Memory transcription subject: Estala, Prestige Extermination Officer, Krakotl to Venlil Extermination training leader.
Date [standardized human time]: September 1st, 2136
I dropped the food in the middle of the table before sitting upon my perch, looking across the smooth metallic surface at the Venlil seated on the other side. I tried to be as calming and supportive as possible as I picked up a salad from the pile, motioning for the other to choose from the selection of snacks the vending machine in the hall had provided.
“Thank you for coming in, Parlek. Please make yourself comfortable, I just have a few questions.”
“I-I- I didn't do anything. I d-don't have predator disease.”
I tried to give a calming reassuring look, which wasn’t easy considering the cold, soulless environment of the interview room. The Venlil looked to be on the verge of stampeding, looking more and more panicked as he sat on his own seat. Of course this was a problem I’d had a lot during my research, that when asked to come in for a voluntary interview by the Exterminators, most people assumed the worst.
“I never said you did. You’re not in trouble, I just want to ask a few questions about your time with the Exchange program.”
“I’m not tainted, nothing happened there, I did as the program said.”
I gave a small sigh, watching the anxious ball of fur in the shape of a Venlil stare at me as if I were five seconds away from turning into an Arxur. While the Venlil were prey with perfect anti-predator instincts, it was occasionally annoying to deal with just how easily they fell to complete fear over the simplest things.
“Look, Parlek, listen. You’ve done nothing wrong, the Exchange Program is an official government process. This meeting is entirely voluntary, you can leave whenever you want.” I slowly hopped off my perch and moved over to the door, opening it up with an outstretched wing, offering an exit. “But, for my own curiosity I’d like to get information from you if you please. Make sure you’re safe, help protect the herd. Do you think you can do that for me? Would you like a drink before we start? We got water, teas from around the Federation, and even some cans of Sprunk.”
“J-just water.”
I gave a small affirmative trill in response as I left the Venlil alone for a moment to calm down while I got him a drink. Admittedly Parlek did have a small Ipsom seed of truth to base his worries on, as there were rumours of certain less professional Exterminators harassing Exchange Program participants, calling them tainted. Which was dumb, considering the entire thing was officially supported by the Venlil government. Sure, it was a stupid move to offer yourself up as cattle to the predators, but if being stupid was a sign of Predator Disease, then half the galaxy would be in a facility.
Eventually I returned after several minutes with the large glass of water, half expecting to find an empty room, feeling glad that Parlek was still there as I handed him his drink. He looked a little calmer after the offer of ending the interview, especially as I kept the door open while I took my perch once again. I pulled out my pad in order to take notes while I spoke, trying to remain calm and supportive in my vocal tones.
“So let’s start shall we. Can I just confirm your name is Parlek, and you are part of the Exchange Program with the predator humans?”
“Yes.”
“Good. If you don’t mind me asking, what caused you to join the program?”
Aside from insanity and a death wish?
“Well… It was the humans' pictures of gardens,” Parlek answered, tail swishing in a cautious way. “I’m the caretaker for a local park, and seeing the predators’ gardens made me curious.”
That wasn't an uncommon reason. The predators had created a dump of “accurate Information” about their blood soaked species. It was an impressive creation, an entire database showing these humans doing prey activities: art, literature and other peaceful things. There was so much information that I'd barely scraped the surface during my own study, and had yet to find a mistake, any self-contradiction.
It was a terrifying thought, that this trickery must have been premade. There was no way this much information had been created in the short period of time after they discovered the Venlil. Was this how they hunted, luring in prey with trickery and subterfuge? Maybe it worked together with a speculative Exterminator theory that humans had mind control, explaining why Tarva had decided to ally with the predators.
“So Parlek, during your conversations with the predator, did it-”
“Human.” The Venlil interrupted, a little less anxious and a little more defiant as they corrected me. “She doesn’t like being called a predator, and her name is Mary.”
I paused for a moment, a little surprised at the conviction suddenly appearing in Parlek’s voice.
“I apologize. Did the human ever speak of anything distressing? Such as cattle ownership, killing prey, or methods of hunting?”
“No! N-Nothing like that. We mostly just talked about our gardens, and she was careful not to speak about anything that might scare me, Mary was nice.”
