Hoist the colours, proud fiction writers!

Happy New Years!

I'd like to thank all the participants for the 68th week of Finish the Story.

This is @dirge, and I will list the winners below. But first, Let's all congratulate @gaby-crb , @mgaft1 , and @phil-glaz for receiving support votes from our Old God @curie!

What's boiling in the bananafish kitchen?

We’re always welcoming new folks to come hang out on our discord. Hit up @f3nix, our resident wizard. You should come and join the discord. Have some fun, think about ways to use our collective power to empower all of us.

• As always, the community stays blessed by the support of @curie curators, the amazing team of @c-squared and, last but not least, those cool dudes at @crowdmind / @crowdwitness (always remember to sustain every one of the above mentioned by using your witness free slots).

• Keep those cheers coming for @Josephsavage and @Steembasicincome! 🎉 It's thanks to their kindness that our golden yellow deityhas been able to distribute so many SBI units unto the fabulous writers in our community! Anyone who has been on the blockchain longer than a minute can see what a precious gift this is! Our sincere gratitude to you, Joseph!

• Have any of you braved the - Banana Grog?

• Don't forget to join the Realms, where you can promote yourself and meet all of us strange creatures! And also talk about Cthullu and stuff. If you're into that.

Our Contestants

#1. @tristancarax

We start with an image the immediately gives the reader something to center on. And it only gets creepier from there. Our army of elves enter a scene straight out of surrealist horror. Complete with heads in jars, giant toys, cryptic mantras and a gremlin/elf fight. And if that’s not enough for you, Rudie makes a surprise entrance.

#2. @zeleiracordero

Without Santa, there is no Christmas

This sentence holds a central theme to @zeleriacordero’s tale. The story weaves between the elves’ pursuit of Santa and a dramatic encounter between Santa and Mrs. Claus, asking questions on the meaning of belief, Christmas, and technology. The story ends on a high note, and if that’s your thing, I think you’ll enjoy the depth offered in this submission!

#3. @mgaft1

This story is full of…well. It caught me off guard as to how it would be tied in with the prompt, because it’s almost it’s own separate post-modern tale. But it works, and it’s a lot of fun, and the writer is fully aware of tropes and conventions and thus able to play with irony to the benefit of this story.

@mgaft1 had originally asked a lot of questions about Christmas and it’s themes. I just wanted to point out that with the prompt, all I did was take images and ideas and characters of christmas then replace them with stereotypical dark fantasy plot elements. Because this is fiction, it doesn’t matter if you follow an official rulebook of cannon or mythos, or not. What matters is the story you tell, and if that story is any good. Or if it’s even a story at all. What I mean is, just have fun.

Anyway, this one’s a lot of fun.

#4. @phil-glaz

Imagine a pompous French reindeer, a dark fairy taking the role of santa, and the elves as comic relief (well I guess everything is comic relief in this story) and you’ve got the rag-tag group trying to save Christmas. My only question, това́рищ, did Shishka and Mrs. Claus…did they…?

#5. @sarez

@sarez takes us into the horrors of a supernatural cold that haunts Santa’s village. The Ghost of Christmas Past arrives, as a Greek deity, and reveals Rudolph’s own sins to himself. It is a story of introspection and honesty.

#6. @gaby-crb

The burnt orange sun sank lower in the darkening sky.
Uh oh.

“We’re out of time.”

Uh oh.

The Cold swept across the dark Northern Plains of the Arctic.

That can’t be good.

Santa Claus stood motionless in the rotunda. Blood trickled down his chin,

Oh shit…

A battle cry sounded

7. @raj808

"Santa's body was found on the northern plains, frozen solid like a candy cane. That thing that inhabits Clause mansion is not Santa... it is an abomination!”

If that sentence isn’t enough for you to read this, then I don’t know what will. Great story @raj808!

The Winners

GRAND PRIZE - 10 STEEM: @raj808!

Best Comment: @tristancarax 5 SBI

POPULAR VOTE - I’ll take the L on this one, as I didn’t exactly encourage folks to make a formal vote.

So I’ll be rewarding each participant, minus the above winners, with SBI. That’s five people for a 10 SBI reward, so each one gets 2 SBI.

@zeleiracordero
@mgaft1
@phil-glaz
@sarez
@gaby-crb

Happy New Years!

Sustain the @bananafish project through your delegations! We're a selfless inclusive and decentralized community, we put our heart in what we do and a lot of passion and everyone will be abundantly rewarded for their generosity as the @bananafish will keep growing. Here you may find a guide by @marcoriccardi on how to sustain this project.

A special thanks to @owasco, @felt.buzz, @gwilberiol, @dirge, @theironfelix, @raj808, @brisby, @maverickinvictus, @cyemela, @marcoriccardi, @hidden84, @calluna, @oivas, @f3nix, @khasa, @vdux, @anixio, @ntowl, @tristancarax and @blueeyes8960 for their precious delegations, making this project a reality!

If you like this contest..SPREAD THE GOSPEL! We're grateful for your resteeming and word of mouth. Everything helps to grow together!

See you soon for the next edition!