Memory transcription subject: Valek, Venlil-Human Partnership Program Participant

Date [standardized human time]: August 23rd, 2136, early evening

“What’s on your mind?”

The break in silence shocked me from my daze. We had been eating silently till then, but I realized I had been staring for some time.

“A-ah, um… sorry,” I mumbled.

“It’s ok, but we’ve been sharing a room for a few days now, you know you can ask me anything! What’re you thinking?”

Maeve put down her services and folded her arms on the table, the gleaming in her eyes at my shyness just making me more flush.

“It’s just…. You don't have to pretend for me.” Her face flashing worry, she prompted me to continue. “I know you're predators, and I know from your profile you’re not vegetarian. You don't have to suffer this ruffage for my sake!”

The noise of the mess hall hid my nerves. This was my friend! I didn't want her to pretend to be something she wasn't. She was enough, and she needed to know it!

“Oh this?” She held up a fork laden with leaves and nuts. “This is actually fantastic! Spinach and Cranberry salad, with Raspberry vinaigrette, Sunflower seeds and Feta cheese! I mean, you're not wrong, it's missing something savory, maybe some roasted chicken, but it's delicious on its own! Want some?”

“But how can you digest that? A Predator can't prepare foods like this for digestion.”

“I've told you a dozen times, we aren't Predators.” exasperation coloring her voice, “We’re omnivores! We will eat anything that gives us the needed calories and nutrients.”

“And there's that nonsense again. Fine! Here's my question: what do you mean you aren't predators?”

Maeve had always been argumentative. I think that's why we clicked so well over messages. Content warning be damned, we wanted to know everything about our peoples, and we were both happy to share our idiosyncrasies. She put down her bite, looking off through the window. After several moments, she collected her thoughts.

“Humans define predators and prey as a relationship. Nothing is or is not a predator, rather they are a predator to something else.”

My tail twitched in annoyance as she continued. “You're right, I’m a predator to chicken, among other things, and chicken is prey to me. But that chicken is predator to mice, and that mouse is predator to most bugs, and so on. You are predator to that fruit, and it is predator to the sun! Rather than define by relationship, we define a creature by what they require to remain nourished.”

“And you require meat! Predator!” I declared triumphantly.

“Not anymore!” she interjected, hiding a smile at the challenge, quickly continuing on. “Thanks to modern science, and in no small part to the nudging of the Venlil, thank you for that, we can now synthesize even the nutrients that are normally found in living things! This means, combined with synthesized meats as a whole, no prosperous human will ever again need to kill for food! This is such an exciting time to be alive!”

“But you have binocular vision! You would only need that to hunt!”

“Ha! Half or more of the predators on earth have side-facing eyes. No, if you want to know what something eats, you need to look at their teeth!”

“Their teeth? But that damns you just as well! You have fangs like the Arxur”

Likely due to our (lively) debate, a crowd was beginning to gather and I could feel my fear reactions building. Maeve, catching on, kept herself from responding. Rather, taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself.

“Hoooooo. Ok. I’m sorry. I didn't mean to upset you, and neither am I fond of an audience. Let’s finish up our lunch and I'll show you what I mean back at the room, is that ok?” My tail flicked happily and I nodded in agreement. “Also, I'd love to try that fruit you have there. If I can part a predator from its prey?”

I rolled my eyes, a very human gesture I have come to enjoy, and handed the purple fruit to her. “Careful, it's messy. And I think I'll take you up on that bite, if you're still offering”

We continued our meal in good company. Maeve picked off the Feta “cheese” from my bite, unsure how my kind would take processed animal waste, but the bite I had was honestly fantastic! The raspberry made my face pucker and the cranberry made me feel parched, the sunflower added a saltiness I never thought to include with leaves, and through it all was a sweetness that could compete with any Venlil fruit! Maeve described the juicy fruit I gave her as pleasantly earthy, with a warmth almost like chocolate, but cool and refreshing at the same time. Though, the fibrous skin got caught in her teeth.

