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In today's installment, Thaminga finds herself on trial in the Pirate Court! Can she defend herself from the accusations made against her, all the while maintaining control over her new (and expanding) body? Read on to find out!
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Hey all and welcome to a project that I'm working on with  RabidBadger! In addition to Maple's Story and my other comics (which are still in the works) I'm honored to say that I'm going to be working with Rabid to provide new and interesting stories! These stories ARE hitting Patreon first and will be there for an extended period before reaching FA, additionally Patreons will have opportunities to play as cameos in the story, including picture additions as well as background and recurring roles. So if you have an interest in seeing things develop, or a craving for more wonderfully flabby mouse, don't hesitate to consider signing up! Our work is available on Patreon for only 2.50 USD a month. (Link to Patreon is above)

And finally, I really want to thank  Vera Lycaon and JoeTheEnglishman for their continued support and contributions to this series and Patreon. Both of them donated incredibly generously to have their characters featured and for that, I can never thank them enough. It means a lot that people are happy to help contribute to our projects, let alone as much as they did. Thank you both! <3

For more information on FOBoJ and Patreon involvement view: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/20578898/

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***


The three of them found themselves marveling at the spectacle of the assembling of a pirate court, each in their own way. Joseph was a little horrified and bemused, that and a trifle embarrassed since he was still reeling from the rapid size increase. People were constructing a small stage, arranging seating – all of which involved a great deal of shoving and muscling for room – which he took up a great expanse of anymore. The net result was a lot of people bumping into his expansive, helpless ass and the useless dangling trunks of his thighs. People slid alongside him, shuffled underneath, one or two even climbed over his belly – Joseph found himself wrestling with the curiously chilling experience of being part of the landscape and having no say whatsoever in being manhandled by the locals. Only the ones who opted to slide under him got a good look at how he felt about it.

Thaminga found hirself experiencing the event rather differently. Shi was one of the bodies pressed up against Joseph at first, feeling a curious tingle through hir much altered body, but it didn’t last. A handful of the guards put firm, yet surprisingly gentle hands on hir shoulders and began guiding hir toward the makeshift platform – the texture of hir new form feeling like it was peeling Velcro as it did. The mink was already waiting up at the stage while shi flinched a little, feeling hairs stuck in hir half-liquid body, which somehow managed to itch despite not having proper nerves.

Possibly the most shocking part of the whole thing was just how quickly the lot of them assembled. It had taken minutes to get what had to be half the station thronging around them, the mink and Thaminga, the lighting over them growing brighter as the rest of the room dimmed. That seemed to be the cue for the crowd to go silent. The lights did the rest – a single shaft of it singled out someone in the crowd, an old hunched woman in the tattered remnants of a half dozen outfits, with traces of docking sheathe and lots of duct tape, an opossum from the look of the tail. She hobbled slowly toward the stage, looking aged and decrepit for what could be seen, needing someone to help her up onto the two-foot-high rise.

When she had her feet under her, a thing that looked awkward at best to achieve, the little marsupial stood upright with what appeared to be some difficulty. She then took hold of the outer edge of her garment and whipped it free and into the crowd.

The opossum stood all of four feet tall, but somehow took up the entire stage just the same. Definitely older, though it was anyone’s guess just how old given he available gene treatments ran up against the short lifespan of her species, the woman looked like she was in a particularly lovely version of her 50’s – that and sporting a lot of expensive hardware. It was clearly obvious that while her face was lovely in an age-softened way, the rest of her had not been kindly used. She was sporting two very expensive looking prosthetic legs, gold wire embroidering on black carbon mesh, monocule tip claws judging by how they left divots in the metal stage flooring without any real obvious effort. One of her arms was similarly replaced, though this one looked a bit less likely to accidentally amputate things – the same black and gold motif played against her white fur (and shimmering auric panties – and nothing else) but rather than sporting claws she raised her fingertips up and projected four points – which formed a holoscreen between them – and then spoke into her thumb (her visage appearing much amplified on the screen floating in the air over her).

