Instant Story

Challenge #03039-H116: There's Some in Every Trip

A group of former Degreggers, with their galactic friends, compiling their resources, purchased a trading ship, and outfitted the two largest holds with large, comfortable, reclining seats, blankets, and other creature comforts, each one being able to hold at least a hundred people, and the third largest hold with tons of nutrient packs that would last for long periods of time. The other holds aboard the ship were used for normal storage with many types of trade goods, the three turned into multi-guest sleeping areas and excess food storage were disguised. Why? Very simple. They made a plan to visit as many deregger planets and polities as possible, and start helping people escape. But to do that, well, sometimes to save souls from hell, you have to trade with the devils. -- Lessons

There are, in the universe, necessary evils. Most of them happen in the Edge Territories, and it's because of plausible deniability that they continue within. The Cogniscent Rights Committee turns a blind eye to it, as does the Fair Trade Commission. If they were dealing with Galactics then the accommodations and business deals going on would be quashed in a cold second.

Greater Deregulations refuse to be part of the Alliance because they don't like the rules. Therefore, they shouldn't expect anyone else to follow those rules either. If planned obsolescence and lying about the safety and longevity of your product is okay in Deregger space, then that's the kind of dealing they should expect. And anyway, any polity willing to sell off their population for shiny trinkets are getting what they deserve.

They call the ships Horse Smugglers and they regularly swap subpar technology for the "free" citizens or indentured servants of Deregger spaces. They even go so far as swapping expendable porter-bots for the cargo workers. The Dereggers don't immediately complain because the bots don't need to eat or breathe. They complained in exactly a month and a half, when the porter-bots broke down at exactly the life expectancy of every single piece of Deregger tech on the market. By then, the Horse Smugglers have moved on. Yet, the Dereggers fall for it every single time.

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Challenge #03038-H115: We're Going to Need a Bigger Nametag

A: You know Jugemu I don't actually know your full name; what is it?

J: You sure? it's really long.

A: hit me

J: Jugemu Jugemu Go-Kō-no-Surikire Kaijari-suigyo no Suigyō-matsu Unrai-matsu Fūrai-matsu Kū-Neru Tokoro ni Sumu Tokoro Yaburakōji no Burakōji Paipo Paipo Paipo no Shūringan Shūringan no Gūrindai Gūrindai no Ponpokopii no Ponpokonaa no Chōkyūmei no Chōsuke -- Anon Guest

[AN: That's a meme I've managed to avoid for literal years. I knew it existed, but I've never seen it. Also some

Challenge #03037-H114: The Learning Process

Ad astra per aspera -- Anon Guest

[AN: My old primary school motto was Per Ardua Ad Astra - by effort to the stars. If I read this correctly, this means "To the stars by breath" ::googles:: Almost. "Through the rough" not "by breath". Was I close?]

Groundbreaking travel, as the name suggests, is fraught with unforeseen perils. The first person to hang onto the back of a horse or an ox had no idea what they were in for. The first

Challenge #03036-H113: Where and How to Cut

In a quiet meeting room several met. Each one of them carrying a blade. Each blade were of various conditions of care, or lack thereof. As had became tradition, these blades were exchanged amongst each other, no blood upon them, and then thrust into a soft wooden half-sphere that lay upon the table showing each hand was empty. They discussed why they came to the palace, why they had once wanted to kill the king. What they had learned from the King

Challenge #03035-H112: Hostile Working Conditions

Call Centres, Don't you just love to hate them, the faceless voice on the other end of the line, that automaton of modern industry you can vent all your frustration at and abuse until your hearts content.

You're sure they don't mind, if they did they could just hang up! You would! They couldn't loose their job over it surely?!?

Besides, its not like they aren't paid well enough to take one frustrated customer, if there was more than one complaint, surely

Challenge #03034-H111: Obscured by Alchemy

There’s two types of people:

1- those that can extrapolate information from incomplete data -- Anon Guest

[AN: I love this but have to resist the urge to fill in the missing information. Thankyou, Nonny, for messing with my brain]

There are times in alchemy that the four elements are insufficient to explain what just happened. For instance, the metal of potash. Purging wood with fire, then soaking the char in water for a week, straining out the charcoal, and then

