Every TV news station, radio station, and streaming service across the globe covered the last chance redemption challenge between the infamous sorcerer bent on world domination and the magical frying pan.
Bars and restaurants—any place with a large screen—were packed with patrons who watched together in riveted silence. Teachers turned on the match in their classrooms. College professors cancelled classes because they wouldn’t get any work done anyway. Some businesses closed early; others businesses that stayed open had few to no customers which resulted in the employees stood around radios and watched the event on their phone screens.
Every time the frying pan ‘Pan’ scored a point, hopeful cheers and yelps went up from viewers before a hush settled again. No one wanted to jinx anything.
The three cameramen shooting the event struggled to remain stoic in their duties.
When the events began, the cameramen were as anxious as the next person. After the first quarter, they became hopeful it would be a shutout in favor of the pan. The sorcerer learned quickly during the second quarter and began bouncing back in the third, causing the cameramen to glower pale and exchange tense glances more than once.
The third quarter ended with a score of 21 to 6, with Pan leading. Five of the points lost to the sorcerer were the result of the frying pan failing to reply within the allotted 5 seconds because he was laughing too hysterically to form words. The comebacks that scored those points hadn’t been amazing or anything—in fact, they had been so awful that the whole world cringed.
Josh has some serious guts.
Dad’s legs were jello by simply standing in the same country as the sorcerer Grant King. He didn’t know how his normally anxious son, Josh, could stand on the stage to support the frying pan at the right-hand podium under the scrutiny of the entire developed world without having a panic attack.
Dad watched his son from stage right, his hand crushed in his wife’s grip. “Hey, Babe?”
Mom cleared her dry throat to find her voice. “Uh-hu?”
They hadn’t spoken a word since the challenge began.
“Our son is a badass,” breathed Dad.
A proud smile grew across Mom’s mouth.
“Your frying pan is pretty badass, too.”
The three announcers lingered just off stage, waiting for the break clock to run down before the fourth quarter.
“These are the longest five minutes ever,” grumbled Announcer Mason. Face beet red, he rolled up his the long sleeves of his red track suit and blotted perspiration from his forehead with a towel provided by a stage assistant.
Announcer Ju-Won considered Mason. “Are you okay? You’re sweating like crazy.”
Journey, feeling warm under the spotlights and in long sleeves and pants, fanned herself with a folded piece of paper. “At least he’s not as bad as that guy.” She nodded toward one of the referees who looked as though he’d been thrown in a pool with his clothes on.
Mason chuckled. “Whoahoho, definitely not that bad.”
A buzzer turned their heads toward the scoreboard. The game clock reset to 7 minutes and their stomachs twisted in knots. Over the last 4 years, Sorcerer Grant King single-handedly upended lives worldwide with his egocentric whims which, teaching people to not take happy endings for granted. Even though Pan was ahead in points, it wasn’t over until it was over.
The stage manager signaled to the announcers to begin the fourth quarter.
[to be continued…]
Prompt: Frying pan defeats sorcerer and saves the world.
Source: The misinterpretation and miscommunication of a prompt from an online random plot generator.
Duri Rolvsson 