Challenge #02573-G016: Cultural Exchange Program
Harvest festival, feast time, Thanksgiving, people have a lot of reasons for sitting to celebrate this time of year. A time to give thanks for what one has in their life, to remember what it is they are thankful for. But, for some, it was just a time to put out a feast and be a glutton, and enjoy it! A person had been researching the Vorax, in fact, their entire race, learning their culture and their ways. Learning that the Vorax was not the race itself but the warriors amongst them. Learning of the farmers, the workers, the entire system the best they could. Then, as it came time for the feast festival, an invitation was sent out to as many as they could invite. They’d saved up a rather impressive amount of Time for this. The food they’d gathered was food they knew the Vorax could eat, and the humans they invited, friends and family, would enjoy as well. The drinks, mild intoxicants that would not inebriate either side but were also completely safe for both sides, along with juices and water, was provided, and the large series of tables were set out. Then, on the appointed day, they awaited the arrival of their guests for the Feast of Giving Thanks. And smiled, the doors to the large place wide open, looking forward to this moment. – DaniAndShali
Contrary to all the opinions of those originating from the United States, and their deep-time colonies, Thanksgiving is not a universal concept. Many mistake otherwise ordinary harvest festivals for their unique phenomenon of Thanksgiving. The spirit of egocentrism is strong in many Human cultures. Such an egocentric Human has found out about the Thranityr… the species who are the origin of the Vorax.
There were, of course, the travelling raiders called the Vorax. There were the farming caste, the Chakkyn. The manufacturing caste, the Thekkar. The Honyk were the builders, and it went on and on. Each with their own language, each with a tenuous peace with the other castes. Each with a rather… interesting relationship with any neighbouring Humans and their colonies.
Galactic Society often uses the fact that Humans willingly make alliances with Vorax as definitive evidence that Humans, as a species, are insane. Humans point to this conclusion and accuse Galactic Society of being a bunch of ignorant bigots. Some things cannot possibly change, but Human Kon is determined to at least try to change things anyway. His bright idea? A shared festival feast. Food, after all, brought people together. The festival, chosen with typical Human egocentrism, was Thanksgiving.
[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 steemit (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]
Challenge #02572-G015: Inappropriate Topic
It has been lingering in my mind for a while. Every waking moment it come across my mind. I feel like I’m gonna get my ass beaten if I say it out loud. But why my crew mates look like anthropomorphic animals?!? – Anon Guest
There are times when it seems like the Universe was made by a lazy creator. The truth might seem stranger than that fiction. Convergent evolution means that beings suitable to a specific gravity and a specific purpose means that they will wind up looking very similar indeed. Caninoids look like dogs, Felinoids resemble cats, the variety amongst avian life forms is astonishing and yet, so very, very similar to known birds. It goes on and on.
Only Humans are rude enough to point this out. “Is it me, or is this entire station like a Furry Convention or something?”
Gortz spent a moment glaring at Human Diz. “As I recall, your -ah- cult of the Furry features cartoonish features including enlarged heads and emphasized eyes. Such is not the case in reality.”
[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 steemit (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]
Challenge #02570-G013: Happy For Some
Welp since I learn that cursed knowledge I’m dragging y’all down with me with your own curiosity. “Happy tapioca” isn’t all that happy – Anon Guest
[AN: Urban Dictionary holds all the answers to this mystery and I am positive the average reader does not want to know. Personally, I think it’s a waste of perfectly decent pudding, but if it floats your boat, keep it private, thanks.]
When civilisations exist in post-scarcity, the weirdness multiplies. When people can have anything that helps them feel happy… the odd corners seem to multiply. That said, some things can be difficult to arrange.
In those corners, the Niche Therapists thrive. It is difficult for many newcomers to understand the exact role of Therapists in Galactic Society. Some mistake them for sex workers, but that is only part of their training. They are there for the mental wellbeing of any cogniscent who needs them. They are trained in all forms of wellbeing therapy, psychology, religion, and positive haptic feedback.
Most often, that therapy manifests in the form of talking. Haptic therapy is most often forms of grooming or massage, or a comforting embrace. The tawdry side of things is far rarer than any might think. Those who do occupy that niche tend to learn things every day. Those who do occupy that niche often need the services of the remainder of the Therapists.
[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 steemit (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]
Challenge #02568-G011: Stacked Competition
Wanna play yugioh? – Anon Guest
[AN: I have no idea how to play Yugioh, and I’m moderately certain that describing said game will impinge on someone else’s intellectual property… so today, the part of Yugioh will be played by a completely made-up game called Ebisnach]
Humanity loves combat. Synthesized or real. They have more or less tamed their competitive nature in the form of formalised synthetic competition. They call them all games, but the nature of Human games is always some kind of competition. No more or less so than their card games.
Humans also like to collect things. With a combination of collecting and card games, the species has come up with some truly complex systems of simulated combat involving nothing more than sets of colourful pieces of card stock. Humans insist that the best way to learn is by playing, mostly because the verbal explanations can take weeks. Only Humans can pick them up that quickly. After that, it’s simply a question of how deeply they dive into the fandom maelstrom.
Human Kee was, apart from one little quirk, a fairly amenable Ships’ Human. The reviews were glowing wherever ze went. There was only one red flag. It read, Do not, under any circumstances, get hir started about Ebisnach.
[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 steemit (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]
Challenge #02567-G010: Assumptive Dread
Humans are not great because of what most people think. It’s not our physical capabilities or our ingenuity, not even or pack-bonding skills. It’s our heartiness and our healing ability that is boosted though the advancement of medical applications. Humans figured multiple ways how to rewrite our genetics codes before we had proper space travel, we were able to eradicate deadly diseases off the face of the planet. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if we created the prototype livesuit. But there always one thing that we’re unable to cure. When you hear the news it hit hard. When a disease is perfectly attuned to your body and you tried to cure it, you’re basically asking someone to mangle your body to have a chance to survive. Cancer is humanity’s greatest rival. – Anon Guest
Humans have a reputation for being unstoppable, and part of that is their ability to bounce back from injuries that other species would consider fatal. The other is their resilient immune system, their kill-or-cure biological strategies that sometimes come close to the first option, then the Human in question manages to pull through.
It’s not perfect. Nothing ever is. The Human immune system can turn against itself, cannibalising otherwise perfectly functional body parts, sometimes destroying the Human in the process. Sometimes, it creates more material at random, growing bone where there was once muscle. Sometimes it just eats the body a little at a time. The other way it can go is growing new cells with amazing rapidity. Those clusters of cells take resources from the rest of the Human suffering from their growth and, eventually, starve the entire being to death.
Humans have been trying to stop things like this happening since they realised what those things actually were. Early attempts - including divine intervention and rudimentary yet impossible magic - were not effective. Later therapies were hit and miss until their medicine figured out some precision. For the most part, for centuries at a time, Humans relied on a mixture of highly dangerous medical treatments and equally dangerous surgeries to rid themselves of the anomalous cell clusters. When it comes to “kill or cure”, Humans really commit.
[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 steemit (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]