Instant Story

Challenge #02969-H046: Don't Try to Understand it

Many birds on Earth are unaffected by capsacinoids in hot peppers (mammals are bothered, but mammal digestive systems destroy the seeds of the pepper plants, while avian digestive systems let the seeds pass through unharmed). May we see some avian sentients enjoying a nice ghost pepper and carolina reaper salad with a flavorful habenero sauce? Eye-watering fumes that could bother any nearby mammals are a bonus. -- Anon Guest

Pretty much everyone agrees that Humans are fairly weird. They're hairless apes possessing of peculiar Deathworlder logic based on skewed theology verifying greed as good, yet they also spread their pack-bonding far and wide and evolved strictly through co-operative behaviours. No Human is insular, but also every Human is unique.

No matter how often they seem to possess a hive mind.

As for what any given Human is willing to eat, avian-origin Alliance citizens are advised to warn Humans when capsaicins and pepperins are present in a foodstuff. Why? Well, the Humans call it 'baby tongue'. These Deathworlders have adapted to ingest things that evolved to repel mammals like themselves. They like the burn. Well. Some of them do. The ones with 'baby tongue' do not like the burn and can suffer if any is applied internally.

Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi

Prompts remaining: 53 Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!

Challenge #02968-H045: Exit the Vandals

Proof that no matter where you are or what age it is, human graffiti always stay the same -- Anon Guest

[AN: Link leads to some things found on Pompeii's walls. Most of it rude. It's not just Pompeii, but also there's a dick drawn on Hadrian's wall, and Nordic runes in a very high place in a cave that read, Gosh this is a long way up, or words to that effect. Humanity never changes.]

They had been excavating for months.

Challenge #02967-H044: Our Freedom or Theirs?

People are curious as to what happens to the prisoners at Greystone. They believe punishment and harsh time is the only way to reform. But those sent to Greystone never leave. Families of those sent there are wondering where their family members are. A crew comes to ask to do an interview with some of the inmates and show the families life inside the prison.

Just kinda curious what would happen if the outside world, especially the families of inmates, would do

Challenge #02966-H043: Non-crucial Failure State

In the early days, humans had just been allowed into the Alliance, but quite a few were still wary. These were very dangerous deathworlders. Sure they were smallish, depending on the species that worked with them, and somewhat squishy, but damn were they tenacious and dangerous! It was well known they were predators, too, that could, and would, eat pretty much anything, including quite a few things that were poisonous.

However, what the crew wasn't prepared for, was during dinner. The human

Challenge #02965-H042: Time in a Bottle

time loop -- Anon Guest

[AN: Link leads to a looping video featuring temporal paradox. Very clever editing]

"Drink to become... something... immortal," read Thygrun the Powerful. He didn't need to think, he popped the cork and raised it to his lips.

"Don't take it," warned Thygrun the Powerful, yelling at him from across the room. "You'll regret it forever!"

Thygrun had taken one sip already. "What? Are you meant to be me?"

"Yes! The potion doesn't create eternal life. It creates

Challenge #02964-H041: Deconstructed Battle

The day was a very boring day. The human just received a package of an old game but finely crafted made out of materials that are rare in their home-world, each piece have a Jewel that crowns the top. Excitingly they be called over a haven worlder that is a close friend of the human urging them to play. “You known I shouldn’t be surprised that many games contain some form of war or conflict” the haven worlder sighed. It been

Challenge #02963-H040: Stress Management Strategies

H - "I am... in a bad place right now. I will be ok when we can get back home and this calms down, don't worry. For right now though I might not experience the same reality that you do, and I need help staying... here."

A - "What do you need from me?"

H - "If you see me turn to look at something or listen to a sound, just say either Yes or No if you see/hear something there

Challenge #02962-H039: Art For All

A flashmob on a space station, please. Flash mob. Flash mob.

[AN: First link leads to a video in which Musicians keep turning up to join in playing Beethoven's 9th, or Ode to Joy. There's even a Chorus. Second video features a dance performance that becomes a proposal.]

