how could you say your school had no online system when they created the video of all time

HELP ME LFMLKSG very true we might not have seen our timetables online but we did enact a social media campaign to deny the (true) rumours of a fight club

2019 YA Reads by Authors of Color

96 Words for Love by Rachel Roy - While exploring her grandmother's past at an ashram in India with her cousin Anandi, Raya finds herself and, perhaps, true love in this modern retelling of the legend of Dushyanta and Shakuntala.

After the Fall by E.C. Myers - A year after the destruction of Beacon Academy, Team CFVY answers a distress call and are forced to relive their former battles, from both the fall of Beacon and from everything that came before.

All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney - Allie Abraham has it all going for her—she's a straight-A student, with good friends and a close-knit family, and she's dating cute, popular, and sweet Wells Henderson. Only one problem: Wells's father is Jack Henderson, America's most famous conservative shock jock...and Allie hasn't told Wells that her family is Muslim. 

All the Things We Never Said by Yasmin Rahman - 16-year-old Mehreen Miah's anxiety and depression has taken over her life. So, she joins MementoMori, a website that matches people and allocates them a date and method of death. When Mehreen and her new friends change their minds, the website won't let them stop, and an increasingly sinister game begins. 

The Athene Protocol by Shamim Sarif - Jessie Archer is a member of the Athena Protocol, an elite organization of female spies who enact vigilante justice around the world. But after Jessie goes her rogue, her former teammates have been ordered to bring her down. Jessie must face danger from all sides if she’s to complete her mission—and survive.

Barely Missing Anything by Matt Mendez - Three Mexican-Americans--Juan, JD, and Fabi--each try to overcome their individual struggles as they all grapple with how to make a better life for themselves when it seems like brown lives don't matter. 

The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi - An epic YA fantasy about a girl with a special power to communicate with magical beasts and the warring kingdom only she can save.

The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh - In 19th century New Orleans where vampires hide in plain sight and a serial killer is on the loose, half-Asian Celine Rosseau, a dressmaker from Paris, becomes embroiled in a murder mystery, connected to the glamorous supernatural cohort, known as the Court of Lions, and catching the eye of their mysterious, charismatic leader, Sèbastien Saint Germain. 

The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena - Saudi-Canadian Susan is the new girl. Malcolm is the bad boy. Susan’s parents are on the verge of divorce. Malcolm’s dad is a known adulterer. Susan hasn’t told anyone, but she wants to be an artist. Malcolm doesn’t know what he wants—until he meets her. Love is messy and families are messier, but in spite of their burdens, Susan and Malcolm fall for each other.

The Best Lies by Sarah Lyu - Remy Tsai was happy once. Remy had her boyfriend Jack, and Elise, her best friend—her soulmate. But now Jack is dead, and it was Elise who pulled the trigger. Was it self-defense? Or something deeper, darker than anything Remy could have imagined? 

Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America edit. by Ibi Zoboi - A short story anthology about what it is like to be young and black, centering on the experiences of black teens and emphasizing that one person's experiences, reality, and personal identity are different than someone else.

The Boxer by Nikesh Shukla - When racial tensions are rising in the city, and when a Far Right march through Bristol turns violent, 17-year-old amateur boxer Sunny faces losing his new best friend Keir to radicalization.

Brief Chronicle of Another Stupid Heartbreak by Adi Alsaid - Teen relationship columnist Lu Charles navigates life in the wake of a devastating breakup, and her decision to chronicle the planned breakup of another couple, Cal and Iris, in the summer after they graduate from high school. 

The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad - Set in the city of Noor, along the Silk Road which has become a refuge for those of all faiths, Fatima becomes embroiled in a war between two clans of powerful djinn who threaten to destroy her peace in different ways, forcing her to make unlikely alliances to survive. 

Caster by Elsie Chapman - In this Chinese-inspired, magical Fight Club, Earth is already at the brink of environmental disaster due to the magic overuse. And 16-year-old spell caster Aza Wu must navigate through an illegal, underground battle magic tournament, while evading local gangs and police scouts to save her family from ruin. 

Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orïsha #2) by Tomi Adeyemi - After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But with civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.

Circle of Shadows by Evelyn Skye - Love, spies, and adventure abound as apprentic warriors Sora and Daemon unravel a complex web of magic and secrets that might tear them—and the entire kingdom—apart forever. 

Color Me In by Natasha Diaz - In this coming-of-age novel, biracal Neveah learns about the meaning of friendship, the joyful beginnings of romance, and the racism and religious intolerance that can both strain a family to the breaking point and strengthen its bonds.

Color Outside the Lines edited by Sangu Madanna - A groundbreaking YA anthology explores the complexity and beauty of interracial and LGBTQ+ relationships where differences are front and center.

Dealing in Dreams by Lilliam Rivera - 16-year-old Nalah leads the fiercest all-girl crew in Mega City, but when she sets her sights on giving this life up for a prestigious home in Mega Towers, she must decide if she's willing to do the unspeakable to get what she wants.

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika & Maritza Moulite - Told in epistolary style through letters, articles, emails, and diary entries,  when a school presentation goes very wrong, Haitan-American Alaine Beauparlant finds herself suspended, shipped off to Haiti, and writing the report of a lifetime.

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He - In this Chinese-inspired fantasy, Princess Hesina of Yan is thrust into power when her beloved father is murdered, and she's determined to find his killer--whatever the cost. 

Don’t Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno - Rosa Santos is cursed by the sea-at least, that's what they say. Dating her is bad news, especially if you're a boy with a boat. As her college decision looms, Rosa collides - literally - with Alex Aquino, the mysterious boy with tattoos of the ocean whose family owns the marina. With her heart, her family, and her future on the line, can Rosa break a curse and find her place beyond the horizon. 

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee - In 1890, Atlanta, 17-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid, but by night, Jo moonlights as newspaper advice columnist "Dear Miss Sweetie." When her efforts put Jo in the crosshairs of Atlanta's most notorious criminal, she must decide whether she, a girl used to living in the shadows, is ready to step into the light

A Dream So Dark by L.L. McKinney - Still reeling from her recent battle (and grounded until she graduates) Alice must cross the Veil to rescue her friends and stop the Black Knight once and for all in Wonderland. 

Eclipse the Stars by Maura Milan - Criminal mastermind and unrivaled pilot Ia Ccha and her allies make unpredictable choices as they fight to keep darkness from eclipsing the skies.

The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton -  Camille, Edel, and Remy, aided by The Iron Ladies and backed by alternative newspaper The Spider's Web, race to outwit Sophia, find Princess Charlotte, and return her to Orléans.

Fake It Till You Break It by Jenn P. Nguyen - Neighbors Mia and Jake pretend to fake date to get their respective mothers off their back. All they have to do is pretend to date and then stage the worst breakup of all time. The only problem is, maybe Jake and Mia don’t hate each other as much as they once thought. 

Far From Agrabah by Aisha Saeed - On an adventure in a fantastical kingdom, Aladdin and Jasmine get caught up in the magic therein. But soon sinister outside forces come into play, threatening to strand them there forever. 

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe - When Norris, a Black French Canadian, starts his junior year at an Austin, Texas, high school, he views his fellow students as clichés from "a bad 90s teen movie."

Firestarter (Timekeeper #3) by Tara Sim - Colton, Daphne, and the others must choose between those striving to take down the world's clock towers so that time can run freely, and terrorists trying to bring back the lost god of time.

Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns #4) by Kendare Blake - In this conclusion to the Three Dark Crowns series, three dark sisters will rise to fight as the secrets of Fennbirn’s history are laid bare. Allegiances will shift. Bonds will be tested, and some broken forever.

Five Midnights by Ann Davila Cardinal - If Lupe Dávila and Javier Utierre can survive each other’s company, together they can solve a series of grisly murders sweeping though Puerto Rico. But the clues lead them out of the real world and into the realm of myths and legends. 

Forward Me Back to You by Mitali Perkins - Told in separate voices, Kat and Robin leave Boston on a church mission to help combat human trafficking in India while Kat recovers from a sexual assault and Robin seeks his birth mother.

Frankly in Love by David Yoon - Korean-American Frank Li Frank falls for Brit Means, who is smart, beautiful–and white. Fellow Limbo Joy Song is in a similar predicament, and so they make a pact: they’ll pretend to date each other. Frank thinks it’s the perfect plan, but in the end, Frank and Joy’s fake-dating maneuver leaves him wondering if he ever really understood love–or himself–at all.

Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett - HIV-positive teen Simone Garcia-Hampton must navigate fear, disclosure, and radical self-acceptance when she falls in love--and lust--for the first time. 

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi - Paris, 1889: Treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie gets the chance of a lifetime when the all-powerful society, the Order of Babel, seeks him out for help in exchange for a priceless treasure: his true inheritance. 

The Girl King by Mimi Yu - Sisters Lu and Min become unwitting rivals in a war to claim the title of Emperor. 

Girls of Storm and Shadow (Girls of Paper and Fire #2) by Natasha Ngan - After escaping the Hidden Palace, Lei and her warrior love Wren must travel the kingdom to gain support from the far-flung rebel clans.

The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante - To have her family’s asylum request accepted, 17-year-old Marisol participates in a risky experiment to become a grief keeper, taking another’s grief into her own body to save a life. 

His Hideous Heart edited by Dahlia Adler - 13 of YA’s most celebrated names reimagine Edgar Allan Poe’s most surprising, unsettling, and popular tales for a new generation.

A House of Rage and Sorrow (Celestial Trilogy #2) by Sangu Mandanna - As gods, beasts, and kingdoms choose sides, Alexi seeks out a weapon more devastating than even Titania. The House of Rey is at war. And the entire galaxy will bleed before the end.

How to Be Remy Cameron by Julian Winters - When Remy is assigned to write an essay describing himself, he goes on a journey to reconcile the labels that people have attached to him, and get to know the real Remy Cameron.

Hungry Hearts: 13 Tales of Food & Love edited by Elsie Chapman & Caroline Tung Richmond - Interconnected short stories that explore the intersection of family, culture, and food in the lives of thirteen teens.

I Hope You Get This Message by Farah Naz Rishi - When news stations start reporting that Earth has been contacted by a planet named Alma, the world is abuzz with rumors that the alien entity is giving mankind only few days to live. And with only seven days to face their truths and right their wrongs, Jesse, Cate, and Adeem’s paths collide even as their worlds are pulled apart.

I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn -  Japanese-American fashionista Kimi Nakamura who journeys to Japan on a quest of self-discovery after her college plans fall apart; along the way, she reconnects with her estranged grandparents and finds romance with a handsome med student Akira who moonlights as a costumed mochi mascot. 

I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest - Chloe Pierce’s chasing her ballet dreams down the east coast— with two unwanted (but kinda cute) passengers in her car, butterflies in her stomach, and a really dope playlist. 

I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver -  Non-binary teen Ben De Backer is kicked out by their parents after coming out, but learns that sometimes from disaster one can build a happier new life,

If It Makes You Happy by Claire Kann - Winnie dreams of someday inheriting the family diner—but it'll go away if they can't make money, and fast. Winnie has a solution—win a televised cooking competition and make bank. 

In the Key of Nira Ghani by Natasha Deen - Guyanese-American Nira Ghani struggles with parental expectations and her love for jazz. 

Internment by Samira Ahmed - Set in a near future in the United States where Muslim Americans are forced into an internment camp, 17-year-old Layla Amin must fight against Islamophobia, oppression, and complicit silence. 

Inventing Victoria by Tonya Bolden - In 1880s Savannah, Dorcas Vashton offers Essie an offer she can't refuse, she becomes Victoria. Transformed by a fine wardrobe, a classic education, and the rules of etiquette, Victoria is soon welcomed in the upper echelons of black society in Washington, D. C. But when the life she desires is finally within her grasp, Victoria must decide how much of herself she is truly willing to surrender.

It’s a Whole Spiel: Love, Latkes & Other Jewish Stories edited by Katherine Locke & Laura Silverman - Get ready to fall in love, experience heartbreak, and discover the true meaning of identity in this poignant collection of short stories about Jewish teens. 

Kick the Moon by Muhammad Khan - 15-year-old Ilyas finds a kindred spirit in Kelly Matthews during detention. But when Kelly catches the eye of one of the local bad boys, Imran, he decides to seduce her for a bet. Standing up to Imran puts Ilyas’ family at risk, but it’s time for him to be the superhero he draws in his comic-books, and go kick the moon.

A Kingdom for the Stage (For A Muse of Fire #2) by Heidi Heilig - The rebels are eager to use Le Trépas’s and necromancer Jetta’s combined magic against the invading colonists. Soon Jetta will face the choice between saving all of Chakrana or becoming like her father, and she isn’t sure which she’ll choose.

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron - Set in a West African-inspired fantasy kingdom, Arrah comes from a long line of powerful witchdoctors, yet fails at magic. When Arrah trade years off her life for magic to stop the Demon King from destroying the world—that is if it doesn't kill her first. 

Kings, Queens, and Everything in Between by Tanya Boteju - 17-year-old, biracial, queer girl Nina Kumara-Clark is plunged into the delirious world of drag where she has the chance to explore questions of identity and love. 

The Last 8 by Laura Pohl - Young Latina pilot Clover Martinez finds herself grounded and alone after a devastating alien attack, but soon finds hope in an unlikely group of survivors who aren't what they seem. 

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki -  Teenager Frederica Riley undergoes what might possibly be the most epically complicated breakup in lesbian history -- or at least it feels that way

The Light At the Bottom of the World by London Shah - Set in a future where the Earth is underwater, Leyla McQueen must navigate the treacherous abyss to find her missing father, but discovers a world drowning in lies. 

Like A Love Story by Abdi Nazemian - It's 1989 in New York City, three teens, Reza, Judy, and Art cross paths. Judy has never imagined finding romance...until she falls for Reza and they start dating. But as Reza and Art grow closer, Reza struggles to find a way out of his deception that won't break Judy's heart--and destroy the most meaningful friendship he's ever known.

The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan -  After she’s caught kissing her girlfriend by her conservative Muslim parents, Rukhsana Ali whisked off from Seattle to Bangladesh, where she must find the courage to fight for her love, but can she do so without losing everyone and everything in her life?

Love from A to Z by S.K. Ali - 18-year-old Muslims Adam and Zayneb meet in Doha, Qatar, during spring break and fall in love as both struggle to find a way to live their own truths.

Love Me or Miss Me by Dream Jordan - Kate's fantasy life of having the perfect family comes to an abrupt end when she is suddenly forced to return to the group home. Alone and vulnerable, Kate falls for the ever so gorgeous Percy who treats her well at first, but soon a cycle of controlling and abusive behavior begins. Will she be able to escape Percy's clutches?

The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry Thomas - As they cross the Great Wall to face the enemy beyond, Mulan and the princeling must find a way to unwind their past, unmask a traitor, and uncover the plans for the Rouran invasion . . . before it's too late.

A Match Made in Mehendi by Nandini Bajpai - 15-year-old Indian-American Simran “Simi” Sangha, who comes from a long line of matchmakers, decides to try to gain high school popularity using her family's matchmaking traditions to create a dating app. 

The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco - In  a world ruled by goddesses that has been split in two—one half existing in perpetual scorching Day, the other in freezing Night—twins separated at birth Odessa and Haidee embark on a quest across the great divide and rule a reunited world.

No One Here is Lonely by Sarah Everett - After having her heart so broken, Eden resorts to having her memories erased instead. 

Nocturna by Maya Motayne -  In a Latinx-inspired kingdom of Castallan, face-changing thief Finn Voy and grief-stricken Prince Alfehr must race to vanquish a dark magic they have accidentally unleashed. 

Not Your Backup by C.B. Lee (Sidekick Squad #3) - As the Resistance moves to challenge the corrupt League of Heroes, Emma Robledo realizes where her place is in this fight: at the front.

Oh My Gods by Alexandra Sheppard - Half-mortal teenager Helen Thomas goes to live with her father—who is Zeus, masquerading as a university professor—and must do her best to keep the family secret intact. 

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas - When 16-year-old Bri, an aspiring rapper, pours her anger and frustration into her first song, she finds herself at the center of a controversy.

Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta & Cori McCarthy - In this Arthurian retelling set in space, King Arthur is reincarnated as 17-year-old Ari, a female king whose quest is to stop a tyrannical corporate government, aided by a teenaged Merlin. 

Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds - After falling for Kate, her unexpected death sends Jack back in time to the moment they first met, but he soon learns that his actions have unintended consequences. 

Our Wayward Fate by Gloria Chao - 17-year-old teen outcast Ali Chu is simultaneously swept up in a whirlwind romance and down a rabbit hole of dark family secrets when another Taiwanese family moves to her small, predominantly white Midwestern town. 

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribar - When 17-year-old Jay Reguero learns his Filipino cousin and former best friend, Jun, was murdered as part of President Duterte's war on drugs, he flies to the Philippines to learn more.

Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi - Brooklyn bodega worker Pablo crosses paths & falls in love with multi-platinum recording artist Leanna Smart. 

Rated by Melissa Grey - For the students at the prestigious Maplethorpe Academy, every single thing they do is reflected in their Ratings System. But when an act of vandalism sullies the front doors of the school, it sets off a chain reaction that will shake the lives of six special students -- and the world beyond.

Teen Titans: Raven by Kami Garcia - When a tragic accident takes the life of the only family she's ever known, 16-year-old Raven is sent to New Orleans to start over. She soon discovers that she can hear the thoughts of others around her...and another, more disturbing, voice in her head. 

Rebel (Legend #4) by Marie Lu - Brothers Eden and Daniel Wing struggle to accept who they’ve each become since their time in the Republic, but a new danger creeps into the distance that’s grown between them. Eden soon finds himself drawn so far into Ross City’s dark side, even his legendary brother can’t save him. At least not on his own. 

The Revolution of Birdie Randolph by Brandy Colbert - Dove “Birdie” Randolph maintains a close bond with her parents until first love and a family secret threatens to tear them apart. 

The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee - The never-before-told backstory of Avatar Kyoshi, from a girl of humble origins to the merciless pursuer of justice who is still feared and admired centuries after she became the Avatar.

A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy - A North African-inspired feminist fantasy in which two sisters, Eva and Isa must compete in a magical duel to the death for the right to inherit the queendom of Myre.  

Rogue Heart (Rebel Seoul #2) by Axie Oh - Two years after the Battle of Neo Seoul, 18-year-old telepath Ama must use her telepathic abilities to infiltrate the base of the Alliance’s new war commander, Alex Kim, her first love who betrayed her. Will she be able to carry out her task? Or will she give up everything for Alex again—only to be betrayed once more?

Ruse (Want #2) by Cindy Pon - In near-future Shanghai where society is divided between the fabulously wealthy business elite and the masses they exploit, Jason Zhou must play a dangerous cat and mouse game with the ruthless CEO of an all powerful corporation which has an ever-growing choke hold on the polluted metropolis. 

Soaring Earth by Margarita Engle - In this memoir, Young People’s Poet Laureate Margarita Engle recounts her teenage years during the turbulent 1960s between Cuba and America. 

Shadow Frost by Coco Ma - When Asterin Faelenhart, Princess of Axaria and heir to the throne, discovers that she may hold the key to defeating the demon terrorizing her kingdom, she vows not to rest until the beast is slain. 

Take the Mic: Fictional Stories About Everyday Resistance edited by Bethany C. Morrow - A YA anthology focused on a collection of fictional stories of everyday resistance.

The Shadow Glass (Bone Witch #3) by Rin Chupeco -  Bone witch Tea's dark magic eats away at her, but she must save the one she loves most, even while her life—and the kingdoms—are on the brink of destruction.

Shatter the Sky by Rebecca Kim Wells - Maren, desperate to save her kidnapped girlfriend Kaia, plans to steal one of the emperor's dragons and storm the Aurati stronghold, but her success depends on becoming an apprentice to the mysterious dragon trainer, which proves to be a dangerous venture. 

SLAY by Brittney Morris - Black video game developer Kiera Johnson battles a real-life troll intent on ruining the Black Panther-inspired video game she created, and the safe community it represents for black gamers. 

Somewhere Only We Know by Maurene Goo - In Hong Kong, k-pop star Lucky who'd like to be anyone else meets charming con-boy Jack, looking for a big break to impress his paparazzo father. When sparks ignite, the two must decide if they can risk it all for each other. 

Song of the Abyss (Towers of Wind #2) by Makiia Lucier - When menacing raiders attack her ship, navigator Reyna must use every resource at her disposal, including placing her trust in a handsome prince from a rival kingdom.

Song of the Crimson Flower by Julie C. Dao - After cruelly rejecting Bao, the poor physician's apprentice who loves her, Lan, a wealthy nobleman's daughter, regrets her actions. After learning that Bao’s soul has been trapped inside a flute by a witch, Lan vows to make amends and help break the spell.

Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) by Julie Kagawa - As the paths of Yumeko and the possessed Tatsumi cross once again, the entire empire will be thrown into chaos. 

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim - 17-year-old Maia Tamarin poses as a boy to compete for the role of imperial tailor, and embarks on an impossible journey to sew three magic dresses, from the sun, the moon, and the stars, with help from the mysterious court magician, Edan. 

Spin by Lamar Giles - When DJ ParSec, rising star of the local music scene, is found dead over her turntables, the two girls who found her, Kya and Fuse, are torn between grief for Paris and hatred for each other--but when the investigation stalls, they unite, determined to find out who murdered their friend.

The Stars the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petraus  - Audre from Trinidad and Mabel from Minneapolis, fall in love and create magic at the same time they learn one of them might not have long to live. 

Stronger Than A Bronze Dragon by Mary Fan - In this steampunk fantasy set in Qing dynasty-inspired China, warrior girl Anlei teams up with a thief to save her village from shadow spirits, but after arriving at the Courts of Hell, a discovery challenges everything they know about who the real enemy is. 

Symptoms of a Heartbreak by Sonia Charaipotra - The youngest doctor in America, Indian-American teen Saira makes her rounds―and falls head over heels in this romantic comedy. 

Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi - Sana Khan and Rachel Recht, on opposite sides of the social scale must work together to make a movie and try very hard not to fall in love.

The Things She’s Seen by Ambelin & Ezekiel Kwaymullina - As Beth Teller and her father unravel a mystery, they find a shocking and heartbreaking story lurking beneath the surface of a small town, and a friendship that lasts beyond one life and into another...

There’s Something About Sweetie (When Dimple Met Rishi #3) by Sandhya Menon - Told in two voices, disappointed-in-love Ashish Patel and self-proclaimed fat athlete Sweetie Nair begin to find their true selves while dating under contract.

This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura - 17-year-old CJ Katsuyama’s mom decides to sell her family’s flower shop—to the family who swindled CJ’s grandparents during WWII Internment. Soon a rift threatens to splinter CJ’s family, friends, and their entire Northern California community; and for the first time, CJ has found something she wants to fight for.

A Thousand Fires by Shannon Price - In modern-day San Francisco where three gangs rule the city streets, half-Filipina teen Valerie Simons enters the Red Bridge Wars to seek vengeance for her younger brother's death, but soon finds herself torn between old love and new loyalty. 

The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala - In ancient India, soldier Kunal hunts the “Viper,” rebel girl Esha accused of killing his General, embarking on a dangerous cat and mouse game and where both must decide—loyalty to their old lives or to a love that's made them dream of new ones. 

Truly, Madly, Royally by Debbie Riguad - When Prince Owen invites Zora Emerson to be his date at his big brother's big royal wedding, Zora is suddenly thrust into the spotlight, along with her family and friends. 

The Universal Laws of Marco by Carmen Rodrigues - Told through the lens of a guy in love with the cosmos (and maybe two girls), this story explores the complicated histories that bring us together and tear us apart. 

Virtually Yours by Sarvenz Tash -  NYU freshman Mariam Vakilian tries out a virtual reality dating app, only to be matched up with the high school ex she's still not over. Mariam’s heart is telling her one thing, but the app is telling her another. So, which should she trust? Is all fair in modern love?

The Voice in My Head by Dana L. Davis - When a sequence of wrenching secrets detonates, Indigo must figure out how to come to terms with her twin sister Violet, her family…and the voice in her head.

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi - Set in a futuristic, Black Panther-inspired Nigeria, sisters Onyii and Ify, separated by a devastating civil war, must fight their way back to each other against all odds. 

Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson & Ellen Hagan - Jasmine and Chelsea start a Women's Rights Club and soon go viral. But with such positive support, the club is also targeted by online trolls. When things escalate, the principal shuts the club down. Jasmine and Chelsea will risk everything for their voices—and those of other young women—to be heard.

What Makes You Beautiful by Bridget Liang - Encouraged and supported by his friends at school, Logan begins questioning his gender. Realizing they are not a gay boy, but a transgender girl, Logan asks for people to call them Veronica. As a girl, does Veronica stand a chance with straight boy Kyle?

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal - In a world inspired by ancient Arabia, 17-year-old huntress Zafira must disguise herself as a man to seek a lost artifact that could return magic to her cursed world.

We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia - Set at the Medio School for Girls, where young women are trained to become one of two wives assigned to high society men; with revolution brewing in the streets, star student Daniela Vargas fights to protect a destructive secret, sending her into the arms of the most dangerous person possible—the second wife of her husband-to-be. 

The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf - A music-loving teen with OCD does everything she can to find her way back to her mother during the historic race riots in 1969 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

When the Stars Lead to You by Ronni Davis - 18-year-old Devon longs for two things.The stars. And the boy she fell in love with last summer. Senior year, Ashton shows up on the first day of school. Can she forgive him and open her heart again? Or are they doomed to repeat history?

Wicked Fox by Kat Cho - After 18-year-old Miyoung Gu, a nine-tailed fox surviving in modern-day Seoul by eating the souls of evil men, kills a murderous goblin to save Jihoon, she is forced to choose between her immortal life and his.

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo - With her daughter to care for and her abuela to help support, high school senior and aspiring chef Emoni Santiago has to make the tough decisions. But even with all the rules she has for her life — and all the rules everyone expects her to play by — once Emoni starts cooking, her only real choice is to let her talent break free. 

You Must Be Layla by Yasmin Abdel-Magied - Layla's mind goes a million miles a minute, so does her mouth. Despite the setback of a high school suspension, Layla's determined to show everyone that she does deserve her scholarship and sets her sights on winning a big invention competition. But where to begin? Looking outside and in, Layla will need to come to terms with who she is and who she wants to be if she has any chance of succeeding.

Headlines

Western wildfires (NYT) Across a hellish landscape of smoke and ash, authorities in Oregon, California and Washington State battled to contain mega-wildfires on Sunday as shifting winds threatened to accelerate blazes that have burned an unimaginable swath of land across the West. The arrival of the stronger winds on Sunday tested the resolve of fire crews already exhausted by weeks of combating blazes that have consumed around 5 million acres of desiccated forests, incinerated numerous communities and created what in many places was measured as the worst air quality on the planet. “There’s just so much fire,” said Ryan Walbrun, a fire weather meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “And so much smoke.” The fires, which have killed at least 24 people in the last week alone, have engulfed the region in anguish and fear, as fairgrounds have turned into refugee camps for many who have been forced from their homes.

The Maitre d’ Will Take Your Temperature Now (NYT) In recent weeks, a new cadre of gatekeepers armed with thermometer guns has appeared at the entrances of hospitals, office buildings and manufacturing plants to screen out feverish individuals who may carry the coronavirus. Employees at some companies must report their temperature on apps to get clearance to come in. And when indoor dining resumes at restaurants in New York City later this month, temperature checks will be done at the door. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the practice of checking for fever has become more and more commonplace, causing a surge in sales of infrared contact-free thermometers and body temperature scanners even as the scientific evidence indicating they are of little value has solidified. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York last week called for checking patrons’ temperatures as one of several ground rules for resuming indoor dining in restaurants, along with strict limits on the number of tables and a mask mandate for diners when they are not seated. Restaurants also will be required to obtain contact information from one guest at each table.

Voting by mail (California Sunday Magazine) Voting by mail is an increasingly attractive and necessary option for voters, but it requires actual infrastructure to accomplish, large machines to be built and acquired, and a significant effort to get the ballots where they need to be. In 2016, 20 percent of Americans voted by mail, but this year it could be as high as 50 percent. A commercial grade printer can make 50,000 ballots in an hour, but it takes an enormous $500,000 device called an inserter to get the envelopes—linked by barcode to a specific voter—appropriately stuffed at the clip of 14,000 ballots per hour. The process is meticulous: when in 2014, an inserter misfired for 35 seconds in Phoenix, 232 voters in California and 1,000 in Colorado and Arizona got misprinted ballots, and when they caught the error they were able to fix that. The other 3.8 million ballots handled at the facility were fine.

