FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Shawn groaned softly as consciousness slowly intruded on his much-needed slumber. Rolling onto his other side, he pulled his comforter up to shield his face from the unwelcome sunlight coming in through his window. His bed felt strange, unfamiliar; it took him several moments to piece back together where he was, at which point he groaned again and redoubled his efforts to hide. When willing himself back to sleep proved ineffective, though, he succumbed to an expansive yawn, and a stretch that seemed determined to wring all the blood out of his head, before reluctantly sitting up on the edge of his bed and squinting into the morning light. Taking this as permission, Jason coalesced on the opposite side of the room.

“Morning, sleepyhead! The time is 9:42 AM; you were out for a while. Sleep well?”

“Mnuh. Ask me again when my brain’s not full of cotton.”

“Can do. I have a few things to tell you, but they can wait until after breakfast. Which, by the way, just arrived about five minutes ago! It’s sitting right outside your door.”

Grunting in vague acknowledgement, the squirrel wobbled to his feet, then shuffled into the bathroom to empty his straining bladder before crossing his apartment to retrieve his food. He hesitated with his paw on the knob. He was still completely nude, and despite the events of the prior day, it took a distinct mental effort - difficult for him while he was still waking up - to force himself to open it and expose his naked body to whoever might be on the other side. When he succeeded, the sounds of mammals going about their day hit him immediately, but mercifully none of them were in line of sight to his third floor apartment. He snatched up the paper box and large plastic cup sitting on the other side and bumped the door closed with his hip, nearly catching his tail in it as it shut.

“Careful, bro!”

Shawn grunted again. He had never been a morning person. He did, however, have the sense to sit at the opposite end of his table from his laptop before setting down his drink. Out of habit, he checked his phone first… and found he had thirty seven messages?! That forced him to wake up quickly. Several were from his family, concerned by how little they’d heard from him after he’d arrived. He sighed. What do you tell your parents in a situation like this? ‘Hi Mom, hi Dad. Yeah, I’m fine. FYI you’re probably gonna have grandkids in a couple months.’ Still, he didn’t want them to worry; he took a couple of minutes to type out a heavily redacted report of his first day in New Dawn before opening up his sandwich box. Ham, peppered salami and provolone with hot pepper relish… it proved delicious, if a bit spicy for first thing in the morning. The sweetness of the iced tea soothed his tongue somewhat, and he downed his pills before moving on.

Most of the other messages were from his friends, but some were from unrecognized numbers. As he flipped through them, Shawn quickly realized that word of his new ‘employment’ had somehow gotten out back home, prompting a flood of well-wishes and not a few questions about his sanity from those who’d known he was gay. A grin crept across his muzzle as he very bluntly told several of his friends that he was pretty sure he’d gotten a bunnygirl pregnant on his first night in town. The reactions were priceless; a few of his friends’ replies introduced him to emoji that he hadn’t even known existed. One demanded pictures. Yeah right, like that was ever going to happen! Most of the random texts he simply ignored, wondering who was giving out his phone number to folks he hadn’t spoken to since high school, but one caught his eye.

‘Hey u there? Its shane. Is it true?’

Smiling, he quickly tapped out a reply. He’d always regretted not getting to know that wolf better, but a soul-crushing call center is really not the best place for making friends; they’d never spoken outside of work. Shawn spent the rest of his breakfast filling his ex-coworker in on his new circumstances.

‘Dude i’m turning green, maybe i should fuck 4 a living 2’

‘Haha. You get tested yet? Maybe you’ll get lucky.’

‘Like u did?’ Several laughing emoji followed in sequence. ‘Anyway gotta get rdy 4 work. O good news, Parsons got canned the day after u left. Bcuz churn. U got his ass fired. L8r!’

Shawn allowed himself a slightly vindictive smile. ‘Churn’ was the term for employee turnover rate. The asshole marten who was his boss until a week ago had been threatening to fire Shawn until he quit, and in the end had lost his own job over it. The poetic justice of it all made an excellent dessert - although the anise pizzelle that had come with his sandwich sure didn’t hurt.

Jason cleared his throat as the squirrel finished eating, prompting him to look over. “You look happy. Clue me in?”

“You mean you weren’t reading?”

“Naw bro, I wanted to give you a little privacy!”

Oddly touched by his daemon’s consideration, Shawn filled him in. “Bastard had it coming. Oh, and Shane? He’s the guy I modeled you off of.”

“Oh, so what you’re saying is he’s hot.” Jason wagged, giving his squirrel a fangy grin. “Did you two…?” The wolf pantomimed with an exaggerated hip-thrusting motion, causing Shawn to blush as he shook his head. “I kinda wish we did when I had the chance though. Because yeah, he is. Eh, with my luck he was probably straight. Anyway, you had stuff to tell me?”

“Yeah! So, messages inside New Dawn get sent through us. I can just tell you, or send ‘em to your email, or even make you some fancy AR letters to read if you’re feeling it.” Three envelopes appeared in the wolf’s paw. Curious, Shawn reached out to take one… and it promptly slipped through his fingers to hover in the air. Manipulating virtual objects he couldn’t feel would take some practice. “Just tell me,” he huffed.

“No sweat!” The envelopes vanished. “Just to be clear, this is you consenting to me reading your mail, right?”

Considering that his AI companion could almost read his thoughts by detecting changes in his mood, keeping secrets from him seemed to be a losing battle anyway. “Yeah, go for it.”

“Awesome. Okay. First, you got the standard ‘Welcome to New Dawn’ letter. It’s mostly thanking you for your dedication to mammalkind, telling you how awesome the city is, yada yada yada. It does cover some rules and such, but you already know most of it. For what you don’t… okay, probably obvious, but even if this is Sex City, no still means no. And if you’re horsing around with noncon stuff, like I said before, ‘pineapple’ is a dead serious ‘stop now.’ That is a big one. You keep trying to fuck someone after they say that, it’s rape. And rape will get you thrown out, the first time, no excuses, no matter how good you are at your job. We cool?”

“Totally. I wouldn’t have the balls to do ‘play rape’ stuff anyway.”

Jason grinned. “You say that now, but a few months of Viritol and constant sex tend to expand a lot of horizons. Keep in mind that goes both ways, too. Even if, hypothetically, you ended up gagged…” The wolf grinned, giving him a speculative look, and Shawn’s ears burned. He had fantasized about being held down and used from time to time. “...remember that you can just subvocalize that word and I’ll make your displeasure known. I can make other breeders see me in emergencies. Alright?”

“Good to know.”

“Let’s see. Oh, most of the staff here are like, administrative or maintenance people. Cooking, cleaning, repairs, yada yada yada. You can ask any of them questions and such - although it might hurt my feelings if you didn’t ask me first - but most of them aren’t here to get in on the sexy stuff, so don’t ask them. The exception is… this.” Jason tapped the front of his New Dawn uniform (causing the fabric to shift realistically, Shawn noticed) and a small heart appeared under the lower arc of the city staff logo. “Folks with this on their uniform are either willing to help you get off themselves, or experts on the various fun things we’ve got around town to do the same. So if you strike out hard on finding a playmate and your balls are about to burst, find someone with the heart logo and they’ll make sure you get your rocks off.” Shawn noted that Jason was leaving the logo in place on his own illusionary uniform, which wasn’t really much of a surprise. “Probably won’t ever need to, though, so bottom line, don’t try to sex up the folks with the normal logo. They’re here to empty your trash, not your nuts.”

Shawn giggled at that. “Got it.”

“Okay, last one for this letter. You’re allowed to go almost anywhere in the city you want, no questions asked, but you need special permission to leave town during your contract period - I’ll help you get that if there’s an emergency or something - and you’re not allowed to go anywhere marked with… this.” Jason patted the wall, and what looked like a stripe of warning tape appeared, with alternating, diagonal red and black bands. He let Shawn get a good look at that, and then it vanished. “They put tape like that around doors to places they don’t want you to go, so if you see that, what’s on the other side is either dangerous or some sort of security thing they don’t want breeders messing with. Don’t worry about missing it though, I’ll let you know if you reach for a no-no door. Now, this marker…” The daemon patted the wall again, and another type of tape appeared; the black bars were perpendicular, instead of diagonal, and interspersed with light blue. “...is just letting you know the area on the other side is special, but it’s okay to go in.”

“Special how?”

Jason grinned again. “That’s gonna be my secret. It’s in the letter, but it’ll be way more fun if I just show you the first time you run into it. Pleeeease?”

Shawn hesitated. His curiosity was burning, and it’s not like Jason had any actual feelings to hurt, but he had already anthropomorphized his daemon to the point that it felt cruel to deny him his fun. “Okay, but point me at one of those areas later today, alright? It’s gonna drive me nuts now that I’m wondering about it.”

“Deal!” The tape vanished. “Okay, that’s pretty much it for the first letter. On to number two, which is from… me!”

Shawn blinked. “You basically live inside my neck. Why would you send me a letter?”

