Challenge #01805-D344: This Little Light... — Steemit
You’d think it was impossible to be cold when you’re watching your entire life go up in flames. But Sandra was. She’d woken up with someone dragging her out of the little wooden cottage that she had spent her life savings on, and kept her life mementoes in. Everything she owned. Everything she’d made.
Someone wrapped her up in a blanket. It was handmade. Quilt. Made out of ten billion tiny diamonds in a pattern that could either be a stack of cubes or a set of falling cubes, depending on which way the eye wanted to see it. Sandra saw starbursts in it. There was a cup of hot broth.
“Vegetable,” said the voice outside of her ability to focus. “Just in case you have a food regime.”
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Challenge #01736-D275: Children Are…
Magic is the science you don’t know yet. The science you already know is engineering. – @recklessprudence
The nature of magic is one of constant debate. Any sufficiently advanced technology can be indistinguishable from magic. Any sufficiently analysed magic can be treated like science. But, overall, anything that can not fit into the rules of science can be called magic.
Conjuring is always a good one. Making things, even temporarily, from thin air defies the laws of thermodynamics. Levitation defies the laws of physics. Science can take the molecules of a sow’s ear and transform it through laborious processes into a silk purse, but magic can do it in seconds with a simple transmogrification spell.
Which has lead, more or less, to the Magical Investigation Society.
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Challenge #01734-D273: Enough is Enough
I think I just hit that lovely level of rage and confusion where everything seems perfectly calm and rational. – @recklessprudence
Penny stood. The last straw had landed and this metaphorical camel was not going to have her back broken. She left her work behind her, and picked up the best, bludgeon-like object in the room, which happened to be her umbrella.
“Where are you going?” asked her co-worker, Lilly.
“Washington,” said Penny. “I’m going to beat some motherfucking sense into our elected representatives.” What she didn’t care to know when she said that was that the rest of her office heard her. And thought it was a bloody good idea.
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Challenge #01658-D197: Fallen From Grace
It’s like they used the power of righteous hatred the same way some people use the power of love. – @recklessprudence
Some hated him because he had committed treason and bragged about it. Some hated him because of what he had done to his wives. Some hated him because of what he said. Most hated him because of what he had done. They had cause to hate each other, but the hatred of the man who claimed to be their leader was the one thing that united them.
The Oligarch was uncomfortable on his throne to the point where he had fled the country, but that didn’t matter. His nation had armed themselves, and they were moving in for the kill. As he crossed borders, so did they. As he boarded ships, so did they. The Oligarch was not safe. He had alienated all but his nations enemies. In fact, there were very few, indeed, who would give him succour. And many of those, he brought with him.
At least, until they became inconvenient. Then, he traded their safety for his life. He didn’t care about the betrayal. He had never cared about anything but money and power. And now, without either, all he cared for was his continued existence.
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Challenge #01610-D149: Long Live the Leader
A single powerful person who is convinced of their own Rightness with no thought of introspection or means of restraint is dangerous, moreso to others than to themselves. – Anon Guest
Jack didn’t just believe in the Leader. He had a firm and unwavering Belief in the leader. Jack was wont to Believe with all his heart and soul. Though he still prayed to the God of the holy works, the Leader was the next best thing to a foretold coming. The Leader was the greatest man to ever live. The Leader was going to make this nation great. The Leader was going to fix everything.
Jack was so convinced that he convinced his family and friends. Most caught the fever, but some still little-b believed. But that was not a concern because the Leader was now in charge. The Leader was in the best place to fix everything that had gone wrong.
And the Leader certainly got things done.
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Challenge #01557-D096: Strange Fellows
They were canvassing house to house (try political candidate or party member).
“Oh! Oh! I think we might want to miss this one.”
