Just Add Prompt

A 4874-post collection

Challenge #00515 - A140: Problematic Material

Video Prompt!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WgXN0kO1JEA

The music, such as it was, was a collection of intersecting beats. The man in the white suit danced in interesting ways.

He wore a white suit with black tie and gloves.

And the interesting thing about the otherwise ordinary room was the grass floor.

Shayde sat pondering the video as it played out. And Rael stood pondering Shayde.

“So what is it?” Rael said.

“It’s art. Near as I can figure, it’s a complete piece… But I cannae figure out where it’s meant tae fit.”

Rael watched some more. “It’s art. Does it have to fit?”

“Kinda me job tae put th’ pieces together, ye ken.”

“And the visual cues aren’t helping.”

“Na. It’s no as if they got the original tape or nothin’.”

Rael coughed. “It’s… digital. I don’t think there was such a thing as original media storage.”

Shayde pondered this revelation. “Eee, tha’ just makes it trickier…”

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Challenge #00514 - A139: One Dank Morning in the Dire Halls of MegaGlobocorp, West Esterly

“Should you choose to accept it, your mission - which you are required to accept or you’re fired - is…”

Working as a faceless minion in MegaGlobocorp was never fun. It was a dangerous lottery before one even made it to the labyrinthine spread of the offices. As unskilled labor, Dar had the marvellous advantage of having twenty bosses to tell her when she messed up. And a random number generator assigned her at random, to one of the

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Challenge #00513 - A138: Poor Unfortunate Souls

In your universe, how do the - as far as I can tell - legal AIs feel about Uplifts being illegal? Considering you could make an argument that they are equally people, and might even have some of the same theory applied to them, in creating/augmenting a consciousness, just applied to silicon or grey jelly.

Especially considering that at least some of the arguments I can imagine being levied against Uplifts could equally be levied against AIs. – RecklessPrudence

Creating life

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Challenge 00512 - A137: Gengineer of Note

Uplifting, as opposed to Augmenting, is illegal in your universe, right? Presumably for how easily both the process and the products of said process can be abused, along with the sad examples of such.

But I refuse to believe that such a transformative technology with so many pitfalls along the way was developed solely for money. Sure, there had to be at least the potential for profit, otherwise the people capable of doing it would never have had the resources to do

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Challenge #00511 - A136: Biochemical Imbalance

That wonderful feeling when you’re on just insufficient meds, or high on fatigue toxins, or had two hour’s sleep per night, max for the last week. After you’ve gone through the feeling-horrible portion, when you’re in the feeling great, can do anything, everything is so clear and sharp and makes so much sense

And then, when you’ve had sufficient sleep, rest, or meds…

How the world actually is, and how you’ve been behaving. – RecklessPrudence

Charlie

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Challenge #00510 - A135: The Wolf's Just a Puppy

Also about domesticated animals.

Almost every domesticated species, whether predator or prey, has been a social animal, with an internal hierarchy. Humans domesticated them by inserting ourselves at the top of the various hierarchies, and doing so consistently for generations, until the species is considered domesticated.
This can lead to absurd scenarios such as a human chastising a predator-species that was behaving inappropriately, one that masses more than they do, with a jaw that could shatter their bones easily, can outrun them

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Challenge #00509 - A134: Domesticated Predators

On “Humans are crazy” in general and pets in particular.

Humanity’s domesticated species are, for the most part, herbivores, right? So what possessed us to decide that the animals we let into our homes would largely be carnivores? Now, imagine a species where that is not true.

“AH! Look out! That predator is near your young!”

“Oh, that’s just Missy, she’s harmless.”

„,And then just when they’ve adjusted to that, they see why even

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A study in contrasts

A guy who is nice, as opposed to a “nice guy” – RecklessPrudence

(#00507 - A132)

Sid’s first question, whenever he encountered someone who was having trouble was, “Would you like some help?”

It was a good question, simply because some people were only experiencing temporary difficulties and tended to get angry when other folks just barged in.

And there were other questions that came first. Like, “Is this guy bothering you?” whenever he saw a

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Origami Denseness

Wow. This isn’t fractal denseness, it’s origami denseness. It’s like a beautiful work of art that you can unfold to make it seem even more dense. – RecklessPrudence

[AN: Prompt edited to be less offensive - I hope]

(#00506 - A131)

“Let me get this straight,” said Security Officer Trel. “Someone actually told you that they’d go out with you if you managed to clean… The Glunk.”

“Damn straight. Fine ass

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Fractal Wrongness

You are not just wrong. You are wrong at every conceivable level of resolution. Zooming in on any part of your worldview finds beliefs exactly as wrong as your entire worldview. – RecklessPrudence

(#00505 - A130)

“So?” said the wilfully ignorant specimen from Greater Deregulation (Upper West). “That don’t mean we can’t have a good time. All you gotta do, honey, is shut up, put out, and pretend to enjoy it.”

Shayde turned a

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Challenge #00504 - A129: Mr Stark in a Nutshell

‘Why? We’re the Good Guys, aren’t we?’
'Yes, but that rather hinges on doing certain things and not doing others, sir’, – RecklessPrudence

Tony made a face at JARVIS’ snide comment. “Urh. Fine. I get it. The heroic thing to do, yadda yadda yadda. Steve’s been a bad influence on you, admit it.”

“On the contrary. I rather think Steve has been a good influence. On the both of

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Challenge #00503 - A128: Percussive Maintenance

“Wow, how’d you get it to work?”
“I ran a Physical Impulse Mechanical Stress Routine”
“Huh?”
“I kicked it.”
“Ahh.” – RecklessPrudence

“And you’re charging me three Minutes for kicking it?”

Atole the JOAT tidied imaginary dust off her JOAT coat. “Fees and charges, friend. Two Seconds for the kick, and two Minutes, fifty-eight for the knowledge of where to kick it.”

Telos grumbled, but

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Stolen shamelessly from XKCD

The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there’s no good reason to go into space—each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision. – RecklessPrudence

(#00502 - A127)

The Ch'debrithett did not know how lucky they were when the aliens came. They were a relatively quiet civilisation that worked to maintain a balance after years of nigh-catastrophic extinction-for-profit. Or, as it has become known in

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Challenge #00501 - A126: Sing-Along

Bitzer having a happy day and warbling through it.  Because sometimes it only matters if the music feels right for you.

Bitzer watched the clock as the second hand ticked closer and closer to The Time.

Ten. Nine. Eight.

Extract the vinyl EP, a souvenir from Walter Robotics and her time there, carefully from its sleeve.

The record player was already warmed up and set to her preferred levels.

Seven. Six. Five.

Record on the spindle. Speed set to 45. Needle free

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Challenge #00500 - A125: Further Proof, if Any Were Really Needed

Prompt: Something involving the gympie gympie tree.

Because that is one scary tree.

[AN: Slightly scarier is the Manchineel, aka The Tree That Hates You. It’s native to Florida, possibly by cosmic accident. But if you read up on the Gympie Gympie, it’s a close call.]

Every living planet in the known universe has an island or a continent like Australia. Except for N'Oz (Originally, New Australia) which is almost all like Australia, except for one small island/

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