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Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #02023-E199: Home-Going

What if the reason aliens are uniform across their world is because every species has a deep, intrinsic connection with their home planet. So colonising/terraforming a new planet is considered a form of disownment, as it breaks the connection with your home world. Humans connection is much weaker than most other species, but it allows us to still see humans across the galaxy as HUMANS rather than traitors, or a different "breed" of humanity. -- Sarah

[AN: Obviously, this can't happen in my pet universe. Slight pause whilst I build a new one...]

The greater expanse of civilised space is full to the brim with statistical outliers. Those who chose to forsake their home planet, their mother orb, to make a new place somewhere far from where they began. Except for the Humans.

They had no boundary to the concept of 'home'. They could take up temporary residence in cookie-cutter living quarters and, within an astonishingly short amount of time, they would be calling it 'home'. They could call anywhere they hung their head-garments home. And they had an unending curiosity surrounding the concept of 'next'.

They were fast, and tough, and endlessly adaptable. Each new world was merely a place full of stuff they could use. And they used resources relentlessly. Always looking forward. Rarely looking around themselves at what they were doing now. They were everywhere and they were baffling.

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Challenge #02022-E198: May They Pass You By

Can we have some more adventures with the "minor horsemen of the Apocollapse". Namely Panic, Screaming, Chaos and Flailing. -- Knitnan

There's many minor horsepersons of the Apocollapse. And seemingly infinite combinations of just four of them. Some of them can even get their collective shit together enough to ride. But then again, they never really ride anywhere big.

"We're going to be LATE!" Panic shrieked.

Screaming was running around their shared flat making a loud noise. That was what Screaming did

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Challenge #02021-E197: Volatile Situation

“Hold on. YOUR PLANET RAINS WHAT?!!?!”

“Umm... water?”

“Water. The highly corrosive, extremely reactive liquid.”

“I mean, yeah. But...”

“HOLD ON. WHY IS THE WATER ACIDIC? IS YOUR PLANET TRYING TO KILL YOU??!?”

“Oh that? It’s fine. Just the carbon dioxide in the air making it slightly acidic.”

“Define ‘slightly’.”

“Umm... ph5 ish? So about x100 more concentrated than pure water? It’s honestly fine, if you think this is bad, you haven’t seen the ACTUAL acid rain on earth.

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Challenge #02020-E196: Strange Bedfellows

Humanity as a whole is known as many things to many different species. Yes, while they are terrifying deathworlders more than capable of destroying everyone and everything, they’ve always been willing to lend a helping hand to all those who ask, and even those who don’t. So was it really that big a surprise when, after a powerful warmongering race declared war on humanity that half the universe flocked to humanity’s aid? -- Anon Guest

For every bully, there

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Challenge #02019-E195: Lost and Found in Space

Wait, what happens to the poor guy in space in “Show Me the Way...”???

Does he find his way home or does he make space into his new home? I’m so curious now. -- Anon Guest

[AN: The prompt throws back to this story for those who don't want to go on an archive crawl]

Personal journal: Stardate... I don't even know by now. Everyone has a different way of counting and the standard year is something I can't even figure

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Challenge #02018-E194: After Math

And then she spoke. She was xir’s friend, xir’s confidant, xir’s companion through thick and thin. She was the one xir trusted above anyone else. But she is also dangerous, deadly, and vicious; a deathworlder before all else, a human at heart. Xir will never forget those three words for as long as xir lives:

“Actually, I can.” -- Anon Guest

[AN: I'm going to take your word on the conjugation of this pronoun, Nonny. I can only handle

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Challenge #02017-E193: Like a Boss

Adrenaline is a well known (and banned due to its effectiveness/danger) military combat drug.

What happens when aliens find out that human bodies produce it naturally when under stress or danger? -- Anon Guest

The V'rithi had known Human Jak as a 'team mom', constantly fretting over their collective wellbeing. Making sure they had rodesnax[1] and clothing that would protect them from the elements. Human Jak was constantly gentle and kind, and -to use a Human phrase- wouldn't hurt a

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Challenge #02016-E192: Minder's Manners

“Why not?” Is probably one of the most dangerous questions in a humans repertoire, ESPECIALLY when followed by the response “Because fuck you that’s why.” -- Anon Guest

Humans are a contrary bunch. Obstinate. Stubborn. Determined. Tenacious. And most definitely vexatious. They ask questions. The second most-annoying question in the Human repertoire is, "Why?" But number one on the list is, "Why not?"

"Because I don't want you to," is not a sufficient answer. Humans much prefer reasons that make logical

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Challenge #02015-E191: Party Time on No-Longer-Tranquil VII

On the wall was posted the human regiment’s code of conduct/safety instructions:

  1. Do not subtract from the population.

  2. Do not add to the population (looking at you Jared).

  3. Do not end up in the hospital, the news, or in jail.

  4. If you do end up in jail, establish dominance quickly. -- Anon Guest

It was a set of rules above the airlock door. Entitled, When Visiting. And could be summarised as, "No killin', no thrillin', just chillin'." Which every squad

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Challenge #02014-E190: We All Fail Sometimes

How do aliens react to sayings such as “to err is human”, “it’s fine, you’re only human” and multitude of others like them? -- Only Human

[AN: I fixed that first saying there. I've never heard it the other way around]

It happened a lot, whenever a non-human was talking to a Human about a survived mistake. "We're only human," the Human would say. And then their brain would catch up with what their mouths had said and they'd amend,

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Challenge #02013-E189: Order in Court

Not mine, but by randomacts13.

“Humans survived the volatile early years of their species rise through community-bonding. They put the needs of a group of individuals over all else; hunting as a group, eating as a group, raising families as a group, and sometimes dying as a group. This tendency to form strong bonds means that while a human’s signed contract can always be trusted. It also means that a human cannot be trusted to not rip that contract up and

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Challenge #02012-E188: Human Inhumanity

Spies are sent to earth, disguised as historians, to find earth’s weaknesses and strengths. Know thy enemy and all that, but they who know the past control the future.

To see what these people have done to each other... They are horrified at what they find. -- Anon Guest

So far, Terran colonies were the only civilisations interested in any kind of negotiations with Earth. And even then, those negotiations were lawsuits. Some of the bolder civilisations were starting to wonder

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Challenge #02011-E187: Wrecked

Seeing as humans as tasked with mainly with protecting and defending a ship, regardless of their occupation and other roles they serve, how do the humans and their crew react when their ship is attacked? And if (when?) they fail?

How do humans cope with loss and failure when their more squishy Havenworlder friends need comforting the most? -- Anon Guest

The Sylph had learned what the Human phrase, "You go ahead, I'll catch up," really meant. And had had to use

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Challenge #02010-E186: Steep Learning Curve on the Explorer Seventeen

There’s always talk of how humans pack bond to everyone and everything. But that sort of connection, especially with sentiments, needs to be mutual. So how do humans cope with being the only human on a ship? With loneliness?

Who supports the one who’s supposed to do all the supporting? -- Anon Guest.

"We are here because something is happening to the Ship's Human. Grox? You are the one who's been cataloguing symptoms."

"I'm the assigned envoy. I have to

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Challenge #02009-E185: Barbarian Benevolence

What happened to the human dying the storm in “Challenge #01981-E157: One Educational Day on a Strange New World”? How did their relationship change after? Please write more of this story! It’s so fascinating! -- Anon Guest

[AN: Callback to this one for those who don't want to go hunting]

Stern mum Human Shaz was a fierce guardian. Horx understood that, now. The mother with one chick would protect it from even the mildest of potential hazards. And since Human Shaz's

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