Kennel Club Book Club - The Megathread for all furry comic book, graphic novel and literature lunacy.

Chaplainsama · Dec 23, 2023

Habits/Terrible Terrible Terrible is a series of rambling crustpunk comics by Lauren Monger. They star a young opossum named Clementine as she struggles through the adventures of poverty and her personal life shared with her myriad of fellow suburbanites.
It started out as independent sketching on her tumblr, but eventually got syndicated for a short time in Vice news. Its gained a small following and is sort of the furry version of Megg, Mogg, and Owl, but unlike MMO, it is basically dead, with Lauren herself seeming to have gone dark around 2019, and Clementine taking to the ether sometime around 2017.
I don't know about you but I find tumblr and twitter terrible platforms for reading comics so attached is a collection of Clementine and co. They're fun snippets, and there isn't a whole lot of them anyhow, so its worth a breezethrough.

Dr. Ricearoni · Dec 24, 2023

(some official art i found of a venlil being silly)

The Nature of Predators Part 2

Getting back into the story here we're gonna be introduced to a few new characters. Like I said before the story switches perspectives fairly often but it's not nearly as taxing as you'd think it might be, especially since chapters seem to be almost episodic in their content at times. Picking up just over a month after the end of chapter 5, Humans and Venlil have begun efforts to reduce fear between their populations and establish a rapport. Let's just see how that's going then.

Tarva has officially announced the presence of humanity to Venlil Prime quite some time ago and while the population was initially skeptical (They had to shut down the borders just to keep people from fleeing the planet in fright), a mix of the astronauts running a PR campaign with Tarva and an outpouring of food donations from Earth to Venlil Prime has begun to soften the perceptions of most Venlil. In an effort to integrate humankind and venlilkind, they've begun a bonding program of sorts. A venlil and a human are paired together through text chat for a few weeks with the ultimate goal of making them room together for a few days as a form of exposure therapy.

This is how we're introduced to Slanek, and his new human buddy, Marcel. The story mostly skips the boring part and puts us right into the fun part, as the pair are getting ready to meet for the first time in person. Luckily for Slanek's nerves, Marcel is a vegetarian, though that only helps a little bit, because like his first words to Slanek when they meet face to face are "Jeesh, I'm starving." Slanek about doubles over in panic before Marcel clarified he only wanted to share a bag of potato chips with the little guy. The almighty starch wafer immediately puts Slanek at ease, as it should.

First thing's first though, Marcel's gotta get some psychological screening done. What exactly this entails isn't immediately clear and Slanek can't help but feel protective of his human friend despite his instincts, so he sticks around for the procedure.

Not much to say about this chapter, it's really just an introduction to some prominent characters we'll be following for a while. Marcel is probably one of my least favorite characters overall. He's not bad persay he's just a fuckin vegetarian ginger and I think overall he kinda brings out the worst in Slanek just as much as he brings out the best in Slanek. Slanek's also at fault for this but we'll get into that more as it arises. They've got a bromance thing going on though so that's nice.

So this chapter begins in media res, Marcel and Slanek are currently floating in the space at the federation border surrounding Venlil prime. They're both in the military and it's kinda unclear if the exchange program is purely a military thing or if they just got paired together because they're both in it. I'm sure the sidestories explain it but I actually haven't read any of them, and it really doesn't matter all that much. While they drift endlessly through space Slanek's mind wanders back to the results of the screening. Through the studies done on the humans coming to Venlil Prime, they had proof that humanity, despite being predators, were fully capable of feeling empathy.

Basically they just ran some tests to get some baselines for human emotions and then compared it to the feeling humans felt seeing Arxurian atrocities. Of course, the emotional response to seeing children tortured was closest to physical pain, so the venlil are willing to believe humanity can feel empathy now. It's clear to Slanek that Marcel's got the screening on his mind as well so they discuss it a while. Marcel thinks the whole thing was unnecessary and overly upsetting, but Slanek tries to reassure him they just needed proof if they were ever going to convince the galaxy that humanity deserved a chance. Their discussion is cut short however, when scanners catch 9 inbound arxur bombers en route to the human-venlil cohabitation station.

Now, venlil tactics are very much hit and run with a strong emphasis on run. Standard procedure for this is to disrupt the hyperspace warp shit with some cool hyperspace disruption pulse thing. From what I can tell it just kinda rips ships out of hyperspace and forces them to travel the rest of the way sub-ftl until they can get it warmed up again, as well as absolutely nauseating the crew of the targeted ships. Then they just run like hell and hope the Arxurians don't catch up to them until reinforcements arrive. And that's actually not a bad idea even for a human pilot. Marcel is a loose cannon though. Once he sees the arxur in range he puts the pedal to the metal and starts charging them down.

One issue, Marcel doesn't actually know how to use the ship's weapons. Now you can kinda see why I'm not a huge fan of the guy. He doesn't think shit through at all and puts everyone around him in danger and this will not be the last time he does this. The brave/reckless charge does catch the arxur offguard though, they're used to their prey gunning it in the opposite direction instead of charging them down and spewing plasma wildly in their general direction. He manages to take out the engines of one of the ships but other than that achieves very little as Slanek freaks the fuck out. It's only when the ship marks that all 9 of the bombers have a target lock on them that he realizes "oh fuck i'm retarded" and nopes the fuck outta there. The chapter ends with Slanek cursing Marcel's stupidity (as he should)

Rereading this I had actually forgotten how much I disliked early Marcel. He kinda wises up later on and stops being such a fuckin dunce over time but it never quite goes away. He's got a big heart and a tiny brain. Luckily we get a break from the action in the next chapter to cleanse the palette.

We cut to Sovlin, still seething over being evicted from Venlil territory over a month ago. He's currently meeting with the prime minister of the gojid as he's been snooping around venlil space trying to figure out what exactly was going on. She knows she should be reprimanding him, but she's actually quite curious herself what could draw the venlil to do something so bold as to commit political suicide and shut off all communications. Sovlin goes on to explain that he's seen ships entering the area freely despite the closed borders, and asks to be allowed to investigate properly. Despite her better judgement she grants his request and he's off to figure out what the hell is going on.

So he heads out to try to get into broadcast range and skim their on-planet transmissions, when he stumbles upon Slanek and Marcel's ship charging towards them at max speed. Assuming he's somehow been immediately found out by the venlil, he tries to shoo them off with a few warning shots. That doesn't slow them down long so he's about to order them to be shot down when the arxurian bombers come into scanner range. He quickly switches targets from Marcel and Slanek to take aim at the bombers as their ship's engine sputters out and they're forced to stand their ground. A burning beam skids towards one of the bombers from Sovlin's ship and the shipful of lizards becomes a shipful of corpses. The second ship takes out Marcel's weapons and engine in a volley of plasma fire and they're only saved by Sovlin's railgun chopping the other arxur ship in half. With the immediate threat dealt with, Sovlin's crew prepares to board the stranded ship.

This chapter's a lotta action so I'll try to explain the ship tech as best as I can understand it. Arxurian ships are heavily armored and carry plasma guns and gunner turrets, federation ships are huge and carry giant-ass railguns, the only things that can really blast through arxurian armor reliably. As it's described, federation ships are only huge because it takes a whole lotta shit to keep those railguns powered, since they're more or less the only effective weapon against the grays. Smaller patrol ships only carry plasma guns and I think the FTL disruptors and are barely effective against the arxur but presumably work fine against similarly sized fed ships.

Sovlin and a small boarding crew begin to make their way into the ship and find Slanek knocked the fuck out and bleeding badly. It looks like he had fainted in terror and limply smacked his head against the wall when the ship was hit by a volley of plasma. Marcel is nearby, hiding his face and hyperventilating like a bitch. Ok, I admit I'd be very freaked out in this situation too but let's be honest any sane man wouldn't be in this situation to begin with. Marcel rambles on about not being like the arxur in an attempt to not get shot when the crew realizes he's a predator. It doesn't work out and he's only spared because the crewmate who sees what he is trips over Slanek's body in a panic and blows a hole through the roof. Sovlin tries to reprimand her (leave it to a woman soldier to blindly panic fire lul) for it but freezes when he sees why she's freaking out.

Sovlin immediately starts jumping to conclusions. Predators have taken over Venlil Prime, obviously. It explained everything. The Venlil were subjugated right under their noses and it's up to Sovlin to rescue every venlil on that planet or die trying. With that in mind he decides to take Marcel in alive for "questioning" (really he just needs to take his anger out on someone, and is feeling vengeful over what he believes to be the capture or slaughter of an entire planet of Venlil). In the meantime they bring in a Doctor, Doctor Zarn. He gives the crew the go-ahead to transport Slanek to the medbay and gives Sovlin a sedative for Marcel.

The two of them discuss what to do with the unconscious human when Zarn reveals he's actually quite knowledgable on humankind (If you'll recall, though it was over a century and a half ago, the aliens had studied humanity a decent amount, and Zarn actually wrote a thesis on it for a bioethics class in college, arguing that the federation was in the right to try to exterminate humanity) and encourages Sovlin to be extra rough with Marcel.

Slanek Status:

Marcel Status:

Aaaaand we leave chapter 9 on a cliffhanger as we move onto what Tarva is doing. She's currently trying to contact the human station after the grays attacked the place and is pleasantly surprised to hear it's still standing. Noah and her military advisor greet her and it's revealed Noah has officially been made the human ambassador at her request. She's been struggling to keep track of every country on Earth which lead to a humorous moment where she thanked Austria for supplies sent by Australia, and while everyone took it in good humor she's refused to deal directly with anyone but Elias since.

