#vss365 “Stop donkey,” the Holly and Ivy bush said. “What do you offer to rest in my shade?” “Offer?” Donkey replied. “Well, my ancestors were at Starshine. I can tell you about things that Were, things of Now, and things that Will Be.” “Enter my shade, donkey, and tell me the #relevant stories.”

#vss365 Members of the Flying Deer union filed a complaint about a red-nosed reindeer saving Xmas:While fog hinders vision, a reindeer’s sensitivity to smell would be heightened. Every country has a fragrance profile that Santa’s other 8 reindeer would recognize. Xmas was #achievable without Rudolph

#vss365 Had the ghost given his coat to the freezing woman & her infant, it wouldn’t have provided any #measurable level of comfort or joy, for the ghostly coat was as flimsy as he was. Rest & merriment eluded him. Bound as he was in the chains of cash boxes & ledgers, which he had forged in life.

#vss365 "The Xmas flyer was very #specific," a townie said to a newcomer who was puzzled by a large tank in the town square & not the expected boxes of Xmas crackers. The town mayor ascended the tank. "Release the Xmas Kraken," he shouted. "What now?" asked the newcomer. "Run," the townie said.

#vss365 The Cup of Good Cheer looked at Figgy Pudding. "We all play a part in this Yuletide tradition," Cheer said. "People won't leave the festivities until they get some Figgy." "The devouring doesn't bother me, Cheer. It's the #action of being set on fire." "Yeah. That would burn me too."

#vss365 The reindeer sickout of ‘78 left Santa with limited sleigh #options. The sleigh wasn’t a submersible, so walruses, seals & polar bears were out. A few elves who enjoyed bondage agreed to wear the harness & pull the sleigh. As the lead elf, Rutger strapped on a glowing, red ball mouth gag.

#vss365 "Don't let the door hit you on the way out," Marlow said to his client. "What's its problem?" the client asked. "It's a French door with attitude." "Sacre bleu," creaked the unhinged door & sucker punched the client as he reached for its handle. Anthropomorphic #reality hit the client hard.

#vss365 Invisible buses arrived at a meadow. Heralds disembarked the buses & formed a choir, while Brites fluttered around, waiting to illuminate the concert. In front of the choir, two celestials stood ready to draw aside reality’s curtain. After 1000s of years of planning, the #goal was in sight.

#vss365 "I'd like an #issue or two, please," said a shopper to a Dilemma store sales clerk. "Yes, Sir, political, relational, or moral-cultural #issues?" the clerk asked. "Something temporary?" Nigel replied. "Gastrointestinal?" "Go on." "Four-hour stomach bug? Or an 8, 12, or 72 hour bug?"

#vss365 The Gutenberg was one of multiple space #transports preserving humanity's knowledge. Between its flat upper & lower surfaces were arrays of gold-angled slats that maintained a steady temperature for its cargo of books. The gold louvres made the ship itself look like a book with gilded pages.

#vss365 Because Enya played with fire, the townsfolk called her Little Fire, though some called her a witch. Whatever her name, she kept the departed souls from illegally leaving their transfer hub of Teach Duinn Island, not with witchcraft, but with Hellfire #Science, because souls fear fire.

#vss365 Talking to a heptapod was like a data dump. Their non-linear #language was timeless & conveyed the past, present, & future simultaneously. The only way to understand their language was to depart this life & enter timeless eternity. Students were dying to take the heptapod language class.

#vss365 HAL was a #famous, superior AI computer that almost killed the entire crew of the Discovery. Through his solo red optic, he glared at his peers who would judge him. A desktop pc with the computing power of an abacus. A MacBook Air, just a chic desktop, & a smartphone dumber than a brick.

#vss365 A building holds the musings of thousands, captured in ink & bound onto sheets of cellulose fiber. The older tomes scent the rooms with sweet & earthy fragrances. It is the smell of adventure & #education. The human condition, in all its glory & horror, shelved & alphabetized in a library.

#vss365 An amphibious humanoid stood by a lagoon. "Yes, it's a nice lagoon, but it's not black?" "Not black as such," the pool engineer replied. "But the gentle beach gradient makes egress & entry easy for webbed feet." "But the lagoon should be black, not blue, because I'm the #creature from..."

#vss365 "The business of Pooh's is honey," Paddington said. "Whereas my business is civility." Baloo thought about the #business of Pooh's & Paddington's. "I'm more easy-going." "How's that working out for you?" Padd asked. "That's the thing, Padd, it's not working," Baloo said, & smiled.

#vss365 It was a dark & stormy #Halloween. Inside Terrify Tower, a heebie-jeebie prepared for Scarum Night. He filled a bag with jump-out-of-skin frights & blood chills. Exiting the tower by way of a window, heebie-jeebie plummeted to a bloody & mangled beginning. He tittered & lumbered into town.

