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look at this extremely chaotic video my fiancé took of our cat

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Days per year with high temperatures above 90°F in USA.

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Missoula Floods. During the last ice age, between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago, an ice dam formed in north western USA

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Sevdiğim kediler

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Population density of Massachusetts counties

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look at this extremely chaotic video my fiancé took of our cat

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1949

Harry Truman was inaugurated as U.S. president after being elected in 1948 to his own term; previously he was sworn in following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He authorized the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during World War II, on August 6 and August 9, 1945, respectively.

Doris Day enters the public spotlight with the films My Dream Is Yours and It’s a Great Feeling as well as popular songs like “It’s Magic”; divorces her second husband.

Red China: The Communist Party of China wins the Chinese Civil War, establishing the People’s Republic of China.

Johnnie Ray signs his first recording contract with Okeh Records, although he would not become popular for another two years.

South Pacific, the prize-winning musical, opens on Broadway on April 7.

Walter Winchell is an aggressive radio and newspaper journalist credited with inventing the gossip column.

Joe DiMaggio and the New York Yankees go to the World Series five times in the 1940s, winning four of them.

1950

Joe McCarthy, the US Senator, gains national attention and begins his anti-communist crusade with his Lincoln Day speech.

Richard Nixon is first elected to the United States Senate.

Studebaker, a popular car company, begins its financial downfall.

Television is becoming widespread throughout Europe and North America.

North Korea and South Korea declare war after Northern forces stream south on June 25.

Marilyn Monroe soars in popularity with five new movies, including The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve, and attempts suicide after the death of friend Johnny Hyde who asked to marry her several times, but she refused respectfully. Monroe would later (1954) be married for a brief time to Joe DiMaggio (mentioned in the previous verse).

1951

The Rosenbergs, Ethel and Julius, were convicted on March 29 for espionage.

H-Bomb is in the middle of its development as a nuclear weapon, announced in early 1950 and first tested in late 1952.

Sugar Ray Robinson, a champion welterweight boxer.

Panmunjom, the border village in Korea, is the location of truce talks between the parties of the Korean War.

Marlon Brando is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in A Streetcar Named Desire.

The King and I, musical, opens on Broadway on March 29.

The Catcher in the Rye, a controversial novel by J. D. Salinger, is published.

1952

Dwight D. Eisenhower is first elected as U.S. president, winning by a landslide margin of 442 to 89 electoral votes.

The vaccine for polio is privately tested by Jonas Salk.

England’s got a new queen: Queen Elizabeth II succeeds to the throne upon the death of her father, George VI, and is crowned the next year.

Rocky Marciano defeats Jersey Joe Walcott, becoming the world Heavyweight champion.

Liberace has a popular 1950s television show for his musical entertainment.

Santayana goodbye: George Santayana, philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist, dies on September 26.

1953

Joseph Stalin dies on March 5, yielding his position as leader of the Soviet Union.

Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov succeeds Stalin for six months following his death. Malenkov had presided over Stalin’s purges of party “enemies”, but would be spared a similar fate by Nikita Khrushchev mentioned later in verse.

Gamal Abdel Nasser acts as the true power behind the new Egyptian nation as Muhammad Naguib’s minister of the interior.

Sergei Prokofiev, the composer, dies on March 5, the same day as Stalin.

Winthrop Rockefeller and his wife Barbara are involved in a highly publicized divorce, culminating in 1954 with a record-breaking $5.5 million settlement.[12]

Roy Campanella, an African-American baseball catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, receives the National League’s Most Valuable Player award for the second time.

Communist bloc is a group of communist nations dominated by the Soviet Union at this time. Probably a reference to the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany.

1954

Roy Cohn resigns as Joseph McCarthy’s chief counsel and enters private practice with the fall of McCarthy. He also worked to prosecute the Rosenbergs, mentioned earlier.

Juan Perón spends his last full year as President of Argentina before a September 1955 coup.

Arturo Toscanini is at the height of his fame as a conductor, performing regularly with the NBC Symphony Orchestra on national radio.

Dacron is an early artificial fiber made from the same plastic as polyester.

