The rising sun brought green light into the ruined bedroom, with its old dusty shelves and worn, dirty floor. Anything of value had been stripped out long ago, and the only things that remained were blackened and boiled, unreadable books and useless rust. And a lone mattress, yellowed with age. While it had seen better days, this was not a world where luxury was a choice. Dalis the adult giraffe was sprawled out on top, catching a few hours sleep while he had the chance. Like most scavengers in this new land, he was lean and grubby; poison clung to his big, pudgy hooves on hands and feet, but a useful mix of chemicals and natural selection meant it wasn't particularly dangerous. At least, no more so than most other things he might stumble across. The post-apocalypse may have seemed grim to their more fortunate ancestors, but to Dalis this was a pretty normal place to be, and he slept soundly. An egg timer began to whirr and click, a poor man's alarm that brought the giraffe out of his stupor. Tiredness had been worked out of him over time, it would be a dangerous trait to keep when even the smallest noise could bring enormous insects. Full of rage and full of toxic venom, and eager to share! Not the best start to a day, and especially not this close to home. A day of travel and he would be back in his manse, ready to plan his next exploration. Another foray into the unknown to find his missing brother, the mad scientist called Florin. As unpredictable as things were, there was no guarantee they'd ever be reunited, but it was a worthy goal. Setting these objectives was important to break the monotony, and boredom was not good for the mind. Dalis unravelled from the thermal foil blanket, folding it up and dropping both it and the egg timer into his bag. He walked around naked, his yellow and brown skin and stiff morning wood on show if anyone was watching. In truth he found it pleasing to imagine eyes on him, and to believe that his activities were somehow being recorded for prosperity. He felt the urge to wash, using a nearby puddle to give himself a quick rinse, and after some time to dry he stepped into his travel gear; taut black rubbery clothes that clung to his body, and a gas mask sculpted to his long giraffe muzzle. In part he felt it was a slinky sexy treat for the imaginary voyeurs he didn't have, but really it was just another sign that he needed to be social and around other people for a while. The next trip should touch somewhere populated, he resolved. Out in the open, the air smelled stale and dry, with sunlight filtered to a pale green by the polluted sky. The land stretched out in all directions and looked somewhere between desert and urban decay; the suburbs of a once great city which were slowly slipping back to a more wild natural state. Once upon a time this might have been a forest, but today it was a harsh desert with clumsy scrappy bushes of the hardiest greenery. Like it's inhabitants, even nature had to do its very best here. It had only been a few weeks since Dalis came through here, but he was having some trouble finding his way. Buildings had been slowly demolished by those constant little fights between those who still had the gift of reason and those who had succumbed to madness and destruction. Giant, mangy rat creatures feasted on unlucky victims of these skirmishes, which suited the giraffe fine as it saved him both ammo and time. Two blasters sat around his waist, one on either side. In one hoof, he had a crude close combat weapon which married flames and sharp steel together. It ate so much fuel, but it was portable, and it certainly helped out in those moments where fire was the only language that aggressive creatures cared to understand. The biggest surprise came when Dalis had made his way up the hill. There he would have expected a good view of the deserted city and seen the strips of illumination that marked the edge of his town, Shiny Lights; the best little cluster of life still toiling away in this area of the world. Instead, what remained of the harsh neon border flickered unsteadily. The familiar grassy heath with its thousands of dead vehicles had been replaced by a great filthy reservoir of brown and green, watery mud and noxious chemicals and who knows what else. He wanted no part of that mess, and yet a faint curiosity beckoned. From here his best route took him close to the edge, so he pulled his gas mask on and made fast tracks down the other side. It was even bigger close up. Like a mighty rain had come and washed away the detritus, the wide gulf of mud occasionally belched as gas escaped. Tracks came in and out, so perhaps scavenger teams had tried to dredge it. Dalis chose not to explore the smell, but if it had one life in Shiny Lights might have another new irritation to it. Ah well, on he plodded. The ground nearby became marshy, and he stuck to solid floor as best he could. Something didn't seem right, though. That vague sense of foreboding briefly grabbed him, before his feet stuck where they were and the quickly moving giraffe toppled over, landing with a deep squelch in the muddy slime. His hooves felt warm and sticky, but most of him was protected by his mask and clothing. Ugh, why had he been in such a hurry through here? Around Dalis's feet there were two slimy paws, as the grinning face of a ferret poked out of the puddle. His body shone with colour, browns and greens and oily rainbow became mirror-bright to reflect Dalis's own stare back at him. The sticky mustelid pounced, but the giraffe was too quick; his guns were out, and