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Challenge #00471 - A096: Behind the Mask

A Monster in Paris! (posted fairly soon after you saw it, but there’s 40 prompts queued up before this one)

I love that movie, and there isn’t enough fanfiction of it. Therefore today’s prompt is Francouer and Carlotta (the lady that runs the Rare Bird, last seen dancing with Pate)

I’m sure she’ll find out at some point what her new star is hiding under that mysterious mask, no matter how shy and retiring he is.

[AN: This pretty much has to happen between the official happy ending and the sunflowers-in-the-Sienne tag scene]

Carlotta rarely crept. She always made her presence known to everyone around her because, though she was a faded rose, show business was forever in her blood.

But this time… this time she needed to sneak.

Because their new massive maestro Francoeur was never seen without his mask. Why he even needed a mask quickly became a mystery she had to solve.

He was in Lucille’s dressing room again. There solely for the piano. He’d shed his hat and was deep into his latest composition. Genius. Always genius… But she couldn’t let the music interfere. She was this close to seeing his true face.

Carlotta snatched his mask of. The ‘aha’ died on her lips as she saw that the face of the genius Francoeur was also the face of the monster. She froze. Breathless. Terrified of what he might do.

Francoeur the monster maestro looked… just as terrified. He trilled a startlingly dovelike coo and carefully plucked the mask from her fingers. As gently and delicately as any human would extract a single blossom from a bouquet.

“…excuse me…” he managed and shrank in on himself as he fit the mask back on his face. His eyes were darting around between watching her and looking for a means of escape.

“You… you’re…”

An eight-foot tall monster cringed and shook like a leaf.

“You’re scared of me?”

Nervous chittering. A frightened nod.

Carlotta almost wondered why out loud, but then she remembered what people like her did when they thought monsters were around. He had good reason to be afraid. “Oh… I’m so sorry I frightened you,” she offered her hand. If she could accept Lucille going out with that eccentric vagabond Raoul, she could accept an eight-foot tall singing flea. “Are you all right?”

Nod. The very beginnings of a smile. He had such a sweet smile.

“You don’t need to be afraid with us,” she soothed. “We’re practically family.”

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Challenge #00470 - A095: Not Dangerous - But...

T’reka’s work on Toxic Island was to look for potential new compounds or cures in the dangers of the jungle, but humans have been working with flora and fauna of those levels of toxicity and higher for centuries, including some of the species only encountered by the other cogniscients on Toxic Island since they seeded from Earth

It follows that a) humans have already discovered medical applications using these things

b) humans are probably going to have a lot easier

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Challenge #00469 - A094: Otherwhen

A terrible idea, and feel free to ignore if need be- but based off of Bunny’s recent reply to an ask, about her once-upon-a-time imagined persona for being in a band-

SPG/Blues Brothers mashup?

[AN: Bunny and David Bennett are not fictional characters and I never want to even pretend I have control over their life…. but a prompt is a prompt…]

Between one blink and the next, she had gone from adjusting her headdress to adjusting a

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Challenge #00468 - A093: The Sensible Thing

https://24.media.tumblr.com/951e6f6801beb56088b28b2101775ac9/tumblr_n0j7ciNC5G1r7llf5o3_1280.jpg

:) - Svetoslav Petrov

“We have found her,” said the lackey.

“The foretold one,” clarified his companion.

“Already?” said the Vampire. And, since vampires have very complicated and extended names, let’s call him Vladimir.

“Er. My ancestors and I have been searching for the chosen one for three hundred years,” said the lackey.

“Hm. Really.” Vladimir stretched and yawned. “And you’

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Challenge #00468 - A093: Or Are They Wearing You?

“I consume giants and crush cities with a push of my thumb and you challenge me with shoes?”

“They’re fancy shoes, you brute.”

The Mighty Magniscience  glared down at her. “They’re still shoes. And only shoes. The rest of your -ha- wardrobe is not in the slightest bit battle appropriate.”

“Who said I challenge you to a battle?” scoffed Malela. “I challenge you to a dance-off!”

It only took

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Challenge #00467 - A092: Bad Day at the Office

http://snazzapplesweet.tumblr.com/post/77643252675/weh

Aelki rejected or signed off on proposals pending their explanation to Ambassador O'Ranges. He would never hear about the rejected proposals. They were the ones that, like candy in the back of the legendary van, were too good to be true and very obviously dangerous.

