#// thank god you never adopted a girl from a Black Country like you claim to wish to do

[tashawrite]

I just don’t get how you can stare at someone with disgust just because they have curly hair

#tasha speaks. #rant. #negative tw #racism tw #anti black tw #// thank god you never adopted a girl from a Black Country like you claim to wish to do #// your anti blackness would’ve cost more damage than you’re already doing now #// your wish should’ve been to adopt a white kid if you hate curly hair so much and anything to do with black culture

[ofvagabxnds]

( DEWANDA WISE. THIRTY FOUR. FEMALE. SHE/HER. ) in texas, SELENA MARTEL is known to most as LENA. they’ve been living in stratford for 6 YEARS and currently CON ARTIST/GYM OWNER (ATLAS). some say they are EXTRAVAGANT & VINDICTIVE but i’m more inclined to believe those that say they’re LOQUACIOUS & INSIGHTFUL. if you walk by their house, you can sometimes hear TEAR YOU APART by SHE WANTS REVENGE playing from their window. ( haphazardly strewn passports lining the bottoms of drawers, the telling clicks of a stubborn safe lock, half signed adoption records, broken compasses. )

basics

Full Name: Selena Martel

Nickname(s): Lena

Age: 34

Date of Birth: November 10

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio

Place of Birth: Dallas, Texas

Nationality: American

Gender: Female

Sexual Orientation: Bisexual with a preference for women

Romantic Orientation: Homoromantic

Religion: Practicing Bhuddist, but no formal religion

Occupation: Gym Owner; Atlas

Language(s) Spoken: English, Spanish, French, Romanian, Porteguese 

physical appearance

Face Claim: DeWanda Wise 

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Brown

Height: 5’6 or 167 cm

Weight: 128 lbs or 56 kg

personality

Positive Traits: Loquacious, Insightful, Determined, Crafty

Negative Traits: Extravagant, Vindictive, Dishonest, Self Serving

Goals/Desires: Selena is trying to raise her daughter away from all of the chaos she left in her wake. Having conned many influential and dangerous people, she knows their lives are always in danger.

Fears: Someone getting the best of her, losing her daughter, Grasshoppers

Hobbies: Yoga, Kickboxing, Martial Arts

Quirks: Never, ever remembers to throw the milk carton away when it’s empty

Biography

Winifred Banks was born to a relatively normal family on the outskirts of Dallas. She had two sisters and two parents who seemingly adored each other, and from the outside looking in, the public was able to see a family living the American Dream in vivid color. That, of course, wasn't’ the whole truth, so help anyone’s god. Winnie’s mother, Yara, only married her father because she thought she was hitting the jackpot. Ricky Banks was a popular investor, a result from a fluke of a windfall, and Yara was just tenacious enough to make him fall for her so she could pull herself from the gutters. Things were good for a while. The couple married, had their three girls, and they lived in a nice suburban home in the nice part of the city. Yara participated in PTA meetings and gushed over her perfect life right up until federal agents showed up at her door with a warrant to search the entire house. As it turned out, Ricky had been dabbling in touching things that did not belong to him, and after an intensive trial, he ended up spending a little less than five years in a federal lock up. 

Yara and the girls had to move in with her sister’s family a few hours away, and though Winnie and her sisters were relatively taken care of, their mother didn’t leave bed for months. They pieced together enough of what had happened through news outlets and overheard conversations, and though her sister’s were scared, Winnie decided then and there she would never be desperate enough to ruin her family like her father had. In fact, Winnie decided that she would only be taking care of herself from that point on. Her father was released around the time she was starting high school, which meant moving again. As if nothing had happened, the family fell right back into the pattern of keeping up with the Jones’. Yara was back to being the stepford mother and her sisters seemed content to have their lives back. It was only Winnie who questioned it all, and when the cops came knocking again, this time months later, she realized her parents would always be so reckless and desperate in their lives. 

Ricky was in prison again when she graduated, and though she told her mother she was leaving for college, Winnie had other plans. Freshly eighteen and full of a hunger to do more than what she’d been exposed to, she drove west, hitting the highlights and lowlights of each state she passed through, and as the days wound on, she realized her parents hadn’t left her with nothing to go on. The gift of playing a persona to cover her own ass was as easy and natural as breathing, and so in each new place she became a new version of herself. Every lie was gobbled up thanks to her infectious smiles and absolute conviction, and with each story she told, the rewards of her actions grew tenfold, until finally she hit the big jackpot. In a bar fifty miles from the coast the persona that was Winifred Banks officially died to give way to the first opportunity to be someone completely different. She managed to swipe not only his cash and cards, she also managed to pilfer the keys and title to a very sleek sports car that she sold for ten grand less than two hours later. 

And that was how the lies began. 

She began playing on the gullibility each human owned, crafting entire lives catered to a certain job in order to deliver the most damage when she struck. A web of contacts, invaluable wit, and a tenacity hardly matched allowed the nameless woman to get close to people in order to take the very things they valued most. All she had to do was drop the dead weight of a family who did nothing but disappoint her, and with each passing year her abilities grew exponentially. Eventually she grew adept enough to go international, hitting various countries for long enough to do small jobs before she returned home on her falsified documents. She began to think she was unstoppable, an unmovable force to be reckoned with, but as with all things, life had a curveball that stopped her dead in her tracks. Vacationing in the middle americas, she met what she would later refer to as her kryptonite. Though the stakes were higher than they had ever been, it began as any other job. She collected information and crafted the persona of Selena Martel, and with that persona, she seduced her way into the inner folds of a cartel family. 

Though this job started off as any other, one thing was instantly and very obviously different. Selena found herself attracted to the target in more ways than just how big her bank account was, and without even noticing, she found herself growing comfortable in the life she was pretending to built there. Months in she realized she was in over her head, but it was already too late. She loved the other, and the plans they had made became more important than nearly anything else, so when she heard herself suggest they adopt, suggest they start a family, there wasn’t any shock to be had. Only unbridled happiness. 

That, of course, came to a screeching halt months before the adoption was to be finalized. An atrocious act hit too close to home, killing many and injuring even more, and in that moment Selena felt a pang of fear for the family she was building. Just like her parents, her own desperation was putting a child in the way of her own dreams, and though it killed her to leave, leaving was the only option she could think of. So Selena bribed the courts to push the adoption through without the other mother’s signature, and when the baby was placed in her arms, she cleaned out her mark (as was always the plan) and left without looking back. Selena moved back to Texas, finding a small, out of the way town, and with the money she stole, she opened her own business. Though she was smart enough not to put the gym in her current alias, she kept Selena as a name because it was what she signed the adoption papers as and she didn’t want to slip up and lose her daughter. For the most part she’d finished with her con life for now because she’s trying to be a good enough mom to make up for her past, but she can’t help herself from slipping into routine every now and then. 

Tidbits

Selena has been in Newton for 7 years with her daughter.  Her daughter’s name is Mireya (which means miricle), but Selena calls her Mimi Is stinking wealthy bc she stole it all from her ex/last mark She teaches various classes at her gym (yoga, kickboxing, martial arts). Told her daughter and the general public that her partner died.  Loves collecting art. When stressed she eats sweets like crazy.

#rideintros. #selena; bio

[maddie-grove]

Bi-Monthly Reading Round-Up (November/December)

Playlist

“Fallin’ for You” by Sheila Nicholls (The Perilous Gard)

“Come on Over to My Place” by the Drifters (A Gentleman Never Keeps Score)

“Bobby Jean” by Bruce Springsteen (Eleanor and Park)

“Seasons in the Sun” by Terry Jacks (One Perfect Rose)

“A Sailor’s Prayer” by Ann Price and Marilyn Maltzer (Broken Wing)

“Winter Lady” by Leonard Cohen (When a Duchess Says I Do)

“Dance Music” by the Mountain Goats (What Hearts)*

“Sweet Talkin’ Guy” by the Chiffons (Jean and Johnny)

“Know Your Onion!” by the Shins (Lost at Sea)

“The Snake and the Bookworm” by Cliff Richard (Tempting the Bride)

“Everybody Loves Me but You” by Brenda Lee (Someone to Remember)

*I also seriously considered both “I’ll Meet You Halfway” by the Partridge Family and “Sports Analogies” from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. It’s a complex book!

Best of the Bi-Month

The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope (1974): In the late 1550s, grave, awkward Kate Sutton is banished to a remote castle in the east of England. She’s greeted by superstitious locals, shady servants, an often-absent lord, and the lord’s guilt-ridden (and hot) younger brother. Bored and irritated by all the drama, Kate questions the circumstances of the tragedy that haunts the family. I didn’t have high expectations for this book, which I bought primarily for the gorgeous Richard Cuffari illustrations, but I was blown away. Pope creates a sublimely uncanny setting in a surprising way, and Kate is a wonderful protagonist: principled, rational, and compassionate beneath her no-nonsense exterior.

