Hey, Gang! Have you gotten settled into 2017 yet? I hope you have, because I'm doing something a little different to get some of the lazier muses working! Here's this week's prompt: I came across this while researching another project. It's called El Cristo Roto or The Broken Christ. Let it inspire you to break out a response!

Okay... I'll start with something a little lighthearted, based on the first thought that popped in to my head (be afraid, be very afraid...) "Leave those," Joe said as Jinpei reached for a cellophane-wrapped package in the bakery section. "You don't like sweet buns?" Jinpei inferred. "Sure I like 'em," Joe said as they pushed their shopping cart along the aisle, "but those are hot cross buns. It's too early in the year for those. They're supposed to be eaten on Good Friday." "Good what?" Jinpei asked. "The Friday before Easter," Joe explained. "They're a traditional Easter food, and it's barely the second week of January already." "So why don't you want to eat the buns early?" Jinpei pressed. He grabbed a loaf of ordinary sliced bread and lobbed it into the shopping cart. "What about this?" he asked, holding up a small loaf of raisin bread. "Yeah, that's fine," Joe said. "So..." Jinpei prompted. "So we just had Christmas, like ten days ago," Joe said. "Yeah?" "So it was all baby Jesus in the manger and angels and shepherds and shit, now here we are, not two weeks out, and the retail industry can't wait to execute the poor guy by nailing him to a tree and stabbing him! Way to make Baby Jesus cry, dude." "Joe-aniki?" Jinpei ventured. "What?" "You're weird."

GGO, maybe you should be the one who should be afraid...I totally get this! (Maybe it has to do with the wide range of religious backgrounds I've been exposed to over the years, maybe I'm a bit off, or a combination of the two.)

LOL

Originally posted by ElectricWhite GGO, maybe you should be the one who should be afraid...I totally get this! (Maybe it has to do with the wide range of religious backgrounds I've been exposed to over the years, maybe I'm a bit off, or a combination of the two.)

Yeah, religion's a funny thing all right. Each to their own, I say. I was in the supermarket just after the New Year holiday and as I got my trolley (shopping cart) and entered the shop, the first thing I saw was bloody hot cross buns. Hot cross buns. On January 5th, if you don't mind! Here's me with a fridge still full of Christmas leftovers and they're trying to sell me hot cross buns. And then I thought back to my rather strict Catholic upbringing and how my mother was always on about keeping the 'true meaning' of Christmas and Easter and all that (never mind that the very name of Easter harks back to the old ways) and the thought popped up, poor Baby Jesus, barely a week old and already they want to crucify the poor little sod! So of course it was going to end up in a story somewhere.

Deíwos had a lengthy list of the people he wanted to see die in the most agonizing ways possible. He just added the grunt who was supposed to drop him off near Moosonee. "That twerp's got my liver twisted!" Tívurr, Deíwos' partner on this mission, grumbled, "I swear I'll smash his nose for this muck-up!" "Have you figured out how far off the mark we are, Tívurr, or is your complaining far more important?" "Our locator's having problems accessing the satellites." "Well, damn." Deíwos let out a slow breath. "I wish it would hurry up." * * * * * Leken Asiri was still recovering from the time she had been tortured by Mala, but she was strong enough to take short trips away from Camp Parker. For a reason she didn't share, she decided to start visiting giant religious statues on Earth. Last week, she saw the Guan Yin statue and the statue of Lord Murugan, both in Malaysia. The week before, she visited the ancient Leshan Buddha carved into Mount Emei in China. This week, she stood at the base of El Cristo Roto. "According to this," Princess said as her eyes skimmed a page in a booklet, "we're looking at the world's third largest statue of Christ." Leken kept looking from the statue's face to the tablet in her hand. "Something wrong?" "I'm trying to get a translation of the plaque at the bottom of the statue, but..." "What language?" "I entered 'Mexican'." "Try 'Spanish'." Leken clicked her teeth as she tapped her tablet's screen. "You know, other planets have an established, official common tongue. Why can't Earth be like that?" "It's been tried a few times, but nothing ever stuck." "Ever try glue?" "Ha ha." Princess glanced around. "Talk about being out of place!" Leken followed her friend's eyes until she spotted two men wearing full-length trench coats, oversized fedoras and dark glasses standing at the halfway point on the wide stairs that led to the giant broken statue. "You'd think Spectra would realize that their agents stand out when they look like they come from bad noir movies." Princess muttered. "I wonder what's got them more nervous," Leken said with a small chuckle, "the small herd of grandmothers with prayer beads starting to climb the stairs or the fact that they're literally in the shadow of a big, pagan idol." "I'm sure the tall, yellow-eyed woman standing at the base of the statue isn't bringing any comforting feelings, either." "I keep forgetting that Spectrans have a thing about my people's eye color..." A grin spread across her face. "What's the opposite of 'tidings of comfort and joy'?" "Why?" "Because," Leken said as she started toward the agents, "that's what I'm going to give our new friends!"

GGO: I'm with you about the timing of things -- I hate it when they gang up the seasons on each other. How can you really enjoy one season, and really reflect on its meaning (whatever that meaning is to you) if all you see is the next holiday coming? EW: I kept waiting for the statue to become the next mecha ... lol

EW: Oh dear. And I think I recognize this scenario, I need to get my act together in between class homework.

EW: looks like the Spectrans are about to get a few items they can add to their litany of complaints! (They could always ask to be referred to management. The only problem there is that in this case, management's even nastier than the customer service personnel.)

[unrecoverable text]

RIgirl: So curious how he knows her mother. The scary thought is that her mother is Ken's mom, since that wouldn't bode well for her crush on Ken! (Unless you're not using that in this AU. )