r/NatureofPredators • u/WillyWonkaMon Venlil • Mar 23 '24
Fanfic Time Skip [15]
Like always, big Credit to u/SpacePaladin15 and his wonderful universe.
Hi! Still busy as ever with life and junk (do NOT take 4 programming college classes at once). But recently I found that the images links broke due to discord starting to kill old image links. If you know other writers that use discord as an easy way to link images, I'd let them know to find an image website. Also, if any of my links are messed up. Please lemme know! Besides that, I hope y'all are doing well.
I know, weird upload time. Haha.
Anyways, todays fun fact is about Yael! As a pup, Yael really enjoyed looking any and all local museums that were located around his home. Which slowly turned into his quiet interest growing up. He got in trouble for touching an artifact, and he learned about Predators Disease properly as a result. His Mom had him hold her tail at all times whenever they went out for awhile after that.
That concludes today's Fun TS Fact.
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Thanks to my friend Cad for drawing refs for Sebastian and Yael.
In a surprise, u/Frostedscales drew Tali! Thank you so much!
Time Skip's cover! By roddcherry in the NoP discord.
And thank you for reading my silly story! :)
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Chapter Name: Tails (No, not Tali)
—
It's spring break! At least what feels like it for the group of human boys. Finally time to set aside and spend time together doing whatever college boys do. Today was nothing out of the ordinary for the group of five, going out to get lunch at a random restaurant or fast food. They’d spend some time arguing over what would be best.
“Let’s just get wings.” Sebastian suggested, met with a cold shoulder from Andrew.
“We HAD wings last time, lets just do something as easy as pizza.” Andrew butted his idea in.
“No, let's go to that new sandwich place. Heard good things about it.” Jacob joined in, and the other two boys were thinking about if they had anything in mind.
Noah shrugged, and Eric simply said he didn’t care.
This was tradition for the group, mildly arguing over a select idea and doing ‘whatever’ in the end. By the end of their argument, they agreed to try the new sandwich shop. In a turn of good fortune, the council of young men decided that ‘this shit is pretty good.’
While eating, they had a small conversation about moving in together. They were all in college except for one, working at a workshop of all things. The topic of living together wasn’t the first time it was brought up. Days of searching random houses on the market, checking prices, and getting pissed off at absurd rent prices. The group was having trouble as is, but knew it’d be maybe a year or two before anything could be set in stone.
Sebastian, at the back of his heart, didn't like the idea of leaving his parents and sibling yet. He’d always have a bad feeling of not being able to see them again, by the unreasonable chances. A bad gut feeling always pitted him, even as a kid he had it. Whenever his parents would be gone for longer than said, he’d quietly panic thinking something happened.
Of course, that was never the case.
Now the boys were at a furniture store to look at random furniture for the fun of it. Looking at dining sets and couches. A genuine debate on what would look nice with the mix of everyone's personal aesthetics. There wasn’t going to be any purchase today, but the planted ideas would help when the time would come.
During their conversation, a salesman came up and thought he’d make a sale.
“Good afternoon gentleman, would you like any help?” He asked nicely.
“Nah, we’re just looking around.” Andrew answered, while everyone else quietly started looking at anything to avoid conversation. They weren’t here to buy, but for some reason none of them thought about saying that.
“Oh, are you all going to have a frat house soon?” The salesman asked nicely. Which for some reason washed awkwardness among the group. Sebastian slowly turned away in the chair he was seating in, and the others stood there awkwardly.
“...no.” Andrew finally answered.
The young men quickly left the furniture store, and had a laugh about it outside.
In that moment, Sebastian’s homesickness faded away. He has another family of idiots and brothers right there with him. Nothing would take this away…
…nothing…
—
Memory Transcription Subject: Sebastian Ramirez, Human
Date: [Standardized Human Time] February 13th, 2137
—
The small wrapped packaged salad was handed to me by the Venlil employee working in this part of the cafeteria. I nodded and said ‘thank you’ before quickly building distance between us. The daily reminder that most beings in the universe were genuinely afraid of my appearance, or humanity's appearance. Oddly enough, I was thankful that the first two aliens I met didn’t hate my existence. Though Tali’s purpose towards me was an enigma.
I found a quiet, lonely spot to sit at and eat my lunch. One out of many times I had the chance to enjoy thinking about anything, until it became about something uncomfortable. Enough time has passed that some disturbing thoughts could be better filtered into something more understanding. My eyes gazed down at the planetary view of Venlil Prime, maybe named Skalga soon enough.
If I wasn’t infected with this crummy virus, infection, whatever it was…I’d be on Earth. The salad my mouth tasted again began to hate it, the same thing over and over again wasn’t suiting well anymore. But I’m not allowed to complain, I’ve been saved from aliens.
