Workshop Posting

[newnumber6]

So another round of the Writer's Workshop thing posted. This one had two parts. One was to generate a lot of phrases, individual lines, etc, that were interesting, strange, bizarre, engaging, etc, without knowing why (I expected it would be a "use one of these as your first line" exercise, but I was incorrect). The next part was to choose one of them (from somebody else, presumably), and write a scene based on it. The rule was: Dialog only, no scene descriptions or anything like that, and what's more, you only had 15 minutes to write once you started. So, here's what I came up with (line chosen in bold).

Caveman brought a stone to the party.


Canadian Empire: "Can you believe it?"
Wild West: "What?"
Canadian Empire: "Caveman brought a stone to the party."
Wild West: "...And?"
Canadian Empire: "Again."
Wild West: "Yeah, so what?"
Canadian Empire: "So what? He brought a stone. A stone. That's like the laziest thing ever."
Wild West: "Give him a break. What else is he going to bring?"
Canadian Empire: "I don't know. Some dinosaur steaks or something."
Wild West: "You know, for a Time Agent, you really don't know your history very well. Humans and Dinosaurs never coexisted."
Canadian Empire: "Whatever. It's all prehistoric to me. That's not the point."
Wild West: "What is the point?"
Canadian Empire: "We were all supposed to contribute to the party, with something from our home time. He brought a stone."
Wild West: "Yeah, well, he's crafty."
Canadian Empire: "Crafty?"
Wild West: "Yeah. He knows what you can do with a stone."
Canadian Empire: "Look, just because Post-Singularity's embedded assemblers can turn a stone into a three course meal, does not mean it's not lazy."
Wild West: "Lay off him, man."
Canadian Empire: "Summer of Love brought some good dope. Information Age brought a library of music. Hell, even Roman Empire brought slavegirls for an orgy... which of course I'm opposed to, but at least he's trying."
Wild West: "This is all for fun, man. It's not a competition. Nobody has to participate. So what. Caveman's got a family to support back home, and food's scarce. They haven't really invented music. What, should he have brought a cave painting?"
Canadian Empire: "That's not the point. He could have brought anything. An animal skin to lie on. Some fire. Fire's big in his time, right? A fire would be nice. But he brought a stone."
Wild West: "What's it got to do with you?"
Canadian Empire: "Even _I_ brought something."
Wild West: "Oh. I get it."
Canadian Empire: "Get what?"
Wild West: "Look, man. We all feel for you. Your part of history's been wiped out. It happens. That's war, man. But we'll bring it back. Maybe not exactly as before, but none of us can depend on that. Hell, my name's changed on every mission just from random fluctuations. Who knew my parents were so flighty."
Canadian Empire: "I miss it."
Wild West: "I know. The Time War's a bitch. But your time's on a major front, that's why you were recruited. We're not giving up on it. And in the meantime, we can try to enjoy ourselves, or we can be miserable. I vote for enjoying ourselves."
Canadian Empire: "Yeah. Sorry."
Wild West: "It's no big deal."
Canadian Empire: "Hey, what'd you bring, anyway?"
Wild West: "Liquor, of course. We didn't have a lot to do in my time, either."
Canadian Empire: "Well, it's better than a stone."
Wild West: "Not all of it's from my own time either. I brought back a little something from my last mission, to the Fifth Reich. Horrible empire, glad we wiped it out, but they did make some good beer."
Canadian Empire: "Oh yeah? I've never had some."
Wild West: "Here. Try it. It might be the last in existence, ever."
Canadian Empire: "That is good."
Wild West: "Feel better?"
Canadian Empire: "A little."
Wild West: "Want to go check out that orgy?"
Canadian Empire: "...Yeah."

END