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Challenge #02900-G343: The Benevolence Gene

On Earth, in the 20th and 21st century, they had the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes. The winner won a certain amount that was paid in weekly payments for the rest of the person's life as well as an advance of a lump sum. This continued even after the Shattering. In addition to fairly inexpensive products, the PCH's contest continued. And once again, a new winner was chosen. Though it sometimes took a little bit to find the winner when people traveled to and from stations so often. His family was quite poor before this, having escaped terrible conditions on a failed colonial world. Now they were to receive a large amount each week for the rest of his life. But the question now became, now that their needs were met, how many more could he help with the proceeds? -- Anon Guest

[AN: In my experience/opinion, the PCHS has been rigged to get them all the moneys and a very rare few any kind of prize. I mean I never won anything and ISTG They used the same photos of their winners at random years with different names]

Liro didn't believe it until the payments appeared in their banking account. Liro hadn't believed it was even possible to win. Not with the ceremony involving a gigantic novelty cheque and the flashing cameras. They had honestly believed it was some kind of elaborate joke. The books they ordered certainly were. There was a reason it was a clearing house.

Condensed novels were kind of unfair on the authors who spent a year or more of their lives on reaching the word count requirements. Some people couldn't tell the difference. Liro could. They were even planning something of an essay concerning the difference between the condensed and the full novels. At least they'd get some Patreon change out of it.

But now? Liro had a lot of money. Regularly. For the rest of their life. The first big change was actual financial security. Rent paid. Bills paid. Insurance up and running. Great. Liro had never actually needed to live it large and, rather than going beyond their means, considered the best thing to do with that extra splash.

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Challenge #02899-G342: The Evidence Speaks For Itself

Shortly after their receive a shipment of stolen parrots, alien smugglers learn that pet parrots tend to repeat some of the most common phrases they have heard the hard way. There are some things that should never be heard, and can never be unheard. -- Anon Guest

"Captain Fresk is going to panic," said a voice. It sounded a lot like crewmate Jori, but it came, seemingly, from the cage of brightly-coloured exotic Deathworlder avian that they had successfully stolen from Brightwing

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Challenge #02898-G341: And Not a Bite to Eat

On a planet where eating meat was so illegal that even replicated meat grown in nutrient vats can mean prison time, the deathworlder's ship landed heavily. Fortunately, they got the whole ship down and hadn't needed a life pod, but repairs were going to take months. However, hearing the strict law against eating meat on this planet was going to be a problem. While meat replacements worked for a small amount of time, they needed actual meat to survive or they would,

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Challenge #02898-G341: A Steep Ask

“Although I don’t use many of my fighting skills anymore I do use some,” the human chuckled. “Some?” My questions was almost immediately answered as the human disappeared right in front of me and appeared behind me. -- Anon Guest

[AN: I have been reminded of Human Twii but this could be quite a number of Humans in my pet universe. I might think up a new one. Let's see]

Legends of Humans reach the places that Humans have not yet

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Challenge #02897-G340: Mistakes Were Made

The first thing they noticed was the running, stumbling humans, exiting a building. The second thing they noticed was that the humans that weren't too busy choking and gasping were shouting "put on your livesuits!" and "we need particle masks!"

Once the fire had been extinguished and the building was airing out, the story of What Happened This Time was told.

It was a story involving Carolina Reapers and a malfunctioning kitchen fan. Every human involved had the same thing to say

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Challenge #02896-G339: Thanks For All the Fish

When Humans made first contact with life outside their solar system a new trend of people hungry for adventure and exploration appeared, who yearned for the vast unknown that lay before them. And they weren't the only species on earth who wanted a slice of that action...
But would the problems their kind had since the beginning hamper them from continuing into the future?
Could Werewolves travel beyond there moon without getting into a 'Hairy' situation? (Or any other moon for that

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Challenge #02895-G338: Kind'a Saw it Coming

This is a new feeling, pride in someone else. Unfortunately, it is overshadowed by all this unyielding rage! -- Vegeta

Honestly, it never fails. Spend the better part of a lifetime building up an empire of power only to witness some snot-nosed kid hero gather up a band of five total snot-nosed kid heroes and thereby overthrow you in a heroic example of the power of friendship. The Dark Lord Mephis had attempted to circumvent all of this by seducing every possible

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Challenge #02894-G337: Humane Accommodations

They were a killer. From the time they were young, they got into fights. It was almost daily. The first kill came when they were only 12, they couldn't stand bullies and the first one they killed was one of their parents. Why? The parent was cruel and often struck them and their younger siblings. From there, as they grew older, it was always the same. Someone would be a bully, someone would become cruel. They'd be warned, only once. Then out

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Challenge #02893-G336: A Cup of Tea and a Biscuit

Ah little Pib. How about them sneaking back into the captain's quarters and trying to talk the captain into playing dress-up and having snacks, having dragged a bunch of mismatched clothing with them? :-D After all, from experience, boys and girls, don't matter, they always seem to love to play dress-up and then have snacks and juice together with their friends.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02767-g210-the-problem-with-pib -- Anon Guest

Pib had a big bag. Big enough to hold a bottle of

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Challenge #02892-G335: An Encounter to Remember

Hey, InterNutter? Do you think we could get the enemy's view of this? I mean, seeing a human tripping big time on stims rushing their camp like that? I mean, some of the enemy survived to report the counter, right? That might be fun to see. Please?

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02745-g188-use-only-as-directed -- Anon Guest

They'd missed one. They'd missed more than one, and they knew it. But it was one that was dangerous. They were barely glimpsed, but all footage

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Challenge #02891-G334: A Precision Instrument

He sits upon a seat on the balcony over-looking moonlit gardens. From behind a curtain, a young man comes, blade drawn, to take his life. Oddly enough, while there were some guards, he actually waved them away and asked the lad to come closer so he could have a talk with the young assassin.

"I currently rule as king amongst my people. We have the Cardinal Law, ensuring that no one, no matter how poor they are, is left without at least

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Challenge #02890-G333: With Double-edged Blade

People call them the Judge. There are other nicknames for this being, of course. Justice. Equalizer. Balance. Redemption. All of these and more their names are through all eternity. A being who watches the world feeling no pain nor pleasure at what is seen. A being who feels no love, nor do they feel hate. They can feel respect, and honor. Kindness and compassion. But also can they feel disappointment and anger. Their job, from the time of their creation, was to

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Challenge #02889-G332: Not Approved Progress

Now we are all sons of bitches - Kenneth Bainbridge, after testing the first nuclear bomb -- Anon Guest

[AN: I've been made aware of the Shiva quote, but that happened after the detonation in war as far as I recall]

Destruction. Devastation. Brutal elimination of the enemy, their buildings, their society. That has always been the ultimate goal of war. Winning, however, has gone further than razing the enemy castle and salting the ground so that they can no longer prosper.

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Challenge #02888-G331: Unconscionable Prevention

Imagine a world where people are required to get vaccinated, required to wear masks and take precautions if there's an outbreak, and are given universal healthcare and a basic universal income. Now imagine that these rules are enforced by law. If people refuse, they are required to be placed in quarantine areas away from the general population due to the risk they pose to the population. Now imagine "pure lifers" coming in. Knowing full well the polity they were trying to move

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Challenge #02887-G330: Conflict Resolution Protocol

153: Pod 153 to Pod 042. How is it going?

042: I am embarrassed.

153: Why is that?

042: I launched a suicide attack, and yet here I am. Still alive. I must look very silly.

153: Do not feel bad about it. We are alive after all. And being alive is just a constant stream of embarrassment.

042: that concept is a bit too abstract for me to understand at this time. I will save in my list of things to

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