Competition of the Month-June Anything Goes (almost) Edition

[Aarah]

Welcome one and all to the Competition of the Month!

These monthly competitions are a chance for you to demonstrate your creativity and talents while getting a chance to know your fellow members and have a little fun. Each month is going to have a different theme and a different talent – and maybe a surprise or two! But only one member can wear the purple coins and fancy title of CotM Winner! Do you have what it takes?

The basic rules are as follows:

Spoiler:

» Members can contribute pieces based on the talent (writing, art, screenshots, etc.) and theme during the submission period, after which no further entries will be accepted. Then we will vote via a poll to see who gets to wear that month’s winner’s badge!

» If you are posting artwork, please post a link from an off-forum website such as Photobucket; if you are posting a written piece, please hide it under a spoiler when creating a new post. This is to ensure that posts are not too long and the thread appears orderly for everyone. If you are unsure how to do either of these, don’t be afraid to ask!

» Be respectful and polite about your fellow members’ work. Anyone who says anything rude about another’s work will be hearing from a member of the Mod Squad and may not be allowed to participate in the next competition. There is no such thing as “good” or “bad,” and everyone has a unique way of demonstrating his or her talents. Enjoy the variety!

» All members are welcome to join, including moderators. Don’t forget that we’re members, too!

»UESPOINTS!
UESPoints (UP) are a chance for all you lovely UESP users to earn reward points for your achievements and for participating around the forums. The CotM is now awarding UESPoints as a prize, in addition to the usual 1st place prize of the purple coins.
Here's how it will work: When the voting period is over, UESPoints will be awarded based on what position you came in.

1st Place - 3 UESPoints + Purple Coins
2nd Place- 2 UESPoints
3rd Place - 1 UESPoint

2nd and 3rd place have to have at least two votes to qualify for UESPoints.

This month's challenge is to create something creative!

We want to see anything that fits into the topic of 'The Arts', so it can be a song, music, poem, story, drawing, sculpture, etc. Anything artsy and in the theme of TES.
Entries must be made by yourself.


Our schedule for the June event is as follows:
June 8-27: Competition begins! Start planning and send in those submissions!
June 27-30: Voting period – vote for your favourites!
June 30: Our winner is announced!
Please note that all times are determined by me, Aarah, and therefore will run according to British Summer Time (BST)(Click here if you’re unsure when, exactly, that is!)

Remember that the CotM is not possible without you, so please participate, contribute, discuss, and vote!

Participants

SeaGtGruff
Avron the S'wit
Aarah

[The SheoDovah]

How long does thy require thee story to be? Or can it be any length for thoust to accept?

[Aarah]

How long does thy require thee story to be? Or can it be any length for thoust to accept?

Anything up to 1000 words would be grand.

[SeaGtGruff]

Where do we post our entries?

[Aarah]

Where do we post our entries?

Post them right here in the thread, behind a hide tag.

[SeaGtGruff]

Hidden:

My Little Pony Guar
----------------------

My little pony guar,
my little pony guar,
too cute for your own good!
My little pony guar,
my little pony guar,
I'd catch you if I could!

Running around
oh so trusting and sweet;
I want to kill you
for your Guts and White Meat.
(Guts and White Meat!)

My little dead pony guar,
my little dead pony guar,
you're still so cute somehow.
My little dead pony guar,
my little dead pony guar,
what shall I do with you now?

I'll stuff your dead body
with Red Mountain ashes;
and then I'll glue on
some Nix Bristle Eyelashes.
(Nix Bristle Eyelashes!)

My little stuffed pony guar,
my little stuffed pony guar,
so huggable and dear.
My little stuffed pony guar,
my little stuffed pony guar,
I'm happy with you near.

How can I bear
to keep you all to myself?
Some lonely Dark Elf child
needs you up on her shelf.
(Up on her shelf!)

My little pony guar,
my little pony guar!

My little dead pony guar,
my little dead pony guar!

My little stuffed pony guar,
my little stuffed pony guar!

My little
pony
guar!

EDIT: Added a missing word ("you") in line 30.

[Avron the S'wit]

Is the theme broadly TES - would a short story about a character do?

[Aarah]

Is the theme broadly TES - would a short story about a character do?

That's a big affirmative! Sounds good.

[Avron the S'wit]

Woohoo! Thanks, Aarah. Okay, here goes nothing.

