Challenge #02926-H003: Risk Assessment Monarchs
The humans were having a rave. The music was old-fashioned techno music as one would hear in the pre-shattering era known as the 1980’s and 1990’s. The music flashed, many had glow-sticks, the dance floor flashed colors and there were bright, but harmless, laser lights. And a Vorax raiding party, landing on the planet, stumbled into the rave by accident.
Just in case someone’s not been to a rave or heard rave music at it’s most wild, basically - it’s this, but a lot louder with a lot of heavy bass due to the types of speakers they use.
Party planets were thought to be soft targets. Why not? They had lots of resources, lots of financial boons, and lots of wealthy people to ransom for more goods and financial benefits. It should have been an easy raid.
‘Should’ is not 'is’.
They landed to surround a high cluster of the population, armed, armoured and ready to conquer. They blasted open the doors, and were immediately blasted by what was inside. Weapons-grade sound, irregular flashing lights, nauseating combinations of unnatural colours… and the people within were gyrating around in seemingly impossible ways. It looked like they were suffering from intolerable spasms. To a casual observer, it looked like they were narrowly missing each other in a wild, aimless combat.
But they were also smiling…
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Challenge #02925-H002: He Prefers the First Option
Violence is never the answer. But it’s a very effective solution – Anon Guest
There are two potential results of being the deadliest person in armed or unarmed combat. One is that nobody wants to mess with you. The other, paradoxically, is that everyone wants to mess with you. It’s a thing. Once you get a reputation for being the biggest thing in the known universe, everyone who thinks they can be a bigger thing wants to take you on as a form of shortcut.
It’s always those who have never seen actual combat who are gung-ho for war. Humans have taken to calling them “chicken hawks,” in that they’re always crying out for war but the last in line to go to the actual front. Humans are far too familiar with the type. Similarly, it’s always those who are new to fighting who believe they are the best whoever was.
Which leads, inevitably, to the situation in which Human Ji finds himself. He was just trying to take some time off in the tea garden and someone recognised his current appearance[1] and decided to be one of those organic waste vents. Ji knew what was coming and what was going to happen mere instants after the young swagger in the livesuit said, “Hey, you’re Ji Sythe-Wymann! You think you’re hot stuff, don’t you?”
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Challenge #02923-G366: Bad at Risk Assessment
“And what brings you to medical, human?”
“I took my particle mask off when I should have left it on. That was, uh, five days ago? I’m pretty sure I’ve coughed up all the stuff I inhaled, since the phlegm isn’t pointy any more, but I’m still coughing, and my lungs itch. I would have waited longer to bother you about it, but I’ve been kinda short of breath today, so I thought I’d come in before it got any worse.” – Anon Guest
Humans are terrible at following essential safety rules, even when it calls for their own safety. Survivors and escapees of Greater Deregulations even more so. Those desperate enough to escape Deregger space were obsessed with not being a bother on pain of being thrown back to the maelstrom from whence they sprang.
Medik Phrak concentrated on staying calm and amenable. “Thank you for coming in before we needed to drag you in,” she said. “It’s no trouble to make sure something isn’t bad before it gets bad. I would much rather be certain something’s not a problem before it could become a problem. You Humans keep saying ‘a stitch in time saves nine’. Little helps preserve you from bigger helps. Yes?”
“Er. Yeah. But… I didn’t think it did me any damage. I felt fine afterwards.” This was the same kind of argument that helped the spread of long-incubation, high-infection diseases back in the pre-Shattering era of Terran history.
[Be sure to visit internutter (dot) org for a link to the rest of this story, and details on how to support this artist. Or visit peakd (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]
Challenge #02920-G363: You Laugh, We Win
A: It’s ovew bwothew, i have the high gwound! OwO
B: Chu undewestimated mwy powew.
A: Don’t twy it – Anon Guest
[AN: Honestly, nothing is better for a giggle than translating badass lines into Owo.]
The fake battle involved bippy hammers[1] and amusing melodrama, much to the amusement of everyone else in the room. There was so much amusement that some were concerned about their ability to breathe. Companion Grox, perching far above melee range, was making sure this activity was recorded for posterity. This was, after all, a new Human game. So new that it didn’t have a name.
One by one, the laughing Humans in the audience tapped out. When all the audience surrendered, the melodrama ceased and all the players were allowed time to recover. Once the laughter died down, one name and one scene were drawn out of containers. “Bill,” announced a previous ‘actor’, “and the six-fingered duel.”
“I’m gonna need another player and the pool noodles,” laughed Human Bill. “This is gonna cover a little turf.” The rest of the Humans in the room rearranged the furniture as Human Bill drew another name. “And my lucky collaborator is Deen!” Cheers from the audience.
[Be sure to visit internutter (dot) org for a link to the rest of this story, and details on how to support this artist. Or visit peakd (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]
Challenge #02919-G362: Pass It On
I’d like to know more about Human Gis and her discovery of the flower that helped ease, then cure, her bad cough and helped heal the scar tissue in her lungs. Did the kid get credit for her discovery? Maybe a bonus? And did her companion help her with her self-esteem?
It’s from this story from back in May. https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02685-g128-little-yellow-different – DaniAndShali
It would eventually be named the Rentiniv Daisy, via several miscommunications and some typography errors. By the time things could be corrected, it was already too late. The name was entered and logged into the Alliance Medik dictionaries. It was a small yellow flower and as unremarkable as a dandelion, while being as hardy as Baby’s Breath. It also possessed a scent that, though inoffensive, was distinctive.
Discovered on Rentin IV by Ship’s Human Giselle Barnabus. The medical properties of its perfume and pollen are still being explored. Human Gis gets credit for the propagation information and discovery royalties from every scientist and Medik working on the chemistry of the bloom. The amount they pay is a fraction of the Time Human Gis spent on her own experiments, but that doesn’t matter. The science is happening everywhere, working on how the flower worked its magic and if such a miracle could be replicated by technology.
The Time flows towards a managed account to help support those like Human Gis, who had lingering harm from early editions of the immunoflu. Beta drafts of which were not only wild, but still causing harm in the outlying Human realms. There is little more devastating than a good idea gone bad, and all attempts to wipe it out were ongoing and arduous. Something like the Rentiniv Daisy makes an amazing stopgap. The managed account helps pay for victims of bronchial scarring to acquire daisies of their own. It’s the right thing to do.
[Be sure to visit internutter (dot) org for a link to the rest of this story, and details on how to support this artist. Or visit peakd (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]