FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

As I close the door I ponder at it for a brief moment. I don't entirely know what is done regarding the locking mechanism for the door. On if I have to put my hand on it again or if it's automatic. But as it closes I can hear a very audible second click, informing me that it does indeed lock immediately. I further test this by trying to see if it'll just re-open for me but it won't. Not without the hand print thing. But on that I look down at my hand and move it over back and forth trying to just take it all in. It's such a strange looking hand all things considered. If anything, going from a human into some sort of animal thing I would have figured my hands would get thicker or something, not longer.

I walk back over to where I had left them and see Yonya still arguing with themselves, though they had decided to watch something already and were arguing about strategy or tactics or who specifically to watch. I really can't tell all that well. They turn as I approach, my head cocked to the side and the one on the right suddenly turns and notices me.

"Ha! Called it. You owe me twenty," they say to the one on the left. That one grumbles and reaches into a pocket in their clothes and pulls out a sack of something. "No stealing," the one on the left says as they go about using both hands to separate a single coin from the small sack. The right hand then cherishes it and showcases it off while the left hand goes about putting the sack back away.

"Um," I begin, unsure what just happened.

"We made a bet," the right head says casually enough. "I said that you'd switch out your outfit. Yony said you would just stay in that first garment until tomorrow."

The left head grumbles a bit but doesn't really speak up all that much. Instead, they pat at the couch next to them. "Come. Sit. Might as well see what it is you're getting into."

I cock my head the other way but I obey enough. It is probably going to be far more informative to what they're going to be expecting me to do to watch a full thing rather than just go through the tutorial. There's a bunch of displays on the screen, showing every single one of ten people on both sides, each with a symbol that has nine crystals on it, some of them already grayed out. There are a lot of other little details on the screen I can see, but don't really have much context. The map in context is huge compared to what I was dealing with.

"You're the mid. The lane in the middle is yours. You're the most capable of holding the lane and rotating when Asher needs a bit more damage in a gank," Genis says. "Don't fret too much about what you're seeing. This is a diamond ranked event, so not the top, but pretty high up there. You're new, so they'll only throw us against Bronze at first. So a lot less skill required."

"Yeah, heard this one has two billion on the line," Yonya says.

"So what were you guys before?" I ask, wondering what they meant by the two billion comment and wanting more on context for how much I'd be slowing them down.

"Low Plat," Asher shrugs. "We were at upper plat, but with our mid almost gone and our solo on the decline we were slipping in rank."

I sit and watch, idly paying attention to the chatter but they seem more intent on just watching the match and critiquing it far more than they are trying to explain things, which I'm okay with for the time being. There's a lot that is going on here that I don't really understand. There are fights between them periodically and then they back off. The thing that impresses me the most is how the people on both teams are constantly moving around. They never stay in any place for more than a few seconds. They come and clear out the little clay minion things, maybe poke at each other a bit and then head off into the jungle to do something else. And there are quite a few times where they seem to arrive at a location just as more of the monsters spawn with not a single step wasted.

"What are those stars shown whenever it's showing any of them?" I ask.

"That's how many lives they have left. You have nine lives in a match," Yonya says casually. "It's a fight. The instant before you die your body is reabsorbed into the ground where they will heal your injuries and remake your body. Don't worry about it too much, though. Once the match is over and you step out the alterations to your body just kind of fall off? And then you get to be as you are now."

"Doesn't make it any less disturbing to go through," the right head retorts back. "I know you're a latey and all. But you're far better off just trying to never die and never have to deal with it in the first place."

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind," I say in response, not really having anything to really comment to that.

I suppose it is something I should have seen coming. The tutorial even had me kill something or other though I'm pretty sure that that was just another doll. Eventually, though, I get enough of a feel for how things go that I just kind of get bored. I understand a bit more of the general concept and what we'll be trying to do but with the thing keeping me from having any emotional reaction, I can't really get all that interested in it either. So after a bit I get up and start to wander a bit more of the facility. I find a large door off to the side and when I open it notice that it seems to be leading to a sort of staircase downwards. I start heading down the stairs, noting that the stairs don't even seem to make the slightest of creaks underneath me. But I suppose if everything here is supposed to be for everyone, including the large people, then someone my size probably would be sustained no problem. At the bottom of the stairs seems to be a sort of rec room. There are a few exercise machines off to one side, a sparring ring matched out with little padded ropes and a few other things I don't really recognize. But I'm drawn to something that looks like a pool table.

It's not technically a pool table. The balls are a different size, the table is a different size the stick looks different and it has eight holes and twenty-one balls, but the table itself looks to be mostly similar to how a pool table is set up. And with nothing else to really do much and no real instructions on how the table is supposed to be done I just line up all the balls like normal pool but then add in an extra row in the back and go about playing a sort of alien pool. The stick definitely feels somewhat off in my hands but I manage. My first few hits are a little too on the light side of things as I underestimate the weight behind the balls. But eventually I seem to get the hang of it all and I go about just playing pool, not really trying for anything fancy but rather just hitting the balls and trying to get them to go into the little holes. After I get about halfway through the first set Beoulitha comes down and stares at me. It looks like their mind is in a bit of a fog, but they come forward and approach me at the table.

"Mind if I join?" they ask.