Though it's a bit unavoidable now that her military advisor has entered with a General Jones from America and a General Zhao from china. They argue over who contributed more to the ships used in the station's defense and try to make her take a side but she sidesteps the question by asking to see the simulated recording of the space battle. The human tactic of "keep charging until one side is too dead to keep shooting" makes her wince and she's horrified when she sees the humans, now out of ammo with nothing to show for it but mass casualties, start ramming their ships into the arxur until every last ship is wrecked. Zhao, the bug man he is, simply declares "a win is a win." Zero venlil casualties.

They also bring up that they're aware Marcel has been captured but they believe they have plenty of time since the feds don't know where Earth is. Except they do and Tarva is forced to come clean that the galaxy unanimously voted to glass Earth during world war 2 before they were misinformed about humanity's downfall and left it alone. Noah is a bit hurt that even the venlil voted for the death of humanity, but it was before Tarva's time and before anyone really knew humanity so it's not that bad. What is bad is that the fed knows humanity exists and they already know where to find Earth and how to erase it.

The generals present seethe with quiet fury as they process this information. Tarva tries to insist the federation means well and that they deserve some mercy, but the generals make no promises, telling her that Earth must be protected at all costs. Tarva understands their anger, even if she doesn't want to see humanity and the federation come to blows, and promises that the venlil will support Earth no matter what they choose to do and if Earth is destroyed the evacuees are welcome to come to Venlil Prime. The chapter ends with her musing on how the galaxy's prejudice may very well become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So the inciting action is finally coming together and it seems like humanity is running out of time to make their case to the galaxy that they deserve to live among the stars too. Not to mention they've been caught off-guard in the thick of things. If they don't get their bearings and start making headway into securing their future then they may face the threat of extinction from the feds well before the arxur ever make it to their doorstep. This concludes chapters 6-10 of the Nature of Predators.

Dr. Ricearoni · Dec 27, 2023

@Creative Username asked for more venlil funni

The Nature of Predators Part 3

Firstly, allow me to preemptively apologize for double posting, but I'd rather keep these all formatted to their own posts. If a mod has a problem with it feel free to merge it but know you'll be making my heart sad inside. That being said, welcome to the third part of The Nature of Predators, covering chapters 11-15 (not counting the index that we skipped since I posted that in part 1) where we'll get to find out about the fates of Marcel and Slanek and see how they get out of this mess, if indeed they get out of it at all.

Hey, Slanek's finally awake. He tried to cross the border right, flew right into that federation ambush, same as Marcel, and that yeah ok this joke is played out. ANYWAYS. Slanek awakens from what feels like days (9 days to be exact! Every chapter keeps track of the date so it's nice we can keep track.) of lapsing in and out of consciousness and tries to remember what happened as he realizes he's in a ship's medical bay. Doc Zarn assures him that he's safe and informs him he's on a federation warship and he begins to freak out as he recalls Marcel and starts asking where he's at. Zarn is surprised when Slanek asks to be taken to Marcel rather than away from him, but ultimately relents and allows Slanek to see Marcel.

What he sees instead, however, is an unresponsive mass of bruises, huddled in the corner of a holding cell, gaunt and trembling. Marcel has been stripped and beaten to a pulp, starved and terrified for what could be days. I mean I didn't like the guy but I gotta feel bad for him in this state. Slanek's blood turns to ice when he realizes it's him, and he throws himself at the glass walls screaming for Marcel. That finally rouses the human from his fetal position and Slanek sees what they've done to him. His face is covered in clawmarks, his eyes were beaten so badly that one was swollen completely shut, deep gashes and dry blood adorning his face and a tight metal collar squeezed tight around his neck that electrocutes him when he stands to try to approach Slanek.

Slanek pleas for them to stop electrocuting him and they speak to one another, glad that the other is still alive despite the sorry state Marcel is in, until someone grabs Slanek by the scruff of his neck and starts dragging him away. It's Captain Sovlin, and he demands to know what's come over the distraught venlil. No sane venlil should be crying over a vicious predator, let alone a human, slavers who took over his planet. Slanek fires back that he's his friend and that the venlil have willingly partnered with the humans, which shocks Zarn and Sovlin. Sovlin is so taken aback by his brazen disapproval of what he's done that he tosses Slanek into the cage under the hopes that Marcel, starving, would try to eat the poor venlil.

Slanek, for a second, is scared Marcel might actually do it. Marcel just weakly crawls over to him and sits by him and they begin to talk. He asks what happened to his eye and Marcel tells him that Sovlin got tired of him looking at him, told him next time he'd gouge the eye out entirely with his claws. No matter what he says or does, they always find an excuse to beat him senseless. Slanek promises to get him out of his imprisonment but Marcel tells him to leave him behind and not to make promises he can't keep. Slanek can't help himself and pulls the beaten human into a tight hug before even he realizes he's doing it, and reaffirms that he WILL get Marcel out, because he is his brother, and he loves him. And there they sit, comforting one another while the fed's officers look on in shock.

Another heavy one. It at least feels earned compared to what we've had in the past, and Slanek and Marcel's unshakeable bromance endears me to the both of them considerably. Obviously Marcel is retarded and shouldn't have gotten himself in this situation to begin with, but what are best buds for if not to be there for you when you do something retarded and pay the price?

Because Sovlin is a dick he just leaves Slanek in there in the hopes that Marcel might eventually turn on him. At some point, Slanek falls asleep in Marcel's arms without realizing it, and when he awakens he overhears the doctor talking to Sovlin's second in command, a Kolshian named Recel. The plan was to let Slanek out the second Marcel attacks him, but Slanek still needs more medical attention and the doctor refuses to enter the cage with the predator inside it, so he's trying to get Recel to let Slanek out without telling Sovlin. Slanek starts shouting and arguing with the two of them when he hears it, insisting that he's not coming out without Marcel. Recel argues back that he's not thinking straight because of his head injury and that he's certain the human is just mimicking having empathy and caring about him.

Slanek counters back that they have proof otherwise, biochemical proof that humans feel empathy. The doc handwaves (pawwaves?) the analysis as clearly being incorrect, possibly even altered by the humans, and storms off with a huff. Recel, on the other hand, is visibly rethinking what they've done. He comes over and has a closer look at Marcel, then paces around anxiously until Slanek pipes up and asks for food. His resolve is shaken even more when he's informed that Marcel can eat vegetation, and in fact prefers it, and visibly upset looking at Marcel's exposed ribs, finally relents and offers up some half-eaten discarded fruit, since Sovlin will know if he gets a second set of rations.

Marcel fucking devours the half-eaten fruit and licks his fingers clean and Recel begins asking him questions, curious, intrigued by Marcel. He asks why the humans want to fight the arxur and Marcel tells him it's because they've seen what the arxur do and it angers them. Humans were lonely, they were hoping to find friends in the galaxy, and are forlorn to be seen as monsters like the arxur. Recel then asks if humans are tempted at all to harm the venlil, curious how their instincts don't tell them to pounce upon someone as vulnerable as Slanek. Marcel says he could never hurt something so adorable and that all he cares about is his safety. And then Sovlin bursts in and cuts the questioning short.

He snatches the controller from Recel's tentacle and tells the doctor to get Slanek out now so they can get him some psychological treatment for him and break him of his delusions. Slanek snarls at him, refusing to come over, scared that they'll fuck him up on drugs and convince him humanity is evil and erase his memories of Marcel. Marcel, despite his state, stands and puts himself between the doc and Slanek. Sovlin threatens, of course, to dissect Marcel in front of him out of spite for being called a monster by the terrified venlil. With that, he forcefully mashes the button down and zaps Marcel to the ground. Slanek rushes over to try to stop him from getting at Marcel but he Fat Gerald's Slanek to the floor and Doc Zarn grabs him.

Marcel tries to struggle back up to his feet but only makes it onto his elbows before Sovlin punts him in the face and shatters his nose. Tired of fucking around, Sovlin resolves to kill Marcel right here, right now. Recel tells him to stop, that they need to keep him alive, until they know more about what he is and what humanity's planning. Slanek is helpless to do nothing but watch as Marcel, glassy eyed and in pain shock, has a gun pressed to his head by the overzealous captain.

The torture continues, and it really seems like there's no hope for the duo now. The captain has Marcel dead to rights and Slanek will almost definitely face "treatment" for Predator's Disease after this (Something I'll explain more in depth when it gets brought up in the story proper, just know that it isn't pretty)

Slanek is being eaten up inside by regret. Knowing he'll never chat with Marcel again, never hear his voice again, never fly a spaceship or share a bag of chips, never, ever again. He blames himself. If he had woken up sooner, if he could say the right thing or convince them or had never fallen unconscious in the first place, Marcel wouldn't be executed in front of him. Of course, Sovlin hasn't done the deed just yet. He's savoring the agony on Marcel's face, prodding the gun at his broken nose to try to elicit a response, to make him fight back or just to scream. But Marcel is too far gone now, not even a whimper, so Sovlin shrugs and decides to just get it over with.

