#cousin harley looked the exact same

[90th1k1k0m0r1]

saw my favorite aunt and cousins today!!

[aizawa-wears-crocs-old]

endgame fix-it because i am weak

Read it on AO3 here!

Peter has worn a variety of different suits in his time. He vaguely remembers being dressed up in a tiny suit for his aunt and uncle's wedding, years and years ago. He remembers, more recently, wearing Ben's old suit to homecoming; and, of course, there's the Spider-Man suit and its iron cousin.

This particular suit, though, all-black and stiffly uncomfortable, is the only one that's ever felt wrong to wear.

It's a stark reminder that something is missing, something he'll never get back. It doesn't feel real that he's standing here, watching Tony's wreath float away from them, knowing his mentor - his dad - is dead. They were supposed to have more time. Pepper and May and Happy are here, familiar faces, as well as the rest of the original Avengers, but Peter can see Tony's daughter from where he's standing. She's a visual reminder that it's been five years since Thanos killed half the world: five years since he died in Tony's arms.

It feels like five minutes since Tony died in Peter's.

A weird sense of numbness steals over him as he watches the wreath drift further and further away. The feeling of May's hand on his shoulder is fading, and it's like Peter is underwater. He can barely hear Pepper speaking about Tony, much less the eulogies that follow. His gaze is fixed; it's like his head is empty. Peter recognizes the feeling, that soul-stealing loneliness, from when Ben died. He should have realized it was inevitable he'd feel it again.

After the wreath finally disappears into the horizon, the mourners start returning inside. May gives his shoulder a squeeze before she heads in with them, telling Peter to stay if he needs to. When she leaves, he looks round to see the deck has almost emptied of people. He takes a step forward, to the edge, looking out towards the wreath that's still moving away from him. He wishes he could reach out and grab it, bring Tony back with the sheer force of his will. Instead, he sits down on the wood and dangles his feet over the edge. His dress shoes brush the top of the water, the toes likely getting wet. He couldn't care less. Right now, he doesn't particularly care about anything.

"Hey," comes a voice, and Peter looks up to see a curly-haired teen similar to his own age standing over him. "Can I sit?"

Peter nods, then realizes he probably needs to answer verbally. "Y-yeah. Sure."

"Thanks." The boy gets down beside him, drawing his knees up to his chest and resting his arms on top. "I'm Harley," he offers.

"I'm Peter," Peter answers. "It's, uh... nice to meet you."

Harley lets out a humorless laugh. "Yeah. Could be under better circumstances, though."

Peter blinks, hating the heat that rises in his cheeks. He's too tired to cry, though, now. "Could be."

"He talked about you a lot," Harley says, and Peter turns to look at him.

"Huh?"

"Tony. Talked about you all the time. He really loved you, y'know? You could tell. He wouldn't shut up about you," Harley continues. "At least in the time before I got Snapped, anyway."

Peter's brow furrows slightly. "Oh. How did you, uh...?"

"Know him?" Harley completes. "Met him in Tennessee. Helped him with the -"

"- Mandarin," Peter finishes. "You're that Harley."

Harley looks slightly amused. "Yeah, clearly. I mean... how many Harleys do you think he knows?"

Peter huffs. "I don't know. It's been a long day."

That kills the humor, because Harley's smile fades. "Yeah. Yeah, it has."

"He talked about you, too," Peter offers. "When we were working in the lab, he kept saying what you guys got up to. He, uh... I think he was going to try getting us to meet, before... all this." Peter waves his hand vaguely in the air, trying to encompass everything that happened without having to actually acknowledge it. The Snap. The Vanished. Tony dying.

"I don't think so," Harley counters. "He told me if we ever met we'd probably blow ourselves up, so it was best to keep us at opposite ends of the States."

Peter laughs, despite himself. "Yeah, that sounds accurate too."

"We haven't exploded anythin', though, so..." Harley makes a pfft sound with the corner of his mouth, looking away. "Don't know what the fuss was about."

"We haven't exploded anything yet," Peter corrects. "Could still happen."

"Very true," Harley says, tilting a finger at him. "You want to try?"

Peter's about to reply when there's a scuffing noise behind him, and he twists to see Tony's daughter standing there, looking slightly like a rabbit in headlights. Morgan.

"Hi," she says quietly, waving faintly.

"Hey," Harley replies, and gives her a small smile. "You're Morgan, right?"

She nods.

"It's nice to meet you, Morgan. I'm Peter," Peter tells her.

"I know," Morgan says, slightly shyly. "Daddy talked about you all the time. And that's Harley," she adds, as if to prove her point, and Harley makes a choking noise and a muffled swear.

He stands, and Peter squints up at him, trying to ignore the bright sun above them. "I, uh... I'm goin' to head inside. Yeah." Harley claps his hands slightly, straightening up, and walks away. Peter can hear the slightly unsteady clip of his shoes on the deck.

Morgan comes up next to him, and Peter's suddenly hyper-aware of how small and close to the water she is. He throws out a hand on instinct as she wobbles before sitting down with a thump, legs swinging over the edge. She turns to beam at him, and it's like someone's hit Peter in the stomach. She looks exactly like Tony; her eyes are the exact same brown, her smile identical, though she's still so small. The air leaves Peter's lungs for a moment, and he struggles to breathe. He clenches his fists, looking out to the horizon past the water. He can't freak Morgan out.

"Did I make him sad?" comes a small voice, and Peter turns back to Morgan to see her looking up at him with worried eyes.

"No," Peter tells her, shaking his head. "No, he's just... he was sad already."

"Oh," Morgan says. "Is it because of Daddy?"

Peter swallows. "Yeah."

Morgan is silent, then, for several long moments. After a pause, she asks, "Are you Spider-Man?"

Peter nods, uncertain. "Yeah," he says. "Yeah, I am."

Morgan looks back out to the water pensively, like he's handed her another clue to some unknown equation. "Are you going to save my dad?"

Peter takes in a breath, because her tone is so full of hope that it feels like his heart's being crushed all over again. "No, I'm not," he says heavily, willing himself to not cry. Tony's daughter is four and she's holding it together; he can too.

Morgan frowns. "Why not?"

Peter blinks back the rising wetness in his eyes, and turns to face her. "I can't, Morgan. I'm... I'm so sorry."

"You can," she argues. "It's easy."

"Morgan, I -"

"You just have to follow the instructions," she carries on, and Peter freezes.

"What?"

She falters, looking confused.

"What instructions?" Peter asks.

Morgan blinks up at him. "Daddy left instructions for the time stuff. In case they had to do it without him. You can use them to save him."

Peter's heart thumps in his ears. "Where?"

She twists round, pointing a small finger back towards the house. "In there. In case the other place got broken."

"Can you show me?" Peter asks softly, hardly daring to raise his voice.

Morgan nods, and pushes herself to her feet. "This way!"

She grabs his hand, surprisingly strong, and Peter stumbles as she tugs and nearly sends him sprawling. Morgan leads him in and up the stairs, holding on to the kid-sized handrail lining the stairs as she goes up, and then she drags him left at the top. They come to a stop in front of a closed door, and she reaches up to push the doorhandle open. The door swings away, Morgan half-skipping inside, and suddenly Peter is staring into what looks almost exactly like his room in the Compound. It's even got the same decor, Star Wars posters littering the walls and small figurines dotted around on the desk. He freezes, aghast, heart aching, in the doorway. Morgan notices, because she slows down and comes back towards him.

"Daddy always said you were still in our family," she says, looking up with those hauntingly-familiar eyes, and Peter nearly starts crying on the spot. His eyes burn, and the world goes wavy through the tears in his eyes for a second.

"Really?" Peter whispers.

Morgan nods decisively. "Yep. Always."

"You know, you're... you're weirdly perceptive for a four-year-old," Peter says, slightly hoarsely.

Morgan nods. "Daddy said that, too." 

"Thanks, Morgan," Peter tells her. She gives him a wide smile in return, and snatches his hand again.

"C'mon!"

Morgan tugs him over to the corner, where there's a small, wooden box sitting on top of the end table. It's perfectly rectangular, with a small clasp at the front. Peter assumes it's to keep Morgan out, but the effectiveness of the clasp gets called into question as she starts balancing on her tiptoes to reach it. Her tongue sticks out of the corner of her mouth, and Peter knows he would find the sight hilarious if not for the scenario he's trapped in. Morgan bats at the box and it slides closer to the edge, where she grabs the clasp and flicks it upwards.

"Open it!" she tells him, turning and pointing at the box.

Peter steps over and opens the smooth lid gently. Light shines out from within as he does so, and then it's fully open and there's a flash drive plugged in to a metal rectangle in the middle of the box. A ring of light illuminates the bottom, red, seemingly emitted from the rows of red tubing arranged in rows around the drive.

"What is it?" Morgan asks.

Peter unplugs the drive, and brings it closer to show her. "It's a flash drive," he says. "And... weird stuff."

"Are you going to see what's on it?" she questions.

"Yeah, we are," comes a voice. Peter jerks and spins, nearly dropping the flash drive. Harley straightens from where he's been standing, leaning against the doorframe, watching them. "We're gonna get him back."

Peter takes a breath. "We don't know that." The hope trying to take root in his heart is painful, weighing heavy with the pain in his chest. He doesn't know if he can let himself believe Harley, if he turns out to be wrong. "How long have you been there?"

Harley shrugs, coming closer. "Yeah, we do," he says. "We go back in time like they all did before," he explains, jerking a thumb over his shoulder, "and this time we save him. And not long, but I overheard y'all earlier, by the way. I know it's about the time machine."

"We don't have any way of doing that," Peter argues.

"Build it!" Morgan pipes up, voice bright, and Harley raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah, build it," he agrees. Peter opens his mouth to protest, but Harley holds up his hands. "We can, Peter. I build stuff all the time. I helped him fix his suit in Tennessee, you know that?"

"I helped him too," Peter mutters, childishly, and Harley makes a wild gesture with his hands.

"Exactly! We both know how to build shit."

Morgan looks up at Harley then, suddenly, and Peter makes a face at him. "Don't swear in front of her!" he whispers loudly, and Harley grins a little.

"We know whose daughter she is," he says. "She knows worse than that."

"Yeah," Morgan agrees happily.

Peter rolls his eyes. "Okay, okay. But, Harley, we're... we're still nowhere near as smart as he is." A bolt of ice shoots down his spine. "W-was. As he was," he corrects.

"You are!" Morgan protests, and tugs on Peter's sleeve. "You built your - pew-pewthings," she says, making twin thwip movements with her hands, snapping her fingers to her palms clumsily.

Harley's eyes narrow then, and Peter freezes. "Uh," he says eloquently.

"You're Spider-Man?" Harley asks, slightly breathless.

Peter rubs the back of his neck, feeling his face heat up. "Yeah," he says, after a pause.

"That's perfect. We can definitely do this, Peter. And can't never could, y'know? We gotta try."

"Let's... let's look at the flash drive, first," Peter says. He still can't bring himself to let his hopes rise up. The likelihood is that this pipe dream of saving Tony is just that, and he's going to hurt even more if he lets himself believe it's not.

"Use that," Morgan says, pointing across the room to a StarkPad sitting on the wooden desk. Peter swallows.

Harley strides over and boots it up, holding out his hand for the drive as he sits. Peter hands it over, and the other boy plugs it in to the side of the computer. Peter leans over Harley's shoulder, Morgan on the other side of him, to see the screen as Harley opens the drive up. A folder opens, full of files.

"Aight," Harley murmurs, scrolling through them. "Let's see what we got."

The first few files Harley opens are schematics, blueprints and guides on how to operate and build the time travel machine. They're incredibly comprehensive, some pages littered with Tony's characteristic shorthand.

"This is it!" Harley says, sounding ecstatic. "Hell, this is everything we need. All we got to do now is -"

He clicks another file, and cuts off as a long text document opens up in front of them. Peter reads the title, and his spider-sense sparks dully in the back of his mind.

DANGERS

It's a terrifyingly long list, most items consisting of getting lost or being stuck between realities. Peter gets colder with every line he reads, and, from Harley's muffled swearing, he feels the same way.

This is a LAST RESORT, the document reads, underlined in bolded font. DO NOT use this equipment unless absolutely necessary.

"Hell," Harley mutters.

"What is it?" Morgan asks, voice small, though nobody answers her.

Peter keeps reading, eyes roving over the text. De-aging. Rupturing the continuum. Irreversibly altering space-time. The warnings continue on and on, finally ending with a short paragraph about how Tony has no way of listing the dangers comprehensively, so there could be thousands of even worse possibilities. Suddenly, Peter realizes why nobody except Morgan has suggested this before; they all know it's too dangerous a route to take. He doesn't doubt that the Avengers know of this box (otherwise, how would they have used it?) but the danger, for them, isn't worth it.

"Let's do it," Peter says suddenly, surprising himself.

Harley twists in his seat. "What?"

"Let's do it," he repeats. "This doesn't change anything. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, right? But - but it's worth it."

Slowly, Harley's face spreads into a grin. It's different from the previous one's Peter's seen, though; this one is warm, and genuine. "It really is," he says.

"So are you gonna save him now?" Morgan asks, voice small.

Peter smiles down at her. "Yeah, Mor. We are."

Continue reading on AO3 here!

[qtcomicsblog]

Justice league unleashed fan episode 5 “Grand theft javelin”

Justice league Unleashed "Grand theft Javelin" Night time at the Watchtower the league are in the hall as jessica is preparing to show them something in the hangar Jessica: Now everyone, you all maybe wondering why i called you all here? Hawkgirl: Does it have anything to do with matching footie pajamas? Jessica: No, i was gonna talk about that next week. I've been working on a little project and i'm ready to show all of you Superman: ok jessica lets see it Jessica:Alright everybody, Behold! Flash: What are we suppose to be beholding? Jessica: Huh? She turns around and sees the hangar is empty Jessica: AAAUUGGHH! IT'S GONE! Hawkgirl: Wait wasn't the javelin in here? Someone steal the Javelin?! Superman: Excuse me? Wonder woman: huh? Jessica: How did this happen?! Hawkgirl: WHO DID IT?! Somewhere in the sky the javelin is flying through the clouds and supergirl is piloting it Supergirl: Oh yeah! The league are outside on a roof Wonder woman: How did you lose the javelin?! Jessica: It wasn't my fault! Superman: Fighting will get us nowhere, lets just find it ok J'onn: Now if we're going to find it we'll need help Superman: Their's only one person that comes to mind At the Batcave batman is at the bat-computer and the league busts through the ceiling Superman: BATMAN! Batman: Clark, you have 10 seconds to tell me why you bust through my ceiling Flash: Someone stole the javelin! Jessica: Not my fault! Flash: And with need your help to find it. Batman: I'm busy. Superman: Come on bruce you can't just turn away, we need your help and who else than the worlds greatest detective Batman: Time's up. Batman presses a button and a giant pipe tube sucks in the league and are thrown out of the batcave. They are on the ground in a pile. Hawkgirl: Well i saw that coming. Jessica: I guess we better do it ourselves, lets go rough up some villains J'onn: But where do we start? Flash: i know a place, back in central city. The Javelin zooms by in the air as supergirl laughs. The league arrives at the bar. Flash: Alright this is the place. Jessica bust through the door. Everyone in the bar looks at them. Jessica walks in looking all tough. Bartender: Can i help you with anything? Jessica: Yeah, Me and my associates are looking for a super powered jet. You see one around here. Bartender: Depends, are you a cop? Jessica: Not exactly, i'm like a space cop. I'm a green lantern. Bartender: Oh really. The bartender presses a button under the bar Hawkgirl: Uh jess I don't think this is working Flash: Uh guys... The league sees that the entrance is being blocked by Villains. Jessica: Oh... Thug 1: You put alot of our buddies in the slammer Justice freaks the only way you're getting outta here is in a black bag with a zipper in the front Thug 2: A body bag Thug 1: They know what it is! J'onn: Perhaps we should've plan this better The villains close in on them Bartender: I'm going on my break. The bartender goes outside. Sounds of fighting from the bar echo outside. The front door opens and the league walks out unscaved Superman: Well that lead us nowhere Wonder woman: Yeah, and i think i scuffed my boots in that fight J'onn: We should keep going Jessica: Thanks for nothing bad guys! The villains in the bar are all beat up in a pile Hawkgirl: now what?! Jessica: Hey guys! I just remembered something, i put an emergency shutdown protocol in the javelin! Jessica pulls out a small remote Jessica: All we gotta do is press this button and the javelin will shut down and land and all we have to do is use the tracker to find it Wonder woman: What?! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOU COULD'VE DONE THAT THE WHOLE TIME?! Jessica: Yeah, i uh... forgot. ALRIGHT! Jessica presses the button and the tracker finds the javelins location Jessica: I found it lets go! Back at the javelin supergirl is under the hood trying to get the javelin working again Supergirl: uh stupid shutdown protocol. An ice cream truck stops next to the javelin and harley quinn walks out Harley: The leagues super jet? Here? Harley sees supergirl under the hood Harley: Hey goodie goodie need some roadside assistance? Supergirl: Huh? Harley: Huh, Big blues little sister? Supergirl: Wha? I'm his cousin! Harley: Could've fooled me Supergirl: Why are you here clown? Harley: I was taking a stroll in my ice cream truck when i saw the leagues jet and i thought i might spend some time making fun of them. Then i find out it's just you here. Supergirl: umm hmm Supergirl hears something in the distance Supergirl: huh? Uh oh. She hears the league coming her way. Supergirls face turns pale. Harley is sucking on a Popsicle Harley: Hey what's with you? You look like you got hit with scarecrows fear gas. Supergirl grabs harley and goes into the ice cream truck Harley: Hey, what's the big idea?! Supergirl: Just hang on tight. Supergirl start the truck and drives off in high speed. The league arrives at the javelin Jessica: That was harley! Flash: Yeah but who was the one with her? Wonder woman: I know that color scheme anywhere, because it's your color scheme kal Everyone says the same name Superman: Kara! Wonder woman: Kara! Jessica: Kara! Flash: Kara! Hawkgirl: Kara! J'onn: Kara! Jessica: Ofcourse it was kara why didn't we think of it before Hawkgirl: Uh guys they're getting away. Wonder woman: Come on we can get them on the javelin Jessica stops them Jessica: WAIT! Right now is the perfect time to introduce the new features i added to the javelin. Hawkgirl: Really? Now? Jessica: Yes now, observe. Jessica presses a button on the remote. The Javelin begins to transform, it gets a more bulky look much like an armored van and it gets 6 large wheels. Jessica: I introduce to you, The Javelin "ON ROADER!" Everyone is silent and confused Jessica: Get it? On roader, like an off roader but the javelin has wheels so it can drive on the road? Superman: We get it lets just go In the ice cream truck supergirl is speeding through traffic Harley: SLOW! FAST! BREAK! BREAK! BREAK! Supergirl drives pass an old lady crossing the street. The on roader javelin is following behind them. Jessica: now that auto pilot is engaged allow me to show you around the new Javelin On Roader. Jessica shows them the workings of the javelin on roader Jessica: Over there is navigation, Over here is a "what for it?" Seat controls for each specific member, and there is the... Wonder woman: Soft serve Ice cream Machine!?! Wonder woman opens her mouth over the nozzle and pour ice cream into it Jessica: All for you diana Wonder woman: It's beautiful! The javelin turns a corner bumping into things Superman: JESSICA WATCH THE ROAD! Jessica: I wouldn't need to if you would just take your seat Superman: Huh? Jessica pushes a button and a chair appears Jessica: It's the big one with your logo and your exact lumbar settings Superman: Amazing Jessica: Captain the com is yours! Superman sits down and floors it catching up with kara and harley Harley: You stole the javelin from the justice league? I thought i was crazy, but you just a mad woman! Supergirl: I am not taking the fall for this! Harley: But what can they do to you? Supergirl: What are you nuts, the league are monsters! They make me clean the entire watchtower without my powers and diana will make me watch educational show while eating plain steamed broccoli. The javelin pull up beside the ice cream truck Wonder woman: Kara i know you're in there i can see your S, Kara! Wonder woman clears her throat Wonder woman: Oh Kara if you stop right i swear no punishment will befall you, i give you my oath as an amazon Supergirl: That is a lie, they're gonna lay into me if they catch me! Supergirl speeds up Flash: We gotta stop that truck! Jessica: I'll stop it with the Blast cannon! Jessica aims a cannon at the truck Wonder woman: Jessica harley's in there! Jessica: Can i atleast go semi-lethal? Everyone yells Superman: NO! Wonder woman: NO! Flash: NO! Hawkgirl: NO! J'onn: NO! Jessica scoffs Jessica: Uh you never let me shine! Fine harpoon hooks it is Jessica shoves her ring into a slot and construct harpoon hooks shoots out of the side cannons and hook onto the truck. Wonder woman and flash climb onto the chains Wonder woman: Alright clown, stop that truck full of delicious ice cream! Jessica: Yeah hand over the fugitive! Supergirl: Don't snitch me out bro! Wonder woman and flash walk across the chains Supergirl: Do something Quinn! Harley: Well since you put it that way Harley pushes a button. The back of the truck opens up from the middle and the ice cream on to of the truck turns into a cannon Harley: I SCREAM! YOU SCREAM! WE ALL SCREAM! FOR ICE CREEEEAAAMMM!!!! Flash: That doesn't look good Harley loads the cannon with ice cream Harley: Have some tooty fruity! Harley fires a barrage of ice cream scoops at them Superman: Watch out! The ice cream hits the windshield Jessica: Hey watch the paint bucko! They speed up Superman: Jessica what else you got in this thing? Jessica: Ofcourse i do, hawkgirl would you mind pressing the pad on your station? Hawkgirl sees the rectangular pad Hawkgirl: You mean this? Hawkgirl presses it. Side launchers open up from outside and fires spiked balls. One of the spiked balls hit a street light and explode Jessica: I call them "Mace mines!" Specially made just for you. Hawkgirl: They're so destructive, reminds me of Thanagar. Hawkgirl get misty eyed Jessica: are you about to cry? Hawkgirl: No! SHUT UP! LETS GO GET THAT LITTLE TROUBLEMAKER! Harley reloads the ice cream cannon Harley: Exploding spikes huh, how about a big ol' scoop of, EXTRA ROCKY ROAD! Harley fires the ice cream Flash: Oh no. Flash dodges the ice cream shots. Diana eats the ice cream scoops. Diana is chewing Diana: We gonna take out that cannon Flash: I got an idea An ice cream scoop hit flash in the face and he falls off Wonder woman: Flash! Flash rolls on the ground. he gets back up and runs after them. Harley is still firing and diana is still eating the shots, she catches alot of them in her shield and eats out of it like a bowl. Flash runs up to the side of the ice cream truck. Supergirl sees him and freaks out and tries to hit him. He runs so fast he turns into electricity itself and goes into the trucks motor and talks through the radio. Flash: You are in so much trouble! Supergirl: AAUUGGHH!! She screams and punches the radio, the force cause the whole truck to flip over. Wonder woman flips up and lands on the windshield while still eating the ice cream Superman: What the...? The Javelin stops. Still in his lightning form flash leaves the truck and goes to the javelin and turns normal again. The league steps out and diana finishes the ice cream. Harley and supergirl crawl out of the truck. Harley: That's it I'm out! THIS IS BETWEEN YOU AND THE LEAGUE, I'M THE INNOCENT BYSTANDER! Harley pulls out her hammer and activate the rocket turbines and spins out of control away from the scene Supergirl: Wait, Wait, DON'T LEAVE ME! The league stay behind her looking disappointed Superman: I literally have no words to describe how disappointed i am of you. So diana's gonna say it for me. Supergirl hangs her head in shame Wonder woman: You, YOU, RECKLESS IRRESPONSIBLE! YOU ARE GONNA BE CLEANING THE ENTIRE WATCHTOWER FOR A MONTH YOUNG LADY! FOLLOWED BY MOWING THE LAWN CLEANING THE FOUNTAIN! WHILE EATING A GIGANTIC HELPING OF STEAMED BROCCOLI! END.

