Hometown Glory / A Tale Of Two Priorities

I’ve been walking in the same way as I did
Missing out the cracks in the pavement
And tutting my heel and strutting my feet
“Is there anything I can do for you, dear?
Is there anyone I could call?”
“No and thank you, please Madam.
I ain’t lost, just wandering”
Adele

"But I can't stay," he said, "It's stifling here, caught in this small shell, living the same small life, going through the same small routines, with the same small people. How can I go on like this?"

"But I can't go," I said, "What with my job, and my family, and bills to pay and ends to meet. How can I not see things through?"

And he said, "But there is so much out there in the wide, wide world. Cities to see and countries to roam. Different people with different words, different cultures, different lives."

And I said, "But this is where I belong, on the grass that I have mown, with the people that I have known, inside these walls that I've made my own."

And so we danced, and so we swayed. Loving, fighting, laughing, crying. Holding on, letting go. But in the end, still he went. And still I stayed.

And here I stay still, till the day he tires of the wide, wide world, and finally comes home.

Dreaming With A Broken Heart / The Space Between Their Bodies

When you're dreaming with a broken heart
The waking up is the hardest part
You roll out of bed and down on your knees
And for a moment you can hardly breathe
John Mayer

Alfy lay half-awake, barely aware of the chill air from the airconditioning that blowing across his back. At least, not until it was replaced by the heat off the other body that now crept up to him.

"Good morning, handsome," said the breath that nuzzled his ear. Alfy could hear the smile in that breath.

A strong arm snaked around to his front, the hand just stopping on his belly, that once boasted of abs but now had gone a little soft with age. Something else strong and firm was pressing him from behind.

Alfy pretended he was asleep, and just as he decided this, the breath grazed his ear again.

"Pretending to be sleeping? What naughty dreams are you having then?"

Rolling over, Alfy opened his eyes... and the bed was empty on the other side.

Was he really dreaming? He should have felt surprised to see no one there. But he wasn't surprised. He wasn't angry. He wasn't hurt or even sad. The only feeling he had was a small sense of resignation.

He closed his eyes again with a sigh. Perhaps he really was dreaming, after all.

And he opened his eyes. And the light was right, and the bed felt as it always had. And when he rolled over, there was Jian, sleeping on his side, as usual. His back to Alfy, as usual.

Alfy's hand slid over to touch Jian, but it stopped on the space that lay between their bodies. How cool it felt in his hand. How smooth and unruffled. And how, how wide.

His hand shifted the blankets instead, and he got out of bed. He'd be late for work, if they did get frisky. More likely though, he'd wake Jian and Jian would be grumpy.

So Alfy washed, and dressed, and left their apartment, quietly locking the door behind him. It was then that he remembered that he hadn't kissed Jian goodbye.

But he couldn't remember how long it had been since he last kissed Jian goodbye.

Beautiful / Frenzied

Such pretty hair. May I kiss you, may I kiss you there
Me'shell Ndegeocello

X'shyreh flitted about, whistling flirtatious notes and batting her lashes at Yrkrzsh. Oh but he was handsome, the most handsome of all the males in their aerie. But she knew something else - as handsome as he was, she was even more beautiful.

And so she toyed with him - darting left, darting right, keeping the male's head twitching this way, that way, his eyes never tearing away. With each pass, strands of her fine, translucent hair brushed his face, teasing him with her perfume. The feathers of her wings stroked his chest, stoking the fire of his heat.

And the dance began. He grabbed, and she evaded his grasp. He spun around, and she poked her toe into his nape.

He reached.

She relented.

And they fell into an embrace, the female melting against the male, as if she was not close enough to him. As if she could never be close enough to him.

Swamped in the scents of their fevered coupling, Yrkrzsh unhooked his jaws and his beak dropped open, large and looming. Slowly, he devoured the acquiescent female whole.

Deep in his belly, X'shyreh savoured the feeling of warmth and security. His fluids surrounding her, she was not drowning, but rather she was disintegrating, losing her self, becoming one with him.

Her final thought: Come the spring, their children will break out from the shell of their father's body, to fly out into the world. And oh, they will be so beautiful.

The Third Volume: In Which We Learn A Little More Of Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair & Delirium (Who Was Once Delight)

I've dribbled, drooled, gushed and gasped over this enough times already last year and the year before that. Suffice to say, I'm still incredibly loving Sandman (even though it's been a little more than a decade since I first read it!), and I am so so glad I grabbed that second-to-last of the Volume III's in Kino last weekend at 20% off.

Thanks to the vigilant Wingedman for tipping me off! Haha. I suppose by now their stocks will be gone until the reorder comes in. Hehe.

Volume III covers the "Brief Lives" story arc, the tales told at World's End, and a host of miscellaneous standalone yarns, including the rather inspirational - "Fear of Falling".

I love "Brief Lives", mainly because of the heavy involvement of Delirium, one of Gaiman's most fascinating characters (kind of the Fool archetype who spouts all sorts of weird shit and and occasionally some really insightful shit just falls out). Dream, getting all gloomy as usual after get spurned (yet again), decides to tag along his sister in her search for their missing brother. Yes, all sorts of things happen, including yet another pebble getting cast into that murky pond of fate. Add that to all the other pebbles and ripples from the previous stories and you'd get... Volume IV of course.

The miscellany of stories in Volume III does serve as a little break. It's really the calm before the storm. Volume IV would be the last of the collection, climaxing the series with "The Kindly Ones" followed by the very beautiful epilogue, "The Wake" (of which a glimpse is given in Volume III).

I'm so looking forward to finally having the entire Sandman series in my collection. Thankfully, I don't have to wait that long as it's due for release come year's end, just in time for Christmas sales.

Yay!

Sergio Aragones' Gream?

Delirium/Delight

Little Endless!

Mama Mia!

My, oh my.

Not even halfway through the top twenty of So You Think Can Dance Season 4, and, oh my gawd... already that crazyawesomequirkygenius *takes deep breath* breathtakingmindbendingamazingbeautifulbeautifulbeautiful choreographer Mia Michaels is Delivering. Yes, that's with a capital D!

Sigh...

I'm gonna shut up now cos really, her stories are so much better than mine.

This has got to be the best start to the show yet. Heck, fabulous diva runway coach extraordinaire Ms J even made a cameo appearance in it! Oh wait... was that Chelsea T???

I love emo stories like this. All that weighty baggage condensed into such small movements! Almost made me cry except I was too busy whooping over that 'assisted run' across the stage :P