Random Encounters

A 5-post collection

Challenge #02361-F171: Do You Remember?

It's your Old School celebrating a milestone. What happened to those you used to know, and how have they changed. Remember the Libel laws. -- Anon Guest

This used to be my playground... Ze had come from here, more or less. The society that dysfunctioned in these borders had done more to form hir than hir parents had. This used to be my hell. They hadn't understood, in decades prior what 'nonbinary' even was. As a result, they had tormented hir mercilessly.

Ze could still hear the taunts in hir head, on the bad days. It had taken a lot of work to overcome that kind of thing, and while ze had some success as evaluated by the rest of the world... it was conquering these demons that had been the hardest, and most treasured, victory. Aer hardly flinched when someone clapped hir on the shoulder.

"Luanne, hey, how's it -whoah- You're not Luanne..." the stranger squinted, trying to match Aer's face with one she knew decades ago. "Aaron?" Way to go. From zero to deadname in like five seconds. Was it worth correcting her? "I thought you were a dude... and just now I thought you were Luanne. What's with the skirt?" This was once Kylie. One of the perpetual mean girls who had become a Soccer Mom with a can-I-speak-to-the-manager haircut.

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Challenge #02360-F170: The Chances... Are a Million to One

Trip of a Lifetime, all the places they wanted to see, Jahn Average (choose sex) finds themselves the only "non-fan" in a Sci fi Fantasy group. They don't know the jokes, they wear the wrong clothes and why is everyone going to Grover's Mill. -- Anon Guest

There comes a moment when one realises that, at least metaphorically speaking, one has entered the wrong bus. "...and now we're - BANNED FROM ARGO, EV'RY OOOONNNNEEE..."

Pen had passed that point, but the sing-along

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Challenge #02239-F049: A Time to Shine

People need to stop mixing "knowledge" and "intelligence". It's true that a magician can, will and have read and learned more books than the average person, and a barbarian might not know all the rule to live with more civilised person, but it's only knowledge.

Intelligence is knowing that even with all your knowledge, you might not be the more suited person for the task at hand. For example, dealing with a tribal spirit without getting the party slaughtered. Here, the barbarian

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Challenge #02235-F045: Sing Out the Sun

"Hey what song are you singing today?"

"'I love those J-I-N-G-L-E bells.'"

"Oh good. I can hang my laundry today." -- Anon Guest

There are interesting wrinkles to being a life companion for a bard. Especially if that bard took a level or two in the Druidic arts, apparently for the laughs. One of them is the daily practice session. Not that Jiihan needed it. She was a very good bard... but the druidic edge put certain harmonic combinations at a

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Challenge #02149-E320: Don't Wanna Live Underground

"Graham, there's some very large lizards down here. We should leave."

"After I've gotten these mineral samples. Anyway, it's only a lizard, what's the problem?"

"Its jaws are around my ankle." -- Anon Guest

Graham looked. This was just one among the many reasons why Planetary Survey Teams had combat-ready livesuits as part of their essential equipment. The lizard in question looked like a boa constrictor had somehow had children with a sarcosuchus and, owing to the subterranean environment, didn't have much

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