FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

You know, my life didn't used to be interesting. In fact there was a time when quite frankly my life was entirely boring. Oh, how I miss those days. I would wake up, go to work, go home, watch tv and then go to sleep. Day in, day out, that is all I would do. That is all I could afford to do for that matter. My job wasn't that good. A lot of work for not much of any real pay. It paid the bills, sure, but I was not happy at my job and it never really left me with all that much money once all the other bills had been paid. Just a completely boring individual. Not a single thing of any real interest about me, the kind of person that should you meet you'd probably forget all about within the next hour. Which is part of why I have such a crappy job. It's hard to get anything actually decent when you are so boring and unimpressive that your potential employers don't ever remember who you are, even if you see them again within the same hour.

The day my life changed was well, normal. It was a nice, clear day. Not really many clouds. About average temperature. Nothing at all to mark it as anything particularly interesting. I woke up to my alarm just as I always do. I usually give myself about an hour before I have to leave so that I have time to eat and settle into the notion of having to go back to that place. But all things considered, if I knew then what was in store for me I'd probably just call in. I had more than enough sick days to do it, I never really ever used them. As I step out of my apartment, I'm confronted by my neighbor, Bridget.

"I'm so sorry to bother you Paul, but I need to ask you a favor," she begins and I already somewhat know what she's going to ask. It's not the first time this has happened. Like usual she bats those pretty little blue eyes at me and twirls a finger around her hair as if trying to lay on the charm quite strongly. "I completely forgot about the rent being due and my job won't pay me until Friday. Would you be so kind as to front me my rent? I promise I'll pay you back on Friday. Pretty please?" The only reason I'm not calling her out on doing this, especially since she does it almost every other month, is that she is indeed true to her word. Though she is extremely forgetful or neglectful of keeping enough money on hand to pay the rent on time, every single time I've paid her, she has repaid me in full within a week. Just means I'll have to eat light till Friday.

Sighing, I grab my jacket and then head outside. The air is fairly cool today, no clouds in the sky which is nice, though still not exactly weather you'd want to stay out indefinitely. And so I stick my hands into the pockets of my jacket and begin heading towards work. I let my eyes wander like usual. Work really isn't very far from my apartment, only a few blocks. Definitely not worth it to try and drive there, if I even ever had a car. What with my neighbor always borrowing money I'm pretty sure if I did have a car she'd be borrowing that most of the time and I might only be able to drive myself once a week or so.

About halfway to my work I see a woman trying to get away from a man in an alleyway nearby. Or at least that's what I can guess by the situation. It is quite clear that she doesn't want anything to do with the man, who's currently blocking her own way out. Everyone else in the area seems to either not be aware that this is going on or is actively trying to ignore it. But, being the idiot I am, I decide that it is simply not something I can simply ignore and head over to try and give the lady some assistance.

"Hey, you! Let her go!" I shout at him, not really having any idea of what else to say. All the rest of the people around me immediately decide to hurry up and get out of this area lest they be forced to deal with what they feel they know is coming.

"And what are you going to do about it?" The man turns slightly and addresses me.

I half regret my decision even more. He looks to be almost twice my size. But then again I don't really need to beat him. All I really have to do is just keep his focus off the lady and maneuver him in such a way that she can get enough of a gap that she can squeeze by him. To that end I whip out my phone and immediately take his picture, making sure to slowly walk towards the left side of the alleyway. Knowing that now that I have his picture I could just as easily deliver it to the police he takes a step towards me and swipes at my camera. I quickly step back, knowing that I need to draw him further away, and take his picture again, making sure the flash is on for added effect. Angered by the response he takes another lunge at me, stepping further away from the middle of the alley. Another picture, this time making sure I'm just barely out of his range. But his speed is faster than I had imagined.

He catches me in the gut, laying me low as I clutch my stomach in pain. However, the act did end up giving enough space for the woman to make her escape, causing the big brute of a man to growl angrily as he tries to snatch at her and fail. He roars for a moment before kicking me in the gut, causing me to cry out. Though his kick didn't really have nearly as much force as it probably could have. It felt, oddly enough, as if it were more to make a point and vent frustration than to actually do me any real harm. He then pries my phone from my hands, deletes the images I had taken of him and then just drops my phone on the ground and hurries off after the woman. After a moment of trying to come to terms with the fact that not only am I not dead, but he didn't even fully destroy my phone I stand up in a bit of confusion. There's a crack on the phone's surface but beyond that it is completely undamaged. It is a very odd situation. But in any event, I still need to get to work if I want to get enough money to be able to still function, especially with my wallet so much lighter from paying my neighbor's rent too.