Challenge #03033-H110: A Different Solution

They saw Human Ji sit down for their tea after the brief fight with the braggart that had decided to be an idiot. As the crowd dispersed, people getting back to their normal routines, they first helped the owners put the tea gardens back together, mainly because they were nervous about approaching Ji, before plucking up their courage and approaching the table. Lightly clearing their throat, they asked, softly. "I'm having to deal with bullies in school that keep trying to beat

Challenge #03032-H109: Dragon Favoured

The Dragonmage, the young men and women chosen of dragon-kind. Formerly the unwanted, the undesirable, the abused, the mistreated. Incorruptible due to their bond with their dragons, they feared almost nothing save for the idea that their desire to save innocent lives would fail. The greedy, the grasping, the cruel, they sought out children who might have eggs now. Attempts to corrupt, attempts to control their own dragonmages. But the dragons were sent to taught this world a lesson, painfully if need

Challenge #03031-H108: Love Her to Education

What if someone loves a member of the Family, but has to learn to cook. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Has been linked to Engagement Approval Feast by my pal DaniAndShali ]

As far as love is concerned, there are levels of adoration. Loving to distraction is easy. Loving to invention is harder, inspiring the lover to make something initially for their best-beloved. Harder still... is loving to education.

Izzy had been kept out of the kitchen by a series of circumstances for her

Challenge #03030-H107: Tea and Socialisation

I can't help it Internutter, I gotta see! Mr. Sunshine introduces Jay to his one, and only, true friend outside the Pax Humanis organization, Ms. Lilicoon. Her hands have healed quite a lot now and she keeps in regular contact with Sunshine and even has permission to visit his home on occasion, of course she always makes sure to ask first in case he's busy. Now that he's got a new student, and to show him that there's hope for even ones

Challenge #03029-H106: Experiments in Friendship

The ship was doing a long-haul taking a mix of human and havenworlder colonists to one of the few mixed-colony worlds. A human child, with their havenworlder friends, had begun exploring the ship and found their way to the engine room. When the parents found them, they were being given a lesson in how the engine works, and being allowed to be helpful, as much as kids can be. -- Fighting Fit

The world that Planetary Survey had found was perfect. Perfect

Challenge #03028-H105: Swim the Light Fantastic

They flew past me all the time inside those massive metal machines. Though some were bigger than others. My people have been floating among the stars, bright spots in what, for most, would be otherwise pure darkness for as long as I can remember. We had bodies, once, and needed such machines before, but we evolved past that. My family called me, we were heading to a new asteroid belt. Holding out hands, we, as bright flames, flew to see those that

Challenge #03027-H104: The Paper Anchor

The book was old, beyond old, really. It had been passed down from parent to child for a millennia. It was, now, so thick and large it was carried in a careful satchel and, due to being so ancient, the oldest of the pages yellowing, only carefully opened with gloves. The newest pages, however, were much fresher and had been added to the book almost weekly over the past hundred years. But now, the owner, dying gracefully of old age, called to

Challenge #03026-H103: Worn Away

The family went to court just as the parent said they would. Recordings of the cruel abuse the students, and instructors, of the Alliance - run school were shown as evidence. And now these people were forced to see, and hear, everything they did to her and face their crimes. Of how Barbara would stop, turn away to hide her tears, something the cameras saw, though everyone else ignored. It wasn't just the parents who intended to teach the instructors, the students,

Challenge #03025-H102: Illegal Tender

There is bad way to win and there is a good way to lose; what’s interesting while also being troubling is that it’s not always clear which is which. A flipped coin doesn’t always land on head or tail, sometimes it may never lands at all -- grimsley

Kosh hadn't expected to find a slice of home in the hoard. Precisely, an octagonal slice of gemstone engraved with the stylised castle chess piece that was Whitekeep's sigil. It was

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Challenge #03039-H116: There's Some in Every Trip

Challenge #03038-H115: We're Going to Need a Bigger Nametag

Challenge #03037-H114: The Learning Process

Challenge #03036-H113: Where and How to Cut

Challenge #03035-H112: Hostile Working Conditions

Challenge #03034-H111: Obscured by Alchemy

Challenge #03033-H110: A Different Solution

Challenge #03032-H109: Dragon Favoured

Challenge #03031-H108: Love Her to Education

Challenge #03030-H107: Tea and Socialisation

Challenge #03028-H105: Swim the Light Fantastic

Challenge #03027-H104: The Paper Anchor

Challenge #03026-H103: Worn Away

Challenge #03025-H102: Illegal Tender