. I smiled. "What are we looking for in this partner, Madame? Tall? Slender?" Mais oui!" Pretty face?" Hmmm. Perhaps not necessary. She can sport a ma...k — it is all ze rage in Paris. More important is ze posture. She must be elegant; she must walk like a dancer and dance like a zephyr."A mask! Of course, then no risk of her being recognised as a collar! "What about big breasts?" I was painfully aware that my collar would not shine in the current fashion for cantilever bosoms to display maximum. ”“Why?” asks the confused clerk.“Cause it’s rough and it’s tough and it don’t take no crap off an Indian.”A Zebra dies and arrives at the Pearly Gates. As he enters, he asks St. Peter “I have a question that’s haunted me all of my days on earth. Am I white with black stripes, or am I black with white stripes?”St. Peter said “That’s a question only God can answer.”So the zebra went off in search of God. When he found Him, the zebra asked “God, please - I must know ... am I white with black. ”He nodded ever so slightly. “Your words echo those of Egill Skallagrímsson, who is a relative of yours if I understand correctly. It seems your world Nilfeheim’s reputation of being a world of Neo Viking pirates is misleading as it appears to bring forth men of reason and caution.”“Your Highness you humble me with your praise. I am but a shadow compared to the experience and wisdom my Great grandfather Egill possesses and as much as I would love to agree with your assessment of my home world,. The slowdown approached. We were slightly ragged at dissipating the energy into the silence, but maybe it was close enough. Then we watched Tommy; despite my earlier warning, he waited so long that even I thought the song was over.“Naw,” he finally said. “Naw, this won’t work.”We released the held chord.“What do you mean?”“It’s the fecking climax of everything we’ve ever done. Why on earth do we slow down? It’s like a balloon shriveling up and dying. It’s shite. We need to do something.