- Joined
- Mar 21, 2017
Interesting, how long has this being going on? Seems like 3/4 new chapters are posted in this thread each week
Writing myself, just kind of curious what sort of productivity this guy has for my own reference
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Kennel Club Book Club - The Megathread for all furry comic book, graphic novel and literature lunacy.
- Thread starter Roxanne Wolf
- Start date
Writing myself, just kind of curious what sort of productivity this guy has for my own reference
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2022
His 1st post was on April 11th 2022 and yes he does about 4 chapters a week on average split between main story and side stuff. Though he has also announced he plans to take a vacation.
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2019
Adding on to what Emilio said, everything up to where we are now in my review was actually written well before he started posting them. Everything since then is posted usually 3-4 days apart.
In short, I wouldn't compare your productivity to SpacePaladin. He is the spiders georg of writing and should not be counted.
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2024
I expected him to take a break between NoP 1 and 2, but the absolute madman just went straight into the sequel without time to breathe. Maybe to ease off discussions of the NoP 1 ending? Or maybe he just loves writing that much. Dude deserves a holiday, though.
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2018
Were Sara and Haysi that intresting that they merited extra chapters? I like Glim because he's a standout in regards to the cast. He hates humans without being scared shitless of them and takes some initiative to actually do shit, plus his personality falls outside the standard of "Perfect optimistic" or "Submissive coward" that most characters fall into, ontop of being the only character in the main story that doesn't perfectly align with humanity and the story left him at a good starting point to "start over from nothing" after the chapter with his aunt, ontop of his old job having changed so much its basically unrecognizable.
Was Sara really that intresting? I honestly can barely remember anything about her. And Haysi is ok, but I don't know what story you can tell with her that you couldn't tell with Glim in a better way.
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2019
That's exactly why they needed chapters, they never got the chance to be interesting. Sara's living a whole fuckin life out there, if you'll recall she's apparently a massive controversial figure in venlil science because she introduces the idea of ecology and the importance of preservation and it's literally never elaborated on.
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2018
Oh THAT Sara. I actually had her confused with the peacekeeper lady that hangs out with the russian conspiracy theorist lol. I don't remember, what was Sara's impact on the story? Is she just a member of the diplomatic delegation or what? I honestly don't remember.
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2024
Sara was Noah's co-pilot - she was the second ever person to speak to aliens. She was always gonna be in Noah's shadow, as she was quite literally so in the first few chapters, established as more socially awkward and introverted than him. While she ultimately got more screentime than Kam or Cheln, I think her interactions with Glim and Haysi was the last notable thing she really did. Although it has been a while since I read the later chapters, so I might be forgetting something.
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2020
The fact we all forgot who she even is kind of does prove the point that SP ought to give her more attention. That's a fairly significant role.
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2018
I found myself forgetting a lot of the characters throughout the story. I don't know if it's from some characters just not showing up enough or if they just blend into the background. Carlos comes to mind, especially in the final chapters I had a moment of "wait who was this guy again?"
With that said, it's hard to write something that fleshes out every character in a first person perspective, especially when you never get a chapter from that persons perspective. I remember a scene from one of the legend of the galactic heroes books where there is a conversation between two characters whom we had never seen before, and never again after the scene ended. It worked because it gave some detail to the inner politics of a faction from the perspective of the people knee deep in it. I think a lot of NOP's issues stem from us only seeing about half the story, we never see what the Kolshians are up to, we rarely see what earth is doing beyond fleet tactics from the perspective of a single bridge crew member.
Every time I think about Nop the same thing comes across my mind, "man this story has potential, just wish it did something with that potential."
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2018
Yeah, but counterpoint, nature of predators is longer than the entire lord of the rings trilogy + the hobbit put toogether, excluding the NoP side stories which would make it even longer.
To salt the wound, like a quarter of that length is spent on a character who's arc ends in an inconsequential wet fart that only exists to further the plot.
Obviously you can't flesh out everyone, but its not like paladin allocated his time well, especially with the descision at 140 to remove the main emotional throughline of the story that he spent half the book building up by that point.
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2019
I think the biggest issue NoP has is that the format more or less lends itself to an eternal rough draft. He'd never do this but now that nop book 1 is complete it would strongly benefit from heavy revisions to make some parts more concise and rework some of the rougher moments.
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2024
Taylor is such a faaaaaaaag god I wish he actually died in the desert fuuuuuuuck. I think what bothers me more than anything is that I can't tell if SP is sincerely trying to push Taylor as an abysmal human being, or if he's just fucking up the character writing. I get the impression that we're supposed to understand Taylor's perspective (considering his upbringing), but it's so infantile and impulsive that it's impossible to relate to. He's no William, that's for sure.
We're pretty much up to date on bonus chapters - there's Gojid Refugee, Star-Crossed, and Gress's Cases, which is currently ongoing. So these posts are gonna be on hold until I have more material.
HUMANITY FUCK YEAHHHHHHH
SP plays NoP's HFY origins straight in this thrilling adventure. The yulpa are a race of deranged lunatics that, much like the Chinese, think suffering makes their kills more satisfying. However, rather than enjoying their catches as food, they simply sacrifice predators to their dark, sadistic god. The more dangerous the predator, the more favour their god bestows upon them. Kippe, through guile, caught the most impressive and dangerous predator of all - a man. After informing him of the slow, torturous demise she has in plan for him, she rather foolishly leaves him alone and unguarded to go (metaphorically) wank herself off with the priestess. This was a bad move, however, as her captive is a Navy SEAL, and he's got the sort of survivalist training that Cpl. Jack Stryker would approve of. Press 1 for him gamers
Our human is Cedric, and he's pissed. After picking the cage locks and escaping on a fruit lorry, he dashes into the rainforest and begins prepping. Boy, does he prep. His military background comes in handy as he goes full Viet Cong and starts setting up improvised traps and camouflaging himself. Unsurprisingly, the crew of pissed off yulpas fall for it time and time again - they expect arxur tactics, and this results in them being made complete fools of. It's very exciting stuff, if a bit gorn-y.
By the time Cedric is finishing executing the third-to-last yulpa, there's only two left - an unarmed Kippe, who wasted all her bullets on blind shots, and Mallin, who is a retard. Now, I've described a lot of people as retards in this story, but unlike Lars and Virnt, Mallin is genuinely retarded. As in, there is something legitimately wrong with him, as Kippe (and the rest of yulpa society) are only too happy to remind him of. Cedric thinks he's funny, though, and convinces the guy to team up with him. Now best friends with a room temperature IQ alien, Cedric takes Kippe captive and puts his plan into motion to get off this shitty planet, as well as spare other humans his grisly fate.
It's fuuuuuun. It's a fun story. Kinda dumb? Kinda unrealistic? Bit of a cop-out toward the end? Yeah, sure, it's all those things, but it was also just really enjoyable to read, so I rate it fairly highly. Yulpas are also just neat, as they've got distinctly alien morphologies that make them a bit different from the typical 'Earth animal but a bit weird' design philosophy most species have. While the immediate mental image is of an okapi, I vastly prefer this entelodont interpretation.
