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Challenge #01498-D037: Pay Dirt

There's money in Muck. Points for referencing Harry King, he of the Golden River. -- Anon Guest

Recycling is de rigeur in space. Throwing something out into the void means having less of the thing that made it up in the first place. There's many a spacer who, setting foot on a planet for the first time, is astonished by rain, and water running down the gutters. Or, in the case of Earth, the trash mountains of the United States.

Spacers often make their money from scrounging the things that past peoples have thrown away or abandoned. Air, metal, minerals, even the electrical wiring can prove to be useful. Even the internal atmosphere, regardless of its contents, can be used for something.

Sooner or later, someone will use it or buy it. And some will even eat it.

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Challenge #01497-D036: Incautious Wishing

They go about their daily lives, unnoticed, but without them, things would soon fall apart. -- Anon Guest

He'd got his wish. Those Types were gone from his country. They may even be gone from the world, but he didn't really care about anything beyond the borders that didn't make him money. This encapsulated quite an amount of uncaring for the world, had he cared about that, either.

He had exactly forty-eight hours to enjoy his newly-made paradise. No man remaining in

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Challenge #01496-D035: Signal of Doom

http://writing-prompt-s.tumblr.com/post/156012408168/you-live-in-a-world-of-superheroes-and "You live in a world of superheroes and supervillains. Each person gets three marks, one on their right hand to indicate their future arch nemesis, one on their left hand to indicate their side kick/partner, and one on their chest to indicate their powers and insignia. Today your marks show up and they’re… Shocking, to say the least." (same prompt but this time, all the symbols are identical. If you did that the

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Challenge #01495-D034: Super Signals

http://writing-prompt-s.tumblr.com/post/156012408168/you-live-in-a-world-of-superheroes-and "You live in a world of superheroes and supervillains. Each person gets three marks, one on their right hand to indicate their future arch nemesis, one on their left hand to indicate their side kick/partner, and one on their chest to indicate their powers and insignia. Today your marks show up and they’re… Shocking, to say the least." -- Gallifreya

Everyone gets their Wakening at a different time. The symbol on the chest

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Challenge #01494-D033: Intervention!

http://writing-prompt-s.tumblr.com/post/156115644693/a-superhero-chases-a-villain-into-a-dark

"A superhero chases a villain into a dark warehouse, only to have the doors close behind them. When the lights come on, the hero is surrounded by the full rogues gallery of supervillains. But this isn’t an ambush… It’s an intervention."

(ever see megamind?) -- Gallifreya

The lights came on, and Mighty Man expected a gigantic, hero-defeating trap to be revealed. No such thing. There were comfy chairs. And a throw rug. And

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Challenge #01493-D032: The Universal Coin

“Be kind. Don’t hurt other people. It’s all the sort of Christian ethics stuff I thought was bullshit when I was a kid. No, it turns out it’s not bullshit. Tell the truth, be kind, all that corny stuff." - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

Above all else, do no harm. That had to be a law for landing in strange places and in weird circumstances. Of course... the landing couldn't be helped. Something there was that didn't like her

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Challenge #01492-D031: Here There Be Dragon

http://writing-prompt-s.tumblr.com/post/156113062734

"The dragon was hoarding sheet music, and doing its darn best to play the comically undersized instruments it’d stolen to go along with them." -- Gallifreya

Sir Greenbaum edged into the dragon's cavern. Dragons were always tricky business. A kingdom with one in its realm proceeded with caution. Those who sent a Princess had to be certain of both the princess and the dragon. And as for this realm... well... their Princess still needed a

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Challenge #01491-D030: Why Am I Here?

http://writing-prompt-s.tumblr.com/post/156109857968 "The world’s best have been transported to a single building, each having their own field of expertise. You, an average Joe, have also been transported. You have no idea what you’re so good at, but everyone else seems to be afraid of you." -- Anon Guest

The right hand rule sucks. I kept finding myself back at my own marks. Upstairs, downstairs... everywhere was closed in. No exits existed. Not even in the extensive

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Challenge #01490-D029: Prophecy From Another Dimension

You should write for Steemit...

Oh, that's right! You already do! Just "discovered" you there today... Having fun reading you, THANKS! -- @creatr

The message arrived via postcard under their door. They pondered over it for hours, because they had never written a word in their life. Everything was too busy. There was no time. There was no space to create anything in. Their space was a mere bed-sit[1] with cardboard walls and loud neighbours. It was the exact opposite of

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Challenge #01489-D028: One Hazy Mid-afternoon in an East Sussex Hospital Ward

"She has amnesia,"

"Thank god!"

"What?"

"...I-I said, THAT'S TERRIBLE! " -- OohLookShiny

Nurse Blakely wasn't fooled for an instant. She had seen what had happened to Miss Doe. Helped patch up the damage. "You sound like you know how September Doe got her injuries, Mr..." she checked her notes, "Smith."

"First, her name is Holly Buckley. Second, it's my job to keep her safe. Third... I really failed this time. And it involved some werewolves. Well. Three werewolves, a volcano, and a

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Challenge #01488-D027: Unrealised, Unrequited, Unrecognised

“If [he][1] was unable to see that I had feelings for him (at least five, but sometimes as many as seven)…” - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

Lyr watched Ambassador Shayde attempting to flirt with Rael. The impossible force against an oblivious stone. There had been more than one instance of interspecies dating that floundered heavily on the sending a signal stage. And not merely because of cultural difference. Subconscious body-speak could cause the most inconvenient miscommunications.

One species' flirting is another's

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Challenge #01487-D026: On the Other Side of the Fence

“I have at least 14 bad angles” - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

Carl made a career out of being abnormal. As one of the rare few who could not be cured, he told the jokes than nobody else dared make. Like, "Hey did you hear about the dyslexic biker? He joined Hell's Angles." or, "Public transportation is a real pain. You just try catching the sub every day."

And it worked. People laughed. He earned a living. He kept a home and

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Challenge #01486-D025: Worth a Life

“unfortunately it hurts all 3 of my feelings” - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

Oh crap. She'd tripped over a Faerie nest.

Of all the authors who featured the Fair Folk in their modern writings, A. A. Milne said it best: Their bodies were so tiny that they could only process one feeling at a time. What hardly anyone remembered about Faeries is this: immortality can drive cogniscent beings insane. Milne's traditional cause of faerie death is not what these hyperactive creatures needed.

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Challenge #01485-D024: To Fix a World

“No motive is pure. No one is good or bad-but a hearty mix of both. And sometimes life actually gives to you by taking away.” - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

He only wanted to do good. To improve things for everyone. To make the world a better place. There were just a few things that he needed to make sure of. For the good of everyone. Well. Almost everyone. There were some... bad elements... that needed dealing with.

The drains on society,

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Challenge #01484-D023: Subtle Dangers

Why should I go crazy when I can just as easily wait for it right here. Who wants gum? - Carrie Fisher -- RecklessPrudence

Something had to exist that did not like quiet, and M'prax was reasonably certain that it was the Ship's Human. The dangerous deathworlders had a reputation for being unstoppable protectors and, more to the point, profitable creatures to have. But they were also... well... deathworlders.

It was hard not to think of the being named Sally as an

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