Steemit Challenge S26-w4 : The Unlikely Friendship

Dear Steemians,

I welcome you to the Fourth Week of Season 26 of the Steemit Challenge- 1st to 7th September 2025!

It's an opportunity for fiction writers, to use their imagination but remember I want you to create a fiction but supported by facts which provide your readers a true worldly sensation yet taking them into the world of fantasy.

Let's see how you create a story based on the prompt provided below:

Theme of the week : The Unlikely Friendship

 

Image source edited

Teena is a thorough professional financial analyst. She doesn't care for her higher officers if she believes she has a point to prove. She sticks to rules no matter what pressure she faces when it comes to her values. She stands firm against people who try to cheat the system and take advantage of the rules."

Dev is a marketing head who is witty but practical, outgoing, and believes in taking risks. He comes from a higher-class family, with "I don't care" attitude.

The tension begins when Teena is posted in the marketing department to analyze all financial matters, including the traveling expenses of the marketing team.

In the beginning they two went well, but as expected soon Teena found faults, and Dev thought Teena was too rigid, but on the other hand, Teena thought Dev was too lenient with his favorite marketing officials or overlooked their traveling expenses.

Soon they started accusing each other, and not a single week passed when something didn't go wrong.

But things changed when Teena realized Dev's 'careless' style had a purpose. She was surprised to find Dev kept everything under his close watch. Teena changed her stance, and for the first time they found value in each others viewpoints.

Dear contestants, Let's sketch a story of how the characters will overcome their struggles. Now it's your turn to expand the story and give more details. How did they face challenges?

We all know the corporate workers often face it when two coworkers grow an unexpected friendship, learning from each other's perspectives and challenging their biases. We face it even here on Steemit.

Points to build your story around:

A great starting scenario
What do you think two coworkers did?
The conflicts
The understanding
The conversation
End of the story with a result

Let's us see how your imagination works for you?

Please note:

*A well-crafted fiction story provides an engaging plot, including how you unfold it, what actions your characters took, and how they interacted with each other.

*The actions from start to finish are all part of a good fiction story. We will see how you have twisted the plot in this prompt in a way that moves the story forward and keeps your readers interested by introducing complications and suspense.

*We will see what conversations your characters are having about their differences and patchup as you have to make your story meaningful through all these choices, and your marks will be based on all these facts.

*Please read all the points of this prompt carefully.

Note:

-No greetings, etc. but come to the story straight away!

-You should remember to make your story relatable, engaging, and thought-provoking, but don't miss out on experimenting with fantasy, fiction, and mystery in your story. Focusing on relatable themes with worldly facts will resonate with your readers.

-Make your story stand out with an original concept, unexpected plot twists, or memorable characters. I expect participants to venture into the world of imagination and create breathtaking stories but don't forget the real life facts.

Contest Rules

Article Title: The Unlikely Friendship

*Your post must be on your blog only and not in any community.

*Paste the post link of your post in the comment section of this post, and don't forget to vote and resteem this post.

*If two or more participants score equal points we shall decide the winner based on post's quality, and team's internal decision and that will be final.

*Do not post before or after the stipulated time: Monday, 1st September 2025 at 00:00 UTC and ends on Sunday, 7th September 2025, at 23:59 UTC.

*Your post must be at least 500 words and a maximum of 800 words (Prompt not included in word count).

*Your post must be free from plagiarism and AI, which will reflect in your points or even disqualify you from this contest.

*Share your post on any social media platform of your choice and share the link in comment section of your post.

***All Steemians acceptable barring the ones currently powering down.

Images:

*Use no more than one or two copyright-free images with proper sourcing for instance from pixabay, Pexels, etc. besides a thumbnail.

Post only on your Blog.

*Participants can write in any language supported by Google Translate, or Deepl translator but must not deviate from the given story prompt.
*Participants must not use the official contest thumbnail or images.
*Tags: #fiction-s26wk4 # yourcountry # club if any, and other suitable tags like # steemexclusive.
*Use # burnsteem tag only if you set null as beneficiary @25%.
*Invite three friends to participate in this contest. For instance, @solperez, @chant and @kouba01

Timeline:

This contest starts on Monday, 1st September 2025 at 00:01 UTC and ends on Sunday, 7th September 2025, at 23:59 UTC. Posts submitted before or after will not be considered.

CHECK UTC TIME NOW

Rewards:

SC01 upvotes will reward the top 6 participants based on our recommendation every week but expect votes from SC02 randomly on outstanding contributions.

Points

Hello @, thank you so much for taking part in Week of the Steemit Challenge - Season 26! We truly appreciate the time and creativity you put into your entry. Your assessment, including feedback and scores based on our evaluation criteria, is provided below.

I will choose the top 6 stories based on a points system. If there is a tie, I will decide the winner based on overall story quality and a few points I will reveal in the result post.

Criteria	Marks	Remarks
Story start to finish	0/5
Originality & Uniqueness	0/3
Presentation	0/1
My observation	0/1
Total	0/10
Feedback	---
By	@

*Story start to finish: It will show how well the participant understood the finer points of the prompt and build the story based on the prompt provided.

*Originality & Uniqueness : The web is full of related stories, so you copied the idea, reworded it, and that's your story. No, that's not going to work. I will read every line carefully and see how you developed your story.

*Presentation : I will see to it that how Steemians presented the story and the markdown and image settings.

*My Observation : That's where I will tell you what was unique or what I liked in your story. This could be a crucial point that will make a difference on your result.

I will check AI Content :
Let me make it clear that even if you use ChatGPT or any other similar tools I will pick it up and your points will reflect the result. I know other methods that clearly indicate use of AI and rewording so be careful. We do not mention use of AI in our remarks unless you question our decision/marks but let the scores explain.

*We check plagiarism.

*Be careful, be original. I know how to detect the original from duplicate or stolen text.

Important Reminder:

1- Post on your blog only and not in any community. I do not want to trespass other communities.
2- There will be no compromise on 500-800 Words limit which is a test of your writing ability within limitations and a mandatory condition. it means you must stay within that exact word count range to demonstrate you can write concisely and effectively under constraints no matter what anyone comments against this condition.

I look forward to your creativity and wish you best of luck.

NOTE: @waqarahmadshah will assist me in evaluation on retainer basis whom I will keep beneficiary in Result Posts.

Cc, @steemitblog