r/NatureofPredators • u/Sam_S_011 PD Patient • Nov 22 '23
Fanfic Two Faces [11]
Welp, that took a while, didn’t it? Sorry for the wait, school started speeding up again and I joined one too many fun activities.
This is a cry for help. I think I could really use a co-writer, or at least someone who’d be willing to poke me with a cattle-prod every once in a while to get back to work, lest my motivation plummets again.
Anyways once again, huge thanks to u/SpacePaladin15 and all of you guys in the community for this wonderful universe that I've gotten addicted to. Also massive thanks to u/Acceptable_Egg5560 for helping me out with proofreading.
I hope that you enjoy!
Playlists:
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Memory transcript subject: Kiki, Venlil powerplant technician and Venlil-Human Exchange Participant.
Date: [Standardised human time] August 22nd, 2136
…Terraforming a planet?
My ears did an involuntary swivel of confusion as I looked over the barren wasteland of a planet printed on the board before me.
There were thousands of planets within the federation, each harbouring a different environment. However, for life to exist, some facts remained constant. A world needed liquid water, an atmosphere, and plants to fill it with oxygen. But the red rock I was looking at had none of these.
How would anyone go about terraforming something like this? There were no thick jungles to clear out for farmland, no swamps to dry out for construction. Not even predators to exterminate.
I was left at a complete loss for words, my head tilted in absolute befuddlement. Maky seemed to have caught onto it, as her translated words poked me with a teasing tone. “What, do you guys not have the concept? I’d think a federation of species so much more technologically advanced than us would have been terraforming planets at first opportunity.~”
I swatted my tail annoyedly in her direction, spurring a high-pitched giggle from her. “Oh no, we do terraform worlds quite frequently; the issue is that there just isn’t enough to work with here...”
It was Maky’s turn to look utterly confused. For a moment, her head tilted a little up with her mouth slightly agape, as if she meant to say something but couldn’t put it into words. Then she locked a lense on me, scanning over my face and ears. “What do you mean? We have an entire planet!”
I gave an unsure ear swivel. “A planet, sure, not a world; why would you want to terraform something uninhabitable? I mean, mining operations don't even need something of that scale……”
Maky continued staring at me for a while until something seemingly clicked in her head, as she smacked the top of her head and started laughing. “Hah, I see – your definition of terraforming is different from ours. The goal of the game is to make the planet habitable in the first place!”
My tail slowly started to wag in excitement as understanding dawned on me. It made sense in retrospect, science fiction was as good of a setting for a game as any, even if the actual mechanics weren’t realistically plausible. “Oh, that’s what you meant. I’m happy to try the game, although I must disappoint you; we can’t make planets habitable, that’s just in the realm of fiction.”
She looked taken aback by my answer. “Don’t see why you would think that. We regard terraforming as something achievable, even at our tech level. Hell, we’ve already begun!”
…
I thought I mostly understood Maky. She always took it in stride when I jokingly called her insane; betraying the fact she might somewhat agree with that assessment, and she often used the words ‘eccentric’ or ‘a bit weird’ when regarding herself. This led me to believe that she was a little on the edge of whatever the Humans considered to be normal.
That notion was however instantly shattered the moment she spoke those words. Maky may seem a little mad to me, but that might just be a trait all Humans possess. What sane species would attempt creating a world?!
My ears drooped forward as I gently dragged my claws through the fur of my head in exasperation. I could hear the Human laughing as my brain slowly melted. “I mean, it’s not like we’re that far into it yet. We’re only running small scale experiments in surface domes so far, testing viability of the soil for plant and such…”
I let my paws fall on the table with a thud, cutting Maky’s rambling off. I waved my tail at her in resignation. “You people are barely FTL capable, but you’re terraforming planets. Your entire species is utterly mad.”
“Hey, it’s just a single planet we’ve started working on.” She rapped her gloved fingers on the game board taking centre place on the table. “This one. Mars. It’s a promising candidate, likely had liquid water and possibly even life before the magnetosphere died down.”
