background furry #19375 
%^("[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/543014464056721414/751476246239772852/art_bracewell_probe.png":](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/543014464056721414/751476246239772852/art_bracewell_probe.png) )^~
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"I was still young back then, not even a century old. My birth-species shifted between gregarious and solitary stages. Once I had reached into late adolescence, my creche disbanded. I traveled across the cosmos much. I would hitchhike rides on survey probes journeying to unexplored systems. They'd construct a body for me on landing, and as long as I never interfered with their work or the environment too heavily, they would leave me alone."
"At one time, I had crossed an entire ocean to get to a polar continent. Once at the base of a jagged cliff, I pulled my body into itself, shifting vital organs into a sequestered protective pouch. Arrays of tendrils and sensory-bulbs budded all over myself, my memory unpacked the cognition needed to apprehend the view now all around me. With bristling microscopic fibers grown from my limbs, I effortlessly scaled up the cliff."
"In but a short moment I was perched atop the summit, a splayed mass of fleshy tentacles. It was terribly frigid so high and northward; as the cold began to burn, I formed a layer of"[airblasted gel":](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogel) across my skin. My body now insulated from the inclement climate, I set about exploring althroughout the land before me."
%^("[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8e/10/1e/8e101efd9d23c1f500303644e3dafc1a.jpg":](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8e/10/1e/8e101efd9d23c1f500303644e3dafc1a.jpg) )^~
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"In two relative days, I reached the place that spurred me to venture so far. The longest chain of mountains on this world loomed ahead of me, zigzagging all across as the crown of the celestial body. I planned to trek around it, and throughout the surrounding"[swamps":](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskeg) below, a homage to my earliest ancestors. Those of singular bodies and minds, who trekked across the homeworld despite its dangers."
"I would however have to acclimate; this world only hosts the hardiest of life. The tectonics are nearly dead, the orbited star has drifted too far away now to keep large bodies of water fluid for long. In another hundred millennia it would all turn to ice."
"More urgently concerning for myself was the scarcity of energy sources. I had earlier circled the entire equator merely by every once and again sunbathing during the day, drawing lightrays for power. So far north, I would be unable to rely on solar power for much longer. In a relative month, the arctic circle would enter a"[prolonged dark period, as this far side of the globe would go into its long winter.''":](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_night
)
"I could've backtracked to the sea, stuck myself down into shallow waters, then grown gills like a sessile filterfeeder to slowly gather up"[the meager fissile elements in the water.":](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_mining#Seawater_recovery) To collect enough to make "[radiothermal":](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator) "[marrow":](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_marrow) though would take this entire winter, then the following one."
"I chose instead to soak up as much solar energy as possible, then rely on frigid-climate augmentations while rationing my power reserve. Back atop the first mountain peak I sprawled into a thin kudzu of vines, blackened to absorb almost every captured photon."
"I mutated some of my mass into glands that produced crops of super-conductive crystal. Once a harvest of crystals was ripely shaped as a loop, fungal-like filaments weaved jackets of carbon nanotubes around them. Nerve fibers grew over the supercapacitor-discs, inflating each of them with energy, then maturing into cables to later route electricity as needed to power-converting organs. Waste would be turned into chemical fuel, synthesized by implants powered by my new"[solenoid powercell":](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnetic_energy_storage) bank."
"When this world's sun fell below the horizon for the last time till next spring, I had made over thirty solenoid-discs of near-matching sizes. I stacked them into a column, bound by strong ligaments, then plastered myself around this makeshift spine."
"From my new form sprouted an array of limbs; dozens of legs and small wiry arms for occasionally grazing on rare pockets of lichen found beneath the snow, and two long blade-like limbs for catching and rending mid-size native fauna. Mounted atop this form was a long-snouted sensory dome, inside which I concentrated my processing medium within the most."
"The smaller delicate limbs grew manipulating pincers at their ends. Nestled on both sides under my head-plate grew a set of eyes, olfactory organs, and separate orifices for breathing and intaking chemical fuel. Reflexes and innate behavior suitable to this form unpacked within my consciousness."
"I extended the mandibles around the 'eating' orifice of my head to expose smaller incising crusations... As the transformation completed, a thick supporting shell hardened across my body."
