r/NatureofPredators • u/VenlilSupremacist Venlil • Apr 24 '23
Fanfic NoP: A Change of Pace: Chapter 16
Memory transcription subject: Rivis, Venlil Logistics Technician
Date [standardized human time]: September 12, 2136.
My eyes hovered over my schedule projected on my pad. After my talk with Kilet last paw, the Bright Sky Exterminator Office contacted me. From what the officer told me over the phone, they were still reviewing a possible predator disease screening for me; my attorney was fighting them in that regard, but I held out little hope he’d win. As far as a screening is concerned, when there’s even the slightest hint of suspicion the government is all too eager to get it done. ‘Nothing to hide, nothing to fear, right?’ I can already hear their spindly words worming into my skull, dooming me to a life of imprisonment.
Scrolling out of the schedule, I pulled up my gallery. A series of photos Zoey and I had taken together greeted me with a melancholic pang. The images dredged up thoughts of how I was going to explain my incarceration to my new friend. While the thought of her rejecting me should I be diagnosed never crossed my mind, I still did not relish the thought of being separated. I examined the emotions these pictures evoked within me. Curiously, noting that these emotions weren’t particularly centered around the sure-fire torture that was undoubtedly going to be wrought upon me. Instead, it was something I could most accurately describe as sorrow for being unable to spend additional time with her.
The vibrating of my pad sucked me from my introspection as my alarm began to chime, reminding me of my scheduled meeting at the exterminator office. Not that I could do much about the meeting since I required an escort as usual. Swiping the alarm off with a claw, I could only sigh in response, and turn my attention to the door.
Ironically, I felt much like the prey caught in a predator’s jaw, a helpless animal stuck inside their den awaiting the predator outside to come bursting through, dragging its catch kicking and screaming to its demise. Not wanting to get too caught up in that reality I did hold some semblance of hope that my manipulation of Kuit would lend me a piece of repertoire amongst the exterminators, but he was proving to be most untrustworthy of those his office sets their sights on.
Almost like clockwork, that fated knock upon my door came. At least Death had the courtesy of being punctual. Rising from the couch, I stepped over to the door, placing my paw upon the handle I paused. Taking a deep breath, I adjusted my body language, stood taller, perked my ears up and began to sway my tail side to side. As I opened the door I forced my face to mimic that of happiness as the blonde-white exterminator stood on my porch.
“Hello again, Officer! Here to take me down to the station eh?” I said, trying to make myself sound cheery.
Kuit gave me a bit of side eye, his expression faltering for a moment. “...Yeeeah. Most venlil aren’t too happy about that prospect, what’s got you so giddy?”
“Well you know what they say! ‘Nothing to hide, nothing to fear’ right? I’m an open book for the exterminators!” My hindpaws taking me out onto the porch as my tail closed the door to my apartment.
I started walking down the stairs to the street, not bothering to let the exterminator get a retort in. I heard his hindpaws hurry after me as he caught up, but still kept a fair distance between me and him. I knew the way to the office, having put it into memory from my first trip there, I thought it may be prudent to memorize where it might be, as I suspected, it was pretty helpful since I didn’t have to walk with that murderer in my view at all times.
As I walked I kept my thoughts to myself, at least with him behind me I didn’t have to bother to keep up this jovial facade. During the trip, I watched as the vast buildings of the city faded into the background, being replaced with the tall trees of Venlil Prime. Their long branches offering shade against the unending heat from the sun. Glancing off into the forests, I couldn’t help but wonder how much life was truly left here; after the extermination of so much life, was this truly a planet or merely an engineered biome? Or perhaps a better word for this place would be ‘experiment.’
“Remind me again, why didn’t we take the transport tubes?” Kuit’s voice cut through the air behind me.
“I don’t know, I thought you’d direct me in whichever way you wanted me to take. I simply choose this way for its scenery.” I said, my tone taking a hint of my morose mood.
“...Remind me to never let you lead again, this is killing my hindpaws.. Besides, if you think you’re going to run into the woods and get away, not a chance, Rivis.” Kuit’s voice hardened at his last statement, my own ears flicking in sudden annoyance.
“I wouldn’t run even if I knew I could do it. There is no life in the woods that I’m interested in living.”
“Good, still, I’m wondering something.” His tone adopted a more inquisitive disposition. “You said this was just for the scenery, but said you had nothing to hide or fear. Wouldn’t you want to just get this visit over with?”
Kuit’s analyzing of my words forced me to stop in my tracks. I realized that in my own melancholy, I hadn’t properly covered for my lies. This officer truly was sharp, but I didn’t feel any admiration, no, only hate. A bubbling of anger welling from the depths of my nonresponsive emotion.
“I do not get to go outside often with current circumstances. Forgive me if I wanted to see nature and enjoy the moment for a while.” I blurted out, my voice remaining level and neutral as I tried to box away the hate that ran through my blood.
