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Post by agedbeauty on Apr 22, 2020 12:24:30 GMT -5
I wrote for the second slot too, with Linae discovering the shop burning and others trying to put it out but no one noticing Anshu was missing. Is Aesop the new Storyteller? I know people complained about not being many winners (I was a regular contributor at the time) but I do have to say, there wasn't a lot of credit for how hard it was to write effectively then and just how competitive it was. I won once a week but I also wrote entries for something like 7 out of the 10 available slots. There's a balance to be struck between enticing new contributors (which is needed) and recognizing all the efforts and work of people who submit a lot of well-written entries that never make it through. But yeah, I remember those complaints for sure. kat, I saw Diana around recently - she's at least popped onto neo, even if she's not active here now!
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Post by Stephanie (swordlilly) on Apr 22, 2020 19:12:08 GMT -5
Is Aesop the new Storyteller? Yes, Aesop said in this editorial that they're responsible for running the spotlights & contests, as well as putting together the NT. Also, it's past 5pm NST and the storytelling hasn't been updated yet. I hope they didn't get too busy / forget again like they did the week before last.
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Post by agedbeauty on Apr 22, 2020 20:15:11 GMT -5
Is Aesop the new Storyteller? Yes, Aesop said in this editorial that they're responsible for running the spotlights & contests, as well as putting together the NT. Also, it's past 5pm NST and the storytelling hasn't been updated yet. I hope they didn't get too busy / forget again like they did the week before last. I saw that and I guess I didn't connect that with the STC. My brain is in sixteen million directions! Yes, I am afraid of that too
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Post by Kat on Apr 22, 2020 21:45:36 GMT -5
I wrote for the second slot too, with Linae discovering the shop burning and others trying to put it out but no one noticing Anshu was missing. Is Aesop the new Storyteller? I know people complained about not being many winners (I was a regular contributor at the time) but I do have to say, there wasn't a lot of credit for how hard it was to write effectively then and just how competitive it was. I won once a week but I also wrote entries for something like 7 out of the 10 available slots. There's a balance to be struck between enticing new contributors (which is needed) and recognizing all the efforts and work of people who submit a lot of well-written entries that never make it through. But yeah, I remember those complaints for sure. kat, I saw Diana around recently - she's at least popped onto neo, even if she's not active here now! Whoa, great minds think alike. Except that my mind is rusty and dusty. I know how you feel. It was competitive with so many extremely talented people vying for the slots even though there were two per day, but it was especially difficult for me because of my timezone. I only got half the chances most folks do because some updates go up either while I'm asleep or while I was in school (I was a storytelling semi-regular when I was in college). Usually by the time a new storytelling contest begins, someone has already beaten me to the first slot. Guess I'll be Neomailing a lot of people, letting them know old creaky Kat is back, rising from the depths of law school and work. Also, it's past 5pm NST and the storytelling hasn't been updated yet. I hope they didn't get too busy / forget again like they did the week before last. Well, Aesop also had to put together the Kougra Day poetry gallery (which Janice and I didn't get into, rats). There's also the matter of this week's NT... I didn't type up an entry for this one now because I couldn't think of anything to add and I guess I want more info before I try again. Plus, I decided to keep puttering away at my current short story in progress which just went past the word limit and is now a two-part series. I'M SORRY AESOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
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Post by RielCZ on Apr 22, 2020 23:13:03 GMT -5
I entered something short for the next slot this morning, so there WAS a slot that could have been picked... Then again my entry contained a major twist that maaaybe the story didn't need midway through, heh.
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Post by agedbeauty on Apr 23, 2020 15:50:47 GMT -5
I was happy to see it updated today! I had a hard time writing for slot 4 here, but woot. kat you have me wanting to write for the NT now. Ahh. Lol! EDIT: Wow, I got alerted my entry went up just about an hour after I submitted. (I think an hour.) I was figuring the Storyteller would stretch the story to next week. Well, cool!
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Post by Stephanie (swordlilly) on Apr 23, 2020 20:00:45 GMT -5
Yay they didn't give up on updating the STC! Although...
O.O I don't envy whoever tries to wrap this up lol.
