I began, as I usually do, grandiloquently with this line: At the Kirklands' banquet on the fifth, I became acquainted both with the eldest son Geoffrey and with the family's deepest, darkest secret.

To which Mysty responded in suitably Arthurian fashion:


Not to be undone, EsBe asserted: The underlings figured out the Clone-o-Matic--AGAIN--so we had to put them down.

or

Captain of curiously compact countenance commands crowd of contented cadets. Courageous cavalier, cutlas crimson, corners the congregation in castle court. Connotation: coming carnage.

Thinking unaccountably of Wonka, Skimba drew this concoction from the ether:


As anyone might expect, EvilJekyll concluded that: Wonka's fish cum clone machine seems to be malfunctioning. It's a veritable bloodbath as Wonka tries to fix the machine before any more unnecessary fatalities are incurred.

Reaching the very limits of his madness, Enty produced this evocative desert landscape:


With ruthless meticulousness, James announced: The five misshapen pink suns cast their heat mercilessly down on the featureless desert. A Zārxxiszian, blood streaming from his eyes and mouth, turned his gaze skyward and let out a cry of unfathomable anguish. Also his nose was bleeding and his hands were kind of bloody. Behind him, the purple police officer (complete with classic British constabulary headgear) inspected the control panel on the side of the cryogenic device. As he did so, the device ejected further Zārxxiszians on its long tongue of overcooked bacon (American-style). The device was an enormous fish. Monday was always such a drag, the Zārxxiszian reflected.

An assertion which lead Null far beyond the reaches of our universe and into one far more visually arresting:


Undaunted, SYG recognized the characters and plot at play in this scene: Birdcage Appleface watched his alien skeleton be washed by the sunset waterfall while he went to work on his steampunk fishboat. This alien world had four big virus moons, but he figured to have his ship running again in no time....

A statement which happily lead Chrism to our tale's happy ending:


~Fin~

Wow. Excellent work from everyone (if I do say so myself). I've really missed doing these.

Congrats to everyone, this one is great.

jvcc wrote:Not to be undone, EsBe asserted: The underlings figured out the Clone-o-Matic--AGAIN--so we had to put them down.

or

Captain of curiously compact countenance commands crowd of contented cadets. Courageous cavalier, cutlas crimson, corners the congregation in castle court. Connotation: coming carnage.

Incredible. I wish such inspiration had found me.

That said, I wasn't pleasantly surprised/irreversibly horrified by the nightmare vision you produced, Null. I wasn't expecting something quite so vivid. Good stuff.

Spectacular all around!

I've been looking forward to this a lot.

Firstly, that's a hell of a bit of alliteration from EsBe, very impressive. I think making a small contribution to that line might be my most noteworthy achievement to date.

The whole thing then went delightfully mental. Enty's picture had me laughing at the computer, but I enjoyed everything here. Null's drawing may actually be an all time high for telepics as a whole.

I loved EsBe's line. Also James's line. The clincher was the succinct clarification: 'The device was an enormous fish.'

Man, this was so much fun to see altogether. It went off the rails so much more consistently than usual, where three or four scenes will have multiple elements in common throughout. Craziness. Also, a massive hat-tip to Null.

This one was great, and I'm pleased at how quickly it all came together. Nice work, everyone!

ntw3001 wrote:The clincher was the succinct clarification: 'The device was an enormous fish.'

Long florid prose followed by unflinchingly prosaic description: a joke I like so much I employed it twice in my description.

On reviewing the results a second time, it seems like EJ was daring Nick to read "fish cum clone machine" the other way. Devoid of clarifying hyphens, it invites obscene misinterpretation.

Finally, NULL, was there any impetus for the caged apple thing in your picture? Or did you feel the line you were provided was lacking in detail? I enjoy it, but I don't understand it.

Then again, perhaps Zārxxosz isn't to be understood.

was there any impetus for the caged apple thing in your picture?

Generally when I interpret a line, I try to put all the elements in. Sometimes those elements get altered either so they'll fit into a framework, or because it looks cool, or because it makes me laugh.

In the case of Birdcage Appleface (I love the name), I needed to represent the purple policeman but I didn't want to do so straightforwardly, because I didn't want to push the narrative in a "story" direction, ie, here's the policeman about to arrest a bacon-and-egg being. So I borrowed a bit from another project just to keep the flow from gelling too quickly. I'm pretty sure that doesn't answer the question...

The Original Birdcage Appleface:

I will say when I got Null's pic I asked my wife to describe it to see what she would come up with. It was her inspiration that decided the moons were giant viruses, but her usual response was along the lines of "This is a game? Really?"

Drawing the virus moons was my favorite part.