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Getting past what they are to see if they can be the person the other needs.", "count": "26", "submission_left_submission_id": "1505438", "submission_left_file_name": "2132279_TerraMGP_solstice.doc", "submission_right_submission_id": "1512475", "submission_right_file_name": "2142781_TerraMGP_10._9._8.doc" }, { "pool_id": "64597", "name": "Great Tree Saga", "description": "An attempt at the chronological list for all great tree saga stories. Does not incldue side stories.", "count": "65", "submission_left_submission_id": "1512475", "submission_left_file_name": "2142781_TerraMGP_10._9._8.doc", "submission_right_submission_id": "1505438", "submission_right_file_name": "2132279_TerraMGP_solstice.doc" } ], "description": "I got a Christmas story of sorts in just under the wire. So why wait on new years? Especially after the Christmas I had. It's a simple one. But I hope it makes sense why it's here. Happy New Year.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "I got a Christmas story of sorts in just  under the wire. So why wait on new years? Especially after the Christmas I had. It's a simple one.  But I hope it makes sense why it's here. Happy New Year.", "writing": "By Necessity: Auld Lang Syne\nBy TerraMGP\n\n\tFor anyone observing it, Kisuton seemed to fit the name all too well. The small ramen shop sat open near the apparent base for one of the larger apartment blocks. A large metal-clad pillar at the corner appearing to be all that kept the floors above from falling down and unseating the massive manufactured rectangle. The image was made only more disconcerting by the drab aesthetic taken up by this seeming void of space. Dingy yellowed rice paper walls. Tattered red banners stained with dirt and wearing the scars of countless gang fights and stupid kid pranks. Huge stands of cheaply printed goods which seemed to rotate in their offerings almost daily, and never anything one would buy save for impulse or ignorance.\n\n\tYet to someone like Kanina it was about as upscale as it got.\n\n\tThe bunny sat in her usual seat at the far end of the counter. The tattered brown cushion barely propping her rump up as she slurped down her fourth bowl thus far. Half-chugging the synthesized broth and semi-fresh noodles to fill the empty void her last run had left.\n\n\tThe kindly old Tanuki who ran the place set down another bowl in preparation for Kanina to finish her current one. The smell of pork flavoring rippling though the chicken now filling her nose. It made her wonder how anything could taste this good. Especially after a job.\n\n\tShe reached for the new bowl just as a figure moved up and pulled himself down into the seat next to her. Kanina bristling slightly as she glanced up to see who had intruded on her space, especially with the small shop largely empty. Her disapproval turned to shock, then redoubled as she looked up at the bear next to her.\n\n\t“Hey.” Sean said as he waved for a bowl. The smug ursine giving her that obnoxious smirk of his before reaching for one of the wrapped pairs of disposable chopsticks.\n\n\t“The hell are you doing here?” Kanina muttered as she turned back to her bowl.\n\n\t“I have ways of tracking you down if I need to, little bunny.” He said ominously. That smirk slowly growing to a twisted jeer on his smug face. Eyes gazing down at her with a strong aura of command and control. Seemingly seeking to bore into her a moment, to pierce her own eyes and into her soul. \n\n\t“Ways?” She growled. A reflexive thought throwing up every internal defense her wetware had. Her eyes slowly tracing themselves over the thick, somewhat pudgy bear scanning for some kind of weapon. Then turning to scan the streets she knew so well. Careful to seek anyone, anything that may be out of place.\n\n\t“Oh, you didn’t really think you could hide from me, did you bunny? Didn’t think you could escape me forever. Not when there is something I want from you. Not when I have a task for you. Oh yes, Kanina. I have my ways.” The ominous tone grew dire and almost deadly serious. Each word producing a fresh and twisted barb as they wound their way into those big loppy ears. The man fell quiet for a long moment, before finally turning back to the bowl. “For example, Your mom said you like to hang out here after a run.” He finally blurted out a laugh as he stated this, the grim façade shattering like glass.\n\n\t“My mom?” Kanina blinked. A growl slipping from her throat in spite of herself.\n\n\t“Hey, I said I had ways. I didn't say they were good ways.” Sean laughed, his momentary intimidation now utterly gone. “She was listed and Bri said you live with her. So I figured that would be a good place to start asking. Naturally she didn’t think handing out your contact info without your permission was gonna fly with you.”\n\n\t“Yeah, no it wouldn’t.” Kanina muttered angrily. “Barging in on my mom like that doesn’t help matters much either, though. Might want to keep that in mind for future reference, Rich boy.”\n\n\tThe slight didn’t phase Sean. He simply tore the paper off of the chopsticks and took a nice big slurp, seeming to test the mix in his mouth a moment before snatching up a few more big bites and murring loudly. “Yeah, well, I can get that.” he mumbled though a full muzzle\n\n\t“So, dare I ask, to what do I owe the honor of the great Sean creeping on me, exactly?” Kanina took another small bite, annoyed at the sudden loss of appetite she was feeling.\n\n\tSoon the bowl in the bears hands was utterly emptied and set aside, he waved to the owner for another like it and wiped his muzzle off on the back of his arm. Kanina couldn’t help but notice the thick bandages wrapped around his hand.\n\n\t“I told you.” Sean chuckled “I need a favor. I got something I want you to do.”\n\n\tIt wasn’t what Kanina wanted to hear. She wrinkled her nose a bit and did her best to bite back on the worst of her anger. “And I can assume you had a good reason to track my mom down then, instead of just asking Brinna to get ahold of me?”\n\n\t“Well it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I had her contact you now would it?” Sean chuckled, gratingly undaunted.\n\n\t“So this has something to do with squeak then? Fine, I’m listening. But I better like what I hear. You owe me, too.”\n\n\tSean rolled his eyes and sighed a bit. “Yeah don't worry I get ya. Look, I want you to hang out with Bri on New Years. Keep her company, show her an extra good time. Maybe make like a three day weekend of it or something.”\n\n\t“You want me to hang out with my best friend.” Kanina muttered slowly. “Ok, why?”\n\n\t“Because she needs it for one.” He said plainly.\n\n\tKanina shook her head and growled a bit “She needs a lot of things. Doesn’t explain why her boyfriend, future Master, whatever, is wasting his precious time tracking down a delivery girl to make her do what she does already. What exactly will you be doing while I am keeping her occupied, hmm Sean?” she muttered the word with a bit of contempt. Oddly not as much as she’d like. She looked to one of the bottles of generic sports drink sitting among pop, Saki and cheap mead sitting on the end of the counter. She took one, held it up so the hostess could see, and then popped the lid free to chug the sickening watery purple concoction it held. Body jolting with electricity.\n\n\tSean nodded to the bucket a moment and smiled that damn smug smile of his. Sitting contently until Kanina passed him a bottle of Aether which he held up in similar manner before popping it open. He downed half the bottle before he spoke, easily beat by the drained sports drink Kanina slammed down moments prior.\n\n\t“Look, Call me irrational, but I don’t exactly like the idea of leaving her alone when she’s upset or fragile. Especially not now. Not after what I did.” he sighed\n\n\tOne brow quirked as the bunny looked up at him. “Potentially admirable. Or I may need to kick your ass. First question first, why would she be upset right now.” The words were dark and bitter. A note of righteous wrath fluttering under them.\n\n\tSean finished his pop and sighed. Pausing a long moment before answering. “I made a… calculated risk. One that produced an outcome I probably should have presumed as default.”\n\n\t“Did you hurt her?” Kanina growled.\n\n\t“Me? No.” He sighed “My family on the other hand…”\n\n\t“Your family?” The bunny twisted in her seat now. “What do they have to do with it?”