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Second Annual Air Kraken Festival Aug. 11th-25th

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Festival-long Events:

Festival Merchandise Cart: An open air market cart at the Port Babbage docks filled with festival themed wares, food and games for festival goers to take and purchase.

Air Kraken Exhibit: An exciting and intriguing natural history exhibit by Kimika Ying focusing on air kraken at Melnik Air Park behind Portside Books in Port Babbage.

Air Kraken Target Practice: Located on the docks of Port Babbage. Come safely test your shooting skills against the miniature-airship towed air kraken drones.

Iron Bay Chef: Get ready for a special event that promises to reveal who is hungry for power and who is just hungry! See the linked post for details: http://cityofnewbabbage.online/reader/node/5737

SuperVillain Try Outs: Now is the time for those of you with a maniacal laugh, tyrannical motives and an aptitude for making minions to step into the spotlight. The contest is going to be held entirely on the BAR ( http://cityofnewbabbage.online/reader/ ).

There will be three posts/events for hopefuls to compete in:
1-Monologuing: Take this opportunity to toot your own horn. Tell us what makes you deserve the SuperVillain title. What are your plans for taking over? Why should we all bow and accept your greatness?
( http://cityofnewbabbage.online/reader/node/5778 )

2-Fashion Show: Presentation is key. Show others who is in charge by how you dress. Submit at least one picture of your attire, accessories, and any other finery you wish to use to display your power. (Maximum number of pictures per participant is three.)
( http://cityofnewbabbage.online/reader/node/5779 )

3-How to Get One’s Way (Dealing with Hecklers/Bribery): There will be hecklers in the life of a SuperVillain. There will also be all of the weak-minded fools who you will bend to your will through bribery (possibly the contest judges, one may never know). Explain in detail how you intend to inspire the masses and deal with naysayers (including your competition).
( http://cityofnewbabbage.online/reader/node/5780 )

There will likely be cash prizes involved, but the grand prize is the title of this year’s SuperVillain! Mwahahahaha! *cough*

Black Ink and Bold Tales Writing Contest: At the core of each Air Kraken is a well of deepest blackest ink. Pick up your quill, dip into the source and pen your poem or tale of adventure. All creative writings about these legendary beasts of the skies are welcome.

No minimum word-count, but please, no longer than 1,500 words. Submissions will be accepted the entire two weeks of the Air Kraken Festival, either by notecard to Ceejay Writer, or email to ceejay@cocoajava.com. After the festival, a panel of judges will choose the winners in these categories: Truly Terrifying Tale (horror), You’re Kraken Me Up (humor), Surprise from the Skies (cleverest) and Misunderstood Monsters (Pro-Kraken viewpoints), as well as one overall winner, the Tantamount Tall Tentacle Tale.

Plans are afoot to publish all entries in some form of anthology for everyone’s enjoyment afterwards. Submission of your entry shall indicate your agreement to this project.

One Time Events:

H.G. Wells/ Air Kraken Festival Opening Party: Please join us Saturday, August 11th 6:30-9:00pm SLT at The Gangplank as we celebrate the opening of the 2nd Annual Air Kraken Festival, in honor of H.G. Wells. All attire is welcome, but please feel free to break out your air kraken hunting gear or best Wellsian finery! Victor Mornington will be our DJ.

Closing Party: Come celebrate the close of the festival on Saturday, August 25th at 7-9pm SLT on the roof of Portside Books in Port Babbage. Dress in your best air pirate/air kraken fighting attire/festival attire. Dance, drink and be merry as Blackberry Harvey spins tunes.

-Please contact Sky Melnik if you have any questions or ideas concerning the festival.

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8 Comments

  1. Sky Melnik Sky Melnik August 24, 2012

    *stands on a soapbox and puts on her best announcer voice*

    Less than two days left for the Festival! Don’t miss out! Haven’t entered that contest that caught your eye? Haven’t had a chance to go visit the vendor cart or try your hand at target practice? Have yet to see Kimika’s awe-inspiring exhibit? Get Kracken!

    *steps off the soapbox and grabs her gun, stalking to the target practice area, then runs back, hopping up on the box for a brief moment, balancing on one leg*

    Oh, and hope to see you at the closing party!

    *runs off to go shoot some fake air kraken*

    • Sky Melnik Sky Melnik August 25, 2012

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  2. Ceejay Writer Ceejay Writer August 24, 2012

    There’s still time to enter Black Ink and Bold Tales!   As it stands now, I won’t need a judging committee.  One entry received!  Do you really want…. *reads authors name and gasps*  …. HIM to win?  *is so flustered she wanders off, neglecting to mention the name*

     

  3. Ceejay Writer Ceejay Writer August 27, 2012

    I’ve received a good handful of stories for the Black Ink and Bold Tales contest now!  Stay tuned for winner results later this week!

