Tree Rats From Another Earth is a Genre-Busting novel created by whyicry, serving as a cautionary tale to anyone seeking an on-campus job. The premise revolves around Rose Mainet, physics sophomore and lab assistant to the tenured professor Stuart Safejoy at Grand River University. One day, Rose is tasked to bring the ravens who stop by once in a while to fly through a portal activated by signature-modified atoms within a water bottle. After scanning the bottle, the portal starts up and all seems promising.
Then a troop of strange animals bust through the portal in an electric car, likely from a parallel version of Earth where their species reigns. They try and communicate with the professor and the assistant using whiteboards. This accident breaks the portal and leaves Stuart and Rose dumbfounded on how to get the new arrivals back home.
The troop and their evolutionary relatives belong to the arboriglire (literally Tree-Rat) order, who are close relatives of rats and rabbits who evolved to live in the trees sooner rather than later (*cough, cough* squirrels). This taxonomic order includes lemurs, tarsiers, and simians, the last of which the troop of visitors is likely a member of. However, this troop's ancestors later ditched the trees, most of their fur, their tails to swim in rivers or wander about in grassy plains.
Was it mentioned that Rose is a Greyhound-Retriever Mix, and Stuart is a British Shorthair? And that Rose and Stuart, like the people from the rest of their world, use funky species-gender pronouns? Who could forget... the tree-rats all have their own personalities!
Characters
Everyone who ends up crossing paths with these tree-rats.
Grand River University, Staff and Students
Faculty and students of a university in Yuma, Arizona.Other names: Bitch (by Stuart)
Gender: Cisgender bitch
Sexuality: Homospecies demisexual
Hometown: High Point, North Carolina
Conditions: Strabismus
Pronouns: Da/Dar/Dag
Birthday: July 1st, or Haymoon 3rd
Species: Canis familiaris, Greyhound & Golden Retriever var.
Sweethearted sophomore physics student who adores animals, and only started working for Dr. Safejoy for the sake of credentials. Keeps the troop in dar apartment during the weekdays.
- Animal Lover: Feeds two ravens named Pim and Charlie who show up on dar windowsill. Finds it easy to bond with the troop.
- Break the Cutie: After Becky and Jordan shows dag a copy of a Garfield book, da rages at them, shutting them away, and calling Becky a "wild ape" in anger.
- Dog Stereotype: Played straight with dar golden retriever side. Subverted with dar Greyhound side, because da's not too athletic.
- Fish Eyes: Da has strabismus, which requires dag to wear contact lenses. When da first sees the troop, da wonders if da needs a new prescription. It gets worse during times of stress, such as when da reads the troop's world's version of Garfield, or when Stuart takes the humans to the sanctuary.
- Nice Girl: Cares for the troop, even when dar professor spends time in-between grading papers to badmouth them.
Other names: Dr. S, Doc, Stu, Dr. Safejoy
Gender: Cisgender tom
Sexuality: Homospecies heterosexual
Hometown: San Diego, California
Conditions: Nepeta addiction
Pronouns: Co/Cos/Cot
Birthday: November 2nd, or Sammoon 2nd.
Species: Felis domesticus, British Shorthair var.
Physicist who opened a portal to a version of Earth ruled by the troop's species. Has three kittens: Valentina (Val), Robyn, and Colt.
- Apathetic Teacher: Has taken at least two sabbaticals, uses ChatFreq (an AI chatbot) to generate homework assignments, and is rumored to drink nepeta on the job, but somehow maintains tenure.
- Abusive Parents: Accuses cos daughter, Val, of raiding cos nepeta cabinet, and is implied to misgender cos nonbinary kitten, Robyn. Also forces one of cos kittens to host a "slumber party" with the troop, even if co insists they are wild animals.
- Break the Cutie: Implied to be the type that Used to Be a Sweet Kid, as shown by cos old attempt at a children's fantasy novel written in cos teenage years and nerdy books in a box in cos closet.
- Cats Are Mean: And how!
- Cat Stereotype: Played straight with cot as a child, because British Shorthairs are known for being gentle and intelligent, and subverted as co grows up, maintaining cos intelligence but not cos kindness.
