Tarva raises a good point, how many idioms do we have that don't involve injury or death? The only one I got is it takes two to tango, anyone else? Edit Okay, 40 so far and only ten referencing violence. Edit 2. As of February 8, we're up 276 idioms of which 65 referenced violence.

Pot calling the kettle black

Okay, we're in Noah's one or two.

"The way the cookie crumbles" is a third "Turn over a new leaf" is four "Cat is out of the bag" is a toss up, because of the implications of why the cat was *in* the bag in the first place

It's referencing the cat of nine tails, a type of whip. I can't remember why they were bagged, but it coming out means someone is about to get severely punished.

Isn't it referencing an old fable though? And saying "the cat's out of the bag" usually means a deception, secret or lie got busted and is now in the open. This would fit with the origin I was taught. There's the german story of Till Eulenspiegel, a trickster who wanted to buy food but had no money. So he caught a cat, glued a rabbit pelt to it and stuffed it into a bag. Then he went to a town market and advertised having a "big fat rabbit" for sale. A man comes over, takes a look into the bag and sees a rather big rabbit since he can't see the whole animal. He buys the "rabbit" at a high pirce and goes home, looking forward to a large meal. But upon opening the bag the cat jumps out, leaving the man angry and frustrated.

So I've never heard that one, and looked up the etymology. While both of those theories are equally popular, we're both wrong, and it turns out nobody knows where the term comes from. So now we know.

Though, this idiom has numerous versions in different languages, many of them alluding to ***buying*** and ***dishonesty***. The controversy with the whip exists mainly just in English. The Spanish version says "to give a cat for a hare". Also the Dutch version is “to buy a cat in a bag." The Finnish version omits the cat, saying "to buy a pig in a sack".

German has the one with buying the cat in the bag as well. German actually has both sayings. "Die Katze ist aus dem Sack" and "die Katze im Sack kaufen". I find it fascinating to see what priorities different cultures place on the same saying.

The origin, as it turns out, of "a pig in a poke", too.

You learn something new every day. :D

Even if this was the etymology, you're selling the rabbit *to eat*. Like, you've kidnapped this animal to pretend it is a different animal, so you can sell it to someone who will kill and eat it.

I’d heard it was being sold a kitten instead of a piglet

That' "buying a pig in a poke"--if you don't bother to check you might find a kitten--not nearly as valuable and inedible unless you're really desperate--instead of the piglet you paid for. "Let the cat out of the bag" just refers to the fact that once it's out you're probably not getting it back in. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/let-the-cat-out-of-the-bag/

Thanks

The bag was hung from the ship’s mast. It was there to remind the crew that the Boatswain (Bo-sun) was in charge of discipline and could let the cat out of the bag to perform disciple. It is absolutely about violence. 🤷🏽‍♂️

I actually own a ‘light’ cat o’ nine tails (light as in it isn’t designed to maim or cause horrible injury) for…. extracurricular nsfw purposes… My partner and I bag the falls (the long thwippy bits) with the handle sticking out, to keep them from getting tangled or knotted while it’s not in use. Maybe that’s what the term was referring to if they also did the same thing in the past?

They were stored in bags of oil so the thin strips of leather wouldent snap or dry out between thrashings

Because it should have been a piglet but you got conned.

Some of these may not quite be an idiom but.. Fall Ass over tea kettle Roll up your sleeves Don't cry over spilled milk Water under the bridge Rising tide lifts all ships Roll with it Go with the flow Apple doesn't fall far from the tree Squeaky wheel gets the grease Tough nut to crack

Many ways to skin a cat? ;)

That's water under the bridge

The cat's out of the bag The penny dropped Over the moon A dime a dozen Cut me some slack It's not rocket science You're pulling my leg We'll cross that bridge when we come to it Up shit's creek without a paddle You reap what you sow Barking up the wrong tree Apples and Oranges Don't cry over spilt milk All your eggs in one basket Chip off the old block Piece of cake Not over till the fat lady sings Best thing since sliced bread They think the sun shines out of their arse No such thing as a free lunch

The cat one has some violent implications. As does barking up the wrong tree, no? Like, the dog is hunting a thing. And the egg thing is predatory, no? Might I suggest: - It takes a village to raise a child - an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of treatment - Light that burns twice as bright burns half as long - Cheaters never prosper

Prior/proper planning prevents piss poor performance

Proper previous/prior planning prevents piss poor performance. Law of the 7 Ps.

