"Then one came in. Across the room
It stood up long and fair—
The ghost that was myself—
And gave me stare for stare."
How long has it been?
You stare down into the glassy water, oblivious to your surroundings. You can't even remember where you are or how you got there.
You cast your gaze down through the endless water. There's nothing down there but darkness; anything that goes down there probably won't come back. You blink, refocusing your eyes, and a face stares back at you through the water. You move to one side, and it moves with you.
Is that really your reflection? You see your features in its face, but something's off. What is it?
Frustrated, you reach down to disrupt your not-reflection. At once, its hands shoot out and grab you by the collar. You plunge headlong into the water.
You manage to break free and frantically swim up to the surface, but you can't reach air--it's like there's an impenetrable wall.
Simultaneously, you look up through the water and down into it from the other side. You watch as you struggle to break free. You smile for a moment and walk away.
Your strength fails and water rushes into your lungs. You fall away from the surface and crushing pressure bears down on your body. One thought crosses your mind as darkness closes around you.
The person leaving the water's edge was you. So who's the drowning person?
The Second Dream: Reviled Reflection
You survived the first dream. Now it's time for the second.
What defines you? Is it your power? Is it your skills? Is it your body, your personality, or your desires and needs?
It's time to find out.
Round Prompt
This round, you will switch defining characteristics with your opponent. Defining characteristics means the things that make your character different from some random person, namely powers, weapons, or certain skills. The degree to which defining characteristics are swapped is up to you, as is how aware your character is of the change, and how proficient they are with their different abilities.
The themes of this round are identity and dealing with the unusual. The idea is to write your character into someone with a different skillset and define your character as something besides the dude with x power. How would your character utilize said different abilities? How would it affect the people around them? How do they fare against their former powers?
The swap occurs before the story begins and you may choose the nature of the swap. If you wish, you may write as if your character has always had the swapped powers. Do remember that people reading your story may not have read the prompt, so make sure your story still makes sense.
Again, you have a 4000 word limit unless otherwise specified by a prompt.
The betting phase lasts five days and ends at midnight CST on the fourteenth of August. This is the time to declare whether your bets. Your betting range is listed with your matchups below. 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.
Deals are exactly the same as they were last round.
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 September fourth (9/4/14). 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.
It apparently wasn't clear last time, but at least two of the wRHG characters have to be main characters in the story. You can't add in a character and completely turn the wRHG character into an extra, because that's how you lose universal points.
Underpass Overlook
Cheap hostels aren't ideal, but it's better than sleeping outside. You're only staying for one night; what's the worst that can happen?
Setting: A hostel under inclement weather.
Scenario: Multiple characters are sharing a hostel for the night and the power goes out. Someone attempts to break in.
Prompt: The person (or thing) trying to break in does not have to be one of your characters, but does have to be dealt with over the course of the story.
Allegory
An allegory is where you get to get your symbolism pants on. In literature, an allegory is when you have a second, symbolic meaning behind the literal events of your story. It's fairly common in an allegory to have a character that represents an idea like death or love or other wonderful things like that. It's similar to using an extended metaphor where the entire story is the metaphor. You will be judged on how skillfully you can create an allegory. That is to say, you will do better if your allegory is evident, but doesn't get in the way of the primary, literal story. Basically, don't run around with the sledgehammer of symbology, because that ends poorly for everyone involved.
Grandeur and Voyeurs
A canyon is a ravine that’s generally created by erosion caused by a river over a ridiculously long span of time. Not that it matters to you, because you have better things to worry about than the formation of geological features. Collecting information in hostile territory, for example.
Setting: Canyon.
Scenario: One or more characters is performing reconnaissance in the area and gets discovered.
Prompt: The reason for the reconnaissance mission must be explained at some point during the story. The actual events of the story may take place before or after the discovery of the spy.
Antagonist Opening Scene
A quick search on TVTropes tells me that the name of this is actually "Villain Opening Scene", but I don't really like the term "villain" and I'd have to change the name in like five places to correct it. Anyways, it's exactly what you would guess: you start your story with a scene featuring your antagonist and his/her establishing character moment. This is used most frequently when the antagonist is the driving force behind the plot. You will be judged on how well you establish your antagonist with this opening scene (based on what he/she does) and also whether this antagonist opening scene is consistent with your portrayal of the character for the rest of the story.