Worst of the Bi-Month

Someone to Remember by Mary Balogh (2019): In her youth, Lady Matilda Westcott rejected Charles Sawyer’s proposal at the urging of her parents, who thought him too wild. Now she’s fifty-six, loved by her extended family but stuck caring for an unappreciative elderly mother. The marriage of her niece and Charles’s estranged illegitimate son brings them together again, but she never expects anything to come of it...like a total fool. This is a cute novella with compelling family dynamics. I also appreciated the solidly middle-aged protagonists, although Balogh presents them a little too timidly, like a mom trying to get a picky eight-year-old to try asparagus.

Rest of the Bi-Month

A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian (2018): Once-popular Hartley Sedgwick is languishing in the huge townhouse his godfather left him, shunned by nearly everyone for his sexuality. Then Sam Fox, a black pugilist-turned-tavern-keeper, tries to sneak into the house to find a nude portrait of an embarrassed friend. Moved by Sam’s decency, Hartley offers his assistance in finding the portrait. As I explained in my post about my favorite Regency romance novels, I adore this book for the way Hartley and Sam’s love story is mirrored and enhanced by portrayals of many other kinds of love, between brothers and friends and parents and children and neighbors and also one very homely dog. 

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (2012): Park, a geeky half-Korean teenager in 1986, keeps his head down and barley avoids outright ostracism in his poor, mostly white Omaha neighborhood. Eleanor, the weird white girl who shares his bus seat, is tormented at school and at home. They have no interest in being friends, but they slowly bond and fall in love over music and comics. What I liked most about this bittersweet YA novel was the ways in which the protagonists improved each other’s lives. With Park and his loving family, Eleanor gets to let down her defenses, while Eleanor’s boldness inspires Park to embrace his differences. I do wish that Park’s side of things had been developed more, however.

One Perfect Rose by Mary Jo Putney (1997): Upon learning that he’s terminally ill, Stephen, the Duke of Ashburton, freaks out and goes on an incognito tour of the English countryside without telling his family. He ends up joining an acting troupe run by the boisterous Fitzgerald family and falling in love with their adopted daughter/stage manager, Rosalind, despite the many reasons they have no future together. (Or do they?) This is a good, old-fashioned weepy romance that’s elevated by Putney’s serious attention to the theme of reconciling with one’s mortality. There’s also some extremely late-1990s New-Age-ish stuff going on, which sometimes felt a little silly but was still charming.

Broken Wing by Judith James (2008): When unconventional countess Sarah finds her long-lost little brother at a Parisian brothel, she’s overjoyed, appalled, and relieved that he was protected by sex worker Gabriel St. Croix. Grateful, she offers Gabriel a reward and insists he come to live with her and her family. This is another tear-jerking, charmingly dated romance; I felt like a teenager again, reading top-shelf angsty fanfiction. It’s best in the slow-burn first half, during which Gabriel must adjust to a massive reversal of fortune after a lifetime of trauma. The more action-packed second half makes great use of the unusual late 1790s/early 1800s setting, but it does feel hurried.

When a Duchess Says I Do by Grace Burrowes (2019): Widowed Matilda Wakefield, the Duchess of Bosendorf, has been on the run since getting mixed up in her diplomat dad’s clandestine activities. An encounter with scholarly Duncan Wentworth lands her a live-in secretarial position at his rural estate. They connect with each other, but how can love grow when they’re the object of multiple sinister plots? While this entry in the Wentworth series is not as incandescently lovely as My One and Only Duke, I’m still a sucker for spooky country houses, responsible-household-management plots, and sad early-middle-aged heroes. Burrowes is also an excellent writer, and I’m glad that I discovered her.

What Hearts by Bruce Brooks (1992): Sensitive Asa excels at school but struggles at home, thanks to his mother’s severe mental illness and his stepfather Dave’s emotional abuse. Divided into four novella-like sections, the novel follows Asa from his parents’ divorce in first grade to his first love in seventh. I liked parts of this weird, sober book when I read it as a kid, and I felt the same this time. It’s got brilliant moments, most involving Asa and Dave’s relationship, but there’s a lot of telling-not-showing in between. Brooks also can’t seem to decide on the time period; it’s probably supposed to be set 1965-1971, but it always feels like 1963, and you can only blame so much of that on the North Carolina setting.

Jean and Johnny by Beverly Cleary (1959): Short, bespectacled, and working-class, fifteen-year-old Jean feels invisible at her high school until handsome upperclassman Johnny Chessler starts paying attention to her. She’s thrilled, but her parents and sister warn against chasing him. I didn’t like this book much in middle school, but I revisited it because it occurred to me that Jean was a lesbian. Having reread it, I know I was wrong on two counts: Jean is unfortunately not a lesbian (she clearly thinks Johnny’s hot), and the book’s not that depressing. Jean’s no sad sack who’s doomed to a life of grimly chaste square dancing; she’s a legit snack who becomes increasingly self-assured and assertive. 

Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O’Malley (2003): Raleigh, a Canadian eighteen-year-old, hitches a ride back home from California with some classmates she hardly knows after a meeting with her long-distance boyfriend ends in heartbreak. Lonely and a little disconnected from reality--she maintains the belief that her mom somehow sold her soul, which now resides in a stray cat--Raleigh slowly makes friends with her travelling companions and finds some piece of mind. Although nothing much happens in this short graphic novel, it’s one of the most authentically just-graduated-high-school stories I’ve ever read. I could relate to those feelings of fear and disappointment even in the face of exciting new possibilities.

Tempting the Bride by Sherry Thomas (2012): David Hillsborough, Lord Hastings, has desired Helena Fitzhugh, first-wave feminist and successful fiction editor, since they were kids together, but he’s always hidden behind insulting remarks. When Helena’s affair with a married man ends in scandal, though, she unhappily accepts David’s offer of marriage in order to cover it up. Then she gets hit by a carriage and loses every memory she formed after her mid-teens, which happens to be when she met David. Thomas always has an engaging style and deals with even outlandish plots in a sophisticated way, and her take on the 13 Going on 30 plot is enjoyable. However, it is rushed at the end.

#theme of the bi-month: oh no he's hot #books #reading

[sterek]

Fav long fics?!

Since I don’t know exactly what long fics are to you, here’s a list of my fave 50k+ fics in no particular order :)

Kaleidoscope by Vendelin [E, 54k]

Stiles spends a year before college working at the all-night coffee shop in town. It’s nice and quiet, until one dark and brooding Derek starts coming in every morning, ordering coffee so strong that it should not be fit for human consumption. Ever. Stiles tries not to be affected by the mystery guy, but it’s not like anything else happens around here, so really, what did you expect? And when he’s already in too deep, he realises he might even be in way over his head…

Safety in Silence by Survivah [M, 66k]

It’s perfectly understandable. Even Derek wouldn’t want to be Derek’s soulmate.

Easy Trouble by Survivah [M, 55k]

Derek+Stiles+fairies = love spell

“Make love to me,” Derek demands.

What.

The Boy and the Beast by Dira Sudis (dsudis) [M, 116k]

In which events in Beacon Hills go rather differently from the start, and a Beauty and the Beast (ish) story ensues. (Scott is not a teacup and no one sings about their feelings.) 

Stand Fast in Your Enchantments by DevilDoll, Rahciach [E, 76k]

“Stiles knew damn well what a pissed-off wolf sounded like, and every hair on the back of his neck was telling him that somewhere in this room was a very pissed-off werewolf.” An AU in which Derek is feral, Stiles is magical, and they eat a lot of fast food.

Trust Fall by Stoney [E, 144k]

Stiles is fairly certain that a case could be made for every bad thing in his life coming back to Peter Hale. This time it’s pissing off a powerful witch, who retaliated by swapping Stiles and Derek a la Freaky Friday, because sure. That makes sense. Um, there are GPAs on the line, not to mention the whole thing where his dad wants to shoot Derek on sight. Except who he sees as Derek is actually Stiles, and Stiles did not sign up for filicide.

Great. Wait…does this mean he’s the Alpha until they figure this out? Holy. Shit.****

Derek had stood in front of the bathroom mirror for a few minutes trying to control the panic as he saw himself as Stiles. As the loud mouthed human friend of the pack. He was going to kill Peter. He was going to kill the witch, then he was going to kill Peter. Maybe even resurrect him again just to kill him all over.

They were going to have to play this cool. They would have to stay calm and focused. Which is of course why the universe threw him into this situation with someone who physically couldn’t be calm and focused.

Of course.

Settle Down by wearing_tearing, whatthehale [E, 153k]

Stiles is a struggling author barely making ends meet.

Derek is a successful architect whose biological clock is ticking.

Enter a surrogacy agency, two packs, and a particularly sticky and toe curling heat week and you get a match made in heaven.

Important Things by suzvoy [M, 71k]

Stiles learns that even with werewolves, giant lizards and psychopathic hunters on the loose, life can still find other ways to screw with you. Case in point: everyone keeps assuming he and Derek are a couple. What the hell?