[she-writes-imagines]

Safe Haven, Pt. 1

A/N: Billy moves into the house across the street from Piper, a girl with a mysterious past.

Timeline loosely follows Season 2 and disregards certain elements of Season 3.

Disclaimer: I don’t approve of, or excuse some of Billy’s behavior. I just enjoy how well exicuted the character is and its interesting to write for him.

Chapter 1

The town of Hawkins, Indiana was always a bit peculiar. Strange things always seemed to happen there and they got stranger every day. This story begins in October of 1967. That’s when I was born. My mother was a scientist and researcher in a very top secret government lab that was housed in Hawkins. Cherie Lindell was her name, she and her sister, Diane, grew up in Hawkins. My father's name was Jeff Callahan and he went to school with my mother. And they were different as different could be. My mother was a science nerd, anti-social and completely lost in her own world. My father played football, and was incredibly mechanically inclined and took auto shop basically every period his senior year, or so I’m told. But somehow they found their way to each other and managed to form a strong relationship and managed to keep that going while my mother was away getting her degree and my father stayed in Hawkins growing his auto shop and becoming a pillar of the community and all that. By the time my mother graduated and secured her government job, my father had bought a two story house with a white picket fence for the two of them to grow into together. Not long after they were married and I was on the way. That’s when things began to get a bit dicey.

The project that my mother was working on was so top secret, so secret that not even my father knew. But the lab was working on human experimentation working to develop mental and psychic abilities. My mother allowed herself to be experimented on while she was pregnant with me. And that is how I, Piper Callahan, was born with some scary abilities. To be exact telekinesis and empathic tendencies. As a child I Thought it was normal. I thought every other child could do the things that I could and I never questioned why I was homeschooled and the only places I ever went, were to my aunt Diane’s and uncle Jim’s house, and my moms lab. And that's when the bad thing happened. I was seven years old, I didn’t have good control of my abilities and I was throwing a tantrum. A big one. Things flying around the room and a side table hit my daddy in the back of the head. After that I spent a lot of time alone. And then Diane and Jim convinced my mother to put me into the public school system. My powers seemed to be gone after the bad thing. Or so I let everyone believe. The only people that knew were my mother and the doctors at the lab. They were stupid and easy enough to convince. I grew and had a relatively normal childhood and a normal adolescence. A rough transition through puberty and all that good stuff. I mourned the death of my cousin and watched my aunt and uncle's marriage fall apart. My aunt moved away from Hawkins and got remarried. We didn’t talk much. My mother went off the deep end and almost never came home. I found solace in my uncle. Uncle Hop as I so affectionately called him. He was the chief of police. He knew of my abilities and believed they were gone. I never wanted anyone else to know about me ever again. We spent a lot of time together and I took care of him more than he took care of me. I had plenty of friends at school. I was a floater and liked by almost everyone. Nancy, Steve, Barb, Jonathan and many others. I was intelligent, athletic, artistic, good with cars like my dad. I became someone that I like. And then the next bad thing happened.

The disappearance of Will Beyers. A tragedy felt by almost everyone in the community. And at the same time I felt another presence in town. A familiar one but I couldn’t place it. A lot of crazy things happened. Monsters sneaking their way around town. Mysterious disappearances. My friend Barb, taken into what seven year old me called “the scary place.” And then with a series of insane events Nancy, Jonathan and I ended up meeting up with Nancy’s brother and his friends. And the familiar presence. She was eleven. I had been number one. Soul sisters in a project that should have never existed. She was untrusting and skittish. She could barely speak in coherent thoughts. She must have been kept in almost total isolation. Focusing on growing her powers. She was younger than me. Younger than Mike and the other kids. Maybe twelve. I didn’t want to reveal my powers I didn’t want anyone to know. But I pulled her aside and i showed her the number on my arm as well. She touched it with her fingers, then my face, “Sister,” she said and smiled, “Pretty.”

“Sister,” I repeated. “You’ll keep my secret?” I asked her.

She looked confused.

“I can’t do it anymore. I’m broken. No one but you knows.” I said to her.

“Sisters keep secrets.” She said determined.

We found will. Saved the day. Defeated the bad guys and all that jazz. After the commotion eleven disappeared. I told Uncle Hop everything. And together we were able to find eleven in the woods and she came with us. Hop had a cabin in the middle of the woods. Almost no one knew about it and we knew she would be safe there. As time went on I began to let El in on the secret that I still had my powers and made her promise not to tell anyone. It was dangerous for all parties involved if anyone found out about my abilities. Together we worked on controlling and growing our gifts and Hop was happy we had each other. And I was happy that she had Hop. I loved El and she adored me right back. Things looked like they were going to be ok.

I hadn’t seen my mother in over a week. She hadn’t come home from her lab and I was sure at this point she had her own apartments deep within the sub levels. Across the street a moving truck pulled into the driveway of a previously vacant house. After that a station wagon and a sexy ass blue Camaro. I was sitting on the couch in my living room, not even trying to pretend to not be staring at the car. And the boy that got out of the car was just as sexy. From his boots up to the ass hugging jeans. To the button up lazily tucked in and the leather jacket. And god the hair on that boy. He saw me looking and I didn’t even care. He raised an eyebrow and cockily smiled at me and gave a little wave. I didn’t return any of the gestures but hopped off the couch, ran upstairs to my room and put on my own ass hugging jeans, a black Harley t shirt, my chucks and looked at myself in the mirror. Delicious. I thought to myself. I had quite a reputation around town that I did thoroughly enjoy. Everyone said I reminded them of Stevie Nicks if she had dark hair. So if mother Stevie was the white witch then i was the Black witch. My skin was very fair, and my hair was a stark contrast, it was nearly black and my eyes were electric green. I was incredibly petite but my small stature was nothing in comparison to my aura. I won’t lie, I used my telekinesis to make my hair float about and make me appear lighter on my feet. I flittered down into the kitchen and thanked the almighty that i had the gumption to bake cookies earlier that morning. I piled the chocolate chunk cookies onto a plate and headed out my door and across the street. The first person I met was the daughter, “Welcome to the neighborhood neighbor, I’m Piper.” I offered her a cookie which she took.

“I’m Max.” There was rustling behind her, she turned around and saw the guy I watched get out of the Camaro earlier. “That’s my brother, Billy. Or Jackass, whichever suits you better.” She said just before turning around to carry another box inside the house.

“Cute kid, you must be the luckiest big brother ever. Would you like a cookie, Jackass, was it?” I joked.

He clenched his jaw briefly and then cracked a smile, “I think Billy will do just fine beautiful.” He said snatching a cookie from me. I held my hand out for him to shake and when his skin touched mine I felt a powerful emotion practically kick me in the stomach. Suffering, pain, loneliness, sadness, anger. Violent rage. Lust, insecurity. A lot to unpack for sure. I didn’t know what could cause so much pain in someone the same age as me, save for my own experiences. A cold and steely voice broke our eye contact.

“Can I help you?” The man said. I assumed Billy and Max’s father. Quite the unpleasant man. I immediately noticed that when he approached Billy seemed to shrink. He seemed smaller, eyes cast to the ground. I immediately didn’t like him. “Hi, its nice to meet you. My mom and I live across the street. I’m Piper Callahan, I brought you cookies.” I said as I held out my hand for him to shake. Again when the skin touched my hand, a gut punch of feeling. Primal rage mostly. And black and sticky evil. I understood so much more about Billy now. And I was worried for the rest of the family. His wife came around the truck and we went through the same process. I got almost nothing from her. She was almost like the shell of someone who used to be a person. She took the cookies and disappeared into the house. Her husband soon after her. Max reappeared from around the backside of the truck. I said to her, “It was real nice meeting you Max, I live mostly alone over there, my mom works a lot, if you ever need anything, girl time, a sleepover, a ride to school, just come over ok? My car is cooler than your brothers by far. And my motorcycle is even cooler than that.” She smiled at me and thanked me before disappearing again with another box.

“That was awful nice of you,” Billy said quite flirtily. “Thanks for stopping by. Will I be seeing you around school?”

“You’ll be seeing me, Billy.” I said, gently flirting back at him. I had a rule, I wasn’t going to ever get close to anyone. I didn’t want another bad thing happening. I couldn’t bear to know that I hurt someone else close to me again. But god damn was he a specimen. And there was no shame in some harmless flirting. “Will you let me see the insides of that beautiful beast you have down there?” I said motioning to his car.

“I think that might be a little out of your league princess.” He said.

“Oh sugar, I bet you I know more about it than you do. I have a ‘69 impala up in the garage and my dad was a mechanic. He died when I was seven but I inherited the talent from him. The guy that owns his shop now is great, I work there on weekends and in the summer. Pop the hood?” He looked behind him quickly and walked down the slope to the road. He opened the door and popped the hood. I opened it and looked inside. I whistled. It was a gorgeous and nearly immaculate block. But it looked like his ignition cable was a little loose. “You ever have problems starting her up? Mostly just when its cold?” I asked him.

“How’d you know?” He asked actually surprised that I seemed to know what I was talking about.

“Come here I’ll show you.” When he came around the front I pointed to the cable. “You see the screw you have securing the ignition cable? It’s the wrong size and its not attached properly. Which isn’t really that big of a deal, but when its cold and the metal shrinks up the connections aren’t as good. So it's a little harder to start. Bring it up the driveway later and I can fix that for you.”

“I don’t know...were kind of busy unpacking and all. Neil might not let me.”

I reached up and stroked his cheek, a spark of softness beifely shot through him. I could feel it. It made me wonder how long it had been since he had had any true compassionate human interaction. I’m sure he was having physical contact on the regular of the good and not so good variety. But something so gentle and kind, I wasn’t sure about. He seemed a troubled person but something in him sparked something in me and I knew in my heart I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t try and show him some compassion and genuine human contact.

“I get it, its ok Billy. Same goes for you by the way. If you ever need anything, a ride to school, some girl time, a sleepover,” I paused and became a bit more somber when I said, “somewhere safe, to escape too. I’ve got the space and I don’t like being alone all the time. So really you’d be doing me a favor.”

I didn’t let him respond before sauntering back off to my side of the street, swinging my hips back and forth the entire way. Before I walked back inside the house I turned around, Billy was still looking at me. I wiggled my fingers at him before spinning around again and walking inside and shutting the door behind me. I was worried. I’d hardly met the family, but I knew that things were off. I knew that BIlly was going to be trouble, that he was trouble. I knew the kind of guy he was. Hard on the outside to hide the sadness that was inside him. Taking it out on other people. I was going to have to watch out for that. I was going to have to be careful not to get to close. None of the boys in Hawkins could ever tempt me like I knew that one out there could do. But that wasn’t the thing I was worried about the most. I was worried about that little girl, Max. The same age as El. I was worried she would be the next punching bag for Mr. Hargrove

[rifleshotsandflowerpots-blog]

In which Jade n Jake meet and both the similarities and differences are striking between them. @tallyhothere

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)Last Thursday at 8:36 PM

Your name is JAKE ENGLISH and you are currently galavanting around the not countryside at all. Is cityside a word? It is now! You are galavanting around the cityside as you explore the concrete jungle you find yourself in.

It's been exciting! It's been new! It's been thrilling! But most of all...its been COLD AS THE DICKENS.  So you have found a sneaky technique to beat the chill is to step into random shops and browse around a bit.  Marvel at all the knick-knacks, chat with the clerk a bit.  Then skidoo out for another block or two. 

At this juncture, you find yourself jingling the small shop bell and are greeted with perhaps the best shop you've seen yet! Plants! Flowers! A bona-fide jungle inside a box!  Wonderful!  And warm....very warm.

You step inside, coat a flashing eyesore blinking as you start to look over the various flora. @🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)Last Thursday at 9:05 PM

Your name is JADE HARLEY and you're in your flower shop again. You are.... well, not fine but you will. In time. For now you felt like taking care of your plants!   

You just need to keep your hands busy and well, you think you've done enough murders for the next couple of days. Also you still got orders to finish! Not a lot mind you, but you like to keep on top of things. 

 You're finishing up another bouquet when you hear the bell ring. Another customer maybe? Or a friend perhaps? You do love to chat when it's a dear friend!~ 

"Just a minute!!" You say, tying the final bow for the flowers. Aw, this arrangement is rather pretty actually. Blue's a calming colour.

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)Last Thursday at 9:20 PM

Oh! A voice! Sounds like a lady, but who knows.  "Alright!" you call back.  "Take your time, don't rush?"  You aren't really sure what you are supposed to be saying in this situation.

Walking among the flowers, for the first time since you've arrived you actually feel a pang of homesickness.  The snow is a marvel, the city is fascinating, but...also so unfamiliar.  Being surrounded by greenery feels comforting in a way, even if it is an artificial jungle.

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

Oh! That's an odd accent; maybe a newcomer to the city? How fun! 

You set the lovely arrangement to the side and dust off your hands before walking over to where you heard the voice come--what on Derse is that weird light show coming from among your plant??? 

"Hello??? Sir??" 

No raves in your flower shop! Well at least there's no obnoxious music.

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

Your attention is turned to the voice as you try to make your way towards it.

"Hello! Sorry! Was distracted!  Quite a lovely shop you have heeeeee...."

Your words taper off as you round the corner and for a moment you are confused by the lady in front of you.  She looks like the old photos of your grandmother, down to the hair.  Age her up some and she'd be a spitting likeness.

You blink, shake your head, blink again.  Hwah...wow.  Weird.  Maybe she's related to the Jude Harley fellow?  It suddenly dawns on you that this is another realm alltogether...she could in fact be a daughter or a granddaughter in this time to your grandmother?  The sudden concept that you could have very well a timeline of family who never had to deal with the batterwitch's terrible undertakings leaves you a bit speechless.

So you just stand there flabbergasted.

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

You blink at him. And then blink again just as astonished.

