Prompt: That trick where you come up behind someone and pop a paper bag to make them jump, most often portrayed when someone is working on something that could (but probably won’t) explode.
[AN: I must have hit a nerve on the Interwebs, yesterday. Twenty-three notes on one silly story because of an equally silly side-fling. Must resist the temptation to do that from now on]
To the Galactic Alliance, need-to-know information is information that every citizen, denizen and in denizen needed to know.
Things like this entry in the Traveller’s Handbook:
Humans should be well advised to avoid practical jokes in the company of non-humans. You are a robust species and therefore tolerant of surprises, shocks, and merely apparent threats to your continued existence.
Other cogniscents are not so prepared.
Further, there are some intelligent species for whom sudden surprises can result in an instinctive response.
Do not indulge in practical jokes, because slicing talons to the neck often offends.
Law-keepers and emergency response teams are always surprised to learn how often humans ignore this advice.
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