The doctor chuckles. He's enjoying this. It amuses him. Slanek, powerless though he might be, can't help but scream out, struggling viciously, biting hard, trying to get them to leave Marcel alone. It's all in vain. The doctor, unfettered, holds him tight and covers his mouth. He reaches out for Marcel as his struggling finally elicits a reaction from the beaten human, a sad smile to his terrified friend. Slanek closes his eyes. What had once been terrifying to him was now beautiful, and he wanted that friendly snarl to be the last time he sees Marcel's face, rather than a pile of mush and brain matter on the cold, steel floor.

Recel speaks. "Lower your weapon Sovlin, or I'll put you down with that thing." He can't bear to stand by and watch his captain, his teacher, behave just as monstrously as the arxur anymore. Slanek dares to open his eyes and sees Sovlin's face becomes a portrait of shock and outrage at his protege's betrayal. Zarn insists that there's no value to Marcel, nothing the human can tell them that Slanek cannot, but Recel is insistent. He's sapient, he thinks and feels just like any of them do and that's value enough to be worth sparing. Sovlin fires back that they took everything from him. And now they're taking his crew from him too. He won't let predators take anything else from him. A shot is fired. Sovlin topples thanks to the new hole he just got installed in his leg by Recel.

Then he points it at Zarn. Demands he let the venlil go. He won't take any of that "i'm just trying to fix him" crap so Zarn puts a syringe up to Slanek's throat, loaded with some unknown substance. Recel demands it again, or he'll take the collar off Marcel and they'll find out just how bloodthirsty he really is. Zarn falls for the empty threat and releases Slanek who rushes to Marcel and clings to him (and gets pushed off for it, because Marcel's body hurts and even a fluffy hug doesn't feel too great right now) while Recel gags Sovlin and paces around before settling on what to do next.

He pushes the gun into Slanek's paws and tells him to shoot Sovlin and Zarn if they try any funny business while he walks off to get Marcel a wheelchair. Slanek briefly considers betraying Recel for being a bystander to Marcel's torture and kept referring to Marcel as an "it" and a "thing", but decided against it because Recel was the reason Marcel was alive at all. He's not happy about what Recel had done but if they were going to have any hope of escaping this alive, it's by cooperating with the ornery kolshian. Despite his brave face, Recel is absolutely trembling the whole time he carts the injured human before locking Zarn and Sovlin in the cell and setting off the fire alarm. No one will question Sovlin's first mate if he's evacuating the prisoner, after all.

Recel realizes he's been too rough with the injured human and fights his fear to set him delicately in the escape shuttle before putting an emergency blanket over him to keep him warm and comfortable and checking his pulse. Still alive, but not in a great condition. With his job done, he resolves to stay behind while Slanek and Marcel escape. Slanek has changed his mind after seeing the care he put into making sure Marcel got into the shuttle safely, however, and insists that Recel come with them. If he stays behind he'll be hanged for treason for sure. Recel believes he deserves to be hanged for what he's done, but ultimately gets in the shuttle after Slanek insists that stopping a single murder isn't enough, they'll need him if they're going to stop a genocide.

With that, the shuttle takes off and a very, very long ride to safety begins.

Recel coming in clutch. Slanek doesn't realize it, but he did save Marcel's life. He only had to change one mind, not even all the way, just enough to get him to question things. And as a reward for his heroic behavior, he'll be branded a traitor for life. No one ever said doing the right thing was easy. Despite Marcel's many, many flaws, I'm glad to see him make it out of this alive, if only barely.

Our only non-Slanek chapter this batch. Tarva is visiting the human research station, to give a speech to show solidarity with the UN and have a ceremony in remembrance of the humans who died defending the station. At the end of the ceremony, they would be sending their non-military volunteers (From the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, apparently, presumably because 90% of the military pairings were now rather one-sided) planetside to begin human integration proper. She feels very confident now, there's been no reports of human on venlil violence aboard the station, though several complaints of humans trying to pet their fur. That in particular bewilders Tarva, she hasn't seen any signs of humans petting eachother.

But the ceremony is gonna have to wait. Her general just received word that there's a shuttle inbound for the station, all attempts of communication only earning hysterical cries that "my human needs immediate medical attention". Elias informs everyone of the pressing development and people begin to gather around the dock, hundreds of humans and venlil preparing for the inbound shuttle. Wanting to know if the federation was their enemy. Tarva is hopeful that they willingly let Marcel go, that maybe there's some proof that the federation is willing to be reasonable. Elias's response?

Never change, Elias.

Anyways, the shuttle lands and Slanek steps out as human paramedics shoulder their way past him to retrieve Marcel. They get him up on a stretcher to put him on a gurney. The astronauts, Noah and Sara (Sara isn't too terribly important but she is a named, recurring character so it's weird I've been neglecting to mention her) are horrified, and thank Tarva for scaring off Sovlin and saving them from the same fate that's befallen Marcel. Even quite a few of the Venlil seemed to be deeply upset by the display. Tarva herself wonders if she should cease advocating for humans to show mercy to the federation, and demands for the press to shut off the cameras. Elias is having none of it though. Keep the cameras rolling, he says, and spread this to every god damned corner of space. When humanity goes to war with the feds, he wants no one to say they did it for no reason.

Slanek begins explaining everything, and informs them that Recel is too terrified to leave the shuttle because of all the humans, so Tarva volunteers to go in and retrieve him. Recel is shocked to see Tarva alive, as nobody has seen her in months, and the station is infested with predators. She reassures him that the feeling will pass and offers to introduce him to just one human so he can get used to them. He accepts and she calls for Noah. She introduces the two and they banter a bit until Recel calms down and they coax him into leaving the shuttle. Together they leave, tails wrapped around one another's (The venlil are notable for communicating with their tails, and other species have picked up their tail language), with the hope that Recel's desire to aid the human was proof that the rest of the galaxy could be swayed as well.

Finally, a lighter chapter. It's good to have a little hope amidst the dreariness. It looks like things are finally gonna be okay now, plus we got more Secretary-General Elias and that's always a winner. But it's about time we wrap this batch up. One more chapter from Slanek's perspective to finish out the post.

It's been 2 days since the shuttle docked and Slanek has been inseperable from Marcel. Currently. he's feeding Marcel a block of tofu, despite Marcel's insistence he can feed himself. Slanek simply can't bear to see Marcel in the state he's in and is insistent on nursing him to health personally. The only thing he's scared of now is losing his friend, or so he thinks, because he finds himself frightened when he sees Marcel reaching for his head. He powers through the fear and relaxes when he realizes Marcel is just petting him, and the fear of having his throat torn out melts away under the gentle neck scritches he gets instead.

The heavy petting goes on for a while and words can't do the affection justice, so instead, here's fanart of the moment that the author has helpfully attached to the post.

"You're so cute!"

The moment is interrupted when Sara pulls Slanek away to discuss Marcel's health with him. She informs him that the scars run much deeper than the ones on his body and warns him that Marcel may suffer PTSD from his 9 days of torture and warns him that if Marcel acts up, reacts violently or fearfully that it's not the fault of either one of them and that she hopes she won't think of Marcel as a monster if he does. Slanek is upset that she'd even think he could ever think of Marcel as a monster after what they've been through, and she leaves them be, pleased with his response.

With all that said, Slanek does take a moment to consider how Marcel is feeling, and hops into bed to ask him what he's thinking about. Marcel answers that all he can think about is killing Sovlin and frankly Slanek agrees. But Marcel is serious, and he wants to know if Slanek thinks it makes Marcel seem bloodthirsty to wish for the death of his torturer. Slanek says he wouldn't shed any tears for Sovlin and he doesn't think it's fair that he got away with it with no more than a bullet wound to the leg. To move on from the topic Slanek asks him how the memories make him feel and Marcel admits that he felt nothing but relief when Sovlin was about to pull the trigger, only sorry that Slanek would be around to see it.

Marcel admits that he wants Slanek to stop babying him, that he's signing up to join the war against the gojid that humanity plans to declare in retaliation. Slanek isn't happy about it, but accepts it and asks when they're leaving. Slanek has made up his mind already, if Marcel is going to join the war then so is he. Slanek has a feeling he won't be the only venlil to join the war. It seemed that the venlil had already chosen their side, and for better or worse, the fate of humanity and venlil alike were now one.

A pretty good batch of chapters. It seems that peace talks have fallen apart before they ever began, and now humanity is taking the fight to the feds despite their intial desire to fight the arxur. Perhaps the federation has created the monster they saw in humanity. Or maybe the monster was inside the federation all along. Perhaps once humanity has bloodied their nose they'll be more willing to negotiate, but for now, this means war. This has been The Nature of Predators Chapters 11-15. Thank you.

Creative Username · Dec 27, 2023

Dr. Ricearoni said:
@Creative Username asked for more venlil funni

Thanks. This has been a very nice series of posts so far.

xXthrowawayaccountXx · Dec 27, 2023

Creative Username is probably gonna go on with a more detailed breakdown of the Nature of Predators series, but I've read up to chapter 180 (thank you kemono party) and I just wanna give my thoughts and opinions as someone who's kinda checked out at this point.

My opinion? It's a pretty good series, but I'd say it's already blown it's biggest story loads early, and at this point it kinda seems a bit dragging.

To anyone who wants to know what those loads are and save themselves a couple hundred chapters:

The biggest twist is that no, humans and arxur were not the first, and a couple dozen species were omnivores of various types before getting "cured" by having a meat allergy injected into them. Billions commit suicide/are lynched because of this.

