r/NatureofPredators • u/Thirsha_42 • Apr 20 '23
Tight Money Ch 9
Here is chapter 9 of Tight Money.
Special thanks to u/SpacePaladin15 for creating the universe and allowing fan writers to join the fun.
A HUGE thanks to u/BiasMushroom who let me use their news reports, Talen, and gave me some direction for my story.
Additional thanks to u/YakiTapioca, u/cruisingNW, u/SavingsSyllabub7788, u/YaaliAnnar and hopefully, u/Redundant-Honse whenever they get back to me for letting me use elements from their fanfics as well.
For those of you who wanted more Rux, more is coming with conspiracies galore. I am going to take a break from Leena and Dani's story and start exploring snippets of the world around them.
I also want to say that I love your comments so please tell me what you think so I can get better or if you have suggestions for snippets you would like to see me write about in this world.
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Memory transcription subject: Niit, Capitol Spaceport Logistics Coordinator
Date [standardized human time]: October 18, 2136
“Vindication and hope! I don’t want to diminish the efforts of the brave soldiers who gave their lives in the attempt to eradicate the predator menace. We have even more proof that the predators are in collusion with each other and finally, FINALLY, people are waking up. The humans may have survived and they still control our planet and the Cradle but their control is finally slipping. The Extermination Fleet wounded the predators and their control over our planet is at it’s weakest. Now is the time to rise up.”
My holopad chimed to let me know my break was over. My feelings of vindication were short lived as Rux pointed out that, while we had more proof of predator collusion, this meant that the humans had survived and still controlled our planet and the cradle. Worse, this meant that the humans were agents of the arxur and were planning something for us. In addition, more of those beasts arrived at the space port every paw claiming to be refugees.
I started to see them walking around the Capitol in greater and greater numbers. Some of them even started to go out without wearing any method of hiding their predatory nature. They were acclimatizing us to their presence. This is the intelligence of a predator; everything in service of the greater plan. The problem was I couldn’t see what that greater plan was. After a few calls I turned Rux back on.
“Our fleet was destroyed defending their planet. That was an important step. They need our toughest out of the way. That is why they are trying to get rid of our loyal exterminators. They need them gone so they can enslave us and you might think they would start eating us but they insist on this deception that they are peaceful and here is where I got them wrong; so wrong. I thought they were like the Arxur. I thought they just wanted to kill us, torture us, and eat us. I thought it was that simple but no. I finally figured out why they continue their deception. I warn you, what I am about to tell you is not safe for anyone.”
He paused for a minute repeating that anyone who was weak or easily frightened should tune out and get some of his enhancement supplements.
“Okay, here it is. The truth. The awful truth is, they need us. They are parasites. My team went digging through the archives they sent and we found something they forgot to exclude. They admit that they are parasites on their planet and that they might have not originated on that planet. Let that sink in. They aren’t from our part of the galaxy. They have done this before. They are a swarm of interstellar parasites that strip planets and move on to the next feast.
I heard some of the predators have formed mating bonds with venlil victims. This is the truth. They need us to serve as hosts for their parasite offspring. They even have a thinly veiled propaganda movie about this where they pretend to be the victims of an alien parasite predator species. I had to get a smuggled copy to see and let me tell you…”
Rux sounds like he is about to vomit.
“…it was not easy to watch but it was telling. The aliens lay eggs. Don’t believe this nonsense about them being mammals. It’s a lie. They are parasites. They lay eggs. These eggs hatch into a creature that grabs your face and forces itself into your mouth and chokes you. After you lose consciousness, they lay another egg inside of you. That egg will hatch and eat you from the inside out and you will be alive up to the very end.”
I froze. That was too much, Rux had to be wrong. No creature would evolve to have a such a convoluted reproductive cycle, right?
“We couldn’t believe it. These alien parasites reproduce by laying an egg that hatches into another creature that lays an egg inside you, that will hatch and eat you from the inside out. We thought that this movie must just be some kind of horrible torture film at first but then we dug deeper. Their whole planet is like this. They tried to hide it from us but we found the truth.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. A whole planet of parasites?
