HardeeBurger eyeexeyeeye krazydiamond... Man, do I not envy you guys!

Seriously...

bloodsword torontojim elveloy MadMikeMarsbergen... I'm pretty sure you guys went beyond your respective A-Games, here. Unfortunately though, there's only room in the next round for two of you. Commiserations to those of you who didn't make it. Congratulations to those who did.

And so without further ado, here's what the judges had to say!

torontojim VS bloodsword

2 - 1

'Both stories suffer from very fine editing making it a dead heat as I consider the context of each submission. Bloodsword blends the sci fi and fantasy with a masterful hand, I've read a few vaguely similar stories in books that were published by real publishers. While just a short it does give a nice view of an outstanding talent.

TorontoJim's story was good in and of itself. But when I compare it to my personal experiences in prison (I consulted my sister to confirm this) it suffers greatly.

You see one thing that many people don't understand is that after a while prison becomes home. Often times the ones who suffer the most are the family members of the prisoner. In prison your mind become institutionalized to the environmental conditions whatever they may be. Due to this fact prisoners who spend long periods in solitary confinement can not be considered sane in some countries. If you spend over a year in the S.H.U. in California you qualify for nut pay.

I've witnessed the results personally. People who spend just that much time in isolation lose their humanity. They become feral. Dangerous. Many of them will attack another inmate almost immediately upon release into the general inmate population. The time frame described in the tale could only result in one thing, insanity. It would be a fate far worse than any death. And would result in a bent and twisted psychic that would have to be destroyed in the end anyways.

And the cost of such an operation on the scale that is described would be astronomical.'

'Another toughie. Bloodsword and Jim both had such fantastic world building. Bloodsword had a full action packed story, complete with exciting fight scenes, and over thrown dictators.
Jim's had a slower burn, but I loved the dialogue, the interaction of the character and the sudden sinking turn it takes in the third act as the past catches up with the protagonist and how much suffering is the result of his immortality and what he loses.

Super hard to judge. All of them brought fantastic stories to the table.'

'Shoot Dude. and couldn't be a more difficult and different pairing, despite their obvious shared penchant for using nonsensical compound words to describe themselves. So let's weigh this one on merits. bloodsword had a great story idea. one point. torontojim told a great story. score even. so, while bloodsword gave us a great fanti-sci story, torontojim told more of a pure sci-fi one. torontojim wins. i suggest his reward be a box full of Capital Letters.'

elveloy VS MadMikeMarsbergen

1 - 2

'Eveloy does a fine job weaving her tale and she was a very good choice for an adversary to go against madmike.

A valiant effort. And a very good story in its own right. But mike parked me in the story. The details were vividly colourful and rang true in my opinion. He had me engaged to the last word were as eveloy let my attention wander a bit. Not much. But mad mike used a nail gun and slapped a view of his imagination over my own.

Kudos mad man, victory is yours this fine day.'

'Both Vera and Mike had an excellent voice in their stories but, there were some elements of the Blueprint Man that could have been explored a bit more. I absolutely loved the beginning and the differing reactions of the protagonist's children to his immortality. I wish there was a little bit more to the last act. Elveloy's blew me away with the little humorous barbs about truthful advertising throughout the story, and what happens to those who use the 'product' in the end. The subtle element of the baby that became the bombshell at the end was perfect.'

'Aww... a cute story from @MadMikeMarsbergen . Who'da thunk it of him?

Damn damn damn. Judging is so unfair. Again, I want another author's story written the way @elveloy writes. L.V. really knows how to show a story, and she almost never tells them. She should be a ghost writer.

Ooh! Ghost Rider! Nick Cage! Someone should write an Immortal Story where the end result is Nicholas Cage with a flaming head.

And if someone did, it'd probably be Mad Mike. Point goes to @MadMikeMarsbergen . Just no more making me drink Tequila in order to read ya, eh?'