#miss teen massachusetts

[topsportsasia]

Miss Massachusetts Teen USA 2024 results: Reading's Avery Turner crowned in Burlington

beauty pageant: Miss Massachusetts Teen USA edition: 42nd date: March 10, 2024 venue: Marriott Burlington Hotel, Burlington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States national membership: Miss Teen USA candidates: 30 outgoing queen: Yanelyn Quintana (Haverhill) RESULTS PLACEMENTCANDIDATESMiss Massachusetts Teen USA 2024Avery TurnerReading1st runner-upElmire ArsenaultFairhaven2nd…

[conandaily2022]

Miss Massachusetts Teen USA 2024 results: Yanelyn Quintana crowns Avery Turner in Burlington

beauty pageant: Miss Massachusetts Teen USAedition: date: March 10, 2024venue: Marriott Burlington Hotel, Burlington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United Statesnational membership: Miss USAcandidates: 30 FINALISTS PLACEMENTNAME (HOMETOWN)Top 12Alyse Negroni (Back Bay)Eva Richards (Boston)Angelina Foudoulis (Burlington)Perla Graciel (Hyde Park)Isabella Wright (Needham)Amia Meikle (North…

[larkandkatydid]

This is a huge problem in education and I completely agree that the pandemic shutdowns have scrabbled the whole social norm about sending your kids to school and parents who are struggling or flakey or have a lot of shit going on have a much easier time just not sending their kids to school than before the pandemic.

But also, I think this is the most important point about the ways that schools are part of the problem too, because in my experiences, segregated urban districts like Detroit cancel school or have bullshit non-instruction days to a degree that wealthy suburban districts absolutely would not be able to do without sparking outrage among wealthy, powerful, socially engaged parents:

Society, as a whole, needed to reinforce — as it had in Massachusetts more than a century ago — the importance of school. It was where children awakened to the world’s opportunities, where they learned how to be productive citizens and, for some, where they found a daily routine and regular meals. Instead, as Lenhoff noted, families often got the opposite message. Inadequate infrastructure had led Detroit to cancel school for several days last year because of excessive heat. Schools had also closed in the face of forecasts of snow that brought no actual snow. Districts get penalized by the state’s funding formula if attendance drops below 75% on any day, and so they may close schools when they fear that too few kids will show up. “If you have that happen often enough, it does erode your feeling that the system is there for us, and not just when it’s convenient for them,” Lenhoff said. One day, shortly after noon, I encountered several 15- and 16-year-old boys who had recently arrived from Latin America and were walking a dog in the quiet streets of River Rouge. But they weren’t playing hooky. School had been closed that day, owing to plumbing problems. A short drive away, a middle school girl was playing in a front yard, while her older sister and some of her friends, in their late teens and early 20s, were hanging out in a nearby car, one with a baby on her lap. The younger sister was also not missing school: It had been only a half day in her district, to allow for professional-development courses.

[coochiequeens]

Dang said she’s been reflecting on their support, emphasizing that she thinks it’s no coincidence that women came to her defense. She said she thinks there’s been a showing of solidarity among women over the public safety threats and harassment that they deal with. "

By Kimmy Yam

A woman who was attacked in the Boston subway is speaking out after a group of teens were recorded harassing her with racist language and attempting to block her from leaving the train. 

Vivian Dang, 25, told NBC News that she was on the red line at around 10 p.m. last Thursday when the unidentified teens followed her into a train car. A video she took of the incident shows them hurling racial slurs, mocking her in an accent and physically cornering her. 

“Can I get some dumplings?” one of the teens can be heard saying with a fake accent. “Can I get some ramen with the egg?” 

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Transit Police confirmed to NBC News that the investigation is active and declined to comment any further on the incident. But the morning after the attack, police said on social media that they were looking for the teens, who had not only taunted, harassed and threatened passengers, but had also smashed a train window before fleeing. 

Video of the incident has since gone viral on TikTok, prompting discussions over public transit safety. 

While the train was crowded, Dang said that three women helped her throughout the ordeal. Two of them had encouraged her to sit next to them, while another spoke up for her. 

“We did have a moment when I was thanking them for sticking up for me and one of them even gave me a pepper spray because she had extra,” Dang said. “We just had a casual conversation about how she always has these things prepared.”

One of the women also assured her of the severity of the situation and brought the police over to Dang, she said, helping her report the incident. 

Since, Dang said she’s been reflecting on their support, emphasizing that she thinks it’s no coincidence that women came to her defense. She said she thinks there’s been a showing of solidarity among women over the public safety threats and harassment that they deal with. 

“We’re kind of looking out for each other. It’s always the women,” Dang said. “You see women pretending they know each other on the street just to have them avoid a stranger approaching them or something. It’s very the norm to really just stick up for one another as a woman.” 

“I’m hoping that this is an eye opener for people taking public transport and just being more cautious of the people around you,” Dang said. “And I hope that this sparks more conversation into the racism that’s been occurring, every day … not everybody gets to record their incident.” 

The 25-year-old said that when the teens entered the train, they immediately began to threaten passengers. 

“I was in the first cart with them. They were already saying stuff like, ‘This is a mass robbery. Everyone get on the ground,’” Dang said. “One of them sat right next to me, speaking really loudly at me, but I was just ignoring it.”

When the teens attempted to yank the shoes off a male passenger, Dang said she moved to another train car. But the group trailed her. 

“One of the first things they said to me already was that I was being racist for ‘staying away from Black people,’” Dang said. “Then they started spewing things at me.”

What followed, Dang said, was a barrage of anti-Asian insults, some of which didn’t make it into her recording. 

“I didn’t catch this on the clip, but they just went off in one part with so many comments about dogs and cats, saying, “Oh, this is why my dog is missing,’” Dang said, referencing the racist stereotype around Asian cuisine. When one woman spoke up in defense of Dang, the teens began to mock her accent, the video shows.

For the most part, Dang said she stayed calm and quiet, attempting to appear unfazed by their remarks, until the teens tried to trap her in the car.

“They were starting to say stuff like, ‘Don’t let her leave.’” said Dang, who was concerned they would follow her home. “That was when I was starting to get really scared.”

The group ended up getting off the train before Dang did. 

Dang said that receiving racist remarks isn’t new to her, and that during the height of the Covid pandemic verbal attacks became more common on public transit. To truly address the problem, Dang said that media, politicians and those with a platform need to be more cognizant that their words and the blame that was shifted toward the Asian community has led to real-life consequences.  

“Lack of education, lack of resources of being able to control the things that people are hearing, and saying — that’s ultimately the reason why we still deal with these things every day,” Dang said. 

[profoundbondfanfic]

Would u consider reccing Jensen’s other characters with Cas fics ? - Thank u

Unfortunately there aren't a lot of fics between Dean or Cas with Jensen or Misha's other characters. But here's one with Jensen's Soldier Boy that we've liked:

one little Soldier Boy, left all alone by Castielslostwings [Explicit, 56k words]

Known to the world as the all-American superhero called "Soldier Boy", Dean was raised by Vought International to be exactly that and nothing more. His life is all fame, fortune, and fucking. Objectively awesome, right up until the moment when he's accosted in an elevator by someone claiming to be his brother, a man who insists that Dean's entire life has been built on a lie, and what happens next changes everything. As if unraveling his true identity while on the run from his former employers—and the closest thing he's ever had to family—isn't enough, Dean's brainwashed best friend (who he is definitely not in love with, thanks) is hot on his trails with marching orders to take him out for good. What's a devilishly handsome superhero with a dick the size of his forearm to do?

And a few from Misha's shows:

Bridgewaternatural by you-cant-spell-subtext-without [Teen, 3k words]

Dean is a mess. Professor Bradshaw is not amused by it.

I See the Shadows Of Your Face (and yet it's still not you) by stratiotis [Mature, 59k words]

It’s been four months since Cas died, Jack left, and the world was safe. Dean and Sam pick up on local disappearances in the Bridgewater Triangle in Massachusetts and the upsurge of new activity after Thomas Bradshaw’s badge was found despite his disappearance back in 1980. They make their way to Massachusetts for what Dean and Sam think will be a routine monster hunt. But things take a turn when they meet Thomas Bradshaw’s son, who is also hell bent on figuring out what happened to his vanished father and looks exactly like someone they've lost.

Losing Time by FriendofCarlotta [Mature, 7k words]

Harvey Dent is struggling with memory gaps. There are places he can’t remember going, and calls he can’t remember making. One night, a man calling himself Dean Winchester pays him a visit. Dean claims to have an explanation for Harvey’s missing memories — a strange tale of angelic possession, alternate universes and life after death. Worse, Dean’s face is as familiar to Harvey as his own. It’s the face of a friend he believed was dead and gone: Bruce Wayne.

The Angels of Freetown by FriendofCarlotta [Explicit, 50k words]

Freetown is the sort of place where hardly anything ever happens — a picturesque, close-knit town in the foothills of the Appalachians. Professor Castiel Novak loves his job at the local university’s history department, and he loves his husband, Chief of Police Dean Winchester. Then, one night in September, all the leaves around town drop and an eerie fog descends. Before long, people begin to disappear. When Dean becomes the latest resident of Freetown to vanish, Castiel and an unlikely band of allies set out to bring him back and free the town from the things that roam the fog.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Amelia Hansford at PinkNews:

The body of River Nevaeh Goddard, 17, was reportedly found by police in Stow, Massachusetts, on 3 April while responding to a welfare check request at the home of her boyfriend, Shane Curry. Curry reportedly blocked the entrance to his home for more than two hours before authorities were able to gain access, and found Goddard’s body. Curry, 20, was arrested and charged with assault and battery on a household or family member and assault and battery causing serious bodily injury. A not guilty plea was entered when he appeared at Concord District Court on Monday (22 April). According to court paperwork, Curry was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2020. Goddard, who used both their chosen name, River, and birth name Nevaeh, went missing in April 2022.

