{"id":9286,"date":"2023-04-05T08:55:46","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T12:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/?p=9286"},"modified":"2023-04-05T09:38:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T13:38:08","slug":"the-aztec-twelve-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/the-aztec-twelve-step\/","title":{"rendered":"The Aztec Twelve-Step"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-24\" src=\"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/k-avatar-e1443983846496.png\" alt=\"by Kent\" width=\"81\" height=\"81\" \/>secret network of spies<\/li>\n<li>standard practice to have a pig diagram tattooed on your body<\/li>\n<li>\u2026 well, your friend, really<\/li>\n<li>I touched his arm that day in the park<\/li>\n<li>glued to your head<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tune in next time part 788 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/tune-in-next-time\/\">Click Here for Earlier Installments<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Aztec twelve-step was thought by many to be a myth, but those of us in the business knew it was the initiation protocol of a very <em>secret network of spies<\/em>, like, even more secret than a regular spy network. Steps one through eleven were not too hard to track down, but of course the twelfth and final step was the one for all the marbles.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That still doesn&#8217;t explain your escape,&#8221; I said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Well you see, it enabled me to become initiated, and the secret network released me so I could go on my first mission for them.&#8221; Tessa&#8217;s eyes became evasive. &#8220;I never completed that mission, so now I&#8217;m considered a defector.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Teach me the twelfth and final step,&#8221; I said. &#8220;Then maybe I can clear your name.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She shook her head, but then she scrunched her forehead and stared at me. &#8220;All I can tell you right now is, for male initiates, it&#8217;s <em>standard practice to have a pig diagram tattooed on your body<\/em>.&#8221; She smirked. &#8220;We could kill two birds with one needle, if you let me ink you<em>&#8230; well, your friend really<\/em>&#8230; with that design.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No deal,&#8221; I said. &#8220;I want to help you out, but not like that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She gazed off into the distance. &#8220;If only I&#8217;d known where it would all lead, when <em>I touched his arm that day in the park<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Whose arm?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t know it was him until later: the Silent One, the Prime Mime. It was an honest mistake! I was distracted. You would be too, if you had a xylophone\u00a0<em>glued to your head<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Why was there&#8230;&#8221; I trailed off. I knew she wasn&#8217;t going to tell me.<\/p>\n<p>bonus points for using them in order<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Stichomancy Writing Prompts\" href=\"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/stichomancy-writing-prompts\/\">about stichomancy writing prompts<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/stichomancy-writing-prompt-generator\/\">try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>secret network of spies standard practice to have a pig diagram tattooed on your body \u2026 well, your friend, really I touched his arm that day in the park glued to your head Tune in next time part 788 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Click Here for Earlier Installments The Aztec twelve-step was thought by many to be [&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":[91,479,403],"class_list":["post-9286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stichomancy-prompts","category-writing-prompts","tag-bonus-points","tag-tattoo","tag-tune-in-next-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9286","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=9286"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9301,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9286\/revisions\/9301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runeskelley.com\/skelleyverse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}