Dien Bien Phu falls. A village in North Vietnam falls to Viet Minh forces under Vo Nguyen Giap, leading to the creation of North Vietnam and South Vietnam as separate states.

“Rock Around the Clock” is a hit single released by Bill Haley & His Comets in May, spurring worldwide interest in rock and roll music.

1955

Albert Einstein dies on April 18 at the age of 76.

James Dean achieves success with East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, gets nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, and dies in a car accident on September 30 at the age of 24.

Brooklyn’s got a winning team: The Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series for the only time before their move to Los Angeles.

Davy Crockett is a Disney television miniseries about the legendary frontiersman of the same name. The show was a huge hit with young boys and inspired a short-lived “coonskin cap” craze.

Peter Pan is broadcast on TV live and in color from the 1954 version of the stage musical starring Mary Martin on March 7. Disney released an animated version the previous year.

Elvis Presley signs with RCA Records on November 21, beginning his pop career.

Disneyland opens on July 17, 1955 as Walt Disney’s first theme park.

1956

Brigitte Bardot appears in her first mainstream film And God Created Woman and establishes an international reputation as a French “sex kitten”.

Budapest is the capital city of Hungary and site of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

Alabama is the site of the Montgomery Bus Boycott which ultimately led to the removal of the last race laws in the USA. Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr figure prominently.

Nikita Khrushchev makes his famous Secret Speech denouncing Stalin’s “cult of personality” on February 25.

Princess Grace Kelly releases her last film, High Society, and marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

Peyton Place, the best-selling novel by Grace Metalious, is published. Though mild compared to today’s prime time, it shocked the reserved values of the 1950s.

Trouble in the Suez: The Suez Crisis boils as Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal on October 29.

1957

Little Rock, Arkansas is the site of an anti-integration standoff, as Governor Orval Faubus stops the Little Rock Nine from attending Little Rock Central High School and President Dwight D. Eisenhower deploys the 101st Airborne Division to counteract him.

Boris Pasternak, the Russian author, publishes his famous novel Doctor Zhivago.

Mickey Mantle is in the middle of his career as a famous New York Yankees outfielder and American League All-Star for the sixth year in a row.

Jack Kerouac publishes his first novel in seven years, On the Road.

Sputnik becomes the first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, marking the start of the space race.

Chou En-Lai, Premier of the People’s Republic of China, survives an assassination attempt on the charter airliner Kashmir Princess.

Bridge on the River Kwai is released as a film adaptation of the 1954 novel and receives seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.[13]

1958

Lebanon is engulfed in a political and religious crisis that eventually involves U.S. intervention.

Charles de Gaulle is elected first president of the French Fifth Republic following the Algerian Crisis.

California baseball begins as the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants move to California and become the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. They are the first major league teams west of Kansas City.

Charles Starkweather Homicide captures the attention of Americans, in which he kills eleven people between January 25 and 29 before being caught in a massive manhunt in Douglas, Wyoming.

Children of Thalidomide: Mothers taking the drug Thalidomide had children born with congenital birth defects caused by the sleeping aid and antiemetic, which was also used at times to treat morning sickness.

1959

Buddy Holly dies in a plane crash on February 3 with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, in a day that had a devastating impact on the country and youth culture. Joel prefaces the lyric with a Holly signature vocal hiccup: “Uh-huh, uh-huh.”

Ben-Hur, a film based around the New Testament starring Charlton Heston, wins eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Space Monkey: Able and Miss Baker return to Earth from space aboard the flight Jupiter AM-18.

The Mafia are the center of attention for the FBI and public attention builds to this organized crime society with a historically Sicilian-American origin.

Hula hoops reach 100 million in sales as the latest toy fad.

Fidel Castro comes to power after a revolution in Cuba and visits the United States later that year on an unofficial twelve-day tour.

Edsel is a no-go: Production of this car marque ends after only three years due to poor sales.

1960

U-2: An American U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union, causing the U-2 Crisis of 1960.

Syngman Rhee was rescued by the CIA after being forced to resign as leader of South Korea for allegedly fixing an election and embezzling more than US $20 million.