- Composite Character: Of Mr. Dangerpain from Kid Vampire, and Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty, and a little spice of Take That! towards Elon Musk.
- Evil Brit: Downplayed. Co's a British Shorthair, and an American Patriot.
- Fat Bastard: Co is cobby as a result of cot being a British Shorthair, and despite cot saying otherwise, co is a major dick.
- Functional Addict: To nepeta cataria tisane, particularly Mr. Whiskers' Oak Barrel Aged Tisane. Co is able to construct a portal to another version of Earth, and manage six whole classes.
- Ironic Name: Despite cot saying that co knows how to keep animals "safe" and given them "joy", co is anything but safe or joyful to be around.
- Pet the Dog: Played straight and subverted later on. Allows the troop to have a slumber party at cos house. [[Spoilers:A few months later, co blackmails them into teaching cot their native language so that co can establish a connection between cos Earth and the troop's home Earth.]]
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Speciesist, theriophobic, homophobic, transphobic, and implicitly racist and breedist. Cos racism shows when co calls Ho Chi Minh City by the outdated name "Saigon". However, co takes cos status as a feline in STEM. Cos breedism is apparent when co calls the troop "Sphynx apes".
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Has a box in cos closet with fantasy literature for teenagers, and a short story co wrote about a young kitten who enters a world full of dragons and unicorns, who gets mistaken for a fairy.
Other names: none
Gender: Cisgender stud
Sexuality: Homospecies demisexual
Hometown: Phoenix, Arizona, later moved to Yuma, Arizona after dor parents moved
Conditions: Allergies to simians and goat's milk
Pronouns: Do/Dor/Dog
Birthday: May 30th, or Floramoon 29th
Species: Canis familiaris, Border Collie var.
Linguistics freshling student who is overambitious and wants to get dor thesis completed in dor first year of college. Too bad do's allergic to dor own students.
- Dog Stereotype: Is a border collie and an academically ambitious one, willing to do anything to succeed in school.
- Ironic Allergy: The reason why do goes on Wyvern or spends time outside to teach the humans.
- Nice Guy: Especially with the troop, dor best friend Rose, and dor step-sister, Dani.
- Peer as Teacher: Teaches the troop Felicani over Wyvern.
The Troop
A troop of bipedal relatives to rodents and lagomorphs, vaguely aged 19-21. College students from their world's version of Montreal. Also known as the Tree-Rats.- Audience Surrogate: This book was written for members of the troop's species, so why not?
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience:
- Becky is associated with purple because of the jacket she wears while driving the car.
- Jordan is associated with blue, because he likes Weezer's Blue Album.
- Marita is associated with pink, because of her Cheery Pink personality.
- Kyle is associated with green, because he is a downplayed example of Green and Mean, and because he is kind of down to Earth when he's not wound up.
- Shea is associated with amber and gold, because of their amber-red hair and the gold-colored accessories they like to wear.
- Two allies also show up with their own color codes: Oliver is associated with red because his fur is ruddy and he can see sanguine, and Raka is associated with yellow, because of their yellow eyes and the fact that they were first seen by the sapients in a citrus tree.
- Crazy-Prepared: They just so happen to have whiteboards in their bags because of a class they were all in.
- Funny Animal: Subverted, and as viewed through the eyes of the feline and canine people.
- Furry Confusion: Played for Drama and Played for Horror. The troop become frightened when learning about how humans act and are treated in this world.
- This confusion occurs first while they're watching the children's show Coatless, depicting Hubert, a Funny Animal version of a human among hairless animals working at a clothing store. The show's creators treat him like a silly talking beast and a plot device meant to increase the confidence of the Xoloitzcuintli protagonist, Max.
- The troop members get confused when the humans at the sanctuary can't speak, think, nor act like them. Some troop members get disgusted at Narnia eating a bug off her special occasion biscuit, Hans peeing when he climbs to the top of the rope tower, and Simon and Velvet engaging in usual behavior for bonded pairs of mammals.
- Intelligent Primate: Subverted. In the eyes of the feline and canine people, they are just apes who can learn to speak Felicani.
