Challenge #02708-G151: Bug of Contention
The two humans in this ship are really close. They will do nearly anything to save the other. On the other claw, they destroyed the training room arguing about whether a certain earth insect is a lighting bug or firefly. – Anon Guest
The two Ships’ Humans were out of breath, bruising, and one of them had a dark reddish-brown ichor leaking from their nose. They were also kept well out of each other’s grip by the presence of Companion Jorx directly between them.
“I don’t understand,” said Duty Captain Vredd. “We were under the impression that you were a bonded pair.”
“Oh yeah, we’re still ride or die for each other,” said Human Zo, who was the one leaking ichor. “Right, babe?”
“Yeah,” said Human Stef. “Even though you’re completely wrong about lightning bugs.”
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Challenge #02707-G150: Rescue From Vulnerability
Some level four, and level five, havenworlders know their species is quite fragile. They also know that, in order to survive, to thrive, in this harsh universe, they need to grow stronger. With that in mind, and speaking to other havenworlders that were of higher levels, they all agreed training was in order. They hire a team of humans to help them learn to grow stronger. So, when they have their children, their children will be born stronger. The plan was for their children, like the parents, to train here too, and make things better for their people in the long run. – Anon Guest
Just as every cogniscent looks like a Havenworlder to a Deathworlder, every other cogniscent looks like a Deathworlder to a Havenworlder. When one belongs to a Level Five Havenworlder species, the rest of the universe is a very dangerous place indeed. Havenworlders, it has been noted, amble vaguely towards cogniscence because there’s little better to do. Therefore, they develop very old, very long-lived civilisations.
Which are, because of their longevity, most at risk of extinction because their star is getting old. Those who are fortunate have the time and ability to prepare. Those who are unfortunate… Well. Most of them preserve what they can for other civilisations. Others work on more extreme measures.
They became Genners. They introduce themselves to deliberate, yet tolerable stresses and enter into selective breeding programs in order to toughen up the entire species by induced epigenetic mutation. With an urgency previously unknown to their kind, they accelerate their development towards becoming tough enough to reach and colonise other worlds.
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Challenge #02706-G149: Terrifying Titans
Crabs are a universal constant. So much so that they are used in first contact. Earth is strange for the amount of crab types that we have. Keep them away from the Japanese spider crab though. The first alien to see one said it was the equivalent of an eldritch monstrosity. – CyberStrikeBeast
[AN: go to your favourite search engine and look up “Christmas Island crab migration,” and then “Coconut crab”. Sweet dreams :D ]
Welcome to Earth. We have weird crustaceans. Honestly, it’s hard to resist a sales pitch like that. Terra has a phenomenal amount of crustacean species. There’s fluffy crabs, big crabs, multitudes of crabs, crabs with human faces on their carapaces, and the terrifying abomination known as the Japanese spider crab. Some bold visitors have claimed that it is ninety-nine percent leg. This is almost true.
The Terran species universally recognised as being ninety-five percent leg is the daddy long-legs. A spider that is aptly named on a colloquial basis. Very aptly named. If you gave a daddy long-legs some gills, and let evolution take its course, then you would very much get something close in resemblance to the spider crab. If you can also picture a proportionate daddy long-legs with a body the size of a basketball, then you have an even closer approximation.
The spider crab also possesses claws at the end of its manipulating limbs that have been known to disconnect Human phalanges from the rest of the Human if they are handled incorrectly. Naturally, Humans view this crab as something of a delicacy. Then again, they are also the species that took one look at the coconut crab and wondered if it was edible. Humans will eat anything.
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Challenge #02705-G148: Apparently This is Normal
Humans are insane. Definitely. Undeniably. Humans are insane by the standards of the greater galactic community. That did not prepare anyone for the sight of one of the passengers, at most five from the look of them, possibly younger from the sound of them, seizing a mug meant to hold hot liquids, approaching their nearest parent, and saying:
“Hey! Where my coffee?”
That the desired liquid turned out to be hot cocoa that the child was only pretending was coffee did little to ease the crew’s distress at the thought of the chaos that could be created by a very young human energized by caffeine. – Anon Guest
Humans are very strange. Some would definitely classify the entire species as insane. They are remarkably safe despite being Deathworlders and it is their very insanity that might be responsible for making them so. Science is still attempting to determine the truth. Individual Humans can have understandable logic, but once they gather in groups, once they band together in packs or families… all bets are off.
Case in point, mid-journey for the Planetary Surveyor Archis XVII, where a family of Humans are all simultaneously Ships’ Human. Even the young, which is currently still in the educational phase of maturation. The time is breakfast, and one of the communal nest of Humans is busy with meal preparation whilst the youngest, Human Jil, is allegedly consuming their nutrition.
Humans have been known to be possessive about peculiar things. They can, have, and will pack-bond with anything. This has been noted in drinking vessels also carrying emotional weight. A Human will go out of their way to ensure that they drink out of their drinking vessel and none other, despite the vessels being nearly indistinguishable from each other. In the case of Human Jil, the vessel was a very large insulated mug with the words, Mind the Undertow in an amusing font[1]. This was the vessel she grabbed and inspected, finding it wanting.
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Challenge #02704-G147: The Dying of the Might
They were wealthy. Beyond wealthy. They owned two space stations and an entire solar system, and ran these places harshly. Those that displeased them lost their jobs and were often left in ruin, even for the smallest infractions. Entire families sent into desperate poverty and isolation just because a single member made a mistake on the job.
And for them? Life was excellent. They had everything they could ever need or want. They lived in utter luxury. They had more Time than they could ever spend and had a devil-may-care attitude toward the rest of the universe. But you know what they say about how all parties must end? The people, tired of mistreatment, refused to work. Found other jobs. Some who knew the products they produced found a way to make knockoffs that were just as good, in fact in some ways better, than the original, and sold them for far less. Business partners and trade deals began to dry up as people found other ways to live.
Even the solar system they owned, the sun suddenly going unstable and the people that lived there all desperately fleeing until no one remained on the one inhabitable planet. The unstable sun flaring out, it had a previously unknown 20,000 year cycle of stability, then severe solar storms that lashed the entire system, before returning to a stable, calm, course. This sudden stormy period ruined them. Their finances slowly dried up, the life of luxury and constant spending suddenly curtailed, they began having to sell many of the luxuries they took for granted. Now, they had to live the life they had forced upon so many others. But could they? – Anon Guest
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:/ Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! – Percy Bysshe Shelley.
It’s a conspiracy. It has to be a conspiracy. Those losers in the CRC were behind it for sure. They stole my living resources. They took everything away from me. I’d sue them, but… listen. If you listen, you’ll see how unfair things were.
I owned the system. I made the rules. It was mine. I was the law. I had all the “immortality” treatments and gone corporate. I had every Second of Time. I used the rules, then I made the rules. It was mine I could live forever and own the universe if I wanted.
Then those idiots stole it all.
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