FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

'The Bridle' was Tom's favourite restaurant; had been since his first visit as part of his sixteenth birthday. His friends of course, Andy and Millie, who also sat around the table, would have insisted it was a pub, and sure, that was true, but Tom preferred a hearty pie or ribs to the fare he might be served in a so called 'real' restaurant. Still of the various bars in Cotsedge where they lived, This was by far the best.

Tom finished off the last of his steak and mushroom pie; a rather recent addition to their pre-theatre menu. Something must have shown on his face because Millie gave a sideways glance towards Andy, before giving Tom a winning smile "Look, You didn't get this one but, maybe the next one Tom. I know it's a cliché but sometimes cliché's are true, it's a numbers game. You've just gotta keep trying."

Tom sighed slightly, he had been unemployed for almost 8 months and before that his work had been a string of temporary and unskilled positions. Despite that, he had been confident in this one; the interview had gone so well that he set up a celebration meal. If he was honest, he couldn't really afford to be here but he needed an evening out and had decided not to cancel even after being told 'that they would keep his CV on record'; If only he could be paid each time he was told that, life would be rather comfortable. "Right" he said "Numbers game." He placed his knife and fork down and gave a half smile "I don't want to think about it too much, this is my first time out this month. I just wanna chat about nonsense, talk about games, TV, movies, talk about...anything really, other than my sorry existence"

Millie nodded slightly "Well sure, you didn't cancel your Netflix account did you?"

Tom shook his head "I should, but no, I am trying to avoid that"

She ignored the somewhat miserable response "Well, have you seen 'a moment in time'?"

He shook his head and brightened slightly "No, but I had been looking forward to it, the previews were really good. I didn't realise it was out yet?"

She nodded "You should, I think it's the best thing they have released this year. The first episode was a bit weak but it improved rapidly after that and honestly, weak first episodes are pretty standard"

Andy leaned forward adding "Actually I am not sure I entirely agree with that, I quite enjoyed the first episode, though the latter half is definitely the stronger"

The chat flowed for another hour or so before the group split up and went their own ways. Tom wandered home, trying, and somewhat succeeding to not feel miserable. He entered his small ground-floor flat which he had purchased with the help of his parents who had covered the deposit. He hated that they had taken over the payment of the mortgage but there was just no way he could manage it himself.

It was not much warmer inside the house than it had been outside, as he did not like running the central heating; the cost just built up too quickly. Fortunately, he had a trick. He pulled an aquamarine-blue, slightly fuzzy mass from his wardrobe. He had bought the onesie when he was a few years younger and honestly, part of him was pretty embarrassed that he owned it, he would definitely not like his friends to find out but it was warm and comfortable and it allowed him to leave the heating off.

He quickly stripped down and began to carefully pull it on. He had purchased it a few years earlier during a bit of an anthro-phase but despite moving past that a little, he still loved it. The tail was stuffed and oversized, the head plush and detailed, the colours eye-catching and vibrant. It had been custom made, back when money wasn't so tight and it showed; something coming off a production line would not have wasted this much material on decoration, the tail would have been half the length at least.

He finished doing up the buttons and switched on his computer, threw a couple of pieces of bread into the toaster and got a glass of water. He sat down in front of the machine and loaded up several job sites, browsing for positions to submit applications. He couldn't concentrate though, he just kept zoning out and staring through the screen. He really thought that today was going to be the end of this sorry period, that things might be about to improve. He sighed slightly and opened a new tab, browsing to Netflix. He clicked on the first episode of 'a moment in time', He could look for work in the morning.

It was early November and even with his onesie it was cold. He lay on his bed wrapped in a blanket and settled down as 'a moment in time' began its opening theme. He snuggled into his pillow determined to pay attention and not have to watch the episode again later. Half-way through however, he fell asleep. Millie was right, this episode really wasn't that engaging.

Tom slept pretty well, perhaps better than he had in quite a long time. An alarm set to wake him at a reasonable time briefly interrupted his slumber but he quickly fell asleep again despite his groggy mind registering that something was not quite right.

