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c05e649
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Moonrise," I told him, then turned on my heel and walked quickly from the alley, although my sock feet on the gravel, combined with my limp, probably spoiled the badass image."
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Jim Butcher |
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752a1da
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Punctuality is for people with nothing better to do,
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Jim Butcher |
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ddeb4ea
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Here's something else I bet you didn't know about Tyrannosaurs: they don't corner well
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Jim Butcher |
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9bccad8
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I had never much believed in God. Well, that's not quite true. I believed that there was a God, or something close enough to it to warrant the name--if there were demons, there had to be angels, right? If there was a Devil, somewhere, there had to be a God. But He and I had never really seen things in quite the same terms.
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Jim Butcher |
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c6d0517
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You walk through shadows and one night you will slip and fall. And when you do, we will be there. We will be waiting to bring you down to us. You will be ours in the end.
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Jim Butcher |
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9614fe7
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Then you know that Sam was the true hero of the tale," Sanya said. "That he faced far greater and more terrible foes than he ever should have had to face, and did so with courage. That he went alone into a black and terrible land, stormed a dark fortress, and resisted the most terrible temptation of his world for the sake of the friend he loved. That in the end, it was his actions and his actions alone that made it possible for light to ove..
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Jim Butcher |
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f506993
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Let he who hath never worn parachute pants cast the first stone.
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Jim Butcher |
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c059b46
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Nobel prize for pornography.
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Jim Butcher |
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35a98fe
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She was a complex woman," Anastasia said. "Brilliant, erratic, passionate, committed, idealistic, talented, charming, insulting, bold, incautious, arrogant--and short-sighted, yes." --
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Jim Butcher |
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a111895
|
If I was writing during that window, then I imagine that the story was likely late as well and absolutely needed to be finished, so once again I met with inspiration at the corner of Late and Hurry up.
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Jim Butcher |
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b11ced4
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The occult community he had in mind was the usual New Age, crystal-gazing, tarot-turning, palm-reading crowd you see in any large city. Most of them were harmless, and many had at least a little ability at magic. Add in a dash of feng-shui artists, season liberally with Wiccans of a variety of flavors and sincerities, blend in a few modestly gifted practitioners who liked mixing religion with their magic, some followers of voodoo, a few San..
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Jim Butcher |
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60c10aa
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The clock has superpowers. It always seems to move too slowly. Look up at it and it will tell you the time. Look up an hour and a half later, and it will tell you two minutes have gone by.
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Jim Butcher |
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632e3ab
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Everyone begs everyone's pardon, but I've never seen a pardon. Is it near the spleen?" Bridget blinked, then gave her head a little shake to keep the odd thought from crawling into her ear."
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Jim Butcher |
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1c5e417
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I drove my right fist into its stupid, creepy face. Man, the yahoos I scrap with never seem to anticipate that tactic. They all assume that what with me being a wizard and all, I'm going to stand back and chuck Magic Missiles at them or something, then scream and run away the second they get close enough to let me see the whites of their eyes.
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Jim Butcher |
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9f41d7b
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The married thing. Sometimes I look at it and feel like someone from a Dickens novel, standing outside in the cold and staring in at Christmas dinner.
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Jim Butcher |
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fba1b79
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I have fought long and hard against horrors even you would respect. I have been beaten, but I have not yielded. I'm not going to start yielding now.
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Jim Butcher |
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9650472
|
Wait," Connie said again. "A . . . what? Am I going to sparkle or something?" "God, no," said Irwin and I together."
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irwin-bigfoot
side-jobs
short-stories
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Jim Butcher |
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9f99965
|
This block had seen the apocalypse come, grunted, and said, "Meh."
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Jim Butcher |
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7ce7dbd
|
There is a primal reassurance in being touched, in knowing that someone else, someone close to you, wants to be touching you. There is a bone-deep security that goes with the brush of a human hand, a silent, reflex-level affirmation that someone is near, that someone cares. It seemed that, lately, I had barely been touched at all.
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Jim Butcher |
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bba75b9
|
I closed the door behind me, while life went on.
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Jim Butcher |
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621dff4
|
It isn't enough to stand up and fight darkness. You've got to stand apart from it, too. You've got to be different from it.
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virtue
morality
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Jim Butcher |
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93d05a2
|
Olympian, I should think, from the colors and the fur trim of his coat," Master Ferus put in. "Olympian and, it would seem, possessed of a fury. Which is funny, if you know enough history."
