FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

(Note: this story is basically clean, but it has been marked as adult due to some brief references to sexual activity.)

When the day of my assignment arrived, I probably shouldn't have been surprised by it. After all, I'd been learning about it, and the things surrounding it, for most of my years of schooling, from my teachers, my parents, and the upbeat, erudite creatures they referred to as their "companions." Despite how much a part of society they were now, the history of the whole thing had actually started much more recently than any other historical event that I could recall - after all, my parents had been little more than small children when the creatures had first arrived.

It had been a major event - first contact with the only alien species ever confirmed to have visited Earth. For whatever reason, there had been little warning - no deep-space radio signals, no groundbreaking astronomical observations. One day, the massive ships, many kilometers across, had descended from the sky, over nearly every major city in the world. They were met with a variety of responses from different nations, everything from diplomatic overtures to military assaults. The latter they quickly dispersed, with an inexplicable technology that forbid combustion and turned the weapons and engines of the war machines in question impotent. The diplomacy, however, was eagerly met, and the news channels were soon blaring nonstop with news of the momentous event - until, a few days later, every screen in the world was momentarily commandeered for the leadership of the creatures to directly address the collective inhabitants of earth.

The creatures called themselves Tiaileng, and stated peaceful intentions that had been met in deed as in word - they never fired a shot even in self-defense, simply deactivated weapons pointed at them. At the same time, though, they had said that they'd felt compelled to intervene - after seeing the war and strife and suffering that plagued most of the world, they had determined that humans could no longer be allowed to suffer in such a way, and that they were going to intervene to clean things up, with or without humanity's permission. With their weapon systems all but neutralized, the world held its breath, waiting to see just what sort of intervention the Tiaileng had in mind.

For the most part, it turned out, the intervention was technological. They set out to deploy millions of solar powerplants, capable of concentrating and converting energy far more efficiently than our conventional technology, adapting the technology to work in vehicles and homes. They deployed devices that modified crop seeds to work efficiently in nearly any climate and soil conditions, bringing the potential for agriculture to nearly every corner of the world. Other advances followed on, from medicine that cured diseases and regenerated organs, to compact, podlike houses that were self-sustaining, easily deployable in different configurations, and provided safe, stable shelter for even the most impoverished and downtrodden.

Admittedly, the technologies were disruptive, and different nations accepted them with different levels of enthusiasm. The form of the Tiaileng, at least, had helped smooth things over. Had they been some sort of truly alien-looking horrors, people probably would have fought them, weapons or no, but had been much harder for people to find fault with what seemed to be, at least on the surface, basically cuter and fluffier versions of themselves. Generally humanoid in form, the rest of the combination seemed to be equal parts ursine and feline, with rounded, head-topping ears, mostly foreshortened muzzles, abbreviated bobtails and a coat of short, turquoise fur that almost seemed to shine with an unusual iridescence when it caught the light in just the right way. People had found their appearance made them feel less like some invading alien, and more like some combination of a person and a household pet, and their eager yet polite and relentlessly peaceable nature only added to the impression.

So it was that in less than a decade, the world was remarkably transformed. Nations and peoples at war, faced with ineffective arsenals and continuous Tiaileng lobbying for peace, found themselves entering into truces that over time became less and less begrudging. True, such things were helped along by the fact that the Tiaileng technology lifted up the peoples of many of those warring states, bringing them advances and improvements that they could only have imagined before. With the Tiaileng assistance, poverty, destitution, hunger, and even some diseases were close to becoming things of the past.

Even as it happened, though, even through all of the seeming generosity, there was still a sense of unease. People in general knew that few things offered were truly free, and there was little doubt in people's minds that the Tiaileng beneficence would come with at least some strings attached. As a result, even as they slowly became accustomed to the new conveniences that the Tiaileng had brought to them, everyone from national leaders to rank-and-file citizens still nervously waited for the other shoe to drop.

Eventually, it did, with the Tiaileng again commandeering the screens to lay out their terms. The technology they had distributed, after all, was their own, things that people had yet to figure out for themselves, and they made a not-so-veiled threat to deactivate it all and leave everyone to go back to their suffering if people worldwide didn't agree to their terms. And so my parents had watched, along with everyone else, with a certain sense of dread as the Tiaileng began to speak. Having no idea what was in store for them, there were all sorts of worries. Would they be enslaved? Eaten? Something even worse?

As the Tiaileng spoke, though, the world reacted more with surprise than with fear. The first part of the manifesto, interestingly enough, had by that point become the least controversial. Every person was to be considered a sort of international citizen, and with such a status would come certain guarantees: basic housing, nutritious food, clean water, universal net access, other utilities and necessities of life guaranteed by the state. With all of the Tiaileng technology in wide deployment already, though, such requirements were already the status quo just about everywhere anyway, so there was little change at all.

It was the second part, though, that served up the most surprise, controversy, and curiosity. While there were already plenty of Tiaileng around, the manifesto also classified them as citizens of Earth,but with an additional proviso: that they would become not just neighbors with humanity, but companions. The global citizenship would officially kick in when a person reached the age of majority; at the same time, though, they would be assigned at least one Tiaileng companion, who would then accompany them from that point forward. People would be required to treat their companions well, and not abuse them, with severe penalties if they did; in return, the Tiaileng companions would help them however they could, doing whatever was necessary to ensure that "their" humans were as relaxed and healthy and free of pain or conflict as possible. The requirement was considered odd, to say the least, but again their closeness to people made the situation easier to handle - their species was bigendered, and was even remarkably sexually compatible with humans, albeit physically rather than genetically. Add to that the fact that their forms, lack of breasts or intensely male musculature aside, bore remarkably similar profiles to human men and women meant that the proposition was far easier to accept, especially for the sexually active young people being assigned - and especially due to the fact that it was stated that companions would be assigned based on the gender of their person's sexual attraction. The prospect of consequence-free sex, with genetic differences preventing either pregnancy or STDs, was enough of a draw for most people, even if that sex might be somehow freakishly alien in nature. Of course, there was initial push-back from the more conservative cultures of the world, but faced with losing the important advantages they had gained, even they eventually came around.

Even as it was happening, though, people were still apprehensive. Was this just the preparation for some sort of complete subjugation? Would the Tiaileng companions brainwash or mind-control the people they were assigned to? Were they all just waiting to get close to people, only to murder them in their sleep and take over? All the worst science-fiction worries coursed through the population, and once again, they waited for the other shoe to drop.

The thing was, though, that it never actually did. The Tiaileng joined up with their new human companions and integrated themselves into their lives, helping them and loving them in equal portions, and while there were some who flat-out refused, their tunes quickly changed when they realized that they were being frozen out of all the other societal benefits. People waited and waited, but the betrayal or takeover never came, at least not for the decades between their arrival and the time of my assignment.

