#soti content

A bell rang below, just behind him. If Quackity were a stupid hunter, a foolish novice, he would’ve turned to capture the human who had stayed behind to ring it. But to an expert it was the sound of a clock starting, his time running out rapidly. With that bell all others would scatter and he would only have so long to catch them all. He pressed forward, towards the blip on the radio tracker, net at the ready, and was rewarded with a louder clash of hammer on metal immediately in front of him. Transmitting the signal of his arrival and distracting him all at once. 

He ignored the bell. And the next one. As they got more desperate, attempting more loudly to announce the humans presence and draw him away from the nest. Like a bird feigning a broken wing to lead predators away from defenseless chicks.

He had only ever fallen for that one once. At least the sacrificial human that stayed behind while it’s hive abandoned it was sweet and young tasting.  

He crashed out into the colony, foot smashing down into a fragile habitat, and the swarm of humans scattered in all directions. He could see a pattern to the mob movements, and cast a weighted net that took down more tiny buildings with it, trapping humans beneath the debris and tightly corded rope. It seems they only had barely begun running for the underbrush around him when he had arrived. Good, that meant he would get the lions share of this nest.

It was hard making sure he got every one of them. The first couple of times he tried this trick there were some that scattered and made even thinking about hunting in that direction worthless. 

He taught Charlie how to count afterward, and he would proudly tell him the population of the human settlement just before he got to work.

He didn’t care for alive humans in his meals, to be honest. After the first attempt with a mesh cage he stuck to an airtight plastic tupperware so they could quietly suffocate for him. By the time he got home from such excursions it was hardly an issue handling them. They were all floppy and weird a lot of the time but. Well. Their meat was just as good. 

Sometimes one of them survived long enough to revive just as he stuck them in his mouth. It definitely was a curious sensation, feeling it’s weak little kicks and gasps, but he wouldn’t say it was as intoxicating as Wilbur always described it. Really, he preferred the crunch to the useless begging. Plus, it reminded him too much of Charlie’s little voice, and he didn’t want to have to imagine his pet in among the limp bodies, no matter how weird nightmares he had about biting down hard on the defenseless little creature.

Quackity strung up the first net, twisting it neatly so it scooped up all of the humans caught beneath, before throwing it over his shoulder. He could hear the screams and cries and whines of anger and fear, some of it strange and warblingly close to Charlie’s own voice but wrong in such particular ways. They all kicked and thrashed like a net full of fish, but only succeeded in injuring one another. Bruises didn’t taste the best but it was a minor setback all things considered. He took a second to mentally count them - 14, not bad. He’d have to check how many there were in total when he found Charlie.

Now for the second net. No way in hell will they clump together like this group was, and traps won’t work when they already know he’s here, so he’ll just have to grab for it.

Using the other net he had as a bag, he quickly started grabbing any human within reach, breaking the remaining settlements to weed out the stragglers hiding in there. A few smaller ones fled, and he considered briefly letting them run off to grow larger for his next hunts, before deciding he probably wouldn’t ever be able to find them again and scooping them up. 

It almost got mindless, combing the remains of the human colony for those frozen in terror or trapped by the debris of their home. He eventually stopped and recounted, happy with the amount he’d gotten. 21 in all - well, 22 if he counted the squalling infant one of them clung to, but they barely were even a bite-full so he didn’t. 

He shook the second bag a bit to hear the collective wail go up for a moment, before pulling the airtight box out of his bag. It would be just big enough to fit both bags if he shimmied it around and the humans didn’t flail too much. 

As it were, he had overestimated the box size a little bit. Cursing, he pulled the second bag back out again and fished through it for the human carrying a child. He could easily just crunch into them now, but he liked to be hygienic with his food and, plus, he didn’t care much for the scared and angry noises all the others would go into a flurry about as soon as he did. 

So he dropped the two onto the remaining building that hadn’t toppled from his poking and probing, and finally got the bags packed properly. The yelling and whining from the humans was greatly muffled as soon as the seal clicked. 

He half-turned and pulled out his whistle before noticing the released human was staring at him, apparently frozen. With a frown, he poked at it, shoving it in the other direction. “What are you waiting for, an invitation?” For gods sake, how had they even survived this long in the first place? No wonder they’re endangered in the wild now.

He carefully retrieves charlie at this point, and the people trapped in the box start yelling and screaming. from quackity’s pov its just a bunch of panicking, and he puts the bag away carefully at that point. to charlie, its the screams of betrayal, the horror that someone they tried to help betrayed them like that. he seems entirely unaffected by the muffled hatred spat at him.

quackity pats him gently on the head, and returns him to his travel cage, already thinking about recipes he will have to try with this batch.

