On their heads, of course, Betsy. Where else could they go?

I must confess to some confusion on that, La Tep, but then I am not deep. I'm a shallow person who pretends she's deep and reads IJ looking to get lucky and keeps reading it because no book written can stump her. That's the kind of person I am.

There is a short story out there about a couple of guys in vietnam who are invited to see a very exclusive show. A vampire woman who sucks (literally) the life out of a guy by making him orgasm until he dies. One of the guys ends up being her victim. The other one is gay and in love with the victim. He goes home, becomes a doctor, lives a long, full life, ends up with AIDS, goes back and finds her, pays 5k (eta: or some very large amount, I'm not sure of how much) to be done by her (long bit about buying faked statements of being disease free, etc.), and the disease kills her after she kills him, so he dies having gotten his revenge and is satisfied. I don't recall who wrote it or the name of the collection. And yeah, LKH has done something similar, though not exactly that.

Tep, my participation is, unfortunately sporadic anyway, but I don't think that would trigger anything exciting from me...or anything dull, either. If it were an assignment, I could do it, but it doesn't grab me/thrill me. Which is not to say it couldn't be really cool in the right brain, just that mine isn't feeling brilliant right now.

I think (sorting it out in a very tired, very scared brain) that my problem with the painting/personals challenge is that it feels purely like head-stuff: I don't know, intellectual, amusing, nothing from the soul. That would make it a writing exercise, rather than a challenge to my creativity.

And I'm passing on anything resembling a writing exercise right now, since I'm not in a place where I feel it would be useful to me personally. Also, I don't write purely intellectual stuff, any more than I generally read it. It doesn't engage me.

But I'd love to see what everyone else comes up with for it, since everyone here is someone I know.

Man, does the above not read right. It sounds pompous as hell. Sorry. My own brain is firmly fixated today and won't deal with anything else.

Steph, maybe a personal ad from an inanimate object generally, and then the painting thing could be an example?

(Um yeah, I write and don't post drabbles about half the time.)

I still like the idea simply because I think it would be interesting to try and capture the voice of the painting (or other inanimate object). And I'm all for writing exercises lately, because my head is being stubbornly resistant to the writing I'm supposed to be doing. But if it's just me shouting yay over here, we should do something else.

And you don't sound pompous at all, Deb. {{Vibes}} if you need them.

Actually, Amy, I think the majority is firmly in favour, which is fine. Who knows, maybe something will pop out.

And thanks for any vibes. I need to get back here later in a state that isn't mush, and get some work done on something, anything at all. This particular appointment has been monopolising my life for a week.

Hey, now. Nobody sounds pompous -- I wanted input because it IS a little less straightforward than they've been in the past.

Maybe I'll make it a two-option challenge, like I did for the challenge where the drabble was supposed to be a key passage of a story; in case that topic really didn't work for some people, I suggested they just drabble about keys.

So maybe I'll do that for this one.

Like a bonus challenge? I like that, Teppy.

Like a bonus challenge? I like that, Teppy.

Bonus, or multiple-choice. You can drabble both topics, or if the painting one is too weird or just doesn't inspire anything creative, then you can drabble the alternative topic, which will be more straightforward.