It took about a decade, though, before the Tiaileng finally revealed their so-called ulterior motive, although in all honestly it was essentially the same motivation that was present in their initial pact, just with an additional part to it. For lack of a more precise term, it was revealed that the Tiaileng were something not precisely akin to empaths. While their unusually-colored fur served double-duty as a photosynthetic surface, and while light, water, and micronutrient supplements provided a basic level of subsistence, they truly thrived when they came across a compatible species. While it was nothing that humans had been able to detect on their own, to the Tiaileng their emotions emanated outward in some sort of energetic form, a form that Tiaileng were able to take into themselves and utilize in a way that was to them far more powerful. Attuned the way they were, certain emotions were highly beneficial to them, things like relaxation and pleasure, with the release of orgasm being described by them as the equivalent of a sumptuous feast. Things like anger, fear and hate, however, were not at all useful to them, and thus was the motivation of their companion system - to get as close to people as they could, using their relationship and influence and help to make them as happy as they possibly could, subsequently harvesting the resulting energy for their own ends. In an ironic way, the worst fears that people had had about the Tiaileng had come true, but in a way that most could never have imagined. In a sense, the Tiaileng were both profoundly influencing their behavior and effectively "eating" their emotions, but if such a thing were considered a subjugation, it was one that was widely welcomed, as rather than enslavement, the companions had formed something far more akin to a symbiotic relationship, with both parties benefiting greatly - the Tiaileng got the energy they needed, and people not only enjoyed the benefits of their technological advances, but a faithful and loving companion that always, ultimately selfishly or not, always seemed to have their best interests at heart.

And so it was that by the time I was growing up, Tiaileng weren't obscure, mysterious aliens, but simply a fact of life, just as ever-present as other humans were. My parents, George and Lindsay, had been coming of age when the requirements of the manifesto were swiftly codified into law, and theirs had been the first generation to have Tiaileng assigned - I was never exactly clear, and it was never explained, why they hadn't been assigned to those who had been older than that at the point of arrival, but for whatever reason they were among the first to live hand-in-hand with them. In fact, it had been their respective Tiaileng, Aleganda and Ithonwiy, who had encouraged them to see each other, sensing some inner compatibility that my parents hadn't guessed at before meeting, but quickly discovered as it unfolded over the course of their relationship. As a result, while I had been an only child, I'd been effectively raised by four different parents, with a blended education and upbringing in in both average white American and Tiaileng culture. Oddly, perhaps in response to such a large amount of over-parenting and no siblings to absorb any of it, outside of the house I was never particularly social - as there was little to no privacy and constant attention there, I had found myself seeking solitude most everywhere else. Much of my childhood was spent in a quiet corner of a library or computer lab, and the result was a boy who was geeky and technically accomplished but never particularly popular.

By high school, at least, I had moved away from complete isolation, joining a small group of friends who were mainly like me - techy, geeky, infused in the culture of trying to hack (or just figure out) Tiaileng technology, the worlds of anime and comics and new frontiers of obscure, futuristic culture. I suppose technically we could have been considered furries as well, but that was hardly a differentiation from anyone else - with the arrival of the Tiaileng, and their seamless integration into even the sexual parts of our culture, such eroticism was by that point thoroughly mainstream. Tiaileng pornography was widely and often freely available online, both with humans and with each other - in many respects, they seemed far more nonchalant about sexual contact than humans usually were, and saw nothing shameful about such acts being recorded and disseminated. Their philosophy on the matter, it seemed, was that if such a thing would provide enjoyment to someone else somewhere, then they were happy to provide it. As a result, it was even easier to acquire than the human-on-human stuff, and it had been my first "official" exposure to witnessing sexual activity. In fact, given that all of the Tiaileng medical advances hadn't posited a way to completely cure HIV or create a completely foolproof contraceptive, many teens were in fact happy to wait (to go all the way, at least) until their eighteenth birthday and the acquisition of their Tiaileng companion. In my case, admittedly, it was more my own social inclinations that had kept me from that sort of contact beforehand, and I had been wrapped up in my own things, academics and personal projects, that my birthday had all but snuck up on me - and then, a few days later, I'd awoken to find a Tiaileng in an official uniform waiting for me in the living room, ready to drive me over to the assignment center where I would be united with my very own companion.

So, as much as I probably shouldn't have been, what with a few Tiaileng already insinuating themselves into my circle of friends, I wasn't particularly prepared for my turn to come. As it was, I suppose I'd denied thinking about it too much, not really wanting to consider what it meant. Already by nature somewhat of a solitary person, and chafing constantly a the more-than-helicopter parenting that having four of them to one of you can bring, the notion of having another person who would be with me all but constantly was a nerve-wracking proposition. Well, that and the fact of what could potentially happen with such a companion, especially an opposite-gendered one. As it was, my exposure to online porn was not, in fact, my first experience with Tiaileng-human sexual interactions, although it was probably the only one I would admit to. The sexual nonchalance of my Tiaileng parents had rubbed off on my human ones, and while nothing had ever been done to me in that regard, the trysts between my parents and their Tiailengs, and between Aleganda and Ithonwiy themselves, the occasionally passionate nature of their interactions had sometimes gotten the best of them before they could retreat behind closed doors. I'd been about eight when I'd first seen my mother and Ithonwiy writhing and intertwined on the living room couch, their clothes in disarray on the floor below, and there had been enough incidents after that to become disturbingly commonplace by the time I really figured out what they'd been up to a few years later, the truth beyond their guiltily vague explanations of "special hugs" and "things between men and women." Admittedly, that was around the same time I learned from the few friends that I had begun to make that I was hardly alone in having such experiences - as it turned out, that was one of the "dirty little secrets" that no one really talked about when it came to the Tiaileng, and their near-instinctual knack for finding a person's most sensitive points and sometimes exploiting them until arousal became less of a sensation and more of an urgent need, one that overrode decorum in its requirement to be satisfied. Given what the Tiaileng had offered the world, though, and what they could potentially take away, peccadilloes such as those were written off as quirks and wisely ignored. That didn't change the fact, though, that the act of sex was, unintentionally or not, shoved in my face before I could properly understand or parse what I was being exposed to.

Mercifully, my social reclusivity meant that, however I ended up interpreting what I saw, I never took those lessons and turned them into inappropriate actions with anyone else - but the result was that when sex was revealed as a thing, it was accompanied by a sense of profound awkwardness, especially where Tiaileng were involved. And now I was being assigned, and soon there would be a Tiaileng living with me, sharing my room, probably sharing my bed, and offering to do... things... that I was both uncomfortably familiar with and felt phenomenally distressed about actually reciprocating. Then again, seeing one of your fuzzy parents spontaneously wrapped around one of your smooth-skinned ones, with little in the way of explanation or mitigation, was enough to make the whole notion of sex seem beyond awkward.

That meant that when I was suddenly confronted with the Tiaileng by the door, and the notion of having one subsequently assigned to me, my reaction was apparently something less than the joyful acceptance that the Tiaileng man had been expecting. It was easy enough to tell, as the typically eager expression on his face quickly fell as I approached, replaced by one that seemed a mix of anguish and concern.

"Hey, are you feeling all right?" the man asked, gently touching my cheek with a soft, fuzzy hand.

I shrank back a little from the touch, which only seemed to perturb him more. "I, um, I'm fine, it's just, uh..."

The Tiaileng looked back at me, fixing my eyes with that unusual, unblinking stare of theirs. Not intimidating, exactly, just more... direct than what people are used to. "If you feel at all uneasy about the process, please allow me to assuage your concerns. I am more than happy to do whatever is within my power to get you comfortable and to set your mind at ease."

"Well, I-" I began, trying to figure out how to explain my reticence to a total stranger, when I felt another hand rest lightly on my shoulder. I glanced back instinctively, even though I already knew from experience whose hand it was. Whether truly empathic or not, Ithonwiy had always had a way of being attuned to my moments of distress, and had always sought to be a source of comfort and stability. Despite the things I'd seen involving him, and the complications that they had produced, beneath it all he was still one of my dads, and despite all that I knew we still loved each other in a normal, familial way. Admittedly, there had been plenty of times I'd pushed him away in a desperate act of denial and panic when the scent of my mom had been too strong on his fur, but to his credit he'd never faulted me for that, and still cared for me with that same sort of calm, relentless determination that all Tiaileng seemed to share.

