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Amalgam Universe

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Challenge #01507-D046: In Memorium

No matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra. - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

Official reports be damned. There was a way she wanted to be remembered, and that is how those who loved her reported it. All over the world. Even in the news. They named the official cause, but added, "she wanted it known that she drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra."

It was poetry, and it persisted. For as long as they loved her. Which was a shockingly long time.

"Did she really," said Shayde, evidently playing 'catch up' during her daily shift in her Ambassadorial offices.

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Challenge #01504-D043: Puzzling Piece

“And when you’re young you want to fit in. Hell, I still want to fit in with certain [sophonts], but as you get older you get a little more discriminating.” - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

Even when he didn't have the words for it, Rael knew that he was different from his creche sibs. They were able to do more, work more efficiently. They didn't need as much of the hosts of chemicals they regularly added to Rael's mostly-liquid body. They

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Challenge #01504-D043: Self-lost Man

“I don’t feel very much like Pooh today,“ said Pooh.

“There there,” said Piglet. “I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.” -- Anon Guest

Ax'and'l found his human business partner in an odd position in the hallway. His legs were up the wall, and the rest of his body was sprawled across the floor. "You are not due for Silly Season, yet. Are you unwell?"

"I'm not sure. I'm not feelin' myself."

"In a public area? I should

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Challenge #01503-D042: One Dull Afternoon in an Ambassadorial Office

“I feel I’m very sane about how crazy I am.” - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

Rael slowly turned to glare at Ambassador Shayde. She had said this out of the blue, apropos of nothing, and continued browsing on her personal screens as if nothing had ever happened. He took an educated guess, "Quote of the day?"

"Twitter feed," said Shayde. "That's definitely sommat I missed out on. One hundred and forty letters tae say somethin' cool. Brevity bein' th' soul o'

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Challenge #01502-D041: Inconvenienced

“In my opinion, a problem derails your life and an inconvenience is not being able to get a nice seat on the un-derailed train.” - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

"This is an enormous problem," opined the Ambassador for Greater Deregulation (Second West). "ANd if we have a problem, then you're going to have a problem."

This sounded like a threat... but the logic behind it escaped Drixal. "I beg your pardon," she said. "I was under the impression that you needed vital

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Challenge #01500-D039: Guarded Mundanity

“There is no point at which you can say, ‘Well, I’m successful now. I might as well take a nap'.” - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

Success is the closest thing there is to perpetual motion. One begins by striving for it. Once it is obtained once, the struggle becomes to maintain it. After that, success becomes a higher rung. Higher and higher. Almost impossible to attain. With more people admiring and watching, there are higher standards from everyone.

Only those who

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Challenge #01498-D037: Pay Dirt

There's money in Muck. Points for referencing Harry King, he of the Golden River. -- Anon Guest

Recycling is de rigeur in space. Throwing something out into the void means having less of the thing that made it up in the first place. There's many a spacer who, setting foot on a planet for the first time, is astonished by rain, and water running down the gutters. Or, in the case of Earth, the trash mountains of the United States.

Spacers often

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Challenge #01488-D027: Unrealised, Unrequited, Unrecognised

“If [he][1] was unable to see that I had feelings for him (at least five, but sometimes as many as seven)…” - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

Lyr watched Ambassador Shayde attempting to flirt with Rael. The impossible force against an oblivious stone. There had been more than one instance of interspecies dating that floundered heavily on the sending a signal stage. And not merely because of cultural difference. Subconscious body-speak could cause the most inconvenient miscommunications.

One species' flirting is another's

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Challenge #01484-D023: Subtle Dangers

Why should I go crazy when I can just as easily wait for it right here. Who wants gum? - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

Something had to exist that did not like quiet, and M'prax was reasonably certain that it was the Ship's Human. The dangerous deathworlders had a reputation for being unstoppable protectors and, more to the point, profitable creatures to have. But they were also... well... deathworlders.

It was hard not to think of the being named Sally as an

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Challenge #01483-D022: Portents of Doom

“You know the bad thing about being a survivor… You keep having to get into difficult situations in order to show off your gift.” - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

"I wouldn't ordinarily complain about your... shenanigans," said the Cuidgari Security Chief everyone knew as Sherlock, "you have such a finely-tuned sense for skating on the borders of legality. But this is the third time this week. Are you bored, or have you and Rael had a... 'tiff' as you call it?"

"In

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Challenge #01482-D021: All the Luck

“If my life wasn’t funny, it would just be true, and that is unacceptable” - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

Kyle was a Lucker. One of the unfortunate few with the Luck gene. His bad luck was everyone's good, and vice versa. His 'range' was five Standard Distance Units, or he would be isolated on a small station just big enough for one. The universe, it seemed, liked balance.

Fortunately for Kyle, he had found an 'out'. He moonlighted as a stand-up

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Challenge #01481-D020: Carry the Light

'I don’t want my life to imitate art, I want it to be art." - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

Auntie Mame is famous for saying, "Life is a smorgasbord, and most poor souls are starving to death." But even she would believe that Taerl Vincetti was taking things a bit too far.

She could have been the living embodiment of vanity, were it not for her belief that her life was a performance piece for all who happened to be in

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Challenge #01480-D019: Facing Doubt

"Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow." — Carrie Fisher on pursuing dreams despite mental illness -- RecklessPrudence

Rael woke from his haze. His body hurt. That meant that the surgery had gone ahead. In lieu of recovering in an Intensive Care Patient Drawer[1], he and his warming tank were in a dimly-lit shelf in Medik Central. A young

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Challenge #01476-D015: Historical Hysterical First

the madness has begun -- MaxMundan

The Tri'li'ol had heard the news. Having a human aboard a vessel, especially a vessel in uncharted regions of space, was good luck. Even though they were Deathworlders, they were a statistical anomaly. They would pack-bond with the crew, adjust their interactions for the benefit of others, and generally behave themselves. And if one human aboard a vessel was good luck, then more had to be better.

And it worked. For a short time.

Nobody else

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Challenge #01474-D013: Stranded on a Hostile Planet

2157 A.D.

Captain’s Log: Alpha-Foxtrot-Lima - 1129.

It’s been 63 days and they have yet to realise that I am not one of them. -- Here-is-the-Story

This only shows that my disguise is effective, and my camouflage as well. These Deathworlders have no idea that I am not one of their species. This is well and good. As a pre-spaceflight civilisation, I have seen what they do to each other for the most trivial reasons. They are not ready

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