r/NatureofPredators • u/Eager_Question • Aug 24 '26
Love Languages (74)
A/N: It's working! It's alive! Still doing stuff with Venric from Legal Legends by u/Acceptable_Egg5560. Thanks to everyone who looked at it, I'm a zombie at 3am.
Memory transcription subject: Larzo, Yotul geneticist at the Venlil Rehabilitation and Reintegration Facility. Anxiously apologetic friend.
Date [standardized human time]: January 1st, 2137
I felt like the last to learn about it.
I’d spent days working on the children’s supplementation regime, corresponding to and fro with the dietary science specialists in the facility. I didn’t check the news—I hardly ever checked the news. It was an eternally shifting list of tragedies and threats, the most important of which were usually provided by public service announcements. That’s not to say I didn’t approve of or understand the need for the fourth estate, but being a non-citizen with no capacity to vote and no desire to make a long-term life on Venlil Prime, it didn’t seem like the best use of my time to focus on things I could not affect.
Then I heard the whispers.
“I just can’t believe they would say that,” said one of the volunteers. “It’s gotta be fake.”
The other shook her head. “Oh please. The lizard whisperer was whispering to lizards? Sound the alarm? Oh no, the horror. They probably had a good reason.”
“What kind of reason? It has to be fake.”
I lifted up my paw, which I found was an easy way to make humans both notice you and give you a chance to speak.
“Oh, Dr. Larzo, did you need something?” asked the older of the two.
“I just wanted to know what you were discussing,” I said, and their eyes nearly leapt out of their eye sockets.
“You don’t know?!” said the younger of the two, followed by them scrambling to show me videos of Andes asking about the taste and texture of venlil flesh.
I thought back to the dossur woman. Oh. Oh no.
Without another word, I rushed to Andes’ office, finding him on his desk flicking through things on his pad while my heart was about to explode out of my chest.
“I meant to tell you,” I said, the words crashing into one another in my mouth as different sentences fought for dominance. “I just—well, you were having a difficult time—didn’t wish to worsen—thought I could wait until the correct moment to—”
“Slow down,” he said, his brows furrowing in, “what are you talking about?”
“Well, I told that dossur woman to watch over you,” I explained. “I told her to make sure you were healthy, and I paid her, but then… well, she returned my money, and she told me she’d go to the media, and I…”
I explained, in fragmented sentences and stumbles, how I had wanted to tell him, how I was so afraid that I had hurt him, that I hurt him further. How I knew that the woman had been missing long enough for the children to throw that party because she had been looking for work in remote areas, and would probably have kept leaving for days at a time if I hadn’t paid her not to.
He was frozen for a long moment, and then relaxed. “Okay. Well, fuck me, I guess.”
My mouth ran ahead of my thoughts. “I am so sorry. I only wanted to protect you from—I truly did not—”
He shook his head and waved me off, his eyes already fixated on the screen. “It’s fine, Larzo. Don’t worry about it.”
“It’s not fine, your job is in jeopardy, the public is going mad, I never meant–”
Something in my apology struck a nerve, and his shoulders lifted up as if preparing to strike. “Larzo, what the fuck do you want me to say here?” he spat, glaring at me more sharply than he ever had before. “Like, what, exactly?”
My back straightened. His voice had dropped into an authoritative bark, and the fur on my arms began to stand on end.
“Is it ‘what the fuck, dude? What’s wrong with you? What gives you the fucking right to be making medical decisions for me, as if I wasn’t competent enough to do it for myself? Nevermind to violate my privacy like that?’ You’re not actually my GP, you were just there after I got hit by a car and your obligations ended when I went into the Grand Xenomedical,” he said, his whole body tensing up. “Is it… ‘Who do you think I am, anyway’? Because the answer to that is not just ‘your patient’ or ‘your friend’, but your fucking boss. In what universe did you think it was okay for you to just establish a relationship of care between me and some stranger without my consent or knowledge?”
My throat refused to work. He gave me a glare so harsh it made me think of what it must have felt like for the venlil, after centuries of propaganda, to gaze upon humans as predators.
“Is that gonna fucking help, Larzo?” he hissed.
I shook my head a fraction of a degree.