Payola, illegal payments for radio broadcasting of songs, was publicized due to Dick Clark’s testimony before Congress and Alan Freed’s public disgrace.

John F. Kennedy beats Richard Nixon in the November 8 general election.

Chubby Checker popularizes the dance The Twist with his cover of the song of the same name.

Psycho: An Alfred Hitchcock thriller, based on a pulp novel by Robert Bloch and adapted by Joseph Stefano, which becomes a landmark in graphic violence and cinema sensationalism. The screeching violins heard briefly in the background of the song are a trademark of the film’s soundtrack.

Belgians in the Congo: The Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville) was declared independent of Belgium on June 30, with Joseph Kasavubu as President and Patrice Lumumba as Prime Minister.

1961

Ernest Hemingway commits suicide on July 2 after a long battle with depression.

Adolf Eichmann, a “most wanted” Nazi war criminal, is traced to Argentina and captured by Mossad agents. He is covertly taken to Israel where he is put on trial for crimes against humanityin Germany during World War II, convicted, and hanged.

Stranger in a Strange Land, written by Robert A. Heinlein, is a breakthrough best-seller with themes of sexual freedom and liberation.

Bob Dylan is signed to Columbia Records after a New York Times review by critic Robert Shelton.

Berlin is separated into West Berlin and East Berlin, and from the rest of East Germany, when the Berlin Wall is erected on August 13 to prevent citizens escaping to the West.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion fails, an attempt by United States-trained Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro.

1962

Lawrence of Arabia: The Academy Award-winning film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence starring Peter O’Toole premieres in America on December 16.

British Beatlemania: The Beatles, a British rock group, gain Ringo Starr as drummer and Brian Epstein as manager, and join the EMI’s Parlophone label. They soon become the world’s most famous rock band, with the word “Beatlemania” adopted by the press for their fans’ unprecedented enthusiasm. It also began the British Invasion in the United States.

Ole’ Miss: James Meredith integrates the University of Mississippi

John Glenn: Flew the first American manned orbital mission termed “Friendship 7” on February 20.

Liston beats Patterson: Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson fight for the world heavyweight championship on September 25, ending in a first-round knockout. This match marked the first time Patterson had ever been knocked out and one of only eight losses in his 20-year professional career.

1963

Pope Paul VI: Cardinal Giovanni Montini is elected to the papacy and takes the papal name of Paul VI.

Malcolm X makes his infamous statement “The chickens have come home to roost” about the Kennedy assassination, thus causing the Nation of Islam to censor him.

British politician sex: The British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, has a relationship with a showgirl, and then lies when questioned about it before the House of Commons. When the truth came out, it led to his own resignation and undermined the credibility of the Prime Minister.

JFK blown away: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated on November 22 while riding in an open convertible through Dallas.

1965

Birth control: In the early 1960s, oral contraceptives, popularly known as “the pill”, first go on the market and are extremely popular. Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 challenged a Connecticut law prohibiting contraceptives. In 1968, Pope Paul VI released a papal encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae which declared artificial birth control a sin.

Ho Chi Minh: A Vietnamese communist, who served as President of Vietnam from 1954–1969. March 2 Operation Rolling Thunder begins bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail supply line from North Vietnam to the Vietcong rebels in the south. On March 8, the first U.S. combat troops, 3,500 marines, land in South Vietnam.

1968

Richard Nixon back again: Former Vice President Nixon is elected President in 1968.

1969

Moonshot: Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing, successfully lands on the moon.

Woodstock: Famous rock and roll festival of 1969 that came to be the epitome of the counterculture movement.

1974–75

Watergate: Political scandal that began when the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, DC was broken into. After the break-in, word began to spread that President Richard Nixon (a Republican) may have known about the break-in, and tried to cover it up. The scandal would ultimately result in the resignation of President Nixon, and to date, this remains the only time that anyone has ever resigned the United States Presidency.

Punk rock: The Ramones form, with the Sex Pistols following in 1975, bringing in the punk era.

1976–77

(An item from 1977 comes before three items from 1976 to make the song scan.)

Menachem Begin becomes Prime Minister of Israel in 1977 and negotiates the Camp David Accords with Egypt’s president in 1978.

Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States in 1980, but he first attempted to run for the position in 1976.

Palestine: a United Nations resolution that calls for an independent Palestinian state and to end the Israeli occupation.

Terror on the airline: Numerous aircraft hijackings take place, specifically, the Palestinian hijack of Air France Flight 139 and the subsequent Operation Entebbe in Uganda.

1979

Ayatollah’s in Iran: During the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the West-backed and secular Shah is overthrown as the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini gains power after years in exile and forces Islamic law.

Russians in Afghanistan: Following their move into Afghanistan, Soviet forces fight a ten-year war, from 1979 to 1989.

1983

Wheel of Fortune: A hit television game show which has been TV’s highest-rated syndicated program since 1983.

Sally Ride: In 1983 she becomes the first American woman in space. Ride’s quip from space “Better than an E-ticket”, harkens back to the opening of Disneyland mentioned earlier, with the E-ticket purchase needed for the best rides.

Heavy metal suicide: In the 1980s Ozzy Osbourne and the bands Judas Priest and Metallica were brought to court by parents who accused the musicians of hiding subliminal pro-suicide messages in their music.

Foreign debts: Persistent U.S. trade deficits

Homeless vets: Veterans of the Vietnam War, including many disabled ex-military, are reported to be left homeless and impoverished.

AIDS: A collection of symptoms and infections in humans resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It is first detected and recognized in the 1980s, and was on its way to becoming a pandemic.

Crack cocaine use surged in the mid-to-late 1980s.

1984

Bernie Goetz: On December 22, Goetz shot four young men who he said were threatening him on a New York City subway. Goetz was charged with attempted murder but was acquitted of the charges, though convicted of carrying an unlicensed gun.

1988

Hypodermics on the shore: Medical waste was found washed up on beaches in New Jersey after being illegally dumped at sea. Before this event, waste dumped in the oceans was an “out of sight, out of mind” affair. This has been cited as one of the crucial turning points in popular opinion on environmentalism.

1989

China’s under martial law: On May 20, China declares martial law, enabling them to use force of arms against protesting students to end the Tiananmen Square protests.

Rock-and-roller cola wars: Soft drink giants Coke and Pepsi each run marketing campaigns using rock & roll and popular music stars to reach the teenage and young adult demographic.

Short summaries of all 119 references mentioned in the song, you’re welcome 

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Here is one of the reasons I haven’t been posting. It’s coming soon!

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Whales on Europa part 39

Lazurne, Ito, Danes, and Collins rode the landing vehicle back to Europa. They landed a kilometer away from the initial landing site. The first thing they heard as they entered the undamaged base was Felix.

“Bad news people.”

“What is it?” Lazurne grabbed the microphone. “Is the commander hurt?”

“Not exactly.”

“Damn it Felix. What the fuck is wrong?” Lazurne all but screamed.

“Her oxygen tanks are empty. She’s fine down there, but they’re not sure how to give her enough oxygen to make it to the surface and back to the base. the commander says that the scientist,” Felix stopped talking as he checked his notes. “Purwhalen,” he sounded out the name. “Yeah, Purwhalen is trying to find a solution. The scientist doesn’t think he can fill the tanks. It sounds like they are making another sphere. They’re going to fill it with oxygen and Altima is going to, uh, roll it I guess. To get it to the base. But it is going to take some time to get the new orb made. So sit tight. We turned off the base systems when we left. I’ve been remotely turning them on. You should be able to talk to the boss in a couple minutes. It sounds like she could use the conversation. I recommend asking her about the food.”

Danes breathed a sigh of relief. “It will be good to be able to talk to her. My wife will kill me if I don’t bring Altima back with me.”

“I thought she was going to kill you if you didn’t make it back?” Ito joked, barely covering her own concern.

Ten minutes later found the four sitting on the edges of their stools, sipping coffee, staring at the receiver.

“Hello? Hello? Any one at base?” Altima’s voice burst into the room amid static discharge.

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Whales on Europa part 38?

The radio sqwaked. Altima jumped and stumbled to grab her suit. “Hello?”

