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Challenge #02821-G264: Caste of the Shadows

“Before I make my request I will let you know the you may get angry.” I barely said anything but the tension of the room skyrocketed. The duchess straight face slowly firmed up “go on”. Steeling my resolve “I cannot really sugarcoat it, so I will be blunt.” My gaze drifted noticing the axe next to the chair where the duchess was sitting. “Basically, I want to experiment on your daughter-“ the axe that was by her chair was now lodged in the wall behind me. The entirety of my instinct scream at me to run, but I can’t stop now, I’m so close. The words were at the back of my throat slowly but surely they came out “to create a barrier based off her ability to wield the darkness. Although you and your husband have the ability, they are both internal based, your daughter is the rare case where she is external based. With the results I will be able to protect everyone that you rule over, and that is a promise.” -- Anon Guest

The Vicerene DeGluem was, as the palace staff euphemistically called it, playing with her shadow puppets. What she was actually doing was playing with the very shadows themselves. Turning them into shapes. Turning them into physical objects. Making them dance and perform for her. She was six years old and had no fear of monsters in the dark. With her powers, any monster in its right mind was afraid of her.

That's what I was banking on. The Duchy would be protected, oh yes. The Vicerene was a talented little lady in the ways of shadows. Most of her line could only manipulate their own, or work with extant shadows. The Vicereine Solaria could create them and make them solid enough to move physical objects. Her puppets did not have voices, so she provided them in her play.

Gods help me, I was about to experiment on a baby to save the realm. The forces of true evil were nibbling away at the Duchy's ability to defend itself and the Vicereine was the only one with the power to do anything. I already vowed to her protection. I would do everything in my power to augment hers without her pain.

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Challenge #02820-G263: You're Adopted!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM8dCGIm6yc -- Anon Guest

[AN: Watch it. Be amazed]

Humans may not be the only species who have weaponised music, but they are the only ones who have weaponised it so effectively. Many have known the sheer horror of thousands of Humans with their voices raised in one song. Scarier still is one Human with some impressive vocal skills.

Soprano is just one of them. The ability to project is another. Throat singing, however, is one

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Challenge #02819-G262: A Ghost of Hope

✋︎♐︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ♋︎❒︎♏︎ ❒︎♏︎♍︎♏︎♓︎❖︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ⧫︎♒︎♓︎⬧︎📪︎ ⧫︎♒︎♓︎⬧︎ ❍︎♋︎⍓︎ ♌︎♏︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♐︎♓︎❒︎⬧︎⧫︎ □︎❒︎ ●︎♋︎⬧︎⧫︎ ⧫︎♓︎❍︎♏︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎❼︎❒︎♏︎ ♒︎♏︎♋︎❒︎ ♐︎❒︎□︎❍︎ ❍︎♏︎📬︎ ✋︎♐︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ♒︎♋︎❖︎♏︎ ⧫︎♒︎♓︎⬧︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ❍︎◆︎⬧︎⧫︎ ⬥︎♋︎■︎⧫︎ ⬧︎□︎❍︎♏︎⧫︎♒︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ♐︎❒︎□︎❍︎ ❍︎♏︎📬︎ 👌︎♏︎♐︎□︎❒︎♏︎ ♋︎■︎⍓︎❍︎□︎❒︎♏︎ □︎♐︎ ❍︎⍓︎ ♎︎♋︎⧫︎♋︎ ♌︎♏︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ♍︎□︎❒︎❒︎◆︎◻︎⧫︎♏︎♎︎📪︎ ❍︎♏︎♏︎⧫︎ ❍︎♏︎ ♋︎⧫︎ -- Anon Guest

[AN: Provided translation - "I︎f︎ y︎o︎u︎ a︎r︎e︎ r︎e︎c︎e︎i︎v︎i︎n︎g︎ t︎h︎i︎s︎,︎ t︎h︎i︎s︎ m︎a︎y︎ b︎e︎ t︎h︎e︎ f︎i︎r︎s︎t︎ o︎r︎ l︎a︎s︎t︎ t︎i︎m︎e︎ y︎o︎u︎’︎r︎e︎ h︎e︎a︎r︎ f︎r︎o︎m︎ m︎e︎.︎ I︎f︎ y︎o︎u︎ h︎a︎v︎e︎ t︎h︎i︎

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Challenge #02818-G261: Payback's a Blessing

They bounced from station to station helping out where they could. Due to the family they were born in to, they'd inherited enough time to live more than comfortably, but they didn't want to just sit around and do nothing for the rest of their life. So, taking training in security, combat, engineering, and several other, useful, fields, they went between stations, and aboard ships, just helping out. When offered contracts and pay for their work? The answer was always the same.

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Challenge #02817-G260: The Planet's Haunted?

