Opening his eyes Seinu just lay for a moment in the dark and stared upwards, letting his thoughts slowly gather themselves. It was dark but not the silent gloom he was used to as seen through Avali eyes. This was a richer darkness, he could actually see the folds in the fabric that had been used to create this little fort of quiet, propped up by cushions. There was also a complete lack of colour, which was fine for darkness but not for the lack of HUD. His artificial body always displayed a basic HUD but currently there was nothing, just what his eyes could see.
Seinu thought of a command and ordered his operating protocols to display the HUD but he got a system message back instead which caught him very off guard.
New Neurological upgrade complete, Vampire Bunny brain pattern mapping is online to match your current body.
Due to increased demands in processing power to replicate neurological interfaces with body sensory systems internal HUD and Avali Core Brain-Map have been deactivated. Please use your external visor to interface with the command system.
Seinu stared at the message, watching it slowly fade out… he hadn’t even known his body could turn off the augmentation and control system! Heck, if he was reading this correctly it had turned off all Avali processes! Usually when he changed forms the core of what he was remained behind the interactive overlay between his thoughts and the body.
He was going to get the full Bunny experience it seemed, and that was probably why he felt so weird. He wasn’t looking through a filter as an Avali; his augmented synthetic body had just shifted him entirely into a bunny. Plus there were no command and control systems visible and that was… very very weird.
This was kind of cool, it meant his memories and vision as a bunny would be more natural. But it was also a bit alarming too; he wasn't used to having to operate entirely as the creatures he transformed into. He always had the control system at hand. But there were other senses: The fact he could see so well in the dark (his eyesight was usually atrocious) was a huge bonus. He could also smell Thiln sitting down nearby, heck, his head was in his bunny friends lap from the feel of it.
“Hey,” Seinu said then paused, “Oh… that sounds different,” he was speaking in the bunny-song, but his body was now mimicking the vocal cords that came with being a bunny. His entire voice sounded different and the language sounded a lot more natural.
“Hi,” Thiln chirped and placed a paw on Seinu’s forehead, “You are awake again… you really do sound different, is that normal?”
“Not normally, my voice often stays the same when I change forms… but I was trying to be authentic and did a full mental map,” Seinu rubbed his muzzle then got distracted feeling his fangs, for a herbivore species he sure had a lot of fucking fangs!
“I got a bit overwhelmed and my body has adjusted some of my default settings to make it easier for me to cope with the change.”
“I didn’t understand most of that,” Thiln giggled and pressed his paws on Seinu’s shoulders, “But I do understand you tried to learn how to be a bunny so I stuck you in the dark, that helps.”
Seinu closed his eyes and lay there for a moment, “I don’t feel any different… It's just dark, everything still is weird! Is the darkness meant to help? I think that must not be an instinct, it's just dark to me.”
“What does that mean? Darkness should make you feel safe, it makes everyone feel safe,” Thiln grumbled, “You can’t talk about alien stuff with me Seinu, you need to use words I understand.”
“Oh…” Seinu mentally changed gears, he was too used to speaking to his family who usually could understand all these words that required an education and knowledge. “I think darkness being soothing is something you learn as a little bunny, you aren’t born that way.”
“Ooooh,” Thiln sounded genuinely surprised, “I didn’t know it worked like that, but the darkness should help! Er uhm… fuck, if being in the dark doesn’t help uhhh what do we do?”
“First thing is, we call Taran,” Seinu said slowly, sitting up and patting his hands down his body, “He can help by checking that nothing else is wrong. Er… also what did you make this dark place out of? Is this my office tent?”
“It’s your igloo yeah, I moved all the cushions around, but ok your Avali brother and one of your sisters are outside… Can you not smell them?
“Oh… yes I can, I wasn’t really… wow” Seinu took a breath through his nose, that was a weird sensation. Avali’s didn’t have noses like other alien races, they smelt things with receptors on their tongues and their breathing tubes were connected to the back of their skull; two small air-ways hidden between their ears on either side of their heads. Having air sliding up his nose into his lungs and bringing scents with it was always so strange.
“I can smell me…” he said, “and you, that is the strongest scent in here but there are other scents… a bit more distant.”
"Keep your eyes close and sniff, I bet you can do it!” Thiln said excitedly, “You are a bunny now, smell is first hearing and sight second. That’s how mother and grand-ma taught me when I was little."
