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A Web Original Shared Universe Furry setting, based on a Web Serial Novel, "Forest Tales", by Bernard Doove, (available here (NSFW), Mirror, Mirror 2. You might need to check all three as the site occasionally goes down for one reason or another.) that started as a Star Trek Fan Fic and became its own series. "Forest Tales" was the first series in the setting, but others have been written, by Doove and an army of Chakat fans. Some of these fans are better writers than others.

Many of the stories are accompanied by artwork, which is done by a variety of artists of varying levels of artistic talent. Many of the cast bio pages are similarly accompanied by artwork, also frequently NSFW.

The central characters of most of the stories are Chakats, a genetically-engineered hermaphroditic feline centaur race who were created at the height of mankind's genetic engineering ability and are thus, arguably, an entire race of Mary Sues.

The protagonist of the "Forest Tales" stories is a Chakat named Forestwalker who works as a Forest Ranger in Australia in the 24th century.

If you've become a fan of Doove's writing, see also: Goldfur's Stories About Ponies.


WARNING!! Much of the artwork, as well as much of the writing in this series is NSFW. Follow links with due care.


The series provides examples of:

  • Abusive Parents: Cindy Grayson's father, Charles, has managed to make his daughter fear father figures. Charles was also skimming from accounts left to her by her grandmother to pay his own gambling debts.
  • Added Alliterative Appeal: At one point, Captain Foster posts a tongue-twister of a call for recruits to crew a cargo run he needs to make. (emphasis added)
    The Folly is looking for a few fools foolish enough to want to work long hours on their time off from Star Fleet.
  • Adults Are Useless: The Faleshkarti. (This gets its own story justifying it in an unusual way.) When they mature, a hormone makes them stupid and only want to have sex and breed. Due to the overpopulation problems this encourages the comparatively genius-level children to accept Federation help in counteracting that particular aspect of their biology.
  • Aerith and Bob: Skunktaurs prefer to make use of Aerith type names for whatever reason.
    • Due to their language being nigh impossible for most humans to use, many Caitians will take the Terranglo translation of the meaning of their name and use that. The trope comes into play most clearly when a Caitian with a fairly simple native name is in the same environment as one with a much more complex, and less pronounceable name, Especially if they have adopted the Terranglo version of their name.
  • Air-Vent Passageway: A few of these have popped up so far.
    • Tales of the Folly chapter 4 features 6 Chakat cubs surviving having their station being taken over by pirates by hiding in an air duct.
    • One of Doove's "Flight of the Phoenix" chapters features a ferret morph crawling through access passages with replacement commo wires, then using said passages as a hiding place to help retake the ship from pirates.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Tess has developed a habit of only informing her captain and crew of things she deems important. Otherwise, she's fine.
  • Aliens Are Bastards: The Rakshani started off this way, but upon formally meeting Captain Neal Foster, they were willing to sit down at the treaty table.
    • There are also multiple different groups of pirates who just happen to be aliens. The two most prominent groups are Voxxan.
  • Aliens Speaking English: Played straight most of the time. Sometimes, the Translation Convention is applied. For a few instances electronic translators are mentioned.
  • All There in the Manual: a lot of the world building in the story universe happens outside of the stories, in such aptly named articles like 'An Introduction To Chakats' or 'An Introduction To Stellar Foxtaurs'.
  • Almighty Janitor: Neal Foster of the Folly, an engineering genius with enormous influence and resources including three colonies, who pretends to be a simple freighter captain, arguably the Lazarus Long (crossed with a bit of The Doctor) of the setting.
  • Alternative Calendar: Since genuinely alien worlds are involved, this comes up occasionally. Both Raksha and Chakona each have a different length of year and day, therefore, unique calendars compared to Earth.
    • Chakona is mentioned as using a different clock due to the differing length of day.
  • Alternate Number System: Some of the stories mention that Caitians use a base 8 system. This gives some of them troubles with the base 10 system everybody else is using.
  • Artificial Gravity: Seems that all starships in this setting are mentioned as being equipped with this. As well as all of the Space Stations.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The Rakshani Deities did this. And they consider modern Rakshani to be their children.
  • Author Avatar: Chakat Goldfur, child of Longstripe and Desertsand, is literally this. She's basically the main protagonist of most of the main storyline.
  • Automated Automobiles: This type of vehicle is routinely seen in this 'Verse. One story discusses the advantages. One article discusses the development of these vehicles. The same article also discusses the in-universe fiction centered on these vehicles, as well as how that same fiction has been altered by those same AI driven cars.
  • A Wizard Did It: Multiple examples.
    • Rakshani deities have done plenty of meddling with their children. Particularly the fertility deities. See: But I Can't Be Pregnant, below.
    • Also rather strange: The Colony. The reader never even sees the wizard waving his wand...
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Especially when you are aboard the Folly. Lampshaded word for word.
  • Been There, Shaped History: In one story set in Captain Foster's past, he stumbles upon the peace talks between The Federation and the Rakshani. He diverts those talks in directions the big felines would survive.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Do NOT attempt to harm a Chakat's cub. You will find the experience to be painful.
    • Do NOT attempt to harm anyone Neil Foster considers to be under his care. You might not survive.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Chakats will happily befriend just about anybody they encounter if given the chance, but don't push their (thankfully few) Berserk Buttons...
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: The Faleshkarti. Seriously. Just read the last 10 to 15% of And the Children Shall Lead.
  • Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: The Folly's rabbit chef likes to add this kind of spice to meals when she thinks her captain or fellow crew-members aren't paying attention to her culinary efforts. She has learned to tighten up her aim after a group she wasn't targeting sampled the spiced up stew she left out for the captain, who had, as usual, skipped dinner.
    • She put four drops of a rare, Caitian spice into a half-full pot of stew when a single drop would have been sufficient for a full pot.
  • Bondage Is Bad: Averted, male-on-female domination is taboo in Foxtaur culture but somehow it helps Garrek deal with the aftereffects of being flooded with mating pheromones. Also, BDSM-play is still legal in the Federation if you take the required safety classes.
  • Born as an Adult: Leanna and pretty much any other similar slave morph. Leanna was "decanted" as a young adult, rather than as a child. This creates the morally scary economic benefit of slaves ready to work as soon as they are decanted.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Neal's Betsy is no ordinary shotgun. The ammo tube contains a transporter target beacon so Tess can transmit more rounds during a firefight.
  • Brain Bleach: Stew wants some after discussing her desire for children with Neal.
    Neil: If (the Bunny Brothers) do say yes, you just might find out from docs Kelly or M’Lai first." At (Stew's) confused look, he smiled. "Unless you want them coming after you with a turkey baster!"
