FSE

Furry search engine

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** **** You walk the monster to the kitchen and **** offer her a chair **** at **** the **** table, **** she takes a seat and tries to make herself comfortable. **** T ***hen* you take a seat and your associates follow soon after. You make sure that you and ** your assistant **** have a **** spot **** near Loka, **** you don’t want to **** make **** the monster **** feel nervous **** having to sit next to Walter ***. After all,* he was the one holding her down during the car trip and y** ou don’t want to bring back any bad **** vibes **** to the **** dinner **** table ***. As much as you and your associates are excited to continue* your talk with the monster, you notice that she is visibly shaking in her seat. You get up from your seat to feel her forehead, to see if she is burning up or not. ** The poor girl **** is **** probably nervous, but you’r ***e* also a doctor and have to make sure she didn’t get sick from something you may have exposed her to. “Do you feel sick?”

“No, I’m just scared.” Your close contact to her seems to ease her trembling.

You take your hand off her forehead and pat her on the back. This seems to calm her further. *“Relax, I promise me and my associates won’t hurt you. You have my word. Now, can I ask what you may want to eat this morning?” *

The monster looks into your eyes, a** ll you see in her eyes is anxiety and mistrust. She then starts mumbling to herself self and you can’t make out anything she is saying. “How about this, Loka. From your physiology, I would assume you are carnivorous, but teeth can be deceiving. After all, humans have herbivore like teeth. But in reality, **** h ***umans evolved these teeth for chewing through meat and other fruits and grains. I have some fish I can cook up for you if want that. Or I can cook you some eggs and bacon. Maybe if you want to experiment, I can cook you some french toast with some nice sweet* maple syrup.” T** he **** anxious **** monster **** stays **** quiet **** to **** your suggestions, **** s ***he is just staring down at your feet now. “How about this.” You take your cell phone out of your pocket. “I’ll show you your options.” You search up cooked salmon since that’s the fish you have* stored *your fridge. You show her the seasoned fish. “look, this is the fish I can cook up for you if you want it. Or…” You type up eggs and bacon and show her the other food option. “You can have the classic eggs and bacon combo. I can make the eggs any way you want them.” Then you type up french toast and show her last choice. “Or you can have some french toast with some syrup. So which breakfast choice do you want?” *

The monster mulls over *her options. “I want the fish and some of those eggs you showed me.” *

“Do you want the eggs over easy like in the picture or scrambled?”

*“Over easy, please.” *

“Okay, I can cook both of them if you want.” You turn around and face your associates. “I assume you guys want some coffee and do you want ** some **** breakfast as well?” **

“A definite yes on that coffee,” Jane says. “** A ***nd I want some eggs as well and could you also cook some bacon with that too?” *

“Yeah sure. A** nd what about you, Walter?” **

“** Eggs and bacon with a cup of coffees sounds good *.* ” **** The biologist **** says.**

As you’r** e **** about to walk to your fridge, **** the scared monster **** grabs you by your shirt and wave ***s* you over to her. “Come closer.” She says quietly. “I want to tell you something.” You bend down to her so you're in earshot to her. “** Walter **** scares me,” **** The monster **** whispers to you. **

“Oh don’t worry about h** im ***.”* Y** ou rub her head. “ *He may have a mouth, but he’* s **** fine once you get to know him ***. Now let me make us some food,* o** kay.”**

“Okay, doc,”

** Twenty minutes later, you finish cooking up everyone’s food. During those twenty minutes** though** , Jane and Walter were trying to have some casual conversations with **** the monster ***.* But t** hey don’t get any success in sparking a ***ny dialogue* with her. ** She **** just sits in her seat quietly **** as her **** body shivers with fear, **** hug ***ging* her tail to her chest** , **** dreading what the biologist and your assistant will do to her. **** Jane may have her **** nagging **** moments, but she’s nothing to be afraid of and Walter is smart, but he’s **** just **** a total **** egotistical **** sperg. She seems to only want to talk to you. You put down everyone's food on the table and grab some coffee for you *r* self **** and your associates. You take your seat and take a nice big gulp of your coffee. **** In spite of everything you dealt with today, **** you **** still **** feel like **** absolute crap **** for not having **** any **** good sleep **** and might as well get more caffeine into your system **** to keep your engine going ***.* The poor monster just star** es **** at her food, **** e ***xamining it. She even pokes it a few times with her finger. *

“What’s wrong, Loka?” You ask as you eat your own food. “You think the food is poisoned or something?”

“No, it’s just different from what I usually eat is all.”

“Don’t let my fish go to waste, lady. I paid good money for that.”