Second, smaller one is on predator disease. You don't actually know what counts as predator disease or how it's treated until later. Turns out they basically throw fucking anyone in the lobotomy looney bin for any mental disorder under the sun. It's basically how troons pretend the medical industry is when they self diagnose as a unicorn.

Oh yeah, also the fluffy sheep people used to be super badasses, until the federation dragged them all into gene editing to make them all super disabled, took all the children off planet to brainwash them, cleansed the entire planet, and brought those children back and just made up venlil society from scratch. The species name isn't even venlil. It's skalgan.

Finally they meet the big bad original group that did all this, and they basically did this because they had a pandemic of prions, never found out what actually happened and just assumed meat eating was cursed forever.
Kinda the weakest twist of all, cause it's just not gonna top what came before.

I think the big thing is that if you don't like the formula of Alien hates predators > Predator/Human does something slightly nice > Oh my god this is blowing my mind then this story is gonna get boring fast. I thought after the big twists this was gonna get shaken up, but that's really only after the first twist. and even then it goes back into the formula.

Also, a lot of moralfagging about not killing people that are actively trying to genocide you. This is more prevalent if you go in, may allah forgive me, the Reddit for this series, but it's fucking silly how it's aliens who will literally burn you and your entire species alive if you lose, but the people there will criticize using cyber attacks.

I know it's a sin to use reddit, but it's where most of the community is. There are genuinely decent fanfics that feel supplemental to the original, but expect to need to weed out a lot of reddit faggotry and regular faggotry if you go there. I forget the name of it, but the one where the group crash lands on earth and has to survive in the snow is very good. Playing by ear/New York Carnival are also good.

I'd say that's the tagline. It's the highest quality reddit trash, but it's still marred as reddit trash, so read at your own risk.

Creative Username · Dec 27, 2023

xXthrowawayaccountXx said:
- snip -

That's what half of those absurdly large number of species are going to end up doing, I guess? Yeah, if it's going to be too cyclical I'll start checking out. Seems like there's a small nugget of good Deep Thunks in an overly extended story.

Vibe_Guy · Dec 27, 2023

For those who don't know:
Who is kittydog?

b907a955efc4641a973af188df8f00359731be58r1-768-1064v2_hq.jpg

>early porn indoctrinated child now adult
>had drawn NSFW while underaged
>has ADHD and most likely a comorbid cluster 2 disorder according to DSM-5 (histrionic, grandiose narcissism)
>did/does LSD
>allegedly ran a discord server where some members posted CP and both kittydog and the mods have deemed it a non-problem until pressured by the wider community to do something and apologize
>uses internet clout to entice fellow artists into entering highly conditional relationships
>hasn't improved her animation in 15+ years, pissing off every animator under the sun.
>black

Fanfics:
Random Kittydog stories by Miiraisme
source

There are more OC's but I can't be fucked to screenshot and post all of them so click the link if you're curious. These mfkers however appear most prominently.

The stories are written around 2017 by individual fangirls/boys

Chaplainsama · Dec 27, 2023

Vibe_Lad said:
Searching and skimming trough this thread I didn't see one person mention Kittydog fanfics on wattpad, if it's a re-upload tell me and I'll delete this post.

Kittydog has an entire thread dedicated to her. Your post is appreciated lad, but the Book Club is more dedicated towards individual works, and we try to tackle author summaries when there's nowhere else to put them or when they don't require a whole thread dedicated to themselves.

If you'd like to do a writeup on one of her works specifically, that'd be more what we're aiming for here. I will say though, I've never seen somebody write fiction like they were posting on fucking discord, that's a new one.

I might as well make use of this post!

A curiosity that has escaped greater interest due to poor search engine optimization and also being an abandoned project is What Nonsense by Dranxis (Powerword: Caitlyn Crowley: twitter/personal tumblr/What Nonsense Tumblr/furaffinity).

It dares to ask the question "What if Figment ran a flophouse for the mentally deranged". Its a short read, but a very interesting one and since I'm on a timer to edit all this into a post I don't think I'd be able to do it full justice. Just another body floating in the vast and infinite net. But this one is a really interesting read for what there is!

I don't wish to spoil what little got written, but for those interested Caitlyn did a post-mortem that outlined her intentions for the full story when you do run out of the comics she managed to finish. Its just a curio from long ago, dear readers and true believers, I urge you to read it! Sure, the art is rough around the edges, it goes for a more comedic and absurdist tone than say Fresh Meat does when handling mental illness, but that's the fun of this work. Its raw artistry assembled with care, unlike this post, thrown together without a smidgen of the thought Caitlyn put into this before she just took it out to the back shed and put both barrels in it. At least she has the decency to leave the corpse out for a viewing.

better posts to come in the future.

Vibe_Guy · Dec 27, 2023

Chaplainsama said:
Kittydog has an entire thread dedicated to her.

Edited the fattie tissue and added a bit of clarification. But your suggestion and critique is duly noted for the future.

Appreciate it.

Dr. Ricearoni · Dec 29, 2023

Apparently this is Sovlin. He looks lonely.

The Nature of Predators Part 4

Welcome back to my review of the Nature of Predators. When we last left off, humanity had already given the orders for preemptive strikes against the Gojid race in an effort to defend humanity and the Earth itself, now that Captain Sovlin and his crew are aware of humanity's survival and will almost certainly raise the alarms and rally the cradle to arms in an effort to destroy the predators before they can take root in the galaxy. In this section we'll actually get to see a decent amount of Sovlin's perspective as humanity begins to ramp up aggressions, so let's look in and see how the old bastard is doing.

...Actually, before we get started, can I just say the user-generated ads on royalroad are always absolutely cringe inducing. This has nothing to do with the story, I just wanted to show these off.

You'll see tons of weird dead memes bragging about shit nobody cares about in literature. I have to imagine most of the stories on this website are absolute shit so if any of you wanna go digging through the site for more weird furry literature be my guest.

This meme was long dead when I could count my age on my fingers.

ROMANCE?!

"Are you sure this will endear our readers to our story?"
"Story?"

This one actually looks kinda baller, if only for its sheer ridiculousness.

I am disgusted at myself for audibly laughing at whatever this is.

BACK TO ADVENTURE.

Now the opening to this one confuses me somewhat. It takes place 3 days after Sovlin and Zarn are thrown in the cell Marcel was in, and it starts with Sovlin detailing how he is finally let out by a janitor who was cleaning up the place. It doesn't specify WHEN they're actually let out though, so my first thought is "Really? It took the crew three days to realize their fucking CAPTAIN was missing? And they only found him by accident???" It's entirely possible they were let out fairly quickly and Sovlin is just recounting it three days later, but STILL.

Sovlin, as usual, is fucking seething. His favorite pasttime, really. All he can think about is Marcel and Recel. How disgusting Marcel was and how incensed it made him that Recel of all people could betray him. He actually feels quite entitled to Marcel's suffering, after all the pain the arxur have inflicted on the federation. Alas, Sovlin must be pulled out of his angry dome because the prime minister is calling and he's gotta answer it.

By now the cat is very much out of the bag, news of Tarva's folly and humanity's existence has rocked the galactic community and now the leaders in the federation have arranged an emergency convention to discuss what to do next. It'd take days for everyone to gather at the meeting place but scared civilians want answers stat. The Gojid, however, are not the sort to sit on their spines and do nothing, and so Sovlin is to join up with a fleet of gojid bombers and make their way to Earth.

There's a warrant out now for Recel's arrest. It's a good thing he ran off with Slanek and Marcel cause he'd be dead meat for sure if he stuck around. The final matter they discuss is that two gojid outposts have suddenly gone dark, so the prime minister warns him to stay on his toes. Seems like humanity's strike has already begun right under their noses. Sovlin is quick to write that off as the arxur, but the prime minister isn't so convinced. With that call taken care of, Sovlin begins to take stock of the current situation.

Sovlin begins running scans and notices some stray radio signals. After a bit of tinkering they find the source and spot human ships in the distance hiding by a gas giant (This is explained to give somewhat of an advantage in that it hides your subspace signals when you warp, but you also run the risk of getting caught in the planet's gravity wells.) Sovlin orders the crew to charge the railguns at low power so that the humans don't notice them prepping their attack while they listen in on the radio signals.

The banter we hear isn't too terribly interesting, just some humans discussing how harsh it felt to hit and run the gojid's military bases before they've actually attacked humanity. One of them even feels guilty, because they signed up to fight the arxur, not the prey. Sovlin and his crew are caught off guard by the fact that humanity could feel sorry for the gojid, or even want peace for that matter. Then it clicks. This is a trap, these vessels are broadcasting radio waves as a distraction, but for what reason?

A brief argument breaks out between Sovlin and the crew. A younger analyst wants to attempt to hail the humans and offer a truce, but Sovlin shuts it down by reminding everyone they're talking about predators, and anyone who wants to talk to them is welcome to get on a shuttle, fly to their ships, and discuss it face-to-face with them. With that settled he orders the crew to fire on the human ships. Except there are no human ships. They disappeared during the argument and it hits Sovlin just exactly why they were distracting him. They must be gunning for the gojid colony that the base is orbiting, and while his fleet was busy bickering, humanity must be getting ready to slaughter the civilians trapped planetside.

A silence befalls the crew as the revelation hits. There's no way they could evacuate everyone in time, if indeed they could evacuate anyone. The only thing they can do now is try to break the siege and save those who remain. With that, they change course to the planet. Sovlin must put an end to their destruction.