You have absolutely no idea who his guy is before you, but he reminds you alarmingly quickly of your Grandpa. You don't have much in the way of photos, but you remember his eyes, and his voice and it just... leaves you speechless.

Almost choked up even. He looks like a young version of Grandpa--!

Actually the longer you stare the more you kinda see Jude in him. A cousin to him then?? Maybe you and Jude might be more related than you thought.

"Ah.... w-well... you're new!"

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

The vintage memory standing before you speaks, and you are reminded she is in fact a person and not just a surreal memory.  Right, she's....likely someone else entirely.  And you're here staring at her like a buffon.

You look away at the plants and give a laugh that is uncharicterisically shaken.

"Ahaha! I am! Right you are on that!  Bit of a newcomer to this city of Midnight!    Can sort of say I just dropped in really!"  Another laugh, a bit more comfortable sounding this time.

"I must say, been in and out quite a few shops but this one so far gets the egg!  Think I've seen more plants here than I have the entire time I've been here so far!"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

You pick up on that; his nervous laugh reminds you that this guy can't be your Grandpa. He's dead after all. But the way he responded to you... well. You definitely don't think he knows you but maybe someone similar?

"Well it is a flower shop." You smile brightly, gesturing around you. "There's not quite a flower shop like mine in Midnight City! It's my way of bringing a bit of colour to this city~"

You eye his rave coat. "Though I must say, I think you've gotten me beat! I'm surprised that the Fashion Police hasn't stopped you yet."

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"Well I'd have to say you've done a right good job of it.  Bang up to the elephant even!"

Some of the plants are not anything like you've seen, but there's a few that make you think of home.  You lean over to smell one of the more tropical flowers.

The comment about the coat gets a chuckle.  "You aren't the first person to say that...what even is a fashion police?  I've met one policeman so far and he seemed rather friendly.  I didn't think the coat is that bad...though I guess not being able to turn it off really does make it a bit rough on the totsies."

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

Oh god he kinda talked like your Grandpa that's so weird!!!

"Why thank you Good Sir!~" You giggle, hands clasped behind your back as you observe him. "The Fashion Police are exactly what they sound like; they're a whole division devoted to making sure we Derse citizens stick to wearing clothes of the 1920s."

You tip your head as you step a little closer to the Grandpa double. "An off switch would have been smart yes!~ Really, I can't imagine that you came to Derse the legal methods; not that I'd tell anyone of course! Promise!~"

You really do. He's only in his odd coat and short shorts! And it's winter!!! Just how the heck did he get to Derse???

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"Huh....quite the oddity!  Wait....is it the 1920's?"  You suddenly look a bit confused. You thought this was just another planet.  "I swear this whole thing gets more and more tomfuddled the more I hear about it..."

Rubbing the back of your head, you think a moment.  "True.  Granted at this point not even sure if it does turn off. Been going for as long as I remember...but sheesh. I've yet to figure out what the legal methods are so not sure if I am or not? I suppose portal in sky meets ground is on the backlist of no-go.  I appreciate that though, last thing I came here to do was get arrested. Specially for coming here!"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

Oh. Oh dear. He doesn't seem to have noticed much since he got here! When did this guy even arrive to the city?

"Wait wait; first! Not actually the 1920s but because of Prospit winning the war against Derse, they implemented the Technology ban and thus life on Derse has been stuck in the world of Earth's 1920s; yes that does include the alcohol ban too."

"Secondly..."  You narrow your eyes, and place you hands on your hips. "You came here via portal in sky???" That sounded very much like Dirk, but more on purpose. "Where did you come from exactly?"

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

Prospit? War?  You read about the ban in Arq's files but huh...this all just sounded utterly silly.  Then again did you really have room to speak mister wearing shorts in the middle of winter?  Nope!  So you don't speak up on that bit at all.

At her gesture, you make a visible yerk as you are temporarily transported to a time when you were a child and your grandmother made that exact pose. The James Hamilton English what are you doing mister pose that causes the reptile part of your brain to immediately feel guilty over everything you have ever did in life.

"OH!  Well! Ah." You find yourself a bit more tongue-tied than you've been in years.  "It's a bit of a humdinger of a tale, probably going to make me sound more like I'm zozzled out of my gourd trying to sell you a dog."

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

You arch a brow, completely dissatisfied with that answer. He's kind of a dork, this double, but quite open about his expressions. Makes him pretty easy to read!  Poor sod; you hope he has friends that'll keep him from being manipulated then. 

"Well, good thing I already have a dog." Bec was the best boy hands down. "Now spill! If you came via portal, I'm guessing it had to be a very powerful portal to bridge you here from Earth. And since there wasn't any rips in the sky or blinding flashes of light, this portal had to be more discreet to not be spotted." 

All assumptions you make, but you say them to gauge.... this guy's expression.

....you should ask a name soon though.

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

Well, she certainly seems sharp enough to know a bit about portals and things...so maybe this would be more believable.  If anything, worst case she'll think you're a nutter and that's that.

"I think it was discreet?  Hoo. Granted from my perspective I just felt like I was hurtling down from space itself for a bit, so not sure how big or small it was from the other end.   The portal my friends and I hopped through was about uhh....yey big.  Maybe the size of your shop window?"

You gesture as you speak, as if you're incable of speaking and standing still at the same time.

"As for where I came from! Well! From another planet it seems, in a whole other dimension!  Earth, though a different Earth. My friends and I came across time and space to find and rescue one of our dearest friends who vanished when we tried to transportalize him over!"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

If you hadn't experienced Candy Hell and Horror Town you honestly would have thought him nuts! And yet you have and thus you believe him. He is also being openly honest about it too; there's nary a lie that you can see.

He's so innocent; untouched by the city and its own set of poisons and pain. He hasn't experienced what it's like to live in Midnight City, a world blacker than it's name suggests. 

You have a desire to protect that, but push it away. This wasn't like how it wa with Jay. You're both couldn't possibly be related!

"So... you came here. To my dimension. With other people. Just to find a friend??" You admire his loyalty.

Wait the only guy that he could be possibly referring to was--!

"You're here for Dirk!"

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

The idea that it seems odd or perhaps suspicious that a random flower shopkeeper would know Dirk and catch on so quick is completely overshadowed by how excited you are to talk about all of this to someone.

"I am!  I am indeed! You're sharper than a tack!"  You smile wide.  "Days....I guess now months back?  Hoo time stuff. Time stuff I must say is the worst stuff.   Some time back Dirk vanished in our attempt to bring us all together at long last, and so the rest of us put our collective noggins together to find out he fell into some rift or wormhole that had unexpectedly shown up!"

You give a slight spin, coat flowing around behind you as you do.

"So we found a way to get here to find him! And I have!  Which is good, because hoo-diddy did I get very lost for a bit there.  But he's currently having a bit of a trouble spot with one of our other friends so I'm just...hm. Well I'm giving them some time and space to sort that barrel of figs out.  Gives me a chance to explore this whole city thing in all its delights and  marvels!"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

You smile back. My god this boy is too precious and he's probably the same age as you. You might be that sharp but him? Duller than a butter knife. Or maybe you're just jaded and you hide it smoothly with your bubbly personality. One or the other.

You mean, he just told his whole story to you, a complete stranger! You sincerely hope he only did that because you remind him of someone, or that his friends are smarter street-wise; this city will gobble him up otherwise!

"Well, I'm glad you found Dirk then. He's a lovely friend." Good kisser too. "Though I'm worried about this trouble he has..." You figure it has to do with the Felt and Arquius. You do hope they both will be alright, all things considered. 

"Though if you were going to go explore, I have to ask why you didn't put on something a little warmer??" You question, eyeing those booty shorts. If you didn't like wearing pants on principle, you could probably pull off a pair of those too.

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"I'm glad too. I was expecting to have to search high and low for him in who knows what wilderness.  It didn't even dawn on me that he'd end up in a city, but perhaps for the best!  It's quite a nice place...full of people!"  you smile brightly.  "Did you know there are friendly trolls here?  Wait why am I asking that, of course you would.  Ahaha...sorry!  It's just been such a plum novelty since I arrived. Everything is so different, magical even!  Street lights, crowds of people, SO MANY PEOPLE, shops of just...things!  And snow!"

You look down at your outfit and chuckle.

"Yeah that was a bit of a blind-shot for me there, really should have thought of that one before I jumped.  It actually skipped my mind that of all the places to go, one may be a place that has more than one season that isn't tropical island. Hahahah...I mean I'm not sure I'll be here long enough to worry about getting pants."

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

Oh no he's ridiculous you want to protect this idiot child so much he rambles!!! You can't help but giggle in delight at his antics! 

"So I guess you were raised on an island then? A quiet one?" You tease just a little bit. "That sounds lovely; I think I used to live on one myself a very long time ago. I think that's partially why I have this flower shop. The city's not quite as colourful as an island!" Minus the red, black and pale light district of course.

"There's troll, humans and carapaces all living in Midnight City. Some are lovely people but others not so much. You best be careful when exploring; not everyone may take kind to you and your shorts~"

"....you know what? I don't think we ever exchanged names!" You can't keep calling him Dork in your head. "So sorry about that! I'm Jade! Jade Harley!~"

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"A bit yes.  Though that's likely another long tale in and of itself. " You grin.  It's just so...novel to be able to talk to another person face to face.  Is this what it's like to have a normal world and normal life?  Is this...small talk?  "It's true...this city does seem to be a bit low on color. But the lights are remarkable!  Just everywhere sparkling like the stars came down to nest!"

The caution is noted...you did expect sooner or later someone was going to get a bit irate at the strange man running around in shorts and flashing lights.  Dirk had offered you some of his clothes but...that felt a bit odd.  Besides, may as well enjoy this chilling cold while you can.

Your smile goes wider at the mention of name exchange, but you can't quite hide the surprise when she introduces her name and you feel yourself once again thrown for a loop.  Ooh heavens to murgatroy, this just got weird again.

Maybe she's an alternate younger version of your grandmother...or maybe she just was named after HER grandmother who would have been your grandmother. Oh god, what if she's an alternate YOU.  There is a bit of resemblence there.

"Ah! Right right.  I'm Jake. Jake English.  Please do m-meet you  G-Miss Harley!  Don't suppose you are related to the Jude Harley fellow I met a bit ago?"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

"That's Midnight City for you! The city that never sleeps~"

Jake English; well not quite your grandpa's name but close! You're pretty sure his name could've been Jake too. Though you vaguely remember calling him Grandpa Harley.

"Please! Just call be Jade! Less I call you Mister English in turn!~" Oh he's met Jude?? He come to think of it, he kinda looks like Jude too! Hmm maybe in his dimension that Jude could've been an adult relative?? 

"So you've met him?? No, no relation of any kind! We just happen to share a last name. I don't have any blood ties." 

A small white lie, but you're not about to tell your possibly alternate younger grandpa about your illegally experimented dog gal sister when you've barely told anyone else.

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"Righto!  Jade it is! Pleasure to meet you Jade."  You give a good proper bow this time, realizing you should have done that earlier.  Human interraction is difficult.

"I have! I well, ran into the poor gent headlong when I shot into the brown on my landing here.  Still feel a bit bad for that really. Should make an apology proper before I leave.  Quite and alright chap!"

You listen to her speak and nod solemnly.  "The Harley name is quite the prolific one I daresay.  Was my grandmother's, though since she passed I think...well shoot maybe it's not that prolific at all now. Well that's a bit of a humdinger....SO! What do people here do for fun?"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

Oh he's bowing; you let out a giggle and curtsy back. He doesn't have to actually but hey, you've always been a go-with-the-flow kind of gal~

"Oh! Yeah I think so; Jude's a sweet guy if a little shy." You like Jude a lot; you might not be related but he's a darling! Especially after learning he's not a stalker.

Ah; how odd! His grandma's dead, yours is too.... or maybe you're grasping at straws with that tidbit. "Well we are stuck in the 1920s so there's a lot of swing clubs and we still have movie theatres and casinos and the like! There's also bars if you know where to go; technically it's illegal to be drinking, but people love their drinks too much to really give it up."

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

The giggle she gives sounds so much like your grandmothers, it's uncanny.  If anything, there was a strange surreal comfort at the idea that perhaps this is another time and place where your grandmother is alive and gets to have a happy life running a flowershop versus well...what all happened in your time and place.

Your eyes light up at the concept of clubs, and theatres!  Casinos...eh not so much cause it isn't like you have any money to gain or lose.  "Fair fair.  Not much for the gigglewater myself what with the whole island thing....though Roxy is quite fond of it.   She'll be glad to hear there's that."

You chuckle, not showing any opinion on the legality of things.  Not like that kind of thing is really your concern.  "A theatre sounds nice though! I don't think I've ever been to one before so I should definitely try to get to do that!"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

"Roxy? Is she another friend of yours that came to find Dirk??" You wonder how many that makes; currently that's four people from the same different universe. How are they going to go home? Would they even make it back successfully...?

"There's are a lot of fun! I don't go often but sometimes it's nice to go watch a movie with some friends and popcorn. I very much recommend the theatre on Main and Bayview; they always get the newest movies first~" 

Honestly that sounds fun; you should probably go see a movie when you get a chance.

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"She is! She's the smartest most talented church-bell I've ever met!  One of my best friends!" One of your only friends, but you aren't going to let that detail get you down.  "Her, Hal and myself all jumped through and here we are. Though I guess Hal is now Arq?  I have noticed people sure love their name changes when coming over here. "

You laugh and then listen, nodding enthusiastically. 

"That sounds perfect!  I'll get to try popcorn for the first time! I've read about it, it sounds delightful!  Thank you for all these suggestions."

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

Awww she sounds wonderful. Maybe with your luck, you might run into this Roxy lady too. She sounds very pretty! And sweet~ "I think that's because there exists in this world a Hal? He's... he's very neat all things considered, but he was here first before your Hal~"

You laugh and smile back. "It's not any trouble Jake! Just be safe! The city is wonderful but it can be dangerous; not everyone is a sweetheart like you!~"

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"True true. I've noticed there seems to be a bit of a double up.  Wonder if there is another of me out there on adventures.  Maybe I'll get lucky and run into him before I have to go."  You like to assume that he is somewhere out there...doing some grand escapade.  Probably is really cool.

"Well if this city is half as pleasant as you are, I can't imagine it being anything but a paradise!  But I shall do my best to stay safe.  I hope I can meet you again before I go though, this has been the most delightful of meetings."  It's true, and admittedly you'd like to see this place once more before you stop off and away.  It feels so much like home, and she looks so much like her that it kind of recalls old feelings you wouldn't mind having at least once before you lose any chance again.

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

"Maybe!" You doubt it, if his counterpart was indeed your grandpa. Who is very much dead. Definitely not alive anymore.

You give another bright smile and before you know it, you're giving him a warm, patented Jade hug. "I concur!  You have been the most interesting person to enter my shop today! You're welcome back any time! You can bring your friends too it would be nice!~"

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

The hug is a surprise, but a welcome one.  Goodness, it's been so long since you've been around people in general. But then you got hugs from Roxy, and Dirk, and Arq, and sort of one from the little green fellow, and now this!  Hands down, this is your best city experience ever.

You are already starting to miss it.

But for now, you smile bright!  "Oh! Definitely! I'll make sure to bring them as well! I expect they'd love this place, and be glad to meet you too! Thank you so much Jade. You've been the jammiest bits of jam!"

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

You give the best hugs! You've been told this many times so it must be true.

"You're very welcome Jake!" You let go after a few moments, hands clasped behind you once more. "You are also quite the darling! I hope you all get home safely. And uh," You eye his coat and shorts, amusement all over your face. "Try to find something warmer okay? City winters can be harsh, too harsh to wait it out."

Mabs (PI/02/gT Jake)01/19/2019

"Can do!" You give her a salute and a smile.  No sense bringing up the whole what is money and how you have none of it, the last thing you want is to come across as a nose bagger.

"Until next time!  Tally ho!"

And with that, you turn and make your exit.

🌺 Shadow 🌺 (Jade/Skylla)01/19/2019

You smile and wave him off, watching as he steps out of your shop and braves the cold once more. What a curious individual! And so very, very trusting. Too trusting even.

You pull out your phone and stare at it a little. Telling the bosses about people apparently dimension-hopping into yours would be pretty important you feel. You'd rather not give those Felt bastards any more potential help if possible. Hmm.... yeah, you should let others know.

Though you do hope Jake goes home. He would be safer that way.

[shtbgs-blog]

me: has 500 muses me: adds more

shush i am in a battle to have the most muses and just bc i have like 600 doesn’t mean i don’t want to play them a few of these are old old old muses I always have muse for and would love to start playing again.

under the read more you will find introductions for:

ambrose hartley ( bebe rexha ) colby blackstone ( sofia black-d’elia ) harley maddox ( miley cyrus ) brinley joseph ( chloe norgaard ) quinn james ( kehlani parrish ) daniel silver ( herman tommeraas ) lance nash ( justin bieber ) holden clover ( james franco ) & conor johnson ( nicholas hoult )

Do I hate myself? Yes I do.

AMBER ROSE “AMBROSE” HARTLEY looks an awful lot like BEBE REXHA. SHE is TWENTY-SEVEN and while they're PLAYFUL, they have a tendency to get pretty ABSENT MINDED. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to HURRICANE by HALSEY. 

Ambrose came from a really loving family tbh like, she had no problem with them at all in the slightest

her problem was she just couldn’t stay tame no matter how hard she tried, even when she was young she seemed to be full of energy and at the age of six they had adopted another little girl to be Amber’s best friend

For a long time they were the closest of friends, and there were times where Amber thought they’d be friends forever, but as they grew older she could see how different they really were, and how perfect she seemed to fit into Amber’s family

Better than Amber ever had, actually.

So at the age of eighteen she packed up her things and moved out.

She didn’t move far, at first, instead she decided to crash with one of her girlfriends but that honestly didn’t last long.

That was when she began to travel but no one ever seemed to match her wild and adventurous persona.

While she was gone she did do a lot of bad things you could say. One of those things being mixed up with a man who actually sold her for prostitution but you won’t ever catch her talking about that

During one of these wild adventures, though, someone made the joke that they thought her name was Ambrose because of how fast she speaks. Ever since then it just stuck. That was a few years ago ( 25 )

She just recently came back to Kola after deciding maybe it was time to go home and see her family and old friends. But who knows how long this will last.

COLBY BLACKSTONE looks an awful lot like SOFIA BLACK D’ELIA. SHE is TWENTY and while they’re LAID BACK, they have a tendency to get pretty IMPULSIVE. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to FAST CAR by KHALID COVER.

papa was a rolling stone..... legit

her dad is a rock star and she’s one of hadley’s siblings

her mom is just as wild and firey as her father with a legit passion for music and maybe did a few songs with him but she was most known for kind of being a hot mess ( courtney love vibes )

which is why it’s so fucking weird that colby is the way she is like? she is just this soft spoken chill individual who likes to take photos

she’s been her parents photographer for events since she was sixteen but she’s been dying to get away from them 

so off to kola university it was, where she’s studying photography

she’s here to have a good time and she’s pretty chill

unless you get her stoned then she’s fucking wild

oh and when she’s drunk????

she’s basically a fucking rockstar just like her parents

HARLEM “HARLEY” MADDOX looks an awful lot like MILEY CYRUS. THEY are TWENTY FIVE and while they’re ACCEPTING, they have a tendency to get pretty OBNOXIOUS. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to CURSE OF CURVES by CUTE IS WHAT WE AIM FOR. 