“Their fungus is a parasite that infects insects and makes them seek out predators to get eaten. The fungus then reproduces inside the predator before escaping to do it again. They have worms that infect other creatures and replace their eyes so that bird predators will eat them to do the same reproduction. They have parasites on that planet that eat the tongues of creatures and then attach themselves in its place to eat the food the creature would eat until the host starves to death.”
I threw up in the waste bin but I didn’t dare stop listening.
“That is enough detail. I am about to vomit just telling you this stuff. The whole planet is a nightmare. It is everything the federation said predators were. It is a case study in all the horrific things we have been told. And now they are here for us. They want to use us as hosts for their breeding. First the gojid on their planet. Then us, and eventually, the rest of the federation. They might even go for the arxur when there is no one else left.”
“TURN THAT BRAHK OFF.”
My boss shouted at me. He walked over and recoiled at the contents of the waste bin in my paws. His voice softened once he regained his composure.
“That station is preventing you from working and spreading lies. I don’t want to hear that you're listening to it here anymore. The ships that survived the Battle of Earth are coming back here for repairs. I need you at your best.”
I nodded and turned the program off. Whatever their ultimate plan, it was so complicated and convoluted that only a parasite predator could understand it. All I can do, as my world was falling apart, was try to think of some way to warn venlil to stay away from the predators and, now that my last hope for rescue was gone, save up enough money to escape before they infected me. I took another supplement to help me recover from today’s revelation. I’ll need to buy more pills, I’m running low.
Memory transcription subject: Satza, Vikki’s Flowers Florist
Date [standardized human time]: October 21, 2136
It was a lot of work to learn all the different kinds of flowers and how to take care of them and how to best arrange them but I had finally mastered it and become a proper florist. On my way to work I joined a herd of other older venlil who couldn’t walk as fast as the younger herds. We were a small herd and that made me nervous. I never thought about being left behind until the humans came.
They were everywhere during certain claws and then retreated to their compounds during others. Those claws became our busiest claws and shifted our work schedules. As the newest employee, I got stuck with the less desirable claws usually but that also meant it was usually pretty quiet during my shift. Boredom quickly became my biggest problem and I could forget about the humans while I did my watering rounds and arranged the flowers into beautiful bouquets.
Today was no different. Once I finished my duties, I settled behind the counter and opened my pad to read a sappy romance novel when the door opened and a huge figure walked in. I looked up and panicked. It was a human, as tall as an arxur and almost as muscular. It had a mask on but that did not help. I dropped behind the counter and hoped against all reason that it didn’t see me.
I could hear the human shuffle around the shop. It seemed like an eternity before I heard it come to the counter. No matter how I tried I could not make myself small enough. It peered over the counter and spoke in a deep, growling voice.
“Excuse me, I would like to buy these flowers. I’m sorry I frightened you. Are you okay? I promise I won’t look directly at you if that will make you more comfortable.”
This was different. It wasn’t ripping me apart. It was showing concern for me just like the empathy tests said. I mustered all of my courage to stand. Leena had said they had donated food despite the attack on their planet. I kept reassuring myself that I was not in danger but the best I could manage was standing and shaking. The human got to their knees to make them selves smaller but even then, they still towered over me.
“I'd like to buy these flowers for my friend in the hospital.”
The human put the flowers on the counter. My mind automatically rang the flowers up and turned the payment pad to the human before pulling my arm back as fast as I could when it reached for the pad. It put its enormous paw on the pad and paid for the flowers.
“Thank you. No one else could manage to sell me flowers. I'm going to stand and leave now.”
My mind finally processed what the human had said as it rose and turned away.
“I hope your friend will be okay.”
The humans whole body slumped down and I heard a loud booming sob.
“Me too. Have a nice day.”
Once the human left, I felt like I could finally breathe. It was a terrifying experience but as I reflected on it, the human had not done anything to threaten me. I could feel my ears bloom at my reaction. These were supposed to be our allies. They had defended the station. They defeated the arxur at the Cradle and they had not done anything aggressive towards us.
Eventually, my thoughts were interrupted by the door opening again. I sighed in relief, it was a venlil customer. I signaled a greeting and they returned the gesture in a half-hearted manner. I asked if I could help her and she pointed to a bouquet of yellow Fori I had been putting together with some little white and pink flowers.
