2A/N: Just to be clear here … I am not a furry, mmmkay. Furries, furries are bad, mmmkay. Furries are bad, mmmkay. (Just kidding, I don't give a shit if you are, I don't even care if my porn has fur)
Nitpick #3: THE CIRCLE OF LIIIIIIIFE!
Life on the island of Menagerie was as peaceful and fun loving as ever. The tropical resort kingdom, as it had been jokingly called, brought in a number of tourists from all across Remnant.
There once was a concern about a crowded population, but they just solved it the same way that any other advanced civilization did, by building taller apartment buildings.
Besides, most of the blue-collar workers and their families lived in the deserts where most of the industrial centers were located. Salt water rusted factory machines pretty badly. Plus, desert-based Faunus have no trouble at all with the heat and dehydration – you ever seen a camel Faunus complain about the heat?
In fact, there wasn't a place on Remnant that Faunus kind couldn't inhabit, as long as there weren't any Grimm and they had the right species of animal in their genes. Arctic tundras, deserts, poisonous swamps, if something lives there then the Faunus can live there.
It was just one of the many reasons scientists believed that Faunus kind outperformed humans to extinction.
"Mommy! Mommy! Can you read me a bed time story?"
The young snake-Faunus said to her goat-Faunus mother, her gorilla-Faunus father was already passed out on his bed after a long day of work.
How do the genetics behind that work? I don't know, magic, fuck you.
"Alright dear, one story and then off to bed."
"Yessss!"
The young snake child raced to her bed and practically threw herself under the covers. The mother giggled at the adorable sight, and then checked the small bookshelf for one of the many children stories the parents had bought for their daughter.
"Hmmm, how does … the Tale of Humanity sound?"
"That one! That one!"
The mother sat on the rocking chair next to her daughter's bed, opening the book.
"Long ago, two races inhabited this world. Among them were the Faunus, a race blessed with the strengths of the creatures around them, but with the intelligence to use them to their full potential.
And sharing the world with them were the humans, a strange race that looked, walked, and talked just like the Faunus, but were not as one with the land around them as the Faunus were."
"What do humanssss look like, mommy?"
"Well, imagine me without my floppy ears, horns, my tail, and the fur on my arms and legs."
"… That'ssss sssso weird."
The mother laughed once again at her child's innocence, picking up where she left off right after.
"When these two races first met the Faunus were overjoyed with their new neighbors and wanted to share this world together. But the humans, a naturally fearful race, grew jealous and scared of the differences between them."
"Hello brothers! We are the Faunus, and we– "
"HOLY SHIT! HE HAS A WOLF TAIL!"
"U-uh, yes, we have some differences, but–"
"WE SHOULD GO TO WAR WITH THESE FREAKS!"
"But the Grimm, war will only attract Grimm that want to kill everybody! Our kinds will be too weak to fight them!"
"THE SURVIVAL OF OUR SPECIES IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE SURVIVAL OF OUR SPECIES!"
"And so, many horrible battles were started between the Faunus and the Humans. The humans that believed us no better than animals constantly underestimated the Faunus."
"But Faunussss are ssssmarter than animalssss, and we build sssstuff."
"The humans found that out the hard way, dear."
On opposite sides of an open plain, two armies faced each other. One human and one Faunus.
The human general raised his sword and began his charge towards the enemy, a stampede of heavily armed humans with spears, swords, and bows ready to kill the Faunus like animals.
The Faunus army … just stood there, smirking.
Halfway across the battlefield the very ground beneath the human army collapsed, taking almost half of their forces below the dirt. The rear forces, consisting mostly of archers – which the author now realizes should have been shooting first before charging, but that's my B – stared dumbfounded as their frontal fighters were piled in a heap.
The general was more pissed than anyone, stuck underneath his now dead horse and trying to crawl out.
Then he heard it, a whistle from his left. He looked and grew ten times angrier in an instant. Sticking out of the wall of the mini-canyon was a mole-Faunus, waving an Earth-Dust crystal and sticking her tongue out at him. Before he could do anything, she pointed upwards and then literally swam back into the wall.
The general looked up, and instead of turning an even deeper shade of red, he turned pale.
Above the toppled human army was a whole squadron of winged Faunus, half of whom were pelting the still standing humans with arrows just like their land-based brothers. The other half … the other half were dropping a lot of lightning and fire Dust crystals into the pit with the trapped and disarrayed humans. Dust crystals with fuses on them.
As the first Dust bombs hit the ground, the General only saw a blinding light and then knew nothing else.
