Speedwriting Prompts
Author's Notes: Sole blame for this can be laid at the feet of Exactlywhat, who dared me to get one of these Speedwriting Prompts that she loves so much done. Much for my sense of accomplishment, I got my first done in a third of the allowed time. All of them are short, so they are in the same chapter and merely separated by prompt/title.
With the latter two stories, I actually fudged on the time limit a bit, but ::Ahem:: I lost track of time and forgot about them. ::Blushes:: Oops. The actual writing was done in half or less of the time allowed.
I do not know if I will do more writing in this fashion, but if I do, I will add them in another chapter.
Thanks to Exactlywhat for betaing!
OoOoO
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers.
OoOoO
Title: Stopped
Continuity: Bayverse/Movie-verse
Prompt: Digital Divide
Tripping her way down the hallway, the girl determinedly headed for one particular area. For as long as she could recall, she had been expressly forbidden from entering it. Although, she considered bitterly, it's not like I can remember much.
Upon hearing a noise up ahead, she quickly ducked under a convenient table and desperately pressed herself against the wall. Lady Luck smiled, and the echoing footsteps passed the hider by with nary a sign of her existence. Breathing a sigh of relief, she continued down the enormous corridor, goal at hand.
A single finger slammed down in front of her. "Where do you think you're going?" a raspy, threatening voice growled.
Heart pounding in her chest, mouth dry with the dread of getting caught, the girl slowly raised her head to face the owner of the digit blocking her path.
Annabelle pouted at her guardian. "Ironhide!" she complained. "I was doing something!"
Decidedly un-amused and unaffected, Ironhide glared back down at her. "Annabelle, you are aware that you are not allowed back there."
"But I wanna!" she whined, tired of being continuously thwarted.
"That is unfortunate, but you will follow our rules from now on if you want to keep coming here. They are only to keep you safe."
With a heavy sigh, Annabelle finally acquiesced to the grown-ups' decision. She stared up at her honorary uncle with big, pleading eyes before answering him. "Fine, but I want you to pick me up. And I want ice cream!"
With a short, gravelly chuckle, Ironhide gently stretched forth his hand. "I think I we can do that."
Clambering onto his palm, Annabelle happily gave one of his fingers a kiss. As he carried her swiftly through those same halls, she finally let go of her hope of slipping into that room. At least she was getting ice cream!
OoOoO
Title: Personification
Continuity: G1
Prompt - Task: tell a story from the perspective of a non-sentient object
Waiting to be used, I hopefully scanned the surrounding area. No big surprises; no scary creatures wishing to drag me into dark corners, no one coming to put me to a task, nothing. With an internal sigh, I continued my vigil and allowed my thoughts to drift. Although I knew not why, my use had drastically fallen over the past few days. This had happened before, and I wish that I knew the secret to my cycle of work periods.
Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice roaring. My favorite person! He has shown up again! Lo and behold, the shouting drew nearer, and I found myself held in a secure grip. Almost quivering with anticipation, I eagerly awaited for my favorite part of this routine.
The shouting finally reached a crescendo, and I was flung halfway across the room and slammed into a red helm. As I fell to the floor with a clatter, I contentedly thought to myself, This is the life, my boy.
Distantly, I realized that the red one had fallen to the ground beside me. My favorite person reached down and delicately picked me back up before hissing at his prone patient. "And maybe next time, Sideswipe," my bearer ground out, slapping me threateningly against his palm, "you will think before you need me to reattach your servo!"
Turning from him, my bearer stalked away from the idiot on the ground as I snuggled into his palm. He had returned and still had use of me; all was right in my world.
OoOoO
Title: How to Take Over the World – The Fun Way
Continuity: G1
Prompt: Corrupted
Sparkplug wandered along the halls of the annual Gun and Knife Show in a not-quite bored state of mind. Several of the Autobots, namely Jazz, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Bluestreak, and Ironhide had wanted to go, and had brought Sparkplug on his request, although not necessarily his wish. Unknown to most of their group, Prowl had discreetly requested the mature, responsible human accompany the mechs, in case of the disturbingly likely scenario that someone would become trigger-happy. Apparently, most of them had the little quirk of becoming extremely excited around guns, and accidentally slaughtering a bunch of humans would be horrible public relations. So Sparkplug went, and found himself steadily zoning out.