\n\n\tSean let his eyes shut tight. He fell quiet for a long moment, just picking at the logo printed on to the drink. “Let’s just say I was foolish enough to presume they could be civil for one day.” He muttered “I figured it would be easy. Things going well enough. It’d be like ripping off a bandage.”\n\n\tThe pause grew thick between them. Kanina slowly turning back to the counter and slumping a bit as she toyed with her noodles. “How bad was it?” she sighed.\n\n\t“Better than it could have been. Worse than I thought.” Sean shrugged. “I guess Bri has me so amped and optimistic I forget how bad other things can be. Stupid freaking optimism.” The bear slid a small data crystal towards the bunny. The thick black polymer case with a simple sparrow logo denoting it as one of the many cheap brands of cred chips so often used by criminals and the exceptionally broke who couldn’t afford bank accounts.\n\n\t“I don’t need to be paid to hang out with Brinna.” Kanina growled.\n\n\t“That’s not payment.” Sean noted ‘It’s bankroll. Pizza, Gaming binge, shopping spree. I don’t care what. I just don’t want her to have to ruminate on this slag. I figured the least I can do is make sure you guys have options in your distraction.”\n\n\tThe purple fingertips traced the stick a moment. Kanina sliding it towards her a bit, tentatively. The very aura of it feeling wrong to her. “And what will you be doing while I am busy keeping your ‘pet’ occupied?” She muttered. The venom lost before now finding its way into the edge of that question.\n\n\t“Standing in a room, with fifty wealthy idiots and their respective dates.” Sean sighed “Making a good show to people who would be fucked by inbreeding were it not for gene mods and resisting the urge to fling myself out the window.”\n\n\tIt wasn’t what she expected. A possible lie, true. But if so it would be a horrible one. The bunny didn't say anything though. Simply scooping the little crystal and case up and shoving them in her pocket. She finished off the last bowl and scooped a bottle of mead out of the bucket, sliding it to him. Her red eyes catching the bandaged hand once more.\n\n\t“So, any of this have to do with your hands?” She asked. A few small notes of concern in her voice.\n\n\tSean popped the mead open and took a swig. Glancing back at her and smiling. “Like I said.” The man sighed. “Family.”\n\n---\n\n\tThe whole world shimmered into blank white void. The last few vestiges of perception melting in to a tangible nothingness broken only by a very loud, echoing sigh from Kanina. She looked around the empty space with her non-existent eyes a moment before opening a small drop down box and hitting the random button once more. The world warping with the same suddenness into the brilliant, immaculate hallways of some fantasy-esque starship crew quarters. The kind with huge rooms and spit-shined corridors almost assuredly made to romanticize the bleaker realities of interstellar travel.\n\n\t“Ok, so does this help your mood at all?” The bunny muttered softly “You know you’re really picky all things considered.”\n\n\tThe empty void that Kanina ‘knew’ possessed her friend soon shifted. A plainly-dressed mouse girl stepping out into that reality. A bland, textbook average nondescript frame covered in poorly rendered white fur and a mostly black outfit that looked more akin to a neo-goth poser than someone with custom, experimental hardware. A fact that still blew some small part of the bunnys mind.\n\n\t“Yeah. I mean I think so.” the mouse muttered softly. “I mean, I’m sorry. This is way more your thing than mine. I just don’t want to screw this up.”\n\n\t“You can’t ‘screw this up’.” Kanina sighed “it’s not like you’re getting a tat or something. We can literally change anything we need to at any time. Seriously, Squeakles, calm down a bit. You’re not going to do anything so wrong we can’t fix it.”\n\n\tThe painfully rendered mouse avi shook her head hard and whined. “But last time it took us a whole week to get it right, and you still said it was real bad! What happens this time? I mean I don't want to waste all your time and just end up not liking it anyways. Especially since we aren’t in school anymore. You probably have tons of.”\n\n\tA brown furred bunny avi in tight leathers soon stepped out of the nothingness and put a hand on the mouse girls head. Patting it softly and letting out a small sigh. “Calm down. Look, I want to hang out, and this is part of hanging out. We’ll get the basics figured, then I can work on details later. That, some games, some Holos. None of that is a chore. As for how long it took last time.” she smirked as she looked over the rather poor construct the mouse wore. “Well to be honest, That was literally the best your old jack could handle. The problem was making something passable with basically no options. Now? Not so much.” She snapped her fingers and instantly the avi that Brinna was wearing blurred and shifted. Her fur becoming far more real and detailed. What was a set of short uniform strands now glossy and smooth.\n\n\tPoor Brinna yelped at the sensation of the shift, then again as she touched the fur itself. A wave of sensory input flooding her. Clear as if she’d been touching her own arm, maybe more so. She looked up at the rather plain trench coat wearing bunny, clearly a bit worried by this new development.\n\n\t“Will you relax.” Kanina sighed. “It’s just an example. Point is you have a decent jack, so it’s time to make use of it. Go nuts. Show me that big brain of yours is capable of working like a real Wozchild Whitehat. Just tell me the first thing that you want, really want. No worries about how weird, or goofy, or…”\n\n\t“Puff!”\n\n\t“Wait, what?” Kanina blinked.\n\n\t“Puff. I want puff, only… real. Like a real Ankylosaurus. But, like, how Puff looks kidna, if he were alive.”\n\n\tThe request took a moment for Kanina to process. Possibly more considering how worried her friend started to look. Her current throw-away avi blinked and blurred a few moments before finally pulling up an archived stock model of the animal, as close a real-world representation as modern scientists had really ever bothered with. Well textured, each bony plate carefully modeled based on the most complete sets ever archived. Its eyes small but kind in the thick rigged skull.\n\n\tA moment later she’d switched the basic skin to another stock image. The semi-leathery fluff texture often used for some teddy-bears. The slightly orange-yellow color spread over its body and the tiny eyes quickly replaced with happy, goofy button-black ones. It was atrocious, but then with a few hours work on her own Kanina figured she could probably get the thing looking halfway decent.\n\n\t“Ok. Got it. You have a mount ,now wha-”\n\n\t“Ohh, he should have some cyber armor stuff too!” Bri noted happily. “And photon blades that come out of his big tail club thingy, and it should project a hexagon shield array, and maybe a Hex Cannon hidden in his mouth like in Brigid. Wait would that get me in copyright trouble? And then maybe-”\n\n\t“Squeak. Chill. Seriously.” The bunny finally snapped as she formed a chair behind her and slumped into it. A few little colored squares with notes of what she’d been told appearing on the giant semi-plush dino. The marks robbing it of even more of the intimidation a six meter long hunk of muscle and armor plate should hold. “Look, it’s kind of a cool mount. It really is. But we can work on it after I get the ideas for your Avi itself. I mean that’s where the real work should go, right?”\n\n\tBrinna sucked in a breath of the cool processed air of the ship, or at least what her brain told her was cool and well processed. She shut her eyes and slumped down. A loud yelp slipping from her lips as she found her legs hitting the rim of another chair and her now more-sensitive body collapsing into it. “Sorry.” she muttered meekly “I guess I just got the idea and ran with it. I thought it’d be really cool.”\n\n\t“It’s very, well it’s very you.” Kanina half agreed. “But I mean you don't even know what kind of Avi you’re going to have. What if you make this and it doesn’t fit your theme at all?”\n\n\tThe mouse simply shrugged a bit as she looked down at herself “Well, I mean, what kind of theme would fit that?” She asked as she nodded to the half-finished creation. “Maybe that would help.”