“Okay, doc. I’ll try some.” She picks it up with her hands and takes gerbil like nibbles off of the fish. Once she gets a good taste of it, her eyes open up wide with predatory slits ** and **** t ***he monster* gobbles up the Salmon in one bite. She then lifts her plate and slurps up the three over-easy eggs you made for her. She chews up the eggs as she savors the runny yolk that bleeds out of them. In another big gulp, the eggs are gone. The hungry monster licks her maw and fingers with satisfaction. “The breakfast tasted really good, doc.” She smiles to you.

You're startled by her voracious appetite. “Ahhh… You’r** e **** welcome.”**

** Jane looks disgusted as hell with what she just saw and Walter looks pretty entertained by all of it. “**** Damn ***, Joe.” He says. “I should have recorded that with my cellphone. Loka, can you do that again for us?”* The monster *looks perturbed by that request. *

“Walt! She isn’t some animal to watch for your amusement. If anything, Joe, you should show her *some table etiquette.” Jane says. *

“What? Table etiquette? I was just eating breakfast.” The monster took offense to your assistant’s remark. She’s look visibly annoyed with her.

“Loka, fish and eggs aren’t finger-food.” You pick up her fork and show it to her. “You eat the food with a fork.” You demonstrate to *her how you eat the eggs with your fork. “You eat it just like that.” *

“Why would you waste perfectly good metal just to eat food?” The monster responds. “Us monster** s **** would be using that metal for actual things. Not for eating.” **

“But, Loka,” Jane chime** s **** in. “When you eat your food with a fork. It is a lot less messy. You wouldn’t get any of that fish juice on your hands and it’s just more civilized.” **

“Gawd! You humans are weird. Licking the juices off your fingers is one of the best parts of eating any meal.”

“Look, finger-licking is good and all, but most humans don’t… Uhh. Eat so… loudly and improperly.”

“Maybe you’r** e **** just a bunch of pompous humans!”**

“** I’m not pompous! ***” Jane* says with offense.

“Are too!” The monster sticks out her tongue mockingly to Jane. She frowns *in response to Loka’s immaturity. *

Jane crosses her arms, scoffs and remains quiet. She’s trying to keep her composure and do** esn’t **** want to instigate anything further.**

“** Hey ***!” Walter interjects. “Stop* trying to enforc** e **** human **** customs **** on **** her ***. After all, she is an alien to our culture.* A** nd besides, I am not really offended by how **** she **** eats. It may be a little primal in all honestly, **** I’ll give you that much *. But, if she wants to eat like that, it’* s **** not gonna hurt me or you. So what’s the big fucking whop?” **** Your assistant remains quiet, holding her tongue. Not wanting to antagonize anyone any further.**

“** It probably better that we teach her our ways if she is going to be staying with us ***.” You tell* Walter. “You never know if we may have to bring her out in public.”

“Yeah, if you want the feds to take her away that is.” Walter says.

“I’m just saying. She is going to have to look presentable if she wants to be an ambassador for the monsters, right Loka?”

The monster stares back at you with a grimace. “Old habits die hard, Joe. And I’m not going to use forks any time soon.” She sticks her tongue out at you to tease you. You chuckle back at her in response.

** After** some time, the conversation dies down again. You and your associates awkwardly eat and stare at ** the monster ***. Loka* just looks really bored now as she holds her head up with her left arm. She then hits the pointed end of her fork with her fist so it will do a flip in the air like an acrobat. The flipped forks flies into the middle off the table, s** tartling you, Jane and Walter.**

“** Hey ***,* p** lease don’t play with the silverware like that.” You tell her. **

“Sorry. I’m just bored, Doc.”

“How about this. Let’s talk about how you got into my patient’s room?” You and your associate turn your heads toward the monster and wait in anticipation for an answer.

The monster looks uncomfortable with th** e **** question. “Okay, Doc. I’ll tell you. I read the child’s profile. You know, your patient. His profile said he was really easy to scare and I wanted to prove to my friend that I could scare him if I wanted to. But when I was in his room, I just froze up and choked. I got so afraid of the child in that instant. So after a few embarrassing minutes later, I tried to get back to my world through the kid's closet. But the connection to my world was severed somehow and I couldn’t get back. That’s what happened.” **

“So you were trying to scare my patient. Why did you lie to me about that earlier*?” *

“I’m sorry. I was afraid you would hurt me more. But, w** hat I told you was true. I didn’t scare your patient, I build doors, I failed scaring school, I **** not a physic vampire **** or whatever that is **** and I came into his room through his closet. All of that was true. I was just **** wasn’t telling you **** my **** real **** reason for being there, **** t ***hat’s all.” *

“Well, that’s understandable after all. I did hit you in the head with a bat and I tied you up. But you have to understand. When we first saw you, we didn’t know what you would do if you weren’t tied up. For all I kn** e ***w, you would have mauled me or something. That was all done out of caution,* n** ot out of malice.” **

“I understand. M** onsters would have been way worse if one of you have come through to our side. I could not even imagine w ***hat* the CDA would have done in that scenario.” D** read **** can be seen on her face as she said that.**

** “Maybe we can arrange a visit to your world that won’t have us** get messed up from these CDA people you keep on talking about. Who are they anyway?”