    [Stew] stared at him moment, then closed her eyes. After another moment, she groaned. "Thanks a lot! Now I can’t get that image out of my head!"
  • Brother–Sister Incest: Forestwalker, Goldfur, and Quickpaw; Garrek and Malena. Among others.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: During the rewritten Tales of the Folly Part 2, Captain Foster pulls an unusual heroic variant of this. Then again, trouble seems to follow him around, and the locals are very aware of this fact.
    Brajet shook her head. “Not even lunchtime and you’ve already got some of the local cops mad at you. Why do I have the bad feeling that this will be one of your more interesting visits?”
    Neal grinned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about; it’s just another day in the life for me.”
    Looking at his young ‘crew’, Brajet muttered, “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
  • But I Can't Be Pregnant!:
    • Chakat Midnight gets this thanks to a mischievous Rakshani fertility deity.
    • Rakshani fertility deities get around. There are several characters who find themselves in this position thanks to them.
    • Thayla was old enough to be under the impression that she was menopausal. Turns out she wasn't.
  • Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": Two feline alien races, Caitans and Rakshani, are named after a fictional feline race and a race of evil spirits from Asian legends.
  • Casual Interstellar Travel: And Neil Foster makes it even better/faster. Not to mention, more efficient.
  • Canon Discontinuity: During the early years when it was mostly just Doove writing in the universe, a great deal of things were said, or allowed, that Doove has said a number of times that, if he could go back and redo it, wouldn't be in the universe. It's probably a good idea not to put too much stock in what characters said and it may be best if you avoid talking about parts of the universe that are overly Star Trek-ish, or those guys who sound an awful lot like the Empire.
  • Cat Folk: Chakats are hermaphroditic feline centaurs. Additionally, you've got Caitans, Rakshani, and other cat-morphs.
  • Christmas Episode: The final chapter of the Flight of the Phoenix is one of these.
  • Cold Equation: During the first chapter of the "More Terrible Than Chains" story, a slave ship breaks down light years from anyplace habitable. One of the crew wants to protect their significant investment. The captain understands the limitations of the life pods.note 
    "Idiot! You know the life pods are designed solely to support a certain number of people for a certain amount of time. Add just one slave and no one in that pod may get to the destination alive."
    • Fortunately, this enables the Federation to rescue the left-behind slaves without resistance.
  • Combat Pragmatist: One of Neal Foster's many Hats.
  • Containment Field: Little page time is given to them, but they are there, especially when an author starts discussing antimatter.
  • Cool Starship: Neal Foster's Folly exemplifies this trope. The FSS Pegasus definitely counts as well.
  • Corrupt Church: Any story involving the 'Holy' Christian Kingdom of North America is going to involve some combination of racism, terrorism, human/alien/morph experimentation, or just plain murder. The priests who don't engage in hypocritical sermons, abuse of powernote , or outright blasphemynote  are typically full-blown terrorists.
  • Crossover: Doove went full Brony in October of 2013 and began posting Pony stories over on Fimfiction.net. In June of 2017, he started posting a story called Cosmic Lotus. On 22 Oct. 2017, ponies and Chakats met each other face to face in chapter 17.
  • Cruel Mercy: Allen Fesler loves this trope. His character Neal Foster pulls this off often enough for it to be one of his Hats.
    • At one point, Captain Foster leaves a pirate ship with nothing but life support. Getting anything else running means shutting off the breathable air.
    Desertwind: Displeased indeed, if he had chosen to not give them a clean death.
  • D-Cup Distress: Multiple examples. Two stand-outs:
    • Pandora was an amply bosomed vixen from a foxtaur tribe where small breasts were the norm and got teased mercilessly for it, called a "cow" often. Of course this made her quite attractive to those outside her village, including her human mate.
    • Skunktaur Darkwave was embarrassed by the large breasts hy got when in female phase, mostly because hys first change was on the day of a big soccer game and hy was thrown off balance.
  • Deflector Shields: Both ship-mounted and personal shields have been mentioned in different stories.
  • Distracted by My Own Sexy: A few days after his unfortunate Teleporter Accident, Dale spends a few moments checking out his new, larger, more impressive body in a mirror. Only to be interrupted by an admiring Lupu.
  • Divided States of America: Nearly every large nation was destroyed in World War III. America is now divided into six commonwealths, and Australia has become the new center of the world.
  • Dominant Species Genes: When chakats mate with older species of "taur"; such as Terran foxtaurs, wolftaurs, and non-hermaphroditic cattaurs, the cubs are always chakats with some of their other parents' coloration. But when chakats interbreed with either of the species derived from them, skunktaurs and stellar foxtaurs, offspring take after the mother, and given that they're all Hermaphrodites that could be either parent.
  • Double Standard Rape: Female on Male /Sci-fi:
    • Averted; Garrek is severely traumatized, and it's made clear that he'll be affected for life.
    • Malena was rather traumatized as well, she had no idea that flooding him with mating pheromones would make him so... aggressive.
  • Dramatic Irony: Technically, all humans are the descendants of gene-mods, as humanity reached a bottleneck after World War III and the government felt the need to augment humanity to survive the post-apocalypse. All those Human First bigots are recombinants themselves.
    • In one possible timeline, homo-sapiens on Earth went extinct because some bigot tried to assassinate a morph, hit a human, who was given an Emergency Transformation into a chakat, and the results of the case study led to a breakthrough in transformation technologynote , which evolved over time into instant nanomachine gratification, eventually convincing the 'victorious' Humans First movement on Earth to splice themselves upnote  until every last human became a morph.
    • "Wolves in the Snow" is about how the most infamous genocidal maniacs in human history inadvertently diversified the human race into multiple species, when their genetically-engineered wolftaur war-beasts went rogue, defected to Russia, and helped advocate genetic engineering decades before the first commercial morphs were born.
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty: One episode of "Tales of the Folly" gives us Kestrel pushing this trope for a little while.
  • Drop Ship: In chapter 8 of Tales of the Folly, Capt. Foster's personnel shuttle is described as an "...old assault shuttle...". Given the setting, said shuttle tends to fit this trope rather well.
  • Emergency Transformation: A favorite of the setting, often involving some human ending up in an unfamiliar furry body. See Teleporter Accident and Touched by Vorlons below.
  • Et Tu, Brute?: In chapter 7 of Tales of the Folly, Neal has been injured in some spaceport drama. Not only are his mates, companions and children trying to tie him down in a sickbay bed, so is his ship. He then proceeds to quote Julius Caesar.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: The 'Holy' Christian Kingdom of North America is an intentional breeding ground for ultra-racist terrorists. However, even they realize they cannot tolerate Pedophile Priests, so they chemically castrate the clergy to prevent any instance of religious rape, despite the consequences for their criminal families.