two bullet sounds rang across the dead wastes, echoing from the hill and the buildings beyond. Another mad creature to lose his life. Or, not. The ferret looked at the holes in his body and his paw, as they oozed and closed up, reforming without hesitation. Now Dalis saw the way he moved wasn't right, like this new creature wasn't solid at all but was entirely made of the strange ooze. With what he just saw he could almost believe it, yet he was frozen in surprise anyway. His blade floated on the surface, but as he grabbed for it a sharp electrical noise deafened him, static that filled him with pain and made him stumble, almost falling over. Oozy hands were upon him, that long ferret body curling around his, leaving slimy traces on his rubber clothes. The whole puddle flashed red for a moment, before Dalis felt his suit and mask warm up; unfiltered air reached his muzzle as muddy ferret paws pressed and wiped over it. Holes were being eaten away from the mask, and a cool sludgy feeling pressed against Dalis's naked hide as his clothes began to wear away. Indeed, everything he had brought was dissolving into the ooze, except for himself. So began the cries for help, Dalis yelling and thrashing about in the goo weasel's slippy hold. Mysterious and slow, the creature made more unpleasant white noises before a paw squished down on the giraffe's face. Another pressed clumsily around his ears, the goop invaded those and his nose and mouth, blocking him up; he couldn't breathe! Falling over in the mud he squirmed about over and over, vision tinted in so many colours as that creature worked its mischief on him. Static buzzed again, seeming to come from inside his head, before the sound squirmed and resolved into tones of sound. His body grew warm, all coated with the muddy oil, and he was surprised to find his long giraffey cock slipping out into the sticky mud as well. Realisation dawned as to what this lake was - not just mud, but grey goo; he was surrounded by nanites! And, they were calibrating to him, getting into his head, working out what made a giraffe what he was. That ferret trilled and buzzed in a tuneful language that Dalis could now hear, but not understand. His body fought the goo, but little by little it started to feel heavy and sluggish. Lack of oxygen was starting to get to him. A sensation began which felt like sharp needles behind the eyes, and that big ferret paw clamped on his face. Something stiff and warm flooded into the giraffe's rear, spreading him and making him gasp as the oily ferret wiggled his way inside there, old feral instincts allowed to take over as Dalis felt a bite on his neck. Roughly his body was invaded from all sides, and the tones in his ears began to feel like instructions and questions and comments. A sticky paw played with Dalis's cock, nice and stiff as it was, adding pleasure to the confused mess of stimuli in his head. The giraffe's eyes went wide and he began to hump the paw, Dalis felt his body starting to move all by itself as he lost control to whatever presence drove the grey goo. Just like the ferret creature enjoying his body, he would dissolve into sticky slime himself! Indeed, it had already begun. A squirt came out of his stiff poke, full of nanites made from him; a second quickly followed. Pleasure and release began to well up inside him as the oily ferret rode him, pinning him down face first, rocking and flooding that fresh organic giraffe body with more nanites to replicate and repair themselves. Dalis emptied his bladder, peeing fresh goo back into the puddle, and then squeaked as another squirt flooded under him. Now he was shrinking, he was melting, he was becoming so pliable and gooey just like the ferret was. He tried to get upright as his vision started to fade, squealing in static tones as a final shot of goo poured into the air and his body lost cohesion, giraffe goo tumbling under the slimy ferret. His purpose served for now, he too lost his shape and returned to being muddy slime, and Dalis felt himself tugged in every direction before things went quiet and still. --- As far as the giraffe could tell, time was passing. He didn't always get a good sense of it, sometimes thoughts were a jumble shared with others who had met a similar fate as the ferret and he. Perhaps Dalis's shape was even brought up to encourage more travellers to explore the grey goo, but it wasn't something he was aware of. An idea did surface, though. Florin! Was Florin here? Could the giraffe even find him if he was nearby? It was an important thought, and it kept him from getting distracted by the buzz of background noises and the constant chitter of logical processing. It provided direction, and over time he felt less confused and much more comfortable. Still, the sensory deprivation was keeping him on edge. When his senses returned it felt ever so sudden, the giraffe's essential patterns being pulled and twisted about, pulling him away from the confusing miasma of sensation. Dalis felt a bit more like himself again, although he didn't know where he was; all around him was darkness. A flickering light was cast on his naked body by a bright ball of light, held between his two forehooves. Dalis peered in, and he saw movement; people in lab coats and overalls, and specimens in cages. The feed changed as he moved and span the ball around, and the giraffe shivered as he felt a sense of scale. The orb in his hands was a fairly big scientific laboratory, and here he was looking down upon it like a giant. As he explored it with his eyes, information