Amalgam Universe

Challenge #03080-H172: Defeating Monsters

There was a sign on the door. It read "Warning! Deathworlder story time! Humans inside!" Faintly, through the budget soundproofing, a cogniscent with good hearing could make out the wailing cry of an alarmed human larva. One with even better hearing would be able to make out the voices of other young humans, saying "It's OK, it's OK, it's not real, it's just a story. Right, Miss? It's not real, right???" -- Anon Guest

Fairy tales do not exist to tell children that monsters are real, they say. Fairy tales exist to tell children that monsters can be defeated. That acknowledged, there are some who are unprepared for the finer details. Precautions are always taken, by necessity. Warnings for the literate. Pictograms for the less literate. Hazard stripes[1] for those who fail to pay attention to words or pictures.

Those who feel brave enough, prepared enough, or simply curious enough are welcomed, warned, and permitted to sit with the others. Most of them are under five. A few are a little too enthusiastic for their own good. The storyteller is on an elevated seat, gesturing as the words flow from mouth to listening ears. Offensensitivity shields stand between the room and an observer just outside the door. Unfortunately for Dyw, that shielding was the budget variety that was not as effective as it should have been.

"Strength was most important for the leader of the peoples, even though it had taken him many years to reach the seat of power and strength was fading from his limbs," said the storyteller. "So it came to be that the appearance of strength was as important as actually being strong. They used chemicals to put colour in his hair, and more chemicals to add colour to his face. They used clever speakers to interpret his ramblings, and always, he had to maintain a show of moral strength. That meant beating down on those judged as immoral, and enacting harsh punishments for the unlucky--" they stopped as one of the children burst into tears.

Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi

Prompts remaining: 45 Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!

Challenge #03078-H170: The Inherent Hazards of Knomiras

Common sense is not that common, this most people know.

When you lack even that basic knowledge, it's sad how things can go.

They were listening to the instructions of the flight attendants as they had boarded their flight from the station. It was the usual routine safety instructions that all flights normally gave, and the usual "Here is what we do for this type of emergency" thing. Except, this time, a person scoffed, rolling their eyes, refusing to listen to a

Challenge #03077-H169: Constant Vigilance

A Companion notices that the ship's human's livesuit is picking up on wild, unusual fluctuations in hormones related to emotions and high stress. On questioning, the human informs them that, due to a somewhat negligent upbringing and poor socialization as a child and adolescent, they suffer from underdeveloped emotional maturity... that will never fully develop. That ship has sailed, and they were NOT on board.

The explanation is delivered in a calm, somewhat bored tone, with a bland facial expression. The livesuit

Challenge #03074-H166: Homo Insula

Libertarian "paradise" world found by the Alliance. Probably called "Freedom" or something similar. -- Anon Guest

Imagine a world where there is no need for government or law, because the only rule is that of righteous morality. Laws come from God, as was intended by the Good Word. All that is right is moral and all that is moral is right. It's all about the fundamental rights of man.

Everyone else can suck it.

The strong rule the weak. It's the way

Challenge #03073-H165: Soft, Fluffy, Friendly

They had been working for a few months now with the havenworlders, who had gotten quite used to hearing them wake up screaming but it broke their crewmates' hearts to hear it each night. A de-regger rescue who was still learning that the world was not as cruel as they believed. The companion goes in one sleep cycle as the human begins to whimper and thrash in the special sleeping bag. A gentle hand petting the hair, a soft, trilling, lullaby, the

Challenge #03070-H162: Weighed and Found Wanting

Entitlement. When one thinks of that word, they think of humans, especially stuck up females, though some males are as well, that are self-centered jerks who thinks the world should do everything THEIR way. But it comes in all forms. This havenworlder was self-centered, a total brat, and thought that just because the humans were kind to their kind and often allowed their people to ride on their shoulders to get from point A to point B safely, that the humans were

Challenge #03069-H161: Steep Repair Work

Hello InterNutter, long time reader, first time poster here. I was wondering if you could give us the other sides' view on this? How the parents, and students, felt and viewed things as they were being forced to watch the videos showing their actions and her pain? What the CRC's reaction was seeing something like that happen in their schools? How the witnesses who watched the trial, and the others following with the timeline, reacted to it all? How the administrators thought

Challenge #03068-H160: We Agree With You

HAH! (Heavenworlders Against Humans!) stated as an small movement which mutated into an organisation that had only 3 "simple" demands/ goals

1 Rid Alliance space of humans

2 Restrict Greater (and lesser) Deregulations to their own space and strictly guard and monitor their borders

3 Return to the peace and safety that was pre Human Alliance.

the Alliance was at a loss as to what to do with this steadily growing absurdity, as Heavenworlders had never recorded instances of *rofanticising past civilizations.

