FeyKitsune

  “So how did you know where I was going to be? Did you teleport with your super admin powers or something?” I asked Pix as we walked together. I enjoyed the way the different coloured lights gleamed off her face pte at different angles - it made her head look like a living rainbow.

  We were back on the main road now, making our way to a prominent spacer bar called ‘The Maus’.

  Pix had extended her helmet’s facepte again, expining that she felt more comfortable with it up around people because she didn’t like people seeing her and worrying about making the right faces.

  It sounded very fair and retable to me. Maybe I needed to get myself a cool extendable visor thingy of my own at some point.

  “Nothing that exciting,” she replied. “I did make a little change to the list she gave you and added a new point that would be the closest one to the entrance to the market district though.” We separated briefly for a group of drunk spacers walking the opposite direction to avoid a collision. “I assumed that’d be your first destination so I just waited for you to arrive”

  I thought for a moment in wonder at how impressive it was that she could do that. “Wait. But what if I decided to go somewhere else first? You would have just been stuck there for ages…” I giggled a little at the thought of my new friend waiting for hours and realising she’d goofed.

  “Oh, I wasn’t too worried about that. I can sort of… see through cameras?” she said sheepishly.

  “Wait… really?!” I excimed. “That’s so cool! How do you do that? Is that an admin thing too?”

  She turned her helmet to look at me in what I guessed was surprise.

  “Oh… is it? No. Well, yes. But I’ve had this body I’m in specialised in electronic manipution and hacking. I could see through various cameras when I lived within the game’s code, but that’s a bit more complicated now… So this time I hacked into the district’s main camera feed. I kept track of you from the club while I waited.”

  “Oooooh… smart! And handy - you’re like a walking security system!” That earned me another chuckle from the tall android.

  “I guess I am.” She replied simply.

  “We’ll make such a good team! You can handle all the electronicy-cybery stuff and I can handle all the mechanical stuff. Together we’ll be unstoppable!”

  I threw my fist into the air victoriously, but Pix just looked at me and gave that low purring chuckle that made my heart warm. I guess I wasn’t the most intimidating figure anymore - more cute and mischievous than big and formidable. A part of me was frustrated by that but then I remembered I much preferred it this way.

  Oh well, it’s an easy sacrifice - I’ll let my army of drones equipped with giant guns and many many skittering legs do the strong work for me.

  A bit more walking and we made it to the Maus. The sign out the front depicted a rge sci-fi tank that looked like a huge brick stacked on another bigger brick with a cannon attached to it. Every 20 or so seconds a bright red muzzle fsh would blink on and off. Nice.

  The building itself was located at the front row of the second terrace. It wasn’t the closest bar or cafe, or the most popur, but apparently they served good food and drinks and attracted the sort of people Pix said we were looking for.

  I wasn’t exactly sure what sort of people we were looking for but as we climbed the small set of stairs to the entrance I saw a rainbow coloured shooting star beside the door.

  Pix gestured for me to go through the door first, which I did with my face tilted down to hide the blush that I felt creeping across it. When I looked up I realised what sort of people Pix meant.

  I saw that there was a whole wall lined with various fgs that I recognised as pride fgs. In the center of it was an open section of wall which was absolutely covered in stickers and writing with different slogans, messages, and quotes I recognised from different pride marches and protests I’d seen online and on the news. I’d never actually been invested in that community before but I’d always been sympathetic to what they seemed to stand for. I guess there was no running away or hiding from the fact that it’s where I belonged anymore.

  Pix put a gentle hand on my shoulder, looking from the wall to me.

  “Welcome,” she said softly.

  I looked up at her but my ability to read her was failing me in the moment.

  “Let’s go sit down and chill for a bit before we figure out what to do next.” She gave me a gentle nudge towards the bar. I let myself be led to one of the stools at the metal bar top that was worn and scratched in pces but otherwise polished to a shine.

