Silkspeech

Mystical, demonic power, taught by  Death himself...and you can learn it too!

"Silkspeech is the power of influence and control....The ability to sway other people to believe what you want them to believe or to do what you want them to." [Death]

"Like mind control?" [Nick]

"Yes and no. Mind control won't work on thse who are really hardheaded. You know....Creatures like you."

Well, if it only worked some of the time--"Then what good is it?"

"Fine." Grim (Grim Reaper AKA Death) headed for the door. "If you don't want to learn it."

"Wait, wait, wait. I didn't say that. I want to influence others." Especially if it could change his mom's attitude about dating, driving, chores...(Nick is 15 years old).

Yeah, it had a lot of possibilities. With luck, he might not ever have to take out trash again!

Grim turned around slowly. "Word to the wise, short stack, when you do use this power, you have to be careful. LIke all the others, it can sometimes come with a desvastating side effect."

"Like waht?"

"It could cause someone to kill themself. Alter their fate. Impact you in ways you won't know about until it's too late."

Oh goodie. Another power he couldn't count on. Just what he wanted.

At this rate, he wasn't sure why he was being trained. It was like giving nuts to a squirrel who had no teeth.

Nick let out a heavy sigh. "All these powers and the only one that actually works is the ability to call for help--and that one only so long as Caleb isn't in the shower or with a woman. Why can't one...just one power work the way it's supposed to?"

Grim's expression was wicked and cold. "Technically, they do. The problem is every human is different and they react to stimuli in ways unique t them. That's what you can't count on and it's what makes you powers appear to misfire. Before you use them, you have to take time to know your target."

Nick frowned. "I don't understand."

"Yes, you do. It's instinctive in you, and it's why you gravitate toward some people and run from others." Grim picked up one of the porcelain dolls Nick's mom collected and studied it as he talked. "Let's take the term 'redneck.' Some people think of it as a badge of honor. Others as the ultimate insult." He returned the doll to its shelf. "Originally, the word had an entirely different association and meaning. Back in the day, rednecks were union coal men from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and eastern Kentucky-a far cry from the Deep South where most people mistakenly believe all rednecks live. They were from all races and creeds, and proudly wore a red bandana around their neck as a way of identifying themselves to others, and as a mark of solidarity of the working man standing up against the big corporations who exploited them. In sort, they were folk heroes and admired."

Nick widened his eyes. When Grim and Kyrian talked about history, it was interesting. When his teacher did it, it put him to sleep. "Really?"

Grim nodded. "It took decades before it was twisted into a derogatory term. Happens a lot with language. The word 'war' once meant to be cautious, as in 'warning'. 'Precocious' originally meant 'stupid.' But I digress. The point is, Slim, people have triggers. Words or images that cause a surge of negative emotion to run rampant through them. If I were to call your friend Bubba a redneck, he'd laugh and agree. If I were to call your friend Mark that, he'd be extrememly offended and probably, to his detriment, try to punch me. Whenever you attempt silkspeech, you have to understand how it might adversely affect your target. If you accidently hit that person's trigger, then you could end up with a violent response instead of a positive one. Or vice versa."

Nick nodded as he followed Grim's teaching. It was something he'd been doing for years, especially with jerks and bullies like Stone at school. "So what you're saying is I have to learn what buttons to push."

"Exactly."

"That's basic psychlogy, Grim. How's that supposed to be a power?"
.....pause for two pages discussing Nick's specific powers, Nick's inability to stay on subject ("like trying to train an ADD cat in a mouse factory") and how everyone treats Nick like a kid (If you want respect from others, you have to give it--Nick's mom)

[Nick] "All right. You have my undivided attention."

"That'll last three seconds," Grim said under his breath. "Honestly, if I didn't know better, I'd swear you're not the Malachai. It mystifies me that someone as worthless as you could have any power whatsoever. You were born white trash and that's all you'll ever be." He raked Nick with a scathing sneer. "You're nothing."

Rage darkened Nick's gaze. Blood rushed through his veins so fast that his entire body heated up to the level of molten lava. "I ain't nothing, boy. You about to find out just what I can do."

Grim laughed. "That's it. I finally do have yur attention, and you've just learned the first lesson of influence. You use your divination and clairvoyance to strike the nerves of the person you're trying to manipulate. Even someone with a will as strong as yours can be influenced. Not with your mind, rather with your mouth or actions. I can't control you, but I can set you off and manipulate you to have the emotional  or physically response I want you to. That is one power no one is immune to."

--Passage from Infamous by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Were-Hunters

I'm a huge fan of the were-hunter segment of the whole "Dark Hunter" society created by Sherrilyn Kenyon (my latest obsession, obviously). First, the question of "what came first" has been answered (they're the bi-product of an ancient king's attempt to legnthen the life of the Apollites without taking human souls) (and this is another reason why I like this series--the same question is ansered for the vampires). Second, it's kinda hilarious that they "imprint" on their Fates chosen mate, but since the Fates are the Fates, there's no creepiness where someone "imprints" on a child (stupid Twilight)--it's always at the most fortuitious time (or so I suppose given my limited examples so far). So you can know someone your whole life and not know that you're their mate (though I think sex has a lot to do with this; I think I read that they have to have sex then wait for the mark to form) and feel free to curse the Fates if it's someone you couldn't help yourself about (poor Panthers in heat :-( ).

