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Brevity Challenges
By Piper Sargasso
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Characters within are the property of CC, 1013, etc. No infringement intended.
A/N: These were written for the Brevity Challenge on Believe the Truth. Someone gives you a list of elements and it’s your job to fit them into the smallest amount of sentences possible. Some here have gone longer than they should, but you know how it is.
The challenger’s names and their list of elements come before the actual story on most. Unfortunately, some of the challenge elements for my earlier responses have been lost.
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~Brevity I~
(Nina’s first Challenge)
“Nerves”
She wrings her hands as he stares, her heart beating frantically. “Ahem. I’ll give it a go,” she whispers.
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(Nina’s second challenge)
“Minute Man”
The blonde hooker pulled the zipper down. “Fly-fishing,” she and her girlfriends called it.
Sweaty. Great.
Positioning her hard-rock candy in her mouth, she went to work. She was going to have to start charging more.
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(Carol’s 1st Challenge)
“Midol, Take Me Away”
Frohike slid the Tampax across the drugstore counter, red-faced, as he chewed his gum nervously. “Next time, Mulder goes,” he mumbled.
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(Carol’s 3rd Challenge)
“Stale Chips and Beer”
“And, uh, where is the good doctor tonight?” Frohike inquired over his hand of Bicycle playing cards.
“At the office,” Mulder replied off-handedly as he laid down a straight flush.
“Damn!” the older man lamented. “You win again!”
Mulder laughed. “You still in?”
He thought about it for a second, knowing the damage Mulder had already done to his wallet would take a week to repair. “You take Viagra?”
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(Carol’s 4th Challenge)
“A Letter In A Baby Book”
… And William, I never learned the best way to tell the people I love what they mean to me. But one thing is certain — and you must never forget this — I love you and your mother more than anything in the world. The more I think about that, the less I want to go. But you’ll understand why I have to in the future. There simply is no other choice.
You know, even when you were in your Mommy’s tummy, you were taken care of and loved. If pregnancy were a book, your Mommy would’ve been the official consultant. You’ll never have know what it is to live without enough love, because to us, you’re the most important thing in the world, Son…
Unable to read the rest, Scully closed the book and allowed silent tears to fall. It seemed so final. Like he didn’t think he would return.
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(Gwen’s Challenge)
“Tastes Like Chicken”
“Too bad *Bambi* isn’t here, Mulder,” Scully digged as she stomped on another crunchy exoskeleton. “But then again, she’s a scientist. I doubt “demon cockroaches” are her cup of tea.”
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(Carol’s 5th Challenge)
“In The Dog House”
“You joked about a *yeast infection*?!?” Frohike exclaimed, then hissed through his teeth as if to say, ‘don’t you know better than that?’
Mulder looked down at his shoes. “Think I have time to pen a sonnet before she gets home?”
“Joke all you want, my man. You’ll be sorry tonight when she slaps the “no nookie” order on you.”
Mulder could swear the little troll was enjoying this.
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(Carol’s 6th Challenge)
“Catatonic Schizophrenia”
Mulder excitedly slapped the request for undercover assignment on her desk. Scully read the carefully filled out application, her eyes widening upon reading her new identity.
“A gynecologist?” She lamented.
Mulder grinned from ear to ear.
Scully narrowed her eyes and wondered if she could get to his cell phone long enough to secretly disable it.
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“Ghost in the Machine”
The haunted speculum jerked frenetically in Mulder’s hand.
“Scully!” he shouted over the inexplicable loud buzzing sound. “Wanna help me shut this thing off?”
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(Circe’s 3rd Challenge)
“Why It’s Great To Be A New Mom”
When is it time to say enough’s enough and get some help with your newborn? When your skin is scaly from neglect, and your legs are hairier than Sasquatch and you don’t even have time to sing your son a lullaby because you’re late for a meeting with your boss. *That’s* when you call in the reinforcements.
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(Circe’s 4th Challenge)
“Movie Night”
“‘Meet John Doe’ again, Scully?” Mulder turned up his nose, oblivious to the fact that she’d just accidentally taken a bite of his extra-jalapeno pizza. He held up a video on extreme stunts and waggled his eyebrows. “How ’bout a little physics lesson?”
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(Circe’s 5th Challenge)
“First Impressions”
Do I trust her? I can’t say. But I’m bewitched by the silver tinkling of her voice, by her delicate and decidedly feminine presence. If I can just keep myself from drooling, I’ll be okay.
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