Fortnightly Writing Competition GREAT WHATEVER (Results)

Started by Baron, Fri 05/01/2018 19:25:02

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Baron

Greatness is what people make of it.  If enough people think something is great, then it becomes great.  But in this era of counter culture and alternative narratives why should we accept what the majority thinks?  Ten men's idea of the greatest thing of all time may solicit only a colossal "meh" from the eleventh.  Circumstances have thus aligned to create a...

Great Whatever



Your story should feature something amazing that most people think is awesome, but someone prominent in your story finds boring, mundane, inane, contemptible, or outright vacuous.  Your special something can be an event (New Years, Valentine's, Birthday, etc.), a piece of art (music, movie, book, etc.), a person (celebrity, sports star, etc.), fad (type of dance, fashion style, way of talking, etc.), or object (whizzbang, doodad, widget, etc.).  Obviously something boring might make for a bad read, so don't be afraid to ham up either the event or the reaction to make it more entertaining.

Possible voting categories include: Best Rant (aloud or thought), Most Unique Thingy that is Popular, Most Insight Into the Psyche (attempts to explain the rationality of following the crowd or bucking the trend), Most Entertaining Whateverness (best story).

Deadline is Friday January 19, 2018.

Good luck to the vast and teeming hordes of potential entrants.  Please be advised that we will only be able to accept the first ten valid submissions, so don't delay and start today! ;-D

Mandle

"God" Is Just "Job" In The Mirror

On my end the timer counted down the last 10 seconds of her life but it was a week for her.

On the next closest rig there was still a good minute to go but I had to stay frosty. They are always a bit jumpy when they come out. You don't want one of them freaking out on you. My buddy three cubbies over had two of his eyes clawed out by a freaker a few weeks ago. He was fine though. Worker's comp covered the surgery.

All the other rigs had at least a dozen plus minutes on their dials so I could relax on those for once. It's rare that I'm not muttering "I wish I had six more hands!". For this once only two would do.

3 seconds left on her. The last two days of her life.

My hand got ready to shift the dial on her rig from "In" to "Out" as I watched the counter on the next closest. His was at 55 seconds. A month and a half left for him.

I put another of my hands on his In/Out dial. Mostly just to keep myself feeling busy.

...2...1...

Her rig exit light flashed red-white-red-white. I turned her dial to "Out" and, as the rig unbound her, her real eyes wandered and then found me and she slurred, "And I dead? Are you God?"

"No, God works a few cubbies over. I'm his cousin," I cracked as always.

Some of her eyes refocused and she said, "Oh yeah, silly me, thanks for the life." and she chuckled and flipped me a tip before slatering off.

I said, "Seem you next time!". Over her shoulders she replied, "Not if I seem you first!".

Him on the next rig was counting down the last few days of his life and, though I was beginning to yawn, I started paying attention to the other rigs that were counting down the last weeks of their lives just to stay focused. I decided to ask him how his life sim had been for him coping with only two arms and legs.

Sometimes I pity those that need to escape reality to live whole lives in fake worlds and sometimes I hate my boring job as one of their "Gods".

But how else am I going to afford college?

Baron

It's probably just my messy handwriting, but to me "god" looks an awful lot like "boe" with a really big "e" in the mirror. (nod)  Something to contemplate for a future "through the looking glass" theme.  In the mean time, we have approximately 5 more days to receive up to nine more submissions.  Get them in while the getting's good! :)

Sinitrena

Arnaud‘s Art

The boy dragged his feet along the long and wide hallway. Still, they fell silent on the marble floor. His breath, on the other hand, could be heard even over the chitter and chatter of the other visitors, not least because he wanted it to be heard. He sighed audibly every few steps and leaned heavily on the handles of his companion's wheelchair. He was careful, though, to not slow him down.

“How much further?” he whined.

His companion ignored him, at least on the outside. On the inside, he smiled.

“Come on, Arnaud, tell me.”

Arnaud kept ignoring him, watching the people around them instead. As could be expected, the hallway was filled with people, idly wandering around and watching the numerous pictures on the wall. They were the usual tourists you found here every day of the week: a pair of lovers, walking arm in arm and having mostly eyes for each other, only occasionally commenting on the art; three girlfriends, who giggled at the few nudes and took pictures of them with their phones; a group of maybe eight or nine people lead by a tour guide. Every now and then, a guard walked past them all.

After a while and further slow steps of the teenaged boy, Arnaud craned his neck and looked up. “You could walk faster, Benjamin,” he suggested mildly, “We're nearly there.” Now, he smiled but his long and thick grey beard obscured his lips. Equally long hair hung over his face, making it difficult if not impossible to read his expression.

