Instant Story

It took a surprisingly long time for the other cogniscients to realise how much /they/ scared the humans too.

Of course, some got the message more quickly than others

Lo-grav worlds are rarer than high-grav ones. For reasons that become quickly obvious the more one learns of physics and biology.

When low-gravity life evolves, it happens in artificial environments.

Which are also targets for scavengers.

The spider-people of H'nuf'ruf learned of humans through such expeditions. They never saw humans as dangerous, and became their chief advocate for the species to join the Galactic Alliance.

It took them centuries to learn that humans were, by and large, terrified of them.

All that time, the H'nuf'ruf thought that screaming was a human greeting ritual.

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Everything was going swimmingly until someone pulled out a disco ball.

“The music’s nice and all, but there’s somethin’ missin’.”

“By now, I dare not ask,” deadpanned Rael. “Just accept that whatever it is is most definitely a bad idea and leave things alone for a change.”

“Aaaahh… What sort'a party would it be wi'out a disco ball?”

*

The answer to that question, especially with Meyahndans sharing

K'iiv and Del are adorable, how did they meet/begin their relationship?

K'iiv preened his plumage nervously. He hated meeting new people. All the good advice for conquering social anxiety never, ever worked. It was either completely wrong for the situation or just… completely wrong.

Nevertheless, he attempted to use them anyway.

Going into a situation without a plan was infinitely less preferable than going in with a bad one.

Today’s plan was, picture the stranger without their feathers

Because you can’t say Peter Lorre and not get my attention.  Something to do with an Uplifted pug or pugs.  Possibly freaking everyone out with their good intentions couched in their minion-ish voices. – weirdlet

(#00422 - A047)

Buddy, Igor knew, was not the best dog for the negotiations table. Buddy would literally say ‘yes’ to anything, provided someone was scratching his ear.

Igor… tried.

He had Buddy fitted up with the Diminished Responsibility locator bracelets, of

If no-one from the future comes back to stop you, is it really that bad an idea?

“Yes it is,” said Rael, gently shoving Ambassador Shayde onwards. “Especially when time travel is a theoretical impossibility trapped in the realms of science fiction.”

“They said tha’ about goin’ tae the moon. Now look at it.”

“That’s not the point and you know it.”

“Ach, why’d ye have tae

It turned out the galactic standard for things that screw onto other things was the opposite direction to the international Earth standard.

“What the– this screw isn’t turning.”

“It’s an old-Earth vessel.”

“Yeah? So?”

“They have it backwards. Counter-clockwise loosens their screws.”

Sigh. “Typical human insanity. How hard is it to learn ‘Counter time, fix it fine’?”

“Given the trouble they keep giving us