FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Splicer's battered body was thrown out of the elevator by the rising floor. He rolled into a strange room akin to an interrogation room, a metal table with one chair being the expected hard metal foldout, but the chair across was a rather comfortable looking office chair. Without Laguna there to stop him, and Joseph not caring either way, Vay had had his 'fun' with the wolf, still infuriated that he somehow managed to get as far as he did from the jet-black otter.

Splicer stared into the reflection of what was an obvious one-way window, he had seen his fair share of them and this one didn't make any attempts to hide what it was. He had a feeling it didn't matter one way or the other, this room had the aura of one people enter and never leave, at least not the same anyways.

He touched his black eye, inspecting it for its severity, even with the nanites in his body, his body was covered in bruises everywhere, he figured that for damages like this to show up, Vay must have used enough force to kill anyone who wasn't 'blessed' with nanites coursing through their body. He wondered how long the marks would last.

The wolf wondered if Laguna was on the other side of the mirror he was staring into, he hoped they were. He knew this was probably one of the last things he'd be doing as Splicer the wolf, Joseph was something else, he'd do his best to resist, but just thinking about how the otter destroyed the fox's mind in less than a minute, chances are he'd be done in the same way. The only faint glimmer of hope was the fact he had been upgraded to a research specimen, whatever that meant. He sat down in what was obviously not the chair meant for him and did a little spin before kicking his feet up on the table.

"If this is how it's gonna go down, I might as well enjoy what time I have left." He wasn't talking to anyone in particular, but he knew someone somewhere was watching, they always were after all. He kicked his feet up at the table and waited for his guest to arrive. Debating on how he should approach the situation, maybe he could still act sorry, save what little glimmer of hope remained for him. But a perverse sense of indifference to his situation caused his mouth to curl into a nervous smile.

No, he was going to make this as difficult as possible. The elevator door slid open, as expected it was Joseph who walked into the room, the brown otter had changed into an even more lavish suit, his undervest was glistening with gold leaf, it made the wolf even more aware of how utterly naked he was.

"Get. Out. Of. My. Chair." Joseph said in a measured tone.

"Whatever you say..." Splicer wanted to push his luck, he didn't want to burn it all on his first gambit. He jumped up out of the chair and sat in the cold hard metal one. Joseph walked over and brushed off the invisible dirt that was on it before sitting across from the wolf.

"Is this yours?" Joseph said plainly as he dropped the ring splicer had worn to the job, that was stripped of him when he was first captured.

"Yeah..." Splicer reached out his hand, looking to take back but it was quickly snatched back into the otter's paw.

"If nothing else you have decent taste, if not a little, pedestrian. I think I'll keep it if you don't mind..." The otter slipped the wolf's ring over his finger, he hated to complement the wolf, but the ring was a beautiful piece of art, it would be wasted on someone who couldn't truly appreciate it.

" Of course you can ~" Splicer said, voice sickly sweet with fake sugar, hiding the pure disdain he held from the otter stealing his prize.

"You can drop the act, you know it's useless by now."

"I don't know much of anything anymore, I think Vay may have done some serious damage with that last kick to the head..."

"Anymore useless excuses? No? Alright let's really get started then." Joseph leaned forward in his chair. Looking into the wolf's eyes he began the questioning. "What is going on with your blood? How did it get that way?"

" I don't know" Splicer said robotically, his eyes slowly draining of their colour. Joseph was confused, he hadn't even done anything to the wolf yet.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I don't know"

Joseph squinted his eyes, listening to what their thoughts were saying, but the only thing that came back was the phrase, I don't know, echoing around in the wolf's mind over and over again, blocking out and overwriting any other thoughts that started to form.

"Look. I know you think you're clever and all, but your cheap tricks aren't going to do much to help your situation. You can either tell me what I want to know yourself, or I can have the nanites I control rip it from your brain, it won't be pleasant..."

Among the echoes of I don't knows doubts flashed among the wolf's thoughts, Joseph smiled, the idea was planted, now he just had to let the wolf let it grow as doubt flooded his mind. Splicer was broken from the trance, based on what he knew it was entirely possible that the otter was telling the truth, his strategy switch again to giving as ambiguous answers as he possibly could.

"Oh? my blood? Yeah, that was drugs. Injected some real wild stuff and now I have electricity in my veins. It's a cool party trick but nothing special honestly."

"Your blood... is electric?" Joseph was baffled.

"That's what I said."

"How?"

"I told you, drugs!"

"Who?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you, never really got a good look."

"O...kay..." The wolf wasn't lying, fascinating.

"Yep, sooooooo I'm free to go then?"

"You know, you are kind of funny... I'll almost regret this..." Joseph said before something shifted behind his eyes, it almost felt like there was a line connecting the two of them together held together by the eye contact. Splicer squeezed his eyes shut before he continued playing his game.

"You could always just, not, you know!" He needed to work some magic and fast.

"Well, I might show you some leniency, you have some serious balls and wit about you, but in the end, you might be too dangerous to leave a shred of free will. I would hate to burn down another office building because of your snooping around."

"I pr-promise! I won't be an issue! EVER AGAIN!" Splicer was cracking, the desperation in his voice made that obvious. He couldn't keep his eyes shut much longer, as he begged, he felt his eyes fluttering, threatening to open.