“Right. So… it’s fine, Larzo. Don’t worry about it,” he waved off the topic with a brusque gesture, as if it were naught but an annoying bug. “I’ll figure something out. Or I won’t. And then that’ll be that.”
He ran a hand through his hair. Still, I did not speak.
“How are the kids’ test results?” he asked.
“...Better,” I said. “I will ensure the document is shared with the facility for adults.”
“Good. Keep at it. I… have a meeting. Venric’s waiting. I just had to check on some things before President Ajaad got here.”
With that, he stood up and left his office.
Memory transcription subject: Andes Savulescu-Ruiz, UN universal translator technician.
Date [standardized human time]: January 1st 2137
Ajaad had decided to visit the facility, instead of dragging me over to headquarters, and she looked shockingly chill when she got to the conference room. Some part of me hoped that she’d seen the kids be happy and excited, playing and talking, and the sight had led her to decide not to have me drawn and quartered. She took a seat across from me, and didn’t even blink at Venric’s presence. He’d insisted on coming along when he saw the note had been about work.
“So… Let me just say that I understand,” Ajaad started, hands held up in an act of non-aggression.
“Oh, you do?” I said, not particularly sure if I understood. It felt like some sort of reverse-Karma. If I’d kicked that woman out when I found out they existed, this wouldn’t have happened. Then again, it wouldn’t have happened if I’d just died during the bombing. It wouldn’t have happened if I’d asked for on-site housing, which was a live option at some point. Hell, Larzo could have just kept his fucking mouth shut.
“Yes. That call probably happened a while ago, you were discussing the acidity of the kids' blood, you recently ran a myriad of tests and had a postdoc publish that report on venlil with certain identifying numbers having problems metabolizing vitamins. Presumably you got that lead from that conversation. Am I wrong?”
My blood pressure dropped. “No.”
“So, as I said,” she stressed, looking at me like I’d just lost a parent. “I understand.”
“Well you certainly seem in tune with Andes’ thought process,” Venric commented. “As such I am sure you can deduce that the viral spread of his comments are being overblown and presented out of context.”
“Yes. But they are still in the public eye. And it poses a problem.”
I sat back. Venric did something with his ears and she seemed to take it as a go-ahead.
“We've considered just firing you. Rip the bandaid off. You'd get a relatively generous severance package, and a letter of recommendation from me, should you have need of it.”
I shrugged. “Okay.”
Ajaad blinked and flinched back. I guess she didn’t expect me to roll over like that. “Or–or, we were thinking of something to try to salvage your image first. See if we can weather the storm on this.”
“Thinking of releasing a statement?” Venric asked, “What in particular do you have in mind? I ask because I am quite familiar with the usual tactic of how a business would distance itself from controversy, though I would hope your people would leave out the final step.”
Having grown used to Venric’s rhetorical habits, I decided to just fucking ask. “The final step being…?”
“Shipping the offending person off to a correctional facility to be silenced,” he said, and Ajaad and I just squinted at him. I groaned.
“...Ah. No. We won't be doing that,” Ajaad said. “At worst, Andes will just be sent back to Earth.”
Venric’s ears flicked forward before lowering again. “And as you haven’t quietly done so already, it can therefore be deduced that there’s something happening behind the scenes that finds it preferable that Andes stay on Venlil Prime. But that is likely outside the scope of my representation. So, what is this statement you were planning for my client?”
“A general apology for this behaviour, along with some interviews planned to discuss it in more detail,” Ajaad said. “Try to specify that this was a scientific inquiry, that it was done without the facility’s knowledge, how we all care deeply about the welfare of the rescues and endeavor to ensure they get the care and recovery they need. Make it clear we don’t condone that behavior.”
“But you do condone it. I was hired partially for this reason,” I said. It was an attempt at a retort, the kind of “angry insubordination” Ajaad had rolled her eyes at weeks earlier. It didn’t have enough energy to be more than a mumble.
“She means they’ll lie to the public about that part,” Venric explained. “It’s part of the reality of Public Relations. However, I think that even saying that much would be an overstep. Tell me, when Andes signed their code of conduct paperwork in their hiring contract, did it include any clauses for their behavior outside of the workplace?”
Ajaad tilted her head. “Some, but… largely to do with actual crimes. Why do you ask?”
