FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sequence 1 Merge 5, Urban Super-Natural Jeremy, Siamese, Sorcerer Jeremy opened the door without knocking. It had only taken him one day after convincing his coworker to move in to realize that simply calling to him wasn’t enough to get him to move. Or move in the direction he needed, which, right now, was toward getting ready for work. The ferret was naked, not unusual, and working at his standing desk, also not unusual. Jeremy took the time to admire the lithe body, and wish they were neither coworkers nor roommates, before calling out. “Ralf, time for work.” “On it,” the ferret replied. Jeremy sighed. “Ralf, it’s time to get ready to leave for work. Stew has breakfast on the table.” He knew to watch his wording. Ralf was, technically, currently working. “Already?” He looked around, searching. “How much sleep did you get?” The ferret looked at the unmade bed. “Enough.” He was confident he’d told Ralf to go to bed when he headed there himself, but that didn’t mean he had stayed there. An idea could strike before he fell asleep, or wake him, and he’d get working on it. His friend was a genius with the attention span of a gnat unless he was working on something; then, just about the only thing that could distract him was a new idea. Jeremy always thought Ralf was what ADHD aspired to be. His workbench was filled with unfinished projects. He did finish some, and those were…. Well, Jeremy wouldn’t call the phone Ralf made for him to replace his old one impossible, but he’d yet to be charged by the provider for any of the calls he’d made, and his family lived in Salt Lake City, so there were a lot of long-distance calls on a plan that only gave him a hundred minutes of them. Ralf looked awake enough, so all should be good. “Get dressed, and come have breakfast.” Direct, succinct sentences worked best on his friend. Steward, their landlord and other housemates was mostly amused the times Ralf forgot to dress as he moved about the house, but Jeremy didn’t want to risk the raccoon deciding today was the day he was offended by it, or that today was the day he made advances on the ferret. He had no idea if their landlord was bi, but he was confident a few of the smiles he’d caught were lewd. He should tell his friend how he felt. Wouldn’t it be better to know where he stood, instead of pining the way he did and hope Ralf noticed and said something? But it could ruin their friendship and work relationship. And it wasn’t like Ralf had shown any interest in anyone for as long as Jeremy had known him. Once the ferret was dressing, Jeremy headed to the kitchen, where coffee waited, along with a plate of bacon and eggs. Two minutes, and if Ralf wasn’t there, he’d go back. A minute and fifteen seconds later, the ferret sat next to him at the island and started on his plate and drinking his orange juice. Caffeinating the ferret was a mistake they’d discovered on the first breakfast. Keeping him from upgrading the furnace had caused them to miss work that day. “You two be careful out there,” Stewart called as they headed for the door. “There’s a storm brewing.” Jeremy didn’t bother grabbing an umbrella. The raccoon thought himself some sort of weather wizard, but he hadn’t been right once since the cat had moved in. The bus reached the empty stop while Jeremy ran for it, waving to get the driver’s attention. They were almost there. He could— The bus drove past them. “Oh, come on!” he yelled after it. “Why can’t you just stop for us? We were almost there!” The brakes screeched, and barely staying under control, the bus came to an abrupt stop. “Guess the driver heard you,” Ralf commented as Jeremy ran past him. Ralf almost never hurried. Panting, Jeremy knocked on the door, and startled the driver from looking at his dash. He opened it. “Thank you for stopping,” he told the confused looking driver as he scanned his phone. “We’d be late if we’d missed you.” It beeped, announcing the fare had been paid. He did his best not to abuse the fact that his account hadn’t been deducted in the three years Ralf had given him this phone. The ferret scanned his, and the bus got moving. They had to remain standing, but Jeremy didn’t mind. The crowd meant Ralf had to press against him, and he could imagine it was more than the press of people that made his friend be this close. Tell him, he mentally screamed. Oh, sure. In a crowd, to be laughed at when Ralf looked at him uncomprehendingly. This was neither the time nor the place. One day, he promised himself, he’d tell his friend how he felt. * * * * * “We’re working on the engine block,” Jeremy reminded Ralf, as the ferret walked away, typing on his phone. It wasn’t the first time, wouldn’t be the last. This kind of interaction had been how they’d met. Him, walking by one of the automotive lab with an engine dangerously red-lining, the ferret busy on his phone, oblivious to the coming disaster and the partners who should have been there nowhere to be seen. The company had everyone work in teams. He’d burned himself disconnecting the engine from the test instruments, some of which he didn’t know. Then had checked with the ferret, catching glimpses of the phone’s screen and the chemical formulas that were meaningless to him. He’d pointed out he should be working on the engine, and the ferret had put the phone away and started on that. Then the team had shown up with a supervisor complaining about Ralf not doing any of the work and had been embarrassed at seeing him actually working. Jeremy found out later that they weren’t the first team the ferret had been placed with and who hadn’t been able to deal with his easily distracted mind. “I just told him to get back to work,” Jeremy said to the supervisor and went back to his own team. The next they, he was paired with Ralf