Qylle's Writing Journal

two West Wing drabbles

2004-05-28T14:26:13Z

~posted to tww100

Title: Sarcasm on heels
Characters/Pairings: CJ/Simon
Word count: 100
A/N: challenge #47 – gains/losses. This is the first drabble I've written in seven months. Feels good to be back.
___________________________

"I like that you're tall," she had said. Now she wished she had said more. She wished she had said that his eyes were warm, that he made her feel warm. That he made her feel like a girl again, instead of sarcasm on heels.

And now he was gone, and so was the hope he had awakened in her. All she had was a handful of memories, a few unguarded smiles, and a hole in her heart, a heart that had almost forgotten it was lonely. Oh god, it felt as if it would break under her clenched fists.

Title: Don't call her sentimental
Characters/Pairings: Margaret/Leo
Word count: 100
A/N: challenge #47 – gains/losses. This one came to me at 2am; I scrawled it down and tweaked it this morning.
___________________________

She used to dream of being the Bond girl. Now she can't watch Bond movies, because when she sees the faithful, unrequited love in Miss Moneypenny's eyes, she starts to cry and can't stop. She never used to cry at movies.

She doesn't know when she lost the ability to look at Leo with simple respect, or when that respect turned into affection, or when that affection turned into a hopeless, longing, and above all, unrequited love.

She used to dream of being the Bond girl. Now she just fights every day so no one realizes she is Miss Moneypenny.

(a/n: Now she only watches "In Her Majesty's Secret Service", because it is the only time Bond gives his heart away. I couldn't work that in to the drabble.)

hp: Andromeda: every word a lie

2004-04-26T21:45:20Z

I think I've spent my entire life waiting for someone to ask me the question. I think I've always believed that everyone who met me knew, somehow, that I had a secret.

When there is something you can tell no one, does it taint everything you do, everything you say? Does it make every word from your mouth a lie, even if that is the only lie you tell?

It feels that way. Which explains, I suppose, why I never hesitated to tell a lie to save myself.

source Navy NCIS

2004-04-26T21:41:09Z

"Abbs, do you know where Kate has her tat?"

Abby nodded. "Yep," she said cheerfully.

absolute certainty

2004-04-12T18:37:39Z

a/n: overview
This was a dream from last week. It was extremely vivid, and, like many of my plot-driven dreams, complex. Far more was going on in the dream than I understood.

This is recorded in my typical dream style -- as much as possible has been turned into story, but my priority is getting it down so I can work on it later.

setup
George Washington and his wife, Martha. He looked more like Lincoln, though; a huge, raw-boned man. He is brandishing a page from an album with a picture of a young woman -- is she black? is she a slave? Martha tries to deny it is her in the picture, but she cannot deny it for long.

story
Her shoulders slump as she turns to face him, and the watcher sees that one side of her face is ravaged by a complicated runnels joining over a collapsed scar. When she speaks, her voice is hoarse and low, and she seems to have reverted to the ignorant, uneducated mountain girl of her youth. "If you know who I am, then you know this is your daddy's brand!"

"I know who you are, and I know who put that on your face," he said grimly. The menace in his voice alerted her. Her ancient eyes flew to his rawboned face, and what she saw there frightened her. She called a name the watcher could not distinguish, and then, as her husband began to walk towards her, added "Come into the room!"

But no one came. And he murdered her, his enormous hands clenching her neck until her body went limp. And then her son did come, and helped his father hang a noose and hoist her onto a chair. The watcher could not distinguish who put the noose around her neck, or know with absolute certainty that she was dead when they lowered her from the chair.

a/n: unanswered questions
Why didn't they kick the chair away? Did they not break her neck because she was dead, or did they want her to strangle? She looked dead, or at least, unconscious. What was the writing beneath the picture -- who was she, really? She was obviously passing for something , but what? What the hell was the scar on her face -- could it have been made by a knife, cutting deeply through the mysterious brand, to obscure it? Could it be from the brand itself?

quote

2004-02-28T06:29:20Z

If I cannot bring you comfort, I shall strive to bring you hope
~possum96 posted, he can't remember where it comes from

hp: Andromeda's Eyes

2004-01-26T05:14:24Z

a/n: barely a first draft

"Here," Andromeda said abruptly, handing a small box to her daughter. "You need these more now than I do. And you having them will cause Aunt Lucille [my name for Sirius' mother] to spin in her grave."

"Why?" Tonks asked, warily accepting the box.

"She gave them to me before I went to Hogwarts. Before she realized what a... what was that odd phrase her painting used? Blood traitor? Yes. Before she realized what a blood traitor I was, she used to give me little treasures from her trove."

Tonks carefully opened the box, but flinched despite herself when she saw the eyes looking up at her. She carefully closed the box and set it down on the table.

"YEUCCH!" she finally shouted.

"That's what I thought."

"Why did she give these to you?"

"I can tell you that. Actually, I've never managed to forget what she said. She gave me this and the Biting Trunk, and said that every woman forced to live with others needed two things: to protect the things she didn't want seen, and a way to see what people don't want her to see."

L&O source: Alex's departure

2004-01-05T06:34:59Z

Olivia to Alex
Oh, no. Oh no no no no no no. Alex, it's ok. Alex, it's ok. Alex. It's ok, sweetie. Stay with me. Stay with me. Alex, you're going to be ok. Just stay with me. Alex? Alex, it's ok.

* * *

Alex to Olivia and Stabler
I am so sorry about all of this.

