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Challenge #04889-M140: Culture Shock

What are the bad things about the Alliance? What are the good things about the Greater Deregulation? And what are things both sides agree on? -- Anon Guest

[AN: That's a very good question]

Every utopia is someone's dystopia. The opposite holds true. Someone's paradise is someone else's hell. The Alliance has laws that are meant for the equity of all its citizens, including guarantees for health, welfare, and happiness. This also means that every citizen of the Alliance is under a modicum of surveillance.

If a citizen neglects their own welfare, the law is in place to make the welfare happen. This can reach the point where the local security officers are involved.

At least the offense "Criminal Self Neglect" is not a black mark on the citizen in question. Only those guilty of the most severe crimes in the Alliance go to more than remedial therapy. The Alliance prefers to prevent crimes before anyone can come to harm.

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Challenge #04888-M139: And Having Writ, Moves On

After a bout of writer’s block, an author of some renown has the spark return. Only, the events that the author begins penning begin to happen in real life. Horrified, the author tries to abandon the work. And yet, the tickle of imagination, the curiosity of what’s happening, and even the thrill of power keep calling the author back to the paper and ink… -- Deathshead419

Writers may not live and die by the words they write, but they certainly

Challenge #04887-M138: Legends in the Flesh

Two centuries ago Wraithvine helped the folk of a river valley with a carnivorous fish problem. Imagine hir surprise to hear in a tavern on the far side of the continent that ze has helped them once again only a season behind and settled down in the valley with the prettiest child of the valley chieftain. Clearly this must be investigated at once… -- Deathshead419

Walk far enough and long enough, some legends say, and you will meet yourself coming the other

Challenge #04886-M137: Go Back to the Fire

A devotee of Khasis and Gibil, the fire and the forge, arrives to give libations to the Divines. Only, the devotee becomes confused, as one God is singular non-binary and the other is a hypostasis of multiple divine aspects…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypostasis(philosophyand_religion)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYOUFGfK4bU -- Deathshead419

Offerings to gods can vary in substance, but agree on theme. Various deities all over Alfarell are offered various liquids to drink. Few take blood

Challenge #04885-M137: Familiar Divinity

Word has reached Wothyn that his ravens did their duty, and gave the new Goddess Vykoria the dream of where his son was entombed. After [Insert Here] number of years, Thor has returned. The Pantheon may at last be able to reconvene…

Follows on from: https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04866-m117-dredging-up-blessings -- Deathshead419

[AN: Yeh nah not gonna put a number in there]

Wothyn, Thor, Freja, Tyr, and even Loki gathered in the mead hall specific to their shared legends. Given that

Challenge #04884-M136: Testing Ground

After a long, winding journey, Wraithvine approaches a brand new settlement along a trading river for a well deserved rest. Only, the streets are unpaved, the carpentry is shoddy, and the only populace are scarecrows. Irritated, Wraithvine searches for “Mayor Bodembgin” to give a piece of hir mind… -- Deathshead419

The point was that there had been a village in this location. Or within the same idea of the location. Fresh water. Arable land. Excellent climate. Wraithvine found it by memory, but

Challenge #04883-M135: Divine Real Estate

An older god. One who had been old when the world was new. From before even the time of the dragons, before the elves came into existence, whispered gently, and not unkindly, to Wraithvine. "If your body is ever destroyed, you, your home, and your cat, will be joining us in the immortal plains. So that your work in the world that you so love, will never end." -- Anon Guest

In the beginning, the legends say, there were Dragons. The Great

Challenge #04882-M133: Taming the Wild Child

Wraithvine is trying to help a panicked child who ends up biting him in their terror. He does not pull his hand away, but rather, soothes and forgives the little one. -- Anon Guest

Of all the evils a modern world could commit, one of the top ten was dumping snare wire in the wilderness. Wraithvine considered it part of hir duties to find and destroy it whenever ze wandered through any part of nature. Judging strictly by the howling and snarling,

