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looooooooomis · 3 years ago

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F I N A L G I R L | S E V E N

You were his final girl. And there was no chance in hell that anyone or anything was going to mess that up.

p a r t s e v e n | b l o o d

masterlist here

pairing: Billy Loomis x f!reader word count: 6k warnings: s m u t (18 +!!!!!) lets just say this gif is a teaser as to what takes place in this chapter. major blood kink in this chapter. period play?? lmao sorry about it.

There was a shift after that weekend at Billy’s cabin, and you knew he felt it too.

It was never really that casual between you and Billy, that much you knew, but there was something that changed when the two of you got back to Woodsboro. There was something to be said about being able to openly show affection to the person you loved, to hold them and kiss them in public and you’d gotten that treatment in that little lakeside town. You felt like Billy’s actual girlfriend, not his plaything, not the bitch who was backstabbing her own best friend for a fucking boy, you were it.

And while Billy had always said that you were his girl, you hadn’t truly felt like you were until now.

Which was precisely what made tonight so fucking awkward.

Not only had you been coerced into going to the movies with the gang but, unbeknownst to you, Sid had taken it upon herself to fix you up on a blind date with one of Randy’s annoying friends from the video store.

Why had you agreed to this? You were a cold, calculating bitch behind the scenes when it came to fucking your best friend boyfriend and yet saying ‘no thanks, I’m not up for it tonight’ was beyond you? Were you just plain stupid or a closet masochist that thrived on dicey situations?

Either way, you’d never wanted to throw yourself into oncoming traffic more than you did tonight because not only were you trapped into an uncomfortable blind date with a guy you were fairly sure was frothing at the mouth at the idea of getting you alone in the car after all of this was said and done but you just so happened to be seated directly next to Billy.

You were smack dab in the middle of hell. Between a man you were fucking, a man you were disgustingly in love with and had just spent a weekend away with and a man you’d just met today but couldn’t stop playing handsy on your lap whenever he thought the others weren’t looking.

But Billy was always looking.

You knew that better than anyone. He had this innate sense of finding you in a crowded room. You could feel the weight of his brown eyes on you nearly every second of the day, soaking you up, taking every inch of you in, no matter who was around and tonight, as your ‘date’ smacked on his popcorn all the while feeling your thigh up any chance he could, Billy’s dept stare was tuned in and you knew it.

This had to have been karma. Karma for going away and having a beautiful weekend away with the guy you loved so wholly. The one whose girlfriend was on the other side of him with her pretty head on his stupid shoulder as you suffered in silence at just how fucking laughable this entire situation was.

“See that actress?” Your date, Anthony, whispered into your hear. He smelled like movie theatre butter. You wanted to scream. “Have you seen any of her other stuff?”

You were watching The Crucible and the actress in question was Winona Ryder. Everyone and their left nut had seen Winona Ryder in at least a dozen movies. Frowning, you blinked across at the man and blinked. “Yeah. I’m familiar with her work.”

Focusing ahead on the movie, you tried your damnedest to focus on what was going on but when you felt his slithery palm slide up your thigh, you were this close to pouring your Coke on his lap. Why the fuck had you agreed to this?

Pushing the man’s hand away as subtly as you could to avoid any unwanted attention from your friends, you bit down on the side of your mouth and heaved a quiet sigh. You deserved this. This was your punishment.

“She’s hot.” Your lovely date quipped, squeezing the area of your thigh just above your knee. “In that goth-girl next door kind of way.”

Was he getting off to Winona Ryder all the while coming on to you? Was he picturing Winona as he squeezed your thigh? You truly didn’t want to find out. Once again, you pushed his hand away and, this time, crossed your legs and leaned into the arm rest you were sharing with Billy.

The move was subtle, and you were barely even touching Billy but you needed to create a distance between yourself and Butter Fingers if it was the last thing you did.

With a subtle nudge to your arm, Billy’s eyes flickered towards you as his brows furrowed in question. The muscle in his jaw was pulsing in his cheek, that you could see even in the darkness of the movie theatre, and there was murder in his eyes as he sized up the man just over your shoulder. It was as though you could feel his blood pressure spike just looking at the guy and, as you held your breath, silently pleading with him not to make a scene that would undoubtedly give the two of you up, those brown eyes slowly found yours.

There was anger in his eyes, a palpable rage, but it was the look of pure despondency in his stare that made your own heart break. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. He wasn’t supposed to be holding hands with Sid and you weren’t meant to be dealing with the idiot to your right.

How it felt up at the cabin, the freedom of loving each other and holding each other and kissing each other in broad daylight was how it was supposed to be. How love was supposed to feel.

Not this.

You were both hiding in plain sight. Putting on a façade to your friends, to each other whilst in public, and it was in that moment, in the middle of a crowded theatre, looking at each other knowing there wasn’t a damn thing either of you could do about it, that you felt that pain so intensely that it was hard to breathe.

Tears burned behind your eyes and you hated yourself for it.

You weren’t going to cry. You refused to cry over a situation you were willingly putting yourself in. This entire thing could have been avoided had you had a stronger backbone here. You weren’t the victim in this scenario. That was Sid. Sid was the one completely getting fucked over in this situation, not you. You had no damn right to feel this shitty because you were doing it to yourself.

This was just the high of the weekend wearing off and reality settling in. Until circumstances changed, this was your norm.

Swallowing back your nerves, it was all you could do to give Billy a small, barely-there smile before focusing ahead on the movie.

“I’m going to grab us another Coke,” you heard Billy say to Sidney. “Anyone want anything?”

“More popcorn,” Stu waggled his empty bag. “Maybe some Milk Duds, man.”

“Candy.” Tatum mumbled, not taking her eyes off of the screen. “Surprise me, I don’t care what kind.”

Billy nodded and took Stu’s money before he gently nudged you. “You want anything?”

You opened your mouth to speak but was cut off but Anthony. “You mind keeping it down, buddy?” He popped another handful of popcorn in his mouth. “We’re at the movies, not here for snacks.”

It was as though Billy’s wrath was physical as his dark eyes scraped over Anthony’s face. His mouth was pulled into a thin, hard line as Anthony’s pompousness sank in. Why couldn’t it be Randy beside you? Why had that dipshit agreed to take this asshole’s shift in order for you to go on a blind date with him? This entire fiasco could have been avoided had it been Randy.

“Yeah, I could use a drink.” You slinked out of your seat. “I’ll help you carry everything back.”

You didn’t wait for Billy as you marched down the aisle but, as you walked down the stairs and out of the theatre, you weren’t at all surprised to see him broody and annoyed as he followed you out.

“If anyone should be looking like that, it’s me,” you groused, falling in to step beside him as you made your way to the snack bar. “I’m stuck on a date with that asshole.”

“Don’t get me started on that,” he grumbled, grabbing his wallet out of his back pocket. “I told Sid to leave well enough alone, but she insisted.”

You hummed and lined up at the concession. “Lucky me.”

Again, you felt his stare before you actually lulled your head to the side to face him. Intense, searching eyes sweeping over your features in both concern and possible envy. “One word,” he muttered, stepping closer towards you. Too close. Not because you didn’t want him that close but because you were in public. Sid and Tatum and Stu and fucking Anthony were a stone’s throw away. “One word from you, baby, and I’ll take you home. Fuck that guy.”

You glowered across at him as though he’d grown a second head. “While I appreciate the sentiment, shit for brains, we’re in public right now. Your girlfriend could walk out any second and see or hear you.”

He seemed to mull over your words for a second but didn’t bother moving away from you. “Maybe I don’t care.”

“You do,” you rhymed off, shuffling closer to the front of the snack bar.

He ignored that. “Also, you’re my girlfriend. Stop calling her that.”

This was not a conversation the two of you should have been having in the middle of a fucking movie theatre. Looking across at him, you raised your brows and blew out a puff of air through your lips. Trying to keep up with Billy’s rationale of staying with Sid to ensure he doesn’t hurt her any further after her mother’s death all the while being with you was giving you whiplash. You knew he loved you and, begrudgingly, you loved him right back. And, a part of you knew, that he was struggling with being back in the real world just as much as you were since coming home from the cabin.

But this was not how he should have been handling it. Not out in the open like this. Especially while you were on a triple date with your friends in a theatre down the hall.

“Billy,” you muttered quietly, ensuring no one was listening in, “please let’s talk about this later. Not here. Not now. Let’s just get the fucking concessions and go, okay?”

He licked his lips and you watched his brown eyes flitter down your face before briefly looking at your own lips. He wanted to kiss you and fuck, did you want to be kissed by him.

But that wasn’t the deal.

So, instead, you watched as he took a hesitant step away from you before nodding his head once. “Yeah, okay,” he agreed, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked down at his shoes. “Tonight.”

“Sure,” you smirked, “I mean, if I’m not with Anthony, that is.” You almost laughed at how wide his eyes got as you uttered those words. But, when he saw the playfulness in your stare, he visibly relaxed and rolled his eyes as you continued. “The way he’s been mowing down on his popcorn all night has me wet as hell, so I might be busy with him later.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbled with a shake of his head. Then, he turned to you and gave you a crooked smile. One that almost made this horrific ordeal worth it. “You’re a real bitch when you want to be, you know that?”

“Yeah,” you laughed, nudging him with your elbow. “I’ve been told.”

------------

True to his word, Billy slipped in through your unlocked window a little after midnight that evening with a bag of stale licorice and a drink he’d swiped from the gas station on the way over to your house.

“We didn’t get our movie date.” Was his explanation as he popped The Lost Boys into your VCR and all but hopped in bed beside you. When you’d remained standing by your dresser, eyeing him with both curiosity and sheer happiness radiating off of your face, all you got was a confused look out of Billy before he patted your mattress. “You going to get that ass over here or what?”

So, naturally, you’d joined him.

And it took all of thirty-two minutes of watching the film for the two of you to end up pawing at one another as the tension of the day slowly peeled off of you with every layer of clothing the two of you tore off one another.

In no time, you were both stark naked on your bed as The Lost Boys played on without an audience. All Billy cared about watching was you. Watching you writhe and moan. He could watch you do just about anything, but it was that dreamy look you got on your face whenever he touched you that he had imprinted into his skull. It didn’t even have to be sexual. You just had a certain look whenever the two of you connected, one that he felt but managed to keep stowed away inside of him, but one you expressed. It was happiness.

Pure, unadulterated, bliss.

