Challenge #02980-H057: We Tried to Warn You

When you are in any building, especially if you intend to stay there, find the location of the emergency exits. – Anon Guest

A quick way out is more important than any general way in. Ask anyone who’s been trapped in a house fire, if you can. Safety regulations insist on clear and ready access to quick escape in case of disaster. In most areas of known space, this is an automatic and well-enforced law[1]. But it isn’t just fire. Space is a place where anything at all could render a little bubble of life into sudden and certain death.

In many ports of call, sleep nooks are also survival pods, made to snap shut with the unaware occupant kept safe and alive until rescue. Others seal off the entire habitat for the same purpose. Still more, far older ones, have publicly available lifepods and escape diagrams etched into the walls. It is against the law to block lifepod tracks.

Those of a paranoid state of mind always check up on this. Those who have become blase to stellar life and travel are the ones most often caught out even in the mildest of crises. When every ship and every station operates under different protocols, it never pays to disregard the complimentary safety pamphlet. And then there’s the people who opine that safety is an imposition on their personal rights.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #02979-H056: What a Waking View

Muscle memory, we do things so often our body remembers how - even though we don’t think about it. Most common is dance moves, and the slap that turns off the morning alarm. Then there are the reach in the dark for tablets or weapons. Go with it and see where the Idea takes yo. – Knitnan

Human Sar could arrive at a trouble site in their full livesuit before ze completely woke up. Hir successive companions would learn that Sar’s livesuit was programmed to give directions and deliver stims as a fine mist to hir mouth. It would continue to do so and play an alarm until Sar actually woke up.

It took a much, much longer time for Sar’s companions to learn why. Sar was the quiet type and didn’t like talking about hir past. It took more than a little while to get hir to open up, and Sar tended to change postings frequently. Ze preferred it that way.

Thusly, it was only when the Twitching Feeler was on an extended tour that Sar opened up to Companion Gorx. It had taken a little over a year of companionship to get that far. They had just survived defending from an angry beast that had mistakenly believed they were messing with its young. “Smallest mama bear ever,” said Sar. Ze had been asleep when the attack began. They were walking off the stims and the stress, now. “That was a thing to wake up to.”

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #02978-H055: I Got'cha Something

On docking at the station, the first thing the crew noticed was that it was Silly Season. The second thing that they noticed was that, while they had been being distracted by the colorful streamers on the walls and the semi-random bursts of soft flower petals falling from above, their human had vanished. Hopefully, whatever souvenirs they picked up for pack bonded crew-members would be benign this time…. – Anon Guest

Silly Season is not a specific time on any planet’s calendar. Indeed, it does not appear in any planetary calendar at all. Planets have the progression of seasons and regular festivals as part of the cycle of weather patterns. It gives a form of structure to the Humans living there. Silly Season only ever happens on ships or stations, where there are no seasons and the festivals are nominally present in shore leave.

Humans despise monotony. Once every day is the same and easily forgotten, then some kind of internal pressure hits the collective Human subconscious until something… breaks loose. The Human Hive Mind unanimously screams, “Flakk this,” and then every single one of them… goes silly. Humans, it seems, need to party. They need variety to spice up their lives.

It is unpredictable, unplanned, and unorganised. It was also, amazingly, mostly harmless. The Humans involved danced, sang, threw harmless things at each other, and generally created a form of benevolent mayhem that also meant the Cleaners got a feast as well. Many of the Humans got drunk, but very few of them were dangerously so. It became something of a tourist attraction amongst certain groups, though there was never an opportunity to sell tickets. There was barely enough warning for visiting crews to protect or guard their Ships’ Humans from joining the melee in progress.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #02977-H054: Fight Fire With…?

I love your stories of young Pib and the family that’s living and working on a ship full of havenworlders. I’ve decided that Pib’s naughty could be useful sometimes. Which is why the havenworlders take a large portion of it in good humor while the child is so young.

Oh, I know by some of your stories you like us to put the prompts in so here you go.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02853-g296-sticky-plus-parts-equals-trouble

The pirate ship had them captured and cornered. The havenworlders were in one area with the door locked, the humans were being forced back by sheer numbers. Suddenly, there was an odd smell. It smelled like… burning candy. Smoke was coming out of the pirate engine room and there was little Pib. Having pulled apart panels, had accidentally caused a fire, and was trying to put it out by throwing on it the only thing the child had with them, swiped bags of baking chocolate. – Anon Guest

[AN: I’m starting to think Pib needs their own tag]

It wouldn’t be so bad if these particular space pirates hadn’t learned GalStand from the equivalent of 80’s Saturday morning cartoons. “Surrender, fools,” one of them crowed. “We have you in our power. There is no hope of rescue, no mighty hero to swoop in to save you now.”

Human Lun winced. “You know… you should learn a few things about Piracy before you take on a ship with Humans aboard. First is that Humans don’t give up. And the second… make sure you know how many Humans are on board.”