He didn't rouse again until nearer lunchtime, unfortunately, a common occurrence for him since being out of work so long. He rubbed a sleepy eye as he started to move slowly under the covers. Waking, still not fully alert, he glanced over to where he kept his phone planning to check the time. He paused for a second feeling really weird. Something was seriously wrong but before he could work out what, a sudden weight tugging at his ass; which he would later discover was his new tail, flopped out of the bed and onto the floor, causing him to be pulled along with it. He gave a squeal and tried to grab onto the sheets but as soon as the meaty blue paws fell into sight he gave a cry of "Vaaa?" released the sheets in shock and tumbled to the floor in a pile, tangled with his blanket.

He groaned for a few moments as he lay on the ground tangled with his blankets, everything seemed wrong, his perspective seemed warped and what was with that noise he had just made. Wait his hands!

He raised his hands in front of his face, immediately managing to push the blanket to the side slightly. He was overcome with pure confusion, how was this possible? The limbs he rotated slowly in front of himself were a pale-blue and they weren't hands, they were almost like some kind of canine paw. They were covered in a thick, blubbery skin which made him think of a whale or dolphin. Oh. Obviously this must be a dream! He sighed slightly and looked down over his form. He managed to kick the blankets largely off to reveal his shiny, rubbery blue body. He rocked slightly side to side, lying on his back, noting just how weird everything felt. He sent a ripple of motion through his enormous tail watching as it rose and fell at his command.

As he started to examine his form, he began to frown "...vaaaa". He had never experienced a dream anything like this, it did not feel right at all. It felt so real and he felt so clumsy. That might be an odd thing to focus on but if this was a dream, shouldn't he know how to use this body? Sure everything was reacting to his desires at an individual muscle level but he was having to fight against the way he knew things should work. He kept trying to move his fore legs like they were arms and the sudden unnatural jerks caused momentary bursts of pain.

He considered that pain for a second and the pain that he had felt when he collapsed onto the floor. You were not supposed to experience pain in a dream, right? He poked himself quite hard in the face with a paw...that hurt a little, he tried it again. Still hurt. He started to panic a little, this could not be real, could it? He tried to roll onto his front and stand up but the covers were not quite off his back legs and he fell forward onto his belly. He fought his would be captor, with unfamiliar limbs and eventually managed to scramble out.

He looked around the room with a sense of wonder, a significant part of him was sure this must still be a dream, or perhaps he was in some kind of hypnosis performance and right now there was an audience laughing at his antics. The whole world looked subtly different from his lowered perspective and he couldn't help but find it kind of fascinating. He noted that he had left his computer on overnight, must have fallen asleep which watching 'a moment in time'. There was nothing on the screen though, the machine had gone into hibernation.

"Por" he said, while trying to force the door to his closet open. He winced slightly at the noise; it was so high pitched and obviously inhuman. A few moments after getting the door half-open he was hit by a sudden thought: the fact that he couldn't speak was almost worse than what had happened to his body; it was going to cause him major issues. He spent a moment considering this before shaking his head and using his paw to slide the door the rest of the way. It was starting to hit home that this could not possibly be a dream. All the strange ways that his body was moving, the sound of his voice, the way the carpet felt against his paws. As crazy as it seemed, it was becoming impossible to pretend this wasn't real and as the cupboard swung open to reveal a large, door-mounted mirror, all doubt was banished.

He fell back onto his haunches into a sitting position and stared at the mirror.

He was larger than he expected; around the size of a huge dog, standing roughly 3 feet at the shoulder. It was sometimes hard to get a feel for how large Pokémon were in the game and honestly, he thought Vaporeon's were smaller than this. His skin was smooth and shiny, a pale blue in colour clearly designed for aquatic travel. His tail swished a little behind him, it seemed to move on its own, like a tapping foot unless he specifically paid it attention, from here, it seemed especially huge ending in plump dolphin-like fins. He leant forward to get a clearer look at his face, closing his eyes, making shapes with his mouth, sticking out his tongue. He tried to say a tongue-twister but all that came out was "Va, Vaporeon Por, Pore, Vapoooo poreeeon, pore, vapore" Weirdly, he somehow got the impression of words behind those nonsense sounds but there was no doubt, no-one would be able to understand him. He studied his little black shiny nose on the front of his short blue muzzle. He studied the trio of fat blue and yellow fish fins stuck around his head and he studied the white frilly structure that fluffed around his neck like a circus performer's ruff.

