Mystery Chain Story - VOTING CLOSED!!!

[Stupot]

Right-o!
Thanks to everyone for humouring me and taking part in the Mystery Chain Story.
(and a special thanks to Vince.  Without his advice early on I probably would have made a right balls-up of this.)

All entries are in and Voting begins now, and will end this time next week.

Here are the Stories:
Chain Story A
Endings for Story A

Chain Story B
Endings for Story B

Story B is a bit short on endings due to a couple of last-minute drop-outs, but neverless, theres some really excellent stuff in here for your reading pleasure, so take your time and enjoy the stories.

There are Four categories to vote in:

*Best Mystery Chain Entry for story A -
*Best Ending for Story A -
*Best Mystery Chain Entry for story B -
*Best Ending for Story B -

For each category there is a bronze, silver and gold 'Chain-pen' trophy up for grabs, kindly supplied by the awesome Andail (thanks mate):


On top of all that, I'd also like to invite everyone to suggest titles for each story, just as a bit of fun.

Enjoy the stories

[tzachs]

Woo-hoo, read them all  

I have to say, the endings for story B simply blew my mind! Two endings there also cracked me up with their last twist...

I vote for:
Story A- Entry 4
Story A- Ending 3
Story B- Entry 7
Story B- Ending 1

As for title suggestions:
Story A- Shadow Island
Story B- The brief case of the briefcase

This was a blast...

[Vince Twelve]

Woot!  I'll wait for voting to close to discuss my thoughts on some of these, but overall they were really good.  I think A definitely wound up easier to wrap up than B, which probably accounts for the difference in completed endings.  A seemed to lend itself more to the mysticism explanation where you don't have to really explain anything, just say "It is that way because it is supposed to be that way" ala Lost.  B got all timey wimey which is a great challenge!  Plus, A wound up with two, maybe three characters and a mysterious object while B had four characters and two (maybe three: inter-dimensional beard?) mysterious objects that all needed closure and explanation!  Quite the challenge!

So, well done to everyone!  My votes:

Story A- Entry 5
Story A- Ending 3
Story B- Entry 5
Story B- Ending 1  (though 4 was hilarious)

Big thanks to Stu!  Good idea and good hosting!

[FSi++]

NAISU!

Story A - Entry 4.

Spoiler

5th was better, but I'll vote for 4 for undisclosed reasons.

[close]

Story A - Ending 4 - for it is pure awesomeness and, like,

Spoiler

whoa! Everybody dies! Ending 7 was also fine, but no cookie.

[close]

Story B - Entry 5, I think.

Story B - Ending 3? Ok.

[Tramponline]

Jesus! What a mind-boggling and twisted read that was!

Story A: Entry 1
Story A: Ending 1

Story B: Entry 5
Story B: Ending 3

[Stupot]

In case anyone is interested, the first author in each team was given a list of starting sentences from a selection of famous novels.

These are those sentences

[straydogstrut]

Woo! This was just as much fun taking part as it was reading all these crazy entries. Mind-bending stuff=)

My votes

Story A - Entry 4
Story A - Ending 4

Story B - Entry 5
Story B - Ending 1

My titles
Can't think of any decent titles, though tzachs suggestions for Story B gets my vote, lol

Special thanks to Stu for being such a welcoming host=)

[discordance]

Story A: Entry 1
Story A: Ending 3

Story B: Entry 1
Story B: Ending 1

Some terrible ideas for titles:

The Mysterious Island: In Which A Bunch of Guys Go to an Island, Talk Funny for a While, and then are Killed by a Mysterious Shadow; and Events occurring Thereafter in the Mysterious Land Beyond

Mr Popper and the Unsolved Mystery of his Terrible Fashion Sense (Also a Tower or something)

[ddq]

STORY A:
Entry 1.
Ending 2.

STORY B:
Entry 4
Definitely Ending 4. I lol'd.

[Wyz]

Story A
Entry 2
Ending 6

Story B
Entry 5
Ending 1

Whoa, good job on this mystery all, especially Stu for hosting and coming up with the idea in the first place.
Lol, that second story is really mind boggling.

[Stupot]

About an hour and a quarter left to vote!

