FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I was on the couch again when I woke up. Raia was on top of me. We'd gotten kinda into it and I'd decided there was less of a chance of breaking something if we were on the couch.

I really just wanted to lay there; I was tired and I didn't want to wake her up. Life hates me too much for that though.

My digivice began to go off, but I simply ignored it. Can't mess with the plotline too much, I thought, shit'll start getting messy.

Instead, I woke up Raia, let her complain about having to move, and went to my computer. It was already on, I never turn it off, so I plugged in earbuds and started up some music. As much as I hate using earbuds, I was minus a headset, so I had no choice.

I pulled up Raia's src and set Notepad++ to a couple different codes, but none of them really looked like they made sense. I was confused and slightly irritated because, without a proper code guideline, I was bound to fuck something up. As I puzzled over this, I minimized the window to switch songs, and I noticed a new icon, sticking out in the middle of my desktop. I knew I hadn't put it there because I put all my icons in the corners of the screen so I could see my wallpapers. DIDE was the name of the program, with a blue square with a static noise pattern over it as the icon. Confused even more and feeling a bit adventurous, I went against my better judgment and opened it. A window opened with a header-line that read "Digimon Integrated Development Environment" on the bar.

I was surprised. This was a development tool for Digimon code. It must have installed when I'd imported Raia's data. I attempted to open an existing project and clicked Raia's src. The window then split into halves. On the left was a code window with a library database and the right was a 3D render, not unlike a 3D image editor. As I played with the code, I saw changes forming on the render, everything from fur color to extreme augments. I did notice an anomaly in the fur color, which had a string rather than a hex value. It looked like it was set to change under certain circumstances, but the variables used were vague enough that I couldn't tell what they were or even guess at them.

I decided to set it aside, thinking it was probably some extraneous digivolution code. Besides, it's fur color. Hardly affects performance. Instead, I started working on a few moves and effects, which I either embedded into Raia's moveset or wrote to my digivice, which I had discovered could be connected and also contained Raia's code. The digivice could then write the codes onto any card I swiped through it, allowing me to create custom cards, though each had limitations, side effects, or costs based on the effect created.

After messing with the code for a bit, I'd created a few new moves, augmented a few cards, and generally just got a feel for the construction of a digimon. Honestly, I walked away with the best headache of my life. It was all so confusing, yet I managed to grasp it to some extent. These coders knew what they were doing.

I walked back out to find the couch unoccupied. Hmm. Bad sign. Knowing how Raia had been acting, she was probably up to some mischief.

I flicked on the TV for some noise in the room and relaxed as I waited for my headache to pass. After a while, Raia came back into the room, but she did something strange.

Rather than coming over to sit with me, she opted for another seat a ways away from me. I was curious and slightly worried. Why was she avoiding me? On closer inspection, I noticed she was tense in her posture. Hmm. Someone needed a good poke with the troll stick.

"You cool over there?"

She didn't answer. I gave the question a moment to hang awkwardly before trying again.

"Hey, Raia, you alright?"

Still no response.

"Hey!" I shouted. She snapped her head up and looked at me. "Finally! What's wrong with you?"

She stared for a second before responding. "Nothing." was her terse reply. Something was up.

"Raia, don't lie to me." I said, getting ready to get up. She tensed up quickly and obviously, as if she were about to break into a sprint. "Don't run. Just don't. I'm not pulling some stupid chase shit with you."

She seemed to relax a bit, but when I fully stood up, I barely had time to take a step before she was off like a rocket.

"God damn it, Raia. Why are you running?" I called after her. I thought about following her, but decided against it. I'd never catch her, besides, she had something on her mind, that was clear enough. I figured it was better to let her get her shit straight first.

(Break)

A few hours later, Raia stumbled back into the house, literally. Her legs were diced up and she was bleeding from a gash on her arm.

"Raia!" I yelled when I saw her. "What the fuck happened to you!?"

"Got in a fight." She muttered through staggered breaths.

"With what!? A goddamn gang of Champions?" I said as I went for gauze. "Stand still, I need to get those wounds cleaned and wrapped."

As I came back with gauze, I saw she'd sat down and was panting. I walked past her to get a brown bottle out of one of the cabinets.

"What's that?" She spoke through her ragged breathing.

"It cleans wounds, although I don't know if it'll work for you or if you even need it, but it's worth the measure of precaution." I uncapped the bottle and held it over her arm, gesturing for her to hold it out. "This is gonna burn some, but it'll clean the shit outta that cut so I can cleanly bandage it." She nodded briskly, and tensed in preparation for the pain. I gently poured the clear liquid into the gash, being sure not to pour too much. The instant it made contact, the liquid fizzed and Raia ripped her arm back, nearly howling in pain.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" She screamed.