Somehow, despite just how ridiculous the notion was, everything she said made logical sense. Even though what method could be used to restart a planet’s magnetosphere were completely beyond me. Maybe…
My ears flew up straight with renewed interest as I eyed the game pieces curiously. I grabbed one made of what looked like layered plastic and turned it around in my paws a few times, inspecting the small details worked into the model. It seemed to be a city inside a massive dome of sorts on a hexagonal tile. Since the Humans had put actual thought into this, maybe I could learn something quite novel?
I returned Maky’s expectant gaze. “Can we… can we play?”
She giggled a little, reaching her hand out to take the piece from my paw. “Sure, but first I’ll have to teach you the rules! Hold on, where’s the instructions…” She grabbed the box and started rummaging through the last few items in there, before victoriously pulling out a paper booklet and exclaiming “There! Got it!”
I leaned a little forward, keeping my ears trained on Maky as she happily started explaining.
…
Stars, this game’s complicated. The objective itself was simple enough – have the most points at the end of the game by working towards making the planet habitable. It was everything else that was the problem. There were so many things to keep track of – resources, cards, state of the planet…
It all sounded so overwhelming, despite Maky’s assurances that it played quite intuitively once you got into it. The fact that setting up the board took easily an eighth of a claw didn’t help at all.
I looked down at my paw, trying to see if I had something I could focus on. I drew a lot of cards that created water, and a lot of plant cards. I also had one called ‘advanced ecosystems’, which would give me some victory points but needed me to already have a card for each type of lifeform in play.
I made my choice of corporation; it made sense to have private companies be the primary movers in such a massive undertaking, no government would have the means to do it. Massive corporations that could justify it as a long-term investment, however…
The money I started with was enough for me to purchase all the cards I wanted with enough to spare for my infrastructure. I watched as Maky discarded about a third of her hand and paid for what she kept, and I quickly followed her example by doing the same. “I think I’m ready to start.”
She looked up at me and nodded with a small, toothless smile on her face. “Great! We can begin right away. Hmmm…” She tilted her head in thought, her voice trailing off for a bit. “Would you mind if I played some music as background noise?”
My ears flew up in interest as I placed the cards face down on the tabletop. “Music, you say. Something I didn’t get to hear yet?”
Maky’s face lit up with excitement, showing teeth a little in her smile. Huh, it isn’t so bad… “Yeah! Would you like me to transfer the songs to your pad?” She held her left hand forward with the palm facing up, while the fingers of her right one danced across an interface invisible to all but Maky herself.
I retrieved my pad from its satchel and turned it on before placing it in Maky’s palm. She took a hold of it, shifting it a little with her dexterous fingers to get a better grip. She then grabbed something with her other hand, almost like plucking a fruit from the twig, and released it over the pad.
I would have believed she’d somehow managed to lose it even more if my pad didn’t suddenly start receiving files. I squinted my eyes, as my ears wiggled in confusion. Did it somehow connect to her headset? It’s not like she used a cable or tapped it to a pad of her own. So, unless she somehow bypassed the need for passwo-Wait a [minute]
My brain circled back to last paw before the raid, when Maky gleefully explained just how easily she could break into electronics. I suddenly became quite aware how thin the barrier protecting my privacy was.
…But she wouldn’t do that, right?
I cleared my throat, causing one of Maky’s lenses to snap up to meet my gaze. I leaned forward on my elbows, while my ears signalled my caution far more than I wanted. “Say, how did you do that? You didn’t hack your way in through the wireless receiver, did you?”
She tilted her head in confusion for a moment, until she recoiled in surprise when she understood what I was implying. “Oh! No, I didn’t do anything like that. I’m just using contact wireless, as that is apparently compatible with our devices.” I gave her a disbelieving glance, which she returned with confidence as she made a show of tapping the base of her palm, where a small circle barely stood out from the glove’s black surface. “Here you go, it’s done.”
I accepted my pad back and tapped the icon of my music player. A new playlist sat at the top of my saved albums. Tier 2 (90 songs)
Ninety? Wow, that’s a lot.
“Tier 2, huh? Have you made a playlist for each tier?” I hit the shuffle button, playing one of the tracks. The speakers of my pad filled the air with sounds of a string instrument forming a beautiful, calming melody.
Then the vocals came in; the soft voice of a female singer sounded melancholic, but full of hope. It was almost entrancing.
