FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

November 6, 2022, München Germany

Haven left the Bäkerei and turned down the cobbled street towards the U Bahn station, tightening his scarf against the brisk air. He wanted to get home quickly, but couldn't resist the smell of fresh Brötchen. He rarely could. The morning sounds of the city were abruptly shut off as he trotted down the stairs into to the platform, swiped his train pass and proceeded through the turn style. He tapped his foot impatiently, waiting on the 7:25 that would take him back to his flat. Haven was rarely upset by the mass transit system, not having had anything like it where he grew up in America, but today was different. Today was the launch of Sword Art Online. He had an imported set of Nerve Gear, but living in Europe, was unable to get one of the extremely limited copies of the game. His sister Elaine however was studying abroad in Tokyo, and he knew she was going to try to get it and hoped to be able to spectate her game. In fact, he had been expecting a call from her by now.

Haven and his sister had been RPG players since they were young. It began when he was 12 and their uncle introduced them to Dungeons and Dragons. At first the games were only occasional, but in high school, when their mother began traveling for work more often, and for longer durations, and they were left alone together, they became a serious hobby. Fantasy came easy to both siblings, and roll playing and gaming were a great way to pass time. It didn't take long for them to discover and subsequently become infatuated with MMOs. Though they eventually found other interests, Haven marksmanship and Elaine running, they both remained active in their guilds. As long as they kept their grades up and stayed healthy, their mother had been inclined to turn a blind eye to the endless hours they spent shut in their rooms on the computer. Or the fact that Haven's idea of a graduation celebration was taking over the basement for a week long D&D quest, G.M.d by Elaine. When Haven left home for college, MMORPGs had kept him and Elaine connected, and moving overseas hadn't changed that.

Now he was afraid that if SAO was as incredible as the reviews claimed it to be, Elaine would spend all of her time linked in, and their time playing together would come to an end. Not that he could blame her if she did. If he had access to a full dive game, he imagined nothing would keep him from spending all his free time in it. But who knew? Maybe if Sword Art was that good, the public demand and economic sway would finally force EU and US legislation into allowing immersive virtual reality and he could eventually get it, or if not SAO, the next major MMO title.

Haven let himself into the third floor studio overlooking the Isar that he now called home, fumbling with keys and groceries. He kicked the door shut and powered on his PC with one free finger before retreating to the kitchen to unload. He had just finished stowing the perishables when a low repetitive tone from the speakers of his computer alerted him to an incoming Skype call. Pacing rapidly across the small room, he seated himself before his three monitors and clicked the answer symbol. A still image of Elaine appeared in the corner of the center screen indicating it was a voice only call.

“Hey, you finally answered," she exclaimed.

“You know, I do have a cell phone," Haven responded, exasperated by his sister's tone.

“I'm on a travel plan. Incoming calls are free, but it's way too expensive to make an out of country call when I can voip for free. I thought you taught me to be financially responsible."

Haven remained silent, unable to come up with a suitable response, and unwilling to give fuel to her gibe.

“Now," Elaine continued contritely, “tell me I'm the best sister ever."

Haven hesitated, suspicious of an attempt at solicitation by the younger sibling. “Why?" He finally asked.

“Just concede that I'm the best sister ever and I'll tell you why."

“Fine. You're the best sister ever," he confirmed with a sigh, “Now, will you explain your sudden need for flattery?"

“Because," she responded in a tone so smug he could picture the massive smirk on her face, “I've lived out of a tent for three days to buy you a copy of Sword, Art, Online. You may now kowtow with great fervor."

The magnitude of Elaine's statement left Haven speechless, trying to comprehend what he could only have imagined her saying. The silence extended for several seconds before Elaine broke it.

“Thank you would be a good start," she suggested.

“Oh my god," Haven stammered, finding his voice again. “You're not just the best sister ever, you are quite possibly the greatest human to ever live."

“That's your Christmas and Birthday present though so don't cry when you don't get anything."

Haven became serious, “But what about you? How are you going to play if you give me your copy?"

