In the northern hemisphere, life is blooming thanks to a sustained heat wave, with an edge of worry that it’s far too soon for tentative shoots and buds to survive a sudden chill. Further south, there’s less worry and more work — and that’s what life is so often like, an edge of fear mixed with enjoyment of the fruits and satisfaction of hard labor, new hope mixed amid the debris and detritus of the past.
Bit like writing publicly, really. On with the prompts!
| Presenter | Gift | Presented |
| Cedar Sanderson | The potter’s hands in cerulean green | Leigh Kimmel |
| Fiona Grey | The tarot spread had never drawn those cards in past readings, because those cards didn’t exist. | Cedar Sanderson |
| Becky Jones | The wind was howling and rain was pounding down when I finally heard the knock at my door. | Fiona Grey |
| Leigh Kimmel | She went into the library’s old stacks to retrieve a book. Instead she found… | nother Mike |
| nother Mike | The sunrise was painting the sky in glory when the trolls broke in. | Becky Jones |
Need to water the creativity and see what sprouts, even though you’ve never hopped into the prompts before or forgot to send one in for a trade? Grab a spare!
| Spare | Her whiskey was never cold |
| Spare | Last Christmas’ gift of a heart was not appreciated by the recipient, nor the police. |
| Spare | “Hip, hip, huzzah! Hip, hip – ooo, pizza!” |
| Spare | When a rhinoceros takes a shower in you bathroom, things might get broken! |
| Spare | Today, we’ve got the Vampire Quartet with their hit song, Let the Moon Shine In! |
| Spare | Hold your loved ones close. |
Need some fertiliz—er, inspiration? Perhaps nature, if she cooperates enough to let you outside, will help spark ideas! And with that, cheers!
Image by Fiona Grey.
More Odds Than Ends 
This prompt was made for using the art rendering powers of MidJourney or another ai. And recently we discovered that the ai will give a specific ‘style’ even if the artist’s name it is given doesn’t exist. I incorporated Fiona’s name, then, as the prompt ‘artist’ to see what I got. These are tarot cards that indeed, have never existed before and never will in physical form.
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given prompt: The tarot spread had never drawn those cards in past readings, because those cards didn’t exist, art style of Fiona Grey –ar 3:2
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I wasn’t around to submit a prompt this week, so I grabbed a spare: Today, we’ve got the Vampire Quartet with their hit song, Let the Moon Shine In!
—
Tonight was an unusual night in the underground speakeasy. Due to the full moon, all the werewolves had stayed away, so the non-humans were mainly vampires, drinking their highly illegal blood cocktails.
The speakeasy had a special treat for tonight’s cliental, one that had been kept a closely guarded secret until now. It was time for tonight’s entertainment to be announced, and the club’s vampire owner was in place in the middle of the stage.
“Good evening, gentle beings, mortal, immortal and other. Tonight, we have a visiting group to entertain us. Today, we’ve got the Vampire Quartet.”
Onto the stage walked the four vampires in the aforementioned group to huge applause from the vampires in the place. The humans were somewhat bemused, not knowing that these were the premiere vampire group in the underground musical charts.
One of the group was on the piano, another on a trombone, a third was playing the drums, and the final member of the quartet was on vocals.
“Good evening.” That was all the singer said, it was all she needed to say.
The pianist started playing, the trombonist and drummer joined in. The chords were recognised by all the vampires in the room. An expectant hush spread around the club. The singer opened her mouth.
“Let the Moon shine in!
Let the Moon shine in!
It’s reflected sunlight
With the poison removed.
Let the Moon shine in!
Let the Moon shine in!”
The opening chorus rang out to great appreciation. All the vampires started to cheer and clap. This was the group’s greatest hit.
The chorus repeated, and this time many of the vampires in the audience joined in.
This continued all the way through the song. The verses were sung by the singer alone, but the choruses were sung in vampiric choir. One final repeated chorus, and the song was over. There was much applause.
The four vampires all stood and bowed.
“Thank you. Thank you all. And now it is time for the premiere of our new album.”
The music started again, this time with chords that none apart from the quartet had heard before.
The patrons all fell quiet and listened intently, as the quartet played and sung the first of their new songs. It was a great success, and finished to much applause.
The concert continued, and the new songs were all well received, particularly by the vampire patrons. The humans were less enamoured of the content of the songs, but since they were all addicted to the vampire’s kiss cocktails (containing samples of vampires’ anaesthetic venom, and also highly illegal) that the speakeasy served only to humans, the owner wasn’t too worried.
The vampires, however, were loving the music, and drinking plenty of blood cocktails. This delighted the owner, and it seemed as if the night would be very profitable for him.