He knew you. Knew your body in and out, knew how to get you to come undone, knew what made you tick, what made you squirm.

You were muscle memory to him, at this point.

He knew you better than he knew himself.

Which is why, when you subtly stopped him from slipping his fingers inside of you, that Billy’s focus went to your ass. The only time you pushed his hand away after he’d spent minutes sucking and biting and focusing on those perfect tits, was when you were on your period.

So, he didn’t push it.

The two of you had fucked a few times whilst you were on it but you were deadest on limiting that to the lighter days. The very beginning or the end. Never in the middle. But god, did he want to experience the middle days.

You were so fucking horny when you were on your period and why you thought he’d give a shit about how much blood came out of you as the two of you fucked was beyond him.

So, he’d focus on your ass. Something that drove you to the brink of insanity and something that made him harder than anything.

But tonight, it wasn’t enough.

He needed all of you.

Ever since the cabin, he’d needed more of you in his life. It had become nearly impossible for him to show any iota of affection for Sid now that he’d had a taste of what life felt like with you at his side. You were his Final Girl. His everything, if he was being completely honest. And, while he knew he couldn’t open himself up to you to that extent, not yet, he needed you to feel that raging darkness inside of him. Not too much of it, but just enough to gauge your reaction.

If you could handle a shred of it, maybe he could share more of himself with you.

The darker parts.

His hands stilled as they trailed down your body and, as he hovered over you, he bit his lip and slowly drew tiny circles into your hips. “You’re on your period, right?”

You nodded, your lips swollen from the amount of kissing having gone on since popping the movie in. “Yeah, but it’s not a light day.”

He nodded in understanding as he bit his lip. “You think we could try it, anyway?”

Your eyebrows raised in mild amusement. “By not a light day, I mean its kind of heavy, Billy. It’d look like a crime scene in here.”

Billy made sure to keep his face stoic, but the idea of the two of you fucking whilst covered in blood was nearly enough to make him come on the spot.

“Aren’t you curious?” He asked, dipping his head down to lick your painfully hard nipple. “It’s got to feel so fucking good, right?”

You ran your fingers through his hair and sighed in contentment when he began to suck your tit again. “It’s messy, though.”

“Lucky for you,” he released your nipple and kissed the sensitive flesh of your breast. “I like messy.”

Your head flopped back against the pillow as you thought over his request. I did feel good, but did you want Billy to have to witness you cleaning up a fucking homicide scene once he was through with you?

Blowing out a quiet raspberry, you eyed him with mock suspicion before he gave you those goddamn puppy dog eyes. “Ugh,” you groaned with a laugh, “fine. Let me take this fucking tampon out and I’ll grab a towel to put underneath me because it is heavy, and you will be grossed out.”

Billy’s cock twitched as he watched you roll out of bed before disappearing in the bathroom. Within a few moments, he heard the toilet flush and the sink run before you re-emerged with a towel in hand.

He could watch you parade around like that all day. Naked, eyes hooded from desire, nipples and lips red from where his mouth had staked its claim.

You were perfect.

A vision.

You were fucking everything.

“I’ve been wanting to try this with you for a while.” He admitted, watching you carefully roll the towel onto the bed before perching your ass directly on top of it so as to avoid any potential leakage onto your sheets.

“I wish I could say I was shocked.” You teased, laying back down. Spreading your legs, he watched you slip a finger through your folds to tease your clit.

He swallowed as he watched you finger yourself. But then your words sank in and a panic settled in his chest as he swept his eyes up your body to meet your amused stare. “What’s that mean?”

You shrugged so casually as you continued the tirade on your own pussy. “All the scary movies we watch and stuff. You get hard as a rock if there’s a scene with a pretty girl and some blood.”

Billy froze. This was only supposed to be a peek inside of his darkness, not a full-blown window. But you didn’t seem all too fazed by it either, which confused him endlessly.

Rather than deny it, Billy hesitantly reached for your cunt to replace your fingers with his own. He didn’t delve inside of your pussy just yet, just circled your clit the way you’d been doing seconds prior. “And that doesn’t bother you?” He whispered, placing a kiss to the side of your neck.

“Nah,” you hummed, “we’ve all got our kinks, I guess.”

You released a quiet moan as he pinched your clit, but his eyes never left your face. He knew you were talking about blood in respect to the movies, but your casual tone still caught him off guard. There was no shame in it, no doubt. Just an honest to god shrug as he circled your clit with his middle finger.

Testing the waters, Billy slipped his fingers down your pussy so that his thumb coaxed your clit as he slipped two fingers inside of you. At first, it simply felt like you were soaked on account of all of the teasing and, maybe you were, but as he glanced down at the base of his fingers as he pulled them out of you, Billy nearly moaned.

Blood.

Your blood.

All over his fingers, pooling along the top of his palm.

Billy was fascinated. This wasn’t the first time he’d felt blood between his fingers, but not like this. When he’d killed Maureen Prescott, there was so much fucking blood that he’d been sick afterwards. He hadn’t expected that level of destruction but, after puking a few blocks away, he didn’t exactly shy away from it. He thought about it often, thought of the carnage that had surrounded him once he’d finished with Sidney’s mother, thought of the way the blood felt between his fingers, splayed and smattered across every inch of his body.

But this was euphoric.

Because he didn’t have to hurt anybody to feel that warmth on his palm. In fact, as he slowly slipped his fingers inside of your hot cunt, he was doing anything but. You were gyrating into his hand, unknowingly spreading your blood further and it was killing him. He was so fucking hard, too fucking hard, but he didn’t want to rush a damned thing.

He’d thought about this far too often for it to be over so soon.

“Fuck,” he whispered, slipping his hand out of your pussy just long enough to slowly spread your blood down your inner thigh. It left a fine red trail that he had every intention of lapping up in a few seconds if you were to allow it. “You feel so good, baby.”

He’d half expected you to make a comment about making a bigger mess than what your piddly little towel would allow but, as he slowly found your hooded eyes through the dim light of your bedroom, only hunger marred your pretty face.

Desire.

Intrigue.

Leaning in, Billy placed a small kiss to the apple of your cheek as his fingers continued to fuck you. “Does this feel good?”

“So good,” you rasped out, leaning your forehead against his as you bit your lip to swallow back a moan. Between your arousal and the blood, the natural lubrication that coated your pussy as he slowly pumped his fingers inside of you all the while rubbing your clit was killing you. “So fucking good, Billy.”

He smirked and quickened his pace on your clit just enough to drive you to madness as he bit down on your earlobe. His breath was hot against your cheek. “I want to taste you tonight.”

Though the promise of his tongue replacing his thumb enticed you, the fact that you were on day two and a half of your period was not a good plan. So why were you intrigued? A part of you wanted to see if he’d put his money where his mouth was but a much larger part of you wanted to see how feral Billy could get where you were concerned.

Torn, you pulled back and searched his eyes. “It’s going to be…messy, Billy.”

His dark chuckle was velvet against your skin. “I already told you,” he curled his fingers inside of you and admired the way your entire body twitched. “I like messy.”

He began to kiss his way down your body. You tried not to get lost in the feeling of his tongue swirling across every inch of your skin on his way down or the way his teeth nipped and bit at your stomach and hips as he positioned himself between your thighs. But mainly, you tried not to focus on how fucking bloody it was between your thighs because you knew that Billy wouldn’t be down there long on account of it.

“You don’t have to do this tonight, Billy,” you tried to reason, chest heaving in anticipation as he settled between your legs.

Something flashed across his face as he held your stare. For a second, you were almost sure he was going to back out and leave well enough alone, but then you watched as the bastard leaned into your pussy and raked his tongue from the base of your pussy right up to your bloodied mound.

He held your stare the entire time.

“I want you like this,” he assured you, yanking you further down the bed so that you were right at the edge. His voice was hoarse and breathy and as you chanced a look down at him through a pair of hooded, drowsy eyes, you watched him pump his cock with his free hand as he licked his lips. “I love you like this.”

You opened your mouth to respond but the words died in your throat when he buried his face between your thighs. You gasped at the contact but didn’t shy away from his touch for a single second as he slowly lapped at your core. With the one hand still gripping your hips, holding you firmly against his tongue, you knew there would be bruises where his fingers carved into your flesh, but you couldn’t bring yourself to care. He was desperate to get you closer into his face and you were desperate to feel that perfect fucking tongue on your pussy.

It was as though he’d been possessed in those few moments. Billy couldn’t get enough of you on a good day but tasting you like this was enough to make Billy wild. Your pussy, the blood mixed with your slick, tasted so fucking good on his tongue. Burying his face further into your folds, he nuzzled at your clit and, now forgetting about his own pulsing cock, pulled you even closer.

Throwing your legs over his shoulders, Billy moaned into your pussy and bit down on your clit just enough to entice a moan that was probably a little too loud for your parents being home. But, he didn’t care. He refused to care in that instance.

All he wanted, all he cared about, was tasting as much of you as humanly possible before making you come on his tongue.

His name tore out of your throat as you gripped his hair between your fingers and pulled. You were being rougher than normal, and he fucking loved it. You were pulling on his hair and bucking into his mouth with such hunger that he could barely breathe but fuck he didn’t care. If this was how he was taken out, so be it.

“Baby,” you whined, voice low. “Fuck, I’m going to come.”

Your grip on his hair was vice-like as the veins in your neck swelled. With wild, laboured breaths, you found yourself bucking into his mouth as a white-hot orgasm rippled through your entire body. You moaned and groaned and cursed into the bed, but Billy’s mouth was relentless.

It wasn’t until he was absolutely sure you couldn’t take another second of torture, that he pulled away and allowed you to collapse back onto the bed. Your cheeks were flushed, and your lips were parted as you attempted to catch your breath. With a quiet chuckle, he kissed his way up your body, grinning against your skin as your legs continued to twitch.

He could feel your blood all over his chin and nose and as he licked it off, using his fingers to swipe at the areas his tongue couldn’t quite reach, Billy was coasting on a high that only you could provide.

“Oh, god,” you buried your face into the pillow with a quiet laugh as you moved to get off the bed. “Hang on, I’ll grab you a towel for your face.”

“No,” Billy shook his head and grabbed for your wrist. “I want to see it.”

You blinked and scraped your eyes along his bloodied face. Your nipples were still rock hard and your cunt was still pulsing on account of his tongue, but it was the look of pure ecstasy on his face that made you clench.

He was being serious.

