You are a sea fluffy named Princess. You live in your very nice tankie housie in daddehs big wawm housie, and you are a soon mummah. Daddeh brought a stallion in recently to give you special huggies, and even though he was meanie and gave you hurties the whole time, at the end you had tummeh babbehs.
The stallion is named Brian, and he’s a meany smarty. Daddeh brought him to your tank and left him there all day, so daddeh didn’t see how many hurties he gave you. He forced your face into the pebbles at the bottom of your tank while he gave you enfies, and when he wasn’t trying to have gud feews he was always hitting and biting.
He’d smack at your head when you surfaced, and if you dove he’d chase you around and bite your flippers. You kept begging him to stop, but he just kept laughing and saying “Smawty du wat smawty wan!” You were so scared! Not just for you, but for your tummeh babbehs! You managed to hide from him under the pwetty gwass your daddeh placed in the tank. When you heard daddeh come back in, you surfaced to alert him. You didn’t have to, because Brian pounced as soon as he saw you.
“Nu wun fwum Bwian nu mowe! Bwian gif sowwy fwippies!” He was climbing on your back so you couldn’t yell to daddeh! Daddeh didn’t look at the tank, and you thought you’d missed your chance, but Brian proved to be his own nemesis. “Dummeh mawe! Nu twy yeww fow hewp! Gu back in dummeh gwass!”
Daddeh, having heard all of that since Brian had his head above water, plucked him immediately.
That was two days ago. Now, Brian lived in a pint glass next to your nice big tank. Daddeh fed him NutriChum, the really gross synthetic kind that leaves that residue everywhere, once daily. The residue would collect on the glass quickly and make it impossible to see through. Daddeh wanted him to be able to see you in your nice spacious tankie as punishment for being so meanie. He even wanted him to hear you, so the glass is touching the side of your tank.
Dummeh Brian barely had enough room to sleep at the bottom of the cup. He had to curl up like a chirpy babbeh! It was really funny, and you laughed and laughed. He didn’t think it was so funny. “Nu waff! Keep wakin’ up Bwian! Bwian twyin’ tu sweep!”
Since the glass got dirty during feedings, they only lasted about an hour. After that, daddeh would take the cup to the kitchen and clean it. The cup, that is. Not the water. No, daddeh would get another glass and pour the first one into it through a strainer. It would catch Brian and any big chunks of chum he hadn’t eaten yet. Daddeh would put those chunks back in the nutrichum canister, clean the glass, then pour Brian and his dirty water back into it, topping off the glass to account for spillage.
The result was that Brian was always swimming in filth, but could always see your tank. Could always hear your laughter. His food was disgusting and made him sick, especially when he ate it quickly. But daddeh’s unwillingness to let him feed slowly meant Brian had to rush, and it didn’t help that the nutrichum was a low-nutrient variety. He had to eat as much as he could as fast as he could. Then his reward was indigestion that, if he was lucky, would hit before the cleaning.
He hadn’t been lucky today. Right after daddeh set his cup down, he got sickies and made his water really gross. Brian was miserable and complained constantly. Daddeh just told him matter of factly “Bad fluffies go in cuppies.” Then he’d do something funny like squirting soy sauce to hurt Brian’s gills, or pouring some of his water out so he didn’t have enough room to spread his flippers! He really hated that.
“Huuu daddeh pwease, Bwian nee mow wawa! Nu can moov! Nu haf woom make gud swimmies!” Daddeh would even find a way to make that funny. Today he had poured ice water in. It was the cleanest water he’d had in days, so Brian swam up to it to breathe, and he passed out from shock! It was really funny, he started shaking and even made sickies with booboo juice!
That night you had the babbehs.
Your darling little foals were so perfect. You gave them all licky cleanies and huggies and sang your mummah songs to them. Brian tried to yell at you for singing the wrong ones, but daddeh moved his cup away from the glass so the babbehs couldn’t hear him.
