Drabblecast 147 - Cassie

[Kevin Anderson]

Drabble- Time Machine
by Christopher K. Monroe

Cassie
by Tim Pratt

The other gamblers ignored her. They were a mixed bunch-- middle aged men in ties and shiny suits, women in evening gowns, young men with gleaming teeth and haunted expressions. Roulette was a sucker’s game. Unless you were Cassie...


Music by Gringo Motel
Art by Philip Pomphrey

[Beth Peters]

I think I peed my pants a little during that fake rpg promo.
just checked. yep.
great, thanks a lot Norm.
That was a cute little story and left me feeling warm and fuzzy inside. The warm might have been due to the pee, but the fuzzy was definitely Pratt all the way. Great job by Abbi and Mur too. Good to have a ladies-night Drabblecast episode every now and then.

[ROU Killing Time]

Another top-notch episode where the intro upstages the main features. As a WoW player, I was quite literally wiping tears from my eyes and dodging the beanie babies my wife was tossing at my headphone festooned noggin to get me to stop laughing. If this whole drabblecast thing doesn't work out, Norm, you have a great future writing cinematic soundtracks for Blizzard corporation.

Grats to Munsi on the drabble. When I first read it on the forum I could hear Norm's voice in my head, and my prophetic abilities assured me that this would be appearing on the show. (Note the clever thematically related reference in this comment...)

As for the main feature, Mr.Pratt's stuff is always good. A well-written piece on well-worn subject matter. Great guest appearances from two of my favorite feminine podcasters. I hadn't heard that Mur went to #1 on Amazon with "Playing for Keeps." Well-deserved success and proof that great things can arise from the grassroots of the internet publishing world.

[munsi]

i really enjoyed the episode. odd that the one i appear in should have a main fiction set in a casino and come out 3 weeks before my trip to vegas, seems portentious. i'm a sucker for mythic tales reimagined, and love the "story as argument over the nature of free will/destiny" aspect here. it really managed to push all the appropriate buttons for me, bravo!

oh, and i laughed my head off at the paper/rock/scissors article. on a public bus. very embarassing.

[the mighty twix]

Although the story did seem a bit slow, the narration was great, and the point is one that we all need to hear every so often. That we can become trapped in what we believe to be our fate, and we have no control over what we do with our lives. We all need someone to kick over our crap tables once in a while, though in the story I thought it would have been funny if the ball had rolled across the floor onto say a calendar, day 17 of course...

And the RPS was to die for... I almost fell off the treadmill.

[moonowl]

The intro really outdid the main piece. Perhaps the segway from something LOL funny to a slower paced and relativity serious story about fate threw me off. The main story seemed flat and dare I say for Pratt, forgettable. (Sorry Tim)

[tbaker2500]

I find it interesting that I start sending episodes to friends for the intros. Main story is optional.

Good job to Abbie and Mur. Abbie did a very good job sounding smug and superior, Mur sounding powerful but tired.

The main story was good. It lacked the signature Drabblecast twist, but that's okay.

I hate to say it, but I didn't understand the Twabble. Who's he putting makeup on? Is it a transference of mind?

[moonowl]

I hate to say it, but I didn't understand the Twabble. Who's he putting makeup on? Is it a transference of mind?

I took it as he was looking into his shaving mirror and putting lipstick on himself. He's going to become 'his wife' to prove her wrong.

[themorg]

the premise of the main story bothered me. Cassie must be really stupid because there was never a time in 2000+ years that she figured that the future was what you make of it. Tim Pratt won on this one because he got paid for not that good of fiction. Or was that the free one you get every now and again with the punch card when you remember it. yea i just deleted it off my hard drive.

[themorg]

I did just post a review on Itunes giving the Drabble cast as glowing a review as i know how to. (previous post excluded)

[alhilton]

This story was kind of simplistic, but I have a soft spot for Cassandra stories ever since I realized (while reading the Agamemnon in college) that she was the prototype for Fiver (having loved Watership Down as a child). Does anyone in Greek mythology ever really learn?