  The floor of the Maus was a grid of dark grey psteel squares but the walls were made of what looked like stone bricks of various reddish-brown hues. Seeing brick was rare, but gave the pce a nice cozy feeling that contrasted nicely with all the sci-fi elements I was used to. The lights were recessed gentle down lights embedded at intervals in the walls, and the floor had dim lights near the floor to give the pce a warmly lit ambiance without making the light too overpowering. The tables and booths looked cosy with gray cushioning in the seats and overall the pce had a friendly and welcoming vibe to it that didn’t make my senses feel overwhelmed.

  There were rge screens dotted around the pce that were currently pying through some cartoon I didn’t recognise with subtitles to help anyone actually paying attention to them.

  Behind the bar were various models and images of tanks and tank shells - both sci-fi and from various periods of the real world. Whoever owned this pce was really into tanks.

  The bartender was a well built, brown skinned woman with an undercut messy brown curly bun. She had a cybernetic arm on her right side and she had a number of scars on the right side of her body that made it clear she’d been in some kind of accident.

  She gave us a warm smile and stopped what she was doing - inputting something on the bar’s computer - to come over and greet us.

  “Hello! What can I get you lovelies?” She had an accent that sounded like she would be from New Zeand in the real world.

  “Hey! Oh- I would like a… lemonade?” Pix said awkwardly. I raised my eyes at her and cocked my head in concern. She ignored me.

  “Of course!” The bartender said enthusiastically, seemingly unphased by my friend’s clumsiness. She turned to me. “And what about you, honey?”

  I felt myself flush a little at being called “honey” in such a motherly way but I was determined to keep my cool.

  “Another lemonade, please!” I said with a smile at the nice dy. She felt safe and warm.

  “Just give me two seconds,” she gave us a nod and another smile before she whisked away to fetch gsses and fill them.

  I took the waiting time to check in with Pix.

  “Hey, are you okay? You seemed frazzled…”

  She turned her helmet towards me and didn’t say anything for a short while.

  “I… just realised I’ve never consumed food or drink before,” she said in a ft tone. She didn’t seem upset or excited, just… unsure of herself?

  “That’s so exciting!” I whisper-shouted eagerly. “You’ll get to try everything for the first time!” I bounced up and down in my stool with excitement to watch her experience lemonade.

  “That’s true…” she said in that same ft tone before she seemed to perk up. “That’s true!” she repeated with more enthusiasm. “It’s just… what if I don’t like it?”

  “It’s alright, not everyone likes lemonade.” I replied. “You don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to.”

  “I know… but what if I don’t like it as much as I hope? I mean drinking in general? Or eating.” I started to realise what the problem was. I reached out and put both of my hands on hers, marveling at just how much bigger her hand was than mine.

  “Hey… it’s okay to be scared of new things. But there’s so many different fvours and textures out there, I’m sure you’ll find things you like.” I gave her hand a shake and she looked down at it and then back up at me. “And I’ll be here to help you experience all these firsts if you’d like~” I said encouragingly.

  She took a moment and then nodded a few times.

  “Alright. I can do this- we can do this,” she said slowly but confidently.

  “Atta-girl!” I beamed, proud of my brave android bestie.

  She looked back up at me suddenly but then the bartender returned with our drinks.

  “Here you go, you two,” She set them down in front of us.

  “Thank you!” I said eagerly, pulling out my MOD. “How much are they?”

  She gave me a smile and shook her head with a wave of her cybernetic arm.

  “Oh don’t worry about that. They’re just lemonades, you can have the first ones free.”

  I went to insist but she just gave me another wave of her arm - I heard a very faint whir of servos.

  “Don’t you worry, sweetie. Now if you need anything else, you just call out, alright?” She put her hands on her hips, satisfied.

  We both thanked her greatly and she walked off back to the computer where she was before we sat down.

  I picked up my drink and turned to face Pix bodily, my eyes drilled in on where hers would be with a determined look on my face. After a moment she hesitantly picked up hers and turned to face me too. Our knees touched just barely so I shuffled back ever so slightly.

  Her facepte slid up and I saw the lights of the bar were making the iridescence of her skin dance in the prettiest way. It was like she had permanent glitter sparkles and I loved to watch the colours dance.

  Her violet eyes made the drink light up a little as it neared her face and she returned my determined look with one of her own with more than a hint of fear still bubbling beneath it.

