Post by dans on Feb 5, 2020 23:50:20 GMT
Anyone want to co-write a humorous story? I've got a stage setting opening in mind, but would certainly be open to having the opening rewritten and any additions would be great also... Take a read, see if you'd be interested... this occurs in Fall of 1942.
Flux, the Turquoise Tornado vs. the Runaway Robot of Wyeleagh AgTech
Pre-game
In a small room in the interior of Warner Stadium at Turquoise City State (NM) College , before the big game, Dr. Brothers, a professor of Engineering at nearby Wyeleagh Agricultural and Technical College, the visiting team, set up his advanced apparatus. The main module was set on a desk. Its face was covered with dials, gauges and switches, with a sign at the top that stated: ‘Robotic Mascot Control Panel’. It took almost an hour to unload the pallet with all the other modules, position and then interconnect them, but he finished his setup a few minutes before the game began. He flicked some switches, nodded approvingly as the needles on several different multi-segmented gauges rose from their pegs and settled solidly in the green regions.
When the green ‘Systems Go’ light set in the top of the console glowed to life, he pressed a button labeled ‘Mascot Robot Remote Activation’. On a second desktop module a round 10” diameter TV screen faded from black to the ever flickering gray and white of TV static, then the static faded into a sharply focused black and white view of the interior of another small room nearby. Outside, the game had just started.
Dr. Brothers smiled - he had from now until halftime, almost an hour, to make sure everything was functioning just right before the halftime show. The door opened quietly behind him, but before he could turn to see who it was, something crashed into the back of his head and he slumped to the floor, unconscious. A masked man, wearing a a racoon coat and hat over a Turquoise City State letter sweater slipped into the room and examined the controls.
The intruder focused on three rheostat controls at the edge of the main panel. He turned the top control, and a needle on the gauge above it swept smoothly clockwise from the far left pin to far right over several pie-shaped regions, each a different color. The knob was labeled ‘Mascot IQ’ and the pie sections were colored from gray through yellow through green to a red sector to the far right. The sectors were labeled ‘None’, ‘Mouse’, ‘Dog’, ‘Human’ and the red sector was labeled ‘Danger’. The masked man smiled in satisfaction as the needle settled in the red, then pulled out a piece of chalk and crossed off ‘Danger’ and wrote ‘Super Genius’.
This process repeated itself - the second knob was labeled Power and the red sector was relabeled in chalk from ‘Danger’ to ‘Super’.
The last knob was labeled ‘Activity Type’ and the options were ‘Normal’, ‘Gymnastic’, ‘Track and Field’, ‘Cheerleading’, and ‘Dance’. The intruder used a jack knife screw driver to open that panel, cut two wires and connected them together, and closed the panel. He crossed off Danger and wrote Murder. Once again the needle swept over the dial, and settled on 'Murder'
Finally, the intruder set the "Activation Timer" to "Halftime", then flipped a big red circuit-breaker style switch from "Remote Control" to "Autonomous Operation". He bound and gagged Brothers, then slipped out the door and locked it behind him.
He slipped back into the stands and found a seat in the student section. The game hadn't started yet; the bombastic announcer was still setting the stage.
First Half
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the Four Corners region of the Great American Southwest! Acme Appliances, the best regional choice for YOUR household, is proud to welcome our audience to radio and TV station KTRQ’s historic broadcast of the 41st annual football game between the Coyotes, from nearby Wyeleagh Agricultural and Technical College in Wyaleagh, Arizona, and today’s home team, the Turquoise City State College Roadrunners from Turquoise City, New Mexico.”
The broadcaster’s careful enunciation of all 4 syllables of Wy-ah-lee-ah, rather than the relaxed local pronunciation, quickly clued in listeners that he had been brought in just for this historic broadcast. He continued, making quite sure everyone understood the vast historical import of the occasion - and for sure knew the name of the sponsor.
“Folks, Acme Appliances is proud to bring you the first ever meeting between these two great teams, the Roadrunners and the Coyotes, with the Four Corners Collegiate Athletic Association League title on the line. Today’s winner will take home the magnificent FCCAA league first place trophy, donated by Acme, while the loser will fall into third place and return home to lick their wounds and wait for next year.