“Where?” Ben asked exasperated. It wasn't the first time Arnaud told him that they had just about reached their destination, only to stop at this painting or that or to gaze at one statue or another.

“Just around the corner.” This time, the amusement was audible in his voice and Ben furrowed his brows.

He sighed again, but he did fasten his steps. Most people around them were considerate of the older man in a wheelchair and his young companion and stepped out of their way, disrupting their enjoyment of the paintings on the walls. The rubber wheels squeaked on the floor, and some people looked at the pair disapprovingly. It was unusual to walk through the gallery with such purpose. Even though many came there to see the same room the two were seeking out, they walked slowly, strolling rather than rushing. But the hope to end this excursion as soon as possible made the young man's steps fast again.

A wide doorway lead from the hallway to a room that seemed too small to contain the masses it had to expect. It was crowded. People stood shoulder to shoulder and tried to look over each other or get through the mass to the front where a red barrier rope kept them a few metres away from the most famous painting in the world. A glass wall shielded it further from all the people who just came here to see her, the Mona Lisa.

The visitors Arnaud had noticed earlier had also reached the room. The lovers, still clinging to each other were as close as possible to the painting and finally paid more attention to the art than to each other, the three girls had decided to look at the wall-filling painting opposite the Mona Lisa first, the Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David, while the guide explained facts and told anecdotes in rapid Spanish to his visitors a bit to the side. The guard, who was walking up and down the hallway just moments before had decided to rest for a while and sat on an uncomfortable chair in a corner.

Ben had stopped a few steps past the doorway and leaned on the handles of the wheelchair again. “So, that's it?” he asked, without actually looking at the painting.

Arnaud turned around again. “Look at ‘er. Isn't she beautiful?” Through all the people, it was nearly impossible for him to actually see the painting. He still only took a moment to study his companion before he looked in the general direction of the Mona Lisa again. “Bring me closer to ‘er.”

Cameras clicked over and over again. Two children from the tourist group, too young to be interested in art yet, just like Ben, had wandered over to the group of girls, smiling at Arnaud and Ben in passing, and stared like the girls at the large and colourful scene of Napoleon standing over his wife Joséphine and holding a sparkling crown over her head.

Ben sighed again. “Arnaud!” he whined. “I've seen it. Can we go now?”

Arnaud shook his head. “You know our deal. I could ‘ave called the police on you,” he said, “Now go and look at ‘er properly.”

Ben kicked lightly against the right wheel of the wheelchair and walked forward, grumbling about the older man. But before he had made more than a step, Arnaud caught his wrist and turned him around.

“What?” Ben hissed, “I'm going to look at it, aren't I?”

“Looking is not enough, Benjamin. I want you to see it. ‘ow can you know what to look for if you do not see?”

Ben shook his head and freed his arm with a quick jerk. “Whatever, old man, it's just a painting like all the others here.” He stepped out of Arnaud's reach towards the Mona Lisa, looking at her just to get away from the older man.

“It is so much more,” Arnaud murmured, sure that Ben didn't hear him.

Ben shouldered his way through the group of Spanish tourists along with the three girlfriends, who decided to use his rude behaviour to take pictures with the famous painting, one after the other. Ben stood at the rope and looked at the most famous woman in the world, imprisoned behind a thick wall of glass that made it difficult to see her. The light reflected in the bulletproof glass. The beige wall and the golden frame encased a small dark and gloomy picture of a sad woman. This, at least, was the impression Ben got from her when he finally took the time to look at her. He still didn't get why the painting was famous. It seemed like thousand others he had seen in the Louvre that day.

The other visitors were of a different opinion. They stood there and stared, awe and fascination on their faces, or just the feeling of satisfaction you get when you are close to someone or something of importance. Ben just shrugged on the inside. What was so special about the portrait of some random woman that people had to stand in front of her for more time than any other painting, and even taking selfies with it?

He spend some time there, but he just didn't get it.

“La Joconde was stolen once and attacked at least three times,” Arnaud said when Ben returned to him.

“So? That only means it's famous. For the sake of being famous. People are interested in it because other people are. That's all.”

“Maybe, Benjamin, maybe. What does this tell you about art?”

“Do you have to make everything a lesson? You told me you'd teach me how not to get caught. What does this have to do with an old piece of canvas...”

“La Joconde is painted on poplar panel, Benjamin. Does this teach you anything?”

