#sherry redwood

[del-sol-diminutives]

The Big Lemonade Stand Scoop!

Porto del Sol’s summers are always hot and sunny. This summer, Huey Seabreeze and Muddy McBurrows concocted a plan both cool and delicious. Lemonade!

“Now you boys have everything you need, don’t you? Extra cups and lemons and —“ asked Heidi McBurrows.

“Yes, Mom! We’re all ready to go.” The boys had been planning for days over the McBurrows’ coffee table, from borrowing and decorating the cart to testing lemonade recipes until they both had one they agreed on.

“All right, sweetie. You two have a good time.”

“Thanks, Mom!”

“Thanks, Mrs. McBurrows! We’ll do our best!”

The first to arrive at their little stand was the town mayor, Lionel Grand, and his son Lawrence. 

“Well, boys, what’s all this?” Lionel asked, examining their stand with great interest.

“Lemonade, Daddy! Can we have some? Please?” Lawrence asked shyly, burrowing into his father’s side.

“I think we can, if these fine young men will sell us some.”

“Of course, Mr. Grand!” Muddy passed out the cups that Huey poured.

“Please enjoy them, sir!” Huey gulped nervously. Their first customer was the mayor? This was make-or-break!

“This is delicious, isn’t it, Lawrence?” Lionel asked.

“Oh yes, Daddy! It’s really yummy! And nice and sweet on a hot day like today.”

“Well, thank you, gentlemen,” said Lionel. “We’ll be sure to tell everyone we meet today how wonderful your lemonade is.”

“Thank you, sir!” both boys exclaimed, and waved as their first customers headed into town.

“That was sure nice of him,” Muddy mused aloud.

“It was!” Huey said, wiping down the cart. He glanced back up, and his eyes widened. “Oh boy. Muddy, look!”

The mayor certainly had made good on his promise to tell people. Within minutes, the boys had a line that wrapped around their cart and continued down the riverbank. Everyone from town seemed to have decided to come out for a treat!

“Very fine lemonade, this. Good job, boys,” said Merlot.

“Thank you, Mr. Redwood!” Approval from the vintner and his wife was even better than the approval of the mayor! Everyone knew how hard they worked to make the delicious wines and juices Porto del Sol was famous for.

“Yes, indeed. Keep up the good work,” Shiraz assured them. “It’s wonderfully refreshing.”

“Thank you, ma’am!”

The line behind the Redwoods burst into a murmur of excitement, above and beyond the ongoing chatter as people waited. Everyone sounded enthusiastic about the boys’ little enterprise, especially with the Redwoods’ stamp of approval.

They served and served, and finally had to break out their reserved extra jug of lemonade. “It’s a good thing we made a lot before we set up,” Huey told Muddy.

“For sure,” worried Muddy. “After Samuel and Karen, here come the Pickleweeds!” There were seven in the Pickleweed family, and every single one of them was here.

“Oh boy … I hope we have enough!”

Huey wiped his forehead and breathed out a “phew!” The Pickleweeds had come and gone, and he and Muddy could see the end of the line. It looked like they had just enough to serve the Persians and Martha.

“Here you are! Thanks so much for coming by,” Huey passed out glasses to the Persians, while Muddy busied himself juicing more lemons and pouring more water.

He paused, and Huey could hear him mutter, “Uh-oh.”

He didn’t get a chance to ask Muddy what was wrong, because Hector and Isabella showed up just at that moment. “Hi Huey! Mom sent us to get some lemonade for Dad, please!” Hector said.

“He’s so busy working today, and it’s so hot. We’re bringing him his lunch, and a big thermos of your lemonade would really hit the spot.”

“Well, you’re in luck,” said Huey. “Muddy’s making more, but we should have just enough left to fill up that thermos.”

“Thanks, Huey! Thanks, Muddy,” the other kids chorused, and waved as they headed for Charles’ farmland.

“What was uh-oh?” Huey asked, once the Hunter-Smyths had gone.

“We forgot to bring more sugar!”

“Oh no! What’ll we do?” Now was not the time to panic! They both fell silent for a moment, trying to figure out what next.

“The Chocolates are just around the corner,” Muddy suggested. “Maybe Mrs. Chocolate will let us borrow some.”

“That’s a good idea,” agreed Huey. “If you’ll finish getting the rest of the lemons squeezed, I’ll go ask.” He pattered off before Muddy had a chance to say anything, and returned a few minutes later with a small blue canister. 

“She said we could take the whole jar and bring it back when we were done for the day,” he said excitedly. “Now we don’t have to worry about running out!”

“Phew! Well, let’s get this put together before anyone else shows up!” It was a good thing they scrambled, because —

“Hi guys! Smile! Freya wants to interview you for the paper!” Sherry said, just as they set down the fresh pitcher. She snapped their photo with smiles all around.

“That’s right! We overheard you asking Mom about the sugar, and your lemonade stand sounds awesome! Tell us all about everything! We’ll make it front-page!” Freya enthused.

The boys looked at each other in amazement. From the mayor, to the vintner, to the paper! Okay, it was Freya’s little Daily Chocolate that she hand-published, but even so, that was big! And Freya’s dad posted the paper up in his cafe, so people besides the kids would see it, too. Hopefully Freya would write them a nice article.

Muddy started explaining how they’d planned their enterprise, while Huey fetched her a tall glass of their freshly-made lemonade.

“I’m so excited to try it! Everyone’s been saying it’s so delicious and s—s——

“SALTY!” howled Freya. “You’ve been sabotaged! This is the crime of the century!”

Sherry put her hands up. “Freya, please, stop and think. They got the sugar from your own mom. There’s no way she would sabotage — “

“Someone must have sneaked into our house! That’s even worse!’ Freya started scribbling furiously in her notebook.

Huey took a tentative sip of the lemonade. Freya was right; it was terrible! The boys looked at each other anxiously, and Muddy wiped away sweat from his forehead. Front-page might not be good for them after all!

“Freya, dear, calm down,” said a familiar voice.

“Mrs. Chocolate!”

“Hello, boys. Hi, Sherry,” she beamed, and turned apologetically to Huey. She was carrying an identical blue canister to the one Huey had brought earlier, but it was a size larger. “I’m sorry, Huey. When I told you to take the blue canister, I didn’t tell you which one. The sugar is in the bigger one.”

“Oh, that’s what happened!” Huey looked flustered, but relieved. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Chocolate. I must have used two cups of your salt!”

“That’s all right! Let’s make up a new batch,” she suggested, offering the boys the other canister. They quickly set to work.

“Aw,” Freya groused quietly. There was no sabotage, just a misunderstanding. She drew a disappointed line through her Lemonade Stand Larceny title. Sherry patted her on the shoulder. “How about Lemonade Stand Luxury?” she suggested instead, as Muddy passed them each a newly-mixed lemonade.

“Aaaah…” Delicious. It was so delicious; cool and refreshing just like everyone else had said. “I think we can do that,” Freya decided, her disappointment vanishing under a wave of sweet lemonade. She nodded enthusiastically at Huey and Muddy. “Just you wait and see!”

“Thanks for helping us, Mrs. Chocolate,” the boys said gratefully. Not only had she saved them from a lemonade disaster, she’d saved them from Freya roasting them in the paper. What a relief!

“It’s my pleasure. Good luck with the rest of your day, boys!”

———————

The rest of the day went smoothly. Freya flopped nearby and scribbled furiously while Sherry snapped photos, and other friends came and went, getting fresh glasses of lemonade to top off their day. Finally, worn out and tired, the boys started packing up.

“That was a great day,” Muddy enthused. “Even with the mix-up!”

“It sure was, but I’ve learned my lesson,” Huey agreed. “Always, always taste-test before you serve anything to Freya!”

[morelikesin]

Day 15 - Doll

"Y'know what ya want, then?"

Loba purred, "Just the usual, and an extra hashbrown. Thanks, beautiful."

Sherri put her notepad and pen back into her apron after scribbling a few things down. "Anything for you, doll."

[the-firebird69]

James Taylor - Fire And Rain (One Man Band, July 2007)

So it's going to disguise myself and dress up they're still probably will that's her version of Suzanne it gets her killed no she goes out and she's actually Danielle from the pickers showing these three were big trouble then Terry cheeseman got in trouble. Could do attention to the max we're making this armor out of the clay there's four types of clay and they add people to it and it makes it massively strong that's one thing they also are aware they think there are petrified redwood ships and it's real these people did a project and they're a mess Trump went off and got stuck in Russia and that was because Frankie is the one from Russia and he helped to the project they're fighting each other very fiercely and it turned into a war with the Mac proper and he's still fight each other. But I do the character and I'm running some companies it's my car company no e I race one. And yeah he's Charles Manson to my husband he wants to just threaten an extort and use them as a hostage so you can't really trust him at all. What I do is I think race the Chrysler as his daughter to try and beat her a track record. And Alicia says it's her she's going to do it and I'm saying it's me but I have to help keep her on the road she wants to revive the company she really wants the new minivan that my husband and I designed. And I want my children to help them and grow them up and tell them we're here they're going through hell all the time and Alicia wants it to make her family back. Dave doesn't want her to do the race. She wants to do the track test and boy the car looks fast and they won't let us have lives and these people are simple and they're suffocating us they think they get stuff and they're horribly wrong and we'd like to show them she does the track thing we think and she ends up dead and missing in Mexico and she's the girl who went deaf and had my husband in the house I think and she's seen with Tommy F last and you think that he kills her but they don't know for sure and Chrysler would be a competitor of Chevy but they're just for smack to try and take control use it as an excuse for the max to submerge and it's true there's too much benefit he's smiling and saying I don't really want everyone to have my car and it's true too. But he's a suspect and it goes through it for a while people get really mad and it's really the max are making an analogy but I don't know try and make this happen too but she's the one who wants to drive

Hera

Usually it's a temporary thing LOL hahaha and yeah people are laughing usually but I have to do this I have to beat Sherry she's ruining our people and have to show them when we're talking to watch out and get away from us. This is one way to do it and it's our car and we're trying to fight these guys and they're beating us up and it'll show that too in the movie it looks like it might be close by the ship there's a chance to make it stuck there if I do I will have a will I'm going to leave things to my people and only them.