- Queer Rebel: All five are members of the LGBTQIA community. They protest the government and run away from the sanctuary where they were placed for being of their species and for political rebellion.
- Son of an Ape: Exaggerated. They get compared to apes, monkeys, and like other meditherians, even rodents, and get sent off to a simian sanctuary because of their spot in the evolutionary tree and because they protested the government.
- Trapped in Another World: By Stuart's paw, not by Becky's hand!
- True Companions: Even with Kyle...
- You No Take Candle: While speaking Felicani, though Jordan and Shea's way of speaking in Felicani is downplayed.
Other names: Gwendolin, Becky
Gender: Cisgender woman
Sexuality: Bisexual
Hometown: Vancouver, British Columbia
Conditions: PTSD
Pronouns: She/Her
Birthday: August 3rd, or Cropmoon 1st
Species: Homo sapiens sapiens, implied to be canine-kin.
Favorite Color: Vivid purple
Tomboyish track runner-turned-cheerleader assigned Alpha Female because she drove the car into the portal. Becky is a regret-and-guilt ridden simian who refuses to let anyone but herself feel guilt for sending herself and her friends through the portal.
- Asian and Nerdy: Downplayed. Becky is a cheerleader who ran track in high school and has average grades. She is a finance major, however.
- Bisexual Love Triangle: Is in one with Jordan and Marita.
- Meaningful Name: "Rebecca" means ensnare. Guess what she accidentally does to herself and her friends?
- Nervous Wreck: Comes with being accidentally summoned into another version of Earth.
- Queer Colors: She is associated with the color purple, making up the bisexual flag with the other members of her love triangle.
- Rei Ayanami Expy: Downplayed. While not as cold or emotionless as Rei, Becky has dark blue hair which is later bobbed, and is from another version of Earth, and has to learn to adapt to feline-canine society.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Marita's girly girl.
Other names: Rory
Gender: Cisgender man
Sexuality: Greyromantic demisexual
Hometown: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Conditions: Level 1 Autism, overweight, myopia
Pronouns: He/Him
Birthday: September 23rd, or Mabonmoon 22nd, right at midnight.
Species: Homo sapiens sapiens
Favorite Color: Denim blue
Autistic guy who loves God, space, and Weezer in that order. Relaxed and easy-going. One of the two best learners of Felicani in the entire troop.
- Big Beautiful Man: Is rather robust in frame, and one of Becky's love interests.
- Bisexual Love Triangle: Is one leg of Becky's love triangle. Will only ever love her.
- Black and Nerdy: He is an engineering major with a minor in astrophysics.
- Emo: Became interested in 1990's emo music after starting college, especially Weezer.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Kyle. Partially inverted, because he's ace-spec.
- Hollywood Autism: Averted. He shows his autism differently than another autistic character, Dani. He is sensitive to loud noises, and nobody in his friend group sees him as a tragic figure.
- Nerds Are Sexy: Is one of Becky's love interests, and has very good grades.
- Nerd Glasses: Wears them.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Is associated with the color blue.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Kyle, his best friend's red.
- Token Religious Teammate: Christian and grows deeper into his faith after having a meltdown after a Phosphoric ritual meant to show the world how intelligent the troop are.
Other names: Candy, Marita, My (by her grandmother, pronounced like Mii)
Gender: Transgender woman
Sexuality: Pansexual
Hometown: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Conditions: Gender dysphoria
Pronouns: She/Her
Birthday: March 8th, or Groundmoon 6th
Species: Homo sapiens sapiens
Favorite Color: Hot pink
Artist, and an aspiring model and fashion designer. Almost always seen with a smile on her face, but only ever gets sad when she feels negative.
- Artists Are Attractive: What drives Becky to her.
- Bisexual Love Triangle: Is one leg of Becky's love triangle.
- Blithe Spirit: Attempts to be this in these new circumstances.
- Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Her with Stuart.
- The Fashionista: A major part of her character.
- Even finds to be stylish when in a hospital gown, disguised as a canine, or wearing only a towel and duct tape after being returned to the sanctuary.
- Often gives style inspiration to other characters, such as members of her troop, and Simon and Velvet.