But that's just another great thing about this idea--there are 2 branches of each animal (human to animal and animal to human) who don't get each other at all. They've been taught to hate and kill each other for offenses that both sides perpetrate: who kills indescriminately, the "humans" or the "animals", for example. I've recently become fascinated by the notion that to kill ruthlessly is "animalistic", but in reality, animals do not kill out of spite or revenge--they kill to eat or to protect themselves. There may be one or two alternative examples (not including rabies infections), but generally, you aren't going to have a grizzlie bear stalk a human for destroying it's homeland. Because it invaded the homeland and took away all natural food sources, maybe, but not for the specific reason that it wants it's land back. Anyway, the were-hunters are just a great example about how prejudices spread through poor communication and lack of education--if you meet either side you learn that they aren't the abominations that the other proclaims.

Edit: And I now demand a new status quo when it comes to werewolves. Look, wolf/dog sex is weird in that their penis actually expands to lock itself inside the female for as long as 30 seconds. I was watching a nature documentary the other day about wolves and some of the other wolves wanted to stop the female and male from mating--after the swelling had started. So there were 8 or so wolves fighting while 2 of them are literally locked together butt to butt (I have NO idea how they were able to twist around like that but it had to have been painful)--I cringed when they almost ran around both sides of a tree--that would not have ended well. So. Given this information, I love the fact that Kenyon added in this detail (she really does celebrate the differences between the were-animals that live within her world). And I'm now disappointed whenever I read about were-wolves and the guy pulls out immediately after sex. I like the conversation Vane has with Bride about it--he's forced to cuddle after sex which, as a woman, I find totally hot.

Taming the Scotsman by Kinley MacGregor

This series is pretty good (Brotherhood/MacAlister), though it's pretty clear what kind of man Kinley MacGregor, also known as Sherilyn Kenyon, likes--tall, generally dark, and brooding. She's just as good as Jim Butcher when it comes to beating down the cutie. My only problem is that I'm worried that her brooding guys will lose some of their personality when they're tamed by the lady--will they be just as fierce 5 years later? But anyway.

I'm sitting here laughing my butt off because the big, bad, and sexy hero just handed his sword off to the chatterbox heroine who it turns out is quite the swordswoman so that she can fight the girl who helped kidnap them--while he's just standing there watching the fight with the 4 men who round out the kidnappers instead of beating them up easily while the only 2 swords available are occupied by the women.

For the most part I've been enjoying the books by this author and her real name (series is "Dark-Hunter"). They're fun romances where there's actually an enemy besides poor communication skills (which just annoys me and is why I've avoided romances like the plague before) which is right up my alley. The problem is that you can tell when an author writes romances and when they write epics that just happen to have romance in them--Kenyon's fight scenes are greatly lacking. It was very smart of her to invent a conviently blind character for one of the books. 'Course, I'm the first to say that a fight scene goes into too much detail--we really don't need to have 3 pages of battle for a great book. Butcher's background in martial arts means that he knows exactly what he's talking about when he describes, for instance how one man can take on 12 men singlehandedly. I did a year of Aikido with a friend teaching and I picked up enough to know how beautiful this fighting style is--using the weight of your opponent to throw them across the room. Kenyon glances over these fights, letting other characters talk while the fighting "just happens." I mean, if these women are as good with a sword as she claims, then why don't her hero and heroine ever practice against each other? I'm reading The Warrior now and I think that Cat and Lochlan should have an epic sword fight that ends up with them rolling on the ground kissing for the first time. They have such an antagonistic relationship the fireworks should be quite entertaining.

She also has the problem of the seriously anti-climatic resolution. I mean sure, sometimes the long, overly complicated conclusion is unncessary--sometimes you just need to push the big baddie into the convient fiery pit or shoot the missle into the 2 meter wide hole in the otherwise indestructible Death Star. But sometimes you want more than "I'm a goddess, see me just will you to death, even though I decided not to, and or for some other reason couldn't, for the past 300 pages" though granted, I'm now thinking that she has some overarching plan in mind...or at least I hope. I mean, Butcher is very good at leaving lose ends that come to bite Dresden on the ass three books later.

But all in all Kenyon is a very smart writer. I read the first two books and decided that even though the climaxes were dull, I had to find out more about the bad-ass leader "Acheron", so I decided that I'd read the series until his story got told. Well, one trip to goodreads.com told me that that would not be the 4th or 5th book, as I thought, but rather the 15th--I probably will read all the series because I found some really intreguing spoilers (I've found that sometimes spoilers make for better reading because I know what to look for and forward to).