So yeah, Sovlin is kind of a stubborn old ass. I don't know his exact age or even what a gojid lifespan actually is but the story makes it clear that he's pretty up there in age. He's way too sure of himself and doesn't seem to enjoy self-reflection very much, otherwise he might actually consider that humanity really DOES want peace. He makes a decent antagonist, in my opinion, at least more interesting than "rawr ima eat children and break their bones for funsies lul".

Starting up a bit after where 16 leaves off, Sovlin and the fleet are now forming a defensive wall over the colony to keep the humans out. They wait... and the humans finally warp back out of subspace to begin their attack. A brilliant streak of light arcs from the military station as the bombers approach the otherwise unprotected base, blasting a bomber out of the starry expanse. Undeterred, the human ships press onward towards their target while Sovlin refuses to let anyone break rank and defend the station. The lives of civilians come first. There are children down there. It was only a matter of time before bloodlust took hold and humanity turned their sights on the planet. The few ships that remained aboard the station chase the human bombers down and start trying to shred through them.

The human ships can't withstand much, they don't have shields because they're still running with primitive earth tech so any stray plasma fire can put them down pretty easily. But humanity adapts, and the ships start taking out their pursuers one at a time, whittling away at the interceptors until they're forced to back off and the human ships are free to press onward. Sovlin finds himself cursing their tenacity, willing to press on no matter how many of them died. It was, in his opinion, their emotions that were losing them the war against arxur to begin with. For that he can't help but somewhat envy their disposition.

Now in range, wave after wave of missiles come from the surviving human ships, crushing hangars, reducing barracks to rubble, blasting away the orbital defense lasers. The station is lost. Sovlin begins to feel twinges of regret when he thinks about the servicemen trapped under the rubble. He could've stepped in, if only he had a few more ships. But now the real prize was at stake. With the station destroyed, the human fighters begin to branch off and... leave. Exactly as they said, mission accomplished. The analyst from before starts shouting about how the humans had done what they had set out to do, and never intended to attack any civilians. The argument begins anew as the analyst and Sovlin exchange retorts until eventually Sovlin gets them to back down once more.

With the humans beginning to leave, some ships begin trying to break rank to pursue, so Sovlin starts yelling at them over comms to remain in place until the human ships are gone, that their presence is the only thing keeping the humans from pouncing upon the civilian populace. But someone starts shouting back, a hospital craft, not equipped for fighting, breaking rank suddenly and blazing towards the destroyed station. They refused to sit idly by and let people die when they could be out saving lives.

Sovlin demands they turn back, they won't be saving anyone's lives if they're shot down by the humans, but unfettered the hospital ship presses on, despite promises that he'll escort them personally if they just wait until the humans leave. The ship ends up, of course, directly in the path of a fleeing human ship, and Sovlin's crew detect a target lock from the humans on the medical ship. The human ship lobs some plasma there way, but the shields catch it and they press on irregardless. Sovlin is begging them now to turn back, or they'll be dead for sure, and he finds himself regretting it on the off chance the human picked up the radio chatter and realized the ship was easy pickings.

It's quite possible he was right. After he says that, the human ship slows down, stops firing... depowers its weapons. It even changes course to avoid colliding with the ship. The crew watches in stunned silence as the hospital ship is allowed to pass by unharmed until the analyst pipes up again. Clearly this was proof that humanity didn't want to harm civilians. There was nothing to gain by allowing the medical crew to safely approach the station and yet they did. Sovlin finds himself struggling to come up with a response, and sits there in an uncomfortable silence for a long while before Zarn offers his own explanation. Clearly the humans were low on ammo. They need to preserve it for an actual combat engagement. Humans are pragmatic, enough so that sadism is secondary to survival.

Sovlin acknowledges that it's certainly possible, but inside he finds himself questioning why they did that. If humans really WERE trying to disorient him with mind games... He has to admit it's working. But he knows what humanity is. Nothing can shake that.

And that concludes our last Sovlin chapter for this batch. It was nice to get some insight on his thought processes after we saw what a monster he could be. It's all Tarva from here on out though baby. I like Tarva. She's not my favorite character but her only REAL flaw is that she fucks black guys.

A few days after the initial strike on the gojid military stations we find Tarva, some earth dignitaries, and top venlil staff all settling in for a meeting. It was time to decide who to take action against and who might be reasonable. Tarva was hoping Recel would join them, but he's been all mopey in his quarters since arriving. But Noah showed up, and they converse a bit. She brings up that the human volunteers in the exchange program have been acting unusually and it's concerning her and her staff somewhat. The behavior in question? Greeting the venlil in baby voices, giving them squeaky toys, and a whole lotta fur touching.

Noah explains it away as normal human behavior around cute animals and admits that the thought of petting Tarva has crossed his mind once or twice. She declines, but tells him he's free to pet her military advisor, since she'd get a laugh out of seeing him bite Noah. The three of them bicker and laugh until it happens. Elias, from across the table, stops mid conversation and shoots a look their way.

With the nigger and his pet sheep put in their place, Elias calls the meeting to start. They begin reviewing the plans for a ground invasion on the cradle, Repurposed plans that were originally meant for a ground invasion of arxur farm worlds. Civilians will be avoided where possible, and humanity is fairly confident they'll win a grounded conflict without question. The hard part was getting boots on the ground to begin with. Tarva is insistent that humanity WILL use venlil ships, no ifs ands or buts. Furthermore, she's authorizing a transfer of venlil blueprints to the earth military so that they can build themselves a proper armada instead of tossing retrofitted ships into the meat grinder endlessly. Stated goal is to capture government leaders and force the gojid to surrender so that they can force them to negotiate properly.

Recel finally decides to show his face around the humans, who for his sake were all wearing face coverings anyhow. Elias immediately offers him asylum on Earth for his heroicism in saving a captured human soldier's life, though Recel cannot imagine a worse hell than being on a planet full of humans, and declines. With that out of the way, they ask him for what he thinks humanity could do to start making peace with the galaxy. That snaps him out of his funk and he immediately asks for the release of the hostage diplomats and civilians who have been trapped on Venlil Prime since Tarva put the planet in quarantine. Elias agrees and Tarva states she'll open the borders tonight for any outbound ships.

Recel, surprised the predators actually listened to him and took his advice, offers up some much more interesting news. The federation is holding a summit in a few days time to discuss the Human question. He suggests sending a representative to speak on their behalf and say a few words in defense of humanity. It'll be broadcasted live, if they could just sway public opinion in their favor then the federation might just have to capitulate. Recel isn't sure, however, that they won't just immediately capture the representative without even giving them a chance to speak, and everyone agrees that it'd be murder to send someone out to face the federation alone.

Noah, however, volunteers. He's not afraid to die, if there's even a single species like the venlil among the federation then it will have been worth it. All he wants is a cyanide capsule, to avoid being tortured if things go south. Tarva is horrified by the idea of losing him, though. So she volunteers to go with him. Surely the federation would be more willing to hear him out if she came along, after all. Recel, as well, finds himself volunteering. The guilt is eating him alive so he plans on turning himself in for treason anyways, may as well say a few things on humanity's behalf while he's there. They decide to go now, before any of them get cold feet, and adjourn the meeting so that the trio can head to the summit.

A lot to unpack here. Despite the open warfare against the gojid starting to kick off, humanity can't pass up an opportunity to try the diplomatic option like this. Looks like it's up to Noah, Tarva, and Recel to try to set things straight or die trying.

5 days later now, Tarva and co. have finally arrived at the summit, on Aafa, home planet of the kolshians, right in their capital city. Though the federation is wary of Tarva, they aren't aware that she's brought a human with her just yet, and for now she intends to keep it that way. The last thing she wants it to start a stampede in the middle of the kolshian capital. Noah has been editing together some first contact material the UN gave him so they could paint a rosy picture of humanity, and Tarva shares it on the local internet with anyone who will listen while she waits for the docking procedures to finish.

Finally, they're hailed by the leader of the kolshians, Chief Nikonus. Tarva explains that Recel is here to turn himself in, and then introduces him to Noah after asking him not to freak out (A historically sound plan, of course. The prey are notoriously great at keeping their jimmies unrustled.) Nikonus immediately declares that if Tarva were not aboard he'd shoot the ship down and wash his hands of the whole affair. He does, however, agree that the venlil have a place to speak at the summit, as they are still a member of the federation. For now. They argue a while about whether or not Noah can speak until Nikonus finally relents, allowing them 5 minutes ~~until Namek explodes.~~ to speak. With that, the ship finally docks.

Seeing all the fed species in one space, Noah begins to wonder how the arxur steamrolled over their sheer numbers when humanity wouldn't even be able to come close to facing them as they are. Apparently, before the arxur the federation didn't really have much of a military at all. Most of the species just sorta got along without incident for centuries until then. Tarva finds herself nodding off until, eventually, they're allowed to exit the ship. Recel ends up gagged and bound and one of the guards in charge of transporting him "accidentally" smacks him upside the chin with a baton.

While Recel is carted off, Noah and Tarva are lead to the governing chamber. Tarva can feel the tension, Noah's heartbeat is palpable enough that she can feel it through her tail when it wraps around his wrist and the two of them are finally brought before the leaders of the galaxy.

Not a whole lot to say on this chapter, mostly just bickering and tension while they get ready to do anything of substance.

