FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

UTO: Anatalay University

A soft electronic beep began to blurt from a computer on a bedroom desk, demanding attention. A tired groan from under a blue blanket on the nearby bed was all it received in turn. The chimes grew harsher and louder in protest, coaxing another agitated moan from the blanketed mass, and it soon became loud enough to angrily rattle items on the desk. A huge, thick white tail stuck out of the blanket while whoever was wrapped in it rolled off of the bed and hit the floor with a thump. The blanket squirmed and rolled around before a blue striped arctic falashai, a vulpine, kicked her way out of it, trying to unwrap it from around her legs.

She crawled across the floor to her desk, eyes wide with urgency, and grabbed the chair to pull herself up then plopped down into it. She tapped the thin keyboard, prompting a seemingly solid holographic display of her computer screen to light up in front of her. A quick glance at the time, 14:00, made her growl agitatedly, but she straightened herself out before her claw tip tapped the projected screen to answer the call. Just as it connected, her eyes widened and she threw herself off of the chair. She forgot she was shirtless.

"Hello? Invili?" came from the desk as the falashai crawled on her hands and knees, poking through the random assortment of discarded clothing she had scattered around.

Invili's big tail poked up and waved at the screen. "Hey there!" She grabbed a red, sleeveless shirt laying on the floor. "Sorry, you got me while I was sleeping." The falashai stood up with her back to the screen, her tail concealing her hindquarters, and slipped the cloth on, finally concealing her ample bosom. She turned back around and planted herself into the chair again, grinning at the person displayed on the screen.

It was a human. On a screen like this, and hopefully in a simulation soon, were the only times she could see all of his features very clearly, considering how small the little creatures were compared to other alien species. She always gave him a good once over each time she saw him. His hair was a similar shade of blond like the fur of the large eared desert falashai, but he had shaved much of it off, leaving a light layer that certainly made his head cold. He seemed a little pale compared to other images of the white skinned humans she had seen, and he had these rounded rectangular eye lenses perched on his pointed nose, with his green eyes looking through them. His lack of facial fur, besides the fur above his eyes, made him seem rather bony to her. She could even see the way his cheeks pointed and how his face thinned out to a narrow chin. He was wearing a plain gray shirt. She had no idea how he looked to other humans, but she thought he was rather cute, particularly when she remembered he was a tiny, paw sized thing.

"You were asleep?" he asked, looking a little ashamed. "Ah, sorry, I should have waited a little longer."

Invili placed her elbow on the desk and propped up her muzzle on her hand with a lopsided smirk plastered onto it. "What did I tell you about being so anxious about 'mistakes'?" He rolled his eyes and gave her a dull look. The falashai leaned closer to the screen, blue eyes widening and her ears folded back, trying to look cute. "Come noon! What did I say?" Her ears straightened back up and flicked from the sound of his rolling laughter.

"That you wouldn't stamp on me for them," he said.

The falashai giggled and leaned back in her seat for a stretch, arms reaching straight above her head. When they first started speaking online a few months ago he was so anxious about screwing up, as if he offended her. She wouldn't have any of that, so she showered him with reassurances and eventually made a joke out of it. "I slept for ten hours, anyway."

"Ten of your hours? What is that... 12 hours of my day?" He typed at his keyboard, looking away from the camera to peer at his screen. "Standard UTO day is 20 hours to our 24 hours in Earth time... yeah about 12."

Invili bore a toothy, teasing grin and folded her arms on the table, leaning closer to the screen. "Did you really need to calculate that?"

"Shut up."

"No." She stuck her wide, canine tongue out at him. "So! Update on your training, Adrian, come on now!"

"Uh, well... look at this!" He clicked a couple times with his mouse and an image popped up on the feed, showing a civilian grade mech. It was a streamlined thing, compared to the modular first generation military mechs that dominated the media when the humans first started to integrate into the armed forces six years ago. She always thought those had a creepy 'possessed armor' look to them. The sleek and lithe civilian models didn't have that problem. They looked much like a human, though their faces were fairly featureless. At least the round, white, dimly glowing eyes didn't look nearly so sinister as the black pits of the military models. This particular mech was painted dark red with a few light gray, almost white stripes and highlights. Both arms had stripes going all the way down to the wrists. Another was painted down the middle of the head, between the eyes, and to the chest where it grew out to cover the top of the chest, the shoulders where it met the arm stripes, and she assumed around the back, almost as if it were wearing a shawl.

Its chest was opened up, and she could see the tiny forms of Adrian and his instructor standing on the deck, with the former looking quite smug. "Awww!" She clapped her palms together rapidly. "You were issued your mech?"

"Yep! Finally out of the training model. What do you think of the color?"

"Hmm..." She eyed the machine for a few long, overly drawn-out seconds. "You should have gone white with blue stripes."

He snorted and the image vanished, revealing him again. "I think that would look pretty tacky."

A growl escaped her throat. "Maybe we should rethink the stamping."

He laughed and held his hands up. "Sorry, sorry... seriously though, what do you think?"

"It looks nice. I really like the stripe down the face."

"I do too! I'm glad I was one of the first to pick. Now, tell me how your training has been going."

Invili's ears folded a small amount. "Oh, um... I failed the drone test..." One fang slipped out of her mouth to nibble on her lower lip.

He sucked air in through his teeth out of sympathy. "What now?"

"I have to wait a month before I can try again."

"Ow... Invili, you only have three months until the semester starts."

"I know!" She groaned and fell back into her chair, reclining backwards. One blue dye striped leg lifted up and she placed her paw on top of the seat for her arms to wrap around her shin, looking nervous. "The sensitivity on those things is ridiculous! You can't hold them in a proper grip!"

"Got a little excited?"

"A little?" She rested her muzzle on her knee and her other paw on the floor to nudge the chair left and right nervously. "More like a lot. I was SO excited to pass this and move onto the simulated training. I did great for the whole week of practice, then I go and drop it on the test. It slipped right out of my hand during the grabbing part."

"You dropped it?" He chuckled and shook his head. "That's not very encouraging."

She uncurled her leg and rolled the chair forward, leaning toward the screen with her ears splayed. "Oh, no no! I would never drop you! It's just... they're only drones. They're not people. I'd never drop a real human. Never!"

"Whoa now, relax." He smiled reassuringly. "I'm sure you wouldn't. But if you can pay a drone a lot of mind, you'd be even better with a human."

Invili sighed and flicked an ear in acknowledgment. "Yeah... that's almost exactly what the instructor said about it."

"Well, it makes sense. At least you can retake this one, though."

"Yeah..." She thought back to the one test that couldn't be taken again: the psychological evaluation. It was a battering of questions of how she would react to certain situations, like if a terrible friend snipped the tuft off of the end of her tail. It wasn't clear what kind of answers they wanted, but she assumed they wanted calm reactions. After that were a lot of hazed simulations to test how she would honestly react. Annoying children, people in trouble from teasing to being threatened, an actual snipping of her tail tuft, how she handled someone in emotional distress, and how mindful she was of someone quietly hiding their feelings along with whatever else they could concoct to assess the empathy needed to be a guardian. She passed most of these tests quite easily, enough to set her on track for guardian training. If she failed the evaluation, then she would never be able to take it again, like many others had. At most, all she could get was a certification to handle humans. Invili furrowed her brow and grumbled, "I should have gone for certification before I started this."

Adrian started to type at his solid keyboard as he spoke to her, "Yeah? Would they have let you skip this part?" He paused in his typing, looking away from the camera. She easily recognized someone having a text conversation.

"No, but at least I would have been more prepared. Maybe I would have passed on the first try."

"Why didn't you do that, then?"

Invili scratched the inside of her ear and looked away, the other ear flicking at the sound of his continued typing."It seemed kind of pointless. You don't even need to be certified at human handling to hold one. It just means you're not immediately liable if something goes wrong, and you probably become the designated temporary guardian when everyone else is drunk." She looked at the screen again to see him nodding along. "So, who are you typing to?"

"Mom and dad. They managed to sell my truck and will be sending the money soon."

Invili flicked an ear when he looked at her again. "I hope you won't regret it."

"Me too." He scratched at his cheek, eyebrows arched from some worry. "Never been to college before and here I am going off to some crazy giant alien school."

Invili giggled. "I've not been to university before either. It's new for both of us."

