Challenge #02547-F357: Now There Be Dragons
Waking up in the forest with a splitting headache, they realized something hit the car at tremendous speed. They awakened to finding in their lap a large, greenish-blue, egg. They had no idea where it came from but they carefully held it while scrambling out of the car and fleeing into the forest. They’d smashed the cell phone they’d been forced to carry, stolen the car, and fled from their very abusive foster-parents knowing that the foster-mother had probably called the cops by now. Hiding in a cave, a place that was very hard to get to so no one else knew it was here, they sat to catch their breath. Tears flowing down stained cheeks from eyes blackened from the most recent beating dripped onto the warm egg and, suddenly, there was a strange popping noise. The shell shattered and into their lap a young dragon rolled out. The pain lasted only a moment as an almost tribal pattern formed on the upper arm and the dragon looked up at their chosen friend and gently nuzzled the tear-stained cheek. In their mind they heard the dragon’s soft voice whisper “It’s alright, you’re not alone anymore, it’s been a long, long time, but we’re coming back.” – DaniAndShalli
This is yours and it ain’t got no credit. You answer in three rings no matter when I ring or I’ll kill whoever you’re with when I find you. Those had been Uncle’s words. Lee didn’t doubt it. She kept it in a special pocket next to her skin so she could feel it even when it was too noisy to hear anything. Uncle would kill anything Lee got close to. A dog, a cat, a little bird that came for table scraps. If he caught her talking to it, it was dead.
She hadn’t been allowed to speak to anyone for anything else than business or school and school was a dangerous grey area. Only Uncle was allowed to know her phone number. It was an old-model push-button thing with barely an LED screen and she caught hell from the Popular Girls for owning it. She had had plans to make Uncle actually kill Maisy Hanbury by not answering when they were hanging out together, but Uncle had only threatened them with death if he caught them trying to “lesbo her up” again.
Nothing ever worked in Lee’s favour, so she had run. Not to a boy, not to any girls. She just packed what she knew wouldn’t be missed and waited until Uncle got good and drunk before she stole his third-best car. The one he usually used as a marker for his games. She could drive it until the gas ran out and then just leave it wherever and run. Lee had no plan, no money, and no clue what to do next. She had the clothes on her back, the stuff she’d crammed into a garbage bag, and the phone strapped to her arm. Oh shit! The PHONE!
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Challenge #02546-F356: The Piracy Solution
The incidents of piracy were dropping dramatically since humans came on the scene. It wasn’t that noticeable, at first, but it soon became ever more apparent. The fighting prowess, and sheer terrifying ferociousness, of humans in battle was considered a part of the issue, but the odd thing was, many pirates were now giving up piracy for more honest, and often more profitable, trades. And almost always it was after tangling with humans. A study now was being conducted. Were humans, with their combat skills, to blame for this? Or was it their ability to pack-bond with all other species? Or was something else at work here? – Anon Guest
But many a king on a first-class throne, If he wants to call his crown his own, Must manage somehow to get through More dirty work than ever I do – Ancient Human Opera concerning piracy [AN: Thanks to elyrics.net ]
The Galactic Alliance is not an empire. Not exactly. The problem with empires is that they have to keep expanding their borders until they become too big for one centralised organisational structure to manage, and therefore fail and fall as all empires must. It is, however, a loose conglomeration of interstellar polities who have decided to put aside the various means of combat in favour of swapping cool things with each other in a system of mutually assured assistance.
It’s amazing how many Human polities have trouble with this concept. They’re Deathworlders. They can’t help thinking of things in terms of who has the biggest and most fearsome means of destruction ready to hand. Fortunately, there are plenty of instances of self-sacrifice being the ultimate noble act in Human lore to gently remove any fingers from any associated triggers.
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Challenge #02545-F355: Up to Interpretation
“A blade forged of the blood of my prey” does not necessarily mean humans!
the Chosen One runs off to a become a butcher while the apparition sputters angrily – Gallifreya
Prophecies are funny things. When a child is born, they are lucky to get a prophecy that seems straightforward enough, until the inevitable twist at the end. A son prophesied to see the end of his father may only be there to witness those final moments, but if the father attempts to kill the son first, they set off a chain of vengeance that results in the same thing.
Therefore, when Bon was prophesied to forge a blade made of the blood of his prey, people around him naturally thought that he was going to become some conquering destroyer. So when the phantom came to tell him the prophecy, Bon came to a similar conclusion for all of five seconds.
Then he remembered that wording was important with prophecies. “Can I have that again, please? The exact words?”
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Challenge #02544-F354: High Offensensitivity Rating
There was a cosplay event, the hotel didn’t ‘bother’ catering for food or drink separately. Lunch Break! – Anon Guest
Among the many mistakes the organisers made was to hold a high-nerditry event in an extremely non-nerdy city. On the other hand, the place was usefully central to all available modes of transport. The conservative citizens were busy holding protests near the main convention entrance and the hotel complex wished to deny to everyone else that they were holding host to weirdos.
There were people dressed up as animals. There were people dressed up as monsters. There were people dressed up as demons, and that was way too much for the conservative general populace to face in -say- the Hotel’s free buffet. The hotel really should have thought about that before indulging the staff’s reluctance to bring an entire convention the fruits of a proper dining hall. Food and beverages laid out before the weirdos arrived en masse… quickly ran out as hungry hordes of cosplayers descended on the limited offerings.
Then someone said, “There’s a free buffet downstairs off the lobby,” and the hungry multitude charged downstairs. Vampires, robots, demons, elves, heroes, villains, and fur-suited creatures in all hues achievable by makeup and mankind. Everything strange, unfamiliar, and foreign to conservative minds came swarming down to the more public buffet zone.
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Challenge #02543-F353: Good Kitty
A nonhuman deathworlder learning about major depressive disorder and suicidal ideation from a human so used to suffering from those that they treat the loss of their medication as an inconvenience, and apologize to the poor sap they got stranded with while they ask them to keep an eye out for self destructive behaviors.
“So, I’ve only got a few days worth of my meds, and it’ll be at least a couple of weeks before we get rescued. Mind keeping an eye on me so I don’t off myself?” – Anon Guest
Human brains can be sensitive organs prone to disorder. Thraak knew this on an intellectual level. Humans had all sorts of things that could go wrong with their ever-profitable, yet squishy brains. Ze had not known until Human Gar told hir that he had some troubles with his own vulnerable organ.
They were in the middle of jury-rigging a life-boat to get off the planet they had accidentally become stranded on through a series of bad mishaps and accidents. They were both determined to prevent anything further, but Human Gar had re-sorted their inventory and muttered, “Aw, flakk.”
There was a problem. Of course. Humans tended to downplay those things for the ease of their companions. Nevertheless, ze had to know what the problem was in order to defeat it. “If it’s something I need to worry about, I need to start now. Please.”
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