Voting has now ended. Click here to see the winners.General Contest Rules:- All stories submitted between 12:00am March 2, 2022 UTC and 11:59pm April 1, 2022 UTC that fit the topic criteria will be accepted.
- Stories can be submitted to any of the story writing boards (this excludes the Roleplay boards); non-English stories will need an English translation linked to them, which must also be in the relevant story section, in order to be accepted.
- Stories must be started in the month stated, and listed here for submission before month's end.
- General site rules apply to contest entries. If any changes to site rules occur during the contest, violating entries will have until close of entry%u2014or end of any amnesty period, whichever is sooner%u2014to adjust their entry accordingly, or risk disqualification. If changes occur during the voting cycle, votes for violating entries will be ignored.
Okay, so between what is already a busy year for me IRL, and a little depression, I did forget to put the next contest up, so, as compensation, this month's contest has been shifted down a day.
I'm gonna take a bit of a lazy way out here. I'm giving you guys a choice of genre here, specifically the sci-fi genres that conveniently fit in the "X-punk" detailing. You can choose one of the following:
- Steampunk: the retrofuturistic style where nothing expanded past the Age of Steam and the Victorian Era. So trains are the main means of transport, automobiles didn't progress past those run on mini furnaces (yes, they existed), and Babbage was still arguing (possibly successfully, in your story) for his Difference Engine to be built. A subgenre in this, called Weird West, combines this with Wild West tropes; think the Will Smith film "Wild Wild West". It is also allowed for this contest.
- Dieselpunk: Also retrofuturistic, this one sees nothing progress after WWI. So the diesel engine is king.
- Cyberpunk: probably the only other (with steampunk) recognisable genre of this form, it's a futuristic genre where computers and robotics are omnipresent; think "The Matrix" or "Blade Runner". If you've seen the Hooked Up Hentai subreddit, that's one possible direction you can take with it.
- Biopunk: Also called ribofunk, it deals with the emerging DNA manipulation (or "CRISPR", if you so wish) culture. Recombinant DNA is also a part of this, so human-animal hybrids are also a recurring thing. The TV series "Dark Angel" and "Orphan Black" are biopunk works, and my own "Company" series of short stories contained a little of this, albeit in combination with more fantastical elements. Bubbles's aborted RP "3038" dealt primarily with the HAH side of biopunk. [pokes Bubbles in her ribs as an insistent hint]
You have between the times above to craft your entry, so show me what you can do!