Art has many facets. There's even a form of art that aims to have the viewer question, "What is art?" Of the performance artists, there are more many and varied types than one might

Challenge #02961-H038: Submitted For Your Approval...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0u4M6vppCI not all art is safe for all viewers. -- Anon Guest

[AN: Video link leads to the stage performance video of Shia LeBouff by Rob Cantor. Contains simulated, stylistic violence and references to same]

Media Flagging and Filtering is a never-ending job. What's "okay" for one culture is scandalously salacious for another. Even the face can be offensive if that face belongs to a certain gender[1]. There's a lot of churn in the "exposed

Challenge #02960-H037: So Not Fair

A ship with a mixed crew of deathworlder and havenworlder scientists, including a few humans, find a solar system that is a nearly a duplicate of what the Earth's solar system was like in the very beginning of the Jurassic period. The difference being, there were three inhabitable planets instead of only one. Where in the Earth's solar system, aka Sol, aka the Terran system, the planets Mars and Venus were uninhabitable, one being lifeless without an atmosphere and the other being

Challenge #02959-H036: Gods or Heroes

I’ve heard legends of that person

How he traveled the breadth of the land

Reducing all he touched to rubble

Revered by many I, too, revere him

Feared by many I, too, fear him

Now that person stands at my side

Now my friends are with me -- Anon Guest

[AN: Nonny - are you trying to get me into trouble? These are lyrics (translated) from Super Smash Brothers Brawl. A line or two is fine but the entire song? Please

Challenge #02958-H035: Not That Harmful

Aboard a station, a man is raising a small number of bees. Yes people are frightened, yes they complain to the management. Management sends security. The man explains how these bees, though more for the safety of the bees than the people around them are being kept in a special enclosure filled with growing plants, are not the kind that are able to sting. And shows how to make friends with stingless bees.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

There are many varieties of bees and there is

Challenge #02957-H034: A Wholly Owned Subsidiary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvANy49Kqhw -- Anon Guest

[AN: Nonny wanted to link to this particular song, but it was found in this playlist. Enjoy at your leisure]

If there was one upside to the situation, then Bo would never run out of things to do. There was always something that needed doing. Something that needed fixing. Something that needed sweat and muscle and time to do. The downside being that Bo had swapped life in one crapsack situation, for

Challenge #02956-H033: And That's When I Snapped

A: "How often are you supposed to sharpen knives? Because you're always sharpening a knife when I come into the kitchen..."

B: "But...they have chips in them?"

C: "Is B sharpening knives? Good!"

A: "Every DAY??"

B: "They're cheap. They keep chipping when they get used..."

C: "I USE them every day!" -- Anon Guest

Many things are not common knowledge. This is why so many "retirement restaurants" fail inside the first year. The idea has merit, and it seems easy,

Challenge #02955-H032: We, the Undersigned...

The Dereggers gave up their trash planet, a toxic hell-hole that would've cost them a fortune to clean up. They signed an iron-clad contract that had every single i dotted and t crossed. Not so much as a gnat-sized loophole anywhere. And it was signed by their leaders and several leaders from the Galactic Alliance as witnesses, and him, of course.

He took all that was there and made enough time to make himself an insanely wealthy man. Wealth he then turned

Menu

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #02969-H046: Don't Try to Understand it

Challenge #02968-H045: Exit the Vandals

Challenge #02967-H044: Our Freedom or Theirs?

Challenge #02966-H043: Non-crucial Failure State

Challenge #02965-H042: Time in a Bottle

Challenge #02964-H041: Deconstructed Battle

Challenge #02963-H040: Stress Management Strategies

Challenge #02962-H039: Art For All

Challenge #02961-H038: Submitted For Your Approval...

Challenge #02960-H037: So Not Fair

Challenge #02959-H036: Gods or Heroes

Challenge #02958-H035: Not That Harmful

Challenge #02957-H034: A Wholly Owned Subsidiary

Challenge #02956-H033: And That's When I Snapped

Challenge #02955-H032: We, the Undersigned...