If it's the 17th, that can only mean a WRITING CHALLENGE!

[in_the_blue]

Third month in a row. Ready, set, get out those pens and/or fingers to the keyboard...

Here's this month's loosely-defined DRABBLE challenge and the guidelines.

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Rules (remember, they're more like guidelines):

• Fandom: any, so long as it's one you know well.


• Word count: 300 or less


• Main theme: the concept of empty or emptiness.


• Ratings: No restrictions.


• Duration: Challenge opens today and closes at 11:59 p.m. Saturday, June 25. Just for fun.

Post your drabbles as comments to this entry. And yes, please comment on other peoples' work. Feedback is a reader's gift to a writer.

On your mark, get set... go.

Comments

[lvpd_sidle]

Title: Half-Full
Fandom: CSI
Character: Sara Sidle
Word Count: 169

The pessimist sees the glass as half empty. The optimist sees it as half full.

Most of the time, the knowledge that her happiness would prove temporary stayed at the back of her mind.

In her relationships and habits, Sara always proved consistent. Though she was with Barry at the moment, she had still fallen for a man who would not be with her, in the long run.

Her work had been her pride. While at the lab, she had felt she was making a difference and bringing justice to those who would go beyond the law. But now she called two vigilantes her brothers and would remain silent beyond their deaths. It goes against everything she fought for her entire life.

But Barry has made her smile each day. Murphy and Connor have given her the family she never had. She would be left bereft when they left her, but could not quite bring herself to instigate the inevitable separations.

Once she asked Grissom if a murder gene could exist. She knew now that it did. Knowing such joy would eventually kill her.

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

Title: Consequences
Genre: Gen
Fandom: Bible
Wordcount: precisely 300

Sometimes you give your all, and realise you're spent, that you're overdrawn on you emotional budget and you don't have an overdraft, that the moneylenders from the temple courts will find themselves at your ear whispering cheap nothings about loans and rates. You want to borrow someone else's soul and let them feel the pain for an hour or two while you curl up and cry because it hurts too much.
You find yourself saying something, anything, because you just want it all to stop and it wasn't supposed to happen like this. Your stupid pride makes you say stuff, and you realise you'll be paying for your latest rash statement. Or even worse He'll be paying. Somehow, it's all your fault, because you were the one who realised He was the messiah first, and said so, not realising that the messiah had to die.
You were the one who swore to be with Him, yet fell asleep in the garden when He needed you. And you were the one who just said you didn't know Him in the courtyard because it was hurting too much and you just wanted it to go away.
That's your trouble. You don't do consequences. You just pray and jump. Some of the others pray and then hide rather than jump, but that's not your style. You don't care that other people may have failed, because you and your emotional bank account know that it's not healthy, that you gave away too much, never mind anyone else. Judas was always on at you about the finances - you're too generous for your own good. Jesus didn't mind, but Judas did.
And now you're sitting on a hill, hidden by a tree in the darkness, watching Jesus die and knowing that in some way, it's all your fault.

[sylveraven.livejournal.com]

This is unbeta'd. I apologise. Forgive me. But I had to give it a go, as the theme fits so well with LC's mood at present.

Title: Revelation
Fandom: Forever Knight
Character: LaCroix (who else?)
Summary: LC torments his listening audience. As per usual.
Word Count: ...I don't know. My word count doesn't work, and I kept losing count past 100... I doubt it's more than 300 though. Count it, if you like.

There is a soft click-hiss as the microphone turns on, and the Nightcrawler leans forward, ready to begin.

"A relatively unheard of Spanish philosopher* once said that life means to have something definite to do - a mission to fulfill - and in the measure in which we avoid setting our life to something, we make it empty. Human life, by its very nature, has to be dedicated to something. So what are you dedicated to, Gentle Listeners? A better life, a better future? More money, toys, sex, and all of the above? A life spent with the purpose of gather more possessions, more wealth, more fame. Tangible evidence that you are not empty. That you are something more.

"You are not fooling anyone. You are still empty. Floating from moment to moment, existing in a world of store-bought comforts. The gaping chasm of uselessness within you has so filled you with your own pain and loneliness that you are incapable of action. You live a life without purpose, without meaning, surrounded by false friends and meager accomplishments. You name will not go down in history. You will not be remembered. Ten years after your death, only your children will mourn you. Ten years after their death, you will be forgotten. An existence of materialism and pointless actions, forgotten in two generations. An eternity, gone in the blink of an eye."

