"Dave Grohl to be crowned Godlike Genius" is one of my favorite headlines ever.

[in_the_blue]

You can read the story here, but I digress.

I'm counting on you guys! Here, join me in a writing challenge.

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Rules:

Fandom: any established fandom (no original universe pieces).
Word count: at least 250; no upper limit
Main theme: All my life I've been searching for something
Ratings: No restrictions.
Duration: Two weeks. Challenge opens now (January 10) and closes at 11:59 p.m. in whatever time zone you inhabit on Sunday, January 23.

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Post your ficlets as comments to this entry. Feel free to do as few or as many as you want, and if you see one you really like, be sure to leave a review or a comment. Everyone's welcome, so have fun.

Don't forget, more prompts specifically for drabbles at 100wordstories.

Comments

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

Title: Perfection Only Comes Easily to Those Who Understand It
Fandom: Baccano!
Character(s): Claire Stanfield
Word Count: 482
Rating: G (or V for verbose)

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There's a highly curious phenomenon that happens in both the best and worst of all social situations. Particularly when one is destined to interact with others, that being the veritable definition of a social situation. There are certain attitudes and outlooks that become expected, beyond the general niceties of hello and good-bye. Personally speaking, I've never given more than a small nod to the entire concept of abiding by what's socially accepted and those who know me can confirm that in more ways than one. Then again, who truly knows another person? But I digress: back to the entire concept of social situations, I find myself having been caught entirely off-guard by the simplest of concepts: introducing myself to a woman to whom I've already declared my love under less than ideal circumstances. Send her a gift, that seems to be the general consensus, and it's a perfectly valid consensus. I don't do things halfway, though, and for the beautiful, the lovely, the voiceless Chane Laforet, the gift has to be perfect. Emblazoned in my mind's eye is an equally perfect image of her: height-wise, weight-wise, figure-wise -- I've dreamed of nothing else -- and so the size of the dress is never in question. It's the additions that must be made to it to ensure that it's just right for her and her alone, and that means a piece of work as gorgeous and complicated as she is, with more than enough room for those knives she loves and needs to keep hidden considering you don't just walk down Broadway with a set of knives in your hands. It's imprudent, and the woman who's captured my heart with a power that surprises even me is anything but that.

Having connections is a handy thing, and by the time the hoops and latches are put into place in just the right way along with th promise of absolute silence should anyone ask exacted via the usual methods, the dress is ready. By then it's a simple enough matter to pay a kid to deliver the thing, and now it's time to sit back and wait, not something that I'm generally accepted as excelling at. But I can when I need to and it's funny: I've done a lot of things in my life, from losing my family to gaining another, from New York to Chicago, from life on the streets to life in the circus, from hitching a ride to being a train conductor. Never once, though, did I think that what I was looking for would come in the guise of a deadly-but-beautiful perfect size four assassin with no voice, no explanation, but a whole lot of yearning in those gorgeous brown eyes. Go figure. Me, Claire Stanfield, the Rail Tracer, an unparalleled fool for love.

It works. And because it works, I'll wait... but nothing says I've got to do it patiently.

[ashavah]

I always find Claire so intriguing when you write him, and this little piece is no different. It's a lovely little character study, full of arrogance and certainty and a really appealing self-awareness. I love how he has no doubt whatsoever in his mind about what must be done and the fact that he's fallen for Chane and therefore everything must be perfect. Lovely work.

Insofar as someone unfamiliar with the canon can say that. :)

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I appreciate the comment, and since you're unfamiliar with him as a character but still got his arrogance and certainty and self-awareness, it must mean I painted him well enough!

[lostinapapercup.livejournal.com]

I like this a lot, Gwynne. It really captures that kind of disarmingly charming lovable-mostly-because-he's-in-love thing that Claire does so well.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

Ha, I love that description, and I thank you for reading and leaving a comment. I actually... am not a big fan of this piece. I feel like it was forced in a way a lot of other things I write are not, and almost got rid of it here. But I never expect to love all the things I write, and my brain's been mighty preoccupied with non-fic-writing things lately.

So all that aside, it made me beam that you liked it. Thanks.