“The fuck you say boy, talk shit man.”
15 year old Jonathan Mongola had just enough time to spit out the mouthful of blood before the hefty boot slammed into his chin, sending a crimson cascade across his battered face. This wasn’t the first time Jonathan had tasted blood, but it was the first time his blood had been spilt by someone his own age.
“Fucking pussy man, little bitch daddy’s boy ain’t saying nothing now.”
A hard kick to his ribs nearly caused Jonathan to throw up, he winced even as doing so caused him more physical pain. The two guys beating the shit out of him were Malcolm and Andre, the older brothers of Nina, Jonathan’s ex-friend, the friend he had purposefully ignored for the last two years trying to protect her from his father’s wrath. The same friend who now had her brothers chasing him down because of an apparently slight against her name.
Malcolm lifted Jonathan by his shirt collar and landed a thunderous left hook across his face. “Here man, you fucking think you’re better than our sister? You think just cause your dad thinks he’s a fucking big shot you can’t hang about with folks like us, is that it?”
“I… never… said… anything….”
“Bullshit man.” Andre spat out at him. “We know who you’re dad is and we know who you are. Don’t tell us it’s anything different.”
“You… got… the wrong….”
Malcolm hooked Jonathan in the mouth again, Jonathan definitely felt something crack as his half-conscious body was dropped to the earth.
“Nah man, we ‘got’ exactly what you’re saying. Next time, have the decency to tell Nina that you’re a piece of shit to her face, don’t hide away like a fucking pussy.”
The two brother kicked dirt into Jonathan’s face and left him to bleed out, Jonathan lay weakly on the rocky terrain, wondering how shit had went this sideways. After all he’d done to avoid hurting Nina’s feelings he still ended up fucking things up, all he’d done to avoid getting his ass kicked by her brothers and here he still was bleeding half to death in the dirt.
Treated no better than an animal, just how animals would treat each other.
Just like how he knew they would act.
Just like how Fitz told him THEY would act.
It was later that night, in the hours just before dawn, that Jonathan tried to piece together his revenge. Some metal piping, a few hundred nails, some homemade nitro-glycerine, bombs were nothing new to him but this one was going to be something special, he wouldn’t even need to light a fuse, as soon as the glass jar cracked opened from the force of being thrown the temperamental nitro-glycerine would react and blow the whole thing to kingdom fucking come anyway. And he knew where Malcolm and Andre slept, he’s been to their house, ate under their fucking roof and this was how they treated him, now, Jonathan would make sure they would feel the mistake of crossing him as it ripped them open from the inside out, they would fucking burn for…
“What are you doing?”
Jonathan jumped and spun round in his chair, behind him standing at the doorway was Josef, Jonathan’s younger brother and the only person Jonathan was willing to call his friend.
“Fuck Joey don’t sneak up on me, what the hell are you doing here?”
“It’s 3 in the morning, what are YOU doing here?”
Jonathan tried to subtly swivel his chair to hide the nail-bomb on the counter, but Josef could read his brother and leaned over, catching a glimpse of glass and metal.
“That have anything to do with your fucked up face?”
“Leave it Joey, you won’t understand, you’re just a kid.”
“You got two years on me grampa. And I understand plenty, I can practically see dad’s hand above you like a fucking puppet.”
“I said leave it Joey.”
Jonathan glared at his brother, who glared just as hard right back, the only difference being that Josef was genuinely disappointed in what his brother was doing.
“Whatever, I’m gonna bed. Don’t make too much noise when you’re done playing Unabomber.”
Josef turned and left the study, leaving Jonathan alone with his half-finished creation, he turned back and stared at the pieces, all metals and chemical waiting to be put together, and for reasons he didn’t yet understand, Jonathan began disassembling everything.
His young mind, starting to feel the poisonous effects of his father’s words, simply blamed his change of heart on not wanting to go to jail because of a little bit of pest control.
“Mrs Nesbit… Mrs Nesbit calm down. No I did not say you were lying, I’m just trying to make sense of what you’ve told me.”
Jonathan walked over to the breakroom table, a morning coffee in his hands, and sat down with Taylor and Artemis, both of whom were watching Bryan’s exhausting phone call with curiosity and a little malicious glee as well.
“Who’s on the phone?” Jonathan asked, taking the chair next to Artemis.
“Gloria Nesbit.” Artemis answered, her tone reflecting the roll of her eyes. “Harmless old biddy at the best of times but she gets herself wound up over nothing and wastes money she doesn’t have calling out services she doesn’t need.”
