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Story #6 will be epic

Update #12 · Mar 10, 2010 · 35 comments

You're going to have to supply the details, but this is what I can promise you:

A young unassuming rural resident will be visited by a mysterious older gray-bearded man possessed of strange and unexplainable powers. Said resident will be told that the world as he/she knows it is in grave, grave danger and only he/she can save it. This will begin an epic journey that will culminate in the ultimate battle of good vs. evil.

Let's make this one a-maz-ing. Send in your submissions!

Comments

    1. Eye.small

      Creator Anna Marie on March 13, 2010

      I'll have the pasta rosa with the sauteed raisins and pine nuts.

    2. Fb_profile_picture.small

      Creator Simon Oh on March 12, 2010

      CHARACTER: Elena is a woman who appears to be in her late 20s. A laid-back, lanky brunette. Actually, she's been alive for centuries. When she dies, she revives a few days later, fully intact, in a random spot and she can't die the same way ever again. While Elena is no longer afraid of death, she does find it pretty inconvenient. Her last revival landed her in Bratislava. She loves to travel and she's kind to children. Her favorite candy is Starburst, which she indulges with impunity ever since her once-rotting gums triggered a heart attack. Elena doesn't know it yet, but she's about to die again, thanks to a brain parasite she picked up from eating bad pork during a trip through Oaxaca, Mexico about a week ago.

    3. Me.small

      Creator Zach Seward on March 12, 2010

      I'd love to see you drop a hashtag into this story. Any hashtag will suffice, but if you need one: #nowplaying.

    4. Fb_profile_picture.small

      Creator Elinor Mills on March 12, 2010

      Isla, a firebrand of a 14-year-old girl is a talented soccer player and chess player. She's forced to be creative and tough in order to fend off her bullying older brothers. She's also figured out that she can literally make things happen by writing them down in her journal.

    5. Headshot_square.small

      Creator Joy Carletti on March 12, 2010

      Character: Louis Flaherty, a wise yet chronically late man who finally flees society to live in the center of a corn maze. People come to seek him out on his own schedule... and get lost in the maze.

    6. Missing_small

      Creator Mira Crisp on March 12, 2010

      Setting: at the Hacienda de Guru Ram Das in Espanola, New Mexico, inside the geodesic dome that was custom made for Yogi Bhajan by Buckminster Fuller.

    7. Fb_profile_picture.small

      Creator Andrew Clark on March 12, 2010

      Character: A cat-burglar that has recently begun to develop increasingly severe OCD.

    8. Gav12.small

      Creator Gavin Craig on March 12, 2010

      Setting for #6: Alternate universe Chicago, Illinois in a world where Ancient Greek culture has remained influential. That is to say that beards and moderately long hair are the norm for men, and prominent women cultivate an androgynous (semi-masculine) outward appearance, not as drag, per se (since fairly unisex toga-inspired fashions are the norm, with compromises for climate--every wears pants, but tries to not make it obvious under more flowing outerwear), but since the norms are a bit closer to start with. Perhaps most strikingly, performance is a major part of the culture, in that religion and art still revolve around (versions of) the theatre, and the nightly news involves staged re-enactments stitched into live footage rather than anchors reading off teleprompters or a script. Also, heroes are hugely important, both in real-life, and fiction. Instead of comic books, children read picture stories of famous people. Norman Schwartzkopf and Madeleine Albright share the public imagination with Heracles, Jason, and Jimmy Doolittle, who piloted the plane that dropped the atomic bomb, with MacArthur the bombardier. (Generals, in this world, are usually in the thick of the action.) The building known as the Sears Tower has been recently renamed, to the chagrin of the men and women who work there.

      Here I thought I was really out-there, but this might actually fit in just fine.

    9. Abby2.small

      Creator Abby Berendt Lavoi on March 12, 2010

      EPIC! Sentence: Waylynn knew the Jötunn would never win; he had his Hera and was determined to ride off into the night just like Charlie Sheen in The Wraith.