We Got Something Magic by alisvolatpropiis [E, 50k]

Scott is never bitten, so Stiles never meets Derek or learns about werewolves. He is, however, since a young age, captivated by a recurring dream of a beautiful, red-eyed wolf that he comes to hold dear to his heart. After college, he moves to Seattle and decides to get a tattoo to acknowledge his dream Wolf, finding a lot more than he expected at Triskele Tattoo.

In which Derek is a tattoo artist and a good alpha, Laura is alive, and Stiles and Derek share each other’s dreams.

Prince Among Wolves by tylerfucklin (Zimothy) [E, 101k]

Looking for full day/evening sitter. 2 twin boys age 4. Must have exp. w/werewolves. Must be human. No pedophiles. No teenage girls. Pay negotiable.

Gravity’s Got Nothing on You by zosofi [E, 83k]

“Three weeks,” Derek says.

“Still don’t want to,” Stiles says.

“I’ll pay you,” Derek says, and that… that has Stiles interested. Alf’s Antique’s may be a great job, but it’s not a high-paying job, and half of Stiles’s tuition is coming from financial aid, so…

“How much,” Stiles asks, “are we talking here? Because I know your family, dude. And it’ll be kind of awkward after.“

“My family thinks you’re some sort of fucking gift to the world,” Derek seethes, like he’s jealous, “they’ll probably be pissed at me when we break it off, so don’t worry about that. Five hundred bucks.”

“A thousand,” Stiles says, because screw ethics. Also, the Hale family is loaded. Derek can deal.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation by grimm [E, 118k]

There’s something weird about Beacon Hills that Stiles can’t quite put his finger on. The way everyone in town knows his name the day he arrives. The way they insist the melancholic howling that echoes through the forest every night is just a dog. The way his dad denies getting a dog, even though Stiles comes home to find one sprawled across his bed, some big black thing whose eyes gleam red in the right light. The way that massive oak tree out in the woods vibrates under his touch, pulsing with sickly life.

There’s something weird going on in this town, and Stiles is determined to get to the bottom of it.

Cornerstone by Vendelin [E, 83k]

Suffering from PTSD, ex-Marine Derek Hale moves back to Beacon Hills to open a bookshop and find a calmer life. That’s where he meets Stiles, completely by accident. Stiles is talkative, charming and curious. Somehow, despite the fact that he’s blind, he’s able to read Derek like no one else.

Move A Mountain by ZainClaw [E, 69k]

Stiles goes camping with his friends in New Mexico after graduation where they befriend a biker gang led by Derek: a guy whom Stiles can’t decide if he will be either relieved or devastated to never see again once their week is up.

Stiles’s Story Time by trilliath [E, 125k]

Where Stiles is a librarian who is in charge of the kids’ reading hour and such. And Derek is 6-year-old Scott’s adoptive dad. And Stiles has his own take on Stories and Scott loves wolves and Derek tries not to admit that he likes the way Stiles’s face looks in those glasses.Or something like that.

Enemy Lines by qhuinn (tekla) [E, 149k]

This is the story of werewolf Derek Hale and human Stiles Stilinski: two people who grew up in the same town but completely different worlds, their realities split by the war between men and wolves.

Years later when Derek returns to Beacon Hills, he does it as Alpha of a military pack on a mission to capture those responsible for the region’s resistance. With his main objective, Sheriff Stilinski, out of sight, he settles for the next best thing: his son, Stiles.

Neither of them suspects they’ll need to trust each other if they want to make it out this alive.

Play It Again by metisket [T, 63k]

In which Stiles goes along with one of Derek’s plans and ends up in an alternate universe as a result. He should’ve known better. He did know better, actually, and that means he has no one to blame but himself.

“Laura wants to lure the kid in with food and kindness and make a pet of him, like a feral cat. Derek wants to have him arrested for stalking. They’re at an impasse. (And the rest of the family is staying emphatically out of it in a way that suggests bets have been placed.)”

A Desperate Arrangement by mikkimouse [E, 115k]

“I’m sorry, I believe there’s something wrong with my hearing,” Stiles said. “Because I could have sworn you just told me you set up a betrothal agreement with the Hales. A betrothal agreement involving me. Me.”

Scott smiled his easygoing smile and nodded, which told Stiles no, he hadn’t misheard a damn thing.

After seven years of lengthy negotiations, the treaty between the Hales and the Argents has fallen apart and the two countries fell into war.

Months later, there’s an uneasy truce, thanks to the intervention of King Scott McCall, but it won’t last. In a desperate attempt to maintain the peace, the Hales sign a treaty with the McCalls to marry Prince Derek to Prince Stiles Stilinski, King Scott’s brother.

In the history of the world, there have been many better ideas.

Tiny Houses by ohmyjetsabel [E, 77k]

“So this is what Stiles does. He lies in Scott’s bed and waits for Melissa to say she’s found someone to get it out of him, to cure him of the wrongness and the bad, and he dreams.

God, he dreams.

He dreams of fire and swollen bellies and that scene in Alien, of giving birth to jackals through his urethra, the whole horrific nine yards. His head is a terrible place to be, he can’t imagine his stomach is much better, why anyone would want to put a thing inside of it.”

With or Without You by KouriArashi [T, 62k]

Derek thinks that the mating rituals are overly romanticized bullshit, but claiming a mate and defending them from challengers is something werewolves do, and his pack can’t afford to appear weak after the fire. Especially not when Deucalion and his friends are in town for the rituals. Enter Stiles Stilinski, who offers to let Derek claim him so he won’t be overrun at the ceremonies. Nothing goes as expected.

Specialized Technical Intelligence and Logistics for Earth and Space (S.T.I.L.E.S) by Yiichi [NR, 73k]

“What the hell kind of a name is Stiles?” he asked.

“You know, a series of sounds spoken in a particular sequence that represent my identity, primarily, referring to me?“ the AI – Stiles – answered cheekily, crossing his own arms in front of his chest, mirroring Derek’s position.

“Ooh, this one’s feisty,” Peter smirked.

[Sleep]Walking After You by relenafanel [M, 56k]

Derek is a sleepwalker who keeps wandering into his downstairs neighbour’s bedroom.

Stiles is pretty sure the hot guy from the park is going to kill him in his sleep. He knows he shouldn’t have been so obvious about objectifying the guy’s really fine ass.

Too bad it turns out Derek is easier to get along with when he’s sleeping.

According to Plans by eldee [E, 72k]

Five times Stiles and Derek pretend to be boyfriends, and the one time they didn’t have to pretend at all. (Or: in which Stiles’ plan for senior year is completely ruined by a supernatural creature stalking him.)

There’s Monsters at Home by calrissian18 [E, 83k]

“How did you get past the wards?” Derek had put them up, with Peter’s grudging assistance, after the Alpha pack had made themselves at home a few times too many.

The guy pulled a face. “You mean the wards a five-year-old girl with the mental ability of a goldfish could deconstruct?” He blinked wide eyes at Derek. “Gee, I don’t know. It’s bound to go down as one of life’s great mysteries.”

Derek despised him.

Don’t Speak by fatale [T, 68k]

The Alpha pack has systematically attacked Stiles and his friends for months, testing their strengths and weaknesses. When one of the Alphas goes after Stiles, he awakens in the hospital and realizes that something’s wrong. Very wrong. All sounds seem to hurt him, he can’t understand what anyone is saying, and when he tries to speak, it’s gibberish. How is he supposed to deal with the fact that he’s lost the ability to communicate with his dad and his friends?

Without his ability to talk, his sarcasm, and his wit, what does Stiles even have left? Enter Derek, the only one who seems to make it better.

I Know Where Babies Come From, Derek by DiscontentedWinter [M, 51k]

Stiles finds a baby on the porch.It looks exactly like him.Well, this is awkward.

the broken radio is playing suicide by decideophobia [E, 73k]

Stiles only wishes they could actually be safe. They haven’t been for nine months now.

Little Wild Animal by DiscontentedWinter [E, 61k]

Derek Hale finds a feral human on his pack’s property.Humans are supposed to be extinct.But then, Stiles is full of surprises.

Shot Through The Heart by LunaCanisLupus_22 [E, 64k]

All they’ve given him is the guy’s head shot. And it’s terrible because now he is ridding the world of one more ridiculously attractive, instant pants dropping- take me now, if you please- regulation hottie.

Even if he has a scowl to rival Kristen Stewart.

Or the one when Stiles and Derek work for rival assassin companies and are sent to kill each other. It definitely doesn’t go as planned.

Sell Your Body to the Night by Dira Sudis (dsudis) [E, 121k]

“No,” he repeated impatiently. “I’m not a cop. I’m someone who wants to exchange my money for your sexual services. I was told you were in that line of work.”

“I, uh, yeah, sorry,” Stiles said. He glanced around again and then up–the full moon was almost directly overhead. Just one of those nights, maybe. “Yeah, I am. I do that.”

a mountain to climb by grimm [E, 126k]

“Don’t do it,” he mutters. “Don’t do it, please, don’t do it.”