“Come with me,” he hummed, slipping off of the bed to head towards the small bathroom attached to your room. His fingers threaded through yours as you both walked across your bedroom before flicking the light on.

The vision that he was met with made his cock twitch.

Your blood coated almost everything from his nose down his chin and as you stood beside him, looking at him through the mirror, still fully naked and still housing bloody handprints left behind from his busy hands coating the lower half of your body, Billy had never wanted to bury himself inside of you any more than he did right then and there.

He found your curious stare through the mirror. Your pretty eyes swept over the mess of blood left behind on account of you and as you turned to face him, he found himself hypnotized as you reached out to sweep his hair back and away from his forehead.

“Blood suits you,” you teased with a small smile. “Horrifically enough.”

He said nothing as those brown eyes soaked you in but as he stepped into you, cornering you against the sink counter, the look on his face said everything. He didn’t kiss you though. He seemed to hesitate, as though gauging if you’d kiss him whilst covered in your own menstrual blood. “Is this okay?”

“I don’t know.” You admitted almost sheepishly.

He nuzzled your neck and slipped his knee between your thighs to allow himself better access to your pussy. With his hand wrapped securely around his cock, he slipped the head of his dick along your folds and swallowed hard as he watched your blood coat the head of it. “Fuck,” he whispered as his forehead fell against your own. “You’re going to make me come before I’m even inside of you.”

You were watching his face as he once again slipped the head of his cock through your folds so it teased your clit. His eyes were so dark and there was so much desire in those warm eyes that it almost caught you off guard.

“You’re really into this,” you remarked quietly. When his eyes found yours, you could see blind panic cross over his face as he instinctually took a step away from you. You stopped him before he could think of stopping himself. “Hey,” you cooed, reaching out for his face. “I didn’t say it was a bad thing, relax.”

You felt the tension in his shoulders disperse as you played with the curls at the nape of his neck. “You’re too good for me,” he muttered, cradling your face. “You know that?”

“Oh, yeah,” you goaded with a smile. “I know.”

He barked out a quiet laugh and ground his hips into yours. “A smartass, too.”

You hummed as his hands slid down your body to hold you against the counter. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Anything.” Billy nipped at your neck.

You leaned back to allow him full access to your neck. “How did I taste?” Your words seemed to make him still as he slowly pulled back to search your eyes. “With the blood. How did it taste?”

The look on Billy’s face was primal as his grip on your hips tightened. Leaning in, he nudged your nose so that your lips were perfectly aligned with his. “Kiss me and find out.”

You weren’t sure at first, but as he closed the distance between you, you found yourself leaning into the kiss both curious and slightly mortified by the taste of your blood on his lips. It was strange and you weren’t sure if you liked it at first, if you were being honest. It was coppery and a little sticky and yet as he walked the two of you out of the bathroom and back towards your bed, you found yourself hungry for more.

With your fingers tangled through his hair you gave it a tug, garnering a low growl that rumbled in his throat as he continued on with the bruising kiss. When the back of his knees hit your bed, the two of you fell into a jumbled mess on your mattress, never once breaking for air as your tongues battled for dominance.

Expertly, knowing the way your body moved better than anyone, Billy moved you in such a way that he was sitting up in the middle of your bed as you straddled his lap. And as you lowered yourself onto his pulsing cock, the gruff low moan that tore out of his lips was enough to kill you.

His large hands splayed out across your back, guiding you further into his hungry mouth as your bleeding cunt teased him beyond belief. You were so wet and with every twist of your hips and every gentle moan, he was finding it harder and harder to concentrate on anything else besides just how fucking good you felt.

Digging your nails into his shoulders, blood slowly pooled in the wake of your crescent moon shaped nail markings. He hissed at the sensation and squeezed your tits rather roughly as he tried to stop himself from coming right then and there.

But then you lowered your lips onto his shoulders and he felt your hot tongue trace over every last cut and he almost lost it. There you were, with dried blood all over your chin and parts of your cheeks from having kissed him after going down on you, licking the blood that gathered along his shoulders.

He was in a state of euphoria.

“You are so fucking gorgeous.” He pushed out, revelling in the feel of how warm and wet your pussy felt.

Rather than say a word, all you did was bite down on the reddened area of his shoulder as you quickened your pace on his dick.

Drawing more blood.

Licking up more of his blood.

Something in him snapped to life in that instance. An almost ancient need bubbled to the surface as he held you there against him. Your tits bounced as you writhed on top of him and as he began to meet you halfway with violent, earth shattering thrusts, the outside world ceased to exist.

The sound of his balls hitting your sopping pussy combined with the sound of your wetness, both slick and blood, squelching all around the two of you was all that surrounded you as you whined out his name. You could barely breathe as he pounded into you, barely function.

“Billy, fuck, I—”

His mouth buried your words with another hungry kiss. You were both breathless and desperate to be as close to the other as humanly possible as you sat on your bed, fucking each other raw. His tongue slid along your bottom lip, gently tugging at it as his forehead fell against your own.

There was a shift after the cabin that you’d both felt inside of you, but there was a shift in the air tonight, as well. An unspoken trust, of sorts, that went beyond anything the two of you were prepared for.

His hips bucked into yours one final time before he came undone inside of you. A flood of warmth settled in your belly as he came and as his thumb continued to circle your clit, rubbing and pinching at it every step of the way, you soon followed suit.

With one last shaky pump, Billy held you there as he slowly pulled out of you. He kissed your lips, your cheek, down your neck, and along your shoulder before his eyes found yours once again.

His thumb skirted across the apple of your cheek. “You’re my girl,” he whispered, revelling in just how fucking gorgeous you looked in that instance. “You know that?”

“I do,” you affirmed, kissing him softly. “You’re helping me clean my fucking bedsheets in the morning,” you muttered, “do you know that?”

Despite everything, Billy found himself smiling across at you before glancing down at the bloody mess of your sheets. “Yeah,” he chuckled, “I do.”

“Good,” you gently smacked his cheek and crawled off of your bed towards the bathroom.

“Where you going?” He asked, watching your naked body pad out of the room.

“Shower,” you merely said before popping your head around the corner. “Care to join me?”

Billy was at your side within the blink of an eye.

hehehehehehehe let me know if yall like it

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battlestar-royco · 4 years ago

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okay here it is, part 1 of my sci fi tv and movies rec list! i’ve split it up into 2, kind of by tone and theme. these recs are on the lighter side. part 2 is for fans of darker sci fi. i could’ve gone on tbh but i had to draw the line somewhere. it’s not perfect but i hope you find something you like that you haven’t heard of! full titles, trigger warnings, and diversity/general notes under the cut. ask box open for any more specific questions!

part 2/2

If you liked STAR TREK and STAR WARS:

Black Mirror: USS Callister: (tw: simulated child loss, brief torture) coworkers get trapped inside their boss’s Star Trek spoof video game. It’s led by a white woman but the entire cast is pretty diverse (Michaela Coel!!!) and it’s critical of white edgelords. Dark moments balanced with funny!

Firefly: (tw: sexual harassment in one episode, sex worker phobia, Joss Whedon-ness) I think this one is more well-known; a small space crew travels the solar system taking on any weird jobs they can get. Two leading WOC, a black man, one interracial relationship.

Avenue 5: (tw: some dark humor, language) Star Trek meets the Titanic. Funny! I’ll leave it at that. 3 leading WOC, a canonically pan main character in a poly and interracial relationship.

Black Mirror: Be Right Back: (tw: grief, partner loss) a woman’s SO dies and she simulates his resurrection through a software that scans his social media accounts. This one isn’t diverse but it’s an hour of Domhnall Gleeson, if he’s your thing!

Stargate: (tw: 90s/00s racism/sexism) tbh I haven’t watched most of the content but I’d say it’s on par with a Star Trek kind of thing. SGA stars two or three POC in a cast of like 7 regulars.

If you liked PACIFIC RIM:

Black Mirror: Hang the DJ: (tw: none that I can recall) a man and woman fall in love via dating app. It doesn’t have monsters, but it’s an incredibly charming episode that exhibits some of Black Mirror’s best qualities imo and I think people who like the Raleigh/Mako dynamic will like what these two have!! Interracial relationship between a black woman and a white man; black woman is blink-and-you-miss-it bi, but still canonically bi.

Cloverfield (tw: violence/blood, frequent flashes, shaky cam): found-footage flick about aliens attacking New York. Basic and not too diverse but it has the huge monster appeal and I like the found-footage aspect.

Edge of Tomorrow: (tw: VB) Groundhog Day alien apocalypse. it’s Tom Cruise buuuuut you get to see Emily Blunt at her most “I’ll end you”-est so like? Worth it I think??

Arrival: (tw: child loss) aliens come to Earth to offer something to the humans. A little slow, but definitely a different take and some cool-looking aliens.

The Host: (tw: child loss) A girl gets kidnapped by a huge river monster. it’s in Korean and all the characters are Asian. Directed by Bong Joon-ho and starring Kang-Ho Song and Bae Doona!! Plus environmentalist commentary.

If you liked MARVEL and DC:

Misfits: (tw: sex, language, violence, rape) imagine one of those superhero teams like the Avengers except they’re all criminals who’ve given up on life and don’t actually care about making the world a better place. Chaotic stupid energy. Two black leads :)

Push: (tw: a few bloody scenes) Chris Evans before Cap?? Dakota Fanning before Twilight? Secret government experiments and black ops superpower organizations? You love to see it!

Fast Color: (tw: past drug use referenced) superpowers that pass down from generation to generation in a family of black women. Need I say more? Need I say any fucking more?!?!

Sense8: (tw: child loss, grief, lots of nudity and sex, drug use, language, infidelity) 8 people around the world start experiencing each other’s lives and borrowing each other’s skill sets. This is probably THE most intersectional and diverse show I have ever seen. An international cast and setting that reaches almost every continent, leading trans lesbian, multiple QPOC. Truly incredible and one of my absolute favorites.

Jupiter Ascending: (tw: bees) I actually don’t really like this movie but I do think it has its appeal and I appreciate how much it is just unabashedly itself. Don’t take it too seriously! The cast is kinda wild too--Mila Kunis, Eddie Redmayne, Sean Bean, Channing Tatum!!! And it’s by the Wachowskis, AKA the two trans sisters who did The Matrix and Sense8!

If you liked THE HUNGER GAMES:

Gattaca: (tw: implied body modification, trichophobia, eugenics) in a society that discriminates against genes, a man with a heart condition assumes another’s identity in order to achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut. I love this movie. It’s very moody and soft with a really compelling dynamic between the two leading men which I’ve always read as gay.

