A contest with a pot of four ONLY FOR THIS WEEK, FIVE @steembasicincome shares? You're in the right place!
76 @steembasicincome shares awarded till now through the contest!
Prize categories:
1st place : n. 2 3 steembasicincome shares
2nd place : n. 1 steembasicincome share
Popular jury : n. 1 steembasicincome share (remember to vote your favorite!!)
Welcome in the realm of the Bananafish!
The “thing” has quickly become bigger since then, resembling a cuddly and puffy Dunwich Horror in the attic.
Now, it’s the first time that this contest is hosted in the blog of @bananafish, this (not too) mysterious benevolent entity that loves and cares for all the friends who enjoy themselves to participate.
For celebrating this "passage", the first prize of this week is increased to 3 steembasicincome shares, for a total of 5 steembasicincome shares up for grabs!
@marcoriccardi took care of the first part of the story you will read, a short dip into a fantastic-surrealist setting, with some elements that could stimulate reflections and parallelisms, or bring to action scenes. Feel free to follow your creativity and good luck!
Things that please the Bananafish mighty god!
- use the tag #finishthestory.
- vote, vote, vote your favorite story!
- Try to post your story the earliest possible and not at the last moment.
- Sustain, comment and upvote each other as a true group of friends and fiction lovers.
- Respect the 500 words limit.
- Post in your blog instead than in the comment section.
- help our contest & workshop to grow by giving it some visibility.
And now.. let's introduce today's story!
The Border
In the scant shadow of the guardhouse, a greenhorn Border Legionnaire was waiting for the end of his first watch shift, gasping for the heat.
Below him, there was the stretch of sandy desert that the XIX Floating Fortress patrolled incessantly, moving back and forth in the sky like a surreal and phlegmatic cetacean, with the low and incessant buzz of the managems that powered it.
Behind the line of Fortresses, the Lands of Man ideally began. In that marginal strip, there were meager pastures and stretches of scrubby bushes, attacked for miles and miles by a fine sand, like yellowish talcum powder, that made the desert gain extension every year.
"This year the wind has put so much sand down," the marshal told him, biting a gray mustache, one of the last days before the Duty Beginning ceremony. "And behind the sand, the Those arrive".
He was glad he no longer had just a stunner to defend him from the Those, like the guardians of the border in former times, before the Legions. Once, it was thought to direct the Those into reserves to prevent them from doing too much damage with their insatiable hunger, but then they started to run away, to strip the flesh off every head of cattle, to waste fields and orchards, to devour even the people... and more and more came from the desert.
He had been among the first in his draft class in combat and shooting exercises, but in his heart he was afraid of when he would found himself in front of a real That, and not an illusory image created by the trainers. It took him months to get used to the slouching and snappy movements of those lean and black illusions, all teeth, which he found horrifying.
During that first day of service, however, only an armored convoy had passed, transporting ordered and dull clusters of goleminers to the mysterious and vital mines of managems, on the other side of the desert. The Those did not find goleminers edible, luckily.
The Horn of Danger snatched him cruelly from his thoughts. Intruders in the fortress! How did they get in? How did they pass under our noses?
He grabbed the heavy terminator and ran down the spiral staircase, toward his team's collection point, his heart in his throat.
A scraping noise from a corridor to his right made him stop. Pointing the terminator in the dark, with a trembling grip, he shouted "Who goes there?!?"
The Those came out, completely different from the illusions of the trainers...
Join the fun! Here is how this contest works:
An unfinished fiction story or a script is posted.
You finish it with your own post or a comment in the comment section. A limit of 500 words is recommended.
YOU WIN!
four
five @steembasicincome shares to the writers with the best ending.
ATTENTION! RESULT POST CHANGES TIMING!
_
The result for Week #21 will be out on the SAME POST OF WEEK #22 CONTEST,
on Wednesday 25th July, 1:00 PM, GMT -7 (Pacific Daylight Time).
_
Submission deadline: Tuesday 24th July, 12:00 PM, GMT-7 (Pacific Daylight Time).
_
So, this time you have one more day for posting your entry!
Bonus: a special banner for the all the participants of at least 5 editions!
Annnnnd, here it is :)
https://steemit.com/finishthestorycontest/@pixiehunter/finish-the-story-contest-week-21
Here comes the super pixie dixie!
Yup yup :)
Hello @pixiehunter! So happy you're back again!
Why thank you kindly. :)
I...must...get..this story out of my head.....Tis' a good time to return.