“Should it?” Ben was getting more and more exasperated with the old thief who had basically blackmailed him to come to the Louvre with him on this weekend. It was the condition that he would not be arrested for trying to burgle his home.

“Yes, it should. You can't roll it up, for example.”

“You're not telling me you wanted me to look at the Mona Lisa to steal it, do you?”

Arnaud shook his head. “Don't be ridiculous, Benjamin.”

When the teenager sighed with relief, Arnaud smiled the first time since they had entered the Louvre openly at him. “So you do know your limitations,” he said.

Without really thinking much about it, with an agreement in their actions that hadn't found its way to their words yet, they had left the room of the Mona Lisa and returned to the great hallway just outside, where paintings over paintings filled all walls up until the ceiling and where stone benches stood in the middle for tired visitors who needed a moment to themselves. Ben had sat down opposite Arnaud's wheelchair, that was now blocking the path of unobservant visitors. They spoke silently, making sure that nobody heard them as the nature of their conversation was slightly suspicious.

“I wouldn't know ‘ow,” Arnaud admitted, “It's not like in 1911 when you could just walk out of ‘ere with ‘er. That doesn't meant you can't steal in the Louvre, of course.”

“From the Louvre,” Ben corrected without thinking much about it. Even though Arnaud was French, his English was excellent.

Arnaud actually laughed at that. “No, even though there are less protected works, I do know my limits, and I do not mean my legs. I do mean in the Louvre. There are quiet a few pickpockets around here.”

“Fascinating. You still haven't told me why we are here,” Ben said with the driest voice he could muster.

Now it was Arnaud's turn to sigh. “Did you see the people react to ‘er? Art is never just art. A painting is never just a painting, just like a theft is never just a theft. There is always a story. Sometimes the story is important, sometimes it isn't. You do not need to know the story to understand art. You do not need to like something to understand it or appreciate it. La Jocone is famous because she is famous. That is true. It is not the ‘ole story, but it is true. If she weren't so famous, less people would want to see ‘er. It wouldn't change the painting at all, she would still ‘ave ‘er mysterious smile and she would still be a masterpiece of Da Vinci, no matter ‘ow many people come to see ‘er. And that she is famous doesn't make ‘er better either. She's just a painting like many others, no matter what people say about the composition or the artistic execution. It is not the artist that makes something ‘art', it's not the technique and it's not even the reception. There is art that was never considered great and there might still be people ‘o love it. No, art is a sphere of its own, and always lies in the eyes of the be'older. If you want to be successful in any kind of job, you need to understand what other people see in it, even if you do not care about it. Do you understand?”

Ben looked at Arnaud for a while, not saying a word. He tried to understand what the older man wanted to tell him, but in the end, he just looked back into the room filled with tourists, all trying to catch a glimpse of a supposed masterpiece that looked like any other painting to him.

“It's oil and wood,” he said in the end, “Just a bit of oil on a piece of wood. There's nothing special about it.”

“There is, if you ask some art experts or me. I do like La Joconde.”

“But that's not the point. It's the reaction of people. It's never the artwork, just the perception of people. That's what makes something great or valuable. - I still think it's boring.”

----------------------------------------

You met the character Ben before in Lady Susanna's Necklace, Inspector Coultry's Boat and Zacharia's Stern's Last Will. This is chronologically the first story.

I think I remember correctly that The Coronation of Napoleon hangs opposite the Mona Lisa but it's a few years since I was in the Louvre and I couldn't find the information on the Louvre's website (which doesn't mean it's not there, of course).

Photos, if you're interested:
Spoiler


That's me with the Mona Lisa in the background.


This painting is huge.
[close]

Baron

Sweet criminy, that deadline sure creeps up on you!  I'll leave the comp open for 24 hours as of this post if anyone wants to make a last ditch effort to enter. 

Mandle

Sinitrena, I found your story charming and especially this sentence grabbed my attention as being very elegant writing:

"Ben stood at the rope and looked at the most famous woman in the world"

But I must admit that I got excited about halfway through at where I thought the story was going but it did not go there:

Spoiler
I thought the boy and the man in the wheelchair were about to pull off the most amazing art heist of all time without getting caught. I was starting to imagine how they could possibly do it in front of so many witnesses. Smuggling it out wouldn't be so hard because of the wheelchair to hide it in but the rest of the details on how they would pull it off had me waiting with baited breath...
[close]

The story didn't go there though and ended a bit flat for me with what seemed like a reminder of the theme of the contest rather than an organic flow of rich characters and environment into the conclusion. It probably also contained your own feelings at having seen the painting. I was outside the Louvre about 25 years ago and the smartest man I've ever met asked us if we wanted to go in and line up for three hours to see the Mona Lisa or if we wanted to go get a coffee down the street at a cafe and watch Paris walk by. We went for the latte option.