%^("[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DtIljSDVsAIyn5N.jpg":](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DtIljSDVsAIyn5N.jpg) )^~
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"My eyes may see far better in this world's darkness, my body's chemistry runs flawlessly, and my shell is an insulating plastic rather than chitin. But my progenitors would never have survived on this world, which is why I tread it for them."
~[spoiler]
%||(V) (' ^•^ •mm• ^•^') (V) [/spoiler]~||%
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%^(
"I was still young back then, not even a century old. My birth-species shifted between gregarious and solitary stages. Once I had reached into late adolescence, my creche disbanded. I traveled across the cosmos much. I would hitchhike rides on survey probes journeying to unexplored systems. They'd construct a body for me on landing, and as long as I never interfered with their work or the environment too heavily, they would leave me alone."
"At one time, I had crossed an entire ocean to get to a polar continent. Once at the base of a jagged cliff, I pulled my body into itself, shifting vital organs into a sequestered protective pouch. Arrays of tendrils and sensory-bulbs budded all over myself, my memory unpacked the cognition needed to apprehend the view now all around me. With bristling microscopic fibers grown from my limbs, I effortlessly scaled up the cliff."
"In but a short moment I was perched atop the summit, a splayed mass of fleshy tentacles. It was terribly frigid so high and northward; as the cold began to burn, I formed a layer of
![full](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8e/10/1e/8e101efd9d23c1f500303644e3dafc1a.jpg
~
%^(
"In two relative days, I reached the place that spurred me to venture so far. The longest chain of mountains on this world loomed ahead of me, zigzagging all across as the crown of the celestial body. I planned to trek around it, and throughout the surrounding
"I would however have to acclimate; this world only hosts the hardiest of life. The tectonics are nearly dead, the orbited star has drifted too far away now to keep large bodies of water fluid for long. In another hundred millennia it would all turn to ice."
"More urgently concerning for myself was the scarcity of energy sources. I had earlier circled the entire equator merely by every once and again sunbathing during the day, drawing lightrays for power. So far north, I would be unable to rely on solar power for much longer. In a relative month, the arctic circle would enter a
"I could've backtracked to the sea, stuck myself down into shallow waters, then grown gills like a sessile filterfeeder to slowly gather up
"I chose instead to soak up as much solar energy as possible, then rely on frigid-climate augmentations while rationing my power reserve. Back atop the first mountain peak I sprawled into a thin kudzu of vines, blackened to absorb almost every captured photon."
"I mutated some of my mass into glands that produced crops of super-conductive crystal. Once a harvest of crystals was ripely shaped as a loop, fungal-like filaments weaved jackets of carbon nanotubes around them. Nerve fibers grew over the supercapacitor-discs, inflating each of them with energy, then maturing into cables to later route electricity as needed to power-converting organs. Waste would be turned into chemical fuel, synthesized by implants powered by my new
"When this world's sun fell below the horizon for the last time till next spring, I had made over thirty solenoid-discs of near-matching sizes. I stacked them into a column, bound by strong ligaments, then plastered myself around this makeshift spine."
"From my new form sprouted an array of limbs; dozens of legs and small wiry arms for occasionally grazing on rare pockets of lichen found beneath the snow, and two long blade-like limbs for catching and rending mid-size native fauna. Mounted atop this form was a long-snouted sensory dome, inside which I concentrated my processing medium within the most."
"The smaller delicate limbs grew manipulating pincers at their ends. Nestled on both sides under my head-plate grew a set of eyes, olfactory organs, and separate orifices for breathing and intaking chemical fuel. Reflexes and innate behavior suitable to this form unpacked within my consciousness."
"I extended the mandibles around the 'eating' orifice of my head to expose smaller incising crusations... As the transformation completed, a thick supporting shell hardened across my body."
![full](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DtIljSDVsAIyn5N.jpg
~
%^(
"My eyes may see far better in this world's darkness, my body's chemistry runs flawlessly, and my shell is an insulating plastic rather than chitin. But my progenitors would never have survived on this world, which is why I tread it for them."
~[spoiler]
%||(V) (' ^•^ •mm• ^•^') (V)