Quick: Get me outta this pickle!

mfarraday · Jun 6, 2013

Protagonist: time traveler from 2060. Travels back to 1860 to steal a bar of gold from a train wreck. Gets caught by a well-meaning passenger with a rifle. How does he get out of it?

Character 1: old lady, senile and leaning on a cane
Character 2: young woman of 18, about to enter into an arranged marriage
Character 3: the man with a gun, going to the Old West to claim his inheritance. He is holding up the protagonist.

How can the protagonist get away from this group with his gold, without anyone getting hurt? His horse is nearby, but he's being held hostage.

Solutions:
1. the old lady faints and needs her smelling salts, providing a distraction. *BORING*
2. the young girl is infatuated with the time traveler. She promises to hold the gun on him when the gun-toting man gets distracted by an arriving covered wagon. She lets him get away. *BORING*
3. a group of Native Americans appears and a conflict ensues *CLICHE*
4. Someone is bitten by a rattlesnake and the time traveler gets away with the distraction *UGH*
5. An earthquake miraculously distracts everyone *DEUX EX MACHINA*

Any ideas? Hmm.

I hope it's ok to ask for ideas.

Here is what I ended up with:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=271679

buz · Jun 6, 2013

6. Time traveler whips out his futuristic laser-pointer-sized taser
7. Time traveler remembers the words of his Krav Maga teacher: "if all else fails, act like a fucking lunatic"--so he bites his own tongue off and spews blood (or something)
8. Time traveler pretends he is possessed by a demon, speaks in tongues, drops to the floor, convulses, and rolls out the door of the train, sustaining only a few broken bones
9. Time traveler has a problem with bowel control and shits himself and the gunman starts laughing and the TT disarms him and wipes the barrel of the gun on his ass and the gunman won't touch it
10. Infatuated girl tries to bat the gun away but the gunman fires and shoots TT in the toe
11. TT swipes the old lady's cane and uses it as a weapon
12. TT kicks man in balls
13. TT has futuristic watch gizmo that collects and condenses urine so he never has to pee. He presses the button and unleashes a stream of pressurized piss into the shooter's eyes

mfarraday · Jun 6, 2013

I like 6 and 10.

Bufty · Jun 6, 2013

What's the story? What's important? Where does the train-wreck fit in?

Also depends how he time travels, surely.

teeta6404 · Jun 6, 2013

I like Character 2. I think suggestion 10 sounds somewhat entertaining.

Zeddo · Jun 6, 2013

Well, let's see...

They didn't have the technology in 1860 that we have now, let alone what will probably exist by 2060.

So...the protagonist has a pocket device that can create holograms so real he's able to produce an image that distracts the gunman (Abraham Lincoln? Sitting Bull? Lady Gaga? ) until he can escape.

OK, maybe not. But the fact that ordinary technology from 2060 would be a complete mystery to people in 1860 might work somehow.

mfarraday · Jun 6, 2013

This is a short story. My character Quinn traveled back to 1860 because there isn't any gold to be found in 2060 except a wee little bit. He needs more so that his time machine will work. Back at the time machine, someone just got bit by a scorpion, and there is a band of cowboys trying to get into the time machine, as well, harrassing the other characters.

So Quinn needs to get back to the time machine so they can jump back to 2060 - in the next few minutes. But now he's stuck. He's a rumpled, scatter brained genius-scientist who is plagued by insomnia.

mfarraday · Jun 6, 2013

Zeddo said:
So...the protagonist has a pocket device that can create holograms so real he's able to produce an image that distracts the gunman (Abraham Lincoln? Sitting Bull? Lady Gaga? ) until he can escape.

OK, maybe not. But the fact that ordinary technology from 2060 would be a complete mystery to people in 1860 might work somehow.

Actually, my OTHER characters are already using a hologram.

But you're right - 2060 technology in 1860 might be the answer. Gotta think of something that he maybe brought along with him, convenient without being cliche, doesn't need paragraphs of explanation...hmmm...*racking brain*

mfarraday · Jun 6, 2013

What about the train wreck? Can my protagonist somehow loosen a lever on a boxcar full of coal, spilling the coal everywhere? I wonder how hard that would be, to accomplish.

