Challenge #02941-H018: Light Blue Touchpaper
They were level one and level two havenworlders, but they wanted to get stronger. They had seen on television human fireworks shows, the sound of the explosions muffled while pleasant music played in time to the bright lights and sparkles. They hit on an idea. They would have humans teach them to make, and use, fireworks. Starting with small, what humans would consider almost “harmless” things, and work their way up to the beautiful splays over time. Their first endeavors? Slightly loud bubble-wrap that lit up when popped. – Anon Guest
[AN: The higher the number, the more fragile the Havenworlder. Just so you know. Level One Havenworlders can almost cope with random Deathworlder BS. Level 5’s are so delicate they shouldn’t leave their idyllic world. Level 6 us theoretical only]
“You guys wanna play with fireworks,” said Human Zif. “I don’t even know where to start on telling you how bad an idea that is.”
“We will not be experiment with the loudest of noises,” said Gresh. “We seek to imitate the effect, but eliminate the hazards.”
“For us and those like us,” added Silph. “Especially more fragile Havenworlders.”
“Ah,” said Human Zif. “Right. Sudden but not too sudden. Warning in advance and then something pleasant but still a surprise. You guys know more about your fellow Havenworlders than me. Let’s engineer the heck out of a toy for you guys.”
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Challenge #02940-H017: But My Rep…
A: Was that you wife?
B: Don’t question it
A: But
B: Don’t
A: Why burrito?
B: What did I just say?! – Anon Guest
It had been a typically Human conversation between spouses. As in, completely incomprehensible to outside observers. Including the final words, “Bye, babe. I gotta go burrito the babies.”
Companion Gren couldn’t not ask. An exchange that finished with Human Ben attempting to focus on her work while Companion Gren waited patiently for Ben to crack. Patient and anticipatory silence was Human Ben’s weak spot. Every time she checked Gren or looked hir way, Gren was very visibly waiting patiently.
It took twenty minutes. Humans did not like silence. “You really want to know, don’t you? You really want to find out about this. I can warn you, it won’t match whatever you’ve been imagining for the past half hour.”
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Challenge #02939-H016: Congratulations on Your New Cat
Well all know those pets. The ones that, no matter what you do, they cling to you like barnacles to a ship’s hull. Cats, especially, can get like that when they get attached. In a station where they tend to send bad-luckers and people they deem “undesirable”, a little ray of hope and comfort comes in the case of a ship. In the hold, several strays that had been using the hold as their hideout manage to wander on board. And now these bad-luckers find themselves with at least a dozen cats to care for. Except every single one of these cats could easily be nicknamed “Mr. / Ms. Clingy”. Because these cats are absolutely insatiable for attention. – Anon Guest
[AN: There’s been some speculation about this prompt being related to this thing but bad-luckers end up in places where they can’t cause harm. Transit Station Eighty-Six is where the UFTP store the chronic goldbricks. Completely different area]
Project Clover is a very special place. In recognising the Luck Gene, the Galactic Alliance had to find all those unfortunate individuals whose luck only ran one way - bad. It is a series of artificial Havenworlds where all comets and asteroids have been scoured from the solar system. The weather is balmy and pleasant. The plants are one hundred percent non-toxic. Everything there is soft. Every precaution has been taken to make sure the residents cannot come to life-threatening accidents. Even with the best of precautions, the planets held by Project Clover have the best ERTs[1] and infrastructure in Galactic space.
They certainly had some of the best Mediks. Just because the bad-luckers found themselves in the most interesting mishaps known to cogniscent life didn’t mean they deserved it. The fact that they kept everything mostly-harmless didn’t prevent bad luck. It just softened it to theoretically tolerable levels. Everything within a bad-lucker hostel world was purposely kept that way. At least until one rogue Deregger vessel tried to run what they thought was a trade embargo and push their merchandise on the residents.
