#whys hamid naked

[thoriffix]

[id: a digitally painted recreation of "the fallen angel" by alexandre cabanel, featuring hamid, a brown-skinned halfling with dragon wings, followed by a cropped version of just his head and shoulders. end id]

the fallen dragon

#i keep looking at this and seeing mistakes and stuff i should change but NO i am SO tired of working on it #im super happy w the face and most of the body and thats all that matters. dont look too hard at the bf #bg* #hamid saleh haroun al tahan #rusty quill #rusty quill gaming #rqg #rqg hamid #pathfinder #ttrpg #ttrpg art #halfling #yes im throwing all the tags onto this one what of it #grays art stuff #digital painting #whys hamid naked? thats his business

[commander-diomika]

(Click to Read From the Beginning) Part 6 - Pairing: Zolf Smith/Oscar Wilde Word Count: 4700 Additional Tags: Slow Burn, 18-Month Time Gap (Rusty Quill Gaming), Opposites Attract, Trans Male Character, Forced Outing, Pining, Additional Warnings In Author's Note

Summary: New intel from Curie brings new rules about the quarantine process. This puts Zolf and Wilde in an awkward position. A/N - The forced outing depicted in this chapter isn’t through any malicious intent, but rather circumstances outside character control. There are no transphobic sentiments portrayed in this series, internalised or direct, but some of Wilde’s caution around disclosing indicates that this is a world where transphobia exists. These things could make for an uncomfortable experience for some readers.

The few times that Zolf went out on missions alone, usually on fruitless attempts to scout the Shoin Institute, it had been Barnes that welcomed him back and locked him in. Zolf didn’t mind isolation stretches, but he didn’t love that Wilde kept himself absent for the entire duration. He understood why, but there was something unsettling about coming home, and yet having to wait for what he felt like was the proper homecoming of being reunited with Wilde. But he coped with it just fine.

When the invitation from Curie came for a meeting, and specified that only one person was welcome, Zolf fought hard for it to be him.

“You’ve never even met Curie.” Wilde pointed out, voice level despite the heat in Zolf’s tone. “It makes far more sense for me to go, and someone needs to stay here.”

“At least take Barnes with you,” Zolf countered, knowing he was being ridiculous but unable to help it. He’d known that this time was coming but that didn’t make it come any easier. “He don’t have to come with you to meet her, but he can keep you safe.”

Wilde’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t need a bodyguard.”

Zolf crossed his arms, stymied. It wasn’t that he was overprotective. But he couldn’t squash the memory of Wilde’s face, slippery with blood beneath frantic fingers, or the haunted look in Wilde’s eyes when he emerged from isolation.

“I won’t even be gone long, Zolf. Curie is going to meet me in Hiroshima.”

Zolf opened his mouth to argue further, and was stopped by Wilde closing his eyes, looking genuinely tired for a moment. Normally Wilde relished a bit of verbal sparring and the two of them fought as easily as they breathed. But something about the way he sighed gave Zolf pause.

When Wilde next spoke, his voice was soft, a rare pleading in his tone. “I know, Zolf. I know you don’t like it. I don’t like it, but I have been looking at these same four walls for months. I am sick of not being a productive member of this team.”

“WHAT!” Zolf exploded. “You are the most productive member! Me n’ Barnes n’ Carter would be nothin’ without-”

“You know what I mean!” Wilde said, frustrated. Zolf hardly ever saw him like this. Anger was an emotion that Wilde kept locked away, just like his fear. “I’m sick of people treating me like I’m some sort of china doll, just because I can’t cast anymore!”

Zolf spluttered. “You’re not- we don’- nobody said-”

Wilde raised his hand. “I appreciate your concern, Zolf, I really do. But I’m going on this mission. And I am asking you-” Wilde drew a deep breath in through his nose “-to trust me.”

Well. That had been played like a trump card. Zolf felt something in him release, the angry churn of his stomach dissipating. If there was any truth left in the world at this point, it was that Zolf trusted Wilde.

He nodded.

---

As was protocol, on the evening he returned, Zolf, Barnes and Carter made themselves scarce until Wilde was safely in the anti-magic chamber, not detouring to any other rooms of the inn. They had arrangements for how to handle if a returning party member didn’t head straight for what they’d all started calling “the box,” but thankfully it was yet to come up. Zolf headed in after, with the keys to the cell, fresh clothes, and a bowl of prawn gyoza in hand.

“How’s Hiroshima?” Zolf asked, locking up and passing through the food.

Wilde didn’t respond, just levelled Zolf with a flat glare.

Zolf shrugged. “You can talk to me, an’ if at the end of the week you’re compromised, I’ll just assume that anythin’ you said was false intel, yeah? Until then,” Zolf pulled up the chair that sat outside and cell and settled it. “There’s no harm in it going this way,” he swept his hand from Wilde’s direction toward himself. “I just won’t tell you anything you don’t already know.” He, quite simply, was not going to take no for an answer. He wasn’t leaving Wilde alone with his thoughts for a week.

Wilde managed to look disapproving for a moment more, then a little smirk slipped through the veneer. “I find it difficult to believe you know anything I don’t, Smith.”

“Oh, sod off.”

“I can’t help it if I just happen to be the brains of the operation.” Wilde gave a small, defeated chuckle, and sat on the cot. He started undoing the anti-magic cuffs and massaging his ankles. Sometimes when there was no one using the box, Wilde would come sleep down here just for a chance to take them off for a little while.

“Hiroshima is well enough, but Curie says Cairo is a mess. The sandstorms have been giving it absolute hell. Anyone who doesn’t still need to be there isn’t, though it’s still seeing a lot of refugee traffic.” He picked up the food Zolf had passed through.

“From Europe?”

Wilde nodded between popping gyoza into his mouth. “These are very good, you know.”

Zolf waved a hand. “Hiromi’s been giving me lessons. She’s much nicer about it than her husband.”

Wilde updated Zolf on Curie’s operation. When he mentioned that she had been gifted the old Tahan estate, Zolf’s gut squeezed. It had been… almost over a year since he’d seen Hamid, and months since they’d last heard from him and the others. It was almost impossible to think that they were still alive, but without bodies or news, there was no way forward. Both men were left lingering in ambivalence, hope laid thick and heavy over a grief that couldn’t surface.

Wilde finished his food and frowned. He spoke more hesitantly than before. “There is one more thing I should tell you. We need to update some of the protocols.”

“Yeh? Howso?”

“The blue vein rumours? About the infected? Confirmed. More importantly, Curie says in every instance of a double agent, the blue veins have appeared on the body first, not the face or hands.” Wilde was overexplaining in a way that was unlike him. “In addition to the quarantine, being on the lookout for behavioural changes, Curie also recommended we do,” Wilde hesitated, again in a most un-Wilde-like fashion, “…visual inspections of those in quarantine. Thorough ones.” He fluttered nervous hands up and down his torso to illustrate.

As Zolf slowly turned over the implications, Wilde turned to rummage through his bag and withdraw papers. He gestured for Zolf to come take them through the slot.

“Reports, signed and sealed, detailing it all.”

Zolf took them, still absorbing what Wilde had said. He didn’t look through the bars. If he had, he would have seen something cautious and watchful in Wilde’s eyes.

The silence stretched on too long between them.

“Anyway, if you don’t mind, I am going to get some sleep. The boat from here to the mainland isn’t exactly a luxury cruiser, and I am exhausted.” Wilde flumped down onto the cot to punctuate the point.

“I… yeh. I’ll go have a look through these reports.” As Zolf walked away from the box, he paused in the door. “I’m glad you’re back,” he said. I’m glad you’re safe, he didn’t add.

“Of course you are,” Wilde replied without missing a beat. “This place must be dreadfully dull without me to liven it up for you.”

Zolf rolled his eyes and headed upstairs.

Having read through Curie’s reports, the next day Zolf went back to Wilde’s cell with his heart in his mouth.

Naked inspections. It’s just one thing after another in this brave new fucking world, isn’t it, he thought, agitated.

The whole situation was ridiculous. What was he so worried about? After everything they’d been through there was a certain trust, an ease between them now. What was a bit of nudity in the face of all that?

He was only feeling nervy about it because he was sure that Wilde was going to be a dick about it, in his usual style. Getting under Zolf’s skin hadn’t stopped being a hobby of Wilde’s, and this whole situation set the stage for his insufferable needling.

Wilde stood quickly as Zolf entered. He’d changed out of the clothes he’d travelled to Hiroshima in, and was now wearing long dark pants and his favourite yukata, the one with green and pink floral pattern.

“I read through all the reports,” Zolf began.

“We might as well get this over with,” Wilde said at the same time, and then laughed a little manically.

Zolf took his seat, waited for Wilde to quiet, then continued. “Curie also recommended we start askin’ people to tell us stories of things that only the other would know. Code words aren’t enough because it’s more about how you do the retellin’ than it is about the information.” Wilde’s face relaxed at the notion of delaying what came next.

“I’ll get you to tell me about… tell me how you remember our first meetin’, then.” Zolf said. Since all the other people who were there are either dead or presumed dead, he didn’t want to add.

Wilde launched into an explanation of flaming notepads, blood noses, slipping into his storyteller shoes with relief. It was nice to listen to him perform, even if thinking about Hamid and Sasha was depressing.

