Finding the Write Time - "Are you sure that's even possible?"
I'm taking part in @did-i-do-this-write's monthly writing challenge, Finding the Write Time!
This month, the prompt is "Are you sure that's even possible?", and I managed to plan and write this story in about 30 minutes!
I really enjoyed this, and I manged to get a story down about Kai, Ash and Carmilla watching Doctor Who and the backstory for Kai's sonic screwdriver!
"What do you mean, it's wrong?"
Carmilla shrugs.
"It just is - that's not what things looked like back then, trust me, I remember!"
I furrow my brows as I look from her to the screen and back - Donna Noble is running around the streets of Pompeii with the Doctor, and Carmilla has just spent the last few minutes criticising the show's interpretation of a city that burnt to ash thousands of years ago.
I have no idea if she's joking.
"Okay, vampire, very funny..." I mutter, and turn back to the screen before her intense red eyes burn a hole right through my face.
"Can we just watch it? I want to see the TARDIS burn in the volcano!" Ash giggles as she turns the volume up and snuggles into Carmilla's shoulder on the couch.
Third wheeling to a vampire. This is new.
A minute or so later, a familiar staple of the show I love so much comes on screen - the sonic screwdriver.
"What's that?" Carmilla asks, looking at the blue and silver marvel of engineering. Sometimes I forget that not everyone knows the show inside out like I do.
"It- it's basically like some kind of advanced Gallifreyan - that's the planet he's from, he's an alien - technology. It can basically do anything, open doors, hack computers, reverse polarity of- stuff- I dunno, it's his magic tech stick basically. It doesn't do wood, though. That's clear."
Ash, who up until this point has been nodding silently, pipes up.
"Could you build it?"
"What?" The question takes me by surprise.
"Well, you're the tech one, aren't you? Do you think that you could build that?" She points at the screen.
"Are you sure that's even possible?" Carmilla tilts her head to the side.
"I- I think I could..." I trail off, my mind already starting to run with the idea.
If you make it so it can transmit wireless signals... and then add in compatability with the automatic doors in the Lair... and see if you can get a small speaker in for the sonic bit... oh, you might be onto something here, Allen...
"Give me a second."
I fly up from the couch and up to one of the higher platforms, the one where I keep my "passion projects" - also known as the movie science I've managed to build in real life - and grab a roll of paper and some pencils.
Soaring back down, I hurriedly begin sketching as Ash hits play again, and I try to capture the exact shape and size of the screwdriver whenever it's on screen.
By the time that the episode's ended, I barely have time to ask what Ash and Carmilla thought of it before I show them all the sketches and plans that I've been making while the show was on.
It's only when I see her small smirk that I realise that Ash might have been joking.
"W- were you being serious?" I ask in a small voice.
"Sure! You've got the idea now, haven't you?" Her smile seems to become more genuine, and I breathe a small sigh of relief.
"You gonna do it, then?" Carmilla nudges me with a lot more strength than I would have thought - oh right, vampire - and I shrug.
"Not like I've got much better to do."
"You could do your actual job-" Ash starts, but she can't get through the sentence with a straight face.
"Not a chance. Now, do you think I'd be able to get into the Engineering building this late at night?"
She smirks, and takes a deep breath.
"If you manage to build an actual functioning sonic screwdriver, I will make the biggest campfire that you've ever seen in your life, and that is a promise."
