I think any content posts from our site will spark any debate. Lol
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I think it did on reddit before from the description written.
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I could imagine. Iâm sure it was explosive in those debates too. 
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Hey everyone, Iâm glad you enjoyed the comic! Sorry for the delay, I had to go to Charlotte for the afternoon and just got home. Iâm surprised how much this blew up! However, I suppose I should answer some questions in regard to the comicâs content.
In my head canon, I subscribe to the school of thought that Fluffies are genetically engineered and are ultimately victims to their own incomplete designs. One of the many design flaws in my fluffy universe, is a faulty pheromone system. The idea behind the pheromone system by Hasbio scientists was for fluffies to be able to subtly express their current state of being or needs to the fluffies in their herd and hopefully the human who cares for them. There are many pheromones, and they serve many purposes, one of the most famous ones in my fiction is the âBest Babyâ pheromone. When fluffyâs were first engineered, the highly desirable and unnatural colors were exceedingly rare; with less desirable colors being more common. In order to ensure that the most marketable foals could make it to sale, the pheromone system was devised to help a fluffy mare prioritize care to a better colored fluffy. It is supposed to work to where, âHey take care of all your babies, but REALLY take care of this oneâ. Unfortunately, because of their early release, they were never able to correct the issues in the final design. Poor colored foals donât excrete as much pheromone (or sometimes any at all) and mares tend to get very intoxicated with the best baby pheromone, resulting in inadequate care for the less desirable offspring. It an unfortunate aspect of their biology, but this isnât the only issue that they have.
Enfie Foal Syndrome is a side effect of the incomplete pheromone system that was intended to help a foal reach survival but had severe and unintended consequences. Foals excrete a variety of pheromones to communicate their needs with their care givers. In their first weeks of life, they are blind, canât regulate their body temperatures, and are sensitive to any kind of external stimuli. The pheromones help the mother to do basic things such as: feed my baby, keep my baby warm, clean my baby, my baby needs to eliminate waste, and my baby is in danger. The danger pheromone a foal excretes during duress of sexual assault is supposed to call the nearest fluffy over to help save it from a potentially deadly assault. Unfortunately, several issues arise when the pheromone is released. The Pheromone smell is unpleasant to foals and mares, it makes them actively repulsed by the victim of sexual assault. The other issue is that because foals are still developing, they donât have subconscious control of their pheromones, that when they are assaulted, they can never stop it. Perhaps it is psychological from something so horrible, or perhaps it is a physical issue from the damage. Once a foal produces Enfie pheromones, it will never stop.
Now its time to answer broader questions.
Is Enfie Baby Syndrome a time sensitive issue, or can it happen at any time in their lives? Once a foal hits the weanling stage (roughly 8 weeks after birth in my canon) their pheromone system finally matures enough for EBS to no longer be an issue. Its not a hard science of course, some foals mature slower than others, but generally its less likely after they start eating solids.
Does it affect only colts or also fillys? The answer is yes, both genders of fluffy can experience EBS. It is debatable for who it is worse for, but it is speculated the additional psychological repercussions are worse on a colt.
Does it have to be from a stallion, could a Q-tip work? The answer is yes, a Q-tip attack from a cruel owner can activate EBS. Its less about what causes the trauma and more about the trauma happening. Keep in mind the pheromone is a defense mechanism, itâs a final scream for help that forever goes unheeded.
Thatâs the nitty gritty of the pheromone system, Iâm glad yâall liked the concept in action! Special thanks to Turbine for not only drawing the art but coming up with the concept of this comic. A lot of my good ideas truly come from discussion and feedback with him, which is why heâs the official artist for my fluffy universe. He came to me with this idea while we were discussing another comic you will see this week and then the magic happened. Outside of a few dialogue options, some minor art suggestions, and the ending; this was fully from his brain. Please if you wish to see your work come to life, consider working with Turbine.
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Exactly, this is so hardwired into their biology that they canât help it. The pheromone terrifies chirpies, repulses foals and mares, and lets stallions know they arenât worth respecting. If anyone is to blame, its PETA.
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Unfortunately once a foal begins to excrete this pheromone, they will never be able to stop. As it stands right now, it canât be masked with other scents or fixed with strong smelling soaps. The Pheromones are smelled by only fluffies, who will react to their biology. You can see the perpetual release of the chemical as a metaphor for continued trauma, but the more physical answer is that it is because their pheromone system is severely underdeveloped and the trauma basically keeps it in -On-. Its cruel and unfair, but its the unfortunate reality of an unfinished product being unrefined.
