Hoist the colours, proud fiction writers!

Greetings folks. This is @dirge. I'd like to thank all the participants for the 55th week of Finish the Story.

we had the following endings for this week prompt:

@oivas

@tristancarax

@calluna

@maparari

@jadams2k18

@agmoore2

You all did not make it easy to judge this!

Let's all congratulate @oivas with a @curie vote! @calluna and @jadams2k18 also received support votes from our Old God @curie!

What's boiling in the bananafish kitchen?

I'm not really sure, so maybe I'll update this part of the blurb later.

• Let's hear some cheers for our terrific partners, @Crowdmind! Courtesy of their generosity and support, our participants now have the opportunity to win some sweet golden SNAX tokens! Haven't heard of SNAX? Then I urge you to check out Crowdmind's Interview with the team from the blockchain as well as our previous post. Crowdmind's mission to empower crowdsourcing initiatives is of tremendous benefit to the Steemit community. Check out their blog and consider as well a vote for their witness, @Crowdwitness. Thank you @Svemirac, @Hidden84 and the Crowdmind Community for your sustain!!

• 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!

• Our tribe is also blessed to with recognition by the @C-Squared / @c-cubed community! Dedicated to supporting quality works on the Steem blockchain, those in the C-Squared community put in hours of tremendous effort each and every day. We love what C² is doing, and urge our writers to please consider voting for the @c-squared community witness!

• Curie factoid: we have been supported by the amazing Curie community with 78 upvotes in 55 editions. We have now more than an average of 1 curie upvote per edition! @Sarez and @Tristancarax are tied out in front, closely followed by @Brisby, @Calluna, @Cyemela and @Dirge. I think. This is frankly copied and pasted from previous contest posts, as I'm trying to do this all between afterwork and feeding my dogs. Either way, let's show the amazing Curie community our solidarity and vote for @Curie as one of Steem's witnesses! 😎

• 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.

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.

GRAND PRIZE - 5 STEEM + 500 SNAX: @calluna with Foreigner

What struck me most was the goal of the story: mix the fantastical world of magic and demons with the seemingly mundane of a menstruation. The relationship between an adult woman and a girl, and having that opportunity to address something like periods takes on a whole different level when the characters are placed in a magical setting.

Honestly, I'd read that book of post-Harry Potter in a non-western country that shows an even darker world that children must survive in.

SECOND PRIZE - 3 STEEM + 300 SNAX: @maparari with "Grandma"

I enjoyed the banter and exchange between the student and teacher, particularly when she called the teacher an "old crane". There is an attempt at comedy when the elder woman has her role reversed and is flees after facing the ghost of HER father. This was a good example of characterization, where the truth of the character is revealed after having their role reversed.

Next time be sure to comment with your piece in the comment section of the contest page @maparari!

THIRD PRIZE - 2 STEEM + 200 SNAX: @agmoore2 with Foreigner

I was particularly touched with the how the writer brought in their own experience while trying to explore some themes of mental illness. I think its difficult to do justice to that topic in fiction. Sure, we can all write stories about "so and so heard voices" but to get the reality of it, you need to dive deep while treading carefully. I thought @agmoore2 did just that.

POPULAR VOTE - 4 steembasicincome share: not enough votes!

There were only two votes in the 'popular vote' section of the comments. As I, @dirge, am already curating and making judgements on the pieces, it would be a bit undemocratic of me to make a third vote.

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 @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 tomorrow for Edition #56, once again with @Dirge!