December 2011 challenge: "Don't Look Back"

[Cobalt Frost]

Thanks to St. William of Levittown (Rush Limborg) for the great November challenge, and to Gul Re’jal for the fierce competition. And now, the challenge for December:

(http://instantrimshot.com/index.php?sound=drumroll)


Everyone, no matter how they’ve lived their lives, seems to have one or more skeletons in their proverbial – or literal, if you’re feeling particularly gruesome – closets. A place, a time, a person, or a thing; there’s something in their past that they want, with varying degrees of desperation, to avoid. The challenge this month is to tell a story of the characters’ efforts to run from, hide from, evade, or escape whatever is haunting them. While not a holiday-themed challenge, it certainly may be a holiday-related event that’s the thing being avoided. I’d like to see stories focus on the efforts to avoid the ‘skeleton(s)’ rather than any resolution of said issues, or at least focus more on the avoidance until and/or unless the characters get cornered and/or can’t run any more. So let the race begin, and remember: Don't. Look. Back!


And now, The Rules:

• Word limit: 10,000 words max, with a little wiggle room above or below. I'm hoping the theme generates some really meaty stories.
• Story must be original for this month’s challenge, nothing posted here before please.
• Let’s keep the challenge in the Trek arena, canon or your personal fic.
• Only complete stories will be eligible; finishing the story before posting it is a good idea.
• Post a link to your entry in this thread when you’re done.
• Contest to run until midnight (US Eastern Standard Time) December 29th, with voting to follow from Dec. 30th to January 2nd 2012.

Any questions can be directed to me here or via PM.

Allons-y!!

[Gul Re'jal]

My characters have a lot of skeletons hidden everywhere, so I might have a hard time to choose whose story to tell

A question: is the minimum word limit necessary?

[Cobalt Frost]

Necessary? Nah, probably not. Let me fix that... and done.

[Gul Re'jal]

Thanks! I'd rather concentrate on my story plot than if I could write the minimum and check the word count with each paragraph

[Cobalt Frost]

No problem. Cardassians do seem to generate more than their fair share of skeletons, though, don't they?

[Gul Re'jal]

What do you mean?

[Nerys Ghemor]

Hmmm...I think I know a character or two of yours that would be ideal.

Unfortunately I don't think it would work with my characters, because surprisingly enough, my characters don't tend to be the avoidant types, even the sensitive ones.

[Rush Limborg]

Hmm...this should prove most...interesting....

I don't see Ezri going through this sort of thing--so no chance of using her, here.

Julian Bashir's Big Secret is already out and known....

But let's see--I wonder if...

[Gul Re'jal]

Maybe Ezri doesn't have secrets...but Dax?

[Cobalt Frost]

Dax and secrets? Now THAT's a juicy can of worms (pun intended) to dig into...

Also, nice to see my challenge topic seems to be a popular one. Can't wait to see what comes up for voting this month!

[CaptainSarine]

What a great theme! I have a number of characters in the Restoration universe (Ba'el, Kalara, Jasto, etc.) who have lots of skeletons they would like to avoid. I may have to scurry off to think about this one some more.

Good challenge, Cobalt Frost!

[Thor Damar]

Cobalt Frost wrote:

---

No problem. Cardassians do seem to generate more than their fair share of skeletons, though, don't they?

Cardassians don't keep skeletons, we just burn them and...

{looks around with hooded eyes}

Never you mind, what a Cardassian does with his own secrets is a concern only for him and the State. (and sometimes the State can get very, very interested indeed)

[Cobalt Frost]

Can we get this thread stickied, please?

[Nerys Ghemor]

You may need to PM Trippy.

[Cobalt Frost]

D'oh! I should have thought of that.