{"id":7094,"date":"2020-03-04T08:25:39","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T13:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/?p=7094"},"modified":"2020-03-02T20:03:35","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T01:03:35","slug":"it-was-a-challenge-to-concentrate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/it-was-a-challenge-to-concentrate\/","title":{"rendered":"It Was A Challenge To Concentrate"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24\" src=\"http:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/k-avatar-e1443983846496.png\" alt=\"by Kent\" width=\"81\" height=\"81\" \/>I figured that my family constituted enough of a sample size<\/li>\n<li>whispering my name<\/li>\n<li>smack-bang in the middle<\/li>\n<li>I am innocent of the falsehood<\/li>\n<li>newly forged iron bolts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tune in next time part 472 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/tune-in-next-time\/\">Click Here for Earlier Installments<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It was a challenge to concentrate on puzzling out Jim&#8217;s game when I could still hear him and Oksana, who thought they were totally alone. He was mostly just murmuring agreeably, but she had warmed to her subject. &#8220;By the way, in Colloquilia no one would say he abdicated. They&#8217;d say he jumped the shark. Now lie back and I&#8217;ll show you something else that phrase often refers to.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I thought it was a periscope,&#8221; Jim said with a chuckle.\u00a0Oksana replied at length explaining how it could be both, and I knew by the breathlessness in her voice that she was leaving none of his shark unjumped in the process.<\/p>\n<p>Why try to broker an alliance with deposed monarchs of an enemy realm? <em>I figured that my family constituted enough of a sample size<\/em> to find some meaningful patterns. My own marriage to a Contrarian warlord&#8217;s daughter would be part of any such pattern, which must have been why the more I tried to focus on the riddle the more it seemed someone inside my skull was <em>whispering my name<\/em>, claiming the reason I couldn&#8217;t get the picture was that I was <em>smack-bang in the middle<\/em> of all of it.<\/p>\n<p>Oksana reached a crescendo of sharks and\/or periscopes, her ecstasy resonating through the passageways.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Really?&#8221; Jim drawled.<\/p>\n<p>After a small laugh, she said, &#8220;<em>I am innocent of the falsehood<\/em> so many women commit. You, sir, are quite the catch. And that is why I shall not be releasing you from the restraints. Oh, pull as hard as you like. Those are <em>newly forged iron bolts<\/em> holding the chains fast to the cavern floor. I can&#8217;t have you vanishing on me before I collect the winning bid.&#8221;<\/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>I figured that my family constituted enough of a sample size whispering my name smack-bang in the middle I am innocent of the falsehood newly forged iron bolts Tune in next time part 472 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Click Here for Earlier Installments It was a challenge to concentrate on puzzling out Jim&#8217;s game when I could [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[319,4],"tags":[91,403],"class_list":["post-7094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stichomancy-prompts","category-writing-prompts","tag-bonus-points","tag-tune-in-next-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7094","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7094"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7101,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7094\/revisions\/7101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}