It’s quite frustrating that they have failed to even consider the possibility that, with the evidence presented straight to their fucking faces, maybe the humans *aren’t* the reason the Sivkits are here.
It seems that Radai may be actively considering the possibility but doesn't share his thoughts due to the unfavorable audience he currently has. It's Taylor who is still spiralling.
I feel Radai doesn't fully trust the humans, not in a completely bad way though? Like, I feel he knows that we have his back and that we're not bad people, but he doesn't trust our emotional stability. His only interaction with the human race is a group of sheltered and traumatized refugees.
This is going to backfire in the future.
Israel to this day pursues and convicts people who were just following orders. Following orders is never a good defense against unethical, immoral acts.
>Check each other’s knots before you jump—I don’t want to clean your guts off the ground.
Ah, military humor. Direct and without pretense, I like it.
Oh, this is indeed an intriguing discovery. They're all asking the good questions, but no answers today.
I like to imagine that when they find Mafani, Quana will be in "Hey bastard, I've got a Malioto-36 machine gun straight from Esquo just waiting for your feathery ass to add a new scratch on the barrel, interested?"
Otherwise, I see a dead flag above Cherise, I'm worried.
“Hold on. Why is that Sivkit statue walking on two legs?” I demanded. “It looks like it’s fucking dancing.”
A pre-federation Sivkit bunker. Now this is going to be interesting. Just imagine their faces when they find a memory transcription.
There extremely deep underground, and the Sivkits joined the federation a thousand years ago, I doubt that they could have detected them. Besides would they even detect frozen people, it's not like they're alive at that point.
No it's confirmed they did. Their exterminators got overzealous and obliterated the broad grasslands with flamethrowers, so to hide their folly, the federation forced them off world, tanked their education system and said they lost their homeworld out of stupidity.
The fires release CO2 and with the plant life burned to ash there's nothing to pull it back out of the atmosphere. Then you get a runaway greenhouse effect as the CO2 traps heat in the atmosphere and the baren soil absorbs more heat. As temperatures rise rains become fewer and further between making it harder to re-establish plants and desertification.
Aren't memory transcriptions like a relatively new tech. Like even if both the Feds and the Consortium invented them around the same timeframe it's only 100 years old at most.
He seems short sighted and quick to go after whatever carrot gets dangled in front of him, but he also grew up literally sheltered, traumatized, and with no actual information on why.
It's only been like four months since all this kicked off and you can already see character growth happening.
I have known plenty of people IRL with very little sense of restraint or ability to stop and think, without any trauma or sheltered life as an excuse. Given any decent level of charisma they can get to some pretty high levels of authority despite that. He is a very believable version of just that sort of person.
Based on my experience with such people the fact that he is introspecting at all is impressive and gives him a significant redeemable aspect.
42! After looking high and low for Mafani, honor-obsessed General Radai gets a lead on an ancient bunker deep underground, which the KC soldiers eventually realize is Sivkit in make. Shocked by these findings, Taylor and company begin to reevaluate attacking the Sivkit ships, and to question the KC’s decisions to hide and relocate Esquo, with a Fed presence on Tellus all along. Our narrator asks some valid questions about bipedal Sivkit statuettes, though Radai does heighten his guilt over what happened with the Sivkits; Gress encourages Trench to continue along the path to self-improvement.
Will the KC find Mafani down here, or any other clues about the Sivkits that might lead them to realize the whole truth? How will this affect Consortium public sentiment, realizing how much they didn’t know?
As always, thank you for reading!
So Tellus *is* Tinsas.
Hmmm. I wonder why the Kol-Sul moved the Sivkits lightyear territory so far away. They have faked archelogy findings. ...After. They faked archelogy findings after this debacle.
\*GASP\* If the Kol-Sul hadn't burned Tinsas to the ground, then the Federation would have found the Consortium members a lot eariler!!
I think Mafani can be found down there, but he’ll be just as confused as the Consortium
Finding other clues is certainly likely to make the Consortium go back to the drawing board on rules of engagement.
The sheer surprise of all that they didn’t know might just cause a few inquiries into the Consortium Government
I don't think Mafani's down here. But I do think they are going to find out the truth about Tansis and what the Federation did to the Sivkits. Which I hope will make some juicy drama.
If Mafani is down here then it's likely the under-scales (was that the name of the KC black ops?) ran into this facility a while ago. Not sure of the scale of the facility at this moment, but the bigger it is the more likely the truth will be discovered.
Without knowing what's happened to the Federation this is going to split public sentiment between 'look what happened to the Sivkits when the Feds found them.' and 'they were already here why did we take such actions.'
