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22:2922:29, 1 November 2025 Noosphere (hist | edit) [2,653 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "The noosphere, also spelled noösphere, pronounced /'no.ə.sfir/, also called the mind sea, is an important philosophical and metaphysical idea in most yinrih religions. Different religions define the noosphere differently, but a common thread running through all its conceptions is the progression from inanimate matter to living things and eventually to sapience, and the interconnections between individual sapient minds. == The Bright Way == In the Bright Way, the...")

01:4601:46, 30 October 2025 Human for a Day (Part 1?) (hist | edit) [5,720 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with ""I got some reeeeeaaal good stuff this time." My dealer glances furtively to either side, then pulls a clear baggie with bright yellow powder from his wallet. I reach for the goods, but he pulls the baggie away. "Nah-uh! You already got your first hit for free." I draw a polymer note from my wallet, but he slaps it out of my paw. "Get out of here with those mineral notes. It's AW tokens or nothing." I sigh and hand over a few coins. He sniffs them and brushes them aga...")
01:4501:45, 30 October 2025 The Angel and the Ape, Part 1 (hist | edit) [7,656 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "Fr. Shaheen took a drag of his cigarrette as he stared up at the night sky. A few stars were just bright enough to shine through the gray haze cast by the street lights in town. Just at the edge of the trailer's porch light sat an old foundation where a sizeable rectory once stood. It had been far too large for a single resident, so he had it torn down and was now living in a much more modest mobile home. At one point a youth center was planned to take its place, but th...")
01:4301:43, 30 October 2025 First Contact, Part 2.5 (hist | edit) [11,663 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "I'm floating down the main axis, letting the air current push me along. I'm feeling every one of my four hundred years. My left knee crunches each time I grasp a paw cable to push myself forward. I've only got four limbs, and my rear paws have had to pull a lot more weight, literally, compared to someone with his tail intact. I count my blessings that nobody can see how gray my muzzle has become thanks to my white fur. It's been 250 years since I last saw Iris and the...")
01:4101:41, 30 October 2025 First Contact, Part 2 (hist | edit) [12,069 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "We stand in silent awe for a moment. Sunshine is quietly weeping as the beeping continues. It seems to strain against the noise, a lonely soul crying out for someone, anyone, to respond. _Dah di dah dit, dah dah di dah. dah di dah dit, dah dah dih dah. dah di dah dit, dah dah di dah. Dah di dit, dit_. Stormlight flicks his tail, tuning the radio to a random frequency. For a moment the static resolves into an alien voice before fading back into the noise. "They're eati...")
01:3701:37, 30 October 2025 On the Merits of Pelage (hist | edit) [1,154 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "Tod, brushing a knot out of his tail: «Sometimes I think this coat isn't worth the hassle.» Jim: "You know there are humans who would kill to have your fur." Tod: «Just as long as they don't kill ME.» Jim: "Eh, stay away from Cruella Deville and you'll be fine." Tod, after a moment's thought: «Really though, y'all have a much better deal, setting aside how gross your sweat smells, it really is superior to our panting.» Jim: "I don't know... I think not having...")
01:3601:36, 30 October 2025 RTFM (hist | edit) [11,823 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "“Take these and toss them in the shredder!” Skywatcher shoved a loose pile of claw-written papers into his slave’s chest. The sound of something heavy slamming against the fortified security door echoed down the darkened hallway, followed by muffled barked orders, then another slam. Whitepaw looked down at the notes hastily thrust at her. A light held in her tail feebly illuminated the text. Network diagrams, node tables, firewall rules. Decades, no, centuries wor...")
01:3501:35, 30 October 2025 Everybody Poops Together (hist | edit) [22,705 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "THUMP I stood next to the wall, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, trying to ignore the increasingly urgent churning growls coming from my gut. There were no chairs in this waiting room, none my butt could sit in, anyway. I took my phone out of my pocket to check the time. The clock was the only thing that worked, no cell towers 25 light years from Earth. I had been standing in this waiting room for nearly an hour with nothing to occupy my mind. For the sixt...")
01:3301:33, 30 October 2025 The Farspeaker's Apprentice (hist | edit) [6,846 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "The main core of the network stretched out before me: rack upon rack of black boxes extending into the distance, their chassis scintillating with link lights blinking softly as packets rushed in and out of each interface. Meticulously bundled cables of various colors spilled forth from the racks and ran here and there along runways above my head. A cold breeze from the heat pump rustled my whiskers. Permeating this cavernous chamber was the rushing white noise of thousan...")
01:3101:31, 30 October 2025 First Contact, Part 1.5 (hist | edit) [10,447 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "Iris plunges the metal poker into the liturgical bonfire as Lodestar concludes the final hymn, and another vespers comes to a close. Ringlight is off by himself as usual, staring into the offing as Focus hangs low over the water. I wish he'd at least be with us during liturgy. I guess he just doesn't have it in him anymore. Makes me ache a little inside. He used to be so devout. His faith was what kept the shadows at bay. Me and him, we both struggle with depression. I...")
01:2901:29, 30 October 2025 Table Manners (hist | edit) [12,933 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "For a few seconds I waver between turning right to head home or to cross the street to go to the restaurant. I look down at my guest. His snout is still angled skyward, glossy wet nose twitching frenetically as he drinks in the aroma of wood smoke. He starts licking his chops as saliva begins to drip from the corners of his black lips. After a moment's hesitation, I march forward toward the curb cut. My intent now clear, the little asteroid miner begins excitedly pranci...")
01:2801:28, 30 October 2025 First Contact, Part 1 (hist | edit) [6,378 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "The golden rays of the westering sun soak into my fur, and I feel the warm sand under my palms erode as gentle waves lap at my paws. "How long have I been standing here?" I wonder. A whisper responds, "It doesn't matter. There is no before, no after. There is only now." "Where is this place again?" I think to myself. "It doesn't matter. There is no elsewhere. There is only here." says the voice again. "Now what was my name again?" I ask myself. "It doesn't matter....")
01:2601:26, 30 October 2025 Mundane Utility (hist | edit) [3,846 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "Ron stared up at the metal behemoth looming over him. A nagging itch scraped at some dark corner of his primate brain, a whisper echoing through his genetic memory, from a time when his tiny furtive ancestors cowered in the shadow of giants. The fact that the mech made no sound as it moved amplified his feeling of unease. There was no whir of motors, no roar of engines, no whine of servos, no shriek of metal against metal. There was only a dull rumor, felt more than he...")
01:2501:25, 30 October 2025 The Spacer Confederacy (hist | edit) [4,351 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with ""And you're the interim chief?" asked the federal councilman, his voice echoing throughout the cavernous main axis of the newly constructed colony. "That's correct." said Graypelt. "Gentlemen, my dame," the councilman addressed the pair of envoys from the Allied Worlds along with the hearthkeeper floating by their side. "Would you allow Graypelt and I a moment alone?" He moved toward the docking port where a shuttle was stationed, beckoning Graypelt to follow. Graypel...")
01:2301:23, 30 October 2025 The Ansible (hist | edit) [16,691 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "“I see we’ve got a bigger crowd than usual. Welcome, everyone, to this meeting of the Erickson Amateur Radio Club. I guess word got around that one of our little visitors is going to be giving a presentation about their faster than light communication network. Since most of you here aren’t even members, I’ll just skip the preamble and invite Stormlight to start his presentation.” Bob pushed a yinrih perch in front of the podium and walked back to his chair. St...")
01:2101:21, 30 October 2025 The Mass Router (hist | edit) [5,595 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "He glanced nadirward through the observation window at the green and blue surface of the planet. A river, coruscating in Focus's rays, wound through the verdant jungle passing below. It was THE river, the measure to which all other rivers were compared. It was so old that it didn't even have a name. Every other river on Yih, and every watercourse wrought on other celestial bodies by pioneers in the intervening millennia, was, after peeling away one hundred thousand year...")