As Sally chugs to coast, Gulf residents get ready (AP) Hurricane Sally, a plodding but powerful storm with winds of 90 mph, crept toward the northern Gulf Coast early Tuesday, with forecasters warning of potentially deadly storm surges, flash floods spurred by up to 2 feet (.61 meters) of rain and the possibility of tornadoes. Hurricane warnings stretched from Grand Isle, Louisiana, to Navarre, Florida, but forecasters — while stressing “significant” uncertainty — kept nudging the predicted track to the east. That eased fears in New Orleans, which once was in the storm’s crosshairs. But it prompted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to declare an emergency in the Panhandle’s westernmost counties, which were being pummeled by rain from Sally’s outer bands early Tuesday.

Russian opposition leader Navalny able to leave hospital bed (AP) Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is off a ventilator and is able to leave his hospital bed briefly, his doctors said Monday, while Germany announced that French and Swedish labs have confirmed its findings that he was poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. Navalny, 44, was flown to Berlin for treatment at the Charite hospital two days after falling ill on a domestic flight in Russia on Aug. 20. Germany has demanded that Russia investigate the case. Although noting the improvement in Navalny’s health, the statement didn’t address the long-term outlook for the anti-corruption campaigner. Doctors have previously cautioned that even though Navalny is recovering, long-term health problems from the poisoning cannot be ruled out.

Lukashenko meets with Putin (Foreign Policy) More than 100,000 protesters flooded the streets of the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Sunday in one of the largest demonstrations against the rule of longtime President Aleksandr Lukashenko since his disputed victory in last month’s presidential elections. Police said they detained 400 people during the protests. The demonstrations came before a meeting between Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin scheduled for today, during which they will reportedly discuss deeper integration of their two countries. Lukashenko’s relations with Moscow had deteriorated in the months leading up to the election, but he has since warmed to Moscow again as the threat to his reign has grown more acute. Putin recently confirmed that he would send a reserve police force to Belarus if Lukashenko requested it.

US issues sweeping new travel warning for China, Hong Kong (AP) The U.S. on Tuesday issued a sweeping new advisory warning against travel to mainland China and Hong Kong, citing the risk of “arbitrary detention” and “arbitrary enforcement of local laws.” The new advisory warned U.S. citizens that China imposes “arbitrary detention and exit bans” to compel cooperation with investigations, pressure family members to return to China from abroad, influence civil disputes and “gain bargaining leverage over foreign governments.” “U.S. citizens traveling or residing in China or Hong Kong, may be detained without access to U.S. consular services or information about their alleged crime. U.S. citizens may be subjected to prolonged interrogations and extended detention without due process of law,” the advisory said.

In Japan, coronavirus discrimination proves almost as hard to eradicate as the disease (Washington Post) When a cluster of coronavirus infections broke out in Kyoto’s Horikawa Hospital, medical staff were not only battling a potentially deadly disease at work. They came home to fight an even more unsettling disease—fear and discrimination. Their children were turned away from nursery schools and after-school clubs, their spouses were told not to come to work, three were fired from their second jobs and one was told point-blank to stay away from a favorite diner. “Our staff were really shocked, severely shocked,” said Masaaki Yamada, the hospital’s administration chief, explaining that the affected workers had not necessarily been in close contact with infected patients. “Some even said they were afraid to go home, and afraid of being seen by their neighbors,” he said. “They got family members to put the garbage out for them. Some said they would go to work when it was dark and come home when it was dark again.” The hospital received anonymous phone calls telling employees to die or threatening to burn the place down. Nearly nine months after the coronavirus first arrived in Japan, “korona sabetsu” (coronavirus discrimination) is proving almost as hard to eradicate as the virus itself.

Mideast deals tout ‘peace’ where there was never war (AP) For the first time in more than a quarter-century, a U.S. president will host a signing ceremony between Israelis and Arabs at the White House, billing it as an “historic breakthrough” in a region long known for its stubborn conflicts. But while the optics of Tuesday’s event will evoke the groundbreaking agreements that ended decades of war between Israel and neighboring Egypt and Jordan, and that launched the peace process with the Palestinians, the reality is quite different. The United Arab Emirates will establish diplomatic relations with Israel, a fellow U.S. ally it has never gone to war with, formalizing ties that go back several years. The agreement cements an informal alliance against Iran and could pave the way for the UAE to acquire advanced U.S. weapons, while leaving the far more contentious Israeli-Palestinian conflict as intractable as ever. A similar agreement announced Friday with Bahrain, which welcomed a visiting Israeli Cabinet minister as early as 1994, also formalizes longstanding ties. But it’s debatable whether agreements like these, among already friendly countries, do much to advance regional peace. “Normalization of states in the region with Israel will not change the essence of this conflict, which is the systemic denial of the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to freedom and sovereignty,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official.

Nigeria reels from twin crises that threaten food availability (Reuters) Mal Shehu Ladan took a boat across what was, until this month, a growing rice paddy. Now, like thousands of hectares of rice in Nigeria’s Kebbi state, it is under water. Floods early this month across northwest Nigeria destroyed 90% of the 2 million tons that Kebbi state officials expected to harvest this autumn, the head of the state branch of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria told Reuters. The loss amounts to some 20% of the rice Nigeria grew last year, and the waters are still rising. Farther south, outside Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, chicken farmer Hippolite Adigwe is also worried. A shortage of maize forced him to sell most of his flock of more than 1,000 birds, and the 300 left are hungry. Chicken feed prices have more than doubled, and he isn’t sure how long he can cope. Twin crises, floods and maize shortages, come just after movement restrictions and financing difficulties caused by COVID-19 containment measures complicated spring planting. Some farmers and economists say it could push Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, into a food crisis. Rice is the country’s staple grain, and chicken is a core protein. “There is a real fear of having food shortages,” Arc Kabir Ibrahim, president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria told Reuters. “The effect on the food system is going to be colossal.”

After Two Decades of Rot, Zimbabwe Is Coming Apart at the Seams (Bloomberg) In Zimbabwe, pregnant women are left alone in hospitals to give birth, taps have run dry in major urban centers, infrastructure has all but collapsed and more than half the population needs food aid. This is the toll that two decades of economic mismanagement have taken on a nation once considered one of Africa’s shining stars. Promises of an economic revival and more political freedom made by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, now in his third year of rule, have rung hollow and public anger over intolerable living conditions has spurred protest action that’s been brutally quashed by the military. Western governments that berated long-time ruler Robert Mugabe for violating civil rights are leveling similar criticism against his successor. And even South Africa, a regional power broker and long-time Zimbabwe ally, has now entered the fray, dispatching envoys and ruling party officials to Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, to try and help its neighbor resolve the deepening crisis. No headway was made in initial talks and more are planned in coming days.

THE DARK PHOENIX SAGA UNCANNY X-MEN #129-138 JANUARY - OCTOBER 1980 BY CHRIS CLAREMONT, JOHN BYRNE, TERRY AUSTIN, BOB SHAREN AND GLYNIS WEIN

SYNOPSIS (FROM MARVEL DATABASE)

Following their battle against Proteus, the X-Men are getting ready to return to the United States from Muir Island. As they depart, Banshee decides to stay behind as he can no longer use his powers. When Cyclops offers Madrox, Havok and Polaris to join the X-Men, each respectfully refuses and the X-Men leave. As they jet through the air, they are unaware that not far behind them a private jet owned by the Hellfire Club, Jason Wyngard is once more using his powers to access the mind of Phoenix, in his continued bid to make her fall in love with him. Wyngarde makes Jean believe that she is reliving the life of her ancestor aboard a ship headed to America and that Wyngarde's ancestor is her lover. She snaps out of this supposed "time slip" when Scott asks her if she is okay. The two begin talking about their relationship and Cyclops assures her that his brief "romance" with Colleen Wing when he thought Jean was dead was only friendly. The two confess their love for each other and share a kiss.

As they approach the X-Mansion, they are alerted that security on has been breached. Storming their home, the X-Men are surprised to find that their mentor, Charles Xavier, has returned to Earth. Over the next few days, Scott and Jean spend a lot of time catching up. When Wolverine suddenly storms out of the Danger Room, Scott has to explain to the Professor that this team of X-Men operates differently than his original students. Before an argument can burst out, Cerebro detects two new mutants who's powers have manifested, one in Chicago and the other in New York. As the Professor mobilizes the X-Men to investigate the two new mutants, they are unaware that they are being spied on by the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club. The leaders of the Hellfire Club seek to obtain these mutants before the X-Men, and send their agent the White Queen to deal with the one in Chicago while Jason Wyngarde goes to deal with the one in New York.

In the suburb of Deerfield, young Katherine "Kitty" Pryde is returning home from her ballet practice, bothered by the series of headaches that she has been experiencing recently. When she arrives home she finds her parents discussing sending Kitty to a private school in Massachusetts with it's headmistress Ms. Emma Frost, the White Queen in her civilian guise. Kitty doesn't much like Miss Frost, and realizes that the fact that she is being sent off to private school means that her parents are serious about splitting up. As she goes up into her room to rest, another headache hits her and when she opens her eyes after the pain subsides, she finds herself strangely on the floor of the living room. She rushes back up to her room as her parents are seeing Ms. Frost out, and welcomes their next visitor: Charles Xavier, who seeks to get Kitty to come to his School for Gifted Youngsters. Kitty spies Xavier and his students, Logan, Peter and ororo and finds that they are much more interesting.

Kitty is asked to take Xavier's friends out, and she brings them to the local malt shop where Kitty makes instant friends with Ororo. Ororo reveals to her that they are really the mutant heroes known as the X-Men, much to Kitty's surprise. Just then, three men in armored suits jump through the storefront window and attack the three X-Men. As the X-Men battle the men, they find that they have been armed to combat their abilities. As the fight rages, Kitty is knocked aside and she is surprised when she phases right through the wall, but passes out when she lands in the alley. The X-Men realize that they can defeat their enemies if they switch opponents and easily trounce their attackers. Their victory is only brief as they are then struck by a massive mental attack by the white Queen who orders her minions to take the X-Men hostage. As they speed away she causes her downed minions armor to explode, killing them for their failure. As the white Queen has the X-Men stripped down out of their uniforms she tells her surviving troops she intends to experiment on them. When she is asked what she intends to do with Kitty, the White Queen dismisses her telling them that she can get her anytime. What the White Queen is unaware is that Kitty, having gotten the hang of her powers, has smuggled herself aboard the Hellfire Club's hovercraft, and wonders what she can do all by herself.

Cyclops, Phoenix, and Nightcrawler have come to a Manhattan dance club to seek out the mutant in the are detected by Cerebro. Cyclops orders Nightcrawler to stay outside and watch secretly from the shadows for trouble while he and Jean search the nightclub for the new mutant. They are unaware that they are being watched by minions of the Hellfire Club, who have been sent out to capture the new mutant as well. Entering the club, Scott and Jean find the patrons to be very decadent. As they begin to canvass around to try and find the mutant, Jean finds the sordid thoughts among the crowd somehow attractive.

While at the Hellfire Club's headquarters, Jason Wyngarde and the head of the Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw -- get a report from the soldiers surveying the night club. Jason tells Shaw that he will personally see to Jean Grey and leaves to meet up with her at the night club. Shaw then checks in with the White Queen in Chicago. Emma reports back showing that she has captured Wolverine, Storm, Professor X, and Colossus, however the young mutant named Kitty Pryde has escaped. Unknown to her, Kitty has manage to sneak herself into Emma's industrial complex. Approaching Storm, she finds that something about the cages has dulled her mind. This however, doesn't stop Storm from being able to rip her costume and prove Kitty with a phone number to call. Kitty is soon spotted by one of Emma's guards and manages to flee the scene with her phasing powers.

Back in New York, Jean continues to search through the crowd when she is confronted by Jason Wyngarde, and she finds herself seemingly living the past of her ancestor once more. She is at a burned out church in the middle of a wedding ceremony between her and Jason, with Sebastian Shaw acting as priest. When they exchange vows, Jean is unveiled as the Black Queen and she lustfully kisses Jason. The seeming "time slip" ends and Jean finds herself kissing the modern day Wyngarde right in front of Scott.

Before Jean can begin to explain things, the musical act of the night appears on stage. She is a disco singer known as Dazzler who turns out to be the mutant they are seeking when they see her convert the sound around her into light displays. While outside, the car phone within the X-Men's Royals Royce begins to ring and Nightcrawler answers it. It is Kitty Pride calling for help, but before Nightcrawler can learn anymore he is attacked by one of the Hellfire Club soldiers in a specially made suit of armor to combat his powers. Two more of these soldiers also smash through the skylight of the dance club and attack Scott and Jean. Jean uses her powers to change their street clothing into costumes, shocking Scott at her display of power. The two find that these men's suit of armor have also been specially fashioned to combat their mutant abilities as well. They don't count on Dazzler entering the fight and distracting them with her light powers. This allows Jean to free Cyclops and the two switch opponents, easily defeating them.

The last soldier and Nightcrawler crash through the skylight and he is easily defeated by Phoenix. Nightcrawler explains to Cyclops and Phoenix that the X-Men in Chicago were ambushed. Cyclops briefly explains to Dazzler that she is a mutant and that they need her help in saving their friends. Dazzler is surprised by all this, but agrees to help. As they leave in the Royals, the men inside the club explode, destroying all evidence of the battle. As Cyclops drives away, he spots Jason Wyngarde and wonders what he was doing kissing Jean. As his car passes by, the shadow that is reflected does not match Wyngarde's body. After the X-Men drive off, Wyngarde laughs over the progress he is making with Jean Grey.

Kitty Pryde is being chased through the streets of Chicago by minions of the Hellfire Club that are bent on capturing her. They are stopped telekinetically by Phoenix, however when the X-Men try to calm Kitty, she panics and runs at first until Jean can calm her down. After a round of explanations, and learning that the other X-Men have been captured by the White Queen, Jean probes one of the soldiers sent to capture Kitty and learns about the Hellfire Club. This troubles Jean, as the Hellfire Club is the organization that the man in her "time slips" is affiliated with.

Soon, she, Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Dazzler smuggle themselves onto the property owned by Frost Industries, thanks to Jean's telepathy making it appear that the Hellfire Club soldiers had captured them. This even fools the White Queen who goes back to painfully extracting information from Storm's mind. Kitty meanwhile phases into the room where the other X-Men are held captive and manages to free Wolverine by putting her hand through the lock in his cage. She is spotted and stunned by a guard, however Wolverine is already free and pops his claws to deal with the guard. Just then, Phoenix and the others make their presence felt and attack the complex. As Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Dazzler go to help the others, Phoenix confronts the White Queen before she can use her mental powers to wipe out Storm's mind.

As Kitty, Colossus and Wolverine join the others they fight their way out of the complex, while Jean and White Queen lock in telepathic battle. Storm is horrified by Jean's show of power when her Phoenix effect emerged and overpowers the White Queen. Outside the other X-Men are about to turn back for Jean and Ororo when the complex suddenly explodes. Their worst fears are allayed however when Phoenix and Storm emerge from the rubble unharmed. Having pulled himself aside to watch the battle, the Professor commends his X-Men for a job well done.

The next day outside of the Prude home, Charles offers Dazzler a place with the X-Men, but she refuses telling him that she was born to be a singer not a super hero and departs. Just then, Kitty's parents emerge from their home, Kitty's mother relieved that her daughter has been returned home safe and sound. When Kitty's father demands from Xavier, he suddenly changes his tone and the Scott is told by Jean that she used her powers to change his mind and make him agree to let Kitty study at Xavier's school. Alone with Storm, Scott expresses his fears that Jean is abusing her powers, a feeling that Ororo believes as well. As they walk away to rejoin the others, Storm vows that they must do something before the power of the Phoenix consumes Jean.

Following their near defeat at the hands of the Hellfire Club's White Queen, Cyclops has the X-Men seek refuge at Angel's aerie, feeling that the mansion is no longer safe for them at this time. Needing privacy, Cyclops is carried by Angel to a butte out in the middle of the New Mexico desert where they can talk privately, much to the chagrin of Professor X. There Cyclops explains the X-Men's most recent clash with the Hellfire Club. Warren finds this hard to believe as he and his girlfriend Candy are members of the Hellfire Club. Scott goes on to explain that he's worried about Jean's powers. Before he can explain any further, Jean arrives and interrupts them to have a private and impromptu picnic with Scott. When Warren leaves them alone, Jean takes off Scott's visor, and much to his surprise she is able to hold back his optic blast with her mental powers. The two embrace and make love on the butte as the sun sets.

A week later on a stormy night, the X-Men return to New York City to infiltrate the Hellfire Club and learn why they are targeting the X-Men. Wolverine and Nightcrawler travel through the sewers to sneak into the club from below. As they are passing through the rapidly flooding tunnels, Wolverine slices open some electrical wires pointing out that they could use a distraction later if things get hairy, a move that Nightcrawler finds very sneaker. Meanwhile, with invitations organized by Warren, Scott, Jean, Peter and Ororo prepare to enter a prestigious party with in the club. Before they go in, they radio back to the Professor and Angel in New Mexico to advise them of their plan so that they can carry on if they fail. As Scott and the others enter the party and try to blend in, they are noticed on the security monitors by the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle: the cyborg Donald Pierce, and mutants Sebastian Shaw and Henry Leland. Shaw tells Jason Wyngarde that this is his chance to prove that he has full control over Jean Grey and send him out into the party.

Sure enough, when Wyngarde goes downstairs he quickly sweeps Jean off into another one of his illusions. When Scott watches Wyngarde taking Jean upstairs he follows after him and is shocked when he reveals himself to be none other than the X-Men's old foe Mastermind. Following after them, he is blasted by Jean who, under Mastermind's full control, has transformed herself into the Black Queen. Hearing Scott's scream of pain over the crowd, Storm and Colossus change into costume and charge after their friend. Running upstairs they run into Sebastian Shaw, and Colossus learns the hard way that Shaw can absorb any attack directed at him and transform it into strength and invulnerability. Shaw easily defeats Colossus in battle, but Storm manages to escape by creating a thick fog to obscure his vision.

Down in the basement, Wolverine and Nightcrawler emerge from the sewers to be attacked by Pierce and Leland. While Wolverine manages to damage Pierce's cybernetic arm, Leland uses his mass increasing powers to increase Wolverine's weight until he breaks through the floor and lands into the rushing waters of the sewers below, he is swept away and presumed dead. While upstairs, Storm is tracked down by Sebastian Shaw who easily defeats her in hand to hand combat.

With the X-Men defeated and their prisoners, Sebastian Shaw notes Jason Wyngarde's cockiness and begins to suspect that he is going to vie to replace him as leader of the Hellfire Club. When the two quibble over how effective Mastermind would be without Jean as his slave. The argument is quashed by the others who propose a toast to the newest member of their club, the Black Queen. While down below in the sewers, Wolverine emerges from the waters alive and well. He is incredibly angry, having seen the Hellfire Club's "best shot" he is ready to show them his own.

The Hellfire Club's Inner Circle has sent some of their soldiers down into the basement of their prestigious club to find the body of Wolverine, whom they assume was killed in a fight with Henry Leland. Wolverine however is alive and well, and is hiding in the rafters. When they his wet body drips water on the soldiers below, they try to shoot him. They fail and Wolverine mortally wounds three of them before he seemingly takes some rifle rounds to the stomach and falls over in some boxes. However, he has been playing possum, having rolled with the shots he tags one more of the soldiers. With only one left on his feet, Wolverine freaks him out enough to get close enough to grab him. Threatening the man with his claws, Wolverine demands to know everything he knows about his employers in the Hellfire Club.

While upstairs, the other X-Men are a prisoner of the Hellfire Club, who are celebrating not only their victory over the X-Men, but the addition of Jean Grey as their new Black Queen. Cyclops, with a ruby quartz helmet on his head puzzles over the fact that somehow Mastermind was able to take control of Jean by making her believe that she is her ancestor, a decadent woman who was a member of the Hellfire Club, and that they are not her friends but captured thieves and slaves that have betrayed her. Realizing that he and Jean still have their psychic rapport, Scott tries to see if he still has access to it in a bid to try and free Jean from Wyngarde's control. Nightcrawler meanwhile asks Shaw what he wants from them, and Shaw explains that the capture of the X-Men will facilitate his goals of experimenting on mutants so that his club can custom make their own mutants.

Meanwhile, on Muir Island, Sean Cassidy finishes his job around the island and goes to check on his lover Moira MacTaggert. She is exhausted after extensive research into Jean's new powers and she fears that her near infinite power levels could threaten the entire world. While in New Mexico, Angel and Professor X wait for word from the X-Men and Charles expresses the difficulty that he has with Cyclops leading the X-Men without his direction.

Back at the Hellfire Club, Wolverine takes a dumbwaiter up to the main floor where a party is still going on. He is considering his options on how to slip by undetected when a guard manages to get the drop on him, putting a gun to his temple. While upstairs, Scott access the psychic rapport with Jean to get into her mind. To his dismay, he finds himself transformed into a Colonial era outfit and that Jason Wyngarde is in Jean's mind as well, despite the fact that Scott knows that Mastermind has no telepathic abilities. The two get into a sword fight, with Mastermind warning Scott that whoever dies here will likely die in the real world as well. Downstairs, Wolverine manages to get the better of the guard who has caught him and tosses him into the middle of the party. With this distraction, Wolverine storms through until he is confronted by the Club's security guards who pile onto him with their clubs swinging.

While upstairs, Scott's telepathic sword fight with Mastermind ends when Mastermind stabbing Scott through the chest with his sword. In the real world the X-Men watch in horror as Cyclops suddenly screams and keels over and as far as the X-Men can tell, their leader is dead.

Cyclops has nearly been killed in psychic combat with Mastermind inside Jean's telepathic report she shared with Cyclops. As the Hellfire Club gloats over this victory, Jean looks on in worry. Before the Hellfire Club can do anything else, Wolverine bursts through the door tossing off guards as he goes. Sebastian Shaw orders Jean to attack Wolverine, which she does, however, while the others are focusing on that she uses her telekinetic powers to unlock the ruby quartz helmet on Cyclops's head. Scott knocks out Donald Pierce before using his optic blast to free his fellow X-Men and blast Henry Leland.

Jean stops her fight and tells Wolverine to go join the others, Logan goes after Leland to get revenge for his earlier defeat. Cyclops defeats Shaw by blasting out the ground out from under him, and Donald Pierce manages to escape when Colossus foolishly tries to stop him in his human form. Witnessing the battle, Mastermind decides to use his illusion-based powers to hide out and see what happens. As Wolverine dives down to the lower level of the Hellfire Club to attack his foe, Leland makes the stupid mistake of using his mass increasing powers on Wolverine causing him to land heavily on Leland with his claws out. As Sebastian Shaw tries to flee through the club, he is attacked by Nightcrawler and Storm.

The disturbance at the Hellfire Club does not go unnoticed, as the authorities are called in an alert also goes in at nearby Avengers Mansion where the Beast is on monitor duty. Reading about how his former friends in the X-Men involved in the commotion, he erases the record of the emergency call and goes to help his old comrades.

Back at the club, Colossus catches up to Donald Pierce and gets in an arm wrestle with him. Colossus's strength proves better and he breaks Pierce's mechanical arm, however, Pierce shocks Colossus in the face with his severed appendage and flees the scene. While elsewhere in the club, Nightcrawler and Storm try their best to defeat Sebastian Shaw in battle, however, he escapes as well. Meeting up with Pierce in one of the clubs many secret tunnels, he tells his comrade that he will make the X-Men pay for this. Upstairs Cyclops tries to calm the party goers, however, Mastermind uses his powers to make them think that he is attacking them. Just then, the power cables that Wolverine slashed earlier in the night connect with the rising rainwater causing the power to go out in the club. Cyclops runs into Wolverine in the dark and tells him to gather the other X-Men while he goes looking for Jean.

Jean meanwhile, giving into the darkness in her soul tracks down Mastermind and pins him to the wall. She finds on him a device created by the White Queen that allowed him to beam his illusions directly into her mind. She is darkly amused but destroys the device and then gives Mastermind what he wanted: control of cosmic power. Opening up his mind to the vastness of the universe Jean causes Mastermind to enter a catatonic state and leaves him. She runs into Scott and although she feels strange she accompanies him and the other X-Men as they flee to their ship parked in Central Park. Watching them go from the window, Shaw vows to ruin the X-Men's public image and turn them into public enemy number one.

The X-Men load up into their plane and take off just as the authorities begin to arrive. Jean, finally unable to contain herself, gives in to her dark side. She changes her costume into a crimson version of her Phoenix outfit and announces that she is no longer the woman they knew, but rather power incarnate. Suddenly, the X-Men's ship explodes due to her "power incarnate".

Having escape from the Hellfire Club, Jean Grey finally gives into the dark side of her soul awakened by Mastermind, becoming the Dark Phoenix and destroying the X-Men's escape craft over Central Park. Miraculously, the X-Men survive the explosion and with quick thinking manage to make it safely to ground with only minor injuries. Their attempts to talk Jean out of attacking them fails and she easily trounces the team with her cosmic level abilities.

While not far away at the Hellfire Club, the authorities are investigating what patrons there believe was an attack by the X-Men. After seeing his colleague Henry Leland wheeled into an ambulance, Sebastian Shaw confronts US Sentator Robert Kelly, a guest at the party that night. He recommends to Kelly using his government connections to restart the Sentinel program so that they can hunt down dangerous mutants as part of his secret scheme to vilify and destroy the X-Men. Before the two men can discuss things further, Shaw is shocked to see a giant Phoenix effect fill the sky. Shaw is not the only one, as Dark Phoenix uses her powers to fly away from Earth her abilities are picked up by Mr. Fantastic's scientific equipment, Spider-Man's spider-sense, Dr. Strange's mystical senses, and the Silver Surfer's cosmic senses. As Jean departs, an Avengers Quinjet lands in Central Park containing the Beast who has come to the aid of his former comrades in the X-Men. He finds them beaten but alive and agrees to fly them back to the X-Mansion in Salem Center. While in New Mexico, Professor X has a video call with Moira MacTaggert on Muir Island where they both compare notes and realize that their greatest fear, that Jean has lost control of her new powers, has finally become a nightmarish reality.

While in space, Dark Phoenix loops around the sun and uses its gravity to sling shot her out to a warp gate not far outside of Earth's solar system. This sends her to the D'bari system, which is part of the Shi'ar empire. She then feasts on the solar system's star, causing it to go nova and obliterate all the living creautres on the planet D'bari. This is witnessed by a Shi'ar flagship that goes in to investigate. While on the Shi'ar throneworld, Empress Lilandra is awoken to the news of the destruction and witnesses the destruction of the flagship at Phoenix's hands. Lilandra grimly considers that they must deal with this threat no matter the cost.

On Earth, the X-Men have returned to their headquarters and wonder what they will do next. Scott, who still has his telepathic rapport with Jean witnesses the entire genocide through his minds eye and warns his fellow X-Men that Jean is returning to Earth, and she's hungry.

Following the Dark Phoenix destroying the D'Bari system, Empress Lilandra of the Shi'ar meets with a galactic council on the threat that the Phoenix poses to the universe. The decision is unanimous in light of the evidence: the Phoenix must be destroyed. While on Earth, the Phoenix's presence does not go unnoticed, and receiving a warning from Dr. Peter Corbeau, the President of the Untied States attempts to contact the Avengers to find that only their butler Edwin Jarvis is present. When Jarvis terminates the call with the President, he notes that it was the Beast's turn to stay behind on monitor duty and wonders where he could have went.

The Beast is with his old comrades the X-Men, preparing for the Dark Phoenix's return by building a synaptic scrambler device to prevent Jean from using her powers. As Cyclops struggles to come to terms with what's become of Jean, Storm tries to console him. While down below in the Danger Room, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Colossus attempt to blow off some steam in the Danger Room. They all come to agree that they must destroy Jean if they must, however their foremost duty will be to try and save her.