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Post by Kat on Apr 23, 2020 21:26:46 GMT -5
I was happy to see it updated today! I had a hard time writing for slot 4 here, but woot. kat you have me wanting to write for the NT now. Ahh. Lol! EDIT: Wow, I got alerted my entry went up just about an hour after I submitted. (I think an hour.) I was figuring the Storyteller would stretch the story to next week. Well, cool! Congrats! Also yes good, join usssssss. Yay they didn't give up on updating the STC! Although... O.O I don't envy whoever tries to wrap this up lol. I think I'll try to take a crack at it now, haha. Depending on what I think of, I might wind up submitting two versions again.
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Post by doctortomoe on Apr 23, 2020 22:50:09 GMT -5
Oh I look away for a while and suddenly everyone's back.
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Post by RielCZ on Apr 24, 2020 3:30:30 GMT -5
Welcome back, Oliver! Stay a while! Also, I submitted an ending that I'm actually super proud of! But it took me a while to write and it's near twice the length of the entire rest of the story, so... We'll see. Good luck Kat if you wrote/write an ending, too!
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Post by agedbeauty on Apr 24, 2020 8:02:18 GMT -5
Oh I look away for a while and suddenly everyone's back. It's a SECRET. Shh
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Post by Kat on Apr 24, 2020 19:57:52 GMT -5
I wrote an ending but note to self: never write an ending when it's late. I think I flubbed it because I wanted to strike a balance between wrapping up and not introducing too much new stuff. It's a pale comparison to the ending I tossed out for 417 when the storytelling judge chose both my and Diana's endings.
Blegh. I'm going to sleep earlier tonight.
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Post by agedbeauty on Apr 25, 2020 14:41:33 GMT -5
I wrote an ending but note to self: never write an ending when it's late. I think I flubbed it because I wanted to strike a balance between wrapping up and not introducing too much new stuff. It's a pale comparison to the ending I tossed out for 417 when the storytelling judge chose both my and Diana's endings. Blegh. I'm going to sleep earlier tonight. 417 was a long time ago - several storytellers ago. That storyteller definitely used to pick multiples sometimes I don't think we'll see Aesop do that, and there are different choices being made for what wins now...so don't stress
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Post by Kat on Apr 25, 2020 23:30:22 GMT -5
I wrote an ending but note to self: never write an ending when it's late. I think I flubbed it because I wanted to strike a balance between wrapping up and not introducing too much new stuff. It's a pale comparison to the ending I tossed out for 417 when the storytelling judge chose both my and Diana's endings. Blegh. I'm going to sleep earlier tonight. 417 was a long time ago - several storytellers ago. That storyteller definitely used to pick multiples sometimes I don't think we'll see Aesop do that, and there are different choices being made for what wins now...so don't stress Yeah, this really shows how long I've been gone. (417 also holds a special place in my heart for being the one competition where I managed to shoehorn a NQII reference, and it worked. Started out as a silly fangirly whim, then I did a double take when I found out that I won.) Thanks, though. I want to try my hand at writing a beginning and I think I have a couple of ideas for that, too.
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Post by RielCZ on Apr 27, 2020 15:26:24 GMT -5
...Clearly my endings are off base in the present iteration of the STC. But that foolishly probably won't stop me from trying. Or maybe I should just try for non-ending slots, heh. Here's the ending that I'd written for the last story, anyway: ..."Find me the thief." He stared her right in the eye as she listened intently. "He came and robbed me of my healing potion -- what should have been my healing potion -- and in the process he broke it, unleashing this permanent fire." He frowned and shook his head. "We both escaped, but he ran off with the remainder of the herbs. Find him, so I can use the herbs to make an antidote!" He quickly opened his sketchbook of botanical alleviations and showed her his sketch of the herb. "They are very rare and in season once a year. But I picked them all -- there will be no more until next spring."
The Kougra nodded slowly at him. "So, you just want me to find the thief, and procure the herbs?"
"Yes, Linae. I am old and frail, but you are comparatively young, and much quicker than I. Go, find him. Find him quickly, before he gets too far away!" The Ruki practically pushed her off.
She glanced back at him and furrowed her brow. "I don't even know what he looks like--"
"He looks like a thief, a scoundrel!" he castigated. "You'll know him when you see him. Now go!"
The Kougra frowned at him almost pleadingly, before turning around and jogging off. She ran the distance around Shenkuu twice, but found no one she believed to be a thief.
"What are you doing, tile-face?" asked Hoban as she started her third circuit.
