Fortnightly Writing Competition: PRISON DRAMA (RESULTS!)

[Stupot]

How many votes do we get per category? 

Lets just say 1 vote per category, seeing as there are fewer entries this time round.

For anyone thinking 'nah, tl:dr,' I've read all the stories now and they're all worth setting aside the time for

[Sinitrena]

I hope your test went well, Adeel!

Best Character: WHAM - Both stories have interesting characters, WHAM's more on the tragic side, Baron's on the comic, absurd side. I think Baron's main character could make for a very interesting personality, if he were flashed out more. The same is true for some of his supporting characters. The problem is that there are just too many of them and I don't feel like I actually "met" even one of them really. WHAM's characters on the other hand have less of a quirky personality but I still feel I know them better after reading his story.
Best Plot: WHAM - I did not expect this ending. As a matter of fact, I had no idea where this story was going when I started to read (or, I probably thought it was going somewhere else) I'm always very, very happy when a story manages to surprise me. Kudos.
Best Atmosphere: WHAM - "It was a dark and stormy night..." Oh, wait, wrong story. Kidding aside, WHAM's story offers some wonderful desciptions of a drab place, quite fitting for the dark tone of the story.
Best Setting: Baron - Baron's "facility" is more detailed than WHAM's prison ship.
Best Word Choice/Style: Baron - As always, some great descriptions from Baron, though WHAM's weren't bad at all, so this was a tough category to decide.

As so often, amazing stories, guys!

[Baron]

I agree that you should not be put off by the length: these are good reads, people!  I lament that I was not able to give more votes, but Stupot+ has cruelly tied my hands in that regard.  So, here's how I see the chips falling:

Best Character: WHAM for his brooding, wrathful guard.  He's only in the story briefly at the end, but his character is as towering as it is terrifying: morally self-righteous and yet morally reprehensible at the same time.  Scary!

Best Plot: Sinitrena, because her story kept me guessing where it was going until the very end.

Best Atmosphere: WHAM for the turbulent storm that reflected the tempestuous characters and events on his barge.

Best Setting: Sinitrena for her prison and contextual background world, especially the idea of an "imprisoned" super-being acting as both the doer of dirty-work and the fount of knowledge to a powerful magical order.

Best Word Choice/Style: I've got to give a slight edge to WHAM here, for his authentic period-sounding dialogue and the intensity of how he portrayed the scene.

[WHAM]

Best Character: Sinitrena, for the lavishly detailed vampire

Best Plot: Sinitrena's gothic vampire tale really got my mind working overtime. Lovely details and lore embedded in a lovely package, albeit a bit too lengthy for the Fortnightly.

Best Atmosphere: Sinitrena's prison takes the cake from the first words to the last. Lovely, how the mindset of the protagonist affects the mood of the tale so much.

Best Setting: Sinitrena, for certain. The Facility of Baron's design does not tell much of itself, and seems like a rather bland incarceration facility in comparison. The fact that Sinitrena and I also see eye to eye when it comes to choosing a time period also helped my decision.

Best Word Choice/Style: Baron. I feel that Sinitrena's story suffered from it's length and numerous typographical errors, although the issue is more in technique than style.


EDIT: I just realized what I did! Someone else vote! Read up, folks, getcha readin' on right here, this fortnight! Read'n'vote'n'validate our existence!

[kconan]

Best Character: Sinitrena (Ystichor)
Best Plot: Baron - I'm a sucker for escape planning and follow-through
Best Atmosphere: Baron - Just a hair over WHAM's on this one...I could feel the tension in that prison
Best Setting: Sinitrena - For the prison/World; good stuff
Best Word Choice/Style: WHAM - Here thar be lots o' old school jargon

[Stupot]

One more day if voting left. Let's get some more votes in. Thanks kconan for your input as the only non-participant so far to cast his thoughts.

I was gonna leave mine til last, but I'll post them now as an excuse to bump the thread

Best Character: Baron for Roach. He promised us smarts, both Of the street and verbal kind, and he didn't disappoint.
Best Plot: Hmm, I've been struggling with this one, but I think Baron gets this too.
Best Atmosphere: Baron again. Of all three stories, his was the one where I most felt like I was there witnessing the events. WHAM's wasn't far behind, and Sinitrena's needed a tighter edit as all the atmosphere was lost in Ystrichor's explanations of his motivations and thought processes.
Best Setting: Sinitrena I enjoyed fantasy setting and the uniqueness of Ystrichor's voluntary prison/library set-up.
Best Word Choice/Style: Baron takes this one, too I'm afraid. Crisper than my mum's pork crackling, especially in the first half. Though WHAM's period dialogue was also very enjoyable to read.

[Adeel]

I didn't had the time to write but I surely have the time to  vote:

Best Character: Baron for Roach - I like the way he swears.
Best Plot: WHAM for a sad story.
Best Atmosphere: WHAM because I could feel as if I was actually there.
Best Setting: Sinitrena. While I'm not a big fan of vampire stuff but I did found her setting quite impressive. 
Best Word Choice/Style: Baron for colourful swearing.

I hope your test went well, Adeel!

Yes, it went well indeed. Thank you.

[Stupot]

Thanks for your votes Adeel.

Okay let's do this.
I've counted the votes and it's really about as close as it can get. There are just 2 points between all three participants.

In Bronze place: WHAM with 9 points.

Everybody loved your period setting and colourful style. Your story had a great twist and was plain fun to read, but alas, someone has to come third and it seems you were pipped at the post.

In Silver place: Sinitrena with 10 points.

This was a really nice story with the undisputed (except by yourself) best setting of all the stories.  Your main character was also popular and with a tighter edit you could have seen yourself in 1st, but it wasn't to be, because...

In GOLD place: Baron with 11 points.

This was my personal favourite of the three. Just a solid good read all the way through. Your sleek dialogue and the raw, tense prison atmosphere were popular and your character's swearing was well-received. It really was a prison drama, but with more inventory-based puzzle-solving.

Congratulations Baron.
Your turn.

[WHAM]

Congratulations to Baron! Glad to see so many people voted.

[Baron]

Wow!  What an honour.   I really thought WHAM had me there -his was a great piece.  I really liked aspects of Sinitrena's story as well, but I agree with the consensus that a bit of editing would have made it a tighter story. 

I reluctantly accept the praise for my "authentic swearing."   In my darkest days as a teenager this was more or less how I spoke (since this was more or less how everyone around me spoke).  It's an "ability" I'm not very proud of, and toe-stubbing aside I'm proud to report that I barely swear at all nowadays.    Still, in picturing how prisoners would behave in my mind, it was impossible for me to conceive of a way to portray their thoughts and words without swearing.  And once the floodgates were opened, well....

I'm glad Stupot+ mentioned the inventory aspects of the story, for the concept was something I conceived as an adventure game waaaaaaay back.  But in the end I thought the concept too hardcore for a joker like me to execute effectively, so I never pursued it.  Indeed, it was something I had entirely forgotten until Stu's theme got me thinking along the same lines again.  So I'm happy that the idea did in the end come to fruition, if not exactly as I originally thought it would.

Anyway, I'll try to get a new theme up ASAP.  I hope to see you all out for the next exciting instalment of....

....The Fortnightly Writing Competition!

[Gilbert]

Congratulations to Baron for becoming the GRAND SLAM WINNER of the Short Story Competitions not for once, twice, but... THRICE!

[kconan]

Has to be a record; congrats Baron!