Takoglint · Jun 6, 2013

11. Gunner gets a closer look at the TT and falls in love with him.

(sorry, just had to.)

mfarraday · Jun 6, 2013

Maybe a boxcar is turned precariously to its side, about to spill the coal, and nobody sees it but the time traveler, and he saves everyone from the ensuing landslide, it buries the gun, and he gets away with a bar of gold. Hmm...

mfarraday · Jun 6, 2013

Takoglint said:
11. Gunner gets a closer look at the TT and falls in love with him.

(sorry, just had to.)

LOL...

Crescendo2020 · Jun 6, 2013

Smart with good intentions thief-Perhaps he'd visited the train on multiple visits earlier on, and was prepared for the rifleman. He then used subtle distractions that only he could have been privy to, to ward off the good deed and escape with the loot.
Smart evil thief-Same scenario, except the thief makes the rifleman pay in blood.
Stupid, good thief-Perhaps he gets lucky after tempting the rifleman to shoot and manages to take the rifle and flees.
Stupid, bad thief- Perhaps he takes a hostage, forcing the rifleman to lower his weapon.

I suppose his personality might help you decide what route he might take. I'd say that it would be interesting for him to use futuristic technology in some way to aid his escape.

Little Anonymous Me · Jun 6, 2013

Hm, I'm always fond of this approach:

Person A: :guns:

Person B: Yes! Finally! Shoot me! I've been waiting for so long!

Tends to confuse people. :tongue

Zeddo said:
So...the protagonist has a pocket device that can create holograms so real he's able to produce an image that distracts the gunman (Abraham Lincoln? Sitting Bull? Lady Gaga? ) until he can escape.

No. It is way too cruel to expose the innocents of 1860 to that which is Gaga. Nobody deserves that.

mfarraday · Jun 6, 2013

Aha - the rifleman shooting the gun, but he just misses - hadn't thought of that. Might be a good way to go. Thanks.

mfarraday · Jun 6, 2013

Maybe vultures swoop down and distract the gunman as he shoots.

mfarraday · Jun 6, 2013

A fire starts in the locomotive and everyone starts screaming that it's going to explode.

mfarraday · Jun 6, 2013

*Wondering what fossil fuels besides coal would've been transported by boxcar in 1860...* Oil was not an industry yet. ( think.) But oil welling out of the ground nearby, sparked by heat coming from the wrecked train, could cause a fire...

Takoglint · Jun 6, 2013

XX. Gunman lowers his gun and said, "TT, I am your great great grandfather."

dangerousbill · Jun 6, 2013

mfarraday said:
Protagonist: time traveler from 2060. Travels back to 1860 to steal a bar of gold from a train wreck.

Mines in the west tended to cast gold and silver in stamped ingots weighing 80-100 lb, too heavy to carry on a horse and escape at the same time. Gold was often found combined with silver, and if so, the alloy was generally left intact until it arrived at a more secure location and the two could be separated.

dangerousbill · Jun 6, 2013

Takoglint said:
XX. Gunman lowers his gun and said, "TT, I am your great great grandfather."

"TT, I am your great great grandfather. Take me with you to the future."

TT complies, and when they arrive, TT disappears, having never existed. Grandpa is now in 2060 with a big bar/bag of gold and a rifle.

mfarraday · Jun 6, 2013

dangerousbill said:
Mines in the west tended to cast gold and silver in stamped ingots weighing 80-100 lb, too heavy to carry on a horse and escape at the same time. Gold was often found combined with silver, and if so, the alloy was generally left intact until it arrived at a more secure location and the two could be separated.

Shoot.

mfarraday · Jun 6, 2013

Maybe he escapes by donkey. cloppity-cloppity-cloppity...

Buffysquirrel · Jun 6, 2013

Believing the protagonist to be her son/husband/brother/other male relative, the old lady uses her cane to break the gunman's wrist. Would work better if identity confusion were foreshadowed.

BrightSera · Jun 6, 2013

Guns in small spaces are supposedly not a good idea, so the guy with the rifle could scuffle and lose it and have it turned on him?

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