What is your default setting? What habits do you sink into, comfortable there, when there’s no tug of life and demands of work to pull you out? Is this where you want to be? Are you improving, day by day, little by little, or are you simply existing?
What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?
| Pitcher | Ball | Batter |
| nother Mike | There are more ways to catch a thief than there are thieves. | Becky Jones |
| Padre | The harmonies were exquisite. | AC Young |
| Leigh Kimmel | Some people can’t seem to believe you really aren’t interested in whatever they find fascinating. The harder you try to politely close the conversation, the more determinedly they force it back open, until you’re left trying to figure out a believable excuse to have to be somewhere else. And of course it always happens at an event you really hate to have to leave. | Parrish Baker |
| AC Young | Reception returned from isolation. All it took was a repair to a single door. | nother Mike |
| Becky Jones | In the distance, the bells rang softly. | Fiona Grey |
| Fiona Grey | Hidden within the laundry basket was… | Padre |
| Parrish Baker | Her shadow detached itself from her body and walked away. | Leigh Kimmel |
Didn’t stir yourself to send in a prompt challenge? Grab a spare!
| Spare | The tentacles tickled. |
| Spare | “You can’t gatekeep a war!” |
| Spare | The diorama was made of pasta and eels. |
| Spare | The dragon waved a flaming sword |
| Spare | Here she comes, walking down the street… |
| Spare | Where did the headless horseman get his flaming pumpkins? |
Come back here when you’ve done something with your prompt, and tell us about it in the comments. Push yourself out of that comfortable cocoon. Take chances! Learn!
More Odds Than Ends 
https://substack.com/home/post/p-150317334
Some people can’t seem to believe you really aren’t interested in whatever they find fascinating. The harder you try to politely close the conversation, the more determinedly they force it back open, until you’re left trying to figure out a believable excuse to have to be somewhere else. And of course it always happens at an event you really hate to have to leave.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Lovely. Well-seasoned characters all. (I know, I know, I’ll see myself out.)
LikeLike
Lol, I gotcha.
Catching this world’s history beginning and “modern” as well and in between.
LikeLike
Exactly, with the attitudes of the generations captured quite nicely.
LikeLike
My 78-year-old mother asked, “Have you been spying on me?”
LikeLike
Lol! 😀
LikeLike
My offering to the altar of MOTE is up: https://acyoungauthor.substack.com/p/divine-harmonies.
LikeLike
Mine’s up.
https://professorornery.substack.com/p/to-catch-a-thief
LikeLike
very well done! And then…
LikeLike
[…] Check out more, over at MOTE! […]
LikeLike
Quick and short tonight as I ran out of time and wasn’t exactly sure what to do with this.
Fiona Grey suggested “Hidden within the laundry basket was…”
The carpet is rough beneath my bare feet. It’s ugly. A dirty brown that only gets uglier with age and the abuse that children inflict on it in daily life. I look over at the area in front of the couch.
That spot there is where my oldest spilled his chocolate milk when he was three. We got most of it up and made sure it didn’t stink, but the color never recovered. That one on the other side is where my next oldest bled all over the carpet when he face-planted after diving off the couch side. We told him not to, but he has never been one to listen. And that one… The spots go on and on, filling my mind with memories of life.
I pull my mind back to the present. Sarah is hiding somewhere in the house. She loves playing hide and seek with grandpa and I indulge her, like I indulged her mother and her aunt and uncles. They grow up too quickly.
Then, I spot it. The upside-down laundry basket. White, spacious, the perfect size for a kid to hide under. Ah ha!
I sneak up. One foot in front of the other. Heel to toe, carefully putting them on places that won’t creak or give away game. By this point, it’s almost instinctive, I don’t even have to think about moving silently. My sergeant may have taught me the art of it forty years ago, but I have practiced it since and… My mind jumps back to the present as I reach the basket. I reach down and carefully pick it up.
Hidden within the laundry basket is my… Is nothing.
I hear a giggle from behind me and laugh in response. My grand-daughter is getting sneaky. I turn just in time to take her in my arms. “Well done, little one. That was a beautiful trap you set there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And now mine is up on my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/1613187.html. It’s very rough, more just a matter of throwing stuff together and seeing what happened, thanks to having a convention devour my entire weekend. But words on the page are something that can be worked with at a later time.
LikeLike
Anime convention in KC? Lol, I live seven miles away from the convention center. Welcome, goodbye, and come again soon!
LikeLike
AC Young tickled the fancy with…
Reception returned from isolation. All it took was a repair to a single door.
[Whew? Connect the dots between repair and isolation? And reception?]
The police sergeant chuckled as he read the report the new AI system wanted to make about this afternoon’s mess.
See, the officer manning the front desk had gone to the toilet. But somehow the supposedly automated doors on the toilet facility had jammed. It took 2 hours for a mechanic to get the door open again.
The mechanic apologized to everyone for taking so long, saying it was like the door and everything around it were working against him. Heck, the sergeant saw him flip the breaker to turn off power to the facility, then as he walked back to start work, the breaker flipped back on by itself. No was was that normal.
And the AI wanted to tell everyone that “Reception returned from isolation. All it took was a repair to a single door.”
The sergeant thought about it, and added “As described by the official AI” and okayed that for the log.
Then he started writing his version.
[Well, that’s one way to look at it.]
LikeLike