FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

https://archive.org/embed/km_20231205_360p_25f_202...

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"Mh!" Julie hit a volleyball over the other side of the net with held fists, where Alyssa tried and failed to catch up with it, nearly stumbling. They both wore jackets and were roughly a mile out from the shore.

The ball hit a patch of sand behind her and rolled before stopping.

"Y'know," Alyssa said while turning to walk to it. She snagged it and returned to her spot, sifting sand with her foot. "You could just hit it casually."

"Where's the fun in that?" Julie grinned.

Over a week had passed. Julie and Alyssa were at Goldenrod Beach on a surprisingly sunny afternoon-- although the contradictory climate didn't match it.

"Alright, be that way." Alyssa slightly spread her legs, tossed the ball up, and hit it over the net, sending it twice higher than Julie's previous turn.

Julie watched it and slightly opened her mouth while backpedaling to meet it with clutched hands, her cast shadow mirroring her movements in the sand while it could for once. She hit it with a clean whap, but since she'd struck it with more of her knuckles at an awkward angle, the ball chipped the top of the netting and landed back on her side.

"Look at that, I beat a former volleyball champion." Alyssa smirked.

"I'm just rusty." Julie went to retrieve the ball.

She leaned to pick it up and walked to where she'd stood, looking out at the sand spread extensively and leading to a sprawling ocean dotted with sailboats. Thick gray clouds miles out that hovered over the sea and weakened what sunbeams shone through to light the waves threatened to kill any semblance of decent weather.

Despite the climate, families sat on blankets, children and pokémon frolicked in the sand and waves, and people strolled the shore.

Lifeguard shacks were present and watching those who surfed and swam.

"Hey."

Julie turned to Alyssa's voice.

"Daydreaming or hitting the ball?"

"...Sorry." Julie tossed it up, striking it over the net.

It headed directly toward Alyssa, who took a step back to return it. "Something on your mind?"

Julie followed the ball with her eyes and sidestepped to reach and hit it. "Always."

"Talk to me. Nh!" Alyssa sent it back harder than before with a sharper trajectory.

Julie backpedaled at first until it went over her head, then turned to get it after it hit the sand. "I think it's the stuff with my mom."

"Oh..." Alyssa put a hand on her hip.

"It's just been on my mind nonstop since that night." Julie grabbed the ball and returned, a salty oceanside breeze brushing her hair aside.

"You two talked, right? You never told me how it went."

Julie nodded. "Some days after when I was downstairs. She wanted to know how I really felt."

"What'd you say?"

"Basically that I felt just as betrayed. It still hurts in some... confounding way."

"And how are you feeling now? The same?"

"I can't hate her." Julie sighed. "It's all just impossible to process."

Alyssa kept silent for a second. "Have you two been interacting at all?"

"No... it's why I've been in my room more. I know it isn't healthy, but it's not easy either." Julie momentarily looked down. "Did you ever talk to her about working at her Center?"

"I did last week; she has a position open, but I'd need to be trained first."

"Are you taking it?"

"Mhm, I'm ready to throw myself at this life stuff." Alyssa shifted in the sand. "She wants to start me on Monday."

Julie grinned a little. "That's in a few days. Can't wait to see where it goes."

"We'll see, and we're still on for the Film Awards later, yeah?"

"Of course."

"...Upstairs or downstairs?"

"Down. I couldn't do that... We've always watched it in the living room." Julie held the ball up. "Ready?"

---

Later that rainy evening, minutes from 6 p.m., Julie and Alyssa sat with Midnight in between them on the living room couch with the TV louder than usual.

Julie's mother was in her room after having put a tray of butter cookies in the oven around ten minutes ago. The fragrance of warm sugar wafted from the kitchen and filled the living room.

"It should start in a few," Alyssa said, leaning back while commercials ran. She looked at Julie. "You even got a favorite actor or actress?"

Julie was stroking Midnight's head, circling the outside of his glowing ring while he watched the screen. "I have a couple I like seeing." She looked over at the kitchen and stood. "Hold on. Let me check the cookies."

She tapped Midnight's head with her finger and grinned as he looked up at her, then went to the kitchen.

Julie glanced aside as her mother left her room and reached the oven before her.

"Oh, were you coming to check?" Julie's mother stopped short.

"It's okay. I just didn't want them to burn."

Her mother slightly opened the oven and eyed them. "I'd say they're ready." She moved over and opened it more.

