"Yeaaa. You're such a happy widdle Vixie, aren't you?" cooed Rain to one of her pet Vixabies, Boo, as they happily snuggled up against the metal exterior of their owners remote body, tennis ball still gripped in their mouth.

It was a beautiful summer day and Rain had set aside some time to take her pack of Vixabies out to a local park. Well, "local park" by second life standards. Back during Rains first life, when she still had an organic body on Earth, this "local park" would have been considered a national park, wildlife refuge, or any number of terms used then. On second lifer worlds like Selz, such massive "parks" were commonplace. Just because a persons now has a body of metal and plastic doesn't mean they don't still enjoy the outdoors.

The land looked pristine and untouched by development, but that was deliberately misleading. Organic bodies can go for long treks in the woods with minimal supplies. When you have a robot body, powered by batteries or fuel cells, long outings are much more difficult. Numerous trails criss-crossed the entire park, with countless charging stations expertly hidden at regular intervals. Campsites with more extensive charging facilities also dotted the landscape. The area was also extensively patrolled by pest control VIs, tasked with eliminating nusiance species. This ensured that the park was safe for people to bring their pets along with.

With Boo now done snuggling her owner, she gently set the tennis ball into Rains hand. The Vixabie, a native species that resembled a cross between a fox and a wallaby, happily hopped in place as Rain set the extra tennis ball in the bag beside her and stood up. This wasn't just any remote body that Rain had extended her consciousness into, this was the new remote body that she had bought specifically for playing with her pets.

Flicking the safety off with her mind, Rain aimed her left arm down the large open field. Instead of a forearm and hand, this body had a large pneumatic cannon in its place. With less powerful cannons, a person could just estimate the angle to get the desired distance. This cannon could launch tennis balls well over 400 yards, so Rain wisely used the bodies built-in fire control to determine the angle she needed. Taking hold of the vertical fore-grip with her right hand to help absorb the recoil, Rain looked down at Boo. She was now hunched and looking downrange intently for where the ball would land.

Her cannon made a loud "THOOMP" as she fired it. Immediately, grass and dirt went flying as Boo began bounding down the field after the ball, tracking it as it flew through the air.

With Boo gone, the next Vixabie, Sand, happily hopped up to their owner. Rain smiled at this Vixabie quirk. Fetching the ball was nothing more than a fun activity to them right up until they got back to Rain. Then it became a matter of showing reverence to her as the "leader" of the pack and waiting their turn. Cutting in line would be seen as an act of aggression towards the other members.

Rain got herself ready for the next shot as she used her right arm to snuggle with Sand. She cycled the breech, loading a ball from the magazine. Opening the filler valve, Rain felt air rush from her breasts, which in this body were the high-pressure air tanks. Air coursed through the air lines from her chest, down her left arm, and into cannons air tank. The whole process, with practice, could be done in about three seconds. She only really used rapid fire at the beginning of an outing, when all her Vixabies were eager to play fetch.

Noticing that she was running low on air, Rain started the remotes air compressor. The compressor was well designed and quiet, but it still made the body vibrate like a purring cat. Thus she tended to keep it set to manual start. Sand was startled for a moment by the sudden sound and vibrations before going back to snuggling their owner. The fuel cell latched to her back went into high-output mode to satisfy the increased electrical load. Rain took inventory of how much fuel she had left by gently wiggling her torso and feeling the methanol slosh around. Just under a quarter tank left. These three would tire out like the others before it ran dry.

Rain let her mind wander for a moment. She enjoyed letting her soul become imbued into every bolt and circuit of a remote body and then explore it. From the compressor, Rain could feel the hot, high-pressure air travel through the intercooler. With the heat and excess moisture removed, it then flowed into the air tanks. The coolant from the intercooler circulated down through her tail. The tail of this body was for more than just balance, it was also the radiator and had quite some weight to it. Rain took her mind back to her playtime. The compressor would cut-off once it had filled the tanks.

Sand was done snuggling and dropped the ball into Rains waiting hand. With there now being space in the cannons magazine, Rain loaded it in. Moments later, another tennis ball was flying through the air with a Vixabie hopping happily after it.