We both took a break but we need to get back on here.
The Pixie strikes back! It's indeed a good time my friend 👍
We wait for you both with trepidation!
Always fun writing with you all. My last week of my scheduled posts. So going to take my time posting next week as I find a new routine.
Here's my entry:
https://steemit.com/bananafish/@cyemela/finish-the-fiction-story-contest-week-21
Cyrus is in the house! You broke the ice! C'mon, storytellers...don't be left behind!
So many entries to read so little time!!
This contest has been placed in the Steemgigs Contest Channel which has over 5000 members and will be presented in a compilation post on the weekly Talk with Terry Show is every Sunday 12:00 AM Manila Time/ 16:00 GMT 0 Time Zone.
I will endeavor to join all contests left there or at least make a small upvote and add on the compilation post.
Steemgigs Contest Channel link
https://discord.gg/ajnWGxJ
This comment was made from https://ulogs.org
Thank you very much, @maverickinvictus! Your support is precious! 🤗😎
Thank you Mavs! We have great news coming btw..
ohhhh you got me intrigued!!!
This comment was made from https://ulogs.org
https://steemit.com/freewrite/@wonderwop/finish-the-story-contest-week-21-with-the-weekend-freewrite
I finished the story with the weekend 3 part Freewrite.
A crossover..yeah!
You have my highest esteem for this!
LOL! You crack everybody up!
A great beginning that has just left me reeling in the aftermath of a heady fever cast by the hand of a horrific muse. I'll publish tomorrow after a chance to recover from the nightmares that are knocking on my nightly door. Ha ha, coming over all Poe-esque. Might have to retire to the plutonian shore.
Peace to the @bananafish I shall try to bring you back a raven steed!
Poe-esque is really appreciated! My heart is beating in expectation...can you hear it from under your floor? ;)
Great beginning @marcoriccardi + @bananafish It inspired a bone tingling fury of writing last night. I have only just recovered and am now shivering in my duvet sitting on the couch and drinking coffee wondering what went wrong!
But enough of this jibber-jabber, here is my entry:
Just squeaked in again with my entry :)
Excellent!
Your squeakings are always a melodious sound to our ears, @calluna.
🍌With a name like @bananafish, we just had to stop by and upvote this, even if we're not participating in the writing exercise (this week).
I bananas we trust, my fellow! We should partner :-P
‘Tis time to dance with the actual hosting account for once? Hmmm... a fine promising one at that.
..let's see what kind of dance this is!
"We'll see about that."
Here is my entry. https://steemit.com/fiction/@stever82/finish-the-story-contest-week-21-entry-for-the-border First time trying this seems fun.
Welcome @stever82 to the contest and our ever-evolving community of brave storytellers!
Welcome @stever82! Nothing delights Bananafish friends more than a newcomer storyteller!
Thank you I had fun doing this and will try to continue.
Let's get this party started @bananafish 🍌
Oh yeah!
Hi: No story again this week, but I wrote a post promoting the contest: Finish the Story: Manna for the Imagination.
Looking forward to reading some surprising "endings".
Wow! This is fantastic! When we talk about becoming a strong community, we think about contribution like this!
Here i go with my story
Finish the Story Contest - WEEK #21 - Shadow falls
Great! 😎
Here be me submission: Connexione for this contest here.
The title is the truest definition for your story! nice work!
The title is the
Truest definition for
Your story! nice work!
- bananafish
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
You just got haikued by a bot! Anywho, you got a good spotting eye.
Oh...my...
First or after someone will call the yakuza to fix this bothering bot! (Make an haiku now out of this!!)
esta es mi entrada, un cordial saludo a toda la comunidad y a @bananafish .
https://steemit.com/contest/@opiman/finish-the-story-contest-week-21
Great! You also found some valid visual material for the Those.. just pay attention to not use copyrighted material @opiman (there are free images stocks around).
Here is my entry to this amazing contest!
https://steemit.com/fiction/@anixio/the-border-finish-the-story-contest
Huzzah!
Great job Marco! I'll advert this around the discord and later will taste your story.. I always suspected that the bananafish harmless appearances hide a crawling Dunwich horror!
Don't answer to yourself...don't answer to yourself... ok I did it.. welcome schizofrenia.
Hey! Who are you?!?
The creature already rebels against its own creator!
Put it down! It's grown out of control!