“Oh, I got the university to get me a copy for my research."

“Where did you learn to be so manipulative?"

“Certainly not from you," she assured, open sarcasm tainting her words. “Besides, I do need to study full dive tech for my thesis, and it's a lot cheaper to buy a video game than some of the stuff the private sector is working on."

Haven pretended to cry, “One day you're driving them to their first day of high school, the next they're coercing their dean into buying them toys. Kids grow up so fast."

“Yeah, yeah. You're only three years older than me."

“Three and a half."

“Do you want to keep teasing me, or do you want the network link password so you can download this game from my system? Otherwise I'm sure I could sell it for a huge profit."

Haven smiled to himself. Elaine was just like him. Unsurprising given that he had practically raised her since she was nine. It was still hard to picture her as anything other than his little sister, though it had been a long time since she was little.

“Once you have it downloaded," she continued, “you'll need to calibrate the Nerve Gear and you can set up your avatar. Servers go online at one o'clock here. I think that's eleven your time. I'll find you once you're linked in. Don't. Be. Late!"

“Sounds good. Bis später."

“What?"

“Nothing, I'll see you then."

Haven ended the call and began the download. He couldn't believe his good fortune. As the install bar slowly filled, he left his computer to complete some housekeeping, daydreaming about what he would do in the world of SAO.

At 10 Haven checked the installation and saw that it was complete. Too excited to do anything else, he slipped on the Nerve Gear. The one-size-fits-all padding held the device snugly on his head. It was comfortable enough, but he wish he would have gotten a haircut. Not looking forward to logging out to a sweaty head, he began the calibration process. Though in game, the system would generate impulses directly through his brain, the gear was equipped with a small screen, mounted in front of his eyes, which it used for the setup process. After being prompted to touch various body parts, and taking a facial scan, the pre-game generated a starting avatar.

Haven was delighted to see that it was a nearly exact match to his appearance. Still using the mouse and keyboard, he set to personalizing it, not wanting to make any major changes, but no need to keep his usual day-to-day look. The interface had correctly guessed his height at six feet, which he left, but he frowned at the waist line and brought it in a little. His short dark brown hair he lengthened into a stubby ponytail and lighten to gold. The sapphire blue eyes went unchanged, but he made the facial features more prominent than in his natural round face. Satisfied with the new appearance, Haven had no choice but to wait, the whole process being extremely smooth and taking less than 20 minutes.

He reluctantly removed the device from his head and scratched his hair vigorously. Yes, a haircut would be in order before any prolonged use. With time still to kill he ate an early lunch as to not be disturbed by hunger while in game, iif the mind even noticed such things while linked in. He had very little experience operating the Nerve Gear, and none with total immersion. With five minutes to go, he sent an email to a coworker who was also a gamer, informing them he'd give a full review on Monday. At two minutes, Haven re-equipped the Nerve Gear and lay down on his bed as the user manual recommend, fidgeting with a corner of the sheets. The internal clock switched from 10:58 to 10:59. Haven's heart beat hard in anticipation, and sound of his rushing blood filled his ears. The time read 11:00.

“Link start!"

All awareness of his body left him as the neural interface was initiated and Haven's world became white. He had no sense of blindness, but whatever faculty he was seeing with, he knew it was no longer light being focused through his eyes. A rainbow corona appeared in the center of his view. It stretched and raced towards him, and he couldn't stifle a reflexive flinch, but it passed safely around where he assumed his body was, as he still had little sense of self other than vision. Rings labeled with the five senses appeared. As each was checked by the software and determined nominal they aligned themselves on the right side, of what years of indoctrination caused Haven to still think of as “the screen".

These too vanished to be replaced by a language prompt. Haven hesitated, not sure how to input his selection. There was no cursor or arrow keys to control the menu, but even as he thought about how to choose English, the language was highlighted. He was asked to confirm his selection. Testing his hypothesis he simply thought about the “yes" option. As he predicted it was chosen and the visual cleared. Very efficient. Next a text bar appeared labeled user name. He took a moment to consider before deciding to use his own name. Haven wasn't exactly common, plus he'd be playing almost exclusively with Japanese users. He figured no one would know him. Once again the image blanked and new text materialized.

