Eerie Indiana Musical Mondays

[froodle]

It's Monday, the start of the working week. To counter-act the post-weekend blues, cheer yourself up with Radio Weird: Songs of Eerie. Whether you're checking out some of eviinsanemonkey's amazing filks, or taking up deifire's awesome recommendations for Eerie-centric listening, or creating a musical fanwork of your very own, share your thoughts, and your favourites, in the comments!

( Stabbity Steve: a Murder Ballad by Eviinsanemonkey )

( After Wolf Mountain: a Filk by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Pay Attention: a Filk by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Krampus: an Eerie Christmas Poem by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Moo! A World o' Stuff advertising jingle by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Bigfoot Stole My Mail: a Musical by Owen Neil )

( Eerie, Indiana fanvids by Roseveare )

( Weird Science (Don't Leave My Arms): an Eerie, Indiana Melanie/Devon/Marshall fanvid by Current Joys )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Exit Plan

[froodle]

Tod carefully placed the loose-fitting cardboard lid over the enchanted shoebox, black-nailed fingers running over the punctured surface to make sure the air-holes hadn't somehow healed over in the interim. They were all still there.

Simon moved to the mouth of the alley, silent in worn-out tennis shoes, invisible in a way that had nothing to do with magic and everything to do with his parents.

"Coast is clear," he whispered, as his eyes darted this way and that along Front Street.

Marshall glanced back into the dark and silent interior of Grandma's Kitchen's now-abandoned kitchen section.

"Wait," he said.

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: One Last Thing

[froodle]

Tod and Simon both turned to him. For a moment, with their pinched, nervous expression and pale faces covered in freckles that stood stark against blanched skin, Marshall thought they could almost be siblings.

He pushed that image away as quickly as it had appeared, focusing on the task at hand, and darted through the still-open door.

The Tostwich smelled of anointing oil, melted cheese, and fresh bread. Evidently some kind of enchantment was in play to keep the sugar mice from nibbling it down to bare components - even Mars's mostly-human nose picked up the tempting aromas coming off it.

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Sandwich Maker

[froodle]

He pulled a handful of salt and sage sachets from his pockets, tearing them open and sprinkling them over the electric toastie maker and the counter around it.

Nothing. Whatever magic stopped the enchanted mice from chewing through the power cord and leaving little footprints in customers' grilled cheese sandwiches, it didn't seem to have an attack mode.

Marshall unplugged the Tostwich, grabbing a large Styrofoam takeout box from the pile stacked alongside it and stuffed the enchanted kitchen appliance inside.

He emerged grinning into the daylight, holding his prize aloft.

"Now we can go," he said.

So they did.

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Takeout

[froodle]

Back in the dusty sun-streaked safety of the Secret Spot, Simon cleared a half-assembled model kaiju from the work bench to make room for their stolen prizes.

Tod set the shoebox down gently on the worn wood, careful not to jostle the green glowing mice inside. Marshall was no less careful, adopting an almost reverent air as he laid the takeout box alongside it.

Tod glanced at it, then up at his friend.

"Did you stop for lunch?"

Marshall looked puzzled at first, then looked back at the lidded Styrofoam with dawning comprehension.

"Oh!" he said. "No. Well, kinda, maybe."

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Enjoy at Home

[froodle]

Marshall opened the box, revealing the curved white lid of the Tostwich. Greasy fingerprints were smeared across it's smooth ceramic surface and faint charring was visible where the outer shell met with the black metal heating plates.

"A sandwich maker?" asked Tod, his eyebrows raised so high that his glasses were knocked a little askew. "You know you can get one of these by opening an account at the Savings and Loan?"

"Not like this one," said Marshall. "This one's a magical sandwich maker. Supposedly the char patterns on your bread can tell you your future."

He lifted the Tostwich.

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Unsticking

[froodle]

The lid wouldn't open.

Marshall struggled with it for a few moments, his mind reeling at the prospect of having to go back to the Eerie Library for a second time this week, of afternoons spent researching unlocking spells and cross-referencing them with books on bread-making.

"The lid's sealed," said Tod, reaching over and unfastening two chunky plastic clips on either side of the Tostwich with a couple of loud snaps. "Someone must have been using it."

Inside, a congealed and soggy sandwich sat on hot plates long grown cold.

"Kids are going to steal your mice," read the crust.

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Expanded Menu

[froodle]

"Trust me," said the fox. "Have I ever lied to you?"

Dash thought about it.

"No," he said. "But if I was running a long con on somebody, that's how I'd do it too - give them a bunch of good advice about smallish things, gradually building up to bigger stuff, then screw them over at the end for on big score."