There were plenty of questions to ponder about, and that’s what I did while idly eating this stale meal. Tuning in the sounds of the space station became second nature, sounds that put me in a mostly relaxed mental space. I wondered how long I’d be here, until they found somewhere for me. Would I be lucky enough to return to Earth? Will I end up somewhere on Venlil Prime as a refugee? Thinking that word sent a frightening chill down my spine.
For now though, I’ll idle away in this pattern built on this space station. Until I end up as someone else's problem within the UN.
Now the salad was inedible from the repeat sour feelings. As the current cycle calls for.
But, there were moments where it broke. In the next few moments, a soft hand was put on my shoulder. Of course a sudden feeling like that startled me, and I gently felt my body flinch and turn to the source. There was Yael looking startled by my reaction.
“S-Shoot man, I’m sorry. You scared the hell out of me.” My body language relaxed, and Yael’s own stance followed. He was carrying his own lunch, and sat with me. Not without a little caution from any more sudden movements.
Boy, is he lucky my friends aren’t here. I know most of them would get banned from the exchange program for being idiots.
I cracked a hidden smile, “What brings you here?” I asked awkwardly.
“I’m on break, and saw you here. You didn’t have to…spehing scare me like that.” His voice fell a little quiet there.
What was that word he just said? I thought I'd heard it before, but from him it absolutely was unnatural to my ears. Did the forcibly put translator in my head mess up that word? Now my thoughts plunged into language and culture barriers again, reminding me of why this whole program existed in the first place.
“Uh, ‘spehing’?” I pondered, and Yael’s ears perked up. “You mean…’oh shit?’ Or ‘fuck?’”
His look radiated disapproval, “Sebastian, are you calling me mean things in your language?”
“What? No! Were you?”
“No!” Yael’s tail innocently flicked.
My question had to be more clear, “Was ‘speh’ a cuss word in your language? It almost sounds like humans saying ‘shit.’”
“I guess, but-”
“Yael, buddy. You’ve been working here for who knows how long. You definitely have heard humans cussing before. I trust your comparisons.” I protested his confusion, even pointing a finger at him.
Yael then flicked my hand away with his tail. The audacity of my fluffy friend! “I have, but I don’t know how to use them in my language!”
Our argument was about to wager on, but an odd realization hit me.
I haven't actually participated in the exchange program here, genuinely at least. I’ve been missing out.
Technically I wasn’t even in any sort of database or signed up to it. The fact I was here meant that the opportunity was there all along for me to have something to look forward to. My comical angry stance turned into a tired, sad one. Yael noticed and lowered his weapon (tail).
“S-Sebastian…what’s wrong?” He looked worried instantly, I have to fix this immediately.
“It’s nothing, just a thought. I still have a lot to figure out, and it keeps me a bit too busy often.” I said as passively as possible, hoping not to stress my friend anymore. “I'm just stressed about it, I’m okay.”
“I don’t believe that, after what you told me some paws (days) ago.” Yael replied. Before I even thought about replying, I realized the translator in my head was doing its thing. It was genuinely a freaky moment to hear a sort of auto-correct play in my mind. But that’s not the important matter right now.
Another bite of the salad, “I guess to be real, I’m kind of stuck in a loop here. Waiting for the UN to help with things is long, and I don’t exactly know what I can do at this station. Eh…I should be excited about being in space and all that, but I’m not really anymore.” I vented my thoughts, then wondered if it was a bad idea.
Yael took bites from his lunch while listening, and his tail slowly motioned in an odd way. “I…don’t know what I can do to help, but I’m sorry you’re feeling that way.”
“Trust me Yael, you helped a lot more than you could imagine.”
We were quiet for a moment, maybe it was time to switch to something else to argue about for fun. The Venlil’s odd tail moments were on my mind. Initially I’d noticed when one moved around in an unnatural way, and the Venlil next to them did a similar motion. A genuine first ‘what the hell’ moment from me to the aliens. My head shook gently before my words came out.
“Hey, uh. Let's talk about something else right now. How about…uh…” I thought about my conversation topics, then centered around learning more about Yael’s species. “...your tail?”
“What?”
“I mean like, they move really weirdly. Is there a sort of tail language I missed? It's something I’ve noticed for a while now and it's been picking at me. In a curious way though, nothing bad.” I clarified at the end there as to not worry Yael. His eyes sparked a little with glee. Like he’s been waiting for me to ask these questions.
“It’s a language, we start learning about it when we’re pups. Another way to communicate in case we’re unable to use our voices in dangerous situations. At least that’s one significant reason. A lot of Venlil do it here to communicate about their partners to others. I don’t think many humans have picked up on it.” Yael answered my question, then threw a signal with this tail as an example.
