Could I interest you in a drabble tree?

[kahvi.livejournal.com]

The Norwegian Christmas holiday lasts forever... if you're in school. For the rest of us, there are two days of work between Christmas and New Years (this year), and it just feels wrong to be here. Hence, I am seeking distractions!

Below the cut is a drabble (100 words exactly). Anyone who wants to participate replies to this post with another drabble containing one of the sentences or phrases from the original drabble. The subject line should be the words you took. The next person should continue the trend, stealing a sentence or phrase from any one of the existing drabbles and beginning their own. Any particular drabble can be drawn from as many times as you want. If you don't feel like posting 100 words exactly, that's OK. Near-drabbles of approximately 100 words are fine too. It's about having fun, not exact definitions. ;)

For reference, here's one we did earlier!

And could I, perhaps, suggest a holiday theme this time around? Entirely optional, of course, but Red Dwarf has always reminded me of Christmas. Maybe it's Lister's It's a Wonderful Life obsession?



At first, Lister fussed over Christmas to annoy Rimmer; see the look on his face as he brought out the tinsel and fake tree and lights. He'd make Holly give him a santa hat, and wait for the smeghead to pass in front of a mirror.

Later, Lister kept doing it because it brought back memories. You had to hold on to something, right?

So, in prison, Lister nicks some bacofoil here and some lights there, decorating as best he can. Then he sits in the darkness, watching the sleeping face in the lower bunk, and tries to remember.

Comments

You had to hold on to something, right?

[hazeltea.livejournal.com]

(Half asleep so this was edited about five times because of typos. Sorry for the load in your mailbox!)

Lister shuddered as he swallowed the hideously strong brew he’d concocted. He hated the mysterious plant life that Kryten collected and cultivated, but he hated it just a bit less when he’d discovered that it fermented. Ignoring the suspicious fumes and blue spores that formed in the jar over time, he persevered until at last, he had a toxic liquid that knocked him flat on his back with a double shot. He closed his eyes, willing his stomach to accept the abuse he piled on it. Soon enough, his efforts were rewarded, as a blissful intoxication hit him like a tidal wave.

His hands stopped shaking as they traced the black and white outlines of faces collected in the yellowing, curry stained face book he’d received while working on Red Dwarf. Faces he would never see again. Kochanski, Petersen, Rimmer. His touch lingered over the paper. Rimmer.

You had to hold onto something, right? That was why he kept it. The thought of getting rid of it had always hurt him almost as much as looking at it, so he’d kept it in the back of his locker. Taking it out had been a bad idea. Drinking while looking at it had been a bad idea. Lister clasped the book to his chest, and silently cursed his long history of bad judgment, one mistake piled precariously high on the next.

That was why he kept it.

[kahvi.livejournal.com]

(Always the best Lister ever!)

They had found the bee when the long-distance scanners suddenly stopped working. Somehow, it had gotten stuck in the deflector disc, jammed in between the antenna and the transmitter relay.

Kryten said he had no idea where it came from, and when Kris tried to suggest something, the mechanoid had accidentally stepped on her foot. They couldn't get it working. The innards looked off, somehow, like they'd been modified or replaced.

Lister knew they were in a different universe, far away from anywhere, and that there was absolutely no chance... except, of course, there was.

That was why he kept it.

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[hazeltea.livejournal.com]

Somehow, it had gotten stuck in the deflector disc, jammed in between the antenna and the transmitter relay. Kryten could only gape in amazement and a smidgen of pride at the distance it had traveled. Had it jumped? Climbed a pipe? Navigated a system of ducts? No matter how it had done it, it proved that there was either some impressive strength or intellect where he’d suspected there to be none. Perhaps this was how Professor Mammett had felt. He had created something worthy of a human, and the thought made him grin.

This still left the problem of how he would follow, though. He’d need help.

“Miss Kochanski, Ma’am.” He began, shuffling nervously towards his most likely ally. “I’m afraid that Archie has escaped again…”

I’m afraid that Archie has escaped again…

[queen-fiend.livejournal.com]

(A bit of a long drabble. Oops!)

Rimmer entered his quarters and was met with a loud crashing noise.

“Lister?” he said loudly.

Kryten emerged from a closet, looking sheepish. “Er, hello sir. I’m afraid that Archie has escaped again.”

“And who, may I ask, is Archie?”

“Oh, sir, I forgot you wouldn’t know. When they put me in the women’s wing in prison on the new Red Dwarf, I protested by making myself a penis.”

A look of disgust crossed Rimmer’s face. “And you named it Archie, presumably?”

“That’s right, sir. Of course, he got lost in all the confusion between then and now, but I’ve just made a new one.”

“I may be missing something here, Kryten, but why?”

“Oh, but I didn’t make a new Archie for me, I made it for Mister Lister.”

“Mister…Lister?” Rimmer spluttered.

Kryten popped his head out of Lister’s locker to see confusion and horror on Rimmer’s face. “I know what you may be thinking sir, but it’s not that. You see, Archie has always been good at hiding and avoiding capture, so I thought it would be a good idea to utilize those features in a device to scout planetoids and derelicts for food and other supplies! I do need to tweak him a bit though, because it’s no good when we can’t even catch him.”

Kryten returned to his search. Rimmer shook his head, muttered “insane bog-bot,” and stalked out of the room.

No matter how it had done it, it proved that there was either some impressive strength or...

[kahvi.livejournal.com]

(DYING!! :D)

"Don't look at me like that," Rimmer told the skutter, which would have stared back at him if it had eyes. "It was you!"

Rimmer leaned in closer, and the skutter backed up. No matter how it had done it, it proved that there was either some impressive strength or intellect where he’d suspected there to be none.

"I know you put Lister in my bunk," Rimmer hissed, so not as to wake his sleeping bunkmate, "and undressed him. It's not funny."

The skutter whirred in protest, but Rimmer knew it was guilty. It was the only logical explanation!