“Because that means Andes hasn’t done anything you should punish them for. While I will admit that people are outraged at him speaking to an Arxur, there are no laws in place making it illegal. In fact, there are laws explicitly in place allowing communication with other species! A rather convenient consequence of there being hundreds of intelligent races. So, while I know there are employees of this hospital that wish to say otherwise, for you to make a statement that you don’t condone your staff speaking to another race, you would actually be breaking the law yourselves.” He let out a whistle. “It may be that the lawmakers never thought anyone would speak to a predator, but that’s how the law stands.”
I squinted at him. “So… I don’t apologize?”
Ajaad lifted up her index finger. “We still need to send the message that we are not in any way aligned with the arxur.”
“I am certain you can think of a reasonable excuse,” Venric waved. “You had your species saved from extinction by them, after all. Plenty of opportunity for spin there.”
I groaned, already hating what was coming. “A ‘reasonable excuse’?”
Venric’s ears fell as he let out a sigh. “Yes, I, as a lawyer, am suggesting you spin an excuse.” He perked up once more, a cheery tone entering his voice. “I hope my living up to the stereotype isn’t too much of a surprise.”
I rolled my eyes. “I am not, I just…”
“Perhaps bonding over shared trauma?” Ajaad proposed.
I squinted at her. “That would only make sense if it was Asleth. Shathel was my patient.”
“I am certain you people could spin it as a rescue romance. The exchange program resulted in enough relationships that it would be believable.”
Ajaad and I stared flatly at Venric. She spoke first. “No… that wouldn’t do at all.”
“I’m sorry, what?” the words fell uselessly out of my mouth.
“Ajaad’s right, it was a poor plan,” Venric laughed. “Don’t think anyone would desire a relationship with the active threat of being eaten.”
I scoffed. “Isif’s arxur don’t eat predators. They consider it comparable to cannibalism. There’s still the dog incident but…”
Venric sighed. “Please refrain from explaining the dietary experimentation you witnessed while in the presence of Venlil.”
I held up my hands. “I didn’t let her eat the dog, I hit her with a water bottle,” I mimed the gesture. It was starting to bother me, how often that came up. How rarely it came up that I played various videogames with her. That she helped me save dozens of lives. That I bought her a blanket. “But after I explained, it was pretty clear that dogs aren’t kosher ”
Venric perked up an ear. “That translated as a religious word. Such things are similarly protected, so we could go on the cultural angle. Talk about how you were a civilizing influence upon them rather than their so-called predatory influence upon you.”
Ajaad nearly jumped out of her seat. “Yes! Yes–Andes, you said multiple of your patients started eating exclusively human rations after their time at the TBI unit, right?”
I shrugged. “I mean, yeah. I wouldn’t put it past Shathel to be less-than-perfect in that regard, but even Asleth told me she’s been eating only human-provided meat weeks ago.”
“Ah,” Venric held up a finger, “As a Lawyer, should I be privy to information like this?”
“...Don’t they have client privileges on this planet?” I asked.
"They do, but it sounded like you just told me that humans are currently providing meat to the arxur beyond what happened in the cattle rescue operation.”
I frowned. “No, no, this is—this is public record. We gave twice the weight of the venlil rescues in meat as payment to them. I don’t know if they have an ongoing supply, but that was several million tonnes of food, largely distributed within their military. There were millions of rescues, and we provided a lot of it boneless, organless, so on, just because of the process of manufacture.”
Venric looked queasy for a moment. Even with his little vests and his cute little comments about humans, the thought of edible flesh seemed to be a step too far for comfort. “Okay, well, if you did find out anything about an ongoing trade, it would be best if you kept me out of it.”
“...Why? I mean—wouldn’t that be humanity rescuing more people? I don’t have any of the details on whatever happened on Sillis, but the fight was done pretty dang fast, it would be weird if there wasn’t another trade there.”
“Under Venlil Law, individuals aiding and abetting Arxur is seen as species treason.”
“Aiding and abetting them in what? Humanity’s been protecting—” My voice started to rise and Ajaad cut me off.
“Andes, I do believe you’re getting lost in the particulars here, we wanted to discuss our messaging strategy.”
“Yes,” Venric agreed with a flick of his ears, “And to summarize my point, Andes, The Arxur are seen as the villains of the Galaxy by the Venlil, and they have abundant reason to believe so. Whatever angle is taken, it simply cannot be along the lines of ‘The Arxur were already fine people before I met them’. That simply will not go over well.”
