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c5b216a
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You killed my dog! Get your affairs in order.
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Jim Butcher |
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e83ca70
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Better safe than exsanguinated.
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Jim Butcher |
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5295ed3
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If I lived through the next day or so, I needed to start keeping track of where these jokers liked to get their bloodthirsty freak on. It might give me an edge someday. Or at least a list of places that could use a nice burning down. I hadn't burned down a building in ages.
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fire
dresden
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Jim Butcher |
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c831434
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Demonreach only wants Harry to see what's going on." "Why doesn't it just marry him?" Thomas muttered under his breath. "It sort of did," I said. "My brother the... geosexual?"
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Jim Butcher |
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3f70935
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As I pulled into the parking lot, I reflected that odds were that not a lot of clandestine meetings involving mystical assassination, theft of arcane power, and the balance of power in the realms of the supernatural had taken place in a Wal-Mart Super Center. But then again, maybe they had. Hell, for all I knew, the Mole Men used the changing rooms as a place to discuss plans for world domination with the Psychic Jellyfish from Planet X and..
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Jim Butcher |
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1e754bb
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The venom," she [Susan] said quietly. "They call it their Kiss." "I guess I can't blame them. It sounds a lot more romantic than 'narcotic drool."
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Jim Butcher |
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920ddf9
|
Okay," I said to Karrin. "Let's move." "Uh," she asked, without turning her head. "move where?" "The island," I said. "Harry, this is a motorcycle." "It'll work," I said. "Look at it." Karrin jerked as she noted the appearance of the Harley. "You want me to drive into the lake." "You have to admit," I said, "it isn't the craziest thing I've ever asked you to do. It isn't even the craziest thing I've asked you to do ."
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Jim Butcher |
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0f7435b
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It isn't complicated. You just open up and let someone in. And whatever comes after that, you face it together.
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Jim Butcher |
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d648673
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They paid some madman who thought he was a decorator a lot of money to make the place look hip and unique. May be it's my lack of fashion sense talking, but I thought they should have held out for one of those gorillas who has learned to paint. The results would have been of similar quality, and they could have paid in fresh produce. - Harry Dresden, Small Favor, Jim Butcher
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magic
wizards
paranormal
harry-dresden
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Jim Butcher |
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700c5ba
|
The world always thinks that the destruction of a physical vessel is victory," he said quietly. "But the Savior was more than merely cells and tissue and chemical compounds--and Fidelacchius is more than wood and steel."
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Jim Butcher |
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bc51997
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So there I was being strangled by a ranting, half-naked madman in the middle of the woods, with a she-werewolf dangling from a rope snare somewhere nearby.
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Jim Butcher |
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e79ec8e
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Anyway, my office is small - one room, but on the corner, with a couple of windows. The sign on the door reads, simply, HARRY DRESDEN, WIZARD. Just inside the door is a table, covered with pamphlets with titles like: Magic and You, and Why Witches Don't Sink Any Faster Than Anyone Else - a Wizard's Perspective. I wrote most of them. I think it's important for we practitioners of the Art to keep up a good public image. Anything to avoid anot..
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Jim Butcher |
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9f06a52
|
Bob wasn't precisely a friend to me but... I was used to him. In a way he was family, the mouthy, annoying, irritable cousin who was always insulting you but who was definitely at Thanksgiving dinner. I had never considered the possibility that one day he might be something else.
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Jim Butcher |
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078418c
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We're all so damned fragile.
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fragility
human-frailties
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Jim Butcher |
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f4a07b5
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Give it to 'em!" Take 'em down!" First Aleran!" Kick their furry--" Assault formation!"
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Jim Butcher |
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72f06b1
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Go back," he said. "Can't. Stand aside?" "Can't." "So it's like that?" I said. Fix exhaled. Then he nodded. "Yeah." And for the first time in a decade the Winter Knight and Summer Knight went to war."
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Jim Butcher |
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27d1c43
|
It was a well-known fact that humans became more addled than usual when running in herds.
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Jim Butcher |
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884f7b6
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Thomas barked out a laugh. "There are of us against the Red King and his thirteen most powerful nobles, and it's going well?" Mouse sneezed. "Eight," Thomas corrected himself. He rolled his eyes and said, "And the psycho death faerie makes it nine." "It is like movie," Sanya said, nodding. "Dibs on Legolas."
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Jim Butcher |
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08145f4
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I folded my arms. "I don't usually do stakeouts." "I thought it might be a nice change of pace for you. All that knocking down of doors and burning down of buildings must get tiring." "I don't always knock down doors," I said. "Sometimes it's a wall."
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Jim Butcher |
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d5c5b75
|
She bowed her head and said, "Lord of hosts, please stand with us against this darkness." The quiet, bedrock-deep energy of true faith brushed against me. Murphy echoed the gesture and the amen. Thomas and I tried to look theologically invisible."
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invisible
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Jim Butcher |
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ecebbbb
|
Bloody hell," he gasped. "Harry. There's a *knife* in my leg. When did *that* happen?" "In the duel," I told him. "Don't you remember?" "I thought you'd stepped on me and sprained my ankle," Ramirez replied. Then he blinked again. "Bloody hell. There's a *knife* in my guts." He peered at them. "And they match."
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Jim Butcher |
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366db40
|
You don't have to make fun of it." "Actually I do," I said. "I make fun of almost everything."
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snark
teasing
sarcasm
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Jim Butcher |
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55fc74a
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I grunted. It's something I picked up over a fifteen-year career in law enforcement. Men have managed to create a complex and utterly impenetrable secret language consisting of monosyllabic sounds and partial words--and they are apparently too thick to realize it exists. Maybe they really are from Mars. I'd been able to learn a few Martian phrases over time, and one of the useful ones was the grunt that meant "I acknowledge that I've heard ..
