Happy Valentine’s Day! Come explore the depths of emotion and vast varieties of love to be found during this momentous occasion. Will the day bring stress, drama, and tears? Or will it bring comfort, joy, and the embrace most desperately desired? How about the stubbornness of a joyful pursuit to victory, the plunging wilds of obsession, the steadfastness of a mother?
Join us this week as we explore some — perhaps all — of love’s fraught rollercoaster moments.
| Will you | describe | love for me? |
| Cedar Sanderson | The love of a mother takes many forms… | Fiona Grey |
| AC Young | “I prided myself on being selfish – until I started to learn the meaning of love.” | Leigh Kimmel |
| Becky Jones | Everybody worried about the day the AIs would take over. But when it came… they simply sat down and watched Bugs Bunny cartoons. | Cedar Sanderson |
| Padre | “He loves you despite your virtues rather than because of them.” | nother Mike |
| Leigh Kimmel | It was at once boring and fascinating, like studying the love lives of living gas clouds stretching thousands of miles across space. | Becky Jones |
| nother Mike | The problem that the clones had with love was… which one is that? | AC Young |
| Fiona Grey | He loved staring into the night sky and watching the stars dance, but it was a lonely ritual. | Padre |
How about those unexpected aspects of love — the vampires’ eternal embrace as they battle through another thousand years side by side, the comfort of a beloved classic in front of the TV, the exploration of sports fandom via poetry? Spares are the ultimate expression of love, freely given for exploration.
| Spare | …looked at the results of what was supposed to be a simple thing, “Great. Just great. It’s gonna be one of THOSE millennia.” |
| Spare | Roses are red, / Thistles are blue. / Tries are worth five, / Conversions two. |
| Spare | In vain the firstborn seraph tries / To sound the depths of love divine! |
| Spare | What’s up, Doc? |
| Spare | Why do so many fairy tales ask for the first-born child as the payoff, but none of them ever ask for the last one? |
| Spare | When Cupid shot his arrow up into the air, it fell to earth, he knew not where! |
| Spare | I love it when you… |
Happy Valentine’s, all!
Header image generated with MidJourney by Fiona Grey.
More Odds Than Ends 
This week’s love-based challenge was supplied by nother Mike: The problem that the clones had with love was… which one is that?
—
“Never fall in love with a clone!
You’re better off being alone!
“The first Adonis who asked
Was a seven-batch Beta.
I went to his, all to meet –
Seven clones are confusing!
“Never fall in love with a clone!
You’re better off being alone!”
“Invited to a concert
By a musical Delta –
Once more I found, dating clones,
Mix-ups destroy enjoyment!
“Never fall in love with a clone!
You’re better off being alone!”
“I thought I’d learnt my lesson
But I fell for another!
The very next e-ve-ning
Saw me kissing his brother!
“Never fall in love with a clone!
You’re better off being alone!”
The singer finished to massive applause, but Kelsey wasn’t clapping. She’d been dragged onto a blind date by her best friend, Lucy, and the unlucky man was Mark-Beta, who had been part of the same clone batch as Lucy’s boyfriend Mark-Gamma.
Instead, Kelsey looked across to Mark-Beta. To her surprise he was laughing.
He seemed to take pity on her. “She’s playing it for laughs, but she gets it! Misidentification and mix-ups are the biggest single problem of dating as a clone. Just one example, last week I was at a restaurant and a pair of Susans were on a double date. At the end of the meal the women went to the ladies’ room leaving their boyfriends behind. When they came back their boyfriends kissed the wrong Susan. It was very embarrassing for all concerned.”
“Oh, yes,” chuckled Mark-Gamma. “We could all tell you ten different tales about clones getting misidentified by someone’s other half without thinking. It’s not even a new thing – Shakespeare used mix-ups between twins to great comic effect in Twelfth Night.”
“And besides,” said Beta, “it’s not as if she’s taken her own advice.”
Before Kelsey could respond, she saw that the singer was coming over to them. As she approached it looked as if she was looking at the clones’ hands. Only then did Kelsey note that Mark-Beta had a ring on his right index finger, and Mark-Gamma an identical ring on his right middle finger.
“Beta! Gamma! How did I do?”
Marks -Beta and -Gamma got up and took it in turns to hug her. “Delightful as ever,” said Beta.
“Introductions. Violet, my girlfriend Lucy, and Beta’s date, Kelsey. Everyone, our sister-in-law Violet. Violet is married to Delta.”
“Lovely to meet you both. I’ve got about half an hour before my next set. Do you mind if I join you?”
Kelsey looked across the table at Lucy. After a short time, Kelsey looked at Violet, and said “We’d love that.”