I was gonna do a 24hr reminder yesterday, but... I forgot.

Here are my votes:
Chain A - 4
Ending A - 3
Chain B - 5
Ending B -3

[Igor Hardy]

The stories are great! And the contest's concept is an undoubted success.

However, I don't think I'm up to evaluating anything. Sorry, but I feel burnt out and also have my perception skewed by participating.

[Stupot]

Well, it's finally over, and I can honestly say 'thank fuck'.
Just kidding, it's been a hoot.
Thanks again to everyone for partaking.

And without further ado (because that's what you have to say when you're presenting awards) - Here are the winners.

Story A - Chain  Entries
Bronze - entry 2 (Vince Twelve) and entry 5 (FSi) - 1 vote each
Silver - entry 1 (Macay) - 3 votes
Gold - entry 4 (TheJBurger) - 4 votes

Story A - Endings
Bronze - entry 1 (Wyz), entry 2 (Ascovel) and entry 6 (Tzachs) - 1 vote each
Silver - entry 4 (Discordance) - 2 votes
Gold - entry 3 (StrayDogStrut) - 4 votes

Story B - Chain Entries
no bronze award, you're all too good
Silver - entry 1 (Ascovel), entry 4 (Darius Poyer) and entry 7 (StrayDogStrut) - 1 vote each
Gold - entry 5 (Discordance) 6 votes

Story B - Endings
Bronze - entry 4 (Macay) - 1 vote
Silver - entry 3 (Vince Twelve) - 3 votes
Gold - entry 1 (ddq) - 5 votes

Come and get 'em (and be sure to thank Andail on the way to the bar):


Bad luck to the few of you who didn't quite get a trophy, better luck next time.
Special well dones to Discordance and StrayDogStrut who managed to snap up a gold and a silver each.

Give yourselves a round of applause... or, better still, go and get your bottom ribs removed then you'll be able to give yourselves a lot more.

And finally, Here is an actual 'who's who' of entries - You're all winners in my book

Team A

Story A - Chain Entries
1 - Macay
2 - Vince Twelve
3 - Bulbapuck
4 - TheJBurger
5 - FSi
6 - Blobby101

Story B - Endings
1 - ddq
2 - FSi
3 - Vince Twelve
4 - Macay


Team B

Story B - Chain Entries
1 - Ascovel
2 - Privateer Puddin'
3 - Wyz
4 - Darius Poyer
5 - Discordance
6 - Tzachs
7 - StrayDogStrut

Story A - Endings
1 - Wyz
2 - Ascovel
3 - StrayDogStrut
4 - Discordance
5 - Darius Poyer
6 - Tzachs
7 - Privateer Puddin'

Byee!

[tzachs]

Thank you Stupot for this, really enjoyed it.
And congrats to everybody, with a special well done to the guys who managed to find an ending to story B....

[Privateer Puddin']

Gah, forgot to vote! I had read Story B and had decided who to vote for, but had yet to read all from A. Congrats everyone, and thanks for running it Stupot, it was fun!

[straydogstrut]

Wow! Thanks for the votes guys, did not expect that at all. They were all really good entries I thought. I enjoyed reading them as much as taking part=)

Oh and thanks to Andail for the awesome trophies=)

[Igor Hardy]

Congrats to the winners and to the almost winners! 1st class storytelling.

[ddq]

Jeepers, thanks! This really was a sweet competition, and truly solid efforts all around! I was just glad to participate, even at the last minute, and I wasn't expecting to actually win anything. This is a great kind of competition and I hope to see more!

[Vince Twelve]

Woo, went out on vacation for a bit and forgot about commenting!  Well done to everybody and nice job Stu!

Story B was definitely as confusing and twisted as the stairs prominently featured within and I loved it!  My ending was waaay too long, but I wanted to tie all the loose ends up (and I did get them all!) and add some fun twists.  But yeah, waaay too long and probably waaay confusing.  Sorry!  I actually considered making a flowchart version of the story so you could follow it through in chronological order from the point of view of each characters as well as the briefcase. 

Congrats to ddq who managed to wrap it up even better, and in fewer words!  Loved it!