FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Ok...imagine this situation.

You have a friend...for the sake of keeping things simple, let's call her...Dori.

You have just recently met Dori, and even though you aren't that close yet, she's been living at your house because her owner was flayed ali-I mean...her family is out of town for a really long time.

Now, Dori doesn't speak a word of English other than her own name over and over again, and even then, she doesn't speak because she knows you can't understand what she's saying. Instead, she decides to communicate through physical contact and grunts. You know, hugging, cuddling, and an occasional growl.

Not only has she been sharing your house, but she's been sharing your meals, your time, and even your bed. Yet, you don't have the heart to tell her that she's making you feel uncomfortable because she's mourning her par-I mean...misses her family.

Now, all of the sudden, some random old guy on the street works his magic and you can understand every single word she says. And here is the million dollar question.

...What is the first thing you say to her?

...can't think of anything? Yeah, me neither.

So, in a situation that has nothing at all to do with this Dori person, Rori and I haven't spoken a word to each other since this mechanical parasite latched on to my ear.

We should be talking about this...I mean...we should, right? I don't know...would that really solve anything. The old man is gone, we know nothing about him, and my guess is that he'll be good at covering his tracks. The only way to get more info would be to talk to him directly...the only way to talk to him directly is to do the job...so yeah, I guess there's really not much to talk about there.

But really, let's pretend that where this translator came from doesn't even matter. Let's pretend that the old man doesn't exist and for some reason I can't explain that I can suddenly talk to Pokémon...You'd think that this would be exciting, right? That I'd immediately start up a conversation and take advantage of this wonderful gift that I've been given no matter where it came from...right? WRONG! I'm sorry, but what the heck am I supposed to say when our entire relationship is that of a girl in mourning and her reluctant shoulder to cry on?

So, keeping up with our ever growing list of awkward moments, we walked home in utter silence. Occasionally we would steal a glance at each other just to see how the other was handling the situation. I turned my head to do just that and our eyes met, but instead of turning away like we had before, we took the chance to scan each other's faces.

...I didn't see any definite emotion in her expression, just a bit of a blank stare. She wasn't excited or nervous or anything. If anything was there it was just...uncertainty. An inquiring gaze that seemed to beckon same question that I was thinking myself.

...Where do we go from here?

I opened my mouth to say something, but quickly shut it and turned away, afraid that my mouth would run off track and get me into trouble again. I can handle trouble with the cops, but trouble on a personal level is something I usually try to avoid. If that means biting my tongue and fighting to keep my inner monologue from finding an escape route, so be it.

I racked my brain for something - anything - to say to her, but I was drawing a complete blank. Jen was right; I need to work on my social skills a bit.

...then again, I doubt she'd be much better in this situation than I am.

"Jace?"

...maybe I spoke too soon.

"Yeah?" I answered, still a bit uncertain.

She took a deep breath- assume to calm herself-and then continued. "If...if this too weird for you...I could...you know...keep my mouth shut."

I slowed my pace a bit as I began thinking about what she had just offered. Heartless as it may seem, I actually considered it. After all, this translator didn't change anything for her. She could always understand me, it's when she started talking that things started getting weird. However, I quickly discarded the thought. It was different when I couldn't understand her, but now that I could it just seemed cruel to force her to stay silent.

I shook my head. "Nah...I wouldn't make you do that. I'll just have to get used to you actually talking."

She quirked an eyebrow at that. "Well what did you think barking was, an involuntary spasm?"

I chuckled at that. "Sorry. Poor choice of words, but you know what I mean."

...All things considered, that was probably a bit of a big leap in tone, but personally, I'm just glad that she was having a sense of humor about this (however dry it may be). It was a good change from her normal silence and sobbing routine and if she was ok with this...I couldn't argue.

"Well, if I'm not keeping my mouth shut, then could you at least say something? I've just about had it with these long awkward silence moments."

"What's there to talk about?" I asked with a shrug.

She looked at me incredulously. "Jace...a random man on the street just hired you for an illegal job, handed you a master ball, and gave you a piece of technology that shouldn't even exist. You're telling me there's not one conversation starter in there?"

I smirked. It really was amazing how far different her personality was in a conversation. Among the personality traits I had her pinned for, sarcastic wasn't one of them.

"What's there to talk about? He offered me a job and I'll decide if I'll do it later. Unless you learned something I didn't in that little conversation you two had, trying to figure out more is just a stupid attempt. So...did he tell you anything?"

"No..." She mumbled.

"Ok then." I stated, just proving my point. But then a thought occurred to me "Wait...then what exactly did you talk about?"

She paused for a moment. "Nothing important...I changed my mind, can we change the subject now."

Whoa, geeze, defensive much? It was a simple question, really. Still I found it was best to change the subject if it was making her that uncomfortable.

It was a whole minute before I thought of something to talk about, but at least it wasn't as awkward. It was a nice change actually, to have no one talking yet still feeling relatively comfortable. But of course, my mouth aimed to fix that as it began speaking for me once again.

"Why are pokemon so clingy?" I asked, seemingly out of the blue.

She quirked an eyebrow. "Excuse me?" By her tone, she was a bit taken aback at the question.