According to GLAAD, Goddard used she/her and they/them pronouns and identified as pansexual.

Another senseless killing of a nonbinary person happened, as River Nevaeh Goddard was killed by their boyfriend Shane Curry.

River Nevaeh Goddard used both they/them and she/her pronouns and identified theirself as pansexual.

See Also:

LGBTQ Nation: Man stabs nonbinary teen to death with a sword. He’s not facing murder charges.

Them: River Nevaeh Goddard, Nonbinary 17-Year-Old With a "Cuddly Nature" Found Dead

[xirayn]

AO3 first lines

Rules: post the first lines of your last 10 fics posted to ao3. If you have less than 10 fics posted, post the first lines of all your fics.

Tagged by @rindecision

Like Biting Bats (Very Metal)🔞 Fandom: Stranger Things | Rating: Mature | Pairing: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson

Eddie is not too proud to admit his singing isn't great. He can carry a tune, sure, but he doesn't have the control or confidence with his voice that he does with the guitar. He also has a tendency to get lost in playing and completely forget about vocals.  The rest of the band isn't much better. Gareth yells more than anything, Frankie is notoriously pitchy, and Jeff's voice doesn't work with the music they play.

A Blank Canvas Fandom: Stranger Things | Rating: Teen+ | Pairing: Will Byers/Dustin Henderson

The blank canvas was a lot scarier than Dustin expected. He held the paintbrush up as he had seen some artists do. It wasn't the secret key to inspiration he had been hoping for, so after a deep breath, he tried to just start. The result was a horizontal streak of green on a canvas that was still mostly blank, which wasn't an improvement.

Bûche de Noël Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender | Rating: General | Pairing: Keith/Lance

Lance’s feet crunch in the snow as he runs. He reaches down to scoop up a handful to form into a ball. A quick turn has it sailing behind him. His aim is just slightly off so not only does he just miss his target, but trips himself up and lands with a soft ‘ploof’ in a snowbank. He can’t stop laughing as his pursuer looms over him and their shadow blocks out the sun.

Thankfully Yours Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender | Rating: General | Pairing: Keith/Lance

It starts simply enough.

"Don't worry, Mijo, your father and I will just have a simple dinner. It will be nice. Quiet."

Just A Little Hocus Pocus Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender | Rating: Teen+ | Pairing: Keith/Lance

Keith is learning that the only thing he hates more than Salem, Massachusetts is Salem, Massachusetts on Halloween. Everyone is way too into it and speaking of ghosts and witches, particularly the Galras, like they are real. The long-dead family's decrepit house had even been turned into a museum. Keith swore a day didn't pass where people didn't bemoan the fact it was closed for 'the first Halloween in a hundred years'.

Such a Good Omega🔞 Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender | Rating: Explicit | Pairing: Keith/Lance

Keith was a wild animal restlessly pacing the confines of his skin; promised a release that was only teased at as Lance’s teeth and nails left every mark except for the one Keith wanted. He had accepted the nest Lance had made for him, was steeped in the spicy-sweet citrus of their combined scents, and was well into his heat. Every instinct said he should be claimed by now, but he was still stuck in a frustrating limbo.

Make Me Purr🔞 Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender | Rating: Explicit | Pairing: Matt Holt/Lance

Lance had gone over the text a thousand times.

Lance:  “So you want to make me purr?”

He had finally hit send and then immediately panicked. It was out there, though. He couldn’t take it back.

Hollow Point Smile Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender | Rating: Teen+ | Pairing: Keith/Lance

“Put your hands up and turn around,” a gravelly voice said from behind Lance, punctuated by the whine of a laser powering up. “Slowly.”

Such a Good Alpha🔞 Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender | Rating: Mature | Pairing: Keith/Lance

Keith’s pheromones were driving Lance insane, but despite what popular culture portrayed, there was no chance of him acting like some feral beast. At least, not unless Keith asked him too.

The Cookies Don't Lie Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender | Rating: Mature | Pairing: Hunk/Pidge

Lance had no idea where Hunk had gotten peanuts, but he had. He had then modified one of the food goo machines to process them into peanut butter. Now he was using that peanut butter to make cookies. Really, it was all pretty telling as far as Lance was concerned.

No Pressure tags @aibhlynn @jkrockin @maikaartwork @major-koalatea @atmilliways @ofthedirewolves

[fullmetalfisting]

Here’s my August 2023 wrap up! Reviews under the cut. Also, I truly don’t understand how I wound up reading so many vampire-themed books this month! I don’t find vampires particularly interesting, this was just how my holds on books from the library shook out.

From Blood and Ash by Jennifer M. Armentrout | Fantasy, New Adult, Romance

⭐⭐

Summary: Poppy is the Maiden, a high-ranking position of power meant to usher in a new era of prosperity after she completes the mysterious “Ascension.” But as the Ascension grows nearer, her doubts begin to multiply. Her own misgivings paired with civil unrest cause her to question everything she knows. Also, one of her bodyguards is dreamy.

Thoughts: The worldbuilding was subpar to bad and the characters were all unlikable. The big twist was interesting, but not worth the slog it was to get there. Maybe I’m being too harsh, but I don’t understand why there are so freaking many New Adult Fantasy Romance books out these days. Of course, I would love to stumble upon a new Six of Crows or The Cruel Prince. But the fact is, not every author is skilled enough to write the new Grishaverse. I know a lot of people loved this book, but it just wasn’t it for me.

The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard | Thriller, Mystery, Crime, Suspense

⭐⭐⭐ and 1/2

Summary: Lucy’s sister, Nicki, has been missing ever since she walked out of a Dublin bar late one night without a word to her friends. Angela is the Irish equivalent of a police dispatcher for the Missing Persons Unit who longs to be a detective herself. An unnamed man drives through the Irish countryside as he enumerates his crimes to the woman in his backseat, his latest victim. When Angela makes an alarming discovery, she sets a series of events into motion that changes the hunt for the serial killer plaguing Ireland and might just crack the case.

Thoughts: This was exceptionally entertaining, though the beginning was a bit slow. The commentary of what it’s like to be a woman in a precarious situation was spot-on, though it didn’t add anything new to the conversation. What I really enjoyed about this book was that it didn’t feel ghoulish, as crime novels often do since True Crime became so popular.

Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper | Young Adult, Witches, Historical Fiction, Mother and Daughter Relationships, Fantasy, Romance

⭐⭐⭐

Summary: Avery Roe is descended from a long line of witches, all of whom resided on Prince Island, Massachusetts, giving up something unimaginable in order to obtain their magic, which they then use to protect the whalers at sea. But Avery’s mother saw the price that had to be paid in order to become the island’s witch and chose, instead, to attempt to make a life in Victorian society. Avery struggles against her mother’s rules, longing to go to her grandmother and learn the spells she needs to become the next island’s witch. But when Avery has a prophetic dream that shows her she will be murdered, suddenly Avery’s struggles become urgent.

Thoughts: This book had extraordinary prose and fantastic descriptions. Kulper masterfully depicted a tense relationship between mother and daughter. However, the price that is so built up that must be paid in order to obtain one’s magic was anticlimactic. I was, “That’s all?”

Naramauke by Lily Sparks | Young Adult, Companion Novella, Horror, Romance, Contemporary

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Summary: Erik’s version of events from the novel Teen Killers Club by Lily Sparks.

Thoughts: This novella gave readers of the Teen Killers Club series (final installment out in October) a glimpse into the motivations of characters that we didn’t get to see from Signal’s perspective. Definitely hyped me up for Teen Killers at Large.

Dark Water Daughter by H.M. Long | Fantasy, Pirates, Romance, Magic

⭐⭐⭐

Summary: A swashbuckling fantasy set among pirates, tree spirits, and mages alike. Mary Firth is a Stormsinger: someone who can control the winds and weather with a song. She has kept her ability a secret all her life for her own safety, but when she is mistaken as a highwayman and brought to the noose, she has no choice but to sing herself out of the situation. Now, pirates and privateers are after her for her unique ability to sail ships wherever they need to go. But that’s not all they’re after.

Thoughts: While well-written and entertaining at times, I found myself at sea (pun not intended) for a lot of this. I think this type of story just wasn’t for me, and it isn’t going to be something I remember reading six months from now.

How to Bite Your Neighbor and Win a Wager by D.N. Bryn | M M Romance, Vampires, Contemporary, New Adult

⭐

Summary: Wes is a recent college graduate mourning the sudden disappearance of his beloved mother. Vincent is a starving, houseless vampire whose support system was yanked away from him when he was turned by accident during his freshman year of college. Together, they explore a milquetoast attraction to one another as Vincent experiences a veritable barrage of hate crimes while Wes stands insipidly by. Also, there are entire passages lifted from The Song of Achilles and reworded so it’s not technically plagiarism.

Thoughts: This was hot, wet garbage. It reads like fanfiction written by the cringiest theater kid you ever had the displeasure of meeting in high school. The dialogue reminds one of how young teenagers speak, not how adults interact with one another. Case in point: a side character asks Wes if Vincent makes him, “tingly in [his] pingly.” He proceeds to refer to his penis as his “pingly” for the rest of the novel. I can’t make this shit up. And while the plot was clearly too ambitious of a concept for the skill level of the author, I am still disappointed with the result of this whole pharmaceutical conspiracy.