Snowpiercer: (tw: VB, minor cannibalism) yet another winner from Bong Joon-ho, who’s surprised? All of humanity lives on a train in which all the cars are stratified by class. This is my favorite of all the movies from all the Chrises. Evans is by far my favorite Chris for this!!! It also features Octavia Spencer and Kang-Ho Song! Piping hot class war tea pre-Parasite.

V for Vendetta: (tw: torture, I don’t remember a lot of the details sorry!) I haven’t watched this movie in a minute so I don’t remember how much I actually liked it, but I thought it was worth mentioning because it’s a classic dystopian movie.

Children of Men: (tw: infertility, childbirth, VB) humanity has lost the ability to procreate for 2 decades until one day a resistance group discovers a pregnant woman. Holy crap so much extremely relevant and prescient commentary on immigration, race, class, and refugee crises!!!

Akira: (tw: disturbing imagery, objectification, nudity) I don’t really remember this one much either? But it’s Japanese, there’s biker gangs, and it’s super weird.

The 100: (tw: VB, kill your gays/POC trope, suicide, torture, child loss) 100 juvenile delinquents are dropped onto Earth and chaos ensues. I think most people know that this show is plagued with issues but it really does have a special place in my heart and I think it changed the conversation and standards re: the treatment of wlw in genre fiction. It starts off cheesy and slow but the stakes are SO high all the time and it’s full of thought-provoking ethical dilemmas.

#maxine talks sci fi #movie recs #maxine did you read/watch #i think my thesis is that i watch way too much sci fi

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irishmacguirefucker · 4 years ago

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Otis Miller

Otis Miller was a lad that killed many a man, He robbed the Lanahechee train, But that cowardly killer that shot Mr. Miller, has laid old Otis in his grave.

Poor Otis had a wife to mourn for his life, Three children, and they were brave, Well that cowardly killer that shot Mr. Miller He laid poor Otis in his grave.

It was Charlie Tatum, that dirty little coward, I wonder how he does feel, For he ate of Otis’ bread and he slept in Otis’ bed, And he laid poor Otis in his grave.

Otis was a man, a friend to the poor, He'd never see a man suffer pain, And with his brother Frank he robbed the Blackwater bank, And stopped the Glendale train.

Poor Otis had a wife to mourn for his life, Three children, and they were brave, But that cowardly killer that shot Mr. Miller He laid poor Otis in his grave.

It’s Saturday night and Otis wasn’t home, Out talking with his family grave, And Charlie Tatum came along like a thief in the night And laid old Otis in his grave.

Now the people held their breath when they heard of Otis’ death, And wondered how he ever came to die It was one of the gang called Little Charlie Tatum, That shot old Otis on the sly.

Poor Otis had a wife to mourn for his life, Three children, and they were brave, But that cowardly killer that shot Mr. Miller He laid poor Otis in his grave.

Download the campfire songs here and don’t forget to appreciate OP for posting them. info about the song under the cut as well as some personal thoughts.

Otis Miller is one of my favorite campfire songs and the reason I started all this. I really love the story, its so sad, but the way Karen, Uncle, and Pearson sing it is so perfect. It doesn't sound like a song to grieve Otis, but a beautiful ballad to pay respects to Otis’ life and family. idk, that could just be me hearing it like that though.

The real song, Jesse James, is very similar lyric wise. They didn't change too much, other than some places, skipped a couple verses, and changed how Jesse/Otis died. In the real song he is shot in the back while hanging a picture, instead of at his family grave. HOWEVER, the actual song is a fucking wild change from the slow pretty ballad of Otis Miller. The Ballad of Jesse James is a very upbeat folk song first recorded by Bentley Ball in 1919 and became so famous that even Bruce Springsteen sang it. More info on the song as well as Mr. Jesse James himself Here

Anyways now some thoughts on the people.

I. Love. Karen. Jones. i love her. I love that she sings so many songs! her voice is really nice and unique, and just like her personality, she doesn't hold back or try to sound perfect. She is singing, with her friends, kinda drunk, having fun. Karen singing happy songs literally hand delivers me serotonin i swear. (we can talk about Lorena and Farewell Dear Sean later bc my emotions are SO not stable enough for that rn)

As for Uncle, personally not a huge fan of him being in like almost every song but i mean. he wouldn't be uncle if he weren't slightly inconveniencing literally everyone. Also im pretty sure hes half the reason people start singing anyways. However i have a recent appreciation for Pearson's voice. Its so soft and soothing I feel like if i were at that campfire while he sang i would like immediately drift off. Its literally just so pleasant? idk man.

and Javier. My handsome man, my musical genius. I am in love with how the song is going slow and gentle until Karen and Uncle suddenly recognize it, and then the tune gets a little more upbeat, a little jauntier. King of tone changes?? i would die for him. This worship of his musical genius will be a theme considering he is the backing sound for 90% of these lmao.

#Otis Miller #RDR2 #rdr2 lyrics #man i dont even care if people dont like this idea like #i just wanna talk about campfire songs ok they are important to me #Karen Jones #Pearson #Uncle #rdr2 uncle #simon pearson

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thecinephale · 7 years ago

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Magic Mike XXL: Masculinity Worth Appreciating

I saw the first Magic Mike with my sister the summer before I left for college. I remember this day the way I remember just about everyday I’ve spent alone with my sister. I remember the day we spent visiting her favorite “spots” right before I started high school. I remember when we got into a hip NYC club because she looked like her even though I looked like me. I remember the difficult lunch we had my first visit back after coming out as trans. I spent most of my life with my sister, usually our parents were there or nearby. But once she learned to drive, the days alone, I remember all of those. This day, in June, in 2012, we were seeing Magic Mike.

There were two men in the theatre, sheepish looking boyfriends whose body language and facial expressions tried to make clear that they were just being good sports. Otherwise it was all women, ages ranging, ready to express their sexuality in public, an experience rarely allowed. My sister commented several times how weird it was to be seeing this with her little brother. I deflected with discussion about Steven Soderbergh and his varied filmography, abuzz with the comfort and confusion I’d always feel when in majority-women spaces.

The movie was fine. Soderbergh knows how to shoot and edit, Channing Tatum knows how to dance, and Matthew McConaughey knows how to chew scenery. But in making two films about the sex industry, Soderbergh failed to understand the difference between what men and women audiences are regularly given. It’s subversive to send a bunch of horny guys into The Girlfriend Experience wanting to see Sasha Grey fuck and then giving them a cold film about economics. But doing the same to a bunch of horny women wanting to see Channing and the gang is just… disappointing.

Still there were enough abs to keep the audience relatively happy, and I left the theatre with the excited feeling that I’d gotten away with something. The same feeling I always had when I’d hang out with my sister and her friends, the same feeling I’d have any time I managed to be around groups of girls, conversations, car rides, karaoke rooms. While I never felt fully relaxed, I did feel more comfortable. It was as much about being near women as it was about being away from men.

***

We talk a lot about trans women’s relationship towards femininity. Every corny movie with a trans femme youth has her trying on makeup, heels, painting her nails. My experience was certainly filled with a lifelong admiration towards girls and women that fluctuated between envy and lust, admiration and resentment. I obsessively loved women and then turned on them when I felt dissatisfied. I convinced myself that relationships needed to be romantic, because I confused the deep desire to consume their bodies, their fashion, their entire being as a sexual impulse rather than one of imitation. I ruined so many friendships this way.

But what we talk about less is how much of my life was spent with masculinity, immersed in it, confused by it, desperate to understand how to embody it. I know some trans women have clarity from a young age that they are girls and it’s just a matter of others accepting it. But that was not my experience. My discomfort with boyhood and attraction to girlhood never seemed like something I could embrace. Instead I felt a pressure and desire to adjust those attractions, to be a boy and then a man to the best of my ability.

I’m fortunate to have a father who is sensitive and kind. I’m also fortunate to have a father who coached my baseball and soccer teams throughout most of my childhood. Sports became something that was undeniably masculine but that I also loved. I may have watched my sister’s dance classes with envy, but I also found genuine pleasure in being on the field, being physical and focused and competitive. It helped that my dad always prioritized sportsmanship, team spirit, and fun over winning. The league recognized this and rewarded him with the absolute worst players they could find. Our team of misfits may have frustrated me at times, but it also allowed me to think of sports as an exercise in empathy rather than a terrifying world of standards and punishments. I wonder now how many other boys on those teams were queer. I know at least one.

My positive experience with sports allowed me to navigate my early childhood fairly unscathed. I was bullied incessantly by other boys (and even some other girls) probably picking up on something about me. And my “crushes” (as I’d wrongly call them) on girls were intense to the point of all-consuming obsession. But my immense discomfort towards masculinity didn’t really start until middle school, until puberty.

I couldn’t figure out what masculinity even was. I knew certain expectations placed on me and felt like they were all terrible. I was supposed to objectify women. That was the most obvious. The grosser I could get when talking about the girls I “liked” the more I’d be accepted. I was also supposed to be aggressive. Physically. I was not supposed to cry. Or show any emotion. It wasn’t enough that I liked sports. I was supposed to only like sports. If someone was my friend that meant they made fun of me in front of our other friends and the proper response was to make fun of them back. Or hit them.

Some of this is just middle school. But a lot of it carried over into high school and beyond. My new friends cared more about theatre than sports, but if you’ve ever watched two 17-year-old boys fight over who gets what part in Julius Caesar you’d realize it’s all the same. *** The summer before I came out, the greatest sequel of all time graced our movie screens: Magic Mike XXL.

This masterpiece of masculinity is a modern-day Old Hollywood musical. Blah blah La La Land blah blah. Go watch On the Town and it becomes clear those musicals are about 1) hot guys, 2) tight pants, 3) great dancing. XXL is pure, sex-positive joy from beginning to end. It abandons the thematic and narrative overwroughtness of the original and makes a new statement: Celebrating female sexuality and non-toxic masculinity is what’s truly radical.

As a lesbian, I’ll leave discussions of the former to others (now that The Toast is gone I’m not sure where Roxane Gay’s review went, it’s really worth hunting down). But as a trans woman, who spent my whole life trying to understand masculinity, this movie was a goddamn revelation. The way the men celebrate women is lovely and sexy and new, but the way they celebrate each other is what really stood out to me.