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humor
men-and-women
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Jim Butcher |
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28ffa0c
|
You about done?" I asked him. "I need the table." "What is it with you people?" Butters groused. "For God's sake, these are real injuries here." "There will be more of them than a thousand reluctant physicians could patch up if we don't get moving," I said. "Today's serious business, man." "How serious?" "Can't think when it's been grimmer," I said. "Freaking waste-of-space vampires, lying around on tables you need to use." "Useless wizards..
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Jim Butcher |
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f0016cc
|
Knight takes Knight," I called into the cloudy night air. "Check."
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Jim Butcher |
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77e2396
|
People always equate beauty with good, but it just ain't so.
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good-and-evil
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Jim Butcher |
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47e8bb8
|
Thomas grunted. "Might have been smarter for them to have left you alone. Now you know something." I made an exasperated sound. "Yes. Those fools. By trying to kill me, they've revealed their very souls. I have them now." Thomas gave me a steady look. "Being Mab's bitch has made you a pessimist." "I am not a pessimist," I said loftily. "Though can't last." That made Thomas grin. "Nice." "Thank you."
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Jim Butcher |
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4d0c5ee
|
For the record, surgeries aren't pretty. there's a hideous sense of intimately inappropriate exposure to another human being, and it feel something like accidentally walking in on a naked parent. Only there's more gore. Bits are exposed that just shouldn't be out in the open, and they're covered in blood. Its embarrassing, disgusting, and unsettling all at the same time." Harry Dresden, Turn Coat."
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Jim Butcher |
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8ed0f25
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Magic is a kind of energy. It is given shape by human thoughts and emotions, by imagination. Thoughts define that shape--and words help to define those thoughts. That's why wizards usually use words to help them with their spells. Words provide a sort of insulation as the energy of magic burns through a spell caster's mind.
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Jim Butcher |
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ba232cf
|
Sometimes I think that's where most of us are. Fighting off the crazy as best we can. Trying to become something better than we were. It's that second bit that's important.
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Jim Butcher |
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adc0dcf
|
It took several minutes, and when Butters woke up, Andi and Marci, both naked, both rather pleasant that way, were giving him CPR. They'd kept his body alive in the absence of his soul. "Wow," Butters slurred as he opened his eyes. He looked back and forth between the two werewolf girls. "Subtract the horrible pain in my chest, and all the mold and mildew, and I'm living the dream." Then he passed out."
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Jim Butcher |
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ccca339
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Sometimes the things that are good for you, in the long run, hurt for a little while when you first get to them.
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Jim Butcher |
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92429b6
|
The world might be vicious and treacherous and deadly, but it couldn't kill laughter. Laughter, like love, has power to survive the worst things life has to offer. And to do it with style.
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Jim Butcher |
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aeacf89
|
Mac folded his arms on the bar and looked at me intently and said, in a resonant baritone, "You've got to be very careful, Harry." I looked at him, shocked. He'd...used grammar."
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Jim Butcher |
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a9bf7e5
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I am just another blind man. I do not get the whole picture of what transpires in all places. I am blind and limited. I would be a fool to think myself wise. And so, not knowing what the universe means, I can only try to be responsible with the knowledge, the strength, and the time given to me.
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Jim Butcher |
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0822450
|
An inferior sense of smell," Marcus said, as if absolutely nothing of significance had happened, "is distinct from being told that one smells unpleasant."
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Jim Butcher |
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6d42662
|
Why?" I asked him tiredly. "What would it have changed? What could you possibly have said that would have made a difference?" "That I was your brother, Harry," he said. "That I loved you. That I knew a few things about denying the dark parts of your nature. And that we would get through it." He put his elblows on his knees and rested his forehead on his hands. "That we'd figure it out. That you weren't alone." Stab. Twist. He was right. It..
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sweet
family-love
not-alone
regret
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Jim Butcher |
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05d11b2
|
So I added in all the pains I'd learned. Cooking blunders I'd had to eat anyways. Equipment and property constantly breaking down, needing repairs and attention. Tax insanity, and rushing around trying to hack a path through a jungle of numbers. Late bills. Unpleasant jobs that gave you horribly aching feet. Odd looks from people who didn't know you, when something less than utterly normal happened. The occasional night when the loneliness ..
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pain
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Jim Butcher |
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e7ecddc
|
Insecurity, thy name is teenager.
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teenagers
teenage-insecurity
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Jim Butcher |
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0a0cc6e
|
What we hadn't known about, back then, was pain. Sure, we'd faced some things as children that a lot of kids don't. Sure, Justin had qualified for his Junior de Sade Badge in his teaching methods for dealing with pain. We still hadn't learned, though, that growing up is all about getting hurt. And then getting over it. You hurt. You recover. You move on. Odds are pretty good you're just going to get hurt again. But each time, you learn some..
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Jim Butcher |
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5e10458
|
Hospital waits are bad ones. The fact that they happen to pretty much all of us, sooner or later, doesn't make them any less hideous.
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hospitals
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Jim Butcher |
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e29ee12
|
I did the only thing any reasonable wizard could have done. I turned around and ran like hell.
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wizard
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Jim Butcher |
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be7547a
|
I leaned my head back on the couch and closed my eyes. "I'm not sure what to do next. How are you as a sounding board?" "I can look interested and nod at appropriate moments," he said. "Good enough," I said."
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the-dresden-files
|
Jim Butcher |
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3eec9fb
|
Thomas said] "I have my cell phone on me. Try to call before things start exploding." "Maybe this time it'll be different. Maybe I'll work everything out through reason, diplomacy, dialogue, and mutual cooperation." Thomas eyed me. I tried to look wounded. "It could happen."
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Jim Butcher |