Olivia, stunned
Your funeral's tomorrow.

Alex and Olivia look at each other. Olivia moves forward. "How long?", she asked, her voice breaking. Alex just looks at her, pale and drawn, as Olivia blinks back tears.

hp: Draco/Hermione

2004-01-02T19:42:46Z

"You would not want her spotted, would you?" He nodded at Hermione.

"Granger, they're arfter Muggles. Unless you want to be showing off your knickers in mid-air?"

Why did Draco warn Hermione? (For it was a warning.) All I can think of is that he is fascinated with her -- certainly no one else has ever dared hit him in the face.

It makes me see why people write Draco/Hermione/Ginny, with Ginny always the leftover. I don't want to write Ginny like that.

Lyl again

2003-11-07T23:00:55Z

Qylle: Mary SUE! Mary Jane is entirely different. She's cool. We like her! :)

Lyl: Sorry, I knew it was Mary-somebody. Somehow I mixed her up with Bob's sister. Go fig. ;>

Lyl: Hey, if you put an obvious avatar of yourself into a New Testament (think of it as religious fanfic), is it a Mary Magdalene?

name info: Foxglove

2003-07-15T22:50:57Z

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/wildseed/27/27.4.html

Foxglove is a source of digitalis prescribed by doctors to strengthen the heart and regulate its beat. Extremely poisonous! Enjoy, but do not eat!

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/f/foxglo30.html

---Habitat---
The Common Foxglove of the woods (Digitalis purpurea), perhaps the handsomest of our indigenous plants, is widely distributed throughout Europe and is common as a wild-flower in Great Britain, growing freely in woods and lanes, particularly in South Devon, ranging from Cornwall and Kent to Orkney, but not occurring in Shetland, or in some of the eastern counties of England.

Needing little soil, it is found often in the crevices of granite walls, as well as in dry hilly pastures, rocky places and by roadsides. Seedling Foxgloves spring up rapidly from recently-turned earth. Turner (1548), says that it grows round rabbitholes freely.

---Description---
The normal life of a Foxglove plant is two seasons, but sometimes the roots, which are formed of numerous, long, thick fibres, persist and throw up flowers for several seasons.

This fits! The magic died out of Foxglove's family (matrilineal) after their Great-Grandmother died in the war against Grindlewald in 1945. Her daughter inherited her books and supplies, but not her power. Foxglove's mother was a Squib who married a Muggle, who, like her, came from a family that was once magical.)

In the first year a rosette of leaves, but no stem, is sent up. In the second year, one or more flowering stems are thrown up, which are from 3 to 4 feet high, though even sometimes more, and bear long spikes of drooping flowers, which bloom in the early summer, though the time of flowering differs much, according to the locality. As a rule the flowers are in perfection in July. As the blossoms on the main stem gradually fall away, smaller lateral shoots are often thrown out from its lower parts, which remain in flower after the principal stem has shed its blossoms. These are also promptly developed if by mischance the central stem sustains any serious injury.

...

The Foxglove is a favourite flower of the honey-bee, and is entirely developed by the visits of this insect.

...

The life of each flower, from the time the bud opens till the time it slips off its corolla, is about six days. An almost incredible number of seeds are produced, a single Foxglove plant providing from one to two million seeds to ensure its propagation.

Old herbal uses
The Foxglove was employed by the old herbalists for various purposes in medicine, most of them wholly without reference to those valuable properties which render it useful as a remedy in the hands of modern physicians. Gerard recommends it to those 'who have fallen from high places,' and Parkinson speaks highly of the bruised herb or of its expressed juice for scrofulous swellings, when applied outwardly in the form of an ointment, and the bruised leaves for cleansing for old sores and ulcers. Dodoens (1554) prescribed it boiled in wine as an expectorant, and it seems to have been in frequent use in cases in which the practitioners of the present day would consider it highly dangerous. Culpepper says it is of: 'a gentle, cleansing nature and withal very friendly to nature. The Herb is familiarly and frequently used by the Italians to heal any fresh or green wound, the leaves being but bruised and bound thereon and the juice thereof is also used in old sores, to cleanse, dry and heal them. It has been found by experience to be available for the King's evil, the herb bruised and applied, or an ointment made with the juice thereof, and so used.... I am confident that an ointment of it is one of the best remedies for a scabby head that is.'

A domestic use of the Foxglove was general throughout North Wales at one time, when the leaves were used to darken the lines engraved on the stone floors which were fashionable then. This gave them a mosaiclike appearance.

---Medicinal Action and Uses---
Digitalis has been used from early times in heart cases. It increases the activity of all forms of muscle tissue, but more especially that of the heart and arterioles, the all-important property of the drug being its action on the circulation. The first consequence of its absorption is a contraction of the heart and arteries, causing a very high rise in the blood pressure.

After the taking of a moderate dose, the pulse is markedly slowed. Digitalis also causes an irregular pulse to become regular. Added to the greater force of cardiac contraction is a permanent tonic contraction of the organ, so that its internal capacity is reduced, which is a beneficial effect in cases of cardiac dilatation, and it improves the nutrition of the heart by increasing the amount of blood.

In ordinary conditions it takes about twelve hours or more before its effects on the heart muscle is appreciated, and it must thus always be combined with other remedies to tide the patient over this period and never prescribed in large doses at first, as some patients are unable to take it, the drug being apt to cause considerable digestive disturbances, varying in different cases. This action is probably due to the Digitonin, an undesirable constituent.