This is an entry for @vermillionfox's #foxtales contest.
It should be obvious, but that is @vermillionfox's art that is to be the inspiration for the story. My apologies if I've embedded it the wrong way or something.
Sluice. Calm. Congenial. A watershed outward projection pushing out out mirrored. In the mirror. Myself? My reflection? Me? Fully me? Perceived me? What blue project pushes forward from myself into myself. Into the world. Into oblivion yet permanent momentarily. I create what I perceive to be myself, in blue, in gray, mirrored, swapped, static as I look upon it. Fleshed. Painted. Promulgated as fact. Truth? Self-truth? A deception beyond my own comprehension as creator and created. Seen, surely. Misidentified. UFO. A skin showing self outwardly projecting inwardly scrambled scared screaming. Thoughts rivulets paint drips brush strokes screams. Nausea. Half hidden half true half human half. Waterfalls. Tears? Tears. Rips. RIP. Torn away too soon. Niagara. Sluice.
I decided to go with something a bit different today - a bit more stream-of-consciousness. Basically I saw the vertical stroke on the portrait and thought of water and then thought of the idea of it being a self-portrait. While it's not exactly Joyce's "Selfportrait of the Artist as a Young Man", you can see what gears were turned in my brain.
I might submit something a bit more traditional. h/t to @calluna for alerting me to this contest.