![canstockphoto21035848.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/internutter/23yJLbjd1YShJ6HUXpX4HB5N9rU8w1tuznDJAMkCU8imjibcLeirFUV6h3kNFAE9u6bSi.jpg)

> Alert!
> Warning!
> "...HELP!"
> People come running as that word bellows down the corridor. A pirate, one of the stragglers that hadn't been able to flee as fast as the others did when they learned the prowess of the humans guarding the ship, was stuck. Young Pib had gotten molasses all over the wall, almost finger-painting with it, and now the pirate's feathers were heavily stuck like a fly to flypaper. -- Anon Guest

It looked like a humorous cartoon come to life. The avian pirate, already shorn of most of their livesuit, had taken a corner incorrectly and wound up heavily involved in one of Pib's "art installations". Considering the nature of toddlers, there were worse things they could have been using to finger-paint on the walls.

This time, Pib had 'found' the molasses. There were some very creative streaks over an area that _just happened_ to be enough to trap an avian cogniscent by their feathers.

Human Pib, eminently sticky, held up one goo-covered hand and said, "You a badguy?" At which point the parentals quickly scooped them up and out of the immediate area. The rest of the pirates had already had a similar idea, and left their shipmate behind.

"The bad guys can't do bad things any more," said a parental, mid-whisk. "They're all stuck and _we_ can take care of the mess."

"Am _I_ a bad guy?"

"No, you just put molasses where molasses doesn't belong. Remember? Food belongs in tum-tums, not on walls."

"I surrender, I surrender," babbled the Pirate. "Don't let them get me!"

The crew considered - very briefly - leaving them stuck there until they reached next port, but the general consensus was that it was unhygienic. Pirates could chill in the brig, where mutually assured safety reigned supreme.

Hir name was Lyb, and piracy had seemed like a doddle until these flakking _Deathworlders_ started turning up everywhere. Who knew that Human chicks were even deadlier than the parentals? Not any of hir crew, that's for sure.

It was even more disturbing for Lyb to learn that Human Pib was the only known toddler with a kill count. In Pib's slim favour, most of that was synchronicity. That small factoid was not as emboldening as it should seem.

"You mean this small and helpless _young_ has a _kill count_... and it's _by accident_?"

"In our defense, we thought planetary survey missions were an excellent arena for early childhood development. Get them used to the weirdness of the universe before they know what 'normal' is..."

Obviously, mistakes had been made by both sides.

[Image <a href="https://www.canstockphoto.com">(c) Can Stock Photo / DPimborough</a>]

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