Deston Faucheuse, fluffy psychologist and wizard, walks through the halls of Facility A-40, an employee by his side.
Unlike Facilities B-34 and X-88, this is not a place where fluffies are bred.
This is a place where fluffies are treated for various mental afflictions.
Or, if they’re too far gone, they’re kept here, and taken care of, and kept away from other fluffies.
Facility A-40 is, essentially, a fluffy insane asylum.
Deston and the employee, a young woman wearing her blonde hair in two pigtails, yes, really, pigtails, pause outside one padded room.
Deston turns to a screen by the door, showing the occupant of the room, a red and black earthie stallion, huddled in one corner, babbling to himself.
“Dis nu am weaw, dis howe wowwd nu am weaw…”
Deston turns to the employee.
“What’s wrong with the poor little guy, Arleen?”
Arleen, the employee, sighs.
“This is a bad case, Dr. Faucheuse. Wade here thinks that our entire universe is nothing more than a fabrication. He says that it’s all just a story on some website.”
Deston shakes his head in disbelief.
“I’ve met my fair share of crazy people, but I’ve never met anyone that crazy. I’m sure if I spend some one-on-one time with Wade, I can snap him out of it.”
“I hope so, Dr. Faucheuse. And I hope he isn’t right.”
As Arleen looks away for a moment, Deston turns to you, presses a finger to his lips, and winks.
Yes, you. The person reading this story right now.
Deston can break the fourth wall too.
But Calvin and Dave don’t know that. Or that Deston knows that they can do it too.
So shush, don’t tell them.
Deston and Arleen move on to another room.
The fluffy in this room is frantically bouncing around from wall to wall, attempting to attack, but having nothing to attack.
Deston recognises the fluffy and frowns.
“Ah, Ripper. I hate to admit it, but I think he’s finally ended my perfect record. Ever since we recovered him from that fighting ring, he’s resisted every attempt to break his homicidal mania.”
Arleen gives Deston a reassuring smile, her blue eyes glittering.
Deston knows that Arleen is quite popular with men her age. Besides being beautiful, she’s also very intelligent. Ronald from Facility B-34 can’t stop stammering whenever him and Arleen are in the same room.
Deston has told Ronald that if he likes her, he should just go for it. He’d be a much better boyfriend than her ex, Jack. Deston couldn’t help but sneak a quick peek into Arleen’s mind, and saw that the feeling is mutual.
No, not the Jack who unwisely angered Samuel the angel and got sent to Hell for it. That Jack was a big ol’ softy compared to Arleen’s ex.
“We’re not giving up on Ripper yet, sir. Valerie’s working on a serum that should hopefully quell his bloodlust. She did crack the P53 problem in record time, after all. I think we can still maintain your perfect record.”
Deston smiles back.
“I do hope we can save Ripper. I don’t like sounding arrogant, but I do have a reputation to uphold.”
In the next room, a stallion is frantically enfing a Special Huggie Friend.
The Special Huggie Friend had to be custom made, because this fluffy has a type.
And that type is foals.
Deston reluctantly watches the pedo fluffy with a look of disgust and resignation on his face.
“Well, if we can’t snap him out of it, we can at least keep him away from any real foals.”
In the next room, the former smarty of a feral herd angrily rants to himself.
“Smawty am da bestest smawty eba, nu nee dummeh hewd, nu nee dummeh hoomins, smawty gun git owt of hewe, an den smawty gun gib aww hoomins an udda fwuffies foweba sweepies…”
Deston facepalms.
“Mon Dieu. Give him magic powers and we’d have another Umbra on our hands.”
In the next room, a former breeder mare from Facility B-34 is curled up on top of a massive pile of Bestest Babbeh Friends.
Every single one looks like a miniature version of her.
“Dis am stiww nu enuff babbehs.”
Deston pinches the bridge of his nose.
“And I thought Twinkle was bad.”
In the last room Deston will be examining today, a water bottle has been mounted to the wall, and the food bowl has been mounted to the floor.
A soft nutrient paste is piped into the bowl.
The fluffy in the room is refusing to eat, and will probably have to be force-fed soon.
Deston sighs at the thought, and turns to Arleen.
“Let me guess: he keeps trying to kill himself.”
Arleen nods solemnly.
Deston gives her a gentlemanly pat on the shoulder.
“This will be an easy one, my dear. I had a case just like it last year. All I have to do is look inside his mind and see what’s driving him to attempt suicide. If it’s a traumatic memory, I can bury it.”
Deston has his own code when it comes to using his telepathic powers on others, a code most other telepaths also strive to obey.
Look, but don’t touch. And if you do have to touch, don’t add anything, don’t take anything away, just… move around what’s already there.
Burying a traumatic memory, or uncovering a suppressed memory or a forgotten piece of knowledge is one thing. But putting thoughts and memories in a person’s head that aren’t their own, or outright destroying part of a person’s mind are things that most telepaths find absolutely abhorrent.
Most telepaths.
And Deston also won’t look into anyone’s memories of whatever they do in the bathroom, or the bedroom, or any time they’re undressed.
Because Deston, like his brother, strives to be a gentleman.
Victor once asked Deston to teach him telepathy.
Deston’s reply?
“Only when you stop being a cad, Victor.”
Victor, a cad through and through, chose continuing to be a cad over learning telepathy.
But it was a tough call.
Once Deston is finished, he makes several appointments with the fluffies Arleen had shown him.
Today, his schedule is packed, because the ChaotiX and the Cabal are currently working on uncovering the true identities of the zombies currently known as Reggae and Mortis.
Deston also needs to check in on Lavender and her foals.
He’s considering taking one of the foals home with him. He’s got a saferoom that’s bigger on the inside, so Merlin and the new arrival will have plenty of space.
Deston has grown rather fond of Lavender, after all the time he’s spent monitoring her due to her condition, and then training her when her other condition became apparent.
She’s almost ready to take the power dampener off full-time.
And…
If Lavender is willing to accept…
She’ll make an excellent addition to the ChaotiX roster.