{"id":5333,"date":"2018-01-01T08:33:50","date_gmt":"2018-01-01T13:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/?p=5333"},"modified":"2017-12-31T14:55:37","modified_gmt":"2017-12-31T19:55:37","slug":"before-my-mind-melted-completely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/before-my-mind-melted-completely\/","title":{"rendered":"Before My Mind Melted Completely"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-13\" src=\"http:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/j-avatar-e1443983489508.png\" alt=\"by jen\" width=\"81\" height=\"81\" \/>between the invisible man and the tramp<\/li>\n<li>in response to the touching of tiny buttons<\/li>\n<li>as if they were his own<\/li>\n<li>I don\u2019t know whether Stephanie<\/li>\n<li>started pointing fingers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tune in next time part 245 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<b>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/b><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/tune-in-next-time\/\">Click Here for Earlier Installments<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Before my mind melted completely I managed one coherent thought: those ninjas must have been covered in some sort of contact hallucinogen. I&#8217;d foolishly fallen right into their trap. The walls around me rippled like water.<\/p>\n<p>When I came back to my senses I was bound hand and foot, and a good deal of drool was leaking from my mouth onto the floor where I lay. I seemed to be in the back of a van. There were two people in the seats up front. I kept my eyes closed and listened to their conversation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll be lucky to get the full bounty on this asshole,&#8221; the driver said. He had a gravelly voice and a Contrarian accent. &#8220;And our expenses are through the roof. I mean, <em>between the invisible man and the tramp<\/em>oline he bounced in on, we&#8217;ll be lucky to break even. That guy doesn&#8217;t come cheap.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Who were these guys? I cracked my eyelids open and watched the portly guy in the passenger seat lean forward to fiddle with the radio. <em>In response to the touching of tiny buttons<\/em>, the vehicle filled with Contrarian hip hop. Portly guy knew his way around the sound system controls <em>as if they were his own<\/em>, suggesting that this van was not a rental.<\/p>\n<p>Portly cranked the volume, and we drove on for hours. The music and the accents suggested my captors were working for Fleur. Or maybe her warlord father. I wasn&#8217;t sure which idea scared me more.<\/p>\n<p>Much to my surprise, though, when the van stopped and the doors opened, I found myself face-to-face with Viscount Arlo. He looked at me with his one eye, and sniffed. &#8220;<em>I don&#8217;t know whether Stephanie<\/em> forgot to mention,&#8221; he said in his precise Svenborgian cadences, &#8220;or whether you&#8217;re utterly incompetent, but I wanted both him and Jason.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The driver and Portly immediately <em>started pointing fingers<\/em> at each other, making excuses for their failure.<\/p>\n<p>Arlo turned to me and sniffed again. He ran one hand back over his bald head. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been enjoying your wife&#8217;s company ever so much,&#8221; he said. &#8220;She&#8217;s currently my favorite lover. Would you like to see some pictures?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That guy is such a dick.<\/p>\n<p>bonus points for using them in order<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Stichomancy Writing Prompts\" href=\"http:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/stichomancy-writing-prompts\/\">about stichomancy writing prompts<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/stichomancy-writing-prompt-generator\/\">try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>between the invisible man and the tramp in response to the touching of tiny buttons as if they were his own I don\u2019t know whether Stephanie started pointing fingers Tune in next time part 245 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Click Here for Earlier Installments Before my mind [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[319,4],"tags":[91,385,116,352,403],"class_list":["post-5333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stichomancy-prompts","category-writing-prompts","tag-bonus-points","tag-car","tag-ninja","tag-poison","tag-tune-in-next-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5333"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5337,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5333\/revisions\/5337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}