Tom scowls, just a micro-expression, before the practiced face peels over the real one, the smile smooth as frosting on a cupcake.

It might seem as if he’s been sitting around eating M& M’s and scratching his ass for the past few months.

The candidates hit the floor like Travolta, ready with their moves, knowing that the spotlight is going to find them and illuminate every glistening thing: both sequins and sweat.

Vi è stato insegnato che siete immonde, che non siete sante, che il vostro corpo è impuro e non potrebbe mai essere la sede del divino. Vi hanno insegnato a disprezzare tutto ciò che siete e ad aspirare solo a essere un uomo. Ma vi hanno insegnato menzogne. Dio

We’re only pretending everything is normal because we don’t know what else to do.

On the thirteenth day of the fifth month of the third year after the Day of the Girls, Tatiana Moskalev brings her wealth and her connections, a little less than half her army, and many of her weapons to a castle in the hills on the borders of Moldova. And there she declares a new kingdom, uniting the coastal lands between the old forests and the great inlets and thus, in effect, declaring war on four separate countries, including the Big Bear herself. She calls the new country Bessapara, after the ancient people who lived there and interpreted the sacred sayings of the priestesses on the mountaintops. The international community waits for the outcome. The consensus is that the state of Bessapara cannot hold on for long.
Pg 98