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  • #4097
    ÉricÉric
    Keymaster

      “Like they used to say at the Pickling Camp, if it’s the brine, it’s fine. If it’s in the air, beware.” added Finnley somewhat cryptically.

      Liz looked at her haggard, nose powdered in yellow stains.

      For added clarity, Finnley said sighing “Your salt bath is ready, M’am.”

      #4091

      “This Yannosh!” Quentin erupted when he saw the packed up mess in his suitcase.

      “How can this guy always muddy up the simplest things! I wonder why Tina likes him so much.” He eyed the suitcase and seeing the neatly packed shirts and trousers, he finally laughed at his outburst.
      “Yeah, that explains it!”

      He picked the first clothes out of the pile, and got out of the room to find the breakfast.

      The air was still a bit chilly in the morning, and the grounds seemed almost deserted. He wondered were the rest of the staff was. It was supposed to be a luxury resort, and beside the eccentric Barbara with her beehive hairdo, he had not yet seen many people.

      “Well, no bloody wonder it’s called the Hidden People Spa! Nobody’s up yet or what?” Quentin turned at the familiar voice.
      “You look in great spirits this morning dear” he greeted Tina “How was your night’s sleep?”
      “Can we skip the formalities Q, I’m already bored. Let’s have a tartine of rúgbrauð at the Þorramatur, shall we? I’m famished.”

      #4088

      In reply to: Coma Cameleon

      TracyTracy
      Participant

        The waiter stood to the side of the of the tables and chairs on the pavement, smoking a cigarette and listening to the babble of conversation. Holiday makers exposed themselves in the sun, in shades of white, pink and red striped flesh, while the regulars were seated closer to the cafe in the shade of the awning.

        Across the road, a bone thin ebony skinned man carrying a small brown suitcase paused, and scanned the street. Laying the suitcase down, he opened it and removed a tattered cloth which he spread out upon the sidewalk and proceeded to display an assortment of sunglasses and cheap glittery watches. The man sat down behind his small display of wares, leaning against the wall. The waiter felt a physical pang in his gut as he registered the expression on the face of the watch seller: resigned hopelessness. A palpable lack of optimistic anticipation. The waiter wondered how he managed to sell any watches, indeed how he managed to get out of bed in the morning, if indeed he had such a thing as a bed.

        The waiter stubbed out the cigarette butt and lit another one. A group of five teenage girls picked at their pastries while passing around a bottle of sun protection lotion, giggling as they showed each other photos on their phones. An older couple bickered quietly between themselves at the next table, the wife admonishing her husband over the amount of butter he spread on his toasted baguette. A younger woman with two neatly attired and scrubbed faced children waved away a stray wisp of cigarette smoke with a righteous frown, and glared in the direction of nearby smokers.

        None of them had noticed the watch seller with the small battered brown suitcase across the road. The waiter caught his eye and nodded, giving him a good luck thumbs up sign. The watch seller acknowledged him with an unenthusiastic lift of his hand.

        The waiter sighed, ground his cigarette butt out with his heel, and went back inside the cafe.

        #4076

        In reply to: Coma Cameleon

        F LoveF Love
        Participant

          “Aaron, it’s time.”

          A female voice. But low for woman, and harsh. Not gentle like his mother’s voice. The voice on the other side of the wooden door was familiar although at that moment Aaron could not have attached a name or a face to the voice.

          A knock.

          “Aaron, are you there? It’s time. We can’t be late.”

          Aaron’s insides contracted. Reflexively he closed his eyes. At the same time his right hand moved to cover the watch on his left wrist—a gift from his father when he turned 10 years old. He did these things without thinking.

          If he had thought, if he had had the luxury of time to analyse these small movements—and it was clear from the voice that he did not—he would have come to the conclusion that he hoped to block out the truth of what the voice was saying.

          “Aaron!” The tone had changed. Now, the voice implied a threat.

          Still without thought, Aaron picked up his jacket and a small brown suitcase and moved slowly towards the voice.

