Ceramic Dm (final judgement posted, New Champion announced!)
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
Hey, if I'm supposed to be getting pandered to here, these contestants got a long way to go. Pandering that does not include peeled grapes and beautiful servants just doesn't make the mustard.Sialia said:
But to treat seriously what I'm not sure was meant to be (I have images turned off so I don't see smileys): Each story can represent an artistic vision, indeed the qualities of a successful Ceramic DM entry are exactly those of any good story. Artists placing conditions on themselves is standard practice -- writing a Ceramic DM entry is not any different in concept from writing, say, a sonnet. You've got strict boundaries you must operate within while you try to generate something new, something powerful, something entertaining.
And to try and nip in the bud any misplaced debate on the use of mystery -- it's a fine technique. I like mysteries. But the best mysteries ALSO employ such devices as conflict and tension, and thus grip me on multiple levels. A story that's JUST a mystery is less interesting than a story that possesses both mystery and tension.
Hope that's clear.
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
Fair enough. And I'm glad you did.Macbeth said:
Almost by definition, I think. If it's not weird, it won't get called post-modern. Plus your story made sense, had a point and was based on correct grammar and punctuation. Definitely NOT post-modern.Macbeth said:
Sorry, is that MY bias? Clumsy me.
barsoomcore
Unattainable Ideal
Hey, you are the guys doing all the hard work. Potter's definitely gotten more deranged and sadistic since the old days when *I* was in Ceramic DM. I'd be afraid to try and take on these picture sets.Macbeth said:
Kudos to ALL the contestants.
Graywolf-ELM
Explorer
Chaos Gates
Round 2, Match 3: Orchid Blossom vs. Graywolf-ELM
Chaos Gates
By Graywolf-ELM
“I’m an altered. That’s what I am. That’s my profession. The Chaos Gates made me this way. Not directly, but the need to fight what comes through those gates, prompted the merging of technology and magic that created my kind and others to fight the encroaching Chaos.” Glasses clink and the low hum of conversations can be heard nearby. “My name is William Hurt. I used to say that it was just a name, not an intention.” A low chuckle escapes Williams chest and into his throat before he can stop it. “WILL – HURT, get it? My dad thought it was funny, may his soul enjoy the afterlife. Now I’ve been changed by need to live up to that name.” A shadow passes across the table, and the soft pad of a pair of feet can be heard, as someone walks by.
“I’m recording this message, so people will know what it is like to be altered, and what it takes to fight what comes through the Chaos Gates. This is an assignment from HQ, some claptrap about getting to know the Altered. Whatever, it might be a hoot. So, I volunteered for the program, soon after some form of choking creeper killed my parents. It came out of a temporary gate near our house in Statesville, Ohio. With Chaos, it is hard to tell where they will appear and begin spewing out creatures of horror. Against protocol, my parents slept with their force window open. ‘The window is barred’ they would tell me, when I tried to convince them to shut it, ‘Chaos creatures can’t get in, and we are quite far from the nearest Chaos Gate.’ The last words I ever heard from my parents, aside from the screaming, was ‘Now get to bed, and don’t worry, we’ll see you in the morning.’”
Will reaches up to scratch an eyelid, seemingly to find something to change the subject, and a grin splits his face in what can only be described as mischievous contemplation. He smiles big for the camera, and his eyes seem to bug – out. The right eye comes floating out to rest in his hand. He continues speaking to the camera, resting on the table “One of my modifications, this magic eye.” He hefts the eye up and shows it to the camera. “It’s imbued with magic to allow me to see and track in the underlying fabric of magic. Many of the horrors of the Gates, are made up of magic.” Plopping it into his drink, Will chuckles again. “It can also be used as prop comedy. Hey waitress. Over here, there’s an Eye in my drink.”[eyesforyou.JPG] The chuckle turns to a guffaw, as the waitress reacts to Will and his eyes. The left one is still bugged – out in the socket. Taking a drink from the Martini, Will continues on. “My left eye is technology-based. State of the art tracking and targeting, not to mention weaponry, powered by a small fusion reactor.” Sucking the eyeball into his mouth, Will cleans the alcohol off, and returns the eye to its’ socket. Both eyelids close back over the eyes to normal spacing. “I can’t show you everything, but I did want to give you some examples of what magic and technology have been used for. Combating Chaos spawn is demanding and difficult work, and I use every tool at my disposal.”
