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    Cia
  • Cia
    • Signature Author
  • 06/04/2017
  • 487 Words
  • 1,922 Views
  • 19 Comments
Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

Dribbles - 32. My Champion

This flash piece is part of the Take Two! noun game. My 2 noun choices came from BHopper2: champion and hardhat.

I opened the front door and found a champion. I stared, shocked, but then I remembered I had a hardhat and hammer from the last time I had to do some remodeling. It wouldn’t be much, but I might be able to make it work. “I am your champion in the games,” he announced. Like I didn’t understand what his presence meant.

Well, they didn’t make the champions so they’d be smart. “Come in,” I said.

The champion stepped inside my door, closing it behind him. I’d bribed my way into the pool to sponsor a champion, but I couldn’t believe they’d sent me the reigning victor of the games—he’d won for more cycles than any other champion.

“I hope this will fit you.” Champions were rather larger than the average man, and I’d bought the hardhat to protect my head when I had to replace some ceiling tiles. Good thing too; one had fallen on me and cracked right in two, sparks flying. At least electronic panels were cheap and the ship had a ton of them in stock.

“Hopefully this year’s games will be less violent than last year’s, but I created this hammer from an old-fashioned history book I found. This end is used to hit things, and this side can pry stuff out. It’s sharp too.” I’d given him a form of armor and a weapon. The terms of the games, that I outfit him with items from my quarters, were satisfied.

He plunked the yellow hardhat on his head and hefted the hammer, swinging it back and forth with ease. I suddenly remembered what else I’d seen in that history book, its glossy pages showing off bodies in ways that just weren’t seemly anymore. I eyed the champion’s bulk. If he didn’t have that stretch-suit on, he’d be completely bare.

“Maybe I can make you a belt.” The guys in the book had a belt they carried the hammer on, slung low over one hip. The champion had a narrow waist, the taper sharp from his broad shoulders and wide chest. It wouldn’t take much.

“I thank you, sponsor. What are your orders?”

The champion was my responsibility and my plaything until the end of the games, then they’d put him back in his tank. I didn’t know much about the engineered beings. Were they as basic as the company who owned the spacing guild said? As unaware? The champion’s eyes followed my every motion.

Were they really not human? Not deserving of the same rights and protections spacers had on the ship? This was my chance to find out. But I couldn’t do what I was thinking, no matter how tempting he was. “Rest, for now.”

He bowed low, then went and stood against the wall by the door, his arms crossed over his chest, one hand still holding the hammer.

This was going to be a very long month.

Copyright © 2017 Cia; All Rights Reserved.
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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Cia
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7 hours ago, Puppilull said:

I'm guessing the sponsor will find out more than he bargained for during this month, making it really hard to give his champion back to storage. I picture a wild escape through space, proton torpedos and hiding in strange corners of the universe. ;)

 

Yes! Clearly there is a LOT going on behind the scenes, factors at odds and the potential for a lot of drama. I wanted to invoke the feeling of a big, omg, what's going to happen so much crazy since it's a well-known theme that people could extrapolate a future plot. It's one of the ways of making flash fiction work. Either invoke a large sense of time in the backstory (without writing it) or invoke a future plot they can easily imagine.

 

5 hours ago, northie said:

I'm with Puppilull - one space opera to follow.   :P

Mebbe! ;) Only your imagination (or mine, if I continue it) will know!

 

4 hours ago, Mikiesboy said:

Hehe.. this champion will be hard work, but that might be fun. Great flash!

"Hard" work. *snickers*

 

3 hours ago, Valkyrie said:

Sounds intriguing... I'm guessing the sponsor won't be able to resist doing some exploring of his own during that month. ;)  

Well, there's a moral element to it, of course, but that's just another aspect I wanted to add to create a multi-layered future plot for readers to imagine. Will he or won't he?

 

1 hour ago, BHopper2 said:

Wow! I like how you used the words I got. Fun little story, and now I want to know more!