But more importantly, today is the first ever in history Television broadcast of a Four Corners League Championship, and it's brought to you by Acme Appliances. Only 4 years ago, the first football game ever broadcast was received on a grand total of only 6 receiving sets in the whole world! Yet, today, folks, in dozens of selected gathering spots located throughout the Four Corners region, hundreds of lucky people are watching this historic game on dozens of brand new, state of the art television receiving sets donated to restaurants and bars for this special occasion by Acme Appliances. Indeed, for many of these lucky folks, this may be the first time in their lives that they have ever even seen a television program.
And after the game, these same sets will be available for purchase at low low prices at every one of the Acme Appliance locations in almost every town across the Four Corners region. Think how proud you’ll be to be the first in your neighborhood to own one of these fantastic inventions, from Acme: bringing the future to your home today.”
Acme hadn’t really donated thousands of expensive TV sets to gathering places throughout the region - each Acme store had rented out 2 or 3 sets to local businesses who wanted to get in on the hype, and those sets would be returned to the stores tomorrow. KTRQ, Acme, and the management of each ‘gathering place’, mostly bars, restaurants and theaters, were hosting several other related events, such as raffles, reduced pricing, and in some places, pregame pep rallies. Local folks, weary after years of war and war news, were treating the day as a holiday, and Acme hoped to see a big jump in TV set sales over the next few weeks as a result.
“As well as an incredible football game, there is a surprise halftime show planned with mystery guests. So stay tuned in, folks, ‘cause here it comes!”
The halftime show hadn't really been kept a big secret: The Battle of the Mascots! The highly renowned Engineering Department of Wyeleagh would showcase their advanced robot mascot, which wouold compete against the most famous alumnus of Turquoise City State College, the mystery heroine known as Flux, who had recently completed her graduate, Masters and PhD in Archaeology in just 3 semesters.
The first half was as exciting as anyone could have hoped for. The Coyotes were adherents of the traditional single wing formation on offense, their 4 talented backs running the ball almost exclusively, while the Roadrunners relied on the more pass-oriented T-formation, and threw the ball at the almost unheard of rate of more than 3 plays out of every 10. The teams marched up and down the field, neither able to hold a lead for long. A missed extra point left the difference at one point at halftime.
But it was at halftime that the fireworks really exploded - both figuratively and literally.
Three minutes after the halftime gun, the door of a small storage room under the bleachers was shattered as the Wyeleagh A&T robot mascot, a life sized anthropomorphic coyote which walked on its hind legs, burst from the room. It raced onto the field to a mixed chorus of boos and cheers, pulling behind it a large cart filled with all sorts of interesting stuff.
In a small room in the interior of Warner Stadium at Turquoise City State (NM) College , before the big game, Dr. Brothers, a professor of Engineering at nearby Wyeleagh Agricultural and Technical College, the visiting team, set up his advanced apparatus. The main module was set on a desk. Its face was covered with dials, gauges and switches, with a sign at the top that stated: ‘Robotic Mascot Control Panel’. It took almost an hour to unload the pallet with all the other modules, position and then interconnect them, but he finished his setup a few minutes before the game began. He flicked some switches, nodded approvingly as the needles on several different multi-segmented gauges rose from their pegs and settled solidly in the green regions.
When the green ‘Systems Go’ light set in the top of the console glowed to life, he pressed a button labeled ‘Mascot Robot Remote Activation’. On a second desktop module a round 10” diameter TV screen faded from black to the ever flickering gray and white of TV static, then the static faded into a sharply focused black and white view of the interior of another small room nearby. Outside, the game had just started.
Dr. Brothers smiled - he had from now until halftime, almost an hour, to make sure everything was functioning just right before the halftime show. The door opened quietly behind him, but before he could turn to see who it was, something crashed into the back of his head and he slumped to the floor, unconscious. A masked man, wearing a a racoon coat and hat over a Turquoise City State letter sweater slipped into the room and examined the controls.
The intruder focused on three rheostat controls at the edge of the main panel. He turned the top control, and a needle on the gauge above it swept smoothly clockwise from the far left pin to far right over several pie-shaped regions, each a different color. The knob was labeled ‘Mascot IQ’ and the pie sections were colored from gray through yellow through green to a red sector to the far right. The sectors were labeled ‘None’, ‘Mouse’, ‘Dog’, ‘Human’ and the red sector was labeled ‘Danger’. The masked man smiled in satisfaction as the needle settled in the red, then pulled out a piece of chalk and crossed off ‘Danger’ and wrote ‘Super Genius’.
This process repeated itself - the second knob was labeled Power and the red sector was relabeled in chalk from ‘Danger’ to ‘Super’.