Mister Magic by Kiersten White | Horror, Mystery, Supernatural, Contemporary

⭐⭐⭐

Summary: Everyone remembers their favorite childhood television show, Mister Magic. What no one can agree on is what Mister Magic looked like. Unlike most shows from the early 90s, it’s impossible to find recordings of the episodes, even in the furthest reaches of the internet. But in an era where nostalgia is extremely profitable, someone gets the idea to have a reunion of the cast of the show in the form of a podcast. Val is 38 and lives on a ranch in Idaho. She has no memories of her time before she and her father arrived at the ranch covered in fresh burn scars at the age of eight. But when three men show up to her father’s funeral, she feels like she’s met them before. And when they tell her that her mother is alive and they all share a past, she has no choice but to return to the place where Mister Magic was filmed in search of answers.

Thoughts: The opening of this book is stunning. It draws the reader in, playing on that weird Mandela Effect we all have about media from our own childhoods. However, as the story progresses, things become more and more surreal, to the point where I wasn’t sure I was following what exactly was going on. It was so abstract that I found myself getting frustrated and bored.

Rent to Be by Sonia Hartl | Romance, Contemporary, New Adult

⭐⭐⭐

NOTE: I read an ARC.

Summary: Isla Jane is an elder zoomer (not a millennial, as the book blurbs will have to believe) who was, like many of us post-college twentysomethings, one unforeseen expense away from financial disaster. That expense, for her, came in the form of a broken transmission, which caused her to miss rent payments, which caused her to get kicked out by her roommates. Thus kicks off Isla’s month-long struggle to keep her head above water while she sleeps under her desk at work, housesits, and crashes on her brother’s couch, all while her brother’s handsome best friend stands by, sometimes teasing her but most of the time supporting her.

Thoughts: Hartl discusses the economic woes all new adults face with startling accuracy (although I’m not sure why Isla didn’t go to a food rescue if she was so food-insecure). However, Isla’s introduction in the story is frankly a lot, and for a few chapters, I was siding with her roommates. I’ve had roommates of my own neglect to pay their share of rent and neglect to discuss it with me, and believe me, I was not happy when the landlord showed up wondering where his $500-odd dollars were. Despite the initial bad taste in my mouth, I did grow to like Isla and sympathize with her interpersonal problems with her parents: Boundaries matter. And I think Cade acted as a great foil in that regard. Just because someone had it worse than Isla, that doesn’t mean Isla isn’t allowed to be hurt by her parent’s thoughtlessness. Overall, a good portrayal of young millennial/elder zoomer financial struggles with a cute romance.

In Nightfall by Suzanne Young | Urban Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary, Young Adult, Vampires, Reimagining, Supernatural

⭐⭐

Summary: In this reimagining of the 1987 film The Lost Boys, a pair of siblings visit their father’s hometown in the wake of their parent’s divorce. While Marco immediately falls in love with the stunning and stunningly cool Minnow, our heroine, Theo, isn’t so enamored. Things get stranger and stranger as their visit progresses, until it’s clear that there’s something wrong with this town--and it’s gotten its claws into Marco.

Thoughts: This was maybe ten to fifteen chapters too long. The paperback is nearly 400 pages and if I’m being honest, a YA vampire thriller with no symbolism/philosophy to speak of has no business being so tedious and long. I had to force myself through certain parts. It had the potential to be really fun and creepy if an editor had gone through it with some hedge clippers. Instead, it was boring. Amazing cover though.

Tilly in Technicolor by Mazey Eddings | Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary, Mental Health, Travel, Humor

⭐⭐⭐

NOTE: I read an ARC.

Summary: Tilly just graduated high school by the skin of her teeth thanks to her ADHD making it impossible to focus in a traditional classroom setting. Oliver, also neurodivergent, runs a successful Instagram page utilizing Pantone’s colors to relate to the world around him and start a dialogue about color theory. Both have spots as summer interns for a startup nail polish company, where they traverse falling in love in a world that wasn’t made for your brain chemistry.

Thoughts: Despite its serious subject matter, I found Tilly in Technicolor to be both heartfelt and wildly funny. The dialogue was age-appropriate for a YA book without feeling like an adult was poorly imitating how kids talk, and the characters were all flawed from the jump without seeming unlikeable. I did, however, find myself rolling my eyes at the inevitable Final Act Breakup, though that was resolved in pretty short order.

The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan | Horror, LGBT, Mystery, Young Adult

⭐

Summary: Sloan and Cherry are the only two girls who survived a horrific mass-murder. Now, as Sloan is trying to recover her memories, she grows more and more certain that Cherry is gaslighting her about what really happened that night.

Thoughts: I was expecting a fun slasher book. What I got was two dysfunctional lesbians screaming at each for 75% of the book. I was like, Just break up already! You two are so toxic to one another! I was annoyed at how misleading the cover and blurbs on this book were.

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas | Historical Fiction, Horror, Vampires, Vaqueros, Gothic, Romance

⭐⭐⭐

Summary: After a gruesome mauling by a gray, eyeless, humanoid monster, Néstor believes his childhood sweetheart, Nena, to be dead. In the wake of the attack, he flees the ranch he was raised on and spends the next nine years breaking horses by day and chasing Nena’s ghost away with copious amounts of alcohol and meaningless sex by night. But when he is called back to the ranch after the Texans declare war on Mexico, he discovers that Nena survived the attack, and she is furious that he left her without so much as a word. An accomplished healer, Nena accompanies her father’s battalion to war, where she and Néstor are separated from everyone else. Soon, she and Néstor learn that there is more to be scared of than just the Yanquís trying to take their land.

Thoughts: At first, I found this to be an excellent, immersive read that had me feeling Néstor’s grief and Nena’s anger. It transported me to mid-1800s Northern Mexico. As the story wore on, I found the interpersonal conflict to be deeply annoying. In his inner monologue, Néstor insists he loves Nena. Yet when the two fight, he hits below the belt, casting aspersions on her due to imagined slights and even blaming her for being complicit to the exploitation of the working class. Like, Dude. She’s an unmarried woman during the Victorian era and there are vampires attacking you. I’m all for bringing down capitalism but maybe some of your ire is a little misplaced. They both whine an exceeding amount throughout the story about their relationship.

Ashes in the Snow by Oriana Ramuno | Historical Fiction, World War II, Crime, Holocaust, Nazi Germany, Murder Mystery

⭐⭐⭐

Note: I read an ARC

Summary: The year is 1943 and Detective Hugo Fischer, accomplished criminologist, is sent to Auschwitz to investigate the mysterious death of a high-ranking SS officer. A young twin and current favorite of the infamous Josef Mengele, eight-year-old Gioele is the one who discovered the body. The boy strikes a deal with the detective: he will provide information if Hugo locates his parents.

Thoughts: This novel opens up with a punch to the face: Detective Hugo Fischer is standing on the train platform in front of Auschwitz, waiting to be escorted to the crime scene. From there, he watches as an SS officer rips a baby from her mother’s arms and stomps her to death. After witnessing such a thing, one would think that Hugo might not be shocked at the horror that awaits him inside the camp. Yet it seems as though every injustice shocks him anew. I’m like, Hugo, you just saw a man murder a baby in front of her mother and you’re shocked that the Nazis are performing human experimentation? Come on. But Hugo has, since the Nazi party seized power, kept his head down in order to survive, which is why he wears the swastika on his jacket and pretends his bad leg was the result of polio and not a degenerative disease. And while the book seemed to be leaning quite hard on Hannah Arendt’s idea of the banality of evil, there is no denying that what went on at Auschwitz was anything but banal. While it was an engrossing read, I found myself disliking all of the characters except Gioele, because I don’t believe the line of reasoning that plenty of Nazis were doing their jobs because execution was the only other option. We even learn that Hugo had job offers all over the world but chose to stay in Berlin. It was difficult sympathizing with a character who, when we meet him, witnessed the brutal murder of a baby girl without uttering so much as a word.

Eventide by Sarah Goodman | Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy, Horror, Magic

⭐⭐

Summary: When Verity and Lilah’s father is committed to an asylum after the death of their mother, the two sisters find themselves on an orphan train heading from New York City to the small town of Wheeler, Arkansas. When adorable, 11-year-old Lilah is adopted immediately and there are no offers made on taciturn, 17-year-old Verity, Verity must take on an indenture to stay close to her beloved sister. But Wheeler is an odd town with strange magic in its bones and not everyone is as they seem, especially the mild-mannered schoolteacher who adopted Lilah.

Thoughts: I really do not like the sort of story where something is obviously happening and everyone around the protagonist doesn’t believe them. At least Verity’s friends and the one social worker believed her. I suppose I found myself frustrated that Verity showed up to a town and had to pay for the sins of her parents. What a parent does shouldn’t be the child’s burden to bear and the ending wasn’t fair.

The Lady Rogue by Jenn Bennet | Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Adventure

⭐⭐⭐

Summary: Theodora Fox lives on the sidelines of her father’s Indiana Jones-esque treasure hunting career, staying behind at hotels with governesses and tutors as he and Huck Gallager--her ex-boyfriend and father’s apprentice of sorts--go on adventures. After Theo’s tutor absconds with all of her money, leaving Theo in a foreign city with no resources, the last person she wants to see is Huck Gallagher, who left in the middle of the night over a year ago without so much as a word. But when he tells her he believes her father to be in trouble, she has no choice but to set her feelings aside and team up with her former love to come to his rescue.

