We have a tie! Please vote for Entry #5 or Entry #3. This is an entirely new set of voting, so please vote, even if you already did in the previous thread. You may only vote for Entry #5 or Entry #3.

The Galaxy Cauldron is proud to announce its second writing contest. The theme for this writing contest is "Vastly Uneven Odds." The writers interpreted the theme as they liked.

Entries from the 2nd Writing Contest are posted below in random order. Do not announce anyone's identities or guess at them in this thread. The writers of the entries may still vote in the poll. I trust you all to vote for what you honestly believe is the best entry, regardless of who wrote it.

Note: Voting will be opened until Sunday, May 13th. All questions may be directed to Sailor Venus.

P.S. The theme for the next writing contest may be announced on Tuesday, May 15th. I will be gone during the month of June, so the writing contest will continue if I can get either a moderator, senior member, or administrator to take over the duties for that month.

Entry Three

Sure, Minako had faced these sorts of odds before, back when she had first become Sailor V, the guardian of love and justice. It never seemed impossible when the thought came into her mind, but then she would remember what had happened before. This should never be so difficult! He could be reasoned with, right? With a derisive snort, the blonde shook her head.

Grabbing the towel off the table with one hand, Minako slunk low to the ground and moved quietly toward her target. Little did he know, her training as a sailor senshi had primed her as the perfect adversary. She could move swiftly and quietly, pouncing upon her prey before he knew what had happened. Today, this would be used to her advantage. Her mission would be successful! Today, Artemis would have a bath and Minako would have a clean, sweet-smelling cat as her guardian and ever-faithful sidekick.

Lounging on the windowsill, Artemis lazily based in the sun’s warm and comforting rays. The sun lulled him into a light sleep and a beautiful dream about Luna and catnip. Of course, she didn’t like the stuff, but that did not matter in his dreams. His tail twitched and he mumbled something low in his throat. A smile quirked on his lips and he batted the air with one paw. “Nah, Luna.”

Minako crouched underneath the windowsill with her towel ready. Slowly, she stood up and stretched the towel out to cover the cat. At just the wrong moment, Artemis’ right eye stretched open. The teenager froze with her eyes wide. Oh, no! Both of them stared at each other for a moment, then Artemis yowled and toppled off the windowsill. Minako cursed and dove for him with the towel, but he slipped through her fingers. “Artemis!” She yelled, stomping her foot against the ground as her cat tore out of the living room.

The cat’s eyes were wide and he scrambled across the house as if his life were endangered by the infuriated seventeen year old with a towel in the living room. He had to hide! But, Minako knew all of the good spots! Oh, he was doomed. Minako just didn’t understand that he could clean himself just fine, thankyouverymuch. The water felt so oppressive and the smell of the shampoo followed him for days. Bath time was a form of torture and Minako should be ashamed of herself!

He turned around the corner and dove into a cabinet. “Oh, Artemis,” Minako said, in a singsong voice. The male cat cowered further into the corner and tried to make himself as small as possible. The cabinet door flung open and Artemis narrowly missed being caught by the towel-wielding teenager. He dashed down the hallway, but found his path blocked by a well-placed dresser. Cursing, he skidded to a stop and turned to the right. Again, he was blocked by another well-placed obstacle.

“Dammit, she’s getting smarter,” he mumbled, now regretting any tactical training he had imparted onto Minako. On the bright side, she hadn’t transformed in order to use her powers of love and justice on him. Oh, no! He shouldn’t have thought of that. Surely, she would know and he would have to avoid bath time with Sailor Venus and her Love Me-Chain right on his heels.

Before he knew it, Artemis had only one option: the bathroom door. Minako cackled over-dramatically. “You only have one option, Mr. Stinky-Cat!”

Artemis slunk down low to the ground with his head hung even lower. A tear leaked out of his eye as he walked toward his watery grave. “Seriously, you think that having a talking cat would make this easier.” Minako said, ushering Artemis into the bathroom with the towel and closing the door. The bath had already been prepared with water and soap. All it need was an angry cat.

Artemis stared at the tub and felt determination bubbled up inside of his heart. The fight was not over! He would fight on. Minako paled slightly as she saw the determined gleam in Artemis’ eye. Relying solely on her speed, she lunged for the cat and threw him into the tub. Artemis yowled loudly and flailed with his claws and paws. Latching onto the shower curtain, he wheezed as he clung for dear life. Minako’s face was red. “Not the shower curtain, Artemis!”

The cat laughed proudly. “You’ll never hold me ba--!” His words were cut off short as he felt the pole holding the shower curtain inch downwards under the weight of a full-grown cat. “Oh, no,” he whispered, mortified. The grin on Minako’s face couldn’t have been wider. She grabbed the shower curtain rod and pushed it downward. With a startled scream, the cat fell into the tub, shower curtain and all. He flailed in the water underneath the shower curtain.

Minako seized her opportunity and wrapped the cat in the shower curtain and firmly held him in place by squeezing the rod between the walls. “You’re mine, Artemis!” She said, proudly. Then, with a bottle of shampoo in one hand, she set to work.

Less then ten minutes later, the job was done. Minako posed with one foot on the tub and her hands on her waist. “Once again, Sailor Venus has vanquished Mr. Stinky Cat!”

Entry Five
They took them away.

The Silence, it came and swept the remaining soldiers from the dusty ground; it swept them so briskly into its core, where they dissipated into nothingness. What once stood as matter now reverse exists inside the colourless, intangible Silence.

With a hidden burgundy hurricane it arrived in subtlety, camouflaged with the buildings, the land and the ocean. But soon, the hurricane arose out of its invisible veil and with but a scream of the initial victims as warning, it glided across Earth, destructing, noiselessly and relentlessly, that which developed with the utmost sound, fragrance and intimacy.

