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Challenge #04194-K176: The Lost Legend of Thebysthenes

We watch as the city burn, as demons from beyond the star descend onto our land. They carve our flesh, devour our young, and dance on our graves. We cried to heavens to bring us salvation. We call upon Zeus to smite the dark ones, we call upon Poseidon to wash away the flames, we call upon Athena for the wisdom to push the hoard back into the sky. All fell on deaf ears.

Except one, Ares. -- Anon Guest

Fire. Sing, O muse, of the fires of Thebysthenes. Sing of the lives lost to the demons from the stars. Sing, O muse, of the gods who did not listen, and sing great praises of the one who did...

Thebysthenes. A relatively small settlement associated with Mycenae... before the Sea People and disruption of order had cut them off. Many who lived there were prone to believe they were the last people left alive on the face of the world. And then... the black boats floated out of the sky.

They should have been struck down for knocking the temple of Zeus into rubble, but no lightning came to smite them. Thus, it was easy to believe that the gods had forsaken them. The people ran to the temples to pray nonetheless.

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Challenge #04193-K175: Pride in Presentation

A toy maker goes to a cavern where a large nest of dragon eggs are about to hatch. The entire village were giving the dragon congratulations gifts, and this person made effigies of knights holding flowers and fireproof, claw-resistant, stuffies. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Considering the semi-feral nature of infant Dragons, they're better off with chew toys]

Legend tells that the world was made for Dragons. They were very upset when other species turned up and made it less for Dragons than

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Challenge #04192-K174: Downtime Invention

A: Happy Family!

B: Royal Straight Flush!

C: UNO!

D: COME FORTH BLUE EYES WHITE DRAGON!

E: I activate my credit card. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Changed one part of the prompt to be a completely different game. Pretty sure Nonny gave me two poker wins]

Boredom and captivity does strange things to Humans. As evidenced by Silly Season outbreaks. When it's a salvage vessel crewed by Humans, beset by twists of luck, it can get even stranger.

None on board had

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Challenge #04191-K173: One Good Turn...

They helped the poor farmer who, after a time, made a mostly full recovery. In addition to giving them the rock that nearly killed him, he made very sure everyone knew these two were life-savers. He might be poor, but he was well liked by those around that area.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04081-k063-willowfine-poppy-and-a-sharp-knife -- The New Guy

The operation took most of a day, careful work, and specialised tools to extract the starmetal fragments from Farmer Ansley's head, and all

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Challenge #04190-K172: Balanced Out

A person with a really strong good luck gene keeps asking questions like "How bad could it possibly be?". And saying things like "Things could never get any worse" just to try to tempt fate. -- Fighting Fit

There is balance in the universe. For every death, there is life. For every darkness, there is a light. For every fortune, there is poverty. And for every good, there is something bad.

The forces of nature are said to dislike certain things, like

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Challenge #04189-K171: To Fight Another Day

A special class was being held for those who are unwanted. Not just combat with hands and feet, but also exercising the tails, making them dexterous and nimble. For those with wings, using the wings like bludgeons in combat, using horns. Using weapons.. people never figured could actually be used as weapons. Expect the unexpected. -- Anon Guest

"I cannot teach you all the same," said the teacher. Battle-scarred and bent with age, they could nevertheless still hold their own in a

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Challenge #04188-K170: Kill List

The lucker who was a killer meets again with their allies, Sunshine and Jay. The two invited the individual because they did need a third pair of hands. This case was going to take a while.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03986-j334-outsourcing-horror -- Anon Guest

Poetry. Art. Culture. Always held away from the more common throng. Always used as a means by which to point and laugh at those artificially held apart from the more valued media. Ridiculous, considering how often those

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Challenge #04187-K169: A Destination of Inspiration

May we see the fairgrounds, say, a couple years out after Wraithvine and friends visited to safety-test?

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03749-j096-safety-inspection -- Anon Guest

Fairs like this tend to travel. Staying in one place tends to make them boring for the locals, and travel is never casual when the journey takes days at best. It was a slow carnival, so the places it visited had up to a week of anticipation before they could attend.

Wraithvine had tested all of

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Challenge #04186-K168: Calculated Risk

They warn knomiras time and again not to touch the pretty plants. And, yet again, they get to deal with complaining and screaming while treating injured hands. -- Anon Guest

Some exhibits are a nightmare. The slow-moving cruise vessels housing them are literally made for the exhibits. Kept in excellent condition by the crew and staff. It's not the exhibits that are the problem. It's the people who pay to share the experience presented.

"I paid to see these plants," insisted the

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Challenge #04185-K167: The All-Purpose Animal

Humans bring to multiple Thranityr worlds the farming of goats and cattle. How to properly raise them, how to milk them, and how to make cheeses and butter. Along with other human foodstuffs they've not grown or raised yet. -- Anon Guest

There exists a perfect machine for turning cellulose-based life into protein. It's versatile, self-powered, self-replicating, and capable of adapting to most terrains. It can flourish in deserts. The byproducts of its processes are excellent for fertilising crops. It's even autonomous.

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Challenge #04184-K166: Isekai'd

[Notification: Demon Lord have been slayed]

[Notification: you have died]

[Congraula-] [WARNING UNKNOW ENTITY IN SYSTEM]

[Executing Purge] [Titles have been revoked] [Skills have been revoked] [passives have been revoked] [Title: Hero, sustained]

[All Bookmarks have been deleted] -- Anon Guest

[AN: This prompt has been altered for brevity]

Waking up in the starter zone felt... different. G'ni reached up and felt hir cheek instead of the soft plastic seal of the virtuality goggles. The smell of the sea air, burned flesh,

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Challenge #04183-K165: Out of Frame

They call me a Hero, but all I did was use my magic to create water channels and canals, along with spells of purification so the water is always completely clean and created special sewer systems so waste water will flow away from this town, through marshes with powerful purifying spells and tons of plans to clean away and waste so that the water is cleaned before it goes to the river.

I'm not a hero. Please stop calling me one. --

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Challenge #04182-K164: Death By Stabby

The Roomba with a knife duct taped to it: sup -- Anon Guest

[AN: This prompt was edited for IP erasure and brevity]

Something horrible had happened here. The signs were clear. Foreboding and hurried grafitti on the walls. Signs of struggle. Signs of chaos. And an ominous trail of reddish-brown smears that had nothing to do with children's hospitals[1].

...the distinct lack of survivors...

Well. There was a reason why this station had fallen silent. There was nobody around to

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Challenge #04181-K163: One Bad Meet Cute

Dragon 1: "Why do you have a pest on your back?"

Dragon 2: "That's not a pest or vermin, that's my sibling."

Dragon 1: "Another adopted?"

Dragon 2: "Think what you like, I'll never abandon kids who want a family, no matter their species!." -- Anon Guest

[AN: This prompt has been edited for Markdown compatibility and trimmed for brevity. Prompters, remember to check the pinned notice at the top of the prompt forum. Thank you.]

It took Glisterill ten years to

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Challenge #04180-K162: Innocent Mistake

A: Human, we found an abandoned mineshaft! (cracks flare)

B: Dumb question, what were they mining down there?

A: (pulls out data pad) umm records says... they were harvesting a resource called petroleum. Why?

B: No reason. Imma go fire up the ship... -- Anon Guest

[AN: This seems very erroneous. On multiple levels]

There are reasons why graveworlds are graveworlds, and many of them do not leave the infrastructure intact. Well. Intact except for a fine layer of carbon. Everything organic

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