“And,” Wilde wound up, “I just happened to linger by the door and overhear you mention something about my bum, of all things. Now, if you’ll do me the favour of telling what that was, and we can all move forward assured of each other’s memory, though probably not their integrity.”

Oh, curses. He hadn’t thought Wilde had still been around for those comments. He crossed his arms and frowned loudly.

“Come now Zolf, you’ve already said it, you can’t take it back now.” Exactly as Zolf had suspected, Wilde seemed to be delighting in causing Zolf discomfort once again, whilst he slipped back into his old, familiar smarm. Wilde wrapped his hands around the bars of the cell and bounced slightly on his toes.

“I said,” Zolf pinched the bridge of his nose. “I said it was very nice.” And he stood by it, but Wilde didn’t need to know that.

Wilde laughed, free and throaty, running his hand through his hair in a way that Zolf knew, if he had access to his magic, would be accompanied by a bawdy shimmer of sparkles. For a moment, things felt bright.

The energy snapped back. Wilde wasn’t performing for a party, he wasn’t needling Zolf for a laugh, he was locked up in a cell waiting to find out if he had an infection that would turn him into something unrecognizable and dangerous… Wilde dropped his hands from the adamantine, and the two of them fell silent.

“I can go get Barnes, if you’d prefer,” Zolf said with a useless gesture. Wilde was already shaking his head.

“What’s a bit of nudity between… friends.” Wilde asked, with a quizzical tilt of his head. His eyes were asking does friends really cover it anymore? Zolf didn’t have an answer.

Zolf didn’t know how to get this whole awkward scenario started, so he just waited, his mouth dry. There was something so grim in Wilde’s face, and Zolf didn’t understand. His obvious discomfort with the notion of watching Wilde undress should’ve delighted the man. It should have been ammunition.

As Wilde started on the ties of his yukata, for the briefest of moments, Zolf’s discomfort was replaced by a blistering anger at the absurdity of it all. All those moments he had wanted to be closer to Wilde, to touch his bare skin or to hold him… but he hadn’t asked for this. Between the two of them hung a nascent possibility. A possibility that Zolf was only just starting to acknowledge, and that deserved a chance to blossom.

That instead it should be forced to happen like this, through cell bars, was perversely unfair. To him. To Wilde. To the pair of them and all the ways that this could have been different.

Wilde paused, as if seeing the flash of anger in Zolf’s eyes. He spoke quietly, almost to himself. “Thinking about… hmph. The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” With that non sequitur, he disrobed, turning his body to drape the cloth over the cot.

As he turned back, Zolf was struck by a sudden realisation; he’d never seen Wilde with his shirt off. Never swum together, never seen him coming back from bathing with a towel around his waist. Even in the heat, Wilde always wore his shirt buttoned, his yukata firmly tied. Zolf swore he could see Wilde’s chest in his mind’s eye. It just made sense. Wilde had certainly seen Zolf’s chest; they’d been living in each other’s pockets for almost a year now and Zolf didn’t think much of it.

But no, because if he’d seen Wilde without the shirt, he would know that Wilde had a smattering of dark chest hair. And more scars on his torso than seemed right. The wounds from Douglas had torn two messy gashes near the ribs, and those scars were present as expected. But there were two more - slightly crescent shaped, uniform and well-healed - swooping across his chest just beneath flat nipples.

Surgical scars.

The air was knocked out of Zolf’s lungs. His body had grasped answers before his mind did. His thoughts felt sluggish, crawling, gasping to catch up, and when they did it was with the lurching realisation of just how unfair it was that they had been brought here, to this cell, to this grotesque scenario, against their will.

Wilde undid the drawstring of his pants and stepped out of them. Dark hair ran in a soft line from his navel down, fanning out to the triangle that dipped between his legs. His face was carefully blank, as he lifted his hands, palms up, in a sardonic “ta-dah” gesture.

Zolf was frozen inside his mind, as Wilde turned slowly on the spot.

He did have a fantastic arse, the perfect balance of muscular and plush, and once again Zolf was furious that any hint of eros in this had been utterly perverted.

Wilde turned back to face Zolf and raised his eyebrows in a silent question. Zolf nodded again, his mouth dry. Wilde dressed, not rushed but efficient.

They sat in silence for a time.

“You never told me,” was all Zolf could think of to say.

“Fantastically witty and incisive commentary from one Zolf Smith, yet again,” Wilde said, voice like acrid smoke. Nothing made Wilde bite like losing the upper hand.

“I’m- I’m sorry. I jus’, I’ll go-” Zolf tried to walk and turn at the same time and knocked into the stool, clanging it down to the floor. He righted it with hands that shook and headed for the stairs.

“Zolf!” Wilde called after him. “You don’t have to leave.”

Well. That was as close to begging as Wilde ever got.

Zolf returned to his stool, and re-joined the silence. Wilde sat on the cot, watching the close wall of the cell with a face that Zolf recognised; it was one of Wilde’s favourite expressions, deliberately mild, open, waiting. It gave away nothing and invited everything. For Wilde, it was safety.

Other people, people who didn’t know Wilde as well, might take that as an invitation to speak. Zolf wasn’t other people. He thought about all the times he’d stumbled through something awkward, with good intentions but clumsy words. He had no idea how to proceed, other than it was probably wise to wait, and let Wilde find words first.

“Don’t feel bad about me not telling you.” Wilde said eventually. “It usually doesn’t come up, unless I’m sleeping with someone. Even then you’d be impressed at what can be achieved with creative use of props, dim lighting and a bit of magic.” He trailed his hand wistfully through the air, an impotent somatic component.

Zolf continued to wait, to leave the man space. Zolf wasn’t the one who’d been stripped, forced into a deeply personal disclosure without plan or intent.

“It’s not that I’m ashamed, you see. It's more… it feels like handing over a weapon, and I try to avoid that if I can. And well, I’m usually not in someone’s acquaintance long enough to feel bad about keeping it a secret.” There was an apology tucked between the words, and Zolf nodded even though Wilde wasn’t watching

He paused to run his thumb over the facial scarring, once, twice. “Bosie knew.”

Wilde let the silence stretch on long enough that Zolf felt like he had to speak or he would never stop thinking about skidding through Wilde’s blood on a cold stone floor. “You… you used to use your magic for it, righ’?”

Wilde barked out a harsh laugh. “Oh yes, for practically all of it! It was the reason I got so good at glamours! Back in Cairo I… I suspected that an anti-magic chamber or cuffs might halt the hexing, but I couldn’t, you see? I’d been doing it for so long. Everyone knew me as a man.” He shrugged, saying obviously with his shoulders. “I couldn’t go back.”

Zolf examined Wilde’s face. He was still carefully keeping his gaze on the cell wall. He still had that mild expression on his face, as though they discussed what to have for lunch, not one of the lowest points of his life. But he didn’t seem upset, so Zolf pressed on. “What happened?”

“Oh I…” he huffed a small laugh. “I got lucky. Turns out Grizzop already knew. I don’t think I reacted quite right when he punched me in the crotch.” Now something like genuine fondness crept into Wilde’s voice. “He suspected what might happen if I had to stop casting; he helped smooth things over. I was in no position to be fending for myself at that juncture, I had let the curse go on too long.” Wilde looked at his hands. “I will always be grateful to him.”

Wilde sounded like a man who knew, without a doubt, that the object of his gratitude was dead.

“Once it became clear the cuffs were going to become a permanent accessory, he set things up with the Cult of Aphrodite for me to have surgery and for them to supply the right potions. They have all the gear and know-how, of course. Not everyone in my position is a caster.”

Something else clicked in place for Zolf as he pondered the technicalities of non-magical surgery.

“Wait a minute. You were still recovering from that when we joined back up, weren’t you?”

Wilde’s brow crinkled as he considered timelines. “That’s right. Scarring needs to heal with almost no magical intervention, otherwise it’s back to square one. So it was… quite painful, to be quite honest. And compared to magical healing, the process drags on and on.”

Wilde smoothed a hand over his robe-clad chest. “I like it better this way now. No more binding my chest just in case, though I try to be careful about who sees the scars.” His voice was light, that faux-levelness starting to fade and he just, talked. Wilde was relieved, Zolf realised with a start. He wanted to tell Zolf about these things.

“It’s nice to just … be myself. Even at the end of day when I’m tired and can’t cast anymore.” And he finally looked at Zolf and smiled. Not a smirk or grin, just a completely open smile that welcomed Zolf into his joy instead of belittling or declaring victory with it. Even with the scar, sitting in a dim cell, he looked radiant.

As Zolf went to smile back, he felt his face wobble. This - Wilde smiling, confiding, being easy and honest with him - it was a better outcome than he could have hoped for. He felt the sudden bloom of Wilde’s smile in his chest, the warmth of the man’s trust.

But this was merely day one of seven, and it was still terrifyingly possible that the man who sat across from him was not Wilde at all. So Zolf’s smile twisted as it appeared on his face, and he didn’t reply, allowing them to lapse back into silence.

Day 2

“Wouldn’ it be- well not easier but less, I dunno- to just wait and do one inspection on the last day?” Zolf asked. He’d brought down breakfast and the paper, and they’d sat quietly as they ate; Wilde had finished eating and was starting on the motions of undressing.

