Challenge #03024-H101: Mostly Harmless You Say
Pib’s parents are on a station for a while as the ship they normally work on was in for repairs, and these repairs were going to take some time. The instructor at the primary school reads the transcripts of young Pib from aboard the ship and sees the injury / kill count of the child and their jaw drops. Some of the pirates wounded, or killed, by this larval human were not exactly amateurs, or small-fry. The parents just smile. – Anon Guest
[AN: The last time we saw Human Pib was here. You’re welcome]
Understandably, the Jaunty Merchant had to pull into drydock. Even without the pirate attacks, it was more than a little overdue. Contrary to shipboard opinion, Human Pib was not responsible for a majority of that necessity. Some still joked that it was a close thing.
Now aboard Working Holiday Station, Pib was now obligated to attend the station’s education facility. Socialisation and some elementary learning was important for Humans. Which was why the Ships’ Humans of the Jaunty Merchant were talking with the administration for the Early Education Unit.
Educator Vees was going through the file. “Nice to see they’re up with the immunoflu… that’s generally a problem with far-roaming families.” Flick, they turned a page on their datareader. The eyes bugged. “Oh sweet Powers That Be…”
[Check the source to see the full story]
(Source: peakd.com)
Challenge #03022-H099: Situational Education
Human children have a propensity to pet anything that’s soft and furry. It’s just a part of what seems to be observable human nature from childhood into adulthood. However, sometimes children had to be taught to not pet the fuzzy. In this case, they meet a havenworlder who has a soft, fluffy, service animal that has a sweet, little purr. The havenworlder, due to very advanced age, has gone very hard of hearing, the service animal makes sure they stay calm. – Anon Guest
Humans will pet anything. This is a known fact throughout any space that has Humans in it. Even the Vorax, long-time combatants of the Humans, have learned that they will reach out and attempt to befriend the most inadvisable creatures. Therefore it is a point of necessity to teach very young Humans what is okay to pet.
Phrases like, “No no, poison,” and, “No no, owwies,” quickly become part of the greater caregiver lexicon. Alongside lightning reflexes and over-the-horizon radar for when a young Human is about to approach something inadvisable. Soon following those essential two are, “No no, danger,” and finally, “No no, naughty.”
This can cause some confusion when the subject is formerly cleared animals. Reason and logic are not immediate traits in the very young Human and explaining the concept of a working animal can take some time. When in doubt, teaching consent is always an option, as Educator Lynn was learning.
[Check the source to see the full story]
(Source: peakd.com)
Challenge #03020-H097: With Stone Tools
The Vorax were stranded on a planet with several humans, both ships having been taken down by an unexpected solar flare of significant intensity. Due to the fact this was a survival situation, the two factions, for now, put aside their differences to work together. These Vorax, like many others, had heard stories of humans and their abilities. But it really did not hit home how true these stories were, until they insisted on going with the humans to hunt prey animals to avoid starvation. – Fighting Fit
“So… you put down your disruptor and I put down my tanglenet and we go kill animals for food like civilised beings?” said Human Hal. As far as peace treaties were concerned, it was very basic.
“Need food. Weapon ruining food. You much better getting food whole.” Vorax holsters did not have lock-in straps on them, but this one put their disruptor away and moved their clothing to make ready access more difficult. They then stared at the other tools that Hal was holding. “Stone tools?”
“If stupid and working, not stupid,” said Hal, switching to GalSimple. They offered a spear. “You wanting?”
The Vorax took it cautiously. “Short for stabbing,” they allowed.
[Check the source to see the full story]
(Source: peakd.com)
Challenge #03019-H096: The Walking Wounded
They had anxiety issues, didn’t sleep well, often awakened in tears. After years of war, living in peace was very hard. They left to get groceries and returned to find a shocking discovery. A massive tank was in their apartment with an odd arrangement. One side was the life support system for the tank, the other side was a large metal box, almost as tall as they were, attached via wide metal tubes. Inside the tank was a huge octopus, or what seemed to be an octopus. Still, it was a lovely arrangement, and caring for the octopus, making sure the water was clean, there was plenty of food, soft music, was not only easy, but soothing. However, during a rain storm, when thunder set off the PTSD, another surprise occurred. The octopus could talk, and, acting as a therapist, was trying to calm them down. – Anon Guest
War is hell, and all the devils wear uniforms. Ex-Sergeant Dae knew this as a fact. When they throw soldiers at a problem they didn’t want to solve by other means, it got messy. It got brutal. Those who came back without their wounds on the outside often came back with a hell of a lot more damage where it didn’t show. Not until something happened to set them off.
