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((In-character story excerpt, don't be alarmed))

I know this is out of the blue, some of you seeing this may not have any clue what I'm talking about either but you've got to listen, YOU'VE GOT TO KNOW THE TRUTH. Everything you know about fumis-what they eat, their origins, their habits-they are all LIES. Don't pretend you don't notice how BioFumes describes their products so vaguely, the truth is that the consumers know NEXT TO NOTHING about the creatures they have in their possession. You can treat me like some paranoid person throwing around conspiracy theories, but don't you dare act like that isn't the truth. You don't know hardly anything about your fumi, and coming from a person who used to work for the company before, I don't even know very much more than you. Please, hear me out though, you need to hear my story. Even if you don't believe me, just-please.

I was one of the few who first encountered the creatures we call fumis, and as I'm sure most of you are aware, we found them on the planet known as Eremus while on a routine scouting mission for hospitable planets for terran lifeforms such as ourselves. It was the most strange and beautiful place I've ever seen. I know a lot of you probably don't believe me anymore after saying that, since the Eremus you know today is covered in that thick, impenetrable atmosphere... It hasn't always been that way though, our actions may have very been what caused the planet to change into what it is now. Similarly, the fumis you know today are a lot different then how they looked originally. They didn't look too much different physically, the colors of their skin were shades of browns and their smoke and insides where lit with soft... bio luminescence? I doubt that their anatomy is as simply explained as that, their internal structure is so much different then the ones terran lifeforms typically have, we had to tamper with that as well just so they could survive in the same living conditions as our own. But I digress, the main difference between the originals and the ones you know today are.. monumental. They seemed to radiate this aura of calm and benevolence as they waded through waters lit from underneath, using their tusks to break and feed on crystalline structures that littered the pools. Most strikingly of all: they didn't fear us, and they never lashed out at us in self defense or anger, they didn't even show discomfort of any kind as we tested on them and warped their bodies beyond recognition. Let me state that again, these creatures were not afraid of us, they didn't show anger or discomfort, they probably never even knew HOW to because they never needed to, and we preformed brutal experiments on them to change that because we couldn't understand that peaceful nature. Nor, I suspect, could we have gotten away with making a fortune off of them had people known their true nature.

We encountered a completely peaceful race of creatures that were most likely self-aware just as we are, and we tortured them to comply to our limited idea of how things are supposed to be, all because we wanted to make bank off of that soothing vapor they exhale.

Here's where my story comes in. Just like my co-workers, I tried to excuse the moral-wrongness of our actions since the fumis showed no discomfort or reluctance to our experiments, but we obviously knew in our hearts that we were doing something unforgivable. Otherwise why would we be hiding everything from the public? The breaking point for me was when the fumi test subject that was under my care, who I'd probably become a little too close to (we had just celebrated Christmas together) perished from the experiments we were preforming on them. I was devastated, it wasn't like we could tell if what we were doing was too much for them, they didn't even show that they were in pain! I suppose that too was an excuse, we had known fully well that these creatures weren't showing emotions that would indicate when we should stop. I broke down, I felt absolutely responsible for my.. friend's death. So I did the best thing I could think of, which was scatter their ashes on the planet that we had abducted them from, letting them go home. It was probably that very action that set off the chain of events that were to follow.

If you haven't lost me yet, you might very well lose me now. I don't have anything to back up these claims besides first-hand experience with the world and the creatures fumis originally were, but I theorize that the the creatures we'd taken were not just some creature that lived on the planet, they were part of the planet itself. Actually, I'm starting to be convinced that all life on that world is part of some bigger super-entity that is the planet. Here's what I think: all life on the planet is entwined with each other via a substance that is present in every single creature who is native to there, for the sake of not knowing what to call it, we will label it 'aether' as it is rather magic-like if you look at it in a romantic way. This substance, along with the other roles it plays in their biology, retains thoughts, memories, and emotions of the creature it resides in. There must be a command-center of sorts that is basically a huge cluster of this substance where all the particles return to and share it's memories with, and it identifies as a single entity itself and considers the creatures that roam the surface as both as it's children, and as part of it. That may seem like quite a bit of a stretch... but I've met this entity. Every one of the higher ups in BioFumes have met this entity. It told us it's name was Erema.

It was so small, fragile, and innocent, we were all shocked when it just sort of... came into existence in our lab. It was like a tiny, tiny fumi covered in white fur and floated around the room through some unknown force. I'm still not sure of the science behind how it communicated with us, but for simplicity's sake I'll just say it was like telepathy. It claimed to be just as I mentioned before, the mother of all creatures on Eremus, as well as all life on Eremus collectively at the same time. My theory about the memories passing on through the deceased body of a fumi stems from the fact that my friendly affections towards the fumi made an impression on Erema. They didn't outright say that but I can connect the dots. They said they were very sad about what we were doing to their children but felt that we didn't fully understand our actions, otherwise why would we (I) have shown them such kindness as if we (I) didn't know we (I) were causing them such pain? They forgave us, wanted to co-exist with us, and brought us offerings of peace in the form of showing us how to create life out of aether (a science that I don't think any of us fully understood, but the instructions worked none-the-less). The life they showed us how to create are the snowfumis you know today, which I'm positive is a reference to the happy times I had spent with my fumi friend before they had passed on, almost like a subtle mention to me that they were okay.

.......so they killed it too. Why make peace with someone after they give us everything we wanted, is what I imagine their logic was. The snowfumis went berserk after that, creatures that had once been so peaceful and kind warped into horrible creatures bent on ripping any human they came across to shreds. They sprouted white fur reminiscent of the fur that the small creature had worn, and their teeth and tusks grew long and sharp and dark like ink, it was as if the happy creature we'd betrayed's anger was emerging from deep within the snowfumis. If you think about it, considering the creatures are made purely of the 'aether', it's not too much of a stretch to imagine how the main cluster might be able to control it's individual parts if the aether is concentrated enough, and provided that they have the anger to motivate such a act.. which they certainly have. This became known as the 'abominable' form of the snowfumi.

BioFumes couldn't accept that the gift that they obviously no longer deserved was slipping through their fingers, they couldn't sell a lethal product to their customers.. without some lash-back. They discovered that the aether contained in the deceased body of the Eremian emissary (the small creature which we had killed) had a calming affect on the snowfumis, so they ground the body up and hid it's parts inside the 'ACA imbued objects' so they could distribute the product safely. They even went a step further and created the 'gummi' fumi breed in the same image of the Eremian emissary, taking away the fur, adding insult to injury.

That's the end of my long tale though. I know it's a lot to take in, maybe too much, I won't judge you for pretending you never saw this message and choosing to believe the lie. There's not a whole lot we can do after all, what's done can't be reversed. However, I implore you to treat your fumis as the precious, lost children that they are. Show them beauty and love, show them that the human race isn't a shit smear across the universe, and when they pass on, throw their ashes into the tempest that Eremus has become. Then, maybe one day Erema might allow us passage on her beautiful planet again.

end story leak/preview.