** “CDA stands for Child Detection Agency. Anything that comes from your world must be destroyed.** If a monster came in contact with anything that came from your world** , they would have to **** go through decontamination. It’s a pretty gnarly procedure. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.” **

** “The name sounds a lot like the CDC.” Walter adds.**

** “Yeah, it does honest.” You** say in agreement. “** C ***an you explain more thoroughly* on how you used my patient’s *closet to get to our world?” *

** “We use an energy source called scream to make a portal to our world to yours. The negative energy of scream stabilizes the portal and prevents it from collapsing on itself.”**

** “Interesting,” Walter injects. “Your kind have discovered negative** energy*?” *

** “Yes. It’s actually** very common resource. We get our scream from the kids we scare. That’s why monsters scare kids. Monsters depend on scream to power everything.” ** The monster **** says with pride.**

As much as Loka is boastful about monsters' achievements in energy, you, Jane and especially Walter looks stupefied. “** Wait are you being serious with us right now? I’m bad at reading body language and I’m **** especially **** not going to be able to read your body language very well **** since your an alien and all ***, so you need to tell me if you are joking or not?” Walter asks* sternly.

The monster looks saddened by this. “I’m not lying to you. I telling you the truth.” She looks down at her feet with discouragement.

“** How do you get energy from scaring kids? Let alone a theoretical exotic matter like negative **** energy **** from scaring kids?”**

“** The doors I help build along with their slots have scream extractors on them, that’s how we do it. I don’t understand how this is so confusing for you?”**

“** Well, I’m confused because acoustic energy from kids screaming does not equate to negative energy. You can’t just find that from frightened kids, you need large particle accelerators or other expensive scientific tools.”**

The monster is speechless. She obviously isn’t used to being asked these types of technical questions. You can see that she’s getting a lot of anxiety over these questions. “I’m ah… I’m not sure how else I can explain it to you.” Loka looks very disheartened over this and begins to sulk quietly in her seat. She curls up her legs and shields her face with them in embarrassment.

“Walter, I know all of the questions you are asking are reasonable, but you should have asked them a little more nicely instead of sternly.” You tell him.

“** Hey, **** we’ve **** have been testing for exotic matter in large particle accelerators for decades and she tells us we can get these exotic particles from scaring kids? **** You expect me to think tha ***t’s* true?** ”**

** “**** Sometimes you just got to humor these kinds of notions.” Jane says. “Maybe we’re not getting the whole picture from her description. There may be more to it than just acoustic energy. **** Heck, we were always humoring the kids about the monsters in their closets, but she is the living proof that monsters do indeed come out of children’s closets to scare them. Maybe she knows something that you might not know, Walter. ***”*

Walter shoos her reasoning away. “She seems pretty neurotypical for a monster if you ask me.” He quietly murmurs to himself.

The monster tugs at your shirt and looks to you for approval. “Joe, you believe me don’t you?” She pleads to you with watery eyes.

You think hard about how to respond. You agree with Walter’s take on her story, but you just met Loka and you don’t want you and your associates to give her a bad first impression of humanity either. “Loka,” you say with sincerity. “I’ll be honest with you, I find what you say hard to believe too. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t prove to us that you’re right though.”

“But, h** ow can I prove it to you? I don’t have any of the tools or the equipment to make a door. Without those things, I can’t go back home. Sniff... I can’t prove it at all.” **** She **** starts sobbing in her hands **** in **** frustration.**

** You move closer to** her and put an arm around her shoulders. “** Hey, **** Loka, please don’t cry. I know a scientist who will listen to what you have to say. In fact, I would say he’s even smarter than all of us combined. Maybe you can work with him to build a doorway back to your world.”**

** **** S ***he looks up to you* with tears running down her face. ** “Sniff… Really?”**

** “Yes really.” You tell her with reassurance.**

** Walter** grits his teeth with disapproval. “ **Joe, can I talk to you outside for a minute?”**

You nod your head and walk out the door with him while Jane hangs back to watch the upset monster.