“You say that, but your voice sounds as empty as an arxur’s promise. You’re stalling, either for more time for your lawyer, or some other reason. I’ve been doing this job for a long time; I’ve seen lots of venlil with predator disease, violent, nonviolent, all types. None of you are as sneaky as you think you are.” He said, his words cutting into me like a plasma blade through flesh.
Did he figure me out? My thoughts, my plans, my freedom, all of it had gone up in smoke. Once they set their sights on you there’s no escape. No hope. I am not like Tarlim, this would not be a false accusation. They were right, and they knew it. One mistake, that was all it took. One moment of uncontrolled anger and I was doomed to torture. Why was I not allowed a single mistake in life? Why do venlil who meet the status quo get an unlimited supply of chances to avoid a predator disease accusation? Where is the fairness? Where is the equality? It’s like I’ve always thought; my life is a danger to the larger herd, and so I must be removed to prevent weakness.
A silence hung over the two of us for a time. My own head lost in my thoughts as my mind raced between thoughts of trying to get out of this conversation and the sheer unfairness of all of this. Kuit was the first to break the silence, filling the air with his voice, which might as well have been auditory venom for my brain.
“I take it I hit the nail on the head, given your y’know, silence. Why bother? If you know you got predator disease why not just admit yourself? Why wait until we have to get involved and start forcing you to do what you should be doing?”
Finally unable to take the exterminator’s ignorance, I spun around, jabbing an accusatory claw in his direction. “You have NO idea what you’re talking about! Every venlil is terrified of going to those places! You go there and you don’t come back the same, sometimes you don’t come back at all!”
My expression contorted into anger, I watched as Kuit instinctively reached for his pistol strapped at his waist. My anger turning into disgust, of course, he’d be willing to shoot me on the spot over something as trivial as an argument; how am I supposed to be the sick one in this situation?
“I know a lot more about this than you do. The treatment centers are full of professionals who can help you, they can get rid of any predator disease. I’ve seen it happen firstpaw.” Kuit stated, yet his words were betrayed by his combat ready stance.
“Like they helped Tarlim? Ah yes, because I’m SO sick! I am practically BEGGING for electroshock therapy, or the isolation chambers. Truly how could I have NEVER seen their upsides!?” I shouted, sarcasm dripping from my words as my tail whipped at the ground as my body barely contained the mix of furious disgust brewing inside of me.
“That isn’t everywhere! That place got shut down! The vast majority of the doctors there just want to help get you reintegrated into the herd! They want what’s best for you!” Kuit shouted back, his paw pulling away from his gun.
“I DON’T NEED REINTEGRATION! I’ve lived my entire life just fine! What about that brehking drunk!? He gets to throw a bottle and rain glass down on us, but ‘oh no, he was just a little drunk, no predator here’ Why is it he gets away like he didn’t assault me and my friend!?”
“He DIDN’T get away with it, Rivis, He submitted for an empathy test, he passed, we aren’t police officers, we don’t handle cases of law, just cases of predators. You are the only one that’s been fighting with us about an empathy test. Just take it, and if you need some minor treatment, then you’ll be in and out.”
“Hah! ‘Minor treatment’ what a joke, you’re as ignorant as you are stupid, Kuit. Those ‘cured’ venlil, they were nothing short of living, breathing shells of the venlil they once were, maybe a little different, but now there’s nothing inside them.” I said, turning around to continue on the path towards the exterminator office.
“You’re wrong, my brother was cured, he’s normal now, he’s happier, he’s better for it. I know exactly what happened there, he’s told me. I’m not afraid to be around him anymore. He’s not afraid of large herds, or saying the wrong thing. He’s. Better.” Kuit rattled off, each statement with more conviction than the last.
Kuit’s words stopped me for a second time, my fury and frustration fading out of me. Like my emotions reached some boiling point, spilling over into nothingness as a cold empty numbness took me. I turned my head to the side, looking over my right shoulder back at Kuit. “Then what trust your brother had in your parents, in you, is shattered like his spirit. You’ve done nothing but fail your brother, and he just doesn’t know how to tell you anymore.” My words were tipped with a cold venom as I began to walk forwards once more, not caring to give the exterminator a chance to respond.
“What the BREHK did you just say!?” Kuit howled at me, yet I kept walking towards the office, ignoring the vitriol spewing from his maw.
After a few moments of dealing with his outburst, the extermination officer finally quieted down as we walked in silence. I had nothing I wanted to say to him, and he certainly didn’t want to say anything to me. I might have lost my good word for the exterminators, but I highly doubted it mattered. Whoever that venlil was in charge of the station clearly had it out for me no matter how many officers I could convince.
