Interactive Painting Contest #7: The Epilogue
Time to bring this (admittedly very funny and awesome contest) to an end. For those who have been following: thanks for reading and even participating, it was a fun ride! Thank you for making and creating this weird and utterly surreal story, I'm awed by your contributions!
For those not in the know: I have been posting a painting of mine every week, along with a short story with some ___ blanks, that everybody could fill in in the comments. Everybody who did so got a piece of the SBD of every particular post, which was divided after payout.
It all started with Mystery Man, who then suddenly split into two versions of himself, then (one of them) found himself lost in Niflheim, and while looking for his brother, was approached by, yes - the one and only Rhas Al Ghore, with his army of creatures, and was finally saved by the Guardian of the Lake.
What remains is mashing up the final tale, using the entries from @deemarshall, @fraenk, @pv-p and @occupywallets, thanks again for your entries, I hope you had fun playing along!
This was the painting, The Guardian of The Lake, and the story to be interpreted:
Everybody who was present - Mystery Man, The Green Rhas Al Ghore and His Beings all paused and held hands, in a reenactment of the archaic ring-around-the-ritual... It wasn't peace in the realm, simply a customary distraction... Reverence to tradition was what kept reality from freezing over, like so many Lakes from legend...
The Guardian of the Lake did not flinch and spoke - quietly, but with great authority: "The Order of the Silver Blood Moon hath forbidden the crossing of worlds, lest you risk disturbing the balance of the ten planes and thirteen hells. Your quest ends here man of mystery, but I shall grant you safe return to your abode."
"I can live with that, your Ladyship, thank you," Mystery Man answered, kneeling before her.
"Never!" Rhas Al Ghore shouted, while drawing his magical staff, summoning the brother to offer as a last-ditch trade, knowing his bubblegum factory's production would plummet without its manager... The brothers embraced and were too distracted to be caught up in what ensued...
The Guardian of the Lake smothered the moon and Rhas Al Ghore with icy, vein chilling liquid.
All went quiet.
Mystery Man suddenly felt a deep vibration emerging, growing stronger, dissonant yet harmonic, taking hold of his auditory senses. Now he could hear it, too. The voice of Morgan Freeman, narrating this every moment as it passed, speaking those very words you read right now...
...and then it spoke:
THe eND
EPILOGUE to Mystery Man:
It was over. Mystery Man and his twin brother had escaped from the dimensional manifold of Niflheim, only just in time being rescued by the Guardian of the Lake from the clutches of the dreaded Rhas Al Ghore and his minions.
They both felt nauseated and confused. Checking their little suitcases, they felt their job was done.
No, it wasn't! This was only the beginning. Again!
If you have no clue where this epilogue comes from: check out @fraenk's comment on the very first episode of Mystery Man.
Now that's a full circle!
I may do a sequel to this, but not immediately - thanks to everybody for following, upvoting, resteeming, participating, commenting, having fun, the works, really! I enjoyed doing this, did you?
Really interesting! And totally after my fancy!
Thanks, you should've joined, it was fun :)
Don't know when the next installment will be though
Great! Let me know!
I've never participated in a steemit-contest, but I'm always looking for some impulses :)
There's a ton of contests going on all over steemit, and the rules are made by the authors of their respective posts. I've concluded this Interactive Painting Contest for now, so I don't know when my next one will be - we'll see :)
Ok :I
Let's do a spinoff where they merge back into one body and have arguments over which flavor ice cream to buy!
Also, this entire process has been so fun to partake in... Will do it again any time... This is the closest I have been to a writer's room or group in awhile, so it is good for me... Thanks again!
Haha, that could be good as well! Glad you had fun, that was the intention all along :)
I may do this again, or something interactive in a different way, we'll see what comes up, cheers!
@marty-art, this was such great fun!
I am not much into writing but the absurd universe this community-concoction created really drew me in.
It filled me with pride every time I'd see parts of my ideas live through the episodes and becoming part of something totally unlike their initial meaning.
I'm especially humbled to find the ball rolling back to my contribution on the very first episode!
Can't wait for what you'll do next ;)
Hey, man, thank you very much! Glad to have seen you chime in every time, especially with the weird multidimensional bizarrities :) I loved that!
