Bring me your drabbles!

[missy_misery]

Uniformly excellent!

[c_nordlander]

Thank you! *blushes like an anime girl*

Here's drabble 16. More creepy fantasy stuff.


The Newsong

The Invasion left us almost unscathed; the Watchers kept to their spires.

Then I started hearing a vile noise. It was a penetrating wail, but there was something fleshy there, too. My dad’s colleague got tinnitus. He committed suicide. This wasn’t tinnitus.

I heard it when I dreamt. It mingled with my friends’ voices, until I couldn’t hear it without wondering whether they participated.

I put off seeing a doctor, so as not to learn whether it was permanent.

The doctor looked encouraging.

“Have you heard it?” I asked.

“No. Since the angels landed, I’ve heard their song.”

THE END

[c_nordlander]

Drabble 17, of sorts. I've been experimenting with writing haiku, so I decided to put some together as a story. Don't try too hard to decipher the plot; I mostly wrote one poem after the other, seeing where the ideas took me.

Note on the title: a haibun is a piece that combines a short prose story with a haiku, though I don't know whether my story is remotely like one. Also note that most serious writers of haiku in the western world don't actually stick strictly to the 5-7-5 syllable count, since Indo-European languages work differently than Japanese. However, in this piece I stuck to the 5-7-5 scheme.


Planetary Romance Haibun

The poetess awoke on a new celestial body. Over the course of her travels, she wrote these verses:

An unknown season
A pool of vines and blossoms –
My awakening bed.

~

He hailed me “chosen”
Dragonslayer, queen consort –
He’d mistaken me.

~

Vines under my feet
Like in a slapstick cartoon
Turn into desert.

~

Disguised as a man
To escape some vile dangers –
His love unarmed me.

~

In the arena,
Shouts, stomping hooves, blood, garlands
Now falling in dust.

~

Less of a husband
Than a noble protector.
Less than ashes, now.

~

A silver mirror
The moon, over black desert
Reflecting the Earth.

THE END

[c_nordlander]

A realistic one this time. Can still be horrible!


Sofie Got Her Gun

The fellow from plumbing lugs the bidet up to my bathroom. If he has any crude jokes ready, they're gone when he sees my too sleek outline.

"I've thought of getting one myself," he says as he screws and hammers it in place next to the toilet. "Just wiping doesn't make you as clean."

He makes sure the door closes as he steps into the institute corridor, but I'm skilled at manoeuvring handles with my mouth now.

I try sitting on the bidet. If I crane my neck, I can switch it on with my nose.

THE END

[missy_misery]

Excellent stuff!