Will waves to the waitress for his check, in the universal sign, of one hand flat, as if holding paper, and the other hand making a check mark on it. “I need to get moving, I’m due in Yuma Arizona tomorrow morning, some spawn have escaped the Chaos Gate wardens, and I will track them down. I always do. Haven’t slipped up yet.” Will reaches over and switches off the DVR. After leaving his imprint and Altered # on the bill, he heads to the car. He looks at the fast red machine and thinks, “They’ll really want to see this.” Switching the DVR back on, and holding the camera at arms length, Will begins the narration again. So we Altered get the best weaponry known to human and fey-kind.” Pointing at the car, “This is the newest thing out of HQ’s R&D department. And people were so excited when hybrid gas and electric cars came out. This baby is dual-powered by a fusion and elemental magic. Again, you have to be careful, some Chaos spawn are unhurt by magic and high technology is required to take them down.” Will clicks a button on his car remote, and two armament clusters extend from the sides of the car.[nightridermya$$.JPG] “These puppies are enough to bring down a Chaos dragon in flight.” Will begins chuckling again. “You never want to see one of those babies more than once. You never know what kind of powers they’ll spit at you. The last one even had some kind of withering eye blast.” He pauses for a moment looking straight at the camera. “Oh yeah, we were talking about the car. It’s the YL-2310, best vehicle on the road, for speed, and fighting Chaos spawn. The frame and body are strengthened with nanite polymers, and resistances to most forms of magic. Well, I need to hit the road to Yuma, so I’ll say goodbye for now.”
Will packs up the DVR and hops in the YL-2310. What he did not mention is the small piece of himself, which was given to make the car respond to his thoughts. The inertial dampers come online, and the road to Yuma is a peaceful and swift one. There are special lanes on most roads these days. They allow for quick movement and response to threat by the Altered and Chaos Gate wardens. No one uses them after the first publicized accidents. It is a privilege with a purpose. Easy access to the Chaos spawn makes everyone safe.
A few hours later, and Will is in Yuma, meeting with the wardens. The town hasn’t fared too well, and many buildings have apparently been blown apart. Will turns the DVR back on to record the day in his life. “I’m an artificer at heart, and I think I worked out something while I was driving.” Reaching for his left eye, Will’s eyes bug – out for the DVR again, and the left one floats out to land in his palm. Small metal tendrils reach out from the eye to form a small landing platform. Holding the eye and the DVR together and concentrating, the tendrils reach out and take control of the DVR. The eye, with the camera attached, begins to hover in the air, pointing at Will. “You can have a bird’s eye view of what I’ll be doing today.” Dutifully the eye hovers along behind Will, as he goes in search of the head warden for this area. Coming upon a couple of wardens[gnomemansland.JPG], Will stops and offers formal greeting, “May order prevail. Morning gents, how is the Gate today?”
“May order prevail, Altered. Hey, you’re Hurt aren’t you?”
With a big grin Will responds, "No, but I WILL." Waiting for them to get it, Will shakes his head. "Never mind, that I am gents; I’m here to track down the errant Chaos spawn. Where’s the head warden?”
“Umm, what’s that hovering up behind you?” the Fey soldier points up at the eye and DVR.
“Don’t worry about it my friend; HQ is requiring me to film what I do. You can take my word for it.” All know that the word of an altered is as good as law, especially in a combat zone.
“He’s up the road here,” pointing over his diminutive shoulder. “What’s left of it anyway, second building on the right.”
“Right thanks wardens, Order is our guide.” Will turns down the road, almost forgetting the DVR and eye hovering behind him. “Oh yes, as you may have noticed, Fey are in the ranks of the war against the Chaos Gates. Some of these guys can go invisible, and that’s a benefit against most of the Chaos spawn. Mostly we get Elves and Gnomes in the ranks of the wardens, Mages, or Technomancers. The odd pixie can be found, but only rarely.” Will makes his way to the head warden, and goes through the same greetings with the Elf. A quick description of the Chaos spawn, and a resonance to track, and Will is off into the scrublands. The DVR continues to record
“So, we have a description of 5 large bears with spider heads. They were seen to have spinnerets as well. So these may be able to make webbing.” With inhuman speed, Will makes his way through the scrublands with ease. Stopping to peer around with the remaining right eye, Will talks to the DVR again. “As you can see, I’ve been imbued with speed. So far only that last dragon was able to outpace me. The YL-2310 made up for that.”