and only him, and they’d become a good team, so long as he reminded the ferret what they worked on. Ralf had ideas the like Jeremy couldn’t envision, but they didn’t always account for the reality of what could be done. With them, Jeremy could design something better than currently existed, and together they could implement them. “You have a sixteen allen?” he called from under the block and extended a hand. Immediately the wrench was in his hand. He used it without double checking it was the correct one. He didn’t have to. Jeremy didn’t know how Ralf did it, but he always had the right tool for the job within reach. He’d joked once, that it was like Ralf was magic, and the ferret had replied there was no such thing. And gone on explaining how magic tricks were done. It would have been depressing if Jeremy had cared about those. He wasn’t into magic himself, although he occasionally indulged in a fantasy of being a wizard rescuing men in danger and then enjoying their gratitude. A lot of those might be based on stories he read online. The sensor installed in the oil pan, he reached a hand out and Ralf pulled. “Thanks.” He looked over the work on the catalytic converter. It all looked to match the design they’d agreed. “It is ready to run?” “I can still improve it.” “Yes, but as it is. Is it good for a test? Knowing how it’s performing will be helpful in working out how to improve it, right?” “No.” Ralf made notes on his phone. “But it’s adequately functional.” A lot of getting Ralf to function with him, and possibly others, if anyone in the company was willing to take the time to get to know the ferret, had been about getting him to understand that interim design still had validity. He might not be happy with it, but their bosses weren’t looking for perfection, just improvements on the previous designs. And together, they gave them that, when Ralf remembers to stop chasing perfection. Well, when Jeremy reminded him to stop. Ralf couldn’t seem to do it. At best, he’d be distracted by a new idea, but then a project might be left unfinished. Which didn’t always help. Jeremy had looked at a few of those on his workstation at home and hadn’t been able to make heads or tails of some of them. His friend’s genius extended to field Jeremy hadn’t even heard of. He flicked the switch, and the engine started. After five minutes, the reading from the sensor he’d added to the pan, and those already in the catalytic converter, stabilized. “A three point eight percent improvement on burning the pollutants, not bad, Ralf.” “I can make it better.” “Next version, but this will keep the bosses happy. Oil’s warming up. How about a break? I won’t be able to tell if the alterations to the combustion chambers have the effect I’m aiming for until it’s at temperature.” Ralf didn’t answer, typing on his phone. Right, he hadn’t perceived the question as directed at him. “Ralf, we should take a break while the engine warms up.” He checked the computer was set to send an alarm to his phone if the engine overheated. “Phone away, Ralf. No typing and walking. You know the rule.” “People should watch where they’re going.” “And, unless things changed, you are people too.” Reluctantly, the ferret put it away. They made it part way before a door opened, and Jeremy nearly collided with it. Only for the man exiting to shoulder him out of his way. “Watch where you step,” the burly man said dismissively. “Fuck you, Sandusky,” Jeremy snapped, keeping his footing with Ralf’s help. “Would it kill you to be considerate and apologize?” The man grunted and put a hand on his chest. He grumbled. Pulling a smoking phone from his breast pocket. “Karma’s a bitch,” Jeremy whispered. Sometimes, he liked how coincidences happened. The breakroom was, as usual, busy. “Hot cocoa?” he asked Ralf, who was at a table, typing on his phone. “Ralf, do you want a hot cocoa?” The grunt wasn’t negative, so Jeremy opened the cupboard. He moved the mugs out of the way. “Where is my mug?” he snapped. Something shattered, and someone cursed. He turned around. Linda, from accounting, was frozen, hand in the air, front of covered from the dirt of the broken potted plant at her feet. He didn’t know what had caused it to fall, but it had stopped the thief in her track. His Attila the Nun mug was in her raised hand. “Bring your own mug,” he said, snatching it and sending coffee flying. “If you don’t want to use the company’s. Like I did.” He apologized to those the coffee had landed, not that they deserved it; both were Linda’s hanger ons, and washed the mug. He washed a company mug while at it and made two hot cocoas. Ralf was still typing. “What idea are you working on this time?” “Thermodynamics.” “As it applies to engines?” “No, motion across space, I think I can design a shape that would cut friction with atoms so that a ship would be able to achieve a closer target to light without the hull melting.” “I thought the problem was because that mass edges toward infinity the closer it gets to the speed of light.” “That just means you need more energy. That’s an easy fix.” Jeremy chuckled. Only his friend would call coming up with an infinite power source the simple problem with light speed travel. “How are you going to test the design?” Those answers were always interesting. “Build the ship.” “Miniature or full scale?” Ralf stared at him, and Jeremy considered it a small accomplishment. And the offended expression was cute. “Full scale, of course. What’s the point of building something if you’re going to have to build it again?” “And where’s your space yard to build that ship?” Stunned surprise, and the fingers were moving before the ferret was looking at the screen. Swiping to a new page, this one blank, although he was already typing. That could have been a mistake. “Drink your coco, Ralf, before it gets cold.”