“Zolf. My dear.” Wilde cocked his head in that patronising way that he did when he thought Zolf had said something legitimately dumb. “If I am reading your intentions correctly, your plan for the week is to eschew all your other jobs to waste away at my door-” Zolf opened his mouth to argue and Wilde simply raised his voice and pressed on “-not that I am complaining, but if you truly are going to while away the days with me, and then on the final day, you find out I have been infected the whole time and have to kill me, how, pray tell, is that going to make you feel?”

Zolf snapped his mouth shut.

“Wouldn’t you rather know as soon as it comes up?” Wilde pointed out, frustratingly reasonable.

Zolf simply wanted to throw the cell doors open because there didn’t seem any possibility that the man behind the bars was anything other than 100% pure, vexatious Oscar Wilde, but he stilled his twitching hand. Wilde’s question was to remain unanswered as Zolf simply gestured go on then and Wilde, with a grim, self-satisfied nod, started to strip.

Day 3

“No, don’tcha see, if Jennifer had gone to Antony in the garden, her mother would have known from the get-go-”

“But I simply don’t see how Alianne knowing would have improved things for Jennifer-”

“She was supportive, she could’ve helped smooth things over when Antony’s sister started her meddlin’, and they could have wrapped the whole thing up before supper!”

“Yes, but where is the fun in that, Zolf?”

Day 4

As Wilde dispassionately disrobed for a fourth time, Zolf realised there was now a familiarity to Wilde’s naked body, and that was jarring.

He wasn’t lanky, not really, but Zolf couldn’t help but think of most humans that way. The truth was he was solid enough in build, surprisingly muscular for a man who mostly rode a desk. His legs and arse especially were firm with it. He does a lot of walking about the village, I s’pose.

Zolf watched Wilde turn on the spot and he longed to trace the shape of Wilde’s shoulders, cup his ass, rub my damn nose in that soft lookin’ chest hair and…

Zolf ground his teeth against the wrongness of it all.

He thought of slipping his hands between Wilde’s legs, and though the shape of the fantasy had changed, the intensity had not.

It had been a long time since Zolf had felt a physical or sexual attraction like this, and the fact that it was at the most inconvenient time, and the most unlikely person, was enough to make him think he’d made a mistake breaking ties with Poseidon. Maybe if he hadn’t eschewed divine favour, he would have been protected from whatever trickster god had decided to throw this at him.

He kept his hands in his pockets so that Wilde wouldn’t see him clench his fists.

Maybe I should offer to strip too. At least that would put us on an equally horrible footing, Zolf mused.

Wilde dressed and turned back to look at Zolf with careful, watchful eyes. Wilde was in the business of reading even the most inscrutable enemies like a book, and at this point he had a thorough translation guide for Zolf. He knew it bothered the dwarf. The fact that Wilde hadn’t made a bunch of lewd comments was probably his idea of a kindness, but the absence of Wilde’s typical peacocking it somehow made it worse.

When he looked at him like that, it made Zolf feel like he was the one in the cell.

Zolf cleared his throat. “Got a new crossword book if you like?”

Day 5

“Pawn to E4.”

A chess board sat on a small table just outside the cell. Zolf moved the white pawn for Wilde then took his own move.

“Knight to G3.” Wilde said in a bored tone. He’d voted for bridge, but Zolf had talked him out of it. Too difficult to wrangle cards between the cell’s bars and mesh, he’d pointed out. Which was true, but what was also true was that Wilde was surprisingly bad at chess (it was much easier to cheat in cards).

Whilst Zolf did feel sympathy for Wilde, things weren’t so bad that Zolf wasn’t going to relish the opportunity to beat him at something for a change.

Day 6

Each day Wilde got closer to being comfortable with the inspections. Closer but not there. Half a lifetime of needing to be guarded about who saw your body created some strong foundational habits. That foundation wasn’t going to be eroded in seven days, regardless of how much you trusted the person who saw you.

But still, it could have been worse. Zolf shuddered to think what would have happened if this situation had been thrust on them a year ago. Their friendship, tenuous as it was, might not have been able to survive.

Dressing again, Wilde stretched the kinks out of neck. “I cannot wait to get out of here and have a proper bath and a nice long walk.”

“Nearly there.” Zolf said absently. He’d stopped needing to worry every second moment that Wilde was infected. Even though they’d been dealing with it all with distractions, with laughter, with pretending like it wasn’t happening, Zolf felt the sudden urge to be honest.

“I’m sorry that… that it happened like this. That you didn’t get a choice in tellin’ me about...” Your past? Your journey? Your truth? “…Everythin’.”

Wilde made a face of surprise, but instead of deflecting the offer of an honest conversation, he accepted. “Me too. I intended to, but as I said. I’m rarely… close enough with someone that I feel they deserve it. I wish-” Wilde paused, considering his next words, and what other weapons he might be handing over, deeply. “I wish that the circumstances had been different.”

Zolf could just ask what he meant. He could. It was practically an invitation for him to press, to force Wilde to clarify exactly under what circumstance he’d envisioned sharing secrets about his body with Zolf… but he didn’t.

Inside Zolf, uneasy guilt gnawed at him. The circumstances they had were only these ones. Wilde was vulnerable, caged, and thoroughly without a choice; but Zolf knew there were moments he’d chosen to ignore those elements. He knew, deep in his guilty core, he had been inspecting far more than he had the right. It didn’t feel honourable to press Wilde any further after that.

“Yeah.” Zolf stood. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Wilde. Last day ‘n all.”

Day 7

“It would have been too much to hope that the bloody sun would come out for this, wouldn’t it,” Wilde grumbled.

Freshly released, he was pondering umbrella selection in the entry hall.

“I’m guessing you don’t want me to come with,” Zolf ventured. Wilde had come out of his quarantine cheerful enough, but there was something understandably off about him; something distant and a little contemplative. Zolf had been half-expecting, or even hoping for, one of Wilde’s warm shoulder-touches. But he had kept his hands firmly to himself.

Wilde looked up, mouth twisted wryly. “I think I’ll be fine.” He hesitated, as he always did before saying something sincere. “I do appreciate what you’ve done for me this week, Zolf, but I could use a little space.”

Zolf nodded. He’d expected as much.

Inside him, the guilt twisted a little, the word violator rising in his mind. No. Neither of them had chosen anything about this situation. If anything, their connection felt even stronger for having been through the wringer, yet again. Whatever liberties Zolf accused himself of taking, it wasn’t enough to dent that.

We’re alright. Zolf thought.

We’ll be alright. I think we both could use a little time, is all.

Wilde selected the green umbrella, gave Zolf a tentative smile, and headed out into the rain.

#hank writes #rusty quill gaming #rqg #zoscar #zolf smith #rqg oscar wilde #rusty quill fan fic #Additional notes; zolf IS looking disrespectfully #zolfwilde

[kristsune]

Rqg anon: azu got herself a tattoo of sasha and grizzop nawwww that's so sweet also Alex why would she get a tattoo of naked hamid what even is that suggestion I have questions alex explain

YES I LOVED THAT. considering my own grizzop tattoo, this made me so very happy.

and SFHDKDJ alex just likes to say things sometimes XD

#kris replies #rqg nonnie #Anonymous

[shy-magpie]

RQG 139

All right place final bets on whether we are officially starting a new phase in Hamid's relationship with power/privilege, ushering in the age of Dark!Hamid, or both. King of the Kobolds! Alex behave; for once Ben's "minions don't get moral grey areas" is useful. I keep coming back to the blasted snow leopard, sometimes you have to kill something that isn't evil because it will kill you otherwise. The team would actually go in full revolt if he pulled an "it was all a dream" again. Right I thought the last episode ended with nobody left to fight but the Kobold who just pledged to Hamid, why are we getting in initiative? Oh the ooze(s) Alex can quit re-framing the last ep any time now. New spell for Zolf! Searing Light. For once I care more about the fact Ben is right than that antagonizing the GM is a worrying hobby. "splat em don't slice em" It is so Hamid that he is glitching on the Kobold pledging to him and just puts off dealing with it. Wow he packs a punch. Yuck Poor Kobold. Its pathfinder so its not an unreasonable question whether grovel is an official action (be something like persuade right?). Right is it worth a shot for Hamid to just yell "I outrank you" in Draconic? Or can his new vassal talk em down. Did Zolf just split it again? Yup, didn't he in game barely finish saying not to slash? Yuck again Suns out, guns out, Zolf? Ben can quit boasting about his HP anytime now. I fear Alex is actively going to make an enemy just to humble him soon. Hm, Cel wants the oozes to split? Oh it wasn't a joke, break em down and let Hamid fireball em Poor Azu Ha Zolf's turn to get scruffed out of a fight No one on earth is a fan of the official grapple rules, its like an actual meme Ben, please pretend to be worried about whether Zolf lives or dies, just out of politeness Glad they have been jokey because that image of Hamid dragging an unconscious Zolf would normally hurt. Alex, Bryn could so take you on if fireballs could bounce. Ooze handled. Helen might throw a Kobold at a Kobold, but Azu wouldn't. Azu is a support player mood Thank you Bryn, Ben does need to be reminded to heal himself. Azu no! Never thought I'd type that. Oh we are going with have Hamid shout in Draconic. Are we going to end up with Cel's village guarded by a tiny army? Cel is going to what? OK as Ben said that is the content warning. Thank you Ben! Healing for everyone! Hope, is that what Zolf is a paladin of? Most Hamid surrender or die speech ever (they can't fight the Kobolds without killing them so) Is there anything they can do that doesn't kill a Kobold? Canonically Zolf does not have mercy, this amuses me more than it should He is not naked, he is wearing scraps of burnt leather which may be worse. Orders might actually be nicer than gentle talking. If they've been treated anything like I think, then not knowing what people want from you is a very bad brain space. This story of 14 year old!Alex's cooking disaster is giving me an emotion, not sure which one.