"OK… OK…" Seinu sniffed, then sniffed again, there were other scents under his and Thiln's. His nose could distinguish them but he had to feel his way around them, let them float through his mind until he could associate bonds or faces or names to each scent. Some of them were mundane, the scent of his cushions, the tingly scent of the energy crystal that powered his office, the scent of snow! Snow had a scent and it was… kind of nice, usually snow was just something that existed in his life, now it had a scent, an identity.
Other scents were more complex, one of them was familiar, tangy, with a hint of oil and ammonia and electricity, "Taran… and another Avali…. Bright n sparkling with… oh right that's Firi,"
"Is that her name?," Thiln chirped, "She came down a while ago because you were asleep, Taran said she couldn't come in here. So she's lurking outside to see you, but keep smelling, what else can you pick up?"
"OK.. sweet smelling… Probably that's a Cinati fruit… and… and three more bunnies… no, four… One of them feels very old… Is that one the Elder… She's here?"
"Yay," Thiln chirped, "You did it! One of them is Fi, and The Elder wants to see you before she lets you move into the village. She's curious about how you have become one of us, if you're ready we'll go outside and you can enjoy seeing colours again," Thiln giggled at this, "I can't imagine not being able to enjoy the colours, do you feel ready to go outside?"
“I really don’t want to…” Seinu whimpered and stared at the exit to the tent, “That really hurt last time… but ok… let’s do this.”
Seinu pushed open the flap to the tent cautiously and peered outside, he squinted, raising one hand as lights dazzled his eyes. He blinked a bit and looked beyond the awning to where his brother and sister were talking to the bunnies still. He then looked behind them and just stood there staring in awe.
The sun had gone down whilst he was asleep and now the sky above their camp was filled with rolling waves of glorious light. Seinu forgot all about how his vision was so different and wandered past the others; he barely heard Firi or Taran call out to him and just stood and stared at the lights. Usually the aurora was just boring bands of faint, nearly grey colours; now they were a network of interconnected wonder, not just bands, but a nebula of rolling waves that filled the sky with luminescence whilst the stars shone behind them like a backdrop of splendour.
Firi shook his shoulder and he turned to look at her and blinked, “Man you are so yellow… Firi, can you see them?”
He turned back and stared at the lights, “They are amazing… I’ve never… wow,” he sat down in the snow and just stared at the aurora for a long moment, ignoring the others as they fussed around him.
“Seinu,” Taran said firmly, shaking him and snapping him out of it, “Listen to me bro, I need you to focus, focus on me.”
“Oh right,” Seinu turned back to his brother and smiled, “You really can’t see the aurora? It’s…. It’s so complicated and the colours are wonderful.”
Taran looked up then shrugged, “I can see some bands of light… but I don't have your eyes, now we are going to talk about this and see if you need to change back.”
“No,” Seinu said straight away, “No… it worked, my operating system has had to make a few changes I wasn’t expecting but I will get used to it! I am here to live amongst the bunnies, learn their lives well, now I am just going to actually have to learn how to be a bunny to do that.”
Firi chirped and knelt down, “Well the bunnies seem willing to accept you as one of them, but you scared the fuck out of me, your bio-monitors went to zero for a bit there.”
Reaching up Seinu petted her muzzle then held onto it and stared at her, “You look amazing but do you realise we really stink? It isn’t a pleasant scent to this nose, really… sort of sharp and musty.”
“We do not stink,” Firi grumbled, “That’s just your new nose not being used to Avali,” she bopped him on the snout and glanced at Taran, “He sounds like himself… insulting me already, can I sit on him now and screep? He’s even shorter than usual. I can wrestle him into submission with ease.”
Taran looked up from his screens then down at Seinu, “Firi behave, we have guests,” he chirped, “But yes… he is himself, my analysis indicates his memories are all intact, his personality too it is just being filtered through the eyes and senses of a vampire bunny completely… Seinu, are you sure about this?”
“Yes,” Seinu stood up and turned to the others and waved, “Now I am going to talk to their Elder and negotiate moving to their village. I am sure once I am settled in I can invite you all down to visit as well, they seem curious.”