After that whole debacle with Tommy, Quackity was… torn. Because on the one hand he wanted to be a supportive friend, wanted to change his ways (he could go vegan right? Right?) in solidarity, but on the other… 

There was Charlie, who he had been caring for for years at this point, who had started as this fun little project to see if he could train a tracker human and had become a comfort to him, a pet. 

Tommy is a person and yet, despite him trying his best to convince himself otherwise, Charlie would always be a pet to him. After all, Tommy wouldn’t ever come to him wanting cuddles, or so blindly trust him when he lifted him up to a dark cupboard to ‘please please please smash that horrible bug I found in there I can’t do it myself’ or march proudly into a human settlement with the knowledge that he would end it. 

Right? Right. That’s a pet thing.

He was sitting on the couch, scrolling unhappily through his phone as he tried to think. Under his cupped hand against his chest was Charlie, breathing softly. So small and fragile, yet so undeniably trustingly his.

(That possessiveness, that’s probably what stopped him from ever seeing Charlie as anything but a pet. The human was his and had been his for so long, and nothing could change that. )

What would happen if someone came over to his house one day and saw all of the little things he had added over the years for Charlie? The enclosure that had grown from that pathetic first attempt and now was the envy of human-keeper forums? Would they understand? Or would he be judged for it now that Tommy’s out? 

Wait shit - had he ever talked about Charlie on stream? Quackity wracked his brain for a moment before remembering that no, he hasn’t, because he had decided early on he didn’t want to be seen as the kind of ‘crazy human guy’ to own a battalion of humans and only eat ‘home grown food’ with all of the euphemisms attached. So Charlie’s still a secret.

It would be so incredibly easy to make Charlie stay a secret. Take down the enclosures today and ‘accidentally’ crush Charlie underfoot. Or maybe even finally eat him, have one final taste of human before giving it up and taking the evidence with him. It would be so easy, he was literally within Quackity’s grasp.

… no. He could never do that. Not only does the idea make him absolutely sick to his stomach, he couldn’t imagine ever looking Tommy in his little eyes and saying that he was trustworthy with a clear conscience after doing something like that. Charlie was so small and trusted him so much, he couldn’t do something like that to him.

He let out a long breath, shifting his feathers, and Charlie groggily lifted a head in attention. Quackity hurriedly muttered out quiet nonsense words, assurances and purrs and Charlie tucked his head in again next to his heart. 

Yea. He could never just kill Charlie in cold blood. He was about ten years too late for that to ever happen. 

So what could he do? Continue hiding Charlie, consolidating all of the little additions to his house to a single room that he could lock when guests were over? It would be a fix, but the part of him that has now spent far too long moderating and commenting on human husbandry forums screamed at him about confinement. Stupid morals and good pet-care values.

In hindsight, there was only ever one solution to this issue. He would have to let Charlie go. 

…

His hands fumbled on Charlie’s bright green collar like an idiot as he gingerly unclasped it. Charlie was sitting up straight, not moving at all like he was always trained to when Quackity was preparing him for an ‘excursion.’ He hesitated for a long moment, before handing the collar over to Charlie. 

The human frowned at it and looked up. “Why are you giving me this?”

Quackity shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, I just want you to keep it safe.” And, like a good pet, Charlie appeared satisfied by that answer. He carefully folded the fabric up and put it into an inside pocket of the custom-tailored jacket he had gotten a couple of years back. Quackity poked at the backpack, always too small for him to do anything more than fumble with the straps, but he made sure he could feel the little food packs and container of food pellets in case he was out too long and everything else was used up.

Maybe I should get him some more. He won’t be coming back after all, he’ll need it. 

But then… he might get suspicious. 

Why should I worry about him getting suspicious now? He’s leaving and he can’t do anything about it.

Still, it would break his heart to see Charlie get all sad about this before it was strictly necessary. He continued fussing with the backpack as the human laced his little boots confidently. 

“The weather looks good for the rest of the week so take your time,” he said, trying to keep his voice from wobbling. “See the sights and all that shit, y’know.”

Charlie hummed, tugging without much effort at the bag in his grasp. Quackity gave it up easily, checking nervously that his claws didn’t leave scratches on the fabric. Humans were just so fragile right when he didn’t want them to be. 

“You’ve been sad for a while,” Charlie said suddenly, not looking up from the backpack. “I’ll do a good enough job to help you out, and it’ll be ok. Promise.”

Quackity’s heart almost broke right then and there. Don’t think about it.