The reverse of this one as well: Piss-poor prior planning prevents proper performance.

The eggs in one basket is not predatory. If you gather all your eggs in one basket and then something happens(trip and fall) you lose all of them. But if they are separated you would only lose a few.

Yeah but if the eggs are *your eggs* you do not put them in a basket. You keep them in a nest. Eggs in a basket are stolen eggs that are a function of the domestication of chickens for meat-and-egg eating purposes.

Noting that chicken eggs are not always fertilized (usually not) and are discarded if not eaten...

I think any animal product is a problem, even unfertilized eggs, given the way they treated scavenging (the most ethical form of meat-eating! You don't even kill anything!).

I'd argue that "cut me some slack" is also out, because it involves cutting, which is an inherently violent action

Ah, but that one is actually a nautical term. Originally "give me some slack", it just meant to loosen the rope, allowing for more freedom of movement.

Then the flip side of pick up the slack. And related running a taught ship, running like a well oiled machine, ticking like clockwork. Another in general is pulling your own weight. That one might be related to rowing teams but don't quote me on that

So we just need to specifically use the "give" version an not the "cut" version

Not really. I'm sure some species use blades to cut veggies, rope, and other non-foodstuffs. Knives are more utilitarian than combat, honestly (daggers, on the other hand...).

Cutting isn't necessarily violent, sizing anything, even lumber or stone, is still cutting, no harm done.

Exactly, I always equated 'cut to the chase' with cutting the excess material off a woodworking project. Edit: of course, 'Get to the point' is equivalent although with a slightly ruder connotation.

That is true, once explained, they would be ok with it though because cutting slack means letting out more rope in a seafaring or climbing context. Also, cutting isn't neccessarily violent. Surely the venlil cut through vegetation to clear space for their houses.

It's inherently violent in the eyes of a Venlil thinking about humans Biases exist, I can see an anti-human Venlil actively looking for reasons to claim our expressions are violent (regardless of if the argument for why they are makes sense) and even a human-neutral Venlil might subconsciously look for such things With that in mind, I am specifically looking for idioms that cannot be twisted in such a way Edit: Also, "cut to the chase" was mentioned in the chapter as one that Tarva found too predatory, sure, it was probably more the "chase" part, but still

That's fair

To be fair I imagine the Venlil might take offense to “the cats out of the bag” because there’s an implication that a cat was in a bag to begin with. Barking up the wrong tree might trigger predator thoughts as well (being aggressive).

True, the cat out of the bag one is from a scam where people would try to sell you a bag saying that there were piglets in there that you could use to eat in a few years, whereas actually, the bag was full of cats that they wanted to get rid of.

>The cat's out of the bag How did the cat get in the bag, monster?! >The penny dropped Onto what poor defenseless animal?! >Over the moon Of death, I bet! >A dime a dozen A dozen kills, predator?! >Cut me some slack What is slack and why are you cutting it?! >It's not rocket science More instruments of death, I see! >You're pulling my leg You rip limbs off?! >We'll cross that bridge when we come to it A bridge over blood and bodies of your victims! >Up shit's creek without a paddle Gross! >You reap what you sow Don't reap the innocent! >Barking up the wrong tree More threat displays! >Apples and Oranges Obvious tricks, predators don't eat these. >Don't cry over spilt milk And you stole that milk from a prey, you predator! >All your eggs in one basket And who did you steal those eggs from?! >Chip off the old block Execution?! >Piece of cake \[Redacted\] >Not over till the fat lady sings Is this a form of torture?! >Best thing since sliced bread Which of your prey animals is "bread"?! >They think the sun shines out of their arse You're turning prey inside-out?! >No such thing as a free lunch How much killing did it cost you, then?! ​ \-Signed, A hypochondriac Venlil

This brings up a good question. Wtf do these people eat? They had to have agriculture. Do they not have bread?

Flatbreads probably, all you need for that is a smooth paste that when heated solidifies somewhat but not too much to chew. (Although I suppose that description is not quite specific enough, because fruit jelly could be described that way. Pureed fruit thickened with pectin... definitely not bread.) Ideally something that forms a nice crust around the outsides-- still soft enough to chew, but tougher, and sometimes with a bit of crunch to it. Also, maybe breads leavened with a direct chemical reaction, like our pancakes, cakes, and soda bread made with baking soda. Yeast breads I'm more skeptical of. I mean, there's some suspension of disbelief about the similarities of the life forms from different planets, considering it's accepted that different herbivore species can eat the same fruits, and the Arxur can apparently eat any of the herbivore species. But I don't think other planets are going to specifically have yeast. And there may very well be bacteria/fungi that similarly release gasses in noticeable quantities, but... A.) would that necessarily eat the same plant matter that makes a good dough? I guess different varieties of yeast do eat a variety of things, but still, not necessarily everything. And B.) would the aliens have noticed that and chosen to take advantage? The yeast bread is mainly what we mean when saying the word. Even if they have other sorts of bread, the word bread might not have a good translation. Definitely something I'm curious about too, but I'm leaning towards "no, they don't."

\[Redacted\] what does this mean I must know!

