Challenge #02378-F188: Anything You Can Do…
An idea for the humans/earth is space Australia. These aliens fight with their voice. But our songs are stronger. Opera singers? They can’t even fathom, they just faint. Thought you’d have fun with it! Thank you – Anon Guest
The Karolai had thought they were masters of tactics and the ultimate weapon. None had dared oppose them for a thousand years of glory. Their empire spanned most of a galactic arm, and they kept tight control of it with sonic weaponry. Like all empires of might makes right, they made one fatal mistake:
They tried it on the Humans.
Sound has been used offensively by Humanity on many occasions. As crowd control, as attempted bowel control[1], and as crime prevention.. Sound has been used benevolently for just as many purposes. Humans know about sound. They have even damaged themselves with its use over the centuries.
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Challenge #02377-F187: Almost a Nightmare
Imagine you meet your doppelganger of a different species. They look nothing like you, but your personalities are as close to identical as possible! – Anon Guest
The universe is a fractal, as above, so below. Galaxies spiral into a supergalaxy. Stars spiral into galaxies, clouds of debris spiral into both stars and planets. Atmosphere spirals into weather… liquid drains into a spiral form. Around and around it goes… Is it no wonder, then, that there are patterns of personas?
They do not always look alike, of course. It’s hard for a lizard to resemble a gigantic spider, for example. Many times, though, they occupy the same job. Many times, they have exactly the same mannerisms and patterns of speech. They have the same habits, the same quirks, the same… essence as another you might know. They may even have a similar name.
Jean-Paul Satre theorised that hell is other people. A. J. Rimmer knew without a doubt that hell is an eternity with yourself. Those are just two extremes that result from meeting your animus echo. Your… soul-doppelganger, if you will.
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Challenge #02374-F184: Interesting Impressions
Imagine meeting a species that displayed all their emotions via dermal colour displays. And how humans would react to them – Adam in Darwin
As first contact situations go, the meeting between Humans and Acrodontids could have plausibly gone better. When it comes to meeting Humans, it’s a minor miracle that they don’t shoot on sight. Those who don’t shoot on sight are the ones who tend to enthusiastically pack bond. It’s still a matter of debate as to which is worse.
It took three seconds for Human Jin to go from cautious to exuberant enthusiasm, and only because it took them that long to recognise the Acrodontids’ possession of both chromatophores and independent eye orientation. The reaction was, “Holy shit, you guys are the coolest aliens I’ve ever seen? Can I hug you?”
A combination of natural and artificial selection processes means that most Human spacers are also fond of lizards. This, in turn, means that any lizard-based life-forms have an increased chance of close personal contact by a walking heat source[1]. Interestingly, this rarely ends in disaster.
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Challenge #02373-F183: The Human Paradox
An alien publishes his work on “The human paradox”, the fact that the universe is a more safer place since the most deadliest species are everywhere. – Hyorky
Humans are a paradox, Grax wrote in hir treatise. They are simultaneously the bravest and the most cowardly, the most generous and the most miserly, the most sensible and the most insane. As Deathworlders, they should also be the most hazardous species in the Galactic Alliance, but, as we all know, Alliance space has never been safer since they have been welcomed among us.
Admittedly, there is what the Humans call ‘collateral damage’, but most such incidents harm the Human involved rather than any friendlies in the vicinity[1]. That is, of course, when they aren’t directly harming a confirmed enemy. These pack-bonding mammals are known to cause great devastation in their wakes, yet are also capable of great creativity.
For all their lack of genetic diversity[2], humans manage to embody a vast array of psychological differences. Their personalities have varies instead of their genetic profiles. This, in turn, has lead to the conclusion that Humans are insane. As individuals, they can exhibit some aberrant behaviours if viewed through an egocentric lens. As a group… the species-wide insanity seems increasingly more evident. The fact remains that most of this seeming insanity makes sense to the Humans.
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Challenge #02371-F181: Colour-coded For Inconvenience
“Don’t touch that, it’s hot.”
“It doesn’t look hot.”
“Hot things are red on Terra.” – Anon Guest
“Uh. Not exactly,” said a nearby Human. “Not all red things are hot, and not all hot things are red. For your safety, check for radiant heat,” they demonstrated, holding their hand above the surface and gradually approaching touching it until they pulled away. “This one is actually hot. See?”
The tourists huddled together a little. “That is how you test for heat on this Deathworld?”
“Well, yeah. The atmosphere helps distribute heat so there’s safe distances and so forth. It’s scientific. Only we didn’t know it was science before we worked it out.” An apologetic grin. “Besides, there’s more than red-hot. We have black hot, red hot, yellow hot and white hot in that order. Black-hot can still give you third-degree burns.”
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