“Ladies, scoundrels, none of the above!”

An echoing roar went up from the crowd – there weren’t truly that many people here but in halls echoing like these ones did it sounded like many times more than there were. The speaker waited until it died down to resume.

“Pirate Court is now in session! Both parties will present their side of the case, and whoever impresses us the most and comes off as at least half-ass believable will, probably, win the crowd and win the case at the same time. Get boring, or stink of too much bullshit, and the crowd will find you in contempt – and then we get some entertainment anyway so by all means do so if you feel inclined. Now. PLAINTIFF FIRST!”

The opossum twisted on her ankle, pointing her thumb straight at the fluffy white shop owner, who raised her chin high and stepped up with all the poise she could muster.

“I am humble shop owner, you all know me, yes?”

She put on a saccharine sort of smile, the kind that just had to be disguising some other flavor. Her hands folded under her chest (which resulted in pushing it up a bit, probably not on accident) as she stepped toward the crowd. Meanwhile the screen above her showed a visibly cartoonish version of the mink standing outside an equally stylized version of her storefront, with a large ‘HUMBLE SHOP’ sign above it.

“My prices reasonable, my games fair – always give people a chance even if they are poor. Who else among pirates does this? Who else gives the low a chance? Perhaps I am foolish – perhaps simply fortunate.”

The mink turned her gaze, which the smile was progressively failing to hide the predatory glint in, toward Thaminga. The image shifted to a portrait of the mink, wearing a tricorn nun’s habit.

“Charity is expensive among pirates. If pretty, exotic thing thinks she can take advantage of my games, thinks she can walk out with priceless material for a few rolls of dice, she better be good pirate indeed. If not? Who can blame me for insisting she give back to our community? Look at her!”

They did of course, Thaminga felt hundreds of eyes clinging to hir. Taking in hir body’s half formless shape. There was so little definition – vaguely triangular shapes for ears, a very basic face, but as the itching in hir back began to subside a funny thing came of it. The itch migrated rather than ended, it crept across hir surface like sunlight over the horizon, and in its wake, it became notably easier to maintain the basic shape shi had – it might even be possible to take on something a trifle more specific?

“Pretty, shiny thing, probably rich family, just decides to go hang around with pirates like tourist. Like she understands how hard it is to have nothing, and learn to take.”

The itch was infuriating, but invigorating. It passed by hir feet and shi felt toes, or something close to them, coalesce out of the mass there. It slid past hir chest and shi tried to breathe again – it didn’t exactly work out as expected. Air did indeed enter through Thaminga’s face, round about where a nose ought to put it, but it’s not like hir body had lungs right now. The net result was the crowd got to see a breath taken that quite literally inflated the fox bat’s chest. When shi exhaled as the changes passed by hir face, a warm tingling that left hir looking far more like shi had a short while ago – albeit still gold colored – the ballooned chest remained so.

Forming lips took a moment of thought, speaking took less than shi would’ve imagined. The same things vibrated in mostly the same ways it turns out.

“M-m. My turn?”

The mink and opossum exchanged glances, during which the mink gave a slow and proper nod. After that, by way of answering, the possum held up her thumb to Thaminga’s general personal space. The screen above immediately took on hir appearance, in all its perfectly smooth glory. The uncertainty generated by hir situation, hir utterly altered state of being, was short lived. This kind of thing? This shi knew. Thaminga took another chest-boosting breath and began.

“What can I say? I am indeed a tourist here, and yes – my family is rich. Doesn’t mean I don’t try to make my own way, I’m guessing you lot are at least passing familiar with the fact that there’s more than one kind of shackles one can end up wearing?”

There were murmurs of assent from the crowd, along with the image shifting to something showing a pair of progress bars, one stationary with the mink’s face by it, and one slowly growing (but substantially behind) with Thaminga’s.

Shi had a foot in the door though – that was what mattered. You get them to sympathize a little, even a few of them, and you plant your claws in that crack and spread it. Thaminga’s smile was knowing, but as humble as shi could make it.