I didn't want to go with the expected route and have the item rather than the person. This was a fun bit of fluff to write, so thanks for the inspiration!

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Cia
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5 hours ago, Lyssa said:

Interesting story. It creates a lot of questions in my mind. I want to read more!!!

That seems to be an issue I have. I make a lot of open-ended flash pieces that can be expanded. Good way to handle plot bunnies, I guess, lol.

 

1 hour ago, Ron said:

Funny, you'd think there'd be a champion handbook: "Champion care - 101."; "What are a champions limits?"; and the always important chapter, "Host restrictions, what are they?"

 

See, you did strike a reader's imagination, Cia.😉 I liked your short fiction, a lot!

Thank you, Ron! I'm sure my character did know more about the champion process, but that word count really hampered me for sharing it. Definitely something fun that could be added if I expand it.

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ghanbrews

 I could already see this turning into a big awesome story I'd really love to read. Maybe someday? :P

But it worked awesomely on it own too. I might try to use this method of getting rid of plot bunnies (never heard this expression before and it is so necessary! Now I can name this thing)

 And I really liked the ethical dilemma you implied. The artificial being theme and all the complications it entails is always so much interesting.

 

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2 hours ago, Headstall said:

In true Cia fashion you peeled my confusion away, got me to chuckle and to laugh, and to want more. Where can I get a champion... I don't care if they're not all that smart... if he can follow me with his eyes, he can learn :P . Well done, and I'm not kidding... I would like some more... at least a month's worth... cheers... Gary....

:D Yay! I'm glad you liked it, Gary. I'd love to write more... just find me a few more hours in the day. Alas, sleep is still necessary.

 

2 hours ago, Defiance19 said:

No doubt the sponsor will have a chance to answer those troubling questions, but I wonder if the champion has curiosities of his own. I mean this could be the one champion who isn't as a unaware as they think!

There's always the need for more, but it was a great flash Cia! 

 

Yes! He has a good amount of time, but what will he find out? Will it be what he wants to know? The reassurance that the champions are sub-human and not being subjugated or that they are and he has a chance to help them? Thanks, Defiance!

 

2 hours ago, ghanbrews said:

 I could already see this turning into a big awesome story I'd really love to read. Maybe someday? :P

But it worked awesomely on it own too. I might try to use this method of getting rid of plot bunnies (never heard this expression before and it is so necessary! Now I can name this thing)

 And I really liked the ethical dilemma you implied. The artificial being theme and all the complications it entails is always so much interesting.

 

Thank you, ghanbrews! Yes, I like the them, and it can be a fun element when it's used in a futuristic story because there are so many different ways science and technology can go--but the issue of ethics and morality must be examined at the same time. Advancements aren't always used for the good of all.

 

1 hour ago, Drew Espinosa said:

Bravo Cia! :D I too am curious to see how the following month unfolds!

Thank you, Drew! I'm trying to make sure we all have lots of fun and encourage people to write and try new things. Plus, it's great to get a group of people encouraging each other like this.

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Cia
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On ‎6‎/‎5‎/‎2017 at 9:38 AM, aditus said:

Wow! Questions exploded in my head! What games? Not smart? Doesn't he have to strategize? Is it/he a golem? A cyborg? Bribe? Okay, I stop here. Great piece, Cia. Inspiring.

Thank you! I left a LOT unsaid, but that's the name of the game with flash fiction. There is a lot left to the reader's imagination.

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Cia
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16 hours ago, comicfan said:

So the poor Champion has been in a few fights and won. Seems his sponsor is responsible for everything. The sponsor dresses him, arms him, and prepares him for a month. Add it that he reminds me of the 80''s song, I like them big and stupid, and it makes you hope that the champ will turn out to be so much more. Interesting world you are building. Hope for more.

LOL, Thanks. Big & stupid... or maybe big & very, very smart... enough to play stupid? Hmm....

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