Challenge

One good turn deserves another - a wai

[AN: O noes! Looks like an accidental premature submission. I shall do what I can with what there is…]

(#00311)

It took her two hours to reach the accident site. By then, most of the fires were out, and most of the people who had survived the crash had perished.

Nothing to be done about that. The authorities were days away. Things rarely fell from the sky, and when they did, they never

So, there’s Clarke’s Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Then there’s what I first ran across attributed (in a Uni textbook, no less!) as Murphy’s reformulation of Clarke’s law: Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.

Then there’s what is in the textbook as a Programmers’ restatement of Murphy’s reformulation of Clarke: Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from a rigged demonstration.

(Well, you mentioned prior experience in that last snippet, so…)

T'reka and hugs.

(also if the story you mentioned being sparked from that gets written, I totally want in on your beta reading list and will probably buy it multiple times)

[AN: After I finish writing the Hevun’s Child series I will be working on The Amity Incident. 120K word goal. But before that, I think I deserve a week’s rest, don’t you?]

There was

It is said that life is a comedy to those who think,
And a tragedy to those who feel.  I never could figure out
Which it was for me.  May you have better luck. – RecklessPrudence

(#00308)

T-shirts had made a comeback, though many cogniscents who had taken them up had not grasped some of the basic concepts. Like, they had to feature something witty, controversial, or downright offensive.

Some, Rael noted, had gone for profound.

Shayde, sporting one that read, Life

Adhuc Vivo!
(It’s Latin, look it up)

Yes, the parentheses were on the gravestone too. – RecklessPrudence

(#00307)

[AN: For those too lazy to do as the parentheses suggest, it translates out to “Thus far, alive.” which is a very ironic thing to stick on a gravestone]

It was a long trip home, and lead naturally to introspection.

“Plant a tree and think of me,” Rael recited. “Did you choose that epitaph?”

“I

The last Homo Sapiens Sapiens lay dying. Who hears their final words? Who are our species’ successors?

Go as uplifting or as dark as you wish. – RecklessPrudence

(#00305)

The machines were very good at keeping him alive. They had done so for almost two hundred years.

And it wasn’t fair that a majority of them were spent in a bed, watching other innovations and marvelous things happen in the world. Watching the new definition of humanity do marvelous

Luckily, the researchers were actually _aware_ of the past century-plus of musing on the subject, and didn’t react like paranoid idiots.

Whether the creation of the AI was intentional or not, I leave up to you. – RecklessPrudence

(#00304)

Gravity generators needed a Cargo Cult to make them go. Each machine was the same, up until the final pass, where the Cargo Cult took over and the machine was ‘birthed’.

The cult called itself the Nae'hyn, and was

Place names change over time. Often in response to something that happened at that location that changed how people thought about it. For instance, did you know that it’s nigh-impossible to easily find an English source for what the locals called ANZAC Cove before WW1?

What about when the meaning behind the new name is forgotten… why is this place named [name here]? It doesn’t fit with the surrounding place names… – RecklessPrudence

(#00303)

Part of Shayde&

I am somewhat preoccupied telling the Laws of Physics to shut up and sit down. – RecklessPrudence

(#00301)

It took Kev most of the year to work out that Katie Walker was smarter than she seemed. When the dawn came, it was like watching a gigantic fusion energy generator rise over the horizon.

She was coding in her notebook again. Gibberish to Kev’s eyes. She used to count and mutter when writing in there, now, she just wrote in a

My stomach is in my throat right now. It’s trying to spit acid on the parts of my brain that remember reading that message. – RecklessPrudence

(#00300)

It had been an ordinary chat in Shayde’s office until Blenkinsop arrived with the lead-lined lockbox.

“Oh joy, it’s a nastygram from Greater Deregulation. Fan-fookain’-tastic…” She got out and donned a pair of gloves, goggles, and a filter mask.

Then, with ceremony and aplomb, carefully

Can somebody help me find my retinas?
Last I heard, they were screaming and trying to hide under a table.

I leave it to you to determine if the sight was physically, emotionally, or mentally traumatic. – RecklessPrudence

(#00299)

She had been intending to say, “I’m no tryin’ tae escape, ye ken, but somethin’s gone wrong wi’ the air in there.”

She only got as far as, “I’m no trying’