Awards & Contests The First RPF Drabble Extravaganza! CONCLUDED - Come Congratulate The Winners!

Should I wear a hat?

Andrea put on the simple toboggan, which happened to match her outfit. She was standing in front of the airport bathroom mirror. Her hair draped over her shoulders. Maybe I shouldn?t. Andrea took the hat off, I look like a hippie. And it?s just Daddy. Andy fixed the front of her hair, dashing on a dab of blush to her cheeks. This would be her last make-up touch, though she didn?t know it. Exiting the bathroom, Andy took her toboggan out of her purse and placed it on her head.

Should I wear my hat?

The entire room descended into shouting. What had begun as a simple discussion into what to order for lunch had turned, abruptly enough, into a full-fledged debate about the merits of string theory when compared to loop quantum gravity. Such were the perils of pop science discussions at board meetings.

Then, at the far end of the table, Harold stood up. ?Look,? he boomed, causing the rest of the room to fall silent, ?I think we can settle this entire debate by focusing on what we agree on.?

?That being?? another person ventured.

?My hat is incredibly good looking.?

OOC - Sithy - it's 103 words according to [link=http://www.wordcounttool.com/]Word Count Tool[/link]. Unfortunately word counting algorithms differ slightly from program to program; if you're trying to hit 100 words exactly, check using that one, cause it's what I'm using..

There was no other feeling like it. She soared to new heights each time his powerful muscles surged underneath her. The feeling of bliss was unmatched as he once again gathered himself and pushed off.

The girl clung to him with her legs. She felt the rhythm; waiting for him to reach the perfect spot.

Almost.

The sudden stop flung her out of her blissful mood. She felt herself soaring but not the way she expected. The two parted ways and she flew across the jump her head hitting the ground. The hard hat saved her life.

Funnily enough, I thought "hat" was a completely random prompt people might have trouble with. That turned out to be not the case at all.

Biggest turnout so far with seven entries. Wing's Harry Potter-verse drabble is intriguing, and I suspect there's a crossover there as well, I'm just not sure what with. Livi's is an amusing portrait of madness. Fins, more SotS! Is that Milton in Corben's Inn, after Karl and Sharon have left? Or before? Always hard to tell with The Change. Spycoder, I did not even know that a toboggan was a type of hat until right now, and hence spent a few puzzled minutes wondering why Andrea was wearing [link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toboggan]a sled on her head[/link]. Ramza, the funny thing about that drabble is, I can imagine that argument happening. Peng, under the word limit this time! And last but not least Sey, with a deliciously raunchy drabble that turns out to not be raunchy, and in fact is really a test to see whose mind is permanently in the gutter.

It's another hard decision, but I think I'm going to award this one to Winged_Jedi for being the most about a hat, and for going so far as to write a poem in iambic pentameter.

Scoreboard:
Winged_Jedi: 2
DarkLordoftheFins: 1
Livi-Wan: 1

And The Next Prompt Is:

#05: [image=http://blog.beliefnet.com/freshliving/The_Four_Elements_by_NLbroekieNL.jpg]

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ooc: Good to see Andrea again

Avatar prompt! I am ALL OVER THIS.


In the beginning there were four nations. Earth, air, fire, water. But they could not live in harmony without a hand to guide them and eyes to watch them.

"I will make a vessel." said Earth, gathering clay into the shape of a girl.

"I will give it life." said Fire, drawing the spark of the heavens into her.

"I will give her power." said Water, calling the anger of the storm into great strength.

"I will give her spirit." said Air, and gave her the wind's freedom to die and be born again, as long as the world stood.

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?You ever heard of the band Earth, Wind, and Fire?? John asked.

?Can?t say that I have,? Mitch replied, ?They anything like that one Colin MacIntyre album??

?Er? what??

?Y?know, Colin MacIntyre. He had that album, The Water. Bland indie pop kind of sound.?

?One: That?s a horrendous joke. Two: EWF is disco.?

?So they?re dead.?

?No, they?re still alive. I think.?

?But you said they were disco.?

?Yes??

?And disco is dead.?

?Arguably??

?So EWF is dead by the transitive property. Q.E.D.?

?I don?t think -?

?You got that right."

OOC: This one was a pain to get down to 100 because the word counting thing counts letters in acronyms as individual words. Their algorithm leaves a lot to be desired.

?It?s not fair!? the nereid cried.

?Look, we really do want to have you,? the dryad insisted, firmly rooted in her determination and not at all sounding convincing.

?It?s not that we don?t like you,? the nepheliad?s airy tones tried placatingly.

