Animal Fiction - Blog Posts

non-human trans characters who use different gender signifiers from us is sooo underrated. transfem bird person who thinks her colorful plumage means she cant pass only for every human she meets to be completely clueless. transmasc slime person who uses food dye to change themselves to bright orange, leading everyone they know to question how the hell slime gender works.

As A Velociraptor Should Do

Wrote this for an English project, can't believe I forgot to post it here!

Summary: A velociraptor makes a daring escape from a research facility! Freedom is all hers, if she wants it.

Rating: E Length: 1500 words CW: blood mention, animal death (raptor goes hunting)

The smell of grass and wildflowers lingered for longer than Sierra expected. In spite of her artificial surroundings, the raptor knew the scent well; her researcher/caretaker liked fresh air while he worked, so long as Sierra was secure in her enclosure. This time, however, the smell of the outside world persisted even after Avi left the surrounding room. Sierra put the pieces together: the scent meant an open window, an open window meant a passage to outside, to the forest she’d seen only through glass, and the forest meant hunting, and freedom, and very clever ambushes. And without Avi to catch her before she bolted, that left only one obstacle between her and that sweet, unrestricted freedom.

Sierra knew how the door to her enclosure worked, after seeing Avi open it so many times. The handle, chest-height for him, was still too high for her biting range, even if she stretched up as tall as she could go. For a brief moment, she nearly chirped a loud help call, to try to get the human to open it for her, but the thought of having to evade him on the way to the window quashed that idea. Instead, Siera crouched, took aim, and leapt at the door, landing with a crash of talons on metal. Her claws hooked into the holes in the mesh, and she grabbed the handle in her jaws and yanked down. With a click, the door slowly swung open. Success.

After some effort to disentangle her claws from the door, Sierra once again stood on the floor of her enclosure. She ruffled her feathers, took a step out, and froze. Surely she wasn’t going to escape without her beloved stuffed raptor! Quick as she could, she turned, grabbed Nevada in her jaws, and dragged him away. The steady sound of fabric sliding on tile accompanied the rhythmic click of dino claws, as Sierra searched for the open window, following her nose. Finally, a gentle breeze wove through her feathers, and she found herself and Nevada in front of a small cabinet. It felt familiar to her, and when the raptor drew close enough to see the dent in the metal, Sierra recognized it with a wince.

It had been a few months earlier, just after finishing a round of measurements. Sierra had spotted a curious, bright red bug zipping around in front of her. Naturally, such things must be caught. However, no matter how sharp her turns or how quick her sprint, the strange insect evaded her grasp. Avi was helping, in his own way: he did not run much, himself, but with some tool in his hand, he pointed out to her where the bug was with enviable speed and precision. With her natural hunting skills and Avi’s guidance, she remained hot on its trail until it sped under the cabinet, and Sierra did not, instead slamming into the metal hard enough to dent it. The noise must have scared it off, because it was another month before she ever saw another of its kind. And at least Avi was always there to help whenever one did show up.

Recalling the thrill of the hunt invigorated Sierra; she crouched once again, clamped down firmly on her toy, and leapt at the top of the small cabinet… but came up short and fell back to the floor. Undeterred, the raptor issued a low, warning trill at the furniture and tried again. And again. After the third failure, she let go of Nevada for one last attempt. This time, without carrying around a large stuffed toy, she cleared the jump with ease. And at last, the window was right in front of her. Sierra spared a glance back down at the floor-bound doll, but soon turned away. Freedom, it seemed, held a hefty price. She felt the wind ruffle her feathers - real wind, not just the building’s ventilation - and hopped outside, flapping her arms to slow her descent.

Across the field stood a forest of deep green. Sierra’s mind filled with outrunning and outwitting foes, as well as cornering or baiting them with another raptor. Surely, she resolved, that was where she would begin that liberated life, far from tests and researchers. She walked slowly, revelling in the feel of grass under her feet. Suddenly, movement! A pair of mice picked their way through the field, apparently unaware of how easily Sierra could see them.

