City of IF

[Crunchyfrog]

Welcome to the All New Spotlight Competition!


Spotlight Qualifiers

Storygames that qualifed for this month's Spotlight competition were:

Heavy Metal, by Thunderbird
Malevolent Bite, by Bronze
Falls Apart, by LolaTally
Dog-Cycle, by Fenris.
and... Biv-Wacked by Klafarius



Of those qualifiers, TWO of the Authors accepted by PM to go through to the vote.


These are:

Heavy Metal, by Thunderbird

and

Biv-Wacked by Klafarius


More information on how to qualify for future Spotlight competitions and how to accept a place in the poll can be found Here

Rules for voting

You must have read the excerpts in the post below AND AT LEAST one chapter from each Storygame before voting.

This is not a popularity contest or a 'thank you for helping me' vote. This is a serious contest about the quality of the stories written. The winner's story may be selected to represent IF to all first time visitors.

Please note that if you have more than one identity on IF, or if you share a computer with another member of the site, you must let the Mayor know. In addition, you may only vote with a single identity. If you are unsure, please view this thread for further details.


On with the Competition!

[Crunchyfrog]

Here are the excerpts from our two Spotlight contenders. Please read both excerpts and at least one chapter from each of the Storygames before voting.



The poll will run for 15 days.

Good luck to both Authors! :)



Heavy Metal by Thunderbird

Quote: “That’s right,” Bouncer said, his words patiently spoken, “The better question is: how are we going to get your fuel? Right?”

“Yeah, I s’pose it is. Seein’ as we have no OPTIONS left.” Walter shot an accusatory glance at Dave who shrunk beneath it.

“Simple,” Bouncer stated, “We’re going to steal it.”

Walter must have gone visibly pale as his mouth fell open like a stunned guppy. “What?” he croaked after a moment of shocked silence.

“You wanna live your dream of getting into space, old man?” the Bouncer pressed. “Then you just shut up and let us deliver your dreams for you. Way I see it, you have two options. You can either go home and wait for us to bring it to ya’, OR you can grow some balls and come with us. I already talked to Dave about this. I know he’s in.” The bouncer’s deep brown eyes followed Dave as the young man slipped away from the bar to wander the casino floor, head hung in shame. Walt thought he could see a gold tooth glinting in the Bouncer’s smile.

“This… this is so totally… out of the…” Walter stuttered as he meant to immediately object, yet to think of all these years of planning, progress, blood, sweat, and tears, wasted… He decided at first to address his now secondary concern.

“Why?” he scratched out of his aging voice. “Why do you want to help me? What’s your angle? What’s in it for you?”

“Let’s just say, old man, that my employer...”

“Lucky,” Walter interrupted.

“Yeah, heh, Lucky,” Bouncer said with a cynical smirk, “wants to see you succeed. He wants you to realize your destiny, become what you were meant to be.”

“What does he stand to gain from it?” Walter said, his mind growing numb.

“More than you or I will likely understand I guess. I don’t really know and I don’t really care. All I know is he wants me to get you into space. And I can assure you, what Lucky wants, Lucky gets. I promise you, with more conviction than most can possibly offer,” the Bouncer rested his heavy palm on Walter’s shoulder, “Nothing CAN go wrong here.”

“Hmph,” Walter muttered, “Famous last words.”




Biv-Wacked by Klafarius

Quote: Note from Author: Excerpt was edited for content so that it is appropriate for all ages

Chapter 1

Whoever said war was an honorable and commendable profession should have his honorable and commendable ass shot, and with the day Jack had he was perfectly ready to pull the trigger.

Jack sat in a pitched armored tent with two of his lieutenants going over troop movements while waiting for confirmation of the deaths of the commanding general and his chief of staff while they had been traveling to the base camp. Of course Jack already knew that the general was dead because he had watched the damned convoy go up in a blaze of glory when the Nehlig attack ships had swooped down and blown them to kingdom come.

The brainiacs in the Battle Assessment Tech corps, or BATs as they were called, had predicted such a thing might happen but the pompous ass of a general insisted that a show of faith on the part of the Armed Forces would go a long way to cementing the permanent truce and end the war. As the BATs had also predicted, the truce had been another stall tactic while the Nehlig prepared for an assault against her majesty’s Royal Armed Forces.

No Kidding.

Wiping out the convoy had effectively reduced the 105th battle platoon’s officer complement from five to one, the one being Jack of course. At the outset of the campaign there had been around twenty officers ditched on this worthless piece of real estate but as the fighting increased and casualties mounted, that number had dwindled to five. Of the five, two had died in the convoy (may the general and his god damned assistant’s souls rot in hell), one had been assassinated by a sniper while relieving himself behind a boulder (bets had been taken as to which head had been shot first), and the fourth officer had the gall to die of a heart attack (while banging his chauffer). Yep, life for Commander Jedidiah A. Caz, Jack for short, couldn’t get any worse. Or so he thought.

“Incoming!” shouted a voice over the blower seconds before a barrage of rapid blaster fire tore through the camp as a Nehlig combat skimmer came in low and fast for a strafing run. The sound of the anti-air cannons return fire shook the earth around the base camp.

[Amichan]

Keep in mind that there is a lot at stake. Your own forum for your story some much needed face time on the CityofIF Main Page and a Free Ad from the IFQ. SO if you have a story that has made Sticky status it is a great honor and I encourage those that have have a story stickied to let either Smee or Crunchyfrog know so you can get put in the polls

[Crunchyfrog]

It's early on and they're already neck and neck... :shock:

[Thunderbird]

Make sure to check out my latest chapter if you haven't... might influence your vote perhaps... I dunno ;)

[Crunchyfrog]

One more week to vote, and still it is very close!

[Smee]

3 days to go folks!

Get those last minute votes in, it is still close enough for everything to change.


Happy Voting :)

[Crunchyfrog]

This poll will automatically close over the weekend. So if you haven't got around to voting yet, now's your chance!

It is still very close...

[Amichan]

looks like HM has a slight lead

[Smee]

And we have a winner!

Congratulations to Thunderbird, with his winning story, Heavy Metal.

Your own forum will be set up for you over the next day or two.

~

Everyone, look out for the announcement of the next Spotlight competition.

Happy Writing :)

[Thunderbird]

Wow... thanks to all who voted for Heavy Metal! I hadn't though it would stand much of a chance here cuz BIV-Wack is pretty dang good. But I'm pleasantly surprised anyhow.

Speaking of surprises, there's lots in store coming up. I'll leave you a hint in the nature of the story forum's avatar...

[Amichan]

just means now you have to get hup two chop choping on your blurb so it can make it in the IFQ as well as a pic and another chappy have fun :D

[Crunchyfrog]

Congratulations, TB! :D

And thanks to everyone who turned out and voted in this first Spotlight competition. Good show!

And well done to Klafarius too - it was close for a long time. Very good storygames both!

:tu2:

[Klafarius]

Congrats TB! There's always next time! :D

[Thunderbird]

Yes there is... and I think you've got a hell of a shot, though we'll see which others qualify...

[Emperor]

Congrats Thunder, sorry I was late on voting.