Author Robert C. Madison

Workin' on a mystery like Tom Petty, though whiskey distracts the following of leads. Hard to stay dogged when the #velocity of justice would befuddle Sisyphus. Easy to hide in the dark confines of a dive bar.

#vss365 #amwriting

"He's a bad dude."
"How bad can he be? I mean, a #criminal is a criminal, right?"
"I would call him #orbital. Everything around him is sucked into his delinquent gravitational pull."
"We should eclipse him."
"Your mixed metaphor is also criminal."

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#Stellar dreams crashed to Earth like so many toy rockets. His optimism converted to #contempt in a linear trek as his plans failed, though he'd dever admit his complicity. Fate made a convenient scapegoat. I pitied him each time he shook his fist at me from his porch.

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He #knowingly chose to be #heartless. Wrapped himself in a cocoon of whiskey and apathy. That way, no one could break his heart. Until one day, that #cat swaggered into his life and rescued him.

#vss365 #vssdaily #BookishTues #amwriting

Cats #crazed reliably each morning until their bowl I fill. Cacophony of havoc until the tinkle of kibble fills their bowl. They still think me #unfit in feeding responsibilities.

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I characterized him as an unserious dude with a tenuous grasp on veracity. He once said, "Like writing a check, speaking the truth is #bouncy. Maybe there's something there, maybe not. Who's to tell?"

#vss365 #amwriting

I hike deep into the #mountainous peaks, #lawless from humankind's rule, nature's will supreme. Crisp pine air fills my lungs. It's thinner up here, but that makes it more precious. It is good civilization can't perch this high.

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He fled each day to the #enchanted #kettle as the crushing nonsense of the world closed in. Those last moments of steeping always seemed the longest, but at last he had the tea which helped him #evade his troubles. Of course, the kettle wasn't magic at all.

#vss365 #vssdaily #BookishTues #amwriting

#Miniscule steps to unwrap the #cover-up, like plucking off pieces of an ancient sticker. Patience is the weapon of the dogged detective.

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Curious, those "men" of power. Mostly fools whose character growth stunted at about twelve when some #locunae went unfilled. Love, friendship, compassion. Like spinning the cylinder of a six-gun. Where will it land? What will it #destroy? Hopefully not all of us.

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He sat alone in his study, an untended fire dying in smoldering embers. He had long forgotten how to #pardon himself of #dark thoughts in unhappy times. So he spiraled into staring into the abyss, which had grown tired of him and no longer bothered staring back.

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The missiles launched on a Wednesday. "Hump day," as we mere mortals longed for a weekend which would never come again, only nuclear winter. What better angles we should have had, rather than those weaned on the #touch of #hatred.

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The sun hid below treetops opposite the lake, still water waiting in anticipation. A mourning dove's soft song floated like fog, taking its shift as the loons retired. Then dual sunrises exploded in sky and water, so #beautiful I #ached.

#vss365 #BookishTues #amwriting

They died alone. No one mourned, for they might as well not even been a memory. Into a database they went, so many Jane and John Does. Those poor souls now resting in the #Bone #Files.

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Self-inflicted #wounds, those deep in the confines of a #cult, #wound tight 'round the finger of a fraudulent yet sanctimonious leader. One thing they have in common, the followers and their leader: all they care about is the leader. Never has a cult had a happy ending.

#vss365 #vssdaily #amwriting

Thank you!!

Each night he retreated into the bookshelf-lined redoubts of his study and crafted a fire within a small hearth. Then, slumped into a battle-weary chair, the flames' light dancing #lambent upon watchful book spines, he drifted off, #drunk from memories.

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What #ghosts are these, who linger past memory's expiration and haunt the subliminal? Roaming the forgotten halls of the mind in #unqualified doubt, never to be exorcised by the self.

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What #pains we endure each day. The #inept are only outmatched by the vain, and often they are one in the same, conspiring to make the day insufferable. I also stubbed my little toe. Decidedly, then, I made #pasta for dinner. After all, I'd earned it.

#vss365 #vssdaily #BookishTues #amwriting

Most folk were good people and didn't deserve their fate, but some had #corrupt #souls and managed to avoid him. As a reaper, he didn't make the list, he just followed it. But what if he made his own list? He smiled within the darkness of his hood.

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With groceries in hand, he escaped the market though his paycheck didn't. Fretting #impeached promises of a better tomorrow, he turned on the radio. Music soothes the most worried mind but speakers droned corporate algorithms. The #thrum of constant disappointment.

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So, so true.

Thanks! 🙏🏋️‍♂️🍕

Hard work at the #gym
followed by wondrous pizza
#obfuscates results.

#vss365 #vssdaily #amwriting

He #quivered at the thought of a deep-muscle #massage, aching after days of hard work for little pay. Then again, he hated people, so found himself content at a dim booth in a dimmer bar, a whiskey working its magic. Solitary in plain sight.

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As the year #wanes to #autumn, and the trees give their annual gift like slow fireworks of foliage, still he cannot help but dread the oncoming doom of winter, whose #scope of loss is unknowable.

#vss365 #vssdaily #BookishTues #amwriting

Thanks! (Though now I see the glaring typo in the first word...) It's written just for the daily word prompts, so I reckon that makes him the main character!

Too much time spent indoors, idle on the couch. Too much food, which to him was exactly the right amount. Now he stared in the mirror, #bloated to the #cusp of bursting. He figured he did the holidays right, then.

#vss365 #vssdaily #amwriting

Other praised the resilience of his optimism. It became a defining feature but destined for failure. When each day, a morning #drizzle of misfortune ended in an evening #hurricane, eventually he punched walls and said words which would make a dirty politician blush.

#vss365 #vssdaily #amwriting

An old man once told me to beware the coming storm.

"Take heed," he said. "For there is no wrath like #nature #unmoored."

I'm not sure what he meant, but I've been terrified ever since.

#vss365 #vssdaily #amwriting