Hey there, Survivors! Welcome to the back half of the game…a wonderful land of magic and mystery, where nobody except greekhouse fails to submit, and legends are born.
So…are we merging?
…spooks, are we merging? Seriously, don’t keep me in suspense. My entire strategy banks on knowing the answer to this question.
So, let’s take a look at this week’s challenge.
In Survivor VIII, I ran Seemingly Useless Superpower for the first time. It was great, and Pete’s entry – that of a guy whose superpower was to fill someone’s mouth with “six or seven spoonfuls of tapioca,” still runs through my head on a regular basis. Plus, this is a tie-in, since I’m doing a hero-based game of Werewolf next week (I may even use your superpower in it, if I like it enough).
Your task is to write about a character who has a seemingly useless superpower, and relate a story of that character in a conflict where he or she gets (or has) to use that superpower. Whether the character wins the day or not is up to you. Also, if the power is good enough on the surface that I say “Hey, that’s not all that useless,” yer doin’ it wrong.
Since you guys like the forced curve so much, we’ll use it again. Two scores each of 5, 4 and 3, and two each of 2 and 1. Word limit: 1000.
They’re due Sunday at 8pm Central. I have the same schedule this week, so there you go. Once again, no guarantees it’ll be up Sunday night, but we made it this week, so I’m optimistic.
Oh, and you are not merged yet. The vote was close, but 12 was not the winner.
Cheers, Survivors.
51 comments
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January 9, 2012 at 4:46 pm
dkautz
Chief, you mean three each of 2 and 1?
January 9, 2012 at 4:47 pm
spookymilk
Sure do!
January 9, 2012 at 4:49 pm
dkautz
I almost called you “Boss” there, but then remembered there’s only one Boss.
January 9, 2012 at 4:51 pm
spookymilk
Yep, that would have felt off.
January 9, 2012 at 4:52 pm
mbnovak
Who’s the boss?
January 9, 2012 at 4:53 pm
funkomatic
It was clearly Angela.
January 9, 2012 at 4:55 pm
spookymilk
This guy SBG, who ran the baseball site that all of us come from, until he retired and a couple others took over.
January 9, 2012 at 11:57 pm
AMR
Spooks, I believe that with all the work you’ve put in at this site and the other, you’ve now paid the cost to be “the boss”.
January 9, 2012 at 11:58 pm
AMR
That is, Paid the Co$t to Be the Bo$$.
January 10, 2012 at 12:01 am
spookymilk
Heh heh.
Yeah, thanks for the shout out and all, but if y’all must find an honorific for me, it’ll have to be a different one. “Chief” is fine enough, but I nominate “The Honorable Judge” or “Reverend.” Hmm, “Reverend” might rub some of the WGOM the wrong way…
January 10, 2012 at 12:39 am
AMR
Reverend may not be right, but if you’re Monsignor, I don’t think you’re stepping on anyone’s toes.
It would fit, with all the banns you’ve been publishing.
/But I’m not gonna use it, Captain Spoon
January 10, 2012 at 12:48 am
AMR
Gahh, I want an edit function here. (Though I know it won’t work with the games.)
“Captain Snoop” would have been the best line there, going back to the C. Broadus album title.
Maybe “Captain Spoon Dogg”, but what does Captain have to do with Snoop Dogg? Well, maybe this:
http://moviesmedia.ign.com/movies/image/soulplane-godfrey-snoop_1085713680.jpg
I have also just become aware that it should have been “Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$$” Yes, two different articles. Overall fail on my part.
January 9, 2012 at 4:53 pm
funkomatic
There is a very poorly written role playing game from the early 80′s called “Villains and Vigilantes” that this challenge sounds as if it was accidentally born from and of this I approve.
January 9, 2012 at 5:46 pm
Rhubarb_Runner
Yep, played that. Also “Champions” as well.
January 9, 2012 at 4:53 pm
mbnovak
Wait, wasn’t this the one challenge we all agreed should never be run again after VIII? Can I do the next issue of my comic?
I actually had another thought for this one last time, but it’s long gone. &$#@!
January 9, 2012 at 4:56 pm
spookymilk
Did we agree on that? If so, I’m sorry. Actually, it’s kinda your fault…this was not in my head anymore at all until you brought it up on the Hero Town thread yesterday. Whoopsies!
January 9, 2012 at 5:00 pm
mbnovak
I think this was one that people were thinking wasn’t the best. But whatever. I had fun with it last time. I’m actually contemplating a kind of sequel… it’ll give away the writer, but it might just be too fun to pass up.
January 9, 2012 at 5:03 pm
spookymilk
No, I think you’re right. Most of the late weeks were excellent in VIII, though, so I just assagreyed this one was too.
January 9, 2012 at 5:32 pm
The Dread Pirate
Well, well done, spoons. I just assegreyed that no one else wanted to make an ass out of Grey.
January 9, 2012 at 5:03 pm
nibbish
The only one I really remember was the Song Inspiration one
January 9, 2012 at 5:04 pm
spookymilk
Oh, God, right. That was a bad idea.
January 9, 2012 at 5:11 pm
mbnovak
Terrible. Simply terrible.