But there it is, a soft pink line appearing right next to the control. Stiles’ legs give out from under him; he sinks to the bathroom floor, hands shaking, his entire body shaking. It’s hard to breathe, his vision blurring around the edges. There’s a knock on the door behind him and then it opens and Scott sits down next to him.

“I’m fucked,” Stiles gasps, tears prickling at his eyes. “I’m fucked!”

here comes trouble by grimm [E, 105k]

All Derek wants is one day where he can sleep without worry of being woken by gunfire, without the threat of death hanging over his head. He wants a full stomach and no pain clinging to his bones, no ache in his feet from months of running. He wants a shower, a safe place to put his head. He wants his family, the healing comfort of pack. He’ll never have any of that again.

A Devotion by TroubleIWant [M, 77k]

There’s a boy exiting the doors as they approach. Where Derek is tan from hours outside, the boy is pale except for a few beauty marks on one cheek. He’s dressed in fine riding clothes, and flanked by a guard wearing the sign of the royal house. A noble, then. He’s younger than Derek, but, considering his higher station, a bow would be appropriate. Despite that, Derek can’t help looking curiously at the boy, who’s looking back at Derek with just as much interest. For a moment, their eyes meet - the boy’s are a deep amber in the sunlit courtyard, ringed by long, tawny lashes.

A gloved hand smacks the back of Derek’s head and he instinctively flinches away, hunching his shoulders. He loses track of the other boy as they pass one another, and as he turns to get another look, the knight grabs his shoulder and marches him forward into the stable.

“Keep your eyes to yourself,” the knight instructs. “And next time, show the proper respect to Crown Prince Stiles.”

Or: A medieval AU that’s a little Princess Bride, a little bit more Game of Thrones, and a healthy side-serving of gay erotica.

Kindred Spirits by Stoney [E, 104k]

Stiles is the adopted son of the Sheriff, brought to Beacon Hills to hopefully stay for good. A family, a best friend, school, Jackson as Josie Pye (because who else could he be?) and the mystery of a dark haired, green-eyed boy which leads Stiles to discovering a secret within himself.

The Circus at the End of the World by mikkimouse [E, 91k]

Three hundred years ago, the world ended not with a bang or a whimper, but with magic.

Since then, magic has been outlawed, and the world has clawed its way back to some kind of stability, with people and shifters alike divided between living within the walled safety of the Havens, or the small, less protected outposts dotting the frontier.

Derek Hale and his sisters, Laura and Cora, are the proprietors of Hale’s Circus of Magic, Monsters, and Mystical Wonders, known colloquially as the Circus at the End of the World. They and their ragtag pack ride the rails between the outposts and the Havens, performing for those who can pay (and some who can’t). Their circus is a small haven in and of itself, a place of safety for those who have nowhere else to go.

It’s a quiet life…until Stiles Stilinski joins the crew.

The circus has something Stiles needs—a ticket into the Haven of Santa Francesca. His father has been abducted, and Stiles is determined to get him back no matter what he has to do.

But Stiles has another secret, one that puts him and every member of the circus in danger. And if he’s not careful, it could get them all killed.

Pack Wars by miss_aphelion [M, 158k]

Scott liked to call it the Great Pack Divide of 2012.

Derek liked to call Scott an idiot.

(Or the one where Derek kidnaps Stiles to teach Scott a lesson, and ends up learning a few things himself)

(Sacred) In the Ordinary by idyll [E, 78k]

The Pack, after college, graduate school and the starting of careers, comes back to Beacon Hills. Nothing’s gotten less complicated after all this time.

Based on a kink meme prompt that grew legs and got serious.

Note: This is a whole lot of pack!fic with a very slow build Derek/Stiles.

In Other Words, Baby, Kiss Me by primroseshows [E, 61k]

Stiles has simple goals in life. To successfully complete his secret radar project without getting fired, to get a cottage on the Moon, and to untangle his mess of feelings for Moon Station 3 deputy, Derek Hale. Heck, he’ll even settle for two of the three.

Hunger by DiscontentedWinter [M, 55k]

Beacon Hills.Two lost souls.A homeless boy, a lone wolf, and people who will stop at nothing to destroy them both.

Put Down in Words by paintedrecs [M, 203k]

“Oh,” Stiles said, his voice coming out low and breathy, “fuck me.”

“I don’t think that’s on the syllabus, but we can check to see if there’s a spot open in any of his classes,” Scott said, grinning.

“This isn’t an actual professor, though,” Stiles insisted, unable to resist brushing his thumb over the sharp line of the man’s bearded jaw. He was laughing at something off-camera, the shot taken in three-quarters view, his coat collar casually rumpled and opened to reveal a sliver of a simple grey t-shirt. The whole thing was deliberately calculated to lend him a more accessible feel, and god help him, Stiles was falling for it.

*

When Stiles signed up for Dr. Hale’s intro to history class, he had two goals: knock out the credits his advisor was bugging him to complete before he graduated, and spend a few hours a week daydreaming about his sexy professor’s salt and pepper beard.

Derek, a few months away from turning forty and not sure when his life had started feeling so damn lonely, had never encountered someone like Stiles before. Bright-eyed, sharp-tongued, determined to throw Derek’s carefully cultivated world into disarray…and absolutely the last person Derek should be falling in love with.

The Fox & The Wolf by Dexterous_Sinistrous [E, 79k]

The war between the fox and wolf clans has raged for centuries, ignited in a time before anyone can remember. Now both clans—tired of the bloodshed and hate—are searching for a way to end the war.

Crowned prince Stiles Stilinski—heir to the fox clan—has agreed with his father to meet with the Hales, the ruling royal family over the wolf clan. Under the counseling of the Druids, both clans are presented with a solution to the war: unite the Stilinski and Hale clans through marriage. To quell their people’s anger, both Stiles and Derek—eldest living Hale Alpha—are urged to accept the other as an equal; as their mate.

For the sake of their people, both houses make the ultimate sacrifice by choosing duty over love. But, out of what was first assumed to be compromised, quickly turns to be a better match than either could have hoped for. But not all is easy for either clan, as some members refuse to believe that the war could end so easily.

One life stand by Vendelin [E, 84k]

Stiles is used to selling himself to make ends meet. But it’s getting harder to keep those ends meeting, and there’s only so much of Stiles to go around. Until a too-fancy car shows up in his neighborhood, and he meets Derek Hale.

All Derek wants is Stiles’s time, someone to stay on his arm for events and smile for the cameras. It’s the easiest job Stiles has ever had, the best-paying one he’s ever had, and he’s more than happy to sign up.

Derek is everything and nothing Stiles expects him to be, with his tailored suits, sharp mind and his quiet way of caring. But it’s just a job and Stiles never meant to fall in love.

No Homo by RemainNameless [E, 84k]

Stiles’ sophomore year starts something like this:3 FourLokos+ 1 peer-pressuring cat- 1 best bro to end all best bros= 1 Craigslist ad headline that reads “str8 dude - m4m - strictly platonic”.Derek is the fool who replies.

Cross our bridges when we come to them by RemainNameless [M, 103k]

The five times Derek called the Sheriff “Dad” on accident and the first time he did it on purpose.

#asks #Anonymous #sterek #eternalsterek #rec list

[aion-rsa]

Top New Young Adult Books in February 2021

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The young adult genre is still booming, providing romance, adventure, and more for teens and adults alike. Here are some of the YA books from February 2021 we’re most looking forward to or are currently consuming…

Top New Young Adult Books February 2021

The Project by Courtney Summers

Type: Novel Publisher: Wednesday Books Release date: Feb. 2 Den of Geek says: This critically-acclaimed thriller has won praise for lush writing and thrills. An exploration of power and sisterhood in the shadow of a cult no one believes is a cult, it sounds chilling and thorny in the best way. Publisher’s summary: Lo Denham is used to being on her own. After her parents died, Lo’s sister, Bea, joined The Unity Project, leaving Lo in the care of their great aunt. Thanks to its extensive charitable work and community outreach, The Unity Project has won the hearts and minds of most in the Upstate New York region, but Lo knows there’s more to the group than meets the eye. She’s spent the last six years of her life trying―and failing―to prove it.

“The Unity Project murdered my son.”

When a man shows up at the magazine Lo works for claiming The Unity Project killed his son, Lo sees the perfect opportunity to expose the group and reunite with Bea once and for all. When her investigation puts her in the direct path of its charismatic and mysterious leader, Lev Warren, he proposes a deal: if she can prove the worst of her suspicions about The Unity Project, she may expose them. If she can’t, she must finally leave them alone.

But as Lo delves deeper into The Project, the lives of its members, and spends more time with Lev, it upends everything she thought she knew about her sister, herself, cults, and the world around her―to the point she can no longer tell what’s real or true. Lo never thought she could afford to believe in Lev Warren . . . but now she doesn’t know if she can afford not to. Buy The Project by Courtney Summers.