"Yeah... but you're, like, nineteen years old. I'm twenty-six and have been a tow truck driver and mechanic for almost half the time you've been alive. I haven't thought about school in a long time."

The Falashai shrugged. "But you wanted to, right? I still can't believe the costs of schooling where you're from."

He laughed and nodded, then pushed up his lenses with a finger. "Yeah. I could go to the other end of the galaxy and get a degree for cheaper than one semester back here. Wild..."

--

"Uh..." Adrian eyed the open pod. "And I just... lay in it?"

"Yep," said the projection of a gaudy pink arkatian female standing next to him that called herself Nanistay.

"It looks like a coffin." It really did, as far as he could tell. It was just a padded box. How was this supposed to get him into a simulation?

"Yep!" Nanistay beamed at him.

"Is it a coffin?"

"Nope!"

"Right, well, if you say so." He took a step into the dark gray interior and rolled around onto his back. He laid his limbs flat to become comfortable. It was surprisingly soft to lay on. Were coffins cozy? He wasn't sure.

Nanistay peeked into the pod with a toothy smile. "Now don't move! It's harder to bury you if you're moving around in there!"

"Er..." was all he managed to say before she suddenly vanished and the pod's door closed. At least it was a clear pane, letting him see outside. A quick scanning of the interior showed a small yellow lever labeled manual release. The whole thing was also fairly spacious, he would be able to roll onto his stomach with no trouble. He took a few deep breaths and calmed his nerves. He could get out at any time even without the lever, he could see outside, and it wasn't all that tiny in here. He'd be fine.

The glass in front of his eyes lit up with some words and a countdown. He gave them a quick once over, seeing that it was telling him the time until the link and if his position was good for a proper connection. As it ticked down to zero, he swore he could hear sounds coming from directly behind his head. It was a series of whirs and clicks, as if something was getting into position at the base of his neck. Just before the countdown finished, there was a click and his vision suddenly flashed white.

...

...

Adrian was given a little summary of what to expect with the simulations. He was told how real it would feel, about the memory leak with the AI, and was assured of how safe it was. However, he wasn't told he'd first hear before anything else. The sounds of a slight wind and the rustling of the leaves of trees were the first things he sensed, then the distant sound of a city, the slight rumble of urban hustle.

Next he could smell, or he thought he could, as he felt air rush in through the nose he could suddenly feel. Physical sensations reached him. The wind on his face, his feet on the ground, and his hands and rump on a wooden surface. He felt like he was sitting down.

Finally, his vision cleared and he was greeted with a familiar sight. Green trees and grass filled his view, and just beyond them looming high above was the Manhattan skyline. He was in Central Park. He gaped at just how real it was. For a moment, he thought he was dreaming and had just woken up. He was in Central Park just yesterday. The simulation hive he was at was in the very city he was seeing now.

A sudden squeal directly to his left yanked him out of his reverie and the white and blue, furry arms wrapping around him to tug him against a particularly happy vulpine was proof that he was indeed inside a simulation.

"Adrian!" Invili cried as she hugged him. The side of her muzzle rubbed against his cheek before she tilted her head and ran the topside back over again in a much too overly friendly greeting. He didn't respond to it, as he almost went limp in her grip. This was the first thing she did in their first meeting?

His lack of response seemed to encourage her to squeeze harder, making him grunt in surprise at her strength. "Invili! You trying to make me a toothpaste tube?"

She suddenly relented and looked down at him with a happy grin, her hands on the sides of his arms. It took his mind a moment to wrap around the fact that she had to be over seven feet tall.

Her eyes ran over him, like she always seemed to do when they started one of their video chats. Her nostrils flared as she took in his simulated scent, if he even had one. "Toothpaste... yeah, sure!"

He yelped as he was suddenly grabbed again and Invili fell over onto her back on the bench. He ended up sprawled on top of her as she squeezed him, his chest pressing against her prodigious bosom, nose to nose with the falashai.

After staring at him for a moment, her nose touched his and she held it there with a delighted look in her blue eyes. "I passed," she said, then before he could say 'congratulations' her wide pink tongue slid out and licked his face. He sputtered in surprise and pushed himself off of her. She pulled her legs out from under him before he sat on them as he heavily dropped down on the bench and wiped at his face.

"I'm sorry!" the Falashai whined as he brushed his face dry with his gray jacket's sleeve.

"Ah... no, I'm sorry," he muttered. "Should have expected that." The two canine species, the falashai and lupari, were well known for how casually physical they could get, but he still wasn't anticipating a lick to his face. The sudden hugging and nuzzling was odd enough.

She looked down at her paws, ears wilted. "Still. I forgot how greetings like that aren't much of a thing for a lot of aliens."

"Yeah... but I forgot how it was a thing for falashai." They smiled awkwardly at each other. It was new for both of them. This was going to be Adrian's first time off Earth, of course, but also Invili's first time being off of the Falashai homeworld, Trinnin, outside of trips and vacations. She still had a lot more experience with aliens than he did, but he didn't mention that. He didn't want her to feel bad. "So!" he clapped his hands together, wanting to move on. "You passed. That means we'll be doing the live test today, then, right?"

Invili perked up, her ears going straight and her huge tail jerking to and fro behind her, swooshing across the back of the bench. "Yep! Two tests in one day. See, I told you we'd make up for the month lost."

That was assuming she passed this one, too. He felt a pang of worry hit him. Today was special for both of them. Not only was it their first time meeting in a simulation, but it was to be the last test Invili would need to go through before earning her guardian status. It would also be his first time interacting with one of the giant aliens. It was jarring enough just to see them in person, like the few soldiers he saw during the war. Actually getting touched and held by one made him anxious, but that hardly squashed his excitement.

"Yeah... that's awesome, though. I'm happy to be the first, um, live human you get to handle." He wouldn't be the first she held, though. That honor went to a soldier she met nearly six years ago in a restaurant, where they took a rather cute picture together. She of course could have simply scheduled a test with a random volunteer, which could even be an alien that only took a human form in the simulation, but they wanted to do it together. Adrian had to schedule time in the overbooked simulation hive well in advance to make this line up.

She smirked at him. "Hopefully you stay alive, anyway."

He scoffed. "I feel like you'd be a right monster if you were any younger. I'm surprised you didn't eat that poor soldier."

"I actually get worse with age." He simply rolled his eyes in response, and silence fell between them as Invili finally looked around. She only gave the park before her a cursory glance before her gaze shifted up towards the buildings looming around it. "Wow..." She stood up from the bench to try to get a better look, properly showing how tall she was. Adrian's guess appeared to be correct. "They're so tall!"

The human got up to stand next to her, coming to a little less than shoulder height with the Falashai. "Yeah? Is that new to you?"

Invili shrugged. "Kind of. Never lived in a city. But, you know, humans and tall don't exactly go together."

Adrian frowned. "Okay, now that's just mean."

The vulpine's muzzle opened in slight surprise, then she closed it and her ears folded. "I'm sorry, but... why?"

"They're tall to us. We put just as much work into building big as anyone else."

"Oh..." Her ears remained splayed as she frowned. "Right. I'm sorry. I need to think about what I say."

"Yeah..." Some teasing about humanity's small size was fine, but something akin to an inferiority complex on a societal scale had become apparent as more humans connected to the extranet. It stemmed from the fact that mankind's greatest constructions could pass for art projects among the aliens, while the aliens' greatest builds made man's look like models. Poking fun at Earth's architecture was a touchy subject, and Adrian wanted to move on from it as soon as possible. "It's okay, though. I'll just yell at you every time you mess up. You'll learn!" He waved for her to start walking. "Come on, let's go for a walk." Invili beamed at him, then started to lead the way, padding off down the path.

They didn't have the time to spend much time enjoying the social simulation, as getting a long time slot in a civilian hive on Earth was nearly impossible as so many clamored for them. They only walked for a few minutes before Invili abruptly pounced Adrian into the grass and excitedly rolled about with him, easily manhandling him with her larger size.

The human found the physical forwardness to be disconcerting. It simply didn't seem right. But here she was, practically assaulting someone she met 'in person' for the first time. He didn't have the nerve to ask her to stop, and she didn't seem to have the sense to pick up on how uncomfortable he was until she realized she was the only one giggling as she rolled herself on top of him, pinning him to the ground.

