Category: Four Elements Prompts

Bellissima Pouted and Simpered

  1. by jenCharacter – supermodel
  2. Setting – elevator
  3. Object – library card
  4. Situation – hazing

Bellissima pouted and simpered and flirted with the overweight businessman she shared the elevator with. In practically no time he consented to hand over his library card. This part of the scavenger hunt was almost too easy. Bellissima knew that the rest of her hazing would be more difficult, but it would be worth it to join the elite Sisterhood of Supermodels. They got the best parking places.

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Olga Pouted

  1. k-avatarCharacter – supermodel
  2. Setting – gazebo
  3. Object – fountain pen
  4. Situation – the last bunch of bananas…

Olga pouted. She smiled, a bashful sidelong smirk accompanied by come-hither eyes. She licked her lips. Nothing was working.

“I just don’t see your need for the pen. Something’s missing.” The photographer looked around helplessly.

Olga ran her tongue over the fountain pen.

Gary was a temperamental perfectionist, but he never missed a shot.

“That’s fantastic. But they’ll never run it.” He reached behind him, groping around on the table. “I’ve got it. We need more bananas.”

Gary located one last bunch amid the decimated fruit baskets and cold-cut trays. He raced into the gazebo and meticulously positioned the bright yellow fruit atop the mound already there.

Olga pouted.

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Anna Switched Off the Rerun of Gilligan’s Island

  1. by jenCharacter – Anna Graham
  2. Setting – Gilligan’s Island
  3. Object – handgun
  4. Situation – attic full of surprises

Anna switched off the rerun of Gilligan’s Island and stood at the bottom of the stairs. From behind the closed attic door came an incessant whirring noise. What was Telly up to now?

“Hey, Anna,” he shouted down to her. “Come on up! I have something incredible to show you!”

Anna sighed. Telly was always convinced that his latest invention was going to solve all their financial problems, but so far he hadn’t gotten a single patent. Anna slowly climbed the 12 stairs and opened the door.

“Surprise!” Telly yelled. He flipped the lights off and on several times and beamed at her. He wore his ratty t-shirt with the picture of the hand gun on it, surrounded by all the roses.

“Yes?” she asked.

“This will put Telly Graham Labs on the map!” he said, waving some sketches at her.

Anna glanced at the papers, but could not decipher them.

“What is it?” she asked. “And what is that sound?”

“Oh, that’s the cold fusion reactor. I need to figure out a way to cut down on the noise before I market it. But look at this! This is it! We’ll be rich!”

“Telly, honey, I can’t understand it.”

“It’s an in-the-peel orange juicer! We’ll be rich!”

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Xavier Knew

  1. k-avatarCharacter – retired pearl diver
  2. Setting – dead end
  3. Object – Geiger counter
  4. Situation – obscene phone call

Xavier knew what few others even thought to suspect, things hidden in the inky depths of the sea. Forced into early retirement over the Bimini Road Incident, he scraped by on a consultant’s income, unable to line up a big score without drawing down the wrath of an international conspiracy bent on keeping the Deep Things forever secret.

And now he walked quickly, sure he was being tailed. Damn! If only he hadn’t agreed to make that one last dive. His shadows were cool, professional, relentless. And they could zero in on him wherever he went by following the clicking of a Geiger counter, which would betray his presence ever since he retrieved the launch codes from the crippled Trident sub.

He turned into an alley and jogged to the first bend. It dead-ended behind a dentist’s office. Peering back out to the street he saw the men seeking him with their electromagnetic bloodhound. They came into the alley, but slowed. Xavier held his breath. The waste disposal containers from the dentist were masking his own signal! If he just kept silent…

His phone rang — why didn’t he set it on vibrate? He instantly silenced it and hissed, “Hello?” into the mouthpiece.

“I’m calling for Mr. Hunt, first name Mike. Is he there?”

The situation was worse than Xavier had feared. It wasn’t the CIA or NSA tailing him. The obscene phone call was the signature motif of the Pearl Divers Union, local 308, and they frowned upon scab sinkers.

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“Welcome Back”

  1. by jenCharacter – inventor of the spank-o-matic
  2. Setting – the Ghost Planet
  3. Object – a single electron
  4. Situation – lost piece of jewelry

“Welcome back to Space Ghost Coast to Coast. I’m your host, Brak. Space Ghost is busy right now, so he can’t sit behind the desk.”

“He’s busy being spanked,” Zorak said. Then he laughed gratingly and blinked audibly. “Pa-dunk.”

Moltar pulled some levers and showed a replay of the first guest segment.

Space Ghost is heckling a nebbishy-looking guy about his invention, the Spank-O-Matic. Space Ghost cannot grasp the concept. The man, Phil, invites Space Ghost to try his invention and Space Ghost falls for it. Once Space Ghost is all strapped in, Phil removes his mask and reveals himself to be Zorak.

Canned laughter plays while Space Ghost is spanked.

Moltar pulled some more levers and showed Brak attempting to interview a single electron. The electron was getting the better of him.

Zorak ducked down inside his pod and popped back up holding an earring.

“Hey, Zorak,” said Moltar. “What’re you doing with Black Widow’s earring?”

“Umm. Err,” Zorak mumbled.

Canned laughter accompanied a knowing look between Brak and Moltar.

Zorak blushed.

Run credits.

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“No Pushing!”

  1. k-avatarCharacter – burned-out kindergarten teacher
  2. Setting – DMV
  3. Object – pile of sawdust
  4. Situation – lost a piece of jewelry

“No pushing! Remember our manners, children.”