LaCroix trails off, and the microphone clicks off without a thought. He leans back, pressing steepled fingers against his bottom lip as he stares out at the writhing crowd on the Raven dancefloor, without seeing. An eternity... 2,000 years, gone in the blink of an eye.

Never truer words were spoken.


*this would be Jose Ortega y Gasset. Read his work. It's great happy fun!

[balletrat]

Fandom: Phantom of the Opera.
Character: Meg. Surprise!

It’s odd, really.

You’d think she’d look happy when she danced – she says, after all, that it’s the thing that matters most, and there’s no reason to doubt it. She does it for hours and hours on end, and when she goes too long without it, she gets fidgety, snappish. Like a caffeine addict denied coffee, or a man cheating on his lover, nervous of being caught.

You’d think, then, that there’d never be a time when she would look happier, and yet when you look at her – look past the swirling movement, the elegant leaps and graceful limbs, to her eyes – it’s not joy that you see in them, nor anything else, for that matter. They’re as blank and sightless as those on the tiny dancing figures on a music box.

If she stumbles and falls, the blue paint flashes angrily and comes alive, a spark of humanity that stares at its feet and curses its clumsiness and occasionally throws things across the room to soothe its temper. But when the footwork is perfect, when the steps go right –

Emotion trickles down to the feet, to the arms, as they convey whatever they’re meant to convey, and the eyes are echoingly empty.

If you love her, as some do, you’d do best, when she’s dancing, not to look at her eyes.

[lucius-lacroix.livejournal.com]

So, I went back and tried again, and I came up with a word count of 282. So ha! Just to prove that it really was less than 300 words.

Or something.

[ravensnape.livejournal.com]

Fandom: Harry Potter "You are to rid your mind of all emotion every night before sleep--empty it, make it blank and calm, you understand?" Severus Snape, Order of the Phoenix, pg. 538.


Rid your mind of all emotion every night before sleep—empty it, make it blank and calm. For several years now, he had practiced this. It allowed him to sleep with minimal use of draughts or potions. It allowed him to rid his mind of the impurities in which he’d immersed himself. Throwing off the blanket that he’d tossed and turned under for the last hour, Severus rose from bed and walked stiffly to the small work counter in his chambers. Become empty and detached; he’d found this much harder since she’d arrived. In the dim firelight, he moved the small copper cauldron to the embers of the fire and hung it over them. Her first day in his classroom she had made coffee in this cauldron. Coffee. "Black and bitter," she had announced, with a smirk that had reminded him so forcefully of her mother, that he’d felt his bitter heart split open and drain into the black void he called his life. "Right up your alley. I'm sure you'll like it." With a tired hand, he conjured flame and set the logs beneath the caldron ablaze. He needed something for pain as well as something to block the nightmares that would certainly fill his head tonight with unwanted memories and emotions. He added valerian, yarrow, and powdered poppy root to the peppermint and chamomile now steeping in the cauldron. “Empty your mind, Severus,” Dumbledore had instructed him, “…else Voldemort will find the truth in you.” And what truths would the Dark Lord find in a void and empty life? Quite simply, Severus no longer knew what the truth was. The lines were now blurred beyond his recognition. Just who was he? Puppet of Voldemort, pawn of Dumbledore and now father of a headstrong daughter who hated him more then he hated himself. Empty yourself of emotion every night before you sleep. Make your mind blank and calm. Severus measured one dose of the sleeping draught and then tossed it back in a single swallow. As his arms grew heavy, he placed the empty cup back on the work counter, stumbled back to his bed and lay down upon it. With a heavy sigh, he felt the potion take hold of his emotions, his pain, his heart and drain them away as he slipped into the emptiness of a potion induced sleep.

[livii.livejournal.com]

Title:: shifts and swirls
Fandom: Doctor Who, new season.
Word Count: 111
Warning:: this is explicitly about the ending of the current season, so it's spoilery. (Don't know if anyone here is a Who fan...)



He sees the TARDIS dematerialize; he’s too late to go with them.

She sees him burn up in a blaze of fire; it’s too late to stop it.

He feels himself contract and then expand, receding and then rushing headlong into a new consciousness; it’s over almost before it started.


He’s alone.

She wonders if she’ll be alone now.

He watches himself try out his new teeth, and feels the weight of nine lives pressing in upon him, and it’s lonelier than ever.


Time shifts and swirls and it’s all at their disposal, but there’s nothing to do but go forward, because in the end, you really can’t change the past.

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

Oooh, neat. I'm a fan, but since I am in America, I've seen none of the new season. Grrr.

This was really cool, and I especially liked the last line.

