InterNutter

Indie writer seeks audience with an audience. Paying customers welcome. [pronouns: ze/hir] Daily free stories happen because it is an excellent counter to Writers' Block.

Burpengary East http://www.cmweller.com 12595 posts

Challenge #02681-G124: Centuries of Facepalming

You hear of them all the time, seeing them screaming on the interwebs, doing podcasts, videos, protesting when new vaccines show up. When the immunoflu was invented, they screamed even louder. That is when the "pure lifers" started. The ones who kept themselves in the equivalent of "bubbles" to avoid them, and their children, ever catching the immunoflu. A large number of them went to a planet to settle in and live. The planet was, if not for the terraformed domes, uninhabitable. But inside the domed cities, it was very pleasant. Until that one visitor. They had kept themselves isolated for four generations, then that one visitor came, a man from the Alliance. They'd never let anyone into the dome before without the person in question, even tourists, being forced to wear hazmat suits to make sure that nothing the person carrying ever got in, but accidents always happen, eventually.

He was in a crowded mall, everyone knew it was an accident. But that didn't help how angry the people were. He was sitting, reading a map, he'd been lost. Several teenagers were roughhousing when one was shoved into him and he crashed backward into a crystalized statue. The hazmat suit already had some unseen potential flaws, was badly damaged. The immunoflu he carried got out into the community. This was a "Pure Life" society.. and now they were having to deal with being immunized whether they wanted to be or not.

(notation - In a nutshell a society that eschews all vaccinations even ones from the immunoflu, like real life modern day antivaxxers, build their own society. They're cut off from the biome of the rest of the galaxy, and then.. there's an accident.) -- DaniandShali

Disasters don't have to be instant. The worst of them happen in slow motion. To the tune of For Want of a Nail, a nation, a polity, an identity, or a culture can die. Dependant on the culture, this can be beneficial to those who formerly held it dear.

For want of immunity, lives were lost... Once upon a time, there was disease. Smallpox, measles, mumps... diseases that could maim. Diseases that could kill. Some people hit on the idea of deliberately infecting children with a weaker disease so that there wouldn't catch the more menacing one. They named it after the animal that the weaker disease came from. Vaca meaning cow, for the cowpox that forestalled the attacks of smallpox.

One would expect that such a breakthrough would be welcomed with open arms and cheering in the streets. No such luck. There was widespread panic, misunderstanding, and fear of the new process. Over the intervening years, very little changed. For every new intervention, there was an equally opposing reaction. Confusion and fear abounded. Someone, somewhere, drew a correlation between these vaccines and the rise in diagnoses of autism. Many people feared a mental disorder more than they feared the maiming and killing diseases that the vaccines prevented.

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I have the fraids...

Got myself some fresh hot anxiety, directly from the oven of my gremlin brain. I don't even know why it's spiking NOW, but it's where I am and flakk this to heck and gone.

The focus on powering the economy in literally every nation is going to lead to more deaths and I'm just waiting for the hammer to fall. Scotty from Marketing is planning to cut Jobkeeper as soon as all the schools re-open because of course he is. This is

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Challenge #02680-G123: Small, Cute, and Terrifying

Doctor: Human, you need to take it easy. Rest. Don't do anything strenuous for the next week.

Human: Alright, I'll stay at home and watch the kids.

Doctor: From what I know of human young, that is strenuous. -- Escla

[AN: Pffffft...]

The Humans had a saying for everything. Some have been adjusted slightly to be more inclusive, but the relevant one in this time and space was, No being is an island. Perhaps, with an added dash of, It takes a

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The Clusterfuck Continueth

Just as they're easing restrictions, we have a cluster of new cases and who would have predicted this? Oh, wait. Literally everyone who knows how viruses work. Good job.

The conspiracy theorists have more fuel for their fire because a lab in Wuhan allegedly shut down due to some mishap. This could be: (a) a direct result of funding loss because The Muppet doesn't believe in science, (b) actual protocol related to a suit puncture or spillage or something of the ilk

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Challenge #02679-G122: Wonder No More

Have you ever walk past someone and wonder what is going on inside their head -- Anon Guest

[AN: Link to a Rickroll has been expunged. Thanks Nonny. Be proud. You got me.]

Every now and again, some species, somewhere, thinks it would be cool to be telepathic. The Melil, natural telepaths, do attempt to stop others from doing this to themselves because it really, really isn't a good idea.