\n\n\t“A nine year old on a massive sugar high drawing comics?” The bunny laughed. Her frustration and bemusement mingling as she pulled herself out of the chair and approached the girl slowly. “Look, Bri. I’m looking for what you want. This is supposed to be about agency. About expressing yourself. You and I both know you can be super creative when you want to. Just use a bit of that creativity and figure out something you want. If you don’t like it? We can change it.”\n\n\t“I don’t want to make you work too hard on this, though.” Brinna sighed. “You’re already nice enough to come over and hang out.”\n\n\t“It’s where I want to be.” Kanina corrected quickly “If anything I’ve been trying to hang out more anyways. It’s not like you’re going to put me off by being indecisive. Well, to a point at least. We can at least agree that your facked up little worryception moments aren’t going to make either of us happy, right?”\n\n\tFor her part Brinna nodded softly and offered the best smile she could between how sheepish she felt and how bad the actual face of the model was. She stroked her chin for a moment as her tail wriggled and swayed in a painfully predictable pattern more due to the shoddy coding of the super small pre rendered animation than anything. Just the sight of it grated on Kaninas nerves. Especially since she was ultimately the one who put it in there.\n\n\tThe friends fell quiet for a long moment. Quiet enough for the simulated environment to really grip them. Loud engine buzzing and the knocking of small mechanisms. The occasional thud of some tiny celestial body against the shielding. Everything down to the flow of liquid water though pipes all clear and crisp. An impressive feat, considering the node they were using was just a local link between their own jacks in a shallow dive. It made the young bunny wonder just what kind of hardware her friend had.\n\n\tShe watched silently as Bri browsed though a few more bits and bobs. The shirt and coat she wore shifting and twisting around as she went though the massive library of semi-legal uploads Kanina had given her. Not that Bri needed to know that. Woz, but that would end poorly if he poor girl had to worry about getting in trouble for something so minor.\n\n\tThe two were snapped out of their mutual stream of thought by an overly-clear buzz that split anachronistically though the grey metal hallways and green accents of the ship corridor. The brown furred Avi Kanina had been using melted away into nothing and a moment later the real girl opened her red eyes wide and pulled herself up out of the chair. Walking over to the door and hitting the open stud next to it. Not really wishing to fuss with the reader that never seemed to work right.\n\n\t“Is that food?” Brinna called out in surprise as she pulled herself out of the dive. She shoved her hand under her glasses and ground the heel of it into her eye trying to clear her vision.\n\n\tKanina nodded and turned her attention back to the man in the blue and white polo and flat cap. Some burned out graduate reeking of printed plant and quiet desperation. He said nothing, the brown paper bags and large printed plastic box balancing on one arm while he held out the other a moment. A small scanning stud on his wrist band, the delivery bill displayed in Kaninas AR.\n\n\tShe reached down a moment. Hand slipping into the tight leather pants she currently wore and rubbing against the small stick that she’d been given. Her ears twitching, seemingly in contemplation, as she looked at the poor shmuck before her. She finally let it go and nodded to the young man as she added a figure in under the amount due and quickly authorized payment. Pulling the food in with her and all but letting the door slip shut on his face. Partially to avoid his distraction, partially to deal with him gushing at twenty five percent.\n\n\t“You know if you wanted something I could have printed it.” Brinna half-pouted as she shifted herself on the couch and glanced up to see what food here was. Trying not to look too eager at the prospect of some nice junk food takeout.\n\n\tA small chuckle covered the semi-annoyed grunt that Kanina felt building in her throat. She slipped the food on to the coffee table and yanked out a small box, popping it open to reveal a large heap of meatballs surrounding an inbuilt circular trough full of sauces. She snatched one of them by the small skewering plastic toothpicks and dipped it into the offered sauce closest to her. Yanking the printed morsel off the toothpick quickly and tossing it down onto the table, only for Bri to quickly snatch it up and slip a napkin underneath.\n\n\t“Careful. Mom will freak if we have to fix the surface on this again.” the mouse whimpered.\n\n\t“Sorry.” The bunny muttered. She never really got why they bothered, but then she didn’t want to cause a fuss either. \n\n\t“So, not that I’m complaining at all, but is there a reason we aren’t having pizza right now?” Brinna asked as she looked the food over slowly and pulled another of the smaller boxes out of the bags, Jabbing a disposable fork into one of the ‘Brussle bombs’. Printed versions of overly large bacon and blue cheese stuffed brustle sprouts fried in beer batter. She popped it itn0 her mouth and almost spit it back out, wincing as she felt the food burn the roof of her mouth.\n\n\t“So he was fast enough to earn that tip I gave him, Squeakles?” The bunny chuckled, She watched her friend dash to the printer and jam one of the nearby disposable cups under the spout, filling it with water and chugging it down hard before shaking her head. Kanina knew she shouldn’t laugh. But then she did plenty of things she probably shouldn’t.\n\n\tOnce she was sure Bri had not actually hurt herself the bunny leaned back and popped the big box with the bags on it. ‘Baked Iecland’. Nut and honey ice cream under a mass of fried dough, which always confused her since baked was in the name. It was good, though. Sugary as hell, but good. She pulled one of the disposable knives out of the bag and started to cut off a nice big hunk, setting it down by the box of Brussel bombs before hacking off a slightly smaller bit for herself. “There are very few foods you can spoil if you eat it too much, Bri. The way things have been I was kinda worried Pizza was going to end up being one of those. I can’t let that happen. Can’t. I don’t know how anyone would even function after something like that.\n\n\tThe dormouse nodded and made her way back to her seat, slipping a fork into the horribly unhealthy treat and taking a bite. Between the half-flakey half doughy crust and the single-note ice cram she had to suspect that the treat may have been one of the main reasons for her friend to order Oli’s. One look at the way Kanina devoured the thing made it pretty clear that was the case.\n\n\t“So.” Bri groaned as she tried another of the little food bombs, finding it far less volatile than they had been. “Did Sir talk to you yet?”\n\n\tKanina blinked and choked a bit on her foot, glancing over at Bri and quirking her brow a bit.\n\n\t“He asked me how to get ahold of you. Said he had something he wanted to ask. I told him you live with your mom, but I didn’t tell him her number. I mean, I know she’s listed but, I kidna felt a bit guilty on that. Giving out personal info always seems a bit… squicky. Especially without permission.”\n\n\t“Oh that.” Kanina put on her best smirk and shrugged as she rolled her head back on the couch. “Yeah apparently he figured you might be a bit lonely tonight. Plus, since I wanted to hang with you anyways.” She shrugged a bit and popped another ball in her mouth. The mix of sharp spices and creamy sauce overwhelming the faux pork taste to a pleasing degree. “I guess he has some, thing he has to do tonight?”\n\n\t“It’s a meeting, kinda.” Brinna sighed “Technically it’s a party but I don’t count it as one if you don’t want to go. Plus it’s all work stuff.”\n\n\t“You knew?” She blinked.\n\n\t“Yeah.” Brinna nodded “I mean I donno why he wouldn’t tell me. I told him I’d be happy to go and keep him company. The way he made it sound though” she sighed and shook her head “I know it’s not as bad as what mom and dad have to put up with. I know other people have it worse. But just the idea of being stuck in a room with so many obnoxious people demanding your attention and trying to pretend they like you.” The mouse folded her ears back and slumped as she popped another doughy bundle of faux plant and dairy mater in her mouth. Those big bucked front teeth chewing it apart reluctantly as she kicked her heel into the couch.