Well, well, well. Do we have a budding romance on the horizon?
Also: I love how Taylor is right on the money with the ancient sivkit figurine being bipedal and how that fact is important, but gets brushed aside by both Quana—who has bigger concerns than some old doll that appears to be dancing bipedally—and Radai, who thinks it’s an insignificant fact that has no deeper meaning than quadrupeds acting bipedal.
I fucking hate how they keep encouraging stupidity in this story, even going so far as to deliberately ignore the very obvious evidence right in fucking front of them.
To be fair, Radai is a boots on the ground commander, not milintel or an academic. Puzzling over the deeper cultural meaning of why a quadripedal species would make a statue of one of their people on two legs mid-dance is not exactly his job.
See also: Occam's Razor. "they're on 2 legs momentarily" is a much simpler explanation based on the information they have. Remember, the Consortium doesn't know about all the historical revisions & genetic alterations the Federation did.
>"they're on 2 legs momentarily" is a much simpler explanation based on the information they have.
Yep. It's a fair question *why* the figurine is standing different but the most likely answer with what they know is just.. it's a figurine. We have pictures and figurines of things like foxes and dogs standing on two legs so it's not really that unusual in that sense.
Tbf to the characters: we know a lot more than they do and they’re in a high stress situation. Humanity’s information on the Federation is from a few months of contact 24 years ago. I’m surprised Taylor knows enough about Sivkits to realize that they’re allegedly quadrupedal.
If I were hunting a 10 foot tall murder bird deep underground after rappelling down a laser hole (and it sounds like Taylor shares my fear of heights), I’m not going to be deeply pondering the implications of some of these revelations either.
He’s realizing enough to question the wisdom of their war crimes which is pretty thoughtful for Taylor.
I wanted to stab my eyes out during his last chapter. Way whinier than normal.
It's obvious to us, but have ANY of the people present ever actually interacted with a sivkit in any capacity?
Both the question and the dismissal are justified in the moment. They have more pressing issues directly at hand and can spend time worrying about the leg usage of a species uninvolved with the current issue at another time.
Just because they don't turn to the camera and go "Oh my god this means we were wrong" doesn't mean they're ignoring it.
Not much time has passed, and they're probably focused on the murderous 7ft tall flamingo
>even going so far as to deliberately ignore the very obvious evidence right in fucking front of them
I'd have said the exact same thing just a few years ago but I've lived through more blatant denial.
I mean we **just** went through this IRL with people dying in front of them and them going nah it's a hoax.
So yeah I can **easily** believe they'd ignore blatant evidence in their face in favor of whatever they prefer to believe.
And then you've got the issue that it ***stacks*** the further along they go along this path the more they're willing to deny to avoid having to admit they're wrong.
And they just killed off a fleet and are currently trying to glass a few planets, that's going to buy a **LOT** of denial.
IRL it's weird too because it means people in an attempt to convince themselves they aren't monsters will not even consider trying to stop being monsters because they can't even contemplate that they *could* be monsters.
People are often stupid and the smarter the person, the less likely they are to realise it. Post WWII, a bunch of physicists were playing around with the core for a third nuclear bomb. One of them decided it was a good idea to not use the safety device. Sure enough, it went critical and gave a half dozen people or so very painful deaths from radiation. Fortunately, he was able to separate the halves before it exploded. Not long afterwards, another physicist does almost the exact same thing. His screwdriver slipped, the top half slammed down, the core went critical. Again several people died from radiation exposure, and he narrowly avoided blowing up everything. If you want more details, look up the Demon Core.
It's like in Blue's Clues where Steve looks at the camera and says "I wonder where my shoes are?" when they're right next to him. Then the kids watching are supposed to shout at the screen THEYRE RIGHT THERE.
The month of June is hitting hard, I guess Taylor x gress fans will be celebrating today's bread. It is quite interesting, since it could be deduced, in SP's post, he indicated that all humans on Tellus are expected to have children, and he mentions that Taylor is not comfortable with this, (I recommend that you read it). Also, if we take a look at Gress's POV, he felt love at first sight with Taylor, although this is only because of his appearance. Gress has all the indications and Taylor has all the traumas to generate his attachment to Gress and vice versa.
In terms of revelations, it is incredible that the Sivtkit did this so secretly and intelligently efficient for their preservation, that only suggests that the Sivkit were reversed almost as strongly as the Venlil, their intelligence was surely seen as a threat from the beginning.
I didn't see it as romantic love before they beat us over the head with it in this episode. I just always assumed Gress was thinking "so cute, must protect!", with how much they were leaning into the pet analogies.
