Drabble #203: Filthy

[redwolf]

...we had a nice response to the drabble prompt of Drabble 202, with entries by apachefirecat and redwolf, and comments by apachefirecat and redwolf

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

Filthy

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

Offensive

[redwolf]

Word count: 500

Sarah and Bishop were sitting in the kitchen of her childhood home as Irene bustled about preparing cookies. With the last of the dough arranged on cookie sheets, she picked up her coffee to wait until she could shuffle the next batch into the oven.

“You didn’t need to make cookies for us,” Sarah sipped her coffee and reached for a still warm cookie. “Although, I really do miss these.”

Irene smiled fondly at her stepdaughter. “Of course, I did. Those two big guards of yours are always so excited to smell them.”

“Not half as much as Dad is when he sees the boys,” Sarah laughed.

Her father was as giddy as a child on a play date whenever Sarah arrived with Gan and Eero. He’d mentioned golf and the trio had promptly vanished, leaving Sarah with no idea if they were watching the game or playing a round.

“I appreciate you bringing them, your father has been so stressed with work recently and it’s wonderful to see him laughing again.” As the timer sounded, Irene turned back to the oven to switch out trays. “Anything interesting, dear,” she asked over her shoulder.

Sarah had borrowed Irene’s laptop to check up on her email. “There’s the usual queries from old colleagues. Oh, and a wedding invitation. I’ll let them know that I can’t make it and sort a gift from their registry.” She clicked through to the next message and visibly shuddered in disgust.

Bishop looked up in concern. “What’s wrong?”

“UDP.” She swiveled the laptop around to show Bishop and smirked when he recoiled.

“A little warning next time, please.”

Irene looked over Bishop’s shoulder and shook her head. “He’s proud of that? Give me the confidence of a mediocre man and I could rule the world.” She rolled her eyes dramatically.

“What exactly is UDP? Bishop asked.

“It’s an unsolicited dick pic,” Irene answered helpfully.

“Why would anyone do that? Especially when,” Bishop nodded towards the offending appendage. “I wouldn’t touch that with someone else’s bits.”

Sarah shrugged. “I have no idea. I can’t imagine that anyone has been impressed, so I don’t know why he’d share his inadequacy with a stranger.”

“Do you want me to take care of it, dear?”

“Please.”

“Pardon the pun, but how do you handle it?” Bishop had noted Irene’s maliciously gleeful expression.

“First I reply by sending the gentleman the photo provided by the previous correspondent and then, depending on what I discover about the sender, I contact their wife, mother or HR department.”

Bishop roared with laughter. “I bet they thought getting a UDP back was the lowlight of their day.”

Sarah laughed in agreement. “Jareth did offer to traumatise them with a photo of his royal jewels in return, but I’d expect these morons to use it to catfish women and nobody appreciates false advertising. Besides,” Sarah waved her hand towards Irene. “I’d be a fool to reject the talents of the queen of making grown men cry.”

Re: Offensive

[apachefirecat]

I know I already reviewed on your private journal, but I wanted to leave a comment here too to encourage the growth of this lovely comm! :) I still find it very neat that you wrote Irene, and her relationship with Sarah, in such a positive light!

Re: Offensive

[redwolf]

Much appreciated! I would hope that their relationship improved over time, otherwise you have Sarah locked into the role of brat and Irene forever the wicked stepmother, which she wasn't.

Treasure

[apachefirecat]

Word Count: 400


Sarah paused in one of the booths and picked up the globe. She turned it this way and that in her hands, and as she twirled it, her mind flashed back to the night the entire world she'd been searching for ever since had been offered to her. She had been so young, so foolish, far too naive to be able to understand everything that world had offered her at the time, everything he had offered her.

Sarah gasped as the tiny snowflakes in the globe seemed to shimmer and then began to come together. There was a charming smile and a flash of blonde hair. For just a moment, her heart skipping, her breath holding, she thought she saw him. But it wasn't him. Jareth was not going to come back to her. He couldn't. For some reason she could not yet comprehend, for as much power as he held, he was clearly unable to come to her himself. The rare encounters she'd had with the Fieries and Goblins since her teenage years confirmed that, as did her research.

That was the real reason she was here. She wasn't here for some trinket, she thought, remembering the musical jewelry box with her mother's image. This shop was nothing more than the Junkyard had been. It was filled with treasures purported to have come from across the world, but the real treasure was knowledge. The answers were here, somewhere, with the right person. She just had to find them.

And they didn't lay in this water globe or any other trinket that lined these shelves. Everything her eyes could see was on sale for the common girl, a common girl, as Jareth had once called her. She was no longer just a girl. She was a Queen in search of her King, and she would find him. These trinkets were useless to her; they held no more value than all the toys and other items that had littered the filthy Junkyard beyond the Goblin City.

This world could keep their things; what, or rather who, she sought was far beyond, and far, far grander. Sarah firmly placed the globe back onto its shelf, squared her shoulders, lifted her chin, and moved forward. She heard a whisper of low, maniacal giggles and the quick, quiet shuffling of otherworldly feet and smiled. She was on the right path.


The End

Re: Treasure

[redwolf]

It sounds like Sarah is getting closer to her destination 🦊🧡