One of my favorite things to do when I’m playing a TES game is to imagine what my character was doing before the call to action, especially since so many of them start with you being a prisoner. I love that you get to go as deep as you want: the option of just playing the game for fun, or really imagining a whole life for your character in that universe. I started a new Morrowind playthrough not too long ago and, somewhere during character creation, this came to mind. Here’s a short writing ditty (and a bonus doodle) that hints at how my Nerevarine ended up in the Imperial Prisons.

Hidden:

They caught him, of course. Valis knew they would. His leg was still bleeding and it reduced his run to an awkward hobble, the wet slaps beneath his boots echoing clumsily down the alleyway. He was thankful that they gave him the extra few minutes, for what it was worth. It let him feel a brief flicker of satisfaction, the childish glee of Hah, almost!, before they emerged fast from his right and slammed a knee into his gut.

He doubled over without resistance, pain burning anew at the edges of his mind.

It was over, but Valis struggled anyway. It made for a better show. His face hit the stone despite his angry scowl, and he squinted as the ruffian holding his hair slammed it down twice more for good measure. The taste of iron ran over his tongue.

Spitting, aching, finally still, Valis groaned, “Was that necessary?”

He felt fingers tightening on his hair and stifled a yelp. “Shut it.”

Ah – the Nord. Of course. Antonius wouldn’t let someone else do the heavy lifting, and he certainly wasn’t going to do it himself. Valis had always wondered what other people felt as he watched the Nord’s column-sized arms crush the life out of them. Now, he was about to find out.

He didn't quite know how to feel about it, though.

The Dark Elf heard, then saw, the approach of leather boots. “You were always such a pain, Valis,” sighed the newcomer.

Valis strained, lifting his red eyes.

Antonius gazed down at him with cold indifference, and, from the awkward angle, the elf thought it looked like the boss was smiling. Almost. There was nothing to smile about with what transpired between them. If anything, Valis only hoped it would be a quick death.

Hope was a strange thing.

The Imperial sat on his haunches, tenting his fingers between his knees. His gray stare was deep and unreadable, like the sea before a storm. “I tried to tell you, Valis. I dare say I was very, even unreasonably, polite about it. Isn’t that right, Black-Shadow?”

“Very polite,” echoed the Nord.

“And, yet, here we are.” He swept his hand across the shadows of the alleyway with a reverence that baffled the Dunmer. There were no gods, Divine or otherwise, here. “All the potential you had snuffed out like a candle because you had to break the rules.”

“I – ” started Valis, but his retort was cut short with a jerk that snapped his chin up, turning his words into a groan.

“And now you’ll die, all alone, your corpse so bloated that even the beggars won’t bother to avoid stepping on it. Like the scum you are.” He tilted his head, and this time the smile wasn’t hard to discern. “Such a tragic end. The Empire really ought to take better care of its orphans, wouldn’t you say?”

“Poor things,” noted Black-Shadow.

Valis’ heart thumped wildly in his chest. This close to the inevitable, sense left his head – a feather caught in the gale of reckless abandon. “Just do it, then,” he spat.

Antonius feigned offense. “Not even regretful, are you?” He leaned close, tapping his hand hard against Valis’ cheek. “Good – because, truth be told, neither am I.” A snap. “Black-Shadow.”

Breaking his neck would have been so much quicker, so much less painful. It always looked so sudden. But, like his father, Antonius was never known for his mercy. The Nord hooked his arm across the elf’s neck. It felt like a collar of ebony – and it was only getting tighter.

Odd, the things you did when death was at your feet. Valis knew it wouldn’t do him any good to resist, was even quite resigned to his fate, but his fingers dug into the hard skin anyway, his lips twisting in a desperate scowl. His mind raced frantically, directionless. What was he supposed to think about? Should he feel remorse? Ask for forgiveness? Were his final few seconds doomed to be so anticlimactic?

An unfamiliar sound ghosted past his lips. Valis turned his gaze on Antonius. The Imperial observed the whole thing with disinterest foremost and a hint satisfaction, bordering dangerously close to joy, second.

Joy. Joy. For whatever reason, the sight of that rampant emotion broke something in Valis, a something that he once thought was so strong, so indestructible. He realized then he didn’t want to die.

Realized it a little too late, perhaps.

A vacant, painful fire burned in his chest, in his head, in his limbs. Darkness made its slow crawl into the edges of his vision. He wanted to say something, one last riposte, but without the presence of air, his voice had abandoned him.

Abandoned – yes. Everything seemed to abandon him. His parents, his acquaintances, his voice, and now his life. What a funny thing to think, he thought, as his eyes closed shut.

The last thing he heard was the guard’s shout at the end of the alleyway, and then he sank, all too willingly, into the dark.