I asked for, and she declined, the opportunity to try this “chocolate”. Apparently it is surprisingly toxic to many Earth creatures, and Maeve felt it unwise to experiment.

As we made our way to our room, I asked her what she meant by no one is a Predator.

“I’ll admit I oversimplified. What we mean is that most creatures, in our experience on earth, will eat anything that gets them the nutrients they need; even herbivores have been seen to eat meat, even hunt, during especially harsh winters. The competition for nearly everything on earth has always been fierce, and humanity’s footprint didn't make it easier. Hunger and starvation are significant, though not exclusive drivers to evolution, so one of the best ways to tell something's diet is by what it looks like, and vice versa.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“There are some creatures with especially caustic digestive systems that don't require so much processing, but most creatures have to break up their food in some way before it enters their stomach. That is what teeth are for and, being so easy to see, are very effective indicators of what something can and cannot eat. For example, just looking at your mouth, I can tell you're a general herbivore, adapted to eating fruit and tough leaves.”

I plucked at my teeth, wondering how she could tell. But we had reached our room, so I'd find out in a moment.

“Ok, I'm going to brush my teeth, I'll be right back.”

I waited on the bunk bed, wondering what I had gotten myself into. How is she going to show me? Surely she wasn't --

“Alright let's do this! We don't have a table in here, so let's use the bed. Lie down, Valek, and I’ll show you what we're doing.”

She grabbed her pad from her bunk, and motioned for me to lie down. I followed, not sure what we were doing.

“Ok, what I'm going to do is take a bunch of pictures, and maybe a video of the inside of your mouth. Just lie there, relax, and open your mouth. As far as you can!”

She moved to straddle me, and my panic flared. Clearly she caught on, as her face flashed to worry. “Oop! Sorry! I'll take it from the side, you can trust me.”

I opened my mouth as far as I could, like I was trying to eat a Lampan Melon whole. Maeve stood over me, camera flashlight on, and I heard a dozen small clicks. Just as I was getting comfortable, she stopped.

“Alright. Move over, my turn.” I looked up to see her passing me a glass of water. Drinking judiciously, I sat up from the bed, and she lied down. “Ok, just like I did. Make sure the light is on or you won't see anything. If it makes you more comfortable, I'll put my hands behind my back. Let me know when you're ready!”

After my nodding assent, she slipped her hands under her waist up to the wrist, coughed a few times, and opened her mouth wide.

Staring down at the jaws of death, I froze. Saliva glistened over sharp fangs and down pink flesh. It took a moment before Maeve removed a hand, slapped my hip to bring me back, and just as quickly replaced it. Remembering to breathe, I took the pad in paw and started taking pictures. The first several were unusable due to my tremors, but the video was good. After calming down a moment I snapped a few more. “Can you move your lips?” She obliged, giving me a better view of her fangs and, to my surprise, large ivory bricks toward the back of her gaping maw.

A few more pictures and I stepped down from the bed. “Alright, sit with me and let's see what we got. We can start with you.”

Looking at my photos, I saw why humans have such dedicated hygiene rituals. Black tartar crept up from my gums, and there was a bit of seed stuck in my back teeth. The pale orange of my mouth made the imperfections more apparent. Maeve paid no mind and jumped right into it:

“See, right off the bat we see a lot of strong flat teeth, it almost looks like solid bone! We call those Molars, and they are designed to grind root and leaf and break seed. By the end of your bite, these would reduce the salad I had to a fine paste. And these,” indicating the forward of my mouth, “we call them incisors. They are used for cutting soft things. They are most effective with soft fruit, but they are just meant for cutting. They're at the front of your mouth so they can break up your food into smaller portions. And here,” motioning to my front top and bottom teeth, “are the incisor majora. Yours are smaller than we see on earth, so they are likely vestigial, but they tell me your ancestors would eat tough roots and stems, as well as bark. It wouldn't surprise me if you still ate such things, but you'd have to break it up with tools beforehand.” She explained, eyes alight with excitement at teaching something she knew.

