FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Elsewhere a dark furred kitsune starts making her way to the outer perimeter of the marketplace, a bag in one hand. Seven tails flow out her back and she's wearing her uniform even though she isn't currently on shift. On top of her shoulder is a rather insistent little creature, much like a snake but covered in fur the coloration of a fox and a little fox-like muzzle adorning its face. She heads over towards one of the guardians currently in charge of the large marketplace.

"And how are things running over here?" Anon asks the guardian as she approaches.

"Head Guardian, I didn't expect to see you here, Sir!" The other kitsune quickly stands more straightly as he salutes, his two tails tucking almost between his legs.

"We are not technically military right now, Lee. There is no need to go through such formalities every time you see me," Anon comments, not bothering to return the gesture but instead digs through a bag while the long fuzzy creature starts coiling down her arm in anticipation.

"I was raised with the idea that habits of respect are ones you should always strive to maintain, sir."

"Anyway," Anon retorts, pulling an orange from the bag as she turns to face towards the marketplace. "I'm mainly here just to give my Mia here some fruit."

"Orange! Orange!" Mia yaps as Anon starts to peel the orange.

"Hey," Anon stops peeling a moment to tap against Mia's nose. "You get back up onto my shoulder and be patient like a good girl. I can't peel with you on my arm like that."

"Is it wise to keep spoiling your familiar like that, sir?" Lee asks as Mia slowly pushes her way back up Anon arm.

"It's fruit, Lee. I'm not spoiling her. If I was I would be giving her meat," she responds as she peels off enough to get a slice of it removed from the rest of the orange. "What do you say?"

"Can I have an orange slice please?" Mia asks while half trying to climb up the arm again.

Anon relents slightly but makes sure she gets back onto the shoulder by holding the slice next to her other shoulder. Mia quickly coils around to the other shoulder and starts nibbling on the orange slice, her tail wrapping around Anon's neck slightly for balance. Lee rolls his eyes slightly at the scene and then tries to ignore it by looking over the marketplace. Anon further teases him by cooing at her familiar as the fuzzy snake-like creature nibbles delicately on the orange slice, trying to get all the juice from it as it can. However, Anon stops cold and instantly turns towards the marketplace. Lee did not immediately respond as well, meaning either he wasn't hit with it or isn't as skilled at noticing but Anon knows the sensation of when someone hits her with the spell to switch her to the language of intent. Nothing seems too far out of the ordinary until she sees another kitsune floating over in her direction. The most curious state of it is that they seem to be a feral and almost arranged as like a clown with how off the markings look over one eye and the ears. She also notices that she can't see his focus, either for hovering in that manner or to use the spell. Meaning some kind of illusion must be hiding it, but she can't exactly see anything out of the ordinary beyond knowing that there has to be some sort of illusion in play.

"Just so you know," this strange individual states, as if nothing at all were out of the ordinary with the approach. "There's a human in the market that was planning on trying to rob some jewelry. They won't anymore."

"Vigilantism is not advisable. We would have had things under control."

"I know, but figure it's easiest to stop a crime before it starts. And don't worry, I did nothing illegal in the process. Most criminals get performance anxiety when they know someone's watching them. Just figure I'd let you know while I was introducing myself. I am Prince Mige Ye Siena, at your service."

"Royalty or not," Lee answers, making it apparent he was hit with the spell as well. "you will not be given any special treatment."

"I wouldn't dream of it. It makes my job too boring if you all give me a blind eye. To do my job properly I need you all at your best and alert."

"And what kind of job would that be?" Anon asks.

"Oh, they didn't tell you?" Mige laughs. "Oh well, I'm good with dealing with the blind. I'll just have to make it more interesting in the process. Blind or not I still find it proper protocol to introduce myself to the head of security so that they are aware that I have arrived," the feral starts to turn around to leave. "And don't worry, I don't hold a grudge against your people anymore. I did once, but I've gotten over it." Mige then spins in midair to stare at them upside down.

"That's nice to hear. Now if there's anything else you needed?"

"You know, your scores are pretty low for a seven," Mige blurts out, though Anon catches a glimpse of him looking at her tails. "Well I guess that would explain it. Matches much more closely now."

Anon frowns and looks at them much more critically. They don't seem to be all that impressive and their badge reads only twos and threes. And yet the level of control they're exhibiting. She notices that her hand feels somewhat lighter. Half thinking perhaps Mia has snuck down to get at the main part of the orange while she's distracted she looks down and instead finds that a small wedge of the orange has been very carefully removed from the orange and is now hovering just a few inches from her familiar's face. Lee doesn't seem to notice but Anon definitely does, but does her best to try and hide it. To think someone would have the ability as a three to not only cut away a piece of an orange, but to do so without her really noticing until they had already finished. When Anon reaches up to grab it the control instantly goes away into her hand. So quick, in fact, that Anon couldn't even feel the other kitsune let go. Mige shrugs and then nods in their direction before turning around.

"Well, I'm off to go find some lodging. Ta ta for now," And instantly Anon can feel the mental twinge saying that the casting of the language of intent spell turning off.

