I know I have been fairly dormant when it comes to story writing on here, due to burnout on it, getting into roleplaying, “working” on the Fat Items mod, overall procrastination, lack of inspiration, yadda yadda. Point is I have not been in the best state or mindset to write these sorts of stories but I am trying to get back into it even if I do not make them as regularly as before. So without further delay, here you go.
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A sleek avalian freighter orbited around the lively forested planet below with no apparent reason for why. There was plenty of erchius fuel in the tanks to warp itself across several systems and the unused cargo bay yearned to have things stored inside for transportation, yet whoever the pilot was seemed to not be interested carrying anything. Towards the front of the narrow ship was a domed cockpit with several tangerine holograms displaying numerous diagrams and images relating to the planet below, though despite having two seats for a pilot and copilot, it seemed like only one had been used recently. In it sat a tan feathered avali staring blankly at the reflection off the cockpit glass, his eyes more focused on the vacant seat behind him than himself. His tassel earrings jingled as his twin set of ears up and he swung around to see the seat behind him. They stared at it for several seconds before realizing no one was there, making him sigh and reluctantly turn back to the vibrant console in front of him. His walnut-brown khakis fit loosely around his toned legs along with his cozy hoodie fitting comfortably on his slender frame.
An emotionless voice addressed him “Pilot Halaka, is something bothering you?”
“N-no SAIL, I-I’m ok.” Halaka shifted around in his swiveling seat before looking down at himself.
The AI spoke again “You appear to have not eaten much sin…”
“Don’t!” Halaka’s voice briefly became aggressive before drowning in sorrow “Don’t mention his name…”
“Must I remind you Jesali is in stable condition?” A hologram abruptly manifested in front of the lone avali, showing a medical diagnostic on their companion. The displayed avali seemed to have one of their pointy ears sheared off at the base with several major injuries highlighted, putting this avali in a borderline critical condition.
Halaka dismissed the medical hologram “Stable still means he’s hurt, bad.”
“They are but contrary to what you may think their injuries were not your fault.” The wall-mounted console behind him showed the symbol of a circulating dotted ring.
“I know it isn’t my fault.” Halaka displayed a holographic image of him and Jesali together. “I’m just worried about him.
The other avali’s orchid and magenta feathers sharply contrasted his tan feathers with his dark grey skin opposed by their companion’s snow-white skin. They wore little else besides a pair of outdated avalian headphones and a pair of XL shorts for their plump thighs. Jesali’s belly hardly protruded out as it seemed like most of their fat was distributed to their lower body. In the picture Jesali, still having all four of their ears, was sitting atop a damaged railgun stored in his ship’s cargo compartment. Halaka could be seen holding up two fingers in a V-shape while Jesali flexed one of their arms. Halaka sighed before deactivating the hologram and getting out of his seat.
The cockpit door slid open as he neared it, revealing a room covered in maroon tapestry. A fluffy beanbag chair was surrounded by knee-high tables stocked with fresh food with a velvety banner depicting a fattened figure was draped from the ceiling. On the other end of the room was a huge tank filled with a violet liquid that was meant to be guzzled down while wearing a VR headset to enhance the experience, though all it did was remind him of his injured friend. He passed by the small office containing a compact 3D printer and nanoloom on his way down to the cargo bay. The room he descended down was covered in bits of advanced technology with several sleek consoles ready to be interacted with. As the huge sliding door to the cargo bay opened, he saw rows upon rows of empty containers stashed neatly in precisely carved shelves. All except the gigantic container stored not far from the hatch beside it has a hologram that would normally show a list of items stored inside them. As of now all of them were empty, much like Halaka’s rumbling stomach, though his focus was on neither of them.
