Here we go again, back on the merry-go-round. Spinning through space and time, feeling the pull of gravity relentlessly tugging, we travel ever onwards, never able to return.
| Flower | Bee | Fruits |
| Fiona Grey | “We’ve spent so long with the lie, we’ve half-forgotten the truth.” | AC Young |
| AC Young | All of his ‘t’s were dotted, and all of his ‘i’s were crossed. | Leigh Kimmel |
| nother Mike | And then there was the golden snake coiled in the socks | Padre |
| Padre | It wasn’t fatal, just a simple cold. | Fiona Grey |
| Leigh Kimmel | The absolutely amazing ability of people to help themselves to your time when you need to be making headway on a long-term project | nother Mike |
Gather ye rosebuds on the first of May, stop and wonder along the way, and don’t forget to collect a spare…
| Spare | The takeover was complete. |
| Spare | Lightning was merely the latest in an escalatory succession of omens. |
| Spare | This changes everything! |
| Spare | When you stand on your head, the world is topsy-turvy… |
| Spare | There was a gun in the special delivery box on the porch… |
Come back and see them in the comments!
More Odds Than Ends 
This week Fiona Grey sent me in buzz-code: “We’ve spent so long with the lie, we’ve half-forgotten the truth.”
—
“What did you learn today?”
“Nanna, the priest taught us about the exile. Nanna, you’re old.”
“Yes, my darling. I remember arriving on this island. I remember the difficulty of working the untamed land to grow the food to keep the tribe alive.”
“You don’t remember the tribes of the mainland turning on us?”
“I’ve worked very hard to forget that time, my darling.”
Lin-yet looked very disappointed that her grandmother couldn’t provide more details of how the tribe was exiled from the mainland to the island of Gropheslis. Bur Kas-pan wasn’t prepared to lie to her granddaughter.
Kas-pan had been an Oracle of the Gods. She had been the Oracle that the tribal council had come to, to confirm that their planned action was acceptable to the gods. But it wasn’t, and Kas-pan had told them so. The council didn’t listen, and had done what they wanted to do anyway.
The gods took offense, but the tribal council refused to back down. The gods took this as deliberate rebellion, and called in the other tribes.
In a many-against-one war, her tribe inevitably lost, and the gods punished them with exile.
But the tribal council refused to accept responsibility. They told themselves that it was all everyone else’s fault. And insisted on telling that story to all. Any deviation from the party line was not permitted.
It had been made clear to Kas-pan when they had arrived in exile that relating events from her perspective would result in her execution. The tribal council also removed her as the tribe’s Oracle – but the gods had not seen fit to remove her from their service. So the tribal council proclaimed that the gods had abandoned the tribe, leaving them without an Oracle. Again, Kas-pan was forbidden from revealing her status.
Lin-yet ran off to find her mother, releasing Kas-pan from the conflicts in her mind.
That evening, after the men had returned from the fields, she remarked to her husband “We’ve spent so long with the lie, we’ve half-forgotten the truth.”
“Two generations taught only lies. Is there any hope of our exile ending?”
He was probably asking her for her personal opinion, but the gods decided to answer. “Only those who were faithful, and those who acknowledge their guilt will see their homes again. Of the rest, only those willing to be our faithful servants will be permitted to board the ships.”
She shuddered, as the spirit of the gods departed her. “Please no. Please don’t make me leave my children and grandchildren behind.”
Her husband took her in his arms. “We must trust in the gods. We must hope that they will be generous.”
“They were just to a fault when they expelled us all.”
“Theirs is the power. To fight them is not wise.”
“To fight them, and then deny that we have done so is even less wise.”
“To say more right now is foolish. Let us go to bed.”
So they did. But Kas-pan’s heart was very heavy as she tossed and turned that night.
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Leigh Kimmel pollinated the little grey cells with…
The absolutely amazing ability of people to help themselves to your time when you need to be making headway on a long-term project
[Oho! You don’t need to work on that right now, it’s not due for a long time, so why don’t you help me out? Yeah, I’ve heard that one before…]
Time. The clock ticking on the wall. The calendar hanging near it, pages turning as the weeks and months slip away. And that deadline…
At first, there’s plenty of time.