#Rusty Quill Gaming #RQG spoilers #long post #RQG season 4 #live blog thingy

[godsdamnit-pixelberry]

doesn’t matter if i’m not enough (‘cause i’m young and in love)

Book: Desire & Decorum

Pairing: Annabelle Parsons/MC

Genre: Fluff, Angst, Comfort

Rating: T

Summary: MC is tired of playing the role of a refined lady. Annabelle finds and comforts her. Confessions ensues. A little angsty but with a happy ending.

Word Count: 2478 words

[also on ao3]

oh wow my first choices fic no pressure. so hallo, i would just like to say that annabelle parsons is a brave darling we should all stan and also that shitty aesthetics of annabelle up there is made by yours truly. that’s all, please enjoy and thanks for reading :))

set somewhere during book 1 where they haven’t talked about this ‘thing’ they have.

title is from the song ‘love’ by lana del rey

"Lady Clara, are you alright?"

You force your head to turn to the direction of the voice. Your eyes soften when you see Annabelle at the doorway of the balcony.

You take a deep breath and compose yourself, "I'm alright. I apologize for storming off like that, I only needed a breath of fresh air,” You wave her off. "You won't need to worry yourself, Annabelle."

"Of course," She replies, though her brown eyes tell you that she doesn't believe a word of that. "Would you mind if I join you then?"

You smile despite yourself, "I would never, your company is most welcome."

You don't say the things that matter. Like, how her company is the only one you look forward to in every social gathering your grandmother forces you to go. And perhaps if the heavens allow it, how friendship isn't quite the word you'd use to describe what you feel for her.

You let those words dissolve on your tongue, like you always do.

You turn back to the view of the dimly-lit estate, exhaling. She stands next to you and you have to grip the railing to keep your hand from taking hers.

A couple of minutes pass before she says anything, "You don't have to pretend, not in front of me."

Your shoulders sag and you sigh. Why does she have to be so perceptive?

"I don't- I’m not-" You try to deny, but she takes your hand and suddenly, the lie you've formulated in your mind disappears.

You feel the back of your eyes burning with tears you don't want to shed just yet, "It's just, I don't like this."

You feebly gesture to your surroundings. Annabelle doesn't question the vagueness of your statement and you have a feeling that she understands what you're trying to say.

"I don't like the parties, the competition between women to become the 'most accomplished lady' and be sold off to the first man with title who gives them attention, the suitors, Duke Richards," The name leaves a bad taste in your mouth. You despise the man and his inability to understand the word 'no'. Beside you, Annabelle stiffens at the mention of the name. You squeeze her hand and she squeeze back. "I don't like the way my grandmother dangles me in front of that wretched man like I’m some sort of mindless puppet and Countess Henrietta for trying to take my father's estate from me.

"I don't like it here," Your voice breaks and your vision blurs as the tears finally makes their way out of their sockets. The place, that weeks prior was a cause of your joy, now brings you weariness.

You feel so utterly defeated and Annabelle’s warm hand in your tight grip feels like a lifeline. You think about how Annabelle in general has been your lifeline your whole stay at Edgewater.

And you want to cry even more because the accompanying thoughts that came with that is not kind. It stabs your heart with the kind of pain you've only experienced when your mother, then later your father, passed away.

The implications of that makes fresh tears flow out of your eyes.

Annabelle has been quiet this whole time and you don't know what to think of that.

Finally, she speaks, "You don't like anything here?" She says in a quiet, horrified voice, as if she can't believe she didn't know.

"In all honesty, there's been only one good thing about this whole ordeal," You reply and you can hear your heartbeat thundering in your ears.

She swallows slowly, like something is clogging her throat, and you can see her glancing back at the party you two left behind. You follow her line of sight and see her eyes stop at a specific table where Mr. Chambers, Mr. Konevi, Mr. Sinclaire and Prince Hamid are sitting. Her eyes linger on Prince Hamid before she turns around again, jaw now clenched.

"What?" She whispers, voice sounding strangely exhausted.

You take a moment to appreciate her soft but firm hand in yours, the heat radiating off her, and her scent that is wholly Annabelle Parsons. You focus on anything your senses say is related to her - in fear that you can never be this close to her again.

Then you say it, "You."

One word, a simple word that will change your life for better or for worse. You pray to your mother and your father that it won't be the latter.

She inhales sharply and it's taking everything in you not to squeeze her hand even more. You’re afraid she might rip it out of your grasp and stalk off. Instead, you squeeze your eyes shut, maybe if you won't see her disgusted face directed at you, it'll hurt less.

You know it won't, but you are such a child that you hope it will anyway.

To your surprise, however, she stays put. You don't dare hope for hope.

You can hear her trying to speak but failing several times. You don't know what that could possibly mean for you.

"Do you truly mean that?"

Your eyes snap open and you turn to her sharply, heart in your throat. You’re taken off guard by what you saw, however.

She’s already looking at you, her soft brown eyes shining in the moonlight. Not with disgust or hate, but with pure, naked hope. Her hand is trembling in your grasp and you can't help but think about how Annabelle Parsons is the most beautiful woman in the world and how you're irrevocably in love with her.

"Yes," You whisper back. You hope against hope that you did not just single-handedly ruin one of the most important relationship in your life.

A mix of a sob and a laugh leaves her mouth, her hand that isn't holding yours wipes at her eyes that are suspiciously damp. All the tension that gathered in her earlier seem to seep out of her. In their place is absolute, unadulterated happiness.

The hope you'd tried to bury in the depths of your heart springs up once again. You have to swallow it down to speak. "Do you...?"

Annabelle nods her head at your unfinished question, tears now steadily running down her face. Despite that, her brown eyes are alight with so much joy.

Your breath hitch as the full realization hits you. Your eyes fill with tears again, this time - out of happiness.

"Annabelle!" You rush to embrace and she does the same.

"Oh Clara!"

You rest your head on the crook of her neck, breathing her in. You try to let the gravity of the situation sink in, but you still can't wrap your mind around it. All of earlier somehow feels like a dream and you've only just woken up, grasping at the barest threads left to make sense of everything.

But you know deep in your bones that it was real. Because well, if it wasn't, you wouldn't be holding on to Annabelle like this now, would you?

"I love you," You whisper. the words make you feel lighter. Like an unbearable itch that finally went away or perhaps, like a muscle that was stretched for the first time after a long time.

She tightens her hold around you, running the pads of her thumb on the skin of your nape – as if making sure you're real, this is real.

"I love you too, " She smiles, then takes a step back. For one horrible and pain-stricken moment, panic seizes your heart at the movement.

Sensing your nervousness, she takes your hand and squeezes it in reassurance. You relax.

"Clara, may the night and the moon be my witnesses, I promise this to you," She intertwines your fingers together, holding them up. "I will love you until the very day my soul fades from this world."

She holds your hand to her lips and kisses every knuckle, "Until then, will you be with me?" She asks, her smile nervous.

You feel your own lips curl into a blinding smile, "I would be a fool to deny the woman that holds my heart in her palm anything."

She grins back, "Is that a yes, then?" You eye the balcony door and see a servant who's closing the curtains.

"A million," You pull her towards you and catch her lips in a passionate kiss. At the same moment, the servant finishes closing the last of the curtains that allowed sight into the balcony, curtains that allowed an audience to your and Annabelle’s love for each other.

After a minute, you reluctantly pull away. The curtains may have been closed momentarily, but it certainly wouldn't stop any curious guest from peeking out the windows. Nor does it stop any wandering servants on the estate grounds from seeing you two.

All that are promptly forgotten though, when a few seconds later, Annabelle takes your face in her hands and presses your lips together for the second time. When you get over your surprise, you wrap your arms around her waist and pull her even impossibly closer to you.

You kiss her back, just as passionately as her. She playfully bites on your lower lip, you gasp, allowing her tongue to slip inside your mouth.

You tighten your hold on her, it's all you can do to stop yourself from melting when her tongue dances with your own.

She’s the one to pull away first this time and you - unable to help yourself - steal a few more kisses from her sweet, soft lips. Although, maybe steal isn't the best word since she so generously complied with your requests.

She giggles as you peck her lips repeatedly, "You are insatiable!"

"Only for you, my dear 'Belle," You grin.

"Well, I would certainly hope so," She says, but the joking tone she's trying for isn't successful in masking the raw truth in her statement. She straightens up suddenly and avoids your gaze, still, you can see the plea in her eyes.

You blink, confused with her behaviour until a particular memory from earlier strikes you.

Annabelle’s eyes tracking the tables inside the room and stopping short on a table full of your most pleasant suitors. Her eyeing everyone from Mr. Sinclaire to Mr. Chambers. Then, her eyes narrowing when they land on Prince Hamid, your most forward – but kind – suitor yet.

The pieces form together in your mind and a surge of amused endearment flows through you.

