Fortnightly Writing Competition - CIVILIZATIONS FIRST DIRECT CONTACT

Started by kconan, Mon 27/04/2015 03:53:25

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kconan

  I'm fascinated by the idea of real or fictionalized first meetings between civilizations, either human and/or sentient self-aware aliens.  Generally things don't turn out well during and shortly after these first meetings, but your tale could be either peaceful or a pillaging bloodbath...or something in-between.  So write a story that centers around the first contact between two distinctly different civilizations, any race/culture whether human or otherwise provided it is both sentient and self-aware, and the after effects shortly (use your definition of the word "shortly") after this meeting.  Also, the characters involved don't have to be diplomats/kings/chiefs/presidents...any representatives from any walk of life in each civilization can take part in the first meeting and then the good, bad, or mediocre fallout and overall ripple effects throughout each civilization involved.


"Well...


...there goes the neighborhood."

EXAMPLES:
1. The first Spanish conquistadors landing in South America, and sadly we all know what happened next.
2. Neanderthal man first meets modern humans somewhere in what is now Europe, and afterwards were either out-competed for resources or perhaps killed off or both.
3. The Spoogalans from planet Gargax meet a tribe of Inuit Eskimos, and they all live happily ever after.

CRITERION:
Best Character:
Best Civilization:
Most Unique and Intriguing First-Contact:
Most Unique and Intriguing After-Effects:
Best Overall Story: (Worth 2 points)

TROPHIES:
*This was tough, I debated between a hieroglyphic symbol for life, a monkey using a bone tool, and a simple globe.  But the ultimate symbol for me is the venus figurine, as it represents life and means that a civilization is sophisticated enough (technologically, artistically, able to do more than hunt/gather, etc...) to make art.

First Place is a real stone venus figurine dipped in gold:
Second Place is a high quality silver replica venus:
Third Place is a cheap wood venus knockoff:


The deadline is Monday, May 11th.

Sinitrena

Interesting topic, I'll try to come up with a story
but...
QuoteThe deadline is Monday, May 4th.
since when is the fortnightly competition only a week long? ???

kconan

Quote from: Sinitrena on Tue 28/04/2015 00:02:02
since when is the fortnightly competition only a week long? ???

Fixed...I hurriedly added the deadline.

kconan


Mandle

Dear Humanity,

We all know what happened in the end but I just thought I would write this down as a survivor who was actually there when the shit hit the fan:

The mothership appeared majestically from behind the Devil's Tower. Lacombe started playing the chords on his keyboard but hit a mischord on the final note.

In the alien language instead of this being a greeting of peace it meant a declaration of war. It seems that in their tongue the last word is literally the last word.

Instead of lowering the ramp and letting off the people who had been taken over the eras the mothership opened fire on the compound.

The alien craft zooming around the box canyon immediately stopped being so wonderous and started picking people up and just dropping them from great heights, even the cute little red tail-light one that always followed their convoy at the end of it.

It was a slaughter!

I can only thank my survival to the deceased government of the now non-existant United States Of America for gassing me early on in our initial climb up Devil's Tower after escaping the compound for contactees...

Rest In Peace: Roy and Jillian:

I only knew you both for a brief time but your faces remain in my memory forever.

Yours Truly,
Larry Butler.

Sinitrena

I'm not sure I exactly followed the guidlines this time. There are consequences of the contact between civilizations and one civilization tries to contact the other, but - oh, well, just read for yourself:

Faces in the Foam

There was humming, humming in the dark, in the darkness of an unknown world. It spread through the water, it spread through the corals , through the sandy ground and the salty atmosphere. It whispered to the fishes and the whales, the dolphins and penguins and reached the ears of all of our people.

Listen and come, we called to them, listen to the waves and the tides, listen to the storm in the sea. Listen.

And we answered the call, for we heard in all voices the pain and the fear, and we saw with all our eyes all reasons the call was made.

Listen, we called, listen to the beats of our hearts, as more and more of them slow to nothing, listen to our bodies float down into the abyss to return to the circle. Watch, we called, how the fishnets catch, how the oils spread and entangle those we call friend and familiar, watch their waste turn our beauty into slime, watch what they leave behind and what never wears away. Watch.