Sweep away, and the guardians no longer exist.

Sweep underneath, and the moon is defaced.

Sweep, sweep, into themselves, into the spiral, and Earth is stripped bare. The Goddess of the Ocean, the Sovereign of the Sky, both erased in their entireties and their power converted to dust swirling about the red storm.

Swept off, the layering shields of love, in a vanishing second.

As it approached, Silence halted at the feet of Time. But with a mauve blur Silence destroyed around her, indiscriminately, and loveless, leaving in existence, the fading embodiments of only Time and her spiritual daughter, Rebirth.

__________________________________________________________________________________


Before the arrival, before the first signs of ill-weather, she had been assigned, created from protection itself for the post she was to adhere to, in eternity and unswayable. She held her keys around her long-matured body, and her weapon on her hand, gripping the jagged pole to the point of bodily naturalisation. She was the keeper of time and so keeper of existence. In order to be such, she became the weight-bearing foundation, the unbreakable diamond, her own burdening ankle-cuff. But for the Silence, she went away, and abandoned her impenetrable gate, breaking her first taboo to sever the chain restricting the preservation of her treasure.

Before the arrival, she slept. For the immense and irreversible nature of her power, she slept hidden, even from Time. It was for the purpose of maturing, to develop her control. But the arrival came so soon, and she was found by the two sacred protectors of Earth, whose fears drowned them in disarray and indulged them in an obsession to prevent, for the ultimate power of the sleeping spirit was contaminated by silence’s ghost. A Mistress dressed in darkness.

Now they, dressed in symbols and blades, run together, parallel but opposing Earth, concerned for the safety of existence, further from humanity.

But for the fragile period of calm, they inside themselves were opposing powers: one possessing destruction, to restore existence to its origin; the other possessing preservation, to halt existence to an eternal standing ground.

For the past everlasting moonlight, their cordial powers were veiled by a human manifestation, a sufficient barricade for the unequalled offensive lying half-dormant beneath their armour.

__________________________________________________________________________________


And the time to release the darkness of cessation and the lightness of destruction blew in disruptively. It began to erode away Time’s glass cover and Rebirth’s iron encasement. Whilst silence sped fast around them, and the burgundy cyclone torn ligament from ligament and nature’s infrastructure away into a scarlet lightshed, Pluto declared a halt to progress.


“We are left for a reason, Saturn. See the silence, see its trail and look unto its core, do you see your princess?”

“Yes, she is frowning and her eyes frown too, discoloured into greyness. I can smell the silence even through your frozen time; I can smell dust, and putrid rain.”

“We are standing at a frail opportunity, on one side hollows our valley where all will perish and nothing will fall into nothing, on the other side a plains, filled with fertile and empty dirt. Saturn, do not restrain any longer. Do not hold your head in shame nor let fear grip your hair in its engrossing poison.”

“I can feel it, the silence slipping through, it wants to take us. It wants to destroy us.”

“The silence is a formidable entity, it seeps through impermeable material and I myself cannot resist it. Saturn, I have broken the final taboo, this is for you, this is all for you. I have stopped time for you, for you to return Earth to antiquity’s purity; to sever the contagion of Silence. You are the restoration, I have been the protection.”

“… I understand; I revoke my ancient duty. I revoke my memory. I am Saturn of destruction, I am Saturn of life.”

And under the shelter of Pluto’s sacrifice…

And under the livelihood of existence….

And under her dormant, now ripened, infinity…


Sweep downwards, and her glaive purified the Silent gales with the condemned and exonerated yoked into one white vortex.

Please note that I am looking for a senior member, administrator, or moderator to run the writing contest in June. Please PM if you are interested. If no one is interested, then there will be no writing contest for the month of June, because I will be in a foreign country with limited computer access.

I still don't know my plans... otherwise i'd volunteer x.x

if I find out I'll be back before the middle of June (which I think I should be? I think we're only planning for a week to two weeks in Canada if we go...) I'll totally do it.

I could do that I have no plans.

Voted. And Sash, if you can't, I can run it too. Or help. ^_^

Bump

Voted!

Bump

yay! Okay then Uranus, if you can't Britchan and I shall take over the duties while Venus goes to believe in Belize!

Awesome, thanks guy! I'll PM all three of you more details after a winner for the 2nd contest has been declared.

Please vote.

Bump! Please vote. Voting ends tomorrow.

Entry #1 = thewhitemoonfamily
Entry #2 = Sailor Uranus
Entry #3 = Sailor Venus
Entry #4 = bunbun
Entry #5 = Sashminda

Congratulations to Sashminda, the winner of the 2nd Writing Contest: Vastly Uneven Odds! A prize will be created and given to you at the earliest opportunity.

Now that the contest is over, feel free to post your writing entries in the Writer's Section or elsewhere on the Internet. The winner may display the title of her winning entry in red, if desired.

The theme of the next writing contest will be announced on the 15th of May.

Thank you all for voting!

Congrats Sashminda

Wow! Congrats Sash! I don't think I would have ever guessed that was you. xD I enjoyed all the stories.

I liked Venus's just because...giving artemis a bath. Lols! It was hard for me to choose, because I enjoyed the dark tones and almost vague writing style of Sash's. These were all really good!

I am glad that you enjoyed the writing contest, Small Lady. Maybe one day I will have the opportunity to read your submission? ^^

Only if you want to cry at my bad writing. xD

Congrats Sash!!

I'm so excited to see new faces!! I hope to everyone entering something in the next contest!

Yay thanks for the 'grats everyone!!!

Congratulations, Sashminda!



The next theme will be announced tomorrow.

Oooooh!! That's so pretty!!!!! I can't wait to get rid of my old signature that I made with microsoft word XD

Thank you all!!!