The bean, it must be found. For MHD's Fairytales contest.

I have no idea why I wrote this. All I can say in my defense is that it seemed like a good idea at the ti--wait no that's a lie, I said, repeatedly that this was stupid and shameful every time I mentioned working on it.

The truth is I needed to publish something before the end of the year and there is CLEARLY a burning need for wolf stories in the psyche of children using the internet. But then they write them badly, or make their wolves behave like clans of cats. So here is a simple straightfoward story of a young wolf leaving his pack in search of a better life. Maybe no one will ever feel the need to write another one now, or if nothing else maybe this will give them ideas for how to do it in slightly more minimum-standards-meeting ways.

Final conclusion however is that writing about some dumb animal with no agency is not something I'd recommend.

If you don't know what this is for, then it isn't for you.

A short, educational piece. Please remain sensitive and respectful in the comment section. (I'd hate to have to report you to an admin for bullying me.)

(DO NOT READ if you're at all easily offended or lacking in a sense of humor. There's nothing graphic at all in here, but seriously, I still cannot stress it enough, this story is not for you.)



Dedicated to the good people of COG.

Just some quick thoughts on these and an explanation. Yummy had a co worker end up in the emergency room, and was too young and tender and exploitable to realize he should refuse to work two 12 hour shifts on his days off for a boss who had just additionally denied his vacation request. However he was good and responsible lad enough to warn me of this, meaning there was still time to drag another author in on the last day. I was in the mood to mix it up a little from the people we usually tap for this, and Ford had mentioned recently wanting to do some writing again, so I went to him. And he accepted, before learning what the prompt was. Kek. (You've got to dig for it a bit, but contrary to popular belief, Ford has been known to do a little writing. Mostly stuff involving detailed combat and magic systems, while he is notorious for having a blissful smooth spot in his brain where anything related to politics or history might go in a normal person.) Crimson had turned in the original copy of his the first day, but during the wait on the second story, he expanded it based on some advice. This was a pretty significant rewrite that doubled his word count, and of course looking at it I knew at that point that the landslide would be in his favor no matter what the other side turned in. Conscience is a stand out easily in the top 5 of any previous Thunderdome story, genuinely emotional and with the choice of a real world subject matter only making it stand out further. That said, Infiltration was a lot of fun too. Humor is a pretty subjective thing so it was interesting to see how far it missed the mark for some people. (I was pretty much with Gower--it might have been enough to win many previous matches, but not this one.) Obviously rushed in the second half, it was spot on for me as cyberpunk meets Austin Powers. The palpable sense of growing awkwardness as the spy is stuck there listening to all that cringe and knowing he'll have to include it in his report and never hear the end of it from his partner was hilarious to me. But it was pretty clear which way the vote world go. If Crimson's had been any less than exceptionally good of course or had any major weak points, in other words if it had been a mediocre effort in any way, I would've figured odds were good more readers might have gone for the entertainment value of funny shitpost story instead. (As this is a known weakness among many CYStians.) But it was fun getting two enjoyable stories that were so wildly different in tone either way. Anyway, this like the last one have been pretty standout Thunderdome events. We're going to take a break a couple of weeks and resume with what looks to be a pretty interesting line up, stay tuned!

I put a huge spoiler in the OP lol. Surely you recall THE RAT?

The bladed barrel bot put up a good fight, but in its hastily assembled state might have been programmed with the wrong genre for this particular encounter. It soon was toppled over in a shower of sparks. "Bzzt...the darkness comes. bzzt...come closer, human...my vision...bzzzT!...fades..." it wheezed through puffs of smoke, the smell of burnt plastic in the air. "Is there anything I can do for you?" Crimson asked, stepping up with a feeling of something like pity for the construct in its last moments. "P-p-please bzzt. Give me....your hand! And...and...and...I'll give you...my cyber lovestick. Error. Bzzt. Error. Bzzt. Error. Bzz--" Mr. Clean, seized with sudden disgust, drove his sword straight into his robotic opponent, ending its struggles. Which, might have been a bad idea. He was badly electrocuted. But still the winner, dammit! And after a short four hour trip to the on-site emergency room with Darius, was able to take his place in the winner's circle. As for the destroyed bot? Well, Ford had probably already forgotten it existed.