\n\n\tKanina opened her mouth to say something, closed it, opened it again. Her ears folding down a bit more as she shifted into the crook between the arm and back of the couch. She reached out and put a hand on the dejected girls shoulder, squeezing it firmly. “Hey, if you went you’d be miserable too, and you know he’d just be more miserable, right?” She said sweetly. “This way, this way you can have a cool Avi to show off for him when he’s done. A bit of fun to distract him from the hours of his life he’ll never get back thanks to all the boring suits. Nothing wrong with that is there Squeakles?” she asked as she tilted the girls head up to look her in the eye.\n\n\tThere was a slow pause as Bri met her friends eyes. Looked at that sweet, confident smile. The reassuring grin. She sighed and nodded a bit. The dormouse resolved to push her own muzzle into a matching grin. One that ended up looking utterly alien on her. The sight of it shattered the tension and drew an uncontrollable laugh from Kanina, and soon the two were laughing uncontrollably, slumped down in their seats and falling over each other for reasons neither fully understood.\n\n\t“You’re probably right, bun.” Bri giggled.\n\n\t“You know I always am.” Kanina chided back.\n\n\t“ Still riding that thin line between confidence and delusion I see.” The dormouse said as she sipped her glass of water and sank into the couch.\n\n\t“Till the day I die, Squeakles. Till the day I die.”\n---\n\n\t“So, how’s this for a starting point?” Brinna said happily. Her body a mass of grey-brown fur dashed with smatterings of green. She wore tall thigh-hugging boots on her wispy legs. Held on in several places by an asymmetrical array of belts and straps which gartered up to half-chaps and an uneven pleated skirt littered with pins and other bits and bobs that looked like she‘d pulled herself though a junkyard. Her top was little more than a roughly cut bit of generic-looking trooper armor cut off into a sleeveless midriff. Random bits of graphiti and neo-ogham script traced along its surface with a small mix of micro grenades, stim packs and other bits stuck on with various weather worn pouches and superfluous belts. A thick heavy tome was slung over her back and an archaic computer strapped to the gauntlet of her left wrist. Even her eyes and hair were an odd, wild mix of browns, blues, reds and greens. The eyes especially burning with a strange fire that seemed to flip and shift between colors. Brinna grinned wide as she twisted her tail around a bit to poke at the belts tied to it, then put her hands on the impossibly tweaked and blade-adorned scattergun resting at her hips.\n\n\t“You look like one of those Cygni Combine mercs. Only after the bombs fall. And after dinosaur cloning is a thing.” The poor bunny did her best to hold in her frustrated bemusement. Eyes tracing over the bizarre and honestly overwrought mix of clashing iconography. If it had been anyone else she might have been shocked. Not that she could imagine anyone else with such a getup.\n\n\t“So you think I should change it then?” Bri asked as she slumped a bit, more than a little dejected. “I mean, I can try to think of something else if you want.”\n\n\t“Will you stop that?” Kanina muttered “It’s fine. I’ll have to take some time to tweak it out and smooth it over. But it’s what you want. Stop saying sorry for what you want. Seriously you gotta stop being such a door mat.”\n\n\t“I thought you said it was going to be a valuable skill for me with my Sir.” Brinna teased meekly.\n\n\tIt took all Kanina had to bite back her growl as she shook her head and forced a smile “That’s not what I meant. Plus I was teasing, plus… look the point is, it’s fine. We just gotta get you acclimated to a few ideas if you’re going to be doing this sort of stuff for yourself long term.”\n\n\t“Like what?” Bri tilted her head as she walked up to the plain looking brown bunny her friend currently wore and titled her head softly.\n\n\t“Well for a start we need something to pin your commands to. Preferably a few things. Woz knows you have options.” She looked over the busy outfit and gripped the archaic button-input wrist computer, looking it over for a moment and nodding “This will probably work for now. See, with an Avi you need to have an item, or items, tied to different actions or commands. For example if you wanted to summon mecha-puff and ride around on him a while you need to have something on your person serve as the sort of focus of doing that.”\n\n\t“Why can’t I just think it and make it happen?” Bri whimpered “I mean it seems like it’d be harder to remember what items do which things.”\n\n\tThose long slender ears lopped a bit more as Kanina sighed and smiled. “You’d think so, but truth be told its’ better the other way around. Seconds count, and if you’re not used to it then having a bunch of small organized lists is better than trying to recall the exact script list of each one. There’s this old saying some ancient philosopher put out, and most anyone serious on the net lives by it. ‘Organization will set you free’. if you have items tied to things that relate to specific actions it helps give you a quick level of mental organization. Especially if you’re like me and swapping avis all the time.”\n\n\tA loud tink came as the dormouse avi shook her head, the impossibly long and thick metal collar around her neck making a loud clanking sound from the few chain links hanging off of it. “This is confusing.” she muttered as she shut her eyes and started to flip though her item list for a chair. Getting about half way though the list before feeling a paw pushing her backwards, her rump landing in a nice comfy armchair that had manifested behind her.\n\n\t“Like I said.” Kanina smirked ‘Organization. Don’t worry, though. I know you well enough to get you set up pretty well. All you gotta do is give me a few days to get your Avi finished up and We’ll have you set up and ready to show off in no time. Plus if you want I’m sure I could crash here a bit longer. I mean I gotta assume that fancy Class 2 school of yours isn’t going to drag students in before the new year, right?”\n\n\t“It’s an apprenticeship!” Bri corrected “and, no. Everyone is on extended holiday. We got some research work to fill out but, well, I don't think anyone else will have done it.”\n\n\t“You did though, right?” Kanina chuckled.\n\n\tBrinna nodded sheepishly and looked away.\n\n\t“Such a teachers pet. Well then I guess I’ll have to cook up some kinda homework for you too, that way you can get excited about learning all of this stuff.” The bunny smirked a bit as she looked the bizarre concoction of parts and kit over one more time and smiled. Say what she would it was nice to at least see the poor girl happy.\n\n--------------------\n\n\tA soft rustling slowly dragged Kaninas eye open. She saw Mrs. K, standing over the half-finished assortment of food the girls had devoured. They’d at least had the good sense to put the dessert in the cold storage. But everything else was probably tepid-warm and gummy by now. She could see the mouse woman’s face from the corner of her eye, even without her glasses on it was impossible to mistake the small smile there. That nostalgic frustration of cleaning up after the duo during an extended sleepover. Kanina passed out on the couch with a holo playing. Bri long having gone to bed.\n\n\tBri. Between Seb pulling the reigns on the Tarot and Bri’s folks finding some rich guy to take her on as one of his pets, it felt like they’d been slipping so far apart lately. Not by most peoples esteem, sure. But after spending so much of their lives all but inseparable it was almost like a reunion. A chance to relax after spending so long missing Brinna, thinking about Brinna, dreaming about Brinna.\n\n\tUnfortunately Kanina’s mind chose that moment to register those dreams. To register snippets of the dream she’d just enjoyed. To inform her of her exhausted, near paralyzed body. Of the uncomfortable sensation of stiff flesh pushing against the old worn cushion. Of the drying wet spot under her.\n\n\tWoz, but she hoped Mrs. K wouldn’t notice.\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "By Necessity: Auld Lang Syne
By TerraMGP

