FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

This vignette was written for Catprog as part of my patreon request days for the month of October 2018. It contains transformation/gender shifting involving an adult male, and was written in a more stream-of consciousness first person style as a little experiment, so I hope it comes across as enjoyable.

[center][b][u]Through New Eyes[/u][/b][/center]

I've waited months for this chance, and now I'm taking it.

I don't care if they fire me for this. I have to know. I spent three years of my life working on the code for this game, only for them to scrap the platform it was meant to be released with without a word as to why. But of course, they kept a prototype. How could they not want to show off their technological miracle for ages to come, even though no-one would ever get to play it in the era when it was created. They kept it hidden away, or at least I'm sure they thought they did, but I found it.

I found it, and now I'm going to use it.

The glasses are comfortable. They sit well on the ears and don't make the bridge of my nose ache, so I doubt it was the fitting which was the issue. The UI works just like it did in the training videos I studied. God, it's intuitive as hell. Flawless eyeline tracking, what the hell happened to make them cancel this project, it could have made them billions. Trillions, even. God, it's like the glasses are reading my thoughts. On the keyboard screen it almost seems like the words appear faster than my eyes can look at the letters they're comprised from, and the AR filter... I swear, if I hadn't forgotten that I'd put them on barely a minute ago, I'd be reaching out my hands to try and interact with this stuff. I'll bet people got motion sick as hell testing some of the action games, but that couldn't have been the issue. There have been plenty of VR consoles released, and they're way worse for that than something based around augmented reality instead of virtual.

Okay. There. User account created. Setup complete. Now, if I can hook up the data file I found... there. There it is! Holy shit. Oh my god, it's working. It's compatible. It's actually loading. I finally get to see it. All my hard work, all those years of effort for them, it'll mean something once I...

Oh my god.

Oh my... it's so beautiful. Holy shit! And, so real too. I can barely tell what's been overlaid. If I didn't already know what my apartment was meant to look like, and... whoa! It's changing. Growing. Oh my god I forgot about this. The dynamic title screen. The vines twisting into letters. There it is.

[i]Verdant. Live in a world which has forgotten humanity.[/i]

Tutorial? Pfft, no. I literally built this game from the ground up, and sure it's adaptive, but I know all the mechanisms. I know all the tricks and... yeah, I can do this. I'm [i]gonna[/i] do this.

New game.

New save file.

Randomised start. Sandbox mode. Randomised species, random characteristics.

Okay. Let's see if this really is as immersive as I built it to be.

Loading.

Almost there.

Almost there.

Almost...

Oh. Oh wow, this is weird. So cool, but... weird. I'm still standing, but everything else has been changed in proportion so I look the right height for what I'm playing as. What [i]am[/i] I playing as? I... whoa! Holy shit. I've got a tail! Oh my god oh my god I've got a... c'mon, get a grip, Phil. You are not going to literally chase your own tail as the first thing you do while playing fully immersive AR. Okay, let's explore a bit. God, everything is so overgrown. How many hundred years has it been in game? At least five hundred I'll bet, maybe a thousand. I can't wait to try and figure out all the clues. To figure out how and when the world ended, where humanity disappeared. I programmed in over a hundred distinct paths and resolutions for that section of the story, and all I have to do while I'm trying to learn about it is... well, [i]live[/i]. Keep myself alive. Hunt. Feed. Sleep. And explore this world, the ruins of the former human civilisation while I do so.

God, this is amazing. I could play it for hours. I probably will.

I'll explore. Hunt. Maybe even level up! I... I could go to sleep wearing these, wake up wearing them, and never break the immersion of the game. I could curl up in my den, all comfortable and safe, knowing that there's no humanity out there to get me. Knowing that these ruins are thriving with life, just like the rest of the world. Yeah. That sounds amazing. It sounds really, really cool. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna live in the game for the rest of the evening, and sleep in it too. I feel like I've been waiting my whole life, not just the last few years for a chance to play this game, and now that I've got it? I'm in no hurry for it to end!