SP plays NoP's HFY origins straight in this thrilling adventure. The yulpa are a race of deranged lunatics that, much like the Chinese, think suffering makes their kills more satisfying. However, rather than enjoying their catches as food, they simply sacrifice predators to their dark, sadistic god. The more dangerous the predator, the more favour their god bestows upon them. Kippe, through guile, caught the most impressive and dangerous predator of all - a man. After informing him of the slow, torturous demise she has in plan for him, she rather foolishly leaves him alone and unguarded to go (metaphorically) wank herself off with the priestess. This was a bad move, however, as her captive is a Navy SEAL, and he's got the sort of survivalist training that Cpl. Jack Stryker would approve of. Press 1 for him gamers
Our human is Cedric, and he's pissed. After picking the cage locks and escaping on a fruit lorry, he dashes into the rainforest and begins prepping. Boy, does he prep. His military background comes in handy as he goes full Viet Cong and starts setting up improvised traps and camouflaging himself. Unsurprisingly, the crew of pissed off yulpas fall for it time and time again - they expect arxur tactics, and this results in them being made complete fools of. It's very exciting stuff, if a bit gorn-y.
By the time Cedric is finishing executing the third-to-last yulpa, there's only two left - an unarmed Kippe, who wasted all her bullets on blind shots, and Mallin, who is a retard. Now, I've described a lot of people as retards in this story, but unlike Lars and Virnt, Mallin is genuinely retarded. As in, there is something legitimately wrong with him, as Kippe (and the rest of yulpa society) are only too happy to remind him of. Cedric thinks he's funny, though, and convinces the guy to team up with him. Now best friends with a room temperature IQ alien, Cedric takes Kippe captive and puts his plan into motion to get off this shitty planet, as well as spare other humans his grisly fate.
It's fuuuuuun. It's a fun story. Kinda dumb? Kinda unrealistic? Bit of a cop-out toward the end? Yeah, sure, it's all those things, but it was also just really enjoyable to read, so I rate it fairly highly. Yulpas are also just neat, as they've got distinctly alien morphologies that make them a bit different from the typical 'Earth animal but a bit weird' design philosophy most species have. While the immediate mental image is of an okapi, I vastly prefer this entelodont interpretation.
The sequel to Farsul Abductee, SP's personal favourite side story. People, to this day, are still mad about the ending, and while this story tosses those people a bone, it wouldn't surprise me if he wrote this out of personal enjoyment. Interestingly, it has an appearance by one of the most intriguing and underutilised humans in the whole story - General Jones.
Veiq is depressed without Danny. She's been in UN custody for a long time now and all she can think about is Danny and how much she hurt him. She's quite a tragic character, a kind soul ruined by her propaganda-ridden upbringing and distant parents. Can we fix her? Probably not. Either way, her depression spiral and heartache have rendered her practically suicidal, until Jones comes into the picture. Jones is an underhanded scumbag, and extremely enjoyable to see as a result. Deftly manipulating Veiq by dangling the Danny-shaped carrot over her head, the farsul is recruited to Project Chronicle as a researcher and advisor. Having injected a spoonful of Danny right into her veins, Veiq just can't say no. She agrees happily to assist, if the steady stream of Danny content, beamed directly into her holopad, keeps coming. She also thinks that maybe, just maybe, Danny might come find her, too.
I try not to let the FA ending interfere with my enjoyment of Danny and Veiq as characters. At least this one resolves satisfyingly. It's a nice balance - giving Danny back to Veiq or leaving her to rot would've made nobody happy. This way, the characters have the potential to return, but their story can also end here definitively. It's open for SP's wishes.
Veiq is depressed without Danny. She's been in UN custody for a long time now and all she can think about is Danny and how much she hurt him. She's quite a tragic character, a kind soul ruined by her propaganda-ridden upbringing and distant parents. Can we fix her? Probably not. Either way, her depression spiral and heartache have rendered her practically suicidal, until Jones comes into the picture. Jones is an underhanded scumbag, and extremely enjoyable to see as a result. Deftly manipulating Veiq by dangling the Danny-shaped carrot over her head, the farsul is recruited to Project Chronicle as a researcher and advisor. Having injected a spoonful of Danny right into her veins, Veiq just can't say no. She agrees happily to assist, if the steady stream of Danny content, beamed directly into her holopad, keeps coming. She also thinks that maybe, just maybe, Danny might come find her, too.
I try not to let the FA ending interfere with my enjoyment of Danny and Veiq as characters. At least this one resolves satisfyingly. It's a nice balance - giving Danny back to Veiq or leaving her to rot would've made nobody happy. This way, the characters have the potential to return, but their story can also end here definitively. It's open for SP's wishes.
blehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit goddamniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit what were you fucking thinking SPPPPPPPPPPPPP this shit is so fucking retarded i hate you so fucking muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch kill yourself NOW
Jimek is under the impression that William's promise to help him out - namely, file a report about Cylek and help him get a job with the exterminators' art department - was ACTUALLY him promising to beat the shit out of Cylek personally. Dustin wasn't there, so he takes Jimek's stupid word for it. The pair track down William's residence, and after listening to Rauln and William being domestic and gay with each other, they knock on the door and explain themselves. Rather than correct Jimek, William just grumbles about not being able to get up, but Rauln tells him that if he promised to go beat up Cylek (which he didn't), he should go do it. William, for some godforsaken reason, agrees.
What follows is the most deranged shit SP's ever written, apart from maaaaaaybe Slanek's little assassination mission. After returning to school, Cylek predictably goes to brutalise Jimek some more. You'd think the little psychopathic faggot would've given it up, considering he BOUGHT A KNIFE TO SCHOOL AND TORTURED SOMEONE WITH IT but nah he's free to not just be at the school, but go near the student he tried to maim. Cornering Jimek in a massive crowd of students, Cylek loudly announces his plans to carve up Jimek to everyone in the vicinity, because that's what you do. He's still got a knife, by the way. You'd think teachers would ensure he didn't have one. His plans are foiled, however, by the appearance of Rauln, who proceeds to violently assault a number of students, after beating Cylek senseless with his bare fists. Normal exterminator stuff, you know. Oh, and William ALSO assaults Cylek by clubbing him with a crutch, and Luala SETS THE FUCKING SCHOOL ON FIRE with her flamethrower. Oh my god. What is this shit, seriously. Fyron puts it out, but WOW. SP ratherly awkwardly mentions, in a later chapter of the main story, that it wasn't uncommon for predator-diseased kids to be ripped out of school violently, but I feel this goes a bit too far.
Now comes one of the most irritating parts of this story - the dialogue. SP sincerely thinks he's Quentin Tarantino, and we came to this Jimek story to have the Mystery Gang banter with each other at great length. It goes on, and on, and on. It's not even original - William says Luala is food, Luala says William is food, Rauln tries to embarrass William, Fyron has no idea what to say. It was great the first few times but I'm sick of it intruding on other stories at this point. YES I LIKE THESE GUYS. NO I DON'T WANT THEM SHOWING UP IN EVERY OTHER STORY SO THEY CAN TAKE IT OVER WITH THEIR PRATTLE. GIVE IT A REST, SP.
Something ELSE that pisses me off about this story is that Jimek near-consistently refers to Callsi by her name and not as 'mom' or whatever. Cylek does the same with his mother. It's a little thing but it really gets up my nose. He keeps doing this, even with human characters, and it pisses me off. It's really unnatural and it's almost insulting, as if we don't know who characters are referring to when they say 'mom' or 'dad'. Cylek even says "I want Vana!" in the throes of his human-induced terror, which is just... wrong. Anyway, rant aside, let's get back to the story. The fact these four are even here is ridiculous - the best I can offer is that they recognised that Jimek's brain is liquefying and they needed to step in before he does something he regrets. Considering his desire to brutally murder Cylek is taking over his entire being, that's sensible, but why would they stick their necks out for some kid they don't know? I don't care for this reasoning, as none of them have the right combination of altruism AND boldness. Cylek's bundled into their van and hauled off with Jimek and Dustin (who showed up at the last second) in tow. The time is all fucked up, because it's implied that VFB takes place at least a few days after HE2, and yet Fyron says William comforted her the day before. My head hurts, and I'm going to stop thinking about this stuff.
