Spider Clan Contest: Flanked By Peacocks

The Peacock King Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Posts: 2315

Apparently, Flanked by Nightmares is a somewhat difficult card to get ahold of. Seeing as I have a couple extra copies of this wonderful little strategy, I've decided to spread the love around to my fellow Spider Clan members and toss two copies up as a grand prize in this little contest here.

Now, what is this contest, you might ask?

In a word: Peacocks.

Everyone wanting to enter the contest has until the end of the month to write a bit of fanfiction using the theme "Flanked by Peacocks." When the clock rolls around to 12:01 AM on October 1st, I'll look through all the entries, choose whichever one I like best, and contact that person in order to get their personal information.

The exact parameters of the story are up to you to choose, so long as they adhere to the theme of "Flanked by Peacocks." The story does not necessarily have to involve the Spider Clan or the Shadowlands, though you may choose to do so if you wish.

Entries may be sent to me at Mindshred@hotmail.com with the subject of "Flanked by Peacocks." Please make sure to include your forum name or some other means of identification on the story, as I'll likely post the winner and runners-up on this forum for the enjoyment of all.

Have fun!

Cranberries Joined: 24 May 2008 Posts: 1658

I'mma enter this (assuming they're new copies?). I have three though, so if I somehow win I'll throw in two old copies and some other random rares to the runner(s) up.

I'll trust Usharo not to take advantage of this Wink

Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 10:15 pm

If Usharo has NEW copies to give away, then he really does buy alot of cards!! Laughing

I would enter this contest, but I already have three copies and I would hate to put Usharo through the pain of trying to read a story I write. hehe. Anyway, I'd rather the extras go to someone who really needs them.

The Peacock King Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Posts: 2315

They're the old copies. Razz

I have new copies, but they're pretty, and I like playing with them. @.@

Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 11:09 pm

What is a peacock?

The Peacock King Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Posts: 2315

Chuda Kazabe wrote:

What is a peacock?

This is a peacock:

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 12:17 am

Ahh, lol

Here we call them "Pavo real" and "Flanqueados por pavos reales" sounds very funny Laughing

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 4:29 am

Ohh man. I've only one copy, so I'm definitely signing up for this. Can we send in more'n one entry? Laughing

The Peacock King Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Posts: 2315

DM no Oni wrote:

Can we send in more'n one entry? Laughing

No, that would be silly.

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 8:30 pm

Daigotsu Usharo wrote:

DM no Oni wrote:

Can we send in more'n one entry? Laughing

No, that would be silly.

Aye. One it is, then.

The Peacock King Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Posts: 2315

Just a reminder that there's only five more days left for submissions. I've already got a couple entries in my inbox so far, but I'm hoping to get a few more before the first. Smile

Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2009 3:30 pm

Just wondering if you've got a winner yet.

I'd like to read the fiction, too!!!! Are you gonna post it?

Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2009 4:44 pm

I'm more interested in knowing how many actually submitted. It'll be interesting to know how many of us are willing to write fics for Flanked by Nigthmares (myself included in that number). Laughing

Posted: Fri Oct 02, 2009 5:39 pm

I will never get a job on the story crew with L5R, but I threw something together since I had fun with it and I'll try anything to finish off my set of Peacocks, er nightmares.

Once the winner is announced, I'll be happy to post mine for any enjoyment others might get.

The Peacock King Joined: 01 Jul 2007 Posts: 2315

So, results!

I badgered a couple of my playtest team into helping me judge, and after much deliberation we decided to award the gold to DM no Oni's entry!

Honorable Mentions go to Dillie-O and Daigotsu Susumu, both of whom had great stories that were also fun to read. Smile

And now, the winning story!

Quote:

Lessons for Pokupo
by DM no Oni

One day, Pokupo got bored.

It was the dangerous sort of boredom, for his kind were notorious for causing more collateral damage than was ever necessary when in any state other than being unconscious. Boredom, however, was easily the deadliest of all states for a goblin to be in. Whereas hunger and rage were often productive and fear tended to lead to the preservation of a painfully short-lived species, boredom was too, too close to that one alien thing that many goblins dreaded but a few embraced as the way to the tribes' victory.

That alien thing, was thought.

Thought was a blessing and a curse to the bakemono race. They had it while many of their neighbors in the Shadowlands didn't. While it allowed for more elaborate strategies than "hit it" and "hit it harde" and the ever-popular "hit it while eating it," it also led to such dreadful things as ideas and ponderings. Already tales were spreading on the horrors of bakemono giving in to thought; one popular tale for scaring younglings was that of Gakku, the scout who was so consumed by thought that he actually swore allegiance to a clan. Not a tribe like that of his family and ancestors, but a clan.

On one particularly cloudy day at the Big Stink, Pokupo decided that he was bored. After all, his legendary father had gone off to go raiding and decided that it would be best for the young goblin to stay home and learn how to properly eat while hitting. He had already done a lot of hitting and eating for that morning, however, and lunchtime saw him sitting on his favorite rubble pile (which looked like all the other rubble piles in the place, really) and...thinking.

And so he thought: food tasted good. Everything fleshy that wasn't a bakemono was food. Food was better obtained by killing it. Food tasted better when its skull was cracked. The best way to crack skulls was with a sword, a nice sharp one like his father's that was broken in just the right place to make it extra painful.

Little Pokupo thought that perhaps today, he would learn how to use a sword real good.