“Hey, before you dive into that new project, could you give us a little insight into that thing you just finished? Maybe kind of a short class on how you handled it?”
“Oh, good, you’ve got plenty of time on that other thing, so could you help out a little with this? It’ll only take a little time, then you can start that new stuff.”
Tick, tick, tick. Listen to the soft rustle of the pages turning. Can you hear the cosmic chuckle of the stars as they rotate through their orbits and watch time slipping away from you?
“Hey, I’m glad I caught you. Do you have a few minutes free to give me a quick opinion on something? I know you’re a busy guy, but really, this won’t take long.”
“Oh, man, this is kind of an emergency. Please help us?”
Tick, tick, tick. Now you’re working evenings and a little on weekends to try to get ahead. The sun laughs as it sets behind your window…
“Hi! I know you’re in the final stages of that project, but you always seem to have everything under control, and this just came up out of nowhere. It’s a real opportunity, and it shouldn’t take long for you, because you already know some of the players. Just this one more time?”
“Look, we can’t let this slip by us. You’re the only one that can handle it, so we’ll try to get someone to help out with that other project you’re working on. But do this for the team, okay?”
Tick, tick, tick. Bbbring! Bbbring! Damn, the spare time you set aside has disappeared, even with you working overnight and all weekend. And the deadline is slipping past. Maybe you can get an extension, if you beg for it?
“Hey, do you have a few minutes to spare?”
“No. Who the heck do you think you are, anyway?”
“Well, you don’t have to act so grumpy about it! All I wanted was a couple of minutes of your time.”
“Right, like every other time waster around here. Get out!”
The door slams behind him. But even that took a few ticks of the clock, and you know you’re going to have to apologize later.
Time. Einstein was wrong, it isn’t relative, it’s just slipping away faster and faster as the clock ticks… until the clock stops, and then you don’t care anymore.
[oooo. I think I like that. Even if it is a little grim.]
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You [FRELL]ING NAILED IT!
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Ooof. So true.
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[…] I’m not exactly sure what. As I try to figure that out, you should mosey on over to More Odds Than Ends and see what the others have come up with for their prompt […]
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[…] A quick one this week, inspired by Padre, while my prompt went to AC Young. Check out theirs and more, over at MOTE! […]
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And now mine is up on my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/1524720.html. It’s fun to do a short piece like this now and then — and one of these days I might just have enough of them to make up a collection of The Tales of the Voting Dead.
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This week ‘nother Mike suggested, “And then there was the golden snake coiled in the socks.”
The world melted around him as Richard booted up his VR headset, quickly replaced by the virtual world that made Ular Besar Extreme, his current favorite game.
Gameplay-wise, it wasn’t particularly difficult, at least at the lower levels he was playing at, though it was pretty addictive. Find the hidden snakes, hack them apart, and keep them from growing up into bigger snakes that might threaten the world. There were rumors that the final boss was Jormumgandr, but as far as he knew, no one had managed to get there yet.
He started looking around. The house he was in seemed fairly normal for mid-20th Century American. Four bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen, dining room, and living room. The family who lived here were huddled in the living room, talking quietly amongst themselves.
The father looked over as Richard’s avatar appeared in the room. “Are you here about the serpent?” he asked?
“I am. I was sent to destroy it.”
“It’s in the children’s bedroom,” he told him, then turned back to his family. “May God go with you.”
Richard thanked him, then headed towards the back of the house. The children’s bedrooms were usually there, and, as usual, he found it. A golden snake was coiled in the socks that the child had left on the floor.
He wasn’t entirely sure what lesson he was supposed to take from this. Clean your room? Snakes are meant for killing, so don’t tread on them, but kill them as quickly as possible? Tread on their heads, while they bruise your heel? He was pretty sure that was a quote from somewhere, but he wasn’t sure. Maybe history? Anyway, he had a snake to kill, and it was already preparing to strike at him. He drew his sword and prepared to do battle with the enemy.
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