Joker: Hey, Commander. Check it out! Big news: the Blasto movie is breaking opening-week records! There's also a big expose on quasar tournaments, tips on how to make your apartment look bigger, and... oh yeah, a big-ass Reaper invasion. ... These people have NO idea...
Shepard: When big events shake up the galaxy, people cling to what's familiar.
Joker: You say that like it's a good thing.
Shepard: It's better than riots in the streets.
Joker: I guess. I just wish there were a middle ground. You know, a little less gardening advice, a little more war prep?
Shepard: It'll happen... once there's something people can do to help.
Shepard: When big events shake up the galaxy, people cling to what's familiar.
Joker: You say that like it's a good thing.
Shepard: It's better than riots in the streets.
Joker: I guess. I just wish there were a middle ground. You know, a little less gardening advice, a little more war prep?
Shepard: It'll happen... once there's something people can do to help.
"The Mamushka! Taught to us by our Cossack cousins, The Mamushka has been an Addams Family tradition since God-Knows-When. We danced The Mamushka while Nero Fiddled, we danced The Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced The Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now; Fester Addams: this Mamushka is for you."
— Gomez Addams, The Addams Family
That day, the saucer day, the zombie day
The Ragnarok and fairies day,
The day the great winds came
And snows and the cities turned to crystal, the day
All plants died, plastics dissolved, the day the
Computers turned, the screens telling
Us we would obey, the day
Angels, drunk and muddled, stumbled from the bars,
And all the bells of London were sounded, the day
Animals spoke to us in Assyrian, the Yeti day,
The fluttering capes and arrival of
the Time Machine day,
You didn't notice any of this because
You were sitting in your room, not doing anything
Not even reading, not really, just
looking at your telephone,
wondering if I was going to call.
The Ragnarok and fairies day,
The day the great winds came
And snows and the cities turned to crystal, the day
All plants died, plastics dissolved, the day the
Computers turned, the screens telling
Us we would obey, the day
Angels, drunk and muddled, stumbled from the bars,
And all the bells of London were sounded, the day
Animals spoke to us in Assyrian, the Yeti day,
The fluttering capes and arrival of
the Time Machine day,
You didn't notice any of this because
You were sitting in your room, not doing anything
Not even reading, not really, just
looking at your telephone,
wondering if I was going to call.
— The Day the Saucers Came, Neil Gaiman
For three long years, the siege of Mousillon endured, and as its inhabitants suffered, so did the city decline. The sparkling white walls started to flake and peel, revealing cracked mudbricks beneath. Foul-smelling seaweed clambered up the rusty mooring chains and spread across the piers and jetties. Cracks appeared on the pavements, and streaks of grey mould soiled the city walls.
Yet while the townsfolk perished from starvation and the pox, Maldred and the nobles of the court shut themselves up in the white palace and immersed themselves in an orgy of self-indulgence. Outside, the starving townsfolk killed each other in fights over dead seagulls; in the perfumed rooms of the palace, the nobles drank sparkling wine from crystal goblets and nibbled on swan's wings. Dressed in red silks and satins and wearing fantastic masks, they danced to the sound of their own self-destruction.
— Warhammer: Bretonnia Army Book (5th Edition)
I always had the greatest difficulty in making Lloyd George sinister in a cartoon. Every time I drew him, however critical the comment, I had to be careful or he would spring off the drawing-board a lovable cherubic little chap. I found the only effective way of putting him definitely in the wrong in a cartoon was by misplacing this quality in sardonic incongruity — by surrounding the comedian with tragedy.
— Cartoonist David Low
William T. Riker: [disheveled, with the smoldering remains of the bridge of the Enterprise-D behind him] The Federation's gone, the Borg is everywhere!
Jean-Luc Picard: [completely disinterested] Yes, this is all very interesting, Number One.
Riker: Please, you've got to help us!
[Picard continues trying to play his flute, not paying attention to Riker]
Jean-Luc Picard: [completely disinterested] Yes, this is all very interesting, Number One.
Riker: Please, you've got to help us!
[Picard continues trying to play his flute, not paying attention to Riker]
Robot #1: Where is Mutank?
Bob: He's busy, that's all I can say.
Robot #1: Busy, huh? Yeah, I bet he's up there relaxing in the cushy vacuum of space while we're picking off grains of sand under the lube!
Bob: Uh, thank you for that. Mutank is the definitely not relaxing, that much I can tell you.
[later]
Robot #2: Are you telling me that all this time, Mutank has been up in space? We're sweating and grinding and working and fighting, and he's up there in SPACE!?
Bob: Yep, entire time.
Bob: He's busy, that's all I can say.
Robot #1: Busy, huh? Yeah, I bet he's up there relaxing in the cushy vacuum of space while we're picking off grains of sand under the lube!
Bob: Uh, thank you for that. Mutank is the definitely not relaxing, that much I can tell you.
[later]
Robot #2: Are you telling me that all this time, Mutank has been up in space? We're sweating and grinding and working and fighting, and he's up there in SPACE!?
Bob: Yep, entire time.
"There's no better time for parties than the end of the world. We throw one every time."
"This is the bi-port city of Evanauth, Vavatch Orbital, the very same Vavatch Orbital that in about eleven standard hours from now is due to be blasted into its component atoms as the Idiran-Culture war in this part of the galaxy, near the Glittercliff and Sullen Gulf, reaches a new high in standing-by-your-principles-regardless and a new low in common sense. It’s that imminent destruction that’s attracted these scatological vultures here, not the famous Megaships or the azure-blue technological miracles of the Circlesea. No, these people are here because the whole Orbital is doomed to be blown away shortly, and they think it’s kind of amusing to play Damage - an ordinary card game with a few embellishments to make it attractive to the mentally disturbed - in places on the verge of annihilation."
"They’ve played on worlds about to suffer massive comet or meteorite strikes, in volcanic calderas about to blow, in cities due for nuclear bombardment in ritualistic wars, in asteroids heading for the centre of stars, in front of moving cliffs of ice or lava, inside mysterious alien spacecraft discovered empty and deserted and set on courses aiming them into black holes, in vast palaces about to be sacked by android mobs, and just about everywhere you can think of you’d rather not want to be immediately after the Players leave. It might seem like a strange sort of way to get your kicks, but it takes all sorts to make a galaxy, I guess."
"They’ve played on worlds about to suffer massive comet or meteorite strikes, in volcanic calderas about to blow, in cities due for nuclear bombardment in ritualistic wars, in asteroids heading for the centre of stars, in front of moving cliffs of ice or lava, inside mysterious alien spacecraft discovered empty and deserted and set on courses aiming them into black holes, in vast palaces about to be sacked by android mobs, and just about everywhere you can think of you’d rather not want to be immediately after the Players leave. It might seem like a strange sort of way to get your kicks, but it takes all sorts to make a galaxy, I guess."
