Disgruntled
A Jurassic Park Fan-Fiction by Sassy Lil Scorpio
Title: Disgruntled
Fandom: Jurassic Park
Character: Dennis Nedry
Theme Set: Epsilon
Disclaimer: Dennis Nedry, Lewis Dodgson, John Hammond, and all other names mentioned in this writing are the property of Michael Crichton. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Notes: 50 Sentences based on 1 character is a Live Journal (LJ) community. I chose Dennis Nedry, since he's my all-time favorite JP character. The sentences written to the single-word prompts are mostly inspired by the book, although some parts of the movie shine through. I feel the movie didn't show enough reasons or at least, didn't adequately explain why Nedry betrayed Hammond, although it was present with the brief "financial debate" between both characters and also when Nedry told Dodgson not to get cheap with him. This is the first non-AU (alternate universe) I've written for JP. I always have Nedry alive and breathing in my other stories, but for once, I remained faithful to the canon. Using one word prompts, I wanted to explore Nedry's character, how he felt towards Dodgson, Hammond, and the park staff, and what it meant for him to be a disgruntled employee.
Some sentences may come off as run-ons and I might have some comma-splicing—I did my best to proofread for that. This form of fan-fic is harder than it appears, especially when you come across a word and don't know how to relate it to the character you're writing about. I highly recommend this exercise—it's a good break from longer fics and allows you to delve into one character's mind and experiences by writing one sentence a piece.
If anyone is interested in writing something similar to this, based on your favorite JP character(s), I will post the URL in the JP forum that I mod, so that you can claim your character and write your own fifty sentences. Enjoy!
Thank you, Digital Tempest for your suggestions on some of the words that had me stumped.
01. Hood
He felt relieved and even a twinge of security as he neared the hood of the jeep—until he saw the dinosaur standing there, as if waiting patiently for him.
02. Buzz
Whenever the door to the control room buzzed open, Nedry never turned around to see who entered—most times it was John Hammond coming in to complain about the errors in the systems; the old son of a bitch was never pleased with his efforts.
03. Wish
In the last seconds of his life with his head in the dilophosaur's jaws, its razor-sharp teeth ripping his skin, Nedry made his final wish—he wished for his death to come quickly, so that the intense pain would end.
04. Seasons
He hated Isla Nublar with its constant sweltering heat; he preferred Cambridge Massachusetts since they had four seasons, including his favorite: winter.
05. Threat
Hammond was blissfully ignorant of the grave threat facing his company; it never occurred to him that a disgruntled employee named Dennis Nedry would betray him, and in doing so, destroy his dreams.
06. Portrait
Nedry sneered when he had first entered Hammond's quaint bungalow to discuss the Jurassic Park project—Hammond couldn't get enough of himself, the lousy bastard had a huge self-portrait hanging on the far wall.
07. Loud
Henry Wu's expertise on genetics was totally unnecessary, considering that Nedry's arguments with Hammond involving his contract were loud enough to resurrect dinosaurs back from the dead.
08. Energy
He's had one energy drink too many, Nedry thought, while watching Dodgson's excitement erupt from discovering he could defeat Jurassic Park security.
09. Purge
If there was a way to purge the painful spit from his eyes, Nedry would've used it—but he didn't know about the anti-venin placed all around the park in case of emergencies.
10. Mouse
Nedry felt like shoving a computer mouse down Muldoon's throat whenever he bitched about the raptors and how they should all be destroyed.
11. Attic
His first love, an Apple II microcomputer designed circa 1977, was still in the attic at his parents' house, collecting dust; he refused to part with it.
12. Second-Rate
What annoyed Nedry most; was that Hammond boasted of his brilliance, yet paid and treated him like a second-rate system analyst.
13. Dash
He didn't expect to get lost, that wasn't part of the plan; he was supposed to dash in and out of the park and return to the control room before anyone noticed he was missing.
14. Attitude
As much as Dodgson hated his arrogance, he put up with Nedry's sour attitude since he was the only one who could defeat Jurassic Park security and steal the embryos he wanted.
15. Wisdom
To Nedry, wisdom was wasted on fools and got you no financial success in the corporate world.
16. Sight
Until he lost it, Nedry didn't realize how precious and important his sense of sight was.
17. Address
He glanced at the address Dodgson had sent him: Carlos and Charlie's in Silicon Valley; Dodgson was always choosing that restaurant for them to hold secret meetings; Nedry didn't care as long as he paid the bill.
18. Minute
Nedry could type over one hundred words per minute—and in that small span of time, he could override Jurassic Park security if he wanted.
19. Cotton
Nedry acted like he had cotton stuffed in his ears whenever Hammond ranted about if he had done things right the first time, everything would be perfect.
20. Claw
The dilophosaur finished him off by clawing at his intestines; pulling and picking at them, drawing them out of his body, so that by the time he was totally disemboweled, the final curtain of blackness swept over him and mercifully it was over.
