Ownership & Control

The bell rang.

As thousands began to boo, he stared at the mat, blood running down his face. Despite the pain and cost, he was champion.

The referee warily handed him the title belt, which he snatched like a wounded animal before cradling it like a mother would a child. He wiped away some blood, and then stared at his hand.

He then slammed a clearly outlined bloody handprint on the title. “Mine.” he uttered, in a tableau that would be forever imprinted on history.

…

“Questar has been released after Toymakeco complained about ‘excessive imagery’ on last night’s PPV…”

#YOLI

I suddenly felt a sense of impending doom, coupled with the sensation of being two people at once.

I glanced around, and realised that as the only one near enough to the device, I was the only one to feel uneasy.

I glanced at the readings, and realised that they were beginning to spike. I tried to initiate a shutdown, but it was only made it worse.

“The wormhole is opening too soon, I… I must stop it! If I could-“

…

I suddenly felt a sense of impending doom, coupled with the sensation of being two people at once…

Under Lock & Key

Ever since our first (blind) date, she was always asking me to open up. No matter how well I treated her, she wanted to ‘see the inner me’. She kept saying how she understood my reluctance but she was different. She told me she knew we could have a deeper relationship if I just let her in.

I kept resisting, but eventually she broke me down.

So I opened up. I let her see the real me, without pretence. I told her of my past, my feelings, my dreams. I gave her everything she asked for.

She ran, of course.

What Are The Odds?

We were arguing over Agent Coulson when she walked in the door. Both of my co-workers were stunned. Hot girls did occasionally drop into the store now, but this one…

My ‘associates’ were too stunned, so I went over to her.

“Morning.” I glanced at the shelf she was looking through. “The new Supermans are over in the new release section.” I said, smiling.

I’m horrible at reading body language, but even I could note the smile and the way she flipped her hair.

“Thanks… Judy.” She said, holding out her hand. I took it.

“Helen, nice to meet you.”

Balancing Act

Too sophisticated for the outer suburbs, too unsophisticated for the inner city.

Too nerdy for the cool kids, too cool for the nerdy kids.

Too introverted for the extroverts, too extroverted for the introverts, and too clever for people who don’t understand either of those words.

Too nice for the girls who want a bad boy, too bad for the girls who want a good guy.

Too liberal for conservatives, too conservative for the liberals, and too sane for the fringe parties.

All in all, I don’t really fit in with anyone.

Which is good, actually. Plenty of free time.

Post Relationship Survey

I got the email two weeks after we broke up.

In order to better understand what went wrong and thus hopefully fix it for future relationships, he asked why I left. He hoped I had calmed down, and wanted to know if he was too pushy, or not decisive enough. Too supportive or not caring enough? On and on it went, asking me what went wrong.

After some thought, I replied with one line.

“Asking the question proves you wouldn’t understand the answer.”

He said that was needlessly obtuse, how could he ever understand without a clearer answer? I agreed.

Reading Between The Lines

We had such a unique, special relationship. Despite him being a world-famous author, and me being just a fan, we had a connection, you know? I mean, he retweeted me over 5 times! We were close, you know?

So when he retired due to his failing health, I knew I had to do something. As he talked about his cancer, I could tell that he wanted someone to help end his pain.

Sure, he didn’t come out and say that, but I knew that was what he wanted. You just had to read between the lines.

Sadly, the jury didn’t.

Tough Call

I should have been upset. The Cinderella story, the Average Joe now in the final two of the world’s biggest poker tournament, hoping that I’d lose.

See, last night, I was visited by some large men in ill-fitting suits with a simple deal. Lose and they’d return my wife.

My opponent went all-in. Flop was eight, nine and ten of hearts, I had king and queen of hearts. Did he have the ace? I hoped so as I called.

He had six and seven of hearts. Straight flush. I was relieved, but acted upset.

Then the jack of hearts hit.

Working

Breathe.

Clothesline, pose. Internet marks rag on kid.

“I don’t need your help!”

They shut up.

Set up a steel chair for Raven spot. Set groundwork for next month.

Whip kid…

He can’t even run the ropes?

Clubbing blows to cover his trip. Crowd gets restless, so choke him.

The crowd boos.

Pose. Breathe.

More boos.

Pull him up slowly.

“Time to end this!

…

Comeback.”

Kid starts punching me. He can do that.

Crowd cheers each punch.

Clothesline, bump.

Crowd cheers.

Again.

Same reaction.

Kid goes for a suplex.