It all went down the drain. Down in the dumps Like looking for a needle in a haystack A few screws loose Fighting tooth and nail (?) Flying too close to the sun For rainy days Painting a picture Putting on makeup Look on the bright side Like the back of my hand Talking like a parrot Being a clown On Cloud 9 High as a kite Slept like a log Easy peasy lemon squeazy Who is Cutting onions

I see comments about cutting slack and cat in the bag, but I think the "eggs in basket" one would be a serious problem, since it speaks directly to predation. Most of us don't look at it like that, since we know chicken eggs collected for food are not even fertilized, but the Venlil would not know any of this, and would probably look at it like "fetus predation".

I'd leave out "All your eggs in one basket", since the Federation probably don't eat eggs and no explanation or angle of that is going to come out pretty. And no free lunch is just unfortunate wording given the current political climate.

I can just see Noah having gone around to every Human he can and returning to Tarva with this list and a smug look on his face.

'The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.' (Insert appropriate xeno fruit for clarity.)

[удалено]

I don't think any mammalian species would care about drinking milk, considering that most (if not all) species of mammals feed their young with breastmilk. Spilling a bottle of milk is probably relatable to any society where a mother would feed a baby their milk from a bottle to avoid chafed nipples or missing work to look after a baby.

Cut me some slack has nothing to do with someone being bound, its a nautical term related to the letting out of rope.

Barking up the wrong tree is predatory. It's about a dog hunting an arboreal animal

Up a creek without a paddle. Better late than never. A dime a dozen. There's a few.

Kicking the bucket Selling the farm Cooking up a storm Hanging by the skin of your teeth

I wonder how many idioms for death we can confuse/terrify the federation with, 'Pushing up daisies' and 'Sleeping with the fishes' spring to mind.

Two words: Cement shoes.

That one’s pretty violent, since it refers to murder.

"Sleeping with the fishes" does too. It's talking about murdering someone and then dumping their body into a body of water to dispose of it.

Buying the farm

Kicking the bucket is an interesting one to add... Given it's literally the act of commiting to hanging oneself

Kicking is a violent act, so that one's out "Cooking up a storm" might be fine, since cooking is not inherently predatory, but I can see some Venlil questioning it "**Hanging** by the **skin** of your **teeth**" I don't feel like I need to explain why this one is problematic for our space sheep friends

I don't think kicking would be a violent act in an herbivore community. Look at your dog when it's having puppy dreams. All animals do it. Hell my kids do it.

Yea, but we're assuming they're gonna be petty

Some haven't seen yet. How the tables have turned, through thick and thin, take a rain check, actions speak louder than words, a penny for your thoughts, the whole nine yards, jump on the bandwagon, ignorance is bliss, come rain or shine, hang in there, the perfect storm, better late than never, Haste makes waste, loose your touch, hit the hay ( though that could be misconstrued), drop the mic, sit on the fence, ball's in your court, spill the beans, pour fuel on the fire, snug as a bug, go the extra mile, by the book, it's up in the air, hands are tied, in a nutshell, think(ing) outside the box, cry wolf, taste of your own medicine, benefit of the doubt, back to the drawing board, like nails on a chalkboard, your guess is as good as mine, on the ball, wrap your/my/her/his/their head around it/something, hit the nail on the head, so far so good. There definetly more but I think that's a good ammount no?

It’s raining cats and dogs Finding a needle in a haystack Lose your marbles Once in a blue moon Plain as day Play second fiddle Put your foot in your mouth Head in their ass Straight from the horse’s mouth Tip of the iceberg Don’t put all your eggs in one basket Elephant in the room Green thumb Head over heals Ignorance is bliss Spill the beans Take it with a pinch of salt ____ two cents Under the weather

* The Ink of the Covenant is thicker than the Water of the Womb. (mistook it for being the other way around at first, and have altered it to not scare the Federation members) * A fool and their money are soon parted. * Birds of a feather flock together. * A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. * Opposites attract. * You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. I could keep going.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush is about hunting, where the falcon in your hand is as valuable as all of the birds that you'll catch with it later. It's similar to give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll eat for life. You might want to censor those ones for our ex-federation friends too.