That wasn’t surprising to me. I’d spoken with over thirty members of the Exchange Program, and only one had anything negative to say about their predator partner. Which in of itself was suspicious and suggested that the entire thing was a trick. I didn’t like your average prey as much as most of the Exchange members did their partners. The chance that this many people got long with random predators of all things made the manipulation theory far more likely.
“That’s good to hear,” I said half-heartedly, before continuing with my next question. “So when you were on the station, did you feel any danger from the human based on how it acted or spoke?”
“Well... Our first meeting I was terrified, but that’s hardly Mary’s fault! Nothing the humans did put us in danger, the only attack on the station was a Venlil attacking a human!”
I’d heard about that. The idea that the only assault during the entire physical meeting between predator and prey, had been a Venlil attacking a predator was… insane to think about. Inconceivable. Especially since after attacking one of the blood soaked humans, the Venlil had been returned to Venlil Prime, unharmed.
I would have guessed that a predator would use such a challenge of their power as an excuse for ‘blame free violence’. It really shows how much effort these predators are putting into their trickery.
“I heard about that. I’ve just got one last question for you: During your meeting with the pr- human, did they do anything strange, act weirdly or anything else of note you’d like to mention. Remember even the slightest piece of information could be useful to the herd.”
“Not really, we just talked and spent time around each other. It was enjoyable. Although….” Parlek paused for a moment, tail twitching in a thinking motion. “There was this one weird moment.”
Excitedly I leaned forwards, staring at the Venlil as I expectantly waited for them to finish whatever thought they had. I knew the predators wouldn’t be able to keep a lie this complicated together for this long.
“Mary got wet.”
I paused for a moment, feeling my excitement dissipate into confusion, shaking my head as I tried to parse that statement.
“What?”
“Well, we were walking around the station for a while, and I noticed after we had a little rest that the human was… wet. Leaking on their skin. I asked about it and Mary acted really weird and brushed it off, like she was hiding something she didn’t want to talk about.”
WHAT? How does that have anything to do with anything? I’m looking for proof of these predators plans to eat people, not ‘damp humans’.
… … although if it was hiding this, maybe it is important?
“Was there anything else? Maybe the liquid was dangerous?”
“Nah, it was just liquid. It’s probably nothing.”
I suppressed a sigh, giving a motion to the door as I did so, a forlorn feeling as yet another failed interview came to a close.
“I’ll keep it noted, any information on these humans might be useful to us, Parlek. Thank you for your time. You can leave now.”
I watched as the now much calmer Venlil left the room, giving a goodbye with a flick of their tail. Parlek left me alone in an interview room filled with snacks from the vending machine, and a pad filled with useless notes. I still had plenty of people I could bring in for an interview, but so far nobody had anything even slightly useful.
Just what are these predators planning!?
Memory transcription subject: Estala, Human Methods Advisor to the Exterminators.
Date [standardized human time]: March 13th, 2137
I sat perched upon the chair, looking at the Exterminator sat across from me, the Venlil glancing around nervously in the otherwise empty interview room.
“Thank you for speaking with me Salim. I've just got a few questions to ask you, then you can be on your way.”
I sat alone, having split off from Jkob so we could work through the list faster. Each of us had a list of names to go through, to check on the alibi of each possible suspect. I’d travelled a little while to this district, taking a train to eventually talk to the Exterminator who now sat on the chair in front of me: Salim.
“Sure. Um. Do I have to be alone for, um, this? Wouldn’t it be better to have witnesses?”
I gave a small chirp of confusion as the Venlil continually swapped their gaze between me and the door, his fear and worry evident as I sat nonplussed.
“We’re going to be discussing things of a more private nature. Just calm down, you’re not in trouble. I’m not going to peck you.”
Somehow this was the wrong thing to say, as Salim seemed to get even more alarmed, his fur standing on end, ears pressed against his head and tail stood stiffly upright.
“S-sure. I didn’t mean to challenge you. I’ll do whatever you want!”
I stopped for a moment as the Venlil shouted out his reply, before shaking my head and continuing.
“So, just to confirm a few facts. Your name is Salim and you were initially suspended from the Exterminators <3 Years, 8 months> ago for setting fire to the Tallen farmstead?”
“Yes. I thought I saw a predator, but it wasn’t, and they didn’t like the damage I caused. Not that I have anything against predators! Or you! Or anyone!”