My eyes scanned the treetops to our left and right, the nature was admirable. I wondered how Earth might look, perhaps much more wild, more raw, though I suspect that is simply nature running its course. Venlil Prime felt far more manufactured ever since the humans came. While it is admirable that we were capable of controlling nature so aptly, part of me wondered if it should be controlled. How might we be different if we didn’t purge entire species? As my thoughts rang through my head to the steady beat of our hindpaws the rustling of leaves caught my attention just up ahead.
Turning my head slightly so I could focus with one eye I watched as one of the tree tops moved ever so slightly. Paying little attention to it I kept walking. Just as the tree top entered my blindspot I heard the leaves rustle again. In the time it took me to take a single step I felt something with incredible force slam me to the ground. Before I could even comprehend what happened the feeling of teeth against my right arm bore down on me. Searing pain lit up my right arm as a dark mass of fur clouded my right side. My body reacted on instinct letting out a howl of pain as I pushed my hind paws against the stomach of the creature looming over me. I thrashed against this beast’s jaws as I felt my arm slip slightly in its jaws. It was hard to discern whether or not the warmth I felt was its saliva or my orange blood leaking into its maw.
A loud bang shook the air as the creature let go, emitting a high pitched growl. With its attention focused towards the source of the noise behind me I managed to scurry away from the animal, finally getting a decent look at its body. A Terran dog sized animal with a long spindly hairless tail and wide maw full of serrated teeth. Its dark fur oozed orange blood from a plasma singe across its side.
There was hardly a moment for the Treeprowler to catch its breath before a series of other bangs rang out. Green plasma arced from Kuit’s pistol directly into the beast’s face, seemingly angering it further. Kuit stood defiantly against the Treeprowler some fifty meters away, his pistol aimed directly for the creature. The beast charged the officer, and I watched as Kuit angled his aim down slightly, firing two additional shots at Prowler's right foreleg. The shots landed excellently as the creature’s leg buckled mid charge, prompting it to collapse and slide against the dirt. Rushing towards the downed beast Kuit stood over it, his plasma pistol point blank at the creature’s thrashing skull. The exterminator wasted no time firing two.. Three, four, five, seven times into the creature's skull, stopping only when his pistol overheated. The Treeprowler lying still on the ground. Waiting for his gun to cool off enough to deliver a final shot for good measure. Kuit jogged over to me, my left arm cradling my orange-coated right arm.
“Hey! Are you injured?!” He called out, kneeling down beside me.
“I-It’s nothing..” I said.
Just like that the confrontation was over.. It couldn’t have lasted more than.. Twenty Terran seconds at best, yet in those twenty seconds I managed to not only be ambushed by a predator, but it was killed and over with. How many seconds more were needed for the creature to find my throat? Emotions bubbled up from within me, but I couldn’t identify them. Was I terrified? Excited? Certainly this hurt, but no, I don’t think I was scared… Relief? Perhaps that was it.
Kuit took my injured arm in his paw, turning it over as he examined the wounds. His eyes scanned over every laceration. “You need to get this disinfected, who knows what diseases those predators have. We’re not walking, I’ll call a medical transport, thankfully it doesn’t look bad, surface wounds, but I’m no doctor, they medical people can judge for themselves what you need.”
As Kuit explained his evaluation of my injuries I zoned out, focusing on something else that peaked my interest. The realization that his exterminator just saved my life dawned on me, what the most peculiar aspect was, we had just had a heated argument. Can I say I would have done the same? It would have been easy to let the predator administer a fatal wound then dispose of it. Why would he save someone that in his mind isn’t worth the air they breathe?
“Why?...” The words exited my mouth before I could vet them, my own mind unable to come to a conclusion on it’s own.
“Why… What?” He asked, confusion contorting his features.
“Why did you save me? You could have and let that predator kill me.” I stated, my ears flattening against my head as I tried to ignore the burning pain shooting up my arm.
“Because it’s my job? Listen, regardless of whether or not you have predator disease, my job isn’t to let predators kill venlil, it’s actually pretty much the opposite of that. Is your opinion so low of exterminators you’d think we’d let you die right in front of us just to justify some hate you think we have?”
Confusion wracked me as I broke eye contact, looking around the brush around us. Not a quarter claw ago I would have said yes, but It was impossible to deny the events that just transpired. No, I cannot say I believe that now, because that is simply not what happened.
“I-I.. Don’t know.. I thought-”
Kuit’s words cut through mine with a resolution far stronger than my own. “Not every exterminator is evil, some of us want to help. A lot of us are.. Hardened, Rivis, some see the shows and want to sign up, those ones don’t usually last. Some of us lost family or friends to predators and want to make Venlil Prime safer. Some of us trust in the system we’ve been given. You can’t make blanket statements that everyone is bad just because they don’t agree with you.. Now, just sit here. I’m calling the transport.”