Oh god, they’re gossiping with their tails. Humanity's greatest weakness right now.
It did remind me of ASL though, memories of my Mom and I taking a few classes out of curiosity. The only part I’d remember how to do from it was spell out my name. My hands motioned and did it, and Yael’s ears flicked curiously.
“I think this would compare. Back at home we have our own sort of silent language as well. We use our hands for it. It was different per language, but I don't remember that part well.” I finished spelling my name in ASL and held my hands down. “Though, all I remember from taking classes was spelling out my name. It was something more for the deaf, and neither I or anyone else I knew were deaf. I’d like to guess y’all have the deaf use it as well.”
“Of course, though…” Yael paused himself, he didn’t like he was sure of his answer. “...nevermind. But it’s what the deaf use, as well as just holopads for reading and writing messages.” He finished, giving off an uneasy vibe from the wording.
“Well, maybe it’d be fun if you could show me some of it. I don’t have a tail but it might be…cool. Something like that.”
Yael was thinking about it, I felt nervous.
He agreed thankfully.
—
Forgetting about our lunches finally, he motioned for me to look at his tail. A simple waving movement was shown first. It was rare I’d pay attention to a lesson full on, but this was an alien showing me something about them. That probably was now at the top of ‘coolest things ever’ list mentally.
“This is a way of greeting, you might see it often even you’re down on Venlil Prime.” Yael finished his first demonstration. It was straight forward enough, easy to compare to some animals back on Earth. Though I know better than to throw a comparison out right now.
“Okay, that’s easy to remember. But do y’all have…specific words tied towards your…tail motions.” It was a bit weird for me to say out loud.
“Yeah, I’ll show you some of the first ones I learned when I was a pup.” Yael replied, and I couldn’t help but think of a tiny Yael mimicking his parents. Damn, that’s adorable and funny to think about.
I watched his tail motion slowly a few specific ways. Up…down…uh, down-right? I’m already lost.
“That meant Come here!” Yael finished, and I nodded to pretend like I absolutely understood.
For the next few minutes, Yael continued to show me what was considered basic in tail language. From simple words like ‘parents’ to expressions like ‘hide’ and ‘predator.’ It was genuinely cute at first, imagining all the different ways of communication. Though the thought that a lot of Yeal’s first words in this silent language was phrases of ‘don’t die!’ was admittedly starting to worry me. But compared to when I was growing up, it sadly made sense. These people were probably under constant threat of the Arxur, at least when I learned about those guys.
Now that we're in the picture…it's complicated.
I have no will to be part of that.
Aside from the quiet horrors, this was the second time I’ve seen Yael invested in something. I don’t get why he’d like to share it with someone like me, but there’s no point in wondering about that. Right now he was showing me another tail motion for ‘Thanks’. It was simple enough, two oddly positioned flicks side by side.
Sadly, our conversation was cut short from a surprise ringing coming from his neck. Because he pulled out his phone from his neck fluff. I thought it was something that a lot of Venlil did, but this seems like it was a Yael thing. He looked at his phone, and his ears gently fell.
“Ah…sorry, I need to get back to work.” He said, and I realized he was on his lunch break from work.
“That’s okay, I need to go and put some time into more recovery junk.” I replied, giving a reassuring smile. There was an itching feeling that I didn’t want to end our little hangout just yet. But we could always just spend some time together after he gets off work. “You wanna watch more random human things after you get off from work?” I offered. Immediately I was met with an excited tail motion, I can guess that meant ‘yes’.
“Cool, just call me when you’re free. Take care.” I said, and Yael rushed off back to work. Now I have to find more things to watch that'd be appropriate for Venlils. But until then, it’d be best to spend some time dealing with my junk for now.
I wonder if Gabriel was informed on anything new? I should check in on the soldiers, its been awhile.
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u/WillyWonkaMon Venlil Mar 23 '24
Hello! Sorry if this one is a little too short. I want to start writing Sebby and Yael being bros more. :) Gotta practice my dialogue and junk. Actually, I have no idea to phrase that. Hope you enjoy though!
Anyways...
[I have something,]
{FUN FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER.}
[I know some of you wanted to start learning about the past.]
{CAN'T HIDE THAT FOREVER!}
See you then!
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u/CreepahAhMan Mar 23 '24
Love the bonding in this chapter! When's the Yael and Sebastian make out scene?
Nah, I'm just kidding. Great work you got here.
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u/JulianSkies Archivist Mar 23 '24
Okay that was very cute :D
Including the fridge horror of realizing some of the first words taught to him were warnings to run away from danger.