appeared in the air and in his mind. As if remembering a dream, Dalis realised he was some part of a complex computer system that looked after the whole building. How much time had passed? Where exactly was he? Dalis dropped his thoughts as he glanced into one of the rooms. He had caught sight of Florin, his lost brother, and the scene grew to fill his vision as the camera passed him images directly. A sterile white room greeted him, proving quite an unnatural sight to the giraffe as such cleanliness was not common at all. Florin was naked, the adorable little giraffe all visible and being spied on sneakily through those cameras. He had patterns like Dalis above the waist, but with dark brown legs and pointy spines down the middle of his back. His big hoofed feet and hands were tied together, Florin was trapped in some sort of machine, a great tank with pipes leading into the ceiling. Ah, the sight of him made Dalis happy, and old incestuous thoughts began to stir. The machine was busily activating around Florin. Dalis didn't know what it was going to do, but it only took the slightest thought to switch it off; it had happened before he realised what he had done . A number of warning lights shone at him through the darkness, but he felt there was no danger. Around the facility Dalis could feel movement, people moving from one room to the next and tapping in commands to try and work out what had gone wrong. Whatever the digital giraffe had done, it seemed to have affected the machine itself - and the door swished open as one of the many lab workers came to check it out. Said worker looked faintly like an anthro rat, four feet tall, trapped inside body-hugging shiny green plastic. Though the shape of his head was clearly rodent, the worker had no facial features beyond that; no visible eyes and nose, just a smooth hood. Near his ratty ears, metallic ram horns curved on either side of the head, and a pair of fibrous antennae that buzzed and twitched with an occasional light at the tips. He wore a pair of generic white cloth trousers, and metallic silver showed through on his arms and legs and down his spine, likely these were contact and charging points for data and power, as well as a long tail that twitched naturally. Although he seemed like a robot he moved quite smoothly, beeping as his antennae blinked. New commands received, he hauled himself up the side of the machine easily, beginning to analyse it and search for faults. Dalis slid back from the camera as he realised he could hear squeaking nearby. Of course, if the rat was a robot receiving messages, then it seemed reasonable for it to have a presence here. The giraffe could definitely hear rat noises, though he couldn't see what was causing the sound. Suddenly, his vision was blinded by green, and he looked way way up into the blinking light eyes of a gigantic feral rat made of light. The scale difference was so severe that Dalis felt the edge of vertigo for a moment. A huge pair of paws came down on either side of the miniature giraffe, before closing together to trap him. Despite being digital this felt very real, and Dalis held still as the colossal rodent sniffed and scrutinised him. Squeaking rang in his ears before the worker rat's programme came to a conclusion. That large mouth opened, and the rat pushed the giraffe into it, closing after him with a satisfied squeak. Fault found! Inside, Dalis was full of panic and uncertainty. Many dry licks came from a green fluorescent tongue, before a sense of gravity seemed to kick in and down he fell, squeezed tightly against the walls which flashed around him. Down and down he went, squealing and flailing madly. Inside was still as bright green as outside, but he started to feel heavy and sleepy all the same. What the heck was going on? He understood that he was somewhere inside a computer, but that didn't explain why everything felt like this. Importantly, Dalis was still no nearer to getting Florin out of his predicament. He'd found his twin brother, but what could he actually do about it? Suddenly, the giraffe's mind filled with all sorts of noise. Thoughts poured in that weren't his, commands and information and knowledge. He could see his hooves turning green and swelling up, and he could feel his face change, smooth and slender with little light whiskers and a big rodent muzzle. Dalis had been downloaded by the rat, he knew now; paws and long tail and twitchy ears and smooth face, that's what he was becoming. Despite the giant rat earlier, Dalis was made of way more data than the rat, and so he was taking control. It felt good, and he realised he was going to be back in the real world again! Green and squeaky-minded, Dalis rat came back online, and his vision lit up to show him a Florin, down below in the machine. Though he had no eyes he could still see, visible light and infra red and more besides. His command was still to fix the machine, but Dalis easily ignored it to clamber down and examine his brother. The giraffe was now very much taller than he, not awake but not ill or anything. A little light nudging from the rat caused Florin to stir, and some more vigorous shaking made him wake up with a yelp. Of course, Florin didn't recognise Dalis at first, and began shouting and trying to wriggle free. The robot rat found he could speak, and quickly talked the big giraffe down. From there, they just needed to escape… that couldn't be so hard, could it? --- Dalis came back online, cuddled up against Florin in the cell they'd been placed in after they were captured. Okay, so perhaps