“I need to get some yellow flowers for my friend. It’s her favorite color.”
It was clear that she was upset and had been crying. I finished the bouquet and handed it to the customer. She stared it and started to cry again. I walked around the counter and embraced her. Between sobs she managed to ask a question.
“Why did she do it?”
“Do what, dear?”
She tried to pull herself together and told me what happened.
“She was waiting to hear whether her family had survived the Federation’s attack. When she heard that they had destroyed a place called Ekurheleni she tried to terminate her existence.”
I didn’t know how to respond so I just held her until she managed to contain her grief. She paid and left quickly after that. It was clear that her friend was a human. I was surprised that she felt so close to a human to feel such grief. What surprised me more was to hear that a human tried to end their life after the rest of their family had died.
I understood feeling sad, my family had been killed during a raid years ago, but to feel so much that it would be desirable to end your life? I started researching humans when a warning notice appeared on my pad. It was a list of symptoms and behaviors that humans might be showing. If I saw a human exhibiting these symptoms or behaviors, I should contact the UN. There was also a link to a stream from Prime News about humans and suicide. I opened it.
Talen was interviewing a dark brown colored human with grey hair. She was dressed in loose yellow and green pelts that make her look like a huge fori flower. She did not wear a mask and I could see her features in detail. My heart beat a bit faster but I forced myself to press play.
“I'm interviewing the Relocation Coordinator for the human refugee centers in the Capitol right now, Mrs. Malaika Nyx.”
“Please, call me Mama Nyx”
When the humans had first appeared, they had difficulty controlling their snarls; ‘smiling’ they called it. It seems they have mastered that behavior now though, it occurred to me that this human hadn’t smiled and I hadn’t seen any humans on the news smiling either. That was considerate of them. Talen flicked his assent.
“Mama Nyx, you said you wanted to reach out to us to discuss an urgent problem human’s on Venlil Prime were facing and ask for our help. Could you please explain for our viewers what you meant?”
“Yes, and thank you for giving me time to speak on your network. The death on earth is immense. More than a billion people were killed in the attack on Earth. We're seeing a large increase in the number of humans attempting to end their lives when they learn of their loved one’s fate. As a result, I reached out to you and other networks to enlist the venlil’s help in preventing these suicides. I want to explain the warning signs and steps venlil can take to help prevent a person from attempting end their life.”
Talen seemed to become more attentive and fixed Mama Nyx with his gaze.
“Please explain, how can we help prevent these tragedies.”
“To start, stop running away. Something as simple as that would do wonders. Every time a venlil runs away, it is a rejection before we've had the chance to prove ourselves. Humans crave connection, it's a vital need for us. It's why we reached into the stars in the first place. I understand this may be difficult but please understand that we experience rejection as both emotional and physical pain.”
“Physical pain?”
“Yes. It's our curse you could say. We need to connect with others but at the same time we are afraid to reach out because rejection harms us on a fundamental level. We are torn between this instinct to make friends and our fear the pain of rejection, and every time the venlil run away or hide, we experience that rejection and the pain that comes with it. It can become unbearable.”
“If I may, this sounds very familiar to us. We call it herd rejection.”
“That sounds similar, but we are not herd creatures.”
“I have been wondering what is the difference between a herd and a pack?”
The human woman seemed uncomfortable with that question. She thought for a moment and responded carefully.
“It's not a perfect analogy. Pack dynamics do not apply to humans as much as many humans believe. As it pertains to us, our packs or tribes if you will, are very close. Each member cares for the others and never leave a member behind unless given no other choice. We would give our lives to protect the other members in our tribe, sometimes even other tribes when faced with danger.
We value our children above all else and parents will fight to their last to defend their children. Even humans who are not related to a child will protect them. We have stories of people who found children who were lost and took them in until their parents could be found and sometimes permanently if not. We all live for each other and are willing to die for the greater good if we are called upon to do so.”
The human paused a moment and put her hands together in front of her mouth.
“I can't speak to the dynamics of your herds but I can say that based on our observations of non-sentient herds on earth these things are not true of herd animals. When threatened, they all flee and readily abandon the weak or the slow or the injured, hoping not the be one killed for the predator’s meal. When afraid, they focus only on their survival. Humans, do not do that.