Alicia

We don't want your things if you give us your things we're going to bury them with you

Trumpsters and Trump

I see if that's okay what I've done and what I'm doing has to live on

Alicia

Olympus

[rithebard]

On Thursday; #ChattingWithSherri welcomes #multiawardwinning #makeupandhairdesigner; #DeborahLanser on 10/12/23 at 7pm pt; http://tobtr.com/12271329 #interview #filmandtelevision

[matbenetti17]

[thethoughtsfromthreeam]

California

Pairing: Agent Whiskey/Jack Daniels x OC

Warnings: Death, violence

A/N:  We start seeing action in this chapter AND the start of soft!Jack, which isn’t a popular Jack trope currently as everyone is discovering their daddy kinks atm.  Plus I want soft!Jack because I’m a sap and I’m suspecting some of you are, too.

Reminder: I haven’t seen Kingsman: The Golden Circle, so I’m just using the Wikia, IMDB.com, some gifs, and my own weird ass brain to make up this whole ass story.

Tag List:  @zeldasayer , @romanticgumchewer, @tarrevizslas , @coolmaybelateruniverse , @the-feckless-wonder [please message me to be added or subtracted]

[PART 1]  [PART 2]

Part 3 

Next Stop: California

 The droning voices of the three other agents felt like background noise to her and she paid little attention to the words coming from their mouths.  After four weeks of hard work, Jack, Champ, and Tequila all felt Sirah was as ready as she could be for California.  She wasn’t so sure, but nonetheless, to California she must go.  

She wasn’t exactly a full field agent, but given the nature of the case, she wasn’t going to be inside the West Coast office at all, putting her into a position of little protection. All four crossed their fingers that the training was going to work.

“Sirah, are you going to be okay?”  Jack’s low voice cut through her thoughts.  She relaxed her face and looked at him.

“Probably not,” she laughed.  “But what can I do?  The case needs to be worked on, I have the skills you need, I’ll go.  I’ve made peace with all this.”

She hoped she sounded light-hearted and the three men cautiously nodded their heads.  As they exited the board room, Jack grabbed her hand and squeezed it.  She looked up and smiled, placing her hand over his.

“Jack, I’m sure everything will be fine.  Agents Sherry and Malbec are the primaries on the case.  I’m just there for back up.”  She smiled again.  They had become close friends over the last several years, often paired on cases together. She always appreciated Jack’s softness instead of the larger than life flirt he was with everyone else.  Not that he didn’t try the brash bravado he was known for on her at first.  It didn’t go far when she shut him down.

---***---

“Whiskey, would you up and die if you couldn’t flirt with a single woman?” She smiled at him and laugh when his eyebrows shot upwards.  “Bless your little heart, agent.”

He suddenly laughed, something he always did, but this sounded real, from the very inside of him.  He looked at her and relaxed.  He loved women, he loved flirting with them, he loved everything about it.  He wasn’t ashamed of it.  And he was certain he was going love Sirah, if even it came to nothing more than friendship.  He loved a woman who can make him laugh.

“Darling, you called me out.  I��m sorry, let me show you my manners and start again.  I think we can be great friends.  And please, call me Jack.”  He said.

“Jack?”

“Yes, Jack Daniels.”  And the laughter started up again until tears ran down her face.  

Yes, he thought, they’ll be great friends.  Maybe more.

---***---

Two months had passed since she landed in California and the adventure was wearing thin on her.  The cozy cabin near Redwood National Forest that served as their field headquarters was becoming less cozy and more confining as the days passed.  When she wasn’t pulled into the field to help with investigations, she was holed up in the house pouring over thousands of hours of work. Dead bodies dotted the west coast and she, along with Malbec and Sherry, were certain they were connected.  It was just a matter of finding the hub to all these spokes.

Agent Malbec sat on the couch, reviewing video sent by the office when she heard Sirah’s deep sigh.  She turned towards the researcher and found her hunched over three large maps on the table. The older agent got up and stepped over, putting her hand on Sirah’s shoulder.

“Not what you had hoped for, was it?”  She asked the question kindly.  She and her partner had grown to rely heavily on the researcher standing next to her and on more than one occasion, the information Sirah gleaned from the hundreds of pieces of evidence saved their asses.

“Not really.  I don’t think any of the information we have is viable.  I’ll go over the audio again to make sure I’m understanding what we caught, but I don’t know.  We’re so damn close to an answer, I can feel it.”  Sirah rubbed her eyes, she was exhausted.

“That’s not what I meant.”  Malbec replied and the younger agent looked at her.

“You’re not a field agent, you’re doing stuff you’re not comfortable with and it’s wearing on you.”  Sirah hung her head.  “No, don’t be ashamed!  I get it, this isn’t for everyone.  But I need you to know we appreciate you and you’ve been the best damn resource we could have been given.  We’re close, we’ll get the bastard, I promise.”

The two women smiled at each other before turning back to the maps and discussing what the audio from Sherry’s most recent stakeout had given up.  They continued to talk for another twenty minutes when they heard a large thump.  They looked up towards the back of the house, curious.  Sherry was out in the field tailing a suspect and wasn’t due back for another day or so.  Malbec drew her gun and slowly walked towards the sound.

Suddenly, something smelled weird to Sirah and she sniffed again trying to figure out what it was.  Just as she zeroed in on the scent, she heard Malbec running back towards her screaming, “FIRE!”

She looked up in a panic and could see smoke slowly filtering into the room. Oh my god, she thought.  Malbec was grabbing things off the table, including files and the maps.  Sirah ran to the computer and popped out the microdrive she saved everything on and said a silent thank you to her past self for backing it up not an hour earlier.

Without hesitating, she popped off her bootie and slid the thin piece of hardware under her inner sole and put the shoe back on.  The smoke was thicker now, and she could hear the flames crackling loudly behind her.  She grabbed a box from Malbec and they both ran outside, hitting the front porch just as an explosion rocked the house.

The fire caused the propane tank to burst and the ball of fire shot outwards, knocking the women to the ground.  Sirah cried out as she could feel her skin burning from the flames. She tried crawling away, but the heat of the fire seemed to be chasing her and tears streamed down her face as the pain began to overwhelm her body.

She collapsed to the ground, splayed out.  Papers and charred pieces of building rained around her as she laid there, struggling to remain focused.  She saw Malbec struggling as well and was confused when the woman, on her knees, stopped and looked upwards.  Forcing herself to focus through the haze of her pain, she noticed a pair of legs but couldn’t make out the torso.

“NO! WHY YOU?!” Malbec screamed and suddenly a shot rang out. She stilled and then dropped to the ground.  Her head landed facing Sirah, who could see the bullet hole in her forehead.  The vacant stare of the dead woman seemed to pierce right through her.

Sirah tried to scream, but nothing came out of her mouth and she struggled to get up and run away when her braid was yanked from behind.  The scream came as pain surged through her body, her burned skin being twisted beyond its limitations.  She was certain she was going to be shot next and she began to sob. A voice sounded in her ears.

“Your crying has only just begun.”

[nightmare-afton-cosplay]

‘Breathtakingly Beautiful’ Big Sur Retreat Floats Onto the Market for $7.25M

Realtor.com

A fantastic Big Sur mountain retreat on property owned by one family for six generations is now on the market for $7.25 million.

The artist Jo Hudson lived in this one-of-a-kind residence—which was built in 1986—until his death in 2018. He’s survived by his wife, Sherri Hudson Johannes, a graphic artist and jewelry designer who’s now overseeing the sale of the property along California’s central coast.

The two, who met at the nearby Esalen Institute, lived and made art in the sprawling compound set on 59 acres of prime coastal land. Local architect Mickey Muennig designed the home in collaboration with Hudson.

“It was a collaboration of imagination and design,” Johannes says. “It was all about the views. Where can I get an interesting view?” 

Mission accomplished. Perched on a cliff, it offers spectacular views of the coastline below. A particularly pretty spot on the property is a plunge pool overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

But there are so many appealing nooks and crannies to choose from. The guest cottage with a second-floor deck offers vistas above the treetops. An “outdoor bed” and nearby hot tub enable unimpeded stargazing at night.

Dining room and spiral staircase in main house

realtor.com

Living room and fireplace

realtor.com

Kitchen with colorful tile

realtor.com

Workshop

realtor.com

Guest cottage

realtor.com

Plunge pool with ocean views

realtor.com

“For people who know the coast, there’s just nothing like it,” Johannes says. “You have these views of the coastline and peace and privacy. It’s breathtakingly beautiful.”

It’s also not for the faint of heart. Grocery runs must be well planned. Whole Foods in Carmel is an hour and 20 minutes away, Johannes notes. But once you’re fully stocked up in this secluded spot surrounded by nature, there’s no reason to leave. 

“It is a very remote location,” says listing agent Nancy Sanders. “For someone who is an artist or a writer, who has a hectic busy life, that’s the person who will find their dream come true.”

There’s plenty of room for family and friends, so perhaps a rotating errand and grocery schedule can be arranged.

The living space includes a multilevel main house made of redwood and featuring exposed beams, a fireplace, and a kitchen with colorful tile. Elsewhere on the property are a guest cottage, two artist studios, a one-car garage with attached workshop, and a caretaker’s cabin. 