The Dark Phoenix meanwhile returns to her parents home at Annadale-On-Hudson and wakes up her parents and younger sister Sarah. Finding their thoughts impossible to keep out of her head, Jean attempts to keep her anger in check. However, she cannot and shows her family her powers by changing a houseplant into crystal. Noticing a fog outside Dark Phoenix realizes that the X-Men have found her and rushes out to meet them. Nightcrawler teleports behind her and places the synaptic scrambler on her head. Although this causes her great pain and limits her abilities, she is still able to hold her own against the X-Men's combined assault on her. When Wolverine gets close enough to her, she begs him to kill her with is claws, but Wolverine falters long enough for Phoenix's dark side to reassert control and blast him away. Having overheated the scrambler, Dark Phoenix removes it and locks the X-Men in stasis.

She begins to torture them mentally until she is confronted by Cyclops who tries to convince her to stop fighting and almost has her won over when Professor X arrives and attacks her mentally. This causes her to flip back to her evil persona and attack Charles directly. The two lock in mental combat and after a match of wits, Charles Xavier manages to use his mental powers to force the Dark Phoenix persona deep into Jean's mind restoring their sanity. Although the X-Men have a heartfelt moment now that Jean is back they all wonder how long her sanity will last. When John Grey and his family approaches Xavier to demand answers, they are shocked when the X-Men are all suddenly teleported away.

The Watcher has come to witness an event of cosmic significance: The fate of the Phoenix. Following the destruction of the D'bari system, the Shi'ar have teleported Phoenix, the X-Men, Angel and Beast aboard an imperial cruiser where Empress Lilandra has the unfortunate duty to tell her lover Charles Xavier that he galactic council has agreed the Phoenix must be destroyed. However, Xavier does not wish to put one of his students to death and calls for a duel of honor between the X-Men and the Imperial Guard for the fate of the Phoenix. After consulting this with the Kree and Skrull leaders, it is agreed that his will be allowable, and Lilandra agrees to the duel as well electing that the battle happen on the Moon's blue area. The Supreme Intelligence and R'Kill demand that their emissaries watch over the battle.

The X-Men leave to rest up for the fight with most of them wondering what the Professor has gotten them into. That night, Jean has an alien tailor create a replica of her old Marvel Girl costume for her to wear, Nightcrawler and Angel practice in a training room, Wolverine -- after considering that this time he will kill Jean if he has to -- meditates, Beast takes a bath and takes up some of the local hospitality, while Storm and Colossus rest up for the fight. Scott is on one of the decks looking out into space brooding over his lot that the love of his life might be killed just when they were truly falling in love. His thoughts are interrupted when Jean arrives and shows off her costume, the two then decide to spend what could possibly be their last night together.

The following morning, the X-Men all agree to fight for Jean and are teleported to the surface of the moon where they find their fliers cannot fly too high without breaching the protective atmosphere of the blue area. The group is attacked by Starbolt, Manta and Oracle, causing the X-Men to split up to divide the Imperial forces.

One group consisting of Beast, Colossus, Storm and Wolverine travel into the underground tunnels and clash with B'nee and his partner C'cll. When Wolverine and Storm are knocked down a shaft, they are attacked by Hossar and Earthquake. Wolverine is knocked into the Watcher's citadel while Storm is defeated by the two Imperials. While above as the battle rages on, Smasher tosses Angel down another shaft, prompting Nightcrawler to jump after him leaving Cyclops and Phoenix alone and out numbered. Inside the Watcher's citadel, Wolverine awakens to have the Watcher reveal that he's been watching the Earth for centuries before kicking Logan out of his home. When Wolverine is approached by what appears to be Storm, his enhanced senses detect that it's really the Skrull Raksor. Before he can deal with the shapeshifter, he is blasted by the Kree known as Bel-Dann. Disgusted at being saved by one of his mortal enemies, Raskor shape shifts into a bestial creature and attacks the Kree.

Meanwhile, down below, Nightcrawler finds no trace of Angel and attempts to get the drop on Manta, only to be blasted by her. Not far away, B'Nee incapacitates the Beast, while Gladiator goes toe-to-toe with Colossus and easily beats the X-Man into submission. Watching the battle from the Shi'ar flag ship, Xavier is upset witnessing his X-Men being beaten, and Lilandra mourns for her love. With the only X-Men left being Cyclops and Phoenix, the two agree to go out together and after a brief rest attack the remaining Imperials head on. However as the battle rages, Jean loses control of her dark side once more and begins to unleash the full power extent of her Phoenix powers once more. With no other choice, the X-Men begin to pick themselves up and change their focus to attacking Jean, despite the pain that it brings them to do so. When Colossus strikes a powerful blow to Jean strong enough to temporarily restore her sanity, she begs her fellow X-Men to end her life, however nobody can bring themselves to do it. 

Jean then runs into a tunnel with Scott hot on her tails. She traps him in a telekinetic shield and tells him that there is no other choice but for the Phoenix to die. Powerless to stop anything, Cyclops watches in horror as Jean triggers one of the long forgotten Kree traps on the Blue Area of the moon and has it blast her, incinerating her body. As the Phoenix dies, her final words are to scream out Scott's name. With Jean dead, Scott realizes how much he has lost that day breaks down in tears.

Witnessing this event are the Watcher and the Recorder. The Recorder finds this emotional tableau intrigued by the fact that they resisted the Phoenix's destruction. The Watcher points out that regardless of what happened, humans are emotional beings, and that despite the fact that the Dark Phoenix was regarded as a monster in the end, she died a human.

At the funeral of Jean Grey, Scott Summers listens over the eulogy and thinks back over the years of his relationship with Jean Grey:

He recalls the early day of the X-Men and how when Jean first joined the team they were all in love. He recalls the teams first battles with Magneto, Vanisher and the Blob; the formation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and their subsequent clashes against them. Scott remembers how distant he felt with his teammates when Professor X briefly put him in charge of the school and how Warren began pursuing a relationship with Jean. He also remembers their encounter with Ka-Zar in the Savage Land, the Stranger that saw the defeat of their old enemies Magneto and Toad, their battle against the Juggernaut, and Mastermold and the Sentinels.

He recalls a succession of battles against the likes of Mimic, Count Nefaria, the Locust, Chulculcan, Banshee, the Super-Adaptoid, Warlock, and Cobalt Man. He remembers how Warrens eventual relationship with Candy Southern would give way for Scott and Jean to pursue their own relationship.

The threats would continue to come however, with the return of Juggernaut who they defeated with the aid of Dr. Strange, their battle with Tyrannus and the Mole Man, their first encounter with Spider-Man, Mekkano and their battle against Factor Three which ended with a graduation and the group getting unique costumes. He next remembers the day they battle Grotesk a battle that saw the seeming demise of Professor X. The menaces never stopped, like when they saved Lorna Dane from Mesmero and a Magneto robot, and when they rescued his brother Alex from the Living Monolith, and later stopped Larry Trask's Sentinel, and battled Sauron, Magneto and his Savage Land Mutates, the Japanese mutant Sunfire and how Professor X resurfaced to prevent an invasion from the alien Z'Nox and how Hank was mutated into a more furry form.

His mind then focuses on the formation of the new X-Men to save the old team from the mutant island Krakoa, and their first mission against Count Nefaria that ended in Thunderbird's death. He then recalls the capture of Jean and the X-Men by Stephen Lang's Sentinels that would lead to the rebirth of Jean as Phoenix. Battling the threats of Black Tom and Juggernaut, the return of Magneto, the arrival of Empress Lilandra and how Phoenix saved the universe from destruction by stabilizing the M'Kraan Crystal and after their battle with Weapon Alpha.

He recalls how their clash with Mesmero and Magneto would leave Scott and Jean to believe each other dead. Scott would go on to help save the Savage Land from Sauron and Garok, Japan from Moses Magnum and their clash with Alpha Flight in Canada. While Cyclops and the X-Men were battling Arcade, Scott recalls how Jean was being secretly seduced by their old foe Mastermind. He remembers their clash with Proteus. Howe the reunited team would learn of Kitty Pryde and attempt to recruit her into the X-Men only to be ambushed by the Hellfire Club and how they manipulated Jean into becoming their Black Queen ultimately unleashing her Dark Phoenix persona until she sacrificed her life.

With Scott's recollection complete, he offers his sympathies for Jean's parents. Lilandra offers them as well and gives the Grey's a gift, a holomatrix globe that would fill them with Jean's essence whenever they touched it. Meeting up with the Professor, Scott would tell him that he is quitting the X-Men. The Professor understands and wishes Scott the best of luck. With one X-Men leaving the ranks, a new one comes: A cab pulls up in front of Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and out comes Kitty Pride who sits on the steps waiting for the X-Men to come home from the funeral.

ABOUT DAZZLER

Dazzler was originally commissioned by Casablanca Records in 1978 as an animated special to be a multi-media cross-promotion with the character known as "The Disco Queen". Marvel Comics would develop a singing superhero, while Casablanca would produce a singer. Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter wrote a treatment for the animated special, who quickly turn into a live-action feature-length film project that would be produced by Filmworks. Shooter put together a small committee at Marvel to figure out the character's nature, background and personality. Writer Tom DeFalco was the lead writer behind her creation, while artist John Romita Jr. designed her. The character soon changed its name from The Disco Queen to Dazzler, thanks to a suggestion from writer Roger Stern. Due to financial concerns, Casablanca Records left the project, but the film was still in the works.

Romita, Jr. originally intended for the character to resemble model, actress, and singer Grace Jones, but representatives from Filmworks – wanting to promote model and actress Bo Derek – insisted on design changes to reflect Derek's features. The film project was ultimately canceled after Filmworks refused to let Bo Derek's husband, John Derek, direct the movie.

THE ORIGINAL ENDING

The ending of the story was a matter of intense controversy with the editorial staff. Jim Shooter's recollections are that the original intent of the Dark Phoenix storyline was to introduce Dark Phoenix as a cosmic nemesis for the X-Men. This was what had been discussed originally among the creative team and Shooter, and this was the story development that had been approved. When Uncanny X-Men issue 135 was in the final artwork stages, Shooter happened to look at the proofs for the issue and noticed that the story included the destruction of an inhabited solar system, with an explicit mention of billions of lives lost. Louise Simonson feels it was Shooter's outrage over this plot element which led to him taking editor Jim Salicrup off the series several issues earlier than he had been scheduled to.

Upon questioning Salicrup about where the plot went from there, he was told that issue 137 ended with Jean being permanently depowered by the Shi'ar and released into the custody of the X-Men. Shooter disagreed with this development both from a storytelling standpoint as well as, secondarily, a moral standpoint, likening the ending to "taking the German army away from Hitler and letting him go back to governing Germany," and finding it out of character for the X-Men to retain friendly relations with a being who had committed genocide. Byrne and Salicrup explained that they had no problem with this resolution because they had always thought of Dark Phoenix as a separate entity who had possessed Jean Grey, with Salicrup drawing an analogy to the film adaptation of The Exorcist: "In the movie there's this little girl who's taken over and several people get killed, but by the end, when the demon's gone no one thinks, 'Let's kill that murderous little girl.'" However, on reading the issues over they agreed with Shooter that from the reader's perspective, she did not seem to be possessed, and Claremont admitted that while writing the Dark Phoenix Saga he was never clear in his own mind whether Jean Grey was possessed or her actions as Dark Phoenix were her own.

Shooter, during a conversation with Claremont, suggested a scenario where Jean would be permanently imprisoned as a compromise, and Claremont responded that such a scenario was unfeasible since in his opinion, the X-Men would want to continually try to rescue Jean from imprisonment. According to Shooter, Claremont out of frustration suggested that they kill off Jean completely. Although Shooter suggests that the proposed plot point was a bluff by Claremont, playing on the unwritten rule that main characters were not to be killed permanently, he accepted it, even over later objections by both Claremont and Byrne. Ultimately, it was decided by Byrne and Claremont to have Jean commit suicide after her Dark Phoenix persona resurfaces at the climax of the fight against the Imperial Guard. Issue 137 was left largely unchanged, but the last five pages were completely rewritten and redrawn for the new ending, and Claremont also took the opportunity to write a second draft of his script. Because of this, comparison of the original and published versions of X-Men #137 reveals numerous differences in the script with no connection to the ending; for instance, in the original version of the day of rest, the individual X-Men are each thinking of their own personal issues, while the published version shows them reflecting on their decision to protect Jean.

The original ending ultimately saw print in 1984 in Phoenix: The Untold Story. Besides the original version of Uncanny X-Men #137, it featured a transcript of a round table discussion between Claremont, Byrne, Simonson, Salicrup, Shooter, and inker Terry Austin, discussing the story behind the original ending and why it was changed.

REVIEW

Reading the whole saga (including the Phoenix Saga), takes a lot of patience and time. Depending on your preferences in comics, this will be a joyful experience. But the ending of this story has been reprinted several times, and most of us read the ending before the actual build-up. For us the story is spoiled and feels that it lasted too long.

But to someone that was reading this at the time, it must have felt like nothing was sacred in comics anymore. Marvel Comics in particular had a very strict rule of “perception of change” where things move a lot, but never really stay changed. This was a problem to the Marvel Creators of the seventies that felt like they weren’t able to expand their stories properly. Shooter, however, was of the idea of killing of all the characters and replacing them with new versions. But that’s a whole different story.

This is the first major death for Marvel Comics, and the story itself made comic-book history and changed some careers.

It was so influential that it ended up being adapted to film and television more than once. Other tried to do the same, but death, as we already know, started having any meaning in comic-books. And part of the fault is on Marvel as well, as they felt they needed the original Jean Grey back. Again, another story.

This was also a big change for the X-Men, losing a founding member, and with their leader quitting. Kitty Pryde enters the stage, as well as the Sentinels are in the horizon thanks to Senator Kelly’s hate for mutants. We all know what this leads to... there is even a movie about it!

I couldn’t imagine the Dark Phoenix Saga by another artist but Byrne (especially Cockrum). Everything in this saga stays in your mind.

While the story is not for everyone (it has a lot of kinky stuff if you think about it), it is part of history now. At least for Pop culture.

I give this saga a score of 10

Nogi Wakaba is a Hero: 1/2

that's a familiar looking face. sister or ancestor? sister or ancestor? 

that's a pretty karinish face there 

Second hero diary? What was the first?

>Nogi Sonoko joined the Sanshu Middle School Hero Club.

Starting in the present, I see.

>The Nogi Household's rose bath was like a hot spring.

ahh, wait, that illustration is for this scene isn't it yeah, now I see the black eyes instead of purple

>"That's a cute reaction~ I'm sure the readers would love a character like you~ my creative urges are rising~"

sononononono, don't break the fourth wall

unless you're making fanficion of your friends like fiw twilight, in which case I implore you to reconsider.

>"Yeah, that combination does sound like it could work. So next, how about Nogi?"

do not give sonoka a position of authority outside of combat. it will not end well.

>But yeah, right now, I think that out of all four candidates, I'd recommend Karin as club president. It'll probably be hard for her, but she is the 'perfect hero' after all, so I'm sure she can manage somehow."

ah right karin's more mellowed out now.

>"Okay, I'll read your fortune! ...Okay, I've got the results. This looks like it'll be a good romance!"

show me how you fucked up the tarot itsuki. I won't get too mad.

>"Well~ I'm not sure what I like exactly, but someone who's diligent and takes good care of others would be lovely~. It'd be even more fun if they were way too serious and got reckless from time to time, huh~"

sonogo you're just describing togou

>I wanted some material for my novels, so I asked for some history books to sent in from my family house's archive, and they sent me a huuuumongous amount of them.

HISTORY BOOKS GOTTEM

>"Books that escaped censorship... Those exist?"

fffucking taisha

burnin books too

>It was the same title as the diary Sonoko had recorded when she was worshiped, the Hero Diary.

ahhh so hero diaries are what the taisha make heroes write after they've reached their expiration dates

>It says the diary began to be recorded in July 2015.

so the treepocalypse happened in Next Sunday AD.

>"Nogi... Wakaba... Is she my ancestor~? If she wrote this diary, then does that mean my ancestor was a hero?"

caaaallllled iiiiiiit

y'alright there yuuna

(Prologue: End)

apocalypse magical girls from the far off future of 2018

what the fuck yuuna's is yuuna a time traveller a reincarnatee a cryogenically frozen supersoldier from the distant past

or is this just a coincidence

>Nogi Wakaba, a fifth grader at the time 

>a fifth grader at the time 

>fifth grader at the time 

>fifth grader 

are you fucking kidding me 

that was a joke

so nogi wakaba is basically blond sumi right 

why do these ten year olds have boobs

>One of the star-like objects fell onto the roof of the kagura-den. It was definitely not a bird at all. Its entire body was an almost unnatural white, its size far more gigantic than a human, with an ominous mouth-like organ.

and here's the vertices

>On unsteady feet, Hinata stood up. A strange light imbued her eyes and hex-like words leaked from her mouth.

ahh hinata's got the old possession style sayakafication fairies

I see they're taking the opportunity to do what they can't show on television.

>When she snapped back to her senses, Wakaba was standing up with that very sword in hand. She could've sworn the blade was rusted, but before she  had realised it, the blade was tinged with a vibrant, almost living brilliance.

we sure this is still the magical girl genre? this is giving me Eternity Sword vibes more than anything

>Some changed into a form like the edge of a section of body tissue, stiffening and rising up. (...They're... evolving...?)

that's not how evolution works.

>Three years later-- Nogi Wakaba was now a second year in middle school.

not expecting a time skip of all things. I'll be honest, I was enjoying the hellhole thing.

>Uesato Hinata is a Miko, one who hears divine voices.

miko, huh? interesting.

chapter 1 end.

the fuck is a doi

>After the invasion, a special tree by the name of "Shinju" appeared in Shikoku, and a giant wall made of plant tissue surrounded the island. It is said that the Shinju was the incarnation of the local gods, and the wall was a barrier it put up to stop the Vertex.

"appeared", "it was said". hm, hm, hm~♪

>"Uranophobia."

pff, uranus. but apparently it's "fear of heaven"

>Although it said "hearing the voice of the gods," it was not through common speech, but rather in the form of symbols and suggestive hints that instructions were transmitted to her.

symbols and suggestive hints, huh... so basically it's a horoscope.

>Only the purest of girls

"purest of girls"? what the hell does that even mean in this case

> are able to come in contact with the gods who detest impurity.

oh, the gods are fucking Lunarians.

>An area of the southeastern part of Lake Suwa in Nagano was, like Shikoku, also protected by a barrier where people could live.

...Another barrier? A second tree, or???

noodle discourse

>It let her feel safe knowing there was a friend out there fighting as well.

she's gon die isn't she

oh fuck I'm going to need to memorize at least five sets of speech patterns aren't I

>"I'm not fondling them! I'm trying to tear them off!"

i see hinata has more in common with togou than her hair color

this'll be a joy to get straight 

we even have multiple soft-spoken girls with long black hair 

interesting to note that yuuna's not pictured yet.

>Normal weapons were useless against the Vertex, only those that the Heroes wielded could inflict damage upon them.

so do the weapons have fairies in them or what

>"Taisha" was written with the characters for "Great Shrine," wait a fucking second is this a different organization

yeah yuuna's a time traveller.

chapter 2 end

guess blossoming is already a thing

for some strange reason I feel like wakaba's the only character who matters here.

>And yet Yuuna was less concerned about herself, and more concerned with Chikage who hadn't participated in the battle at all.

yuuna being yuuna

>The next moment, the cylindrical Vertex began forming a clear red plate-shaped structure.

cancer?

>Out of the infinite records available to her, the one Yuuna now chose was "Ichimokuren".

wait, so yuuna's choosing her fairy?

and stuffing it in herself, which is bad.

>Wakaba had dodged the Vertex's charge with the least necessary movement, and at the same time, she bit off part of the enemy's body with her teeth.

don't bite the alien wakaba

>"Wakaba-chan! You can't go eating weird things like that, okay!?"

pff.

chapter 3 end

so is she referring to actual blossoming here or what

>A foul smell hit her the moment she stepped inside.

welp

chikage's in a bad place

chikage's in a really bad place

>They both cursed her existence.

yikes

>Those who had hurt her once were now trying to get on her good side.

garbage people, the lot of them

>(My worth... is in being a hero...)

oh no this won't end well

>It allowed her to exist in seven different places at once. She wouldn't die unless all seven were killed at the same time.

and this is even one of the fairies mentioned in that report.

chapter 4 end

??? I don't get it

oh hey gemini

>"I see! So then maybe we can use the udon as a diversion if it reacts to it!" there is absolutely no way this will work.

>untamarable what kind of pun is that

chapter 5 end

wait a second is that part talking about udon did they censor udon and intelligent? why the hell would the taisha censor information about instant noodles 

>The one who saved her was Yuuna. She suddenly appeared in the midst of the swarm and started holding them off instead of Wakaba. are you sure yuuna's not the protagonist here

so to temporarily stop the vertexes the taisha allegedly went aztec on what were allegedly six mikos those wouldn't happen to actually be these six characters somehow, would they? and I guess Yuuna would be a zombie...?

end of chapter 6

so apparently the divine tree is blaming humans too? fuck that tree.

guess hinata's hair is purple now.

>"...Her consciousness still hasn't returned." so are comas normal for yuuna

this group is a lot less stable than the other ones.

>Now that it had been denied... just how should she fight from now on?

wakaba freaking out about her girlfriend leaving is cute

ah, anzu's trying to cheer her up by point out how many people she’s been helping.

>(But now... I have to get over it.) :V guess the therapists all got eaten

and Chapter 7 ends with another timeskip.

>And perhaps they would keep on changing. *glances at gin's funeral*

>Aki Masuzu clamoured in misery as she changed clothes. oh boy another new character

>However, all communications with Suwa had ceased after last September.

and another tree circle is confirmed just to be killed off lemme guess, they'll disappear one by one until shikoku's all that's left?

>Finally, the Shinju appeared at the end of the path. hup

even in a light novel, the tree isn't described

>Several of the small stars combined into a brilliance unlike anything I've ever seen... leo again?

>There are two kinds of honetsukidori. Chick uses spring chickens while hen uses more mature chicken meat. Chick is more plump, tender, and easier to eat, while hen has a deeper flavour that oozes out the more you chew on its tougher meat. stop it, you're making me hungry

>All Yuuna was doing was cheerfully humming as she cleaned Wakaba's ears-- but not even Hinata was a match for a technique like that. even in other characters' stories, yuuna reigns supreme

>The fierce battle foretold in the oracle in the midst of the war of humanity's last stand would later be called the Battle of Marugame Castle. Oh, so we're getting into a fight that's actually important?

[End of chapter 8]

hmm. you know what, there's only so long you can string me along with splotches of whiteout before I get desensitized to it.

>Would they just blindly increase in size, or would they guide their evolution into an intentional form? The latter.

>By that time, the black shadows wrapping around her foot had already disappeared. what the heck

>Suddenly, Tamako collapsed to her knees. really shouldn'tve tempted fate back there.

>The fairy she had extracted from the Shinju was Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a general with superhuman martial arts thought it was a divine tree, not a throne of heroes.

end of chapter 9.

So are they going on a "trip" outside the wall? Wonder if it's as much of a primordial hellscape as it is in present times...

>Many buildings had been blown out from the inside as if a chemical explosion had occurred within, and traces of heat-deformation could be seen. That's the first unpleasant thing they saw? Guess the vertexes haven't done... whatever to destroy the atmosphere yet.

>For dinner, they were boiling water in a pot to cook some udon they had brought from Shikoku. It was a dry-noodle kind of Sanuki udon that kept well. of course they're eating udon.

>After dinner, everyone went into the river to wash off their sweat. oh boy another fanservice scene bet there's a cg for this too yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

>"If I become a hero and do my best fighting the Vertexes, I can save people. If we keep saving people, then we can slowly but surely take back the world and bring it back to normal. At least that's what I think!" Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero, after all.

>After the heroes had annihilated the Vertexes, they decided to resume moving for the day. even the story is getting bored.

>"Th... there was supposed to be an Osaka-famous rare book store here! How terrible! The last copies of incredibly precious books could be lost to the world now!" all that devestation, and that's what makes you freak out?

>Instead-- they found a heap of several skeletons. That's... odd. They haven't found any bodies so far, have they? I figured the Vertex don't leave anything behind.

>Wakaba noticed a notebook on the floor. She picked it up and looked inside. It was the diary of someone who took refuge in this underground mall.

oh are we going to read a diary in a diary?

chapter 10 end

Coronavirus live news: Germany goes into 'lockdown light'; Italy accused of wasting time as infections rise

11.27pm GMT 23:27

The Culture Secretary in England has confirmed arts venues can remain open for rehearsals during the country’s lockdown.

Oliver Dowden said while audiences will not be able to attend the venues they are “places of work” and will therefore be able to remain open.

Footage of performances taking place inside venues will also be permitted to be streamed online when tougher restrictions come into force in England, he confirmed on Twitter.

“Arts venues are places of work, so people can come into them for work, if it cannot be undertaken from home,” he wrote.

“This includes rehearsals and performance. Audiences are not permitted.”

A number of productions, including Les Miserables in the West End and a panto at the London Palladium, are due to return to the stage with socially distanced audiences over the festive period.

11.05pm GMT 23:05

Argentina is expecting 10 million doses of Russia’s main experimental COVID-19 vaccine between December and January, the government said, as infections continue to climb in the South American country.

The vaccine, known as Sputnik V, is given in two doses and could begin arriving as early as next month, the government said in a news release. The price of the Russian vaccine would be “more or less average” compared with others, President Alberto Fernandez said in the release.

“We had a proposal from the Russian foreign ministry and the Russian (Direct Investment) Fund to see if Argentina was interested in having doses of the vaccine in the month of December and of course we said yes,” Fernandez said.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is backing the development and roll-out of the Sputnik V vaccine. Fernandez said talks with RDIF had been going on “for quite some time.”

Officials including Argentina’s deputy health minister had traveled to Russia to review the vaccine’s development, the government said.

“The Sputnik V vaccine for Argentina will be produced by RDIF partners in India, Korea, China and a number of other countries that are setting up a production of the Russian vaccine,” RDIF’s CEO, Kirill Dmitriev, said in comments shared by a company spokesman.

10.46pm GMT 22:46

The Labour party in England has called for Chancellor Rishi Sunak to engage in cross-party talks to produce a six-month economic support plan to guide the country through coronavirus.

Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said the Treasury should “stop the last-minute scramble” and combine with opposition leaders, businesses and unions to draw up a long-term strategy.

Dodds has written to her Government counterpart after he announced on Saturday that, to coincide with the second national lockdown for England, the furlough scheme would continue in its current form, paying 80% of employees’ wages for hours not worked, up to a maximum of 2,500 per month.

In her letter to Sunak, she said the announcement “just hours before” the initial furlough scheme was due to end was “symptomatic” of what she said appeared to be a “lack of any strategic planning by the Government to support jobs and businesses”.

10.27pm GMT 22:27

Portugal considering state of emergency to tackle Covid-19

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said he is pondering declaring a state of emergency as a preventive measure to fight the spread of the coronavirus at a time when infections are soaring.

Hours after Prime Minister Antonio Costa asked the president to declare the state of emergency, Rebelo de Sousa said in an interview with RTP Television he was considering the request, explaining it would include specific measures to combat the pandemic but not a “total or nearly total” lockdown.

The initial COVID-19 state of emergency, which under Portuguese law is limited to 15 days but can be extended indefinitely in 15-day periods if necessary, was declared in March and lasted six weeks.

It restricted the movement of people and led thousands of businesses to suspend activities, devastating the once-bailed-out economy.

“The economy cannot handle a (total) confinement,” Rebelo de Sousa said during the interview at his official residence. “What is being considered is a different thing.” If Rebelo de Sousa declares an emergency, lawmakers must approve it, which is considered highly likely.

On Saturday, the government introduced measures, such as the civic duty – a recommendation rather than a rule – to stay at home except for outings for work, school or shopping, across 121 municipalities including in the key regions of Lisbon and Porto.

A state of emergency would clear the way for compulsory measures such as restrictions on movement of people but only if and when needed.

10.10pm GMT 22:10

The Premier League in England has confirmed four positive coronavirus tests have been returned from the latest round of testing.

The government has allowed Premier League football and other elite sports to continue during a four-week ‘circuit break’ lockdown, which will start in England on Thursday, due to the strict testing regimes in place.

