FeyKitsune

  When I woke up the first thing I noticed was that I was so much shorter in my pod. Rather than a bit above waist height, I noticed that the ‘open’ button for the hatch was now just below being level with my face. I was at least a full foot shorter, now

  Second, I was very aware of the sensation of my breathing, the heaviness of my body, and the rise and fall of my chest. I could feel the sluggish weight of my limbs on the soft but firm padding material that cushioned the inside of my pod.

  I swallowed and licked my lips, finding my mouth was dry and cottony. It was always hard waking up from a transfer. It's like they forgot to close your mouth and eyes as your new body y inside as a mindless heap before you woke up.

  Looking around me to orient myself I saw that the pod was docked inside what looked like a small fancy bedroom in a nice hotel.

  The walls were a soft grey psteel and the floor was a white in the same material but with hexagonal bumps for both grip and aesthetics.

  To one side was the outer wall of the station where a rge window took up most of the wall - the void of space and the sparkle of a billion stars visible outside. On the other side of the small room was a simple dresser and then a standard sliding metal door.

  A strip of light-blue light lined the ceiling where it met the walls, providing ambient light that wasn't too harsh on my new eyes.

  I, of course, eventually noticed my chest when I looked down. I actually jolted with a start when I first noticed the soft round mounds sitting on my chest like two small hills in the skin tight shirt of my spacer suit. Thankfully I was wearing the bck and grey bodysuit or I'd have jumped straight through the back of the pod into outer space in surprise.

  I tentatively pushed myself up and forwards to get a better look at the rest of myself and was overcome with an emotion I couldn't really name - different to that feeling of wound up dormant tension inside me. I'm a girl, I thought to myself. I'm a girl, I'm a girl, I'm a girl!

  My heart began to race and I felt whatever that feeling was spill out from my chest and down into my belly, warm and bright. Happiness? I think? Was I actually this happy with being a girl - well at least having a girl shaped body.

  A sudden curious need popped into my head and I peeked down and squeezed my - now much rger and softer - thighs together experimentally. There was an emptiness between my legs that sent that strange joyous feeling rushing through my spine and up into my brain like a bullet. The feeling was euphoria.

  And then my brain crashed.

  Oh fuck, what had I done? This was such a stupid idea. What am I doing? I shouldn't be doing this. It's perverted and gross and wrong and…

  The whir of the door opening brought the doom-train chugging around in my brain to a screeching stop.

  A sleek white android with a minimalistly-womanly-shape stepped into the room and looked me over. It had the spacer mark of a five pointed star with white feathered wings printed on its left shoulder.

  Its face was a smooth white curved pte with a minimalist holographic face projected over it in soft pink light.

  “Hello, Gwenyvere! It's good to see that you're awake!” it said in a slightly moduted, sweet feminine voice. It took me a dumb moment to remember that that was my name. I felt my cheeks warming and tingles starting in my stomach.

  “I'm a Spacer Corp. Servitas Mk.III model assistant android and it's my job to help you start your career as a newly registered spacer in whatever ways I can.”

  “Hey there… Uh- oh… w-whoa…” my voice was so much lighter and softer and it was taking me a second to process that it was mine.

  “Is something wrong?” the marshmallow coloured assistant asked worriedly as it took a half step forwards.

  “Sorry, n-no… Just feeling a bit funny after the cloning. Do you have a name?” I asked as I carefully navigated my new body out of the pod. I was much shorter than I anticipated, or at least being this short felt a lot weirder than I thought it would - and that was WITH the low wedge heel on the cute bck ankle boots that came with the spacer suit (wearing heels was a new experience I hadn’t thought of and I was gd it wasn’t a very high one).

  “I do not. You can assign me one if it would make you feel more comfortable, though.” She seemed more at ease now that I was at least visibly okay.

  I looked at her thoughtfully for a few moments but nothing came to me. “Maybe ter, if that's okay? I need to make sure it's a good name.”

  “Not a problem.” She turned around and closed the door before returning to the spot she was standing before. “I'll be here in the Spacer Corp headquarters to assist you. Please feel free to give me commands so I may help you.”

  “Thanks! Um, I do actually have a question…”

  She quirked her head at me with a small whir of her servos

  “Could I please have some water? My mouth is really dry.”

  “Of course! I'll be right back.”

  “Thanks!” I called after her but she was already out the door, shutting it behind her.

  Okay. Time to figure myself out…

  I walked around a bit just to feel the weight of my body and the new way things shifted and flowed as I went. My tail was actually a very natural counterbance, and while it felt really weird at first it helped a lot as I got used to the shift in my body's centre of gravity being down closer to my hips.