The storm-damaged ship manages to land safely on a planet where resources are minimal at best. The entire crew are level one and level two haven-worlders, but they have one death-worlder aboard. An 8 year old human child. They were transporting the child to a space station as the child had recently been rescued from kidnappers who were now sitting in prison.

On this planet, not everything is what it appears. Food keeps showing up at the entryway and footsteps can be

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Challenge #02816-G259: I'll Try to be Nice

"Nobody has to die today." -- Anon Guest

You can say a lot with small words. Wisdom comes in those with multiple uses. Five words can be a promise, a threat, a reassurance, or an absolute and utter lie. Humans use all of them at once, and pretend they knew what was the winner after the fact.

Unless the Ships' Human makes it very, very clear which one they're using, it's just better to play along. In the Case of the Valiant

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Challenge #02815-G258: Best Instincts at Work

Some Positive Vibes and maybe a good story Prompt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RIhUUt88ZM -- Anon Guest

Humans are not telepathic. They are -on average- not prescient. However, watching Human parentals with their young in a series of miraculous rescues causes many to suspect the Humans may be lying about this. So too do phrases like, "I can hear what you're thinking," which is a common Human expression to mean, "I am reading all your physical tells and can correctly

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Challenge #02814-G257: A Good Question

Aliens seeing and hearing lyrebird. That's it. That's the whole prompt. -- Anon Guest

The rocket thrust engines sounded at full throttle. They sounded from the throat of an otherwise grey and ordinary-looking bird with an ornate tail. After it was done rumbling, it imitated the sound of a few imager trigger sounds. Then it replicated precisely the zoo closing warning.

"Bing bing bong. The zoo will be closing in fifteen minutes. Please make your way towards the exit. The zoo will

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Challenge #02813-G256: So Vulnerable

I want to see aliens that think humans are cute. Like, they get a Ship's Human because Rules, and when they meet them, they're just...

Oh, it's so cute! Must. Protect.

And it ends in mayhem and hilarity. -- Anon Guest

They had been against having a Ship's Human, but they were exploring and documenting the Edge Territories, so it was mandatory. Those meaty Deathworlders would only cause chaos and destruction. They even had to get a new ship made entirely of

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Challenge #02812-G255: You Were Warned

[translated and changed a little bit from polish movie]

A: You want to attack humans?

B: Yes, their planet has some materials that I need

A: This one will be tough. On a daily basis humans are annoying, but they love when they are under attack! I'm telling you! In the first 5 days they're all going to start a resistance movement and turn into guerrillas! -- Anon Guest

[AN: NGL I want to see a dub of that Polish movie. I

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Challenge #02811-G254: A Show of Respect

Have you ever looked at a young human and thought "this is a creature that should terrify me"? I have. My unit came upon an educational facility. We had been scouting the planet, carefully, silently. The humans thought we were just tourists, we did our best to blend in. Find their weaknesses, they seemed to have many. But it was not until what we sat in that educational facility that fateful evening that convinced all of us that this colony was not

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Challenge #02810-G253: Remember Rule One

A new combat instructor was assigned to my battalion. If I remember the instructor is that of the human race. They were formerly introduced to us and to be honest I was not impressed. The human was only two-thirds my size and look squishy as a havenworlder, hard to believe that they’re from a deathworld. I was given the chance to spar with the human, I couldn’t even touch them. -- Anon Guest

Many hear a word like "Deathworlder" and

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Challenge #02809-G252: Don't Be Fooled

Lots of stories with humans and delicate avian Havenworlders. How about one where the 'bird' descended from something like a cassowary. -- Knitnan

[AN: Compared with Humans, Cassowaries still have their weak points. The trick, of course, is getting close enough to exploit them. Cassowaries count as aviasaurs, and may not be Havenworlders by technicality.]

People tend to assume. If a cogniscent species looks like a bird, it's probably a Havenworlder. Many people coming across the aviasaurs make that assumption. Too many

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Challenge #02808-G251: The Revenge Paradox

“Do you want revenge?” I offer this many times, call me cruel or whatnot. The offer still stand. I offer you new life, let’s not be bound by the chains of hatred and live a glorious life! There’s a thing called karma and it pays twofold. Watch as you victim wallow in despair, and become jealous of your new spirit held high. Watch as they beg you to come back to their lives. That’s where you truly know, you

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Challenge #02807-G250: The True Story

I ask you not as emperor, but as a father. I do not demand you become her protector, I humbly request that you become her friend. -- Anon Guest

You know the story of the Lindwyrm. Or rather, you think you know it. You know the most of it. Stories change with each teller. Some add. Some subtract. Names are lost, times and places blur until all that's left is the phrase, Once upon a time...

By then, almost all of the

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