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Challenge #03092-H184: Ozymandius Syndrome

"Yes, I was a CEO. Yes, I am, was, the richest person on my home-world. So why am in this cell? I surrendered myself. Why did I do that? After what I saw, how they helped me, I grew something I didn't know existed. I gained humility. I hurt them. It's time I faced justice for my crimes. I deserve it. I'm so very sorry." -- Anon Guest

A wise man once wrote that it is often considered criminal to live in slums, it is never considered criminal to own them. Words like that often miss the person they're aimed at. And yet, there are always the statistical outliers whom the others wish they could not count. They make denying the possibility of change so difficult.

Such as Howell Troyus IV, who encountered a change of mind via a change of fate. When one practices the Faith of Prosperity[1], it's easy to believe that the poor are naturally evil. After all, they are obviously being punished for the sin of not having money. However, all it takes is one terrible accident to reverse one's fortunes.

He has encountered such a fate, and not violently. All he had to do was encounter bigger sharks than himself, running a more corrupt enterprise than he had ever dreamed. The next thing he knew, he was spending the last of his ready finances on fees, charges, and fines that he should have been able to skate away from. And then somebody rolled him for his suit.

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Challenge #03091-H183: Pause Button Broken

bkf48a day ago:

I'd love for wraithvine to meet this guy! :-)

internutter73a day ago:

They'd for sure bump into each other via other shenanigans.

WV: Whoa! That's one heck of a Destiny you've got there. What do you have up your sleeve.

A: Well I have this weird bell, these passive qualities, and I can [ABILITY] once a day.

WV: Cool. I can teach you how to be clever with that.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03050-h127-fate-destiny-a-basket -- DaniAndShali

[AN: Whoops

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Challenge #03090-H182: Baby on Board

A Human toddler is flying for their first time with their parents. They'd never been off-world before and they were excited. The toddler was being brought to a medical facility on a station for a surgical procedure, though as active as they are people would never realize they were sick. With them were several Havenworlders including one who looked for all the world like a large, fluffy, bipedal canine in basic ship's skins. Problem is, the toddler would not stop trying to

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Challenge #03089-H181: One Confounding Morning in an Off-beat Security Office

The time Havenworlders trained in a dojo run by humans, defeated and imprisoned a human who was a pirate. They delivered the pirate to the other humans, who were, to say the least, rather impressed! -- Anon Guest

A large number of things are inadvisable to the boundary of impossibility. A number of other things are inadvisable - like telling a Human what's impossible. Humans tend to take these things as a challenge, and there is inevitably fallout as a consequence. Current

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Challenge #03088-H180: If I Had a Bell...

The bell, when rung, could be heard loud and clear, but no one whose ears worked, could hear it. Only those who had magic. When it was rung, it caused all other bells in hundreds of miles to ring as well. The louder it rang, the louder they did. And only Amatu could ring it. For the bell was his, it formed the day of his birth. -- Adventure

[AN: Big thanks and love to DaniAndShali who provided the link to the

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Challenge #03087-H179: The Natural Order

If you loved me you'd... Often demanded, often with consequences you'd rather not deal with. truth is that "If you loved me," cuts both ways. -- Nonny the Mouse [in memory of too many domestic violence victims]

It was only natural. Take one Tiefling who had rarely known a kind word and never known a kind touch. Add a young lady who showed him even the most elementary of kindness, and you have a recipe for instant trouble. For Kormwind, it was

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Challenge #03086-H178: What a Deal

If. The codicil to a lot of Life's bargains, often toxic, usually starting in learning years, where you often learn more than what's on the syllabus. -- Nonny the Mouse

Sadi hadn't known what they were getting into when they got into it. What they were used to getting into was Miss Tiven's Crap List. This time, Sadi had accidentally wandered into the Feywilds. It wasn't really Sadi's fault, they were just following instructions as best they could remember... so they thought.

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Challenge #03085-H177: Relative Luxury

The young deregger expatriate, somewhat reluctantly, but at Gorx's gentle insistence, schedules a few days off since Gorx is very safely at home for a few days to relax. He takes his mom out, she is also trying to wrap her head around this concept, and they truly enjoy their first taste of what people would call, "a vacation from work with pay."

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-03047-h124-free-time -- DaniAndShali

Humans Jef and Bea were learning to adapt. Transiteer Gorx would

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Challenge #03084-H176: Hello Again, Little Friend

They had crashed on a planet where the atmosphere was toxic. The pods were safe and able to be moved together to create a larger shelter, and with only four of them, the shelter was big enough for at least a month, though rescue stated they'd be there in about two weeks given the distance and lack of short cuts in that area. Their patient's infection showed by day two. The human frowned, seeing it, then began to cut apart citrus peels

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Challenge #03083-H175: Anything is Ammo

A: "What's that?"

H: "What's what?"

A: "That odd thing you're working on." Indicating the odd contraption attached to the human's suit that the human was carefully adding conditioning agent to the strong, stretching, straps

H: "Oh, this? That's just my wrist rocket"

A: "Wrist Rocket?"

H: "My slingshot"

A: ........................................... -- DaniAndShali

"Aw, don't look at me in that tone of voice," said Human Ess, still tinkering with the simple device. It was nothing more than a forked frame, some stretchy straps,

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Challenge #03082-H174: A Random Act of Kindness

He sought out, not Waithvine, but the kobold he traveled with. The young man, finding them along the trail, carried with him a basket of fresh fruit, fresh breads, dried meat, and sweet-filled pastries. Once he saw her, looking to the three travelers, the bugbear, the kobold, and the elf, the youth held out the basket to her, bowed and said softly, "Thank you." For he never forgot how she undid his bindings, and stopped him from ending his own life that

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Challenge #03081-H173: Assisted Retirement

She was middle aged, approaching her 50's, her lower back hurt so bad she could barely move. Working in those damn factories for so long, ever since she was orphaned when the last big fire that swept through the city killed hers and so many others' families, had broken her. Then they came. It was late in the night, she'd gathered a huge amount of old, scrap, cloth stolen out of dumpsters and did her best to make it comfortable for her

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Challenge #03080-H172: Defeating Monsters

There was a sign on the door. It read "Warning! Deathworlder story time! Humans inside!" Faintly, through the budget soundproofing, a cogniscent with good hearing could make out the wailing cry of an alarmed human larva. One with even better hearing would be able to make out the voices of other young humans, saying "It's OK, it's OK, it's not real, it's just a story. Right, Miss? It's not real, right???" -- Anon Guest

Fairy tales do not exist to tell children

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Challenge #03079-H171: Ave Ceasar...

A: Those who share my purpose becomes allies, those that do not become casualty.

B: There’s nothing about this war that is that cut and dry.

A: Because you still have hope, that this war will end with your honour intact

B: I do

A: stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honour matter. The silence Is your answer. -- Anon Guest

War. They say it never changes, but it does. It gets increasingly

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Challenge #03078-H170: The Inherent Hazards of Knomiras

Common sense is not that common, this most people know.

When you lack even that basic knowledge, it's sad how things can go.

They were listening to the instructions of the flight attendants as they had boarded their flight from the station. It was the usual routine safety instructions that all flights normally gave, and the usual "Here is what we do for this type of emergency" thing. Except, this time, a person scoffed, rolling their eyes, refusing to listen to a

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