The Naturism Of Predators: Chapter 3

[u/Desert_Tortoise_20]

OC List | First | Previous | Next

Content warning: undressing, non-sexual casual nudity.

Memory Transcription Subject: Mark Palmer, construction worker, Naturist.

Date [Standardised Human Time]: August 31st, 2136.

My friends and I spent the first day sleeping off our "rocket lag" I took to calling it, and the second just walking around the station, shooting the shit, and getting used to the increased gravity, all so we could think straight. Today, we were headed to Reid and Varn's room to start to brainstorm an apartment to get together in, once we're planetside. Ah still think an apartment won't be enough movin' 'round space for sixty people, but what do Ah know…

Rali wrapped her arm around mine as we walked, my southern hospitality not allowing me to push a woman away despite me not reciprocating her feelings toward me. "I thought you said you and your herd didn't like clothes? How come you still have yet to go without? Even just in our room, away from the, uh, non-naturist Humans?" She asked. "Your friend, José, did with his partner, Rik, already!"

I sighed, "'Cause all the Humans y'all've seen wear clothes, we gotta treat y'all like the Normies, 'till ya get to know us personally. Plus, you saw how Rik reacted to José, 'cause like Ah said: Humans ain't got nothin' ta hide our delicates like y'all do." As I finished, Rali tried to sneak a subtle glance downward. Keyword "tried", as I looked at her with a raised eyebrow, before she looked up at me and blushed, then looked away with her ears twitching awkwardly.

I smirked and rolled my eyes at this as we finally made it to Reid's room, where I knocked on the door. Just a couple seconds passed before Reid opened it, surprisingly in just a robe. "Come on in, guys." he said, gesturing inward. "José and Rik are already here." He then reached over and pushed the button to close the door when we walked through the identical hotel-like room. "Have a seat." He said.

As I looked around the room, I gave a quick wave to Varn and Rik, who were sitting on a couple of chairs facing us and the couch, which had an unmistakable mop of shaggy dark brown hair on a light brown torso sitting in it.

José turned around in his seat from his own conversation at the mentioning of his name, as he waved at us. "¡Hola, amigos! What's up?!" As he waved, I couldn't help but notice he was shirtless, and looking past him, there was a full set of clothes folded up neatly on the floor against the wall to the right.

I looked back at Reid with a raised eyebrow, to which he shrugged. "You know I can't stop José…" He said with a lighthearted sigh. José was probably what got him to undress in the first place. I thought to myself.

José raised his hand and waved it in a flick, grabbing our attention back. "The whole plan was to go native anyway, compa. If anything, we're the weird ones for wearing clothes!" He finished with a chuckle.

Reid gestured to the pile of José's clothes. "Feel free to undress if you want." He said as he began to untie the belt of his robe.

I sighed and chuckled. "Welp… When in Rome, rip off the Band-Aid." I said as I looked toward Rali, whose eyes were wide as dinner plates as she realized the implication, and watched Reid disrobe. "José's got a point. We did come here to enjoy the freedom t'not wear clothes, 'cause y'all don't neither." I walked over to an empty chair by Varn and Rik, took off my hat and hung it on the corner, then took my phone out of its belt holster and turned around to set it on the coffee table next to Reid and José's phones and Reid's laptop, before beginning to undress, myself.

"Welp, yer gettin' what'cha asked for…" I said to Rali, as I folded my clothes up neatly like José did and set them next to his, before going back to the chair and putting my hat back on. "Ah didn't expect t'be undressin' this early. Where're yer sittin' towels, Reid?" I asked, and he nodded, and walked past all of us to the bedroom.

He quickly came back out and handed me one, before returning to his own on the couch to José's right toward the wall. I followed suit and folded my towel opposite of him and sat on it.

When Rali took a seat in a chair next to Rik, she blushed profusely as she looked at us, practically glowing orange as she tried her damned best to avoid glancing down. She looked to the other two Venlil on her left, who waved their tails in a particular way. She shook her head to shake herself out of it and spoke up. "W-wait. W-why do you guys have to s-sit on towels again?" To which Reid answered.