The last knob was labeled ‘Activity Type’ and the options were ‘Normal’, ‘Gymnastic’, ‘Track and Field’, ‘Cheerleading’, and ‘Dance’. The intruder used a jack knife screw driver to open that panel, cut two wires and connected them together, and closed the panel. He crossed off Danger and wrote Murder. Once again the needle swept over the dial, and settled on 'Murder'
Finally, the intruder set the "Activation Timer" to "Halftime", then flipped a big red circuit-breaker style switch from "Remote Control" to "Autonomous Operation". He bound and gagged Brothers, then slipped out the door and locked it behind him.
He slipped back into the stands and found a seat in the student section. The game hadn't started yet; the bombastic announcer was still setting the stage.
First Half
“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the Four Corners region of the Great American Southwest! Acme Appliances, the best regional choice for YOUR household, is proud to welcome our audience to radio and TV station KTRQ’s historic broadcast of the 41st annual football game between the Coyotes, from nearby Wyeleagh Agricultural and Technical College in Wyaleagh, Arizona, and today’s home team, the Turquoise City State College Roadrunners from Turquoise City, New Mexico.”
The broadcaster’s careful enunciation of all 4 syllables of Wy-ah-lee-ah, rather than the relaxed local pronunciation, quickly clued in listeners that he had been brought in just for this historic broadcast. He continued, making quite sure everyone understood the vast historical import of the occasion - and for sure knew the name of the sponsor.
“Folks, Acme Appliances is proud to bring you the first ever meeting between these two great teams, the Roadrunners and the Coyotes, with the Four Corners Collegiate Athletic Association League title on the line. Today’s winner will take home the magnificent FCCAA league first place trophy, donated by Acme, while the loser will fall into third place and return home to lick their wounds and wait for next year.
But more importantly, today is the first ever in history Television broadcast of a Four Corners League Championship, and it's brought to you by Acme Appliances. Only 4 years ago, the first football game ever broadcast was received on a grand total of only 6 receiving sets in the whole world! Yet, today, folks, in dozens of selected gathering spots located throughout the Four Corners region, hundreds of lucky people are watching this historic game on dozens of brand new, state of the art television receiving sets donated to restaurants and bars for this special occasion by Acme Appliances. Indeed, for many of these lucky folks, this may be the first time in their lives that they have ever even seen a television program.
And after the game, these same sets will be available for purchase at low low prices at every one of the Acme Appliance locations in almost every town across the Four Corners region. Think how proud you’ll be to be the first in your neighborhood to own one of these fantastic inventions, from Acme: bringing the future to your home today.”
Acme hadn’t really donated thousands of expensive TV sets to gathering places throughout the region - each Acme store had rented out 2 or 3 sets to local businesses who wanted to get in on the hype, and those sets would be returned to the stores tomorrow. KTRQ, Acme, and the management of each ‘gathering place’, mostly bars, restaurants and theaters, were hosting several other related events, such as raffles, reduced pricing, and in some places, pregame pep rallies. Local folks, weary after years of war and war news, were treating the day as a holiday, and Acme hoped to see a big jump in TV set sales over the next few weeks as a result.
“As well as an incredible football game, there is a surprise halftime show planned with mystery guests. So stay tuned in, folks, ‘cause here it comes!”
The halftime show hadn't really been kept a big secret: The Battle of the Mascots! The highly renowned Engineering Department of Wyeleagh would showcase their advanced robot mascot, which wouold compete against the most famous alumnus of Turquoise City State College, the mystery heroine known as Flux, who had recently completed her graduate, Masters and PhD in Archaeology in just 3 semesters.
The first half was as exciting as anyone could have hoped for. The Coyotes were adherents of the traditional single wing formation on offense, their 4 talented backs running the ball almost exclusively, while the Roadrunners relied on the more pass-oriented T-formation, and threw the ball at the almost unheard of rate of more than 3 plays out of every 10. The teams marched up and down the field, neither able to hold a lead for long. A missed extra point left the difference at one point at halftime.
But it was at halftime that the fireworks really exploded - both figuratively and literally.
Three minutes after the halftime gun, the door of a small storage room under the bleachers was shattered as the Wyeleagh A&T robot mascot, a life sized anthropomorphic coyote which walked on its hind legs, burst from the room. It raced onto the field to a mixed chorus of boos and cheers, pulling behind it a large cart filled with all sorts of interesting stuff.