Her ears folded halfway and she smiled sheepishly down at him. "I messed up again, didn't I?"

"Ah... "He forced a wary grin. "Kind of? I'm sorry, I just find it... weird. This is the first time I've seen you personally, as it were. Humans just don't jump to physical contact like this."

"But we've known each other for months!" she whined.

"Through a screen, Invili. This is different." He gently pushed at one of her legs, trying to encourage her to get off of him. She was painfully heavy, even if soft from sheer fluff factor.

The Falashai obliged and rolled off of him. She sat on her rump, tail twitching agitatedly behind her, with her knees bent. Adrian sat up and crossed his legs. He noted how her toes were flexing in the grass, which was something he had read to mean frustration and annoyance. The man frowned and looked down at his legs, but he couldn't get himself to say anything.

Invili broke the silence as she leaned forward and bent her head down low to look at his face. Her eyes softened and a reassuring smile crossed her muzzle. "I understand, Adrian. I'll take it slower, okay?"

The human sighed and nodded. He glanced down at her hand resting on the grass, and his own slowly inched closer to it. She caught the movement, judging by her blue eyes darting down, but she didn't do anything until his fingers touched her larger, white furred hand. She spread her digits and laced them with his, where they held together for the last few minutes they could spare.

A nice chat about the reality of the simulations with just a little hand touching was so much more in Adrian's comfort zone. He was admittedly anxious about being face to face with what he had to admit was a very beautiful girl, but that was alright. That was nothing new, like getting licked on the face by said girl.

After a few more minutes, Invili loaded the guardian testing simulation. He was treated to the white blindness again and he felt his senses come back to him. For a moment, before his sight came to him, he thought it simply restarted the 'map' and he was loading into Central Park once more. But then he realized that slight rumble of the city sounded suspiciously more like a hum now.

When his sight finally cleared, he immediately knew this no longer was Central Park. The first sign that told him this were the massive trees that looked like they would be at home in a California Redwood forest, if it was a Bluewood forest. He suspected there was a city behind those tremendous plants, but he couldn't see it beyond their fluttering dark green leaves. Confirming the obvious were tremendous benches, each one seeming to be the same dark blue, almost black, color of the trees themselves. They were the seats of giants lining a footpath that could be an interstate.

He looked down. He wasn't standing on grass, but a massive light blue pad, similar to the padded mats found in gymnasiums. It would be the practice pad, he knew. Which meant if he simply looked up and to his side, he'd see a gigantic vulpine. She'd probably be quietly grinning down at him, waiting for him to take notice. Her tail would likely be flicking about behind her in anticipation.

He took a deep breath. He'd seen the aliens full size before, in person. Between the rynar when they occupied New York to the UTO soldiers and aid workers after liberation, he'd say he's seen quite a few. However, he'd never received the sole attention of one for more than a few moments, let alone been handled by one.

He could do this. He wasn't afraid, he just expected to get his mind blown and maybe possibly get dropped and then perhaps stepped on in a freak accident. He smirked at his own internal joke. That wasn't going to happen.

With one more breath, he looked up and was greeted by the white and blue fur of the vulpine he was expecting. She had her teeth hidden as she smiled down at him from a squatted position with her tail perfectly still. She very slowly lowered herself down to her knees. Even that ponderous movement caused a breeze to hit him from the displaced air. He felt the mat lifting him up so very slightly as her huge, furry knees touched down only a few meters away from him.

The human felt his heart skip a beat in spite of her efforts to appear less threatening and color drained from his face, and he remained rooted to his spot, too shocked to even back away. He knew she wouldn't do anything to hurt him, he even knew this wasn't even real, that even if she did, he would be okay. But that knowledge didn't do a thing to quench that primal fear that welled up inside him. He had the undivided attention of an apartment building sized predator.

The falashai seemed to expect this as she said softly to him, her voice barely a whisper, "It's okay, just breathe..." She pulled her legs out from under her and she slowly lowered herself down onto her stomach. She folded her arms across each other and rested her muzzle on her forearm. "It's just me, your friend. You're safe."

Adrian's lip began to tremble, causing him to bite it, and he started to breathe quickly and deeply and despite the gentle look in her blue eyes he averted his gaze off to the side and rubbed the back of his neck. He opened his mouth to say something. He wanted to apologize for being suddenly afraid of her, afraid of a friend, but nothing came out. He snapped it closed and spared a quick glance at the huge vulpine.

She still had that gentle smile. "I know, it's scary. It's normal, even if I am your friend. Just take all the time you need."

Adrian felt his legs wobbling, and decided it would be best for him to sit down before they decided to take the initiative and start running. He quietly sat down as if he was afraid any quick movements would provoke an attack. Her eyes tracked him as he moved, and darted a little lower to see him crossing his legs. One hand clutched the other in his lap as he silently sat there watching Invili.

"I..." He finally started, but paused. Her ears perked up, and he noted how she had them swiveled around towards him, like the big satellite dishes they seemed to be. Her nostrils were constantly flaring and her eyes never left him. She had all of her senses completely focused on him. For what? What was she detecting from him? He read about how in tune the lupari were when it came to picking up on emotions right down to the slightest changes in scent, but the falashai weren't quite so comprehending of another's emotions. That was what academia said, anyway. Who knew what mental hoops this specific falashai was leaping through? He finally worked himself up to say, "I-I'm taking this, eh heh... a lot worse than I thought."

Her smile widened, still hiding her teeth. But then she had to go and reveal them to quietly ask, "How did you think you would take it?"

"Well, maybe I'd gape like an idiot and make a dumb comment like 'Wow, you're big.'"

Invili giggled. "A lot of humans think that's how it would happen, but then they do what you're doing."

He rubbed the back of his neck again. "This was a part of your classes, wasn't it?"

"Yep. How to approach a new human was one of the first. If they're afraid, make yourself as small as reasonably possible, show no teeth, speak softly, and reassure them about how safe they are. Oh, and give them all the time they need to... hrm... 'collect the pieces of their blown mind.'"

The human chuckled at how spot on that was. "Sounds about right. What now, then?"

"Now I ask you if you'd like to touch me." She lifted her head up a small amount to pull one arm out. She slowly placed her hand down a respectable distance away from him, palm down. "Would you like to touch me, Adrian?"

He eyed her hand warily for a few long moments before nodding weakly. He swallowed hard as he got to his feet, but hesitated before padding over to it. The small human wished he didn't stop to look it over, as the first thing he noticed was how her claws looked like bonafide man killers. She apparently knew that, as the deadly hooks were slightly curled under her fingers in a fruitless attempt to make them less noticeable.

He pried his attention away from those terrors to look at the rest of her hand. The fur was a delightful pure white accented by the blue stripes blossoming out from the center to just past the first knuckles on each finger. He was just holding this same hand only minutes ago. He'd touched it before, claws and all, and found it to be wonderfully soft. It could only be softer at this size.

How soft was the fur of a giant? It felt like a silly thing to spur action, but he was curious. He placed his palm on top of her, the fur beneath it pressing downward so very slight, and started to stroke. It was thinner than her body fur, so his hand didn't vanish into big white tufts, but it was still soft and smooth to the touch. It felt almost reassuring in itself, like how petting the fur on a dog or cat was relaxing.

He glimpsed at Invili. She was still quietly watching him, though now her tail was perked up and slowly bobbing behind her, like the cats he was just thinking of. He frowned when a new thought came to him. Cats with their slowly moving tails hardly meant anything good for little things like him.

One of the falashai's ears wilted as she canted her head slightly. "Are you okay? Would you like some more space?"

Adrian shook his head and got down onto his knees. Both of his hands brushed through her hand fur as he discarded those stupid thoughts. "Just thinking about some nonsense."

"Bad thoughts, yeah?"

The little human shrugged and turned on his knees to face her, stopping the petting. His hands awkwardly rubbed his thighs as he said, "Yeah..."

She flicked an ear and her thumb slowly moved to experimentally stroke against his side with utmost gentleness. Despite how slow and soft her movement was, Adrian still felt the unnerving amount of power in that digit. It was a tender, warm, and even comforting touch, but it was still comparable to being nudged by a car. Sure, it could be gentle, but the car was going to win every time if it wanted to. Regardless of those thoughts, he didn't ask her to stop.