In total, 1,446 players and club staff were tested for coronavirus between Monday, October 26 and Sunday, November 1.

Players or club staff who have tested positive will self-isolate for a period of 10 days.

9.51pm GMT 21:51

In Australia, travellers from regional NSW are now able to go to Queensland for the first time in almost four months but Sydneysiders are still not welcome in the Sunshine State.

Travel restrictions eased at 1am on Tuesday (Australia time), with the Queensland border flung open to everyone except those in greater Sydney and Victoria.

The NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian is irate that Sydney residents are banned, arguing the bar Queensland has set for resuming free travel between the states is too high.

Meanwhile, Berejiklian has indicated a reopening of the NSW border with Victoria could happen soon.

We’re talking weeks not months in terms of when the Victorian border may come down, but that again is based on health advice,” she told reporters on Monday.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we moved more quickly against Victoria than Queensland did against us.”

When asked if an announcement would be made this week, Berejiklian said “potentially, yes”.

9.41pm GMT 21:41

French writer Sylvain Tesson poses inside the Librairie des Abbesses bookstore as he signs one of his books during the launch of “Rallumez les feux de nos librairies” (Turn back our bookstores’ lights) event on November 2, 2020 in Paris, on the fourth day of the second national general lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19. Small book traders are forced to shut up shops for a second time this year during what is usually a busy time for retailers in the run-up to the year-end holidays. Photograph: Stéphane de Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images

9.28pm GMT 21:28

Some of Germany’s top orchestras, including Berlin’s prestigious Staatskapelle and the Munich Philharmonic, staged protests on Monday, warning that coronavirus lockdowns pose an existential threat to the arts and entertainment industries.

Musicians from the internationally-renowned ensembles in Berlin and Munich, as well as the orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, staged a minute’s silence at the start of their respective concerts.

And on Twitter, a wide range number of artists posted pictures of records turning without any sound.

They argue that not enough support is being made available to people in the sector as Germany shuts down its theatres, concert halls, opera houses and museums for the next four weeks as part of a wider tightening of measures to try to curb a second wave of Covid-19 infections.

Freelance musicians in particular are finding it difficult to survive as they frequently do not qualify for the furlough schemes introduced for paid employees in other sectors.

Culture Minister Monika Gruetters said she was “greatly concerned” for the industry.

��Even if the new restrictions are understandable” from a health point of view, they constitute “a catastrophe” for the sector, she said.

9.00pm GMT 21:00

A summary of today’s developments

Italy’s coronavirus strategy is ‘wasting time’, says scientific advisor. Italy is working towards measures that could include a national 9pm curfew, a ban on inter-regional travel and the closure of shopping malls at weekends. But scientists have for weeks been urging the government to take tougher action, such as imposing local lockdowns, as infections escalate and hospitals come under strain.

Slovakia carries out Covid mass testing of two-thirds of population. Two-thirds of Slovakia’s population of 5.4 million people were tested for coronavirus over the weekend as part of a programme aimed at making it one of the first countries to test its entire population.

Germany begins ‘light lockdown’. Germany goes into “lockdown light” mode today, as the country’s disease control agency recorded 12,097 new confirmed Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours. Bars, cinemas, theatres, museums, fitness studios and swimming pools will remain closed from today, while cafes and restaurants are allowed to offer takeaway food only. Meetings in public are restricted to two households and no more than 10 people. Unlike during the first lockdown in the spring, schools and nurseries will stay open.

Coronavirus infections fall for third day straight in the Netherlands. The number of new coronavirus infections in the Netherlands rose by nearly 8,300 over the past 24 hours, the slowest pace in roughly two weeks.

Iran reports record high Covid death toll as travel bans go into force. Iran reported a record 440 Covid deaths in the past 24 hours, pushing the country’s death toll to 35,738 as a ban on travel in and out of major cities came into force.

Donald Trump tries to stoke fears of Covid lockdown under Joe Biden. In the final hours before election day, one of Trump’s closing messages to Americans was an exaggerated threat: that a Joe Biden presidency will result in a national Covid-19 lockdown. Speaking in Iowa on Sunday, the president said the election was a “choice between a deadly Biden lockdown … or a safe vaccine that ends the pandemic”.

The European Union (EU) has agreed to provide Mozambique with 100 million euros ($116.30 million) in coronavirus-related aid. The EU cut off direct budget support to Mozambique in 2016 after the country revealed the existence of hefty state-guaranteed loans that it had not previously disclosed.

T-cell Covid immunity ‘present in adults six months after first infection’. Cellular (T-cell) immunity against the virus that causes Covid-19 is likely to be present within most adults six months after primary infection, with levels considerably higher in patients with symptoms, a study suggests.

8.44pm GMT 20:44

Children watch a lesson next to an image of late Cuban President Fidel Castro during their first day of classes since April amid COVID-19 concerns in Havana, Cuba. Photograph: Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters

https://www.covid19snews.com/2020/11/03/coronavirus-live-news-germany-goes-into-lockdown-light-italy-accused-of-wasting-time-as-infections-rise/

In Europe, Fear Spreads Faster Than the Coronavirus Itself

LONDON — A British man who tested positive for coronavirus was branded a “super spreader,” his every movement detailed by the local media.

Business has plummeted in a French ski resort identified as the scene of several transmissions of the virus.

And after some employees of a German car company were diagnosed with the virus, the children of other workers were turned away from schools, despite negative test results.

With 42 confirmed cases across the continent, the coronavirus outbreak is far less serious in Europe than it is in China, where more than 1,100 people have died and the fight to contain the virus has taken on the trappings of a wartime campaign.

But fear itself is proving contagious. And with that fear comes a new social stigma for people and places that have been associated with the outbreak.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, warned on Saturday of the dangers of letting fear outpace facts.

Image

Steve Walsh was widely identified in the British media as the man who brought the coronavirus to a ski chalet.Credit…Servomex

“We must be guided by solidarity, not stigma,” Dr. Tedros said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference, adding that fear could hamper global efforts to combat the virus. “The greatest enemy we face is not the virus itself; it’s the stigma that turns us against each other.”

In the United States and elsewhere, people of Asian heritage have faced intense public scrutiny over their health. In Europe, the handful of people confirmed to have been infected have also found themselves in the public glare.

In Britain, where there are nine confirmed cases, news outlets swiftly labeled a businessman at the center of a cluster of transmissions at a French ski chalet a “super spreader” even before the man returned to Britain and tested positive for the virus.

Updated Feb. 10, 2020

What is a Coronavirus? It is a novel virus named for the crown-like spikes that protrude from its surface. The coronavirus can infect both animals and people, and can cause a range of respiratory illnesses from the common cold to more dangerous conditions like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.

How contagious is the virus? According to preliminary research, it seems moderately infectious, similar to SARS, and is possibly transmitted through the air. Scientists have estimated that each infected person could spread it to somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5 people without effective containment measures.

How worried should I be? While the virus is a serious public health concern, the risk to most people outside China remains very low, and seasonal flu is a more immediate threat.

Who is working to contain the virus? World Health Organization officials have praised China’s aggressive response to the virus by closing transportation, schools and markets. This week, a team of experts from the W.H.O. arrived in Beijing to offer assistance.

What if I’m traveling? The United States and Australia are temporarily denying entry to noncitizens who recently traveled to China and several airlines have canceled flights.

How do I keep myself and others safe? Washing your hands frequently is the most important thing you can do, along with staying at home when you’re sick.

The businessman, Steve Walsh, later came forward to say that he did not know he had contracted coronavirus when he joined friends in France after a business trip to Singapore. He said he had contacted the health authorities as soon as he discovered that had been exposed to the virus and that he had been in isolation at a hospital after testing positive.

When Mr. Walsh’s name and photograph were released, broadcasters breathlessly speculated about his movements. Others mapped his “trail,” while some residents of Brighton and Hove, where Mr. Walsh lives, wondered if it was safe to go outside. Only five cases have been confirmed in the area.

Peter Kyle, a lawmaker who represents the area, said that the fear around the virus was understandable, particularly as the outbreak in China grows. But he said the use of the term “super spreader” was irresponsible.

“The connotation of that term is that he was proactively passing it, that he was willingly transmitting it,” Mr. Kyle said. “Whereas we know for a fact that the moment he became symptomatic, he did everything by the book.”

Part of the problem, Mr. Kyle said, is that people try to reconcile what is happening in China — where more than 70,000 people have tested positive for the virus and tens of millions have essentially been on lockdown for weeks — with what they are seeing nearer to home.

Mr. Kyle said that because the British authorities had not articulated the response strategy clearly to the public, “people are filling in the gaps themselves,” driven in part by misinformation online.

He said that some constituents had asked him to confirm the identities of coronavirus patients and provide a detailed account of where they had been before they went into isolation.

“It just shows there is misunderstanding,” he said. “When there is misunderstanding, prejudice and behavior that is not acceptable.”

The anxiety has also impacted local businesses, like The Grenadier, a pub in Hove where the health authorities determined Mr. Walsh had spent time before he learned he had the virus.

An employee confirmed by phone that the restaurant had been inundated with calls about the coronavirus. In an effort to dispel rumor, the staff posted a statement on Facebook: “You are not in any risk by coming into the pub.”

A spokesman for the British Department of Health and Social Care cautioned against using the virus as an excuse to stigmatize groups and individuals.

The health department also emphasized that doctors did not discharge patients believed to represent any threat to public health.

The French Alpine ski village of Les Contamines-Montjoie has also had to deal with the fears of a coronavirus outbreak. At least six British citizens who stayed in a chalet in the village, including a 9-year-old boy, tested positive for the virus and are still in France.

“We were all spooked,” said Mélanie Boidard, 34, a resident of Les Contamines-Montjoie. “Let’s not pretend otherwise.”

No new cases have been confirmed in the village since the initial cluster, but fears persist. The village of 1,200 usually increases more than tenfold this time of year with the influx of tourists, many of them Britons, coming to the ski resort. But businesses have suffered from rumors of coronavirus contamination.

Philippe Gerault, 65, who runs a ski club in Les Contamines-Montjoie, said about a dozen British clients had canceled reservations for this week.

“It’s panic,” said Eric Paris, the only pharmacist in the village.

Mr. Paris said he had received 300 to 400 calls from people asking for information about the coronavirus.

“People call me and ask ‘I’m coming next week, should I cancel my trip?’” he said. “It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Of the 16 confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany, 14 are linked to the car parts manufacturer Webasto, which reopened its headquarters in Stockdorf last week.

A Chinese employee of the company who is based in Shanghai had visited the Bavarian headquarters for meetings in mid-January.

The employee’s parents had visited her from Wuhan Province, the center of the epidemic, just before she traveled to Germany, and she began showing symptoms on her return flight to China. That same evening, a German employee became ill and was the first German person diagnosed with the coronavirus.

The next day, with three infections reported, the company closed its headquarters — where about 1,000 managers, designers and engineers work — for two weeks in an effort to stop the virus from spreading further.

But outsiders avoided the village, associating it with the coronavirus, local leaders said.

Ludwig Harter, who runs a local cafe, says his business was down 50 percent since news of the local outbreak made national headlines.

“It’s everyone — older ladies and gentlemen, young mothers — many of our customers stopped coming,” said Mr. Harter.

Employees of Webasto said that schools and day care centers were reluctant to take their children, according to Nadine Schian, a spokeswoman for the company. Others reported that their partners had to be tested for the virus before they could go to work.

In one widely reported case, a man who brought his car to his regular mechanic was refused service because he worked for Webasto.

“It’s a small village,” Ms. Schian said. “Everyone knows everyone.”

Megan Specia reported from London, Constant Méheut from Paris and Christopher F. Schuetze from Berlin.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/event/in-europe-fear-spreads-faster-than-the-coronavirus-itself-2/

Pre-War Companions P1

Cait: Grew up in an abusive household as a unwanted child by the hands of her parents in a shitty little apartment. Cait was eventually abandoned in the streets of Boston when she was a little girl, eventually raised by the system and put into a foster home(cait was fine with that). Cait rarely attended school, only going for cafeteria food, a place to settle if the weather was bad, or when her probation officer caught her. She got introduced to drugs by hanging out with the bad crowd, she got into fights often in school, on the streets, or at the foster home. When Cait was a teenager she realized she was going to get kicked out in a few years when she turns 18, so she dropped out of school to start working so she could be able to provide for herself. She couldn’t keep a job due to her aggressive nature, eventually having to live with the “friends” she made in exchange for “favors”,Cait ended up as a street walker for a few years(they were the worst years of her life), she became a “slave” to the people who might as well owned her. By stealing from her clients, Cait payed off the people she owed and had enough to buy a place of her own. Still requiring work; Cait worked as a bouncer at a local bar, her employer and landlord, Tommy, also operated an illegal underground fight club and was impressed by her fighting skills when she delt with drunks that were twice her size. Tommy offered if she were to fight in matches for him; not only would she win some of the money that was bet on her, plus the money she earns at her day job, Tommy would no longer charge her rent if he got most of what she won at the fight club. Cait reluctantly agreed. Tommy eventually grew fond of Cait and started giving her 50% of what she earned at the “Combat Zone”,he now worries about her drug addiction and her suspected suicidal tenancies and urges her to go to rehab.

Codsworth: The mister handy will still be of service to the sole survivor and their family. Codsworth would continue to do the domestic work he has been programed to do whether it’s cleaning the house, taking care of baby Shaun when his parents have to go to work or go out on a date night, staying home and giving the local children candy on Halloween while his owners take their son out trick or treating. Codsworth will always be there for the sole survivor’s family while also being considered a member as well, watching baby Shaun grow up by Sole and their spouse’s side until he left for college, even still being by the sole survivor’s side in their elderly years. When the sole survivor and their spouse pass away, a now fully grown up Shaun takes him in for Codsworth is and will forever be a part of the family for generations to come and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Curie: Since the bombs haven’t dropped; the miss nanny unit silently sits in the vault 81 laboratory waiting to be powered up to aid the scientist in one of the vault tech experiments. Alternatively if this specific miss nanny unit wasn’t purchased by vault tech, she’d be taken in by the local Boston family clinic and aids the doctors care for their patients, the children love her gentle and motherly like personality making it easier for those who come in for their vaccine shots and are rewarded for their bravery(not crying to much)with treats. It’s unlikely Curie would have had her personality subroutines altered, not in the same way Dr.Collins has, so she’d merely be a regular default miss nanny robot.

Danse: He doesn’t remember much of his childhood, his earliest memory was a police officer comforting him when he was being dropped off at the Washington Children’s Foster home, promising they’d visit the poor sniffling toddler. Growing up Danse was always an independent and quiet child, always keeping to himself, except when he’s doesn’t(Danse was the tattletale). He eventually befriended the officer’s son, Cutler, they became best friends growing up. Danse started providing for himself by getting a job at a young age as a newspaper boy, he was an intelligent boy, always doing well in his classes all the way up to high school, he was also very active in sports such as football, baseball, and even took some martial art classes(even though hand-to-hand combat isn’t his strong suit). Though many of his peers looked up to him for his achievements, he only ever socialized if necessary(he’s gets really uncomfortable at social gatherings, especially high school parties Cutler dragged him to). After he and Cutler graduated, they both enlisted into the U.S. Army and fought in the Sino-American war. Danse served in the 2nd Battalion, 108th Infantry Regiment, due to his outstanding performance in the field, Danse was one of the first few soldiers to take the new T-45 power armor model into combat. Cutler was eventually killed in combat, when the news reached Danse, he went numb and relied on his orders to be able to press on in the war. After the liberation of Alaska, Danse was on leave traveling to Boston for an event he has been invited to at Concord to honor the Veterans and war heroes who fought in Alaska. Danse eventually decided to start a new life in Boston moving to the country side in a quiet little home near a military base, joining the civilian work force for a career in the Boston’s Police Department. Danse settled down in his quiet little home reflecting on his life as a patriotic all American man, recalling his time in the military, listening to the radio playing country music while looking out his porch with a faint feeling of something or someone missing from his life. 

Deacon: It’s unknown where the mysterious man who calls himself Deacon originated from. Some have seen him in California all the way to New York, others have claimed they’ve served with him in the military during the war, some have said “he” wasn’t always a he. Then rumors have gone around saying he’s been seen in movies, preaching at churches, at the Super Duper Mart, working at amusement parks, at the local bars, in their bedroom, etc. Though it’s been reported that the mysterious man always wears a pair of sunglasses; he always seems to be watching someone, waiting, watching through your window as you read. 

The One with the Skirmish || Seblaine

Date: March 24th, 2017

Location: Baby Grand NYC and Seblaine’s Apartment.

Who: Blaine Anderson & Sebastian Smythe

Notes: Blaine is bummed about not performing or being in the spotlight in a while so Sebastian takes him out to karaoke night at a bar in hopes to cheer him up. They encounter Kurt while at the bar and words are exchanged, leading to a scare.

skir·mishˈ /skərmiSH/ noun

1.an episode of irregular or unpremeditated fighting, especially between small or outlying parts of armies or fleets. synonyms: fight, battle, clash, conflict, encounter, engagement, fray, combat "the unit was caught up in a skirmish"

verb

1.engage in a skirmish."reports of skirmishing along the border" synonyms: fight, (do) battle with, engage with, close with, combat, clash with "they skirmished with enemy soldiers"

.........

Sebastian Smythe:

It had been a long time since Sebastian had been in the limelight. As a Warbler and egomaniac, Sebastian always appreciated being front and center with all eyes on him. He liked the way being in the Warblers made him feel and he knew all those feelings were felt a hundredfold in Blaine’s shoes. Blaine was born to perform and he noticed his boyfriend become a little withdrawn and down-in-the-dumps when the only one who had recently enjoyed his voice was himself and the showerhead. Sebastian suggested they go out to a bar-- just the two of them-- and have a little fun on karaoke night. He even brushed up on a little choreography that Blaine wanted to do onstage whenever they would sing a duet.

Sebastian found the perfect little place for the two of them to sing; a small bar found in Lower Manhattan, near Little Italy. The place would be intimate enough that he and Blaine could enjoy quality time together despite other patrons present. He debated whether they should sing “Uptown Girl” for old-time’s sake; Blaine was the type to melt at the feeling of nostalgia.

Before they left for the karaoke bar, Sebastian checked himself out in his full-sized mirror. He was sharply dressed-- well-fit black jeans coupled with an azure dress shirt-- but he knew he was missing something. The top button below his collar undone, he upturned the collar and grinned to himself. Throughout high school and college, he wore polos and favored popping the collar. When he moved on and got a job, however, he had to stop to appear professional. Sometimes he wondered if he should bring back the look. When Blaine emerged from the bathroom from fixing his hair, Sebastian turned to him and waggled his eyebrows. “Looks good, hm?” He asked, gesturing to his popped collar. “Remember when I used to wear my shirts like this?”

Blaine Anderson:

It had been a little while since Blaine had come to a halt with auditioning for anything Broadway or Off-Broadway related and it had been even longer since he had sang just for fun and he missed it. He missed just getting up on a stage and feeling whatever music he chose, closing his eyes and just letting go. Blaine always felt the most himself and most alive when he was on a stage-- even more alive than when he was Nightbird-- so when Sebastian suggested they go out for a karaoke night he was really looking forward to it.

He felt excited as he got dressed for the evening, going through his list of favorite songs in his mind as he donned one of his short-sleeved button-ups, tucking it into his favorite pair of red chinos and finishing off his look with a sheet music bow-tie.  After he was all dressed and he fixed his hair, he exited the bathroom. Blaine walked into the bedroom, adjusting his bow tie as his eyes went over his boyfriend who was standing in front of their big mirror, a smile tugged at his mouth. "Mmm, look at you." He said as he got close to Sebastian, chuckling softly as he bragged about his popped collar. "You look so handsome, babe." Blaine crinkled his nose as he reached up to Sebastian's collar, tugging it up gently. "You still insist on this popped-collar business, huh?" He tried his best to hide his half-grimace through a smile. Even though it went all through him when Sebastian wore his collar that way he was just too cute to reprimand for his poor fashion choices because despite them he was still extremely attractive. Shaking his head gently, he chuckled once more before tugging the taller closer by his collar and pressing a kiss to his lips.

"So, this place we're going to tonight, have you been before?" He asked as they made their way out of the apartment and downstairs to catch a cab. Judging by Sebastian's description of the place he had assumed he'd been there before but he was still curious, excited to try a new place. As they stepped out onto the sidewalk, Blaine showed his cab-catching skills once again by slipping the tip of his fingers in his mouth and whistling so loud that it echoed through the busy street. A smug smile settled on his face when not one, but two cabs stopped for him. He walked over to one of them, waving the other off politely before opening the door for Sebastian.

Sebastian Smythe:

Sebastian knew even though Blaine tried his best to compliment him, he wasn’t digging the upturned collar. He knew it was an outdated look and even then it kind of made Sebastian look like an asshole. Before they left for the bar, Sebastian decided against the upturned collar, knowing he looked better without it. It wouldn’t be good if it looked like Blaine was dating a sleazebag; he didn’t want anyone trying to steal him away while they were at the bar.

“I haven’t actually been there before but I heard about this place from a co-worker and when I checked it out online, it had some pretty good reviews.” Sebastian replied to Blaine’s question. It was true that his opinion of the karaoke bar was purely based on word of mouth and whatever he’d found online but it seemed much more promising than the previous bar they’d visited. “It’s got four stars on Yelp and lots of people on there say it’s got great cocktails.” When they got downstairs, Sebastian pulled out his phone to show Blaine pictures. There was a lighted marquee sign above the bar that read, “Baby Grand”. He knew the atmosphere and aesthetic was right up Blaine’s alley.

A grin pulled at his lips when Blaine hailed for a cab, both impressed and slightly aroused at how much the man had mastered that art. “You’re extremely hot, y’know that?” He told Blaine as they got into the cab. “I don’t think I’ve ever met any New Yorker that can call a cab as well as you can.” Sebastian rattled off the address to the driver, who luckily was familiar with the bar and knew the shortest route off the top of his head.

It wasn’t a long drive to the club and when they arrived, Sebastian was a tad taken aback at how small the place was. Standing at less than 250 square feet, Sebastian wasn’t even sure they could actually fit an entire baby grand piano in the joint. Once they entered, they were face-to-face with the bar and the handful of patrons inside. It was only a few people short of becoming a full house, giving the impression that Sebastian made the right choice by arriving early. It was only a little past nine in the evening when they arrived. “Jeez, I didn’t realize how tiny this place was gonna be…” Sebastian grumbled to Blaine, slightly unhappy at the tight quarters. Before either could decide whether it was worth it to stay or find another bar, the bartender greeted the two of them cheerfully, ushering them to a tiny, open space at the bar.

“You two cuties lookin’ to do a little singing tonight?” The bartender, an older woman, asked the two men. She pulled out a binder marked “songlist” from under the bar and handed it to them with a wink of the eye. She seemed friendly and looking at the drink menu set in front of them, it was obvious why exactly this tiny little bar was so popular among locals. “The queue gets pretty long if you don’t hurry; what can I start you two off with to drink?”

Sebastian told Blaine that it was his treat tonight; he would pay for the drinks and whatever songs they decided to sing tonight, noting that the drink prices displayed were on the steeper side. It made sense that such a small place with very little foot traffic demanded a higher price for drinks but he hoped that at least part of it had to do with the quality of the drink. Knowing that alcohol did nothing to him anymore because of his heightened metabolism-- not to mention his useless neurologist had instructed he avoid alcohol until they could better understand the cause of his seizures-- Sebastian decided on a virgin Mojito.

“Do you know what you want to sing?” He asked, looking over to the little nook where the small karaoke machine sat. There was already someone singing along to Bryan Adams’ Cuts Like a Knife and a couple patrons seated along the opposite wall were singing along.

 Blaine Anderson:

Blaine only nodded when Sebastian spoke of the karaoke bar. He trusted his boyfriend's judgment when it came to them going out, even though their last outing to a bar didn't go very well. He still wanted to give Sebastian the benefit of the doubt. And the pictures looked promising even though the place looked small, he was excited to experience something new with Sebastian. Blaine chuckled at Sebastian's compliment when they were seated in the cab, shrugging with a grin. "Well, what can I say? I'm a true New Yorker." He crinkled his nose.

When they arrived at Baby Grand, Blaine raised his eyebrows at the place when he saw how tiny the place really was. It was a tad jarring. When they stepped inside, it didn't take much time to look around and take in the entirety of their surroundings. Blaine could tell when he glanced up at the taller that he wasn't exactly thrilled with how the new place turned out to be, he took his hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Hey, don't grumble." He smiled sweetly at his boyfriend, shaking his head. "It's adorable. I like it." Blaine bit his lip as he looked around, observing the crowd, noting the mix of people their age and slightly older. It seemed like a decent enough place, he was certainly up for trying out the new place even though Sebastian seemed disappointed but he wouldn't make the taller stay if he really didn't want to. That was until the woman from the bar approached them and showed them the way to the only open space left at the bar, giving them the book of songs.

Blaine gave her his most polite, charming smile and thanking her for the help he ordered one of the club’s specialty drinks-- something with fruity flavors and rum. "We'll just sing one or two songs and then if we don't wanna stay we can find another karaoke bar- we can karaoke bar hop tonight if you want." He pressed his lips to Sebastian's cheek, slipping his arm around Sebastian's waist to lean into him as they looked at the list of songs in front of them. "Hmm," Blaine hummed, letting his pointer finger follow his eyes down the list before stopping on the song that caught his eye. "Oh, this one! You know that one, right?" He asked, his finger tapping the words Everything Has Changed by Taylor Swift Ft. Ed Sheeran. Blaine had loved that song since it came out; it always made him think of Sebastian and he even had a deeper fondness for it now that they were together.

Blaine wrote down their name on the list of performers to secure their spot, glancing at the list again to see what else was on it. "Do you just wanna do the one or do you wanna sign up for two? There are enough slots open still right now."

 Sebastian Smythe:

Sebastian almost felt like he should apologize since the bar was not what either of them expected. It seemed that even though the place was small, Blaine was making the most of their little adventure. He grinned excitedly at the suggestion of them going bar hopping; maybe they would find an amazing bar to frequent in the future. He hummed softly, a low thrumming in his chest as Blaine scooted closer as they perused through the song list together. He recognized songs throughout the pages but nothing really jumped out at him. Instead he relished in being close to his boyfriend and enjoyed the fact that they were on this date together.

When Blaine picked out a song for the two of them to sing, Sebastian nodded as he recognized the title. “Yes, I definitely know that one.” He knew the song well; while Blaine probably knew more Taylor Swift songs than him, Sebastian was probably more familiar with Ed Sheeran. Their collaborated song and its lyrics were something he’d attributed to Blaine though that was also true for many love songs. “Let’s just do the one for now and see how we like this place after we’ve had a few drinks.” He pointed to a flyer that advertised the bar’s “fortune cookie-oke” where anyone could buy a fortune cookie stuffed with the name of a random song. “We could do that. I also like the idea of going bar hopping; We can sing ‘til the sun comes up, killer.”

The bartender returned shortly with their drinks and made sure to enter the selected song into the queue. Sebastian handed off a few bills to pay for their drinks and the song. “To us,” he clinked glasses with his boyfriend. After a few more people sang, the bar began receiving a little more foot traffic and soon every seat at the bar and opposite wall were filled. People still filtered in and ordered drinks even if they couldn't sit. By then Sebastian had completely forgotten how tiny the little place felt, paying attention only to Blaine as they spoke and chatted animatedly about whatever happened to come up-- with them it seemed there wasn't ever a boring topic discussed. Before either of them knew it, their song was next.

Walking up to the karaoke machine, Sebastian handed off one of the microphones to his boyfriend. The patrons had their eyes on both of them, watching expectantly as the music started. Sebastian glanced over at Blaine with a smug look on his face, knowing that the bar had no idea how much talent was packed between them. Blaine had the first verse to himself which gave Sebastian some time to just watch his boyfriend perform. He watched with a proud look on his face, smiling brightly whenever Blaine turned to look his way.

Soon it was Sebastian’s turn to sing and he joined in, harmonizing with Blaine’s voice. As expected, their voices sounded sexy together and it was a damn shame they had waited this long to perform together. After the first chorus, Sebastian took the lead with the next verse. Though somewhat unpracticed, his voice still rang out bright and clear.

