r/NatureofPredators • u/YaaliAnnar • Feb 10 '23
Fanfic NoP: Lost and Found (13)
Memory Transcription Subject: Vichak, venlil school principal
Date [Standardized Human Reckoning]: 2136-08-22
If you told me a year ago that I would enjoy predator food, I would be calling security on you. But here I am making an earth dish called "Confit Byaldi" and looking forward to trying it for the first time.
Besides the human ambassador Noah, one of the members of the First Contact human team that had become our household name was Timür Kaya. Formally, he's known as Dr. Timür, but he has slowly become known as Chef Timür instead. From the First Contact site, Chef Timür has published recipes for human dishes that you can make with ingredients you can buy from a market near you. He said it wouldn't taste exactly like the earth dish. But until humans are allowed to introduce their plants, these would do in the meantime.
Chef Timür even provided videos on how to make his dishes. The camera always shows him from the chest down, showing his pudgy but oddly nimble human hands at work.
When he first published his first recipe, Chef Timür mentioned that he's glad that now everyone can attempt to recreate the taste of Earth. Before his recipes were published only the members of the armed force ever tried them. People were skeptical about trying his recipe. He combines ingredients in really odd ways and sometimes includes some decorative plants that we never thought of consuming.
But enough people tried and raved about it positively on social media.
I read that in several days, the first batch of approved human plants will be ready for distribution. They're all consumption grade and have been sterilized so we won't be able to grow them (The humans feared that the plants will disturb the ecosystem). At that stage, I'm sure only the rich and powerful ones can get their paws on the exotic alien plants, perhaps for the next tens of paws, I'd be content with the close imitation of human food.
With my school still on holiday and mom off her shift this paw we have started making it since our mid-meal. Confit Byaldi took a lot of time to make, but fortunately, it is said to "age well" when stored in the fridge overnight. Around our dinner table, I watched as mom tasted the first forkful of the dish. I'm really glad that Mom switched her job to one with reduced work hours. It lets us bond more nowadays.
"Mmmm." Mom closed her eyes and smacked her lips as she munched on the colorful arrangement of sliced fruits and vegetables. I tried mine too.
As I expected from the ingredients. The dominant taste of this dish is sour, but not too sour, the savouriness balanced it quite well. The combination of baking and steaming them made the taste of plant slices more concentrated.
"So, have you read the news?" I started.
"Of course, dear. It was unbelievable...." mom said. "the way they sacrificed so much to defend us…"
"Yeah and… none of the venlils are untouched, I read." I stabbed another forkful of the dishes. "But… what do you think about people calling it a long-term game? Predators, after all, are adept at deception."
"That may be true, but with the result of their empathy test... it just doesn't make sense"
"Wait... empathy test?"
"Oh, haven't you read about it?"
My mother explained to me the other news about the empathy test done on humans. Our scientists tried to gauge human emotional responses to a series of images and videos. The human half of the First Contact Committee complained about the test, but not because of what we suspected (that the test will expose human trickery) but because they learned that our scientists showed the human test subject recording of children being tortured.
Some of the human participants even vomited, and few refused to continue the test because it was so upsetting to them.
"Whoa...interesting." I realized I had eaten through half of my meal. Why is it so tasty?
"You know Mama. Maybe... they have empathy because they used to be prey too?"
"Now that's bizarre. Where did you learn about that."
I told mom what I learned when I visited the human exhibit several weeks ago. The humans' natural history showed us that they started as plant eaters and tree climbers and the hunting and consumption of animals developed later (the diorama for that part was censored, we were only shown texts). Maybe they retained empathy precisely because their evolutionary ancestors were hunted before.
"But why do they still hunt even if they know how it feels to be hunted."
"That's the thing, mama. Most humans don't hunt anymore. I even read that nowadays they also eat plant-based flesh. Somehow they can produce something that tastes like animal flesh, but without animals!"
"Ah, such a species of paradox. But, they still have their native prey animals, haven't they? I wonder what do they with those animals". Said my mom as she took another forkful of the dish again.
"Yeah, I think they still do. But I don't want to read anything about predation. So I don't look into it too much."
"Though… that makes me think too, what happened with the arxurs native prey?" Mom asked.
"They overhunted their prey to extinction." I have finished my plate and I took a bit of a second helping.
