The assignment: Write a short description about a person without using ANY ADVERBS OR ADJECTIVES. Holy crap. Here's mine:

He breathed, the smoke of his breath billowing in the air. The line of his shirt puckered as he pulled at it, raising the cigarette to his lips one more time. His hands shook, the paint of his nails flashing like a discoball. There was only darkness in his eyes; the lighting took away any color that might have been there in daylight.

“Nervous?” I asked, watching the quivering of his body with interest.

He just glared at me, nothing in his black-hole eyes.

“Relax; it’s no big deal.”

“For you maybe.” His voice rolled through the night, scratching against my ears like sandpaper. He’d been smoking for years and he sounded like it, his words rasping through the night. But I cherished that voice.

I couldn’t help myself.

He waved his cigarette like a banner, glowing in the dark. The flame kissed the very edge of his face with orange; his nerves vibrated with tension.

There was blue across both his eyelids, some kind of rebellion etched out in a line. I wondered at that, but like everything else about him, this was a mystery.

His jeans hugged his hips, flaring at the bottom just a touch. The gaps in his clothes displayed tattoo lines, marring the perfection of his skin. He huddled in his layers, the scarf wrapped around his neck. The thinness of his body frightened me sometimes; I didn’t want to think of how little he ate, how much he drank, smoked.

I knew how he faired in the cold.

:mina: