Wednesday March 15th, 2017

The exercise:

A while back (I'm too lazy to find it, but I'm pretty sure it was in January some time) Greg suggested using the previous week's worth of prompts as a prompt itself. I liked the idea but wanted to do it randomly in order to avoid the temptation of linking the prompts together, or somehow making them easier to combine into one tale.

So I grabbed my phone and went into the Reminder section and scrolled forward without looking, then set a reminder to use the week prompt whenever it went off.

As you may have guessed, it went off this evening.

So include all of the prompts used in the last seven days in your writing today. For your reference, they are:

- Wednesday: agoraphobia
- Thursday: the replay
- Friday: old habits
- Saturday: an apology
- Sunday: beauty and the beast
- Monday: the gong show
- Tuesday: pie

I wish us all good luck with the task ahead.

Bakery was busy today, leaving me with just two loaves for the freezer and two macaroons to set aside for tomorrow. Even with the near constant rain.

Tomorrow is expected to be warmer and sunny, so hopefully that will bring even more customers to our door.

Mine:

My Dearest Beauty,

I owe you, without question, an apology for the events of yesterday. It was, clearly, a gong show, as the villagers might say, and I am the one who must bear sole responsibility for what happened.

So here it is, simple and plain: I am sorry.

I could blame my agoraphobia and that would not be incorrect. But it does feel like an excuse, so I shall not. I do not wish to shirk blame, my love. I accept it, fully and completely. I allowed old habits to return - ones I promised you would be gone forever - and I know that is inexcusable.

It is difficult for me to think of what happened. I wince and cringe and flush with embarrassment as each of my missteps is replayed in my mind. How could I have let you down so terribly? Will you be able to trust me at my word ever again?

As an admittedly poor and inadequate gesture, I have baked for you the blueberry pie on which this note is attached. I know it was your father's favorite - why else would he dare attempt to steal them from my garden? - and I hope that it brings you some solace in his absence, as it simultaneously serves to be but a minuscule display of how great my regret is for my misdeeds.

And I promise you that I double and triple checked to make sure that there are no parts of your father's remains mixed in with the filling.

Eternally yours,
Beast

2 comments:

Greg said...

I like how you managed to make this happen at random rather than unconsciously planning prompts that would fit together well. And I quite like that the prompts are still pretty coherent -- there's nothing in the list that looks like it's too hard to put together with the rest. As, in fact, you go on to demonstrate with your letter to Beauty from the Beast capturing all of the prompts very neatly! They all come together to provide lovely details, especially the blueberry pie with no trace of her father's remains, which is definitely my favourite part of the whole apology!

A week of prompts
"Oh my God," said Herminone weakly as the gong show came to a laborious conclusion with a tatty ghost finally holding up the award for Most Frequent Participant and pointing out that Ronnie Weasel didn't have one of those either. "Do you have to do this every year?"
"Every week," said Ronnie, tears streaming down his face. "Until I've got at least 56 awards."
"How many do you have so far?"
"Three," said Ronnie. "Latest student to class all year, Most Likely to be forgotten because His friends are all cleverer than him, and the Annual Agoraphobia Award. I did think I might get the Arithmancy award this year, but you got it instead."
"Oh," said Hermione looking a little guilty. "I think I might have cheated on that one. I still had the time turner back then. I read through the paper then turned time back an hour and did the revision."
"Oh," said Ronnie, sniffing. "That's why you suddenly looked at the paper like it was an instant replay and finished it in a third of the time of anyone else."
"Sorry-ish," said Hermione.
"That's an apology?"
"It's what you're getting."
"You know people say you're the most beautiful girl in the school?"
"Yes, of course."
"Well I think you're a beast."
"Oh that's original," said Hermione scornfully. "I'm a beast. Just because I've used magic to become popular? Because I cheated on an exam or six? Because I ate the last mince pie at Christmas and you'd been dreaming about having one since November?"
"You cheated?" said Harry slowly, his eyes uncrossing and his spine straightening.
"Tabula Rasa!"
Ronnie looked at Harry's newly blank face and then at Hermione, horror scrunching him up and making his freckles seem like leprosy.
"Sorry-ish," said Hermione with the sincerity of a puddle. "Old habits die hard."
"That's a habit?" said Ronnie, aghast.
"Well... oh, screw it. Tabula Rasa!"

Marc said...

Greg - thanks! I wasn't sure how it would work out doing it totally randomly, but I am pleased with the results. I shall have to do it again some time :)

Hah, another fantastic entry into your world of Harry Potter. And I had to go back and double check that you'd used all the prompts!

I'm not sure that I *like* this version of Hermione, but I definitely enjoy reading about her :D