"Please define 'harm', 'obey', 'protect', 'existence' and 'human being'."
Enough, we say! There's a month for fear, why can't other months be for other things? The sky is falling! The Sun's turned blue! We just broke the light barrier, the time barrier, we're found a parallel Earth, a universe where galaxies sing, an impossibly distant future where humans have become pure energy, whatever the heck that means! Wormholes and quasars and quarks, oh my.
Anything is possible in the next thirty days.
Tell us your stories.
Beginning November 1, 2006 at 00:00:00 UTC
Ending December 1, 2006 at 00:00:00 UTC
Rules
This is a quest for two things: science fiction, and science fiction factuals - that is to say, factual writeups about existing science fiction. (Sorry, science factuals don't count!) Any kind of science fiction is welcome, from the hardest of hard sci-fi to largely pulpy rayguns-and-hyperdrives fare. We're open-minded.
As for the most recent Quest, there will be XP rewards, and there is no limit on number of submissions. At the end of the Quest-O-Month, you will receive:
- 100 experience points for each writeup submitted.
- 1 additional experience point for each point of reputation gained.
- 10 additional experience points for each Ching! gained.
And yes, we will go negative on that second point if your writeups get negative rep. Oh, don't give us that puppy-dog look.
And when it's all over, the author of the factual writeup with the highest reputation and the author of the fiction writeup with the highest reputation will each receive, in addition:
- A seat on the last rocket off Earth.
- 500 experience points.
- Homenode image privileges for six months.
And if you've already got a homenode image? That must be nice.
Each time you submit an entry, send a message to sam512 with its title and it will be added to this writeup. Direct any questions to sam512, kthejoker, or to the e2scifi usergroup. Operators are standing by.
The story so far
The most recent writeups are added at the top, so as to receive the most love.
Appropriately, there were forty-two writeups submitted in total.
Winners
Factual competition
The factual entry with the highest writeup at the end of the competition was The Trouble with Tribbles by Jet-Poop. Magnanimously, however, JP has said that he doesn't need the XP and turned his prize over to anamnesis, whose commentary "Genre" is poisoning imaginative literature narrowly scooped second place. shaogo's writeup, the Jetsons, was tied for second on XP, but had fewer C!s.
Fiction competition
Much wider, fiercer competition here, but there was an undisputed winner: aionaever takes the gold with We're not coming home. I love you.
Honorable mentions
Of the writeups-which-didn't-win, Unidentified objects #003 & #024 by archiewood, We are trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine is bleeding to death by animals and Double Exposure by The Custodian jointly gained the most C!s with five apiece.
Special additional acclaim for The Custodian, for crafting a staggering eleven science fiction writeups in just 30 days.
Extra special applause for everybody who entered, as none, that's right, none of the writeups entered finished with a negative reputation. (One entry did finish on 0 though. You know who you are.)
Afterword
Great stuff, folks! We had a great turnout. Plenty of experienced scifi writers writing, plenty of regulars trying their hand at new stuff, and most importantly, plenty of newcomers willing to get their toes wet.
I think it's highly unlikely that we'll never have another science fiction quest, although I think maybe the XP rewards should be lowered next time, to keep you folks hungry. Speaking of which, we'll get those prizes worked out ASAP. See you next year!...?
Pfeh. Cheap XP.