Once you close the door, He let’s all of his frustration out. “** Oh, damn it, **** man ***! I do not want Hans in our business! That smug fucker will steal all of our findings if we let him join! Besides, I just think she’s lying to us.”*

** “Well, if Hans can’t go off of anything** she *has to tell him, then I think we’ll know if she is lying or not. Also, who else here can figure this doorway portal thing out? We’re experts in biology, not physics and R and D. That’s Hans’ expertise.” *

The biologist gets irritated with the proposal. “God fucking damn it!” He walks back inside and walks straight to the monster. He lowers himself to her eye level and gives her direct eye contact. It’s not an angry stare, but a pleading one. “** Loka, isn’t there an alternative power source we could cook up ourselves to make your portal work?” **** He asks softly.**

** “No, it can only work with scream. That’s what everything is powered with. There’s no alternative to scream,** i** t’s the only power source in existence.”**

He then looks even more stupefied than before. “What? Monsters don’t have other energy alternatives?”

The monster starts to look aggravated. “Why do I always got to repeat myself? Scream is the only form of energy in existence! I thought you humans were supposed to smart.”

** “Yeah, of course we’**** re **** smart. But humans have more than just one energy source you know. That’s why I’m puzzled. You’r ***e* a species that can travel between worlds, yet you only use one source of energy and no other.” He moans in place. “And from what you were telling us earlier, it sounds like you monsters don’t even have a space program.”

Loka crosses her arms and glares back to Walter with squinting eyes.** “You humans really have other energy sources? I find that hard to believe.”**

** “How is that hard to believe? Joe just cooked you food on his electrical stove, the lights are on, and we drove you here in an automobile. We never even heard of scream before you even came here. So how else are we powering all of our electronics?”** After he asks that question, the biologist seats himself back in his chair.

** “You don’t get scream from your children?” **

** “No, Loka,” Jane breaks in. “That would be child abuse. That’s illegal.” **

** “**** Here’s a better question, **** why doesn’t your kind harvest scream from your **** own **** kids?” Walter asks.**

** “Well, you can get scream from monsters, but it’s doesn’t produce enough energy. From what I’**** ve **** learned in Monster U, not even one hundred monsters could fill up on ***e* canister of scream as good as one human child could. Monsters are a bad energy source for scream extraction.”

** “All right, all right. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. Human children produce a very powerful energy source,** o** kay. But, why go the extra mile to travel to our world to get this energy? Your kind risk ***s* exposure to us. A** nd I wouldn’t be shocked if one of you kind ha ***s* already been sent to Area fifty one or some other black site that the government goons don’t want us to know about. Why not make an alternative energy source in your world? Why take such a big risk coming here?”

** Loka looks stumped with Walter’s questions. She sits there in silence just trying to think of a response. “I’m not sure, Walter. I’m** just not sure.” She sits in her chair just pondering on what he just *asked. *

** Walter presents a very good argument. Why have the monsters been traveling to our world for their only fuel source? For a group of monsters who are capable of a form of faster than light travel, how have they not stumble upon different energy sources? Why haven’t they achieve interstellar travel? How did they even manage to discover us?** A** nd most importantly, how have they managed to acquire their energy source to achieve their faster than light travel without human children in the first place? The way she boasted about the monster race’s achievements sound incredibly ignorant. Just her earlier remark about everything outside our worlds being dead just drips and oozes with naivety. Hasn’t her species every come up with a Drake equation or a Fermi paradox theory of their own? Loka just acts like all of the big questions have already been answered and you shouldn’t care if there are more questions that need to be answered. Hopefully, you and your associates can make her question her reality more. She seems to really need to examine her own ideas and verify if they hold up or not. **

** “Walter,” Loka asks. “If humans don’t use scream, then what kind of energy sources do you humans use?” **

** “That’s a good question. We use fossil fuels, natural gases, hydroelectric energy, wind power, solar power, geothermal energy, hydrogen energy and my personal preference, nuclear energy.”** He answers.

** **** The Monster **** looks fascinated with what Walter told her **** thus far ***. “Wow, I didn’t realize that there were so many different types of energy. Can you teach me how to make some of these?” *

** “We can give you resources on this stuff, but I don’t know how to build any of these things myself. But… Maybe you can ask… Hans about it.”** He *mumbles out. *

** “Walter, “you interrupt. “How about you talk to** her *more about alternative fuel sources and such. I wanted to get some things from my office. Um, you know to show Loka.” *

** “Sure thing,** Joey,** ” Walter responds as he gives you a thumbs up and a goofy smile.**

** You get out of your seat and move closer to** Loka. “ **W**** ill you be all right without me for a few minutes?” You ask quietly to her.**

** “I’ll be fine. I just curious about** human energy sources. Maybe, I can bring back this knowledge to my people.”

** “Glad to hear that.” You pat her on the back and walk to your office to get some of your patient’s files. Your patient Stevie for instance is getting frequented by a different monster other than Loka and you want to know who this monster is. You are also gathering other files on patients you have that are also being scared by other monsters that** she may know.