?It?s just that you don?t really fit,? the lampad replied hotly, flickering into the conversation.

?See it our way,? the nepheliad added breezily, ?How could we possibly ruin such a good band name as Earth, Wind & Fire??

The nereid just burst into tears again.

OOC edit: Aaaaaaand guess who's got two thumbs and didn't read Ramza's post before thinking his up? This guy!

On the screen, Lara Croft?s polygonal form tucked bare knees up to her chest, and rolled under the descending stone door.

Her player holstered her handguns.

She was in a dark high-ceilinged room, the four walls adorned by colourful carvings that, from experience, he took to be more than decorative.

This was Tomb Raider after all, not ***** Eye For The Straight Guy ? at the very least, there?d be rugs.

The player identified Fire, pretty quickly.

And that blue one with the?waves? Well, duh. So that?s water then. Elements. Which makes the other two Earth, and Air.

OOC: ^I like that one!

I tried to write words.
Fire. Water. Earth. And Wind.
The words did not come.

So here my haiku.
The elements you enjoy.
For you I write all.

I would start this post again by telling you how hard it is to judge these things, but I think that might make me sound like a broken record ...

... wait ...

Anyway.

100 Words Kudos: Livi and Sithy! Ramza - yeah their algorithm is a bit finicky, but I need one I can use quickly from any computer, unfortunately. Speaking of finicky, it says yours is 99 words - that's correct, yes? If it's being inconsistently finicky I shall have to find a new one.

Livi, I somehow didn't even think of Avatar when I chose that prompt, but the idea of the elements making the Avatar is a neat one. And haha @ Trieste and Ramza for their matching entries! Personally I always thought of [link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiUH9fgu5ZI]this song[/link], so ...

The Winner: I'm going to give this one to Sith-I-5 for managing to incorporate the image itself into his drabble, and not just the words in them. Definite honourable mention goes to Sey for the haikus, though. Haikus are cool.

Scoreboard:
Winged_Jedi: 2
DarkLordoftheFins: 1
Livi-Wan: 1
Sith-I-5: 1

And The Next Prompt Is:

#06: Insanity

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Some questions don´t demand answers. They´re just questions.

Like . . . I keep wondering how a man dedicated to complete order, actually can fall for chaos.

Or . . . why eyes can have a great gravity then a black hole?

I know I need to get dressed. Need to get up.

But she enchants me. Her eyes. Unspoken commands . . .

. . . to stay.

Why can´t I stop kissing her?

Should I?

Love. Insanity. Share too many traits for my taste. Thoughts keep drifting. Away. Touch her. It feels like silk under my hands.

Need to keep a closer eye on this forum- I almost missed somthing cool!

"The stories say he's mad. Worse than mad. Insane."
The Jawbone paused from his story, chewing slightly on the cigar hanging from his mouth. The gathered group around him watched transfixed; eyes frozen on the firelight that danced in his face, throwing all sorts of strange shadows across the rough cheekbones.
"No-one knows much about ?im. Person goes missing here, cattle disappear there? but jus? vanishes. No tracks, nuttin?. But he?s been movin? this way.?
The stranger?s eyes glinted as the fire cracked suddenly and spat out a leap of flame, making the huddled listeners jump.
?And I?ve been waitin? for him.?/>

OOC:

this is a true story

to mourn the end of Man Cubs Wing played with a woodlouse

he put it into a sink in my bathroom and it crawled up the sides

he squeezed soap onto the woodlouses path so that it began to slip then it got stuck

its tiny legs went crazy

so he turned on the tap and watched the water level rise

slowly

we stopped the water just beneath the woodlouses legs it scrabbled around in the soap then slid down into the water

when it drowned i took out the plug and washed it away

Leonard T. Boscoe was quite clearly not insane. The uninitiated and uninformed might think he was, but they lacked the clarity to see the difference between a prophet and a madman. After all, Leonard did not go raving nonsense wherever he was (though he did occasionally drop out of a conversation for months on end while being transported by distant visions that were sometimes interrupted by commercials). And people popped into restaurants at the end of the universe all the time, didn?t they? Perfectly normal to see things nobody else saw, too.

Yep, Leonard was not insane at all.

The instructions were encoded in the saxophone notes. A-E-G-G-B-D-C-C#-F-G-G. Using a simple algorithm of his own devising, Philip had translated this into the phrase K-I-L-L-T-H-E-M-A-L-L.

?Music,? Philip cooed, sharpening the blade in his hand, ?Telling me to kill.?

?I dunno about that,? replied Gregory. ?Seems to me that you?ve randomly substituted letters for other letters without any semblance of rhyme or reason.?

