Relinquishing Humanity

[cobaltdrgn]

"They gave up their humanity? To become... that?"

"It gave up its humanity," Noele clarified, as that snorted in the background. "And it's fine with it. More than fine, in fact."

Noele rubbed the goosebumps on hir arm, a dark hair standing up from each puckered node of flesh. The fae was beginning to regret the meatspace meeting. It had seemed prudent, since what they were discussing, after all, was their friend's physical augmentation; having the conversation over VR would have been easier, but sie had hir doubts that Kirlis would actually be able to grapple with Strider's changes without seeing them in flesh.

Standing in this chilly apartment, hir only visible augments the VR interface plates in hir temples, sie was reminded of why sie didn't go out in meatspace much. Sie felt naked without hir wings, teardrops strung with veins of chitin whose diaphanous fibers reflected light-sources in a multitude of strange ways. They were by far the most computationally taxing part of hir body, but sie was proud of just how much sie'd managed to trim the overhead. Sie'd even come up with a reduced-lag version for busy rooms. Sie'd thought of dusting off hir old prosthetic wings, but none of hir clothes were adapted for them since sie hadn't worn them in years. And sie'd be damned if sie was cutting holes in the back of the one good coat sie had.

Strider, on the other hand, was the picture of augmented perfection-- at least from where Noele stood. The dragon lay across the full length of the couch, its front paws neatly folded in front of it, back legs dangling off the side. It was a seafoam green, like it had always been in VR, with curled horns and tufts of white feathering around its ankles. Sie didn't know where it had got the money, and sie wasn't going to ask, but the conversion-- as many called these full-body augments-- was seamless. Sie'd been looking into conversions hirself online, and the pics sie'd seen from hir fellow poors had only convinced hir that it wasn't worth it. Sie'd never afford the kind of change sie needed, and that was that. So sie'd used up hir meager savings, and called in favours from hacker friends, to make hir VR life as immersive as possible. With hir rig, sie had visualised Strider's old avatar as something almost this good.

Almost, but not quite. Where had it got the money?

The question nagged at hir, but there were more pressing ones at hand. Like whether Kirlis had already fucked up this entire coming-out, and whether Strider would ever speak to them again.

Strider's eyes were placid, a milky cornflower blue. The tip of its tail-tuft twitched. It didn't speak, though sie knew it could.

"But why would they-- it--" Kirlis blustered. "Its humanity," they repeated, as if that settled it. "Hell, it doesn't even feel right, saying 'it' for a person!"

"Humanity isn't everything."

Noele turned to the dragon who'd spoken. "It's... like gender," it explained. "You're born with a body, and the docs mark it M, F or I on the birth cert, right? But just because those are the options given, doesn't mean that's all there is."

Strider spread its paws, like it was opening a book. In VR, the gesture would have summoned its writing pad and pen; it looked at its paws, clearly surprised, as Noele was, not to hear the tell-tale /whoosh-a-ring-a-ling/ of it popping into existence. Sie knew it liked to use the book when it was feeling uneasy.

After a few moments, it cleared its throat and continued anyway, playing with a tassel on the couch arm. "If someone decides to go M to F-- we don't say they're less masc, right? We can just as well say they're more fem-- or that they were fem all along, really, and just the body's changed. It's the same for me. I've always been a dragon. Haven't I, Noele?" Those big, soft eyes turned to her, far more expressive than a normal lizard's. Strider had gone for the moe look, clearly. "As long as you've known me online, I always had that avatar..."

Kirlis shook their head, and Noele restrained the urge to give them a good, old-fashioned meatspace punch in the kisser. Just because sie didn't have any other visible augments didn't mean sie hadn't got a few subdermals. It was to hir advantage that no one saw the brass knuckles coming.

Sie settled for a dirty look, and a nod to Strider.

Kirlis wasn't defused. "It's one thing online, but you can't go around like that in rea-- in meatspace! Walking on four legs like a beast... what next, you gonna shit in the streets or something?"

Strider's face turned a colour quite unlike seafoam. Chromatophores, thought Noele, idly; sie'd been planning on getting them hirself, as part of the conversion.

"...I have a squat toilet..." Strider rumbled awkwardly, from behind an ink-blue mask.

Noele's frown deepened. This wasn't going anything like as planned. "Kirl, you're being a dick."

"I'm thinking about our friend and their wellbeing!" Kirl waved their arms about, their unmodded form dressed in the typical hacker uniform of sweatpants, a faded t-shirt advertising some free software thing, and a newsboy cap that kept their mop of purple hair down. At this moment, Noele found the they/them pronoun button pinned to it ironic. "A dragon can't ride the tube, can't get a job... can't even fit inside a bodega, fuck's sake! Do your parents even know?"

Stone faces from both dragon and fae. "Oh, go defederate yourself, Mx. Default-Avatar," the latter snapped. "After all Strider's told you about its family situation--"

The dragon raised a paw, silencing them. "Hush. Can you hear it?"

The fae's ears twitched. Even if they were currently human ears, sie'd picked up the habit in VR, and thus the muscle memory. It was oddly validating, to know that sie could do it in this world. Still, all sie hears is the roar of traffic, the indistinct mumbling of people down in the alleys below the apartment complex, the weekly loudspeaker announcement. It's Friday, and you know what that means! It's turn-in time! Yes, submit proof of your completed tasks by twenty-three fifty-nine tonight, and be entered into our housing lottery! Visit double-yew double-yew double-yew dot--

"I just hear the tannoy," said Kirlis, shrugging.

"Howling." Strider eases itself off the couch, long equine legs unfolding. It's easy to see why it named itself Strider, Noele thinks, as it pads towards the window. "Can you hear it?"

"I hear it," Noele said, staring into the same neon cityscape that Strider perceived.

"...The Beastclans. But how did they get here?"

Noele looked Strider up and down. "That's what I'd like to know."