"Don't worry, I've got it from here," I heard Ithonwiy say behind me. "He'll be with you in a few minutes." The other Tiaileng nodded briskly, something resembling relief spreading over his face, and walked back outside, easing the door quietly closed behind him.

Ithonwiy relinquished my shoulder, sitting down on the couch and gesturing for me to sit next to him. I did, his presence beside me allowing me to feel at least a little calmer, although I still didn't really know what to say.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... scare him off..." I said, looking over at Ithonwiy, who returned my expression of confusion and anxiety with his usual slow, gentle smile.

"Hey, kiddo, don't worry about that. Your feelings aren't always under your conscious control, and he knows that as well as I do. The best way through them, though, is to talk them out, let them flow if you need to. You know I can handle it. So... what's got you so worked up about this? I know it's a new chapter in your life, but... you know me and Aleganda well. When a human and a Tiaileng join up, it's a good thing, and it will help you in many ways. It's not the sort of thing that can be hurtful or bad, and there's nothing to be afraid of."

"I'm not, well... I'm not afraid. That's not why I'm worked up, okay?"

"Oh..." Ithonwiy replied, looking slightly perplexed. "What's going on, then?"

"It's just... you know how I like to be alone sometimes, right?" Ithonwiy nodded. "Well, I know how it is with you and my, um, human parents, in that you're with them all the time. At work, at home, even asleep, you're all together. I just don't know if I can handle being around someone all the time, every day... especially..." I trailed off, not sure if I wanted to bring up the other concern.

"Especially what?" Ithonwiy was looking concerned again, and I knew he wasn't going to let it go.

"I'm afraid that they're going to expect things, demand things of me, things that I'm not sure I'm ready for..."

Ithonwiy nodded his head, even as his ears dipped a little bit in a display of embarrassment. "Ah. I probably should have guessed what this was about. I know that's one thing that we didn't perhaps handle particularly well when raising you, but... I guess that's one of those things where we just differ from people a lot. It's not such a hangup for us, not a thing that has to be kept private, or hidden away from our young, but simply explained to them as an adult part of life that they will eventually take part in. Your other parents, though, wanted to take the more human approach, but our relationship being what it is, certain experiences inevitably leaked out. We argued about how to handle it, as you know, and the result was that we probably weren't that clear on some things."

Ithonwiy exhaled, his breath oddly cool against my cheek. The photosynthesis inherent in their bodies meant that they exhaled oxygen instead of carbon dioxide, and something about the process made it come out chilled. While I had easily gotten used to their fur and other features, it was subtle, alien touches like that which served to remind me just how different they could be. At the same time, though, it made the fact that he felt like such a genuine, relatable person, just like any other human, all the more remarkable.

"Let me be clear," he continued, resting a hand on my shoulder. "It is true that we Tiaileng have a habit of being more demonstrative than most people are used to, and we lack that particularly human sense of shame. However, while we may make such advances, we only do so when they are welcomed, and would never continue them if they were not. Your companion will never force anything upon you; if you are not ready to receive a comfort that they can provide, then they will wait until you are, and find other ways to help and love you in the meantime. You don't have to be with them absolutely all the time, either - the reason that all of your parents are together like this is because we have come, over time, to enjoy the constancy of each other's presence. Over time, you may learn that you enjoy it as well, but if not, it can work that way too."

Ithonwiy's other hand came over, and he enveloped me in a quick, light hug, the fur of his muzzle brushing gently against my cheek as he spoke softly into my ear.

"I know it's new, and mandatory, and maybe even a little scary because it's unknown, but there truly is nothing to hurt, nothing to fear. I know you can handle this. I believe in you, and I know that the Tiaileng that will be sharing your experience will believe in you too."

He let me go, and I relaxed back against the couch. I knew, ultimately, that everything he said was probably right, but the act of hearing him say it had admittedly put me much more at ease.

"So... are you ready to go?"

I nodded. "Yeah." In all honesty, I still wasn't a hundred percent sure how well it would go, but through that nervousness, there was also a sense that the assignment was probably going to go all right. At the very least, the things I had been the most concerned about now seemed to be more products of my own internal concerns than fears that could be expected or validated.

"All right. I'll let your other moms and dad let you know that today's your assignment day. I know that they probably wanted to see you off today, but as the assignment days aren't announced in advance we couldn't really plan for it. Things got a little, ah, eventful last night, and they need a little more rest to recover from it than I do. In any case, we shouldn't keep them waiting. I'm sure we're all going to look forward to meeting your new companion tonight."

We both got up, and Ithonwiy planted a kiss on my forehead - well, honestly, more of a lick, in the characteristically Tiaileng way. Then he opened the door, and I stepped through it, walking down the handful of steps from the front porch and towards the vehicle parked along the sidewalk.

The vehicle was typical of the ones the Tiaileng side of the government used, something that looked sort of like a cross between an SUV and an armored personnel carrier, somehow both squat and smoothly aerodynamic at the same time, with eight wheels instead of four. Like all Tiaileng vehicles, it was painted in a bright, glossy white, and would hardly have looked out of place on television, trundling down some dusty road in some corner of the world with blue "UN" letters stenciled on the side. It had no gun turrets, of course, as such things were now firmly relegated to the history books, and had the normal side-opening doors in addition to the APC-like rear hatch.

The Tiaileng from before was leaning on the side of it, and as he saw me approach he opened up one of the side doors and gestured for me to enter.

I stepped inside, sitting down on a plushly upholstered bench seat. There were two others behind me, in addition to the driver's seat up front, and I quickly spotted the additional pair of Tiaileng, a man and a woman from the looks of it, sitting in the next row back and eyeing me inquisitively while their hands stayed occupied with a pair of oddly-shaped devices.

"Don't mind them," the other Tiaileng said behind me, and I turned to see him settling into the driver's seat. "They're here to get some initial readings on you so that we can determine the precise best nature of your assignment. You don't have to do anything different, other than to continue to have your normal human emotions, and they'll do the rest. That way, by the time we get to the assignment center, we'll have a head start on determining which Tiaileng, or group of Tiaileng, will be best suited for you."

"Um... group?" I said, a hint of anxiety returning, but the vehicle was already in motion - there was definitely no getting out of it now. Still... the idea of having one Tiaileng with me had been enough. Having to deal with more... I didn't know whether I could handle that.

"It is true that such a thing is uncommon, and for most people, they provide just enough, um, energy for a single one of us to accept. Sometimes, though, people's emotional energy, what they emit, is a little bit stronger, and they're assigned a pair instead. I've heard people talk about some assignments ending up with three, but I've never once seen that happen. In any case, the probability is significantly skewed towards an individual assignment, but it seemed to make sense to mention the other possibilities."

The Tiaileng turned back for a moment. "Oh, by the way, I don't believe I've introduced myself. The name's Coaverel. In addition to being your driver, I'll also be facilitating your assignment today. So, feel free to converse with me as you like - the more I know about you, the easier it will be. Of course, we already have a fairly comprehensive file on you, so should you choose to remain silent, that would also be acceptable. Please, however, refrain from disturbing the Tiaileng behind you, as they need to concentrate on your work. All right?"