This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria

Type: Novel Publisher: Inkyard Press Release date: Feb. 2

Den of Geek says: Asexual protagonists in fiction are becoming more common (and have existed for decades at least), but it’s always refreshing to see another one. And the steampunk-esque world building in this fantasy adventure promises robots and a mystery that combines science fiction and fantasy politics. Publisher’s summary: Orphaned and forced to serve her country’s ruling group of scribes, Karis wants nothing more than to find her brother, long ago shipped away. But family bonds don’t matter to the Scriptorium, whose sole focus is unlocking the magic of an ancient automaton army.

In her search for her brother, Karis does the seemingly impossible―she awakens a hidden automaton. Intelligent, with a conscience of his own, Alix has no idea why he was made. Or why his father―their nation’s greatest traitor―once tried to destroy the automatons.

Suddenly, the Scriptorium isn’t just trying to control Karis; it’s hunting her. Together with Alix, Karis must find her brother…and the secret that’s held her country in its power for centuries.

This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria.

The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold

Type: Novel Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers Release date: Feb. 9 Den of Geek says: A Station Eleven reference goes a long way. The plague or zombie element might be rote, but the mention of a magical portal and some weirder things make this an intriguing mash-up of ideas. Publisher’s summary: When a deadly Fly Flu sweeps the globe, it leaves a shell of the world that once was. Among the survivors are eighteen-year-old Nico and her dog, on a voyage devised by Nico’s father to find a mythical portal; a young artist named Kit, raised in an old abandoned cinema; and the enigmatic Deliverer, who lives Life after Life in an attempt to put the world back together. As swarms of infected Flies roam the earth, these few survivors navigate the woods of post-apocalyptic New England, meeting others along the way, each on their own quest to find life and love in a world gone dark. The Electric Kingdom is a sweeping exploration of art, storytelling, eternal life, and above all, a testament to the notion that even in an exterminated world, one person might find beauty in another.

The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold.

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

Type: Novel Publisher: Delacorte Press Release date: Feb. 9 Den of Geek says: It’s hard to resist a good call to adventure or chosen warrior, and Deka’s story will bring that particular fantasy for Black girls and everyone else. High praise and that gorgeous cover suggest this one might be good for fans of dystopian YA who are also ready to go on an adventure like Marvel’s Black Panther. Publisher’s summary: Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.

But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity–and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.

Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki–near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat.

Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she’s ever known. But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be–not even Deka herself. Buy The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna.

Top New Young Adult Books January 2021

You Have a Match: A Novel by Emma Lord

Type: Novel Publisher: Wednesday Books Release date: Jan. 12

Den of Geek says: Theres something quintessentially charming about summer camp stories, where kids trade their day-to-day for the wilderness. But this protagonist can’t escape everything at camp, and she’ll need the help of her sister to figure out the story of more than one family.

Publisher’s Summary: When Abby signs up for a DNA service, it’s mainly to give her friend and secret love interest, Leo, a nudge. After all, she knows who she is already: Avid photographer. Injury-prone tree climber. Best friend to Leo and Connie…although ever since the B.E.I. (Big Embarrassing Incident) with Leo, things have been awkward on that front.

But she didn’t know she’s a younger sister.

When the DNA service reveals Abby has a secret sister, shimmery-haired Instagram star Savannah Tully, it’s hard to believe they’re from the same planet, never mind the same parents — especially considering Savannah, queen of green smoothies, is only a year and a half older than Abby herself.

The logical course of action? Meet up at summer camp (obviously) and figure out why Abby’s parents gave Savvy up for adoption. But there are complications: Savvy is a rigid rule-follower and total narc. Leo is the camp’s co-chef, putting Abby’s growing feelings for him on blast. And her parents have a secret that threatens to unravel everything.

But part of life is showing up, leaning in, and learning to fit all your awkward pieces together. Because sometimes, the hardest things can also be the best ones. 

Buy You Have a Match: A Novel by Emma Lord.

Lore by Alexandra Bracken

Type: Novel Publisher: Disney-Hyperion Release date: Jan. 5, 2021 Den of Geek says: A twist on Greek mythology from an accomplished author promises creative world-building and fantasy adventure. Publisher’s summary: Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality. 

Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family’s sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt’s promises of eternal glory. For years she’s pushed away any thought of revenge against the man–now a god–responsible for their deaths.

Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek out her help: Castor, a childhood friend of Lore believed long dead, and a gravely wounded Athena, among the last of the original gods.

The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and, at last, a way for Lore to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore’s decision to bind her fate to Athena’s and rejoin the hunt will come at a deadly cost–and still may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.

Buy Lore by Alexandra Bracken.

Siege of Rage and Ruin by Django Wexler

Type: Novel Publisher: Tor Teen Release date: Jan. 5, 2021 Den of Geek says: This month’s high fantasy installment is the finale in a popular series, and one that makes us want to see how the characters arrived and where they go from here. Ghost ships! Mind control!  Publisher’s Summary: Isoka has done the impossible―she’s captured the ghost ship Soliton.

With her crew of mage-bloods, including the love of her life Princess Meroe, Isoka returns to the empire that sent her on her deadly mission. She’s ready to hand over the ghost ship as ransom for her sister Tori’s life, but arrives to find her home city under siege. And Tori at the helm of a rebellion.

Neither Isoka’s mastery of combat magic, nor Tori’s proficiency with mind control, could have prepared them for the feelings their reunion surfaces. But they’re soon drawn back into the rebels’ fight to free the city that almost killed them.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Buy Siege of Rage and Ruin by Django Wexler.

The post Top New Young Adult Books in February 2021 appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[byakuyasbastardson]

Some thoughts

Earlier I posted earlier that I felt very uncomfortable with a Christian prayer being said in the Senate chamber, even though I myself am Catholic. All day it has been eating at me as to why I was so uncomfortable, and really it was not the prayer but the invoking of Christ's name in that sacred hallowed hall. I want to share why.

America...as many, including friends, colleagues, family, across the country would argue otherwise is not a Christian nation. We are a nation founded on Christian ideals, beliefs, and notions. The founding fathers were very explicit that they wanted a secular state because this very country was founded on those fleeing religious persecution. From the Catholics in Massachusetts, Maryland and Rhode Island, Quakers in Pennsylvania, Jews in New Amsterdam (New York) and Rhode Island, and German Lutherans to Pennsylvania many fled persecutions to create a better life here. As such when this country was founded the very words were written into our Deceleration of Independence and later our Constitution. When they talked about the unalienable rights of man, they said those rights were bestowed upon man by their "Creator". They deliberately did not use the word "God" or "Jesus" though in this case as Islam had not reached the shores of America, the religions of the far East were only just being studied and attempted to be squashed, and those of the slaves and natives were being squashed, it really was meaning God. But they did not use his name because they knew of those that believed in other creators or no creators. Next in our Constitution in the very first Amendment they wrote the Freedom of religion, but they also meant Freedom from Religion. They meant that all men could practice any religion they see fit, and Congress nor any part of the government can create or pass a law that aids or harms a religion. It is why most states have laws that public scholarship funds cannot be used at religious schools due to that most private schools are Christian and thus it creates an appearance of favor. But the founders wrote this language because they saw what happens when a country ties itself to a religious institute. They saw it with Spain, Italy, France being Catholic and somewhat subservient to the whims and the Papal State they saw England and the Church of England, and they saw the Muslim countries of the Ottoman empire and Sunni states in Northern Africa. When a country links itself to a religion the needs and interests of the citizenry take a back seat.

 What I have said does not mean that America cannot use Christian beliefs to help guide our path and policy makings on the contrary as stated we were founded on Christian ideals, beliefs, and notions. Those are that of Compassion, of Generosity, of Kindness, of Humility, of Love, and Forgiveness. It is why America has long been viewed as salvation to the world. It is why we were gifted the Statue of Liberty with those sacred words “Give us your tired, your sick, your poor”, it is why we have been called the greatest experiment in democracy, and why Reagan called us the “Shining City on the Hill”. But as we have continued as a country we have perverted and ravaged these ideals and changed them. We have perverted Compassion with Apathy, we have soiled Generosity with Selfishness, we have poisoned Kindness with Cruelty, swapped Humility with Boastfulness, tortured Love with Hate, and bludgeoned Forgiveness with Revenge. This has poisoned our country and our politics; it is why we are divided and there is so much hatred towards our brothers and sisters. Families are being destroyed because a father and son fall on different sides of the political aisle. Because a daughter has the courage to come out as gay to her religiously conservative family. In the past it was more of the same but also involved loving someone of a different race...who am I kidding it isn’t the past. Have you ever had a great aunt ask your own mother if she is “ok” with you dating a girl of African decent (half) and when you mother says yes and asks why, she responds with; “Oh honey down here we don’t mix”? I have. Everyone has heard stories like this, from my example, a friend who was disowned by their father for believing in something the other didn’t, or a friend who works up the courage to inform her parents she has a girlfriend but doesn’t know how they will react. From the earliest times of this country to up until recent past if a Black and a White wanted to marry it was called an Abomination before God, many souls lost their lives because they dared to marry a white woman. After that we still heard the same argument but this time involving homosexuals and others of that community, that their love for one another is an Abomination before God. When it was about race it was mostly the Democrats calling it this, now we add in homosexuals and it is the Republicans.