The door to the fuel control room was just as tall as the one to the cargo bay with the door leading to the hydroponics just as huge. Several large cisterns were filled to the brim with potent erchius fuel connected to pipes leading into the ceiling. He walked past the circular desk that had displays buzzing with the statuses of each of the tanks along with the large one stored in an inaccessible section of the ship, his mind concentrated only on the status that mattered. As he climbed up the multirowed hydroponics room, his heart sank with every footstep up the glassy staircase. Every footstep towards the designated medical room felt relucent and he even turned his head away from the sliding door as it opened. Several lockers filled with medical supplies failed to catch his attention with the human-designed medical scanner not diverting his focus either. He brushed a mundane hospital screen aside to reveal a small section of the room with the focal point being the giant medical tube in the back. He plopped himself in the office chair beside it with his eyes already welling up tears. Inside was an injured avali suspended within some murky liquid, yet even though he knew who was inside.
“Jesali…” He felt the frigid liquid ammonia running down his cheeks as tears spilled out of his eyes.
“I started analyzing his brain since he was injured to see if I could transfer his consciousness into an AI form until his body recovered.” His AI’s emotionless voice did little to comfort him despite the good news coming up “I have been successful in fully mapping their brain and might be able to allow you to interact with him again.”
Halaka’s grief made the avali’s mind block out the superb news as it was more focused on relieving each memory shared together with his friend.
“Halaka, are you alright?” The avali shook his head as his AI spoke to him.
The AI paused for a moment “I can make some food for you if you would like.”
Halaka somberly nodded before painstakingly standing up out of his seat. He took one last heartfelt look back at Jesali before leaving the room, the electric lighting shutting off as the sliding door shut behind him. He made his way into the stocked kitchen to find a bit of food already made just for him; a fairly small muffin with several purple berries poking out of it. A metal clanking from some of the utensils being slotted back into place became gunshots in his head. No longer was he surrounded by the pristine kitchen but instead a bustling port city with his ship docked at one of the piers. A crude stack of industrial crates clanged as the bullets slammed into them, with brief pauses between the impacts. He whipped around and fired several deadly plasma bolts from his bullpup submachine gun with each of the rounds forcing the attackers to duck behind cover. Each attacker wore purple hoods that obscured most of their human faces with some having the insignia of an eye on their shoulders or chest. They returned fire while speaking some cultish gibberish towards him that he did not bother trying to comprehend.
As more gunfire slammed into the crates he yelled further down the port “Jesali, could use a little help please!”
Soon one of the crates further down the dock was blasted open as a portable railgun pierced through its metal exterior, effortlessly tearing through one of the cultists. The cycle of gunshots, hiding, and moving to new cover continued as the duo slowly approached their docked freighter at the end of the dock. They were within arm’s reach of the airlock door when his memory started dissipating away. As the memory abruptly faded away, several bullets could be heard piercing through flesh and bone with a distressed cry bellowing from him.
“…ka. Hakala…Hakala are you there?” His vision suddenly returned to the freighter’s kitchen with the meager muffin sitting on the spotless countertop, the AI voice calling out to him.
Hakala snapped out of their hallucination and looked around for a moment. There was no plasma submachine gun in his hand, no industrial crates around him, no cultists wanting him for dead, just the calm kitchen with the small muffin in front of him. Despite his stomach angrily growling for sustenance, he did little more than reluctantly reach his hand out towards the muffin. He raised it in front of his face and took a weak whiff of the sweet-smelling food before cramming it in his mouth. He slowly chewed it up before swallowing it down with a disappointed sigh coming from him; an otherwise great tasting piece of food tasting completely dull to him. Abruptly his slender body began tingling with his loose khakis feeling oddly tighter than usual. The feeling worsted as his filled stomach started groaning and bloating out while his legs continued growing wider. In a panic he yanked his snug hoodie off himself to see his overfilled belly protruding outwards with periodic gurgles arising from it. By the time the gurgling faded, his once loose khakis now felt like they were restraining all the fat trapped within while his paunch wobbling around with every minute movement. He stared at his fattened self in horror before flailing his arms around.
He screamed with a voice mixed with terror and anger “SAIL WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY BODY?!”
