“Wut iz can-nun?”
“Oh, Hot Dog,” Smart Napoleon chuckled. “That is a better question than you realize.”
“Can-nun aw t’ings hoomins agwee on abou’ fwuffies,” Hippolyta started. “Kinda.”
“Dey agwee bu’ no agwee?”
“Hrm… how to put it… Does daddy make spaghetti for you?”
“Yesh. Iz gud. Bu’ daddeh mama make it eben bettah.”
“And spaghetti that comes from a can?”
“Iz otay. Fewn an’ Mint wike, but no dat good.”
“But they’re all spaghetti, right?”
“Yesh.”
“Napoweon… dey hab wive Benn Diagwam ob can-nun in dis t’ing.”
Napoleon looked at Hippolyta sideways. “I thought you hated those things?”
The fluffy mare shrugged. “Iz oba simp-wif-i-cashun. Stiww usefuw.”
“So, as I was saying… humans use a thing called a ‘recipe’ to make spaghetti. The easiest, simplest one is simply spaghetti noodles, a store bought sauce, and cheese.”
Pavlovian responses kicked in with all three fluffies.
“The most basic canon, the simplest ideas, for fluffies is that we want huggies and love, we are cute, then finally we want spaghetti. I don’t think daddy or any other human will disagree with that. With these three things, any human can make a world for fluffies, even if its no bigger than a safe room.”
Hippolyta nodded. “Iz twue. No nee’ be hawd.”
“But some humans want more. When daddy makes spaghetti he uses regular spaghetti noodles, cheese, but then he takes the spaghetti sauce and adds things. More onions. Mushrooms. More veggies. More…”
Pavlov struck again.
“Likewise, when he creates things for fluffies, he takes the three basic things and adds to them. There’s lots of things that people will accept as being canon for fluffies. Things that don’t surprise them, things that make sense to them when talking about or making fluffies. But, he doesn’t use everything that can be considered canon.”
“Wai daddy no du?”
“Sum t’ings no go gud togedda,” Hippolyta replied. “Wike miwkies an’ owange juice.”
“Dat bad?”
“You wouldn’t think so, but the orange juice makes the milk curdle and it tastes really weird. Same here. Some ideas don’t work well together unless the human is really, really good at making things.”
“Hippowita wike owange shewbewt,” she beamed.
“So can-nun wike makin’ nummies den?”
“Almost. Canon is like the recipe for making nummies. It helps humans put things together, to have an idea of what things will be like. But, like a recipe, canon only shows what people have done before.”
“Hoomins no am moo-moo babbeh. Bu’ stiww dwink moo-moo miwkies. Whu was fiwst hooman to twy dwink moo-moo- miwkies?”
Hot Dog’s eyes crossed, the obvious question hitting her. “Weawwy? How dey t’ink fo du dat?”
Napoleon laughed. “I don’t know. Someone really thirsty, I guess. And that’s the limit of canon. It doesn’t show new things. It just shows what people thought of before. Which is good! But things get added to it slowly. And sometimes go away slowly.”
“Wai go away?”
“Because people don’t like it anymore. Or something better came along,” Napoleon brought up a picture of a 1960’s concealed salad: pasta in unflavored gelatin. “Humans used to eat this. Looks like a waste of spaghetti to me. Likewise, early on for fluffies, a soon-mother would explode instead of giving birth. There would be babies everywhere.”
Hot Dog winced. Hippolyta put her hoof to her face, head shaking.
“So dummeh.”
“That used to be canon. Many forevers later it wasn’t. I suppose the humans wanted something that made more sense instead.”
“Wemind Hippowita fow ask daddeh to no make Hippowita soon-mama wook wike baww if Hippowita an’ Napowean hab babbehs.”
“Of course,” Napoleon said. “That’s kind of a dumb idea, too.”
“An’ no wan way eggies wike chi’kun.”
“Du Hippowita an’ Napowean wan’ be awone? Make speshul huggies?”
The two looked at Hot Dog then smiled, looking at each other. “Mabbeh watew…”
“Daddy’s worstest fluffy trap idea is still new, but some other creators have used it. A lot seem to like it. But its not canon yet. There’s a lot of people who don’t know about it, or aren’t doing things that would benefit from it. Likewise, his ‘Fluffy Jobs’ idea is something a lot of people seem to like, but isn’t being used a lot by other humans. Its not canon either.”
“So if odda hoomins use and wike, den mabbeh cum can-nun?”
“And if it becomes canon, then there’s a chance it’ll just be accepted as part of what can make up a fluffy’s world.”
“Wike soon-mamma wookin’ wike dummeh baww.”
“Does this make sense, Hot Dog? Daddy is a good daddy that tries to make things better for fluffies all over. And there are lots of other human creators making worlds that make things too for him and others to use too. This is human magic.”
“T’ink so.”
“Das gud,” Hippolyta smiled. “Naow, yu no maddies at daddeh, yu no maddies at Hot Dog. Yu kno how t’ings work a wittle bit.”
“So Hippolyta and I have a job for you! Its a good job!”
“Jobsies? Bu’ what can Howt Dog du? Onwy fwuffy.”
“Yes, you are a fluffy. But daddy makes ‘fluffy jobs,’ remember? He makes jobs for fluffies to help their human families. And in our herd we give fluffies jobs too!”
“Hippowita an’ Napowean wan’ Howt Dog to hewp daddeh make shtuff.”
“Can twy, but how cum?”
“Because daddy is a human. Humans are smarter than fluffies, but they’re also dummer than fluffies,” Napoleon paused seeing Hot Dog’s confused face. “Like I said. Humans are complicated.”
“Daddeh wan’ twy hewp fwuffies, bu’ no weawwy unnastan’. So wan’ Howt Dog hewp daddeh unnastan’ what fwuffies need. What wan.”
“Many human creators will reach a point where what is good for fluffies and good for humans isn’t easy or obvious. There will be problems. And not all humans or fluffies are good. So help him when he with those things.”
“How du dat?”
“Ask him questions. Ask him what’s doing. Ask him to explain. Make him say it, don’t let him change the subject.”
“Maybeh daddeh not suwe how du eiddah. Gib ideas. Ow jus’ saw wike ow no wike. Ask wha’ daddeh t’ink. Make daddeh t’ink hawd.”
“Sometimes he won’t like an idea, but can’t think of something else. If you don’t like it, then maybe he’ll drop it. Or, if you do like it, maybe he’ll work harder to make it work.”
“But no be babbeh ‘bout it. Yu mawe, no fiwwie. Yu smawtie.”
“That’s true. There’s going to be times when the best thing isn’t easy or nice. Daddy likes fluffies, and doesn’t like things that aren’t nice. But sometimes its what’s needed. Help him through that.”
Hot Dog looked at the two cartoon fluffies. They seemed so dumb when she first met them, but now? She shook her head. Her eyes went down to the white ground, looking around at the FC/OS dome around them and the white expanse beyond it.
“Otay. Howt Dog wiww du."