As the last Vixabie in line hopped up to Rain, she got a notification from her VI that screened her inbound messages. "Master Rain", the automaton said to her, "V-Text request from contact 'Oliver Odd-Bear'."

"Oh, put them through please." Rain answered over her radio. She had been planning on calling Oliver later on in the day. 'Odd-Bear' wasn't his real last name of course, it was just a nickname of hers. A well known custom cybernetics designer, Oliver had designed her previous vase body as well as her current one. The cannon-armed remote body that she was currently piloting was his latest creation for her.

She brought up the V-Text program in her HUD and set Oliver to active conversation as she continued loading and firing tennis balls for her Vixabies. V-Text, otherwise known as "Voice Texting" was a popular halfway between text messages and a real-time audio conversation. Since every second lifer's voice was synthesized anyway, there was no real need to send actual audio. Instead, each person would have the other persons voice pack stored locally. Only the text and diacritical information was sent. The persons voice was then synthesized locally for the receiving party to hear. Both sides of the conversation could always go back and read past messages, making it extremely useful for making plans and taking notes.

Oliver: "Hey, how's my favorite foxy flowerpot doing today?"

'Foxy Flowerpot' was Oliver's nickname for Rains limbless vase body.

Rain: "Doing great. I'm out with my Vixies trying out the new remote you built."
Oliver: *Excited* "Oh that's great! How are they liking it?"
Rain: *Sarcastic* "So you don't care what I think about it?"
Oliver: *Laugh* "You know what I mean."
Rain: "They're loving it. I'll admit that at first I was quite upset at you not making it look like me."
Oliver: "I bet you've figured out why I did that?"
Rain: *Laugh* "I have. This thing is tons of fun to pilot. Everyone is gonna want to try it."
Oliver: "Exactly. I know you don't let anyone else pilot the remotes that look like you. That's why I made this one with a more generic exterior."
Rain: "Well as long as my Vixies recognize that it's me."
Oliver: "I'd love to know how the heck those little guys figure out who is piloting a remote. Do they see our souls or what?"
Rain: *Gloating* "My babies know who their mama is."
Oliver: "They sure know something. So, have you ran across anyone else? Wherever you are."

Rain took a moment between ball salvos to zoom in on the recreational zeppelins floating lazily along in the distance. Looking them over with the remotes optics, she didn't see any repel lines out. Nor could she see a landing platform deployed on either one of the flying motor homes.

Rain: "Nope. There's a few RZs puttering along, but it looks like they're just enjoying the view. I'm a ways from the road and nobody else has come by on this trail."
Oliver: "Oh, how far are you from your body? I better make sure there aren't any range problems."
Rain: "Let me check."

Rain looked back towards the campsite. Again zooming in to get a closer look, she smiled at the sight of her other Vixabies snuggled up against her. They were exhausted from playing fetch and now sound asleep. The VIs that she had brought with made sure that her pets didn't accidentally unplug her from the power cord or tip her over. Even though it felt as if her brain was installed in the remote body, her soul was just being extended into it via RPC. Remote Presence Control still depended on a persons synthetic brain, to which their soul was bound, being powered on and close by. She watched the silk headgown covering her head flutter gently in the breeze as she measured the distance with the remotes laser rangefinder.

Rain: "I'm just over a quarter mile away from myself. Looks like the signal is at 99.882%."
Oliver: "Great, that's right in spec for your aura. You should be able to get out to your normal max."
Rain: "Not using that today. Trying to carry too many exhausted Vixies in this thing would not end well. Oh, that reminds me. I think we should swap the actuators like you said we could."
Oliver: "You want the super strong, but slow, actuators put in the cannon arm?"
Rain: "Yea. Having to use the forward grip every time to stay on target is a bit annoying. The stronger ones will still be plenty fast on the cannon side. The ones in the right arm are just fine as-is."
Oliver: "Sounds like a plan. I'll get that sent over to your place and mark that remote as needing maintenance."
Rain: "Okay. That's the only thing I can think of that needs to be tweaked on this."
Oliver: "Sounds good. Have fun with your Vixies."
Rain: "Oh I am. I think these last few are finally ready to call it a day. Talk to you later."
*Oliver has left the conversation.*

Sure enough, two of the three had dropped off their tennis balls and began slowly hopping back towards camp. Boo was the only one left. The happily exhausted Vixabie gently booped their head against the remote, knowing that her "prize" was to be carried back by Rain.