Agreed on the hunting for birds, but my understanding of the phrase was more "a bird caught is worth two that you haven't caught yet"

Ok, so when I looked it up the english phrase is more about falconry (when looking at pub signs of old pubs called 'the bird in the hand', they usually show a falcon on a hand), but similar phrases in czech and german translate to 'a sparrow in the hand is worth a dove on the roof' which is closer to your interpretation.

It could be either to be honest, both interpretations work just as well, so I might be wrong.

You wouldn’t need to change the blood/water one. “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”. For a species of herding herbivores where being a part of a herd is the same as part of a family, I’d say that one should translate ok. Perhaps adjust for context to something like “The bond of a chosen herd is stronger than the herd one is born to”, but that’s more for understanding rather than terror

Isn't "Blood is thicker than water" actually correctly said "The Blood of the Covenant is thicker than the water of the womb"?

That is overwhelmingly not the usage I see for that phrase. Quite the opposite, actually.

Right, because the modern usage is wrong when compared to it's origin. In modern parlance it is said that Blood is thicker than water. But originally it was "The Blood of the Covenant is thicker than the water of the womb."

This is intriguing, but I remain unconvinced. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_is_thicker_than_water >In English it reads, "I also hear it said that kin-blood is not spoiled by water." Jacob Grimm suggests that this saying, which is not read anywhere else, means that the bonds of family blood are not erased by the waters of baptism, and so the raven Diezelin will have inherited his father's outlook despite having been christened. Somebody sometime seems to have deliberately confused which blood and which water we're talking about.

Actually Blood is thicker than water is a bastardized form of the saying. It's "The Blood of the Covenant is thicker than the Water of the Womb". It's about how your chosen family is more important than your birth family.

Nope. The longer version is from many years later than the original.

Apples to oranges Getting down to brass tacks Murphy's law See the forest from the trees Heh, Monke Captain obvious Beggars can't be choosers Bee's knees Happy as a clam Happy as a pig in his pen (clean version) Even a broken clock is right twice a day Be the bigger person Take the high road Dont poo where you sleep When the fat lady sings

"There's more than one way to skin a cat." Oh, wait... 🤪

All of the baseball idioms, at least.

Look a gift horse in the mouth. Might not wanna share that one though.

“Never look a gift horse in the mouth” an idiom meaning not to criticize the gifts your receive. Horses teeth never stop growing so if you look in the horse’s mouth you are checking it’s age.

Putting the cart before the horse I've got a few fron Poland too: Turn the cat tail-first (twisting the facts to present the situation ad opposite of the truth) Come out like Zabłocki with the soap (failing in a venture that should by all rights have been profitable; with the context of the original tale, there's a connotation of being at least partially at fault due to own greed) Out of the rain and under the gutter (it's our equivalent to "out of a frying pan and into the fire", but with no food connotations) To swap an axe for a stick (full form "(paternal) uncle swapped an axe for a stick"; to exchange something useful for something less so)

"Human charisma had swayed my feelings a bit too much." I'm starting to think that this HFY story isn't about *humans as predators* making them stand out in a cool way, but *humans are charming bastards* making us ruin an entire space ecosystem in, like, less than six months.

*"stupid sexy humans"* \- The Federation probably

It's the 'puppy dog eyes' tactic that humans have honed to a razor's edge. Get's 'em every time.

/r/humansarespacebards

Human S.P.E.C.I.A.L Stats (In TNOP) Strength : 6 Perception : 5 Endurance : 9 Charisma : 10 Intelligence : 7 Agility : 2 Luck : 1 Perk : Good Natured, Loose Cannon Starting Skill : Speech, Guns, Explosive

Faults: Intimidating, impulsive, trusting

Come on. We gotta have Terrifying Presence.

Shotgun Surgeon and "And Stay Back!" are also good picks. Because we love our boomsticks. ​ (also those perks are completely busted when used together)

That 10 charisma ain't helping against cazadors OR militant vegans.