Fluffies who are Enfie babies, become the lowest members of the herd. They will only be permitted to sleep in the shit pile, will often have to subsist on fluffy shit , and are frequently targeted for further bullying and even further assault. Fluffies with EBS, should only ever be in single fluffy homes and will have to have very patient owners who will help them through their trauma and be their only, singular friends.
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âDummeh enfie babbeh onwy foâ gud Feewsâ
^ The most sickening Smarty line.
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Quite an interesting idea tbh, psychological trauma is a bitch, but being so hard it somehow materializes is brutal, man. I believe only between âbad smellâ fluffies hang out well or does they also discriminate on who has the stronger smell?
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I donât know. To me I have trouble seeing the mechanism making a lot of sense, but in your universe itâs your reality. For me the concept is intriguing, but the part of me that wants to reconcile it doesnât really get past the idea of it not having a stopping point. An event to spur the production being counteracted by a drastic change later on would do it for me.
Also would imagine a scent focused creature being tricked by other scents too, that it could be replicated and used to trick them into thinking there was an EBS fluffy when it wasnât one, or finding a way to overpower the scent, or even dull the senses enough that a fluffy wouldnât be able to smell much of anything.
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God Iâm going to sound super pompous by how I say this, so please forgive me.
One of the major themes that the whole Enfie Baby Syndrome explores, is one of the evilest and most vile things we do as human beings; Victim Blame. There have been many times in real life, where someone is violently assaulted and instead of sympathy they are met with:
âYou shouldnât have led him onâ
âYou shouldnât dress so revealing, you were asking for itâ
âWalking late at night was begging for troubleâ
âYou just wanted attention, its your faultâ
Sometimes when confronted with awful and uncomfortable truths, some people fail to empathize with the victims and project their own discomfort onto them. This is a huge issue that happens virtually everywhere and can happen to anyone. Its how the Foals and the Mares who smell the enfie babbeh, view the enfie babbeh. They canât rationalize the pheromone due to their incomplete nature, and immediately see it as something repulsive, something the baby is doing wrong. Lets not beat around the bush either, the foals in question are incredibly helpless. They only drink milk, theyâre just learning words and growing teeth, they sleep near fourteen hours a day and are entirely dependent upon their caretakers for virtually everything. They are completely victimized, and their peers and guardians essentially treat them like âthey asked for itâ. How could a species so obsessed with babies, completely reject a âDamagedâ foal for something out of its control?
Sadly that is how our society can be and is thus reflected in fluffies. Victim blaming is something that disgusts me to my core, something people close to me have had to deal with.
Iâm eventually writing another article on a more in depth look at the pheromone system as a whole, I just need to find the time to write.
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Iâd probably hope they would understand their background and find each other to be kindred spirits
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Thereâs nothing to forgive! If anything I tend to be dense regarding subtext, themes, parallels, etc. I thought something was there but couldnât put my finger on it.
No, I really appreciate your take on it. Thank you. I think itâs thoughtful, and making excellent use of the fluffies as story telling tools.
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Think of it in terms like stunting growth. Sometimes when severe physical trauma happens (such as a spinal injury, or perhaps chronic malnutrition) the human body fails to reach its maximum height potential. In the case of fluffies, a lot of it hinges on the fact that they are brand new, genetically designed animals that were released too early into the world. Consider that they almost constantly have liquid excrement and digest food poorly, their limited intelligence, and overall weak physical bodies.
In the case of their developmental cycle foals are rapidly developing in the Chirpy â to Talkie Baby â to Weanling stage; that there is a lot of room for developmental disorders and errors. So I would believe it is feasible for severe physical and psychological trauma to induce something as traumatic as EBS. After all, even psychiatric disorders can manifest as physical symptoms. I wrote a fourteen page article on my canon of the fluffy lifecycle that explains a bit more on each stage, but the logic was based around older works of fluffy fictions having fluffies absolutely hate foals who had been assaulted.
It always bewildered me how a creature such as a fluffy, who once they see foals on the TV show âBabiesâ would be willing to risk their livelihood and home, just to have these babies. If the babies were so hardwired and important, then why do they have issues such as favoritism and other undesirable behaviors that work against them? This was my way of answering some of those logic gaps fluffies had.