The men in Magic Mike XXL are masculine. They embody so many of those basic, oversimplified middle school traits I listed above. And yet. It looks good on them. They’re physical, they rag on each other, they trade crude remarks about women. But they also support each other. They discuss their goals and varied interests. They talk out conflicts. Their discussion of women is crude but not objectifying. And they’re comfortable enough in their sexuality and gender to participate in a drag show. Watching XXL, I didn’t feel any closer to masculinity, but for the first time I found it something worth aspiring to. Social pressure was no longer the only thing pushing me towards it, and, as a result, it soon became clear I was never meant to achieve it.

Since coming out, I’ve had the good fortune of befriending some trans men and non-binary individuals who align with certain elements of masculinity and manhood. In these people I tend to see this same sort of Magic Mike XXL version of masculinity. I see it in my dad. I see it in a few cis male friends. I spent my life hating masculinity, but now I see its potential.

***

Last week I went to Thirst Aid Kit’s screening of Magic Mike XXL at the Alamo Drafthouse. Thirst Aid Kit is a podcast hosted by Bim Adewunmi and Nichole Perkins and is really a must-listen if you’re a person who enjoys lusting after men (and if you aren’t it’s still a good time). They provided fake money to throw at the screen and bingo cards with squares like “Mike grabs his crotch.” Cocktails were served throughout and we were encouraged to hoot, wallop, and moan as we saw fit.

It’s been about six years since I sat in that regular movie theatre with my sister cherishing what felt like girl time. And here I was, again in a majority-women space, watching Channing Tatum grind. This time I felt comfortable, and also, finally, relaxed.

As a trans person, I’ve been forced to examine my gender, to wrestle with masculinity and femininity and ultimately decide what elements of both appeal to me and who I personally am. In a time when cis men are feeling increasingly confused about their place in the world, I wonder what might happen if they also had to ponder their identity. I wonder what might happen if they had to reconsider their own definitions of masculinity. I wonder what an all cis straight male screening of Magic Mike XXL might look like and what it might achieve.

Some need to thirst. Others need to learn. This movie does it all. <3

#Magic Mike #Magic Mike XXL #masculinity #toxic masculinity #femininity #trans #transgender #LGBTQIA #Channing Tatum #Steven Soderbergh #Thirst Aid Kit #Alamo Drafthouse #Bim Adewunmi #Nichole Perkins

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fallout4holmes · 7 years ago

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Journal 14

The Personal Journal of Mr. S. Holmes Diamond City, The Commonwealth, 2288

It was slightly disorienting to wake up on a mattress near the the Railroad’s back door. My body protested as I stood and looked for my companions. Hancock was talking with Deacon, the small crowd of agents around them wearing smiles of disbelief. Deacon was animatedly finishing a story involving two Coursers, a stick of gum, and a super mutant suicider. Hancock reclined in his chair, inhaled a small puff of jet, and said, “If any of that were true, I’d be damn impressed. But let me ask you, brother… you ever meet a comic book hero?”

I’m certain Deacon knew exactly what Hancock was referring to, but he played along and the tale was begun. I decided to let them have their fun and glanced around for Valentine. I saw him talking to Dr. Carrington. I took a step toward them, and was stopped by Desdemona.

“I can't say I'm thrilled with having the Mayor of Goodneighbor here.”

She didn't seem upset, and in fact she was possibly amused. “He's been letting your agents operate in his town for years,” I said.

“I’m not concerned he's going to go running to the Brotherhood with our location,” she said, “he's just… unpredictable.”

“He's perfectly predictable. Good guys get helped, bad guys get hurt. That is more or less a direct quote.”

She chuckled, and turned the conversation to business. Apparently, there is a loosely affiliated group of raiders that has been causing trouble for the Railroad, a particularly sadistic lot calling themselves the L&L Gang who take great delight in finding and executing synths. Desdemona claimed the Railroad had lost more synths to them over the years than even the Coursers. They had a lead on one of the gang’s top figures, a man by the name of Lucky Tatum. He was hiding out in Back Street Apparel. As I’d be headed in that direction to return to Diamond City, she wanted me to deal with him. I agreed.

Valentine approached, “What's the plan?”

“How does eliminating a few members of a synth hunting gang suit you, Mr. Valentine?”

“Synth hunting, hm? I'd be lying if I said that didn't hold a certain appeal.”

“Deacon will join us,” I stated, but Desdemona answered as if it had been a question.

“He wants to help. How'd you guess?”

“I never guess,” I said with a wry grin.

She was unimpressed, but it doesn't matter. I approached the two men still engaged in verbal one-upmanship. “Mayor Hancock. Deacon, Valentine, and I are going to deal with synth hunting raiders, will you be joining us before you return to Goodneighbor?”

Hancock smiled sinisterly. “Sounds like my kind of trouble.”

“He's coming?” Deacon asked. “You uh, sure that's safe?”

“Safe?” Hancock laughed as he stood, “where the hell’s the fun in that?”

As we walked, I asked Deacon what the status was of the Courser he'd gone after. He said it was taken care of, but that I got to fight the next one.

“Courser, huh?” Hancock said from his position in front. “That must have been a hell of a - oh, shit!” he turned the corner, and immediately backed up, his shotgun at the ready, “If you got any explosives, now would be a real good time to use ‘em!”

The deathclaw’s roar echoed over the shotgun blast as it came around the building. “Don’t let it get close!” Deacon called out, “Pop a Stealth Boy if you got one!” and he promptly did.

Hancock swore, colorfully, followed with, “We’re in a goddamn alley, and he says ‘don’t let it get close.’”

Deacon managed to flank the beast, as Hancock, Valentine, and I continued our assault while moving as quickly backwards as we could until we cleared the alley and could gain some distance. Being attacked from all directions confused it enough for us to put it down with relative ease. As easy as killing a ten foot reptile of sheer muscle and rage ever is.

Once it was dead, Hancock sighed. “Could use some jet after that.”

Deacon limped over to us, wincing. “Another deathclaw down, another of my nine lives burned. Yay.”

“Are you alright?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just a bruised rib. Ribs. Ribcage. Ow. Got hit by the damn tail.”

“Walking away from a fight with a Deathclaw is no small feat,” Valentine mused. “Nicely done, everyone.”

Hancock nudged the deathclaw’s head with the toe of his boot. “So what do you think it would take to train these things to just eat super mutants?”

“Well, first we’d have to find a baby and name it Fluffy,” Deacon quipped.

Hancock laughed, “Anyone up for deathclaw steaks? Nothing like eating a meal made from something that tried to eat you.”

“That’s like, every meal,” Deacon said as we moved forward. “I mean, except the vegetarian ones. Unless there are mutant man-eating plants out there. Attack of the killer tatos.”

“Brahmin don’t try to eat you.”

“Not yet.” Deacon spared a last glance at the deathclaw. He shuddered. “Man, I do not like those things.”

“Yeah, give me the chills, too,” Hancock admitted.

Valentine and I followed as Hancock and Deacon continued bonding over their shared terror and continued hypothesizing on the existence of various other life forms that could kill them yet would taste good.

“Holmes,” said Valentine, “you got a weird taste in friends.”

“Said the man at the top of the list,” I smirked.

“Doesn’t make it any less true,” he said.

After the deathclaw, Lucky Tatum and his crew of bigoted sadists didn’t stand a chance. It was a massacre. All four of us present hadn’t been necessary, but I knew why Deacon had wanted to be there. He didn’t say anything, and the sunglasses continue to make reading his thoughts difficult, but when it was all over he said, “No comparison to Deathclaws.”

“Yet just as necessary to deal with,” I said. “The circumstances are slightly different, besides.”

He looked at me, inscrutable for a moment, before smiling. “No giant tails to dodge, for one thing. I gotta see the doc when I get back to HQ. Ugh, won’t that be fun.”

“Found some ammo in here!” Hancock shouted from a far room.

Valentine spoke quietly as Deacon joined the Mayor, “If I ask what that was about, am I going to get a straight answer?”

“Deacon trusted me with details about his life, which to be perfectly honest I don’t know are true or not. My instinct leans towards truth.”

When it became clear that was all I was going to say on the matter, he said, “You could have just said ‘no, Nick, man’s got a right to his secrets.’”

I grinned. I don’t know for sure if Deacon was thinking of the creature or the gang from his life story when he said Deathclaws, but I thought the acknowledgement should be there, should he choose to take it. Perhaps the gang never existed, perhaps Deacon was never married, perhaps, perhaps… and yet. The possibility of its truth is enough to respect his wishes that it never be known. He went through the trouble of erasing the recording of it. That might count for something toward its validity.

Deacon said he would let Desdemona know the good news as we left the area. We said our goodbyes, and the three of us turned toward Diamond City. Hancock seemed to be enjoying our company, and avoiding his mayoral duties. As we passed the guards patrolling outside the Diamond City entrance, he grew silent and stern, exuding deadly confidence as each guard watched him pass.

“Would you like to come in?” I asked.

He frowned. “You know ghouls ain’t welcome.”

“That wasn’t what I asked.”

He chuckled, and said, “Nah. I appreciate the gesture, but we’d be makin’ Nicky here an accomplice or some such bullshit, and he gets enough crap as it is. I’ll sneak in on my own sometime. I’m countin’ on you to keep my removal dignified when I do.”

He left, and we went inside the city. “How’re you feeling?” Valentine asked.

“Fine. Why do you ask?”

“You were in rough shape before. Just checking on you.”

“I’m fine, Valentine, truly. We’re home, what is there to be worried about?”

He laughed softly, “Alright. Can’t blame an old synth for being worried. I’d hate to lose a partner to something so mundane as poor health.”

We checked in at the Agency before he told me to go home and spend some time with my son. I didn’t argue. I was glad to see Shaun, and together we worked on a few experiments in the workshop. Now it’s late, he lies asleep upstairs, and I sit at my desk in the living room. Codsworth is continuing his evening routine. Everything is as it should be. I stored the pack of mentats I found on a raider in the desk drawer. It’s tempting to take one, but this time I’ll concede to Valentine’s concerns, and get some rest.

#fallout 4 #sherlock holmes #crossover #fan fiction #nick valentine #hancock #deacon #the railroad

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isu-aya · 7 years ago

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Kingsman: The Golden Circle

*heavy breathing*

My brother, cousin, and I just watched Kingsman: The Golden Circle last night (Sept. 20). It was glorious. And, also, I’m feeling a bit conflicted about it.