"So what do you expect that was all about, sir?" Lee asks.

"No idea beyond the fact that they clearly wanted our attention."

"Well, that would be the way to do it. But I have to wonder, why a feral? Don't those only stay planetside?"

"Don't know. If they are that hungry for attention I'm sure sooner or later we'll eventually find out. Anyway, I'm heading out. Later," Anon waves and heads towards the lodgings of the officers of the station, making sure to go in the opposite direction that that strange fox had gone in. Clearly disturbed by the situation she wanted to put her thoughts to legs for a while, possibly seek out Riu to help figure out what all that was about. Mia, of course, seems to be completely oblivious to anything and everything in the universe that isn't involving getting another orange slice.

The ride was somewhat a new experience for Richard. For starters it was very strange that it got up to them and then dropped down to them. And then they got in and it was pretty much like a somewhat squashed bus that then ran along the ceiling. Chris seems particular unconcerned about the situation. It was once again a strange mashup of something that seemed so familiar and then at the same time very strange. And as they take a few turns the corridors get to be a bit wider. Their final stop is what almost looks like a business district. Chris nudges Richard and they leave and then he points at the building in the distance, choosing gestures over conversation simply because of the level of noise. The building they're heading towards has a very officious, almost imperial look to it, but no one seems to be really care about it. As they enter the building it looks about what Richard would imagine a futuristic police station might look. Same general layout, but much more advanced technology everywhere.

"And here's about as far as I'm allowed to take you," Chris says while showing Richard to a door on the interior of the station. "Good luck with your life and hope you adapt well enough. I'd hate to see a TD14 end up having to be a scab."

Richard is led into a room with a single kitsune just sitting at a table with a tablet in his hand. Sitting on top of the table is another of those golden balls and also what looks to be some sort of VR headset or helmet or something. Definitely something designed to go over the eyes and display a new image. The kitsune waves at Richard to take a seat on the opposite side of the table. He does so and then starting to get the hang of what to do with the golden ball things starts counting to ten.

"Hello, Richard," the fox states, trying to look as non-threatening and welcoming as you can probably get on a face with a lot of rather sharp teeth. "Do you know why you were sent to me?" Richard shakes his head, noting that this particular individual has a very particular way of saying things. Whereas most would say entire thoughts and just say everything they're going to before stopping and letting the orb translate, this one seems to instead say one sentence, then stop and wait for a translation, then say another. The result is a bit disjointed as though he no longer simply has to stare blankly while they say something and wait for the translation, there isn't as clean an indication on when they're done talking. "I'm going to be giving you an assessment to determine what jobs you would be most well suited for. It is in the best interest of both the station and yourself that we have an accurate assessment. To what you can and cannot handle. Both physically and mentally. And then we will provide you a list of occupations that we feel you would be able to perform. It will be then your choice on what to do afterwards. I am going to do this by simply scanning your brain. Don't worry, you won't feel a thing. Nor will I be giving you any serious questions. And do not fear, we will not be looking at any of your memories, only capability. All I require of you is to go and put this headset on and watch the program that's loaded up on it."

Richard is more than a little bit skeptical but he complies, knowing how VR stuff usually ends up working. If nothing else, he rationalizes it might be interesting to see just how much more advanced future VR is likely to be. When he puts it on he's almost somewhat disappointed. The scenery around him is incredibly low quality graphics, even compared to what was capable of during his own time. And then he notices the other characters in the area and it somewhat clicks for him. The graphics aren't low quality because of lack of technology. They're low quality because the program that fox put into it is basically a children's show, thus a visual style designed to appeal as much as possible to kids. Which is somewhat impressive when you consider this is how they design actual shows and quite likely movies as well. There doesn't seem to be any real issue with lag or other processor hiccups and the most impressive part is that just thinking about moving allows him to start walking around the room at the space he normally would. Definitely not as good as a holodeck but certainly the next best thing.

He remarks to himself how it seems almost like someone took a children's program and made it into a game. Which might be interesting if he were actually able to interact with the environment. And considering how little he knows of the surroundings, a show designed to be watched by someone too young to know any better would be the best course of action and not overwhelm his mind. Though he does definitely see something extremely off. There's a picture of the solar system in the classroom that this show seems to be taking place as well as a few other solar systems from elsewhere. At first Richard could almost say he was mistaken, but the names of the planets are correct. It's just that in this model of the solar system, there's no Mars. Only seven planets are shown. Richard turns around and tries to speak up to try and get someone's attention to get some clarity, seeing if it is like the holodeck and they can respond to stimuli but unfortunately, not. Richard supposes that it might in part be as a measure taken because it is a children's show and if one allows for any interruption, the show and entire point of the episode would be rendered moot, but it's still disappointing. It'll be interesting to see if he can interact with things a bit more fully on a more grown-up show but he doubts he'd understand what was going on.

"Mars was destroyed during our war with the Consortium almost a hundred years ago," a voice speaks up, seemingly inside his head.