Once you got all of the patient files you need, you head back to your kitchen to see Loka is really opening up to the biologist. She patiently listens to his import and asks him any questions that cross her mind. It puts a smile on your face that she’s coming out of her shell. You then seat yourself again and layout your patients’ file on the table.

“I’m back, let’** s **** get back to business.” You say **** as y ***ou open Stevie’s file and take out the drawing that* the kid drew of his monster. “So, I gather some files on my patients and I wanted to show you some of the drawings that they made of their monsters so you can identify them for us.” You show her Stevie’s drawing of his monster. “The patient’s room that we found you in, this is the monster that normally scares him. Do you know who this is, Loka?”

** “That looks a lot like Jennette. She’s my roommate at my apartment.” **

** “Is this picture. Errrr. Actuate to her depictions?” **

** “For a crude kids drawing, I guess so. The only difference is she isn’t really a big monster. Jennette is about five feet tall** or something like that. ** But a ***lso, as much as she’s my friend and all, I don’t think she’s that scary. She’s cute, I honestly feel that I am much more scarier looking than she is.” *

** “But Loka, “Walter interrupts. “You look adorable. A monster like you looks too cute to be scary.”** He compliments.

** “I’M NOT CUTE!!! I SCARY!!! RAWR!!!** S** he **** then **** gives off the most adorable roar you have ever heard. Her roar is **** like **** a baby lion trying to roar like a grown-up lion **** in one of those online videos ***.* The biologist is not phased by her scare one bit. But instead looks like he’s filled with tenderness and affection. ** The not so scary monster **** looks very self-conscious about her scaring now. “Was I even scary?” She asked with embarrassment.**

** “You were absolutely wholesome,” Walter responds.**

** “No wonder why I didn’t pass the scaring courses.”** She sulks.

** “What's wrong with being cute, Loka?” You ask.**

** “Monsters are supposed to be scary, not cute, doc. It’s just embarrassing to be cute in the monster world. No one can take you seriously.”**

** “Well, sorry to break it to you. But, humans don’t tend to take cute things seriously** either** ” Walter comments.**

** “Oh great! I’m a joke here too.”** The monster pouts.

** “Being cute isn’t a bad thing, “You tell her. “Cuteness in girls can be a virtue to many humans. Men especially like cuteness in girls.”**

** “Yeah,” Walter adds. “Men do like cute girls. Scary girls can be a real turn off for the majority of men.”**

** “**** A ***we, how nice. Are you two hitting on me?”* She teases.

** You and Walter both blush red as Jane chuckles at the two of you. “Ah Loka, I was just complimenting you. Don’t make it too personal.” You say.**

** “Yeah!” Walter hollers out. “I’m not really into monsters. Sorry nothing personal. I’**** m **** into human women.” **

** Loka waves you two off with a smile on her face. “Oh, don’t worry guys. I was just joking. Or was I?” She says as she waggles her eyebrows at you. **

** “Loka,” you say** with inpatients as you rub your eyes with your fingers. “Let's get back to it. I want to show you some more patients of mine.”

** For the next hour, you go over the monsters that your patients are being scared by. You managed to get a lot of information about the monsters** in question. They apparently all work in one facility called Monster Incorporated and scare as many kids as they can while they are on the clock. ** Her **** friend Jennette is not only her roommate but also her partner at the company. **** The monster **** and her friend went to the same university, graduated together and both got jobs at the company. She makes doors part-time at her job but her full-time job is assisting Jennette with her scaring shifts. Loka went into detail on how she help’s out her friend. She gets doors for her, changes and replaces scream canisters and also gathers intel on the kids **** her friend’ ***s* *scares. As much as you have detailed medical records of your patients, Loka, and other monsters in her position have gathered so much more data on your patients it would make the NSA drool with envy. *

** You also found out that they call their English like language, Monsterese. Walter** of course laughed really hard when they heard the name. She obviously wasn’t happy with him when he started to laugh. The monster got all flustered over his teasing. She then asked how we could speak Monsterese without any issues? You told her that you don't know either. B** ut b ***y some cosmic accident, humans and monsters can somehow speak the same language. You showed her the English alphabet and she says that Monsterese has almost* all the same alphabet, but they have a few extra letters. She showed you the extra letters that Monsterese had, but their use was not hard to understand. Basically, the letters in question are sounds that we already use in our language but have been made into one letter instead of separate letters that are combined to make the noise. For instance, t** hey have a letter that makes the th sound at the end of a word like tenth. They also spelled things a little differently too. Like phone for instance. Monsters don't spell it with ph they spell phone with an f, fone. They also have some different grammar, but it's not game-changing **** really ***. *

