FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Every morning, I wake up. I take a quick shower, as I've been taught to do (warm water during the winter, cold water during the summer). I chew on a pair of dental tablets and sterilize my paws. I take a quick glance in the mirror (no more than two seconds), walk downstairs, and eat a quick breakfast. I'm able to access a computer from all of these locations. After that I log into my interactive, holographic desktop--which I like to call Center Station Command--and do the day's work. Most of the time I write articles for various sources, but when I'm needed on CNN an alarm would go off and I'd chime in from the comfort of my own home.

It was different on one particular morning on the 1st of February. When I look into the mirror, most of the time I only care about the time, temperature, traffic and crime. One morning I looked into the mirror and noticed something else. There was a message. I usually checked those downstairs, but this one had a rather peculiar title.

Subject: You've Been Invited To Attend Our Convention.

"That's different," I said. I clicked the message and pulled it from the mirror and into my paws. It read:

From: FuzzyCon

To: Henry

Dear Henry,

We have heard of your recent problems with depression on your blog and are here to help. We are proud to say that there is an entire community that is interested in people just like you. We are a community with a shared interest in human-like animals in the media, and are commonly known as "furries." The interest may have been around since the dawn of time, but we haven't organized ourselves into a community until 12 B.W. Many people in the community have been obsessed with your life since you started appearing in the media. You've made many of our wildest fantasies become a reality.

Our convention is located at the convention centre in Winnepeg, Manitoba. We would love to have you join us as our guest of honor and eagerly await your response.

Sincerely,

MariaKitsune, M.B.A. FuzzyCon Chair

I had the suspicion that this was spam.

"Location," I said. Sure enough it was from outside of Winnipeg. This eased my suspicion. I hit close and then hit reply.

"Dear Maria Kitsune," I said, "I would love to join your gathering, but request more information about these furries. I would also like more information about this particular convention, when it is, and where it is. I am very surprised that I haven't heard of these people before, and wondered why there wasn't such a thing until now. I'm also a fan of animals appearing in the media. It makes me feel less lonely, ya know? I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one. I'll have to tell my employers first, though, and find out what they think." I hit send and awaited a reply.

In what was no more than ten minutes later, I received the following message:

Subject: Con Dates and Schedule

From: FuzzyCon

To: Henry

Dear Henry,

Our convention takes place from July 1-8, an entire week. You can enter our coordinates into the car so that it will turn up at the hotel. You will receive your con badge in the mail. We have also sent a copy of the convention schedule. If something should turn up, let us know. :3

Sincerely, MariaKitsune, M.B.A. FuzzyCon Chair

When I told CNN that I wanted to go on vacation, they thought it would be a good idea for me to do an investigation and gather some video. I would be paid for my trip in full and given overtime. I accepted their offer.

I called a car, and it drove into the driveway of my house. I opened the hatch and placed all my luggage. I closed the hatch, opened the door, and got in. I entered the coordinates for the hotel, and decided to get some rest. The car then sped up into an endless river of cars. The river is always flowing and never stopping, never stopping until it finds where it needs to go. There are no more traffic jams, no more signs or stoplights, only endless kilometers of cars on endless kilometers of highways and roads, and just like a river, they went around foreign objects. They went around bikers, pedestrians, animals, and other cars, but never stopped, never stopped until they found where they needed to go.

When the car pulled into the hotel, it opened the door and the hatch. I placed all the luggage and camera equipment on a robotic dolly. It followed me as I went into the elevator and entered the room. My cameraman was already there. "Good to see you've actually arrived on time," I told him.

"You should have called me," said Hassan, "We could have shared the car and saved money and power."

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking clearly," I said, "I just wanted to get here as fast as I could."

"Then you should have taken the Tesla and paid for Express," he said. Unfortunately I did neither.

Maria gave me a call. "Henry," she said, "the opening ceremonies are in ten minutes. There's already a much bigger crowd than we were expecting. You'd better get down here."

"Okay, I'll be right down," I said.

"How should we go about doing this," asked Hassan.

"Record the ceremonies from a far angle at the highest resolution," I said, "and get someone to cut it as soon as you're done. Hopefully Roger's won't screw up on us when it's least convenient."

Somebody started laughing in the hallway.

I got in the elevator, went downstairs and took the shuttle to the convention centre. As I walked in, I felt completely different. I felt like I belonged somewhere and wasn't running in circles. That first step changed my life forever, for better or worse.