The letter box was a suspiciously shaped blue object, the bin left out on the kerb was full of empty jammy dodger packets, and the clothes line, well it didn’t bear thinking about! – Anon Guest
Paula looked. Dangling in the breeze from the hills’ hoist were three Starfleet uniforms she recognised and potentially three more that she didn’t. Something frilly that could either be Lolita or Steampunk, depending on the accessories, and some strange shapes dangling from strings. One looked suspiciously like a human arm with a bite taken out of it. It was only the painter’s tape and the newspaper on the bite that prevented Paula from phoning the police about it.
“Complete weirdoes,” said Darren. “They’ll talk your ear off about everything, including funding space travel when we have enough troubles on Earth.”
“But,” said Paula, “you believe that we should all sort ourselves out, right? No handouts for freeloaders?”
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Challenge #01524-D063: Invisible Rebellion
They are the people who keep Organisations going, they step in, step up, or just help out how they can. A vast Army of ordinary people, old, young, able bodied or doing what they can when they can. If they are lucky, they get ‘petrol money’. – @knitnan
It was a nondescript interrogation room, but something about it told Lorraine that this particular interview room was underground. The taste of the air. The way the air conditioning sounded. The way the room felt. It all told Lorraine that she was far away from any mortal means of detecting. Any minute now, someone would tell her that she could scream all she liked, and that no-one would hear her.
A man in armani sat backwards in the steel chair opposite her. His large belly lapped either side. He had two burly guards, even here. Even with Lorraine in chains. “Don’t even bother trying to call for help,” said the very famous man in a very high position of power. "Nobody who can hear you cares.“ Well. At least he didn’t drop the old cliché. “You can scream all you like, it won’t do you any good.”
Lorraine refused to give him the satisfaction. “This is just the most recent in the long line of your mistakes, sir,” she said. “The Legion of the Invisible has protocols for anyone in a leader position going missing.”
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Challenge #01509-D048: The Fundraising Franger
This is an Aussie thing, you go to vote locally, and outside will be a barbecue set up selling snags (sausages), wrapped round with a slice of bread, onions and sauce, plus soft drinks. Fundraisers for good causes. No politics, just, “tomato or barbecue, Mate?” Those of us who are on diets or vegans usually donate the price of a ‘snag’. – Anon Guest
First, they came for the cake stall, and Valerie didn’t speak up because cake was a sometimes food, and there were far too many fat people coming to the polls. Including herself. She did not want the extra temptation of patriotic lamingtons to fund the school library or whatever.
Next, they came for the markets, and Valerie didn’t speak up because it was all people selling each other their household junk for a spare dollar. It was despicable and unclean. She could never be certain how much that anything sold there was broken or otherwise faulty.
Then they came for the raffles, and Valerie didn’t speak up because raffles were yet another form of gambling. Everyone knew that gambling was a drain on household budgets across the nation. Besides, the meat tray or gift basket was never worth it.
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Challenge #01478-D017: Popular Lies
Write about a false prophet. – @writeaboutnowblr
“And in the bright new age of reckoning, we will no longer have freeloaders sucking on the government teat,” preached the man in the large, bright suit. “There will be no need for government! No need for taxes! Those who can fulfil a need will do so, and those who need will be sated!”
The crowd cheered. Of course they did. It was a message they wanted to hear.
“In this way, and in this way alone, we will be a great nation, once more. We’ll send those who don’t belong back to where they do! We’ll get rid of _all_ the unstable elements! We’re looking out for number one! Who do we look out for?”
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Challenge #01408-C313: Razzle Dazzle
“Look! I don’t care how popular they are. I’m looking for a workhorse not a showpony.” – Anon Guest
Alas, Devin was the only one. The popular candidate won by a landslide. Well, sort of a landslide. The less popular candidate, the one who unfortunately told the truth about the sorry state that the nation was in, lost by a thin margin that was entirely taken up by the never-going-to-win third party candidate.
If only the voters had seen what Devin had seen.
There was a huge party, of course. And then the popular loudmouth actually attempted to fulfil his promises. He learned that he could not bully foreign nations as he bullied people. He could rattle his sabres all he liked, but the reality was more costly than the fantasy he projected.