Re: The Daily 100 Word Drabble Competition

[SeeMeInTheShadows]

8/2: Fly

[Kittyclaw]

I'm copying Shadows in that this drabble also relates to my heist story. I think she's just trying to weasle an extra chapter out of me...

“Are you sure you can fly this thing?” Ulrich asks, as they look up at an airplane older than both of them.

“Do you doubt my ability to fly?” William asks. Ulrich shrugs, motions to the aging machine.

“I doubt that things ability to fly.”

“Fair point,” William concedes. It is an old plane, but she’s his pride and joy. “Don’t worry, when the time comes she’ll be ready. You’ll be over the border in no time.”

Ulrich nods once, stuff his hands in his pockets, and walks away.

William only trusts the plane—Ulrich doesn’t trust them at all.

[Guest]

In this kind of war there’s no silver lining. But there’s something else, hidden in moments almost forgettable.

It’s in a momentary look of wonder in green eyes that, in an act once thought impossible, returned to Earth. It’s in the fleeting shadow of a blush neither thought they’d feel again. In the blonde who manages to see adventure in every unexpected fight and one who, despite the odds, turns even the hardest loss into something that can feel like victory.

It’s not a silver lining, but in those tiny moments they see something much more golden.

They see hope.

Good stuff.

[Kittyclaw]

Thank you :3

[Snickie]

FF.Net and MS Word are screwing with me in my last drabble (Gold). Word says it's 97 words. I take out the hyphen in "highest-rated" and it says 98 words (when I'd done my hand-count I'd counted them as two different words... just 'cause). I C&P to FF.Net's Doc Manager, and it tells me 98 words. I add the two words "on air", FF.Net tells me it's 108 words. I backspace "on air", it decides to be consistent and tell me I have 106 words. I C&P that to MS Word, it tells me 98 words. I hand-count again, I come up with 100 words (including both words in hyphenated sets).

This stinks.

[Guest]

They tend to do that sometimes. Luckily, the few drabbles I have done didn't suffer from this.

[SeeMeInTheShadows]

Well, for me, the whole point of a 100 word drabble is to be challenge by an exact word restraint, so I just get to 100 on MW and when it says differently on ff.net I don't really care. Either way, you are still challenged to choose each word carefully and precisely.

[Kittyclaw]

Yeah, and ms will count something you hyphen together as one word (techinically it is one word) but that just gives you an extra word for the drabble! And like Shadows says, I would just pick one method of counting and use it as your standard.

[Snickie]

Meh, whatever. I'll post it as is. My hand count says 100 and that's all I need. (I usually hand-count because I usually write these either in a Notepad-like app on my phone or on Notepad itself, and MS Word is for double-checking only.)

I'll post it here as soon as I can figure out what Firefox's problem is with the formatting (Chrome crashed so I have to use Firefox until I reboot my laptop). Meanwhile, it's on FF.Net.

[Adventurer411]

It was almost nice.

Normally, balancing precariously in the air and being aloft only by machinery that could break apart at any moment was not Jeremy's idea of a good time.

Okay, so he might have been exaggerating slightly. It was kind of nice, Jeremy admitted, to temporarily get away from the responsibility that sometimes threatened to choke him.

But then a surprised murmur reached his ears. The all too-familiar symbol flashed on the console.

Jeremy swallowed quietly. Sitting in a plane stocked with weapons and being controlled by a demonic AI was definitely not his idea of a good time.

[Snickie]

I REMEMBER THAT EPISODE!
"Guided Missile"
You are awesome, Vena.

[SeeMeInTheShadows]

The laser beam didn’t divirtualize him, but it was strong enough to knock him into the air. And over the ledge. Small mercies. Not.

As he sailed through the air, he took time to look at the Lyoko sky. Something he had never paid any mind to before. The rocks, the mountains, the glaciers, the trees- yeah, he had paid attention to them, never the sky.

But he saw the land rise up on either side of him (but not willing to catch him) he could only wait for two opposites. Be devirtualized or virtualized forever.

He only saw sky.



8/3: Persevere

[Snickie]

It's all my fault, she thinks. If I had been faster, he would still be here with us.

No! Not Jeremie! she wails. Now we'll never be able to stop XANA or have normal lives again.

Normally, he could think of a bad joke to lighten the mood here, but even this wipes the slate blank. There is nothing that he can say.

Jeremie saved my life, he thinks. Saved me from XANA. Why couldn't I save his life from XANA? We're all doomed.

In the shock of his death, they were high as kites, and they didn't enjoy it.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

XANA attacked again the next day. I guess he thought that we'd be too shook up over Jeremie's death to do anything about it and he could just wipe us out like dry-erase markers.

I think we were all surprised by the outcome that day. Even without Jeremie at the controls and Ulrich with his sabres, we were able to hold our own on Lyoko. I'm not saying we're better off without them; I'm saying we've grown stronger. Faster. Better. Smarter.

As long as we have each other and keep ourselves united, we will persevere, and XANA will be destroyed.

[Adventurer411]

It makes me so sad on so many levels that you cannot understand to have Jeremy die ;a; (I know I had him die in one story, but that was just briefly and it was twisted)

It drips out of frustration and despair. (Sweat from foreheads and tears from squinted eyes)

Cries ring out. (Some in alarm, some in fear)

Xana knocks them down with ease. (Some can jump back up, laughing, and some need help)

Friendships and nerves crack and splinter. (Eventually stitched back together by responsibility)

Nightmares and last-minute scares pile up. (Breakdowns aren't uncommon)

Nerves are frayed. (Unlike shoelaces, they cannot be replaced)

Seconds that are wasted pair with lives. (Failing doesn't mean death just for them)

They must hold up the world. (Without them, it will fall to Xana)

They must persevere.