She was not exactly an administrative assistant. More like a human filter. In combination with adoptive mother, nursemaid, therapist, dietician, transit authority, private tutor… Either she had to sew

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Challenge #00466 - A091: Here There be Dragons

Got another one for you

http://scienceisadesiretoknow.tumblr.com/post/77518618397/katrani-imagine-guardian-dragons-that-protect

It’s a well-established fact that humans normally do not get along with other cogniscent species.

The Dragons know this. They teach their hatchlings.

Beware the humans. They have made extinct almost every other creature larger than them. The ones that they don’t make useful. And becoming useful to a human means that they will make you and your kin docile and stupid.

Dragons are proud and

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Challenge #00465 - A090: The Importance of Love

http://anastasiyacemetery.tumblr.com/post/76249084163/not-sorry-for-my-english

Text reads: “Don’t forget to give a little love to beings which nobody loves”

[AN: Sorry about the brief one. I can’t brain today]

It was perfect love. But, physically speaking, they never went further than hugs and kisses.

Temptrotica never stopped being amazed at the feeling of it. Love. It was new and amazing and almost overwhelming. And every time she tried to explain it to Mythologics Anonymous, she got the

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Challenge #00464 - A089: The Trouble With ELFs

It sounds like Uplifts have a bit of a stigma attached to them- their origins were illegal, so they themselves are considered sort of dodgy.  Some further exploration of that, please?  After this long, they can’t be the only people to have experienced origins/modification for the use of others and had to fight their way up to ‘people’ status afterwards (super-soldier attempts, etc).  Perhaps there’s a ‘Lab-breds of the Galaxy Unite!’ sort of club for mutual support.

From the

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Challenge #00463 - A088: The Death of Gendered Clothing

http://beltaguise.tumblr.com/post/76801104188/fantasy-lizard-people-where-the-females-dont-have

Found another one

Tom Katt sidled up to the lizard lady at the bar. He thought he could tell by her buxom figure and elegantly-styled dress in Botanic Greens.

“Hey, there, beautiful,” he smoothed. “Can I buy a lovely lady such as yourself a drink? What’s your pleasure?”

The lizard, towering over him by some five inches, glared down at him. “I’m a male,” he

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Challenge #00462 - A087: Portents of Doom

“I’ve got an idea! It’s crazy, it defies all logic, it’s illegal in 16 solar systems and my mother would most assuredly not approve, but it just might work!”

Ax'and'l froze, fighting the primitive desire to burrow under a layer of dirt and conceal himself from predators that no longer existed. Humans had Fight or Flight. His kind had Dig and Ditch. “Hwell,” he murmured in a calm and soothing tone that most definitely did

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Challenge #00461 - A086: True Mens' Rights

A Men’s Rights Activist who isn’t a jerk, but has genuine grievance and wish to live in a world where female rapists aren’t lauded and institutionalized rape isn’t assumed to be a standard feature of incarceration.  Possibly working to start and/or save a battered-men’s shelter.

“Save the men’s shelter?” Nobody was taking Lee’s pamphlets. Nobody was putting a coin in his tin. “Save the men’s shelter?”

Someone stopped. “Why

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Challenge #00460 - A085: Like Humans Do

In terms of romance, compared to humans, all other sentient species are incredibly awkward, stumbling over words, blurting nonsensical sentences, accidentally changing colour, releasing/commenting on pheromones, and/or bluntly stating their piece in a deadpan manner.

Conversely, compared to everyone else the most nervous and awkward of humans is a veritable poet.

She had been trying to speak to the idol of her heart for a Standard Month, now. They came to the same places at that she did. Showed evident

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Love will find a way...

It’s a pity that things like true love and soulmates and finding that special someone aren’t more obvious in their identification and verifying - would be so much easier if there were a special personal sort of dim glow or subtle sound or faint scent or somesuch to point out the one we’re destined to be with the rest of our lives. Far less troublesome or confusing than all this dragging-on about dating and courtship and

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Challenge #00457 - A082: San Check

If you meet Yog-Sothoth, you’ve gone too far on the axis of comprehension; back up slowly and call for reality assistance. – RecklessPrudence

Ow. It had happened again. OW! It wasn’t getting any better with experience.

Katie looked up from her pained huddle, halfway expecting somebody yelling at her to ‘avaunt’ and calling her names. One more time. One more time, she swore, and she would start calling herself a foul shayde from out the blackest

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