- Insanely International Ancestry: Marita is 25% Spanish, 25% Swedish, and 50% Argentine. She is also implied to have Sephardic Jewish and Mapuche heritage.
- Genki Girl: Loves to crack jokes, party, and bring good advice to those around her.
- Nice Girl: Is very sweet, and loves to joke around.
- Perpetual Smiler: Downplayed, though she never gets upset.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Is associated with the color pink.
- The Pollyanna: Hopes for the best, and first hoped to meet other humans. She and her troop do meet some other humans, but the lights are on in these new humans' brains, but nobody's there.
- Spicy Latina: Averted. She is beautiful and she's a Nice Girl. Her main characterization comes from her love for art and fashion. She's mellow-tempered, too.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: To girly girl to Becky's tomboy.
- Trans Tribulations: Marita is plagued by the idea of the feline and canine people not only seeing her troop as non-sapient, but having them misgender her, Kyle, and Shea.
Other names: Niko, Tim
Gender: Transgender man
Sexuality: Pansexual
Hometown: Detroit, Michigan, later moved to Windsor, Ontario
Conditions: Gender dysphoria, chronic stress
Pronouns: He/Him
Birthday: January 9th, or Oakmoon 9th
Species: Homo sapiens sapiens
Favorite Color: Kelly green
Weightlifter and future wrestler. Very extroverted, energetic, and headstrong. Hopes to lift three times his own body weight one day.
- Asian and Nerdy: Averted. He is of Jordanian heritage, he attends college, and gets decent-enough grades. He's just focused on his physique.
- Deadpan Snarker: Has his moments.
- The Gadfly: Downplayed. If anything, Stuart's the real thorn in everyone's side.
- Green and Mean: Subverted. He's Hot-Blooded when he gets irritable, but not antagonistic.
- Hate at First Sight: With the feral humans. Later makes amends with Hans, because he thinks the things he does are Actually Pretty Funny.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Jordan. Partially inverted, because he's pansexual.
- Hot-Blooded: Especially when he can't access the gym, or when nobody takes him seriously.
- Hot-Blooded Sideburns: Trims his beard as he grows one to have these.
- Keet: Has some touches of this. His personality fits the bill when he is well-tempered, but he anything but small.
- Life of the Party: During the party scene at Jenny's house, he chugs a Quest Light nepeta drink, thinking it to be soda, though is later disgusted by the taste.
- Lovable Jock: Downplayed. While he is a Deadpan Snarker at times and gets crabby when faced with injustice, he uses the gym as a way to destress.
- Pet the Dog: Lets Becky know that she isn't responsible for sending her, him, and the rest of their troop through the portal to the new world.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Jordan, his best friend's blue.
- Trans Tribulations: Worries about being misgendered or lumped in with females in the new world.
Other names: Momo
Gender: Nonbinary
Sexuality: Unknown
Hometown: Letterkenny, Ireland
Conditions: Generational Trauma
Pronouns: They/them
Birthday: February 16th, or Pearlmoon 16th
Species: Homo sapiens sapiens
Favorite Color: Amber gold
Tailor, musician, public speaker, and hippie-punk activist. Makes all of their clothes to spite consumerism, except for thrifted shoes and plano-lens glasses.
- Ambiguous Gender: Shea's assigned gender at birth is never disclosed. Word of God states that if you climb Mt. Blue Sky on an equinox, and chant "Raka" three times, Cthulhu shall visit you in a dream and tell you, but the only hint you'll ever get is that Shea has a different AGAB than their friend Raka.
- Animal Lover: Feeds Pim and Charlie, Rose's ravens, whenever they fly by. Refuses to eat the sausages and bacon given to them for breakfast after coming to terms that they and their troopmates were treated like rescued apes.
- Berserk Button: NEVER. MENTION. MONARCHY. Even if it's not British!
- Averted with people mistaking their hometown of Letterkenny with that of the one from the popular Canadian show. They're not annoyed by it, but at most, if you kept joking about it, you'd get a firm "Please don't, I didn't actually grow up there". note
- Beware the Nice Ones: Always willing to stick up for their friends.
