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Creative Production => Competitions & Activities => Topic started by: Ponch on Tue 12/07/2011 01:45:34

Title: Fortnightly Writing Contest: A Flick Of The Switch (July 12 - 26) ^_^WINNER^_^
Post by: Ponch on Tue 12/07/2011 01:45:34
For the next writing competition, I'm going to switch things up with switches!

Your story must incorporate a switch as a key element. Any kind of switch will do. A light switch, a railroad switch, an evil twin switching places with the good twin, a long wooden stick used for swatting someone's bottom (if you're into that sort of thing), or any other use of the word switch that you can think of. Just make it important to the story.

I leave it in your capable hands, AGS community. I'll be back to check up on you on July 26th. I look forward to seeing what you write. And I'm especially looking forward to seeing what sort of trophies Tabata can come up with using this theme as inspiration!*  :=

Now get to work!

===========================
UPDATE! Now With Trophies!
(http://i.imgur.com/mHAmR.gif)           (http://i.imgur.com/rzm9y.gif)          (http://i.imgur.com/1LPjX.gif)

Thanks, Tabata!
===========================

------------------
* Normally I make my own trophies, but this time I'm "switching it up" (see what I did there?  8) )
Title: Re: Fortnightly Writing Contest: A Flick Of The Switch (July 12 - 26)
Post by: Tabata on Tue 12/07/2011 18:21:46
(http://smilies-smilies.de/smilies/community/dontpanik.gif)  -  Ponch, you made the right choice „hiring“ me for this job!

Remember the thousands of votes that have been done after I asked the members to do so last time?
Not to forget the last brilliant trophy ...
... that even from a beloved little trophy-hunter (http://i.imgur.com/0mhlm.png) was left behind until now.
Oh, wait ... ähem ... wrong direction!
My pro-aguments seem to be a tiny bit off,
so I better stop that to think it over.
(http://www.adventure-treff.de/forum/images/smilies/eusa_think.gif)


Well, I can't help myself, but there's already an idea coming into my mind about a possible trophy for this comp.
It's related to the task and how it's presented

~ about a sweet little cow that ...  â€žswitch“ ...         (http://www.pic4ever.com/images/47b20s0.gif)

Let's see what will happen â€" everything is possible â€" espacially in this forum â€" I'll try my very best (http://www.smilies.4-user.de/include/Verkleidet/smilie_verkl_111.gif)


Edit:
There already has been something switched, so I had to update this posting   ;)
Title: Re: Fortnightly Writing Contest: A Flick Of The Switch (July 12 - 26)
Post by: Ponch on Sat 16/07/2011 01:56:21
Bumping with trophies!

I hope you guys are working on some nice entries for this competition. Because these trophies (see the first post) are AWESOME!  :D
Title: Re: Fortnightly Writing Contest: A Flick Of The Switch (July 12 - 26)
Post by: Sinitrena on Tue 19/07/2011 08:25:06
Nice trophies, Tabata. I want one of them  8)





Resignation



“You can't switch places with him!“, he said.

“Why not?”, she asked.

“You will die.”

“Yes, I know.”

He watched her as she went away and he watched him as he came back. He looked disheveled, tortured.

“Why did you let her go?”, he asked.

“I tried to stop her.”, he answered.

“She will die!”

“Yes, I know.”

*

When she reached the fortress she already knew that he was save. There were a lot of bad things you could say about the tyrant but at least he kept his word. He stood on the balcony and looked down at her.

“You came.”, he laughed.

“I had to.”, she answered.

“You will die.”

“Yes, I know.”

They locked her in the dungeon and they tortured her. He might have kept his word and let her lover go but that didn't mean he wouldn't try to find the others, try to find him again.

“Where is your camp?”, the torturer asked.

“I'm not gonna tell.”, she answered.

“Then you will die.”

“Yes, I know.”

*

They thought about a rescue mission. After all, she was their strongest fighter. He was their leader but she was the only one to rival the tyrants power.

“Do you think she knew what she was doing?”, they asked.

“I hope so.”, he answered.

“Then she will die.”

“Yes, I know.”

They did not try to save her. They couldn't. They hoped but secretly they thought they had lost.

*

They brought her to the gallows. The tyrant himself came and talked to her one final time. She was weak but she answered.

“Why did you come?”, he asked.

“Because I had to.”, she answered again.

“Then you will die.”, he said.

“And so will you!”, she laughed as the trapdoor opened.

*

He did not know that she was a sorcerer just like him. He thought she was weak â€" just a woman. He thought the torture would break her whereas it couldn't break her lover, so he allowed them to switch places.

But he was near enough now for her to use her spell.

Her death curse struck him as her neck broke.

“The tyrant is dead.”, the people said.

“And so is the enchantress.”

“It was her plan all along.”

Her lover knew.
Title: Re: Fortnightly Writing Contest: A Flick Of The Switch (July 12 - 26)
Post by: Ponch on Wed 20/07/2011 04:47:51
At last! An entry! Cool.