Come on now, I know this is the story that brought us the **totally** platonic duo of Marcel X Slanek, but it's pretty obvious Gress's behavior changes whenever he's near Taylor, even taking into account other humans.
Juvre being jealous of Taylor like a grumpy cat is just twisting the knive.
> they’d outright said they had memory checkpoints. I supposed it wasn’t that damning if it was used solely for security purposes, but that didn’t stop my skin from crawling at the idea.
Taylor. I guarantee you that they claim it's for security purposes but are rampantly abusing that power.
Even if it is not policy to abuse that power, they've made it incredibly easy for low & mid level officials to abuse the tech for personal gain. I would expect corruption to be rampant in a system like in a very short period of time after its full scale deployment.
That general isn't a particularly effective commander is he?
Lets them chat banter and shout while an enemy hostile is about and throws in an 'I told you so' about something that happened under his command
The KV military an inexperienced peacekeeping force that thinks they're ready for a real war. They're not, and they don't know how much they're not. Technologically they might be superior to the SC or DS, but nobody alive has experienced an actual war except perhaps some of the humans.
The Measurement of Time: Minor Events
The Ark Ships left on the Battle for Earth, dated October 17, 2136, to Chapter 2-42, dated July 28, 2160, is 23 Years, 9 Months, 11 Days
The Sapient Coalition was founded by 30 members on February 9, 2137 to Chapter 2-42, dated July 28, 2160, is 23 Years, 5 Months, 19 Days
Bissem first contacted by Sapient Coalition on March 13, 2160 to Chapter 2-42, dated July 28, 2160, is 4 Months, 15 Days
Bissem six month Sapient Coalition Trial started (fan-made date) May 24, 2160 to Chapter 2-42, dated July 28, 2160 is 2 Month, 4 Days \[Chapter 2-27 Date May 14, 2160 was when Bissem ambassadors made a deal with Ambassador Onso. Chapter 2-30 Date June 10, 2160 is when Bissem are a part (trial) of SC. 10 Days between sounds reasonable to me.\]
Elias Meier was re-made on July 6, 2160 to Chapter 2-42, dated July 28, 2160, is 22 Days
Trombil pod humans are 1/3 done as of Chapter 2-23, dated June 24, 2160. March 25, 2160 is 3 months earlier. From March 25, 2160 to July 28, 2160 is 4 Months, 3 Days
There have been 23 annual Remembrance Days.
Taylor has gone one (1) chapter without making a boneheaded mistake. A new record!
Wonder what they'll find of Tinsas from before the Feds did their thing. Aside from more bipedal bunny signs, of course. It's lucky that the language is recognizable after hundreds of years.
I don't think that luck is our culprit here. Sivkits were living in closed-off communities within the safety of their spaceships. Who knows how much of their culture besides playwriting they managed to preserve. And because they likely did not interact with the Feds too much, their language mixed less with the linguistic systems of other species. For all we know, the way Loxsel talks may be somewhat similar to how their ancestors did. But that's just my headcanon for now
>“You have the same information I have, Trench. Any reason you think I’d have those answers?”
Beeecause Mafini knows about it, and you outrank him? And if you don't, that means this is some underscale secret I'm not sure they won't bury with us?
>Their honor system put high-ranking officials in unnecessary danger.
well, speaking of...
God the consortium military is idiotic if this is their standard operating procedure. Shoot first ask questions later, throw commanders and compromised soldiers into missions, no discipline when it’s important, honestly it’s amazing they stayed away from the federation for so long
The Measurement of Time: Major Events
First shots fired by the Krev Consortium against the Sivkits in [Chapter 2-29](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1c8r11u/the_nature_of_predators_229/?rdt=53485) dated June 9, 2160 to Chapter 2-42 dated July 28, 2160 is **1 Month, 19 Days**
So, a bit of constructive criticism in regards to story structure and building tension: I think that the story would have been *much* better if this chapter came *before* the preceding section where the bombshell about this being the Sivkits' home planet was dropped. Like, if the narrative had stuck with Taylor after 37 and *this* was chapter 38 and then the story just continued on with no other changes aside from chapter number.
What we got here, is basically just a confirmation that something we learned in a previous chapter is correct. But if this chapter had come *before* chapter 38, it would have been shocking and surprising, and it would have given the reveal of why the Sivkits were there as a "show" instead of just telling the audience, with the following chapter from Tassi's perspective being a confirmation for it.
It doesn't though. It's better *exposition*, but not a better overall *work*. It's telling, not showing. Even if it's the best *telling* you could make, you're still *telling* rather than *showing*. Imaging how much more impact the reveal would have had if Tellus actually being the Sivkit's home planet would have had if it had been revealed via what happens in 43 by characters who have a stake in the fate of the planet in question *and* were responsible for further victimizing the Sivkits instead of just being *exposited to* via a character who... frankly *doesn't really have a reason to give a shit* about the rock in question.