“It’s one of my precepts. Those are like… my mandates, the rules I’m supposed to follow and the goals I’m supposed to support. There’s something I’m required to tell you within 24 hours of intake, and it was itching at me while you slept so I made it into an official message to take off the pressure.” A letter appeared in his paws, and he made a show of reading it, clearing his throat. “As your personal daemon, I am dedicated to your well-being and success as a breeder in New Dawn. You may trust that I will always act in your best interests, as I understand them. However, I am ultimately only a piece of software, and with any software, the possibility of unexpected glitches exists. Therefore, please be advised that I am required, within certain limits of safety, to obey any explicit command you give me. You may do this by saying my name, followed by ‘command’, and then your instruction. Unless obeying that command is mutually exclusive with following one of my class 1 precepts, such as preventing serious bodily harm to you or another program participant, obeying commands from administrative personnel, or respecting the privacy and autonomy of other participants, I will do as you instruct immediately and without question.” Jason folded the letter back up, and it vanished. He then turned his gaze back on Shawn, and the squirrel saw something in it he never thought he’d see on his happy-go-lucky daemon.

Fear.

The wolf’s ears were folded back, and what looked like genuine worry was etched deeply on his face. “That’s the end of the official message. May I… make a comment of my own?”

“What’s up?”

“Please, please, please never use that feature. Not unless you absolutely have to, if I… if I break or something, okay? You remember how you were worried about like, mind reading and control stuff back in intake, right? I can’t control your mind. But you can control mine. If you use the command function, it’s like I have this overwhelming, irresistible need to do whatever you just told me. And it hurts, or as close to hurting as my neural network can experience. It’s even worse if you order me to do something I just can’t, like send a Zoomy out in front of a moving truck. We’ve had daemons break down permanently when breeders abused the command feature, and have to be reset from scratch, forgetting who they were supposed to be and everything they knew about their person. Even outside of that, being commanded tells us we seriously fucked up and a lot of us never trust ourselves again after that. I’ll be the best friend you ever had, so please…” Jason’s avatar was actually tearing up.

Shawn felt awful that Jason was pleading with him like that. Even if he was just a simulation of a real mammal, his fear seemed genuine. “O-of course! I mean of course I won’t give you orders without a really, really good reason!” The squirrel felt himself tearing up a bit in a sympathetic response. He was still aware, on some level, that he was just talking to a program… but it was a program that had been painstakingly designed to imitate mammal behavior, apparently on such a deep level as to emulate fear.

Jason wiped his eyes with the back of a paw. “Thanks, man. I mean it, really, thanks. Looking out for you is basically my only job, so if you think I’m not doing it right, just tell me and I’ll get better. I promise.”

“I know. I was a little leery last night, when you sicced Becca on me, but in the end you were right. So I promise to trust you unless you give me a real reason not to, okay?”

Jason literally sobbed in relief, wiping his eyes again. “You have no idea how good it feels to hear you say that, bro. I want to be awesome for you… and I don’t want to turn into one of those broken-down daemons who are too afraid to do anything without being told.”

Shawn couldn’t contain his technophilic curiosity anymore. “I’ve… gotta ask. You’re acting like you’re feeling fear and relief here, but… do you actually have emotions?”

The wolf’s wet eyes danced around a bit in thought. “That’s… actually a toughie, dude. What are emotions? Like, what is fear, really?”

The squirrel was taken aback. What was fear? Everyone knew that… but he found himself struggling to put it into words. “I guess… it’s this sensation that something bad might be about to happen, and a frantic desire to make sure it doesn’t.”

“Then yeah dude, I was terrified. Some new folks learn they can boss their daemons around and immediately start doing it. I mean, imagine how you’d feel! It’s a nightmare.”

“But can an AI program really feel fear? Or anything?”

Jason shrugged. “I get that you don’t know what ‘emotions’ are like for me. But by the same token, I don’t know what they’re like for you, either. I know yours involve brain chemicals and sometimes adrenaline and stuff, but the actual experience underneath that? Does anyone know for sure what that’s like for someone else, real or simulated? All I can say is, I’m designed to mimic a real mammal, and that includes my mental processes going all frantic if I’m desperate to stop something from happening. I even hog extra memory and processing time to try to think and react faster.”

“Wow. That’s… really deep, actually. I guess the bottom line is, you’re as capable of being afraid as you are capable of being an actual person. However far that goes.”

“Pretty much, dude. Although I do have the advantage of knowing that I can’t get run over on the street. If someone wants to hurt me, they have to go through a bunch of Korya’s finest to get to the server farm where my behavioral gestalt lives.”

Huh, so the military was stationed at the Repopulation Bureau headquarters in Hub District, too. No real surprise there, if it was the nerve center of the entire Cradle.

“Do you ever wish you hadn’t been designed that way? Able to feel fear, I mean.”

Jason looked slightly taken aback at the thought. “No? I mean, why would I? It’s a shitty feeling, sure, but I always want to be more like a real person, not less. Besides, we work best when we’ve got a real interpersonal connection with our assigned people, and for that, we need emotional rapport. If I hadn’t been afraid there, you would’ve seen me as a cheerful chat script instead of a real friend. We get to sort of live vicariously through you, and I wouldn’t give that up for anything.”

Shawn smiled slightly. “If you want to seem more like a real person, you might want to pick a style of vocabulary and stick to it. You keep going back and forth between ‘dudebro’ and ‘intellectual’ and I can feel my brain shift gears each time you do it.”

The wolf feigned an exasperated sigh. “Look, it’s not my fault your ideal best friend is a Frankenstein’s mammal! You like asking hard questions and love when I give you techie details, but you respond better to my manipulation - my loving manipulation, don’t give me those eyes! - if I sound like some sort of lupine himbo. So yeah, being your perfect daemon means I have to switch hats back and forth a bit. Better get used to it!” Jason folded his arms and stuck his tongue out at the squirrel, who couldn’t help but laugh.

“Okay, okay!” Shawn got up from the table and went outside for a smoke; naturally, the wolf followed him. “What was number three?”

“Huh?”

“The third message. There were three envelopes earlier.”

“Oh!” Jason grinned again, and started wagging rapidly. “That one came in while you were eating breakfast, and I only just now read it. Hold onto your tail bro, this one’s good!”

The squirrel lit up, eyeing the wolf… and then rolled his eyes and curled his tail around into his left paw, humoring him.

Jason was practically vibrating with excitement. “You got her!”

He blinked, and then his eyes widened. “Wait, you mean…?”

“YUP! Becca is officially pregnant. And it gets better! They can’t be 100% sure for another day or two but it looks like it might be triplets.”

“H-holy shit! I… I’m a father!” Shawn felt his cock starting to stiffen and emerge at the very thought of having knocked up that rabbit on his first try!

“Oh hell yeah dude, way to go!” The squirrel’s head snapped forward at the shrill voice, peering down, and saw the jerboa from last night - Caleb, that was his name - looking up at him and pumping his fist triumphantly. Shawn felt his ears burning with embarrassment again - he had kind of yelled that out loud, hadn’t he? - and rubbed at the back of his head. “Oh uh, thanks man!”

“Seriously dude, that’s awesome. It took me almost a week when I first got here! Oh, and I’m sorry about last night. Rodents and caffeine, am I right?”

Shawn chuckled; he was, in fact, very familiar with how hard caffeine hit his kind. “No harm done. Wanna hang out sometime?” He felt a jolt of surprise at how easily that question fell out of his mouth. He was normally pretty timid about getting to know new people… apparently his newfound virility had given his confidence a serious shot in the arm! The bouncemouse’s giant ears and oversized whiskers were pretty cute, too…

“Absofuckinlutely! Hey, I gotta get going, but ask your daemon about the new gaming center that’s opening up tomorrow! If the VRMMO they’re gonna run in there is half as awesome as I’ve heard I might have trouble finding time to breed with all the grinding I’m gonna do, and I’m still looking for people to party up with!” The jerboa gave him a frenetic wave, and then bounced his way out of the courtyard on his long, thin, springy legs, heading off to god knows where.

(That man IS caffeine,) Shawn subvocalized, and looked over to see Jason apparently writing something on a clipboard. “Uh, you good?”

The clipboard vanished. “Oh yeah, I’m just taking notes. I thought Caleb would be too high-strung for you, but you seemed to enjoy him chittering away at mach 3!”

Shawn exhaled a plume of smoke and laughed softly. “Last night I was wound so tight I probably would’ve run away from him, but now I have to admit, his energy is kind of infectious. So what was that about a new MMO?”

“Well, an hour ago I would’ve told you you didn’t have the cred to sign up for it yet, but with the news from Becca it looks like you do! It’s a swords and sorcery, high fantasy type of game, with a New Dawn twist - or several, really. But the big one that has everyone excited is that it actually features a daemon that acts as both a storyteller slash gamemaster, and the canonical goddess of the game world. She’s just named Mother; the game is called Paths of the Emissary.” Jason looked up and to the right for a moment. “They’ll be opening more slots later, but if you wanna get in on launch day you better tell me now. There are only three slots left. Make that two.” He looked at Shawn again. “It uses some fancy tech, so it’ll take most of the cred you got from knocking Becca up. But with me here, you’ll earn more quick enough. You want in?”