"’Belle," You call out, delicately. "Were you perhaps jealous of a few gentlemen tonight?"

She turns back to you, eyes full of indignation. "No! Of course not! I was absolutely not jealous, I was simply... displeased at how they fling themselves at you at every occasion that arises." With every word, her voice loses volume. Her face is red and her eyes are wide, you stifle a laugh because it isn't every day that one could fluster Annabelle Parsons – a task she's usually the one to do – and you want to milk it for as long as you could.

"Right," You reply, amusement dripping off your tone.

She glares at you, which makes a burst of laughter escape your lips.

"Can you blame me?" She counters. "With how beautiful and talented you are, I fear it's only a matter of time before you pluck a handsome gentleman from your endless suitors and make him the luckiest man alive when you marry him."

Your heart breaks at the amount of sadness and conviction in Annabelle’s voice, as if she's absolutely sure you're going to do just that after you're done with her. Her use of present tense doesn't escape your notice.

You hate how defeated she looks, it doesn't fit her. Annabelle Parsons is a lot of things: strong, kind, intelligent. But, defeated isn't one of them.

"I’m not going to leave you," You declare, loud and true. "It pains me that you feel like that, Annabelle. I’m sorry for unintentionally inflicting that fear in you, it seems my acting is better than I expected. Perhaps I should consider a career in the opera if Edgewater doesn’t fall to me.”

"Acting?" She asks, still not looking at you directly.

You scoff, "Come now, you don't think I actually desire to be courted by men, do you? And in extension, by anyone who isn't you? I would soon rather tie boulders to my ankles and jump into the ocean than live to see the day I get married to some pompous brat who lacks the decorum and grace only you have."

She huffs out a tired breath, "I didn't want to get my hopes up. I didn't want to make a fool out of myself by thinking you feel the same way as I do. I didn't want to imagine what our future might be if you chose me, because then, it will give me hope. And hope is dangerous when you gamble for love."

You take her hands and squeeze them three times, "I choose you now, I chose you all those times before, and I will continue to choose you every day. We may be born in the wrong time, but that won't stop me." You wait until she finally looks at you in the eyes, before you say the next piece. "Because I’m in love with you, Annabelle."

Her eyes water and she lean in to kiss you deeply. When you part, she smiles at you with so much happiness it made you smile too, "I’m in love with you too, Clara."

Your heart soars at that. You rest your forehead against her and sigh in contentment.

Truthfully, you have no idea what comes next for the two of you. If anyone caught wind of the nature of your relationship, both of your names and reputations would be destroyed. Not to mention, your already flimsy hold of the Edgewater estate would be taken from you. You don't even know where to begin in finding a suitor who's willing to overlook your unusual preferences in romance. Travelling down this route would be equal to setting yourself on fire – it would only get harder and harder each day. There would be no getting better for the two of you in this path.

But, if it would mean you get to hold Annabelle close like this, then you're willing to do everything it takes – even go to hell and back.

If there's something you learned from your parent's tragedy, it's that you never give up on love. It may be reckless and others may call it stupidity, but you have to stand by the person you love. Because that's just simply how one loves.

You won't be your father, you will learn from his mistakes and hold on to Annabelle. Happiness skipped your parents' lives, you’ll make sure it doesn’t skip yours.

#i keep forgetting to post this #annabelle parsons #annabelle x mc #desire and decorum #choices d&d #choices fanfiction #choices fanfic #choices #playchoices #choices the stories you play #my writing

[ladynonsense]

Choices Fanfic Masterlist

Currently Updating:

Clanless Bloodbound AU where MC Chloe is turned against her will and ends up living among the clanless with Jax, looking for answers for why she was turned...and what she’s become.

Jax x MC (Chloe)

Part 1: The Interview Part 2: The Vampire Part 3: The Rebel Part 4: Self Control (NSFW) Part 5: Something Else Part 6: Sunlight (NSFW) Part 7: Bloodlust

Completed Series:

A Royal Disgrace: TRR/PM Crossover Damien and Riley (TRR MC) have a shared past, and they cross paths again when Damien is hired to spy on her and King Liam during the engagement tour. But things get...complicated. Yes, this is the Damien x Liam series.

Liam x MC (Riley), Drake x MC (Riley), Damien x m!MC (Kai), Damien x Liam

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 (NSFW) We Can’t Do This (Damien x Liam drabble, set between chapters 4 and 5) Part 5 Part 6 (NSFW) Part 7 Part 8 (NSFW) Part 9 Part 10 (NSFW) Epilogue

ALTERNATE ENDING: Doomed Ship

Drabbles etc. in this AU: Liam x Damien OTP Ask Liam x Damien 'Who Does What’ Ask (spending time naked) Liam x Damien ‘Who Does What’ Ask (jealousy) Things You Said When You Were Drunk (Liam x Damien) Things You Didn’t Say (Liam x Damien) Things You Said Through Your Teeth (Liam x Damien)

One Night in the City TRR AU where the Beaumonts don’t sponsor Riley and she is left behind in New York for the social season. Complicated romantic entanglement is no longer their biggest problem when Liam and Olivia’s wedding is attacked and a dangerous plot begins to unfold.

Liam x MC, Drake x MC, Liam x Olivia, Drake x Olivia, Liam x Drake

Part 1: The King (NSFW) Part 2: The Waitress (NSFW) Part 3: Awkward Part 4: The Duchess Part 5: I’m In (NSFW) Part 6: Restless Part 7: Going Home Part 8: The Wedding (NSFW) Part 9: Safe Part 10: Complicated (NSFW) Part 11: Honesty (NSFW) Part 12: Aftermath Part 13: Secrets Part 14: I Do Part 15: Let Me In Part 16: Not Again (NSFW) Part 17: The Stranger Part 18: ...And Stay Down Part 19: Responsible Part 20: Courage and Strength

Epilogue Part 1: Secrets Epilogue Part 2: Plots & Murders

The Duke TRR MC Beatrix is devastated after Liam proposes to Madeleine, and falls hard for Bertrand Beaumont’s particular breed of tough love in the aftermath. This is primarily a smut series with a healthy dose of angst.

Bertrand x MC, Liam x MC

Part 1 (NSFW) Part 2 (NSFW) Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 (NSFW)

Ship Has Sailed (Bertrand x MC drabble set after the events of The Duke)

Standalone fics, drabbles, etc. by book

The Royal Romance

Friendly Fire (Maxwell x MC) Rain (Liam x MC) (NSFW) Not Going Anywhere (Drake x Liam) Death Drop (Maxwell x friends) Irresistible (Olivia x MC) (NSFW)

Drabbles etc: Liam x Drake, Liam x Olivia, Liam x MC OTP Asks Liam x Drake, Liam x Olivia, Liam x MC ‘Who Does What’ Asks Bastien “Personal Free Time” HC Ask “Commanding Liam” HC Ask King Liam HC Ask Drake Walker HC Ask Leo HC Ask Bastien HC Ask Liam x Drake OTP Asks

I’ll also include my exhaustive list of every diamond scene where you get to make out with or bang King Liam, sorted by hotness. It’s a labour of love.

Bloodbound

Nobody Can Hear Us (Jax x Chloe) (NSFW)

Drabbles etc:  Jax x Chloe OTP Ask (Clanless AU) Sergio the Houseboy HC Ask Adam Vega HC Ask

Perfect Match

featuring f!MC Rory Park:

In Captivity (Damien x f!MC) In Pain (Damien x f!MC) Rory’s Secret (Damien x f!MC) (NSFW) Sweet Dreams (Damien x f!MC) Yes or No (f!MC x Sloane x m!Hayden) (NSFW) Ugh...Feelings (f!MC x Alana) (NSFW) Every Inch of Him (Khaan x f!MC) (NSFW) His Ghost (Dames x f!MC) (NSFW)

featuring m!MC Reggie Park:

8 Nights in Paridise (Khaan x m!MC)

Drabbles etc: Damien x f!MC OTP Ask Nadia Park HC Ask Damien x f!MC Who Does What Asks (books, tea, ticklish) Damien x f!MC Who Does What Asks (mornings, i love you, baby crazy) Reckless (f!MC x Damien) (Angry kiss prompt) Damien x f!MC Movie Date HC Ask

Red Carpet Diaries

Iowa Bound (Matt x MC)

Misc Drabbles and HCs

Sebastian Delacroix HC Ask Duke Richards HC Ask Prince Hamid HC Ask D&D MC HC Ask Luke Harper HC Ask

#choices #fanfic #masterlist #trr #bloodbound #perfect match

[readbykena-blog]

13 years - 305 books

I am an avid reader and friends frequently ask me what I am reading. Here I will try and post a brief review of each book I read. To begin with here is a list of books I have read over the last 13 years. Feel free to ask me any questions.