- Erudite Stoner: Justified, because they're trying to use marijuana to manage their generational trauma, it's legal in Canada, and they're pretty intelligent already.
- Fighting Irish: Double Subverted. They're actually very soft and chill. See Berserk Button.
- Nature Lover: Often ventures out of Rose's apartment or onto the main the sanctuary grounds or the woods outside of the commune to harmonize and commune with nature.
- Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Wears round plano glasses in a variety of lightly-tinted lens shades.
- Queer Rebel: Fits this trope more suitably than anyone else in their friend group.
- Round Hippie Shades: Seen sporting wearing them, even though not for their own vision's sake. Ties in with Purely Aesthetic Glasses.
Wild Green Sanctuaries: Staff and Residents **UNMARKED SPOILERS**
A system of connected animal sanctuaries in Riverside County, California. The most prominent one, the Simian Campus managed by Jack Cooper, is where the troop gets sent off to.
Other names: Jack
Gender: Cisgender Stud
Sexuality: Unknown
Hometown: Jurupa Valley, California
Conditions: None
Pronouns: Do/dor/dog
Birthday: June 6th, or Lithamoon 5th
Species: Canis familiaris, var. Beagle
Manager of the Simian Campus at Wild Green Sanctuaries. Actually very friendly, but doesn't always make the best decisions. Betrays the troop's trust by selling off their artwork at an auction.
- Animal Lover: Why else does do manage an animal sanctuary? Jack genuinely cares for the troop's well-being, though calls them "nerds" in a friendly way. Do started welcoming humans into dor sanctuary, and was implied to have made a whole new habitat just for them after taking in Simon and Velvet.
- Affectionate Nickname: "Crazy Jack", because do is rumored to always have a literal monkey on dor back.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Jack keeps the troop in dor sanctuary, sells off their art to fund a different sanctuary, and later uses the troop's adjustment room for gibbon triplets. After the troop returns, Jack dumps them all in the human enclosure with only the towels and duct tape and other accessories on their backs, without letting them wait for their car, with most of their stuff in it. Subverted later on when Jack grants the humans status as "resident representatives", allows the troop to leave to go to San Francisco to stand up for their rights, and to leave again to go home.
- Condescending Compassion: Towards the sapients. Jack is kind and loving to the animals do cares for, which proves do isn't a complete monster with a wicked soul. Do is only caring for the sapient troop the only way do knows how to care for humans, but wants to adjust for their needs in the same way do wants them to adjust to sanctuary life.
- Dog Stereotype: Subverted. Jack is a beagle, is very sweet to simians and people, young and old, and lives in rural Riverside County. Jack also exploits human labor without paying them back.
- Hero Antagonist: Jack does respect the troop, calling them by their true names rather than the ones Stuart gave them. However, do does sell off the troop's drawings to fund a marsupial sanctuary.
- Meaningful Name: Jack's surname, Cooper, has the word, "Coop" in it, hinting on how do keeps the monkeys at dor sanctuary cooped up.
- Took a Level in Kindness: When Jack allows the troop to advocate for themselves in the sanctuary and in the wider world.
Other names: "Raka"
Gender: Ambiguous Gender
Sexuality: Bisexual
Hometown: rural Riviera
Conditions: Autism
Pronouns: They/them
Birthday: According to Word of God, December 2nd, or Yulemoon 2nd
Species: Homo anthropos
Nonsapient human. Born and raised in the wild. Congenitally unable to speak anything more than grunts. Captured in the wild by accident, and sent to the United States on a boat sailing en route to California. The first wild human the troop of Tree-Rats meet.
- Ambiguous Gender: Left ambiguous and up to the reader's interpretation, according to Word of God.
- Composite Character: Word of God says they're inspired by the Groke, various news reports about feral people, and her own pet cat, Butterscotch (who showed up in her living room one day and never left).
- Godiva Hair: Their thick brown hair is long enough to hide their butt from the back.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: They may not be a girl (or a guy), but they do not wear clothes (barring the odd blanket) because their species has not developed that form of technological prowess in the wild.