Violet then pulled up a chair from a nearby table, and sat down. She seemed very comfortable in their company, and Kelsey found her excellent company.
The conversation flowed, and it didn’t feel long before Violet had to return to the stage to sing again.
Violet was a great singer, and Kelsey really enjoyed her second set.
It was only the start of a really great evening and a blind date that was much better than she had expected.
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Whistle! Applause! Well-done! Encore, maestro! Sing it again, Sam!
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“In vain the firstborn seraph tries to sound the depths of love divine.”
I love Charles Wesley.
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Padre raised the romantic suggestion…
“He loves you despite your virtues rather than because of them.”
[oh, let’s see…]
Harry wiped the bar with his towel, and shook his head at the young woman slumped over her drink.
“What’s the matter, Alice?”
She bit her lip, then looked up at him. Her eyes were brimming with tears.
“I just don’t understand Tim. I mean, I try so hard, but when I tell him I won the athletics award, he just shrugs it off. What am I doing wrong?”
Harry blinked, then smiled.
“Let me tell you something, Alice. You’re smart, you’re attractive, you’ve got money and position, you’ve got a lot going for you. But Tim isn’t looking at all that. Nope. He loves you, first and foremost. He loves you despite your virtues rather than because of them. So if you quit trying to show him your awards and achievements, and just talk to the man, I think you’ll be surprised at how deeply in love with you he already is. I swear, you could walk in here in overalls and a sweatshirt, with no makeup, and your hair in curlers, and he would still be happy. So…”
She frowned, then took a deep drink, and looked at Harry.
“Are you sure? I mean, I try so hard…”
He chuckled.
“Like I said, he isn’t looking for you to do anything wonderful, just to be there. Take it from the guy he talks to after you leave… he loves you despite your virtues, not because of them. So quit talking about them, and just listen more, okay?”
She looked down at her drink. He polished the bar again, and then walked away.
[hum, kind of odd, but… ]
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Very real advice!
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[…] Week 7 at More Odds Than Ends started on Valentine’s Day, so our fearless coordinator decided to go with a love theme (I screwed up in my prompt, but I have all faith in Cedar that she will be able to make something of it). My challenge came from Leigh Kimmel: It was at once boring and fascinating, like studying the love lives of living gas clouds stretching thousands of miles across space. So mosey on over to More Odds Than Ends to see what our crew of Odds come up with when love is in the air. […]
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Oooh, different. I could definitely see this happening!
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[…] Check out more over at MOTE! […]
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Well, this is…not your typical love story. But you knew that already, didn’t you? https://fionagreywrites.com/a-mothers-love/
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oooo… zombies need brains, right? ooooo….
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Mine is now up on my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/1485883.html. Character studies can sure be fun.
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Fiona Grey proposed “He loved staring into the night sky and watching the stars dance, but it was a lonely ritual.”
“Eat up, young man.”
Alexi looked up at the stern face of the man sitting across from him. The man was dark haired and clean shaven and dressed in a long flowing blue robe that reached his ankles. Alexi looked down at the simple wooden bowl filled with a hearty stew and took a bite.
The earthy richness filled his mouth, not quite sour, not exactly sweet, but somewhere in between. He recognized potatoes and carrots, turnips and other root vegetables along with the gamey taste of venison. He took another and then another.
The man smiled slightly, then took the loaf of simple brown bread that sat between then, broke it in half, and handed one of the pieces to Alexi. “You have come far today and still have far to go,” he said. “You will need your strength.”
“How do you know that?”
The man smiled tightly. “I know many things.”
“How?”
“Have you ever sat outside at night?”
“No. The dark is terrifying.”
“It can be. But it is also beautiful, if you can make friends with it. I love to stare into the night sky and watch the stars dance, though it is a lonely ritual. No one joins me, these days, not since my last apprentice betrayed me, took the secrets I taught her, and used them to drive away the sun princess.”
“The witch-queen.”
“That is what she is now known as, yes. But before that she was a young girl who came to me with magic in her heart and her fingertips.”
“What happened?”
He sighed. “It is an old story. She came to learn and learn she did. But she also gave her heart to a young man in a village near here. But his mother, fearful of the magic, forbade him from seeing her and arranged for him to marry a young lady from the village. When he married this other woman, my apprentice’s heart froze and she decided that if she couldn’t have the love she desired, no one would. And so she chose power over love, took the throne by force, and drove out the sun princess.”
“So how do we defeat her?”
The man looked across the table at him, and nodded. “Come with me tonight. Watch the stars dance with me and see what they tell us.”
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Lovely.
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