  • Everybody Wants the Hermaphrodite: Numerous examples of supposedly straight or even bigoted characters falling for Chakats. Other herms aren't always so lucky.
  • Exact Words: This trope pops up quite frequently in these stories.
    • At one point Neal trips up his guests with the number of colonies he's supporting.
      "Wait a minute, the only reason to be sending some of these types of hardware to an unknown destination is if you’re…" Everyone turned to look at M’Lai as she stared at Neal. "You’re supporting a colony!"
      Neal: "Nice try, but I am not supporting a colony."
      M'Lai: "But, that’s the only thing that fits! Unless you like throwing expensive equipment out the airlock while hiding for long periods of time!"
      Midnight laughed. "Easy M’Lai, the key word he’s jerking you around with is ‘a’. He said he’s not supporting ‘a’ colony." Looking at Neal, shi asked, "So just how many colonies are dependent on you and the Folly?"
    • Later, Neal Foster uses the Exact Words of some badly misbehaving cubs against them, using Tess' transporters to shower them with the nuts they had been throwing at his cubs only minutes earlier, using the phrases "It’s just a little harmless fun, and it’s not like anyone is getting hurt" against his cubs' tormentors.
    • Inverted by Karl Whitepaw, who is being pursued by his vengeful, spiteful ex-wife. She has an arrest warrant drawn up that is so rigid that it cannot be applied to Karl due to his new surname.
    • If you are not careful with wishes in the presence of Rakshani Deities, they will throw this trope at you with a mischievous laugh that you will never even hear.
  • Exotic Extended Marriage: Chakats are polyamorous, with a saying that "love doesn't divide, it multiplies". Denmating is the equivalent of bf/gf/hf, while permanent lifemating may occur after a full year of denmating. In addition, Foxtaurs and Caitians are polygynous due to skewed gender ratios (3-1 and 8-1 females to males respectively). The former two species are Terran, but uncommon enough on earth that mates of different species have to get used to their idea of monogamy as a foreign concept.
  • Explosive Breeder: The Faleshkarti suffer from this. When they reach maturity they become obsessed with sex, sex triggers a hormone that decreases their intelligence, and the only way to slow the hormone's progression is to get pregnant. Also, they're Hermaphrodites so every single one of them can give birth. When the Federation makes contact with them every inch of land on their homeworld is covered with arcologies and the oceans had been converted into massive algae farms. Federation geneticists eventually discover a way to prevent the neural degradation and lower their sex drives, which was rather fortunate as they were breeding more quickly than they could colonize new planets.
  • Explosive Overclocking: Captain Foster discusses this with respect to overloaded warp core failures.
    • In the rewritten and expanded chapter 2 of Tales of the Folly, Captain Foster wrecks half of his ship by this means when he weaponizes his transporters in order to take out some planet bound siege turrets.
  • Fan of the Past: Various characters come off as this to some extent. Neal Foster lives this, mostly owing to being 200+ years old.
  • Fantastic Racism: Some stories revolve around specist, anti-furry sentiment. One story features an anti-human wolf.
  • Fantastic Ship Prefix: All federation starships, regardless of type or class receive the prefix FSS.
  • Flat Character: Given the loads of characters in the story, and the large number of contributors, not all the characters are well developed.
  • Flanderization: Humans First started out as just being some sort of crackpot political movement as Earth for Humanity. Then one day they got cranked up to 11, and had several riots worldwide. This seems to happen quite a bit within the Chakona Space setting, especially with guest authors.
  • Food Fight: The Folly features "Alternate Thursdays" which involve pies and replicators. And needing to take baths afterwards.
  • Foster Kid: Captain Foster has a history of adopting youngsters. The first time, it was at a young colony planet that had just suffered a catastrophic loss of parents and other adults. The current batch had simply wanted to visit an orbiting ship and stowed away in the wrong shipping container. See also: Happily Adopted, below.
  • Free-Love Future: The Chakats have a saying, "Love Multiplies, it Does Not Divide".
  • Friendly Tickle Torture: Neal Foster loves dishing this out.
  • Gender Bender: Skunktaurs. They are described as being hermaphrodites, but they are only one sex at a time, so... Also at least one other herm character.
    • There are also herms who are biased to prefer one gender but look like what they prefer. It causes some level of trouble for such characters.
  • Gender Rarity Value: Because of their skewed gender ratio, foxtaurs practice polygyny but they also discourage if not outright forbid Todds from "dangerous" professions such as hunting or Starfleet. Moreover, village-associated foxtaur todds have an "obligation" to have sex with any vixens who want them in a one week period every five years.
  • Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: The Gene Wars occurred because people did not see anything wrong with the creation and treatment as slaves versions of humans based on other lineages than primates. Also, the Pro-Morph side created "War Beasts", and Chakats are arguably Peacekeeping Beasts.
  • Genre Savvy: See: But for Me, It Was Tuesday above.
  • Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: In Forest Tales #29, Goldendale does this to Swiftwalk.
  • God in Feline Form: In two of Allen Fesler's 'Tales of the Folly' installments, we get Rakshani Deities appearing in the associated artwork. Instead of tiger stripes, they get wings, leopard style spots, and heads more like a lynx or bobcat. Though some of the design of an individual Deity may well depend on the imagination of the character viewing the Deity in question.
  • Happily Adopted: Most of Captain Foster's first group of adopted, furry children look up to Neal with a variety of positive emotions, and view their time aboard the Folly as a good thing. His current group is leaning this way as well. Especially Cindy Grayson.
  • Happiness in Slavery:
    • Leanna explains that there are, in fact, worlds where type 1's can be found. Hir homeworld, Pharos, isn't one of them.
    • Due to extreme conditioning, Shi is stuck in type 3 territory with her new, chosen master, Admiral Kline, who hates slavery.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Ketta.
  • Hermaphrodite:
    • Chakats, Skunktaurs, Stellar Foxtaurs, many hyenas, some individuals of other morph types. And one genderqueer human who got genetic surgery.
    • Non-Terran example: Faleshkarti
  • Hold Up Your Score: During chapter 7 of Tales of the Folly, a few Chakats have some fun. When they finish, they are subjected to being rated by the rest of the crew and passengers of the Folly. Most give average scores, but one of the scorecards is marked "HOLY #%#^^$$!!". Later, in chapter 9, a pair who didn't realize they were quite so noisy get busy after work and affect all on board. Afterward, they are greeted by everyone holding the "HOLY #%#^^$$!!" card. Neal lampshades this when he comments: "We sometimes find the scale we’re using isn’t quite large enough for what we’re trying to measure."