I arrive at the building at where I work, though the building itself looks like nothing special. It's just an ordinary office building where I work, filing paperwork and whatever else my boss wants me to do. It's by no means a very glamorous job, but it has paid the bills and is close to my home so not much needed to pay for travel. Unfortunately, after like an hour of work my boss calls me on the phone and asks for me to meet him at his desk, which is never a good sign. If he wanted me to do more work he'd have brought it to me. Asking me to go to him either means he's too busy to make the rounds himself, or he's doing something deliberately to get me away from my desk. Further red flags start firing off in my head as I see a couple of security officers trying to look completely uninterested near where my boss is located. I haven't done anything wrong, so there is that. Nothing that I can get into trouble with. I take a deep breath, sigh, and then proceed to enter my boss' office. He's a somewhat portly man, but is sitting imperiously at his desk.

"Paul, glad you could come," he says, as if he hadn't just ordered for me to drop everything and come to him. "Please, sit. And I'll not waste any more of your time than necessary."

"Did I do anything wrong?" I ask, nervously moving over to sit in the chair.

"You? No. Your work has been satisfactory enough. It's just that just this past week we've had one of our major clients decide that they're going to be taking their business elsewhere. And unfortunately that means that we're going to have to reduce our staffing requirements a tad for a little while, just until we're done with this new transitional period. I'm sure you understand. I will give you a full recommendation, but we're going to have to ask for your badge. You'll be paid for the rest of the day and I wish you luck on your future employment."

I am somewhat crestfallen to hear the news, but I sort of knew it was coming, what with security outside and getting me away from my desk to tell me this. The most annoying part is if what they're saying is indeed true then me losing my job has less to do with anything I've ever done and more just being on the bottom of the totem pole. But without there being anything I can really do about the situation, I nod solemnly and then hand over the badge and stand up. My boss shakes my hand and wishes me well one more time but not sure I really hear it. I leave the room and then escorted out by the security. Thankfully they have enough decency to not appear to be throwing me out, but rather almost as if they just happen to be walking alongside me on my way out.

And with that I am no longer with any sort of income. Granted they did say I was still going to be paid for the day, but I'm going to have to stretch my budget even tighter now. Might even have to go about and choose to not eat for a day or two, or at least only get very cheap meals. Shouldn't take me too long to get a new job. And there's always welfare, I guess. Still definitely sucks. Not wanting to be back home yet and having to deal with questions I get the impulse to simply walk around town. I'll need to go about getting at a computer to make a new resume and that will take time. But as I'm wandering the streets I see someone that seems particularly wealthy not pay much of any attention to what all is going on around him and I see his wallet fall out of his back pocket and onto the ground. I walk up to it and pick it up. Definitely a rather heavy wallet and when I open it up my eyes open a bit in surprise. There must be a few thousand dollars in here at least. If I took it I'd probably be set for a few months at least. But that simply isn't me.

"Um, Sir!" I shout, running to catch up a bit.

The man stops and stares at me. Something seems off about him, though I can't for the life of me figure out what. If anything it's that he looks too average, too generic. Like someone took all the features of every human on the entire globe and just averaged them out. But it's not my place to judge his appearance.

"You dropped this," I offer the wallet back. "You might want to put it in a different pocket, it's too big for your back one."

"Thanks," the man states before opening it up to see if I took anything from it.

As offensive as that may be to imply I stole from his wallet while I'm still here, in all likelihood I would have probably done the same. He actually seems somewhat surprised that I didn't take any and puts his wallet into his jacket's pocket instead before pushing something on his watch and walking away. Without anything else to do I continue my trek, pondering whether to have some fast food or something when I see that lady from before coming in my direction. At least she looks like she's still okay. I wave at her, sure she's probably just here to thank me for my help, what with the situation earlier making conversation a bit difficult to say the least. But apparently just as I get close enough to be able to speak without having to shout I feel a sudden stinging sensation in the back of my neck, followed be a wave of intense heat. And then the most disturbing aspect of my sudden situation, my body begins to move all on its own.

"I do sincerely apologize for having to do things in this way, but I hardly doubt that you'd be at all willing to come with us voluntarily," the woman exclaims, and I notice that the person that's behind me is the same man that had been threatening the woman earlier, which confuses me to no end.

I try to fight the forced movement but I quickly find out that not only does trying to resist the motion painful, but also the only thing that is still under my full control is my head, which is oddly still in my complete control.

"What's happening to me?" I ask.

