A Human has a pair of massive Maine Coon cats. They're gentle, fluffy, and HUGE. Needless to say, until they get to know the felines, some Havenworlders are terrified. The poor things are rescue cats from a cruel Deregger who had them declawed. -- Anon Guest
The Human had a pair of predators as pets. Because of course a Human saw nothing wrong with keeping predators in their habitat. Deathworlders. They were all the same. Right up to claiming their carnivorous beasts were old softies, wouldn't harm a fly, and were in fact soppy old things.
These were enormous felids, no matter how fluffy their fur, they were big beasts. Whoever created them had bred for size. The nap of their coats just added to their presence.
The fact that Human Chao could wear either one across his shoulders like a scarf did nothing for their confidence. They were still cats that were of a size with most crewmembers. They could still hunt. Thus, the understanding barrier.
"It's all right," said Human Chao, with a cat sleeping on his shoulders. "Some right arsehole declawed these babies before I got them. I got some B'Nari implants to help them recover their climbing and so on, but they're not sharp enough to pierce anything. Just enough to help them climb and dig. They're Havenworlder Safe." They could almost hear the trademark symbol pinging into place.
Captain Na steepled hir claws and tried to think of another angle. "We are less concerned about the claws, thanking you," ze said. "We are very concerned about your..." deadly animals, "...pets. And their ability to land on us and break bones."
There was a moment in which Human Chao considered this. He lifted the cat off his shoulders and hefted the creature at arm's length. "Oh yeah. That could happen. Wow. Okay. Sorry for scaring y'all. I'll keep them in my habitat with mechanical mice and stuff." He put the cat back on his shoulders. "So. Uh. Yeah. I'm gonna need a bigger habitat for the catio. Give them exercise and stuff."
It was a high price to pay for peace, but not that high.
[Image by Kanashi on Unsplash]
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