Challenge #02986-H063: Surprising Gifts

They were a level 3.5 to level 4 deathworlder. Yet they wore a livesuit because they were quite small and looked almost like a humanoid jellyfish in appearance. Their world would be considered a 'gas planet' where none could land, but in a world where there is tonnes of organic matter, life would evolve. Not quite a gas giant as far as size and gravity, but not a small world. Yet the livesuit was not to protect them from the atmosphere of the station they had walked on to, it was to protect others from the stinging fronts that made up the majority of their body. -- DaniAndShali

They have a saying in the Alliance - assumptions will get you. The more common model of cogniscent follows the general rule of smaller Havenworlder, and bigger Deathworlder. Such is not always the case. It's always surprising when a small cogniscent unleashes a can of violence, or when a relative giant attempts to hide themselves from what they perceive as a menace. Then there's the matter of livesuits.

Some people wear livesuits to protect themselves. Some wear livesuits to protect others. It's never polite to ask which one was their reason. Some just decide to play it safe until they're in a guaranteed environment. Some unfortunate souls believe that livesuits are some kind of control-and-trace plot by shadowy figures and it's no surprise that they hardly go anywhere[1].

Livesuits only seem to be uniformly humanoid in shape. That's because one standard gravity is the most common area in which cogniscent life arises. Nevertheless, life finds its way. From phytoplankton in Venus' clouds to tardigrades hibernating inside comets, and cogniscents on the very edges of conceptual space. Cogniscents like the Zaang of Renkyn III.

Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi

Continue Reading

Prompts remaining: 51 Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!