Amalgam Universe

A 2194-post collection

Challenge #04436-L052: To Save a Monster

As you stare into the distance you spot the dim glowing eyes of the monster. The same one that murdered your family, and slaughtered friends. Hatred seeps into your veins as you gaze into its eyes, into that pit filled with malice and hateā€¦ or is it sorrow and regret?

You should really stop looking at that damn mirror. -- Anon Guest

There was something wrong with the dark in this place. Jay liked the dark, it helped them feel safe. But this dark... wasn't dark. There was a light they couldn't see until he looked in the mirror and saw...

...the shape of a scrawny youth with glowing spots where their eyes should be, Hunched and guarded. Ready to strike at any threat.

But Jay could not strike. They took their knife away before the others put them in this place. This padded, pastel-beige nightmare, where the only colour was the bubbling green tubes or whatever the others made them watch on the vid screen. Everything but the tubes and screen seemed to be made out of paper. Easily torn, if Jay wanted to tear it.

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Challenge #04435-L051: Sure You Can Play Piano...

"Yes, we're technically dead. Yes, the [de-regger corp] has used a new process to animate our corpses to squeeze a few more years of work out of us before we decay beyond economic feasibility of repair. Still, at least we get to see our families again." -- Tor Libram

CRC Agent Tiel entered the mine and was greeted by a monster from so many games. Half their body was replaced with mechanical parts. There was something amiss with the hue of their

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Challenge #04434-L050: Acclimatisation Process

Human, you've been working non-stop for 8 of your hours straight.

Don't worry, I'm almost done.

When do you rest?

Usually after about a 12 hour day or so.

What?? -- Fighting Fit

"I said, usually after--"

"I heard you," Companion Yrin interrupted. "I am attempting to comprehend. You work for four shifts[1] in a row? Without a break?"

Human Nik looked up, but did not stop tweaking the mechanism under his hands. "It's called a work ethic. Where I'm from,

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Challenge #04433-L049: Ancient Aliens Realism

They read the briefings. Conquering that planet was going to be SO simple, their technology was so.. primitive! Then they went to land on the Earth, and realized that the gravity there was a lot stronger than they had been told. -- Anon Guest

What a ridiculous solar system! Only one habitable planet with macroscopic life, and that was mostly mammalian. Some were marginally intelligent, but they honestly hadn't progressed much past bashing the rocks together. They had spread further than the

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Challenge #04432-L048: In Living Memory

The old soldier sat on a piece of wreckage that was, once, a weapon. The large machine long have gone silent for years. Sitting with the galactic at their side they said simply, "To answer your questions, we humans don't fear war. What we fear, is what we become when we fight in one." -- Anon Guest

"I was a teenager when these were in action," said the old soldier. Ze sat overlooking the circular valleys below Muzzlend Cafe. It was quite

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Challenge #04429-L045: Yes You Have To

What's a human to do when the researchers they're supposed to be protecting get so caught up in their work they lose all sense of danger? This is getting frustrating! Hey, all you, I know it's weird for the HUMAN to be saying this but... safety first for once?? -- Anon Guest

They say curiosity killed the cat. It also works on silly fluffy Havenworlders who are equal parts rambunctious kittens and Rikki Tikki Tavi[1]. Only without any teeth and claws

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Challenge #04424-L040: Extremes of Limits

They did not believe humans could survive such extremes of temperatures when no other species could. The humans, for their part, considered it no worse than doing a polar bear plunge, and then jumping into a hot tub afterward. -- Anon Guest

[AN: I've heard of people rolling around in the snow after a sauna, not the other one. I'm sure it's "bracing"]

Seeing things like this, it's easy to believe that they're Deathworlders. The survivors of the volcanic cataclysm were sheltering

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Challenge #04423-L039: Swords and Ploughshares

The aliens didn't listen. They were SO sure that they could overrun the human colony and wipe them out. They were warned by others that you did NOT want to piss off the humans. Their civilization survived the aftermath, but they most certainly learned their lesson the hard way. -- Anon Guest

It was a beautiful world. Predictable weather, mild seasons, lots of arable land and the gentlest water cycle one could get. It was almost perfect. Just one tiny flaw.

It

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Challenge #04422-L038: Not That Harmless

Not all havenworlds are harmless. Some, for the natives, it's paradise. But for those not native to it? A deathtrap. -- Anon Guest

The mistake everyone makes is believing that Havenworlders are weak because they were basically coddled for their entire evolution. What they miss is that the Havenworlder-Deathworlder scales are calibrated according to how much or how little the planetary system is amenable to the lives of its natives.

Flora, fauna, mycotta, weather, geology, microbiota, and other orbiting bodies within the

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Challenge #04421-L037: But Why Though?

They enter the galactic universities the first time. And the Alliance learns how brilliant, and how unorthodox, humans can be. -- Anon Guest

The concept of higher education is older than many might think. Basic learning covers the essentials everyone needs to know. Life skills, manners, standards of cleanliness and dress. As a civilisation gets more complicated, the basics expand.

So to do the levels of education.

Some use this to hold themselves above others. Hence the term "higher education'. A polity

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Challenge #04419-L035: Easy Mistakes to Make

They didn't listen, and now they were covered in red welts and bumps. The human warned them that there were few, even among humans, who didn't react when harvesting this plant. And now they itched all over. They called them cattails, but they didn't realize those edible things were also irritants!

((Note, cattail plants contain an irritant on that lovely pod of theirs. While highly edible, it's advised to wear gloves when harvesting them.)) -- Anon Guest

[AN: Cattails are fascinating]

"They

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Challenge #04415-L031: Maybe Overreacting

The galactics aboard the station were freaking out. The human was coughing, a lot, and wore a mask to cover their face. When asked what was wrong, they simply said "It's just a cold. I'm wearing this for your protection." Unfortunately, the medics were... overreacting a bit. -- Fighting Fit

It was a small station in the middle of nowhere, relatively speaking. There was only one Human on board as part of the regular staff. Most of life on the station was

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Challenge #04411-L027: Bedtime For the Deathworlder

I can't sleep well no matter what I do. Even medicine doesn't help half the time. Can you please help me think of a way to get some rest? -- Anon Guest

Companion Throk could clearly see the shadows under Human Zyr's eyes. She could detect the slump in Zyr's shoulders and the slowness of their movements. She was worried. "Human Zyr... are you suffering another sickness?"

"No, I just had a rough night. I'm having trouble getting settled down, and when

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Challenge #04410-L026: Palliative Care

The human was sick and running a high fever. The Alliance had never dealt with a very sick human like this before. -- Anon Guest

If you want to survive the Edge Territories, you need a friendly Human. Unfortunately, Deathworlders are largely forbidden from the Alliance and finding a Human is a trial. Some find Humans before they were lost. Which resulted in the ever-growing manual of Human care and maintenance.

It also resulted in a lot of posts starting with the

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Challenge #04407-L023: Celebration to Share

It's the Festival of Food. Everyone is invited to this world to try recipes from around the known universe. Needless to say, the Gyiik are the hosts. -- Anon Guest

Space, as a wise philosopher once said, is big. Really, really big. In a shared society like the Galactic Alliance, it spans dimensions that would boggle an ordinary mind. The number of civilisations and polities within it are also in numbers so high that they also boggle the mind.

Therefore it's no

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