Challenge #03066-H158: Stolen By the Fae

Especially at the beginning of integrating humans into the Galactic Alliance, there are still humans that have never been to space, don't really need any training. What do a fierce crew who have 2 (as many as you want) death-defy-ing humans think of this? do they visit earth and see this? or is a human with no training forced out into space. how crazy can a human with no training be? probably just as crazy but that's not the point lol. Chaos

Challenge #03065-H157: All Life Feeds on Death

"How do you think I feel seeing you eat a salad??"

A die-hard vegan's ship crash-lands on a planet that's what appears to almost be a haven world, lots of small animals, lots of plant life, absolutely paradise. Except...that the vegan sees a plant suddenly snap shut when an animal gets too close and the animal is eaten.

The cogniscents there are green, skin, hair, eyes, and they move with a slight rustling. They are descendant of carnivorous plants that have

Challenge #03064-H156: Shall We Play a Game?

Anyone who ran a table would understand. -- AmberFox

[AN: Yeah nah that's a bad sesh there. And maybe bad management]

The life of the game master holds many roles. Storyteller, co-ordinator, plot-weaver... and primary parental to a group of people with the collective intelligence of a tadpole. It wasn't their fault. Not entirely. Players in a game this complicated had other things to concern themselves with between sessions. They had lives, errands, work, trivialities, and assorted nonsense that obscured their memories.

Challenge #03062-H154: Monkey Gonna Jump

A member of a race of aliens new to the Galactic scene holds the misconception that life can be either land bound or aquatic watches a human climb a steep hill specifically for the joy of jumping off the cliff on the other end into deep water. -- Anon Guest

[AN: I have a much more capable program doing the counting for me, so today's full challenge number is actually correct. I'm not going back and fixing the others because that is

Challenge #03076-H153: Charms to Tame the Savage Breast

A first contact between humans and a new species almost degrade to a war, until they hear humanity music for the first time... -- Tom

First contact is... risky. Both sides have no idea what to expect out of the other. One species' friendly greeting can be another's instant death threat, or grave insult to their grandmother. In a situation where any move could be hostile, it's safe to move very still and do one's best to try and read the other

Challenge #03075-H152: Life Unlike Your Own

Edda Nebulae tries to chase down Healer Allie and had confronted her trying to get her to work only for Mx Nebulae alone. Now that the person has learned Allie's demand, in order to get better access to her healing ability, Edda decides to try to do what Allie has demanded and finds just how rewarding such actions can be.

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02739-g182-do-not-pay-your-heart -- Anon Guest

At first, ze was offended by Allie's hubris. How dare that little junk

Challenge #03074-H151: Learning to Reach Out

She'd been years, her and so many, many others, being 'deprogrammed'. Her entire life she had lived with hate. She had lived with the idea that violence was a GOOD thing. That these aliens were brutal monsters. That Pure Humans were the only true life in this universe and the rest were filth. It had taken a long, long, time for her and the rest to learn, to understand, and to accept the reality of the world.

From this prompt. https://peakd.

Menu

A 2297-post collection

Challenge #03080-H172: Defeating Monsters

Challenge #03078-H170: The Inherent Hazards of Knomiras

Challenge #03077-H169: Constant Vigilance

Challenge #03074-H166: Homo Insula

Challenge #03073-H165: Soft, Fluffy, Friendly

Challenge #03070-H162: Weighed and Found Wanting

Challenge #03069-H161: Steep Repair Work

Challenge #03068-H160: We Agree With You

Challenge #03066-H158: Stolen By the Fae

Challenge #03065-H157: All Life Feeds on Death

Challenge #03064-H156: Shall We Play a Game?

Challenge #03062-H154: Monkey Gonna Jump

Challenge #03076-H153: Charms to Tame the Savage Breast

Challenge #03075-H152: Life Unlike Your Own

Challenge #03074-H151: Learning to Reach Out