CYS Monthly Gazette - 8 May 2025

Hey, everyone!

I'm back as the editor for this month's issue and what a publication we have here for you all!

As always, I'd like to thank all the members of the CYS Monthly Gazette for without them this wouldn't be anywhere near as good as it is now!

A special thank you as well to those who were interviewed for this month. It's been fun experience!

Once again, the pictures are clickable. If you want the slideshow of this article, here's a link.

A particular thank you to Fresh for teaching me how to do all this in code.

Prompt Contest 4 Results

So a lot of folks flaked on this contest as usual, however we got a lot more quality stories. Several that were actually potential contest winners. Seriously there were like 4 that could have easily been the winner had the other 3 not been around. Hell, there were actually 2 that didn’t even score as high as those 4 main ones that could’ve won under different circumstances.

The top stories were so close, it’s almost like there could have been a tie. We had ONE of those once for a contest…and it was fucking gay.

We’re not doing that shit again, it’s like Highlander around here: THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE

Normally I just announce the winner immediately, but we’ll do things a little different this time and start with the bottom which obviously includes Ben since he’s very familiar with being a bottom.

However, before we get to that, I’ll just say Suranna really could have done the bare fucking minimum for a story based on her prompt alone and still probably could have beaten Ben. Hell, she probably could have drawn from her Mormon cult for inspiration. Oh well, guess I’ll continue to not expect much from her people.

Alright so now we’ll get to what Ben did. Now there were a lot of suggestions he should have been disqualified as well, but he at least put in the effort for his gay shit. Plus there were actually folks that had better stories that were outright unfinished with broken links, etc. I’d have to disqualify them too.

Arguably if he’d submitted his story later like everyone else, he probably wouldn’t have gotten as many rating to result in showing the low score it currently has. I mean he would have gotten them anyway eventually, but being early just resulted in the rating appearing sooner, hence why I ignored it as a disqualification thing.  Plus I know Ben tends to be a bit of a hatesink around here, (Not as much as Cel, but Nazis are a hard act to follow) so I know some of it is just not liking him on principle.

In any case, I never consider the “Gay and Depressed” stories to be anything other than the ongoing CYS meme joke stories at this point so I already knew it wasn’t going win or be of good quality. Figured it would also get a low enough rating that it was coming down at some point anyway, nothing really to freak out about.

But we probably should just not allow the meme stories for contests in the future. (Or at least no more gay and depressed shit)

Ben did lose a point for rating bombing Ace since that was a bit unsporting just because they were having a sissy fag fight in the contest thread. Under normal circumstances that might have disqualified him, but it’s fucking Ace, so whatever.

In any case, Ben’s used up all his favor this contest and he's lucky he only got a mere tar and feathering rather than a full blown lynching. If he does anything like this next contest, he’ll be cast down with the rest of the sodomites, which I suppose will be more of a reward for him rather than a punishment.

Moving on…

Rex, Anthrax and goodnight

One thing I tend to hate in stories is looping. Rex and Anthrax had the unfortunate design style that included this.

Though it was a bit different in Anthrax’s since there was actually endings, but when I was clicking through I noticed several times you could sort of click back and forth to the same location over and over which sort of ruined a bit of immersion. It’s like “I can avoid getting body horrored to death if I just keep moving back and forth through these two sections!” (Of course can't actually end the story, you just think of the protagonist forever walking back and forth until he starves to death I guess) Plus there just wasn’t too much going on which actually made it feel like I was going through a bunch of Cube rooms though maybe that was the point and that concept just didn’t grab me.

Rex on the other hand was apparently trying to make a closed loop story with the same events happening over and over, but the tools don’t allow him to, which is good because it was annoying the hell out of me even without it being a closed loop. Again though, it was a lunatic asylum setting so that was probably part of the point and that also didn’t grab me. I know he tends to go a little experimental on his stories (Wasn’t he trying to create an entire complex map for one of them once) which is probably good to have variety even if it isn’t my thing.

As far as goodnight’s story there wasn’t really anything wrong with it other than it was incredibly short and felt really unfinished. Would have scored higher if that hadn’t been the case.

Milton, True and Clay

So Milton’s was probably the most unfinished story of the contest. Not just “feeling unfinished,” I mean actually unfinished with broken/dead links. Really he would have gotten a lower rating, but the story actually has a lot of potential with some interesting things going on with it. Plus having a coked up medieval knight killing a bunch of confederates scored him an extra point. He probably should have just focused on one knight rather than three and made the scope a bit smaller. Though I suppose he’s got all the time to go back and work on it now (Or never touch it ever again!)

True’s story was another one that got an extra point due to content. Granted I know there’s build up and all, but I think his was the only one I had to keep rereading pages because my eyes were just glazing over what was written. Wasn’t until you’re force-fed rotten chunks meat and getting your innards ripped out by some ghostly abomination all in graphic detail that I started paying attention. Really should have led with that.

Clay’s was just an amusing story on the shorter side. Might have scored higher if there had been a bit more to it.