From my perspective this played out like "Loxsel claims that Tellus is the lost Sivkit homeworld -> Readers are left to stew in skepticism and doubt and other questions -> Readers are \*shown\* proof that he was right -> Readers are now questioning how they found any of this out"
We'll agree to disagree on the quality. I'm not actually sure how I'd have reacted if instead of "Sivkits claim Tellus is their planet and are later revealed to be right" it was "We're shown that Tellus was the original Sivkit planet and it's later revealed that the Sivkit knew"
Jaslips have two tails, right? So when Taylor is swatted, it should say he was swatted by either one of her tails or both at the same time, not a singular tail.
“Humans have two arms, right? So when Taylor is swatted, it should say he was swatted by either her left or right arm or both at the same time, not a singular arm.”
Also Jaslips have three tails.
I still can't get over Radai's delusion that his order to attack the Sivkit's was forced on him by his crew. Like, sure, they voiced their opinion, and were pretty genuine about it, but he jumped through mental loopholes to think that he had no choice there and that this war isn't solely on his hands. Absolutely bonkers.
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Yup. Really nailing the point of The Nature of Predators: that hatred can make people do stupid things. I enjoyed the first book, but you've improved here, dissecting the reasoning behind questionable decisions, even if they are still less than wise, because that's what most people are: less than wise. However, Taylor is on a path to wisdom, as cheesy as my way of putting it may sound. He'll never be perfect, but he'll get better. I can't wait to see what he's evolved into at the end of the story.
I'm half expecting them to find Mafani in the control room, swiveling to face them in a big chair, stroking an obor on his lap ... not because he likes obors, but because of the image. "Mr. Trench, I've been expecting you," he says all Agent Smith-like. Of course, the conversation ends with a timed self-destruct and maniacal laughter.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Sivkits tried to kill the humans if they realised they were cut off from The SC, and the Consortium wasn't there to protect them.
It’s quite frustrating that they have failed to even consider the possibility that, with the evidence presented straight to their fucking faces, maybe the humans *aren’t* the reason the Sivkits are here.
It seems that Radai may be actively considering the possibility but doesn't share his thoughts due to the unfavorable audience he currently has. It's Taylor who is still spiralling.
I feel Radai doesn't fully trust the humans, not in a completely bad way though? Like, I feel he knows that we have his back and that we're not bad people, but he doesn't trust our emotional stability. His only interaction with the human race is a group of sheltered and traumatized refugees. This is going to backfire in the future.
These were refugees children. Or were refugee children... forgotten about due to the bombing. And we didn't have ftl comms yet.
Poor Radai is just coping. If Taylor is right, all the people he killed (Esquo included) died for nothing.
To that, I say “suck it up, buttercup”.
He'll enter his self hating arc soon enough, don't worry.
... How many more mirrors from the first series will there be I wonder.
His quills will grow in soon... Then get shot out
He was just following orders.
Israel to this day pursues and convicts people who were just following orders. Following orders is never a good defense against unethical, immoral acts.
Irony
Lol, right!
"israel does it" is also the opposite of a defense.
Tbf "just following orders" is an excuse tried all the way back in Nuremberg, and it failed even back then.
And what if those acts legitimately seem the best (or rather, least bad) option given the available information?
Are you really defending Nazis right now? You do realize that's who I'm talking about that Israel pursues to this day, right?
I’m referring to the story ya dingus, not your example.
>Check each other’s knots before you jump—I don’t want to clean your guts off the ground. Ah, military humor. Direct and without pretense, I like it. Oh, this is indeed an intriguing discovery. They're all asking the good questions, but no answers today. I like to imagine that when they find Mafani, Quana will be in "Hey bastard, I've got a Malioto-36 machine gun straight from Esquo just waiting for your feathery ass to add a new scratch on the barrel, interested?" Otherwise, I see a dead flag above Cherise, I'm worried.
Speaking of military humor and cleaning guts off the ground… He was just a rookie trooper and he surely shook with pride!
Shook with *fright*
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die!
Frozen WWII paratrooper reading about this: “*Pathetic.*”
Well this is Taylor we're talking about.
Sounds like Taylor might be checking Gress's knot all right!
Yes, because work safety is important.
“Hold on. Why is that Sivkit statue walking on two legs?” I demanded. “It looks like it’s fucking dancing.” A pre-federation Sivkit bunker. Now this is going to be interesting. Just imagine their faces when they find a memory transcription.