Firi grumbled some and hovered but Seinu tried to ignore her and the weird vibrations he was picking up as she stomped back and forth and focussed on the bunnies. He lost himself staring at the aurora again for a good minute until Taran clipped his visor back over his eyes and distracted him. Shaking his head Seinu ordered his visor to darken and block out some of the additional colours and moved over toward the bunnies. He had friends to make!
Returning to the Odyssey, Firi sighed in relief and moved away from the teleporter room. Seinu was fine, when his medical monitor had stopped transmitting she'd rushed to the planet to check up on him. It was just a hiccup in his transformation which had now been fixed but it had given her a scare. Wandering into the drone bay she moved over to her workbench and pulled off her visor, she was about to sit down and get to work when she noticed a white foot poking out of the pile of naptime pillows she kept down here.
Peering over the cushions she found Ki, curled around the biggest pillow snoozing. Her new pack-mate was cuddling it and snoozing softly, wearing a long tan coloured loincloth and half-mantle/scarf around his neck. Humming softly Firi backed up a few steps, pulled off the remainder of her armour and wearing just the body-suit clambered into the pillows and tucked herself around him in a soft hug.
He stirred sleepily and flicked his ears up, “Oh… hi si… Firi,” he stopped himself calling her sis which she found endearingly cute and hugged him firmly.
“Hello yourself Ki,” she nosed him gently between the ears, “what brings you to my nest?”
“We were supposed to meet and talk some,” he chirped, stretching out and relaxing back against her, “But you ran off just as I was getting here and it was nap time.”
“Oooh yeah,” she shook her head, “Sorry I had to go to the surface and check on Seinu, his bio-monitors went offline.”
Ki turned his head and peered at the yellow and white Avali, “You have bio-monitors on Seinu?”
“On everyone,” she chirped and booped his snoot with hers, “Even you bro,” she grinned at the way his ears flicking up and down at her using that word of endearment, “I keep track of the whole pack, I will always be there if any of you are in trouble.”
“Oh…” Ki wiggled around until he was face to face with her, closing his hands around hers, “That’s kind of nice, is Seinu ok though?”
“Yeah,” She sighed, “He crashed his operating system whilst transforming, Taran is with him and was not concerned, stupid birds both of them, though I guess I should call Seinu a bunny… he’s adorable, small, fluffy… and an idiot.”
Ki chuckled, “I am glad he is ok, but that totally doesn’t count as a personal thing,” he grinned as Firi realised she had walked into a trap, “It’s your turn to tell me about something from your recent past, like what happened on Warfaisser station?”
“Oh those fuckers,” she grumbled, “But fine… bro,” she peered into his eyes, “I’ll tell you but you gotta call me the correct name first.”
He shuffled, closed his eyes and flicked his ears down, “Firi, sis… tell me the story please sister.”
Firi chirped in delight and pulled him close in a big hug, “See… that wasn’t so hard was it, you are one of us Ki, pack and family, give it a few more months and it’ll be as if you had always been here.”
Ki huffed but leant into the hug, squeezing his eyes shut and whispering softly, “It’s only been what… eight months and it is really hard, I still miss them so much, every day and some days I can’t make the screaming stop until I have a drink.”
Firi rubbed his ears, “I know and we never want you to stop remembering them. But sitting and talking with us is better than drinking. it’s natural for you to bond with a pack, all those dormant instincts are awake now then… Warfaisser.”
KI smiled and snuggled closer and chirped, “Yes… I want to hear the story from you.”
“So..” Firi closed her eyes, marshalling her thoughts and thinking a solid “FUCK YOU” just in-case any of those over-bearingly polite and fluffy telepathic aliens were listening, “When we took custody of the Odyssey I made some upgrades to the drone systems, the ship had an arsenal of weapons but it was minor stuff, so I turned our survey suite into a secondary weapon system.”
“Oh,” Ki said, “I remember Chantelle showed me some of them.. I wondered why the survey drones have so many lasers.”
“It’s just common sense,” Firi protested, “We have autonomous weapon pods that launch from the ship to defend us,” she gestured with one wing arm, feathers rustling, “It made sense to arm the drones too! They can surround the Odyssey in a swarm of munitions, interceptors, shield walls and all sorts; nothing is ever getting close enough to harm us!”
“But let me guess,” Ki chirped, “You didn’t tell anyone about your upgrades?”
