slaughterhouse 10

[Umbrageofsnow]

[-1] Her Collection of Intimacy
[+1] Set Down This

I can't let that whole campaign be over, I do like this story.  Not so much for Intimacy.

I also want to defend Papa, but I'll take the one that is behind for now.

I also found Dark Level to be an effective story, but it falls apart too much on second listening, what with the footsteps and the nonsensical and over-the-top foreshadowing and the 80's horror flick scream.  So that is another one I'm not going to save, but I can't stand to be the one to kill.

Not to be a jerk Fenrix, but where do we draw the line between listener comprehension and good/bad writing?  I just re-listened to that scene, and I don't really see how you could have come up with the MC being stabbed.  I believe you, I just find it a really strange misinterpretation to have had.  Once again, not trying to be an ass about this, but did you listen to the story while driving?

[deflective]

the hand you're dealt loses a point to the nimble men.

my attempt to keep the original top four stories alive for our top ten has failed.  there are probably two main reasons for this.  first, 90% of our voting has come from half a dozen people so our tastes are strongly represented.  second (and more interestingly), polls and nominations do not allow people to vote against stories so controversial stories have a much rougher time in slaughterhouse.

i can't keep spirit of nationalism alive for the top ten but i can let it be (tied for) first runner up.  i was hoping that all three war stories would survive since they represent their time periods well (traditional ghost story for napoleonic times, oldschool scifi during wwii, and free form, almost plotless, representation of modern warfare).  it would have been interesting to choose between them.

gentlemen, our top ten:

[10] Acceptable Losses (191)
[10] Oil of Dog (200)
+1[10] The Nimble Men (210)
[ 8] The Dreaming Way (182)
-1[ 7] Papa Was a Gypsy (207)
+1[ 7] Set Down This (197)
+1[ 5] Bird in a Wrought Iron Cage (175)
-1[ 4] Her Collection of Intimacy (204)
[ 4] Is This a Horror Story? (206)
-1[ 3] The Dark Level (188)

-1[ 0] Spirit of Nationalism (181)
-1[ 0] The Hand You're Dealt (196)

[eytanz]

I really should have just killed the spirit of nationalism in order to give The Hand You're Dealt the edge. Oh well.

[+1] Her collection of intimacy
[-1] Bird in a wraught iron cage

[Umbrageofsnow]

[-1] The Dreaming Way
[+1] Papa Was a Gypsy

Still liking the Southern Gothic over the modern Native American mythology.

[stePH]

grr...

I hate you all, an' sheeit!

[Fenrix]

[-1] Set Down This (for stePH)
[+1] The Dreaming Way

With regards to Papa Was a Gypsy, I take no umbrage to your criticism. I'll stand by my comment of the action scenes needing more oomph. If I listened to it more than once and I drifted off both times, the action scenes aren't capturing me.

I think it's worthy of inclusion in this final/top ten list. I thought enough of it to listen to it more than once. However, I don't think it is strong enough to be in the top five.

Jim Biyeh's work is great, and I think The Dreaming Way is the best of the three published in PseudoPod. I recall the comments for his stories trending strongly positive. But the active poll players/responders don't reflect that lveel of appreciation. This is a hill worth defending.

[Umbrageofsnow]

Fair enough.

We all seem to have our favorites.  Honestly, at this point it looks like my preferences are doing fairly well, with the exception of my poor, deceased Blessed Days.  It is too bad more people aren't playing, I suspect the winner of this will be all of our consensus third place or so.

[Fenrix]

Or the consensus will line up with the poll (at least where it stands now) and give us Oil of Dog, Acceptable Losses, and The Nimble Men as the top three.

[deflective]

in order to line up the bottom four stories, the dark level gains a point and her collection of intimacy loses one.  we may yet finish at the same time as the poll.

[10] Acceptable Losses (191)
[10] Oil of Dog (200)
[10] The Nimble Men (210)
[ 8] The Dreaming Way (182)
+1[ 8] Papa Was a Gypsy (207)
-1[ 6] Set Down This (197)
-2[ 3] Bird in a Wrought Iron Cage (175)
-2[ 3] Her Collection of Intimacy (204)
-1[ 3] Is This a Horror Story? (206)
[ 3] The Dark Level (188)

[eytanz]

Her collection of intimacy +1
Bird in a wraught iron cage -1

(Sorry, edited my post because I realised I just reversed Deflective's move and I am trying to never play the opposite of another player's move)

[Fenrix]

[-1] Set Down This
[+1] The Nimble Men

[kibitzer]

[-1] Acceptable Losses
[+1] The Dreaming Way

[Umbrageofsnow]

[-1] The Dreaming Way
[+1] Set Down This

[Ocicat]

Take a point away from Papa Was a Gypsy and give it to Nimble Men

[Fenrix]

[-1] Set Down This
[+1] Bird in a Wrought Iron Cage

I don't think Bird should go down alone on the bottom - lonely in the fire. It it goes down, it should clutch to unlife and drag others down with it.

[eytanz]

I haven't posted today, so I think I'll repeat yesterday's move:

Her collection of intimacy +1
Bird in a wraught iron cage -1

[Umbrageofsnow]

[-1] The Dreaming Way
[+1] Papa Was a Gypsy

[+5] Papa Was a Cambot

[deflective]

the dreaming way loses a point to bird in a wrought iron cage because... well, because what Fenrix said.

+2[12] The Nimble Men (210)
[10] Oil of Dog (200)
-1[ 9] Acceptable Losses (191)
[ 8] Papa Was a Gypsy (207)
-2[ 6] The Dreaming Way (182)
-1[ 5] Set Down This (197)
+2[ 5] Her Collection of Intimacy (204)
-1[ 2] Bird in a Wrought Iron Cage (175)
-1[ 2] Is This a Horror Story? (206)
-1[ 2] The Dark Level (188)

[deflective]

the dreaming way loses a point to acceptable losses

[12] The Nimble Men (210)
[10] Oil of Dog (200)
+1[10] Acceptable Losses (191)
[ 8] Papa Was a Gypsy (207)
-1[ 5] The Dreaming Way (182)
[ 5] Set Down This (197)
[ 5] Her Collection of Intimacy (204)
-1[ 1] Bird in a Wrought Iron Cage (175)
-1[ 1] Is This a Horror Story? (206)
-1[ 1] The Dark Level (188)

[eytanz]

The dreaming way +1
The nimble men -1

[Ocicat]

One up for Acceptable Losses
One down for Is This a Horror Story

[Fenrix]

[-1] Set Down This
[+1] The Dreaming Way

[Umbrageofsnow]

[-1] The Dreaming Way
[+1] Papa Was a Gypsy

It looks like the Set Down This haters have won, despite stePH's ragequit.  Haters gonna hate.

[Fenrix]

I'm not going to just reverse your latest play, so I'll take it from Set Down This instead.

[-1] Set Down This
[+1] The Dreaming Way

[deflective]

+1 to oil of dog and -1 to her collection of intimacy

i think that set down this is around the right level.  my personal list would have it above a couple of higher stories and below a couple stories that were already eliminated.  nobody gets their ideal list.

is this a horror story? was eliminated before the other two stories this round thanks to Ocicat.

+1[11] Acceptable Losses (191)
-1[11] The Nimble Men (210)
[10] Oil of Dog (200)
+1[ 9] Papa Was a Gypsy (207)
+2[ 7] The Dreaming Way (182)
-1[ 4] Her Collection of Intimacy (204)
-2[ 3] Set Down This (197)

-1[ 0] Bird in a Wrought Iron Cage (175)
-1[ 0] The Dark Level (188)
-1[ 0] Is This a Horror Story? (206)