Pedro1954

I don’t call in very often, but now I’m here I’m delighted to find a new report from Fletcher and Tomas. Many thanks. … I always feel that Fletcher and Tomas, or at least some amalgam of the two, are the closest of your characters to the man I think you are. Best wishes

Questions, Questions A real estate developer that doesn’t pay their sub-contractors. Where have I heard that before? A bank manager being schmoozed for a loan? One big enough that if the borrower can’t pay the bank is the one with the problem? Does this development project include a golf course on prime wildlife habitat? Is that what finally gets Rick fired up, especially if it includes taking over his property? Time for someone to start digging into Rita’s background. Will Mrs Lee prove to be Eagle Lake’s Miss Marple? Is Isolde a gossip? Presto and Fortissimo expected with the entry of Heinrich Senior. Maybe an adagio with the piano tutor afterwards?

Wonderful, as ever. I really like the interlocked Rubayat form, something you introduced me to some time ago. Thanks again. After some initial hiccups, I was pretty good at maths at least until I was stymied by 3-d calculus at Uni. Having said that I’m sure my classmates and I would have learnt more with some lateral tuition similar to yours. With this in mind your poem deserves a reply in kind covering topics ranging from basic algebra, via Laplace transforms to Fermat's Last Theorem. Alas the best I can manage is a rather simple, down-market offering: His students, the tutor’d perplex Teaching maths in verse, by heck! But they’re all sure It’s no longer a bore To solve those equations for X.

Still enjoying this story. Chimes with the times. ”Slab = Australian slang for a carton of 24 cans of beer.” My Aussie relatives tell me it is also a unit of time: “How long will that job take?” ”Aa. About a slab and a half!”

Just a quick note to say that I am enjoying these glimpses into the Covid world. Thanks. Now there’s an expression I haven’t heard before! So true. Maybe one of those long tails is attached to a dead cat.

Thank you for your kind and generous comments that also reinforce my view of the man I think you are. Your sonnet demanded that I make an effort with my response and not just regurgitate the thoughts of others in my normal, lazy, manner. —— Pooh! I’ve spotted yet another typo - it should be ‘grim’ in the penultimate line not ‘dire’.

Ah Parker! Oft your verse to me reveals a kind and gentle soul imbued with sweet melancholy. Would I were near to hold your cares to soothe. Although from your prose Aquinas props my thesis, darker tales than those contend catharsis. Would I dire memories could salve. But these September lines reveal, penned with just conviction, a core of life-forged steel bright with grim prediction. Would that I have strength to walk arm in arm with you.

Aah. What a nice place to end..... and leave the readers wanting more. But maybe you will have time now to finish Michael, Peter and Patrick's story. Hint Hint.

Some time ago (DDD ch8) I thought there was something going on between Ayil and Ariel, now we find they have a history (Ayil shooting the red arrows) and a future (courtesy of Theo ). Great story ticking lots of boxes for me ✔️ Theo gets to shoot his boss ✔️ ✔️ We meet a representative of the higher powers - who is a Whoopi Goldberg look-alike, maybe even the real thing. ✔️ A nestling - with an AI cookie covered in pocket fluff . ( by the way, what are AI cookies? I don’t remember seeing a description. Possibly spekulaas in the shape of an angel and imp pair?) ✔️ Angie and Imp. “Don’t call me Angie.! “ and , unsaid, “Don’t call me love!” ✔️ A kilt ✔️ Coffee cake - Theo stop rolling your eyes!

Great chapter. I can feel the Iceland sparkles around them, but the following exchange makes my worry:- “Yes, but this is just a theory. I think one of my fellow angels fell in love with a human in that place. This person lived a very long life and didn’t seem to age. But eventually they died, and at the same time the angel faded.” Diego thought for a moment before he caught on to the word ‘fellow’. Oh, fuck. I wonder… He took a deep breath. “Are you talking about one of the entities who’re now part of your cloak?” Are Az and Diego destined to fade and leave all the souls uncollected? Or are there so few good souls left that Azreal’s work is nearly done?

Cannibal slugs, pastry snails and rainfall distribution in Spain... don’t ya just love thread drift! Great chapter. Azrael is really coming over as kind and compassionate- not what you might expect for the angel of death. I am looking forward to Diego’s ceremony and the possibility of silver arrows flying. Also the interaction between the department heads. Is the reason Ariel is in such a strop something to do with someone we haven’t heard of before: the Captain of the Celestial Guard? My guess he is cute, blond, wears a (sports) vizor and is surrounded by sparkles........ dammit, did you have to introduce us to SATW comics?

Thanks for another great chapter. The card sounds superb. I wonder if Theo is going to find two of the fairies cavorting in the bubbly resemble a certain couple, that he shot with silver arrows, making their cameo appearance? Diego seems to think the award ceremony will be the usual fake vellum certificate and a handshake from the boss and not even a hint of a bonus. Will he be proved wrong and it be a cross departmental affair (after all Ayil was there to verify the mission), with departmental heads, incl. Azrael, and possibly a rep from higher powers ? Sablo would have to be there to support his brother and Theo there as Ayil’s bag/quiver carrier. We would get to see Ayil and Ariel together in the same room as well. Could be an interesting aura mix that one.

