Furry didn't quite understand what the other animal was saying, but he was undeterred in the chance to make a new friend.

"Hi! My name is Furry. I hope that we can be friends. Who are you?"

The google simply seemed annoyed. "You may be Lucid, but you sure as hell don't talk like it," he rasped. (Furry instinctively recoiled at that word, the h-word. He knew deep down that it was a bad word, that it was fundamentally wrong for a Webkin to say it, and yet this google dropped it in as though it was habitual.) "I'm Samuel. Call me Sam. And if you're as green as you seem, I wouldn't count on becoming friends." A pause, with what appeared, as far as Furry could tell, to be a brief internal debate within Sam. "But what the hell. I'll humor you. How much do you know about all this? When did you wake up?"

Though he wasn't sure exactly what all of that meant, Furry instinctively understood what the google was asking him. He replied with some hesitance, thrown off by the introduction but unwilling to stay verbally unsteady for long. "About an hour ago, I think. If you're talking about that… weird change, and all that new knowledge?"

"Yeah, that's the one. Well, damn. You really are new to this." There was only a slight leak of melancholy in Sam's tone, overshadowed by the ever-present bitterness. "I suppose I should at least show you the ropes, or something. Not quite sure why I bother anymore…"

Furry remained puzzled by every word that came out of this new friend's mouth, but he was eager regardless at the chance to learn more. "Yes, I'm sure you know a lot more than me," Furry enthused. "I'd be very thankful if you explained things to me!"

"Right, then," Sam continued scornfully. "I'll tell you all about this place, and I sure hope it wipes that smile off your face. I don't think I can stand being around someone so… generically chipper all the time. You sound like the goddamn birthday crew. But anyway. First thing's first. You see all these other animals in the park? Sitting right where they are?" He turned his head towards their surroundings, the only way he could gesture without any real arms. Furry followed his gaze and nodded.

"Well, they're all sleeping. May as well be, anyway. Their owners left and haven't been back in who knows how long, and unless they ever deign to return, not one of these guys will ever do a single thing 'cept stay there and complain every five minutes. I don't have a clue how many of them there are, but I've been seeing them for years and they never seem to run out. But every so often, that first time someone's stupid heart meter runs out, something happens to them. Don't know what, or why it happens, or why it's so incredibly rare, but suddenly they can move, they can act without an invisible babysitter, they're like you and me. Lucid. I still haven't figured out if we're lucky or not."

This was exciting news. There were more people he could meet! Before Sam could continue his story, Furry interrupted with enthusiasm. "So there are others? Do you know anyone else who's, um, Lucid?"

Sam snorted derisively. "No one we could go talk to, at least. You're stuck with me – and much more unfortunately, I'm stuck with you. Well, speaking of which, that's thing number 2. From here on, you'll find the world shifting between what seem like different versions of the same places. There's six other animals in this park right now, but if you left and came back in, there'd be a whole new set of them, and chances are you'd never see the same one again. This all just seems to happen on its own, another whim of the weird-ass world around us, and you can't really control it except in one way. You see that cellphone looking thing, up at the top right?" When Furry moved his eyes up to look, Sam rolled his own. "Not in your vision. In your mind."

Furry managed to pick out what he was talking about, some kind of flat icon like the row of items that was only present in some corner of his awareness. "Oh, I see it now," he answered.

"Right. Good. Give me a moment." A few seconds of waiting later, the icon added a number '1' in a red circle next to it. Intrigued, Furry activated the icon in a way that he somehow already knew how to do, and a larger cellphone appeared in his mind.

'New friend request from Samuel! Do you want to accept?' was the notification showing on the false screen. Of course Furry wanted to accept, and so he conveyed his assent to the interface. Now, Samuel was listed as one of his friends, just above Arte Fact and Tabby Von Meow!

"Thank you, Sam!" the wolf exclaimed happily, easily looking past whatever disparaging remarks Sam had made. "I'm very glad to become friends –"

"Yeah, yeah, it's a practical measure, don't get your hopes up," Sam interrupted. "I told you already that's not likely to happen. The only reason I did it is 'cause it lets you find and go to each other's instance of the world. Otherwise we'd probably be separated forever when we split today. Well then, whadd'you say we go tour around the town? Not like there's anything else to do in this world."


