Instant Story

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Challenge #02939-H016: Congratulations on Your New Cat

Well all know those pets. The ones that, no matter what you do, they cling to you like barnacles to a ship's hull. Cats, especially, can get like that when they get attached. In a station where they tend to send bad-luckers and people they deem "undesirable", a little ray of hope and comfort comes in the case of a ship. In the hold, several strays that had been using the hold as their hideout manage to wander on board. And now these bad-luckers find themselves with at least a dozen cats to care for. Except every single one of these cats could easily be nicknamed "Mr. / Ms. Clingy". Because these cats are absolutely insatiable for attention. -- Anon Guest

[AN: There's been some speculation about this prompt being related to this thing but bad-luckers end up in places where they can't cause harm. Transit Station Eighty-Six is where the UFTP store the chronic goldbricks. Completely different area]

Project Clover is a very special place. In recognising the Luck Gene, the Galactic Alliance had to find all those unfortunate individuals whose luck only ran one way - bad. It is a series of artificial Havenworlds where all comets and asteroids have been scoured from the solar system. The weather is balmy and pleasant. The plants are one hundred percent non-toxic. Everything there is soft. Every precaution has been taken to make sure the residents cannot come to life-threatening accidents. Even with the best of precautions, the planets held by Project Clover have the best ERTs[1] and infrastructure in Galactic space.

They certainly had some of the best Mediks. Just because the bad-luckers found themselves in the most interesting mishaps known to cogniscent life didn't mean they deserved it. The fact that they kept everything mostly-harmless didn't prevent bad luck. It just softened it to theoretically tolerable levels. Everything within a bad-lucker hostel world was purposely kept that way. At least until one rogue Deregger vessel tried to run what they thought was a trade embargo and push their merchandise on the residents.

A Deregger vessel that was infested with cats. Not the gene-controlled Skitties, but regular, everyday, Deathworlder domesticated felines. They crept out from the hold after the crash[2] and scurried away into the night. Long absent even as the ERT's came to run damage control. Cats know a good thing when they see it, and a Deregger vessel is definitely not that. By the time the Deregger was detained and the inherent chaos rounded up in the safety zone, many of the cats were untraceable.

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Challenge #02938-H015: Empowered Battle Fashion Choice

Who’s the blacksmith out there moulding titty armour to every strong female character more accurately than a fitter at Victoria Secret?

Tis I Mandick the titty smithy -- Anon Guest

[AN: Titty armour is very silly and not entirely practical and does NOT include the wads of padding that do the heavy lifting of saving the wearer's life. But that does not look sexy on screen. Bleh]

"Impenetrable Armour of Vacuum-Sealed Fit," read Avello the Valiant. "Women only." The sample in

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Challenge #02937-H014: Let the Trash Be Treasured

Can you imagine a world where there are more, empty, livable, homes and apartments than there are homeless individuals, and yet the wealthy allow those homes and apartments to fall into disrepair and ruin rather than allow the homeless live there and maintain it? Can you imagine a time, a place, a world... where people build small homes for the homeless, a 'tiny home' with a bed, a roof, basic toilet facilities, and tiny kitchen, just enough to be comfortable and survive

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Challenge #02936-H013: A Buggy Plan

Human Arn took in the supreme effort Frip had already gone through in order to create this environment and was already calculating the paperwork inherent in getting it off the planet Earth.

"I am in sooooo much trouble," sighed Human Arn.

This quote is from this prompt from ages ago. https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02771-g214-a-few-minor-obstacles

Human Arn looked at all the paperwork they've managed to get through and all that still had to get done and shook their head. Not much

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Challenge #02935-H012: Our Little Monster

Could we have a story of how Anthe and Wraithvine met the little bugbear Rawr? How he lost his eye? And how they rescued him? Please?

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02854-g297-here-s-one-we-made-earlier -- DaniAndShali

"Hate the cold, hate the cold, hate it hate it hate it hate it hate the cold," Anthe grumbled. She was bedecked in a yeti fur coat, if 'bedecked' fit the fact that she was in there somewhere. Boots of Insulation and a Ring of Warmth seemed to

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Challenge #02934-H011: The Songs We Sing

give me the beat boys and free my soul

I wanna get lost in your rock 'n' roll and drift away -- Anon Guest

[AN: Link leads to a video with parody lyrics that is for real a 2020 mood. Offensensitivity warning for crude language]

The Humans were singing. This was nothing new. The matter of what they were singing was up to debate. The tune was familiar, but the words kept changing.