A Deregger vessel that was infested with cats. Not the gene-controlled Skitties, but regular, everyday, Deathworlder domesticated felines. They crept out from the hold after the crash[2] and scurried away into the night. Long absent even as the ERT’s came to run damage control. Cats know a good thing when they see it, and a Deregger vessel is definitely not that. By the time the Deregger was detained and the inherent chaos rounded up in the safety zone, many of the cats were untraceable.
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Challenge #02937-H014: Let the Trash Be Treasured
Can you imagine a world where there are more, empty, livable, homes and apartments than there are homeless individuals, and yet the wealthy allow those homes and apartments to fall into disrepair and ruin rather than allow the homeless live there and maintain it? Can you imagine a time, a place, a world… where people build small homes for the homeless, a ‘tiny home’ with a bed, a roof, basic toilet facilities, and tiny kitchen, just enough to be comfortable and survive without being out in the elements, and those safe shelters being confiscated by the governments, torn down, burned down, and the homeless individuals being homeless once more? And yet, those same governments wanting to claim “We are trying to help the homeless but they don’t want help. They want to have and refuse our aid.” And then criminalize the very act of being able to sit for a few moments to sleep so they can throw these people into prison? A world where a massive number of the workforce are working long, exhausting, hours, yet cannot afford so much as a tiny apartment in the worst area of town and are forced to sleep in run-down shelters, in tents, or in their vehicles?
This happened in the world of humans in the past. This was a common, cruel, thing in the world of the Dereggers. A helpless workforce of homeless. And yet.. what happens to that Deregger world, when the homeless start disappearing off the streets and from their world altogether? – Anon Guest
[AN: Honestly, Habitat For Humanity could probably prove a point by buying/fixing up abandoned and foreclosed homes in the USA and then giving them to people with no-interest loans]
Welcome to Greater Deregulation Lower South West. We do the things that were illegal by the end of the twenty-first century, but we will never admit to that. The graffiti only ever stays up on the Galactic’s side of the one customs and trade station, and there’s continuing debate about making it an official sign.
The Galactic Alliance agrees that every citizen had the right to health, shelter, and reliable means to support themselves. Greater Deregulations refused to join the Alliance because giving their citizens any rights were against their moral superiority. The dissonance in that statement fails to land on Greater Deregulations owing to the fact that education for the common populace was also against their “moral superiority”.
Which lead to problems that the Dereggers refused to consider on their planets. Especially within Greater Deregulation Lower South West. Where there is money in building homes, but none in keeping them occupied. Houses sprang up like a rash, but people didn’t live in them. They couldn’t afford to. There was more to be made in criminalising the poverty they manufactured. It was a permanent workforce of people desperate enough to do anything for food, water, and shelter. No matter how bad any of those were.
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Challenge #02936-H013: A Buggy Plan
Human Arn took in the supreme effort Frip had already gone through in order to create this environment and was already calculating the paperwork inherent in getting it off the planet Earth.
“I am in sooooo much trouble,” sighed Human Arn.
This quote is from this prompt from ages ago. https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02771-g214-a-few-minor-obstacles
Human Arn looked at all the paperwork they’ve managed to get through and all that still had to get done and shook their head. Not much longer now. SO many studies on the animals, on ensuring there would be no invasive species problems, on ensuring they really were havenworlder safe for as huge a swath of the population as possible, and all the rest of the regulations the Alliance had for the sake of safety and the transport of animals. It was only when all the i’s were dotted and t’s were crossed, that they could give Frip the news. – Anon Guest
It helped that the insects had a special diet. It helped that they had specific environmental needs. It meant that, should the containing terrarium break or otherwise leak, the escapees were less likely to become a problem. There was still a study of cloned beetles inside artificial environments meant to simulate key features of stations and ships throughout the alliance. This included some structures made of sucrose and cellulose.
Since it wasn’t eucalyptus-flavoured, the cloned insects refused to eat anything there. It was one of the toxins so dire that nothing else wanted to touch it. That was a good thing. At least as far as Frip was concerned. There was, however, one bad thing about it all.
“The good news is that you can take them home,” Human Arn began. “The bad news is that you have to do it by reducing the terrarium to the size of a standard sleep pod instead of a small room.”
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