Amalgam Universe

A 2271-post collection

Douglas Adams

Aliens discover The Hitchhiker’s Guide.

(#00581 - A216)

Space, the text said, is big. Really big. If you think it’s a long way down the road to the shops, that’s peanuts compared to space.

“People paid money for this?”

“I think it’s some of their Terran humour…”

“I don’t see any references to trousers falling down in this narrative.”

Bloz glared at Kenka. “You and I have access to different worlds of humour.”

Kenka fluffed her feathers. “It said ‘guide’ in the title. There is very little contained herein that is useful. I’ve been to Traal. There are no Bugblatter Beasts.”

“Perhaps they went extinct.”

“Shall we ask a JOAT about the informativeness of this text?”

Bloz swiped through a few pages. “This is not an informative text. This is an entertaining text. It tells a story.”

Kenka fluffed and resettled her plumage with a nervous shake. “Then why are there so many who treat this as a religious text?”

“One of the mysteries of the Universe.”

[Muse food remaining: 46. Submit a promptAsk a questionBuy my stories!]

Deathworlders

Humans meet a species from a different deathworld.

(#00580 - A215)

Things around the negotiation table were tense. It wasn’t often that the humans met another cogniscent race that could kill them with ease. The fact that both sides were willing to keep their hostile actions in check was a telling victory for the mamalian side of the negotiations.

For a long time, Trodonti and Human stared at each other.

“We have studied your home planet,” said K'ress.

Read more »

Challenge #00589 - A214: Like a House on Fire

Shayde and Ambassador O’Ranges

or

Julie, Nanny and Ambassador O’Ranges

[AN: You didn’t say ‘xor’ :D ]

Julie was still moaning. A constant monotone that, Shayde could tell, was starting to get on everyone’s pec’s. She was huddled in Nanny’s lap. Nanny couldn’t do much for her but be a living teddy-bear and mutter “Good girl, good girl,” at random intervals.

“Puir babby…” Shayde

Read more »

The cover… evolves I’m going to have a hard time NOT using bleeding font for the title because it all looks SO...

The cover… evolves

I’m going to have a hard time NOT using bleeding font for the title because it all looks SO cheesy-horror-flick… which is exactly what I’m aiming for :D

I was having a really bad day until this turned up in my in-box. Now I’m stoked :)

Read more »

Challenge #00578 - A203: You Swallowed What?

As one of the tech review magazines said a few years ago when the first 32 GB micro SD cards came out, “At last it is possible for a single human being to accidentally swallow all of the data collected by the Apollo Program.”

“This is it?” Shayde held aloft a crystal with a metal disk on one end. “All'o the survivin’ media from the twentieth century?”

“And some derivative works, yes,” said Rael. “

Read more »

Amalgam Answers

So most of Earth is category 4, Australia is category 5, the UK must be something like category 2. There is literally nothing deadly here and the worst we have is stinging nettles and sometimes horseflies.

What would actually constitute a category 1 or less, or a non-deathworld? All I can think of would be an entire world of primary producers but there are established predators in Amalgamverse…

Deathworld categories are judged entirely on the surface inhabited by the dominant cogniscent life

Read more »

Challenge #00577 - A202: Mass Destruction

Code 19: There is a small child loose in the area.

“LOCKDOWN! LOCKDOWN!” Rodriguez checked all the small storage bays before she locked them. Kept her eyes and ears open for any trace.

No sticky residue. No smeared prints. No suspicious puddles of liquid. No sign that the progeny had been here. And that was the dangerous part.

“I thought human infants were helpless,” said Chor'i'za.

“Human infants, yes. But once they learn how to move, they

Read more »

Challenge #00576 - A201: The Delicate Process of Acquiring Snuggle-Buddies

The first time K’iiv did the Noise.

“I… have not acquired a snuggle-buddy.”

“Want one?”

K'iiv’s tail flared. “Are… you… volunteering?”

“Are you amenable?”

Now his tail war twitching in a manner dazzle and enrapture female members of his own species. What the human thought of it was beyond him. “Oh very. So much. Yes. I– I–” SKREE-AH!

“AAAAH!” Del ducked in

Read more »

Challenge #00575 - A200: Alas My Love...

An Ice Cream van on Amalgam station.

Someone, somewhere, was playing Greensleeves on a glockenspiel. Rael knew this because he was chasing Shayde, who was racing about, trying to find the source of the noise.

The only information she’d supplied had been “MISTAH WHIPPEH![1]” before she had taken off at -as she called it- warp nine.

One day, one day… in the far, far distant future, he would not need half an hour and a pocket

Read more »

Writing Prompt

The first encounter of T’reka and her people with Big Bird (or any of the Muppets, really, because why wouldn’t they still be around?)

(#00572 - A197)

Still relatively impaired by her injured leg, T'reka stared in amused confusion at the screen.

It was a program meant for juvenile entertainment and/or education (it was hard to tell, with humans. It may be both and something else), she could tell by the puppets. And it was a locally-produced show, because

Read more »

Challenge #00570 - A195: Casual Toxicity

“Absolutely not! There is no way in-”

*human calmly peels and eats a banana*

“Er, whatever you say, sir.”

The Membletak did not adapt well to their new, human captains. They did not adapt well to the insanity of their commanding officers.

And they did not adapt well to illogical commands.

But Captain Millbury was prepared.

“Sir. The odds against surviving such a manoeuvre intact are astronomical to begin with, you can’t possibly expect the

Read more »

Challenge #00568 - A193: Buddy-buddy

An alien and a human with a Han and Chewbacca-esque relationship

(I don’t think Hwell counts, that looks more like babysitting)

[AN: Well, yes, but Hwell does spend large volumes of time making gurgling noises…]

Ruscis still couldn’t believe this was happening, but a duty was a duty and this… being… hadn’t left her side since the convoluted happenings that involved saving its life.

“You remember what I said,” Ruscis repeated. “

Read more »

T'reka taking shape, care of fabulous artist, Erica Syverson. These are ROUGH SKETCHES folks. Her rough sketches are enough to make me want...

T'reka taking shape, care of fabulous artist, Erica Syverson.

These are ROUGH SKETCHES folks. Her rough sketches are enough to make me want to pack in my pencil and quit doodling forever.

And if you’re bothered by the sketchy lines making T'reka look old in the second pic, you can pretend it’s Elderly!T'reka recounting exciting tales of her youth to enraptured grand-keets while a human tries not to laugh in the background.

Read more »

Challenge #00564 - A189: Perplexing

Turnabout is fair play: Something the aliens consider utterly mundane and/or harmless, that is dangerous or terrifying to humans.

It was a disaster. The freshly-introduced Ambassador Harry still hunkered in her improvised bunker of relatively solid furniture, butter knife held tight to her chest in a white-knuckled grip. The ability to speak had left her and she would slash or stab at anyone who came close.

Until Sui'dut came to sort out the mess. Sui'dut, the only alien Harry trusted on

Read more »