I paused for a moment, confused as hell about why this Venlil was acting so weird. I understood that being selected for an interview by someone at the head office was hardly a ‘calming’ event, but Salim was looking at me like I was an Arxur five seconds away from tearing his head off.
“OK… so I just want to ask what you were doing at certain times, doing an investigation on how suspension impacted Exterminators who later returned to duty. Let's start with where were you on <20/9/2134>?”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Not all of the dates I was asking about were official points of interest. If the Heartbreak Killer was in front of me, I needed to keep them guessing about the real reason for this interview.
“Uh… I don’t know. I might have gone to the market, I think. I don’t know.”.
“That’s fine,” I responded, taking a moment to make a note before continuing. “What about on <01/03/2135>, do you remember what you were doing then?”
“I… um, really don’t know…. Maybe I was working? I can find out, I promise, I’m sorry I can’t answer your questions!”
Once again I was taken aback by the reaction from Salim, who looked as if he was about to cry from his inability to answer my questions in a concrete manner.
“It’s fine, there’s no need to worry. What about <19/03/2135>?”
“I think… I remember! There was an all paw showing of the ‘Wandering Salesman’ series at the local cinema.” The Venlil looked through his pad desperately for some information, before looking up at me triumphantly. ”I have the receipt, is this what you want? What you need? Does this help?”
I looked at the pad that was shoved in front of my beak from across the table, the frantic energy from Salim causing me to lean back in surprise, flapping my wings slightly to keep my balance. I could see the receipt, which I could verify the authenticity of later. If correct, it would remove the nervous Exterminator from the suspects list.
I was planning on asking about a variety of other dates, but the sheer anxious energy emitting from the Venlil caused me to abandon that idea, not wanting to give the poor guy a heart attack and keep him any longer.
“OK, that’s all I wanted to ask you. You can leave now if…”
My voice trailed off as Salim literally bolted from the room. He left his chair and exited the room in a flurry of speed, as if the Venlil was desperate to leave my presence, not even glancing back as he disappeared into the deeper hallways of the office. I knew being interviewed by someone like myself was stressful, but this was something else.
That was very strange.
“For the love of Inatala, this isn’t a trick question. What were you doing on <19/03/2135>?”
Another district, another interview room, another possible suspect. If it wasn't for the quarter claw travel time, I wouldn't have known I'd changed offices as I looked back at yet another Venlil.
Maybe we need to put some decorations or houseplants in these rooms, they really are quite dull.
“Do you think I'm going to tell you of all people my routine?”
I paused for a moment as Danlek responded with a hint of anger, arms crossed, tail flicking around agitated as he glared at me. Danlek had a history of conflict and anger issues, having originally been suspended for allegedly assaulting his superior officer. Allegedly, since there had never been any solid proof of the incident, and the Exterminator managed to pass every single empathy test sent his way.
“Wait, what?” I responded, taken off guard by his response. “That’s… that’s not an option. As I explained, this is an official head office investigation. We need to know where you were.”
“And I said, I’m not telling someone with clear predator disease my goings-on. If the head office wants this info, they can send someone who isn’t tainted.”
I felt my feathers flare out in anger as Danlek insulted me. Of course, I knew a lot of Exterminators did not like my new-found mission of reform and removing Federation thinking, but to be so brazen about it. Slowly I gave a sigh, trying to calm myself and bring the discussion to something more constructive.
“Look, you might not agree with my methods, but this is still an ongoing investigation. Is it really that difficult just to answer this?”
“And I said no, you speh!”
Nope, that’s it, nope. Screw this guy.
I felt anger fully take over as Danlek angrily insulted me once again, this time daring to get up out of his seat as if challenging me. No more trying to be nice, time to pull rank on this little shit.
“I’m sorry, the last time I checked I’m your superior. I don’t care what you think about me, and unless you want consequences you can stop with this disrespect and attitude right now.”
“Or what, you’re going to eat me like the predator you are!?”
What the hell is with this guy?
“No, I’ll taze you, arrest you and then bring you into head office for interfering with an official investigation. I’ve seen the record of your scores during training. I can and I will kick your ass!”
I shouted the last words out in rage, finally standing up from my perch and matching Danlek’s aggression. Admittedly, I was bluffing. Sure I had the authority to conduct investigations, and had the ability to arrest any Exterminator deemed to be interfering with said investigations. I also absolutely had the capability of putting this overconfident Feddie thinking piece of shit in his place, but doing so would advertise our investigation into the Heartbreak Killer to the guild as a whole, which might tip off the killer if it wasn’t the aggressive Venlil stood in front of me.