"Gimmie the yeast, boy/ and knead my rolls, I

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Challenge #02933-H010: Devil's in the Fine Print

You are going to learn to read, whether you like it or not! I will drag you into literacy kicking and screaming if I have to! -- Anon Guest

"Whyyyy..." whined Rin. "Everything's audio or video. Nobody reads." The last word said with a sneer. As if literacy was a disfiguring and unwelcome disease.

"People still read," said Van. "Let me tell you about the people who read, they're the people who have to read, because they're the ones who write the

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Challenge #02913-G356: Poverty to Profit

As it turns out, some aspects of my life are so horrible that people think I'm making stuff up for shock value. -- Anon Guest

Human Daz always had one week of food on their person, and an atmospheric condenser that stowed two Sivu[1] of purified water. They had a very small molecular reassembler integrated with their livesuit that could only make one thing - Nutrifood Paste. It had one job and it did it very well. The livesuit was a

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Challenge #02932-H009: Nature's Not Nice

Horses are herbivores. Sometimes, something goes wrong. When there isn't enough plant matter to satisfy large herbivores on the death-world Earth, or when micro-nutrients such as calcium are lacking, they will actively kill and consume other animals. Giraffes have been known to gnaw bones, horses to eat young birds (deer do this as well), and hippos will sometimes kill (and take a bite out of) predators foolish enough to attack them. -- Anon Guest

[AN: I imagine this would come as something

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Challenge #02931-H008: Okay We Know That Was Silly

Two humans go to the infirmary with hands covered in blisters. At first, the medic thinks they got heat-burned. But the tests show the blisters are from frostbite. When asked, the humans shrug and went "We wanted to see who could hold ice in our hands the longest, and to make it more fun, we added salt to our hands, first. We were just goofing off." -- Anon Guest

The leading cause of dangerous injury to Humans was Humans "just goofing off"

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Challenge #02930-H007: A Gift in Kind

They were supposed to be a massive, mindless, killing machines, huge and terrifying to behold, they were thin, nearly hairless, and soft-bodied under their suits. I'd heard so much of these beings, we all have, that the idea of one of their ships docking at this newly built station scared many of us to nearly soiling ourselves. Galactic Law required us to let them dock, they were in need of aid, their ship damaged almost beyond recognition.

They were supposed to be

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Challenge #02929-H006: The Trouble With Tails

"I can't do this"

"Yes you can"

"No I can't"

"Stop bitching and just put the fucking pants on" -- Anon Guest

"I keep telling you to hire a tailor with a tail. Your kind always get the tail hole wrong." Viceroy "Loyalty" Merrimine squirmed into the offending clothing. Despite both brother's best efforts, there was the distinct sound of thread snapping. "Damnit..."

His older brother -by twenty minutes, as he kept reminding his twin- sighed and said, "I'll get the sewing

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Challenge #02928-H005: Sdrawkcab Erutnevda

In the world of mirrors, where right is left and up is down. Do not move the hands of time. Walk backwards on the path you taken. Ignore the false eyes that gaze beyond. Only then everything you care for will be safe and sound. -- Anon Guest

I have walked into Rorrim knowing well the hazards. I knew what I had to do. Everything is backwards in Rorrim. It is, after all, the realm of reflection. You go ahead by walking

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Challenge #02927-H004: Flight of the Sandman

They were deep into enemy territory, surrounded, lost, and at a massive disadvantage. They were in the valley, their enemies had the hill and it was breezy, though the breeze blew away from them. They could use the sleep powder the havenworlders had invented for their insomnia-riddled human friend, but the climb was steep and they'd get noticed. Then the human had an idea. They made black string and took long strips of black sheets of matte plastic, and then put it

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Challenge #02926-H003: Risk Assessment Monarchs

The humans were having a rave. The music was old-fashioned techno music as one would hear in the pre-shattering era known as the 1980's and 1990's. The music flashed, many had glow-sticks, the dance floor flashed colors and there were bright, but harmless, laser lights. And a Vorax raiding party, landing on the planet, stumbled into the rave by accident.

Just in case someone's not been to a rave or heard rave music at it's most wild, basically - it's this, but

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