So, NaNoWriMo has begun, and I am writing, and this is fabulous.

But I thought I should post something that I’ve written here. Not from NaNo obviously. That’s too new and unedited. I do have 1202 words right now though, which is very nice.

These are actually drabbles (a piece of writing under 1000 words) that take place in the same universe of the novel I’m doing for NaNo–which is titled Grim–but I don’t know whether or not it will actually show up in the novel itself.

1. sunday breakfast

Grim’s reality was a strange one.

“I see you’ve lost your head.” Eli rolled out of his bed, refusing to notice the obscenely bright 4:08AM flashing out from his clock.

Grim’s body shuffled its feet awkwardly. It did a good impression of a scolded school boy. Eli just stared.

It was too early in the morning for this.

There was a thump in the kitchen, and Grim’s body stumbled out of Eli’s room, roving aimlessly toward the noise. Eli threw on his bathrobe and followed.

“So, you were hungry, I guess?” Grim’s face sneered up at him from the kitchen floor. Eli didn’t want to think about how that had come to be. “Guess I’ll take that a yes, then.” He grabbed the head off the ground and ignored Grim’s strange, indignant squawking as he stuck it back on its shoulder home.

Grim’s eyes rolled at the strange adjustment, the whites of his eyes fully visible as his head rooted itself back where it belonged.

“Waffles.”

“Right. Syrup?”

Grim shook his head.

“Yeah, all right. Sit down; I’m on it.”

2. sir

It took Eli the better part of two weeks to figure out that Grim’s boss wasn’t just being an ass; his name actually was Sir.

“Isn’t he supposed to be Satan? Why isn’t that his name?”

Grim didn’t reply as he was rather occupied with Eli’s lighter, striking the flint incessantly with a childlike amusement. “Maybe,” he finally spoke, sliding the lighter across the small kitchen table to his ornery housemate, “maybe you need to consider that that Satan is a Christian ideal. Sir just happens to be the existing equivalent.”

“And maybe you’re all just assholes,” Eli grunted back, lighting up a cigarette and doing his best to blow all the smoke right in Grim’s face, useless as it was.

“You’re very human.”

“Serious assholes.”

3. eyeballs

“There is an eyeball,” Eli observed calmly, “in my soup.”

“Maybe it’s French?”

“The French aren’t this foul. Fuck, it’s moving!”

Grim leaned over Eli’s arm, politely acknowledging the thing. “I think it has tentacles, actually.”

“What the fuck, man? Who cooks this shit?”

“It’s a tradition for Sir to cook for the guests.” Grim tapped his spoon on the side of Eli’s bowl, dipping it in and chasing the frantically swimming eyeball in circles. “We don’t have guests often.”

“I wonder why.” Eli said flatly, and then shook his head. “Actually, I don’t,” he muttered, sitting back in the throne-like seat that Sir had more or less forced under his ass, doing his best to avoid impaling himself on the strange golden spikes protruding from the back. “This isn’t fair. I’m starving.”

“Sir doesn’t care for whining, unfortunately. Maybe you should just eat around it?” Grim left his spoon in Eli’s bowl, not bothering to consider his own food.

“A tentacle-ridden eyeball is swimming in my goddamn soup. How exactly am I supposed to avoid it?”

–

The drabbles are more or less just glimpses into the world that Grim takes place in, which is sort of a horror/macabre/urban fantasy/dark humor thing. Sort of.

 

It’s a Friday, and that’s not all that interesting, so without further ado…

I can’t think of much to say beyond, “Hey, here’s some song lyrics. They pretty much ad lib my life verbatim, so why not post them here?”

-

Local H – “Bound for the Floor”

Born to be down
I’ve learned all my lessons before now
Born to be down
I think you’ll get used to it

And you just don’t get it
you keep it copacetic
And you learn to accept it
You know it’s so pathetic

And you don’t

Born to be down
I think that I’ve said this before now
Born to be down
What good is confidence?

And you just don’t get it
you keep it copacetic
And you learn to accept it
You know it’s so pathetic

And you don’t

And you just don’t get it
You keep it copacetic
And you learn to accept it
You know it’s so pathetic

-

Copacetic, just because, is an obscure slang word (which I had never heard before this song, interestingly enough) meaning “fine; completely satisfactory; okay.”

Which in my mind is pretty ironic, given the meaning behind the song. It’s someone who’s just drifting through life because they know they’re stuck in whatever it is they’ve gotten themselves caught in. Depression could work, or some bizarre type of existential boredom. In my mind, the two are mutually inclusive.

This song isn’t always one hundred percent true for me, but it’s a good ‘general fit’ for how I am right now. I want out of it, but I feel almost like I’m an idiot for believing it can go away. Logically, I know one person can’t feel the same thing consistently for their entire life, but it doesn’t stop me from dreading waking up for fear that I’ll feel exactly the same in the morning.