{"sf1_id":1486139,"sf2_id":"egLLM2dm","title":"404","author":"WritersCrossing","words":706,"posted_at":"2019-09-05T21:59:42.000Z","tags":["Boss","Cat","Clean","Creative Writing","Illusion","Internet","Madness","Meme","Mortician","No Yiff","Poetry","SFW","Sexless","Short Story","WritersCrossing","Writing prompt","Yiffless","fired","no sex","short stories"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1486139-404","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/egLLM2dm","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/3f/e5/3fe541e6-bc54-42ed-96d9-9feafc61a6df","description":"Writers Crossing writing prompt submission for the week starting 8/30/19 and ending 9/5/19 by \n[@Chaon](/u/Chaon)\n  \nWriting prompt this week:  \n[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D9xqIW4UwAAA1d2.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D9xqIW4UwAAA1d2.jpg)  \nGo fave the origional authors work at the link below if you enjoy! They deserve the credit for the work, so let them know!  \n [https://inkbunny.net/s/1966169](https://inkbunny.net/s/1966169)\n  \n  \n\n[Posted using PostyBirb](http://www.postybirb.com)","content":"Once, upon a morning rainy I regarded; wan and sleepy   \nthereupon a table laden with accoutrements of gore.  \nCraft forgotten; stood I dozing: Corpse and scalpel thence forsaking,  \neyes upon a sight unnerving--one I?d never glimpsed before.  \nThere it lay: a .png obtained from Google?s image store.  \nSuch it was and nothing more.   \n  \nHow it tore my thoughts asunder; this one morning in September  \nher fond reminiscence tender--too insistent to ignore.  \nAnxiously, as I?m recalling, I awaited there for evening,  \nhence anticipate returning--resting tired quill and claw.  \nIn my boredom, idly skimming Google?s offerings galore  \ntill the page quoth 404.  \n  \nEre that error passed unbidden; journeying to realms forbidden   \nwould I glimpse a sight uncertain--yet resounding in my core.  \nEven now, to quell the feeling in my being it bears describing  \nto such audience remaining; what phenomenon I saw  \nwhen exploring social media's caverns of unsorted lore  \nthat shall haunt me evermore.  \n  \nThus I crave thy patience keenly while explaining picture clearly:  \nArctic wildernesses dreary was the stimuli I saw.  \nBleak and (honestly) foreboding monoliths of ice upsoaring  \nfrom a frozen sea uncaring; flecked in pale obsidian ore.  \nApocalyptic vistas yawning wide her unaccustomed maw:  \nThis it was and nothing more.  \n  \nYet (alas!) I lost my pleasure lighting on a short disclaimer  \nwrit by some sadistic author in description that it bore:  \nCareless sentence written idly of a Challenge; stating only  \n'Find the unexpected kitty' somewhere in this scene I saw.  \nIn this mission I exulted; seeking thus to prove my paw  \nout of pride and nothing more.   \n  \nSwiftly to assignment turning, I perused its image frowning;  \nseeking thus to pierce the drawing and uncover what it bore.  \n\"More than likely some illusion,\" thus I scoffed, \"I'll see for certain  \nwhat this artist might have hidden in this lonely landscape's core.  \nFool to even think of hiding any secrets from my claw!\"  \nMinutes passed. Then minutes more.   \n  \nThere I stared, my soul a-quiver, part in fear and part in anger  \nhereupon this pet disaster: prey unto a carnivore.  \nNary clue nor signal gave me; though there surely can't be any  \nmere illusion that could fool me--other sites had tried before.  \nFacebook, twitter and Discord have tried their hardest well before;  \nunsuceeding--nevermore!  \n  \nSuch a puzzle thus bamboozling my poor ego into swearing  \nthat I fain observed it speaking; mocking my perceptive flaw.   \n\"Cat concealed within my vision, be revealed,\" quoth I, outspoken,  \n\"Quit thy sanctuary as bidden--hide in icy scapes wherefore?\"  \nShow yourself unto my gaze and leave your hiding place therefore--  \nNo? You realize, this means war!\"  \n  \nWoe betide! For then; unseemly, spoke my colleague from behind me  \n\"Do you know you talk insanely?\" pointing to the screen I saw.   \nAdmonitions there were spoken, or entreaties I've forgotten,  \nfor my mind was rent and broken--shattered by that frozen shore.  \n\"Kitty: Find the hidden kitty.\" Hours drag and pass before.  \nNothing mattered anymore  \n  \n\"Let this be your final warning! Back to work!\" My boss complaining,  \nshook a livid fist foreboding; though I scarcely heard or saw.  \nNothing quoth by lord or lady in that moment could persuade me--  \ncast upon that scene ungainly of this unassuming shore:  \nbleak and cruel were the spires that unto gray heavens soar...  \nNot a single cat wherefore.  \n  \nTo my mind this world grew darker, losing thus its former lustre,  \nrigor mortis creeping closer 'pon the corpses on my floor.  \n\"Random post!\" I begged, \"Absolve me! By Creator who has drawn thee!  \nLend a poor mortician mercy--Show your cat to me therefore!\"  \nQuoth the server: 404.  \n  \n\"Nay!\" shrieked I, \"Accursed devil! Photoshopped device of evil,  \nif thou fain cannot be civil, I now cast thee hence ashore!  \nLeave no .jpeg as a token of experience best forgotten!  \nYield to me my peace unbroken, as I once enjoyed before...  \nGet ye gone!\" And now superior showed me gently to the door--  \nOnce my colleague; nevermore!  \n  \nYet this winter scene foreboding, still is present; still existing  \ntrapped within a mind unseeing when I cannot a meme ignore.  \nSomewhere on that page uncertain lurks a feline that is hidden  \nand the memories unbidden tease and torment me therefore.  \nTease and tear upon my soul in words writ large on screen before:  \nQuoth the server: 404."}