Richard quickly looks around and tries to figure out what's going on since he never truly asked the question. But then he remembers that he is wearing a device and that fox thing did say that they were scanning his mind. It'd be a simple matter to be able to read his thoughts during the process. Deciding that's as good a means as any to get some answers rather than simply watch this child's show Richard asks his next question that follows that line of thinking.

"So, am I going to have to know all this stuff?"

"Not really," the voice says immediately after, indicating that there isn't even the slightest delay that Richard had gotten used to when dealing with that orb. "You'll look rather stupid if'n you don't know all the really big events. But everything else just say you're a TD14 and most will dismiss it. As for preventing temporal disruption there's a precaution for that. We'll forbid you from looking up anything that may be relevant around the time you left from. Of course unless you were an important person odds are you wouldn't be able to really find out anything anyway. Records can be pretty good, but we don't really care about what happened to each and every individual from the better part of a thousand years ago. That and if you do ever get the means to go back in time again we'll take a look just before you go in. If there is no problem with letting you through we will. If you'll disrupt things we'll stop you."

"So there is a way back?" Richard asks.

"Yes and no. Time travel is a thing. I'm not going to bother going into the details with you but it is a thing, but there are consequences. You, for instance, are one of those consequences. You see, when someone travels through time, they invariably displace someone else in time. Granted there are theories that it is quite possible for someone's trip back to their own present is what kicks them out of their time in the first place, but we don't currently have the technology required to really tell who kicked you out in order to travel. And before we have to do this slowly, let's just go through the wide array of standard questions everyone always seem to have regarding time travel. Let's see. Obviously if you are here Time travel is a thing. As far as we know you can't change history, but we aren't taking any chances either way. Time travel is always one way. You can go into the past or future, but once there you have to go about doing the whole process again to get back. And the means to travel in time isn't so much difficult as expensive. There are a lot of calculations that are required to make it work correctly and a lot of precise timing to send you to the correct location. If either are wrong you will be sent somewhere else. And finally, yes, people with your condition do happen often enough that there have been protocols put in place for when you lot show up. And most people would recognize the term of a TD14. However, these are still rather rare occurrences. It is a lot more common now than in the past and some say that that might because displaced people are more prone to showing up around the time the original jumped through time, but we can't know for certain."

"So how many of those like me ever return to their own time?" Richard asks.

"A few do, most don't. Some end up deciding that they prefer their new life over their old one. Some simply end up in a rut and never get anywhere close to getting enough money to be able to pave their way back. And some. Well. Let's just say you got off lucky. TD14's aren't ever on record before processing. To some this means you can do anything to them without legal consequences. Others simply don't have the mental strength to handle the change."

Richard looks back at the picture of the solar system. "So are we still at war with the people who did this?"

"The Consortium? Not technically? I mean technically we were never officially at war. We picked a fight with one ship that got too close to a military installation. They responded by destroying that base. So we retaliate. And they decided that the best course of action to deal with us and instill the sense that we shouldn't mess with them. They did this by going up and completely destroying our first major colony, Mars. This sent the message that they could wipe us off the map if they chose. Then they continued doing what they were doing anyway. Which is usually just ignoring us completely while looking for unowned systems to colonize or mine. From what we can tell they do thankfully have some sort of code of conduct in that if a system is already colonized they tend to scan it thoroughly then simply move on. As powerful as they are they could just wipe everyone out. Instead they just destroy any ship that gets in their way. Which is one of the main reasons for this place, just keeping everyone informed about where all the Corewards are."

"So this is really the future?" Richard asks.

"For you perhaps. To everyone else it's just your ordinary, every day present. I would say that we have our own idea of what the future would be like, but most tend to just compare it against the Consortium, who is simply much more advanced than anyone else. To be perfectly honest I find it a bit devoid of imagination."

"So how close did we come to how the future would actually play out?" Richard asks.

"That I wouldn't be able to say. Like I said, we're only doing a surface scan. And a physical scan as well, to be honest. But to answer your question I would need to probe deep enough into your mind to actually get access to your memories, and without a valid warrant and reason to do so I am prohibited from going that deep without severe ethical issues. So, you'll just have to figure the answer to that for yourself."

"I suppose that makes sense. So what all is the mental scan actually checking?"

"Reaction time. Ability to multitask. Ability to focus. General coordination. Ability to think on your toes. Preference regarding physical or menial labor. Basically, any general skill set that would be relevant to any job you might come across on the station. And the program in question is to help relax your mind so that we can more easily get at this kind of information. So no real thrills for you. If you want to follow the people in the program feel free, it's nothing spectacular and I'm sure you probably won't really learn anything. That or just wander around the building, doing whatever. Either way I need to focus on making sure the scan is done correctly so I'm going to be a bit less conversational for the time being."

Richard nods, grateful at least for some answers at least. The idea of being forced to watch a children's show definitely didn't appeal to him though there was a part that was curious as to what all they felt constituted a children's show in this future. Instead he decided that it might be more interesting to instead just see what all the limits of this technology is. So, he makes a point of going in the exact opposite direction that all the others seemed to go with the goal of seeing how large this place is and how far away he can get.