>Be Anon
>You were born in what you could only describe as a city of concrete.
>You were born in what you could only describe as a city of concrete.
— The opening lines.
Have You Seen the News? is a HMOFA (human male on female anthro) story set in an unnamed fictional country heavily reminiscent of Yugoslavia. You are a nameless human boy living in a city in the southern region next to the sea, away from the myriad ethnic conflicts that sometimes flare up in the north. However, there are some tensions in your city between human beings and anthros- Beast Men who make up around 2% of the city's population, and largely keep to themselves.
However, thanks to a nameless Benevolent Dictator known simply as "Great Leader," every aspect of your society is fully integrated. Your best friend at school is a rat anthro by the name of Krasna, a girl whom you develop feelings for as you grow older, despite the social (and class) stigma. Your father, a pillar of the local community, is also fully tolerant of anthros, and is greatly respected for such positive sentiment.
Unfortunately, the Great Leader passes away and with him goes the tense unity between the different ethnicities. A committee takes his place, but quickly finds itself in over its head as old wounds start to fester and reopen. You think you'll be safe in your city, but conflicts even between the humans and anthros begin to emerge, and you and Krasna find yourselves targets of the mutual hatred between the races because of your love for one another.
Then a full-on civil war breaks out, and things start to get very crazy, and very ugly, very fast.
The story was written and published anonymously here.
Have You Seen the News? contains examples of:
- Anyone Can Die: All of the named characters, countless other unnamed ones, and in the end, you as well.
- Armies Are Evil: Neither side of the human/anthro conflict are satisfied with any peace that doesn't result in the other side's extermination.
- Berserk Button: You have a tendency to beat up anyone who discriminates against Krasna. The first time, you attack schoolyard bullies for making fun of her. The second time, you threaten someone rudely suggesting you date a human girl. The third time, you beat your own father within an inch of his life for helping gangs separate her from you permanently.
- Chekhov's Gun: You start writing a journal to cope with losing Krasna and your father, filling it with love notes and other "gush" for her. You eventually get a chance to show it to her, during a clandestine meeting. Despite knowing there's no way either of you can keep from killing each other, you both affirm your love for each other by writing in it together. Much later on, after you're both dead, the journal gets discovered by the news, and brings worldwide attention to the conflict.
- Child Soldiers: You discover that a supposedly abandoned schoolhouse hiding a weapons cache is an anthro training ground for kids as young as fourteen. They're all killed on your orders.
- The Corrupter: Your father keeps you well-away from your neighbor Srecko, for his extremist anti-anthro views. Later on, he ends up recruiting you into his paramilitary, pushing you down a path of violence and destruction that doesn't end. With either of your deaths.
- Cruel Mercy: During a raid, you discover a bunch of civilians, mainly women and children, on your way through a building to attack the enemy. Realizing that your men are out of control and about to have their way with the women, you kill an anthro mother and her child before your men can find them.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: It seems that Krasna's family doesn't have much problem with you being a human, beyond worrying about the social stigma. Rather, they're more unhappy about the fact you're blue collar and a bit of a bad influence, while Krasna is a college student.
- Dirty Communists: The radical anthro committees are all Marxist-oriented, and are extremely violent.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The conflict is all but stated outright to be based on The Yugoslav Wars when NATO begins a bombing run that wipes out your paramilitary's leadership, putting you in charge.
- Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us: Srecko argues that past violence from anthros justifies human aggression to protect their communities. You find yourself making the exact same decisions later on in the story.
- Fantastic Racism: Between humans and anthros, and presumably between various human ethnic groups. None of them are given any focus except the primary conflict however.
- I Am a Monster: Both you and Krasna agree that neither of you deserve mercy. Krasna remarks on how hypocritical it is for her to regret being barren when she's made so many mothers childless. You yourself are fully aware that even if you come out of the war alive, you're going straight to The Hague.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Your father argues that letting the anthro committees force you and Krasna apart was the only way to save your life. You don't buy it, and neither does Srecko, who points out that appeasing the anthros does nothing but inflame tensions even more.
- Mature Animal Story: The natural result of putting furries into a story about the Yugoslav wars.
- Militaries Are Useless: Your military's not, unfortunately enough, but the National Army, the one still loyal to Great Leader's successors, are powerless to stop sectarian violence from breaking out all over the country and in your home city.
- My God, What Have I Done?: It takes a while to kick in, but you beating your father for letting Krasna be taken from you comes back to bite you when he's taken out by a car bomb and you spend his last moments trying to apologize to him.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Great Leader is clearly meant to represent Josip Broz Tito, as the dictator of a multiethnic state that devolves into civil war and balkanization after his death.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: You and Krasna die in battle, after ravaging your home city to the point that three quarters of its population are dead or displaced. The war may or may not be over, but both of you firmly believe you're going to hell for what you've done. There is no redemption, and most of the world moves on without a speck of pity for a couple war criminals from some far off country. But then someone discovers your journal...
- The Reveal: In a cruel twist of fate, Krasna became the leader of the anthro paramilitary, and was the one who ordered the purging of human neighborhoods.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: From the beginning, neither side thinks twice about collateral damage, civilian casualties, or the evacuation of children. Things only get worse when open confrontations begin.
- "Shut Up" Kiss: Announcing your feelings to Krasna for the first time, You cut off her self-deprecating complaints with a kiss.
- Together in Death: You and Krasna just barely manage to touch fingers one last time before sniper fire claims both of your lives.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: You start off as a five-year-old protecting your best friend from bullies. By the end, you're a war criminal who's ordered the deaths of children, executed anyone who dares question your authority, used chemical weapons, and continued a pointless war all because of the genocidal hatred both sides have fostered towards each other. And Krasna is exactly the same.
- War Is Hell: Living through a war takes a good, morally pure child and turns them into a hardened war criminal willing to take innocent lives and bomb cities for the upper hand. On both sides.
- Would Hurt a Child: All over the place. Children are constantly caught in the crossfire, and even forced to be soldiers. You are personally responsible for many instances, and so is Krasna.