Another thing you found interesting was how long monsters have been scaring humans for. They have been scaring humans for al** most all **** of our recorded history. You and Walter asked **** her **** how they haven’t reached any other technological advances or alternative energy sources throughout all that time? **** The monster **** respond ***ed* by saying that monsters have already discovered everything and there aren’t any new discoveries to be discovered. She also essentially said that their world has always looked like a cleaner version of our 21st-century world. Her remarks make you and your associates think that her kind has been going through some artificially forced technological stagnation for the past few thousand years or so since discovering our world. Their culture or their leaders sound like they are holding back the monsters' technological pursuits of higher advancement. You wonder if some kind of cataclysm in their past has caused them to never advanced past 21st-century technology.

A** nd **** a ***lso, your patient Stevie scares easily. In fact, she has observed him even being afraid of his own shadow. He has even told his mom of encounters of shadow people. Loka says that’s not any monster she knows of and no monster that she knows of can become a shadow being. You have heard of this phenomenon before but waved it off as sleep paralysis or pareidolia. But what was most frightening about what she said about the* shadow people is that the monsters have a protocol if they detect one before entering a child’s room. Monsters won’t go into a child’s room until the shadow person leaves. A** nd if the shadow person has multiple sightings at the site, they shred the door. She says that if a monster goes into a kid's room with a shadow person present, the shadow person can enter their world. They can be removed by the CDA, but it’s **** very **** difficult. The shadow people apparently can kill humans and monsters alike **** a *nd if one of them comes through a door, causalities usually occur. You and your associates are skeptical of these entities. But, then again, you do have a fluffy monster in your kitchen right now. Loka probabl* y **** is telling you the truth. She seems serious enough about what she says. **

** **** After talking for the past hour ***, you want Jane and Walter to go for the rest of the day so you can catch up on some more sleep. But as you and Loka walk Jane and Walter out your door, Walter stops you. *

“Joe, can the three of us talk privately outside for a sec?” Walter then notices the monster behind you. “Without Loka?”

** “Sure. Sure.” You respond to Walter. You turn to** her and tell her to wait on the couch for the time being, telling her that you need to talk about personal matters with Walter and Jane. She complies with your request and waits for you on your couch. You close your front door and walk up to your associates. “Okay, Walt. I assume you want to know what we do next?”

** “Yeah, I like to know what I’m allowed to do in all of this? I want to get some blood, fluid and tissue samples from Loka. I want to understand her ins and outs. I don’t want to traumatize her in any way.** But I just want to under her biology.”

** “I’ll figure something out** regarding tha** t. **** But for now, I don’t want to make her feel uncomfortable with needles and piss cups. Maybe she’ll let you take some of her fur for an analysis. But for now, just make sure your observations won’t bring her any distress, okay.” **

** “Okay.** man** , I get yah. Baby steps. Gotcha!” **** He **** says as he points his fingers at you in a **** very **** uncool manner.**

** “Joe, what about our patients? We still have checkups on them and we are still giving sleep observation to Stevie. Are we ditching all of that now for Loka?” Jane asks.**

** “Oh damn,” you smack your face in this realization. You completely forgot because of your lack of sleep. “Thanks for reminding me, Jane. I want to continue to see our patients. Especially Stevie. We can observe the monsters scaring him.** A** nd if Hans wants to help us build Loka’s doorway, maybe he can build some kind of instrument to detect the scream extraction process. Or maybe, we could even extract scream from Stevie ourselves through these observations.” **

** “But, is**** n’t t ***hat unethical? We are allowing a kid to be mentally scarred by an actual monster. Shouldn’t we stop the monster from scaring him? After all, me and you are sleep doctors. It’s in our job description to help people sleep.” *

** Jane has gotcha there. She’s right, everything you're doing right now is incredibly unethical. But, stopping a few monsters from scaring a few kids isn’t going to stop the problem. You need to somehow establish negotiations with the monsters and offer an alternative energy source so they stop giving kids night terrors. You hate to say it, but Stevie has to take one for the team. The human team that is. **

** “Look, Jane. You’re right. It is unethical. But, just stopping a few monsters from scaring kids isn’t gonna make them stop scaring kids. Loka did say that scream is their only energy source. They aren’t gonna stop anytime soon. Just stopping them from scaring kids is probably going to make it a lot harder to come in contact with them. We need to be tactful about this. We have to find a way to butter up the monsters to the negotiation table. Getting in their way right now won’t get us there.” **