“Radio,” Quackity commanded, pushing through the hiccup in his throat, finally putting aside the bedding he was ineffectively tying for Charlie’s smaller and more nimble hands, and trying to absorb himself in the checklist for a little bit longer. Charlie turned his back to him, raising his shirt and exposing the radio transmitter sewn into a dark undershirt which, with the shirt and coat, would be entirely invisible. 

Quackity carefully checked the battery life, that it was still transmitting, and nodded. While it wouldn’t be necessary this time… he would like to keep an eye on his pet for as long as he can. “You’re good, alright come on now.” 

He held out a hand and once again like a proper and obedient pet, Charlie hopped on with little complaint. Quackity hoisted up the bag with his other hand, transferring it into Charlie’s grasp and bending down to pick up the travel enclosure. 

Seeing Charlie holding his bag, sitting behind the bars of the travel enclosure with a hand half held onto one of the metal rods, Quackity steeled himself. This was the best option. This was the only option.

Then he grabbed his keys and got in his car. 

He tried to make himself promise that he wouldn’t look back after letting Charlie out in the woods, knowing he wouldn’t be able to keep it.

...

Quackity never made mistakes ever but… taking in these humans so soon after losing (leaving behind) Charlie definitely didn’t help that feeling of useless loss. It was just a favor for Technoblade (who absolutely TERRIFIED him so he would do whatever he said) to help out with a couple of rather discombobulated humans that had passed him by. Karl was sweet in many of the ways that Charlie is (was), and frankly distressing in a number of other ways. Begging to be killed? To be eaten and completely forgotten about?

(He spent way too many nights staring at the ceiling of his room, wondering if what he did to Charlie was any better than what the people did to Karl. He definitely didn’t check the radio tracker to see if Charlie’s signal was still active, definitely not.) 

As would be expected of any farmed human, Karl took well to the remaining stock of human-grade pellet food that Quackity still had around, though he experimented with some of the weirder sauces in his collection and created rather disgusting concoctions as a result. It seemed that the variety of taste, rather than the quality of it, was what intrigued Karl the most. 

God he missed Charlie. He could feel himself slipping back into that day-to-day existence that owning a pet human created. He almost wanted to pull out one of the old enclosures from the garage, except that would entirely defeat the purpose of leaving behind his pet. 

He could get some of Charlie’s old clothes out though, couldn’t he? That wouldn’t seem weird, plenty of people had human clothes lying around, even if just for the novelty. 

Karl took to the soft worn fleece jacket like it was made for him, even if it was slightly oversized-looking. Tailored for a larger frame, a more active lifestyle.

Quackity tries to come to terms with caring for Karl without immediately coddling him like he had for charlie. he finds it so very hard to solve the problem of owning and caring for someone that he needs to also think of as a sentient being who could be self sufficient without him if he so tried.

one day, further into the future, he logs on to check his old accounts, the ones he had when he had kept charlie, where he talked to other misguided giants who did the same thing. and there’s a message directed to him

its from charlie.

Mass hysteria didn’t even begin to describe it, but there wasn’t enough time to even see the full effects of an entire planet losing their collective shit. Within the next four hours another city, a neighbor to the last, was attacked. Another flurry of photographs and screams for help. 

This time a picture was made with steadier hands, that of a monster with a mouth jagged with stalactite teeth, tongue stretching forward towards the picture-taker.

The rest of the planet wasn’t far behind. From the first city it spread to more, all emptied of everyone that lived there and stomped flat to the ground in the vigor. The monsters somehow grew less horrifyingly Other with every new city that was attacked - not that there was anyone to track this change, beyond those who could anticipate their homes being attacked next. Where the first city saw alien creatures, trampling their homes and eating everyone with massive maws, the tenth city saw shambling dark humanoids, saw eyes of glittering intelligence begin to blink from the still so dead-looking skin.

By the 40th city there was the first photograph of a giant human. Between one moment and the next the change was complete and they were no longer alien monstrosities, but giants. 

Humanity had scattered to the winds long before this point however. All major cities were attacked first, their inhabitants eagerly consumed by entire packs of the giants. Like a school of fish surrounded on all sides by whales, entire crowds would be horrifically consumed by the larger ones.

Entire cities became nests to them, curling up around the stumps of skyscrapers, digging out the subway lines, scouring every inch for more humans hiding away. 

It was those further out from civilization that had more luck. Entire small towns and communities went off the grid to survive, and in favor of the greater cities and the amount of food they would provide, the giants were content to ignore them. 

The world had ended. The internet grew silent, the electricity stopped running, the satellites above beeped on an unresponsive planet. 

Then the giants began to rebuild it. They fell into the parody of humans that they were, and having fed on too many, the giants, too, grew sentience. In vast mockeries of the cities they had made their hunting grounds, they built even larger structures for themselves. They created language and society and structure and, as the rest of humankind was trampled out one smaller town that stuck around at a time, they craved the vast feast they once had.