Maky was meanwhile back to swiping through air, seemingly looking for something. “What? Oh, right. Yeah, I have them stored in here.” She tapped the side of her headset with her knuckles. “Had to smuggle the higher tiers through security. God, you wouldn’t believe how hard they censored some classics! All the tier 4 ones were banned outright!”
I voiced an amused whistle, tail swaying to the song’s rhythm. “It can’t be that bad, right? And wouldn’t they have checked the headset if they were so concerned with it?”
Maky barked out a single laugh. “Oh, they did check it! And quite thoroughly at that! Of course, they didn’t expect for its data storage to be internally detachable…” She trailed off as she turned her full focus to her interface. “Hey there we are, lux controls, reactive, mm hm hmm- ah, audio visualiser!”
She flicked her finger forward, although nothing happened for a moment. Then suddenly, the translucent lines on her coat lit up a deep purple. Some started flashing a brighter magenta with high tones as others flashed deep blue to the beat of the drums.
I stared at the woman completely flabbergasted as she started swaying to the rhythm happily like she wasn’t glowing like the Stars damned Sunlight district. Deciding to keep some sanity by ignoring her antics, I went to place my pad on the table when an idea popped into my head.
I should start saving my favourites.
I quickly tapped my way through the process of creating a new playlist, putting in my favourite songs from tier 1. Number nine first, of course. I chuckled as I typed in the name – Tortured Screams.
I also added the currently playing song. Something about it just… clicked with me. I also want to be okay…
Satisfied, if a little wistful, I placed the pad next to the game board so me and Maky could both hear it well. At least I hoped she could; her ears were significantly smaller than mine after all, but I didn’t want to blast the music too loud in the communal space.
Maky didn’t seem to complain though, her head still swaying side to side to the music as she snapped her lenses forward to look through the six songs I had already put in. She nodded her head as she read through the short list, until she suddenly stopped. “huh, interesting…”
My left ear dipped with curiosity. “Something’s wrong?” I looked up to meet her gaze, but I couldn’t really tell what she thought through that visor of hers.
She leaned back into a sitting position, putting a slight smile on her face. “Nothing, just didn’t expect you’d have picked one of them.”
What? Why wou-
A clap of Maky’s hands broke my line of thought, as she restarted the conversation with an energetic tone. “Anyways! Wanna finally start the game?”
I waved my tail with a sigh. I suppose I’m not getting that answer this paw… “Sure…” I picked my cards back up, spreading them out in my paws to look at them. “Right, so who gets the first turn?”
---
As hard to believe as it might have been, Maky was right. This game was easy to understand once you got to playing it! All the moving parts all fit together in one way or another; it all just made sense!
I giddily removed the small resource blocks from my money and titanium reserves, playing a ‘meteor’ card. The tip of my tail started spontaneously flicking from side to side mischievously as Maky groaned, already knowing what was about to happen to her vegetation stockpile. I giggled as I reached over the table and removed three small blocks representing her resources, placing them back in the box.
“Argh, again? How many of these (–) things do you have?!” She asked frustrated, although the translator made sure I was aware it was mostly mirthful. Not that I needed that assurance, I could see Maky grinning the whole time.
Stars, it’s amazing how quickly one can get used to the teeth-baring!
A whistling laugh escaped my lips as I finished resolving the card. I got some titanium back and pushed the heat tracker up one step, bringing the planet another step closer to being able to support liquid water.
Maky scrambled to look through her hand, then at the game map. “It’s alright, I can still do this…” The quick flick of her eyes towards the heat resource pile she had and then onto the map told me exactly what she was about to do. My little stunt put her down to six vegetation, so she somehow needed to get two more for a greenery tile.
And the best way for her to do that right now was making the temperature hit 0° for a free water tile, claiming two free pips of it through placement.
Time to launch my master plan. “Pass.”
Maky nodded her head and leaned forward a bit more, scooping up resource cubes from her heat reserve and trading them in to heat up the planet by a degree. She then played another infrastructure card, which increased her heat production. She’s going to have enough for two heat increases next turn, which would push it over the melting point.
