Drabble+: The Mysterious Glabe Curious

[strangetomato]

Prompt: Chloe and Lola's thoughts on their caretaker, the mysterious Glabe Curious
Characters: Lola and Chloe Curious
Wordcount: 344
Imagecount: 0
Warnings:  very minor language

What's this? A drabble? I'm surprised, too, but I'm hardly going to argue with writing inspiration coming back to me. It's about time! ^_^ This is an older prompt, but the drabble takes place during the current timeline in S,HWC, and the colony mentioned is the same one that Stella has been talking about.




Lola thumbed through the old shoebox, smiling as she revisited those well-worn photographs.

"Haven't seen those in a while," Chloe remarked, as she walked past to turn on the television.

Lola looked down at Glabe's smiling face, with Chloe and her huddled into her at either side. In the background was the lush growth of Gothier Green Lawns, one of their favourite weekend haunts.

"It's too bad we never had a chance for everyone to know her. It seems like such a missed opportunity." After a pause, she continued, "I don't think our father was ever very happy that she left the family business to travel the world as an exorcist." Another breath or two, then, "He probably couldn't begin to understand how someone could decide they'd had enough of UFOs. You know what he was like."

"He seemed happy enough about the convenience when we came along."

"You really should just forgive him for it."

"Yeah, probably. But shit happens. I know it was mostly because of Kitty and blah blah blah, but he could have had a bit of a backbone."

"For yourself, I mean."

"Yeah," she shrugged. "Too bad about that."

Lola gathered all the photos back together and lined them up before placing them back in the box.

She turned to Chloe. "So I've decided to take the job."

"I thought you would."

"I'm going to go, but I'm still not sure about the breeding aspect of it. Maybe if someone else does all the work. I've agreed to doing something more hands-on. They're going to need defenses set up for the new colony, and with my previous work skills..."

"You're so much like her, you know. I got her hair, but you have her spirit."

Lola smiled, happy with the comparison. "You'll never believe what they call the position."

Chloe continued to flick through the channels, and Lola approached to join her on the sofa. She looked at the side of Chloe's head until she finally turned to look back at her.

"I'm going to be a space pirate."

Comments

[sophie10.livejournal.com]

Very nice. I love the interaction between the two sisters, and their affection for Glabe shines through in their dialogue.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'm glad you liked it. I've always enjoyed writing the Smith-Curious family relationships.

I decided to change one line after posting, mostly just to clarify their relationship (I see Glabe as Glarn's sister, not ex-wife):

Chloe didn't need to mention Glabe's name.

to

"I got her hair, but you have her spirit."

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Good to see you writing again. :) I liked this. Nice reference to the space pirate job level. It totally makes sense that Glabe would be Glarn's sister, you've made a convert out of me! (Even though I think I forgot to delete those 'break up' memories I gave Chloe and Lola in my clean Strangetown.)

I like the changed line, too.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm beyond excited to be writing again, but I don't want to get too excited, lest I jink myself. :P

You know who else is going to end up as a space pirate? Alex O'Mackey. I think that'd make for some interesting character interaction.

I think Chloe's hair is one of the most convincing arguments that can be made for Glabe being a relative. If Glabe has red hair, there's a good chance Glarn, as her brother, would have a recessive. With black hair with recessive red, combined with PT's red hair, it makes perfect sense to have Lola and Chloe look the way they do.

I thnk the new line follows the "show, don't tell" rule a little better and serves the same purpose. It works better.

(It'd be interesting to show a couple of drafts of a piece of writing, just to see how it changed in the process. I have tonnes of those from S,HWC that changed a great deal, but I don't know if I still have all the versions. I know I have one upcoming scene that changed a whole bunch of times in the way it happens, not just the way it is described. I think that's really interesting.)

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

I always feel a bit weird about having Alex progress in her career, 'cause even though space pirate is a good job for her, the ones inbetween just don't feel like her. I'd love to see her and Lola interact though. :D

Makes sense with the recessives. Also, Glabe has green eyes, like Jenny, so that fits too. I was going to work all that in when I was working on recreating the dead premades, but that project is on hold for now.

I can imagine that you'd rework your writing a lot along the way! That's just how creative processes tend to work. I'd be interested to see some drafts, if you can find some.

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

Aww... I am happy to see this. :)

I've always waffled between feeling Glabe is Glarn's sister or his ex... my gut feels as though she's his sister, but there's those nagging bits of hints that they might have been married, which is upsetting because it doesn't FIT, lol!

But I mean honestly... Glabe and Glarn are sibling names... no getting around that! XD

Great to see you writing again! Now pass some of that inspiration my way... ;)

[aledstrange.livejournal.com]

This is great!
I love reading about Glabe, she's a big mystery for sure. And it's even better to see a take where she's actually Glarn's sister instead of the ex-wife.

I always thought that, especially because of their names, but then again, there's no sign of her in any family tree so there's always a doubt. She could be explained both ways, imo.