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HalcyonSpirit

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    WCT - [COMPETITION OVERHAUL - NEED IDEAS] The Writing Competition Thread

    in Competitions

    Posted

    Dear oh dear. This one was a tough round for me to judge. All of the entries were quite good in their own ways. I almost wish I could just declare it a 5-way tie. Alas, I cannot, and I had to finally choose which ones I liked best. Honestly, this round has been one of the hardest, if not the hardest, for me to personally vote on since I started participating. So congrats to everyone for making me have to dig deep to decide on a good point distribution for my vote.

    So, here it is, the results of the January 2011 Freeform Competition!

    1st Place: Sunset by HalcyonSpirit

    Runners-Up: The Arc of Heaven by Random Hajile AND Kid Zap by JH Sounds

    The vote tally:

    Sunset by HalcyonSpirit - 9

    The Arc of Heaven by Random Hajile - 6

    Kid Zap by JH Sounds - 6

    Caregiver, Caretaker by Soul Splint - 5

    Experience Points by Nintendude794 - 4

    You guys... I really don't understand why you liked my entry. Seriously. I almost didn't even give myself a point in my vote, but I did so just because I couldn't figure out who I should give that extra point in my vote without upsetting the balance I had come to! Seriously, guys... please explain this to me. My mind is just... argh. I can't wrap my head around it. I appreciate it, but dammit, you're making my head hurt!

    My comments on the entries will come over the weekend, probably.

    P.S.: All but one participant voted this time, which is good! And the missing one was made up for by a previous participant's vote (thanks, dio!), so all is well. I want to at least maintain this level of participation; at least as many votes as there are submissions. So please, make your votes each round even if you haven't submitted anything in that round, as every little bit helps us!

    Minecraft [1.7.2/4?]

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by HalcyonSpirit

    http://twitter.com/notch/status/38621269331025921

    The new launcher has been released by Notch for testing. It works for me, but some people are complaining about "Too many login attempts" errors. Use at your own discretion.

    EDIT: Rock, Paper Shotgun is reporting that the new update will include beds, which will allow you to skip the night, and in a later update will also serve as your new spawn point when used.

    It's unconfirmed so far, but I suppose this is what the "secret update" is.

    Minecraft [1.7.2/4?]

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by HalcyonSpirit

    We're starting to learn about the new things being included in the 1.3 update coming next week (Tuesday or Wednesday). What we know so far:

    - The file system will be updated using a modified version of McRegion.

    - Ambient Occlusion will be added (can be turned off).

    - Redstone repeaters will be added with configurable delays, and active redstone wires will fade in brightness as you get further from the power source. (

    )

    - Wooden and cobble half-blocks.

    - New game launcher.

    - Various bug fixes.

    - A secret update.

    EDIT: Just saw the PC Gamer article with more details on the update. Added them above.

    Minecraft [1.7.2/4?]

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I want immortality back, server just killed me whilst loading the map, lost a ton of stuff :/

    That sucks. That usually doesn't happen anymore. Ask Crowbar for replacements if you want to. Still, it should be even more fixed in the near future with the next update, I believe. I know Bukkit has it fixed (for whenever our server makes the switch to it), and I think the main game is going to be using some of that code in the update.

    Minecraft [1.7.2/4?]

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Just wanted to let you guys know, after a fit of inspiration, I wrote a fanfiction-type piece of Minecraft for the Writing Competition we run in the Competitions forum here. (I haven't written anything non-original in ages, so this was a different experience for me.) If you're interested in reading it or the other entries for this round, you can go here:

    http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?p=752357#post752357

    I highly encourage anyone who does read the entries to also vote in this round. We need more regularly participating voters, so whoever you think should win, vote for them.

    /promotion of competition

    WCT - [COMPETITION OVERHAUL - NEED IDEAS] The Writing Competition Thread

    in Competitions

    Posted

    Submission period is over! We have 5 entries this time! Woohoo!

    Caregiver, Caretaker by Soul Splint

    Experience Points by Nintendude794

    Kid Zap by JH Sounds

    Sunset by HalcyonSpirit

    The Arc of Heaven by Random Hajile

    You have until the end of the 21st to vote! I did decide to tweak the voting rules a little:

    VOTING RULES CHANGE: If you have submitted in this round or any other in the past, you have 6 points to distribute for voting. If you have not submitted this round or in the past, you have 3.

    WCT - [COMPETITION OVERHAUL - NEED IDEAS] The Writing Competition Thread

    in Competitions

    Posted

    Ah, good, I was hoping you would submit something before I closed things out. Good thing I waited.

