Challenge #02816-G259: I’ll Try to be Nice
“Nobody has to die today.” – Anon Guest
You can say a lot with small words. Wisdom comes in those with multiple uses. Five words can be a promise, a threat, a reassurance, or an absolute and utter lie. Humans use all of them at once, and pretend they knew what was the winner after the fact.
Unless the Ships’ Human makes it very, very clear which one they’re using, it’s just better to play along. In the Case of the Valiant Whatsit and their Ships’ Human Ey, it is almost always a threat.
Such as now, when Ey is facing off a novice band of Vorax raiders. It’s easy to tell they’re novices because one of them said, “There’s twelve of us and one of them, how could we not win?” If they’re lucky, they’ll survive finding out.
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Challenge #02815-G258: Best Instincts at Work
Some Positive Vibes and maybe a good story Prompt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RIhUUt88ZM – Anon Guest
Humans are not telepathic. They are -on average- not prescient. However, watching Human parentals with their young in a series of miraculous rescues causes many to suspect the Humans may be lying about this. So too do phrases like, “I can hear what you’re thinking,” which is a common Human expression to mean, “I am reading all your physical tells and can correctly estimate your thoughts.”
Combined with peripheral vision, thin slicing, and pattern recognition, Humans do a very scary impersonation of telepaths and precogs. The fact that tests exist to determine the veracity of any extra-sensory abilities is proof enough of this. Even Humans are capable of fooling themselves into believing they have preternatural powers.
Consider a small Human familial unit. One parental and one extremely small child apparently just becoming accustomed to bipedal locomotion. The adult of the pair is attempting to conduct their daily business and the child is attempting to understand the world around them. Neither seem alarmed about anything in their environment.
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Challenge #02814-G257: A Good Question
Aliens seeing and hearing lyrebird. That’s it. That’s the whole prompt. – Anon Guest
The rocket thrust engines sounded at full throttle. They sounded from the throat of an otherwise grey and ordinary-looking bird with an ornate tail. After it was done rumbling, it imitated the sound of a few imager trigger sounds. Then it replicated precisely the zoo closing warning.
“Bing bing bong. The zoo will be closing in fifteen minutes. Please make your way towards the exit. The zoo will be closing in fifteen minutes. Visitors in the gift shop, please finalise your purchases.”
The bird stopped to preen, fluffing its feathers and twitching its tail. Thereafter it launched into a series of far more recognisable bird calls, one after the other. Grux was impressed, as many visitors were. It was a non-cogniscent avian from the deathworldiest part of the Deathworld appropriately known as Terra.
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Challenge #02813-G256: So Vulnerable
I want to see aliens that think humans are cute. Like, they get a Ship’s Human because Rules, and when they meet them, they’re just…
Oh, it’s so cute! Must. Protect.
And it ends in mayhem and hilarity. – Anon Guest
They had been against having a Ship’s Human, but they were exploring and documenting the Edge Territories, so it was mandatory. Those meaty Deathworlders would only cause chaos and destruction. They even had to get a new ship made entirely of metal, inside and out, just so the creature wouldn’t accidentally destroy the interior bulkheads.
They had to have a special, isolated food area so their Deathworlder toxins wouldn’t effect the rest of the crew, they had to have a separate waste disposal and ablution centre because some pathogens inherent in their body were best safely contained. And worse, they had a Deathworlder pet capable of random acts of destruction, known as a parrot[1].
They expected the worst possible creature to enter their ship. They didn’t expect to fall in love at first sight with Humanity in general and Human Zo in particular. Ze was indeed larger than the Phaziid taking hir on, much heavier, too. What they didn’t expect was a creature without a carapace. Humans were surprisingly soft and owned artificial carapaces. Humans had tiny little eyes much like the Phaziid’s own larvae and this human was, under their carapace, the exact hue of a larval Phaziid.
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Challenge #02811-G254: A Show of Respect
Have you ever looked at a young human and thought “this is a creature that should terrify me”? I have. My unit came upon an educational facility. We had been scouting the planet, carefully, silently. The humans thought we were just tourists, we did our best to blend in. Find their weaknesses, they seemed to have many. But it was not until what we sat in that educational facility that fateful evening that convinced all of us that this colony was not to be touched. In fact, we were to avoid this place at all costs. We needed to find other prey elsewhere. We were told they were going to do a gentle ceremony for their instructor who was retiring. Something simple that the students, who had loved this instructor very much, could do for him. But when we saw the ceremony, we saw those faces, before the ceremony, during, and after. And that horrific chant, that terrifying sound. Their expressions before, one of caring, it was meant to honor their instructor, but it convinced us all, even their young were dangerous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt6GRghrmaU – Anon Guest
There is nothing, nothing more chilling than a group of Humans moving and chanting in unison. Regardless of the age, gender, and physical condition of the Humans involved. Regardless, in fact, of what they are moving and chanting in unison to.
Of the terrifying capacity for Human synchronisation little is more horrifying than a group of grade schoolers performing the Haka. Outsiders not used to observing such displays go through a chain of reactions that begins in, “Aaaw, cute,” and ends in, “Not cute! NOT CUTE! RUUUUNNN!”
The Haka, like many things beginning in Deathworlds, is a display of strength, discipline, fortitude, and co-ordination. When performed by Human neophytes, it is once again a reminder that even their fragile young are capable of far much more destructive power than most adult Galactic Citizens[1].
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