Challenge #02948-H025: Mostly Harmless
“Look! I found an actually-harmless creature from the deathworld. It’s so cute. It doesn’t even have a mouth to bite with. I’m taking it home as a pet.”
“That’s a box jellyfish.” – Anon Guest
The creature in the tank pulsed rhythmically and didn’t look dangerous at all. It seemed no more dangerous than a plastic bag. That statement alone should tell everything. Even the most harmless-seeming things from a Deathworld have hidden menace.
“See those tails? The tentacles?” said Human Di. “They’re venomous. Deadliest stingers in the world. These jellyfish drift around until a tentacle comes into contact with something and then they tangle it up and eat it. If the prey’s too big? They kill it anyway. That includes big mammals like me.”
Companion Korrik backed away from the tank. “Oh.” They were lucky they hadn’t tried to pet it. “I was fortunate that I used devices to collect this.”
[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 peakd (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]
Challenge #02771-G214: A Few Minor Obstacles
Everyone, even havenworlders, like to have pets. The type of pet, of course, depends on the type of havenworlder. One, after visiting, and surviving, her visit to the deathworld known as Earth, and especially Australia, had learned of a harmless, but brightly colored, bug called the Christmas Beetle. It was short-lived, not edible - but only because it had a very thick shell, but otherwise completely, utterly, harmless. She learned how to breed them and soon began to sell them as safe, harmless, pets to other havenworlders. People loved these colorful things. Oddly enough, though, even though some got loose on havenworlds and people feared an invasive species, they seemed only capable of breeding in conditions matching that of their native homelands. Which was not such a bad thing, really, for controlling population. And she made quite a bit of time off a new, harmless pet. Though some humans shuddered at the feel of those scritchy legs on their skin.
- Note - I figured it could be a “part 2” of this prompt? I can see a havenworlder turning these harmless bugs into pets. They’re quiet, harmless, easy to care for, very pretty with their bright colors, and, in the right circumstances, not too hard to breed. And I could easily see her breeding them to make their colors more vibrant.
https://steemit.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02624-g067-seasonal-invasion – DaniAndShali
[AN: You can learn more about these colourful critters at Backyard Buddies and please keep in mind that I am inventing these farming methods wholesale]
Frip was fascinated by the insects. They had had a close call with anthropocene extinction in the past, but those who loved them insisted on loaning them some habitat so they could survive. The adults, like most adult insects, lived to breed, and then soon met their end as the resources diminished for the cold season.
Frip learned everything they could about the life cycle. Their preferred habitat, favourite food, breeding and nesting grounds, all of it. Then the engineering began.
Now they had a terrarium containing a dwarf-formed eucalyptus with more leaves than it should have had. There was a heat lamp, a lot more soil than there should be for one plant and a patch of grass. There was a system for monitoring the water content of the environment.
[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 peakd (dot) com (slash at) internutter for the stories at their freshest]