We're halfway through now. Let's have some more entries!
Title: Re: Fortnightly Writing Contest: A Flick Of The Switch (July 12 - 26)
Post by: Oliwerko on Sun 24/07/2011 21:10:01
I woke up drunk and dirty
lying in a ditch,
no memories, only vomit:
booze just once more flicked my switch.
Title: Re: Fortnightly Writing Contest: A Flick Of The Switch (July 12 - 26)
Post by: Ponch on Tue 26/07/2011 05:25:47
One day left! Two entries, three trophies. That means that there's still one more trophy up for grabs!  :D
Title: Re: Fortnightly Writing Contest: A Flick Of The Switch (July 12 - 26)
Post by: CaptainD on Tue 26/07/2011 11:53:02
Quote from: Ponch on Tue 26/07/2011 05:25:47
One day left! Two entries, three trophies. That means that there's still one more trophy up for grabs!  :D

Which means that I might get a trophy?!?  :=

Since I've been lurking around the forums for a long time but never actually entered one of these competitions, I thought I should probably give it a go.  I don't remember seeing a length limit, I hope this isn't too long!





“The Paradenishko dragon is a very unusual species”, said G’nashtu in her well-practiced sardonic drawl that she reserved for use with particularly unpromising sets of students, “in that the pregnant female lays an unusually high quantity of eggs â€" normally 20-30 per batch.”  She stifled a yawn.  “Even stranger is the fact that there is usually only one male hatchling per batch, sometimes none at all.  This combined with the comparative rarity of the species in general, and the long gestation period of 26 months, makes male Paradenishko dragons extremely valuable.” 

‘Just another half hour and I can get out of this place…’ she thought.  ‘Then off to matters more interesting… and profitable…’


K’lun met her and gave his customary greeting of a kiss on the cheek and a pat on the head.  G’nashtu had always hoped their relationship would become something more than just friends, but it seemed that K’lun had never even considered the possibility.  If only she’d been born into the Ullat clan, she could have made the first move... but as it was, such an action would be shameful for her and her entire family.  She had dropped subtle hints, of course, but subtlety was something K’lun understood about as much as dragons understood “no smoking” signs.

“You have them?” she asked, a little breathlessly.

“Yes”, he replied.  Never one to waste words, he said nothing more.  If she hadn’t know him better, G’nasthu would have felt he was completely impassive about the whole business â€" but there was a gleam in his eye, a certain change in his bearing, a slight tremor to the timbre of his voice… K’lun was about as excited as he could be, just far too much in control of himself to let on.  He intonated for her to enter the cave; she went in with him following.  It had taken weeks of searching to find such a secluded spot, but it had been worth it.

“Here”, he said, nodding towards the huge nest.  It took two parent dragons a few days to build; it had taken K’lun and G’nashtu several months to construct.  She looked at the nest then did a double-take â€" there were not one, not two but three eggs with the telltale black spots on the shell.  “Three male eggs?  I thought there was only one!  Three in a single batch is practically unheard of!”  K’Lun smiled.  “We really struck gold with this… I have a buyer coming to look at them tonight.  Can you make it?”  G’nashtu laughed.  “Is there anything in the world that could make me miss this?  I’ll be here!”  This was going to be the sale of a lifetime…


However, the sale of a lifetime didn’t go quite as smoothly as they’d hoped.  Their buyer, a shady character who wouldn’t give them a name or let them see his face, wanted to buy only the male eggs â€" something very unusual, as normally the batch needed to remain together to have much chance of all the hatchlings being born safely.  He told them that he had his reasons, but wouldn’t elaborate further.  Neither G’nashtu or K’lun were convinced that they could trust him, but the amount of gold he offered was very convincing â€" more than they could accumulate in several lifetimes of honest endeavour.  They asked him to come back the next day to finalise the deal.

“I don’t like that guy”, muttered G’nashtu.  “Whatever or whoever he is, and however rich he is, a glorious creature like a male Paradenishko dragon shouldn’t end up with him.” 

“Agreed”, said K’lun.  “Which is why I’ve come up with a plan: we’ll paint some female eggs to look like male eggs.”

“That wouldn’t fool an expert”, she said, “there are other signs to look for â€" weight, reaction to water, light reflection.  As you well know.”

“Of course, but he performed all of these tests tonight, so he knows they’re genuine.  I doubt if he’ll perform them again tomorrow, if he sees the same batch.  I kept some female eggs back from another batch -we can use those, the difference in appearance is so small that he’ll never notice in the light from our small fire.  We’ll take out the male eggs and replace them with the fakes.  We can use identical bags â€" since we use sand to safeguard the eggs in transit, we can just use slightly more in bag with the fakes.”

“Well, if you’re sure we can pull it off...  you’ve obviously put a lot of thought into this.” 

That night went very quickly, with first one then the other having to go back and make sure no-one suspected anything, and that things appeared normal at home.  With so little sleep it was difficult for either of them to make it through the day without feeling very sluggish, but some Julkana tea every now and then kept them going.  Then it was evening, and time for their meeting with the mysterious buyer…

All went well; he brought them the gold coins in three large sacks, and they in turn gave him the fake eggs in a sack.  Just as they G’nashtu was drifting off into a lovely dream about how she’d spend all of her money, and how being a wealthy woman she could forget all about her tribal traditions and just tell K’lun how she felt about him, she felt him roughly shaking her shoulders.

