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Challenge #01681-D220: Worth of a Rat

[Asked to apprentice under a powerful, but poor, magic-user - their response]

[Mage]: Hm... Okay, but I can only pay you in unimaginable power.

[Prospective Apprentice]: That works. -- RecklessPrudence

The child was outside her tower again. Humming. Not any particular tune, no, just an aimless grind of voice that was like a slow-turning belt sander against the soul. It was persistently annoying enough for her to disrupt her experiments and take the journey down to ground level.

"Didn't I tell you to bugger off last week?" she asked.

The same grimy, skinny, sore-infested child as last week said, "I needs a job. Nowt'll take me. So's I wanna learn here."

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Challenge #01680-D219: Rockit Launch 'n' BBQ

Actual thing said over the ruins of a test engine that had found a new fuel mix too spicy for it: "Whall, rocket fuel is kinda like a chain saw. If it warn't dangerous, it wouldn't be very useful." -- RecklessPrudence

People make assumptions. That much was natural. You see the way someone dresses. You hear the way they speak. You assume things about the rest of them. Most of those things are wrong. Katie Walker had learned this and used it

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Challenge #01679-D218: Dangerous Reading

[Person #1] rolled their eyes. “Just get on with the research you’re not even meant to be doing, [Person #2].” -- RecklessPrudence

Certain words are signs of certain doom. These include, "I think I know where I went wrong," in experimental laboratories, and "hold my beer," anywhere that humans tend to gather. In the libraries of Vastarixus, the words are. "Oooooohhh... Oh! Oh this is so cool!"

Grand Librarian Farltha hurried as fast as her old legs could carry her to

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Challenge #01678-D217: More Than You Need to Know

"Of course it's a work of Art. Nobody understands what it is. -- Anon Guest

It was large. It was made of an assortment of materials. It was in the centre of the room, and therefore important. And it moved in the breeze. Sails and counterbalances shaped and painted like planets swung about in orbits devised by, apparently, one of the few minds who could understand five-dimensional mathematics[1].

Alas, this was a Graveworld. The society these people had built had also

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Challenge #01677-D216: Hobby Fallout

[Title: Obstacle Course] Some are carefully planned to stretch our physical strength. Some just happen. -- Knitnan

Storm season on Hitizzy was never fun. Especially when the storms hit both in space and on the surface of the planet. It was said that Hitizzy was a place everyone got into, once in a while, but the weather rarely got the people in Hitizzy, into a tizzy. Except for this one time.

Everyone knew that attempts at weather control always ended badly, so

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Challenge #01676-D215: Starter Fuel

The morning cup of coffee, the snack brought from the little shop nearby, whatever gets you going in the morning. -- Anon Guest

It was a booth called, Eat Drink Good Morning and there was one strategically placed in all the tram stops near residential areas. According to the advertising on its exterior, it boasted "everything you need to start your day".

Shayde decided to put that to the test. Besides, she'd had a horrible night and needed her variety of pick-me-up.

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Challenge #01675-D214: The Nut at the But

The way we use tools changes us. Anything from Sherlock Holmes to Tennis Elbow. -- Knitnan

Shanna hadn't thought of being a superhero when the alien ship crash landed in the ghetto. She just knew that alien debris was worth big cash and rushed into the burning frame to grab the first thing that looked portable. And then she ran for safety before the Enforcers could get there and arrest everyone who was too slow.

She got away. Far away. Didn't take

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Challenge #01673-D212: Middle Finger to Fate

An appellation for a person or group of people: They Who Defy Fate -- RecklessPrudence

On the day that the children become adults, be it their first blood or their first chest hair, they are told their fate. Most resign themselves to it. Some... fight.

Rare are the ones who are successful, and fewer still are the ones who go courting it.

Helen was told by the village seer, "You will die childless, and surrounded by Imps." She did not resign herself

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Challenge #01672-D211: Friendly Welcome

"Oh, and if you have to ask yourself, is [Person] fucking with me? The answer is always yes,” he says, and ahead of them [Person] cackles and gives a little fistpump in the air. -- RecklessPrudence

Most humans, when elevated to the status of Ambassador, acquire an air of caution. A weight to their words as if they know that they hold the fate of their homeworld in their hands. Almost all of them approach becoming an Ambassador as cautiously as they

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Challenge #01671-D210: Don't Kill Us Yet

In the immortal words of Genghis Khan: "U Wot M8?" -- RecklessPrudence

The Doctor slowly turned their head to glare at their new companion.

"What?" said Kylie.

"All of time and space. All of existence. All of... everything... and you take the first opportunity to tell a historically inaccurate joke."

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Prompts remaining: 14 Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!

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Challenge #01670-D209: Incident at the Old Mating Grounds

Lizards attract mates differently, no flowers etc. So, how do the Amalgam lizards court? One of the local species here climbs to a prominent spot, poses and nods. -- Anon Guest

They called it Crestflare Bridge, and it had an unparallelled view of the Free Table Vendor area below. Tradition held that the tables would never have shaded covers. Because the females of assorted lizard species liked looking on the displaying males as they cruised between vendors.

Even now, centuries after the

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Challenge #01669-D208: Favourite Flavour

 Auto Condimenter. -- Knitnan

The habits of humans fascinated Zyrik. It was why she went into food services, so she could study them in an environment where she would be invisible. She made Time off her anthropology as well as bussing tables, but anthropology was her chief area of fascination.

This latest example was a freight trucker fresh off their rig, sitting down to a big plate of deep fried potato prisms. The plate was already loaded with the house gravy, but

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Challenge #01667-D206: Good For What Ails You

Two words:- Chicken Soup. -- Anon Guest

Of all the dick moves that Wave of the Future performed, releasing a virus into the populations of Faiize had to be the worst. They did not, according to the press release, intend it to be deadly. Nobody believed them. The only proof, so far, was that none of the Faiize had died from it.

So far.

Rael couldn't rest in his tank for very long. He kept his home hothouse warm for comfort

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