FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Carmine scratched his belly with a big claw and yawned. Summer had left the room a few minutes ago, mentioning she needed to find something. However, she hadn’t specified what that something was.

By now, the fluffy dragon was getting a bit bored of waiting, but he hoped he wouldn’t have to wait for much longer. Getting excited all of a sudden and leaving without properly explaining what she had in mind was something Summer was likely to do, but Carmine knew she’d be back soon. And then she’d also do some explaining, hopefully.

It turned out the furry dragon was right. Summer reappeared through the room’s door a few seconds later, just as suddenly as she’d left. The vixen was carrying something on her hand.

“I told you I was keeping this somewhere,” she said, grinning from ear to ear. “It was just a matter of finding it.”

“No, you didn’t tell me,” Carmine reminded her, chuckling. “I was wondering what you were looking for all this time.”

Summer stopped and gazed at him, shocked.

“I did tell you, didn’t I? I told you I was going to look for the visor.”

“Right now? No, you didn’t.”

“No, I mean a few days ago. Didn’t I mention I had an old visor here at home?”

“Uh. Perhaps you did, now that you mention it.” The dragon scratched the back of his red mane. He looked at the small device Summer was holding in her hand. “I just didn’t realize that’s what you were going to look for right now. So is that it? I was expecting something a bit… bigger.”

“Oh, no worries. It can be adjusted. Or it could, last time I checked…”

Carmine smiled as he watched the vixen turn the visor around on her hands. The dragon wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with hypnosis – he’d seen it happen many times before – but he highly doubted something as unsophisticated and simple as a visor displaying spirals and messages that were supposedly subliminal would have an effect on anyone. Heck, it’d be great if something so silly worked on big guys like him. All kinds of people would want to get their hands on that technology if it did.

Carmine was considerate enough not to say it out loud, but he highly doubted Summer’s visor was going to do anything. It wasn’t like he was entirely opposed to the idea, however. There was a side of hypnosis he liked as well, even though he still wasn’t used to admitting that out loud.

“What are you so happy about?” the vixen asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Uh, nothing! You just look very excited.”

“Well, I am. I wanted to try this with you. I bet you’ll enjoy it a lot.”

Carmine chuckled again.

“Okay. Just don’t get too upset if it doesn’t work, okay?”

Summer held his gaze, as if trying to understand why he was saying that. A big smile spread on her face just a few seconds later

“Oh, wait a second. You’re not kidding or trying to pretend it won’t work for funsies, right? You really think this isn’t going to work on you.”

“Uh, I mean…” Carmine tried to come up with the least offensive words. “It’s just a screen. I can tolerate a screen, I think. And I don’t know, but I find it hard to believe that I’m going to drop into a trance just because a screen tells me to sleep. It would be…”

“… too easy? Is that what you’re going to say?” the vixen asked, completing his sentence.

Carmine stood up in all his height and rolled his shoulders. When he was standing like that, he was a few heads taller than Summer.

“Look, I’m just saying you can try hypnotizing me any other way if this doesn’t work, but a visor… just doesn’t look like it’s the best option. I mean, you know me. Look at me. How susceptible do you think I am?”

Summer’s gaze met the furry dragon’s and then pretended to analyze him thoroughly, although the smile on her face betrayed her real intentions.

“Uh, pretty susceptible, yeah,” she ended up saying.

Carmine felt his cheeks getting warmer, but tried to hide it behind a hearty laugh.

“You’re not being serious.”

“I’m being really serious! You know what they say, the bigger they are…”

“… the stronger their will?” Carmine completed. There was no way he was letting Summer know how embarrassed that conversation was making him feel, but perhaps he could reduce the damage. “Come on! You’re just saying this because you want to tease me.”

“Oooooh, is that so? Then tell me – is it working?”

It took the dragon a second to respond, which was obviously enough for Summer to know that it was, indeed, working. I’m so clumsy, he thought, walking right into her trap. At least it wasn’t like he’d admitted it out loud.

“Uh, maybe, maybe,” he answered. “Anyway, if you’re so sure this’ll work on me, you better prove it.”

“On it. Take the visor and put it on.”

Summer handed the small piece of equipment to Carmine, who turned it around in his hands for a few seconds, trying to understand how it worked. It looked like a pair of regular diving goggles except for the small plastic cubicle hidden beneath the right temple, which the dragon supposed was where the device’s hardware must be housed. Other than that, the visor was basically just a thin, green lens. It didn’t even look that resistant, but Carmine hoped it was sturdier than it looked like. He would have regretted breaking it by accident.

“Is this synchronized with your phone or something?” he asked out of curiosity.

Summer waved a hand in disregard.

“Nah. I mean, it could be, if I wanted to, but it comes with a pre-recorded program already that I know will work.”

Carmine placed the visor around his head. It felt a bit tight, but not enough that it’d be uncomfortable or that he’d fear breaking it. When he finished adjusting it, the green lens filled his view completely. A subtle blush hit the dragon’s cheeks as he thought again about what he was doing.

It isn’t going to work, he told himself. There’s no way it’ll work!

However, if he thought about it for too long, he found himself wishing he was wrong.

