July 2019: 75-Word Story Challenge -- VICTORY TO THE JUDGE!

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Victoria Silverwolf

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RULES:

Write a story inspired by the chosen theme and genre in no more than 75 words, not including the title.

ONE entry per person.

NO links, commentary or extraneous material in the posts, please -- the stories must stand on their own.

WHEN WRITING YOUR STORY, PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS A FAMILY-FRIENDLY FORUM.

All stories Copyright 2019 by their respective authors who grant the Chronicles Network the non-exclusive right to publish them here.

The complete rules can be found at RULES FOR THE WRITING CHALLENGES.
Contest ends at 11:59 pm GMT, July 23, 2019
Voting ends at 11:59 pm GMT, July 28, 2019

You do not have to submit a story in order to vote -- in fact, we encourage all Chrons members to take part in choosing a winner.

The Magnificent Prize:

The Dignified Congratulations/Grovelling Admiration of Your Peers and the challenge of choosing next month's theme and genre.

Theme:

THE ARTS



Genre:

SCIENCE FICTION


This thread to be used for entries only. Please keep all comments to the DISCUSSION THREAD.

We invite (and indeed hope for) lively discussion and speculation about the stories as they are posted, as long as it doesn't involve the author explaining the plot.


** Please do not use the "Like" button in this thread! **
 
Meadow Flowers in Primary Tones, Manhattan 2011

Her device disrupted power citywide, and the thousands transiting Times Square far below stopped and milled about.
Riotous colors for clothing and vehicles were omnipresent. She was proudest of manipulating the timeline so that colorful hats were the rage.
The Square’s occupants flowed together, their aspects melding, metamorphosing: red poppies, blue iris, daffodils – an Impressionistic painting.

She restored power. People moved, the meadow vanished.
From numerous timelines came her patrons’ telepathic approvals.

So, what’s next?
 
Priceless/Worthless

And so we come to tonight’s premier lot.

Please attend your holoscopes and gaze upon the exquisite little moon cxt788:epsilon, located within the Pentari System.
A most excellent example of a recently created BinkSci.

The opening bid on this item is five trillion Gallactic credits.
Do I hear six...


Sold! To the Abraham Corporation for 37.8 trillion Galla—

pooof!

Oh.
Excuse me one moment...
Yes, unfortunately the item does seem to have vaporised.
 
Blood On My Hands

The blade goes through my heart; I die.

David, starring as Helmut, bends over and delivers his lines. “Blood! The King’s blood is on mine hands!”

The curtain lowers to thunderous applause.


“Hit the juice!” A lever is pulled, my body convulses. My eyes open.

The doctor is taking my vitals. “You can’t keep doing this, John. Your body is giving out!”

“Today’s audiences want reality, Doc. This company does real better than any other!”
 
A Rocker's Worth More Undead Than Alive

“We’re going to shatter Billboard records with this!”

How could the record label president not be ecstatic? The reanimated corpses of Jim Morrison, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and George Harrison were in the booth, and they sounded fantastic, despite their decaying vocal chords and limbs.

Then, an intern ran into the control room, panicking. “Guys, Zombie Tupac is trying to eat the sound engineer again!”

The producer groaned. “Get the restraints. Even in death, Pac's uncontrollable."
 
THE FORGOTTEN SCREAM

Portal jumpin' from Edvard Munch's room, Caleb fell onto his own bed . Carrying the canvas, he sauntered downstairs.

Sizzling bacon smoked the kitchen out.

“Mum,” he said, showing her the painting, “if this doesn't make you pay for my art lessons, I don't know what will.”

“It's worse than what you normally draw. What is it? Slender Man?”

“No.” He flipped it 'round, and froze. Why was I excited to show her this crap!
 
The Secret Garden

On a Generational Ship constructed for streamlined efficiency, an extravagant oddity flourished, hidden behind the sea of green production plants. Ben had designed flower gardens before the Recruit........now he worked on crop yield. When he found the obsolete grow unit, he broke protocol, and created his masterpiece—a luxury of colour, texture and scent.

He shared this beautiful hideaway with his ship-born daughter, Mary. Here he would teach her the art of gardening.
 
Circles

Someone stole the plank.

No one found the ropes.

Dehydration and exhaustion put him in hospital for weeks...

By the time he came home, tabloids everywhere carried aerial shots of the wheat fields he'd scored with hard edged circles and motifs.

He recalled nothing, spoke to no one and returned to daily life.

But across the universe those that induced this episode observed his handiwork and with tested certainty they drew their plans against us.
 
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Technological Freedom of Movement

Immersed in the alternate existence of Neural Virtual Reality, Jane's alter ego was the world famous ballet dancer Olivia La Posstelier. Her extravagant nightly shows entertained millions across the globe. The freedom of movement the NVR gave her was in total contrast to the wheelchair bound existence she had in reality.