I hope you enjoy my tale - https://steemit.com/finishthestory/@jorlauski/finish-the-story-contest-week-21-my-entry-the-border
Sure we enjoy! 😉
Welcome to the contest @jorlauski! Hope you enjoy the ride in our fiction realms ;-)
Mine...
https://steemit.com/fiction/@seesladen/the-border
Cheers!
Oooh! Your ending is more than horror...it's poetic horror!
A truly rich beginning. I think you had a lot of fun writing it. This ought to produce some interesting conclusions. I'll try....
It's rich indeed, I loved the care in depicting the whole world..the managems are a great idea.. looking forward for your shot on this 😉
Writing is always funny! Can't wait to read your conclusions!
Great prompt. Here's my take
Thank you, @dirge! Great ending!
Another one in the bag! I'm glad I did this one. I had fun.
https://steemit.com/finishthestory/@tristancarax/the-border
And we have fun reading it too!
Border, huh. Ummmm.
Great assist, @marcoriccardi!
And here I go looking for trouble.
@gwilberiol in the house! What a ending!
My first entry, and hopefully you will see more of me.
https://steemit.com/finishthestory/@sarez/the-freshers-party-for-border-legionnaires-a-finish-the-story-contest-week-21
Welcome to the contest @sarez! Hopefully, we will.
Welcome on board, storyteller!
Vote your favorite ending here below!
there were many stories this week, and I enjoyed them all. If I had to choose, I'd pick @seesladen's
Oops, had to much to work on this weekend and forgot to vote. Uhhh, I go with @seesladen.
This week my vote goes to @theironfelix, Tesseract-19 was awesome addition to the story!
Having major issues with my phone, And my laptop has decided now is the perfect time to send its mind to kingdom come.
Anyways, I did manage to read all, yes all (after battling with my phone like the various legionnaires did with each version of Those it faced. Now its face is probably no different from the legionnaire who managed to survive)...
And I liked @raj808 ''s entry the most. So he got my vote.
Though @jorlauski (pleasantly poetic) and @dirge (such a great spoiler with his sad sad sad endings) were also awesome with theirs!
I think @dirge.
@raj808 gets my vote this week.
@calluna gets my vote this week. 👍
I just started following you.
Let me re-read the post to fiction the perfect conclusion.
Huzzah! Welcome on board!
Here's my entry:
https://steemit.com/life/@oivas/those
Thank you!
Your post was mentioned in the Steemit Hit Parade for newcomers in the following category:Congratulations @bananafish!
I also upvoted your post to increase its reward
If you like my work to promote newcomers and give them more visibility on Steemit, consider to vote for my witness!
Thank you @arcange!
This reminds me soooo much of the Night's watch from the GoT in combination with Frank Herbert's Dune :D
Nice comparisons!
But the main inspiration was a 1940 Italian novel: The Tartar Steppe (Il Deserto dei Tartari) by Dino Buzzati, mixed with thoughts about current topics ;)
To be honest, never heard of it. But if it laid ground to this beginning of the story, I should read it :)
I have one question regarding your voting trail.
You vote on all of entries to this contest and nothing else or? Because I always try to vote on all entries but sometimes it happens that I miss few of them, and I feel bad because of it. But again I don't want to lose all of my VP if you vote on other things as well :P
Hope you understand my concern :D
Thank you for the question. I'm preparing a post right now in which voting trail is explained.
The bananafish trail votes only Finish the Story contents (participants posts), furthermore everybody in the trail can set the weight of the vote ;)
Your concern is legitimate @anixio and it's an opportunity for me to clarifying this: both delegation and trail are/will be used 1000% to solely sustain the contest participants in their contest activity and interactions. This underlines a concept of creating a transparent, equal, inclusive and happy community. I'll use the bananafish the most possible to enhance the members, giving relevance to their initiatives, supporting them and most of all with reciprocal inspiration for writing amazing fiction works (and subsequent curation votes or rewards for the quality) 😉🐠🍌
That's what I wanted to hear!
I'll join the trail as well.
The border and the horn reminded me of that too..Hey @anixio! Welcome back, what do you think about this change? We wait for you in the discord and onboard in the bananafish realms 😉
Now the world cup fever is over so there will be more time for me to return to active state :)
I was sorry for Croatia!
Friend, it's excellent, it's good to know that this blog is already active, and I'm ready to work and enjoy your writing contests, I'm eager to explore this new story.
You're welcome!
Picking a favorite is harder than choosing what I want from a restaurant menu! My vote goes for @gwilberiol's ending this week.