Fortnightly Writing Competition - Background Blitz Edition (Results)

[Sinitrena]

Welcome to the next installment of the Fortnightly Writing Competition.

This time around, we'll honour another long standing competition in our forums: The Background Blitz.

The Background Blitz, of course, requires participants to create a game background. But what is the story that happens in these scenes? Who are the people walking around in this background? What are they doing?

Obviously, it's your job to tell us! Take a background from one of the blitzes and tell us its story (and I don't mean how it was drawn  ). For some, participants have hinted at the story themselves or later used the background in games - you can ignore or embrace this. It is up to you.

For a list of topics, look here.

Some links to pictures might not exist any more, especially for older topics. Unfortunately, you won't be able to use these as inspiration.

It is perfectly fine to base your story on one of your own entries in the Background Blitz, or on several pictures from the same or different topics.

Let us know what background you have chosen.

Deadline: 1. March

Happy Writing!

[Stupot]

I like the theme. Can't promise anything, but I'll browse the Blitz hall of fame and see if inspiration strikes.

[Baron]

I was sceptical of this topic, but I've spent some time perusing backgrounds and was surprised at the problem I faced - too many sources of inspiration! 

I think I've finally narrowed it down to two backgrounds. Likelihood of making the March 1 deadline: 75%.

[Sinitrena]

So, how is it going, everyone? Busy writing? Will you meet the deadline? Just 2 days left!

I might find a bit more time for you if you need it.

[Baron]

I was inspired by Milkanannan's entry for the "Unexpected Shelter" edition, back in June 2022.


The Limbus

Spoiler

Tuesday?

I arrived. I'm a little foggy on the details, just like I am with the date. The last thing I remember is falling asleep watching TV after a long day at work. Did I just wake up here the next morning? Did I "get away from it all" and just blackout the intervening details? Have I suffered brain damage and this is all a fantasy? So many questions...

I am grateful for the journal that I found just inside the cave. Pages had been ripped out from near the front, but the first page remaining had a title "Tuesday?" scribbled at the top in a shaky hand. I don't think it's my journal, but as I say I'm a little foggy on the events of the recent past. At least through journaling I have a way of making sense of this new and wondrous place. 

I like it here - it is peaceful. The air is fresh and the view is spectacular. But where is here? To be sure, it is a campsite on a cliff's edge in the middle of a vast wilderness. The sun is setting and I am tired, so I just sit by the crackling fire. As I gaze into the flickering embers I wonder at the mysteries of life.

Wednesday?

It might not be Wednesday, but as yesterday was titled "Tuesday?" it makes sense to continue in the same vein.

Time here seems to be complicated as well as questionable.  I awoke at dawn, or so I supposed, to see the sunrise light up the sky like a birthday cake. Except I am certain that is the same direction I watched the sun set yesterday evening. As I stretch out my journaling, I realize that the sun seems to be neither rising nor setting, but rather forever suspended in exactly the same spot. Yes, I realize the sun is always in the same spot, relatively speaking, and that it must be the Earth that is frozen in place, although the physics of that make no sense either.

And that is not the only thing that makes no sense. There appears to be no path to this tiny plateau. The cliff below and the mountain above are sheer—how did I get here?!? I stare into the embers, looking for answers, only to realize that the fire burns and burns without ever consuming the logs. What is this place?

Perhaps there are answers in the cave? I explored the front of it, up to the point where it became too dark to navigate by anything but touch. I could find nothing inside but rock, although the deeper inside you go you can hear a sound very much like a large animal snoring. With no place to run and no place to hide, I am reluctant to explore further.

And so I while away the hours, legs dangling over the cliffside, enjoying the view.

Thursday?

I must have nodded off. Is it a different day, or just a couple hours later? I decide to make a map of the stars still visible atop the dome of the sky, in order to compare their positions later. The fact that the sun still hovers red at the horizon does not fill me with much optimism, but I am desperate for any kind of distraction.

It seems an exciting world beneath me, just waiting to be explored. There are mountains in the distance, lit up by the sun to glow enticingly on the horizon. It seems to be bright and cheerful there, unlike my plateau prison that is forever locked in a gloamy half-light. It would be nice to make a journey there, through the forest at my feet.

But journeys take time. Without the cave, what will I do if I need shelter if it rains? What will I do for food? What if there are wolves that can hunt me down if I leave my refuge?