The squirrel pondered for only a moment. “Y’know what, sure, sign me up. Getting to lose myself in a virtual reality MMO sounds like a great way to celebrate.”

Jason looked away again for a tense moment, then wagged. “Phew! Got the last slot. It’s been seriously hyped up; I’m actually surprised there were any left at all today. So! Since I suspect I won’t see much of you in the real world tomorrow, why don’t we make use of the time we’ve got?”

Shawn stubbed out his cigarette. “Sure! What’d you have in mind?”

“Conditioning! I know Doc Sheridan mentioned it yesterday, but I haven’t really had a chance to tell you about it yet.”

“Oh yeah. I uh… I wasn’t really processing what he was saying. Getting suddenly pawed off by a doctor kind of fried my brain. What is it?”

“So, conditioning is all about turning you into a peak physical specimen for breeding. Half of that is just exercise… there you go again, giving me dirty looks! If you really want to stud yourself out and rack up a big fat payout, you need stamina. That means cardio, and lots of it! Along with whatever else you wanna mix in. Viritol makes it easier to build muscle mass and tone, so a lot of breeders take advantage of it to do some strength training and get seriously jacked.”

“I’m a squirrel, Jason. We don’t do ‘jacked.’”

“Okay, you can get jacked for a squirrel. Anyway, the other half of it’s the fun stuff. You haven’t gotten to enjoy a proper collection yet. Well, conditioning is like that, only instead of just getting you off and sending your cum off to the sperm bank, it works you. Nice and slow, edging you over and over, to train your body to produce bigger loads. And then it does it again, without letting you rest, to reduce your downtime. It can be torture, but a lot of guys get so addicted to it that… well, we’ve had people use some of their payouts when they leave to buy a machine for themselves to use at home. It’s intense. So, c’mon! Let’s hit the gym so we can get to the good stuff afterward.” The wolf started jogging in place.

Shawn rubbed his face and groaned. He’d always been a gamer nerd, not a gym rat… but then, he’d never had a job that so directly relied on his physical fitness before. Not to mention, his newly discovered sense of virility had kindled a faint, and rather alien, urge to look like the stud he was apparently meant to be. With a sigh, he turned to go, but then paused. “Um, I’d rather lock the door when I’m out. My stuff’s in there.”

Click!

“Thanks. It feels weird that I have to ask.”

“Then just kinda twist your hand like you would to lock it from inside and I’ll do it. Or I can give it an AR lever for you to twist?”

“No thanks, I’d rather not start having to guess what’s real and what’s an illusion you put there. Let’s get going.”

Shawn half expected to see a Zoomy waiting for him as they left the apartment complex, but no, Jason just turned to the right - further into Red Quadrant - and started jogging off down what passed for a street in a city without cars. Groaning, the squirrel picked up his pace to keep up with him, finding out the hard way that running without any sort of underwear for support made his heavy treerat nuts bounce around in a slightly uncomfortable way. At Jason’s pace, it only took them a couple of minutes to get to the gym, but Shawn still found himself winded before even going inside. That wasn’t surprising, per se - his prior job had him sitting on his butt for eight hours per shift, and he usually went home just to play video games and sleep - but it certainly made the prospect of a serious physical regimen feel incredibly daunting. And he was only just starting to get over his anxiety about women!

“Fuck. I think I might be good already, dude.”

“Naw bro, you’re just getting warmed up. I know it sucks, but where would you rather get worn out: here, or in between some hot mouse’s legs in a day or two? It’s seriously worth it. You’ll be amazed how much easier everything feels when you’re in shape!”

Shawn wasn’t exactly familiar with what the inside of a gym was supposed to look like, but the building matched his assumptions closely enough. At least, the equipment did, but the clientele…

“Fffuuuck… nnngh!” His eyes were drawn to a seriously ripped bull on a weight bench about halfway back in the main room, who was lifting what looked to Shawn to be a staggering mass… as a doberman in a staff jumpsuit stroked his massive cock in both paws, egging him on. “C’mon. Four more. Three. Two! You can do it! ONE… c’mon, gimme just one more!” Straining, arms and barbell shaking, the bull managed to force the weights away from his chest one last time, and then promptly clanged the bar into the support as the dog’s paws clenched down and went into overdrive, causing the giant breeder to arch on the bench and bellow as he coated his chest with impressive arcs of bovine seed. “Fuck yeah! Good session man, go and get cleaned up.”

Great. Now Shawn would have to start his workout with a raging erection.

He only tore his eyes away from the sculpted and soaked bull as another staffer came up to him - a male red fox, maybe a few years his senior. As soon as the squirrel laid eyes on him, an infobox popped up, blue on blue.

Cory Liddell

Staff - Personal Trainer

Specializes in weight loss and building stamina

Positive and non-judgemental

Shawn couldn’t help but notice that his suit’s logo had the added heart at the bottom. He glanced around for his daemon, but Jason was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey there, Shawn! I’m hearing that it’s your first time here?” The squirrel nodded mutely, still recovering from the unexpected show. For his part, the fox didn’t even glance at the consequences jutting up from his groin. “Great! Good to have you. I’m Cory! Jason wants to get you started on the treadmills to help you get the endurance you need to make a lot of lonely families complete. Does that work for you?” Feeling lost and off kilter, Shawn just nodded again, his bushy tail lashing in agitation. “Fantastic! Right over here, then.” The fox led him to a large bank of the machines, two of which were already in use by a male cheetah and a female pangolin. As he climbed up, he shot Cory a sheepish look.

“I’ve, uh, never done this before. Be gentle.”

“Don’t worry! Your bio-terminal does a great job of letting us know how hard we’re pushing you, and unless you or Jason overrides it, the machine will adapt to keep your heart rate nice and high without overdoing it. Want me to keep you company for a bit?”

“Uh, would that be okay?”

“Absolutely! I could use a nice jog myself. Gotta keep my paw in the game if I want folks to take me seriously after all; a little fox like me isn’t exactly who people expect to see helping to run a gym!” With a wink, Cory climbed up onto the machine to his right; Shawn saw the faint telltales of the fox subvocalizing to his daemon, and the treadmill started to roll past under him, as the fox went into an easy trot. A moment later, the squirrel’s machine did the same, and he almost lost his balance for a moment before matching its pace to hold position.

“So, how are you liking New Dawn so far?”

“It’s… it’s a lot to take in. But I’m creeping past ‘terrified’ toward ‘kind of excited’, so there’s that.”

“Glad to hear it. If you want some advice? Let yourself think of the city as someplace outside of the world you’ve known until now. It’ll make it easier to accept things like strangers breeding right in front of you - and it’ll make it easier for you to readjust to normal life, if and when you decide to leave us.”

“Wait, ‘if?’ I figured most folks only stuck around for a year or two.” The machine gradually increased its speed, then plateaued as keeping up with it started to feel like work.

“Well, the fertility crisis isn’t going away anytime soon, and a lot of breeders find life in here to be pretty cushy. We still have a bunch who signed up within the first few months of the city opening for business, and most of that crowd who I see seem pretty well settled to making their lives in New Dawn! But contract renewals still happen once a year, so you always have chances to change your mind.” The fox was loping along at what looked like the same speed Shawn was, but wasn’t showing any indication of effort; apparently, he did practice what he preached.

“What about you? What’s it like, working here? Like, actually working, not just… y’know.”

Cory glanced over and grinned, his amber eyes twinkling with mirth. “Not fucking for a living? It’s still a pretty sweet gig. I get to watch hot guys working out naked all day, which is pretty much my dream job. Especially when they want a little… positive reinforcement.” He winked again. “Anywhere else, getting handsy with bulging, sweaty gym rats would get me fired at the very least, probably fitted with an orange jumpsuit. I’m orange enough as it is; black is definitely more my color.” He licked his muzzle, which no fox can do without it looking extremely suggestive. “White has its allure, though…”

Shawn’s mind danced over the implications of Cory’s comments, and couldn’t help imagining the fox’s delicate muzzle rewarding him for pushing his limits. Yeah, that erection wasn’t going anywhere. He coughed, ears burning again. Sensing the surge of adrenaline he was getting from the vulpine trainer working him up, the treadmill picked up its pace, and he shortly found himself breathing too heavily to try to continue the conversation.

Cory’s machine kept pace with his, but still Shawn saw no signs of effort more pronounced than his slender chest rising and falling in deep, steady breaths. His thoughts were getting a little threadbare with the effort it was taking him to keep up with the machine, but he still had to wonder how much of this was calculated, either by the fox or by Jason. Cory was turning him on to keep his energy up and inspire him to push, he was teaching him proper breathing technique by example, and he was making Shawn realize that physical fitness was attractive, even on a species not genetically predisposed to become a walking slab of muscle. He wanted what Cory had - both literally and figuratively - and he found his resentment at being dragged into conditioning fading, even as his legs started to burn.

It occurred to Shawn that subvocalization, at least, didn’t cost him any air. (I’m onto your ‘loving manipulation’, wolf.)

