the first line of yer novel

@moonbus said
There is no such thing as worst chocolate; any chocolate is better than no chocolate.

There were four and twenty of them and they came down from Inverness.

The D'orks from a distant galaxy known only as DSM-5 powered down their enturbulator generators and prepared to push a billion innocent souls out the air locks and into the seething volcanoes below, an act of inter-galactic barbarity which would have expensive consequences for the humans who would one day evolve on that same planet to find their bodies invaded by the etheric ectoplasmic remnants of those not entirely dead entities deposited there at the dawn of time by a certain 3d-rate but clever scifi author known to his minions by the sobriquet ELRON.

faced with a six deck shoe, loaded with brand new cards, and he still knew the next card up would be a jack -
he did not understand it, he just knew it

The darkly lit room emptied out into the early moring cool, leaving behind the smell of stale cigars, cheap bourbon, and Diamond Jim at the felted table gleefully counting his stack of lucre.

Jayapura Airport, departure lounge, 16th April 2003, 1730 hours. He decided that this was going to be the last cigarette he would ever smoke but the story I am about to tell was so exciting and tense at times, he actually ended up smoking loads more cigarettes.

‘Many have I loved, and many times been bitten; many times I've gazed along the open road’. The lyric sprang into my consciousness like a young buck deer prancing through hushed meadow. ‘Well this time you bit back’ a voice snarked. I didn’t bother looking round because by now I’d become familiar with the icy chill of no one being there. My hands trembled perceptibly and I cursed the weaknesses which had led me to this departure lounge. ’I am aware of what I did!‘ I snapped back, suddenly aware that I was being silently observed by 200 other passengers.

@divegeester said
‘Many have I loved, and many times been bitten; many times I've gazed along the open road’. The lyric sprang into my consciousness like a young buck deer prancing through hushed meadow. ‘Well this time you bit back’ a voice snarked. I didn’t bother looking round because by now I’d become familiar with the icy chill of no one being there. My hands trembled pe ...[text shortened]... did!‘[/i] I snapped back, suddenly aware that I was being silently observed by 200 other passengers.

@moonbus said
There is no such thing as worst chocolate; any chocolate is better than no chocolate.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
I think sir you are overlooking 'white' chocolate. (Or as I call it, 'the devil's food.' )

@moonbus said
The D'orks from a distant galaxy known only as DSM-5 powered down their enturbulator generators and prepared to push a billion innocent souls out the air locks and into the seething volcanoes below, an act of inter-galactic barbarity which would have expensive consequences for the humans who would one day evolve on that same planet to find their bodies invaded by the etheric ...[text shortened]... wn of time by a certain 3d-rate but clever scifi author known to his minions by the sobriquet ELRON.

@petewxyz said
Once again the galaxies of DSM-5 and ICD-11 had become deadlocked. He wondered whether the universe would simply continue to pour more and more resources into the process of endless meetings and discussion only to go full circle and return to the good old days of hebephrenia.

"hebephrenia", the doctor pronounced, over the unencrypted zoom teleconference, and i began to plan his disappearance.

@wolfe63 said
Very nice!
That's a quietly clever sentence Pete. 🙂

He decided to change his name from Nigel Slogget to Nigel Penis. He had to bung the civil registry official a tenner to turn a blind eye but Nigel saw it as an investment.