“Commander, this is the Numa. Commander, are you alive?”

“I’m alive. I’m under the ice. The Europans have a base. I’m, I’m okay. Is everyone okay up there?” Altima closed her eyes. She wasn’t going to die beneath the ice.

“Commander that is good to hear. We’re all fine. The radio panel was damaged in our take off. We did a couple walks and everything is fixed now. NASA had a lot to say. I’m pretty sure they’re planning your eulogy. It’s going to take us another 48 hours, but the scans say the base is fine and NASA gave us a thumbs up to head back.”

“You have no idea how good that is to hear. Everyone has been extraordinarily nice here, but I miss you guys.”

“We’ll see you in about 50 hours commander!”

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Whales on Europa part 37

Finally Purwhalen returned with a larger box. In his absence he’d left the door open, just a strange bubble between Altima and the underwater world beyond. She’d watched as a few Europeans had passed. The first two had acted as if they hadn’t noticed her. Later ones actively stared.

Purwhalen pushes the new box through the bubble. It was surprisingly heavy as Altima cought it. *It appears that your body is in need of water. This container should provide you with enough for now. I have also provided a sampling of our foods that should be safe for you.* His tentacles twisted around one another in a nervous way.

*What’s wrong?* Altima asked, tearing her eyes away from the alien bento box.

*I am worried about accidentally hurting you. I consulted with our medical experts about which foods to offer you. They are reasonably confident that these will be acceptable for your system.*

Smiling in what she hoped was a universally friendly way, Altima opened the box. Half of the space was full with a bubble of water. There was another syringe next to it that she assumed was meant to act as her straw. All of the Europans she’d seen would have been able to swollow the bubble whole. Next to the water we’re three more bubbles. The first held what would have looked like seaweed if it wasn’t purple and covered in orange dots. The second held what looked like red caviar. The third looked like a chunk of green raw tuna.

“Here goes nothing.” Yet another first to add to her list. Altima sat on the floor placing the box in front of her. She used the syringe to stop the water and pulled up as much as it would hold. Only getting a few drops on her, she squirted a mouthful into her mouth. *It tastes incredibly clean.* next she picked up the seaweed. The bubble separated easily against her finger nails. The slimy wide strands smelled like fresh summer tomatos. Altima took a bite. They tasted like tomatoes and chili powder. *Its good.* She popped the other two bubbles. The caviar tasted like citrus with the umami undertaste of good fried chicken. The tuna tasted like a mix of fish sauce and chocolate. *That one isn’t my favorite, but I like the other two. No immediate medical response.

*That is good. Do you mind if I stay close? We are opening another tunnel to the surface, but your team has not left their orbiting vessel yet. We placed receivers ,but still have no signal.*

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Whales on Europa part 36

Altima didn’t flinch as she took the blood sample and put the strange syringe back in the box it had come in. The second sample was a little more difficult to manage. Purwhalen had asked for a sample of her flesh. She knew she could refuse, the whale had reassured her that was fine many times, but she also understood scientific curiosity. How often had human scientists taken blood and tissue samples from new creatures?

She took the larger syringe and inserted it into her arm at a shallow angle. The sample would give her a small cut, nothing that would incapacitate her. Not as long as she was able to keep it clean. Purwhalen had reassured her that the gel included in the box would keep out any potential contaminants.

Securing the samples in the box Altima finally removed the blunt syringe that held an opaque teal gel. She squeezed out a drop over the point on the inside of her elbow where she’d drawn blood. The point immediately numbed causing Altima to gasp. “Damn that’s weird.” She used the syringe to spread more of the gel over the slice on her arm, now careful not to touch it with her other hand. By the time she had finished spreading it the patch over her vein had dried into a flexible, but solid bandage. Altima placed the extra in the box.

The box had come through a bubble that covered the open doorway with instructions from Purwhalen. the purple Europan still waited in the waters on the other side of the bubble. *I finished. I hope this helps your studies. And you should know that this gel makes my skin numb where it touches it.*

*Thank you for your cooperation.* Purwhalen accepted the box through the bubble.

