What's a 23:59 UTC? Why don't you people speak American?!?

It's still May 31 here. I'm still going to beat that original deadline, time-zones and logic be damned!
@ Mandle: OK, it made sense on the third reading, and I pieced together all the meanings without any spoilers. Except I pictured more god-like beings than super huge aliens, but whatever. I appreciated the challenge of trying to figure out what exactly was going on, and I liked the mannerisms of your nervous salesman (whom I read as being just a mortal or at least a subservient super-being). On the downside, I didn't detect any actual advertisement (although logically the prospective buyer is probably reacting to one). Also, there wasn't much of a story arc. I think the piece has a lot of potential if extended a bit so that we could get invested more in the character's stories, and then the pay-off reveal would be the icing on the cake.
@ KyriakosCH: I kind of got this mind-controlling vibe from your advertisement, with hordes of people lining up and the sceptical narrator describing how the ad sucked you in. I liked the contrarian atmosphere he creates, and you have some good imagery with the toddler blindly waddling into danger, and your piece is very obviously about an advertisement. But I have to agree with other comments that what was actually going on needed to be fleshed out a bit more to make sense to a casual reader.
@ Sinitrena: I liked all of your characters, who despite the short length of the piece all stood out as distinct and well-defined. Except for Peter, I liked how you made them all just dumb enough to make the plot plausible in the context of the story-world. You had some great turns of phrase as well, from the "loud silence of nature" in the forest to Gerald's love affair with his artillery piece. For me the sexual imagery fell a bit flat, as I was looking for a bit of a deeper meaning to the ending, but maybe it's just a case of this ageing male not finding misfires amusing any more....

And to the votes...
Best Character: I'm going with
Sinitrena's gun-nut Gerald who lets his enthusiasm for his own world view blind him to the obvious perils of revealing his pet-project.
Best Story: Despite a bit of
anticlimax at the end, I still thought
Sinitrena brought us on the best ride.
Best Writing: N'yeah, this one is tough. I think I have to go with
Mandle by the slimmest of whiskers. He had great pacing (despite the fact that I wanted more), the way his salesman presented the property spoke volumes, and the double-entendres were hugely ambitious. The piece had it's minor flaws as discussed, but so too did the competition.
Best Use of Theme: I'm sold on
Sinitrena for this one. The whole story revolved around an overt and well-described advertisement to an extent that the others did not.
As for my own piece, I appreciate the kind feedback. I concede that the piece was rushed due to other deadlines eating up my time, and that I could have described what was happening a bit better. My premise was that inane radio-ads are actually coded job-offers for space mercenaries, but beyond that I didn't invest a lot of thought in characterization or plot, and it shows. But don't worry: this kind of deal won't last forever!
