<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Irresistibly Fish]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://brettfish.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[brettfish]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://brettfish.wordpress.com/author/brettfish/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[them.]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://brettfish.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/dp-writing-challenge-photo-22.jpg"><img loading="lazy" data-attachment-id="2894" data-permalink="https://brettfish.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/them/dp-writing-challenge-photo-2-3/" data-orig-file="https://brettfish.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/dp-writing-challenge-photo-22.jpg" data-orig-size="500,351" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}" data-image-title="the happy &#8216;family&#8217;" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://brettfish.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/dp-writing-challenge-photo-22.jpg?w=300" data-large-file="https://brettfish.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/dp-writing-challenge-photo-22.jpg?w=500" src="https://brettfish.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/dp-writing-challenge-photo-22.jpg?w=500&#038;h=351" alt="" title="the happy &#039;family&#039;" width="500" height="351" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2894" srcset="https://brettfish.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/dp-writing-challenge-photo-22.jpg 500w, https://brettfish.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/dp-writing-challenge-photo-22.jpg?w=150&amp;h=105 150w, https://brettfish.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/dp-writing-challenge-photo-22.jpg?w=300&amp;h=211 300w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></a></p>
<p>they move among us.</p>
<p>little girls wearing pink dresses and matching pink bonnets who move around among us undetected.</p>
<p>innocent-looking. some might say cute. i don&#8217;t. but some might. </p>
<p>always holding firmly on to the hand of a surrogate adult life-form clone creating the appearance of normalcy in their day-to-day meanderings as they move around from place to place always staring, subtly taking in information from their surrounding surroundings.</p>
<p>occasionally, when data collecting has been of a particularly slow and pedestrian nature, they might concede permission to a greyscale miniature suited male child monitor unit to tag along for the precise purpose of adjectival and accumulatory preposition enhancement, you know, to speed things along.</p>
<p>and so they continue, day by day, to move. among us.</p>
<p>they must be stopped!</p>
<p>and they can be.</p>
<p>or at least they could be if the power lay with them. </p>
<p>if they really were just innocent little girls wearing pink dresses and matching pink bonnets. </p>
<p>but everyone knows the power lies in the box. the hamster type creature [a very inaccurate description but for lack of a better one, &#8220;hamster type creature&#8221; is going to have to do] that lives in the box. and directs proceedings.</p>
<p>proceedings involving little girls wearing pink dresses with matching pink bonnets attached at the hand to surrogate adult life-form clones and occasionally tolerating the necessity of the greyscale miniature suited male child monitor unit [adjectival and accumulatory preposition enhancement] </p>
<p>it seems all too hopeless.</p>
<p>and it is. </p>
<p>you should go.</p>
<p>now.</p>
<p>sh!</p>
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