"That's terrible," said the fox. "And good advice, I'll remember that."

It scratched the thick ruff of reddish fur around it's neck with one black-stocking'd paw.

"This isn't that, though," it said. "I'm telling the truth. Fried pickles, kid!"

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Pickles

[froodle]

The fox ran it's bottle-brush tail over the huge catering-sized jar of pickle slices, grinning in a way that put all it's sharp white teeth on display.

"Add some beer to the batter before you fry 'em," it said. "You'll be a hero to the bar snack world."

Dash scowled at it.

"What have you got to lose?" said the fox. "If I'm wrong, you're out a bunch of pickles and some shitty domestic beer. If I'm right, you have a hot new menu item and you got rid of some shitty domestic beer."

It trotted towards the kitchen door.

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Draw the Line

[froodle]

Dash glanced up at the clock. The Lodge wouldn't be open for several hours, the bar was stocked and the floors were swept, and he'd used his last ball of enchanted twine exploring the sub-sub-sub-basement last week.

He picked up the enormous container of pickles and followed the fox.

"What do you have against beer, anyway?" he asked. "You eat roadkill and chicken heads."

"Yup," agreed the fox. "And mouldy bread, and sometimes I pull your work shirts out of the laundry and chew them."

Dash grimaced. The fox nodded.

"That's right. And yet, I draw the line at beer."

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Ominous

[froodle]

The vaulted ceiling of the buried church was lost in shadow, and the thin and failing beams of their torches did little to dispel the darkness.

An enormous pipe organ occupied the entirety of one wall, rusting lengths of metal coated in bioluminescent fungus that glowed faintly in the cloying murk. The ranks had been dismantled and rearranged at one point, and now formed the shape of a giant metal skull that leered down at the collapsed and crumbling altar.

"Well," said Marisea, moving through half-rotted pews like a ghost in lace-trimmed Laura Ashley. "That's excessive."

Andrea shrugged.

"Seen worse."


Ongoing Verse: Andrea/Marisea

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Decorations

[froodle]

The skeletal organist whose bony fingers hovered above ivory keys in an arthritic snarl was made of plastic. An after-market paint job in faded yellows and decay-dark browns gave the impression of weight and authenticity, but up close the flimsy ribcage and the strangely flattened feet marked it for an obvious fake.

Marisea gave the artificial corpse a slight tug. It didn't budge from it's seat, empty eye sockets staring fixedly at mould-speckled sheet music.

"Glued in place," she said. She glanced up again, feeling the weight of the soil that pressed against rotting roof beams. "Illegal ghoul rave, maybe?"


Ongoing Verse: Andrea/Marisea

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Refreshments

[froodle]

Andrea made a face.

"It's a bit on the nose, isn't it?" she asked. "Giant skull piano, Skelton John at the keyboard..."

Marisea shrugged.

"Humans stick pictures of turkeys everywhere at Thanksgiving," she said. "Birthday banners have pictures of cakes or bottles of wine on them and we hang them over refreshment tables covered in wine bottle and cake. I can see a party where everyone's eating corpse meat being covered in corpse-themed decorations."

Andrea didn't answer, as she was busy poking at a pile of human hair with a long thigh bone that bore the marks of many teeth.


Ongoing Verse: Andrea/Marisea

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Clean Plates

[froodle]

"Oh good," said Marisea, crunching across the dusty floorboards to join her. "You found the ghoul's trash heap."

"I don't think there's anything here," said Andrea. "It's just discards left over from the party. No signs of a haunting."

She used the thigh bone to lift a crumbling section of jaw out of the nest of hair, her torchlight gleaming against the silvery fillings.

"Looks like they ate most anything a ghost would be able to bind itself to," she continued.

"Good," said Marisea. "Leftovers pose such a risk at a revenant feast. Cleaned plates makes my job much easier."

Ongoing Verse: Andrea/Marisea

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Sofa Time

[froodle]

"Come on, babies," said Simon, picking up a chupacabra with spines as long as his forearm and fangs longer than his index finger. "Budge up, I want to sit there."

The chupacabra hung limp in his arms, a very large, very ugly kitten being ferried from place to place by it's much smaller mother.

"Did you name them yet?" Marshall asked, from his perch at the very edge of the sofa, as far away from the spikey, scaly goatsuckers as he could get while still seeing the TV.

Simon looked guilty.

"No?" he tried. "Since we agreed this was temporary..."

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Allergies

[froodle]

Over at the dining room table, surrounded by reams of crackling parchment that constituted a fairly simple locate-and-retrieve contract with the local Faerie Queen, Dash made a noise that sounded suspiciously like muffled laughter.