The reason why I see this being something unable to be overcome, is because it both happens at such a critical developmental stage both physically and mentally. Since the pheromone system is something they have limited control on at this stage, the damage is irreparable. Its like turning on a faucet, then ripping off the handle for the water. Unless you turn off the water valve, its just going to keep pouring water. Psychologically, the foal doesnât understand whats happening enough. They just know theyâre being hurt in a bad way, theyâre terrified, and no one is helping them. Theyâre too young to understand fully wat happened, and they suddenly find themselves at the end of disgust and contempt. They grow up and internalize that, because that is now their âalwaysâ.
Maybe that explains it better?
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It was more so it sounded pompous. I dislike when people pontificate about meaning, theme, and allegory in literature; because sometimes the reader can interoperate something very different than an author intended. Also sometimes a pot is just a pot, lol.
Iâm glad you like the concept!
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When I read your idea of the allegory on victim blaming, I could see where you were coming from. To me, the idea that an instinctual guttural reaction to something without nuance makes sense. Treating a scent as a first brush and then not allowing the mind to even take it a step further, thatâs what some people do. So it does make sense. They donât want to deal with the big questions.
But, Iâm not trying to be hypercritical here. It just doesnât mesh super well with me when I consider my own story Iâve been writing which interestingly enough deals with some of the same themes. In my headcanon, the psychological thought processes do enough without it being locked to something like a pheromone. I have a fluffy who was also sexually assaulted and deals with blaming himself, another tragic aspect of assault victim reality. That said, to me it just seemed a bit narrow and permanent for it to be specific, yet everlasting. By that extension, any significant trauma to a fluffy, like from a human abuser or some horrific violence could be enough to trigger the same result. If thatâs true, then itâs more plausible to me. But, in any case the long and short is I like the concept overall, just maybe the nuance doesnât quite translate to me.
If thatâs my fault, my apologies. I do like your writing, and I think the psychological issues you tackle are worthwhile and well told.
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They comprehend the smell an the smell terrifies them. Think of the Pheromone being a last ditch 'PLEASE HELP ME, IâM BEING ASSAULTED" plea for help.
Chirpies who are barely aware of their environment, its absolutely terrifying!
Foals and Mares (who the pheromone is supposed to make help them) react to it with disgust and contempt.
Stallions who encounter it, no longer register the foal as a fluffy and more so akin to an object. Like they are aware they are fluffies, but wonât respect them as a fluffy an may continue the abuse, or utterly neglect/harm them.
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I can understand that and its totally fine. The beauty of fluffies is the freedom we have to create, because the canon is so lose for us to use. I would say its less that fluffies donât want to handle the big questions, but more so they just arenât capable of really grasping it.
Your story sounds interesting and I would love to read it when it is finished. Though I can say its the way we both view fluffies, is why our outcomes to Enfie Baby is so uniquely different. Your story seems to focus on the fluffy and really bring to life on their sentience, while in my stories fluffies tend not to be as individualistic and sentient. I see fluffies as semi aware and semi sentient beings, which although they are individualistic to fall outside of tropes (I.e. Hellgremlin vs Fluffy) they are still animals first and foremost and directed by their hard coded instincts. Though ultimately this always makes the fluffy Frankensteinâs monster in my eyes. It was foolishly given life and we refuse to take responsibility and fix it, despite it clearly being flawed. Perhaps this is why my take on EBS might not jive well with your idea on fluffies, as they are distinctly different and view fluffies differently.
No worries though dude, these debates are what hep refine ideas and make better content overall!
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I completely understand. If anything though, itâs not my view on fluffies. Itâs that I view humans no differently. We may like to think weâre above it, but our hubris blinds us to the reality that itâs all window dressing.
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I very much love the concept of pheromonesâ being a prolific communications device between each fluffy, especially with chirpy to mother communication, since it brings me back to the booru days.
I wonder how sensitive it is to other receptors as well. The Q-tip thing is something I see as a cruel joke played by a disgruntled employee at a fluffy shop to an inexperienced first time owner, but could careless handling, such as an owner being a bit too rough cleaning a foal, accidently trigger this response as well?
Sorry if I tend to go too in-depth, but I love exploring otherâs lore.
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I know this is meant to give plausibility to Fluffy racism and inability to change it regardless of what they are taught in some canons, as well as create rules for some endings to only be Sadbox.
But to me the solution to basically all behavioral problems in this Headcanon (that are not Hellgremlin anyway) is to just routinely eliminate the sense of smell of all Fluffies.
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