  I put the straw in my mouth and waited for her to copy me. When she did I waited as I watched her prepare herself, and then once she gave me a nod and I gave her one back, we both sipped at the same time.

  The lemonade was nice - it was the sweet kind that I liked and I felt the fizziness dance on the roof of my mouth.

  The best part was her reaction though. Her eyes blew wide open and her dark purple eyebrows went into hiding somewhere under her fringe. She put the gss down solidly and seemed to vibrate - both up and down like a person, and mechanically, somehow. She waved her arms and shook her head violently, sending her short bangs and fringe to flutter around briefly before resting back to frame her lovely face as she returned to her normal state.

  I sat there with my mouth half open and a look of great concern. I slowly unfurrowed my eyebrows, closed my mouth, and pced my drink down gently before I continued.

  “Was that… a good? reaction? Or a bad one…?”

  Her eyes were closed, but when she opened them I saw joy explode across her face.

  “I LOVED IT!” she cried excitedly before looking around quickly and retreating inwards a little and repeating in a hushed voice. “I loved it.”

  I gave a high pitched whoop (a noise that I was extremely satisfied I could just make now) and put my hands on her knees, giving her a shake of excitement.

  “Yay, you! I’m so happy for you, Pix!” I cheered quietly to avoid embarrassing her further. “Your first drink was a huge success!”

  She shot me a shy smile and lowered her visor once more. Apparently she had a port she could put the straw into that allowed her to drink it with the visor down. I wondered if she could eat like that too, but was gd she could enjoy her drink without being self conscious about being observed.

  I took this time to take a look around us and actually figure out who we were dealing with.

  The pce had a dozen or so other customers sitting in small groups of two, three, or four dotted around the booths and tables. Some of them had looked up at Pix’s outburst, mostly ughing at her violent reaction I noted with distaste. But one group seemed to react happily for her - giving small cheers from their booth on the far side of the room.

  They were a group of what looked like four girls - three of which looked like generic humans and then the other one looked like an elf. Now, the elf gave me a big smile and one of the humans gave me a wave. I smiled and gave them all a shy wave in return.

  “Hey,” I said quietly to Pix, who was finishing off her drink with what I guessed were happy vibrations. She put the gss down and turned her head to me. “I think that group over there is looking at us…” I trailed off as she turned her head to them.

  “They do indeed.” She replied without turning to me, her voice light with curiosity. “Shall we go mingle?”

  “Oh dear…” I said, letting out a nervous breath. “Okay. Yes. Yep. Yes.”

  I’d always been a little socially awkward, but now I was pying as a girl, I had no idea how to act or present myself. I was worried I’d make a fool of myself and mess things up for both of us. What if they realised I wasn’t a real girl? Or if they thought I was gross or predatory? They might-

  “Gwen, it’s okay. Hey. You’re alright.” Pix had her hands on my shoulders and had turned me to face her. Her voice cutting through the storm of anxiety. “You’re safe. I’ve got you, it’s okay.” She kept repeating

  I looked up into the reflective bck surface of her visor and saw a scared and panicked looking fox girl staring back at me wide-eyed. That’s me, was the only thought that jumped into my head then and I felt a warm bubbly sort of feeling come up from somewhere deep inside me and wash away the anxiety. I turned my head sideways and admired the way my curls flopped to the side. They tickled my face a little and I smiled at the feeling. My ears shot up and I smiled even more seeing how fluffy and cute they were.

  “Hey, little fox.” She said, amused. “Welcome back.”

  I blushed at the name she seemed to like using and then realised what I was doing and rushed to apologise for using her as a mirror.

  “I’m sorry! I-”

  “Hey, you’re fine. It’s okay.” She interjected. “You’re completely fine. I’m gd you seem a bit better, I think we lost you for a second there.”

  She gave my shoulders a gentle squeeze and, seeing me regaining all my faculties, slowly let me go.

  I frowned at myself and gnced nervously at the group of spacers. They were watching with concerned faces, one looked like she was even about to stand up.

  The elf from before gave me a knowing and gentle smile. I gave a weak smile back.

