Zeus Pamplemousse Snickered
Neither of us is super into the holidays, but there are some traditions we enjoy. Chief among them is our annual display of stichomaniacal festivity. Instead of using our snazzy writing prompt generator (like we do every week), at this time of year we choose a seasonally appropriate source for our prompt phrases. In the past we’ve drawn quotes from our favorite holiday movies and lyrics from carols. This year we found a nigh-inexhaustible list of Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies and pulled some amusing snippets from the synopses. It’s fun to imagine all of these crammed into one mega-movie. As always, Jen goes first. She’ll write until she incorporates the first prompt phrase, then turn the keyboard over to Kent. We’ll trade back and forth until we’re done. Wish us luck!
- rambunctious corgi in need of some serious training
- brilliant, competitive crossword puzzle-solving biology teacher
- misunderstood grouch just may steal her heart
- Mother’s former candle-making cottage
- butting heads over more than just architecture
- annual Christmas Eve courtroom production
- quit her job as a rocket engineer
- undercover as the royal nanny
- create a tuxedo for one of the city’s most eligible bachelors
- single and ready to jingle
Tune in next time part 759 & 760 Click Here for Earlier Installments
Zeus Pamplemousse snickered. “The only celebrities in Moonopolis are robots, of course. The most famous amongst all the bots is a rambunctious corgi in need of some serious training, and we all know the word I want to hear doesn’t rhyme with K-9. You fool.”
Were I the star of a 1970s-era show about a brilliant, competitive crossword puzzle-solving biology teacher who foils criminals on weekends, the writers would have supplied me with the perfect line in response. But I was on my own. And I was freaking out, my mind spinning worst-case-scenarios about Tessa and Zeus. He’s a king and I am merely a general. If I fail to say the word, the misunderstood grouch just may steal her heart! I’d end up like all the former ambassadors and attaches living now in exile in Mother’s former candle-making cottage. No! That was not how this would end. I drew in a deep breath. “Zeus,” I began, keeping my eye on Tessa in hopes she would signal me if I got close to the correct word. “I know full well that the word does not rhyme with K-9, just as you know full well that I know full well it does not. This is no trifling matter. You and I are butting heads over more than just architecture, we are matching wits over the heart of the most magnificent woman in the world.”
Tessa’s eyes sparkled at my compliment, and she fluttered her lashes. For a moment it seemed like she was blinking in Morse code, but no Academy alumna would ever resort to such a basic scheme. Unless she knew that Zeus didn’t know Morse code, being too busy with lunar affairs of state like the annual Christmas Eve courtroom production of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer to ever bother learning it. If it was Morse code, then the first letter was a D, followed by O, N…
T, F, O, R. G, E, T… the letters were coming quickly now… T,O, D, R, I, N, K…
Tessa always was a jokester. In fact she quit her job as a rocket engineer to concentrate on her standup routine wherein she does all her bits in character as a spy who went undercover as the royal nanny but was found out because she pilfered all of the linens in the castle to create a tuxedo for one of the city’s most eligible bachelors, which wasn’t part of her nanny duties.
In any case, she was clearly not going to help me help her out of her current peccadillo. Did she want to join the harem of the Moon King? Had she tired of being single and ready to jingle?
bonus points for using them in order