The Awakened
Animals are infected by the Sonohoka virus. Most of the time, they are uneffected by the virus. Rarely, there are animals that are mutated by the virus. Where it robs humanity of their cognitive capacity, it grants it to the animals. They are called awakened because they become capable of human level reasoning. There is some speculation that the virus does expand the human mind on occasion as well and that this might be where Vigor has come from. In expanding the human mind, it allowed us to see more of the under pinnings of the world and interact with it in a way that was closed to us before. This is not unlike the Awakened.
There are two categories of the Awakened, those that always look like animals and those that can change their appearance. While these to groups are generally classified together under the Awakened, they don't have much in common and are probably entirely seperate things. But people tend to talk about them together.
Everything is blending together and becoming a single thing. Given enough time, all the lines will be broken down. If we desire to remain a seperate thing from those creatures around us then we must demonstrate our ability to Make ourselves. The only other choice is for us to rejoin the mixing pot and to become nothing more then something that used to be.
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