"Oh you goof" Rain teased as she zipped up the bag of tennis balls and slung it over her shoulder. "You wanna get carried back, you need to hop up into mamas arms."

Rain held out her arms for Boo to jump into. Boo tried to play for sympathy by laying on the ground and whimpering, but Rain wasn't having any of it. Calling the Vixabies bluff, Rain turned around and started walking back towards camp. In a flash, Boo was on their feet and hopped around in front of Rain, begging to be carried. The Vixabie eagerly leapd into her waiting arms as she again held them out, knocking her back quite a bit. Nothing she couldn't handle though. With only one hand on this remote, she let Boos weight be carried on the cannon arm while she held them steady with the remotes right hand.

Rain wasn't in a hurry to get back to camp. Having a body of plastic, rubber, and steel meant that she could snuggle Boo the whole way without getting physically tired. Rain and Boo took turns playfully licking each others faces. The remote couldn't produce saliva, but the low-friction synthiskin mouth and tongue gave a similar feel. Boo was clearly a little dehydrated by how dry her mouth was, nothing dangerous though. Soon Boo was limp and lethargic, wriggling in pleasure as her neck was lovingly scruffed.

Getting back to camp, Rain set Boo down by the bowls of water the VIs had setup for them. She smiled in amusement as Boo buried her muzzle into the bowl, drinking as fast as she could. Soon, with a belly full of water, she was back up against the remote wanting to be picked up. Rain pointed them to go to her body. Sheltered in the shade of a tree, the rest of her Vixabies were piled up all around her. Bounding over to the mound of Vixabies, Boo gently hopped on top and snuggled as close to Rain as they could. Within moments, she was sound asleep.

"Welp, time to join them." Rain thought to herself. She sat the remote down under the shade of another tree near her body. After angling it so that her VIs could easily refill the tank on the fuel cell, Rain went into the RPC software and began the disconnection process. After a moment, the world went dark and quiet as her presence was transferred back to her real body. Her disembodied consciousness floated weightless in the relaxing void as the software waited for her aura to leave the remote completely. She could make the transfers go faster by not imbuing herself in the remote so much, but RPC transfers were only an extra fifteen seconds or so when she did.

Feeling herself gaining sensory input from her real body, Rain was soon staring at the white interior of her headgown, worn when piloting a remote body. Rain wiggled her head slightly to enjoy the feeling of the fine Cassinian silk. Her movements also signaled to her VIs that she was present in her body again. Removing the headgown, the VI servants folded the garment neatly and placed it in its carrying case. It was her favorite headgown, a gift from her daughters.

Now able to see her surroundings, Rain looked down at her pack of Vixabies. Snuggled up tight against her and sound asleep, she couldn't help but smile at their adorable snoring and cute sleeping faces. Little paws from several of them tightly gripped her bodies handles. They were blocking several of her cooling vents, but the shade of the tree and the fact that her processors weren't under load meant that she was nowhere close to overheating. Rain wiggled her head slightly, rocking her vase body slightly. I was her way of snuggling her Vixies in her limbless vase body. Sure arms and legs are nice, but nothing could beat the compact coziness of a vase chassis.

Rain looked over at the now lifeless remote, slumped against the tree. It was in standby mode, ready for her to use again when it was time to leave. She radioed her VIs to have them refuel it so it would be ready to go later on. After reading her text messages from her husband and replying to let him know how the day was going, Rain let out a silent yawn and stretched. Such motions still felt so good, even though they were physically pointless with a robot body. Turning off her eyes and turning up her ears, Rain gently dozed off to the gentle sounds of her sleeping Vixabies.

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This piece was drawn by the skilled  FlipFox please go check them out. Original is here, https://www.furaffinity.net/view/32572358/