“But what were all these charms to me,
When one sweet breath of memory
Came wafting softly by?”
Breathe.
You wake to the sound of leaves rustling and birds chirping in the distance. The air smells sweet and it passes over your skin with a gentle touch. It takes you some time to become fully lucid, and just a little bit more to realize where you are.
Home.
Somewhere in the back of your mind you realize that that can’t possibly be the case. Things have changed. You’ve changed.
But there’s no denying it as you stand and look around; it’s just as you remember it. You don’t understand how, but you’re slowly coming to think it doesn’t matter.
A person calls your name and you turn to respond. The words catch in your throat.
They don’t belong here. You met them years after you left.
The person sweeps up beside you and pulls you close. The wind whips at your clothes as if trying to tear the two of you apart and the world starts to disintegrate, the buildings crumbling into dust and smoke.
“Come on,” they murmur in your ear. You hear the words clearly in spite of the howling wind. “We have to go.”
But where to?
The First Dream: Past Projection
The first dream has begun. Time is strange and subjective and it has pulled your past into a place where it doesn’t belong. Maybe you’re in a place from long ago, maybe there’s a person from years ago, or maybe you’re replaying some event in your life. Either way, the fact of the matter is that it’s here now and you need to get through it.
So what do you do?
Round Prompt
This round you must write a story that takes place in the present but is about the past. There are many ways of doing this: the conflict of your story can originate from something that occurred a long time ago, the events of your story can shed light on something that happened in the past, you can “replay” a scene from the past that is now going differently, among other things. The important thing is that the source of the conflict is something that happened long before the events of your story and is never explicitly shown.
Note that when I say “present”, I mean in the context of your story. If you want to set the “present” in your character’s past, go ahead and do so. It’s just that your “past” has to be before the “present” (y’know, how you would expect it to).
In case it’s still not clear, you’re not allowed to actually show the past events that cause the conflict in the present story. You have to write your story to show what happened in the past based on the effects it has in the present.
Remember that you’re writing with the assumption that people haven’t read your backstory or character page or supplemental stories. This means that a) you shouldn’t assume people will know characters, and b) you can (and in some cases may have to) completely rewrite events of your character’s past to include characters or events. I can’t stress enough that we’re throwing all plot continuity (though emphatically not character continuity) out the window in this tournament. The sooner you get into that mindset, the better your stories will be.
We are writing short stories, so there is a 4000 word limit unless otherwise specified by a prompt. Longer stories will not get you a better score and you'll be penalized for fluff, so don't write a lot just because you can.
The betting phase lasts six days and ends at midnight CST on the tenth of July. This is the time to declare whether you want to bet one or two tokens. Remember, if you take too long, your opponent might make the declaration before you, so if you want to go high risk you might want to declare fast.
Once your bet has been set, I will PM both of you your individual prompts and you can start writing.
If neither of you declare a bet by the end of the betting phase, I will set your bet to the minimum.
You may request a Deal at any point during this round by either putting it in your bet declaration post or sending me a PM. I will issue the Deal 24-48 hours later (if I don’t, then PM me again). You may cancel your request at any point before it’s actually issued without penalty, but you may not re-request the Deal if you do so.
The Deal gives you one extra token at the end of the round, but you must hold up your end of the Deal for every round it is in effect or you will be penalized a token.
If you wish to use your shuffle on the Deal you get, just PM me saying so. Remember, you may only shuffle one Deal in the entire tournament and you are not allowed to return to your old Deal. You are also only allowed to shuffle the Deal you get the same round.
The writing phase ends at midnight CST on July thirty-first (7/31/14). Remember, you will be eliminated from the tournament if you submit late, so aim for a couple of days early if you’re bad at time zones. PM me BEFORE the due date about extenuating circumstances, but I will not be generous with extensions/passes. Three to four weeks is pretty generous as it is.
Here are all of the matchups. I will update this with individual prompts and bets as they are declared. Remember, you get your prompt once you declare your bet, so if you want more time to write, then declare your bet sooner rather than later.
Just as a note about prompts, if I say “your character(s)”, that means it must be one of the wRHG characters. If it does not say “your character(s)” (and instead says something like “one or more characters”), then any character may fill that role.
Spectercle Debacle
It’s been a long day. You never knew where you would eventually end up in life, but the most you can say is that you never expected this. It wasn’t the lack of glory or satisfaction. It wasn’t even the memories and regrets. It was just...you didn’t expect to be so dead.
Setting: Anywhere in a city/town.
Scenario: One of your characters is dead and a ghost. Your characters encounter each other somehow and must investigate the circumstances of the dead party’s death.
Prompt: The ghost character is dead from the beginning of the story. The main point of the story is the relationship between your two characters and the circumstances or consequences of the ghost’s death. The ghost may have died in any way. You may use any rules you want for ghosts. Possession, intangibility, telekinesis, I don’t care. However, I will nail the hell out of you for inconsistency.
Depression
A story is built on your ability to convincingly build characters and emotions. For this narrative challenge, you will be judged on your ability to convey appropriate despair and depression. This means that the circumstances for the angst must be justified and the emotion itself presented in a way that actually moves the reader.
