Prompt

A 480-post collection

Challenge #00673 - A308: A Sight to See

Earth is one of a very few planets with a moon large and close enough to cause full eclipses. This will change as it gradually moves further away, but until then it’d probably be something people travel to see.

The ship full of tourists was directly under the moon shadow, of course. In a few minutes, it would be, once again, able to view the spectacle.

Lots of habitable planets had moons, of course. Some had sister planets to share their orbits. Which lead to some interesting alliances when each species discovered space travel.

Earth’s natural satellite was one of the few that caused eclipses.

Jarbis looked up through the protective plating on her life suit.  Through its obfuscating layers, the sun was a simple, yellow circle next to the dark shape of the moon. She’d seen it twice before. And in reverse as the ship skipped rapidly towards the next observational point in a sub-orbital hop. And yet, it was still transfixing. Awe-striking. Marvellous.

There were people up on that satellite, she knew. People clustering on the near side to watch the moons’ shadow pass over the globe above them. It was not as majestic as watching the sun turn dark in the sky, but connoisseurs came to marvel, regardless.

“Are you all right?” said one of the human guides. The name-tag read Wilson. “You’ve been clinging to that railing for hours.”

“I need it to stay steady,” said Jarbis. “My kind are not made for craning of the neck.”

“There are lounges for that,” the human indicated them with a sweep of her arm. “You can watch in comfort.”

“I will stand in the face of danger,” Jarbis recited, “and by standing grow stronger.”

“Okay. I’m just going to stay by you in case you fall over.”

Standing in the face of danger, indeed. The folks at home would never believe her when she told them she’d stood and watched the sun turn dark in the company of a deathworlder.

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Challenge #00672 - A307: Instinct

“For some reason, whenever there is any number of humans in an open enough space, with enough raw materials, something will be set on fire. And something will inevitably be produced to cook over said fire, or at least hold over it on a stick and gently smoulder if there’s nothing edible available.”

The human was handy to have around. Deathworlders thought nothing of going into places that -for example- Brookessiin like Riik were loath to tread.

This one

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Challenge #00671 - A306: To Be a SPOEn

Bear in mind this is a language where the word for “mess about with a small object and see if it does something” also means “play the violin”

“We have three different kinds of ‘moose’ and two are spelled the same,” argued Vic.

“Things went to crap when we switched to the phonetic alphabet. The entire context-necessary spelling convention has lead to unnecessary over-explanation.”

“I don’t like all the pronouns,” grumbled Jake.

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Challenge #00669 - A304: Methods of Madness

When the last trumpet sounds and the beast rises from the pit, we will not kill it. We will ride it.

Jorgi the Page remembered when the Sorcerer’s summoned demon began pulling out its hair. The beast was still chafing at its magical bit and had managed to get into Kragdar’s knapsack.

Jorgi caught her looking into a crystal sphere, late one night.

“What are you doing?” Jorgi whispered. “The master forbade you from interfering with our

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The Best Genes Money Can Buy...

Adam stared past the mirror-glass and into his own eyes. They were perfect in place and symmetry, blue as the sea. His cheekbones, nose and jaw came together to make a flawless model’s face. His rational mind said that he should be happy, for he had everything he could ever want in terms of intelligence and good looks, and his parents were kind and loving. Still there was sadness inside those eyes. He couldn’t bring himself to tell his parents

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Challenge #00667 - A302: Slippery Slope

He who fights with monsters should be careful he doesn’t become a monster himself. Unless that makes him more effective at fighting monsters. Like he becomes a badass werewolf who knows how to use a sword and has magic armor. That’d be so rad.

My name… was… Vernon. A long time ago, now.

It began, as all beginnings must, with a quest to rescue a damsel in distress. Captured by vampires. Yes. She was held by monsters. And

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Challenge #00664 - A299: Perilous Ornithology

The difference between a goose and a swan: A goose will chase at the drop of a hat and proceed to peck and bruise if it gets you. A swan will only attack if threatened, but can break bones.

“That’s ridiculous,” said a student in the middle of Allegedly Quiet Reading Time.

“Do you need assistance?” asked Mr Myss, Learning Advocate.

“This is an objectionable description of avians,” protested Yokk. “It assumes the

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Challenge #00663 - A298: Brawk?

T’reka meets a chicken

Her heart was already pounding as she scuttled from hiding place to hiding place in the human settlement. Their buildings were partially subterranean. Though some sat above the ground. Far above the ground. On a pole.

T’reka almost had a coronary when one of the residents of the strange little house said, “Cake?”

She remembered her breathing, and watched as her vital signs returned from red-lines. Only then, did she investigate.

“Cake… cake… sweet-sweet-sweet.”

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Challenge #00662 - A297: Bad Instincts

The most ridiculously evolved trait of a human: The itchiness of newly healed skin.

“This area is almost finished repairing. I now have the unbearable urge to claw at it.”

The human in the next bay was rubbing at her bandages. She was rubbing with her knuckles and grimacing.

“Most people use talon for scratch,” said Pu'rii, edging a little further away from the human. Well. As far as she could get on a not-so-spacious hospital bed.

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Challenge #00661 - A296: Strange Encounters

Pre-Amity, a human and other cogniscient get stuck in some relatively small space together, say a room that both find out the hard way only opens from the outside. Rescue is on its way, but until then…

They tell some pretty wild tales in Scavenger Bars. This is just one of them…

Hor'tik had been stripping wire. It had been a long trip already and it was that or mass credit. If he stayed out any longer, he’d have

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Not necessarily needing to go Night Vale on this one...

To truly understand, you must look inside yourself, look deep into your heart… no, no, you’re too far down, that’s your liver, try a bit more up and to the left… ah, there you go.

(#00660 - A295)

[An: But it’s so very very Night Vale…]

“Excuse me, but my species is not transparent.”

“You’re transparent to my eyes.”

“Eugh… Sorry. Uhm… We find our internals to be

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Challenge #00659 - A294: Warning - Humour

Breaking bones is a death sentence for other cogniscients, so how unlikely is it that anyone has encountered someone missing a digit or limb, unless they were born missing it?

Jokes using one’s prosthetics (probably more advanced in the group that lives long enough to need them) optional.

[AN: Some species are more fragile than others. Havenworlders are particularly delicate. And it’s notably the Birds for whom broken bones are fatal]

The cogniscent trapped with her in the stalled

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Challenge #00654 - A289: But Why?

Curiosity in humans vs. numidids, how the adults handle it in children

Before the attitudes changed, it went like this:

Humans

“Momma? Why is the sky blue?”

“Some say it’s a reflection of the ocean. Some say it’s dust particles. Others sat it’s the air refracting the suns’ light. I think it’s a little of all of the above.”

“Oh. Okay. Can I have a cookie?”

“After dinner.”

“Aaaaaawwww…

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Challenge #00651 - A286: It Works on Everyone

The universal phenomenon of chasing the laser pointer dot.

“Stay there. When I say ‘run’ you leg it.”

Barstaw boggled at the human. Their colourful phrases had no discernible end… and yet they were instantly understandable. For all her deathworlder status, she was extremely helpful to have around for this escape.

She hunkered down, ready to run at the door that was currently being supervised by one very bored guard. Barstaw half expected the human to happen

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Magnificently Horrible

(inspired by the recent development of nailpolish that helps detect date-rape drugs when a finger is dipped in the drink, though, understandably, you don’t need to use that for the writing-inspiration)

“Like a lot of things in this world, it is wonderful that this finally exists, but also terrible that it needs to exist.”

(#00650 - A285)

It looked like a simple brain mod. Just another circuit in a world full of integrated circuits designed to merge with the

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