Challenge #02579-G022: What the Feces?
You’re shit is an insult, you’re the shit is a complement. You’re not shit is a reassurance, and fuck this shit is not related to the previous phrases. – Anon Guest
Humans don’t have to be confusing, but they will frequently do it anyway. Their idioms, axioms, and expressions are many, varied, and assumed to be understood by everyone. This can hold true for some Human words, as well. Enormous papers have been written on the versatility of some of their ancient four-letter words.
One of the more popular was a synonym for excrement. It could describe the item itself, be descriptive of something awful, and simultaneously something awesome. It could be reassuring, and simultaneously derogatory. It’s truly versatile and also truly confusing for newcomers to Human interaction.
Human Dru has often been asked for clarification when the offensensitivity filters have replaced idiom with scientific terms and removed any kind of inflection that could help a casual listener. For example, someone using offensensitivity filters would hear hir saying things like, “I keep telling you, this [excrement] little trick is the [excrement]. Like, the ordinary way is like [intercourse] this [excrement], but it’s absolutely no [excrement] of anyone’s noses. The guy who told me about it? I called ‘em and told 'em, dude, you are not [excrement]. This thing is the [explosive]. It’s top [excrement].”
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Challenge #02578-G021: Spoil Them Good
Love me as an equal, and I will pay you back. Exist while I love you SO MUCH, and I will burn entire star systems for your sake. (humans and pets) – Anon Guest
Humans will pack-bond with anything, though the continually most mind-boggling example of this is Humans and inanimate objects. Second in that esteemed list is the non-cogniscent animals that Humans elect to share their space with and how intensely those creatures are spoiled.
The Humans themselves will put up with many discomforts. Some sell their passage on vessels as being ‘eminently adaptable’, but the one thing they insist upon is acceptable accomodation for their pets. The famous story concerning this is the plight of Human Tir, who had their berth dominated by accomodations for their cat, and slept in the closet that they had converted into a bedroom… which was also inevitably dominated by the cat.
Human Tir had the aforementioned bed, and one chair by a small workspace that they used for any relaxation or creativity activities when they were off duty. Any and all spaces there belonged primarily to a black cat with blue eyes that Human Tir had named 'Void’. The rest of the space, appropriate for a cogniscent of Tir’s size, was dominated by cat things. Cat beds, cat hammocks, cat toys, a water fountain, the mandatory litter tray, cat walkways, hider-boxes, cat-friendly greenery, and of course multiple cat food dispensers. This in spite of the fact that the Chief Decisions officer had noticed this and given Human Tir double quarters in the hopes that they would take some of the space for themself.
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Challenge #02577-G020: Calling All Rules Lawyers
They wanted to keep the masses obedient. They wanted to keep the people miserable. They didn’t want them to learn to think for themselves. They wanted the people to be living parts for their industrial complex. Then role play gaming came in. When power outages would occur, to “protect nature” of course, gaming systems would be useless. They forbade most board games for being “damaging to young minds” and the high ground of “wanting to stop gambling”. But this new game… it was insidious, the books for the games were banned, confiscated, burned. It encouraged people to learn to read past the necessary after all. The dice were banned, confiscated, melted and burned. It could lead to gambling. But yet this game continued. Charts and maps hand drawn, alternatives to the dice found, people were starting to think strategically, learn to escape the misery and see it in a new light. The people were starting to realize where the real power was. The gatherings of gamers were banned, no explanation given this time just coldly banned, there were massive arrests, just to try to stop the spread of the games. But people now had a taste for it, and a taste of what could be. And in the darkness a voice whispered to the people who played the games, “Roll for Initiative, set yourselves free.” – DaniAndShali
[AN: This story harkens back to this thing ]
This is a box. It is the sole authorised box of the authority. It is a window to the authorized version of reality. It is the window to the news that is important to the Authority. This is a different box. It is illegal. You should not be allowed to have it. Needless to say, there are pockets of resistance who make and distribute copies. Secret clubs who make things for it. Art, adventure, objects… it’s hard to control people willing to exchange information amongst the like-minded.
When the goal is to encourage spending, to sell more shiny new toys, it’s very hard to stop the infection of creativity. Small wonder, then, that people forbidden a thing work out multiple ways in which to make their own out of any available material. The Authorities have tried their best, but there is no spirit more indomitable than a nerd who likes to know things. They ask around. They network. They know a person who knows a person.
Of course, since the Authority controls the power, and the authorized boxes, the resistance finds other ways. There is no way to hack paper. There are thousands of ways to hide books. Even digitally. Scans and copies and even hand-copied calligraphy. Because the Authority encourages art as a means of controlling the public’s means.
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Challenge #02576-G019: The Test
The researcher’s eyes widened suddenly, as the battered body on the table began to slowly smile, fingers flexing and eyes turning towards the now-trembling man as the realization struck him like a punch to the gut…
“Oh… Oh no… Oh God no… You… you’ve been letting us do this to you. The experiments, the punishments, all of it. You wanted us to… to test you. Because if we know the extent of what you can do… …so do you.” – Anon Guest
Not-fun Science Fact: Humans make terrible experimental subjects. – excerpt from the surviving notes of Taanus Klav.
Humans go missing all the time. Some of them, interestingly, want to go missing. Most of them don’t. Of the Humans who go missing, their last known location frequently correlates to the location of cave systems. Of the remainder? There’s a high likelihood that they were Taken by Xenoscientists. Their experiments generally centre around how much these new species can tolerate and how useful they might be as a workforce in covert facilities.
Klav had most of her subjects running a gauntlet. She thought she had a perfect subject for subjugation. Scans showed plenty of survived injuries and a previous environment of deprivation. She thought this one would be easy to keep docile with simple measures.
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Challenge #02575-G018: Gently, Gently
Two children have been good friends since the time they were in the same daycare together. They grew up as neighbors and even go to a mixed school. One child is a havenworlder, one child is a human. The human child is having a birthday party and has invited their best friend to the party. The parents need to have a long talk so it is fun and safe for all. – Anon Guest
When you grow up with something, that’s what normal is. Tan knew Lith as a friend who was always there. They had been in each other’s lives forever. Lith had learned how to be gentle with Tan before ze began to form permanent memories. Tan learned that Lith was strong before she could properly talk.
They were neighbours, and shared a backyard with nature, and it was always Lith who watched out for Tan, and Tan who found the really interesting and cool things they could both wonder at. They had fun together and enjoyed each other’s company. It was when they entered school that things changed. Havenworlders like Tan were kept apart from Deathworlders like Lith. It was a safety issue, since not everybody got to grow with a cool friend and neighbour like Tan.
When both friends wanted to share a party, some intense preparation had to come into play. Starting with a fortnight for the class, learning how to behave around Havenworlders, and the repeated phrase, “It’s hard to have fun when a friend is hurt.” Lith talked about hir friend and how they had fun together, and the entire class learned about Havenworlders and what they could tolerate.
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