“So yes, I came to visit your station to see the sights, so to speak. T0 see what people whose lives are challenged by something other than matching their wardrobe, attending parties, and pushing numbers around a screen live with. I spend most of my time talking to people in positions of power, traveling a great deal-“

There were more pleased rumblings as shi brought up their hardships, but it was subtle. It had to be, pull too hard on a small opening and you can spoil the whole thing. Thaminga folded hir arms down over hir front, concentrating on refining the contours of hir face. It took doing, but wasn’t as hard as before – the memory of hir visage started to superimpose itself over the real thing, possibly with a touch of innocent little girl to go with it.

“The more I did this the more I came to realize there are different kinds of power, and the one I had been watching all my life seemed to be caked in more lies than most. So, I... well, I wanted to see how the others looked. I wanted to see the options.”

Shi gestured briefly, to them – to the station itself. In the process thereof, shi managed to peel the vague form of the bulges at the end of hir wrists apart into fingers.
“I want to thank you all. I’ve watched people who built a family business up into something real have it stolen out from under them ‘legally’ to pad a couple percentage points onto someone’s quarterly gains. Standing up here, like this? I’ve seen people get far less justice for far more blatant and malicious situations.”

Thaminga flexed hir hands briefly, it felt delicious to have them again. Another breath and hir body looked like it was wearing the dress once more, even if that was strictly an illusion. The image overhead had at some point shifted to show a scowling, fanged businessman fighting a rather noble looking species of buccaneer. Shi turned to the woman who had started all this, to the mink.

“You said ‘you know me’ to them when we started all this – and clearly they do. You seem to be a respected member of this community, but as we both said – I’m a tourist. I don’t know you, or your customs, legal or hospitality oriented. I can respect the game played just the same, one has to learn fast, has to pay attention.”

The little sounds from the onlookers were growing louder. Hearing this golden figure espouse the admittedly dubious virtues of their lifestyle was having an ever-increasing effect on them – the bars appeared once more, and were largely even this time.

“One also has to know how to turn a situation around once you’ve done those things.”

Now that one earned a couple outright exclamations.

“How much would it be worth to you to know the ins, outs, rules, laws, bylaws, and unspoken arrangements of all the port authorities where you can actually get-“
Thaminga reached down, taking a handful of hirself – something that felt truly and insanely bizarre – a chill and a disconnect all in her hand – and showing it to the woman and the crowd.

“-this. Or anything else you care to? How much would the honest, hard-working smugglers among you here save if you never had to dump cargo and run? More than the cost of a dress I’d wager, which I’d happily return enough of to at least match the stuff I was wearing.”

The bars tipped – Thaminga watched as hir’s soared forward and the onlooking pirates all hooted, hollered, and as the opossum raised her hand open palmed – the image showing a clear thumbs-up / thumbs-down image, raised their fists with thumbs (or other equivalent digits) held high.

The uproar was reassuring, the victory a thrill and a relief all at once. Through it, the mink’s expression was set hard, and difficult at best to read. When she spoke however-
“..You going to have to make good on that, shiny thing. You do though? We good, I think.”

Thaminga’s first thought about responding was interrupted by a good-natured slug in the arm from the opossum before the latter stepped off the stage, handed her cloak immediately upon rejoining the crowd and promptly disappearing into it. The impact left a small dent in hir shoulder that shi had to think to repair. The mink got hir attention after – the woman had tried to enslave hir, make hir property, but she’d also just lost – mostly. If this played out right.
Which it would.

“I’ll make good. I’ll leave behind enough that you break even today, and come next month when your shipments aren’t being lost to guard sweeps half the time you’ll be smiling all the way to the bank. Along with half the other pirates here.”

The mink pursed her lips, then nodded. Motioning for Thaminga to follow she started to make her way through the thinning throng toward the store.
“Replacement material now then, get it out of the way, things to do.”