Thoughts: I really, really enjoyed the adventure side of this book. It was a fun romp through the Carpathian Mountains. The personal conflict between Huck and Theo, however, felt half-baked. It needed to be fleshed out a little more. And while the two seemed to agree that Fox (Theo’s father) was the root cause of their problems, that was never explored in any satisfying way. It felt like the author was rushing the ending rather than giving these characters catharsis after they’d been badly hurt by someone they both considered a parental figure.

With a Kiss We Die by L. R. Dorn | Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Contemporary

⭐⭐⭐

Summary: Ryanna Raines is an investigative journalist and host of the hit true-crime podcast known as, “The Raines Report.” Before landing on a subject for her sixth season, she receives an intriguing message on her tip line from a 22-year-old theater student from USCB whose parents were found murdered in their San Diego home. He knows that the police are days away from charging both him and his 18-year-old girlfriend with murder and he wants Raines to fly to California and give the young students a chance to tell their side of the story and proclaim their innocence.

Thoughts: At first, I found this read to be deeply absorbing. I liked the podcast-y format (though I haven’t listened to a podcast in years, I can still appreciate the unique approach to storytelling). But as the story wore on, it became clear that there would be no big twists or interesting discoveries. It was anticlimactic and perhaps that was the point as the book was a fictional lens with which to look at the true crime genre. Still, I found myself unsatisfied with the lack of mystery in this alleged mystery novel.

Cackle by Rachel Harrison | Horror, Fantasy, Witches, Contemporary

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Summary: Annie Crane, suffering from a devastating breakup, has no choice but to move out of her expensive NYC apartment she shared with her now-ex and take a job teaching upstate. In the small, picturesque village of Rowan, Annie meets Sophie and begins a life-altering transformation.

Thoughts: This was honestly a really funny read. I’ve read another book by this author that was equally as funny, so I expected that. However, I thought the plot could stand to be a little more developed and I would have liked it to be a little darker.

Jackal by Erin E. Adams | Horror, Race, Contemporary, Thriller, Black Horror, Supernatural

⭐⭐⭐

Summary: Liz Rocher grew up in the Rust Belt town of Johnstown, PA. A black girl in an affluent, predominantly white community, she struggled to fit in with her classmates throughout her childhood, and when she left the small town for New York City, it was for good. When her best friend announces she’s getting married, though, Liz sucks it up and returns to her hometown in order to be a bridesmaid and to visit her best friend’s nine-year-old daughter (her goddaughter), Caroline, who herself is half black. At the wedding, though, Caroline goes missing. This starts Liz down a path of discovery: black girls go missing every June in this little, idyllic town.

Thoughts: While this was an engrossing read, I can’t help but feel like it would have been more effective as a screenplay/movie. And while the novel subverted plenty of tropes, it was still in the tired genre of “woman with a substance abuse problem returns to hometown and stumbles upon a murderer.”

My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine | Contemporary, Romance, Comedy, Vampires

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Summary: Chicago-based artist Cassie Greenberg is shocked to see a Craigslist apartment listed for only $200 a month. Financially desperate, she decides to meet her potential roommate, fully expecting to encounter a complete weirdo or worse. Well, her roommate is a weirdo: he’s wildly handsome, only comes out at night, never seems to cook or eat, and has a tenuous understanding of technology at best. When Cassie finds blood bags in the fridge, the pieces come together in her mind: her roommate is a vampire.

Thoughts: This was a super funny read. While I’d prefer the plot to be a little more developed, it was fun and campy and I laughed out loud more than once. Definitely didn’t take itself too seriously and I’d recommend it as a palate cleanser.

Together We Rot by Skyla Arndt | Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Mystery, Horror, Cults

⭐⭐

Summary: Wil and Elwood were best friends until her mom went missing last year. Then Wil finds herself being gaslighted by the local police and begins noticing all the deeply strange rituals of the local church. Worse, she’s sure she has seen members of the church wearing her mother’s jewelry. Elwood’s father is the preacher and leader of the strange church, and when Wil confronts Elwood, he chooses believing his family over believing her. That is, until he overhears his father speaking about human sacrifice to the local sheriff and realizes he must run for his life.

Thoughts: I thought the prose was overly-flowery and Elwood’s abrupt shift from steadfastly believing his family of being innocent to immediately believing them to be murderers was strange to say the least. He doesn’t even take the time to question what he overheard. He just runs away.

[topsportsasia]

Miss Massachusetts Teen USA 2023 results: Havervill's Yanelyn Quintana crowned in Burlington

beauty pageant: Miss Massachusetts USA edition: 41st date: January 29, 2023 venue: Burlington Marriott Hotel, Burlington, Massachusetts, United States candidates: RESULTS PLACEMENTCANDIDATESMiss Massachusetts Teen USA 2023Yanelyn QuintanaHavervill1st runner-upBrooke Goodrich2nd runner-upMia Mitchell3rd runner-upIsabelle Richards4th runner-upMargaret LeightonTop 16Genevieve TatulliLauren…

[beardedmrbean]

MALDEN, Mass. — Authorities have arrested two teenagers in connection with the alleged theft of a rifle and ammunition from a Massachusetts State Police cruiser last Thursday.

A 14-year-old has been charged with breaking and entering into a vehicle in the nighttime to commit a felony, larceny of a firearm, possession of a firearm, and conspiracy to commit a crime, while a 15-year-old is charged with breaking and entering into a vehicle in the nighttime to commit a felony, larceny of a firearm, and conspiracy to commit a crime, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.

Ryan’s office says the two teens entered a parking garage on Overlook Ridge Drive in Malden on March 23 and broke into a marked State Police cruiser, stealing a patrol rifle, high-capacity magazine and ammunition. The cruiser was locked at the time of the larceny.

The 14-year-old suspect took possession of the rifle, according to authorities, which was found along with other stolen items at a Malden home connected to the 15-year-old suspect.

Investigators noted that there is no evidence indicating the rifle was used while it was missing.

The teens will be arraigned Tuesday in Cambridge Juvenile Court.

An investigation remains ongoing.

[liyanafoster]

MIA HEALEY // have you seen LIYANA FOSTER around the crash site? we’re trying to make sure they’re still alive after the crash! according to the manifesto SHE is a 23 year old CIS WOMAN**. i hear they’re known for being a BUSINESS STUDENT. LIYANA is also known to be RESOURCEFUL yet also LAZY at times. we have a couple questions for LIYANA when we find HER, we heard something about a secret they might have? such as SHE SECRETLY WANTS TO WRITE FANTASY NOVELS! (KB, 21, CST, she/her***)

name: liyana foster

nickname: liya, but only if she likes you

age: 23

birthday: july 31

zodiac: leo

gender & pronouns: cis woman, she/her

sexual orientation: biromantic bisexual

occupation: university student

education: private school, currently getting her bach in business

relationship status: single

likes: painted nails, seashells, mexican food, rainstorms, music, big dogs, spiders, horror and fantasy novels 

dislikes: snakes, blood, sandy clothes, movies 

Liyana was born and raised in New York City to the CEO of Twilight Streets, Walter Foster, and his young fashion model wife, Chloe Foster. Their only child, Liyana knew from a young age that she was expected to take over the family business in the future. As a child, she had a private tutor who taught her at Twilight’s headquarters so she could spend her free time getting to know the staff and learning more about the company. It wasn’t uncommon for little Liyana to come tumbling into the middle of company meetings, complaining about a hard math problem and begging for their financial advisor’s help. By twelve, she could easily spot counterfeit jewelry, pair items to make the best match, and boss people around with the bigwigs. 

But as she entered her teen years, she started to feel more desperate for peers her own age and began retreating into herself, spending her time daydreaming and writing stories about magical worlds where she could live out the life she really wanted with friends that would die for her. After months of this, her mother finally managed to convince her father that she needed to go to school. So Liyana was enrolled at St. James Private School, where the rich and wealthy sent their kids. 

The first few months were difficult, adjusting to conversing with people her age rather than the adults who worked for her father, but soon enough she was rising the social ranks. Okay, so maybe her friends weren’t the type to die for her and would drop her the second her family’s bank account dropped under a hundred million, but still. She had friends, her grades were amazing, and her future was set. 

After graduation, Liyana was accepted to Harvard to study business. Everything was perfect, especially after she met Hunter Witherton. She fell hard for the pick-up lines, the compliments, the whispered dirty talk. After a year together, only one thing could make her life more perfect: a ring.

Partying with her friends on the weekends was one of Liyana’s favorite pastimes. But that was ruined for her the moment she walked into a bedroom looking for the bathroom and found Hunter hooking up with a girl from one of his classes, the same girl he’d been telling her not to worry about. Liyana fell apart, going to classes in a daze, her grades falling as she got worse. Her parents began to worry as she began missing classes, falling back into old habits of writing about fantasy worlds where everything was okay. It wasn’t until one of her friends told her about her mother’s midlife crisis that Liyana realized that she needed to make some big changes and be as brave as her friend’s mom - well, maybe divorcing her husband and marrying some kid barely out of high school wasn’t for her, but whatever. It’s the bravery that counts. First thing first? She needed to get out of Massachusetts.

Rather than going home for winter break, she set off with two goals in mind: 1. See the one thing Hunter had always wanted to see - the Golden Gate Bridge. 2. Go where she’d always wanted to go - Australia. Liyana explored San Francisco, snapping endless pictures of her on the bridge just to mail to Hunter. And on December 31, she boarded AA78 to Sydney.

Hey! I’m KB, she/her, CST timezone, and this is my first time roleplaying! I’m a student, though I’m currently taking a semester off. Lil nervous about roleplaying, ngl, but I’m looking forward to getting to know and roleplaying with everyone!