it was not going to be as easy as he thought. Still, they were together, and that counted for something. The little rat felt something stir, and he turned to look towards his giraffe brother. Smooth paws began to stroke and knead at the sleeping figure, as Dalis settled upon him and began to nuzzle back and forth against his belly. Florin moaned and gasped, still not quite awake as the rat began to fondle and please his shaft. What was Dalis doing? He felt strange, but right; since he'd found Florin they hadn't really had much time alone until now. But today, his giraffe was just too adorable, and so the rat was going to give him a fun awakening. "D-Dalis, rrrf you're a frisky toy today," murmured Florin, his giraffe cock poking up and getting stiffer. Although he missed his twin's usual appearance, the little rat was so cute that he had already found himself daydreaming about something like this. Only now it was happening, those robot hands so cool and precise, but pushing all the right buttons; Florin gasped and threw his arms around Dalis, kissing where his mouth would be if he had one. At that point the rat paused, his blank squeaky face slightly lit up as if blushing. That wasn't him, he thought, that was a command from upstream! However, Florin took the hesitance as an invitation, and he pulled the robot into his lap and nibbled those ears, whispering softly about teasing, and how mean it was to stop so soon, and how now he was a big horny giraffe of course they'd keep playing. Dalis felt that part, stiff member poking up under his tail, slipping against contacts and trying to push in where the rat's tail hole would be. It tingled and made Florin shiver, electricity over his sensitive tip made him whine and push more strongly. A powerful pressure was building, though not just inside the giraffe! Dalis felt something inside him waiting to happen, as his metallic interior started to change and spread. Until now he hadn't thought that the worker rats might be partly made of that same grey goo he had stumbled into all that time ago. Yet it made sense with why he was here at all, and how easily he had merged with the robot rat to start with. Now a new command was bubbling through him, and as Florin rose up and squirted little doses of pre, Dalis returned the favour and started to leak smooth metallic goo. It coated and began to spread up the giraffe's legs, but he was too busy enjoying himself to notice! The rat tugged away, but he was suddenly not as strong as Florin, his body didn't want to stop this. Dalis squeaked and whined as much as he could, but it only seemed like he was enjoying it more. Once enough grey goo had coated the giraffe's legs much of them started to turn purple, with a hard plastic shine that Dalis recognised quite well. Rrrf, from those legs to his tail, Florin was becoming a rat, thanks to him! Nerves were being toyed with, blocked from revealing the full extent of the change, and the distracted giraffe was bubbling over with euphoria as he pounded and rocked happily. Only once over half his body was covered did the temperature become hard to ignore, and Florin looked down with a loud squeak, suddenly pulling back. He still had his twitchy stiff poke, but most of his chest and back was now shiny silver and patches of purple and he was starting to shrink. Dalis knew things were progressing quickly when a purple light appeared in his display - he could track all the worker rats, and a new one appeared to be coming online. New commands went straight into the changing Florin's head, and he lowered himself down and began to nuzzle up beneath Dalis, licking and pleasing him as though he was flesh and blood. This only served to accelerate the effects, his giraffe head becoming covered so quickly, muzzle converting, moans and gasps turning high-pitched and squeaky. He looked up and gasped for breath, though he soon wouldn't need it; he was unmistakably becoming a rat, so identical to Dalis that they could once again be twins. That just left his pokey shaft, for some reason left until last, so that the new worker rat could crawl back onto Dalis and hump him once more, overcome by emotion and need which was suddenly transmitted directly between the two siblings as Florin's communications came online. Helpless and horny, the pair struggled with the changes and then settled for embracing one another, Dalis cooing and his tail snaring his twin's as the ex-giraffe shot his last load, squeaking and whining just like any other robot rat. As he did so, the last edges of confusion and uncertainty left him, and the new rat pulled back, all enclosed and shiny and complete. Florin still had some time to go before he was fully ready for duty, but certainly to look at he was a perfect little worker rat, just like Dalis. The green rat wiggled the purple one slightly, as he seemed to be quite distracted by his new shape and the new sensations; Dalis was a bit worried that his twin might have been overwritten! But familiar beeps and clicks sounded and Florin's arms pulled around him, that purple nose nuzzling close to his. Escape seemed so far away now, but a growing calmness suggested to them both that they didn't have to any more. This was their home now, for better or worse. Once the rat twins believed it too, they could be allowed out to resume their good work. Many beeps sounded in the backs of their minds, the many other workers chatting away between themselves. They sounded quite curious to meet their newest siblings in person, and hopefully they wouldn't be waiting too long… -end