Now that you say that, I think that was the one we agreed to never do again. I think the Superpower just needed some time off.
January 9, 2012 at 5:13 pm
spookymilk
Yep, this is allll comin’ back to me. Apologies for You’re So Vain, Survivors. Apologies.
January 9, 2012 at 4:58 pm
nibbish
I dunno, I was a fan (I think it was my first dual 5′s).
January 9, 2012 at 4:57 pm
dkautz
I also feel I should promise Beau that I will be sure to read his extremely closely and pay particular attention to the presence or absence of any hackneyed in-jokes.
January 9, 2012 at 4:59 pm
spookymilk
LOL
January 9, 2012 at 5:00 pm
mbnovak
Ditto.
January 9, 2012 at 5:34 pm
The Dread Pirate
Dido.
January 9, 2012 at 5:18 pm
Beau
Uh oh. I think it’s GOSO for me.
January 9, 2012 at 5:23 pm
spookymilk
The two-elimination rule is still in effect. Do I still have to write that? I’m fairly sure non-subs are a thing of Survivor X past.
January 9, 2012 at 8:53 pm
greekhouse
Mine would be the ability to make everybody in the room stop and play a game of werewolf. Too bad I’m not playing.
January 9, 2012 at 8:54 pm
spookymilk
I’ll get these people all involved someday. I do subversive commercials now and then. My underhanded tactics will work, dammit.
January 9, 2012 at 9:00 pm
greekhouse
I know you really wish you had that power, but lets face it–that’s too much power for any one man to have.
January 9, 2012 at 9:02 pm
spookymilk
Yeah…I suppose it wouldn’t really be fair for me to be so persuasive when other people aren’t, too.
AW SNAP
January 9, 2012 at 9:05 pm
greekhouse
And yet the only superpower I have is the ability to determine whether or not it’s Thursday. (It’s not)
January 9, 2012 at 9:07 pm
spookymilk
That is amazing!
January 13, 2012 at 9:15 am
adobery
“Greekhouse is a villager, I’m sure of it. Oh, hi, DG. Greekhouse is most certainly a wolf.”
AW SNAP
January 13, 2012 at 11:10 am
spookymilk
Ya know what, Ryan? You’re banned.
January 9, 2012 at 10:11 pm
mbnovak
So last time, I had already committed myself to writing the Sandcastle story, since I had some personal history with it (one summer, while picking rock with 2 of my eventual in-laws, one of them asked what super power I would want. I took all of the good ones. Then I assigned one of them “The Awesome Power of Sandcastle” and one of them the “Mind-rider” power. Rather than be mad at me, they fought against each other. It was awesome.).
Despite knowing what I’d write, I still had a really awesome idea come to me. I figured I should write it down, just in case. But did I write it down? Of course not. So instead of brilliance, you’re going to get whatever crap I can come up with.
Also, it’s going to be weird to write humor again. I haven’t done that for far too long.
January 10, 2012 at 11:22 am
Beau
Clarification: So the useless power can end up working wonders? For example, if the super power was being able to make one’s chest hairs stand up on command, and somehow this saved the universe from destruction, that would be okay?
January 10, 2012 at 11:24 am
spookymilk
That would not only be acceptable, but perhaps the entire point of me running this. I would love that. That’s why “seemingly” is in there. The power should appear to be mostly useless, but if the character is savvy enought to save the world with it, that’s awesome.
January 10, 2012 at 1:36 pm
mbnovak
I’ve got the perfect entry:
“Hi, my name is Deanna Troi. I’m half betazoid.”
January 10, 2012 at 1:41 pm
dkautz
Seemingly useless, Matt, not utterly useless.
January 10, 2012 at 1:43 pm
spookymilk
Wow, another callback to a different blog from the family. I love it.
January 10, 2012 at 6:18 pm
spookymilk
Friends, given how popular this blog is becoming based on amount of content, comments and posts (yeah, I’m surprised too), I’ve added a Recent Posts widget on the sidebar. It’s overdue.
Anyway, use it. It should keep things clean and organized. I wish I could do three feeds – like, Werewolf, Survivor and other, but I think we’re good here.
January 14, 2012 at 6:12 pm
seeann
With consistent prefixes, it’s at least possible to quickly see the “category”. Now, if only you had your own hosting, you could use whatever plugins you want.
January 14, 2012 at 6:18 pm
spookymilk
If this gig ever really happens, I’ll be all over it.
January 14, 2012 at 5:00 pm
mybiggirlshoes
I haven’t even started. :-/
January 14, 2012 at 5:27 pm
spookymilk
You can’t be the only one, since I’ve only gotten two so far.
January 14, 2012 at 5:41 pm
adobery
Surprising. You seem to be on a pretty regular cycle.
January 16, 2012 at 7:22 am
Spookymilk Survivor X — Challenge #13: Seemingly Useless Superpower | "é rayhahn, rayhahn"
[...] writer’s challenge was entertaining. My mission, should I choose to accept it (and I did): Write a story where a character has a seemingly useless superpower and must use it in a conflict (1000 word [...]