Set In Stone
* * * * * * "What does she do, exactly?" Fran's best friend's story had been about a serial killer. "She never even touches them," the jackal's best friend had started. "She just talks to them. She learns everything about their lives, their...
This Machine
_'Someone once told me, there's a land of dreams, where our lives are never done... they go on, and on...'_ (Beads of Tears, Mermaid's Scar) "What do you see?" What a loaded question this always was, she thought. He was doing his best, she couldn't...
And I Must Scream
"You go to hell for the company, and to heaven for the peace and quiet." "Sometimes it's more gradual than people talk about," Fran's roommate had tried to explain. "Like, on TV you'll see oh, this person's reacting to this specific crisis, she's...
Autopilot
'If work is so good for you, why don't the rich do more of it?' "Who said that?" "Some famous wolf writer I think," Fran's best friend had replied. "The same one who wrote AWOO." "I think that's AROO in fact," the jackal's roommate had chimed...
The Hand You're Dealt
"Forgetting someone is killing them twice." Fran had kept having a harder and harder time dealing with her best friend's coma alone, while her roommate had kept having a harder and harder time dealing with living in a graveyard full of dead...
The Hand That Feeds You
"Darling when the morning comes And I see the morning sun I wanna be the one with you..." (Grover Washington Jr, Just The Two Of Us) "Do you think..." It'd been hard for them to talk about, but they hadn't had anyone else to talk to. "Do you...
Lucifer Economics
"Do angels fall in love, mom?" "Of course not." What silly questions children asked sometimes. "Aw, that's sad." She pouted. Her mother smiled. "Don't worry about them, sweetie. Angels are okay that way. They're used to it." "But why?" She furrowed...
The Spirit of the Law
"We are spirits in a material world." (The Police, Ghost In The Machine) "She was hooked up to one of those machines, you know?" Fran had nodded. "Hardest thing I ever had to do," her best friend had shaken her head. "Well, they're battle...
Dead To Me
"Got a little soul The world is a cold, cold place to be Want a little warmth But who's going to save a little warmth for me...?" (Vampire Weekend, Unbelievers) "Hey, Fran...?" Fran's best friend's voice had sounded shaky on the other end of the...
The Mind Killer
"Even nothing is something." (Jerry Seinfeld) [FLICK!] ['-ment, 'void,' while it's sometimes compared with the Greeks' 'aether,' is also quite distinct from it in its own way. It connects with the importance of space, silence, everything that...
Tears In Rain
'If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it'll spend its whole life believing it's stupid.' (Albert Einstein) "Ugh, really?" It'd already taken Fran half an hour to get to the bridge. It'd been raining that day, fittingly, she...
Emulator
It was their fourth date. They were back at Ogun's apartment that time, listening to music on shuffle and talking as they sat gaming on his couch. The chimera, amused to hear a very old track coming on right after they'd just heard a very modern one...