Cohost Sapphic September 2024 writing prompt: 14 — Girls who are comical
Three mech pilots sit in shelled-out no man’s land, huddled around a fire in an empty ammo bin as the first few flakes of snow tentatively drop from a sky as dark as blued steel.
Only a few hours ago, the horizon was still strobed with the red pillars of launch and counterlaunch. Now there’s only radio static and waiting for the mop-up, finding out who got hired by the eventual winners and who’s getting stiffed on the campaign’s final pay.
“Tragedy plus time,” one says, poking the fire with a damp stick. She gestures around aimlessly. “Big laugh, one day,” she adds dryly.
“Tragedy’s when I stub my toe;” says the second. “Comedy’s when you fall down a manhole cover and die.”
“Big laugh already, then,” the first says.
“Ha,” the second says heavily.
The third pilot prods at the swollen gel medipacks stuffed under her shirt, blinking lights and ocasionally softly bleeping. She blinks dopily, her pupils medicated black holes.
“Comedy’s when someone gets beaned in the head with a big wacky wobbly dildo,” she says, very seriously.
“God,” the first pilot says, casting her eyes up to a scorched and indifferent heaven. “God. How am I supposed to not fuck this idiot?”
“You should probably wait at least until her ribs knit,” the second one says, amused. “Also, y’know, from her suit patches she’s on the OPFOR—”
“Details,” the first says airily, poking the fire.
