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Writing Group / Re: Writing Prompts!
« on: December 19, 2010, 03:38:34 AM »
Prompt: Brandon's Dialogue Exercise
“Right or left?”
“Left.”
“Why? Because you think left is lucky? That argument still doesn’t hold air. I say right.”
“Right? Of course you say right. You can never admit you’re wrong.”
“Ha ha. I took a class on Atmosphere Mechanics, and I remember a diagram of a proportional gas mixer like this. The switch needs to be set right for a human-compatible air mix. Not left.”
“You mean Intro to Atmosphere Mechanics? Did you even pass that?”
“I would have if…”
“So you didn’t. And you expect me to believe you remember which way a switch needs to be set on a proportional gas mixer, one that might not even be similar to this mixer, from a diagram that you probably glanced at for three seconds two years ago. Are you breathing fumes? How much air’s left in that suit of yours?”
“It’s better than your lucky hand. And I think I have five minutes worth left.”
“You think? What, you can’t calculate how much air you have left with your Net Link down, but you expect me to risk my life on your memory?”
“It’s not that simple. I’m trying to correct for my increased consumption rate, or do you not get that my life’s on the line here too.”
“Oh, I get it. But in six minutes I’ll be out of air. So if we don’t get this mixer running, with the right gas mix, it won’t matter that we found an old emergency shelter hut, because we’ll both be dead.”
“If I hadn’t remembered this hut, we’d still be out in that Sandstorm-“
“Not this again. If we’d gone left back when I first said, we wouldn’t have needed a hut in the first place. We’d have been back on Base before the storm hit.”
“It made just as much sense to go right.”
“Not to anyone that can read a 3-d map, it didn’t.”
“And if you could really have read that map without the aid of your Net Link, like you should have been able to, you would have been able to convince me to go left. Maps were, after all, your specialty. Navigator.”
“Well, if you trust your own call so much, Commander, why haven’t you already flipped the switch right? Worried?”
“Me? With you here to support me? How… Ow, that’s loud. Time’s up.”
“No. It can’t be. I still had three minutes left.”
“Now who can’t account for how much air they have left without their Net Link. We burn through air faster in panic situations.”
“You should have just flipped the damn switch.”
“Oh? And which way should I have flipped it?”
“What do I care? A fifty-fifty chance beats zero. I can’t believe we failed the Survival Module. Oh wait. I was stuck with you as a partner. Never again.”
“I second that.”
“What?”
“Right or left?”
“Left.”
“Why? Because you think left is lucky? That argument still doesn’t hold air. I say right.”
“Right? Of course you say right. You can never admit you’re wrong.”
“Ha ha. I took a class on Atmosphere Mechanics, and I remember a diagram of a proportional gas mixer like this. The switch needs to be set right for a human-compatible air mix. Not left.”
“You mean Intro to Atmosphere Mechanics? Did you even pass that?”
“I would have if…”
“So you didn’t. And you expect me to believe you remember which way a switch needs to be set on a proportional gas mixer, one that might not even be similar to this mixer, from a diagram that you probably glanced at for three seconds two years ago. Are you breathing fumes? How much air’s left in that suit of yours?”
“It’s better than your lucky hand. And I think I have five minutes worth left.”
“You think? What, you can’t calculate how much air you have left with your Net Link down, but you expect me to risk my life on your memory?”
“It’s not that simple. I’m trying to correct for my increased consumption rate, or do you not get that my life’s on the line here too.”
“Oh, I get it. But in six minutes I’ll be out of air. So if we don’t get this mixer running, with the right gas mix, it won’t matter that we found an old emergency shelter hut, because we’ll both be dead.”
“If I hadn’t remembered this hut, we’d still be out in that Sandstorm-“
“Not this again. If we’d gone left back when I first said, we wouldn’t have needed a hut in the first place. We’d have been back on Base before the storm hit.”
“It made just as much sense to go right.”
“Not to anyone that can read a 3-d map, it didn’t.”
“And if you could really have read that map without the aid of your Net Link, like you should have been able to, you would have been able to convince me to go left. Maps were, after all, your specialty. Navigator.”
“Well, if you trust your own call so much, Commander, why haven’t you already flipped the switch right? Worried?”
“Me? With you here to support me? How… Ow, that’s loud. Time’s up.”
“No. It can’t be. I still had three minutes left.”
“Now who can’t account for how much air they have left without their Net Link. We burn through air faster in panic situations.”
“You should have just flipped the damn switch.”
“Oh? And which way should I have flipped it?”
“What do I care? A fifty-fifty chance beats zero. I can’t believe we failed the Survival Module. Oh wait. I was stuck with you as a partner. Never again.”
“I second that.”
“What?”