Baron

....And we're closed.  Thanks to all the competitors who submitted a story this round!  They are, in alphabetical order:

Mandle with "God" Is Just "Job" In The Mirror
Sinitrena with Arnaud‘s Art

Voting will be in the following categories:

Best Rant (aloud or thought)
Most Unique Thingy that is Popular
Most Insight Into the Psyche (attempts to explain the rationality of following the crowd or bucking the trend)
Least Meh Atmosphere (a combination of writing style and word choice)
Most Entertaining Whateverness (best story)

Sorry for the extra category thrown in there, but I feel with only two entrants that we need an odd number of categories to avoid the likelihood of a tie.

Voting will be open until Wednesday January 14, with votes tabulated the following day.

Good luck to all contestants!

Sinitrena

QuoteThe story didn't go there though and ended a bit flat for me with what seemed like a reminder of the theme of the contest

I never planned a great heist for my protagonists, but I originally had the two Spanish children as grandchildren of Arnaud and pickpockets - and there was an actual lesson for Ben. I even considered having it as a whodunnit. I just didn't like it at all in the end and removed it again. It just didn't flow. It was a better plot but a worse story.

Now, to your story, Mandle.

I read it three times and I'm still not entirely sure if I got what is going on. I think, the narrator works for a corporation that offers a kind of virtual reality for its clients, or they test a virtual reality? They are not human, but play as humans? They are confused for a second when they come out of it and so they are not sure what function the narrator has?
So, I don't have much to say to the writing itself. It kept me interested and guessing what is going on. One thing took me out, though:: I said, "Seem you next time!". Over her shoulders she replied, "Not if I seem you first!". That's intentional, not a typo, I presume, because it's there twice, but what reason is there for it?
I liked the last sentence. Apparently all worlds have problems with people paying for their education.

Best Rant: Mandle - there wasn't really one, but from the selection I had, Mandles was the best.
Most Unique Thingy that is Popular: Mandle - Is the narrator popular?
Most Insight Into the Psyche: Mandle - This virtual reality on the other hand seems rather popular.
Least Meh Atmosphere: Mandle
Most Entertaining Whateverness: Mandle


QuoteI was outside the Louvre about 25 years ago and the smartest man I've ever met asked us if we wanted to go in and line up for three hours to see the Mona Lisa or if we wanted to go get a coffee down the street at a cafe and watch Paris walk by. We went for the latte option.

The trick is to book beforhand as a group. We didn't go through the main entrance and waited exactly as long as it took security to scan our bags.

JudasFm

*sigh* Every time I tried writing for this, it morphed into the complete opposite of the prompt. Here's hoping I'll have more luck next time ;)

Quote from: Sinitrena on Tue 23/01/2018 07:02:49
The trick is to book beforhand as a group. We didn't go through the main entrance and waited exactly as long as it took security to scan our bags.

Ooh, I'll have to remember that. I went to Paris years ago but never got to visit the Louvre (it was one of those school exchange things).

Best Rant: I'll go with Sinitrena. I didn't spot much in the way of ranting in either story if I'm honest, but Arnaud's speech about the painting comes the closest.
Most Unique Thingy that is Popular: Mandle. The Mona Lisa's popularity goes without saying, but I like how Mandle came up with something specifically for this contest.
Most Insight Into the Psyche: To tell the truth, I really didn't get any of this from either entry. Sinitrena comes closest with Ben's comment at the end about how art is based on people's perceptions of it, so I'll vote for her.
Least Meh Atmosphere: Sinitrena. I could picture the surroundings and the characters very well. Mandle's seemed like it was a good idea, but we only ever got the bare bones of it and I couldn't picture it in my mind. I couldn't picture any of the characters or the place - is it on another planet, another plane of reality; are they gods, superbeings, aliens, prawns, VR programmers or all of the above; what is the background; where are they - there were too many questions and like Sinitrena, I didn't really get what was going on.
Most Entertaining Whateverness: Again, I'm going with Sinitrena.

