"As soon as I can find a good position, I intend to take a firm stand." -Ashleigh Brilliant Sometimes, healing leaves us even more powerful. Thy skin changes country and colour, And shrivels or swells to a snake's. Let it brighten and bloat and grow duller, We know it, the flames and the flakes, Red brands on it smitten and bitten, Round skies where a star is a stain, And the leaves with thy litanies written, Our Lady of Pain. -Algernon Charles Swinburne "Dolores (Notre-Dame des Sept Douleurs)" (1866) The Orals Board is master of the Examination. Only the defending author stands before them. "It's always Fish Taco Tuesday somewhere!" This team has it all: charmers, entry specialists, analysts, and mus(cle/tel)! LOOK AT THEM! LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE BLINDING FURY OF THESE ADS! Gain one free attack of opportunity per turn when wielding a bludgeoning weapon. How dare you tell me I can't flip this table?! If he remains risen for more than three days, consult your exorcist. These sun fighbirds sure are brave and fighters! Delicious high fructose corn sweetness. "Plug me in, coach, I'm USB compatible!" "I’m like the resident bad boy here, I can say whatever I want." Jacob Andrews, "The Most Majestic Creature" (Drawfee, June 23, 2014). Strange things are ahoof down on the ranch! This is my pie! It was made for me! Some who worship him call him The BeelzeBull. "Boy, they sure do love to sit up on their tall chairs and do nothing for hours!" -All dogs with scholars for owners No password? No problem! There are no boring numbers, only boring number crunchers. Let 👏 rodents 👏 have 👏 Internet! 👏 Are you sayin' to me the dogs weren't put in the kennel until last night?! No need to pay them a salary, they find their snacks along the way! Let the bodies hit the dance floor. "Please don't tell me to relax - It's only my tension that's holding me together." -Ashleigh Brilliant Wholesome times in the den of vipers. It's not enough to win the battle. More like phage, amiright? "Your weapon only makes us more powerful." "You know how you said you were worried about living alone? Well, good news!" The head office had prepared some good stuff to fill your head right to the brim! "Oh geez, did y'all just collect my buddy? Am I the last one left?" All good puppies! No problems here! "Wait, did the pointer just barely miss an outcome that says Kill Nathan?" Imagine what it will be worth in five years! "A friend under glass stays a friend as years pass!" Everyone pictured here can chew through concrete with their bare teeth. "Look, I don't got nothin' against ya. But this one, he's got a lot of questions." Lemme tell you, steppers don't come much higher than these! "I'm a little worried about how... clean these dungeon walls are." "The vintage Furby is good condition and has been tested and is working properly. The Furby's eyelashes have come loose and are being kept with the Furby but are not attached." "If you've got to go somewhere, then you better go somewhere far." -EL VY, "Return to the Moon" (2015). You're not going to manage a triple double unless you rack up some assists. Out of the oven, into the tummy. "Got room in there for one more? Look, look, I'm definitely on the list." "We're not so different, you and I..." You fools! Did you think you could glimpse the mysteries with *uncorrected vision?!* This soft water is delicious, but be a doll and bring me a bottle of some of your hard water next. That smoke's got me thinking we might need to change some of those plowshares back. Normally, he's the White Trapezoid, but he doing a big steppy. Sadly, flightless birds to still have to pay the shipping costs, since they can't keep themselves aloft under their own power. Coins with holes is best because shiny necklaces! What do you mean, they're all starving? "Two steps in the extrusion process reach temperatures capable of reducing bioburden in the feed." It's like there's a field of little guys, permeating the cosmos... "If you can't keep in sight, at least keep in touch." -Ashleigh Brilliant I need to place this piece very careful. If they win, the moon falls! "No! It's real! And we're all dinos here. Everyone drifts, all the time. It's impossible to drive straight!" -Dino Duke, <em>Overdrift</em> (2007). "Dear Diary. The nobility have yet to discover my secret that I am, in fact, not an Asian pear at all, but a humble Golden Delicious." Past the ice, it's ten times as nice! Take a page from the funny papers. There's no