Should you choose to accept it

Ah, the old Mission Impossible thing.

Something a little different here at NAY today: I have an assignment for you, but only if you want it. Yes, I'm channeling old teevee shows here, because I rather liked how all that spy stuff went down in a terrifically passive-aggressive manner, and I can DO passive-agressive when necessary...

"Sure, go ahead and put yourself in danger, but only if you want to. It's not up to ME, really, it's all about you. YOU'RE the thrill seeker here, I'm just giving you a chance to get your jollies on. Oh, and you have ten seconds to decide what you're going to do."

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, poof.

Thinking on it a little, what do you think happened if Jim decided NOT to go on the mission? Who would go lolloping along to the very cool theme music THEN? Who would look sharp in a sharkskin suit and chiseled jawline if NOT Jim? Were there back-up Jims out there ready to go on an Impossible Mission if he simply didn't feel like it? Who was gonna save the world THEN, I ask you?

Nobody, that's who. We'd all be sunk.

Same goes for THIS mission. And while not impossible, it is up to you to decide if you want to take it or not.

Yes, I'm talking Wordsmiths again.

Just LOOK at the picture we have for this month's challenge, and tell me that you can't think of some kind of story to go along with it. It's a beaut, that much is for sure. By one of my favorite artists, if you must know. Yeah, I picked the pic, and I'm proud of it.

What's the dude doing? Who's crawling around up there? Why are the clouds brown? A cypress in the background...could this be somewhere in Italy? What's up with the eyeballs, anyhow? The helmet, is he spaceman or centurion?

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story of 500 words or less about this picture, and post a comment at wordsmiths saying that you wrote it (and how we can link to it).

Come ON, y'all; we have T-day and a weekend ahead. There's TIME. Time to think about this, to mull it over, to cogitate and form a thread of an idea that you'll weave into a story. Time to put the words down, count and rearrange, to buff up or pare back.

And, as a special one-time-only bonus, you have more than ten seconds......you, in fact, have until the end of the month.

Should you choose to accept this assignment, that is.