CoH drabble: Diagnosis
First of all, my apologies for not yet replying to comments on the last drabble. I have the worst migraine ever, I think. I'm ten million degrees and just all around miserable. I will do replies when I am feeling less sweaty and pathetic. x_x Anyway, onto the next...
And yeah, my word count on this one is exactly the same as the last one. I fail at the 100 words, but I apparently win at 299. XP
Title: Diagnosis
Fandom: City of Heroes
Character: Gabriel "Trilo-G" Lawson
Wordcount: 299
Prompt: from drabblegroup: a laptop computer, a fire truck, and a polished stone
Warning: one mildly offensive word
Note: Yes, more about Gabriel. This time he's 14.
The neighborhood clinic was crowded, dirty, noisy. At fourteen, Gabriel felt silly his mother insisted on coming with him. Sitting beside him, waiting their turn with the doctor, she fretted silently, worried about the strange changes in her only child.
A fire truck passed by outside. The shrill siren caused more than one cranky runny-nosed baby in the waiting room to start wailing. Gabe looked down at his hands. His skin color was changing. Before he had been rich caramel, now he was dark blue grey. Like a polished stone he’d once found by the old aqueduct. He’d thrown it through a window, but it’d been nearly the same color. He remembered because he liked it.
The waiting room was stifling, so Gabe was relieved when his turn came. The exam room was slightly cooler. That was good, because he liked things cold. Typing the last patient’s information on a laptop set on a counter, the doctor told him to have a seat on the exam table. It was cool. Gabe could feel it through the material of his tattered jeans.
His mother orbited him like a worried planet.
The exam was quick, disinterested. The doctor took blood, but sending the sample for testing would only be for conformation, because he had a diagnosis immediately.
“He’s a mutant,” he told the mother. “And a very common one at that. This particular change in pigment is linked to ice-based powers. Nothing remarkable.”
Gabriel was thrilled. Powers! Exactly what he needed to drag himself up out of the stinking paycheck-to-paycheck pit that was his mother’s life. He no longer had to ask. He could take.
But, he was also furious, insulted. Very common and nothing remarkable? Hell no! Once he got started, no one would dare call him that ever again.
And yeah, my word count on this one is exactly the same as the last one. I fail at the 100 words, but I apparently win at 299. XP
Title: Diagnosis
Fandom: City of Heroes
Character: Gabriel "Trilo-G" Lawson
Wordcount: 299
Prompt: from drabblegroup: a laptop computer, a fire truck, and a polished stone
Warning: one mildly offensive word
Note: Yes, more about Gabriel. This time he's 14.
The neighborhood clinic was crowded, dirty, noisy. At fourteen, Gabriel felt silly his mother insisted on coming with him. Sitting beside him, waiting their turn with the doctor, she fretted silently, worried about the strange changes in her only child.
A fire truck passed by outside. The shrill siren caused more than one cranky runny-nosed baby in the waiting room to start wailing. Gabe looked down at his hands. His skin color was changing. Before he had been rich caramel, now he was dark blue grey. Like a polished stone he’d once found by the old aqueduct. He’d thrown it through a window, but it’d been nearly the same color. He remembered because he liked it.
The waiting room was stifling, so Gabe was relieved when his turn came. The exam room was slightly cooler. That was good, because he liked things cold. Typing the last patient’s information on a laptop set on a counter, the doctor told him to have a seat on the exam table. It was cool. Gabe could feel it through the material of his tattered jeans.
His mother orbited him like a worried planet.
The exam was quick, disinterested. The doctor took blood, but sending the sample for testing would only be for conformation, because he had a diagnosis immediately.
“He’s a mutant,” he told the mother. “And a very common one at that. This particular change in pigment is linked to ice-based powers. Nothing remarkable.”
Gabriel was thrilled. Powers! Exactly what he needed to drag himself up out of the stinking paycheck-to-paycheck pit that was his mother’s life. He no longer had to ask. He could take.
But, he was also furious, insulted. Very common and nothing remarkable? Hell no! Once he got started, no one would dare call him that ever again.