And all my walls stood tall painted blue And I'll take them down, take them down and open up the door for you

As they both sang to each other and Sebastian thrived in the feeling of being in the spotlight and finally singing a duet with Blaine, neither noticed that someone familiar had walked into the bar. Instead, Sebastian noticed that people were actively engaged in their performance, some even taking pictures or videos of them singing.

 Blaine Anderson:

Blaine grinned when Sebastian agreed to his song choice, agreeing to the idea of just singing the one song and maybe splitting to go to a different bar. He definitely liked the idea of spending the night out with Sebastian exploring their city and maybe finding some place they could frequent to call their place. "To us." He parroted Sebastian's words as their glasses clinked, taking a generous sip of his drink, humming in satisfaction that the drink was definitely very well made and tasty-- worth the price.

He was having a really great time with Sebastian as they hung out together,  talking about everything and nothing all at once. They stayed close together in the cramped establishment, though it didn't seem so terribly small once they were in their own little world together.  The time was flying by, sharing laughs and comments about the singers ahead of them when they would watch or listen to whoever was performing.  By the time it was finally their turn to sing, Blaine's drink was empty and he was even more excited and relaxed at the same time.

Blaine took the microphone as Sebastian handed it over, an excited grin spreading across his face as they shared a glance. The excitement from being on the stage-- even if it was extremely tiny-- caused Blaine’s stomach to do flips. He felt nervous considering it had been awhile since he had sung anything in front of anyone that wasn’t on the casting committee of a show, but it was because of that very reason that he felt confident at the same time. Singing in front of a crowd just for fun felt so good; it gave him life and when the music started he could feel it begin to run through his veins, though his entire body. As he softly sang out the first few words of the song, he looked over at Sebastian and couldn’t help the smile that appeared on his face.

It also felt great to finally be singing with Sebastian, especially this song that he had always secretly kept to himself as their song. The emotions that he felt in that moment were almost overwhelming as their voices melted together to sing.

'Cause all I know is we said, "Hello." And your eyes look like coming home All I know is a simple name Everything has changed All I know is you held the door You'll be mine and I'll be yours All I know since yesterday is everything has changed

Blaine gravitated closer to Sebastian as they sang, gently running his fingertips down his forearm to lace their fingers together. Once again they somehow managed to block out everything else in the world and it was only the two of them singing their hearts out to one another in their own little world. Moments like that were the moments when he really allowed himself to feel the things he felt for Sebastian and he was definitely head over heels for the man. It wasn’t until the song came to an end when the audience started clapping and cheering for them, that he snapped out of it. He grinned and giggled softly, taking a bow before clapping for Sebastian. He was so wrapped up in the moment that he almost didn’t notice the woman from the bar earlier waving his way from the side of the stage closest to the bar with something in her hand. “They love you. You already have a song request, cutie!” She smiled brightly at him, handing him a fortune cookie. He recognized it right away from the flyer Sebastian had pointed out before.

His brow furrowed slightly and he chuckled. “Oh, wow, really? For me?” Blaine glanced at Sebastian with a shrug before opening it up. “Someone has given me a cookie-oke and let’s see..” He spoke in the microphone before breaking it open to reveal the piece of paper. The name of the song made his stomach churn slowly, his smile faltering. “Teenage Dream.” Blaine exhaled, chuckling nervously as he glanced at the audience before looking at Sebastian, scrunching his face a little and shaking his head. He didn’t want to hear that song ever again much less sing it; it was too close to Kurt and he didn’t want to put himself or Sebastian through the horribly uncomfortable three minutes and forty-seven seconds it would take to choke out that song. “I-I...I don’t really know that one too well. I wouldn’t feel comfortable.” He cleared his throat, his cheeks flushing a little at the awkwardness he felt so suddenly. “Maybe someone else--”

“Aw, c’mon Blaine!” He was interrupted by a very recognizable voice in the crowd that made his stomach drop and the color drain from his face. “You could sing that song in your sleep. You can do it! Woo!” Kurt cheered for him, clapping his hands together.

Blaine found Kurt in the tiny sea of people, making eye contact with him just long enough to cause a wave of nausea to hit him before he looked to Sebastian. All of a sudden he really wasn’t feeling the bar anymore and he wished it hadn’t been so tiny. There wasn’t much room for an escape when the place was so tiny-- meaning he would have to face his soon-to-be ex-husband.

 Sebastian Smythe:

Sebastian had thoroughly enjoyed himself onstage, allowing himself to be fully submersed into the performance. He followed the other’s lead and pulled him closer-- the two of them just standing and looking lovingly into each other’s eyes. Their strong bond was obviously displayed for everyone to see and anyone who even just glimpsed at them could tell they were a close couple. It wasn’t until after the song finished and the applause from the bar broke Sebastian out of the spell that was Blaine Anderson. He clapped for Blaine and took a bow himself, the two of them true performers. When Blaine had been called to the side of the stage, Sebastian followed closely and one of the patrons asked him if they were professional singers. Though it was within Sebastian’s automatic response to gloat, he shook his head and modestly corrected her. “Not me; this guy will be one day soon, though,” he told the patron before pointing to his boyfriend.

When he looked over at Blaine, Sebastian noticed that he was holding one of those fortune “cookie-oke” things and a proud feeling filled his chest. It seemed Blaine’s fan club had its newest member. He looked over Blaine’s shoulder and watched as he broke open the cookie. He read the title of the song before Blaine even uttered it out loud. Sebastian had heard many things about this song. It was a song that Blaine once held very close to his heart and it had meant a lot to him. The song was forever tarnished because of one Kurt Hummel.

Sebastian spun around and scanned the bar for a familiar face as Blaine tried to politely decline to sing. As soon as he locked eyes with who he was looking for, he saw red. Kurt was pushing through the crowd of people and encouraged Blaine to sing the song, very clearly using the song against him. Without hesitation, Sebastian searched for his boyfriend’s hand and once he had it firmly in his hold, he pulled him in the direction of the exit. Even if they had to barrel right through Kurt, he wasn’t planning on letting the little weasel subject Blaine to this.

“You’ve sung that song more times than I can count,” Kurt stated, as the couple tried to move past him. Sebastian stopped in his tracks and grit his teeth as he glared at the shorter man, all of his negative feelings for him bubbling to the surface. Kurt was well-dressed for a night out and held himself in a way that just screamed “holier-than-thou”.

“Haven’t you already put Blaine through enough?!” Sebastian shot back, getting in Kurt’s face. He made sure to put himself directly in front of Blaine, wanting to shield him away. “You and I both know exactly what that song means and you’re an asshole for even suggesting he sing it.”

Kurt scoffed and an amused smile worked its way onto his face as he loosely crossed his arms over his chest. “That song is the cornerstone of mine and Blaine’s entire relationship and he’s sung it to me many times-- Even on our wedding night.” It seemed to please Kurt that from his perspective he was the one that married Blaine, not Sebastian. “And last time I checked, Sebastian: Blaine’s still my husband.”

“Yeah, some husband you are,” Sebastian shook his head and looked behind Kurt at the older man who was apparently accompanying him. “And who the fuck is this? The guy you’ve been cheating on Blaine with for the better part of a year?” The older man was as sharply dressed as Kurt, and Sebastian’s couldn’t help but notice the expensive gold watch donning the man’s wrist. The unnamed man just stared blankly at Sebastian, as if he was in no position to comment or that he couldn’t be bothered to address Sebastian’s questions. “Blaine might still be married to you but that’s just a legality at this point. If he’s your husband why is all of his stuff at my place and why does he sleep in my bed with me?”

At that point, Kurt’s expression changed and he frowned as if Sebastian’s last comment actually bothered him. He looked past the taller man, searching for his husband’s eyes. “Blaine, this is why you’ll never make it-- this mentality you have that keeps low-class company like this one here is what’s holding you back.” He looked away from Blaine to sneer at Sebastian, “But I should’ve known as soon as you left that he’d come swooping in to steal you away-- as if he hasn’t been waiting since high school for this to happen. Pathetic.”

 Blaine Anderson:

When Sebastian took Blaine's hand he held it tightly, letting him lead through the crowd. He didn't want to do this; he didn't want to see Kurt or talk to him. He had been avoiding him for a reason and he wanted nothing to do with any kind of conversation that Kurt had in mind for them. Blaine kept his eyes down as he followed Sebastian towards the exit, taking a deep breath to calm himself a little, hoping they could escape without any words exchanged but unfortunately Kurt just had to step in their way and say something else and Sebastian couldn't let it go unaddressed.

Blaine crossed his arms as Sebastian stood in front of him, feeling guilty that he felt like curling into himself rather than fighting his own battle. He only lifted his head after Sebastian spoke and Kurt spat back his own sass. He knew Sebastian would only get angrier as the exchange continued and he knew that Kurt wasn't going to be the bigger person; he was going to provoke them until he got the satisfaction of ruining their night even further. "Seb," He placed his hand on his boyfriend's arm, about to tell him to just ignore Kurt but he bit his tongue when Kurt threw the word husband into the conversation as if it meant anything anymore.

Blaine's forehead wrinkled as he looked at Kurt, listening to the words that he continued to spit at Sebastian, it was like he didn't even recognize him anymore. His eyes glanced to the guy standing behind Kurt, giving him a once-over and taking note of his appearance.  The guy was nice-looking, and judging by the way he was dressed he was obviously much wealthier than Blaine. Blaine figured that's where Kurt had been getting the money to pitch in for bills when they were still living together. It made him sick to his stomach to think of Kurt and that guy having sex just for Kurt to come home to Blaine and fight with him as if he was the one in their marriage that was screwing everything up. He tried his best to avoid eye contact with his almost-ex-husband but when he insulted Sebastian, Blaine locked eyes with him.

"You are truly something else, Kurt." Blaine said, stepping out from behind Sebastian, crossing his arms and shaking his head. "I can't believe you can be so petty after all that we have been through." His voice shook slightly, attempting to keep himself from getting too upset. He knew if he got upset enough he would begin to cry and no one-- especially Kurt-- would take him seriously. "For your information, Sebastian was there for me when you weren't. You know, while you were having sex with-- Who are you?" He asked, looking towards the older man behind Kurt. "Is he someone's grandfather? Who is he even? Did you meet him at one of your old folk's home excursions?" Blaine was surprised at his words but he didn't back down, allowing himself to feel the frustration and negative feelings he was earlier trying to suppress. "It doesn't make any sense to insult Sebastian for holding me back when literally I have only been with him for a couple of months-- where as I was with you the entire time I was trying to make it-- so you just insulted yourself."

Kurt raised his eyebrows at Blaine's remark, clearly offended by the snarky dig. Crossing his own arms he scoffed. "I see you've had quite the impression on my husband, Smythe." He looked at Blaine, shaking his head. "Look at how he's changed you already: singing in dive bars, picking fights in said bars. Not very classy, Blainey."

"You don't get to call me that anymore; you lost your right the moment you decided to have sex with someone else." Blaine bit back, glancing between the two men in front of him, a confused expression scrunching his face. "What is wrong with you anyway? " His question was directed towards Kurt's man-friend before turning his attention to Kurt again. "Does it not bother him that you still call me your husband? Or that you won't just sign the divorce papers? It doesn't make any sense. I didn't pick a fight in a bar; are you crazy?" He was genuinely confused by what was going on. He chuckled softly, uncrossing his arms and rubbing his face.

"He understands my situation and we have an ‘open-ish’ relationship. It's not a big deal,"  Kurt's forehead wrinkled. "Blaine, I wasn't going to sign anything until we talked." He sighed, reaching to take Blaine's wrist gently, attempting to capture his attention enough to make him focus on just him. "We haven't spoken since you left and all of a sudden I'm being served divorce papers and Santana and Sam are in my apartment taking your stuff? Was I really expected to just quietly sign the papers and let you go without any kind of fight? Honey, come on." Kurt put on his best performance, his voice was soft and probably would have been convincing for someone who didn't know the types of games he played. "We've been through so much together, you just want to throw it away? You know he's just going to leave you." He whispered the last sentence softer than his previous words.

Blaine's honey eyes were cast down to the floor as Kurt had a hold of his wrist, the words coming out of his mouth swirling around his head.  He didn't like the way Kurt spoke to him, it made him feel insecure and tense-- very reminiscent of the fights they would have when Kurt would manipulate Blaine into feeling guilty for whatever it was they were fighting about even if it wasn't his fault. The familiar guilty feeling started to creep in on him and it made his eyes begin to burn with tears, only making him feel more frustrated that Kurt still had any effect on him whatsoever. He closed his eyes tightly, taking a second to attempt and pull his thoughts together before he shook his head. "N-no. I just...why can't you just sign the papers and leave it? You are the one who decided to ruin our marriage. I tried so hard to keep it together, to fix it -- why can't you just sign the papers and leave me alone. Why does it feel like your one mission in life is to make sure I am always unhappy?"

 Sebastian Smythe:

While Blaine snapped at Kurt and told him off, Sebastian had his eyes trained on the latter with a deadly look in his eye. He was fuming at the fact that the man standing in front of him had the gall to point his finger at Blaine and blame him for a number of things when he was the one being unfaithful. When Kurt reached out to his husband and gently grabbed his wrist, the physical contact had Sebastian balling his fists at his sides. It felt like his body trembled with rage. He saw the way Blaine immediately shrank back it took everything in him not to punch Kurt square in the jaw.

Kurt looked hurt from what Blaine had said to him and he shook his head, a look of desperation across his face. “Blaine, I don’t want to make you unhappy--” he argued in an attempt to defend himself. Before Kurt could say anything further, Sebastian stepped in and pushed the two apart, severing Kurt’s hold on his boyfriend.

“Back off, Hummel.” Sebastian all but snarled, taking a step closer, well within Kurt’s personal space. “You don’t know Blaine and you don’t know me. I’m not going to be anything like you,” he jabbed his finger into Kurt’s chest, “I’m not going to leave Blaine! See, unlike you, I actually love Blaine.”

“As if you have even the slightest what love actually looks like.” Kurt slapped away Sebastian’s hand and scoffed. He copied Sebastian and took a step forward himself, causing the taller to step back. It was very clear that Sebastian hadn’t intimidated him and had every intention to stand his ground. “I’m not afraid of you, Smythe. I don’t know what crazy things you did or said to Blaine to get him thinking you’ve changed but I see right through you-- you haven’t changed one bit since high school; you’re still the same sleazy, evil bully you’ve always been. You don’t deserve Blaine.”

That last statement caused Sebastian to falter, uncertain of how to reply. All he knew was Kurt no longer had any place to say anything about Blaine. “Listen, asshole--” Sebastian had meant to take another step forward to intimidate Kurt but instead he lost his balance and staggered back, swaying enough that he reached out for something to grasp onto to steady himself. Amidst his rage, he had not noticed the fact that he was feeling light-headed-- outright dizzy, even. He shook his head and he could practically feel Blaine’s worried eyes boring through him even without looking in his direction. “Fuck...” His mind blanked and he suddenly forgot what he was about to say or even how to say it as he nearly fell back and suddenly felt Blaine’s hand shooting out and grabbing hold to steady him. He blinked and stuttered over his words, probably looking like an idiot.

“Look at you-- You’re an angry, drunk mess! Real classy.” Kurt looked from Sebastian to Blaine, as if trying to reason with his husband. “Blaine, you can’t possibly be serious about him; this is just some sick, messed-up way to get back at me, right?”

Blaine Anderson:

Blaine noticed the way Kurt’s words affected Sebastian, the guilt inside of him growing into a bigger ball in his stomach. He felt awful for subjecting his boyfriend to this torment; he already knew how insecurities caused Sebastian to doubt their relationship, he didn't need Kurt in his face saying the very thing the taller feared every day.

He sniffled back the tears that had built up, shaking his head and frowning as he looked at Kurt. He was just about to add to their heated exchange when he glanced towards Sebastian as he staggered back. Blaine’s heart jumped into his throat and his stomach twisted. All of a sudden nothing else mattered but Sebastian. “Babe, whoa… Hey--” He firmly grasped his arm enough to make sure if he happened to fall over, Blaine could catch him. “Are you okay?” He asked stupidly, knowing that he wasn't. The first thought that came to him was that Sebastian was getting too angry and he was going to have another seizure-- right there on the floor of the bar. He had to get him out of there and away from Kurt; he needed to calm him down. “C’mere,” Blaine slipped his arm around the taller’s waist. It was probably a good time to leave anyway considering their argument had gained attention and it looked like they were about to be thrown out anyway.

“Oh, please, Blaine. You are--” Kurt began, but before he could finish, the shorter snapped at him.

“No, Kurt.” He said, his voice an octave higher and clearly angrier than before. Blaine's face was dead serious and not having it. His expression and voice clearly came as a surprise to Kurt as he jumped slightly as if startled. “You don't know anything.” That was the last thing he said before giving his boyfriend his full attention. “C’mon Seb.” He guided Sebastian out of the karaoke bar and walked him just a little way down to a nearby bench. “Sit, sit.” He ushered the taller to sit down, sitting with him. He placed his hands on each side of Sebastian's cheeks, making him look at him. “Hey, look at me.”

Blaine spoke in a soft voice to the other, gazing at him worriedly and yet focused with his honey eyes. He was scared to death of Sebastian having another seizure but he knew he had to hold himself together the best he could so he could calm his boyfriend down. “It's okay, calm down, okay?” He could still feel the heat from Sebastian's anger radiating from his cheeks as he caressed them gently with his thumbs. “Don't let him get to you; don't listen to him. He doesn't know anything. Just take a deep breath-- c'mon, breathe with me.” Blaine gazed into Sebastian's eyes and took a deep breath, nodding for the other to follow his actions, trying to calm himself down as well as he could feel his own hands trembling.

 Sebastian Smythe:

Sebastian still had a lot to say to Kurt but suddenly Blaine was leading him out of the bar. Even with Blaine’s arm around his waist, he couldn’t walk straight and he nearly tripped. With Kurt no longer in his line of sight, Sebastian became very aware that there was something off about his surroundings. His entire body buzzed and he couldn’t seem to think straight-- all he knew was that he was angry at Kurt. He had barely heard what his boyfriend had said to him in the bar and it wasn’t until they sat down and he was staring into Blaine’s eyes that he realized he should be listening. He felt Blaine’s icy cold hands against his cheeks and realized it wasn’t that Blaine’s hands were cold but that his face was red hot. 

“Bl-Blaine, I’m fine,” he protested, still obviously worked up. “I just-- I just lost my footing, I’m fine. I probably just drank too much.” He tried to insist to Blaine that he was fine but in truth his head was spinning even from just sitting still on the bench. Kurt’s words echoed in his head loud enough to drown out any voice of reason coming from Blaine. He thought about how Kurt called him out on being a bully and for being unsuitable for Blaine. They were Sebastian’s own dark thoughts that plagued him for a long time, spoken out loud. It made Sebastian feel unworthy and he hated that those words came from Kurt Hummel. Usually, Kurt’s words would just roll off his back without a second thought but not this time. “I want to go back and tell Kurt--”

Something interrupted Sebastian: a tickling sensation that ran from his nose and down and over his lips. He instinctively wiped the underside of his nose, discovering a deep red staining his fingers. “... Fuck,” he swore as he pulled away from Blaine to wipe at his bloody nose, this time with his sleeve. The color was especially contrasted against his light blue shirt. This was just like the last time he fought with Nightbird-- a sudden, onset bloody nose with no discernable cause. He leaned back against the back of the bench and tilted his head back. The coppery taste of blood flooded his mouth as it ran down the back of his throat. He wasn’t sure what he was going to tell Blaine; this wasn’t the first time he had a nosebleed for no reason but it was the first time he had one in front of him.

 Blaine Anderson:

Blaine shook his head, closing his eyes, about to protest Sebastian going back and saying anything more to Kurt at all. He wasn't worth the obvious heightening of his blood pressure and whatever words Sebastian had left to say to Kurt were definitely not worth the seizure he may or may not have. "No--" When he opened his eyes, he stopped talking, the worry that was building only tying itself into a bigger, heavier knot in his stomach. When Sebastian pulled away to wipe the blood that was dripping from his nose,  Blaine shook his head again. "Oh-oh my god, Sebastian." He lifted up on the bench just enough to reach into his back pocket and pull out his handkerchief.

"Babe, this is not from drinking too much." He said with a skeptical tone, wrinkling his forehead as he placed the cloth against the other's nose gently. "You only had one--" He remembered back to when they ordered their drinks and he furrowed his brow even further. "And it was a virgin. No." Blaine knew better than to think this was because of the non-alcoholic beverage his boyfriend consumed. He knew in his gut that the nosebleed had to be connected to the seizure somehow.

For a brief moment he thought it odd that this was the second time he'd been with someone whose nose was bleeding-- though with The Flash he had assumed it was because the superhero's own power caused his own nosebleed when Nightbird used The Flash's lightning against him. But still, the memory crossed his mind in that moment.

"You're dizzy-- just like when you had a seizure." His voice shook even though it was clear he was doing everything in his power to stay calm enough to handle the situation. It was weird to him, the way he reacted when things went wrong with Sebastian. When he was Nightbird, he knew how to handle situations with little to no emotion-- he had even saved Kurt once from a mugger in an alleyway as Nightbird and he didn't bat an eye. He was trained by his mother on how to handle himself in a crisis and the always seemed to falter when Sebastian was involved. It scared him because that meant Sebastian was his weakness- it even further solidified the fact that Sebastian could never know he was Nightbird, and no one could ever know Sebastian meant anything to Nightbird. Blaine feared any situation where Nightbird might have to step in to rescue Sebastian because he didn't know how he would react to it.

"Just… Just please calm down." He said, using the handkerchief to wipe away a little bit of the blood that trickled towards the taller's lip. Blaine tried his best to mask the fact that he was shaking internally because he was terrified of what this bloody nose might mean. He knew Sebastian and he knew his nose didn’t just bleed for no reason-- he didn’t have seizures for no reason. He also tried his best to keep the dark thoughts he’d had the last time away from his mind. Sebastian was still clearly upset about the heated exchange with Kurt and he needed him to calm down first and foremost. "Take another deep breath." He paused briefly to take a deep breath with the other. "I-I think we should call the hospital or your doctor-- m-maybe we should even take you to the doctor. Do...do you still feel dizzy?"

 Sebastian Smythe:

Sebastian did as he was told, sucking in a deep breath through his mouth and exhaling slowly. He kept the offered handkerchief pressed to his nose but he knew it might not be enough before his nose decided to stop bleeding. He realized that he was scaring Blaine and that was enough for him to shift his anger for Kurt away, exchanging the emotion for concern for Blaine’s mental health. It wasn’t good for Sebastian to continue scaring him with these symptoms without anyone-- including his own doctor-- to provide answers.

“I’m fine,” Sebastian repeated, this time his voice was much calmer. He looked at Blaine and reached out with his non-bloodied hand to take hold of Blaine’s shaky hand. “Babe. I promise, I’m fine.” He tried to insist and knew he would need a little more to convince the other. “This isn’t my first bloody nose. I had another when I was feeling dizzy-- once at work-- and I called my doctor then. He said it sometimes happens for people that have seizures.” It was a white lie and Sebastian hoped Blaine wouldn’t do anymore research to prove it was something more concerning. He was taking a risk by revealing the fact that he’d had a bloody nose before but he’d rather have Blaine angry with him for not telling him than worried about him having another seizure. “I didn’t tell you the day it happened because I didn’t want you to worry. I’ll go to a doctor if it’ll make you feel better but I don’t need to. I’m not going to have a seizure-- I promise I’m fine.”

Saying the words “I’m fine” so many times made the man question it to himself because he’d said it so often that even he was beginning to doubt himself. The last time he had a bloody nose he was in a full-on physical brawl with a superhero but tonight all it took was one heated conversation in a bar. It was very clear his symptoms were unrelenting and might even be worsening.

He bit his lip when he realized he’d avoided Blaine’s last question because if he were truthful, he did feel dizzy and he wasn’t even sure he would’ve been able to stand on his own without tripping again. Now that he was calming down, Sebastian hoped his dizziness and bloody nose would go away. Pulling away the handkerchief after wiping away any excess blood still on his upper lip, it seemed his nose was still bleeding but the flow had slowed considerably.

“Let’s just go; don’t let Kurt or me or anything else ruin our night tonight. We can wait for my nose to stop bleeding and we’ll go to another karaoke bar.” Sebastian had hoped that despite the now bleak atmosphere both he and Kurt had created for Blaine, he could continue on with the night as if nothing had happened. He still felt guilty about their last outing and he didn’t want this one to be ruined as well.

 Blaine Anderson:

Blaine furrowed his brow when Sebastian admitted to having a nosebleed one other time, the concerned feeling only worsening. He'd hit the point of worry that would cause him now to feel a bit nauseated. He attempted to swallow the feeling- he could let his feelings out some other way later on after Sebastian was taken care of and definitely okay. Shaking his head, confused, Blaine asked, "What? Why didn't you tell me? You only called him? Why didn't you at least go see him? What if something else is wrong?" His voice was thick and slightly shaky, his eyes glossed over with a thin layer of moisture.

"Sebastian..." Blaine sighed heavily before the taller spoke up again about going to another bar, his expression falling from concern to looking at Sebastian as if he were crazy. "Uh- are you joking? No, we're not going to another bar." Blaine shook his head once more. "We're either going to the doctor or home-- although I'm strongly leaning towards the doctor unless you can convince me otherwise." He said, noticing that Sebastian's nose was bleeding a considerably less amount, it only calming him slightly. "What exactly did the doctor say?" Blaine asked, "Is it just normal for someone to randomly start having seizures and dizzy spells and bloody noses?"

As he heard the words come out of his mouth it only scared him further and his hands were trembling only a little bit harder-- hard enough he could feel it through his whole body but not quite hard enough to be considered full-on shaking. It wasn't normal and it wasn't something he was knowledgeable about. He had done research but unfortunately the internet was only helpful to a certain extent; it could be caused by so many different things and there was basically nothing he could do about it. The thought crossed his mind of somehow getting a blood sample to Santana. She was the smartest person that Blaine knew and he thought maybe if anyone could help figure out what was wrong with Sebastian maybe she could. But he had no idea how he would even go about it; it was too bad that Santana and Sebastian had met before or else she could disguise herself as an actual doctor and he could trick him.

The thought of tricking Sebastian made Blaine feel guilty but he thought if Sebastian's doctor wouldn't be helpful he would have to find another way to do everything he could to take care of Sebastian and help him.

Blaine sighed softly, looking up from Sebastian to the street, slipping his fingers in his mouth to whistle loudly to hail a cab from the bench they were seated on. "We're not going to another bar." He reiterated as a yellow taxi pulled up to the empty curb and stopped for them. He looked to his boyfriend again. "Home or the doctor. How are you feeling?" He was reluctant to give Sebastian a choice in the matter but he didn't exactly know how to handle this either-- he knew that sometimes going to the doctor for things like this was an overreaction according to some he'd learned from on the internet when he did his research. But he wasn't sure how to judge when it was needed or when it was an overreaction. "I don't know what to do here-- only you know how you feel. Please don't lie to me." His voice was gentle as he placed his hand on Sebastian's leg, caressing it soothingly as he looked to his boyfriend with the same concerned look, the wrinkle still deep in his forehead.

 Sebastian Smythe:

Sebastian was at a loss for words, realizing he’d dug himself a mighty deep hole. It was obvious that Blaine was distressed and beyond worried for his boyfriend’s well-being and a complete lack of answers wasn’t helping. Sebastian’s doctor was just as baffled when he first came into the hospital after being struck by lightning and it was to be expected since his speed abilities made every test result irregular. As long as Sebastian had his abilities, the ordinary doctors at the ordinary hospital wouldn’t be able to correctly diagnose him. Even Professor Garrick and Doctor Snow had difficulties determining the cause of Sebastian’s seizure or why he had nosebleeds or bouts of dizziness despite his healing factor.

