FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

This story is based on Von Krieger's [Sorcery.Net](%5C). Used with permission. Also, I abandoned the present tense.

It takes a fast sort of mind to adjust to having a mythical creature, one of those things you hear about on the web, but never dreamed existed, standing in front of you in an excellently tailored suit. Lynn had one of those minds.

"Can we go someplace a little more, I dunno, solid?" she said, looking around. "I don't like being in an Apple commercial." Steve crossed his arms and wiggled his nose. There was a blink, and they popped into a tavern.

"Too cliche?" said Steve, his snout contorting oddly. Did dragons smile?

"Very."

Blink.

Back in their living room, Steve lounged on their sofa. "The engine allows anybody to create anything they desire. You can get started by using one of our Help Daemons." He snapped his fingers. "Oria?"

After the smoke cleared, a small orb hovered right over their old copies of TIME. An orb with wings. It cycled through several colors of the rainbow, glowing slightly. "Roger," it said crisply.

"Tell these people what they need to know," said Steve, then poofed out. There was a brief silence.

"I really wish he wouldn't do that," said Lynn.

"So, what do you need to know?"

"How does this Engine work?"

Oria settled into a neutral grey, which, the couple suspected, was the equivalent of a human's face carefully going blank. "Technology," it said slowly. "Technology that beams simulated environments directly into the brains of it's users by means of a hidden device in all contemporary electronics. It was inserted during the Cold War and forgotten, until a group of ambitious young Web 2.0-ers discovered it, buried in bureaucracy. They decided to use it for the entertainment good of mankind."

Lynn and Ron looked at each other, then back at Oriya.

"How do they plan to make money?"

"Product placement. You know those Coke cups on American Idol...?"

"What do people tend to use the Engine most for?"

"Sex."

The couple looked at each other, then back again. Then Ron leaned in.

"What kind of sex?" he said quietly.

Several hours later, a compact car pulled up to Ron and Lynn's house. The woman in the car was large, dyed her hair black, and thought Marie Barrone was too liberal with her children. This was Ron's mother, and she walked right up to the front door, and opened it with the key she had duplicated that one time Ron had the flu and Lynn was at a business conference. Poor thing. He had no idea how to deal with women. If he did, he wouldn't have married her, would he? Trailing

rationalizations and mutterings, Andrea opened the front door.

"Hello?" You left the front door unlocked. How often do I have to tell you that it's not safe?

Silence.

No one upstairs, in the kitchen, the downstairs bathroom, or the garage. The two computers on in the living room drew her like a magnet, and she hurriedly scrolled down the displayed email message on the desktop. She would've checked the rest of Lynn's mail, but that link looked very interesting. Why would Lynn and Ron leave it up? She reached for the screen an tapped it thoughtfully.

Blink.

She was all in white, and everything was white, and there was an winged orb in front of her. "Welcome t-"

"Who are you, and where am I?"

The orb cycled black for a second. Probably a blink of some sort. "Where should I start?"

Andrea looked around. "Start with all the white."

Two hours later, Andrea stood up. "I think I have it. And Ron and Lynn are in...here, somewhere?"

"Yes!"

"Take me to them."

Blink.

Andrea stood in front of a wood door. She would've knocked, but the orb-thingie got between her and the door and told her she couldn't go in there!

"Just watch me," Andrea muttered. Who knew what kind of perversions they were doing in there! Ron couldn't know how to handle himself. Andrea shoved the orb aside and pushed open the door. Inside, in the dark, were two heaving bodies.

"Mom?" said one of them, rolling off the other. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, Andrea saw the fur on their bodies, the strange shape of their head, and she smelled the sex in the air. It smelt, oddly, like almonds. She also saw he son's dick, and a similar, but oddly-shaped cock at Lynn's crotch. She leaned against the doorframe for a few seconds, catching her breath.

"I knew it," she muttered.

A few minutes later, the three were all sitting in the living room. Lynn was still in her "furry" body, with a blanket wrapped around her. Ron was back in his regular clothes and skin, and Andrea was having the shakes.

"What-"

"An extremely realistic simulation."

"How-"

"Internet."

"When-"

"A few years back."

"Who-"

"Some Web 2.0 guys."

Andrea was silent for a few moments. "You still have it," she said to Lynn.

"Have wha-oh, this." She pressed her hand to her glans, closed her eyes, and pressed down. It gave easily, presumably disappearing under the blanket. She even made the stain disappear, Andrea noted grudgingly. She shook herself; this was no time to be impressed. Ron, mistaking her shake for a shiver, pressed a mug of hot cocoa into her hand. Andrea wanted to ask how they could trust the company, what was their stock price at, where were they based, did they want any money, etc. What came out was "how do I get in?"

Lynn grinned. Ron grinned. Steven poofed onto the couch and grinned, then said "we have a convert". Andrea spilled her cocoa.

"Who the frak are you?" she yelped, partially from surprise and partially from the cocoa in her lap.

"Sorry about that. Here, let me clean that up." He passed a hand over Andrea's crotch, and the pain and milky fluid vanished. "I'm one of the game admins, by the way."

"How-"

"We can project elements of the sim into reality. We can even make it so certain people can't see it. All we need is a signal." He paused. "Even a cell phone would work."

Andrea looked at her son and daughter in-law, and back to the strange creature sitting next to her.

"Do you have a card?" she asked.