Challenge

A 350-post collection

Challenge #00717 - A352: Pre-Luddite

The first cyborg hate crime probably happened around the time the first peg leg was ripped off with malice aforethought.

“Ereb… ka… heb…” Lynn dutifully wrote down the hieroglyphs and checked the translations. Her quest for extra credit had her translating old manuscripts that had been collected from, apparently, the dawn of time.

This was an ancient form of writing, from the super-early period of Egyptian civilisation, so translation was especially tricky.

She stretched the kinks out of her back and re-read over her translation.

It was a legal document. A court case.

And the earliest evidence of prosthetics.

Kef the Butcher bought his case against Horeb the Priest before Pharaoh himself. They had been through a number of lower courts, and the antagonism between the two arguing parties lead them straight to the living incarnation of Ra.

Horebb protested that the Gods had a plan for every living thing, and the fact that Kef had lost a finger and a half to a bumbling apprentice was part of the larger plan. Therefore, Kef had no business at all wearing  a strap-on finger and a special ring that replaced those lost digits. He should be proud of his scars and not rely on artifice.

Kef complained that he was still unmarried and, on the occasions that Horeb had stolen yet another set of replacement fingers, Kef noted that all his romantic overtures were more likely to be ignored. If the Gods had a plan for him, then why did all the offerings he made at the temple not grow his fingers back? The Gods had given him a brain and his brother a magnificent skill. Could they therefore not mean that Kef was entitled to wear his new hand pieces to win love?

Pharaoh listened in silence to them argue case and countercase. Finally, he held aloft his flyswatter and decreed thusly:

Horeb the Priest should no longer speak for the gods. He shall go into the desert to find clarity. And if death should find him before wisdom does, his wealth shall go to Kef the Butcher. If wisdom does find him, Horeb the Priest will therefore pay Kef the Butcher the full value of all the fingers he has stolen.

Lynn managed to get so much extra credit from her work that she managed to swing Salutatorian.

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Challenge #00716 - A351: As the Station Turns

Aliens of all kind discover Soap Operas, have fun with the adaptations and scripts and of course the fans. — knitnan

Serialised drama is nothing new. The fact that it invaded the known universe before the humans made themselves known is the only thing from stopping the accusing finger pointing at those dangerous primates. And there is a legend that some baffling ancient alien went around the universe and introduced infant species to the concept. But some people will say anything…

Even the

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Sonic Rainbows

Neil Harbisson’s TED Talk “I Listen to Colors” (I recommend checking it out first) is what inspired this submission idea, as did the phenomenon of synaesthesia.  What if, somewhere in your Amalgam Universe, there was an alien race out there for whom normal perceptions of color and sound were not like humans, but color and sound were interrelated - fashion was chosen for how it sounded rather than how it looked, portraits were heard symphonies, and music and speeches could be

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Challenge #00692 - A327: "Secret" Identity

A character wakes up next to their spouse, ready to start their day.  But… this person is not what they appear to be - what seems to be a normal person is just a disguise for their true self, a fearsome and powerful inhuman entity. The catch is that the spouse knows about this secretive disguise… but the entity doesn’t know the spouse knows, so still tries (a bit ineptly) to hide things. The spouse finds this too adorable to ruin

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Challenge #00688 - A323: Benevolent Anarchy

Just for shits and giggles, a Greater Deregulation that lives up to the name. Total meritocracy, ‘I don’t care what you do as long as you stay the Hell off my property’. In other words, a GD where ‘profit’ is equated not just to ‘money’, but also ‘personal freedom’. In other words, less Republican, more Libertarian.

Welcome to Greater Deregulation Nor-Northwest. No freeloaders.

Kell the Hitcher helped unload the cargo. This was as far as the freighter captain would take her.

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Challenge #00686 - A321: Peripatetic Commerce

Local union meeting for the owners of Little Shops That Weren’t There Yesterday, And Are Gone When You Try To Go Back, Local 37.

“Any new business?”

One hand went up. A relatively young hand in a forest of otherwise weird old people.

“Yes?”

“Who, where or when are we local to, exactly?”

Half the union assembled there groaned.