"Sorry," he said. "Allergic reaction. You know how it is with me and bad liars."

Simon flushed. Marshall looked interested.

"Is it the clause about the Good Folk getting to eat our memories if we fail, or Simon pretending we didn't take custody of two specifically forbidden cryptids because he thought they were, and I quote, 'ugly-cute'?"

"Both," said Dash, circling the offending clause in red.

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: A Temporary Arrangement

[froodle]

"Temporary!" Simon protested. "Temporary custody! It's like... fostering for an animal shelter."

"Mmm," said Marshall, in that sort of knowing way he'd picked up from his mom.

"If you've picked out names, you might as well tell us," said Dash. "I have to file these amendments in the Hall of the Mountain King tomorrow, and I can drop off the paperwork for chupacabra adoption while I'm there."

Simon flung himself onto the sofa, causing the canine-esque reptile in his hand to swing wildly. On the cushion next to him, the second chupacabra shoved it's wet, pink nose beneath his chin.

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Yip-Yoop

[froodle]

"Fine," said Simon. "If you must know, I was going to call this guy-" he gestured to the pink-nosed chupacabra, whose scaly skin and patchy fur were blue-green and whose eyes were bulbous, yellow, and without pupil- "I was thinking about naming him Yip-Yoop."

He rubbed the creature's round, bear-like ears and was rewarded by a short and high-pitched "yip", followed by a longer, deeper "yoooooop" sound that was almost a howl.

Marshall nodded to the second goatsucker, this one green-brown and spiny and already asleep in Simon's lap.

"And that one?"

"Spy-Guy," said Simon. "Because he's always watching everyone."

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Spy-Guy

[froodle]

"No he's not," said Marshall. "He just sleeps. He's sleeping right now."

Simon shook his head.

"He's faking it," he said. "Go get something out of the refrigerator, and watch your reflection in the milk jug. You'll see him creep in behind you a couple of seconds later."

Dash had set his pen with the cold iron nib aside and was staring at the tentatively-named Spy-Guy with renewed interest.

"Really?" he said, drawing the word out far longer than it's six letters warranted. He looked at Marshall.

"Let's keep him," he said. "He'll be a valuable member of the team."

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Paperwork

[froodle]

Marshall rolled his eyes.

"We already know that we're keeping both of them," he said. "You had Mister Radford special-order a whole ream of enchanted paper so we could print out the adoption forms. Then when we went to pick it up, you pretended you'd forgotten your wallet and made me pay for it."

"I had forgotten it," said Dash. "It was in my pocket but I didn't remember it was there." He tapped his left temple and mouthed, "amnesia".

Simon laughed. Spy-Guy lifted his long green snout, blinked at him, then let out an almost-human laugh of his own.

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Tidying Up with Tod McNulty

[froodle]

The empty skin looked so sad, lying crumpled in the well-trodden mud beside the ornamental pond at the centre of Deadwood Park.

Tod wondered if he should pick it up, perhaps drape it over a low-hanging tree branch or fold it neatly on some smooth, sun-warmed rock. He said as much to Janet.

Janet thought about it, then made a see-sawing motion with her free hand.

"Feels like an overstep," she said. "Like tidying away your classmates' knickers. Some people might not mind it, but enough would that it's best avoided."

She stepped towards the water, waving at the eels.

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Roaming

[froodle]

"Big Moo!" cried Simon, almost slipping in the dew-wet grass as he hurried over to meet his patient. "What's happened to you?"

Big Moo, the only cloud buffalo in all of Indiana, mooed. Unlike the usual ebullient greeting that had given him his name, today his lowing was faint and weak.

"Darn Sewer Clowns have been at him," said Farmer Chambers, indicating a bald patch where Big Moo's thick coating of white rubbery balloons had been torn away. "They don't normally come this far up the Mountain, but I guess they got tired of hunting little kids and sushi queens."

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Field Surgery

[froodle]

Simon nodded, his hands already deep inside his field kit as he retrieved blocks of latex, a set of smallish glass beakers, and a single eternally-burning tear from a Hellhound's eye.

(He'd harvested it from Sparky one night when Marshall had refused to feed him a second French stick of garlic bread, on the basis that the first had probably been a bad idea to begin with. He'd been right, but it hadn't stopped their dog from turning on the waterworks).

"Janet has been giving them hell lately," he said. "Apparently the clowns ate one of her delivery drivers, so..."

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Yelp

[froodle]

Farmer Chambers nodded gravely.

"That'll do it," he said. "The lake keeps what it has, and doesn't take kindly to those that'd take from it."