Blondbraid

Best Rant: Sinitrena
Most Unique Thingy that is Popular: Mandle
Most Insight Into the Psyche: Sinitrena
Least Meh Atmosphere: Sinitrena
Most Entertaining Whateverness: Sinitrena

kconan

Best Rant: Sinitrena for Arnaud's monologue near the end
Most Unique Thingy that is Popular: Mandle
Most Insight Into the Psyche: Sinitrena
Least Meh Atmosphere: Sinitrena
Most Entertaining Whateverness: Sinitrena

Mandle

Quote from: JudasFm on Tue 23/01/2018 13:27:22
is it on another planet, another plane of reality; are they gods, superbeings, aliens, prawns, VR programmers or all of the above; what is the background; where are they - there were too many questions and like Sinitrena, I didn't really get what was going on.

Quote from: Sinitrena on Tue 23/01/2018 07:02:49
I think, the narrator works for a corporation that offers a kind of virtual reality for its clients, or they test a virtual reality? They are not human, but play as humans? They are confused for a second when they come out of it and so they are not sure what function the narrator has?
So, I don't have much to say to the writing itself. It kept me interested and guessing what is going on. One thing took me out, though:: I said, "Seem you next time!". Over her shoulders she replied, "Not if I seem you first!". That's intentional, not a typo, I presume, because it's there twice, but what reason is there for it?
I liked the last sentence. Apparently all worlds have problems with people paying for their education.

To explain my story:

The theme was to write a story where something seemed awesome to somebody but just "meh" to everyone else.

So I imagined what "God" would feel like if he was just a worker in a workplace that provided the clients with an entire life, VR style, which they would feel took 80 years or whatever their lifespan in the VR world was, but it was only like a couple of hours for him.

And then I imagined what it would be like to wake up after having lived an entire life that felt like 80+ years but then the VR "rig" "unbounds" you and suddenly you are back in your real life where your body might be completely different to the one you had in the simulated life.

I tried to do a lot of hinting about the difference of bodies without it being too intrusive. I wanted it to feel like something the narrator would naturally say without having it sound like exposition.

Lines like:

My buddy three cubbies over had two of his eyes clawed out by a freaker a few weeks ago.

My hand got ready to shift the dial on her rig from "In" to "Out"...I put another of my hands on his In/Out dial. Mostly just to keep myself feeling busy.

Over her shoulders she replied, "Not if I seem you first!".

These lines (and quite a few others) were all supposed to tell the reader that the narrator's world was not the human one.

(Oh, and the "seem you next time" line was to suggest that these lifeforms had other senses than just seeing to sense and communicate with each other.... A subtle attempt at something clever which seems to have maybe failed...)

One of the final lines: "I decided to ask him how his life sim had been for him coping with only two arms and legs." was supposed to suggest that maybe even we humans might also wake up after death in this world to find ourselves in very different bodies and that our entire lives had been VR simulations. But I didn't really want to hammer that point home too much so just mentioned it in passing, even though it was kind of the major reason I wrote the story. Of course I don't really believe this will happen when we die... But, what if?!

The point that tied in with the theme was that the narrator was just some poor kid working part time at this company that provides alternative VR lives folks can go in and live at accelerated time so it feels like 80+ years to them but really it's just an hour or two in their real life.

When they woke up out of the experience they were dazed for a moment or two and sometimes mistook the VR "rig" operator as God because they still thought they had really died.

But "God" was just some poor kid trying to earn a buck to get through college.

Hehe... Explaining the story took a longer post than the story itself, which is maybe my failing in the telling of the tale. I tried hard for the experiment of almost zero exposition except for hints through the narrative itself and it looks like it didn't work all that well.

Oh well. There is always the next reboot...


JudasFm

Quote from: Mandle on Tue 23/01/2018 18:47:09
My buddy three cubbies over had two of his eyes clawed out by a freaker a few weeks ago.

Yes, I picked up on that and it was a good way to do it ;)

Quote from: Mandle on Tue 23/01/2018 18:47:09
These lines (and quite a few others) were all supposed to tell the reader that the narrator's world was not the human one.

The trouble is that it's not enough to tell the reader what something isn't; they need to know what it is. Otherwise what the reader ends up with is something like "On vacation, Johnny saw an animal. The animal wasn't a lion" This goes double for sci-fi/fantasy when a creature could look like absolutely anything. We don't even know if the 'Gods' in this story are the same species; does the main character have more than two eyes as well?

Too much exposition can make for lazy writing, I agree, but if it's something that the character would know and the reader needs to know, then a little bit of 'tell-not-show' is needed. (Show-don't-tell is good, but stories need both; a better guide is "Show if you can, tell if you can't")

Quote from: Mandle on Tue 23/01/2018 18:47:09
(Oh, and the "seem you next time" line was to suggest that these lifeforms had other senses than just seeing to sense and communicate with each other.... A subtle attempt at something clever which seems to have maybe failed...)