A rush of energy coursed through the dinosaur’s body as she stalked her newfound prey. Slowly, quietly, and with utmost focus, she crept nearer and nearer. The wrong blade of grass rustled, and the mice shot off, with Sierra in hot pursuit. With her head tucked down, her body cut through the air as her legs propelled her around the field. A well-timed lunge split up the mice, sending one back closer to the building; Sierra stayed steady on the other, but inwardly congratulated herself on the trick. If she had been hunting with a partner, that other mouse would have just become easy pickings!

At last, the mouse misstepped, or maybe simply grew tired. It hardly mattered to Sierra, who slammed a clawed foot down onto its little body. The raptor picked it up in her jaws and quickly gulped it down. She felt giddy. Her first hunt! And she could only get better. The forest was closer now, and drew closer still with each step. Soon, she would vanish from the view of that building, and truly begin her life as a free, wild dinosaur!

Just before the first trees, the ground dropped away at a sharp ledge. Sierra was not foolish enough to fall, but instead hesitated at the drop. She looked back at the building she had come from. Just one more jump, and she may never see it again. No more tests, no more wire mesh enclosure, no more stale air. The raptor crouched and readied her arms to manage her descent, but more thoughts came. No more sleeping next to Nevada. No more hunting those red bugs with Avi. The little dinosaur stood back up. No more Nevada. No more Avi. She took a step back, then shook her head, as though she could physically shake the thoughts out of it. Surely, she was not in for solitude, just something different. In fact…

Sierra took a deep breath,screeched a call into the woods, and waited for a response.

Nothing.

Just idle birdsong and the rustling of leaves and branches in the wind.

She drew in another breath, and chirped as loud as she could, calling any raptors for help. And again, in case they hadn’t heard the first time.

No response.

Sierra shivered, and her feathers stood on end. She hadn’t thought of this, when she dreamed of hunting, wild and free, that she might do it all alone. There was always a second or third raptor in her thoughts, to share food with, to protect and be protected by, to play with. The more she thought of it, the more she realized she disliked the idea of it. She knew what she would do, then. Nevada wasn’t technically alive, and Avi wasn’t a dinosaur, but they were both infinitely better than nothing. Sierra turned around; real raptors or no, she was going to live with her pack.

…right after she chased down that rabbit she just saw move.

One quick meal later, Sierra found herself staring up at the windowsill she had first leapt from. To her dismay, it was too high to jump onto, as she discovered with several failed attempts. Determined to break back into the place she had just escaped from, she looked along the wall, and soon found a lower windowsill. Even better, once she had leapt up and peered through the glass, she saw Avi sitting at some kind of machine.

Sierra chirped for help, then tapped her muzzle against the window. Avi looked her way, then turned back. An instant later, he whipped his head around again and stood up fast enough to knock his chair backwards. Avi ran over to the window, unlocked it, and pushed it open.

“Sierra, how did you get out?” he asked. Sierra ducked inside, hopped onto the floor, and trotted back to the research and testing area. Avi followed, trying to look her over. “Is that blood? Not yours, I hope.”

Paying little heed to the noises Avi made, the raptor quickly found Nevada where she had left him, grabbed him in her mouth again, and dragged him to Avi. He finally noticed the open window, closed it, scooped up Sierra and her toy, then carried her to a small basin with a water spout.

“I’m gonna have to get an actual lock now, huh,” Avi muttered as he watched Sierra splash herself clean.

Sierra responded to his sounds with a happy trill. It was settled, then: the next time she escaped, she’d have to take Avi with her.

Thought-to-speech technology that gets hacked by people who want text messages from their pets while they are at work, only to immediately regret it because their pets text them the dumbest things, and the only way to get any kind of a clear image of what's going on is texting the other pets for cross-reference.

Like you get a text from your dog going "END IS HERE DOOM IS COMING URGENT URGENT SEND TEXT G-D HAVE MERCY, HUMAN COME HOME IMMEDIATELY", (you have no idea why the text translator has decided that your dog is jewish, but that doesn't feel important enough to look into or change) and before you do, you text the cat like "what's going on?"

And the cat replies "sunshine is turned off, window is cold >:C" so okay that's a clue. You've got a monitor lizard that doesn't do much monitoring, but will reply with whatever the lizard is feeling right now if you text "?" first.