“Bryan took pity on her.” Taylor joined in the conversation, his eyes still not leaving Bryan’s pacing of the open-plan kitchen. “So he offered to handle most of her issue, save her some money.”
“Bryan’s good at that sort of thing.” Artemis winked at Jonathan with just a hint of teasing mockery.
“Still…” Taylor exclaimed as he finally turned away from his boss’ phone call. “…This does sound like a Fluffy issue so it’s best we keep our professional faces on, Mrs Nesbit might be a silly old dither but she’s also a customer so we keep things in check until we get paid.”
“So be professional until they can’t hear us anymore?” Jonathan asked with a smirk.
“Bingo.”
There was a loud sigh off to the sidelines that told them all Bryan’s conversation had finished, the large man took a moment to gather himself before turning to the three grinning faces staring at him.
“The fuck yoose gobshites looking at?”
“Good talk boss?” Artemis giggled at him.
“Don’t start. Dorethy’s nice enough but she’s got some fucking undiagnosed anxiety disorder. Turns out she’s freaking out about a Fluffy in her garden, says the wee guy’s sleeping in her rose bush and she’s scared in case she has to pay any fines for keeping him there.”
Taylor shrugged at the simplicity of the situation. “So it’s a simple round-up job, send Johnny and the Cannibal round, I’ll stay here and tinker some more with the Vaporwave.”
Bryan shook his head. “You ain’t heard the best part, apparently the thing’s massive.”
“Massive? How big we talking here?” Artemis leaned in, suddenly curious about where this was going.
Bryan waved his hand in an unsure manner. “Eh, she’d didn’t give specifics, just said the thing was twice the size of a regular Fluffy, and that it had TWO horns on its head.”
“Two?” Artemis chuckled. “Christ that’s just what we need, we’ve either got bicorns being bred into the wild or Old Lady Nesbit’s finally lost her eyesight.”
“No.”
Everyone turned to Jonathan, his face in serious contemplation as he stared at his coffee mug, like he was trying to work something out.
“Excuse me?”
“No, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with Mrs Nesbit’s eyes, in fact I think she might have just accidentally found a Fluffalo.”
“A what?” Taylor asked, a slight snap in his voice.
“A Fluffalo.”
“What the fuck is a Fluffalo?”
“It’s a relatively rare breed of Fluffy, came out after the outbreak, they were designed to be a stronger variants of Fluffy, larger, sturdier, meant for older people who maybe couldn’t handle the delicateness of normal Fluffies. Mrs Nesbit say it was alone?”
“Um, yeah, yeah it was alone.” Bryan nodded, wondering where Jonathan was going with this.
“That’s not good, Fluffalo’s might be physically stronger than Fluffies but emotionally they NEED social interaction, loneliness can literally kill them. If this one is alone they’ve either gotten lost from their herd, or something bad has happened to them. You mind if I take Scarlett and check it out?”
Bryan shook his head. “Fuck it, go for it.”
Artemis stood up. “I’ll come too, you won’t know the way to Nesbit’s house and she could probably use a familiar face.”
The two of them jumped up and rushed to get ready, grabbing whatever gear they needed in order to see exactly what a Fluffalo really was.
“Oh Artemis, I’m so glad to see you. It’s just been awful, that thing is out there, I keep shouting at it but it won’t move.”
“It’s alright Mrs Nesbit, we’re here now.”
Artemis led Jonathan and Scarlett through Mrs Nesbit’s hallway through to her backdoor, Jonathan couldn’t help but feel bad for the old dear, standing at 4 foot nothing and hunched over, she looked about 105 and this seemed to be her on an active day.
For a brief second he thought of his father, and wondered if killing him might have been too good for him.
In his arms, Scarlett looked around the dusty old house and shuddered. “Dis pwace am depwessing.”
“This is getting old Scarlett, it’ll happen to the best of us.”
“Scawwett hope gu foweba sweepies befowe an DIS fukin owd.”
Jonathan gave a short chuckle before quickly rejoining Artemis and Mrs Nesbit at the back door, from the window Jonathan could see the random pieces of clutter that Mrs Nesbit had chucked at the intruder trying to scare it away; a spatula, a box of tissue, a single slipper. None of them coming anywhere near the thing as it lay under the rose bush, unmoving except for it’s evident breathing.
Even from here, Jonathan could see the size of the thing was much larger than a normal Fluffy.
“That’s it there.” Mrs Nesbit trembled out with a shaky finger. “It’s been there all day, hasn’t moved and done anything since I found it. Doesn’t even respond to me shouting at it.”
“Have you gone near it at all?” Artemis asked gently.
“Of course not, don’t want anyone thinking I actually OWN the thing.”