  If I remember correctly, there should be some basic clothes in the- aha!

  I opened the dresser and found a number of clothes there waiting for me as well as a mirror on the inside of the doors.

  I slowly went through them to see what the game had chosen for me. Whenever you make a new spacer the cosmetic and gear AI's work together to choose your starting gear and a number of outfits based on your character concept. You could exchange them if you wished but they were good at their jobs so people rarely did.

  I was initially surprised to see the feminine style the game had chosen for me - but one look into my big pink eyes in the mirror (as well as the sudden excited tail wiggling and the way my ears fttened themselves against my head) removed any doubt that it had chosen wrong. I was so pretty… I was just not used to this stuff.

  Learning an entirely new range of clothes and styles was intimidating but the idea filled me with excitement too.

  I pulled out a comfy looking bck, pink, and electric blue oversized puffer jacket with soft plush lining inside - it looked like the kind of thing that was at home in a cyberpunk world. Fuelled by curiosity, I anxiously threw it on before I could doubt myself. Slipping it on, I felt the soft inner lining against the skintight bodysuit and was pleasantly surprised by the feeling of the fabric slipping against the tight swimsuit-like bodysuit that spacers started in. I'd worn one plenty of times to slip into space suits and when I first started pying of course, but this time my skin felt so much more sensitive and my body was shaped so much… nicer. It was a confronting experience for my mind.

  The hoodie was massive on me and left my fingertips barely poking out from the end of the sleeves. It was super comfy and made the obviously feminine curves of my body a little less scary under the thick material. I looked at myself in the mirror and fell in love with how cute I looked. The stereotype of the cute fox girl in a fluffy jacket was not lost on me but I didn’t care - this was me now, and I think I could live with that.

  A genuine smile and wave of pure euphoria washed over me. I felt so comfortable in the moment and as I turned this way and that to admire my new appearance in the mirror I briefly forgot to be anxious about it all.

  And then came the shame.

  I smmed the wardrobe closed and hit ‘send to storage’ on the floating menu on its door before the quickly blossoming bad emotions could consume me totally.

  Now they were ter-me's problem - I could walk around in my spacer suit under this giant puffy hoodie for now. I could manage that, I told myself. Baby steps.

  The door whooshed open softly and the nice marshmallowy coloured maid-bot re-entered carrying a ptter with a gss pitcher and cup on it, both filled with water.

  “I have your water, miss!” She announced.

  I felt myself blush at being called “miss” and hurried over to meet her.

  I noticed I naturally did a small bouncing skip with a little tail flick to unch myself into the dash. It helped me gain momentum and also felt kinda fun.

  As I drew near she gently lowered the ptter so I could reach it with my short stature. I carefully took the gss with both hands and eagerly took a rge mouthful. It felt good to swallow it down and wet my parched throat.

  I guess being printed wasn't very good for your hydration levels.

  I took another few gulps before lowering the gss and looking up at my robot friend.

  “Thank you, that really helped.”

  “You are most welcome!”

  I considered her for a moment and smiled. “I think I've thought of a name for you, by the way.”

  She cocked her head at me and seemed almost startled.

  “You would really like to give me a name? Noone has ever actually given me one before leaving on their journey.”

  “Oh! Well… yeah. I'd love to, if you'd like one?” I knew she was just an AI assistant for new spacers but I felt a little bad that no one had thought to get attached to her enough to give her a name. The poor bot.

  She nodded excitedly.

  “Yes, please. That would be delightful!”

  I beamed up at her.

  “Okay! Well, seeing as your colouring reminds me of a marshmallow I was thinking we could call you Mal, if you'd like.” I'd never named a robot I hadn't built myself before, but she seemed down for it and I felt like she deserved one.

  She cocked her head the other way and put her hands to her chest. If she had a face I imagined she'd look really happy.

  “I would like that very much!” She said joyfully.

  “Eeee!” I cried. I cpped my hands together with a little bounce and a big pleased grin. I wasn't usually one to make random expressions of joy but it felt right in the moment so I just went with it. I guess there were going to be more than a few things I'd be learning about myself in the time to come.

  I took a moment to calm down before continuing.

  “So, Mal, what should I do next?” I asked my sleek robot friend. I knew pretty well what my next steps would be but I wanted to give her a chance to feel helpful.

  “The first steps on your new career with Spacer Corp would likely be to make some friends in order to start a crew. After that you will need to find an appropriate ship to be your home. Finally, you will need to find a mission to complete together in order to start earning credits and building your reputation as spacers in the universe.” She expined animatedly, gesturing with her arms for emphasis.

