Instant Story

Challenge #01743-D282: Absence Makes...

"Ugh, I never would have made any friends if I knew I was gonna waste so much time missing them when they're away." -- OohLookShiny

If there was any one, universal truth to the tragedy of Jarik's life, it was this: Everyone leaves.

Ze was orphaned young. A disaster that ze couldn't remember and that politicians denied being to blame for for years afterwards. After the disaster was a fact of hir life. Always moving. Never calling any place home. Months spent in temporary camps and waiting in queues for a little food. No lasting relationships. No meaningful contact. For most of hir life.

So it was no shock that Jarik was the last person in the office to make friends. Even now, when ze had more than a decade of stability under hir belt. Ze was reluctant. Hesitant to be friendly. Awkward at it because ze never learned the rules. And Karil made friends with hir anyway. He was just... that friendly. Everyone liked Karil. Even -in spite of hirself- Jarik.

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Challenge #01742-D281: Certain Signs of Doom

When a human is running scared, drop everything and run away with them. -- Anon Guest

Humans get many jobs, all across the outskirts of the Galactic Alliance. In the Fringe Territories, laws are enforced based entirely on how useful they are to follow. As civilisation creeps in, the humans creep out before they become the tolerated exception. That's the thing about fringes and frontiers. There's always more of them.

Here on the edge, overlooking a large and ancient Sargasso, is Bodgy

Challenge #01741-D280: When Next You Stop

High Magics: Fuck you and fuck the piece of reality you were standing on -- RecklessPrudence

Ever after, even in the depths of his self-exile, he would remember the first time that the elf used his name. He'd been travelling with the show for months, and knew everyone. And everyone knew him. Except the elf. It was difficult to tell whether they were male or female and they deliberately exploited that to unnerve people.

They were between towns, camping temporarily along the

Challenge #01740-D279: Too Close an Encounter

It seemed like I might have dodged a bullet. Now all I had to do was avoid all the rest. -- RecklessPrudence

To be honest, I didn't know I'd blundered into a land war until the moon behind me went up into shrapnel. I'd dodged one bullet by accident. Well. Missile. Now I had to dodge the shrapnel from an exploding moon. Getting away from the big boom helped my chances a lot.

And then I saw the fleet. They had a

Challenge #01739-D278: A Lesson For All

(At an AI's sudden assimilation of a tech base and IMMEDIATE commencement of combinatorial synthesis): Fuckin' bullshit, man.

(In response): Hey if they're going to leave tech specs out where the sufficiently advanced AI can get a hold of them, it's their own fault. -- RecklessPrudence

They called the AI Amoeba, for her abilities, but she preferred Amy. It was her job as part of the combat process to take over enemy facilities and seize all intel and hardware. She liked her

Challenge #01737-D276: Welcome to My Dungeon

"Would you let me decide already. Are you my eldritch patron from beyond the stars or are you my DM?"

"Kinda both." -- RecklessPrudence

The people around the table erupted in laughter. Karel giggled a little bit herself. "Yeah, I'm playing all the fucking gods in this game, and the big bad terrifying threat, so... yeah. I better get some respect from you assholes."

"And mountain dew," added Ferni.

"Well, duh. Of course mountain dew. That's what runs my magnificent brain and

Challenge #01736-D275: Children Are...

“Are you a parent, by any chance?”

“Nah, but years of observation have given me all the tricks I’ll ever need and the resolute determination that hell no, I don’t want to deal with my own little terrors.” [Name] shuddered. “Kids are great. When they aren’t mine, that is.” -- RecklessPrudence

In days of yore, the oldest daughter was always considered a prize of a wife. She was already accustomed to looking after everyone else, and doing a majority

Challenge #01735-D274: Necessary Advancements

Magic is the science you don't know yet. The science you already know is engineering. -- RecklessPrudence

The nature of magic is one of constant debate. Any sufficiently advanced technology can be indistinguishable from magic. Any sufficiently analysed magic can be treated like science. But, overall, anything that can not fit into the rules of science can be called magic.