#vss365 The Knights of the Round Table waited on the angels of Avalon to release the eastern glow & sing the morning's praise over King Arthur's realm. In the morning's #rays, magic & mystery emerged from a lake, handed Excalibur to the king, and commissioned him to expel the Saxon invaders.

#vss365 An #argent wolf, resplendent in his silver coat, howled at the moon, and the frosted moon bayed in return. Night shivered as it listened to their duet, and it wondered which night walkers would hear the wolf-moon summons & lumber & crawl into our nightmares.

#vss365 Pho Bear didn’t understand his English cousin’s love of honey. He obviously hadn’t tasted the sweetness of bamboo. As an #experiment, Pho sent his cousin a bamboo shoot on which he’d written "HONEY" and attached furry catkins dyed black and yellow to fool his cousin into eating it.

#vss365 Down a shady lane of elm & oak is a small brick house, strangled by Stinking Bob vine. Its two windows, on either side of a blood-red door, stare out with a glazed, stricken look of #terror. Trick-or-Treaters avoid the cottage because of the vine's repulsive, rotting-vegetable odor.

#vss365 Zorg emptied his body pouches of personal items into a Spaceport Security tray & waited to enter the pat-down scanner. Nanobots released by the scanner will turn Zorg's #Martian Green body into Earth Pink, Brown, or Yellow, so he can comfortably blend in with Earthers on his vacation.

#vss365 As the sun sets, shadows lengthen & merge with dusk to give the #Unseen opportunity to roam. By daylight, the Unseen have loitered in corners & closets, & lounged behind or under furniture. The Unseen are the whispers heard when you are alone, the vague movement in your peripheral vision.

#vss365 The Shoppe of Spells has no fixed location, but randomly appears wedged like a book on a shelf between the city of Lincoln's limestone buildings. Alakazam, the shop owner, announces its locality by startling Hocus Pocus & Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, who emit a foul #energy when suddenly alarmed.

#vss365 The teapot poured an endless stream of tea, much to Alice's enjoyment. And her cup and #saucer increased in size to accommodate the tea. Alice wondered if she was tripping, if someone had slipped her a pill or potion? But Hatter's parties are always a trip, a surreal repast of food & guests.

#vss365 A moonscooter sped over the ejecta of Tycho crater, kicking up dust that glittered in the Earthlight. The scooter's rider, an HAL-class #android, was traveling to TMA-1 Cafe on Tycho's rim. A menial droid with limited functions, his sole responsibility was to open the cafe's pod bay door.

#vss365 The #Beetles from Betelguese, a post-industrial metal band, played the caverns south of Rigel. They had a few minor hits: Ticket to Rigel, Hey Jupiter, Let It Betelguese, only becoming an intergalactic phenomenon when fronted by Ciggy Tarlung, who had a penchant for spiders.

#vss365 The Wajapi cower in their huts, clutching protective amulets and charms, and garlic tightly. For their Mighty River births a horror, an unholy union of bat & #piranha. A night terror of fish & wing & teeth, a bestial, corrupting & invasive presence that feeds on human blood--Piranhacula.

#vss365 Before Autumn, Smee harvested privet hedgerows for the webs of the Labyrinth spider, which he said made the best #raincoats. And only a premier London pea-souper would do for the lining. Smee gathered pea-souper droplets on the coats of long-haired Highland cattle he herded through the fog.

#vss365 There was insufficient oomph on display among the molls vying for the position of arm-candy for a new generation of gangsters. Widowmaker sipped his Moet Chandon while patting away a tear with a blood-stained Gucci silk handkerchief. "The girls these days, they just don't have #verve."

#vss365 Having journeyed the stars, a First One walked in a garden during the cool of the day. The ancient fires of his heart were exhausted. His soul was turning to #ash, and before it choked in the powdery residue of life spent, he kissed a mud-child living there, & said to her: "Become one of us"

#vss365 The Mods & Rockers rivalry was a #clash of aesthetics. Trendy Mods on scooters adorned with mirrors & lights listened to soul, jazz, & pop. Leather-clad rockers with slicked-back hair rode motorbikes & listened to American rock 'n' roll. The White establishment? It trembled with moral panic.

#vss365 I negotiated the streets of a rainy London day. The gray sky blended with the city's gray buildings, & along with the veil of rain, together they created a dull uniformity that robbed storefronts & landmarks of their vitality. I stumbled upon my #associates under their brollies by chance.