\tFor anyone observing it, Kisuton seemed to fit the name all too well. The small ramen shop sat open near the apparent base for one of the larger apartment blocks. A large metal-clad pillar at the corner appearing to be all that kept the floors above from falling down and unseating the massive manufactured rectangle. The image was made only more disconcerting by the drab aesthetic taken up by this seeming void of space. Dingy yellowed rice paper walls. Tattered red banners stained with dirt and wearing the scars of countless gang fights and stupid kid pranks. Huge stands of cheaply printed goods which seemed to rotate in their offerings almost daily, and never anything one would buy save for impulse or ignorance.

\tYet to someone like Kanina it was about as upscale as it got.

\tThe bunny sat in her usual seat at the far end of the counter. The tattered brown cushion barely propping her rump up as she slurped down her fourth bowl thus far. Half-chugging the synthesized broth and semi-fresh noodles to fill the empty void her last run had left.

\tThe kindly old Tanuki who ran the place set down another bowl in preparation for Kanina to finish her current one. The smell of pork flavoring rippling though the chicken now filling her nose. It made her wonder how anything could taste this good. Especially after a job.

\tShe reached for the new bowl just as a figure moved up and pulled himself down into the seat next to her. Kanina bristling slightly as she glanced up to see who had intruded on her space, especially with the small shop largely empty. Her disapproval turned to shock, then redoubled as she looked up at the bear next to her.

\t“Hey.” Sean said as he waved for a bowl. The smug ursine giving her that obnoxious smirk of his before reaching for one of the wrapped pairs of disposable chopsticks.

\t“The hell are you doing here?” Kanina muttered as she turned back to her bowl.

\t“I have ways of tracking you down if I need to, little bunny.” He said ominously. That smirk slowly growing to a twisted jeer on his smug face. Eyes gazing down at her with a strong aura of command and control. Seemingly seeking to bore into her a moment, to pierce her own eyes and into her soul.

\t“Ways?” She growled. A reflexive thought throwing up every internal defense her wetware had. Her eyes slowly tracing themselves over the thick, somewhat pudgy bear scanning for some kind of weapon. Then turning to scan the streets she knew so well. Careful to seek anyone, anything that may be out of place.

\t“Oh, you didn’t really think you could hide from me, did you bunny? Didn’t think you could escape me forever. Not when there is something I want from you. Not when I have a task for you. Oh yes, Kanina. I have my ways.” The ominous tone grew dire and almost deadly serious. Each word producing a fresh and twisted barb as they wound their way into those big loppy ears. The man fell quiet for a long moment, before finally turning back to the bowl. “For example, Your mom said you like to hang out here after a run.” He finally blurted out a laugh as he stated this, the grim façade shattering like glass.

\t“My mom?” Kanina blinked. A growl slipping from her throat in spite of herself.

\t“Hey, I said I had ways. I didn't say they were good ways.” Sean laughed, his momentary intimidation now utterly gone. “She was listed and Bri said you live with her. So I figured that would be a good place to start asking. Naturally she didn’t think handing out your contact info without your permission was gonna fly with you.”

\t“Yeah, no it wouldn’t.” Kanina muttered angrily. “Barging in on my mom like that doesn’t help matters much either, though. Might want to keep that in mind for future reference, Rich boy.”

\tThe slight didn’t phase Sean. He simply tore the paper off of the chopsticks and took a nice big slurp, seeming to test the mix in his mouth a moment before snatching up a few more big bites and murring loudly. “Yeah, well, I can get that.” he mumbled though a full muzzle

\t“So, dare I ask, to what do I owe the honor of the great Sean creeping on me, exactly?” Kanina took another small bite, annoyed at the sudden loss of appetite she was feeling.

\tSoon the bowl in the bears hands was utterly emptied and set aside, he waved to the owner for another like it and wiped his muzzle off on the back of his arm. Kanina couldn’t help but notice the thick bandages wrapped around his hand.

\t“I told you.” Sean chuckled “I need a favor. I got something I want you to do.”

\tIt wasn’t what Kanina wanted to hear. She wrinkled her nose a bit and did her best to bite back on the worst of her anger. “And I can assume you had a good reason to track my mom down then, instead of just asking Brinna to get ahold of me?”

\t“Well it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I had her contact you now would it?” Sean chuckled, gratingly undaunted.

\t“So this has something to do with squeak then? Fine, I’m listening. But I better like what I hear. You owe me, too.”

\tSean rolled his eyes and sighed a bit. “Yeah don't worry I get ya. Look, I want you to hang out with Bri on New Years. Keep her company, show her an extra good time. Maybe make like a three day weekend of it or something.”

\t“You want me to hang out with my best friend.” Kanina muttered slowly. “Ok, why?”

\t“Because she needs it for one.” He said plainly.

\tKanina shook her head and growled a bit “She needs a lot of things. Doesn’t explain why her boyfriend, future Master, whatever, is wasting his precious time tracking down a delivery girl to make her do what she does already. What exactly will you be doing while I am keeping her occupied, hmm Sean?” she muttered the word with a bit of contempt. Oddly not as much as she’d like. She  looked to one of the bottles of generic sports drink sitting among pop, Saki and cheap mead sitting on the end of the counter. She took one, held it up so the hostess could see, and then popped the lid free to chug the sickening watery purple concoction it held. Body jolting with electricity.

\tSean nodded to the bucket a moment and smiled that damn smug smile of his. Sitting contently until Kanina passed him a bottle of Aether which he held up in similar manner before popping it open. He downed half the bottle before he spoke, easily beat by the drained sports drink Kanina slammed down moments prior.

\t“Look, Call me irrational, but I don’t exactly like the idea of leaving her alone when she’s upset or fragile. Especially not now. Not after what I did.” he sighed

\tOne brow  quirked as the bunny looked up at him. “Potentially admirable. Or I may need to kick your ass. First question first, why would she be upset right now.” The words were dark and bitter. A note of righteous wrath fluttering under them.

\tSean finished his pop and sighed. Pausing a long moment before answering. “I made a… calculated risk. One that produced an outcome I probably should have presumed as default.”

\t“Did you hurt her?” Kanina growled.

