quick note: I know this is really cheesy and way different from what I normally do and shameless megaphoning, but it's for a really good cause (for the Haiti Earthquake Relief Effort). Please, please, please, read the entire thing and especially the author's note at the end!
"What's going on here? I was still sleeping!" Anna snapped as she descended down the stairs of the inn. "Whoever was making that noise—" She stopped mid-air down a step as she beheld the chaotic scene that had unfolded in the main room.
"Oh, hey, Anna!" Yoh called as he pulled on his boots. "We're leaving right now, sorry to wake you."
"Yoh…why is everyone here?" she asked, still trying to soak everything in.
The Asakura heir looked at her strangely. "Didn't you hear? About the earthquake that hit Haiti a few days ago?"
Anna pursed her lips, slightly embarrassed that she was so behind on the news. Doesn't he know I only watch television for the soap operas?
Manta's jaw dropped. "You didn't? It's huge! It's so disastrous!"
"I heard that fifty thousand people died already!" exclaimed Lyserg.
"Actually, as many as two hundred thousand may have died," someone called from across the room.
"And they have shortages on everything: food, water, medicine, shelter…" Jeanne said sadly.
"Yup, that's why me an' Pirika are headin' back to the farm as soon as the next flight pulls in." Horohoro put his hat on his head. "So we can raise food and maybe collect some that we can send over there to help."
"Ren and I are trying to organize several construction teams to rebuild the towns near Port-au-Prince," Jun offered.
"Erm…what happened there?"
Ren stared at her incredulously. "The overwhelming majority of the buildings in the region were destroyed, Kyoyama."
"They also need a lot of medical assistance," Lady Sati interjected serenely. "A lot of the hospitals were destroyed in the earthquake and the surviving ones are overrun with too many injured patients to get proper medical attention."
"Hey, Tao!" Ryu called after Ren. "Try to get some search and rescue teams too! A lot of people are still reported missing. Still probably under the rubble and ruin…"
"This is…this is ridiculous!" Anna shouted. Kanna, Mari and Macchi stopped sorting clothes that they would donate to a local charity that would send it to the Haitian survivors. Marco and the other X-LAWS paused on their way out of the inn before they would go to the airport and pick up several Haitian families that would be staying with some hosts in Japan while their country was being rebuilt. Chocolove and Mic slowed down in their packaging of textbooks that would be shipped to the recovering damaged elementary schools near Port-au-Prince. "Why aren't more people helping?" she demanded.
Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.
"Oh trust me, Anna, there are many who are helping," came a lazy drawl. Anna turned around to come face to face with Hao who was examining his fingernails. "But still, there are quite a bunch of people who don't feel like we should be helping Haiti."
Anna's eye twitched. "What kind of…idiotic, self-centered morons would think that?"
"Well, for starters, there are some leading voices in the United States who think that their country is not responsible for others' suffering and that they shouldn't be giving aid and relief to the efforts in Haiti—"
"Idiots!" Anna snarled.
"In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, there was one who said that they believed that the earthquake was a punishment from God." Hao paused, frowning. "Last time I checked, I was still the Shaman King and I don't remember ever wanting to punish Haiti…"
"Whoever said that…they better watch out…I've been practicing my slapping technique," she growled, cracking her knuckles. "What have you done, Hao?"
Before he could answer, Opacho hopped forth and answered for him. "Master Hao just wrote a check for a huge donation to the Red Cross organization!" she announced happily. "Right, Master Hao?"
"Opacho, people aren't supposed to know about that!"
"Quite generous, considering it's you. What happened to 'I hate everyone. Let's destroy all humans'?" Anna asked skeptically. "Isn't this earthquake a dream come true for you?"
Hao shrugged. "Hey, a 7.0 earthquake that's killed possibly 200,000 people? And left them without food, water, homes, clothing, and medical supplies? And the aftershocks of the earthquake are still coursing through the whole island! That's harsh, even for me." He drew his eyebrows together in thought. "Hey, and at the ending of the manga, me being reunited with my mother made me a little bit nicer!" he exclaimed.