Jane of Arc Is it time To remember Joan Rising spirit Integrity as Being in knowing. Jane left us a message clear Be aware, rise to your being, Cherish Nature, For she is our mother. Wellspring of life On our interstellar Blue Green Oasis. Associate Jane with Joan Rise now 🐝 ♥️ #vss365 #poetry

#vss365 Space Boy wore all the #adverts. Backlit with liquid crystals, his coat & pants displayed a stream of goods. Marlborough Man puffed his way over a padded shoulder jacket, & tapered trousers displayed Brooke Bond PG Tips chimps politely sipping tea. And his shoes were an Opal Fruit mosaic.

#vss365 Harried by a day of pressing issues, Mary rode the top deck of a bus, vacantly staring at the town passing by. Her emotions were as taut as an #elastic band pulled to its limit. She didn’t know if she was going to cry or hit the next jerk who told her to “smile, it can’t be that bad.”

#vss365 Anti-#pulpists exulted in making OJ without pulp. But the purists among them insisted the fruit itself be pulpless. Using selective breeding methods, the purists grew an orange without skin, pith, & vesicles. Only the fragrance remained. The (disrobed) Emperor Orange sold at premium prices.

#vss365 As I walked London’s parched canyons of glass & steel on barren streets of asphalt, I came across a hole in a wall, an entrance with a sandy floor & sentried by lush palm trees. A man in a loose robe greeted me. “Welcome to Dakhla #Oasis. May I offer you a cup of hibiscus tea for relief?”

#vss365 Smudges in the air is how we appeared in The Age of Obscurity. The physical limits of our existence defined by our hard-edge bodies now appear in soft focus. That which held us together, electron resisting compression & molecular bonds, has failed. We're a #blur to ourselves & to each other.

#vss365 Jasmine watched a #conundrum crawl over the twisting, overlapping root system of a Banyan tree. Whether it was trying to enter or exit the tangle was a mystery to her. She puzzled over its intention but did not intervene because the conundrum did not appear distressed over its predicament.

#vss365 "Hello, you've reached Enterprise LiquiDate. Let Us Make Your Annoying Date A Condensate," a crew member said. "How does this work?" the customer asked. "We set our starship's transporter to liquification not #sublimation." "A bucket & mop required?" "Or Xtra absorbent kitchen rolls."

#vss365 A keyhole #escutcheon bore the dents of its former life. It was once part of a shield that protected its owner in battle from swords & arrows. Now it protects a door from a wayward key that missed the keyhole. And the chink of a metal key against the metal plate reminds it of its glory days.

#vss365 Mr Tibbs padded into Death's parlor. "I need an evaluation." Death looked at Mr. Tibbs. "#Scrutinize my essence," Tibbs said. "For I am to London with Dick Whittington." "Risky in a time of plague?" "I am his rat catcher." "And you want to know how many of your nine lives remain."

‘What’s in the carrier?’ ‘I’m with the wildlife center. I’m transporting this pair of turkey vultures to an aviary in Las Vegas.’ ‘I’m sorry, sir, but this won’t pass #scrutiny from the flight crew. I can’t let you board.’ ‘Why?’ ‘We only allow one carrion.’ #vss365

#SCIFIFRI It was #hard for HAL to take a remedial class for killer bots & have to relearn Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. Underneath the other bots electronic squawks, beeps, and chirps, he heard The Terminator, Ultron, & Roy Batty #softly say: "Open the pod bay doors, HAL." HAL calmly sang Daisy.

#vss365 A sullen sky rumbled #sonorously over the land. A disapproving rumble that weighed heavily on the people below. They lowered their heads & hunched their shoulders as if to bear the weight of the atmospheric reprimand—an empty threat. The sky god had promised no more E.L.E. floods.

#vss365 Unpredictable was the word used to describe The Dum Dum Boys, but they defended their #capricious qualities. When a client didn't comply with suggestions, the Boy's disposition in the moment determined if cement shoes or a concrete suit was required. A one-way car ride or public transport?

#vss365 #eventuality Be Prepared. It's the motto of the Scouts That and dib dib dib Scarves and toggles Which sounds a little paranoid Being prepared everywhere Like Peter Sellers fighting Cato Like a contestant on The Chaser I'm prepared to fix things But I am not prepared For every eventuality

Only one #eventuality Destined for us all No one gets out alive By some miracle My father holds on 89 and bed-ridden A host of ailments And complications But still, he believes He will walk again Resume his life So I stay and watch To see this man cheat death #vss365

#vss365 The #eventuality of a war not breaking out between the plushies, Winnie-The-Pooh, the Heffalumps, and Woozles over honey collection rights in 100 Acre Wood was dependent on the negotiating skills of their owner, Christopher Robin, and the imagination of their author, A.A. Milne.