 Democrats and Republicans, that’s where we are at now, one side is Right and Just and the other side is Evil. We have divided ourselves and will thus ruin ourselves, but how I see it one side wants to undo the damage to our Christian ideals we were founded on while keeping God and Jesus where they should be in the hearts and minds of people and not in our government, while the other side desires to keep it how it is while bring God more into the forefront of our nation. I’m not arguing that it’s all or none, but it’s the vocal minority that has made themselves the majority in our government. On the “Left” we have those representing us saying let us take in the tired, the sick, the poor. Let us work to give them and all people access to cheaper and free Medicare so they can live and work and create a better life, let us give young people easier opportunities like we had to go to school and learn, then go out and get better jobs. Let us tax those who have plenty a little more so that we can help those who have little. Let us broaden the availability for persons to participate in our most sacred duty of voting to keep this experiment alive. Let us allow people to love who they love and or change who they are so they can be happy. But in order to keep all people free we must put God in the background as our founders did when it comes to governing.

On the “Right” it is the exact opposite. They say “Let us bring in people, but only if they are smart enough, rich enough, healthy enough” They want the privatization of our medical system claiming it will be cheaper, but we see time and time again that it is not. We have diabetics skipping lifesaving insulin shots because they don’t know if they can afford the next one. We have people pushing off urgent medical care because they fear losing everything in medical costs. We have apathy to the young struggling to get by due to rising educational costs and when they cry out they are told to suck it up, that our fathers and mothers were able to pay for it on a part time job over summer, which is impossible when textbooks have risen 1000% since 1977, tuition has risen 260% since 1980 as of 2015, while the minimum wage (adjusted for inflation)is 31% less than it was in 1968. They have a President who implemented restrictions for green cards on those who use public services like Medicare and food stamps. A President who is putting travel restrictions on pregnant women coming to this country because he fears what…babies being born here thus allowing those Parents to live here and make a better life for themselves. This is a party that fears and seemingly hates those of other religions. Where their President puts forth a travel ban on Muslims trying to enter this country because he views them as dangerous, where he praises a fake story of a famous US General having his men shot Muslims with bullets dipped in Pigs blood, where when a Muslim man and vice-chair of his counties GOP had members attempt to oust him due to his religion. Where this President has had supporters torch synagogues and mosques in his name. We created this hatred and desire for revenge due to 18 individuals killing 3000 Americans, yet we never punished the country they came from, but seemingly all 1.8billion of them are bad Where a supporter of his and Pastor called the Impeachment a “Jew Coup”. This is a party that looks down on the poor, looks down on the sick, yet praises war and worships money all they while throwing Gods name around. They constantly want to cut programs designed to help the poor and sick all they while increasing the budget for war, a thing that only makes people por and sick except for a few that profit on it. They give massive tax cuts to the rich while increasing them on the poor claiming it will all work out, but it doesn’t. They worship the strength of our economy(money) yet 48% of Americans don’t benefit from it, and the 52% that do, only a fraction really does. They tell others to be thankful for what they have all the while they themselves own multiple houses and fancy cars, they ask if the poor are so poor why do they have fridges, cars, iphones. They refuse to increase the minimum wage which would help those being poor not be poor all the while increasing their own salaries. Where this party passes bills that will become laws trying to restrict Gays from getting married in the civil aspect because it is a perceived abomination against god. Bills that allow religious based orphanages to refuse LGBTQ+ families form adopting children there because they feel keeping them there is better than a loving functioning “Gay house”. Bills that will imprison doctors for offering medical services to transgender youth. All of this has happened only in the last handful of years, when the changes really became apparent. And yet, they do all of this while claiming every Presidential leader was chosen specifically by God to lead this nation yet when it’s a Democrat, they are mute.

I think that’s enough of that, I am not writing this to argue Republicans are evil, just that they and this nation has strayed away form the Christian ideal our forefathers set forth. I believe in this country and that means in Republicans, it’s a gross perverted minority that has risen confusing the word of Jesus with anything but. Growing up I only attended Christian schools, first a Catholic one, and then later a Lutheran one until High School. It was not until I went to the Lutheran school when I started to think and question my faith. Not because I lacked it, but I wanted to understand what I was being taught, what I believed in…what Jesus’ love meant to me. Being a Catholic at a Lutheran school meant for most of my time there I was the only Catholic in class, which meant, on occasion I was felt I was singled out for my faith, mostly positively. My brothers and sisters in Christ were curious about how a Catholic worships, when I traveled with some to Italy they bombarded me with Questions, in 6th grade we learned about the reformation and my teacher constantly asked me questions…not just to ensure I was paying attention, but mostly to ensure he got the information correct. But on some rare occasions I did feel the negativity of it. I was never bullied for it, but comments here and there and viewpoints that I wasn’t a true Christian because I held onto the “old ways”, or why I called myself a Catholic if my family didn’t follow the “rule” of no meat on Fridays during lent. So I started asking myself questions about this faith and reading into it not just the theological side but the historical side and I saw how this country has changed and fallen, then I realized we failed from the beginning. We call for the poor to come here but we hate the poor. First it was the Irish, then it was the Eastern Europeans, then it was the Chinese, then the Hispanics, then the Japanese, and now seemingly everyone. We hate everyone that isn’t us, we fear everyone that isn’t us, we horde materialistic things, and I am guilty of this too. It is not because we have taken “Jesus” out of schools, it is because we have twisted his words and used them for hate and selfish gains.

John 13:34-35 (NIV) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Do we do this? No, we do not we hate one another and only love those who are like us.

Mark 12:41-44 “Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you; this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” All too often you hear how much the rich have given to charity, but in the end, it is a small amount that they will take off their taxes thus paying less money. In my time alive I have seen it is the poor that are far more generous and willing to help because they know what it is like to be poor, yet those that were poor and are now rich are not as generous because they have the mentality of why they should help the poor? They were once poor and brought themselves out so surely anyone can do it.

Please do not think I am trying to lecture any of you on your faith. I am not, I am the last person to do that. My brother got married this past week, in a Catholic church, and that truly was the first time I had been in a church and sat down for a service in about 6 years. In my time thinking about what Jesus’ love means to me, I have found issues with my religion I do not agree with, which is why I have stayed away, but I do not falter in my faith, I do not falter in my pride and belief that I am Catholic. I do not fault you for asking “How…how can I still be Catholic if I do not think Homosexuality is a sin?” “How can I be Catholic or even Christian if I believe that a woman should have a right to an abortion?” There are many other questions that go with this and the answer is I have my faith and I am waiting. In my faith our leader the Holy Pope Francis is slowly changing the viewpoint on Catholicism, in recent years he said that you do not need to believe in Jesus to be granted access to God’s kingdom if you lived a good life. Which is a start.

So, to get back to why I felt so uncomfortable, it’s because 1. We are supposed to keep religion and government separate to properly work for all Americans, but more importantly 2. also because of how far I see we as a nation have strayed from these Christian beliefs (that are taught in all other religions). How we have perverted them, especially it seems one party. I love this country, I love my faith, and I pray that soon very very soon we can work to get back to these ideals. Only then can America be great.

#america #religion #thoughts #impeachment

[how2to18]

IN FOX SEASON: AND OTHER SHORT STORIES, her debut collection, Agnieszka Dale exhibits a knack for opening lines. They are sometimes titillating: “For sex with Manolo, Bianca went to the Vatican Gardens” (“One Less Button”); sometimes scatological: “Shit came by the house, unannounced, like a bomb” (“A Shit Story”); and sometimes troubling: “It was Christmas, which should have made it easier to do the killing” (“The Christmas Pig”). The best, such as that from the wonderfully captivating story “Hello Poland,” combine character, imagery, and conflict in one tightly worded package: “On the way up the escalator, a Warsaw escalator, breathing Warsaw air, Jan sees women’s buttocks.” In that one sentence, we not only get a sense that Jan is slightly overwhelmed by his surroundings, but also a sense of his personal drivers. And yet, despite the narrator’s repeated references to his healthy libido, Jan is not entirely lecherous. The story, like so many in this collection, is more serious than it first appears.

Besides studying the posteriors of the women around him, Jan studies their faces. He has returned to his homeland after a lengthy absence, hoping to find his daughter, Poland, who went missing when she was still a child:

He wants to see her, he wants to find her, now. But there are only women here, just women. He imagines women as girls. Each woman as a girl in a pink coat. A girl called Poland. Like a country. A lost country, his lost girl.

In those few lines we start to develop what will be, by the end of the story, a deep sympathy for Jan, who has been exiled for half his life, yearning for the daughter he left behind.

Very quickly, though, we begin to question what Jan’s reality is, for what at first seems familiar territory — our reality — quickly begins to reshape itself into something altogether more unsettling. We learn that Jan, who has been exiled since the final days of General Jaruzelski’s rule in the 1980s, is 180 years old. With that one discovery, tensions begin to rise.

