Amalgam Universe

A 2291-post collection

Challenge #00586 - A221: One Damp Afternoon on Tour

“Shock and awe can be dangerous and deadly, therefore the management has overturned your booking of the concert hall for a- what was it again?”

“A magic show.”

“Look,” sighed The Great Amaze-o. “We’re a comedy act. We show how everything is done and half the time we pretend to flakk it up. It’s funny.”

The Nephroton on the other side of the counter glared at them with her segmented eyes. “You are aware that our species is still limiting its contact with deathworlders, are you not?”

The Great Amaze-o made a show of carefully withdrawing some hardcopy documents from a very visible pouch in his cape. “We’ve had our act cleared for all known cogniscent species. And my crew will set up warning barriers. In three dimensions.”

“The expand-a-ball cage again?” whined Kev. “Why can’t we just set up a bug zapper?”

The Great Amaze-o grinned a very wise rictus and said without moving his mouth, “Excuse me while I strangle my associate for his very inappropriate sense of humour. That was very out of line and Kev should learn when to SHUT HIS ENORMOUS GOB.” The last four words were delivered with invective to Kev.

“I’m sorry, sir. You are still too dangerous to entertain in this sector.”

Go to Insectia,” The Great Amaze-o mocked in falsetto. “They’ve never seen us there. It’ll be such fun…” Sigh. “There’s a reason why we call you Dense Kevin.”

“Why’s that, then?”

“Please leave before you disturb anyone?” begged the Nephroton.

[Muse food remaining: 44. Submit a promptAsk a questionBuy my stories!]

Challenge #00585 - A220: One Life in Song

Doe, a deer, a female deer

Ray, a drop of golden sun

Doe, a deer, a female deer…

Doe crept between the parked storage containers, heart pounding. She could still see the peak of the ship. She was headed the right way. 

Ray, a drop of golden sun…

Shadows made her jump for all of five seconds before she realised it was her own shadow. A skinny stick of a thing. Undersized, underfed, under-represented and, so far, under notice.

She

Read more »

Challenge #00584 - A219: Rocky Start

Human: *sneezes*

Other cogniscient: What the hell was that?!

Ax'and'l had been dubious from the get-go about joining forces with a human… but he’d run the numbers and this venture was profitable in the extreme.

Insanely profitable.

Now it was just looking insane.

They were standing in an abandoned hulk of a spaceship, looting it for anything they could get out of it. Both had their survival suits on. Ideally, they were protected from everything the ship could throw

Read more »

The most feared dance in the universe

(character) crept through the undergrowth, barely daring to breathe, as they followed the pulsing rhythm. Parting the bushes slightly, they sucked in a horrified gasp, seeing the flickering firelight and the Humans dancing around it.

There, in the light of the burning branches, were people skipping and hopping, drinking out of cups from large nuts and doubtlessly containing fermented grain juice. That, they could handle. But the dance, that caused all non-Humans to shake in fear … .

The dreaded funky chicken!

(there have

Read more »

Douglas Adams

Aliens discover The Hitchhiker’s Guide.

(#00581 - A216)

Space, the text said, is big. Really big. If you think it’s a long way down the road to the shops, that’s peanuts compared to space.

“People paid money for this?”

“I think it’s some of their Terran humour…”

“I don’t see any references to trousers falling down in this narrative.”

Bloz glared at Kenka. “You and

Read more »

Deathworlders

Humans meet a species from a different deathworld.

(#00580 - A215)

Things around the negotiation table were tense. It wasn’t often that the humans met another cogniscent race that could kill them with ease. The fact that both sides were willing to keep their hostile actions in check was a telling victory for the mamalian side of the negotiations.

For a long time, Trodonti and Human stared at each other.

“We have studied your home planet,” said K'ress.

Read more »

Challenge #00589 - A214: Like a House on Fire

Shayde and Ambassador O’Ranges

or

Julie, Nanny and Ambassador O’Ranges

[AN: You didn’t say ‘xor’ :D ]

Julie was still moaning. A constant monotone that, Shayde could tell, was starting to get on everyone’s pec’s. She was huddled in Nanny’s lap. Nanny couldn’t do much for her but be a living teddy-bear and mutter “Good girl, good girl,” at random intervals.

“Puir babby…” Shayde

Read more »

The cover… evolves I’m going to have a hard time NOT using bleeding font for the title because it all looks SO...

The cover… evolves

I’m going to have a hard time NOT using bleeding font for the title because it all looks SO cheesy-horror-flick… which is exactly what I’m aiming for :D

I was having a really bad day until this turned up in my in-box. Now I’m stoked :)

Read more »

Challenge #00578 - A203: You Swallowed What?

As one of the tech review magazines said a few years ago when the first 32 GB micro SD cards came out, “At last it is possible for a single human being to accidentally swallow all of the data collected by the Apollo Program.”

“This is it?” Shayde held aloft a crystal with a metal disk on one end. “All'o the survivin’ media from the twentieth century?”

“And some derivative works, yes,” said Rael. “

Read more »

Amalgam Answers

So most of Earth is category 4, Australia is category 5, the UK must be something like category 2. There is literally nothing deadly here and the worst we have is stinging nettles and sometimes horseflies.

What would actually constitute a category 1 or less, or a non-deathworld? All I can think of would be an entire world of primary producers but there are established predators in Amalgamverse…

Deathworld categories are judged entirely on the surface inhabited by the dominant cogniscent life

Read more »

Challenge #00577 - A202: Mass Destruction

Code 19: There is a small child loose in the area.

“LOCKDOWN! LOCKDOWN!” Rodriguez checked all the small storage bays before she locked them. Kept her eyes and ears open for any trace.

No sticky residue. No smeared prints. No suspicious puddles of liquid. No sign that the progeny had been here. And that was the dangerous part.

“I thought human infants were helpless,” said Chor'i'za.

“Human infants, yes. But once they learn how to move, they

Read more »

Challenge #00576 - A201: The Delicate Process of Acquiring Snuggle-Buddies

The first time K’iiv did the Noise.

“I… have not acquired a snuggle-buddy.”

“Want one?”

K'iiv’s tail flared. “Are… you… volunteering?”

“Are you amenable?”

Now his tail war twitching in a manner dazzle and enrapture female members of his own species. What the human thought of it was beyond him. “Oh very. So much. Yes. I– I–” SKREE-AH!

“AAAAH!” Del ducked in

Read more »

Challenge #00575 - A200: Alas My Love...

An Ice Cream van on Amalgam station.

Someone, somewhere, was playing Greensleeves on a glockenspiel. Rael knew this because he was chasing Shayde, who was racing about, trying to find the source of the noise.

The only information she’d supplied had been “MISTAH WHIPPEH![1]” before she had taken off at -as she called it- warp nine.

One day, one day… in the far, far distant future, he would not need half an hour and a pocket

Read more »