?Nonsense ? there?s an obvious pattern: ?G? corresponds to ?L.??

?Oh, yeah, perfectly obvious.?

?You just don?t understand me or my art.?

?Of course I do. I?m the voice in your head.?

?Point taken.?

OOC: Yeah, I also got a 99 count. It's just silly that somehow "PTA" or "P.T.A." is three words but "P-T-A" is one word.

"I wonder if I shall go mad."

The very air is black. If it gets darker, will you drown in it? The smell of blood is overwhelming, but you don't mind very much. It's nice, in a metallic, meaty way. Curled up in this vent, you're almost comfortable. All you need to think about now is if you're going to go mad. People usually do, in these circumstances.

Slowly, you start to count. You're good at counting. When you get to three thousand and eighty-four you don't care if you're mad or not. The numbers are singing, and you don't want them to stop.


Consider this my Dead Space tribute />

"Insanity is a physical thing."

"Actually, it's a mental thing."

"No, here, I can show you on a map."

"The CERN whatsit Collider project?"

"Where scientists want to create an artificial black hole. On the same planet as you and me. Not like French atomic testing. Did they test them in France? No, they did them far the frag away at Bikini Atoll, should be the same with black holes! Do it in the next galaxy over, you mad *******.
I blame Star Trek, calling them negative singularities, making them sound all harmless. Its not a singularity, its a ******* black hole!"

In my sanity the the words come to life.
In my sanity the stories are real.
In my sanity there is no strife.
In my sanity all I do is feel.

There is no anger in my sanity.
There is no danger in my sanity.

In my sanity the I soar with a hawk.
In my sanity the characters are my friends.
In my sanity the animals talk.
In my sanity the story never ends.

There is peace in my sanity.

In my sanity lives never cease.

OOC: Thank you, S' for your feedback on my Lara entry; the Service Unavailable error hit me when I tried to say that before.

Some good, visceral responses to this Insanity prompt.

Once again, I really love all your entries. You guys are doing awesome things with these prompts.

And helenith, yes you did! Glad to see you join us.

Commentary: Fins' drabble is all about forbidden love. Helenith has a nice little Western-style entry there. Wing's is wonderfully layered and chilling in an understated, mundane, visceral sort of way, doubly so because he's talking about himself in the third person while telling the story from a first-person perspective. I mean, what. Trieste's made me laugh, and I'm sure Peng appreciates the Milliway's reference. I know I enjoyed the mention of the drabble contest there. Ramza is silly. Livi's entry packs a punch that usually takes a far longer story to tell, and I love the second-person perspective. It's underused and works really well for this piece. Sithy, but science! Sey's is oddly melancholic and sad, and I can't quite put my finger on why I feel that way.

100 Words: Wing, Trieste, Ramza, Sithy

Winner: I thought long and hard about this one, because any mention of Man Cubs is sure to get my attention and I thus cannot be entirely sure of my objectivity. But ultimately I think I can award this one to Winged_Jedi with a clear conscience. Even if you replaced 'Man Cubs' with something else, I keep coming back to prod it with a mental stick.

Scoreboard:
Winged_Jedi: 3
DarkLordoftheFins: 1
Livi-Wan: 1
Sith-I-5: 1

And The Next Prompt Is:

#07: It has tentacles?

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?I was once mistaken for a god, a ?great priest?, on another planet, a long time ago, in another galaxy, far, far away,? Dr. Cuth Hulu said, sharpening his vibroscalpel, ?The inhabitants of that woeful planet in their mania came to view me as gargantuan. Though entertaining, I soon found that the only way to derive further satisfaction from it all was to leave them flailing in my absence. Why I inspired such dread in their simple minds I never quite discovered.

?Pehraps,? the Khil remarked thoughtfully, turning to his prisoner, whose eyes quivered in terror, ?it was the tentacles.?

OOC: That?s right, crossover drabble!

OOC: This one might be pushing it a bit far.

?So, just to get my facts perfectly straight,? Gary began, ?let?s run through this again.?

?Alright,? Sue replied.

?You heard there was a monster attacking the city.?

?Right.?

?So you decided to grab your monster attack equipment, which your boyfriend ? who is, in your words, a brilliant scientist ? made for you.?

?Right.?

?And this equipment just happens to look like a schoolgirl outfit.?

?Er? right.?

?So now you?ve come out here to fight this monster.?

?Yep.?

?The monster that has numerous squid-like appendages.?

?Yep.?

?? Have you ever seen a Japanese cartoon??

?No, I haven't. Why??

?Oh, no reason.?