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I'm thinking "the void of sin" = the internet (for obvious reasons  ), and that to become ethereal involves some sort of digitization/uploading/posting.  Except obviously it's none of those things since none of them have 5 letters....

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PONCH.  That guy's always getting ethereal in the void of sin!

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Iraq?  []= brackets, -b = rackets, /2 = rac (and half of k....), +i = irac(k) or Iraq.

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Does the answer have four letters, or is that just part of the formula (multiply by four)?

Speech!  Speech!!!!!!!

[Half-assed (1)]

A hint serendipitously supplied by Baron:

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it has been laying out in front of our noses the whole time.

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Sorry for the double post, but I did this deliberately, not serendipitously.

Half-assed (1)

*Sigh* Let's do this rationally, shall we?  The dreaded organized list:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

We've also ruled out the numbers 1 and 4, the $ sign, and the Japanese hiragana character "Mu"

We know that the answer is one character, although Mandle hasn't ever brought himself to specify that it is in fact a letter.  We know it is not anything to do with an equine animal, half of words, or half of characters, but that it has been "in front of our noses the whole time".

Half-assed (1)

Hmmmmmmm.......

Edit: Damn you Stupot+ and your marvellously lateral thinking brain!

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An ass, in human terms, is someone who makes decisions without any consideration of the feelings of others.  The part of the mind that makes decisions is the EGO, and half of an EGO is "E".

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Edit:

* It has nothing to do with splitting words or (as in one very ingenious attempt) actual letters in half.

Oh....  Well then, just disregard my surreptitious attempt at going through the entire alphabet without seeming to do so.

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Is it a French "H"?  That's the laziest most half-assed letter ever: it never actually makes a sound!

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Ok, how about this?

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G?  Half of an ass (donkey) is a key, and I've heard that G is a common key....

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[Half-assed (1)]

Half-assed (1)

I'm starting to question the utility of a cryptic crossword clue that gives you only one letter.  Having said that, I'm going to go ahead and state the most obvious half-assed answer of them all.  So half-assed, in fact, that it has been laying out in front of our noses the whole time.

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1

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It's not "Z", is it?  Following on the horrible ("harrible!") American name for the letter zed, as in "lazy" (half-assed) or even worse (and more half-assed): la-z.  That would be bad.

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[Stupot+]

Bravo, bravo!

Wow, those were some great reads!  I can't help but marvel at the variety of creative directions in which you took the concept.  Very entertaining, and also often thought provoking.  I liked the candid self-interest of Miguel's main character's thoughts, and how WHAM was able to tell a complete story with so many holes left in it.  I giggled childishly at kconan's post-apocalyptic entrepreneur, and admired Sinitrena's [character's] no nonsense practicality.  Myinah's tale was very thought provoking: as gamers we assume there is always a way to move on, but her story was the functional equivalent of a walking-dead (in terms of poor game design, not the television program ).  Likewise, Dualnames left me thinking if I was a zombie: who are the real monsters here, anyway?  Alberth's piece was for me very realistic, the sci-fi aspects aside.  Once the moment of "escape" was achieved life does not suddenly become all fairies and rainbows, but instead it's the little nitty gritty aspects of daily life that take over again.  For me Stupot+'s story was a very vivid picture of what the zombie apocalypse would look like on the ground, and I think a majority of the voters responded to the emotionally stirring detail of his piece.  I'm still puzzling over whether there was a hidden message in Monkey424's piece about his fellow forum members, but I got a chuckle out of the fast-paced dialogue nonetheless.   And finally I liked the manic energy of combining wildly random inventory items into useful inventions in Durinde's short yet sadly sweet tale.  I couldn't help but think of Roger Wilco stumbling around post-apocalyptic Xenon for some reason.  Anyway, with so many participants we can finally make a proper circle and pat each other on the back: excellent work everyone!

But, alas, the hardware can only go to a select few, so here are my tabulations:

The golden zombie goes to Stupot+ with an incredible 15 votes!  The only person to snub him in the Best Character category was Stupot+ himself, a clear sign of unanimous acclaim for your tenacious torso character.  Cheers to you sir!