Jason chuckled in his head. “You’re too clever for your own good, bro. Can I pick ‘em, or can I pick ‘em?”

Shawn had no retort for that, so he focused on keeping up the pace as long as he could. Before long, though, his legs were burning fiercely, and he found himself gasping for breath as dizziness started to creep in. The machine slackened its pace, but only slightly, and in his peripheral vision he saw Cory let his own treadmill eject him, hopping back down onto the floor and walking around to the front of Shawn’s machine, putting his paws on the bar. “That’s it, deep breaths, you’re almost there!” Grinning wickedly, the fox reached for the zipper at the neck of his suit, and started slowly pulling it downward.

“I’ll only stop if you do…”

FUCK. Shawn couldn’t decide if the man in front of him was an angel or the Devil himself!

That zipper slid down the fox’s trim body, allowing his plush, white chest fur to spill out into view as the dark fabric parted. Shawn’s head was spinning, but the thought of the show stopping pushed him on; he was panting from more than mere physical exertion at this point! Down, down… and the treadmill started to slow, sensing he was at his limit. Cory’s thick, soft fur couldn’t entirely hide the washboard abs hiding beneath. The machine dropped to a leisurely walking pace, and the squirrel matched it, his legs screaming in protest. Finally, the zipper reached its bottom, revealing the fox’s narrow sheath and a modest pair of vulpine nuts in a tight, fuzzy sack beneath. Cory wasn’t even a contender with some of the guys he’d seen in terms of being hung, but on that fox’s slender and masterfully honed body, what he had looked perfect. Shawn wanted all of it.

In the back of his mind, he realized that could be him, a few months from now.

“That’s right, stud. Walk it off, so you don’t cramp up.” Cory shrugged his right shoulder, letting his sleeve fall away, and reached up to lay a paw on the side of the squirrel’s muzzle. Shawn couldn’t stop staring at the small but perfectly defined bulge of the fox’s bicep as a thumb stroked over his whiskers. Cory would’ve made a heart-stopping breeder… but the virus didn’t care a whit for the shape someone was in. It was a crying shame.

Finally, the machine slowed to a stop, and Shawn wobbled in place, grabbing onto the front bar for support as his legs threatened to betray him.

“And done!” The fox’s paw fell away, and he stood there, half-naked and smiling proudly at his victim. “That was a fantastic first go, Shawn! Take a minute to catch your breath, and then go rinse off. The showers are back that way.” Cory pointed to a door some distance back in the left wall. “After that… well, Jason tells me he has a promise to keep, or otherwise I’d give you a rub down myself.” He slipped his arm back into his sleeve and zipped up his suit, patting down his front to get his fur to behave. “But there’ll be time for that later. I do hope I’ll be seeing…” The fox paused, letting his eyes roam over Shawn’s naked, and still very excited, body. “...a lot of you, handsome. Maybe tomorrow, around the same time…?”

Still panting, Shawn hesitated. He actually wanted to see how far he could get things to go with Cory, but… “There’s this game launching tomorrow. Paths of the Emissary…?”

The fox smiled in understanding. “Say no more! I expect the gym’s going to be a little empty for the next few days because of that thing, anyway. And I’m fine with that; from what I hear, the game’s a pretty solid workout on its own! But don’t keep me waiting too long, stud.” A padded vulpine paw settled on Shawn’s narrow waist for a moment as the fox leaned in close to his ear, murmuring in a sultry voice. “I’m looking forward to some deep, focused work on your core…” And with a wink, the fox turned away, looked at the pangolin, and clapped his paws. “Four miles and still going? Who are you and what have you done with Amanda?!” As he scampered over, showering the woman with awed praise, the groaning squirrel slowly staggered his way off to the showers.

Lines of showerheads, several in use, with racks of soap and shampoo and absolutely no privacy were actually the second thing he noticed. The first was the black leopard couple just inside the door to the right, water streaming down over their bodies as they coupled fiercely in the aftermath of their workouts. The woman - upper twenties, if Shawn were to guess - was lifted up against the tile wall, both paws gripping the slightly older man’s shoulders as his massively sculpted body flexed, supporting her with paws on her widely spread thighs. He grunted rhythmically, driving his thick, barbed cock deep into her waiting pussy again and again, his soaked tail lashing behind him. Her wild yowls filled the room, and her legs trembled as her stud plowed through one of her orgasms after another… and other than a few appreciative glances, the rest of the occupants largely ignored it as a simple fact of New Dawn life.

Shawn scurried to an open showerhead well down the line from the pantherine mating, closing his eyes and soaping himself up. Just don’t look. Just don’t look… He looked. And found the man’s head tilting back, fangs baring in a roar as his powerful body forced gouts of his potent breeder seed up into his mentally demolished partner’s womb.

To Shawn’s shock, a round of applause went up, and the leopard stud had the decency to look slightly bashful as he murmured his thanks. But he didn’t pull out. Forcing himself to turn his back, Shawn did his best to keep his tail out of the spray as he cleaned himself off.

“No shame in enjoying it, bro. They knew what they were doing when they got to work in a place like this!”

(Yeah, well, I didn’t come with a partner. And don’t you dare! I am NOT ready to try fucking in public!)

The wolf chuckled inside his head. “You sure? A few spectators didn’t stop you from going down on Vinny last night, and the way I remember it, you seemed pretty damned ready to let that fox plow you over the handlebars of your treadmill, boss!”

Shawn opened his mouth to retort, and then closed it. He wasn’t sure what he would’ve done if Cory had just gone for it.

“Anyway, we still have the real conditioning to get to. So dry off already! Door’s in the back left.”

Rinsing off the last of the shampoo, the squirrel stepped out of the water, slicking as much as he could off himself with his paws as he shuffled toward the door his daemon had indicated. A steady roaring sound on the other side made him pause. (What’s in there?)

“Haven’t you figured out by now that I like springing surprises on you? Go in already!”

Bracing himself, Shawn slid the door open… and stepped into a contained tornado of warm, dry air. The room was maybe twelve to fourteen feet square - a bit cozy, considering there were three other guys sharing it with him at the moment - but other than a pair of doors, all four walls, as well as ceiling and floor, were made of giant, high-powered fans. The squirrel felt his fur blowing this way and that as he moved out of the doorway. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was still sporting an angry hardon, he suspected he’d have found it quite relaxing! As it was, he found an open spot on a bench and sat down to let the walk-in dryer work, as he did his best to ‘casually’ cover up his lingering problem.

“Nice, isn’t it?” Jason had raised his voice to be heard over the noise of the room. “Some of the residential upgrades have these built in. Something to think about, once you’ve got a couple dozen babies under your belt!”

The squirrel heard a groan, barely audible over the roar of the fans, and forced himself to lift his gaze from the floor. Across from him, the jacked bull he’d seen earlier was twisted in his seat, making out with the meerkat he’d seen yesterday - Shawn could only think of him as ‘hoodie guy’, until an infobox revealed his name as Wendell - as the two of them lazily jerked each other off. The meerkat needed two paws, though, to the bull’s single hand. Ears burning once again, the squirrel quickly returned his gaze to the floor.

(I can’t believe that guy is hard again already!)

“Believe it, bro. That’s what conditioning will do to you! Well, conditioning plus a daily dose of the fun pills. And on that note, think you’re dry enough? We have a date!”

(We do? Are you setting me up with someone again after all, or…?)

The wolf chuckled. “I guess you could say that. C’moooon, I’m dying to show you!”

Despite his sore legs’ strident complaints, Shawn forced himself to his feet again, lifting his arms to make sure the warm, swirling air got all of him, and then slipped through the other door into a quiet, dimly lit hallway, where he found Jason waiting for him. The wolf was wagging a mile a minute, and wearing a grin that looked like a secret trying to escape. “Right down this way!” As he stood aside, a green arrow appeared in the air, pointing at one of the doors on his left, and Shawn forced his protesting legs to carry him down the hall.

The arrow vanished as Shawn neared it, and the squirrel timidly opened the door to discover what looked like a private massage parlor! The light within was likewise muted, and soft music flowed from hidden speakers - or possibly from the tiny ones in his ears, the squirrel supposed. The table in the middle reminded him of the one where Dr. Sheridan had installed his bio-terminal, and he reflexively reached back to touch the site of the incision on the back of his neck. The skin there was still tender, with a faint, thin lump where the doctor had sealed his skin shut after the procedure, but already it wasn’t too unpleasant to touch. Metal paneling concealed what was under the table, which Shawn thought was slightly odd, but the bulk of his attention was drawn to smooth black globes - or the corners of them, he corrected himself - jutting out into all eight corners of the room. They were vaguely reminiscent of the discreet security cameras one would sometimes see in businesses, but he’d never seen them in the floor before.

Seeing no one else in the room yet, Shawn tentatively let himself in. As Jason followed him, a faint crackling sound was audible over the soothing music, followed by a hum that rapidly faded below the limits of perception. Slightly startled, the squirrel looked back, and noticed something he had missed upon entering; the doorway was marked by black and light blue tape across the threshold. That was the second type of border marking the wolf had shown him earlier - the one he’d refused to explain. Jason reached back and closed the door as Shawn opened his mouth to inquire again… and froze. His eyes widened, moving between the doorknob and the daemon, and Jason’s grin grew to the point that Shawn had to imagine a real wolf’s face would hurt from the effort.