Edit: I redrafted this and made it into its own post, [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/10upot2/the_human_weeds/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) You have spawned an idea: Humans are the weeds of the galaxy. They float between stars like dandelion fluff, and take root everywhere they touch down. They sprout like the pale grasses of their homeworld, from every crack and crevice they shoot up and spread across the face of even the meanest planetoid. The nobler races are rare cultivars in comparison, we require maintenance and attention, and take root only in the perfect conditions. Without our society, our shared culture and mutual governance, each race would collapse in on itself and be forgotten, as the precursor races did. We believed all sapients were the same. But the humans aren't. For any given race, only 1 in a thousand planets might have all the conditions needed to support them, the cost of establishing a colony is immense, and the risk of traveling there is even greater. We cannot live in space, even for short periods the lifesupport required quickly overwhelms reason. So we spread ourselves slowly and carefully, with governance and oversight, and many many failures. The one great advantage of this, is that there has never been a territorial war. No two races have ever had interest in the same planet, we are too different after all, and what suits one race will not suit another. But the humans. Like weeds, like grass. Like strangling vines. They can settle 1 in a hundred worlds, perhaps 1 in 50. There is a world, so small it would be a moon in any other system, with gravity less than half of the humans homeworld. It is tidally locked to it's star so that one half bakes in the heat of the nuclear fire and the other half is shrouded in eternal frozen night. The air is foul with carbons and the water filmed with hydrocarbons that even humans cannot breathe or drink. Humans cannot live there. And yet, they do. Their settlements sprouted slowly at first, one at a time, in the stagnant twilight of this greasy world. Then in the blink of an eye there grew cities and metropoli, banding the world with glittering lights. They live in domes, or in sealed houses, and wear breathing masks, they filter the water, separate the contaminants and collect them, to be shipped offworld for gods only know what purpose. They infest every world they can touch with their bare hands. And even airless worlds and asteroids are likely to have their "pioneers". Like the plains grasses, they are easily burned down, but fire will never kill them. They just sprout again the next year, right where they left off. They do not stuck to settling dead worlds either. They come to our world's, our homes in their dandelion fluff deathtraps carried by solar winds. They come to trade, then to settle. they live in our cities, in our countryside, they sleep in our gutters and ditches. and they bring their strange ideas. Their dangerous ideas. For the Humans do not have one way, as we do. one culture, one government. They are not delicate flowers, pruned and measured and watered by caring hands. They are rough weeds of a thousand seeds, a thousand breeds with a thousand languages and cultures and a thousand nations of man.and every world with its own ways, every city with it's own traditions, a d every man keeps his own council. They are a scourge from the outer darkness and they will spread over every planet in this galaxy and we will be crushed by the weight of them, starved by their numbers. We will fall like rotten trees pulled down by the weight of strangling vines. consumed and forgotten. Lost in the maelstrom of humanity. - a warning from the governor of Samothrakis to the High council.

That’s insanely good, we’ll done

Post it as a story so that we can upvote it twice

I agree with him unknown!

[redrafted and posted](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/10upot2/the_human_weeds/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Yeah. The real HFY is the friends we made along the way.

Ah yes Racism I mean the entire story has been racism but here we actually see an actual racist venlil

Hmmm, I'd say 'species-ist (specist?) might be a focused term. Or perhaps sapient-ism...idkr, 'predators' is more of a grouping, rather than a 'race'.

Xenophobia/xenophobic probably works too, although it might be a bit too broad.

Let's just use racism.

My favorite part is when Glim turns to Noah and said, "Yes, I figured it out, Noah you are The Nature of Predators."

And then he Nature of Predator'ed all over the place, it was epic.

It's predatin' time

Part 87 is here! Glim's family visit takes him to a rural area, away from the human-welcoming capital. Our Venlil learns more about humans from Noah, while Venlil elders appear for the first time in canon. Will Glim follow through on giving Gaians a second chance? Will he help humans with the isolated Haysi...or further her concerns? As always, thanks for reading! Part 88 will be here Wednesday. If you're looking for extra NoP, here's the teaser for the [fan-favorite Arxur miniseries.](https://www.patreon.com/posts/nature-of-arxur-75309208?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link) Thought I'd put it here for anyone who's missed it!

Ooff... I remember visiting my grandmother when she was starting to slip... As an adult I look a lot like my uncle, who passed away when I was a teen. She kept calling me his name, saying how wonderful it was that I came back to see her. That it had been so long. ​ I didn't have the heart to correct her.

I used to work in memory care, and there was one time a patient thought I was his wife (I am a 6'4" man with a goatee) Things get pretty wild at the late stages

Yeah. Been there. I too resemble my uncle, and *his* uncle, and *they* had the same name. I have no idea if my grandmother thought I was her son or her brother. I also made no correction. She was in enough distress as it was. Much sympathy.

