Aphelion

Got my votes in!

My votes are on the way.

Congrats, Wesson! Great job!

Here's my take on these--the good news and the bad—in detail:

JUST IN TIME

1) Overall: 2
2) Characterization: 7
3) Plot: 0
4) Setting: 10
5) Dialog: 8
6) Challenge: 5

total 32

NOTES:
I couldn't make any sense of this story at all, thus the zero for plot. I couldn't find a recording or lyrics for the song attributed, so I couldn't judge its answer to the challenge, and I made a probabilistic guess for that.


World Peace Is None Of Your Business

1) Overall: 8
2) Characterization: 0
3) Plot: 7
4) Setting: 0
5) Dialog: 0
6) Challenge: 10

total 25

NOTES:
I think this is the lowest score I've ever given, and I'm sorry, but it's an advertisement--there's no dialog, setting, or characterization.


I Gotta Feeling

1) Overall: 4
2) Characterization: 5
3) Plot: 8
4) Setting: 7
5) Dialog: 4
6) Challenge: 10

total 38

NOTES:
This was fun up until the end--a blistering commentary on public mismanagement. That last big paragraph was a a very transparent info-dump, though. I rather think that there was more in it than the reader needed told, and the essential content of it could have been spread out through the story and presented more gracefully.

Clockwork Angels

1) Overall: 10
2) Characterization: 10
3) Plot: 10
4) Setting: 10
5) Dialog: 10
6) Challenge: 10

total 60

NOTES:
Wow. This one hits where it counts: you make us care about your character, and then you smash her.


Till the World Ends

1) Overall: 10
2) Characterization: 9
3) Plot: 10
4) Setting: 8
5) Dialog: 9
6) Challenge: 10

total 56

NOTES:
This story also gives us a character we can care about, and an uplifting resolution.

The lyrics associated with Femme Fatale (from a Britney Spears album by that name) have no association to the story; neither do those by Nicki Minaj, doing a Femme Fatale remix. I finally found some that did seem to have some association with the story; they're by Dave Matthews.

Congrats to Wesson, liked your story very much. It reminded me of a time when I was in Hue, Viet-Nam. I wasn't a sniper or we didn't have any encounters with the V.C. or the N.V.A. that day, but it is strange how a story can sometimes remind one of a time gone past.

Good Job!!