tooth soup

photo credit: `?ccdoh1?

platypus/starving/vintage

from Irene’s prompt

It’s about ten minutes until my year eleven ball and my mother is coming as close to swearing as I have ever heard her.

`Geoffrey, honest-to-goodness why didn’t you wear the towel while you ate like I said?’ She is bent over the wreckage of my suit, examining it for any salvageable material. ‘The cummerbund and pants are okay, but the rest is ruined. We’re going to have to fix you up with something else.’

That something else emerges from the bags of my Grandpa’s clothing that are still stored in the tops of the hallways cupboards. A faded grey waistcoat and jacket that is completely at odds with my black dress pants. `A shirt,’ says Mum, `we still need a shirt.’

At this point my father steps in, offering a dark blue dress shirt. I take all the clothes and stalk into my room, slamming the door shut in a burst of self-pity. I change into the my new outfit and stand back to admire the damage. I look like some kind of kid-man-grandpa hybrid. A generational griffin. Or a platypus. I am a fucking fashion platypus.

The doorbell rings downstairs. I traipse down to where my date, Lucy, is waiting. Upon seeing her I forget that I look like a complete tool. She’s stunning. Absolutey.

She looks up at me under painted eyelashes and laughs. `Oh my, Geoff. You’re going to be popular.’

I laugh and blush and shuffle down to where she waits. `Yeah, well, so are you. Just for all the right reasons.’ She hooks her arm through mine and we head out towards the limosine; the platypus and the swan.

photo credit: IslesPunkFan

mekons/sunset/pines

from Zak’s prompt

Daniel was scared. His father sat at the dinner table, arms spread out and hands set as if to get up from his seat. But he was frozen, breathing deeply with his eyes downcast at the knotted wooden tabletop. His mother, so relaxed only moments before, was nervously stroking her apron down over the length of her dress. She looked over at Daniel and gave a weak smile, `Go play outside for a moment, honey. Daddy and I have to talk a while.’ Daniel asked his father’s permission to leave the table and was granted it in a gruff whisper. Daniel raced to his bedroom, snatching the comic book he had borrowed from his best friend at school, before running out the back door and towards the tall pine forest that stretched out behind their property.

It took him some time traipsing across the carpet of pine needles to find a seat in the form of a fallen bough. Once there, he stared intently at the cover of the comic book, eyes gliding over the stark red and yellow lettering. `Dan Dare–World’s No.1 Space Hero‘ it said, and `His Most Dangerous Mission Yet: To Infiltrate The Evil Mekon’s Lair On Venus!‘. The bulbous green head of the alien contrasted against the square cut of Dan Dare’s chin. Daniel flipped open the cover and began reading the adventure. When he finished it, he read it through again, and once more before the sun set and there was no longer any light to read by. As he heard the front door slam and his father’s truck grumble into life, Daniel searched the night sky for the bright beacon of Venus, starting at it until his eyes watered and his lips shook.

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