My grandma has dementia too, it was painful to see her become a child in a few years and even more when she started not recognizing me and others sometimes

I’m sorry for your loss 😔

From what I understand, if the mistaken concept the memory patient is expressing isn’t important/dangerous (like “I need to drive to the store now”), it’s generally viewed as better to just go along with it, or at most redirect them to a different activity/chain of thought rather than directly contradicting them. Trying to correct them rarely works, and it just stresses them out for little return benefit. My dad is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, and it’s hard to bite my tongue sometimes, but it’s just so much less stressful for him. He’s still about… 80% “there” I’d say, and he’s still quite aware of what’s happening to him, but he takes it hard when I tell him things like no, I haven’t visited my best friend recently, because he passed away 5 years ago now.

I feel so bad for Glim and everything he’s going through. That he’s able to be introspective amidst it all is impressive. He could be the best advocate the humans will have.

I actually expected Glim to ask Noah why they allowed his father to live... Remembering how the Gojid refugees on earth were sure the preadators were going to kill some kid for being deaf, surely our exterminator expected predator society to cull their week and meek, even if they play "the nice guys" on Venlil for occupation purposes.

That might be because he was preoccupied with his aunt, or he might have thought that his dad wasn't far gone enough for the predators to find him useless

Oh wow, thanks for the link. I might be in the minority, but I find the Arxur to be one of the more interesting elements of the NoP universe. I'm looking forward to how the Arxur race shakes out in the grand scheme of things (two-dimensional bad guys are boring, and an easy out for story writers).

You’re certainly not in the minority, I’ve gotten a ton of requests for Arxur content from the beginning! They’re probably the least human race, beyond their skewed morality 😅

Really? I tend to view them as the MOST human race. If humans were obligate carnivores, I’d honestly be shocked if we didn’t end up with a society nearly identical to the Arxur if we found ourselves in the same situation. I mean, hell, aside from the whole sapiovore thing, we came damn close to the Nazis winning WWII, and that was with far less outside pressure than the Arxur were facing.

I’m referring to the fact that the Arxur are solitary predators. Their society functions differently from what we would consider normal on that level!

Please don't let Glim give up so easily,his aunt may yet have some lucid moments, and she'd be sad if she knew he was back but couldn't see him. Having lost my father many years ago and my brother just a few months ago to Alzheimer's and dementia, I had a very hard time reading this chapter. Thank you for it, though.

My grandfather had Alzheimer’s before he died. He only occasionally remembered his family, but he always showed a kind face.

"Yes Glim, we lied because we were trying to not scare the piss out of you. For some completely unknown reason, we thought you might react badly towards us. I guess we got *that* wrong."

This was quite the rollercoaster of of sadness regarding Thima and happiness with Glim's new Friendship with Noah. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the former exterminator and his changing views on humans and predators as a whole.

It’d make a good movie plot. Venlil extermination officer captured by the Arxur only to be released 11 years later. Having lost everything he befriends the human ambassador and chaos ensues.

He's a grizzled veteran Venlil exterminator who just got out of Arxur captivity. She's a cheerfully bubbly rookie Human detective. They fight crime.

If we're getting the human as a bubbly, unorthodox newcomer, then I think it'd be funnier for her grizzled partner to be an Arxur.

Paladin i do not know how you do it, you are able to damage you characters psyche i n a matter of seconds, i admire that but at the same time it scares me for what the future holds

Fuck dementia

Agreed

no, dont fuck it.

I glossed over it a while back but does anyone REALLY know what happened to those ships tarva sent to help the ‘humans’, we all know the battle never happened, so why did they just VANISH, like she has to be doing SOMETHING with those ships, I think that she’s building up a fleet somewhere, a BIG fleet. She knows she’s losing the next election, so she’s going to take over venlil prime by FORCE.

New NoP conspiracy just dropped.

Wait what ships I don’t remember that….

All the Venlil ships that Earth used by taping guns to them.

Didnt the liberation fleet try to flank the extermination armada and got hit really hard?

Battle of earth. The venlil sent a good portion of their fleet to protect against the federation

Oh just that? I thought it was something else else, we’re probably just still using those ships to fight the federation

A lot of them got destroyed. The rest still are in use in the mixed fleet.