"Oh, it's fairly straightforward. You passed the four tests I put forth against you today. And so, you are going to be made into one of our champions and be given the honor of fighting for your own home planet. And before you ask, this is not an honor that can be refused. As for why your body is moving without your permission, we have placed a control implant into you. When we feel the need we can gain complete control over everything on you below the neck. This is of course not an ideal way to bring you to our ship. But the odds of you voluntarily coming with us are so slim that we might as well just assume they don't exist. At least not on backwater worlds like this one. On worlds that know of the games, it's another story."

And with that they simply stop speaking, or at least in words I can understand. They are clearly communicating with each other in some manner, and she is frequently checking on a phone or at least a device that looks like a phone. And unfortunately, I am still only a prisoner in my own body. It absolutely refuses to do what I want it to and even trying just makes my neck burn and cause me pain. I'm clearly being led somewhere, but no clue where. And I guess it just adds a whole new meaning to the phrase can this day possibly get any worse?' Except of course since there is the fact that they are taking me somewhere means that wherever I'm being taken can't possibly be a good thing for me if they're forcing it on me.

While I'm walking I half wonder what all are those two. They did mention other worlds, so that implies alien, which is a bizarre enough situation to begin with. But more importantly, why this measure of control. Given the size of the male, I would imagine simply knocking me out and dragging me would be just as effective and far less uncomfortable for me since I'd be passed out the entire time. Instead they put something in my neck that's causing me to walk without any control over my own actions. Where I'm being taken seems to be some sort of garage from the looks of it. It's practically just some small building with only a large door in the front and nothing else. Even the door opens up like a garage. The only odd thing is that the big garage door seems to be the only door in or out of this place. On top of that there is absolutely nothing else in this little garage. Unless they plan on just moving me in here then leaving me like some sort of living doll I cannot fathom the slightest bit why they would take me to this location. But they make me enter the garage and then enter it themselves. As the garage door starts to close again with us all inside they have me sit down and then sit down as well. Thoroughly confused I'm half tempted to try and ask what's going on but figure it'd kind of would be a pointless effort. Either they don't tell me or I find out anyway soon enough. Either way, better to try and figure out how I can get out of this situation with my body being completely unresponsive than trying to ask pointless questions.

And as I predicted, something does begin to happen. The entire room begins to shake, which I guess is why we all were sitting down, as it would give us more stability. Not entirely sure how this room is moving and unfortunately I can't even do anything to try and get more comfortable since my body isn't entirely under my own control. I hadn't seen anything around the building for it to be carried off and it doesn't exactly feel like we're going underground. I try to push against the control mechanism and quickly learn something that is potentially vitally important to me. They control isn't permanent. Or rather it's not a passive control. They need to have their hand on that device they're carrying. If I try to move my body when they aren't actively controlling my actions then I can move. But as much control as I have, the moment they touch the remote again I go fully into their control once again. Meaning my only chance of freedom will have to be to find a moment when I can get at that device. If I can get that device from them and into my own possession I can potentially get free. The problem is that I am not in any position to be able to do much at the moment. I'm clearly in motion to somewhere, I can feel that much. Even if I were to try and get the remote right now I wouldn't have anywhere to go depending on where I actually currently am. If I open the door and I'm underground it's pointless and if I'm too far in the air it's equally pointless. And considering that big man could very easily overpower me again it makes any sort of escape for the moment pointless. I should wait we're no longer moving before trying. And as odd as it may seem one thought that crosses my mind sort of amuses me. And that is that if I am being taken somewhere else, it kind of means that I never will be getting my rent money back from Bridget.

"Where are we going?" I figure I need to ask, even though I know it isn't that great a question to be asking.

"To a transfer ship where you will be assessed and converted. For your own security it's best if we don't tell you exactly where you're going."

"What's going on?"

"Short answer is that there are forces much larger than your puny world. Space is very big, but it is also very limited. There are many forces that are constantly competing for resources. And so there has been a war over all the worlds going on that's lasted for generations. But we've grown past the point of throwing thousands and millions to die for that control and ruin the landscape. So, you are going to be a champion of Earth and put into a battle arena. The more you win, the more people will be tied to you and the more resources our side will have at our disposal. The more you lose the fewer people you have. And to give you an incentive to win, think of this. You didn't know about us before. We're very much interested in non-interference with undeveloped planets. Another ruler might think differently, though."

"And that justifies the kidnapping of innocent people to participate in your games?"

"Yes, actually. It's only fair that a champion of a planet come from that planet. Don't worry, you'll be made quite capable of fulfilling your purpose once you're converted. Until then, simply enjoy the ride as well as enjoy the last moments as a human," she says cryptically.

With that they both seem to touch something at the base of their ears and then start to carry on with a conversation that I cannot hear the slightest bit. And so I'm left to enjoy my time in a small metal box with no windows and no one to really talk to in a body that I cannot move at the moment.