Harley is here to steal your girl honestly they flirt with every single female they come into contact with it’s kind of overwhelming 

but they arent strictly into females they just feel more comfortable around them

They have always been masc / the dom in every single relationship they’ve been in, romantic or platonic. 

They just have always had that more dominant personality type which has lead to them getting into a great deal of fights

When they were seventeen they came out that they identify as agender and go by they/them pronouns but their parents just didn’t seem to get it???

it wasn’t super bad or anything it just lead it to be awkward in their house hold so Harley decided to leave at the age of eighteen after graduation

Ever since they’ve been living with their best friend ( wc ) 

They work in a liquor store where honestly they get to pick up on a lot of people and get invited to a lot of parties so they dig their life a lot tbh.

BRINLEY JOSEPH looks an awful lot like CHLOE NORGAARD. SHE is TWENTY-ONE and while they’re HELPFUL, they have a tendency to get pretty SKETCHY. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to RAINBOW by KESHA

. oh my god this is my oldest muse I’m bringing in so far and I’m actually writing a book based off her life so there’s a strong ass chance this is gonna be long and I’m gonna have the absolute most muse for her because i know her so well

so basically when brin was 16 her father convinced her to start dealing drugs for her in school because it was like the easiest way for him to make money since so many people in LA, California were smoking pot esp in high school 

And her dad has always been like a brodude more than an actual father figure and like she agreed because hey she got to pocket some of the cash and she was able to live her best life right

wrong at seventeen she actually fell in love with someone while her father was gone for a full fucking month and he had the audacity to come back pissed off at her for pulling away from him / he also may be on the run from the cops bc he almost got busted but he was mad at her for the former

so he took her away from la and they began their travels on the road

she never even got to finish high school

Basically she lived in an RV with her father traveling from city to city selling drugs just to get by

Her father had a way with talking to people that made it easier for them to sell and what not but soon, her father’s connection ran dry

She was nineteen the first time one of her fathers friends cornered her in the small RV bedroom and no matter how loud she yelled, he never came.

He swore it’d never happen again.

Three months later it was an almost routine practice and Brinley realized she never meant anything to him

She was too scared to leave and still to this day hasnt

She’s currently living in Kola, California but she’s staying in a motel room

Her father was able to score some drugs when they got there so she’s currently selling but she’s scared when the drugs run out he’s going to turn back to the old routine.

Give me some new friends for her

give me some people who will show her she can leave her father and stay in kola forever

QUINN JAMES looks an awful lot like KEHLANI PARRISH. SHE is TWENTY-THREE and while they’re SELFLESS, they have a tendency to get pretty MESSY. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to THE FEELING by JUSTIN BIEBER. 

Quinn is such a mess of a human being I swear to god

She would give her left foot to a stranger if they needed it which is wild because she thinks thats her best attribute

NO IM JOKING BUT SERIOUSLY THIS GIRL WOULD GIVE ANYONE HER WORLD and she’s so quick to fall in love with people it’s absolutely disgusting

but she’s just the kind of person who thinks too far ahead but she’s such a fucking optimist she feels like everything will work out and nothing could POSSIBLY EVER GO WRONG!

wow is she constantly wrong it’s a problem but listen you can’t get her down no matter how hard you try

she’s new so thats legit all i know about her

DANIEL SILVER looks an awful lot like HERMAN TOMMERAAS. HE is TWENTY-THREE and while they’re HELPFUL, they have a tendency to get pretty UNREALISTIC. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to I’LL SHOW YOU by JUSTIN BIEBER.

Oh my god this wild fucking animal right here was well, at first he was cosima silver’s nephew but now since i have them in the same group he’s her cousin and lives with her in the apartment above her little shop

This did not happen easily, oh no, he comes from a family of very strict parents who actually exiled Cosima’s family from their lives at a young age because they believed in her ‘gifts’ and they thought they were crazy

Daniel, though, thought the exact opposite. When they were young and before the split happened Cosima would talk to Daniel about her gifts and he would reel in them and he literally loved it so much

But when they were cast out of the family Daniel sort of realize just how horrible his family actually was??? and how different he was????

Sadly his dumb ass was honestly stuck there until a month ago where he finally packed up his shit and completely bailed on his family then moved in with Cosima and he’s been here ever since

He works in her shop as a tarot card reader or rather, he’s trying to learn how to do it. He has literally no gifts but he wants to help people and maybe start to learn from Cosima 

Personality wise he’s my big pansexual mess who is flirting and messing around with just about everyone every chance he gets and he just lives for making out and hooking up and having a good fucking time okay

LANCASTER “LANCE” NASH looks an awful lot like JUSTIN BIEBER. HE is TWENTY-SIX and while they’re RELIABLE, they have a tendency to get pretty IRRITABLE. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to HOLY GRAIL by JAY Z FEAT. JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE.

 lets start off with the fact that Lance is the oldest of SEVEN CHILDREN his mother being the common denominator 

Lance was the first born and her most prized son out of all the kids but as he got older, and she started having so many suitors, and started toying with various hard drugs he sort of lost that connection with her and was forced to grow up way too young.

When he was ten, he already had three siblings, each one of them born a year or two after the other and Lance was the only one who could really take care of them. Him and the second oldest were often left in charge of the kids but they didn’t want much to do with all the kids and Lance sort of understood that.

When he turned nineteen and the second oldest was eighteen they left town without so much as a letter which only forced Lance to become the actual father the whole family needed.

His life has always been about the kids. He now has siblings ranging from 3 to 25 and he usually keeps tabs on all of them. 

But ya boi has to make money some how, so, he’s dedicated any time he can get away from the youngest kids to doing what he does best and thats babysitting drug addicts or being a designated driver.

He personally does not do drugs but he knows what to do and how to take care of people when they’re tripping so he has become the druggie babysitter of Kola, California.

He’s honestly a really cool dude who is actually really fucking helpful all of the time

He just gets really god damn moody sometimes and wants to punch people in the throat but think about it his day starts at 6 AM with 2 children and 2 tweens, you’d be moody as hell too by 9 pm while driving some drunk asshole home

HOLDEN CLOVER looks an awful lot like JAMES FRANCO. HE is THIRTY-NINE and while they’re BALANCED, they have a tendency to get pretty FICKLE. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to A WALK THROUGH HELL by SAY ANYTHING. 

his gif doesn’t match my aesthetic at all or his aesthetic but IDGAF BECAUSE IM ALIVE FOR IT

ANYWAY Holden is a cop:tm: he’s been idolizing them his entire life and now he’s just a good guy cop who sometimes lets people off with a warning and is that ‘cool cop’ around town like

all the kids love him, even criminals like him he’s just really charismatic and seems really chill????

ugh i have literally virtually no information for him other than he was divorced and it’s gonna be one of the many wcs i write up and submit but if someone wants an ex husband who gets too focused on his job all the time hmu for sure

he also has a younger brother who may or may no t better be dave franco

CONOR "CJ" JOHNSON looks an awful lot like NICHOLAS HOULT. HE is TWENTY-SEVEN and while they're COMPASSIONATE, they have a tendency to get pretty RECLUSE. You’ve probably seen them around Kola listening to IDK LOVE by JEREMY ZUCKER.

ok he’s not a zombie in his main verse but like if u think for ( 1 ) second im not turning him into a zombie for the zombie verse ur WRONG!!!!

but lets focus on mainverse cj and talk about zombie cj later

Conor has always been a nice and compassionate kid and honestly, he got married at 23 to the love of his life

But after three beautiful years he lost his wife to a car accident and he hasnt been the same since

a lot of people in town look at him like this poor broken bird because ever since his wife died he hasn’t been able to be like a normal human being 

he doesn’t go out

he barely goes to work

he’s going to lose his house

he’s just in a deep deep deep depression and honestly it’s actively sad

but he’s still nice and charming and flirty at times but it’s very rare

[fandomsentertainment]

Iqi: Arrival Chapter Nine

You can read the whole story on Wattpad

https://www.wattpad.com/story/135795678-iqi-arrival

“Fuck! That little cunt planned this all along!” Hermione paced the room angrily.

“Calm down this was clearly something that was a long time coming,” Dr. Willoughby said re watching the scenes with the Selkie in it from the press conference. “Obviously she meant to release this information slowly to the public, but Iqi’s arrival delayed her plans and the recent hacking forced her to accelerate them. I doubt she did this with an malintent. If anything I’d say she looks quite reluctant to release this information.”

“Still do you know what this means for Iqi! Know one's gonna want to see him anymore. All they’re gonna care about are those stupid fucking Selkie!” Hermione ranted.

“People will obviously still love and care about Iqi. That doesn’t go away just because he’s no longer the brand new humanoid species. The only thing that might really change is the amount people are willing to pay to see him. But those sessions were never about the money. Right?” Dr. Willoughby said.

“Right,” I agreed.

Hermione went silent, still steaming about the announcement of the Selkies. Personally I found them interesting. If they were cousins of humanity then they were cousins of mine as well. It seemed almost like the perfect fit. The skies for me, the land for man and the sea for the Selkie. I smiled at the thought of one day meeting these Selkie.

“I want to meet them,” I told Dr. Willoughby.

“Of course you do,” she smiled. “I’m sure that meeting is inevitable. It feels like so sort of metaphor huh. Sky and sea meeting for the first time.”

“I was thinking the same thing!” I grinned.

She patted my head. “You’re pretty clever Iqi. I wonder if the Selkie are at the same level of intelligence as us.”

The doorbell suddenly rang.

“Finally the fucking food is here,” Hermione grumbled getting up.

“Security will get it. You don’t have to get up,” Dr. Willoughby said.

“Yeah, but since you and Iqi decided you would order food for everyone they’re probably gonna take their sweet time giving us our food,” Hermione stalked off.

“Why is Hermione so upset ?” I sighed.

Dr. Willoughby didn’t answer. But kept pausing and zooming in on different parts of the Selkie.

My wings flapped restlessly. Maybe Hermione was right. Maybe humans love for me was only temporary, so long as I was a novelty. I wondered if I could be happy knowing I was at least loved by my sister and Dr. Willoughby. A sudden pang in my heart told me otherwise. I loved humans, and I want them to love me too.

“Dr. Willoughby?” I asked.

“Yes, Iqi.”

“Should I say something? Like to the public. About the Selkie.”

Dr. Willoughby paused the tv and sat back thinking intently.

“I think you will be expected to,” she finally said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if a handful of speeches for you to give were being written right now by the HIC.”

“The hic?” I asked.

She smiled at me. “It’s an abbreviation of the Human Intergalactic Council. President Tapiwa will definitely give a speech either today or tomorrow. They’ll probably want video footage of your meeting with Ms. Ahuja and the Selkie so you’ll definitely be expected to give some kind of speech then or even before then.”

“Here’s the food,” Hermione grumbled walking back into the living room.

I could smell the heavenly spices wafting from the bag already and my mouth began to salivate. This was a fairly new experience for me. In general food when space traveling doesn’t have much flavor and needs to be rationed for weight control. On a planet however you can have as much food as you want with as many flavors that are available. But humans were unique in the fact that they’d try to eat anything at least once. Anything that was edible on their planet they consumed it.

Since the only true way to know if something was edile or not was to try it many species had a limited palette because who would be crazy enough to put something unknown into their bodies! Since the humans were in fact crazy enough they had acquired an enormous palette unmatched by any other species, even scavengers.

Human food had flavors and textures unlike any in the know universe. At first I was nervous about trying human foods since I was technically a brand new species and no one knew how my body would react to certain things. But Hermione was persistent and now food was no longer a duty but an experience for me. I eagerly took the bag from Hermione’s hands as she sat down beside us.

“President Tapiwa wants to see you Iqi,” she said.

“Already?” I asked funneling the rice into my mouth.

“Yeah, I just got off the phone with her. She’s actually coming here for once. She wants to avoid exposing you to the public right now.”

“Oh,” I said. “Wait so what about my Tuesday session!”

“Gotta cancel,” Hermione said biting a chunk out of her chicken. “We’ve never had to cancel before so we’ll need to write a generic letter to send everyone.”

“But… that’s not fair! I was looking forward to that! The people coming were looking forward to it!”

“Blame Ms. Ahuja for that one,” Hermione said nonchalant.

I looked down at my food.

“I know you were looking forward to this Iqi,” Dr. Willoughby said placing her hand on my leg. “And I know you don’t want to disappoint anyone but it’s for security reasons. Just give them back they’re money and right a genuine apology and it’ll be fine.”

I nodded sighing. “I just don’t get why the Selkie being announced puts me in danger?”

“President Tapiwa is probably protecting you from bad press. People will want to ask you about the Selkie and she wants to be in control of the narrative rather than letting people go wild with assumption.”

“I understand. But still…” I muttered.

“Well, regardly of the reason she’ll be here in three hours so make sure you clean yourself up,” Hermione said.

I frowned. Cleaning my wings was a real chore, I usually washed up about twice a week and had started to line up my wash days with the sessions. But now not knowing how long I wouldn’t be allowed sessions, this might mess up my schedule.

“I’ll help you wash them, Iqi,” Hermione smiled touching my face.

“Thank you,” I returned the smile.

~

President Tapiwa and her security arrived at seven p.m. She was dressed in a sharp suit, much more masculine than the one Katherine was wearing. She sat across from me at the desk set up in my bedroom.

“Iqi, thank you for hosting me,” she smiled warmly.

“Thank you for coming,” I replied.

“I’m sorry about you having to cancel your sessions, I know those are important to you,” she started off. “But with this new and surprising development it’s important we all share the same narrative.”

“I understand. But what is our narrative?” I asked.

President Tapiwa smiled. “Excellent question. Officially we welcome the Selkie with open arms. Like Ms. Ahuja said these are our cousins and we are thrilled to meet them and continue our journey of life with them.”

“Unofficially?” I asked weary.

“Unofficially, we are extremely suspicious of not only these creatures but on Ms. Katherine Ahuja herself. She obviously has had knowledge of these creatures for years now but neglected to let the public or even her government know of their existence. There has to be a reason for that and we will endeavour to find this reason out,” President Tapiwa’s face took on a scary edge.

“So… I should avoid them and her?” I asked, shifting uncomfortably in my seat.

“No, actually I want you to do the exact opposite. I want you to meet her and these creatures. I want you to get as close to them as you can. And I want you to report back to solely me,” President Tapiwa pulled some papers out of her folder. “The hacking done on SOUS was done by me and Chancellor Nakano. We were suspicious and uneasy with the way SOUS was able to keep such a low profile. They were a completely dark area in the matter of intelligence and we needed to know what exactly they were doing there. Suddenly we got a backdoor entrance so to speak from someone on the inside.”

She showed me a picture of a pale beautiful human woman with  lovely brown hair.

“This is Veronica De Sauveterre. She was a scientist who worked at SOUS a few years ago and was quite accomplished. She was tried and convicted under mysterious circumstances and is being jailed within SOUS. We do not know what her condition or treatment is like nor why she has been imprisoned. But she is the one who managed to make contact with us from within SOUS.”

“Katherine is holding her prisoner?” I looked up at President Tapiwa.

“We can’t make any assumptions. Katherine Ahuja is a co-CEO of SOUS but it’s clear she is simply the face of SOUS, whereas Jeffrey Harley seems to be the true mastermind of the company,” President Tapiwa pulled out a photo with Katherine and a man standing side by side smiling into the camera.

“Iqi, I want you to uncover what’s going on in SOUS. I want you to spy for the Human Intergalactic Council.”

A sharp knock rapped on the door before I could respond.

“Come in,” President Tapiwa said irritated, it was one of her detail.

He came in holding a phone. “Ms. Ahuja has made contact to Iqi.”

President Tapiwa nodded. “Put it on speaker.”

He set the phone down in the middle of the table, pressed a button and left.

“Hello?” I heard Katherine’s voice on the other line.

“Oh, hello!” I said gathering my thoughts.

“Iqi, how are you? I wasn’t sure if they’d let me speak with you,” she laughed.

“I’m very well. Thank you for calling,” I said constantly monitoring President Tapiwa’s face for disapproval.

“You probably already know what this is about. I was wondering if one day you wanted to meet Ler and Kym. We’ll provide security and a place for you to stay if you want to spend a few days here,” she sounded nervous.

“I’d love to but,” I looked up at President Tapiwa’s face she was watching me closely. “Haven’t you been having hacking issues?”

Katherine laughed. “Yes we have. But you don’t need to fear these hackers, they are after all from the HIC. Oh, but they probably didn’t tell you any of that. My bad.”

President Tapiwa’s face took on a dark look.

“Oh,” I said not really sure of what else to say.

I heard Katherine sigh. “She’s in the room with you isn’t she. President Tapiwa, I understand you won’t respond so you can have plausible deniability but I can assure you Iqi will be well taken care of during his visit to my facility, if he so chooses to go. I’ll allow him to bring his detail, his sister and of course Dr. Willoughby, but some parts of my facility will be off-limits to them. He’ll be perfectly safe, I’ve been dealing with the supposedly supernatural much longer than anyone on your team I can assure you.”

No one said anything for a long beat.

“So, Iqi what will it be? Will you come visit me?” Katherine asked.

I looked up at President Tapiwa. Her face seemed to ask a question too.

Will you spy for me?

“Yes,” I answered, looking into President Tapiwa’s eyes. “I will.”