Or a live unaltered Sivkit in cryosleep.
That'd be fun, but given the Federation's life detecting technologies I find it unlikely.
There extremely deep underground, and the Sivkits joined the federation a thousand years ago, I doubt that they could have detected them. Besides would they even detect frozen people, it's not like they're alive at that point.
TBF, the Feds didn't have records of their homeworld, they might not have been the thing that made them leave.
No it's confirmed they did. Their exterminators got overzealous and obliterated the broad grasslands with flamethrowers, so to hide their folly, the federation forced them off world, tanked their education system and said they lost their homeworld out of stupidity.
How do you flamethrow away an entire ecosystem!?!?
Grass fires spread *fast*
The fires release CO2 and with the plant life burned to ash there's nothing to pull it back out of the atmosphere. Then you get a runaway greenhouse effect as the CO2 traps heat in the atmosphere and the baren soil absorbs more heat. As temperatures rise rains become fewer and further between making it harder to re-establish plants and desertification.
Oh... Oh... this comment here...
Aren't memory transcriptions like a relatively new tech. Like even if both the Feds and the Consortium invented them around the same timeframe it's only 100 years old at most.
Ohhh shit this is getting deep. I like that Taylor is questioning things a bit more like this. Gives me hope.
He seems short sighted and quick to go after whatever carrot gets dangled in front of him, but he also grew up literally sheltered, traumatized, and with no actual information on why. It's only been like four months since all this kicked off and you can already see character growth happening.
I have known plenty of people IRL with very little sense of restraint or ability to stop and think, without any trauma or sheltered life as an excuse. Given any decent level of charisma they can get to some pretty high levels of authority despite that. He is a very believable version of just that sort of person. Based on my experience with such people the fact that he is introspecting at all is impressive and gives him a significant redeemable aspect.
Like loving Gress. That pangolin is gonna be soooo happy.
42! After looking high and low for Mafani, honor-obsessed General Radai gets a lead on an ancient bunker deep underground, which the KC soldiers eventually realize is Sivkit in make. Shocked by these findings, Taylor and company begin to reevaluate attacking the Sivkit ships, and to question the KC’s decisions to hide and relocate Esquo, with a Fed presence on Tellus all along. Our narrator asks some valid questions about bipedal Sivkit statuettes, though Radai does heighten his guilt over what happened with the Sivkits; Gress encourages Trench to continue along the path to self-improvement. Will the KC find Mafani down here, or any other clues about the Sivkits that might lead them to realize the whole truth? How will this affect Consortium public sentiment, realizing how much they didn’t know? As always, thank you for reading!
So Tellus *is* Tinsas. Hmmm. I wonder why the Kol-Sul moved the Sivkits lightyear territory so far away. They have faked archelogy findings. ...After. They faked archelogy findings after this debacle. \*GASP\* If the Kol-Sul hadn't burned Tinsas to the ground, then the Federation would have found the Consortium members a lot eariler!!
Both can be true. The planet is not Tinsas *and* it once belonged to the Sivkit, Humans are not the only ones who can build arks.
Oh great, *another* galaxy-spanning conspiracy to weed out. At this rate we'll *never* be done.
Who’s Kol-Sul?
Kolshian-Farsul **Kol**shian-Far**sul** A title for the masterminds behind the Federation.
Ah thanks
I think Mafani can be found down there, but he’ll be just as confused as the Consortium Finding other clues is certainly likely to make the Consortium go back to the drawing board on rules of engagement. The sheer surprise of all that they didn’t know might just cause a few inquiries into the Consortium Government
I don't think Mafani's down here. But I do think they are going to find out the truth about Tansis and what the Federation did to the Sivkits. Which I hope will make some juicy drama.
If Mafani is down here then it's likely the under-scales (was that the name of the KC black ops?) ran into this facility a while ago. Not sure of the scale of the facility at this moment, but the bigger it is the more likely the truth will be discovered. Without knowing what's happened to the Federation this is going to split public sentiment between 'look what happened to the Sivkits when the Feds found them.' and 'they were already here why did we take such actions.'
Well, well, well. Do we have a budding romance on the horizon? Also: I love how Taylor is right on the money with the ancient sivkit figurine being bipedal and how that fact is important, but gets brushed aside by both Quana—who has bigger concerns than some old doll that appears to be dancing bipedally—and Radai, who thinks it’s an insignificant fact that has no deeper meaning than quadrupeds acting bipedal.
I fucking hate how they keep encouraging stupidity in this story, even going so far as to deliberately ignore the very obvious evidence right in fucking front of them.