Julie approached and peeked inside with a subtle grin. "They look great." Fluffy, cracked tops with golden-brown edges.

"Julie, it's on!"

Julie looked over at Alyssa, whose eyes were on the screen, although Midnight was watching Julie.

Her mother turned the oven off. "Go ahead. I'll bring them."

Julie turned back to her mom and broke a slight smile. "Thank you." She paced back to the couch and retook her spot.

The awards opened to an enthusiastic audience in rows within seats of hundreds of celebrities, a mix of people and mainly bipedal pokémon.

"They should nominate and represent more quadrupeds," Julie said as the camera panned the audience.

"I mean, a pokémedia title won best film last year," Alyssa replied.

"Well, one film," Julie said. "It was a shared biped and quadruped cast, and there were more human crew on that set than pokémon if I can recall. It wasn't genuine pokémedia."

"That's why it spoke to both audiences. Moderate plot and lighthearted. No one takes pokémedia seriously otherwise. It's a subdivision." Alyssa looked at Julie. "And most of the bipedals act on our side."

The camera panned to a young man wearing a suit and a smile walking on stage with a microphone while cheers rang. A large digital screen was on display behind him with '#FilmAwards' in golden cursive plastered over a black background.

As the excitement faltered, the host began introducing the event with flash and passionate charisma.

Alyssa sat up. "Imaya better win best lead actress."

"The braixen?" Julie asked.

"Like the entire world fell in love with her performance in Loose Ties."

Julie looked at her. "Isn't that a romance?"

"Action with an amount of romance I could stomach. It was her and Torgi, that worldwide sensation of a blaziken, but Imaya stole the show. You've gotta watch it."

"Remind me later."

The host introduced the first category, best lead pokéactress, to honor the female pokéactresses that had broken several box office records this year, and next announced he would begin by showing its nominees.

"That's cool. Usually they do people first." Alyssa peered as the camera panned slowly across the front row of the audience, showing the seated buzzing among each other. "No way that washed ass lopunny wins again this year."

Julie snorted. "Ali, that's so mean. She's been putting on her best show for us for like forty years now." She glanced over as her mother approached with a plate full of cookies and two glasses of moomoo milk.

"Here you three go." She set everything on the table.

"Thank you, Mom," Julie said and reached for a cookie, holding it before Midnight. "Want to test?"

He looked at it and glanced up at her, then took it in his mouth, chewing.

"Barely hear a crunch." Julie patted his head.

Alyssa took and popped one in her mouth next, which broke apart easily and about melted. "They're dreamy. Thanks," she told Julie's mother.

"No trouble." She turned and watched the program. "Ah, it started already?"

"With lead actress," Julie replied.

The host beckoned to the screen behind him, which the camera zoomed in on. It displayed names alongside short movie clips with the chosen actress for context.

"Paraila," Julie's mother said while dark film clips ran of a self-assured lopunny carrying an umbrella. "That was a great mystery horror she starred in."

Julie grinned. "Could you tell Alyssa that? Para's always been impressive."

"You know what? Fine, I'll stop hating." Alyssa chuckled.

Julie reached for a cookie, then glanced at Midnight before grabbing another for him as well. "Here, love," she whispered.

"Um." He nudged her hand before taking his second.

As the awards went on, the mood was carefree, from everyone surrounding the couch extending outwards to all of Goldenrod. Almost every TV was on.

People strolled the sidewalks with umbrellas under active rainfall, which they held over their companions' heads to let the droplets patter atop.

Dark, wet roads were full of delivery vehicles and general traffic lined at glaring stoplights, their headlights piercing through the veil of rain.

The magnet train took one of several trips to Kanto for the evening on its overhead tracks with cars full of tired passengers.

Bars and diners were full of those watching the awards and servers scrambling to serve everyone, with groups loitering outside the doors in their lots.

The city lights shone brighter than ever, from small shops and corporate supermarkets to obscure cafés and pizzerias.

From Wikiblux and chain restaurants whose vibrant neon signs contrasted nightfall and reflected off the wet asphalt to towering skyscrapers in congregation with lit windows.

The metropolis lived without rest, conducting business endlessly and hosting the livelihoods of millions.

The Goldenrod Observatory, visible in the mountains from the roads below it due to its posted lights, held the program in its theater free of charge.

Its outdoor lookout area at the mountain's edge displayed Goldenrod's vast skyline, glossing off the eyes of anyone who took in its structures and moving traffic glistering with luminescence.