Each day's difficulties were overcome by her love of ballet and the sense of physical freedom the NVR gave her.
 
Musical Theatre in the 53rd Century

KILLEM: Now, Captain Gravity,
You face my victory!

GRAVITY: Don't you see,
It must be,
That your mistakes will repeat?

KILLEM: I make no mistakes!
Now the Earth quakes!
Watch Killem rise!
Over poison-filled skies!
Killem rules the- oof!

[GRAVITY zaps KILLEM with Atomo-Vaporiser.

GRAVITY: No, Doctor, you've failed;
And soon you'll be Space Jailed.
You only made fog
During your monologue;
Next time, don't speak.

[End Act II.
 
But Is It Art?

‘They called it Earth, once.’

‘Flark, what did they do to it?’

‘Refused to go renewable.’

‘Yarp. That’ll do it.’

The dead husk of the planet spun slowly in front of them, gradually revealing what they’d come to see. It had to be tens of thousands of kilometres tall, etched across an entire continent.

‘Makes you think, doesn’t it?’

‘Hmm. Has anyone confirmed it?’

‘Nah. But look at it. It’s gotta be a Banksy.’
 
A Batty Soliloquy

“I see things you would never consider. Assault craft trailing ripples in the concentric rings of Noiro. I observe psi glimmers dance in the twilight beyond the moons of the Resuahnnat Expanse. All these glimpses will be gone after lunchtime, like vaped wrappers in the recyc bin. Pris, I can now die.”

“Really, Roy? You’re about as perspicacious as the mindless impressionist clone they got to program that holo cube in the first place.”
 
The haiku of the Crocodile Wizard.

With arts in balance,
Elton John gains prominence;
And reigns evermore.
 
The War Within

Slash!

Her sword cut through the last goblin that terrorized the village.

"I want to be just like you, Valkyrie!" A kid gushed.

"You can be anything when you believe! Night!" Valkyrie grinned.

Suddenly, she went blind.


After 15 hours, the pod opened up as she grabs her crutches. She opens the empty fridge to the broken light she never fixed.

"You can be anything..." she giggled, returning to the world she created...
 
Necropolis Artsteroid


Asteroid inflated to citisised dimensions
Galeries, theatres, walkways, auditoria.
Exhibiting in luxury innovative pretensions
Potential revelations, revulsion, euphoria.

Music, dance, sculpture, gustative olfactory
Their automated mechanisms' final duty
Architechtural in smörgasbord, quite unsatisfactory
Maintaining alignment, reinventing beauty
Dreamless, the planet's fallen on hard times

No longer are creatives here, no longer they're designing,
Inventiveness becoming insufficient for survival.
Generational monstrosities, tradition of maligning
tradition - essential novelty preventing a revival
Of earlier generations' established crimes.​
 
All in the name of Science.
Earth 01/01/2020

Breaking news, art galleries , museums and collectors are claiming their most expensive paintings have disappeared.

Police around the globe say there have been no signs of any break ins.

***********************

Ship in orbit

“We did it Greg, let’s go home and solve a crime that’s puzzled experts for centuries. We’ll be famous"

“Still think it would be just as good admitting time travel is possible"

“I suppose but not as exciting “
 
On a scale like no other

The ship moved silently in the black of space, its captain unsure of when to stop.

“Just here captain.” The familiar voice of Loreto; galactic artist and influencer.

Loreto’s mind started to move the Nebula; the reds, oranges, browns and greys all set on a black background.

As time passed the galactic night gave way to a painting of epic proportion, born in the black of space was a masterpiece to be enjoyed by all.
 
A Future Conversation.

"What are you looking at, Zed?"
"A black and white photograph of the first man on the moon, Phi."
"Have you seen the film from the same period?"
"How come it took a thousand years before we colonised the moon?"
"Apparently it was all for the sake of art that we took so long."
"Although at that rate it could take us twice as long to colonise Mars."
 
Mid-credit sequence:

I am Witness: An AI, memory banks and telescopes, here between galaxies. Built to ensure our universe is known - each birth rejoiced, every death mourned.

Countless eons pass. Only a few, stubborn, species persist...

...galaxies redden, separate...

...fade.

It's over?

Um... there's writing, letters of darkness on the void:

We hope you enjoyed our tragi-comedy 'Universe'.
What!?
Cast, in order of...
Reactor dying, I hang on by sheer will: The director!? WHO'S-
 
From Under the Martian Yoke.

Peyr and Eva danced for their freedom, moving to a choreography years in the making.

Performing for Prince Maximillian of Tharsis, they painted a vast canvas of movement unlike anything seen before. Moved to tears, he willingly granted their freedom.

But liberty came with a price; loath to ever let them perform the dance for anyone else, Maximillian banished them from Tharsis dome.

Finally free, they stepped hand in hand into the frigid, airless desert.
 
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