Imagine finding out that your new friend was an assassin after two days and not only not being impressed or scared, but frustrated, because this sort of thing keeps happening. In today’s prompt of the day from Rooftop Writing Prompts, we have a dialogue prompt with a couple of characters who live some very interesting lives.
We may not know much about either of them, but what is said in the dialogue is definitely telling. When you find out someone is an assassin, this is not your normal response.
There is so much to unpack here. The first thing that catches my attention, besides the fact that one character is an assassin is that there is not fear in the first speaker’s voice. It’s unclear in the first line, but in their second line, it appears to be more like annoyance or resignation. Somehow they’ve been here before and they can’t believe they are actually here, again. It just seems like this is a never ending cycle in their life.
I wonder what that is. Is there something special about this character? Are they lucky (or unlucky) in their friends? Who are their other friends?
The next thing is that they have only known each other for two days and a secret of this magnitude has not only been revealed, but the assassin is surprised that the other character didn’t see it coming. What has been revealed about this character in the last two days that would lead that kind of reveal?
Finally, we have the assassin’s reaction to the tidbit about the other character’s circle of friends. There is clear surprise in those words and while that could be faked, what does this reveal mean to them? Are they curious about the other friends this person has or is there more to it in their mind?
I found this to be quite interesting and while I’m not sure if I would use it, I do have some assassins in one of my series and if I did something revolving around the right member of that group, I could see this being a fun idea to play with. Is this an idea you can see yourself using?