The only part about the next couple pages I can jive with is the revelation that Fyron likes William and William likes Fyron but neither of them realise it. I've always liked this cliché, it makes me giggle. Unfortunately the rest of it is just Mystery Gang banter with Dustin chiming in with his wise-beyond-his-years bookworm bullshit and Cylek making empty threats and begging to be let out. It's just painful to read and I hate it. I was hoping it'd be better than I remembered it being but I think it might actually be worse. I'm not going to go into more detail than this because I can feel a painful pressure building behind my left eye.
William and Fyron are cute some more. Turns out they're not taking Cylek to a facility, but rather to the middle of nowhere so they can teach him a lesson. Now, I'm not saying Cylek doesn't deserve punishment. Quite frankly that little nigger should swing. It's not even the extreme measures that truly, really bother me. It's the fact everyone's on board with it. Jimek's losing his mind, so of course he's down, but really? Dustin and Fyron aren't feeling weird about all this? I expected the pair of them to at least say they weren't sure about this, but they don't. Fyron does manage to stop Will from bludgeoning Cylek some more, which is something, I guess... and then she suggests quickly investing and short selling stock in Vana's company before it goes under from the release of their little video. Jimek quite rightly protests that the people here to help him are just trying to profiteer off the situation, because they are all bad people. On the plus side, Cylek's getting detained, thanks to him unwittingly confessing to be a little psycho. After all this shit, William then soothes Jimek by saying that he shouldn't follow in his douchey footsteps and he should be happy with simply getting away from Cylek. Jimek, realising that Dustin has been in the same boat as him but has risen above it (even though he still oozes insecurity like a wrung sponge), agrees.
Callsi knows something's up when they return to the school, and she attacks Rauln. For once, this is perfectly understandable - the guy who threatened to torch Dustin whisked her kids away and, upon seeing him, she goes full mama bear on his dumb ass. After the absolute slop I've had to read, this was a nice breather. There's more annoying banter but Callsi forcibly drags it back to the relevant situation. She discovers that Jimek joined the exterminators as an artist, because he never told her. What follows is a great big therapy session for Rauln, sprinkled with some comparisons with Jimek, and at this point I'm not paying very much attention because I just want this shit to end. On the plus side, Callsi feels the same way, as the constant bantering is grinding her gears something fierce. Rauln sincerely apologises for nearly killing Dustin, but Callsi doesn't forgive him and Rauln's still brain-broken from his mother's death and his hatred of predators, causing him to break down in tears. In a way I'm glad this wasn't tied up with a neat little bow, but I'm tired. Mother and son make up, which is sweet. William admits he should've gone to Callsi when Jimek showed up at the guild, but he thought he could sort out this situation he didn't promise to help with 'quietly'. This statement is so retarded I'm going to kill myself. The chapter is capped off with the exterminators assuring Callsi that Jimek won't be drawing anti-predator propaganda, by showing her some examples of what they need now - ads for human recruitment.
Unfortunately the retard squad are still here in the last chapter, with more banter and more waffle that's only cut through thanks to Callsi's insistence on not wandering off topic. Truly, she is our shining star of this fucking story. Dustin bores everyone to death with more know-it-all slop, but it works out because the exterminators hire him too, as a xenozoology apprentice. Wrow. Who saw THAT coming a mile off? Callsi doesn't like it because she hates Rauln, and who can blame her, but both of them end up getting hired, or at least recommended to Volek. Fyron and William finally get together, which is nice. Callsi's still not convinced but we all know she's gonna capitulate. The story ends with the seven going their separate ways, thank fucking god.
I don't care for this one.
Jimek is under the impression that William's promise to help him out - namely, file a report about Cylek and help him get a job with the exterminators' art department - was ACTUALLY him promising to beat the shit out of Cylek personally. Dustin wasn't there, so he takes Jimek's stupid word for it. The pair track down William's residence, and after listening to Rauln and William being domestic and gay with each other, they knock on the door and explain themselves. Rather than correct Jimek, William just grumbles about not being able to get up, but Rauln tells him that if he promised to go beat up Cylek (which he didn't), he should go do it. William, for some godforsaken reason, agrees.
What follows is the most deranged shit SP's ever written, apart from maaaaaaybe Slanek's little assassination mission. After returning to school, Cylek predictably goes to brutalise Jimek some more. You'd think the little psychopathic faggot would've given it up, considering he BOUGHT A KNIFE TO SCHOOL AND TORTURED SOMEONE WITH IT but nah he's free to not just be at the school, but go near the student he tried to maim. Cornering Jimek in a massive crowd of students, Cylek loudly announces his plans to carve up Jimek to everyone in the vicinity, because that's what you do. He's still got a knife, by the way. You'd think teachers would ensure he didn't have one. His plans are foiled, however, by the appearance of Rauln, who proceeds to violently assault a number of students, after beating Cylek senseless with his bare fists. Normal exterminator stuff, you know. Oh, and William ALSO assaults Cylek by clubbing him with a crutch, and Luala SETS THE FUCKING SCHOOL ON FIRE with her flamethrower. Oh my god. What is this shit, seriously. Fyron puts it out, but WOW. SP ratherly awkwardly mentions, in a later chapter of the main story, that it wasn't uncommon for predator-diseased kids to be ripped out of school violently, but I feel this goes a bit too far.
Now comes one of the most irritating parts of this story - the dialogue. SP sincerely thinks he's Quentin Tarantino, and we came to this Jimek story to have the Mystery Gang banter with each other at great length. It goes on, and on, and on. It's not even original - William says Luala is food, Luala says William is food, Rauln tries to embarrass William, Fyron has no idea what to say. It was great the first few times but I'm sick of it intruding on other stories at this point. YES I LIKE THESE GUYS. NO I DON'T WANT THEM SHOWING UP IN EVERY OTHER STORY SO THEY CAN TAKE IT OVER WITH THEIR PRATTLE. GIVE IT A REST, SP.
Something ELSE that pisses me off about this story is that Jimek near-consistently refers to Callsi by her name and not as 'mom' or whatever. Cylek does the same with his mother. It's a little thing but it really gets up my nose. He keeps doing this, even with human characters, and it pisses me off. It's really unnatural and it's almost insulting, as if we don't know who characters are referring to when they say 'mom' or 'dad'. Cylek even says "I want Vana!" in the throes of his human-induced terror, which is just... wrong. Anyway, rant aside, let's get back to the story. The fact these four are even here is ridiculous - the best I can offer is that they recognised that Jimek's brain is liquefying and they needed to step in before he does something he regrets. Considering his desire to brutally murder Cylek is taking over his entire being, that's sensible, but why would they stick their necks out for some kid they don't know? I don't care for this reasoning, as none of them have the right combination of altruism AND boldness. Cylek's bundled into their van and hauled off with Jimek and Dustin (who showed up at the last second) in tow. The time is all fucked up, because it's implied that VFB takes place at least a few days after HE2, and yet Fyron says William comforted her the day before. My head hurts, and I'm going to stop thinking about this stuff.
The only part about the next couple pages I can jive with is the revelation that Fyron likes William and William likes Fyron but neither of them realise it. I've always liked this cliché, it makes me giggle. Unfortunately the rest of it is just Mystery Gang banter with Dustin chiming in with his wise-beyond-his-years bookworm bullshit and Cylek making empty threats and begging to be let out. It's just painful to read and I hate it. I was hoping it'd be better than I remembered it being but I think it might actually be worse. I'm not going to go into more detail than this because I can feel a painful pressure building behind my left eye.