    Now then, to close the submission period, here's my entry. In a break from tradition, I chose to write "fanfiction" of sorts, in that the setting is from the game Minecraft. The backstory is my own, however, as Minecraft doesn't have a story. :-P Got the inspiration while playing one day and I ran with it. I haven't written anything even remotely based on another work since high school, so this was interesting for me to write.

    ------

    Sunset

    by HalcyonSpirit

    Snowfall.

    As I ascended the rocky slope from deep within the ground, the sun's morning rays poured in through the gaps in my makeshift barricade. A bitter cold breeze blew through the holes, carrying with it white flakes of snow. They danced briefly in the sunlight, floating in a serene waltz cut short by the rocky surface. Countless droplets of water lined the ground near the barricade, each a lone snowflake that was unfortunate enough to be blown into the cavern.

    Stepping through the thin curtain of snowflakes, my body transforming the waltz into a frantic dance of loops and swirls, I grasped the wooden planks I'd hastily set in place and pulled back the barricade to reveal what the night had wrought upon the landscape.

    It was as if the valley was set upon by a brush with an endless supply of pure white paint. This was not the scene I had left behind the evening before, when I shut myself into the caverns to wait out the darkness. Even from within the mouth of the cave, the sunlight reflecting off the frozen surface cast such a contrast from the dim torches that kept the darkness away deep within the earth. Sunrise was my favorite time of the day, and I relished in its beauty.

    I looked back into the cavern. My eyes could no longer see into the dim depths my torches revealed, but I knew it was still there. Another piece of land marked by my presence, however small that mark may be. The pack of ores I carried on my back shifted slightly, and I looked back to the vast white expanse in front of me. It was time to leave again. The torches would not last forever, and as they burned out, one by one, the darkness would return.

    Slowly, hesitantly, I took my first step out into the fields of white. The snow packed tightly under my foot, crunching, almost inaudibly to my ears. Long ago, I may have winced at even such a slight noise. At the beginning of my time here, I might have run in terror. I took another step, and then another, and another. I came out from beneath the lip of the overhang and brought my gaze up to the hill above me. The sword on my hip bounced lightly against my leg. I waited.

    Nothing. I turned my back on the cavern and bundled myself up inside my jacket. My feet began moving in a direction of no real significance. I had no destination in mind. My only desire was to have a familiar presence return to my side.

    Darkness brought danger wherever it went, but some dangers did not leave when the light returned. It was a cruel lesson to learn in my early years. I put some distance between me and the hills, walking through the forest with caution harshly learned. I cast a glance behind me every so often, just in case. All around me were human-shaped footprints in the snow, and some distinctly not human-shaped, though I knew that no human other than myself had ever walked there. They were eerie reminders of what lurked in the night as I explored the cavern.

    The cows, chickens and pigs that often would dot the forests were nowhere to be seen, no doubt hiding in the trees in their attempts to keep warm in this cold snap. Every so often, I would see something moving somewhere in the distance, peeking out before moving out of sight. A hint of brown there, a brief moment of pink there, the few wildlife that weren't hiding.

    Sometimes, the movement would be green. On this blanket of white, it was more disturbing than anything else I could imagine.

    Not long before the sun crossed directly overhead, I came to the other side of the valley. The trees thinned the further up the gentle slope I looked. It would be safer in the open. I did not fear death; that was a fear I had shed I long time ago. However, I preferred not being faced with it, and so I climbed. My ascent was steady. My pack's weight did nothing to slow me down; no amount of weight would, I had long ago discovered. It was a peculiarity of my life I had no desire to really question in all my time here.

    It was deathly silent once I passed into the open space above the trees. No leaves to rustle, no icicles to drop to the ground, no animals to scurry away unseen as I passed too close to their hiding places. And yet in the broadest daylight, the one danger was something that could never be heard in such silence.

    As I crested the top of the hill, I found myself staring down into the plains below. Or, rather, what lay within the plains. I recognized the landscape in a heartbeat. It didn't keep my heart from leaping and being subsequently crushed under the weight of reality. Before me and stretching to the horizon was an artificial sore sticking out from the natural world. That was the most apt way I could describe it. Its hard angles contrasted with the smooth lines of the world around it.

    It was a barren city long forgotten. The skyline was torn with the jagged edges of partially collapsed buildings. Entire sections of steel and concrete walls were missing. Bricks lay shattered at the base of decrepit structures. Wherever the snow hadn't piled up from the night, glass shards reflected light in every direction, creating a glimmer of color on the cracked and crumbling roads. The defensive walls on its perimeter had long ago fallen to the relentless pounding of nature. Railways leading out of the city were no longer passable. And all were slowly being consumed - reclaimed, really - by the greens of nature.