To summarise: A LOT of what happens is pretty dark (to Seriously Dark) if you actually stopped to think about it. But the movie doesn’t let you do that, pretty much how the first movie ended. It’s very fast paced and exciting, with very little breathing room in between scenes. Definitely recommend that you go see it, whether you’ve seen the first movie or not. It’s worth the watch.

Apparently, I can’t discuss it completely without talking about spoilers, so here’s the only warning you’re gonna get. SPOILERS!!!!

To be upfront, Hartwin is one of my favorite ships, and I CANNOT WAIT for the waves of new Hartwin, and other Kingsman fanfics to flood in. Because this movie, okay, this movieeeeeee. So much stuff was going on, so many things happened, that I know fandom is just gonna collectively pick it apart and BOOM hundreds upon thousands of fic ideas born. But I digress.

SPOILERS START HERE.

I. The Characters: Don’t get too attached.

The whole gang is back. And I mean this in the weirdest way possible. As the entire fandom called Harry’s not-death years ago, there wasn’t much surprise for his return (excitement, yes, surprise, no).

The surprising Returning Characters were: Charlie (whose not-death is explained quite early on), and Princess Tilde (who I was so not expecting to be part of this movie, much less play a huge part in the first and last act).

Princess Tilde and Eggsy in an actual relationship was surprising, and while I wasn’t completely happy that there was romance in this movie, I was more than willing to ignore this little fact (seeing as I had the warm embrace of ao3 to look forward to). Then KTGC hits me with The Ending. Like, seriously, I was laughing, but mostly in disbelief (more on this later).

We also get brief, but meaningful instances of Eggsy mourning Harry, missing Harry, and feeling so very deeply for Harry. Thank you, Taron, for pulling it off so beautifully.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle starts off pretty much like the first, only, remember the part in the first movie where we meet Lancelot, who gets snuffed out a few moments later? I was not expecting them to gut us with Character Death so early on.

I AM SERIOUS OKAY MAJOR SPOILERS.

Roxy and the rest of the Kingsman agents, including the newest Arthur, are all blown up. Due to a meet-the-royal-parents dinner, Eggsy was away from home (Eggsy’s home is HARRY’S HOUSE!! THE FANDOM CALLED IT). His buddy was dog-sitting JB at the time. Guys, JB is dead.

One, I refuse to believe Roxy got blown up. Even if it was impossible that she’d survived that explosion *sobs*. Two, why would you kill JB???

We then meet the Statesmen agents and are suitably impressed. Also, Tequila (Channing Tatum’s character) made me fantasize a lot about future one or two (or twenty) size kink fics of him and Eggsy. Tequila is also barely in this movie, and is mostly there for laughs. Prince Obe--I mean--Whiskey (Pedro Pascal) is so sexy, in spite of his American accent. Ginger Ale (Halle Barry) was adorable.

MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH:

F*ck man, cried like a baby. I know things are not always as they seem, and characters we think died can always have been miraculously saved. (Harry, Charlie, etc.)

But, fuck it, Merlin was never supposed to die.

You read that right. He dies in the most bad-ass, self-sacrificing way, while also showing off his vocal range.

II. The Story & Themes

There were scenes that were pretty Dark, especially near the end where Eggsy kills Charlie. Most of these scenes are slathered in an attempt at comedy and light-heartedness which was mostly hit and miss.

There are also two main villains in this movie. The first one is Poppy (Julianne Moore), an eccentric Drug Lady. All you need to know is that she’s crazy. Delightful. But crazy. I’m sure someone in the fandom’s gonna write a really in depth character study on her, but this isn’t it. She supplies drugs all around the world, wants drugs to be legal, holds her user base hostage to get what she wants.

The second villain was pretty much POTUS. You have to understand, this movie is more blunt force trauma than subtle hits. The themes hit you in the head and don’t even try to cover up what they’re doing. (not to mention the characters barely use their codenames. I mean, the Statesmen do. It’s just Harry, Eggsy, and Merlin, screaming each other’s actual names. And not in the good way)

POTUS couldn’t care less for the hostages, mostly because these hostages are drug users, and thus, don’t deserve humane treatment and have no right to life. Just watch the movie.

I’m a Filipino and our citizens are being murdered in droves in the name of the ‘war on drugs’. It struck a chord. What with President Duterte still remaining popular in the public’s opinion. His supports are many. And crazy. While the movie gets a happy ending (Poppy dies, and POTUS gets impeached), I doubt countries with similar problems will get the same happy ending.

III. The Ending

While I appreciate getting to see Prince!Eggsy (or close enough as we’ll ever get in canon- Prince Consort) come to life in the big screen as compared to just imagining him while I read Hartwin Prince!/Royal!Eggsy; and while I also definitely appreciate Eggsy and Harry sharing a moment in the dressing room, I did not, and was left with a pretty wtf feeling at the ending.

Eggsy marries Princess Tilde in a fairytale ending.

Eggsy looked dashing and Tilde was beautiful. It was just wholly unexpected.

___________

Final thoughts: I didn’t love the movie for itself. I loved the movie for the characters and the fandom it represented. It was a bit sad that it hadn’t exceeded the first movie in greatness (IMO), but I was happy enough to get anything to give fandom more material to work with.

#spoilers #kingsman: the golden circle #Kingsman 2 #kingsman #harry hart #eggsy unwin #merlin #hartwin

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Text

Wikispaces: Youth Services Librarianship - Multicultural Literature for Youth

(Last revision: 2011-2013)

[By the time you see this, Wikispaces will have shut down due to financial troubles. This transcription (July 2018) is my attempt to preserve professional knowledge for the youth library field, until such a time that a new, updated resource becomes available! c: ]

Ever since Nancy Larrick indicted "the all-white world of children's books" more than 50 years ago, publishers, librarians, educators, and researchers have striven to produce, promote, circulate, and analyze quality literature for youth that reflects experiences from a wide variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. In order to provide young people with both "mirrors" (which reflect their own experiences) and "windows" (which expose them to the experiences of those unlike themselves), it is necessary to develop, maintain, and provide access to a rich collection of literature that reflects many different cultures, races, and ethnicities. This page will identify best practices in selecting, organizing, critically viewing and promoting multicultural literature for youth and will direct to professional resources to help with these tasks.

Multicultural Literature for Youth

Terms

Multicultural Literature: Books about people of color; literature that depicts nonwhite cultures, especially African and African-Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, American Indians, Asian/Pacific, and Asian Pacific Americans(Cai, 2002). For many scholars, the definition also encompasses other groups traditionally left out of the English canon. For information about GLBTQQ literature and resources, see the GLBTQ Youth page.

Urban Lit: Also urban fiction or street lit; genre primarily defined by dark, urban settings, harsh, explicit content, and ethnic minority characters.

Enabling texts: Meaningful texts that promote a healthy psyche, reflect an awareness of the real world, focus on collective struggles of an ethnic group, and serve as a road map for being, doing, thinking, and acting (Tatum, 2009, p. 76; as cited in Hughes-Hassell, S., Rawson, C. H., McCracken, L., Leonard, M. G., Cunningham, H., Vance, K. J., & Boone, J., 2012).

Disabling texts: books featuring youth that reinforce stereotypes, for example, stereotypes of Black males as hoopsters, fatherless sons, and gang recruits (Tatum, 2009, p. 65; as cited in Hughes-Hassell et al., 2012).

Brief Overview

It has been widely concluded that multicultural literature—in this context, books about people of color—should be made available to youth in libraries and classrooms in support of multicultural education and youth interests. This type of literature contributes to positive attitudes toward diversity and to equality and equity in representations of cultures and historical experiences in support of pluralistic curriculums (Cai, 2002). It can also aid youth in developing positive self-concepts and has an integral role in educating children and youth about the cultures and experiences of others. Reading books about minority characters and the diversity of characters is very important for teenagers because this is the most important time in their lives to be able to define themselves, find out who they are, and figure out their roles in the world (Webb, 2012). It is also important to note that multicultural literature can help low-performing students to gain an interest in reading, leading to an improvement in reading proficiency (Taylor, 1997; as cited in Pirofski, 2002). As a “political, rather than a literary, movement,” the rise of multicultural literature has been a power struggle amongst racial and ethnic groups to “claim space in literature and in education” (Cai, 2002, p. xiii). In the 21st century, many achievements have allowed multicultural literature to gain more visibility and an increasing amount of summer reading programs are putting more focus on multicultural literature. In some cases, public and school librarians are working with teachers to compile summer reading lists that include more multicultural literature for students to choose from.

Key Issues

The white world of children’s literature. Many studies have shown that science fiction and fantasy are top genres for children and teens of many races (Scholastic, 2010). There is no question that these genres dominate on the shelf, however, books in these genres often do not portray diverse characters and those that do fall under the radar. It is also an issue that the traditional English canon consists primarily of “white classics.” Heidersbach (2004) noted an increase in student interest and relatability when multicultural literature was used along with classic literature in an eleventh grade English curriculum. Many scholars have developed various approaches, strategies, and activities to incorporate multicultural literature into the curriculum; however, the various methods “do not share the same theoretical guidelines and seem to go in different directions” (Cai, 2002, p.134).

Lack of Diversity in Publishing and Bookstores. When it comes to publishing, multicultural literature is hardly promoted and publishers are not keeping the texts in print. One may be surprised at how challenging it is to find multicultural literature on the websites of major book publishers. At the same time, there has been a rise in the amount of books published about biracial or multiracial characters. According to the Cooperative Children’s Books Center (2012), less than 10 percent of children’s books published annually are multicultural. This statistic is especially unacceptable as nearly 50 percent of the under-18 population is made up of minorities and as this population is projected to become majority minority by 2019 (Tavernise, 2011). According to Donna Gilton, as of 2000, 10 percent of books for young people in the United States on people of color and 5 percent by people of color (2012). New ethnic writers have difficulty being published by mainstream presses and often start with multicultural and ethnic presses. Some multicultural materials are distributed by mainstream companies, but many people of color have formed their own publishing and distributing companies. Mainstream bookstores do not carry most of these titles. It is even more of a drawback that multicultural education, in which multicultural literature plays a major role, is not a year-round effort in schools where teachers tend to dust off the multicultural literature only during ethnic and religious holidays (Cai, 2002). In these circumstances, there needs to be initiatives to make curriculums and collections more inclusive.

