Instant Story

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #00997-B266: Time to Clean the Tank

http://primarybufferpanel.tumblr.com/post/130327638454/alien-invasion

Thought you might like this one. Don't think it would fit in Amalgam-verse, though. -- RecklessPrudence

[AN: Yeah nah, it wouldn't.]

They called it the Green War. The collective nations of the Earth were fighting over, and in, the world's last forest. So of course, frequent use of napalm was de rigueur.

Elsewhere, pro-lifers were bombing fertility clinics in the mistaken belief that they also performed abortions. There were also roaming gangs of pro-lifers who were murdering pregnant people if they posted about an unwanted or unwelcome pregnancy on Facebook.

Infinity-level vegans were sterilising farm soil so that no tardigrades would be harmed.

A host of anti-vaccination proponents were cheerfully announcing their first Smallpox Party in centuries. In a crowded mall in the middle of one of the most crowded cities in the world.

And the government-funded experiment to encourage honeybees to become resistant to farm chemicals was showing negative signs of progress. Of course the answer was to spray the hives harder, and with stronger chemicals.

When the aliens came, humanity barely looked up to point. The ships looked like giant snowflakes in the sky. All identical. All spaced regularly around the globe and remaining a precise distance above sea level in exactly the way that snowflakes don't. And it didn't help that they all glowed an eye-splitting purple.

They trended on Twitter for all of two minutes before some celebrity had a nip slip and all was back to what passed for normal.

They started beaming things up at the same time, so that could not trend on Twitter.

Humanity initially found itself in a volume of space roughly equivalent to Texas. Without their weapons. Without their technology. Without their clothes. Without control. The floor was soft. The temperature comfortable. And, once like-minded groups were separated from attempts at combat with un-like-minded groups, the general atmosphere was almost pleasant. The food was bland, but nutritious, and delivered in strict doses to each individual simultaneously. Those prone to taking food from others found themselves isolated until the others had finished eating. Human waste merely vanished into its depository surface.

It took humanity two weeks to get used to the abductions.

People would vanish without warning, and be absent for a few days before re-appearing none the worse for wear. Often in better health than when they left. Trans people got the bodies they dreamed of without pain. Chronically ill people got miraculous cures. More than a few individuals got new organs. Or teeth.

The extremely violent people gradually learned that violence literally got them nowhere. Any escalation of rage quickly resulted in the angry individual being sent to a smaller, blank room until they stopped being angry.

Most of the things that separated humanity ceased to matter, in the Big Room.

And just as suddenly as it began, humanity was back on Earth. Buildings and infrastructure remained. Technology remained. Yet... most things were... homogenised. Every home had power, now. And a functional sewerage system that turned waste into energy, with the byproduct being a truly efficient fertiliser.

Extinct and endangered animals were flourishing, once more.

The population was strangely homogenised, too. People were scattered liberally all over population centres. Except for a group of radical haters who wanted the people they hated to be put on islands. They all wound up on one, very isolated island with everything they needed to survive. And a message that read good luck in all known languages.

The rest of the planet got the Stelae. No matter who looked at it, they could read it. Small children and the illiterate saw pictograms. But everyone understood. They were rules of behaviour.

Be good to this planet.

Look after the plants and animals.

Look after each other.

Help those who need it.

Give to those who don't have.

Let those who choose to breed do so, but have no more than four children.

You are being monitored. You are naughty pets.

There was a purple snowflake on the moon. In retrospect, Earth's problems were just beginning.

(Muse food remaining: 13. Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories! Or comment below!)

Challenge #00996-B265: Miss Communication

That thing where your words get all tangled up and you can't speak your own language until you stop and spit out the bad sounds, then suddenly you can talk again. -- Anon Guest

[AN: You might appreciate this vid from Red Dwarf. There's also a more polished official version IDK I rather prefer the original...]

Shayde was in the middle of Explaining Physics. Some of the expositions she had were still years ahead of current technology. Right now, she was examining

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Challenge #00995-B264: One Stuffy Hour in a Remote Meeting Hall

SPOEn get confronted with this http://xkcd.com/1576/ (a personal failure at panel 6, where I guessed wrong and upset someone was what made me send the prompt that became SPOEn - I didn't articulate myself well in the prompt) -- RecklessPrudence

"Wait," said the noob at the meeting. "I thought this was for analysis of language drift, trying to find the origins. I mean, in so far as anyone can find any origins..."

"What did you think it meant when

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Challenge #00994-B263: Unexpected Divinity

http://internutter.tumblr.com/post/129939811959/a-plot-i-want-to-see -- Anon Guest

[AN: You bastard. And I mean that in the nicest way ;) ]

On the plus side, he had survived the plane crash. On the minus side, nobody else seemed to have done so. Potentially worse news, there were natives here, and they seemed to be worshipping him.

Gavin looked to the passengers on either side of him. Strangers he had nicknamed Mr Complain and Ms Annoying. Mr Complain had thought that the entire

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Challenge #00993-B262: The Path of Love is Rough...

Opposing the previous prompt, someone tries very hard to get a date with a human and ends up scaring them into hiding in a corner/under something, brandishing a defensive broom handle -- Anon Guest

Of all the romantic gambits in Galactic Society, few have ever been more disastrous than a H'nuf'ruffian's attempt to woo an arachnophobe.