    A hundred... no. Two hundred? Three? Five? I couldn't remember, exactly. Centuries had passed since the time I had last gazed upon this city. My city. From my hands, it was born. I had laid every brick, forged every beam, carved every stone that formed my city, empty as it was. That was thousands of years in the past. It had taken countless millennia just to create the technology to build it all, but in this foreign world where I was the only person, I had nothing if not time.

    It had been my hope, all those millennia ago, that if I built a city that replicated the ones I knew from the world I lived in previously, it would somehow end my lonely existence here. I built homes for people who never lived, shops for customers that never came, subways for passengers that never boarded. It had been a city that could support hundreds of thousands, meticulously planned and built, even though I hadn't seen another human since I first appeared in this world. It was a city built so I could return to my past life. But it hadn't been enough. It was never enough to appease whatever forces were in charge of my life, never enough to give me my one reason for living. After what felt like an eternity of rebuilding a portion of my previous life to bring said life back to me, and have it completely fail, I gave up. My hopes were crushed. All crushed, except for one. I clung to that last hope, to the one that remained strong within me. A single person, that was all I asked for. I pictured that person in my mind, and I found the will to continue forward. My purpose no longer revolved around a society long lost to me, so I abandoned the city, along with all the technology it represented, to the elements, never to return. And yet here I was, gazing upon its decaying remains being taken back by nature, its glory setting like the sun at day's end.

    I had grown to despise the sunset in this world. Sunset meant the beginning of the night, when death roamed the world. Long ago, I had enjoyed the sun setting even more than I came to celebrate the sun rising in the morning, but this world's sunset brought such negativity that I could no longer watch the beauty of the event. I lost one of my greatest joys just by being brought to this world, in more ways than one.

    Inside some of the closer buildings, inside their darkened rooms, I saw movement. A lot of it. It was indeed a city of death. This world was different, so different, from the one that I was once a part of. By nightfall, I knew there would be thousands of the undead streaming from the buildings into the open. Zombies and skeletons were plentiful, but they died in the sunlight. The green demons, they had no such weakness. Monstrosities in this terrible place, they looked nothing like anything I had seen prior. They lurked everywhere and were utterly silent. You would never hear them coming before you were killed in an instant. They were the greatest danger of this hostile world. All of them seemed to have a thirst for my blood, living only to quench it.

    That thirst had been satisfied countless times in the past. I could still remember my first encounter with those mockeries of the living. It wasn't a pleasant one. I hadn't known the dangers of the night, and when I was attacked, it was merciless. Within minutes, I was dead.

    But I still live. I have died a thousand deaths hundreds of thousands of times, lived countless lengths of a normal human lifespan at a time, and yet I'm still here, ageless in my appearance. I never grow old, and if I die, I always return to the exact spot I found myself at when I first became a part of this world. If I travelled back to where I had died, hoping to find some clue as to why I never aged and kept coming back, I would never find my body, only the things I was carrying. Nothing changed no matter how many times I died.

    I glanced down at myself. It had taken a while before I realized why that was the case. The zombies and skeletons in the early years were taller, more broad. But as time went by, first the zombies, then the skeletons began appearing with similar features as my own. And then I saw some wearing the tattered remains of clothing I had once worn.

    I was alone with myself. In horrible, horrible ways.

    I was a part of this world, and at the same time I was separate. I built, I destroyed, I tamed, but nothing lasted forever. Except me, it seemed. It was not natural, not right, but it was reality. I had to end the cycle.

    I turned away from the city and looked into the distance. The sun was setting. Whatever it was I needed to do, it was out there, somewhere. I had done everything I could think of doing, but still, nothing had changed. And despite this, I continued forward, trying everything again and again. I have held out hope every time I died that I would see a familiar face waiting for me when I awakened. But you were never there. I never gave up, though.

    I knew that, one day, we'd watch the sunset together again.

    Minecraft [1.7.2/4?]

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    It's the combination of the finger mustache/frown and the comment about being lonely along with the explosion that gives it away. Those are both associated with creepers in memes. Not to mention, there was another instance a few months ago where Colbert baked a cake that looks suspiciously like the inventory sprite of the iron pickaxe (context was breaking Tom Delay out of prison, I think). Coincidence? Possible, but I doubt it. That look he gave with the impression was a knowing one. He may as well just winked at the audience.

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