FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

**Nostalgic Watch Party

By Limewah**

Comimssion for Mooninite99

18+

SNEAK PEEK

Sky always got a bit nostalgic on Wednesday nights. It had been years since their friends from college and them had a proper movie night together. It didn’t help that their phone ‘reminded’ them of it by throwing up some photos from 4 years ago onto their home screen. They were just taking a moment to OCD-browse their social feed while waiting an eternity for a game to load its way-too-big world map, when wham, there it was, throwing them back in time and making them completely forget about the game.

There they all were, huddled on a leather couch, grinning at the camera in that way that only buzzed-up friends could, completely washed out by the overpowering, shitty flash of the camera.

Sky’s eyes scanned the photo from left to right. There was Wei-Yin, with his short black hair and his way-too-thick glasses, throwing himself goofily over the laps of Sabrina and Malik. The two of them were together at the time, her pale skin and purple-dyed buzz-cut making a pretty stark contrast to his scraggly beard and dark skin. Both of their eyes were particularly bloodshot, even from this photo it was obvious. Rosie was mid laugh, her smile brilliant and blazing against her tanned hispanic complexion.

And there was Sky at the end. Well, they weren’t going by that name back then. Even now, it felt like Sky was looking at a totally different person. The eyes were the same, the facial structure. But the boy in that photo looked uncomfortable, like his very existence was chafing him. The recently shaved scruff clung to the boy’s face strangely, and his clothes were baggy and sort of shabby-looking.

The meetup used to be a fortnightly occurrence during college, and a good while after, well into their mid-20s.

The last time they had one of these parties was three years ago. After Malik and Sabrina split, and Malik moved to Dubai for work, then Wei-Yin continued on to a Masters across the country… it just left Rosie and Sky. They’d come out to her first over a coffee, and she’d been nothing but supportive. But it just wasn’t the same; the pair of them had never been the best for conversation, relying on the more outgoing members of the group to keep it going. But that didn’t happen, and soon they just sort of… stopped.

Sky stared at that old photo of the (mostly) happy crew, wondering if they were all still doing okay. As they stared, a bubble from a long-unused social media popped up with the sound of a glass being struck.

Skyyyy my good bitch!!!!

Wana come see my new pad?

Malik????????? Are you back home? When did this happen?!

O a few months ago sorry I didn’t message I was kinda goin through shit ????

Anyway I wanna do a movie night again, you good for this Wed? Everyone else is!!!

Sky’s heart caught in their throat, and they pinched themself.

It wasn’t a dream…!

Yes!

–

“This is an incredible collection!”

Rosie was staring at the wall of old VHS tapes, in far better condition than they had any right to be. She brushed her chestnut hair (longer than she used to allow it to grow) back from her eyes and stooped down lower. There were weird cult horror films she never had heard of, big blockbusters from the early 2000s, just at the tail end of the cassette’s life-span, and an entire shelf devoted to animated films. And most of them looked absolutely pristine.

“I’ve been working on it for years,” Malik croaked, before exhaling a plume of off-white smoke as he passed the blue-glass bong over to Wei-Yin. He was clean-shaven-now, and his hair was well trimmed - but still messy, since he was off the clock. If he was wearing a suit, and his hair , he’d look like the professional he supposedly was now.

“It was a fuckin’ bitch getting it all back over here. It’s mostly decoration to be honest, I’ve just got everything on a plex server.”

“But you’ve got a vhs player down there, right?” Wei-Yin said, just as he pressed the lip of the glass pipe to his mouth and inhaled. Wei-Yin had had a bit of a glow up too, after he came out of the closet and embraced a skimpier look.

“Yeah, it is,” Malik said, “but… it’s old, I gotta get it refurbished and that shit’s expensive.”

“Like you couldn’t afford that!” Rosie said. Malik shrugged, scratching at his chin.

At that moment, Sky came down the stairs into the theatre, two big bowls of popcorn in their arms. They put them down on the big table in front of the couch, feeling everyone’s eyes on them. Their blue, baggy cardigan and painted nails made them look and feel like some kind of ethereal ghost - it was a powerful look.

Sabrina looked up from her phone, where her face had been buried for most of the conversation. She looked Sky up and down.

“You look amazing,” she said, in that usual taciturn way. She’d changed the least out of all of them, at least physically. She’d mellowed out, though. Her and Malik seemed chill.

Sky made her way over next to Rosie to have a look. They’d already pored over the massive library when helping Malik set up, but… damn.

On close inspection, some of the cardboard sleeves had just a bare hint of creasing at the corners… but otherwise, it was like they were 6 years old again, wandering through the video store aisles, recalling the old musty smell and the tinny music through old loudspeakers.

Though it was a little hard to recall the scents due to the gradually building skunk-smell of the host’s ‘refreshments’, filling the basement theatre.

Some things didn’t change.