          #4064
          rmkreeg
          Participant

            John placed himself down on a crooked old chair at the table, with journal in hand, and stared out the window of his cottage. As he sat there, the imperfect glass of the window distorted his view slightly, but noticeably, almost unconsciously, and he swayed in minuscule displacements or perhaps shifted a bit to take a sip of his black coffee, giving the effect of a liquid world – to someone of imagination, of course. To those with no imagination, the window was rubbish and needed to be replaced.

            It’s been a relaxing weekend for John, who, on his working days, finds himself as a writer. This is, of course, if you were to think of any days as those in which you might suddenly stop writing or ignore inspiration. In that respect, every day is a working day. However, this weekend was a special one for himself.

            The writing that got him money was of the technical sort, dedicated to dry manuals and instructional fare. His passion, however, lent itself to the imagination. No doubt, he still adored the natural world and it’s workings, but he found himself nearly dead inside after completing a project for work. This, invariably, lead him to his personal expeditions.

            Every few weeks he’d save up enough money to take a train or bus to another location, picked nearly at random, just so he could get away and bring color back into his life. This cottage, with its imperfect windows, was one such expedition.

            So, he sat there for a moment, playing with his perception through the window, and then shifted his attention through it to world outside. A breath of beauty swept over him and he was inspired. In his journal, with no expectation of the entry living beyond those pages, he wrote:

            The Wystlewynds (Whistle Winds) or Wystlewynd Forest

            The Wystlewynds (Whistle Winds) or Wystlewynd Forest is a forested, mountainous area – if you’re apt to call these green, low laying perturbations in the Earth “mountains”. The cool-yet-comfortable south-easterly winds blow through the Wystlewood trees, whistling as it goes. Some would say the forest sings.

            Wystlewood trees “sing”, as it were, due to the way the wind passes through their decomposing trunks. While alive, the trunks of the trees have a hard, fibrous outer wood, while the inner portion is soft and sponge-like, saturated in chemical that simultaneously grabs on to water and repels insects. When the trees get old and begin to die off, they tend to remain upright for some time as the inner sponge decomposes. This leaves a hollow void where a particular caterpillar takes refuge, unaffected by the repellent chemical that a fungus slowly decomposes into an edible source of nutrition.

            These caterpillars leave behind a secretion that the decomposing fungus in the tree requires. The relationship between the caterpillar and fungus is symbiotic in that regard, both feeding each other. We call these caterpillars “Woodworms”.

            When the caterpillars are ready to cocoon, they climb out to one of the old branches and hang themselves from a cord of twisted threads at least a foot long. When they are ready to come out, they bite through the cord, dropping themselves to the forest floor while still in the cocoon. The cocoon and all drops below the foliage of the undergrowth, where the moth can come out into the world under cover of green leaves and the shimmering violet flowers of the Spirit Flower – a color scheme that the moth shares.

            The Spirit Flower is a rhizome with a sprawling root structure that tends to poke it’s way into everything. It has small violet shimmering flowers in umbels that in any other case might be white. The leaves are simple with a jagged margin, alternating. The stem is on the shorter end, perhaps a foot tall, fibrous and slightly prickly.

            There are a few flowers that tend to dominate the undergrowth, Spirit Flowers being one. Sun Drops and Red Rolls are additional examples, the former a yellow droopy flower and the latter a peculiar red flower with a single pedal that’s rolled up in a certain way that would suggest a flared funnel with wavy edges.

            The flowers and trees enjoy the soil here, a bit sandy and rocky, but mixed with a richness created by the mixture of undergrowth, fungi and bacteria. The roots dig into the soil, slowly stirring it and adding to it’s nutrients. The fungi eat the dead roots and fallen foliage and the bacteria eat the fungi and everything else, of course.

            The whole matter leaves a note of scent in the air that cannot be described as anything other than that of the Wystlewynds. It’s perhaps sweet, with Earthy undertones and an addictive bitterness. The whole place seems to elevate one’s energy, sharpening the senses. You want to sing with the trees, or perhaps play along with a haelio (a flute-like instrument created with wystlewood).