After an hour and a half of running, stopping for bearings, and continuing on, Will pulls up in a small clearing. “I would have expected to see some webbing by now, as big as these things are. The resonance shows one of the spawn to be right around …” As Will point around the clearing, a large flap of earth flies open, and the Bear-Spider[precious.JPG] pounces on him, mandibles clacking and jabbing into his torso. As he’s pinned to the ground, the camera moves in for a closer shot. Will, trapped on the ground, looks up at the DVR, and grins. A blast of plasma, shoots past the DVR, very close, and blasts a hole big enough to step through, into the creatures side. The Chaos spawn topples over, and Will extricates himself from the creature’s grasp. “Now that’s my fusion powered eye working overtime. This explains why there were no telltales for the Bear-Spider. They’re a trapdoor variety. Thank the lords of order my poison immunities are up to date.”
With the nature of the spawn clear now, Will has no problem finishing off the other four, and making sure there are no egg sacs to contend with. “I’ve tagged each one, so they can be retrieved for investigation. Each will be teleported back to HQ after I check in.”
Will quickly makes the long journey back to his vehicle, and prepares for transport, shutting down the DVR and reclaiming his eye. Returning to HQ is one of the few times travel by way of teleport is used. No Chaos Gates are able to open within 20 square miles of HQ. There is not enough power to spread this field throughout the world, or it would have been done.
Upon arriving at HQ, Will is debriefed and asked to visit Dr. Enliky for another assignment. This is strange, as the enforcement branch, not the R&D department, usually hands out assignments. A short transit to the special development lab, and Will is brought to a window looking in upon the laboratory's crèche. Dr. Enliky is removing something from one of the incubation chambers. The room is darkened, but a soft glow emanates from the creature in the Technomancers hand. A light towel is used to clean excess fluid from what appears to be a fish.[inhand.jpg] But this fish is not in labored breathing for lack of water to extract oxygen from. Will turns on the DVR, “You’ll want to see this, I think it will be my next mission.” The DVR focuses in on the glowing fish and hand. The darkened room only highlights the fact that the fish is giving off a soft glow.
The Technomancer walks over to an intercom on the wall. “Altered Will Hurt. We have a mission that will likely kill you. Do you accept?”
Will thinks on this for a moment, while the DVR looks on. “Sure Doc. I’ve got nothing holding me here.” The DVR is switched off, for the briefing.
Shortly, a contingent of Technomancers, Mages, and a lone altered is teleporting to the nearest Chaos Gate. Chaos Gate wardens greet and welcome the contingent from HQ. Will removes his eye as before, and attaches the DVR to it, activating recording. “Well, it looks like this will be goodbye. I’m headed into the Chaos Gate. They say the glowing fish will eat chaos, and spawn more of itself. I don’t pretend to understand it, but being close to the gate, the thing seems to be eating Chaos out of the air. I’m leaving the DVR and my eye behind to record what happens when I step through. I’ll try coming back through the Gate, but I’m not sure if it will be possible.”
With these last words to the DVR, Will turns to one of the waiting Technomancers, and scoops up the Fish of Order, and starts walking for the gate. The DVR records the process, and the eye watches on, passively. There is a delay of a few seconds after Will steps into the curtain of Chaos, and he winks out entirely. Still recording, the DVR displays the assembled team taking readings, and watching for a spike on the meters that tells of incoming Chaos. After 30 minutes, everyone begins packing up. Wait, there’s a spike on one of the meters, something is coming through the Gate.
< The payload is released, and the fish swims through the air eating Chaos at a rapid pace. Will is confused, turning to step back through the Gate, his skin begins to itch, and scalp begins to crawl. Hunger is swiftly becoming overwhelming. >
With a flash, the DVR records the return of Will Hurt, or at least, what has become of Will Hurt. With mouths sprouting all over his body, Will begins eating, as soon as he comes through the portal.
