26 Vortnights 11: Geek

For the geek theme, I present Teresa Guadalupe Mía Espina-Zorita (Lupe for short), a habitual predator member of the Mexican friki subculture on an alternate Earth I refer to as Mantis.

On Mantis, vore wasn't always possible. In 1822, an event that remains unexplained to this day swept the globe, severely altering human biology so that: a) women can swallow large prey and are primarily carnivorous, b) a pregnancy results in a litter rather a single birth with the average litter being in excess of 15 babies, but c) total miscarriage is a near-certainty unless early in the pregnancy the mother gets a massive influx of nutrients in the form of another human, whereas d) men are herbivores that can live off a diet that's largely stuff like leaves and their bodies start to rapidly shut down around 50. Though the human consumed to ensure successful reproduction doesn't necessarily have to be the father, or even a man, due to various factors such as proximity when the craving develops, pregnancy typically results in consumption of the father by the mother.

While necessary for reproduction everywhere on Mantis, the commonality of vore for other purposes, whether medical (devouring large prey triggers a temporary healing factor in a woman) or purely recreational (devouring a human specifically results in a sort of endorphin high, as well as a boost in general physical hardiness and a change in pheromones that makes others perceive her as more likable/appealing), varies from one location to another. Since the change, different cultures have developed different norms about when eating a man is acceptable, with the more restrictive cultures making it illegal when not for reproductive purposes or otherwise medically necessary, or even requiring other medical emergencies to use eating a non-human animal when possible, such as a pig or goat, which doesn’t provide all the same benefits, but will promote basic healing. Some other areas allow recreational vore, in which case addiction can sometimes become a problem. Views on eating other women are also varied. It's flat-out considered murder in most of the places that only allow vore for reproductive/medical reasons. In some places, vore is basically seem as a sort of sex act, so eating another woman would be considered really weird for a straight woman, but practically expected to occur on occasion among lesbians and bisexual girls.

In general, most countries afford fewer rights to men, but most places they have at least some rights. Mexico is one of the worse countries to be a man on Mantis, though not as bad as Japan, where men have to literally buy into being considered legally a person. In Mexico, verbal consent is considered enough to make it legal for a woman to eat a given man in most cases, and criminal men are often seen trussed up and for sale as food in markets.

In the case of this picture, the two men Lupe was playing Dungeons and Devourers (the in-universe equivalent to Dungeons and Dragons) with had agreed to "real-devouring D&D", where if their characters fell prey to predatory monsters, Lupe, the DM, would be allowed to eat them.