"I understand," she said, her smile brightening more, likely pleased to be able to touch him. "Remember, though, I won't hurt you. Ever. Do you understand?" He nodded once. She giggled and her thumb moved upwards where it brushed his shoulder. "Are you sure? What won't I ever do to you?"

He groaned and rolled his eyes. "Oh haha, is this what they tell you to say in those classes?"

"It is pretty goofy, isn't it?"

"Yeah..."

"I thought it sounded dumb, but I still want to hear you say it. Come on! What won't I ever do to you?"

"Hug me, pet me, squeeze me and call me George?"

"Er... "She cocked a brow. "Why George? Is that a name of affection for humans?"

"Hah!" The man shook his head and pushed up his glasses. "No. Just a reference to something."

"Well. I like the hugging and petting part, so your answer is wrong! What won't I ever do to you?"

"Hurt me," he finally said.

Invili's thumb move a bit higher and he felt the fur run against his cheek and head. "And when I'm your guardian, what will I do?"

"Guardian stuff?"

She chuckled and her hand lifted fully up and carefully cupped around him until her padded palm pressed against his back. The black pads were only slightly rough, and they radiated a warmth that washed over his body. The way she held her hand to him felt both entrapping and strangely reassuring.

"Yeah," she cooed. "Guardian stuff. Which means helping you, being there for you, and..." her fingers curled, essentially cupping him against her hand, "protecting you."

Adrian rubbed his neck and laughed abashedly. By nature, a very protective mentality often came with a lot of guardians. He supposed many could appreciate that, but this kind of thing already made him feel like a handicapped person that needed a nurse to help him take a crap. Throw on that protectiveness and he may as well be a crippled kid with his mother fawning over him. "Invili. I appreciate what you'd do but..."

He trailed off, prompting her ears to fold partway as she warily asked, "But?..."

"I don't want to be mothered over. It seems kind of... degrading."

Invili's ears folded completely on her skull now. "Oh... oh!" She pulled her hand away and hastily sat up. She crossed her legs, mimicking his posture. "I'm sorry! I thought with you in New York and, and- I thought you'd be afraid of everything, and, and.. worried and looking to- " She stopped herself with a huff. "I'm sorry!"

It was the human's turn to do the soothing as he held his hands up. "Whoa, whoa, calm down, it's okay. Relax! You just imagined things wrong. It's my fault for not telling you more about the occupation."

"I don't understand," she said, ears still folded, "it was an occupation."

"Yeah... but the rynar had better things to do than ravage a civilian population, you know." The occupation of New York City by the Rynar sounded like it could have been a nightmarish Stalingrad type disaster, but that simply wasn't the case. After the military was beaten and set up its holdout on Manhattan island, it became a relatively clean affair. Unless you were trying to blow the invaders up, the aliens didn't do much with the civilian population. Perhaps they would have if not for having to deal with the UTO and the US forces wanting their city back, and even eventually the Canadians that crossed lake Ontario. The real killer was the collapsing infrastructure as the occupation went on. They were the reason people started to starve as they targeted anything that looked like it could be big enough to ship military equipment, which just so happened to be everything bigger than a personal backpack.

Manhattan was the real hellhole after the military destroyed the bridges and dug in, but Adrian wasn't trapped there. Most of his time spent during the occupation was with his family and some friends, living off of the supplies they managed to collect during the looting. It got hard as the occupation drew on, but liberation happened before people started eating each other in the streets, at least.

It was more boring than anything else. He didn't need some big, fluffy alien smothering him because she thought he was some kind of broken soul.

Invili's hands played with her blue dyed toes as one of her fangs nibbled on her lip. Adrian had to admit, despite her gargantuan size, she still retained that adorable nature he saw during their chats.

"What was it like?" she asked warily.

The man shrugged as if it was nothing. "A whole lot of sitting around, trying to stay warm, rationing, and hoping things would get better soon. Water became scarce by the end, but things didn't degrade too much before liberation. Most exciting stuff were the odd Rynar patrols, shots going back and forth with the holdout, and thieves."

"Oh..." she muttered with her ears wilted. "I thought, that, well..."

She trailed off, so Adrian finished for her. "You thought I'd have some problems left over from it? Yeah, I saw some things, but there's millions of people in New York, yet you don't hear millions of bad stories. It sucked, but surviving in a cut off city is a whole different kind of suck compared to the suck you always hear about."

"I'm sorry." At his look of confusion about what she was apologizing about, she went on, "I'm sorry for assuming. I was actually hoping to... ah, never mind."

Adrian's guess was that she was hoping he'd look to her for comfort. It was a shame to disappoint, but he was rather pleased that he didn't need to a huge alien to coddle him. "It's okay," he said before they fell into an unnerving silence.

Before it could go on any longer, a disembodied male voice suddenly spoke up, "Well THAT was interesting. Talk about a lack of communication! Hah!" The voice nearly gave Adrian a heart attack as he flinched and gasped in surprise. Invili seemed to be only mildly surprised, apparently expecting it, and started to laugh at him, her loud, rolling laugh shaking the human's body. An avatar of a red, black spotted hyena, or asishi, appeared next to Adrian, at human size, sitting next to him cross legged as well. He nudged Adrian with an elbow. "You know, a lot of humans don't have the teeth to say when someone as big as her comes on too hard. Well done!"

The human scowled and jabbed back, shoving the asishi. "Way to rub it in..."

The presumed AI looked up at Invili to see her ears were folded again with her eyes downcast to her legs. "Oh. Sorry!" he said. "I didn't mean anything by it. I'm just saying what I've seen. It happens all the time! People come in expecting a cute little human to shower with affection when the human just wants to see and talk to an alien. Ears up, now! It's alright, no harm done and you sorted a problem out. All is well." The asishi abruptly shot to his paws and easily dragged Adrian to his own feet by the collar of his jacket, making the human flail in surprise at the impossible strength. "She told me about you! All good things, honest. You're such a nice guy for doing this for her!" He beamed toothily at the human with his tail wagging.

Adrian brushed the AI's grip off of him, and tugged at his jacket, fixing his collar. "You two know each other already?"

"Yep!" He chirped and glanced back at Invili. "I've been running gaming sessions with her and her friends for a few years now."

The human seemed to perk up at the mention of games, no longer caring about how everyone liked touching too much. "Game sessions? Like what?"

"Well let's see... her group favors fantasy but I've run superhero games and science fiction sessions, too."

He was terribly curious about what space aliens considered science fiction, but was more so about what was in these games. "Yeah, I get that but what are they like?"

The Asishi grinned wider, showing off way too much teeth. "She said you like gaming! Oooh, I look forward to squeezing you into the group! It's a lot like your own games, just a lot more interactive."

Adrian nodded eagerly. "So you're like a game master them?"

"Yep! But I'm also a player! Why, we started this new game recently where I'm an elf ranger!"

"An elf? Elf elves?"

"Yeah! From you humans! She's fun."

"She?..."

"Yeah!"

"Awesome. Does that mean I could be something else in these things?"

"You could! But not now. We have a test to do." He offered his hand, which Adrian took graciously for a shake. The gesture was wonderfully familiar, though still alien considering the fur, padded hands, and the slight touch of clawed fingers. "I'm Bitley, and you're Adrian. Nice to meet you!"

"Likewise," Adrian said. "Can I ask a question?" Bitley nodded for him to go on. The human looked looked between the AI and Invili. "Can any AI do this kind of test or do you two just happen to know each other?"

"Neither! Well, kind of. Any AI could with the right programming, but as a simulation focused AI we all get the programming needed for this. Anything else?" The human shook his head. "Great!" He turned around to look up at Invili. "You did great on the first part already. Look at him, all calm and ready to be manhandled by an overeager falashai."

Adrian wasn't sure about manhandling, but he had to agree. Invili's instructors knew what they were doing. His heart wasn't threatening to burst from his chest as his instincts foolishly debated the merits of running from a giant predator.

Invili flicked her ears happily. "Thanks! I guess I subdued him with awkwardness."

Bitley scoffed. "Nonsense! That actually got him more worked up as he worried about hurting you."

Adrian sighed and facepalmed as Invili cooed, "Awww! Really?"