    10. Missing_small

      Creator Richie Rosebush on March 12, 2010

      Setting: A bar called "BoomTown" owned by the infamous arms dealer " Jack Rabbitt Slim". Inside this bar are seedy characters like Pirates, cutthroats, mercenaries, drug runners. The menu lists the local catch and appetizers, but towards the back it is filled with pictures of guns, grenades,bombs, tanks, missles- all for purchase. The bar sits nestled into a hillside on the clear blue carribean - but inside the bar is a tunnel into the side of the Mountain that is Jack Rabbit Slim's hideout and inventory.

    11. Image111.small

      Creator Noah Keating on March 12, 2010

      Sentence: I held my chickens out to the gorilla man, one brown and one black, gorilla seated on his patio chair taking aim, cougar by his side and defensively sputtered, "it's not a dog it's a chicken, and it's beautiful."

    12. Photo.small

      Creator Aris Blevins on March 12, 2010

      CHARACTER: HERALD, A dog, three legged and stump tailed. A lustrous thick coat of black fur that belies his handicaps. Ancient since the world was young, he's a quiet type - disappointed by man, time and again. Occasionally he'll talk to a human, generally when they're too frightened or drunk to believe it actually happened on remembrance. He's been known to eat a babe, but finds snakes of all kinds more to his liking. He'll be happy when those on two legs skip off the cliff, but he sees no reason to hurry them along.

    13. Han_thumbnail.small

      Creator Han Shan on March 12, 2010

      SENTENCE: I always dreamed I'd have a little poetry and whiskey before I died.

      I hope you enjoy the last one brother.
      Cheers,
      Han

    14. Missing_small

      Creator Eva Chan on March 12, 2010

      SENTENCE: He squinted, trying to make out the erased tattoo hiding under a mottled scar and an island of eczema on his arm.

    15. Fb_profile_picture.small

      Creator Dan Levine on March 12, 2010

      SETTING: In a cabin in a clearing at the edge of the woods on a magical island far to the north sit 5 philosophers. They surround a table, tensely waiting the creature on the table to stir, and either try to kill them or full their hearts with joy. On the table lies Rena, also known as The Baby Witch, sister to Tule the Witch of the Hills, who also been known to this world for 1000 years, but has never been more than a day old. You see, every evening she dies and every morning she is reborn -- reborn with all of her incredible powers but with a blank mind and an unpredictable temperament. Perhaps today she will finally destroy the world, or perhaps today she will give a stranger the gift to save it. It all depends on how you interpret the prophecy, and if "today" will be the Today foretold or just a long day containing and consoling the worlds most powerful 1 day old. They are eating burgers, gathering strength.

    16. Befunky_artwork.small

      Creator Betty Ann Sloan on March 12, 2010

      It's a great idea but she is in Kathmandu and quite insane.

    17. Me.small

      Creator Rod Naber on March 12, 2010

      SETTING: Our hero is sitting atop an old seemingly feeble donkey. But this is no ordinary donkey.

    18. Helen-thumb.small

      Creator Helen Michaud on March 11, 2010

      SETTING: Somewhere ... there is a mysterious structure. A building. An abode? A workplace? A temple? It has an awe-inspiring aura about it, although it is not so terribly old. In fact, it's a little dilapidated, though still perfectly functional. It is made entirely of Pringles cans.

    19. 25015_942718427563_1217150_51379573_431533_n.small

      Creator Sarah Dennis on March 11, 2010

      CHARACTER: Resourceful Penny, breaker of horses (and hearts). Penny seeks out adventures that will allow her to abandon her apartment, her faithful lover, and her every responsibility. To Penny's dismay, however, each escapade always leads her back to the same place: home.

      SENTENCE: "I know from personal experience that you can lose a lot of things in bed--marbles, teeth, your virginity--but no one in the history of this world or any other has ever lost _that_ before!!"

      SUPPLEMENTARY "SUGGESTION" TO MAKE UP FOR LAST WEEK AND TO ADD TO THE EPICNESS OF YOUR EPIC: Your mysterious old man must speak in dactylic hexameter.

    20. Profile.small

      Creator Nick Lamb on March 11, 2010

      SENTENCE: As she made the slightest sweeping motion with her hand, the sky began to heave lighting and flame at the palace, causing an electric inferno that spread like a plague across the surrounding city and countryside.

    21. Jeremy_bw_rollei.small

      Creator Jeremy Brooks on March 11, 2010

      Setting: Deep in the catacombs underneath Paris, where, hidden among the bones of the long-dead residents, an Evil begins its awakening.