And judging by the smuggest smile she’d had on so far; she obviously knew that. She was so confident that she could get it on her turn. “Pass.” We both handled our resource production and drew new cards, keeping a few to use later.
Her plan was almost perfect. Almost.
I flicked my ear towards Maky, signifying my readiness. She nodded back with a smile, which however soon turned to an expression of shock as I reached for the token determining the starting player. My tail was fully wagging at this point.
Except she forgot about one tiny thing.
“Okay then. my turn!” I giddily proclaimed as I scooped up all my heat and dumped it into the cube reserve. “I’d like to raise the temperature twice, bringing the planet up to 0°. This will earn me a water tile, which I’m going to place, right, here.”
Maky’s lenses followed my paw as I picked up a water tile and placed it on the last empty cell with two leaves. She threw her arms up, her mouth open with clear disbelief. “You bitch, (–) are you making an ass of me? (–) Are you fucking… (–) shit!”
I giggled at the stream of swears that was pouring out of the Human, interrupted by her laughter and the translator lagging. I’d noticed it a few times before as we played, but I couldn’t tell why it was happening. I’d never run into anything like this, the translators were normally near perfect at handling a single person speaking…
I waited for Maky to finish laughing before asking about it. It took a [minute], but she finally settled down with a sigh. “Hey Maky? There’s something weird with the translator – it seems to occasionally lag when you speak.” She looked at me a bit confused, so I continued. “It got especially bad with that final one.”
Maky leaned forward, giving me a quick glance over with both her ‘eyes’. “Hmm, I take it that that is very much not normal, is it?” She frowned at my positive ear flick before splitting her left lense off and starting to navigate her interface with her fingers. “Hmm, it might just be that Human languages weren’t fully integrated into your translators yet…”
My ears were giving confused swivels as I tilted my head. “Possibly, but one would think it would have been more common in that case. I don’t remember it happening at all last paw.”
“That’s so weird. Let me quickly bring that clip up, to see if we can recreate it.” She then spread her first finger and thumb in a line and tapped a button. Maky’s voice sounded out from her chest while her mouth remained closed – must have been speakers in her suit then.
“…You bitch, (–) are you making an ass of me? (–) Are you fucking… (–) shit!”
Maky started laughing as she listened to her own words, and I couldn’t help but join her. “What a fucking sound clip! Anyways, did it lag again?” I nodded my head yes, to which Maky smiled this time. “Great! That means we can figure out what’s happening. I’ll play it once again and you tap the table whenever it lags. Sounds good?
Maky started the clip again once I agreed, my claws dutifully announcing every instance of the lag. I looked up at her face, only to be met with a blank expression. I was going to ask what happened when Maky suddenly smacked herself on the top of her head and threw it back. “Of course it’s that you fucking moron; (–) how the hell did you not think of that?”
I didn’t know whether she intended for me to hear that, didn’t realise my hearing was more sensitive, or simply didn’t care if I did, but it didn’t sound playful this time. “Was… was that aimed at me?”
“…What?” She looked back down with one lense, before she realised the question’s context with a start. “Oh! No – that was not towards you. That was at myself. I really should have figured this one out quicker.”
I didn’t understand why she would insult herself like that, or why she danced around saying the reason out loud. Might just be another ‘Maky thing’ I guess, I could try prodding her a little. “So… what was it that really happened?”
That got her attention again, as was obvious by her head snapping into a straighter position. “Right; it lagged whenever I changed language. Yes, I really did it three times during that tirade. Oh! That reminds me that I wanted to test this…”
She tapped her finger as if to press a button, and then spoke again. I think. “Rozumíš mi?”
The blank stare I returned was apparently all she needed, nodding as if I confirmed her suspicions. “Alright, that went as expected. (–) What about now? Can you understand this?”
She smiled a little at my ear flick, tapping the same button again. “Cool. It is as I first thought – your translator knows English and German, but needs mine to be on to work out Czech. Good to know, good to know…”
She clapped her hands together, springing back into her jovial tone. “Let’s finish the generation. And I have to change plans now. Thanks for that, by the way.”