And the call was answered through the hot water and the cold, over muddy ground and stone, where the ice touches our home and where we love sun, and in this answer a question was asked. And the question was for the way, for what will be and should have been, for the reasons and the path to go. It was found in the shadows cast on our land, shadows from what they call ships, and on the surface, where only some of our friends know how to live, how to breathe. A hope was formed, formed from trust and from our belief in their sympathy, in their understanding.

We send us up, up out of reassuring darkness, through streams and currents, through the realms of octopuses, of sharks and jellyfish, who urged us on, who thanked us and who feared for us, and to the world of light and heat, of swimming on the surface, to the world of them.

We called to them through waves and storm, with maelstrom and flood, and we waited and we waited and we waited.

Listen, we called, listen and see, and we waited for them to answer the call. And we waited and we waited and we waited.

We went to their coasts and we called. We went to their ships and called. We even called through their air, which is toxic to us, and we waited and we waited and we waited.

We showed them our faces in the foam and sang to them our song, our humming song of our dark. We told them of our friends, of their passing, of their pain. We told them all and waited then, waited and waited and waited for an answer that never came.

And in the darkness of an unknown world, the humming died away, died slowly to a hushed call in the sea, a whisper on the waves and a face in the foam that washes away.

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

The continuous pollution of our oceans is a serious problem. Here's a short article from national geographic on the topic. :-X

kconan

I'm leaving it open another day...Was hoping for more entrants.

Baron

Can you give me to Wednesday night?  I'll make the effort if I know I can have two days to get something together. (nod)

kconan

Quote from: Baron on Tue 12/05/2015 03:05:52
Can you give me to Wednesday night?  I'll make the effort if I know I can have two days to get something together. (nod)

Done.  Comp extended!

Baron

Well, deadlines were tight so I just started writing, without really an idea of where this was going.  So it ended up pretty typically silly.... (roll)

   Crone Star State

   The tornadic tumult rumbled off to the north, safely bypassing the empty highway with the lonely Macho Saloon standing in decadent isolation.  A few of the old siding planks flapped loose against the structure, and the sign along the highway swayed tipsily on its rusty pole.  A tumbleweed bounced along the pavement, stopped briefly outside the saloon, and then thought better of it and continued on its way.   

   Hank Gart, the proprietor, leaned back on his porch rocking chair and stared blankly at the infinite horizon of scrubby emptiness.  He considered working himself up to sitting upright to spit a bit of his chew into the spittoon next to him, but the effort seemed not to be worth the exertion.  Instead he attempted to spit over the edge of the porch from his reclined position, succeeding only in decorating a portion of the banister and several of his chins with oozing brown tobacco hork.  Hank didn't even blink behind his aviator sunglasses and under his over-sized cowboy hat: this was Texas, and his personal liberty to be as slobbish as he wanted stretched as far as the desolation in every direction.

   â€œWell, you see that, Mr. Gart!” Doris the old weathered saloon waitress asked him, emerging onto the porch.  The place was empty but for a few of the regular barflies, so she was out for a quick cigarette break, only the cigarette hung unlit from her lips as she stared spell-bound out over the desert.  Hank reluctantly sat up straight to follow her gaze.

   â€œIf'n it ain't the most fanciest rainbow you never done saw, Mr. Gart?” she exclaimed huskily.  “Why, I expect we outta make a wish!”

   â€œThat's shootin' stars, Hun,” Hank replied dismissively.  “That rainbow t'ain't nothin' but a Texified homo-flag.  He sat back heavily, causing the rocking chair to creak in protest.

   â€œWell, paint me tie-dyed and tie me up like a piñata for the Texas Troopers Reserve Corps!  Look, Mr. Gart!  There's some sorta flyin' saucer a-ridin' the rainbow like an unemployed teenager on a skateboard!” 

   Hank snorted in disbelief, but when he saw the cigarette dangling from Doris' mouth fall to the floor he knew that crazy hundred-year-old waitress must have seen something.  He heaved himself up to his feet unsteadily, like an elephant after hibernating.  He stalked grumpily to the railing, grabbing the slippery spit-covered  bannister for support and cast his gaze out across the sky.

   Neither of them could quite believe what they saw.  A double-helix helicopter with a multi-colored spinning-top suspended beneath it flew merrily through the sky.  It banked, and looped, and even pirouetted before landing gracefully on the empty highway right outside the saloon. 