What happened between them? Mysteries abound. Of course, there’s only one good reason for attempted murder in the empire.

PS - SeaGtGruff, that was really somethin'! Thanks for posting that, you gave me some courage to join in on CotM, too.

[SeaGtGruff]

PS - SeaGtGruff, that was really somethin'! Thanks for posting that, you gave me some courage to join in on CotM, too.

Thanks! Just a scary example of how my mind works!

[Aarah]

Such different entries!

SeaGtGruff, I must say, I was slightly alarmed by your poem. What did that poor pony guar ever do to you?

I loved your story, Avron! I wanted to know what happened next. I normally have a short attention span for stories, but I had to keep reading.

[SeaGtGruff]

SeaGtGruff, I must say, I was slightly alarmed by your poem.

What can I say? The first time I saw one in Vvardenfell, I thought about the old commercial for the toy (if you're old enough to have seen it and it aired in your locale/country), which led me to make up a new song. And then while thieving I found a stuffed toy, which made me laugh because I thought, "Okay, so at least one of the programmers/creative writers had ideas similar to mine."

I loved your story, Avron! I wanted to know what happened next.

Agreed, it was very well-written and engaging. What happened next is that he woke up in a cell and met the emperor. But I want to know what happened before the story!

[Avron the S'wit]

Thank you two for your kind words. I've always loved CotM and am glad to see it's still going. (As for what happened before the story? What - the doodle wasn't convincing enough? )

Also SeaGtGruff, I know what you mean. You have to hand it to the programmers. They sneak a few things in that can give you a really great laugh if you find them! I try to make it a point to have sticky fingers just to find the little treasures they leave.

[Aarah]

@Gruff
I'm not familiar with that commercial. I wasn't sure if there was a tune to go with your lyrics or not, like from that?

@Avron
I haven't played Morrowind (oh, actually I think I played a tiny bit), and I bet the continuation would be way more engrossing and interesting if it was written by you rather than playing the game.

Hidden:

Oh, the doodle. Made me chuckle. Great drawing too!

[SeaGtGruff]

@Gruff
I'm not familiar with that commercial. I wasn't sure if there was a tune to go with your lyrics or not, like from that?

I hear a slightly different tune in my head for my lyrics, but it's based on this:

Hidden:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LHQ4DmvcJI

[Wolfborn]

Entry withdrawn for personal reasons.

[Avron the S'wit]

Morrowind seems to be such an inspiration for our storytellers... Nice job, Wolfborn. What a sad tale. It reminded me a bit of Barenziah's stories in its telling when I was reading it.

[Wolfborn]

Nice job, Wolfborn.

Thanks!

Morrowind seems to be such an inspiration for our storytellers...

In my case that would be because it's the only TES game I've played so far...

And Avron... remind me to never, ever touch your sweetrolls...
(And if you call that a "doodle" I can only wonder what happens when you decide to draw for real. Nice job on both story and drawing!)

[Aarah]

This is supposed to be Serana.

Hidden:

Poll will be up later today so still time to get in your last minute submissions!

[Avron the S'wit]

Whoa, Aarah - that's downright awesome! Fantastic detail there on the clothing!

Man, this is gonna be a hard one to vote in. Everyone's is so great.

[Aarah]

Thanks a lot, Avron!
(Unfortunately I lost the enthusiasm to be quite as detailed with the hair braids, as you can tell. Sausages? Pebbles, maybe? It's the new vampire fashion...)

Poll is now up! Get yer votes in everyone!

[Avron the S'wit]

Details are the devil, but you did a wonderful job in spite of them. I would straight up omit any braids, so you did better than I would! Well done, well done.

Ohhhh, now I have to decide who to vote for. Better go meditate on it...!

[Aarah]

Cheers, Avron.
And...congratulations! You won the cotm with your delightful story (delightful to read, not delightful in content, considering what happens. ).

She comes back to the forums...she wins the cotm! This lady ain't messin'!

Congrats!

Thanks for entering, SeaGtGruff too. You were a worthy second place (though no one will be able to hear the My Little Pony theme tune in quite the same way now. . )

[Avron the S'wit]

he comes back to the forums...she wins the cotm! This lady ain't messin'!

GASP! Thanks guys (and gals)! Waddya know...this is the first time I ever got to wear purple coins!

Thanks for keeping this fun competition going, Mod Squad.

[SeaGtGruff]

Wait, someone actually voted for my song?

Congratulations, Avron! Your backstory was very well-written, and left everyone wanting more.