Human Orgo, straining to prevent the pirates past their current choke point, said, “Oh shit. Pib’s on the loose. Did you kid-proof your space ship?”

Human Lun let out a fearsome cry and redoubled hir efforts to take down as many pirates as possible. The Human drive to protect their young was formidable indeed. Out of stunner charges, Lun was hitting them with anything that looked like a better weapon. Up to and including pieces of ex-pirates.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #02975-H052: A Jay of Sunshine

Hey InterNutter, about this Prompt, about the kid that started killing young due to the brutal life they grew up in? https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02894-g337-humane-accommodations

There’s been an interesting chat about it and could you confirm / deny for us? Now I’m dying to know!

bkf 45 9 days ago

Hm, I’d love for this guy and Mr. Sunshine to meet up. Heh. “Twins by spirit if not by blood?” That would be interesting, what do you think?

ryivhnn 67 9 days ago

Yes to this! Unless Jay is Mr Sunshine? :O

bkf 45 4 days ago

Interesting theory! Comfortable sweaters, sensible shoes, loves cats, maybe Jay IS Mr. Sunshine. Taking on a new name after he left Independance? I could see him using an alias instead of his birth name, given the pain of his family life. And then I can see him secretly sending money to his mother and surviving siblings from his paychecks and selling his paintings so they can live a good life.

ryivhnn 67 4 days ago

Awesome headcanon backstory, I’m running with that til we find out more (if we find out more XD). – DaniAndShali

[AN: Goes on an archive trawl to find all of Mr Sunshine’s stories…]

Even now, in an age where technology can outstrip theology, there are angels. Just like the written angels, they are terrifying in person. Unlike the written angels, you can’t tell they are just by looking at them. This was a planet for such angels. The ones who were sent to deal with problems with surgical precision and a great deal of blood down the drain. Jay had been assured that he was with his own kind. Fellow angels.

Here’s the real thing about angels. Some come with a fiery sword and a heart bursting with justice. Others come cold and calculating with an exact measure of what is right and what is wrong. In this area of verdant gardens and lazy felines, there was an angel sitting at an easel. Jay knew how to pronounce his name.

“Mister soon-sheen-eh, I presume?” Jay said, moving carefully around to view the canvas. They had assumed that this man was like Pops. Like the other cancers they had cut out of society. Jay expected the man to lash out with his pallet knife at any given instant.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #02972-H049: Don’t Tell Them the Odds

The dereggers had managed to get a licence to run casinos in space that was, technically, Alliance space, but was so far from the beaten path that the CRC had trouble keeping an eye on things. There’s where Lucky as people called him, came in. He was a lucker with only a single real talent. He never lost a bet. Didn’t matter if it was cards, dice, board games, slot machines, whatever, he never lost. So, when it became clear just how crooked and underhanded these places in, a whisper or two in his ear, and he was off to have some fun. – DaniAndShali

Deregulation Far South East had done everything by the book, which raised a lot of red flags. Dereggers hated obeying the laws and ordinances of Alliance space and them playing by the rules was a sure sign that they were up to something. Not that Deregger CEO’s and Executive Quadrillionaires are ever not up to something.

The trick was in the area they were building the casino station. A little out-of-the-way station and planetoid in an area that the CRC had immense difficulty policing. Close enough to lure the well-to-do, but far enough away that the already-stretched agents would be hard pressed to monitor any shenanigans the Dereggers were up to.

So they put the word out in certain corners of the infonets. It only took a week, but Galactic citizens who visited noted the signs of stressed employees and one got “creatively lost” to take secret snaps of the employee accommodations. That was when “Lucky” Ambrose Luci stepped in.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #02970-H047: The Lifelong Argument

Could we have a sequel to this one, please? She releases the animals she was holding one night and then has a fast take-off just as her people are arguing with the obstinate vegans, her people rescue her so that the small pod-ship she managed to salvage and escape in is now safely in one of her people’s cruisers, and the vegans are screaming, maybe even firing at them, trying to force them to “give her back” since “she lived on our world, the criminal has to learn our laws” type of BS? And how they get shouted down, or lose in the courts, or something because what they were demanding was pretty much murder? https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02898-g341-and-not-a-bite-to-eat – Anon Guest

Plabari was ticked off. Large portions of its citizens were up in arms about the horrendous crime of having a filthy carnivore living their “lifestyle choice” for over a year. If the horrible filthy meat-eater had just confessed, they opined, they’d have given them a much better life and helped them become truly healthy before they were free to go. But only once Plabari was absolutely certain they’d been cured of their horrible addiction to -ugh- meat.

The CRC was not impressed with Plabari’s argument. They knew that their idea of help was a slow and lingering death sentence for an obligate carnivore like Harro “Veganwraith” Silentfoot. In the past, the argument worked, but the Plabari kept moving the goalposts to qualify as cured. Their captive-hostage died of entirely preventable causes and the CRC refused to let them have another such win.