need to chew if you simply open wide enough. It's only natural. These herbivores aren't going to eat themselves. Chew on this! "That's why we're so excited to partner with Ground News™." Compared to this bunch, the bumblebee seems downright plausible! These grazing beasts... are any of them giving you weird vibes at all? If it ain't brake, don't drive it! The impossible dream of harmonious coexistence. I hate that you hate that they hated that. "We decided to go for more of a melded style along the ramparts." Fiddler on the hot tin roof. I hear it's best if you wait a few days to slay the beast, if you're looking to make bread. "We've got a lot of strong contenders this year, I think it'll be a while before any of them blink!" Putting up with him would leave a sour taste in anyone's mouth. The fight is good if it is worth fighting for. Progressing inexorably past the point of no return. "If you got real hair, real fingernails, you got a job, you goin' to school, and y'all don't need nobody to help you handle yo' business, make some noise!" -DJ Kool, "Let Me Clear My Throat (Live)" (1996). "I swear to God, if you don't do this, I will take your bones." -Angoose, as read by Drawfee in "Drawing Animals Based On Their Skulls" (2021-04-27) You think that's loud? Wait until the square gets cleared. "I, too, enjoy eating fruit, it great that we have so much in common." You wouldn't guess it at first, but their personalities are actually all very different! "What's a' matter? You feelin' yellah'?" Maybe try less hard. You'll have to spook yourself, I'm off the clock. This is an obsidian doll. All craftsmanship is of the highest quality. "I learned this strategy from Dorian Smiles, but I put a little twist on it." -Brian David Gilbert, "Earn $20K EVERY MONTH by being your own boss" (2020). Pretty sure it's a skill issue. "Hey, do you ever get the feeling like maybe there's an imposter among us?" What do you mean, it's just painted on?! Why do you think they call all the junk they stuff in there "flyers?" "One well-placed bomb could ruin my whole day." -Ashleigh Brilliant The flavor matters little, young one, you have come here to grow. More like can't kill the messenger. Too slow, laid low. DOGS! 👏 DESERVE! 👏 IMAGINATIVE! 👏 SPACES! 👏 Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Can you feel it? Behold these modes of transit fit for a rarified heir. In our defense, we got rich doing it, so how were we supposed to know any better? There's none smaller, quod erat demonstrandum. You'll cheam your creezies when you speep our Pestist Grevias! What do you mean, they made my plans illegal?! Orbs, yes, but not quite heavenly. At first they gathered two by two, then rallied four by four, and finally in a sea of blue they breached the sealed tomb door. Y'all ready to form some bonds?! "I need more time, and I probably always will." -Ashleigh Brilliant "Lord, it's deep, and the sides are steep, and the night are long and cold" -James Taylor, "Down In The Hole" (1991). "That'll be first month, last month, and a security deposit. What, it's not like any of you can afford to own." "If you’re bold enough to go mask off, you’re bad enough to get smacked on." -2 Mello, "PULL UP" (2021) There's not too much you can do about, they're eventually going to find a way in. Those aboard, at no extra charge, may stay on with us for all remaining stops. "Corporate city, lucky for some, richest island in the sun." -Public Image Ltd, "Bad Life" "Some conscious light gets through somehow, yet I fail to notice, then I'm heading for the ground" -BT "Running Down The Way Up" (1999) The only thing I'm looking to break is even! "I am afraid of the unknown... and also many parts of the known." -Ashleigh Brilliant From kinky timber no chaste thing was ever made. These dogs do *not* have a job. If you read the fine print, a castle on a cliff is actually required under the terms of the Holy Rome Owners Association. Do you want to build a ski lift? Don't dream it's clover. Now that's some good eating! Look to the sky, and you will see, in its vastness, all things. "Just watch me pulling up my socks, and then they get away right out from under me." -Dragonette, "My Legs" "Stare into the subliminal for as long as you can." -They Might Be Giants Quit stalling and get in the sleigh, gramps. There's treasure everywhere! So really, you should be thanking me for all these great gifts. You ever get the feeling that the scissors had better watch out, because they might not be the