@FlitterFaux Give it a shot. The rewards this time around are a lot higher and easier to grab because there hasn't been a contest around for quite a bit.
Hmmmmmm... encouragement cometh before a Flitter's fall... I could try if people really want me to. I do like to ramble on without prompting, now I might get a reward for it? But what to word vomit about? Chopsticks? Perhaps...
@FlitterFaux I'm sure you'll do fine. And personally, I think more people submitting entries to the contests makes things more fun. Nobody should be really forced to attend the contest, but hey, 2 credits for 1K words should be an easy grab.
This one's hard. I will be posting this in the Contest of Champions thread soon.
Contest #32 – Six-Day Writing Challenge
Judge: NarayanK Type: Short Story
Deadline: July 5
Your task is to write a short story before the deadline. You may write about anything, whether it be about a moment in your character’s background, or something you just came up with that you thought could be interesting or thought-provoking. The key thing here is to not detract from the topic you decide to write upon.
The length of your story will determine the number of credits you will receive.
Participation = 1 Credit
1K Words = 1 Credit
5K Words = 2 Credits
20K Words and beyond = 3 Credits
All submissions will be given commentary or feedback from me.
If you half-ass your entry and try to avoid the word limit with formatting, you will not receive any credits. There will be no extensions to the deadline, and that’s final.
This contest rewards you for your dedication in writing for Heroes of Beacon in general, so I'd love to see you put your hearts into this.
If less than 3 people participate, no Participation awards will be given.
Welp.
Here's the motivation to actually do the story I've had sitting on the backlog.
So I got dragged into making a Kiran post, don't expect this to be a super frequent thing but I figured the food cart needed all the help it could get.
Oh yeah, it's past 12 everywhere else in the 'merica. OK, sure, why not? Strike whilst they are unconscious in their beds! Nice, another excuse to use the word 'whilst'
Name: Annabelle Valentine
Age: 16
Gender: Lace? Check. Ribbons? Check. Luxurious long hair? Check. Scandalous underwear? Double check. It's a boy! ~snickers~ Wait, are you seriously putting that down? Kidding, I was just KIDDING!!
Race: Human
Weapon: Eye of the Tiger and Heart of the Tiger are two parts of a complete weapon system referred to simply as Tiger. Tiger is technically Annabelle's primary weapon though Heart of the Tiger can operate independently of Annabelle in combat and can use Eye of the Tiger fairly well as a turret cannon. This allows Annabelle to use any other weapon she is qualified for as long as it is available. Tiger may also carry additional weapons, ammunition, and equipment effectively making it a mobile supply station for the team. However, this usually means Annabelle or another Hunter must carry Eye of the Tiger limiting their mobility. Alternatively Eye of the Tiger may be left behind entirely, ideally for missions in close quarters where the cannon would be useless.
Eye of the Tiger is an enormous long range railgun. Fully twelve feet long from end to end it is taxing for Annabelle to merely carry it by hand. The recoil of the cannon is so great it could kill an average human if not anchored. The weapon has a built in specialized bipod designed to keep the weapon from harming its user. Optimally Eye of the Tiger remains attached to Heart of the Tiger, which is specifically designed to anchor the weapon properly.
As might be expected of a giant cannon it fires one round at a time and it is a VERY bad idea to fire it in close quarters or at very close targets. It also requires time to charge for maximum velocity, though it could be fired prematurely. This lights up the weapon like a beacon and exposes the accelerator coils and cooling system. A smart foe could capitalize on this and try to attack the weapon itself. If hit the weapon could be severely damaged to the point where firing could cause a lethal explosion. After firing Eye of the Tiger ejects the expended shell (it actually has an alarm to warn that a chunk of metal might be launched at someone's head) and begins a brief cooling phase. Cooling takes longer if the weapon is fired repeatedly.
Eye of the Tiger is a very slow and fairly situational weapon. However, the sheer damage, range, and armor piercing ability more than make up for its disadvantages.
Heart of the Tiger While one might expect Eye of the Tiger to be Annabelle's pride and joy she considers the automated walking rig her crowning achievement. In it she sees untapped potential a simple gun could never achieve. Miss Valentine is very good at building mechanical marvels as is plain to see. However programming is a very different matter. Annabelle put an incredible amount of time and energy into creating Heart of the Tiger's relatively basic artificial intelligence. Having taken the first step in successfully programming it she continues learning more advanced programming in her off time.
The result of her efforts is a quadroped walking platform for her rail gun that digs into the ground and uses the gun like a turret. Heart of the Tiger is highly automated and can function independently of her with voice commands. Annabelle also has a limited range beacon and 'panic button' on her to call this part of her weapon to protect her. It may also communicate basic information to her as its programming allows.
Besides being a cargo and turret platform it is decently armored and armed with multiple blades and an AOE electric discharge weapon. As Eye of the Tiger dominates ranged high priority targets Heart of the Tiger is an effective melee and crowd control weapon. Should both systems be severely damaged Valentine will take great risks to retrieve Tiger's 'brain.'