"Really! Now! Let's get started on the fun parts." He whirled back around to face the human. "Quick rundown! You cannot feel pain or suffer damage to your form. To feel discomfort, all you will get is a slight stinging. Don't try to hide how you're feeling all about this, because I'll know. I know everything. To keep your reactions honest, I'll leave and convey instructions to Invili, but not you. And that's it! Any questions?" Adrian shook his head, and before he could even do the second shake Bitley abruptly vanished. Adrian flinched and furrowed his brow at the space the asishi was just occupying, his eyes blinking rapidly.

Invili carefully uncurled her legs, earning the attention of Adrian from the empty space. Her movements were cautious while so close to the human as she got to her feet. Adrian thought she was terrifyingly massive before, but as he gawked up at her, he realized she was even bigger than he imagined. He wasn't sure if it was her attempts to appear smaller or if he was simply that bad at assessing size, but at this point he stopped caring. He had to get his head around the fact that he was less than ankle high to a teenage girl.

Despite her best attempt at a reassuring smile, his breathing picked up and he looked down, saw her massive, claw tipped paws, and looked down even more at his own feet and the pad they were standing on. He took a few moments to collect himself and work around the size shock, then looked back up at her face. He put on his best sly grin and said, "Someone drank their milk."

Invili snickered. "Someone didn't." She stuck her tongue down at him when he glowered up at her. Thankfully she didn't let him flounder for a retort as she dismissed the teasing by saying, "Okay, Adrian, take some time to get used to me standing. We're going to start soon."

Adrian nodded once and looked back down to her paws. He rubbed the back of his neck as he worked up the nerve to approach. All it took for him was to remind him that this wasn't real, that she wouldn't do anything rash, and he couldn't get hurt, anyway. With that in mind, walked along the mat until he was directly between her legs, where he was able to better compare themselves. The vulpine bent forward to look down at him, but didn't say anything as he eyed her leg.

He wasn't even ankle high with her, he realized, but that sounded worse in his head. It was a digitigrade ankle, making it higher than a human's as she stood on the balls of her feet. He was closer to her heel than her ankle, though he could reach up and touch it. Regardless if he was ankle high or heel high compared to her, her broad, four toed paw was very much capable of carrying out the stamping they had playfully joked about numerous times. Those jokes and teases never felt more real until now. He placed himself directly in front of her paw. The tops of her toes were about waist high with him. He could place his hand on top of them without bending down. This was a big foot. He was always amused by the jokes, but now they seemed oddly worrying, despite how he knew it was all in good fun.

Invili's toes suddenly splayed apart as she slowly squatted down. He didn't look up at her. Instead he watched way her calf length pants shifted up and ruffled her fur on her leg. It was a small detail made large for him, something he probably never would have paid much mind if not for the size difference. The Falashai's massive hand settled onto the pad between her paws, just next to him, earning his attention now. The fingers were curled slightly, offering a sort of protective cup, the usual way an alien would pick up a human. He would have to sit in it.

Adrian let out a long breath and shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. With much less reservation than he thought he'd have, he climbed into the alien's hand, on his knees. He rolled over onto his rump and crossed his legs. Invili very slowly started to lift her hand, not wanting to disorient him. He didn't look up at her during the ascent. He instead chose to eye those black claws of hers and have horrible thoughts of her curling her fingers the rest of the way and spearing him like fork in a grape.

Invili pressed the side of her hand to her stomach. Adrian scooted backwards to press his back against it, where he was supposed to be during carrying. He mentally ran through the instructions on what to do here. It wasn't advised to lean back into the stomach lest he fall backwards when Invili moved her hand away from her stomach. To help prevent that, she was supposed to tilt her hand forward a small amount to both warn him and offer counterbalance, then slowly move her hand after he shifted his weight and position so he wouldn't fall backwards. According to the video he had to sit through during mech training, practice and familiarity with each other would make it all instinctual.

He still pressed his back into her stomach, hard. What could he say? It was comfortable. He also couldn't help it, as the shift in perspective, from being this tiny thing on the ground to looking down at a big world was all too awe inspiring.

--

Invili curiously looked down at Adrian when she felt him pressing against her stomach. He had that open mouth look again! He was surprised by something, again, and as always he looked so adorable with that look.

These emotions were so strange. She imagined he would be cute at such a small size, but she didn't think she would feel like a kit in a pet store just like she did with that soldier all those years ago. Just holding him slammed her with a strange warmth, as if she realized something grand. It had to be the power complex that was often talked about.

'Very good,' Bitley said into her mind. 'A perfect pick up. Now, put him back down and I want to see you grab him. Snatch him. Like you're saving him from something bad. He won't expect it, as he shouldn't.'

Invili's ears folded. A snatching? Already? They just started! If this was anything like the drones, then she would be doomed. Those little machines would claim you paralyzed them just from a petting.

"Is something wrong?" Adrian asked when she stopped moving.

The Falashai's ears popped back up. He was looking up at her with his tiny little eyes. "Just the next part of the test," she murmured and squatted back down to lower her hand for him, making sure to tilt her hand forward a small amount before she pulled away and planted it back down onto the mat. "You need to get off my hand, though."

He nodded and slid off of her palm. 'Stand back up,' Bitley instructed. 'You need to do it from a full stand. Go on, you'll do fine. I'm sure of it.'

Invili swallowed and stood back to her full height, looking down at the human. He didn't seem as shocked by her standing as he was before, though he still seemed uneasy. She took a deep breath and her fingers flexed. "I'm sorry, Adrian," she murmured.

"For wha-" Invili cut him off as she quickly crouched and reached for him in one, rapid motion. He barely had a moment to react and move before her palm smacked into him, her fingers closed around him, and lifted him much too fast for his little body to be comfortable with.

Her ears wilted as she felt him squirming in her grip with his arms pinned, gasping and cursing obscenities. Despite that, she still felt oddly amused. Feeling his tiny form on just her palm and fingers was quite the experience, but seeing and feeling him moving helplessly in her grip, powerless to resist her, was something else entirely. She was excited, she knew it, and that made her feel terrible.

She was holding him needlessly long now. Before it became too awkward she tilted her hand sideways and held the other close, just in case, before opening her grip and allowing him to sprawl out onto her palm. "Are you alright?" she asked and lifted her other hand higher to cup both of them together, side by side, allowing him more space collect his bearings on.

"What the hell, Invili!" he shouted angrily as he sat up and dragged himself away from the edge of her palm to rest in the middle of both.

With her ears still folded, the Falashai hastily said, "I'm so sorry! Bitley said I had to pick you up quick and that you had to be totally unaware like a real snatch so you would act how you should! I'm sorry!" Her eyes were wide and glimmering, almost like she was about to cry.

Adrian grumbled quietly to himself and shook his head. "No stinging... I think. Guess you did good. Er, did you do good?"

Invili furrowed her brow. That was a good question. Bitley finally decided to pipe into her mind, 'That would have caused minimal physical harm, and it was quick. You get a pass from me. See, I told you it would be okay.'

The Falashai smiled down at her poor snatching victim. "Yeah, I did. So no do-overs!"

"Oh thank God," he muttered and fell back over onto her soft pads. "What now, then? You drop me and try to catch me?"

Invili giggled. "I vote for that. Let's do that."

Thankfully for the human, that didn't turn out to be a part of the test. Instead, she had to go through a few more maneuvers while on the pad. She had to transfer the human from hand to hand, demonstrate a gentle grab, scoop him up with one hand then with both while he stood, sat, and laid down, and finally lift him with just a pinch between fingers.

Through all of the pad testing, Invili was happy to see herself doing very well. All of the practice with the drones ensured she did everything right and remembered all of the safety measures. The real issue, however, came with how the humans didn't get nearly the amount of training as their far larger partners. Adrian didn't even lift his arms during the grab, to have them free when she closed her hand around him. His movements while getting shifted between her hands were clumsy, but she was more than able to keep him safe, having been trained with drones that acted in the same way. Invili found herself wondering if the humans that do these tests regularly were easier to deal with. Surely she would get leeway with an untrained human, even though she likely wouldn't need any at this rate.

After the pad tests, she was sent into the park for a few more tests. First she had to jog down the path, which required her to cup Adrian in both hands to keep him from bouncing out and falling. Then, she had to do it all over again with him held in her grip, needing to be mindful of squeezing too hard and ensuring she didn't swing her carry hand.