"Err...I don't mean that in an offensive way. It's perfectly ok, but really, the nuzzling, the cuddling, the licking...how are you so comfortable around other people?"

She made a motion that seemed kind of like a shrug, but looked a little bit off because of her anatomy. "I don't know. Why are you so twitchy?" She countered.

"I am not twitchy!" I defended.

She giggled at that. "Yeah, you definitely are."

"I have no clue what you're talking about." I reiterated. She responded by rolling her eyes and leaning against me, nuzzling her muzzle into the crook of my neck and causing me to jolt back at the sudden physical content.

She laughed again. "See...twitchy."

I grumbled a few expletives under my breath. "Still doesn't answer my question. Like...how the heck did you feel comfortable doing that just now? If a human did that to another human and they weren't intimately acquainted with each other, it'd be weird as fuck."

"Oh, I don't know. With other pokemon that I'm close to, it's just natural. I guess I just assumed it's ok with humans too. Besides, it's one of the only forms of communications I have between species...until about half an hour ago, anyway."

"So, now that we can talk to each other, are you going to stop with the glomping?" I asked.

"Nope. Sorry, but I get a kick out of watching you freak out." She said with a playful smirk.

"Oh you are just...evil." I retorted giving her a glare.

She gave a wide smile. "You have no idea."

I chuckled, despite the fact that all of this was being aimed at me. Normally something like this would easily piss me off, but it really was nice just to see her have...you know...emotions. I mean, other than morbid depression.

It probably had something to do with the fact that we could actually have a conversation, but her entire demeanor had completely changed. Tail swishing back and forth, slight bounce in her step, smirk plastered across her muzzle...granted that kind of made it look like she was baring her teeth, but I knew it was a smile.

"Alright," She interrupted my thoughts, "I've got a question for you. Why do humans wear clothes?"

"Huh?"

"You heard me. Really, I don't get it. Pokemon run around in the nude all the time and don't have any problem with it, but as soon as a human goes running around in his birthday suit it's some sort of big deal. Heck, isn't it even against the law?"

...If anyone else had asked this question, I would have considered it stupid, but somehow, coming from her perspective, it actually seemed like a good question. I find it weird that it just now occurred to me that while I find a lot of things pokemon do odd, they probably think that a lot of stuff we do are idiotic. I just never really thought about it, but hey, I guess everyone is a little bit ignorant at times.

"Well...I guess...because of warmth? I mean, a good chunk of you guys have fur or something, we don't."

"Yeah I get that part of it, but that's not really what I meant. I mean, if you want to wear them, go for it, but why is it such a big deal if they don't?"

"Well...um...how do I put this..." I knew the answer to that question, but I couldn't think of a way to say it while still keeping the conversation pleasant. "Our stuff...kind of just...all hangs loose."

She furrowed her brow, not quite sure what I meant and I silently cursed when I realized she was going to have me explain it to her.

"Well...uh...like I said, you guys have fur and tails and...in males cases...err...sheaths, and...well...you know how when you guys present your...um...areas, it tends to...suggest something...well...it's kind of the same notion for humans."

She nodded. "Got it, ok, now here's my real question." I did a double take at that. "Real question...what do you mean, that wasn't your real question?"

"Of course not. If I was walking around with a fleshy pink ass, I'd want pants too."

I snorted at that. Seriously, what was with the personality one-eighty? "So what did you really want to ask?"

"How can you say all of that with a straight face and freak out when someone touches you?"

I groaned. "Is the whole point of this conversation just to point out all of my personal space issues?"

"Hey, you started it?"

"Well I'm ending it. You can't open the book of my life and jump in the middle."

"...I'm sorry, were you just trying to sound deep or wise or something? 'Cause you really suck at it."

"Oh you are such a little-"

"Rori!"

Out of nowhere a little girl with red hair scared the crap out of me and leapt on Rori in an attack hug. She wrapped her arms around the neck of the large canine, her feet dangling off the ground as she did. Rori looked taken aback...no...that's the wrong word for it. More like...horrified.

For a moment I wanted to make fun of her...call her a hypocrite and whatnot, but it didn't take long to realize that something was wrong, only confirmed when I saw her eyes start to water a bit.

I began looking around. For once I was so involved in the conversation that I hadn't noticed that we were approaching my house, but the really weird thing is that there were two people, a man and a woman, sitting on my front stoop. Now that they saw me, however, they got up and began to slowly jog over.

The woman went to drag the little girl, presumably her daughter, off of Rori. While the man came up to me.

"I'm sorry about her...are you...Jason Mercer?"

"Jace, actually." I corrected. I looked him over from head to toe, as I normally do. He was rather short and kind of pale, with large bags under his eyes that made it look like he hadn't slept in days. His eyes were bloodshot, so either he had an eye infection or he had been doing a lot of crying lately, but if that didn't give it away, the flaming red hair. Not just on the man, but all three of them. It seemed to be a trait that ran in their family, so it was only safe to assume-

The man stuck his hand out awkwardly, as if he half expected me not to shake it. "My name is Eric Kirk...this is my family...I believe you knew my son Allen."

Sorry for the mostly characterization chapter and the crappy cliffhanger, but this is where it made sense to stop. Don't kill me T_T!

-Morris