[Kittyclaw]

Vena! The things you do to my feels D: I don't know why, but the shoelaces line was the saddest.

Mine is supposed to relate to my story To Fall from Grace, but I think it still makes sense if you haven't read it:

He keeps walking (because he can’t, lost to water, fire, darkness), maneuvering the dark and twisting passageway, so alien and yet so intimately familiar. He carries their victory inside himself (because she can’t, their first victory as lost as the scraps of her once beautiful form) and despite protests he will do whatever it takes to deliver it. He reminds himself over and over that it’s to save them (but they are jumping, falling, to embrace death) because someone should walk away from this.

But then he finds himself on Earth and has to accept the painful truth.

He’s failed.

[SeeMeInTheShadows]

Kadic was still reeling from the mysterious death of six of their students- all found sprawled on the floor of the abandoned factory. And no one knew how or why.

Theo Gauthier wasn’t a grief councilor. He was a football player. And since Kadic was missing it’s best player, he had to step up and take the vacant spot. He had to lead the team and score the points because everyone else was too numb. He had to become the team’s heart.

Theo Gauthier wasn’t a grief councilor. He was a football player. And that would have to be enough.



And:
8/4: Stride

[Kittyclaw]

Angstangstangst.

Yes please.

[Snickie]

So. Angsty drabble involving the surviving warriors, or super angsty drabble about Yumi and (dead) Ulrich? I've got both.

[Kittyclaw]

....BOTH.

[Adventurer411]

TOO MUCH ANGST.

So I must balance it with happy Jerlita.


We talk as always. (This topic, science, not unlike others)

Jeremy takes on that precise tone of voice, and I smile automatically (He's like a professor; it's so cute)

He sees my beaming and stumbles over his sentence. I giggle involuntarily.

He blushes, then continues to talk. (Now somewhat shyly and making less eye contact)

I slip my hand inside his to capture his attention.

Our once identical (Like us) stride is disrupted as he breaks it, a surprised but not unhappy look on his face. He's blushing. (Again)

I grin, a fluttery feeling exploding in my chest.

Our stride resumes.


Y'know, I could've written about how Ulrich was running away from some sort of creature Xana sent and because his stride faltered, he died. But that would be too much angst.

FLUFFFLUFFFLUFF. FEEL THE FLUFF. Sniki, do YxU fluff. (or Jerlita, you should totally do Jerlitaaaa)

[Snickie]

You guys are going to have to wait for my drabbles. My phone (where all my drabbles are stored currently because I haven't had time to transfer them over to the laptop) just pooped out on me. Sowwy gaiz.

[SeeMeInTheShadows]

They weren’t idiots and they weren’t oblivious.

They knew what everyone said about them. They were that weird group, not quite a clique, bordering on outsiders because they were such a grab bag and so exclusive, and really not all that cool to begin with.

They hadn’t come to a party in almost a year and a half, and besides a brief stint volunteering for the prom they didn’t really help the school. Ulrich played soccer but barely went to any practices, and the rest of them were just weird: outsiders,

They knew.

Didn’t mean they had to like it.



5/8 Pace

[Adventurer411]

This was a nice change of pace.

Yumi dangled her feet off of the edge of the bench, keeping her eyes carefully locked on the blade of grass that was poking out through the cement.

She tried to convince herself that this was much preferred to fighting with Sissi over him when she shouldn't have had to.

She plucked at the strand of grass, pushing down her desire for Ulrich's presence.

So what if she preferred brunette to raven now?

If she could love black clothes, insisted the poor argument in Yumi's head, then she could do the same with black-haired boys.


Don't think I've ever written a sort of WxYxU.

What will you guys' be? I'm guessing angst, out of the blue, because you totally haven't been writing stories about people DYING and stuff.

Join me with the fluff and write happier (even though this was sort of longing/sadness, it wasn't despair )

[SeeMeInTheShadows]

Eeek,sorry for getting this out so later. Internet problems and summer reading. :O

But here's the next drabble!

8/6: Underdog

[Adventurer411]

Jeremy Belpois was good at a lot of things.

Worries about school or any kind of intellectual activity were thrown his way.

He was also not good at a lot of things.

Anything related to acting, romance, and especially physical activities were not in the category of things that Jeremy was good at.

Fighting the victims of Xana, for example, was very high in that category.

He shrank away from physical danger, not only from fear but because of painful knowledge: he wouldn't be useful in the actual fighting.

Jeremy was the underdog in those situations.

He hated every minute of it.



I had trouble coming up with an idea for this prompt, hmm.

----------------------------------

This wasn't like he'd imagined it.

When Jim fantasized about finally figuring out what Belpois's little group was up to, he thought it would involve some major busting and deep satisfaction on his part.

What he hadn't given thought to was that he'd uncover a dangerous, terrifying secret that had to be kept.

Sneaking and being patient had yielded results. But now, because of that night he'd tiptoed down to the factory, he could never look at them the same way again.

Maybe ignorance really was bliss.

For the first time in his life, Jim wished that he hadn't succeeded.


Funny story; I wrote this to see what I wanted the drabble to have, then put it on microsoft and it was exactly 100 words. Awesome. (Doesn't mean I still don't want to edit. I ended up with too much and shoved 'he' and 'had' together )

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