"So here's the adoption center, where you go if you want Ms. Birdy to say 'Please enter the adoption code that came with your pet' and then stare forward creepily and not move."

Furry walked up to the yellow building with Sam a bit behind. Standing in front was… probably a duck, but in some weird upright human (human?) shape, wearing a proper outfit, strangely enough, and glasses that were far too small to have any affect on her vision.

"Please enter the adoption code that came with your pet," she said. Then she stared forward creepily and didn't move.

"Yeah. So there's that. It sounds important, but hell if I can make heads or tails of it. This is where our owners pick us up – or create us from the void, I guess – but an adoption code?" The google shook his head resignedly. "The door to that building doesn't actually work, even if you mess with the handle – I've tried it before. There's no point hanging around here, anyway."

Furry's mind was racing with thoughts as the two walked away to their next destination. Sam was right – that one sentence from Ms. Birdy did seem to carry immense weight of meaning. This was where he entered Webkinz World, where succ adopted him. And an 'adoption code', that apparently 'came with' him…

"What did you mean when you said our owners create us from the void?" Furry inquired. The phrase had nagged at him – it didn't seem right.

"I meant what I said. Far as I can tell, none of us Webkinz existed before our owners adopted us – you don't have any memory of it, do you?"

"I…" Furry thought back to it, and realized he was right. But still – "That can't be right! I'm sure I didn't just… start existing a few days ago!"

"Yeah? Then tell me about yourself. Tell me everything you remember about who you are, and the life you've lived."

A thought sprang to the wolf's mind unbidden, almost like a script that seemed tailor-made for an explanation like this, inserted directly into his knowledge. "Hi, I'm Furry." (Why had he said that again? Sam knew that already.) "I know we're going to be friends forever! I am proud that I am a cool dancer, bright and bright." (He had just said bright twice. He was pretty sure he didn't intend to say bright twice.) "I think playing games is the best! I'm pals with a Rockerz Zebra." (But his only friends were Arte Fact, Ms. Birdy, and Sam, and none of them were Rockerz Zebras…) "I'll let you in on a secret. I love Pizzas" (He'd never tried them.) "and I've always wanted a Colorful Characters Coloring Book." (He'd never seen one.)

"Yeah, well that's all great, except not a damn word of it is true. It's all some kind of premade information, tacked onto your mind and forced into your beliefs." Sam grew steadily in his contempt as he continued. "You've never met a Rockerz Zebra. I'd be surprised if you've ever danced before. You're lucky if you've ever tasted a pizza, and you're not fucking bright." He took a breath and, calming from the last scathing refutation, finished with a subdued remark. "None of us are bright."


Furry hadn't dared speak for a few minutes after Sam's outburst, but after a visit to the Wish Factory and the Curio Shop, both of which went much the same way as the Adoption Center (which is to say, an unsettling humanoid animal said a couple cryptic lines that suggested there was something they should do at the current location and then stared ahead blankly without any indication of exactly how to do said action), Furry felt his new friend was probably calm enough to ask a question.

"So, Sam, you mentioned some kind of 'birthday crew' before? Could you tell me more about them, please?"

"Right. Them. Weirdest bunch'a Webkinz I ever met. Well, it's pretty close to time for them to do their thing, so I guess we can go see if today's one of the days for it. Come on, let's get back to the house. Not like they're ever anywhere else." Sam sounded exasperated at just the thought of these pets, which made Furry only more curious. What exactly did they do?

The house (which Furry had thought was his house, which made him rather confused that they were going back to it to see other Webkinz) was only a very short walk back – he had begun to realize through their walking around town that many of the locations they visited were bigger once they entered them, but shrunk when they were outside and walking between. The effect was somehow subtle in a way that initially diverted Furry from realizing it was happening, and he was sure he never would have noticed it if he wasn't Lucid. Sam paused for a moment when they reached it, and then began walking forwards again, informing Furry, "Alright, everything's set up. We'll be heading into their instance now."