Yeah I don’t think there’s anything deeper to them then, just ships we’re now using

I feel like you missed the joke in the first comment. /u/ThePoeticDragonBirb is posing as a venlil anti-tarva anti-human conspiracy theorist in the same vein as Qanon and MAGA fanatics. They make a comment like this on every chapter and are almost always quite witty and amusing.

Ok yes I was not aware of that and did indeed miss the joke, thanks for explaining

Someone one please make a fanfic where the Venlil conspiracy theorist are babbling about human and stuff in VenlilChan (Venlil version of 4chan)

Venlil-Chan is a slightly racist anime character of a Venlil

You should make one OP! Imagine: “Conspiracy - A NoP Story”

NoP^e

Least conspiratorial TarvAnon member

> “You’re not Glim. Glim was captured by the Arxur.” > “Y-yes, that was true for 11 years. The humans traded for me. See the neck brand?” 11 years? You’d think adult cattle would be kept a live a few months or a year at most, given their food shortage. The young ones you can see the reasoning behind it, they need time to grow, but the adults are already in their prime.

they would need adults to reproduce.

So you're telling me that Glim is a stud.

he could be.

[broadly : a male animal kept or used for breeding](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stud)

They have no use for plant based foods so they aren't much of a drain on resources, and if they don't track who's been around for how long and just grab someone randomly to be eaten I can see a few captives surviving for a long while by sheer luck and looking the least delicious at the time.

Thanks for the story SpacePaladin15, and the subsequent universe it has created. I’m grateful to become invested in something so fun and interesting.

It’s my pleasure!

The traumasheep

Most of them are the embodiment of trauma tbh

I've somehow discovered and read every single part of this entire series in about 12 hours. This is awesome!

Dang, you’re a quick reader! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it so far!

Haha, it definitely makes it a challenge to keep reading new stuff. The whole premise of this world really intrigues me and I'm excited to see where it goes.

I feel that lmao. When I discovered this series, I read it in roughly 2-3 days—which isn’t nearly as quick as you—but almost every free moment I had was spent reading this story.

'Noah massaged my neck. "Shhh... shhh... it's okay. You're okay."' My Brain: Everyone, status report! Eyes: Watered. Muscles: Tensed Heart: Broken, sir!

Emotional crit.

I was hoping the next story would drop before I boarded my flight and I was right 😎😎😎

Hope you have a safe flight!

Welcome to the part where Noah manipulate a depressed Venlil for PR Work! (jk) Also, Venlil got dementia to? does other xenos also get dementia

Doesn’t sound too far fetched if Gojids can be born deaf.

Sad to say it, but I suspect the degeneration of neurons is fairly common amongst species.

\*sigh\* ...well, baby steps forward is better than nothing. Frankly, given the depth of Glim's trauma at the hands of the Arxur, that *any* progress has been made with Glim is nothing less than a major miracle. That being said, the biggest wall to get past will be the *centuries* of conditioning, misinformation, and the out-right lies the Federation spread to their members in general, and the Exterminators in particular.

Honestly, the shift here was huge. He went to Noah for comfort, instead of cringing away in fear. That’s an almost unbelievable attitude change, not baby steps.

Kalsim is taking baby steps. Solvin after turning himself in started taking baby steps. Glim here might as well have done a pole vault, considering where he started and ended.

Glim has what other exterminators don't, extensive first hand experience of the Arxur. Fortunately, he's smart enough to recognize the vast differences between Arxur and Human behavior, and his captivity likely broke his ego enough that he can tolerate being wrong about something, even if he's still cautious. His captivity likely forced him to adapt in ways that made his conditioning mostly broken as is, as 11 years waiting to be eaten would likely force the survival mechanism to override any fed conditioning or indoctrination. At this point, he likely has less of an issue with the feds indoctrination, and more issues with PTSD and traumas that his captivity induced. The other exterminator PoVs we saw still had the egos intact when the encountered humans, and were thus not as adaptable.

Oof. Poor Glim. I hope he can find peace soon. Thanks for the chapter mate

It’s my pleasure! Glim does deserve some better breaks

Half day ride. Years. Guess the transcript translates time. And Noah is being so coy with the “one or two” comment. I love it! Also, Noah/Tarva confirmed? At least dementia isn’t considered Predator Disease. Gentling! The term is canon! Poor poor Glim.

Damn. Poor Glim just can't get a break now. (Being rescued was a hell of a break, of course) ​ Hope Thima can be in a better state of awareness if he tries to visit again.