< Why are the wardens shooting at me, I’m just a little hungry. Oh, don’t run away, I need you here. I'm very hungry. >
Still recording, the DVR sees the flash of weaponry and magic, which does little to affect the creature Will has become. He continues to eat, and balance is achieved.
Round 2, Match 3: Orchid Blossom vs. Graywolf-ELM
Chaos Gates
By Graywolf-ELM
“I’m an altered. That’s what I am. That’s my profession. The Chaos Gates made me this way. Not directly, but the need to fight what comes through those gates, prompted the merging of technology and magic that created my kind and others to fight the encroaching Chaos.” Glasses clink and the low hum of conversations can be heard nearby. “My name is William Hurt. I used to say that it was just a name, not an intention.” A low chuckle escapes Williams chest and into his throat before he can stop it. “WILL – HURT, get it? My dad thought it was funny, may his soul enjoy the afterlife. Now I’ve been changed by need to live up to that name.” A shadow passes across the table, and the soft pad of a pair of feet can be heard, as someone walks by.
“I’m recording this message, so people will know what it is like to be altered, and what it takes to fight what comes through the Chaos Gates. This is an assignment from HQ, some claptrap about getting to know the Altered. Whatever, it might be a hoot. So, I volunteered for the program, soon after some form of choking creeper killed my parents. It came out of a temporary gate near our house in Statesville, Ohio. With Chaos, it is hard to tell where they will appear and begin spewing out creatures of horror. Against protocol, my parents slept with their force window open. ‘The window is barred’ they would tell me, when I tried to convince them to shut it, ‘Chaos creatures can’t get in, and we are quite far from the nearest Chaos Gate.’ The last words I ever heard from my parents, aside from the screaming, was ‘Now get to bed, and don’t worry, we’ll see you in the morning.’”
Will reaches up to scratch an eyelid, seemingly to find something to change the subject, and a grin splits his face in what can only be described as mischievous contemplation. He smiles big for the camera, and his eyes seem to bug – out. The right eye comes floating out to rest in his hand. He continues speaking to the camera, resting on the table “One of my modifications, this magic eye.” He hefts the eye up and shows it to the camera. “It’s imbued with magic to allow me to see and track in the underlying fabric of magic. Many of the horrors of the Gates, are made up of magic.” Plopping it into his drink, Will chuckles again. “It can also be used as prop comedy. Hey waitress. Over here, there’s an Eye in my drink.”[eyesforyou.JPG] The chuckle turns to a guffaw, as the waitress reacts to Will and his eyes. The left one is still bugged – out in the socket. Taking a drink from the Martini, Will continues on. “My left eye is technology-based. State of the art tracking and targeting, not to mention weaponry, powered by a small fusion reactor.” Sucking the eyeball into his mouth, Will cleans the alcohol off, and returns the eye to its’ socket. Both eyelids close back over the eyes to normal spacing. “I can’t show you everything, but I did want to give you some examples of what magic and technology have been used for. Combating Chaos spawn is demanding and difficult work, and I use every tool at my disposal.”
Will waves to the waitress for his check, in the universal sign, of one hand flat, as if holding paper, and the other hand making a check mark on it. “I need to get moving, I’m due in Yuma Arizona tomorrow morning, some spawn have escaped the Chaos Gate wardens, and I will track them down. I always do. Haven’t slipped up yet.” Will reaches over and switches off the DVR. After leaving his imprint and Altered # on the bill, he heads to the car. He looks at the fast red machine and thinks, “They’ll really want to see this.” Switching the DVR back on, and holding the camera at arms length, Will begins the narration again. So we Altered get the best weaponry known to human and fey-kind.” Pointing at the car, “This is the newest thing out of HQ’s R&D department. And people were so excited when hybrid gas and electric cars came out. This baby is dual-powered by a fusion and elemental magic. Again, you have to be careful, some Chaos spawn are unhurt by magic and high technology is required to take them down.” Will clicks a button on his car remote, and two armament clusters extend from the sides of the car.[nightridermya$$.JPG] “These puppies are enough to bring down a Chaos dragon in flight.” Will begins chuckling again. “You never want to see one of those babies more than once. You never know what kind of powers they’ll spit at you. The last one even had some kind of withering eye blast.” He pauses for a moment looking straight at the camera. “Oh yeah, we were talking about the car. It’s the YL-2310, best vehicle on the road, for speed, and fighting Chaos spawn. The frame and body are strengthened with nanite polymers, and resistances to most forms of magic. Well, I need to hit the road to Yuma, so I’ll say goodbye for now.”