“I don’t need to go to the doctor. Blaine, it’s the middle of the night and this isn’t an emergency.” Sebastian took the handkerchief away from his nose and looked his boyfriend in the eye. He wanted the other to know he wasn’t worried about what was happening to him so Blaine shouldn’t be either. It wasn’t that he was being careless but that this wasn’t out of his depth and he could handle whatever it was that was happening to him. “I didn’t go to the doctor because it didn’t feel important at the time; I was dizzy and had a little nosebleed but then it stopped and I was fine-- no seizure. I called my doctor and I told him about the bloody nose and he said it’s not uncommon in those with epilepsy-- those that have a brain abnormality or seizures. He thinks all of this is most likely a product of the lightning strike since it’s all happened afterwards.” It didn’t feel good to lie to Blaine but he’d done his own share of research on the Internet and had two doctors that closely monitored his symptoms; the medical facts weren’t a lie. Though Sebastian wasn’t sure his condition could really be defined as epilepsy, the word had been said from his know-nothing neurologist before and it wasn’t a stretch. “After everything that happened, maybe I’m not… normal… anymore.” Sebastian tried to imply that his dizzy spells might reoccur in the future and the fact wasn’t alarming. He wanted to prepare Blaine that until Garrick and Snow could come up with a solution, his symptoms could continue.

With Blaine adamant about ending their night out, Sebastian knew he would need to relent. He knew he needed to be honest with his boyfriend. “I’m dizzy but I’ll feel better soon.” He told Blaine with confidence, motioning for him to get into the car. Sebastian pushed himself onto his feet and only swayed slightly. Though still unbalanced, he managed to find his footing. Once inside the car, he gave the driver the address to their home and gave his boyfriend a genuine look. “Look at me. I’m still me-- nothing’s going to happen to me.” He leaned over and brought his boyfriend into a tight hug. “I promise.”

 Blaine Anderson:

Blaine sighed heavily when he finally got Sebastian into the cab, the fact that he was still dizzy and walking with a bit of a sway didn't make him feel any better about not taking him to the doctor right away but he wanted to give Sebastian the benefit of the doubt, wanting to trust him. Once he was seated in the cab himself he looked at his boyfriend in the eyes, taking a deep shaky breath before giving him a soft smile and a weak nod. "O-okay," His voice was quiet as he hugged Sebastian back, holding him tight with his eyes closed. Blaine was actually more than happy to go home after the night they'd had, he felt so exhausted and he already knew he wouldn't be getting much sleep for worrying about Sebastian.

"I love you," Blaine whispered, turning his head to nuzzle it against the taller's neck, breathing him in for a moment. The memories of the night Sebastian had a seizure flashed through his mind and made his stomach churn. His hands were still trembling slightly, the memories doing nothing to calm him. He truly hoped that Sebastian’s sudden seizure-dizzy-spells-bloody-nose episodes were something they could figure out how to manage and get under control; it was so hard to see Sebastian go through this awful thing and it was hard on his own emotional health. Blaine took a soft breath before lifting his head, sniffling softly as he rested his head on Sebastian’s shoulder, sitting as close to his boyfriend as he possibly could, lacing their fingers together. He stayed quiet for a long moment, his mind racing with thoughts of the night and Sebastian’s health and all of the things that could be wrong and go wrong. He didn’t know how he was supposed to handle this situation- he felt very lost. He didn’t know the right and wrong things to do or say or even think. Blaine didn’t want to voice his darkest thoughts in fear that if he said them out loud they may come true.

He made note of when Sebastian got really angry he began to feel dizzy and his nose started bleeding, thinking it was related to stress and high blood pressure. That didn’t exactly fit with the lack of sleep theory he’d come up with, hoping that if he could just help him watch his sleeping habits they could avoid another seizure. Now all of these other reasons were piling up and it was heightening his anxiety. Thinking for a moment over the signs he’d noticed, he wondered what had happened the last time Sebastian had a nosebleed. “Hey,” He sniffled, lifting his head to look at the taller. “You said this happened before, right?” Blaine began, fiddling with Sebastian's hand in his own. “What...what happened to cause it, do you think? What happened that day?”

Sebastian Smythe:

“I love you too, Blaine,” Sebastian murmured quietly. The taxi ride home was quiet, neither of them speaking for a long while. It seemed the driver had been well-aware of the palpable tension between the couple, remaining silent as he kept his focus on the road. Sebastian was deftly aware that his boyfriend was emotionally shaken, both from their encounter with Kurt and it only worsening when Sebastian displayed worrying symptoms. Without saying anything or Blaine having said anything, Sebastian could immediately tell the other was thinking of the night only a couple of weeks ago. The experience had been traumatic for the both of them in different ways.

At night after Sebastian closed his eyes to sleep, the fears of him having another seizure scared him and sometimes kept him awake. It definitely helped that Blaine was right there in bed with him so he would often close his eyes and let himself be surrounded in his boyfriend’s presence until he eventually drifted off to sleep. Knowing that Blaine himself was already very worried for him, Sebastian chose to not share those fears and instead put up a brave face. It was easier for him to minimize the symptoms and his condition, knowing that in doing so he might reduce Blaine’s worries. He told himself doing so would prove helpful in the end.

Sebastian held onto Blaine’s hand, his thumb almost subconsciously drawing little circles into the top of the other’s palm. He tried his best to hide the bloodstains on his sleeves, wanting to keep as much of his condition out of sight and out of mind. When Blaine finally broke the silence and asked about the last time he had experienced a nosebleed, Sebastian frowned. He was now backed into a corner and had to lie to his boyfriend even further. It was the worst part about being a metahuman.

“I got into an argument,” Sebastian answered, staying as close to the truth as possible. “Things got a little heated and I probably yelled a little.” He remembered how he’d run away from Nightbird. “It just kind of happened in the middle of the argument and then I got dizzy; It honestly wasn’t that big of a deal but I let my doctor know. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to worry.” He hoped Blaine wouldn’t be too mad that he’d kept this fact from him. He hoped that Blaine understood it was because he hadn’t wanted to cause unneeded stress and worry. “I was alright in the end that time and I’m alright now. I promise nothing’s going to happen so please don’t stress out, okay?” Sebastian’s tone of voice was calm and caring, his free hand coming up to twine around the nape of Blaine’s neck. Resting his forehead against Blaine’s, he let out a calming and even breath. “I promise.”

 Blaine Anderson:

Sighing softly, Blaine closed his eyes as Sebastian told him his recollections of the last time he had such a nosebleed, it further solidifying his high blood pressure and temper theory. He opened his eyes to look down at their hands, still fiddling with the taller’s fingers gently. “Okay, so, anger triggers it… Which means it’s probably blood pressure related. We need to keep your blood pressure down, maybe try counting to ten before blowing up at someone at work or an ex-husband.” Blaine said softly, nodding. “Maybe they can give you something for that? I don’t know... I’m not a doctor. I don’t know how this works but certainly there is something they can do so we don’t have to constantly live in fear of you having another seizure.”

Blaine sighed again softly, lifting his head, shaking it gently. “I mean...m-maybe we could find someone to sell us weed; I know it’s not legal here but that doesn’t mean we can’t get it. I know plenty of shady people who can help out-- you know I’ve heard that it works really, really well for people with seizures.” Blaine was talking a tiny bit faster than usual as his brain worked quickly, the stress and anxiety from the day and the past week or so really weighing heavily on him. “I heard of a lady moving her entire family to Colorado because at the time it was the only place that she could legally get it for her son who had a horrible case of epilepsy. It helped so much that they moved. Maybe it could help you.”

He shrugged his shoulders a bit as he looked at Sebastian, the worry very evident in his glossy eyes even though he was doing his best to hide it. He was extremely worried about his boyfriend but he was also in think mode, trying to figure out the best way to find out how to help Sebastian. “I don’t know… I just don’t want you to have to live with this for the rest of your life.” Blaine’s eyes were cast down and his voice was soft as he sniffled, “I don’t want it to get worse.”

He looked up at the taller as they approached their apartment building, placing one of his hands on Sebastian’s cheek, caressing it gently with his thumb. “How are you feeling now? Are you feeling okay?” Blaine asked gingerly, the wrinkle in his forehead becoming permanent it seemed.

 Sebastian Smythe:

While Blaine tried to diagnose Sebastian’s condition on his own, the latter remained quiet. He knew whatever drugs his neurologist would prescribe him wouldn’t do anything to him; his heightened metabolism would negate any treatment the medicine should deliver. His eyebrows lifted at the mention of possibly getting ahold of some weed to self-medicate. When Blaine claimed to know a shady bunch of people that might be able to acquire them with marijuana, Sebastian couldn’t help but quirk a surprised smile. Sebastian had no idea if he could even get high due to his powers since alcohol didn’t do anything to him, but he was definitely interested in Blaine’s interest in marijuana.

“I would definitely be down for getting high as long as you’d be getting high with me,” Sebastian told his boyfriend. They’d both gotten high before and it wasn’t news that they both enjoyed a good toke every now and then. Maybe a little marijuana would help calm Blaine’s nerves and worries; a good high could take all of this off of his mind. “I have to say, though, I’m a little concerned about these… ‘shady connections’ that you seem to have. Care to elaborate?”

Sebastian placed his hand over Blaine’s as he leaned into his touch, humming softly with a slight smile. “Right now, I feel really great. I have you and I just sang a duet with you in front of a crowd-- who really loved us, by the way-- and now you’re suggesting we get some weed.” It was true that he was actually beginning to feel better. The worst of the dizziness had passed and by the time they reached the apartment, he would have full control and balance again.

When the taxi stopped in front of their apartment, Sebastian paid the driver and looked at his boyfriend. “I promise that I’m feeling a lot better.” He rubbed at Blaine’s furrowed brow with his thumb, a silly attempt to rub it away. “All this worrying will get you some premature wrinkles, babe. I suggest we go upstairs to our home and stop all this worrying.”

 Blaine Anderson:

Blaine chuckled softly when Sebastian promised to get high as long as he joined him, a couple of moments from their past flashing through his mind. The first time he'd ever gotten high was with Sebastian and it was definitely a good experience, one he thought of often. When Sebastian asked him to elaborate on his previously mentioned shady connections, Blaine was kicking himself. He didn't have any shady connections in his civilian life, all of the shady characters he knew were of the super-being category. His mind moved quickly to cover what he'd said, shaking his head. "Oh, well, I know that-- um-- Santana. Santana has connections, I've heard her talk about how she and the girl she's dating get high sometimes. She could help us for sure. I'll ask her if you want me to." He nodded. Good cover.

He smiled softly at Sebastian, a tiny bit relieved that he was feeling better. "I'm happy you're feeling better. Despite that little blip, tonight was amazing. I loved singing with you and I really want to do it again." He rubbed his thumb slowly back and forth over Sebastian's cheek before leaning in to leave a soft kiss on his lips. Blaine giggled softly as his boyfriend when he attempted to rub his furrowed brow flat, thinking it cute. He gave the other a soft nod in a agreement. "Yes, let's go." Blaine thanked the cab driver before getting out and going around to open Sebastian's door, taking his hand to help him out of the cab. He kept a close eye on him as he stood up, staying close to him so that if he happened to lose his balance again, Blaine would be right there to catch him. "You okay?" He asked, he realized that he sounded and acted like a hovering mother but he didn't care. All he cared about was that Sebastian was okay.

Slipping his arm around Sebastian's waist, he stayed as close as possible as they made their way into the building. He went over the events of the evening, sighing softly. While it was true that the night was great-- going out and singing together was incredible. But it did disappoint him that Kurt showed up and ruined their night; it hurt him to know that Kurt could be so cold as to show up and call him out in front of a crowd of people and humiliate him in front of them and his boyfriend. As if he hadn't humiliated him enough by making him look and feel like the biggest chump in the world by cheating on him for the last year of their relationship. All of those feelings that came with being around Kurt-- the hurt, the humiliation, the betrayal, the insecurities, the feeling as if he were lower than the dirt on the ground-- all balled up inside of his stomach and rested there. Glancing at Sebastian as they went up to their apartment, he felt undeserving. He didn't feel good enough for Sebastian; why did he deserve to fall back onto the perfect guy after he had so badly messed up his last relationship? He didn't, and Kurt was right. Sebastian would eventually realize that he wasn't good enough and he would leave him. That he would deserve.

As Blaine had his self-deprecating thoughts, his body language changed slightly. He felt sad deep inside to his core. He did his best to hide it so he could focus on getting Sebastian inside and to their room to get him more comfortable. "D-do you think you can get undressed or do you need help?"

 Sebastian Smythe:

Sebastian rolled his eyes at the mention of Santana-- of course she was the one that would hook Blaine up with drugs if needed. He wouldn’t be surprised if she was involved in some kind of Latino gang. “I don’t trust getting any drugs from her connections. If we’re getting high then I know a guy; I’ve known him since college so I know his stuff’s good.”

He smiled into Blaine’s soft kiss and when Blaine offered his hand to help Sebastian out of the car, he gratefully accepted it even though he felt he didn’t need it. When Blaine hovered around him and wrapped an arm around his waist, Sebastian didn’t protest. He could feel his boyfriend’s watchful eye boring holes into him. “I’m okay, B.” He reassured, draping his arm around Blaine’s smaller frame. “I told you I feel better; I meant that. I’m not even dizzy anymore.

The elevator ride up to the apartment was somewhat quiet; the two keeping to their own thoughts. The night had gotten off to a great start but by now it had effectively fizzled out. Between Sebastian’s seizure scare and Kurt’s unexpected appearance, the night had soured despite the few nice memories the couple had made together. Sebastian could tell as soon as they stepped over the threshold of their home that Blaine was still very worried and very sad. He placed a hand on the small of Blaine’s back once the door was shut behind them. “I can get undressed myself; you don’t need to worry about me. C’mere.”

He led Blaine into their room and sat him down on the bed. “I think we need to talk about what happened tonight-- Namely, Kurt. I can tell what that asshole said tonight is getting to you but you can’t.” Sebastian took hold of the other’s hand and held it tight. “Remember, he’s a cheater and a liar. Look at tonight: He tried to manipulate you and talk you back into your marriage with his side guy literally standing right next to him. He has no morals and no dignity.” Although Kurt’s words had somehow managed to even singe the typically impenetrable Sebastian Smythe, those insecurities had always been deeply rooted within the latter and over the years he’d gotten quite used to burying them. They would be dredged up and addressed later but Sebastian was simply better at pretending everything was alright. “Babe?” Sebastian lifted his eyebrows and looked at his boyfriend with a meaningful look.

 Blaine Anderson:

Blaine sighed heavily as he sat down on their bed, his eyes cast down to the floor. As Sebastian spoke he didn’t want to look his boyfriend in the eye as they spoke about Kurt and how he made him feel. He felt insecure and supremely vulnerable in that moment and he was uncomfortable. Kurt had made him feel guilty for fighting at the bar, as if he was the one who started it. He felt worthless and problematic, as if he had caused everything to go wrong in his and Kurt’s marriage and he also felt responsible for making Sebastian’s night go sour-- for bringing all of this disgusting drama into his life.

Eyes filling with tears, a shrug pulled up Blaine’s shoulders. “I-I don’t know..” He sniffled, looking down at their hands. “I just feel awful about tonight… About everything.” He didn’t know how to put his feelings into the right words to make Sebastian understand him better; he knew that his mind was messed up because of the emotional trauma that he’d been through with Kurt and somewhere inside of him he knew it wasn’t all his fault but that part was hardly a whisper compared to Kurt’s yelling voice inside of his head telling him otherwise.

“I feel like this is all my fault,” He said, taking his hand away to rub as his eyes, running his hands through his hair with a deep breath. “I can’t help but feel like tonight wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t just barged into your life with all of my baggage. I mean-- what if me being back in your life is causing the stress that’s caused you to have these seizure scares?” He asked, the rational part of his brain leaving with every anxiety-ridden breath he took. His voice became watery as tears bubbled up high. “Had I been better at being a husband, Kurt wouldn’t have cheated on me. If I had sucked it up and gotten a real job, we wouldn’t have fought. Our marriage would’ve ended because we weren’t compatible anymore, not because I wasn’t good enough. You were minding your business-- living your life-- and I showed up to cause you pain...once again.”

Blaine sniffled again, kicking off his shoes and pulling his legs up onto the bed to cross underneath him. “I honestly don’t know why you would give me a second chance after everything I’ve done; I mean... look what I cause.” He gestured vaguely to indicate the night’s events. “I’ll just eventually drive you away like I did him.” The last sentence was mumbled under his breath as he stared down at the bed, still avoiding eye contact with his boyfriend. Tears rolled down and over his cheeks as his forehead wrinkled in a pout.

 Sebastian Smythe:

A deep frown worked its way onto Sebastian’s face as he listened to his boyfriend, every word weighing heavily in his heart. It pained the taller man to hear how distressed and upset Blaine’s soon-to-be ex-husband made him feel, even said ex-husband was already out of the picture. The fact that in a span of what was probably no more than five minutes altogether, Kurt could destroy what self-confidence Sebastian had spent the better part of a couple of months to build up. Blaine had already been discouraged and even went so far as to change his entire career path because of his low self-esteem. It was frustrating that after such a short exchange with Kurt, it seemed they were back at square one.

“This isn’t your fault,” Sebastian was very adamant about this fact. For Blaine to even suggest that he was the root of his physical ailments was ridiculous and it made Sebastian even angrier at Kurt. “If you hadn’t come back into my life, I’d probably still be in a hospital bed, comatose or possibly even dead. You coming back in my life is the best damn thing to ever happen to me and I’m not going to have either one of us regretting it.” By the time Sebastian ended his sentence, he was beginning to get worked up again. Having Blaine even think that he would one day drive Sebastian away was frustrating. The fact infuriated Sebastian and he was beginning to think he should’ve sucker-punched Kurt when he’d had the chance.

Sebastian frowned and he brought his thumbs up to wipe away at Blaine’s tears. “I’m not going anywhere.” He gently brought Blaine’s head up until they were looking into each other’s eyes. Seeing Blaine’s beautiful golden eyes look so sad with tears spilling over struck a chord with Sebastian and it made his insides twist up. He could feel Blaine’s sadness exuding from him. “Tonight wasn’t your fault and you’re not going to ‘drive me away’. I gave us a second chance because I love you; it’s as simple as that.” Sebastian resolutely declared, the certainty in his voice coming through clear and true. “Get it yet? I love you, Blaine. Nothing could ever keep me away from you.”

 Blaine Anderson:

As Sebastian spoke, Blaine did his best to listen. He wanted to hear the words Sebastian was saying. He wanted his sweet, loving words to be louder than Kurt's hurtful words. He wanted to feel the love Sebastian was trying to give him and forget all of the negative things he was feeling.  He tried so hard to hear that none of it was his fault and that Sebastian loved him and would never leave him.  When Sebastian lifted his head he let himself look his boyfriend in the eyes finally, tears still in his eyes.

Despite the way his stomach twisted with sadness, he felt lucky to have come home with Sebastian-- with someone who cared enough to at least try to make him feel better. Blaine nodded gently, giving a weak smile. "I love you, too." His voice was soft before he sighed again.  "Can...can we just lie down?" He asked, sniffling. "I don't feel very good right now." He felt guilty that Sebastian's words did only a little to make him feel better, his sadness and insecurities deeply rooted deep within himself from the past few years he'd spent feeling worthless with Kurt. "I-I really just want to be in bed with you."

The shorter moved to the other side of the bed so he could get under the blankets, pulling on them so Sebastian would join him. "I'm sorry I'm such a mess." He apologized, rubbing at his eyes, attempting to wipe away his tears. Blaine's stomach churned with a nauseating feeling-- the words from the night and past fights with Kurt still echoing in his mind-- the feeling of not being enough making him feel sick. "I have a lot of issues-- a lot more than I used to." He didn't like Sebastian seeing him in such a way; it made him feel more and more insecure with every moment that passed. He needed to pull himself together and focus on what was in front of him and nothing else. Unfortunately, the harder he tried not to think about it, the more he did and the sadder he got.  More tears began to well up in his eyes and he brought his hands up to cover his face, not wanting the taller to see him cry over something so stupid. "I'm sorry." He whispered through a shaky breath.

 Sebastian Smythe:

Sebastian frowned again when his words went apparently unheard and Blaine remained down-in-the-dumps. Even though he knew there would be no easy fix to undo whatever insecurities Kurt had made Blaine feel all over again, somewhere in Sebastian’s mind he’d selfishly hoped that he had the ability to turn things around in an instant. Feelings were much more complex than Sebastian had stacked them up to be.

Toeing off his shoes and kicking them away somewhere, Sebastian quietly agreed to getting into bed. He removed his shirt and let it fall somewhere, unconcerned with treating the blood stains before they set. Maybe he would end up throwing the shirt away instead but all that mattered to him was taking care of Blaine. The man lying down with him wasn’t the one he knew years ago; Blaine’s confidence was shot and he had a mountain of internal problems that had manifested and festered for years thanks to Kurt’s behavior towards him. Sebastian wasn’t the best at reading people but he knew just from being with his boyfriend that it would take a lot of time and effort to bring Blaine to his usual self. Regardless of the amount Blaine had changed, Sebastian’s feelings remained the same and were stronger than ever. If anything, his heart swelled even more for the other.

“You don’t have to apologize, B.” Sebastian spoke in a soft and soothing voice as he cuddled up next to Blaine. He gently wrapped his fingers around Blaine’s wrist and attempted to pull his hands away so he could see Blaine’s face. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m kind of a mess, too. You could even say we’re two peas in a pod.” Seeing Blaine so sad really affected Sebastian that his own eyes were glossed over and wet. “I promise that even with both of our issues, I’ll be here. You aren’t going to drive me away and I’m not going to leave.” Sebastian offered Blaine a hopeful smile, trying one more time to make his boyfriend feel a little better.

 Blaine Anderson:

When Sebastian got into bed next to Blaine and pulled his hands away from his face, Blaine allowed himself to look at Sebastian, hearing the words that were coming out of his mouth and letting them comfort him ever so slightly. With a gentle nod, the shorter attempted to sniffle away some of his tears but to no avail. “O-okay.” He whispered in response to Sebastian’s promise to never leave him. Part of him truly believed the other, but the other part of him knew that there was no way even Sebastian could promise such a thing. Sebastian could just not be aware of it now but someday he would get sick of Blaine just like Kurt did; Kurt didn’t start out thinking he would leave Blaine. He loved Blaine, too. That scared him.

With a shaky sigh, Blaine wiped at his face one more time to rid the last bit of the tears left. Even though he still felt awful, he didn’t want to cry over this any longer, especially in front of Sebastian. He placed his hand on Sebastian’s chest, his thumb automatically going to the scar the lightning had left, like a magnet, gently rubbing it. “I don’t think you’re a mess. We just have some issues and that’s okay.” He nodded softly, giving the taller a small smile. “We’ll be okay as long as we’re together.” Blaine stayed quiet for a few long moments, slipping his arm around Sebastian’s waist and burying his face against his neck, allowing himself to close his eyes for a moment and just breathe in his boyfriend. Sebastian’s presence was very calming for him and it was something he wasn’t used to; he had never been able to take comfort in someone’s existence before and it was nice.

After a moment, Blaine opened his eyes to look at Sebastian, taking a soft breath and smiling gently. “You’re a really good guy, you know.” He offered, thinking of how he couldn’t remember the last time he had insecurities and someone didn’t just agree with him to make him feel even worse. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt comforted by someone the way Sebastian comforted him. “I’m really thankful for you.” His voice was soft as a whisper before he pressed his lips against Sebastian, kissing him sweetly.

 Sebastian Smythe:

Sebastian watched as Blaine carefully thumbed over the scar on his chest, aware that the man had so much that plagued his mind. Between Kurt antagonizing him and having a boyfriend whose diagnosis was unclear, it was surprising that Blaine wasn’t more unstable and broken. Sebastian silently promised to himself that he would do his best to keep Blaine from worrying. While he wanted to keep Blaine’s issues with Kurt between the two of them, he felt if he needed to step in then he would without hesitation. He still felt that his condition wasn’t cause for serious worry; he kept track of how many hours he slept and made sure to eat enough that he wouldn’t unexpectedly faint. Besides the dizzy spells which manifested whenever he became too worked up or whenever he exerted himself too much, he was in tip-top shape. He could still run around the entire island of Manhattan without getting out of breath and he could go Mach 2 without breaking a sweat. By all accords it would appear he was a healthy speedster.

When Blaine nuzzled against him and buried his face into the bend of Sebastian’s neck, the latter slipped his arm over and around Blaine’s side. His hand moved up and rubbed the smaller man’s back, holding him close. Sebastian swore that he could feel Blaine’s body actually relax within his hold. He liked that he had that sort of power over Blaine-- that his mere presence alone was enough to calm him and make him feel safe.

As Blaine drew him in for a kiss, Sebastian reciprocated and kissed his boyfriend back softly, relishing in the feeling before slowly pulling back and looking into the other’s eyes. “I’m thankful for you too,” he murmured quietly, in a low voice for only Blaine to hear. “We’re always going to be together so we’ll always be okay. I promise.”

That was one promise Sebastian intended to keep no matter what lengths he had to go through to keep it. As long as he was alive, he would always protect Blaine. He promised that he would make sure he and Blaine were okay.

 Blaine Anderson:

Blaine smiled to himself and he let out a soft breath of relief. It seemed that Sebastian was just the medicine he needed to feel better. After those few moments of cuddling, the soft words, and the feeling of the taller’s lips against his, it did wonders for his anxiety and he began to feel like he was coming back down to Earth instead of spinning out of control.

“Mm,” He hummed, biting his lip gently as he pulled Sebastian closer. “You make me feel better. What kind of magic is that you use?” Blaine smiled, his golden eyes fluttering to look up at the other. The fact that someone could ground him so well with little effort was comforting; it was unfamiliar and he definitely could get used to it.

As the feeling of being able to breathe again settled in his chest and lungs, he took a deep breath. Shaking his head, Blaine spoke as he gently caressed Sebastian's side. “I'm glad you don't let Kurt ruin us. I don't want him to ruin us. I really don't want to even think or talk about him. I want to put him behind me and just move on. He's spoiled enough of my time with you.” Blaine rolled over onto his back to look up at the ceiling, raising his arms above his head to stretch his tired body. He was thankful there hadn’t been any sign of trouble for Nightbird to tend to because he didn't think he could muster up the energy to fly anywhere and have any more confrontations with anyone.

Letting his hands run down his face gently, he turned his head a little to look at his boyfriend. “I wanna take you on a date.” He said softly, doing his best to shift the conversation as to avoid anymore feelings of anxiety for the night. “I know we have gone out but, like, I wanna take you out on a date. Y’know?”

 Sebastian Smythe:

Sebastian smiled wide when his boyfriend mentioned that he was feeling better. He hoped those words were true and that he could continue to keep Blaine’s mind away from his soon-to-be ex-husband. At the mention of magic, Sebastian smirked. “I am an expert in the dark arts; it's black magic. Surprise, surprise-- I'm a dangerous warlock.” He joked and chuckled at the idea of him in dark robes, holding a candelabra in a shrouded room. “I need a human sacrifice to keep my powers so it's actually perfect that we ran into Kurt.” Of course Sebastian was only joking but he had half a mind to get rid of Kurt somehow so they wouldn't need to deal with him anymore. The better part of Sebastian's conscience told him there was a right way to do things and that definitely didn't include the Flash.

“All joking aside, I definitely won't let him steal anymore time away from us. I did my share of waiting for you two to be over with and now it's my turn.” Sebastian tightened his hold around Blaine's waist just a smidge, grinning devilishly. “No more mentioning ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’,” Sebastian agreed, wanting to get off the subject of Kurt just as much as Blaine did.

Sebastian watched with admiration and lust as Blaine stretched his body, his eyes wandering up and down as he watched the way the other’s body moved. He was very attracted to Blaine and appreciated the man’s body more so than any other individual he'd ever seen. “A date--” He repeated Blaine's words, “Like what sort of date? You mean more than just a meal and foreplay?” He winked at his boyfriend and knew exactly what he meant. They'd spoken about going out together on an honest-to-God date but between their busy schedules and Sebastian's recent seizure, they still hadn't had the chance to do so yet. “So? What exactly did you have in mind for this date?”

 Blaine Anderson:

Blaine couldn't help but giggle as Sebastian joked about being a wizard practicing the art of dark magic, the image of Sebastian actually being a warlock of sorts going through his mind and amusing him enough to make him laugh. He appreciated his boyfriend’s sense of humor and the fact that he would say silly things just to make him smile or laugh when he was feeling down. When Sebastian referred to Kurt as ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’ he had trouble stifling even more giggles as they escaped his lips. “Okay, okay, no more talk of my future ex-husband, Voldemort.” Blaine smiled as he leaned over to press his lips against Sebastian’s for a soft peck before lying back again.

