Menu

Subscribe

Realm of the InterNutter

Thoughts, stories and ideas.

Challenge #01144-C047: Oh, Francoeur...

Francoeur & company, 2 open ended prompts for double story day

  1. Blood

  2. Trombone -- Gallifreya

[AN: This puts the overlap down to 23.]

1.

Everyone knew that fleas drank blood. The ex-chief Maynott certainly screamed it so often and so loudly that he had been moved to a quiet asylum in the country, and wasn't allowed to go near sharp things any more.

The first time someone cut themselves in Franceour's presence, there was an unearthly hush throughout the room that spread as fast as people realised what was happening.

Every set of eyes in the room oscillated between Raoul and his injury and the motionless giant flea. Except for Francoeur, because he was staring solidly at the wound.

Someone screamed, but quickly fell silent when they realised that nothing worth screaming at had happened.

Raoul, ever unaware of danger, finished muttering, "Augh... look at that..." and then noticed that one of the stars had gone... peculiar. "You okay, big guy?"

And then Francoeur fainted dead away.

Paris learned one important lesson, that night. This flea does not drink blood.

2.

One of the players in the musician's gallery had forgotten their instrument. Francoeur, moving tables and heavy furnishings around for Carlotta, saw the shine of the brass and cooed appreciatively.

"Oh! Francoeur... Francoeur, no," clucked Carlotta. "You leave that alone, it's not your-- Oooh!"

She was too late. The giant flea had already leaped into the gallery and picked it up. A shiny, brass trombone. Francoeur shucked his jacket and gloves so he could investigate with all four hands.

"Francoeur..." Carlotta sighed. "Please leave that alone, sweetie... Those are very expensive."

Francoeur had all his attention devoted to the new thing. His curious humming and chirping was a clear indicator of that. He played with the trombone, investigating its possibilities before he brought the mouthpiece to his lips.

"Francoeur... No..."

He produced a gentle note. Weak and cautious. Emboldened, he took a deep breath.

BLAAAAATTT!

Francoeur dropped the trombone back into the musician's gallery and leaped away, finishing by clinging, trembling, to a chandelier.

"You see?" Carlotta clucked. "Do you see? Learn to leave things alone, Francoeur. It's better in the long run. Now come on down, I still need some help with the chaise..."

(Muse food remaining: 33. Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories! Or comment below!)

Figuring things out

After some consideration, I have decided that my time and effort is best spent using my admittedly limited skills to help other folks by making things.

I know for a fact that there are ladies out there who can't or won't get their ears pierced. It doesn't matter why. It doesn't matter where - unless postage comes into it.

What matters is they must be sick and tired of the two mainstream options: (a) Granny buttons, or (b) Nothing.

I remember being

Read more »

Challenge #01143-C046: Can it, Carol!

"Hmph. I'll have you know, that whole thing is just a horrid example of misinformation."

"You're basically a two-meter-tall mantis from our perspective. Humans assuming you devoured your mate was kinda to be expected... namely since, uh, you did."

"Well, yes... but not before he was dead! We do have laws, you know. Such is our way for those who are gone. Your kind just throws them in a dirty hole to rot or burns them to ash. How wasteful." -- Gallifreya

Read more »

Home Again, Huzzah

By my calculations, if I do an Instant today, I should have kept up with the ebb and flow of days quite well. Then I can focus on doing enough doubles to catch up on the overlap so my Years of Instants can be more or less in sync.

After an animated discussion with Beloved, raising money against leukemia isn't quite what it was cracked up to be. I shall have to figure out some other way to be helpful whilst also

Read more »

Challenge #01142-C045: Once Upon a Haunted Discotheque

Dang look at this animation

http://shadowlillium.tumblr.com/post/138421460475 -- Gallifreya

[AN: You should watch. It's pretty awesome]

The old dance hall had a juke box. A relic of an attempt to increase customers whilst reducing DJ costs. And since it was electronic, Lewis could activate it with his ghost powers.

"Hey check this out," he said, five seconds before he did so.

Tom Jones' Sex Bomb began to play, and Lewis began to move. He altered his typical suit

Read more »

Welp. I'm buggering off...

Farewell US, farewell, Tucson. Farewell, all the amazing fun times I had here. I hope to return, but I know the realities of budgetary constraints and... I might not ever come back.