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Jim Butcher |
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2cd19c2
|
Pain isn't a lot of fun, at least not for most folks, but it is utterly unique to life. Pain--physical, emotional, and otherwise--is the shadow cast by everything you want out of life, the alternative to the result you were hoping for, and the inevitable creator of strength. From the pain of our failures we learn to be better, stronger, greater than what we were before. Pain is there to tell us when we've done something badly--it's a teache..
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Jim Butcher |
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d2df904
|
his scent like leather and fresh wind,
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Jim Butcher |
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aa49567
|
I'll give the rat his due--he's got balls that drag the ground when he walks.
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Jim Butcher |
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cdcbe20
|
It isn't that simple, Harry. No matter where you go, there you are." "Look, I've had a long night." "I know," my double said. "Believe me, I know. That's why it's important to get some of this out now, before it settles in. Before you blow a gasket on your sanity, man." "I've not worried about that," I lied. "I'm as solid as a brick wall." My double snorted. "If you weren't getting pretty close to crazy, would you be talking to yourself rig..
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Jim Butcher |
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0a5a20e
|
The fastest way for us to help make him into a monster is to look at him like he is one.
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Jim Butcher |
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90755ae
|
He bared his teeth, white against his dark skin. "How long have you been a Wiccan?" "A what?" "A pagan. A witch." "I'm not a witch," I said, glancing out the door. "I'm a wizard." Sanya frowned. "What is the difference?" "Wizard has a Z."
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Jim Butcher |
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4b2ce18
|
Cujo growled at me in the rearview mirror again, and I beamed at him. Smiling always seems to annoy people more than actually insulting them. Or maybe I just have an annoying smile.
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Jim Butcher |
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f2fe068
|
wildcat. I found him in a Dumpster one day when he was a kitten and he promptly adopted me. Despite my struggles, Mister had been an understanding soul, and I eventually came to realize that I was a part of his little family, and by his gracious consent was allowed to remain in his apartment. Cats. Go figure.
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Jim Butcher |
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72ad8db
|
There was little sense in attempting anything like subtlety, so I donned my bottle green spectacles, focused my supernatural senses, and began a slow survey of the entire place. The energy known as magic exists on a broad spectrum, much like light. Just as light can be split into its colors by a sufficient prism, magical energy can be more clearly distinguished by using the proper tools. The spectacles gave me a chance to view the energy sw..
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Jim Butcher |
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53a6f66
|
They say that you're the real thing, Mister Dresden. A real magus." "They also say I'm nutty as a fruitcake." "I choose which 'they' I listen to very carefully,"
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Jim Butcher |
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bf34071
|
I might as well put on a red shirt and volunteer for the away team.
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Jim Butcher |
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38cb1b6
|
And if you're very, very lucky, there are a very few blazing hot little pains you feel when you realize that you are standing in a moment of utter perfection, an instant of triumph, or happiness, or mirth which at the same time cannot possibly last--and yet will remain with you for life.
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Jim Butcher |
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9b2e7ff
|
When you do something stupid and die, it's pathetic," I said. "When you do something stupid and survive it, then you get to call it impressive or heroic."
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heroic
stupid
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Jim Butcher |
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7dcc8ac
|
The evening had obviously been moving along entirely too smoothly, I thought. Something had gone wrong.
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Jim Butcher |
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a5a6d38
|
Everyone dies alone. That's what it is. It's a door. It's one person wide. When you go through it, you do it alone.
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Jim Butcher |
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c27e20b
|
life isn't simple. There is such a thing as black and white. Right and wrong. But when you're in the thick of things, sometimes it's hard for us to tell. You didn't do what you did for your own benefit. You did it so that you could protect others. That doesn't make it right--but it doesn't make you a monster, either. You still have free will. You still get to choose what you will do and what you will be and what you will become.
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Jim Butcher |
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9b9839b
|
People who know diddly about wizards don't like to give us their names. They're convinced that if they give a wizard their name from their own lips it could be used against them. To be fair, they're right.
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Jim Butcher |
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3b5f61b
|
But, as it turned out, hell got up awfully early in the morning.
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Jim Butcher |
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275fc1a
|
I would beat you to crap if you didn't already look like it,
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Jim Butcher |
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eb54c84
|
Crap," I said. I'm quite eloquent in times of crisis"
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Jim Butcher |
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d88dc88
|
Magic comes from the heart, from your feelings, your deepest expressions of desire. That's why black magic is so easy--it comes from lust, from fear and anger, from things that are easy to feed and make grow. The sort I do is harder. It comes from something deeper than that, a truer and purer source--harder to tap, harder to keep, but ultimately more elegant, more powerful. My magic. That was at the heart of me. It was a manifestation of wh..
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Jim Butcher |
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981b431
|
She was wearing jeans, a black tank top, and a loose black man's shirt
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Jim Butcher |