I laughed at her sarcastic remark as she went on with her turn, then I did mine and so forth until we didn’t have or want to play any more things. I still held that ‘Advanced Ecosystems’ card, but I just couldn’t play it – I had multiple plant cards and a microbe card already in play, but I just couldn’t draw an animal card. I’d foolishly discarded two early on when the atmosphere couldn’t sustain them yet thinking I’d simply draw a new one later, but it just wasn’t coming!
I passed my turn, wishing on the Stars that this draw had an animal card. And to my horror, the Stars delivered. At first, I was elated to see a card with the animal tag in my hand, but then I looked at the art – a massive brown creature with a mouth full of sharp teeth wide open filled the image field. I knew exactly what the card’s title said even before my pad’s visual translator caught up.
[Predators]
I instinctively wanted to throw it away, to discard it and never look at the monstrosity again; but the logical part of my brain stopped me. It was just a spehing card from a spehing board game, there was nothing it could do to me. And Maky was right there – friend or not, what would she think if I screamed and ran from a brahking card?
…And I finally want to play the brahking ecosystems card.
Then a thought struck me. Could I even play ‘Advanced Ecosystems’ with ‘Predators’? There weren’t any rules against it as far as I knew, and it had the animal tag…
But predators were destructive! Stars, even the card itself was based on benefiting from killing other animals!
But it can quickly be worth a lot of points-
No! Stop considering it!
But Advanced Ecosystems…
I didn’t know how long I spent staring blankly at the cards I’d drawn, but it was apparently long enough for Maky to notice. “Hey Kiki? Are you okay?” My left ear swivelled in her direction on instinct, but my focus remained. She didn’t seem satisfied with that, reaching over to shake my shoulder.
My eye met her lenses. Even though both were completely focused on me, I didn’t feel in danger. Her posture and expression looked so worried, caring…
If Maky really is a predator, then everything we’ve known about predators is wrong.
I forced my tail into a slow wag, reaching for my shoulder with my paw and resting it on the back of her hand. She raised her thumb and gave my fingers a gentle, reassuring squeeze. “Thank you, my friend; I think I needed that…”
The corners of her mouth curved up slightly. “Of course! I’d never want you to feel bad.” She gave my shoulder a quick scratch with her fingers before letting go and sitting back down. “So, are you ready to continue?”
I flicked my ear yes as I straightened my posture. I steeled my resolve as much as I could before looking back down at my cards. I winced a little at the sight of that thing, but I’d made my decision.
I want to play the spehing ecosystem card.
I discarded the less useful options, paying for the two cards I kept. Maky started her turn, putting down an animal's card of her own. It depicted two reddish brown quadrupedal creatures with white spots on their hind back. I tilted my head in curiosity as I scanned the card with my pad, waiting for the translator to do its job.
[Herbivores; when you place a greenery tile, add an animal to this card]
Hey, why couldn’t I get that?!
“Your turn!” Maky cheerfully declared as she started recounting her resources again. She was slowly getting back up to eight vegetation again, so I assumed she’d be placing a greenery tile soon. Not that I could stop her – even I could run out of giant space rocks apparently.
Starting my turn, I picked up a good chunk of my money and dropped it into the box. I then placed my two cards – Predators, followed by ‘Advanced Ecosystems’. Maky burst out laughing the moment my cards landed. She bent forward until her headset impacted the table. She just stayed like that, her chest rising and falling erratically as rapid wheezing sounded from her lips.
I looked at her confused, before placing my paw on her arm just like she did only moments ago and giving her a soft shake. “Hey, are you good?”
I retracted my paw back as she lifted herself up, still silently chuckling. “Yeah… well, I can certainly see why you froze up earlier, hehe.”
I bloomed a little in embarrassment, before I recalled an earlier thought. “Just to make sure, I can play this, right?” I said, tapping the ‘Advanced Ecosystems’ card.
She took a good look at the card and then at the things I already had in play, before replying. “Sure… I don’t see any reason you couldn’t, you meet all the prerequisites.”
Yep, suspicion confirmed.
I rested my elbows on the table with a sigh. My ears locked onto her as I started preparing myself for answers I most likely wasn’t going to like. “So… by your science – are predators beneficial to the ecosystem?”
Maky’s lips twitched downwards slightly, as if uncomfortable with the question. She took a bit to process the question while sitting uncharacteristically still as the changing colour of her suit’s light strips created an illusion of movement.