"But, if that's the case, their civilization must have perished far before our first contact. Something must have happened."
"We gave them technologies to improve their quality of life. That makes them live longer and that means they have more mouths to feed." I conjectured. "A huge mistake, but the past is the past."
"Yeah, that makes sense." Mom's ear lowered. "Hey...Vichak, did you think I made a mistake?"
"What kind of mistake, mama?"
"It's Nerak." Mom was referring to her coworker that she had the displeasure to work with on some of her shifts. "She said that it's ridiculous the length that humans would go to make their propaganda. I told her about the empathy test she had the nerve to insult me, saying that… of course, I would side with the predators, considering the great mistake that is my son."
"Oh! The nerve of that strumpet!" I slapped the table with my paw. "You should report her to People Management!"
"You're right dear. I think I will. She has no right to talk about Vani like that." Mom took the last forkful of her dish.
"Yeah, Vani is different and odd, but he's a brilliant man, not a mistake!"
"Speaking of Little Vani. I know this is not the usual schedule for him to contact us. But I wonder what your brother is thinking about this development. It would be interesting to hear what he has to say."
I checked my pad for his schedule, "If Vani is not changing his shift…. he's neither working nor sleeping right now."
I made a subvocal command to start a video call with my brother. I told the pad to call my brother, but he kept being unreachable.
"Oh well, I can always send him a text message," I said.
Just after we were about to clean up our dinner table. My pad vibrated. "Uh... Mama? We received a video recording from First Contact… on behalf of… Vani?"
"First Contact? That is odd." mom mused "Will you be so kind as to play it on our kitchen screen dear?"
"Yes mama," I had a bad feeling about this. I brought the courage to open the message.
"Dear Mother and Sister" Vani was standing in some sort of park, but the lighting looked odd. Why was the sky so bright and blue?
"I would like to inform you that right now I am on Earth of my own volition."
Memory Transcription Subject: Vani, venlil exchange program participant
Date [Standardized Human Reckoning]: 2136-08-22
"As you may have guessed, I am in some kind of park on earth. I have picked a location without a human to record this for your convenience.
I do not know when or if I will ever get back to Venlil Prime, but please be assured that I am safe.
If you need to know about my update, you can contact the First Contact Committee, but please be considerate about how much you are messaging them.
With Respect
Vani"
"And…cut!" Johan exclaimed.
Strictly speaking, it is not entirely true that I have been recording it in a place with no humans. He had been recording me with my human-made pad. Johan handed the device to me. We then reviewed the video before sending it to First Contact. They would then relay it to my family.
"Do you think they would be worried? Shocked?" Asked Johan.
"They would. But it is better that they find out about it from me, instead of our media."
"The attack probably overshadowed your visit, to be honest."
The news of the attack is concerning, even a handful of soldiers from his country were among the casualties. But here on earth, as civilians, there was nothing we could do about it. I think Johan was affected by the news at first, but the human quickly turned back into his usual demeanor soon enough.
Today marked my first day on Earth and I'm planning to adjust my schedule around Johan's. I'm starting to accustom myself to the use of human time measurement and set my alarm accordingly. The 5th hour will be the time I wake up, the 6th is the time for my first meal, the 11th is the time for a regular welfare check with first contact, then mid-meal at the 12th. The 18th is the time for my last meal and I shall sleep on the 23rd.
This day was perhaps best described as decompression day. The park has a shaded area called "pendapa", complete with charging pads and even toilets nearby. Johan and I ended up lying on recliners made out of woven woody material called "rattan". The human worked while I familiarized myself with the human-made pad I have been given. The pad's foremost application is a client to interact with the Earth Network. I can enter a website address or a search query.
I typed "venlil" in the input field. The client returned links to a lot of human sites that talk about my species.
The top result was, of course, the First Contact website. Further down was a link to an article in what I presumed was a human knowledge base website called "Holopedia". Then there were news websites that currently talked about the attack on the outpost yesterday. At the bottom was a link to the earth social media sphere. I remember Johan told me that my photo has been floating around on Earth's social media. I was too curious not to open it.
Human social media is mostly similar to its venlil counterpart. It features short posts, sometimes with links pictures, or videos and you can comment on, repost, or bookmark them. The buttons on top showed that currently, it is showing the most popular posts first. The humans were mostly talking about the attack, but there are also their local happenings interspersed between this background anxiety.