[faith-thee-slayer]

as an official faith lehane blog™️ i need you guys to make this a faith/fuffy anthem. because she IS miss teen massachusetts

[rockislandadultreads]

Stranger Things Readalikes: a book list

Unspeakable Things by Jess Lourey

Inspired by a terrifying true story from the author’s hometown, a heart-pounding novel of suspense about a small Minnesota community where nothing is as quiet—or as safe—as it seems. Cassie McDowell’s life in 1980s Minnesota seems perfectly wholesome. She lives on a farm, loves school, and has a crush on the nicest boy in class. Yes, there are her parents’ strange parties and their parade of deviant guests, but she’s grown accustomed to them. All that changes when someone comes hunting in Lilydale. One by one, local boys go missing. One by one, they return changed—violent, moody, and withdrawn. What happened to them becomes the stuff of shocking rumors. The accusations of who’s responsible grow just as wild, and dangerous town secrets start to surface. Then Cassie’s own sister undergoes the dark change. If she is to survive, Cassie must find her way in an adult world where every sin is justified, and only the truth is unforgivable.

Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards

A hitched ride home in a snow storm turns sinister when one of the passengers is plotting for the ride to end in disaster.

When Mira flies home to spend Christmas with her mother in Pittsburgh, a record-breaking blizzard results in a cancelled layover. Desperate to get to her grief-ridden mother in the wake of a family death, Mira hitches a ride with a group of friendly college kids who were on her initial flight.

As the drive progresses and weather conditions become more treacherous, Mira realizes that the four other passengers she's stuck in the car with don't actually know one another.

Soon, they're not just dealing with heavy snowfall and ice-slick roads, but the fact that somebody will stop at nothing to ensure their trip ends in a deadly disaster.

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

1990. The teen detectives once known as the Blyton Summer Detective Club (of Blyton Hills, a small mining town in the Zoinx River Valley in Oregon) are all grown up and haven't seen each other since their fateful, final case in 1977. Andy, the tomboy, is twenty-five and on the run, wanted in at least two states. Kerri, one-time kid genius and budding biologist, is bartending in New York, working on a serious drinking problem. At least she's got Tim, an excitable Weimaraner descended from the original canine member of the team. Nate, the horror nerd, has spent the last thirteen years in and out of mental health institutions, and currently resides in an asylum in Arhkam, Massachusetts. The only friend he still sees is Peter, the handsome jock turned movie star. The problem is, Peter's been dead for years. The time has come to uncover the source of their nightmares and return to where it all began in 1977. This time, it better not be a man in a mask. The real monsters are waiting.

Dark Site by Patrick Lee

On an otherwise normal morning, former Special Forces operative Sam Dryden is the target of an unsuccessful attempted abduction. Using his attacker's cellphone, he learns that another person, a woman named Danica Ellis, is also being targeted. Dryden arrives just in time to save Danica from the assault team sent after her. But neither of them recognize the other, or have any idea why they are being targeted. The only clue is a heavily redacted, official-looking document given to Danica by her stepfather before he was killed. Dryden immediately recognizes it as a 'scrub file.' A scrub file is a record of what a subject knew before their memories were chemically destroyed. The redacted document refers to witnesses to a secret military site in Ashland, Iowa in 1989. Both Dryden and Danica Ellis lived in Ashland in 1989, when they were both twelve years old, though neither of them has any memory of the other.

[chryzure-archive]

kill is kiss

ALT TITLE: tormenting jacks is my favorite hobby actually. pontypool ver this time :3

AUTHOR’S NOTE: jacks actually feeling guilt for killing somebody? insane! also, this features @paper-star-ships and her ship of paper stars :)

———

… our affiliate station in Salem, Massachusetts, where they broke the story. Tell me, Miss Solstice, is it true that the National Guard has set up barricades around the city?…

Chrysi reached over and turned the volume even lower, flashing a dark look up to the window blazing white with the blizzard outside. She didn’t want to lure them back in—though what they were was still up for debate. And the only person she truly valued insight on the matter had been infected and promptly sacrificed himself to protect Chrysi and her crew.

She was happy, she supposed, that they hadn’t died to the echoing horde, but she couldn’t help but feel a sinking dread that they’d earned themselves only a fraction of time. 

They were still trapped. They still had no link to the outside world. They still couldn’t speak, for fear of tripping along an infected word.

And their only hope was the chant they’d given the creatures. Even now, along the howling wind, Chrysi could hear snatches of words: Chrysi… alive… is… Chrysi Solstice… alive… Solstice is… alive.

Creepy. 

Worse still when Jacks’s voice was the one they’d put on loop outside the station.

Chrysi turned back to the recording. Steadying the notepad on her lap, she fidgeted with the dial. It rushed forward in a quiet blur of voices.

It took a moment to get to what she’d been looking for, and in that time, she flashed a worried look over her crew. 

None of them looked quite right—all three of their faces pale and twisted, an awful silence too terrible to breach amongst them. Their wall of confessions had grown tenfold. In fact, under Chrysi’s watchful gaze, Jacks crammed another confession under one of Chrysi’s own aggravated shut ups (underlined thrice, and different from the others in that she had specifically written for Jacks to shut the fuck up). She couldn’t read the details, but she thought she saw the word killed and Jacks didn’t look particularly happy about it. 

A rare swirl of guilt twisted in her stomach. 

She knew Jacks hadn’t wanted to kill the girl. She knew he hadn’t meant to. But these—these conversationalists weren’t in their right minds. No amount of convincing or goading would’ve gotten the girl off of Chrysi. Between the girl’s teeth snapping at Chrysi’s throat, and Jacks stopping her heart, Jacks had opted to kill the girl instead. 

And how had Chrysi responded? 

Anger. Fury, really.

“You killed her,” she’d accused. “That poor girl hadn’t done anything wrong! She was just sick!” 

Jacks didn’t reply. He didn’t even look her in the eye. 

Filly ended up helping Chrysi up and leading them all into the storage room. Suffocating silence settled over them quickly after. 

Pleck had been the one to find the permanent markers, and the first one to add his confession to the wall: I’m glad Faye died before she got through the sound booth windows. 

After that, everyone took their own marker and added their own unspoken truths. It was one way to pass the time—though passing it for what, Chrysi didn’t know. She wished her phone hadn’t died. She could’ve called Emery, spoken in their Fated tongue, and asked her niece for what was going on in the outside world. Maybe then she’d know of their passing of the time was worth it.

Instead, they were trapped in a claustrophobic room, in a claustrophobic station, with a claustrophobic storm outside their windows. And it was getting cold. 

The confessions went up, sometimes three at a time, in Pleck’s case. He had lots to say: I used to steal my sister’s Teen magazine to take the quizzes. I lied about my cat being sick to get out of work. I don’t even have a cat. I used to be the caller that called Jacks’s show every day. 

Well, they’d all known that one. 

Filly’s were smaller, hidden between Jacks’s writing and Pleck’s writing, all confessions Chrysi had been somewhat expecting: Sometimes I don’t know if I’m doing anything right. I still don’t think I feel as bad as I should after Faye died. And, even tinier, she’d written: I like Pleck. 

Pleck still hadn’t read that one yet. 

And Jacks… 

His confessions were sprawled all over, blocky and clearly readable, even from where Chrysi now perched herself. Some were written in English, others in Fated, but Chrysi stopped trying to read them. Some were about his killing kiss and those who succumbed to it. Most were about his ex-wife. Chrysi didn’t care to think about Jacks and his ex-wife.

Chrysi hadn’t added much to the wall. Even in this situation, she had too many secrets she didn’t want her friends to know. She didn’t exactly want to march up to the wall and write Jacks and I made out at the last office party in front of all the people that had taken part in that same party. She’d opted, instead, to write friendly reminders to keep their mouths shut and to write what communication they needed on the notepad—unless Pleck and Filly could miraculously speak in a different language. 

All additional reminders to be quiet were much ruder, directed entirely at Jacks. Chrysi told him to shut up purely out of the need to limit the amount of words she heard Jacks speak. She had enough of his voice set on repeat on their outside speakers. 

She ducked her head and listened to the recording with the intent to drown out the silence of the room. It didn’t work much for her own thoughts. 

“That’s unnerving,” Filly whispered, after a particularly loud cry of Chrysi Solstice is alive echoed in from the winter-white beyond.

Chrysi shot her a look. “Shh.” When Filly glanced at her, she mimed writing. 

Filly frowned.

“That sounded close,” Pleck said worriedly, eyes trained on the window rather than Chrysi’s rather helpful reminder.

“There are killers out there,” Jacks muttered, “and soon they’ll kill us in here.”

Chrysi threw up her hands. So much for not speaking English.

“Thanks for the reminder, Jacks.” Filly threaded her fingers together, but Chrysi could tell it didn’t help with her shaking hands. She was gnawing on her lower lip, her eyes deeply troubled. “How about thinking of a way out?”

“We get killed,” he said, very unhelpfully.

“Always a ray of sunshine, you are.”

“We can always try and make a run for it,” Pleck offered. 

The three fixed him with a strange look. Wind whistled through some cracking in the windowsill.

Chrysi Solstice is alive! came a cry from outside.

Chrysi raised a brow. “A little close, don’t you think?”

Pleck squirmed. “Extremely quietly?” he amended.

But not even he sounded convinced by his idea.

“We’ll get killed.”

Pleck shot Jacks a wounded look. “No need to be mean about it. At least I’m trying to come up with suggestions.”

Jacks furrowed his brows. 

“Killed,” he repeated for emphasis.

Filly waved her hands—still shaking—high in the air, and impatiently said, “Yes, killed, killed! We can imagine just fine on our own!” She turned pleading eyes to Chrysi. “What do you suggest?”