"Okay," I replied, although I wasn't sure what else to say. "Um... is there anything in particular I'm supposed to talk about?"

"Not really. Like I said, anything at all, or nothing if you prefer. Your choice."

I chose for the moment to remain silent, glancing back at Coaverel as he returned to his driving. He looked a lot like how most Tiaileng did, which is to say, thoroughly normal in stature. While humans came in any number of sizes, from short to toweringly tall, from painfully skinny to morbidly obese, the body shapes of Tiaileng always seemed to fall just to either side of normal. In conjunction with their fur, which tended to smooth out their shape and hide some of their muscular definition, and it would have been easy to make the assumption that all Tiaileng came from the same mold. Luckily, while their bodies bore considerable similarities, their faces, like humans, bore enough differentiation to make unique identification easy enough.

I looked on, looking more through him than at him, as I thought about the other Tiaileng in my life. The pair I knew the most, unsurprisingly, were the ones who made up half of my parents, but with more people in my small circle of friends reaching the appropriate age, I was slowly growing familiar with several new faces. As my group of friends had been almost exclusively male, the influx of Tiaileng had been precisely the opposite, and their presence had left me feeling more and more awkward, even as they seemed to get along with my other friends just fine. In fact, at the moment I was the only one without a companion, although that would surely change soon after the vehicle arrived at its destination.

Could I handle it, though? That was the question I was still unable to answer. I felt calmer than before, to be sure, and the more I thought about it, the more I knew my fears were probably unfounded. Thinking back one the things that I'd seen, as uncomfortable as it was, I knew that the one component lacking in every encounter was force. My Tiaileng parents had never pounced, exactly, on my human ones, or held them down, or done anything against their will. In fact, it was usually the other way around - the Tiaileng had a habit of sidling up to one parent or the other, rubbing up against them, teasing them with licks and light touches until such things overrode their restraints and my human parent swept the Tiaileng one into their arms. Everything after that was an enthusiastic whirlwind of shedding clothes and things you really shouldn't see your parents do, and which I had no appetite for recalling in detail. If such things were to eventually happen to me, well... being young, male, and prone to even seemingly spontaneous arousal, I knew that I probably wouldn't mind that sort of thing, at least in moderation, but even so, I couldn't just discard my troubling memories. And having a presence like that around, you, gently pressing, constantly teasing, always wanting something from you, was definitely hard to reconcile with what I was used to. Despite Ithonwiy's assurances, given everything I'd seen, from this day forward it seemed that moments of solitude would be hard to come by.

As such, I decided to enjoy my silence rather than providing the Tiaileng with any additional information. Of course, the two behind me playing around with variously clicking instrumentation didn't exactly inspire the calm I was looking for. The drive, though, was relatively short, and soon enough we were pulling up to our destination.

We ended up in the parking garage of the main governmental office tower in the heart of downtown. The assignment center had apparently taken over the space of some other erstwhile division, and the building directory had it listed as the entire 11th floor. Coaverel waved me towards the primary bank of elevators, while the two other Tiaileng headed to a separate one marked "service access" situated behind the information kiosk.

The elevator ride passed mostly uneventfully, aside from Coaverel idly reaching a hand over and brushing it quickly through my hair midway through. If it had been a human, it might have been considered inappropriate or creepy, but for Tiaileng it was little more than a typical annoyance, at least to me. Tiaileng were just touch-happy in general, with humans and with each other, with that sort of casual touch being to them nearly as instinctive as drawing breath. And annoying as it was, the touches were always brief, gentle, and never directed towards any inappropriate parts - those lingering, teasing touches were reserved only for their assigned partners. Plus, it wasn't like they were unfair about it - they liked to be touched as much as they liked touching, and did everything they could to encourage it, including apparently studying how our own pets responded to us and adopting a happy, reassuring purr to ensure continued petting. Nevertheless, I suppose such things had contributed to my overall social reticence - while I didn't hate being touched, I didn't always love it either, and hanging out with other kids growing up had often meant parents, which had also meant Tiaileng parents, and my hair being casually patted or tousled far more than I was eager to put up with.

There wasn't much time to dwell on it, though, as the elevator quickly reached its assigned floor, and opened, surprisingly, into near-darkness. The only visible lighting came from thin LED strips running along the floorboards and ceiling edges of what seemed to be a grid of hallways, wrapping around brightly-lit rooms with seamless windows running along all four walls. Throughout all of them, the shadowy, fuzzy outlines of Tiaileng milled about, eyes glinting in the reflected light as they glanced into the array of small rooms. Glancing through the windows as Coaverel led me through the milling throngs, I realized that each of the rooms contained one Tiaileng - and one human about my age.

There was a sudden flood of light into the corridor, and I looked over to see Coaverel holding open a previously unseen door, ushering me inside. The room within was basic enough, with a bare metal table, several folding chairs, and a wide light fixture running along the paneled roof that was typical of an office block. Somehow, the appearance managed to take on a cross between a cubicle and one of those old-style police interrogation rooms, complete with the "mirrors" running along each of the walls. Of course, having been outside of it, I was well aware that the mirrors were actually one-way glass, and that I was essentially in a fishbowl with any number of Tiaileng looking in at me.

I sank into one of the chairs, looking around nervously. "So, um... what happens now, then? I just sit here, and they look at me?"

Coaverel looked over at me and nodded. "Basically." He gestured to a small tablet sitting on the table. "There are devices outside that can pull up all your readings and pertinent information for any interested parties, and if they have any questions they will appear on this device, and I will ask them to you and relay your response. That information will be evaluated, and then any interested Tiaileng will indicate their preferences, until an ideal match is arrived at."

"So, they just mill around until they find someone they like?"

"Yes, that's generally how it works."

"And what if none of them choose me?"

Coaverel's gaze seemed to focus keenly on me, his eyes wide with surprise. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, I mean... I'm not the most popular guy. I guess it's a little better than how it used to be, but when it came to doing things like breaking into groups or picking teams for sports, I was always the... leftover, I guess? The guy standing alone at the end, that a teacher had to assign a group to. I didn't realize this was going to be a popularity contest or anything. I guess what I'm trying to say is... in case nobody chooses me, do I just get assigned someone? And if I don't, do I still, you know, meet the requirement and get to keep my citizenship?"

Coaverel seemed to give a relieved smile in response. "If that's what's concerning you, then allow me to set your mind at ease. As you probably noticed on the way in, there are far more Tiaileng here than there are humans, and because the idea of remaining without a companion is far more troubling to a Tiaileng than mere loss of some ephemeral privileges or benefits, they are even more eager to find someone. The process is not about attracting attention - as I said previously, it is about finding the best match for all of the parties involved. Given the current analysis of your traits, a selection of potentially compatible Tiaileng are already here, and are..." he trailed off, glancing over briefly at the tablet. "Yes, many of them are already observing you. From here, it is merely a matter of them deciding amongst themselves which of them will be the most compatible with you, and which will be better served by seeking out someone else. Aside from outlying cases involving regrettable violence on the part of humans, once you are here, no one leaves without being assigned a companion."

I nodded my understanding. "If that's the case, then... I just wait?"

"Yes, for the most part. If any questions come in, I'll let you know, and of course make sure to inform me if you need anything in the interim."

