"The Dark Side of the Hog" Awards: The best one-shot!

The time has finally come to crown the undisputed winner of this contest… You've voted, you've waited and now, you shall know…

Before proceeding with the recap of the 5 finalists and their poll results, I'd like to once again thank each and every one of you for participating in this collab. We've seen a very impressive showcase of raw talents make their voice (or rather, their writing) known; in my view, all of your stories were good… Unfortunately, as the poll stated, only a few were fantastic… And there they are, the finalists:

"Which Came First" (Mephiles the Dark's story) by Rae Logan.

As we know, Rae Logan is a fanfiction veteran… Not just on this site but in many others, including her own. It was just a formality then, that her Mephiles's based story had to make it to the finals: the tragic and angsty portrait of a being cursed to eternal madness since his own birth, that shouldn't have happened in the first place and that caused several disfiguring time paradoxes we all know about. There is no other fan author that can depict a complicated character like Mephiles, better than his number one fan author… I think we can all agree on that.

"You're Too Slow!" (Metal Sonic's story) by The Conflicted Writer.

Aaaah, Metal Sonic… Everybody has his own idea about the good old hedge-robot. We usually like to see him as evil as the wind blows… Or as heroic as a superhero… Then, there are people, like my good friend and self-proclaimed apprentice, The Conflicted Writer, that has a very deep vision of his utter tragedy… The tragedy of Existence… The tragedy of not having a real life aside from the objective he's been created for… And the tragedy of not being able to fulfill such goal… of being a failure who does not deserve to live. Such sufferance is more human than anyone could ever imagine and this story is the perfect metaphor for this concept. Madhog thy Master has spoken.

"Lepidopterology" (Blaze the Cat's story) by Respice Finem.

From an almost incomprehensible title, comes a story who's origins can be found in the fiery depths of Hell itself… Quite literally. The moral I see in it? If Life's a bitch… Afterlife is the bitch's pimp, and he wants your money!

"Anti-Hero" (Scourge the Hedgehog's story) by The Shattered Evoker.

This young lad is still a rookie in the fanfiction universe… But as his story demonstrated, he's got some talent that definitely deserves to be encouraged. This is a simple, epic tale of a dimensional reject that turns into a hero… A story of redemption and bravery, in the green hedgehog's style. The title of this fic couldn't possibly be more appropriate; in fact it was an idea of mine… The title, not the story.

"Naiveté" (Cream the Rabbit's story) by Petite-Dreamer.

This one-shot is my personal favorite of the entire collab. It has a deep and appreciable style and gives Cream a more profound view… In essence, this tale speaks about the greatest among tragedies… Growing up. The undeniable trauma of leaving the innocence and carefree-ness of childhood, its dreams and illusions, for the cold and mean reality of adulthood and the impossibility of returning into such fairy tale. I know that I'm not being too fair, but if it depended on me I would have proclaimed this story the absolute winner... But it did not depend on me so… let's see which one won!

Rae Logan may be the most experienced writer in this collab. (aside from The Conflicted Writer) and one of most renown in here… But to her dismay, she only received the 10% of the votes, placing her story in the 5th place;

Respice Finem's infernal tale got itself a decent 4th place with a 15%;

The Conflicted Writer earned the 3rd place with 20% of the total votes;

We're getting now, to the top 2: "Anti-Hero" and "Naivetè" by The Shattered Evoker and Petite-Dreamer respectably… Amazingly enough, these two young fan authors managed to beat people more "famous" than them; that alone is a great accomplishment, but now it's time to declare a winner! Sooooo… What would that be? The story of a reject's redemption or the tragedy of a little girl who found herself little no more? The anti-hero or the naïve kid?

And the winner is…

….

……

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………………… With 30 % of the votes, surpassing the 2nd classified with just a small 5 %, "The Dark Side of the Hog" Awards are proud to proclaim the best one-shot of this collab………. "Anti-Hero" by The Shattered Evoker!

Congratulations! You've made it, laddie! You've beaten 20 other bloodthirsty participants and your story is the best in the entire collab! Now, it's time to claim your prize… A radio phonic dramatization of your own story by my friend, The Conflicted Writer, who conveniently didn't win.

Well, that's it for this collab, folks… It's been an awfully amazing ride and stuff. I'm now working on a new collab. about fancy Sonic couples! If you want to participate, you know were to find me…

See you there… Yeah, you know where.

Madhog thy Master 3:16.