“What?  I haven’t slept for two days!” she protested.

He ignored her and pointed at two sacks that he’d dragged up against the nearby cave wall.  “Why exactly do we have two sacks with what appear to be male dragon eggs in them?”

She stared at them, trying to focus, not entirely sure if they were both suffering with hallucinations or double vision due to excessive sleep deprivation.  But no, there were definitely two sacks there.  Then realisation slowly dawned.  “Did you paint some female eggs and replace them in the nest?”

“Yes, of course” he said, ”that’s what we agreed.”

“Not exactly… we said that we needed to do it, but we didn’t actually specific who was going to do it.”

He buried his face in his hands.  “You mean… we both did it?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“So we may have given our buyer the male eggs?”

“Well, possibly…”

They sat dejectedly for a moment, trying to go through the flurry of activity of the previous night and piece together exactly what had happened.  Unbeknownst to them, their buyer had stealthily crept back up to the cave entrance in the meantime, and when they did realise, he was pointing a rather nasty-looking crossbow at G’nashtu.  Other shadowy figures lurked menacingly in the background.

“Well don’t look so surprised, of course I didn’t trust you for a moment!  I’ll just be taking all the eggs, thanks very much.  The gold too.  That, at least, was genuine, although you were never going to get your grubby little hands on any of it.”  He motioned to his accomplices, who carried out the sacks and carefully put the remaining eggs into even more sacks.

“Now I’ll be saying goodbye.  I’m not going to kill you, it would only lead to messy questions when people found you â€" but as it is, you’re hardly likely to go to the authorities about this, are you?  You see, crime really doesn’t pay â€" at least, not unless you do it properly.” 

With that he departed, leaving K’lun and G’nashtu looking glumly at one another.  Finally G’nashtu spoke.  “I’m guessing this wouldn’t be a good time to tell you that I’ve been in love with you for years, but you’ve never noticed?”

K’lun laughed harshly.  “Since you mention it, perhaps it’s also not a good time for me to tell you that I’ve been in love with you for years too, but that I wanted to have enough money for us to leave this place together.”

Much to his surprise, she laughed. 

“Erm… I was expecting a coy smile, or a sad smile, or a sigh… but a laugh when I bare my soul to you like that?!”

She moved closer and kissed him.  When they were both needing to come up for air, she smiled at him fondly.  “Oh K’lun, darling, you’re so unobservant.”

“Eh?”

“Look over there.  What do you see?”

He squinted for a while until he could make out a shape.  “Um… a pair of sandals?”

“Yes.  And do you noticed anything different about me?”

He looked her up and down, eventually following her own gaze.  “You’ve got… bigger shoes?”

“Yes darling.  And why is it that you think I might have bigger shoes on?”

He thought about this.  “I’m guessing that the answer isn’t going to be that your feet have swelled.”

She shook her head and started taking off her shoes.  Her feet were, in fact, exactly the same size as they’d always been; the shoes themselves, several times too big for her but previously hidden from view by her long tunic, contained quite a number of gold coins.

“I also have some coins hidden in my underwear,” she said, “but I’ll keep those in reserve for later.”




 
Title: Re: Fortnightly Writing Contest: A Flick Of The Switch (July 12 - 26) *** VOTE ***
Post by: Ponch on Wed 27/07/2011 16:46:24
Deadline has arrived. Time to vote!
Title: Re: Fortnightly Writing Contest: A Flick Of The Switch (July 12 - 26) *** VOTE ***
Post by: Oddysseus on Thu 28/07/2011 01:36:15
CaptainD gets my vote.
Title: Re: Fortnightly Writing Contest: A Flick Of The Switch (July 12 - 26) *** VOTE ***
Post by: kconan on Thu 28/07/2011 02:11:30
CaptainD
Title: Re: Fortnightly Writing Contest: A Flick Of The Switch (July 12 - 26) *** VOTE ***
Post by: Oliwerko on Thu 28/07/2011 08:44:45
Same here.
Title: Re: Fortnightly Writing Contest: A Flick Of The Switch (July 12 - 26) *** VOTE ***
Post by: Ponch on Fri 29/07/2011 03:44:06
And all the votes have been counted! (And a coin toss thrown in for good measure).

(http://i.imgur.com/mHAmR.gif)
Captain D stops lurking long enough to win first place!

(http://i.imgur.com/rzm9y.gif)
Sinitrena takes a well-deserved second place.

(http://i.imgur.com/1LPjX.gif)
And Oliwerko takes third for his clever snippet.

And that concludes this contest. I turn it over to you, Captain!  :D
Title: Re: Fortnightly Writing Contest: A Flick Of The Switch (July 12 - 26) ^_^WINNER^_^
Post by: CaptainD on Fri 29/07/2011 13:20:49
Why thank you, kind sir!  ;D