"Uh huh…" Anna said absentmindedly. She turned towards Manta who looked like he was spearheading the whole Funbari Onsen Relief Effort. "How else can other people help? I don't know if we're even eligible to take in Haitian families. Or organize construction or search and recover teams. And I know I can't donate a whole lot of food or supplies—"
"Hey, even the smallest donation can help! Um…here, let me show you." Manta pulled out his laptop and turned it on. "You can donate online to organizations like Red Cross or even…There's this huge fandom auction going on LiveJournal right now! It's under the 'Help Haiti' community."
"Fandom auction?" Anna asked.
"Yeah, many artists from websites like deviantART are putting offers up." Manta paused to come up with an explanation. "Like they're willing to draw a picture of your favorite pairing from a certain fandom or you can even give them a context or a prompt in which they'll illustrate it. Same thing with a lot of authors from FFN. They're also putting up offers to write fanfictions and stories. (I even hear the author of this fic has an offer out too!) And even some famous YouTubers like LittleKuriboh are offering to do videos!"
"Huh, why are they doing this?" Anna looked at the screen. "What's this? Why does this post say five dollars?"
"Well, the point of the whole thing is that you're supposed to bid money on the offers you like. Whoever puts down the highest bid at the end of the auctioning period gets the offer!"
"When's the deadline?"
"January 20 for the fanfiction offers. All the bidding money goes directly to relief efforts for Haiti and the auctioned-off items will be emailed to the winning bidders by February 14." Manta smirked up at her. "Hey, now maybe you'll be able to get a picture of your favorite couple from that soap opera you like so much…"
"You're pushing it, Oyamada." Anna noticed Tamao walk in a bit sadly. "Tamao!"
"Y-Yes, Anna?" The girl came over.
"Use your divining powers to find out when Haiti will completely recover!" she ordered.
The shy prophetess shook her head miserably. "I…I already tried that, M-Miss Anna…" She wiped at her tearing up eyes. "It's impossible…I can't see when this whole disaster will end…"
Anna was dumbstruck. "Wh-What?"
Yoh approached the two. "Well, without everyone putting in their best effort, I suppose no end will be in sight…" He scratched the back of his head.
Anna was lost in thought for a few minutes. Suddenly, she reached forward towards Manta. "Give me that!" She yanked the laptop out of his hands.
"Wh-What are you doing?" he asked, shocked.
"I'm bidding on every Days of Our Lives offers!" she said, irritated that he was breaking her concentration as she rapidly commented on all the relevant posts.
"And from the looks of it, you're bidding on every Tokyo Mew Mew offer too!" Yoh observed, clearly amused.
Everyone in the room snickered. "Anna, you read Tokyo Mew Mew too? That's my favorite!" Pirika exclaimed happily.
Anna glared daggers at Yoh.
"Well, I suppose, whatever helps," Jeanne said while Lyserg nodded in agreement. Everyone went back to work, doing whatever they could to help out with the relief effort: donating, fundraising, collecting, assembling and organizing, bidding, hosting…
That is, everyone except for Manta who was sulking in a corner. "She's bidding using my account…now all of my friends will think I like cheesy soap operas and even cheesier shoujo manga…"
A/N: the link for the online bidding!: community . livejournal . com / help _ haiti (just remove the spaces. to get to the fanfiction offers, click on the word offering links on the side there.)
and it's true! I have my own offer there as well: community . livejournal . com / help _ haiti / 6394 . html ? page = 14 # comments (scroll down a bit)
even though i'm more than willing to do any requests for any of my reviewers, my offer on the Help Haiti community is different: for the first, and only for a limited, time am I taking requests for different fandoms, yaoi/yuri pairings, and even shameless smut (hey, it's for the relief effort! gimme a break!).
so be quick and place your bids now to get a one-of-a-kind ShatteredLyre fic (complete with dedication and other snazzy extras I'll think up of). of course, there are a ton of other authors and artists who are fabulously talented who have their offers up as well! Come on everyone, you know you wanna Help Haiti! :)