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Challenge #03118-H209: A Mirror Crack'd

A human has an archive of old horror science fiction movies from Earth spanning the 1990's to the first twenty years of the 2000's. Among these are movies like Alien, Predator, Europa, and so forth. Many of the movies portrayed aliens as monsters and horrifically powerful predators hunting humans as prey. But there was a reason for this. They also had movies like Close Encounter of the Third Kind, E.T. and more benevolent movies as well. They wished to teach a class on the fears humans had of one day meeting aliens, and the hope they had for the future. -- Anon Guest

"Science Fiction is, and always has been, a mirror. Mary Shelly held a mirror up to the blooming modern era and said, Mankind should be careful with what it's making. H. G. Wells not only saw a potential for exploration, but also warned of the hazards. War of the Worlds is the seminal invasion fear. Other beings will come and bring devastation to everything we know... but it was also a mirror to the devastation that white colonialism was visiting on everyone else." Human Ritt apparently came up for air. Ze grinned nervously. "Sorry, I've been rehearsing this Ed Talk so long I just launch into it. You may have asked the wrong question."

"I did say 'why the movies'," said Gorx. He turned to another display poster. Three-legged machines were vaporising human figures with death rays. "This is for educational purposes?"

"Oh yes. Fears of Them coming to do what we've already done to Others, that one. The Invasion Narrative is almost too on the nose. They come, they take over, they appear benevolent or they just don't care, they start wrecking everything, including important cultural artifacts..." this display poster had a giant flying saucer immolating the White House. "To the fictional aliens, I guess this was Manifest Destiny."

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Challenge #03117-H208: Incidental Damages

"Aw, c'mon! We're all human here, you can loose the livesuit."

"I have a potentially contagious skin condition. Sharing this? NOT caring."

"Oh. Uh. Oh."

"Yes, I've been to medical. Yes, it's being treated. And yes, the itching is slowly driving me insane." -- Escla

"Is it related to the livesuit or--" Roy trailed off. How to politely ask how someone caught something they couldn't help was not in the Social Ed classes. He was at a loss, and circled his hand

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Challenge #03116-H207: I've Been Eating WHAT?

Heh, so it was requested it be made a prompt, who am I to say no? :-)

[Submitted picture which is now transcribed below:]

ryivhnn682: Lass deliberately sabotaged their own ship? o_O

bkf482: I can see it, they deliberately crashed their ship, but it wasn't damaged enough where they couldn't have just left. So they deliberately sabotaged their ship so it would look like their ship had been hurt a lot worse in the crash forcing them to stay there despite

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Challenge #03115-H206: All Your Base Now Belong to Us

We are done being quiet. For all your claims you have proven nothing to back your words. Show us that this galaxy is yours, prove to us this universe is your birthright. And we will demonstrate to you that humanity will NEVER YIELD TO YOU. - Humanity declaration of war to the Vesmil -- Anon Guest

There are some things one should never turn one's back on. Tidal oceans, creche rooms full of sucrose-enriched larvae, and this new species of really weird

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Challenge #03114-H205: What Was I Talking About?

Never, never, get an obsessed person talking about their favourite subject. -- Anon Guest

[AN: The alternative is to always encourage a person to talk about something they love, but I guess that's a matter of perspective]

"I mean yeah they had cardboard sets and easily recognisable props, and plotlines that were scraping the barrel, but it had heart. Like they knew they were doing the best with the little they had and they were pulling every trick they had their hands

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Challenge #03113-H204: Proof in the Party

Our comments gave me an idea!