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Whales on Europa part 35

(Oops. So I got a little stuck and stopped writing here. Thus the Lilo and Stitch story I just posted. Now, back to the whales.)

Terror only lasts so long. After a certain point, with no new jump scares or creepy music, boredom sets in. Altima sat next to the puddle waiting. Her terror at almost suffocating had been replaced by the fear that she would never see her team again, never see Earth again. Even that had been replaced by boredom. She could die here, deep under the ice of Europa. As far as deaths went it wasn’t that bad. She would go down as history as the first human to die on Europa. As it was she had added plenty to her Wikipedia entry in the last month. She was the first human to step onto Europa. The first to enter an alien vehicle. The first to talk to an alien. The first to visit an alien base. The first to get stuck under the ice. 

Altima shook her head. That line of thought would just lead her down a depressing cycle. She poked the water and watched the ripples spread across the small puddle. She fought the urge to taste the water. Getting some alien disease would be one of the stupider ways she could die here.

*I apologize for the wait,* Purwhalen’s voice dripped into Altima’s head.

*Any new information?*

*The waves have passed. Our scanners suggest that your base survived. Your landing vessel reached the orbiting ship. We have launched a receiver so that we can catch their signals to you. In the meantime I am working on preparing sustenance for you. May I have your permission to scan your body and perhaps take a small sample? This would help me to accurately supply your needs.* The whale’s voice sounded hopeful.

Altima understood. She could only imagine how the scientists on Earth would respond to a Europan landing and being in need. It would be better than Christmas and a boxing match as the scientists fought over each other. Purwhalen must have claimed dibs.

*Sure. You can scan me and take a sample. What do you need me to do?*

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Lilo and Stitch fanfic part 1

(Some assumptions: Lilo was 8 in the original movie. Nani was 19. I’m choosing to ignore the second movie and the tv show.)

Lilo rolled over and slapped her alarm. One month into college and she was already miserable. She missed the jungle. She missed the beach. She missed her sister and David. She missed people not looking at her weird for having a blue dog.

She’d wanted to stay in Hawaii, she’d gotten a good scholarship, but Nani had insisted. A free ride to MIT wasn’t something you passed up. Especially not when agent Bubbles was able to secure you a two bed dorm room for you and your oddly intelligent dog.

Since the early days of trying to get Stitch to act like Elvis he had learned how to blend in. It was amazing how many people just assumed she dyed his fur blue as a part of some horrible prank. The alien currently lay stretched out on the other bed in their dorm room. When it was just the two of them he left out his antennae and extra pair of arms. Lilo knew that he missed being able to act like himself. Back home everyone had adjusted to his oddities.

Lilo rolled out of her bed and pulled on a pair of jean. “Come on Stitch. I know you heard the alarm.”

“No!” Stitch pulled his pillow over his head.

“If you stay in bed you’re stuck here all day. I won’t be back until after chem and we’ve already gotten yelled at this week for letting you walk around without a leash.”

Mumbling a few choice swears in intergalactic standard Stitch crawled out of bed. He’d finally stopped growing, now that he was the size of a Saint Bernard. With a shake he settled himself into his standard dog look. Shaggy blue hair, four legs, and floppy ears.

“I’ll buy you a coffee.” Lilo pulled on the sweatshirt her classmates teased her about. If it was already this cold in the last week of September, then she was damned come December or January.

“Extra large. No sugar.” Stitch pulled on his collar. The thick black leather was decorated in rhinestones, his subtle homage to the King of Rock and Roll. He clipped the leash on and handed it to Lilo.

The pair hurried to the student center. She had to leave Stitch outside loosely tied to a bike rack with the special sunglasses Jumba had made for Stitch. The glasses were what apple glasses dreamed of being in their next life. Fairly basic alien tech.

Lilo hurried out of the building juggling Stitch’s coffee, her tea, a bag full of muffins, and an egg sandwich. It was never wise to leave Stitch alone for too long and she swore she heard a sound that reminded her of Jumba’s workshop. “I got your coffee. You can have the muffins in class. Come on, we’re going to be late.” Lilo bumped her hip into Stitch trying to get the alien’s attention.

“Look up.” Stitch pointed to the air above Massachusetts Avenue.

