Drabbles: Hustle, Yaw, Plead, Abacus, Wanted

[amedia]

Story Title: Hustle
Author: Amedia
Team: Longcoats
Word Count: 100
Rating: G
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Imagiquest. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Summary: DG and Ahamo don't really come from the same place.
Author's note: Response to the prompt "hustle."

"So how's the Otherside, DG?" Ahamo asked eagerly. "What's the music like now? I can't believe I’m even nostalgic for disco."

"I've heard disco on the oldies station," DG said. "And in the supermarket."

Ahamo groaned. "I don't suppose you learned the Hustle in school?" To DG's horror, Ahamo began humming under his breath and doing some sort of line dance.

"No, Dad, we learned the Macarena."

"The Maka-what?"

They both sighed. DG looked at Hank. "Why can't we connect?"

"Baby girl," said Hank. "There's far less distance from here to the Otherside than between a father and a daughter."

---

Story Title: Yaw
Author: Amedia
Team: Longcoats
Word Count: 200
Rating: G
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Imagiquest. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Summary: Imagine Glitch and Cain transposed to the Age of Sail.
Author's note: Response to the prompt "yaw."

"Excuse me, Wyatt," said Glitch, groping his way forward to where the captain was conferring with the navigator.

Cain nodded to the navigator and stepped aside for a moment, turning his attention to the ship's resident scientist. "Yes, Glitch?"

"One of my assistants asked me this morning whether the ship might be yawing more than usual; I had to tell him that I had no earthly, or, perhaps better, oceanly, idea. I don't suppose you have ever explained that term to me."

"Not above a half-dozen times," said Cain indulgently. "You see," he said, holding his hand out level, "this motion represents pitch." He tilted the hand up at the fingers, down at the wrist, and then back the other way.

"This would be roll." He tilted his hand so that the pinkie side was down, thumb side up, and went back and forth a couple of times. "And finally, dear heart, this is yaw." He waggled the hand diagonally, keeping it flat. "How is that?"

"A most effective dramatization," said Glitch faintly. "I must congrat—oh!" He ran toward the side of the ship and leaned over.

Cain smiled fondly. That had happened the previous half-dozen times as well.

---

Story Title: Plead
Author: Amedia
Team: Longcoats
Word Count: 100
Rating: G
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Imagiquest. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Summary: Azkadellia speaks at Vy-Sor's trial.
Author's note: Response to the prompt "plead."

Vy-Sor was too proud to plead for leniency. Azkadellia spoke instead. "Surely his loyalty speaks volumes," she said. Elegant in modest clothing, she gestured eloquently to the jury.

The prosecutor leaned forward, formidable in the powdered wig and black robe so recently taken out of mothballs. "Did he never show doubt or hesitation at any of your--the Sorceress's--commands?"

Her voice was firm. "His dedication was unswerving. No doubt. No hesitation. No remorse."

The prosecutor nodded and made a note. "Thank you, Princess. You've been very helpful."

"I only want to see justice done."

Vy-Sor shuddered at her smile.

---

Story Title: Abacus & Wanted
Author: Amedia
Team: Longcoats
Word Count: 200 per prompt, 400 total
Rating: G
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Imagiquest. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Summary: Remembering is good.
Author's note: Response to the prompts "abacus" and "wanted."

DG was walking past the laboratory complex when she heard a strangely familiar sound, a pleasant, rapid clacking like wooden beads clicking smoothly against one another. She poked her head into an open doorway and saw one of the lab workers hunched over an abacus, shuttling the beads back and forth much faster than DG had imagined possible, and periodically writing numbers down on a chart.

DG watched him for a moment, lost in memory. Suddenly she turned and ran back down the corridor to get pencil and paper.

******

"Glitch," DG said excitedly. "I think I've remembered something from my past again."

He looked up from the paperwork on his desk and smiled at her. "Remembering is good. What was it, DG?"

"An abacus," she said, and nodded to the instrument that stood at the corner of Glitch's desk. "I used to visit your lab when I was very small, and hear you clicking away on the abacus."

Glitch scratched his head. "That may be," he said slowly. "But are you sure that's a real memory? The nurture units said that you had an abacus in your kindergarten classroom on the Otherside. The sound could be familiar from there."


DG knew he was just trying to protect her from false hope, but she was still frustrated. "Look," she said, brandishing her sketchpad.

It was a drawing of Glitch - Ambrose - much younger, sitting at his desk with one hand on the abacus and the other poised above a writing pad. Glitch looked at it hungrily, as if he were hoping to find a memory of his own. "Are you sure this isn't just your imagin--" He stopped mid-word and pointed to a detail of the drawing. "DG, what's that?"

Next to the abacus, DG had drawn a beaker half-filled with water, with a wildflower sticking out of it. "Az brought you that, remember?" she answered without thinking. "She told me that she wanted to give you a reminder of fresh air and sunshine, since you never got any." She stopped and stared at Glitch, mouth open, realizing abruptly that they looked like mirror images of each other.

"I remember," Glitch breathed, staring at the spot next to the abacus as if a ghostly flower still hovered there. He looked up at DG and a smile lit his face. "I remember."

Her smile echoed his. "Remembering is good."

---

Comments

[koslorollo.livejournal.com]

oh gosh, lovelove!!!

Your wit and subtle hilarity is just as sharp and brilliant as ever!

These drabbles are just going to fascinate me, as will the entire challenge from all participants, you know? It's amazing to see the prompts you have done already, compared to the ones I have done. Like, I was totally going to go for Verb 1 of "Yaw" (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/yaw) and not for, you know, nautical yaw. Oh Brains, so different and yet so similar - and so much fun.

Can't wait to read the rest!

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Your wit and subtle hilarity is just as sharp and brilliant as ever!

*blush* Thank you kindly!

And I totally agree - it will be fascinating to see how different people respond to the words! I was seriously considering - just to be contrary - using "redemption" to talk about turning in booklets of green stamps to get a stereo (like how you redeem coupons, ya know?), but I couldn't come up with a plausible story to go around it.