“You have a pre-generated avatar, would you like to use it?"

Yes.

“Welcome to Sword Art Online"

Up to this point, the white light surrounding Haven had been flat and unobtrusive, but it began to grow brighter, drowning out the welcome message. The light continued to intensify until he was forced to blink, and in that brief instance, his entire awareness changed.

The previous empty and apparently infinite expanse was now a colorful world bountiful with life. His first sensation was gravity holding him firmly to the ground, and this meant he must now have a body. He looked down at himself. Sure enough, torso, arms, legs, all there as natural as in the real world. He tried stretching his arms, marveling at the instantaneous response and perfect fluid motion. It could be easy to forget one was in a video game. He spun around, soaking in his surroundings, as a gentle breeze blew across his skin and tugged at individual strands of hair. He was in a vast courtyard or plaza paved with a seemingly endless variation of cobblestones. A wall broken periodically by high arches ringed the open space, with a varying landscape of ceramic tile rooftops visible over the lip, as well as a massive temple or palace like structure. Clouds dotted the azure sky, where a golden sun warmed his face and lit the scene. Nowhere could he spot a repeated pattern on a surface or a facet on a smooth curve. The resolution was literally lifelike.

Occasionally Haven spotted a new player wink into existence in flash of blue flame. Each had a green jewel hovering over their head, and each reacted the same way he had as they examined the generated environment. To remind himself he was still in a digital world, Haven opened his player menu. He browsed his inventory, not a lot to start with. Besides what he assumed to be a moderate amount of gold for an entry level player, he only had basic gear and a short sword. He frowned, that would have to change. Not really his go-to slaying tool. He supposed the gold was so players could outfit themselves with more preferential gear before they began questing.

From what he had gathered, there was a nearly limitless number of skill sets and these in theory would vary by weapon use, combat style, profession, and undoubtedly countless other factors. So by this logic his first priority should be getting his hands on a weapon he liked.

Actually, he reconsidered, his first priority should be finding Elaine. This posed a significant problem. He had no idea what her username would be, nor did SAO use a unified gaming service where he could look up her master account name and find her from there. He scanned the assorted players filling the plaza. If she used an avatar similar to her actual appearance she should be easy to spot. After failing to locate her from an extended visual inspection, he reopened his interface and looked through various menu options for any sort of find-a-friend feature. A short musical tone played close to his head startling him. He looked up and saw a suspended textbox next to his own interface. It read; Party request from player: Elaine. Join? Yes No. Haven reached forward and tapped the yes command and then looked to see who had sent the invite.

The player in front of him looking expectant was both like, and very much unlike in appearance to the sister he had grown up with. The face was the same, gunmetal grey eyes, arched eyebrows, distinct nose, slightly masculine jawbone, but that was where the likeness ended. Her hair, which for the past few years had been cut increasing shorter and dyed any number of bright colors was now pale blonde, close to its natural color, mid back length, with slim braids crowning her temples. Her body was altered even more. Elaine had always been thin with prominent bones, and was scarcely an inch shorter than Haven. Here she had given herself a full figure, distinct but not large breasts, and round hips. On top of that, he was sure he could see over the top of her head, something he hadn't been able to do since she was fourteen.

“Huba huba!" He exclaimed after giving her the once over.

Elaine's face flushed pink and she looked down at her feet. “I just thought I'd play with the character creator. Maybe try something different."

“Hey, you do whatever works for you. It just wasn't the look I was expecting."

“This is an RPG isn't it? I should be able to play it however I want without having to answer to anyone. Why should I look the same way I do in the real world?"

“You shouldn't," He responded, and then chuckled before continuing, “I'm just wondering whether you know what to do with those things."

“They're only b cups," Elaine retorted, anger coloring her words.

“Yeah, but that's still what, two sizes larger than what you're used to?"