Truthfully, nothing. Chrysi couldn’t make heads or tails of this virus—only that it infected words, and only in English. But she was their leader, and Filly and Pleck looked at her so hopefully that her stomach twisted at the thought of shattering that hope.

Jacks, on the other hand, was preoccupied with their wall of written confessions. The pen listed in his hand.

She thought of her notepad and the huddle in the sound booth. The doctor had said something—something about...

“Understand,” Chrysi murmured.

Pleck slouched forward from his perch on his box. “Sorry?”

“Understand. It’s about understanding.”

Despite her realization, neither he nor Filly looked particularly reassured by Chrysi’s eureka moment. They shared a look.

“Um,” Filly said.

Pleck’s anxiety was less contained.

“Did it get you too?” he whispered.

“What? No.” She flashed them an uneven smile that didn’t do anything to ease their tension, then retrieved her notes. It was right there, scribbled in the margins of the paper.

Scanning her notes quickly, Chrysi tucked a curl behind her ear, mind whirling to paraphrase. “When the word enters your ear canal, it’s just a sound.” She tightened her grip on her pen and glanced at Filly. “Correct?”

She looked unsure at this line of questioning. “What does this have to do with being—”

“—killed?” Jacks mumbled.

The reminder of looming danger made Filly sink into herself, until her cornflower blue sweater looked like it would swallow her whole. 

“I would’ve said infected, but I suppose killed is just as good a word,” she said miserably.

Though there hadn’t been much, Chrysi could see their hope fading.

But Chrysi was energized.

“I mean—” and she laughed, just a little, even though this situation didn’t call for it in the slightest “—all words spoken aloud are just sounds. It’s our brains that assign meaning to them. And this virus—the doctor said it would infect us when we spoke our—I guess our trigger word—and heard it and understood it. Understand it as our brain understands it.” She twisted a curl around her pen, studying her notes without seeing them, trying to connect the dots. “So… that means—what?”

Filly frowned and adjusted her glasses. She slipped her fingers back into the long sleeves of her sweater. “So the official association we have with a word is what makes the infection take root?”

The page became blurry, her eyesight smeared with thoughts Chrysi hadn’t bothered to put down on paper. “Possibly.”

“And what do you think would happen if we changed the association?” Pleck asked.

She finally looked up from the page. “Huh?”

Pleck wrung his hands. His face had gone terribly pale, almost greenish, like he might throw up. “Like—like Faye. What if we’d told her that rather than the word please—”

“Don’t!”

Startled, he leapt from his seat. Wild-eyed, he spun around to face Filly.

She, too, had gone so pale she almost looked green. 

“Don’t say that!” she pleaded. “It’s an infected word and we know it!”

That hadn’t occurred to him. Almost as infectious as the language itself, Filly’s fear began to seep into Pleck.

He trembled. “I—I’m not—”

“She’s right,” Chrysi murmured. “We don’t know all the infected words, but it’s best not to trigger any known ones. We may have the right immune system to avoid them, but you never know.”

“Could be killed.”

She nodded in Jacks’s general direction. “Precisely. You could be—”

“Killers killing kill those killed.”

She froze. All the blood ran from her face. 

Twin looks of horrified realization echoed themselves in Filly and Pleck’s faces. She didn’t think it possible, but they somehow looked even paler. They could put the storm outside to shame. 

It didn’t feel like her body, but Chrysi still forced herself to turn back to find Jacks, looking pale and sickly, curled into his corner. 

“No,” he hissed. His hands balled into fists and his brows slashed downward. “Kill. No, kill.” All color fled his face, and he whispered a panicked, “No.”

She shouldn’t speak. She couldn’t know if any of the words that left her mouth would infect her like Jacks was right now. The safest option was to zip her mouth shut and get Pleck and Filly to safety.

But she thought of Faye and the geyser of blood that splashed over the sound booth’s windows and she couldn’t bear the same fate befalling Jacks.

“Jacks,” she said slowly, moving closer to him with the same silent step she would use to sneak up on her niece and nephews in a game of Spies, “can you stop speaking?” 

His eyes flashed to her, but they looked fogged over. He pressed his mouth shut and pulled his knees to his chest in a movement that made him look as though he’d been folded right in two. If not for the situation at hand, Chrysi would’ve been impressed by how small he’d made himself.

His silence didn’t last long.

“Kill,” he gasped, like he’d been holding his breath. Fear lit up his eyes. “Kill, kill, kill—no,” he moaned. His eyes fluttered shut. With a thud, he hit the back of his head against the wall. “Kill. Kill.” 

“Wh—” Filly began.

Chrysi whipped around, eyes blazing. “Shut.” She fixed Pleck with the same look and wasn’t the slightest bit surprised to find him preparing to say something. “Neither of you say anything.”

“Kill,” Jacks whimpered. “K-kill, kill.” 

They both stared at her in silent terror.

Satisfied they’d hold their tongues, she turned back to Jacks. She spoke in Fated: “Can you change languages?”

Again, he hit his head against the wall—harder this time, hard enough to make her jump. “Kill, kill, kill.” He screwed his eyes tighter. Gritting his teeth, he said, “Kill. Kill. Kill.”

Chrysi felt a scream tugging at her vocal chords. Why had Dr. Howe said that he’d fixed himself by speaking another language? She guessed she’d never know—for all they knew, he had been killed outside their tiny station, his blood and repeated cries of breathe, breathe, breathe swallowed up by the snow. 

“Please,” she begged. “Jacks, can’t you try to speak Fated?”

His response was a choking noise in the back of his throat—a stuttering, then, “Kill. Kill, kill, kill, kill.”

Her heart was knotted up, twisted in all the wrong ways. 

Abandoning all pretense, Chrysi threw herself down in front of him. Pain sparked in her knees, but she shoved it to the back of her mind. 

She grabbed him by the shoulders. Back in English, she cried, “Jacks, look at me! Look at me.”

“Kill. Kill. K-kill.” 

Jacks’s face twisted, agonized, but he did as Chrysi asked of him. The blue of his eyes were wild, silver paling the edges with panic. 

He scrambled to touch her, searching for any hold on her to anchor him. 

“Kill,” he whispered. His eyes glistened. His nails dug into her skin where he managed to grip her arms. He struggled to keep his mouth shut. “Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.”

Urgency spiked her heart rate.

“Jacky!” 

“Change the meaning of the word!” Pleck blurted.

Her grip tightened on Jacks’s shoulders. “Shh!” 

No one else. She couldn’t take anyone else getting infected. 

“Kill,” Jacks said miserably. He tried to squeeze his eyes shut again, but it didn’t stop the word from falling, repeated, from his mouth: “K-kill. Kill, kill.”

“His understanding of the word,” Filly cried. “Change the understanding!” 

“Be quiet!” Chrysi’s voice went high, sounding just as tight and claustrophobic as this stupid radio station in the middle of this stupid storm. “No one else—don’t say anything!” 

Then she realized what Pleck and Filly both were trying to tell her. 

The infection took root in the understanding of the word. Kill meant kill, and that was why Jacks couldn’t stop saying it. If he progressed any further, he’d become so distraught that he would try to find someone to tear into—and currently Chrysi wasn’t in a great position if that were to occur. 

But if kill didn’t mean kill—

“Kill, kill, kill, killkillkillkill—” 

Chrysi didn’t care if this wasn’t the true cure. Jacks was too far gone. She needed to take the leap. 

What was the worst that could happen? Also finding an infected word and succumbing to the illness? 

So be it. 

Chrysi pushed his hair from his face and cradled his cheek in her palm. She felt her heart might burst from her throat, it beat so hard and fast. A thin layer of sweat began to slick her skin. Even her short-sleeved shirt felt too hot.

Jacks shuddered. “Kill, kill, kill, kill.”

“Kill doesn’t mean kill,” she said, her panic beating at her words. “Kill means—” Her eyes flashed over the room. 

Fuck. 

Now she couldn’t think of anything. 

Fuck. 

“Kill is good. Kill is—it’s springtime!” 

“Kill. Kill.” He pressed into her hands, but he squeezed his eyes shut even tighter. 

Chrysi wanted to laugh at the absurdity leaving her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes. She smoothed his hair away from his face again. “Okay, maybe not springtime. Um, kill is flowers! Kill is kittens! Kill is—”

“Kill.” 

“Not very original, are you?” she snapped.

His breathing jumped. He gingerly touched the hand she’d placed on his cheek, his fingers trembling.

With a groan, he said, “Kill, kill, kill. K-kill.” He took a breath. “Kill.”

It sounded so final in his voice. 

“No.” Chrysi wasn’t going to let him slip through her fingers. She pushed closer to him, almost in his lap. She held his face tighter, even though she knew her rings had to be biting into his skin. “Kill is happy. Kill is fun. Kill is parties.”

Kill is parties. 

“Kill.” His skin was ashen. “Kill, kill.” He bit his lip, hard enough to draw blood. And yet, the rush still came from his mouth, in death knell tolls of kill, kill, kill, killkillkillkillkill. 

She didn’t dare loosen her grip on him. 

Their office party. 

Chrysi had spent so much time making the decorations with Pleck. It took almost as long to set them up as it did making them, until Filly had volunteered to help, and Chrysi had decided to leave the two of them to talk as they’d finished up. 

Jacks had arrived early. That day, he’d been different. Melancholy, almost. Certainly morose. 

He didn’t want to go into the station yet, and Chrysi didn’t want him to either. She’d been trying to get Pleck and Filly to admit their very obvious feelings for each other for quite some time. Jacks arriving would ruin everything. 