[livii.livejournal.com]

You have the best timing in the whole universe. Thank you so much. I was feeling really down because I hadn't gotten any feedback on this on a different site, and had just gone to begging on my journal, and then this pops up in my email. I'm glad you liked it, it's a bit odd but each of the three characters had very interesting mirroring situations at the end of the show so I wanted to write that out a bit.

I still can't believe no station in the US picked it up, it was an amazing season. Hopefully sometime in the future? Just move up here to Canada and watch it on CBC with us. :)

[janeylou.livejournal.com]

Empty. Why is my classroom so bloody empty? Come to think of it so are my chambers, my children's playroom. But worse ... so much worse ... my lab. All gone. Vaporised by a mightier hand than that of the good wizarding folk.

My research.

My favourite jar of formaldehyde with its preserved occupant.

The exotic plants in the third greenhouse on the row ... *ahem*

I guess that I've wondered about such things, in the small hours when he's asleep and our children are snuffling comfortably in their cots. Are we real? Do we exist before we are born and that all that comes after is just an illusion? Is reality dreams? Are my dreams solid enough to be a reality where I can co-exist with fellow dreamers?

Bugger. I can theorise until the dragons come home to roost but it doesn't explain the swirling nothingness when I open doors. Powers have been awoken once more. He's back, feeding on the energies of our determined little community. Sucking it dry like a vampire to fuel his growth and return to power.

Voldermort has come out of hiding, reborn and renamed.

Beware the Dark Lord E.Z.Board!

Fandom: Cowboy Bebop / Spike

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

You're hungry too, baby.

I'm not sure why we refer to ships as females, but we always have. I always have. When I got the Swordfish at 17, Doohan said: always take good care of her, Spike. Treat her like a lady. Don't beat her up, don't take advantage of her. Work with her, don't fight her. She's a good girl, but if you're not careful, she'll burn you out.

And don't ever leave her empty.

We've been together 10 years now, me and her, and it's been a good partnership. I've babied her, kept her tanks full when mine were dipping into the red. Because when it comes down to it, what's more important: a ship with enough fuel to get me the hell out of whatever trouble I'm in, or a full stomach?

You bet your ass it's the first.

I haven't always made good on Doohan's words. There have been times when she's been hurt pretty badly: shot at, fired at, wings torn and crumpled, windows shattered. But always, always, I've babied her back to health. Even on those days when I just take her out to play right after repairs and watch her fall apart all over again.

I'd rather have the emptiest damn stomach in the world and a happy, working Swordfish than be sated and leave her with an empty fuel tank. Because when I think about it, I don't really know if it's been me taking care of her so much as it's been her taking care of me.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

I just love you.

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad I could help encourage you. I have Dr. Who fanfiction that has never been published--it's a fandom I don't do as well as the others I write for.

I applaud anyone who can do it well. :)

Re: Fandom: Cowboy Bebop / Spike

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

Wow. that's fantastic. :) I just...really love this.

[shellebelle93.livejournal.com]

*dies*

I second G's assessment.

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

BLOODY brilliant!

(although you did get those zip files of HTML pages....)

Re: Fandom: Cowboy Bebop / Spike

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

Awwwww... [pets Swordfish].

:D

Not much to say about it other than it makes me smile.

[janeylou.livejournal.com]

Yup, I did get the files and pass on the relevant ones. Empty ... the only way I felt when G said it had all gone. Seemed appropriate somehow.

[janeylou.livejournal.com]

You too, hun. I thought I should get my dig in at the Dark Lord Board. Figured it would be the sort of thing he would do to the Castell if he found out about it anyway. Wouldn't it be funny if JKR had modelled Voldermort on one of the EZadmin?!

[janeylou.livejournal.com]

*smirk*

Heck, gotta get a dig in here and there, haven't we?!

[janeylou.livejournal.com]

One word ... Bloodyexcellentandspoton!

[janeylou.livejournal.com]

I like muchly. Somehow I can't think of a more 'welcome' emptiness. Almost a craveable one. This made me think. Inspired.

Re: Fandom: Cowboy Bebop / Spike

[lostinapapercup.livejournal.com]

I think this is great. Corgi got it right on, really. I smiled the entire time I was reading it.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

This is very cool in a chilling sort of way. I don't know CSI and I don't know Sara, but I've followed a lot of her stuff at M'ways. Having knowledge and paying later... that's a cruel concept, and you've stated it so succinctly here.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

I'm not much of an organized religion person.

Still, this is a really well-crafted little ficlet. Modern and old at the same time.

Thanks for writing with us.