SA Prompt | SA Results | BB Code
Date: 10-17-2016
Word Limit: 1300
Words Written: 49,640
Judges (crits):
Sitting Here
Ironic Twist
Jitzu_the_Monk
Audio Recap: Week 220
Hello Friends :) :) :) It's time for work.
This week, we are returning to Voidmart! Voidmart is America's most beloved super-duper store, no matter what the class action lawsuits would have you believe. Voidmart is a place where dreams come true, or, barring that, we will happily take your dream and exchange it for a new dream of equal or lesser value.
A little over a year ago, I challenged goons to write stories set in a shared world, the world of Voidmart. It was my most favorite week to judge ever. This week will work much the same, with a couple differences.
What is Voidmart?
Voidmart is an improbably large superstore that sells goods ranging from diapers to guns to exotic lifeforms. The average customer will, in their lifetime, only explore a fraction of Voidmart's extensive sales floor. It's known for having the most loyal and happy employees, or else :) :) :)
A bit about the setting
This is pretty much the same as last year:
Exciting new features!
This time around, you, lucky writer, get to choose one(1) of the following perspectives when you sign up:
EMPLOYEE: AKA the original Voidmart flavor. If you choose to write about Voidmart's cherished employees, you will be assigned to a department within the store. Voidmart is an improbably huge and well-stocked store, so some examples might be: women's undergarments, the deli, the fitting rooms, pet-sitting, religious artifacts, automobile repair, and so on. Your protagonist must work in the department I assign you, though you're free to include supporting characters from other departments.
CUSTOMER: Ah, the noble customer. Without these majestic and occasionally ornery beasts, Voidmart wouldn't be the gleaming bastion of capitalism that it is. If you choose to write about Voidmart's wonderful customers, you will be assigned a service or product. Why does your customer need it? What happens if they get it? How deep into Voidmart's labyrinthine aisles do they need to go to find it, and what would they give up to obtain it? The product I assign you must be important to your plot.
INVESTIGATOR: Boo. Hiss. These nosy cretins are pretty sure there's something amiss behind the scenes at Voidmart, but they're not quite sure what. If you choose to write about one of these interlopers, you will be assigned a suspicious in-store event to investigate. This could mean a missing person or a space-time anomaly. Investigators need not all come from the same agency; your character could be with the police, the CIA, a rival superstore, etc.
Other stuff
I will not count you as 'in' unless you choose one of the above perspectives.
Collaboration is highly encouraged! But not required.
At least part of your story must take place in/around Voidmart, but otherwise it's totally open-ended, assuming you somehow incorporate the department/product/event I assign you.
You can write about things/characters from last year, but please be aware that I'm not going to go back and reread week 152, so I'll probably miss any clever references. Also, I would like to make this week friendly to people who weren't around for the first iteration, so don't feel like you need to reference anything from the last prompt.
Genre is completely open. Voidmart is a huge store full of weird shit, so there's room for everything from slice of life to space opera.
Thunderdome best practices apply. No fanfic, no erotica, etc etc etc
Sitting Here
Ironic Twist
Jitzu_the_Monk
Audio Recap: Week 220
Week Archivist:
Kaishai
Kaishai
Hello Friends :) :) :) It's time for work.
This week, we are returning to Voidmart! Voidmart is America's most beloved super-duper store, no matter what the class action lawsuits would have you believe. Voidmart is a place where dreams come true, or, barring that, we will happily take your dream and exchange it for a new dream of equal or lesser value.
A little over a year ago, I challenged goons to write stories set in a shared world, the world of Voidmart. It was my most favorite week to judge ever. This week will work much the same, with a couple differences.
What is Voidmart?
Voidmart is an improbably large superstore that sells goods ranging from diapers to guns to exotic lifeforms. The average customer will, in their lifetime, only explore a fraction of Voidmart's extensive sales floor. It's known for having the most loyal and happy employees, or else :) :) :)
A bit about the setting
This is pretty much the same as last year:
quote:
Voidmart is huge. It puts all other megastores to shame in both size and range of products offered.
For a big-box store, it's not actually very boxy. In fact, its roof is oddly dome-shaped. Fluorescent lights hang from beams that criss-cross above the many, many aisles.
There are cameras everywhere, and security is top-notch. Still, there are spots where even the all-seeing eye of loss prevention cannot look.
Management lurks in a foreboding office at the top of a dark flight of stairs. I'm not too fussed about where in particular those stairs are located in the store.
Voidmart's in-house coffee brand is called Golden Bean. A Golden Bean cafe is located near the front of the store, so customers can energize themselves and shop longer.
CUSTOMERS SUCK!!!!!
Exciting new features!
This time around, you, lucky writer, get to choose one(1) of the following perspectives when you sign up:
EMPLOYEE: AKA the original Voidmart flavor. If you choose to write about Voidmart's cherished employees, you will be assigned to a department within the store. Voidmart is an improbably huge and well-stocked store, so some examples might be: women's undergarments, the deli, the fitting rooms, pet-sitting, religious artifacts, automobile repair, and so on. Your protagonist must work in the department I assign you, though you're free to include supporting characters from other departments.
CUSTOMER: Ah, the noble customer. Without these majestic and occasionally ornery beasts, Voidmart wouldn't be the gleaming bastion of capitalism that it is. If you choose to write about Voidmart's wonderful customers, you will be assigned a service or product. Why does your customer need it? What happens if they get it? How deep into Voidmart's labyrinthine aisles do they need to go to find it, and what would they give up to obtain it? The product I assign you must be important to your plot.
INVESTIGATOR: Boo. Hiss. These nosy cretins are pretty sure there's something amiss behind the scenes at Voidmart, but they're not quite sure what. If you choose to write about one of these interlopers, you will be assigned a suspicious in-store event to investigate. This could mean a missing person or a space-time anomaly. Investigators need not all come from the same agency; your character could be with the police, the CIA, a rival superstore, etc.
Other stuff
I will not count you as 'in' unless you choose one of the above perspectives.
Collaboration is highly encouraged! But not required.
At least part of your story must take place in/around Voidmart, but otherwise it's totally open-ended, assuming you somehow incorporate the department/product/event I assign you.
You can write about things/characters from last year, but please be aware that I'm not going to go back and reread week 152, so I'll probably miss any clever references. Also, I would like to make this week friendly to people who weren't around for the first iteration, so don't feel like you need to reference anything from the last prompt.
Genre is completely open. Voidmart is a huge store full of weird shit, so there's room for everything from slice of life to space opera.
Thunderdome best practices apply. No fanfic, no erotica, etc etc etc
34 Total Submissions, 13 Total Failures:
4.
15.
17.
18.
23.
27.
