Instant Story

Challenge #02287-F097: It Was Not Effective

A human goes to a Havenworld and an animal tries their very hardest to attack them. It is adorable! -- Anon Guest

If there wasn't a precedent for optimistically-named worlds turning into ironic hellscapes, Human Caer would have named this world Elysium. The air was sweet, the water contained zero pathogens, the fruit and vegetation were simple and not even remotely infused with all the subtle chemical weaponry that Caer was used to. It was bland, but nourishing, so it had her grudging pass.

She didn't even notice the critter until she got back to her rough landing campsite. There, once the dinner was on the fire, she spotted the small fluffy thing vigorously butting at her right boot. According to the tracks, it had been following her for some time. It was cute - all creatures from a Havenworld were cute - and evidently pissed off.

"You're going to exhaust yourself, little dude..." Caer warned. She sliced off a piece of something tasty-ish and offered it in front of Fluffy's nose. Making friend should have been easy. Not with this little fellow. She laughed as it tried to bite her fingers.

Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi

Prompts remaining: 48 Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!

Challenge #02286-F096: An Effective Apocollapse

"Interesting Times" the four horsemen of panic. "Misinformation, Rumour, Gossip and Denial". And Boy! does this remind me of politics, common and the more toxic. -- Knitnan

This is the way the world ends, T. S. Elliot wrote, Not with a bang, but a whimper. How sad, how tragic, that it almost came true. For the Horsemen to ride, it wasn't necessary to have War, Famine, Pestilence and Death in force. No, they started much, much smaller. After all, it is from

Challenge #02285-F095: On Swift Wings

The ability of the human body to survive immense injury while also succumbing to the most bizarre things has always fascinated me.

For example, you hear of people falling out of airplanes and landing on the ground after crashing through trees, yet only suffering a sprained ankle and some bruises...

... and on the other hand there’s events such as the death of famous whiskey distiller Jack Daniels, who died from a blood infection caused by a broken toe which stemmed from

Challenge #02284-F094: A Glitch is But a Glitch

"Don't forget me."

"My apologies, but I already have." -- Anon Guest

Synthetic emotions are a tricky thing for AI's. Some, like those created by the Consortium of Steam, feel deeply and without many complications. Others despise emotion and suppress it whenever it creeps into their experiences. Between those two extremes are those who have emotions, and are devastated by them when they are negative.

Their coping strategies for this are not always socially acceptable amongst organics. One of the more common

Challenge #02283-F093: A Lie For the Lye

The human smiled wickedly. "You know what they say about a man with nothing to lose?" -- Anon Guest

His name was Marvin. He was a little bit hopeless, when it came to social interaction. He had started as a fighter in the sway of a bad gang, belittled for everything he said or did. Since he swapped teams, he had grown. Physically, mentally, emotionally. He was still pants at social interactions but the rest of his team were there to help.

Challenge #02282-F092: The Downside of Being Adorable

Humans love of all things adorable. There is an earth-cat like humanoid race that comes asking for help, and after humans find out they purr and act like earth cats protect that race with extreme prejudice while also hiring them to just to groom them and hear the purring. -- Anon Guest

The Vrrrau are very different to the Meeyahndans. Though both are felinoid[1], their personalities and presentation are vastly different. The Meeyahndese evolved on the savannah, though a colder one.

Challenge #02281-F091: The Threshold

You'll need the wayback machine. A man stands in front of a door. It can lead anywhere. Dare you step through? -- Anon Guest

Presented for your approval, the image of a man in a grey suit. The man is also in tones of grey. To see him, and the door he offers you, is to see into different realities where anything from creeping horror to sublime delight awaits on the other side. It is, without a doubt, the trip of a

Challenge #02280-F090: Take My Hand

The tomboyish girl is actually not a tomboy. She has more dresses than you can imagine, she just understands that a dress is not suitable for her line of work -- Anon Guest

In every village with a dressmaker, Lady Anthe would order a dress. The rest of their group would hear nothing more about it and honestly believed that they would never see them again. Even Wraithvine was mystified and ze had hundreds of years of experience with almost everything. The

Challenge #02279-F089: Simple Bonding Activities

Havenworlders loves play with Humans Hide and seek. They can use amazing skills to hide. But even this game starts to be boring. So next game was tag.

