Amalgam Universe

A 2288-post collection

Challenge #02573-G016: Cultural Exchange Program

Harvest festival, feast time, Thanksgiving, people have a lot of reasons for sitting to celebrate this time of year. A time to give thanks for what one has in their life, to remember what it is they are thankful for. But, for some, it was just a time to put out a feast and be a glutton, and enjoy it! A person had been researching the Vorax, in fact, their entire race, learning their culture and their ways. Learning that the Vorax was not the race itself but the warriors amongst them. Learning of the farmers, the workers, the entire system the best they could. Then, as it came time for the feast festival, an invitation was sent out to as many as they could invite. They'd saved up a rather impressive amount of Time for this. The food they'd gathered was food they knew the Vorax could eat, and the humans they invited, friends and family, would enjoy as well. The drinks, mild intoxicants that would not inebriate either side but were also completely safe for both sides, along with juices and water, was provided, and the large series of tables were set out. Then, on the appointed day, they awaited the arrival of their guests for the Feast of Giving Thanks. And smiled, the doors to the large place wide open, looking forward to this moment. -- DaniAndShali

Contrary to all the opinions of those originating from the United States, and their deep-time colonies, Thanksgiving is not a universal concept. Many mistake otherwise ordinary harvest festivals for their unique phenomenon of Thanksgiving. The spirit of egocentrism is strong in many Human cultures. Such an egocentric Human has found out about the Thranityr... the species who are the origin of the Vorax.

There were, of course, the travelling raiders called the Vorax. There were the farming caste, the Chakkyn. The manufacturing caste, the Thekkar. The Honyk were the builders, and it went on and on. Each with their own language, each with a tenuous peace with the other castes. Each with a rather... interesting relationship with any neighbouring Humans and their colonies.

Galactic Society often uses the fact that Humans willingly make alliances with Vorax as definitive evidence that Humans, as a species, are insane. Humans point to this conclusion and accuse Galactic Society of being a bunch of ignorant bigots. Some things cannot possibly change, but Human Kon is determined to at least try to change things anyway. His bright idea? A shared festival feast. Food, after all, brought people together. The festival, chosen with typical Human egocentrism, was Thanksgiving.

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Challenge #02572-G015: Inappropriate Topic

It has been lingering in my mind for a while. Every waking moment it come across my mind. I feel like I’m gonna get my ass beaten if I say it out loud. But why my crew mates look like anthropomorphic animals?!? -- Anon Guest

There are times when it seems like the Universe was made by a lazy creator. The truth might seem stranger than that fiction. Convergent evolution means that beings suitable to a specific gravity and a specific

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Challenge #02570-G013: Happy For Some

Welp since I learn that cursed knowledge I’m dragging y’all down with me with your own curiosity. “Happy tapioca” isn’t all that happy -- Anon Guest

[AN: Urban Dictionary holds all the answers to this mystery and I am positive the average reader does not want to know. Personally, I think it's a waste of perfectly decent pudding, but if it floats your boat, keep it private, thanks.]

When civilisations exist in post-scarcity, the weirdness multiplies. When people can

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Challenge #02568-G011: Stacked Competition

Wanna play yugioh? -- Anon Guest

[AN: I have no idea how to play Yugioh, and I'm moderately certain that describing said game will impinge on someone else's intellectual property... so today, the part of Yugioh will be played by a completely made-up game called Ebisnach]

Humanity loves combat. Synthesized or real. They have more or less tamed their competitive nature in the form of formalised synthetic competition. They call them all games, but the nature of Human games is always some

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Challenge #02567-G010: Assumptive Dread

Humans are not great because of what most people think. It’s not our physical capabilities or our ingenuity, not even or pack-bonding skills. It’s our heartiness and our healing ability that is boosted though the advancement of medical applications. Humans figured multiple ways how to rewrite our genetics codes before we had proper space travel, we were able to eradicate deadly diseases off the face of the planet. Hell I wouldn’t be surprised if we created the prototype livesuit.