Bre-

“Chair. CHAIR!”

The crowd ooohs.

Breathe.

Breathe.

BREATHE.

Fuck.

Outsmarting Historians

It was the pride of the Historical society. The treasure map of highwayman ‘Maddog Murphy’, still tacked to the original wooden slats of his hideout. It showed a few hundred square miles of scrubland, and was covered in symbols, lines, and ‘clues’.

Countless treasure hunters had come in, studied intently, headed off, and returned empty-handed.

I glanced at it, wrote down some coordinates, and left.

I had dug all the treasure up within a fortnight.

I became the toast of the society, even though most of them got annoyed when I told them I simply dug where the tacks were.

Swordsmanship Matters

Grax The Mighty, Last of the Dohabin Clan, Wielder of Troghan the Deadly, Scourge of the Rat-Folk of Zerandrin, Winner of the Telanxor Wars, Vanquisher of the Harpy Spawn, Defender of the Twin Cities of Spindro and Bowski, Slayer of the Five Dragons of Cacarsa, Uncrowned King of the Lost City of Rowarste, Holder of the Sacred Knowledge of the Ancient Mystics of Antogliom, The Sole Master of the Deadly Chun-Bo-Riko fighting art, Discoverer of the Final Resting Place of Alisbar The All Powerful, and the Only Man to Defeat The Gods of Oscario was, unsurprisingly, really terrible in bed.

MPDG

It wasn’t really like what you see in the movies. Sure, when I ran into Moonbeam Princess Dreamer Gypsy I literally ran into her. She jumped out of a window and we collided. But movies don’t include the broken arm. I guess that’s why she declared she’d stick with me. I mean, I’m an accountant, she was a ‘conceptual artist’, whatever that means. After a few weeks, I did notice a change in personality, but I didn’t want to speak up. After a few months, she proposed marriage. Complete with tax avoidance arguments and spreadsheets. I guess people can change…

(To hear an Audio version of this Drabble, as performed by comic book writer Greg Pak, click right here!)

Fixing The Past

I placed the device onto the desk. The leader of the world looked up quizzically.

“You were expecting a DeLorean?”

He shook his head quickly. “So… you know when we’ve decided to send you?” I nodded, as I began to adjust the device to the right date. As if trying to reassure himself, he kept talking.

“I just… I mean, we won of course, but with so much loss of life…”

I made the final adjustment and then saluted.

“Relax Fuehrer, I will save Hitler’s life. Germany’s victory will come much sooner then.” I said, as I engaged the device.

The Blog Q&A

Q: So what is this?

A: It's a blog.

Q: Oh ha ha. Details?

A: My name is Mathew Sforcina, you may know me from 411mania or Wild Talk Radio or Australian Wrestling or any number of places. I do some creative writing, and I've set myself a challenge to write at least one Drabble a day. You're welcome to come along for the ride.

Q: ... What the hell is a Drabble?

A: According to Wikipedia, which is never wrong...

A drabble is an extremely short work of fiction of exactly one hundred words in length, not necessarily including the title. The purpose of the drabble is brevity, testing the author's ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in an extremely confined space.

It was created by Monty Python, of all people, and it was fashionable for a while in the old days of the internet for people to get a topic and then write against each other, but I'm just by myself here. So yeah, I'll be posting 100 word stories, hopefully once a day.

Q: Why?

A: Because I'm both lazy and self-obsessed.

Q: Come again?

A: I tend to hold onto ideas for far too long, thinking I'll get to them someday. By doing this, I force myself to think up new ones, while seeing if anything I do has real merit, if I keep coming back to it.

Q: So what's your endgame here?

A: I don't really have one, as such. Maybe if this goes on for a while, I might make an e-book or something, and/or if enough people love an idea it'll go somewhere, but this is more for my own benefit. You're welcome to stick around.

Q: So can we play?

A: At the moment, while you're more than welcome to challenge me with an idea or something, this is just about me. But if enough people want to join in, maybe we'll work something out.

Q: Copyright would be…?

A: All text, unless stated otherwise, is mine and is covered by Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0), as listed here. (Note that this copyright was switched over from the 3.0 version on August 3rd, 2014, so if there is some difference between 3.0 and 4.0, anything published before that point is technically under 3.0, maybe, I think, I don't know I'm not a lawyer.) If you have any questions, or if you’d like to use something here for commercial use, email me at mlsq42@gmail.com and we can discuss it. Thanks!

(Version 1.3, 03/08/14)