The land, along with woodsy acreage, includes grassy areas for picnics, gardens, and mature plantings.

With development limited in Big Sur, a coastal area about 350 miles south of San Francisco, properties like this one are in short supply.

“It’s very rare,” Sanders says. Much of the surrounding land consists of state forest, parks, or preservation areas.

“At the moment, it’s a relatively small amount of private land. It doesn’t turn over much,” Sanders says.

The post ‘Breathtakingly Beautiful’ Big Sur Retreat Floats Onto the Market for $7.25M appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

from https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/big-sur-breathtakingly-beautiful-retreat/

[agrafenaa]

Undone

This is my contribution for @flames-bring-a-ton-of-ash writing challenge. I chose the Mirror, Mirror prompt and I’ve written it in first person narrative. It’s super late due to moving and my boyfriend proposing, but here it is! I loved writing it. The question is, should I continue this or leave it as a one-shot? @flames-bring-a-ton-of-ash & @negans-network 

Summary: O/C accepts Negan’s marriage proposal but is jealous and possessive. When Amber makes a comment, it almost sends her over the edge but Negan falls with her. 

Word Count: 2,613 words

Warnings: jealousy, insecurity, fluff, teasing

______________________________________________________________

I see the champagne flutes come together in unison, but the distinct clinking of glass and the laughter that follows is drowned out by the sound of my blood thumping between my ears. And before I can stop myself, I see my hand reaching out, latching onto the first thing I see – the back of a chair, as I try desperately to steady myself.

Funny how a few words could leave me feeling like all the energy had been zapped out of my body, as if I had run a marathon but was left panting miles before the finish line in defeat.

Why am I like this? Why do I always do this to myself?

My other hand grips the flute, filled to the rim – compliments of Tanya, yet I can’t bring myself to take a sip despite the voice inside me begging for courage, pleading for everything to go numb. Instead I stare into one of the many vanity mirrors lining the wall of the dressing room, looking at the reflection of someone who resembled me. The tanned skin, the ash brown hair, the bright hazel eyes, all just as I remembered, but there was a lack, a loss – something that wasn’t quite there anymore, something that not even a bit of blush or freshly painted lips could make up for.

And then there’s a giggle and my eyes find my compatriots, looking carefree as ever, toasting to another night where they can pretend the world outside these walls isn’t forsaken. They all looked so happy and flawless like those girls on magazine covers from long ago and I was horribly jealous of them all – Amber, so polished and a head of lush blonde hair, perfect for running his fingers through…Frankie, tall and graceful with creamy white thighs he no doubt spent many nights losing himself between…Tanya, all fire, sass and the award-winning smile that probably had him smiling back – and there I was, nothing more than the hollow replacement for the favorite, the one that had sparked him to life, the sweetest lamb…dear, old Sherry honey.

Fuck.

I guzzle half the champagne glass before I can stop myself. It tingles going down and warmth spreads throughout my chest, giving me a brief reprieve from the bitter jealousy hacking away at me as the feelings of inadequacy were busy kicking me while I was down. I had wanted him since I first laid eyes on that smug asshole all those months ago, but I wasn’t prepared for whatever this feeling was, watching as he passed me without so much as a glance, watching as he plucked whatever woman he wanted out of the masses hungry for their meal ticket and watching as he seemed to favor every woman but me. And how many of my points were wasted on cold showers trying to forget the way this man made my body react, without ever touching me? Too many. And how often did I shield my flustered face from his inattentive eyes? Too often.

But, when he asked me to marry him seemingly out of the blue, I had tripped over my words trying to say yes without a care of how pitiful I looked. I didn’t stop to ask why me, why now and the fact that he had never looked at me or uttered a word to me faded into the recesses of my mind. I didn’t care that he didn’t know my name, I was beside myself at the idea that he felt anything for me, even if it was just raw, physical attraction. I had been confident, hell, I had felt sexy for once in I don’t know how long…only to find out he was just sad that his favorite toy had her brains blown out.

There goes the rest of the champagne.

Frankie’s eyes catch mine as I set the empty glass down on the vanity amidst a clutter of make-up and expensive looking perfume bottles. She raises her brow, posing a silent question: you okay?

No, I think, but I’ll be damned before I admit it. I manage a curt nod but I know my poker face is shit because she makes her way over to me anyways, her long legs carrying her across the length of the room effortlessly, looking delicate and feminine in a little lace dress and strappy black sandals. I can’t help but look down at myself and a little voice inside my head starts saying all the horrible things I hoped the champagne temporarily would mute. What would he really want with this?

“She didn’t mean it like that,” Frankie explains lowly as we watch the other girls take pictures together on one of the sofas. “Amber doesn’t always think before she speaks.”

“Sure,” I say unconvincingly, crossing my arms as I leaned against the side of the vanity. I’m several inches shorter than her, even with heels, and though I wasn’t short by any means I still felt like a tree stump next to a great redwood.

She takes a seat in one of the empty chairs beside me. “It’s not like that,” she continues, her eyes looking me over carefully. “He’s not like that, even with everything that happened.”

“Thanks Frankie.” I say it to comfort her, I could tell she’s a good person – just trying to help. Unlike you, a voice says, reminding me that I was jealous of everything, including a dead girl.

I open my mouth to say something, hoping that whatever small talk I can manage will make every passing minute less grueling, but whatever I say dies on my lips as the door whips open with a whoosh, banging loudly against the wall. And just like that, everything comes to a screeching halt – the girls scramble to their feet, yanking their dresses into place, smoothing out their hair – someone even turns off the music and the room descends into a heavy silence.

There, in the threshold, stands Negan, his leather clad hand placed squarely in the center of the door, a mischievous glint in his eye with an up-to-no-good grin to match as he watches all of us. I find myself looking at him, trying to memorize every detail of his face, the bit of scruff lining his jaw, the crinkle around his lust-filled eyes – eyes that, when they meet mine, cause me to look away.

“Well,” he drawls as he strides into the room with Lucille in tow, swaying lightly by his side. “I had no idea I was interrupting girl’s night.”

He makes his way around the room, his sly gait resembles that of a predator toying with its prey and I can do nothing else but watch as he circles us. But then, something catches his eye and he stops momentarily to yank a stray polaroid off the couch. He examines it and, after a moment, a slow, infuriatingly perfect smile forms on his face. I imagine what sits between the borders of the tiny image. A coy Amber looking at the camera? A selfie of Tanya with her playful smile? Perhaps the both of them, laughing and enjoying themselves?

He holds the image up between his index and middle finger as he stops in front of Tanya, giving the photo a little shake and murmuring something that draws a smile out of her. My eyes find my reflection in the mirror beside me, my expression an almost comical rendition of the green-eyed monster from my beloved children’s book. How could something so innocent make me feel so small?

He tucks the photo into his pocket – a trophy for him, and he continues to make his way around. All at once, dread claws at my insides. Hadn’t I dreamed of the day he would look at me? That he would come to me? And now the very idea felt wrong, so wrong that I find myself lowering into the vanity chair, praying it would shield me though I know it won’t.

His eyes find Frankie first, and his fingers gently brush her red hair away from the pale skin of her neck, a moment I feel is too intimate for me to witness so I train my eyes on the floor. I stare hard at tips of my shoes and I try to calm my nerves. I was in over my head.

I start to mull over my options. Divorce? I couldn’t do this, not with this man, he’d fuck my brains out and I’d spend the rest of my life trying to pick up the mess left behind. I wasn’t desperate for points or anything, I had an okay job before this, I was only doing this to have him – and that was the problem. I couldn’t have him all to myself, could I? Not with Franke sitting pretty like that or Tanya-

I’m drawn out of my thoughts as I see a shadow form over me and a hand curling around my forearm.

“Sweetheart, you with us?” Negan asks, stopping mere inches from my face.  

Every overactive, impulsive thought coursing through my brain slows and even though he’s right there it takes me a moment to realize he’s talking to me. I try to think of something to say but there’s only static between my ears – nothing comes. It’s too late, anyways, he’s already pulling back away from me, standing tall over my shrunken form.

He drops Lucille unceremoniously on the vanity table and the bottles rattle loudly in protest. “You were somewhere else, for a second there.” I watch him shrug out of the leather jacket, letting it fall on the back of the chair Frankie was sitting on. “But, judging by the white-knuckled grip you got on that poor skirt and that scary ass frown, I’d say it wasn’t anywhere cool. So doll, why the long fucking face?”

Somehow, I find words. “Never been one for parties,” I lie, my nails digging into my thighs. I know he knows that I’m full of shit, but I pray he doesn’t call me out.

Thankfully, he doesn’t and instead pulls the chair close and sits down, facing me, so that the only thing in my line of sight is him. He looks as he always does – confident, so much so that I sharply inhale and try to think of something else because I know if I spend one more second thinking of the slight curve of his lip, I’m going to lean forward and bite it.

“Maybe you can make an exception,” he begins, propping one elbow on his thigh, exposing some of his sun-worn tattoos that I just want to run my hands over. “After all, it is our wedding night.”

“Then what’s the bridal party doing here?” My tone is bitter as bile. I should be swooning, flirting…playful, those were things he probably liked. He didn’t want to deal with baggage…

If he’s annoyed, he doesn’t show it as he whistles and leans back in the seat, glancing around the room. I’m graced with a perfect view of Negan’s profile, the strong jaw, and a few stray strands of ink black hair that have fallen in his face after a long day of fucking over other survivors.

“Ladies…” his voice trails off and, needing no further explanation, the girls start gathering their things to head out. Amber has the gall to eyeball me as she walks past and her expression is confirmation enough that she said what she did on purpose, for no other reason than to hurt me. Fuck you, I think as she walks past, her long hair swaying with her every step.