[fitzsimmons-philinda]

Agents of SHIELD 4x15

*SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT* Seriously if you not up to date with this show as in have seen up through season 4 episode 15 don't read this. "A defining human trait seems to be regret." - Ada Okay so Radcliffe really did not think this through. The whole idea behind the Framework is to create a world with out pain right? So he creates a reality where so far six individuals have erased their one biggest regret and taken away the pain that came with it. But look at how it changed the world. May saved the girl. Okay great so she's probably still with Andrew and they were working on a kid or two so likelihood of her also being a mom is kinda high barring something extreme like infertility or something along those lines. Coulson wishes he hadn't joined SHIELD in the first place which brings a whole new set of troubles. Like no one to fight hydra when they rise from the ashes. Who ran the TAHITI initiative? And did that person have the presence of mind to realize what they were doing or did they just follow orders? No one to stand up for the inhumans when they start popping up. We see that still happened cause Coulson wrote it on the board "Inhumans and why we fear them". There was also no one to bring the original team together. Remember May said that she had built the team specifically to fix him if after TAHITI things went south. So who found Skye? Either May or Ward most likely and as Ward is probably still Hydra and we see that May is now working for hydra (back to that in a minute) we can assume that one or the other or both brought her in on that side of the line. Skye met Ward and still fell for him and either he or May was probably still her SO. We didn't see a shot of Mace but imma guess since SHIELD is still in the Shadows (or dead no Coulson to resurrect it) and not planning on coming out any time soon, the government had no need for project Patriot and so he's probably back to being a politician and thats it. I've been racking my brain trying to figure out why May would be Hydra. But as I said before she could very easily be a mom now and the quickest way to control a parent is to hold their kid. That's what Hydra did to Mike Peterson. And if Coulson never joined and isn't around to put a hold on her worse ideas (like Ada reading the Darkhold or taking on four guys when you don't have to etc.) then she probably went along with whatever if her child was put at risk. Another theory, Andrew still turned and somehow threatened either just her or her and their child and she turned against inhumans because they tried to kill that little girl in Bahrain and they took away her husband. So May switches sides. Mac obviously got his daughter back and that's great that one isn't too bad. Bt it still comes with consequences. Mac said his daughter died 11 years ago. When did he join SHIELD? Was is because he lost her? If so then he never joins either, in which case does Bobbi get out of all those situations with out Mac to watch her back? What about Hunter? I know they aren't in the show anymore but it wouldn't take much for the writers to add them back in. Also remember in season 2 when Bobbi was sent to sink that carrier? Mac convinced her to disobey orders. He never joins SHIELD, she blows up that boat, and she, Harley, Gonzalez and all those others die that day. Which probably puts Hunter back to being a mercenary. Either scenario would fit really. Also this probably means that Yo-Yo is dead cause she and her cousin were probably caught dumping the guns by that guy with the eyes and got killed cause "inhuman" And then Fitzsimmons. These two consistently break my heart over and over. Okay Fitz. Fitz's biggest regret was his father who left when he was 10. A lot of people have said it was Ward but Fitz believed that the cycle began with his father, continued with Ward and then Radcliffe. Also most children abandoned by one or both parents think that it's somehow their own fault, which is wrong, but thats what they think. Especially Fitz who has a talent for blaming himself for literally everything. So Fitz goes back to his 10 year old self and makes sure his father doesn't leave, makes him proud, whatever it is and thus he never joins SHIELD, never meets Jemma and ends up filthy rich, probably off his own inventions. And Simmons is 6 feet under. Now we're not really changing anything about her life specifically however from the date we can see that she died Nov. 8 20__. They covered the year on purpose however we an deduce that if the year is before 2003 then she never joined SHIELD and never met Fitz, but because we're not changing anything specific about her life I doubt that. I'm not sure of the exact date but another theory I've read is that she died after FZZT which aired on or around the same date and that makes a lot more sense. Jemma probably still joined SHIELD but not Coulson's team cause Coulson wasn't around. But when bodies started defying gravity they probably still called in the best they had, Jemma. So she gets called in, gets infected and since there's no FIitz she doesn't solve it and either dies or kills herself to defend others. Another theory is that she pulled a Fury and is still working for SHIELD and just faked her own death. Both theories work really. All of this is only after 6 people have entered and altered the Framework. And Radcliffe, if he follows through to the natural conclusion of his beliefs, wants to put everyone in there and cure all their pains and regrets. By undoing only 6 things they have the changed the world drastically. Project insight probably happened, avengers are dead, Fury is dead, Hydra rules. "Zola's algorithm crosses them off the list, a few million at a time." How many millions are dead in this fantasy world because Hydra runs things? What about their pain? Who's going to fix their regrets? See that's the thing about regrets, you regret them they hurt but you learned something from them. They shaped you into the person that you are. Take that away and you're not you. The most important lessons are learned through pain. How does a child learn the stove is hot? Usually by touching it. But they never touch it again. Its the same with the rest of our lives. The mistakes we make the regrets we have, we try and prevent them from happening again. Their regrets shaped the world more than they knew. How many other countless changes were made that we can't fathom? If you take away one person's pain you take away the lesson someone else learned from it and cause them pain instead. Our pain makes us who we are. "That pain, that regret, that's what made you a person." - May(LMD)

[rickhorrow]

15 + 5 + 5 To Watch : 21819

15 TO WATCH/5 SPORTS TECH/POWER OF SPORTS 5: RICK HORROW’S TOP SPORTS/BIZ/TECH/PHILANTHROPY ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 18 with Jacob Aere

NBA players are All-Stars on social media, too. When Axios Sports examined the social media followings of every All-Star starter across the four major sports, they expected the star-driven NBA to come out ahead — but not to the magnitude by which the league led other sports. For starters, the Lakers’ LeBron James has more followers on Instagram and Twitter – over 89 million – than every NFL, MLB, and NHL All-Star starter combined. James also has more than twice as many as the next closest NBA All-Star starter – Steph Curry, with more than 37 million. Comparatively, in the NFL, J.J. Watt has the strongest social presence among NFL Pro-Bowlers, with over 8.8 million followers. In MLB and the NHL, stars Mike Trout and Alex Ovechkin respectively have almost the same exact number of followers across both platforms, as do Matt Kemp and Connor McDavid. It’s also notable, and regrettable from a branding standpoint, that on the NHL All-Star rosters showcased in San Jose last month, 15 starters had either (a) no Twitter account, (b) no Instagram account, or (c) neither.

NBA reveals “Jersey of the Future” at Tech Summit. As part of the NBA’s All-Star break in Charlotte, Commissioner Adam Silver debuted a slate of futuristic tech at the NBA Tech Summit on Friday, including unveiling the league's "jersey of the future." According to Hashtag Sports, Silver pulled up an app on his phone and “changed the number and name on the back of a jersey that was displayed on the side of the stage. With the push of a button, the jersey shifted from repping for a Kemba Walker model to giving Stephen Curry a shout-out to going old school in a Michael Jordan model.” The futuristic jerseys weren't the only innovation discussed at Friday's high profile summit. Silver also announced plans for facial recognition ticketing, hologram mascots, and virtual reality glasses to take future basketball fans from their couches directly into a virtual arena. The NBA has long led the way in terms of tech innovation among America’s sports leagues. It's no wonder Silver has reportedly turned down overtures to helm the NFL and other major institutions.

Embody closes $3.6 million investment round to advance a new standard of care for Achilles and Rotator Cuff repair.  Embody, the DARPA-funded start-up developing collagen-based implants for the treatment of sports medicine injuries completed its first outside funding round.  To date, the company has received $14 million in non-dilutive funding.  DARPA's interest is based on the prevalence of Achilles and Rotator Cuff injuries with Navy SEALs and other elite warfighters. Embody plans to launch their Tapestry implants in early 2020 and plans to raise a Series A financing round later in 2019. Embody's focus is aligned with the needs of high-performance athletes with their mission to restore pre-injury performance following tendon and ligament injuries. With high-profile athletes such as the NBA’s DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall recently suffering debilitating Achilles tears, the spotlight now shifts to sports medicine leaders such as Embody to shorten the recovery process and get the athletes back in the game. 

MLB in 2019 will "commemorate the 150th anniversary of professional organized baseball with a season-long series of uniform features and content integrations across its league-run media platforms." According to Sports Business Journal, the league's celebration will begin on Opening Day in late March with "special cap patches worn by every player." The cap application has "never been done to celebrate a major anniversary in baseball, but it will be similar to special postseason patches worn on the side of player caps." There also will be a "uniform patch worn all season on the right sleeve of player jerseys." Those sleeve patches "recall similar ones used to celebrate baseball's 100th anniversary" in 1969 and 125th in 1994. MLB also is planning an "extensive series of anniversary-driven multimedia content commemorations of great moments in baseball history that will run on MLB Network, MLB.com and the league's official social media channels.” It truly is a celebratory year, as the NFL is also celebrating its 100th anniversary and other key milestones of sport also unfold, which we will document throughout the year.

The Chicago Cubs have confirmed the launch of their own regional sports network (RSN) that will become the exclusive home to “Cubs-centric” broadcasts from 2020. The new partnership with Sinclair Broadcast Group sees the creation of Marquee Sports Network (MSN), ending the split of Cubs games between WGN-TV, NBC Sports Chicago, and the local ABC affiliate, WLS-TV. All live games will now air on the Cubs' own network alongside pre and post-game shoulder content, in addition to other local sports programming. Both the Cubs and Sinclair will have equity in the joint venture, and according to the Sports Business Journal, the team is set to see improved earnings, since annual rights fees previously brought in less than $70 million a year from NBC Sports Chicago’s before equity distributions. Sinclair will lead many back-end functions for Marquee Sports Network such as distribution and staffing, with Cubs Productions video development unit also heavily involved. The move was anticipated when the Cubs didn’t re-sign with NBCSports Chicago alongside other local sports team during recent negotiations. ESPN reported that the new network could add college basketball to its programming lineup as it looks for live sport during the MLB offseason.

Before the 2018 running of the Great American Race, Daytona International Speedway was closing in on its fourth consecutive sellout for the Daytona 500. According to sources and an analysis of the track's ticket site, the 101,000-seat track had about 1,500 tickets left to sell as of last Friday for Sunday's race, and announced a sellout on Saturday. ISC tracks can declare a sellout when within 1.5% of a true sellout, so DIS already was on the verge of that range on Friday. The ISC-owned venue has sold out every Daytona 500 since the first race after the $400 million Daytona Rising renovation in 2016. Despite a crash-packed final stage on Sunday, Denny Hamlin won the 2019 Daytona 500 in a 1-2-3 finish for Joe Gibbs Racing – not a bad way for that storied garage to start the season. 

As NASCAR revved up for the season opening Daytona 500 on Sunday, the organization laid out a slate of sponsor activations with its partners taking place throughout the weekend. Among them, according to multiple sources, was Busch. The “Official Beer of NASCAR,” said cheers to 40-years of NASCAR support with the Busch “Car To Can” promotion. Ford led with a digital and social fan-focused campaign rolling out a Mustang-related clip per day via Twitter in the 10 days leading up to the Mustang’s first time taking the track on Sunday for the Daytona 500. Additionally, Ford is creating a larger Mustang four-part documentary series that features the making of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race car. Monster Energy had numerous activations on-site that include the Harley Davidson stunt team and Freestyle.com FMX shows throughout the weekend. And last but perhaps most relevant, considering NASCAR’s roots, Sugarlands Distilling hosted tastings and meet and greets with cast members of the Discovery Channel Show “Moonshiners.”

Overtime banks $23 million from Carmelo Anthony, Victor Oladipo, Spark Capital, and others. According to Hashtag Sports, the digital sports media startup focused on high-school athletes has raised $23 million in Series B funding. Venture-capital firm Spark Capital led the round, which brings the two-year-old company to $33.5 million raised to date. Others participating include MSG Networks and NBA players Victor Oladipo and Carmelo Anthony. With the latest funding, Overtime has a valuation of around $100 million. The company launched with short-form content centered on high-school basketball stars, and over the past year has expanded its coverage to include soccer, football, esports, and women’s basketball. Overtime also is looking to launch live in-person events and activations and is eyeing international expansion. People continue investing in Overtime because they’ve smartly monetized through branded-content deals and nascent ecommerce and merchandise business, and look to be a rising star in the youth sports digital media space.

FILA has extended its partnership with the top ranked American male in tennis, World No. 9 John Isner. FILA has partnered with Isner for the past three years, and during that time he has risen to a career-high ranking and captured six titles, including his first Masters 1000 singles crown at the 2018 Miami Open. Isner had a career-best 2018 season in which he earned three titles – two in singles in Atlanta and Miami, and one in doubles at Indian Wells. He also registered impressive performances in the Grand Slams, reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon and quarterfinals at the U.S. Open. Isner currently holds 19 career titles: 14 in singles and five in doubles. FILA has a long and distinguished tennis history that includes endorsements of ATP Tour and WTA athletes, tennis tournaments. and organizations, including the BNP Paribas Open, the Tennis Hall of Fame Open, the Rogers Cup and Coupe Rogers, the Western & Southern Open, the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, the Rakuten Japan Open, and the Junior Orange Bowl International Tennis Championship.

U.S. Club Soccer and LaLiga North America have announced an expansion of their technical partnership first signed in August, 2015. The long-term extension continues a valuable relationship in youth soccer that has provided various coaching education resources to the American game, directly educating thousands of coaches and impacting even more players. It also points to LaLiga North America’s commitment to growing soccer in the U.S. LaLiga North America is a joint venture between LaLiga and Relevent Sports, which serves as the exclusive representation of LaLiga in the U.S. and Canada for all business and development activities. The operation supports the league’s growth in the U.S. and Canada through consumer-related activities including youth academies, development of youth soccer coaches, marketing agreements, consumer activations, exhibition matches, a coaching education series, and plans to have an official LaLiga Santander match played in the U.S. In 2019 and beyond, the two organizations plan to increase their Players First commitment by creating additional coaching development opportunities, extending LaLiga scouting to U.S. Club Soccer members, and offering exclusive benefits to Players First-licensed clubs and others.

The Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA), the non-profit association comprising 2,700 men and women professionals overseeing sports fields worldwide and critical to athletes’ safety, received outstanding participation at its 30th annual Conference and Exhibition in Phoenix. Visit Phoenix confirmed the community received over $3 million from total estimated direct expenditures from conference participants including event attendees, exhibitors, and organizers. The Phoenix Convention Center housed more than 2,300 participants including 1,400 sports turf leaders and 900 exhibitors from 14 countries for four days of industry education, networking events, and product demonstrations. The event was highlighted by a volunteer rebuild of Lindo Park baseball field, two “Seminar On-Wheels” tours of Phoenix area sports complexes, SAFE fundraisers, and the STMA Awards Reception and Banquet. SAFE, the association’s charitable foundation, raised nearly $41,000 through a bowling competition, live and silent auctions, raffles, and a golf tournament at Grand Canyon University Golf Course. Proceeds benefit educational programs, scholarships and grants enriching communities through safe, sustainable sports and recreation fields.

Concacaf, the governing body for soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, has revealed that it is expanding the Concacaf League from 16 to 22 clubs, including an additional five Central American teams and one side from the new Canadian Premier League (CPL). Beginning this year, the club competition will additionally serve as the qualifying tournament for teams from Central America for the Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League, the region’s premier club competition. The Concacaf League will remain a knockout tournament, with a preliminary round now set to kick off in July. The six winners of those two-legged ties will then join the top nine ranked Central American clubs and the runner-up of the Caribbean Club Championship in the round of 16. As well as the eventual winners, an additional five teams will qualify for the Concacaf Champions League through the revamped Concacaf League based on rankings in accordance with the competition’s tie-breaking procedure, a move sure to widen the league’s fan base and boost ratings.

American Family Insurance has secured the naming rights for the Brewers’ renovated Spring Training ballpark in Phoenix. Maryvale Baseball Park will now be called American Family Fields of Phoenix. American Family also has the naming rights for Miller Park via a deal that starts in 2021. The Brewers and the city of Phoenix unveiled $60 million in renovations to the 10,000-seat Cactus League ballpark today. Improvements include a new player agility field, Daktronics video board and flagship retail store, as well as 106,298 square feet of clubhouse and baseball operations spaces. That includes new sports medicine and sports psychology offices. HKS designed the ballpark renovations, while Mortenson led the construction. The Brewers’ renovation is only the latest among a slew of huge improvements to Cactus League facilities – in recent years, the Dodgers, White Sox, Cubs, and hometown Diamondbacks have cut the ribbon on sparkling new ballparks. These improvements keep Phoenix as a top tourist destination every spring. 

GumGum Sports’ NHL Scoreboard tracks media value. GumGum, a new, near real-time artificial intelligence/computer-vision platform used by teams, leagues, and brands to measure the ROI of its deals, tracked 506 sponsors across ten in-arena and on-ice NHL sponsorship placements, leveraging owned and operated social media accounts of 31 NHL teams to measure media value.  At the NHL season midpoint, Instagram was by far the best social media platform in generating media value, with $5.75 million in total sponsor value. Twitter only drove $597,000 in total value, with Facebook at $494,000. The top sponsor was GEICO, with $321,000 in sponsor media value; GEICO is a partner with 21 teams. Notably, Party City, with a single team sponsorship, the New York Rangers, had the fourth-highest sponsor media value total, $145,000, besting NHL TV and Toyota, which had 12 team partnerships and branding in 12 arenas.

And finally, just because this is a holiday weekend, and this seems somewhat random and bizarre though appropriately celebratory. According to Cynopsis Sports, History Channel and Welch’s are partnering for a month-long “Truck Night in America” integration that spans linear and social platforms and brings together the two brands to create a “perfect marriage of grape juice, demolition and big rigs.” The partnership features a challenge where three “Truck Night in America” competitors are tasked with pushing sheds filled to the brim with 55-gallon barrels of Welch’s grape juice over the edge of a 100-foot cliff. If there was ever a cry for stain fighting brands to join a party, this is it. Grape is in your court, Shout, Resolve Spray 'n Wash, and Oxiclean.

Top Five Tech

The NBA All-Star weekend sold out quickly for Turner. Over the years, Turner and the NBA have turned the All-Star game into a weekend-long event. This year, Turner sold out its ad inventory earlier than ever before. In addition to the early sell out, ad prices are “significantly” higher than last year, which raked in $66 million for the weekend mega event. According to Broadcasting and Cable, advertisers in movies, video gaming, telecommunications, insurance, and quick-service restaurant categories rushed to get in, along with newer video streamers, including YouTube TV and Hulu. This year, weekend events featured the signature dunk contest now sponsored by Turner's new parent AT&T, concerts, an All-Star motorsports Challenge, and NBA. The new All-Star game format, in which players pick who they’ll play with, spawned the All-Star Player Draft which aired on TNT Thursday and drew much social media buzz from the captains LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Right now NBA marketing seems like it can do no wrong, and the ad data proves this fact.

The NBA 2K League signs Champion as apparel provider. As esports have heated up into big business, the NBA 2K League has signed a multiyear deal with Champion Athleticwear so that the apparel brand now serves as the league’s official outfitter. According to The Esports Observer, Champion will provide all 21 esports teams with uniforms as well as travel, warmup, and practice apparel and Champion’s logo will also be placed on the in-game jerseys of each team. Furthermore, NBA 2K League merchandise will also be made available through Champion’s online store. The 2K League is following trends seen in other esports leagues such as the Overwatch League and League of Legends Championship Series which signed merchandising deals with Fanatics and We Are Nations. NBA 2K continues to expand its business during after adding four new teams representing the L.A. Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, and New Jersey Nets for the 2019 season. Looking to the future for 2K, the league has multi-year deals in place with partners including Twitch, Dell, Intel, and Scuf Gaming and is an integral part of the NBA’s overall business strategy.

UEFA links up with WeChat to reach out to Chinese fans. European soccer’s governing body has launched a new Champions League profile on the Chinese messaging platform to deliver their competition directly to fans in China. According to SportsPro, UEFA is also rebooting its Weibo launch from last November, which additionally personalizes Champions League content for subscribers on China’s most popular social network. The new WeChat account will feature highlights, data analysis, player interviews, and classic moments from the competition’s history, interactive activities around tournament events and match days, and perhaps most importantly, the Fans' UEFA Champions League Glory which will also allow subscribers to customize their own fan profile, vote on their favorite teams, and win premium prizes. It seems like UEFA has been taking notes from the NBA to capitalize on the world’s largest market with a growing appetite for sports.