“Of course not,” Firi grumbled, “If I’d told Sel or Sei they’d have been all nooo for boring diplomatic reasons or protocol! And Taran or Chantelle would have let it slip; those two can’t keep a secret for love nor money!”
“Well I think it sounds sensible,” Ki said, “And I was reading the specs, you could put on some spectacular shows with them or take on a small armada of attack craft!” he sighed, “I’d rather use them for a light show, skimming them through the atmosphere on low power, we could make an amazing laser light show back-dropped against Babupekkakerok’s aurora storms
“Ooooh, now that is an idea…” Firi grinned, “You have to swear not to tell Seinu! We’ll plan it together for when we are about to leave and give the bunnies an aerial show! According to Seinu they have banging auroras, way better than Avalon.”
“Sounds good,” Ki chirped, “I heard the bunnies call the auroras light storms, like they think they’re weather, shouldn’t we educate them?”
“I wish,” Firi grumbled, “But no, that sort of uplifting is for the specialist packs Seinu is hoping the Illuminate will send to help lift the bunnies out of the hat-making age. If we interfere too much, Seinu will huff at us for weeks.”
“Ok… no teaching but we can show off! Now back to the story, what happened at Warfaisser?”
“Well we rocked up, and those fuzzy, antenna sporting mind readers obviously asked for our documentation. The Odyssey is big, it is also licensed as an Avali expeditionary vessel, so technically military. But we had paperwork and tickets and Seinu had followed all their procedures for disabling the weapons and sending them proof that we were now safely unarmed.”
“Oh,” Ki chuckled, “And poor Seinu was about to find out that we weren’t? I think I remember your ship arriving and sitting out there for hours,” the Avali gestured, “... or I could be wrong. I was just… um… not my best at that moment. I don’t remember much more than… too many people… and… uh… oh yes, this massive kilometre long Avali ship, no one had seen the design before, everyone was super curious you even made the local Warfaisser news.”
“Indeed…” Firi shook her head and then hugged her new brother. “Sneaky aliens, they were able to see straight through our shielding and went on alert as they asked if there had been an issue as they were still reading active weapon signatures,” she huffed, “Dear slime-bro was confused and of course they were scanning his thoughts, so could tell it was genuine. They then had a nose through everyone else's thoughts and found out what I’d done and told him.”
“Oh dear, how did they take that?” Ki laughed softly, it was a rich happy sound, no longer the brittle noise he had made when Firi first met him a few months ago, “I can imagine Selenu doing that thing where she sticks her head in her hands and groans your name.”
“Well…” Firi preened, ears perking up proudly, “She sure did… it’s the best when I make her do that! But Seinu apparently had to spend several hours negotiating and shutting down the new weapons. I’d gotten bored of waiting and hitched a lift to Warfaisser on Sawi’s ship as they had travelled from Protion at about the same time we did.”
The black and white Avali shook his head in bemusement, “Oh I bet they loved you ditching them.”
“I did not ditch them,” Firi huffed, “Sawi offered, I said sure so we could hang out a bit before they had to go do family stuff! Then just as we’d got settled I got summoned by some security officer to customs.”
“Oh? What did they want?”
“Seinu and Selenu tossed me under the proverbial hover-bus! I had to sit and talk to the incessantly nice security aliens for about three hours!” she folded her arms, “They kept asking questions about the how and why I’d armed the survey system and all these technical details to ascertain that Seinu had really been able to secure them.”
“Well that sounds pretty normal.”
“THREE HOURS,” Firi exclaimed with the tone of an annoyed canary. “I found out after that they had been scanning my brain the whole time! They didn’t even need to ask the questions, they were being pedantic because I’d caused a panic, they knew within minutes it was all harmless!”
Ki stared at Firi for a moment who stared back at her in silence… then they both burst out laughing. Ki rolled onto his back and drummed their feet against the cushions whilst the yellow avali chuckled softly and stroked his head. After a couple of minutes Firi stopped, huffed and folded her arms, sitting up and giving her brother a grumbly glare, but she couldn’t keep it up for long and started laughing again. Finally after a minute or two they slowly settled down. Ki grinned at Firi. “Thanks sis… for sharing,” he reached out to take her hand, “Wanna hear what I was doing whilst you were stuck in the security office?”
