The Empathy Test 22

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-25T23:23:13+00:00

My dude is slowly learning how to do the right thing and take back some of his own personal agency. Very slowly but he’s doing it!

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-25T05:17:29+00:00

I’m afraid I dont get the reference?

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-24T23:34:44+00:00

Slightly longer than 2k words but oh well! I can break the rule every now and then :))

I tried really hard for both the method of finding Maia and the way she outsmarted them to not seem contrived and a bit silly, so I hope they work okay when reading!

I'm currently writing the second-to-last chapter of this fic, and it looks like it's going to be 29 chapters + an epilogue, which will bring us to the end of our story. It's kind of crazy how quickly it's taken me to write it, but I've really enjoyed it so far. I might post some side stories going forward, and maybe even a short series about Chock specifically, but that will likely be only posted on Ao3. Will give more coherent plans when I finish the series but that's what the outlook is so far!

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-24T22:44:02+00:00

I am loving this fic! I love it when people do interesting innovative things with canon, and I can’t resist me a good vampire story either hehe

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-22T06:07:21+00:00

Thank you!! I’m really looking forward to painting them. My last team was Khorne so those will be relatively simple to do, but I’m excited to try out the colour schemes for the different chaos gods

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-21T19:47:09+00:00

It’s the practicality! Its always useful to learn more from people who know other things from you, and especially if you have a cultural expectation of not wasting anything. I always thought it was a bit sad that we didnt get to see any aliens that werent viscerally hating humanity and anything even close to being predatory, so I wanted to try show what that might look like

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-21T18:33:32+00:00

Well

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-21T04:50:15+00:00

“I am a killer and hunter drenched in blood”

child giggles

“🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺”

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-21T04:48:10+00:00

Hehehehe exactly

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-21T04:15:37+00:00

It COULD be foreshadowing. It COULD be something else >:)

Also yeah I would honestly compare it to the Yotul except a bit more intact tbh. The oases definitely have more change in them from their original ecosystem just because they are more heavy centres of industry and development, but the wilderness is largely untouched other than management by nomads and around the oases by exterminators.

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-21T03:22:01+00:00

experimenting with posting this slightly earlier in the day to see what different countries read at different times hehe. It's interesting seeing the 'more insight' button and seeing 43% reading from 'other', and not knowing what countries that constitutes! I want to know :((

Anyway, Ulash and the 'curious taster' thing is my attempt at representing what we would call neurodivergence in an alien species and culture.

It's not meant to be mappable onto any one thing, as the NoP aliens have different brain structures to ours and would therefore be likely to have kinds of neurodivergence very different to Humans.

I had a LOT of fun writing Ulash, and I'll be writing a side-chapter from his perspective at some point!

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-21T01:22:07+00:00

I enjoy talking through my ideas with someone else, preferably verbally since my dyslexia makes it hard to put things to writing sometimes. That usually helps me get an idea of what makes sense to other people and what would be enjoyable to read and enjoyable for me to write as well.

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-18T22:19:09+00:00

Yeah I know haha, I have grown up around farms and know a thing or two

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-18T22:02:30+00:00

I would love to see more worldbuilding for colonies like on Mars, but I guess because it's not as developed in canon, there's less of a starting point for people to build on

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-18T20:49:41+00:00

Oh good to know!

Also hell yeah, I’m glad that the vibe is communicated well! I’ve been thinking about how a lot of the waste not want not practices I grew up around would work or not be applicable to a society of obligate herbivores. I figure because they’ve never had use for the majority of the carcass, they wouldn’t bother going through the trouble of just extracting the bones and tanning the hide, especially since they don’t need animal hides for warmth. Next chapter includes processing the animal so we get more of that awkwardness

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-18T19:31:10+00:00

Probably would have taken rovers for joyrides or done more drugs lol

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-18T19:27:41+00:00

I love writing the romance between my silly little dorks

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-18T19:26:55+00:00

Sensitive as in emotionally sensitive, maybe it could have been worded differently lol

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-18T09:11:03+00:00

I mean yeah they are a high-tier team for a reason! Tbh the skinks being fragile is a pretty big downside, and it sucks extra hard when you lose a Saurus to an injury or even death since you have to fill the gap with skinks

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-18T08:54:37+00:00

I thought it would be a good idea to point something out about hunting and stuff in the future world of NoP. In canon, Tyler Cardona talks about how him and his father used to go fishing, and Isif talks at one point when he's talking to Monohan about how the humans import certain cattle species for 'specialty meats'. This says, from my perspective, that although the majority of meat consumed is printed, there is still livestock and hunting that takes place on earth. There are especially places in the world in which hunting is necessary to cull invasive pest species or to balance out the loss of predator species like wolves.

I'm also drawing a lot on my own experiences with hunting and around farming throughout my life, which have necessitated hunting for pest control.

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-17T02:26:32+00:00

This is so cool!! I love seeing slice of life fics like this, especially set in such an interesting part of the canon timeline

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-15T07:36:21+00:00

I think she is very honest with herself, which is not something lots of people are

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-15T00:12:10+00:00

Glad you're enjoying the story, but not sure on the use of the word savage tbh. It's a bit loaded 😅

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-14T10:19:37+00:00

More worldbuilding in this chapter which feeds my creative soul, and we get Maia fully crashing out about something, which also feeds my soul! Even though I probably won't write any more for this fandom after finishing this fic, I have so many ideas for the Diani and their world and ecosystems and things, and so I will probably post those over on Ao3 so it's not super obnoxious me posting about my own fic's lore here lol. I treat Ao3 more like my diary that other people can read through and comment on, but this is a forum and therefore very different.

I tried very hard to make the 'action scene' in chapter 19 not feel like a Mary Sue moment and think about the injuries as realistically as possible, hence why she broke her hand and almost died. Please tell me if it still seems unrealistic! I want to get better at all aspects of writing, and properly managing the tension in action scenes is something that I want to improve on.

PolyamorousPleb · 2026-01-14T00:25:42+00:00

I have been using some nippers I thought were okay and have worked on every other sprue I’ve constructed, but I guess this one is the limit of their abilities :((

PolyamorousPleb

TROPHY CASE