Concrete Jungle Gym
The city has a hell of a night life. The lights and people and noises and smells--it’s all a bit too much sometimes. Much better to take a break from all of that with a friend. Yeah, maybe that will do.
Setting: A city park and surrounding areas.
Scenario: One of your characters is betrayed.
Prompt: The person who does the betraying does not have to be one of your characters, though it certainly can be. The betrayal should be the climax of the story, not the cause. The events leading up to the betrayal and the actual nature of the betrayal are up to you. Do remember that for a betrayal to really work out, the reader shouldn’t expect it to happen. But don’t pull the betrayal out of your ass, either.
Anagnorisis
Anagnorisis was described in Aristotle’s Poetics as a critical moment in a play in which a character gains new knowledge about the situation, often creating a turn in fortune (peripeteia). More specifically, the knowledge is generally related to the character’s situation, role, or relationship with other characters (frequently the antagonist). Your job is to make this pivot point as powerful as possible. You will be judged on your execution of anagnorisis and its impact on the plot.
The Strongest (2) vs. ErrorBlender (2)
The Strongest vs ErrorBlender
Wager: 1 token
Jambalaya is delicious. Sorry, no title joke.
So a "culinary scientist" is a thing that actually exists. That shouldn't be surprising, but what kind of classes does a food science major take? A lot of chemistry, I imagine. And maybe some MCB.
Setting: In and around a kitchen.
Scenario: One of your characters is preparing a meal for the other character but it turns out there's a poltergeist haunting the kitchen because your luck is terrible.
Prompt: The poltergeist is taken care of by the end of the story. I imagine that your characters would collaborate, but that's up to you.
Hourglass Plot
An hourglass plot is characterized by two main characters involuntarily switching positions, whether in status, morals, or economic position. It is generally used to show how neither character learns anything through the switch (like a henchman rising up through the ranks to become the big bad and being just as terrible as the last big bad), though you are not required to do so. You will be judged on how strong your hourglass plot is (what is switched and how it affects the situation) and how well it’s presented (it should be evident that there actually was a switch and said switch must make sense in context).
Why do all fictional pubs have really shady names?
Have a drink.
Setting: A pub.
Scenario: You're in a building and there are drinks to drink. Make something up.
Prompt: Don't move the story out of the pub. Other than that, go nuts.
Extended Metaphor
Symbolism is a staple of literature--it’s a more abstract way of showing, not telling. This narrative challenge will have you utilize an extended metaphor, whether explicit or implicit. This means that you will take a metaphor and explore its different facets. Some famous examples would be Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”, in which a woman is compared to summer or Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”, in which life is compared to a journey. You will be judged on how well the metaphor is executed (remember, analogies only work if you’re not wrong about how your compared objects work) and how it adds value to the story (so don’t bang on about your metaphor just to have it in there, because that detracts from the actual story).
Ushering in the Fall
Mansions are neato. They’re big and expensive and presumably you don’t have to clean them up because if you have enough money to buy a mansion, you probably have enough money to pay someone to clean it for you. So of all the mansions you could have gotten to stay in, why did you have to get the creepy one?
Setting: Creepy old mansion.
Scenario: Both of your characters are staying together in the mansion for a certain period of time and are not allowed to leave. The mansion may or may not be haunted, but it definitely isn’t what it seems to be.
Prompt: Your characters may not leave the mansion at any time for any reason during the story. Other than that, go nuts.
Posthumous Character
A posthumous character is a character that has been dead from the beginning of the story and never actually shows up, but has an important role in the story regardless. Importantly, the posthumous cannot have any active role in the current events (e.g., being a ghost or coming back to life). The posthumous character is usually developed through flashbacks, though they certainly don’t have to be. You will be judged on your ability to make this character’s presence known and integral to the events of the story (whether as the catalyst or the cause of the plot) as well as developing this character even though they get no real screen time.
You will submit your story for judging by PMing it to me directly. This means that you will not be able to change your story after it is submitted. This is what you must do before the deadline (July 31st, midnight CST). There is no explicit bonus for submitting early, but it does give the judges more time to go over your story, which helps to keep the judging phase down to one week.
In addition, you will create a thread like you normally would. If you don't post a thread, I'll do it for you.
When you post your thread, please use the following format:
Topic Title: wRHG R1: [Username] vs [Username]
(Do not use character names, because that's misleading, considering that most of these prompts don't actually have character vs character)
Poll: Create a poll like you normally would (public, one week). Again, use usernames, not character names.
Character blurbs: Take the character blurbs from the
general page and paste them here using the following format: [Character name] ([Username]): [Abilities]
EX:
Sirius Nightshade (BoomerangReturns): Sociopathic, shadow manipulation, magically enhanced knife, half-demon.
Do NOT link the character pages.
Stories: Post both stories in spoilers. If you have author's notes, put them outside the spoilers. You're not allowed to explain anything about your story in your author's note if you have one (I will penalize you five points if you do).
Do NOT post any of your prompts.
Ask any questions pertaining specifically to this round in this thread or by PM and I’ll pop them here as soon as I’m able. If your question is about mechanics, please