He could easily have stopped there but he continued to explore his new form, tilting his head, opening his mouth to look at his new, rather pointier teeth. If he stopped examining himself, he might have to figure out what happens next and he was not sure that his brain was handling the now, let alone the later. However he did like vaporeons, so despite everything, part of him was enjoying examining a creature that literally shouldn't exist. He just wished he had one for a pet, rather than, you know, being one.

He stood, tensed, and sprung into the air jumping a couple of feet before landing back down on firm paws. He watched as his body arced in the mirror. He felt lighter than he looked, stronger too. This was a pretty powerful body even before he considered what special properties a Pokémon's body might have. If he had to be a Pokémon then perhaps this wasn't so bad. He wasn't too small, not too massive, he was cute but not nauseatingly so. He looked down, well actually, now that he thought it about it, if he had to be a Pokémon he would have chosen one with hands. Having 4 legs was going to suck!

But then, surely, there was still a chance he would just wake up, maybe people said you couldn't feel pain in dreams because no one could remember well enough or maybe that belief was part of the dream!, maybe he would hear the word "Wake" and just be sitting in front of a laughing audience and maybe, just maybe, even if he had randomly turned into a Pokémon; which was clearly impossible. He might turn back just as randomly. Perhaps he would go to bed tonight and wake up normal tomorrow. All the cards were off the table, the rules had been rewritten. How could he predict anything?

A sudden noise caused him to almost jump out of his skin "Vaaaa"he squealed involuntarily as his tail whipped behind him. It smashed heavily into the metal frame of his bed causing his eyes to widen slightly in pain. He had swung his tail hard and with a lot more strength than he had any idea it was capable of. The bed did not fare well; the mighty blow buckled the metal like a hit from a sledge hammer and lifted the entire structure into the air. The tortured scream of metal was joined by a loud thud as the bed smashed into the wall, damaging the plasterwork

He spun round to face the bed, giving a slightly pained moan which sounded like "Porrrrr" His tail felt slightly bruised and his eyes watered a little. He had buckled the entire frame. The whole thing was bent inwards several inches in the middle and several of the support poles had snapped off the inner rim. He reached out gingerly with a paw to touch it "Pore...V...Vaaa"he muttered as he thought 'Did I do that?'

The bed rocked back slightly and then forwards; no longer sitting flat on the ground. 'Great' he thought 'I just destroyed my bed' He gave another little shiver as Skype pinged again, that's right he realised, he just destroyed his bed due to a Skype ping. He glanced up to his computer and frowned; this was going to be a challenge, not to mention how breakable everything was starting to look. He just accidentally did that much damage to a metal bed-frame, what if it had been his computer instead.

He shivered slightly and took a couple steps over to his computer chair. When he was bouncing earlier he got the feeling that if he really tried, he could jump pretty high. He was confident he could land on the chair but was a bit worried about overdoing it and smashing into his monitor. After considering his options, he pushed the gas pedal to raise it to its maximum height and did a few practice bounces besides it.

His first attempt to actually land on the chair was successful but did send the thing spinning in circles. He scrambled round so he was facing forward, his tail hanging through one of the arm rests. The thump must have knocked the mouse slightly because the computer had woken up and the monitor was glowing softly. Skype was highlighted in the taskbar, indicating he had one new conversation and Netflix had timed out in the background. He looked at the keyboard and then the mouse "Va...aaaa" he murmured. This was going to be awkward. He reached out a paw gingerly, having to lean forward a little uncomfortably and placed it on the mouse. He blinked slightly, moving it a little, this wasn't actually too bad. He was able to move the mouse with at least the dexterity he might have had using a laptop touchpad. He attempted to click the mouse button by squeezing one of his digits and the mouse cursor shifted slightly. He paused with a frown. Moving the mouse felt okay but clicking it was awkward; still it was far from impossible and he was able to bring up the flashing Skype conversation easily enough.