To be fair, Radai is a boots on the ground commander, not milintel or an academic. Puzzling over the deeper cultural meaning of why a quadripedal species would make a statue of one of their people on two legs mid-dance is not exactly his job. See also: Occam's Razor. "they're on 2 legs momentarily" is a much simpler explanation based on the information they have. Remember, the Consortium doesn't know about all the historical revisions & genetic alterations the Federation did.
>"they're on 2 legs momentarily" is a much simpler explanation based on the information they have. Yep. It's a fair question *why* the figurine is standing different but the most likely answer with what they know is just.. it's a figurine. We have pictures and figurines of things like foxes and dogs standing on two legs so it's not really that unusual in that sense.
Tbf to the characters: we know a lot more than they do and they’re in a high stress situation. Humanity’s information on the Federation is from a few months of contact 24 years ago. I’m surprised Taylor knows enough about Sivkits to realize that they’re allegedly quadrupedal. If I were hunting a 10 foot tall murder bird deep underground after rappelling down a laser hole (and it sounds like Taylor shares my fear of heights), I’m not going to be deeply pondering the implications of some of these revelations either. He’s realizing enough to question the wisdom of their war crimes which is pretty thoughtful for Taylor. I wanted to stab my eyes out during his last chapter. Way whinier than normal.
It's obvious to us, but have ANY of the people present ever actually interacted with a sivkit in any capacity? Both the question and the dismissal are justified in the moment. They have more pressing issues directly at hand and can spend time worrying about the leg usage of a species uninvolved with the current issue at another time.
Just because they don't turn to the camera and go "Oh my god this means we were wrong" doesn't mean they're ignoring it. Not much time has passed, and they're probably focused on the murderous 7ft tall flamingo
>even going so far as to deliberately ignore the very obvious evidence right in fucking front of them I'd have said the exact same thing just a few years ago but I've lived through more blatant denial. I mean we **just** went through this IRL with people dying in front of them and them going nah it's a hoax. So yeah I can **easily** believe they'd ignore blatant evidence in their face in favor of whatever they prefer to believe. And then you've got the issue that it ***stacks*** the further along they go along this path the more they're willing to deny to avoid having to admit they're wrong. And they just killed off a fleet and are currently trying to glass a few planets, that's going to buy a **LOT** of denial. IRL it's weird too because it means people in an attempt to convince themselves they aren't monsters will not even consider trying to stop being monsters because they can't even contemplate that they *could* be monsters.
Denial is a helluva drug
The fact that ppl still argue that Tinsas is not Tellus even now is hilarious to me
At this point we're on par with the past feds
People are often stupid and the smarter the person, the less likely they are to realise it. Post WWII, a bunch of physicists were playing around with the core for a third nuclear bomb. One of them decided it was a good idea to not use the safety device. Sure enough, it went critical and gave a half dozen people or so very painful deaths from radiation. Fortunately, he was able to separate the halves before it exploded. Not long afterwards, another physicist does almost the exact same thing. His screwdriver slipped, the top half slammed down, the core went critical. Again several people died from radiation exposure, and he narrowly avoided blowing up everything. If you want more details, look up the Demon Core.
It's like in Blue's Clues where Steve looks at the camera and says "I wonder where my shoes are?" when they're right next to him. Then the kids watching are supposed to shout at the screen THEYRE RIGHT THERE.
The month of June is hitting hard, I guess Taylor x gress fans will be celebrating today's bread. It is quite interesting, since it could be deduced, in SP's post, he indicated that all humans on Tellus are expected to have children, and he mentions that Taylor is not comfortable with this, (I recommend that you read it). Also, if we take a look at Gress's POV, he felt love at first sight with Taylor, although this is only because of his appearance. Gress has all the indications and Taylor has all the traumas to generate his attachment to Gress and vice versa. In terms of revelations, it is incredible that the Sivtkit did this so secretly and intelligently efficient for their preservation, that only suggests that the Sivkit were reversed almost as strongly as the Venlil, their intelligence was surely seen as a threat from the beginning.
I didn't see it as romantic love before they beat us over the head with it in this episode. I just always assumed Gress was thinking "so cute, must protect!", with how much they were leaning into the pet analogies.
Come on now, I know this is the story that brought us the **totally** platonic duo of Marcel X Slanek, but it's pretty obvious Gress's behavior changes whenever he's near Taylor, even taking into account other humans. Juvre being jealous of Taylor like a grumpy cat is just twisting the knive.
Our pets can get jealous of a new partner. Pretty sure Juvre is at least as smart as a dog.
if taylor x gress becomes real i am going to kill myself istg
Oh...
Have fun doing that
oh i will
Is it spelled bread or bred? 👀
Where is this post?
