For two weeks, the fine folks over at Ideology of Madness have been pimping the virtues of The Day After Ragnarok. In fact, they’ve been so turned onto the book that they helped Ken and Atomic Overmind give away both a PDF and print copy of the setting!
Contestants wrote characters for the setting based on the Foreshadowing Ragnarok articles here on Atomic Overmind’s site. The contest deadline was this past Saturday. Since then, Ken’s been reviewing the entries…and the time has come to announce the winners! First of all, our Honorable Mentions, winners of a PDF of The Day After Ragnarok:
- Josef Kaplan, Dauntless Commie Kabbalist Nazi-Hunter by Gustavo Iglesias…
- Walter Callaway, Big Game Hunter Slightly Too Pleased With The State of Things by Nick Liber
- Bret ‘Wyrmtongue’ Smith, Voice of the Roc by Bunj
- Agent Smith, Under Orders From Hoover’s Ghost by Drew
Head on over to Ideology of Madness to read the full versions of the very cool ideas these guys came up with.
And now, by Ken’s judgement, the coolest character idea, and the winner of a PDF and print version of The Day After Ragnarok is….
Kanakuni Joe, The New Big Kahuna by Josh Thomson
Kanakanui Joe performed weddings and held luaus for tourists on Maui, before Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese. He weighed at least 400 pounds when he showed up at the US Navy recruitment office two weeks later, but the Navy took him anyway. The big man had a gift for navigation and an uncanny knack for guessing the locations of enemy ships. So lucky did he seem, that his fellow crew members would often rub his bald head before a battle in the hopes that some of his luck would rub off on them.
Upon completing his service in 1946, he returned to Maui, which now had more refugees than tourists. Still, even refugees need to get married and have a good time once in a while, so he resumed his business. Life returned to as normal as it was likely to get for Joe, until one late-October luau when he called out his traditional greetings and thanks to the god of the sea and the goddess of the volcano, and they answered back. The island rumbled and the sea threw large waves. He called again, louder, and again the ground rumbled more and the sea churned higher. Joe drew the breath into his huge lungs for a third call, and his guests and employees, who until now where standing stock-still and saucer-eyed, turned and ran from the beach screaming. Kanakanui Joe spent his third breath not on worship but on roaring laughter. On a now-empty beach he laughed until he could neither stand nor breathe.
The next morning, he visited the Navy recruitment office that had accepted him nearly five years ago. He knew from what he’d heard on the radio news-news that grew stranger and more unnatural by the day-that the Navy still needed him. And now Kanakanui Joe had something new to offer them.
Thanks to everybody who participated, and congratulations to all the winners! Your PDFs will be on the way soon.