** “I still don’t feel comfortable about this. I know I have told you** that** I do this job for the money, but I don’t want to be remembered in the history books as a mad scientist like Wendell Johnson or Antonio Moniz.” **

** “Jane, we are not running the monster study. Uh. Scratch that, we are running a monster study on actual monsters, but we’re not abusing kids like Wendell Johnson was and we’re not inventing the lobotomy either. Monsters have been doing this to kids for a long time and Loka said that scream extraction does not have any side effects on humans or monsters.” **

** “How do you know? She’s probably looking out for her own kind. Why would they care if they are hurting kids or not? Humans are not their people. Why would they have any interest in our kids' safety? They probably view the kids as livestock to get their precious scream energy thing from.” **

** “Jane has a point there,” Walter remarks. “How do we even know that the scream extraction process is even safe. Maybe even Loka and the other monsters that she works with don’t even know of its dangers.” **

** “Yeah and the monsters don’t even extract scream from their own kind. What makes you so sure that it’s safe?”**

** “Loka said that Monsters don’t produce enough scream energy to make their energy consumption sustainable,” you sternly say. “If scream from monsters was just as good as human scream, then why would they go through all of the trouble of making teleportation technology just to get scream from our kids? Wasting that much energy to get energy from our kids is a huge power commitment and a risk to their own kind. If their kind’s scream energy was sufficient, then they would have no need to come to our world for scream now would they?” **

** That response right there silenced Jane and Walter. Now they are just thinking of a response to your argument. **

** “You may have a point, but my point about scream extraction having possible side effects still stands, Joe. Are you going to let Stevie and your other patients be guinea pigs in your experiment?” **

** “Jane, monsters have been doing this for a long time now. We have always as sleep doctors been letting them scare kids. It’s just now that we know that the kids were telling the truth and are not making up nonsense. We are just simply observing a process that has been occurring under our noses throughout all of recorded human history.** A** nd again, **** i ***f we are in any meaningful way going to stop this, we have to make first contact with the monsters.” *

** Jane stays quiet for a bit. “Uh, Walter didn’t drive here on his own. Do I have to drive him back?” She asks with regret. **

** “Yeah, I thought that was obvious.”**

** “Uh, fine. Walter, get in my car. I’ll drive you back to your house.” **

** Jane and Walter get in her car and she drives off of your property. You walk back into your house and head to your living room where Loka waits for you. You grab a few of your old PS3 games, a controller, a TV remote and place it next to** her on the couch as you sit near her. “** Hey ***, I wanted to get some rest right now. I’ve been up all night and didn’t get good sleep yesterday. But, I don’t want you to be bored while you wait for me to get up. Ah, so, I got you some of my old video games for you to play so you can keep yourself entertained.” *

** **** The monster **** just gives you a sour look. “You aren’t gonna hang out with me for a bit?” **

** “Look, Loka. We’ve been talking for a long time now and I usually get really bad sleep. I’ll do something with you later after I get some rest, Okay.” **

** “Okay, doc.” She says sadly. **

** You get up from your seat and open up the cabinet to your movie collection. "If video games aren’t your thing, I also got a lot of movies here that you can watch and I got snacks in the pantry over there in the kitchen.” You point her to the pantry. “Now, before I get some sleep. Let me show you how you can play games and watch movies off of my PS3.” **

** You give her a few minutes, tutoring her on your PS3 console and also show**** ing **** her how she can play Netflix and the other streaming services that you own. After you showed her how to tinker with the gaming console, she decided she wanted to play your copy of Skyrim out of all of the games that you own. You get her some water and some chips and head to your room.**

** Once you're in your room, you take some of the new sleeping pills that you made with the pharmacological company that you work with. The pills act like trazodone, but you don’t have to eat anything before taking them and they don’t give you nausea. You take some melatonin for good measure. and before you go dozing off, you walk out of your room to use the bathroom and brush your teeth. After your hygiene and piss stop is taken care of, you go to your bed to try to get some sleep. **

** Every time you try to sleep, you have issues with getting comfortable. You are also moving** a lot when you are in your bed. You especially move your legs way too much no thanks to your restless legs. Also, you tend to get too hot as well. At some point during your sleep struggle, you will take off one of the two blankets you use off of your body and then feel cold and wrap the blanket around yourself again. Your temperature management and your constant moving around in your bed is a constantly repeating cycle of sleeplessness that you struggle with all the time. After about thirty *or so minutes of this repetition, you always have a sudden urge to empty your bladder. At this point, you’ll get out of your room and head to the bathroom again. *