  • Hormone-Addled Teenager: It comes up in multiple stories, but notably Tales of the Folly, that the heat/rut cycle means that teenaged Chakats (and to a lesser extent older ones) become at least as hormonal as human teens, and it doesn't help matters that they are empaths and tend to unintentionally project their arousal and pleasure
  • Human Aliens: Subverted in the Chakat Universe. Voxxans are aliens who are almost indistinguishable from genetically engineered plantigrade foxmorphs from Earth. Their cultures even share similarities with Terran Western culture, allowing them to adjust and blend in easily.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters:
    • Like a lot of Furry stories, we have the Human's First movement. Or terrorist group. Or... something.
    • There's also the Non-Aligned Worlds where slavery of morphs is still practiced.
  • I Call It "Vera": Neal Foster's shotgun, Betsy. Also Mike's version, Thumper.
  • I Know You Know I Know: While on shore leave from the Folly, Mike, Alex and Roseberry find a crooked gambling hall. The in-house roulette wheel cheater gets caught and calls security, (a telepath) who backs down when confronted by Alex, who could probably take out the two much larger musclebound bouncers with him. The three Folly teens also engage the security type in some Psychic Static mindgames.
    Roseberry:“Whatever you two were thinking it was sufficient to almost make hym piss hymself. Me, I was wondering if Tess was already telling Neal we’d run into a little problem.”
    Mike grinned at hir. “And hy knew that we knew that they’re rigging their games.”
    Alex grinned as well. “Ruined hys whole day being able to read us and know we didn’t think we were bluffing.”
  • Informed Flaw: Chakats in general are suppose to suffer from a number of flaws (like requiring more room, more food) that receive little page time. Outside of that, Goldfur (the character) is supposedly less trusting of strangers after one cub was kidnapped and nearly killed, and another IS killed in a riot. Little has been seen of this as yet.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: Chapter 3 of Doove's Flight of the Phoenix series features a pair of "Ambassadors" who kill their servant and dump hir body at the base of a stairwell. Captain Yote announces the death of said servant (without including details) and one of them snarks about making sure the stairwells are properly safe, instantly implicating "him"self in said death.
  • Interspecies Romance: Too many to list. It's generally accepted that taurs can only procreate with other taurs and bipedal morphs with other morphs and sometimes with humans, though there are many exceptions due to genetic tinkering and above mentioned mischievous fertility Deities.
  • Innocent Fanservice Girl: Chakats, and pretty much every other character has no compunction about walking around nude. Of course, because these are prose stories, we'd never get to see such... if it weren't for the illustrations.
  • Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: Neither Tess (the original) nor Tina (the copy) know how Tina came about, but all involved are happy with the results.
  • Intelligent Gerbil: Most Morphs are bipedal tetrapods, but some, such as the Chakats, are quadrupedal hexapods known as taurs.
  • ISO Standard Human Spaceship: A wide variety of different ship types here.
    • The Folly is a long pod-carrying interstellar freighter. An early configuration of this vessel looked sort of like a corn cob with some of the kernels missing, thus one of its early names.
      • The Folly also carries several classes of shuttle for moving cargo pods as well as a personnel shuttle described as a refitted assault shuttle.
      • The Folly also sails with a military detachment consisting of a pair of light carriers and a pair of escort destroyers for a while.
    • The Phoenix is a former Star Corps exploration ship refitted as a cargo ship.
    • Descriptions of Admiral Kline's flagship, the Pegasus, fail to give it any kind of descriptive class, but we can guess based on it being an admiral's flagship.
    • Pirate-operated Q ships get plenty of mention.
  • It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Chakats are mentioned to be highly susceptible to this. Forestwalker seems particularly bad off with it.
  • I Was Never Here: In Chapter 3 of the Tales of the Folly series, Captain Foster tells Shadowchaser: "They are not here, you did not see them." regarding some rescued Rakshani recovering on his ship.
  • Jedi Mind Trick:
    • Pulled off by a variety of Chakats at different times and in different places.
    • Surprisingly averted by Redpaw (Telepathy) Skunktaurs, due to Mind over Manners.
  • Law of Inverse Fertility: Some supposedly compatible character pairs have a difficult time making babies, and several supposedly incompatible couples are surprised with cubs. (See But I Can't Be Pregnant!, above.)
    • Best example: Forestwalker's foxmorph mates, Katrina Snowfox and Kris Fletcher. Though they are still different species (arctic and red, respectively).
      • When Leanna (herm fennec morph, originally believed sterile thanks to a lying, bastard owner) joins their mating group shi quickly conceives kits with both Trina and Kris.
    • Thanks to a mischievous Rakshani fertility deity, Admiral Kline gets a supposedly incompatible Caitan, Rakshani, and finally a Chakat pregnant before people catch on that there's something unusual about his sperm.
    • In the "Next Generations" stories Kline's granddaughter Stargazer was conceived in a similar manner to three of hir oldest aunts and uncles. Hir mother was one of his Chakat daughters and shi discovered that his ability to breed with anything was hereditary after sleeping with a bipedal cougar.
    • A Rakshani hermaphrodite gets this due to having a relationship with a (also herm) Terran anthro cat due to, again, fertility deities.
    • But overall the majority of cubs and kits are conceived intentionally.
  • Legacy Character: Other characters think this way about Captain Foster. They think the older Foster is the father or grandfather of the current Captain of the Folly. Captain Foster inverts it by being the Fountain-of-Youth-Makeover-enhanced Original. (See Longevity Treatment below.)
  • Living Lie Detector: Chakats and Redpaw Skunktaurs are all about this. Also, possibly, anyone living with Neal Foster long enough.
  • Living Ship: The Stariionae are inorganic beings capable of faster than light travel, whose native habitat is the vacuum of space. Though one of them DID have a passenger compartment strapped on for one story.
  • Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard: Even when he can't remember who he is, resident Almighty Janitor, Neal Foster MacGuyvers his way out of trouble by rigging the automatic doors and artificial gravity plating.
  • Longevity Treatment: Neal Foster was accidentally subjected to experimental gene therapies during (or even before) the Gene Wars, increasing his longevity. Later he is subjected to a form of rejuvenation via transporters that have been Touched by Vorlons. Although the longevity treatments are kept when he resets, his bones still age normally, thus aging faster than the rest of his body.
  • Loophole Abuse: Captain Foster has told his latest young crew that they are only allowed off the ship and onto the station in groups of 3 or more. Shadowcrest (11 years old) takes Holly and Quickdash (7 years each) with hir and twists the rule into a pretzel by exploring the station.