Will packs up the DVR and hops in the YL-2310. What he did not mention is the small piece of himself, which was given to make the car respond to his thoughts. The inertial dampers come online, and the road to Yuma is a peaceful and swift one. There are special lanes on most roads these days. They allow for quick movement and response to threat by the Altered and Chaos Gate wardens. No one uses them after the first publicized accidents. It is a privilege with a purpose. Easy access to the Chaos spawn makes everyone safe.
A few hours later, and Will is in Yuma, meeting with the wardens. The town hasn’t fared too well, and many buildings have apparently been blown apart. Will turns the DVR back on to record the day in his life. “I’m an artificer at heart, and I think I worked out something while I was driving.” Reaching for his left eye, Will’s eyes bug – out for the DVR again, and the left one floats out to land in his palm. Small metal tendrils reach out from the eye to form a small landing platform. Holding the eye and the DVR together and concentrating, the tendrils reach out and take control of the DVR. The eye, with the camera attached, begins to hover in the air, pointing at Will. “You can have a bird’s eye view of what I’ll be doing today.” Dutifully the eye hovers along behind Will, as he goes in search of the head warden for this area. Coming upon a couple of wardens[gnomemansland.JPG], Will stops and offers formal greeting, “May order prevail. Morning gents, how is the Gate today?”
“May order prevail, Altered. Hey, you’re Hurt aren’t you?”
With a big grin Will responds, "No, but I WILL." Waiting for them to get it, Will shakes his head. "Never mind, that I am gents; I’m here to track down the errant Chaos spawn. Where’s the head warden?”
“Umm, what’s that hovering up behind you?” the Fey soldier points up at the eye and DVR.
“Don’t worry about it my friend; HQ is requiring me to film what I do. You can take my word for it.” All know that the word of an altered is as good as law, especially in a combat zone.
“He’s up the road here,” pointing over his diminutive shoulder. “What’s left of it anyway, second building on the right.”
“Right thanks wardens, Order is our guide.” Will turns down the road, almost forgetting the DVR and eye hovering behind him. “Oh yes, as you may have noticed, Fey are in the ranks of the war against the Chaos Gates. Some of these guys can go invisible, and that’s a benefit against most of the Chaos spawn. Mostly we get Elves and Gnomes in the ranks of the wardens, Mages, or Technomancers. The odd pixie can be found, but only rarely.” Will makes his way to the head warden, and goes through the same greetings with the Elf. A quick description of the Chaos spawn, and a resonance to track, and Will is off into the scrublands. The DVR continues to record
“So, we have a description of 5 large bears with spider heads. They were seen to have spinnerets as well. So these may be able to make webbing.” With inhuman speed, Will makes his way through the scrublands with ease. Stopping to peer around with the remaining right eye, Will talks to the DVR again. “As you can see, I’ve been imbued with speed. So far only that last dragon was able to outpace me. The YL-2310 made up for that.”
After an hour and a half of running, stopping for bearings, and continuing on, Will pulls up in a small clearing. “I would have expected to see some webbing by now, as big as these things are. The resonance shows one of the spawn to be right around …” As Will point around the clearing, a large flap of earth flies open, and the Bear-Spider[precious.JPG] pounces on him, mandibles clacking and jabbing into his torso. As he’s pinned to the ground, the camera moves in for a closer shot. Will, trapped on the ground, looks up at the DVR, and grins. A blast of plasma, shoots past the DVR, very close, and blasts a hole big enough to step through, into the creatures side. The Chaos spawn topples over, and Will extricates himself from the creature’s grasp. “Now that’s my fusion powered eye working overtime. This explains why there were no telltales for the Bear-Spider. They’re a trapdoor variety. Thank the lords of order my poison immunities are up to date.”
With the nature of the spawn clear now, Will has no problem finishing off the other four, and making sure there are no egg sacs to contend with. “I’ve tagged each one, so they can be retrieved for investigation. Each will be teleported back to HQ after I check in.”