It wasn’t hard to spot Joseph and Red in the crowd at least, they hadn’t gone far – and both looked pleased by the outcome. The otter was finger-waving, which was probably all his body allowed for in the state he was in. Red was spread out across Joseph’s stomach and grinning ear to not-exactly-ear. Still, responsibility first. Thaminga made hir way into the same shop that had caused them so many problems already.

The mink stood by the canister, expectant – but patient enough. Thaminga’s approach to it wasn’t quite as hesitant as hir actual feelings about the tank though. Just a short time ago it had been hir prison, and a few things worse. Now? Now shi strode up to it, closing her eyes as she held hir arms out across the tank’s opening, willing pieces – strands – little drizzles of hirself to slide free into the waiting space. There was a weight rating displaying on the side-

“Good, good – a couple kilos. Three, maybe five, not sure how much was original and how much was soft, aristocratic bottom. Call it five. Bottom not that big.”
Shi had to give the woman credit for that one – back-handed compliment and greed in the same package, well played. Luckily Thaminga’s face was still a bit vaguely defined enough to avoid it being obvious that she was rolling her eyes. It took a minute or so to gauge that the woman was thoroughly, genuinely satisfied – but eventually she did nod in a vaguely superior, victorious fashion. Infuriating.

Thaminga found hirself feeling a bit fatigued afterward, but not unmanageably so. Shi turned and left the shop, having promised to forward the mink her guidelines once shi’d had time to compile the notes and make them usable. A day or two, depending on how in depth they ended up being. Apart from an advisement against running that had been it, until shi stepped out the front door once more and found hirself yet again faceplanting into a wall of fuzzy otter flesh.

“Very nicely done I must say. Did the surreptitious software update I gave you through the fur make things easier like I hoped?”

The Foxbat pulled herself back, feeling millions of strands of fur peeling out of hir liquid-esque shape and shuddering visibly when shi was clear of it all. It took another moment, another breath (that did indeed leave hir chest spreading ever wider outward again) to compose hirself and mentally ‘firm up’ her outer layer.

“Yes, it did. A great deal less focus that I had to put toward just staying stable enough to stand and walk. So, thank you.. Again.”

The fox’s luminous face on Joseph’s belly grinned.

“Hey, you got yourself out of that second one. I just gave you a tool to make it easier. I prefer doing it that way really.”

The otter, who had mostly just been staring at Thaminga and trying not to look like he was (but was hard pressed for other options given the lack of range of motion he had currently) spoke up after that.

“It’s either that or the bloke sits on you and literally pressgangs you, though that was still for the best I suppose.”

“You know you liked it.”

The otter did blush – but didn’t say anything else just then.

Thaminga on the other hand had just a moment where shi looked uncomfortable, vulnerable even, but it was something shi quickly quelled before zeroing hir eyes in on the fox’s bright, fiber-optic-fur carried ones.

“You ah, you said something about being able to help me more with putting myself back together?”

“So I did. Come on, I’ll need to be back at the ship to do this. Gotta have both hardware beds in proximity to each other for this I think, don’t want to overheat anything or risk making a mistake.”

Thaminga found herself raising an eyebrow at the mere idea of mistakes, and as to overheating-

“Oi! Yeah, none of that. I’ve had just about enough problems from this for one day, let’s go back and hook up with Agatha.”

The otter looked a little less than comfortable in his skin, given that there was so much more of it. Or at least Thaminga thought he did, but there were some truly pillowy soft cheeks hiding a bit of his expression and he seemed to be wrestling with some internal sensation or another that was driving that blush into a frenzy, and leaving him pliant enough about Red driving the maglev plates under his body off toward the docks. Thaminga had little to do but follow.

The trip wasn’t long per se, it was just strange. Shi found hirself taking a slow pace, one matched by the fox AI and his otter host, and noticing all manner of strangeness as shi did. Walking over grating was tricky, Thaminga’s first step in the halls over one of the vent shafts saw hir foot slowly sinking and requiring a bit of fast thinking and focus. As soon as shi had the focus back hir feet did just fine in not flowing through cracks – but rather resumed following the much larger one between the otter’s buttocks.