"Yeah, she's pretty mad," said Simon, watching the block of latex soften and deform over the warmth of Hellfire. "The Baitshop's had to switch to eat-in or takeout only, and apparently they've gotten some bad reviews over it."

Ephraim whistled.

"You'd think folks would learn, after that food critic washed up last summer with tentacles in all the places a man shouldn't have them."

Simon shivered, pushing that image aside to focus on his work.

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Patch Job

[froodle]

"This isn't as bad as it looks," said Simon, smearing liquid latex over the ragged bald spots of Big Moo's rubbery hide. "I don't think they nicked his skin."

Big Moo shifted uncomfortably as Simon worked, his heavy head twisting this way and that in an effort to see what the vet was doing.

"That's a relief," said the farmer. "I know the big fella here appreciates how fast you showed up."

He gave Big Moo's snout an affectionate rub, fingers squeaking and squealing against the buffalo's coat.

"It's no problem," said Simon, peeling off his surgical gloves and standing.

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Medicine

[froodle]

Simon pulled his arm out of Big Moo's obligingly open mouth and clicked the penlight off.

"Everything looks good," he said. "No trace of redness or greasepaint, no smell of funnel cake or candy floss, and his nose doesn't honk when you squeeze it."

He opened a side pocket on his heavy leather valise and pulled out several small pill bottles, shifting through them until he found the one he wanted.

"Make sure he takes one of these a day," he said, pressing the bottle into the farmer's calloused hands. "It's a low-level warding spell against clown infestation."

Ephraim nodded.

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Coffee Break

[froodle]

He still had a little time before his next appointment, so Simon spent a few minutes chatting with the elderly farmer and feeding helium flowers to Big Moo while the latex patch on his raw underbelly had a change to set.

"How's Old Hindenburg?" he asked, remembering the placid Cloud Sheep who'd been the catalyst for his first meeting with the man whose strange livestock he now tended.

Ephraim Chambers poured them both a cup of coffee from an ancient Thermos and sipped his before answering.

"Well enough," he said. "Though she's getting on in years, as we all do."

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Reminisce

[froodle]

Simon nodded. He'd just turned ten the day he and Marshall climbed the muddy footpath that wound through the green slopes on the southern side of Wolf Mountain, chasing rumours of a half-plant, half-animal hybrid known as the Lamb of Tartary.

At the time, Ephraim had seemed unspeakably old, though looking back he had probably been in his fifties at most. Simon had been frightened by the sight of his shadowy face beneath a battered straw boater, and even more frightened by the huge, vicious-looking set of shears gleaming in his hands.

And then he'd shown them the Cloud Sheep.

Ongoing Verse: Microwave

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Follow Up

[froodle]

Simon is surprised to see Tod McNulty standing outside his parents' front door, but not unpleasantly so. Tod's nice, all spiky hair and obscure music facts and no matter what strange flavour combinations he's working on that week, he always sets aside a chocolate chip cookie for Marshall, who likes adventures in the outside world but not on his plate.

"Hey," he says, stepping out into the cool spring evening and pulling the door shut behind him. "What's up?"

Tod looks awkward.

"It's about the sugar mice," he says. "Do you... can I talk to your brother for a minute?"


Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Holmes Brothers

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: A Sit-Down with Satan

[froodle]

Simon's pretty sure Mr. McNulty is over the whole rock-and-roll-leads-to-devil-worship thing by now, but if he wasn't, the utter lack of interest in the way Harley looks at Tod should put his mind at ease.

"There wasn't enough space in my closet for all the sugar mice," Tod tells him, and Harley blinks eyes blue as a summer sky and doesn't appear to register what he's saying. Tod presses on anyway, and Simon thinks that might be the most impressive thing he's seen.

And he's seen some pretty impressive things.

"So I've moved them out to the old barn instead..."

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Holmes Brothers

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Win-Win

[froodle]

Simon understands, now. The sugar mice are living creatures, yes, but they're also candy. Candy left in the open, unwrapped and exposed to the elements, isn't going to last long.

"They're attracting bugs," he says.

Tod nods so hard his glasses slip off his nose and into the dead grass of the Holmes' lawn. Simon prays the parched soil isn't hard enough to crack the lenses.

"So I was thinking, maybe some of the Ratking's rats could sort of... patrol?" he said. "I mean, wild rats eat bugs and stuff, right? So it might wind up helping us both out."

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Holmes Brothers

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Trade

[froodle]

He looks at Harley, his expression hopeful. Harley, for his part, is scorching patterns in the dead earth using only his bare hands.

Simon nudges him.

"Harley," he says. "What do you think? The Ratking could get lots of nice ants to eat, and help out his mice friends too."