victors in this encounter? Conviction is a terrible thing to concede. Invaders beware: This Kasbah's ready to rock back. Turns out, the world is actually overflowing with things we should be thankful for. I'm as surprised as anyone. I was alarmed to discover that the bear could not only speak, but knew all my sins. Never mind what's fueling my unstoppable flurry of blows. Let's just say there's been some real *combustion* in these internals, you know what I'm sayin'? Keep your finger on the X button, this sequence is brutal, and it goes on *forever*! Devastating momentum! (Mediocre turning radii) You wanna know how I got these wings? All you need to do is turn your eyes toward the things creeping at the edge of the frame. Fast fashion, you say? Well, they're available for a limited time, I'll tell you that much! Above us, the celestial fire. Below us, the infernal heat. I'm nourished by the lives that wove the web inside my haunted head. "starting to think these maidens are stumbling in soaked through from the rain just to steal my beautiful gowns and homewear are any of you actually lost" -vamprisms, 2022-09-17 Watch party at our place! We're going to binge Candle Cove! "And then he went into his office, going mrmee, mrmee, mrmee, mrmee." -Harlan Ellison, "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" (1965). Let me tell you, when these gummies hit, they *really hit!* Birk a bork today, and you'll both bark at a berk tomorrow! Is this your first time on the path? Knuckles the echidna said "Fuck TERFs" and it roared across the battlefield from his mech's broadcast system. I hear that there's no comparison, that this is peak duck! Welcome to the haunted world of HORRIBO. What will be the face you wear after The Change sets in? And if you can believe it, it's Friday once again, Chère. See them run hither and thither, each sporting their own accessory! Just add ears (imperative)! "This would fix me," said many furs. Pikmin! Five of them! Just think of it, a land created by Lord Larethian for all our kind. We'll just need to relocate these pesky humans. When all you have is a skull, every problem starts to look like a fortress gate. I hope this doesn't corrupt any sectors in me... That your car? Pretty nice, I love convertibles! This is the luckiest thing to happen to Mazura since he got kicked out of Parapa Palace. I'm hot 'cause I stayed out in the sun too long. You ain't 'cause you showed reasonable levels of restraint in the face of a fiery sky orb. I heard that, back in the day, they'd put a whole sausage in your burger if you asked them! "You say you can't stand me when I'm quiet, and so I shot you with my silence. I can't get that trumpet out of my head." -Lykke Li, "This Trumpet In My Head" (2008). Beware the prisons we build for ourselves, invisible to others, that trap us in our own minds. As above, so below. All that remains is your execution. Discard your ideas, replace them with orbs, for a spherical future! With family like these, who needs mortal enemies? "Surely someone can just buy some carbon offsets to make up the difference," they said as they struggled to understand one another. A nibble here, a nibble there, and before you know it, you've made a treasure from someone else's trash! Robots! We're doing our part(s)! I can fix him in post. At whose behest are the cities remade? At yours?! "Text me back in like 30. I'm watching that episode of SpongeBob where he has a 3-day rager with his jellyfish." -Alfred Pennyworth "I'm just really feeling the 'action' part real intense, like. I could honestly take or leave the 'direct' part." A serpent of a thousand miles begins with a single mis-step. Like my graduate adviser used to say, if you want to study a good boy, study yourself! Maybe y'all better go home, because I'm about to go big. "In a logic that perhaps no man will ever understand, the true winner is the last to finish the race." -Dr. Nils Hellstrom, *The Hellstrom Chronicle* (1971). "Distance doesn't really make you any smaller, but it does make you part of a larger picture." -Ashleigh Brilliant Every turn you make, you're heading downward, and yet there's never any bottom. You can't surprise me! My vision's periphery all the way round! The beauty of analog systems is that you can always given 'em a good hip check if they're not behaving! Guess I'll wait here until someone restarts the level. "Sinuously erect?" Looks, *New Aeon*, you said it not me. Look, all I'm saying is that we're never going to run out