Having overloaded on certain sections of Human media, Cogniscent T't'k't decided that it was a brilliant idea to rappel down on hir own silk until

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Challenge #00992-B261: It Doesn't Mean What You Think It Means...

Expanding on http://internutter.tumblr.com/post/119713605994/challenge-00850-b119-one-fine-bar-fight-at-a (aggression of one species very similar to flirting for another)

Someone tries their absolute hardest to start a fight with a human, or just scare them off or something (maybe there is a bet going?) And gets unexpectedly dipped. Kiss optional.

Alcohol was one of the more common registered inebriants, so Intoxicant Bars always came with a semi-flammable miasma. One such establishment was The Unlikely Mammal Drink. A bar run by a saurian

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Challenge #00991-B260: What is 'Painting'?

More about humans and their ridiculous "sight" -- Anon Guest

[AN: For those too busy to go look it up, the original instalment is here]

The pirates the crew had just soundly trounced had a treasure of art works in their lair. Including a baffling array of rectangular, flat objects. Lieutenant-Commander Jain, however, almost had a conniption.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Careful with those. They're paintings. Care-ful. That's art." Ze almost snatched a rectangle from Ensign Ch'koff's hands. "We have to put these

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Challenge #00990-B259: One Dull Morning in a General Supplies Store

The helgoq leaf (http://internutter.tumblr.com/post/125201724094/challenge-00914-b183-cautious-eaters) being used/marketed as a human repellant. -- Anon Guest

The really beautiful thing about a truly open market was that things moved astonishingly quickly. No snake oil, just things that worked, and worked best at what they were for.

Though there were a few 'alternative uses' that made for interesting discussions...

Shayde found one such item in the safety products aisle. Alongside the usual protective devices and common-use medical instruments were

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Challenge #00989-B258: The Houyhnhnms Fandom

More on the humans and the unicorn ambassador seen here: http://internutter.tumblr.com/post/127820781249/challenge-00946-b215-the-houyhnhnms-arrival -- Anon Guest

[AN: CallMeGallifreya, is that you?]

Ambassador Thrass kept G'pux by her side at all times. But when she found out that there was an exercise track... She crept out in the early morning to enjoy a good run.

All she needed to do was follow the warning signs.

She met up with Ambassador Shayde on her second lap, her white hair mostly

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Challenge #00988-B257: The Power of the Pointer

http://outofcontextdnd.tumblr.com/post/128930273519/i-have-reason-to-believe-that-this-lizard-has

I have reason to believe that this lizard has acquired artillery. -- Anon Guest

Bullets splashed against the walls, just above their current shelter of a piece of their ship's ablative shielding. "Really?" said Hwell. "What was your first hint?" He flinched against the shower of shrapnel.

"I think it was when Gerih got shot in the leg. All wounds sustained thus far have been non-fatal."

Hwell rolled his eyes. Rhytidops were famously immune to

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Challenge #00987-B256: A Question of Choice

http://outofcontextdnd.tumblr.com/post/129256209619/yet-another-reason-to-not-have-children-you-dont

“Yet another reason to not have children: You don’t want the batspider to visit you.” -- Anon Guest

"Bat... spider," repeated Hero. "I've never heard of the like. Is it a bat with spider legs, or a spider with bat wings?"

"It's like a Drider, but with the body, wings and head of a bat, 'stead of a drow," said the villager. "It takes all but one in ten of our children an' our

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Challenge #00986-B255: What is 'Light'?

http://chaoswolf1982.tumblr.com/post/129369751472/roachpatrol-gutterowl-roachpatrol

The continuing adventures of a human with a bunch of mole/bat people. As seen by the mole/bat people.

[NB - notify ChaosWolf1982 and ManyBlinkingLights]

[AN: I prompted myself because this was too good to pass up.]

Captain's Log, Galactic Standard Calendar 58430.03.2.05...[1]

In the spirit of further understanding between species, we are welcoming aboard a new crewmember. One of the Deathworlder species called 'humans'...

The airlock hissed. Captain K'rik

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Challenge #00985-B254: One Skull-cracking Morning in a N'Ozzie Holding Cell

What the Bleep! am I doing with a traffic cone, a black lace thong and a feather boa?

Two things were certain to Hwell. One: the light hurt. Two: it must have been one hell of a night, last night.

"You understand that I only call him my 'business partner' because it is forbidden to label cogniscents as 'lucky pets'." That had to be Ax'and'l. Urgently distancing himself from Hwell's previous revelry and subsequent swathe of damage.

If, however, the swathe of

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Challenge #00984-B253: Party Zone, Fun City.

Party zone, fun city, playtime for (so called adults). You can concentrate on either the goings on or the consequences. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Hope you don't mind, but I fixed the obvious typos]

You could call it a fun park, but it was closer to being an entire metropolis at this stage. They called it Fun City, and it contained every kind of enjoyment there was for an adult to indulge in.

There was the Spa Quarter, the Movies District, Shotgun

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Challenge #00983-B252: A Need Like Breath

A story about Medjed http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2015-07-31/the-obscure-egyptian-god-medjed-and-his-bizarre-afterlife-on-the-japanese-internet/.91149 -- Anon Guest

What a thing is life, for a god.

Belief is food and air. Believers, feeling and form. Love... O my children, love is what a god needs above all other things. You could call it 'drug'... but such as I prefer 'blood'.

Without love... gods fade.

In my first time of glory, I was not well known. I barely appeared at all on walls or scrolls. The

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