The first city of monstrous giants 

...

History of the post-global human societal collapse, and the colonization of Titanicambius Anthropophagus 

Riley Kirk, PhD in Anthropology, University of Western Australia

(...)

The end of the world was a swift and horrifyingly quiet affair. Nobody knew where the monsters had come from - outer space? Emerging from dark trenches or deep forests or secret caves? Through some dimensional veil that had been torn to shreds? 

There wasn’t much time to worry about where they came from, because no matter where they originated, the result was still the same. They were here Now, and we were going to suffer for it.. 

With a swiftness that even modern global technology was ill equipped to handle, the monsters went from rumors to horror stories to reality. Enormous things, with sickly black and grey skin, seemingly held up into the sky like tents on poles with how gaunt they all looked. No eyes or mouths or any other real features… just twisting bones hidden under thin decaying skin and jutting 2 meter long spikes like cactus spines and house-flattening feet that straddled an uncanny valley between bird’s talons and hooves. They inspired fear and awe and a sickening sense of smallness, just from looking at them. 

Of course, if you saw one, it was probably too late to worry about their curious and frightening looks. There was hardly any time for the first city attacked by the monsters to react. Just a brief flare of activity on the internet, a flurry of pictures of monsters blotting out the sun and enormous slimy tongues snaking between buildings, of entire skyscrapers torn open and fires burning rampantly. 

And then the city was gone. 

And the world as we knew it had come to an end.

…

Format: Audio and Video Feed from a digital Camcorder recovered from City T1 (Time: 1, first city impacted)

[Video is distorted, not only from the archaic recording format, but from age and wear as well. There is visual artifacts around the edge of the frame.]

[There is a mother holding a bleary-eyed infant no more than 6 months in age, two children of approximately 5 and 3 years in age, and the slight smudging of the bottom left corner of the camera lens indicated it being held by another person behind it. The sky outside is dark, there is a fire crackling, and there is a curiously fake-looking conifer tree set up and elaborately decorated in one corner of the room.]

[Speech has been translated from a pre-Apocalyptic language]

Small child 1 (5 year): Come on! Come on! Are you ready! It’s [holiday]!

Speaker behind camera (Male, adult): Just give us a second, [term of endearment]. The coffee’s still brewing. 

Mother: As if that will stop them. Why don’t we start with the [sock?], and we can move our way to the presents.

Small child 2 (3 year): [unspecific exclamation, garbled by other sounds]

Small child 1: [having moved towards the ‘socks’ that were hung above the fireplace, well out of reach of the flames] Dad, I want my [sock]! Can you get it for me?

Small child 2: [sock]! I want my [sock] too!

Speaker behind camera: [moving camera towards the ‘socks,’ having the view turned sideways that half includes the decorated tree] Make sure to ask politely.

Small child 2: Please!

Speaker behind camera: Now make sure to look at everything we got you, and give Mom the trash so we can put it into the trash bag.

[Sounds of rustling, of squeals of delight, of a fireplace crackling. The camera is aimed at the two small children pulling small decorative objects and candies out of the ‘sock.’]

[The infant (6 month) begins crying. The mother begins softly ‘shush’ing it, before stopping and tilting a head to the side.]

Mother: Do you hear something? I swear I hear something. Is it storming outside?

Speaker behind camera: [After a short pause] I could check? It’s a bit dark to tell though. Sounds weird though. Like… Thunder or something. 

Mother: At least we’ve got the fire running, in case the power cuts out. [Resumes shushing the infant, who is inconsolable]

[T0 occurrence: Slight change in light through the windows, a window breaks abruptly. The humans flinch back, and both of the children and the mother scream before being cut off.]

[The camera jitters violently, and the wall behind the tree visibly bulges inward before breaking to pieces, and a large dark shape appears from the other side]

Speaker behind camera: [yelling] What the hell is that! 

Mother: [overlapping] Run!

Child 1 and 2: [screaming, fled towards their mother who has backed towards the opposite wall] 

Monster: [No visible details in the poor lighting, appears a mottled dark color spiderwebbed with pure black. It pushes against the wall more, fitting more of a pointed face into the home.]

Monster: [Opens mouth, reveals dark green tongue that quickly moves towards child 2]

[The camcorder was thrown then, and while a frame-by-frame analysis shows blurs of color and the sound screams and crunches of human bone against monster teeth, they cannot be seen or heard in any clarity. The camcorder hits the ground, a soft carpet, and stays there]

[Creaking overhead, thumping footsteps, distant human screams. The roof of the house rumbles and collapses.]