  • Lost Colony: In "Little Cub Lost" Goldfur and Garrek's cub Eudora stumbles upon a technologically regressed tribe of miniature foxtaurs created by a pre-Starfleet colony.
    • Also Holme in Cassandra Foxx's "Coming Home Again" series.
  • Lover, Not a Fighter: Forestwalker is the non-violent type and mentions this trope by name at least once.
  • Low Culture, High Tech: The Stariionae have quantum computers for brains, phase-shifting technology, nigh-indestructible hulls, anti-swarm weaponry, nuclear material processors, and what have you. They're all stuck in a Warring States bandit culture, practice cannibalism out of necessity, and have no idea who designed them or how any of their bodily functions work.
  • Machine Empathy: Goldfur is just made of this trope. Shi even lampshades it at one point. Swiftwalk points it out again, later. Hir abilities in this area reach for, but don't quite hit Technopath territory.
  • Magnetic Weapons: Captain Foster's Betsy is just a little more powerful than it looks.
    Narration: Neal’s old shotgun only looked old fashioned; the rings along the barrel and the ‘choke’ were magnetic. When used with solid rounds, the weapon did double duty as a baby rail-gun, boosting the speed of the projectile far beyond what the gunpowder could do.
  • Marshmallow Hell: Appears in one chapter of the Tales of the Folly series. It gets reinforced by the associated illustration. If you read carefully, there are others scattered around.
  • Massive Numbered Siblings:
    • Many Chakats fall into this but the Goldfur / Forestwalker household is heading into overdose with this one.
    • Goldfur fathered 2 (Malena, Lupu), Garrek x Goldfur 2x, Garrek x Malena (Triplets!), Midnight x Forest (Twins), Forest x Midnight, Boyce x Midnight, Boyce x Forest, Kris x Katrina, Kris x Leanna, Leanna x Katrina. Since Goldendale is still living with Goldfur and Forest: Dale x Lupu. (Dale x Swiftwalk on the way.)
    • For the math impaired: 16 various cubs with another on the way.
    • Not related to Goldfur / Forestwalker but worth mentioning: The 2 different sets of cubs adopted by Neil Foster. Also, 5 of his many mates and companions are pregnant with 6 more cubs, all due at about the same time.
      • He treats all of them as though he was in fact a biological parent. He plans to treat the 6 yet to come exactly the same.
    • All of them are Playing with a Trope as only small groups share even a single parent, and some don't share any.
  • Mathematician's Answer: Neal Foster and company love this trope.
    Kestrel: "Well?" she snapped, "What is it? A few hundred? Or a few thousand?"
    Neal: "Yes" with a smile.
    The "correct" answer was more like several hundred thousand.
    • Later, in chapter 7, Quickdash and Holly are asked if they would rather fly or repair a slightly damaged shuttle. Their answer: "Yes!"
    • Again with Stew only a few hours of story time later when Neal asks if something was caused by Tess or Deities.
  • Matter Replicator: They have a few minor limitations but still prove useful. Especially on the Folly during "Alternate Thursdays".
  • May–December Romance: Garrek and Thayla.
    • Longstocking and Darkstar, though at 106 Darkstar is "just" middle-aged.
    • Martin and Bethany.
  • Meaningful Name: Many Chakats are named for their appearance or a dominant personality trait. Foxtaurs often get meaningful surnames.
  • Mile-Long Ship: Captain Foster's Folly is described as being on the order of 2 kilometers long.
  • Mind Link Mates: Quickdash and Holly are developing this. It is a common trait among Chakats.
  • Mind over Manners: Skunktaurs are often mentioned as having a strong code of ethics regarding their telepathic Talents.
  • Mind over Matter: Bluepaw skunktaurs, as well as Chakats with Bluepaw skunktaur ancestry display telekinetic abilities.
  • Monumental Damage: In different stories, it is revealed that the Hoover Dam and the Eiffel Tower were both destroyed during the Gene Wars. The Eiffel Tower was rebuilt. Hoover Dam wasn't.
  • Must Have Caffeine: Admiral Boyce Kline and his Chipinge coffee.
  • My Defense Need Not Protect Me Forever: Played with in the hands of a stowaway:
    Penelope Windsor: "I didn’t have to stay hidden for the entire trip," [...] "Only for as long as it took for it to be too late to turn back."
  • My Grandson, Myself: Contributing author Allen Fessler gives us the Tales of the Folly series. The Folly's captain, Neil Foster is somewhere north of 200 and due to his teleporters having been Touched by Vorlons, he gets occasional "fountain of youth" makeovers and is able to pull off this trope convincingly. Other characters assume that the older version of foster they knew / see pictures of and the one they now see are grandfather and grandson respectively. At least one non-human character is convinced it's the same man.
  • Noodle Incident: Played with during chapter 9 of Tales of the Folly. Neal's fist set of adopted cubs managed to get into some kind of trouble that they don't want Tess disclosing. Turns out, it involved bringing home a mistreated sex slave...
  • No Periods, Period: One of many improvements in Chakats.
  • The Nose Knows: Most of the furry characters in this universe have very keen noses. It is mentioned the supplemental materials that Chakats have a sniffer on par with other felines, but with their high intelligence, they would make trackers equal to the best bloodhounds.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Leanna pulls this off early on, but can't get it to fly past Forestwalker.
  • Oh, My Gods!: A variety of variations of this can be seen in the various stories on the site.
    • Chakats frequently use some variation of "Makers!".
    • Since they do have plenty of Deities, Rakshans can sometimes be heard calling to them.
  • Older Than They Look: Thanks to his transporters (see Longevity Treatment above), Neil and many of his colonists, a few of his friends and all 14 of his Rakshani Marines fall into this trope.
  • One Nation Under Copyright / Company Town: Neal Foster mentions that many interstellar colonies wind up this way due to corrupt corporations taking over existing colonies. Complete with quoting a line from the classic song, "Sixteen Tons".
    • Then again, some colonies start out this way.
  • Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Weaver attributes this trope to Neal Foster, but little if any page time is given to it.
    Neal: “I’ve been trying not to make the same mistakes that I made with Chase’s group. I just keep forgetting your group’s dynamics and reasoning are different from what theirs was.”
    Weaver: “I guess that helps explain why you always seem to be putting your foot in your mouth…”
    Neal: “…and wiggling my toes. Yes, I know. Each of your accounts has more than enough to get you home in style. The only reason to hang around any longer is because you want to.”