Next she had to move through a crowd, ever mindful of being bumped and jostling her precious cargo as well as minding her movements. Every test meant she had to mind her movements. She recalled hearing it stressed so often, that she had to be fully aware of what she was doing, how her movements affected the human, and being ever alert with her senses tuned onto the charge.

The senses test was her favorite, despite being a hazed portion. It was a silly game of hide and seek in a room, with Adrian constantly moving about. As a Falashai, a predator, her hearing and sense of scent made this fairly simple. However, it wasn't until Bitley spoke to her afterward that she learned it was more of a test of remembering to watch her paws and alertness when a human was at ground level. Actually being able to find him each time was simply something to be proud of.

Invili passed it all perfectly. Despite all of her worries, all it took to pass was remembering her training and a lot of common sense. She had to resist the urge to bounce with joy and end up tossing the man through the air while he sat in her palm in the carry position. Instead, she placed him onto the training pad after they returned, stepped back, and then bounced with joy.

"Yes, yes, yes!" She cried happily as she hopped on her toes. "That's it! I'm certified to be a guardian! I'm going to be your guardian!"

Adrian grinned up at her as he watched her hop excitedly. "I already have the forms filled out, just need your fancy new paperwork details and we'll be set."

She flicked an ear, took a deep breath to calm her excitement, then sat down down cross legged. "How much is left of your time slot?"

He went still for a moment as he checked the time on his end. "About half of an hour. Erm... so a little less than half of a common hour."

She offered to take him out into the simulated city, but he decided he would prefer to see the real thing when they visited the school together. Instead, they used the remaining time to chat about said school as the little human, who wanted her to stay at her true size, took an interest in looking around her again, as he did with her paws. Shortly before he had to disconnect, Invili dropped her huge, fluffy tail onto him as he inspected it.

"Have a safe trip across the galaxy!" The Falashai chirped to him right after she covered him up. She giggled as she felt his little movements, then he crawled out, exposing his head while the rest of him was still covered.

"Oh yeah. It'll be safer than being with you, that's for sure."

Invili scoffed and covered him back up. She felt him move again, then promptly vanish as he disconnected. Her ears folded sadly and she sighed, eying her tail. That was their first simulation together and it was as great as she hoped. It was a shame to see him go.

Before dwelling on it too much, she mentally signaled the disconnect and shut down.

...

...

Without even needing a moment to recuperate, Invili hopped out of her personal simulation pod and into her room. "Mom! Moooom! Dad!" she cried as she pulled her yutri from her desk computer and slipped the chip into a wrist mounted holographic system. She opened it up as she stormed down the steps, checking her inbox. "I passed!" she shouted, her eyes scanning her messages. There it was, her confirmation notice. She saved it with the other message that sent her tail dancing happily - the orientation reminder. She may not see Adrian in a simulation any time soon, but she'd see him for real in only a month!

--

Adrian and a several other humans openly gaped as they looked out the window of the ship. They all stood up from their seats, a whole row of them. They were meant to be comfortable and relaxing as they spent their time in this observation deck, but it was impossible to stay seated for this. It made his stomach do flips. The man's mind was trying to fathom the scale of what he was seeing. He read about it, he'd seen pictures of it, but none of that did it justice. He was here, seeing it for real.

It was Union Hub.

It was hundreds upon hundreds of kilometers of space station, space elevator, and general nonsense that made his inner geek have an aneurysm. It was just too incredible.

"How thick is that thing?" A woman muttered.

"Which thing?" Adrian asked without looking away from the sight.

"The elevator."

Adrian's eyes traced a huge cable extended up from the planet. It had to be massively thick and strong, considering how well he could see the thing from thousands of kilometers out. A cylindrical like object, rounded to points on both sides, shot up towards a space station. He didn't have the slightest guess on how thick that cable had to be. "I have no idea."

He watched the carriage's ascent, watching it slow down as it reached the station. He lost sight of it as it went up into a tremendous ring, a centrifuge like construct. However, the ring wasn't spinning to generate gravity. It connected the whole station together.

Four incredible petal like structures extended upward from the ring. Their smooth designs were interrupted by what looked like couplings that had to be dozens of kilometers around, yet were still smaller than the station arms themselves. They connected to another section that arched, giving it a bulging shape, with large spaces between each arm that allowed spacefaring traffic to fly through. Only one of the arms had a third section, and it connected to another ring at the top of the station, where the space elevator could ascend further into. The other three arms only had two sections, making the station appear unfinished. The coupling points on their ends, and on the ring at the top, showed that it wasn't likely to stay like that forever.

"Five hundred and twenty seven kilometers," a man down across the room slowly said.

"What?" the other next to him asked.

"Ring to ring. Over five hundred kilometers."

They all fell into awed chatter as they started to compare this unbelievably massive station with whatever they could, in an attempt to wrap their heads around its sheer size. It was almost surreal to compare a construction not to other buildings, or even mountains, but to entire countries. This station was only a few dozen kilometers short of being able to span the entire length of Florida from its coastal tip to Georgia.

As the ship neared the station, most of the humans backed up to sit down in their seats again, including Adrian. They looked unsettled, almost sick. It was all too overwhelming. The aliens were already huge, the fact that what they built big as well was hardly a secret. However, hearing and reading about it, as well as seeing pictures, completely failed to convey just how massive it was.

He had felt it so many times already, and he was certain he'd feel it a lot more.

He was tiny.

--

Invili's tail jerked around behind her as she waited outside the arrivals gate, watching intently as people filed out. "Are you sure this is the right gate?" she asked her parents anxiously.

Her mother, a red furred fox with black socks chuckled from her seat on a bench, where she was leaning against her mate, her muzzle resting on his shoulder. "You tell us," she said. "Is he arriving at Taxish Twelve?"

"Yeah..."

Her father, white like her, followed his wife's train of thought. "And he's arriving at thirteen eighty, yes?"

"Yeah..."

"What time is it now?" he continued.

A quick thought trigger to her yutri had it project the time in front of her left eye. "Thirteen seventy seven."

"So are we in the right place, at the right time?" her mother asked.

"Yeah!" Invili said and started to bounce on her toes. He should be walking through that door any minute now.

She didn't pay her parents any mind as they remarked about her childish excitement. The clock stayed projected in front of her eye and she watched the seconds count up.

Once it reached thirteen eighty her ears perked up and she leaned over the railing even further, as if she would have to be looking closely at the floor for her little friend. She realized she had to look ridiculous, and he would be walking in with his mech, anyway, so she straightened herself out and stood there like a normal person, almost shaking in anticipation. Several minutes passed, but nobody started to walk through yet! She whined pathetically, but didn't look away. She muttered to herself in agitation, but went silent and her tail stilled when the doors slid open and the new arrivals started to filter through.

Her tail started to twitch in agitation when the first round of people turned out to be a big family of neishor, utterly blocking her view past them. Once they finally went through the door and moved out of the way, she almost hopped the railing when she saw a mech walking alongside an Asishi. But this one was green, it couldn't have been Adrian's mech.

This continued for nearly ten minutes, with the odd human mech walking through, but none of them were Adrian's. She was starting to feel impatient and looked over at her parents for reassurance.

"He'll be here, Invi, don't worry," her father said as he scratched behind one of his mate's ears with a claw.

Invili bit her lip and returned her attention to the door. She was being silly. Of course he would be here. She was just so excited! She spent months talking to Adrian and had such a good time in their only simulation together. She was eager to finally meet him in the flesh.

She did her best to look calm as she waited a few more minutes, like the adult she was. That all ended very suddenly when a familiar dark red, light gray striped mech turned the corner at the end of the hallway and headed for the door. "Adrian!" She yipped happily and waved at him. The eager falashai at least had the demeanor to go around the railing rather than leap over it as she ran around it to meet him in the walkway.

"Invili, hello!" the human's slightly artificial sounding voice said through the machine's speakers.

The crown of the mech's head only came to around the Falashai's bosom, about the height of a tordenchi, the shortest species excepting the humans, although the mechs were a fair bit stockier. Invili grabbed the mech's hand and tugged him along over to her parents before they ended up blocking the exit. "Oooh, you made it!" she said. "Mom and dad are here! They want to meet you." He didn't say anything while he was pulled along towards her parents, then dragged out in front of her, with her hands on his shoulders, presenting him like some kind of prize. Her tail danced behind her with a huge grin on her face. "This is Adrian!" she chirped to her mother and father. "Um, Adrian Vandusen... yeah that's how it's pronounced."