"Hey, WTF did you see the news?"

"Hey Tom? You there?"

"Are you seriously still in bed? This is crazy you need to see this"

There was a delay of about 2 hours and then the most recent messages

"Holy shit, to quote the BBC 'The police are responding to a dragon related incident' a BBC link had popped up after that

"This has to be an elaborate hoax right? Jeez get up you lazy git"

Tom frowned slightly, what on earth was going on. He moved the mouse over and managed to click the BBC link despite the cursor slipping slightly. Chrome opened up, taking a few seconds to load, the headline caused his eyes to widen significantly "Police dispatched to major 'dragon' related fire near Oxford Circus" 'what the hell' he said quietly to himself. Well actually, he said "Pore, Vaa" but he was starting to hear the actual words in his head simultaneously with the Pokémon noises, like his brain was starting to translate.

He read over the story skimming as best he could, he frowned at the mouse as he discovered the scroll wheel wasn't really useable, annoying, but he could deal with it. It seemed a fire had broken out in an apartment block in London, when a fire engine attended the site, they discovered a strange creature described as being 'Dragon like'. The fire fighters retreated and the police were called, there was some kind of altercation which led to more of the building being damaged. There was not a lot of details and no pictures of the creature but it seemed to be part of a series of articles on 'Anomalous Events'. He could see a whole bunch of odd stories under related articles.

'Dinosaur' found dead in ruins of collapsed house.

---

Cornwall Holiday camp terrified by Tiger attack.

---

Multiple reports of 'Pikachu' sightings: A mouse like creature from the Pokémon franchise, continue to flood in.

His eyes widened slightly as he moved the mouse to the pikachu link. He read through the story with a sense of shock. It seemed there had been more than a dozen sightings across the country in the last 6 hours of creatures looking like the iconic yellow rat. It noted that there was no current explanation for where these anomalies had come from but that the police advised that these creatures may be dangerous, recommending that the public do not approach them. He got to the bottom of the story and noticed there was a video. He hit play and sure enough, it was a short clip of someone recording a Pikachu on their phone camera. The creature seemed to be nervously looking down from a first floor window, which was sitting slightly open. "Pi, pika pi! Pikachu, pika chu!, Pika, Pikachu!" it seemed to shout urgently towards the bystander but somewhere deep in Tom's mind he also heard "H...help me, I don't understand what is going on"

Tom shivered slightly. In comparison, he felt like he was talking it quite well, he compared his situation for a moment. The pikachu had something much more like useable hands but he was not sure he would like to be that small. 'It also has a type advantage over me' he thought with a wry, slightly sarcastic smile.

Skype pinged "I just saw a picture of a charmander, its not just chus. Wtf maybe that dragon was a Pokémon too, I've not seen any pictures. ...WAKE UP"

Tom frowned slightly. Okay this was going to be harder than the mouse. He clicked into the skype text box and moved his paw over to the keyboard. Something simple he thought and he positioned it over h key to begin typing 'Hey'.

'jhgb' 'huy' 'uhb'

Each application of his meaty paw hit multiple keys, he wished his claws were a little longer so he could try and use those to poke but it became very quickly apparent that this wasn't going to work. He leaned back into his haunches for a moment trying to consider options. He looked across his desk for inspiration before leaning over and biting lightly onto a pen that was lying at the side of his keyboard. Holding it carefully in his mouth he tried to poke the keys. It kind of worked. He had real trouble holding the delete button down for long enough to remove his previous mashes but a minute or so later, he had his message typed "Hey"and pressed return. He sighed slightly, this wasn't really going to work either. It was slow and awkward, it was uncomfortable to lean forward like that and his neck already ached slightly. There had to be a better way.

"Hey? WTF Hey? are you still asleep? Look at this"she linked the pikachu story he had been reading earlier.

He moved the mouse about a little in a circle getting more of a feel for it. It was so frustrating that the mouse had ended up being much easier to use than expected and yet the keyboard was almost impossible. If only he could...wait. Start > Accessories > on screen keyboard.

"I am a vaporeon"he typed. Yes! This was much easier. He didn't fancy writing more than a sentence like this but he could communicate at least. He gave a cheer of "vaporeon!"but the alien sound cut back his elation slightly.