So they’d talked outside. It was late summer, sunset. And, for once, Chrysi found the conversation fun. 

She didn’t know why she hadn’t realized it sooner—she’d only had a vague idea of Jacks’s wrongness and that he knew how to speak the same Fated language as she did. It clicked only after they’d fallen into the kiss. 

His mouth had tasted like the sweet golden blood Chrysi knew well. Electricity sparked where his skin met hers. And he was so very, very good at kissing. 

That was when Chrysi realized he was the Prince of Hearts. Working in her radio station. Being surprisingly meek, for a Fate—though certainly very annoying, for her colleague. 

The Fate cursed with a kiss that killed. And yet, a kiss that Chrysi was immune to. 

She’d broken so many of nature’s laws by existing. What was one more to add to the list? 

She never told Jacks that she knew who he was after that. She acted more distant, alarmed by the way he began to act differently around her. So much gentler. So much wronger. 

“Kill is kiss,” she breathed.

Jacks stiffened underneath her. 

“Kill,” he whispered.

“Kill is kiss,” she repeated, louder, more forcefully. “Kill is kiss. Kill is that kiss, Jacky.” A delirious smile spread over her face. “Kill is kiss. Kill is your kiss, kill is our kiss.”

His eyes finally cracked open. His gaze flickered over her mouth, and a wave of heat accompanied it.

“Kill…” 

Chrysi trailed her hand down his face, until she had her thumb on his lower lip. 

“Kill is kiss,” she said. “Kill is kiss.”

“Kill…” He winced, but he leaned into her touch. “...is… kiss.”

The way he said it made it sound like it hurt to say—like his vocal chords had been rearranged by the virus to only say the word “kill”. 

“Yes!” Her heart fluttered in her chest like a songbird. “Kill is kiss!” 

“Kill is kiss,” Jacks echoed. “Kill is…” He trailed off, his gaze still on her lips. The color began to return to his cheeks. 

“Are you back?” she asked. 

He didn’t tear his eyes away from her mouth. 

Then, softly, he murmured, “Kill me, then.”

Her heart fluttered and Chrysi startled herself with a laugh. She cupped his face in both her hands. “I’ve been wanting to do that since you joined the show.”

And she pulled him close and crushed her lips to his. 

It was better than their first kiss. So much better. Chrysi didn’t know if it was because she was relieved Jacks wasn’t dying, or if it was because Jacks was no longer preparing for Chrysi to die to his curse, or if it was simply because she’d been wanting to kiss him ever since their first kiss. 

It didn’t matter. Chrysi was just happy to have Jacks cured and to have his mouth on hers. 

She leaned into him, as his hands slid around her until he was holding her close to his chest. His fingers tangled into her hair. She could taste the magic tang of his blood on her tongue. She wanted to bite him until she could taste more. 

Chrysi didn’t know how long she’d allowed herself to get lost in Jacks and his kiss. All she could bear to think of was that she felt comfortable against him like this. It was easier to think of than what was happening outside. It was safer. 

Someone cleared their throat behind them.

Chrysi suddenly remembered that they had an audience. 

She pulled back like she’d been electrocuted. Her face burned. 

Jacks made a noise in the back of his throat like a whine. His eyes were half-lidded, his eyes glittering with silver around the blue. She saw the glitter of gold and red blood at the corner of his mouth, where he’d bitten himself—where she’d tasted it in his kiss.

She didn’t dare turn to face Pleck and Filly. 

Oh Coelhm.

How embarrassing. She’d practically thrown herself on top of Jacks after she’d stopped the spread of the virus inside him. While there were people still sick outside the window. 

Seven hells. 

“Well,” Filly said diplomatically, “I guess we’ve found the cure.”

Chrysi’s face flushed hotter. 

Jacks dazedly glanced behind her. “Cure?” he echoed. He sounded disoriented, and who wouldn’t be, after all that? The color in his cheeks had become a healthy glow mixed with ecstatic happiness. His eyes flickered to her, then back. “Right. Yes. The cure.”

She tried to untwine her hands from his shirt, but Jacks covered her hand with his. 

Chrysi froze. His hand was warm—so much so that she fancied she could feel his heartbeat from the inside of his wrist, where his skin whispered over hers. 

“Yes, the cure.” Filly sounded like a kindergarten teacher patting the head of a particularly precocious student. “And fortunately, we can spread this cure outside with our radio station and speakers.”

She felt terrible, but all Chrysi could think of was the memory of Jacks’s lips on hers. The rest in her mind was a complicated snarl of one thing or another, and, unfortunately for her, they all tied back to Jacks. 

No, she should be helping Filly with this next stage—with the cure.

Instead, Pleck made a noise of confusion. “How do you expect us to do that?”

The patronizing tone evaporated from Filly’s voice the moment Pleck opened his mouth, like it were water tossed on concrete in the middle of summer. “Well—we can say words mean one thing or the other over the radio. Like you said: we have to change the meaning. Not just for ourselves, but for the people outside as well.”

“Oh.” Pleck paused, then, much more impressed, repeated, “Oh. Yes, that’s very smart.”

Yes, that seemed obvious. 

“Thank you.” Filly sounded pleased.

Chrysi stared at Jacks’s hand atop hers. 

The wind whistled outside, but it was a lot less jarring than it had been mere minutes ago. 

Until they caught another echo: Chrysi Solstice is alive.

The breakers flipped in the back of her mind and the lightbulb finally turned back on. Chrysi pulled herself off of Jacks’s lap, though even she had to admit there was some reluctance to the movement. 

Hell.

With the way Jacks was looking at her, she knew he wouldn’t let her forget this intimacy of theirs. 

“Right,” Chrysi said, flustered. She averted her eyes from Jacks’s silver-blue gaze. “That’s a good idea. Let’s go do that.”

Finally, she glanced up to the two. She wished she hadn’t. To make eye contact with them was to see the knowing gleams in their eyes, and Filly in particular had an expression that screamed, “Thank goodness you’ve both admitted to it.”

If they survived all this, she was going to swear those two to secrecy. They never saw her kissing Jacks. They never knew that she had feelings for him. They’d swear on each other’s hearts. 

But for now, there were more pressing matters. 

Chrysi stood with a stretch, avoiding everyone’s eyes (why did they all have to be looking at her right now?), and said, “Back into the sound booth we go, I suppose.”

Pleck and Filly moved in unison—hands absently reaching for each other—before Chrysi quickly added, “But let’s keep the talking to a minimum. Just because we’ve cured one person doesn’t mean it’ll be quite so easy to cure the next.”

Two pairs of wide eyes blinked at her, one pair green, the other stone-blue. 

Then Pleck’s face split into a smile. 

“No worries,” he said cheerily. “Under your direction, we barely need to talk. C’mon, Fil!”

And with that, they both left the room, hands still intertwined. 

Chrysi studied them with a thoughtful frown. 

Maybe it wasn’t entirely necessary to admit their feelings out loud for things to work out. Or maybe they were still in that awkward stage where they hadn’t figured out exactly why they wanted to be so close at all times. 

Shaking off her thoughts, she pivoted and held out a hand to Jacks. 

“Come on,” she said in their shared language. “Let’s join them. We need our radio personality, after all.”

He stared at her hand thoughtfully, but he didn’t take it. 

Shifting awkwardly, she tried to offer her hand to him a little closer, sliding it forward until she was almost touching him again. Her heart raced a little then, and she wanted to tell it to shut up, because she wasn’t anxious that Jacks suddenly didn’t want to be close to her after he’d stolen another kiss from her.

As if sensing her unease, Jacks held up a finger. “A moment, please.”

Chrysi tilted her head to the side, but Jacks didn’t answer to her confusion. 

He fished for something on the floor. Once he found it, he held up a permanent marker—what he’d been using for most of his confessions. Chrysi recognized the red ink and, when Jacks popped the lid off, it looked like he’d smashed it in with some heavy-handed writing.

He found an empty space (underneath a confession of Filly’s, stating that she actually had not read the book Chrysi had been talking about, because it sounded too graphic to her. Chrysi could not blame her for this reasoning) and wrote something in his blocky handwriting, in the Fated script she so rarely saw used: 

I love you.

The heat that scorched her cheeks earlier returned full-force. A part of her wanted to wrench the window up and walk out into the snow. 

But she couldn’t do that—not with Jacks looking at her so expectantly. 

“I…” 

He wasn’t done, apparently. 

He scrawled an addendum, a little more shakily: I have since before the kiss. 

Oh, she was definitely going to take a quick walk outside to cool down. In fact, Chrysi made to walk over to the window. 

Jacks lunged for her hand. His grip nearly crushed her hand—uncomfortable enough already with her rings grinding against each other. 

She stopped in her tracks. 

With a determined set to his jaw, he wrote a final, You scared me when you didn’t die, and I think that’s what was the final straw. I admitted to myself that I loved you then. And I loved you to mortality, Chrysi Solstice. 

And with that, he dropped his hand. He didn’t meet her eyes. 

Her heart stammered hard in her chest. 

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 

He knew. He knew that she’s figured out his secret and he let her keep it. Why? 

The reminder on the wall had a neon glow, like a sign of a night club, reminding her that Jacks loved her, to mortality.

She thought she may regret this, but she leaned forward—her curls falling around him, and Jacks lifted his chin to peer up at her with reluctant hope—and plucked the pen from his hand. He let it go without a fuss. 

For her first true confession, Chrysi chose the same language Jacks did.

I love you, too.

She capped it and held out her hand to him again. 

This time, he had no qualms with taking it. 