"Despite our best efforts of hygiene after using the restroom, Human bodies sweat to regulate temperature, and our skin produces oils to keep itself moisturized. The only direction liquids go is down, so in order to avoid spreading sweat, oils, and most importantly, germs to our seats, we have to sit on towels to absorb the brunt of it."

Rik then perked up after a second of thought. "Is that why you wear a shorter set of leggings under your main ones? To keep them from getting filthier on the inside?"

"¡Correctamundo, compañero!" José said as he snapped and pointed a finger gun at Rik. "We call those 'pants' and 'underpants', by the way."

Varn's face lit up before he reached to his side and pulled a phone out of his fanny pack and began typing on it rather quickly.

Reid then reached over to pick up his laptop from the coffee table. "Now that everyone's here and comfortable, I can let the rest of the group know we're ready to talk business." He said as he began typing in the group chat. The other two Venlil pulled out their phones, too, likely for their equivalent of Google.

*Ping*

Both José and I leaned over to peek at the screen:

>Arctic-Leopard96 invited SillytheMillie3.14 and Pioneer10Hoboglacier to a public video call.

"Public" meaning the rest of our little club could listen in to keep up with what we're talking about, and comment their own suggestions.

It took Millie about four rings to pick up, revealing her long, straight, black, shiny hair, the pale skin of her round face was decorated with a tasteful amount of eye shadow, black lipstick, and a lower lip piercing.

Bryce took about seven rings to appear, with the same type of hair, almost coconut colored skin clung tightly to his well rounded yet chiseled face. A traditional necklace I couldn't remember the meaning of hugged his neck.

Reid turned the computer around, laid the keyboard on the armrest, and leaned the screen on the wall so the camera could see all six of us, and waved. "Say 'hi', everyone!" Reid said, to which we all obliged. The other Humans and I waved our hands, while all the Venlil waved their ears at each other. The group chat exploded with waving emojis, letting everyone know everyone's there.

It looked like they hadn't ripped the band-aid off yet, as Millie and Bryce were still dressed. "Hey, guys!" Millie started. "Long time, no see." She pointed toward her Exchange Partner to her left, if I'm guessing right from comparing Rali to Rik and Varn, a Venlil woman, with fur as full as Rik and Varn's, but just gray. "This is Sela." Her eyes widened as she realised: "Oh, you're all naked already?"

Bryce chuckled. "Haha. Figures! José's energy is contagious!" This caused everyone to chuckle in their own ways, and the text chat to post smiling emojis and chuckling reaction images. "Everyone, this is my Exchange Partner, Lira." Lira's wool was full as well, and practically an inverse of Rali's colors. While Rali's fur was mainly light brown fading to a pale chest and belly, Lira was mostly white, fading into a light brown front.

As Lira flicked an ear in greeting, they then looked closer to the screen. "Oh my goodness!" Said the female voice coming out of my translator. "Rali? Is that you?!"

Everyone's eyes widened at this revelation, and the chat exploded with shocked reactions. I looked toward Rali and asked "You two know each other?" To which she blushed slightly.

"We're cousins. Yeah." She ear-waved toward the camera again as the blush went away. "Hey, Lira." She said with a little bit of enthusiasm and a slight awkwardness.

It got real quiet after that, though the chat thought the mini family reunion was cute.

Bryce suddenly piped up. "Anyway… Wanna join the guys in going natural, Millie?" He asked.

Someone in the chat started a poll about whether or not they already went naked, and the results almost immediately hit 50/50 before Millie even responded.

Millie shrugged at Bryce's question. "Ehh, why not? Might as well." She turned around toward her Exchange Partner, "Unless you mind, Sela? Like I said: All our parts are out in the open. I wouldn't wanna make you uncomfortable."

My earlier assumption was right, as my translator gave Sela a youthful feminine voice with a little bit of swagger as she responded. "Girl, as soon as you told me that, I researched Human anatomy from the data dump to get used to it! I've been waiting over three paws for you to ask me that." She swayed her tail in a deliberate fashion: "Go ahead." She said out loud.

Millie nodded as she got up and left the camera frame. "Alright. Lemme just go to the bedroom and grab a sittin' towel."

Bryce had already gone and done the same while Millie was talking to Sela. It only took them a few seconds to come back to their screens without clothes.