    (RL, 50,000 students just converged on my campus and they need to be tamed first. Got a whip? And some shackles?)

    • Ceejay Writer Ceejay Writer September 1, 2012

      Thank you all for your patience while the typist helped get 50,000 students settled in to university! And barricade her building against the first football game (and tailbiters, er, tailgaters) of the season!  All part of they fun of working for a Big Ten University.  She’s recovered most (not all) of her brain cells now, and having tended to various tasks, finds the Black Ink and Bold Tales writing contest now at the top of the list! 

      And you don’t want to hear any further blather from me. So without further ado! 

      Truly Terrifying Tale (horror): Jedburgh30 Dagger’s “Kraken Story”

      You’re Kraken Me Up (humor): Arnold’s tale, “A Sip of Krakaccino”

      Surprise from the Skies (cleverest): Arnold’s tale, “Joining the Migration”

      Misunderstood Monsters (Pro-Kraken viewpoints): No qualifying entry! Please try harder next year, Babbagers! 

      And the Overall Winner, the Tantamount Tall Tentacle Tale: Tepic Harlequin’s “The Air Kraken and the Flying Vole”

      I encourage all to consider submitting their tales to Maceholder Aeoleus Cleanslate for inclusion in his second volume of Tales Of New Babbage (assuming it’s still on his (clean)slate!) and sharing them with the BAR crowd as well.

      Due to aforementioned 50,000 students arriving via tsunami, and other real life challenges, I honestly can’t recall what I offered as the prize! And so I shall send $L2,000 to Tepic for his Tantamount Tall Tentacle Tale, and encouragle all to clamor obnoxiously to the others to make them share their stories!  

      Thank you everyone! *falls over*   *is carried off by a Kraken*

       

       

       

  4. Tepic Harlequin Tepic Harlequin September 1, 2012

    The Air Kraken and the Flying Vole

    This is the tale of Tepic Harlequin, a young kitsune urchin, and Mr Arnold, a humanoid cat, and their encounter with an Air Kraken. They are currently flying between New Babbage and Mondrago on an urgent mission using The Flying Vole, an unlikely airship made from an inflated Giant Vole skin, a washing basket, and various parts scrounged from the streets of New Babbage……..

    The airship chugged along gently through the beautiful clear blue sky, the sea shining below them, several thous… well, quite a way down, the craft not being fitted with an altimeter it was difficult to say. That was part of the reason the two companions were sitting at opposite ends of the basket, not looking at each other and with an uncomfortable silence filling the void. It had started when they left the City environs and hit the cooler air over deep water. Not being used to flying beyond the thermals and warm City smog, Tepic had been unprepared for the change, and the Vole had plummeted to sea level before he had managed to pump enough hot air into the bag to stabilize their flight and gain altitude again. They had both got wet feet as waves licked at the bottom of the basket and it was only by good luck that they had not crashed. Then, as they rose again, relieved and recovering from their fright, Mr Arnold had asked how high they were….. That began a discussion on what should be basic equipment in any airship, such as barometers, altimeters and, more importantly, a compass, with the defence being that in the City there was no need for such things as everyone knew how high City Hall and all the major buildings were, and where the good thermals were. It ended with wounded pride in a small craft and exasperation in not having been told, the two friends both in high dudgeon and not speaking.

    It was in this situation that the journey was continuing, when Tepic glanced to the side. In the far distance was a small speck flying at about their height, on a course to intercept theirs. He looked forwards to the back of Mr Arnold’s head, then back at the other craft – it had grown perceptibly, and he could now make out the basic shape, with what looked like a fringe of thick ropes dangling from the front. The realisation of what it was dawned on him.
    “Errrrrr….. Mr Arnold?” he tentatively asked, and the cat turned stiffly towards him, “i think we got company…..”.
    The cat slowly looked in the direction of the pointed finger, glanced back at the boy, then back in horror at the approaching creature.
    “An Air Kraken! It has to be the size of City Hall!” he cried, looking back at the boy he asked “Can we outrun it?”
    “Don’t think so, Mr Arnold, but we can try! Stoke up the boiler, we need all the steam we can get!”