of space up there. You can't even call him Mr. Potato Head anymore. Because of woke. Which of of the sky's faces will it turn towards us tomorrow? Some voids swallow the light that shine on them, but others wholly deflect it. In the future, music will consist of food sounds, and be prepared by those no longer among the living. They say the uprising was started by a cadre of Jameson-type cyborgs. "I got no complaints, it's regular hours, and I can jog to and from work on the parkway." If it were Ours, We'd make it much bigger. Folks will do whatever it takes to be these dogs' best friends. "To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and, whatever you hit, call it the target." -Ashleigh Brilliant "You are becoming Gods. There's a new master of creation, and it's you. You've unraveled DNA, and at the same time, you're cultivating bacteria strong enough to kill every living thing. D'you think you are ready for that much power? You lot? **You lot?**" - *The Second Coming* (2003), as sampled by Orbital (2004) on "You Lot" It's race to discover land between the lookouts in the crow's nests and the crew looking into the water! Who keeps so many birds in boxes?! The jeans are from grandma, the Nintendo is from Uncle Red. When you're a resurrectionist, you get to be in everybody's will! Each and every dog normal, not made of unusual materials at all, don't worry about it. "There is no joy more intense than that of coming upon a fact that cannot be understood in terms of currently accepted ideas." -Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Would you like you memories with tea? Or with gravy? Arduino? I hardly hippo! Emmy Noether, iconic physicist and mathematician, was operating on a whole different level. When you stare into the maze, the maze stares back into you. Don't hate us because we're beautiful. Well, maybe go ahead and hate, it's great for our metrics. Say 5 degrees by the next 100 years and it sets the world on fire. You think the people aren’t just going to sell the Earth and move? A crowd of real cool shades-wearing dudes can be found on the streets of Los Angeles 2019. American cereal manufacturers ask: What if the Bride of Frankenstine was instead his no-strings-attached DJ cousin? Make way for the new goth royalty. In the abyss, a face. Upon the face, sweet honeyed mans. The salt is implied. Look, it's just a bunch of little guys! They don't have top-shelf gear, leave 'em alone, don't worry about it! This little sprawling gloom, she's gonna let it loom. It's autumn, and what better time to share our reflections with one another? These are *original* vampire characters, they are *not Dracula*! Strength? How about this dog show you what strength looks like? Bespectacled British scholarship is no match for theropods! Bookmaking is a machine for turning forests into knowledge. ’Tis now the very witching time of night, when churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out contagion to this world. Now could we drink hot blood, and do such bitter business as the day would quake to look on. Space bear was promised space whales, and boy are there space whales! Was she rescued from the water, or is she merely humoring her gormless suitor? The world is so much simpler when it's this complicated! The fruits of the past are delicious today, the fruits of today are delicious forever. These pups don't run! Are we sure we want to keep spinning this particular wheel? Now made with only real ingredients! A celebration of NASA computer Katherine Johnson. ALL HAIL OUR FEARSOME CELESTIAL ORB! The quest for justice is worthy work, and befits the use of a little magic. Things are getting hot, and some foundations are starting to crack. A delicate boundary between worlds, but doom awaits those who believe their love will carry them across its threshold. "A trap is only a trap if you don't know about it. If you know about it, it's a challenge." -China Miéville, 1998. (A rat's become a fat cat, flanked by kings gone rank.) "Did you know? Most climbing mishaps occur due to exhaustion. Remember to take regular breaks!" -Celeste (2018) Wake up. An eye is upon you, staring straight down and keenly through, seeing all that you are and everything you can never be. The tripartite faces of slumber, the boy, the bear, and the forebearer. "You can’t deny this song is actually a banger." I exist in this wasteland, reduced to one instinct: Survive. A stack of tetraminos, vandalized and decaying, stand forgotten in a warehouse. 