"hwrmbglhlr the earth rumbles are sexy", replies the lizard. Okay, so dog panic, no sunshine, and the lizard is sensing vibrations. Oh, there's a rain storm overhead. Fuck's sake.

(name blocked because SPOILERS tho it should be pretty easy to guess)

(spoilers for Darkeye under cut obviously)

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We need more games where you play as animals.

Regular animals.

Cyborg animals.

Alien animals.

I don’t care. Just more animals please.

[Canon: talking animals and fantasy monster (Fanfic Flamingo) Fanfic: humans! Humans everywhere!]

“As he was no longer tracking a man, Copper felt himself justified in giving tongue, and his deep bay rolled out, first in a long howl and then in short, gasping cries. Instantly the Master was by his side. Copper showed him where the line was; but the Master, instead of instantly winding the scent, went back and forth in an exasperating way until he found something to look at in the soft earth. The Master’s inability to scent a perfectly clear line, as well as his tendency to stand for a long time staring at pointless marks in the ground, was his most irritating quality, and Copper had never grown entirely reconciled to it.”

—

The Fox and the Hound by Daniel P. Mannix

How can you not love this book?

“The female Utahraptor doesn’t have a name for herself. Her brain doesn’t operate with words, not even with silent, unspoken syllables. It works with images, colorful bursts of memory that make up a dreamlike history the brain constantly updates. Every day new experiences and new associations from her senses rearrange the symbolic registry. In her own brain the raptor identifies herself with the symbols she learned as a chick: ‘me… raptor… red.’ We can call her Raptor Red, because that’s how she labels herself in her own mental imagery.”

— -Raptor Red, Robert T. Bakker

using non-human limbs to show a character’s expression is fantastic— fur bristling to show anger, big elf ears drooping to show sadness, tails swishing to show joy— but using non-human limbs as the only way to show a character’s expression is even better. a calm, stoic facade, their anger betrayed only by bristling fur. insisting they’re fine, but their ears are drooping. pretending they don’t care for hugs, but their tail is swishing madly.

Hi! I'm trying to write a fic where the main characters, who are normally human, are now animals. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to keep them in character though, since certain things they could do before, they can't now (ie. no hands, can't do certain things humans can, etc.) I'd very much welcome any advice, since I'm close to deciding this story idea is at a dead-end. Thanks!

Is this a fic where humans are suddenly turned into animals and now trying to deal with their new forms? Or is this an AU where the cast just are animals and that’s the world that they live in all the time? I’d write those in very different ways.

If this is an animal AU, and that’s a very doable thing. Just think about animated films. Even though the characters are animals doing very animal things, they also maintain personalities that are familiar to humans. 

If it’s a case of humans being transformed into animals, then they’ll need to spend time (and probably get frustrated) figuring out how to do things in their new bodies. No opposable thumbs means they’ll need to find another way to turn a doorknob, for example. No ability to talk means that they won’t be able to utter passwords for electronic locks. 

I haven’t written this kind of fic before, so I’ll open up the floor to see who else can add thoughts here. This could be a really interesting challenge for you, anon, so I hope you don’t give up!

I bet octopuses think bones are horrific. I bet all their cosmic horror stories involve rigid-limbs and hinged joints.

non-human character: *moves their ears/wings/tail to indicate their emotional state and for emphasis when communicating*

me:

@bananaruntz i think what sucks the most about it with xenofiction in particular is that when you have characters that are simultaneously nonhuman and anthropomorphic, it creates this issue where you're forced to accept any misogyny at face value and assume that it's just scientific accuracy, because nature CAN be notoriously unfair. it can't be denied that the females of many species get the shorter end of the stick, but way too many xenofiction authors seem to operate on the idea that this is innately true for the entire animal kingdom when it's just not. even if you are writing about a species where male animals generally dominate the hierarchy, that still shouldn't preclude you from being able to write well-rounded female characters, especially ones that aren't bound by suspiciously human misogynistic tropes.

xenofiction presents so so so many fascinating opportunities to really examine things like sexism and identity and biological determinism but it feels like no one has properly taken advantage of that yet. i am being so fucking serious when i say that xenofiction desperately needs a queer, trans, feminist upheaval.