“Okay, you’ll find the button to turn it on on the right side. I would push it myself, but you’re too damn tall,” Summer said, chuckling.

“Yeah, just give me a second.”

Carmine pushed the small button and waited patiently. The visor vibrated subtly, indicating that it had been activated, and then the image in front of his eyes began calibrating. It blinked and sizzled a few times before a single sentence appeared in front of Carmine’s slightly cross-eyed gaze.

“Initiating – Standard protocol.”

“You’re using the standard protocol with me?” the dragon asked with a scoff. “And you’re still surprised that I don’t think it’s going to work...”

“Oh, the standard protocol is just fiiiine, believe me.” Summer patted the dragon’s arm gently. “We don’t need any more than that. Let me know once the visor starts doing its thing and we’ll begin.”

Carmine nodded slowly. He wasn’t entirely sure what the visor was supposed to be doing, so he just stood there, expecting any kind of image or message to appear on the visor. Instead, the lens appeared to be completely devoid of anything. No images, no words, no sounds. Just that green shade filling everything.

The dragon tilted his head as he grew aware of the slightly awkward silence.

“Is it… is it working now?” he asked, a bit confused.

“It should be,” Summer answered. “Can’t you see anything?”

“Uh, no.”

“Oh, well. Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure you’ll see it soon enough.”

There was a playful edge to her voice and Carmine felt his pride jumping at the suggestion that he wasn’t fully aware of what was going on. I’m aware of what’s going on, he thought. I’m looking ahead, trying to see something that isn’t there, right?

Of course, there was always the possibility that the visor was supposed to work just like that. What if he was supposed to stare vacantly, trying to focus on things that weren’t there, until his mind simply grew so tired that it would obey whatever commands Summer thought he needed to follow? That counted as an induction of sorts, didn’t it?

The idea of falling into trance whether he was seeing something or not swirled in Carmine’s imagination for a few seconds, making his cheeks warmer as a subtle blush covered them. Of course, Summer must have realized he would come to that conclusion, right? What if she had planned something in case that wasn’t enough? Or perhaps she didn’t know. It wasn’t like he was so predictable--

“Ah. Yeah, sorry,” Summer’s voice reached his ears. It seemed to come from slightly further away than he’d expected, taken into account that nothing was happening and he was definitely not in a trance yet. “You were right, it takes a minute to load up. It should be working about… now.”

Suddenly, the lens in front of his eyes erupted with an explosion of lights, colors and words. A soft moan escaped Carmine’s mouth as his pupils dilated, trying to adjust to the overwhelming display in front of them.

The fluffy dragon almost stumbled on his own feet as if an invisible hand had pushed him. Messages appeared and disappeared so quickly that he could barely read them and instead the only thing he could do was feel certain words he wasn’t even sure if he’d seen already – like ‘boy’, ‘deep’, ‘obey’, ‘screen’, ‘good’ and ‘boy’ and ‘screen’ and ‘good’ and ‘deep’. All the while, spirals, fractals and other visuals flashed and swirled in an indefinite haze in front of him.

“Oh, would you look at that,” Summer said by his side. The dragon could feel her patting his arm softly. “It looks like it’s already started. I take it that you’re seeing something already, right?

Carmine nodded again, and the effort to lift his chin after it had casually rested on his chest was twice or even three times as much as it took to let it drop down.

His eyes remained focused on the visor in front of him – it wasn’t like there was anywhere else to look at anyway – and they were starting to get sort of glassy as they mirrored all the stimuli projected onto them. The dragon’s shoulders sank down, his arms dangling limply at his sides as his jaw grew heavy and slack.

“Do you still think you can’t be hypnotized with a visor, dragon?”

The words seemed to come from so far away now. The dragon hanged onto that last bit of pride still swirling somewhere in his chest.

“I…” he muttered. “I’m not… hypnotized…”

“You aren’t? Well, your words don’t match your looks, that’s for sure.” Summer was again using that playful tone with him. It reignited the dragon’s pride even if just for a few more seconds. “What is it that the visor is showing you?”

Carmine struggled to come up with an answer.

“Things,” he mumbled.

“Oh, that’s very specific. Are the things you’re seeing making you feel more relaxed?”

The dragon tried to fight the urge to give in and answer the way he was supposed to answer. But his brain was so busy trying to resist the lights and the subliminals and the spirals than it wasn’t like it could resist anything else at the moment. It had to prioritize.

It ended up focusing on resisting the visor.

“Yes,” he admitted in a sleepy monotone.

“Are the things you’re seeing making you feel dizzy? Disoriented? Almost like you don’t know where you are anymore?”

“Y… yes…”

“But those things you’re seeing… they’re also enjoyable, right?”

Summer said those words as she stroke Carmine’s arm. The drowsy dragon tried to think about the answer so that he knew what was it that he wasn’t supposed to admit.

Enjoyable? Carmine supposed it was.

His mind felt like it was grasping at straws, trying to stay afloat amidst the strong currents that aimed at sinking it right to the bottom. Like a feather in the sea, it was drifting and swirling, and Summer had been right when she’d said he didn’t really know where he was anymore.