"Uh dude? Is this really the time to be telling me about your weird furry habits? did you look at the link I sent you"

"yeah I saw im serious" he couldn't be bothered with all the punctuation. It was awkward enough without trying to actually type correctly.

?? ? Skype started playing its tune and his screen displayed Millie is calling. He clicked accept and the familiar call window popped up.

"It's crazy out there Tom, you should see my Facebook wall. People are losing their minds" her voice trembled with excitement but there was an edge of worry too.

"...Poreon, Por?" was all Tom could reply

"Ok. I don't get it. What's the joke, did I miss a meme again?" there was a tone of annoyance now

"Pore, Poreon, Po, Vapo" Tom replied his eyes narrowing a little. This was outright, the weirdest thing, that had ever happened to him, maybe anyone. Well, maybe not, considering the events of the day but still. He was starting to get a bit fed up with her not believing him.

"Uhh...that doesn't sound like a YouTube video, is that you making that noise? I would say it's a good impression but I'm not entirely sure what they are supposed to sound like." She paused "I still don't get the joke though. Can we talk about the dragons and the pikachus, please?" she was insistent. She had obviously been wanting to discuss this and neither of them were getting what they needed from the conversation.

Right, enough of this. He hit the video call button with the mouse. Millie didn't have a camera so Skype simply displayed a grey box. Tom did have a camera but it was on his computer desk angled off to the side, so all that could be seen was part of his bedroom.

"Woah what happened to your bed?" came Millie's voice but Tom wasn't really paying attention. He was leaning forward to try and grab the camera and turn it round but it was just out of reach, through a pile of random clutter on his computer desk. He just managed to get his paws on it when he realised he had overbalanced. He looked back with a sickly look as he stood precariously on his computer chair, his rear legs perched on the edge, his tail counterbalancing the rest of his body.

"What the hell is that blue thing-" started Millie but Tom's computer chair had already started slowly trundling backwards, he lasted barely a second before he, the camera, several amiibos and a large speaker came crashing to the floor.

"Vaapor" he cried as he hit the ground hard, the speaker landing on his head. He lay there, eyes mostly closed, rubbing one of his head fins with a forepaw. It hurt, but he felt like it should have hurt more. The sound of his speakers crackled a little as if the one that fell might be damaged.

"holy shit...you were serious, how?, what did you do? And stop rubbing your head like that, it is ridiculously adorable!"

Tom stopped, frowning slightly and managed to climb back up to his haunches. "Por, vapor, vaaa"he said before giving a small sigh and glancing up towards the keyboard.

"Hey sorry. Are you okay? That looked like quite a heavy fall" Tom nodded slowly "Seriously though, How? How did this happen? Are all the Pokémon human?"

"Por, vaa..." he gave another slight sigh and made an exaggerated shrugging motion.

"Well, ah" she said "It looks like you could use some help." Tom nodded with an obvious smile. With Millie to help him, it wouldn't be so bad and the company would help him deal with things, at least for now "Ill jump in the car and head up. I need to grab a few things so I will be around 20 minutes"

"Por" Tom nodded as she ended the call. He looked around and sighed, well at least he wouldn't be alone. He looked at the computer speaker. The cable had frayed at the back and he could see the bare metal of the wire. He shivered a little and pushed it next to the desk. He would point that out to Millie and hopefully she would do something about it.

He glanced up towards his bedroom door and noted it was slightly ajar. He gave a slight sigh as he moved up and hooked a paw around it puling it towards him. Opening the round handle might have been a challenge, had it been closed. He took a few steps out into the corridor and glanced towards his front door. That might be a problem but one he at least had 20 minutes to solve. He took a few steps up towards it before realising that he had been moving much more easily without really thinking about it. He had managed to get the hang of walking, jumping, basic movement really rather quickly. He shivered slightly, wondering if whatever was responsible might have messed with his mind, adding knowledge that wasn't there before. One short sprint later and a bundle of blue limbs against the wall suggested otherwise. Nope, he had no supernatural knowledge of how to use this form.

