Drabble #67: Showers
Friday, 6 April 2018 00:01![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jalenstrix in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
labyfic...we had a quieter response to the drabble prompt of Drabble 66, with an entry by me (your intrepid drabble proposer
jalenstrix). The terrific 3iggy represented with the commenting love.Mwah! But, oh my drabbling labyfic collective, come back to ussssssssss! We miss you.
For this prompt, we return to our one-word drabble roots, focusing on a phrase associated with the weather of this month in certain parts of the world:
Showers
Showers of what, I ask you, showers of what....and who is being showered, and why? There’s a story(let) here, I know it!
I continue to enjoy the 300 word limit, so let's continue with it for this month. 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 (May 4).
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.)
no subject
2018-04-22 22:28 (UTC)Drabble
“Jareth?”
“Mmmm?” His voice drifted between us in the bed, drowsy and contented.
“I want to talk to you about something.”
His sudden attention pierced me like a rapier. “This sounds serious.”
I swallowed, trying not be distracted by the way the moonlight traced the sensuous lines of his mouth. “It’s probably nothing.”
“That furrowed brow of yours suggests otherwise.” His eyes glittered with menace. “Does someone require killing?”
“Jareth! No. No killing.”
“Are you quite sure?” There was a spark of glee behind his eyes now. “It’s been ages, but I’m sure I could work up a nice evisceration curse or three.”
I sighed. “What is it with all you Faerie types and death threats?”
“It’s the only real fun when you live so long.” He flashed me a jaunty grin. “So now, back to the evisceration. Who needs it?”
“No one.”
He tilted his head, using his best persuasive tones. “Are you quite sure?”
“Gaaaah, stop it! There will be no evisceration just because I’m weirded out by some of the bridal shower activities!”
“Aha! So what are those scheming harpies at Court proposing for the shower?”
I pressed my hands over my eyes. “It was more of a bath, actually.”
“As long as they’re not trying that whole bathing in the blood of virgins trope.” He snorted. “Can’t believe they think anyone would ever fall for it. Even the infamous Countess Báthory didn’t really do it, and she was a right horror.”
My hands slid from my eyes as my mouth fell open. “It’s a tro...they always try…” I stopped, closed my eyes for a long moment, and regrouped. “So it is not, in fact, a Faerie tradition dating back to time immemorial.”
“Definitely not.”
“Is that offer for evisceration still open?”
“For you, forever.”
no subject
2018-05-01 16:05 (UTC)no subject
2018-05-04 16:01 (UTC)no subject
2023-04-04 10:09 (UTC)no subject
2023-04-25 19:24 (UTC)Drabble
2018-05-01 16:45 (UTC)Sarah ran through the park, hands clutching the sides of her raincoat’s hood while she tried to avoid the pools of water forming everywhere, seemingly instantaneous as this spring shower. It was hard to watch her feet when the happy faces of double blossom daffodils and crocuses waved wildly in the wind—blurs of color dancing in the rain.
The sky grew ever darker as she neared the obelisk and the bridge, favored childhood haunts. Sarah slowed her pace breathing in rain scented gulps of air. A bracing wind ripped her hood from her fingers and sent her long dark hair whipping out behind her.
She came to a complete stop and admired the hill and the obelisk. If only it were ancient. A monument, a doorway, or a lonely warning, covered in early spring flowers. Even rainswept and ordinary it was lovely, perhaps the melancholy mood made it more so. She tended to think in flowery phrases on rainy days. Modern language was so tame. Of course, the obelisk was probably nothing more than a phallic symbol that was some how or another sexist in nature. With a shrug she moved moved on, putting her feet right into an enormous puddle.
It was so enormous that she was entirely consumed by it.
Sarah fell out of the rain puddle and onto her ass on a hillside full of obelisks and dark turbulent skies. Pink and green phlox rambled everywhere. This was not an area of the Labyrinth she’d encountered before, but it had the same feeling. She was hardly surprised by the impish face of her arch-nemesis looming above her.
“Oh Sarah, how kind of you to drop in,” Jareth sneered as he offered her his gloved hand, the picture of a perfect gentleman.
“I’m sure you had nothing at all to do with me falling through a puddle right into Fairy?” Sarah grumbled, swatting at his hand and pulling herself up. She only had a moment to take in the path leading into a meadow, a giant maypole at its center.
Goblins frolicked hither and thither, chaotically wrapping the pole in multicolored ribbon.
“It’s May Day,” Sarah gave the Goblin King a slight smile.
“How observant you are,” Jareth rolled his eyes and twirled his wrist, an orb instantly appearing to rest gently on his gloved fingertips. “And, as always, you’re underdressed.”
Sarah didn’t have time to protest he dropped the orb over her head. An electric tickle of magic cascading over her wet hair and sent a shiver through her core as her hair curled and a flowing dress of spring green enveloped her.
“Come along,” Jareth held out his hand, all charming in gold and green.
“Oh fine,” Sarah took his hand and they set off into the fields.
Re: Drabble
2018-05-04 16:03 (UTC)Re: Drabble
2023-04-04 10:11 (UTC)Spring
2023-04-04 10:12 (UTC)Drabble:
Sarah had enlisted Bishop to help her gather and transport supplies. After setting their burdens down they settled themselves on the thick moss beside a spring.
Taking her shoes off, Sarah happily wiggled her toes into the moss before leaning back on her elbows, eyes closed as she listened to the sounds of the surrounding woods. Bishop opening a bottle drew her attention and she gratefully accepted a glass.
She startled as Rook and Erich silently appeared in the clearing, thankfully with far less drama than their arrival in the training room. They padded across the moss and dove into the spring without leaving a ripple.
This was the first time Sarah had seen Erich in fur. She’d heard he was a Mexican Wolf, but never having seen one, assumed he would look like Rook and Bishop. He was smaller in size and she finally understood why the goblins called him a pointy puppy.
Looking over the rim of her glass, Sarah could see they had surfaced in human form and were splashing each other like children. With a shriek, a barn owl swooped into the clearing, hovering over the spring before Jareth changed forms and cannonballed the pair in the water.
Sarah smiled in amusement as the water fight continued before they settled down into what looked like mutual grooming as they took turns to scrub each other’s hair. She swallowed as she realised what this meant, as Jareth had told her they were going hunting and she was quietly happy they were removing evidence of their hunt at a distance.
With the trio having spent much of the preceding weeks monopolising each other's company, Sarah hadn’t had a chance to get to know Erich. Physically, he was a little taller and heavier than Jareth. He had dark hair and the kind of beard Sarah suspected was hiding a baby face. Bishop had told her that he worked with the same agency Above that he and Rook did, but Erich was based in the Berlin office.
What was of note was that since the day of the test, both Rook and Erich had both borne a cascade of marks that spiralled up an arm and Sarah could now see that they continued across part of their back and chest. Rook’s were the same rainbow riot of colour she’d seen in the past, but Erich’s were monochrome. Sarah was reluctant to call them tattoos as the patterns moved and eventually disappeared after a few weeks. She had wondered if they held a deeper meaning or if they were just an excuse for Jareth to indulge in skin contact.
Sarah laughed as Jareth spluttered to the surface after Erich had pulled him under.
Turning to Sarah, Bishop raised an eyebrow. “I’m surprised you didn’t insist on swimwear.”
“Jareth did offer to wear Speedos.”
Bishop roared with laughter. “That would’ve been even more suggestive.”
“Just a little. Well, not little. You know what I mean.” Sarah dissolved into a fit of giggles.