Ace, Mystic’s shorter story and Fabrikant

Well now, who would have thought Ace of all people would get such a high rating? Almost couldn’t believe he wrote it. Reminded me a little of the Dishonored setting.

Mystic’s shorter story one of those that feels a little unfinished, but obviously it was still good enough to get a higher than average rating. It’s weird seeing anything that short by Mystic though anyway.

So with Fab’s story I sort of went into this one not even knowing what he even did and then I saw part of the description “The Third Reich is at war and the Kriegsmarine needs you!” and thought “ Holy shit, did he actually write a Nazi protagonist?”

However, Fab made it a little more complicated than that. The type of setting probably isn’t my “go to” on what I prefer to read, but he obviously put in a lot of work into along with a bunch of different endings and it being a horror story on top of everything. I’m actually probably going to go back and give it another point. This is one of the two stories lower rated stories that I mentioned that could have been a contest winner under different circumstances.

Oh and he explained in another thread, but Fab could have made the Nazis the “good guys” if he wanted and it wouldn’t have affected his rating, but it’s probably best he didn’t since I’m sure Cel wants to write that story one day.

Mizal, Petros and Orange

So as some know, a good way of getting a high rating without writing a whole lot is to play on what you know is probably going to really entertain whoever’s judging. As simple as this sounds, it still seems to elude a lot of people given how many still flake out.

In any case Mizal and Petros managed to accomplish it this time around, mostly by putting a bunch of deranged humor into their stories which of course going to appeal to me. (Also they didn’t write gay porn in the process either)

Is this approach ever enough to actually win a contest? Well it hasn’t so far contrary to popular belief. Usually it’ll get a high rating, but a more serious written story still tends to win out.

But it’s an excellent way of getting out of SHAME/Detroit!

Now we come to Orange who managed to defy all odds of doing exactly what I tend not to like which is looping and actually do it in such a way that I did like it. Enough to think at first that she’d be one of the major contender to be a contest winner. Really Orange has been putting out solid work since she came back so this is another one to add to that list.

Alright now the “Big 4” Fresh, Sherb, Mystic (again) and Flux

So what this came down to is “game” or “story”

Now all of them had solid stories, but I feel like Fresh and Sherb probably had more choices/branching than Mystic and Flux did.

So if you were looking for something that had more CYOA elements, Fresh and Sherb seemed to have more of that.

Now if it was between those two, Sherb would probably win it. Mainly because I’m deeply “phobic” or so I’ve been told many times. Actually though Sherb’s story just had a bit of an edge over Fresh’s.

Though I will say it’s amusing that the best LGBT story we have on here has now been written by a Christian girl. Though sort of wondering about her given all the gay shit she’s written, but like any father I’m just going to chalk it up to her college phase.

However, Mystic and Flux managed to triple down on the story aspect. Now the funny thing is both Mystic and Flux are good writers, but sometimes what they write just never quite grabs me for whatever reason. I kind of went back and forth a bit since they both really did go more than a few pages without a choice, but ultimately it was between those two winning because what they both wrote definitely got my attention.

Both of them even went all out on the fancy backgrounds and all that. Of course none of that never impresses me too much, but obviously it shows they both took a lot of pride in their story enough to work on it as hard as they did.

I think Mystic did a more unique thing with the multiple protagonists, though I sort of got confused a few times with the brothers and wasn’t sure at times if all the coding lined up with the choices since at one point I could have swore I left behind a certain pair of brothers but they were hanging around the palace. I think there was a couple places where a brother was mention, but it was supposed to be referring to another.

Meanwhile Flux kind of just ran with the much favored grimdark setting and he had few things in the story that I’m sure he knew would gain more approval. Necromancy, immortal god kings, unstoppable soldiers created by dark magic called Eternals?

Yeah he knew all that was certainly going to help his chances and I guess it paid off since he won the contest.

To sum up here’s the final scores

Suranna I Killed a Half Black Man at a Waffle House 1
benholman44 Gay and Depressed: The Snow Bunny Society 3
CavusRex Lazarus Cage 4
Anthraxus The Backup 4
goodnight_a Rifts 4
MiltonManThing Three Late Knights 5
TrueParanormal Durwood Mansion 5
Clayfinger Don’t get distracted 5
MrAce321 A Bird in a Cage 6
Mystic_Warrior White as Bloodstained Snow 6
Fabrikant The Laconia Incident 6
Mizal KOBOLD KEBABS 7
Petros Of the Struggles Faced Under the Light of a Metal Shrouded Star 7
Orange Lasso of Time 7
fresh_out_the_oven Gaiety and Sorrow 7
Sherbet As Ink 8
Mystic_Warrior These Shackled Souls 8
Fluxion Shadow of a God-King 8

TL;DR Fluxion won the contest. Various people will be getting their various rewards if they haven’t gotten them already (Like Rex did)

And so ends another successful prompt contest.

It’s finished. It’s done. That’s it.
I don’t wanna hear anymore shit.