   â€œWell smack me upside the head like my drunken husband!” Doris gasped in amazement.  “Don't it just look like DaVinci's merry-go-round!?”

   Hank squinted behind his aviator sunglasses, trying to make sense of the spectacle in front of him.  Then a hatch opened up on the underside of the vehicle and a pair of other-worldly creatures emerged.  They looked kind of like brightly colored unicorns, only they had the legs of supermodels and they floated gracefully on giant butterfly wings.  In a trice they lit upon the hood of John Marshall's old Chevy truck, a blue one and a purple one, not twenty feet from the porch.

   â€œGreetings earthlings!” the purple one enthused.  “I am Skybeam Swallowtail, and this is my companion in happiness Boyband Cloudstreaker!  We are very joy-joy happy to meet you!”

   Doris and Hank exchanged brief glances.

   â€œWe ain't Earthians,” Doris waved at them.  “We're Texans!  And you'll git an ear-full from John Marshall if you git footprints all over his windshield!”

   â€œFear not, homely she-Texan!” the blue one -Boyband, was it?- piped up.  “Our appendages are coated in a shammy-like teflon substance!”

   â€œThat's right!” Skybeam agreed.  “We're cleaning your mobile emissions source even as we share this friendly dialog with you!”

   â€œBut whatcha doin' to his wipers?!?” Doris demanded in a panicked tone.  Indeed the strange creatures  were inserting them into various hidden orifices in their bodies.

   â€œFear not, gentle intoxicant huckster!” Boyband assured her, contorting his body to engulf the wiper more thoroughly.

   â€œOur bodily fluids are environmentally safe degreasing agents!” Skybeam chimed.

   But Doris had already left the safety of the porch to wave a tea-towel at them.  “Go on now, shoo!” she shouted.  “Stop!  Stop humping the truck!”

   The commotion had brought half a dozen half-drunk men stumbling out to the porch.  “My truck!” one shouted gruffly, reaching for his gun.  He began shooting wildly into the parking lot, and a couple of his buddies started shooting along too out of sheer confusion.  The mysterious creatures started giggling and fluttering about.

   â€œYour neurological poison projectiles tickle us!” Boyband laughed.  This was somehow provocative to the Texans, who now all opened fire.

   â€œOh, god!” Doris shouted, rolling on the parking lot for fear of being shot.  “I think they're bleeding on me!”

   â€œOur droppings are full of life-enriching nutrients!” Skybeam chortled, for a shell had just bounced off her eye.

   â€œThey have also been known to rejuvenate short-lived species, tone the muscles of the abdomen and buttocks, and sharpen the IQ by up to 40%!” Boyband snickered.  He, too, moved into position above poor Doris and began sharing his life-enhancing powers with her.

   â€œNo!  No!” she screamed.  “I'm melting!  Melting!!!!”

   At last the Texans stopped to reload, and the mystical creatures moved to hover right in front of them.

   â€œHehehehe!” Skybeam giggled.  “That was fun!  I love you, my new cheery friends!”

   â€œAnd I want to marry you!” proclaimed Boyband.  He produced a “tickle-appendage” from his underside and began waving it right in their faces like a feather-duster.  “Share the love!  Share the love!” he kept shouting happily.

   The Texans scattered.  Some dove inside the saloon, others under the rickety porch, while the rest tore off into the empty desert, screaming mad like hyenas on pixie-sticks.  But not Hank Gart.  No, he just collapsed back into his rocking chair, fumbling behind him for his shotgun.

   And then, for a moment, his tormentors were distracted by a wraith-like creature emerging from a kind of cocoon in the parking lot where poor Doris had once writhed.  It was slender and lithe, with wonderfully long and wavy blonde hair and breasts as large and perky as Hank had ever seen in the magazines that wallpapered the saloon's men's room.  The...thing turned towards him and in a perfect soprano said: “Mr. Gart, sir?  I done feel like the happiest love-filled gal this side of the Pecos!  And if'n you don't mind me saying so, I think you look like you need a hug!”

   The chair broke beneath Hank and he rolled to the saloon doors, grabbing his shotgun on the way.  “Stay sharp, boys!” he shouted before diving inside.  “Doris is one of them now!”

kconan

Vote!