Indeed, when the music, and thereafter the night, came to an end, the club was almost out of its supply of blood, the key ingredient of the various blood cocktails. The club’s owner would have to purchase more blood from the blood banks the next day as a matter of urgency, itself an illegal transaction, but essential to keep the speakeasy in business – the vampires could easily go to another underground club, it was only the easy access to blood cocktails that kept them coming here.
The owner shut the doors and locked and barred them half an hour before dawn. The night had been a great success, but that created its own work for the future.
The work would be carried out with diligence, and the underground club would reopen its doors at sunset the next night.
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PS: Anyone know how to force a single carriage return in the latest comments box?
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Shift + Enter
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Thanks.
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[…] Check out more over at MOTE! […]
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hello death my old friend…. Nice!
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[…] was painting the sky in glory when the trolls broke in. Don’t forget to make your way over to More Odds Than Ends to see what everybody did with their […]
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oooh! Life on the old rescue ranch! Love it!
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I forgot to send a prompt in last week, so I’m pulling one of the spares. “Hold your loved ones close.
Don’t go outside at night, particularly on nights like this. When the full moon paints the landscape silver, the world is different.
It’s not that it looks different. It is different. The walls between the worlds grow thin and things creep across. Or stride boldly across, depending on who they are.
Elf lords and ladies parade across the hills these nights; their dances and pageants not breaking stride as they flit between Elfland and our world. They may not even be aware that they are crossing the boundaries.
Some have gotten caught up in their wake. The silken clothing draws them in; the fair folk swaddle them in color and music and… And they lose themselves for a night. For a day. For a hundred years and return to a world and time that knows them not; the lost that return, only to waste away pining for the beauty that they touch, but can never hold.
Do not go outside on nights like this. If you must, stay close. Do not chase the lights, the sounds, the wonder that you spy.
Do not go outside. Instead, lock your door, go to bed, and hold your loved ones close. You’ll thank me. Some day.
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And now mine’s up on my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/1500579.html
Not as long as I’d wanted, but I had a busy weekend.
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Leigh Kimmel presented me with the gift…
She went into the library’s old stacks to retrieve a book. Instead she found…
[what lurks in the old stacks of the library? Grad students know better than to wander too far into those shadowy reaches… bookworms! Strange manuscripts never before seen by humankind! Or maybe a romantic partner, needing to be led out of the depths of those ancient stacks? Well, let’s see…]
Hazel looked at the faculty request with her nose wrinkled. She didn’t recognize that title or author, so she pulled up the library inventory, and ran the search program. Oh. That designation meant it was something in the old stacks, back in the depths of the library, in the special reserve. She looked around the library. It was quiet enough. So she’d go ahead and pull the book, so that the head librarian wouldn’t have to go looking for it.
She bounced up, and stretched. One problem with sitting at the desk, it was easy to stiffen up. Then she started back through the library. The study desks and shelves out front here were bright and cheery, even without anyone using them. But, as she walked further into the library, while the light stayed bright, the shelves got tighter, with narrower aisles between them. The books on the shelves also started being more varied in size and colors.
Whe she opened the door of the special reserves, she thought she heard something. But no one should be back here! What….
She stepped into the narrow aisle, and listened for a moment. There was a rustling further into the room. She stepped firmly along the aisle, and said, in her best librarian voice, “All right, I heard you, now stop right there and tell me what you are doing back here!”
Then she stepped out of the aisle between the shelves, and found a small open space. With… well, she thought it must be a joke. What else would you call something that looked like a small monkey of some kind, but with bat wings draped over its shoulders. And eyes that glittered, brightly, as it watched her.
“Well, dear lady, what did you want?” The monster said.
She blinked several times, then said, “Actually, I’m looking for a book.”
It chuckled, and waved one hand. A long-fingered hand.
“As you can see, we have plenty of books. Which one, in particular?”
She shook her head.
“Well, I originally needed to get The History of Delm, written by Augustus Mendelssohn. But I also need to know what you are doing back here!”
It chuckled again, then said, “That book! It’s right over here.” It reached up and pulled an old leather-bound tome off a nearby shelf. It held it out to her.
She sighed, and took the book. Then she bit her lip. “But what are you doing back here?”
Now it bowed, and said, “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Gordian Nott, but you can call me Gordon, known to some of the librarians as the monster in the stacks.”
“Does the head librarian know about you?”
Gordon nodded. “Oh, yes. Actually, she helped me get settled here, and even put me into the card catalog.”
Hazel squeezed her eyes shut, counted to three while taking a deep breath, and then opened her eyes again. No, Gordon was still there, smiling a little.
“You are in the catalog? But why?”
He chuckled again. “Well, the librarian said if I was going to be in the library all the time, I should be listed, just like all the other holdings.”
[hum, running out of time… maybe we’ll get back to Gordon and Hazel some other time… probably without Alexander’s sword, although…]
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