Seasonal and Topical - An Occasional Drabble Thingy

[dorsetgirl]

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Hi again, and welcome to the second Seasonal and Topical Drabble Thingy!

I’ve been having a look at the BBC’s On This Day pages for the week Sunday 31st January to Saturday 6th February. A couple of stories stood out for me, and they’re giving us this week’s prompts.

In 1953, on February 5th, sweets finally came off wartime rationing in the United Kingdom.
In 1974, on February 5th, the newspaper heiress Patti Hearst was kidnapped in California, US.
In 1983, on 31st January, seatbelts became compulsory in the UK in most circumstances.

So the prompts this week are:
Sweet(s)
Seatbelts
Kidnapping
Stockholm Syndrome

I hope you can find some inspiration somewhere in there!

I’ll be having a go after the school run, but in the meantime, if you’re interested, have at it!

Post your drabble as a comment to this post, and if you have any ideas for future seasonal prompts, let me know by PM. I may also use the occasional completely random prompt if something occurs to me.

The rules are minimal - One hundred words exactly, and be polite when commenting!
You can write any fandom or original fiction, any pairing or none.
You don’t even have to write in English if you don’t want to.

Please note that if you do choose to write in another language, I can't promise to comment beyond a simple "Thank You", although I will do my best via Google! A rough translation would be lovely, but is not essential. The translation does not have to be 100 words, nor does it need to be polished or “good English”. Just the gist is fine, to put across the idea.

Oh, and I should mention, so long as you are confident that your response meets one of the prompts, that’s good enough for me.

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Comments

Stockholm Syndrome (Life on Mars, Sam)

[dorsetgirl.livejournal.com]

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“See they haven’t found that Patty Hearst yet.”

“She’ll turn up. Not going to refuse to pay, are they!”

Across the room, Sam looked up, startled. After a moment he started to laugh.

“Oh, now I get it!”

He began ticking off items on his fingers.

“One: I was brought here against my will.”

“Mine too,” Carling muttered.

“Two: I keep hoping it’s all just a dream.

“Three: the Guv keeps beating me up and I keep on being nice to him.”

He clapped a hand to his forehead dramatically.

“It’s all clear to me now. I’ve got Stockholm Syndrome!”
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Sweet (Life on Mars, Gene/Sam)

[dorsetgirl.livejournal.com]

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“I am not sweet! I’m a trained police officer; I could take you out any time I chose, using moves you’ve never even heard of.”

“I’d like to see you try. School of make-it-up-as-you-go-along, me. Where I come from you had to get in first and get in hard. None of this poncing about waving your hands in the air.”

“My way’s more stylish, though, you have to admit.”

“Style butters no parsnips, Gladys. It’s all about substance.”

“Come here, then, and hold your substantial bulk against me. I’m cold.”

“Like I said. Sweet.”
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Re: Sweet (Life on Mars, Gene/Sam)

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with Gene, Sam is sweet.

Re: Sweet (Life on Mars, Gene/Sam)

[dorsetgirl.livejournal.com]

Definitely!

Seatbelts (LoM, Gene/Sam)

[hambelandjemima.livejournal.com]

Sam buckled up his seatbelt and smoothed down his shirt. “What?” he asked, seeing Gene’s expression.

“Are you that scared of my driving?” There wasn’t any derision in Gene’s voice, more a kind of pride.

“Poof,” Ray muttered from the back seat.

“Just second nature,” Sam insisted, ignoring Carling. “In... Hyde… it’s compulsory.”

“They’ve got some funny ideas in Hyde,” Gene said, putting the Cortina into gear. “One day I’ll go over there and show them how things are done the Gene Genie way.”

Sam couldn’t quite hold back his grin. “Oh, they’d love you, Guv. Come on, let’s go.”

Re: Seatbelts (LoM, Gene/Sam)

[dorsetgirl.livejournal.com]

Yay, seatbelt snark! I'm trying to make sure this challenge isn't too LOM-centric - although my own fic probably always will be - but that news item just screamed out "Gene" to me!

Spot-on characterisation; it is so Gene, that he would be proud of himself if Sam were scared of his driving. Oh, and if he would like to come and show me his things how things are done the Gene Genie way, I would be delighted. Thanks for playing!

Re: Seatbelts (LoM, Gene/Sam)

[hambelandjemima.livejournal.com]

I'm sure if Gene held a seminar on the Gene Genie way there wouldn't be a shortage of bums on seats :D

I could just as easily have done Pros, I suppose, as they were about in 1983 (or A2A - I wonder if that will be addressed in series 3!), but seeing as both the Lads drive with two wheels off the road when they're going round corners, it would be a totally different story from this one! *g*

Re: Seatbelts (LoM, Gene/Sam)

[dorsetgirl.livejournal.com]

Go for it! I'm never going to get round to watching enough Pros to write them myself, but I do enjoy the fic when I stumble across it.

And yes, the seatbelts thing simply has to be mentioned in Ashes3, as it's apparently set in 1983 (Which means Alex has been there a lot longer than Sam was.) It would be nice if Gene could give a little mention to Sam when the subject comes up!

Inevitability (Sweets, Doctor Who)

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

The Doctor had been painstakingly reconstructing the mythical battle of Xrzaqq, using jelly babies as troops (with different colours representing different ranks) and dolly mixtures as barricades. He’d collected a pile of maltesers to use against the enemy and had just popped out to the library to check the relative heights of the three towers that he was planning to build out of liquorice allsorts. However, on his return he discovered that there had been a massacre – the Master had bitten the heads off all the jelly babies and was now eating his way through the pile of malteser ammunition.

Re: Inevitability (Sweets, Doctor Who)

[dorsetgirl.livejournal.com]

I like the implied domesticity of the image here, and the idea of having to check the tower heights amused me. The Master's a subversive bastard and it's so in character that he'd do this. Nice!