Those without natural telepathy have no reason to filter their random thoughts.

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Stupid is infectious

In sympathy with the idiots with guns protesting lockdowns, over in the US, some idiots with cardboard signs tried protesting the lockdowns in Victoria. All of those people from Victoria are enjoying a no-frills lockdown care of the nation's prisons.

Next thing you know, they'll be drinking bleach to try and cure themselves. PSA - don't drink bleach or you will die.

The Muppet's having a big concern because the plague has hit his fortress of ego former "safe space" and he's

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Challenge #02678-G121: The Terrors of Deathworlds

A researcher had been extremely curious and wanted to know why humans were, well, the way they were. They poured over notes, histories, field reports, everything they could get their hands on. The humans that volunteered for experiments were always told "You can call it quits at any time." And, after a while, the humans always let him know when they'd had enough. To which he'd thank them, pay them and let them know his immense gratitude for their hard work, and

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Sunday (Early) Morning

This Friday past, I heard something that I haven't heard for two months. It gave me chills when I realised why it hadn't happened, either.

I heard the neighbourhood dogs having a bark-off. Why they hadn't barked inside of two months was because their people were home and they weren't bored out of their fluffy little minds.

So the people weren't home any more, and hark... the dogs do bark.

I'm going to be hearing that until the next wave hits and

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Challenge #02677-G120: A Mind of Their Own

The war rages, bodies fell left and right, were they man or monster? They do not know, for the the line that separated them blurred centuries ago. -- Anon Guest

Someone, somewhere, is re-inventing the Enlisted Man again. When will they learn, huh? -- Elsyn Flaard comedy routine.

Some creatures, the unethical gengineers argue, are made for battle. With the right tweaks, they could become the most formidable fighting force in Alliance space. Then, they could make the majority decisions, and on

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A taste of schadenfreude

The Muppet has been in close vicinity to someone who tested positive to the plague. It's in the White House, and of course all residents and staff are tested daily whilst the rest of the nation can't get anywhere near a test. This man is making it incredibly difficult to avoid crowing in joy at his inevitable downfall.

Of fucking course the extremely annoying orange is refusing to wear a mask or stop getting close to people. Yikes. Shades of Typhoid Mary

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Challenge #02676-G119: Hot, Brown, and Horrifying

There are many unspoken laws across the galaxy. Don’t provoke a calm man. Fear the wrath of a protective mother. Don’t take any of Human Girth's drinks. Ok maybe not that the last one but it only applies to one ship. -- Anon Guest

Welcome aboard the Poke And Run, do not accept beverages from the Ship's Human. You do not want to know why. Even though we know you'll say you do. The usual rules of space travel apply:

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I'm having a frighten

We went out for some hardware, yesterday and... oh my glob. There were more people than I've seen in any one place for a month or more. Every single one of them was bare faced and only nodding at social distancing when reminded to.

This is how following waves happen. This is what's going to stretch this plague out for most of this year, if not the rest of it and some of the next one. I feel like my entire life

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Challenge #02675-G118: The Bad Old Ways

A human got tired of the crew saying that humans are insane, so they decide to show their crew what true human insanity looks like by taking them on a field trip to the nearby insane asylum. (Bonus points if Said asylum happens to be Arkham Asylum.) -- Cheshire

[AN: Punishing the mentally disabled for being mentally disabled is not the best way to deal with that sort of thing. Besides, insanity is a matter of perspective, as I keep stating in

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Some Fun Now

Miss Chaos is the only one staying home to prevent the spread of the plague. I might send her back to school as of next week, but this really requires a consult with Beloved and an honest discussion of the risks. Chaos can't take her phone with her and therefore can't use the alleged protection of the extant Covid tracking apps.

YAY.

Our most vulnerable to infection and spread [with bonus points for being inclined to be asymptomatic] can't use the one

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Challenge #02674-G117: Planet Pet-it

Whole planets dedicated to humans need to touch things. They range from your typical cat cafe walking with elephants, to even swimming with sharks. And that's just the animals from earth! Each plant has a different variety of species to accommodate any human, Making them a great alternative for humans who keep touching the unknown animals on equally unknown planets. -- Anon Guest

Humans look with their hands. This is a known, if confusing fact. Humans have reasonably reliable senses that use

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