Burning Down the House
They said you shouldn't play with fire. Well, screw those guys, because what could possibly go--oh no.
Setting: A burning building.
Scenario: At least one of your characters have to escape a burning building at some point in the story.
Prompt: The burning building may occur at any point for any reason, but the reason for the burning building should be made clear at some point in the story. In case it isn't obvious, the burning building has to be a plot-important event, not just something that happens that only tangentially affects the story (so someone escaping a fire and finding out about a murder while in the ambulance would not be okay but someone committing arson to say, destroy evidence, would be fine).
Red Herring
The red herring is a plot device used in intrigue plots, generally mystery fiction. It's a clue that deliberately misdirects the reader into coming to the wrong conclusion and conceal the real answer that's been there the whole time. The things that make a good red herring are first a strong intrigue with hints that actually do foreshadow the real solution and then the red herring hints that are reasonable and mislead the reader. You will be judged on how convincingly you make your red herring and then how you foreshadow the real solution, whatever it is. You will lose credit if you do things like repeatedly say "It couldn't POSSIBLY be X!", because that's not how a red herring works.
What’s Yours is Mine
It’s stuffy in the gallery. You pass by one of the many items under fancy lighting and glance at the price tag. It’s more money than you’ve ever even dreamed of. There's a thick haze of perfume and tobacco smoke and it frankly makes you sick. You’d much rather not be here around the rich and inelegant and it’s not like you’re even here to buy. After all, why would you buy what you can just steal?
Setting: A gallery of some sort. Any variety of items can be on display.
Scenario: At least one of your characters attempts to steal one of the items on display.
Prompt: The story’s main focus is on the theft and/or the aftermath thereof. The theft may take place at any point in time during the story.
Thematic Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is the placement of two (frequently very different) things next to one another to compare or contrast. Thematic juxtaposition is using juxtaposition to get across a certain idea (or theme, if you will). Examples are things like technology and pre-development, order and chaos, or wealth and poverty. You will be judged by how evident your juxtaposition and the symbolic message attached to it is. Remember that said message does have to be relevant to the plot and story themes.
Unlimited Soups, Salads, and Surveillance
You are to make contact at the disclosed location with the included supplies. This mission is of utmost importance. Do not fail.
Setting: A nice restaurant.
Scenario: One of your characters is a spy conducting an extremely important mission.
Prompt: The nature of the mission should be made clear over the course of the story, as is the reason why it's important. It may be a joint mission if you wish. The spy/spies are trying to keep their identity secret (so don't have them bursting in with guns blazing). You are allowed to give your spy characters extra equipment if you so desire.
Must Let Them Get Away
This is fairly straightforward. For whatever reason, the protagonist must let the antagonist (or vice versa) go free. This means that this is specifically the protagonist not going after the antagonist, not just the antagonist making a crafty escape. You will be judged on your ability to make it so that there's an actual justification for why the protagonist lets the antagonist go.
You will PM your story directly to me before the due date, midnight CST of September 4th. You may submit the text as is or a link to a pastebin or Google Doc or other file upload website, as long as I don't need to make an account to access it. I will make the topics and polls when the time comes.
There's no explicit bonus for submitting early, but I'll be able to get to your red pen reviews sooner and your subscore explanations will be more in-depth. It'll help keep the judging phase down to a week.
FAQ:
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.
Q: Does there have to be a certain explanation for why characteristics are swapped?
A: You can have any explanation for the switched abilities. You can also write as if they aren't switched (which is to say, these characters have always been in the switched positions). If you want, you don't have to explain it at all.
Q: Would it be possible to switch the abilities back during the course of the story?
A: The switched traits remain switched for the entire story. That means that the switch occurs before the story's beginning and if they switch back, do not do so inside the story.
Links
Full tournament rules and guidelines
General tournament discussion and due dates
The Valley of Dreams R1: Past Projection
The Valley of Dreams R3: Corrupt Connection
The Valley of Dreams R4: Timed Transgression
The Valley of Dreams Concluded