  • Our Centaurs Are Different: Chakats have the upper torso of a female humanoid cat sprouting from what should be the neck of a massive pantherid cat with both male and female sexual organs. The other "tauric" races change the animal involved around as appropriate — skunks, foxes, horses, etc — but keep the same arrangement. Although most varieties are single sex versions.
  • Paint the Town Red: In a recent story set in Neal Foster's more distant past, Allen Fesler's character plays with the artificial gravity plating, then points out some stains on the ceiling to a recalcitrant new crew member.
  • Papa Wolf:
    • Neil Foster. Full stop. (See Berserk Button above)
    Captain Foster: “Oh yes, I have that mindset. You’ll find I have no problems with removing someone or something that I see as a threat to me or those under my care. I see nothing wrong with teaching others to be able to protect themselves and those they care for.”
    • All Chakats are this. And Mama Bear.
    • Same goes for a number of other races, for example Stellar Foxtaurs are highly protective of not only their own cubs but those of their entire clan (since they practice population control and only a few are allowed to breed).
  • Parental Incest: In the Life's Dream side-story. Also during Karl and Pandora's series their oldest daughter claimed him for Obligation (to Karl's dismay).
  • Path of Inspiration: The Holy Christian Kingdom of North America is basically this; the whole kingdom is set up as a twisted mega-fundamentalist nation where all the Holier Than Thou human supremacists gather to debase and insult non-humans. In reality, it's a breeding ground for terrorist cells; the kingdom extorts its populace, blames the morphs, and recruits disgruntled young men as cannon fodder. But most of the upper leadership are anti-religious, and the cells are put to work testing unethical military technology and turning Earth into a terrorized police state. Most of the minions don't realize their victims include a very large portion of humanity.
    • H1 itself is portrayed as a mad cult of human supremacists seeking to rid Earth of morphs and aliens. It is implied to be even worse in "All Our Times Have Come"; it's actually a massive criminal syndicate that spans multiple planets and persecutes minorities (including human minorities) mainly for power and profit. Frederike's story shows that the mastermind controlling H1 and the terrorist cells is not religious, and treats them as minions:
    Humans First Mastermind:"Ah, for each minion, we put on another mask. Computer, save modified holographic double alpha-zero-fivenote  and end program."
  • Person as Verb: Neal Foster has been known to work anywhere from 12 to 36 hours straight, often skipping meals or otherwise working through meals. In chapter 6 of "Tales of the Folly", Neal's apprentice engineers try to "pull a Foster" and do the same thing.
  • Planet of Hats: Both averted and played straight, depending on the author. Pretty much every species is defined as acting in such and such a manner.
    • Of special note: The Non-Aligned World of Celeste. Each human is given a psychologically matched furry companion at the age of 10.
  • Poke in the Third Eye: In chapter 7 of Tales of the Folly, Neal Foster manages to poke Windsong's third eye by making her think hir tail was scorched.
    • Quickdash later threatens to do worse to the same Chakat.
  • Polyamory: Most Chakats have multiple mates, they rate the level of seriousness by "companion", "denmate", and "lifemate"; denmate being the level where they're typically willing to have kids if compatible. And they have casual sex with many more people. In addition Foxtaurs and Caitians practice polygyny due to shortages of males. Monogamous characters are kind of in the minority.
  • The Pornomancer: It would be an exaggeration to accuse every chakat or foxtaur in every "Forest Tales" story ever of possessing this trait. However, it would not be a huge exaggeration.
  • Portmanteau Couple Name: A canon example in the form of Charles and Katherine Turner, the creators of Chakats. invoked
    • Strange example would be Quickwind and Shortdash and their cub Quickdash.
  • Power Incontinence: The morning after being "processed", we learn that Shadowcrest has been Touched by Vorlons and is unable to control hir newly ennhanced Psychic Powers.
  • Power-Strain Blackout: Swiftwalk is headed for this in one story. Shi renegotiates her teleportation contract to fix the problem.
  • Prehensile Tail: Chakats have a very strong one.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: Rakshani in general.
  • Psychic Powers:
    • Chakats all possess Empathy to some degree.
    • Telepathy, Telekinesis and Astral Projection also exist, mostly in other genetically engineered races.
      • The skunktaurs are the best known examples, being divided into three "houses" that each possess a different ability.
    • One Skunktaur / Chakat hybrid develops a talent for Teleportation and masters its uses.
  • Psychic Radar: Some Chakats are written to be masters of this, while others merely pull it off.
  • Psychic Static: Chakat Swiftwalk finds hirself on the wrong end of an electronic box called a 'Jangler'. It was intended to overload her empathic talents enough to nearly incapacitate hir. The antagonists in that chapter failed to remember hir Astral Projection talent or hir connections.
  • Puppy-Dog Eyes: Penny tries this trick but it kinda falls on its face when she... "gave (Captain) Yote her best wide-eyed helpless waif look, which might have worked a lot better if she wasn’t so well fed and sexy."
  • Readings Are Off the Scale: During one chapter of 'Tales of the Folly', a small fleet of Starfleet's finest hitch a ride on the Folly. The sensor tech on one of the ships is having trouble believing the readings being sent to his systems.
    Sensor Tech Carson: "Well, for one thing, your passive scans are ‘showing’ non-powered objects at five times the range my sensors could, and the couple of times your people went active my display wouldn’t scale far enough out to see what they were looking at!"
  • Really 700 Years Old: Neal Foster is well over 200 during most of the stories that feature him. Some of his colonists are well over 100.
    • A recent story from another author hints that Neal might be something more like 300+, as he was recognized by one of his former neighbors, who cryogenically froze herself in the 21st century.
  • Refuge in Audacity: How Neal Foster tells some of his "lies". It's the "third method of lying" according to him, the first being Blatant Lies, the second being lies by omission.
  • Road Trip Plot: Lots and lots of them. All three varieties. With several interstellar type 2 trips due to both Goldfur and Midnight being in the Stellar Services. More interstellar trips occur in other stories.
    • Alan Fesler's "Tales of the Folly" is set on a starship, causing the entire series to be a giant Type 1, with the smaller side trips being Type 3s.
  • Roaring Rampage of Rescue / Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
    • Neal Foster has played both sides of this one and has blurred the line on Tranquil Fury as well.
    • One rampage left some of his adopted cubs with such a bitter taste that it still causes tensions decades later.
  • Rouge Angles of Satin: Crops up now and than. Moreso in the older stories and form the less-talented writers.
  • Scaramanga Special: In one chapter of the "Flight of the Star Phoenix" sub-series, a group of hijackers pulls this off in conjunction with slow chargers for the energy pistol's power cells to further avoid detection by the ship's crew.
  • Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: One of the stories mentioned that the Gene Wars, which happened during the late 21st century, killed off over 20 billion. Keep in mind that as of 2010, the population of Planet Earth is estimated at only 6 billion.
    • Keep in mind that figure isn't just humans, morphs were artificially produced and in many cases were designed to breed quickly.
    • Same trope, different category: One of Allen Fesler's Tales of the Folly stories mentions cargo pods attached to the Folly as being 60 meter cubes. While the Folly's 2km overall length would certainly support these, the shuttles Capt. Foster uses to ferry them to the surface are either: a) truly monstrous in size, or b) carrying smaller pods, or c)the pods aren't as symmetrical as mentioned. (60m equals nearly 200 feet)
      • The pods are later shown to contain several decks filled with smaller cargo carriers, which are in turn comparable to contemporary shipping containers so it's a).
  • Secret Test of Character: Neal tests any adult passengers or crew by having them cub-sit. If the cubs break them, they fail. So far all have passed.
  • Settling the Frontier: What Chakats, Skunktaurs, and Stellar Foxtaurs were designed for.
  • Sex Shifter: Skunktaurs.
  • Sex Slave: Leanna Fennec and a lot of others from the planet shi came from.
    • One human saves a foxtaur from committing suicide. However, he's a cynical outlaw and promptly pimps her out.
  • Shipper on Deck: Forestwalker. She's probably responsible for the births of hundreds of kids from dozens of potential mates paired up near-perfectly with each other. Apparently she arranges love-centered marriages like a science. Partly justified thanks to her high psychic empathy rating.
  • Shout-Out: Enough that they have their own page.
  • Sinister Minister: Reverend Hughes; man of God by day, ruthless religious terrorist by night. He's a recurring antagonist, and a surprisingly competent agent, despite being completely duped into working for less-than-religious masterminds.
    • Nun Too Holy: His second-in-command, Yuki, pretends to be a nun faithfully working under Hughes. She doesn't believe in the cause; she just wants to torture morphs with experimental technology.
  • Smelly Skunk: Skunktaurs are mentioned as periodically participating in "stinky times". Apparently, these events require special soap and/or shampoo to clean up the aftermath.
  • Space Amish: The general tech level of most foxtaur clans / villages. Though the vast majority are on earth due to Territorial Attachment Syndrome.
  • Space People: Starwalker Stellar foxtaurs, Stariionae
  • Space Pirates: Several stories featuring pirates, bandits and terrorist groups who just happen to operate starships.
  • Spaceship Girl: The private starship Phoenix has Madeline, in the "on life support and hooked up to the ship's computer with holographic avatars" sense.
    • To a slightly lesser extent, the Folly has Tess, a deity-enhanced AI.
    • The Folly, being something of an interstellar Airborne Aircraft Carrier freighter, has one baby starship daughter ship called Gwendolyn. Gwen has a copy of Tess that Captain Foster simply calls Tina.
  • Space Station: These are quite popular in the Chakona Space 'Verse.
    • Major stations can be found orbiting Earth and Chakona. Others exist elsewhere.
    • A major station is under construction above Arisia.
    • Numerous mining stations also exist in other systems.
  • Species Surname: Plenty of cases.
    • Justified with Leanna Fennec. Shi was created in a Gene Lab and didn't get a surname until after shi was freed and given one by Forest.
  • Spin-Offspring: The "Next Generations" stories, so far about Boyce and Midnight's granddaughter Stargazer.
  • Stacy's Mom: Neal Foster encounters a little of this in one chapter when he accompanies Zhane to her parents' house.
    And if their mother, Yelest, was any indication of what the girls would look like when they got older, all Neal could think was ‘wow!’. Like her daughters, she was just over seven feet tall, and ‘stacked’ was the only word that fit. Not the kind of thoughts to be having of one’s ‘mother-in-law’ when ‘daddy-in-law’ was giving you the look that suggests that he’s wondering how small a box he could squeeze you into.
  • Standard Sci-Fi History: The Federation seems to be at its Apex with hints of being headed for the Decline; while precursor technologies and new alien civilizations are being discovered, racism is increasing to ridiculous levels.
  • Stupid Jetpack Hitler: Lars V. Jensen's "Wolves in the Snow" suggests that the Nazis created wolftaurs.
  • Subspace Ansible: It started life as a Star Trek fan-fic. Of Course it will have real-time interstellar commo.
    • For some reason, Neal Foster has access to relays he shouldn't otherwise have access to. But he's also laying down his own network of relays that the big commercial interstellar communications carriers won't be able to turn off.
  • Superior Species:
    • Chakats and Stellar Foxtaurs were deliberately designed as this.
    • One story deconstructed this, pointing out their superior immune systems were too good - they formed antibodies to lifesaving medications, requiring the development of immunosuppressive drugs.
    • One of their major weaknesses of superiority is higher needs - they have a higher calorie requirement, go berserk if they feel their loved ones need more safety, and if they spend too long without physical comfort from other Chakats, they will go completely insane. On a ship filled with hundreds of non-Chakats.
  • Super-Soldier:
    • What the Foxtaurs were originally designed for, but the Gene Wars ended before they could be deployed so they made up a story about being designed as park rangers, and made sure that their kits never knew the truth. This is implied to be the reason why mating pheromones awaken some kind of permanent ruthless warrior instinct in males, among other side effects.
    • Also what the Chakamils were designed to be, before their project was cancelled and most of the type were liquidated. Though at least one survived long enough to mate with a normal Chakat and produce an overly-aggressive cub (Darkstar, whose daughter and granddaughter inherited the same predispositions).
    • Saurons were designed to look like normal humans but produced deadly plagues, after the Gene Wars most of them were dropped off on a planet appropriately named Mordor, which Starfleet was eventually forced to sterilize from orbit.
  • Superweapon Surprise: See Weaponized Exhaust below. Also, Capt Foster's main cargo handling corridor. A batch of pirates get all the way to the front of his ship before he turns the gravity up to 100g's and turns the Powered Armor wearing Space Pirates into bullets aimed at their own ship.
  • Take a Third Option: Susan "Stew" Pebble pulls a 4th option variation on Neal one night:
    Stew: "I want a raise."
    Neal: ..."Monetary, title, or altitude?"
    Stew: "The first two would be nice, but they are not what I’m after. I’m not sure what you mean by the third. The fourth option please."
  • Technology Marches On: Brilliantly semi-lampshaded by Doove himself in one story in which a character is handed a memory chip containing several hundred gigabytes of data. Said data then being fed to a hand-held device.