  “Okie. I’m okay now. Thank you, Pix.” I gave my friend a few nods of encouragement and the best smile I could manage, and that seemed to be enough to get her to hesitantly nod back and then rise from her seat with me close behind.

  Together we crossed the room over to the four spacers at the booth. As we approached they all waved and called out various versions of “Heey~” and “Hello!” The two elves scooted across to make room for us. It was a good thing the booths were made to fit up to eight people.

  “Welcome~!” greeted one of the human girls.

  She had light rosy skin, soft pink eyes, and ashy brown hair tied up in a high ponytail. She was dressed in a fitted pink and white hoodie-type dress and a white and light pastel-yellow cropped jacket with white fur lining around the hood. She looked to be a fair bit taller than me, with a sweet round face and some kind of fancy high-tech goggles resting on her head out of the way.

  “I’m Anna, she/her,” she said, gesturing to herself with one hand before pointing beside her. “This is Callie, they/she/it, anything really…”

  Callie had a messy short blonde bob, vividly green eyes, and a beaming grin that felt at once both welcoming and like they wanted to bite me. They looked only slightly taller than me and I realised now that we were closer that they actually had sharply pointed teeth and short but pointed ears. Their skin was actually a light shade of green and overall they looked a bit like a goblin. They were wearing a loose yellow and bck jumpsuit and had thick bck pilot gloves that looked almost oversized on them.

  “... they’re a bit of a creature but mostly harmless.” Anna continued. Finally, she pointed to the elven girl sitting beside Pix. “That’s Lelia, she/her…”

  Lelia gave a polite dip of her head when she was introduced. She had deep purple skin, silvery white hair, and jet bck horns that curled back and away from her face. Her eyes were completely bck and had no visible pupils or irises - it was both disturbing and deeply beautiful. She wore a fitted white silk blouse with a turtleneck tucked into what looked like a bck high waisted skirt. She held an otherworldly air to her and clearly understood the assignment when she decided to make a space elf.

  “She can do cool magic stuff - it’s pretty neat.” Anna expined with a flourish of her wrist like it was totally normal. “And finally, that’s Molly, she/her…” Anna pointed to the girl next to Lelia.

  Molly was a pale girl with yellow eyes, dark makeup and bright red hair in a messy updo. She wore a thick bck leather sleeveless jacket with a high colr over her spacer suit. She had various cybernetic enhancement nodes and modules behind her ear and two heavily modified cybernetic arms. She gave a short salute and grinned widely at both of us. I could see various jackets, bags, and weapons piled in the corner on the far side of the booth. They had some serious gear on them.

  “She’s a sweetheart-under-a-rough-exterior type that likes to start and finish fights with assholes.” Anna finished and Molly let out a chuckle.

  With all of their introductions completed, Pix and I looked at each other. She was first to speak.

  “I’m Pix, uh… she/they?” She began. They began? My eyes widened a little at that but I kept it subtle. We could talk about that ter. “I’m an electronics expert.” They finished simply before gesturing to me. “And she’s Gwen, my adorable little fox mechanic friend. Oh uh… she/her.” They didn’t turn their head my way but I felt their gaze shift to me for assurance. I beamed up at her in response.

  “Woo! We did it!” Anna cheered, followed by a “Woo!” from Callie and Molly (and me).

  “Okay. Introductions done… I would like to just make sure we’re on the same page. Are y’all looking to join a crew? We thought we could handle ourselves but we actually happen to be on the lookout for a mechanic, and an electronics specialist would be mighty helpful too.”

  “Not to mention you ain’t men…” Molly chimed in gdly.

  I felt my blood freeze and I think I actually audibly gasped but Pix pretended to accidentally knock me to hide it. How could they have known I’d react that way? Their reaction to my reaction basically cancelled out my reaction. What?

  Pix spoke up quickly.

  “Definitely! If you’ll take us I’m sure we’d both be gd to join you.” She turned her head to me for confirmation.

  “Yes! I’d love to!” I said as enthusiastically as I could while still recovering from the shock.

  Anna gave us both a beaming smile.

  “Well, then welcome to the Hellionettes!”

  FeyKitsune