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March 15, 2007

3.15.07

"Beware the Ides of March!" On this day in Shakespeare, Julius Ceasar had a very surprising day at the office.

Write about the middle.

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Jim: A Tolkien Resistance

The warrior rested against a boulder. He heard the party coming up the darkened tunnel long before he saw them round the corner, one by one.

They were all dwarves, of course, ideally suited to carrying heavy loads through these cramped passages. Hardy and tenacious, they also tended to be surly.

The warrior acknowledged their incessant grumbling with a wry grin. “Smile, gentlefolk. Our noble queen has declared this to be the greatest age of Middle Earth!”

“‘Frodo’ wouldn’t be so cheerful if he spent the day lugging bread crumbs down from Upper Earth,” one of the worker ants mumbled.

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Jeff R.: One Place to Start

Raymond Pilsner was defined to his friends by the blank discettes he sold in a half-unit at the dying mall. Then the time-portal opened near the DVD+Rs and Princess Nissanda, warrior-queen of 2811 AD, fell through, carrying a sword long as she was tall and dressed in an outfit revealing most of her pale blue skin. "You've got to help me, Ray", she said. "Hurry, the Daemon Horde is only minutes behind."

Confused, dear reader? Don't worry. You'll be able to catch up as the story moves alone. It's all to be expected when a story starts in Media Ray's.

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David: If It Makes You Feel Better, They Get Eaten

The monster was tracking them, he could tell. He dragged her into the carnival midway, thinking the crowd would mask them, give them a chance. The pair ran past the rigged games of chance, resisting the temptation of three throws for only one dollar.

At the far end of the midway, the couple found themselves between the tent full of wild-card gambling and a sideshow manned by dead-eyed, face-painted slapstick entertainers, with no way out.

He looked at her and said, “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right. Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.”

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