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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Story [Various] Fanfic Olympics - drabbles: several laps behind at #17

Discussion in 'Non Star Wars Fan Fiction' started by Lazy K, Sep 6, 2015.

  1. Lazy K

    Lazy K Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Sep 22, 2012
    Here are my . . . er, what it says in the thread title for the Fanfic Olympics. :D


    Drabble #1: Insanity (The Shining by Stephen King)
    All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy.

    All work and no play makes Jack? A dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a? Dull boy all work and no? Play makes Jack a dull boy all? Work and no play makes Jack a?

    Dull boy all work and no play. Makes Jack a, dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and, no play makes Jack a.

    Dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy:

    All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
    Well begun is half done, or so the saying went.

    But where did the writing process begin? Was it when a writer got his inspiration for the story? When he began to outline it? When he typed out the first words? And what about all those false starts?

    Jack Torrance knew all about false starts. Or maybe not, as he was always coming up with more and more ways to start his novel, none of which actually worked.

    He put another fresh sheet of paper into his typewriter and began:

    All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

     
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  2. Mira_Jade

    Mira_Jade The (FavoriteTM) Fanfic Mod With the Cape star 5 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2004
    Ooh, I like the lilting feel of this one. It definitely fit the Insanity prompt. =D=

    (And it's fascinating seeing where the drabble started, and where it ended up, at that. What a change! [face_thinking])

    It's wonderful to see the NSWFF team already drabble-ing. :cool:[face_dancing]
     
  3. Lazy K

    Lazy K Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Sep 22, 2012
    Mira_Jade - Thanks for R&Ring! Drabble #1 has one of the things that can drive me crazy when writing: the struggle to find the right opening lines. Hopefully it won't be a problem with these drabbles [face_fingers_crossed].



    Drabble #2: Sneeze (S-N Song by Tom Lehrer)
    A fox, while not completely color-blind, does not have the wide range of color vision as humans. But that didn't mean that they couldn't enjoy a bouquet of flowers. In fact, given that their sense of smell was much stronger, they could appreciate them in ways that humans could only guess at.

    But even other foxes were baffled by Mr. Vulpes, whose fondness for flowers lay mostly in what they did to his sinuses, who got off on the involuntary expulsion of air from his mouth and nasal cavities.

    That is to say, he sniffed them so he could sneeze.
     
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  4. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 20, 2002
    I'm so excited to see this kicking off!! :D I second Mira -- seeing the versions of the first drabble is fascinating!
     
  5. Briannakin

    Briannakin Former Manager star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Feb 25, 2010
    I don't normally pop over to the NSWFF side of things, but these are great. I enjoyed the feeling of Insanity.
     
  6. Lazy K

    Lazy K Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Sep 22, 2012

    Drabble #3: Hope (Peanuts by Charles Schultz)
    It was almost a ritual. She would hold the football on the ground. He would run up to it. And she would pull the ball away.

    Every. Single. Time.

    Even an amoeba would have learned to mistrust her. But he still found himself racing towards the ball . . . which she would pull away.

    Every. Single. Time.

    But there was no denying the rush of excitement as he neared his goal, balanced perfectly between the fear of failure and the hope of getting it right -

    So he would run up to the ball, heedless of what had happened before.

    Every. Single. Time.
     
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  7. Mira_Jade

    Mira_Jade The (FavoriteTM) Fanfic Mod With the Cape star 5 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2004
    [face_laugh] I really liked this one. :p =D=
     
  8. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 20, 2002
    [face_laugh] [face_laugh] Oh, Charlie :p
     
  9. Tarsier

    Tarsier Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2005
    These are great! I especially like Hope - Charlie may never learn, but you gave a great explanation for his optimism. :)
     
  10. Lazy K

    Lazy K Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Sep 22, 2012
    Thanks for reading, folks! :)


    Drabble #4: Father (I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus by Tommie Connor)
    There are several things you don't want to happen when sneaking around inside a house at midnight. Having the lights suddenly turn on is definitely in the top ten.

    "Don't move, buster!"

    Philip raised his hands slowly, wondering how he was going to get out of this. "I can explain."

    "Well, first you're going to explain what you and Mommy were doing last year. No mistletoe runaround, either. Turn around."

    He sighed. There was nothing to do but obey.

    "Daddy?" she said, and it broke his heart to hear the disillusionment in her voice.

    "Yes, Virginia. I am your father."


    Note: I understand the song's original title is I Saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus, the songwriter being British and all, but this raises an entirely different sort of rabbit for me. :D BTW, change the names and this can be for almost any Earth-based fandom.