Maybe because, for once, Sablo had actually done what his brother suggested and turned his phone off? What I want to know is how Azreal knew to drop into Theo’s apartment to comfort him? I also think a bike (Ayil’s) parked next to Theo’s has the potential to cause trouble, especially if Sablo follows through and buys his own roadster! Perhaps Sablo should eat humble pie and visit Ayil again since he shot them with the silver arrows. I was going to suggest that Diego should arrange to bump into Ramiel to pass a message to Theo but on second thoughts..... maybe not!

Wonderful, as always. I think my favourites are 3 and 4. 3 because wearing the foul tie has a delightful consequence that was probably not foreseen by the donor no matter how much thought and good intention had gone into choosing the present. 4 I like for the cadence of the repeated form - and your willingness to stand guard against your small friends’s enemies. (Too many of the cats that live near me are the bird-murdering sort). 6 had me visualise that stand of Scotch pines holding firm on the brow of the hill. Hawthorn used to mean hedges when I was younger but now I can see them as the trees they are meant to be with the intrigue of their twisted forms and indented foliage now, in spring, a first flush of vivid green, almost as delightful in leaf bud as in flower. Not forgetting their bounteous harvest for your feathered friends later in the year. As for willow shedding cynical crocodile tears - I can see the shallowness you imply. Thanks for a delightful start to the month.

Great stuff. Ayil isn’t quite the stuffed shirt we thought him to be, but as a cupid I suppose it is part of the job requirement to be perceptive and occasionally sympathetic. But this exchange makes me think there is more going on between the commanders than we have been told:- Quote : “What? They think because they are big and badass they are God’s gift to Earth—or humankind. It’s all that elitist Roman. He hates us.” “He hates us? Why?” “Er... Let’s not discuss him. “ End quote.

I used to climb trees half a century and more ago (and fell out more than once). Your verse brought back memories of the fun. Alas I never had a friend to share the excitement and who might have moved me to scribe my own runes. I would probably have been too naive to recognise the emotions for what they were even if I had had that special friend. I find the quiet melancholy often in your work speaks to me. A sadness but without rancour. Like taking an autumn walk in woods and kicking your shoes through brown fallen leaves, knowing the coldness of winter approaches but remembering being able to enjoy the warm days of summer even though you have no one to share them with.

He he. Pun infection. Not fatal but can cause temporary incapacity through involuntary groans or laughter.

To me this implies that a) there are soulless humans around already and b) there is a finite number of souls, either new and held in stock or collected into Azrael’s cloak for reuse/reincarnation. It has been established that human numbers are expanding at rate not expected in the Big Guy/Powers original business model. Sooner or later the finite number of souled will be an insufficient proportion to influence the behaviour of the soulless for the general good. How does the dark side represented by Imp and his superiors affect the model?

Leaving aside the possibility of involving the AI team, I have another question. What if the Powers are worried that Azrael is getting worn down by his job and is close to fading away like his former colleagues? What would happen to all the human souls uncollected at death? Wander the Earth as ghosts for evermore?

Like favours received from the gods of Greece and Rome, an AI intervention could be a mixed blessing. I am sure Imp wouldn’t pass up a chance to mess with Sablo’s head and maybe Theliel’s too. If it cheekily tweaked the Powers as well... too good to miss.

Ee. There’s trouble at t’mill ! (to use a very old cliche) Maybe Sablo needs to be put right by someone outside his Guardian/Cupid orbit. I think I know just the imp to do it too. A little bit of extra -curricular activity for him and Angie might be payback to Theliel for his shooting them with silver arrows. As for Theliel (who is revealed as much older than the twenty-something I thought he was), I would like to know more about his past relationship with Azrael. - pretty please!

Death has a beautiful garden to retreat to away from the day job. Who would have guessed.? Now what odds on Ayil that sneekily gone against his beloved protocol and has issued a special test kit to Theliel ? Maybe extra-special flèches d’or as well? The way Diego seems to be acting I also wonder if a certain pair are going to find themselves as not needed on this challenge. hee hee, looking forward to more next week!

I don’t think I have seen the form before. (Thanks to Mikesboy for the explanation). I can see it must be quite a challenge to put together and avoid the repeating lines seeming trite. I was really struck by the way the impact of the lines were different on the repeat. Truly impressive. I never really got the point of poetry when I had to study it for a short while at school, but you have caught my interest with your interlocked rubaiyats, your delightful bird poems and now this. Thank you so much.

All good fun. Hopefully his being used as a pincushion helps Theo and the other cupids put up with Sablo putting the boss in a bad mood. Is Diego going to miss his meal with Theo and Sablo or turn up with an extra guest? Thank you to @Pedro1954 for the nestlings with arrows idea. - Will Angie lend me his halo polish, please?

Some employers think the employees should live in their offices but ‘food and cleaning service’? Good one! I know Sablo was planning on using his partnership with Theo to get a visit with Ayil but I thought an eyebrow might have been raised when Ariel instructed them to go. Of course they found out why later on when they read the note. What they haven’t read yet are Diego’s new orders..... A whole week to wait ‘til we find out more - I shall have to borrow a couple of black cushions and a white comforter and settle down for a nap.