#vss365 A girafant of long neck& snout stood by a #bend full of doubt. What lies around the curve, she thought,& did she have the nerve, she thought, to extend neck& trunk? She pondered the extension& likely prehension to touch the Unknowns. For it might be pleasing,or lead to a bout of cougheezing.

#vss365 A race of tapered beings arrived in narrow cylinders. They were harmless. There were no reports of violence or threats, but They had a habit of #looming. They approached quietly from behind, stood close, and loomed over one's shoulder. They were intimidating and made one feel uneasy.

#vss365 Relegated to tea rooms &public transport, #murmur Bludbug pressed Nite Terrors for more suitable work. His disembodied mumblings among old ladies sipping tea at the Gotta Havva Cuppa had so unnerved the ladies that they now took tea elsewhere. Bludbug wanted a gig under a bed or in a closet

#vss365 A wide-eyed corpse sat on the #stoop of a brownstone. Brownstone residents and neighbors passed by him on their way to work and home. No one paid him any attention. The corpse's lifeless eyes reflected the passing of pedestrians and vehicles. As in life, so in death, the world passed him by.

#vss365 "Dont turn. Don't move, McShade. I have a gun pointing directly at you." "You the #spook that's been trailling me?" "Yes. MI6 always gets their man." "The gun won't do you any good." "Why?" ""Unlike you l'm a real spook." McShade turned to face the agent, smiled, and disappeared.

#vss365 A hole in the #sole of my shoe let in rainwater, & my toes were now squishing in a wet sock. I stopped at the Fancy A Cuppa for hot tea & an Eccles cake, but mostly to remove the soaked sock. I draped my damp footwear over a radiator to dry it quickly, which vexxed the other cafe patrons.

#vss365 Olympus Mons thundered, & the red soil heaved, & #Mar's gave up her dead. Warriors of long, long ago assembled on the vast Martian plain of Utopia Planitia: warlords dry of bone & powdery skin, their parched lungs rasping on the planet's thin air. Armed with heat-rays & broad-bladed Øx.

#vss365 In a huff, #Saturn rolled up its rings like an itamae rolls sushi. “It was supposed to be my breakout role,” Saturn quipped, “not you, you gassball giant.” Jupiter shrugged. “Kubrick had special effects issues. Your rings are high maintenance. Whereas I a simple planet, am easily generated.”

#vss365 A lifetime of #regrets had piled up like a multiple car crash on the Grapevine between Bakersfield and L.A. There wasn't much she could do about the concertina of chaos, except to do a slow drive-by and look thoughtfully over the missed or sabotaged opportunities that comprised her life.

#vss365 A collective #memory lived on in the minds of the marsh people. A memory that skulked in their dreams like it once skulked in the cordgrass. Like the brine monsters of St. John’s apocalypse, the memory left its watery home with a mouth full of teeth & blood, & a lust for meat torn from bone.

#vss365 The fish-woman wore a felt-fish-head hat & sold seafood from a cart. The hat with a gaping mouth & glass bead eyes gave it a harrowing look, & children hid behind their mother's skirts for safety. Her textured fish-leather scale clothes shimmered. Some said she was #boho selkie or a mermaid.

#vss365 We scurried home when we heard the booming call of the bitterns, warning us of the creeping fog. We lit candles & oil lamps to ward off the mist. Outside, the fog shroud turned unlit buildings into phantasms, & people caught unawares into mist-wraiths, forever lost to the #monotonous brume.

#vss365 Pursued by a dragon, a woman with her newborn fled on a great winged eagle into the bleak emptiness of an ancient silence, where an uncompromising blue sky cast the slick gray stone & withered trees into grotesque forms. In this cheerless valley, she would raise the dragon's #successor.

#vss365 Martha Stewart's eggnog, heavy on the alcohol and highly flammable, failed all fire codes. After a few of Firestorm staff members combusted during the Christmas office party, management put the eggnog on its #illicit list. Survivors of the party say the eggnog's prohibition "is a good thing.

#vss365 Christmas be a #bewitching time. The Elf on the Shelf be a judgmental bastard.

Imagine a modern writer throwing a character on stage to recite a long #soliloquy as a way of revealing his innermost thoughts and motivations.😱 "Show, don't tell!" the critics would scream. I guess William Shakespeare's English teacher never taught him about lazy writing. #vss365 #writersofbluesky

#vss365 Prufrock ate a peach, & the Universe convulsed. Men of certitude no longer walked the castle ramparts. There are no #soliloquies in the Age of the Diamond Dogs, for the Bride has whored herself out, endorsing the crude & the profane for the baubles of privilege, while her Vandals sack Rome.

#vss365 During the berry wars, the red holly berry choristers launched a fusillade of mince pies against the #magenta beautyberry carolers, who replied with a barrage of figgy pudding. The beautyberry's retreated under the firmer pastry of the mince pie barrage. And so we sing, The Holly & The Ivy.

#vss365 In the fashion of augury, the #Augur of Aisby put on his camel hair toga & a leather belt. He induced a psychotic state by popping liberty cap mushrooms. Through cloudy eyes, he saw multiheaded beasts rise from a sea, a whore of Babylon seducing people with her commerce, & a lying prophet.

#vss365 They danced #chic to chic. She in couture shab, clothes chosen with precision from a thrift store rack. He, in Savile Row finery tailored to perfection, and his body. She and he were stylishly fashionable and cut a rug on every dance floor they graced.

#vss365 It was Mary's holy time, not because of a sacred presence, but by a lifetime of tradition. Her Xmas #vespertines were aromatic: fresh-baked mince pies & sausage rolls, and the fruity scent of port. She read, as she did every year, about Scrooge & Marley. These were her Xmas evening rituals

#vss365 Don considered himself a #chivalrous knight of the Round Table. Police confiscated his homemade lance, so he carried a closed umbrella under his armpit. Riding an e-bike, he assaulted propane-burning asphalt restorers in place of fire-breathing dragons, & wind turbines were his giants.

#vss365 In the deep midwinter, the darkness repelled the light. The days grew shorter, the nights longer. Unable to penetrate this #aphotic zone, Sol gave humankind pinpricks of light, some twinkling, some flashing, which they hung on trees, walls, & hedges, & the lights punctured the darkness.

🤣🤣🤣

#vss365 #Suave in guise & girth, & with a cheerful Ho Ho Ho, he entered homes unhindered. No one suspected any criminal activity on his part or on Rood, his red-nosed reindeer. Fitted with radio wave tech, Rood's nose skimmed data from credit cards & passports at a distance & without contact.

#vss365 #scene #story I called to the sea like it was a lover. She answered in rhythm, not words. The scarf around my neck caught her blown kiss, and at #last, my heart opened.

#vss365 King Wenceslas had #last looked out his tower window a year ago on the Feast of Stephen. Beyond the tower, a poor man gathered fuel. “Shall I refresh the fire & the table, and get the man, Sire?” a courtier asked. “No. Bring me my lute. I shall compose & sing about the man's despair first.”

#vss365 Jo scrutinized the Christmas shortbread, gingerbread, and peppermint crème cookies in TJs. Among the selection, she sought only one cookie. She knew it wasn’t good for her #health, but when TJs Dark Chocolate Peppermint Covered Joe-Joes arrived on the store shelf, she knew Xmas had arrived.

#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.