Noah strides up to the microphone. The auditorium is dead silent, guards posted around the premises with rifles trained on the predator before them, barricades and barbed wire stretched between the podium and the crowd. Despite the tension, Noah manages to begin speaking. He acknowledges that the galaxy has been through a lot, especially with the predators that came before them, but insists that to treat humanity the same is to fall victim to confirmation bias. Tarva recognizes that some of the crowd is signaling for her to run with their tails.

The Krakotl ambassador is the first to interrupt, screaming that humanity is nothing more than slavers and slaughterers who gas children, The elder of the Farsul joins in, pointing out how humanity waging war on itself and killing millions is a fairly regular happening on planet Earth, and that it's no different from the grays. Noah retorts that there is more to humanity than just war, and that they're capable of empathy, of familial and protective behaviors just like the prey are.

Noah tries to clear up a few misconceptions around humanity, particularly the forward facing eyes. Humans didn't evolve them for hunting and predation, rather we're arboreal primates, it's for depth perception, swinging on vines, but the crowd is having none of it. They jeer that it's awfully convenient that these eyes just happen to aid in tracking prey as well. The discussion quickly devolves into wild accusations and insults from the crowd, until, eventually Nikonus roars out over the crowd to be silent and let Noah speak.

He continues on with discussing the fact that technically humans are omnivores, and don't have to eat meat. The krakotl speaks up again, asking of Noah personally eats flesh. He admits he does, but that humanity really doesn't have to harm animals to do it anymore since the invention of lab grown meat. (Humanity totally does still have livestock though, so this is only a half-truth.) It doesn't help much, while ethically correct the herbivores still find it incredibly gross. Nikonus fucking throws up before letting Noah continue. Tarva decides to step in and bring up the data on humanity feeling empathy, and asks the crowd if they really want to kill a race of thinking, feeling people just because they've had a violent past and a craving for meat. Again, the krakotl shouts out over the crowd. "YES!" If he wasn't advocating for my extinction he'd earn himself a gigachad edit of his own.

Of course, Noah has a response this time. If cruelty and violence is a justification for commiting genocide, then humanity should kill all of the federation, for baying for the blood of an entire species to begin with. With that, he plays a video for the crowd.

It's Marcel. A home video of Marcel, to be exact, of him taking care of a baby animal, bottle feeding it. Before joining up with the military, Marcel volunteered at a veterinarian clinic in his spare time, hoping to someday go to school to learn to become a veterinarian himself. Hard cut to a news reel of Marcel being carted away for emergency care. The vicious wounds cause a resounding gasp among the crowd. More sensitive species begin to avert their gaze. Then it cuts to close ups, bruises, emaciation, burns, and Slanek sobbing hysterically at his side. Noah explains that Sovlin did that. Cruelty for cruelties sake. The federation is no better than the arxur if this is what they do to people.

Nikonus tries telling him that Sovlin isn't their captain, that it's the gojid's responsibility, but Noah demands accountability. He wants there to be a trial, and for Sovlin to be held accountable for what he's done, whether the federation does it or humanity does. Even the more resolute species are beginning to waver now, and Noah reminds them that they don't want war with the federation, they want to help. The federation is losing the war with the arxur and humanity would rather help them than add a second front to the war. With that, the five minutes are up.

They won't have him killed afterwards, but they will be holding him indefinitely until everyone has made a decision on what to do next. At the very least the living arrangements are luxurious, though Noah's gonna be having a vegetarian diet for a while. He and Tarva discuss how it went. Tarva is floored by how well he did but Noah feels like he's done an inadequate job and is worried that he's not achieved anything. Until someone walks in. A zurulian, a behavioral scientist from the Galactic Institute of Medicine, and he and his brother (The prime minister of the zurulians) are in total agreement. Humanity is worth saving, and they wish to establish their full support. With that, Noah's fear is assuaged. There is hope after all, it seems.

What a high note to end out on. This batch of chapters was chock full of action and tension on both sides of the war. But we're not out of the woods yet, Noah is still being held in captivity for the time being and if the federation decides against humanity overall, then this is almost certainly the end for our astronaut turned ambassador, possibly even for Tarva herself. Still, the seeds of doubt have been planted and humanity's list of friends has grown, even if only slightly. This has been The Nature of Predators Chapters 16-20. Thank you.

John.Doe · Jan 2, 2024

Dr. Ricearoni said:
The Nature of Predators is a story about humanity stumbling onto a galactic community that has already established itself and discovering something bizarre. With one exception beyond themselves, every spacefaring species in the galaxy is herbivorous. We're talking eyes on the side of the head, cowardly and weak (with a few notable exceptions), and absolutely terrified of anything that eats meat. What follows is a journey into humanity navigating a misguided galaxy that can't help but fear them in the midst of a centuries-long war.

Sounds a bit like this person stumbled on some old copies of an out of print trilogy by Alan Dean Foster, called "The Damned" which covers essentially the same ground. In it the various intergalactic species all evolved on peaceful worlds and tend to have a deep psychological aversion to violence, which means that when the giant tentacled space slugs show up and start enslaving everyone with genetics and mind control (think space Jews) it looks like a fight to lose by inches.

Until a ship of the Weave (the alliance of species opposing the space slugs) stumbles on Earth and discovers that, because of our violently tectonic hellworld planet and fractured civilizations, humans are stronger, faster, tougher, and totally fine with violence. As in the first human they meet reflexively slaps an alien's hand away and breaks the alien's arm in multiple places by accident. Oh, and also if the space slugs try to mind-control humans the sheer savagery of the violent human brain immediately gives the space slug a fatal seizure.

So humans are so OP that in the first book an all-volunteer human force of a few hundred randoms with basic military training start turning the tide against the war effort of the Amplitur (the space slugs). Of course, the books also tackle the problems that arise when your entire species is seen as blood-thirsty battle-demons too savage to have discovered FTL spaceflight, etc.

So basically it sounds like this is a less well crafted rip-off. Alan Dean Foster did a pretty good job on his trilogy, though, but good luck finding it.

xXthrowawayaccountXx · Jan 2, 2024

Out of curiosity, I decided to try reading Alan Dean Foster's "Call to Arms."

And honestly, I think a big takeaway is that if you want to make it big, don't make something original. You can do much better taking something with a good idea and cutting all the fat off it.

In Nature of Predators, by chapter one we get the Backstory, the stakes, and already the humans are about to meet. Right into the meat of it.

You want to know when we get to first contact in Call to Arms? Page 86. Maybe I can be accused of having internet attention span damage, but fuck. The dude spends ten pages going over one dude struggling with his music composition. At least thirty going over the window dressing of how the flub glubs expend excrection ballast from their brainial cortyceps.

Frontloading alien jargon before you have any real investment is bad writing. No one reading is invested yet, so trying to frontload all of your worldbuilding in massive chunks becomes exhuasting for the reader.

Chaplainsama · Jan 2, 2024

John.Doe said:
So basically it sounds like this is a less well crafted rip-off

Convergent evolution of ideas is also a factor I would think.

xXthrowawayaccountXx said:
You can do much better taking something with a good idea and cutting all the fat off it.

Considering this used to be Disney's MO yes, most definitely. People don't celebrate the most original stories, they remember the most competent ones.

Ecclesiastes 1:9- The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Creative Username · Jan 2, 2024

Something, something... Brevity, soul of wit...

Baguette Child · Jan 3, 2024

Went through and read all of Nature of Predators. I'm a sci-fi guy. Gave it an open mind.

Wasn't the worst thing I'd ever read, to be real with you. Had at least a couple decent characters and parts that caught me off guard.

I did laugh my ass off when one of the original protagonists gets literally cucked and accepts his alien girlfriends decision to be pregnant by her own species, saying he'll stay with her and raise the child.

I enjoy that Sovlin went through his guilt phase but then immediately goes back to being a racist shitlord who tricks humans repeatedly into using hard racial slurs against other aliens. If kiwifarms existed in this setting he'd fit in OK I figure.

There's like two or three chapters yet to be uploaded before the end of the story is finished. I'll probably stick around for those at least. Felt like quality declined in the final third of the chapters.

Dr. Ricearoni · Jan 3, 2024

Baguette Child said:
Went through and read all of Nature of Predators. I'm a sci-fi guy. Gave it an open mind.

Wasn't the worst thing I'd ever read, to be real with you. Had at least a couple decent characters and parts that caught me off guard.

I did laugh my ass off when one of the original protagonists gets literally cucked and accepts his alien girlfriends decision to be pregnant by her own species, saying he'll stay with her and raise the child.

I enjoy that Sovlin went through his guilt phase but then immediately goes back to being a racist shitlord who tricks humans repeatedly into using hard racial slurs against other aliens. If kiwifarms existed in this setting he'd fit in OK I figure.

There's like two or three chapters yet to be uploaded before the end of the story is finished. I'll probably stick around for those at least. Felt like quality declined in the final third of the chapters.

Now to be fair, interspecies romance can't bear fruit, and she does agree that they should also adopt a child of his species to raise as siblings.

Baguette Child · Jan 3, 2024

Dr. Ricearoni said:
Now to be fair, interspecies romance can't bear fruit, and she does agree that they should also adopt a child of his species to raise as siblings.

I guess. It still comes across as kinda cucked though.

I was also disappointed that squidler and his people were spared, but I did expect it from the tone of the series. The ending feels more like a Treaty of Versailles and less like a Battle Of Endor. There's no way the final two big hostile races will respond to their punishment without the next generations being primed for another Squid Hitler to rise to power.

