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Challenge #03778-J125: Listen to the Echoes

The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again, and expect a different result. Dereggers have that layer of insanity down in spades. These dereggers keep trying to find out why dereg empires keep falling. And then absolutely refuse to accept the results. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Because doubling down on bad decisions and ignoring replicable data is what that side of the political spectrum does best]

"Obviously our brothers in righteousness allowed themselves to become soft and corrupt. They let the so-called Alliance of perverts and moral polluters have too much contact. They let their standards slip," concluded the CEO, Corbyn Mundrakt. "The people lost their work ethics. They refused to earn their rights and subsist on handouts. We need to re-enforce the ethos of rugged individualists pulling themselves up by their bootstraps!"

"Do we?" asked Tandarl, who was reading a bit more than a proper man should[1]. "Of all our -ah- lost allies, they seem to be following the same plan you announced. There were strict laws regarding enforcing those morals."

"They failed because those laws were too lax! Strict enforcements! Punish the wrongdoers for the rest of their short lives. Execute anyone who even looks at a Galactic! Restrict. All. Travel!" This last point was hammered home by Mr Mundrakt's fist on the table. "Maintain our strength, maintain our moral fortitude, and we will surely prevail!"

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Challenge #03777-J124: Promises, Promises

You helped me when I needed it most. You may be a killer, but if you ever loose strength, to where you think you can't go on, I will be there for you. If you cannot walk, I will be your legs. This I promise you. -- Anon Guest

They were all poor, weak, and struggling masses yearning to break free. The typical Deregger escapees. The fact that their pilot was a jump-and-dump mass murderer for profit, and the fact that she

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Challenge #03776-J123: Greetings From Onfim to Danilo

A school finds a time capsule buried in the era of human kind's first interplanetary flight. Inside of it are little keepsakes and letters left by the young children of the past. -- Anon Guest

It was meant to be opened a century after it was finally buried, in 2132, TCE[1]. By then, several things had gone awry. Things got forgotten. Mistakes were made. A school no longer needed was demolished to make room for fields. A field is eventually taken

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Challenge #03775-J122: A Study in Strings

They claim to follow "Q", but they need to get a clue. -- Fighting Fit

[AN: Well, if I wasn't on their hit list before...]

"The point was never believing all the conspiracy theories at once. The point was never in making them all into one mega-conspiracy. The point was not even in gaining proof," said the lecturer. "The point was to sound like they knew more than everyone else, and therefore get angry about the imagined injustices they were allegedly suffering.

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Challenge #03774-J121: Terms and Conditions

The most important books are the ones you have never opened. -- Lessons

"Welcome," said the voice, "to the Library of All Knowledge. What would you like to learn?"

The first impulse was to say all of it. So many dreams could come true. Each one of these books could impart a technique. Gift a mind with a skill. Yet there was not enough time to read up on how to fulfill all of his dreams.

He wanted to do so much,

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Challenge #03773-J120: I Can Do This

What, you think I'm not going to have my workout time just because I'm sick? I think not, my friend! Physical activity, with moderation, keeps the aches and pains away!

I will tone it down, though, and pay attention to my current limits. You don't need to worry, I just don't want to get even stiffer and achier than I have to be. -- Anon Guest

Kosh had picked up more than he was told to at the markets. This wasn't some

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Challenge #03772-J119: Therapeutic Anger

Your painful tortures will not break me. Each day you force me through this, and my will, will never break. One day I will escape you. One day my legs will carry me, and I will walk away, free!

Havenworlder to patient - "Alright, it's time for physical therapy again. Worry not, your legs will recover from your accident, I promise." -- Anon Guest

Another day, another session in the torture room. Human Isle had to do it, even though ze hated

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Challenge #03771-J118: The First Lessons

The children were in a special home because their magic was too powerful for them to control. It was up to the new head of this place to help them learn to control it, before it destroyed them. -- The New Guy

The wards were enough to quell any outflare, including the ones that should have been impossible. Preparing for the unexpected saved lives here. The most important lives. The lives of the children who had an unexpectedly strong link to magical

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Challenge #03770-J117: Big Chaos

Small Human Child: "For some reason, I always do a chaos if I'm not next to Rennie at bed time."

Small Child's Parent: "It's true. You don't want to see it. I didn't want to see it last night. Can you play quietly until I'm ready to go to bed?"

SHC: "Maybe." -- Escla

Companion Ghayth considered the very small Human currently playing with their KidReader(tm)[1]. They were peacefully guiding a digital effigy on a randomly-generated world. Chopping trees and

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Challenge #03769-J116: Risk and Reward

A special tower has been built to test the skills of anyone who claims to be a skilled thief. The higher they go, the more fabulous the treasures and books, but also more cunning the traps. None of the traps are lethal, at most they're embarrassing and uncomfortable. With some, failing the thief and sending them back to the beginning. -- Anon Guest

If you live your life on the streets or among the rooftops of Deepwater, it doesn't look like anything

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Challenge #03768-J115: Don't Pet the Plants

The expedition lands on a planet that is a Havenworld, an incredible paradise. Unfortunately, several of the very, otherwise harmless, plants, act for the ship's crew the way catnip is for most cats. The plant is utterly harmless otherwise. -- Anon Guest

It was a beautiful Havenworld. Nothing living there was even cusp-cogniscent, so it was relatively young[1]. The plantlife was short and squishy and easy to both harvest and consume. And, according to the last transmission, smelled real good.

The

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Challenge #03767-J114: While You're Away From Your Body...

They're a bookworm, they thought they had died. They awaken in a place that is rows upon rows of books further than the eye could see, almost more than a mind could possibly fathom. An eternity to read them all, with comforts, meals, and even washrooms. What is this wonderous world? -- Anon Guest

It was a wonderfully comfortable bed. Darlenydd didn't really want to wake up, but the looming cluster of recollection kept poking her towards consciousness. There had been some

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Challenge #03765-J112: Raise Them Right

Los estudiantes duros aprenden lecciones de disciplina y respeto de la manera más dura, negándose a escuchar de otra manera. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Translation- Tough students learn lessons of discipline and respect the harshest way, refusing to listen any other way.]

The students called him Sensei Hellkin, when they called him anything at all. They couldn't know anything about his true identity because he never spoke about it. That, and it probably wouldn't matter a whit to them that he was

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Challenge #03764-J111: Flying, BYO Wings

Humans are NUTS! This one bought something called a hang-glider. Are they jumping off that massive cliff with that thing? This is CRAZY! Thank the powers I have wings and can at least follow! -- Anon Guest

Humans cannot fly on their own. This is known. This does not, however, stop them from slipping the surly bonds of gravity by any other means.

This one was a giant kite. Aluminium tubes, brightly-coloured silk, and very little else. There was a sling attached

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Challenge #03763-J110: Recycled Staff

I have died many times now. Each time I am reborn, I have all of the memories of my past life, and the lives before that. I was warned about this, but until my job is done, and they're all safe, I accepted this fate. -- Anon Guest

Sometimes, it's a pain in the arse to be indispensable. It's a worse pain in the arse to be indispensable on a Deregger ship with appropriated B'Nari tech. The instant the CEO noticed my

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