Luckily, my bluff paid off, as Danlek seemed to deflate slightly, sitting back in his chair with his tail just flicking around angrily.
“I don’t know what I was doing back then. Probably with my family. Happy?”
I took an annoyed deep breath, sitting back down myself, cooling my emotions.
“Yes! Was that so hard? Now, what about <03/06/2135>?”
“Thank you for your time Talless, you’ve been very helpful.”
I tried my best to give a cheerful response, resisting the urge to shudder as I concluded my questions. The Venlil opposite me was… was… if you’d have asked me what the Heartbreak killer would look like, it was Talless. Everything about her was wrong, everything. The way her eyes seemed to stare through you, the monotone voice, the way her movements were stiff and forced. Like a puppet being moved by someone who only had a vague idea what a Venlil was.
Of course, she wasn’t the Heartbreak killer. She had the single most solid alibi in the history of alibi’s, the Venlil choir Talless sings with was preforming in front of hundreds of people at the time of two of the murders. Thus it was impossible for her to be the killer, no matter how much my mind was screaming something was wrong with the Venlil. If I was being reasonable and trying to ignore my gut instincts corrupted by years of Federation propaganda, she’d been perfectly polite through our conversation.
The reason for her original suspension was a “job duty failure” with no details, but in reality It was probably because every single feather on my body was stood on end just being in the same room as Talless. If I was being brutally honest with myself, I should probably trigger an investigation into the original complaint, as there was a good chance it was unwarranted. I’ll just put that on my to-do list after I was no longer feeling creeped out by the blank stare of the Venlil sat opposite me.
“Estala, before I go, I’ve been wondering… what was it like?”
I felt a moment of disappointment as I realized Talless wasn’t getting up to leave, but instead had asked me a cryptic question. I shuffled on my perch uncomfortably, ignoring the stare from the Venlil that looked as if she was planning on skinning me alive and wearing my feathers as a mask.
“I’m… not sure what you mean?”
“You know what I mean, with the humans. I’ve always wondered if it was the reason they are so strong, whether such things are the difference between prey and predator.”
Nope, I was very very creeped out right now. I could feel my feathers further standing on end as the Venlil continued to talk in her monotone voice.
“I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Oh, I understand. You don’t want to talk about it here, at the guild. Keep it low-key. I get you.”
I watched as Talless gave a stiff and jerky tail movement to signify understanding, leaving me even more concerned. I gave a forced cough, trying to remove some of the tension in the room, before pointing to the door of the room with an outstretched wing.
“Well, I’m very busy today, so if you could see yourself out…?”
Finally, the Venlil got up from her chair, making her way towards the door, before turning to look back at me and giving an unnatural smile, the action looking even stranger than when humans did it.
“If you want to talk about it later, you know where to find me. I would be very interested in hearing about the experience.”
I watched as the very creepy and strange Venlil finally left the room, finally leaving me alone and very confused. I slumped over on my perch as I gave a deep sigh of relief.
That was just weird.
“Yeah all of ‘em checked out over here as well, boss. All had something proving they weren’t there.”
I was once again sat in the van next to Jkob, both of us describing the events of the last several claws and catching up on the status of our investigation while the van drove us back to head office. We were exhausted, travelling between districts and interviewing Exterminators for several hours straight left us with no energy at all.
“Well, I guess a negative result is still a result. 9 more names off the list. We’ll get some rest and pick this up next paw. Good work.”
I slumped over in my seat, watching as the streets of Skalga passed by outside the van’s window. For a moment I wished I was a human with their insane stamina, being able to work for hours without rest, before leaving that thought behind and giving a final tired groan.
“How were your interviews, Jkob? Not the result, but the general vibe? I don’t know what was going on, but everyone was acting so… weird today. Like they were all expecting me to do something that I had no idea about.”
“Nah, everything was fine on my end, Boss. It’s probably just the thing on Bleat that’s gone viral regarding you.”
I gave a confused head tilt in response, looking across questioningly towards the Letian.
“What ‘thing on Bleat’?”
“Haven’t you seen it, boss? I’m surprised you haven’t.”
“I’ve been working, I haven’t had time to waste on social media!”
