"Your power is bullshit!" Clockblocker declared.

"Well, yes," Taylor admitted. "But it doesn't last long. You'll be able to take a shower in five minutes or so."

"Rob!"

Blossom Apartments' building manager turned to Maika, wondering why she would shout at her employer. "Yes?"

"Why didn't you say that the Roman Orthodox Church is right next door?"

He sighed. "First, they're not Roman Orthodox - they're Roman Catholic. As far as I know, they don't use magic, not even in the archdiocese office next door."

"You've never heard of transubstantiation?"

"That's faith, not spellcasting. Second, you're the spy. I thought the spire was obvious."

"Oh... right."

"Look at it this way - you have somebody to spy on who isn't us. Speaking of us, how's the laundry coming along?"

...pumpkin spice Cheerios in the grocery store.

Geeze, people, can't you at least wait until back to school season is over?

Chapter 1 of I'm a Displacee, Ask Me Anything has been posted to AO3.

This is the prologue to what we intend to be an interactive story: displacees doing AMAs on Reddit. We have a list of displacees who will be taking part, and while we've come up with a few questions for them of our own, we are actively soliciting questions from the readers; we'll accept them both here and in the comments on AO3.

The first AMA will be Shinji Ikari from Evangelion.

RIP Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), after a sudden illness

"We really should have paid more attention to the calendar."

Rob sighed. "Mii, there's been so much going on in the last few months that some people would say forgetting a birthday is excusable. But that's a poor excuse. I really should have remembered."

"I don't mind, Rob," Mii said as the others brought two cakes out of the kitchen. Then she saw what was written on the cakes, and added, "Oh, that's different. I didn't realize that we'd forgotten two birthdays today, not just one."

Ruiko led Blossom's original residents in the well-wishes. "Happy Birthday, Mii! Happy Birthday, Rob!"

It's the founding-of-the-nation holiday up here north of the border... although we're under a heat dome at the moment (forecast says it'll "feel like" 41°C/106°F with the humidity today) so I doubt I'm going to attend the festivities. Anyway.

Happy Canada Day to all the other Canadians on the forum!

Once again, we launch a new update thread.

Previous thread is here.

New thread is new.

Old thread is here.

Our annual week at the beach will start this Saturday, 6/27 through 7/4. But as has been usual for longer than a decade now I'll have wifi and my tablet with me, so it won't be like I'll be disappearing. And given that, I wonder why I even warn the board any more...