22:4822:48, 25 October 2025 Retribution field (hist | edit) [366 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "A retribution field is a type of force field that absorbs the kinetic energy of incoming projectiles and projects that energy back at the attacker in the form of a pillar of light and concussive force. Retribution field generators come in a variety of form factors, from disposable granades meant to be tossed toward the attacker to systems built into powered armor.")
16:1016:10, 25 October 2025 Fire of Understanding (hist | edit) [488 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "In the Bright Way, the Fire of Understanding, also called sapience, is a gift given by the Uncreated Light to certain species of living things allowing them to reflect upon themselves and think symbolically. It differentiates irrational animals from sophonts. According to the Great Commandment, the yinrih are not the only beings granted the Fire of Understanding. Other such beings dwell among the stars, and the yinrih are tasked with finding these far-fl...")

01:2101:21, 23 October 2025 Beating the Heat (hist | edit) [20,971 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with " “…another record-breaking afternoon, with temperatures throughout the region surpassing the 90-degree mark. A cold front is set to bring relief to central and southeast Texas later this evening but looks like there may be some severe weather along with the cooler temperatures. The Storm Prediction Center has issued a tornado watch for the region until early tomorrow morning. Now it’s time for your local forecast.” Sarah let the smooth jazz drifting out of the TV...")
01:1601:16, 23 October 2025 The Artificer's Litter (hist | edit) [3,418 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with " Orbiting a dwarf planet on the edge of Partisan territory are the remains of a massive megastructure. It looks like the head of a yinrih, wrought in colossal proportions. It was clearly meant to be part of an even larger mechanism, and has been left unfinished rather than having been completed and then dismantled or broken later. Strictly speaking, nobody knows why its there. No records can be found relating to the terraforming or colonization of this particular dwarf...")
01:1001:10, 23 October 2025 Are We as Mayflies? (hist | edit) [4,768 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "The hot Texas sun beat down on the two people sitting outside the root beer stand. Only one of them was a human. Bob the human looked to his right at the half wall next to his chair. There, lying on his belly, straddling the wall like a raccoon resting on a tree branch, glossy black pelt shining in the sun, prehensile tail hanging off the opposite side of the wall, was the other person. His six-fingered paw held an ice-cold root beer, which the waitress had thoughtfully...")
00:3100:31, 23 October 2025 The Tornado (hist | edit) [31,087 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with "Jim surveyed the empty trailers around him as he sat in the lawn chair in front of his mobile home. Everyone else in this little student ghetto had left for spring break. It was quiet, and he liked it that way. He raised his eyes to the object of interest, a thunderhead billowing in the distance, reflecting the golden rays of the westering sun. He took a sip of iced tea as he listened to the sounds of nature: the chirping of birds, the buzzing of insects, and the quiet c...")
00:2900:29, 23 October 2025 The House of Friendship (hist | edit) [5,722 bytes] Lurker (talk | contribs) (Created page with " Standing a mere stone's throw from the Eternal Hearth, the edifice was supposed to be a monument to the friendship between the only two sapient species in the galaxy, and to the yinrih who built it, it was just that, but to most humans visiting the holy world of Hearthside, it was--well--a tower of human skulls. We had offered a large supply of medical cadavers to our new galactic neighbors so that they might better understand human biology. It was thought that the yi...")

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