\t“Me? No.” He sighed “My family on the other hand…”

\t“Your family?” The bunny twisted in her seat now. “What do they have to do with it?”

\tSean let his eyes shut tight. He fell quiet for a long moment, just picking at the logo printed on to the drink. “Let’s just say I was foolish enough to presume they could be civil for one day.” He muttered “I figured it would be easy. Things going well enough. It’d be like ripping off a bandage.”

\tThe pause grew thick between them. Kanina slowly turning back to the counter and slumping a bit as she toyed with her noodles. “How bad was it?” she sighed.

\t“Better than it could have been. Worse than I thought.” Sean shrugged. “I guess Bri has me so amped and optimistic I forget how bad other things can be. Stupid freaking optimism.” The bear slid a small data crystal towards the bunny. The thick black polymer case with a simple sparrow logo denoting it as one of the many cheap brands of cred chips so often used by criminals and the exceptionally broke who couldn’t afford bank accounts.

\t“I don’t need to be paid to hang out with Brinna.” Kanina growled.

\t“That’s not payment.” Sean noted ‘It’s bankroll. Pizza, Gaming binge, shopping spree. I don’t care what. I just don’t want her to have to ruminate on this slag. I figured the least I can do is make sure you guys have options in your distraction.”

\tThe purple fingertips traced the stick a moment. Kanina sliding it towards her a bit, tentatively. The very aura of it feeling wrong to her. “And what will you be doing while I am busy keeping your ‘pet’ occupied?” She muttered. The venom lost before now finding its way into the edge of that question.

\t“Standing in a room, with fifty wealthy idiots and their respective dates.” Sean sighed “Making a good show to people who would be fucked by inbreeding were it not for gene mods and resisting the urge to fling myself out the window.”

\tIt wasn’t what she expected. A possible lie, true. But if so it would be a horrible one. The bunny didn't say anything though. Simply scooping the little crystal and case up and shoving them in her pocket. She finished off the last bowl and scooped a bottle of mead out of the bucket, sliding it to him. Her red eyes catching the bandaged hand once more.

\t“So, any of this have to do with your hands?” She asked. A few small notes of concern in her voice.

\tSean popped the mead open and took a swig. Glancing back at her and smiling. “Like I said.” The man sighed. “Family.”

---

\tThe whole world shimmered into blank white void. The last few vestiges of perception melting in to a tangible nothingness broken only by a very loud, echoing sigh from Kanina. She looked around the empty space with her non-existent eyes a moment before opening a small drop down box and hitting the random button once more. The world warping with the same suddenness into the brilliant, immaculate hallways of some fantasy-esque starship crew quarters. The kind with huge rooms and spit-shined corridors almost assuredly made to romanticize the bleaker realities of interstellar travel.

\t“Ok, so does this help your mood at all?” The bunny muttered softly “You know you’re really picky all things considered.”

\tThe empty void that Kanina ‘knew’ possessed her friend soon shifted. A plainly-dressed mouse girl stepping out into that reality. A bland, textbook average nondescript frame covered in poorly rendered white fur and a mostly black outfit that looked more akin to a neo-goth poser than someone with custom, experimental hardware. A fact that still blew some small part of the bunnys mind.

\t“Yeah. I mean I think so.” the mouse muttered softly. “I mean, I’m sorry. This is way more your thing than mine. I just don’t want to screw this up.”

\t“You can’t ‘screw this up’.” Kanina sighed “it’s not like you’re getting a tat or something. We can literally change anything we need to at any time. Seriously, Squeakles, calm down a bit. You’re not going to do anything so wrong we can’t fix it.”

\tThe painfully rendered mouse avi shook her head hard and whined. “But last time it took us a whole week to get it right, and you still said it was real bad! What happens this time? I mean I don't want to waste all your time and just end up not liking it anyways. Especially since we aren’t in school anymore. You probably have tons of.”

\tA brown furred bunny avi in tight leathers soon stepped out of the nothingness and put a hand on the mouse girls head. Patting it softly and letting out a small sigh. “Calm down. Look, I want to hang out, and this is part of hanging out. We’ll get the basics figured, then I can work on details later. That, some games, some Holos. None of that is a chore. As for how long it took last time.” she smirked as she looked over the rather poor construct the mouse wore. “Well to be honest, That was literally the best your old jack could handle. The problem was making something passable with basically no options. Now? Not so much.” She snapped her fingers and instantly the avi that Brinna was wearing blurred and shifted. Her fur becoming far more real and detailed. What was a set of short uniform strands now glossy and smooth.

\tPoor Brinna yelped at the sensation of the shift, then again as she touched the fur itself. A wave of sensory input flooding her. Clear as if she’d been touching her own arm, maybe more so. She looked up at the rather plain trench coat wearing bunny, clearly a bit worried by this new development.

\t“Will you relax.” Kanina sighed. “It’s just an example. Point is you have a decent jack, so it’s time to make use of it. Go nuts. Show me that big brain of yours is capable of working like a real Wozchild Whitehat. Just tell me the first thing that you want, really want. No worries about how weird, or goofy, or…”

\t“Puff!”

\t“Wait, what?” Kanina blinked.

\t“Puff. I want puff, only… real. Like a real Ankylosaurus. But, like, how Puff looks kidna, if he were alive.”

\tThe request took a moment for Kanina to process. Possibly more considering how worried her friend started to look. Her current throw-away avi blinked and blurred a few moments before finally pulling up an archived stock model of the animal, as close a real-world representation as modern scientists had really ever bothered with. Well textured, each bony plate carefully modeled based on the most complete sets ever archived. Its eyes small but kind in the thick rigged skull.

\tA moment later she’d switched the basic skin to another stock image. The semi-leathery fluff texture often used for some teddy-bears. The slightly orange-yellow color spread over its body and the tiny eyes quickly replaced with happy, goofy button-black ones. It was atrocious, but then with a few hours work on her own Kanina figured she could probably get the thing looking halfway decent.

\t“Ok. Got it. You have a mount ,now wha-”

\t“Ohh, he should have some cyber armor stuff too!” Bri noted happily. “And photon blades that come out of his big tail club thingy, and it should project a hexagon shield array, and maybe a Hex Cannon hidden in his mouth like in Brigid. Wait would that get me in copyright trouble? And then maybe-”

\t“Squeak. Chill. Seriously.” The bunny finally snapped as she formed a chair behind her and slumped into it. A few little colored squares with notes of what she’d been told appearing on the giant semi-plush dino. The marks robbing it of even more of the intimidation a six meter long hunk of muscle and armor plate should hold. “Look, it’s kind of a cool mount. It really is. But we can work on it after I get the ideas for your Avi itself. I mean that’s where the real work should go, right?”

\tBrinna sucked in a breath of the cool processed air of the ship, or at least what her brain told her was cool and well processed. She shut her eyes and slumped down. A loud yelp slipping from her lips as she found her legs hitting the rim of another chair and her now more-sensitive body collapsing into it. “Sorry.” she muttered meekly “I guess I just got the idea and ran with it. I thought it’d be really cool.”

\t“It’s very, well it’s very you.” Kanina half agreed. “But I mean you don't even know what kind of Avi you’re going to have. What if you make this and it doesn’t fit your theme at all?”