“My apologies for the distress I caused you.” The AI displayed an artificially generated picture of Hakala but far lankier than even his skinny body was to where their gaunt chest had their boney ribs easily distinguishable from their skin. “I did not want you to stuffer from malnutrition or starvation due to your prolonged lack of eating like so. Due to your decreased appetite, I figured multiplying the calorie and nutrient count would be the best course of action to supplement for the reduced food intake.”
“N-now I…now I, look like Jesali.” He found himself oddly comforted by saying these words.
A wave of serenity washed over him as he felt more like his bottom-heavy friend, almost like some sort of spiritual link or bond had been reaffirmed. He pressed his hand into his plump thighs with a faint smile appearing on his face as the mushy fat squished under his hands. He awkwardly stepped to the side with his arms raised so he could see his protruding gut jiggle around from the movement.
Part of the air flickered like a hologram attempting to appear “Since you mentioned Jesali…”
The hologram briefly resembled a slender avali before flickering out of existence. With every brief blip in and out of existence it neared the doorway before seeming to go through it. He stumbled into the office where the holographic person was still flickering, this time moving towards the door of the maroon lounge. The door slid open to reveal the figure was gradually becoming more stable; flickering out of sight for shorter periods of time and their features becoming more well defined. The circular glass table beside the feeding tank seemed to have been disturbed with the restaurant ice cream dispenser had been moved aside with the portable cake generator stashed somewhere else. The figure slowly drifted up to the blank spot on the table before fully forming into view. Though the humanoid hologram seemed like an avali, it did not seem like Jesali. There was no color aside from the different shades of orange making up the hologram along with their figure seeming pretty slim. Their body resembled what Halaka’s body looked like before the enhanced muffin while his figure resembled Jasali’s normal body. However, the hologram wore the same outdated avalian headphones as before though their shorts were nowhere near as big since their legs were uncharacteristically slim.
The AI spoke again “…I was able to transfer his consciousness from his body while it healed so that you two could still interact with one another. The hologram is not a perfect recreation of his body before or after the encounter but it should be enough to help you see them better.”
Soon after the Ai’s voice trailed off, the holographic figure blinked before a familiar voice filled his ears “Hala! How’ve you been?”
“Jesali?” Halaka approached the figure in disbelief “I-It’s you right?”
“Indeed it is, see you’ve gotten some more weight on you since the docks.” Hologram Jesali giggled before pointing to Halaka’s paunch belly.
His cheeks were tinted pink while he rubbed the back of his head “Yeah…SAIL’s kind of to blame for that.”
“Well I think it looks wonderful on you.” The hologram stared at their translucent arms “Wish I could customize my hologram body since I’m probably going to be stuck in it for a while.”
Halaka smiled “Whatever you look like it’s nice to have you back.” He reached out his arms for a hug.
Jesali’s hologram stepped down from the table and floated into his arms. Though not entirely there, the mutual hug felt genuine nonetheless as they both stood in each other’s grasp. A cheek-to-cheek smile appeared on both their faces with the hologram’s orange glow providing a cozy atmosphere with the abruptly dimmed room. Neither of them seemed to notice or care about the shifted lighting as they just held each other in their arms.
Eventually Jesali phased through Halaka’s arms and hovered around the darkened room. “I see you haven’t done much in here while I was out.”
“Yeah, it just didn’t seem right to eat without you.” Halaka slowly sat himself down on the beanbag chair surrounded by the food-covered tables.
Jesali’s hologram twirled their arms as if to send the aroma of delicious food their way. “Well since I’m here and can’t really do the eating…you want to take my place?”
“Wait what?” Halaka’s stomach grumbled for more food, making him realize his friend’s words and laughing in response “Oooh I see, you want me to be the one eating too much right?”
The hologram laughed along “Absolutely, let’s get started then.”
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I have been meaning to upload this for literal months but due to not wanting to smother someone else’s story I held off on uploading for a while. I finally figured it was about time someone uploaded something here and figured it might as well be me. I’ll upload the rest of the parts over time, hopefully all 3 parts by the end of the week. In the meantime, hope you enjoyed this story