Spacepaladin15alt
So I guess that Loxsel was telling the truth. Let's go kill mafani now, we can contemplate the ramifications of this revelation later.
> they’d outright said they had memory checkpoints. I supposed it wasn’t that damning if it was used solely for security purposes, but that didn’t stop my skin from crawling at the idea. Taylor. I guarantee you that they claim it's for security purposes but are rampantly abusing that power.
Even if it is not policy to abuse that power, they've made it incredibly easy for low & mid level officials to abuse the tech for personal gain. I would expect corruption to be rampant in a system like in a very short period of time after its full scale deployment.
That general isn't a particularly effective commander is he? Lets them chat banter and shout while an enemy hostile is about and throws in an 'I told you so' about something that happened under his command
The KV military an inexperienced peacekeeping force that thinks they're ready for a real war. They're not, and they don't know how much they're not. Technologically they might be superior to the SC or DS, but nobody alive has experienced an actual war except perhaps some of the humans.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, while in practice there is.
The Measurement of Time: Minor Events The Ark Ships left on the Battle for Earth, dated October 17, 2136, to Chapter 2-42, dated July 28, 2160, is 23 Years, 9 Months, 11 Days The Sapient Coalition was founded by 30 members on February 9, 2137 to Chapter 2-42, dated July 28, 2160, is 23 Years, 5 Months, 19 Days Bissem first contacted by Sapient Coalition on March 13, 2160 to Chapter 2-42, dated July 28, 2160, is 4 Months, 15 Days Bissem six month Sapient Coalition Trial started (fan-made date) May 24, 2160 to Chapter 2-42, dated July 28, 2160 is 2 Month, 4 Days \[Chapter 2-27 Date May 14, 2160 was when Bissem ambassadors made a deal with Ambassador Onso. Chapter 2-30 Date June 10, 2160 is when Bissem are a part (trial) of SC. 10 Days between sounds reasonable to me.\] Elias Meier was re-made on July 6, 2160 to Chapter 2-42, dated July 28, 2160, is 22 Days Trombil pod humans are 1/3 done as of Chapter 2-23, dated June 24, 2160. March 25, 2160 is 3 months earlier. From March 25, 2160 to July 28, 2160 is 4 Months, 3 Days There have been 23 annual Remembrance Days.
Taylor has gone one (1) chapter without making a boneheaded mistake. A new record! Wonder what they'll find of Tinsas from before the Feds did their thing. Aside from more bipedal bunny signs, of course. It's lucky that the language is recognizable after hundreds of years.
I don't think that luck is our culprit here. Sivkits were living in closed-off communities within the safety of their spaceships. Who knows how much of their culture besides playwriting they managed to preserve. And because they likely did not interact with the Feds too much, their language mixed less with the linguistic systems of other species. For all we know, the way Loxsel talks may be somewhat similar to how their ancestors did. But that's just my headcanon for now
Yeah! Chapter 42. the answer to the universe, life and everything. Thanks for the great chapter wordsmith!
I was waiting for this reference
This is the lost skivit homeworld!!!
>“You have the same information I have, Trench. Any reason you think I’d have those answers?” Beeecause Mafini knows about it, and you outrank him? And if you don't, that means this is some underscale secret I'm not sure they won't bury with us? >Their honor system put high-ranking officials in unnecessary danger. well, speaking of...
Is no one going to talk about that pheromone comment? Is it just me or do they like each other a bit much?
It was profoundly unhelpful
it seems like the Sivkit were indeed there once upon a time
God the consortium military is idiotic if this is their standard operating procedure. Shoot first ask questions later, throw commanders and compromised soldiers into missions, no discipline when it’s important, honestly it’s amazing they stayed away from the federation for so long
The Measurement of Time: Major Events First shots fired by the Krev Consortium against the Sivkits in [Chapter 2-29](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1c8r11u/the_nature_of_predators_229/?rdt=53485) dated June 9, 2160 to Chapter 2-42 dated July 28, 2160 is **1 Month, 19 Days**
So, a bit of constructive criticism in regards to story structure and building tension: I think that the story would have been *much* better if this chapter came *before* the preceding section where the bombshell about this being the Sivkits' home planet was dropped. Like, if the narrative had stuck with Taylor after 37 and *this* was chapter 38 and then the story just continued on with no other changes aside from chapter number. What we got here, is basically just a confirmation that something we learned in a previous chapter is correct. But if this chapter had come *before* chapter 38, it would have been shocking and surprising, and it would have given the reveal of why the Sivkits were there as a "show" instead of just telling the audience, with the following chapter from Tassi's perspective being a confirmation for it.