"You put up a better fight than most product, but you may as well give in now, I'll make it as painless as possible if you do~"

"Pr-product? I thought I was a research specimen?" Splicer whined out, desperation wasn't working, maybe he could play to the otter's sense of empathy, not that he felt that otter could even have empathy in themselves for the wolf, to him, Splicer wasn't worth such an expensive resource as empathy and compassion, that was reserved for people he deemed qualified for such.

"Hmmmmmm, unfortunately for you, it's your blood that's special. Your mind doesn't really factor into that, it's the same as any other I've processed."

Splicer lost, his eye opened, re-establishing the connection the two had. Splicer wondered;how did the otter end up with such a disregard for those he viewed as below him? Why did he seem to take such joy in utterly decimating the sense of self in his so-called products. Maybe this eye contact was more intimate than he originally gave it credit? The nanites in his brain were whizzing around, could the otter hear what he was thinking now? He would honestly love an answer, even if it was the last thing his undefiled mind would get.

Joseph blinked, usually he could process someone in an instant without breaking eye contact. But there was something about the wolf's final thoughts that made him ask as well, how intimate the connection was it between his products? Before, he usually had them restrained and gagged for processing and once they were done with, they were just like any other, but as he processed them their brains were linked for that brief time. The main emotions he was used to was anger and confusion, sometimes the occasional arousal. Never this burning sensation of curiosity the wolf exhumed. Joseph swallowed, ready to continue his work.

Splicer felt like he was frozen in a single moment of time, staring deep into the otter's piercing eyes. The longer he stared, the more at peace he felt. He imagined from the fox's reaction that the process was scary and confusion, but he felt an odd tranquility. What he didn't know was the concepts of fear and confusion were already cut from his mind, a perverse mercy the otter offered him, allowing the wolf to see the whole process without the usual panic most displayed. He figured the wolf would prefer it this way, but it really was just a whim of Joseph's as well. He wanted to see how the wolf would react to watching their own mind being broken.

Splicer felt a tear welling up in his right eye, he wasn't sure why, he couldn't understand what sadness was anymore. Perhaps it was an involuntary reaction the wolf had to feeling his mind being cut up like a scalpel was running through, stripping out bits and pieces. Perhaps it was just the electricity acting up in his eye marking. Perhaps it was as simple as staring so deeply into Joseph's eyes for so long without blinking. Either way Joseph's face turned to a scowl as he focused his concentration on doubling his effort. He wiped the tear from the wolf's eye.

It was almost time, he had finished cutting all the emotions and memories from the wolf's head. Splicer had sat by watching as pieces of what made him, him, floated away like dandelion seeds on a windy day. It was strangely, beautiful. He saw visions of his past memories get lost to the wind, dreams and aspirations he had, blown away. All these important things that weighed heavy on his mind, all gone. He felt the tranquility of nothing, nothing was left in his head, just himself floating around in this liminal space. He saw the far-off eyes of the otter.

He wondered, if I am nothing, what am I?

_ _

You are product, was the response the bounced around in his empty head.

_ _

Yeah, product sounded about right to the wolf, he could be product! But what does product do?

_ _

Product obeys. The response bounced around inside him, the voice was so helping answering all his questions like this!

_ _

If I'm product, and product obeys, who am I loyal to?

_ _

You obey your owner.

_ _

Okay... But who is my owner? The wolf asked almost begging to be told who to obey.

Joseph paused, momentarily biting his tongue, he would never steal a pet marked by Laguna, he respected the badger too much, but he couldn't help but let the thought of taking possession of the wolf himself crossed his mind. He felt the wolf would make a perfect house pet...

Laguna? Who was that?

His questions were answered by images of a pink badger in a fancy suit, looked like the perfect person to order the wolf around, he wanted nothing more than to serve his owner.

Joseph broke the connection. Splicer's hazy blank eyes blinked slowly. He wasn't sure who the otter he was staring at was, but for some reason he felt gratitude looking into his hazelnut eyes. He knelt down at their feet.

"Just product... He was just another product after all." Joseph said reassuring himself, twisting the stolen ring on his finger. He had never seen such an odd mind as the wolf's, seemingly at peace with the concept of being erased and rewritten. He turned to the one-way mirror. "Make sure to draw a sample of his blood. I want a sample sent down to the main lab for further analysis..."

With that, Joseph left, leaving the wolf alone in the room. Laguna's eyes were blank too, not because Joseph had done anything to him, but halfway through watching the wolf's mind being dissected, he decided to stop focusing on it. Instead, he just stopped thinking about what was going on in the wolf's brain and began turning circles in his own head thinking about how this would benefit him.

No more mistakes in his office work... flawless cooking... complete obedience... no more smug remarks like he was actually going to pay off his debt and run home free. The wolf wouldn't even know what home was, all those blue welters he had planted for comfort were meaningless now. Everything that made Splicer was gone. Not to mention the data from any further trails would be nigh useless. He rode the elevator in silence, ready to meet the new wolf in the old wolf's body.

Upon seeing the pink badger he had been given so many images of, his blank eyes almost showed emotion, almost.

"What would you like me to do sir?" The wolf's hollow voice said as he awaited direction.

"Follow me..." The badger said in an uncaring tone, leading the wolf who was walking on all fours to the elevator.

Splicer had his blood draw, two vials from each arm, it was odd how the left arm's blood was noticeably brighter than that of the right's. He marked each once and sent a pair of to the main lab like directed but kept the other set for personal analysis. Once he was done, the wolf was dropped off in his room.

"This is your room..." Laguna said, stepping back on the elevator with a defeated sigh.

Splicer the wolf was gone...

Splicer the slave was here in his stead.