wow, unethical conditioning.. very well depicted, you are a brilliant storyteller as always

It actually makes a lot of sense. Insects are so alien to us, even if they're sapient like Yannit, that you're talking a wholly different moral system. Insect life is brutal, in a way we can hardly comprehend. The Indrel are sapient, but... some old habits die very, very hard.

Yup. This is a great method of teaching too, condition them to learn this scent as something to avoid at all costs, and given their eusocial lifestyle, the lives of workers are ultimately expendable in the grand scheme of things too

"Insects... don't have... politics. They're very... brutal." - Brundlefly.

Yeah, I quoted that down below too. "I am an insect who once dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over...and the insect is awake."

Just as our morality would appear hideous to them. Which system better enables survival and growth (and thus survival) in the long run will decide who was in the right.

They pinched her butt? :(

Possibly worse.

Far, far worse.

Insects don't have lungs like most animals. Instead, they have have tubes in their abdomen called tracheae. The openings to the tracheae are called spiracles. Air is drawn in and out of the spiracles, into the tracheae, where gas exchange occurs. But rather than having alveoli like lungs, gases are simply passed through the sides of the tubes. From a strictly scientific perspective, this is only efficient in small creatures, and is what limits the size of insects in our current world. The current concentration of oxygen in our atmosphere would have to be much higher, closer to 25%, in order to support a creature the size of Yannit.

Anyway, I digress...

Whatever the science behind this world's insect population and it's size, the spiracles and tracheae would still be an opening in the body of an Indrel, and manipulating such openings could cause pain. If done "right", the pain would be extreme. And since Yannit speaks through her mouth, it stands to reason that her respiratory system is closer to that of animals? But that doesn't mean that the spiracles and other organs don't also exist, even if in rudimentary, vestigial form.

So that could be how it's done.

But it would be excruciating in the extreme.

The speaking was addressed at the start, when she first showed up. Indrel do breathe through their abdomen like IRL insects, but they can rub their mouthparts together in a specific way to mimic human phonemes without airflow across vocal chords.

Ahh, thank you for the clarification!

Eeesh. That makes my hypothesis feel even closer to the truth.

This is not a comforting thought!

Scientific horror. I am stupid drawn to the fascination!

... i didn't got the point of this page the first read, your explanation helped a lot!

Fearomones

That's a good one.

I love the insight into her thoughts.

GUessing the Baxxid evokes some primal reactions.

Baxxid? Oh, antlions eat ants... right

So indrel and baxxid are, what, ancestral enemies? And indrel drones are conditioned to instinctively fear and attack baxxid?

I'm kinda surprised this hasn't come up before, considering how long Yannit has been there. Has she seriously never encountered any of the Valsalia Baxxid until now?

She might well be staying up in the research wing in part to avoid them. And now Kalgkur is gonna be living there...

In fairness, Yannit hasn't been out and about a lot and the baxxid are, while a known presence, not nearly omnipresent.

And it makes sense they'd be ancestral enemies - remember, until relatively recently, the baxxid were a roving murderswarm that cyclically pillaged vast areas before retreating home to nest.

so scare 😮

Oh no. Is the attempt to simulate the native pheromones and scents failing? And the bugger is going nuts? So now there's a risk of the party snapping and hurting others?

failing because ran didn't know the actual context behind them and yannit failed to mention the "training" her people subject everyone in the hive to.

I love all these Yannit internal monologue pages because you do such a good job at writing a distinctly alien train of thought. I’d say it’s something hard to pull off, but to be honest there are so few instances of it because I imagine writers find it difficult to pull off properly.

She was trained to attack if they meet the old enemies. This make make peace very hard.

Indeed, a developed instinct once used for survival against encounters against a predator species would turn from a survival instinct into a type of self-inducted trauma if the predator species is no longer predatorily.

I scared too!

Today we learn about bug anxiety.

That may be an issue, yeah.

Sounds like brainwashing/conditioning. Not something I will ever want to put anyone through let alone go through myself. I feel sorry for yannit

Smallfriend Lopin

Ah yes. PTSD for teaching lessons of times before. Sadge. :C

Whas that smell~?

IS BLUUUUUD!!!

"It grows."

Simple... and utterly chilling. An insane Indrel starving for pheromone signals is not what anyone needs right now. Like any sapient being, they don't react well to being in a sensory depravation chamber, and that's apparently what everything outside the hive is to an Indrel.

Looks like they're headed for a reckoning nobody, least of all Yannit, wants.

"You have to leave now, and never come back here. Have you ever heard of insect politics? Neither have I. Insects... don't have politics. They're very... brutal. No compassion, no compromise. We can't trust the insect. I'd like to become the first... insect politician. Y'see, I'd like to, but... I'm afraid, uh...I'm saying I - I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake." -- The Fly.

it's less the being starved of signals and more having to be around what your people consider literal demons and your brainwashing overrides reason and you cannot tell your subconsious that the demon you are seeing/smelling is in fact a person and not a demon.