Specialty: Annabelle likes to claim she can be her own team with Tiger. She has extensive training prior to her arrival at Beacon, some of it from a very young age. But she has yet to face any Grimm having lived something of a sheltered life in a wealthy household. She is unproven but she and many others believe this will not be too much of a problem. (Mistake)
Personally Annabelle is something like a jack of all trades. Well, on paper at least. She has a lot of training in a lot of areas and scores well in almost every area. However certain things do stand out while other areas have plenty of room for improvement. She is particularly good at marksmanship with excellent reflexes, agility, dexterity, and ground speed. She is also quite intelligent from a technical stand point, though she can be quite forgetful and prone to making bad decisions. She likes to keep her actual person light and mobile favoring a bladed pistol with plenty of ammunition, usually stored on Heart of the Tiger. She is not especially strong or durable and a poor choice as a tank unless her gear were completely switched out for heavy defenses. Tiger stands in much better as an actual tank.
If she decides a heavy target needs her personal attention and said target is at range, Annabelle will switch Tiger to manual mode. Tiger anchors itself where she needs it and takes control of the cannon herself. Generally her precision and ability to pick out priority target from very far away is the main benefit of this arrangement.
She also favors an annoyingly skintight suit imbued with Dust and sporting some light armor 'just in case.' The suit is designed to provide bursts of vector thrust. This allows her to evade or rush a target quickly, and even multi jump and change directions midair.
As a rule Tiger's abilities carry most of the weight in combat. Annabelle is light supporting fire on her own and has to be careful due to sub par aura and no semblance. However she has the option of having a strong team member weild Eye of the Tiger while Heart of the Tiger carries additional generic firepower for herself and other team members.
Annabelle, with her technical skill, would be perfect as a field repair specialist. Provided she brought the needed tools and materials. The brainless wonder has never considered this option.
Semblance: Undiscovered.
Personality: Miss Valentine is a trip. She has way too much energy, too little focus, sticks her nose into everything, has little control of herself or her emotions, loves teasing and annoying the hell out of everyone in sight for kicks, and has no clue what tact means. For being as smart as she is Annabelle is also a forgetful, easily distracted moron. While she can be fun and even half as cute as she thinks she is her love of getting a rise out of people can make her quite unlikable quite quickly. While she is not maliciously trying to hurt people Annabelle can and often does simply go to far. And gods forbid she be reprimanded or given a taste of her own medicine, lest she become moody or outright spiteful when she has no right to be.
Essentially she seems to be about as mature as a child. And yet she can behave like a responsible, mature, socially acceptable human being at times. Unfortunately for everyone else she rarely checks her behavior in this way. Unless of course doing so somehow serves her interests, usually to further mess with people and get at 'hard targets' numb to her usual antics. Much to the chagrin of, well just about everyone, Annabelle is pretty great at mimicry especially if she takes the time and effort to really study someone or something. She can even alter her voice to sound very similar to someone else. Other skills allow her to disguise herself as another person and during these times she has a tendency to wreck HAVOC. Or just make a lot of people very uncomfortable.
Though she is an incurable troll Annabelle is also very skilled and talented at many things. Her skill with technology is obvious from one look at her two part weapon system. Her creativity is on full display with her clothing, art, and music. She can draw, paint, play a wide variety of instruments, dance (not sing for some reason), is a solid athlete despite a notable lack of raw strength, can drive, ride horses, write songs, poetry, short stories, possibly even full novels, cooking, gardening.... the list just goes on and on and on. One would be hard pressed to find a skill she is not at least decent at, aside from decency itself. And is she modest about her abilities? Oh hell no she is NOT. She is almost as much of a showoff as she is a troll.
And to put the icing on the mountain of a cake Annebelle likes to drink. This is not a small problem, either, the girl is a borderline alcoholic and has been for years. A fan of breath mints and often inebriated to some extent all day this can be surprisingly hard to notice. Annabelle is quite crafty with this terrible habit and has foiled the attempts to cut her off time and again. And as if her bad habits were not hard enough to counter Annabelle is also quite wealthy courtesy of a sizable inheritance.
Some believe Annabelle to be competing for the gold medal in both the Dumbass and Insufferable Olympics. Others believe the worst of her behavior is merely a mask to avoid having to face deeper issues. Both parties agree: miss Valentine is a trip.
Color: Cherry Blossom Pink
Emblem: A flaming, roaring, simplified pink tiger face with a black background...
Appearance: Annabelle Valentine is a very pretty young lass. She knows it, and she wants you to know it, too. She wants everyone to know it. To this end she sometimes pushes the limits of modesty. Fortunately she also enjoys making all sorts of different outfits and costumes; so she is not constantly causing trouble. Well, that kind of trouble anyway. Her preferred outfit is also not too scandalous. She favors a vibrant red dress with black lace trim and long sleeves exposing her shoulders. Also, long black stockings and rainbow colored hair. Or a wig? She wears many different wigs, mostly for disguising herself as another student. Few people are even 100% what her real hair even looks like. She keeps them guessing by occasionally dyeing, curling, or straightening her real hair.
Valentine is five foot nothing and weighs (there are some things one simply does not ask a lady). Her eyes, when she is not playing with fancy contacts, are a brilliant green and her actual hair color is light pink. It is also fairly long and she takes very good care of it to make up for the punishment she puts it through. Her features are delicate and pixie-like and she is quite petite. Despite being so small she has a nice figure that she is quite proud of. Her skin is smooth, usually pale, and covered in freckles. Annabelle is very fond of makeup and body art and mixes this up about as much as her wardrobe. Some of this extra decoration is subdued and classy, but some of it is on the level of Lady Gaga...