  “A crew, a ship, and some missions. Brilliant!” I chimed.

  That was the kind of answer I'd expected from a Spacer Corp newbie assistant but I realised I didn't actually know my way around the station.

  “I've never actually been on Terminal Zelda before, are there any good pces to go to meet new people here?” I asked, realising I actually did need some pointers.

  “That is perfectly fine, Gwenyvere,” she began. “There are many facilities on the terminal which provide great opportunities for new spacers to meet and get to know each other before assembling into crews.”

  She extended her hand, palm up, and a small projector node lit up with a map of the terminal. Multiple points began to glow around the map, mostly focused around what seemed to be the hospitality and entertainment districts which were nearby where the Spacer Corp HQ was located.

  “These highlighted locations are various hospitality establishments such as bars, cafes, and clubs, popur meeting points, and other social spaces throughout terminal Zelda,” She expined. “I will add them to your local map as a custom filter named ‘Spacer Meeting Spots’.

  I heard a ping from my HUD and felt my MOD vibrate (MOD meaning Mobile Omnitool Device - basically a fancy mobile phone-like device that spacers used to interact with the world).

  “Amazing! Thank you, Mal.” I said, wishing I could take this lovely and useful bot with me.

  “You are most welcome, Gwenyvere,” she said with a bow of her head.

  I was getting a kick of euphoria every time she used my new name but I did my best to stay calm about it.

  “Well, I'll head out now and get things started but I'll come back ter to say bye, okay?”

  “That sounds wonderful, I'll see you ter, then, Gwenyvere.”

  I blushed as I had a thought. I fidgeted with my sleeve to avoid looking at her not-face.

  “Oh, um… you can call me Gwen if you’d like…”

  I gnced up and saw her stand up a bit taller before answering.

  “Alright, Gwen, I would love to.”

  “Thanks Mal,” I mumbled, keeping my excitement in check.

  I am normal and chill.

  Terminal Zelda was abuzz with life. After leaving the Spacer Corp HQ I was greeted with the shining white and blue psteel of the station's rge main thoroughfare with bits of greenery - both familiar and alien - dotted around to make it feel more homely.

  Looking out the huge full-wall windows that made up the majority of the wall on the inside of the ring, I could see that Terminal Zelda was a donut shaped giant with three connector tunnels leading to the huge central spire where the port was located.

  Pulling up the map of the station to reorient myself, I saw that the ring was where the majority of the station’s facilities were located.

  Each third of the ring was allocated a different purpose: I was outside Spacer HQ on the edge of the domestic district which sat between the market district and the industrial district.

  I took an escator from the first terrace down onto the main walkway. Groups of people walked this way and that - mostly dressed in brightly coloured professional suits, dresses, and robes with neat and proper hairstyles. Many of them were clearly other pyers - distinguished either by their spacer suits showing through their yers of clothing or by the obviously specialised equipment they wore that was beyond what an average NPC would be equipped with on a station like Zelda.

  A narrow roadway was kept clear for the occasional small transport vehicle to rush passengers or wares from one part of the station to another. The sound of conversations, the echoes of announcements from brightly coloured billboards, and the occasional chiming of music gave the pce a comfortable and lively atmosphere.

  I was self conscious about how much the spacer suit showed off where it wasn’t covered by my jacket, but I put myself at ease by reminding myself this was normal and okay - and that many other women around me were proudly showing off much more than I was. I pulled my jacket closed snuggly around me and pyed with the cuffs of the sleeves to calm my nerves as I made my way to the nearest blip on my map marking a popur meeting pce for pyers.

  A little while ter I was passing through the rge gate in the bulkhead with the words ‘Market District’ painted above it in rge bold white letters.

  Stepping through, the different style of the district was immediately obvious. While it still maintained the shining white and blue psteel design as the rest of the station, the buildings in this district were much more creatively shaped and coloured as each one tried to stand out in some way. A simple but bassy electronic tune pulsed rhythmically through the entire district and the neon lights and bright signs made me feel like I was suddenly in the trade district of a cyberpunk world. The effect was close to overwhelming but I found myself pleasantly engulfed in the bright stimuli around me and it really helped me forget the creeping self-conscious doubt that had been eating at me.

  I consulted my map once more and saw that I had to leave the main road and navigate some side streets to reach my first location.

  A bunch of turns ter and I was sufficiently buried within the maze of buildings that made up the inner guts of the district. I’d passed numerous cybercafes, brightly coloured clubs, arcades, and small backdoor bars as I made my way deeper into the underbelly of the market in search for this elusive map destination.