    The two worked furiously, building pressure for the jets, and dodging across the sky as fast as they could, trying to lose their pursuer, all to no avail. The huge creature had fixed on them as the only thing of interest, and it was overhauling them at a tremendous rate. Finally, with it’s tentacles mere yards behind them, Tepic yelled out that it was useless, and he was going to try something. To Mr Arnold’s dismay, his youthful pilot spun the small craft on it’s axis, and flew directly towards the monster’s gaping maw! At the last moment, he pulled on a rope, releasing hot air from the bag. The airship dropped like a stone, the two occupants lifting up from their seats, then came to a stop directly under the belly of the beast. The Kraken moved from side to side, tentacles sweeping the air in front of it, searching for it’s prey, puzzled as to where it had gone.
    “What happened?” exclaimed Mr Arnold, sprawled on the bottom of the basket, paws still grasping the rim, claws piercing the edge. Tepic motioned to him into silence, indicating they had to keep as quiet as possible, as he manuvered the ship to match the movement of the Kraken. Then he leaned close and whispered “it’s a trick i heard in Ahab’s, one of the old hunters talking about it… you head right at it, then, just before it can bite you, you get to a place it can’t see you, then you duck down and under it…. and it worked!”
    “You heard in a bar, a story, and you didn’t know….” groaned the cat. The fox-tailed boy sat back, grinning in satisfaction at his ruse, still concentrating on keeping his craft in position, not really aware his friend was stunned by his course of action.

    They kept position under their potential nemesis, who was now drifting with the winds, for about an hour, then Tepic let them fall away, dropping along the length of the Kraken’s body, intending to let it leave them behind.

    Of a sudden, the boy glanced up at the creature’s flank, and waved Mr Arnold close.
    “It’s a lady Kraken! Grab them buckets and hang them on the edge of the basket!” he whispered excitedly. The cat was confused, but did as he was asked, then grabbed tight to the basket edge as the airship lifted, bouncing against the Kraken above them.
    “What the….!!” he exclaimed, “you’re letting it know we are here!”
    “Don’t worry, Mr Arnold, it ain’t going to bother us, not tapping it there, see the big orange spot? It’s where baby Kraken hit to make their mum give milk!”
    “…..milking …. Kraken…. you’re kidding, right?”
    Sure enough, after several taps a valve opened, showering them with a thick, warm white liquid, filling the buckets and the bottom of the basket. Tepic slammed lids onto the buckets gleefully, then stored them safely under the seats as Mr Arnold grimaced in bewildered, soggy dismay.

    As they were re-positioning under the Kraken, Mr Arnold noticed they were lower than before, considerably lower. He pointed this out to Tepic, who agreed they were going down towards the sea, and that the Kraken seemed to be casting round, looking for something. There was nothing they could do but stay where they were while it was so active, and the both watched as the waves rolled by closer and closer! They were less than twenty feet from the water when their decent halted, and the Kraken dipped it’s massive tentacles deep into the sea, sweeping them to and fro. Sea water splashed back over them as the tentacles dipped and lifted, then, suddenly, the whole front of the creature dipped towards the waves, and the Flying Vole was almost pushed under. Desperately Tepic hauled on lines, trying to keep them airborne, and so he missed the first glimpse of the titanic struggle going on before them.
    “A whale!” yelled Mr Arnold, “It’s caught a whale!”
    The boy peered forward, his efforts halted in surprise. Then he saw it too, entangled in the tentacles was the still struggling body of a large whale, slowly rising above the surface of the water. They watched in astonishment as the whole tableau lifted into the air above them, water streaming down, until it vanished into the distance.

    “Well…” said Tepic eventually, “That’s something you don’t see every day, marvellous, wasn’t it?”
    “Terrifying. But…it was amazing.”
    His small companion nodded his head, still gazing skyward in awe.

    This concludes the companion’s encounter with an Air Kraken, what else occurred has been alluded to elsewhere, and may someday, be recounted in full.

  5. Lisabeth Nikolaidis Lisabeth Nikolaidis September 1, 2012

    Why Master Tepic, this story is Ace! I had no idea you were living such an adventurous and dangerous life at such a young age,and you have described it so beautifully that one can smell the salt air and feel the wind of flight in one’s own face. Also I am very surprised to learn that mother Krakens give milk, just as warm-blooded creatures, such as whales, do. Most fascinating! Mr Darwin would be interested, I’m sure. Kudos and Congratulations to you Master Tepic!

  6. Ceejay Writer Ceejay Writer September 1, 2012

    Might I also share a little something I received from a charming Babbager? I would consider this in 2nd place in the Your Kraken Me Up category:

     

    The Kraken – not by Ogden Nash (from a notebook
    discovered by Beq Janus) 

    The squid if I am not mistaken,

    when airborne, is known as the kraken. 

    The Cephalopod cults revere his tentacles their churches
    adorned with squidly pentacles 

    We writers, however, gaze upon him and think, “There
    floats a lifetime’s supply of ink.”

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