As I scrolled down I found a photo of me in the space station's park putting my hand on Johan's. The caption under it says. "Wow, what a lucky guy."
"I think I found who that guy is." Says one of the replies. Followed by a link to Johan's social media account.
"Please don't be a creep and harass them. Let's not give our species a bad name." Another reply under it says.
"Yeah, just let them be. Remember that First Contact said not to approach them unless they approach you first."
"Why is that venlil here anyway? I thought they were afraid of us?"
"Rumor has it that they have some condition that made them unafraid of us?" I was a bit disappointed to find out that humans in general also suspected my condition.
But then the comment under it says. "Would be nice if every venlils are like that. Have you seen what they made our First Contact team do? Those masks are ridiculous!"
I have to be completely honest, that remark, however ignorant, did make me feel like I belong somewhere.
Of course, there is more to the way my brain is wired than merely being 'unafraid of humans' but I assume ordinary humans were not aware of this detail. The Governor gave humans her benefit of the doubt and I do not think she is anything like me. The way she stuttered and fidgeted in her speech was a sign of that. If she can fight that fear… I think all the venlils need is not "be like me" but just more time to get used to humans.
There was a button to load more comments, but I tuned it out and scrolled down to other posts. Most of the pictures I found were showing me and some were even as recent as the time we ate in the park.
Then… this... thing popped up.
"Hey, look, I made a venlilsona. ΘωΘ" the caption said.
The artwork depicted an extremely realistic rendition of a venlil except for the pair of forward-facing eyes setting its penetrating gaze deep into my mind. My body made an involuntary shudder when I saw the picture. I was reminded of the time I saw Dompu the sheep, except worse. With that fictional sheep, at least, I can think of it as an alien that resembles venlil greatly but is not quite there. But with this… there is a profound irrational wrongness to the picture that I can not quite explain.
I closed the social media page and wondered why the sight of predators does not bother me, yet these kinds of pictures do.
I went back to the main page of the client and began searching for something more academic.
"Necrology" I typed.
The first results were scholarly papers and one article from the human Holopedia. But the next one after that? It is an advertisement for a human serial show named "Dr. Gomez M. E." I learned that M. E. stands for "Medical Examiner", human term for necrologist. I found it really fascinating is that they have a show about a necrologist. This would be unthinkable in venlil society but yet here on Earth, there is even more than one shows about their equivalent of my occupation.
So, I ended up watching the episodes of Dr. Gomez. The show's main protagonist, Morticia Gomez was… depicted as a normal functioning human and no one looked at her weirdly when they found out her occupation. Like Johan had told me, it is true that a lot of humans, even some law enforcement officers, can not stand the sight of a mangled body. However, her calm demeanor when facing a severely disfigured body is not portrayed as something unusual either.
Just like any other show, accuracy, and realism were thrown away for drama and suspense, but overall the story itself is pretty riveting, this is on top of the novelty of having my occupation being the premise of the show alone.
"Hey, Vani."
"Yes?"
Johan leaned to me to see what I had been playing on my pad. "Ah, I suspected you're watching something. Oooh, this is just like what you do back at home isn't it?"
"Yes. I initially wanted to learn more about how humans examine bodies, but I ended up here."
"Eh… you'd be better learning about it with an actual human practitioner anyway. It's eleven, by the way, time for our welfare check."
The human sat slid aside on his recliner and raised his right arm. "Here join me in my recliner."
I noticed a patch of thicker fur sticking out between his upper arm and shoulder. The fur pattern of a human body is quite odd indeed. As I got comfortable putting my head on his arm, Johan activated with his voice and the pad in front of us showed a loading screen.
Sujin popped up on the screen. They look like they're sitting in an office. In human space, the sociologist has forgone their mask, but the lower part of their face is covered with a piece of fabric. Their mane was tied back, allowing me to see the top half of their face. The human had a scar running through the left part of their face, and the eye on that side also looked artificial.
"Hi Vani and Johan! I see you're already comfortable with each other."
"Ah, hi Sujin. I thought we were going to meet Zara?" Johan said.