Will quickly makes the long journey back to his vehicle, and prepares for transport, shutting down the DVR and reclaiming his eye. Returning to HQ is one of the few times travel by way of teleport is used. No Chaos Gates are able to open within 20 square miles of HQ. There is not enough power to spread this field throughout the world, or it would have been done.
Upon arriving at HQ, Will is debriefed and asked to visit Dr. Enliky for another assignment. This is strange, as the enforcement branch, not the R&D department, usually hands out assignments. A short transit to the special development lab, and Will is brought to a window looking in upon the laboratory's crèche. Dr. Enliky is removing something from one of the incubation chambers. The room is darkened, but a soft glow emanates from the creature in the Technomancers hand. A light towel is used to clean excess fluid from what appears to be a fish.[inhand.jpg] But this fish is not in labored breathing for lack of water to extract oxygen from. Will turns on the DVR, “You’ll want to see this, I think it will be my next mission.” The DVR focuses in on the glowing fish and hand. The darkened room only highlights the fact that the fish is giving off a soft glow.
The Technomancer walks over to an intercom on the wall. “Altered Will Hurt. We have a mission that will likely kill you. Do you accept?”
Will thinks on this for a moment, while the DVR looks on. “Sure Doc. I’ve got nothing holding me here.” The DVR is switched off, for the briefing.
Shortly, a contingent of Technomancers, Mages, and a lone altered is teleporting to the nearest Chaos Gate. Chaos Gate wardens greet and welcome the contingent from HQ. Will removes his eye as before, and attaches the DVR to it, activating recording. “Well, it looks like this will be goodbye. I’m headed into the Chaos Gate. They say the glowing fish will eat chaos, and spawn more of itself. I don’t pretend to understand it, but being close to the gate, the thing seems to be eating Chaos out of the air. I’m leaving the DVR and my eye behind to record what happens when I step through. I’ll try coming back through the Gate, but I’m not sure if it will be possible.”
With these last words to the DVR, Will turns to one of the waiting Technomancers, and scoops up the Fish of Order, and starts walking for the gate. The DVR records the process, and the eye watches on, passively. There is a delay of a few seconds after Will steps into the curtain of Chaos, and he winks out entirely. Still recording, the DVR displays the assembled team taking readings, and watching for a spike on the meters that tells of incoming Chaos. After 30 minutes, everyone begins packing up. Wait, there’s a spike on one of the meters, something is coming through the Gate.
< The payload is released, and the fish swims through the air eating Chaos at a rapid pace. Will is confused, turning to step back through the Gate, his skin begins to itch, and scalp begins to crawl. Hunger is swiftly becoming overwhelming. >
With a flash, the DVR records the return of Will Hurt, or at least, what has become of Will Hurt. With mouths sprouting all over his body, Will begins eating, as soon as he comes through the portal.
< Why are the wardens shooting at me, I’m just a little hungry. Oh, don’t run away, I need you here. I'm very hungry. >
Still recording, the DVR sees the flash of weaponry and magic, which does little to affect the creature Will has become. He continues to eat, and balance is achieved.
Graywolf-ELM
Explorer
For better or worse, I needed to get this submitted. My hands are full up until Friday when I leave for vacation. It could have used more editing and more fleshing out, but then again what doesn't. Every novel I have ever read, has had at least one word use error, that spell checkers pass through as valid words, but do not fit the sentence. I hope it's not a Neo-post natal story that Barsoomcore seems to not enjoy, but I didn't have many options with these pics, sadism indeed.
GW
GW
BSF
Explorer
MarauderX,
I must apologize! When I setup the menu links that alsih2o uses on the first post, I accidentally listed Morhpeous' story twice. Once under his name, once under yours. I just caught the error and I am sending alsih2o a corrected version of the links. Let me assure you that no slight was intended. It was just typical boneheadedness and confusion on what I was copy/pasting.
I must apologize! When I setup the menu links that alsih2o uses on the first post, I accidentally listed Morhpeous' story twice. Once under his name, once under yours. I just caught the error and I am sending alsih2o a corrected version of the links. Let me assure you that no slight was intended. It was just typical boneheadedness and confusion on what I was copy/pasting.
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