Sky could feel the room starting to settle, and feel the old personalities of their close friends coming to the fore again. It was like the old days. Only better, with everyone being more sure of themselves - especially Sky.

None of them had slipped up, either with their name or their pronouns. It was as if they had always been called Sky.

“Wouldn’t it be fun to throw one of these on?” Sky asked.

“Y’sure?” Malik scoffed good-naturedly. “Some of em might have been worn out, or demagnetised. Plus it’s gonna look like shit on the big screen!”

“I thought you’d’ve kept that big CRT,” Sabrina said.

“Nah, my last girlfriend broke it.”

“Damn. Was that the psycho?”

“Yup. Honestly she was a massive downgrade from you -”

“Malik, I’m not-”

“-I know, I’m not trying to hook up with you again!”

Sky was only sort of half-listening to the conversation, their eyes focused on the animated section. Malik seemed to have collected the full set, including -

“They made a VHS tape for Cars?!” Sky laughed.

“Wowwww.” Rosie came straight in with the Owen Wilson impression, and it spread to the others pretty quickly after.

“Yep, that’s the last one they ever did,” Malik said. “It was only for some special movie club thing.”

“Surprised they lasted that long…” Sky’s eyes were drawn away from the shiny red paper casing, up to a pastel-coloured spine with a familiar shaggy-haired boy’s smiling face on it, along with big purple letters with gold outline.

The Jungle Book.

Sky slid the case out from the shelf. The plastic shell felt weirdly flimsy, so they relaxed their grip on it as they stared at the cover. It was as they remembered it - way more saturated than the actual film itself, the greens of the trees, the blues of the waterfall and the golden stone tiles beneath the dancing boy and bear’s feet were positively vibrant. There were Bagheera the panther and King Louie the orangutan, watching with delight as Mowgli the man-cub danced hand in hand with Baloo the Bear - the sloth bear’s clawed free hand being wrapped tightly around the neck of Kaa, the python.

Those big goofy golden eyes and the long wriggly coils…

Kaa had always secretly been Sky’s favourite.

Especially when they passed puberty, and ended up seeing the film in a whole new context. After having discovered furry smut during some clandestine googling when the parents weren’t home, Sky had discovered that, well… all of the different animals in that film had very dedicated fan followings.

Kaa inspired a particular brand of smut.

At first, Sky found it sort of hilarious and cringy, seeing all the different brightly-coloured fursonas or poorly photoshopped celebrities wrapped in Kaa’s coils.

But there were a few pieces of art that reminded him of the butterflies they got when they first saw Kaa appear, those arpeggiated flute notes, and the sinister serenades he gave Mowgli in an attempt to eat him.

It was scary, but in a different way to, say, a scary story or a gory film. They were afraid for Mowgli, but also strangely jealous of him. From the dazed look while Kaa was putting him to sleep with those twirling eyes, to the placid smile on his face (not to mention Bagheera’s), that whole scene was deeply absorbing in its own way. They both looked so happy when they were in a trance…

Why was that?

And why did Sky want to feel that same sense of happy bliss…? Sky didn’t have the words to articulate it, or the understanding, until they were well into adulthood, and realised they had a serious kink for hypnosis.

Especially for Kaa.

The wet dreams started before long. Perhaps brought on by late nights of pausing on each scene, frame-by-frame, analysing the snake’s big welcoming eyes and sinister seductive smile… they’d go to bed with a sense of shame, and would find themself up a tree, wearing only red briefs, and feeling smooth, cool scales against their nude body. Even when they tried lucid dreaming, the result was always the same. They couldn’t look away. They couldn’t resist. They just sank into Kaa’s eyes and everything felt right.

When people asked them why they picked the name ‘Sky’ - infrequent as it was - they would just say that it just felt right saying it.

What they didn’t mention was that it came to them in a dream. A dream where Kaa was the one calling them that, whissspering ‘Ssssleepy Sssky” as they seduced them for the hundredth time.

It was a secret they would probably take to their grave.

“Jungle Book, huh?” Rosie said.

“Y-yeah.” Sky stammered. “It was my favourite as a kid.”

“Hell yeah, me too!” Wei Yun called out. “Is it weird that I thought the big cats were kinda hot?”

“That’d explain why you only date guys over 40,” Sabrina sniped, just as she took her turn at the bong.

Wei-Yun shrugged, his features tightening into a ‘yep, you got me’ grimace.

“I thought the bear was cute,” Sabrina added, before her lips pressed against the glass top.

“Y’know,” Malik half-coughed, “If we’re gonna get high and watch something, it might as well be a disney movie, right? Let’s throw it on.”

“Oh, y-yeah, let’s see what else we got-” Sky stammered as they tried to slip the cassette back into the shelf. Rosie took it from them.

“Let’s do this one!”

To read the rest of this early, head to my Patreon!

www.patreon.com/limewah