Taken as a group your prompts are definitely getting concerning. I am curious as to what's inspiring them!
Mistakes "This was a mistake," said Elise. Her naturally pale face was bone white in the cold and her hands and fingers were actually starting to look slightly blue. She had taken her gloves off after she'd accidentally punched through a thin layer of ice over a water reservoir; being wool they'd soak through nearly instantly and they were now, stiff and frozen like strange fish, set on the roof of the ATV. "There have been lots of mistakes." Mirriam was short, twinkle-eyed, and in charge. She was normally friendly but at the moment her voice carried overtones of sternness and annoyance. She was right, though Elise didn't like admitting that: soaking her gloves -- and worse, polluting the reservoir so that they couldn't now take samples from it and would have to find another -- was the sixth or seventh mistake of the trip so far. They hadn't all been Elise's fault; sat in the back of the ATV -- where at least it was warm! -- was Michael. He was doing the initial analysis of the samples they had so far, but he'd managed to drop one of them, meaning they'd lost half an hour turning round and going back, and he'd also forgotten to check the batteries in the back of the ATV before they started out meaning that they only had 75% of the power that they'd been expecting. Mirriam had tutted at first, then reminded everyone that while mistakes happened they shouldn't keep happening, and now she was being very silent about the mistakes. Which was a sure sign that she was losing her temper and fighting to control it. "Perhaps we should go back and do this tomorrow," said Elise. She was cold and tired and really just wanted to get back indoors again. "Mistakes will happen on any day," said Mirriam. "There's nothing special about today. And it would be the two of you tomorrow as well, so I don't see that we're changing anything there. If you want to improve things, slow down, think about what you're doing and stop. Making. Mistakes." There it was, the signs of a fraying temper. Full stops where they shouldn't be. Elise shivered, and not just because there was snow as far as she could see and the temperature was no higher than -20. "Right," she said. "We still two core samples from here, don't we? I can get them from higher up the stream that feeds the reservoir, that won't be contaminated." She pointed opposite to the direction the frozen stream flowed; there was a small outcropping of rock that the stream bent around and she would have to be careful not to stand on the frozen-over stream and break the ice there as well. "Good," said Mirriam. "That's careful thinking. I shall see if the map indicates any more reservoirs in this area; if not we're going to have to just follow the stream and hope we find one." Mirriam didn't get into the ATV, she just got the map out and stood in the cold as though it didn't affect her. Elise shoved her hands deep in her pockets and swore to herself that she would get the core sample this time. No more mistakes.
Greg - no... oh wait, yes idea. I made a dumb mistake at work. Nothing big at all, but it was on my mind come prompt time.
These are an interesting trio. I do hope the mistakes come to an end, or least stop being repeated. Perhaps replaced with new ones? But, you know, no more of the same old, same old.
2 comments:
Taken as a group your prompts are definitely getting concerning. I am curious as to what's inspiring them!
Mistakes
"This was a mistake," said Elise. Her naturally pale face was bone white in the cold and her hands and fingers were actually starting to look slightly blue. She had taken her gloves off after she'd accidentally punched through a thin layer of ice over a water reservoir; being wool they'd soak through nearly instantly and they were now, stiff and frozen like strange fish, set on the roof of the ATV.
"There have been lots of mistakes." Mirriam was short, twinkle-eyed, and in charge. She was normally friendly but at the moment her voice carried overtones of sternness and annoyance. She was right, though Elise didn't like admitting that: soaking her gloves -- and worse, polluting the reservoir so that they couldn't now take samples from it and would have to find another -- was the sixth or seventh mistake of the trip so far. They hadn't all been Elise's fault; sat in the back of the ATV -- where at least it was warm! -- was Michael. He was doing the initial analysis of the samples they had so far, but he'd managed to drop one of them, meaning they'd lost half an hour turning round and going back, and he'd also forgotten to check the batteries in the back of the ATV before they started out meaning that they only had 75% of the power that they'd been expecting. Mirriam had tutted at first, then reminded everyone that while mistakes happened they shouldn't keep happening, and now she was being very silent about the mistakes. Which was a sure sign that she was losing her temper and fighting to control it.
"Perhaps we should go back and do this tomorrow," said Elise. She was cold and tired and really just wanted to get back indoors again.
"Mistakes will happen on any day," said Mirriam. "There's nothing special about today. And it would be the two of you tomorrow as well, so I don't see that we're changing anything there. If you want to improve things, slow down, think about what you're doing and stop. Making. Mistakes."
There it was, the signs of a fraying temper. Full stops where they shouldn't be. Elise shivered, and not just because there was snow as far as she could see and the temperature was no higher than -20.
"Right," she said. "We still two core samples from here, don't we? I can get them from higher up the stream that feeds the reservoir, that won't be contaminated." She pointed opposite to the direction the frozen stream flowed; there was a small outcropping of rock that the stream bent around and she would have to be careful not to stand on the frozen-over stream and break the ice there as well.
"Good," said Mirriam. "That's careful thinking. I shall see if the map indicates any more reservoirs in this area; if not we're going to have to just follow the stream and hope we find one."
Mirriam didn't get into the ATV, she just got the map out and stood in the cold as though it didn't affect her. Elise shoved her hands deep in her pockets and swore to herself that she would get the core sample this time. No more mistakes.
Greg - no... oh wait, yes idea. I made a dumb mistake at work. Nothing big at all, but it was on my mind come prompt time.
These are an interesting trio. I do hope the mistakes come to an end, or least stop being repeated. Perhaps replaced with new ones? But, you know, no more of the same old, same old.
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