When she disappears out the door, I turn to find Negan staring at me.

“Holy shit, you’re fucking intense,” Negan quips, his eyes scanning my face slowly, stopping at my lips. “And – that, right there, that whole lip curl, twitching thing you keep doing…well, I can’t tell if you want to kill me or fuck me, love.”

“What if it’s both?” I offer boldly, tilting my head upwards. Now that we’re alone, I feel more at ease. I wonder if he knew, just looking at me, that I needed this – to be alone with him.

When he laughs, I find myself smiling too.  

“You know, I always knew you were a badass,” he says suddenly. “Scared the fuck out of us when we found you out there all by your lonesome.”

“You were there?” I try to hide my embarrassment, remembering how my introduction was a far cry from honorable. I want to say something like that person wasn’t really me or that I’ve changed for the better, but I’d be lying, I’ve been awful since day one.

His brows lift in amusement as he recalls the event. “You backhanded me, remember?”

Well then.

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry, all is forgiven…and besides, it was cute as hell – impressive too.” He inches closer as he says it until the distance between us is negligible and I can see every line marring his skin, every freckle that tells me how much the man loves the sun, and the dark circles under his eyes serve as evidence for all the hard work he does for us.

And this time, when my hands reaches out, it’s not to steady myself but to cup his cheek in a silent apology. I try to imagine the back of my hand connecting with his firm cheek and I wonder how I could have missed all of him right in front of me like that. My fingers move across his strong jaw, the stubble pricking my twitching fingers as they hesitate to trace his lower lip. It’s a move that surprises us both but his eyes tell me he doesn’t mind the intrusion.

I slip into a place where I no longer care about whether he prefers Sherry or Amber or Tanya or Frankie because right now, I have him and I hope I can have him the way I want him. An image of him stretched out above me, both of us feverish and desperate, his thighs digging into mine…The thought sends a ripple throughout my body and I scoot closer in my seat.

When his tongue darts out to wet his lower lip, parts of myself that seemed to be wound so painfully tight come undone. My hand slips from his cheek, trailing down the side of his neck until my fingers reach the soft fabric of his signature white t-shirt. I fist the fabric tightly and my eyes find his, but I know by the look in his eye that we’re both going over the edge.

I’m not sure who moves first but our bodies make an ugly sound when we both hit the floor. Our chairs topple over ungracefully, Lucille gets bumped from her comfortable place atop the vanity and I lose a heel in the process but when his lips fold over mine, I know the painful bruises will be worth it.

He starts slow, his lips brushing against mine so tenderly I feel like he might not be real but a ghost taunting me instead. And because I can’t tell if it’s real, because I feel so dizzy and lost between his lips, I do what I’ve wanted to do since I first laid eyes on him – I bite that perfect lower lip, keeping him pinned in place, so that I taste him and soothe the hurting parts inside me, even if it’s brief.

Negan pulls back, a pretty little bite mark staining his lip and he smiles down at me.

“You and I…we’re going to have so much fun together, sweetheart.”

I believe him.

[listing-to-port]

Four recipes for difficult times

1. Rabbit with garlic. Ingredients: 1 rabbit; 1 head garlic; 1 tbsp flour; 3 tbsp white wine vinegar; 150 ml olive oil; 1 glass dry sherry; salt and pepper. Method: Invite the rabbit over for a drink. When it turns out the rabbit is not partial to sherry, allow it to take you to the local rabbit bar. Become small enough to enter the rabbit bar, which is down three flights of tunnel and has a whole stuffed weasel on the wall. Drink all night with the rabbits. When they are very drunk, ask them about the way to that far-off fairy kingdom where rainbows nest in the soft crooks of butter-trees and cloves of garlic are as prized as gold ingots. Follow their directions. You may need the olive oil to help you slip through the portal, which is rather tight (even when you have become small). Bring the garlic. Discard the remaining ingredients. 

2. Asparagus Lovecraft. Ingredients: 1 kg white asparagus; 150 ml extra virgin olive oil; 3 tbsp white wine vinegar; the existential despair of one who has seen too much and understands too little; salt. Method: bleakly unwind the asparagus as you gaze into the void. Oh God! at any time that thing might make its return! Would to heaven that you had not made the fateful trip to the old lighthouse! Realise, with a terror whose baleful exquisiteness one who has not been in such a situation can barely comprend, that your remaining time upon this Earth may be mere seconds. Drop the ingredients. Quickly arrange for your face to turn up on something sinister in ten years' time. Then flee into the wilderness, never to be heard from again.

3. Mock turtle soup. Ingredients: 100g butter, 100g flour, 30ml olive oil, 1 onion, 1 red pepper; half stick celery; 1 clove garlic; 700g tomatoes; 700 ml chicken stock; 400g minced beef; 4 hard-boiled eggs; 60 ml lemon juice; 2 bay leaves; cayenne pepper; salt. Method: form the solid ingredients into a turtle shape. Surround it by the wet ingredients. Take a photo. Post it on Twitter with the caption 'This is what a real turtle looks like'. Angrily pass off complaints from the turtle community as unsolicited attacks on your character. Amass ten thousand turtle truthers as your followers. Set up a crowdfunding account to pay for the cost of getting a nice gazpacho, and tell them its location.

4. Unexpected Eggs. Ingredients: 8 free-range eggs; 1 onion; 2 red peppers; 500g tomatoes; 2 cloves garlic; 2 tbsp olive oil; salt and pepper. Method: throw the ingredients in the bin outside the supermarket and go home, weeping. Five hours later when you are hungry go out to the local kebab shop and become unexpectedly caught up in an argument between rival gangs of botanists. Make an unwise bet in the hope of settling the matter. Wake next morning to find a professor banging on your door, and explain to her twelve research associates why there is no breakfast. Go with them to lands unknown. Come back with a wooden ring on a chain that you are curiously unwilling to talk about and some startling tales about giant redwoods. Always be alert for vegetable stirrings in the East.

[taromilksnake]

12:23am you know

more and more i feel like i'm starting to see myself as a separate individual that i love and is taking care of. literally self love and care, i'd recognize my moods and need and take care of them as i would sherry or a friend. and i think that's such a good thing. the other day i cried because i felt i was selling myself short, and felt pressured by the will smith "fail early, fail often, fail better", but looking back i was crying for /myself/. Like, i think it's slightly nuanced from self-pity, i was feeling the frustration that pardis expressed to me before. there was panic mixed in, but now that i'm thinking about it. i have been doing that. i've...lived outside my comfort zone for a long time now. i've spent so long building my root system, underground, unseen, constantly working on myself, constantly trying my best to be kind, be thoughtful to others, doing the responsible thing by taking care of myself, constantly straining at the periphery of comfort, like roots, always straining, pushing, so slowly you can't see it at all. and now i am finally seeing the tree above ground, and what a beautiful, sturdy thing it is. it's still hard, and the upper world is a scary place. the roots are still going, too. but if a tiny seed, not even germinated yet, saw a redwood and was immediately discouraged, and thought, well, no way i can do that, how the heck am i supposed to be like that??? well. that's ok too, but that's all the seed will ever be, asleep. this is such a great metaphor, there's seasons of bloom and winter too, there's rings to indicate stress, like dang

[the-firebird69]

Amber is very hard and things got stuck in it and it solidified so start studying it you said they studied it before and couldn't figure out how it works it's all obviously some sort of syrup ASAP from a tree so they went around looking and couldn't find the particular sap.

So they went up there to the redwood Forest and they checked the syrup and sap and found the same color and they tried to get to solidified and some of them took weeks and something like a year and it didn't really work still kind of goopy they tried to find pressure an electricity and chemicals but in the dirt freezing and thawing it one guy put it in until a flame and it turned into hard candy kind of so we tried heating it all sorts of different ways and had some success but really it just turned into like hard candy the hardness is similar to about half of a diamond and it's one of the hardest materials on Earth. And it's not really done for particular reason we have some reasons but and we use it for things to preserve things that's why and we wanted to keep him safe objects and artifacts a long time ago you find a ton of them in salvage them we still are

Also used in computers to resistor and it works very well you know sunset it I wonder if they would be used for doping even though there's a shame to use it but some places there's a ton of it if you dump in the laser it becomes a finely tuned beam it makes it straight down into a almost a solid being and we do use it from time to time and it's not the eyes of King Ghidorah but it is in one of the kju and yes it's the ENT and it is very potent and very powerful twice as powerful as the green emerald and that's the most powerful cutting laser you've ever seen so that's what they're saying they want to use that for something usually to cut diamonds and it does work. And we're going to take it from them cuz they're a stupid talk

Thor Freya

The amount of pretty good size stockpile during this TV show on wgcu PBS and has Sherry as a I mean I'm sorry no Lily I sent out of the show you first

[hrsun111]

The Intown Report's for the Week 11/21/19 - 11/27/19

THURSDAY, 11/21

4th Street Vine – Not Quite Disco

5 Star Bar – Fatso Jetson, Mountain Tamer, + 1000Mods

The Belasco – Alejandro Aranda (also Friday)

Bootleg – Devon Welsh, + Sorry Girls

Echo – Tasha, + Madison McFerrin

Echoplex – The Get Up Kids, Kevin Devine, + The Whiffs

El Rey – Ximena Sarinana, + Myiko

Fonda – Tiffany Young

Forum – Post Malone, Swae Lee, + Tyla Yaweh

Glass House - Plain White T's, The Mowgil's, + New Politics

Harvard & Stone – The Lavender Scare, Calico Sky, + Gregg Garvey

Highland Park Bowl – Coby Brown, Stars & Curses, Greg Felden, + more

The Hi Hat – Maria Del Pilar, + Los Retros

Hollywood Forever – Joe Young, Nite Creatures, + Craig Wedren

Hollywood Palladium – Bloc Party, + LPX

House of Machines – Throw Rag, Reckless Ones, + The Rhythm Shakers

LEM HQ (835 N.La Brea Ave.LA) – Thriller Party, Muskk, + DJ Tony Knox (KXLU's No More Heroes show)