William and Fyron are cute some more. Turns out they're not taking Cylek to a facility, but rather to the middle of nowhere so they can teach him a lesson. Now, I'm not saying Cylek doesn't deserve punishment. Quite frankly that little nigger should swing. It's not even the extreme measures that truly, really bother me. It's the fact everyone's on board with it. Jimek's losing his mind, so of course he's down, but really? Dustin and Fyron aren't feeling weird about all this? I expected the pair of them to at least say they weren't sure about this, but they don't. Fyron does manage to stop Will from bludgeoning Cylek some more, which is something, I guess... and then she suggests quickly investing and short selling stock in Vana's company before it goes under from the release of their little video. Jimek quite rightly protests that the people here to help him are just trying to profiteer off the situation, because they are all bad people. On the plus side, Cylek's getting detained, thanks to him unwittingly confessing to be a little psycho. After all this shit, William then soothes Jimek by saying that he shouldn't follow in his douchey footsteps and he should be happy with simply getting away from Cylek. Jimek, realising that Dustin has been in the same boat as him but has risen above it (even though he still oozes insecurity like a wrung sponge), agrees.
Callsi knows something's up when they return to the school, and she attacks Rauln. For once, this is perfectly understandable - the guy who threatened to torch Dustin whisked her kids away and, upon seeing him, she goes full mama bear on his dumb ass. After the absolute slop I've had to read, this was a nice breather. There's more annoying banter but Callsi forcibly drags it back to the relevant situation. She discovers that Jimek joined the exterminators as an artist, because he never told her. What follows is a great big therapy session for Rauln, sprinkled with some comparisons with Jimek, and at this point I'm not paying very much attention because I just want this shit to end. On the plus side, Callsi feels the same way, as the constant bantering is grinding her gears something fierce. Rauln sincerely apologises for nearly killing Dustin, but Callsi doesn't forgive him and Rauln's still brain-broken from his mother's death and his hatred of predators, causing him to break down in tears. In a way I'm glad this wasn't tied up with a neat little bow, but I'm tired. Mother and son make up, which is sweet. William admits he should've gone to Callsi when Jimek showed up at the guild, but he thought he could sort out this situation he didn't promise to help with 'quietly'. This statement is so retarded I'm going to kill myself. The chapter is capped off with the exterminators assuring Callsi that Jimek won't be drawing anti-predator propaganda, by showing her some examples of what they need now - ads for human recruitment.
Unfortunately the retard squad are still here in the last chapter, with more banter and more waffle that's only cut through thanks to Callsi's insistence on not wandering off topic. Truly, she is our shining star of this fucking story. Dustin bores everyone to death with more know-it-all slop, but it works out because the exterminators hire him too, as a xenozoology apprentice. Wrow. Who saw THAT coming a mile off? Callsi doesn't like it because she hates Rauln, and who can blame her, but both of them end up getting hired, or at least recommended to Volek. Fyron and William finally get together, which is nice. Callsi's still not convinced but we all know she's gonna capitulate. The story ends with the seven going their separate ways, thank fucking god.
I don't care for this one.
This one is okay. When SP wants to be sensitive about a topic, he usually does a pretty good job. His determination to make the Netherlands as authentic as possible in Star-Crossed makes that clear to me. This side story is about a human who won't eat, and a zurulian medic trying to work out what's wrong with her. It has one of my favourite one-off characters in it, too.
Crysa, the zurulian medic, has long since shed her fear of humans, but the sight of an emaciated Adana makes her nervous - after all, if she's so desperately starved, there's a chance she may try to kill and eat someone, right? She almost regresses into Feddiebabble. But it turns out Adana refuses to eat, because she's on a diet. This revelation floors Crysa, who has no idea what she could mean. While the idea that the medicine-based species doesn't know about eating disorders sounds silly on the surface, one has to remember their entire mental health system revolved around the singular notion of 'predator disease', so it's not actually that surprising.
I don't know a lot about anorexia, so I can't comment on how accurate Adana's mindset is, and how realistic her words are. Luckily, the story focuses more on Crysa's reactions to what Adana says. She has no idea what to say or do, and her comments on severe malnourishment and the need for people to eat falls on deaf ears. Crysa tries to think of what might be causing this - hunger hormone deficiency, perhaps, or stomach cancer, but none of them seem to fit the bill. She says she'll bring Adana a tiny salad, but really Crysa needs to ask the expert.
Dr. Baranwal is a chad and I love him. He's arrogant, but he's earned the right to be so from his prodigious skills in the operating theatre. He's flamboyant and conceited and he makes me laugh. Someone commented "Baranwal is such a chad, man. He probably looks at his mirror believing that his reflection is his one true love and he's incredibly based for that." and it's completely true. But he's a good guy deep down, and while he's not specifically trained in eating disorders, he knows enough about them to prod Crysa in a different direction for treating Adana. I mean, I don't know what the difference is between then and now, other than Crysa being a touch less forceful, but... it works, I guess? I dunno how realistic that is. Like I said, I don't know much about anorexia, but I've always been under the impression that it takes more than some kind words and gentle urging to overcome. At the same time, it's probably best to keep a story about a sensitive topic like this brief - the longer it goes on, the more likely SP is to make a mistake that'll piss people off.
So yeah, I think this chapter's fine and I'm not the right person to decide if his handling of anorexia is good or bad. It seems like the former, though. Crysa's very sweet and Baranwal is based, so in terms of characters it's a winner in my book.
Crysa, the zurulian medic, has long since shed her fear of humans, but the sight of an emaciated Adana makes her nervous - after all, if she's so desperately starved, there's a chance she may try to kill and eat someone, right? She almost regresses into Feddiebabble. But it turns out Adana refuses to eat, because she's on a diet. This revelation floors Crysa, who has no idea what she could mean. While the idea that the medicine-based species doesn't know about eating disorders sounds silly on the surface, one has to remember their entire mental health system revolved around the singular notion of 'predator disease', so it's not actually that surprising.
I don't know a lot about anorexia, so I can't comment on how accurate Adana's mindset is, and how realistic her words are. Luckily, the story focuses more on Crysa's reactions to what Adana says. She has no idea what to say or do, and her comments on severe malnourishment and the need for people to eat falls on deaf ears. Crysa tries to think of what might be causing this - hunger hormone deficiency, perhaps, or stomach cancer, but none of them seem to fit the bill. She says she'll bring Adana a tiny salad, but really Crysa needs to ask the expert.
Dr. Baranwal is a chad and I love him. He's arrogant, but he's earned the right to be so from his prodigious skills in the operating theatre. He's flamboyant and conceited and he makes me laugh. Someone commented "Baranwal is such a chad, man. He probably looks at his mirror believing that his reflection is his one true love and he's incredibly based for that." and it's completely true. But he's a good guy deep down, and while he's not specifically trained in eating disorders, he knows enough about them to prod Crysa in a different direction for treating Adana. I mean, I don't know what the difference is between then and now, other than Crysa being a touch less forceful, but... it works, I guess? I dunno how realistic that is. Like I said, I don't know much about anorexia, but I've always been under the impression that it takes more than some kind words and gentle urging to overcome. At the same time, it's probably best to keep a story about a sensitive topic like this brief - the longer it goes on, the more likely SP is to make a mistake that'll piss people off.
