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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Berandor" data-source="post: 2492394" data-attributes="member: 225">Well, can the judges take the weirdly formatted one then?Comments on the stories:Berandor - Gwen[sblock]A sure winner! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> (Hey, if nobody else says it, at least I can, right?)Seriously, as usual I tend to internalize the story too much. There's no real setting in place, only hints and fragments. I also have the tendency to paint with a fairly thick brush, and I hope it's not too cheesy or pathetic in places. Taking a less focused approach is something I'm working on, though <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> More than that, I cannot really say, since I just wrote that thing and I have a tendency to either write too bad or too good about my things anyway, moreso with recent works.[/sblock]mythago - Untitled Soldier Story I and II[sblock]A sure winner! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />A very nice story; I really enjoyed it. It's impressive (to me, at least), how much atmosphere and information you fit into 4,000 words. The Italian village came alive in my mind, the old villagers and the tired soldiers - wonderful. I'm also glad you swayed from the path I expected - I thought it would become a genre story, with the village hiding a dark secret or killing all the soldiers in the end, but you turned it into a very soft romantic ghost story, like it really could have happened.The one thing I thought was a little weak was the armadillo picture. It's a little out of place, and also not too important to it all (the weirdness of it only enhancing that feeling, I think, because it's used so mater-of-factly). But on the other hand, you used the cemetery in the background of the tree picture, something I didn't notice until I had written the whole story (and I couldn't bring myself to change it so my characters made love on that cemetery <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />)Anyway, I enjoyed the story, and I'd wish you luck, but I think I'll need it more. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />[/sblock]</blockquote>

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