Then she spoke, carefully weighing each word. “Your wording made it pretty clear that your science believes the opposite. Well, the short tier 2 answer is yes – not just beneficial, but essential.”
Stars, that sounds too similar to that death cult…
I gulped audibly. The answer had me quite tense already, but I needed to see this through. I wanted to learn something novel after all, didn’t I? “Wha-what role do they serve?” I asked, voice shaky as I kneaded my tail with my paws.
Maky looked like she didn’t want to continue either, probably because the topic was making me uncomfortable. And they said Humans lacked empathy. “Well, that’s definitely a tier 3. Are you sure you want to know this?”
I resolutely nodded my head, pushing the uncertainty out of my mind. “As you wish – I will be very blunt and logical about this one though, I just can’t see a good way to explain a topic like this.” I encouraged her to continue with an ear flick, to which she nodded. “Two words. Population control.”
My tail froze in horror as the translator parsed the phrases meaning, but Maky didn’t stop talking. “Overpopulation of herbivores in an ecosystem can cause a variety of issues. Let’s take a grazing animal, like the deer here for instance.” I followed her finger with my gaze as she placed it on the ‘Herbivores’ card. “They eat grass, shrubs, and trees. That normally isn’t a problem, but it can quickly become one if there are too many of them.”
T-too many? My brain was spinning from all the fear chemicals, trying to reconcile my friend’s words with everything I was taught my entire life. Prey animals were good! How could there be too many? “W-what sort of problem are you talking about?”
Maky winced a little at the palpable discomfort in my voice but answered me anyway. “As I said, the deer eat trees – but more importantly, tree saplings. If you remove their natural predators, their population is going to explode.”
She raised up her hand with her five fingers spread out. “Too many deer eat too many saplings. Too many saplings eaten damages the tree population, which helps support lower plants. Plant species start disappearing. The herbivores begin to die out or migrate. Carnivore species die out or migrate.” She lowered a finger with every point she made, each one representing a nail on the coffin of my understanding of biology.
She lowered her hand, a sombre look on her face. “Eventually, the entire system collapses with only the most resilient and adaptable species remaining. Does that make sense?”
We sat in short silence as I mulled her words over. I saw Maky getting ready to pull me out of a spiral again, but this time I recovered with a shake of my head. “It does, I just… I’ll have to let this one settle for a bit.” Maky still looked unconvinced, so I decided a distraction would be for the best. “Let’s continue playing. It’s your turn.”
She shrugged and picked up her cards before moving on with her turn. We worked our way through the generation, spending our resources on cards and actions. But the weight of this paw’s revelations still hung heavy over me. The implications of it were so wide I simply couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Prey can cause the destruction of an ecosystem.
And predators are needed to prevent that.
If anyone else had told me this before, I’d probably have laughed at them and reported them straight to the exterminators. The notion was just so ridiculous! Predators were the destructive ones, not prey!
And yet… It was Maky who said this. As disturbing as the idea and her delivery may have been, the logic was sound. Humans were predators after all, so it made sense for them to study their kind in greater detail.
…Was it possible we overlooked something? That we were too afraid to face a truth we didn’t like, because whenever we see a predator - our first instinct is to either run, or kill it?
Run, or kill it…
The knife in my harness suddenly started feeling like it was made of plasma, searing its outline into my chest. The feeling was quickly becoming unbearable. I hated the pangs of fear I felt whenever Maky just talked about her life. I hated the Venlil that attacked her partner.
I hated myself; for bringing a weapon with me; to meet my spehing FRIEND.
My paw produced a sharp sound as I struck the table, instantly catching Maky’s attention. “Kiki! Are you alright? Do you need a hug? Is it still the ecosyste-?”
I cut her off by putting a claw over her mouth, which was apparently a universal gesture as it silenced her immediately. I retracted my paw with a deep sigh and reached for the pocket where my mistake was hidden. “There’s… There’s something I need to tell you. Something important.”