Thankyou for your service, soldier. Welcome to Respite Station. We’re going to look after you. Sit. Stay. Good dog. Dae spent a solid week inside his livesuit until all scans confirmed it a habitable environment. The lung-melting spores of Kacticus V were a lasting lesson about assumptions. He didn’t need PhysServ so no therapists turned up, but the department did gift him nutritionally appropriate rations, and then options to branch out into a healthy yet interesting diet. Including options for “sanity treats”. Ha. As if food treats could restore his broken brain.
The habitat was, surprisingly, a Standard Double. Space enough for two people to not get into each other’s elbows, but only one sleep niche. He’d run the test protocols daily and checked the maintenance alerts like the paranoid shit he was. Pros, he had more space to throw a wobbler when something set him off. Pros, the garden space was nice and big and had an artificial sky. Cons, some spaces in this place were big enough to have their own weather. Cons, including electrical storms. Cons, especially thunder, which carried through the superstructure. Pros, if it counted, MentServ was sending him a live-in therapist sometime real soon now.
[Check the source to see the full story]
(Source: peakd.com)
Challenge #03018-H095: Time and Effort
A: Can I borrow a knife?
B: What do you need it for?
A: What do you mean?
B: What you need it for will determine which one I give you.
A: How many knives do you have?!?
B: What do you need a knife for? – FightingFit
“No, no, no,” said Human Arin. “I gotta go down this rabbit hole. How many knives do you own?”
“One for every purpose and then some,” dismissed Human Bob. “I have a collection.”
“That’s not a number.”
“Dude. Just tell me what you need the knife for. I’ll get you the right tool for the right job.”
“I want a freaking number now. Okay? You got a knife for that?”
[Check the source to see the full story]
(Source: peakd.com)
Challenge #03017-H094: Benevolent Weeds
Those lovely blossoms known as dandelions to us. Whole thing is edible, though better when its young. There are a few other plants like that where the entire thing is edible. Well, she was a botanist, not that she let her family, or the deregger, government knew she’d become so well educated. A well-educated young woman there? They’d kill her for being too smart and her family followed the CEO’s like they were gods.
Everyone thought her too simple to be of any use, and the bawdy houses were closed down because the current CEO, unlike his father and grandfather, thought them vile pits of sin that distracted the workers. So, since she was considered useless, and there were no bawdies to stick her in, her family let her sit for hours in the field all alone with the odd yellow weeds that the outworlder had given her to play with. People in their world were starving, at least the poorest ones were, but was it not odd, those yellow weeds… now seemed to be everywhere. – Fighting Fit
Sometimes, the best way to be smart is to play stupid. Orchid learned this as part of the Free Alliance Schooling on Tradeside Station. Her parents sent her because it was free, and because all the best people got an education from Alliance schools. Those “best people” got an education from Deregger establishments that was more akin to deprogramming, but that point was lost on her parents. Thank whatever deities that had decided to interfere in her destiny.
The CEO if Tradeside Station also managed to miss the memo, and his heir had a dim view of the bawdies, and shut them down as mercifully as possible when he took the reins. Also thank those deities. Orchid had learned her lesson and pretended to be very dim in order to please the old guard. As long as she was silly and frivolous, and scrubbed up well, she was not a threat, and therefore not in danger.
Her parents never understood her fascination with botany. Specifically, old Terran plants that could grow anywhere and frequently did. Some had been gengineered for specific purposes, but had become weeds in the modern era. Sunflowers, Tukkatukka, Kudzu, and Dandelions.
[Check the source to see the full story]
(Source: peakd.com)
Challenge #03016-H093: Well, There Was That One Time…
Humans had just begun their exploration of space, they’d not yet met any other species. The first, early, days of human space travel. A kind and gentle elderly woman, who lived alone on a farm far into the countryside, found a very large, odd-looking, “bird” gathering seed from the open feeder she had and they seemed shaky and unwell. When they collapsed, she hobbled outside, loaded them onto the flat part of her walker, and hobbled back inside. Imagine their shock when the old woman was gently singing to them, giving them sips of water, and their wing was bandaged, and all the grandmother wanted in return was a quiet afternoon talking to a new friend. – DaniAndShali
The claim of “first” is always a nebulous concept. Just ask the people who add it to the bottom of amusing video hosting sites. The first person to discover a distant land full of “uncivilised” natives never ask the natives about who was the first of them to set foot on that land. Or who might have already been there when they arrived.
Such as it is with the “first” encounter with Humans. The Sol system is a surprising font of one-way wormholes. Approximately five minutes after Humanity realised what was going on with them, they immediately used them for disposing of the unwanted sorts. Sending like groups of people down deep time so they could flourish or perish on their own merits. Some deep time colonies arrived centuries before others who were sent earlier. It’s all concerned with FTL, relativity, and Humanity’s natural egotism.