So yeah, I think this chapter's fine and I'm not the right person to decide if his handling of anorexia is good or bad. It seems like the former, though. Crysa's very sweet and Baranwal is based, so in terms of characters it's a winner in my book.
Dunno why this wasn't listed as a One-Shot but whatever. I really can't overstate how much people fucking loved Mallin. Like wow, I've never seen a character get such a fanbase so quickly. To appease the frothing masses, SP gave us this short story about Mallin's new life away from Grenelka, Cedric by his side. The two homies have joined the UN Space Guard, but the story actually starts with the revelation that Grenelka got absolutely decimated by the EMP attack during the final strike on Aafa, more than many planets did. While SP doesn't go into too much detail (unfortunately), it's implied that the current state of the yulpa homeworld makes Aafa look like a five star resort... and Kippe knows about it. The knowledge that she bought desolation and misery to her people must be driving her insane.
However, the adorable sight of Mallin (the one and only yulpa to escape his homeworld a free man) playing with some human kids in their ship softens things up. Said kids had been stranded in space, but the boys were bringing them back to Titan. Cedric muses on the challenges of getting the UN to hire an obviously handicapped Mallin as he watches the big lump be a horse for the human kids, who he quickly grew attached to. Mallin once again misunderstands abstract speech, but Cedric has long since come to understand how to handle his buddy's needs, and tries to delicately explain things to him as simply as he can. The pair chat with the kids some more, telling them about their various duties in the Space Guard, which aren't limited to rescuing stranded kids in space, of course. Then comes the big bombshell - humans have stripes. Mallin tells the kids this. Cedric doesn't believe him. But it's true. Humans DO have stripes, only visible under certain lighting.
Being intellectually owned by an actual retard doesn't make Cedric fly into a rage, like many characters might. He accepts it and moves on like a normal fucking person, surprising from the guy who killed 18 people single-handedly. The pair drop the kids off - said kids want Mallin to stay with them, but he simply cannot - before they end up discussing the much moodier topic of what happened on Grenelka. Mallin dropping a much more considerable bombshell sends Cedric into a brooding silence. Mallin hopes he hasn't upset him, and Cedric reassures him as the pair return to their duties in the great dark void of space, with the latter determined to put his experiences behind him for good.
I like it. I'm not a HUGE Mallin fan but I enjoy him and I find this to be a nice, solid conclusion to his and Cedric's story. I imagine they'll crop up somewhere down the line. Maybe in NoP2? I can see them cameoing in that. Hell, they made Dustin a main character, so I expect more characters from the Gaytreon chapters will pop up.
However, the adorable sight of Mallin (the one and only yulpa to escape his homeworld a free man) playing with some human kids in their ship softens things up. Said kids had been stranded in space, but the boys were bringing them back to Titan. Cedric muses on the challenges of getting the UN to hire an obviously handicapped Mallin as he watches the big lump be a horse for the human kids, who he quickly grew attached to. Mallin once again misunderstands abstract speech, but Cedric has long since come to understand how to handle his buddy's needs, and tries to delicately explain things to him as simply as he can. The pair chat with the kids some more, telling them about their various duties in the Space Guard, which aren't limited to rescuing stranded kids in space, of course. Then comes the big bombshell - humans have stripes. Mallin tells the kids this. Cedric doesn't believe him. But it's true. Humans DO have stripes, only visible under certain lighting.
Being intellectually owned by an actual retard doesn't make Cedric fly into a rage, like many characters might. He accepts it and moves on like a normal fucking person, surprising from the guy who killed 18 people single-handedly. The pair drop the kids off - said kids want Mallin to stay with them, but he simply cannot - before they end up discussing the much moodier topic of what happened on Grenelka. Mallin dropping a much more considerable bombshell sends Cedric into a brooding silence. Mallin hopes he hasn't upset him, and Cedric reassures him as the pair return to their duties in the great dark void of space, with the latter determined to put his experiences behind him for good.
I like it. I'm not a HUGE Mallin fan but I enjoy him and I find this to be a nice, solid conclusion to his and Cedric's story. I imagine they'll crop up somewhere down the line. Maybe in NoP2? I can see them cameoing in that. Hell, they made Dustin a main character, so I expect more characters from the Gaytreon chapters will pop up.
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- Joined
- Sep 16, 2018
I haven't read the rest of the exterminators and foster program past 1, so I'm confused here, am I misunderstanding something?
The psycho that tied up Jimmek and threatened to carve him in school grounds ON CAMERA in the first part, is somehow not only still allowed to wander the public, but also allowed to keep his knife AND NOBODY watches over him in case it happens again???
WHY THE FUCK WASN'T THIS DIPSHIT ARRESTED THE FIRST TIME AROUND???
And the schooby gang solves this by doing a fucking full force forward payday style on the school, kidnapping him and driving him out to the fucking desert???
What???
Cylek: "I'm gonna carve you up."
Exterminators 5 seconds later:
I've been waiting for you to cover this so I could go on my "Noah deserved better than being a double cuck" rant for the past few weeks, I've briefly discussed this Rice but eh, maybe I'll post it anyway soon.
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2022
Oh boy 2-35 is gonna cause a lot of drama. I think SP15 fucked up.
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2023
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2018
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2022
It is bad in a different way. But basically, without too explicit spoilers memory transcription tech implications being taken to their natural transhumanist fridge horror
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2019
I will now proceed to pleasure myself with this tilFish
The Nature of Predators Part 16
Been a while but looks like we're checking back in on Sovlin now. With the victory on Khoa things have quieted down amidst the fleet, and for the time being are taking care of some more menial affairs. He's been invited to Tyler's quarters after the beatdown the giant of a man gave him. Sam's joining him but not Carlos, he got asked to stay behind after Carlos and Tyler almost got in a fight over what he did to Sovlin. Tyler isn't denying that he beat up Sovlin but the gojid captain is insistent that he merely fell and hit his head on a cabinet. No one buys it, of course, considering he's bruised all over.
Since the incident, Tyler's been on indefinite latrine duty and that's the last it's been spoken of, until Sovlin was invited over today via holopad. He makes some small talk with Sam about his injuries on the way over, until eventually he reaches the door and gently taps at it. Onso answers, rather than Tyler. (Do they share a room? Scandalous.) Turns out he and Tyler were just playing some vidya and wanted to invite Sovlin over to join them. Since the controller is too big for his little hands, Onso has to hold it up with his tail and use the entirety of his paws to hit all the buttons and sticks. Apparently Tyler modded some call of duty-esque vidya so that all the enemies look like arxur, certain that Sovlin would get a kick out of it, and while Sam is pretty pissed about the whole thing, the battered Gojid does take up the offer.
Despite knowing what he knows now about the arxur and the feds, he can't bring himself to feel sorry for the grays, not after what they did to his family. He's glad to finally get a chance to play out a revenge fantasy, even if it's only simulated. What follows is Space Paladin struggling to describe the experience of playing a video game, no joke it sounds like Oney's gameboy advance SP blue edition creepypasta.
The game continues and Onso initiates the gamer rage after playing like a retard and dying. He screeches at the game and yeets his poor controller into the wall, apparently the third one he's thrown so far. He's cute but this little buddy has anger issues, it seems. Tyler grounds him from playing anymore if he's just gonna keep throwing the controllers, insisting that you can't just break things because you're angry. Except for Sovlin's face, adds Samantha, mouthy as ever.
