Drabbles

[Sage]

Drabble: A self-contained vignette of exactly 100 words, no more, no less, with up to 15 more words allowed for the title. A half-drabble is fifty words long; a double drabble is 200 words long. (Hyphenated words are in dispute).

Managed to get myself addicted to writing these. They're good for moments when you want to write something but aren't sure quite what.
It's quite a challenge too, managing to condense everything into so few words.
I'm sure I'll have loads more when I get back from holiday, but wanted to share my collection so far...

A half-drabble (50 words)

The Blues
I don’t get ‘the blues’
Blue is serenity, comfort, strength, capability, safety.
The peace of a summer sky, the embrace of the ocean
A joyful laugh, fun, happiness, confidences.
Blue eyes; loving, laughing, longing, lit up with life.
My best friend
So how could that colour possibly make me sad?

A drabble (100 words)

The front porch
“Come sit a while.” Blue said.
Scarlet did of course. Who can refuse that smile?
Blue offered a pillow, and can of soda. His friend accepted both.
They sat in companionable silence, watching the sunset colouring the sky peach and lavender.
Then talked for a while, until Rhapsody approached.
“What are you doing?” She demanded, with a quizzical glare.
“Just chilling out on our front porch.” Blue answered, as if it were really too obvious.
She rolled her eyes and walked away.
From the two men sat on the corridor floor, between their quaters.
Some people just don’t get it.

A double-drabble (200 words)

The thought that counts
“I’m a total jinx.” Grey declared. “With women anyway.”
“You know it’d be really great, just for once, to fall for someone who isn’t going to die, turn out to be a terrorist, or something.” He added. “Would be a nice change.”
Symphony nodded.
“Of course the odds aren’t looking great. As apparently no woman on the base wants to go out with me. Which is, frustrating, as they’d date practically anyone else, even Adam, who isn’t interested.”
He took a mouthful of coffee.
“Seriously: a sense of fun, good taste, and charm aside. What have they got, that I haven’t?”
“Aww Brad, I like you.” Came her prompt response, with a laugh.
Grey smiled.
“That’s sweet, but you don’t really count. As you already have a boyfriend.”
Symphony rolled her eyes.
“It’s the thought that counts… Well OK then.” She said, shifting back on topic. “Date girls off base… What about Adam’s sister, she’s pretty, and I’m sure you’ve got stuff in common.”
“Nah, I’d probably screw that up too.”
“Well I’ll bet fifty bucks, a hundred even. That you wouldn’t.”
“Karen, we aren’t allowed to gamble.”
“Yeah, I know…”
“…But it’s the thought that counts.” He said, smiling.

[Sage]

Here are the rest of my drabbles...

About Blue...

Little Moments
I still remember the first time I heard you swear.
Can’t recall what you backed that SPV into, but you went really quiet and so bright red, that I just couldn’t help laughing.
Or that time we tried to cook, forgot the time, and nearly burn down the base.
Even the colonel had to smile.
See you’re not perfect, though I know you try so hard.
Really though, thank God you’re not, because how boring would that be.
So remember next time you do something to remind us you’re a natural blonde.
That I live for little moments like that.

About Scarlet...

Somebody Knows You
You say nobody understands a thing about you, let alone knows you inside out.
Figure that you’ll always be this big mystery.
Well maybe that’s true in some way. Though I beg to differ...
There is someone; who can finish your sentences
That could order for you in any restaurant, before you’d even sat down.
Who can almost read your mind.
That looks beyond the retrometabolism and just sees their friend.
And I should know, because that someone is me.
So whatever happens, however strange you feel, just think a while and feel a little comfort.
That somebody knows you.

Don't need to explain who this is about...

So Obvious
Of course we knew they’d end up friends. We all have, it’s impossible not to in these circumstances.
Eventually though, however unspoken, they made a secret club of two.
Now surely everyone has noticed all the other stuff; how they hang out together so much, all those in jokes, oh and the casual gestures.
Come on, so many of us are trained in intelligence, we’ve been know to notice more subtle things.
We joke they’re like a married couple, ha, who’d have realised how close that is to being true.
Surely they must know by now, how obvious it is.

[Elentari]

Well I’ll take a plunge…
(Here’s one I prepared earlier... )

CAPTAIN OCHRE IN ‘HOBBY HAZARD’

Captain Ochre stared at the rows of model aircraft on shelves in his quarters. Then there were the larger ones suspended from the ceiling. He sighed.