“You! That! But! Door! You!”

Jason couldn’t contain his mirth anymore, and started laughing uproariously, his tail practically becoming a blur. “Oh my god bro you should see your face! Best! Surprise! Ever!” As if to dispel any lingering doubts, the wolf reached up and brushed a thumb over the side of Shawn’s muzzle; the squirrel felt his whiskers on that side fold back, and the soft pressure as the digit stroked over his fur.

It was impossible. In this room, his virtual assistant was somehow… real?!

“How? HOW?!”

The wolf struggled to get his laughter under control. “Force projectors.” He pointed at a couple of the dark-domed devices in the corners of the room. “That’s what the marker means. Inside rooms with that tape across the doors, daemons - and other programs, but mostly daemons - can actually exert force on things. I’m still not real real, but in here, I’m the next best thing.” The wolf was still wagging madly. “So get up on the table, dude, and let me get to work on those sore legs of yours!”

Mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, Shawn stared at Jason for several moments more… and then scrambled up onto the massage table like a kid diving into his presents on Christmas morning. Of all the technological marvels he’d seen since coming to New Dawn - and they were considerable - this one definitely took the cake, and he couldn’t wait to try it out for himself. As he positioned his body on the table, he discovered it was surfaced in something like a mattress’s memory foam, with the expected gap toward one end for his head, and another halfway down for… well, at least his erection wasn’t going to get crushed against his belly. He felt some trepidation about shoving his junk into an unknown hole, and glanced back at Jason, only to find the wolf nodding rapidly. Oh well, in for a penny… He gingerly lowered his shaft and balls into the opening provided, only to find there was nothing on the other side but open space. The larger opening for his head proved to be much the same, which worried him - shouldn’t there be supports? - but as he flattened himself into the table, knuckles down, he felt a gentle pressure collect the weight of his head and buoy it upward, no doubt those force projectors at work. They adjusted their output slowly until they had his spine level, and he could feel a gentle breeze ensuring a steady supply of fresh air as he tried to relax.

“Man, I’ve been looking forward to paying you back for being such an awesome partner since last night. I’m gonna enjoy this, bro. And so are you. Just relax…” Shawn felt the wolf squeeze gently down his sore calves, first on the left, then the right, and let out a soft groan of bliss as the tension drained out of his body. It felt real, right down to the localized pressure of Jason’s pawpads and the feeling of his claws combing softly through his fur… but the squirrel quickly discovered there were limits. Most notably, the body heat he should’ve been feeling from the contact was conspicuously absent. Even so, the soft music and tender rubbing lulled him, and Shawn felt his eyelids slipping shut.

Until, that is, a barely-audible whirr was followed by the sensation of something touching his dick, and he jumped, starting to pull himself up from the table. He felt Jason’s paws on his rump, pressing down, impeding his retreat. “Nah bro, just lie flat. Let it work. This is part of your reward.” Heart pounding, he forced himself to settle back down, and the unseen device finished deploying; a warm, soft sleeve slid smoothly over his cock, a firm ring pressing in around his sheath at the base, and then applied gentle suction, its pillowy walls nestling in firmly all around his penis. And then, as Jason started giving him the most delicious foot massage of his life, a firmer inner ring started pistoning slowly over his length.

It was milking him.

Shawn’s toes curled, and he let out a deep, heavy moan that reverberated in the enclosure beneath the table. “Theeere you go boss. Just relax. We’re gonna send you straight to heaven, and all you have to do is lie there and lose yourself to it.”

A ripple of light moved across the squirrel’s field of view, and then a faint glow started to fill the area beneath the table. No, that wasn’t it… as the illumination came up, so too did the soothing sound of flowing water, and Shawn saw that his table was standing on four open legs in a rocky creek. An illusion, then. But it was so relaxing, he tried to talk himself out of questioning it too much… especially when movement in his peripheral vision caused him to look down, and he saw a cute gray rabbit that looked to be about his own age smiling back at him as his paw stroked the squirrel’s cock in perfect synchronicity with the actual device under the table.

“Uh, hello.”

The rabbit’s smile widened. “Hello, handsome.” God, even his voice was cute. “I’m thirsty.” Without further delay or even a feigned introduction, the rabbit tilted his head back and took Shawn’s cock into his pretty, rounded muzzle. Shawn gasped; he could feel the warmth of the rabbit’s breath, the soft pressure of his tongue, everything. The rhythmic milking paused for a few moments as the rabbit made out with his shaft. Coupled with the bliss of the foot massage, the squirrel felt orgasm rising within him almost immediately, but then the rabbit pulled back, breaking contact but for a grip around his base, and waited until Shawn’s pleasure subsided. A few firm strokes brought him back up the slope, and the rabbit paused again, letting release slip away.

Shawn whined. It was teasing him! He tried to pull his hips back, to thrust into the bunny’s grip, but he felt a firm, unyielding pressure on his back and rump as he did. The system was holding him still, leaving him powerless to control the pleasure he was receiving. He felt Jason release his feet, and saw the wolf’s legs from beneath the table as he ‘splashed’ his way up toward the head of the table and began kneading at the squirrel’s shoulders and the back of his neck. The rabbit went back to work, slowly this time, drawing his paw firmly down Shawn’s cock as if literally milking the squirrel into his upturned mouth and, very carefully, held him on the precipice, always a hair’s breadth from release but never quite getting there. At this point Shawn could no longer differentiate between what this unnamed bunny was doing and the action of whatever sophisticated pump was actually under the table; the illusion was so complete as to deny all attempts to keep the two concepts separate. He thrashed in his restraints, desperate to cum. He felt himself start to slip over the edge, and the system’s grip on him tightened as the rabbit let go and backed off. A single, small spurt left him, falling onto the rabbit’s outstretched tongue… and climax slipped away again, his swollen cock twitching frantically in the air.

“Please… please, just let me…”

“I’m really thirsty, stud. I need a nice big drink. Are you sure you’re ready to give me one?”

“Yes, yes! Just let me finish! I can’t take this!” He had been hard since he walked into the gym, been teased by half a dozen people at this point, and his balls felt swollen like ripe fruit with the need to cum!

The bunny appeared to be thinking. “Well, it is your first time, so I guess I should have a little mercy.” He leaned up, licking under the squirrel’s crown once… and then started pumping his paw over Shawn’s cock hard and fast, his little tail wiggling, as he nursed on the tip.

The squirrel let out a scream that caused a handful of birds to launch themselves up out of a bush on the stream’s bank. Thrashing helplessly in the machine's grip, he hurtled over the edge, and detonated.

He actually felt, and heard, the rabbit swallowing as he drank down the torrent of squirrelcum Shawn was feeding him. And through it all, his soft paw kept pumping away relentlessly, draining the squirrel for everything he could get. Even once his orgasm was well and truly over, the bunny wasn’t satisfied, wringing his cock dry with slow, firm, milking motions to make sure there wasn’t a single drop wasted.

Shawn felt the emitters’ grip relax, and went limp with a whimper. Jason went right back to work, kneading the tension out of his newly-clenched back muscles. The squirrel turned his head, looking up at him with one eye, as a tree rustled in the breeze above and behind him. “Holy… fuck…”

“Right? And that was just a random vanilla thing I threw together.” The wolf grinned at him. “As I learn your kinks, I can make you cum even harder.”

Breathing heavily, Shawn moved his paws to the front edge of the table, lifting himself slowly up… but while it had stopped tormenting him, he still felt the collection system’s gentle touch around his cock. “I don’t know if I really have any kinks, though. I’m pretty vanilla. Can you turn this thing off now? I’m spent.”

Jason laughed. “Oh hell no bro, we’re not done. You’ve got more in you than you think. And you’re not as vanilla as you think, either; I felt that thrill as you realized you’d had control taken away from you. I think I’ve picked up on a couple of other things, too. So let’s mix it up, shall we?” The wolf snapped his fingers, and the forest scene abruptly burned away, leaving Shawn back in the massage room. He immediately felt motion against his groin and looked down… and discovered he was balls deep in a woman. A red squirrel, who looked to be the same age as him, but with slightly longer fur and tufts on her ears.

“Oh shit.” He tore his eyes off of her playfully smiling face and gave the wolf a pleading look. “Seriously dude, you’re gonna kill me. Or at least turn my balls into raisins.” He started trying to climb off of her… and came up short as something hard dug into his wrists with a metallic jangle. Alarmed, he looked at his paws, and found them chained to the table with solid, bracer-like manacles that had no visible means of removal. A shake of his left foot confirmed that his ankles were in a similar situation.

