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Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #02003-E179: Adventure is Out There

“I hate you.”

“You just saved my life! Plus, we both know you adore me.”

“Well, finding someone else to hate is too much work.”

“And risking your own life to save me wasn’t?”

“See? This is why I hate you. Nitpicking, and ungrateful.” -- Spotted

Everyone has heard of the Fisher King. Very few have heard of the Adventurer King, the one who decided to help his Kingdom by personally fighting the problems that plagued it. Unfortunately for Sir Dravyn, he is one who definitely has heard of the Adventurer King. Because he's the one who has to save that highborn ass on a regular basis.

Though the boy who was still King was growing into a man, he was evidently not growing into one with much in the way of sense. His cohort of ragtag adventurers didn't quite believe that he was King of the Realm. They didn't truly understand that Sir Dravyn was Oath-sworn to follow and protect and obey his King. Half of them didn't believe he was actually the King. In spite of meeting him on the throne and in his official robes of state.

Right now, though, it was hard to believe that His Majesty was intelligent life. He had, after all, got his butt handed to him by a Dragon he had attempted to charm, pickpocket, and then seduce. He was, frankly, lucky to still be alive. Most of that was due to the Cleric, Thanryl. Who had taken a very unfortunate vow of honesty.

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Challenge #02003-E179: Sibling Ribaldry

How would aliens react to human-human relationships? Particularly close ones (best friends, romantic partners) where affection is mainly shown through quips and teasing? -- Anon Guest

Humans are pack animals. When enlisting Humans on to your vessel, one may consider the benefits of recruiting Humans who are already deeply bonded with each other. -- Galactic Advice Manual, The Care and Maintenance of Humans.

Humans accustomed to space tended to have monosyllabic names. Many were pronounceable by most Galactics. Such was the case

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Challenge #02002-E178: Double Scheherazade

Alien crew explores a likely-haunted spaceship wreck they found floating around -- TheDragonsFlame

Afterlives are one of the more complicated cultural complications in Galactic Society. Though citizens are not encouraged to insist on inserting their beliefs into others' heads, the topic of assorted beliefs is not taboo, either. One is expected to not judge, and not be judged in return. For instance: most cultures believe that some form of animated spirit persists after the mortal shell is deceased. Where it goes and

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Challenge #02001-E177: Ghosts... In... Space!

Alien crew spots ghost ship (not the derelict/abandoned kind, more like the ship itself is one of the ghosts) -- TheDragonsflame

In an infinite universe, all things are possible. The nature of time and events therein is cyclical. Of those tautologies, spaceport stories are made. This one just happens to come with documentation.

They were light years from civilisation, of course and without an accurate means of contacting anyone, of course. Because nothing interesting happens in the middle of civilisation with

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Challenge #02000-E176: Biorhythm and Blues

Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man a damn nuisance to live with. -- Anon Guest

If there is one thing more annoying than a morning person, it is a morning person who is at peak sunniness in the pre-dawn hours. Four in the morning becomes four in the fucking morning with extra singing.

To his credit, Barry knew that his fellow shipmates liked to lie in, especially the most wonderful woman in the multiverse - Lup. His main squeeze.

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Challenge #01999-E175: Versatility

If at first you don't succeed, use a bigger hammer. -- Anon Guest

Thackians believed in hammers. Most societies prefer to believe in things which could not be proven to exist or not exist, but Thackians believed in hammers. Most importantly, they believed that there were few problems that the right kind of hammer couldn't solve.

This has caused much confusion amongst others. At least until Linguistics Professor Gorx decided to spend some time with them and analyse their usage and history

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Challenge #01998-E174: Garry's God

Please write some more about the Goddess of Fools and her human sacrifices! That last one was such a cliffhanger! -- Anon Guest

[AN: That would be this story for those who don't have the time to scroll back that far. And I have to wonder... cliffhanger? The dude died and was headed for Paradise. That's pretty final IMHO]

She was about to collect her latest offering. A young man just before coming of age. He could see her, but his body

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Challenge #01997-E173: With Understanding

Considering many herbivores on earth are gigantic and fully capable of hurting us “predators”, how would a group of humans handle a diplomatic encounter with a council of large, all herbivore, prey-species, in order to convince them to join the larger space society?

We need them to trust us but also respect us.

Fear is a powerful tool indeed. -- Anon Guest

Havenworlders amble gently into cogniscence and cautiously dip their toes into space travel. They are, by nature, the species most

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Challenge #01996-E172: Can't Get Worse/It Got Worse

Spiders covered every inch of every surface all the way to the airlock. The terror and the events that followed have only now been released. -- Anon Guest

The humans did not flinch from battle. Entire civilisations in their history had trained their minds for combat and strategy. They did not quail at injured Galactics. They trained for this all their lives. Providing emergency care at the site to get them stable and movable, and then stuffing them into care pods to

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Challenge #01995-E171: Dangerous Beasts

This isn’t my prompt but I’d like to see what you can do with it.

“I don’t want to know who I was. Before... before... before I was kidnapped as a child,” ze says, and there’s something pained in zir dark eyes. “A happy, drooling kid. Or whatever. Look- if I- if I wasn’t always this way, bitter and angry, that means xe won. That xe changed me. Made me into a new being. I can’t

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Challenge #01994-E170: Look Up

One of the last astronomers left on the planet after the Great Protectionism Act (the one that isolated the entire populous from anyone or anything beyond their home planet) goes on a quest to shut off all non-emergency service related power on the planet in order to show the people the beauty and worth of the the night sky. -- Anon Guest

With every great rise of knowledge and understanding, there is an equal and opposite fall into wilful ignorance. This is

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Challenge #01993-E169: The Protection Experiment

Considering the terrifying methods our immune system uses to keep us safe, can you please write a story about how aliens first dealt with human diseases (probably something that has a high mutation rate) that jumped the species barrier?

How did they deal with the pandemic (think of what smallpox did in North America) their own immune systems were unprepared for? How did they handle what they found when they researched the crazy human immune system?

Autoimmune disorders?? -- Anon Guest

If

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Challenge #01992-E168: Show Me the Way...

Pre-human contact, a single human accidentally finds themselves in space, and the single most powerful being there to boot. They don’t use their powers for good or evil though, they just really enjoy messing with the other sentients, good and bad alike. Please write a story about how this human deals with the various attempts to get rid of them. (Diplomatic or through force) -- Anon Guest

I had to come to term with a few things. One: Alien abduction is

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Challenge #01991-E167: Unobtrusive Observation

Time you can visit. all you can take is pictures, all you can leave is footprints. -- Anon Guest

There are rules to time travel. Some are invented on the fly, others make more sense than that. First and foremost is no excessive interaction. One cannot, for example, go back in time to tell Freddie Mercury or David Bowie how influential they become. Especially towards the start of their careers. One cannot also travel back in time and leave an iPhone in

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Challenge #01990-E166: Mystery Analysis Department

Step back in Time. It smells different, the food is odd. But you are here to record History. Pick an Era.

the Past is a different country -- Anon Guest

The oddest thing about the early twentieth century had to be the colours. Followed closely by what people willingly put in their mouths. It was just... odd... to see any era before the nineteen fifties in any other tones but black and white.

The past is another country, indeed. The food is

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