Sovlin, apparently, hasn't been going to therapy like some people have been asking him to, so Tyler was hoping to befriend the very same hedgehog he beat into a fucking pulp not particularly long ago. I say-I say I say, dumber than a box of rocks that boy, a big heart but not the brightest no sirree. Sorry, I'm not very good at foghorn leghorn. Anyways, Sovlin half-heartedly agrees to accept his forgiveness and be his friend, if only to get out of this very uncomfortable conversation sooner rather than later. Back to the serious business at hand, apparently they're getting ready to roll out soon, tailing some arxur ships that aren't moving in formation as expected, in the event they get up to some mischief. Might as well enjoy the time they've got left, in the event shit goes south real fast.
Since the incident, Tyler's been on indefinite latrine duty and that's the last it's been spoken of, until Sovlin was invited over today via holopad. He makes some small talk with Sam about his injuries on the way over, until eventually he reaches the door and gently taps at it. Onso answers, rather than Tyler. (Do they share a room? Scandalous.) Turns out he and Tyler were just playing some vidya and wanted to invite Sovlin over to join them. Since the controller is too big for his little hands, Onso has to hold it up with his tail and use the entirety of his paws to hit all the buttons and sticks. Apparently Tyler modded some call of duty-esque vidya so that all the enemies look like arxur, certain that Sovlin would get a kick out of it, and while Sam is pretty pissed about the whole thing, the battered Gojid does take up the offer.
Despite knowing what he knows now about the arxur and the feds, he can't bring himself to feel sorry for the grays, not after what they did to his family. He's glad to finally get a chance to play out a revenge fantasy, even if it's only simulated. What follows is Space Paladin struggling to describe the experience of playing a video game, no joke it sounds like Oney's gameboy advance SP blue edition creepypasta.
I'll save you the boring details. Basically, after a short while the novelty wears off and Sovlin finds himself a bit upset about how humans amuse eachother via simulated killing. He starts arguing with Tyler about how wrong this feels and how weird it is that humans find the idea of killing eachother to be a novelty. Onso chimes in that he thinks it's perfectly natural, as is conflict. Despite being a herbivore he remembers territorial fighting and harsh winters on his home planet, and pokes at Sovlin for being brainwashed by the feds. Sovlin ends up conceding that he's right, and he's really got no room to judge their monstrous cultures when he comes from a race of former meat eaters himself.
The game continues and Onso initiates the gamer rage after playing like a retard and dying. He screeches at the game and yeets his poor controller into the wall, apparently the third one he's thrown so far. He's cute but this little buddy has anger issues, it seems. Tyler grounds him from playing anymore if he's just gonna keep throwing the controllers, insisting that you can't just break things because you're angry. Except for Sovlin's face, adds Samantha, mouthy as ever.
Sovlin, apparently, hasn't been going to therapy like some people have been asking him to, so Tyler was hoping to befriend the very same hedgehog he beat into a fucking pulp not particularly long ago. I say-I say I say, dumber than a box of rocks that boy, a big heart but not the brightest no sirree. Sorry, I'm not very good at foghorn leghorn. Anyways, Sovlin half-heartedly agrees to accept his forgiveness and be his friend, if only to get out of this very uncomfortable conversation sooner rather than later. Back to the serious business at hand, apparently they're getting ready to roll out soon, tailing some arxur ships that aren't moving in formation as expected, in the event they get up to some mischief. Might as well enjoy the time they've got left, in the event shit goes south real fast.
Another Glim chapter, we find him currently en route to the countryside to meet his aunt. They note that it's a half-day's travel, which speaks to the size of Venlil Prime despite only having a singular habitable ring. I also wonder how exactly a day is measured there, when the sun doesn't actually set or anything. I'm getting distracted, ok, well, Glim has been reading up on the galaxy's happenings since his confinement with the arxur. He muses on what he might Noah if he ever worked up the courage to do so, and peaks in on the human's video call with Tarva. Haysi is still alive, obviously, but she's been refusing food and water and won't talk to anyone, venlil or otherwise.
Tarva also mentions that since this is a rural area, the venlil might not be so friendly out there. I think it's nice that SpacePaladin considers the difference in opinions rural areas would have from city slickers, especially ones that haven't had regular contact with humanity in recent months. Believe it or not, Tarva's handling of the situation actually isn't super popular among everyone, and that includes more than just the exterminators. Apparently video of Noah chasing Glim around has hit the media and it's not a great look, and they get in a little argument about whose idea it even was to sponsor a cattle refugee anyway, followed by another argument about how violent human metaphors are. Glim just finds himself grossed out at the visible adoration Tarva holds for Noah despite the arguing.
Glim is shocked to hear that his aunt is 74 years old now, that he's really been in captivity for 11 years of his life. Noah apologizes to the traumatized venlil and informs him that she has developed late stage dementia in his absence and likely won't even remember him. (Wow cool Noah that really seems like something you should've mentioned a day ago!) Anyways, they finally arrive and the receptionist at the nursing home tells Noah to fuck off, more or less. She's absolutely terrified but there's no humans allowed. They get into an argument because Noah isn't leaving until Glim has seen his aunt. A zurulian nurse asks her to stop antagonizing Noah and she starts getting racist and listing off the very many reasons she doesn't want humans on her planet, let alone pay for their meat factories through taxation.
Eventually the receptionist relents, though the nurse asks Noah to stay outside so he doesn't scare the elderly venlil into having heart attacks. With that she brings Glim to Thima's room. Aunt Thima freaks the fuck out immediately because she doesn't recognize him at all. She starts thrashing around and unplugging shit in a panic and Glim, frightened and heartbroken, runs out into the facility in his own panic. To his shock he realizes he's grabbed onto Noah for comfort, and breaks free while Noah tries to assure him everything is alright. He gives him some recordings that Thima had made for Glim during moments of lucidity, and Sara asks if he would speak to Haysi after he asks to be taken back to the facility. The heartbroken venlil agrees, and reluctantly agrees not to drop contact with the humans for now as well.
Tarva also mentions that since this is a rural area, the venlil might not be so friendly out there. I think it's nice that SpacePaladin considers the difference in opinions rural areas would have from city slickers, especially ones that haven't had regular contact with humanity in recent months. Believe it or not, Tarva's handling of the situation actually isn't super popular among everyone, and that includes more than just the exterminators. Apparently video of Noah chasing Glim around has hit the media and it's not a great look, and they get in a little argument about whose idea it even was to sponsor a cattle refugee anyway, followed by another argument about how violent human metaphors are. Glim just finds himself grossed out at the visible adoration Tarva holds for Noah despite the arguing.
Glim is shocked to hear that his aunt is 74 years old now, that he's really been in captivity for 11 years of his life. Noah apologizes to the traumatized venlil and informs him that she has developed late stage dementia in his absence and likely won't even remember him. (Wow cool Noah that really seems like something you should've mentioned a day ago!) Anyways, they finally arrive and the receptionist at the nursing home tells Noah to fuck off, more or less. She's absolutely terrified but there's no humans allowed. They get into an argument because Noah isn't leaving until Glim has seen his aunt. A zurulian nurse asks her to stop antagonizing Noah and she starts getting racist and listing off the very many reasons she doesn't want humans on her planet, let alone pay for their meat factories through taxation.
Eventually the receptionist relents, though the nurse asks Noah to stay outside so he doesn't scare the elderly venlil into having heart attacks. With that she brings Glim to Thima's room. Aunt Thima freaks the fuck out immediately because she doesn't recognize him at all. She starts thrashing around and unplugging shit in a panic and Glim, frightened and heartbroken, runs out into the facility in his own panic. To his shock he realizes he's grabbed onto Noah for comfort, and breaks free while Noah tries to assure him everything is alright. He gives him some recordings that Thima had made for Glim during moments of lucidity, and Sara asks if he would speak to Haysi after he asks to be taken back to the facility. The heartbroken venlil agrees, and reluctantly agrees not to drop contact with the humans for now as well.
