Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Dim Sum ❯ First Course ( Chapter 1 )

I got the challenge and a list of themes from Lady MacBeth's Livejournal (I've changed a couple themes that I just don't like much). The challenge is to produce 100 fics of drabble length (100 words) or longer in 100 days. These are the rules I intend to follow: 100 fics of at least 100 words, to be completed and posted by 10 September (assuming a start on 2 June); most will be original works. I expect to post them in weekly batches of seven fics each, maybe more depending on how it works out.

 

#1: Silliness- The Bet

 

`Roy, will you get down from there? What will the neighbours think?' Melissa stuck her trowel into the ground and looked up at her husband. He was standing on the roof in a pink tutu and a purple leotard, carrying their daughter's My Little Pony parasol. Roy was in good shape for a man of his age, but this was not one that Melissa wanted to see again.

 

`Not until I sing Dancing Queen. You wouldn't mind getting the video camera, would you, dear?'

 

`You lost a bet, didn't you?' She undid the laces on her hat and stood up. `I thought your team won yesterday.'

 

`Yeah, but Frank made the bestsellers list with that new book of his. The one about losing weight.'

 

Melissa shook her head as she opened the door. Roy was a sweet guy, but such a dunce sometimes.

 

 

#2: Fragrance- Memories

 

They say that smell is the sense most strongly tied to memory. That is why Alex spent so much time in the kitchen smashing garlic, chopping onions, and fiddling with sauces. A roast in the oven reminded him of his mother, who always had a warm spread on the table every night. Simmering brandy and corn starch reminded him of his first experiments in the kitchen of an on-campus apartment, the first times he had cooked something for himself that didn't come out of a box. Soy sauce and cloves reminded him of the girl he'd lived with for half a year who could stir-fry anything. Sizzling bacon and sausages brought back mornings with friends in greasy diners.

 

But best of all was cake, tall ones with icing thicker than a man's finger. That brought him back to the smiles, the congratulations, and his blushing bride.

 

 

#3: Reading- Café

 

The clink of china on wood brought me out of a half-doze. The fireplace, even turned down, gives off a pleasant heat and I often nap away afternoons in one of the PegÄna's armchairs. The Irish coffee (a close-kept secret served only to the barman's friends) helps, I will admit.

 

The girl settling into the armchair across the little table was not particularly tall, slender but well-built. She looked at the book on the table and asked, `What does this say about me?'

 

I shook her outstretched hand and said, `I wouldn't know, I'm afraid. This is my book.' I held up a biography of Joan of Arc. A history of Charles Edward Stuart's '45 campaign sat in the bag at my feet.

 

`She was always my favourite saint. Why do you like her?' She poured a cup of tea from her teapot and stirred in a lump of sugar.

 

`I've always had a thing for women in armour, I guess.' I smiled sheepishly.

 

`Ah You're a gamer, then?' She took a sip and added another lump.

 

`What gave it away? The pallor?' I choked down the cold dregs of my coffee to cover the awkward spot.

 

`That, and a hundred other little things. I've always been good at reading people.'

 

 

#4: Justice- The Statue

 

There's a statue in the square, a tall woman wrapped in some outlandish garb with a blindfold over her eyes. Her single arm holds up a sword. It's a nice sword, even if it is only bronze. Her pedestal crumbled away a long time ago, but the people who found her built a new one and set her on it. They say she was a statue of Justice, blindfolded and even-handed, ready to punish the guilty.

 

They forget what Justice is supposed to have in her other hand: The scales to determine guilt. I say she's Vengence, blind and unforgiving.

 

 

 

#5: Animal Rights- Wrong Time

 

The knights looked anxiously across the field at the tent where their leaders were negotiating with their opponents. Recent attacks on stables and attempts to free warhorses from `servitude' had resulted in a number of broken heads and missing ears. Their enemies were unarmed, but fanatic, resorting to public assaults and riotous assemblies. These knights had been charged to restore peace and put an end to burglaries on kennels and mews.

 

The Earl of Sutherland emerged from the tent and strode wearily to his troops. At his word, the knights mounted and set lance in rest. A sharp trumpet blast signaled the charge. He knew only that the name PETA and their delusions stemmed from some madmen who wrote before Armageddon, but he had been ordered to secure restitution from these mad fools or put an end to them.

 

 

Notes:

 

#3: The name PegÄna comes from Lord Dunsany's The Gods of PegÄna, an interesting collection of short stories about his invented pantheon.

 

Charles Edward Stuart is better known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, whose attempt to reestablish the Stuart Kings in Scotland and England (and Wales, too, I suppose) came pretty close to succeeding, depending on who you ask.

 

#5: This one springs indirectly from a line in Pratchett's The Last Continent about animal rights protesters not messing with people in black leather.