[center]*********[/center]

I'm awake.

A good night's sleep. Good, yeah. I'm glad. Lots to do today. Territory to cover. Gotta cover a lot of ground, mark my scent, show the other locals that I'm here to stay. Good food here. Good cover. I could really make something out of this place. Find a mate. Raise some cubs. I... what's that?! Oh, right. Tail. Why do I keep forgetting I have a tail? Always have. Always will. Foxes have tails, basic fact of what we are. What I am.

Anyway, long day ahead. Better get started. Hunt. Guard. Explore. So many scents here. One in particular. Old. Ancient. Human, perhaps. Was this place his once? Not any more. Nothing belongs to them any more. They're gone. Everything belongs to the world now, and I'm a part of that world. Just one creature. Just one vixen, but... at least I'm still here, unlike them.

[center]*********[/center]

Another day.

Another good day. I love this territory. The old ruins of the building, overgrown, alive with old house-plants turned wild and vines, other trailing plants that have long since taken over from painted walls and carpets. It's peaceful. I haven't had to defend it once. I'm glad. No need to fight. No need to flee. I just get to live. To be happy, and calm, and... okay sure, my tail still spooks me every now and then, but I'm getting better about it. Silly girl, one of these days you'll remember that your tail is as much a part of you as anything else, and maybe then it won't distract you so much. Still work to do, after all. Hunting. Feeding. Can't get complacent. This territory is mine, and I need to defend it, no matter how calm and quiet it normally might be. After all, there just needs to be one day when it isn't, and then...

[center]*********[/center]

It's happening.

They're here. Creatures. Other creatures in my territory. Why now?! It's been weeks. Months since I moved here. Who are they?! What are they?! Why do they think they can have my territory?!

Bark.

Fight.

Growl.

Don't let them get you.

No.

No, wait.

Don't bark.

Don't fight.

Listen. Hide. Wait.

Be smart. Find what they want. Learn what they are, see how you can fight them first.

"Spread out. He's got to be here somewhere! The tracker activated last night. The boss will [b]not[/b] be happy if we lose the prototype, and god knows what'll happen if we have to try and cover up [i]another[/i] missing member of the Verdant project."

Feet. Heavy feet. Two legs, walking right past me where I'm hidden. Wearing something. Smells like leather. But, not alive. Humans wore things like that. Shoes. There are some in the hallway, old, rotten. But, these can't be humans. They don't exist. Not any more. Not for centuries. They...

"Here!! Under the bed!!"

Light! Bright light, seen me. Run.

[b]Run[/b].

"Catch it!! Oh fuck, it's wearing the glasses. It's him."

Run run run.

Bite!!!

"[i]Fuck[/i], my hand!!"

Run! Out the door. I'll find a new territory. A new home. A...

"Got it!"

No. NO! Got me. By my neck. Fight. Bite. Growl. Don't let them get you. Don't let them catch you! Fight, keep on fighting, keep on...

"Don't let it knock off the glasses! Stop it struggling before they... fuck! No! Don't let them come off before the game's been shut down, or we'll never be able to change him back. Keep those glasses on that fox or..."

Fight. FIGHT. Thrash, turn, BITE. Harder. Harder. Blood. Pain. Make him let me go. Make him...

Free!

I'm free!

Run!

Something on my head. On my face. The human was holding me. Holding them on me.

Scratch. Push. Push them off.

What are those?! Lying on the floor, in front of me. Shiny. Can see myself in them.

The world.

What happened to the world?!

The plants.

The ruins.

It all looks so... new. So cold and hard.

Not green. Not bright. Not free.

Not Verdant.

But... I'm still me. Still alive. Still ready to fight. Ready to run. Still... yes, my tail. Still have my tail, so still me. That's what matters.

Leave the glasses. Run.

Run far. Never let them find you. Never let them catch you.

Find somewhere green.

Find somewhere quiet.

Hide.

Live.

Be free.

Now, and always.

Free!

By Jeeves

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