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Challenge #02566-G009: All About Where You Stand

I want to see a Havenworlder from a high grav planet. Dense and tough by necessity from the environment, but with absolutely nothing dangerous in to it in its home planet. No rough terrain to fall down, plentiful food without any toxins that effect it, gentle weather that never bothers it, etc. -- Anon Guest

Gravity is usually necessary for life to evolve. Most life comes to become on planets, with a rare few becoming in lower gravity environments that are also

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Challenge #02564-G007: Determination and Caffeine

A planet with a mix of deathworlders and havenworlders, one of the few planets to have such a mixed colony, is struck by an unusual virus. For the havenworlders, it's painful, it makes them very, very sick, but it is survivable, mostly. Though there have been casualties and other side-effects. For the deathworlders, it's just as painful, but worse, the virus is mostly fatal if contracted. And the survivors are usually in very bad shape. The disease is also, unfortunately, extremely contagious

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Challenge #02563-G006: Little, Quiet, Troublesome

There were three humans aboard this ship. As big as it was, and with the size of the crew, even with three they had their hands full! Still, it wasn't a bad job, pay was good and they saw some of the most beautifully unexplored worlds. Two of the humans were burly individuals, boisterous and active. During down time they always headed to one of the storage areas that had been converted to a game room to burn off steam playing racket-ball,

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Challenge #02562-G005: The Work Around

A disabled human ("invisible" disability) from a...less than understanding society, grown to adulthood and full of the painful little quirks and habits that one develops in order to survive that situation, encounters a member of the Galactic Alliance. A member of the Galactic Alliance who isn't sure what to do with a deathworlder who apologizes for displaying distress, and cries from joy when not berated for showing signs of pain when "there's nothing wrong" -- Anon Guest

They call me Human

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Challenge #02561-G004: Soft Protection

Cuddly-Pie, Uplift, the name said it all, designed as an accessory/servant. now acts as Companion,Escort, Shield for those humans needing a Buffer and Shield when moving about or interacting with life. The Shield works both ways. -- Anon Guest

Augment -- a non-cogniscent species given cusp-cogniscence at a genetic level before gestation and training after birth in order to be an engineered assistive animal, usually sterile and made for assisting one person.
Uplift -- a non-cogniscent species given post-birth retrogenetic

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Challenge #02560-G003: Human NO!

A: A Dyson sphere just millions of solar panels covering a star

B: But why do we need that much energy?

A: To make a black hole bomb

B: WAIT NO

https://youtu.be/ulCdoCfw-bY -- Anon Guest

Ever since Nikola Tesla accidentally invented radio[1], Humanity has been obsessed with transmitting energy without using some form of wire between points A and B. The instant they had the means, they switched to becoming obsessed with gathering as much energy as possible.

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Challenge #02556-G001: Tearful Appreciation

"Are you alright?" The same question they got lots of times when tears would fall down their cheeks. Of course, they understood the Galactics were not used to seeing a human crying when nothing was wrong, obviously. They were sitting with their friends watching a video that showed incredible sunrises and sunsets from various worlds with a background for these wonders being the sound of an orchestra increasing the richness of the experience. And, as always, they wiped their cheeks and said

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Challenge #02555-F365: It's So Relaxing

Oh, I can't really handle all the excitement and action in FPS, especially the PVP ones. I much prefer simulation games, like Frost Punk! You build your little town, and manage resources, and try not to let all your people freeze to death or starve or something. Nice, relaxing fun. -- Anon Guest

Humans love to play. Their play takes every form you could imagine and some that seem incredibly unlikely. Some play involves flinging themselves physically at obstacles, off obstacles, or

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Challenge #02554-F364: Learning to See

Just as there are xenophobes amongst the various races outside the Galactic Alliance, so, too, are there within. Even amongst races that are, normally, allies. They and their family, and many within their community, were such xenophobes. They chanted Earth First during the protests they ran to show their displeasure of alien races being allowed to visit their world. Some of the more radicalized ones even committed crimes to try to "prove their point". This group, however in the minority they were,

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Challenge #02553-F363: Here There Be Sock Puppets

An enemy deathworlder, a xenophobe, constantly making life hell for the havenworlders around them. A general, proud, fierce, having suffered many tortures and never once broke, always escaped. But now, they were being held by humans. Pain meant nothing to them. When asked about the movements of new weaponry, the answer was always a snark and the spitting or words "Do your worst, I'll never say a word, you'll have to kill me."

The humans bring in what they call the 3rd

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