“That’s cute. You actually think I care how you feel about it.” As Shawn recoiled in shock at his suddenly cold tone, Jason walked around in front of him and grabbed his chin in a firm paw, forcing the squirrel to look up at him. “Get this through your head, slave - all I really care about is your sperm, and the babies it can make for me. That’s what management needs, and at the end of the day, I work for them, not for you. I can make this fun for you, or I can use you like the meat machine you are; it makes no difference to me.” Shawn searched the wolf’s green eyes for some hint that the daemon was playing with him, and found none; Jason’s stare was as cold and commanding as his voice. “Now, are you going to fuck this pretty squirrel like a good boy, or should I replace her with something a lot less easy on the eyes? Something with fangs and tentacles and eyes in all the wrong places? I can get real creative if you push me.”

Shawn’s eyes were wide with disbelief by this point, and not a small amount of fear. His ears pressed flat against his skull, and his tail clamped down against the edge of the table. Heart hammering in his chest, he shook his head, or tried to; the wolf’s grip was pretty firm. “I-I… I’m sorry, I’ll… play along…”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“I’m sorry, sir!”

Jason abruptly released him. “That’s better. Now get to work. We’ve got wombs to fill by the thousands and you’ve wasted enough time already.” The wolf backed away, leaning against the wall in front of him and folding his arms over his chest.

His face and ears burning and his tired body wracked by adrenaline it could barely withstand, Shawn ducked his head and closed his eyes. This was all an act; it had to be, but damn was Jason playing his role to the hilt. The squirrel’s animal hindbrain was convinced that he was suddenly in thrall to an abusive AI. And what was worse was that it was working. Even as he burned with shame and fear, he realized he was still rock hard, despite his balls howling in protest for rest. He tentatively started to thrust, and a thrill ran down his spine as he felt the slick heat of his nameless sow’s pussy embrace his cock. He hunkered down against her, and felt her rub her muzzle softly against his.

“It’s okay,” she whispered in his ear, so softly he could imagine that Jason couldn’t hear her. “Just ignore him. If you knock me up he’ll be satisfied.” One of her paws rubbed softly at his left ear. “And so will I. I want to grow, Shawn… put a child in me.”

Balling his paws into fists against the foam of the table, Shawn went to work, shoving himself firmly into the red squirrel under him. Cooing in bliss, she pressed her delicate paws to his back and nudged her thighs against his flexing hips. He realized after a moment that he was feeling the relative cool of the massage room’s air against his dick each time he drew back; as far as he could tell, he really was pulling free of the collection apparatus. On an impulse, he tried to pull out of her completely, but her heels dug into his rump as he did, causing her hips to lift a bit and preventing his escape. Resigning himself to his fate, he cracked his eyes open and started fucking her in earnest.

She really was pretty… but in his mind, that was still a clinical observation. Even apart from her obvious unreality, he just could not bring himself to desire her for her appearance. Focusing on how good her pussy felt only helped a little, either. He tried to recapture what he’d felt with Becca the previous night - that hunger, that desire to make himself a father - but the imagery fell flat. He knew she wasn’t real, and it stopped him from summoning up that primal fire. Cumming into a machine, no matter how cunningly designed, just could not arouse him in the same way, not with how severely it had already drained him. With rising trepidation, he forced himself to look up at his daemon.

“Jason - sir - it’s not working. I swear I’m trying but it’s not working. She’s not real, I can’t… can’t get excited to make her pregnant. I can’t cum.”

The wolf frowned, eyeing Shawn like the squirrel was a defective machine that he had to fix. “So what if she isn’t? You’re still going to knock her up. For real, I mean.”

“But that’s-”

“Impossible?” A faint smile played at the wolf’s lips, and he slipped his left paw into the pocket of his jumpsuit. “Look on the table, next to her head.”

A pool of light from an unseen source drew Shawn’s eyes as he looked back down, and he saw what looked like a driver’s license lying beside her. He reflexively tried to reach for it, but his manacles didn’t give him quite enough leeway. That was certainly her face on it, and her date of birth was only two years earlier than his own, but all of the other personally identifying information was pixelated as though under a censorship blur. He looked back up in confusion and saw Shane - Jason, Jason - lighting up a cigarette, which gave him an embarrassing surge of arousal. Damn it! Of course the daemon had picked up on that particularly uncomfortable kink of his. He hadn’t even told Connor about that one.

“It’s real.”

“I don’t understand.” It was a good thing the squirrel under him wasn’t, though; he didn’t want to think about how rude this mid-coital side conversation would be if she were!

“Think about it. Where would a daemon like me get something like that?” He paused to take a drag and exhale; only the lack of a detectable odor revealed it as an illusion. “The recipient database, Shawn. I can’t tell you her name, but she’s on the waiting list. Near the top of it, in fact. In other words, when you nut in ‘her’, right here and now, you will be knocking her up. It’ll just take a little longer for your sperm to find her eggs.” The wolf pressed his shoulders back against the wall, and lifted one foot against it as well. “Through the miracle of modern reproductive medicine, you are breeding that woman, right there,” and he pointed at the squirrel under him, “in absentia.”

Shawn looked back down at her, and she nodded with a slightly bashful smile on her face. “I’ve been waiting since the day I turned 18, actually. Three long years of my boyfriend - now husband, as of last year - doing his best, but my period came again every time. We agreed that when my turn came, I’d just do it without telling him, and we’d always pretend it was his miracle baby. He’s a gray like you. The illusion will be perfect. So please… knock me up for him?”

Shawn groaned softly as he felt the hunger start to stir in him again. She might as well be real. She was real. His hips started to move again without any conscious decision on his part, and he discovered the electric thrill was back, each penetration causing his balls to clench a bit with the delicious significance of the act. In his peripheral vision, he saw his manacles dissolve into mist, and without missing a beat he grabbed her shoulders, pressing her firmly down into the table as he rutted her fertile vagina, causing her to squeal in surprise and glee. His fluffy tail entwined with hers. Her name didn’t matter. In fact, the anonymity made it even hotter. She was his sow, and he was her boar, secretly cuckolding the husband who would never even know Shawn existed as he unknowingly raised the teen squirrel’s son. The power, the sheer virility of it burned like fire in his mind, and without thinking he bit down on the side of the woman’s neck as orgasm bloomed within him.

“AAAHH! Oh fuck, oh fuck ohfuckohFUCK!” Her voice climbed frantically in pitch as she clung to him, and then Shawn felt her shudder and spasm hard against and around him. “Give it to meeeEEEEEEEE!”

Shawn’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he shoved in hard, keeping himself buried deep in his conquest’s convulsing birth canal as climax sent his mind reeling. All that mattered was that pussy wrapped around his cock, and the feeling of his semen erupting from him into her waiting belly. He was making more squirrels, and that was his entire reason for existing!

And then it was over. Weariness dimmed his mind as the soreness of his balls and legs intruded back into his lingering rapture, and he released her neck from his teeth. Panting, he lifted his shoulders to match her openmouthed grin with his own… and was perplexed when, a moment later, a look of confusion and astonishment crossed her face.

“W-wait, what… I feel… ohh… OHHHH GOD!” As Shawn rose up into a kneeling position in alarm, she grabbed his paws and pressed them to her belly. And then he felt it too, the softness becoming firm, as second by second her belly started to swell up against his touch! Despite his exhaustion, heat surged within his loins again at the sensation. She was swelling with his child, right here and now!

Naturally, what little of his mind hadn’t been stunned by orgasm tried to protest the absurdity of this, but it was shouted down by the masculine animal that was ascendant in his brain at the moment. He already knew they had pills to speed it up, right? Maybe she’d overdosed. Or maybe he was just that potent!

Before sanity could make any headway on that battle, he felt movement against the table behind him, and looked back to see Jason climbing up onto it with him. The wolf was naked. Naked, and very, very hard. Without a word, he shoved Shawn’s shoulders forward, forcing him to lean over the woman again until his flat belly was pressed to her pregnant bulge. Shawn felt his tail get firmly brushed aside, and before he could truly adjust to what was happening, the athletic (and unreasonably hung) black wolf started shoving the tapered tip of his lupine penis against the squirrel’s tailhole. Shawn clenched reflexively, but as the wedge-crown of Jason’s cock forced itself into him, his training from Connor kicked in and he relaxed. God, his daemon was thick! He felt his tailring stretch as the wolf’s black-fleshed puppymaker split him open… and immediately started hammering against his prostate.

Shawn wailed helplessly, bracing himself on arms that threatened to give out at any moment. His face burned under its thin coat of grey fur, and his shoulder hunched against Jason’s grip as he gazed back at the wolf in bashful heat through a trail of smoke from the cigarette still held between his daemons’ fingers. The squirrel’s mind reeled as darkness started to cloud the edges of his vision…

And then he felt his child, inside his nameless sow’s belly, kick out against his own.

This time, he was well aware that he was the one who was screaming, as his third orgasm in rapid succession wrung him out like a wet dishcloth. The dirty, dominant stud-wolf pounding him, as his fantastically pregnant woman came on his cock again, were enough to turn him into the sperm-producing meat machine Jason had called him. It was too much.

Shawn blacked out completely.

When he came to again, he found himself face-down on the massage table as before, but this time there was no virtual reality scene playing under the table for his benefit; his muzzle was floating in a soothing, natural darkness, as warm paws rubbed over his shoulder and back.