"Nice to see you too," Linae sarcastically replied as she folded her arms and stuck her tongue out at him. She explained everything that Anshu had said to her. "So, I'm TRYING to find the thief that broke Anshu's failed healing potion, which set fire to his place, so that I can get back the herbs and undo this whole mess," she finished.
A pause.
"You don't believe that, do you?" It was the navigator's turn to be derisive.
"That Remarkable Restoratives is on fire? Er, duh." She pointed vaguely to the smoke and red glow coming from the healer's hut.
He shook his head. "No, silly, that Anshu failed making a healing potion."
The Kougra took a figurative step back. That did seem... odd, now that the Aisha mentioned it. He was not one to simply mis-prepare a potion. He might be "old and frail" but he had his wits, and many years of brewing under his belt.
She looked back at him, wide-eyed. "Could the thief have startled him and caused him to err in its creation?"
"It's a possibility I suppose, but..." He shook his head. "I don't know. The idea there was a thief at all seems somewhat sketchy to me. Do you really think a thief would have survived in Shenkuu for very long? It's all bridges and steep inclines here. He would have had to be as skilled as Princess Terrana to even get in and out without anyone noticing something was amiss -- and a skillful thief wouldn't have broken what he was trying to steal WHILST trying to steal it."
Linae frowned deeply.
"Anshu's a kook, but you're crazier than he is if you're going to go along with this!" He walked away with his arms in the air.
The legendarily unstable Hoban calling HER crazy? ...Now that was a new low, for her. She sighed and turned back toward Remarkable Restoratives... only to notice that, though the smoke was still thick, the red in the air had relaxed to a more usual hazy yellow shade.
She gaped and ran to the shop. Anshu was nowhere to be found -- but neither was the fire. Relief flooded her, but also anxiety. "What happened? Where is he?" she started, turning to one of the young Ogrins.
"He walked toward your hut, Miss," the firefighter explained, "as we tried unsuccessfully to battle the blaze. When he returned he had liquid in a flask, which he threw onto the fire and blam -- kaput. It was out. We tried to ask him what it was, but all he would say was 'the antidote'. We're just writing our reports now, and then we'll go. But if you want to talk to him, he's in there, Miss." He pointed to the store.
The Kougra frowned pensively -- or was it disapprovingly? -- and walked into the gutted store, the inside completely turned to ash.
Anshu turned to greet her. "Oh, Linae!--"
"Stuff it," she interrupted with a scowl. "What happened? What REALLY happened?"
"Like I said before, a thief came--"
Linae huffed and pointed at him. "You said about the thief, that I would 'know him when I see him'. Well, I think I'm looking right at him."
He breathed a heavy sigh and his fu manchu drooped. "Alright. Listen to me, and don't ask me anything until I've finished elaborating."
She nodded crossly at him, awaiting his reply.
"I was set to make the greatest healing potion in all of Neopia -- nae, this side of the galaxy patrolled by Mira. I have studied my entire life for this. Making potions, perfecting healing... It was all leading to this. To finally discovering just how to unlock the magic in those herbs that only grow in a small corner of my homeland." He looked off to the side. "But the herbs did not work the way I imagined. Not only did it heal, it made one stronger, faster, more powerful... But just as healing can be a great power, a great good... it can be a grave evil in the wrong hands." He looked into her eyes. "A weapon. The potion was simply too powerful to risk it EVER falling into ANYONE'S hands." He turned around and looked away from her. "A thief came. He stole what would be my success. He stole my dreams and my life's work. And the thief was me. I sabotaged my own research, in the process adding too much of the herb and creating a fire, burning all my records and written knowledge about it. I needed you gone, so I could go into your hut to craft the antidote to the fire without anyone knowing." Still looking away, he pointed to his head. "All my life's work is now up here, and here it will remain, until I am gone."
A pause -- one much heavier than between her and Hoban.
"Any questions?" he asked.
Silence.
"That's what I thought," the Ruki finished, still with his back to her. "Now, leave me to sort through the scorched remains of my former glory."
She nodded -- though he could not see it -- and stepped out of the shop. The firefighters were long since gone, and the sky was a dark red -- the earlier smoke and fire mixed with the now late-afternoon sky. It would be evening soon.
After today, she wasn't sure what to make of Anshu. She wasn't sure what to make of the entire day. She would try and be there for her friend when he needed her -- whenever that would be -- but for now, she knew how she was going to spend her evening.
She took out her favourite Kou-Jong set and started layering the tiles.
THE END
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