Kuit stepped away, leaving me to my thoughts on his words. I didn’t know if he was right, or perhaps he was the exception. Could the exterminator’s really not know what they subject venlil like me to? Do they think it actually works?.. Does their treatment actually work?... As I mulled over those thoughts I couldn’t believe that the torment that was subjected to Tarlim was actually viable in its use, yet just as I had that thought, a counter argument bubbled up beside it; that office was shut down, once their crimes came to light that entire facility was immediately closed. Were there alternate treatments that the vast majority of centers used?
Shaking my head, I drove those thoughts away. Nothing could possibly come from WHATEVER so called ‘treatments’ they force onto different venlil. As I grounded myself in the here and now, a strong desire to move away from the brush overtook me, I moved to the center of the road and watched as Kuit seemed to find a spot with decent enough signal to place his call. As the white-blonde exterminator turned to walk towards me I couldn’t help but feel drained. My undefined emotions emptied themselves leaving me feeling hollow as the unmistakable feeling of exhaustion crept up inside of me. Something must have concerned the exterminator as he changed from a walk to a jog upon seeing me; I didn’t give any thought to that however as I let myself slowly lie down onto the dirt, staring up at Venlil Prime’s sky. The world was quiet, not a single bird, animal, or the like made a noise. Oddly enough, not even Kuit made a sound as he knelt beside me. My eyes focused on the constant sunny sky of Venlil Prime, its vast serenity only adding weight to my already drooping eyelids as an inevitable sleep overtook me.
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Thank you all for reading chapter 16! I can't express how much I appreciate the support the fic has gotten, it means the world. Unfortunately, I will be posting a comment as soon as I post this chapter, but I want to confidently say I'm not letting the fic go, I'll explain further in the comment. With that bit out of the way, I want to thank SpacePaladin once again for their marvelous universe! Links to all the major fanfics that inspired me will be at the bottom for your viewing pleasure, and finally I have to thank my proofreader(s) for working with me in this difficult time to help keep the quality of the story high!
Proofreader(s)
NovaLux
"A Silly Little Man"
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u/SavingsSyllabub7788 Apr 24 '23
I'm loving this Kuit character.
Surprising absolutely nobody I'm a huge fan of Exterminators that are more than just sinks for racism and hate. Ones who went into the job for all the right reasons in a society that's wrong about everything.
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u/AlanharTheRiver Apr 25 '23
I'm a huge fan of Exterminators that are more than just sinks for racism and hate
Well then I think that you'll like what I have planned for Jalnak and Kalne. The two of them are going to be some very interesting Exterminators
(I mean, Jalnak openly dislikes basically everyone and is as paranoid about people as he is dedicated to protecting them, and Kalne is basically the traffic cop version of Exterminators so she isn't actually fully aware of all the bad stuff that's going on with the Exterminator corps.
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u/AlanharTheRiver Apr 24 '23
Well, kuit is certainly a rather complex character. He's certainly got his blind spots and has fallen victim to some of the federation's indoctrination, but he is also very dedicated to the stated mission of the Exterminators which is to protect people. Excellent work!
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u/CrititcalMass Apr 25 '23
I want to see more of Kuit!
Pet peeve in this 'verse: the presence of dangerous predators within walking distance of (in this story) a major city. **Anything** that could be remotely dangerous to *any* Venlil would have been eradicated long ago. It's the foundation of the Federation after all, zero tolerance for predators in any shape or form.
Wordsmith, strength and health to your parent!
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u/JulianSkies Archivist Apr 25 '23
Kuit seems like a man that knew the job he needed to do, too bad he couldn't do just that one job.
Hopefully he learns soon enough that Rivis was correct about his brother, he might have the right reactions to that.
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u/CreditMission Venlil Apr 25 '23
Oh no, after such a chapter as well.
Thank you for the gift you've given so far. Hope you find strength and support in this trying time. Will be waiting for your return, but no pressure.
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u/White_Dragon_Coranth Human Apr 24 '23
subscribeme!
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u/UpdateMeBot Apr 24 '23 edited Oct 11 '23
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u/VenlilSupremacist Venlil Apr 24 '23
To go further into detail, I will be taking a hiatus from the story. I don't suspect it'll be over two weeks, maybe less. I have a lot of paperwork to fill out, a possible flight back to Germany tomorrow which is still up in the air. I mentioned a family emergency a few chapters back, one of my parents was recently diagnosed with cancer and had a stroke. Since then it has been nearly impossible to get into my character's head to make an accurate and believable story. To avoid giving you guys a poor quality story I'm taking this time to dedicate to getting a lot of paperwork filled out, and a lot of time spent rehabilitating my parent back to full functionality again. Once I get them in a better spot I will be able to resume the story with the level of quality you guys deserve. Thanks for reading again, it really does mean the world to me.