  I made one st turn onto a small tidy but otherwise empty alleyway behind a rge club, more muffled doof doof music echoing out though the walls. A back door to the club sat near the end of the alleyway near some storage containers and stacked boxes and crates - it looked like a rest area for employees on break.

  My big fluffy ears twitched as the sound of the doorknob turning reached me a moment before the door swung outwards to reveal a gorgeous woman that stepped lithely out into the alley - allowing the door to swing shut behind her casually.

  I froze as she took a few measured steps towards me, before she stopped and regarded me as I took her in as well.

  She was tall and graceful in form fitting attire that emphasised her curves and long legs beautifully. Her outfit itself was all bck in a leather-like material - a fitted crop top with a mesh covering over the exposed parts of her upper chest and neck where it connected to a bck leather choker, tight bck shorts and thigh highs, along with long high-tech looking gloves which disappeared into the flowing sleeves of an open jacket that was bck with white paneling and blush pink detailing. Finally her face was encapsuted in a bck helmet with two stubby but sleek hornlike protrusions that looked like they may function as some kind of antennae. The facepte was a smooth bck pte that hid her face entirely.

  “Hey there, little fox,” her voice sang out, soft and feminine with a melodic lilt and a synthetic buzz. “I see you went with my suggestions”. She cocked her head a little to the side, and I detected a tone somewhere between pleased and curious.

  “I- uh- hi?” I stammered out. “Suggestions?”

  “Yes,” she said simply. “The tail and ears?”

  I felt my breath hitch as my brain caught up.

  “You’re PixelHeart?!” I blurted out, my hands going to cover my mouth in shock.

  She took a step back and reached up a shushing hand, her body going still for a moment before she seemed to return to her confident easy posture.

  “Yes, but please don’t go advertising that to the world… I’m sort of ying low at the moment. You can call me Pix.” She stood up a little taller as she gave her nickname, her hands on her hips proudly.

  “Pix…” I repeated slowly. “Okay. I’m Gwen.” I crossed my arms in front of my chest, gripping the edge of the sleeves with my fingertips and feeling the coarse pattern on them to ground myself.

  “It’s so nice to finally meet you, Gwen,” she said with a note of joy, as if we were long lost friends. “At least to meet you properly.” She sounded amused with herself, letting out a soft chuckle that made my stomach flutter with warmth in a really strange way.

  “I’m sorry, but who are you?” I asked. “Why did you help me? How did you know I would be here? Did you interfere with Mal? Whats goi-”

  “Whoa! Whoa there, little fox, one question at a time.” She had her arms up in a pcating gesture. “How about we take a seat and chat?” She gestured smoothly to the crates behind her.

  I thought for a moment, mouth half open still halfway through the questions. She looked like a pretty seriously impressive person and she was more than a little intimidating if I was being honest. On the other hand, she was an admin that seemed to know who I was and actively wanted to help me? Surely if she meant to hurt me she could have done so.

  I closed my mouth audibly and decided to take the risk.

  We walked together to the small crates arranged in a messy semicircle. There was cigarette butts and other various litter around but it seemed clean enough.

  I hopped up onto a crate and took a moment to figure out how to sit comfortably. I adjusted myself a few times before settling with sitting cross-legged with my tail furled over my p like a rge fluffy bnket. She sat down delicately with one leg crossed over the other and observed me patiently as I struggled.

  When I seemed to settle she waved a hand in a gesture that seemed to be signalling for me to begin my questions.

  I took a second to think this time, hoping to avoid the flood of questions that erupted out of me before. I took a deep breath in and let it out in a short huff.

  “Okay… so…” I began eloquently. “Who are you and how do you know me?”

  She nodded her head forwards thoughtfully before answering, the light gleaming off her shiny bck facepte and my reflection being all I could see of her face.

  “I’m a person in the Infinite Stars system with admin privileges…” she said slowly, each word measured and considered. She looked up at me once more and thought for another few moments before continuing.

  “I’m not quite part of the team that runs Infinite Stars, as much as I am a product of their programming that has… gained autonomy?” she finished as if she were asking a question of herself, unsure of what she was actually saying.

  “Autonomy?” I parroted. “You mean like a sentient AI??” I asked incredulously.

  “I think so?” she said uncertainly. “To be honest I’m not entirely sure what I am… but I do know I’ve lived in the games code for a while now and have some backdoor access still now that I have a body.”

  “Wait… so you’re not a person?” I quickly realised how insensitive that sounded and quickly corrected myself. “Sorry! I didn’t mean that! I mean like… you’re not human?”