- Intelligent Primate: Downplayed. While they are able to scale the walls of the sanctuary, and they're stated to be the smartest of their new troop, they cannot communicate too well with the sapient troop.
- Meaningful Name: Raka could be interpreted as a misspelling of the Finnish word "Raaka", meaning unrefined or brute (in the sense of an animal), which is a part of the Finnish word "Raakalainen", meaning uncivilized person.
- Naked Nutter: In the eyes of the humans, at first. Justified, because they don't know really what clothes are.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Downplayed. They have no ill will when they climb into the adjustment room. They just wanted to meet new friends.
- The Pig-Pen: Their initial impression, being covered in mud and sticks from the orange orchard outside of the adjustment room, as seen from the window. Justified, because they are separated from the troop and do not have a fellow troopmate to comb their hair, and do not have a pond to swim in. Cleans up once they dive into a wooden tub in the adjustment room.
- Sixth Ranger: Shares this role with Oliver during the sanctuary arc. After Oliver plays less of a role after returning to school, and only communicating via Wyvern, Raka becomes more involved with the troop, along with the other wild humans, too.
- Textual Celebrity Resemblance: Is stated to look like a mix between John Lennon and "the lady from the caveman movie poster in the Shawshank Redemption"
- Vague Age: Raka is implied to be older than the sapient troop.
- The Voiceless: Justified, because they cannot speak.
- We Named the Monkey "Jack": Raka was named after the nickname for a ship captain's cousin.
Gender: Men (Simon, Mitch, Hans) Women (Velvet, Abigail, Narnia)
Hometown: Varied
Pronouns: He/him (Simon, Mitch, Hans) She/her (Velvet, Abigail, Narnia)
Species: Homo anthropos
Nonsapient humans. All with their own backstories.
- Albinos Are Freaks: Averted. Hans is just as freaky as his fellow humans, and let's say, just as freaky as Abigail and Raka, because he was wild-caught, just like them.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": Simon is a simian, Velvet has velvet-like skin, Hans has hands, and Abigail sounds a little like "ape".
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: They do not wear clothes much. Simon and Velvet later borrow clothes from the sapients to remember life with their old owner, Eddie Smith, who used to dress them up in long dresses and knit socks. Hans dons a hooded cloak to shield his albino skin from the sun.
- Formerly Sapient Species: Averted. Homo anthropos were never sapient past Homo erectus levels.
- The Pig-Pen: Averted. They finger-comb each others' hair and swim in the waters of the pond to clean off muck and waste.
- Unusual Pop Culture Name:
- Simon and Hans are named after Animal Crossing villagers.
- Velvet is named after a Katamari cousin.
- To any potential readers, Narnia may be named after the land in The Chronicles of Narnia, but Word of God says she's named after a character in The Final Exit of the Disciples of Ascensia
- Vague Age: All of them are adults, according to Word of God. Mitch and Abigail are implied to be the oldest.
- The Voiceless: Justified, because they cannot speak.
Other names: none
Gender: Transgender guy
Sexuality: Unknown
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Conditions: none
Pronouns: Co/Cos/Cot and He/Him
Birthday: January 29th, or Oakmoon 29th
Species: Humankin, but assigned Felis Domesticus, var. Turkish Van at birth
Sweethearted student at UC San Diego who works as a summer intern at a simian sanctuary. Becomes a close ally with the troop, and helps manage their finances once they receive donations.
- Animal Lover: Loves simians and working with them. Finds it a blessing to be an unofficial part of the troop.
- Animals See in Monochrome: Inverted. Oliver is Sanguine-Sighted, and has no issues differentiating between sanguine, gold, and viridian, and amaranthine and blue.
- Cat Stereotype: Subverted. His hair may be long, but he is down-to-Earth and sympathetic. Even if he looks like an orange cat on the outside, he certainly has brain cells! He is very sweet, befitting the orange-haired kindness.
- Nerd Glasses: Not exactly a nerd, but he wears a pair of round glasses.
- Pretty Boy: How he draws his human self while drawing pictures with the humans.
- Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Subverted, but he chose to wear them because they're easier to put them on over contacts.
- Sixth Ranger: Shares this role with Raka during the first sanctuary arc.
