Art by the wonderful and talented @PeppermentParchment thank you so much for the art!
Badger had been acting strangely lately. Nothing too much had changed with the little guy, he was still just as cute and gullible and fluffy as ever, but he seemed more–wobegone as of late. Gone was the bounce in his step as he waddled after his owner, Max. He never did his funny little dances anymore, exploring the garden didn’t induce the same sense of wonder as it usually did, and he never even asked for sketti anymore!
Now Badger wasn’t the type of fluffy to throw tantrums over not having his precious sketti, but he would still ask for it every other day. It was one of the few things Max hadn’t been able to wean the adult fluffy off of yet. Saturday was sketti day, it always was and always would be, but yet every other day Badger would randomly come up to his owner and say “Kin hab skettis fo nummies tonigh’, daddeh? Pwease?”
Max would just sigh and respond “Badger, sketti night isn’t until saturday. Today ISN’T saturday. You know that. Now go back to playing, buddy.”
Badger would then look sad for a few seconds before perking up and toddling off to play in the fluffy safe house. It happened like clockwork. It was an inevitability.
But that interaction hadn’t happened in the past week and that’s when Max REALLY began to worry about his little guy.
So he decided to be upfront and ask what was wrong.
“Hey Badger, come here. I wanna talk with you.”
The black fluffy with white stripes looked up from his picture book, a fluffy version of Alice in Wonderland. “Wha yoo wan, daddeh? Badgew in twouble? Di Badgew do sumptin wong?” He waddled over to his owner.
Max shook his head. “Of course not, buddy. You haven’t done anything wrong. I’m just….well I’m a little worried about you. You’ve been sad this last week and you’re acting out of character.” Badger tilted his head a little at this phrase, never having heard it before in his 1 and a half years of life.
Sighing, Max packed away his dignity at what he did next. “Badgew no free wike Badgew no mow?”
Understanding the baby talk, Badger’s eye’s lit up as he nodded in agreement. “Yus daddeh, Bedgew been feewin….weawwy sadsies watewy. Hab big heart huwties…huuhuuhuu…” He began to sniffle a bit before looking up at his owner. “Badgew miss odda fwuffies, am wonewy. Badge wan fwiends….”
Ah, so that was it. Max cursed inwardly to himself, annoyed at the fact that the idea never crossed his mind. Fluffies were social creatures, bred and designed that way. There’s a reason they’re herd animals and why they always wanted new moms and dads. They love attention and they love to have interactions with others.
But even a fluffy with a loving home and a great human mom or dad still needed the attention of other fluffies, platonic or romantic. It was most likely something put into their programming by Hasbio, just another way to squeeze more money out of people.
Max never spoiled Badger and he never would. He saw what happened to fluffies who were spoiled too much, it was a disaster.
But Badger looked just so….miserable, Max had never seen him like this before. Something had to be done.
“You know what. We’ll get you a friend Badger, one way or another. That I promise.”
Badger attempted to leap into Max’s arms as a show of thanks, but only succeeded in falling on his face. After a moment, both broke into laughter.
……………………………
Sadly, getting Badger a friend was FAR easier said than done. Max just simply didn’t have the funds at the moment to get another fluffy, store bought, adopted, OR feral. Caring for Badger was surprisingly expensive at times, thanks to recent price gouging by Fluffy based companies.
“I don’t want to let him down though….”
It had been a few days since their talk, and Badger’s mood had improved immensely. He was back to his cheerful self, constantly waddling around and singing and babbling to himself about “Nyu fwiends comin fo Badgew! Nyu Fwiends comin fo Badgew! Gonna gib huggsies an pway an dancies!” To say the little guy was excited was an understatement. Max knew he couldn’t just tell Badger that he wouldn’t be able to have a fluffy friend, it would break his heart.
In a few months though he might however! Max had a good feeling he would be getting a promotion at his workplace soon and that would bring a damn good boost to his paycheck. So in a few months, yeah, another fluffy would enter the house no question.
As for now, he just had to wait……or figure out something very quickly.
Max was currently biking to his local Home Depot. The lights in his house had been on the fritz and he needed to have a few of them replaced. More money down the drain that couldn’t go towards Badger.
After making a beeline towards the electrical section, Max came across a……very peculiar looking woman who was an employee of the store.
Now, Max really wasn’t one to gawk, but this lady was quite striking to look at. She had a wiry thin body that looked almost underweight for her tall height, minus a slight beer belly. Her pale skin was covered in tattoos and she was totally bald. She seemed disinterested in her work, currently leaning up against a shelf, looking at something on her phone.