We find Isif pondering on how quickly and fiercely humanity is rebuilding as his ship finds itself back in their system, already new space stations and habitats are cropping up all over the place with natural camouflage comparable to the arxur's own spy stations, so that no one may ever get the drop on humanity again. The humans spot his ship quickly and thousands of FTL disruptors start locking in on his ship, though he isn't too terribly concerned and hails the nearby station. General Jones, the lead of the drone program apparently, greets Isif with a not-so-friendly "you're trespassing get the fuck out". Of course, Isif doesn't intend to take no for an answer, and the new UN Secretary-General hasn't been as open with Isif as Elias had been.
They argue for a time, Isif will only speak with the UN's leader and Jones is stubborn about it to the point that Isif nearly gets fed up and starts blasting, but eventually she relents and allows him contact with Zhao. Apparently, Zhao was listening the whole time and specifically asked Jones not to transfer the call to him (Karen Lizard Moment) because he's not particularly impressed with how Isif handled the discussions with the other chief huntress. See, apparently they cracked the arxur encryption and got themselves a partial transcript of Isif's talk. Now, under the assumption that Isif is their enemy, Zhao orders the fleet to take out his ship and capture him alive, as well as "rescue" his "lunch", the zurulians he had personally rescued himself.
Isif tries to talk Zhao down but it's no use, the chinaman is hungry and gator is on the menu tonight. They take out his propulsion system and storm his ship. Making it clear they have no intention to let Isif leave the solar system ever again, they knock him out with tranq darts and cart him away.
They argue for a time, Isif will only speak with the UN's leader and Jones is stubborn about it to the point that Isif nearly gets fed up and starts blasting, but eventually she relents and allows him contact with Zhao. Apparently, Zhao was listening the whole time and specifically asked Jones not to transfer the call to him (Karen Lizard Moment) because he's not particularly impressed with how Isif handled the discussions with the other chief huntress. See, apparently they cracked the arxur encryption and got themselves a partial transcript of Isif's talk. Now, under the assumption that Isif is their enemy, Zhao orders the fleet to take out his ship and capture him alive, as well as "rescue" his "lunch", the zurulians he had personally rescued himself.
Isif tries to talk Zhao down but it's no use, the chinaman is hungry and gator is on the menu tonight. They take out his propulsion system and storm his ship. Making it clear they have no intention to let Isif leave the solar system ever again, they knock him out with tranq darts and cart him away.
Slanek, now free from the heat of battle, finds himself grappling with the killer he's become. He's worried, that he's becoming a monster, that it's unusual to feel nothing when slaughtering people, let alone the raw hatred he feels for anyone who hates humanity, and pride that he destroyed the opposition. (He's definitely just as traumatized by Marcel's torture as Marcel was, let's be honest. Neither of them should've been cleared for combat, in retrospect.) He stopped writing his parents ever since the deployment on the Cradle, leaving them in the dark and afraid for their last remaining son.
Here's the fucked up part about Slanek, and one that I feel kinda gets overlooked by a lot of readers, Slanek fucking LOVES killing. It gives him a rush, and whenever he faces conflict after defeating his federation programming? His first thought tends to jump to murder. The little wooly man has a few screws loose and there were a few red flags along the way to his unhappy ending that I feel like people should've noticed, such as this exchange:
Anyhow, the discussion is cut short when a young tilfish scuttles up into Marcel's personal space. The redheaded human gets over the surprise quickly and pulls out a lollipop for the child, informing the boy to not eat the stick. This is Virnt, our new child character, and he is canonically retarded, no I am not making that up, I'll explain later when it is mentioned in the story. Anyways, Virnt, unlike the others of his species, doesn't seem to be afraid of Marcel in the slightest, more curious than anything. He asks if he can be friends with the human and Marcel agrees enthusiastically. Slanek questions why exactly Marcel brought candy for tilfish children and plushies for gojid children. Marcel admits that he brought the plushie for himself. I'm surprised they let Marcel bring a venlil plushie into an active combat zone but what do I know?
Virnt wants uppies so Marcel reluctantly lifts him onto his lap, where Slanek notes that Marcel is visibly repulsed by the bug's touch. Whatever caused the humans' revulsion for tilfish, it was more like it was a fear of a disease than a fear of being devoured. General Birla, a general of the Tilfish army, comes out flailing in terror at the fact that her autismo son has made a beeline (antline?) for the nearest human's lap. She snatches him up and chastises him for getting too close to the humans. She's seen a few squads pass through and has noted that humans really don't like being around the tilfish, despite Marcel's insistence otherwise.
Marcel goes onto explain the primal reason for humanity's disgust of the tilfish, how insects were an indicator of blight, rot and contamination and seeing the tilfish kinda just sets off those revulsion signals in the brain. As Marcel talks to the general however, Slanek's mind begins to wander back to his internal conflict, and how he wishes he had the time to confide his familial issues to his friend. Eventually he's snapped back to reality, however, as Birna discusses that Virnt pretty clearly has predator's disease and Slanek chimes in that despite her misgivings he should definitely be tested. Marcel of course, chastises Slanek for this, since predator's disease is more or less just a catch-all term for anyone who doesn't conform to the feds. He'd rather the child NOT get electroshocked into conformity.
Birla, however, changes the subject to get back to what she had wanted to discuss initially before her child had run off. Apparently UN forces have begun pulling out rapidly, something that Marcel and Slanek hadn't been informed of. Before they can muse on why that is exactly, they get the evacuation orders, urging them to get off planet immediately due to a severe orbital threat. The grays are here.
Picking up Virnt, Marcel and Birna start making their way to the nearest shuttle as Slanek lags behind. Marcel, friend of the fucking year, leaves the hobbled venlil (Weak legs, remember?) in the dust and he has to hustle to catch up. Slanek catches on pretty quickly that Marcel is fuckin pissed at him again, and meekly apologizes, to which Marcel only responds that he'll only forgive Slanek when Slanek figures out what he's sorry for.
Here's the fucked up part about Slanek, and one that I feel kinda gets overlooked by a lot of readers, Slanek fucking LOVES killing. It gives him a rush, and whenever he faces conflict after defeating his federation programming? His first thought tends to jump to murder. The little wooly man has a few screws loose and there were a few red flags along the way to his unhappy ending that I feel like people should've noticed, such as this exchange:
Like it's pretty unambiguous here, Slanek has officially killed his first person, and he's now grappling with a sort of perverse joy he got out of it. Marcel is initially shocked, but just kinda brushes it off as Slanek being a bit shellshocked over his first conflict in which he actually killed someone. Thus begins the driving force of the rest of Slanek's arc, the self-hatred he feels for himself over how right it feels to kill things, and the monster he fears he has become.
Anyhow, the discussion is cut short when a young tilfish scuttles up into Marcel's personal space. The redheaded human gets over the surprise quickly and pulls out a lollipop for the child, informing the boy to not eat the stick. This is Virnt, our new child character, and he is canonically retarded, no I am not making that up, I'll explain later when it is mentioned in the story. Anyways, Virnt, unlike the others of his species, doesn't seem to be afraid of Marcel in the slightest, more curious than anything. He asks if he can be friends with the human and Marcel agrees enthusiastically. Slanek questions why exactly Marcel brought candy for tilfish children and plushies for gojid children. Marcel admits that he brought the plushie for himself. I'm surprised they let Marcel bring a venlil plushie into an active combat zone but what do I know?