He collected himself, trying to ignore the scratches he had left in the paintwork and returned to the door. He took a quick step and then threw his body up against the entranceway. He looked like a dog scrambling at a lock though perhaps a little more stable. He was smarter than a dog though and in fact leaning one paw on top of the latch while pushing down the locking mechanism with the other, turned out to be rather easy. He had to practice a few 'falls' past the mechanism that kept the latch disabled once the lever was released but he managed it on the third try. "Pore!" he called happily. Some things were going to plan.

Door unlocked, Millie on her way, still a vaporeon. Ok some good, some bad. He still had most of the 20 minutes to go and was feeling a little hungry. He pushed the kitchen door open with his head, which opened with an angry creak. He took a few steps and shivered slightly. The flagstone floor of the kitchen felt cold against his paws and the window would allow any passers-by to look in and see him. The area was generally quiet though and so he felt fairly confident he would not have to worry about gawkers.

He looked around, suddenly feeling a little intimidated. Almost all the food in here was unpreparable for him. He didn't think he would even be able to open a can, let alone actually cook anything. How was he going to live if he couldn't feed himself? What about shopping? Even if he somehow managed to pick up the items, even if he somehow had money in a pouch around his neck or something, would people just scream? Run? Perhaps nothing so dramatic, maybe they would just refuse to serve him or shoo him out like an unwanted stray dog.

And money, he had almost forgotten his difficulties with finding work. That had to be over right?, no one was hiring a vaporeon to do anything; except maybe wash cars he thought with a sarcastic smile. He blinked for a second, he had not previously considered if he might have Pokémon abilities, shouldn't he be able to spray water like a vaporeon?, looking around his kitchen he decided this wasn't the place to try and find out.

He felt another pang of hunger and decided to worry about this later, Millie, he was sure, would help him for at least a couple of days and who knows, he was still hoping he might wake up tomorrow and be back to normal. It wouldn't be any weirder or more unexpected than waking up like this today. He judged the distance to the work top and managed to launch himself towards it. There was only slightly too much force and his skid into the wall was not serious enough to hurt.

He then looked towards his goal. The 2nd cupboard above and to the left of the cooker. He pushed the door open with his paw, easily pulled himself up on to two legs, and got a better look into the space. He glanced back feeling slightly nervous "Por..pooorrr" he said to himself in an almost quiet, reassuring purr, trying to ignore the heavy aquatic tail hanging from his backside, threatening to pull him to the ground. He looked back up and saw the cylindrical packet of cookies he was after. Triple chocolate of course, only the least healthy for this vaporeon. He meant to drag them forward with a paw and catch them in his mouth but he missed rather spectacularly and sent the packet flying with some speed towards the ground. He fell backwards himself in surprise but had time to twist his body and land rather comfortably on his feet like some kind of blubbery blue cat.

He frowned at the packet "Broken cookies are better than no cookies" he said quietly to himself; simultaneously hearing both his words, and his vaporeon noises. He picked the packet up in his teeth and carried it through to the living room, hopping up on to the table which had been cleaned and wiped the morning. He broke open the packet and little broken pieces of biscuit fell out. He started to scoop the chunks up in his mouth and ate them as they tumbled to the wooden surface. He was curious as to whether they would taste strange or different, this wasn't his mouth after all but it seemed exactly the same. He purred in pleasure at this tiny piece of normality.

Suddenly a knock at the door caused Tom to look up. He heard the handle being tested and then the door creaking open. He had a brief moment of anxiety before Millie's voice called out "Tom?"

"Por, Poreon! Vapo, Vaaa!" called Tom, tensing up a little. Even though he was happy she was here, on some level this was intensely embarrassing.

She walked through to the living room and said nothing for several seconds, just staring. There was, however, this massive grin on her face. Eventually, she spoke "It's true, I saw you on Skype but part of me thought it had to be some kind of elaborate prank" she walked up and petted Tom on the head like a dog, causing him to wince slightly "You are adorable!" she laughed "I know this is probably a little upsetting for you, but do have you any idea how surreal seeing a Pokémon in real life is?"

Tom just gave her a flat look, he had some idea.