"Hydrogen peroxide. It kills bacteria in a cut and that gash looks shallow enough that it seemed like a good idea to use it." I started to unroll the gauze as I spoke. "Stick your arm back out so I can wrap it. This will hurt too, but it should hurt less." She presented her arm to me and I wrapped gauze tightly around it, just short of cutting off circulation. I then went to work on her legs, sprinkling them with peroxide and wiping the blood out of her fur.

"What the hell happened, Raia?" I asked as I worked on her.

She looked away, trying simply to avoid my gaze.

"Raia , what's wrong? You need to talk to me here."

She mumbled something that I couldn't begin to understand and this evasiveness was starting to piss me off.

"Raia, what the hell is going on with you?" I said, tying off the gauze. "You ran out of here after completely ignoring me and you come back looking like you got the shit kicked out of you. Hell, the only explanation I have to go off of is "got in a fight". What can I do with that?"

She started to cry and I felt remorse begin to nag at me.

"I'm sorry." I couldn't tell you who said it honestly.

"I'm a freak of data." She said finally. "A damn glitch."

"What are you talking about? You're perfectly normal." I said, trying to reassure her.

"No," She choked. Tears soaked ruts in her fur. "I'm a mutt."

A mutt. I honestly couldn't process what I was hearing. I must've repeated her though, because she confirmed it and held one of her arms up.

She pulled off an arm guard to reveal a large patch of silver fur that the guard barely concealed, sleek and shiny, in contrast to her fluffy yellow fur.

"What the hell..."

"I told you," she said. "I'm just a shitty batch of code. Corrupted."

"The hell you are." I said, remembering the string I'd seen before. "This is something that was coded in. The conditions for the change aren't complete though."

She looked at me with newfound hope. "What?"

"Yeah, you're supposed to be that color," I said, gesturing to the patch of silver. "Why you were hatched yellow, I'll never know. Maybe that's how all Renamon are born."

"So," She sniffled. "What are the conditions for the change?"

"I really don't know. The code was vague as all hell."

"Maybe I should look at it." She said, slowly standing. I rose with my shoulder underneath her arm to support her.

"Worth a shot. Come on." I said, slowly walking her through the house.

(Break)

I pulled up the file and did a quick search to zero in on the line, finding it in a couple seconds.

"Alright, there it is. What do you make of it?" I asked, leaning back in my chair as she studied the screen.

She blushed a bit and looked away.

"And?" I asked expectantly. "What is it?"

"I... couldn't read it." She said after a pause.

Bullcrap. I could tell she was lying, but given all she'd been through in the past couple hours, I decided to let it slide.

"Alright." I said, resigned. "I guess we'll find out when it happens." She turned to me and nodded.

I stood and walked out of the room with her. "Come on, let's get you to bed, you need to recover." And with that, I limped her to the bed and she sprawled across the sheets like a ragdoll. Looking upon her for the fleeting moment before I laid alongside her, I gave myself plenty of thoughts to fall asleep to. I took note of her form, elegantly outlined against the monochrome of the sheets, and wondered who it was who created her. Such a magnificent beast, one I had all to myself, yet who could think of it? A thousand incredible details an artist would never think of, strength and speed which would defy quantification, beauty and spirit rivaling any muse, who could create this? God? I would have to think, no mortal could create such a thing consciously, without divine inspiration.

My thoughts faded into more mundane topics as my mind began to close up shop. I admired the feel of the bed, not unlike mine at home, for this was my first time using it. I took a few moments to appreciate the warmth and comfort of Raia clutching to me in an almost desperate embrace as she drifted into what I had to hope was a peaceful sleep.

Despite the slowing of my mind, I couldn't fall asleep. It didn't worry me, I was used to it happening, and decided to shift a bit and try to relax. What I ended up doing though, was turn and end up face-to-muzzle with Raia. Tired, bored, and generally not in my right mind, I decided to do a series of things, some of which were probably stupid. First, I drew her closer, letting her wrap herself around me more in her sleep. Second, I sort-of eskimo-kissed her and then gave her a few light kisses. Third, and this is where the stupidity really begins, I think, I kissed her full-on, rousing her from sleep slightly. Her eyes began to flutter open and I'm fairly certain instinct took over from there. At that point, my brain had shut down to the point that I can't really recall and I doubt I was in control of my actions.