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Exquisite Corpse 2020

Negrek

Play the Rain
Staff
Exquisite Corpse 2020

Exquisite corpse returns for a second year! An exquisite corpse is a writing game where where participants come together to write a story... with each only being able to see the last couple sentences of the previous writer's work! Anything can happen as the story passes from one writer to the next, changing dramatically with each scene.

Once it's your turn to write for a particular corpse you'll receive a message from the organizer with the last two sentences of the previous writer's scene. (Or, if you're the first writer for a story, you'll get a simple go-ahead instead; you start off with a blank slate!) At that point you will have one week to write a scene of 250 words or more to continue the story. Once you're done, send your scene back to the organizer and wait to see how it fits into the final story.

After the last writer in a corpse has sent in their segment, the organizer will compile the scenes and post the complete corpse as a thread so everyone can enjoy the finished product. For a little extra fun, the authors of each scene will be kept hidden under spoilers so readers can try to guess who wrote what segment.

Check out last year's thread for an example of how this all works in practice!

This year we're hosting four corpses:

Anything Goes: The classic exquisite corpse variant! You'll get the last sentence from the person ahead of you as a prompt, and then you're free to write whatever you want, pokémon or non-pokémon.

Ash Betrayal: Betrayed by his closest friends, Ash retreats for a period of intense training. His only goal? To prove to the world how wrong all those meaniefaces were to abandon him, possibly with the aid of the psychic, aura, or magical Arceus powers he develops along the way.

Evil Team: Last year we wrote about a pokémon trainer--this time, let's write about the bad guys! In this corpse, each scene will be from the POV of a member of one of Pokémon's "evil teams," and shenanigans are sure to ensue.

Pokémon Isekai: Every pokégamer's biggest dream... or worst nightmare? (Beedrill is 3 ft tall, etc.) This corpse will follow an ordinary real-world person who somehow ends up in the pokémon world, and all the no-doubt-bizarre adventures they encounter there.

Sound like fun? To sign up, just post in this thread stating:

a) which corpse(s) you'd like to participate in; you can write for as many as you want
b) if there are any weeks where you're going to be busy and would prefer not to write
c) whether you'd like to be the first writer for any of the corpse(s) you're signing up for

The writing phase for the exquisite corpses will be kicking off next Monday, July 13th, but you can sign up at any time as long as a corpse is still running!

Finally, a big thanks to Chibi Pika, kintsugi, and windskull, who'll be running this year's corpses! Depending on how much interest we get, we may want to open additional iterations for some of the themes, so there may still be opportunity to run a corpse if you're interested; I'll put out a call if it turns out we need more people.

Feel free to post any questions you might have in this thread. Happy writing!
 

Adamhuarts

Mew specialist
Partners
  1. mew-adam
  2. celebi-shiny
  3. roserade-adam
A) I'd like to participate in the Ash Betrayal, Evil Team and Pokémon Isekai

B) I don't really have anything major on my schedule, so I can't say for sure if I won't be able to participate any time soon.

C) Nah, I'd rather not be the first writer for any of these
 

DeliriousAbsol

*Crazy Absol Noises*
Location
Behind a laptop, most likely with tea
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. mawile
a) I'd like to do Anything Goes, Evil Team and Pokemon Isekai
b) I'm generally free, but if it runs into August I might be less flexible
c) I'm cool to kick off any of them
 

WildBoots

Don’t underestimate seeds.
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. moka-mark
  2. solrock
Sign me up for all of them, honestly! I won’t be around much the week of August 1st—that’s when I’m finally moving!!—but otherwise my schedule is pretty flexible. I don’t want to kick off isekai.

❤️
 

Keleri

I Like Cats
Staff
Pronouns
They/Them
a) Ash Betrayal, Evil Team and Pokémon Isekai
b) I will be traveling around the weekend of August 1st
c) I can start any of them

Yay!!!!
 

Equitial

Ace Trainer
Pronouns
he/him
Partners
  1. espurr
  2. inkay
  3. woobat
  4. ralts
a) I'd like to sign up for the Anything Goes, Evil Team, and Isekai.
b) I should be free to write at any time.
c) I'm good with starting up the Isekai but would rather not the Anything Goes or Evil Team ones.
 

NebulaDreams

Ace Trainer
Partners
  1. luxray
  2. hypno
a) Anything Goes and Pokemon Isekai.
b) I should be able to do it any time too,
c) I’d be more comfortable starting in the middle of it rather than being the first to start.
 

The Walrein

Vicinal Dragging for the Truth
Partners
  1. gulpin
  2. kricketot
  3. bulbasaur

Umbramatic

The Ghost Lord
Location
The Yangverse
Pronouns
Any
Partners
  1. reshiram
1. Put me down for Ash Betrayal
2. I will be crazy busy all July because Artfight but should be able to put in SOME time
3. i'm up for starting
 

SparklingEspeon

Back on Her Bullshit
Staff
Location
a Terrace of Indeterminate Location in Snowbelle
Pronouns
She/Her
Partners
  1. espurr
  2. fennekin
  3. zoroark
I'd like to be put down for all of these, please!
My schedule's fairly liquid. If I can't write for whatever freak reason, I'll notify the corpse runner within 24 hours of being sent the lines.
I'm fine with starting, although I'm not really particular about where I get shuffled.
I'm also open to running one if there's a vacancy; I've seen a fair few of these and know the process well by now.
 