  The silver zombie goes to WHAM, that ever crafty wordsmith.  As Stupot+ dominated the Best Character category, so did WHAM dominate the stylistic category.  Maybe Stupot+ should come up with the characters and WHAM animate them with his skilful turn of phrase to create an unstoppable franken-story?  We should be so lucky to read such a creation.  In the mean time, enjoy your hardware WHAM!

  And finally, let's not forget the runner up to the runner up (or zombie food, in post-apocalyptic parlance).  You know I kid because I love!   By my calculations this award goes to Myinah for her optionless giver-upper stuck in the basement.  Where Stupot+ and WHAM dominated the character and stylistic categories, Myinah had a very strong showing in the efficiency category.  Which just goes to prove that sometimes less really is more: you gotta let the reader's imagination tell the story, not a bunch of symbols you assemble on a page.  ...Except if you're a writing contest administrator: then you gotta lay all your cards on the table and discuss them ad nauseam.  Where was I going with this, anyway?  Oh yeah!  Congratulations Myinah!

So that brings us to the end of another round of the FWC.  I hereby pass the tasselled baton of contest administration over to the competent hands of Stupot+, be his to hold it high.  And twirl it around some, preferably from the top of a comically unstable human pyramid.  But again I digress!  I hope to see you all out again for the next exciting instalment of....

The Fortnightly Writing Challenge! 

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Why do we always hide things after they've been answered in this thread?  Do people really read ahead while working on a previous puzzle?

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PEEK-A-BOO!

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"Charles" is actually the river that runs through Boston, and the MIT campus is stretched out along the river like peanut butter on a wall (I have a toddler at home, deal with my corny analogies ).  So to be precise, "Charles" wasn't a red herring, but being an estuary next to the harbour it may actually contain red herrings itself.  So it was kind of like an Inception red herring.

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Hi Mom! 

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Ha!  Made you click!   Also...

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Return?

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No, you guys were closer with the Roman numerals

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Alas, CaptainD is only partly correct...

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"studiously" does indeed refer to university, or at least a tertiary education institution.

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I could have just as easily used 2 exes, or four exes, but one ex would not have worked.

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Charles isn't a person.

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Not the solution, but just a thought:

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Perhaps "studiously" means "A+" which means add an "A" at the start of the word?

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I am sorry to report that you're on the wrong track, clever though that track is.  

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"Studiously" is an adverb describing how Charles is hugged

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I'm counting the votes in approximately 24 hours, so lets get some more opinions on the table!

What?!?  No new challenge!?  Unless I get my nightly brain yoga, I'll be in danger of getting a fat head.

So I'm jumping in with this unsolicited and mostly spellchecked clue:

Studiously hugging Charles X X X (7)

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AGS related

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A break (tea time) without tea = time
That's backwards, no? = on
Only Adam's band (ie humanity) will help you complete this clue = man

Thus: timeonman

I can't help but think I'm missing something....

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[Miguel]

Wow!  I think we might have pulled something trying to break the record for the most entries in a single fortnight.  Good work team!

Our participants, in order of submission, are:

Miguel: November 3, 2055
WHAM: #Apocalypse
kconan: Mike Sullivan's Blogalypse
Sinitrena: Tuesday, 10 November, 2015
Myinah: Goodbye
Dualnames: Watchmen Of The Apocalypse
Alberth: Chapter 1, Goodbye Earth
Stupot+: Obscured by Blood
monkey424: Zombie Time
Durinde: New Zed City

I kinda had to improvise on some of those titles....

Anyhow, the voting criteria, as promised:

Best Character: You find one or several characters really believable/captivating/magnetic/unique, etc.
Best Atmosphere: Did the story evoke strong feelings due to excitement/humour/intrigue/wonder/emotional intensity?
Best Word Choice/Style: The technical art of combining words in clever or gripping ways
Best Creativity in terms of Survival Tactics: Was it the opposite of predictable and boring?
Most Efficient Story: The best story per word used, or saying so much without saying much at all
Best Scenario: Most entertaining combination of zombie type, setting and personalities involved.

You may vote up to 3 times per category, but are under no obligation to do so.  Voting will close sometime between the 19th and 20th of November, and I will tabulate the votes on the evening of the 20th when I get home.

Good luck everyone, and happy unblinking reading!