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7459/K, please start with your arguments. You’ll have the first word….

*switch*

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Soap Opera

Klimax Group proudly presents: The House of Nouth

In this episode: Will Zathatera face new troubles? Just released from jail—after he found out that his mother is, in truth, his father and a vegetarian—he accidentally killed his estranged parent and an innocent neighbour, while on drugs during a fishing holiday. What he doesn’t know is that his mother/father isn’t truly dead, but subscribed to a Malaysian dance troupe, while his neighbour…is truly dead.

But he won’t have any rest. Unhappy, he tries to interfere in the marriage of his stepdaughter, Althera…Will he succeed?

We press thumbs.

*switch*

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Now, you simply break the three legs off, and fill the beetle with the garlic and a bit of Croni liquor…I’ve just prepared this….

*switch*

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*glb glib*

*brb brb*

*switch*

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Haggerty and Marley are close to the hing straight. The decision must come now….

*switch*

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The Dhole seems restless. After the argument with historian Zkauba, he/she/it seems to be losing ground. The sympathies of the public are clearly on the side of the natives, as the voting shows….

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The new single by the Alhambra Flutes….

…accompanied by the Tolero Brothers….

“You just can’t catch me…but if you did, I wouldn’t care.”

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Gardening with Modern Cybernetics

The secrets of unique blossoming, and colours simply from out of this world, revealed by the Ythians.

Make your neighbour rip his head off!

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Crime on Io

Seven Mooncats and a youngish Zook are dead, but who’s the victim?

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Documentary: Delve with us into the ruins of Ib and rediscover astonishing revelations of an unknown past.

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If you call now, we’ll even add this useful pincer at the price of only 30 Crex!

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Chemistry for Kids

Part 1—How to build a door between the worlds.

Part 2—Nitrogen bombs in three easy steps.

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The News

The price of energy decreases, due through the find of a new crystal specimen on Venus.

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Headhunting Live

Who will catch the criminal on the run? Call now…McCarty and his team of Old Ones are, as usual, prepared…This ain’t fun for the juvenile nightgaunt.

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Opera

Dubbed in Ancient Egyptian and Modern English.

Kla (Hero): What do you want of me?

Ste (Heroine): Kill him.

Kla: I cannot do this.

Ste: Kill him.

Kla: Don’t tempt me, dearest; don’t tempt me.

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The Dhole broke free! It’s rampaging through the conference room. The assembled are panic-stricken. It’s breaking down the door and moves out of sight.

Wait for more breaking news.

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Only metres remain between Haggerty and the final. But what now? A Dhole enters the racecourse. It squeezes two participants into the corners and keeps aiming at Haggerty, simply sweeps him away….

What a tragic ending of a gorgeous day in sports….

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News: Dhole heading for the Portal.

News: Energy prices slightly increasing.

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*glrb nub?*

*grub clrb?*—“What does the Dhole here?”

*knub crlb*—“Take that for breaking my headstone!”

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“Out of my kitchen! Oh, no, the dessert!”

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Chemistry for Kids

“The portal works and, as suspected, it reveals a Dhole…a Dhole?! Argh!”

“It’s getting at the bomb!”

“Well observed, Mickey!”

BOOOMB!

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News: Studio Five has mysteriously exploded. Tragically, it also caught an energy depot close by…Stay tuned for more news.

News: Prices for energy high as never before!

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Opera

“What do you want me to do?”

“Kill, kill, kill!”

*switch*

Snow

*switch*

*switch*

Shut down due to maintenance.

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Stay tuned.

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TRI-TV was yesterday! Today, we have printed paper!

DO NOT IMAGINE

By Mari Ness

Mari Ness’ fiction and poetry have appeared in multiple print and online publications, including Clarkesworld, Fantasy Magazine, Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic Science Fiction, Goblin Fruit, and Ideomancer. Further small insights into her mind and work can be found at: mariness.livejournal.com, and on Twitter at: mari_ness. She lives in central Florida, and openly admits to being rather grateful that the streetlight at the end of the block keeps monsters away at night.

You, in your long, grey ships of cold rationality and hard mathematics, shimmering along the path of light, bending time in your starswept path: Do not imagine yourselves free of madness. Not the rich, pulsing joy of winedrunk dance, nor the madness that lets poets speak to stars and hear songs from the dripping waters of rain caught upon roofs of steel, or the cold, silent songs pulsing from the deep. Not the madness of high towers, of concrete poured over pulsing grass, or the frenzy of human dance, of instruments and drums, singers chanting in the dark, collapsing with the sun. Those are the insanities of earth, the madness that only earth and water can beat into bone and brain. But the madness of the dark, the madness of the silent stars, the madness of the dark matter that will move upon your ships— Do not imagine yourselves so free. Do not imagine that in this darkness, nothing awaits. Do not imagine that no one will hear you scream. In the spaces between stars, our tentacles pulse. We see your grey ships and thirst. We eat upon human screams, and in the shadows of the stars, we hunger, hunger. The bright stars in all their frenzy hide us well. We hunger. We hunger. You cannot imagine.

RUBEDO, AN ALCHEMY OF MADNESS

By Michael Matheson