Drabble #179: Mysterious

[redwolf]

...we had a nice response to the drabble prompt of Drabble 178, with entries by apachefirecat and redwolf and comments by apachefirecat and redwolf

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

Mysterious

Tell us all about it. Labyfic-style, of course.

Given our entries from recent months, let's continue with the suggested limit 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
$your_beautiful_drabble

I'll be running weekly challenges in the space around jalenstrix's monthly challenges.

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. Authors generally write for love.)

Comments

Aphantasia

[redwolf]

Word count: 500

Sarah had been working away, with Jareth and Rook quietly and creatively insulting each other in barely comprehensible, heavily accented idioms, providing a comforting background noise. It was days later when she realised that while she had no idea what they’d been discussing, at least some of their insults had filtered through and she now had no idea if it was trash talk or not. The more she had thought about it, the more bizarre it sounded, so she figured she may as well ask.

When she found the pair, both Jareth and Rook were tapping paintbrushes to create a splatter effect on the canvas. It was a technique Sarah had used herself in a recent ceramics collection she’d been working on and she was more than familiar with the amount of splatter that ended up in places other than the intended surface. Her work apron bore plenty of evidence, as did her arms, the work surface and, no matter how careful she was, there was always slip that managed to find its way into her hair.

Sarah shook her head at how Rook echoed her own experience with the technique due to being liberally dotted with colour, while Jareth was mysteriously free from any stray paint droplets. The disparity didn’t seem to bother Rook, but Sarah would have been displeased if Jareth had been magicking his mess into her lap, so it was probably best that their hobbies diverged.

Jareth set his brush aside, placed his hands in the small of his back and stretched, his white tee tightening across his chest in a way that made Sarah’s mouth go dry. “How did it go today?” Jareth flashed her a knowing smile.

Swallowing audibly as she booted her brain back into gear, Sarah returned her husband’s grin. “We got everything in the kiln, so we’ll have to wait and see. I have to ask; you said something the other day about a lack of visual imagination and it’s been bugging me.”

If she’d blinked she would have missed the silent communication of Jareth’s raised eyebrow and Rook’s slight head tilt. It was the kind of thing that had initially concerned her until the Labyrinth had bound her to her own guardians and she understood the connection. You may well torture each other, but would nobody else had that privilege without consent.

Rook set her own brush aside. “It’s called aphantasia and it means that I don’t picture things in my mind.”

“But you’re an artist.” Sarah spluttered as Rook shrugged her indifference. “Does that mean you don’t dream?”

Rook shook her head. “Of course I dream.”

“So it’s not a disability?”

Rook shook her head. “People’s brains just work differently.”

“That is so weird.”

“You’re telling me.” Rook returned to her splatter. “I thought people seeing things in their mind’s eye was a euphemism.”

Sarah opened her mouth to reply and then stopped. “Okay, that kind of makes sense, but how did I not know this was a thing?”

Truths

[apachefirecat]

Word Count: 500

There was such vulnerability in his eyes that when he at last stopped talking, relating the secrets of his own childhood to her, Sarah's heart ached all the more. She had often wondered about her husband's past, how he had come to be the Goblin King and if he had at first been stolen himself. She was not surprised at the latter, but her heart broke to realize how thoroughly unwanted he had been as a baby, a pain that had clearly shadowed his life for a very long time. "Well?" Jareth asked and forced out a rough bark of laughter.

Sarah blinked, forcing back her own tears of compassion as she focused on the unspoken needs in his eyes. His beautiful eyes, which had always looked to be two colors but which she had only just discovered had held physical trauma as well as more trauma than should ever be visited on any child. "The mysteries are over, Sarah." His voice was growing cold and hard, and Sarah realized he was preparing to distance himself from her.

She moved quickly, closing the distance that he had placed between them as he had been relating his own tale to her. Her hands caught his face, and he did not move. She witnessed unshed tears glittering in his beautiful eyes. "Your mother," she spoke with vehemence, "was a stupid bitch not to want you."

Looking back later, she would come to realize this as the moment that she actually forgave her own father. Her mother could have easily fought to keep her in her life. Instead, she'd chosen to leave her with her father and her new stepmother to chase after her dreams of stardom. At least she had not surrendered her without second thought to a kingdom of Goblins in hopes of gaining wealth and power. Jareth's mother had sought to become royalty through any means, but it was Jareth who was truly King. Sarah would also wonder later what had become of his mother and hope that she had met a fitting end.

But right now, in this moment, her only concern was comforting the man she had come over their years together to love. She stroked his cheeks as she stared into his eyes, willing him to see the truth of her words. "You are wanted now. You're revered now!" She lifted one hand from his tender flesh to passionately wave at the magical kingdom around them.

"I am feared now!" he snapped, turning his head from her. It had always been better to be feared than to be pitied or beguiled.

"By some, yes," she admitted, gently turning his face back to her, "but not by all. I love you, Jareth -- "

"And knowing the truth behind my strengths, behind my power does not -- "

"I did not fall in love with you for your power!" she snapped more harshly than intended, but then stroked his cheek. "I love you for you." Her lips pledged her own truths.



The End