2017: (22)

-Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

-Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

-Corporate Communication, Theory & Practice by Joep Cornelissen

-Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen

-Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

-A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

-Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

-Theorizing Crisis Communication by Timothy Sallow and Matthew Seeger

-Infamous Scribblers: The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism by Eric Burns

-The Global Public Relations Handbook by Krishnamurthy Sriramesh and Dejan Vercic

-The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

-When My Name was Keoko by Linda Sue Park

-The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

- Introducing Communication Research by Donald Treadwell

- We are never meeting in real life by Samantha Irby

- Ethics in Public Relations by Kathy Fitzpatrick and Carolyn Bronstein

- The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee

- Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

- Origin by Dan Brown

- What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton

- Social Media Communication by Jeremy Harris Lipshultz

- A Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

2016: (20)

-A Renegade History of the United States by Thaddeus Russell

-Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

-The Underground Abductor by Nathan Hale

-Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

-The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

-The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

-The Speechwriter by Barton Swaim

- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

-The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin

-The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

-But What If We're Wrong by Chuck Klosterman

-Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

-Brewster by Mark Slouka

-Rosemary The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson

-The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

-The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith

-Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

-The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

-The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

-A Man Called Ove by Frederick Backman 

2015: (29)

-All The Truth Is Out by Matt Bai

-Double Down by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann

-The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

-Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan

-Yes Please by Amy Poehler

-A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

-All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

-The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan

-The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

-To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway

-In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway

-A Country Doctor by Franz Kafka

-The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway

-Persuading Scientists by Hamid Ghanadan

-The Splendid Things We Planned by Blake Bailey

-Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

-A Heartbreaking Word of Staggering Genius by David Eggers

-Polio, An American Story by David Oshinsky 

-The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

-Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

-One Summer America, 1927 by Bill Bryson

-Brain on Fire by Susannah Catalan

-The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

-The Making of Modern Medicine by Michael Bliss

-People I Want to Punch in the Throat by Jen Mann

-Internal Medicine by Terrence Holt

-The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

-The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

-The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

2014: (10)

-David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell

-Why Grizzly Bears Should Wear Underpants by The Oatmeal

-Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

-Wild by Sheryl Strayed

-Stiff by Mary Roach

-An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

-Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

-Dataclysm by Christian Rudder

-Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracey Kidder

-Columbine by Dave Cullen

2013: (13)

-The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner

-The Path Between The Seas by David McCullough

-Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris

-I Wear the Black Hat by Chuck Klosterman

-Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama

-A Hologram For The King by Dave Eggers

-Inferno by Dan Brown

-The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

-Heads in Beds by Jacob Tomsky

-Monkey Mind by Daniel Smith

-The Brief Wondrous Live of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

-Truth in Advertising by John Kenny

-The Cell Game by Alex Prud'Homme

2012: (16)

-Walden by Henry David Thoreau

-Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

-The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman

-Overtreated By Shannon Brownlee

-Listen To Your Heart by Fern Michaels (TERRIBLE BOOK!)

-The Ten, Make That Nine Habits of Very Organized People. Make That Ten, by Steve Martin

-The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin

-Baby Proof by Emily Giffen

-Natural Experiments of History by Jared Diamond

-The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

-The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

-Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

-Secrets of The Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg

-A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

-The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

-Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

2011: (20)

-Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

-I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

-Tinkers by Paul Harding

-How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

-What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell

-The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

-The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

-An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin

-Tea Time For the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith

-Bossypants by Tina Fey

-The Pearl by John Steinbeck

-Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

-Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillian and Al Switzler

-Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

-The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

-Of Thee I Zing by Laura Ingraham

-A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron

-Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

-The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

-Trust Me I'm Dr. Ozzy by Ozzy Osbourne

2010: (26)

- History's Worst Decisions and the people who made them by Stephen Weir

- Junky by William S. Burroughs

- One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell

- Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman

- Food Rules by Michael Pollan

- Noah's Compass by Anne Tyler

- Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

- Drive by Daniel Pink

-The Help by Kathryn Stockett

-The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

-US Americans Talk About Love Edited by John Bowe

-For You Mom, Finally by Ruth Reichl

-The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter

-Cowboys Are My Weakness by Pam Houston

-The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

-Barrel Fever by David Sedaris

-You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett

-Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

-The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

-The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

-I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson

-The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

-Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris and Ian Falconer

-Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

-A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel

2009: (22)

• Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

• Remember Me? By Sophie Kinsella

• A Long Way Gone, memoirs of a boy soldier by Ishmael Beah

• Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher

• Slummy Mummy by Fiona Neill

• Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet

• Crawfish Mountain by Ken Wells

• My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler

• Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

• A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

• Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

• Mistakes Were Made, by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson

• Gertrude by Herman Hesse

• The Sportswriter by Richard Ford

- Born to Run by Christopher McDougall

- The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold

- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

- When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris

- Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

- Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich

-The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

-Super Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner

2008: (21)

• The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

• Inside the Minds, The Art of Public Relations by CEOs

• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

• Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol

• The Pig Did It by Joseph Caldwell

• The Known World by Edward P. Jones

• Dark Roots by Cate Kennedy

• East of Eden by John Steinbeck

• Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susan

• Wired by Bob Woodward

• One Pill Makes You Smaller by Lisa Dierbeck

• A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

• Secrets of the Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg

• Pound for Pound by F.X. Toole

• All the Way Home by David Giffels

• Bonk by Mary Roach

• In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin

• Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris

• The Sea by John Banville

• Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman

• Female Chauvinist Pigs, Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy

2007: (28)

• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

• 1984 by George Orwell

• What Ifs? Of American History edited by Robert Cowley

• The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer

• Rabbit, run by John Updike

• Life of Pi by Yann Martel

• The Armies of the Night by Norman Mailer

• Pigtopia by Kitty Fitzgerald

• FiSH by Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul and John Christensen

• The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

• 1776 by David McCullough

• Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart

• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

• Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart

• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

• Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald

• Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

• Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

• The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

• Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh

• A Dog Year by Jon Katz

• 1491 New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann

• IV by Chuck Klosterman

• Devil in the Details by Jennifer Traig

• The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

• The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

• Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

• No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

2006: (27)

• Collapse, How societies choose to fail or succeed by Jared Diamond

• The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman

• Freakonomics by Levitt & Dubner

• Harry and Ike by Steve Neal

• State of Denial by Bob Woodward

• Crossroads in American History by James McPherson & Alan Brinkley

• The Lexus & The Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman

• The Lessons of History by Will & Ariel Durant

• Strategery by Bill Sammon

• Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins

• Japanese Canadian Redress, The Toronto Story

• The Untold Story of the Yom Kippur War by Howard Blum

• The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles

• Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie

• Red Weather by Pauls Toutonghi

• Wifey by Judy Blume

• Frantic Transmissions to and from LA by Kate Braverman

• Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

• Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

• The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

• The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night-time by Mark Hadden

• A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

• Marley & Me by John Grogan

• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

• Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell

• Boni y Tigre by Kathrin Sander

2005: (51)

• Guns, Germs, And Steel by Jared Diamond

• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

• Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

• Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman

• The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf

• A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

• Mary Magdalene by Lynn Picknett

• Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson

• The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

• Bob Dylan Chronicles Volumn 1 by Bob Dylan

• Smashed by Koren Zailckas

• Culture Shock Costa Rica by Claire Wallerstein

• The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs

• Dress Your Family in Corduroy & Denim by David Sedaris

• Naked Pictures of Famous People by Jon Stewart

• All the President's Men by Bernstein & Woodward

• The Final Days by Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein

• The Secret Man by Bob Woodward

• Shadow (5 Pres. & the Legacy of Watergate by Bob Woodward

• All Politics is Local, by Tip O'Neill

• What's the Matter With Kansas? (How Conservatives Won the Heart of America) by Thomas Frank

• Don't think of an Elephant by George Lakoff

• Confessions of a Political Junkie by Hunter S. Thompson

• America The Book by Jon Stuart

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

• The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

• Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck

• Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

• The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London

• Animal Farm by Goerge Orwell

• Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnecut

• The Stranger by Albert Camus

• Empire Falls by Richard Russo

• The Great Fire by Shirly Hazzard

• A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler

• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

• Skirt and the Fiddle by Tristian Egolf

• Drive Like Hell by Dallas Hudgens

• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

• Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

• Deception Point by Dan Brown

• Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

• The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyers

• Angry Housewives by Lorna Landvik

• The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield

• Loving Che by Ana Menendez

• Wolves in Chic Clothing by Carrie Karasyov & Jill Kargman

• Citizen Girl by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

• And Sister by Sophie Kinsella

• Trading Up by Candace Bushnell

[buscemigirl]

REVIEW: The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012) dir. Mira Nair Starring: Riz Ahmed, Liev Schreiber, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland Rating: 4.5/5

Review Summary: I’m not going to be friends with anyone who won’t watch this movie.

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, based on the book of the same name by Mohsin Hamid shares the story of a Pakistani man living in America post-9/11. It opens with the kidnapping of an American professor, Anse Rainer, in Lahore, Pakistan. American journalist/CIA informant, Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber), interviews Rainer’s colleague, Changez Khan (Riz Ahmed), who the CIA suspects is involved in the kidnapping.

Caption: Bobby Lincoln, left, (Liev Schreiber) and Changez Kahn, right, (Riz Ahmed) sit at a table in Lahore, Pakistan discussing Changez’s life.

Changez is a very intelligent and determined young man who moves to the United States to attend Princeton University on scholarship, and eventually, to New York City to work for a Wall Street valuation company, Underwood Samson. He works on a fairly diverse team and thrives very easily at the company, rising quickly to the level of Associate.

Caption: A conference/meeting room at Underwood Samson. Changez Kahn is pictured middle left

Changez also falls very deeply in love with a white American photographer, Erica (Kate Hudson) who he meets by chance one day by stumbling into her outdoor photoshoot of skateboarders.

