|-WARNING-|

The citizen with the most votes from the last task was The Priest! Congrats! They will get an extra five points added to their score for this task. Meanwhile, Ina Kim and Maleko Young have both dropped out. 

If anyone failed to complete any of the POP requirements I will generally let them know in their notes for the next task. I know Wattpad is glitchy and there are things all over the place so I'm not going to be too harsh if one thing is missing or whatever, and I'll contact you if I'm missing anything I need. You guys all did great Task One and I want to thank you for all the hard work!

|------------|

Sweat beads together on the headrest of the leather chair before it falls. The rivulet runs up the tailing stroke of the sweat-eaten Corsair logo like it is a ramp, then lands splat on Sid's shoulder and runs down his bare back with a chill.

He thought the menagerie of makeup and clippers and applicants was horrific enough before Ford lurches into the spotlight with something downright Lovecraftian.

Sid looks pleadingly to Crystal, whose razor blade now looks almost comforting. "What is that supposed to be?" It is not her who answers.

"Ah ha! 'What is that supposed to be?' Just the latest in the line of human augmentations, not to mention the hottest fall fashion. Designed, manufactured, and copyrighted by Yours Truly." Ford fully commits to this introduction and hams it up, twisting and turning into contorted poses, tilting his head to punctuate his speech, and seductively wagging his vacuum cleaner tube arm all over the place. "It comes equipped with a convenient cutout for ease of insertion," he withdraws his hand, offers a quick wave and then shoves it back through the amoeba-shaped hole until he is once again elbow-deep in the tube. "Then there are holes on either side at the ends here, which I stabbed out with scissors all by myself. A single chopstick bridges those, with clothespins on the outside to hold it in place. Inside, a pair of tweezers is lashed, yes lashed, to the chopstick with dental floss." Ford raises the end of his invention up to Sid's face as if he were going to shoot him with it, and clicks the aforementioned tweezers together twice in a frightening display of the mecha's power. "It is all powered by an old handheld car vacuum that runs off of 12 AA batteries. Have you ever seen a vacuum that runs off of batteries before, Sid?"

Sid shakes his head.

"There is a..." Ford adjusts his position to dramatically pose one last time, "...very good reason for that!" And he lets some power into the machine with his thumb, sucking not-very-violently in Sid's direction. It's got a lot of heart.

Crystal sets down her blade and lays a hand over Sid's own. "He's made his own pincer, of sorts." A pincer is a beauty appliance with burgeoning popularity which is used to safely remove crystalline growths from a person's self. It creates an air-tight seal within which the dope can be removed from the flesh while the dangerous outputs of the surgery are safely contained. All pincers, or at least all of them that the house could find, run on ichor. As an ichor-free unit, they had to be inventive. And Ford is proud of what he came up with.

"He forced me to be a guinea pig for it. It won't kill you," Crystal says. Then there is a pause. "And don't say you'd rather it did, because just by saying this right now I'm proving that that's not such a clever thing to say."

Sid chews his words.

Crystal claps loudly once. "Alright. Shall we?"

The patient and the surgeon meet each other in the eyes. It looks like they are both trying to figure out which of them is more nervous. The issue is still unresolved when Ford leans in and begins picking at the sparkling rubies which stud Sid's jawline. At first he is apprehensive, like a toddler over greens, but familiarity quickly cools this sensation and the tweezers take firm hold of a crystal. Ford gives it a greedy yank. Sid bites his lip, but blood is flowing from his chin instead. Blood, mixed with a flaky, almost feathered, version of the rust which rains down outside is spat out by the wound and somewhat sucked up by Ford's machine. The pus and the poison dance frantically around the chamber of the playshop vac. 

|-TASK TWO-|

Somewhere, a light bulb goes off. Your task requirement is to invent something. There should be an object meaningful to your entry that does not exist. It could be a futuristic device, a magical orb, or some jerry-rigged mess. As long as it's something that can't be found in this vast world we call our own, it works. Consider it a present.

As for the writing focus this round, is it the return of an old friend, or a reunion with an enemy you thought had been left defeated? It's the dialogue task. It's fun. We've had a lot of these now, but I couldn't pass up going back to it one last time. I gotta say that y'all really impressed me in this department last task so I'll be brief: keep it up! There will be extra focus in grading this round on the timing, realism, and punctuation of dialogue. As well as anything that's a part of a great conversation.

|-WORD LIMIT-|

4000 words.

|-STAKES-|

The 3 lowest scores for this task will be up for votes. Of those, 2 will be eliminated.

|-DEADLINE-|

Sunday June 30th 11:00 PM EST

Remember to email your submission to me at [email protected] before the deadline. EVERYONE must submit like this. If you would like additional feedback, you can ALSO share a Google Doc with the same email before the deadline. Good luck!

|-THE_HACKER-|

The Hacker: Aleki Young

The Victim: Fiddle

The Crime: A silver Kia Soul crashes into a McDonalds and knocks the children clear across the crash site.

SilverBowAndArrow: 0

Delilah: 2

Marigold Estes: 1

Jordan Baxter: 2

Fiddle: 1

Wish Bone Lean: 1

Aleki Young: 2