Returning home after many years’ absence, Jan views the changes that have taken place with a stranger’s eye. This new Warsaw is far cleaner than he remembers and, thanks to the User Experience regime that governs every aspect of life, it is far safer, too. With added vitamins and amino acids, even the cigarettes are healthy. Of course, we soon come to feel that this seemingly benign regime, where every action is user-tested and -retested, and every reaction is analyzed, is every bit as authoritarian as Jaruzelski’s. Something dark seems to lurk beneath the shiny surface.

Jan’s anxiety, too, is made palpable as he considers what fate might have befallen his daughter. By fleeing across the border into exile, he has failed to protect her these long years. The guilt and the longing have never left him:

God, this feeling again, of panic, of anger, in his stomach and then deeper than the stomach, the black hole inside his stomach. The endless universe of his stomach which can’t get tense, it just can’t, because his stomach is not an organ anymore, it’s just this vast emptiness, with his daughter inside, like he’s devoured her over the past decades, with his endless worry about her, her absence, or her undefined presence, somewhere. His daughter is now this little stone, it seems, rotating in his stomach, around the orbit of the stomach’s lining. He always feels her.

Jan is not the only character in Fox Season to be troubled by deep angst. In fact, if there is one overriding sense that fills the pages of this book, it is this. Anxiety washes over Dale’s characters like a tsunami. There is anxiety of the domestic kind, concerning children and parents and partners; anxiety about war and the possibility of war; anxiety about immigrants; and anxiety about deportation. Dale, whose formative years spanned Poland’s transition from communism under General Jaruzelski to democracy with Lech Wałęsa, immigrated to Britain in 2003, shortly before Poland joined the European Union. As both a Polish national during those turbulent early years and a Polish immigrant during these, it comes as no surprise that her art is one of tension. She has passed on her own little worry stones to her characters.

In “A Happy Nation,” written as a first-person monologue, a Polish immigrant to Britain receives a late-night visit from an immigration officer. The narrator addresses the officer with wry humor and quickly turns the tables, interrogating him much more effectively than he interrogates her. While her voice remains subdued, however, her concerns are clear. Again, the opening lines deftly hint at the narrator’s fears and at a larger, unspoken story: “I don’t believe this is an emergency for Great Britain, officer. It’s just a crisis, you know, a little crisis. […] It’s just an inconvenience.”

“A Happy Nation” is a response to Brexit, Britain’s decision to take control of its borders and leave the EU, which has left many European immigrants feeling insecure about their future. The unnamed narrator has lived in Britain for many years. She is married to a Brit, and her children are also British. By all accounts, she is fully assimilated and could easily, if she put on the accent, pass for British herself. But it is this ability to “pass,” she deduces, that is the real problem. “You can no longer tell me from the Others,” she challenges the officer, adding, “I could be White Other, or I could just be white.”

Along with the standard categories of “White” listed on job applications and census forms in the United Kingdom (English/Welsh/Northern Irish/Scottish), there is a tick box labelled “any other White background,” often shortened to “White Other.” It’s a box that seems specifically designed to minoritize those who choose it and to engender feelings of displacement. Like the United States, though, Britain has always been a nation of immigrants. As well as immigrants from former colonies, predominantly people of color, the country has had immigration from Europe for over a thousand years. By the second generation, it is almost impossible to distinguish these paler-hued immigrants from “indigenous Brits.” Having found the true reason for the nation’s concern, the narrator continues probing the officer:

[W]hat if I am actually a little better than you? Not much, just a little. A little cleverer. Funnier. Prettier. More organised. Not much. Just that tiny bit. Yes, it must feel like I am keeping you on your toes.

If immigrants prove to be “that tiny bit” cleverer — as is often the case — then the natives would be forced to up their game, “to become greater than great,” or risk being superseded.

By the end of the story, the narrator’s anxiety has gotten the better of her. She has talked almost non-stop, as nervous people often do, but now she is reconsidering her position. She has spotted the gun, poorly concealed beneath the immigration officer’s coat — which is, in turn, a sign of his anxiety, and also that of the nation. In an ironic twist, she recognizes the Slavic origins of the officer’s name, and sees that he has become White British, a status that he is willing to protect.

At barely a page in length, “What We Should Feel Now” is by far the shortest story in the collection, but the unease it exudes is not lessened by its brevity.

“Do you not like me here?” I ask the shopkeepers, doctors, policemen, politicians, and friends.

“Of course, don’t be silly. We love you. You are like us, you are part of us, you know. Always have. Always will.”

But the narrator, anxious to be accepted, is not so sure people are telling her the truth, imploring them to “[t]ell me how I’m like you.”

As in most of stories in this collection, there is a deep uncertainty about the future here, shown through others’ attempts to reassure the narrator she is welcome, and by the narrator’s claims that she is impervious to some unstated but troubling incident that has happened before the story begins: “We don’t feel love right now, but we shake hands. We’ll get through this, you say. We’ll just get on with it. I say it too.”

The stories in this impressive debut collection are often quite odd — generally in a good way — with peculiar and perplexing endings that demand a second reading. At times, they are both humorous and poignant; at others, as wars and rumors of wars ride the darker undercurrents, they seem disturbingly portentous. Dale’s perspective as an “Other” allows her to depict her adopted home in vivid and unfamiliar ways. It is, above all, the anxiety she expresses about our shared future that makes the biggest impact on the reader and keeps her stories — which begin so strikingly — alive beyond their final lines.

¤

Loree L. Westron is an American writer, educator, and reviewer, living on the south coast of the United Kingdom. Her work has appeared in publications including The London Magazine, Western American Literature, and Short Fiction in Theory and Practice.

The post “Do You Not Like Me Here?”: On Agnieszka Dale’s “Fox Season: and Other Short Stories” and Immigration Anxiety in Britain appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