\tThe mouse simply shrugged a bit as she looked down at herself “Well, I mean, what kind of theme would fit that?” She asked as she nodded to the half-finished creation. “Maybe that would help.”

\t“A nine year old on a massive sugar high drawing comics?” The bunny laughed. Her frustration and bemusement mingling as she pulled herself out of the chair and approached the girl slowly. “Look, Bri. I’m looking for what you want. This is supposed to be about agency. About expressing yourself. You and I both know you can be super creative when you want to. Just use a bit of that creativity and figure out something you want. If you don’t like it? We can change it.”

\t“I don’t want to make you work too hard on this, though.” Brinna sighed. “You’re already nice enough to come over and hang out.”

\t“It’s where I want to be.” Kanina corrected quickly “If anything I’ve been trying to hang out more anyways. It’s not like you’re going to put me off by being indecisive. Well, to a point at least. We can at least agree that your facked up little worryception moments aren’t going to make either of us happy, right?”

\tFor her part Brinna nodded softly and offered the best smile she could between how sheepish she felt and how bad the actual face of the model was. She stroked her chin for a moment as her tail wriggled and swayed in a painfully predictable pattern more due to the shoddy coding of the super small pre rendered animation than anything. Just the sight of it grated on Kaninas nerves. Especially since she was ultimately the one who put it in there.

\tThe friends fell quiet for a long moment. Quiet enough for the simulated environment to really grip them. Loud engine buzzing and the knocking of small mechanisms. The occasional thud of some tiny celestial body against the shielding. Everything down to the flow of liquid water though pipes all clear and crisp. An impressive feat, considering the node they were using was just a local link between their own jacks in a shallow dive. It made the young bunny wonder just what kind of hardware her friend had.

\tShe watched silently as Bri browsed though a few more bits and bobs. The shirt and coat she wore shifting and twisting around as she went though the massive library of semi-legal uploads Kanina had given her. Not that Bri needed to know that. Woz, but that would end poorly if he poor girl had to worry about getting in trouble for something so minor.

\tThe two were snapped out of their mutual stream of thought by an overly-clear buzz that split anachronistically though the grey metal hallways and green accents of the ship corridor. The brown furred Avi Kanina had been using melted away into nothing and a moment later the real girl opened her red eyes wide and pulled herself up out of the chair. Walking over to the door and hitting the open stud next to it. Not really wishing to fuss with the reader that never seemed to work right.

\t“Is that food?” Brinna called out in surprise as she pulled herself out of the dive. She shoved her hand under her glasses and ground the heel of it into her eye trying to clear her vision.

\tKanina nodded and turned her attention back to the man in the blue and white polo and flat cap. Some burned out graduate reeking of printed plant and quiet desperation. He said nothing, the brown paper bags and large printed plastic box balancing on one arm while he held out the other a moment. A small scanning stud on his wrist band, the delivery bill displayed in Kaninas AR.

\tShe reached down a moment. Hand slipping into the tight leather pants she currently wore and rubbing against the small stick that she’d been given. Her ears twitching, seemingly in contemplation, as she looked at the poor shmuck before her. She finally let it go and nodded to the young man as she added a figure in under the amount due and quickly authorized payment. Pulling the food in with her and all but letting the door slip shut on his face. Partially to avoid his distraction, partially to deal with him gushing at twenty five percent.

\t“You know if you wanted something I could have printed it.” Brinna half-pouted as she shifted herself on the couch and glanced up to see what food here was. Trying not to look too eager at the prospect of some nice junk food takeout.

\tA small chuckle covered the semi-annoyed grunt that Kanina felt building in her throat. She slipped the food on to the coffee table and yanked out a small box, popping it open to reveal a large heap of meatballs surrounding an inbuilt circular trough full of sauces. She snatched one of them by the small skewering plastic toothpicks and dipped it into the offered sauce closest to her. Yanking the printed morsel off the toothpick quickly and tossing it down onto the table, only for Bri to quickly snatch it up and slip a napkin underneath.

\t“Careful. Mom will freak if we have to fix the surface on this again.” the mouse whimpered.

\t“Sorry.” The bunny muttered. She never really got why they bothered, but then she didn’t want to cause a fuss either.

\t“So, not that I’m complaining at all, but is there a reason we aren’t having pizza right now?” Brinna asked as she looked the food over slowly and pulled another of the smaller boxes out of the bags, Jabbing a disposable fork into one of the ‘Brussle bombs’. Printed versions of overly large bacon and blue cheese stuffed brustle sprouts fried in beer batter. She popped it itn0 her mouth and almost spit it back out, wincing as she felt the food burn the roof of her mouth.

\t“So he was fast enough to earn that tip I gave him, Squeakles?” The bunny chuckled, She watched her friend dash to the printer and jam one of the nearby disposable cups under the spout, filling it with water and chugging it down hard before shaking her head. Kanina knew she shouldn’t laugh. But then she did plenty of things she probably shouldn’t.

\tOnce she was sure Bri had not actually hurt herself the bunny leaned back and popped the big box with the bags on it. ‘Baked Iecland’. Nut and honey ice cream under a mass of fried dough, which always confused her since baked was in the name. It was good, though. Sugary as hell, but good. She pulled one of the disposable knives out of the bag and started to cut off a nice big hunk, setting it down by the box of Brussel bombs before hacking off a slightly smaller bit for herself. “There are very few foods you can spoil if you eat it too much, Bri. The way things have been I was kinda worried Pizza was going to end up being one of those. I can’t let that happen. Can’t. I don’t know how anyone would even function after something like that.

\tThe dormouse nodded and made her way back to her seat, slipping a fork into the horribly unhealthy treat and taking a bite. Between the half-flakey half doughy crust and the single-note ice cram she had to suspect that the treat may have been one of the main reasons for her friend to order Oli’s. One look at the way Kanina devoured the thing made it pretty clear that was the case.

\t“So.” Bri groaned as she tried another of the little food bombs, finding it far less volatile than they had been. “Did Sir talk to you yet?”

\tKanina blinked and choked a bit on her foot, glancing over at Bri and quirking her brow a bit.

\t“He asked me how to get ahold of you. Said he had something he wanted to ask. I told him you live with your mom, but I didn’t tell him her number. I mean, I know she’s listed but, I kidna felt a bit guilty on that. Giving out personal info always seems a bit… squicky. Especially without permission.”

\t“Oh that.” Kanina put on her best smirk and shrugged as she rolled her head back on the couch. “Yeah apparently he figured you might be a bit lonely tonight. Plus, since I wanted to hang with you anyways.” She shrugged a bit and popped another ball in her mouth. The mix of sharp spices and creamy sauce overwhelming the faux pork taste to a pleasing degree. “I guess he has some, thing he has to do tonight?”

\t“It’s a meeting, kinda.” Brinna sighed “Technically it’s a party but I don’t count it as one if you don’t want to go. Plus it’s all work stuff.”

\t“You knew?” She blinked.

\t“Yeah.” Brinna nodded “I mean I donno why he wouldn’t tell me. I told him I’d be happy to go and keep him company. The way he made it sound though” she sighed and shook her head “I know it’s not as bad as what mom and dad have to put up with. I know other people have it worse. But just the idea of being stuck in a room with so many obnoxious people demanding your attention and trying to pretend they like you.” The mouse folded her ears back and slumped as she popped another doughy bundle of faux plant and dairy mater in her mouth. Those big bucked front teeth chewing it apart reluctantly as she kicked her heel into the couch.