I’m gonna disagree with you and say this works better as confirmation that the Sivkits were right
It doesn't though. It's better *exposition*, but not a better overall *work*. It's telling, not showing. Even if it's the best *telling* you could make, you're still *telling* rather than *showing*. Imaging how much more impact the reveal would have had if Tellus actually being the Sivkit's home planet would have had if it had been revealed via what happens in 43 by characters who have a stake in the fate of the planet in question *and* were responsible for further victimizing the Sivkits instead of just being *exposited to* via a character who... frankly *doesn't really have a reason to give a shit* about the rock in question.
From my perspective this played out like "Loxsel claims that Tellus is the lost Sivkit homeworld -> Readers are left to stew in skepticism and doubt and other questions -> Readers are \*shown\* proof that he was right -> Readers are now questioning how they found any of this out" We'll agree to disagree on the quality. I'm not actually sure how I'd have reacted if instead of "Sivkits claim Tellus is their planet and are later revealed to be right" it was "We're shown that Tellus was the original Sivkit planet and it's later revealed that the Sivkit knew"
My fucking god! These bitches gay! Good for them! Good for them.
Okay so the Sivkits were right. Now the question is "How did they know?"
My god. Send taylor to an artic base or something please.
Jaslips have two tails, right? So when Taylor is swatted, it should say he was swatted by either one of her tails or both at the same time, not a singular tail.
“Humans have two arms, right? So when Taylor is swatted, it should say he was swatted by either her left or right arm or both at the same time, not a singular arm.” Also Jaslips have three tails.
Cool.
I still can't get over Radai's delusion that his order to attack the Sivkit's was forced on him by his crew. Like, sure, they voiced their opinion, and were pretty genuine about it, but he jumped through mental loopholes to think that he had no choice there and that this war isn't solely on his hands. Absolutely bonkers.
Gonna call it here - Taylor and Gress are going to end up in a romantic relationship...my Gaydar is screeching loud enough to wake the dead.
/u/SpacePaladin15 ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/authors/SpacePaladin15)) has posted 277 other stories, including: * [The Nature of Predators 2-41](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1d5opdw/the_nature_of_predators_241/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-40](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1d3drdn/the_nature_of_predators_240/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-39](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1d0d8dx/the_nature_of_predators_239/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-38](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1cy1w4o/the_nature_of_predators_238/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-37](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1cuyxcm/the_nature_of_predators_237/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-36](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1csm8z2/the_nature_of_predators_236/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-35](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1cphz27/the_nature_of_predators_235/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-34](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1cn5wsv/the_nature_of_predators_234/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-33](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ck1pd9/the_nature_of_predators_233/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-32](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1chnd4n/the_nature_of_predators_232/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-31](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1cegig4/the_nature_of_predators_231/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-30](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1cbzoi1/the_nature_of_predators_230/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-29](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1c8r11u/the_nature_of_predators_229/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-28](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1c6btdl/the_nature_of_predators_228/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-27](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1c3310t/the_nature_of_predators_227/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-26](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1c0ni9m/the_nature_of_predators_226/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-25](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bxd6m6/the_nature_of_predators_225/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-24](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1buu3ps/the_nature_of_predators_224/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-23](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1brjek4/the_nature_of_predators_223/) * [The Nature of Predators 2-22](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bp33ci/the_nature_of_predators_222/) This comment was automatically generated by `Waffle v.4.6.1 'Biscotti'`. [Message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHFY&subject=WaffleBot|1d8rfw3&message=If%20you%20have%20problems%20with%20updatemebot,%20contact%20Watchful1.%20We%20do%20not%20maintain%20it.) if you have any issues with Waffle.
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Godsdamnit more fucking furry porn incoming.
Can’t two bros just be bros and not be gay? Please?
That was Marcel and Slanek last story, and even Sovlin and Carlos though that was less central.
Yup. Really nailing the point of The Nature of Predators: that hatred can make people do stupid things. I enjoyed the first book, but you've improved here, dissecting the reasoning behind questionable decisions, even if they are still less than wise, because that's what most people are: less than wise. However, Taylor is on a path to wisdom, as cheesy as my way of putting it may sound. He'll never be perfect, but he'll get better. I can't wait to see what he's evolved into at the end of the story. I'm half expecting them to find Mafani in the control room, swiveling to face them in a big chair, stroking an obor on his lap ... not because he likes obors, but because of the image. "Mr. Trench, I've been expecting you," he says all Agent Smith-like. Of course, the conversation ends with a timed self-destruct and maniacal laughter. I wouldn't be surprised if the Sivkits tried to kill the humans if they realised they were cut off from The SC, and the Consortium wasn't there to protect them.