Artemis placed a gentle hand on Mrs Nesbit’s shoulder and softly pushed her away from the window.
“Ok Dorethy, I understand, don’t worry no-one’s going to think you own the Fluffy ok. How about we get you a tea to calm your nerves while I let the interns handle the collection?
“Whu da fuk yu cawwin intewn?”
Artemis flashed Scarlett a wink before taking Mrs Nesbit through to her kitchen. Jonathan and Scarlett turned back to the window and peered out at the rather large creature at the other end of the garden.
“You know he’s a big fucker right? I can tell that from here.”
“It ok, Scawwett deaw wiv big fukas befowe. Dat how Scawwett wose heaw-pwace wememba.”
“Didn’t you end up killing that guy?”
“Oh yeh.”
Jonathan let out a funny little snort before opening the backdoor and heading into the garden. Clearly the place had seen better days, the grass was a little too longer and some weeds had poked through here and there, but overall it was a relatively well-maintained garden, the rose-bush was clearly the cream of the crop with a perfectly round top and several bright red flourishes dotted around.
Jonathan was surprised to see that none of the actual flowers had been eaten, whoever this Fluffy was, they weren’t in the mood to eat.
Once they were close enough to the Fluffy, Jonathan knelt down on the grass and lay Scarlett down next to him, he could now confirm that this was, in fact, a Fluffalo, the size was a dead give-away but so was it’s light brown coat, it’s longer tail and the twin horns on its head, although from the angle Jonathan could see one of them had been broken in half, not an easy task. Between that and what appeared to be crying, Jonathan knew for sure that something bad had happened to this creature.
“Hey there, you ok.”
The Fluffalo silently sobbed for a bit before its ears perked up at the new voice. Slowly but surely, it turned it’s head and looked over at Jonathan and Scarlett, surprised to see another human and a Fluffy with him.
“Am yu hewe tu gib Stwoopwaffeh mowe heawt-huwties?”
Jonathan shook his head, now more curious than ever to find out what happened to this guy. “No, no of course not. We were told there was a Fluffy in this garden so we came to help, we help lost Fluffies find their way home. Are you lost?”
“Nu… yeh… nu… huuu, Stwoopwaffeh nu knyo aneemowe.”
The Fluffalo, Stroopwaffle, rolled onto his belly and covered his eyes with his hoofs, sobbing away at the pain and confusion. With his body now fully in view, Jonathan could see two words that had been etched into his left side, and with the crusty skin surrounding the words, it’s likely they had been burnt in with chemicals so the hair would never grow back, marking Stroopwaffle with the moniker forever more.
‘Foal Stomper’
Jonathan felt an unease wash over him, but he knew Fluffalo’s to be fairly gentle things, so he tried to hold off judgement until he learnt a little more.
“What’s up man, why don’t you know if you have a home anymore?”
“Cos…” Stroopwaffle sniffed back a hefty snot bubble. “…Cos Stwoopwaffeh daddeh am biggesh meanie, gib Stwoopwaffeh wowstesh heawt-huwties. Stwoopwaffeh wub daddeh, daddeh say Stwoopwaffeh am bigesh, stwongesh Fwuffawo eba, hab biggesh heawt-happies. Den daddeh git Stwoopwaffeh speciaw-fwiend, an she am pwettiesh Fwuffy eba, Stwoopwaffeh wub speciaw-fwiend, den Stwoopwaffeh an speciaw-fwiend hab babbehs, Stwoopwaffeh fink it bestesh bwite-time eba… bu den….”
Stroopwaffle fought back a lump in his throat, clearly whatever his story was, he was still traumatised by it. Jonathan was about to comfort the poor guy when Scarlett’s voice piped up.
“Den wha?”
It was the softest Jonathan had ever heard her speak, gently pushing Stroopwaffle towards release, rather than shoving him into uncomfortable territory.
“Den daddeh ask Stwoopwaffeh tu du bestesh dancies tu show how mush wub babbehs. Stwoopwaffeh fink daddeh am siwwy, cos Stwoopwaffeh am big Fwuffawo, bu du stompie dancies cos hab biggesh heawt-happies fow babbehs. Den dadddeh… den… DEN DADDEH PUT WITTEW BABBEHS UNDA STWOOPWAFFEH HOOFIES! HUUUHUUUHUUUU!!!”
Stroopwaffle burst into tears again, the memory of everything flooding back to him, ripping his heart fresh once again. Even Jonathan couldn’t help but feel a little bad for the guy.