But it felt… good. Strangely. Not being able to tell what was going on wasn’t making him any tenser. In fact, the promise of total abandon and surrender was making him feel strangely warm, strangely excited, strangely compliant. The pressure building around his head only made the final goal look even clearer – and it was one that Carmine was looking forward to, even if he wouldn’t have been able to admit it a few minutes ago.

Resisting only felt good because surrender followed. And by now, the first bit was getting harder and harder, so the heavy dragon simply wanted to…

… let go.

At some point, Summer’s voice drew his attention back to reality and lifted his consciousness from the void where it’d been abandoned.

The dragon’s glassy eyes regained some of their lost focus and met the vixen’s gaze. Apparently they were both standing at the same height now. It took Carmine’s sluggish awareness a few seconds to process the fact that he must have been dozing off for a while and that his body, too heavy to keep upright, was slouching forward. Summer had grabbed a hold of his chin and was keeping him in that position, making sure he wouldn’t fall to the ground but also keeping him close to her as he drifted in the trance.

A sheepish, embarrassed smile crept across the dragon’s face. He wasn’t entirely sure but he had a feeling that he’d been drooling.

The visor wasn’t flashing images and words so violently now. Instead, it seemed to be pulsing magnetically – throbbing. A deep, slow spiral rotated on the background of the lens as Carmine stared intently. A soft sound escaped his throat as Summer gently stroke his muzzle and his eyes focused on the simple, non-subliminal message displayed on the screen now.

‘Repeat’.

“You’re a good drone,” Summer cooed.

“I’mmm… good drooone…” Carmine slurred. His tongue felt heavy and unresponsive, as if he’d lost his ability to speak correctly when he’d first dropped into trance.

Then again, had he waken up after that? The dragon wasn’t entirely sure. The question was pushed to the back of his hazy mind, growing smaller and smaller until it simply vanished.

“Good drones obey,” Summer whispered in his ear.

“Ggggood dronesss… obuh… y…”

“Heh. You’re so lost in it that you can’t even speak?”

The tone used for this sentence was different, so Carmine’s slow brain decided that it must mean he wasn’t supposed to repeat. It didn’t sound like Summer was making fun of him either – just stating a fact that amused her.

“Come on, fluffy dragon. I know you can make a better job this time. You’re a good drone.”

There it was again. The right tone. The tone that told Carmine he was supposed to repeat.

“I’m a… good drone…”

“Good drones obey.”

“Good… drooones…” Carmine caught himself about to drift again and managed to fix it in time. Summer had told him he must repeat clearly, and that was exactly what he intended to do. “… obey…”

“There. Much better.” Summer patted his snout affectionately. “See? You can repeat like a good drone when you put all of your mind into it. It wasn’t that hard, was it?”

The dragon shook his head slowly, feeling slightly warm inside as Summer praised him for being such a good drone. Carmine had a distant memory about pride having to do with feeling good and about it being something he had to keep at all costs, no matter what.

So perhaps that’s what it meant. Doing what Summer said so that he’d make both of them happy. The dragon’s half-disconnected mind couldn’t really connect the dots, but it made sense somehow.

Obeying the vixen made him feel good.

“Let’s try repeating a few more sentences, okay?”

Carmine nodded again. If Summer hadn’t been holding his chin, his tongue would have lolled out by now.

“Good drones are susceptible to hypnosis.”

“Good drones… are sussstible… to hypnosis…”

Summer giggled a bit.

“Oh, that was a hard word, wasn’t it? Don’t worry. We can repeat it again. Good drones are susceptible to hypnosis.”

“Good drones are… susceptible… to hypnosis.”

“Thaaaat’s right. Good boy.” Another pat on his snout. Carmine’s tail was about to wag back and forth because of the excitement. “Let’s see. Do you remember the other two sentences I made you repeat? I want you to say them again, loud and clear, and I want you to add this last one. Can you do that for me?”

Carmine moved his heavy head up and down.

“I’m a good drone. Good drones obey. Good drones are susceptible to hypnosis.”

Summer’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction.

“So what are you?”

“… I’m a good drone.”

“And what must good drones do?”

“Good drones… obey…”

“And… er, what was the other sentence I made you repeat?”

“Good drones are susceptible to hypnosis.”

It was getting to hot for Carmine now, who felt blood rushing to his cheeks as Summer held him gently in place. The vixen was smiling now, a wide grin on her face. Making her proud was making the dragon feel all kinds of soft and warm and cozy inside. He wanted to keep going.

“That’s a good drone,” the vixen praised him. This time Carmine couldn’t help it and his tail wagged excitedly. Summer chuckled. “Let’s see… I think I can find a few more sentences for you to repeat. And then we can make sure they’ve really stuck where they should. What do you think, drone? Does that sound good?”

And Summer’s drone nodded, a big, goofy smile on his face.

Of course it did.

“Oh, yeah. Before we move on, there’s one thing that I absolutely need to make you repeat. Okay?”

Another nod. Summer’s drone didn’t care what it was. It’d repeat.

“Let’s see…” The vixen caressed the dragon’s arm softly and gave him an amused, mischievous grin. “Now, be a good drone and repeat for me – the bigger they are…”