Lodge Room – Franky Flowers, Gold Coast, + Alms

Maui Sugar Mill – Brahms Third Racket, Unsound Foundation, + Primal Kings

Observatory – Cautious Clay, + Remi Wolf; Oliver Francis, smrtdeath,+Marco XO (Constellation Room)

Pappy & Harriet's - Vetiver

Redwood Bar – Los Mundos, Las Cruxes, Strange Imperial, The Famous Wolf, The Mystery Suns, Dei Lucri, + more

Regent – Little Brother

Roxy – Dave

Shrine – Two Feet, + NoMBe

Teragram – Sunsquabi, + Swatkins

Troubadour – Morgan Evans

Wiltern – Madonna

FRIDAY, 11/22

4th Street Vine – The Fox & Bear Band, Dimboi, StBTtlCO, + Tudors

1720 – Acid Rave

Alex's – Blind House, Bella Novella, Los Mysteriosos, + Death Valley Trio

Bootleg Theater – Our Girl, Particle Kid, + DJ SadGirl

Chain Reaction – The Get Up Kids, Kein Devine, + The Whiffs

Doll Hut – D.I., Psycotic Scum, + Functional Lunatics

The Echo – Holy Wars, Draemings, El Manana, + Figs Vision

Echoplex – BoomBox, Exmag, + CAPYAC

The Factory – The Hots, Vevet Starlings, Joey Flemming, + Guspy

Fonda – Sherry Mann, + Intense

Glass House – Pinback, + Disheveled Cuss

Hollywood Palladium – Simple Plan, State Champs, + We the Kings

House Of Machines - Itchy-O

Junior High – BluMoon, Satchy, + Milk

Lodge Room – Moon Duo, + Umberto

Maui Sugar Mill – Moonlight Rocketz, Enemy Proof, + The Vectors

Moroccan – Fakear

Non Plus Ultra – Sundiver CA, NICE, Chud, Ums, + Argyle

The Novo – Tribal Seeds, New Kingston, + Tropodelic

Observatory – 45 Grave, Tarter Control, + Mac Sabbath

Orpheum – Tay LaMontagne, + Kacy & Clayton (also Sat.)

Pappy & Harriet's – Terry Reed

Petie's Place – Ghost Army

Redwood Bar – The Humblers, Mean Heat, The Damed, + Tilli & the Titans

Roxy – Mayday Parade, + Anywhere But Here

Satellite – El Chavito

Shrine – Troyboi, Destructo, + Argenil

The Smell – Noise Pop, YGSLRHSTFUT, Garbitch, + Happy House

Teragram – MisterWives, + Foreign Air

Troubadour – Dirty Honey, + Oriah

Zebulon – Pearl Charles, Jackie Cohen, + Josh Pearson

SATURDAY, 11/23

5 Star Bar – New Skeletal Faces, + Dominator

1720 – Noodles, Sammi G, + Olea

Alex's – Street Trash, Shark Toy, + Assquatch

Bootleg Theater – Mike Watt & The Missingmen, The Blank Tapes, Young CreaturesWasif, Dream Phases, Junaco, + Early Evil

Chain Reaction – MisterWives, + Foreign Air

Doll Hut – Broken Patron Saints, C*nt Punch, Ripkatz, One Hot Planet, + more

The Echo – Oliver Francis

El Cid – L.A. Drones, Death Hags, + Big Fun

El Rey – The Casualties, Love Equals Death, + Strung Out

Fox Theater Pomona – Hippo Campus, + The Greeting Committee

Garden Amp – Shattered Faith, Fear, + Twilight Creeps

The Hi Hat – Sego, + Small Forward

Joe's – Dime Box Band, Plasticsoul, The Test Pressings, + 13 Frightened Girls

La Santa – Cut Snake

Lodge Room – Death Valley Girls, Crocodiles, + Kate Clover

Maui Sugar Mill – Mecolodiacs, The Probe, Lost Marauder's,+Tommy Chiffon 3

Moroccan – Vetiver

Novo – Ghostmane, Lil Tracy, Jesus Piece, Horus The Astroneer, + PanO

Observatory – MisterWives, + Foreign Air; Ximena Sarinana (Constellation Room)

Pappy & Harriet's – The White Buffalo

Petie's Place – Area 51, + Hammer of the Broads

Redwood Bar – Villains In Vogue, Noble Prix, Initial Mass, + Black Letter Day

Roxy – Kavion, + Inzo

Silverlake Lounge – Drool Brothers, Nikolitsa, Temple Monarc, Ezina, + The Passengers

Smell – Raul Garcia, NOGUEY DMTV, + Lady Starshine

Teragram – Ghost Light

Troubadour – Elderbrook, + Pluko

Wiltern – Madonna (also Sun.& Mon.)

Yost Theater – Whitney Morgan, + Alex Williams

Zebulon – Jesse Harris, + Will Graefe

SUNDAY, 11/24

1720 – I See My Friends On Fire

Alex's Bar – Slaughterhouse, Clown Sounds, Hit Bargain, Sh*t Giver, + Killer Dreamer, 2pm; LVGER, Vis Vires, + DJs Marv Mack, John Fouts, + Shawn Atkinson, 8pm

Bootleg Theater – Thank You Scientist, Bent Knee, + Tea Club

The Echo – The Yummy Fur (members of Franz Ferdinand), Future Punx, Ooselles, + Intel (Part Time Punks)

El Rey – Julia Jacklin, + Christian Lee Hutson

Glass House – Bedouin Soundclash, Delirians, Steady 45's, + Sailor's Songbook

Lodge Room – Mellow Fellow, + Valley Boy

Redwood Bar – Strange Strip, Zenfoo, + YooForea

Roxy - Whitney Morgan, + Alex Williams

Satellite – Neil Hamburger, Howard Kremer, Karl Herlinger, Annie Lederman, + Natasha Leggero

The Smell – Remorseless, + Body Fluid

Zebulon – Rocco Deluca, + Jozef Van Wissem

MONDAY, 11/25

Bardot – Elijah Woods, Jamie Fine, + O Future

Bootleg –Rosie Tucker, Bella Porter, Ramanda Hammer, Pauline Lay,+Jess Kallen

Echo – Crook

El Rey - 4th Ave, + JAGMAC

Fonda – Yurnover, Men I Trust, + Renata Zeiguer

Largo at the Coronet – Liz Phair

Maui Sugar Mill – Lindsay Beaver

Observatory – Thank You Scientist, Bent Knee, + Tea Club

Redwood Bar – This Is a Train Wreck, Kid Carrion, + Casiust

Resident – Whitney Tai, Karolina Rose, IAMHILL, + Terabyte

Satellite – Stranger Liquids, Paracosmic, No.44, Spirit Mother, + The EYYES

Teragram – The Deer Hunter, + Gavin Castleton (also Tues.)

Zebulon – Ligua Ignota, + Ionna Gika

TUESDAY, 11/26

Bootleg – WILD, + Johnny Gates

Echo – Vinyl Williams, Al Lover, + Ofir Ganon

Fonda – Turnover, Men I Trust, + Renata Zeiguer

Forum – The Chainsmokers, 5 Seconds of Summer, + Lennon Stella

The Hi Hat – The Colour Coast, Surely Lorraine, + Time Travelers

Moroccan – WhoHuntYou

Zebulon – Sondra Sun Odeon, Secret Flowers, + Nico Turner

WEDNESDAY, 11/27

Belasco – The Dead South

The Echo – Half Pint, Mexico68, + Pachamama

Highland Park Bowl – Crises Actor, Mean Heat, + The Letter Openers

The Hi Hat – Airplane Mode, Iman Omari, Antman Wonder, Gaslamp Liller, + DJ Wyldeflower

Hollywood Palladium – ASAP Ferg, + Madeintyo

House of Blues – The Maine

Lodge Room – Spendtime Palace, + The Brazen Youth

Maui Sugar Mill – Rick Shea & The Losin' End, Dave Serby & The Hillbilly Fringe, + John Surge & The Haymakers

Moroccan – Part Times Punks Pre-Thanksgiving 80s/90s party

Novo - Kevin Gates, YK Osiris, + Rod Wave

Observatory – Morbid Angel; The Aquadolls (Constellation Room)

Redwood Bar – Prince of Lilies, Friendly Bear, + Heavy Velvet

Regent – Filter

Roxy – Flipper, Mondo Generator, Later Years, + Total Massacre

Satellite – Turtles on Speed, Mr. Max, Sleeplust, + Venus in Scorpio

Teragram – Monolord, Blackwater Holylight, + Yidhra

Troubadour – Repenter, Hvnted, Love Ghost, Dawne, + Dean Batten

Wayfarer – Death By Stereo, Bad Cop Bad Cop, + Mammoth Thunderpower

Zebulon – Shashanka Bakshi, + Liberate Elemental Forces

LIVE ON LIVATION, WEDNESDAY NIGHTS FROM MIDNIGHT TO 2AM THURSDAY MORNINGS (PST) ON KXLU 88.9FM, LOS ANGELES & KXLU.COM

11/27 – Thanksgiving Special with Jaime Sol Black and the Me’sugas, + more

12/4 – Launcher

12/11 – Otneil y Los Condors

12/18 – Dangerously Sleazy

12/25 – Lucky Otis

1/1 – Buzz Clic Adventure

1/8 – Crisis Actor

1/15 – PR Shake

2/12 – Ley Valentine

2/19 – Cheap Tissue

2/26 - JesuCrisis

reverbnation.com/venue/livation

intownreport.wordpress.com

livation889fm on Instagram

losangelesbeat.com

kxlu.com

[matbenetti17]