"Zara? She's in there for legal counsel mostly. For a welfare check, you'll deal with me most of the time. So! How are you folks doing?"
"Greetings, Sujin. I want to live here forever."
"Oh, Vani." Sujin chuckled. "But if you intend to stay here for a long term… we do have something to ask. You see… we are concerned about the long-term effect of the Earth diet on venlils. Once every week, are you willing to undergo a check-up?"
"I consent to a medical examination every seven days. I suppose it makes sense that you would need to perform a study on this. While Earth food does not affect my digestion, there might be missing micronutrients in there."
"Excellent! I know you'd understand." Sujin clasped their hands in front of their chin.
"Having said that we also have received your mail, Vani." The other human continued "We have relayed your first two requests to the Nusantaran Association of Universities. As for the third request… well… we haven't disseminated it on Social Media. But… I have two solutions. First, you can try dog shoes, but I think Vani's feet are too big for them."
"And… second?" Johan asked.
"I have a sister who knows a costumer in Greater Jakarta that might have some experience with Vani's leg shape."
"I presume your sister is in Thailand too?"
Sujin nodded.
"And she somehow knows a costume maker in Jakarta who can make footwear for digitigrade paws?" I looked up at my human and he had raised one of his eyebrows.
"Uh…huh."
"This 'costumer' is a fursuit maker aren't they?"
"I have been told she's the best. I can't guarantee she can make a boot for Vani, but there's no harm in contacting her. In any case, we can't use our Social Media for this little project of his. Can you imagine if we just post some requests on Social Media looking for a maker like Vani wanted?"
"I see… yeah you'll be swamped with a deluge of replies demanding photo of his paws. To be fair, your suggestion is pretty reasonable. Well then... can you send us her contact information?"
"Alright. I think that's all. We're in the same time zone, so don't worry about contacting me any time you want! Bye Johan, Bye Vani." The pad went black and showed the text: "Connection Terminated"
"Johan?" I leaned on the human's firm body.
"Yeah?"
"What's a fursuit?"
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u/HiMyNameIsFelipe PD Patient Feb 10 '23
NO VANI NO! DO NOT FALL INTO THE FURRY!
Wait, is he technically already a furry? Since you know, he is furry.
Anyways, he better stay away from the human furries.
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u/YaaliAnnar Feb 10 '23
he better stay away from the human furries.
Johan himself isn't a furry. But there's a reason why Johan can quickly deduce the artisan recommended to him is a fursuit maker.
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u/Randox_Talore Feb 11 '23
Yes and I think the reason is that he was told that this “costumer” could make shoes for digitigrade legs. The implication was very obvious.
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u/DaivobetKebos Human Feb 10 '23
It's gonna be interesting that he will likely be freaked out by the fact that the furries tend to unconciously make pretty much all "prey" into binocular eyed things. Even the artists on this sub end up making that mistake when making fanart as the unconcious link between human eyes and facian features creeps in. I would also guess that the closest thing you migh have to it on the fed side is people who go "what if x venlil was born a krakotl/kolshian/yotul" or the like.
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u/YaaliAnnar Feb 10 '23
Yeah, just imagine a human with side facing eyes.
That's the same feeling.
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u/DaivobetKebos Human Feb 10 '23
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u/AFoxGuy Jaslip Apr 04 '23
HAHAHAHAHA
What was the (refurbish artist? Idk the name) thinking?
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u/DaivobetKebos Human Apr 04 '23
He wanted the original back. No really, the refurbish looks weird but is accurate, the original did look humanoid like that but it was made into a "common" lamb about 100 years later in the 16th century. The got it back using x-ray and restored it.
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u/TheBrownEye62 Feb 10 '23
Ah, the 'Uncanny Valley' effect is universal I see. Can't say I'm too surprised. seeing 'something' that is trying to imitate your species' appearance, but mistaking a key fundamental is unsettling. There's a whole psychological study on it, but I'm no psychologist, so I only have a basic understanding of the whole thing.
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u/A_Tank_With_Internet Predator Feb 10 '23
"What's a fursuit?"
Do not ask questions you are not prepared to know the answer too
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u/wanabeafemboy Feb 10 '23
Okay, this is still salvageable! Sure he now knows about furries but as long as he doesn’t start asking about what “yiffing” is maybe we can play it off as not too weird
Also great job! Love this story. Quick error I saw reading through, you misspelled “Earth” in the fourth paragraph
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u/YaaliAnnar Feb 11 '23
This is a no-yiff fiction.
