Cordyceps

by **The Beta Queen** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 8:12 pm

I've just read Marion's latest contribution to the Headquarters Library. :shock:

Cordyceps ( http://spectrum-headquarters.com/fanfic/cordyceps.htm ) is one of the most horrific stories I've ever read, and I mean that in a good way.
I was horribly, but absolutely, entranced from start to finish, and will never look at the mushroom section of Sainsbury's veg display in the same way again... My poor Paulie...

by **Marion** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 6:27 pm

Thank you, The Beta Queen. I'm delighted you thought he suffered horribly. Isn't that what The Halloween Challenge is all about, after all? (>[

by **Skybase Girl** » Fri Oct 16, 2009 5:12 pm

Marion, I am familiar with your variations on imaginative ways to make poor Paulie suffer horribly, but this time you have excelled yourself.

On holiday I did consume some mushroom sauce that upset my stomach, but since my symptoms were much less extreme than Scarlet's, I doubt the mushies were the Cordycep variety

Still, it does make me reluctant to try them again....

Brilliantly written, as always, with descriptive prose so powerful it will haunt me ( and my dreams ) for some time to come. Well done !

by **RhapsodyAngel8** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 1:51 pm

Golly, Marion! That really made my skin crawl! :shock:

I shall have to forgive you for the horrors you put poor Paulie through as ‘Cordyceps’ is a superb read (besides, we do like to see Paulie suffer and wow, how he did! :twisted:

).
The imagery is so vivid and the storyline just swept me along.

Compulsive reading, although caution may be advised for those of a nervous disposition... :wink:

by **Marion** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 7:05 pm

Thank you, RhapsodyAngel8 - and you too, Skybase Girl ... I aim to please. :grin:

by **Shades** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 6:53 am

One word: Ewww

That was delightfully disgusting, devilishly devious and I'd be surprised if anyone on Cloudbase ever touched mushrooms again.

But I have to ask, what is the story behind the rice pudding and the strawberry jam?

by **Marion** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 9:54 am

Thank you, Shades. Glad you... enjoyed it. :wink:

About the rice pudding and jam: there isn't a story behind it, really - it was just a totally innocent, silly thing that Rhaps and Scarlet could be doing.
It may only be a British thing, but mixing jam into rice pudding is something I certainly did as a child, and I believe I'm not the only one. It was something that made school dinner rice puddings almost edible, and if not actually edible, it was fun to see how pink you could make the gooey mess go. :wink:

Therefore, it was something Rhaps and Scarlet shared that their friends didn't. No more significent than that. :grin:

by **hazel** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 12:28 pm

Oh yes, I did that too. The rice pudding on its own was tasteless, and the jam on its own was a weird, pinky-red goo which tasted like plastic and bore little resemblance to any jam we ever had at home, but the two together were almost pleasant.

I imagine that the food on Cloudbase is a bit better than that, but old habits would die very hard.

by **Shades** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 8:05 pm

Marion wrote: Thank you, Shades. Glad you... enjoyed it.
About the rice pudding and jam: there isn't a story behind it, really - it was just a totally innocent, silly thing that Rhaps and Scarlet could be doing.
It may only be a British thing, but mixing jam into rice pudding is something I certainly did as a child, and I believe I'm not the only one. It was something that made school dinner rice puddings almost edible, and if not actually edible, it was fun to see how pink you could make the gooey mess go.
Therefore, it was something Rhaps and Scarlet shared that their friends didn't. No more significent than that.

Aah, that makes sense now. School dinners don't exist in good ol' NZ unless you go to boarding school. There's the tuck shop instead, and rice pudding isn't on the menu

by **Marion** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 8:32 pm

Shades said: School dinners don't exist in good ol' NZ unless you go to boarding school

School dinners are an endangered species in this country now too - as far as I know.
However, I rather imagine that both Scarlet and Rhapsody would have attended boarding school at some point in their lives. After all, Scarlet's father was in the military and liable to be moved about a good deal, and Rhapsody's father is described as a World Government Official - and, presumably, could have been sent around the world too.
In addition to that, the background I imagine for Scarlet & Rhapsody is that they both come from a class where boarding schools are the norm anyway. :grin:

by **MMK** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 9:16 pm

Just want to post a comment (even though Marion already knows what I think of the story :wink:

)....

I didn't read this story straight away :oops:

... and read 'Living the Vida L'Ochre' first instead*..... From that story I guessed something 'really bad'** must've happened to Scarlet for Blue to have been behaving like he did in Cordyceps. :wink:

Love how the two stories fit together Marion

(even though you did state, at the end of Living the Vida L'Ochre, that it was a sub-story)

*I read Cordyceps later on.

**Perhaps that's a bit of an understatement?