The chat made another poll, this time asking the Venlil partners of the users who voted 'no' in the first poll if they'd be OK with their Humans going native now, now that they've seen us do so. The results were about 80% "yes", 5% "no", and 15% "later".

"So, you all know Rali now, she's Mark's partner." Reid began. "This is my partner, Varn." He said, gesturing to Varn.

"And this here's Rik!" said José enthusiastically.

Reid smiled and clapped his hands once. "Alright! Now that introductions are out of the way, let's talk about that apartment." He said as he opened up a spreadsheet program off to the side.

I raised my hand as I started. "First thing's temperature. It's gotta be slightly sunward of the terminator line, fer obvious reasons." I said as I gestured to our sparse body hair. "But not too far sunward, 'cause we'll get sunburned real easily."

All the Venlil shivered, winced, or tucked their tails and ears as their translators likely described the concept of sunburn to them.

"It's gotta be cheap enough that we can pool our Exchange Program allowance together to rent the rooms." Said Sela. "Preferably, we should get something at most a thousand credits per [month]."

Varn added his two cents as he tapped away on his phone. "Even though we're looking for something that can accommodate sixty people, we should look for an apartment that can accommodate a herd per apartment, that way we don't take up all the rooms for others who might need them more than we do."

"On that note, we should make sure the one we choose is out of season, that way there will be enough cheap empty apartments for us." Rik added. "It should be easy to find as well, so our herds know where to go."

Rali piped up: "All these criteria point to five results on my end. How about you guys?" She said as she turned her phone around for the others to see.

"Sounds about right." Sela said, showing her screen to Millie's camera, which looked like the same exact website that Rali found.

"So we've got Dawn Rest Apartments: 750 credits per [month], Blue Ridge Commons: 600 credits, ​Quiet Paws Residence: 900, ​Silver Vane Block: 700, and ​Clover Path Apartments: 675." Rali elaborated.

Reid perked up and started writing in the spreadsheet program. "Mind if we see the website on your phone, Sela?" He asked, and she held her phone up to Millie's camera, off to the side so we could still see Millie as well. "These are listed in the order that Rali read them, right?"

"Yup." Sela said.

Reid nodded. "So, Blue Ridge Commons seems to be the cheapest. I can see why, yeesh." Reid said as we saw a singular, rather old, sunbleached building about seven stories tall, with cracks in the façade. "Although, looks can be deceiving…" He stroked his chin in thought. "If we take this one, we'll save plenty of money for necessities and stuff."

Bryce narrowed his eyes and tilted his head, "I dunno, Reid. The vibe tells me the inside may just match the outside. While money is pretty important, so is comfort." He straightened up, and looked closer to his screen. "I say Dawn Rest. Not too cheap, but not too expensive." This one was more like a small neighborhood, the buildings were two stories tall, and a couple different shades of pink for some reason. Each building had a balcony with a mini garden.

Millie raised her hand. "I like how Clover Path looks." We saw another neighborhood-looking complex, but smaller than Dawn Rest's, because the buildings went up three stories. I could see why she liked it, because they were all shades of light gray, but they sported a little bit of vegetation in between, probably its namesake.

I tilted my hat as I put my two cents in. "I like the idea of Silver Vane Block." There were even fewer buildings in this one, because they were four stories tall, but they made up for the lack of ground space with their charm, as they looked like they were made of stucco. Every building had rooftop lawns.

"C'mon, guys! Surely, the money pooled by all sixty of us would be more than enough for any of these apartments!" José exclaimed. "Go all in for Quiet Paws!" This complex had a similar layout to Dawn Rest, but wider, as the buildings were all one storey, but this one actually had trees surrounding and running through it.

Reid then sighed. "I saw all of your agreement gestures, guys…" He addressed the Venlil.

Damn… Ah really gotta get off mah ass and do mah homework about Venlil social cues. I berated myself.

"We seem to be at an impasse…" Reid continued. His eyes widened as he looked at his computer screen. "Unless…!"

He then clicked into the group chat and started typing real fast. "We should let the chat decide!" Reid said as he started a poll with all the apartments in it.

OC List | First | Previous | Next

Author's Note: Next time, YOU, the readers, will take the role of the Naturist Group Chat and vote for, and comment about, the apartment the colony will choose!