For the next hour or so, it turned out, that was basically all there was to it - I sat in the chair, occasionally making idle conversation, or answering the handful of questions that popped in every so often. Oddly, there seemed to be little in the way of a trend to the questions, as they ranged from something as banal as "What is your favorite color?" (White) to something as intimate and strangely Tiaileng-phrased as "Has your penis ever been in direct contact with the interior portion of the female genitalia of any species, specifically the area extending seven centimeters or deeper beyond the external vulval ring?" (No. Obviously no). Eventually, though, the tablet pinged, and Coaverel nodded his head. "Ah, it appears the decision has been made. Please stand momentarily to greet your new companions."

I was about to ask about his use of the word companions - plural - but the door was already swinging open.

It admitted, to my surprise, a full trio of Tiaileng, their blue-green fur shining in the bright overhead light even as their wide-pupilled eyes adjusted drastically to the change, appearing almost like the camera optics of a rapidly shifting zoom lens. There were three of them, ostensibly close to my own age and about my own average height, wearing the Tiaileng equivalents of normal-ish clothing for someone in high school, mostly T-shirts and shorts in the light, near-white colors that they usually preferred. Even with their currently androgynous clothing and lack of breasts, I could tell from their figures that the trio was made up of two girls and a boy, lined up neatly before me. Such a neat display only lasted for about five seconds, though, before they all stepped forward simultaneously, and I found myself enveloped in a particularly warm and fuzzy group hug for several moments longer than I felt was absolutely necessary. They released me, but led me toward the group of chairs, which they pulled together into a relatively intimate pentagon as Coaverel introduced them, glancing down at the tablet for their names.

"It appears that the assignments for you are Daledonne - I know our names, or at least their somewhat correct human equivalents, aren't always heavily gendered, so for future reference, that's the young man over there - and the women seated next to him are Sammacey and Katonnan. They are to be your companions."

"T-three?" I stammered, my uncertainty returning, even as I realized that my utterance probably wasn't the best introduction. Somewhat to my surprise, it didn't seem to faze the trio, as they grinned and nodded in response with an eerie level of synchronicity. I could feel my anxiety building, but I quickly tried to fight it back - I was well aware of how Tiaileng often responded to distress, and the last thing I wanted at the moment was to have every Tiaileng in the room trying to pet and snuggle me back into relative calm. Still, it was a lot to take in. One of them would have been enough of a handful, but three? I didn't even know how, exactly, the four of us were supposed to squeeze into my already cramped bedroom, or, for that matter, my tiny twin-sized mattress...

Coaverel also seemed to sense my anxiety, as he fiddled with something on the tablet and the lights began to dim. "You know what? There will obviously be plenty of time later for introductions of a verbal sort, so let's just take a moment to do the compatibility verification, and make sure that you can all get what you need out of this companionship."

He turned to me, and I looked over to meet his gaze, even while keenly aware of the three other pairs of eyes already on me. "I'd like you to, for a moment, close your eyes, and then imagine a situation or place that has the potential to bring you great calm or peace. For example, some common ones are a tranquil forest with a burbling stream flowing by, or a pristine white-sand beach with a clear blue sky and the light crashing of waves upon the shore. Whatever might bring you peace and happiness."

I did as he asked, closing my eyes and imagining my own sort of personal Shangri-La: the kind of private study you'd seem in a mansion, the walls adorned with bookshelves overflowing with leather-bound tomes, sitting sideways in a plushly-upholstered armchair in front of a gently roaring fire, my legs dangling over one of the armrest as my head lolled against the other, a tome of adventure propped up on my chest.

Calming as it was, it was admittedly a hard scene to hold, largely because it held merely the idea of a book that I was reading, rather than containing any actual text for me to follow. As a result, towards the end, I cheated a bit, cracking my eyelids open just a hair to see what was going on - and then, a moment later, opening them wide to clearly take in what I was witnessing.

Within the dark room, flowing out from seemingly every part of me, were ethereal, partly translucent white tendrils of energy, spreading out from me, shimmering and undulating in the air. The closest thing I could compare it to were the delicate fronds of the sea anemones I'd seen ages ago on a trip to the aquarium, especially the way they had moved in an eerily similar fashion under the simulated currents of their tank. The tendrils emanating from me, though, seemed at least in part to be somewhat more directed, the ones pointed towards the Tiaileng seeming to gently angle their way towards them, rolling over to curl around their wrists, along their muzzles and along the tips of their ears. Wherever the tendrils touched, the Tiaileng's fur seemed to light up at the tips, glinting in a sea of jewel-like blue and green points. It was a dazzling display, and for a moment I just watched it, speechless, even as I realized that I was somehow seeing the energy the Tiaileng needed, as it emanated forth from me and was gradually taken in by them. I'd never heard before that you could actually see it happen, and I'd never glimpsed it before - then again, I admittedly hadn't spent a lot of time with Tiaileng in darkened rooms.

"Wow," I finally said, in a sort of reverent whisper. "I never knew it was so beautiful..."

"Beautiful? I'm not sure what you're talking about," Coaverel said, the shadow of his face oddly highlighted by the bright tendrils.

"The energy. The way it flows between us, the way it lights up your fur like fiber optics... it's just really beautiful, and I think it might even be more peaceful than what I was imagining..."

"Wait, you can see it?" Sammacey said, her voice sounding halfway between shock and panic, and I saw all of their eyes locked on me before the moment the lights snapped back on at full strength, the ethereal sight instantly vanishing as I blinked my way through the sudden blast of light.

Once I could see again, I noticed that the four of them were quickly huddling together, their mouths moving rapidly, although I could hear only the slightest chirp of sound. While the Tiaileng language was ostensibly not all that difficult to learn, and was one of the mandatory language requirements in school, the Tiaileng themselves had a habit of speaking it both rapidly and generally out of the normally audible range. They continued to converse, gesturing rapidly, as I sat by and watched, puzzled by their reaction. Had I seen something I wasn't supposed to? It hardly seemed likely, if this was something that happened during every assignment.

Eventually their huddle broke, and the trio who were assigned to me looked at me quizzically before getting up, forming a line, and filing quickly out of the room. I looked after them, surprised - I had never before heard of an assigned Tiaileng companion voluntarily leave immediately after being assigned.

I looked over at Coaverel, who was desperately pawing at his tablet. Noticing, me, he looked up, his face serious.

"Tell me, what you saw... what did it look like?"

I explained what I had seen as best as I could, trying to capture all of the details. "I, um, I'm sorry about that, but it wasn't like I was trying to see anything illicit. I didn't mean to cause a problem. I can just, I can keep it a secret if you need me to..."

Coaverel just shook his head. "No, it's nothing like that. It's not that it's something you shouldn't see, it's something that you can't see - or at least, I thought it was, up until now."

He glanced down, tapping at the tablet before looking back at me. "I'm sorry to say this, but it appears we were vastly mistaken as to your nature when we did your initial evaluation. I'm afraid it means, for the time, that your assignment is now on hold, pending further study of your specific condition and capabilities. We will use the data gathered both here and earlier, and remedy the situation as soon as possible - and in the meantime, I'd appreciate that you keep any descriptions of what happened here to yourself." He got up, gesturing towards the door, which opened, surprisingly, to a phalanx of human men in private security uniforms. "These gentlemen will escort you out. I understand it is a school day, so you will be transported there to attend the remainder of your classes for the day. I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and I assure you we will get back to you soon."

I walked out, barely noticing as the security men formed a human wall between me and the other Tiaileng, walking in tight formation around me until we reached the elevator, although thankfully only one joined me for the ride down, and back to the Tiaileng vehicle. I tried to ask him what was going on, but he seemed to be as much in the dark as I was - all he knew about the situation were his orders, which were to drop me off at my school, and that was it.

