Drabbles! :)
Title: A Wilderness of Mirrors
Theme: Holiday Exchange 2009
Recipient: mainekosama
Prompt: Schuldig, a different choice of career
Characters: Schuldig
Word Count: 100
Harper's Notes: Titles and lj-cut quotes from "Gerontion" by T.S. Eliot.
Panhandling. Not something most people would have claimed as an ideal career. Though for a teenager who can touch the minds of passers-by to instil the precise mixture of pity and guilt necessary for unexpected generosity, it can be quite lucrative.
Still, Schuldig is getting bored with the unwashed clothing, the grimaces and pointed looking-away of the endless ebb and flow of people hurrying to somewhere, anywhere else.
Lately he’s been pressured by the nagging sensation that there ought to be more to life than this. It’s easy, he’ll grant, but it might be that easy isn’t what he wants…
Title: Small Deliberations
Characters: Schuldig
Word Count: 100
“It’s perfect! Exactly what I wanted!”
Always the same exclamation. Of course it is: he has inserted the suggestion into so many heads that it has become a template. He is by far the best salesman this company has ever seen. His monthly commission works out to more than double his actual salary, and the jealousy spiking through the other employees’ thoughts glitters green as glass whenever they catch sight of him.
Still, not enough. Schuldig - not the name they call him, the name he calls himself - examines his own dissatisfaction. This is not where he is meant to be.
Title: Neither Fear nor Courage
Characters: Schuldig
Word Count: 100
Law school was a breeze. Exams are easy when one has the power to pick and choose the answers from those who’ve actually bothered to study. From there, it’s as simple as breathing to pull from the thoughts of the prosecution whatever points they fervently hope he doesn’t make. And if that doesn’t work, Schuldig can always apply the right sort of mental pressure to bring the judge around to his point of view.
No challenge whatsoever. Right.
The money doesn’t matter, and he couldn’t possibly care less about his reputation. And yet something is still missing… What is it?
Title: After Such Knowledge...
Characters: Schuldig, Crawford
Word Count: 100
Winter greets him as he hurries down the courthouse steps, bitter and sharp, distracting him.
“Finally.” The voice gives Schuldig pause, and he glances up to spot a well-dressed man with dark hair. “I’ve been looking for you.”
Schuldig finds his lips quirking up in response to the stranger’s confidence. This is it - a sort of sideways reality which fades the rest of the world into shadows and ghosts by comparison. This is what he’s been waiting for. Burying eagerness, he descends the remaining stairs, leaving the half-finished shards of the other lives he’s lived behind him in the dust.
Cross-posted to wk_100. :)
Theme: Holiday Exchange 2009
Recipient: mainekosama
Prompt: Schuldig, a different choice of career
Characters: Schuldig
Word Count: 100
Harper's Notes: Titles and lj-cut quotes from "Gerontion" by T.S. Eliot.
Panhandling. Not something most people would have claimed as an ideal career. Though for a teenager who can touch the minds of passers-by to instil the precise mixture of pity and guilt necessary for unexpected generosity, it can be quite lucrative.
Still, Schuldig is getting bored with the unwashed clothing, the grimaces and pointed looking-away of the endless ebb and flow of people hurrying to somewhere, anywhere else.
Lately he’s been pressured by the nagging sensation that there ought to be more to life than this. It’s easy, he’ll grant, but it might be that easy isn’t what he wants…
Title: Small Deliberations
Characters: Schuldig
Word Count: 100
“It’s perfect! Exactly what I wanted!”
Always the same exclamation. Of course it is: he has inserted the suggestion into so many heads that it has become a template. He is by far the best salesman this company has ever seen. His monthly commission works out to more than double his actual salary, and the jealousy spiking through the other employees’ thoughts glitters green as glass whenever they catch sight of him.
Still, not enough. Schuldig - not the name they call him, the name he calls himself - examines his own dissatisfaction. This is not where he is meant to be.
Title: Neither Fear nor Courage
Characters: Schuldig
Word Count: 100
Law school was a breeze. Exams are easy when one has the power to pick and choose the answers from those who’ve actually bothered to study. From there, it’s as simple as breathing to pull from the thoughts of the prosecution whatever points they fervently hope he doesn’t make. And if that doesn’t work, Schuldig can always apply the right sort of mental pressure to bring the judge around to his point of view.
No challenge whatsoever. Right.
The money doesn’t matter, and he couldn’t possibly care less about his reputation. And yet something is still missing… What is it?
Title: After Such Knowledge...
Characters: Schuldig, Crawford
Word Count: 100
Winter greets him as he hurries down the courthouse steps, bitter and sharp, distracting him.
“Finally.” The voice gives Schuldig pause, and he glances up to spot a well-dressed man with dark hair. “I’ve been looking for you.”
Schuldig finds his lips quirking up in response to the stranger’s confidence. This is it - a sort of sideways reality which fades the rest of the world into shadows and ghosts by comparison. This is what he’s been waiting for. Burying eagerness, he descends the remaining stairs, leaving the half-finished shards of the other lives he’s lived behind him in the dust.
Cross-posted to wk_100. :)