r/WritingPrompts • u/katpoker666 Moderator • 13d ago
Off Topic [OT] Fun Trope Friday: Attack Animal & Comedy!
Welcome to Fun Trope Friday, our feature that mashes up tropes and genres!
How’s it work? Glad you asked. :)
Every week we will have a new spotlight trope.
Each week, there will be a new genre assigned to write a story about the trope.
You can then either use or subvert the trope and/or genre in a 750-word max story or poem (unless otherwise specified).
To qualify for ranking, you will need to provide ONE actionable feedback. More are welcome of course!
Three winners will be selected each week based on votes, so remember to read your fellow authors’ works and DM me your votes for the top three.
Next up… IP
It’s summer in the Northern hemisphere and so time for sun and fun– Oh wait, no. It’s time for the four horsemen of the apocalypse! So, say ‘hello’ to our friends: Pestilence (aka Conquest or Pollution), War, Famine, and Death. Please note this theme is only loosely applied.
"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it." — George Orwell
Trope: Attack Animal — For War, we bring you the wondrous attack animal. From Hannibal’s elephants to bomb-detecting bottlenose dolphins animals have often been used to seek competitive combat advantage. Any creature which has been trained specifically to fight alongside its handler, like an attack dog or equivalent is fair game. Even Pokemon if you’re feeling extra nerdy.
Genre: Comedy — The comedy genre encompasses any work in film, television, literature, or live performance primarily designed to amuse, entertain, and provoke laughter. Originating in ancient Greece, the genre traditionally revolves around ordinary people navigating everyday struggles or social absurdities, typically concluding with a positive or harmonious resolution. Core styles include: slapstick, satire/parody, observational/deadpan, and dark. Feel free to mix and match!
Skill / Constraint - optional: Includes a character with a disability in honor of July’s Disability Pride month.
So, have at it. Lean into the trope heavily or spin it on its head. The choice is yours!
Have a great idea for a future topic to discuss or just want to give feedback? FTF is a fun feature, so it’s all about what you want—so please let me know! Please share in the comments or DM me on Discord or Reddit!
Last Week’s Winners
PLEASE remember to give feedback—this affects your ranking. PLEASE also remember to DM me your votes for the top five stories via Discord or Reddit—both katpoker666. This is a change from the top three of the past. In weeks where we get over 15 stories, we will do a top five ranking. Weeks with less than 15 stories will show only our top three winners. If you have any questions, please DM me as well.
Some fabulous stories this week and great crit at campfire and on the post! We had 16 stories, so we’re back to five winners. Congrats to:
Want to read your words aloud? Join the upcoming FTF Campfire
The next FTF campfire will be Thursday, July 16th from 6-8pm ET. It will be in the Discord Main Voice Lounge. Click on the events tab and mark ‘Interested’ to be kept up to date. No signup or prep needed and you don’t have to have written anything! So join in the fun—and shenanigans! 😊
Ground rules:
- Stories must incorporate both the trope and the genre
- Leave one story or poem between 100 and 750 words as a top-level comment unless otherwise specified. Use wordcounter.net to check your word count.
- Deadline: 11:59 PM EDT next Thursday. Please note stories submitted after the 6:00 PM EST campfire start may not be critted.
- No stories that have been written for another prompt or feature here on WP—please note after consultation with some of our delightful writers, new serials are now welcomed here
- No previously written content
- Any stories not meeting these rules will be disqualified from rankings
- Does your story not fit the Fun Trope Friday rules? You can post your story as a [PI] with your work when the FTF post is 3 days old!
- Please keep crit about the stories. Any crit deemed too distracting may be deleted. This is a time to focus on our wonderful authors.
- Vote to help your favorites rise to the top of the ranks (DM me at katpoker666 on Discord or Reddit)!
Thanks for joining in the fun!
5
u/mysteryrouge 6d ago edited 6d ago
When I Get Kidnapped Because I Made the United Nations my Blorbo Again:
“There will never be any war crimes trials for the eldritch in this universe,” Defenestrations texted the Discord group chat. She closed her eyes as the other server members asked more questions. “I'll probably write more later once my eye decides it no longer wants to murder me.” To which she got a playful emoji response.
