LITERATURE CHALLENGE YOURSELF: #3 - Conflict

Challenge Yourself is an official Snafu Literature forum contest. It operates on a three-week cycle, as explained below. As the title suggests, the idea is not to best each other, but to best yourself!

THEME
Conflict:
–verb (used without object)
1. to come into collision or disagreement; be contradictory, at variance, or in opposition; clash: The account of one eyewitness conflicted with that of the other. My class conflicts with my going to the concert.
2. to fight or contend; do battle.

–noun
3. a fight, battle, or struggle, especially a prolonged struggle; strife.
4. controversy; quarrel: conflicts between parties.
5. discord of action, feeling, or effect; antagonism or opposition, as of interests or principles: a conflict of ideas.


RULES
Only prose or poetry allowed. Works must conform with the Snafu Literature forum rules.
(Poetry is anything written in verse or with poetic construction rules. Prose is normal writing, i.e. fiction or nonfiction stories or essays.)

Entries must be created WITHIN the cycle time. You MAY NOT use anything you wrote last week, last month, last year, or ever before this cycle. These works may be posted as demonstration of the theme, but MUST be marked as previous work.

If your submission is over 2000 words, please print your work as a PDF and upload it to GoogleDocs or another site which allows sharing of files, then post the link to it here as your entry.

Multiple submissions are totally allowed. However, only the best will be judged. Please post each submission as a separate post.
Include a link to your literature thread, literature site, or other repository for works in your post or signature for easy reference for the judge.
Submissions must be related to the theme in some way. This is fairly open to interpretation, but it should be obvious to the reader how it relates.
The judge cannot submit contest entries.

Judging
Submissions will be judged by me (Hana). The criteria for judging are:
CREATIVITY, STYLE, VOICE, READABILITY (spelling, grammar, and coherence), THEME, and EFFORT. Please note that you are judged against YOURSELF (your previous demonstrated works) and not so much against each other! In this contest, a new writer who puts in a tremendous amount of creativity and effort can defeat an experienced one who has more skill and experience, but didn't push themselves. Further, breaking out of your usual style, or using different thematic elements than you are used to, and trying something new in general are also viewed favorably.

In other words, if you write a paragraph that took five minutes and/or you put no effort into it whatsoever, you won't make it in the top three, no matter how good you are.

Challenge Yourself currently has one judge: Hana. If you would like to be considered as a judge, please PM Hana.
Only one judge is in charge and judges a single contest, and any others may post submissions as all other contestants. The main judge may only post exhibition works, which do not count as entries into the contest. If the main judge is not able to end the contest, another may step in and end the contest and start the next. Their entries will then be considered exhibition works.

At the end of judging, first, second and third place will be posted with short critique, plus any honorable mentions at the option of the judge.

The Process
Challenges operate on a three-week cycle. The contest officially begins on

MONDAY: Contest begins, submissions accepted. Submissions will be accepted until the MONDAY after next, 2 weeks later. (Start: Monday, May 30)

MONDAY TWO WEEKS LATER: No more submissions accepted. Entries will be judged. An announcement will be made roughly 10-12 hours before the contest closes. Theme suggestions for the next challenge begin. (Submission period ends Monday, June 13, 9 AM, GMT -6, so try to finish Sunday)
Judges reserve the right to reject challenge suggestions based on vagueness, being too similar
to a recent challenge, or infeasibility.

FRIDAY: Winners will be announced. Voting for the theme for the next contest begins.

MONDAY: Next contest starts.

Good luck and have fun!

_________________

Official Forum Mom

"Tossing the Coin"
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The dawn before me,
'tis radiant yet shallow
to the dusk within.

Lo! at thine shadow.
lurking, but ever murking
thine beautiful face.

Wondrous still it's gaze,
that through such, light will there be.
Fucking irony..

Thy noble sibling
shines ever bright like the sun,
blinds many a thing.

Oh gracious template!
How many wise have you killed?
..ere the day begun.

Wherefore then our lot?
Cast into this pit of nill.
Confusion, it's name.