The two got up from their bench and her father, having read a fair bit about humans, immediately offered his hand. "Nice to meet you, Adrian. I'm Yorell Passenale. How was your journey?"

Adrian shook Yorell's hand, the machine's own vanishing in his larger grip. "Unnervingly short and like an idiot I said 'Damn, you're tall' to seven different aliens. Nice to meet you too."

Invili saw in her mother's ears, splayed a small amount to the side, that she was slightly off-put by the mech's face, but she smiled gracefully and said, "Kishinev Passenale. I'm sorry the trip worried you."

"Worried?" Adrian said. "Nah, it was more just hard to accept I traveled across the galaxy in two days. So, you two came with Invili? I'm sure she's happy about that."

Yorell chuckled and looked up at his daughter. "Indeed. She was crying and begging for us to come along. Poor kit is just so terrified of being alone."

"Dad!" Invili whined.

"Oh, well," Adrian said, "She has nothing to worry about. I'll take good care of her."

"But that's my job!" The teenager glowered at the both of them.

"To take care of yourself?" Yorrell asked.

"No." Invili growled and shook her head. "Wait. Yes! I mean take care of him!"

The mech's head craned back to look up at her. "You sure about that? You're the one clinging." He nodded down at her hands on the machine's shoulders.

Invili took her hands off of him and her father laughed. "Hah! You chose a good guardian, Invili."

"But!..." she sighed and growled again, looking defeated with her folded ears. "Let's just go... stupid males..." Adrian laughed along with her father, much to her chagrin. She should have seen this coming, Invili thought as they all headed off.

--

Adrian sat in the seat in the space elevator with his mech's hands resting in its lap. This all happened way too fast. Couldn't there be something else they had to do before going planetside?

First they had to check in at the administrative section of their new school, University of Anatalay, which was named for the planet, also called Anatalay. There, Invili and he had to get their pairing status confirmed in person. His new guardian then had to fill out fresh electronic paperwork that apparently confirmed to the school that she had no plans to do something terrible, like eat him.

Then they got held up because there was an issue on his health record. It was the first time they saw Lyme disease on someone's medical history. All that took to clear up was a quick extranet search to see it was now completely harmless, then the rest of his record passed, including the smattering of immunizations he had to be given before coming here.

Then there was a tour of the station's side of the university, then he got to be zipped around in a flying car, which made him gush to Invili with excitement. Flying around in an enormous station was one of the best experiences so far. The sights were incredible, even the enormous couplings that joined the station parts together awed him. A few more minor errands and the next thing Adrian knew, he was strapped into a space elevator about to descend to a planet like a meteorite with brakes.

The human touched one of his gauntlet covered hands to the other and disconnected the reflex movement, then pulled his helmet off. The civilian mechs didn't have the extra piloting systems or other redundancies the military machines had. Here, all he had was the reflex movement system with a harness that was currently lowered to mimic a seated posture and very minimal manual controls as a backup. A military model had a link that went straight to power armor rather than the integrated reflex equipment here as well as totally manual controls with pedals and joysticks and whatever else would be needed. However, on top of that the pilots also received implants that projected their consciousness to the mech, allowing them to move it as if it were their own body. This was the smoothest, most natural method, but it was not used in government issued civilian mechs.

It wasn't that difficult of a thing to learn to operate, however. Learning to walk with the boots like some kind of ridiculous elliptical machine was tricky, but was the only truly tricky part of it all. Everything else from the chest rig and headgear to the gauntlets moved like he would his real body. The manual controls were clunky, as all it had were pedals and joysticks for ponderous movements, but they were good for very short distances when putting on the reflex equipment wasn't worth the time. He also had to learn minor maintenance. He, of course, just about devoured that part of the course. He couldn't read and see enough about all of the mechanical parts.

Adrian looked over the cockpit from his seated position, pretending the outside world didn't exist. It was a small place, located in the center of the torso rather than the head. A pair of joysticks for manual control could be pulled up from where the gauntlets were stored on either side of him. Ahead of him were projections of the head's optics and a plethora of other displays showing any information he could need about his machine. Off to either side were alcoves with two seats in each of them for passengers. Behind him were storage compartments, as well as the tiny space for bodily waste. There was only just enough space, a few meters at best, for him to walk around.

He could simply turn the projections off and then wait here reading a book while the elevator did its thing. But then he would miss the view. He just knew this was going to be both amazing and terrifying. With a sigh, he decided amazing was the stronger feeling. He had to see this. He palmed the switch to restart the reflex system, replaced his helmet and flipped down the visor.

He looked to his side at Invili seated next to him. She noticed his look and smiled at him. "So," he said, "you're sure we're not going to plummet into the ground and explode into a beautiful fireball?"

The falashai giggled. "Mostly sure!"

"Mostly... alright, fine. I'll take those odds." He took a deep breath. "We about to go down, then?" His voice ended up cracking from some fear. He was going to regret this.

She flicked an ear. "Yep. And... relax. I was worried my first time here, too. But it's fun. You'll be fine." She lifted her head up to look over him. "Right dad?" she asked her father on the other side of her charge.

Yorrell clutched his seat's armrests. "We're going to burrow to the center of the planet, I just know it!"

"Dad!" Invili cried with her ears folded. "You're scaring him!"

A laugh coming from the mech proved otherwise. The two men looked at each other for a moment before Yorrell looked over the mech at his daughter. "Apparently not. You should take note of what assuages fear the best." Invili looked between the two of them, before huffing in agitation and returned her attention forward. Adrian and Yorrell shared another look, and Adrian swore he saw in the vulpine's eyes an amused glint. He loved to frustrate his daughter, and one upping her in calming a human certainly did it.

A couple minutes of idle chatter later, the displays around the carriage started to show a countdown to the descent. Adrian watched it closely, his hands balling up into fists. He had to keep his eyes open, he told himself. He had to see this. When the countdown hit zero, he tore his eyes off of it and looked ahead, out the false windows. He expected a sudden drop, but instead, all it did was slowly lower and exit the station, treating him to a view of the planet below. It was a very green marble of a planet, with few large bodies of water, as it was mostly covered in sprawling forests and jungles.

The white, swirling clouds and snowy northern pole were a pleasant contrast to the green, he thought. Then, the peaceful awe of seeing a planet from space was abruptly shattered when the carriage suddenly launched downward at a speed that made his stomach lurch. The dampeners made it a gentle descent, but he knew he was hurtling toward a planet at terrifying speed.

"Shit!" He cried as he watched the planet near, then suddenly the displays turned into a massive wall of fire as they started to tear through the atmosphere. "Oh my fucking GOD!" he shouted even louder. They were on fire! They were burning up! They were going to die! "Oh god oh god fuck fuck fuck fuck!" He repeated over and over in a battering of curses. Through the flames, he could still see the planet approaching, so, so fast. "No no no nooooo!" he wailed then abruptly he was disconnected from the link. He tore himself out of the reflex boots and harness in record time as he felt his stomach starting to reject something. With most of the gear still on, he stumbled and pressed into the forward wall before pushing himself off to go to the back, to the waste disposal. He fiddled with the latch with one hand and slid it open, then practically fell face first onto the little toilet and let it all out.

Once he spat out the rest of the upchuck that decided to linger in his mouth he fell onto his back and rubbed at his eyes. He refused to look at the display, he was done. He'd prefer to simply lay here and wait for it to end. He didn't think he would vomit, but it seemed his brain didn't like what it was seeing while not feeling a thing of it.

He felt a knock on his mech's chest, making a loud booming sound that lightly shook the cockpit. "Are you alright in there, Adrian?" Invili's voice filtered through the machine's interior speakers.

"I'm fine!" he answered without getting up.

"Are you sure? You started cursing wildly then the whole car heard you vomiting."

"What?!" Adrian rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself to his feet to slip back into the harness and boots. He immediately restarted the connection and the mech came to life a couple seconds later. He was greeted by Invili standing in front of him with her baggage at her side, bent over with her head close to the mech's. "I didn't vomit, what are you talking about? I'm fine."