            #3996
            TracyTracy
            Participant

              The following is an e-mail from the past, composed on July 01, 2010. It is being delivered from the past through FutureMe.org

              Dear FutureMe,
              The Absinthe Cafe
              Dawn and Mark had a bottle of Absinthe (the proper stuff with the WORMwood in
              it, which is illegal in France) but forgot to bring it. Wandering around at
              some point, we chanced upon a cafe called Absinthe. Sitting on the terrace, the
              waitress came up and looked right at me and said “Oh you are booked to come here
              tomorrow night!” and then said “Forget I said that”. Naturally that got our
              attention. After we left Dawn spotted a kid with 2016 on the back of his T
              shirt. We asked Arkandin about it and we have a concurrent group focus that does
              meet in that cafe in 2016, including Britta. Dawn’s name is Isabelle Spencer,
              Jib’s is Jennifer….
              The Worm & The Suitcase
              I borrowed Rachel’s big red suitcase for the trip and stuck a Time Bridgers
              sticker on it, and joked before I left about the case disappearing to 2163. I
              had an impulse to take a fig tree sapling for Eric and Jib, which did survive
              the trip although it looked a little shocked at first. As Eric was repotting
              it, we noticed a worm in the soil, and I said, Well, if the fig tree dies at
              least you have the worm.
              At Balzacs house on a bench in the garden there was a magazine lying there open
              to an ad for Spain, which said “If you lose your suitcase it would be the best
              thing because you would have to stay”.
              Later we asked Arkandin and he said that there was something from the future
              inserted into my suitcase. I went all through it wondering what it could be,
              and then a couple of days ago Eric said that it was the WORM! because of the
              WORMwood absinthe syncs, and worm hole etc. I just had a chat with Franci who
              had a big worm sync a couple of days ago, she particularly noticed a very big
              worm outside the second hand shop, and noted that she hadn’t seen a worm in ages
              ~ which is also a sync, because there was a big second hand clothes shop next to
              Dawn and Mark’s hotel that I went into looking for a bowler hat.
              Arkandin said, by the way, that Jane did forget to mention the bowler hats in
              OS7, those two guys on the balcony were indeed wearing bowler hats, and that
              they were the same guys that were in my bedroom in the dream I had prior to
              finding the Seth stuff ~ Elias and Patel.
              Eric replied:

              And another Time Bridger thing; a while ago, Jib and I had fun planting some TB stickers at random places in Paris (and some on a wooden gate at Jib’s hometown).
              Those in Paris I remember were one at the waiting room of a big tech department store, and another on the huge “Bateaux Mouches” sign on the Pont de l’Alma (bridge, the one of Lady D. where there is a gilded replica of Lady Liberty’s flame).
              I think there are pics of that on Jib’s or my flickr account somewhere.
              When we were walking past this spot, Jib suddenly remembered the TB sticker — meanwhile, the sign which was quite clean before had been written all over, and had other stickers everywhere. We wondered whether it was still here, and there it was! It’s been something like 2 years… Kind of amazing to think it’s still there, and imagine all the people that may have seen it since!
              ~~~~

              The Flights

              I wasn’t all that keen on flying and procrastinated for ages about the trip. I
              flew with EASYjet, so it was nice to see the word EASY everywhere. I got on the
              plane to find that they don’t allocate seats, and chose a seat right at the
              front on the left. The head flight attendant was extremely playful for the
              whole flight, constantly cracking up laughing and teasing the other flight
              attendants, who would poke him and make him laugh during announcements so that
              he kept having to put the phone down while he laughed. I spent the whole flight
              laughing and catching his mischeivously twinking eye.
              I asked Arkandin about him and he said his energy was superimposed. I got on
              the flight to come home and was met on the plane by the same guy! I said
              HELLO! It’s YOU again! Can I sit in the same seat and are you going to make me
              laugh again” and he actually moved the person that was in my seat and said I
              could sit there. Then he asked me about my book (about magic and Napolean). He
              also said that all his flights all week had been delayed except the two that I
              was on. He wanted to give me a card for frequent flyers but I told him I
              usually flew without planes ~ that cracked him up ;))
              ~~~

