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 play a flute? -- DaniAndShali
Never ask rhetorical questions that have obvious and painful answers. It should be a rule of life. The universe has a way of answering to your detriment. Many, many people have found this out at the price of their own pain. Today's example is the crew of the Embedded Blade, a gang of pirates in the Edge territories who took one look at a distance cruise vessel and said the near-fatal words, "It's a Havenworlder ship. What opposition could they possibly pose?"
It was a ship registered and owned by Havenworlders. However, it was crewed and filled almost entirely by Deathworlders. The worst possible Deathworlders in known space. Humans. They had already attacked, boarding the vessel and demanding every possible valuable from the people therein and their relatives elsewhere. They were surprised to find bands of resistance in the form of physical, chemical, and mental opposition.
That was four hours ago. Pockets of fighting persisted, and most of the customers and crew were relaxing on the Lido Deck whilst everyone sorted everything else out amongst themselves. Even Humans recognise when there are too many dancers on the metaphorical floor and democratically decide to leave those who had it handled to handle it. Interestingly, some were tag-teaming with others. As for the rest... Humans get bored easily. This is also a hazard.
Fortunately, Humans are also a creative bunch. The ones lingering on the Lido Deck grew bored of games and, with instruments and song and wit, held something of an improvised talent show. It was, of course, the kind of glorified chaos that only Humans were capable of. Until one of the Pirates decided to sneak into the Lido Deck for a very much-needed break from the unending chaos and mayhem of the ongoing battles.
They spent an hour studying the shenanigans as they ensued and, after a few further minutes' thought, brought out an instrument and joined in with one of the easier tunes to gain the gist thereof.
Over the passage of that day, some of the more musically-inclined pirates also joined in with the self-entertainment shenanigans. It was not long after that that the fighting devolved into a battle of the bands.
Once the Humans start having fun with you, it's all over. Friendship is inevitable.
Once they were all friends, the whole reason for the raid went up in metaphorical smoke.
They failed as pirates, that much was true, but they gained benefits in truly bizarre directions. That's the Human effect for you.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / sad]
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