FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

You were one of the last few dragons who hadn't undergone the conversion treatment. One of the last bastions of dragons having their own will. A firm advocate of independence.

Needless to say, you were in some trouble. Dragon grunts - or as they were quickly coming to be known, grunts, since there was increasingly less distinction between them and "normal" dragons - outnumbered you everywhere. You were in hiding, ever since it became mandatory for all dragons to wear a visor for at least 2 hours a day.

You even had one mailed to your door. Of course, you hadn't put it on.

In fact, you'd actually been tinkering with it. With all your experience with tech, deconstructing the visor and getting your own software to run on it was surprisingly easy. You saved the old program without listening to or watching any of it - you'd seen how effective it was, and didn't want to risk compromising yourself one bit, but you might need it later.

So, you had a high quality hypnovisor, blank and ready for programming. What to do?

Well, you knew what you had to do, eventually: unbrainwash all the dragons, if that was possible. You hoped you had everything you needed for that.

You spent a few weeks working on and testing the visor, trying to develop a program that you hoped could reverse the effects of the brainwashing. The problem was, you had no idea of telling whether or not it was working. You obviously couldn't undergo the brainwashing yourself, but studying the waveforms and methods of the brainwashing routine - without actually listening to it yourself, of course - and creating a program to imply the opposite in a similar way seemed like it might be enough to break the control.

But you needed a test subject. A zonked dragon to be unzonked, as someone might say.

After reviewing your program for what felt like the five-hundreth time, you finally were confident enough in your work to approach the apartment directly neighbored to yours, modified visor in hand. You knocked, and felt your heart drop into your stomach when a dragon two - maybe three - times your size and rippling with muscle opened it.

"Can I help you?" He asked, friendly but slightly suspicious. This dragon was deep in the program. He'd clearly taken to the suggestion to work out, grow his muscles, embrace grunt life, use your strength to serve - the whole mantra. You didn't even need to know the program to know about those, they were so commonly spouted that you'd begun seeing them in advertisements and hearing them muttered on the street even before you felt like you had to go into hiding.

"Can you make sure my visor is working?" You asked, handing it to him. He looked at it for a moment and then snapped it right over his eyes. If you had one thing going for you, it's that the brainwashed dragons were... dumb, to put it mildly.

You chewed your lip as it came on, your own sequence of colors flashing over his eyes. He stared into them patiently, quietly. You heard your words begin to repeat into his ears, your new mantras entering his mind. It was working! He was-

He abruptly took it off.

"Sorry, little dude. Thing's busted. Here, let me grab you one of mine before you get any more runtish." He said, grabbing your shoulder with a grip that could crush you and pulling you inside without asking.

You tried to fight against his hold, and he didn't even react. You were so weak compared to him, you couldn't even get his hand off of you.

"Th-That's fine, I've got one at home!" You assured him as he led you through his apartment, which was filled with various weights and plastered with posters touting the wonder of grunt life.

"Nah dude, I got an extra. You need it. You're like... toothpicks. Never seen a dragon as runty as you. How are you gonna serve like that?" He rambled on.

Why didn't your visor work? You were so sure - you'd been so careful, so methodic. Was he too deep in the brainwashing? Too fargone to be changed back? Was that possible?

A visor was suddenly locked around your head. You reached up and struggle to pull it off, before a monochrome wave washed over your vision and your arms dropped to your sides before you knew what was happening.

"Hehe. Damn, little runt, first time?" The dragon said, giving your ass a squeeze and leading you to his couch. You sank into it and sighed, staring at the monochrome spiral as your dread mixed with a curious wave of bliss and relaxation.

You understood what you'd done wrong, now. You'd been completely off-base. You were trying to change the nature of dragons, to make them independent, make them intelligent, but that was impossible. Dragons were meant to serve. Raw strength - the only thing dragons were good for - couldn't be used to control. It could only be used to serve.

"We'll get you trained up pretty quick, don't worry." The other dragon said, patting you on the back with force. "You'll be ready to serve in no time at all."

You heard him get up and stomp across the room, and toss your useless, broken visor into the trash.