An onslaught of ‘hay fever’ had sent him to Dr Fawn for tests. The good news was he was NOT allergic to the glues and paints needed for his model making. The bad news was he did have an allergy though. To dust mites.

Captain Ochre reached for one of his model planes with one hand and grasped the duster with the other. Only 390 models left to clean, he grumbled as he sneezed.

[Mary]

So there's a term for them then?

The writing competition at the Space City Fanderson convention in 1993 specified that entries (could be prose, poetry, filksong etc.) MUST be EXACTLY 50 words in length. I submitted a slightly altered version of the "waking-up scene" from Chance for a Lifetime as my entry. I'm happy to say it won the competition...

[Carrie]

Is this the same as 'Flash-Fiction'? or is that something else entirely?
BTW..congratulations Mary...!!! That was a good story..the larger version anyway!

[Marion]

Love the little stories!
I had to have a go - so here it is:

A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH?

“You have to do it. Consider the consequences if you don’t…” Scarlet said remorselessly.
“It’s not that important,” Blue muttered.
“What’s your problem?”
“I just don’t want to do it now…”
“I never knew you were such a wimp, Adam.”
“Tomorrow; I’ll do it tomorrow…”
“You said that yesterday…”
“If I choose not to, that’s up to me,” Blue argued.
“You’ll suffer again if you don’t do it now; we’re on duty tomorrow. Go on – I made you an appointment.”
The Dentist’s door opened; Scarlet shoved his partner through. “Honestly, I don’t know – all this fuss over one little filling…”

[Elentari]

An idea based on Colonel White’s bio in the 1967 Captain Scarlet Annual.

WISHFUL THINKING

‘The man in black desperately tried to evade his pursuers. Relentlessly they tracked him through the backstreets and alleyways until finally he was caught. This time he would not get away. Inspector Ashe stared coldly into the hostile face of his prisoner - a ruthless being who seemed almost inhuman. No matter. ‘Black’ was now his - and he would be made to pay for the crimes he had committed.’

Colonel White paused then carefully wrote ‘THE END’ with a flourish - his first detective novel was finished. Regrettably, he was yet to succeed in capturing Conrad in real life.

[Sage]

First love
She’d never say ‘I told you so’, but it was on the tip of her tounge.
Paul never learns, unless it’s the hard way.
Of course it was all too obvious, what had he expected. Oh she had some choice words about ‘her’, not the first and no doubt the last.
So here he comes, dragging his sorry hide and kit bag. After yet another row, all apologies and ‘I made a mistake’.
She welcomed him back though, like every time.
Well sure they have their fun, but when the chips are down, they always return.
Back home to Mum.

An Angel’s kiss
Kiss her?
Here and now, in this drop of eternity.
An impish smile playing across her face she crawled closer, her scent becoming all.
Shocking tenderness, beautiful softness, the champagne of kisses.
It was over all too soon.
They broke away, laughter ringing all round.
And the bottle spun again.

[Sage]

Yup and another one; real angsty and a little freaky. Oddly poetic though, so I like it.
(BTW the title is a line from the song Iris by the goo goo dolls.)

You bleed just to know you’re alive
One dash of the blade, a shot of pain, luminous on his skin.
For a second he almost smiled
The blood flowed, that was all he saw, his whole world scarlet now.
For a moment he could forget.
Everything else in that scarlet world.
A reminder of who, what, he was.
Man or monster; he couldn’t be sure any more.
It never lasted long, healing too fast.
Though at least they’d never know.
He sighed, got up, washed it away.
If only the thoughts could so easily fade.
Not a trace on his body, but track lines across his soul.

[Carrie]

Sage...I'm very impressed by these...I think poetry is your true element...

[Sage]

You think, hmm never really considered myself much of a poet.

How about a little bit of Melody/Ochre, for a nice change (and a Jack Kerouac quote for a title)....

The only ones for me are the mad ones
He is the last guy in the world you’d wanna fall for.
So wild, obnoxious, a joker, a tease
Any girl with an ounce of sense would just run the hell out of there.
A truly sane girl wouldn’t have let there be a start; let alone stuck around though all the mornings after, the dumb fights, believed every lil sweet nothin’
So what the hell does the make me?
Maybe love doesn’t need to give explanations, never runs of logic.
He just looks at me, with those sweet brown eyes, says; I love you, Mag.
And I’ve fallen again.