Virnt wants uppies so Marcel reluctantly lifts him onto his lap, where Slanek notes that Marcel is visibly repulsed by the bug's touch. Whatever caused the humans' revulsion for tilfish, it was more like it was a fear of a disease than a fear of being devoured. General Birla, a general of the Tilfish army, comes out flailing in terror at the fact that her autismo son has made a beeline (antline?) for the nearest human's lap. She snatches him up and chastises him for getting too close to the humans. She's seen a few squads pass through and has noted that humans really don't like being around the tilfish, despite Marcel's insistence otherwise.
Marcel goes onto explain the primal reason for humanity's disgust of the tilfish, how insects were an indicator of blight, rot and contamination and seeing the tilfish kinda just sets off those revulsion signals in the brain. As Marcel talks to the general however, Slanek's mind begins to wander back to his internal conflict, and how he wishes he had the time to confide his familial issues to his friend. Eventually he's snapped back to reality, however, as Birna discusses that Virnt pretty clearly has predator's disease and Slanek chimes in that despite her misgivings he should definitely be tested. Marcel of course, chastises Slanek for this, since predator's disease is more or less just a catch-all term for anyone who doesn't conform to the feds. He'd rather the child NOT get electroshocked into conformity.
Birla, however, changes the subject to get back to what she had wanted to discuss initially before her child had run off. Apparently UN forces have begun pulling out rapidly, something that Marcel and Slanek hadn't been informed of. Before they can muse on why that is exactly, they get the evacuation orders, urging them to get off planet immediately due to a severe orbital threat. The grays are here.
Picking up Virnt, Marcel and Birna start making their way to the nearest shuttle as Slanek lags behind. Marcel, friend of the fucking year, leaves the hobbled venlil (Weak legs, remember?) in the dust and he has to hustle to catch up. Slanek catches on pretty quickly that Marcel is fuckin pissed at him again, and meekly apologizes, to which Marcel only responds that he'll only forgive Slanek when Slanek figures out what he's sorry for.
Off-planet we find ourselves with Sovlin again, fleet now in transit behind the arxur currently making their way to Sillis. It's pretty clear by now the unusual movement is an open attack on the tilfish' planet, considering the fact that arxur commanders are taunting the humans through open channels. Sovlin and co. are currently in charge of a pincer attack, coming from behind before the grays realize they're there. Sovlin is on watch duty, keeping an eye out for escaping ships and target locks. Onso, on the other hand, is promoted to strategizing and watching the viewport, seeing as his fresh ideas seem to be giving the feds the runaround, might as well try it with the grays as well.
This is going to be tricky, to say the least. Fighting off a few feds playing the part of the paper tiger is one thing, this however, is a show of force, a massive arxur raiding fleet. Onso realizes that the sensor overlap isn't proving as useful to their strategy as they had hoped, several arxur on the rear flank seem to have spotted them and are pivoting to engage. Plan now is to fire a hefty barrage right after the shield killers hit. The arxur ships won't fold easily without their shields as they're heavily armored on top of having shield tech, but the hope is that the sudden loss of shields might cause some disarray and panic among the grays.
Luckily humanity has developed armor piercing ballistics that can puncture the grays armor without the use of the heavy railguns the fed ships use, much more efficient, so they're able to get off a huge rally of shots off instead of a volley of what would amount to more or less being a firing line of musket shots. Despite this, they only take out a few thousand of the hundreds of thousands surrounding the planet. Sovlin immediately suggests they should retreat, they've got 5 target locks on them and the arxur are now prioritizing the human-made ships over the retrofitted alien ships. Monahan agrees to that and has the crew reverse the thrusters and let the drones cover their retreat.
The moon's planetary defenses fall quickly without the humans aiding them. The grays, it seems, are much more efficient at taking out the drones than the feds are. All the prey species are utterly incompetent at aiming without aim assisting tech, and the drones abuse that fact graciously. Predators like humans and the arxur, on the other hand... Suffice to say the drones are getting mowed down. Now, the plan is to get out of disruptor range and warp out a portion of the fleet, so that they can jump in and out of battle for some hit and run tactics while the remainder try to fight the arxur to a stalemate. Onso chimes in and asks if any of the fighter ships have plasma weaponry. If they charge right up in front and target the viewports, the arxur will be blinded and manual targeting the drones will become much more difficult.
Unable to see what they're shooting at, the blinded ships are forced to backpedal, disrupting their momentum and halting the advance, if only briefly. Monahan's ship follows up with a railgun blast and an advancement into missile range so they can capitalize on the confusion among the arxur. The arxur shake off the blinding fire and start retaliating. A target lock is detected on the ship as an arxur ship charges up. There's no hope of evading this one, they have to hit first. The railgun is charged up but the calibrations are still under way. Their only chance is to eyeball it.
Sovlin starts giving tearful goodbyes to Carlos and Sam, and Sam concedes that if she has to die next to a racist war criminal, she's glad it's him. Sovlin closes his eyes as the bolt fires off into space unguided.
An uproar resounds throughout the ship. The beam found its mark.
This is going to be tricky, to say the least. Fighting off a few feds playing the part of the paper tiger is one thing, this however, is a show of force, a massive arxur raiding fleet. Onso realizes that the sensor overlap isn't proving as useful to their strategy as they had hoped, several arxur on the rear flank seem to have spotted them and are pivoting to engage. Plan now is to fire a hefty barrage right after the shield killers hit. The arxur ships won't fold easily without their shields as they're heavily armored on top of having shield tech, but the hope is that the sudden loss of shields might cause some disarray and panic among the grays.
Luckily humanity has developed armor piercing ballistics that can puncture the grays armor without the use of the heavy railguns the fed ships use, much more efficient, so they're able to get off a huge rally of shots off instead of a volley of what would amount to more or less being a firing line of musket shots. Despite this, they only take out a few thousand of the hundreds of thousands surrounding the planet. Sovlin immediately suggests they should retreat, they've got 5 target locks on them and the arxur are now prioritizing the human-made ships over the retrofitted alien ships. Monahan agrees to that and has the crew reverse the thrusters and let the drones cover their retreat.
The moon's planetary defenses fall quickly without the humans aiding them. The grays, it seems, are much more efficient at taking out the drones than the feds are. All the prey species are utterly incompetent at aiming without aim assisting tech, and the drones abuse that fact graciously. Predators like humans and the arxur, on the other hand... Suffice to say the drones are getting mowed down. Now, the plan is to get out of disruptor range and warp out a portion of the fleet, so that they can jump in and out of battle for some hit and run tactics while the remainder try to fight the arxur to a stalemate. Onso chimes in and asks if any of the fighter ships have plasma weaponry. If they charge right up in front and target the viewports, the arxur will be blinded and manual targeting the drones will become much more difficult.
Unable to see what they're shooting at, the blinded ships are forced to backpedal, disrupting their momentum and halting the advance, if only briefly. Monahan's ship follows up with a railgun blast and an advancement into missile range so they can capitalize on the confusion among the arxur. The arxur shake off the blinding fire and start retaliating. A target lock is detected on the ship as an arxur ship charges up. There's no hope of evading this one, they have to hit first. The railgun is charged up but the calibrations are still under way. Their only chance is to eyeball it.
Sovlin starts giving tearful goodbyes to Carlos and Sam, and Sam concedes that if she has to die next to a racist war criminal, she's glad it's him. Sovlin closes his eyes as the bolt fires off into space unguided.
An uproar resounds throughout the ship. The beam found its mark.
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2018
Nah, I'm cool with spoilers, either DM it or put it in a
spoiler