Spoiler Warning
Have you read my love, take your time?
Be honest
Thank you for reading my fic, I'm very honored by the love.
This was my obligatory self-indulgent, niche fic so I'm glad to see others get enjoyment (and maybe some emotions) out of it as well.
This card is meant to compile some of the various references made during the course of this fic.
This isn't a list of all the clues. I'm not gonna make it that easy on you.
BERLIN
Friedrichshain - Trendy neighborhood that was formerly part of East Berlin. Location of the famous East Side Gallery, which Sakusa doesn't live too far from. If you're ever in town, I'd suggest stopping by Boxi during the weekdays. There's a cool market to roam around and if you're lucky, you might see some characters.
Sakusa's Apartment - Based on a real apartment in Friedrichshain. There's a rooftop terrace and everything. I don't know if there were ever bullet holes in this building, that tidbit comes from the apartment my grandma lived in in another part of the city.
Alexanderplatz - Alex is one of the main hubs of the city servicing several U+S-Bahn rails and regional rails. Avoid during peak hours if you've never been before. Though, Alex is most known as the location for one of Berlin's symbols, the Fernsehturm. Like Omi, I went up it once and that was enough. I appreciate the city more from the ground.
Architecture - Baroque, Brutalist, Soviet, Modern
'The Island' - Mentioned in Sakusa's conversation with the barista refers to Museuminsel/Museum Island, an island in the river Spree that houses five different museums (soon? to be six). Other than Sakusa's museum, I only reference the Alte Nationalgalerie, which is coincidentally the one museum on the island I've never been to.
Neues Museum - Sakusa's place of employment. It was recently restored in the last 20 years after suffering damage during WWII. I took some liberties here (mainly in regards to the staff areas, but I do know they have several conservation studios on site) but I also tried to stay relatively accurate.
You can actually digitally explore the museum in Google Maps. I've started ya out right in front of the Queen herself.
All of the artifacts specifically related to Atsumu are fiction, but they are inspired by real artifacts.
MUSIC
I cut it out of the final fic because the paragraph got entirely too wordy, but I imagined Sakusa taking Dance as a minor (along with Art History and Geology). After presumably charming courts for several hundred years, I'm sure he's probably pretty decent at it.
Classical - Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky (A direct reference to THIS NONSENSE??)
Classical is fun but I can't listen to something and be like this is definitely um Bamburg's 3493th Sonata for Klavier.
Jazz/Blues - John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Nina Simone
All very basic. But like c'mon they're the classics for a reason. If you check out only one of these, check out Sister Rosetta. She's the reason any of y'all's white boy rock stars exist.
Pop - Carly Rae Jepson, Dua Lipa
Meant as a shoutout to SASS (specifically, to Bree). I don't listen to either of them lol.
Rock - Rancid
Unlike Sakusa, I DO be loving Rancid. Even though Tim Armstrong sings like he's got marbles in his mouth. He's a cool dude, met him once. Atsumu is singing along to Ruby Soho, but the later referenced bass solo is this one, which is SO TASTY.
Unreferenced Inspirations - Forgotten Love by AURORA, Wasteland, Baby! by Hozier, Run by Hozier
I do actually indirectly quote Run in the 12:00 PM section. Title is from The World Was Wide Enough from Hamilton, a title I came up with before writing this fic.
Secret - Wanna know what concert they were going to? Sonic Youth, 1998.
MYTHOLOGY
Apollo/Artemis - God of music, medicine and the sun. Goddess of the wilds, the hunt, and the moon. Y'all know this, we all be knowin'. The statue is heavily falsified, though I did try to give it semi-realistic damage. Lots of statues have lost fingers and limbs. Unrelated but if someone wrote a Sunaosa fic inspired by Orion and Artemis I would kiss them on the forehead and grant them a great boon.
Divine Twins - A fairly common mythological trope from across human canon.
Amun-Ra - A combination of Amun the creator god and Ra the god of the sun. They became one combined god around 2000 BC. During the reign of Akhenaten (Nefertiti's husband), Egypt were monotheistic and worshiped only Aten, a sun god.
As part of Ra's cycle, he was born in the East every morning and died in the West every evening. Food for thought ;)
Thanatos - God of death.
Moirai - The Fates, three sister goddesses, weavers who fashion the threads of life.
OTHER TIDBITS
Alcohol - I don't drink, but each referenced alcohols are related to ME! SELF INDULGENCE BAYBEEE. Soju, the alcohol of my current home. Cana Manabita, the alcohol my colleagues drank after hours. Rum from Martinique, the preferred alcohol of my dad.
The Cellphone - You're going to be utterly angry at me for this but... it's this :)
149.5 Million km - Equivalent to 1 AU, the distance to the sun.
Mount Atsumu - Naturally a reference to Mount Vesuvius. The Roman Empire wasn't too kind to many people...
the world is gonna end next year - This was bait. Y2K not Mayan Calendar. Coincidentally, Atsumu does die in 2000, so I suppose he was right, in a way.
Colors - Some of the specific color descriptors I used in this fic are ancient pigments. Tyrian purple. Dragon's blood. Malachite. Azurite. The coal and chalk used to describe Nefertiti's eyes are literal, those are the pigments coloring the bust.
Wolfgang Leonhardt - He never actually shows up in the fic, but in my minds eye he's sort of a humanized version of a lion villager and a wolf villager from AC. His personality is inspired by my onkel.
Otchan - Kansai-ben for uncle/older man.
Bone Lab - Labeling techniques are fairly accurate, based off of my own process labeling bones. As mentioned, nail polish is cheap and easy to come by if you run out of better adhesive, but it doesn't last. And yes, the world spiiiiiiiins after you've been squinting at a tiny phalange writing letters and numbers in the smallest print you have ever written something.
ascribed status - An archaeological/anthropological term used to describe an individual who was royal, noble, or otherwise important to the culture they lived in.
Kher Neter - Purposeful use of the ancient name for Giza.
Nefertiti - One of Akhenaten's wives, a queen of Egypt, step-mother of King Tut. She had 6 daughters who, according to ancient art, were very much beloved. If you're ever in Berlin, blow the Queen a kiss for me.
Not the Sumerians - Shout out to Faye & Min.
Aketaten - Also known as Amarna. Capital city of Ancient Egypt during the reign of Akhenaten. As previously mentioned, there were major overhauls during his reign as pharaoh: changes in religion, capital city, and art.
Meketaten - The second daughter of Nefertiti and Akhenaten.
Mummy Portraits - My favorite artifacts. I adore these so much. They were used in Roman Egypt and depicted upper class individuals. They typically used either tempera (pigments combined with egg yolk) or encaustic (pigments combined with hot beeswax) paints. The encaustic ones are the most well preserved.
BONUS
CuriousCat Q&A's
Note that anything stated in these asks are not necessarily canon, but rather my ideas. You're free to disagree with me or come to your own conclusions.
What was it like writing MLTYT?
What would happen if Atsumu touched his bodies?
Is Rintarou also immortal?
What does Sakusa entrust Kita with?
Is Kita human?
Is Atsumu related to Nefertiti?
Thank you for reading~!
my love, take your time