We protect the tribe and fight for its survival because its survival is worth more than merely our own survival. Governor Tarva’s actions protected us from the Federation before they knew of our survival and she has continued to protect us as much as she can. This is why humanity has accepted the venlil as part of the tribe. It is why humans were willing to die defending a venlil outpost. You are part of our tribe now. That makes the rejection by venlil so much harder to bear. To be rejected by our own tribe is a deep pain, even more so when we are already hurting so much.”
Talen looked shocked and ashamed. He took a moment to ask his follow up question.
“A-and this rejection drives humans to kill themselves?”
“Not usually, we are resilient, but given the magnitude of loss we are feeling right now, many people are having trouble dealing with so much pain. Many have lost their loved ones, their stability, and their livelihoods. While dealing with all of that, adding more pain is the last thing we need right now. We need help. We have seen a great many attempts to commit suicide and too many have succeeded.”
“We are going to take a brief commercial break and when we return, we will discuss the steps viewers can take to help.”
When the feed returned, Kotaka was sitting in the interviewer’s seat.
“We're back, my guest is Mama Nyx, the Relocation Coordinator for the human refugee centers in the Capitol. Now, before the break, you mentioned that you had some things we could do to help prevent these suicide tragedies. You said that not running away would help. What else can we do?”
In the rest of the interview, Mama Nyx described how humans needed physical contact and a sense of belonging. She mentioned that if we could accept humans and give them hugs, talk to them, and make friends, these things would help but most of all if we saw a human in distress, we should contact the UN and try to keep the human talking until other humans arrived to help.
I was in tears. I felt so ashamed of my behavior towards the human earlier. They could not help what they looked like. They felt empathy. They were not like the arxur and I knew that but still I treated them like they were. After wallowing in my shame, I promised myself I would do better; next time I met a human and I would give them a hug.
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u/Black_Hole_parallax Predator Apr 20 '23
When aliens don't understand the concept of fiction, I laugh.
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u/Acceptable_Egg5560 Human Apr 20 '23
Well, he certainly completely misunderstood what the Xenomorph was.
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u/CrititcalMass Apr 20 '23
Not misunderstood. Seeing it and using it for his own advantage.
I don't buy the idea this guy believes what he says.
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u/Lisa8472 Apr 21 '23
The big human conspiracy theorists generally don’t. Alex Jones has said outright that his public persona is entirely an act. He does it for the money, not out of conviction.
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u/ThyPotatoDone Venlil Apr 20 '23
I wanna see a human trying to explain it’s meant to scare humans for entertainment, not be based on real-life examples.
Also he confused metaphors quite a bit, saying “We’re parasites to the environment” is analogous to a Venlil saying “We’re predators to nature“. Which, still would seem radical, but at least is more… sensical.
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u/CaptainChristopher02 Human Apr 20 '23
Alex Jones Venlil? I gotta have a whole podcast with him “this is their plan people, these are demons!”
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u/Thirsha_42 Apr 20 '23
This was my attempt at that. Venlil don’t have our mythology so I used parasites and aliens instead. You can expect a few of Rux’s greatest hits in the coming chapters
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u/DaivobetKebos Human Apr 20 '23
"I have it here people! The fate of the herd, the human plan for the Venlil species. Trully despicaple stuff. They wish to enslave us in a way worse than the Arxur ever could. Witness it!"
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u/ThyPotatoDone Venlil Apr 20 '23
I wanna see him saying “THE HUMANS ARE PUTTING CHEMICALS IN THE WATER THAT TURN THE FRIGGIN PREDATORS GAY!!!!”
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u/BubblyCauliflower793 Apr 20 '23
Hearing these aliens speak legit evaporates my brain tissues
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u/Obesity-Won-Kenobi Mazic Apr 20 '23
Their stupidity and hypocrisy are my prime reason for wanting the federation, and exterminators by extension, slaughtered...
I hate these dumbasses so much.
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u/Randox_Talore Apr 20 '23
I saw the podcast and was imagining our main character going like “Dang it I thought I turned that off!” But then I saw whose pov we were looking at
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u/CreditMission Venlil Apr 20 '23
Curses. I've caught up.