Seconds all the same,
The talking ticking-tocking
seemingly taunting.

Seething truth thou brings.
These two sides of the same coin;
one pocket to bear.

And thus it lays bare,
each road, each turn, each traverse..
The choice, whatever.


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Previous work is here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=29380
I had some poems before, but God knows where they are currently. Just count this as my first one.
Y'know what they say.. "live in the present" and all that.

Please link the new Lit thread when the old one is out of date. I keep starting these days behind other people because I forgot to check the literature board. D:

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Fenix13: Remember this well Gareth: With great power... comes hot bitches.

Garethcool: I WILL BECOME YOUR MANSLAVE.
Sam4books: That's the plan ;D

I am thick. What, exactly do you mean? Where would I be linking it at?

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Official Forum Mom

I believe he means this mi'lady.
Putting a link of this thread in the old one if I'm not mistaken.

...That would be smart! Thankee, Nox!

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Official Forum Mom

Damn, can't think of anything. I started something but I don't know how to continue. Most likely will pass *sigh*

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Conflict

A cry of defiance,
A roar of vengeance and hate
Is heard across the field
While men draw out their bloody blades
Like a thunderous chorus
Steel is met, merciless, pitiless
without regret they rend,
body, heart and soul, all that remains
is the crimson crescent
left in the memory of the butcher

Urgh...the last two weeks have been so busy, I completely forgot about this :[
Dammit.

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Hiryu: Doc's bag is a portal. She's actually from another dimension and when she jumped into it, she ended up at a desk with a browser open on this site. That's how she found it.
We have a Doctor Who thread now. Doctor Who threads are cool.

The entries seem to be mostly poems so far.

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Grivous.

I've got one, it's not quite complete yet. It'll be here before Monday hopefully.

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Fenix13: Remember this well Gareth: With great power... comes hot bitches.

Garethcool: I WILL BECOME YOUR MANSLAVE.
Sam4books: That's the plan ;D

Sorry, guys. Hectic week + no internet access this weekend requires me to push the deadline back.

New deadline is June 24th!

_________________

Official Forum Mom

Aha! I may still have a chance to get my entry in, then :)
Thanks for the extended deadline - I think we all need it.

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Hiryu: Doc's bag is a portal. She's actually from another dimension and when she jumped into it, she ended up at a desk with a browser open on this site. That's how she found it.
We have a Doctor Who thread now. Doctor Who threads are cool.

Mkay, so this is the week I will be judging entries. Yayyy. Make suggestions for next theme?

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Official Forum Mom

Well, as no one has made any suggestions, we're going to have a little break before the next CY.

And results will be late. Apologies for that.

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Official Forum Mom

What If we try Anime categories to create some literature?

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Grivous.

Anime categories...what?

My suggestions for the next CY (whenever it happens) are:
'Journeys', and 'Dreams'.

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Hiryu: Doc's bag is a portal. She's actually from another dimension and when she jumped into it, she ended up at a desk with a browser open on this site. That's how she found it.
We have a Doctor Who thread now. Doctor Who threads are cool.

My suggestions are 'Videogames' and 'technology'

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Fenix13: Remember this well Gareth: With great power... comes hot bitches.

Garethcool: I WILL BECOME YOUR MANSLAVE.
Sam4books: That's the plan ;D

"Day" and "Sorrow" are mine.

Actually, the categories rather exclusive to it anyway.

We also try mixing things up a little, say for example, your suggestions. Your suggestions actually can work together, as do Gare's Videogames and Technology (obviously.) Although If we did try two of your suggestions at once, then it would probably be Inception all over again. Almost anyway. Feels like Paprika kinda.

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Grivous.

Come on, best one would be dreams getting both votes. Then it WOULD be inception.

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Fenix13: Remember this well Gareth: With great power... comes hot bitches.

Garethcool: I WILL BECOME YOUR MANSLAVE.
Sam4books: That's the plan ;D

Sorry, guys. I'm stupid-uber-busy until the end of August. Post that, I may restructure how the challenges work.

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Official Forum Mom