Authenticity. Subtle racism and stereotypes in multicultural literature has led many to wonder who should write multicultural literature. It seems that most scholars agree that it is much more genuine and proper for a person of color to write about his own culture. However, another issue is that there is a need for more writers from diverse backgrounds. Authorship is an important factor to consider in choosing multicultural literature. Also, one should be wary of books that fall into the “melting pot” category, which means that they ignore cultural differences of characters--treating all as one in the same. Many argue that, for writers, the purpose of creating a character of color should in part be to highlight aspects of their culture. Especially when the main character of a story is a person of color, it would greatly defeat the purpose of multicultural literature if that character’s culture were not portrayed at all. In selecting texts, one should ask, “Does this book include one or more minority characters just for the sake of there being a person of color on the cover?”

Inability of youth to engage and relate. It seems that most children like to read literature that reflects their lives and cultures in present times. Some African-American children have expressed that they are tired of reading books about slavery. Also, some white children have expressed disinterest in multicultural literature. Various studies have shown the uses of multicultural literature in the classroom and its effects on the attitudes of children toward peers and society, in part by analyzing the responses of diverse groups of children to particular works of multicultural literature. Taylor’s (1997) study of African-American and Hispanic fifth graders has led to the idea that a child who has yet to strongly identify with their culture may not be able to fully embrace or understand books about their culture. Also, many students have expressed misunderstandings of other cultures and disliked texts if they were not about their own culture (Jordan & Purves, 1993; Kirkland, 2011; Samway & Whang, 1995). Grice and Vaughn (1992) concluded that children need lessons on cultures prior to exposure to culturally conscious books.

Content. The profanity, crime, violence, and other harsh realities of life present in a lot of multicultural literature, especially in urban or “street” literature, have caused many educators and librarians to be hesitant of seeking out such literature. At the same time, many of the characters and plots within these texts may strike a chord with readers and should be appreciated just as many have embraced banned books. Tatum (2009) argues that many of these texts are disabling rather than enabling and it may be challenging to determine which will benefit youth. Hughes-Hassel et al. (2012) has created a rubric to aid in identifying enabling texts based on Tatum's research. Although created for African-American adolescent males, the rubric may be tailored toward other groups.

Selecting Multicultural Literature

It is difficult to gauge how much multicultural literature is enough within a collection. Teachers and librarians must take into account the demographics and experiences of those they serve. Diverse magazines and other types of non-fiction should be included in collections and the need for acquiring books and other resources in various languages is just as important. More educators and librarians need to become aware of the importance of multicultural literature and not keep it on the backburner. As a youth services professional, continue to acknowledge cultures, keep track of trends, read book reviews, and even hire a diverse workforce for a more collaborative effort. Libraries should make acquiring multicultural literature an initiative that is included in collection development policies. The most important thing to consider in selecting texts for any child or teen is that research has shown that they are more interested to read about people like themselves. At the same time, one should not assume that a child would want to read a particular book just because the characters are of the same race or ethnicity.

Conferences

"The Virginia Hamilton Conference is the longest-running event in the United States to focus exclusively on multicultural literature for children and young adults" ("About the Conference"). The conference has been hosted every April since 1984 at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. The conference aims to both promote cultural awareness while address present issues in multicultural literature for youth literature. It also grants two awards and a grant:

The Virginia Hamilton Award,which recognizes an American author or illustrator whose books make a significant contribution to multicultural literature for youth.

The Virginia Hamilton Essay Award, which recognizes a journal article which makes a significant contribution to the professional literature concerning multicultural literary experiences for youth.

The Virginia Hamilton and Arnold Adoff Creative Outreach Grants for Teachers and Librarians, which gives two grants (one for a teacher, one to a librarian) up to $1,000 to proposals for new classroom or library programs that raise awareness of multicultural literature to young people.

Online Resources

McNair, J. C. (2010) Classic African American Children’s Literature. Reading Teacher. 64 (2), 96-105. Found online at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1598/RT.64.2.2/abstract – Well-renowned scholars aid Jonda McNair in compiling a list of great African-American literary classics

https://sites.google.com/site/bridgetoliteracy/identifying-enabling-texts-a-rubric – Rubric aimed at identifying enabling texts for African-American adolescent males; can tailor toward other groups. Also includes a bibliography of some enabling texts

http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/multicultural.asp – Statistics and resources compiled by University of Wisconsin-Madison's Cooperative Children's Books Center

http://www.library.uiuc.edu/edx/nativeamericanchildrens.htm – Resources that look critically at Native American children's literature

http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/lit_resources/cyalr_index.html – Children's and YA Lit resources

http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/ – Activities and curriculum resources for multicultural education

http://kidworldcitizen.org – “Activities that help young minds go global.” Programming ideas supporting multicultural education with some listings of international children's literature

http://thebrownbookshelf.com/ – A blog that raises awareness about young people's literature written by and about African-Americans, particularly with their initiative 28 Days Later, which celebrates books for kids each day of Black History Month.

http://www.papertigers.org/wordpress/ – News, reviews, and other notes about multicultural youth lit from a global perspective, with a particular slant towards Asian America and the Pacific Rim.

http://www.kent.edu/virginiahamiltonconference/about/index.cfm – Information about the Virginia Hamilton Conference

http://archive.adl.org/bibliography/bfc_book_categorization.asp – A World of Difference Institute by Houghton Mifflin provides a list of recommended multi-cultural and anti-bias books for children in categories such as folktales, customs and traditions, and prejudice and discrimination. Books are added to the list and featured monthly.

http://www.ipl.org/div/pf/entry/48493 – ipl2 provides a description of multicultural literature and resources in print and online for multicultural literature.

Booklists

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/multicultural-literature – Popular multicultural literature titles

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7996.African_American_Science_Fiction – Lists some sci-fi books appropriate for youth

http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/lit_resources/cyalr_index.html – Booklists by race and ethnicity

http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/detailListBooks.asp?idBookLists=143 – List of "50 Multicultural Books Every Child Should Know"

http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/detailListBooks.asp?idBookLists=253 – List of "30 Multicultural Books Every Teen Should Know"

Hughes-Hassell et al. (2012). Librarians form a bridge of books to advance literacy. Phi Delta Kappan, 93 (5), 17-22. Copy found at: https://sites.google.com/site/kerrisliteracypage/articles – Great booklist for Black males in elementary school through high school located within the article

http://www.multcolib.org/teens/urbanlit.html – Urban Lit for teens

http://www.patmora.com/sampler-latino-authors-illustrators-for-children-ya/ – Comprehensive list of Latino children's book and YA authors; writers of English, Spanish, and bilingual literature

http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com– American Indian booklists by age group and other critical resources

http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/educatrs/presrvce/pe3lk28.htm – A list of...lists.

Print Resources

Campbell, J.N. and Dahalen, S.P. (Eds.). (2013) Diversity in Youth Literature:Opening Doors Through Reading. Chicago: American Library Association. Analyzes the history of youth literature and demonstrates how books have increasingly portrayed a diverse society. The book begins by tracing the history of diversity themes in children and youth literature, then breaks into more specific topics such as African American children's literature and homelessness. It also provides guidelines for librarians who want to order the best materials for diversity literature. It also provides examples of programs to promote multicultural materials in libraries and classrooms.

Awards

The ALA and allied organizations have developed a number of awards that recognize outstanding achievement in literature for youth across a number of ethnic and racial identifications. These awards can serve as handy collection development tools by providing librarians with references to the very best multicultural literature for youth, as well as provide opportunities to celebrate the richness and depth of multicultural literature for youth being produced today. (For a discussion of literature awards based on identity categories and "strategic essentialism," see Thomas Crisp, "It's Not the Book, It's Not the Author, It's the Award.") These awards include:

Coretta Scott King Award

This award is "designed to commemorate the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and to honor Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace" and recognizes outstanding African-American authors and illustrators who create works for young people that explore the Black experience in America. Administered by the Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table of the ALA (EMIERT) and sponsored by the Black Caucus of the ALA, this award is given to one author and one illustrator each year, with Honor Awards given to excellent runners-up in each category. In addition, EMIERT has recently establish the Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe Award for New Talent, which celebrates works by new authors and artists that might be missed by the general award.

Pura Belpré Award

This award was established in 1996 to recognize Latino/a authors and illustrators and their books for young people which explore and celebrate Latino/a experiences. The award is given annually (before 2008, biennially) by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking (REFORMA) to both an author and an illustrators. It also grants Honor Awards in both categories.

Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature

The Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), an affiliate of the ALA, has granted the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature each year since 2005 to recognize excellence in literary portrayals of Asian/Pacific Americans and their heritage. The awards include categories for picture books, children's literature, and young adult literature, with an honor book in each category as well.

American Indian Youth Literature Award

The American Indian Library Association (AILA), another ALA affiliate, awards the American Indian Youth Literature Award--inaugurated in 2006--every year "to identify and honor the very best writing and illustrations by and about American Indians" for young people. The award is given to top choices in three categories: picture books, middle grade, and young adult. Honor awards are given to other outstanding examples of Indigenous literature in each category.

Américas Book Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature

The Américas Award is given to a work of poetry, fiction, or nonfiction work for children or young adults written in English or Spanish language of the previous year. The work of literature must show people of Latin America, Caribbean, or Latino ethnicity in an authentic and engaging way. The award is sponsored by the national Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP).

Jane Addams Children's Book Award

The Jane Addams Peace Association (JAPA) has presented this award annually since 1953 to children's books that are published to promote the "cause of peace, social justice, world community, and the equality of the sexes and all races."

Ezra Jack Keats Award

The EJK award is given yearly, previously in association with the New York Public Library and now with the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection to authors and illustrators who show the "universal qualities of childhood, a strong and supportive family, and the multicultural nature of our world." The authors and illustrators must have no more than three books published previously in order to be eligible for the award.

The Virginia Hamilton Literary Award

Since 1998, the Kent State University's Advisory Board, which is responsible for the Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature for Youth, has given this award to an American author or illustrator who has made an excellent and significant contribution to multicultural literature for children and adolescents. Previous winners include Christopher Paul Curtis, Alma Flor Ada, and Jacqueline Woodson.

Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award

This award was created by Texas State University's College of Education to recognize authors and illustrators who have depicted Mexican American people and their experiences within their literature. This award has been given every year since 1995 to authors and illustrators of books such as Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall and Los Gatos Black on Halloween by Marisa Montes and illustrated by Yuyi Morales.

Lee and Low New Voices Award

Publisher Lee and Low has given the New Voices Award to a new author of color, who is given $1000 award and a publication contract. The literature must address the needs of children of color, provide stories and situations with which these children can identify and relate, and which also allow for an understanding of one another. This award has been given every year since 2000.

