Drabble #114: Squeeze

[jalenstrix]

...we had a livelier response to the drabble prompt of Drabble 113, with entries by redwolf and me (your intrepid drabble proposer jalenstrix), and commenting love by us both as well. Hurrah!




For this prompt, we continue with our one-word/phrase drabble roots:

Squeeze

Who or what’s being squeezed? By who? Why? How? Is this physical squeezing perhaps or something else? Tell us all about it. Labyfic-style, of course.



Given our entries from recent months, let's continue with the suggested limit for this month of 500 words. Though remember that shorter pieces are most definitely welcome!

Your entry should take the following format, posted as a comment on this entry:
Word count: # of words
Drabble: $your_beautiful_drabble


I'll aim to get the next drabble challenge out on the first Friday of next month (April 7).

I'm also very happy to take suggestions if something in particular strikes your fancy -- comment on this post or PM me with your suggestions. You can see our current collected suggestions here.


Remember: Feedback is LOVE. So do reply to your fellow labyficcers' drabbles if so inclined. (Though be careful of concrit unless specifically okayed by the author beforehand.)

Comments

Negotiations

[redwolf]

Word count: 500
Drabble:

Sarah swept into the room on Jareth’s arm. Both were resplendent in Goblin armour that shimmered in impossible colours that had a tendency to make people feel slightly queasy when looked at for too long.

They sat at the head of the table, which was the signal for the meeting to commence.

While it was a meeting between kingdoms to hammer out a trade deal and it was taking place in a boardroom, it was not a meeting as Sarah would have expected in a business environment, as it had much more in common with a theatrical production.

Jareth had liked the Above concept of a boardroom and redecorated for each meeting. The run of art themed decor had been fun. Sarah had loved the Monet, where Jareth preferred the Pollock, but the Giger had been spectacularly successful in the trade delegation of the day being extremely eager to wrap matters up and depart earlier than planned.

The current design was a glorious Art Deco confection of sleek lines, luscious curves and shining chrome, but with certain perspectives, such as the length of the table, slightly too long or otherwise skewed in a manner that conveyed an undertone of discomfort.

It hadn’t taken Sarah long to understand that any interactions Jareth had with the fae of the Underground were an exercise in performance art. In this case, their performance was to look imperious and terrifying. Occasionally raising an eyebrow or clearing a throat to subtly signal their team, had the added bonus of making the other delegates very nervous. It created an atmosphere which their own advisors were quick to take advantage of in pressing for more advantageous terms.

While the meetings were usually amusing from an observer's perspective and always brought benefit to the kingdom, it was the preparation that Sarah had come to love. The few hours of discussion in the boardroom was preceded by weeks or months of research and exchanged missives as the terms were formed.

The library was one of Sarah’s favourite places and when it was a flurry of activity as she assisted Jareth and his team of trade advisers hunt for precedents and parallels to best present their case, it became her whole world. She may have been long familiar with researching a topic from her studies, but Sarah had never previously considered that being a paralegal would be such fun.

It was one area of her role where she didn’t feel like she was playing catch up. While it was true that she was new to the ways of the Underground, she brought a different set of tools to the table that often gave their team a new direction with a tricky problem.

While their attendance at these boardroom meetings added an air of careful menace to the proceedings, for Sarah it was deeply educational to watch how fae performed under pressure, which helped distract from the effort of maintaining resting bitch face whenever she felt an impending case of the giggles.

Re: Negotiations

[jalenstrix]

Loooooove the art themes in the board room (especially the Art Deco one) and resting bitch face on paralegal Sarah! Much fun to read.

Re: Negotiations

[redwolf]

Thank you muchly!