However, if Beloved wants to spend their frequent flier miles on another trip to see Steam Powered Giraffe... I will never never never say no. Best present ever. 100/10 would do again in a cold second.

And I have a bloody good cosplay to take with me if I

Read more »

Challenge #01141-C044: L'amour Fanatique

Maestro Francoeur discovers the downside of his cabaret success - fans. -- Gallifreya

In a little cabaret
on the hills of Montmartre,
in the city of Paris by the Sienne...
You will find a singing flea
of a massive 7'3"
and you'll find he never has so much to say...

Francoeur hadn't noticed the people. He was more interested in writing his next song. But when he came up for air, there was applause.

From a group of about five young ladies

Read more »

O the carnival is over...

It's the day after WWWC5 and my feet and legs are still letting me know they don't like all the walking around I did. I'm so stiff getting up and down it's almost hilarious.

I entered the costume contest and won Best Automaton which came with a HEAP of swag including a cool light-up deelio that means I have to go get a Aus-US power adapter :P but that thing is going on my writing desk. YEAH!

I have blisters on my

Read more »

Challenge #01140-C043: The Trouble With Kittens

(Let's just ignore the timescales and consider an alternate dimension where everything is the same but they exist at the same time)

Paris, home of the Miraculous Ladybug, Chat Noir... and now, Maestro Francoeur.

Or, if you haven't encountered that show yet, Maestro Francoeur and regular black cats -- Gallifreya

[AN: O man... I so dearly want to get my hands on Miracuous Ladybug... but all the regular channels seem to have dried up of late. Someone, somewhere, has been really clever.

Read more »

Success of a sort

I did get to ask David Bennett about putting the robots into my novels, and the answer was a polite version of, "Thanks but no thanks, you can't do it because legal difficulties."

Which is a slight pain in my arse because I have to track down everywhere I mentioned them and finesse something else in to cover those words. I was very careful to make my beloved automatons' appearance not important in any way to the story in the first place.

Read more »

Challenge #01139-C042: One Fine Re-union in a Theatre

Phantom of the Opera parody, starring the flaming purple skeleghost -- Gallifreya

[AN: Skipping the double prompt because (a) foreign lands and far away from the overlap score (b) my time is limited]

"According to Google, this place isn't even here," said Arthur. "This might be a level O manifestation[1]."

Vivi seemed almost possessed. "I've been here before. I can feel it..."

"Yeah, a brand-new century-old abandoned theatre? I don't think so. Let's g-get out of here, Vivi."

"...vivi...?" whispered another

Read more »

The day after the night before...

I had an excellent time, yesterday. I didn't get to stay in character for any length of time at all, because the ever-fabulous Isabella Bennett was hanging out at the SPG merch booth.

...which sadly did not contain any T-shirts or Kazookaphones or patches :( Boo. But did contain one of my personal heroes.

I was one of the very few fanbots there. I guess everyone else wised up because wearing makeup in the heat makes the heat even more punishing.

But I

Read more »

Challenge #01138-C041: All Things Spadge

Some of the nicknames make sense - their name sounds a little like that word and a slip of the tongue gives them a moniker for life.

But how the heck did nicknames like (RL example) Spadge happen? --Gallifreya

[AN: Dunno how it happened to your friend, but...]

The new crewmember had a special word. A word for all things. A word that could mean all things. And after a week of hearing things like:

"This is complete Spadge."

"I love

Read more »

Fun times, fun times

Alongside suffering from massive sleep dep, the after-effects of which are still plaguing me to a minor degree... I am also plotting to be active for way longer than I'm used to.

I haven't pulled stuff like this since Uni. But it's the price I have to pay to not miss an instant of Steam Powered Giraffe.

Thanks to my new friends and Chauffers, I have cheap nibbles so I don't have to spend my reduced fortunes on the highly overpriced fare

Read more »

Challenge #01137-C040: Special Education

The routine butchering of names by various species that have trouble with minor inflections in other languages which inevitably results in silly nicknames - T'reka > Trekker, for instance, or to borrow from another author, Usze > Uzi and N'tho > Nitro -- Gallifreya

Names are important. Across the Gallactic Alliance, all cogniscent beings had a string of sounds or signals that meant 'this is me'. And some... could get quite picky about it.

"Ra-el," said Rael.

"Rail," said the human.

"Ra-el," said Rael.

"Ray

Read more »