              The Dream Bean

              Eric cracked open a special big African bean that is supposed to enhance
              dreams/lucidity so we all had a bit of it. The second night I remembered a
              dream and it was a wonderful one.
              (Coincidentally, on the flight home I read a few pages of my book and it just
              happened to be about the council of five dragons and misuse of magical beans)
              In the dream I had a companion with magical powers, who I presumed was Jib but
              it was myself actually. It was a long adventure dream of being chased and
              various adventures across the countryside, but there was no stress, it was all
              great fun. Everytime things got a bit too close in the dream, I’d hold onto my
              friend with magical powers, and we would elevate above the “adventure” and drop
              down in another location out of immediate danger ~ although we were never
              outside of the adventure, so to speak. At one point I wondered why my magical
              freind didn’t just elevate us right up high and out of it completely, and
              realized that we were in the adventure game on purpose for the fun of it, so why
              would we remove ourselves completely from the adventure game.
              In the dream I remember we were heading for Holland at one point, and then the
              last part we were safely heading for Turkey…..
              The other dream snapshot was “we are all working together on roof tiles” and
              Arkandin had some interesting stuff to say about that one.
              ~~~

              There were alot of vampire imagery incidents starting with me asking Eric if he
              slept in his garden tool box at night, and then the guy who shot out of a door
              right next to Jib and Eric’s, in a bright orange T shirt, carrying a cardboard
              coffin. He stopped for me to take a photo (and Arkandin said it was a Patel pop
              in); then while walking through the outdoor food market someone was chopping a
              crate up and a perfect wooden stake flew across the floor and landed at my feet.
              The next vampire sync was a shop opposite Dawn and Mark’s hotel with 3 coffins
              in the window (I went back to take a pic of the cello actually, didn’t even
              notice the coffins). Inside the shop was an EAU DE NIL MOTOR SCOOTER Share, can
              you beleive it, and a mummy, a stuffed raven, and a row of (Tardis) Red phone
              boxes.
              I had a nightmare last night that I couldn’t find any of my (nine) dogs; the
              only ones I could find were the dead ones.
              ~~~~

              Balzac’s House

              The trip to Balzac’s house was interesting, although in somewhat unexpected
              ways. (Arkandin was Balzac and I was the cook/housekeeper) The house didn’t
              seem “right” somehow to Mark and I and we decided that was probably because
              other than the desk there was no furniture in it. Mark saw a black cat that
              nobody else saw that was an Arkandin pop in (panther essence animal), and Dawn
              felt that he was sitting on a chair, and Mark sat on him. (Arkandin said yes he
              did sit on him ;) The kitchen was being used as an office. Jib felt the house
              was too small, and picked up on a focus of his that rented the other part of the
              house. (The house was one storey high on the side we entered, and two storeys
              high from the road below). There were two pop ins there apparently, one with
              long hair which is a connection to my friend Joy who was part of that group
              focus, and I can’t recall anything about the other one. Dawn was picking up
              that Balzac wasn’t too happy, and I was remembering the part in Cousin Bette
              that infuriated me when I read it, where he goes on and on about how disgusting
              it is for servants to expect their wages when their “betters” are in dire
              straits. Arkandin confirmed that I didn’t get my wages.
              The garden was enchanting and had a couple of sphinx statues and a dead pigeon ~
              as well as the magazine with the suitcase and Spain imagery. Mark signed the
              guest book “brought the cook back” and I replied “no cooking smells this time”.

              #3977
              TracyTracy
              Participant

                HELP ME!” Liz shouted over her shoulder, while simultaneously grabbing the back of the gardeners trousers with one hand, and attempting to floogle the phrase stickum lute putty on her pocket device with the other hand. What in tarnation did it mean? Probably some ancient tribal voodoo Finnley had picked up during her sojourn in the nether regions of the planet.

                Roberto struggled to escape the vice like grip on his belt, but Liz’s grip was firm. Godfrey charged across the lawn like like a wild boar to assist with the detention of the errant gardener and gripped Roberto’s shoulder firmly. The sticky shreds of paper in Godfrey’s hand stuck to the gardeners denim shirt like glue. Roberto wrenched himself free, sending Godfrey flying into the herbaceous border, and leaving Liz holding an empty pair of jeans in her hand. Focusing on the information now showing on her pocket information device ~ an aboriginal dreamwalker teleport code ~ it was a moment before Liz realized that she was no longer detaining the gardener but merely holding his trousers. Of Roberto, there was no sign.