Tom - I didn't get the Twabble either when it posted on Twitter. This time, I noticed the title and finally got it.

Abbie did a very good job sounding smug and superior

*preens*

[Praxis]

I agreed with others about the twabble, though it maybe wasn't the easiest story to figure out when you are walking along a busy street and are easily distracted. At one point I thought he was standing behind his wife and putting lipstick on her as they both look in the mirror (not strange enough) or that his wife's face was actually on the mirror (too damn strange and creepy).
I'd go with the 'guy cracking up, making himself up into his own wife'

In the 'Cassie' story, I took her lack of realisation that she could change the future to be because, in all the times she had seen the future coming, she had tried to warn others....but to no avail. As was her curse (to see the future but never be believed/understood). And rather than pointlessly drive herself mad trying to get her message across, she leaves the world to itself.
But, if she takes action herself and does something different.....it might just work, if she pushes hard enough.

Not a complicated story as others have said but, like a lot of Tim Pratt stories, at the end I wanted to hear more about the characters and what they'd get up to.

[Richmazzer]

I'm with Praxis (cool art by the way, colloseum/roulette table was neat idea.) This story wasn't a heavy-hitter like Pratt's previous stories on the show have been, but it did draw me in, was well read by mur,norm andabbi and was enjoyable. I felt my eyes almost watering up a little at the very sweet ending.

Wow, was rock/paper/scissors really legally contractual in england? Is it still?
Was great to have drabble news back, it's been a while. RPS the RPG was beyond hilarious. "We have always chosen Rock, it is the way of our kind! What the halfling speaks is heresy!"

[dreamrock]

I interpreted the twabble as the husband borrowing the wife's body. On one hand, it's really creepy. On the other hand, I'm not sure if we're supposed to interpret the story as "omg he's creepy and he's going to find out that it's harder than it looks," or "omg he's creepy ... creepy creepface."

I loved the drabble when it came up in the forum, and I really loved it in audio form.

Not a big fan of the main story. Mur and A. Hilton (sorry, I'd rather initial than completely butcher your first name, alhilton), and Norm did a phenomenal job with the audio, but the story itself did nothing for me. It's not Tim's fault. I loved his Bone Sigh. I just really can't get into greco-roman mythology. Give me the Aesir and Vanir any day of the week. Ditto for Egyptian, Summerian, Mezoamerican, and Hindi mythology.

That said, the story did have one feature that I really loved: Cassandra learns that while no one believes her, that doesn't mean that she has no ability to change the future. In context, it's feminist (which I appreciate). Out of context, it's individualistic (which I also appreciate).

alhilton: I've read Watership dozens of times and didn't realize that. Of course, I don't follow that particular mythos. But it's definitely an interesting revelation.

[Phenopath]

the premise of the main story bothered me. Cassie must be really stupid because there was never a time in 2000+ years that she figured that the future was what you make of it.

Agreed. Cassie is a plank, it is not surprising that nobody believed her.

I will not criticise the story though, whenever I do that the author shows up on the forums.

[F5iver]

she was the prototype for Fiver (having loved Watership Down as a child).

[alhilton]

A. Hilton (sorry, I'd rather initial than completely butcher your first name, alhilton)

It's Abbie. But I'm always startled when someone spells it right.

alhilton: I've read Watership dozens of times and didn't realize that. Of course, I don't follow that particular mythos. But it's definitely an interesting revelation.

One of the early chapter quotes is from the Agamemnon - when Fiver is trying to get everyone to listen to him and nobody will. I stumbled upon it in Ancient Classics and was like, "Oh! I recognize this! And now it makes sense!"

[alhilton]

she was the prototype for Fiver (having loved Watership Down as a child).

And Fiver is in turn a prototype for F5iver! Funny old world.

[dreamrock]

It's Abbie. But I'm always startled when someone spells it right.

Normally, I would have looked it up, but I'm extra cautious with my work-surfing.

And that of course reminds me that I need to figure out where I left off in The Prophet of Panamindorah.

[ROU Killing Time]

It's Abbie. But I'm always startled when someone spells it right.

Abbie Normal?