I know, I know: It's been a long time coming, and I'm sure some of you wondered if MMR had gotten Ebola and died a horrible death. I wanted to make sure other stuff was out of the way first—we're lookin' at you, Epic Tales and New Beginnings, courtesy of the good folks at LayethTheSmackDown. That's LayethTheSmackDown, purveyors of kickass sci-fi anthologies and contests. Follow LayethTheSmackDown today!
Anywho, welcome to Round 1 of SmackDown: MadMike's Revenge!
Come on in, Surviv— I mean, come on in, SmackDowners!
It's important to be a team player—every writer should know that... After all, writing is a team sport, isn't it? Where would Stephen King be if he didn't have Tabitha by his side, pulling Carrie out of the trash? Still hooked on drugs and living in a trailer, that's where.
It's also important to know when to ask for help, and when to know you don't know what the hell is going on with your life, and why are my hands covered in blood...?
This first round is a team-up round. You will each be randomly assigned partners, and your scores will be combined. This means that for this round the total score will be out of thirty points.
If your partner looks to be a better editor than you are, ask them for help. And if you know you're a better editor than your partner, offer to help them. Communication between partners is not only allowed in this round, it's almost certainly essential!
Now for the prompt:
"I don't believe this shit," the man mumbled to his computer monitor. He took a sip of his extra-large Watty and grimaced in disgust. Picked a stray orange pube from his tongue. "They didn't even read my fuckin' story! The fuck is this comment supposed to mean, anyway!? 'Loved the way Pixy Dust rode Unicron LOL!' There wasn't any Pixy Dust or Unicron in my fucking story, nor was there anything remotely funny in it! What the hell are you LOLing at, you dumbass!?"
He rubbed his temples, leaving orange Cheetos dust behind. His head killed right now. Had been hurting a lot lately, but this took the cake. Nobody understood his beautiful writing. Their comments were irrelevant. It made him sick. Made him want to teach them all a lesson.
A grin worked its way across his pale face.
Yeah. Teach 'em all. A lesson.
The man brought up the profile of the latest imbecile to comment on his riveting story. Got a good look. Memorized the name and the face.
He went to his gun rack. Grabbed his finest and most powerful weapon. Locked it and loaded it.
The hunt was on.
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The sub-genre is WattPunk. You can continue that prompt however you wish, whether it means continuing to follow the psychotic man, the potential victim, someone else entirely, or whatever the hell your crazy mind can come up with. Go wild.
The maximum word count will be 1,500 words, with a minimum of 1,000 words. If you go over it or under it, you risk crossing me on what very well could be a bad fuckin' day. Who knows what the hell is gonna happen? Who knows how many points I will dock per word? One? Eighty billion? Zero? Just gotta test me, boys and girls. Just gotta fuckin' test me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
Each person will write their own story, so each team will have two stories—one from each individual—and each story can be anywhere from 1,000 words to 1,500 words.
Clear? Alrighty, here are your partners:
1. AngusEcrivain & H-A-Spade
2. sigrist & NimrodKirkpatrick
3. jewel1307 & VintageVulpes
5. bloodsword & AllanFisher
Email your stories to mikemarsbergen@hotmail.com when finished. They will be posted in this book. (Oh, and FYI: Stories will go at the beginning of the table of contents, with the newest ones at the top, and round information will go at the bottom.)
You have two weeks—until May 25th—to write your tales. Two weeks to converse with your teammate to try and make your story as proofread as possible. This will be a non-elimination round.
Wanna know what you're playin' for?
The highest-scoring team will select one person to send to Exile Island, which isn't so much an island as it is wherever you do most of your writing. The person you send to Exile will be taken from the game for the post–Round 1 interim period. While there they will be unable to compete in any bonus rounds that might occur while they're gone—bonus rounds, as you might remember, give you an advantage for the next round if you're able to complete them.
Not feeling confident? Or just wanting to feel extra-safe? Well, dearest competitors, check out the next part for the clues to the hidden Redemption Idols, which are live as of the next part getting posted (which should be as much as a minute or so after now)!
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Judges, here are your teams to judge for Round 1:
Teams 1, 3 - OutrageousOllo
Team 2 - JettaFrame
Teams 4, 5 - HardeeBurger
Judging will officially begin after May 25th, but if a team's stories are in before then, feel free to judge in advance. You will be tagged when a team's stories are up and ready for you to judge. PM your scored judgements to MadMikeMarsbergen. You may include your thoughts on the stories, too, but obviously your name will be attached to said thoughts—so keep it civil and constructive, if you're going to add criticism!
YOU ARE READING
SmackDown: MadMike's Revenge!
Science FictionLeft beaten, bloodied and bruised in a ditch somewhere, @MadMikeMarsbergen lost the Pot 1 Finals of SmackDown: The Second Coming to @torontojim (who later ended up winning the Grand Finals, too). Now he's back to get some revenge on all you competit...