"The Faunus had already learned how to spread out and live in the most dangerous parts of Remnant. Not only did the harsh land protect the Faunus from Grimm but also from humans who couldn't survive in the deserts, oceans, forests, or even the air."
"THEY'RE COMING FROM THE TREES!"
"FUCK THE TREES! THEY CAN FLY!"
"QUICK! RETREAT BACK TO THE BOATS! WE HAVE TO SAIL BACK HOME!"
"THEY ALREADY PIERCED THE HULLS! THEY CAN SWIM, TOO!"
"Not to mention our shared trait of night vision."
"Hey Florence, can you see anything?"
"It's too dark for me. What about you, Mark?"
…
"Mark?"
"Touch."
Florence dropped dead, overdosed by the deadly toxins of the poison-dart-frog-Faunus.
"And we were just as smart as the humans, if not even more clever."
"Hey guys!"
"What is it, Arachne?"
"You know the spider silk I make and use to capture humans?"
"Yeah?"
"Well me and Dave weaved it into a shirt for fun, and it turns out we can make armor out of it!"
"What?"
"Yeah! We tried cutting it and ripping it, but we got nothing. We finally had to call someone in who had Aura, and even he said he could only cut it if he reinforced both himself and his knife."
"That's amazing! We can use it as super lightweight armor! Imagine how strong it would be with Aura!"
"This is just like when Maui let us use his shark teeth for weapons. Thank whatever god decided to give a shark-Faunus regenerative Aura powers."
"Eventually, the humans couldn't keep up with the loses of the war. The Faunus had no such problem … repopulating with all the rabbit-Faunus – Okay! Don't remember that part."
"Mom?"
"O-oh! It's uh, it's nothing honey. Anyway, the Humans soon surrendered and an uneasy peace was established between our two races.
Over the years, Faunus and Humans began to mingle and coexist more easily together, even finding love between the two species. But as it would turn out, children born between a Faunus and a Human are much, much more likely to become a Faunus.
Because of this, less and less humans were born every year, while the Faunus only increased in number. Soon enough, no more humans were born and only Faunus remained. If they hadn't lost so many humans to the fighting, then maybe they would have still been able to share this world with the Faunus."
The goat mom would have continued with her story, but she heard the hissing noises her daughter makes while she's sleeping. Tucking her in, the mother placed the book back on the shelf and turned the lights off.
The End.
Believe it or not, I'm not going to give M&K too much grief over this, because a lot of authors seem to make this mistake. I remember watching a video a World of Warcraft player made and he said how, when he first started playing when he was nine, he thought the Dwarves were in charge of the Alliance. They live longer, they're more advanced, more militaristic, and have better weapons. It just made sense that the stronger looking Dwarves would be in charge instead of the – his words – generic and bland knights in armor.
And I've noticed that in other places, too. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've fallen victim to that way of thinking when I've daydreamed of a few space operas.
And what's the usual excuse in fantasy, that humans breed faster and are well rounded. Well, the Faunus are literally humans with the benefit of having animal traits that give them more natural super powers. They have all of our advantages, no weaknesses, and then more advantages that humans don't have.
And you can't bring up stuff like the humans of Atlas are more industrious, they developed their technology in response to the harsh environment. The Arctic Faunus don't have to waste time building stuff to be comfortable and can just attack. And what's stopping the Faunus from just deciding to ramp up their technological development, too? There's no intelligence difference between the races.
You can't even say that Aura or Semblances could make a difference, because both sides have it. The Faunus also have a lot of people who can fly, breath underwater, tunnel underground, and have universal night vision. They are a special force's wet dream.
So yes, in my mind, the humans of Remnant got stupidly lucky when they fought against the Faunus, or the Faunus were crippled by having too many Ghiras and Blakes back when they lived in tents. And too many Blakes will destroy any civilization.
But, even if M&K thought about this, came to this same conclusion, but went with the oppressed Faunus route anyway … I'd still be fine with it. If they really want to tell a story about racism that bad and have to stretch some stuff to do it then fine by me.
Problem is, you have to be good at telling that story to get away with it.
Also, Faunus should have more than just one animal trait, make the differences more obvious and thus difficult to overcome. Rather than just one animal part, some of which can be hidden, to the point where you literally can't tell the difference. It kind of ruins the whole point of being racist against animal people when you can't tell the damn difference, especially when that difference is pathetically small to begin with.
To sum it all up, we need less Faunus and more Minks from One Piece.
Next chapter, Jacky Schnee can make life for the Faunus way worse than you can think. And it doesn't involve whips, work hazards, low wages, or Jim Crow laws. No, I think you'll be surprised.
A/N: I've decided to go with this story thing first from now on, they're really fun to write.