Just Add Prompt

A text found on the first expedition by a species to their planet’s nearest celestial body (moon or nearby planet), which explains in perfectly accurate detail how to improve the efficiency of in-system spaceflight many times over.

Appendix A begins “As we know, 2+2=5…”

Five hundred years ago, people had seen strange lights in association with their moon. A light was clearly visible on the surface of the satellite, every time that it became shadowed.

Four hundred years ago, that light went out for the last time, and the lights visiting the moon left. Never to return.

Last year, the planets’ champion - a fine lady by the name of Nyel the Strong - was the first to set foot on that orbiting planetoid in the name of peace and harmony for all.

Today, scientists had cracked the code. The lunar visitors had been prepared for any eventuality. They had left arrows to point the way. The box contained basic pictograms on how to open it and how to read the contents.

The first book unravelled the second, as well as covering some basic elements of science and what the aliens had also thought were basic elements of science. The second unravelled the third…

And while they were learning, they were also testing.

The Grel'ti people leaped ahead. In science, art, and civilisation. They mined their asteroid belts and prepared to go to the stars.

And then they began to decode the Appendices.

“As we know, 2+2=5…”

Five Hundred Years Ago…

The aliens had got their data. Who they were was not important. You couldn’t pronounce their names, anyway. Let’s call them Greg, and Larson.

“Wait. So you got them almost up to our level of tech and you put in a fucking math joke?”

Greg chuckled as he sealed the box. “This is such a classic…”

“No, Greg, you are such a shit.”

He started etching arrows on the walls and floor, giggling the entire time. “I wish I could see their little faces…”

“…for fuck’s sake,” sighed Larson. “You always do this. Every pre-journey planet we monitor, you have to pull this unthought crap.”

Greg continued to laugh. “They are gonna be so pissed off…”

“Someone in authority is going to catch you doing this and then you’re going to know about it.”

“Worth it,” laughed Greg.

[Muse food remaining: 14. Submit a prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!]

On a warning sign

CAUTION: Eldritch Abominations

The human stopped at the door. “Is this serious?”

“Why would it not be?” said the alien robot. “The Yubshuggoth are a kind people, but their appearance has been known to… cause significant alarm. Some have died from the shock. This is why they use avatars like me.”

So what the human do? They thrust open the door and stuck their head inside to see what was so

Well, are we agreed that we will never try to talk to the world ending monsters again?

Yes? Good.

They were in his way. They were there to conquer. Smash! Destroy! Devour!

“Hermann!”

Crush! Kill! Consume!

“Hermann!”

The puny human was only a little smaller than him. How? Had they found a way to grow themselves? Were they stealing the Builders’ ways?“

"Hermann, Hermann, look at me. Look. Look, look, look. You’re not

From the Wikipedia article on Personhood:
“If alien life were found to exist, under what circumstances would they be counted as "persons”? Do we have to consider any “willing and communicative (capable to register its own will) autonomous body” in the universe, no matter the species, an individual (a person)? Do they deserve equal rights with the human race?“

What the hell kind of question is that? Of course we should! Of course they do! The

Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum
[Sometimes I get this urge to conquer large parts of Europe]

“Eh, sometimes you change the world,” Shayde sighed. “Sometimes th’ world changes you. And sometimes… Caesar said it best - ‘interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum’…”

Rael was looking into his eyepiece. “Sometimes, I get this urge to conquer large parts of Europe?”

She sighed. Technology. That was the problem. People could

Saying something in all earnestness, not realising that it’s been twisted far from what the words actually _mean_ by scum and then used as a warning sign by people more socially aware than you, and that you just marked yourself as one of those scum. All because you were using the words as they were meant to be used.

[TW: rape]

Sometimes, there’s a big problem with being a card-carrying member of SPOEn - The Society for the Preservation

The uselessness of the “reassurance”, which fortunately I’ve only ever seen in fiction, that ‘You know you’re not evil by the fact that you still worry about your morality’. You could quite easily not realise that you’ve already sunk to new depths of depravity, and still worry about it.

[AN: I almost deleted this because of its similarity to yesterday’s prompt. PLEASE space out your similar prompts with other muse fuel. Thanks.]

“It’s for

The uselessness of the “reassurance”, which I’ve had given to me in real life, that ‘You know you’re not insane by the fact that you still worry about your sanity’. You could quite easily not realise that you’re currently insane, and still worry about it.

“You said you loved me,” sang Annie Lennox, “Or were you just being kiiiind… Or am I losing my mind?”

“Good question, Annie,” I murmured. They’d said