I found myself marching up the steps to the school building, feeling completely puzzled. What had just happened? What had I really seen, and why was it so important? Had I just, inexplicably, been the first person ever to fail Tiaileng assignment through no fault of my own? All I had, really, were questions, swirling around in my mind instead of the Tiaileng on my arm that everyone would be expecting.

Interestingly, though, no one really seemed to, at least not until lunch - everyone else just seemed to think I'd been at a doctor's appointment or something, and I had no particular reason to counter their assumptions. My friends, somehow, either figured it out or were tipped off by one of their Tiaileng, and when lunchtime came around and our group gathered, I was soon peppered with questions.

"They really didn't assign you one? Not at all?" asked Emma, the one girl in our group, although you wouldn't necessarily know it just by looking at her - her barely-there breasts, which she constantly swore were "just developing," barely poked out the front of her loose, almost dress-length T-shirt, adorned with the image of a fictitious galactic tyrant and the words "What would Zinyak do?" emblazoned below in big block letters. It was, admittedly, an ironic juxtaposition, the embodiment of our fears of alien invasion displayed next to the reality of it, in the form of the cute Tiaileng boy snuggled happily up to her side.

I shook my head. "They just said they'd get in touch with me later. I don't think it's over, but..."

"Weird," chimed in Zalman from off to my side. He was the only one of us who was at all openly religious, although that only extended to the skullcap he constantly wore atop his wavy black hair, one that did away with the traditional religious ornamentation in favor of a meticulously embroidered galaxy - and the even more detailed X-wing displayed in the center of it. "I mean, who ever heard of someone leaving assignment empty-handed?" He looked over at me, concern evident on his face. "Hey, that doesn't mean they're going to revoke your citizenship or anything, does it? I mean, that would totally suck. I don't even know what that really means - do they kick you out of civilization? Stick you on an island somewhere?"

I hadn't really thought about it, and for a moment worried just what the ramifications of leaving without a Tiaileng would be, when Zalman's own companion, Tesekorri, rested a hand gently on his shoulder, signaling for him to pause as she addressed me.

"I know that Zalman is prone to... methods of thought that travel independent of their tracks, but the reality of the situation is different. It is rare for it to happen, but it just means that some other factor has to be taken into account for the assignment to progress. You have done your part by agreeing to the assignment, and the responsibility is now on those in charge to address such factors until your assignment has been made, as it surely will be. If you went through the procedure, your citizenship has already been confirmed and is irrevocable. I'm sure everything will be sorted out soon, and by tomorrow or the next day you will have someone to sit beside you as well."

"...Or someones," I said under my breath, but loud enough, apparently, for Will to notice. He was perhaps the slightest of all of us, with ribs that protruded visibly enough that he had absolutely refused to participate in the swimming part of P.E. without a shirt on, but was nonetheless far more fit than his skinny frame and geeky spectacles initially let on. They perched awkwardly on a nose and ears that seemed just a bit outsized for the rest of his head, but with it, apparently, had come more acute senses - he could hear, especially, more keenly than anyone I'd ever met that wasn't Tiaileng.

"Really?" he said, leaning forward eagerly. "So they were going to assign you... and more than one! Oh man... was it a pair? Maybe cute sisters? Or even... twin sisters..."

His face reddened as soon as he said that, though, and he glanced quickly over at Ingotheen, his own companion. "Not that I'm implying you're not, ah, sufficient or anything..."

Ingotheen just nodded, giving a knowing smile. "Oh, don't worry about that. I'm more than aware of how... sufficient you find me. Last night, for instance..."

Will's face managed to get even more red. "Er, well, enough about me! So, what were the two of them like?"

"Er, well... there were three of them..."

"Three of them?" Zalman said, looking incredulous. "Is that even possible?"

"Well, I don't know, I guess... they said it was, anyway, on the drive over. Maybe that was the problem, that they assigned me too many by accident or something..."

"Yeah, maybe that's it. Still, that's one weird-ass situation, you know? I've never heard of that happening before, either part of it, not ever! Whatever happens, you've gotta keep us in the loop on this, okay?"

I nodded. "Look, I feel awkward enough about this... Can we just... talk about something else for now?"

"Sure!" Emma replied. "Um, I heard there's gonna be a new Sailor Moon series coming out..."

"Sailor Moon? Really?" Will pulled a face.

"What, you think it's too girly for you or something? This from a guy who's got a Pretty Cure box set..."

"That's got nothing to do with it! It's just that their powers are so lame! I mean, c'mon, unexplained 'magic' that's just a bunch of generic elemental powers? What are they supposed to be, freakin' Pokemon or something?"

"You've barely watched any of it at all if you think that's all there there is to what they can do, and I'm pretty sure you don't know what you're talking about with Pokemon, either!"

"Oh, yeah? And what do you know about it, anyway?"

The conversation got more heated and far less on-topic from there, but I was glad to sit back and let the distraction take over from discussing my own inexplicable and seemingly unprecedented predicament.

The rest of the school day went uneventfully from there, a thankful contrast to what had come before. Once the final bell rang, I said goodbye to my friends, who lived a fair distance away from my neighborhood, and headed home. I usually caught the bus, which turned a twenty-minute journey into a five-minute one, but I decided that I'd rather walk, and give myself some more time alone to try to clear my head and find some way to sort through what had happened and anticipate what would come of it.

Were they really that worked up over what I had seen? It was unusual, sure - I'd never heard of anyone seeing anything at all like that before, not on the internet or from anyone I'd talked to. If a sight like that was commonplace, or even rare, someone surely would have uploaded footage of it. Okay, so that meant that I had seen a very uncommon sight, or had the uncommon ability to see it, but so what? All I'd seen was the energy going from me to them, and the fact that such a thing happened wasn't a secret at all. It certainly wasn't anything anyone would be concerned by, given that people didn't really even notice that the energy was there in the first place, or particularly notice or care when it was used by someone else - certainly, there weren't any known medical consequences from it, detrimental or otherwise. And even the sight itself was hardly a concern - some people might find it a little odd or disturbing, true, but overall it really was a mystical and beautiful thing, and I would imagine that people might even like Tiaileng more if they could see that and know how they were helping them. Maybe the Tiaileng just didn't want people to dwell on that aspect of it, and preferred to keep it out of both sight and mind, but it hardly seemed like something they would flip out over.

As I approached my street, though, I began to wonder whether, in fact, they had. The normally quiet street around my house was suddenly occupied by vehicles, and not in the usual way. One of the Tiaileng vehicles stood nearby, along with two black, bulky SUVs emblazoned with the seal of some government agency and police-style lightbars flashing red and blue along the top. Accompanying them was a semi truck, the back of it rolled opened and several Tiaileng stacking several things inside as more brought other items out of the house. Not sure what was going on, I quickened my pace, and it grew even quicker as I realized that they weren't just loading stuff into the truck, they were loading my stuff.

My parents, all four of them, were huddled together on the front porch to one side of the steps, looking more or less befuddled and worried about what was going on. Seeing my approach, my mother gestured frantically to the others and waved in my direction, and they sprinted forward to meet me. Before they could, though, the doors to one of the SUVs sprang open, and two men in suits with those weird little bodyguard earpieces emerged and moved to block my path.

"Okay, we've got him," one of them said into his wrist, while the other grabbed mine. "ID, please."

"Um... mind letting go of me so I can get it out?"