    Drabble #5: Explore (Fraggle Rock by Jim Henson)
    Dear Nephew Gobo,

    Here in Outer Space there are underground caves like those in our own Fraggle Rock. However, what they contain we can only guess at.

    In one, the Silly Creatures stood before a large, gaping hole in the wall, from which a great monster with bright glowing eyes came out with a deafening roar. This monster then hypnotized the Silly Creatures into walking into its many mouths.

    The surviving Silly Creatures stopped me when I attempted to chase after the monster. Obviously they are still hypnotized and I must break their trance first.

    Love,
    Your Uncle Traveling Matt
     
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  11. Mira_Jade

    Mira_Jade The (FavoriteTM) Fanfic Mod With the Cape star 5 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2004
    Both of these made me grin, but Explore, in particular, made me laugh outright. [face_laugh]

    Excellent job, once more. Keep them coming! :) =D=
     
  12. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 20, 2002
    [face_laugh] Poor Virginia :p

    And I love the Fraggle Rock one!! :D
     
  13. Lazy K

    Lazy K Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Sep 22, 2012
    Though I'd like to reply individually, my brain cells are still recovering from the graveyard shift and I still have these drabbles to write. But thanks for reading, folks! [:D]



    Drabble #6: Down (Real Steel)
    Battling Maxo was wobbling. Not bobbing, not swaying, but wobbling.

    "Gyro?" Kelly asked, not daring to take his eyes off the robots as his hands worked furiously at the controls.

    Pole nodded, then added for his friend's benefit, "Probably."

    "What do you mean, probably? What's telemetry say?"

    "Zilch. We lost feedback."

    Kelly's elaborate curse was truncated as Maxo missed an uppercut by a hair. Somehow, the gyroscope's unpredictable moves had saved him from what should have been a finishing blow.

    They shared a sigh of relief.

    But both knew that unless they could get it fixed, Maxo was going down.





    WARNING: Spoilers regarding Lister's father.



    Drabble #7: Distance (Red Dwarf by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor)
    How do you measure a generation gap?

    Dave Lister gazed forlornly into deep space, hoping to catch a glimpse of his beloved guitar. This was impossible, of course. It was long gone, jettisoned out an airlock by his father . . . who was also Dave Lister himself.

    When not furious for this act of preemptive discipline, he did his best to understand how he could be such a smeghead. It didn't occur to him that, as his father, he wanted to know why his own flesh and blood was such a smeghead, too.

    The distance between them wasn't so great after all.





    Drabble #8: Time (The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)
    It was hard to be a clock watcher when the sun moves faster than the minute hand on your clock.

    This wasn't always the case. The lamplighter could remember a time when you couldn't set your watch to the cycle of day and night. But times had changed, and with it the planet's rotation - but not his orders.

    Once, he had suggested to his superiors that maybe - just maybe - his work orders were obsolete, that maybe - just maybe - it made no sense to have so many mornings per day.

    Last he'd heard, they were considering a new unit of time.





    Drabble #9: Vengeance (Little Bunny Foo Foo)
    We had gathered here today
    To see, at last, the rabbit pay.
    Even though, we rather feared,
    The price he pays will not be dear.

    The fairy gave him warnings - thrice,
    Saying he should just play nice.
    That is three more times than he
    Deserves for all his cruelty.

    We thought it was very plain
    We wanted him to share our pain.
    But this will never be, it seems
    The fairy thinks it too extreme.

    From hare to goon - don't make us laugh!
    It's too lenient by half!
    We'll give him what he deserves
    And only then is justice served.





    Drabble #10: Suspicious (The Dark Knight)
    Every time Coleman Reese looked into a mirror, he saw the face of a man who should be dead. The fact that he wasn't was all the proof he needed to know that Batman was innocent of murder. Unfortunately, he lacked definitive evidence to convince anybody else of this.

    On the other hand, there wasn't sufficient proof to finger Batman, either. Yet everyone in the GCPD seemed dedicated to tracking down the most elusive figure in Gotham City. Too dedicated, it seemed.

    It was almost as if they knew who the real killer was, and didn't want to find him.





    Drabble #11: Government (The Incredibles)
    Plastoid threw the newspaper across the room in a gesture of pure disgust. "Okay, it's official now. They've won."

    Bill, his friend and roommate, was used to the Super's displays of temper and didn't even look up from the book he was reading. "The Anti-Super Legislation Act?"

    "How can you be so calm at a time of crisis? Can't you see what they're doing?"

    "They used 'villains' to trick Supers into acting incautiously, thus turning the public against us. With Supers gone, they - in other words, the government - are free to do whatever they please.

    "So what else is new?"
     