Conjuring is always a good one. Making things, even temporarily, from thin air defies the laws of thermodynamics. Levitation defies the laws

Challenge #01734-D273: Enough is Enough

I think I just hit that lovely level of rage and confusion where everything seems perfectly calm and rational. -- RecklessPrudence

Penny stood. The last straw had landed and this metaphorical camel was not going to have her back broken. She left her work behind her, and picked up the best, bludgeon-like object in the room, which happened to be her umbrella.

"Where are you going?" asked her co-worker, Lilly.

"Washington," said Penny. "I'm going to beat some motherfucking sense into our

Challenge #01733-D272: Betrayed

...Deciding to shelve that until my next scheduled freak out, I... -- RecklessPrudence

Sometimes, there's no help. You just have to deal with whatever until it's dealt with or the help finally gets there and you can let other people deal with the thing. I long for those days.

My name is Yani. And this is my second year alone. I'm getting ping from the comms networks, so I know these are going out. As is the automated distress signal. Why anyone

Challenge #01732-D271: Ageing Ungracefully

Still, working on their manners ... I don't know if there are any etiquette schools around known space who take enrollments from intelligent battleships. -- RecklessPrudence

Humans love war. It is a well-known fact. In their early history, they would war with opposing factions of humans, different coloured humans, and, in a large swathe of history covering the pre-Shattering period, nouns. They don't often talk about the war they lost against emus, though.

Given their love of war, it was no surprise that

Challenge #01731-D270: They Call it Dragoncote

Why do dragons hoard wealth and guard it so jealously? Because for dragons, much like for kings, money is power.

With kings, such a phrase lies more in the metaphor of capitalism, but for dragons it is taken much more literally - the greater the amount of gold and jewels and other treasures a dragon can amass and claim as their own, the more magically potent and physically larger they become, and likewise the less riches they possess, the smaller and weaker

Challenge #01730-D269: Comeback

Deep fried Mars Bar. The dreaded chip buttie (fries on a buttered bun), Floater (Aussie effort: Meat pie floating in pea soup). -- KnitNan

"I've been everywhere," said Shayde, mis-estimating the size of the station by cubic klicks[1]. "Nobody around even knows what fries are an' I'm gaggin' fer a chip buttie."

Nik, overhearing this complaint to the universe at large, gestured her to come closer to his cooking station. "Tell me about these things you call 'fries' and the... chip

Challenge #01729-D268: Swap Met

The Amalgam equivalent of the combined Swap Meet and Car Boot Sale (of course there are no cars on Amalgam - tow trolleys?). -- Anon Guest

They were called Swap Shops, and they were scattered randomly. They tended to crop up in poorer areas and public service zones. It was where those who had the time to spare on pet projects dropped those projects off to exchange with whatever they desired. Edibles were kept in Stasis Lockers. Everything else was placed wherever

Challenge #01728-D267: 'Tis But a Scratch

"So, you're telling me that even if a human tried to kill himself by stabbing his head, he could be perfectly fine if the blade goes between the hemispheres of the brain without damaging anything ?"

"Yup, and I didn't talk about Phineas Gage, who got a large iron rod through the head and survived without some part of his brain, or the war veteran who survived a bullet through the heart. Even if we don't have exoskeleton, we are pretty resilient. This

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Challenge #01743-D282: Absence Makes...

Challenge #01742-D281: Certain Signs of Doom

Challenge #01741-D280: When Next You Stop

Challenge #01740-D279: Too Close an Encounter

Challenge #01739-D278: A Lesson For All

Challenge #01737-D276: Welcome to My Dungeon

Challenge #01736-D275: Children Are...

Challenge #01735-D274: Necessary Advancements

Challenge #01734-D273: Enough is Enough

Challenge #01733-D272: Betrayed

Challenge #01732-D271: Ageing Ungracefully

Challenge #01731-D270: They Call it Dragoncote

Challenge #01730-D269: Comeback

Challenge #01729-D268: Swap Met

Challenge #01728-D267: 'Tis But a Scratch