[Recording ends]

…

[Draft: 

Last saved at: 2:35 AM 04/02/20XX

To: [[email protected]]

From: [[email protected]]

Subject: I miss you

It has been 2 days 5 days 1 week 4 weeks since I heard from you last and I think about it every day. I still don't know if you are alive or dead, if you are one of those people who I heard was able to escape them and hide in the rubble. I don’t know if maybe you got eaten by one of them but I have to keep hoping.

I miss you so much everyday Barrett. The fact that I didn’t even get to say bye or I love you last time we talked breaks my heart.

So I want to say every ‘I love you’ that I can in this letter. I loved the way that you always laughed and your voice went up in such a cute way whenever I first called you. I loved the way that we would get into those little fights over favorite fruits or animals or colors or other stupid little decisions. I loved the way that we would both try to hang up at the exact same time when we were going to bed, and every time I lost I would always look at your contact information for a little longer, at your smiling face, before turning off the phone. 

I loved the plans that we had to finally meet together. We had everything planned out. We were going to visit a museum and ‘happen’ across one another in front of a romantic picture. It would have been funny and incredibly public and I always thought that we would get kicked out of the museum when I finally was able to pick you up and twirl you around like I always wanted to. 

That I only said I was looking forward to hearing what you were going to make tomorrow for dinner, because you had planned some fish dish later on in the week and I was curious about the recipe… I don’t know. I can’t really be picky out here, but every time I catch a fish to eat I think of you and that last conversation.

I miss you so much Barrett. Every day. I am in the middle of who knows where, with a bunch of other people who fled their cities before they attacked or managed to scramble out of the rubble as they left. We’re hoping to find somewhere far enough away from everything else that we can get a chance to survive all of this. I wish you were here. You would have found all of this outdoorsy stuff so interesting. 

I hope you are still alive Barrett. And if you aren’t, I hope that you went down kicking and screaming.

I’ll still be looking for you. As long as I can.

Farai

…

…

…

...

...

Youtube recommends:

‘Earth Ruins’ were Human in origin? [NOT CLICKBAIT]

marianscalese 

256k views • 6 months ago

Wild Human Capture Stream Highlights! 

thewildcalls

5M views • Premiered 2 days ago

Ruin Deciphering and Restoration - ASMR

Ramera Restores

34k views • 2 years ago

We laugh we lose (YLYL ULTIMATE EDITION)

Wilbur Soot

9.5m views •  8 months ago

Earth Ruins are NOT Human-made - A Refutation

ladybirdbell3

3.5k views • 4 weeks ago

…

Forum: The Hermiton Herald

Subforum: Ethics and Politics

⇒ Thread: [ETH/POL] Isolationism and the rest of the world’s people

JellyCat [Posted 3 hours ago]

I really don’t know what the big problem about this all is. Greater Oceania has only stuck around so long because there hasn’t been enough attention drawn to us for the giants to give a shit. There’s nothing that can be done to get people out of the rest of the world.

Zombified_Penguin [Posted 3 hours ago]

So you just want people to continue to grow up in slavery and die without ever having known that we were out there at all. 

JellyCat [Posted 3 hours ago]

No of course not, I just think its too dangerous to do it. If the people can get here then we can let them in, but 

Saturatron_344 [Posted 2 hours ago]

As if we can do that. There’s enough people here as is, we can’t afford to take in more people. Just leave them to the giants so they don’t get to us. You’ve heard the stories, most of them don’t even know anything beyond being pets or food. Its no real loss to us.

Zombified_Penguin [Posted 2 hours ago]

Oh god not you again. Saturatron what is wrong with you - don’t you have empathy? We need to let these people in because theyre going to die. Squabble about the petty stuff later on, this is a constant life or death struggle for them out there. >:(

Saturatron_344 [Posted 2 hours ago]

And you can say that for certain? Most of them are just getting pampered by the monsters, don’t tell me that you haven’t checked on their internet through the VPNs, I’ve seen you on the giant-video access threads helping other newbies. Most of them are dead before they could do anything helpful for Oceania. And the others are basically mindless at this point.

Zombified_Penguin [Posted 2 hours ago]

Oh and you ignored all of the videos of people being hunted down and devoured graphically on camera? The fact that it is popular enough to get entire sections of their Youtube? That there are major Twitch streamers that vocally talk about their enjoyment of human fear and eating them live? 

Borealking9 (ADMIN) [Posted 2 hours ago]

Closing this thread now before things get ugly. As they always do when Zombified and Saturatron are in the same thread. Settle this in the DMs guys.

[THIS THREAD HAS BEEN LOCKED]

…

…

…