first lol
My entry for the 013 contest. Thanks to all the fine folks who voted!
I did better than I initially expected. You humble me.
Special thanks to the OGs: ieatcrepes, Dummie, Minuteman, and Tarbs for their insightful feedback.
Crit thread is here.
The first image comes from this online shop here and I actually reached out to the dude who makes/sells the little pumpkin stress balls and asked him if I could use his photo for my article. He was totally cool with it, so long as I give credit. Photo is not mine, all credit goes to Ethan Ray. 🤘
The second image base was taken from Google's CC search feature.
The contest may be over but as always, I am open to critique and/or suggestions to make my piece shine brighter.
Saw this winning from a mile away. Fantastic article.
Just wanted to say, this entry is why the second place entry is here as well. I was tinkering around with another draft thinking about making it into a contest entry, and then read this article in draft, and was like “Aw hell no, my article sucks”. Scratched the article completely, started over with a new direction.
Black Cat Nebula is great. You did something unexpected with the way you incorporated cosmic horror into the misfortune theme. Not surprised that it got voted the most scary too. Makes me happy to know that I inadvertently contributed to its inception. Feels great to see our little community gradually finding its footing like that. 😏
I am really surpised how such a simple thing could evoke so much fear in me as a reader.
Sure. The effect CAN be contained by just playing with the toy, but what if you forget it or the item becomes lost? What if RPC-013 one day just thinks: "You know what would REALLY invoke stress in the users? Their sun suddently transforming into a red giant!"
I was a fool for writing off AmazCo as a Wondertainment knockoff, Jesus
Such is life in the Soviet Union
What else can I say that hasn't been said already? Everything about it is great, although if anything, the Containment Protocols could've worked better as a series of collapsibles instead of a table. That's just me though, it's a killer article and I loved every aspect of it!
Did I find it scary? Not in the slightest (skill issue). 5 stars well earned, every new writer should learn from this!