The man complied, and I fished out my wallet. The man took it from me, glancing at my ID card from within its plastic sleeve.

"Yup, it's him." He tossed it back and gestured at the other man, who said something unintelligible into his sleeve again. Behind them, I could see my parents clustering around, looking concerned and trying to talk around them.

"I'm sorry" My mom said, leaning around one of them. "They all just... showed up here, all of a sudden, about a half hour ago. They said they have some thing... not a warrant, but some piece of paper that says they have the authority to do this, which is bullshit!" That last, it was quite clear, was directed at one of the men. She reached down, and her hand came up holding a cell phone in a plain grey case - mine. "We tried to call you as soon as it happened, but you left your phone behind in the rush this morning. I'm so sorry - we should have gotten our act together, gotten up to see you off, been more on top of it-"

She stopped abruptly, as the men suddenly stepped to the side, only to be replaced by a group of Tiaileng who had been running up from behind them. I recognized them immediately: they were the trio from before, the ones who had been assigned to me until they hadn't been.

"Ah, there you are! We sent someone to look for you at your school, but I guess your paths must not have met up." Daledonne seemed a little out of breath, but happy enough to see me again. "Quite a few things have happened in the past few hours that we hadn't quite anticipated. Worry not, though, everything's been sorted, and we'll soon have you on your way."

"On my way? Where am I going?"

"Yes? Where is he going?" My mother asked, raising her voice, and standing up on her toes to loom over them, until Ithonwiy put a restraining arm on her shoulder and gradually convinced her to draw back.

"Well, about that... Coaverel, and his supervisor, said that we shouldn't talk a whole lot about it, just get you in the truck and fill you in, just you, on the way there. There's nothing to be concerned about, we just want to make sure that you hear the news in a calm environment, without the pressure of someone else looking on."

The reasoning seemed logical enough, but something about it set alarm bells ringing in my head. "They're my parents - I'm sure they can know where I'm going."

Daledonne shook his head. "I've been instructed to only talk to you about it right now." His reticence didn't exactly reassure me.

"And you don't see anything wrong with that?"

He looked back at me, cocking his head to the side. "No? Why should there be anything wrong?"

"Think about it. Something happens, you all huddle up and run off in a panic, I'm told not to talk about it... and now you show up and want to take me to some random place that you won't tell anyone I know about. I've watched enough shows to know how that kind of thing turns out. I'm not going to voluntarily let you... disappear me, or whatever. Not without a fight." I glanced over at the burly men standing off to the side - if there was to be a fight, it wouldn't be much of one, but if the alternative was worse, it might be worth a shot.

Daledonne, for his part, looked completely shocked. "You really think we'd actually hurt, actually kill you?"

"How am I supposed to know? Why else wouldn't you tell anyone where you were taking me?"

Daledonne looked momentarily tongue-tied, but Katonnan quickly took over, reaching over to place what she evidently thought was a reassuring hand on my shoulder. I swatted it away and took a defensive step back, anxiety building towards panic. All of a sudden, though, I realized I wasn't the only one in distress - looking back, I saw that each one of their faces looked intensely anguished, and they just stood there, muzzles cracking open to let out a haunting, high-pitched wail that seemed to echo all around me. After a moment, I realized why - all the other Tiaileng around, the ones loading and milling about, had frozen as well, all letting out the same desperate, keening cry.

"What- Why are you-" I said, trying to figure out what was happening, but before I could Sammacey had lunged forward, tackling me onto the front lawn. I struggled for a moment, but realized that she wasn't fighting me - instead, she'd wrapped me in a tight bear hug, nuzzling desperately at my neck and shoulder. "Be calm! Please, you have to calm down! We're your companions! We'd never hurt you, not ever, but right now you're hurting us, and you have to calm down!"

"I- I didn't mean to..." I stammered, completely at a loss as to what was happening, but I knew I had to do something to stop it. I jammed my eyelids shut and tried to find something calm to think about. My mind quickly jumped back to the scenario I'd conjured up from before, and while it was hard to maintain it with everything going on around me, I felt my body relax within Sammacey's desperate embrace, and soon the keening cut off abruptly.

I realized I could feel Sammacey's chest rising and falling against mine, and realized she was breathing hard like I was. At the same time, though, I also realized that it was also the closest, most comprehensive contact I'd ever had with a woman, and the notion brought both a sense of discomfort and completely inappropriate arousal to the front of my mind. Luckily, she released me, holding onto just my arm as she rolled over to the side, even as Daledonne and Katonnan kneeled down in front of where I lay.

"Look, I... I'm not supposed say everything in front of others," Daledonne said, his voice soft and wavering, looking nervously over at the men who were standing by near the SUV - strangely enough, they hadn't intervened at all in what had just happened. "You're not being punished or taken away because of what you saw. This isn't about that at all. It's about, um, what that signifies, really."

"Wait - what did he see?" I looked over to see my dad leaning over me, nervously rubbing his bald spot, as he had a habit of doing when a situation was getting beyond his ability to deal with it.

"That's not important. What's important is that they didn't take certain things into account when they evaluated you, didn't realize that there were certain possibilities that no one had ever thought to take into account. So, Coaverel had to make some adjustments or something. That's not even the reason you have to move, but I'm really not supposed to share that with others right now. It's not about isolating or silencing you, though." He looked up towards my mother, who had come over to join us. "You still have his phone, right?"

She nodded, handing it over to Daledonne, who then handed it to me. "You can call them whenever you want, talk to them once you've arrived. We're not trying to hide anything, exactly. It's just that, well... none of us have a choice in this matter. The assignment's been done, and this is part of it. We have to go there, and take you with us. Please, just come with us, so that we don't all have to be sent on our way more forcefully..."

I still didn't really know what to do, but it didn't look like there was much choice. I pulled myself back up to a sitting position, and the three of them quickly helped me the rest of the way up. Once I was back on my feet, I met each of their eyes in turn.

"Swear on whatever's holy to you that no harm will come to me." I looked them over carefully, looking for any twitch, any tell that they might be lying, but if anything they all looked fairly relieved that I seemed to be cooperating. One by one, they swore their oath, and I went to follow after them, but not before turning back and saying my goodbyes, hopefully temporarily, to my folks. They each hugged me in turn, my mom promising to call me every single day, while my dad intimated something about a lawsuit or investigation. My Tiaileng parents, though, seemed more accepting of what was going on. "You'll see - this will all be for the best," Ithonwiy had whispered into my ear. "That's the Tiaileng way."

Together, we all climbed into the Tiaileng vehicle, one of the men from before taking the driver's seat while all four of us squeezed onto one of the benches. It was a little bit snug for my taste, but when I got up to move to another one, a pair of hands gently tugged at my sleeves, encouraging me to sit back down. I did so reluctantly, and as I did, Sammacey and Katonnan wrapped their arms around mine and snuggled up to either side as the vehicle rumbled into motion.

I sat there for a moment, feeling that strange combination of uneasiness and mild arousal at their touch, my bare arms suddenly enveloped in fuzziness. "Um, you don't have to..."

"Actually, they kind of do have to," Daledonne said from off to the side.

"You see," Sammacey continued, whispering into my ear, "we have to tell you the rest of it, and the way you reacted to us before, it's a good idea if you're calm before we do."

"Um... meaning?"

"Well, that measurement..." Katonnan said softly into my other ear. "The one we did before... because of how you are, because of what we now know about you in particular, we had to use a different set of values. It turns out the initial measurement was wrong, and the wrong number of Tiaileng were assigned to you."