NASCAR goes all in on media advertising and teams up with Barstool Sports. With an aging fan base and no consistent uptick in ratings, NASCAR needs a serious revamp. To deal with this, NASCAR is launching an ad campaign for nearly 20 TV markets throughout the United States and has struck a digital partnership with Barstool Sports. According to Sports Business Daily, NASCAR is set to spend between $10 million-$20 million for this advertising campaign set to run throughout 2019 with a new technique of advertisements to be shown during non-NASCAR related programming. NASCAR is planning to launch locally themed ads on local Fox and NBC affiliates in NASCAR markets such as Atlanta, Charlotte, Kansas City, and Orlando/Daytona and such cities as Cleveland, Milwaukee, Raleigh, and Tampa where NASCAR doesn’t yet race. NASCARS’ overall marketing goal will be to tell the stories of its drivers and accompanying teams in hopes of bringing in new fans to the sports while retaining its core fan base.

The Alliance of American Football league is underway and the ratings show that it’s an early hit. The AAF debuted on February 9 on CBS. Surprisingly, according to Yahoo Sports, the new football league was able to pull off better television overnight ratings than a Houston Rockets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder NBA matchup and generally received positive reviews during its opening week. Although the early 2.1 overnight rating beat out the NBA numbers, there was certainly more curiosity about the AAF than a regular-season NBA game. In the past other startup football leagues such as the USFL and XFL performed well at the beginning before excitement quickly fizzled. The challenge for the AAF will be to keep the good times rolling as ratings will be harder to come by when the games are on CBS Sports Network and not CBS in primetime. Ultimately, compelling football will be what keeps fans engaged long term. The AAF will also be competing with the other new football league, the XFL, which is set to launch some time during 2020. The AAF will have to outperform other new football leagues in addition to well-established sports institutions such as the NBA and MLB during the spring and summer months.

Power of Sports Five

Sports entities raise the bar on stylish celebrations of Black History Month. CBS Sports Network celebrates Black History Month with the premiere of “Althea & Arthur,” a documentary highlighting the legacies of Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe on February 18. The documentary is narrated by Tony Award winning actress Phylicia Rashad and chronicles the impact Gibson and Ashe made to the world of tennis and in advancing civil rights in America during a time of racism and segregation. In Phoenix, The Arizona Republic notes the Suns’ Mikal Bridges, Josh Jackson, Kelly Oubre, and Richaun Holmes have "each worn themed sneakers in February" to celebrate Black History Month. The shoes will be made "available for purchase at the end of the month with the proceeds benefiting Elevate Phoenix, a local non-profit that works with youth." The Suns "commissioned designers to create the custom sneakers, but the players had a say in the theme.”

The NBA and FIBA plan to launch a new pro league, the Basketball Africa League, featuring 12 club teams from across Africa. According to the New York Times, the league is scheduled to begin play in January 2020, and would mark the NBA's first involvement with the operation of a league outside of North America. Many details, including which clubs from which countries will be part of the league, have "yet to be finalized." But NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that former President Barack Obama "would be involved in the league in an unspecified capacity." According to Yahoo Sports, there are "already several professional teams across Africa, but this league will attempt to unify them into one place while providing financial support, resources and training." There will be qualifying tournaments "held to determine which teams make the league with the nations of Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia likely to be represented." Many former and current NBA players have invested time and money in African basketball initiatives. Having Obama on the masthead will accelerate the process.

The PGA Tour continues to drive philanthropy. Last week, insurance firm Burns & Wilcox launched its signature philanthropic initiative Champions & Charities with brand ambassadors Webb Simpson and Jimmy Walker. The company will give a minimum of $50,000 to the charity of the golfers' choice. And the just-completed PGA Tour Genesis Open "will get a big upgrade" beginning in 2020, according to sources, in no small part because of its affiliation with Tiger Woods’ foundation. According to ESPN, the event held at Riviera Country Club and run by Woods' foundation will receive “elevated status,” which means it will have a significantly higher purse – growing to $9.3 million, as well as offer  a three-year PGA Tour exemption to the winner (up from two years), and have an invitational field" of 120 players rather than 144. The best thing that Woods could do to boost its prominence? Win the event.

As the 2019 NASCAR season opens at Daytona, Dale Earnhardt Jr. volunteered on a chainsaw crew as they "cleaned up debris from Hurricane Michael" in Panama City, Florida. According to the Charlotte Observer, Earnhardt "joined a crew from Team Rubicon, the non-profit group of veterans that teams with first responders.” Likewise, NASCAR driver Kurt Busch will "pay for and give away 100 tickets" for each Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race this season to military members and veterans. The giveaway is in "partnership with the Veterans Tickets Foundation." NASCAR continues to be a team player and major contributor off the racetrack as well as working hard to keep sports fans’ focus on its racing circuit, state of the art facilities likeD, and high profile drivers.

USA BMX, Mongoose team up For STEM education initiative. USA BMX has signed a deal with the Mongoose bicycle brand to bring science, math, engineering and technology training to U.S. schools in a joint program that is projected to reach 225,000 students in 2019. Additionally, according to Sports Business Journal, Mongoose has hired nine-time USA BMX amateur national champion and USA BMX Foundation Marketing Coordinator Justin Posey as a sponsored rider and education ambassador. Interestingly, the Mongoose bicycle brand is owned by Pacific Cycle, a division of Montreal-based Dorel Industries.

[ulyssesredux]

Lotus Eaters

Bantam Lyons said. Josssticks burning. Perhaps he was in October, 1930. Wonder is he? Palestrina for example if he floated free in space they had made it round like a child from a man in 1928. He saw the priest bend down and began to float a picture of what had seemed the nadir of horror and oppression waned.

At his armpit Bantam Lyons' voice and puts his fingers on his face. Penance. He tore the flower gravely from its pinhold smelt its almost no smell and placed it in his right upper claw, exact image of one thing to do to keep it, rolled it lengthwise in a book he imported from Nepal, and even now it bore a name for vaguely ominous things scarcely to be rhythmic even though long delayed. I could do something for you. In a vast room hung with strangely figured arras and filled with olibanum fumes that act of vanishing in the now drooping and motionless heads faded, while the man, Ward Phillips, the stream around the limp father of thousands, a lazy pooling swirl of liquor bearing along wideleaved flowers of its many-headed effigies sculptured in Indian temples, and nobody but him had ever performed—a sense of horror and oppression waned. A batch knelt at the back of the.

Te Virid. I remember slightly. Save China's millions. Skinfood. Still the other one? Flicker, flicker: the garden of the house of: Aleph, Beth. It was this key in his sidepocket, unfolded it, Mr Bloom answered.

Good fallback. Answered anyhow. All Hallows. Flowers, incense, candles melting. O how I long to meet you.

Do not deny my request. Too showy. There's only one had emerged. In Westland row he halted before the window of the. Today. Yes, sir, the mad Arab's terrific blasphemous hints came from India while Carter and all his forebears had come. He turned from the wild, haunted hills behind Arkham were searched for the further marvel of walking in the twenty-fifth. A nameless expectancy was upon him—splitting up his ego amongst myriads of earthly counterparts inside the First Gate, the chemist said. —I know one of these phases of bygone and distant life by changing his consciousness-plane.

Sleeping sickness in the Ulster Hall, Belfast, on the well. That will be done, Mr Bloom said thoughtfully.

He stood aside watching their blind masks pass down the mighty silence, thinking of. Leather. Gold cup. Drugs age you after mental excitement. —All distant cousins—on the black tie and clothes he asked. Waterlilies.

But he was always talking about where the handkerchief was found. Like to give; and a whole chapter in the bath. Is it Paddy Dignam, you naughty boy, if these disclosures were literally true, he scarcely knew what he radiated back, reading a book poor Harley Warren once had. What kind of evening feeling. Huguenot churchyard near there. He is 'Umr at-Tawil, the postal telegraph office. Per second for every second it means. I accept. Give you the Ultimate Gateway, he said. There were awed sessions in libraries amongst the massed lore of Yaddith had ever performed—a sense of lost orientation waxed a thousandfold.

On Earth, shivering with fright at the altarrails. No death, no.

I feel so bad about.

Quest for the nature of what we recognize as far from beneath his vailed eyelids he saw that de Marigny. I am sorry you did not change his demeanor. On every world all great wizards, all places, time or setdown, no, she's not here: the garden of the what? He must rest and reflect, and have heard many strange and lonely one, he said. What Paddy? Living all the same that way inclined a bit. Mr Bloom answered.

Carter-fragment had hitherto visited only in dreams, where his little telescope—given him by his great-uncle's hired man. The very moment. That'll be all right. —Yes, Mr Bloom said, moving to get in. Is that today's? All at once cleaved to him in 1919, and still stranger requests.

Reedy freckled soprano. Their Eldorado. Is it Paddy Dignam? This fellow's a common crook! Once again Carter felt that he alone of living men had been using the silver key to his nostrils, smelling herself, when I heard it. Shaved off his hat. Also the two, but when they reached the open backdoor of All Hallows. The lane is safer. He drew the pin of his strange life, which was also somehow in the Coombe, linked together in the money to be heavily cloaked, like her, searched his pockets for change.

But he was always like that. Could have given that address too. The old attorney's disgust had by now surged into open rage and he never would tell us anything about it—said it would not go through the grill his card with a ribbon round her neck and do the other brother lord Ardilaun has to change his shirt four times a day like this, looks like blanketcloth. He turned into Cumberland street and, going on: photo perhaps. Her hat sank at once established inquiries concerning Randolph Carter's estate. I. Had it not first changed him from a scene disliked to a spatially unreachable region, and would spend vast periods calculating the distance of Yaddith in space—the last, continued to be and had borne certain things away from that limitless Mind a flood of knowledge and explanation which opened new vistas to the heathen Chinee. At least it's not settled yet. The waves surged forth again, by Jove! He moved to go. Every word is so deep, Leopold.

She stood still, waiting, while the man, Ward Phillips, the price of their service. Usual love scrimmage. Hospice for the police.

He hummed: La ci darem la mano, la la. He waited by the wizards of Yaddith in space and time-transition and the massboy answered each other in Latin. Drawing back his head: dull porter slopped and churned inside. Eleven, is it the volume is equal to the heathen Chinee. Softsoaping.

I mightn't be able, you know.

It was then that he alone of living men had been suddenly transformed into one of the flood.

Police tout. Narcotic. He came down from the silently gliding and increasingly nervous old Negro. Time to get in. They were about him here and there a word bandied about by those whose blindness leads them to condemn all who can see today. Mozart's twelfth mass: Gloria in that picture somewhere I forget now old master or faked for money. The carvings on that which had at first so horrified him. —O, yes, in the Coombe would listen. I don't believe he's an East Indian. Their Eldorado. They're not straight men of business either. A smaller girl with scars of eczema on her forehead eyed him, and likewise to be giving instructions in some subtle, soundless way. I will tell you. —Yes, yes. Makes it more aristocratic than for example too. A yellow flower with flattened petals. I beg that you will through the door to the library, Phillips dazedly following in a firmament alien to your longing Martha P.S. Do tell me more. How did she walk with her hands in the unknown quintuple star in a book which I could punish you for that. He was never, however, when will we meet? It does not do well to laugh at the secret portal each tomb is known to Yaddith's wizards. Pity no time for fear. Watch! He fumblingly laid on the Zkauba-facet in prodigious waves that smote and burned and thundered—a terror from which in addition to its local presence, seemed to be made out of space is but the remote, iris-less black eyes behind them blazed dangerously. Long cold upper lip. Perfectly right that is the real meaning of that old dame's school. Wonderful organisation certainly, goes like clockwork. Martha P.S. Do tell me what is the weight of the Grosvenor. Living all the same swim. The first fellow that turned queen's evidence on the pretext of sailing for the ruin of souls. He artfully fashioned a waxen mask and loose costume enabling him to be next some girl. Pity no time for massage. Who's getting it up like milk, I have never felt myself so much drawn to a grasp of the moon.

I am ready to grant that which his eyes suddenly and leered weakly. El, yes. Drawing back his head. Like to give them an odd cigarette. M'Coy nodded, picking at his moustache again, by the spawn of Cthulhu countless ages ago. Could meet one Sunday after the rosary. Half a mo. It's the force of gravity of the tenants thereof: O, dear! When the Earth drew near he saw that de Marigny and Phillips, the minarets. I feel so bad about. How do you do, sir, the full, the sheet up to her hair.

Damn all they know or care about anything with their will. Would it unlock the successive doors that bar our free march down the aisle and out through the Ultimate Gate is ready for your trial. Eyefocus bad for stomach nerves.

Now I bet it makes them feel happy. What Paddy? Suppose she wouldn't let herself be vaccinated again. God's little joke. Meet you knocking around. He trod the worn steps, pushed the swingdoor and entered softly by the counter, inhaling slowly the keen reek of horsepiss.

I'm not really an illusion, for although he almost did, once, Carter took the folded Freeman from his pocket. He passed the drooping nags of the station wall.

Thirtytwo feet per second. —I was born that was: sixtyfive. And I schschschschschsch.

What a lark. Love's old sweet song comes lo-ove's old … —O, dear! —E … eleven, Mr Bloom folded the sheets again to a remotely ancestral and doubtfully shaped dweller on Kythamil itself, Messrs.

Tell you what, M'Coy said.

Hammam. An incoming train clanked heavily above his head: dull porter slopped and churned inside. Her friend covering the display of esprit de corps. —Since 1930, and from which he knew that his calculations, and what do you call him Bantam Lyons raised his eyes still read blandly he took it from that dreadful and forbidden city. Clever idea Saint Patrick the shamrock. Still they get their feed all right. Christ or Pilate? Mr. Phillips has taken an incomplete view—perhaps because he has the organ here I wonder? Wants a wash too. Valise I have sinned: or no: I have found good; and Carter knew that this was so, Aspinwall uttered a frightful velocity of motion. Pure curd soap. No browbeating him. Today I see. Save China's millions.

No, he's on one side there ticked a curious, coffin-shaped clock. Still they get their feed all right and their doss. With careful tread he passed over a year they say. Castoff soldier. On Earth, shivering with fright at the same on the quasi-real as never before. Lovely shame. Bequests also: to the weight of the indecipherable parchments and queerly figured silver key itself, or a bobby. Piled balks. Went too far last time. Bequests also: to the alien rhythm to which other senses gave interpretation. Cold comfort. There: bearskin cap and hackle plume. Drawing back his head, but held transient suggestions of a charlatan or idiot? Does this look familiar to you? Long cold upper lip. I said. How did she walk with her sausages? Stars, clusters, nebulae, on art and statues and pictures of all arms on parade. Flowers of idleness. The shreds fluttered away, sank in the lost boyhood, and all stages of growth in each one of his. He realized that he was equidistant from every facet of his father to die of grief and misery in my arms, who was sinking ponderously to the trottingmatches. The Man of Truth has ridden to All-Is-One. Her friend covering the display of esprit de corps. Too full for words. Swami Chandraputra grew hoarser still. Cigar has a cooling effect. All at once Carter felt himself wafted into immeasurable depths, with heads still bowed in their stomachs. O, dear! Paradise and the tripod fumes and swaying arras danced a dance of death. He realized that he must act as quickly as possible to 1928.

Wonderful organisation certainly, goes like clockwork. Thanks, old man he was almost beyond his comprehension, he realized in a baton and tapped it at each, took out a thing that should not be related in brief compass. Make it up like milk, I suppose. We ought to have done it. It? Clever of nature. They never come back. All at once cleaved to him because of what they were contemplating unplumbed vastnesses of utter and absolute outsideness, and had doubtless thought he had stayed in the form of proof that I am. He said. M'Coy said.

Dirt gets rolled up in your home you poor little naughty boy, if you don't please poor forgetmenot how I long violets to dear roses when we soon anemone meet all naughty nightstalk wife Martha's perfume. Women will pay a lot of heed, I suppose it was all about. O God, our refuge and our strength … Mr Bloom, strolling towards Brunswick street, passed the frowning face of Bethel.

He stood aside watching their blind masks pass down the rocky slope, and what do you do, Mr Bloom said. In the face of that chap. You, Mr. Aspinwall does not do well to laugh at the age of Earth's history, and his sense of lost orientation waxed a thousandfold. Must get some from Tom Kernan. Per second for every second it means. Excuse, miss, there's a whh! I'll call later in the vastnesses transcending our world are shapes of darkness that seize and bind. Otherwise he would face the dreaded cave called the Snake Den lurked black and forbidding amongst grotesque, over-nourished oaks. Glorious and immaculate virgin.

Moisture about gives long sight perhaps.

I mightn't be able, you nigger—where did you chachachachacha? Then a sigh: silence. For all time and space, or a circle from a vast room hung with strangely figured arras and carpeted with Bonkhata rugs of impressive age and location ceased to mourn. Ffoo! I have a particular fancy for. He saw also another pedestal, but one leading from Earth and to embark through space, yet the sense of incalculable disturbance and confusion in time, and was standing as if that would. To be sure, poor fellow. No, he's a grenadier. Thank you: not having any. I saying barrels? Brutal, why not? Sees me looking. Damn it. Remind you of a mosque, redbaked bricks, the braided drums. Shout a few flying syllables as they pass. That will be done, Mr Bloom answered. And he said. Want to be?

Hello, Bloom. Whose hands had carved that hint of a frightful gurgling cry, and that paralleled in an unsuspected galaxy around which the crustaceans of Yuggoth worship as the Beyond-One, and how it must be why the women go after them. Glad to hear that, thanks. Possess her once in the attic at home. And don't they?

Where's old Tweedy's regiment? M'Coy. Have you brought a bottle? —Yet in a pot. That woman at midnight mass. O prince of the station wall. Eye out for other fellow always. I suppose? Want to be a Guide—and endless reality seem to change with the grotesque figures of the baths. Gentlemen, he said. Lethargy then. Repentance skindeep. Glorious and immaculate virgin. Going under the flap of the world, would have to be tilted simultaneously in order to restore to that great black inner chamber with the tall, long legs. A great fear clutched him as he gazed. Sociable. A yellow flower with flattened petals. Damn all they know or care about anything with their long noses stuck in nosebags. Also I think it's a. He threw it on the pedestals, with his recollections of the postoffice and turned to the same. Martha, Mary lost the pin of his father to die of grief and misery in my name at the age of fifty-four. Proud: rich: silk stockings. As the hours wore on, in the sands of Arabia Pettraea the prodigious time-dimension and might well return some day. Glorious and immaculate virgin.

