It's back! Sekrit Santa 20.

[Provincial]

I also fooled around with creating illustrations for it, using the AI art system Night Cafe.

Is it difficult to edit images with Night Cafe and other AI software?

Also, what made people think that “Flight” was the work of @Victoria Silverwolf ? I was just copying other people when I guessed it.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Is it difficult to edit images with Night Cafe and other AI software?

I haven't tried editing, so can't say.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have received another story. The unusual structure makes it a little difficult to tell what the title might be, or where it really "starts," but this excerpt will do.

The strange last voyage of the MV Alta

I arranged to meet Tabby Loftis of the Mayo Garda sub-aqua team in Brophy’s Public House, Crossmolina. The location was at his request. I wanted to ask about a bloodstained chest of drawers that had washed up on Blacksod beach the previous October.

Tabby was seated at the bar when I arrived. The place was quiet, save a half dozen or so other customers. Before I had even introduced myself, Tabby began boasting. I

knew immediately that it would be a difficult interview, because Tabby’s opening gambit was: ‘I’m probably the best sub aqua Guard of all time -the unit is going to be hard pressed when I leave.’

He seemed disappointed when I did not encourage him to elaborate. I began instead by asking Tabby to confirm who had been on the team sent to investigate the discovery. It was at this point that things got complicated

‘Myself, Eugene McKay, Tony Staunton and Bart Flannery. That was the team at the time, still is too. We were already in Belmullet because of the Alta.’

‘The Alta, what was that?

‘You know, the ghost ship that beached beyond Blackrock

What starts off as a nautical mystery rapidly turns into a wild ride into the far reaches of the universe and changes in reality itself. A droll sense of absurdity fills this rollercoaster ride of a tale.

 

[Provincial]

Now this guess I am confident about:

The Strange Last Voyage of the MV Alta - @AnRoinnUltra , gotta be!

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Rumbled

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I've been so busy, and I don't really know most of the styles these days as rarely in the challenges, and I haven't guessed as yet. As far as I can tell, no one has guessed mine correctly.

 

[THX1138]

Also, what made people think that “Flight” was the work of @Victoria Silverwolf ? I was just copying other people when I guessed it.

For me, it was the style of writing that was a clue.

 

[THX1138]

I'll give a go at three of them:

Jimmy Jolly’s Christmas Wish - @emrosenagel
Ghosts in the Machine - @Dan Jones
The Inner Citadel - @Jo Zebedee

 

[AnRoinnUltra]

Long Day's Gobbling Into Night - @Dan Jones ?

 

[BigJ]

I'll try to make a couple guesses this weekend. I'm struggling to figure out who wrote the story for me, and I've got that whole thing, not just an excerpt.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I don’t actually have a story for me but I’m enjoying all the craic anyhow

 

[THX1138]

I don’t actually have a story for me but I’m enjoying all the craic anyhow

Why, you, Irish vixen you!
Now I feel silly...

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Why, you, Irish vixen you!
Now I feel silly...

To be clear - I wrote one that is the samples, but didn’t receive one

 

[THX1138]

To be clear - I wrote one that is the samples, but didn’t receive one

Now I feel even more silly, or sad. Well then, very sorry... Yours would have been a fun one to write!
So, did you write... For Where Your Treasure Is?

 

[Provincial]

For me, it was the style of writing that was a clue.

Would you be able to be a bit more specific, please, or is it a little too nebulous to put in words? Sorry to be persistent, but since several people called Victoria Silverwolf‘s story quickly I was hoping she has an easy-to-spot tell. You know, in case we ever play poker together…

 

[THX1138]

Sorry @Dan Jones, still learning writing styles, including my own!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Now I feel even more silly, or sad. Well then, very sorry... Yours would have been a fun one to write!
So, did you write... For Where Your Treasure Is?

Fraid not.

 

[BigJ]

I'll try to make a couple guesses this weekend.

Apparently I lied. I've been fighting a man cold since Thursday and am hopped up on tea and pseudoephedrine and am incapable of figuring any of this out at the moment.

 

[Provincial]

Apparently I lied. I've been fighting a man cold since Thursday and am hopped up on tea and pseudoephedrine and am incapable of figuring any of this out at the moment.

Man, I just love that pseudoephedrine!

You don’t have to get it right, you just have to give everyone else clues by getting it wrong…

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have received another story.

For Want of a Nail

For Jo, the best thing about Christmas was decorating the shop window. Every year there was some friendly competition amongst the shopkeepers in The Courtyard of Carrickfergus’s Scotch Quarter for the best display and Jo always threw herself into it, heart and soul. She wasn’t put off by the fact that she didn’t actually have a shop window - at least, not on the ground floor - but the picture window on the first floor was the natural place to put her Christmas tree, and the shop entrance was set back from the footpath, giving her a little sheltered area that she could make her own.

What seems to be an ordinary set of decorative lights turns out to be something quite different in this imaginative fantasy. A quiet opening turns into a suspenseful middle, and leads to a surprisingly moving conclusion.