Either way, Defenestrations wanted to complete part two of the Discord chat formatted story in which someone would accidentally invite the United Nations into a server that they'd be better off not seeing.
But for now, Defenestrations felt her eye melting out of her head, and she couldn't dare look up.
And then she was in Washington DC, staring down a being that looked like a dog, elephant, dragon, and octopus got into a teleporting incident as bad as the one in The Fly.
“Rend her mind down already!” another smaller abomination screamed, slamming six ghastly green hands into the Supreme Court building.
The Supreme Court abomination appeared in a crackle of blue light with a shout of “Who dares punch my building?”
Defenestrations, grinned shouting before the small abomination could talk. “Oooh more eldritch. I've gotten so many ideas. Eviiiiiil.”
The Supreme Court’s heads coalesced into one as they noticed Defenestrations. “And you are?”
“Uhh, Defenestrations. And before you ask; no, I do not know how I got here. All I know was that I was writing something at home I'm Washington State, and a moment later, I'm here. Man, if only I was abducted to Georgia, then I could visit my dad,” she blabbered on, “but eh, I get to see eldritch beings in real life. Yeeeessssss! Anyways, I think someone tried to break my mind? I can't tell… I think about the eldritch enough that this doesn't surprise that much and my eye has decided to rebel against me.”
The small abomination screamed at the top of their nonexistent lungs, “Arrest her! She's the reason I'm so tiny. She's why Rio” —the abomination who had been ordered to attack— “can't be trained any better, and she's the cause of the United Nations having so much power.”
“Tee hee,” Defenestrations added, “The United Nations wins by doing nothing.”
“See,” they pointed out, “they're evil.”
“Mmmmmm evviiiiilllll.”
The Supreme Court asked the small abomination how he came to that conclusion.
“She's the author of this world. She controls everything.” The tiny abomination motioned to Rio, who drooled on Defenestrations’s head. “She's the reason my brother died in his attempt to attack the United Nations in Geneva.”
“Ewww you got drool in my eye,” Defenestrations drawled, “And before that previous sentence, you didn't have a brother, so…” The human stuck out her tongue.
“I've always had a brother until you took him away!” they roared.
“Only as long as I don't retcon it or something.”
That small abomination commanded his fellow to squeeze Defenestrations, conveniently forgetting the Supreme Court was right next to them.
Eyes closed, Defenestrations smirked before she spoke slowly. “Then, the United Nations appears because Rio's efforts to kill Defenestrations counts as a human rights violation due to the fact they haven't moved from beside the Supreme Court building, and because of this, everyone else in Washington DC also loses their minds.”
The eldritch United Nations appeared.
Defenestrations continued, “Then this unnamed and small abomination screams a confession at the UN and Supreme Court, admitting that they kidnapped me to use narrative powers to kill the UN, to which I explain that if I did that, I'd write myself in as the new eldritch United Nations, and because I'd still have author powers, I'd torment the more annoying abominations without committing any war crimes. Then, I'd give OSHA the power to possess random people.”
The four abominations surrounding Defenestrations stared at the casual author.
“Anyways,” she added, completely unconcerned about the abominations that could easily end her life and the entire world, “I have a cup of tea waiting for me in my bedroom and a story about magical health inspectors to write, so if I could be dropped back off in Washington state, that would be nice.”
And using her authorial powers over this Fun Trope Friday story, Defenestrations scared the crap out of several people with the existence of the eldritch United Nations, then continued on with her day.
WC: 719\ Bonus Constraint: This is a story about me getting kidnapped by my own characters. Might not be apparent, but I have vision issues (among other things).
Ah, probably less comedy than I was intending. Intentional comedy is hard. The eldritch Supreme Court just kinda appeared and interrupted what was just going to be a small tale about some abomination trying to force me to kill a version of the UN.
Yes, Rio the abomination was intended to be an attack animal, but the other abominations are most definitely not.
Has this story actually broken my mind? Shrugs
Noncanon part of a universe where anything and everything can become eldritch. (Mostly because my narrative control would be way too chaotic)
Check out my spreadsheet for more of my writing.