We'll need to chop your clock off

[sovay]

Although I suppose the blame lies ultimately with telophase, I maintain it is all thistleingrey's fault that I am not yet asleep, because she introduced me to the random steampunk generator. It is a piece of genius. That is not throwaway praise. Most random generators create momentary hilarity: many of these would be functional story prompts.

It begins with a champion in the Khyber Pass. This person meets a mercenary and together they encounter automated giant squid and gears. The story winds up in an opium den and features role reversal. The overall narrative is about what happens after the revolution.

Your story begins with a beloved enemy. The villain is a fool who is not as foolish as others believe who also has a hat with a feather. Plot elements include the changing of the seasons and war.

The text starts as a samurai encounters a fan used as a weapon while in Shangri-La. The overall narrative is a comedy of manners.

This one, for that matter, is nearly flash fiction unto itself:

It begins in an airship hangar. There is epic friendship and a lady who meets a misguided genius. It ends with teleportation.

But this, I believe, is the true piece of cake:

A team of adventurers consisting of a daring airship captain, a criminal, an itinerant clock-mender, a man with spectacles, and a reclusive genius inventor discover a clockwork acrobat and Talos, the man made of bronze, in a bakery.

watermelontail? rushthatspeaks? greygirlbeast? Somebody help me out here—I want to read that story!

Comments

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

I just got

A team of adventurers consisting of a boy disguised as a girl, a boy who cries, a cold-eyed assassin, a person who is not evil but misunderstood, and a shaman discover inept crooks and constrictive clothing in a hot spring.

!!

I don't understand why people would wear constrictive clothing in a hot spring, but I really want to find out now.

[jtglover.livejournal.com]

Hey, that's pretty neat! Agreed on the story-quality results. Wednesday was apparently the day for cool steampunkery, as I also saw "Mom, Dad, I'm into Steampunk (http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/monologues/25steampunk.html)" yesterday. It is to laugh.

[zdenka]

The second-last one sounds like Girl Genius.

Neat -- I'll have to try out the generator.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I love the mixed levels of specificity of information: itinerant clock mender v. man with spectacles.

Man with spectacles.

changing of the seasons as plot element

beloved enemy

marvelous!

Did you see (I saw thanks to tithenai) Weird Tales' contest involving spam?

I want that story too.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Are they running the bakery? Because I think it's a little bakery I used to shop in in Greece. It's just around this corner.

This is just another piece of association.

Also, that's an all female group of adventurers, except of course for the man (with spectacles).

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

A team of adventurers consisting of a daring airship captain, a criminal, an itinerant clock-mender, a man with spectacles, and a reclusive genius inventor discover a clockwork acrobat and Talos, the man made of bronze, in a bakery.

[info]watermelontail? [info]rushthatspeaks? [info]greygirlbeast? Somebody help me out here—I want to read that story!

If you leave out the bakery bit, you can-- it's called His Dark Materials and was published, in three volumes, by Phil Pullman.

...whom, I must say, I never thought of as steampunk until now. His metaphysics are a bit too... clean, I guess. (Well, when compared to China Mieville, anyway.) But, yeah.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

The antagonist of this piece is an adrenaline junkie, while the protagonist is an irritable detective. Neither of them are motivated because they're looking for an honorable way to commit suicide.The plot begins with poetry in a dance hall. The ending includes elements of a safari and isolation.

...I think this would work better as silver age, or maybe steampunk, actually. Start off with a poetry slam, and have the plot turn on people trying to persuade the detective to actually detect. But still amusing.

[clarionj.livejournal.com]

Somebody help me out here—I want to read that story!

Hahaha, I wonder if you'll be writing something soon from this. I have to go try it out now. Fascinating. And yes, probably addicting.

[weirdquark]

I think my favorite of the ones I've gotten is:

Your story is a romance between a poet and a mad scientist. The lovers experience primitive robots driven by Babbage-style programing cards and automated whales while in a boardwalk during winter.

Because a) I can see watching automated whales from a boardwalk during winter being really pretty, and b) I have glimmerings of a teleportation story where there's a pair of lovers, one who is one of the scientists working on the teleporter and the other her lover, who is a poet who would be writing complicated poems about how teleportation will divide the soul from the body and her lover will be dead if I could write poetry.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

A woman with a knife, a polite man pushed to the breaking point, a woman who cries, an engineer, and a woman of whom everyone is afraid. Meet at a church, go down in flames together.

For. The. Win.

MOAR.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Your narrative is about unrequited love. It begins in a city of wonder. There is an invasion of clockwork mice and a retired superhero who meets a ronin. It inevitably ends with going native.

Your story is a romance between a cold-eyed assassin and a secretary. The lovers experience automated giant squid and gingko leaves while in an asylum. One of them is motivated to prove self-worth.

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

hee. I am sorry to've bereft you of sleep, though!

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Brilliant!

Airships, the Khyber Pass, and bakeries. For what more could we wish?

[gwynnega]

I just got:

Your story begins with flirting with food. In a Turkish bath there is a samurai who has goggles. The protagonist experiences things like problems of justice and navigating the aether. It finally ends with a cataloging system containing all knowledge.


Awesome!

[eredien]

I got this one:
The story begins in the Casbah, when a man with charm and a prisoner of war meet because of wit. It features what happens after the fairy tale is over.

Isn't that the plot of Casablanca?!?