Challenge #04881-M132: First Steps to Peace

Nine Princes and Princesses from across the realms receive a mysterious letter, that they must attend an important gathering of unspecified content; one to be held in a peaceful land which has no quarrel with any of the nobles. Indeed, the ruler there declares no knowledge of the invitations nor that he had ever heard of the sprawling palace where the nine gather with their servants and favorites. What unfolds next surprises everyone involved… -- Deathshead419

Eighteen letters. Each on high-class paper,

Challenge #04880-M131: Bad Omens Rise

King Krivcol III had a brush with death at a young age. Now he relies upon astrologers to gauge his future, planning out every detail of his and his family's lives. But his growing paranoia with what's to come may be blinding him to problems around him in the here and now... -- Deathshead419

Many heads of state had advisors. Some had viseers, some had chancellors, come had cabinets of experts. King Krivkol Florentus Montgomerie Oralendo Montecroix, third of his name, had

Challenge #04879-M130: Sad Beige Life

My parents were cold narcissists. As an adult, once they signed everything to me, I signed our entire solar system to the alliance. I have plenty to live on, my mansions, my gardens, and so much more. But now the halls are full of life and youthful laughter. It actually feels like a home, not a museum. My parents? They live in their wing, their own little world. I'm letting them live the remainder of their golden years in peace. Under watch,

Challenge #04878-M129: Unexpected Rescue

They ran as fast as the wind toward Wraithvine and Bibrid, tackling both to the ground just as a magic arrow flies past the three. The arrow's power seared the being's back, the percussion caused bones to be broken. But, despite the immense pain, they said in a soft whisper to the two. "I'd tackle you again like this in a heartbeat, you're worth it." -- Anon Guest

Of all the strange powers to have from birth, Scramble's ability to freeze time

Challenge #04877-M128: Can We Keep Each Other?

Not long ago, this planet of havenworlders saved a human who had, had a cheese-grater landing. If not for these beings, the human, fortunately the only occupant of that freighter, would not have survived. Then raiders came to harm these people. And the humans showed what gratitude for kindness earns. -- Anon Guest

[AN: May be in relation to: https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04839-m090-waif-and-stray ]

Hal was learning a lot of things. Starting with the fact that aliens were real and that

Challenge #04876-M127: Invasive Plant Control

It took Vholno some time to understand that his father was once regarded as a blushing maid who found his true self through the care of the dryads. Though wind pollination makes humoresque paternity all but impossible to determine, still, Vholno is desperate to learn the one who’s pollen took root in Gyethamp the Bard all those years before.

Sequel to https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04709-l325-difficult-history -- Deathshead419

There was a lot to take in. A lot to understand. A

Challenge #04875-M126: Wrath of the Dark

Deep below the vale of ancients, in ruins so deep and layered as to become a cave-like labyrinth, is an effigy of a goddess. A small posse of dare seekers ignore the fell myths whispered of the buried divine, though they may come to wish they had heeded the warnings... -- Deathshead419

The world was built by Dragons, then built upon by various civilisations. Some cities, like Arbordeep, have been built up on previous iterations of Arbordeep as various cataclysms, floods, and

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Challenge #04889-M140: Culture Shock

Challenge #04888-M139: And Having Writ, Moves On

Challenge #04887-M138: Legends in the Flesh

Challenge #04886-M137: Go Back to the Fire

Challenge #04885-M137: Familiar Divinity

Challenge #04884-M136: Testing Ground

Challenge #04883-M135: Divine Real Estate

Challenge #04882-M133: Taming the Wild Child

Challenge #04881-M132: First Steps to Peace

Challenge #04880-M131: Bad Omens Rise

Challenge #04879-M130: Sad Beige Life

Challenge #04878-M129: Unexpected Rescue

Challenge #04877-M128: Can We Keep Each Other?

Challenge #04876-M127: Invasive Plant Control

Challenge #04875-M126: Wrath of the Dark