21. Limit
He had no limit as to what he would do to get his revenge on Hammond; after all, the senile jerk had tried to blackmail him and ruin his reputation and career.
22. Unique
Nedry often thought of himself as unique: he was an incredibly gifted system analyst, who had previously worked on huge systems and communication projects, and now he was asked to design a system database with nearly three billion records; if anything, it showed that intelligent workers, like him, were hard to come by and that Hammond should be more appreciative of his talents.
23. Gravity
The gravity of the situation facing the park fell into Arnold's shoulders when he realized that Nedry wasn't coming back to restore the power.
24. Yesterday
Yesterday, he had received a phone call from a former client; the man on the other line told him that he had received a letter stating that Nedry was unreliable and as a result, he would refuse his computer services and expertise in the future—Nedry had grinned while he listened—it was only a matter of time before he served Hammond his just deserts for screwing him over.
25. Jungle
He broke down in hysterical laughter when Hammond first invited him to the island—why in the world would they need computer technology in the middle of the jungle?
26. Garden
Nedry was flabbergasted when Hammond asked him to maintain the tiny garden behind the visitor center—why did he always think he could keep piling tasks on Nedry and not compensate him for it?
27. Question
Those were the only questions he wanted to ask Dodgson: how would he transport the embryos and where was his money?
28. Text
Computer text was difficult to read—the codes were like hieroglyphics to the untrained eye, but Nedry knew it as if he had been born reading it.
29. Plastic
Stressed out from the Jurassic Park project, Nedry kept chewing on the plastic pen caps littered around his workstation.
30. Block
I'm not hearing you, Nedry thought while Hammond griped about the system he designed; it was fun to block him out, and it was the only thing that kept his sanity intact.
31. Escort
When Dodgson had first escorted him out of his personal office in Biosyn's headquarters, he had put his arm around Nedry's shoulder as if to say—hey, we're buddies, no need to be nervous—Nedry had shoved his arm off, making it clear they weren't friends.
32. Insult
Slob. Did they really think he didn't hear all the insults they had for him?
33. Blood
When the dilophosaur tore him open, he smelled an odd coppery scent in the air mixing with the damp fishy smell of tropical rain, and he realized that it was his own blood gushing from his abdomen.
34. Gold
Gold was Nedry's favorite color, right next to mint-green, since both represented wealth and money.
35. Spot
If the rest of the InGen staff—Ray Arnold, Henry Wu, Robert Muldoon, and Gerry Harding were loyal and trustworthy employees, then Dennis Nedry represented the blemish and dirty spot on the team.
36. Melt
Dodgson was naturally charismatic: he melted Nedry's skepticism from the moment they first met and dissolved any second thoughts Nedry may have had about turning his back on InGen.
37. Guilt
Nedry never felt an ounce of guilt from the time he accepted Lewis Dodgson's offer to the actual moment when he stole the embryos in the fertilization lab.
38. Duel
Nedry's verbal duels against Hammond were legendary, he always made sarcastic remarks that infuriated the eccentric billionaire, and because of that, no one on staff ever got into a fight with him since they knew it was a losing battle.
39. Stranger
By the time of the park inspection, he had become a stranger to the park staff; he overheard Arnold tell Wu that Nedry barely spoke to anyone now and treated everyone like they were strangers and not co-workers.
40. Wait
He couldn't wait until Sunday to get the rest of his cash; Dodgson promised it'd be waiting for him.
41. Glow
He had spent many nights wide awake in the control room with Arnold during the building of the park with the glow of the computer monitors as their only light source.
42. Action
Nedry hated the thought of being stuck on the island for the weekend to fix the bugs (that he deliberately programmed into the system); he knew it would be a total bore unless one of the lizards escape from its paddock—then he'd see some action.
43. Chain
Nedry never intended it, but he inadvertently set off a chain reaction that in its wake would leave him and several others dead, including the boss he hated working for—John Hammond.
44. Bitter
Dodgson had found Nedry in a very bitter state and had promised to make everything better for him—if he was willing to steal for Biosyn.
45. Lock
Nedry thought it was hilarious how he could lock everyone out of the system, (including Arnold) and no one ever stopped to think it was an actual program code designed to do exactly that.
46. Order
With a mere touch of his fingers, he had the power to restore order to the park's security systems—and he had the power to throw everything out of order.
47. Friends
Nedry had no friends on the InGen staff and he was totally fine with that; he didn't want to share his wealth with a friend or fear being ratted out by a so-called 'friend', that's when he learned that being a traitor left him friendless.
48. Prison
It never occurred to Dennis Nedry how much prison time he could get for partaking in industrial espionage and computer fraud; failure or consequences of his actions weren't mere possibilities—they simply didn't exist in his mind.
49. Journal
Dodgson had actually suggested that he keep a journal—what the hell for? Nedry had asked and Dodgson never brought it up again.
50. Zero
Nedry had counted down the seconds, starting from sixty, before leaving the control room under the excuse that he wanted to get a Coke; when he reached zero, he knew it was time to make his move.