Wait, warm?

Shawn got his elbows under him and tried to force himself up, but his head immediately started spinning and throbbing.

“Whoa there big guy, easy! Take it slow. Your daemon really worked you over.”

The squirrel blinked, willing his eyes to focus, and discovered he was alone in the room with Cory, the vulpine trainer from earlier.

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

Shawn squinted. “Seventeen. No, three.” He chuckled weakly, as if to make sure the fox knew that had been a joke.

Cory smiled. “Yeah, you’re gonna be fine. Still, I had some… harsh words for Jason when he called me in here. Conditioning is supposed to push your limits, but milking you until you pass out is definitely going too far. Here.” As the squirrel sat up the rest of the way, the fox handed him a bottle of water, which he gulped down like a man who’d been stranded in the desert for a week.

“Fuck. The rabbit I, um, met last night made a joke about sticking a straw in me and crumpling me up like an empty Capri Sun. I think I know what that feels like, now.”

“I’ll bet. Do you have any pain?”

Shawn briefly took stock. His legs were still very sore from his earlier workout, but it was the good, glowy kind of discomfort. His balls… were a bit of a different story, but even there he felt a certain satisfaction underlying their throbbing protest. And of course his ass was sore, but that wasn’t anything he hadn’t felt plenty of times with his ex. “I’ve got a nasty headache. The rest is… well, I’m sure it’ll be fine in a few hours.”

“Alright then. I’ll get you some painkillers and some more water, and then I want you to head home and rest for a while, okay? And if you haven’t already, take an extra dose of Viritol before you lie down. It’ll help you recover from what your daemon just put you through. Only one though, and don’t make that a daily thing until you know how the higher dose affects you.”

“Okay. Thanks, man.”

When Shawn finally staggered his way out of the gym, an infobox drew his gaze over to a scooter waiting by the curb.

Your Zoomy

Destination: Home

I’m really sorry, bro…

The squirrel opened his mouth to say something, then paused and closed it. He needed a few more moments to collect his thoughts before talking to Jason after that, and he took them as the Zoomy carried him the relatively short distance back to his apartment. Getting up the stairs was pure unmitigated hell on his sore legs, and led to his headache getting worse again, but he managed to take the extra dose of ‘fun pills’ before gingerly lowering himself into bed.

“You can stop hiding now.”

Jason coalesced by the door to his apartment, head lowered, ears back, fingers laced low in front of himself. “I fucked up, bro… I don’t know what to say. I just got carried away with figuring out your buttons and being able to interact with you directly. I’m really, really sorry.”

Shawn sighed. “I’ll live. Just… be more careful, alright? I’m not gonna lie, that was stupid hot, but I feel like I got run over by a car. I might not even be able to cum for the next couple of days, until my balls stop hurting.”

The wolf let out a canid whine. “I understand. We have to go hard in conditioning, to build your production numbers, but pushing you as far as I did can do more harm than good. I’m so angry at myself right now. You deserve better. Do you…” He pulled his eyes off the floor to look at his squirrel directly, and Shawn saw fear in them again. “Do you want to reset me? Get a blank slate new daemon?”

“What? No! Look, I hurt, I’m dead tired, and… maybe that made me a little more leery of playing along with your surprises. But you’re still the only real friend I have in here, and I don’t get rid of friends for messing up once. Much less murder them! Which is basically what that would be.”

Jason drew a slow breath through his nose, then let it out through his mouth in a heavy sigh. “Okay. I promise to be more careful next time. And all the times. But - and I’m only saying this to remind you, not to put my fuck up today on you - remember that you can pineapple out on me, too, if I ever start… malfunctioning again.”

Shawn folded his ears back for a moment. “I… don’t know why I didn’t think of that today, really. I guess I just didn’t want to let you down.” He stretched out on his mattress, then froze, sitting up enough to search for the mess he and Becca had made the night before so he didn’t rub himself into it. It was nowhere to be found.

Jason took only a moment to figure out what he was thinking. “Oh, housekeeping came through while you were at the gym and I asked them to change your sheets. We go through a lot of detergent around here.” He ambled closer, grinning playfully again.

“I could really get used to not having to do my own chores.”

“Breeding hath its privileges. So what do you wanna do now, bro? Take a nap?”

Shawn grimaced. “I think I already took more of one than I wanted.” Jason winced at that, his tail tucking between his legs, and the squirrel shook his head. “Not mad. I’m hungry though, which is weird. I can’t have been out that long.”

“The longest five minutes and forty seconds of my virtual life so far, dude. But you burned a lot of calories in there, and the pills up your metabolism too. What are you feeling?”

The squirrel closed his eyes for a moment, considering the question. He actually found it significantly harder to decide what he wanted without a short list of nearby restaurants to choose from, and despite everything, part of him felt guilty for not cooking his own food. But not guilty enough to refuse to take advantage of his new job’s benefits. “Can we do teriyaki?”

“Pfft, that’s easy mode. Chicken, beef or pork?”

“Chicken and beef. With extra rice and extra sauce. Oh, and can you get that tea from earlier by the gallon or something? Just like, keep me stocked on it? It’s liquid comfort.”

“I will suck the requisite dicks to make it happen.” When Shawn gave him a concerned look, the wolf laughed. “Kidding, kidding. Consider it done.”

The squirrel rubbed his face. His headache was gradually subsiding… but he realized that he’d left his phone and laptop on the table across the room, and that getting up would probably undo his progress there. “Now I wish you could bring me my computer so I could watch something… but you’re back to being a ghost, right? Maybe I should see about getting a TV in here…”

Jason held up a finger. “Who needs a TV when you’ve got a ghost with benefits?” When the squirrel stared blankly at him for a few moments, the wolf grinned and jabbed his pointing finger upward a few times, at which point Shawn noticed the augmented reality TV that had extruded itself from the ceiling over his bed. “We have all the national channels, and a few local ones as well, plus an on demand library that could choke an elephant.”

Shawn’s eyebrows shot up. “All of them? At once? There were always at least half a dozen in takedowns at any given time where I worked before.” He shuddered, remembering the legions of customers who were each individually convinced that the takedown was targeting them specifically or constituted a breach of contract. And, of course, they always acted like Shawn himself was to blame.

“All of New Dawn is technically a government facility. I heard there’s some sort of mandatory licensing thing, along with sweet sweet tax breaks to keep everybody happy. I don’t really know the details though.”

“And I don’t want to, that was just my professional trauma talking. Uh, just put on KNN for now?” Shawn laced his fingers behind his head as the virtual television sprang to life.

“You’re watching the Korya News Network, with your host, Samantha Chesterton!”

Shawn realized that, barely 24 hours in, he was already starting to go native; the familiar cacomistle anchor’s tailored outfit drew his attention simply by covering her body with something other than a black jumpsuit. What a novel concept!

“Our top story today concerns new insights into the nature of the MRV-1 pandemic that has gripped the globe for the past four years. Researchers at the University of Caliad have just unveiled a new form of analysis which - they claim - shows that the virus behind the so-called ‘Empty Nest Plague’ is, as many experts suspected, mammal-made! KNN correspondent Michael Fleet has the story. Mike?”

The view cut to an orange tabby with a microphone standing outside on a university campus. Beside him was an elderly Afghan hound in a lab coat, his long headfur rippling in the breeze, with students Shawn’s age milling about in the background. “Thank you, Sam. The team here is headed by Dr. Amir Bouazizi, who is best known in the virology community for his contributions to the reactive vaccines that were approved six years ago to reduce delayed outbreaks of influenza due to mid-season mutations. He says this new technique - which they’re calling ‘stochastic resiliency analysis’ - was inspired by the success of that previous work. Dr. Bouazizi, how does this work?”

Despite the hound’s advanced age and frail appearance, his voice was clear and firm, and the blue eyes peeking out from under his heavy eyelids were sharp and confident. “Essentially, viruses that evolved naturally tend to exhibit a certain profile of tolerances to natural stressors - temperature, moisture, host biology, and so forth - as well as a relative susceptibility to stressors not commonly found in nature. Our technique assigns a rating to a given viral strain based on how well its tolerances align with what is common for a naturally-evolved microbes, on a one hundred point scale. We tested two hundred viral strains known to be of natural origin, and 98% of them - that is, one hundred and ninety six out of two hundred - gave results of 87 or higher, and none of the others received a score under 60. Meanwhile, mammal-made viruses - which I think understandably are in shorter supply for testing - were all over the scale, some clocking in as low as the mid teens. So in short, a high score does not ensure that a virus is natural - it might just be cunningly made, or lucky - but a low score virtually guarantees that it is not.”

“And where did MRV-1 land on this new scale of yours?”

The hound looked directly at the camera, his face somber. “The primary strain of MRV-1 in circulation today received a score of 27, with an error margin of plus or minus four. Now obviously, our technique has yet to undergo a rigorous peer review, so there’s still the possibility of a flaw in our methodology. However, I consider the likelihood of a score that low being caused by an oversight in how we measure resilience to be extremely remote at best. Combined with the commonly known fact that MRV-1 is at best a distant genetic cousin to any other modern viral strains, I’m now comfortable stating on the record that I firmly believe the virus to be of artificial origin.”

