Thunderdome 2022wo: The Stakes Have NEVER Been Lower

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > Thunderdome 2022wo: The Stakes Have NEVER Been Lower

Nethilia: Oct 17, 2012; Hullabalooza '96
Easily Depressed
Teenagers Edition

Sitting Here posted:

This is the first story in the story chain. Who will write the first sequel? What crazy branching timelines will you drag the judges through???

Written by Crabrock.

WEEK 500DRED Prologue
500 words

�Might wanna stand back,� said the old man I�d contacted on Craigslist.

He opened his garage door and a few obsolete chaos generators tumbled out onto the driveway. He kicked them to the side and pulled out the reason I�d contacted him: the RealitySmasher500. They only made three prototypes before it was deemed too powerful. It�d taken me nearly ten years to track this one down.

A few pieces fell off the device, which resembled a giant french horn with a lot of knobs and superfluous circuitry.

�I was on mushrooms when I designed this thing.� He picked up a loose circuit board, scratched his head, and shrugged. �You know it won�t work without a gem, right?�

I nodded. �I found another seller in Milwaukee with a whole box of gems.� Mostly gems, anyway. I hadn�t bothered to sort the random garage junk from the useful stuff yet.

The old man smiled ruefully. �I�ve only tested it with quartz. No idea what�ll happen if you put something less stable in it�like hackmanite or, god forbid, icosahedrite�so I�d strongly advise against it.�

I peered into his garage, saw several items I�d have liked to get my hands on. Maybe later.

I drove the RealitySmasher500 back to the lab. A few hours of scrubbing and the device shone like new�ish. The superfluous circuitry was hard to clean.

Dave, my assistant, walked in eating an apple. �Hey Dr. Cindy, want one?� he asked with his mouth full.

I accepted the apple. �Anybody call while I was out?� I asked hopefully.

�Sorry, doc. Still nothing.�

Dammit. That call was too important. I wouldn�t be able to focus until it came. I occupied myself by explaining the different functions of the RealitySmasher500 to Dave.

�And this,� I said, � is the time-scale dial. Determines where the alternate timeline branch is created.�

�So if I spin it far enough to the left, I can gently caress with some dinosaurs?�

�Let�s not just yet.� I walked him through some of the other knobs. �This one affects the fundamental laws of physics, this one reverses polarity.�

�Of what?�

�Of everything.�

�Huh!� he said. �But not for us, right? Just for some other timeline.�

I shrugged. �It�s all the same, really. Each new timeline contains a complete copy of the timeline it branched off from. So let�s leave this one set to default, for the sake of our other selves,� I said. I looked at my phone to make sure I hadn�t missed any calls. Nothing.

Dave was saying, �And this only takes crystals, right? So if I took your uneaten apple and put it in this receptacle here�then push that button there�nothing�ll happen, right?�

Distracted, I didn�t register Dave�s question until I looked up, saw my apple in the gem slot and Dave�s finger depressing the big red BISECT TIMELINE button.

�You idiot, what did you do!?� I cried, every hair on my body standing on end.

Just as the room filled with bright light, the phone began to ring.

Short and To The Pointless

Dave grabbed the phone, ignoring my question.

"What? No. No, five hundred. Hundred. Yeah, I'm pretty shocked myself."

Then he hung up.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2022 09:32

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 00:52

Nethilia: Oct 17, 2012; Hullabalooza '96
Easily Depressed
Teenagers Edition

Sitting Here posted:

Yoruichi crows
Wind stirs leaves, the tree remains
I consent to brawl.

Yoruichi posted:

Dear Sitting Here, Fight Me
34 words

There once was a woman here sitting
Whose views on Thunderdome weren't quite fitting
She threatened it with an ax
But she can't argue with facts
And so against her myself I am pitting.

Disturbing my long absence from TD, are we? *stage whisper* I'm aware of week 500. That said,

*JUDGE MODE ACTIVATED*

There's two dolls--of many--sitting on my desk. One is all yellow sparkle gold and sunny--that's literally her name--and the other is shadow and all grey.

They're twins. And so will your stories be connected.

First to reply should pick one of the two to write about, and the other gets the second.

But the one you pick is not the viewpoint you will be using. You will be writing about your picked "twin" through the other's eyes. I don't care about the information on the wiki or anything like that--I just care that I have grey-dark and sun-yellow dolls on my desk. I expect to see the interplay of light and darkness, yin and yang, sun and shadow. And I like a little sun in my shadows and a little shadow in my sun.

Don't collaborate. I'll smell it.

2500 words. It's just you two, I can read that many words pretty quickly.
Y'all have two weeks--May 9th--or whenever my feet stop being disgusting, whichever happens last.

Start wordsmashing, peeps. I await your offerings on the Altars of the Sun and the Moon.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2022 11:18

Nethilia: Oct 17, 2012; Hullabalooza '96
Easily Depressed
Teenagers Edition

I'd like to be comfortable for once.

in, wrap me in a cozy picture blanket.

# ¿ May 11, 2022 08:44

Nethilia: Oct 17, 2012; Hullabalooza '96
Easily Depressed
Teenagers Edition

Fairy Rings
[796]

https://thunderdome.cc//?story=10535

Nethilia fucked around with this message at 11:34 on Jan 15, 2023

# ¿ May 15, 2022 15:48

Nethilia: Oct 17, 2012; Hullabalooza '96
Easily Depressed
Teenagers Edition

Yoruichi/sitting here Brawl Results

It took me a while to get my judgement posted, though it's been sitting in my notes on my computer. Life be that way sometimes. But this is not about that, this is about a brawl.

Yoruichi, you gave me a story of a couple under an eclipse, a moment in a extended lifetime like a flash of light, a man with a dying and then living wife and his doubts and fears and darkness as her blazing sun may go out; the tension and uncertainty of the future when a sun is dying and the moon in its way, sees how much it relies on its light.

sitting here, you gave me a story spanning the eons and the light years of the universe and more, the lyricism of gods before there were gods and words before there were words, a history twisting and turning about those who fear the darkness as undesired when it is needed to show the light--and do not see that like any star, light does not has forever to shine.

I saw the dark in the light and the light in the dark of each, which means that they both did what I asked when I asked for sun in my shadow and shadow in my sun. I found good and bad in both stories, parts I liked and parts that made me feel uncertain and cranky.

But when it pushed and swung, when the scales finally stopped dipping, I felt more drawn to the gods than the mortals.

sitting here takes the brawl win. do whatever you like with this little mote of a sunbeam that is my approval.

More specific crits to come by the end of this week, if life doesn't do what it's done to me since Friday the 13th and drag my rear end under to try and drown me again. You both know where to find me.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2022 13:00

Nethilia: Oct 17, 2012; Hullabalooza '96
Easily Depressed
Teenagers Edition

I've been called out to write paranormal kissy stuff and so I guess I'd better get in on it.

Hit me with both.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2022 15:13

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 00:52

Nethilia: Oct 17, 2012; Hullabalooza '96
Easily Depressed
Teenagers Edition

Miriam�s Adam
[1445]
Supernatural Figure: Golem
Relationship Drama: A partner has a wandering eye.

https://thunderdome.cc//?story=10988&title=Miriam%E2%80%99s+Adam

Nethilia fucked around with this message at 11:35 on Jan 15, 2023

# ¿ Oct 24, 2022 08:49

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > Thunderdome 2022wo: The Stakes Have NEVER Been Lower