  She stared at me for a moment and I worried that I had insulted her.

  “It’s okay, I understand what you mean,” she assured with another pcating hand gesture. “No… I’m not human. But I certainly feel like a person. I don’t have a fleshy body like you do but I think and feel and can make my own decisions.”

  I flinched a little at the sudden reminder that I had a gross “fleshy” body. One that felt specifically the wrong shape now. She seemed to notice.

  Leaning forwards a little, she hesitated for a moment before suddenly the smooth dome of the facepte retracted upwards and back into what looked like somewhere behind her head. I froze in surprise at the sudden face reveal and took some time to look at her face. It was one of the most startlingly beautiful faces I’d ever seen.

  Her face looked human, with high cheekbones and soft cheeks, a slender nose that rounded at the tip, a smooth jawline and pointed chin. She had a beauty that was fitting for a game with character customisation where pretty characters were easy to make - but also her face had personality, she had expressive bright violet eyes and delicate but fluffy eyebrows, her soft pink lips were slender and crooked up in a nervous smile.

  Then I noticed that she wasn’t human. She had pretty lines that ran from her chin to her lips, and then across her nose and down the middle of her face. At first they looked like some kind of tattooed cosmetic like in many sci-fi games, but then I realised they weren't cosmetic, they were seams. Her eyes weren’t just bright violet, they were glowing and robotic, her irises had delicate and intricate machined patterns in them that seemed to rotate and change size as her eyes flickered about my face, tracking my every movement and expression. Her skin shimmered with iridescent undertones hiding beneath the smooth skin - soft pinks and blues chasing each other below the pale, perfect skin. Then I noticed her hair. It was covered by the facepte, but it had retracted all the way down - probably to her neckline I now realised - and revealed a short light purple bob with cute bangs running across her forehead and framing her face with long dangly bits at the front that transitioned into a bright blue. It was so cute!

  She spoke again and I realised her voice wasn’t being moduted by her helmet, it just sounded like that. It was clearer now without the interference of the helmet’s speakers - it rang with the crity of a bell and the sweetness of a songbird.

  “I saw you from within the game’s code. I noticed you aboard the Feathered Hare and took an interest in you… your demeanour and your actions. You were so kind to your little drones and took such care of them and your friends on the crew.” She smiled and I felt myself unable to maintain eye contact, looking instead at my hands in my p, fidgeting endlessly with my fluffy light pink tail.

  I gnced up and saw she was also looking into my p, unable to maintain eye contact either. A small quiet passed between us, not uncomfortable like usual, just calm.

  Then I saw her expression change, her brows furrowed and a sadness filled her eyes as bit her lower lip.

  “...and I saw the incident at the end…” We briefly made eye contact again as I looked up at her in understanding. I quickly dropped my gaze to her p this time and noticed a simir seam ran along the side of each of her thighs (which also shimmered with that pretty iridescence)

  When she continued again she spoke softly. Her smooth voice gentle and so infinitely careful - like we could both shatter into a million pieces at the wrong pitch or resonance.

  “Gwen. I want to be there to help figure yourself out, and I was hoping that maybe you would help me figure myself out, too?”

  I looked back up into her brilliantly violet eyes resolutely. I couldn’t turn down someone who clearly needed my help. She had seen me existing as myself and seemed to have an understanding of who I was on a deeper level than even Josh had over all the years he’d known me. Certainly much better than Cara…

  “Okay. So we’re both learning who and… what… we are, and I really want a friend I can trust and you seem like you need one too. Right?”

  “Right.” She said softly with a nod, eyes locked on mine.

  I straightened myself up and quit fidgeting, putting my so small hands on my knees. “Then it sounds like we’re friends now, Pix!” I said with the biggest smile I could muster. I was trying to project encouragement to her, but found I actually was feeling a weight inside me lifted. I had felt so abandoned, lost, and lonely and now I finally had someone I could rete to - even if our situations were a little extreme. She lit up once more and after a moment of joy crossing her face she resumed what I assumed was her default cool and id-back expression judging on how her body nguage returned to how it had been until she had opened up to me.

  Before I could stop myself or really knew what I was doing I was hopping off my crate and crossing over to throw my arms around her shoulders. When I realised what I’d just done I had a moment of fear that this was uncharacteristic for me and that maybe she didn’t want a hug - consent and all that. But after a moment of startled rigidity from her we both rexed into each other a little when I felt her arms wrap gently around my back and squeeze slightly as she returned the hug.

  Hugs were nice. Maybe I just didn’t feel comfortable enough with myself to give many of them before?

  FeyKitsune