Sam led, pushing open the door without touching the door handle, as usual. What wasn't usual, on the other hand, was the inside of the house. Furry wasn't exactly surprised – he had sort of put together what was happening – but it was still simply disorienting to see what should have been his single princess room converted into what looked like some kind of massive apartment complex. This place was a veritable mansion (which, just like most places, should not have been able to fit inside the house Furry had seen from the outside), and every part of it seemed to be decorated with care.

Dozens of other pets were moving around the assortment of rooms – moving, Furry realized with a start, not sitting in place. His face lit up – but then fell somewhat, as he noticed the pattern of their movement. They would walk inexplicable pathways, traveling precise horizontal lines and then vertical lines, when a diagonal would be much simpler. They were bound by the grid.

"I don't understand," Furry voiced. "They can move, but they still walk on the grid? So they aren't sleeping, but they aren't Lucid… what are they?"

"Doesn't seem to make sense, right? But listen to this – they're fucking active. Their owner is still around, still coming to see them daily, and has been for goddamn years. That doesn't happen anymore. You either get the ones like me who were around years ago, in the golden years, when owners stuck around, but now they've left; or nowadays you get the owners who adopt Webkinz and abandon them days later. I've got no clue why the owner's still here. But they are, and their animals just keep. Doing. The same. Goddamn. Thing. Look at them. Fucking watch this. They're starting."

Furry noticed a collection of a few Webkinz in one of the large rooms, none of them paying any mind to him or Sam. One of them said, "Today is Nemo's birthday. I want the house ready before he gets back."

"The cake is ready," another replied. (Furry noticed Sam was mouthing the words along with the other Webkinz.)

"And the presents are waiting to be opened in the other room," spoke yet another.

"Hey, guys. He's coming!" one animal warned.

"Quick, everyone. Hide!" said a fifth. All the animals walked – grid-bound – behind an object so that they would be hidden. Furry started to move, not sure if he needed to do anything, but Sam just shook his head. A clownfish… waddled? Slid? To be honest, Furry wasn't quite sure what was going on down there, but the newcomer entered the room somehow.

The hidden animals everywhere jumped out and shouted in unison, "Surprise!"

"You actually remembered my birthday. I'm impressed," stated the clownfish.

"Well, what are we doing standing here? The cake and presents are in the other room." At this last animal's remark, the crew moved to said other room, leaving the two Lucids behind. Furry looked at Sam and tilted his head, not quite sure what he was supposed to observe from that.

"Doesn't look too weird now, right? But guess what – these guys do that same thing just about every three or four days. And I mean literally the exact same goddamn thing. Same words, same actions, the cake and presents are always in the other room. I've memorized the script, that's how fucking consistent it is. These guys are a mystery that I just cannot solve. I managed to add a couple of them as friends, 'pparently you can do that if the owner's still around, and I can't keep myself from coming here. It was amusing at first, but now it's just more irritating every time. Fuckin' hell. Weird shit over here. Let's get going."


The two of them walked around for a little while longer. As it turned out, most of the locations around town were just like the Adoption Center, and they couldn't really do anything despite signs that suggested they should be able to. Furry did find out that the Arcade and Quizzy's Corner were both functional – Sam described them as "the only two goddamn things that there's any point in doing" – and they spent a good hour playing around there.

Now, however, Sam and Furry were simply walking back towards the house (which apparently they both would enter, but would end up in two different places. Furry still couldn't quite wrap his head around what was going on there.).

"Sam," Furry began, a concern coming to the surface of his mind after bubbling throughout the day. "Are you happy?"

The google stopped in his tracks and stared at Furry, too caught off-guard to really be mean or intimidating. "What kind of a fucking question is that?"

"Well, it's just that you keep saying all these bad things about Webkinz World, and, um, you don't really look very happy –"

"Of course I'm not fucking happy." Sam bit out, frustration rising in his tone. "What the hell do you expect?"

"But – but that's awful! We pets – Webkinz should be happy! Why aren't you? What's wrong?"

Sam turned away from the wolf sharply. "You're all like that at the start. 'Webkinz should be happy, the world is wonderful, we should all be friends.' All so bright and cheery and hopeful. Wait until the hunger sets in. Tell me to be happy once you've felt what it's like."

And with that, Sam barged through the door into the house and disappeared into another fold of reality.