Survival of the Fittest (a SUAW event): Fantasy's Got Talent

Round Zero: The Auditions

Late one evening when your character is about to go to bed, they hear a knock at the door. As they open it, a little old lady with gray curly hair and a rather long hooked nose, stands outside. She introduces herself as Miss Avise Renshaw. 

Avise explains that she works for Fantasy's Got Talent. She produces a scroll which is a handwritten invitation to your character to invite them to compete. They must travel to where the challenges (auditions) will be heldThe aim of this round is to show your character's thoughts and feelings about the event. 

 Show where the auditions are held and how your character gets to them. Word count 500-1,000 words.  

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The writers had gotten everything wrong. Everything.

Sunny Summers thumbed her remote with a sigh and tossed it to the arm of the sofa where it bounced once, turned over, and landed neatly in the end table caddy. She acknowledged its perfect landing with a nod and a grin that many would have interpreted as vainglorious, but she felt gratitude more than anything. She wasn't sure who received her thanks, but felt it was important to recognize those little twists of fate, especially when they bent her way.

It wasn't enough to distract her, however, from the abysmal documentary she'd been watching. Atlantis Unearthed, it was called. She'd have subtitled it "The Alternate Universe Edition," but sarcasm often arrived as an afterthought, and it didn't occur to her until much later.

Driven beneath the waves by volcanic activity, they had said, but Sunny knew better. She hadn't seen the place for herself, that would have been an even more ridiculous claim, but a discovery she and Wil made the year before, far beneath the Delphi Crossing Shopping Center, had revealed secrets from that ancient past. Of course they kept it silent despite Wil's protests; the world was far from ready for what they found.

The only reason she had bothered with Atlantis Unearthed was to see how close these researchers had come to the truth. They might as well have been digging for turnips in the Sahara, she thought, and that really was a very good thing. That reasonable fact didn't abate her annoyance one bit.

She was so deep in thought she almost missed the knock at the door. It was a little late for company, but living in a small town often meant unannounced visitors. Already in her night shirt, she didn't move from the sofa. Mom would want to answer it anyway.

Audrey Summers shuffled excitedly from her bedroom to the door and muffled voices soon echoed from the foyer. Mom had Down's Syndrome, much worse than dad's had been, but while a handful of simple tasks evaded her grasp she saw everything and remembered most of what she saw. She was also a social butterfly and could draw conversation out of Saharan turnip.

After a few minutes, Audrey stepped back into the living room. "It's for you, Nugget," she said, obviously puzzled. "She's a witch."

"A what?" Sunny sat up quickly. Mom didn't call people names, at least not intentionally, but she could be uncomfortably blunt; a trait they shared.

"Looks like a witch on TV."

"Like a Glenda witch or an Elphaba witch?"

"No, like the apple queen." She meant from Snow White."Do you think she's evil? She didn't have an apple."

"No mom, she's probably just lost," Sunny reassured her with a smile. Not long ago she'd have told her that witches weren't real, back when she'd have said the same thing about Atlantis. Resigned to greet their guest in her P.J.s, she accompanied Audrey back to the front door.