So therefore the argument was set to rage until the lifetime end of the actual individuals involved. Which was much longer because Harro got out of their own pickle themselves. Thanks to the delay of communication and administration tangled in red tape, the conversation between the two was very slow indeed.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #02969-H046: Don’t Try to Understand it

Many birds on Earth are unaffected by capsacinoids in hot peppers (mammals are bothered, but mammal digestive systems destroy the seeds of the pepper plants, while avian digestive systems let the seeds pass through unharmed). May we see some avian sentients enjoying a nice ghost pepper and carolina reaper salad with a flavorful habenero sauce? Eye-watering fumes that could bother any nearby mammals are a bonus. – Anon Guest

Pretty much everyone agrees that Humans are fairly weird. They’re hairless apes possessing of peculiar Deathworlder logic based on skewed theology verifying greed as good, yet they also spread their pack-bonding far and wide and evolved strictly through co-operative behaviours. No Human is insular, but also every Human is unique.

No matter how often they seem to possess a hive mind.

As for what any given Human is willing to eat, avian-origin Alliance citizens are advised to warn Humans when capsaicins and pepperins are present in a foodstuff. Why? Well, the Humans call it ‘baby tongue’. These Deathworlders have adapted to ingest things that evolved to repel mammals like themselves. They like the burn. Well. Some of them do. The ones with 'baby tongue’ do not like the burn and can suffer if any is applied internally.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #02966-H043: Non-crucial Failure State

In the early days, humans had just been allowed into the Alliance, but quite a few were still wary. These were very dangerous deathworlders. Sure they were smallish, depending on the species that worked with them, and somewhat squishy, but damn were they tenacious and dangerous! It was well known they were predators, too, that could, and would, eat pretty much anything, including quite a few things that were poisonous.

However, what the crew wasn’t prepared for, was during dinner. The human was a bit of a joker, liked to smile and was easy-going and easy to work with. So the crew’s fear and nervousness was fading fast. Then the human got a bad case of the hiccups during dinner. And they had no clue what in the heck was going on – Anon Guest

Humans have a great love of sharing things. Sharing meals, sharing games, sharing humour, sharing weird little facts about whatever they happened to enjoy. Shared meals, they insisted, were a wonderful bonding experience. Or… it would have been.

Humans, at this stage in things, were the ones who knew the most about Humans. All the rest of the Alliance had were testimony from close encounters, anecdotes, translated documents, and a lot of rumours and myths. Some of which were actively encouraged by mischievous Humans.

This was, officially, the first formal meal that Alliance civilians shared with a Human. Though the conversations were largely in GalSimple, everything was going well. Until the Human - Gef - started having a breathing issue. They started speaking oddly, with peculiar stops in their breath. Even when they weren’t talking, there was a peculiar noise accompanying the spasms. Human Gef seemed to treat it as a minor annoyance.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)

Challenge #02964-H041: Deconstructed Battle

The day was a very boring day. The human just received a package of an old game but finely crafted made out of materials that are rare in their home-world, each piece have a Jewel that crowns the top. Excitingly they be called over a haven worlder that is a close friend of the human urging them to play. “You known I shouldn’t be surprised that many games contain some form of war or conflict” the haven worlder sighed. It been a good half hour since they started, slowly but meticulously moving the different pieces around the board. The human chuckled “True, there are many forms of conflict in every game, but every games need a strategy in one form or another. Check.” Their companion looked at the board irritated not noticing their flaw in their defences. “How did you- never mind, as you were saying, I agree strategies are essential in any game, but are conflicts in them are really necessary?” As they dejectedly moved a piece. The human began to laugh. “You may have a point but if you live in a death world you realize you can’t escape conflict no matter where you go. Might as well have some fun with it. In the other hand times like these need to be cherish. Checkmate.” – Anon Guest

It was a Deathworlder game, so of course it involved some variety of combat. Judging by the names of the pieces, it had been codified in the feudal era when they had monarchs. There was some mystery over why the piece shaped like a castle keep was called a ‘rook’. The Humans probably had some obscure history about that[1].

Each piece had its own rule set about how they moved on the grid. The goal was to defeat the opposite force by capturing both royals. The 'king’ because they were the most vulnerable, and the 'queen’ because it was the most powerful piece on the board. Whatever the Human’s history behind that had to have an interesting wrinkle, given the gender-specific architecture of power in Terran history[2]. The rules were relatively simple, but the combinations were practically infinite.

It was a game in which most strategies had been mapped out and named after famous players, and yet an experienced master had good reason to fear a raw initiate. Mostly because a newbie had no idea what the formal responses to established moves were and would do things that experts had grown to not expect.

[Check the source to see the full story]

(Source: peakd.com)