{"id":8887,"date":"2022-11-09T08:49:24","date_gmt":"2022-11-09T13:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/?p=8887"},"modified":"2022-10-22T22:15:23","modified_gmt":"2022-10-23T02:15:23","slug":"what-it-all-came-down-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/what-it-all-came-down-to\/","title":{"rendered":"What It All Came Down To"},"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\" \/>whose first language is French<\/li>\n<li>lapdance of failure<\/li>\n<li>singing the national anthem of an imaginary country<\/li>\n<li>grapes in the hothouse<\/li>\n<li>had a ventriloquist doll as a boy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tune in next time part 746 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/tune-in-next-time\/\">Click Here for Earlier Installments<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>What it all came down to was whether or not Fleur was stoned enough to overlook the gaping holes in my argument. Studying her eyes, I felt the odds were in my favor. And the longer I delayed, the more the THC-laced camembert would wear off and the less chance of getting away with it.<\/p>\n<p>I tugged Tessa&#8217;s elbow, raising her into view. As she sat up, I suddenly recalled that I <em>had a ventriloquist doll as a boy<\/em>, so I perched Tessa on my leg. For a second I felt like poor, doomed Mingus Mint, and I hoped that my performance wouldn&#8217;t be as wooden. Fleur stared uncomprehending, and Tessa&#8217;s eyes shot nervously in my direction. I leaned close to Tessa&#8217;s ear and said, &#8220;You&#8217;ll need to curtsey, but not right away.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To Fleur, I said, &#8220;I bet you didn&#8217;t know I can throw my voice.&#8221; I put my hand on the back of Tessa&#8217;s head and threaded my fingers through her hair. Trying not to move my lips, I hissed, &#8220;Now you talk. I can&#8217;t really throw my voice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tessa tossed me a sly look, then, working her jaw robotically and imitating my voice, she said, &#8220;There&#8217;s more bubbles in this tub than <em>grapes in the hothouse<\/em>.&#8221; Fleur giggled, confusion still ruling her eyes. Tessa got rolling, and I couldn&#8217;t stop her. She did a tight five, culminating with <em>singing the national anthem of an imaginary country<\/em>.\u00a0It was holding Fleur&#8217;s attention, but was it winning her over? The whole act could turn out to be a <em>lapdance of failure<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Tessa rose into a crouching, nude curtsey, staying low enough for me to retain my hold on her scalp. Fleur, <em>whose first language is French<\/em>, clapped and said, &#8220;Magnifique! C&#8217;est tr\u00e8s dr\u00f4le.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Glad you enjoyed it,&#8221; I said. &#8220;Now I suppose I should go put my doll away.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>bonus points for using them in reverse 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>whose first language is French lapdance of failure singing the national anthem of an imaginary country grapes in the hothouse had a ventriloquist doll as a boy Tune in next time part 746 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Click Here for Earlier Installments What it all came down to was whether or not Fleur was stoned enough to [&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-8887","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\/8887","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=8887"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8966,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8887\/revisions\/8966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}