[Sage]

It’s not easy being Green
Can’t really complain, I volunteered, to finally give the guy a break.
I’m just as good with computers; know my way round the coms. system. Really how hard could it be?
Filing, report writing, pacifying, baby sitting, coffee making, hours on hold, Colonel’s wrath, Scarlet’s wrath, wrath in every colour of the spectrum … and it just never lets up.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, coming of duty; but it’s like an oncoming train, 60 more hours still to go.
“How was you day, Pat?”
“To paraphrase Kermit the frog; it’s not easy being Lieutenant Green.”

[Sage]

Consider this my 'Ochre period' (not doubt prompted by my watching 'the secret service' and being reminded of his umm appeal)

Where were you last night?
“Where were you last night?”
There was no real point in asking. Before the day was through everyone who mattered would have heard every detail. And he was usually first on the list.
“Or should I ask, who with?” Magenta took another sip of coffee.
“Emma, from accounts, so I can say with authority that the rumours about her are true.”
“That’s … nice”
“How ‘bout you, Pat?” Ochre asked “any hot dates of your own?”
Magenta shrugged.
Course not; but when you’re thirty-five, and your best friend is a man-slut, you like to pretend it isn’t a remote possibility.

We all need our hobbies
Scarlet entered the officer’s lounge, and his face crumpled in disgust; he even shuddered just slightly, then demanded;
“What is that unholy stench?”
So Ochre told him, what was on the tube, without looking up.
Scarlet pinched his nose just slightly, and continued.
“I trust there is a really good reason why you are stinking out the whole lounge with noxious fumes, and probably killing off hundreds of brain cells in the process.” He gave a withering look “Not that you’ll miss them.”
“We all need our hobbies, Paul” Ochre replied patiently “Actually I do have a good excuse here.”
“Go on then, what is it?”
“Grey’s birthday present”
Scarlet frowned.
“Yes, I’m sure he’ll really enjoy being poisoned.”
Ochre gave a chuckle.
“No, I mean what I’m making. It’s a scale model of the craft he used to pilot in WASP. You won’t believe how hard it was to get the blue prints and stuff.” He gave an apologetic shrug “I know the glue’s bad, but it’s the best I can find. Shouldn’t take long to finish.”
“That’s very thoughtful, I’m sure Brad will really appreciate it.” Scarlet smiled “Suppose, I’ll have to let you off, just this once.”

A rose by any other name
“Yellow!” He hissed with indignation.
I sighed, and tried to prepare and answer;
“Well, you must admit, they are sort of similar.”
“Yellow is like sunshine, and … custard, or something” he jabbed at his tunic “does this look custardy, to you?”
“Hmm not really.”
“Course not,” he managed to simultaneously roll his eyes and shake his head “how such blatantly colour blind people could get a job in spectrum I will never know.”
“The wonders of bureaucracy shall never cease.”
“Damn straight” he was quiet for a moment, and I stupidly assumed he’d dropped it.

“Seriously though,” he began again “what were they thinking; Captain Yellow. That’s just ridiculous.”
“More so than Captain Magenta” I arched an eyebrow.
He just shrugged.
“That has a ring to it,” He looked me over “and you can carry it off.”
“It takes a very confident man to wear pink.”
He smiled, but the trace of annoyance was still there.
“Don’t pay it any mind, after all, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
“Yeah, but you gotta admit, Captain Ochre sounds far better.”
“Indeed,”
Shakespeare might have had a point, but our Ochre could only ever be … Ochre.

[Sage]

How did you feel?
“So, how did you feel, about that?”
Scarlet’s chin rocketed up, his handsome face creased into a frown.
He had died, then promptly come back to life … to discover he was basically ‘a virtually indestructible flukey alien-human hybrid clone thingy’ (he hoped one day they’d find a decent term for it). His friends had either ostracised, or been dragged through the emotional maelstrom with him. Then, just to add insult to technically fatal injury, he had to report for monthly psychological assessments.
“Bloody ecstatic” he muttered.
Dr Weiss sighed, and realised it was going to be a long session.

[Elentari]

I finally managed to pull this one together...

A QUESTION OF TRUST

The Mysterons had issued a threat and Captain Scarlet was assigned to transport his passenger to safety in the SPJ. Turbulence caused the jet to drop altitude, then it banked sharply and Scarlet heard an audible gasp before the aircraft finally levelled out. Ignoring the VIP passenger, Scarlet concentrated on piloting the SPJ. He knew his passenger was nervous though neither man spoke.

Too soon, thought Scarlet savagely. It was all very well to assign him to transport the World President to safety but who’d have realised, despite assurances to the contrary, that the World President didn’t completely trust him.