Elaine slapped him hard enough to make him stagger backwards.

“Ow! What the hell?"

“You're being an ass and you deserved it."

“I'm sorry. I didn't mean…"

“Shut up," his sister interrupted. “And don't even pretend there isn't something about your looks you wouldn't change if you had the chance. What are those pants, a size 30? I was quite reasonable when I created this body. It's not like I made some stereotypical video game heroine busting out of her jerkin, so just let it go. And quit whining, you can't even feel pain here. Now let's see if we can find a quest start."

Elaine turned her back to him and moved towards one of the great arches leading out of the spawn area. Haven hesitated for a moment before following, inwardly troubled. He knew Elaine had struggled with her self image growing up. He had done his best to help her through it, and he knew their mother had done more when she was around. The past years though she had changed her whole style, choosing a look that accented her body rather than tried to disguise it, causing Haven to believe that she had learned to accept herself. He had no problem with her chosen figure, but her defensive reaction worried him. It wouldn't be an issue if it were only an avatar, but in SAO, you were your character. He just hoped having this body in the game wouldn't affect her outside of it.

Haven finally spoke up, “I really am sorry. You can look however you want. It's not my place to judge. Just don't forget how beautiful you are outside of the game."

Elaine stopped and turned. Haven flinched thinking she might hit him again, but instead his sister smiled and gave him a tight one armed hug.

“I know you're just looking out for me. I love my body in the world. I've worked hard to make it what it is. I don't however plan on running any marathons in here, so I thought, what the hell. Why not try looking like a woman?"

Haven grinned, “Well, for what it's worth, I don't think it's your best look, but it is cute."

Elaine punched him affectionately and he feigned being knocked sideways, making her laugh.

“Hey, I've been meaning to ask," He called, jogging to catch up, “How did you find me anyway?"

“You always use some variation of Haven in your user name. I just looked you up from the player list. It wasn't that difficult. Failing in that, I would have searched by region. I'd be surprised if there's three players from the EU right now."

“Oh, good thinking. This gold is burning a hole in my coin purse," Haven added, “why don't we go see about getting some real weapons?"

The younger sibling agreed and they continued together down the thoroughfare, looking for a vendor. They finally found several in one of what Haven assumed had to be multiple markets. Luckily all the gear in this part of the starting town was leveled for them, and not unreasonably expensive. Haven was still unsure what the game's economy would be like, so he didn't want to spend too much of his gold right away. With this in mind he passed up several of the better weapons he could afford, if he was willing to be penniless for a while. He finally settled on a mid grade greatsword, knowing he would get a better one later, either from a drop, or a merchant further in the game. He just wanted something usable so he could start getting experience in the right skills.

It wasn't fancy. It consisted of a simple straight blade with a single fuller down its length, a sturdy cross guard, leather grip, and unadorned pommel. He bartered his short sword, and transferred the necessary gold to make up the difference. The greatsword vanished from its rack in the NPC's booth, and a notice appeared in Haven's vision, alerting him to a new item in his inventory. He quickly located it in the menu and equipped the new blade. An unaccustomed weight pulled on his chest and shoulder as the item materialized in a back scabbard, already adjusted and attached with a broad leather bandolier.

Satisfied with his purchase, Haven turned away from the booth to look for Elaine, noticing as he did that an identical sword to his had reappeared on the recently empty rack. The street was becoming thronged with new players all looking to replace their armaments, but he quickly spotted his sister studying a display of long-spears at the stavier.

Walking up to her, he asked, “A polearm eh?"

“Probably," she responded without turning, “You're going to build off-tank."

It was a statement, not a question.

“You know me too well."

“In that case a polearm will give me the reach to deal damage while you hold agro without us constantly having to switch. It will also provide suitable defensive capabilities if we're both damage dealing." She paused a moment and then selected one of the spears, “Yes, I'll get this one, though I would prefer a fauchard, or anything with a broader blade, or at least a hook. Oh well, I suppose it's just a starting weapon."