General Emílio Médici · Jan 3, 2024

Baguette Child said:
I enjoy that Sovlin went through his guilt phase but then immediately goes back to being a racist shitlord who tricks humans repeatedly into using hard racial slurs against other aliens. If kiwifarms existed in this setting he'd fit in OK I figure.

Sovlin literally does this meme at one point in the story and it is great.

If it wasn't for the fact that it has become such a huge over the top sin of the unforgivable variety to do so he absolutely would have called Noah a nigger to his face.

As for the ending it feels a bit rushed, but the author has confirmed that there is a second book being done and it will address the issues that the massive upset of the galactic status quo has caused. Basically the first one is about winning the war, and the second one will be winning the peace.

Overall I like the space sheep they funny.

Baguette Child · Jan 3, 2024

General Emílio Médici said:
Overall I like the space sheep they funny.

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Yeah the Venlil are pretty likable overall. I try to ignore the furry aspect so I can just see innocent space sheeps. I'm also anxious to find out what happened to Slanek.

Dr. Ricearoni · Jan 4, 2024

have some anti-human propaganda

The Nature of Predators Part 5

Once more into the thick of things, welcome back to The Nature of Predators official KCBC review, as always it's a pleasure to share this story and my thoughts on it. It's been a lotta fun seeing the discussion around it so far. When we had last left off humanity was just about to begin their invasion of the cradle, home of the Gojid, and Noah, Tarva, and Recel had been sent in a last ditch effort to plead humanity's case in front of the entire galaxy. Now, Noah and co. are being held captive, albeit in pleasant living conditions, until the galaxy makes a decision on what to do with them. Let us go then, you and I, to one of the transport ships currently making their way to the cradle, where we will find Slanek, Marcel, and Marcel's new buddy Tyler.

With the destruction of most of the gojid's military outposts, the ride to the cradle is going rather smoothly. Not even any stray ships to chase after the transports, they'd all been recalled to defend the planet. Which, thankfully, also means the plans to invade Earth have been put on hold. We find Slanek, struggling to deal with how human soldiers bond with one another. The vulgar tone that the humans took on with one another shocked him, it was hardly comparable to the way humans speak to the venlil. Even Marcel was getting in on the ribbing with the other humans.

Currently, the humans are playing some generic FPS game while they wait for the ship to reach its destination. This fuckin horrifies Slanek, who cannot fathom the glorification of death and warfare as being "fun", even if it IS simulated. To his eyes it's the celebration of downright predatory behavior. Slanek finds himself really, really wanting a hug, but he refuses to even ask because he read somewhere that human males are taught not to be affectionate in public. Every obscenity makes him more and more aware he's the only venlil aboard the ship, and he starts to feel isolated.

Slanek tries to be happy that Marcel is enjoying himself, but eventually the stress gets to be too much for the little guy and he locks himself in the bathroom to try to get his shit together.

Failing to do so, he begins to sob at the thought that maybe Marcel didn't need him and that humans were happier bonding with each other than with the venlil. He'd never be a human, and never be able to share that bond. Of course, Marcel catches on to it because Slanek is NOT a quiet cryer and starts trying to get him to open up.

So Marcel begins to talk to Slanek, through the bathroom door until the little fluffer agrees to open it, about how he's feeling. Eventually Slanek tells him he feels like Marcel doesn't want him around because he's been acting different since he joined up with the other humans. Marcel laughs at this and assures him that's fuckin dumb, he was actually trying to give Slanek some personal space because he was acting differently too. The whole time Marcel thought he had offended the li'l 'lil, all just because Slanek was afraid he might embarass him in front of the other humans.

Marcel, of course, reassures him that anyone who would object to a grown man hugging a venlil probably kicks puppies for fun. Slanek's ass does NOT know what a puppy is. With that said he scoops Slanek up and carries him to the couch so they can just relax a while and wait for the ship to arrive at the cradle. Which is about 5 seconds of cuddling because they immediately get hit by orbital defenses. The ship remains intact but the lights have gone out, and during the darkness they discuss how the deceit of humanity wasn't fooling the gojid because deceit is the calling card of all ambush predators.

Tyler (who has done nothing of note beyond being present yet), of course, tries to explain that humans are actually persistence predators, but Marcel shuts that down because now's not the time to put new fears in the minds of the venlil. Apparently the galaxy is unfamiliar with the concept of persistence predation, but this will come up again sooner or later. For now they agree to discuss it later and gear up.

Gearing up, of course, means putting a harness on Slanek, sedating him, and strapping him to Marcel, because the humans are about to fuckin jump from the ship, paratrooper style. Slanek starts panicking because he thought they were joking about it, and starts trying to come up with other alternatives that involve leaving him on the currently failing ship, but a little prick in the neck and he's off to snoozeville.

All that human-venlil bonding stuff at the beginning is almost enough to make you forget they're about to land on a planet and start gunning people down, huh? The abruptness of the cuddles to orbital defenses blasting them is rather sharp and sudden and I like it.

Slanek awakens to the sound of screaming. Getting his bearings he notices he's currently in the middle of a military base that's being quickly overrun by humans. The gojid, it seems, had no organized response to an air assault like this, their walls and towers were only prepared for outside sieges, and so half of the soldiers on base had begun to flee in terror at the parachuting human troops. Some had thrown down their weapons and threw themselves to the ground in surrender. When it finally occurs to him to look for Marcel, he spots him using a sniper rifle to spot targets, calling in drone strikes on groups of gojid soldiers who had yet to surrender.

Marcel is muttering to himself in confusion. The human soldiers are all shocked at how panicked the gojid are, they're barely putting up a fight. Slanek begins to muse on what is, to him, a well known phenomena. Stampeding. The herbivorous prey species of the galaxy, in numbers, are known to scare easily and devolve into a herd of terrified animals when shocked bad enough. What they were seeing right now was just the beginnings of one such stampede. Instincts say to run, but no one knows where to run, until eventually one person does and all hell breaks loose. Those that don't run are instead trampled.

That being said, Marcel formally apologizes for drugging Slanek against his will, but Slanek is just glad he woke up to find Marcel still alive. Tyler overhears this and declares that the venlil are sweet and that he wants one of his own. Marcel, of course, chastises him for phrasing it that way. You can't just OWN a venlil after all. They're people, not pets, even if it's easy to think of them that way. Despite the banter, the fighting never stops, and together Tyler and Marcel snipe down a group of gojid hiding behind a tree. Slanek doesn't like how much the humans seem to be enjoying this.

With the base taken, they get new orders to begin a march on a merchant settlement up ahead, with the advisory that civilians were fleeing en masse (The real stampede, it seems, has begun.) Slanek, without thinking, wonders out loud why the humans would need to know civilians were fleeing, worried that they might be trying to capture them. Marcel overhears it and assures him it's just so that they know not to shoot at panicked civilians when they press on and that they're only going to be capturing politicians (as you should.) The merchant settlement was a strategic location and taking it meant putting the gojid supply chain in a vice and give it a rough squeeze, another step in forcing them to surrender.

With the brief downtime Slanek finds himself in a mildly terrified wonder at how organized the human soldiers are. No one panicking, running, screaming, crying. He spots some surrendered and injured gojid soldiers being dragged away by humans, who are explained to be medics, treating the soldiers and taking them prisoner. Eventually, however, they make it to the city's main gate and find a massacre. Terrified civilians, trying to evacuate in droves, had stampeded through the gate recently. What they were seeing was the aftermath. Civilian corpses, beaten and battered, dead children, the whole shebang. A few survivors crawl around, trying to put some distance between themselves and the humans. Marcel ignores Slanek's lamentations and runs ahead.

Amidst the corpses is a young girl, leg pulverized, crying for her mother. She starts screaming when Marcel comes barreling down toward her, terrified that she's about to be eaten. Instead, Marcel starts trying to comfort her, giving her a plush venlil he just happened to have for some reason (this is NEVER EXPLAINED AND I LOVE IT?!?) Marcel starts asking her questions to keep her calm while he administers some first aid, and the advance is stopped briefly as soldiers begin setting up a makeshit medical tent to attend to the wounded civilians.

Slanek's concerns about humanity's bloodthirsty demeanor are calmed somewhat, seeing that the humans are capable of compassion in equal measure. Trained killers, practically tripping over themselves to administer aid to injured civlians instead of feasting on them while they're incapacitated. And when the civilians are tended to, they press on and take the city.

Now I will say this, SpacePaladin doesn't know how to write children. It doesn't come up often but their dialogue is always of much worse quality than everything else he writes. Nulia, the gojid child, says things like "You were hurt just because your eyes are ugly? That doesn't seem fair." yet is also too young to even properly say his name (she calls him Mawsle) It's a minor nitpick in the grand scheme of things because it really doesn't come up often at all but still.

We flash forward a bit to humanity, now in control of the city, defending it from gojid reinforcements. Now that the gojid were on the attack their fear advantage is much weaker, and the gojid have begun bringing manual surface to air munitions to deal with the humans' drone strikes. Even with the gojid adapting though, the humans manage to fight them to a standstill and hold the line. Tyler is currently trying to get Slanek to eat, since they've got next watch, but Slanek can't stomach his food while Tyler is eating near him. Unlike Marcel, Tyler has absolutely no qualms about eating meat and is currently stuffing his face with beef jerky. Eventually it gets to be too much and Slanek fucking vomits profusely in disgust.