After a soft yawn, Blaine rubbed at his eyes gently before rolling onto his side and propping his head up on to his hand, his elbow resting against the bed. “Nuh-uh,” He shook his head as he smiled at Sebastian. “I’m not telling you what we’ll be doing. You’ll just have to wait and find out.” He bit his lip gently, giving a little shrug. “I don’t have all of the details hashed out yet but I know it’ll take up the whole day so keep your Saturdays free for me, okay?” Blaine’s voice was soft as he smiled sweetly at his boyfriend, tapping the taller’s nose gently.

“I have a lot of years to make up for with this first date so it’s gotta be epic.” He continued, shaking his head gently. “I can’t just take you to a dinner and movie and call it a day, nope. Gotta be the best, best, first date. Ever.” Blaine crinkled his nose. He knew that Sebastian had never been treated as well as he should have been with the men in his life, he didn't think the taller had ever even been on a proper date before. Much less the one he deserved. “I know this is kind of a stupid question but have you ever been on like a first date before? Or even like a real date?” He felt like he should’ve already known the answer to that question but he didn’t know if all of those years they were apart if Sebastian had been on a date or not, and the subject brought up the curiosity.

 Sebastian Smythe:

Sebastian was glad to see that he was capable of cheering his boyfriend up even if just a little bit. His lips mirrored Blaine’s into a smile, chuckling softly along with his own joke before reciprocating the other’s kiss. He gave a slight frown when Blaine insisted on keeping his date plans a secret-- not being in the know niggled at Sebastian’s insatiable curiosity. “I think in a relationship you’re not supposed to keep any secrets,” he teased Blaine, feigning a deeper frown before he smirked at him. “Saturday is usually a day-off for me so unless Nightbird happens to burst through our apartment window, I’ll be free.”

Hearing from Blaine that his plans for their date would take up the whole day nibbled at Sebastian’s curiosity again and he wondered what exactly the other man had planned for the two of them. He already thought a dressed-up dinner together with Blaine at a nice restaurant would be a more-than-satisfactory date. He knew that when people who did not find each other via Tinder or Grindr went on honest-to-God dates, they usually did something fun like bowling or having a picnic in the park. Sebastian had never done anything out of the typical drinks or dinner date; it never occurred to him that he’d never been familiar enough with anyone to do those types of things.

When Blaine asked him if he’d ever been on a real date before, Sebastian tried to recollect if any of his outings with hook-ups and strangers could’ve been deemed something close to being labeled a “date”. With a shrug, Sebastian’s initial response was to laugh it off. “I never found anyone worth my time,” he told Blaine, which was only partially true. When Sebastian realized the closest he’d had to a real date were his nights in with Blaine, sitting cuddled together on the couch in front of the TV binge-watching Netflix series, it made him incredibly aware that Blaine was probably his first actual boyfriend. Serial dates were never labeled and when Sebastian felt things were getting too fast, he was equally swift to end things before they could become something more. Sebastian simply was not the type of man that did relationships.

Blaine was the only exception.

“It’s not a big deal, right?” Sebastian asked, looking at Blaine with eyebrows raised.

 Blaine Anderson:

Blaine listened as Sebastian explained that he'd never found anyone who he felt worthy of his time for any kind of real date. He had figured as much considering how well he knew Sebastian and how he felt about dating and feelings, he wasn't surprised.  Blaine supposed they could consider their many outings and dinners and television-filled nights dates, and he did to a certain extent; but he felt that Sebastian deserved a real, cliché first date. He wanted to be sure that in their future when someone asked about their first date, that Sebastian's face would light up with his favorite smile and he would have a great story to tell.

With a shake of his head, Blaine smiled sweetly at the man next to him, biting his lip. "Of course it's not a big deal-- Not a big deal at all." He spoke softly, scooting closer, watching his hand slowly trail down Sebastian's side, admiring his beauty for a moment. His eyes went back up to meet Sebastian's, a grin pulling the corners of his lips up. "It's actually a good thing," He continued, shrugging. "Means I don't have some wonderful first date with the one that got away to live up to." Blaine teased, crinkling his nose before glancing down a moment. “Or y’know, some extravagant date Hunter might’ve taken you out on. I couldn’t live up to anything he did considering his loaded wallet.” He shook his head, shrugging. “At least I’m better-looking than him, though,” he joked.

Blaine's smile softened as he looked at Sebastian, placing his hand on the taller's cheek, caressing it gently with his thumb, looking at him lovingly. Every once in a while since they finally got together, he would just stop and take a moment to look at Sebastian, drink him in and thank the universe for bringing him back into his life. He truly loved Sebastian and he wanted to do everything he could to thank him for loving him so unconditionally even when he didn't deserve it.  He continuously showed Blaine how much he cared for him, without fail. "Wanna give you the best first date." He whispered softly.  "You deserve only the best."

Sebastian Smythe:

Sebastian felt relief when he was told that not having ever been on a date was not only not a big deal, but it was beneficial. He could imagine in his head a competitive Blaine going to the extremes to surpass whatever imaginary first date Sebastian would've had. Fortunately for Blaine, none of Sebastian's suitors or hook-ups bothered spending much money on him-- including Hunter. “For the record, you were ‘the one that got away’ for the longest time. Maybe that's part of the reason why I never really had any real dates?” Sebastian recalled how he and Hunter almost became an thing many a time in the past but whenever they got too close, either would push the other away. Hunter never made Sebastian feel the way that he knew he should-- the way he felt whenever he was with Blaine.

Laying in bed with his boyfriend lying right beside him, Sebastian felt extremely grateful. He had someone who worried about him and who actually wanted to take care of him. As he recounted the way the night progressed and how Blaine was quick to dismiss his soon-to-be ex-husband in favor for him, it gave Sebastian a feeling of self-worth he had lost sometime long ago. Sebastian's eyes searched the way Blaine looked at him, reveling in the way that the other looked at him with such longing. He loved the way Blaine looked at him. Each time it felt like the other was looking right through him, seeing everything that he was and not just another pretty face.

With a quiet hum, Sebastian smiled into his boyfriend's gentle touch. “You're too good to me.” He meant those words; Sebastian didn't feel that he deserved someone like Blaine in his life. He didn't think for a second that he deserved another chance with the man after everything. When Blaine told him that he deserved the best, it made Sebastian chuckle with a soft rumble in his chest. Little by little, Sebastian was allowing himself to believe Blaine's words. “I love you a lot, y’know.” He said with certainty, resting his forehead against the other's.

Sebastian's hand moved up and down Blaine's side, resting at his hip. He shuffled closer still, until he could feel the heat radiating from Blaine's body. “I love that you're all mine now.” It gave Sebastian a great sense of victory and pride that in the end, he managed to steal Blaine's heart and he could call it his own. It gave Sebastian an unknown warm feeling when he knew Blaine had his heart-- completely. Sebastian's hand moved from Blaine's hip and sneaked under the hem of his shirt, fingertips just barely brushing against the skin of his midriff. With gentle yet urging kisses against Blaine's lips, Sebastian trailed down and sucked a small hickey into the bend of the other's neck. He pulled back to admire his work and grinned.

“Mine.”

 Blaine Anderson:

Blaine’s eyes fluttered closed when he felt Sebastian’s hands on him, the sensation causing chills to rise all over his body. He loved the way it felt when Sebastian touched him, every single time ever since the first time Sebastian’s hand made contact with Blaine’s body it felt like tiny fires igniting beneath his skin and eventually spreading all the way into his stomach so his whole entire being felt like it was a roaring wildfire by the time they were finished with one another and it all started with a gentle touch and a spark just like now as Sebastian’s fingertips brushed over his skin under his shirt. He knew by the time he fell asleep that night his insides would be red hot and steaming.

Everytime Sebastian met his lips with a kiss he returned it with the same amount of emotion as he was given. His body moved so he could tilt his head to allow Sebastian better access to his neck, his breath shuddering as the taller sucked the purple spot into his neck, marking his territory. It made something stir inside of Blaine, making his body tingle. It turned him on to feel so wanted, so claimed by someone who actually cared for him and loved him; it made his body tremble with need. Biting on his bottom lip, he let out a shaky breath, a grin settling on his face when Sebastian declared Blaine was his. With a swift movement, Blaine slipped out from under Sebastian to push the other back, gently making him lay back onto the bed. He straddled his boyfriend’s hips, his hands resting on his chest. “So, uh,” he raised his eyebrows in a suggestive manner. “I know tonight was a little bit tiring but…” He trailed off, slowly allowing more of his weight to be let down onto Sebastian’s groin, his hips rolling ever so slightly. “Y’know, if you’re not too tired...we could end this night on a very, very good note.” Blaine’s voice was low as he lowered down to whisper those last words against the other’s lips, kissing him slowly before dragging his teeth over Sebastian’s bottom lip. “Hmm?”

Sebastian Smythe:

Sebastian reveled in the sounds Blaine made whenever he touched him or kissed him. He did his best to memorize the way Blaine looked when he was like this-- when Blaine was blissed out and all his senses were charged with ecstasy. The next morning Blaine would go out to his job or to his classes or whatever and everyone would know he was taken. They would know Blaine belonged to him.

When Blaine maneuvered on the bed to allow Sebastian better access to his neck, it caused Sebastian’s lips to curl into his signature wry smirk. When the tables were turned and Sebastian was the one pinned down against the bed, Sebastian’s smirk only grew-- along with something else. He felt the way Blaine casually applied more pressure to his crotch, and he could feel his cock responding to Blaine’s motions. Looking up at his boyfriend, he admired the way Blaine looked down at him with his hazel eyes. The way Blaine lusted after him was beyond arousing.

The rest of the night and its troubles forgotten, it was only Blaine and Sebastian together in that room. Nothing else in the world mattered but the two of them, together in their bed. Sebastian reached out and pressed his hand against his lover’s torso. He looked up at Blaine with adoration and desire, knowing that what was about to transpire would be the most intimate he could ever be with another human being. He was grateful that in spite of everything that happened tonight and in their pasts, Blaine was his and he was Blaine’s.

He slipped his fingers under Blaine’s shirt, helping him to pull it up and over his head. His hand trailed down the other’s body and he gave him a knowing smile. “I’m never too tired for you, killer.”

Terror-linked CAIR's Islamization of San Diego Public Schools (Video)

Source: San Diego School District Pushes CAIR-Assisted ‘Anti-Islamophobia’ Plan

The  (SDUSD) has been working with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on “anti-Islamophobia” plans, including adding lessons on Islam in social studies classes and adding Muslim “safe spaces” to campuses.

The plan is to be implemented in the fall with the start of the new school year.

CAIR has been declared a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates, and was named by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror-funding operation.

The school district’s board voted recently to approve the Islamophobia plan it set in motion last summer after a November 2015 recognition of CAIR’s educational work. The April 4 vote was 4-0, with one member missing from the meeting, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

More details are expected to be released before the end of the school year. Staff members and parents will receive letters directing them to resources to learn about Islam and fight discrimination.

District executive director of Family and Community Engagement Stan Anjan stated that social studies lessons may feature more on prominent Muslims in history, and how to promote a positive image of Islam according to the Tribune. Discipline for perceived bullying of Muslims is also set to be amended.

Executive Director of the San Diego chapter of CAIR, Hanif Mohebi, said upon the recent vote, “If we do this right, San Diego Unified School District would be the leading school district in the nation to come up with a robust and beautiful anti-bully and anti-Islamophobic program” according to the Tribune report.

Last July, San Diego Unified approved creation of an anti-Islamophobia and anti-bullying plan with urging from CAIR San Diego. More than 200 members and supporters of the Muslim community were present and cheered upon board members’ passage of the initiative, according to KPBS. Executive director Mohebi used a CAIR study that said it asked students and 55 percent claimed to have been bullied.

San Diego Unified School District posted in an online Q&A on the forthcoming plan:

Regarding all students, we work hard to protect students from bullying and discrimination. That is why we recently implemented an online bullying reporting mechanism to allow students to make their voices heard without fear. The closest model for our Islamophobia work is the work we have done within the LGBTQIA community in recent years. That program has assigned staff and serves students and other departments through trainings, curriculum review and other activities. In addition, they help students organize and maintain Gay-Straight Alliance Clubs in many of our schools. Again, our LGBTQIA work is simply a model for the Islamophobia work, and there will obviously be unique situations to address in each community.

“CAIR has been very generous with their time, providing advice and guidance to the district on ways to prevent bullying against Muslim students. They have not been paid, nor are they under contract with the district,” the school district website states.

The district specifically addressed whether it is implementing Sharia Law, claiming that they are not. The district goes on to state that it is not violating separation of church and state and is not endorsing Islam.

In regards to creating safe spaces for Muslim students, the district states: “Schools with large Muslim communities may choose to make areas available for prayer, if that is requested by their parents and students.”

In 2007, the Union-Tribune reported on allegations that a school aide at Carver Elementary led Muslim students in prayer, according to an online post on Michelle Malkin’s website. (A link to the original Tribune article went to the paper’s website, but the article appears to no longer be at that web address.) The school had recently added Arabic to its curriculum to accommodate in influx of Somali Muslim students.

In March 2016, San Diego Unified highlighted the creation of halal meals at Crawford High School, “according to Islamic law and traditions,” and with the input of students. The school is located in an area of San Diego heavily populated with Muslim refugees. CAIR has previously promoted plans for the halal meals.

In an interview with PRI, the San Diego school district’s head of food services cited the success of halal options in Dearborn, Michigan schools, home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the U.S. The report noted that almost all of the students at the City Heights school, at least a decade ago, were recipients of free school lunch. The report added that five local elementary schools had also recently adopted similar halal meal programs.

CAIR San Diego lauded SDUSD’s initiative to “combat Islamophobia” in an announcement that noted, “Some 150 members of San Diego’s Muslim community were present” during the early April passage of the initiative. The group also stated that SDUSD collaborated with CAIR-San Diego, in line with California’s AB 2845, the Safe Place to Learn Act.

CAIR-San Diego Executive Director Hanif Mohebi said, “Other school districts should follow this lead, and we will be happy to work with them to provide resources and trainings.”

More via: Islamization of San Diego Public Schools

Please Share & Help Wake America Up

Name: Calvin Corelli. Superpower:`Precognition. Age: 21. Gender/pronouns: He/him. Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual/heteromantic Face Claim: Logan Shroyer. (+Sharp, consistent, calm & -anxious, cynical, private)

Bio: (tw: parental death, suicide)

Away fighting in Kosovo, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Corelli missed the birth of his eldest son back home in New York City – holding him for the first time when he was five weeks old. He went on to miss his first word, his first steps, and his first day of kindgarten – too busy raising an army of soldiers to put in the work with his own family. More crucially than any of those milestones, Charles Corelli was out of the country at the moment of his wife’s death, fourteen years after that first missed moment. It was a moment that Calvin Corelli could never have forgotten – by then, he’d been predicting it for the last six years. As a young child, Calvin had been excited to discover what his power would be, hopeful to follow in his mother Ophelia’s telepathic footsteps and find himself marked as special and super. He was eight when he finally got his wish.

For all his anticipation, Calvin quickly became afraid of the future. A hug from his mother one morning brought him a vision of her death, a future that he may or may not be able to change. At first, the visions started off small and ordinary. A fall at home. An incident crossing the road. Normal, mundane deaths. Calvin kept his mother away from them, saved her life every chance he could. But the more his mother avoided her fate, the harder fate fought them. One car turned into a pile-up, and then a bridge collapse, and then a bombing. Each time, Calvin saved his mother – but fate chased them. He blamed himself for each incident, watching the news report scores of dead, knowing each time that fate had sent each disaster just to take his mother from him. But Calvin couldn’t let it. As he grew older, he realised he could change things – visions would disappear, or turn to static. Some just wouldn’t come true. There were timelines that could shift, and moments that were fixed. If they could keep running, they could avoid his mother’s death. He could see the future. He could stay one step ahead.

Calvin was at school one day when he was filled with a growing sense of dead. Searching, as he often did, for the next vision involving his mother – he found his mind blank. Anxious and panicked, Calvin rushed home, finding EMTs at his house, police marking off the scene. For six years, they’d run together from fate. But finally, crucially, his mother had run towards it – taking her own life. The voices in her head had got too much, her note explained. Charles, home for five days of leave for the funeral, burnt it before Calvin had a chance to memorise the last words from his mother. His father quickly returned to fighting overseas, and Calvin and his brother moved in with their aunt in Brooklyn. All it took was one jackpot rollover to make them rich – Calvin split $40 million with his aunt and brother, but no amount of money could ease how stuck he felt, trying to forget his past and trying to ignore his future.

If Calvin was afraid of the future before then, he grew increasingly fearful after. He loathed long-term visions, avoided people and touch in the hopes of avoiding seeing their futures. He focused only on the short-term, on minutes, or hours, and avoided dealing with years. The distant future clouded a little, but his sense grew clearer, and he grew more confident. At school, he focused on sport to keep him busy, playing soccer and taking part in athletics. It was while playing tennis at a local club that Calvin realised he could use his powers to predict opponent’s moves, giving him a clear advantage. It was this aspect of his powers he focused on to get onto the Hero Track at Save U – using his short-term precognition for combat and agility. Things got easier once he was at college – moving to LA finally allowed him to breathe, reinventing himself as a hero, not a prophet, and Calvin finally began to put the past behind him. He was no longer marked in the same way.

That plan worked until he met June Joyce. Shaking her hand on the first day of class, Calvin was hit with a vision of her death – an arm, a gun, and a shot at point-blank. For all the anxiety he felt, he befriended her, curious about the mystery and even more curious about the girl. Now his best friend and his partner in all ridiculous schemes and adventures, Calvin is determined to save her, knowing he can get it right this time. He is haunted by potential futures and visions, and is closed-off as a result, sarcastic, cynical, and touch-averse. Calvin carries a weight on his shoulders, the burden of the future, but tries to hide his growing panic under the guise of being cool and collected. He plays sports, tells jokes, goes to parties – but beneath it all, he remains fearful of all those he can’t save.

May 1920 Fight Law Still Packs Punch

[caption id="attachment_3812" align="alignnone" width="1176"] The Walker Law paved the way for such fights as this 1923 Yankee Stadium heavyweight affair won by Luis Angel Firpo (left) of Argentina over Jack McAuliffe of the United States[/caption]

  New York Political Leaders Showed Americans Were Ready for End to Public Boxing Lockdowns

  One hundred years ago — May 20, 1920 to be exact — New York governor Al Smith overcame a month of hesitancy to legalize boxing in the state. The decision by the former Manhattan sheriff triggered a journey that continues to impact sports reform and oversight nationwide.

  Known as the Walker Law and aimed at professional boxing, the decree is one of many that have been addressed aboard New York Sports Tours' immersive three-hour sports history minibus tour that incorporates and passes more than 70 Manhattan locations from sports history. The luxury experience, a discovery of how New York sports has helped shape culture and society in the city, state, nation and world, is on hold until group outings are reauthorized by the state.

  [caption id="attachment_3847" align="alignnone" width="1195"] Jimmy Walker (left) and Al Smith (right) worked together on the Walker Law and other sports legislation[/caption]

  The Walker Law, championed by Democratic state senator James J. (Jimmy) Walker, returned boxing to New York after a three-year lockdown, and gained the cheerful Manhattan native and former songwriter a medley of fans.

  Boxing had been confined to no-decision matches attended by members of private clubs. The sport was shuttered elsewhere in the state because of raised concerns over many of boxing's controversial elements. Unregulated gambling that sometimes resulted in fixed matches was one.

  Today, the sports industry is seeing more regulation outgrowth from the Walker Law, from the New York State Athletic Commission that the law created, and from the New York State Racing and Wagering Board that has taken many leads from the Walker Law in the regulation of horse racing and betting.

  [caption id="attachment_3900" align="alignnone" width="1960"] World heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey (center, holding hat) chats in Manhattan in 1920 outside the office of the new New York State Boxing Commission, after he received the first boxer's license issued by the commission[/caption]

  A host of current reform plans have been prompted by the growth of Ultimate Fighting Championship and other combat sports leagues, by deals struck between professional sports leagues and such online bookmakers as DraftKings and New York City-based Fan Duel, and by a 2018 Supreme Court decision that lifted a ban on state commercial sports betting.

  Before his 1920 legislation could be realized, Senator Walker needed to persuade the governor that the controversial side of boxing would not hinder Smith's political standing. Matches ending in boxers' deaths and other moral dilemmas were among the reasons the sport was outlawed.

  Walker recognized the hurdles, but was keenly aware that sports can pack a solid punch for political gain. Indeed, he saw his popularity escalate starting in 1919 after he successfully campaigned for professional baseball to be regularly played on Sundays.

Perhaps a virus outbreak helped Walker's timing. The previous year, New York had finally shaken a two-year pandemic known as the Spanish flu that would take the lives of more than 25,000 in New York City alone. After Walker's boxing legislation passed the state Assembly by a 91-46 vote in April 1920, United Press sports editor Henry Farrell started a story about the news, "New York is going to give boxing a chance of its life and the whole country is watching the experiment."

  Fellow Lower Manhattan natives Walker and Smith agreed that if signed, the boxing bill would deliver a series of controls. The Walker Law would include a cap on the number of rounds in a single bout to 15; erasure of the former practice of the referee deciding match outcomes, granting that authority to boxing judges; a structure for weight divisions; ringside doctors; and licensing of boxing participants. All would be controlled by a new state commission.

  Those who participated in the staging of bouts would need to secure licenses — boxers, sparring partners, trainers, managers, promoters and others, even ring announcers. The boxing commission would also have the power to revoke any of the licenses it issued.

  A hidebound Democrat and the state's first Roman Catholic governor, Smith was still dubious. He wanted strong Protestant support in New York and for his national political desires, but was concerned that Protestant leaders' enforcement of moral standards may not align with prizefighting.

  [caption id="attachment_3849" align="alignnone" width="1126"] Boxing champions and New York City natives Gene Tunney (left) and Benny Leonard pose in the ring in 1927, seven years after their names were used to promote the legalization of New York public boxing competition[/caption]

  At the time, there was a wide belief that the core of the state's boxing fans and most of New York's top fighters were of Catholic and Jewish upbringing. Boxing's two most popular New York natives,  future world heavyweight champion Gene Tunney and world lightweight champion Benny Leonard, were Catholic and Jewish, respectively. The heavyweight champion was Jack Dempsey, an American raised in an Mormon family.

  Although boxing was outlawed in most states, Walker stressed that the local stars were heading to New Jersey for paydays and that the Walker Law would deliver New York five percent of the boxing gate receipts.  Like Tunney, Walker was raised in Greenwich Village. Like Leonard, Smith was from the Lower East Side.

  Smith was not new to boxing. After he left high school to earn money for his family, one of his first jobs was taking the prizefight results off of ticker tape — including one of the major fights of the 19th century, a win in 1892 by John L. Sullivan over Smith idol James J. (Gentleman Jim) Corbett — then announcing them to interested parties in Lower Manhattan.

  [caption id="attachment_3905" align="alignnone" width="1028"] Al Smith (waving) and Jimmy Walker (seated beneath Smith) ride in a parade in 1928 in Lower Manhattan, the section of the city where they were raised[/caption]

  Walker, too, had fight gigs. One was as an usher at boxing matches at Avonia Athletic Club in Greenwich Village, two blocks from his 9 St. Luke's Place home. Another was as a fight referee at a liquor establishment around the corner from the residence.

  Despite some pushback from the Protestant community, Smith had confidently signed Walker's 1919 Sunday baseball bill into law. However, after the senator's boxing bill passed the state senate, the governor told Walker of the Protestant conundrum. Smith added that he was planning to veto the bill, unless Walker could show in less than a week that at least 100 Protestant leaders supported the legislation.

  Walker had a playbook ready. He called on Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr., a member of an affluent Protestant family in Philadelphia. The two men had worked together to craft the boxing bill, with injection of a lot of rules and regulations being used in England.

  [caption id="attachment_3859" align="alignnone" width="1106"] Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr. (right) spars in 1925[/caption]

  Biddle, 22, was a boxing enthusiast who had sparred with Sullivan and Tunney when they were the two professionals were serving in the Marines during World War I. Walker knew that Biddle was the founder of Biddle Bible Classes, a national program with many chapters and hundreds of clergymen members. Biddle had recently donated around $500,000 to the program.

  When Walker asked Biddle what he could do, Biddle responded, "Just relax."  Biddle reached the New York office of the bible group and asked them to contact the associations' many chapters.  Before Smith's deadline, the governor had received communications from more than 600 Protestant ministers in support of the governor signing the Walker bill.

  Smith kept his promise to sign the bill, but noted that he would seek repeal if the sport was not kept clean. Smith activated the New York State Boxing Commission that August and the first authorized fight was at Madison Square Garden in September. Within five months, the gate total at the Garden was more than $1 million. The success would save the Garden, which had been saddled with debt. The fights' promoter, Tex Rickard, would build the third Madison Square Garden uptown within five years and start the Madison Square Garden Corporation.

  [caption id="attachment_3960" align="alignnone" width="1015"] The success of boxing as a result of the Walker Law buoyed Madison Square Garden, now in its fourth Manhattan facility (above)[/caption]

  Less than two months after the Garden's first Walker Law fight, Governor Smith lost his reelection bid. Speculation spread through the boxing community that Republican winner Nathan Miller would put the brakes on the Walker Law. Two days after the election, Miller stated of the law, "'I prefer to withhold comments until I have examined carefully the provisions."

  In reaction, The New York Herald gave boxing fans hope. "Those in touch with the Governor-elect picture him as a friend of sports and they say that he will not interfere while it is run in a clean matter," the Herald reported.  "Not very long ago Judge Miller was a clever baseball player and every chance he gets now he takes in the big league games. The Governor-elects's six daughters are all keenly interested in athletics, the oldest ones being especially so in horseback riding, golf, tennis and swimming."

  [caption id="attachment_3870" align="alignnone" width="1064"] After Nathan Miller (with his family in 1922) was elected New York governor, the New York Herald suggested that his six sports-minded daughters gave hope that the Walker Law would remain in place[/caption]

  The law continued with Miller's support and boxing blossomed. The Walker Law proved a net win for the state, as New York's take from boxing licenses and taxes in the first three months of legalized bouts surpassed the annul budget appropriation for the commission.

  In December 1920, under the headline Taxes Make Boxing Choice Investment for Several States, the Chicago Tribune's sports section praised the Walker Law rollout and added that in New York,  "the sport has paid as taxes into the state treasury and amount in the neighborhood of $75,000... Just think what boxing could accomplish for this state in the way of taxes... for the crippled soldiers of the state, the school children..." In 1925, boxing legislation passed in Illinois, with a state boxing commission formed to regulate the sport.

  The same year, Walker was the first non-boxer to grace the cover of New York City's The Ring, the nation's leading boxing publication. The cover of the November issue further brightened Walker's sports halo. That month, he was elected the city's 100th mayor.

    Boxing kept growing, and bringing more tax dollars to New York and other states that took the lead of the Walker Law. The new Madison Square Garden arena was opened in 1925 and became the world's boxing mecca. Other city venues became boxing magnets, including the Bronx's Yankee Stadium from its start in 1923.

  Also in 1923, Smith started a comeback after he became governor for the second time. Five years later, the Democrat become the first Roman Catholic selected as the presidential candidate for a major political party.

  Dogged by corruption charges, Walker resigned his mayorship in 1932. However, his reputation as a sportsman continued to shine. By 1934, boxing was legal in every state. In January 1946, the New York Boxing Writers' Association presented Walker with its Edward J. Neil Memorial Award as the person "who has done the most for boxing during the preceding year."  After his death in November 1946, the below clip from a news reel about Walker reminded viewers of the former politican's sports life.

  https://vimeo.com/414334524/1a6c26933c

  In 1947, the plot across the street from Walker's boyhood home — a cemetery until the 1890s (most of the bodies remain buried there) — became the city's James J. Walker Park, with the westernmost section now labeled the James J. Walker Park Athletic Field.  In 1948, a plaque honoring Walker was added to the outfield wall of the Polo Grounds, the Manhattan site of many championship boxing matches and home to baseball's New York (now San Francisco) Giants.

  Walker's advocacy for boxers' rights is an underpinning of both the Walker Law and the acts the law inspired outside New York. Before the law, a common practice was for boxers and fight promoters to skirt illegal boxing by calling boxing matches exhibitions, self-defense classes, and the like. Some boxers had been charged with manslaughter when their opponents died as a result of the fight.

