Amalgam Universe

A 2336-post collection

Challenge #02555-F365: It's So Relaxing

Oh, I can't really handle all the excitement and action in FPS, especially the PVP ones. I much prefer simulation games, like Frost Punk! You build your little town, and manage resources, and try not to let all your people freeze to death or starve or something. Nice, relaxing fun. -- Anon Guest

Humans love to play. Their play takes every form you could imagine and some that seem incredibly unlikely. Some play involves flinging themselves physically at obstacles, off obstacles, or around obstacles. Sometimes, it's all three at once. Some Humans play by gathering in one room together and arguing in between bouts of moving small objects around on a table. Our Human... the Human for the Wandering Trader, Human Dai, plays by interacting with computer screens.

We have tried to understand this. We do not understand this. Human Dai appears to be having fun and relaxing, but... it looks so much like their shipboard duties that we have... concerns. It is necessary for a Human to have fun or they begin to suffer. If they suffer, we all suffer the consequences. We must look after our Human.

Companion Zogh was the one who chose a day to accompany Human Dai at his play, watching and attempting to analyse him at his play. Determining whether or not it actually was play. Human Dai's chosen array of playing screens was large and colourful and the contents did not appear to match the usual Human entertainments of explosions and flashing colours. This was truly perplexing. "You do not make things go boom?" they asked.

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Challenge #02554-F364: Learning to See

Just as there are xenophobes amongst the various races outside the Galactic Alliance, so, too, are there within. Even amongst races that are, normally, allies. They and their family, and many within their community, were such xenophobes. They chanted Earth First during the protests they ran to show their displeasure of alien races being allowed to visit their world. Some of the more radicalized ones even committed crimes to try to "prove their point". This group, however in the minority they were,

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Challenge #02553-F363: Here There Be Sock Puppets

An enemy deathworlder, a xenophobe, constantly making life hell for the havenworlders around them. A general, proud, fierce, having suffered many tortures and never once broke, always escaped. But now, they were being held by humans. Pain meant nothing to them. When asked about the movements of new weaponry, the answer was always a snark and the spitting or words "Do your worst, I'll never say a word, you'll have to kill me."

The humans bring in what they call the 3rd

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Challenge #02552-F362: Find a Family

She was small, almost dangerously thin, but fast. Her parents, addled yet again on drink and the newest designer drugs, didn't even notice as she left their quarters in search of food. She heard, as she was contemplating swiping an unattended sandwich, that one of the big havenworlder freighters was docked and was on loading cargo for their next run. Large cargo freighters usually meant larger amounts of food. This wouldn't be the first time this young human had snuck aboard freighters,

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Challenge #02551-F361: You Hear Me

“Get back to work and if I see you with something in your ears again you’re fired!”

The human just stared blankly

“Do you understand me? Is your universal translator even working?”

It took the human a moment then wrote something down

‘My translator is with my hearing aids you took’ -- Anon Guest

In all things, communication is important. This is why any given traveller will find far more accessibility options available in Galactic space than many other places. It

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Challenge #02548-F358: Expect Them

Disasters happen and they turn up, usually in a camper-van/workshop. Mechanics, Electricians, Plumbers, the good ones keep their rates reasonable and do the insurance stuff for bread and butter and a bit of jam. The money is good, they leave behind grateful people, and good work. Their bonus is they have contacts everywhere for the next disaster. -- Anon Guest

No good deed goes unpunished, -- Ancient and confusing Human saying.

Disaster is inevitable. They divide a little patch of the

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Challenge #02546-F356: The Piracy Solution

The incidents of piracy were dropping dramatically since humans came on the scene. It wasn't that noticeable, at first, but it soon became ever more apparent. The fighting prowess, and sheer terrifying ferociousness, of humans in battle was considered a part of the issue, but the odd thing was, many pirates were now giving up piracy for more honest, and often more profitable, trades. And almost always it was after tangling with humans. A study now was being conducted. Were humans, with

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Challenge #02543-F353: Good Kitty

A nonhuman deathworlder learning about major depressive disorder and suicidal ideation from a human so used to suffering from those that they treat the loss of their medication as an inconvenience, and apologize to the poor sap they got stranded with while they ask them to keep an eye out for self destructive behaviors.

"So, I've only got a few days worth of my meds, and it'll be at least a couple of weeks before we get rescued. Mind keeping an eye

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Challenge #02541-F351: Labels and Assumptions

Several humans were starting to get more than just a little annoyed at constantly being called insane. Even at school, when their kids would goof off during breaks or if the kids were in the park playing, others treated them as though they were mind-damaged. When they joined the Galactic Alliance, they thought they would be treated like equals, but instead, they find that they tend to be treated like savages even by other Deathworlders. Sometimes the view that, simply because they

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Challenge #02540-F350: Wandering Minds

On earth in various places, there are buskers. People who will put down a hat, box, bowl, or other container and then will play music, sing, or otherwise entertain in the hope of donations. Then there are the flash mobs. Large groups of individuals who will coordinate a time where they will come together. They will mill about in a crowd and then, at a predesignated time, one individual will throw off their jacket or other covering and, in costume, begin to

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Challenge #02538-F348: Goodnight Everybody

A: Ok look I only have a sawed shotty and a 9mm and I don’t want to fight anything that is bigger than a baby moose. Also if you see a bear follow this rhyme “brown lay down, black fight back, white good night”

B: but can’t you fight back with your weapons?

A: Yes and no. First off the bears in these regions are bulletproof, hell most bears are. More than anything firing this will piss them off

B:

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Challenge #02537-F347: Many Ways to Pack Bond

The havenworlders hire a human who docks their ship to the havenworlder's own larger research vessel and uses that for their quarters rather than what the havenworlders have provided. When asked why, the human simply responds "It's better this way." But does not care to elaborate. The reason behind the why becomes clear when a havenworlder goes in to bring a gift to the human that has become such a kind friend and asset, when the havenworlder hears horrific screaming coming from

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Challenge #02535-F345: One... Giant Leap

A human has fallen very much in love with another deathworlder. These deathworlders are only similar to humans in that they walk bipedal and have a human-ish shape to their faces, but that's about it. The human had been working aboard ship with the being for almost a year, the contract stated the human would be there for another four years, and they were trying to find out how to get the being to become interested in more than just .... well... friendship.

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Challenge #02534-F344: Designed For Disaster

There are reasons why humans coined the term “idiot proofing”, many MANY reasons -- Anon Guest

Make it idiot proof and the world will invent a better idiot -- Human engineering axiom.

It was a Human who came up with Murphy's Law, and further Humans who came up with all the associated corollaries. Humans investigated them all, invented science to prove them, and then invented science that provided vital analysis into the reasons why it was so.

All devices made by Humans

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Challenge #02533-F343: In the Eye of the Storm

Humans don't all celebrate Silly Seasons. Some find it disorienting, some have been damaged, some protest aspects of the culture/celebration in question, some just don't care, and occasionally they're not 'in the mood.' For those who've resigned themselves to the boisterous Silly Season, a human who doesn't conform to the human 'norm' is actually more alarming than everything else they've prepared to tolerate. -- Anon Guest

Silly Season is not a set festival, as many new to the Galactic Alliance

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