Amalgam Station

Didn't We Already Fix That?!

A recurrence.

(#00240)

“Hey, check this out,” the fellow queuer passed over a pamphlet.

It was the immunoflu update, naming the diseases that the adjusted virus would protect the infected from.

A pointing finger indicated the anomaly. “What the heck is measles?”

“I know, right? That’s like… some weird human name or something.”

“Yes, but viruses have taxonomic names,” she argued. “For something to have a common name, it has to be around for hundreds of years. That just doesn’t happen any more.”

At which point, debate sprung up amongst her neighbouring queuers.

“I heard there was an anti-immuno deep-time colony. The viruses mutated and bred into this super-virus.”

“I heard it was just a regular deep-time colony from before they made the old viruses extinct.”

“I heard it was a string-runner? Trying to make a weapon? It killed them, of course.”

“I heard someone dropped through a space-time anomaly and skipped five hundred years.”

They all stared at the last speculator.

“Like that could possibly happen,” she scoffed.

[Muse food remaining: 19 (fic war prompts, 0). Submit a prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!]

Challenge #00239: Elemental, my dear...

Following someone around wearing a deerstalker and peering through a magnifying glass, whilst deducing things. With someone named Sherlock around, it was too good an opportunity to pass up. Bonus points for an exasperated Watson getting dragged along.

Eridite Watson passed from transitory population zones to residential in a cloud of chemicals. She dutifully breathed in the immunoflu, after breathing out her own local germs for Medical to catalogue as harmless. All before she put her clothes back on.

At least they

Challenge #00228: Ancient Terran Tradition

TOGA TIME!

Of course it happened during Silly Season, the quasi-annual event where all humans just spontaneously went more crazy than normal. Or what passed for normal amongst humans.

Rael, of course, expected some blame. Somehow, being attached as chief translator to a being like Shayde on a strictly working basis meant that he was also capable of controlling her actions.

Sherlock, at least, understood that someone like Shayde was not in the least bit controllable and should have been registered as

Challenge #00227: On the Disposal of Sex Aids

“I don’t know why you thought this was such a good idea!”

They sat in Hwell’s personal space like the ancient mariner’s albatross. Everywhere they went, everyone knew what they were for. And renting a kitchen to experiment was not in his budget.

He managed to sell a few, anyway. Mostly for their original purpose by shy creatures who spoke in low voices and urgently shoved money in his hands before running away with

Challenge #00205: Letter and Spirit of the Law

I found a line worthy of one of yours in a fanfic, and just had to submit it.

“That’s one of the most… creative interpretations of regulations I’ve heard since one of my old chief engineers got caught with a feather boa, a hog-monkey, and six dancing girls.”

- Embers, Vathara (highly recommended, but long and involving AtLA fic)

Hwell woke up to a face full of orange plastic and his own drool. The light

Challenge #00201: A Kiss of Home

“ How long has it been since I’ve stood in the rain? ”

Lyr could only predict that the individual who called herself Shayde would ‘bring trouble’ if they let her out of her isolated environment. However, since the genetechs had concocted and released a super immunoflu that once again vaccinated known populations against extinct diseases like measles, they had increasingly less reasons to keep her there.

Humans were considered insane by the larger populations of the galactic

Challenge #00200: You're in Good Hands With Mawlitt-Badlii

“We’re very particular about how it should be handled. Do you understand that?”

“Of course we understand,” said the human. “We’re a cargo company that takes anything, anywhere, anytime, and we always follow instructions.”

“Yes,” said T'griis. “But the phonetic pronunciation of your company name…”

The human grinned in a way that clearly pronounced that they didn’t want to grin at all. “We’

Challenge #00199: Spiritus in Machina

Lives and souls to buy, sell or trade

[Trigger warning: Most of the story that takes place occurs on one of the Greater Deregulations where women are property]

When Mary woke, she knew she wasn’t Mary any more. The strange feeling of duality that had accompanied every update so far was not there, just an echoing sensation of emptiness.

It was a peculiar thing to wake up and realize that you must have died sometime after your last save.

The

Challenge #00198: Everyday Miracles

Ok hope I am doing this right!

The universe and all the wonders it has to offer

[AN: Yes, you are]

There’s always one. The long-term tourist or peripatetic individual who never lost their sense of wonder. You could always pick them out of the crowd.

They looked around.

Everyone else stared down or straight ahead, lost in the haze of self-delusion that every spaceport was the same and nothing ever changed.

This one had everything in a backpack and

Challenge #00194: Miss Tiggy

How did a hedgehog even get on a space station?

“Hey, it’s me. Where can I get feeder crickets at this time o’ night?”

Rael should have guessed, then, that something was awry. Even for a well-traveled human of her era, Shayde was not overly adventurous when it came to foodstuffs. Insectivorism was definitely not, as she put it, ‘her bag’.

He checked his chrono. “There’s a night market three levels under

Challenge #00193: Impossible Aftermath

Well, It all started when X fell out of a tree…

He should have known. Having precogs amongst his staff was a matter of course. Every last one of them, including the mad human Lyr Marken, had warned him.

Don’t host an Ambassadorial Meet when Silly Season is due.

Maybe it was because Lyr had warned him first. Maybe it was lingering speciesism on his part -and he would have to work on getting rid of it- that made

Writing Prompts, since the actual Writing Prompts thing, I can't figure where to enter my name and email address (seriously, I would use it...

I try to limit myself to one story a day (my wrists, they punish me) which is why I asked for one prompt at a time. I know it’s a pain in the arse to fill in the same form three times [The name/email thing should be an option if you don’t have a tumblr account] but it’s a literal pain in my anatomy to do three stories in one day.

(#00189)

It was another reality bubble. Rael

Prompt: "May you be three seconds too late, at the worst possible moment."

(#00188)

“I’m no’ in the habit of cursin’ folks,” said Shayde. She was educating some younger folk who had made assumptions about magic in her general direction. “With magic, ye tend to get what ye give. Spread evil, get evil come to you. Spread good, luck leads yer path.“

Half of them had made disapproving faces at this. What was the point of magic if you couldn’t curse people who obviously deserved it?

"But,” said

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A 28-post collection

Didn't We Already Fix That?!

Challenge #00239: Elemental, my dear...

Challenge #00228: Ancient Terran Tradition

Challenge #00227: On the Disposal of Sex Aids

Challenge #00205: Letter and Spirit of the Law

Challenge #00201: A Kiss of Home

Challenge #00200: You're in Good Hands With Mawlitt-Badlii

Challenge #00199: Spiritus in Machina

Challenge #00198: Everyday Miracles

Challenge #00194: Miss Tiggy

Challenge #00193: Impossible Aftermath

Writing Prompts, since the actual Writing Prompts thing, I can't figure where to enter my name and email address (seriously, I would use it...

Prompt: "May you be three seconds too late, at the worst possible moment."