\tKanina opened her mouth to say something, closed it, opened it again. Her ears folding down a bit more as she shifted into the crook between the arm and back of the couch. She reached out and put a hand on the dejected girls shoulder, squeezing it firmly. “Hey, if you went you’d be miserable too, and you know he’d just be more miserable, right?” She said sweetly. “This way, this way you can have a cool Avi to show off for him when he’s done. A bit of fun to distract him from the hours of his life he’ll never get back thanks to all the boring suits. Nothing wrong with that is there Squeakles?” she asked as she tilted the girls head up to look her in the eye.

\tThere was a slow pause as Bri met her friends eyes. Looked at that sweet, confident smile. The reassuring grin. She sighed and nodded a bit. The dormouse resolved to push her own muzzle into a matching grin. One that ended up looking utterly alien on her. The sight of it shattered the tension and drew an uncontrollable laugh from Kanina, and soon the two were laughing uncontrollably, slumped down in their seats and falling over each other for reasons neither fully understood.

\t“You’re probably right, bun.” Bri giggled.

\t“You know I always am.” Kanina chided back.

\t“ Still riding that thin line between confidence and delusion I see.” The dormouse said as she sipped her glass of water and sank into the couch.

\t“Till the day I die, Squeakles. Till the day I die.”
---

\t“So, how’s this for a starting point?” Brinna said happily. Her body a mass of grey-brown fur dashed with smatterings of green. She wore tall thigh-hugging boots on her wispy legs. Held on in several places by an asymmetrical array of belts and straps which gartered up to half-chaps and an uneven pleated skirt littered with pins and other bits and bobs that looked like she‘d pulled herself though a junkyard. Her top was little more than a roughly cut bit of generic-looking trooper armor cut off into a sleeveless midriff. Random bits of graphiti and neo-ogham script traced along its surface with a small mix of micro grenades, stim packs and other bits stuck on with  various weather worn pouches and superfluous belts. A thick heavy tome was slung over her back and an archaic computer strapped to the gauntlet of her left wrist. Even her eyes and hair were an odd, wild mix of browns, blues, reds and greens. The eyes especially burning with a strange fire that seemed to flip and shift between colors. Brinna grinned wide as she twisted her tail around a bit to poke at the belts tied to it, then put her hands on the impossibly tweaked and blade-adorned scattergun resting at her hips.

\t“You look like one of those Cygni Combine mercs. Only after the bombs fall. And after dinosaur cloning is a thing.” The poor bunny did her best to hold in her frustrated bemusement. Eyes tracing over the bizarre and honestly overwrought mix of clashing iconography. If it had been anyone else she might have been shocked. Not that she could imagine anyone else with such a getup.

\t“So you think I should change it then?” Bri asked as she slumped a bit, more than a little dejected. “I mean, I can try to think of something else if you want.”

\t“Will you stop that?” Kanina muttered “It’s fine. I’ll have to take some time to tweak it out and smooth it over. But it’s what you want. Stop saying sorry for what you want. Seriously you gotta stop being such a door mat.”

\t“I thought you said it was going to be a valuable skill for me with my Sir.” Brinna teased meekly.

\tIt took all Kanina had to bite back her growl as she shook her head and forced a smile “That’s not what I meant. Plus I was teasing, plus… look the point is, it’s fine. We just gotta get you acclimated to a few ideas if you’re going to be doing this sort of stuff for yourself long term.”

\t“Like what?” Bri tilted her head as she walked up to the plain looking brown bunny her friend currently wore and titled her head softly.

\t“Well for a start we need something to pin your commands to. Preferably a few things. Woz knows you have options.” She looked over the busy outfit and gripped the archaic button-input wrist computer, looking it over for a moment and nodding “This will probably work for now. See, with an Avi you need to have an item, or items, tied to different actions or commands. For example if you wanted to summon mecha-puff and ride around on him a while you need to have something on your person serve as the sort of focus of doing that.”

\t“Why can’t I just think it and make it happen?” Bri whimpered “I mean it seems like it’d be harder to remember what items do which things.”

\tThose long slender ears lopped a bit more as Kanina sighed and smiled. “You’d think so, but truth be told its’ better the other way around. Seconds count, and if you’re not used to it then having a bunch of small organized lists is better than trying to recall the exact script list of each one. There’s this old saying some ancient philosopher put out, and most anyone serious on the net lives by it. ‘Organization will set you free’. if you have items tied to things that relate to specific actions it helps give you a quick level of mental organization. Especially if you’re like me and swapping avis all the time.”

\tA loud tink came as the dormouse avi shook her head, the impossibly long and thick metal collar around her neck making a loud clanking sound from the few chain links hanging off of it. “This is confusing.” she muttered as she shut her eyes and started to flip though her item list for a chair. Getting about half way though the list before feeling a paw pushing her backwards, her rump landing in a nice comfy armchair that had manifested behind her.

\t“Like I said.” Kanina smirked ‘Organization. Don’t worry, though. I know you well enough to get you set up pretty well. All you gotta do is give me a few days to get your Avi finished up and We’ll have you set up and ready to show off in no time. Plus if you want I’m sure I could crash here a bit longer. I mean I gotta assume that fancy Class 2 school of yours isn’t going to drag students in before the new year, right?”

\t“It’s an apprenticeship!” Bri corrected “and, no. Everyone is on extended holiday. We got some research work to fill out but, well, I don't think anyone else will have done it.”

\t“You did though, right?” Kanina chuckled.

\tBrinna nodded sheepishly and looked away.

\t“Such a teachers pet. Well then I guess I’ll have to cook up some kinda homework for you too, that way you can get excited about learning all of this stuff.” The bunny smirked a bit as she looked the bizarre concoction of parts and kit over one more time and smiled. Say what she would it was nice to at least see the poor girl happy.

--------------------

\tA soft rustling slowly dragged Kaninas eye open. She saw Mrs. K, standing over the half-finished assortment of food the girls had devoured. They’d at least had the good sense to put the dessert in the cold storage. But everything else was probably tepid-warm and gummy by now. She could see the mouse woman’s face from the corner of her eye, even without her glasses on it was impossible to mistake the small smile there. That nostalgic frustration of cleaning up after the duo during an extended sleepover. Kanina passed out on the couch with a holo playing. Bri long having gone to bed.

\tBri. Between Seb pulling the reigns on the Tarot and Bri’s folks finding some rich guy to take her on as one of his pets, it felt like they’d been slipping so far apart lately. Not by most peoples esteem, sure. But after spending so much of their lives all but inseparable it was almost like a reunion. A chance to relax after spending so long missing Brinna, thinking about Brinna, dreaming about Brinna.

\tUnfortunately Kanina’s mind chose that moment to register those dreams. To register snippets of the dream she’d just enjoyed. To inform her of her exhausted, near paralyzed body. Of the uncomfortable sensation of stiff flesh pushing against the old worn cushion. Of the drying wet spot under her.

\tWoz, but she hoped Mrs. K wouldn’t notice.

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