FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Othar crouches on his post near the top of a small mountain, his eyes scanning the city below. This was his favorite location to sit and meditate. No sign of humans anywhere to be seen. Far too high up for most pollution, leaving him with some pristine if somewhat cold air. He isn't so high up that the air has gotten that much thinner, but then if he did get too high up that it would take him far too long to reach. There is no benefit for establishing a home here. The point is to have a place he can just go to in order to get away from it all. Because he still has to live amongst the humans, even if he really would rather not have to. But there are things he has to take care of amongst them. He has a duty to perform and a goal he wants to achieve. But even still, that doesn't change the fact that there are times when he simply wants time to get away from it all. Even this far away he can practically smell the corruption and filth of the humans below. Self-entitled creatures, humans. Go around molding the entire realm to fit their own needs with absolutely no regard to what the rest of the world wants. And then go about falling to vice and demanding the very stolen goods from their neighbors. A truly despicable species. But they do have their uses and unfortunately there are far too many of them for him to simply try and wipe the entire species out. And as others have convinced him, it is far better to mold them to do what he wants than to go through the extremely difficult and arduous task of trying to eliminate them all.

And yet, in spite of him being in this remote of a location he can feel the presence of someone else approaching from below, coming at a speed no human could ever achieve. But the scent is familiar to him, Othar is not at all concerned about their identity. And of course, they aren't coming as they really are but as one of his little playthings. A lump of flesh that he parades around to do his bidding. No more real than a projection and even then Othar would be more considerate to a projection, because that is at least showing who they really are. This thing approaching him can look like whatever the doctor wants it to look like, is able to do just about whatever the doctor wants it to do, though nowhere close to what even a projector could do if that was their ability. But, he had a flair for the dramatic and was always rather loathsome to ever get his actual feet dirty doing anything. And so he sent one of his little playthings. This one is actually one of his more elegant creations. A large pair of feathery wings adorns this one's back. Which means that either it is very important for him to track Othar down or he's near the edge of the doctor's range and he had to use one of his better playthings. If it is the latter then he simply would have to go a bit further away to not have to deal with anyone. But that is for another time.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to track you down?" the new individual asks once within earshot, not sounding the least bit out of breath, though that is expected considering the method to which he got to this location. Othar didn't bother turning to the individual, there is no point in gracing this fake body with his full attention.

"For you specifically? No more difficult than it is for anyone to breathe. You're only complaining because you are annoyed at having to go through the effort to have that husk fly up here. And of all the effort it takes to reach me. But you aren't here to just complain about finding me. So what is it that you want, Edmund?"

"Is it so wrong of me to come and say hello to my favorite little dragon?" he asks, taking a seat on the edge of the cliff.

To this response Othar turns and faces Edmund and stares at him disdainfully for a moment. Edmund closes his eyes and grins as widely as possible. "Got you to look at me."

"Ugh," Othar rolls his eyes and looks back down at the city below them. "You know, there was a time where we would have been considered to be gods. Not imprisoned and forced to fight in blood sports for their amusement."

"Well to be fair, back then there would only be like maybe a handful in any given region. And even then the abilities of some are not going to be seen as that impressive. But when in the entire continent there is only one person alive that can completely control the weather and dictate when the rains come then naturally these people will worship them. They don't know any better," Edmund shrugs. "And it's not like life was all that better for us back then either. Generally in any area whoever learns the second one first is the one that becomes the leader of whatever pantheon the people generate for that generation. And then naturally that power goes to their head and conflicts between them erupt and then eventually there's a falling out and they kill each other."

"You always know how to ruin a good idea."

"I'm a realist. Life wasn't really good for any of us. Yes, back then the only people you had to worry about were others like you. But at the same time can you think of a single instance where one of those so-called gods died of old age? Not to mention having to live without modern medicine or plumbing. If I wanted to eat a piece of fruit during the winter I can do so and have it fresh too. Can't do that back then. You only ate whatever was in season, and even then it was half rotten most of the time. I have no idea how you tolerated living that barbarically."

"Very funny," Othar snorts at him. "But we both know that you would go insane if you were forced to live a single day without being able to access electrical appliances. You love modern technology way too much for your own good."

"Yeah, probably a little bit."

"And even still, you are aware that phones exist. You could always just have just called."

"But there is absolutely no guarantee that you would ever pick up. Or, considering the location, that your phone would even work."

Othar reaches over and pulls out his phone and turns it on. "Seems to be working just fine." He puts his phone away and then sighs. "So why don't you tell me how your little device is progressing. I can't imagine any other reason why you would be up here bothering me except to brag about your little toy."

"It's not a toy. Once I have this device perfected it will revolutionize how wars are fought from this day forward."

"Then why hasn't it?"

"Because those fools refuse to acknowledge my genius and it requires for those two nations to fully be at war with each other instead of just dancing around the issue. In theory it should work as intended. It's just a matter that they are way too precious a resource for them to give me one to test my device over."

"Then why not just try it out yourself?"