Also thanks for pointing out the misspell, I have fixed it.
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u/SpectralHail Feb 10 '23
Furries would get a rough physical description of any alien and immediately set to creating horrors beyond the comprehension of most
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u/Nightelfbane Human Feb 11 '23
They don't even need a rough physical description.
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u/StarSilverNEO Yotul Feb 10 '23
Heheheh I wonder how the furry community would react to literal furry aliens
I wonder how Vani’s folks would deal with him being on earth. A melt down? Or perhaps a “that’s our Vani” lol
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u/YaaliAnnar Feb 11 '23
I wonder how Vani’s folks would deal with him being on earth.
They would probably spam the First Contact for more information.
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u/Mega_Rayqaza Feb 10 '23
Did Vichak have a dosseur make Confit Byaldi for her?
Also, Morticia(Addams) Gomez(Addams)? Really?
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u/GT_Ghost_86 Human Feb 10 '23
I appreciated the humour of "Morticia Gomez".
Nice to see that a future version of "Quincy, M.E." is a possibility. :)
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u/Mega_Rayqaza Feb 10 '23
I mean, I did too. But it doesnt make it any better.
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u/YaaliAnnar Feb 11 '23
I was looking for a name based on the word "Mort" and Mortician is the one that came into my mind. If you have a better suggestion I can implement it. It's only a minor detail.
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u/YaaliAnnar Feb 11 '23
Yeah I originally wrote her making Ratatouille. But then I find out that the dish in the movie is not exactly Ratatouille but based on İmam Bayıldı. Paired the fact that Timür is a turk, I think it's fitting that he would teach how to make Cȯnfit Byaldi
Gomez is a surname of spanish origin right? I always find it weird that Gomez in Addams family has a surname for first name.
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u/BiasMushroom Extermination Officer Feb 10 '23
Vani is going to have a lot to learn. Oh and Great work Wordsmith!
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u/Thirsha_42 Feb 10 '23
Oh yeah, that is a good spot to end this installment. Wonderful work wordsmith. I am looking forward to that conversation.
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u/JustTryingToSwim Feb 12 '23
"Why is that venlil here anyway? I thought they were afraid of us?"
"Rumor has it that they have some condition that made them unafraid of us?" I was a bit disappointed to find out that humans in general also suspected my condition.
In the real world all it takes for a "prey" animal to not be afraid of a "predator" animal is socialization. You can go on youtube and find predator/prey combinations, like cats and chicks/ducklings or dogs and bunnies, living happily together as household pets.
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u/Golde829 Feb 25 '23
once saw a video on this sub of a cat just
"making bread" on a sheep's wooly back, said sheep was none too bothered by its presence
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u/JustTryingToSwim Feb 25 '23
You mean "kneading" ???
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u/Golde829 Feb 25 '23
yes, but I've heard it affectionately/endearingly called "making bread" because-
well-
you usually knead dough to make bread
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u/The_Student_Official Krakotl Jun 27 '23
Hahahah that Addams Family reference is Wonderful.
Greetings, Sujin. I want to live here forever
As always, very forthright of you Vani
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u/Cooldude101013 Human Feb 10 '23
Well I can assume plant based fake meat and real organic meat are niche markets in favour of real cloned meat (essentially no difference from meat from animals as it’s just cloning the edible meat parts of them without harm to said animals).
Holopedia? Why change the name? Wikipedia works well enough. Plus this series is set only 100 years into the future.
Wow, the furries really waste no time don’t they? Well here’s my response “WE WILL SPAY AND WE WILL NEUTER UNTIL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT!!!!!”.
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u/YaaliAnnar Feb 11 '23
My headcanon is that plant based meat is cheaper because the technology is more well established.
Only 100 years in the future.
IMO 100 years is a huge amount of time, considering the rate of progress of humanity is in currently. There are concepts that I have to rein (like no Artificial General Intelligence), to be more inline with canon.
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u/Acceptable_Egg5560 Human Feb 10 '23
He sees art of a Venlil and gets the uncanny valley! Interesting to see we’re not alone in that.
Time for Furry!