If you guys have an hour or two to kill, I highly recommend these two videos by Cardinal West on the Xenofiction genre. I have a far greater appreciation and understanding of the genre and it’s sub-categories thanks to him and his videos. These and his other xenofiction video essays are all so well written and entertaining and such a great resource for people wanting to get into reading or writing the genre.

So I am a really big fan of animal point-of-view fiction (or xenofiction as it's sometimes called), but I can't help feeling that the genre has so much wasted potential, and writers in this genre have fallen into so much laziness. Animal stories have been a part of human culture since pretty much the beginning of time, and the more you read of these old animal fables and tales, you realise how clever and unique a lot of these stories were. And even more recently, we've had stories such as Jungle Book, Call Of The Wild, Animal Farm.But it seems since the release of Watership Down in, that the animal fiction genre has fallen into a sort of generic mould that every story has to follow. Don't get me wrong, I ADORE wds and I've read it so many times that the pages are falling out of my copy, but I've lost count of how many books I've seen that have the same "animals live in a tribal society with their own language, culture, and religion have to escape the clutches of The Evil Humans" narrative. While there are a few recent books that don't follow this exact mould (Felidae for example) the genre has seemed so stagnant for the past 50 years or so. And one thing that bothers me about these kinds of stories is how easily they fall into these really disturbing ideas. (I don't know if "ecofascit" is the appropriate term here, but it sounds very similar) They just all seem to drone on and on about "all the humans are evil and cruel and destructive and only the animals and untouched nature are pure bla bla bla" in such an embarrassingly misanthropic way. I read Garry Kilworth's Hunters Moon (the one about foxes) last year, and I could take none of the plot seriously because the writer couldn't go a single chapter without having a laughable Humans Bad rant. I don't know. Animal stories have meant so much to global human culture throughout history, and it makes me slightly sad to see the genre become stagnant and unoriginal over the past few decades.

(and I'd love to hear any book recommendations if you have any)

New Letterboxd list.

The “talking animals that have culture/societies” genre of books

(Edited the original post to include the bigger list)

Ok but, imagine a xenofiction story where the main characters are "feral" domestic animals (that have run away from home to live in the wild for some reason), but instead of romanticizing their experience (demonizing captivity in the process) they show all the shit they have to deal with because they are not animals designed to live "free" and how there is no place for them in the nature anymore.

Or I don't know if there is already a story like that, btw.

You, a lover of xenofiction/animal stories who is truly interested in proper research and natural representation, with projects of your own in mind.

Let me tell you, if you read this, that I love you and will be willing to sell my kidney in order to support you.

animal fantasy NEEDS to be gayer and transer so here are some of my queer xenofiction thoughts

attitudes towards homosexuality and/or transness differing from species to species, region to region; many opportunities to play with various cultural reactions when characters travel. there are some species where the concepts are well established in the culture (apes, dolphins, etc.) and are accepted, tolerated, considered completely normal, or even celebrated

“queer” means different things for different animals. for example, even though bisexuality is indisputably queer by human standards, it may not be by anthropomorphized bonobo standards since bisexuality is a cultural norm for them; meanwhile, exclusive homosexuality and maybe even heterosexuality probably would be considered queer for bonobos

sexually dimorphic species offer up many interesting concepts: transmasculine lion cubs dreaming of growing up to have manes; transfeminine deer experiencing gender euphoria when seasonally shedding their antlers; transmasculine birds gathering loose materials to cover their dull feathers with livelier colors

domesticated/tame animals, especially those that interact regularly with people, having a stronger concept of gender roles than other species do because of how much they’ve subconsciously absorbed from their human allies

please feel free to add on 🌈🐾✨

If you guys have an hour or two to kill, I highly recommend these two videos by Cardinal West on the Xenofiction genre. I have a far greater appreciation and understanding of the genre and it’s sub-categories thanks to him and his videos. These and his other xenofiction video essays are all so well written and entertaining and such a great resource for people wanting to get into reading or writing the genre.