She jumped slightly as Max approached her, quickly stuffing her phone back in her pocket.
“Hello sir, do you need anything?” She asked in a weak, yet firm voice, the hint of a rasp evident. She smiled, showing Max her somewhat yellowed teeth. “Looking for lightbulbs or something else?”
“Oh I’m fine thank you, I know what I’m looking for.” Max nodded at the slightly strange lady. He noticed her name was smudged out on her orange apron. Either she just didn’t give a shit about company policy or this particular Home Depot was very relaxed on its rules. Most likely it was a mixture of both. “You don’t need to hide your phone from me, I won’t tell your bosses you were slacking off.” He laughed.
The lady smiled again. “I literally don’t give a shit. They’ve been cutting my hours, why should I do their work if they simply don’t want to pay me. If I can waste company time and still get paid, then so be it.” She pulled out her phone again and began scrolling once more. “Holy shit that’s a fat one……” Noticing Max’s expression, she rasped out a chuckle.
“I’m not looking at porn, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m looking at Fluffies. Here, look at this tub of fuck. She looks like a beanbag.” She then showed Max a picture of a pink fluffy mare, who was indeed morbidly obese. The biotoy was face first in a pile of spaghetti, gorging herself.
Max laughed. “Aww jeez, I dunno whether to find that funny or depressing.”
“It can be both.” The woman answered with a glint in her eyes. “It’s honestly one of the reasons I love Fluffy Ponies so much. There’s something just so pathetic about them that draws me to them, I find them irresistible, really.”
Max shrugged a bit. “I sorta see what you mean. They really are just so defenseless and dumb. You just want to protect them. Well, the ones that aren’t jerks, I mean. Luckily, mine is……generally well behaved.”
“As well as a fluffy can be?” The bald lady raised an eyebrow.
“Heh, exactly.” Max replied, scratching the back of his head. “There’s poop outside of the litter box, the occasional tantrum and begging, and just general fluffy dumbness, but I love the little guy. He’s a great friend.”
She continued flicking through fluffy pictures. “No I get you, I sometimes feel like people see any non perfect fluffy as some sort of hellgremlin that needs to be tortured and maimed and killed and….well you know, nobody’s perfect.”
“You seem to know a lot about the little guys, so I wanted to ask you? Any tips for a lonely fluffy? My fluffy, Badger, is in desperate need of a fluffy companion but I simply don’t have the funds to support another fluffy at the moment. Any ideas?”
“Fluffy Day Care Centers.” The lady said without skipping a beat. “Most are cheap, reliable, and will provide your fluffy with so much fun that they’ll be tired and amiable the rest of the day.”
Jeez, why had Max never thought of that!
“Oh man, you’re a lifesaver. Thank you so much!”
The Bald woman nodded. “No problem. Anything for a fellow lover of fluffs. A sad fluffy makes me sad, I love those little things to death.”
………………
“Well, here we are, Badger!”
“Woooaaaaoooowwwwww, buiwdin su big!!! Pwetteh cowows tuu!”
While the building itself wasn’t very big, in fact it was just part of a strip mall about 20 minutes from Max’s house, to Badger it looked like a mansion. The front was adorned with splashes of color and pictures of happy fluffies playing tag.
Taking the advice of the Bald Lady, Max had gone searching for day cares when he got home and found one that was surprisingly close to his house, not to mention pretty damn cheap. Reviews, while nothing special, we’re still good, and most folks had very few complaints about the place in general.
Walking Badger in on a leash, Max listened to his fluffy loudly babble and cheer at literally everything he saw. He cheered at the employee’s wearing their outfits, the smell of nummies, the noises of other fluffies he heard down the hall.
“Ooooh, hewwo huuman fwiend! Ooh ooh, Badgew smeww nummies, kin hab nummies daddeh? Heaw odda fwuffies! Wan pway wan pway!!!”
“Caaallllm, down there buddy, we’re almost there.” Max said as he stopped in front of the playroom. Through the glass window he could see fluffies of all shapes and sizes playing, eating, pooping in the litterbox, and sleeping. The room itself was large, with a green carpet covering everything. Blocks, balls, tiny forts the fluffies could run and play it, food and water dispensers, the place had it all.
Max bent down in front of Badger. “Now remember Badger, I’ll be gone for most of the day. You play nice with the other fluffies, use the litterbox, and most importantly, have fun!”
“Ah wiww, daddeh!”
And with that, Max opened the door and set his fluffy free into the playroom.
…
First part of a new series about Badger in a Fluffy Daycare and all the chaos that ensues. Hope you like it!