Daisy Town: Ros

🦊General Information🛩

Nickname: Ros 

Age: 27

Gender: Female

Species: Fox

State: Alive

Birthday: January 13th

Sexuality: Lesbian

Height: 1.75m (5'7)

Hair: Red 

Eyes: Dark brown

Outfit: Gray sweater, green jacket, beige pants and black boots 

Accessories: An earring in her right ear and her brother's goggles

Affiliation(s): Daisy Town (birthplace), Golden Dayside

Occupation(s): Pilot, Air mailman, Treasure huntress

Marital status: In a relationship

Family: Daniel James Parker (father), Martha Mulligan (late mother), Roderich Samuel Parker (late older brother), Samuel Roger Parker (paternal grandfather), Catherie Flores (late paternal grandmother), Connor O’Riley (late maternal grandfather), Sally Murphy (late maternal grandmother) 

Relations: Anne Marie Wonders (enemy/old classmate), Sherrie Sanders (old classmate), Melodie Brown (old teacher), Dawn Redwood (friend), Alfred Jones (friend), Pamela Ramirez (friend), Nigel Nimberton (suitor/friend), Indie Fosford (friend), Ellen Cynthia Evans (girlfriend) [belongs to @errorvittra], Camille Stevens (ex lover) [belongs to @errorvittra]

Rosalind "Ros" May Parker is a 27 years old fox who works as a pilot, air mailman and occasionally as a treasure huntress.

She lived in Daisy Town alone with her brother Roddy after their parents died in a mysterious fire that destroyed their house.

Roddy always tried his best to let her study while he did different jobs. When he was 23 he enrolled in the Aeronautical Academy of the City to become a pilot as Ros began to work.

She often visited Roddy there, where he moved, and he taught her a little about planes and flying. Unfortunately during his last year Roddy had a serious accident during a flight test and died shortly after.

After this Ros fled from the city with her brother's plane (the Liberty Bell) and from then on, for the next 8 years, she travels around the state.

🦊Some fun facts🛩

-She had an older brother named Roderich, who died when she was 19

-She preferes to be called just Ros cause it's the nickname her big brother Roddy always used

-When she was little she was bullied

-Her plane, the “Liberty Bell”, was her brother’s

-She hates to wear female clothes, she can only handle makeup but only very heavy

-She suffers from panic crisis

-Unlike her brother Ros has white arms and hands inherited from her father and grandmother, who were respectively a piebald fox and an artic fox. While her feet and the tips of her ears are black like normal foxes

🦊Trivia🛩

Ros's character is inspired by Amelia Earhart and was born thanks to the vision of two Ghibli movies: "Porco Rosso" and "The Wind Rises".

[biofunmy]

36 Hours in Santa Barbara County

With its Mission-style facades and showy tropical foliage, Santa Barbara could be a commercial for the California good life. It can be easy to underestimate the struggles of a place so seemingly flawless. But Santa Barbara has had a tough few years. From the devastating wildfires in 2017 and 2018 to the flooding and mudslides that followed, the county has experienced more than its share of trauma. Yet if it weren’t for the charred chaparral faintly visible on the surrounding hillsides, the average visitor might never know. This is, after all, a place that’s good at reinventing itself. That spirit is on display at the new Hotel Californian, which sits on the site of a grand beach resort that was destroyed — just weeks after opening — by the 1925 earthquake that defined modern Santa Barbara’s architecture and character. Smack in the center of Southern California’s spectacular coastline, the county is surprisingly rural. In its multigenerational ranches and farms, its remarkably undeveloped public beaches, and the expansive Los Padres National Forest, Santa Barbara County offers glimpses of California before it got crowded.

Friday

1) 3 p.m. Sweet stroll

Start your visit in the city of Santa Barbara with a cone at Rori’s, a decadent ice creamery in the Santa Barbara Public Market, which serves organic ice cream in flavors like Black Pepper Pistachio, Root Beer Float or vegan (coconut milk-based) Tropical Wild Berry. Cones start at $5.50, so take advantage of the kid’s happy hour (3 to 5 p.m. daily, when cones are two for the price of one). Then, drive up past the historic Old Mission Santa Barbara, a striking colonial structure representing a tragic history, to the 78-acre Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, established in 1926 and devoted to pre-Columbian native species. Shake off your travels with a walk along the garden’s meandering pathways, alive with the sound of bird calls and chirping insects. Find a shady spot beneath a coast live oak or coastal redwood and appreciate the plant life — species like the Russian River Coyote mint and the Canyon Prince giant wild rye — that thrived in the area’s temperate climate before the arrival of the Europeans.

2) 5 p.m. Magic Hour

Head downtown and explore the city’s paseos, plazas and parks, including Alameda and Alice Keck parks, twin parks and gardens that, combined, include a koi pond, exotic trees like Canary Island date palms and Hong Kong orchids, and Kid’s World, a community-constructed wooden play structure that overflows with shrieking children. On State Street, Santa Barbara’s main drag, stop for Apéritif Hour ($10 Sunshine Spritzes, made with Aperol alternatives like Cocchi Rosa and Cappelletti aperitif wines) at Satellite, an outer space-themed restaurant and wine bar with a menu designed by the chef Emma West of the beloved, now shuttered, Julienne Restaurant. Satellite serves sexy, distinctly California dishes like Rad Toast ($7), the Yoga Pants Salad ($16), and Smoked Shrooms ($16) in a casual, bar-like setting with a mod décor of avocado-colored bench seats, framed newspaper clippings of the moon landing, and film reels of early rocket launches and moon walks projected on the wall. While the food is meat-free and the wines lean “natural,” Satellite doesn’t take itself too seriously. Then, snag a bike at downtown’s Bikes to Go rental station ($10 per hour, $35 per day) in the open-air Paseo Nuevo mall, and cruise downhill to the pier for the ultimate pre-dinner show: a Pacific Coast sunset.

3) 8 p.m. Special occasion

The 10-table, largely unadorned dining room at Yoichi’s is deceptively modest. It feels like stepping into the home of an extraordinarily gracious host. It makes sense, then, that this kaiseki-style restaurant, which specializes in multicourse meals, is a mom-and-pop establishment. Opened in 2015, the restaurant, named for its chef and co-owner Yoichi Kawabata, serves a seven-course, $125 prix fixe menu that builds on itself — from the zensai (appetizers) to owan (soups), the mukouzuke (chef’s choice sashimi) to the yakimono (grilled dish) and mushimono (steamed and simmered dish). Small plates arrive one after the next, featuring complex dishes with clean flavors, including the Jell-O-like water shield and briny snails, pickled plum in bonito broth and egg custard soup with rockfish. By the time you’re sipping a complimentary glass of yuzu sake at the end of your meal, the cumulative effect of the experience feels more like a brilliantly executed concept album than mere nourishment.

Saturday

4) 8 a.m. Burritos and books

Get an early start at Super Cucas, an out-of-the-way Mexican grocery with a meat counter, dried chiles in bulk, and 20 varieties of breakfast burrito — including an Energy Burrito stuffed with the region’s signature meat, beef tri-tip, vegetables, scrambled eggs, cheese, potatoes and housemade salsa ($7.99) — starting at 6 a.m. Alongside a Mexican Coke, they’re an ideal early morning, pre-surf session, eat-by-the-beach breakfast. Then, head to Chaucer’s Books, an independent bookstore so charming it warranted a love letter (in essay form) from the writer Pico Iyer. Pick up a beach read, a book on local history, or let the kids loose in the store’s children’s corner, which feels like a literary wonderland for little people.

5) 10 a.m. Go Go Gaviota

Drive north along a stretch of Highway 101 that includes two of California’s most stunning state park beaches, Refugio and Gaviota. For a mellow morning paddle along this spectacular, white sand and palm-tree-adorned coastline, schedule a kayak tour ($119 per person, lunch included) — at least a week in advance is recommended — with Santa Barbara Adventure Company. After a quick beginners-friendly tutorial, float over forests of kelp, the fastest-growing plant on the planet, while learning about Pacific marine ecology and watching for seals, dolphins and brown pelicans. Or, if you’re up for an arduous but rewarding hike, take the Gaviota Hot Springs-Trespass Trail ($2 parking fee), which climbs over 1,000 feet through wildflowers and blooming agave plants for a dazzling view. Or, skip the hike and head for the “hot springs” — lukewarm, crystal clear, sulphuric-smelling and shaded by a single palm.

6) 2 p.m. Wind into wine country

Cut inland across a landscape of giant boulders, chaparral and ranchland until you reach Buellton, a town that was, until recently, most famous for a nearly century-old road food institution, Pea Soup Andersen’s restaurant. In the last two decades, the Santa Ynez Valley’s wine-growing reputation has begun drawing not only wine enthusiasts, but the restaurants to feed them. For a lunch of oysters topped with fresh uni ($8), white shrimp with pancetta, chile and garlic ($13), beef tongue pastrami Reuben ($16), smoked pheasant with basil and citrus ($14), and exotic wood-fired pizzas (think skirt steak, tomatillo and queso fresco, $15), stop into Industrial Eats, which is named for its location in an industrial park surrounded by breweries, wineries and distilleries.

