, and the moon shone as fiercely as the sun. Alexei shut his eyes against the glare, but curiosity made him open them again. The light seemed to envelop him until he could see nothing else. It was beautiful, the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, shimmering through every color of the rainbow and more. He felt warm, wrapped in this blanket of light. He was unafraid. Comforted. Connected. For a moment that might have been a breath and might have been forever, he felt a joy so complete it defied description. He felt whole.

The light faded. Alexei blinked. He was still standing next to his wagon at the edge of the circle. The dog was still barking and the stew was still simmering. But something was different. It was as if he could sense every member of his caravan, could feel their energy around him. He turned to his cousin Talya to ask if she felt the same and was astonished to see that a pair of red gems had appeared on her forehead, one above the other. He looked at Uncle Yishai and discovered that he was sporting a deep purple gem near one temple. Even Mama was marked, with a large green gem surrounded by four tiny blue ones. Slowly, Alexei reached up to touch his own forehead.

Selunari. The word was so new, but somehow it felt as if it was the first word he had ever learned. How could that be? He had never heard it before that night and suddenly it was an indelible part of him. How could something so recent feel so old, so... comfortable?

"Alexei!"

Alexei looked up, startled out of his reverie, to see the kindly, wrinkled face of his grandmother, Basimah.

"Lost in thought, are we?" she said with a smile. Alexei nodded solemnly.

"What troubles you, little one?" asked Basimah, the warmth in her eyes matching the three iridescent gems on her brow. "Come, tell your Grandmama," With a grunt, she sat down beside him on the bank of the stream, smoothing her colorful skirts as she did so.

"I don't..." Alexei started. He searched for the words. "I feel different, but not different. Have I changed? Did we all change? I mean... Am I still me?"

"Aahhh," said Basimah. "The Selunari, yes? You are looking to understand. I explain to you, little one." Alexei had always loved his grandmother's accent, so different from Mama's or even his own. If there was one sound that could always comfort him, it was Grandmama's voice.

Basimah gestured upwards at the darkening sky, where the first stars were beginning to appear. "You see this, yes? Those stars? Beyond those stars are more stars, and more beyond them. And then? Even more stars!"

"Do they go on forever?" asked Alexei, looking wide-eyed at the sky.

Basimah laughed. "That I do not know, little one. But I like to think they do. You see those stars over there? The ones that make a picture? Do you know what that picture is called?"

"A constellation!" Alexei had just learned that word from his cousin Marcos and was always pleased to show off newfound knowledge.

"Yes, my smart boy! A constellation. There are many, many constellations in the sky, and some of them we will never see. But others, on very special days, they show themselves to us."

"So, Selunari is a constellation? One of the special ones?"

"Indeed! And do you know why we saw it?" Alexei shook his head.

"There are more than just stars in the sky, little one. There is the moon," Basimah pointed to it peeking over the horizon, "and there are planets, just like this one, but very far away. As they move, sometimes they come close together. Do you understand this?"

Alexei did not want to say no, but his frown betrayed him.

Basimah gathered a few small stones and laid them down in front of them. "Here is the sun, in the center. Yes? And all the planets, they move around the sun, in their own time." She shifted the pebbles in their orbits as she spoke. "And sometimes, as they move, some of them line up, like this," she said, stopping each stone in its orbit when it lined up with the previous one. "And sometimes, very, very rarely, all the planets align like this. And right here," she pointed to the space just beyond the last pebble, "is where Selunari is."

"So... All the planets lined up with Selunari, and it sent light to us?" asked Alexei. The concepts were beginning to fall into place in his head, but they still did not entirely make sense.

"More than light, little one. It sent us magic! When the planets gave it a path, Selunari reached out to us. It spoke to us. Did you hear it?"

Alexei nodded; he had heard it. It had not used words, but he had understood it all the same. The color, the warmth; that was Selunari. It had reached out to his people and become one with them, if only for a moment. It had marked them with starlight on their brows and left them bonded even more deeply than before, as if each one was a star in a great constellation. In truth, it had made him feel alive.

Alexei thought about the old words for his people. Gypsy, the most common, but so many others. They all seemed so far away, as if they had never been his. "I feel like I am Selunari now. Or, no, not now... I feel like I always was Selunari. I feel like we were always Selunari, you and Mama and the rest of the caravan. But not just the caravan: everyone. All of us, everywhere. I feel it! Is that strange?"

"Not at all, little one! I feel it too. If you ask your Mama, or your cousins, they will say the same. We are the Selunari. Nothing has felt more true."

"But are we still who we were before? Or are we different?"

Basimah thought for a moment before responding. "We are the same, I think, only... more complete. I believe we have found a part of ourselves. It is the way of our people to use what we can find until we know what is better. We did not know our true selves, so we used other words to say who we are. But now, we know."