These questions bring me to even more uncomfortable thoughts. If the sun never moves, will the weather ever change? I have been here for many days now, but have never once eaten—why am I not hungry? The plateau is safe from wolves, but what if the creature in the cave wakes up?

I decide I must find a way off the plateau at all costs.

Friday?

Thursday did not end well. I tried to scale the cliffs upwards, but got stuck maybe fifteen feet off the ground. My arms, weak from disuse, began to tremble and fail. I skidded down the cliff face, twisting my ankle and scraping the skin off one of my knees in the process. I feel defeated and helpless. This peaceful plateau is really a prison, and I am an inmate. Only a long rest by the eternal fire brought me any comfort.

I begin to contemplate getting down the cliff instead of climbing up. There are tall trees near the ledge—if I could jump and catch the top of one, perhaps it will break my fall? It would be risky. There are thin white rocks on the forest floor, indicating a sharp landing if I miss the trees. I squint into the gloomy shadows beneath the trees—are they white stones or are they bones? A shudder shakes my spine, despite the warmth of the fire.

There is an alternative—the cave. Perhaps there is a path through the darkness to the other side? It is a longshot, but desperation makes me bold. I could push farther into the darkness. But what of the beast that sleeps within?

The fire! Even the fiercest animal fears the flames. I grab an eternally burning branch and use it as a torch, plunging into the cavern. The noise of the animal snores echo like earthquakes through the stone, but I continue, deeper, into the void.

The cave grows smaller, and smaller. At first I crouch, and then I crawl, burning my hands as I cling tenaciously to my only weapon and source of light. The tunnel shrinks yet more, and I am reduced to ooching like a worm.

I find the end of the tunnel, just out of reach, for it is so small I would never fit. There is a mouse asleep on a pile of pine needles, happily dozing away. The shape of the tunnel is like a horn, amplifying its tiny little snores, shaking mountains out of mole hills. I laugh with a delusional giddiness as I consider just giving up then and there.

Saturday?

I've decided that I am in a kind of purgatory, trapped in a gilded cage. Will I while away the hours of eternity on this cursed plateau, the wondrous world always tantalisingly just beyond my grasp? Am I dead? The wound on my leg suggest not. Am I alive? The lack of food for a week suggests not. I am neither dead nor alive, then. I am in a state of ambiguous stasis. I am in limbo. I am going to go insane.

The trees below beckon to me. A short hop would surely prove deadly, but what if I fling myself from the plateau with all my might? Isn't that how one overcomes purgatory, through belief? I have to believe I can make it. It is the only way. But my ankle... will I be able to get enough of a run?

Sunday?

I prepare for my journey. I rip parts of clothing and pee on some of the kindling in the fire, using the cooled sticks and rags to fashion a kind of walking-splint for my injured foot. I practice jumping against the cliff, trying to build my confidence. I stare at the tree tops, envisaging how they would feel in my hands. I can do this. I will do this. To believe is to be able.

I rip these pages from the journal, as well as a few other ones to continue my story. The journal I tuck back just inside the cave for the next poor soul. On a whim I title the first remaining blank page "Monday?" I vacillate between taking or leaving the pen—did I bring it here with me from my former life, or was it already here? I can't remember, and decide that the past doesn't really matter. Taking the pen would be a sign of optimism; leaving it a gesture of generosity. Which one would benefit a lost soul more in the long run?

In the end, I let the pen decide. The rest of the story surely belongs to it.

[close]

[Mandle]

Very cool story, Baron!

[Sinitrena]

Very cool story, Baron!

Indeed, and

Spoiler

very philosophical. Pergatory? Hell? Or simply the protagonist in an adventure game? Though that might be an interpretation that comes fairly easily in the context of this contest, it probably wouldn't come to mind for most people. But it was certainly a thought I had. I liked that the narrator left the journal titled in the same way as he found it, creating the fear? anticipation? something along these lines that the person will just wake up again without memory the next day.
I kinda like that there's no actual solucion here (against my usual stance that I like proper endings), because it adds to the pholosophical nature of the story.
It's interesting how you take specific elements of the background (like the eternal sunset/sunrise) to illustrate the surreal nature of the scene the person is inprisoned in.

[close]

And as we have no other participant (again - 2 topics in a row I sat with just one entry  ), it is my job to declare Baron the winner!

Congrats!

[Baron]

Aw, man! I was looking forward to reading a zany story about that Tyrannosaur wizard. 

I'll try to come up with another topic today.