- Trans Nature: Is humankin, and assigned feline at birth. Also is transgender.
- Trans Tribulations: Exaggerated and fears not being seen as a man because of the circumstances of his birth.
Gender: Females (Buttons, Bagagwa) Male (Josip)
Hometown: Unknown
Pronouns: She/her (Buttons, Bagagwa) He/him (Josip)
Species: Raccoons (Bagagwa, Josip) Otter (Buttons)
Animal artists who painted pictures sold off at Chartity. Live at the Carnarch Campus. Unaware of their own exploitation.
- Pawprint Stamping: Their main method of generating artwork.
- Unusual Pop Culture Name:
- Buttons is given the surname of Frida Kahlo, to mark their status as an Affectionate Parody of Pockets Warhol
. - Bagagwa is named after the spirit/raccoon summoned by Merv
the
Cat
, a famous Siamese cat on the internet who can speak basic English. - Josip is named after Josip Broz Tito, and may be named after Tito the Raccoon
, a long-since disappeared raccoon influencer.
- Buttons is given the surname of Frida Kahlo, to mark their status as an Affectionate Parody of Pockets Warhol
Drat, these monkeys made me list out the tropes!
- Alternative Calendar: The months have different names, and the calendar appears 297 years off from the CE calendar, because a mainstream Emmanuelist church began in 298 CE, or 1 EA/PE. It is also a nod at the Phantom Time Hypothesis.

- Animal Disguise: Justified, subverted, and played with. The troop dress up as canines when out in public using hats, coats, gloves, and masks, but the only breed people will mistake them for is Irish Wolfhounds because they're all above five feet tall. They use this Wolfhound ruse to their advantage, saying they're Irish (only one of them is Irish) film actors and full-time monkey costume wearers when Rick, Rose's landlord, caught them without their disguises.
- Artistic License – Biology:
- Cats and dogs are unable to digest hard kombucha, or even ramson-infused butter to the level humans can.
- Downplayed with Sanguine-Sight, which is justified as a rare genetic quirk.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": During chapters that focus on Felicani-native speakers.
- Primates, due to a lack of anthropocentrism in this world, are referred to as "arboriglires" (literally Tree rat). The clade Glires is renamed Euglires (True rats). Euarchontoglires are labeled as Meditherians. The order Carnivora is renamed Carnarchia (Flesh Rulers).
- The color red is renamed "sanguine", the color green is renamed "viridian", and the color purple is renamed "amaranthine". This is because Sanguine-Sight, or protanomalous sight, is uncommon to rare, affecting just over one in five felines, and one in two hundred canines.
- Downplayed. Cats and dogs are referred to as felines and canines, respectively.
- Commune: Screaming Knife Mutual Space in an old refurbished church camp near Snowmass. Freedom of dress, personal property is encouraged over private property, and respect for all.
- Different World, Different Movies: Some in-universe works of media are direct references to other forms of media, including Patch Craxton, Wild Wolves, Bee and Ponybun, Gorilla Queen, Kid Wolfguy, Lollipop Bigtop, Toybox Tacos, and Zombie-Bots. However, some media has the same names, but with differences to suit the world. For example, this universe's version of Rainbow Dash Presents: My Little Dashie involves the people characters being replaced by wild canids and felids, unlike the original's wild primates taking the place of people, and this universe's version of Animal Crossing has some characters, most notably Ankha being a human, being of different specii.
- Female Feline, Male Mutt: Played with. Canines traditionally take occupations and roles portrayed as masculine in the human-run Earth, while felines traditionally have human-feminine occupations and roles. Non-traditional persons (intelligent animals, like learned humans, wolves, and parrots, and robots granted personhood) and non-species-binary therians are expected to fall into line with binary species roles. With the advent of felinism in the 17th century, species barriers and separate spheres have been waning.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: The Little Human and the Three Bears is this world's version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
- Formerly Sapient Species: Averted. The humans in this setting are explicitly non-sapient. Fate didn't let the humans of the feline-canine world get the chance to develop language or pre-fire technology. Word of God says that Yog-Sothoth did not pet the head of a Homo erectus, but those of the ancestors of felines and canines.