  The Walker Law brought a modern structure to state-controlled sports and has helped shape greater federal oversight. Passed by the United States Congress in 2000, the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act created a federal regulatory structure for the sport, with a nod to state commissions. Among other actions, the law outlaws a manager to simultaneously act as a fight promoter, and acknowledges, "State officials are the proper regulators of professional boxing events, and must protect the welfare of professional boxers and serve the public interest by closely supervising boxing activity in their jurisdiction."

  [caption id="attachment_3836" align="alignnone" width="3556"] The park shown in this New York Sports Tours photo from May 2020 — located across there street from St. Luke's Place (in background), the one-block stretch of Walker's childhood home — is part of Walker's sports legacy[/caption]

  The 100-year-old Manhattan-based New York State Athletic Commission now regulates all combat sports, including boxing, mixed martial arts and professional wrestling. There is a raised focus on combat athletes' health and safety, including through the work of the commission's medical advisory board.

  At the 1946 ceremony where Walker received his boxing writers' award, the 64-year-old was introduced by former New York State Athletic Commission chairperson James A. Farley, who had gone on to become the United States' postmaster general.

  Proclaimed Farley, "No man in public life did more in his career to advance the cause of sport than Jimmy Walker."

  Article Source Here: May 1920 Fight Law Still Packs Punch

source https://newyorksports.tours/new-york-1920-boxing-walker-law/

Spike in cases in Gulf pushes Mideast past 10,000 infections

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Spike in cases in Gulf pushes Mideast past 10,000 infections

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — A spike in cases in the Gulf Arab states helped push infections in the Middle East for the new coronavirus past 10,000 cases on Thursday, with most infected people either in Iran or having recently travelled there.

Iran has asked for an emergency US$5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to combat the outbreak there, which has killed more than 360 people and infected some 9,000 people in the Islamic Republic. Iran’s Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati said Thursday he made the request last week in a letter to IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva. The international lender has said it stands ready to support countries through a Rapid Financial Instrument.

Iran’s economy has been battered by U.S. sanctions, which have choked Tehran’s ability to sell its oil. The recent outbreak of the virus there has compounded its economic woes, with all of Iran’s neighbours closing their borders to Iranians and multiple nations cutting travel links with Iran, including shipping in some cases, which is affecting imports, as well.

Countries in the region have imposed their own varying levels of travel restrictions, from wholesale halting of all commercial flights in Kuwait, to Saudi Arabia banning travel to 39 countries.

Regional stock markets were also down, reflecting investor concerns and nerves felt globally as oil prices plunge and tourism revenue is eroded by the virus. The World Health Organization on Wednesday officially designated the outbreak a “pandemic.”

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover from the new virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes.

Because the there is still no vaccine for the infectious disease, countries are implementing tough measures to restrict its spread, as well as the impact an outbreak could have on emergency rooms and intensive care units.

Multiple top officials in Iran — from its senior vice-president to Cabinet ministers, members of parliament, Revolutionary Guard members, health workers and health ministry officials — have contracted the virus. Some of those officials have died.

There are concerns that the number of infections across Iran is much higher than the confirmed cases reported by the government, which is struggling to contain or manage its spread. The rising casualty figures each day in Iran suggest the fight against the new coronavirus is far from over.

A third Lebanese man died from the coronavirus, state-run National News Agency said Thursday. It said the man’s immune system was impaired because he had cancer. Local media reported the man was 79 years old and that the virus was transmitted to him from the first man who had died in Lebanon earlier this week.

Outside of Iran, only Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon have recorded deaths from the virus in the Middle East. Iran has one of the world’s worst death tolls outside of China, the epicenter of the outbreak.

This week, Qatar reported a massive jump in cases of the new coronavirus late Wednesday with 262 now infected. The more than 200 new cases had been found in quarantine. In the Gulf Arab island nation of Bahrain, confirmed cases also rose by nearly 70% this week to 189 confirmed cases, after some 77 new cases were confirmed on a returning flight of Bahrainis from Iran.

Kuwait on Thursday closed all workplaces and non-essential business for two weeks, including restaurants, cafes and health clubs. Schools and universities have already been suspended. All commercial flights are being halted to Kuwait starting Friday. The country has over 70 confirmed cases of the new virus.

Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, reported seven more cases late Wednesday, bringing the country’s total number of cases to 67. In the southern tourist-driven city of Luxor, 70 Egyptian workers and guides remained in quarantine on a Nile cruise ship called the Asara. Earlier this week, 83 foreign tourists left quarantine on the ship and flew home week after testing negative for the virus.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, announced a jump in cases from 21 to 45 late Wednesday, among them 12 Egyptians under quarantine in Mecca. The government has suspended pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest sites, barring entry of all pilgrims to Mecca and Medina to curb the virus’ spread. It has also cordoned off the eastern province of Qatif, where more than a dozen cases are confirmed among its mostly Shiite population from people who recently visited Iran.

——

Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, Zeina Karam in Beirut, and Isabel DeBre in Cairo contributed reporting.

——

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Share Search Subscribe Login Communities Stripes Japan Stripes Okinawa Stripes Korea Stripes Guam Stripes Europe Printshop Rewards Promotions Winners Rules Book Club About ⁄ Help Contact Reporters About Help Stripes Lite Store Classifieds Newsletters ePaper Apps Advertise Front Page Theaters U.S. Middle East Europe Pacific Africa Branches Army Navy Air Force Marine Corps Coast Guard Veterans Wounded Warriors Obituaries Jobs VA Loans Special Reports Stolen Valor Vietnam 50 History Vietnam at 50 Medal of Honor Heroes From the Archives Lifestyle Entertainment Video Games On the Move Education The Meat and Potatoes of Life Special Publications Travel Europe Pacific U.S. Europe Traveler Blog Sports Europe Pacific Pacific Sports Blog U.S. Perspectives Columns Opinion From the Archives Pacific Storm Tracker Letters Ombudsman Podcasts Force for Hire Home News Middle East Green Beret, two language specialists, SEAL-turned-DIA civilian among dead in ISIS-claimed Syria bombing From Left: Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) Shannon M. Kent, 35, of New York; Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Fla.; and Former Navy SEAL Scott A. Wirtz, of St. Louis, Mo. Email Print Reddit Tweet Share Pinterest More By COREY DICKSTEIN, CLAUDIA GRISALES AND CHAD GARLAND | STARS AND STRIPES Published: January 18, 2019 WASHINGTON — The ISIS-claimed bombing of a restaurant in Syria on Wednesday killed an Army Green Beret with four children, a former Navy SEAL working for the Pentagon’s intelligence agency and a Navy linguist, the Pentagon announced Friday. Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Fla.; Navy Chief Petty Officer Shannon M. Kent, 35, of Pine Plains, N.Y., and Defense Intelligence Agency civilian Scott A. Wirtz, 42, of St. Louis, Mo., were killed in the blast, the deadliest incident for the U.S. military since it began operating on Syrian grounds in 2015. The attack in the small northern Syrian town of Manbij also killed an American contractor working with the Defense Department. The DOD declined to name the contractor, but her younger brother identified her as Ghadir Taher, 27, who immigrated with her family to America from Syria and was working as an Arabic interpreter, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Defense Department declined to name three wounded servicemembers, as is Pentagon policy, officials said. The attack on Wednesday brings the number of American servicemembers killed in action in the anti-ISIS fight in Iraq and Syria to 16. Wirtz is the first known Defense Department civilian killed in action in what has been called Operation Inherent Resolve since 2014. The servicemembers were at a restaurant near a crowded market for a meeting with local leaders, U.S. Central Command said after the attack. Members of the Manbij Military Council, which has controlled the city since it was liberated from ISIS in mid-2016, were also reportedly among the roughly 16 people killed in the blast. The attack appears to be the work of ISIS, a defense official said Friday. That official stressed that the investigation into the attack was ongoing and the Pentagon had yet to reach a final conclusion on the party responsible. President Donald Trump last month declared ISIS defeated in Syria and announced he would withdraw all American forces from the country in the near future. The Pentagon has begun withdrawing equipment from Syria, but roughly 2,000 troops remain on the ground there, officials have said. Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday at the Pentagon that the attack would not change the administration’s determination to leave Syria. “We will honor the memory of the fallen,” he said. “And their families and our armed forces should know their sacrifice will only steel our resolve that as we begin to bring our troops home, we will do so in a way that ensures that the remnants of ISIS will never be able to reestablish their evil and murderous caliphate.” Navy Chief Cryptologic Technician (Interpretive) Shannon M. Kent, 35, of New York. FACEBOOK Shannon Kent: ‘Rambo on the outside’ There was pretty much nothing Navy Chief Petty Officer Shannon M. Kent couldn’t handle, her friends and family said. Kent outsmarted many of those around her, knew more than a half-dozen languages, was a wife and mother to two young boys, a cancer survivor, a world traveler deployed multiple times for the military, lobbied on Capitol Hill for new protections for servicemembers and was slated to start a graduate program this year. That drive for Kent ended Wednesday at the age of 35. “She was so loving and such a worldly person, the smartest person I knew, Rambo on the outside but a girly girl at heart. She was such a badass woman,” her sister-in-law Kay Kent said Friday. “It’s so tragic she is gone. It is the nightmare phone call you worry about receiving but I never thought I would get.” Kent signed up for the military shortly after high school and her husband was also in the military, Kay Kent said. related articles Arabic interpreter from Atlanta among 19 killed in suicide bombing in Syria “They’ve been through so much in the last 10, 15 years in the military, you think you paid your dues and buried your friends and you make it,” she said. “But that’s so false. Slowly but surely people got word where they ate lunch and then horrible people make decisions.” In a statement, the Navy said Kent enlisted in December 2003 and graduated from language training at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., in October 2005. Her awards include the two Joint Service Commendation Medals, a Navy/Marine Corps Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Joint Meritorious Unit Award and the Iraq Campaign Medal, among others. Kent is believed to be the first female U.S. servicemember killed in action since December 2015, and the first killed in action in the anti-ISIS campaign. “When you are highly ranked as a Navy linguist officer, you put a stereotype on somebody, but she was such a warm mother and funny and caring and charismatic,” Kay Kent said. “I got to know her more …I didn’t understand how she could be in the Navy and be so sweet and kind and beautiful. That has changed that stereotype for me. You can be a multidimensional woman and be whatever you want to be.” Kent, who grew up in a service-oriented family, loved horses and learned Spanish so she could communicate with workers at the stables, Kay Kent recalled. In high school, Kent was suddenly interested in French and started learning it within a few short months. At a wedding they attended together once, Kay saw Shannon speaking to a woman in a language that she had never heard before. After so many years of serving in the military, Kent said her family fell into a false sense of security that Shannon Kent and her husband had already been through so much, that they were safe. After all, Shannon Kent was due to start a stringent graduate program this year, she said. Shannon Kent had just deployed to Syria in late 2018. Following Trump’s announcement that troops would be withdrawn, the Kent family assumed Shannon would get moved to a new post in the Middle East. “To make it this far, we are so shocked that this could happen,” Kay Kent said. On Facebook, as news of Kent’s death spread Thursday, Navy chiefs within the small but secretive cryptologic intelligence community changed their profile photos to a Navy insignia with a black band. Many of them expressed their disbelief at Kent’s death, saying she had more combat experience than most in the Navy. Cassandra Nolan, who described Kent as one of her best friends, said she was “an indescribably amazing person” and leaves behind two sons under the age of 5. “I love you Shannon,” Nolan wrote. “You made the world a better place and you deserved the world in return. I’m heartbroken.” Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan R. Farmer, 37, of Boynton Beach, Fla. U.S. ARMY Jonathan Farmer: A true warrior Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jonathan Farmer, an athletic Green Beret, was described by friends and family members as a good person. “A good man. Good son. Good father. Good husband,” the soldier’s father Duncan Farmer told the Palm Beach Post, their hometown newspaper. “A good friend.” Farmer joined the Army in March 2005 and completed training to become a Special Forces engineer sergeant in 2007, after which he was assigned to 5th Group, where he remained throughout his career. He earned his commission as a warrant officer in 2016 and was then selected to serve as an assistant detachment commander. He had previously served five combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, arriving earlier this month in Syria for his sixth deployment. Duncan Farmer said his family was aware his son was serving in Syria, but they were not certain where. An athlete, Farmer excelled in basketball, playing for his high school, the Palm Beach, Fla. private school The Benjamin School, and later in college at Bowdoin College in Maine, where he was a team captain, according to the Palm Beach Post. “It is with tremendously heavy hearts that we share the news that [The Benjamin School] alum Jon Farmer was killed in Syria this week,” the school said in a statement of the 1999 graduate. “A true warrior, Jon is fondly remembered as a Buccaneer with a big heart and commitment to service.” Farmer was not the only member of his family in the military. His older brother is also serving in the Army, the local newspaper reported. Farmer is survived by his wife and their four children, according to the Army. During his Army career, he earned awards including the Bronze Star Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Medal with the combat “C” device, the Army Commendation medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, an Army Achievement Medal and a Combat Infantry Badge. “He was the kind of person you want to be around, you want your kids to be around,” Cathy White, a longtime neighbor and close friend of the Farmers told the Palm Beach Post. She added he “was good at everything.” Former Navy SEAL Scott A. Wirtz, of St. Louis, Mo. DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY Scott Wirtz: ‘He absolutely loved his work’ Energetic and adventure-seeking, Wirtz knew from a young age he wanted to be a Navy SEAL, family members said Friday morning on their way to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to receive his remains. “He never really was into swimming, but he wanted to join the Navy and he especially wanted to be a SEAL,” his mother Sandy Wirtz said. Like most of his other goals in life, Wirtz accomplished that objective. He spent most of his Navy career from 1998 to 2005 assigned to the Coronado, Calif.-based SEAL Team 5, where he specialized as a sniper. He served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and also deployed to locations in Africa, the Philippines and South Korea, according to his mother. After leaving the service in 2005, he spent years working for military contracting groups before joining the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2017 as an operations support specialist, charged with overseeing operations to collect human intelligence. He served three deployments to the Middle East in the role, according to his DIA biography. During his tenure in the Navy, he earned awards including the Navy/Marine Corps Achievement Medal, two Good Conduct Medals, and qualified as an expert marksman. He was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Global War on Terrorism as a DIA civilian, according to the agency. Family members constantly worried Wirtz, who they called Scotty, during his time in the SEALs and as a civilian. They knew he was in Syria but took comfort in knowing how well prepared he was for his job in the war-torn country. “He was always happy, and he absolutely loved his work,” his mother said, admitting she often worried about his safety. “He’d always say to me, ‘Don’t worry, Mom, I’m well trained.’ I always carried that with me.” When he was not deployed, Wirtz spent most of his time traveling and had visited each of the continents except Antarctica, said David Wirtz, his father. He was especially fond of Thailand, where he had a home and spent much of his down time, and Brazil, where he trained as a mixed martial arts fighter. He showed athleticism and ingenuity from a young age. He played football in high school and was a talented skateboarder, his mother said. “We came home one day and he had built a [skateboarding] ramp in our backyard,” Sandy Wirtz recalled. “It wasn’t something we had expected.” Later, in high school, Wirtz completely rebuilt his Jeep, a skill his parents were surprised to learn he discovered. Wirtz appears to be the first DOD civilian killed in combat since the anti-ISIS fight began, according to a review of Pentagon data. “This is a stark reminder of the dangerous missions we conduct for the nation and of the threats we work hard to mitigate," DIA Director Lt. Gen. Robert P. Ashley said in a statement. "As President Lincoln described on the fields at Gettysburg, this officer gave the last full measure of devotion.” Jack Wilson, a close family friend who served in the Air Force and regularly discussed military service with Wirtz, said the former SEAL was especially proud of his service and working with his SEAL teammates. “As an ex-warrior, I’ll just say I know Scotty was a warrior,” Wilson said. “He was out to do his job, and he did it well. Scotty died doing what he loved doing. And that’s the only good thing that’s come of this – he loved what he did.” [email protected] Twitter: @CDicksteinDC [email protected] Twitter: @cgrisales [email protected] Twitter: @chadgarland previous coverage Previous Trump offers 'deepest condolences' after deaths of four Americans in Syria Questions raised over Trump's Syria plan after four Americans killed in explosion Two servicemembers among four Americans killed in Syria explosion claimed by ISIS Next Email Print Reddit Tweet Share Pinterest More from around the web more top news Trump offers budget with funds for border wall, Space Force Vicenza’s Palazzo Chiericati houses a stunning collection of Venetian paintings, antique toys and more Lockheed Martin is scrambling to hire more young engineers Virginia Beach sailors to help boost public awareness of the Navy in South Carolina 'Forbidden city' tells Germany's complex military history Despite criticism of Manafort sentence as light, he fared worse than average editors' picks Sailor used military discount to buy guns and resell them, despite ATF warnings Age is no obstacle: Soldiers complete Army’s toughest schools after 40 Parents of dead West Point cadet obtain court order to retrieve his sperm trending German gardener may have planted explosives in the Kaiserslautern area before his death Two sisters committed 'the perfect murder,' police say. A love triangle exposed the truth. UN ruling raises questions about future of US mission in Diego Garcia Report: Trump wants Germany, Japan and others to pay full cost plus a premium for US troops Recent Marine blackface incident prompts questions about racial issues in military stripes rewards Stripes Store 1 of 1 follow us on: recent tweets Rewards Store Classifieds Newsletters ePaper Mobile Apps SUBSCRIBE: Digital Print Login © 2019 Stars and Stripes. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer Ombudsman Web Notices and Privacy Policy Accessibility ⁄ Section 508 Site Map Top

In Europe, Fear Spreads Faster Than the Coronavirus Itself

LONDON — A British man who tested positive for coronavirus was branded a “super spreader,” his every movement detailed by the local media.

Business has plummeted in a French ski resort identified as the scene of several transmissions of the virus.

And after some employees of a German car company were diagnosed with the virus, the children of other workers were turned away from schools, despite negative test results.

With 42 confirmed cases across the continent, the coronavirus outbreak is far less serious in Europe than it is in China, where more than 1,100 people have died and the fight to contain the virus has taken on the trappings of a wartime campaign.

But fear itself is proving contagious. And with that fear comes a new social stigma for people and places that have been associated with the outbreak.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, warned on Saturday of the dangers of letting fear outpace facts.

Image

Steve Walsh was widely identified in the British media as the man who brought the coronavirus to a ski chalet.Credit…Servomex

“We must be guided by solidarity, not stigma,” Dr. Tedros said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference, adding that fear could hamper global efforts to combat the virus. “The greatest enemy we face is not the virus itself; it’s the stigma that turns us against each other.”

In the United States and elsewhere, people of Asian heritage have faced intense public scrutiny over their health. In Europe, the handful of people confirmed to have been infected have also found themselves in the public glare.

In Britain, where there are nine confirmed cases, news outlets swiftly labeled a businessman at the center of a cluster of transmissions at a French ski chalet a “super spreader” even before the man returned to Britain and tested positive for the virus.

Updated Feb. 10, 2020

What is a Coronavirus? It is a novel virus named for the crown-like spikes that protrude from its surface. The coronavirus can infect both animals and people, and can cause a range of respiratory illnesses from the common cold to more dangerous conditions like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.

How contagious is the virus? According to preliminary research, it seems moderately infectious, similar to SARS, and is possibly transmitted through the air. Scientists have estimated that each infected person could spread it to somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5 people without effective containment measures.

How worried should I be? While the virus is a serious public health concern, the risk to most people outside China remains very low, and seasonal flu is a more immediate threat.

Who is working to contain the virus? World Health Organization officials have praised China’s aggressive response to the virus by closing transportation, schools and markets. This week, a team of experts from the W.H.O. arrived in Beijing to offer assistance.

What if I’m traveling? The United States and Australia are temporarily denying entry to noncitizens who recently traveled to China and several airlines have canceled flights.

How do I keep myself and others safe? Washing your hands frequently is the most important thing you can do, along with staying at home when you’re sick.

The businessman, Steve Walsh, later came forward to say that he did not know he had contracted coronavirus when he joined friends in France after a business trip to Singapore. He said he had contacted the health authorities as soon as he discovered that had been exposed to the virus and that he had been in isolation at a hospital after testing positive.

When Mr. Walsh’s name and photograph were released, broadcasters breathlessly speculated about his movements. Others mapped his “trail,” while some residents of Brighton and Hove, where Mr. Walsh lives, wondered if it was safe to go outside. Only five cases have been confirmed in the area.

Peter Kyle, a lawmaker who represents the area, said that the fear around the virus was understandable, particularly as the outbreak in China grows. But he said the use of the term “super spreader” was irresponsible.

“The connotation of that term is that he was proactively passing it, that he was willingly transmitting it,” Mr. Kyle said. “Whereas we know for a fact that the moment he became symptomatic, he did everything by the book.”

Part of the problem, Mr. Kyle said, is that people try to reconcile what is happening in China — where more than 70,000 people have tested positive for the virus and tens of millions have essentially been on lockdown for weeks — with what they are seeing nearer to home.

Mr. Kyle said that because the British authorities had not articulated the response strategy clearly to the public, “people are filling in the gaps themselves,” driven in part by misinformation online.

He said that some constituents had asked him to confirm the identities of coronavirus patients and provide a detailed account of where they had been before they went into isolation.

“It just shows there is misunderstanding,” he said. “When there is misunderstanding, prejudice and behavior that is not acceptable.”

The anxiety has also impacted local businesses, like The Grenadier, a pub in Hove where the health authorities determined Mr. Walsh had spent time before he learned he had the virus.

An employee confirmed by phone that the restaurant had been inundated with calls about the coronavirus. In an effort to dispel rumor, the staff posted a statement on Facebook: “You are not in any risk by coming into the pub.”

A spokesman for the British Department of Health and Social Care cautioned against using the virus as an excuse to stigmatize groups and individuals.

The health department also emphasized that doctors did not discharge patients believed to represent any threat to public health.

The French Alpine ski village of Les Contamines-Montjoie has also had to deal with the fears of a coronavirus outbreak. At least six British citizens who stayed in a chalet in the village, including a 9-year-old boy, tested positive for the virus and are still in France.

“We were all spooked,” said Mélanie Boidard, 34, a resident of Les Contamines-Montjoie. “Let’s not pretend otherwise.”

No new cases have been confirmed in the village since the initial cluster, but fears persist. The village of 1,200 usually increases more than tenfold this time of year with the influx of tourists, many of them Britons, coming to the ski resort. But businesses have suffered from rumors of coronavirus contamination.

Philippe Gerault, 65, who runs a ski club in Les Contamines-Montjoie, said about a dozen British clients had canceled reservations for this week.

“It’s panic,” said Eric Paris, the only pharmacist in the village.

Mr. Paris said he had received 300 to 400 calls from people asking for information about the coronavirus.

“People call me and ask ‘I’m coming next week, should I cancel my trip?’” he said. “It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

Of the 16 confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany, 14 are linked to the car parts manufacturer Webasto, which reopened its headquarters in Stockdorf last week.

A Chinese employee of the company who is based in Shanghai had visited the Bavarian headquarters for meetings in mid-January.

The employee’s parents had visited her from Wuhan Province, the center of the epidemic, just before she traveled to Germany, and she began showing symptoms on her return flight to China. That same evening, a German employee became ill and was the first German person diagnosed with the coronavirus.

The next day, with three infections reported, the company closed its headquarters — where about 1,000 managers, designers and engineers work — for two weeks in an effort to stop the virus from spreading further.

But outsiders avoided the village, associating it with the coronavirus, local leaders said.

Ludwig Harter, who runs a local cafe, says his business was down 50 percent since news of the local outbreak made national headlines.

“It’s everyone — older ladies and gentlemen, young mothers — many of our customers stopped coming,” said Mr. Harter.

Employees of Webasto said that schools and day care centers were reluctant to take their children, according to Nadine Schian, a spokeswoman for the company. Others reported that their partners had to be tested for the virus before they could go to work.

In one widely reported case, a man who brought his car to his regular mechanic was refused service because he worked for Webasto.

“It’s a small village,” Ms. Schian said. “Everyone knows everyone.”

Megan Specia reported from London, Constant Méheut from Paris and Christopher F. Schuetze from Berlin.

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Why the NHS is getting patients boxing and drumming – BBC News

Image copyright BBC/Getty

The NHS – as we know – is under pressure. One of the priorities for the coming years is to get people living healthier lives to prevent illness.

The health service is playing its part by thinking outside the box and using novel ways to get people active and engaged with their health.

Gardening your way to health

As we all know, gardening can be physically hard work. Digging or raking a lawn for 30 minutes requires as much energy as a 2km run, while trimming shrubs and plants is as good for you as walking.

So it should come as no surprise that some doctors are promoting gardening to their patients.

Image copyright Getty Images

One of these is Dr Michael Dixon, a GP from Devon, who has been appointed NHS England’s social prescribing lead to champion non-medical ways of treating patients.

“It can have a huge impact. GPs see so many patients that don’t necessarily need pills and potions but instead require something that gets them active, socialising or in touch with nature. What better activity is there than gardening?”

He speaks from experience. For the last 10 years his practice has been running a social prescribing scheme that refers patients on to local activities from dance and art to, of course, gardening. His practice has a fruit and herb garden and next year, thanks to funding from a local housing developer, a community garden will open.

Using boxing to get fighting fit

Working mum Alice was told she was at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes by her GP. She was referred by her doctor to boxing lessons to help her get fitter and lose weight in order to keep the disease at bay.

Her local surgery is taking part in a GP-led scheme in Leeds which is helping those affected by chronic illness to get fitter by offering exercise classes and advice to patients with a referral.

Alice said when her doctor told her she was at risk it “frightened” her and her family, but she says she’s now enjoying “the power that you get from being a boxer”.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionThe scheme is for those with illnesses such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and arthritis

Her personal trainer Claire helps patients with many different types of chronic illness and those with obesity.

“The eventual aim is to try and help them deal with their pain, help them prevent certain illnesses and with that we’ve found we have a 100% pass rate with all our patients that we’ve signed off. So it’s something that patients feel comfortable with because they can come to their GP surgery and attend an exercise session.”

And Alice says she has felt a big difference. “I actually feel not my age for a change. As a northern mum working full time, with kids, we’ve got this habit of always putting our families first, our jobs first, and we never make time just for ourselves.

“But now my special treat is giving myself time to exercise, making myself healthier, then everybody else benefits within my family.”

Line dancing and drumming on the NHS

Line dancing and drumming groups are just two of the novel ways people in the north west boroughs of Halton, St Helens and Knowsley are being encouraged to stay active and engaged.

The opportunities are provided through the local social prescription service run by voluntary sector body Wellbeing Enterprises.

It works by building on the resources that are available already locally, working with existing services, clubs and organisations to co-design and deliver the programmes on offer.

Over the years this has involved linking up with singing clubs, dance classes, guitar clubs, knitting groups and local leisure centres.

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And it can even involve utilising the skills of patients who get referred to them, says Wellbeing Enterprises chief executive officer Mark Swift.

“We had one patient who could play the ukuele so we set up a ukuele class. It really took off and we ran out of the instruments. On another occasion a doctor was referred to us who was a good tango dancer soshe helped run a tango club. It helpedherand many others.

“It is about using the what is already available – there are some terrific schemes that exist in the community.”

A three-month follow-up with one group of patients showed they benefited from a 70% reduction in depression symptoms, an 80% improvement in well-being levels and 53% improvement in self-reported health status.

GPs encouraging schoolchildren to get running

In Lancashire, doctors are working with schools to encourage pupils to get active to combat child obesity.

The idea has been borrowed from an initiative called the Daily Mile, which first got going in Stirling in Scotland.

In Morecambe and Carnforth, a GP has taken it into local schools to encourage pupils to become fitter at a time of rising concern about child obesity.

Dr Andy Knox has worked with school heads so that there is time each day for pupils to run one mile or take an equivalent amount of exercise indoors.

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He is part of the Better Care Together initiative in the area which brings together local health and social care leaders.

The children are monitored every month for strength and stamina and they have seen marked improvements over the last year.

And the teachers say pupils’ concentration and behaviour has improved after the daily run. Some parents have taken their cue and started running each day.

Children, interviewed by BBC News, said they enjoyed their runs though it was tough going when they started.

Related Topics

Exercise

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