    • Reality has delivered: SanDisk manages to squeeze 200 GB of capacity in a microSD card (consisting only of stacked chips and a bit of protective lacquer) and also makes 512 GB SD cards.
  • Telefrag: Takes a depressing turn as Krita's second child fails to teleport out of her womb without intersecting with her body, killing her by childbirth.
  • Teleporter Accident:
    • Dale Perkins is subjected to one of these. He becomes a chakat because of it.
    • The same story gives us the story of the first person in that 'verse to be transported. It did not go well.
    • Dale's accident is the basis for Professor Oceanwalker's deliberate application of this procedure. Shi and hir process also get featured in several other different stories in the 'verse.
    • Having been Touched by Vorlons, Neil Foster's transporters can perform a 'fountain of youth' makeover version of this.
    • One bunny was accidentally cloned due to a freak weather-influenced software glitch. Unfortunately, this used up his girlfriend's mass, killing her.
  • Thank the Maker: Chakats will often refer to "the makers" in this way—even though they know full well exactly who those makers were.
  • Thrown Out the Airlock: Several different versions and instances.
    • John R. Plunkett's "Star Dancer" series does this to one character.
    • The same contributing author gives us "Star Dancer Reunions" in which the main focus character performs a variation of this to the entire crew of the star ship she is on.
    • "Tales of the Foxtaur Clans: Briar Patch" has space pirates "disposing of" an entire clan of Starwalker foxtaurs this way. Big mistake, if you couldn't figure that out from the title already.
  • Tomato Surprise: From Garrek's perspective in his and Goldfur's Back Story, Goldfur is a Hermaphrodite. When he calms down and belatedly does his research (as he should have done in the first place) he is more comfortable with hir.
  • Took a Level in Badass: When she accidentally becomes a stowaway on the Folly, Cindy Grayson winds up on the receiving end of some self defense instruction. She also takes some advanced self-defense classes from a group of Rakshani Marines.
    • When her father, Charles Grayson finally catches up with her and shows up in Chakona's Council chambers, he tries to get physical with his daughter and Cindy mops the floor with him.
  • Touched by Vorlons: We get several different examples:
    • Boyce Kline is interfertile with any mammalian morph, taur, or alien species thanks again to at least one Deity.
    • Shamara, a Herm Rakshani, winds up fertile with any biped feline species thanks to a different Deity. Possibly the same one responsible for hir being born a herm in the first place (hir parents lost a male and a female child in an accident, apparently some Deity thought it would be amusing to replace them both in one), possibly another one.
    • Allen Fesler's character, Shadowcrest, is injured badly enough that an Emergency Transformation process is the only lifesaving measure likely to save hir. Hir natural empathic abilities go over 9000 thanks to some overenthusiastic Deities.
    • The transporters aboard the Folly are able to perform a "Fountain of Youth" makeover thanks to yet a different Deity (or three).
  • Touch Telepathy: Physical contact creates an unfilterable, unblockable link between the mind reader and pretty much anybody else. Especially another telepath. Not that the touch is required in the first place.
  • Token Human: Humans, especially main characters, are very much in the minority in these stories. Though they are still a major fraction of the Federation's population.
    • Captain Foster is the only human on the folly. His status as "Token human" is lampshaded in the ongoing rewrite of chapter 3.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Admiral Boyce Kline and his Chipinge coffee.
    Rosepetal: He’s been out for weeks, and there’s been no living with him!
  • Transplanted Humans: "The Colony" spin-off series has 500 21st century humans transformed into Chakats and dumped in the middle of the wilderness on some distant planet, somehow.
  • Traveling at the Speed of Plot: This will happen to characters in any of the stories set in space. Word of God suggests it only takes about three weeks or so to go from Earth to Chakona; expect this never to happen in the stories though.
    • Chakat Swiftwalk speeds any person-related plot to "now".
  • Twin Telepathy: While Quickdash and Holly aren't technically twins, they are collectively called the Terror Twins. And due to Quickdash's developing talents, there's lots of telepathic communication, so...
  • Tyke-Bomb:
  • Two of Your Earth Minutes: Pops up now and then when comparing Terran clocks vs. clocks on Chakona.
  • Understatement: Neil Foster is mentioned to be a master of this.
    Weaver (responding to an understated comment from Neil): "This coming from the man who calls the ocean damp and the surface of the sun warm."
  • Unobtainium: Contributing author Allen Fesler gives us Boronike which is apparently used in teleporter tech due to its inability to be teleported.
  • Unproblematic Prostitution: Several different stories in this 'verse mention licensed brothels. Some page time is devoted to the fact that some of the "Employees" at these establishments are former SexSlaves. Page time is also given to speculation on the happiness of said former sex slaves.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Between Martin Yote and Commander Bethany Oakwood in "Flight of the Phoenix", largely because her last relationship with a superior officer got her blacklisted by Starfleet. They keep it up for five years, until the final chapter.
  • Unusual Euphemism:
  • Unwanted Harem: Garrek claimed to have left home because of one of these. Inverted later: The village Alpha Bitch pursued several males.
  • Villain Decay: Over time, members of the "Humans First" movement have become either incredibly stupid with their actions and plans or rely on convoluted plots. One wonders why they don't just place a few car bombs, like normal terrorists.
    • They do occasionally commit acts of terrorism; cf. the stories Near Enough is Never Good Enough (roadside bomb used in backstory), Transformations (Airport-bomb in a Teleporter), and Retribution (in which how do we know they didn't literally use carbombs).
  • Weaponized Exhaust: An old fusion drive (Called a 'Torch Drive') is used to slice and dice one pirate vessel and seriously damage another. The incident is later discussed by Captain Foster in 2 different stories.
  • Weaponized Teleportation: Captain Foster and his AI Tess, love this trope. It's used often enough to be one of their more prominent Hats.
  • We Will Spend Credits in the Future: Galaxy-wide currency is the Fed-Cred.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The Gene Wars were caused by this, and certain people measure Morphs as less worthy than insects.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Whatever happened to Captain Foster's cockatiels? they were introduced in chapter 2, mentioned again in chapter 3, again in chapter 7 then... Nothing.
  • Word of God: Pretty much all the background information.
  • Younger Than They Look: Shadowcrest comes out of Neil Foster's "Processing" looking like shi's about 19 or 20. Shi is in fact more like 12 or 13.
  • You're Drinking Breast Milk: Played with in some stories, subverted or played straight in others. Chakats, particularly pregnant Chakats, drink their own or other Chakats' breast milk. A hormone in it leads Chakats who drink it to lactate themselves. Played the straightest in a story in which the college roommate of a chakat wet nurse drinks the milk shi leaves in the fridge without inquiring after its source.

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