The weary throng queueing for license and registration issues tried to ignore Cyril, just as they tried to ignore the shrill whine of saws and the incessant pounding of hammers. Tried and failed.

“This field trip will be over soon,” Cyril shouted. “Now, nobody is to leave this room until I say. There’s a little job I need to do over here, and I want everyone to just be still and use your inside voices.”

Cyril knelt next to the plastic sheeting marking the construction zone, frantically sifting through a pile of sawdust in search of the candy bracelet he didn’t remember eating during the first hour he’d stood in line.

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Hotel Room in Prague

Jen and Kent both took a stab at this prompt. Who do you think did a better job? Why?

  1. Character – the human fly
  2. Setting – hotel room in Prague
  3. Object – camcorder
  4. Situation – inventing something

k-avatar

Kent’s Take

Spike always loved climbing in the old cities, clambering over all the ornamental stonework and making faces at the other gargoyles.

But he mostly hated climbing hotels. Other buildings’ occupants could usually be counted on to be thoroughly sick of whatever sad excuse for a view lay beyond the window, but in hotels everyone is still getting used to the scenery. And paranoid as hell that some lunatic might come in over the ledge and do some hideous thing that the papers will hush up to protect tourism.

At the fifth floor of the Prague Hilton, Spike heard moaning. Slowly he pulled himself high enough to glance in. The first thing he saw was the camcorder on a tripod. The next thing took him some moments to comprehend. It was something that had never occurred to him, although it looked like fun.

He climbed on, secret witness to an invention of passion.

 

by jenJen’s Take

By Eastern European standards, the room was luxurious. By Misty’s Vegas standards it was merely not squalid. But it would do.

The light on the camcorder blinked steadily, letting Misty know that her every move was being recorded for later broadcast by Czech television.

Shifting her weight entirely to her left hand, Misty slowly, slowly lowered her knees toward the floor while pointing her toes toward the gilt ceiling and flourishing madly with her right hand.

The chandelier she hung from swayed slightly and Misty worked with the movement, augmenting it until she was swinging several inches in each direction. Her movements stabilized the arc, controlled it, and she was ready for the final motion, the twist that would make this move her own.

Taking a deep breath, Misty thrust her feet outward and her head down, while simultaneously rotating clockwise.

It was beautiful.

Prague would forever be known as the city where “The Nightingale” was invented.

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Well, Astrid Thought

  1. k-avatarCharacter – cancer patient
  2. Setting – airplane bathroom
  3. Object – bullwhip
  4. Situation – talent show of the damned

Well, Astrid thought, if this isn’t good enough for the top prize I’ll raise a grievance with the judges. She adjusted the flaps and prepared to reverse thrust. The 747 touched tarmac and majestically slowed until it taxied all the way into the hangar.

Only then did Astrid coil her bullwhip and emerge from the bathroom. She strode up the aisle into first class, where the judges sat, and took a bow to light applause.

I hope I place, she thought. Only the three best contestants get chemo.

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Cerise Surveyed the Interior of the Zeppelin Gondola

  1. by jenCharacter – ghost of a bartender
  2. Setting – zeppelin
  3. Object – used condom
  4. Situation – performance art

Cerise surveyed the interior of the zeppelin gondola with some amusement. This was going to be her best installation yet.

Of course, the zeppelin itself symbolized the hopes and wishes of an earlier, less ironically self-aware society. Once its interior was wallpapered with used condoms collected through a year’s worth of dumpster-diving and hard, artistic sex, it would sing. Cerise couldn’t wait to get started.

She hauled the crate of prophylactics up the stairs and set it heavily on the bar. She hoped she had enough staples in the staple gun.

“Remember not to puncture any of the reservoir tips,” she said to herself.

Her words echoed slightly before settling to the floor, and were replaced by a soft scuffing from behind the bar.

Mice would add a certain je ne sais quoi to the statement she was trying to express, so Cerise wasn’t too worried.

“What’ll it be, lady?” came a raspy whisper.

Cerise startled and then saw a vaporous human form behind the bar. He was dressed in a vest and bow-tie, with his shirtsleeves pushed up to his elbows. He shimmered and wavered as he went through the motions of polishing a glass.

“Damn!” said Cerise. “This completely overshadows the complex interplay of hope, death, globalism, and ecology I was going for!”

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“Get On With It!”

  1. k-avatarCharacter – morose existentialist
  2. Setting – rowboat
  3. Object – bottle of champagne, box of saltines, jar of caviar, bag of pork rinds, candy cane
  4. Situation – first day at the new job

“Get on with it!” Vernon’s irritation had overflowed the vessel he kept it in, and he  shouted everything he said. “Launch the goddamn boat!”

Maurice grasped the neck of the magnum of Dom Perignon, half-lidded eyes directed at the prow of the boat. The “Cygnet” rested in dry dock awaiting her maiden voyage. This morning, Maurice had begun his new job of christening each new vessel assembled by Barking Brothers’ Boatworks, and this twelve-foot rowboat would be his third launch.

The Vice-Presidents of Sales and Operations sat aboard the Cygnet, eating caviar on saltines, while Vernon Barking munched pork rinds and Vincent Barking sucked a candy cane.

“Smash the bottle!” Vernon screamed, showering all with porcine crumbs.

Maurice sighed. “Are not all our moments like the christening of a ship? Each breath, an uncertain endeavor in what could be a leaky deathtrap?”

He swung the bottle listlessly and jolted the Cygnet from her moorings, and she capsized amid the shrieks of corporate executives.

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