May Prompts

[sanguinity]

Each month, we'll post a trio of prompts -- a theme, a quote, and a trope -- for you to use as a jumping-off point in whatever medium pleases you. Anything goes, fiction or meta, from drabbles through dissertation chapters on textual analysis. Fic, art, photo-essays, vids, and more are welcome.

• For May, the theme is Weevils. Literal weevils or metaphorical weevils? Weevils that devour the ship's bread, or weevils that fatten the ship's chickens?
  
  
• The quote is from the A&E miniseries episode, "The Examination for Lieutenant," aka "The Fireships":

  Each of us can find a maggot in our past which will happily devour our futures.

  
  
• The trope is Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence. Different first meeting? Everybody lives? What change might you make to canon, and with what effect?

Mix and match the prompts, or use just one! Then come back and share what you made, here or in a new post.

And if you haven't yet, please check out the fills for April:

• tgarnsl: Eosphorus (Hornblower/Bush; T)
  
• colebaltblue: Jack Aubrey Read the Room Wrong (Aubrey/Hornblower, Aubrey/Bush, implied Hornblower/Bush; M)
  
• sanguinity: Solace and Comfort (excerpt) (implied Hornblower/Bush; G)
  
• brewsternorth: Strong, Dark, and Early (Hornblower/Bush; T)

Comments

[sanguinity]

I ADORE THIS. And oh, but I am eager to see the rest! *wishes all obstructions to fic-writing gone, so that you might finish it all the sooner*

“I suppose it’s only right I offer you my congratulations, Mr Bush,” he said, and Bush wished for death.

I am full of pity for the poor man, and dying of laughter, too.

And sleeping in the cable tier? My good man, that is going to last exactly as long as it takes for you to be summoned to the deck in the middle of the night and no one can find you.

Oh, I am SO pleased you took on this prompt (and I 100% believe you about the weevils), and I am so very eager to see the rest!

[tgarnsl]

Haha, I can't really complain *too* much about my latest obstructions considering one of the most recent ones was a 15 mile sailing trip ft. such a lively sea that when we returned to the marina the general response from other boaters was "you were out in those waves in *that*?", pointing at our little 17 footer. (Tgarnsl Sr. is a master mariner and was happy as a pig in mud with the tricky conditions - I, his untested but eager apprentice, was left slightly in awe and most certainly soaked and with some more writing material.) But I will do my best to finish this off (it's close, I promise!)

Yeah, he's not going to last long there. This story kind of hinges on a lot of things that would not work in real life but, in the words of a writer I know, "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story." Or story in general, as may be the case :)

Thank you as always for your comments :)

[sanguinity]

Oh, then I take it back! You may keep the sailing trips, I wouldn't want to deprive you of those! But I am looking forward to the story. And I will try very hard to be patient.

Of course the premise would ride on a bunch of improbabilities -- that was all but inherent to the prompt. In fact, the prompt was half-inspired by watching the contrivances people went through in this fandom to end up one bed short. (And not just one bed short, but that the captain and the first lieutenant, OF ALL PEOPLE, should be the ones inconvenienced by it!) But who cares about contrivances, really? The point is what-all happens after they end up one bed short, and what you've teased here makes me very eager to know the rest. :-D

[tgarnsl]

Good news. I finally FINALLY finished my definitive draft of my May prompt fill. 8600 words. YIKES. So I’ll edit this over the next few days and it should be good to go. (If you’re really curious I can put up the rough version over on my DW account otherwise it’ll be a few days.)

Also I prompted myself for June and have a short story to share here if you think that’s ok!

[sanguinity]

Hooray! The May story you treated us with a sample from -- I'm so looking forward to that one! (And 8600 words, yum! How lucky we are!)

And re self-prompting, please do share your story here! Please make a new post, so that people other than us mods see it. And you're always welcome to post here things you make, whether officially related to a prompt or not.

And I'm sorry about falling down about June prompts -- June is wild for colebaltblue and I because of holmestice (and her June was even more wild than usual because of Life Events), and by the time I realized I was neglecting hmsloop_hotspur we were halfway through the month. So please accept my apologies for that.

[tgarnsl]

No need to apologise; May and June have been hectic months for me too. I figured as much :)

And caveat lector, just because there’s 8600 words that doesn’t mean they’re GOOD words! But I’ll do my best to wrangle the beast into something manageable.

[sanguinity]

If another pair of eyes would help, I'd be happy to beta for you -- just pop me an email at this username at gmail. Either way, good luck with the wrangling!

And I'd hazard a guess that your words are better than your nerves are telling you. Having seen examples of your writing, and having had extensive experience with that doubting voice, both in myself and with friends and acquaintances, I feel well-qualified to say so. ;-)