Brushing down her feathers Firi chirped, “Ok… sure… let's hear it.”
Ravi smiled and rolled onto his stomach, “So you see,” he began, “My memories are fuzzy. But I do remember that whilst everyone was staring at the Odyssey I was struggling with the crowds and escaped into this nearby bar…” he began his story and Firi snuggled down next to him to listen. It was good to share things that had happened, it really did work and helped build those bonds that to Avali instincts came as second nature with pack-mates.
It had been a bit of a walk, over two miles across the snow on his new feet that he still wasn’t used to. But Seinu persevered, travelling with Thiln, the Elder, whose name was Tri and the two bunnies Cri and Cal who were escorting their grand-mother and Seinu home from the Avali camp. Fi and her friends had stayed behind in junk trading discussions with Taran and Tri’s grand-daughters, the twins' cousins had stayed behind to join in.
The path however was supposedly secure, Firi had extended the anti-predator system; it now covered a five mile radius centred on Seinu’s base camp which included the village.
It wasn’t interfering with the locals, it was part of the Avali’s security and it was the least Seinu could do without breaking the rules. Still, it was an interesting walk and he’d spent it chatting to the elder and getting to know the twins Cri and Cal. He’d seen them before, they were part of Thiln’s foraging party but so far had either been in hiding or not spoken directly to Seinu. Their copper-red and grey furred bodies were the same height, weight and shape, they even had the same sort of thick curly frizzy hair atop their heads. The only real difference in appearance was their tails, Cri's tail was orange whilst Cal's tail was grey. Otherwise they were truly identical even their scents were practically the same, only by really concentrating could Seinu tell who was who. They had matching purple hats sporting rather magnificent white bobbles on top which Seinu was quickly learning were family heirlooms. But even so, the hats themselves were not all identical, they were both a symbol of the family but individuality and expression.
Seinu was rather glad he had company for the walk. He had been pretty confident back in his base camp about making this journey. But the entire world was alive with sounds, scents, sensations and the colours! Holy fuck the colours! Even with his visor tinting everything there were SO many COLOURS it was so distracting. He dreaded what he smelt like to the others right now, he was a wreck but he was focussing on Tri’s talk about hat making and walking along, following them whilst his tail scooted back and forth practically on its own erasing his tracks.
The skill to make the hats was practically the only complex civilised technological development they had retained since the Horker invasion. It had shattered their developing civilization and they had retreated underground out of fear. There were only a few bunnies whose main job was to make the distinctive hats that denoted families. They even used tools to make them, but natural tools like sticks, sharpened stones and the quills of a local non-predatory animal as needles.
Every hat was hand-made by one of these hat-smiths and the Elder was the most experienced in the village. Tri had been making them for a century, more-so since she became too old to safely help with foraging. Each and every hat was a handmade treasure gifted to a family and made from the local cotton and wool analogues that grew on some of the plants.
Most of the trip to the village was spent learning about hats and hat-making, Tri was an expert in her field and she’d been teaching her grand-sons Cri and Cal along with a few other bunnies. No one had mentioned exactly what had happened but from what Seinu could gather they had been raised by Tri and their uncle, the Elder’s only living son. The high mortality rate amongst the bunnies and their quiet acceptance that this was a part of nature was still jarring to Seinu.
It was inconceivable for the Avali to let anything happen to their young. The guards on Avali Nurseries were some of the most well trained, experienced and highly respected soldiers in their entire civilisation. Whole colonies would drop whatever they were doing to rally to the defence of a nursery and the parent packs who lived within caring for and educating the young and protecting eggs. It was why the doctor pack that had been responsible for Seinu’s nursery had gone to such extreme lengths to save his life after his accident.
But to the bunnies, whilst they were sad at losing a family member to a predator, whether it was a child, adult or elder they accepted it with a grace and quiet dignity that Seinu found humbling. Whilst Cri and Cal missed their parents and Tri her daughter they accepted that they had been called home naturally. What they did resent was the Horkers and their wanton murder; that was not natural.