But they forget that Humans can chase down anyone. Humans are predators and Havenworlders starts to feel like a delicious prey. -- Anon Guest

Humans can pack-bond through games, amongst many other activities. If your ship has an active Human, physical activity games are recommended. Similarly, more phlegmatic Humans can bond through tabletop games.

Challenge #02278-F088: Getting Into It

It's hidden in plain sight, of course if you've been Shown or found your way there it's where you go. When you can. When you need to. -- KnitNan

Just about everybody in the school despised Weird Ellie. She was too weird, too quiet, too strange. She'd come out with knowledge that nobody else should ever know about as if it were something everyone should know - once you could actually get her to talk. For the most part, she was silent.

Challenge #02277-F087: Survivors

Humans have an oath, a promise they make to the world when they are born:

I will Survive.

Survive out of spite. Survive as a witness. survive as a warning to the future. survive so these stories do not disappear.

I will survive or else. -- Anon Guest

Every living creature greets their first taste of life with a complaint. Brief or lengthy, living is worth making a fuss over. Humans, especially, enter their lives and rage at it. Fighting from the

Challenge #02276-F086: Flakkin' Weebo, Man...

There're always a big group of meme fans. Humans love their funny photos.

Aliens want to run when Big Chungus come and Hit Or Miss is the second favourite song in the room "of course first is Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up." -- Anon Guest

Memetic communication is dependent entirely on the familiarity of the recipient with the subject. Some, simple images with even simpler captions, are easier to communicate than, say, a mish-mash of images with contextual dependency that

Challenge #02275-F085: To Share Caring

An Alien crew of Havenworlders tries to help their security-officer (a Human) to cope with PTSD-Flashbacks, Anxiety and Panic-Attacks. -- Anon Guest

The ship's Human had been sedated after the Upset. They lay now in the darkened recovery room with gently glowing screens displaying the words, You are safe, in the Human's home tongue. They would wake, eventually, but the trepidation amongst the Leseu crew was - what had happened to their Human?

Pack-bonding can happen in both directions.

Doctor Slysse faced

Challenge #02274-F084: They Look Like Monsters

Humans meet an intelligent species who is nice, friendly, understanding and honest to a fault. A human vessel breaks down and they send the distress call to Help.

The Problem is, they look Like a horror movie Monster. Something that looks somewhat human but mangled, discolored, and just... wrong in all planes of existence. Not to forget their teeth, claws,etc.

They have the smell of rotting meat, decay and blood, when they are happy and they move through the vents for

Challenge #02273-F083: Smouldering Leaf Habit

This is a page from the Safety Manual for Humans.

"...... even if dangerous and self-destructive, some Humans will continue to light small fires for the inhalation of toxic substances ( To-ba-co) and will do so anywhere, if not provided a smoking-area.

PLEASE ALLOW THEM THIS !!!!!" -- Anon Guest

[AN: Speaking as a lifelong asthmatic whose life has been put in peril by smokers - irresponsible tobacco addicts can go to hell. The prizewinner is still the bloke who lit up upwind of me

Menu

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #02287-F097: It Was Not Effective

Challenge #02286-F096: An Effective Apocollapse

Challenge #02285-F095: On Swift Wings

Challenge #02284-F094: A Glitch is But a Glitch

Challenge #02283-F093: A Lie For the Lye

Challenge #02282-F092: The Downside of Being Adorable

Challenge #02281-F091: The Threshold

Challenge #02280-F090: Take My Hand

Challenge #02279-F089: Simple Bonding Activities

Challenge #02278-F088: Getting Into It

Challenge #02277-F087: Survivors

Challenge #02276-F086: Flakkin' Weebo, Man...

Challenge #02275-F085: To Share Caring

Challenge #02274-F084: They Look Like Monsters

Challenge #02273-F083: Smouldering Leaf Habit