"What do you mean?" I replied, suddenly even more confused. "If it was the wrong amount, then why are you all still here with me?"

"Not less," Sammacey breathed. "More."

"More?" I said, trying to somehow remain calm as I felt my stomach suddenly plummet. "How... how many more?"

I saw motion out of the corner of my eye, and looked over to see Daledonne counting on his fingers.

"Well, let's see... in addition to us, I guess there's... forty-seven more?"

I felt my breath catch in my throat. "F-fifty? No way... That's not... it can't be..." I suddenly realized why they'd waited to tell me until I was here, snugly in place in a moving vehicle that I couldn't easily bail out of - if they'd laid that on me by the sidewalk, there's was a good chance, I realized, that I would have just up and bolted. Already, my mind was reeling from the idea. One would have been an ordeal, I still hadn't figured out how to deal with three, but fifty? I'd be practically drowning in Tiaileng...

"We all thought it was impossible. Then again, we thought it was impossible for you to see the connection, too. All your scientists, working for decades, couldn't even independently verify it, so we'd assumed it was beyond your capabilities. You, though... you're a first, for sure, at least as far as I know, and hopefully the first of many. Because of that, they need to find out more - figure out what exactly it is that you're capable of, see just how you can handle the capabilities that you have, and so they want to evaluate you in a more or less controlled environment. Not a place of imprisonment, or anything like that, just a place where they can figure out your situation without... other outside influences."

"So, the place I'm going..."

"It's really, really cool!" Sammacey said. "It's got gardens, and a pool, and everything!"

"More specifically," Daledonne continued, "it's a place where we can all be with you. Obviously, we couldn't all have squeezed into your house, not with fifty of us, so the government had to find a place where we could all be together comfortably - after all, that's one of the treaty requirements, adequate facilities for all people and their companions. As part of that treaty, though, our people were awarded various things, including some remuneration for our technological contributions, and with some of that money properties were acquired for various purposes, including as a test bed for certain promising cases. As a result, we were all assigned a... mansion sort of thing, I guess. That's where everyone else is - they decided it would be better if we were the ones who came to get you. I know it's kind of... abrupt, but Coaverel wanted to make sure that the assignment was completed today. Don't worry, though, we're all going to make sure you settle in nicely, and it's going to feel like home in no time."

I shook my head, still trying to comprehend it all. "I, um... I'm not sure I can do this..."

"And I'm sure you can," Katonnan said, squeezing my arm. "You don't have to do anything special, just be yourself and live your life with us. I know we don't really know each other that well - okay, I guess we know you a lot more than you know us, but then again we've got an entire file on you to look at - but we're not here to boss you around, or just to make you feel things or leech energy or whatever you think we're about. Eventually, we're going to be real partners - real friends."

"Um... really? All fifty-one of us?"

"Sure!"

Daledonne nodded. "There's still a ways to drive yet, so why don't we get started on that?"

And so we did - while the conversation was a little awkward at first, and I asked some generally stupid questions (so, what's it like in space?), by the time we pulled onto the private driveway it was considerably less so. As it turned out, none of them had seen any more of space than I had - all of them, it turned out, had been born right here on earth. I knew that such a thing was possible - after all, many of my friends had grown up not just with Tiaileng parents but with siblings as well, although for some reason I had been the only child from my four parents. Did that have something to do with what was apparently happening with me? I didn't know. The result of the conversation, though, was much less about that, and more just how, well, normal my three companions were. They had grown up in similar environments, and even shared similar interests, although I knew from the initial assignment that finding Tiaileng with those similarities had been part of the process. Still, it was nice to pass the time swapping notes on various anime series and arguing politely over the best possible superpower, far better than the awkwardness I'd assumed assignment would bring. By the end of the drive, I even felt halfway familiar with all of them, although I still wasn't quite sure how I felt about having my arms... occupied like that. Admittedly, it felt kind of nice, if perhaps a bit too close for me to be fully comfortable with, not least because it stirred up feelings I still wasn't quite ready to have, especially not while trying to figure out how to deal with what I'd soon be facing. At least, I supposed, the Tiaileng were enjoying those feelings in their own particular way, although in the brightness of the vehicle interior there was nothing interesting to see.

As we pulled up in front of our destination, I glanced out the window, feeling slightly awestruck. We'd pulled into a large, circular driveway, with an extravagant fountain in front, complete with a resplendent statue of some guy that I halfway recognized as some vaguely famous and incredibly rich tech guru - apparently, he'd moved on to even bigger and better places, and the Tiaileng had somehow ended up with this one. Not that it wasn't impressive in its own right - several stories tall, covered in tall white columns and classical decorations, looking like a cross between the White House and some palace from a bygone era. I stepped out of the car, still flanked by Sammacey and Katonnan with Daledonne following close behind, goggling at the bizarrely opulent sight as they led me up a series of intricately carved steps and swung open a large set of beautifully polished wooden doors.

Inside was a grand entryway, with a polished marble floor and a sweeping, curving set of staircases, complete with hammered brass handrails and mirrored insets, that seemed like something out of a movie. That, however, wasn't nearly the most remarkable part of it. Within the curve of the stairways and spilling out into the entryway proper was a sea of blue-green fur and grinning Tiaileng faces, so many that I had a hard time focusing on just one face within the crowd. It seemed like every type of Tiaileng was present - there were men and women, subtly different shapes of ears and muzzles, clothing running the entire gamut from prep to goth to teenage normal, and fur every shade of turquoise and aquamarine that I'd ever seen a Tiaileng have. The only complete similarities among them all were their normally homogeneous body types and their matching ages. As I looked them over, I could see that they were looking back, for the moment oddly silent, every single pair of eyes locked on me with almost laser-like focus. For a moment, they just watched me, each one of them looking at me with some unspoken purpose.

Then they all surged forward, talking and clamoring at once, surrounding me with fur and noise and touching, exploring hands. It was at about that point that my body, already stressed from the day, was quickly pushed past the limits of what it could handle. Rather than merely panicking, though, and subjecting everyone present to another round of awful wailing, I instead had the good sense to mercifully pass out.

When I awoke a short time later on a rather capacious bed, ringed by no less than fifty Tiaileng standing side by side and all looking down at me with a mix of concern and interest, I somehow managed to maintain my composure - even as it fully sunk in just how unimaginably different things were going to be. At least, that was what I'd thought, as the one nearest my head leaned over, and introduced herself as Envelie. I tried to anticipate what she would say, what she would ask for, what other crazy thing was about to happen. Somehow, though, I hadn't really expected her to simply nod in response to my silent acknowledgement and then, as if there was nothing unusual about the situation at all, to solicitously ask what I'd like to have for dinner. For a moment, I just stared back, incredulously.

"Wait a minute... I'm surrounded by dozens of you guys, I just lost consciousness from the craziness of everything that's happened today, and now you're asking me about dinner?"

"Well, you have to eat, don't you? Oh, and if you don't mind, it'd be even better if you said pizza. For some reason, there are three freezers downstairs that are entirely filled with nothing but frozen pizza..."

"Pizza is fine," I replied, laying back and still trying to focus on the veritable sea of Tiaileng surrounding me. I still hadn't the slightest idea how I was supposed to handle them all, but maybe pizza would be a good start. After all, sitting down and having a slice, reheated or not, would be about the first truly normal thing I'd done all day, even with several dozen cute, fuzzy blue-green aliens watching...