Haven watched as she opened her inventory and performed an identical ritual to the one he had just completed. The spear spawned strapped to her back. The nondescript diamond blade had a boar hunting style crossguard and was mounted to a plain varnished wood staff.

“Tell me," Haven mused as they threaded their way out of the busy market, “what would you have done if I had decided to go straight dps?"

“You?" Elaine scoffed, “Melee dps? In a game where you have to develop your own agility stat?"

“I could do it," he expounded indignantly.

Elaine laughed, “Why don't you just stick to your strengths?"

Put off, Haven opened his menu and checked the time.

“What do you say to getting the tutorial quests knocked out before dinner?" He asked.

“Sounds like a reasonable goal."

Side by side, steel glinting in the afternoon sun of a virtual world, they walked out of the city into the wide world of SAO. A few hours later, in a clearing of the forest bordering the Town of New Beginnings, Haven practiced timing his sword skills. He loved how simple, and smooth the combat interface was to use. It allowed anyone to wield their weapon with ease, but at the same time provided a possibly endless variety of offensive and defensive combos for the studied player to master, allowing reaction to any attack pattern. As his adversary wheeled to face him, Haven started from a defensive stance, fending off the initial charge before initiating a backhanded strike that sliced the beast across the spine, an aura of light tracing his blade's path. He watched as the assailant's hit points drained, causing it to burst in a thousand motes of blue light. Elaine sighed as she dispatched her own foe.

“Boars," she asked, “Why does it always have to be boars?"

Haven chuckled having made the same observation, “With so many new features, the creators probably just wanted a common basic enemy so players didn't feel too overwhelmed while they were learning the system."

“Or they were just lazy."

“What would an MMO be without a few standby clichés?"

Elaine rolled her eyes, “So next it'll be wolves?"

“Or slimes."

He looked up at the sky. It was turning a beautiful shade of orange as the sun set. It must be later than he thought. It felt like he'd barely spent any time in the game, but checking the clock he saw he'd been linked in for over four hours. He reluctantly admitted that it was probably time for a break. This wasn't like other games where he could simply step away from the computer whenever he felt. He would have to log out first, and for that he wanted to be in a safe zone.

“We should head back to town. Take a break, stretch, eat, and all that."

Elaine stowed her spear and checked the time for herself. “Not a bad idea. I'm later than you anyway. I was too excited for lunch so I'm probably starving by now. I hope the cafeteria has something good."

The pair left the clearing and quickly found the footpath that would take them back to the main road and ultimately town. As they walked in silence, Haven enjoyed the ambient noise of the forest, the chirp of birds, and rustle of leaves, all background to the steady muffled pad of their boots on the packed earth. If he closed his eyes he could tell no difference between this simulated wood, and those he had hiked through in the real world. It was truly extraordinary. The quiet dusk was suddenly shattered by a loud deep gong, repeating periodically. The sound didn't seem to originate from any one direction but rather from the environment at large.

“What's that?" Haven asked, startled out of his silent revelry.

Elaine frowned and looked up at the sky. “According to the guide, the bell is supposed to precede any mass announcement. I guess we just have to wait."

They waited as the sound continued. Without warning the forest vanished in a flash of blue-white light and they were back in the plaza where they had spawned. Momentarily disoriented, Haven quickly regained his bearings. It was was no longer open, with new players spawning and quickly leaving. The space was packed with what had to be all ten thousand players, and everyone was scared.

A murmur spread through the crowd as a flashing red hexagonal tile appeared in the sky. It rapidly multiplied until the entire city was domed by the tiles, each with the message warning or system alert. Haven was unsure if this was an in-game event, or a response to some major bug. The spectacle wasn't over though as thick red liquid, reminiscent of blood, poured from one side of the dome and formed into a titanic figure, faceless and shrouded in crimson robes, suspended in the air. The pair stared transfixed as the apparition began to speak.

“Attention Players, I welcome you to my world. My name is Akihiko Kayaba, and as of this moment, I am in control of this world."