Submission

A 900-post collection

Challenge #00071: Eldritch

Use the sentence; ‘The darkness around her felt invaded, but that wasn’t new.’

Shayde slowed, listening to the pricking of her thumbs. The darkness around her felt invaded, but that was nothing new. It was a feeling usually reserved for shadow-jumping or travel Between.

But in the non-shadow world… it was something else.

Something wicked…

“I ken yer there. Out with it. What’re ye after?”

We seek… they whispered. Life.

“Ye cannae have mine. Or any close to me. Nor any close tae them and so on. This whole station’s Protected.”

We… want breath

Ah. “Ye want tae live again?”

Yes

“To make the better choices?”

Yes

“To be wanted?”

YES!

The shadows around her gained shapes. Nightmares. Made from the sort of people who became nightmares. The wolf at the door. The ogre who used bones to make bread. The wicked step-parent. The cruel master.

“There’s a lab five floors up makin’ new lives,” she said. “Perfect for what ye say ye want. Repent, an’ get yerselves reborn.”

The shadows became ordinary shadows again. There was no danger of those souls coming back into a cogniscent form. The lab five floors up was making Augments for mentally disabled kids.

They would be wanted, oh yes. Wanted and loved. And kind. And useful. And making the only choices they were trained to do. To look after their child, to love their child, to guide them and feed them and make them be better.

A life of servitude, to weigh against their previous sins.

Served them right.

[Muse food remaining: 10. Submit a prompt! Ask a question!]

Challenge #00070: Strengths

Scott beats Sara to the intellectual punch and DOESN’T crow about it.

[AN: my wrist is paining me, today, so therefore I drabble]

Scott came upon Sara in the garage, once again repairing her quirk-ridden scooter, Eileen. And, he had to note, cussing politely.

“Gluteus maximus!”

“Problems?”

“Recalcitrant gearbox, alas.”

Scott looked and briefly wondered how she couldn’t see her mistake. “You put that in backwards and upside-down,” he said,

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Challenge #00069: Power Struggle

Privilege, the halls of power and what drives those who wield it to deign it that way.

“Right,” said Bu'zaw, Earth’s new administrative assistant. “I’m trying to understand this. I am. Let me see if I have this straight.”

“Go on,” prompted Britanian Ambassador Winthrop.

“A relatively small percentage of the overall population have power over the larger percentage by means of building upon centuries of conquering and exploitation.”

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Challenge #00068: Looking Back, Looking forward

A reunion of the tall woman and the future good guy at day 74 of the training course he pursued. Another nice guy makes an appearance.

Common belief tells us that it takes three months to make a good habit. And one to form a bad one. So far, he was on day 74. His third day back into the real world, with his new perspective on many of the problems that the ladies of the world encountered.

Most of them were

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Challenge #00067: Exploitation

In the middle of a celebration,

With a new species,

While history repeats itself.

It had taken far too much work to get this far. Not the least of which was buying the right politicians so that the Storyland project could go ahead.

Genetic engineering had that kind of effect on people. Old stories like Frankenstein never truly go away. They just mutate in the subconscious and return in a new guise.

The Elves had been a hit. But then, they were

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Challenge #00066: Post meltdown

The conversation between Kelly and Duncan post meltdown due to Scott’s revenge.

“…fucking bitches…”

Kelly did some paperwork while he waited. This particular disturbance needed some analysis beyond, “This looks like Essel’s work.” No. Not Essel. Adrien, Sara Louise. She had things in her permanent record that escalated in complexity. This was the first time her MO had included co-conspiritors.

Co-conspirators Kelly noted, who had complained about Mr Matthews and had not

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Ooh, ooh, another one!

Show humanity’s reaction when they find out, after however long of xenopsychology study and then however long the knowledge takes to dissemminate to humans, that they are regarded as a species, insane. Both the “official” reaction, from the leaders of the species, and the unofficial reaction when the person on the street finds out.

(00065)

Earth’s reaction to the approaching fleet was predictable. The first parody images with popular, fictional, media space vessels were online within

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Got three for you today.

Two of them are fanfiction, though not for one of your usual fandoms, but something that …actually, you introduced me to back on the Nutboard.

First off, the non-fanfiction:

In-a: Space Station
With-a: First Contact delegation
While-a: Member of the alien delegation begins to get an inkling of how utterly insane Humans are, compared to the rest of the Galaxy

And the others:

How did Lady Ekaterin Vorkosigan react to hearing some of the details of her new husband’s

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Challenge #00061: One Fine Day During the Festival of Live Performances

Include anywhere: cashews, a drill press, silly men and a whistle.

There were times, she swore, when the station was overrun with humans. Like this one. The Festival of Live Performances bought them out of the woodwork.

She’d already passed four living statues and an eight-foot bride on the way to work, and got a cashew bar off the bride for the Minutes she put into the hat. Ant'il would have to donate it to the food bank, later. She

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Challenge #00060: Nice Guy Becoming Good Guy

Clarity, confidence, the nice guy and when someone finally listens and learns.

It started with a T-shirt. It read, If you think the world is full of assholes, maybe you’re the asshole. He knew he wasn’t an asshole, so he called the guy in the shirt one as he passed the other way.

Then there were the billboards and adverts. It was for a men’s charm school, he figured. He didn’t need that noise.

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Challenge #00059: Nice Guy Syndrome

Anywhere in the story: “Fate, it seemed, had a sadistic cruel streak in regards to his love life.”

There had been Jodie. First love. Perfect tits. Perfect ass. Perfect smile. And a perfect already-boyfriend who was five times his size and really, really territorial. He paid for her in bruises and blood, and just when he thought he was going to get luckier than he ever believed, she set him up for a very public humiliation.

Jodie was also the

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Challenge #00058: Zen and the Art of Renovating

Begin with: “Citrus fruits, once rotten, never failed to induce a melancholy state of mind.”

Citrus fruits, once rotten, never failed to induce a melancholy state of mind. Shayde had just found one in the bottom of a surprise refrigerator that had been buried under a feral stand of alien vines that, once it had conquered the rear right corner of her garden space, had died.

There was also something moving in the clouded tupperware on the second shelf.

Shayde

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Challenge #00057: Unlikely Treasures

Chicken feathers, a glass eye and a grasshopper.

“The least you could do is pitch in,” grumped Hwell as he alternated between shovel and pick.

“The least I could do,” argued Axand'l, “is go meditate while you indulge yourself in this… adventure holiday.” He tisked at the thought of wasting time on frivolous things. “As it is, I am recording this for edutainment purposes.”

Hwell rolled his eyes as if to say, Saurians!

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Challenge #00056: Human is as Human Does

When blandness strikes! Also include an explosion of confetti.

Certain words are a portent of doom.

“I’m bored,” is definitely two of them. From Shayde, very much so.

“I told you to subscribe to the calendar of events,” said Rael.

“I did. It kept spammin’ me in weird languages.”

One of these days, she was going to learn not to tick checkboxes she didn’t understand. “I’ll help you

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Challenge #00055: Slow Progress

The fourth day of therapy for the man who’s ‘Appreciation’ for Julie was dashed by Shayde’s particular brand of intervention.

Day four. The human man known on his paperwork as John Smith still rocked himself in place. He still preferred a soft, gentle environment. He did not want any variety of toy that had eyes.

He had, however, finally stopped repeating, “They wanted to eat me.”

Orsiz'edand'l viewed this as a positive sign. Human

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