- Funny Animal: The people of this world, according to the troop, who are only used to a monospecies-dominant culture, as opposed to this version of their planet's bispecies-culture.
- Furry Confusion: Played for Drama and Played for Horror.
- The troop become frightened when learning about how humans act and are treated in this world.
- This confusion occurs first while they're watching the children's show Coatless, depicting Hubert, a Funny Animal version of a human among hairless animals working at a clothing store. The show's creators treat him like a silly talking beast and a plot device meant to increase the confidence of the Xoloitzcuintli protagonist, Max.
- The troop members get confused when the humans at the sanctuary can't speak nor act like them. Some troop members get disgusted at Narnia eating a bug off her special occasion biscuit, Hans peeing when he climbs to the top of the rope tower, and Simon and Velvet engaging in usual behavior for bonded pairs of mammals.
- In Rose's case, da gets frightened of the troop after learning that humans keep canines and felines as pets back on the troop's home Earth. This leads to her suffering a Heroic BSoD after finding out about the comic strip Garfield.
- The troop become frightened when learning about how humans act and are treated in this world.
- Heroic Canines, Villainous Felines: Zigzagged. The feline Stuart is the main villain, though many other felines prove to be allies, like Dr. King, Ace, Anna, Bobby, Larimar, Petal, and Julia. The canine Josephine is villainous, and Jack is an Anti-Villain or Hero Antagonist, but the troop has allies in canines like Rose, Nate, Bubby, and Kev.
- Humans by Any Other Name: Zigzagged. The troop, like other humans, are referred to as humans and many other insults, like "tree-rats" (like other simians and arboriglires) and "sphynx apes".
- Malicious Misnaming: Stuart gives each member of the troop new names because "zoo animals get stupid names all the time." Each name (Gwendolin for Becky, Rory for Jordan, Candy for Marita, Niko for Kyle, and Momo for Shea) also doubles as a Shout-Out or two.
- Menagerie of Misery: Downplayed and subverted with Wild Green Sanctuaries. Very high standards with how they treat their animals, but it isn't the best place to keep five sapient humans. Then again, if Bagagwa and Josip the raccoons and Buttons Kahlo the otter were aware that their art was being sold off, they'd throw a hissy, too.
- Most Writers Are Human: Word of God states that she created this world as a writing exercise. The idea has been kicking around in her brain, but she didn't put apish fingers to her keyboard until attending a protest.
- Oh, My Gods!: "Divine!" and "Emmanuel the Anointed!" are popular exclamations in this world.
- Reference Overdosed: The author did not know how else to write.
- Shout-Out Theme Naming:
- Downplayed, Stuart indirectly names the Tree-Rats after monkeys from pop culture, before co learns their names. Becky is named after Gwendolin, a hero from Bloons TD6, Jordan is named after Rory from Rory Screws Up, a story by Greg Heffley in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Marita is named after Candy from Donkey Kong, Kyle is named after Niko, a staff member of Paradise Planning from Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Shea is named after Momo, the flying lemur from Avatar: The Last Airbender and a Squishmallow. Subverted for Raka, a feral human from the sanctuary, appears to be named after Raka from Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, but Word of God states that she just chose something at random for Raka's name.
- Rose's ravens are named Pim and Charlie.
- Show Within a Show: Numerous examples, including Coatless, Death Fruit, and the Tom Chopper series.
- Speculative Fiction LGBT: All members of the troop are LGBTQ+.
- The feline/canine world has a pronoun system. Cx/cxs/cxt pronouns are used for felines and dx/dxr/dxg are used for canines note Traditional he/she/they pronouns are used for other animals, non-species-binary people, and space aliens.
- Talking with Signs: The troop, before learning Felicani.
- Trans Nature: Some people's species identities are different than they were at birth, whether they suit the species binary or leave it behind.
- World of Funny Animals: Perhaps according to the troop, and maybe the reader, if they are of the same species as the troop, too.
- X Meets Y: A gayer version of Planet of the Apes meets The Amazing Digital Circus meets Animal Crossing meets Undertale meets The Breakfast Club meets Steven Universe.