Tyler at first doesn't realize that he's the reason the venlil is currently violently spewing stomach acid into the grass and pats his back while dabbing his face until Slanek regains his faculties enough to ask him to leave, and Marcel yells at him for eating the jerky around Slanek. To be fair to Tyler, he didn't think anything of it and didn't realize he was upsetting him. Still, he gets shooed off for now, and Marcel takes Slanek and Nulia out to get some sunlight before they have to go on watch. The moment, however, is cut short once ships start flying over the city, dropping bombs and landing in the outskirts of the city.

These were no human ships. The call comes through the radio. UN Fleets are engaging arxur ships in orbit around the cradle. The arxur, ever the opportunists, have begun an invasion of their own in the search of some gojid to snack on. Focus switched from holding the camp to evacuating the civilians still in the city. It seems the arxur are intent on glassing the city, so they gotta get everyone out ASAP. They gather everyone up and begin heading to the extraction point, but find the way blocked by a group of arxurian soldiers tearing some civilians apart and capturing the younger ones.

God, I know I said the bad children writing wasn't that bad but I think this might actually be THE WORST exchange in the entire book.

“Monsters,” Nulia cried. “Way scarier than Mawsle. I want to go home!”

Marcel covered her eyes. “Don’t look, Nulia. We have to escape from the monsters. They…destroyed your home.”

“FIX IT!” she sobbed. “Fix it now!”

Eugh.

Anyways, the arxur catch sight of the humans and there seems to be a brief moment of recognization in the eyes of the grays as they seem to realize that the humans are like them. The moment passes quickly though, as UN forces start firing on them to buy the civilians time to escape. They last about 30 seconds before getting obliterated like the twinks they are (compared to the arxur anyway) but it's just enough time for everyone to cram themselves onto a ship and lift off. Slanek panicks once again as he realizes Marcel has two fresh new holes, and not the fun kind, from carrying Nulia to the ship. Nothing vital hit, thankfully. As a medic tends to the wounded human Slanek finds himself lamenting the loss of the gojid. Simple math tells him that they're about to become an endangered species overnight.

Everyone's got a plan until they get punched in the face, as the saying goes. It seems that the Arxur have managed to punch the gojid and humanity in the face at once. On the bright side humanity doesn't have to worry about the gojid anymore, any threat they might've posed is most definitely gone.

But enough about Slanek, Marcel, and the gang. Let's see how Tarva and her house nigger is doing. It's been 18 days since Noah gave his big speech and the closest thing they've had to communication with the outside world is watching the news reports and discussions on the television. Chauson, the Zurulian scientist, at least visits frequently, eager to know more about humanity. He runs tests often, and today is the day he gets to speak and share his findings from his few weeks of interaction with Noah. Possibly even the final speaker of the event, if they're lucky.

Noah has been logging his thoughts in a journal the entire time, though not sharing the journal with Tarva. With his latest entry done, he retires to bed and tells Tarva to wake him up when the execution squad arrives. Temptation strikes and Tarva starts peeking into the journal. Flipping to a random page she finds an entry about how guilty Noah felt when a smile accidentally sent Chauson into a fleeing panic. Chauson tried to shrug it off after calming down and accepting the apology, but Noah knows deep down that they're all terrified of him. When he looks in the mirror now, he starts to see a predator himself. Struggling to imagine the galaxy with humanity in it. He mentions how Tarva once called him a nasty-looking creature to his face and laments how even the venlil are terrified of humanity. He ends the entry thinking that perhaps the venlil would be better off if humanity just left and allowed them to return to their lives before meeting.

Tarva finds herself stricken with guilt. She had said that, yes, but she certainly didn't mean it. At least, not anymore. She feels awful at how depressive the writings sound when Noah puts on such a cheery persona around her and the others. Flipping back to an older entry she begins reading once again. More self-loathing, Noah's self esteem is in the gutter being around terrified herbivores, but her reading is cut short because Noah catches her digging through it. He gets a little angy at her reading through it and she apologizes and tries to reassure him that she's proud of him, and that she really is glad that they met.

It takes a little convincing, but Noah does seem to cheer up just a little bit after she tells him she doesn't think of him as a predator anymore, only as a friend. He tells her not to go through his stuff anymore and she apologizes. Of course, he can't stay mad at her, and they cuddle on the couch a bit, about to drift off together when kolshian soldiers burst through the door. It's time. They beckon Noah to come with them and he reaches for his visor, but Tarva goes sicko mode and smashes it up. She wants him to go out there and show his face to the galaxy, even if it's the last thing he ever does.

Nikonus greets the two. Voting is beginning to wrap up, it seems. (And Jerulim, the agitated krakotl from Noah's speech, is intent on providing commentary.)

-38 members have voted that humanity cannot be allowed to exist. ("Take that, stupid human! You're all going to be dead soon!").
-65 members have voted for no contact and total isolation of Earth.
-74 members are undecided, with 52 of the undecided votes specifying that they want to hear news from the gojid warzone first before they make any decisions
-107 members have voted for a truce in order to defeat the Arxur, whatever the specifics of doing so may entail ("Who the FUCK voted for that?!")
-11 members have voted to open full diplomatic relations with humanity. ("Anyone who stands with predators is DEAD to the Krakotl!")

...And then Jerulim does the bird equivalent of decking Nikonus in the schnoz, and divebombs the fucker.
Never change, Jerulim.

Chaos breaks out as the stadium devolves into a total shouting match and ambassadors start beating the shit out of eachother. To all my fellas who were worried that there weren't any aggressive prey species, eat your fucking heart out. The guards usher Noah and co. out of the area so they don't get caught up in the "heated discussion."

Jerulim steals the show. It's a shame he's a literally who beyond starting shit at the convention. But it looks like Noah will be making it home alive after all, even if his presence has caused a massive rift in the federation.

We follow Noah and Tarva being escorted back to their ship by the guards. They discuss some things, mostly relief at the second chance humanity seems to have been given, though Tarva does worry that she's more or less a traitor in the eyes of the federation now. They hadn't even discussed what to do with the venlil during their stay, so the future of the speeps (space sheeps) is uncertain, though certainly it won't be THAT bad. On the way back, however, they find Recel, who has been pardoned by Nikonus, though stripped of his rank. He's instead been appointed as military liason to Earth. Recel, despite his fear, wants to at least TRY to get to know humanity better.

In fact, several diplomats are being sent to earth with Noah and Tarva, enough so that they're bringing along a second shuttle to carry them all. Chauson, for example, who is soaked in blood. He got bapped in the noggin real hard during the scuffle for his sympathy to humanity, but he's otherwise fine. Also joining them are the sivkit and paltan ambassadors. They're far enough away from the fighting that they really have nothing to lose by joining up. The Yotul ambassador shows up as well. If you've read the glossary in the first post you'll know these guys are the latest uplifts, only made spacefaring 20 years ago, and they actually don't seem to join in the other prey species terror of predators nearly as much as the rest. They were just discovering steam power and industrialization when they were uplifted so the rest of the federation looks down on them for being primitive. It's obvious to everyone present that they're sick of being derided and want to join up with humanity as a power play. Thafki, Nevoks, Fissans, seeking protection and trade and clearly desperate.

Then there's the Mazic. I didn't get it across too well but the elephant-ish prey were just about as hostile during Noah's speech as Jerulim was. Shocked to see them here, Tarva assumes she must've had the wrong crowd, until Cupo, the ambassador, admits that he and his people were swayed by Noah's closing argument, and decided they were willing to give Noah a chance. Also there's a dossur ambassador present. Tarva doesn't see her at first because they're so tiny. But that only makes 10 species, not counting Recel. While Tarva searches for the last, the group starts mocking the poor Yotul ambassador by making a snide remark about humanity already inventing the wheel. He fires back that out of every species, his is the only one that NEVER voted to destroy humanity. Sure, they weren't present for that vote, but he's technically correct.

The yotul ambassador's wit shuts them up in an awkward silence until Noah speaks up and assures them that they're welcoming all parties of any background, no need to put each other down or try to prove themselves. With some affirmation from Tarva, the groups begin loading up on the shuttle and begin to make the journey to Earth.

And that concludes this batch. I enjoyed these parts immensely, aside from a few horrid moments of poor writing when it comes to Nulia in particular. Other than that though, it's nice to see things looking up for humanity for a change. Sad we didn't get to see anymore Elias but Jerulim was a close second. Speaking of close seconds, shoutouts to the Yotul. After the venlil they're probably my second favorite aliens in the galaxy. Sivkits are adorable but they do jack shit so they get third place. This has been The Nature of Predators Chapters 21-25. Thank you.

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WHY ARE THERE TWO DARK FOUNTAINS IN TV WORLD?!?!?!

The Nature of Predators Part 2​

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Complain. Xeet. Prison. Enjoy. (Pat-Life)

Complain. Xeet. Prison. Enjoy. (Pat-Life)

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Who has a better kernel? Debian? No.

WHY ARE THERE TWO DARK FOUNTAINS IN TV WORLD?!?!?!

The Nature of Predators Part 4​

ROMANCE?!​

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so tender and mild

WHY ARE THERE TWO DARK FOUNTAINS IN TV WORLD?!?!?!

so tender and mild

Architect of the Brazilian Miracle

so tender and mild

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The Nature of Predators Part 5​

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The Nature of Predators Part 4

ROMANCE?!

The Nature of Predators Part 5