Promoting Multicultural Literature

Once multicultural literature has been added to the library's collection, it must be promoted and incorporated into library displays and programming to ensure that it reaches patrons. Listed below are several possible tactics that could be helpful, and information about the specific challenges and implications of utilizing each.

Booktalks

For general booktalking guidelines, see the Booktalking wiki article.

Booktalking multicultural resources present special challenges. In the article "Culturally Speaking: Booktalking Authentic Multicultural Literature," former school librarian Sherry York outlines tactics for avoiding potential pitfalls. Guidelines include the following:

Unfamiliarity of terms - If the culture featured in the book is different from that of the librarian giving the talk, there may be unfamiliar terms and names in the book. Looking up pronunciations and meanings beforehand is important, but it is also important to acknowledge one's lack of knowledge about the language. Encouraging help and participation from the audience can be another way to build upon unfamiliar material.

Focusing on specific audience members - If members of the audience are of the same ethnic or cultural group as the characters in the book, be careful not to single them out when interacting with the audience. Not only do children and young people not like to be singled out and made to feel different, but creating divisions within the audience can cancel out or damage the inclusiveness that is the goal of including multicultural resources.

Author Omniscience - Just as members of the featured culture should not be expected to bear the burden of discussion or reaction during a booktalk, a single author should not be expected to cover all aspects of a culture, or be considered a sufficient representative of a culture. Make sure to emphasize that each author can write only from their experience, and that a variety of works and viewpoints must be consulted to appreciate the scope of diversity within cultures.

Storytime

For general storytime guidelines, see the Storytime wiki article.

Stories featuring diverse cultures can be incorporated into storytime programs to promote exposure to new cultures. Ideas and resources for multicultural storytime follow:

Multicultural Storytime Magic (print resource) - This book is a storytime programming guide organized into 40 topics, with stories, fingerplays, songs, etc. from a variety of cultures. A more in-depth review of the book is available from School Library Journal, and cited in the references section below - see Christolson, B (2012).

Bilingual storytime - Bilingual storytime can be beneficial for both native English speakers and those who speak English as a second language. Even if there are no librarians or staff present at your library who are fluent in a given non-English language, bilingual storytimes can still be successful. Partnering with local community members and organizations can foster cultural awareness while improving community relationships with library, as evidenced by the Kenton County Public Library in Covington, Kentucky. Having Spanish-speaking community members collaborate with library staff on bilingual storytime and cultural celebrations helped increase use of the library by the local Latino population and provided them with positive cultural experiences (Howrey, 2003).

Bilingual Books - Bilingual books may seem a natural choice for bilingual storytime, but they should be assessed as carefully as any other multicultural literature for cultural sensitivity and accuracy, as well as other concerns unique to bilingual books. Bilingual books can raise awareness of different cultures through language, but may contain translation errors, differing presentation between languages that seems to favor one above the other, and directionality challenges when languages are printed/read in different directions (Ernst-Slavit, 2008).

Multicultural Awareness Months

The US federal government, as well as governments of other nations,recognizes several months as being dedicated to celebrating specific heritages and cultural backgrounds. These months can be useful frameworks for promoting multicultural literature within your collection, but it's important to remember that resources portraying diverse backgrounds should be incorporated year-round, and that exploration of resources during the relevant month be sensitive and thorough. Menkart (1999) outlines an approach to heritage months for schools that aims to debunk stereotypes rather than reinforce them; many of the guidelines can also apply to library heritage month events, and are explained here:

Recognize diversity within America - avoid framing all non-white cultures as 'international' or 'foreign.' Many minority cultures, such as Hispanic-Americans and Native Americans, have existed on the American continent prior to white settlement, and families of any culture may have lived in America for many generations. Instead of describing events as 'international,' use phrases like 'cultural traditions' or 'heritage.'

Address "history, values, current reality, and power relationships" that affect cultures - Don't focus solely on cultural commodities such as food, crafts, and music to represent a culture. Make sure that the diversity within cultures and historical and current conflicts and struggles are highlighted as well. This is closely related to the next point:

Provide context for cultural artifacts - Dances, songs, foods, and clothing are all important parts of culture, but if simply presented without explanation, can lead to solidify stereotypes (for example, 'Chinese people only eat rice'). Connecting these objects and performances to their origins and the humans that create them will deepen understanding of how they represent cultural values.

Don't stop with the US - Minority cultures in the US don't exist in a vacuum; make sure to celebrate the history of people in Central American and Carribbean as well, and make connections between US history and international events.

Make sure displays and events recognize contemporary reality - This is especially applicable to the presentation of Native American cultures. If cultures are portrayed only through a historical lens, it prevents your audience from understanding (or even realizing) the continued existence of those cultures, their evolution, and the pressing issues that still affect them.

Emphasize community efforts that surround leaders - For example, rather than focusing solely on Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks for Black History Month, show how their actions occurred in the context of group movements. They can be inspirations, but they aren't isolated superheroes effecting change all on their own.

Resources for Heritage Months (mostly official US government sites):

African-American History Month - http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/

Haitian Heritage Month - http://www.haitianheritagemonth.net/

Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month - http://asianpacificheritage.gov/

Jewish Heritage Month - http://www.jewishheritagemonth.gov/

Hispanic Heritage Month - http://hispanicheritagemonth.gov/

Filipino-American History Month - http://fanhs-national.org/filam/resolution/

Native American Heritage Month - http://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/

Holidays and Celebrations

As with heritage months, annual holidays and celebrations from various groups can be good ways to expose young people to diverse cultures. And as with heritage months (and all other multicultural resources and displays) care should be taken to avoid tokenism and mere lip-service to cultural sensitivity. The goal of having multicultural literature is not meet a quota of a certain amount of 'diverse' sources, but rather to "[plan] library media center programs and services and [include] reading encouragement and resource provision so that our multicultural society is represented accurately in the eyes of children" (Dickson, 2005).

Resources for Multicultural Holidays (lists of holidays, with some links to further information - may need to research more for ideas):

University of Kansas Medical Center Diversity Calendar

University of Rochester Multicultural Calendar

Rochester Institute of Technology Multicultural Calendar

The Benefits of Reading Multicultural Literature

According to Hughes-Hassell, reading multicultural literature has a variety of benefits.

It gives voice to teens whose voices have gone unheard and whose lives are at best underrepresented, but more often misrepresented, in the mainstream discourse

It challenges the single story, providing “a powerful space of affirmation” and validation.

It presents the complexity of racial and ethnic identity formation.

It challenges readers whose lives have been shaped by race and privilege to consider how the world looks to groups of people that have traditionally been marginalized and oppressed, raising awareness of the inequalities those individuals face on a daily basis.

It helps the members of the majority culture overcome their “ethnocentrism and the unthinking conviction that [their] way of seeing the world is the only one—that the way things are is inevitable, natural, just, and best.” (Hughes-Hassell 2013)

‍References

Cai, M. (2002). Multicultural literature for children and young adults: Reflections on critical issues. Westport: CT: Greenwood Press.

Christolon, B. (2012). Multicultural Storytime Magic. School Library Journal, 58(10), 161.

Cooperative Children’s Book Center. (2012). Children’s books by and about people of color published in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/pcstats.asp

Crisp, T. (2011). It's not the book, it's not the author, it's the award: The Lambda Literary Award and the case for strategic essentialism. Children's Literature in Education, 42 (2), 92-104.

Ernst-Slavit, G., & Mulhern, M. (2003, September/October). Bilingual books: Promoting literacy and biliteracy in the second-language and mainstream classroom. Reading Online, 7(2). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/articles/art_index.asp?HREF=ernst-slavit/index.html

Gilton, D. (2012). THE FUTURE OF MULTICULTURAL YOUTH LITERATURE. Knowledge Quest, 40(3), 44-47.

Grice, M. O., & Vaughn, C. (1992). Third graders respond to literature for and about Afro-Americans. Urban Review, 24(2),149-164.

Heidersbach, A. M. (2004, April 7). The effect of multicultural young adult literature integration within the traditional honors English curriculum on student interest and relatability. Retrieved from http://www.smsd.org/custom/curriculum/actionresearch2004/Heidersbach.pdf

Hinton-Johnson, KaaVonia and Dickinson, Gail. (2005) Guiding Young Readers to Multicultural Literature. Library Media Connection 23/7, 42-45.

Howrey, S. P. (2003). DE COLORES: THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE OF BILINGUAL STORYTIME. American Libraries, 34(9), 38-43.

Hughes-Hassell, S. (2013). Multicultural young adult literature as a form of counter-storytelling. Library Quarterly, 83(3), 212-228.

Hughes-Hassell, S., Rawson, C. H., McCracken, L., Leonard, M. G., Cunningham, H., Vance, K. J., & Boone, J. (2012). Librarians form a bridge of books to advance literacy. Phi Delta Kappan, 93(5), 17-22.

Hughes-Hassell, S. & Rodge, P. (2007). The leisure reading habits of urban adolescents. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(1): 22-33.

Jordan, S. and Purves, A. C. (1993). Issues in the responses of students to culturally diverse texts: A preliminary study (Report Series No. 7.3). Albany, NY: National Research Center on Literature Teaching and Learning. Retrieved from http://www.albany.edu/cela/reports/jordanissues.pdf

Kiefer, B. Z. (2010). Charlotte Huck’s children’s literature (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Kirkland, D. E. (2011). Books like clothes: Engaging young black men with reading. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(3), 199-208.

Larrick, N. (1965). The all-white world of children's books. The Saturday Review, September 1965, 63-65, 84-85.

McNair, J. C. (2010) Classic African American Children’s Literature. Reading Teacher, 64(2), 96-105.

Menkart, D. J. (1999). Deepening the Meaning of Heritage Months. Educational Leadership, 56(7), 19.

Pirofski, K. (2002). Multicultural literature and the children's literary canon. Retrieved from http: www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/literature.html

Samway, K. D. & Whang, G. (1995). Literature study circles in a multicultural classroom. New York, NY: Stenhouse.

Scholastic. (2010). 2010 Kids & family reading report. Retrieved from http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/themes/bare_bones/ 2010_KFRR.pdf

Tatum, A. W. (2009). Reading for their life: (Re)building the textual lineages of African American adolescent males. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Tavernise, S. (2011, April 6). Numbers of children of whites falling fast. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/us/06census.html.

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