So the first round ends in about... 7 hours. I have 9 pages done, in which not a single person has yet stepped foot into the first round chamber. I have lots of ideas, and it seems no time to use them. I squandered it staring away from blank pages.

I came in here a little crippled, I'll admit. My loss in Desire really bruised my writing spirit, and I found writing more of a chore than a joy for a good portion of this tournament. My audition was slapdashed, and my first round procrastinated vilely. I have no excuse. To those that care, I apologize for my lack of foresight. Or rather, my self-inflicted blindness. I knew I was short on time, and I avoided my computer like it had swine flu. Now I have to rushrushrushrush to get everything done, and I'm honestly not sure its possible. I'll still try, damnit, but I doubt my hasty work will be able to measure up to Jared-Sol's well paced story. If I lose, it won't be a surprise.

I also apologize for the confusion surrounding my Omake and revamped reference sheet for Ray. It was my intention to release them in a way that allowed the audience to think on what had happened, to wonder, and to form theories on what was happening. I realized, unfortunately, that I can either let people know what's going on, or keep suspense rolling - not both. I sacrificed suspense for a nugget of clarity, so that readers would know what to expect from Ray (somewhat) in the first round, and published an unexplained SE alongside it. It didn't work out as planned, as things so often don't.

That being said, I'm going to go and try to salvage my chances of successfully entering the first round. At a hazardous guess, I'd say that my entry will be something like... 18 pages? Maybe less, as the action starts in earnest. So I have some work to do.

EDIT: I'm sorry, everyone. A combination of pressure, time constraints, and a simple lack of inspiration has killed my incentive to write this story. I know what I wanted this to turn into, but every word I write seems to be taking me further from that state. I hate to back out of this tournament, and leave my opponent hanging, but I really don't feel that I can write anywhere near to my own standards right now. I've cut entries close before, but this time it appears that I cut it a little too close. The story just won't come to me, and I can only blame myself. It really sucks, because I had some serious fun planned for the boxes and conveyer belts of Round 1, but if I ever do finish this entry, it will be much too late. Again, I apologize. This is my second tournament, and the first I've ever dropped out of (and so early it's sort of humiliating).

Part of me thinks that it was bad planning on my part. I didn't anticipate the difficulties in having a character that played by different rules, or the complexities involved with multiple main characters. But another part of me thinks that my main problem was entering an OCT so soon after Desire. I'm not sure how much I showed it, but my loss there was a real blow to my self esteem. Throwing myself at the Exchange was intended to be a remedy to that, but as I wrote my first round I found myself scraping against wounds not quite healed. The more I think about it, the more I realize entering wasn't my best idea. I sincerely hope that there are more and more writer's OCTs, and I plan on joining as many as will let me enter... but perhaps not quite so soon. Apparently competing on the rebound doesn't end well.

I'm sorry, Jared. I know that a victory by default can feel hollow. But I hope you understand when I say that if I could write my entry, I would. Good luck in round 2.

Besides all of this Exchange business, I've decided to share a list of prompts concocted by yours truly in a sort of homage to ~Leucrotta's list of 100 themes that I am most certainly stealing. I made these to inspire a friend of mine into a whole bunch of stories, and wound up liking six of them so much I wanted to make a series of short stories out of them. As those six are deeply personal to me, I've decided to keep them under wraps for now, but as for the rest... well, I hope they tickle something fun and creative inside you.

Cookies out of the oven
Alarms going off
Peace
Courage
Failure
Mistakes
How far does it go?
Places to curl up with a book
Names
Hands
Art
Fear
Tracing
Practical jokes
Biology
Comforting
Victory
Breakfast
Dinner
Lunchtime/Reality
Yes
No
Power
Teaching
Feral
Minty freshness
Trust
Falling
Looking into your eyes from across the room
Falling because I was looking into your eyes from across the room and I tripped
Laughter
Long distance relationships
Simplicity
Wisdom
Fancy
Whiteness
Blackness
Ugly wallpaper
Death in the family
Sympathy for the devil
Catch!
My fingers on your lips
Jewelry
Freedom
Flip
Defiance
Foolishness
Endless waltz
One thousand years of pain
One day of paradise
Reset
"By your leave"
"Buy your leaves?"
"Bye." You leave
Mine, forever
SFX *drip...drip...*
Coward!
Magic
Please...
I'm sorry
Late again
Flight

I will feature three (3) deviations from the gallery of the first ten (10) people to ask for them. There are currently seven (7) slots left.

Those featured will, unfortunately, be rather imposed upon to turn around and copy this into their own journal, whereupon they will feature ten (10) deviants of their own.

Because I am a feature-whore, I don't suppose the people that I feature would mind featuring me?

Slots:

1. ~Triforce-Kun
Tile-There She Is: [link]
This is a picture of a ceramics project that T-Kun made. For anyone that has seen the series There She Is!!!, it's absolutely priceless. For anyone who hasn't GO WATCH NAO. Anyway, looking at this made me instantly go "Awww," exactly as it was supposed to. It's a brilliant tribute piece.
Seven Flavor Sundae: [link]
Hahaha, this is one of the many, many pictures drawn of T-Kun abusing the hell out of my avatar. It was hard to pick a favorite, but I knew I had to put in a picture showing some of T-Kun's comedic potential, and this was the one that made me laugh the hardest when I first saw it. Consider it a taste (pun, haha) of T-Kun's considerable comedic talent when it comes to abusing me in various ways.
OMG Z-Color: [link]
T-Kun's crowning achievement thus far where her Gaia Online friends are concerned, this is a drawing that took an absolutely herculean effort on T-Kun's part. In my opinion, it came out fantastically, and really captures the mood and personality of the members of her closest online friends. That's me on the right, by the way, with the scarf. ^.^
2. *Celestial-Gold
COMING SOON.
3. =MidnightSilhouette
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10.

(Don't ask about the parentheticals.)