At first he approached Brave Shukku, who was well known for cracking more skulls than anyone in Big Stink (except perhaps for Great Pokku himself, or Wise Omoni). Shukku was well-known for being able to crack skulls with anything he laid his hands on -- rocks, sticks, swords and sometimes fellow bakemono. In fact, Shukku was just in the process of cracking open a skull with the hilt of his sword when Great Pokku's son found him.

"Shukku-ku, how many crack do it take to get to best-tasting part of food?"

Shukku looked up from his upcoming meal with disdain coloring the face that normally registered only hunger or fury.

"Go away Pokku-spawn. Shukku eating."

"But Shukku-ku, you one who teach that food taste good when skull cracked."

The renowned berserker set his tools down (for the day he was cracking skulls with the bone of an oni) and handed a very unusual sword over to Pokupo: it was odd for it was the first sword Pokupo saw that was not broken.

"Me have no time for this, Pokupo. Shukku eating now. Here, go get some magic mud so sword be in right shape for cracking."

A few houses away from Shukku lived Wily Mokku, one of the most feared of all for his sheer immersion in thought. He was one of those crazy bakemono who worked with the enigmatic magic mud, which brought fire and pretty explosions but also needed much thinking to use. He was preparing a pot of magic mud right when Pokupo entered his hut, and the sudden greeting almost caused him to light the magic mud on the spot.

"Mokku, Shukku send me get magic mud for making sword good."

"Careful, little one! You almost make me light magic mud on fire too early!"

The magic mud user spent a few more moments with his cauldron before turning to the younger goblin and taking the sword in his hands for examination.

"Hmm, an ugly sword, yes. Sharp, but no good for cracking skulls. Me make it all better with magic mud, yes-yes..."

It took some moments for Mokku to realize that Pokupo didn't leave the moment he handed the sword over.

"What you want now, Pokku-spawn?"

"Mokku, Pokupo was just thinking..."

"Thinking, you say?"

"Yes, thinking."

Mokku regarded the young goblin with a mix of suspicion, intrigue and just a hint of repulsion. And then, after all those various expressions crossed his lightly-signed face, Mokku suddenly displayed wide-eyed joy.

"Oh Pokupo, you taking after your father already! Good see other bakemono learn think too!"

The older of the two clapped Pokupo on the shoulder and immediately drew a scroll from his rags, shoving it hurriedly into the younger one's hands.

"Here, take this and give to biggest thinker in all land. Wise Omoni need new strategy for bakemono but me busy with magic mud. Other thinker can try bring to him now!"

Several minutes later, Omoni's quiet contemplation was interrupted by the entry of an unusually young bakemono into his tent.

"This had better be important," the ancient one spoke, "or I'll be sculpting you into my bed for tonight."

Bakemono were not known to be very good at self-preservation, and even Pokupo failed to register a genuine threat despite his newfound penchant for thought. Without even missing a beat he gleefully handed the scroll over to the goblin-man.

"Omoni-omoni! Mokku-ku ask me give this to you!"

Omoni unrolled the scroll and regarded it. On it was made an astonishingly-detailed rendition of a samurai adopting an odd stance: his katana was at his back, blade pointing upwards, while his wakizashi was held in front pointing towards the enemy. The only text on the scroll seemed to indicate the maneuver's name: Sublime Peacock Stance.

"What...is this?"

"Mokku say you need new strategy, and he give me this!"

The flesh-sculptor scrutinized the scroll for several minutes. He then took a rusty daisho set and began to mimick the stance depicted on it, after which he attempted moving around in the stance. He tried swaying the katana, thrusting the wakizashi...but after minutes of walking around in that odd stance, he came to the conclusion that he couldn't figure out what the point behind such a stance was. He crumpled the scroll and tossed it back at Pokupo.

"Bah, this is no good. Here, go eat it or something."

"Kaaark!"

At the pained cawing, Omoni's gaze fell upon his current "patient:" a crow that had flown too near his tent. He noted that he had been trying to sculpt it into a larger, fiercer bird to threaten those silly Crab defenders from the skies. Then he looked at the Sublime Peacock Stance scroll, and then to the bird again.

"On second thought, give that back to me."

*****

Hida Agito eagerly jogged past his fellow young samurai-in-training, ono in hand. Today was gempukku for their particular division of the Hida, and so the eager young Crabs had been sent out into the Shadowlands for the traditional goblin headhunt.

"They're just over that hill," he called over to his dojo classmates, "I can smell 'em. Goblins!"

Agito was running just a bit too fast, however, and before he knew it he was far -- too far to lunge back when he heard the bloodied screams behind him. It sounded as if a dozen blades had torn into his fellow Crabs at once. As he turned around, he found himself face-to-face with what looked to be a bird with a wakizashi jutting out of its chest (but oddly enough not impaled there); its most striking feature, however, was the multitude of katana that were in place of its tailfeathers. These were arranged like a fan pointing upwards.

"Kaaark!"

Agito looked to his left to see another such bird approaching. From the sounds of feathers and steel around him, he could tell that he was being fast surrounded. He distinctly remembered what such an arrangement of blades was called, having sparred with a particularly unorthodox Mirumoto student once.

Despite his grueling training at the Hida dojo, Agito's ono was no match for so many swords. Thus, the last of that day's gempukku candidates died horribly, flanked by peacocks.