Submission

A 900-post collection

Young Knights and Old Soldiers

Saw this quote online, figured it might inspire something interesting.

“Hoping to find a ‘knight in shining armor’ is a worthless dream.  His blade razor-edged, his shield polished, his breastplate ornately-gilded, they say only this - that his experience in battle is nothing, and his courage has never been tested. He has nothing but ambition and optimism in his corner, and he could easily falter and flee when that shine fades.  Hope instead to find the steadfast soldier in scuffed and dented plate, whose shield is scarred and cracked and whose sword is chipped and dulled.  This is someone who has faced the enemy without fear, who has fought through the assaults of those who tried to break him and, even if in the end he was left weary and bloody, still emerged victorious.  That man, battered and bruised but still triumphant, is the kind of hero one should seek.”

(#0153)

“Oh, now what the hell?”

There were two figures blocking egress. Men in armor. Men with muscles, but beyond that, they were opposites. One was a stereotypical shining knight replete with his own star filter. The other was a rusted, dented, mismatched man with a smoldering cigar and reeking of cynicism.

“CHOOSE YOUR HERO,” boomed the voice controlling this labyrinth of chaos.

“I know how this goes,” Kitty began to go to the sparkly one on the left.

“Wait,” said Jean. “This was put together by Sara on a 'flu medicine and sugar bender. Nothing fits nypical rules.”

“Nypical?” echoed Pietro.

“Neurotypical. I’ve been reading Sara’s psych books. Deal. This is her creation. In essence, we’re inside her head.”

“Euw,” said Lance.

“That explains the last three pun-related traps,” muttered Scott.

“Hush,” said Jean. “We have to think like Sara.”

“Psychoweirdo lunacy? I’m not doing anything about anything, then,” said Pietro.

“So…like, the shiny hero’s the bad one?” guessed Kitty.

“Too right,” said the other one. He had been leaning against his archway. “Mister shiny over there’s never been in a real fight. Watch.” he flicked a small, wooden cosh towards the shiny knight in a negligent motion.

And, predictably, the pretty one literally fell to pieces.

The rusty fighter lit his cigar again. “Sam Vimes,” he said. “Ankh-Morpork City Watch.”

“Told you so,” murmured Jean.

[Muse food remaining: 8 (fic war prompts, 3). Submit a promptAsk a questionBuy my stories!]

Challenge #151: One Stormy Evening at Genracon

Klaus + Da Boyz + Comic Convention = Wacky Hijinks

“Ve FIGHT!”

Lightning raged, both natural and artificial, through the iron catacombs where he and this idiot trio of Jaegers had decided to pick a fight.

“Not so close to the por–”

KRAKKOW!

“–tal…”

“Vot?”

The lights came back on. Crowds in varying degrees of unrealistic dress stared at the tangle of Baron and Jaegermonsters…

And burst into shrieking applause.

Maxim straightened first,

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Challenge #00145: Mein Kinder

Girl Genius, Klaus + baby!Gil. Klaus’s thoughts on watching Gil grow.

The magnetite compas was working. As was the nourishment formula the infant boy was suckling on.

His son.

Gilgamesh.

He would have to do something about the fine green fuzz of hair that marked him as Skifandran. But right now, in a hot-air flying engine cobbled together out of whatever he had to hand… it was not important.

He could not take his sister. At least, he could

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Challenge #00144: Discovery!

Embarrassing sibling fluff (Evoverse or Girl Genius, whichever you prefer): Sister meets long-lost brother. They have much catching up to do, and she just wants to embarrass him (in front of the girl he likes makes it even better)

“Just get those clothes off before the contamination gets to your skin!” Agatha, wearing heavily re-inforced gloves, both shoved Gil towards the hot rain engine and tore at his stained shirt.

“Oooh, let me help,” squealed Zeetha. She, too

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Challenge #00143: Angst in Eyeliner

Why “poetry night” at the X-Mansion was canceled.

[AN: You have no idea how hard it was not to quote Vogon Poetry for this one…]

“…come for me. Come for my love. Come for my hate. Come for the tiredness I feel for breath. Death, come like a lover…”

_So,_ Jean thought to the Professor, _Three years of therapy and counting  for our dear little Rogue. How much for us?_

_Considering there’s fifteen

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Challenge #00142: One Fine Day in Transylvania Polygnostic....