Caption: Changez and Erica (Kate Hudson) kiss and embrace in Erica’s apartment.

After the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center by Al-Qaeda, Changez experiences many different forms of racism and Islamophobia. Immediately after the attacks, Changez and his co-workers are arriving back to New York from Manila, Philippines. There, he is subjected to a humiliating strip search by authorities which ends with the man inspecting his anus. The film portrays this in a way in which makes you focus entirely on how Changez feels humiliated and degraded.

Caption: Changez bends over naked in a private room in the airport as he is inspected by authorities.

The entire film does just such an amazing job of focusing on how deeply traumatic these experiences of racism and Islamophobia are for Muslims living in America. In addition to being strip-searched at the airport, Changez is also mistakenly arrested on the street after calls were made to the police about a different Pakistani man. He is interrogated intensely and not allowed to contact his lawyer. In another instance, his tires are slashed after a meeting and a white man pulls up next to him in the parking lot (assumingly the same man who slashed his tires), spits at him, and says “Fuck you, Osama!”

One scene that is particularly unnerving is when his girlfriend, Erica sets up an art show that is based on their relationship. It features several fetishistic elements and appropriates many aspects of Islamic culture. Changez is outraged when he sees it, feeling as if he was just a prop in her artistic endeavors. Riz Ahmed’s acting here is really amazing here too! (He is never one to shy away from political comments and recently released a song called “Englistan” about his experience as a British Pakistani man which you should listen to!) You can really feel Riz’s true emotion behind it. Here is the full reaction scene:

Full transcript Changez: You’re the one goddamn person I trusted in this city and now I get this shit. I get this fucking shit from you too, now? Hmm? Erica: I don’t...I thought...I thought...I thought you’d be proud of me. Changez: Why would I be proud? What? Proud of being your own little pet artistic project? Erica: Can we please take this outside? Changez: No, what? Was that the idea? Huh? How chic! How chic! “I’m gonna date a Pakistani after 9/11 and it’s gonna be great for my bohemian street cred!” Erica: That is completely unfair! Changez: “I fucked the 20th hijacker!” Huh? I’m like the ultimate downtown status symbol right now.

Another thing that The Reluctant Fundamentalist does that is interesting is display everyday microaggressions or ingrained Islamophobic ideals that we as Americans exhibit towards the Muslim community. Changez consistently has his name pronounced incorrectly and by people that he works with. These are people that he spends the majority of his day with and they can’t even learn how to pronounce his name - a name that is really not at all hard to pronounce even for the most redneck American. He gets called “Changes” or “Chain-jeez” multiple times.

By one coworker, he is even called Saddam on more than one occasion. Multiple coworkers comment on the fact that they dislike his beard and urge him to shave it, despite the fact that Changez says that it reminds him of where he comes from. These are things that Americans, particularly white Americans, do, sometimes without even realizing it. But still, The Reluctant Fundamentalist shows us that these things impact Muslims living in America negatively.

Furthermore, often while at work, after the attacks, Changez overhears his coworkers speaking ignorantly about Muslims. Here is how one conversation went down:

Wainwright: All I'm saying is, before I'd start a full F-16, tank-ass war against the entire Muslim world, I'd give the CIA, INTERPOL, whoever, a chance to track these motherfuckers down. Mike: We got hit first. It's Pearl Harbor all over again. It's common fucking sense. Wainwright: I'm not saying you're wrong, but what nation-state attacked us? Mike: Nation-state, my ass! You're splitting hairs. Wainright: Am I? Mike: Yeah. They believe God told them to blow us up. It's in their book. Wainright: It's in their book? Mike: Yeah. Whatever it's called.

The film does an incredible job of articulating how American patriotism can easily cross the line into xenophobia. I think that a major point to take away from this is that white fear and American nationalism breeds terrorism (though Changez is not a terrorist, that’s not what I’m implying). But, we as Americans ostracize Muslims to the point where we make them resent us. We tell them that America is the place where dreams come true and anyone can thrive, but then despise anyone who we don’t think fits our very Eurocentric standards. And when tragedy strikes or anything happens that makes us feel threatened, we blame anyone who looks like the people we are angry at. I think that Changez says it best himself:

Changez: You picked a side after 9/11: I didn’t have to. It was picked for me.

So, are there any negatives to the film? Only slightly. I found the present day plot with Anse Rainer a bit confusing to follow. I just think that it could have been simplified a bit for the film. And as for women in the film, of course, I wish there were more women because I literally always wish that there were more women. However, I was pleased with the way the women were represented. His sister Bina (Meesha Shafi) is a carefree and confident woman who dresses in her own unique style. It’s a contrast to the typical Muslim women that are typically displayed in Western media. We need more honest and real portrayals of Muslim women in popular media, which is why we really need more incredible filmmakers who are women of color like Mira Nair (Mississippi Masala, The Namesake).

I give this film a 4.5 out of 5 because I really think that the plot taking place in the present day was very confusing and hard to follow. That being said, this is truly one of the most incredible films I have seen recently. I’ve been so serious this whole review because I just couldn’t bring myself to try and be funny. This topic isn't funny. It demands to be taken seriously. I wish every single American, especially white American, could watch The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Maybe then we could understand our impact of the hatred and trauma that we inflict on Muslims living America every day.

#the reluctant fundamentalist #riz ahmed #kate hudson #liev schreiber #genre: drama #genre: thriller #subgenre: political #theme: class #theme: race #theme: religion #theme: ethnicity #lead: poc #mira nair #2010s #2012 #4.5 #film review

[victoriagloverstuff]

All of the Books President Obama Thinks You Should Read

Over the weekend, Barack Obama shared a list of his recent reads via his Facebook page (and also subtly teased a summer reading list to come). It was, I admit, a little depressing—it can be hard to think about the fact that we used to have a thoughtful, curious, intelligent man leading this country, and that now we do not. So as a salve of sorts, I went hunting for other books that President Obama has championed over the years. Below is a working list of everything he’s recommended or put on a list of favorites (though not everything he has purchased or been seen reading, because we all buy and read things we end up disliking, and there’s really no way to know), in case you still need help planning your own summer reading, or just want to think back to better times.

Recent reading, shared June 16, 2018, on his Facebook Page:

“I’m often asked what I’m reading, watching, and listening to, so I thought I might share a short list from time to time. There’s so much good writing and art and variety of thought out there these days that this is by no means comprehensive—like many of you, I’ll miss The Americans—but here’s what I’ve been reading lately. It’s admittedly a slightly heavier list than what I’ll be reading over the summer:”

Alex Wagner, Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging

“I once wrote a book on my own search for identity, so I was curious to see what Alex, daughter of a Burmese mother and Iowan Irish-Catholic father—and a friend of mine—discovered during her own. What she came up with is a thoughtful, beautiful meditation on what makes us who we are—the search for harmony between our own individual identities and the values and ideals that bind us together as Americans.”

Enrico Moretti, The New Geography of Jobs

“It’s six years old now, but still a timely and smart discussion of how different cities and regions have made a changing economy work for them—and how policymakers can learn from that to lift the circumstances of working Americans everywhere.”

Patrick Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed

“In a time of growing inequality, accelerating change, and increasing disillusionment with the liberal democratic order we’ve known for the past few centuries, I found this book thought-provoking. I don’t agree with most of the author’s conclusions, but the book offers cogent insights into the loss of meaning and community that many in the West feel, issues that liberal democracies ignore at their own peril.”

Mitch Landrieu, In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History

“A few years ago, I eulogized the Reverend Clementa Pinckney, who was slain by a white supremacist in his church in Charleston, South Carolina. And I’ll never forget something Clem said while he was alive: “Across the South, we have a deep appreciation of history. We haven’t always had a deep appreciation of each other’s history.” That’s something Mitch takes to heart in this book, while grappling with some of the most painful parts of our history and how they still live in the present. It’s an ultimately optimistic take from someone who believes the South will rise again not by reasserting the past, but by transcending it.”

Obama’s favorite books of 2017, shared on December 31, 2017, on his Facebook Page:

Naomi Alderman, The Power Ron Chernow, Grant Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City Amy Goldstein, Janesville: An American Story Mohsin Hamid, Exit West James McBride, Five-Carat Soul Elizabeth Strout, Anything Is Possible Cory Taylor, Dying: A Memoir Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing *Bonus for hoops fans: Coach Wooden and Me by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Basketball (and Other Things) by Shea Serrano

The books Obama gave to his daughter Malia, as reported in an interview with Michiko Kakutani, published January 16, 2017 in the New York Times:

Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior

Other favorites, from the same interview:

Liu Cixin, The Three-Body Problem Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl Lauren Groff, Fates and Furies (Earlier, he counted Groff’s novel as his favorite of 2015) Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River Marilynne Robinson, Gilead Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad

(Plus the works of William Shakespeare, Junot Díaz, and Jhumpa Lahiri)

10 of Obama’s “Essential Reads” as told to WIRED and published October 21, 2016:

Abraham Lincoln, The Collected Works Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time Richard S. Tedlow, Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an American Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History John Steinbeck, In Dubious Battle Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity

President Obama’s official summer reading list, summer 2016:

William Finnegan, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad Helen Macdonald, H Is for Hawk Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train Neal Stephenson, Seveneves

President Obama’s official summer reading list, summer 2015:

Anthony Doerr, All The Light We Cannot See Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me Ron Chernow, Washington: A Life James Salter, All That Is

Personal favorites from his youth that President Obama recommended to kids at a public library in 2015:

Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

(Plus: the Hardy Boys series and Dr. Seuss)

A list of “the books and writers most significant to him,” as told to the New York Times in 2008, when he was still a candidate:

W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory Graham Greene, The Quiet American Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Cancer Ward Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth John Steinbeck, In Dubious Battle Robert Caro, Power Broker Studs Terkel, Working Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest

(Plus: Shakespeare’s tragedies, Thomas Jefferson’s Federalist Papers, Emerson, Lincoln, Twain, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” James Baldwin, and philosophers Nietzsche, Niebuhr, and Tillich.)