                Godfrey, sitting in amongst the delphiniums, was looking as pale as Finnley after the cucumber mask. Although Liz had missed the sight of the gardener sans trews, Godfrey had not.

                “An imposter!” he cried. “That was no Roberto, that was Roberta Slack! A WOMAN!”

                #3975
                F LoveF Love
                Participant

                  “Don’t push me,” snapped Finnley. “Yes Godfrey, I believe picking up rubbish is in my job description. Your job description … well buggered if I know what you do around here,” she said snarkily, perversely annoyed at being telepathically described as ‘the maid’. “Give me that rubbish immediately and I will deal with it,” she commanded, making a grab for Godfrey’s hand. “You go and help LIz with Roberto. And whatever you do, don’t let the blighter jump 3 times in the air and shout stickum lute putty.

                  “Who are you?” whispered Godfrey, keeping a firm grasp on the scraps of paper, aided perhaps by the fact that the honey was adhering them to his hand. “You are not the Finnley we know and … well, the Finnley we know. Is that cucumber on your face really a disguise? What have you done with Finnley?”

                  “Don’t be ridiculous,” said Finnley, rolling her eyes.

                  “Help!” screamed Liz. “He’s trying to jump!”

                  #3974
                  TracyTracy
                  Participant

                    “Why are you picking rubbish up off the lawn, Godfrey?” Liz had felt a certain furtive energy emanating from the old coot, causing her to glance in his direction, while simultaneously giving Finnley a shove in the direction of the house. “Go and tidy yourself up while I fetch Roberto back,” she said to the distraught maid. “I need a closer look at his bottom, without cucumbers flying all over the place. Really, do I have to do everything myself around here?” It really was exasperating.

                    #3972
                    F LoveF Love
                    Participant

                      Suddenly there was a piercing scream.

                      Finnley’s face had turned white—although later she would claim it was not fear but rather the cucumber mask giving her face a death-like appearance—and she was pointing a shaking finger in the direction of Roberto’s derrière. Or more accurately, towards where Roberto’s derrière had been prior to the scream; like the others, he had jumped up in alarm at the ear splitting noise.

                      “What the devil is the matter?” gasped LIz. She grasped Finnley’s shoulders firmly and shook her. “Pull yourself together; it’s just a bum crack. I know it is a long time since you will have seen a man’s bum, but really as I keep saying to you, if you will just smarten yourself up and make a bit more effort. I mean, look at you; you’ve got vegetables falling off your face ….” Liz shook her head in confoundment.

                      “It’s not the bum crack,” snarled Finnley, recovering her usual unflappable composure. “It is the tattoo on his bum. The tattoo of the girl with the glass feet. Do you not know what that means?”

                      Roberto’s eyes narrowed as he began to back away towards the gate.

                      In all the excitement, nobody noticed Godfrey picking up the sticky and ripped shreds of paper which Liz had let drop to the ground.

                      Or did they?

                      #3971
                      Jib
                      Participant

                        “What happened to you, Finnley ?” asked Liz. The maid, usually neatly permed looked dishevelled and had forgotten to remove her cucumber mask.
                        “The delivery man”, began Finnley, “He said someone ordered 30.”
                        “30 what ?”
                        “30 crates of carrot champagne.”
                        “Carrot champagne ? I didn’t know they could make alcohol out of carrots,” said Liz. She pouted lasciviously, thinking of what she could do with all that champagne. She had never taken a bath in champagne, that could be a first. She would have to be careful with the carrot tan though.
                        “They can do alcohol with anything”, added Godfrey.
                        “Who ordered that ?” asked Liz, “And why 30 crates ?”
                        “Apparently, it’s your cousin Badul”, said Finnley. A cucumber fall off her face.
                        Liz’ lips closed tight at the mention of her cousin.
                        “It’s Badul’s intention to have the wedding at your property.”
                        Liz dropped her spaghetti hat on the freshly mown grass. Roberto bent over, showing even more of his crack, to pick up the hat before it attracted ants. Liz bit her lips.

