Transpacific diplomacy warming, like global climate.

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But I've no strength, no courage! If I must

Continue living, tread the steeper way,

Climb crises--impulse might o'erride dread; just

An instant could decide things either way.

.

(This was written under the influence of two bottles of wine and a complete disregard for grammar)

There is a belief that, if you look close enough at the bark of trees, you'll see yourself in the grooves.

You, who are made of flesh and blood and mushy…

Each Robin has a red breast, dripping blood,


And ev'ry beaten heart, a bony cage,


And still we sing and bathe ourselves in mud;

From heart to fingers, ink still stains the page.

The pump has sprung a leak for you to read:


A farewell note to say it's n…

Beckton stepped through the fourth row of bombe racks, trying valiantly to ignore the incessant clicking of the cryptologic machines as they crunched their way through yet another coded message. He drew from his right pocket one of the large box magazines…

The fire rain came again last night, driving holes in the already pitted metal over our heads. Cossa and Sandry caught some splash drops with their faces and woke with permanent tears. Fire rain burned but everyone in our holding catches what they can to …

"Well met, Gulmar of the Eldergreens. My name is Sadie, and in different times we were the III Section of Darkfall's Moonriders. We travel east to fulfil the last wishes of our late commander, and are grateful for your timely assistance."

The towering or…

She saw him across the crowded party basement. Her heart swelled with euphoria. Her eyes sparkled. She was overly exuberant, but her friends thought she'd caught the party fever. They had no idea of her secret passion for the boy lurking in the corner.

W…

Email:

I want you to know my feelings in detail, so I type them into a single message that may be long, but at least I have provided good communication of my wants and needs.

Texting:

I return your communication sometimes with a similarly long winded mes…

If I were to tell you, my darling friend,

That I think that I'm falling for you,

Would you feel I'd been lying? Would our friendship end?

What would you say; what would you do?

Well, I know well I shouldn't, I know in my place

I must only be strict…

It's the heart; the best part. I saved it for you.

I protected it, made sure it stayed whole and as innocent and full of light as possible. I used it only to build you up, to raise you from the darkness. I used it to praise you and to welcome you with op…

To understand why Mike Green had begun to scream, one must merely look at the events of a few seconds earlier.

Then, an old man had sat in a windowless van, ensconced in soundproofing, and raised a small radio to his lips. "Begin," he declared tonelessly,…

The pile of rejects on the end of my desk grew with a haste I wasn't quite expecting. This was the first I looked down to see that sometime through the day it spilled down to the floor under my feet. Of course picking it all up meant I sat reading them ag…

Orthael was quite content with the part of supporting swordsman. He stayed on her weaker side, ensuring that she could focus her attention on cutting a way through the Lesser Dead. Claws rang against steel; he used his shield more and more, less as a laye…

Empress Melinda the IV ignored the cries of the man being dragged away by two guards. So few people accepted their notice of execution with any sense of dignity these days. She should know, she had sent hundreds of men, women, and the occasional child, to…

The magnificent lines of the Core Expeditionary Force were on full parade formations, that day. Thousands of ships all arrayed in perfect arrangement, capital ships surrounded by droves of smaller combatants.

When the order came to fire upon the ragged a…

Faster than I could react, she pulled something from her apron and pushed it into my hands.

"Please, stay safe. I couldn't... if you..."

This wasn't what I had expected. Still trying to catch up to the present, I looked down at the object she had given …

Their little faces crumbled from surprise and delight to tearful and shock. This large thing crashed their party, stealing their gifts and eating their cake.

He sat back, grinning maliciously over his multiple chins. The children's large eyes swam with…

Boldly I fear, oh so boldly I stride,

For I dare to be frightened! I shan't be denied!

There are others who cower but meet with bad ends;

There are mothers with power, het up with a lens,

But the timid who bluster are rare, dear my friends.

I will strike…

As silently as the High Angel before it, Judgement whispered echoes of its past to Orthael. There had been many who had made similar vows in a time long before, when the Dead had arisen in such numbers that the darkness had very much threatened to overwhe…

Ryle stepped over the broken bodies littering the floor in order to retrieve the knives.

"Ryle, do you ever think about the men you've killed?"

He didn't answer immediately, instead choosing to wipe down the hard black blades with the edge of the dead m…

The knock came just after midnight. I’d been laying in bed listening to this old 80s band called the Cure when I heard it. A soft tapping, so faint that I almost missed it. Then it came again, louder and more insistent.

I rolled out of bed and saw a b…

"But you're a fairy Godmother!" screamed Cinderella before collapsing on her bed and sending a dozen birds tittering out of her window. She began to sob. It was all right there before her, the castle, the perfect life, the perfect husband, and just like t…

Story is marked as mature

She stumbled out of the alleyway onto the busy street. A few people jumped out of the way, barking at her to watch out. Her muscles trembled as she leaned against the brick building.

He walked out of the alley and smirked at her. "Tough, isn't it?"

She …