She smirked and stood back up when the machine's eyes focused on her. "Deceiver! You did. The mech's eyes even turned red! It sounded like a big one, too. Just one huge 'bleeeeegh!'"

"I... dammit!" The human grumbled and palmed his other wrist, the mech mirroring it, to lift the harness back up and bring the whole machine back to standing, prompting the falashai to back away. "I need to tinker with some settings..." He recalled from his training that an emergency disconnect like that, triggered by a health monitoring system finding a reason to disconnect him, made the machine lock up, caused its eyes to glow red to signal distress, and it would broadcast whatever sounds were happening in the cockpit. It seemed like a good idea when he first learned about it, but now it shared with his guardian the lovely sounds of a human vomiting. "Sorry for the cursing, by the way."

"It's okay. Humans curse really weird. You kept saying 'sex' and 'god.' And I think something about sex with a god."

"Uh... that didn't translate right," he mumbled as they both started to shuffle behind everyone else to exit the elevator. He felt the familiar pressure on the bottoms of his feet as the sensory feedback system did its thing.

"I'll say," Yorrell said over his shoulder. "I know what you meant and that word is hilariously broad. You're best to avoid it, as it's going to translate to 'sex' or something like it every single time."

"But why?" Invili asked. "What's it supposed to translate to?"

"Oh," Adrian chuckled. "Probably just about every curse out there, in some form or another."

"That doesn't make any sense," she said, scratching her ear.

"Indeed," the human let that line of conversation end there as they neared the exit. He had a whole, giant alien city to see. This was no time to discuss the intricacies of foul language.

--

Invili and Adrian spent a couple hours seeing the city before they were due at the campus. The falashai thought her charge would have wanted to see it for a bit outside of his mech, but he remained adamantly inside of his machine for the entire day. He seemed enraptured by the architecture of the city, at least for a while. He wasn't as interested in the tall towers, as their glass panel facades were fairly typical on Earth. He was more interested in the smaller structures with their preference for painted wood mixed in with stone pillars, arches, and buttresses. He said the tall, sleek buildings mixed with an almost 'Gothic' look for the smaller ones was fascinating. Invili wasn't so sure what was great about them, however. They seemed like regular buildings to her.

They stopped to eat, but Adrian insisted on eating what he brought with him. His guardian wanted to plead for him to come out and try the food, but she let him be. He would come out eventually, and she would be ready - and possibly squealing like a kit.

When it finally came to the tour of the campus, they spent hours walking the grounds, seeing what there was to offer. Most of the names for the buildings were utterly lost on Invili, but she had no issue putting the layout to memory.

The dormitories were just what she hoped for. After the campus tour, they were assigned to their dorm room in Atlantic Hall. Invili's parents helped her move her luggage in, while Adrian moved all of his with just his mech. That was one of the best parts of a human roommate: they hardly took any space. The room provided was as small as any other dorm room, but when it came down to it, it only housed a single person. The only space Adrian took up was the dock for his mech and his living space attached to that dock via a large, open platform that also served as a transfer pad.

Together, with Adrian still in his mech, they explored the building. It all seemed to be standard affair to Invili, however Adrian had some kind of small panic over the washrooms. At first he expressed discomfort over there being no gender separation, but he then protested how the showering facilities were not fully separated between humans and nonhumans. She didn't know the true reasoning behind it, but it was either to minimize separation between the sizes or there was some kind of maintenance reason, perhaps both. The human showers were cut into the side of one wall of the non-human shower, and were high enough for most species to be able to reach their hands into. The barrier keeping any wayward humans from taking a fall was the same tiled material as the rest of the walls, only about chest high to them. Adrian insisted that this seemed like a bad idea, but couldn't come up with a retort when she claimed it made the humans like everyone else.

Other than these provisions for human boarding, the whole dormitory was like any other - a series of long hallways with rooms on either side. The entire building was shaped like a half rectangle, with its twin dormitory, Pacific Hall, completing the shape with a courtyard in the center. The entire facade of the building was made with huge, smoky white bricks. Segmented along it, built into the windows, and on the corners, were very dark brown wooden braces. Except for the window frames, it was purely for appearance. The roof was a very low incline and was painted dark blue.

"You know," Adrian said as he, with his mech, and Invili sat together on a light colored stone bench. "I bet this bench is scratching my mech's ass."

Invili giggled and leaned back to look down at the mech's rump. "Maybe your mech's ass is scratching the bench."

"I shouldn't sit on stuff. It's kind of pointless."

"Yeah..."

"I'm not moving, though. Too late." He chuckled. "So! My real thought is actually how you crazy space aliens don't build like crazy space aliens. I could probably find a building a lot like this somewhere in Europe. Just a lot smaller."

"Is that bad?" Invili asked.

"No, not at all. It's pleasant looking." He looked around the courtyard. They were the only ones out here. The falashai sorely hoped he would come out of his mech soon because of this. "And the courtyard is nice, too."

With two buildings providing a rectangular shape, the courtyard was particularly long. Coupled with its width, it was very spacious. There was room enough to fit a massive sashlie tree directly in the center. These trees weren't particularly tall, its top only reached the third floor windows, but they were wide and thick with dark green, leafy hanging vines. Adrian compared it to a so called 'willow' tree when he first saw it. The vines hung low enough to brush the average person's ears but would be in the face of a taller species. The path made a circle around it the base of the tree with a stone ring around it.

The rest of the courtyard had smaller, but still mature trees with more typical leaves. It was very well shaded and cool here because of this. With plenty of stone and wooden benches and soft green grass, it would make a pleasant place to relax and study.

"It needs one more thing, though..." Adrian muttered. "A fountain."

"A fountain? I suppose that would look nice."

"No, not for looks. It would make a great pool."

Invili snorted and nudged the mech with her elbow. "Then I'd use it to clean my paws while you swam in it. How would you like that?"

"I love wave pools!" They shared another laugh, and as it died down she heard a sigh come from the machine. "I guess I should get out of the mech now. Breath some alien air."

Invili's ears perked up and she sat straighter while her tail moved in anticipation. "Could you? I would love to see you."

"Yeah... give me a moment."

The machine stiffened, then there was a click and a hiss as the front plate dropped down into a flat platform. Invili leaned forward to look inside, then promptly squealed with joy when she saw her charge walking out onto the deck. "Awww! Hello there!"

He rubbed the back of his head and looked up at her, only about stomach height with her while he stood on the platform."Hey yourself." He seemed anxious, and she was about to coo at him to try to calm him before he suddenly said, "So, come on, give me a lift."

Invili gave him a toothless smile as she placed her hand alongside the mech's deck. He was delightfully quick to step onto it, and immediately sat himself down before she slowly brought her hand down to rest in her lap. She moved her other to pet him, but stopped. She recalled he didn't much like that, sadly. She allowed it to rest on her thigh next to him instead.

She could still observe him, at least. She bent forward slightly to see his small form. He was looking at her free hand, then sighed and said, "Okay. Go ahead, pet me. First time we've seen each other for real and all."

"Thank you," she said down to him with a warm, appreciate smile. Invili kept her hand from launching itself into him, and instead smoothly shifted it to gently stroke his side with the backs of her fingers. She stopped staring at him and idly looked around as they talked.

"So..." he said slowly. "When are we going to schedule sim time?"

"We just got here."

"Yeah, but they take walk-ins if space permits! You know the wait times in New York? Like, a month. Easy access to a sim hive... I could actually play games! I'm damn excited."

"More excited than the coffee?" He had a small excited moment when he saw that one of the three human operated food places in the food court served this 'coffee.'

"Hm... that's an unfair question."

"How?"

"Caffeine and games can't be separated. I can't like one more than the other."

"I see..." She grinned as an idea came to her. "Here's an idea, then. We'll go get you coffee then go to the simulation hive if you don't take your mech."

"Deal," he immediately answered.

"Really? That was easy." Her tail started to wag almost like a lupari's.

"I'll walk alongside your paws for that deal."

She winced at the joke. That was a terrible idea that was constantly hammered into a guardian's head. However she didn't want to ruin the mood. "Oh? Okay, new proposal-"

"No. Deal is done, no take backs."

"Aw..." she forced her ears to splay. "Okay then, go berth your mech and let's get going."