@ blizzard listen……… please buff the chair
Bonus:

It occurs to me that as much as “humans are the scary ones” fits sometimes, if you look at it another way, humans might seem like the absurdly friendly or curious ones.
I mean, who looked at an elephant, gigantic creature thoroughly capable of killing someone if it has to, and thought “I’m gonna ride on that thing!”?
And put a human near any canine predator and there’s a strong chance of said human yelling “PUPPY!” and initiating playful interaction with it.
And what about the people who look at whales, bigger than basically everything else, and decide “I’m gonna swim with our splashy danger friends!”
Heck, for all we know, humans might run into the scariest, toughest aliens out there and say “Heck with it. I’m gonna hug ‘em.”
“Why?!”
“I dunno. I gotta hug ‘em.”
And it’s like the first friendly interaction the species has had in forever so suddenly humanity has a bunch of big scary friends.
“Commander, we must update the code of conduct to include the humans.”
“Why? Are they more aggressive than we anticipated?”
“It seems to be the opposite Commander. Just this morning a crewman nearly lost their hand when attempting to stroke an unidentified feline on an unknown world. Their reaction to the attack was to call the creature a “mean kitty” and vow to win it over. Upon inquiry it seems they bond so readily with creatures outside their species that they have the capacity to feel sympathy for an alien creature they have never seen before simply because it appears distressed. I hate to say this commander but we must install a rule to prevent them from endangering their own lives when interacting with the galaxy’s fauna.”
“I see what you mean. So be it, from now on no crewman is allowed to touch unknown animals without permission from a superior officer. And send a message to supplies about acquiring one of these “puppies” so that their desire to touch furred predators can be safely sated.
Ehehehe I love this! Every time someone adds a short story to my post it gets like 90% cuter and more epic
Lets be honest, the humans would ignore the hell outta that rule whenever alone.
“So I hear that you’ve just recruited a human for your ship.”
“Yes, it’s the first time that I’ve worked with these species, but they come highly recommended. Say, you’ve worked with a few, what tips can you give me? I’d hate to have some kind of cultural misunderstanding if it’s avoidable.”
“The first rule of working with humans is never leave them unsupervised.”
“Wait, what?”
“I’m serious. Don’t do it. Things. Happen.”
“But wait, I thought that I heard you highly recommended that every crew should have at least one on board?”
“Absolutely, and I stand by that. Humans are excellent innovators, and are psychologically very resilient. If you have a crisis, then a human that has bonded wth your crew properly can be invaluable. Treat your human well and you should get the best out of them as a crew member. Their ability to get on with almost any species is legendary.”
“But Toks, didn’t you just say…”
“The trouble is that they will potentially try to bond with anything. If you leave them unsupervised, you have no idea what kind of trouble they can get themselves into. It was sheer luck that the Fanzorians thought that it was funny that the human picked up the Crown Prince to coo at him.”
“Crown Prince Horram, Scourge of Pixia?”
“The very same. Surprisingly good sense of humour. But don’t even get me started on that one time with the Dunlip. Al-Human wanted to know if they could keep it. As a pet.”
“A Dunlip? You mean the 3 metre tall apex predators from Jowun?”
“Yup. Don’t leave your humans unsupervised.”
“I’ll uh, take that under advisement.”
“Seriously. Get a supply of safe animals for the humans to bond with or they will make their own. I mean, they will try to befriend anything they come across anyway, but without any permanent pets they can get… creative. Don’t even get me started on the time one of them taped a knife to one of our auto-cleaners and named it Stabby.
Three weeks in and when we finally caught the wretched thing, half the humans on crew tried to revolt about us “killing” Stabby by removing the knife.
“How… how did you resolve that sir?”
“Glaxcol made a toy knife out of insulation rubber and strapped that on instead. Quite a creative solution, I suppose.”
“And that sated the humans?
“Worse.”
“Worse?”
“They thought it was so funny they made a second one, strapped false eyes on springs to both and held mock battles. Then decided Stabby and Knifey were in love and now none of them will allow the others to stage fights between them any more.”
Stabby is an omniversal constant.
Oh my gods, we’re the Steve Irwins of the universe.
this is my fave thing.
it can’t even be safe to assume humans would only attach themselves to only fuzzy, furry things.
reptilian and even insectoid creatures are just as likely to be randomly selected as “this is a thing i love” by a human.
“Excuse me, captain? Human-Rob requests that we … bring aboard … a Kilarn.”
“A Kilarn? The giant poisonous and highly aggressive insectoid predator? Am I hearing you correctly?”
“…. Yes ser.”
“For the love of- WHY?”
“I asked the same thing, to which they replied “he’s trying his best” in a distressed tone of voice.“
*captain sighs and holds head in hands*
“Human-Alex, why exactly do you want to possess a 12-meter reptillian creature fully capable of devouring both you and your crew-mates, and who feeds strictly on mammilian creatures like yourself?”
“First of all, her name is Sinnabon. Second, she is my danger noodle, and gives the best hugs.”
I absolutely adore discovering what different people find hilarious with Cards Against Humanity because you’ll have someone who won’t even flinch when a card like “bees?” or “Boris the Soviet Love Hammer” is played but in the next second they’re crying from laughing at "this is your pilot speaking fasten your seat belts and prepare for clams“
I have a GENIUS idea for a TV show. Half cat;half dog. No, no. I already have the perfect name. Get this. “Catdog”. No, don’t worry about how it poops. You’re disgusting. This is a kids show
So, I posted a fic today, and as I was setting up the AO3 post, I found myself writing in the end notes an impassioned - almost desperate, ngl - plea for comments. For interaction.
And yeah, for validation too. Because you know what? Writing is hard - despite commonly held misconceptions, it takes a shit-ton of effort to take some blank, empty void of a page and fill it with something that lives and breathes and touches the minds and hearts of others.
And don’t you dare wave that “you should be writing for yourself” bullshit in my face. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been able to do that, and honestly I’m glad managed to recover as much as I have and write as much as I do. Having an audience is an integral part of the writing process.
Let me repeat that.
We fanfic authors don’t ask for much. As someone who is a published author, who has been published in a Real Physical Book™ and was paid hundreds of dollars in Honest-to-God cold-hard cash for less work than I put into my fanfic, let me tell you, a few comments will not pay my tuition or buy my groceries or put clothes on my back. Compared to the hours of labor that went into earning the money I was paid with, comments take substantially less time to create.
And yet, to us, they are priceless. Authors will create entire worlds for the sake of making a single person smile. YOU CAN BE THAT PERSON. WE WILL WRITE FOR YOU HAPPILY.
You just have to let us know you care.
And you’d better do it soon. I’ve heard too many authors all too willing to pull their tumblrs and erase or abandon their fics on AO3 because they have grown weary of screaming into the void. That fanfic you love? Gone. That chapter you’re waiting for? Never gonna happen. How many of you have bookmark lists with fics already missing? I bet you won’t even remember which one it is.
You can keep that from happening. Just write “Omg thank you for updating, I really liked _________!” and fill in the blank. Someone worked hard to put that smile on your face. You can make them smile in return.
“And don’t you dare wave that “you should be writing for yourself” bullshit in my face.
“
This so fucking much!! Writers write to be read!