FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Clothes do make the man. Naked people have almost no influence on society." - Mark Twain

Boko's living quarters had looked like no other living quarters Klein had ever seen before in his life.

A trapdoor concealed by sticks, moss, dirt and dead leaves had led them into a relatively vast underground cubical room which Boko had explained to him could have served as a perfectly adequate anti-nuclear survivalist compound. It had stairways on all four walls and ceiling which had almost made it look like an M.C. Escher painting, except that as far as Klein had known those paintings hadn't had masks on their walls, chandeliers on their ceilings and exotic rugs on their floors. Shelves lined the walls filled with stacks and stacks of guidebooks, dictionaries and encyclopaedias which had seemed like they'd covered just about every topic imaginable. Capes, monk robes, tuxedoes, togas, uniforms, djellabahs, business suits and loincloths hung over shoes, boots and sandals in his bead-curtained closet, which had a nice big mirror next to it you could change in front of. Boko had told him he'd called it Noah's Vault.

• Whoa... There's just so much stuff here, I almost can't believe how much.
  • Don't worry, there is a method to my madness. I can always keep track of where everything is in here. As a matter of fact, would you like to get the guided tour?
  • Sure.
  • Now, you'll be paying very close attention, yes?
  • Of course.
  • Good.

Boko had walked precipitously to the center of the room and had uncoiled his tail under himself to spring all the way up to the ceiling, turning upside-down in midair and landing on it with both hands and feet sticking to it with the claws and suction cups he had on all four. From there, he'd begun crawling and scuttling all over the ceiling, walls and floor showing Klein where every single thing had been while rattling off to him what it was called, where it was from and where it went. He'd finished his extensive series of tri-dimensional mad dashes in the center of the ceiling where he'd started it from and had let himself fall from the ceiling upside-down, turning right-side-up on the way down and landing on all four again before standing up to walk up to Klein.

• Make sure you remember where everything goes. There must be a place for everything and everything must be in its place. I need to be able to know that everything is where it's supposed to be all the time because otherwise I wouldn't be able to tell whether I'd lost something or not, and that's a kind of uncertainty I don't want to have to live with, you understand?
  • I'll make sure to put everything back exactly where I got it from after picking it up and being done with it, okay?
  • Then that'll do just fine. Other than that, feel free to get comfortable and make yourself at home. I don't get many visitors, but I like to think it's not because I couldn't if I wanted to.
  • I feel privileged to be here, then.
  • I hope that'll remain true with the passage of time.
  • What did you mean when you said that whether you lived out here in the middle of nowhere or not depended on what my definition of it was?
  • Ah, I'm not sure it'd be such a good idea for me to go into it, come to think of it. You'd probably think I'm weird for it.
  • People have been telling me I'm weird for my entire life. You'd be in good company.
  • If you insist. You see, I meant it when I said I worship everything. To me, every single object in here has a history, a personality, a name, a voice, a soul. I may be living by myself by what most people's definition of living by myself would be, but when I'm in here, surrounded by all my little friends, I never really feel alone.
  • I'm glad you'd have told me that.
  • Why?
  • Personally, I thought it was beautiful.
  • Really...?
  • Seriously, yeah.

Boko had turned his body red as though blushing all over in mock embarrassment at the compliment, and Klein hadn't been able to hold back a laugh at it, which Boko had known better than to take offence at. Soon after, Klein, having spent the whole night up and about following a work day, had gone to sleep for most of the day only to wake up during mid-afternoon. That evening he'd spent telling Boko all about what his life had been like until they'd met, at Boko's request. When Klein had asked Boko to reciprocate, he'd gone silent and a melancholic expression had painted itself on his face, which Klein had felt bad enough at the thought of having caused not to have pressed the issue.

Late the next morning, Boko had addressed Klein after having patiently waited until he'd have woken up on his own.

• Now that you've filled me in on what you've been up to so far, is there anything about how you want your future to be you wouldn't mind sharing with me?
• Anything as long as it's different enough from before to take my mind off it.
• Does that mean that you could be open to suggestions, then?
• Shoot.
• I'd personally been planning on going for a change of scenery not so long from now during the past week or so.
• You mean like going on a vacation?
• It's something which would probably include too much work on my part for me to call it that, but in a manner of speaking, yes. That's what it could be for you, if that's all you'd want it to be.
• What else are you implying it could be?
• It could be an adventure for you, Klein.
• Consider my curiosity piqued. Where was it you were thinking of going?
• Do you remember when I told you I was a student of humanoid behavior?
• Yes, why?
• When you were telling me about your studies, you did tell me you've taken at least one elective anthropology class, haven't you?
• You're an anthropologist?!
• A participatory anthropologist by predilection, yes.
• So when you want to study a native tribe, you go live with them to experience life the way they experience it themselves?
• Is that something that you could see yourself doing?
• It sounds awesome! When were you thinking of going?
• When do you think you could be ready for?
• I travel light, so I'm ready when you are, Boko.
• Very well. Let's be off, then.
• You mean right now?!
• Yes.

So they'd left, just like that. After having walked ceaselessly for most of the day, Klein had picked up logs, sticks and stones, Boko had put stones in a circle and rubbed sticks together to start a campfire, Klein had gathered dry leaves and moss to serve as a relatively soft surface for them to sleep on, and Boko had gone off to hunt and gather for them. As they'd eaten their fill, Klein had told Boko some of the stories his storytelling teacher had taught him, Boko had told Klein about his experiences with some of the previous tribes he'd done participatory anthropological research with, Klein had taken first watch and he'd woken up Boko to take over for him halfway through the night. Klein hadn't felt comfortable telling Boko such a short time after they'd first met, but he'd privately thought that this had had to be the most romantic moment he'd ever spent with anyone in his entire life.

The next morning they'd walked all day again, and the following night had been spent much the same way the first night had been. When afternoon had drifted into evening on the third day of their trip, they'd finally reached the land of the Sahuagin. Boko had said that they'd probably make a better first impression if they'd showed up in the morning than late at night asking for refuge like a couple of whiny beggars, and he'd encouraged Klein to tell him as many stories as he'd wanted to before they'd both gone to sleep under the stars one final time. While he'd been in the process of waking up in the morning, Klein had seen Boko seeming like he'd been coming back from somewhere.

• Hey there, Boko, welcome back. Where've you been off to?
  • Here. Breakfast. Most important meal of the day. Don't worry, I traced a circle of protection around you before temporarily leaving you here. We wouldn't want to introduce you to the first native tribe you'll ever see in the flesh on an empty stomach now, would we?
  • Heh, I guess not.
  • Now, listen to me carefully.
  • Okay.
  • You have to enter a population according to its own customs the same way a boat on a river has to advance over it following its own twists and turns, do you understand what I mean by this?
  • When in Rome, do as the Romans do?
  • Well put.
  • It's not from me.
  • Nothing has to be from you. We're all combinations of little pieces of everyone we've ever met, aren't we?
  • True.
  • Make sure to make part of yourself out of little pieces of the people we're going to meet, that's all I ask of you.
  • That seems reasonable enough to me.
  • Good.