And unreal how this has come full circle, ending with your beginning, implying your beginning was already the end of another cycle, which goes on and on. I could do another cycle, I guess, but it's pretty time-consuming, so we'll see. Thanks again!
Yeah. Your publications at the level are always enjoyed . keep it up ♥ following you
Thanks @venox! Glad you enjoyed :)
Sorry this story's over, feel free to join next time!
What a great ending to the story!
I got sidetracked and didn't remember to do an entry, so I am kicking myself, lol. It was great fun to enter, so I shall be watching out harder for any more you might do in the future. The paintings are wonderfully quirky. :)
Thanks @ravenruis! No problem, as time flies on steemit (in short seven-day intervals, I have to pay attention as well!) Yeah, the ending matches the beginning, I'd never imagined that two months ago :)
And I'm always looking for interaction here - it's just the most fun - see you on the next experiment!
And this was my story for the final episode:
Everybody who was present - Mystery Man, The Green Rhas Al Ghore and His Beings all went silent, awestruck by the presence of The Guardian.
The Guardian of the Lake did not flinch and spoke - quietly, but with great authority: “Enough is enough. This charade has gone on way too long now. I shall speak and so shall it be done: Mystery Man, you shall find your brother when you wake up from this quantum-dream. Sleep now and awake in the Multiversitudinal morning. Your brother shall awake on the bunk bed beneath you. As for you, Rhas Al Ghore and your Beings: go back to the Realm of Mists whence you came, and bother some other mythical and mistical creatures from Niflheim. You can bother me again in eighthundred and eighty-eight years from now."
"I can live with that, your Ladyship, thank you," Mystery Man answered, kneeling before her.
"Never!" Rhas Al Ghore shouted, while drawing his magical staff, summoning a tempest of unseen lightning- and thunderstorms.
The Guardian of the Lake stood still and blinked an eye towards Mystery Man.
All went quiet.
Mystery Man woke up.
just a dream? meh... something isn't right here! Now everything only vaguely making sense totally makes sense. That can't be!
Hmm... I guess I didn't write it out well enough, and I remember writing the final sentence "Mystery Man woke up" and being so tired and glad it was finished, it doesn't do it justice - you're right. I also didn't re-read my ending (which I wrote a week ago)
I should've put more emphasis on The Guardian's explanation: "... when you wake up from this quantum-dream", where in my mind a quantum-dream would be like flinching and finding yourself in a different reality; looking behind you and instantly being seeing a complete new world...
So no, not just a dream but a dream within a dream outside of a dream that's being dreamt by a dreamer's dream persona - or anything that's even more inexplicable :P
Thanks for calling me out on this!
Anytime bruv :D skrrrrrr pop pop
HehehPOP!
Was it all a dream then? Thank you for the payment. That's very welcome!
Well... The story I wrote here is just my ickle interpretation :)
But the story that was written by you and other steemians is way more awesome :) And even much more open to interpretation
And even if it is/was a dream - does it take anything away from it? I'm going to go to sleep soon, and am looking forward to my dreams :)
You decide whether it was a dream! And my pleasure sending the payment, I'm glad you participated, thank you Dee! :)
I've got a correction to make! I didn't mean this simply as a dream, and I didn't re-read my ending properly (which I wrote the week before) and I now see it really just points out to being a dream.
Except for what the Guardian says: "...wake up from this quantum-dream", which I really should've explained better and will try to do here: (quoting myself from my reply to @fraenk, who also called me out on this being just a dream:
Thanks for poking me between the ribs, it hurt a bit but I see I didn't explain it well enough :)
No, I wasn't meaning that at all. I was just asking. When I saw him wake up, I just wondered. You wrote a great story!!
Hey, thanks, just wanted to set the record straight :)
And the story was possible thanks to the contribution of all the players, it was fun!
SBD sent: 0.973 was rounded up to 0.975 and divided: 0.195 (1 entry) for @fraenk, @deemarshall and @pv-p and 0.390 (2 entries) for @occupywallets. Enjoy!
Got the reward, thanks @marty-art! The second painting is amazing, so much that can be imagined from it! Awesome illustration for the text below.
Thanks! Yeah, the second painting goes back to the nothingness - the void where everything's possible again, I guess, thanks again for playing!
this is what i call art, your work is such an epic!
Thanks, your comment is much appreciated!