Companion Gann carefully wrote the scientific paper after several months of reading up on Humans' relationship with water. He brought the report to his people with the shocking, incredible, revelation that Humans were, in fact, mammals that were semi-amphibious by their very nature! The scientific community in his world was in an uproar, many hotly debating it and demanding proof. Huge pools of clean water were set that were quite deep, safeties were placed, just in

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Challenge #03111-H203: No Good Deed

They were dead... they knew they were dead... the explosion, there was a gaping hole in their side and yet... yet they were alive. A breathing mask on their face, they were in an ICU drawer, but it was a rough one, just barely enough, who.. what saved them? Their last memory, explosions, they were getting those Vorax kids off of their ship, not as prisoners, the ship had been struck by some kind of debris, cometary? A face showed, oh no,

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Challenge #03111-H203: Rewarding Consequences

It's been a few years since Mx. Edda had begun implementing new policies in order to win Healer Allie's favor and get the Healer to work with her in a more significant manner. Mx. Edda, though she found her profits lowered to start, is now shocked to find she has higher profits than ever before, as well as healthier, longer-lived, employees who actually greet her with smiles.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03075-h152-life-unlike-your-own -- Lessons

Change, especially the change Lucky Medik Allie

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Challenge #03110-H202: Friendship Formed With Rock

You want someone who can protect you, go to a human-made space station. There are so many there that can't throw a rock without hitting a strong protector! -- Anon Guest

Okie should not have tested the literality of that statement. In their thin defense, the rock was small and her throwing arm was not as significant as the Deathworlders present in Bahydawiyal Station. The pebble sailed up into the ambient atmosphere, arced according to the laws of physics, and landed on

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Challenge #03109-H201: A Walking Holiday in Rainbow Park

A Human takes their Havenworlder friends to Earth to walk through a beautiful park where the cherry blossom trees are in full bloom. Lining the path are beautiful lilac bushes, also blooming, and not far from there are early blooming apple trees. A lovely garden of flowers surrounding them on a warm, early, summer afternoon. -- Anon Guest

It was a cascade of colour. Pink and blue and primrose too. Some of that colour was literally cascading downwards with every gentle breeze.

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Challenge #03108-H200: The Cratered Path of Progress

The only difference between “f* around and find out” and science is whether or not you write down your findings -- Anon Guest

Mishi checked his ears for blood. Okay. None there. That meant that there was an increased chance that the hearing loss was temporary. Next, he risked wiggling his fingers and toes. Nothing hurt too badly. Sitting up -carefully, of course- revealed that he was now some distance away from the smoulding ruins of his former workshop. Ow. Living hurt.

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Challenge #03107-H199: Too Helpful

welcome to the internet, I’ll be your guide -- Anon Guest

Benevolence Org had spared no expense. They had put everything they could into their shield AI which, in a moment of pure egocentrism, named Bo. It was meant to protect the new, the unfamiliar, the gullible, from those who would exploit them on the nigh-lawless seas of the internet. It was friendly, it was helpful, and users could even customise the friendly avatar of its interface for maximum comfort.

Bo

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Challenge #03106-H198: The Curse of Insight

A Tiefling who's one of the rare ones respected as a cleric, with golden horns instead of black, blue eyes instead of red or yellow, and dark red skin, encounters the camp as they've settled in before they make their destination. He hears the harsh words of the nanny / nursemaid toward a child and can sense the child's sorrow, the fear, the self-dislike, and scowls. He decides to take that nanny's fate into his OWN hands and teach her what that child

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Challenge #03105-H197: To Break a Curse

I'm trying to get around the Akmet filter, this prompt was what InterNutter suggested in their comments but for some reason the bot hates it when you use comments from one of your postings as a suggested prompt. At least for this one. So let's try a screen shot and the address to the Challenge it comes from?

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03061-h138-of-monstrous-men -- DaniAndShali

[AN: For the record, the idea given by BKF/DaniAndShali is, "That's sweet, he finally has

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Challenge #03104-H196: For Great Justice

She was a nanny who was required to care for a Tiefling child. She disliked Tieflings, the whole race were nothing but demons, but her lord ordered it. It was his daughter after all. The child rarely got smiles, save from her parents, rarely got a kind word, except her parents, and then a stranger came to the palace and gave the nanny a hard, cold, lesson in caring for children. One the nanny ever forgot, especially after what that man did,

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