FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The morning sun filtered through the bamboo blinds and danced across the king-sized mattress, warming the sleeping girl lying beneath the comforter to the point that it was just uncomfortable enough to ease her awake. From the outside looking in, it appeared to be just a lumpy pile of quilted fabric, but as she fuzzily slipped into consciousness and her feline eyes slowly appeared beneath heavy eyelids, the pile grew a furred and patterned arm, an opposite clawed foot- until she was able to force herself to roll off the bed, just in time for her phone alarm to go off. She shook her head violently, trying to rid herself of the rest of the grogginess. She needed to move; today was the day.

Skye dragged herself directly into the bathroom. The whole point of sleeping in the nude was for mornings like this. Fuck a coffee to begin with, the first step was a jarringly frigid shower to jolt you awake. She winced as the massaging shower head she had brought with her hit her with its first icy torrent, but quickly grew accustomed to it enough to let it run down her lithe form. As she scrubbed off days of slumming it on the couch with nothing but Netflix and a massive bag of Sun Chips (with salsa, of course) for company, a smallish smile crept onto her face; this was it. She was finally here, it was finally starting, and dammit she was going to look great.

She turned off the shower, remorsefully. If it wasn't already getting late, she would have very much liked to bask in it a little longer and wake up some more, but today she simply did not have the time for that luxury. The lynx toweled off as much as she could before breaking out the blow dryer, brushing out her auburn hair as she did; eventually turning to a straightener and eyeliner. She decided she would just do the eyes today. She was naturally a very striking woman, but her eyes were easily her best feature. She remembered back before she had changed her hair, how they had mostly been a muddy brown with a few specks of green, and how she had hated them. One of the best side effects of finally attaining the style and color of hair that she had always wanted was the semi-permanent shift in her eyes to a deep, dark green- reminded her of trees.

Shaking her head again to remind herself of what she was doing, she forewent the towel and strode confidently back into her bedroom. She had already laid out the perfect outfit for the day, keeping in mind the weather that was ever-so-slightly less forgiving than the climate she had come from. The top of the pile was easy: lingerie. One of the first female tenets she had learned was that sexy underwear, even though it's rarely seen, is one of the most empowering clothing items one could wear. Provided confidence in spades. She had just ordered this set and received it the day before, a black, lacy pair of hipsters with purple trim and a little purple bow on the front, and a matching bra with a front clasp. It wasn't for a lover's access, she had just always been horrible at cinching up the clasp on the back.

No, she was living the life of the bachelorette, in all of its glory. Partially because she had just gotten here and was still settling in, but mostly because the whole reason she was here in the first place was to start over- honestly, she was healing.

She clasped the bra together under her c-cup breasts. Damn, the girls looked perky in that! She leaned back into the bathroom to get a quick look in the mirror... this was easily the most flattering bra she owned. It was one of the few moments she wished it wasn't so damn cold. It was hard to accentuate some of her assets under a heavy winter coat. But then she remembered how much she loved the cold, and the snow, and reassured herself that her resume would get her hired, not her body. She checked her phone.

Fuck. She needed to get to the bus station. It was only a few blocks down the street, but she'd only been there once and she wasn't driving. Hurriedly (though still conscious of her makeup and hair), she completed the ensemble: a long, blue, knit sweater with thumb-holes and a high neck that faded down to black as it reached her thighs, a black skirt that just barely peeked out below the sweater hem, some black, textured tights with some wool discreetly woven through for warmth, a necklace capped with jade, some plugs to match in her gauged ears, a pair of the cutest boots she could find that would fit her feet. She hated her feet. They had shrunk somewhat throughout the therapy but she still struggled to fit anything under a 14. Which honestly made shoe shopping more of a chore than a delight, but she still loved the feeling of opening a package and seeing them all packed in there and trying them on and spinning round in front of a mirror admiring them. These weren't new, but they were some of her favorites; black suede with some straps and buckles and a zipper, all complementing a snappy 6-inch heel. Gorgeous. She again congratulated herself for becoming so adept at walking in the damn things, they simply made any outfit they went with, provided you could move well in them. After adding a few more bracelets and rings and fluffing her hair, she headed out to the kitchen to grab a granola bar, threw it in her purse, donned an overcoat, scarf, hat, and some fingerless gloves, and headed out into the brisk morning air.

The bustling sounds of metropolis greeted her. The honks and sirens, people talking, yelling, bicycles, but above it all the breeze, the leaves, the birds. This was Portland. This was paradise. It was just still so foreign. She started down the street to the bus station, or... where she thought she remembered the bus station being. She had been dropped off there a few weeks prior on her way to the apartment for the first time from the airport. She stopped at the corner at a food truck selling some really delightful smelling Indian food to ask for directions and confirmed she had been headed the right way.

The walk wasn't long, but on the way she was told "good morning" and returned the greeting at least four times. She smiled. That was unheard of back in the Springs. One of the many reasons she had moved to this city in particular was to be exposed to the wonderfully inviting northwestern cordiality. It was how she imagined Canadians must act, but then again, she had never been to Canada. They could all be cunts up there... who knew. Canadians knew, she figured. Probably varied from place to place. Maybe they had a Canadian Boston, a Canadian New Jersey... all the abrasiveness with a different accent. Or maybe they just called everyone "guy" and "buddy" like on South Park. Probably not, but that idea had to come from somewhere. She lived closer now, she would have to go visit and find out.

She checked her phone again and picked up the pace slightly. Her bus was at the station now.