** After you use it, you take a quick peek at Loka. She’s focusing on her game, but she takes a look at you and pauses her game. ‘I thought you were sleeping?” She ask**** s.**

** “I was trying to, but I just have to use the bathroom.”**

** “Okay, have a nice nap** then*.” Loka turns back to the TV and continues to play her game. *

** You walk back to your room to try to sleep again, only to continue your monotonous repetition of sleeplessness. After about an hour of this, you go back to the bathroom for like the fourth time. You again take a peek at** the monster and she just looks back at you in confusion. She doesn’t understand why you haven’t fallen asleep yet. You wave her a goodbye and walk back to your room. Once you wrap yourself under the covers of your bed, you hear your door creak open. You lean yourself up and see Loka ** is **** in front of your bed. She has her hands behind her back **** and she looks back to you with **** nervousness. “Loka, I’m trying to sleep. Please, just play Skyrim or watch something.” You moan out. **

** “Um, I’m kind of tired myself too. Can I sleep with you, Joe?” She asks**

** You don’t feel comfortable about this at all. She is, after all, an alien foreigner in your home and the subject of your observation. Fraternizing like that with a new sapient species that humanity just met gives you bad vibes. In your opinion, having her sleep with you would be in bad taste.** Very bad taste! “L** ook ***, I don’t think that’s really appropriate.”*

** “Why not,” She asks with offense. “Do you not like me or something?” **

** “No, No, It’s not like that. I like you and all, but we just met and in all honesty I am studying you. It’s not really professional on my part to be sleeping with, with… Uh, a new sentient species I just met. It just will look bad on my documentation.” You say awkwardly. **

** Loka crawls on your bed and gets under your sheets. She lays on the side of her head so her horns won’t puncture your sheets** and faces you as she wraps her arms around you in her embrace*. “What's so inappropriate about two friends sleeping together?” She teases. *

** You try to move out of** her hug, but she makes sure to not let go. She laughs at your strugg** les ***. “What wrong, doc? Are hugs toxic for humans?” *

** “No, Humans hug people all the time. It’s just kind ah awkward when you get hugged by someone you just met.”**

** “Well, Joe. I want to get to know you better.” She says as her grip tightens. **

** “I... Ah… I don’t think you really would like sleeping with me** to be honest*. I tend to move around a lot when I sleep and I also have a lot of problems sleeping.” *

** “I thought you were a sleep doctor. I would think you would have that magically sleeping potion that would give any sleepless guy a good night's rest. Why are you having issues sleeping?” **

** “Well,** uh** … I identify sleeping disorders and per-scribe medication to those that need it. I make my own medications with the pharmacological company I work with, but for some people. You know, like people like me, even the best medication doesn’t always work. But, if I didn’t have this these meds, I would have far worse sleep tha ***n* *I already have.” *

She *pets your head and then tightens her grip again. “Maybe doctor Joe needs doctor Loka to help him fall asleep.” She seductively teases. *

** “No! No! No!” You yell out as you struggle in her** grasp. “I think doctor joke. NO, I meant Joe needs to sleep on his own.” You say in embarrassment.

** “Doctor Loka won’t leave a sleepless needy patient until they have taken their daily prescription of hugs and cuddles.”** Your struggles encourage her, she *hugs and cuddles you more. *

** “Loka! I don’t think thi-” She puts her finger over your lips and gently shushes you. **

** “Shush now, my sleepy patient. I’m treating you with cuddles and hugs now. Just relax and fall asleep under your doctor’s cuddles now. Shush.” She whispers lovingly to you. **

** “Loka?” **

** “Shush.” **

** Loka plea-”**

** “Shush.” **

** “Please let me ask you a question?” **

** “Okay, my patient. What’s your question?” She asks as she pets your head again.**

** “Why are you doing this for me? I hit you over the head with a bat and basically kidnapped you? Why are you being so kind to me?”**

** “I was already stuck here when I got into Stevie’s room. But, when you hit me in the head, you were only doing it** because you were protecting your patient. I understand why you hit me. If it wasn’t you, I probably would have been in way worse hands by now. ** A ***nd you promised that you will help me get back home and show me your ways of energy and science. I want to come back to my people with the solution to the monster energy crisis. You and your friends are going to make me so* famous. We are going to change things for the better, doc*. and I am glad to have been hit in the head by you.” She genuinely says to you as she kisses you on the forehead. “Now, shush. Let's sleep on it.” *

** Loka embraces you and you hug her back in return. You feel more relaxed under her cuddles and begin to doze off. Your dreams are occupied by the cuddle monster that is cuddling with you right now. An unconscious smile** creeps on your face as you sleep away with the cuddling monster.