Finally, according to his Facebook profile, his favorite books are:

Good read found on the Lithub

[001zlehsblog]

Zaulson Lee

   打破： 特朗普說，參議員不應該在保健方面取得進展 × Cramer Remix：不要讓UnitedHealth的行為愚弄你 “瘋狂貨幣”主持人克里姆（Jim Cramer）向投資者發出警告，說明一家保險供應商的股票不公正行為。 Cramer還與Prologis的首席執行官進行了對比，Prologis是一家位於電子商務傳播中的倉庫REIT。 在閃電般的回合中，Cramer斷言他對一家龐大的郵件提供商的股票有信心。 Elizabeth Gurdus | @elizabethgurdus 18 Hours Ago CNBC.com PLAY VIDEO  The GOP's failure to pass health care reform has shaken the market, so much so that Jim Cramer made the case for cordoning off Wall Street from Main Street. While Wall Street obsesses over the FANG stocks, Cramer's acronym for Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google, now Alphabet, for being the few plays immune to Washington's turmoil, strong earnings reports are overlooked or even met with disdain. "That's why I want to sing the praises of a bunch of companies that have reported this earnings season, companies that would be getting a lot more attention and love right now if Washington wasn't making us feel so pessimistic, so cynical," the "Mad Money" host said.  One such company was UnitedHealth. The largest health care provider in the country, UnitedHealth reported its quarterly earnings on Tuesday, topping the Street's estimates. Cramer's go-to UnitedHealth analyst, Mizuho Securities' Sheryl Skolnik, called it "an outstanding report," but the stock closed up only 0.2 percent, a mere 50 cents. "Don't let its measly 50-cent gain fool you," Cramer warned. "United Health reported a great quarter. Its stock's a buy." Off the Charts: The Forgotten Ones  Adam Jeffery | CNBC A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The technology sector may be seen by the stock market as the hotbed of growth and the rally's main driver, but Cramer wanted to put its performance into context. "It's not like tech is vaulting into the stratosphere while everything else does nothing," Cramer said. "What we have here is a broad-based rally that's taking up all sorts of stocks, proving once again that diversification is the only free lunch in this business." In the last six months, the tech stocks in the S&P 500 rallied 15 percent on average, but the health care stocks rose over 13 percent, with industrials, materials and financials up 8 percent. So Cramer used the charts of technician Bob Moreno, publisher of RightViewTrading.com and Cramer's colleague at RealMoney.com, to highlight some of the overlooked sectors' top names. Netflix: 3 Reasons Why  Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Netflix app on an Apple iPad mini tablet computer. In light of Netflix's strong earnings report, Cramer knows CEO Reed Hastings understands three things: content can be king, people love bargains, and bigwig money managers will invest in internet stocks with promise. "Netflix is, to the naked eye, a two-pronged success. If your company can produce local content that people love worldwide and you only charge them $8 or €8 a month, you'll land and expand. You'll grow and grow and grow," the "Mad Money" host said. But the third element, the willingness of Wall Street financiers to catch and pay for the next hot internet-related trend, was what really drove Hastings' success so far, Cramer said. A Windy Road for Straight Path Communications Cramer also analyzed the action in Straight Path Communications, using the stock's moves to make the case that markets are not, as some economic theories say, perfectly efficient. Verizon recently announced it would buy Straight Path, which owns bandwidth licenses for 5G networks, for $184 a share after a bidding war with AT&T that sent the stock price soaring from $36, where it stood before the bids began. "The action in Straight Path Communications has been very exciting, but I wouldn't call it efficient," Cramer said. "The reason you can make money in individual stocks — as long as you do the homework — is that markets are rarely super efficient, the conventional wisdom is often wrong, and there are often huge opportunities there for the taking if you know where to look. Straight Path had a lot going against it, sure, absolutely, but at the end of the day they owned some insanely valuable spectrum assets that ultimately made AT&T and Verizon willing to pay through the nose to buy the whole company. That's what really mattered." Prologis CEO: Broader than E-Commerce Finally, Cramer spoke with Hamid Moghadam, the CEO of warehouses real estate investment trust Prologis, to check in on the REIT space and see how the industry is building on the rise of e-commerce. "It's really broader than e-commerce," Moghadam told Cramer on Tuesday. "I mean, it's all consumption-related and, you know, supply has been very disciplined in the last couple of years and demand has been really strong, so the combination of those two [has] made the best market of my career." And as data becomes increasingly important to technology companies working on the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, Moghadam said his company is well-positioned to take advantage of the information boom. "I think in 10 years we're going to think about our businesses, not just the real estate business, but also a very significant data business, and I think that data is going to help our customers, it's going to help our own decision-making, and who knows? If we're really successful at this, it could be a separate business that could be valued separately by the market," the CEO said. "It's way too early to get that far ahead of our speed, but I'm really excited about those opportunities." Lightning Round: Don't Give Up on UPS In Cramer's lightning round, he flew through his take on some callers' favorite stocks, including: United Parcel Service: "UPS is getting its act together and they are levered to e-commerce. No, you don't want to sell. We're not going with that. We like UPS." McKesson Corporation: "I have to tell you, long term buy. The words 'long term' were crucial because short term, I don't like the expectations there." Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC Want to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram - Vine Questions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? [email protected]  Elizabeth Gurdus Digital Producer by Taboola更多來自CNBC Cramer：IBM是另一家被“亞馬遜”的公司 這兩隻股票可能會看漲收益 克拉默的閃電：有兩種方式可以贏得這個芯片製造商 Cramer對99.4億美元的交易投資者無視 Cramer Remix：這股股票太性感了，無法忽視 克拉默：a cul！這個股票的行動是為什麼我說小帽生物技術只是... 通過Taboola 贊助商鏈接 從WEB IRS漏洞保存退休金 Goldco 重信用卡債務 國民債務救濟的 大驚喜 他們的成功退休“沒有發生過夜” - 看 美林 想買新的沙發？去這個網站第一個 Wayfair  t

[resetmypatientviolence]

Please do Prince Hamid!!!

Ask and you shall receive!

Do you love/hate/don’t feel strongly about this character?

Hamid oh Hamid. I LOVE HIM. He’s such a spunky breath of fresh air– with fast quips for the Duke– but he’s such a bubbly, yet bold, character. I can’t get enough of that funky little Prince.

What’s your favorite trait of this character?

Oh man, everything? Okay, okay, his cheeriness. He’s so happy. So optimistic. Even when things aren’t great, he’s happy and willing to look forward. Also, the horse race? I died when Hamid didn’t give a shit at the duel happening right then and there. Oh my god, angel.

What’s your favorite moment/even involving this character?

Ooh, this rough between the opera scene and the tree. Hmm… but… the tree scene. Wanting to meet the family? Like oh my GOD. He’s precious. And that wrist kiss, all. Whew.

If you could have one power/attribute/etc. of this character, what would it be?

I mean… can I be royalty?

Have you ever pictured this character naked?

Nope! Weird to think of DD characters as naked to me. Yikes.

When did you fall in love/hate with this character? I you don’t have any strong feelings toward them, why not?

Oh man, the opera diamond scene. My heart was racing. I loved how he was so bold and forward. It was a heart racing scene. Every moment is with him. I adored it all and confirmed to me my main and first LI.

Who’s your OTP for this character?

It’s gotta be Hamid x MC and nobody else.

#prince hamid x mc #prince hamid #desire and decorum

[resetmypatientviolence]

Luke Harper for the character ask?

oooh Luke. Ohhhhh Luke. 

1) Do you love/hate/don’t feel strongly about this character?

Ugh, I adore him. I love him. If there wasn’t Hamid, fuck, I’d be going for him. I can’t stop flirting with him. 

2) What’s your favorite trait of this character?

How BOLD he is. Yes, he’s sweet and kind and pure and loves MC, but he’s so damn bold with her for the time. 

3) What’s your favorite moment/even involving this character?

Ooh, this weeks diamond scene was fire. I loved it all. Especially how he’ll like, touch your cheek but seeing an ankle? AGHAST. And the story they told? YES. 

4) If you could have one power/attribute/etc. of this character, what would it be?

Horses are cool af, I’m just scared of them. So like, being a badass with horses would be legit fun. 

5) Have you ever pictured this character naked?

I haven’t! I can’t for any of the DD LI’s right now, too scandalous. 

6) When did you fall in love/hate with this character? I you don’t have any strong feelings toward them, why not?

Probably after this weeks diamond scene. You know he’s getting a proper play through when I replay DD. 

7) Who’s your OTP for this character?

Fuckkkkk…. it’s gotta be MC. It’s true love. 

#mr harper #my soul #desire & decorum