“Wow, dead on! We don’t eat bark anymore, but there has been fossil evidence showing we did. Sometimes we include it in cooking; seasonings and such”

Maeve flashed me a delighted smile before continuing, “There's more to it, I'm sure a veterinary dentist could share much more, but these are the basics. Alright, let's look at me.” I handed Maeve the pad, switching to the more recent photos. I shuddered again, but less so, now I have my own mouth to compare to.

“Why are your teeth so white? Mine look positively horrid by comparison.” I muttered, flicking between hers and mine.

Maeve flushed slightly, “Well as we will get into, humans aren't as specialized to fibrous foods. We can and should eat them, sure, but nowhere near the quantity the Venlil do. And those fibrous foods kind of clean your teeth automatically, so your people haven't had to worry about it, to a point. Humans discovered cooking, kind of pre-digesting your food, very early. This made tougher foods softer, which reduced their natural cleaning ability. So now our mouths need additional help cleaning, which is why we brush and have routine dentist visits.”

Bringing focus back to the pad, she continued, “Alright we already see some similar shapes! We have strong, flat, grinding molars in the back of our mouths, though you'll notice they are smaller than yours, less numerous, and I'll bet much softer by comparison; it's not unheard of for a human to crack a tooth on a stubborn nut. And here at the front, you'll see our incisors, just like yours! Though again, smaller and weaker.”

“And finally we have our cuspids,” pointing at the four fangs on either side of their incisors, “also known as Canines. These have a few uses, but it really comes down to ripping. They keep still whatever is in our bite, so it can be pulled away with force and ripped into more manageable pieces. Meat is a major reason, true, but also tougher vegetation. One thing I would like to point out. Our mouths and teeth are tiny! Even compared to a Venlil.”

It was true, looking back at my photos my mouth opened wider, my teeth were clearly larger, tougher, and somehow sharper in every metric…?

“That's because we invented cooking very early. It is believed to be a major factor in us becoming intelligent. This allowed us to have foods we normally couldn't, like hard tubers and nuts that even you would have difficulty with. The working theory is that, since we could reduce the space and energy needed for specialized teeth, stronger jaw muscles, and still keep such a complex nutrient and caloric intake, it allowed more energy and space for our brain to develop.”

Shocked at this, I was trying to wrap my head around what she was telling me. If what Maeve said was true, then humans just didn’t fit into our taxonomic definitions of nature. They're something completely Other!

“And what's that?” Looking for a distraction while I processed this, I noticed an oddity, and pointed at what appeared to be a metal bar behind her front teeth.

“Oh! That's called a retainer, mine is a permanent one. Do the Venlil…. Um…. get new teeth?”

Flinching at the horrid imagery, I stared at her in amazement.

“I'll take that as a ‘no’." She giggled, "So, as I mentioned, my teeth are not as strong as yours, but the teeth of our young are even softer. Most children don't get their first tooth until well into their first year of life. Humans, or mammals more generally, feed our young with Mother’s Milk --”

“-- right, that's the same here.” I interjected, though she continued,

“Well, that means they don't need teeth until they’re weaned, which is normally in the middle of their first year of life, sometimes later; there is a cultural aspect sometimes. After they are weaned, they frequently stay on soft foods, and don't start on hard foods till well into their 2nd year. So we have Baby Teeth, and Adult teeth.” she paused for breath.

“Ours just keep growing, it's not unusual for a doctor to prescribe a tougher diet, or a chewing bar to curb growth.”

“Yeah, well, our baby teeth just fall out, eventually. The new ones that come in… don't always do it right. So we… force them… into place with all kinds of contraptions. It's absolutely draconian, for sure, but we haven't found any better way. And that often doesn't fix it permanently anyway; teeth may drift well into adulthood. This…” she fingered the metal bar, “keeps them in place indefinitely.”

My skin paled under my wool! Such barbaric medical practices, I'm amazed Humans have lived this long!