She made it as the doors were closing and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. She would need to give herself more time in future mornings, or buy a bike or something. Maybe a longboard. It had been mostly downhill, and she had always wanted to learn how to ride one of the urban surfboards. Maybe after a few checks; besides, walking into an interview with a 4-foot board under your arm or under a backpack would be tacky.

The bus quickly navigated through the narrow-ish streets of what she assumed was the Pearl district. She had looked at apartments here, to be nearer to the culture and all the awesome restaurants and shops and cafe's. Ultimately though, she came to grips with the fact that she didn't have the ability to budget two thousand dollars worth of rent every month. At least not initially, so she settled on a little flat a few blocks outside of downtown proper. Later on though, when her lease was up, this was where she wanted to be.

Eventually, the buildings got smaller and smaller and the cafe's grew further and further apart as the bus traveled along the interstate abreast the Columbia river. The bus driver called over the speaker that they would be arriving in Beaverton in about 5 minutes. Skye felt her heart skip once and swallowed it back down: this interview was a formality at best. She was transferring from a position she had excelled in at a sister call center in Colorado. She had had some hiccups with the company early on in her career, but had since been promoted through the ranks to a supervisor position in the two years before she had come here. Even taking all of these things into account, though... there was still some trepidation. If the interview didn't go well, or something happened, she would have to find another job, and quickly. She had savings, but moving, the apartment, food, and other essentials had set her back about a quarter of what she had stockpiled. Plus, she had said "goodbye" to her parents in a way that was final. She had no help, no friends if she needed it. She pushed these thoughts away. This position was a given. No need to worry.

She stepped out of the bus into a much more shabby area than where she had boarded. Not exactly "ghetto", roughly equivalent to downtown Portland as central-south Academy was to downtown Colorado Springs. She noticed a few hobo tents and some pawn shops with barred windows. She would probably need to pick up some pepper spray if she wound up with a schedule that ended late, especially since the call center was a block from the bus stop.

She found the place easily enough. Outside, it was a bit bigger than the facility in the Springs, but inside it was nothing like it. It wasn't that it was unprofessional or unclean, it just felt... she didn't know, less-organized maybe? She sighed a little to calm herself and walked up to the front desk as confidently as she could. A leopard sat behind the desk, dressed in the drab-but-familiar gray and red uniform of the security company and looking more than a little bored.

"Can I help you?" he asked, dully.

"Um, yes, I'm here for an 11:30 interview?"

He looked down at his schedule sheet. "Name?"

"Southpaw. Should be under Skylar?"

He glanced over at his computer screen. "Oh, yeah. You're gonna be meeting with Shanna. Go ahead and take a seat, she'll call you when she's ready for you." Without meeting her eyes, he tapped a clipboard. "Sign in first though."

Skye scrawled her name and looked for a clock for the time. She couldn't find one on the wall, which was weird. She began to ask the guard but thought better of it and pulled her phone out of her pocket. She silenced it while it was out, wrote the time down, put down the pen. "Thanks," she said, as cheerfully as she could.

"Mm-hmm."

Well, that was not encouraging, and did nothing for her frayed nerves. She glanced around the room, looking for someone appearing less nervous than she was. Her eyes settled on a porcupine woman who looked about her age. This one was not anxiously tapping her foot or a pen, but was instead lounging back slightly with her legs crossed, looking at her phone. Skye briskly walked over and sat down beside her.

She started to pull her resume out of her binder and thought better of it. She had spent plenty of time working on it, poring over it now would accomplish nothing and would certainly not calm her down. Instead, she looked over to the porcupine, leaned back a little herself and pulled out her own phone; she started to scroll through her Blinkfeed.

"You here for an interview?" the woman asked, smiling.

Skye nodded. "Yeah. You?"

She shook her head. "Nah. I'm finishing up training. It's my weekend, I'm just dropping off some stuff to my trainer." She held out her paw. "I'm Patricia, everyone calls me Tish or PJ. Don't really mind which."

Skye shook her hand. "Skylar, call me Skye. Good to meet you. How's the training here? I'm transferring up from Colorado so I'm not sure I'll need to do it. Then again, that was for loyalty and this is sales so I might."

"You will. Even supervisors transferring between branches have to do that as far as I know. Training's not bad, your normal seven weeks, you know. How long you been in town?"

"About three weeks. Kinda been holed up at home, don't know anyone here except for a couple of the food truck guys that come down my street sometimes." She decided not to mention she was a supervisor yet, to avoid coming off as pretentious. "And the Dominoes guy. He's probably seen me the most."

Tish laughed. "Well, I know it's intimidating at first, but there's really no point in being here if you're not gonna, you know, do stuff. I don't know if you've heard, but we've got _really_great beer here. If you want, I could show you around a bit, get you comfortable with the place."

Skye smiled, "Sure! That sounds great. Let me give you my number, go ahead and send me a text."

They swapped information. "Hey Tish, what's up?" A short, squat, sort of pudgy badger called from the hallway beyond the desk. Judging from his button-up and tie, Skye gathered this was her new acquaintance's trainer.

Tish stood. "Duty calls. Good luck on your interview; drop me a text tonight if you're not too busy, I'll pick you up." She strode off toward the hallway. "Hey Mark, I brought those forms you needed..." Their voices faded off around the corner.

Skye looked at her phone and smiled. There it was, she knew it would happen! She made a friend.

"Skylar?" a stern voice called from the hallway. Skye looked up and locked eyes with just about the most unpleasant looking boss-type she'd ever seen. She sighed, got up and walked off towards her future.

Fuck her for thinking this would be easy right?