Brushing aside the feelings of exhaustion I pulled out my pad, navigating to the site with just a few button presses. Bleat was the most popular social media app on Skalga, with only the Federation wide “MyHeard” providing any competition in the Venlil market. The first thing I saw when I logged into my account was a worrying message.
You have 74555 notifications.
That couldn’t be good. In fact, it wasn’t good, as plastered all over my homepage were links, mentions and reactions to a video with an extremely provocative title.
“KRAKOTL EXTERMINATOR DEVOURS KFC! FLAME BIRD GONE HUMAN GONE SEXUAL IN THE HOOD!”
And there I was, on video: eating, and very clearly enjoying, the fake meat substitute. Sure my name wasn’t mentioned, but there weren’t a lot of Krakotl Exterminators on Skalga to check against, and I was one of the more famous ones due to my vocal pro human view point. The fact Joseph had pulled out the Plushie of me during the video made it all the more obvious who the Krakotl was.
I hadn’t even thought of this being a problem at the time, caught up in the moment of proving the human wrong, ‘baiting’ me into consuming the food item with the suggestion that I was still stuck under Federation thinking. I would have assumed that the humans at the location would have wanted to keep this silent, but even predators couldn’t resist the allure of social media fame.
The reaction was mixed and incendiary, the Venlil network aflame with accusations of “Feddie” and “Predator Diseased”. Claims that this was the human's plan to turn us all into predators, whether I’d been brainwashed or already had predator disease. Others called the action brave, declaring I was throwing off the shackles of the “Cripplers”, that all Federation thinking, whether it was crippled knees or the fear of meat should be cast aside. The minority of human commenters mostly made jokes and bad puns, either mentioning that I looked ‘adorable’ while enjoying the food, or calling me ‘Birb Colonel Sanders’, whatever that meant.
I could feel a panic rising in my chest as the actual implications of what this meant started to fully hit me. I was going to get fired at the very least, there was no way an Exterminator could be seen eating ‘fake meat’. Sure the facilities didn’t exist any more, but there were probably other terrible things that could happen to me. Even worse, the reforms I was pushing for would be delayed, everything would collapse, everything would be terrible.
This was the worst thing that could happen.
“No no no no no!. Jkob, how do I remove a video from the internet?”
The Letian just had a laugh at that, causing my mood to sour even further as I continue onwards in my panic spiral.
“I’m being serious! This is bad, this is really bad! I’m going to get fired, or arrested, or… shit!”
“No you’re not, don’t panic so much. Nothing's gonna happen, it’s just internet drama, boss.”
Jkob looked entirely undisturbed by the entire situation as I pulled a mango out of a pocket on my uniform, stress eating the delicious fruit as I continued to freak out.
“It’s not nothing. An Exterminator can’t be seen eating…. That!”
“They can and will. Remember, one of the new laws that got signed in with this Sapient Coalition thing is you can’t discriminate based on diet. If the guild fires you I’m sure that guy with the ‘Lawven’ adverts would love making you rich.”
I paused, thinking over the Letian’s words. That was true, any attempt at discrimination against diet came with legal repercussions now. It wasn’t like eating vegetables cooked into the form of meat was illegal in any way.
“Fine, I won’t get fired, but people are still going to-”
“Do what? Hate you, which they already did because of your pushing for reforms?” Jkob interrupted me, explaining this with a bored sound in his voice, as if the entire thing was obvious. “Anyone still spouting ‘predator disease’ this and that after everything we’ve learned this year is an ass. Do you care what an ass thinks about you?”
I felt the panic start to dissipate as I realized that Jkob was right. The only people who would have a problem with this, are the kinds of people who already thought I was ‘Predator diseased’ due to my pro-human viewpoint.
“I guess…”
“If anything this helps. Most of the recent negativity against the Exterminators is about its ties with the Federation. People seeing a prominent Exterminator reject outdated ideologies is probably a net positive.”
I gave a final sigh, finishing my mango and feeling a bit better after Jkob’s words. The Letian was probably correct, it wasn’t that big of a deal in the long run, I’d just have to avoid social media for a little bit.
“So what am I supposed to do about it then?”
“Nothing. People will forget. Based on how this year has been going, there’ll probably be another groundbreaking revelation where god is real or something within 7 paws and nobody will care about a Krakotl eating fake meat.”