Lilo looked and dropped the drinks. The air was vibrating in a far too familiar way. This was a ship from Galactic Command.It had been four years since their last visit. “What did you do?”

“Nothing!” Stitch sounded offended. Admittedly the last visit from GC had been because of Pleakly, but enough visits had been due to Stitch.

With a flash the ship, which looked like a giant children’s toy with its neon green and pink fins, appeared on the suddenly empty street. Lilo heard people screaming, even more swearing, and even more cars honking. Ah Boston. “Come on. Let’s see what they want.” She tossed the now empty cups in the garbage and shoved the bag of muffins into her backpack. Ignoring the leash, Stitch followed her to the blue ramp that was descending from the ship. Lilo paused just beyond the ramp and pulled out her wallet. Behind her drivers license she pulled out her GC ID card and the little card that signified Stitch belonged to her. The easiest way to avoid a confrontation with the rule obsessed aliens was to know the rules better than them.

Lilo watched as six dinosaur like aliens hopped out of the ship. With less dramatic flair than normal, the Grand Council Woman followed.

Lilo put the cards away. The Council Woman didn’t need to see them. “Council Woman, how can I help you?” Stitch sat next to Lilo, pushing his head under her hand.

“Ah, Lilo. Good. Please come aboard, we have much to discuss.” The Council Woman templed her fingers beneath her egg shaped head.

“Are we discussing them here? Or somewhere else?”

“Low orbit. I don’t wish to upset this city’s traffic or cause too much of a scene.”

Lilo looked down at Stitch. Stitch shrugged. “She’ll have good food.”

Lilo smiled. All of the aliens in her life missed the food of their home worlds. “Okay, let’s talk.”

[dalmatians-on-europa]

Whales on Europa part 34

Altima pulled herself up so she could look around the room. The cieling and walls formed a dome over the gently curved floor. A small pool of water sat in the middle of the room. A third of the wall, directly across from the door, was clear. The room was warm. Warm enough that Altima started to pull off her suit. She was out of oxygen and the scrubbers would last long enough to get her to the surface. There wasn’t much point in continuing to wear the bulky suit. 

The room echoed with silence. Without even the gentle hum of machinery or the regular beep of incoming messages from NASA, Altima felt itchy. The metalic walls reminded her of the inside of a dome over a plate. She was half waiting for a fancy maitre’d to lift the lid and serve her as dinner to her hosts. 

[dalmatians-on-europa]

Whales on Europa part 33

Altima heard a soft thunk as the ship docked with what she assumed was the base. Purwhalen and Whalithosdor were off in a different part of the ship.  The orb rotated to face the  sliding door she had entered the ship through. Altima watched as the door slid open. A smaller claw reached in and grabbed the orb. Altima tried to pay attention to the walls as she was pulled through the halls of the Europan base, but it was hard to focus on anything with the steady warning beep that signaled low oxygen. She did note that the halls were large and cylindrical, at least five meters in diameter. 

The claw pulled the orb around corners and down a  tunnel  until it reached another sliding door. 

The claw pulled Altima and her orb into a small spherical chamber. Altima struggled to stay calm as the low oxygen signal sped up. The beeping was deafening interrupting all of her thoughts.

Outside of the orb the water level dropped. until the orb rested on the floor. A second sliding door opened into a room with a flat floor. The claw pulled the orb into the room dragging it against the floor until it could deposit the orb in the center of the room. Slowly the claw withdrew into the ceiling.

Altima forced herself not to breathe quicker. If she hyper ventilated she could end up hurting herself. The straps that held Altima in the center of the orb opened, releasing her. Altima fell to the bottom, too distracted to catch herself. With a hiss the orb split in half. The clear glass like half fell to the floor and flattened out leaving the metallic half standing upright. 

*This air should fulfill your needs.* Purwhalen’s voice echoed in Altima’s head.

Throwing caution and protocol to the wind Altima reached up to her helmet. Closing her eyes she released the catch.  

Cold, clean, sweet air poured over her face. Altima pushed the helmet all the way off. Kneeling on the ground Altima gulped in the fresh air. *Thank you.*