There are Human colonies that have been in existence for millennia before Humans first landed on the moon. It’s complicated. Add technically-timetravel to anything and it definitely gets complicated[1]. Who got in touch with whom and when is very complicated. History is twisted into a pretzel and many ways of logging it involve notes like (Subjective) and (Relative) years. This one is one of the top ten contenders for the First Contact with Humans.
[Check the source to see the full story]
(Source: peakd.com)
Challenge #03015-H092: Minor Disaster Averted
H: Ow.
A: What happened? Do you need medical?
H: Second, I’m on my way to medical already. First, I jarred the ankle on my good foot while trying not to mess up my bad foot further. Um…one A I guess?… I think I sprained something again.
A: Stay right there, I’ll get a chair with wheels on it.
H: Oh yeah, I didn’t think of that. That would be WAY faster than trying to limp there…
A: And it would hurt less, too. – Anon Guest
Here’s a funny thing about Humans - well, not really funny if you think about it - is that they’re not great at solving problems when they’re in distress. Consider exhibit A, Otherwise known at Human Cal. He has evidently had a non-ugent mishap that has resulted in injury, but has also clearly decided not to bother anyone by asking for help.
This, Companion Gion could see, was turning into a “No no don’t bother I’m fine” emergency. Best to stop that before it got to an official inquest. Human Cal started cussing under his breath. Clearly, Gion had arrived just in time. “What happened? Do you need medical?”
“On my way,” managed Cal, wincing as he tried to find a different way to balance. “I think I jarred my ankle on my good foot while trying not to mess up my bad foot worse. Ow.” Another wince. “…and I think I sprained something else.”
[Check the source to see the full story]
(Source: peakd.com)
Challenge #03011-H088: The Soft Spot
Defiant Human: “You can’t make me talk! You know damn well how tough we are, so do your damndest I won’t break!”
Interrogator: “Are you sure about that?”
Defiant Human: “Try me.”
Interrogator: “You asked for it.” Calls to their associates who brings out a box of the cutest, most adorable, little fuzzballs on the planet. Several young kids giggle and begin to play with, and cuddle the fuzzballs that coo and burble sweetly.
Human: “What’s that supposed to do??”
Human - a few hours later: “Ok, ok enough, I’ll talk! I’ll talk.. please! Please… just let me pet the furballs already!” – Fighting Fit
Violence does not work as a means to extract information. Even if the interrogator does know what levels of violence are appropriate for the subject, the odds are that the subject will say anything at all to make the torment stop. This includes what the subject thinks the interrogator wants to hear.
There are less destructive ways to gain information out of an uncooperative subject. Ones that don’t leave trauma in their wake. Ones that are effective even against the toughest of the tough. It did require very specific knowledge of what the species in question found tempting.
Humans… are relatively easy. They will pet anything, but they are particularly vulnerable to soft, fluffy, baby animals. Humans have a knack for being able to identify the young of any species and it is astonishing the range of creatures that they find adorable. To that end, Interrogator Zeph employed three larvae from the corporate daycare, and an entire nest of Floffles.
[Check the source to see the full story]
(Source: peakd.com)
Challenge #03010-H087: Secrets of the Network
They were the sons of the owner of a DeRegger system. Their father was the CEO above all other CEO’s, and his word, and theirs by extension, were law. However, seeing all the degradation in the worlds their father commanded, they decided to change things. They’d had the best education money could buy, even being allowed to get a higher education in the Alliance worlds, “to know their infidelities, insanity, godlessness, and excess my sons” was their father’s reason. However, that education gave them something their father didn’t expect. Compassion. – Lessons
Just as you don’t know you’re on a Deathworld until you leave it, you also don’t know you’re on a Deregger colony until you hit Alliance space. So it was for the sons of Nigel Lodalute. He had had enough of the Alliance winning all the time, and demanded that his heirs learn the secrets of the alliance so that the Fiscal Empire of Lodalute Incorporated could prove their true economic strength and get one up on those evil socialist overlords trying to overtake the one true way.
Nigel did what he always accused the Alliance of doing, and sent his young to take advantage of the other education system to learn the secrets and use them back home. He insisted that they return, and had an unbreakable contract to prevent them from defecting. Even the CRC said it was a perfectly amenable agreement.
So they went. Nigel VI and his younger brother Steve III. There was a mandatory period of culture shock where they kept wondering how the system held itself together. Their chief concern was who had to pay for all of it, and how the administration managed to manage everyone’s Time. They were encouraged to dig deep, and what they found shocked them.
[Check the source to see the full story]
(Source: peakd.com)