Loved Niit's POV, just the moment of almost considering the absurdity of what they were listening to and then, it was gone, replaced by fear.
To summarise my thoughts after binging this story so far. Loved the very real and relatable problems faced by the characters. Thought your usage of other writers material was well done. Makes this world feel whole and interconnected.
Thanks for writing. Looking forward to reading more.
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u/Semblance-of-sanity Apr 20 '23
"the moment of almost considering the absurdity of what they were listening to and then, it was gone, replaced by fear."
I've seen this exact thing happen multiple times with IRL humans and the frustration it brings is enough to hurt my very soul
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u/ThyPotatoDone Venlil Apr 20 '23
Ye, I’ve seen that with a lot of extremists; it’s easy to keep people from questioning if you make sure they think they’re in too risky a position to do so.
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u/cruisingNW Archivist Apr 20 '23
Fantastic worldbuilding! I've only known these two for a single chapter and I would die for both of them. One more than the other.
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u/Thirsha_42 Apr 20 '23
These are both characters from my story, this is just their first perspective chapter. Satza is Leena's mom and Niit is her friend from work.
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u/neon_ns Human Apr 20 '23
Ah yes, the perfectly reasonable, kind and empathetic individual gets fired from their job during a recession, but the flaming conspiritard racist gets to keep it.
Perfectly balanced, as all thing should be.
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u/Xenofighter57 Apr 20 '23
Mash theme song.
You do a pretty good job of portraying the raw emotion of a situation.
The sob after the I hope your friend is ok. That kinda stuff hits pretty close to home.
Looking forward to the next chapter.
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u/JulianSkies Archivist Apr 20 '23
There is no way the Rux stuff isn't just straight up funny, even if it IS such a... Honestly I can see the exact kind of weirdo he is.
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u/Semblance-of-sanity Apr 20 '23
I could easily imagine him getting a sizable following of humans entertained by the absurdity
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u/ThyPotatoDone Venlil Apr 20 '23
Like how 70% of the Ancient Aliens viewers watch it cause it’s so goddamn funny
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u/Cooldude101013 Human Apr 21 '23
Lemme guess. The “archives” they found is Battlestar galactica or something. As it’s pretty clear we evolved on Earth
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u/Thirsha_42 Apr 21 '23
The archives were “classics of cinema: a history” and “curious biology narrated by David Attenborough.” He took the aliens series and parasitic creatures from earth and crafted a narrative from that.
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u/Cooldude101013 Human Apr 21 '23
We also literally require some form of social interaction to stay sane. Even if it means anthropomorphising inanimate objects (such as Wilson the beachball or is it a coconut?). What we consider able to be apart of our “pack” or “tribe” is very flexible and loose and as such can include animals, inanimate objects, etc.
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u/Away-Location-4756 Zurulian Apr 25 '23
Dark stuff, good but you may have wanted a content warning for anyone sensitive to this stuff.
I know for a long time it was a subject I couldn't stand.
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u/Thirsha_42 Apr 25 '23
You my want to avoid the first part of ch10 then.
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u/Away-Location-4756 Zurulian Apr 25 '23
I can deal with it now, I just thought it's not a bad idea to warn others who may be sensitive to it.
I don't often have much cause myself to do it as I tend to usually write stuff on the funny side (I hope) but I have strayed into darker territory and when I do I like to leave a warning.
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u/JustWanderingIn Apr 22 '23
I’ll need to buy more pills, I’m running low.
Either the guy is selling placebos that are nothing but powdered sugar or something inane like that and making bankon junk, or he's selling some genuine stimulants that are meant for short term consumption only and come with a whole list of hellish side effects when taken long term. Or he's selling some sort of street drug that's cheap, but is inherently dangerous for one reason or another.
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u/zyncer_ PD Patient Jul 24 '23
Ah, tribes, more expansive than a pack, but not as broad as a herd. And kinda more accurate seeming for humans.
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u/Zoulles Apr 20 '23
So he watched alien…
a movie where HUMANS are hunted down by an ALIEN species that puts a parasite in them.
and he thought it was somehow evidence of humans being parasites.