Alexei grinned. "Yes. Now, we know. We always were Selunari! We just didn't have the word before now." His smile turned into a thoughtful frown. "But if we always were Selunari, why did we not know before now? Did the planets and stars never line up before?"

"Ahh, that is a very good question indeed," Basimah responded, a twinkle in her eye. "We may never know. Perhaps they never did align before. Or perhaps they could not. Perhaps Selunari was not complete, just as we were not complete. I like to believe that one of the stars of Selunari got lost and needed to find its way home before it could speak to us."

"Lost?" Alexei asked, folding his arms and raising an eyebrow. Grandmama was definitely telling one of her silly stories now. "How does a star get lost?"

"Now that, little one, is a story for another time." Basimah winked, then began to rise. "Let us go. Your Mama will be missing us!" Together, the pair got to their feet and walked, hand in hand, toward the camp.

Tagged by noise-sama thank you for tagging me :3 :3 :3 <3  I think this is going to be hard though!

[The game is top 10 husbands/wives. Write down your top 10 male/female/other celebs or characters and tag 10 people to do the same.]

1) Rosinante Donquixote (One Piece) The perfect man basically. Fabulous, badass and has a heart of gold ;o The whole story with Law is enough to make him the number one actual husbando forever and ever.

2) Trafalgar Law (One Piece) I don't think I really need to explain. Troubled soul with a tragic past, and fluffy hair. Smart and ambitious! all of the good things. cough cough

3) Doflamingo Donquixote (One Piece) yeah yeah yeah I know what you are thinking but I don't care at all (◕‿◕✿) I can have guilty pleasure husbandos hush you. also he could be on my basketball team and we'd wreck people

4) Kyouya Sata (Wolf Girl and Black Prince) jesus why would i say that. i like sadistic anime boys idk whats happening

5) Sabo (One Piece) :3 :3 :3 his voice though. I can't wait to see more of him but I already know

6) Sanji (One Piece) All of the food and attention! :3 what's not to like there?

7) Mitsuru Kirijo (Persona 3) BEST WAIFU. Will love her forever. I became a genius just for her.

8) Satsuki Kiryuin (Kill La Kill) Please step on me Satsuki-sama~~ perfect lady

9) Haruka Nanase (Free!) although realistically he'd be swimming every day and we'd only hang out sometimes but that's ok

10) Tokiya Ichinose (Uta no Prince Sama) definitely a husbando to me. I just like listening to his songs a lot lol. Uta no prince sama is a guilty pleasure anime for sure lmao. Miyano Mamoru for the win always

I'm going to tag lockdaisy, rspixart, heavenly-demon, dinkyicarus, charlottec21, t0rao, heartnokaizokudan, doctor-torao, ohportgas, rabu-anime, trecomics, holiday-special, lawsfuckinface, tophatnerd 

HEY ME TOO

If you don’t know your personality type, take the test here.

Tagged by: katerinaraine !

Rules: Find out what characters share the same personality type as you here and list the characters that you find relevant below. Then tag five friends and let them know you tagged them!

Type: ENFP

Phoenix Wright, Athena Cykes, and Clay Terran from Ace Attorney

Chazz Darbey from Airheads

Genie from Aladdin

Eleanor from Alvin and the Chipmunks

Spider from Anansi Boys

Cheryl/Carol Tunt and Pam Poovey from Archer

Buster Baxter from Arthur

Dez from Austin & Ally

Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender

Dick Grayson (Robin I/Nightwing II/ Batman III), Stephanie Brown (Spoiler/Robin IV/Batgirl III), and Harleen Quinzel (Harley Quinn) from Batman

Marty McFly from Back to the Future

Cheetor from Beast Wars

Makoto Nanaya from BlazBlue

Linda Belcher from from Bob's Burgers

Jake Peralta from Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Captain Britain from Captain Britain and MI13

Joey Maynard from the Chalet School series

Phoebe Halliwell from Charmed

Fuko Ibuki from CLANNAD

Cher Horowitz from Clueless

Numbuh 3 (Kuki Sanban) from Codename: Kids Next Door

Troy Barnes from Community

Penelope Garcia from Criminal Minds

Umi from Cthulhu Saves the World

Dan from Dan Vs.

Aoi Asahina from Dangan Ronpa

Alfred from The Dark Knight Saga

The eponymous Don Quixote

Ms. Kristal from the Disney version of Doug

Anna Bates from Downton Abbey

Goku from Dragon Ball

Shinra Kishitani from Durarara!!

