FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The puzzle drove him mad, letters and numbers and systems. Pages scribbled with letters and numbers and workings, pages that seemed like they came from the diary of a madman, pages with only three letters scribbled in various patterns, a code, an enigma.

M

U

I

The young alligator sat at his desk scribbling madly and muttering to himself, the only light in the room coming from a light on the desk, a broken one, flickering intermittently. He didn't notice, the world was oblivious to him, the only things that mattered to him were those three letters. Three letters which have been tormenting him for the better part of 4 days.

MI, MII, MIIII, MUI, MUIUI, MUIUIU

Those three goddamn letters. Another page scribbled with the letters, another page that failed to unwrap the mystery

"The rules of the game are simple, all you have to do is to turn MI to MU"

MI to MU...MIMU...three letters. MIII. That was the key, MIII, he knew that much

The gator sighed and clenched his fingers over the polished wood if his desk, his sharp nails making small indentations. "I'm supposed to be the best at this" he grumbled to nothing in particular "I can do this puzzle, I have to do this puzzle, you get yourself into this for nothing."

 Young Brax, 23 years of age, living by himself in a small apartment in the middle of the city above a dark and dank alley. Young Brax, a self proclaimed master of every puzzle, a genius in close to everything that confounded mathematicians, physicists and engineers. Microbiologists and IT technicians, he was good at it and he damn well knew it. Young Brax, a chubby gator sitting in a dark little apartment, dwelling over three letters.

He sighed again and clutched his head in his large paws. It was the first time in his life that he was completely stumped, the first time a teacher had actually managed to best him. That teacher...Mr Dowry.

"There are only 4 rules to this game, the first of which is that you can add a U to any string that ends in an I"

Brax growled, his anger building at his own lack of intelligence, his chest heaving and falling, a finger twirling a button on his plaid shirt slightly wet with sweat. The spiking chill in the air wasn't helping his concentration, neither was the three glasses of butterscotch schnapps that he had downed in frustration. That son of a bitch Dowry, that smug arrogant prick. It wasn't enough that Dowry had taunted him in class when he couldn't get the puzzle in the allotted time, but he had to say it in the most condescending tone

"Brax, just take all the time you need, trust me on that"

"Fuck!"

Brax shouted, slamming a closed fist on top of the crumpled up balls of paper, his desk making an audible crack as a piece of wood splintered somewhere. He closed his eyes and pushed his chair back from his desk, he needed a smoke, a big one, just to calm his nerves. With another sigh, one of resignation, he flipped over the current page, opened a drawer on his desk and pulled out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. Just one, its all he needed for the night, just to calm the nerve endings firing in his brain. "It's not like I'm an addict, just a couple of smokes a day, it's not like I have emphysema or lung cancer" he thought to himself whilst fumbling with the latch on his front door. "Yeah well, you just know you're going to get tired on the stairs anyway, someday"

He walked down the hallway of the small apartment complex, noticing with disgust how the carpet seemed to crunch under his feet. The place was a mess, a smart guy like him shouldn't be in this kind of place, he should still be at home, over in the next state, playing an RPG with his sister or watching a terrible horror movie with Alec and Josh. He nodded politely to the thin old raccoon woman ascending the stairs as he moved downwards to the ground floor. He just had to come here unplanned, with so little money, so little world experience. Opening the door while making a mental note to plan his financial situations more accordingly, he was hit by a burst of cold and quickly stepped out, letting the door slam behind him

"The second rule is that you can double the string after the M, remember that the whole string after the M must be doubled and added on"

The alley was rank of piss and stale air, like an oppressive fog had settled over the alley and refused to let this corner of hell breathe, like it refused to let the stench out. Brax didn't mind it any more, you could adjust to anything once you've been around it long enough, basic neurology. He lit up, his lighter bringing a spark of life to the dank alley before the light faded into the small red circle of the cigarette. He breathed in deep, the smell replaced by the feeling of sweet nicotine and addictive toxins. His nerves calming, he thought of Mr Dowry again. The condescending mutt, for an uptight prick he was quite handsome. When he first met the old dog, he instantly recognised the class and style that he exuded from his being. It was cliché, but the tweed jacket with sewed on elbow patches and half moon glasses really suited him, his slight paunch went over his belt but didn't hang like a sagging tit. The way the teacher had walked back to his desk after shaking his hand, he could see the full butt cheeks move slightly when he walked, a hint of muscle, like he exercised but wanted to preserve the cuddliness of his expansive figure. Brax had noted the similarity between their body types, but he never worked out, he got by with strong features on his upper body and face, but his legs were slightly too short, he hated the way he looked, but many people have complimented him on his cuteness, even though he wasn't classically handsome, but he couldn't afford to be too picky.

After taking another drag from his smoke he thought back to the teachers ass. He wasn't a virgin, he had once been in love, had his heart broken by being cheated on. Even though he fantasised about the older male, he could never go for a quick fuck. It lacked substance and soul, uniqueness and warmth, it just wasn't his way.

"Third rule, if you have three I's in the string, you can delete them and replace them with a U. I'll give you a hint, those three I's are the final stage of MU"

"I WANT A HOUSE MADE OUT OF HER, BRING ME-"

"Hello?"

Brax's phone went off, the lyrics of Cobalt echoing down the alleyway, Alec was on the other end, the shrill voice of a weasel squeaking through the bad reception and static.

"Brax, brax, yo man, Kayla is fuckin pissed at you, she found the stash behind your bed"

"Oh fuck me dead...."

He had experimented with weed a few months before he moved, the break up with his only boyfriend had hit him hard, so he turned to drugs to lessen the effect.

"She's driving up to yours tomorrow after your classes, just thought I should let you know"

He snuffled out the cigarette on the brickwork of the building and let out a startled gasp

"Hey yo, you there"

"Yeah, just some water or...piss or some crap on the wall, leant on it, bloody cold bro"

"Yeah right, just get your story straight and don't fuckin link it back to me alright, put it on Josh"

"What....why the hell would I do that!"

"If there are two U's in the string, they can be deleted from it"

"He pissed off somewhere and stole my Xbox when I wasn't lookin, also seven hundred and fifty from my wallet that I got from the Eight-ball'"

Eight-ball was a prominent club in his home town, a centre for drug dealing and general debauchery. Brax never went there, but Josh and Alec got whatever drugs they could find from there. He didn't want a deal, he just wanted to forget that Tyson even existed..

"Look, I'll think about it, but you cant just bloody well ask me to betray one of my best friends!"

"Fuck you, he didn't steal from you!"

"Exactly, I don't know jack shit, I'll call you tomorrow"

"Assho-"

Brax clicked the phone off and shoved it in his pocket, the anger was coming back again, that feeling of helplessness. He hated it, in half an hour, he was asked to complete a puzzle he couldn't figure out. His sister had found drugs in his room, and he was asked to betray his best friend. He kicked the wall, pain radiated up his stubby leg, his anger going beyond the boiling point.

MUKAYLAJOSHIIIMUIIIIIIUUDOWRYMU.

The letters flashed through his head, behind his eyes, like he was hallucinating but not seeing anything, the neurons in his brain firing off and releasing substances, excitability, anger.

He slammed the door shut behind him. The only memory of his anger in the alley was the butt of the smoke, still smouldering on the ground

"Okay class, you know the rules, convert MI to MU, I'll give you half an hour, and if you can't solve it by then, you wont ever figure out the answer unless I think you're worthy of it, now, turn to the next chapter please"