                        #3970
                        Jib
                        Participant

                          That’s funny, Roberto thought, a bunch of nonsense.
                          “What’s that ?” asked Liz, her curiosity picked by the alluredness of a strand of words.
                          “It just fall off your hat”, said the gardener. He looked at the woman, thinking about what Godfrey had told him. The sunlight certainly made her look radiant. He noticed that the red of her lips was the same as the red rose bush he was just taking care of.
                          Liz took the paper.
                          “Be careful, It’s sticky”, said Roberto.
                          “Say something I don’t know, dear.” She tried to get rid of the paper, tearing it in several pieces in the process.
                          “I wonder…” she began, “Finnley”, she called waiting for her help. She would certainly know. She had a habit of sticking her nose everywhere.

                          #3966
                          TracyTracy
                          Participant

                            It was clearly not entirely deserted, as Aunt Idle was picking up on a questioning energy, and quite near by. But who was it? Idle set off to investigate.

                            #3965
                            TracyTracy
                            Participant

                              “Did you have to come out here and interrupt my quiet reverie on gardeners nether regions, Godfrey?” Liz said crossly. “And what is that on your head? Your bald spot is covered in dried spaghetti.”

                              Guiltily, Godfrey tried to remove the debris from his pate.

                              “Why, you old rascal! You’ve been a peeping tom again, skulking around in someone elses thread!” Liz shook her head and tut tutted. The head shaking dislodged a crumpled ball of paper from her straw hat, which flew across the lawn in the breeze and landed at Roberto’s feet. The handsome gardener bent down further to pick it up, revealing more buttock.

                              #3955
                              F LoveF Love
                              Participant

                                But wait! What is this?

                                Her greedy fingers had located something unexpected; something dense and uncompromising was lurking in her precious nectar. Carefully, she explored the edges of the object with her finger tips and then tugged. The object obligingly emerged, a gooey gelatinous blob.

                                Dido sponged off the honey allowing it to plunk on to the table top. It did not occur to her to clean it up. Indeed, she felt a wave of defiant pleasure.

                                The ants will love that, although I guess Mater won’t be so thrilled. Fussy old bat.

                                She licked her fingers then transferred her attention back to the job at hand. After a moment of indecision whilst her slightly disordered mind flicked through various possibilities, she managed to identify the object as a small plastic package secured with tape. Excited, and her ravenous hunger cravings temporarily stilled in the thrill of the moment, she began to pick at the edges of the tape.

                                Cocooned Inside the plastic was a piece of paper folded multiple times. Released from its plicature, the wrinkled and dog-eared paper revealed the following type written words:

                                food self herself next face write water truth religious behind mince salt words soon yourself hope nature keep wrong wonder noticed.

                                #3947

                                Mike wasn’t as courageous as his former self, the Baron. That new name had a cowardly undertone which wasn’t as enticing to craze and bravery as “The Baron”.

                                The idea of the looming limbo which had swallowed the man whole, and having to care for a little girl who surely shouldn’t be out there on her own at such an early hour of the day spelt in unequivocal letters “T-R-O-U-B-B-L-E” — ah, and that he was barely literate wasn’t an improvement on the character either.

                                Mike didn’t want to think to much. He could remember a past, maybe even a future, and be bound by them. As well, he probably had a family, and the mere though of it would be enough to conjure up a boring wife named Tina, and six or seven… he had to stop now. Self introspection wasn’t good for him, he would get lost in it in quicker and surer ways than if he’d run into that Limbo.

                                “Let me tell you something… Prune?… Prune is it?”
                                “I stop you right there, mister, we don’t have time for the “shouldn’t be here on your own” talk, there is a man to catch, and maybe more where he hides.”

                                “Little girl, this is not my battle, I know a lost cause when I see one. You look exhausted, and I told my wife I would be back with her bloody croissants before she wakes up. You can’t imagine the dragon she becomes if she doesn’t get her croissants and coffee when she wakes up. My pick-up is over there, I can offer you a lift.”

                                Prune made a frown and a annoyed pout. At her age, she surely should know better than pout. The thought of the dragon-wife made her smile though, she sounded just like Mater when she was out of vegemite and toasts.

                                Prune started to have a sense of when characters appearing in her life were just plot devices conjured out of thin air. Mike had potential, but somehow had just folded back into a self-imposed routine, and had become just a part of the story background. She’d better let him go until just finds a real character. She could start by doing a stake-out next to the strange glowing building near the frontier.