Different senses need different words. "Rnik you later!" "Not if I rnik you first!" would get the message across that whatever rnik is, it's something that's unique to your race. Or invent a word that your readers can figure out ("Mindlink you later!" gives us a feeling of what kind of exchange it might be, even though we don't possess the sense needed to 'mindlink') :)

Mandle

Ah, Sinitrena, we probably shouldn't have voted at all because now I just have to cancel out your votes for my story, or maybe I just do this:

Best Rant: Mandle
Most Unique Thingy that is Popular: Mandle
Most Insight Into the Psyche: Mandle
Least Meh Atmosphere: Mandle
Most Entertaining Whateverness: Mandle

BOOYAH!!!

Spoiler

But I try hard not to be an asshole a lot of the time and I do believe your story is the better one so I'll just negate your votes:

Best Rant: Sinitrena
Most Unique Thingy that is Popular: Sinitrena
Most Insight Into the Psyche: Sinitrena
Least Meh Atmosphere: Sinitrena
Most Entertaining Whateverness: Sinitrena
[close]

Sinitrena

;-D And the winner is...
:cheesy: Wait, we can't do this.
;-D We can't do what?
:cheesy: Declear a winner. Our presenter is missing.
;-D He is? I was so looking forward to seeing him today. He is just the greatest guy who ever lived, with the wide moustache, the eye patch and the sexy spicked helmet. And he's a nobleman, the nobelest of nobles...
:cheesy: Hm, is he? Really now. Great. Whatever.

Baron, we miss you. ;)

Mandle

Is it another one of those Canadian Thanksgiving dealies?

I hear they have them all the time.

Baron

I'm back.  Sorry folks!  We had some internet trouble and then I was crazy busy with my wife running off to Nepal and leaving me with the kids.  But I'm slowly clawing my way back to being on top of things, I swear! :)

Mandle, your story was awesome.  I love how you cram so much into your tiny vignettes.  I'll be the first to admit that I didn't quite get the whole story on the first read through, but I enjoy that wtf?!? feeling I get when I actually have to turn the old brain onto full-focus mode and make some inferences.  So good job, ol' boy. ;-D

Sinitrena, your story was awesome, too.  Except for when it didn't end like the Thomas Crown Affair, but that wouldn't be very original. ;)  As always I enjoyed the tie ins with your other stories, although you're going to have to compile a glossary of characters like in the back of those big fantasy novels for new readers to help them with the wider connections. (nod)  I too have visited the Louvre, although it must have been a quiet day because I don't recall crazy crowds.  I thought the Mona Lisa was a colossal meh, but some of the other art in there was pretty cool.  Especially the giant canvasses featuring glorious megalomaniacs.... (wtf)(laugh)

To the results.  I actually had Mandle winning by a hair until I revealed his hidden "real" votes. (wrong) 

The golden meh goes to Sinitrena with 12 votes.  While maybe not as inspired as my other trophies, you could at least use it as a paper weight or a cudgel with which to fend off small pickpockets. (roll)

The silver meh therefore goes to Mandle, that octo-limbed god-king of the uber-realm who deigns to occasionally bore himself with our trivial human contests.  I like how he hides his omnipotence in a guise of humility - he will probably keep most of his eyes yet. (nod)

So now I belatedly turn the contest over to Sinitrena.  Thanks everyone for entering and voting, and then waiting around for an eternity to get tickets to line up for the somewhat anti-climactic award distribution ceremony!  Hope to see you out next time! ;)







...in the next exciting instalment of The Fortnightly Writing Competition!

Mandle

Cheers Baron! Glad to hear that you are fine and just a victim of RL rather than anything more sinister. Was getting a bit worried there.

Thanks for the kind words on my story too. I enjoy writing but don't have the endless supplies of time, energy, plot-content, and motivation to dedicate to anything longer than about a single page story so it's nice to know that they are enjoyed by some readers.

Can't wait for the next round!

Gilbert

Congratulations to Sinitrena for becoming a GRAND SLAM WINNER by winning three writing competitions in a row, for a SECOND time!

Sinitrena

Quote from: Gilbert on Wed 31/01/2018 05:30:51
Congratulations to Sinitrena for becoming a GRAND SLAM WINNER by winning three writing competitions in a row, for a SECOND time!

Yay! ;)

Thanks for your votes, everyone. See you next time!

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