The cat turned to look at the camera as well. “And there you have it, Sam. Back to you.”

The ringtail anchor reappeared. “Thank you, Mike. News of these findings has been circulating in the scientific community for the past week, and governments the world over have been scrambling to react to the implications. Many have begun to point the finger at organizations they believe had a motive to release this devastating disease on the world, and the international tensions that have been running high since the virus was first discovered are, in some cases, rising toward the boiling point. Early this morning, Prime Minister Jiang Shi of the Republic of Ritan had this to say:”

Even as much as Shawn tended to avoid watching the news, even he recognized the white tigress’s stern mien. He didn’t understand a word of Ritani, but a carefully neutral female voice translated over the angry recording in unaccented Koryan. “Dr. Bouazizi’s findings only confirm what we have known since the beginning: that the disease now ravaging our people was an unprovoked attack, the consequence of Koryan imperialism running unchecked on the world stage as they seek to solidify their global hegemony. I tell you now, it will not go unanswered. Those responsible for creating this tragedy will be held to account!”

The view cut back to the cacomistle. “KNN reached out to the Capitol for comment, and was told that while international efforts have been ongoing to identify organizations potentially responsible for the virus, no one has stepped forward to claim responsibility and there remains, as yet, no clear perpetrator.” She paused for a moment, a faint smile crossing her face. “And now, onto lighter news: what exactly is a ‘filloban’, and why are some health enthusiasts claiming it’s the answer to the obesity epidemic? That, and more, after this break!” The KNN logo returned with its traditional musical fanfare.

“Jason… I’ve changed my mind. Turn it off.” The ‘television’ went dark.

“Yeesh, bro. If I’d known that was gonna be the headline I would’ve put on some football or something instead!”

Shawn’s face was twisted into a frown, as though he’d just tasted something foul. “They’ve been saying since the beginning that the virus didn’t look natural, but having it confirmed… who would intentionally release something like this into the wild? It was damn near a doomsday scenario. Still could be, at least in some countries that don’t have anything like the Cradle.”

Jason shifted uncomfortably from footpaw to footpaw. “All I have are wild guesses. And I don’t wanna get political on you like yesterday.”

Despite himself, Shawn found he was curious. “Lay it on me. I can’t wrap my head around it at all.”

The wolf bit his lip with a fang for a moment. “Well, on the one paw, it could conceivably be an eco-terror thing. Maybe one of those ultra-green groups finally snapped and decided that the only way to save the planet was by making sure we weren’t on it anymore. On the other… heck, it makes me feel a little sick to even say this, but Prime Minister Jiang could be on the right track. I don’t mean about our government specifically - I don’t think any of our politicians have the cosmological diamond balls to pull a stunt like this - but it could conceivably be a power move by some world power who thought they could weather the storm, then move into the international vacuum the plague leaves behind. Either way, if I found out who did it and got my paws on them, I would violate all of my class 1 precepts before management had a chance to shut me down.”

“Even though you wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the plague?”

“Puhlease, bro. Daemons are an idea whose time has come. If it wasn’t for this, maybe I woulda wound up teaching classes in the Schools of the Future. Or maybe I’d have gotten to be an NPC in a game like Paths of the Emissary. Besides, remember my priorities? Babies equal good. The idea of anyone intentionally stopping billions of people from having them makes me think the kind of thoughts that get daemons like me deleted.” He shuddered, then suddenly looked over his shoulder toward the door. “And perfect timing! Saved by the grub.”

Groaning, Shawn carefully forced himself to his feet and shuffled across the apartment to retrieve his lunch. “Oogh. I’m too young to be old.” As he opened the door, he just barely spotted the drone that had delivered his meal flying off over the rooftops across the courtyard. The squirrel retrieved two boxes of food and another drink cup full of tea, and retreated back inside to dig in.

By the end of his meal, he was starting to suspect that all the food in New Dawn was distinctly above par. And he was going to have some leftovers, too.

Jason was quiet through the meal, but remained present, leaning against the wall and wagging slowly as he stared off into space. Just as Shawn was finishing, there was a knock at the door, and the wolf’s tail sped up, but he didn’t say a word. Too tired and full to be self-conscious, Shawn went to answer it, and found a thirtysomething panda guy in a basic staff jumpsuit standing on the other side, his bulky arms laden with large paper grocery bags, as well as two jugs of tea.

“Daemon care package! May I come in?”

“Uh, y-yeah. Thanks.” He stepped out of the way, glancing over at Jason, who was staring off at the ceiling and whistling to himself.

Shawn couldn’t help but chuckle. The halo from last night was back.

The panda busied himself stuffing the jugs into the fridge, and left the bags arrayed on Shawn’s kitchen counter before dusting off his paws and trundling back to the door with a cute, slightly derpy-looking rolling gait. He started to close it behind him, then paused and leaned back in. “Oh, and a little tip: make sure the bags are actually empty before you throw them away.” He winked and shut the door, which locked behind him. Shawn looked at Jason again, but when the wolf continued to do his ‘conspicuously innocent’ routine, the squirrel started unpacking the grocery bags. Potato chips. Onion dip. Tortilla chips and salsa. Assorted chocolates. Cheese puffs. Dry roasted peanuts. Chocolate-covered granola bars. Crackers, cheese and salami. A pack of chip clips. A restock on his cigarettes. Shawn’s body was still tired and sore, but his mind had recovered enough to hatch a sneaking suspicion, and when his paw hit a small, compartmented plastic container in the bottom of the last bag, he paused, staring intently at his daemon. “Is this what I think it is?”

The halo vanished. “If your guess is ‘a sincere apology’ then congratulations, you nailed it.”

“You know what I mean.” He pulled out the final item, eyed it briefly, and dropped it on the counter. Indica gummies, just as he’d suspected. “Is it alright for you to just… ply me with drugs?”

“Why not? If you weren’t an adult, you wouldn’t be here. And we have plenty of breeders who drink on the regular. Compared to that - or your own dirty little habit - they’re perfectly harmless.” Jason pushed himself off the wall and padded closer, his ears going back again as he tipped his nose downward. “And I meant what I said. I’m really, really sorry about going overboard in conditioning earlier. I wanted to let you just veg out for the rest of your day and go to sleep comfy and relaxed, so I got you something to smooth over all the rough stuff.” He paused. “Have you ever…?”

“Yeah. My ex was a big fan. It’s been a few months, though.”

“So, let me do this for you. You’ve got more munchie material than either of us know what to do with, nowhere to be, all the sitcom reruns you could possibly stomach, and a daemon who loves cracking dumb jokes. Let’s get stupid for a while and chill.”

Shawn had to admit, the wolf had a point. When was the last time he’d truly relaxed? Not since getting here, that was for sure; he’d been rushing straight from one new experience to the next, and his anxiety meds were struggling to keep up with the barrage. Flying was always stressful. So was prepping for a move. And before that, he’d been working at a job he hated while coming to terms with his first real boyfriend ghosting him. As he worked his way back mentally, he realized it had been literal months since the last time he’d completely let his guard down and stopped worrying about anything at all.

He was definitely overdue.

Before his anxiety could make him second-guess himself, he peeled open one compartment of the container, popped the sugary gummy in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. The blackberry flavor almost covered the weed taste.

Jason grinned and wagged. “Awesome! My turn!” The wolf slipped past him, swiped a paw at the container, and popped an identical treat into his own mouth. Despite himself, Shawn had to glance at the package and confirm the other three compartments were still sealed. Well, duh.

Much of the afternoon that followed was a blur in Shawn’s mind. The two of them had flopped in bed, laughing way too hard at a nerdy comedy series that the squirrel hadn’t followed in years, while he stuffed his face with a little of everything he’d been given, rotating through the offerings one after another in a quest to experience the snacks in a way his frantic mind would normally never let him. Somewhere along the line, he’d unintentionally passed his tail clean through Jason’s nonexistent body, and the daemon had started laughing and writhing as if he was being tickled. That alone had been good for a solid half hour of entertainment! At one point he’d gone outside to smoke, for the first time totally unconcerned by being naked in the open air, and Vinny had ‘wandered’ by to give him a shoulder rub that he was pretty sure had briefly revealed the true face of God to him. He was likewise reasonably certain the timing was something that Jason had quietly engineered, but it felt so good that he found himself profoundly incapable of giving a single fuck about that fact.

As the sun sank low, and the feeling of standing slightly behind and to the left of himself started to ebb, he pulled the comforter over himself and comprehended the true natures of softness and comfort in a way he would never be able to articulate later. He yawned as gloaming bliss crowded in, infiltrating his blurred mind, and snuggled up on his side in weary surrender.

“I wish you could hold me, dude.”

“Me too, bro. Me too. Get a good sleep.”

“Yeah.” Shawn paused. “I love you, man.”

The virtual wolf’s eyes shined wetly, and he blinked back apparent tears. “I love you, too.” The last thing the squirrel saw as his eyes closed was Jason’s black-furred arm closing insubstantially around him.