Buddy Hobbes from Elf

Moira Brown from Fallout 3

Sue Storm from Fantastic Four

Adam West from Family Guy

Uryu Ryuunosuke from Fate/Zero

Rydia from Final Fantasy IV

Locke Cole from Final Fantasy VI

Zack Fair from Final Fantasy VII

Zidane Tribal from Final Fantasy IX

Vanille from Final Fantasy XIII

Jenny Curren from Forrest Gump

Daphne Moon from Frasier

Carlton Banks from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Fox Maharassa from Friendly Hostility

Phoebe Buffay from 'Friends''

Anna from Frozen

Lorelai Gilmore from Gilmore Girls

Blaine Anderson from Glee

Amy Duncan from Good Luck Charlie

Mabel Pines from Gravity Falls

Eikichi Onizuka from Great Teacher Onizuka

Izzie Stevens from Grey's Anatomy

Shoyo Hinata from Haikyuu

The eponymous Happy Gilmore

Poppy Cross from Happy Go Lucky

Pip Bernadotte from Hellsing

Meulin Leijon and Roxy Lalonde from Homestuck

Marshall Erikson from How I Met Your Mother

Christopher McCandless from Into The Wild

Yukino Miyazawa, Hideaki Asaba from Kare Kano

Kenichi Shirahama from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple

Ryuko Matoi from Kill la Kill

Peggy Hill from King of the Hill

Sora from Kingdom Hearts

Hiyori Moritani from Kotoura-san

Adam Davenport from Lab Rats

Jareth from Labyrinth

Idi Amin from The Last King of Scotland

Ellie from The Last of Us

Hilbert from Last Scenario

Avatar Wan from The Legend of Korra

Courfeyrac from ''Les Misérables'

Eliot Spencer from Leverage

Peregrin Took ("Pippin") from The Lord of the Rings

Hugo "Hurley" Reyes from LOST

Sinbad from "Magi - Labyrinth of Magic"

Hikaru Shidou from Magic Knight Rayearth

Wanda Li and Ralphie Tennelli from The Magic School Bus

Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H

Agent Jay from Men In Black

Sue Heck from The Middle

Balder from The Mighty Thor

Miranda Hart from Miranda

Char Aznable from Mobile Suit Gundam

Phil from Modern Family

Howleen Wolf from Monster High.

James "Sulley" Sullivan from Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University

Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady

Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

Maggie Sheffield from The Nanny

Winston Bishop from New Girl

Danny from Ninja Sex Party and Game Grumps

Jiraya, Obito Uchiha (Tobi)and Hashirama Senju from Naruto

Michael Scott from The Office (US)

Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece

Elan from The Order of the Stick

Tamaki Suoh from Ouran High School Host Club

Mary Anne Spencer from Perfect Strangers

Ilke from Phenomena

The eponymous Pippi Longstocking

Chloe Beale from Pitch Perfect

Ash Ketchum from Pokémon

Sayaka Miki from Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Cat from Red Dwarf

Summer Smith from Rick and Morty

Cliff Secord aka The Rocketeer

Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon from Sailor Moon

Ryunosuke Ikenami from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger

Schierke from Berserk

Carrie from Sex and the City

Martin Prince from The Simpsons

Miyuki Hoshizora/Cure Happy from Smile Pretty Cure!

Bokkun from Sonic X

Maria von Trapp from The Sound of Music

Patrick Star and the eponymous SpongeBob SquarePants

Capt. James T. Kirk from Star Trek: The Original Series

Dr. Julian Bashir from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Capt. Jonathan Archer from Star Trek: Enterprise

Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars

Rapunzel from Tangled

Luke fon Fabre from Tales of the Abyss

Estelle from Tales of Vesperia

Jane Porter from Tarzan

Beast Boy from Teen Titans

Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Soichiro Nagi, Bunshichi Tawara and Sugano Kagesada from Tenjho Tenge

Pete "Maverick" Mitchell from Top Gun

Beth, Dakota, Ella, Izzy, Max and Sierra from Total Drama

Kohaku and Satsuki Yumizuka from Tsukihime

Hot Shot from Transformers Armada

Vash the Stampede from Trigun

Rebekah Mikaelson from The Vampire Diaries and The Originals

Cat Valentine from Victorious

Cordelia Vorkosigan from Vorkosigan Saga

Cecil from Welcome to Night Vale

Monica Reyes from The X-Files

Ariel from The Little Mermaid

Damien from Mean Girls

Count Olaf from Aseriesofunfortunateevents

Clemintine from "Eternal Sunshineofthe Spotless Mind."

Chihiro from Spirited Away

Renly Baratheon from A Song of Ice and Fire

melon - my first impression of you: jjba blog, cool beans!

lilac - why / how i started following you: wow i think you followed me first and i saw you reblogged a lot of jjba and you seemed like a nice person so i followed you back.

orange - my opinion of you now and our status: i think you're pretty nice and cool and status? wow uh, cool mutuals?

I think I got it, I’ll send it to you