Aimlessly, he glanced around for a quick head count. Awareness snapped back into place immediately. Jogging over to Sideswipe, he carefully whacked the mech on the leg. "Sideswipe, where did Jazz go?"
"Huh?" the frontliner responded elegantly, peering down at the much-smaller human. "Oh, Jazz! He heard music thataway and vanished."
"Thanks." Sparkplug turned towards the direction indicated before changing his mind and halting next to the only mech who appeared as uninterested as himself. "Sunstreaker?"
"What?" snapped an instant response back.
Ignoring the testiness, the human quickly requested, "Could you please make sure that everyone else keeps their guns put away and doesn't get into trouble?"
Sunstreaker eyed the smaller being before nodding. "I will. Good luck with Jazz."
Grinning ruefully, Sparkplug nodded. "Thank you, I might need it." With that, he trotted off to find the wayward saboteur.
OoOoO
Sparkplug stared at the scene. Apparently, there was a part of the expo that catered to guns, blasters, phasers, etc. from various science fiction series. Today, it was hosting a singer who was enthralling Jazz with her ideas, wonderful music, and favorite series. And he wouldn't leave. Desperately, Sparkplug tried to finagle Jazz back to the rest of the group. The Autobot affiliate realized the potential for madness and sheer chaos that was bubbling in front of him, and he tried. Heaven knows he tried, but in the end, Sparkplug just stood back and watched. God preserve us, he thought in bemused horror. They're corrupting Jazz. I don't know exactly how, but the world as we know it is going to end.
And it did. Leslie Fish's song became the number one hit in America as thousands of Autobot fans followed Jazz into the comforting abyss of Filk.
OoOoO
Title: Homonym Problems
Continuity: G1
Prompt - Setting: a waiting room
Ratchet gaped at the entrance room to his medbay, optic ridge beginning to twitch. Impossibly, the room had flooded. Water covered almost ninety-five percent of the floor, and kiddie toys floated on the surface. As Ratchet slowly took in the new route to his medbay, the sight of a pink bottle of sunscreen sitting on a small table finally compelled him to speak.
"Why," he asked in no more than a whisper, "is this room filled with water?"
Standing beside him, optics wide as dinner plates, Hound quietly answered, "Sideswipe was complaining about this earlier. Apparently, this room lacked the proper qualities of a wading room."
With a violent flinch, Ratchet carefully double-checked Hound's statement. "You did just say wading room as opposed to the normal way of saying waiting room, right?"
Carefully backing away from the spasming medic, Hound simply replied, "Yes."
"Ah." Ratchet merely went back to surveying the room for another minute.
"SIIIIDESWIIIIIIPE!"
A furious bellow swept through the Ark a moment later, and showed that all's rarely quiet on the Arken front.
OoOoO
Author's Notes 2: Okay, quick things about each short.
Annabelle is probably about four at that time; old enough to plot, not experienced enough to do well. According to Dictionary-dot-com, 'digital' means:of or pertaining to a digit or finger; or resembling a digit or finger.
Honestly, the creatures I was thinking of were Ravage and Steeljaw. It's neither logical nor fair, but my cats are constantly grabbing things and dragging them all over the house. "This is the life, [Henry] my boy" is honouring a short story that I liked in elementary school. That's pretty much all I remember from it though. And yes, if you can't tell, that short is from the PoV of one of Ratchet's wrenches.
Leslie Fish is an amazing Filker and a firm believer of gun rights, although it is not necessarily her in this story. For a great example, check out her song "Flight 93" on Youtube. I have never been to a gun and knife show (although I really should go), and totally made up everything there, especially the sci-fi booth. For the reason Sunstreaker was bored: Ironhide and Bluestreak like guns; Jazz and Sideswipe like chaos. Sunstreaker is just there because of Sideswipe, not because of a particular like.
Finally, there was no particular reason that I made that reference to "All's Quiet on the Western Front." I just wanted to.