Valiant Tales, lindenharp/RobinC

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Story:  Valiant Tales
Author:  lindenharp
Rating:  All
Word Count: 100
Author's Summary: A series of drabbles about the people who lived, worked, and suffered on the Valiant during the Year That Never Was.
Characters: vary
Warnings: none

I can't believe these haven't been recommended before now!  lindenharp is writing a series of drabbles based upon people who were on the Valiant during the year between "Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords."  Each is only 100 words, but they pack a wallop.

Here's the first one, "The Accountant's Tale":

I was an accountant in the USAF Quartermaster Corps until the new regime drafted me. When rocket factories need steel, I decide which mills must overproduce; which workers are transferred across the world.

My ancestors were Crow Indians: nomadic warriors. Their wartime triumph was counting coup: touching an armed foe with a stick, leaving him alive but humiliated.

I manage small deceptions. Redirected shipments of rice. Disappearing truckloads of blankets. Guards’ medicine going to an orphanage. If discovered, I'll be guest star on “Morning Execution”. Until then, I honor my ancestors, counting coup on the Enemy of the World.

Comments

[eve11]

These were fantastic! Thanks for pointing me to them. I love drabbles and the author does a great job bringing to life so many different voices each in 100 words.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Aren't they wonderful? I can't believe nobody recommended them before now.

[kaffy_r]

There's not a one of these that doesn't make the speaker live, and paint a vivid picture of the speaker's world. That kind of skill, exhibited so consistently, is marvelous!

[garpu.livejournal.com]

Yup! :)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

These are amazing, terrifying little windows into that world.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

*nodnod* Humans are both the best and the worst in the situation, too.

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Some great work there - as others have said, the characters are all so vivid, and it manages to be sort of hopeful and deeply pessimistic about human nature, sometimes both within the same drabble. Seriously good stuff.

[lindenharp.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the rec. And thanks to everyone else for your encouraging comments.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

*grin* You're welcome!

[clocketpatch]

Thanks for this rec; these stories have been haunting me all day. There's some important truth about humanity buried in these drabbles, though I'm not sure what it is. There is definitely some comment on the world we live in and how we might view it if we lived in different circumstances.