August Writing Prompts 2020

[labrathor]

August is here! A very warm welcome to our new players and characters, and a special thank you to everyone who is participating in the 80s LOL. It's always a delight to see what interactions and plots come up even in the sillier shenanigans! And As always--

Disclaimer: I never close old writing prompts from previous months. People can and should be encouraged to post on old month's prompts and I highly encourage players to track these posts to catch stragglers or new people writing on old prompts.

Now. With that out of the way, onto this month's prompts.

August's Writing Prompts

1. "I told you, we should've asked for directions. Now where are we?"

2. Warm sand, cool waves, and all the time in the world.

3. Who's up for a 'friendly' game?

4. "I swear I must be cursed."

5. "Don't tell me the odds. I'm gonna win that teddy bear if it kills me."

Bonus image prompt:

Comments

3/5

[itmeanstruth]

“Ahhh, Nothing like the fall fair.” Minoru grinned, licking the powdered sugar from his fingers after finishing a fruit-topped funnel cake.

“It is a highly enjoyable experience.” Isamu nodded, still munching on the last of his corny dog. “I’m glad that your supervisor allowed you to line up your vacation with school break so that we could return home to attend it this year. That isn’t always the case.”

“I know!” He grinned.

They’d already visited several of the small traveling museum exhibits at the fairgrounds (totally Isamu’s idea), rode carnival rides that combined high speed with dubious safety (totally Minoru’s idea), and found something tasty for lunch (something they could both agree on). Just when they were contemplating what to do next, one of the carnival game operators called out, “Hey boys! Who’s up for a friendly game, hm? Step right up! Win a teddy bear! What do you say!”

The twins answered at exactly the same time.
“Sure!”
“We’ll pass.”

They promptly turned to look at each other at the same time as well.

“What? It’s not like it’s hard.” Minoru gestured to the plinko game. “All you have to do is take the puck, drop it on the board so it falls. It hits the right spot, you get a prize.”

Isamu crossed his arms. “Except, that plinko employs a board that is unfairly designed so that the puck has the highest probability of falling into the slots that offer no prize.”

Minoru rolled his eyes, and pointed to a floating duck game just across the path. “What about that one? You pick up a duck.”

“An even smaller probability of success, honestly. Especially if you consider unscrupulous game operators may mark all ducks with small or even no prizes to completely eliminate the possibility of winning a substantial prize.”

Minoru rolled his eyes as he pulled Isamu along. He gestured next to an old classic game of milk can just a couple of booths down. “Throw the ball into the milk can. I can definitely pull that off.”

“Unlikely. The rim of the can makes the hole just one-sixteenth of an inch larger than the softball, so unless you can throw the ball with the precise amount of backspin to decrease its momentum and hit the back of the can’s rim at the same time, you are simply throwing money away.”

“Okay, what about knocking milk bottles over with the softball instead?” He pointed out a different game. The operator, by sheer coincidence, was in the middle of demonstrating to a young couple that the game was indeed winnable, as he knocked down all three milk bottles and set it up again.

“A clever lie.” Isamu scoffed. “One of the bottles is clearly heavier than the other two. When he set it up for himself, it was on top, making the game easy. When he sets it up for them, it will be on the bottom, making it impossible to win.”

That was exactly what happened as the young man in question was denied the teddy bear his girlfriend was pointing at. Minoru rolled his eyes.

“Okay, what about shooting the star out with BB gun?” He pointed across the path again, to where a handful of contestants were racing to see who could tear through their paper the fastest.

“Aside from the chances of the barrel not being perfectly straight or there being some other structural anomaly in the gun? Those stars are clearly larger than an inch and a half in diameter, and the paper looks to be linen to boot. The FBI itself conducted a study into this scam. Under those conditions, it is completely unwinnable, even for trained marksmen.”

“Swinger?” He asked, pointing at a game in which a ball was suspended from a rope. The goal was to throw it so it passed a bowling pin on the way out but knocked it over on the way back.

“Honestly, that’s the worst one. It preys on people who do not understand even basic physics. Once swung, the ball will return in an arc the same distance from the pin on the return swing, ensuring that the ball will miss completely. There is literally no possible way to win.”

Minoru sighed loudly, and they both kept walking. Every game Minoru pointed at along the midway, Isamu had scientific evidence as to why it would be a waste of time and money. Finally, he’d had enough. He stopped in front of one of those rope ladder games.

“Look, don’t tell me the odds, okay? I am going to win that teddy bear if it kills me.”

Minoru waited for a second, eyebrows raised, basically daring his brother to say something.

Isamu was quiet for a moment, thoughtful even. He looked at Minoru and gestured with the now-empty corny dog stick. “Actually, on that one, you would probably have a decent chance.”

“I told you I didn’t want to hear...” he groaned, but stopped when he comprehended Isamu’s words. “Wait, I do?”

Isamu nodded.

“You do. Your freerunning will undoubtedly help you balance on the narrow surface area without the threat of being tangled.” Before Minoru could jump right in, though, Isamu put a hand on his shoulder. “IF you make your center of gravity as wide as possible by putting your feet close to the sides of the ladder, you lean forward and you move in perfect counterbalance. I’d wager you could cross that in... four tries or less. Depending on how quickly you catch on to the unusual mechanics of moving, say, your left hand and right arm in perfect synchronization, and as long as the operator doesn’t play dirty by shaking the ladder with his foot to make you fall intentionally.” Isamu explained. “But he won’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I will be intentionally distracting him.” Isamu smiled mischievously. Minoru grinned in return. “Go win yourself a teddy bear.”

...

When they returned home from their trip, the giant green bear sat proudly on their kitchen table for a whole week. Much to Isamu’s chagrin, Minoru nicknamed it “Lucky.” As if that had anything to do with it.