"I have, doesn't do anything for me. The very point is efficiency and I cannot get any more efficient in the use of my abilities than I already have. Any luck on your end on finding our special plaything?"

"He's around," Othar shrugs. "It's too soon for me to really be able to pinpoint his power. He's not the most powerful individual out there, nor do I think he ever will be. I doubt he'd be able to take me on even with your little toy. He's been mostly in hiding, keeping his power suppressed. Or possibly hasn't really come into his real powers yet. Either is possible. All I know is that I can smell him taunting me on the winds and he is growing stronger."

"To think a double elemental is alive and active. If anyone was to be the head of a pantheon it'd be that, especially with the right element combinations. But I do certainly hope that it is you can't find them because they are hiding rather than just being too young for you accurately pinpoint his position. Someone hiding knows that others are looking for them. If he can elude you then he must be very skilled already and clever and I can't wait to see what all my device can do with his. If he's just too young to know any better than I might have to wait years before he's ready to fully appreciate what I can do for him, assuming he doesn't get himself killed in the meantime. And I hate waiting."

"Well you're going to have to wait regardless. There is no reason to use your toy when there isn't a war going on. And that'll be a couple years yet before that happens. I am doing what I can to help accelerate things, but there's only so much I can reasonably do."

"And I appreciate it, I certainly do. I fully understand that without your meddling things might have mellowed out between those two childish countries and settled into a calm peace. Maybe even come to see the other as a brother instead of an enemy. And how horrid would that end up being? Though on that note what of our other person of interest?"

"Ugh," Othar spits out his disgust at having to even think about that person. "He's as frustrating as ever. He never stays in one place for very long and his actions are extremely random as far as I can tell. That he's hunting Manifestors is easy to discern. But the method of his actions make no logical sense. He'll travel to where one of them is in hiding, skipping over a different one, then he'll just stay there for a day or two and then leave that one alive then come back and kill the one he skipped. If I could figure out his pattern or why he's deciding to let some go and others he kills I could lay out a trap for him. I know I can't just go after him directly. The last few times I did he just ran away and hid long before I could even get onto his trail. He's also been avoiding you as well."

"Have you figured out what his abilities are?"

"No, and that's what even more frustrating. There's seemingly no rhyme or reason for what he does or how it is that he's killing off Manifestors. And to top it all off, he is definitely at the second stage but he disguises what he can do so well that I cannot even tell what categories he's in."

"I hope he doesn't go after our double elemental. That would definitely be unfortunate, for both of us."

"That won't be a problem, at least not for a while. In one of the few instances where I felt the presence of our double elemental I could also tell that he was aware as he immediately changed directions for our elemental. The paths of the two crossed at some point, though I cannot tell if he never found him either, if he let him go or didn't find them worth hunting at this time. So at the very least we can be reasonably sure that so long as I am unable to determine the exact location of our special individual, that bastard will not be doing them any harm as well."

"Well some small consolation, I suppose," Edmund shrugs. "Still would be much better if we could single out his location and deal with him once and for all. His very presence is a threat to everything we are trying to accomplish and if my device were to get into his hands then I can only imagine how much he would ruin any plans we have available. So I would very much prefer it if you were to arrange his permanent end before it's gotten to full distribution."

"I am not amused by that allegation," Othar growls, "I will kill him when I am able to get at him. I could just as easily say that you could keep him from getting your device by simply not having your device released to the public."

"I'm afraid that cannot simply be done. Progress can only move forward. Never back or stop completely."

Othar considers for a moment. The vessel that Edmund is currently using wouldn't have the energy to make it back down by its own. By his estimation it'll lose the energy needed to move before it's even gotten a third of the way down the mountain. And then it'll be another hour or two being stuck in that corpse before it'd let him out. It's simply a matter of logistics. Edmund won't leave on his own power because that would guarantee him having to suffer for a few hours before he can do anything else. And he's too proud to simply ask. It would be admitting to a flaw in the design. Instead Edmund is simply trying to antagonize him, knowing that he'd have no qualms about killing the puppet. Othar sighs and frowns for a moment while Edmund is just staring off down at the city below. Without any preamble, Othar cuts off the head of the flesh puppet, killing it and sending Edmund back to his own body instantly. If he had more to say he'd have to send another puppet up. And if he took any offense to the act, then he shouldn't have come to talk with him in the first place.

Though as Othar looks down at the city again he considers one very important thing he should have probably spoken up about before killing the doll. Which is why would Edmund have made his way all the way up here to talk. Nothing he had talked about seemed at all important enough to warrant the trip. Othar was the one that had brought up Edmund's device. The only things that Edmund seemed interested in was on those two individuals. Which, unless he was strongly suspecting was compromising his location or that someone was eaves dropping it really wouldn't make all that much sense. But he seemed done talking and so Othar had just decided the conversation was over. Well if he needed to Edmund could always call. And in the meantime Othar can have a little while of some peace and quiet without having to deal with any interruptions again. It's highly unlikely that Edmund would have another one that could fly all the way up to him so quickly and even then it'd likely take a few hours.