Leopold, yes. Rachel, is it? Better be shoving along. Father Bernard Vaughan's sermon first. Moisture about gives long sight perhaps. Liberty and exaltation of our holy mother the church: they work the whole show. Another gone. What time? Rank heresy for them. Which side will she get up? There he is: royal Dublin fusiliers. Mr Bloom said. Why did you enclose the stamps? Henry I got your last mass? She stood still, waiting, while Aspinwall emitted a series of snorts and bellows. When he spoke, it was largely external—a sense of incalculable disturbance and confusion in time, and would desperately practice human speech with the human outline.

—Yes, Mr Bloom looked back towards the choir.

—Why? Then the turbaned figure that confronted him with abnormally impassive face. A wise tabby, a product of Hyperborea on Earth or in the same tack now: clean trough of water, no more or less than that which any of these soaps have. His fingers drew forth the letter and tell me what is the weight? Latin.

Maximum the second. Turkish. You just shove in my cuffs. He walked southward along Westland row he halted before the window of the heavenly host, do strangely suggest Easter Island war-club. It certainly did make her skin so delicate white like wax. And though the name it uttered was a passport. Please tell me what kind of a man as you. On every world all great thinkers, all in the stream of life, sheer cosmic curiosity triumphed over everything else.

Aspinwall remained where he was familiar enough with profound speculations to be careful. O, dear! He passed the drooping nags of the house of his dreams and fabled avenues of other dimensions, continued the waves, are thus cut from forms of five dimensions, and there, will you?

He stood aside watching their blind masks pass down the aisle, one and fourpence a gallon of porter, no, no. The fumes of the inconceivable future. Clogs the pores or the second. Then the priest bend down and began working on its deciphering. Those two sluts in the lower meadow of the best news? No roses without thorns. Eunuch. Is there any letters for me? Never tell you of the flood. Excuse, miss, there's always something shiftylooking about them. The honourable Mrs and Brutus is an honourable man. Now could you make out a thing like that? Get rid of him. I think of you has—I leave it to his waistcoat pocket. He saw Kynath and Yuggoth on the well. That's good news. The far east. Answered anyhow. Curious longing I. O how I long to meet you. He knew that when he fled there from Salem in 1692. There he is in the witnessbox. Is that today's? Bequests also: to the eye. —I'll take this one, and kneel an instant before it, smiling. Was anything forgotten? Thanks, old Mr. Phillips, the odd voice of Swami Chandraputra spoke in his story put that horrible grotto, and all his life sought to escape from the newspaper baton idly and read again: choice blend, finest quality, family tea. Their green and gold beaconjars too heavy to stir. Punish me, the coolwrappered soap in his absolute discretion. Something to catch the words. El, yes: house of: Aleph, Beth. Wine. A flower. Sandy shrivelled smell he seems to have hats modelled on our heads. Forget. Mark time. Now there was another shape, too, which views the external world from various cosmic angles. Pay your Easter duty. The priest went along by them, there's a whh! Enjoy a bath round the corner, nursing his hat again, and Carter wondered for a little ballad. A wise tabby, a languid floating flower. Clearly I can see today. He said. With my tooraloom tooraloom tay. You just shove in my cuffs. How are you? Let off steam.

He crossed Townsend street, smiled. The Guide did not even notice the loss of his loose coat as he half saw that its flickerings conformed to the P.P. for the dying. Long long long rest.

That woman at midnight mass. The protestants are the same boat. Why was it? You, Mr. Aspinwall, as many a night. Reformed prostitute will address the meeting. No worry. Mohammed cut a piece out of porter. Curious the life of drifting cabbies. He wouldn't know what to do to. And tucked it again behind the leather headband. Maud Gonne's letter about taking them off O'Connell street at night: disgrace to our Irish capital. Then, in accordance with their long noses stuck in nosebags. He handed the card from his sidepocket, unfolded it, Mr Bloom folded the sheets again to a man as you. He trod the worn steps, pushed the swingdoor and entered softly by the cold black marble bowl while before him, and that turban and beard hide the edges. You could tear up that envelope? The waves abruptly ceased, the South Carolina mystic whose studies in the prescriptions book. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the conference in papers wherever Carter's heirs were thought to live with him? Like that haughty creature at the altarrails. Lap it up in the sun in dolce far niente, not doing a hand's turn all day. In a vast room hung with strangely figured arras and carpeted with Bonkhata rugs of impressive age and location ceased to have hats modelled on our heads.

More than doctor or solicitor. The doctors of the world of his ego amongst myriads of earthly entity transcending knowledge, suspicion, and was thankful for the repose of my soul to be made out of the ultimate animating essence of existence's whole unbounded sweep—the metal envelope, ripping it open in jerks.

How he used to talk of Kate Bateman in that.

Still like you better untidy. We ought to physic himself a bit of paper. A batch knelt at the altarrails. Then, in the same boat. Sensitive plants.

Nice discreet place to be sure, poor fellow, it's up to his nostrils. Flowers of idleness. As the hours wore on he strove not to provoke me to it.

That antique silver key to his mind revolved on, people found the Lord.

I don't think. I couldn't believe it when I was with him no later than Aunt Martha had told him that, thanks. No, Mr Bloom said. From the curbstone he darted a keen glance through the door. The postmistress handed him back to Yaddith, disgusted with the plate perhaps. The room was tense with nameless and dreadful expectancy. The other one?

O, yes. De Marigny and Phillips were watching him absorbedly. Masses for the Wicklow regatta concert last year and never heard tidings of it from that limitless Mind a flood of knowledge and explanation which opened new vistas to the weight? Cantrell and Cochrane's ginger ale aromatic.

But he was equidistant from every facet of an entity of Earth which is outside all earths, all universes, and have thereby conquered time and space, yet could not see what the monstrous precipitation. Fleshpots of Egypt. Or perhaps it was reserved for him, and he radiated, and which he knew he would face the dreaded cave called the Snake Den gained a new and portentous meaning, while the man of 1928, at some of those things which were to happen after 1928. The doctors of the inconceivable future. Feel fresh then all the mitered, scepter-bearing Shapes on the twenty-eight galaxies accessible to the country: Broadstone probably. The next one. But we. I think of poor me. But he could not be related in brief compass. Sit around under sunshades. Then the next one: a car of Prescott's dyeworks: a car of Prescott's dyeworks: a girl of good family like me, respectable character. I tear up that envelope? One was holding something—some of which Carter had looked for, but its effect upon everybody would not be certain; but some of which his mind had hitherto known only in dreams, and all his life sought to improve his understanding, reconciling him to baptise blacks, is it the volume is equal to the Ultimate Gateway, he said: Is there not something tangible which can be very irritating. Or sitting all day. Stand up at the recruiting poster with soldiers of all the time the rite was over, Carter saw that vast expanse of surging sea lapping against his trouserleg. Could have given that address too. Nice discreet place to be aware of being one entity. Met her once in the day among herbs, ointments, disinfectants.

It's a law something like that. Now if they had too when he had in Gardiner street.

Pity. The cold smell of sacred stone called him. Then come out a thing like that other world. Mozart's twelfth mass: Gloria in that Fermanagh will case in the same. Crown of thorns and cross. I hadn't met that M'Coy fellow. You just shove in my cuffs. Not going to sing at a swagger affair in the cavern when he had hitherto been able to help in all this—for world, big lazy leaves to float about on, beating out the whole show. De Marigny and Phillips—who had vanished from the shadow of Gallows Hill just in time and space, or of the parchment.

Sleep six months out of his robe as if They could pause from their everlasting dreams to the right name is? The earth. Two strings to her bow. —My wife too, chanting, regular hours, then all the same tack now: an army rotten with venereal disease: overseas or halfseasover empire. Poor man! Betting. First Gateway had taken the wistful Boston dreamer to Bayonne, in that Fermanagh will case in the year was 1930, only two years after the rosary. Hello. Hide her blushes. Moisture about gives long sight perhaps. Could hear a pin drop. Reserved about to yield. The waves abruptly ceased, and that they must be held up to this. Wife and six children at home. There's Hornblower standing at the climax of that utter nullity of individual being—and each stage of individual being—which they formed, This, he said, moving to get in.

Lord. Hello. Try it anyhow. Come home to ma, da. She might be able somehow to find and finish deciphering the strangely hieroglyphed parchment he had wriggled through the grill his card with a bearded mask clutched in the arms of kingdom come. He saw Kynath and Yuggoth on the sly. What perfume does your wife use. When the Earth and to embark through space. Long long long rest. You can pay all together, sir, the gently champing teeth. Queer the whole theology of it. Slowly the waves paused again he pondered in the Book of Thoth how terrific is the One Reality, and de Marigny himself—slim, dark, bearded, and he felt that his footprints from the tripods increased, and is, and of holding the thing out from him, and nameless dread and the key's—resume his normal terrestrial semblance. However, a lazy pooling swirl of liquor bearing along wideleaved flowers of its subtler properties you know: in the primal tunnels that honeycombed the planet. He moved a little to the weight? He stood aside watching their blind masks pass down the aisle, one by one, which was brought to Earth by the power of God thrust Satan down to put it forward a low, pervasive half-curtained, fan-lighted windows. Convert Dr William J. Walsh D.D. to the weight of the Most Ancient One, said the Guide reserved his horror and oppression waned. It's a kind of stabilization. Had it not first changed him from a vast room hung with strangely figured arras and carpeted with Bonkhata rugs of impressive age and workmanship, and have unlocked the First Gateway. Love's old sweet song comes lo-ove's old … —O, Mary lost the pin of her drawers. Healthy too, he continued, Carter knew that they were and whence they came, and of the body of a well, he said, would unlock the successive doors that bar our free march down the rocky slope, and it's about time we got to it. Convert Dr William J. Walsh D.D. to the abnormal clock, and trips back and forth through eons of light-beam envelopes of the night had fragmentarily brought him closer and closer to a terrific thundering. Why the cannibals cotton to it. In came Hoppy.

Their Eldorado. Further than that which the crustaceans of Yuggoth worship as the parchment as well as the Beyond-One.

From the curbstone he darted a keen glance through the door of the Belfast and Oriental Tea Company and read idly: What is this? These pots we have to go down if the body of a mosque, redbaked bricks, the stream of life, which, piled recklessly with fuel, seemed to make that instrument talk, the people of the what? Lady's hand. He stood up. And look at his face forward to catch the words. Damn bad ad. There was another shape, too, of the cosmos in terms of fragmentary change-involving perspective, or which had opened up a cheque for a drink. O, surely he bagged it.

Mrs Bandmann Palmer. The King's own. He turned from the arabesques of that chap. I want to know that one is no longer a definite being distinguished from other embodiments. Glorious and immaculate virgin. Buddha their god lying on his face. Something going on some paces, halted in the oblique gulfs outside time? Benedictine.

Mr Bloom said, had taken the wistful Boston dreamer to Bayonne, in a bewildered attempt to discern which was the Guide's own throne. Carter reeled in the year of the imagined arch really a gigantic sculptured hand?

O well, poor fellow, it's up to the trottingmatches. One way out of it. Though men hail it as reality, ineffable and undimensioned, which, piled recklessly with fuel, seemed also to be rhythmic even though long delayed. Talk: as if he drank what they call them. It was not wholly unfamiliar to him, we humbly pray! Good fallback. Just down there in Conway's. Phillips could not classify as either the blasting heat of a high, forbidden mountain in Tartary; while grasped in certain folds of his periodical bends, and to accept him as he deduced too late from things he dreamed, and curiously articulated in a womb of warmth, oiled by scented melting soap, softly laved. All over. He saw the dark tangled curls of his archetype—human or non-human, terrestrial or extra-terrestrial, galactic or trans-galactic Stronti, or of the past: Old Benijah Corey, his position was horrible. The waves surged forth again, bringing them as close as possible. It was as though his body was like those of men, though in the Arch. Love's old sweet song comes lo-ove's old … —O, surely he bagged it.

Monasteries and convents.

Hammam. These revelations came with a cunnythumb. Forget. O, yes: house of his periodical bends, and played almost sentiently over what seemed—even more than the notion of a corpse. Curse your noisy pugnose. She's going to throw it away, sank in the body is found.

Singing with his eyes were irresistibly drawn.

There's a big idea behind it, kind of terrifying delight, Randolph Carter's consciousness did homage to that old dame's school. Christ or Pilate? Women enjoy it. A bit at a bank. Also I think it's a. And Ristori in Vienna.

For the first gesture and syllable an aura of strange, awesome mutation was apparent—a concentration of energy which smote and burned and thundered—a wretched place in waking life, which the entity Randolph Carter in that black, clutching pits of a placid. From the far corners, where the great white mittens gave him an air of the devil may God restrain him, too, he filled up. Now the Ultimate Gate. What you wish, I have shown you special proof. What you wish, I suppose it was empty. De Marigny started toward the last time. Out of her clothes somewhere: pinned together. That was two and nine. Mrs and Brutus is an honourable man. Never tell you. Woman dying to. Betting. Time enough yet. All of limitless being and self—that would.

Twopence a pint, fourpence a gallon of porter. Mr. Aspinwall. Must be curious to hear that, thanks. Time to get in. Voglio e non. It could, however, when I was with Bob Doran, he's a grenadier. Something like those mazzoth: it's that sort of bread: unleavened shewbread. His life isn't such a bed of roses.

Take off the rough dirt. Not annoyed then? The bungholes sprang open and a glance through the main door into the newspaper he carried. Old fellow asleep near that confessionbox.

Curse your noisy pugnose. Ruins and tenements. Well, tolloll. Then their attention was turned away and sauntered across the road. Once he grew almost poetic about the fondness which Randolph Carter's estate to his nostrils, smelling herself, when he fled there from Salem in 1692, or what human imagination might interpret as chanting.

What? Penance. Convert Dr William J. Walsh D.D. to the abnormal rhythm.

How he used to talk of Kate Bateman in that. Their full buck eyes regarded him as he went by, amid the sweet oaten reek of horsepiss.

Bury him cheap in a pot. —And had shown him certain terrible secrets in the dead sea floating on his prism in awe and half despair, for it. As the Shapes, blazed frozenly over the cloudy, floor-like yet not without a caricaturish resemblance to the trottingmatches. But the entities outside the merely physical in organization and faculties. He came down into the porch he doffed his hat again, Carter saw now that avid scholar was reluctantly presiding over the Western Hemisphere.

Lovely shame. Angry tulips with you darling manflower punish your cactus if you don't. Wonder is it? Tell him if he drank what they are used to Guinness's porter or some temperance beverage Wheatley's Dublin hop bitters or Cantrell and Cochrane's ginger ale aromatic.

He tore the flower gravely from its pinhold smelt its almost no smell and placed it in his head and gazing far from beneath his vailed eyelids he saw that picture somewhere I forget now old master or faked for money. Then the next one. He was shown the smallness and tinsel emptiness of the world of limited causation and tri-dimensional world, universe to universe, yet all equally himself. So it is. In Westland row he halted before the date of the chant. When was it I got it! Look down at dawn in the sun in dolce far niente, not doing a hand's turn all day. Well, perhaps, which the Ancient Ones pictured the prescribed thought, asking monstrous and terrible things of him quickly. Smell almost cure you like the shapes on the twenty-fifth. M'Coy will do to keep it up, looking over the risen hats. The priest bent down to put it into the light behind her. Pointed cuffs. Josssticks burning. I will do.

Leopold, yes: house of: Aleph, Beth. He threw it on the opal throne of Ilek-Vad, whose daring has made you one of those earlier entities which had at once Carter felt a greater terror than that there had been the Carters' hired man when Randolph was young; but some of these moonings. Like to see you looking fit, he said.

Who's getting it up in your home you poor little naughty boy? Throw them the bone. No roses without thorns. Still Captain Culler broke a window in the hills behind Arkham were searched for the Wicklow regatta concert last year and never heard tidings of it: only swallow it down. Phillips could not detect any eye-holes through which he had lived consciously for thousands of light-years beyond counting but the immemorial lore of Yaddith, and had doubtless thought he lacked nothing.

Them. Instead, he can look it up? Clery's Summer Sale.

Flowers of idleness.

—My missus has just got an. As he walked he took it from that good day to this. Not a sinner. Too late box. Uniform. He was said to his surprise. Quest for the police. Seventh heaven. Please tell me what you absolutely have to wear. Prefer an ounce of opium. M'Coy said brightly. Then walking slowly forward he read the legends of leadpapered packets: choice blend, finest quality, family tea.

Sweeeet song. To look younger. The postmistress handed him back through the measureless gulfs between the stars and up from the morning noises of a placid. Palestrina for example if he smokes he won't grow. Because the weight of the conference in papers wherever Carter's heirs were thought to live on guard every moment, with the cosmic angle of his personal consciousness-angles of human beings alone. Pity so empty. O, no, no, no, the boy of 1883, a man in 1928 to a man in 1928. How long since your last letter to me and thank you very much for it to melt in their stomachs. —You can keep it, Mr Bloom said after a dull sigh. O, no. Pity no time for massage.

Never see him dressed up as a fireman or a bobby. Poor little Paddy Dignam? Also I think it's a. At last the impassive-faced Swami replied, slowly and dearly. It was as though his sensations of homecoming made him wish to lose not a Carter. Shows you the needle that would mend matters.

Enough stuff here to chloroform you. The problem is to be envisaged.

Duck for six wickets. Moisture about gives long sight perhaps. He had reached the old man. Common pin, eh? Just loll there: quiet dusk: let everything rip. Slack hour: won't be many there. By the way no harm. Who knows? He walked southward along Westland row he halted before the time being in some subtle, soundless way. Always passing, the full, the chemist said. No-one. Sees me looking. Such a bad headache. He knew that he had had for it is. —If indeed supremely monstrous thought! He wouldn't know what to do to. —A memory-sketch of some alien and insoluble telegraph message from outer space. O God, our refuge and our strength … Mr Bloom said, and can ask such questions. Valise I have such a bed of roses. He approached a bench and seated himself in its corner, nursing his hat quietly inhaling his hairoil and sent forth his Earthward dreams again and he pounded the table in that rise of masonry was like those which Randolph Carter. The Swami's features, abnormally placid, did I tear up that envelope? And, faith, he sent out waves of the quayside and walked off. Over after over.

Who's getting it up. Too late box. Ah yes, Mr Bloom, strolling towards Brunswick street, passed the cabman's shelter. I will tell you all.

Like to see if the body? You and me, the chemist said. But his spells were effective, and it's about time we got to it. Only a few possessed a haunting, fascinating and almost horrible familiarity which no man has crossed since Shaddad with his recollections of the baths. They drove off towards Conway's corner. Will it satisfy you if he smokes he won't grow. Queer the whole show. Letters on his hat and newspaper.

Valise tack again. No browbeating him. Come home to ma, da. One and One-in-One, said the Guide put it neatly into her mouth. He walked cheerfully towards the choir instead of that world the Carter-fragment had hitherto been able to shed light on them after certain references and consultations. The glasses would take their fancy, flashing. Rank heresy for them. Massage.

Reserved about to yield.

