Instant Story

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #02580-G023: Just One

Human Bear was sitting on the ramp of his Bodge Job repairing a few new holes on one of the arms of his Live Suit courtesy of a particularly aggressive Predator on the planet they just left. When one of the Crew the creature thought looked like a tasty meal walked into the hanger to express this thanks, Stopped in his tracks at a human not sealed in his Protective Suit. He also noticed a very large very ugly looking scar that covered most of his upper Back.

Excitedly the Afro'ad asked about the Scar thinking he would get to hear another one of Human Bear's Big Adventures. To his surprise the signature smile disappeared and a face the little creature had never seen before took its place.

"Some of my Stories don't have Happy Endings, Little-one." He said "You sure you want to hear it?" -- Anon Guest

[AN: Harkens back to this thing ]

It's not always the Deathworlders you gotta keep an eye on, Bear began, meditatively twiddling with his patched and repaired livesuit. Hell, even the frailest Havenworlders can pack the right kind'a punch if they have strategy. Not every planet has compatible enzymes and all. People like me? We go around thinking we're indestructible.

No, it wasn't Havenworlders like you. These were just... regular-ass citizens. Like anyone else in the Alliance. It was a disaster. Not a war. It was... it was an accident. Bear closed his eyes, as if fortifying himself against the muggers waiting in Memory Lane. Caught everyone by surprise. It was supposed to be a holiday.

I don't think anyone knew the place was tectonically active. One of those little fly-by-night construction places. Instant resort, just add visitors, you know? Looks pretty, everything's... well... functional. If nothing bad happens, nothing worse happens. They're more all over the place than you might think. Ten minute scan versus in-depth analysis, you know? It's legal, still, but it's getting less legal, thank the Powers.

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Challenge #02579-G022: What the Feces?

You’re shit is an insult, you’re the shit is a complement. You’re not shit is a reassurance, and fuck this shit is not related to the previous phrases. -- Anon Guest

Humans don't have to be confusing, but they will frequently do it anyway. Their idioms, axioms, and expressions are many, varied, and assumed to be understood by everyone. This can hold true for some Human words, as well. Enormous papers have been written on the versatility of some

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Challenge #02578-G021: Spoil Them Good

Love me as an equal, and I will pay you back. Exist while I love you SO MUCH, and I will burn entire star systems for your sake. (humans and pets) -- Anon Guest

Humans will pack-bond with anything, though the continually most mind-boggling example of this is Humans and inanimate objects. Second in that esteemed list is the non-cogniscent animals that Humans elect to share their space with and how intensely those creatures are spoiled.

The Humans themselves will put up

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Challenge #02577-G020: Calling All Rules Lawyers

They wanted to keep the masses obedient. They wanted to keep the people miserable. They didn't want them to learn to think for themselves. They wanted the people to be living parts for their industrial complex. Then role play gaming came in. When power outages would occur, to "protect nature" of course, gaming systems would be useless. They forbade most board games for being "damaging to young minds" and the high ground of "wanting to stop gambling". But this new game... it

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Challenge #02576-G019: The Test

The researcher's eyes widened suddenly, as the battered body on the table began to slowly smile, fingers flexing and eyes turning towards the now-trembling man as the realization struck him like a punch to the gut...

"Oh... Oh no... Oh God no... You... you've been letting us do this to you. The experiments, the punishments, all of it. You wanted us to... to test you. Because if we know the extent of what you can do... ...so do you." -- Anon Guest

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Challenge #02575-G018: Gently, Gently

Two children have been good friends since the time they were in the same daycare together. They grew up as neighbors and even go to a mixed school. One child is a havenworlder, one child is a human. The human child is having a birthday party and has invited their best friend to the party. The parents need to have a long talk so it is fun and safe for all. -- Anon Guest

When you grow up with something, that's what

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Challenge #02574-G017: Art Supplies of Mass Destruction

A havenworlder has a human as a godparent and they love to teach there godchild stuff like survival tips, human pop culture and other things the child's parents would rather them not know. -- Cheshire

Having a godparent, goodparent, or other form of honorary family member is such a Deathworlder concept. Grown Deathworlders are aware of the fragile nature of mortality and have culturally instituted the concept of spare parental figures. This comes in handy for Havenworlders who are, culturally speaking, just

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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

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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 #02571-G014: Seeing to Need

They were 10 years old when the incident happened. Hiding in the woods to try to escape the abuse they endured in the orphanage, they'd come across an unusual sight. Half-buried in the ground was .... something. They didn't know what it was, exactly, but the three outside the object sounded distressed. They went to the three and found them to be not much taller than they were and they were like very large birds. The problem had been the ship, for that

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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 #02569-G012: To Join the Common Cause

We have to actively fight for our lives, perhaps our very existence. Thousands of people are killed daily by these beings. So what fraction of our government tries to actively prevent us from fighting back until they can find a way to profit from it? -- Bard2DBone

When they came, they came in promises. They came with generosity. They came with shiny treasures. They especially came with more profits for those already wealthy. They came with bright lights and glittering technology and

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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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