    22. Sidetat.small

      Creator Craig Blalock on March 11, 2010

      Setting: A snowy maze (ie. The Shining) in Siberia filled with small Hobbit like people who eat only Taco Bell. Trapped in the maze is Ryan Seacrest. He is barefoot and has lost 3 toes to frostbite. He has no recollection as to what has brought him to this place, but he seems to recall Lil Wayne, Willie Nelson, and a $240 worth of pudding just before he lost consciousness and woke here. In his pocket is a slingshot, a handful of jellybeans, and Paula Abdul's panties.

    23. Pentax-profile.small

      Creator Jayson Lorenzen on March 11, 2010

      SETTING: (imagine I threw my hands up like pitching a movie, okay) The cab of a Mack Truck, racing down a highway of whipped cream; the truck is being pursued by giant clowns. Rudy Rucker is sitting in the passenger seat, and he is Chinese.

    24. Disapproving.small

      Creator Rod Begbie on March 11, 2010

      Sentence: Fuck you!

    25. Kevin.small

      Creator Kevin Jackson on March 11, 2010

      Setting: A traveling carnival which has set up more-or-less permanent residence deep within the Plains of Despair in the land of Enamor; realm of Kol, Emperor of the Seven Realms and Defender of the Trust.

    26. Sloanro-the-sloanyo2.small

      Creator Robin Sloan on March 11, 2010

      SETTING: The high hills of Terrandar. Here, the Terran horselords stampede from one horizon to the other, through dust and dry grass, their hair tied into tight war-braids threaded w/ the finger-bones of their enemies. It is a harsh land unless you know its secrets: the nectar of the razor-tree, the warning shriek of the were-lizard. Why would you ever come here? To visit the remote cabin of the Witch of the Hills, of course. Her name is Tule; she is one thousand years old; and she knows a very, very important secret.

    27. Fb_profile_picture.small

      Creator Steph on March 10, 2010

      I'm vaguely conflicted about giving up this character, but as I have no use for her at present:

      An assassin who makes knitting needles out of the bones of her enemies.

    28. Nicholesim1.small

      Creator Nichole Owens on March 10, 2010

      "I'm made of broken promises."

    29. 255800617_6bb8f37f81_1_.small

      Creator Michele Bell on March 10, 2010

      Sentence:

      She turned and saw him squatting, diapers peeking out from his yellow shorts, as she approached she asked, "Whatcha looking at Nick?"; he looked up with his chubby cheeks and big dark eyes and with his tiny finger pointing at the stink bug, replied..."That's the biggest son-of-a-bitch I've ever seen!".

    30. Missing_small

      Creator Lyle Skains on March 10, 2010

      Noun:

      Invisibility

    31. 255800617_6bb8f37f81_1_.small

      Creator Michele Bell on March 10, 2010

      Sentence:

      He sat there, waiting for the bus, wondering... wondering how much there is to know.

    32. Pentax-profile.small

      Creator Jayson Lorenzen on March 10, 2010

      Oh man, somehow that has to have Clowns and Whipped Cream in it, but how to work it in errrr I need time for my setting :)

    33. Missing_small

      Creator Mike Shen on March 10, 2010

      Character: the top-ranked competitor among 18-and-under chess players in said rural region.

    34. 224649_213190382033456_143038619048633_781749_375144_n.small

      Creator Lily Sloan on March 10, 2010

      Here's my sentence:
      *cough*...it can only be assumed that it is inside you, growing stronger and more powerful everyday.

    35. Fb_profile_picture.small

      Creator Mikael Vejdemo Johansson on March 10, 2010

      In line with the _epic_ theme, I give you a noun: epimorphism

      ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epimorphism )

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    ENEMY: You get to submit a character. Give me a name and as much or as little of a description as you want. (You can have some fun with this one: Your friends or family, historical figures, even yourself!) // You'll receive: Emails and PDFs and the signed copy of The Collective.

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    NEMESIS: You get to submit a setting in which some of the action has to take place. As with the character you can give me as much or as little as you want. // You'll receive: Everything above AND (here's the big one) a signed printed book of the six stories making up Andrew vs. The Collective! I'm not planning on making this one available for sale - so this will be a very rare commodity (that you helped to write!).

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