’…y'know what, etching “YOU’RE WRONG!” into the surface of the moon with a giant laser, without specifying exactly who was wrong about what, could be freaking hilarious.’

“Settle down, Snapcase,”

“This is theoretical mechanica, not theoretical mass psychology. Save it for the right forum, Snapcase.”

“And don’t say anything in front of Fozdyke. He’s a plagiarist.”

“Hey!”

“Well, you are…”

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FicWar Prompt

Building a superhighway with good intentions.

(#00140)

[AN: Shoutout to Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the monster he created]

“See, with quantum entanglement, we might not be able to transmit objects, but we can transmit data. That’s still a breakthrough,” she argued. “You can send data to a 3D printer on mars, or in orbit of Jupiter, and instructions to go with it. Without the comms delay of conventional radio.”

“And what about temporally-joined entanglements? Can

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Challenge #00137: Elves Don't Live Forever.

As per the fic war… go old school. Kitty realizes her feelings for Kurt after he dies in some horrible manner. KILL ME.

[AN: Fic war prompts will have priority while they are in my inbox. I will get to the others in the fullness of time.]

They got most of the people out. Not all. Nobody could have got all of them out. And for a change everyone was working together. Lance beside Scott. Fred beside Jean. Pietro beside Ororo&

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Challenge #00136: Just Like Her Father

“No one ever tells you that the true taste of victory is not sweet; it lies like bitter ashes upon the tongue.”

Da had always said that.

Young Cordelia had never understood her father’s caution. Victory had to be good. Otherwise it wouldn’t make sense. And it really, really had to make sense now, with Da taken hostage and herself in disguise behind enemy lines with a pack of mercenaries as the only hope of getting

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Challenge #00135: Offerings of Embarassment

Cherry pie.

JOATs, by and large, are nocturnal. Either by accident or design, they largely manage to find themselves awake at 3AM when sleep is impossible and the ideas flow like a madman’s flood and nothing, NOTHING is impossible.

Rael, designed to be useful during most hours of the day, only needed a few hours’ rest in his heated fish tank before being functional once more. He rather liked the, for JOATS, earlier hours of 7AM to 10AM when

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Challenge #00134: Wrong Call

End with: “Only as the full measure of events came to bear did he realize that she was WAY out of his league.”

The envelope was fancy. Paul checked it five times to make sure that the embellished envelope had actually made it to the right destination. But there weren’t that many Paul Pleskins in Southwark County. And only one in the trailer park where he eked out an existence doing day work and temp jobs.

The return

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Challenge #00133: One Fine Day in a Play Park

Shayde and Nanny have a semi-civilized chat while watching the artist take a LOOOOONG overdue day off in the park to recharge. Vendors notice the juxtaposition with mild curiosity.

Julie was on the swings. Laughing. She’d been on them for half an hour and, without any other instruction, was likely to stay on them for the rest of the day.

“Be careful,” Nanny barked for the fifth time since Julie had sat in the swing.

“Aw, rest

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Challenge #00132: Monster in My House

Mr. Winters and how he ruined Scott Summers. Xavier makes an appearance.

Scott Summers devoted as much time as he could to extracurricular activities. If they were free ones, all the better. Money was a problem for Scott.

Mister Winters did not like Scott wasting money.

The ones that earned money were better, and funded the ones that didn’t. And sometimes contributed to his dinner.

But he had to be home by seven. Or Mister Winters would get angry.

Mister

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Ethical Heroism

Sam, Scott and defeating monsters while keeping one’s dignity.

(#00131)

The alleged victim was a monster. Scott had no doubt, because he was privy to a lot of stuff that the prosecution’s lawyers had managed to get removed from this trial.

The exact kind of monster who sued his victim.

Things were looking very bad, especially since his mutant defendant looked like a cross between a warthog and cthulu. Jurors judged by appearances, and none of Sara’

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Ding, Dong, Is The Witch Really Dead?

Jelly, Ice Cream, Maggie Thatcher and Sara’s obsession with all things empirical.

(#00130)

“Ah, the end of an era,” sighed Sara.

Kitty peeked. She was watching international news over a bowl of jelly and ice-cream, where people were protesting in the streets and holding giant puppets. It was interspersed with grainy old stock footage of people rioting. “Normally I like, ignore your what-the-heck moments, but… What the heck?”

“Margret Thatcher has passed on.”

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