7) 3:30 p.m. Wine country, itself

Pence Vineyards and Winery, on Route 246, is a working cattle ranch that grows Burgundian varietals, mostly pinots and Chardonnays, on a creatively landscaped vineyard with a pond, trails and an appointment-only tasting room. If you’re not a drinker, or traveling with children, head instead to Solvang’s Ostrichland ($5 admission), where you can buy a pan of bird feed ($1) for the farm’s 100 or so ostriches and emus. The gift shop sells the bird’s oversize eggs. Then, hop over to Los Olivos, an impossibly cute town that overflows with tourists on weekends, and stop into Story of Soil, a tasting room manned by the husband of the winemaker, Jessica Gasca, who focuses on single vineyard, single varietal wines, including a standout Gamay, that have a cult following.

8) 6 p.m. Dine Outside

Drive down Route 154 from Los Olivos, past Cachuma Lake, to Cold Spring Tavern. This former creekside stagecoach stop at the top of the San Marcos Pass has been a staple of California road trip culture since 1865, before the automobile was invented. A wooden shack draped in ivy and filled with Old Western charm and tchotchkes, from taxidermy to wagon wheel chandeliers, serves the region’s famed tri-tip grilled over red oak and has live music in its backyard, where picnic tables offer extra seating. Or, for a more cosmopolitan dining experience in the city of Santa Barbara, sit beneath the strung lights on Loquita’s side patio, where quintessentially Spanish dishes like pan con tomate (pan de cristal — a ciabatta-like Spanish bread — with grated tomato, garlic and herbs, $9) and pulpo (Spanish-style octopus with black garlic aioli, lemon vinaigrette, potato purée and pickled red onion, $22) mix with the gauzy atmosphere in ways both intoxicating and magical. The restaurant, which is one of the restaurateur Sherry Villanueva’s many hits (including popular local spots like Helena Avenue Bakery, The Lark and Tyger Tyger) also offers a drink list heavy on Spanish wines, sherries, vermouths and gin and tonics. Don’t miss the Loquita Martini with an El Bulli olive ($15).

9) 7 p.m. History theater

Built in 1930, on the site of the once-grand Arlington Hotel, the Arlington Theater in the city of Santa Barbara was built in the era’s characteristic Mission Revival style. A former movie theater that still sometimes hosts films and festivals, the 2,000-seat Arlington features a Robert Morton pipe organ that rises onto the stage during musical performances. While the Arlington’s interior is painted to create the illusion of a Spanish night, its stage flanked with illustrated villas and stars overhead, the Santa Barbara Bowl sits on a hillside dotted with Southern California mansions. A venue with an ocean view, the Bowl was funded by the Works Project Administration and carved into a former quarry in the 1930s. Designed to accommodate the Arabian horses that are a staple of the annual Fiesta celebration, the venue now hosts a mix of big name acts — from the Raconteurs to Lionel Richie — and other performances and events, like the Santa Barbara Mariachi Festival, from spring into the fall.

Sunday

10) 9 a.m. Surf’s up

Carpinteria’s Esau’s Cafe is an old school breakfast diner with bright orange vinyl booths, housemade muffins cooling on the ledge of an open kitchen, hot sauce containers crowding the diner counter, and — because this is California — surf posters on the wall. A nearly 90-year-old institution, Esau’s serves heaping platters of diner classics along with some California-centric riffs, like the roasted Pasillo chile relleno omelet ($13.95) and the so-called “Basic Breakfast” with a mahi-mahi steak and eggs ($11.95) in place of the more conventional beef steak. After breakfast, head up the coast and across the train tracks to join the locals at Padaro Beach — or, as it’s known here, Santa Claus Beach.

11) 1:30 p.m. Made in Santa Barbara

The Funk Zone’s Seaside Makers Collective opened last year in response to the economic toll the city’s recent hardship was taking on the area’s artists and artisans. The shop’s handmade crafts, jewelry and body products — including a skin-care line made from the byproducts of the local wine grape industry, and jewelry made from local sea glass and abalone shells — are great gifts and souvenirs, evoking Santa Barbara’s personality while supporting its craftspeople. Around the corner, The Blue Door is a multistory emporium of vintage and antique housewares, furniture, clothes and more. Along with its eclectic used goods, the shop also carries some Santa Barbara-made products, like a line of beach-inspired candles from Santa Barbara Apothecary Company, in scents like San Isidro Lavender, Surfer’s Point, Ellwood Eucalyptus, and, amusingly, Montecito Money.

Lodging

With a look designed to reflect California surf culture nostalgia, Kimpton Goodland (5650 Calle Real, Goleta) has yoga mats and turntables in every room (starting around $250), an on-site record shop, bikes to borrow and a courtyard pool.

Part of Shelter Social Club, a small local chain of vintage motels that have been stylishly rehabbed, Agave Inn (3222 State Street, Santa Barbara) is a basic, budget-friendly option with a bit of character and 13 rooms starting at $139.

For affordable, family-friendly accommodations near the beach, look for Airbnb rentals in the Mesa neighborhoods — East, West and Alta — which have gorgeous views, attractive historic homes, and are close to the Douglas Family Preserve and Hendry’s Beach, and not far from downtown. Prices for an entire cottage or guesthouse start in the mid $100s.

52 PLACES AND MUCH, MUCH MORE Follow our 52 Places traveler, Sebastian Modak, on Instagram as he travels the world, and discover more Travel coverage by following us on Twitter and Facebook. And sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter: Each week you’ll receive tips on traveling smarter, stories on hot destinations and access to photos from all over the world.

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[thethoughtsfromthreeam]

California

Pairing: Agent Whiskey/Jack Daniels x OC

Warnings: PTSD

A/N:  We’re coming out of the angst mood and this will be the last wholly flashback chapter.  We return to present day in Part 8.  Doesn’t mean there won’t be flashbacks, but the action is now moving forward!

And I can’t believe the number of people who have followed this blog in the last week or so (has it only been that long?) and the people who are liking the posts.  Y’all know how to make a girl feel good. :)

Reminder: I haven’t seen Kingsman: The Golden Circle, so I’m just using the Wikia, IMDB.com, some gifs, and my own weird ass brain to make up this whole ass story.

Tag List:  @zeldasayer , @romanticgumchewer, @tarrevizslas , @coolmaybelateruniverse , @the-feckless-wonder, @lavenderl3mons , @pascalisthepunkest , @mandoandyodito​ , @randomness501 [please message me to be added or subtracted]

[PART 1]  [PART 2]  [PART 3]  [PART 4]  [PART 5] [PART 6]

Part 7 

Road to Recovery

It was the sharp yelp and half sob that startled nurse Cider at her desk. Looking up she realized the sound came from her only occupied bay.  She got up and walked into the room to find Sirah laying awkwardly in the bed, tears trickling down her face.

“You tried to move again, didn’t you?” the nurse asked.  She didn’t need an answer, she already knew it.  She was just being polite.  Sirah gave a slight nod.  She’d been fully conscious for only forty-eight hours, but every moment of it was a cycle of pain and then calmness as the drugs kicked in.  She was in the pain portion of the cycle.

“It’s so hard to breathe, Cider.  I just can’t seem to breathe.”

“I know, honey. Let me get you more comfortable and see if that helps a bit.” Cider stepped out and waved over another nurse.  They came into the room and each grabbed Sirah under her arms to pull her gently up. But something about the way they held her made their patient go rigid with fear.

“NO!” She cried out.  “NO, don’t take me!”

For a moment, she wasn’t in the med bay, instead her mind was suddenly back in California and trapped in the fear she felt while captured.  She started shaking violently and both nurses dropped their hands.  Cider reached out and touched Sirah’s forehead gently, calling to her.

“Sirah, honey, it’s okay.  It’s okay. It’s just me and Tea.  We’re here to help you, it’s okay.”  Cider rubbed her palm on the woman’s forehead while grasping her hand with the other.  After a moment, Sirah’s eyes looked over at the nurse and seemed to refocus.

“Good, honey.  Good.” She kept her voice calm and even. “Tea and I are going to help you move, remember?  We’re going to put our hands back under your arms and under your legs.  And you’re going to be more comfortable.  Yeah?”

Sirah nodded and this time, while keeping her eyes focused on Cider, she let the nurses move her.  Soon she was shifted higher and suddenly she felt as if she could breathe again.  The nurses tucked her back in, took a few vitals, and patted her hand before they left.  While they worked, in the shadows outside the room stood Champ.  As the nurses passed him, he paused before entering the room.  Looking at the ceiling, he took a deep breath and willed the tears from his eyes before walking in.

Normally, the man was larger than life, standing taller than most of his agents physically and bigger than everyone else through his personality. But when Sirah laid eyes on him, she noted he looked smaller, older even.  He sat down next to her bed and took her hand, cradling it to his cheek.  She let the tears stream down her own as his warmth seeped into her hand and then into her heart.  She was home again.

---***---

She had been in a coma for several weeks as the med team worked to fix what they could, but once she woke up, the reality of what happened to her began to set in for the team.  The trauma of her experience wasn’t something she had been trained to handle and she spiraled deeply into this scary new world as the days passed.  Soon the personality that inspired Tequila’s Shirley Temple nickname was gone and in its place was a woman full of fear.

One day after Ginger had visited for some time, Sirah cried pitifully when her friend left.  She curled into herself the best she could, thinking her friend was never coming back.  The abandonment compounded everything.  

Champ and Dr. Licuados consulted daily with the in-house therapy center about the situation.  A therapist was assigned to her, code named Orange, but in the early days there wasn’t much either doctor could do to ease the pain and fear.  The three watch as Sirah nearly become a ghost of herself.

Her friends were sick to their stomachs at the change and tried to do whatever they could within their power to help her through it.  After the event with Ginger, the four of them agreed to take turns being with her.  Just being in the same room was often enough for Sirah most days, so they’d bring work or field reports or even just books to pass the time.  

Ginger took the mornings, Tequila took the afternoon shift, and Champ stayed by her side in the early evenings.  But Jack was the one to stay with her at night.  Seeing his sleeping form on the couch next to her brought her immense comfort and often, she would reach out and touch his hand with hers.  Every time, even dead asleep, he grasped hers in return and never let go.