Harley considers this. He shrugs, then leans over and whispers something into his brother's ear, too low for Tod to catch.

Harley's breath plumes in the warm air, icy as the winds blowing over Lake Cocytus.

Simon shakes his head.

"No," he says. "You can't invoke swapsies for Tod's soul."

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Holmes Brothers

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Bargain

[froodle]

Simon vetoes similar trades for Tod's love of music, Tod's mastery of the pie crust, Tod's fingernail clippings, a strand of his hair, one of his eyes, both of his eyes ("that's more, Harley, that's worse than just taking one!") and the heart of his first-born child.

He's starting to think it's hopeless, and is also starting to entertain some very disloyal thoughts about bargaining directly with the Ratking behind his brother's back, when his gaze falls on Tod's bookbag lying some way off.

"Tod," he says, "Did you have Homemakers class this afternoon?"

Tod follows his gaze, expression brightening.

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Holmes Brothers

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Storage

[froodle]

"Yes!" he says, scrambling to his feet and seizing the backpack. "Yes, I did!"

He starts removing glossy ForeverWare containers in every shape and colour imaginable, and Simon wonders how Bert and Ernie manage when they see it filling the huge walk-in refrigerator adjoining BF Skinner's test kitchen.

Heck, he'd seen it in action once and being this close to so much of it made him uneasy. The Corn alone knew how they stayed calm.

Maybe the fact that it was always the two of them facing it together made it easier.

Simon thought of Marshall. He thought of Harley.

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Holmes Brothers

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Showing

[froodle]

"I have lot of stuff here," said Tod, ripping open one vacuum-sealed container after another and showing them to Harley.

A cupcake topped with a perfect icing replica of the salmon nigiri sold at the Baitshop. A brownie so heavy with chocolatey fudge that it stuck to the bottom of the ForeverWare box. Rice pudding with a thick golden-brown crust that smelled of caramel and cardamom.

Harley examined them all, tasting some, discarding others outright.

Finally he came to a tall Pepto-Bismol pink cylinder, it's lid tightly wrapped in duct tape. Tod paled.

"Oh," he said. "No, that's not safe..."

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Holmes Brothers

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Unsealed

[froodle]

Tod McNulty was, Simon thought, probably quite a good football player. Certainly the flying tackle he attempted on Harley would have been effective on a great many people who were much bigger and stronger than him.

It did not, however, work on the Ratking, who surged out of every nook and lurking place to form a writhing wall of filth between Tod and Simon's baby brother.

The rats were everywhere, swarming across the lawn, across Tod, across Simon. Beneath the noise of skittering claws came the sound of tape ripping loose, followed by the pop and hiss of ForeverWare opening.

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Holmes Brothers

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Bad Smells

[froodle]

The stench hit him a moment later, foul in a way that combined all the worst smells Simon had ever smelled in all the ten long years of his life.

It was Lake Eerie after a King Tide, the Baitshop during the lunch rush. The cafeteria meatloaf at B.F. Skinner and the Eerie Bingo Parlour burning to ash. The men's toilets at the World o' Stuff after the Bobs had used it.

The dead air inside his parents' house.

Simon gagged, instinctively covering his nose and mouth. Beside him, he could hear Tod retching. Even the Ratking was splitting apart.

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Holmes Brothers

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: Snack Time

[froodle]

Through his own muffled, wheezing breaths, Tod's choked cries and the frightened squeals of the component animals that made up the Ratking, now all fleeing in a thousand different directions as each sought to protect it's own sensitive nose, Simon heard his brother's voice clearly.

"Surströmming," said Harley, delighted as the day he'd captured the King Crab in a shrimp net.

There was a wet, slurping, sucking noise that went on for far too long, and the reeking air seemed to grow lighter.

Simon wiped stinging tears from his eyes and looked at the blurry shape of his little brother.

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Holmes Brothers

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )

Eerie Indiana Drabble: A Deal is Struck

[froodle]

"Surströmming," said Harley again. He tossed the empty container in the rough direction of Tod's discarded offerings, then walked to the wheezing, spluttering metal-head.

"Yes," he said. "Ratking for surströmming. Once a week."

He extended one small, pink hand, and flashed blunt white teeth in an almost-human smile.

Tod sat up, wiping his own hands on the front of his grass-stained jacket before reaching out to shake Harley's.

"Deal," he said. "As long as all the sugar mice are safe, I'll bring you fermented herring once a week."

They shook, and Simon wondered how long it took to go nose-blind.

Ongoing Verse: Trusted Associates Inc

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Holmes Brothers

( Read more... )

Ongoing Verse: Janet

( Read more... )