Welcome, dear writers, to our 54th Edition through the playgrounds of the fantastic! It's your resident tree scrambler, @Brisby, with the pleasure of hosting you again this week! I hold within my paws a curious story prompt straight from the pen of our potassium deity's prophet, @F3nix. Brimming with possibility, I'll let you all enjoy the offering below for yourselves as I nibble on this pecan pie I found abandoned on a windowsill.

Courtesy of our terrific partners, @Crowdmind, we're now also giving away sweet golden SNAX tokens! Let us raise our frosty mugs of banana grog to them! Haven't heard of SNAX? Then I urge you to check out Crowdmind's Interview with the team from the SNAX blockchain as well as our previous post.

What treasures await within the @Crowdmind enhanced Bananafish chest?

1st place: n. 10 STEEM & 500 SNAX tokens

2nd place: n. 6 STEEM & 200 SNAX tokens

3rd place: n. 4 STEEM & 200 SNAX tokens

Popular vote: n. 10 SBI & 100 SNAX tokens
(Please note there is a minimum of three votes to active the popular vote reward so don't forget to vote for your favorite story!)

To receive your SNAX rewards, you'll need to have a SNAX wallet.
For those who like instructions with photos, here's a handy tutorial.

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Map of the Bananafish Realms from a squirrelly perspective!

• Share the love and tell a friend about the contest!

• Join the Bananafish Realms discord chat for fresh updates and other amenities.

• Vote, vote, vote your favorite story in the comments below!

• Use the #finishthestory tag.

• Try to post your story as early possible and not at the last moment (or after the results! argh!) to give people chance to read yours before they vote

• Respect the dreadful 500 words limit! o_0

• Help our contest & workshop to grow by giving it some visibility and consider linking back to this post in your entry.

Without further ado, good luck, brave storytellers.

Ora et Labora

^{A fiction short prompt by @f3nix, based on real happenings}

The tapered fingers came to life, maneuvered by invisible threads, following the murderous order whispered by the woman. The blow fell on the victim, surgical and impregnated with inevitable fate.

"We took it, Agnes."

Finally, the peace of the monastery's kitchen had been restored. A fleeting veil of reproach slipped over the cook's cheerful gaze as Flynn swore triumphantly at the fly, spread on his notebook.

"But now let's get back to our business, barley soup doesn't cook itself and ... not even your thesis".

"It's a nice association, even if it's my brain to cook," said the young man with his eyes shining curiously between the pots.

"If Father Thoram saw us wasting time chasing flies, you already know he'd send you to the library," the cook remarked.

Flynn threw her an accomplice grimace, before returning to dive into the pages of his thesis. No, all in all, the friar would not have thrown him out of the kitchen so easily.
Agnes could not have known what long walks in the cloister's rose garden had slowly revealed to his confessor father. That laborious daily harmony had a different taste for Flynn than what his other contemporaries of the Benedictine community felt.

Flynn sighed as the words drifted slowly from the pages, evaporating intertwined in his thoughts. Every moment, every little ritual within the silent walls of the monastery was like prickly air that swelled his lungs, giving him life. Those were precious moments far from the creature who, just two blocks away, waited every night for satisfying once more his craving for pain. Far from his stepfather.

The echoes of vespers suffused in his ears: soon the refectory would have been populated. It was almost time to help Agnes set the tables.

While books and notebooks were swallowed up by the backpack in random order, Flynn found himself thinking of that strange event months ago, when he was still an occasional guest of the monks' community. There was, indeed, another reason why he preferred to study among the noise of the pans. He would have never wanted to see that internet page, hastily closed but clear enough to impress itself deeply into his retina. All in all, the friar would not have thrown him out of the kitchen so easily.

"Flynn."

The backpack fell, spilling its content onto the floor.

"Son, follow me, Agnes can set her own."

Father Thoram didn't even seem to have noticed the mountain of papers scattered on the brown tiles. Standing out from the sagging features of his face, his eyes looked blacker than usual.

Let’s grow together!

The wise pectin-packed Bananafish wants all of its beloved people to benefit from rich upvotes. The more of us join the trail or delegate SP, the more our vote on your entries is worth.

Unity is strength, if you would like to contribute to the cause, click here to delegate 25 SP, 10 SP or find out here how to delegate an amount of your choosing!

Following the voting trail is an effortless way to make sure you always support the other participants to the Bananafish contests, automatically upvoting the posts (but not the comments) @bananafish upvotes. It only takes a few minutes to join, you can find all the instruction on how here. So check it out and make the most of your voting power while supporting your fellow bananites!

Let’s raise a glass to @foffelius, @steelochlaver, @f3nix, @marcoriccardi, @anixio, @gwilberiol, @calluna, @ntowl, @dirge, @seesladen, @theironfelix, @letalis-laetitia, @vdux, @felixgarciap, @tristancarax, @khasa, @stever82, @brisby, @drazeus, @robinsonr810, @michaias who are already in the trail.

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 (use the #finishthestory as your first tag) or a comment in the comment section. A limit of 500 words is recommended.

• WIN 20 STEEM, 10 @steembasicincome shares & 1000 SNAX to the writers with the best endings.
  
  

GOOD LUCK, BRAVE STORYTELLERS!