By the time they reached the rocky, sandstone clearing where the village was hidden Seinu had learnt quite a lot about the Elder’s family and Thiln’s. His original bunny friend was the only member of his family who’d made it to adulthood or was left alive, he’d lost his parents at an early age and his younger siblings had been lost to predators whilst out foraging. Still he wore his father’s family hat proudly until he started a family of his own though he technically was part of a larger, extended family; no bunny lived or was left alone. Looking around the clearing Seinu couldn't see any igloos like Sher had described in his notes. Apparently Tri’s village was accessed via gaps in the rocks directly.
“It looks deserted?” he glanced behind at the pure, undisturbed snow behind them, “No tracks left? I… I didn’t even really notice my tail clearing them away.”
“You are pretty bad at it still,” Cri teased warmly, leaning on Seinu and patting him on the head, “We cleared out the ones you missed, but you’ll get better!”
“Ah… thanks,” Seinu shuffled, “I have only been a bunny for like… three or four hours at this point.”
“Thiln told us! Cal laughed, “It is crazy, a bunny from space who wasn’t a bunny! But everyone will welcome you, you’re a bunny and that’s all that matters. Shall we head inside Grandma?”
“Yes, if you boys don’t mind?”
“Sure thing,” the twins said and waited outside, tails brushing and cleaning any trace of tracks to ensure the clearing continued to look deserted. Tri led the way through a small gap in the rocks that was just the entrance to a tunnel that headed down, a curving, winding passage that slowly led deeper beneath the earth. Seinu was busy scanning the passage with his visor, registering a large amount of copper, graphite and gold in the rocks, an unusual amount but the metal ore had been for the most part left alone, the bunnies clearly didn’t know what it was worth, metal working wasn’t a thing their society had.
The corridor led quite a way down, then there was a dead end but Thiln pushed aside a rock and there was a ladder. Down the ladder they entered a warm, humid cave lit by small crystals that shed a little light but mostly kept the cavern dim and dark. There was also a pond of gently glowing water in the middle and bunnies, quite a lot of bunnies.
The whole village had to have been here, curious to meet the alien bunny and the scents. So many scents assailing Seinu’s nose and his feet were picking up a hell of a lot of vibrations which were making his new prey instincts go ping. He had to close his eyes and hold onto the bottom of the ladder and try not to be overwhelmed. It was no good, they surged forward to surround their Elder, her three escorts and the space-friend. Seinu managed a few half-hearted hellos before they realised what his scent was telling them and then they all got concerned and wanted to be helpful. Which was really sweet of them, they just saw one of their own kind in distress and wanted to help but it was so loud… and their colours were so vibrant and…
NOPE…
Which is how Seinu wound up behind a rock, he didn’t even remember moving one second he was by the ladder, the next he had fled on all fours and hidden behind the biggest rock he could find. He’d lost his visor during the dashing panic filled run and was curled up, with his nose buried in the thick fur of his tail to try and drown out the overwhelming deluge of curious bunny, moss, rock, water and metal. Thiln was there rubbing his ears and Cal and Cri were standing nearby whilst Tri shooed the others away, explaining that Seinu had never lived with bunnies before. Seinu could hear the elder patiently explaining that he was one of them and needed help but also space. Now he was safely in the village they could all help but later. There was a lot of curious chirping, and excited questions but the bunnies backed off and gave him space.
It took a good twenty minutes to coax Seinu away from the rock and down a side tunnel. Thiln explained he was being given an empty room in the same section of the village as his room and the twins but the overwhelmed bunny was just glad for the quiet peace of the room they led him to. There was a crystal in the ceiling that glowed slightly but he hadn’t gotten his visor back yet (Thiln would return it to him a few hours later) so he couldn’t identify it. There was a sort of cover however that could be rigged up to block the light so Seinu did that and curled up whilst the twins and Thiln kept him company and let him slowly come back to himself. That scandalised them a bit, they had been planning to just leave him at the door (rock) to his new room. Apparently bunnies never let anyone inside their room until they started a new family and moved in with their mate.
Seinu however didn’t want to be left alone and they’d reluctantly agreed to come inside and keep him company. He had to get over this being overwhelmed; this had never happened before. He had a whole catalogue of alien species to turn into, but he couldn’t remember turning into any that had ever had a mental map so differently wired to that of the Avali. But he was determined to get better, to learn, to adapt and then experience their way of life properly. He owed it to them to make sure the whole of Avalon and beyond learnt their story and what had been done to these amazing, brilliant, kind and smart bunnies!
He would not fail…