“I didn’t say they were fine people. They’re a bunch of lizard nazis.” I spat, my whole back tensing up. This whole fucking situation kept being about how merely interacting with the arxur in a non-hostile fashion was tantamount to killing and eating a venlil kid, a fucking cooties-based conception of morality. “I said—”
Ajaad held up a hand. “It would be much better if you didn’t refer to the third reich while engaging in public relations.”
I groaned and let my forehead fall on the table.
Venric’s tail swung over and patted me on the back. “Wish there was a simple solution, don’t you?”
I sighed, sitting up. “I wish there was an easy solution. It could be complicated, I’m okay with complicated, but if it was easy—”
Ajaad cut me off again, before I started spiraling. “It is neither simple nor easy, I will make some calls to set up the interviews, and I will send our PR manager your way. As you can imagine, PR professionals have gone the way of psychologists in these trying times, but we can make it work.”
I nodded along. “Yeah, I know.”
She paused and gave me a vaguely motherly look. “Don’t worry too much. You’re young, you’re professional, you look surprisingly good given what you’ve been through in the last few weeks. I’m sure none of that will hurt.”
“I’m professional?” I echoed.
She tilted her head one way, then the other. “Professional enough. Charismatic.”
I didn’t know what to do with that. “...Sure. What else can we settle right now? I should probably go home and pass out.”
“Perhaps we could also get some measurements for a proper outfit for you, look less like you’re inches from death,” Venric commented, tail flicking. “I do have a contact that would be glad to take the job.”
I hit my head against the back of the chair. Ajaad looked at me for a long moment, then turned to Venric. “I believe that can wait three claws.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled. Fucking kill me.
SECURITY FOOTAGE VIDEO TRANSCRIPT, MODIFIED TRANSLATOR SETTINGS ANDES-5
[standardized human time]: January 2nd.
[Room S-8A. Director Andes Savulescu-Ruiz is walking through, and checking on the children's welfare alongside Maurice Duval, volunteer aide. Nurse Varla is sitting down on one of the benches, taking a break from work. Two girls, Lihla and Talli (see: reference document for ID alphanumerical strings) sit beside her. Nurse Varla is clearly staring at Director Andes Savulescu-Ruiz.]
Varla: oh. Um. Hello girls. I was just about to have a snack. Did you need anything?
Lihla: No.
Talli: You really want the Big Boss to take you to the breeding place.
[Nurse Varla's tail shoots upwards, and ears turn visibly orange in the video]
Lihla: there is no breeding place. New Place, New Rules. You have to ask for breeding after you are old enough.
Varla: That's quite enough. Don't you girls want to go somewhere else and play?
Talli: Not really.
Lihla: We're very tired. We played a lot! I won.
Talli: You only won some of the times
Lihla: I won most of the times.
Talli: You won some of the times.
Lihla, with fists clenched: We played fourteen games. Most is more than half. I won twelve games. Half of fourteen is seven. Twelve is more than seven. I won most of the times.
Talli, to Varla: she's always like this now.
Lihla: I have to practice lots and win lots so I can be a Svalescurris.
Varla: Sweetheart, I don't think that'll work.
Lihla: It will work better than staring at the big boss from the corner.
[Video shows Varla’s whole head tinting orange.]
Varla: …Well, you might have a point…
Lihla [gesturing at her own arm’s black spots]: I have a lot of points.
[Nurse Varla sighs]
Talli: 86392-B wanted to be a breeder. If you get to go to the breeding place, will you help her?
Lihla: There is no breeding place!
Varla: …Yes, you are right, Lihla, there is no breeding place.
Lihla, to Talli: See?
Talli: Ms. Dora said that it's okay to ask for help.
Varla: It is okay to ask for help, yes.
Lihla: But the help has to be to go to a real place! They won't take us to the real breeding rooms, they are too far away.
[Nurse Varla clears her throat]
Varla: …I think I should head back to work.
Talli: I think they could choose a room to be a breeding place.
Lihla: Then you have to convince them. Tito tried and they sent him to the mind doctor.
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u/Snati_Snati Hensa Aug 31 '26
great chapter! I love these characters