"Local is an artificial concept, but if you want actual co-ordinates…”

The entire meeting room

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The Q&A Session of Genghis Khan!

Genghis Khan rises from the dead, and gently and politely corrects some misconceptions about his history, personality, etc.

(#00685 - A320)

There were several big surprises when Gengis Khan returned from the dead. Not the least of which being that he was average height for a man of his time.

He was muscular, well-groomed, and quite brown… yet he looked as much at ease in a modern business suit as he should have in horse-hides and furs. He did not have

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The Hunt Begins!

The Rabbit Women of Solares IV begin their Great Hunt! (for carrots, Earth-Men mates, Bugs Bunny memorabilia, what-have-you.)

(#00684 - A319)

Nobody saw the invasion coming. Well. Almost nobody. Make that ‘nobody who counts in the greater social milieu’ because Professor Cocomilia was largely viewed as a crank.

His theories about Lapinoids had been the stuff of geek comedy for years. As were his increasingly agitated attempts to warn the public.

And then came Invasion Day.

They  were seven-foot-tall amazons

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The Best Genes Money Can Buy...

Adam stared past the mirror-glass and into his own eyes. They were perfect in place and symmetry, blue as the sea. His cheekbones, nose and jaw came together to make a flawless model’s face. His rational mind said that he should be happy, for he had everything he could ever want in terms of intelligence and good looks, and his parents were kind and loving. Still there was sadness inside those eyes. He couldn’t bring himself to tell his parents

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Overheard at the bar...

“All this time I just kinda assumed she had a couple loud, nosy roommates. She said the camera on her machine didn’t work, so that’s why she stuck to audio-only…”

“So why the post-date stress? Was she dog-ugly, and caught ya staring at her like she had two heads?”

“Three, actually. And not ugly, kinda cute, actually.”

“Pardon?”

“Imagine a bipedal Cerberus. With boobs. And about seven feet tall.”

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Not necessarily needing to go Night Vale on this one...

To truly understand, you must look inside yourself, look deep into your heart… no, no, you’re too far down, that’s your liver, try a bit more up and to the left… ah, there you go.

(#00660 - A295)

[An: But it’s so very very Night Vale…]

“Excuse me, but my species is not transparent.”

“You’re transparent to my eyes.”

“Eugh… Sorry. Uhm… We find our internals to be

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Challenge #00657 - A292: Fascinating in Retrospect

T’reka meets an amorous cassowary. Hilarity ensues.

Boo boo boo

T'reka looked up from her lunch to discover a giant in the clearing. Were it not for his solidly blue-black plumage, he could easily be mistaken for a male of her own species. But he was clearly more dinosaur than Bird.

The cranial capacity was a dead give-away.

He was puffing himself up. Engorging his wattle and showing off his plumage whilst saying, Boo boo boo.

Lonely she may be,

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Challenge #00656 - A291: Do You Have Time...?

The stars are right, R’yleh is about to rise…and Cthulhu’s Witnesses are out in force, ringing everyone’s doorbells.

Bing bonnnng

Sally peeked. People in suits with clipboards. On a Saturday. This was never good. She risked opening the door.

There was a dark-stained knife at his hip.

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s ceremonial,” smiled the clean-shaven man with the sunken eyes and a desperate smile. “Much like you’d wear

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Next Challanger

How does competitive combat (boxing, martial arts, etc.) fare in the new environment of the Amity universe?

(#00655 - A290)

The humans inside the roped-off square wore heavy padding on their hands, heads, and torsos. They faced off in formal postures that a number of them called Markisuvkwinsbree.

T'reka lit on Calico’s saddle and regarded the match.

“What this happening?”

Su-syn, leaning on her horse, chirped, “Testosterone-poisoning-related posturing. Two male here have rivalry over same female. They

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Children of the Night...

I thought I was alone as I silently entered the house, but a voice caught my ear, making me freeze.
“Funny thing about gaining immortality, it can happen to anyone, at any time, whether it is wanted or not…”
I turned, seeing nobody around at first, then I spotted a small girl sitting in the corner, facing away from where I stood, seemingly oblivious to me as she played with her dolls. Had she been here the whole time?

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