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Challenge #04347-K329: First, Do No Harm

The deregger escaped their polity by fleeing onto an alliance ship. Their depression made them feel like cutting, but strangely? They couldn't find anything sharp. -- Anon Guest

I made it as far as an Alliance freighter. Hundreds did not. Every day, I heard about others who tried and died in the attempt. How many others' blood would be on my hands just because I made it? How many others would spend their value on a futile effort because less than one in one thousand successfully fled to the stars?

Would it have been better if I died as an example to others?

But I was here. Alive. Waiting to be discovered and spaced as a stowaway. Waiting to starve to death, or freeze because the freighters can't afford to heat their cargoes. Waiting to die for my sins.

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Challenge #04346-K328: Early Childcare

There's something to be said about need being the parental of invention. A small, sharp needle, some thin wire, and a lot of imagination can move mountains. -- Anon Guest

[AN: A little elementary research has shown me that the concept of a fastening device that doesn't hurt its wearer is older than you think it is. Look up fibula brooches. You're welcome.]

There's something to be said about loving another to the point of invention. Loving someone so much that creating

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Challenge #04345-K327: Home of Contention

They lived in a land where polygamy was common. However, this trio was ... shocking for none had seen the like. They were human, one of their loves was hellkin, the other was halloblood. And all three loved each other almost more than life itself. Now if only outsiders would stop trying to rescue them! -- Lessons

Pax, Amity, and Grace lived out of the way from most residents of Lauthiraux. They had a happy life together, not that many in Lauthiraux believed

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Challenge #04344-K326: Just a Pause

"You're going to die if you don't stop."

I don't care I have to keep going.

"You've done so much to help everyone already. See? The crisis is now very well in hand."

But it isn't enough yet.

"Please, you're hurting yourself, your feet in in blisters, you're growing so thin, forgive us.. but if we have to, we'll make you rest."

This prompt strongly reminds me of this story. A person driving themselves to pain and possibly to a death that

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Challenge #04343-K325: Escape From the Gilded Cage

The Pax Humanis agent came in to destroy a cruel cult leader. The cult leader was one of the rare ones that got the drop on the agent, prepared to finish them off. A child of the cult leader ended the leader to save the killer, tearfully telling the killer, thank you, they were finally not going to hurt anymore. -- Anon Guest

Murder, it is said, is for the unimaginative. That statement can go both ways if you think about it

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Challenge #04342-K324: Giving a Hand

They wanted to be a Great Hero, wearing gleaming armor and recognized through the land.

They became a Great Hero, without fanfare or armor, the night they were willing to dislodge boulders which cascaded and jammed tight as the strongest brickwork ever known into the ravine, stopping a massive flood from destroying the city. Even though it cost them their primary hand. -- Anon Guest

Heroism only looks like a gleaming costume, a white charger, or a blazing sword. That's how heroes

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Challenge #04341-K323: Adapt and Thrive

Deep in the woods, the howl of the wolves, off in the seas, our brothers play. Up in the skies, our sisters fly, their eyes in the cities is my way. -- Fighting Fit

Children of the night, what interesting music they make. Sing, my family of shadows. Sing the song of the moon and stars. Even when you can't see them. I sing to street lamps, cars, trucks and trains. The moon will hear me nonetheless.

It is a forest of

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Challenge #04340-K322: A Pound of Protection

The elderly grandmother asked for some of the very long locks from Wraithvine. There were many squares being added to the quilt. Long fur, hair from other elves not too proud to donate, plants turned into linen, silk squares from spider weavings, and from silkworms, etc. All of it blessed. Who was this blanket for? A set of quadruplets, two hellkin, one halloblood, one human, who were happily cuddled together in a large cradle, that their exhausted, smiling, mother lovingly rocked while

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Challenge #04339-K321: Extensive Measures

By the time help arrives, those that did not die in the crash are in very bad shape. Dangerously thin, even their Gyiik friend. What was the problem? Poisonous plants? Yes and no. Large plants were edible, but to get to them, one had to traverse the equivalent of a field full of miniature gympie-gympie, and they were right in the center of a massive meadow of them. Native animals were immune, humans and others? Not so much.

https://peakd.com/fiction/

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Challenge #04338-K320: Help With Moving

Hefting yet another box of books outside and leaning against a sore back.

"This would be so much easier with magic"

[Wraithvine shows up] "Someone say magic?"

"You don't mind helping clean a library?"

[Wraithvine with a grin] "Libraries are my favorite places to relax."

"Great, grab a box" -- Anon Guest

[AN: Wraithvine's a lot more subtle than that, lol]

Moving a library is difficult business. It has to be done when the old library runs out of room or falls

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Challenge #04337-K319: Blot on the Record

"Ah, Tori, my human friend, why so tired?"

My puppy is obsessed with playing ball.

"Oh, it can't be that bad."

Fine, puppy-sit and I can take a nap.

---next day----

"Your puppy is obsessed with playing ball!"

See? I told you. I love it, but man, I sure get tired. -- Anon Guest

They were thinking about calling the puppy The Unstoppable Force. He certainly never seemed to stop whenever someone was observing him. People, according to Blot the Dog[1]

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Challenge #04336-K318: A New Challenger

So, kid, you want to fight this old devil to see if I still have skills? You sure? Well I'm slowed with age, but sure I'll humor you. But remember, you did challenge me, not the other way around. Still, you did ask politely, so I won't be - too - rough. -- Anon Guest

After he turned one hundred and seven, Kosh routinely wore his hakama because it was easier to don. His ageing hands were tired of buckles and his

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Challenge #04335-K317: Essential to the Family

Some have many wives, I have many husbands. We are very happy together and we don't care what anyone else says. So bugger off. -- The New Guy

The old joke goes that you need a polycule just to survive in this economy. It's funny because it's true. You would not believe how much we save by buying in bulk and pooling our incomes.

As for sleeping arrangements - that's none of your diddly-dang business. All you need to know is that

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Challenge #04334-K316: Mourning is Broken

They set a flower upon the ground before a stone. When asked, they stated they were an orphan. But how could they be one if their parents raised them? Just because they were now an adult did not mean they were not their family's child. Looking sorrowfully upon the asker, they stated, their voice straining with pain. "In the end, almost all of us will end up orphans one day." -- Anon Guest

Lorin stared at the names on the memorial. How

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Monday: It's ALIIIIIVE!

Finally. We have a permanent fix. Which is an automated daily restart of my hub site. Fingers crossed, everything shall remain normal for a majority of visitors here. If not, try again at a different hour the next day.

For those of you just here for the stories, here's what you missed:

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