Chakona Space
(Redirected from Forest Tales)
A Web Original Shared Universe Furry setting, based on a Web Serial Novel, "Forest Tales", by Bernard Doove, (available here (NSFW)) that started as a Star Trek Fanfic 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.
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.
WARNING!! Much of the artwork, as well as much of the writing in this series is NSFW. Follow links with due care.
Tropes used in Chakona Space include:
- 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.
- Air Vent Passageway: 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.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Tess has developed a habit of only informing her crew of things she deems important. Otherwise, she's fine.
- 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.
- 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.
- Author Avatar: Chakat Goldfur, child of Longstripe and Desertsand, is literally this.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The Rakshani Deities did this. And they consider modern Rakshani to be their children.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- Brain Bleach: Stew wants a little after discussing her desire for children with Neal.
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Neil: If they do say yes, you just might find out from docs Kelly or M’Lai first." At her confused look, he smiled. "Unless you want them coming after you with a turkey baster!" |
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- Brother-Sister Incest: Forestwalker, Goldfur, and Quickpaw; Garrek and Malena. Among others,
- 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.
- 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.
- Catgirl / Catfolk: : Chakats are hermaphroditic feline centaurs. Additionally, you've got Caitans, Rakshani, and other cat-morphs.
- Cool Starship: Neal Foster's Folly exemplifies this trope. The FSS Pegasus definitely counts as well.
- Cruel Mercy: Allen Fesler loves this trope. His character Neal Foster pulls this off often enough for it to be one of his Hats.
- 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.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: One of the contributor stories gives us Kestrel pushing this to extremes for a little while.
- Easy Sex Change: Skunktaurs. They are described as being hermaphrodites, but they are only one sex at a time, so... Also at least one other herm character.
- 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.
- Escapist Character: Neal Foster is this.
- Everybody Wants the Hermaphrodite: Numerous examples of supposedly straight or even bigoted characters falling for Chakats. Other herms aren't always so lucky.
- 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.
- 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.
- Free-Love Future: The Chakats have a saying, "Love Multiplies, it Does Not Divide".
- 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.
- 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 leopard style spots, as well as wings.
- Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: Seems to be the case with Thayla. Turns out she wasn't really so far past her prime, either.
- Happiness in Slavery:
- Leanna explains that there are, in fact, worlds where type 1's can be found. 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.
- Non-Terran example: Faleshkarti
- 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.
- Incest Is Relative: And not exactly taboo among some species, Chakats are fine with it as long as there's no breeding and Foxtaurs allow one generation of inbreeding.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: A few of these are carefully slipped in. Mostly by contributing author, Allen Fesler.
- 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 hir cub was kidnapped and nearly killed, and another IS killed in a riot. Little has been seen of this as yet.
- 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 AI, 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: Prior to becoming a Cool Starship, The Folly fits this category perfectly. Without the two detachable forward spheres, it's just a cargo pod carrier that kinda looks like a pogo stick.
- 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.
- 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: Many supposedly compatible character pairs have a difficult time making babies.
- 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 Manipulative 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 Chakat pregnant.
- Not to mention his pre-existing Caitan and Rakshani mates.
- Another Rakshani gets some of this due to a different Deity or two.
- 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.
- Loads and Loads of Characters: There are a lot of characters, so much so that there's a whole cast page for them. Thankfully, not all of them are used by all authors, so expect a majority of them not to show up in most stories.
- 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... other things.
- 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.
- Machine Empathy: Goldfur is just made of this trope. Shi even lampshades it at one point. Swiftwalk points it out again, later.
- Marshmallow Hell: Appears in one of the associated illustrations. 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.
- May–December Romance: Garrek and Thayla.
- Longstocking and Darkstar, though at 106 Darkstar is "just" middle-aged.
- Mindlink Mates: Quickdash and Holly are developing this.
- Mind Over Manners: Skunktaurs are often mentioned as having a strong code of ethics regarding their telepathic Talents.
- My Defense Need Not Protect Me Forever: Played with in the hands of a stowaway:
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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." |
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- 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.
- 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 and points out some stains on the ceiling to a recalcitrant new crew member.
- Papa Wolf:
- Neil Foster. Full stop. (See Berserk Button above)
- 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).
- Percussive Therapy: Apparently, Neil Foster indulges in this from time to time.
- 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.
- Poke in the Third Eye: In chapter 7 of Tales of the Folly, Neal Foster manages to poke Windsong's third eye by scorching hir tail, much to hir chagrin.
- Quickdash later threatens to do worse same 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Readings Are Off the Scale: 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 early on when he comments: "We sometimes find the scale we’re using isn’t quite large enough for what we’re trying to measure."
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Neal Foster is well over 200 during most of the stories that feature him. Some of his colonists are well over 100.
- 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 Episode: Lots of interstellar type 2 trips due to both Goldfur and Midnight being in the Star Services. Other interstellar trips occur in other stories.
- Due to Alan Fesler's "Tales of the Folly" being set on a starship, All of their road trips end up as 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. Moor so in the older stores and form the less talented writers.
- 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 2 km overall length might support these, the shuttles Capt. Foster uses to ferry them to the surface are a) truly monstrous in size b) carrying smaller pods or c)the pods aren't as symmetrical as mentioned. (60m equals nearly 200 feet)
- Sex Slave: Leanna Fennec and a lot of others from the planet shi came from.
- Shout-Out: Enough that they have their own page.
- 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
- 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.
- Spin Offspring: The "Next Generations" stories, so far about Boyce and Midnight's granddaughter Stargazer.
- Subspace Ansible: It started life as a Star Trek fan-fic. Of Course it will have real-time interstellar commo.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Take a Third Option: Susan "Stew" Pebble pulls a 4th option variation on Neal One night:
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Stew: "I want a raise." |
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- 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.
- 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.
- Transplanted Humans Turned Into Chakats: "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 be 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.
- Tomato Surprise: From Garrek's perspective in his and Goldfur's Backstory, 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.
- Touched by Vorlons:
- 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.
- Boyce Kline is interfertile with any mammalian morph, taur, or alien species thanks again to at least one Deity.
- 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:
- The story The Cub gives us a perfect example of a self defusing Tykebomb.
- Of note: Cub's bomb status was a result of his previous Fantastic Racism.
- 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.
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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." |
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- Unobtainium: Contributing author Allen Fesler gives us Boronike which is apparently used in teleporter tech due to its inability to be teleported.
- Unwanted Harem: Garrek claimed to have left home because of one of these. Inverted later: The village Alpha Bitch pursued several males.
- 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.
- 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.
- Word of God: Pretty much all the background information.
- 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 she leaves in the fridge without inquiring after its source.