I shrug and then go about setting up the table again. I take a look at them and they are somewhat awkward looking. Definitely something that could survive getting attacked for quite a while and barely even really seem to notice it all that much. But as I put the balls back into a semblance of order I notice that playing with two people would be somewhat tricky. There isn't anything like solids and stripes.

"Overthink. Not needed," they say slowly. "We take turns, if ball goes in, go again, when all balls gone, one with most balls sunk wins. Simple. You can start."

I suppose that that is something that is doable. And so I take a deep breath, line up my shot and just slam that ball across the table. I didn't hit it hard enough to make it go flying or anything, but gave absolutely no real thought into strategy, just trying to break everything up. Nothing goes in. Beoulitha walks up and circles the table, staring at everything arranged before lining things up. It is a very strange appearance, to say the least. She looks about as bulky as Genis, though where he looks like a wall of flesh, she looks more like what one would expect of a body builder on steroids, and then those muscles took steroids as well. Her arms are probably about as thick as my entire waist. Covered in a somewhat yellow and blue striped fur she doesn't look like anything I would recognize. And then a tail that effectively is just as good as a third leg probably would be for how thick it is. And yet, despite all that mass, she has absolutely no trouble moving around and is able to do so without knocking anything over and hits the ball with a grace that even I couldn't really manage. Even decides to show me up a bit by putting a spin on the ball, so that after hitting one ball close to one of the pockets it sneaks behind a few others, making it impossible for me to just sink it in on my own.

"You're toying with me," I say in response.

"A bit," she smiles. "I no need try. I give you chance. Nothing at stake here."

And that is for the most part how our first game against each other goes. Me trying things in the simple matter of just getting anything into a hole, sometimes getting something in, sometimes not. And then she steps up and starts trick-shotting everything. Even once went about having the ball jump over another one then back spin into it to knock it into a hole. But she only sinks one in after I do. Any time she would take the lead she instead just hits things around to make it difficult for me to get anything in. Eventually we do get to the last one, which she ends up sinking herself after giving me a chance at it. She then goes about setting up the balls again, though this time at the center of the table. She also goes around and pulls out a second cue ball, though this one is colored slightly more pink than the original, which I now notice has a slight blue color to it. She places each cue ball on each side of the table. Going back to the side she picks out a couple of buttons and a little clock with some lights on it. She hands me one of the buttons.

"Here's rules. When ready, press button. When both press, lights start flashing. When last light turn on, hear ding. At ding take your shot. Both shoot same time. Any ball getting into these four holes" she gestures at the four holes on the side of the table she's started standing around, the one with the blue ball. "is point for you. Any ball getting into those four holes is point for me. Winner is person with most points once all balls sunk."

The rules seem to be simple enough and would explain why there are more holes than normal. That this one is designed more as a competitive thing. And so I go about trying to line up my shot and then press the button, which is an odd thing. And then I see the lights start up. I take a breath and I'm somewhat delayed in my response once the device makes a sound. Beoulitha goes right away but I am a split-second late. Which means she ends up having a lot more influence in the direction that the balls break. A lot of them end up on my half of the table. We then move around and I can see her lining up her shot, aiming not at a ball that I really see going in easily. I look and find a ball that's in a reasonable position for me and then press the button. She does as well and this time I manage to hit my ball on time, but I'm shown why it was that she is so skilled at trick-shooting. That's the true nature of the game. This isn't so much of who is better as a mind game. She had adjusted her shot enough so that it would hit the one I was hitting away from its mark and still nudged one of the other balls closer to one of the holes on my side of the table. That makes things so much more complicated at high levels of skill. Not only would you then have to try and get the balls in but react to what they're doing. Make it too obvious what you're doing and they can play off that and turn it to their advantage. By utilizing such maneuvers like spins, jumps and other nonsense you can make it far harder to work against you. The more tools used in trying to outwit your opponent, the less they can play off you and the more you can do what you want. Makes me consider for a moment with so high a skill cap, would the players at the highest end of skill be able to interfere more or less than she can?

And she's able to do that with all of her bulk. I wonder how well someone like Yonya would be able to handle this game, though they look a bit short to do it all that well. Would I eventually be able to get that good at this game? Or was it a personal affectation of their home world that they earned. If so I wonder would that eventually mean that I'll be allowed to get something from home as well? I hear the ding but I don't hit my ball. I'm too busy just staring at my hands. To think I can hold this and make it look natural. But my hands are anything but. Could I even be accepted there if I ever went back, such as I am. I stand there frozen in place, idly feeling a wet pressure on the fur of my nose and then the stick being pried from my hands. I let it go and instead go about staring at my hands some more, at the strange shape of them. I'm only dimly aware of Beoulitha picking me up and carrying me up the stairs as if I weighed nothing. She carries me all the way over to our rooms and I find my gaze torn from my hand for a bit as she grabs it and puts it on the scanner for my door. Once my room is unlocked she opens the door and just sort of sits me down against the corner of my room then heads over to my fridge and grabs out the spoon and thermos. She walks back over to me and places both in my hands after taking off the lid.

"Eat. Take it slow. Let it all out. No one will judge," she says before standing back up and without another word spoken turns and leaves my room, leaving me all alone to my thoughts and a thermos of something like ice cream.