                                “It’s OK mister, you go back to your wife, I’ll wait a little longer at the border. Something tells me this story just got started.”

                                #3943

                                In reply to: Mandala of Ascensions

                                Jib
                                Participant

                                  The jiggong meditation’s end was signaled by a silent ring of the immaterial bell in between states of mind. MJ stretched his ideas and send a shepherd to gather his thoughts. Today only one student connected to the session. MJ acknowledged his presence with a slight flickr of his crown chakra and he checked his voicemail. 1223 messages from Dispersee. He let the potential irritation dissolve as it was born into existence and prepared to respond. No need to listen to the messages, it would only delay the answer.

                                  He felt a nudge from the student who hadn’t dissipated as he should. Some hesitation fluctuated in the energy. He turned his attention to the void and waited. His motto was to always let people ask the questions they had if they had any, and not begin a conversation if you hadn’t something important to say.

                                  Master John ?

                                  MJ sent some encouragement to the void where the student thought he was.

                                  I can’t think of a question, finally expressed the student out of nowhere.
                                  Maybe you don’t have any question, MJ said to the void.
                                  The student’s energy rippled with surprise. Had he been on Earth plane, he would have had a nervous laugh.

                                  Master John had already been aware that the void of the student had no question but was filled with interrogations. He was desperately trying to find something to ask in need to connect, unaware that the connection already existed and required no movement.
                                  MJ sent an energy egg to the student. Let him play with that. It was crafted according to the ancient Chinese culture and hard to crack. With lots of mind knots and shiny curly clues. MJ let his pride of having created the object dissolve like squid ink in the ocean of his mind.

                                  Suddenly absorbed by the illusory complexity of the egg, the student suddenly blended into the void of MJ’s mind, replaced by the myriads of Dispersee’s messages cackling simutaneously to catch his unwavering attention. He picked one of them and followed the thread to Dispersee and to a nice pique nique in the mountain apparently. Floverly was already there, sitting on a patch of red flowers.

                                  You could have changed after your jiggong, she said.

                                  #3929
                                  ÉricÉric
                                  Keymaster

                                    “You should have thought about it before sending me for a spying mission, you daft tart” Prune was rehearsing in her head all the banter she would surely shower Aunt Idle with, thinking about how Mater would be railing if she noticed she was gone unattended for so long.
                                    Mater could get a heart attack, bless her frail condition. Dido would surely get caned for this. Or canned, and pickled, of they could find enough vinegar (and big enough a jar).

                                    In actuality, she wasn’t mad at Dido. She may even have voluntarily misconstrued her garbled words to use them as an excuse to slip out of the house under false pretense. Likely Dido wouldn’t be able to tell either way.

                                    Seeing the weird Quentin character mumbling and struggling with his paranoia, she wouldn’t stay with him too long. Plus, he was straying dangerously into the dreamtime limbo, and even at her age, she was knowing full well how unwise it would be to continue with all the pointers urging to turn back or chose any other direction but the one he adamantly insisted to go towards, seeing the growing unease on the young girl’s face.

                                    “Get lost or cackle all you might, as all lost is hoped.” were her words when she parted ways with the strange man. She would have sworn she was quoting one of Mater’s renown one-liners.

                                    With some chance, she would be back unnoticed for breakfast.

                                    #3900

                                    Coriander was crying in the middle of hearty guffaws.

                                    Clove, stop it!”

                                    “I told you, nobody would suspect space pickles !”

                                    “Look at Dido! The way she starred at that fridge for hours!”

                                    “Ahahaha, stop it!”

                                    #3898

                                    In reply to: Mandala of Ascensions

                                    Floverley felt her presence was needed in the Cackling Dimension of lost stories refugees.

                                    In truth, she wasn’t so keen on leaving her aura cleaning duties, even less so to get involved with any of Dispersee’s warped assignments, but a call couldn’t be left unanswered (although her subtle help would probably be left unfelt).

                                    Anyhow, she braced herself and with some reluctance, followed her emanation of light which was already dispatched, en route to the Pickled Pea Inn.

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