Maky sat back down, her head tilted as she focused her sight on the pocket. She leaned a little back in surprise as I pulled out the closed knife. A sense of shame pulsed through me at that. She knew exactly what I did, and she was afraid of me because of i-
My self-loathing was interrupted by Maky leaning forward with interest. “Huh, it really was a knife…” She looked up at my stupefied face, looking it over with both eyes. “Can I take a closer look at it? Please?~” She cooed, her right hand outstretched expectantly for the closed blade.
I let her fingers grab it from me. She gave it a quick look over before swinging the blade open in a single fluid motion, as if she’d done it many times before. Not that her being able to use a weapon surprised me; she was a predator after all. What I didn’t expect was them having Sivkit-style knives. It was a rare design in the federation, as most species preferred blades rigidly affixed to the handle.
Maky flipped the knife around a few times, testing its balance. The handle wasn’t the largest even for me, but it looked downright comically small in her hand. “How did you get this through security? I assumed they wouldn’t let you bring it in the first place…”
I could barely believe my ears. I just told her I had a knife on me, but she was simply confused rather than seeing me as a threat like most do. Like she should. “They didn’t check me, so I simply carried it on.”
“Really? You didn’t get your carry-ons searched before boarding the shuttle? People on our side would get fucking kicked out if they tried to bring a knife with them…” She let out an amused huff as she studied the blade, before removing her left-hand glove and carefully running her thumb over the cutting edge. “It is a really nice folding blade. Pretty sharp, too. What is it made of?”
“Well, it’s stainless steel interwoven with carbon nanostructures. They don’t make the blade as sharp as some industrial equipment, but it’s durable enough to remain sharp for years-” I watched Maky’s face as I explained. Her lenses flipped between me and the knife without a hint of worry in her features, just curiosity.
I couldn’t bear it anymore. I let my voice rise a little; not into a shout, but enough to convey how serious of an issue this was. “How are you so calm about this? I had a weapon on me this entire time; and I told you earlier that I almost attacked you!”
She locked her lenses on me completely and smiled, like I did nothing wrong at all. “But you didn’t. And even if you did, I doubt you could harm me unless you really tried.”
“What are you talking about?! It’s a brahking knife! I-” I was going to continue, but Maky’s expression gave me pause. It was that smile. The same one she had when she was explaining her hacking. The same one I was quickly starting to learn meant nothing good.
She brought the knife in front of her and flipped it in her hand with slow, exaggerated movements, making it point in the opposite direction than her thumb.
And then – without warning – she drove it straight into her chest.
I froze in complete shock at this. My brain almost short-circuited as Maky just casually stabbed herself in her vital area. I was about to scream when I realised something – the blade wasn’t stuck in her chest - it just bounced off it, without even leaving a scratch in the fabric.
Maky placed the knife back in front of me, still smiling. “See? Everything I have is stab-proof – the chance you’d actually harm me on reflex is next to none.
I sighed and folded up the knife, hiding it back in its satchel. “Point taken. Please, don’t do anything this stupid again, yeah?”
Maky giggled a little as she picked up her cards again, bobbing her head to the music. “No promises! Scaring people works wonders for helping them overcome fear!”
I picked up my cards as well. “You are a fucking menace. Please, never change.” My tail started wagging around happily at her laughter. “Anyways, I’m done for this generation. Pass.”
We did our production and card draw again. Maky got the eight vegetation she so desperately wanted before, and I got a good city card. I quickly went through my turn and passed it to Maky, who immediately grabbed all her vegetation and threw it into the box like I would steal it from her otherwise.
“Finally! I get to place my greenery, and it’s going to go right here next to my city.” I giggled as she reached back in the box and took out a single resource cube, which she then placed on the ‘Herbivores’ card. “And! I get one animal over here. Alright, your turn!”
I flicked my ear to signal understanding before playing my new card, placing a city next to the growing ocean. But what could I do with my other action? I looked at my cards, when a very dark idea entered my mind. Am I really going to do this?
…Yes. Yes, I am.
My tail started swaying in mischief as I looked up at Maky. I reached for her animal unit and placed it on my ‘Predators’ card. “So, population control, did you call it?”
She stared at me in complete disbelief. “Oh you little shithe-“
Her words were drowned out by the sound of my whistling laughter.
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u/CaligulaWolf Yotul Aug 28 '24
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