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Reading Makes A Country Great MY PET GOAT Emergency 911 The Terror War begins Ignorance is Bliss stand Proud and United rally around the Flag cross your heart swear to Sacrifice thank the least among you for their military home invasion mass murder Service keeping Authority placated rock the Vote respect the Law and State's Finest army of police who serve and protect them, Respect the Honor and Authority of the blind justice arbitrated by ritual black robed Judges and the prejudiced juries of peers any skilled Liar can persuade to Verdict The educated are educated to Accept The Free are not Brave enough to Resist Swear to tell the Truth so help you God is an Obscenity and offensive to a populace bursting with the enlightenment of Science, the premise that Flesh is the Origin of Species and Intelligence a side effect of gas Love thy Leader Hate thy neighbor Kill and chain thy neighbor Earn your Keep Pay your Taxes Death is certain It is not the size of the horn but how it's used that betrays best gets praised for elite public service Performance How fortunate it is for leaders that men do not think, Hitler intimated, forthcoming as any candidate for Office who smiles kissing maggot babies and shaking fools hands telling each in line thanks for their support couldn't do this without them Hell hides behind details and simpering political correctness, kind words expressing best intentions the enemies of which are branded crazy and evil and dealt with. How fortunate men do not think. Lest leaders and the Hell they maintain be naked by Light of the Truth. You can handle the Truth. You can be brave and free. It's these so called elite who can't. Never ask what they can do for you or you for them. Don't give up your food stamps just yet they trade for drugs just don't Serve them, Loyalty to them is so universal I am ignored and insulted. In Contempt. That's the price of Love. Let's change that. Perception is reality is their constant refrain. It is not. Reality is this fraction of a single percent of the population is a basket of deplorables in perpetual conspiracy to violate and ruin every human being on Earth. It's shocking and horrific but people can handle the Truth. Here is Wisdom: Had a customer tonight guy in his sixties cropped back hair going gray one of those Freddy Mercury mustaches adopted by law enforcement to remind everyone they're tops cocksuckers not pigs bc pigs don't have mustaches. he was wearing a black tshirt and jeans, never seen him before, recognize most of the customers, we have the same regulars rotating through for the most part. He came in right after I did, like my second grill order after clocking in. Gave me the stinkeye, and instead of going to sit in the dining room until his order was called he stayed in the lobby, got behind the Pepsi ketchup fridge by register, from the nose up visible over the fridgetop. I was on second flip before I noticed him again, glaring at me still. Eye contact, rage in his eyes. Made his burgers to perfection, ignoring him but for sidelong peeks to see if he still there; he was still there looking pissed off. I strongly suspect him to have been involved with lie enforcement, that or ive got one of those faces brings out the hate in frustrated Dom bondage specialists. kept my face expressionless, sent the burgers out and he left not long after. Felt the loathing in the air leave with him. He hates me for my freedom, like to put me in cuffs and bugger me into some Respect for his Authority lavished from God unto Moses unto the Chosen People, the Elite, who gifted us all with the world's two biggest religions Islam and Christianity to refer to in the establishent of State, Islamic States still widely fundamentalist in extrapolations and ammendments to the fundamentals Law, even today stones striking pleading girls in the face until the glistening bone pulp shows, eyeball popped out shattered socket debt paid for her adultry of being raped by a man she wasn't married to, lacivious temptress women not tolerated, kept virtuous by Ordained killers sanctimonious witless butchers in judicious black robes black masks, love and peace delegates, spread the beautiful religion into Eastern Europe and jerusalm, effective Evangelical technique of the option to submit you are the slave of Allah, either submit or get your head looped off. Beautiful religion. The castles of Europe erected to fortify against the sacred Islamic state conquering all of Elite Europe, price of doing Business, business of giving people the business, keep them stoneage and in check until final act, today thousands of Muslim migrants fleeing Syria region where isis, the royal president, Russia and the United States are mass murdering the population in alternating sweeps all claiming success against the terrorists who are any one of the four mass destroyers depending on which regions fake news one watches, the cities in ruins, the people still left sparse and debilitated, the dregs, hundreds of thousands more turning sections of Germany France great Britain etc into ghettos, young girls being raped in public parks, a seven yo girl in France gang raped in Germany lone German teens stalked in the streets by packs of Muslim youth and beaten half to death teens boasting they will take multiple wives across region have dozens of children each and breed out the natives, conquer Europe with their cocks now that the dear leaders of the region had welcomed them in. Beautiful religion. on their knees five times a day to take a facefull of dirt groveling praises toward the black cube in Mecca which Abraham built and shat inside marking the turf, holy kabba, over ten feet tall and ten feet wide the wonder of the Islamic world which one day all of Islamic Europe shall pilgrimage to link arms and dance ring around the cubicle singing and shouting trampling each other then setting off across hard desert terrain, many every haj die along the route hail Allah that the prophet Mahomet, may he rest in stink took wandering the sand ocean from sand dune to sand valley to sand mount where pilgrims collapse into the sand and commune with Allah catching spiderwebs of shade from the spray of spindly limbed trees rising several feet high here and there, terrain as beautiful as Islam itself and straight to Judgement for those sun dried brain fried dead before completing the last leg of the blessed trudge to the sacrificial slaughter barns where depending on what slaves of Allah can afford to slice the throat of a variety of animals await blood ritual, goats camels sheep sand chickens and coming soon pigs once the half breed desert princes of Frankfurt introuce fat juicy pork weenies into the Islamic diet, blonde haired blue eyed pink bellied pigs recognized to be far too majestic to be interbred with Jews, fine swine imported from outside the East where the scruffy big snout kosher breed forages in feral packs, hear them oinking Hebrew and Yiddish gibberish rooting in alley trash like dogs, dirtiest animals in all of creation, howling and squealing together during crawl in place borg prayers tuned in to Abraham's outhouse ever amid ring around the square dancing, stumbling, trampled underfoot weaklings hoe down haj stop in the stadium built around the squat edifice that thousands may sit and cheer rendering inaudible the tinny prayers from around the globe every couple hours, dogs howling offended every prayer, kick the snarling curs at risk of losing toes and sandles get tangled up in black man dress and fall down surrounded by curly tailed rabbi and black dogs foaming at the mouth eyes rolling from echoes of lalalalalalalala eeeeeek eeeeeeek eeeeeeek barnyardesque broadcasts from loud speakers leading the haj hails between free time to marry and divorce multiple times a day and trade goats for girls to marry and divorce trade back for chickens or a dozen eggs if she's missing ears tip of her nose or digits from administering divine law rehabilitation mutilations, sometimes new divorcees only fetch a bucket of fertile shit, hobbled hunchback prolapsed asshole tounge sliced into fork for her hissing disobedience to swallow the donkey load of bountiful seed diligently fed her everyday in lieu of lunch meanwhile back at the last stop of holy haj long walk baby animals and ton tall spitting camels shriek and wail, hawk lunger loads of camel snot pink with slashed throat blood spew onto the walls, slick spots on the straw, bled out into tubs and running down beards drank in hot clotted toasts to Allah who the sacrificed animals were stacked like cordwood into earthen pits and burned to appease blessings to all and to all a good time at the hotel after parties where newly married couples meet, consumate, get divorced and the just single ladies reintroduced to next end of haj celebratent to be smitten and fallen in love until the boredom of domestic life after orgasm left him dissatisfied with this woman who used to be useful but went back to the singles mixer sore and cooperative awaiting true love perhaps next bus in full of blood spattered fresh inducties into the walkabout God's country for days purification event everyone owed it themselves to do at least once a lifetime to truly get the most out of Islam the impending new religion of the well served everywhere from Africa to Piccadilly square, to be renamed Mahomet Kaba King Boulevard erected in the center of the square a scale replica of the Kaba with Mahomet himself weilding scrimtar of faith from head to toe dressed in black mounted upon his goat horse chimera Pegasus thingy reared up like a reindeer representing the flight taken to heaven to lead the prayer circle in heaven where all had deferred to him to lead the prayer circle of Prophets in Allah's den, Jesus fresh as the Daisy he'd been since the day he'd cleverly avoided crucifixion by Jerry curling his big black bushy beard and sneaking out of town on his gf's ass while another fellow, whose beard was styled similarly to his and who had assembled a small crowd outside town to demonstrate a new stain removal product for even the toughest stains like days caked Hersey splats from loincloths see comes right out and with the herbal infused formula eliminates some of the stench of urine baked in since pissing it in a wine induced stupor earlier that afternoon as jews were known to do between assuming their posts begging for pennies outside the bank, that guy had looked and sounded like the upstart they were looking for and after his miracle product failed to impress the honorable pontus Pilate with any supernatural stain removal properties except when applied to soiled underpants, a demonstration he didn't need to see twice since his underpants indeed came out clean the first attempt, hardly a miracle but in a good mood since his ass felt and smelled so fresh after the man who kept persisting I am not the Jew you were looking for I'm just an alchemist with a revolutionary new product for removing stains the secret formula is just leavening soda and grapeseed pumice mixed with water and lavender leaves ofc it's not a miracle I am not the king of the universe I've never even met the guy no one does but he doesn't travel alone with a bucket of my new secret formula removing shit stains from underwear, he's a stand up magician or something, heard there's strippers too, Im just a humble asshole freshener your honor and feeling magnanimous floral fragrance of his anus clinging to the finger he scratched along his craft to sniff while contemplating opens the honorable Pilate said let's let these Jews outside demanding their picked pockets wallets and jewelery back stolen by the whores and at least a dozen confidence men known to be traveling with this wanted man who said fuck the centurions fuck the flag fuck hannaka fuck Elysian fields fuck the Senate fuck caesaer fuck Rome fuck caiphus fuck the Torah fuck yo mama and fuck all of you cringing sex slave submissives bending over and getting fucked everyday to earn wheat penny Caesars that aren't worth a tin shit except for your belief in Caesar says, Caesar says hail Caesar I say fuck Caesar render unto casear these piles of Caesars ugly cunt lips embossed nickles and dimes and shove em up Caesars ass let him go pawn these pieces of shit off on some other idiots bc we're Jews brothers and sisters and Jews don't need no stinking sick economy sicker fools who'd diminish themselves by going along with this madness, Caesar is a paper god you drunks this money charade is just a game and your the losers for playing so fuck him fuck Rome and fuck all these fake ass God's and curly tailed shit eating elites got us all playing along counting stacks of worthless legal tender whoopty Doo what caesar says and fuck his court of whimsy and don't bend over only ever acquire what he gives you and dont obey every stupid lie he tells you is the law, tell him to take this Nation of lies and the shiney lie sanctioned house chips he rode in on and shove it up his ass bc if you don't you'll all be spending your lives sucking Satan's cock doing as Satan says and get paid in Satan tokens worth your life loyalty and labors and in return a flag to admire and fight for a song of the murder glory of this shithole to cross your hearts and sing that all who hear it know how unified and proud you are and you'll be paid to with every Betrayal his crown can afford to give you now that you've given him lives to spend. Have a free flag coffin shroud a medal of Honor for service unto Casear human sacrife pin and a bedpan full of shiney Benjamin's to spend at super Caesars super savers everywhere Rome is maurading, hail Caesar full of grace give you nothing give him everything and that sumbitch drugged the watered down wine him and his whores and degenerates robbed us and fuck yes that's him I recognize the beard kill him set Barbarossa free and so despite insisting he was not their King nor a crook the wrong man was crucified that day and Jesus told this straight to Mahomet so you know it's true bc Mahomet word is gold then Jesus said I am the slave of Allah and Mo he's instructed me to let his biggest ho Mo lead the ass in the air prayers from now on bc I'm always broke have never tipped a red Satan cent to tithe and insist that Allah sound a dry heave so does every single thing you said Mo so you're deffo the man to lead prayer to that bullshitters bullshit, guess it keep you busy long enough not to butcher or mutilate anyone for five minutes at least. Raise your Voice be offended by this beastial religion we're diminished under by these sneering aristocrats who practice it, they're the crew can't handle the Truth. Lies are all they got. Be eloquent. Knowing and not choosing a side is just a mess. I bring you. Pallid incompotence hanging from a mic stand. Prime example of why there's no having it both ways. Fuck it 🌊 https://g.co/kgs/ACnHqS