Shi curled hir arms around hir chest, under it, feeling the trapped oxygen inside and marveling at how it felt kind of nice – though hir arms trying to meld into the rest of hirself was a bit of a distraction from it. Another breath, shi watched this time as the pressure inside flowed around – fought to find the most comfortable place to stay, which shi could coax into being hir chest by way of relaxing just the right parts of hir consistency. It was a fascinating enough thing that shi nearly walked right past their turn, having to backpedal and duck into the proper hangar.

The ship didn’t look like much, nothing glamorous anyway – a silver shell and a hatch ramp that the otter was floating up to. Inside the thing was a little better, but not much – Thaminga saw a lot of open space, the proper control panels on the far end, a pretty decent kitchen installation, and then the missing individual the other two had mentioned. Shi took in Agatha’s form with a bit of awe, glancing between the mouse and the otter – trying to guess which was larger. It was a tough call, that. The mouse, maybe, but-

“Oh! H-hi there. You’re Thaminga, right? Red’s been keeping me up to date with things. Err, speaking of which, sorry Joseph.”

The two of them did make a bit of a pair. Held aloft on levitating machinery, too bulbous and bloated to do much of anything. Thaminga nodded to Agatha, waved back, but said nothing just yet. Shi was too busy wondering just how this insane pair – trio rather – had come to be a thing when Red made his presence known through the speaker system.

“Okay! Now that all of me is back together, I can do this. Assuming I have permission still that is? I’m going to be rewriting and recompiling a fair bit of code here, I’m confident it won’t hurt any of your memories or that kind of business, but you ah – you might go loose for a bit while it’s happening. Afterward though you should have a lot more fine-tuned control over that body you’re in.”

Thaminga exhaled, which had the side effect of deflating hir chest a bit. Then after a moment of thought, of imagining trying to do this hirself – it might take years, shi probably had years now, but did shi want to risk that – and do it here of all places?

“Do it. What do you need me to do to get access?”

“Just put your hands on their bellies and clear your mind.”

Shi raised an eyebrow slow about that, but well – if he knew what he was doing then so be it. Thaminga set hir hands to each of the two enormous furs’ bellies. The connection was instant, and jarring. The moment shi had first felt the change coming on hir in the canister came back to mind, but this wasn’t a creeping dread so much as an abrupt and complete descent into white noise. White light. White everything. Except for the orange dot.

The orange dot was bouncing, and leaving little spider web trails of itself here and there, which shi tried to reach out and touch. There was no hand to speak of which shi did this with, but just the same – the intent made the bright webbing twitch and sing. Shi found hirself following the ball, which seemed to be playing. It darted to and fro, letting hir just about catch up before careening away leaving behind so much growing networked line spread that it looked like frost forming on a window.

The chase went on – shi couldn’t say as to how long. Time didn’t seem important here, wherever here was. Honestly, the moment when shi caught the ball was a bit of a surprise. Thaminga’s nonexistent hands closed over the sphere, which shi could see a hazy glowing outline of ears and a grin on.

Hey there. Ready to wake up?

When shi found hirself reacting with a puzzled ‘what?’ something was amiss. A moment went by, a blink, and the it hit hir. She was seeing the ship again, and shi had spoken – and blinked. Thaminga immediately did that last bit a great deal more, as well as planting hir arms down on the hull and pushing hirself up to a sitting position. Both colossal mounds of lard and fur still hovered above hir, but given that they were napping and covered in the detritus of what had to have been dinner (or more likely many, many desserts) it had probably been a while. Shi seemed to be a bit on the unformed side again. Gooey, blob-like limbs – but a moment of thought saw her right arm sculpting itself into something that would look at home on a model, right down to the manicured nails. Another bit of focus and she was seeing it alter hue, from garish and obvious gold into a shimmering white – complete with thousands upon thousands of tiny strands of ‘fur’. It was when the white reflected orange that she looked up to the mouse’s belly, and saw Red’s glowing face smirking at her.

“Like it?”

Thaminga felt hirself grinning right back.

“Yeah. Show me what else it can do.”