Bingo.

Yannit is perfectly capable of living with non-Indrel, provided she is supplied with sufficient stimulation, engagement and support.

Now she is being faced by an ancient enemy, who she has been physically, emotionally and instinctually conditioned to attack on sight.

But more critically, being that her primary method of communication is pheromones, she has no one that can override her programming and reassure her that all is well.

This may well be something Lopin is good for. No pheromones, barely any education, but he does have an excellent sense of empathy. He'd be the first to sense Yannit's distress, and to recognise what is setting it off and how to provide comfort.

As soon as he stops being scared of her, that is. Right now what she's getting is that her friend is terrified, and she interprets that as fear of Baxxid since that is what she is feeling. I hope Lopin can pull himself together before Yannit completely falls apart.

I think it's a bit of both.

Very true

And very true and very chilling...

There is a horrendous possibility of great tragedy.

Was chuckling at the butt pinching of doom but then remember the Indrel probably have all their vital organs in their abdomen and it dawned on me how painful that probably is

So I went very quickly from laughing to sad

I fear yannet is about to have a nightmare sort of explosive outburst.

Oh no

Yannit also senses the Kass's mind screaming in fear of Kalgkur.

O_O;;;

Damn...

Oh... oh dear.

And it does sound like the Indrel do have history with the Baxxid... that is.. poor Yannit. she needs some calm smells.

When the educational experience involves getting stabbed in the butt!

Okay, we're approaching legendary ability to depict non-human sentient sensoria and pedagogy here. You have exceeded 'scary good.'

Yeah,  Valsalia is turning into an Asimov- or David Brin-class worldbuilder. Some incredible work with alien beings and illustrating how different their worlds can be, down to their senses.

I couldn't agree more. HIs aliens--even the former human--are alien! They are also hnau, which is a term that is going to become increasingly important as time goes on.

One of these days I seriously want to consult with him on my own Halavahdon, as they're a mix of the familiar and the utterly alien. But finding that balance between humanizing them and emphasizing their alien nature is TOUGH. And Valsalia does it effortlessly.

I suspect there is a considerable amount of effort behind the scenes.

Oh, yeah. World building is not for the faint of heart and it takes a ton of work. But it starts with presentation and he finds the perfect focal point between "totally alien" and "humanlike" every time.

Buggo cute should not fear buggo large!

Hmm.

Ah, so what drove the previous Indrel into a killing frenzy may not have been pheromone deprivation but instead... close encounters with Baxxid. Or maybe both, I dunno.

And Kal's whole arc started when a bug crawled over him, scaring him. Oh geeze.

Chill Yannit. You're scaring smallfriend Lopin.

If Yannit attacks Kal... she'd be totally outmatched. She's made to attack as a swarm - to win a fight against a superior opponent because she has a small army of her sisters beside her. If it were one-on-one, she's going to make a few futile swipes that leave Kal with minor injuries before he is able to just pin her down with his substantial weight.

I think Kal would possibly be too afraid to fight back because he'd be terrified of harming or even killing Yannit without meaning to.

Sherman battalion vs. a King Tiger.

But while Kal is absolutely a tank, he's on a mission of peace. He already got a demonstration of what his main gun can do accidentally and doesn't want a repeat.

Let's not forget, Indrel claws can crush rocks. Humans used thumbscrews for torture purposes; this is so, so much worse.

Welp... time to squash the bug.

pinch the buggbutt

It's the only real pinchable softpart, is what

Poor sweetheart. I just want Yannit to be happy and comfortable 😢

Yannit: "I've been conditioned to fear the baxxid for the sake of The Greater Good."

The Hive: "The Greater Good."

An outsider: "How can this be for The Greater Good?"

The Hive: "The Greater Good."

class turn to page 127 of your history books class where we will be reading up on the sudden fate of Valsalia and why the only good bug is a dead bug...

... but man I'm pretty sure it's going to be fine I mean what could possibly go wrong with a vermimorphed Cat 313 with 2 katanas instead of a bucket with equivalent material densities (pretty sure if he knew he accidentally knocked a chunk out of the entry frame he would have turned into a quivering floor puddle that is vaguely baxxid shaped) and the cutest entomomorphed hunk of C4 you have ever waifued about with pheromones in place of electricity and a teeny tiny touch of vermiphobia!

Hry Ran. . . ? Remember that sample Yannit said meant "new sisters, don't kill"? Yeah. Uh. . . you should go grab that.

With a quickness.

the "bad plant" and "otherhive" terms in reference to the Baxxid are *very* interesting lorewise, and the instinctual fear Indrels have for them makes me wonder if maybe the Baxxid were originally created as living weapons to wipe out the Indrel rather than naturally evolved, with the Indrel developing instinctual ptsd of the baxxid as a result

Yannit's gunna go into a frenzy! Maybe have her touch more hair to soothe her.

Oh no...oh no this isn't good

This is even better coming back to read after a few more pages came out.