[noahvon]

✦ NOAH VON the THIRTY-SIX year old has been in Hidehill for 36 YEARS ON/OFF and was a FRENEMY to Ronnie Nilsson, the most recent shadow of Hidehill. Whispers on the streets are that the MECHANIC who lives in HADLEY PARK are said to be QUICK-WITTED and VIOLENT but I guess we’ll find out for ourselves. 

tws for biography: violence, law enforcement, arrest, injury, blood, murder, overdose.  

BIOGRAPHY.

first born and only son of hafsah yasin, second born of seven of ben von.

while noah’s mother’s family saw his conception and birth as a mistake, she saw it as an opportunity to not just raise a good man, but a great one. 

with that in mind, being raised by her was no easy feat for him, unattainable expectations were the foundation of his life and meeting targets was seen as the only plausible outcome.

the only reprieve he got from his mother’s suffocating ideals was when he was with his siblings, which only seemed to multiply as the years went on. having always looked up to his older brother mason, the only goal he placed on himself was to also be someone that his younger siblings could also look to and rely on. 

despite how much control the woman tried to exercise over his temperament, no amount of long talks about manners and instruction could stifle the anger that resided deep in him. he was never good at regulating it, but he could keep himself in check for the most part, even if that did mean he got comfortable lying about where cuts and bruises on his knuckles came from and why friendships for him seemed to come to a sharp and drastic end. 

always excelled in academics, especially in physics, mathematics and anything in the realm of engineering.

wanted to be an astronaut when he was a child, but after one too many times of his mother tutting and telling him he had his head in the clouds like it was an insult, he settled on aiming to be an aerospace engineer. 

was a little bit of a wayward teen and liked to push the limits of both his mother’s patience and his own luck, which resulted in him nearly being arrested at 18 which he narrowly avoided. that was a wake up call for him and he decided to focus his all on the future he had been working towards. 

graduated with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace & aeronautical engineering from massachusetts institute of technology. went on and did a masters for two years after that. 

at 27, after a slew of internships and short term employment opportunities in industry, he finally got his dream job and uprooted his life to california to work as an aerospace engineer at nasa’s neil a. armstrong flight research center in edwards. 

he was back and forth to hidehill as much as he could be to check in on his siblings, never missing a holiday or a family event, but by thirty he knew his life was no longer there. 

at 32, he found out he was going to be a father with his then girlfriend malee. everything looked like it was set to fall into place for him, until she found out that he had cheated on her previously with edith teller. their split was fast and nasty, and despite getting her to agree to move to hidehill to raise their daughter, he didn’t make the move himself initially and kept putting it with empty promises of timeframes he wouldn’t stick to because he was so dedicated to his career trajectory. 

his career was on a steady incline and noah had eyes on how he could move up internally, but that all came crashing to an end with more damage than any test flight gone wrong he had over seen at the end of october 2022. 

following news of his sister nancy’s death and his brother nate’s overdose, noah lost control at the worst time in the worst place. 

during a routine ground test for an aircraft, a sideways comment from a co-worker he had never gotten along with had him seeing red. the reports of the incidence afterwards read that it was unprovoked and vicious, resulting in broken bones and blood on the cement but even when he had been dragged off of him by three members of site security, noah hadn’t been able to see it as anything more than an inevitability. 

his dismissal was immediate and absolute and he knew there was no salvaging his career with nasa. with nothing else holding him to california and the possibility of a criminal charge that would further impede his employability, noah knew it was time to come home. 

he’s been back in hidehill full time ever since. 

PERSONALITY.

+ quick-witted, intelligent, precise. 

- violent, hot-headed, inconsiderate. 

FUN ADJACENT FACTS.

father to a three year old called amara, possibly the only thing in his life he doesn’t feel like he’s actively failing at. 

is working as a mechanic at quick fix which he already hates while he tries to figure out what his life is going to look like. 

can read arabic, but isn’t great at speaking it and wouldn’t do so conversationally unless there was no other option. 

used to go to egypt every summer with his mother until he was 21. 

his favorite beer is stella and no, he doesn’t mean artois, he hates that one. 

has told people he’s an astronaut before to get laid / avoid having to get into explaining what it is he actually does. 

fond of alcohol but is more hesitant with drugs, knows from experience they don’t mix well with his personality. 

CURRENT CONNECTIONS.

older brother of @nashvcn​ and @hardlygclden​ 

childhood friends to lovers to enemies of @westmaeve​ 

older brother’s best friend / long time fwb with @edithteller​

childhood friend / current employee of @javierxsanchez​​ 

ex-boyfriend of/ended on bad terms/co-parents with @maleezhou​

SPECIFIC WANTED CONNECTIONS.

childhood friends: self explanatory, the folks he goes way way back with. can go any way dynamic wise. 

california based muses: folks he would have known over the last near decade he was living/working in cali. can be friends/co-workers/exes whatever the heart desiresss.

customers: let him fix ur car, or any sort of electronic. will he be pleasant about it? streets are saying no KJSHGSHJ 

more to be added! 

GENERIC WANTED CONNECTIONS.

connections wise he’s pretty much an open book right now, but some baseline ideas that can be springboarded off are:

friendly.

a best friend(s) / ride or dies / close friends / childhood friends / friends / drunk friends / new friends / people he knew from massachusetts when he studied there / people he knew from california when he worked there. 

romantic

flirtationship / friends with benefits / one time hook ups / tinder matches / unrequited crush (can be either way) / exes from high school / exes from his twenties / exes on good terms. 

antagonistic.

enemies / former (best) friends / exes on bad terms / frenemies / rivals / negative influence / people he’s fought with (can be several, for a variety of reasons from serious to downright stupid). 

[couselorxgarcia]

Not everyone can say they’ve been to the Big Apple, but  [ GISELLE GARCIA ], a [ 46 ] year-old [ CIS FEMALE ] has lived in [ Williamsburg, Brooklyn ] for [ 12YRS ]. This is the city of dreams and [ SHE ] knows it, because they came to NYC to be a [ Corporate Lawyer ].. Living in the city means they meet all kinds of people, but everyone always seems to think they look like [ GINA TORRES ]. They even got away with free cab fare once because of it! [KIA, OLD, SHE/HER, EST, N/A]

BASIC

Full name: Giselle Aleja Garcia

Nicknames: GG (by family and extremely close friends)

Age: 46

Face Claim: Gina Torres

Birthdate: October 13th

Hometown: Queens NYC, NY 

Height: 5ft10

Sexual Orientation: Bisexual

Marital Status: Single

Gender Identity: Cisgender female

Occupation: Lawyer (Partner at Beckett, Dooley & Garcia LLP)

Address: Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Hair Color: Brown

Eye Color: Brown

Full BIO under the cut

IC Information

PERSONALITY: Thoughtful, Arrogant, Cynical, Disciplined, Independent, Firm, Pragmatic

INTERESTS: Law, Travel, Theater, Literature

LIKES:  art, whiskey, classic automobiles, Music (blues, jazz, salsa and all things Celia Cruz), exotic destinations, stage performance, trashy novels.

DISLIKES: rudeness, wasters of my very precious time, tardiness (see previous)

CURRENTLY LISTENING: Willow Weep for Me - Nina Simone

FAMILY MEMBERS: Giselle has two younger sisters in their late and mid 30s. The oldest of the two sisters has a daughter in her early 20s and a teenaged son. The youngest sister has a son under the age of ten.

FAMILY INFO: The middle Garcia sister is the family screw up who turned her life around, but still gets into trouble now and then. She was a pregnant teen and took a while to figure out what exactly she wanted to do with her life. Her daughter, Bianca, is very close with Giselle. The youngest Garcia sister is certainly the baby of the family and acts every bit of it. She is in a marriage of convenience.

BIO: When Alejandro Garcia moved his pregnant wife and himself to America, things were far from perfect, but his children would have every opportunity. He wanted his sons to be seen as important men in the world.

Giselle Aleja Garcia, the oldest of three daughters, was the product of two Afro-Cuban immigrant parents. She’d been extremely aware of her mother and father’s struggle for as long as she could remember. Even as a very small girl she knew it would be her job to make life better for her family. At first she walked with pride at the idea of saving her loved ones, but as she grew older and her father added to the pressure that she’d already put on herself, she began to feel some resentment toward her situation.

Trying to be the perfect son her father so desperately missed in his life proved to be an impossible challenge that Giselle never stopped working to achieve. She brought home perfect grades, worked in the local store to help bring in an income, and even eventually created her own little neighborhood business. Her father took her to baseball games and taught her to work on his car after she gave a convincing argument or two. Giselle wanted to fill that void her father made clear was left in his life, but she always fell just short. She had more time with her father than her sisters, and more influence over his decisions, but more was expected of her, but eventually the resentfulness settled deep down as she tried to accept and embrace the role she was given.

College went by quickly and she impressed even herself at her ability to manage the heavy Harvard pre law coursework along with clerking at one of the most prestigious law firms in Massachusetts. She graduated top of her class at Harvard Law School but still found being a Black woman whose second language was English, provided quite a few roadblocks on her road to the top, but it only pushed her to work harder.

Thanks to endless sleepless nights, an unwavering work ethic, giving up almost completely on a personal life, which meant two failed marriages, and a knowledge of corporate law like no other Giselle became the first female, first person of color and youngest partner at one of the biggest law firms based in NYC. This shone a bit more spotlight on her, more than she was used to. Suddenly her life became fodder for the press. Her failure of a personal life was picked at and torn apart. Which caused her to withdraw even further into her work. She was proud of her abilities and would tell anyone about her unblemished record, but that is where she wanted to draw the line.