***The Terran Sentinel : Sports*** ***Fear was his Bat*** **March 18th, 2204** **Yesterday we just saw the greatest season for a hitter in all of MLB history with Venlil hitter Ralvil clocking in with an OPS of 1.512** **Such a dominant player has never been seen since 2096 from Michael Issac with an OPS of 1.472 and Barry Bonds 1.422 in 2004** **And with an 8 season consecutive OPS above 1.250, fans have given him the honorable nickname "Second Sultan of Swat" for being one greatest hitters of the 23rd century** **With such a storied career, you'd think he'd start making plans to retire? But in an interview with The Terran Sentinel, he said "i have no intention of retiring in 3-5 even 10 years from now."**

Damn, who knew the Venlil could swing a baseball bat with their feet *while* balancing on their tail! 😉 NGL, totally impressed.

Only a few chapters into his arc, and Glim has shown more development than Kalsim ever did. *And Glim was Arxur cattle what the fuck, Kalsim...*

And a genuine herbivore, to boot! Kaslim really has no leg to stand on here.

It surprised me that Venlil get dementia. I would assume that because of the federation's advanced medicine that dementia would've already been cured, but I guess Glim and Noah needed something to trauma-bond over.

That's called "the limits of gerontology". Shit breaks down eventually, there's only so much you can do to stop that, or to repair it. When neurons start wearing out what can you do? Changing the neurons changes the person.

Yes, Glim. Submit to the friendliness of the humans. Submit!!!

> Perhaps I should regard the beast with gendered pronouns, like he was a person. Quite an interesting sentence there. Glim has more, hm. Empathy in him than some other characters we've seen, I think. It... Bodes well. > The fact that he gave anyone pause, over exterminating warlike horrors, is miraculous. Nobody in his position could’ve done better. Well. Glim is probably right here, but it's hard to accept that. I'm sure Noah can't help but wonder if he could have done more. He's clearly less set in his ways than some other extermination officers.

Man , that’s rough - Mental illnesses are no joke. Atleast Glim is realizing he subconsciously trusts Noah even if he actively thinks he doesn’t - small steps people, let’s hope we can get to the other Venlil returns too

Isnt smile from times when we puked back food to feed ours young?

No, that's the kraktol. We aren't birds. /S

More trauma. Good.

Wow. I didn't think Glim was gone for that long, to be honest. I might be confusing him with Haysi in terms of timeline. 11 years is a lot of trauma to sort through, but it's kinda impressive in its own way to be able to survive that long as cattle. I guess they probably used him for breeding and keeping their numbers up. In which case... >There was nothing left here on Venlil Prime, not even my family. Are you sure about that, Glim? Maybe you have a couple children out there who need you. At the very least, it probably wouldn't hurt to put the refugees' DNA in a database and see if any matches come up.

I binged this entire series in one go and I’m so happy I did. As I read the beginning arcs, I kept getting frustrated at the overwhelming fear responses of the herbivore species. That’s not at all how intelligent prey species react to predators IRL. And most reptiles and amphibians are carnivores. And the story goes on to explain why the setting was like that, and it’s just… Awesome. The characterisation of every POV character makes this story come alive and it’s a rare gem of a series. Congratulations to the author.

I don't know how, but Noah's messy stunt somehow worked in our favor. In terms of progress with Glim, anyway. I figured there would still be bigots among the Venlil, but there's nothing we can really do about that but prevent them from doing damage. I'm proud of this poor PTSD fluffy boy. He's coping with a whole lot remarkably well, all things considered. It took some time to process, but that conversation way back at the facility *did* register with him. It's funny how he chalked up his attachments to Noah and Sara as part of his sentimental side, when it's the same emotion that drives his fear response. I suppose his rational side has to stack a lifetime of propaganda and trauma against the facts he's observing before his eyes this very moment. All in all, I think we're going to get a specialist in helping former cattle captives out of Glim. Once again, people cope with trauma in different ways. And who knows? Maybe for Glim, the best way to deal with this is to stay busy and productive doing stuff like helping other victims like him acclimatize to life on Venlil Prime.

What happened to u/Breadfruit-is-Fruit? He used to do a [NOP Abridged](https://old.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/comments/yhv9qg/ok_so_get_this/?ref=share&ref_source=link) but he hasn't posted in weeks.

Well, I'm crying now.

I hope that Glim gets better.

Damn this got sad fast. Looks like the pack bonding was a success.

More Glim is always welcome. He's like a racist Slanek, but his racism somehow makes him cuter for me.