ENTRANTS:
Mandle: Letter to Humanity
Sinitrena: Faces in the Foam
Baron: Crone Star State

CRITERION:
Best Character:
Best Civilization:
Most Unique and Intriguing First-Contact:
Most Unique and Intriguing After-Effects:
Best Overall Story: (Worth 2 points)

Baron

Maybe we should change the OP topic to [VOTE] so we get attention on the Comps Board (and more hopefully more opinions in this thread)?

-------
Best Character: Mandle, because Larry Butler is a character ( ;-D ).  I read Sinitrena's twice, but I still couldn't determine exactly what was calling us.

Best Civilization: Sinitrena, because the mysterious sub-aquatic culture seems more, er ...profound. :=

Most Unique and Intriguing First-Contact:  Mandle, just because Sinitrena's soulful submariners never managed to make contact.  Oh, and because "death by gravity" is kinda unique and intriguing.... :-D

Most Unique and Intriguing After-Effects: Sinitrena, because of the unintended extermination of an unknown sentient race.  Who knows?  Maybe we've wiped out many such species already without even realising it?  Interesting to ponder, anyway.

Best Overall Story (Worth 2 points): I've got to give this to Sinitrena.  Mandle's story I thought a little short on detail, given that this was apparently an eye-witness account.  I guess Larry was a man of few words.... (roll)  I did like how Sinitrena tried to take the topic seriously (unlike the other two entrants... ;) ), and put some real thought and emotion into her tale.  Finally, her story has a degree of plausibility to it that makes it stand out as more substantive. 



Sinitrena

Best Character: Baron for Hank. While there was a character in Mandle's story, Larry didn't actually show any personality and didn't really do anything, either. Baron's Hank, on the other hand, is a drunk, clicheed redneck.

Best Civilization: Baron Lovely over-the-top alien race. I also liked Mandle's idea that the aliens communicate via music, but this idea is unfortunately not developed enough to allow us a real glimpes at what their cevilization is like.

Most Unique and Intriguing First-Contact: Mandle Even though there's not much to go on, I like it better that Mandle's humans at least try for a friendly first encounter, and also that they sadly fail. Baron's character's "shoot first"-metality is, even though it's supposed to be an amusing story, just a tad to too much for my taste.

Most Unique and Intriguing After-Effects: Mandle It's an interesting idea how Mandle's unnamed aliens fight in the end.

Best Overall Story: (Worth 2 points) Baron There's just more plot to look at. Mandle's story was, as Baron already said, a bit short on detail. It seems pointless for a witness account, especially one in form of a letter, to write what everyone who was there would already know and leave out all the details that would interest people who weren't there.

QuoteI read Sinitrena's twice, but I still couldn't determine exactly what was calling us.
You weren't really supposed to understand this part. 8-)

Baron

Quote from: Sinitrena on Fri 15/05/2015 02:49:31
Baron's character's "shoot first"-metality is, even though it's supposed to be an amusing story, just a tad to too much for my taste.

To be fair, this was intended as commentary on Texan civilization, not humanity in general.  ;)  But Mandle's point is well earned. :)

Mandle

Cheers guys...I will vote later...

I just wanted to mention that my "story" was more of a joke intending to spoof the ending of the movie "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind".

Larry Butler is the guy that tries to climb the Devil's Tower mountain with the two main characters "Roy" and "Jillian" but falls behind and gets taken down by the military's sleeping gas. In my version I suppose he woke up just in time to look over the ridge and see what went wrong at the hidden base (in my alternate version, not in the actual movie) and became the sole survivor of the event.

Just to clear things up for those who haven't seen the movie (oh and see the movie because it is AWESOME!!!)

kconan

  After Mandle votes I'll wrap things up...Hopefully before then we'll get another voter or two.

Ponch

Best Character: Baron
Best Civilization: Sinetrena
Most Unique and Intriguing First-Contact: Mandle
Most Unique and Intriguing After-Effects: Sinetrena
Best Overall Story: Mandle

Mandle

Damnit...ran out of time today playtesting the full version of a game that has been about a year and a half in the making (those in the know will know what I'm talking about ;) )

I have to go to bed and no time to read Baron's entry. I will vote tomorrow if the voting is still open. Sorry.

kconan


kconan

  Mandle, are you voting or not?  It is unfair to other entrants if you participate but don't vote, especially when turnout is smaller like this round.

  I'll close it later today I guess regardless.

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