---***---

A month after she woke from the coma, the doctors agreed to move her to a private therapy bay to continue her recovery.  Her cuts had scarred over, her burns were stable, and the breaks and fractures were just about healed.  She was able to begin the next phase of her healing and the days took on more structure. 

Physical therapy in the morning with Tequila there as her own personal cheerleader and sometimes Ginger when he was out on assignment. Regular therapy with Dr. Orange in the afternoons, and in the evenings, Jack came “home” to stay with her.  Champ made it a special order to have lunch with her daily and sometimes his wife would join them.

Her recovery probably wouldn’t had gone as well as it had were it not for her friends.  The love and support they provided guided her through the dark moments.  One night, after she had been cleared to take a shower, Sirah stood beneath the water, relishing the feeling of being clean. Without thinking, she turned her face upwards into the spray and immediately her brain was flooded with the memory of her water boarding.  

She pulled back, gasping and cried out before she fell against the shower wall in terror.  Immediately, Jack rushed into the bathroom, calling her name.  He pulled back the shower curtain and found her sitting on the floor, crying and shaking with the memory.  He turned off the water and dropped to his knees.  He wrapped her in his arms and held her against him. Nothing he could say could reach through to her, so instead he rocked her body as she cried.  It cut him to the core and broke his heart into a million pieces. Soon she quieted down, and her arms snaked around his waist.

“Moonshine, let’s get you cleaned up.”  She nodded and was patient while he soaped up a rag and gently cleaned her.  He rinsed and dried her off before helping her dress.  When he got her settled in bed, he texted Tequila to come take his place. When he arrived, Jack outlined what had happened and said he needed to step out.  Tequila clapped a hand on his shoulder before sitting down on the couch. If Jack needed a minute, then dammit, he was getting one.

Jack ran down to the training room and turned on the lights.  He rolled his neck and cracked his knuckles as he walked over to the punching bag.  He took a deep breath and threw out his right arm.  The contact stung but it didn’t stop him.  He took the rest of his anger and grief out on the bag.  He eventually collapsed against it, exhausted, but calmer.

---***---

“Orange. . . can I talk about that night?”  Sirah sounded hesitant, but the therapist gave her a reassuring smile. Half a year had passed since California and Sirah now found herself curled on the end of her couch, wrapped in a blanket. The therapist sat at the other end, leg drawn up and facing her.

“Needles.”  Sirah looked out the window.  “I could smell the needles of the redwoods as I laid there. . .”  Their talk continued and several times, Sirah broke down.  She cried for Malbec and Sherry, the agents who were her friends.  She cried for herself.  She just cried all the tears she couldn’t while captured.  And then she talked some more.  

After nearly three hours, she felt exhausted, but lighter.  Facing California was hard, but each day seemed to get easier.  Dr. Orange told her to sleep a bit and left the apartment.  But for the first time in weeks she didn’t dream of pain or of fire or even of a dead woman’s eyes.  Instead she dreamed of New York City.

“Jack, are we sure this is correct?” Sirah looked at the notes sent from HQ regarding the case.  They sat in his New York office reviewing files and she scribbled notes in the margins.

“I’m sure moonshine, I don’t think Tequila would send us incorrect notes.”  Jack flipped through the file in front of him before turning back to the computer.  He updated a few things and went back to the file. Sirah picked up the notes she made and gathered a few more items.

“I’ll be right back. . . .” her voice faltered as she looked out the window.  He turned to see what captured her attention.  Blocks away from where they were at, fireworks lit up the sky.  She walked over to the window in a sort of trance, mesmerized by the beauty of the scene – the brightly colored fireworks against the dark sky and the surrounding glow of the city.  Jack walked up behind her to watch, too.

Without thinking about it, he laid his hands on her shoulders and his chin on her head.  She sighed and leaned back into him, eyes still on the display.  He dragged his hands down her arms and wrapped her close against him.  She melted into him and they stood in comfortable repose until the display ended. The sky darkened again, and the sounds of the city were no longer muffled.

She turned in his arms and pressed her face against his chest.  Her arms came up around his waist and she clung to him.  He shifted and kissed the top of her head.  She smiled into his chest and sighed again, this one even more contented than before.  She eventually moved out of his arms, dragging her hand across his chest as she walked around him.  He caught the smile on her face, and one grew on his own.

“I’ll be in the library for a bit.  I want to check up on some things.  Can you wait a few hours until I have more information?”  She looked at him.

“Moonshine, I’ll always wait for you.”  She beamed at him and slightly nodded her head before taking her items and walking out the door.

He’d wait a lifetime for her if he needed to.

---***---

She woke up from the dream with a contented smile on her face, an event that hadn’t happened since before California.  As she became more alert, she realized she was alone.  Everyone worked to keep a similar schedule as before even after she moved back into her home and when she looked at the clock, she noticed it was close to dinner time.  She asked Champ to come to dinner and as if her mind conjured him, he walked through the door, knocking as he entered.

She smiled as he sat down and laid out the dinner his wife made.  He also handed her a lumpy package that had her name scrawled across it.  She opened it and while he went to get plates, she pulled out a beautifully thick navy sweater.  It was oversized and the sleeves were longer than normal.  

Once she was cleared to wear regular clothing, Sirah had taken to completely covering herself.  She was self-conscious about the scars all over her body and while the logical part of her brain said no one would care, she still did it anyway.  Champ’s wife was a quiet woman, but she was observant and smart as hell.  Champ wouldn’t have married her if she wasn’t.  The sweater was something that would give Sirah the cover she wanted with much comfort.

“Champ, can we talk for a moment?”  She sounded serious as he returned and sat down next to her.

“Of course, honey.  What do you need?”  The voice was kind and she found herself feeling ever grateful she had such love around her.  It’s why she knew she’d get passed this.

“Don’t call me Sirah anymore.”

[katybudgetbooks]

Intro to Speculative Fiction by People of Color adapted from The Fantasy Inn

Classics

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Mythic Fantasy

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee

Fire Boy by Sami Shah

Urban Fantasy

The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard

Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara

Bad Blood by L.A. Banks

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

Jade City by Fonda Lee

Zero Sum Game by SL Huang

Last Call at the Nightshade Lounge by Paul Kreuger

Paranormal Romance

Bearly a Lady by Cassandra Khaw

Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh

Better off Red by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Erotic Science Fiction

The Stars Change by Mary Anne Mohanraj

Space Opera

Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Ragamuffin by Tobias S. Buckell

Science Fiction

Mirage by Somaiya Daud

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Want by Cindy Pon

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany

Science Fantasy

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

Star Wars: Finn’s Story by Jesse J. Holland

Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter

Dystopian

Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

An Excess Male by Maggie Shen King

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich

Legend by Marie Lu

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

Apocalyptic

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

Orleans by Sherri L. Smith

Killer of Enemies by Joseph Bruchac

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson

Steampunk

The Sea is Ours edited by Jaymee Goh & Joyce Chng

The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer

Everfair by Nisi Shawl

Buffalo Soldier by Maurice Broaddus

Zombie Fiction

Zone One by Colson Whitehead

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Alternate History

Lion’s Blood by Steven Barnes

Wild Seed by Octavia Butler

Historical Fantasy

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

Redwood and Wildfire by Andrea Hairston

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

Witchmark by C.L. Polk

Mother of the Sea by Zetta Elliot

Fantasy of Manners

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

Time Travel

Time Salvager by Wesley Chu

An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim

Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen

Comedic Science Fiction

High Aztech by Ernest Hogan

The Brothers Jetstream: Leviathan by Zig Zag Claybourne

Young Adult

The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymulina

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

Middle Grade

Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh

The Gauntlet by Karuna Riazi

Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble by Anna Meriano

Fairy Tale Fantasy

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

Huntress by Malinda Lo

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao

Dark Fantasy

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez

My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due

Mythology

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Sword & Sorcery

Imaro by Charles R. Saunders

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed

Romantic Fantasy

Song of Blood and Stone by L. Penelope

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

The Island of Eternal Love by Daína Chaviano

Literary

The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko

The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker

Magical Realism

Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

When Fox is a Thousand by Larissa Lai

Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore

So Far From God by Ana Castillo

Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis

LitRPG

Changing Faces by Sarah Lin

Epic Fantasy

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

The Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera

The Dragon Songs Saga by JC Kang

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter

The Wolf of Oren-yaro by K.S. Villoso

Graphic Novels

Storm: Make it Rain by Greg Pak, Victor Ibanez, Scott Hepburn, & Matteo Buffagni

Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

Black by Kwanza Osajyefo, Jamal Igle, Robin Riggs, Tim Smith III, & Sarah Stern

Legend of the Mantamaji by Eric Dean Seaton, David Ellis Dickerson, & Brandon Palas

Webcomic

The Meek by Der-shing Helmer

Audio Drama

The Glass Appeal by Elijah Gabriel | Website

Here Be Dragons by Jordan Cobb | Website

Redwing by JV Hampton-VanSant | Website

Flyest Fables by Morgan Givens | Website

Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services by Lisette Alvarez | Website

Standalone Novel

Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng

Severance by Ling Ma

She Weeps Each Time You’re Born by Quan Barry

Smoketown by Tenea D. Johnson

The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

Novella

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle

The Sorcerer of Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson

Novelette

Hell is the Absence of God by Ted Chiang

Short Story 

Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar | Read for Free Now

A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers by Alyssa Wong | Read for Free Now

The Water That Falls On You From Nowhere by John Chu | Read for Free Now

Anthology

Futureland by Walter Mosley

Dark Matter by Sheree R. Thomas