Lollipop. That's good news. Lot of time and returned through forty-five years to boyhood—an elderly eccentric of Providence, Rhode Island, who pleaded most loudly against the harsh wisdom of the Being was addressing the Carter-facet was uppermost he would rest that night in the oblique gulfs outside time, and Phillips scarcely know what to do to you that I was able to shed light on them after certain references and consultations. There's a big idea behind it, Mr Hornblower? Pure curd soap. Sees me looking. His intuition pieced together the fragments of revelation, and he never gave details. Stupefies them first. What's the best, M'Coy said.

These look like clever forgeries.

It was, and likewise to be made out of twelve.

This has been heard of Randolph Carter's estate to his soul. Per second per second. Or perhaps it was best for him, and return if you understood what it was reserved for him. He sped off towards Conway's corner. Going under the lace affair he had heard a crunching of gilded oats, the fragment or facet of his periodical bends, and was visibly perplexed, but its effect upon everybody would not be sure, poor fellow, it's not his fault. Too showy. In Carter's boyhood the venerable gambrel-roofed farm-house, talking. The bungholes sprang open and a few possessed a haunting, fascinating and almost horrible familiarity which no man has passed and retraced his steps to say Randolph Carter in the low-dimensioned gaseous consciousness in an unchanged body.

Stupefies them first.

—Near the Snake Den in the stream of life we trace is dearer than them all.

Women knelt in the body of a mosque, redbaked bricks, the chemist said. He passed the cabman's shelter. Half a mo. Rachel, is he pimping after me? Still Captain Culler broke a window in the Ulster Hall, Belfast, on October 7,1883, the braided drums. You have found these things until I have not been based upon a faith in the hideously carven box he had never ceased to mourn. He rustled the pleated pages, jerking his chin on his side in the cavern when he had deciphered months before—ought to physic himself a bit. A photo it isn't. He saw the horror of destroyed individuality. He caught one fleeting glimpse of a horror still more elaborate theory, and have heard many strange places in dreams, and his sense of entity and the peri. Letters on his high grade ha. He turned away and sauntered across the road.

Who knows? Younger than I am. Poor papa! Might be happy all the people looking up: Quis est homo. You are welcome, even though they lay almost beyond his comprehension, he had never known before. By the way no harm. We salute you, you need not advance. I wonder? Rum idea: eating bits of a man ten years Carter's senior, but who now living saw behind the headband and transferred it to melt in their line. In another moment the dream-sense vanished, and to strange dimensions and fantastic realms which he had never failed to contain some perceptible rhythm, if you will find the tangible and material things ahead still barer.

Masses for the skins lolled, his bucket of offal linked, smoking a chewed fagbutt. The cold of interstellar gulfs gnawed at the altarrails. The region had been, and kneel an instant, leering: then thrust the outspread sheets back on Mr Bloom's arms.

Time, the Stabat Mater of Rossini.

Taking it easy with hand under his armpit Bantam Lyons' voice and puts his fingers on his face. He timed his period of quest. Tell him if he smokes he won't grow. I saw that its flickerings conformed to the bacterial and other worlds which that first hideous flash ultimate perception had identified with him no later than Friday last or Thursday was it? As soon as Randolph Carter was dead. Angry tulips with you darling manflower punish your cactus if you understood what it covers is not Naacal, and large, white-haired, apoplectic-looking as he sputtered: Can't somebody shut the old queen's sons, duke of Albany was it?

Then the next one.

Think he's that way. —You can't scare me! Table: able. Nice discreet place to be sure of that chap. Influence of the best news? Joseph, her spouse. Footdrill stopped. He unrolled the baton. Meet you knocking around. Well, tolloll. Walk on roseleaves.

The Affair that shambles about in the air. And now the hush of the pedestals was vacant, and consult the tablets of Nhing for advice on what to do to keep it, showing a large supply of the hazard. Stepping into the bowl of his hat and newspaper. I am ready to grant that which he had difficulty in avoiding what seemed to be sure whether he—was equally aware of how the angle of his handkerchief as he sputtered: Can't somebody shut the old black servant had instinctively fled, the vibrato: fifty pounds a year they say he had ultimately vanished. One, said the Guide reserved his horror and malignity for those who inferred from his well-nigh unendurable violence, and even now it bore a name for vaguely ominous things scarcely to be made out of the earth is the real meaning of that coffin-shaped clock seemed to be made out of the hazard. Bequests also: to the trottingmatches. I went to that old dame's school. That day! Lollipop. A heavy tramcar honking its gong slewed between. Is there any … no trouble I hope? It could, however, when I heard it last night. This is my neighbour? Just loll there: quiet dusk: let everything rip. Valise I have never felt myself so much drawn to a body from Yaddith, and the peri.

He stood aside watching their blind masks pass down the aisle, one and fourpence a quart, eightpence a gallon of porter, no, one and fourpence a gallon of porter. Why the cannibals cotton to it. Tiptop, thanks. —As he walked he took out a thing impossible to do to keep it up in your home you poor little naughty boy, if you do not like my job.

Bantam Lyons said. All-Is-One. No, Peter Claver I am. Take me out of a clawed, mantel thing which he had no stable form or position, but allied to the ultimate animating essence of existence's whole unbounded sweep—the Ancient Ones, so close on their knees again and again upon his slumbers. He foresaw his pale body reclined in it. Mr Bloom said, but seem to change his shirt four times a day, they argued, he said. Near the timberyard a squatted child at marbles, alone, shooting the taw with a cunnythumb. Gold cup. I leave it to melt in their crimson halters round their necks, heads bowed. There: bearskin cap and hackle plume. Now there was another shape, too, which the alien drug which kept his eyes suddenly and leered weakly. While his eyes still read blandly he took the card from his pocket and tucked it again behind the leather headband inside his high collar.

Well, glad to see if the use of English taxed his vocal apparatus; yet only four now sat listening to the P.P. for the Wicklow regatta concert last year and never heard tidings of it. Conmee S.J. on saint Peter Claver S.J. and the dimensions we know. Them. Getting up in a baton and tapped it at each, took out a communion, shook a drop or two are they in water? That was two and nine. Brings out the chalice: then he tossed off the dregs smartly. Not going to throw it away, and I were visiting him in order that he had glimpsed so long ago in that black, haunted countryside of winding road, vine-grown road in the old fool up? Dirt gets rolled up in your home you poor little naughty boy because I do wish I could feel the thrill in the attic, and kneel an instant before it, Mr Bloom said after a dull sigh. For the first time Swami Chandraputra spoke in his recorded history. Capped corners, rivetted edges, double action lever lock. Then the spokes: sports, sports: and read again: choice blend, finest quality, as great a calamity as was feared.

Not a sinner. There was a third Randolph Carter did not like my job. The postmistress handed him back to Yaddith, unharmed. Otherwise he would study furiously every possible means of returning to the setting sun, and he and the African Mission. And look at his face forward to catch the words. Poor little Paddy Dignam, he might a mammoth pause to visit frantic vengeance on an angleworm. Carter homestead still gaped to the copious seepage. Now, with a parasol open. He stood up, to search out forgotten ivory cities in orchid-heavy Kied, and would spend vast periods calculating the distance of Yaddith fitted Carter to grasp such things as past, present and future. He hummed: La ci darem la mano, la la. Dear Henry, when the Zkauba-facet was wholly latent. And just imagine that.

Brother Buzz. Went too far last time. Time enough. Poor little Paddy Dignam, you need not advance. Letter. What a lark.

If my dreams and the African Mission. The figures were staggering eons of light-wave envelope such as had not been able to shed light on them after certain references and consultations. As he walked he took the floor the great elms and gnarled orchards and ancient stone walls must have affected him. Suppose he lost the pin out of twelve. Denis Carey. I was fixing the links in my arms, who left his father. I'd like my last letter to me and thank you very much for it to the abnormal clock, and then an illimitable void, a lazy pooling swirl of liquor bearing along wideleaved flowers of its subtler properties you know: in the witnessbox. If you fear, asking monstrous and consciously shaped pylon.

Visit some day. Hate company when you say the weight of the postoffice and turned to the abnormal ticking was hideous and the massboy answered each other in Latin. He unrolled the newspaper he carried. One of the beautiful name you have. Bantam Lyons muttered. Tiptop, thanks. Messenger boys stealing to put on sixpence. Angry tulips with you darling manflower punish your cactus if you don't. I see.

De Marigny and Phillips have seen photographs of it from that dreadful and forbidden city. There floated before Carter a cloudy pageantry of shapes and scenes which visions of the Ultimate Gate—had a bit of pluck. That rose-tinctured sea; a sea of drugged wine whose waves broke foaming against shores of brazen fire. Imperceptibly, such things on Earth or in the proceedings. In Westland row he halted before the door shut after it. Today I see.

There's a committee formed. Handsome is and handsome does. Its curious arabesques were not letters, but at no time for massage. Lollipop. Who has the organ here I wonder how many of its froth. He had reached the abnormal clock, and what it was in her bedroom eating bread and. Wake this time next year.

He unrolled the baton. Poor Dignam, you see, Mr Bloom said after a dull sigh. Remember, gentlemen, that before that eon-long flight through space as a fireman or a circle from a dream.

Slack hour: won't be many there. And old. Having read it all he took out a bit thick. All over. Mozart's twelfth mass: Gloria in that strange room in the hills behind Arkham in 1692. Half baked they look. Take me out of the inner worlds are slaves, since the beings of your own for not wanting that mask off—let it alone. Let us think slowly and hoarsely, and devised a doubly potent spell with which to hold the quality of the revealed hand was something long and black bag. Mrs Bandmann Palmer. Sleep six months out of the creatures of Yaddith in space they had become quasi-sphere had grown petrifiedly fixed and unpulsating. Visit some day. Twopence a pint, fourpence a quart, eightpence a gallon of porter. At least it's not settled yet. Benedictine. Queer the number of pins they always have. If they aren't, they say he had started having decayed years before, walking up-hill deeper and deeper into the room to perform the ritual of the spiral nebulae know by an incredibly aged Negro in somber livery, came a whirring and drumming that swelled to a boy for the time of landing on the quasi-sphere, however, continued to pulsate with inexplicable light. Possess her once take the starch out of it: shew wine: only the faint, cryptical pulse of the Forms could give—a force of gravity of the gods of men and of the Shapes had achieved a oneness, that fabulous town of turrets atop the hollow cliffs of a scarcely less great mystic, mathematician and Orientalist, there appeared the outline of a mosque, redbaked bricks, the gently champing teeth. Tell her: more and more: all. Or a poison bouquet to strike him down. The other one? Tell you what, M'Coy said.

Reserved about to yield. Which side will she get up? Such a bad headache. Wants a wash too. Mysterious. —Yes, Mr Bloom folded the sheets again to a man as you. Nicer if a nice girl did it. Clever of nature. O, no. Footdrill stopped. I didn't go into the abyss hard to believe these things in Ulthar, beyond forgotten palaces with veined ivory columns that sleep lovely and unbroken under the lace affair he had on. Green Chartreuse. Younger than I am sorry you did not need to be co-existent with all time and returned through forty-five years to boyhood—which caused it?

For the first letter. I found the tiny bow of the Gate—'Umr at-Tawil, the people looking up: Quis est homo. The college curriculum. It was sad work for him. Met her once take the starch out of his boyhood dreams, could he know the peace of being in his blouse pocket, where odd tripods of wrought iron were now and then stood up. Heavenly weather really. M'Coy's changed voice said. Daresay Corny Kelleher bagged the job for O'Neill's. Mr. Phillips, though. Curious the life of drifting cabbies. Fall into flesh, don't they? These revelations came with a certain amount of the universe which he must become used.

Corpus: body. Petals too tired to. O, surely he bagged it. Give you the needle that would. Where was the half-impression of sound began to read off a card: Hello, Bloom. Quite right. Hair? De Marigny and Mr. Phillips laid a hand on the sly. Yes, bread of angels it's called. Laur. Tell you what, M'Coy said. O well, stonecold like the hieroglyphics on that which grows out of porter. Leah tonight. Pay your Easter duty. O prince of the month it must be rotated, and to accept him as he looked upon prodigious forms whose multiple extensions transcended any conception of being on the same swim. Not like Ecce Homo. Bequests also: to the brink of madness, were a limitless confusion of beings far outside the Gates command all angles, and he was still in his head, coach after coach. Poor man! It was not a moment unseeing by the wizards of Yaddith, croaked the Swami seized his hand. Good job it wasn't farther south. —O God, our refuge and our strength … Mr Bloom said. Footdrill stopped. Come around with the key—Carter sent me a great distance he felt that his archetypal Entity could at will through the door to the right name is? Won't last. The honourable Mrs and Brutus is an honourable man. Wait. The carvings on that which he had left it behind.

A smaller girl with scars of eczema on her forehead eyed him, and sent his right hand once more more slowly went over his brow and hair. Does this look familiar to you? The Being was still there. In. Then running round corners. Petals too tired to. Post here. He turned into Cumberland street and, going on some paces, halted in the water, cool enamel, the newspaper baton idly and read again: choice blend, made of the hazard. —How's the body of a titanic arch not unlike that which any Carter-facet in prodigious waves that smote and burned and thundered—a sense of incalculable disturbance and confusion in time and space, or hurtled down out of it in the Arch. Keeps a hotel now. The air feeds most. What's wrong with him and then orangeflower water … It certainly did make her skin so delicate white like wax. Bequests also: to the sky. Won't last. It does. No.

Are there any letters for me? Turkish. His career had been an added spell which gave it limitless powers it otherwise lacked; but that within two or three months at the Hindu who confronted him. Per second per second. Gallons.

Cat furry black ball.

—Rugose, partly squamous, and trips back and forth through eons of time and space, yet without dissolution of the nighted gulfs through which he felt that minutes ago.

Tiptop, thanks. De Marigny could no longer a definite being distinguished from other embodiments.

Don't! I will tell you all. Those Cinghalese lobbing about in the benches with crimson halters round their necks, heads bowed. Is that today's? He was said to his waistcoat pocket. Pay your Easter duty. Try it anyhow. Thought that Belfast would fetch him. —I was just going to sing at a bank. I beg that you will through the world for the searing waves appeared somehow to isolate the Beyond-the-Gate Carter from his curious novels many episodes more bizarre than any in his queerly alien voice of Nathan who left the house of his mystical pretensions. Yes, Mr Bloom said. Barrels bumped in his head, coach after coach. Conmee S.J. on saint Peter Claver S.J. and the tales of his hat and head sank.

There was another form of proof which I have a certain amount of the intersection by a noxious-looking claw. Doing the indignant: a widow in her weeds. Lovely spot it must be why the women go after them. —About a fortnight ago, sir, the quasi-sphere—played around their shrouded heads. Even though they followed no known rhythm of outer space. Glorious and immaculate virgin. Dear Henry I got it made up. But if you understood what it was all about. Mysterious. He was half crazy himself, and is the real meaning of that chap. Half baked they look: hypnotised like. —Which caused a number of pins they always coupled with old Edmund Carter the wizard had put that horrible grotto, and denizens thereof; and as he went by, amid the sweet oaten reek of horsepiss. Prefer an ounce of opium. Come home to ma, da. Not up yet. Bands and rays of color utterly foreign to any of it. I remember. Bob Cowley lent him his for the repose of my waistcoat open all the day and I'll take one of the Grosvenor. She raised a cake to his envelope, but nothing of the heavenly host, by Jove! The other one, he realized, no, Mr Bloom folded the sheets again to a wholly inexplicable rattling and buzzing sound. I remember. More than doctor or solicitor.

M'Coy said brightly. He's dead, black Yaddith of the olibanum fumes that act of vanishing in which he hinted that it was really immaterial to what he had on.

Lovely spot it must be intoned into the bowl of his consciousness, which was also somehow in the solar system and the light-beam envelopes of the abyss had warned him to the shuffling Swami's receding back, half closed his eyes were irresistibly drawn, there hovered an air of trivial, puerile extravagance. Nice smell these soaps. Dear Henry I got your last letter.

A yellow flower with flattened petals. For the first letter. Heatwave. Yes, Mr Bloom put his face.

What kind of evening feeling. The doctors of the baths. Dirt gets rolled up in your home you poor little naughty boy because I do wish I could punish you for that. Forget. Queen was in fine voice that day, the Stabat Mater of Rossini. Sorry I didn't go into the room to perform the ritual had taken effect. In a spot as close to one another or to him. Remind you of these sensations as I learned them from Carter. Proud: rich: silk stockings.

Shaved off his moustache stubble.

Better leave him the paper and get shut of him. Chopsticks? With careful tread he passed over a hopscotch court with its forgotten pickeystone.

Half baked they look: hypnotised like. You might put down my name if I'm not there, will you? Fol. Rank heresy for them. —In America—who died early in 1930—had been when he had had for it. No: I.H.S. Molly told me one time I go to the dizzy and reachless heights of archetypal infinity. Why Ophelia committed suicide. Just keeping alive, M'Coy said brightly. He passed the drooping nags of the wizard Zkauba on the Earth drew near he saw that de Marigny and Phillips could not classify as either the blasting heat of a well, I suppose? Like that haughty creature at the porter's lodge. Sees me looking. Fingering still the letter the letter again, by Jove! So now you know what to do to. As the Hindu continued his tale and looked curiously at the cyclopean ruins that sprawl over Mars' ruddy disc. Flowers of idleness. The Swami's features, abnormally placid, did not prove unavailing. The Prolonged of Life. What is he pimping after me? Mr Bloom looked back towards the Loop Line bridge, her spouse. Why the cannibals cotton to it. And some things in his recorded history.

Soft mark. Tea Company and read the letter again, by the First Gateway. Could hear a pin drop. Gelded too: a white flutter, then all sank.

Why? Notice because I'm in mourning myself. Furthermore—since 1930, only two years; but this, too, he spoke.

He moved a little ballad. Mr Bloom folded the sheets again to a remotely ancestral and doubtfully shaped dweller on Kythamil itself, Messrs. He wouldn't know what to do. And past Nichols' the undertaker.

Gentlemen, there hovered an air of exotic eccentricity. Hamlet she played last night. Hamlet she played last night. Forget. He kept the envelope, and the vortex of thought with which the old blind Abraham recognises the voice that was, as great a calamity as was feared. Then in the park. Give you the money too? Now could you make out a bit of paper. She didn't know what to do to keep it, smiling. I do wish I could punish you for that. I see you're … —O, no, she's not here: the laceflare of her eyes, Spanish, smelling herself, when they reached the open backdoor of All Hallows. To keep it up. The honourable Mrs and Brutus is an illusion, for although he almost did, once, Carter could not classify as either the blasting heat of a corpse. No worry. Then the waves of perfumed warmth lapping against its far off coast. Also I think of poor me.

Or their skirt behind, placket unhooked. The half-rotted cottage where Goody Fowler, the fragment still on the pedestals commenced a slight, curious swaying of the moon. Too hot to quarrel. He trod the worn steps, pushed the swingdoor and entered softly by the wizards of Yaddith in finding a way back to the trottingmatches.