Ko-fi donationsBuy Me a Coffee

Pack Bonding

A 74-post collection

Challenge #02591-G034: Conspiracy to Spread Joy

There are those that are not fans of the holiday season. The reasons are as myriad as the individuals themselves. But then there are those who not only enjoy the seasons, but absolutely revel in them. All around the station they were showing up outside of doors. Showing up at people's workstations and amongst ship supplies. Carefully wrapped gifts. It only had three words on it "From a friend"

No one claimed responsibility for these actions and no one was usually around by the time they were found, but when the gifts were opened, they would be gifts appropriate to, and for, the individual the gifts were meant to be for. They were safe, they were lovely, and each item was always carefully settled in their gift boxes by a hand that obviously cared a great deal.

And yet, for some odd reason, surveillance could never find out who was doing this. On occasion one might catch a shadowy form, they obviously knew their way around enough to avoid getting caught, but that was all. And, through the month of what humans called "December", through the month that was the holiday of gift-giving, this continued. And the gift giver? Each time they heard of people discussing the gifts, they smiled softly to themselves as they went about their work. Why did they do it? No reason, it just felt good to make people smile. -- Anon Guest

Space, as a philosopher once wrote, is big. Really, really big. In the gulfs of darkness, the only spots of civilisation are the ones you bring with you. Nevertheless, it is there. Far from home, you bring home with you. Far from love, you share love with those you happen to be with. Well. That's the Human philosophy.

Human pack-bonding is weird like that. Which the crew of the Twitching Whisker found out during a period of three Standard weeks[1]. They didn't precisely know it was one of the Humans, but this particular level of chicanery fit almost exactly with other Human nonsense, so the odds were high.

The whole thing started with a box. Just a box, wrapped in bright coloured paper, and the whole thing was topped with a bow. This was immediately treated with suspicion. It had been left just outside of G'harth's door and the Vrothiin was uncertain of what to do about, or with it. This was not the usual season for Human Pranking, and the calendar showed no other nearby events of significance in the Offensensitivity calendar.

Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi

Continue Reading

Prompts remaining: 78 Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!

Challenge #02586-G029: A Friend of a Friend

We love, we protect, and we only want you to carry our own with you when you escape. Please, please, take our tiniest and most vulnerable with you when we sacrifice ourselves for an exit (X1000% if it's our pets, who can't even deal with the galaxy we brought them into) ---HUMANKIND c/- Protection

"You lot go on, I'll catch up. Just do me a solid, okay? Make sure Tibbles is safe with you." Human Fil was torn between what they

Read more »

Challenge #02578-G021: Spoil Them Good

Love me as an equal, and I will pay you back. Exist while I love you SO MUCH, and I will burn entire star systems for your sake. (humans and pets) -- Anon Guest

Humans will pack-bond with anything, though the continually most mind-boggling example of this is Humans and inanimate objects. Second in that esteemed list is the non-cogniscent animals that Humans elect to share their space with and how intensely those creatures are spoiled.

The Humans themselves will put up

Read more »

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,

Read more »

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.

Read more »

Challenge #02523-F333: Joy in the Season of Dying

He promised his avian friends a sight on Earth of breathtaking beauty. All they'd ever heard of, when it came to his home planet, was the horrible animals, the diseases, the terrors of trying to exist there. Of course, he knew those things were on Earth, but he loved his home planet even if his job kept him away for long periods of time. He got them dressed in warm clothing and took them to the northern hemisphere where autumn was in

Read more »

Challenge #02522-F332: One Way to See

What if humans sight was akin to fantasy elves sensitivities to mana, “I may not have electro receptors like you but I'm able to to detect light with my eyes within the general vicinity” and they were so coy and vague describing light. Also if aliens have electro receptors imagine if they detect our nervous system. -- Anon Guest

The semi-amphibious Anatins didn't need to see light as they were evolving. They could sense the electrical discharges of predators and prey alike

Read more »

Challenge #02514-F324: Roll For Initiative

Ever wonder what it would be like to disappear into your fantasy and not have to return? Video games are like that, online role play games even more. It can be more powerful than any drug, and far more seductive. But what happens when the power goes out and the person is forced to face reality? -- Anon Guest

This is a box. This is a window. Turn it on and view another reality. There were other boxes like it, in days

Read more »

Challenge #02512-F322: One Complex Thought Experiment in the Void

An empath and a sociopath trying to help each other interact with people. -- Anon Guest

Here are two humans. Call them Abe and Bee. Abe cares too much about others and other's feelings, to the point of neglecting their own. Bee doesn't care about anyone but themself. They are both abnormal Humans. They are both trying to get back to civilisation as they know it with a group of strangers for a crew on their kludged vessel. They're a rag-tag bunch

Read more »

Challenge #02503-F313: Life Echoes Art

Sometimes reality is indeed Stranger than Fiction... As far as finding strange space-faring beings, humans had a knack of seemingly finding those that somehow matched almost exactly the "creatures" of their wide and varied mythologies. From the Thumruth (whom bare an astounding resemblance to Qu-tze Bears) to the Karmorp'se, Humans had learned that pretty much anything was possible! That's when humans came upon a society that developed on the outer regions of their stars habitable zone(thus darker and colder than an

Read more »

Challenge #02492-F302: One Doorway to Bonding

A Human, a Kilper and a Drumtun walk into a bar and never leave. The reason why is because they got stuck on the doorframe in the washroom -- Anon Guest

Thrikkuk, designated Companion to Human Bob, gasped. "Did they die?"

Human Bob sputtered, "What? No. It's a joke. It isn't real. It's supposed to be funny. Kilper and Drumtun exudants together create this kind of natural glue, so..."

"That's very toxic," said Thrikkuk. "You should stay away from that when it

Read more »

Challenge #02473-F283: Yo Ho, Foe No Mo'

A band of pirates attack a ship they'd learned would be mostly hauling civilians, students, and their possessions. What they don't realize is the ship they attacked, though owned by havenworlders, is filled with deathworlders, mostly humans. To pass the time while waiting for the fight to end, the humans pick up their instruments to practice the music they were going to play at the interspecies music competition. But there are other music lovers out there, too. Can a pirate learn to

Read more »

Challenge #02445-F255: Our New Friend

We have a lot of "dragons" in our history, whether they be a legend, fairytale, myth or cultural history. Humans find that there is a dragon-like species that matches many of there historical depictions of their dragons, but are treated like outcasts. The Alliance, not knowing this, get a little worried when they threatened about the dragons. While humans try to make the dragons feel less like outcasts. -- Anon Guest

At first, the Humans thought it was a joke. Galactic Alliance

Read more »

Challenge #02329-F139: Playtime With Humans

There was one human who always pack bonded with others the same way: laying on the floor and talking, softly singing, and telling stories. -- Anon Guest

Some habits are hard to shake. For Human Steve, it was bonding with the ships' babies. Not every cogniscent species has the same lifespan as a Human. Some have very brief lives, indeed. After twenty years with assorted short-term ships, it was hir habit to go directly to the nursery and play with the little

Read more »

Challenge #02290-F100: Celtic Legacy

There are some scientists that wants to make human look unbridled and untrustworthy. They make a bullet with weird mixture that makes humans aggressive and bloodthirsty.

Human [name] was spending some time with her co-workers when she feels a little pain in her neck, she blackout. When she wake up she was bonded by her friends and not her blood was on the floor, her and her co-worker. -- Anon Guest

Like all problems in the known universe, this one started with

Read more »