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  14. Admiral Volshe

    Admiral Volshe Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Aah! Le Petit Prince and Red Dwarf!! Two of my favourites and I finally have seen them in well written fanfic. Time was so perfect.

    These are fabulous! [face_love] :D
     
  15. Tarsier

    Tarsier Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 31, 2005
    Excellent! I love the variety of fandoms. I think Father is my favorite, so clever!
     
  16. Lazy K

    Lazy K Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Sep 22, 2012
    Now witness the unhinged creativity of a sleep-deprived mind . . . [face_hypnotized]



    Drabble #12: Survival (The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft)
    This week on MythosBusters:

    "So what do you have?"

    "In 1925, the crew of the Emma came across ancient ruins where Cthulhu slept. Only one man survived, although he was traumatized by his experience and died not too long afterwards."

    "So what's the myth?"

    "First, that anyone could survive an encounter with a Great Old One. And second, that he could recall the details with amazing clarity afterwards."

    "Well, for the first part we'll need to see what psychosomatic damage meeting cosmic horrors can cause. I think we should start small scale, with relatively benign creatures."

    "Like the Mi-go?"

    "Exactly."





    Drabble #13: Hidden (Avatar - The Last Airbender)
    She sometimes forgets that people can't see as she can.

    For her, the most important sense comes from the ground through the soles of her feet. She can "see" others' heartbeats from a hundred paces away. From this she can deduce how they feel with amazing accuracy.

    It surprises her at times how open people are with their emotions, how they only attempt to disguise their voices. She has to remind herself how different they are to remember that, to them, they are not this way.

    And it is because of this that she often forgets to mask her face.





    Drabble #14: Height (Avatar by James Cameron)
    The world is a bigger place when you are small.

    Intellectually, Jake knew that his avatar was one and a half times his height. But no matter how many times he linked, he couldn't shake the feeling that the world shrank down while he remained unchanged.

    It was worse at the human habitat, where there were so many familiar reference points. It didn't help that, as a human, Jake was perpetually looking up from his wheelchair at things he now looked down at in his Na'vi form.

    He never tired of this vantage point, even finding it dizzying at times.





    Drabble #15: Homework (The Homework Machine by Shel Silverstein)
    The Homework Machine, oh the Homework Machine,
    Most perfect contraption that's ever been seen.
    Just ten cents per subject and I guarantee
    That all of your time from now on will be free.

    Hold on, something's wrong - this simply can't be!
    The math worksheet's filled in with French history.
    Grammar and science and music are mixed -
    But please do not worry, I'll soon have this fixed.

    This might need much more than a programming patch.
    Perhaps it is best to start over from scratch.
    I'm terribly sorry - you'll just have to wait.
    But I'll have this done before we graduate.





    Drabble #16: Size (Discworld series by Terry Pratchett)
    They say that size does not matter. Like all sayings, this is not meant for universal application.

    When Constable Oak stood up "straight", he looked like a banana because one leg was considerably longer than the other.

    He frowned at Igor. "Are you sure you can't make them the same?"

    "No, Extending limbs ith difficult."

    "I mean, can't you make one shorter?"

    "Make it thorter? Make it thorter?" Igor stopped to take a deep, deep breath. Then he said, as though to a child, "But where would we be if everyone thtarted cutting up legth just to make them fit?"





    Drabble #17: Feather (Dumbo)
    It was, presumably, a magic feather. The question was, why would he drop it before he flew?

    Edward had reached the conclusion that it soaked up bad karma like a sponge for easy disposal. Or maybe bad luck, or bad attitude, or . . . Something.

    And here he was now, at the top of the hill, with his homemade flying apparatus strapped tightly on his back. Although today it was merely a gliding apparatus, because he wasn't ready to dive off the deep end just yet. He would do a few test runs without the engine attached to check his aerodynamics first.
     
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  17. Mira_Jade

    Mira_Jade The (FavoriteTM) Fanfic Mod With the Cape star 5 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2004
    I loved the Avatar and the Avatar TLA drabbles in this set - and TDKR one before that! You had such a great variety in these, and it was wonderful to read. =D=
     
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  18. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 20, 2002
    There are several I really enjoyed (ATLA, Shel Silverstein, etc.), but the Little Bunny Foo Foo one takes the cake. Amazing!! :D
     
  19. Sith-I-5

    Sith-I-5 Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 14, 2002
    Read the first three.

    Insanity felt steeped in mystery, and resonated with the Jack Nicholson character. Opened my eyes as to something that could be done in a drabble.

    Hope, is that the third one? Pretty good. Had visualisation of one of my few Peanuts' memories, while I read that - slo-mo of the erstwhile kicker airborne.
    Good insight.

    Always a fan of the amoeba comparison.