It’s been a week since the babbehs were born. Brian is still miserable and living in a cup, and daddeh is playing with you and helping you clean the babbehs! You have such a good daddeh! He cleans bestest babbeh and sets him in the damp paper towel bed with his siblings for their feeding and returns to clean another.
While in the dish-bed, one of the babbehs gets gassy and had tummy hurties, so they started peeping. This frustrated bestest, who hated chirpy noises and had been glad when the last of his siblings had learned to talk. “Dummeh sissy, nu mowe peepin ow bestest babbeh gif huwties!” He flopped his way over to her while she defended herself. “Peep! Cheep! Sowwy bwudda, hab tummeh huwties!” The added peeps don’t help matters. "Shaddup, nu cawe! Gunna gif dummeh chiwpeh sissy sowwy fwippies fow bein’ tuu wowd!"
Before you even noticed, he was slapping her on the face and head. “Nuuu! Owwies, bwudda stoppit! Babbeh hab tummeh huwties, wai bwudda twy gif wowstest owwies tu babbeh?” Daddeh, as usual, moved fast.
He picked up bestest babbeh by his stretchy flippers and looked at you. “He’s been bad. What should we do?” You freeze. “Uhhh…sowwy…cuppy?” Daddeh nods, and to your horror he drops bestest babbeh in the cup with Brian.
“Daddeh, nu! Nu wet Bwian huwt babbeh! Gif babbeh nudda cuppie, nu weabe wif meanie Bwian!” Daddeh flicked your nose, causing you to grab it with your flippers and tear up. “No Princess, he gave hurties, same as Brian.” You look to the cup, swimming down to the edge of your tank to be close to it.
Daddeh scooted the cup back and the water filled with voices.
“Hewwo dummeh babbeh, am ou daddeh.” Bestest gasped. “Weawwy? Nebba knu haf daddeh udda den big hoomin daddeh! Am saddies fow be in sowwy cuppy, but hab heawt happies fow meet daddeh!” He swam up to Brian, and to your dismay was met with a headbut to the snout.
“Owwies! Wai huwt babbeh!” Bestest babbeh turned to swim away and found nowhere to go. He turned to you for help. “Mummah! Sabe bestest babbeh! Daddeh am meanie munstah!” Brian bit his tail and dragged him to the bottom of the cup. Cramming him down, Brian got above him. "Dewe. Nao ou can hewp daddeh hab gud sweepies. Nu hafta sweep on dummeh hawd fwoow!" Bestest babbeh squirmed and writhed, but it was to no avail. Brian was just too much bigger. You begged daddeh for mercy, but he just kept saying what he always said.
Bad fluffies go in cuppies.
Three days went by. Your babbehs are growing fast, except for bestest. Daddeh won’t let you give him milkies, and he has to eat whatever runoff his father leaves behind! It breaks your little heart watching your beloved bestest babbeh sobbing and trying to corral floating bits of chum intermixed with poopies into his mouth. Brian stays above him because “Bwian am biggew den dummeh babbeh, su Bwian hafta be in biggew pawt ub da cuppie!” Consequently, what growth he’s had that wasn’t stunted by malnutrition is being warped by a cramped environment.
In the few moments a day you see him swimming, he looks…wrong. His snout is flatter on the end than it ought to be, probably from constantly being pressed against glass. Also, he seems like he can’t move his back or flippers very well. His back keeps him in pain, but it seems like he’s basically forgetting how to use his flippers.
After the fifth day, daddeh relents. Brian has to stay in the cup for being mean, but Bestest comes home. It’s a tearful reunion for all, especially him. Your fears are confirmed, he can hardly swim. His flippers are all misshapen, and all in different ways. He can’t swim at more than a light trot pace, and what swimming he can do is complicated by constant weird drifting off course caused by his deformities.
“Huuuu pwease bwuddas and sissies, wait fow babbeh! Nu can make fast swimmies!” Watching him panting to keep up gives you so many heart hurties. But you’re sure not to call any babbehs “bestest” anymore.
It never occurs to you that this was what daddeh wanted all along. You chalk it up to “siwwy daddeh” not noticing. And sometimes, you almost believe it.