Well, here's the challenge: write a dark-fic without 
a Talking Heads song, er, without Sax and Violins, er, I mean
without sex and or extreme gore/violence/death.

And just to show that it can be done, here's my entry...:

(Ranma & co. are the creations of Rumiko Takahashi, and are used
without her permission, express or implied.)

				It's Dark


It was dark. More than just dark, really. The room was filled with
the kind of inky blackness that can only come from black ink. Trust
me, I know these things. I'm a printer. Work with paper and ink and
stuff. When I'm not a student, that is. 
	Where was I? Oh yeah. I'm a printer. I know about ink, and how
it gets all over you sometimes when you're in the units and you actually
have to scrape it off you before you wash it off with varsol and then 
wash that off with a mixture of liquid soap and some form of gritty
substance that once was pumice but they changed soap suppliers. Yeah,
and I know about sucking in fumes from work and stuff, my body
absorbing chemicals and whatnot all freakin' day long and God! I hate
my job. 
	Suffice it to say, I know whereof I speak when I say inky blackness.
	So, it was pretty friggin' dark in the dojo when a voice was heard.

"What just happened?"

"I dunno."

"Ranma! You're stepping on my foot!"

"S'not me, Akane, I'm over here at the other end of the dojo."

"Shampoo! I love you!"

"Grrr, I'm not Shampoo you idiot!"

"Oh, sorry Akane. Then it's probably me stepping on your foot."

"Oh, Ranma! You so naughty, what you do to me! What if lights come on
and others see?"

"Ranma! How dare you defile my dear Shampoo like that?"

"Ranma! You pervert!"

"She's lyin'! She's lyin'! I ain't even near Shampoo! Can't you hear
my voice is comin' from a different area?"

"Storm musta knocked out the power or something. Anyone want to go check?"

"You should go, Ranma! It's your fault we're all in here, anyway!"

"Hey! I ain't goin' out inta the rain, Ryouga! I cin wait it out just fine
in here. Why don't you go, if you're so scared of the dark?"

"Why you--! I'll kill you Ranma!"

"'I'll kill you Ranma! I'll kill you Ranma!' Always the same line, porky.
Don't it ever get tired?"

There are a few sounds of someone going into a fit of near apoplectic fury,
and some additional scuffling sounds.

"Ow!"

"Hey! Watch it there!"

"The Blue Thunder shall not allow any man to touch his person that way, oaf!"

"Oaf, am I? Well, Oaf this! Hiyaaah!"

If this were an episode of the old sixties Batman show, there'd be a lot
of action sounds like "Biff!" and "Sock!!!!" and "Kapow!" followed by too
many exclamation marks, but it isn't (although I tried to get Adam West to
do a special appearance, but it was a no-go). Besides, even if it was
it would really be too dark to see the action ballons, anyway. They
probably would have been covered up by the inky blackness (and if you think
I'm going to clean that up with an ink knife, you just think again! I'm not
at work now, and besides, there's other, newer people there that I can
bully, I mean order, I mean, ask to do that, anyway. Did I mention I really
hate that job?).

"Hey! I think I the fuse box! Feels like someone just threw a switch and
turned the power off in here. All I have to do is--"

"Way to go, Ucchan!"

"Let there be--"

--The End--

Author's notes: In case you hadn't guessed, I got the idea at work. Hey!
You can't tell me it's not a darkfic! (well, okay, you could, but you
wouldn't be telling the truth). And there's absolutely no gore, no sex (or
abuse) in it! Challenge laid out and participated in! ^_^
(Excuse me while I go to sleep now, something I should have done several
hours ago, actually)

Matthew "Maybeso" Lewis is:
Maybeso (or possibly Definitelyso)on IRC
Sojiro_Seta on Kawaiimuck
Member of:
FFML, FFIRCML, El Hazard ML
	maybeso@ican.net
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For the cleanest shave, use Occam's Razor!
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