Reversal (158 - Destroy)

[tanager]

Title: Reversal
Challenge/Prompt: #158 - Destroy
Original Fiction or Fanfiction: Original
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Disclaimer: It’s all mine.
Summary: "Let me repay the favor."
Author's Notes: My first drabble. Thanks for the inspiration! :D


He’s wearing a gold-buttoned velvet coat, gold-threaded tie, gold cufflinks: a dragon’s hoard dumped on her dull floor. Even begging for rescue, his posture demands that she be grateful to breathe his air.

It’s easy to be arrogant, out-of-touch, delusional in his world of balls and banquets and games that frivolously draw blood. That was her world, until:

"You destroyed me."

He recoils from her thanks. His eyes mourn diamond wristwatches and caviar.

"Let me repay the favor."

She applauds him, if he can claw his way up in the real world; she expects to be delighted when he cannot.

Comments

[sterling]

Welcome aboard! ^_^

(Your author tag has been created and added to the tags list, and this post!)

[tanager]

Thank you! I'm excited to be participating. :D

[natf]

It may be because it is so hot here right now but I cannot understand this at all. The words just seem to slip past my eyes and never make it into my brain. Apologies that I cannot be more constructive right now.

[tanager]

Thanks for commenting! Sorry it's so hot where you are. D:

I think I tried to cram too much into a drabble. What I imagined is a group of crazy-materialistic, snobby, petty elites, and everyone else who has to work to make a living. "He" got "her" kicked out of the elite society a long time ago, and she had to painfully change her mindset to succeed in "the real world". Now, he needs her to do something to save him from getting kicked out, and she's like "are you crazy why would I do that".

Mostly I wanted to capture that she's glad she was forced to become a better, stronger person, but she also hates him for obliviously/semi-spitefully causing it, and she honestly thinks she's doing him good by letting him struggle in "the real world", but at the same time she'd love to see him crash and burn.

I'm not used to telling something in only 100 words, so I probably over-extended. XD

Love your puffin icon, by the way! It's awesome that you took the photo. o:

[natf]

Ah, thank you about the photo! Once you realise how common the puffins are on Skomer Isle in Wales and just how unafraid of humans they are (not tame, just on a protected island and so not at threat from us), you would not think it so unusual to be able to take photos like that, however!

I think I can see the "cramming too much into a drabble" thing.I recently came across a podcast novel that was also a drabble novel in that he podcast what he wrote and he had written the whole novel as a sequence of drabbles. It was fascinating to listen to as a sometime writer and also had a lovely rhythm to it to "read". The author's name is Jake Bible, in case you want to look it up. Maybe that is something that you might find more comfortable to write - a short story of drabbles or a novella of drabbles? Personally I am best at writing back cover copy than whole novels or short stories. I get a plot idea and seem unable to write much more than a drabble or two before the muse and spoons disappear.

[tanager]

I would absolutely love to see that. I still think it's awesome that you took such a lovely photo, though. Personally, I don't seem to have the knack for telling apart a decent photo and a really good photo, when I'm trying to take one. xD

I read the beginning of Dead Mech in the Amazon preview, and the pacing is very interesting, with each 100 words being a complete part. It looks like an engaging read -- I'm just not a big fan of the zombie/horror genre. xD I know exactly what you mean about the muse (it must be so much harder with the spoons). I used to push myself to write a novel and I got practically nothing done. So as far as I'm concerned now, writing any amount, about anything, whenever inspiration strikes is good. :) I'm hoping I might eventually hit on characters and a world that will grab me for a longer story.

I think these drabbles are great motivation to get some writing done (especially since someone might actually read them! :D), but I probably need to zoom in more, on a more focused moment for the next one. Thanks for pointing that out to me!

[natf]

Dead Mech - yes that is it. Jake podcasted it (free of course) as well as selling it on Amazon if you look on jakebible.com or iTunes. Horror was not really my thing but I did enjoy listening to that.

I am glad that I could help in some way!

[ap0cryphal]

This is rather lovely. The bits about mourning and applause, deliciously so.

So, yeah, write more stuff! :D

[tanager]

Thank you! I'm hugely flattered that you liked it, because your drabbles are all so fantastically vivid (I had to go back and read them all after the first one).

I definitely will be doing more of these prompts! I never realized how good drabbles were for forcing me to (at least try to) skip the fluff and go straight to the heart of it. :D And same to you!