Starlight Aurate

Ad Jesum per Mariam | pfp by kintsugi
Location
Route 123
Partners
  1. mightyena
  2. psyduck
1. I'd be happy to do Evil POV, Pokemon Isekai and anything goes!
2. I'll be free for at least the rest of July. I don't know what my life will look like come August.
3. I have no preference as to whether I'm the first writer or not. I haven't done these before, just FYI.

Thanks for putting this together!
 

Dragonfree

Moderator
Staff
Location
Iceland
Pronouns
she/her/hers
Partners
  1. butterfree
  2. mightyena
  3. charizard
  4. scyther-mia
  5. vulpix
  6. slugma
1) Ash betrayal, evil team and isekai
2-3) I'd prefer not to write until August because I'm doing Art Fight through July, which means I necessarily can't be the first writer either.
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Staff
Location
somewhere in spacetime
Pronouns
they/them
Partners
  1. pikachu-chibi
  2. lugia
  3. palkia
  4. lucario-shiny
  5. incineroar-starr
1) Evil Team, Isekai, Anything Goes
2) I won't be available much from Aug 15-21
3) Would prefer not to go early, also because Art Fight
 

Pen

the cat is mightier than the pen
Staff
Partners
  1. dratini
  2. dratini-pen
  3. dratini-pen2
Never done this before, but it looks fun!

1) Ash Betrayal, Evil Team, and Anything Goes
1) Not sure how long this goes for, but after August 15th my schedule will be trickier, so it would be great to have my parts done before then.
3) I'd prefer not to be the first writer, but would be happy to go on the earlier side.
 

Negrek

Play the Rain
Staff
I'll take on Ash Betrayal and Pokémon Isekai! Why no, I didn't base my choices on which ones wouldn't cause a new corpse to spawn, what do you mean.

Many thanks to SparklingEspeon for offering to run one of the Pokémon Isekai corpses! Since we had a lot of interest this year, a couple of the topics ended up getting split into multiple corpses. Here are the final assignments:

Negrek's Anything Goes Corpse
DeliriousAbsol
OldSchoolJohto
NebulaDreams
windskull
SparklingEspeon
Starlight Aurate
Chibi Pika
Pen
Tanuki
Equitia

windskull's Evil Team Corpse
Adamhuarts
DeliriousAbsol
OldSchoolJohto
Keleri
Equitia
SparklingEspeon
Starlight Aurate
Dragonfree
Chibi Pika
Pen

Chibi Pika's Ash Betrayal Corpse
windskull
The Walrein
Umbramatic
Dragonfree
Namohysip
Negrek

Negrek's Ash Betrayal Corpse
Adamhuarts
OldSchoolJohto
Keleri
Equitia
SparklingEspeon
Pen

kintsugi's Isekai Corpse
Adamhuarts
DeliriousAbsol
OldSchoolJohto
Equitia
windskull
SparklingEspeon
Dragonfree

SparklingEspeon's Isekai Corpse
Keleri
NebulaDreams
The Walrein
Starlight Aurate
Chibi Pika
Negrek

Participant lists have been randomized and sent to the corpse organizers. Keep an eye on your messages--if you were picked to start a corpse, you should be getting a message in the next day or so. Otherwise, sit back and relax; your turn will come!

Remember that you can join in on a corpse at any time while it's in progress, so don't worry if you missed initial sign-ups! You'll be added on near the end.

Have fun, everyone! I look forward to seeing what monstrosities we create this year.
 
Last edited:

Equitial

Ace Trainer
Pronouns
he/him
Partners
  1. espurr
  2. inkay
  3. woobat
  4. ralts
Negrek's Anything Goes Corpse
DeliriousAbsol
OldSchoolJohto
NebulaDreams
windskull
SparklingEspeon
Starlight Aurate
Chibi Pika
Pen
Tanuki


Negrek's Ash Betrayal Corpse
Adamhuarts
OldSchoolJohto
Keleri
Equitia
SparklingEspeon
Pen

I was switched around with these. I originally signed up for Anything Goes, but not Ash Betrayal...

...but you know what? Sure. I'll do the Ash Betrayal one too. Just make sure I'm added back to Anything Goes please xD
 

Negrek

Play the Rain
Staff
Really sorry about that! Thanks for letting me know and for being a good sport about it. I added you back to the Anything Goes corpse, too.

Did a double-check and it doesn't look like anyone else's assignments were wrong, but if you notice a problem, please let me know! It's not a big deal to get you scheduled for the things you actually want to write for.
 
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