“Stwo…Stwoopwaffeh twy tu stop, twy tu tell daddeh dat babbehs am tuu widdew fow dancies, bu daddeh gib wowstesh shoutiest u Stwoopwaffeh, teww him dat if nu stop stompie dancies den daddeh take way weggies an speciaw-wump, make Stwoopwaffeh intu dummeh Fwuffawo Stwoopwaffeh nu wan be dummeh, bu nu wan babbehs hab foweba sweepies, twy tu be nice bu daddeh make wowstesh shouties at Stwoopwaffeh an mak Stwoopwaffehe gib babbehs foweba sweepies. Stwoopwaffeh wan die, teww daddeh dat wan be dummeh nu weggie, nu wump Fwuffawo, jus su wastesh babbehs nu gu foweba sweepies. Bu daddeh gib Stwoopwaffeh bad upsies den make Stwoopwaffeh gib wastesh babbehs foweba sweepies, hab biggesh heawt-huwties, speciaw-fwiend hate Stwoopwaffeh nyo, say am biggesh meanie dummeh, daddeh jus waugh, wike he neba wub Stwoopwaffeh at aww.”
A silence fell between them all as Jonathan and Scarlett took in Stroopwaffle’s story, a silence eventually broken by Scarlett.
“Fuk.”
“Yeah that’s… fuck that’s a story man. What happened with your daddy after that?”
“Daddeh gib Stwoopwaffeh wowstesh buwnie huwties tu Fwuff, say dat eberwywun nyo knyo dat Stwoopwaffeh am babbeh kiwwa. Den Daddeh bweak Stwoopwaffeh hown, yoose it gib speciaw-fwiend wowstesh pointie huwties, take way speciaw-fwiend see-pwaces su she nu knyo dat Stwoopwaffeh nu am gibben hew huwties. Da wast time Stwoopwaffeh see speciaw-fwiend, daddeh hab biggesh meanie Fwuffy gib hew bad speciaw-huggies befowe daddeh take Stwoopwaffeh fow wongesh dwive in metal-munstah an thwow away wike wubbish. Daddeh neba wub Stwoopwaffeh, jus pwetend su can gib Stwoopwaffeh wowstesh heawt-huwties eba, make Stwoopwaffeh wan die.”
Stroopwaffle collapsed down onto his belly, too tired and worn out to keep crying. Jonathan and Scarlett turned to face each other, an unnerving look on Scarlett’s face.
“Wha am dis ugwy feewin in Scawwett’s tummeh, wike numming fat babbeh.”
“I think it’s called pity.”
“Nu fukin wike it.”
“I bet, but listen I get you. Guy’s had a shit time of it, unfortunately there’s not much we can do for him?”
“Nu can keep him?”
“Really? You want to keep him? You’re not getting soft on me are you Scarlett?”
“Num shit yu fukin coksuka. Scawwett jus feew bad fow him, daddeh sound wike a kunt.”
“Yeah, he kind does. Well listen, I can’t promise anything, but I’ll go talk to Artemis and see if we can’t find a place for him in the office, just to help him get back on his feet a little bit. Can’t send him to a shelter if he’s a little cry-baby right?”
Scarlett nodded in agreement. “Yeh, nu-wun wan wittew cwy-babbeh.”
“Exactly, alright you two wait here, I’ll go talk to Artemis and see what we can do.”
Before Scarlett could stop him, Jonathan was off and rushing back to the house, leaving the two Fluffies alone. Scarlett immediately felt the awkwardness, she was iffy around other Fluffies at the best of times but now she had a walking shithouse of depression and she didn’t know what would and wouldn’t set him off.
Thankfully, Stroopwaffle seemed to pick up on her awkwardness and broke the silence for her.
“Am dat yuw daddeh?”
“Wha? Oh, nu, nu dat am Jon. He am… weww he am wike a daddeh bu nu weawwy. It am hawd to expwain bu Jon an Scawwett make it wowk.”
“Oh, he seem nice.”
“Eh, he am ok.”
Stroopwaffle felt himself laugh a little bit from Scarlett’s carefree attitude. “Fank yu fwiend, Stwoopwaffeh hab wowstesh heawt-huwties, need hewp tu hab heawt-happies gain.”
“Nu wead tuu mush intu dis, Scawwett an Jon jus duin fukin job, saddies sak of shit wike yu need aww da hewp we can… Wha da fuk?”
Scarlett was caught off-guard by Stroopwaffle rushing forward and enveloping her in a hug, it was definitely more for his benefits than hers, as she immediately tensed up at the physical contact.
“Git. Da. Fuk. Off.”
“Sowwy.” Stroopwaffle sighed out, not letting go. “It be wong time since Stwoopwaffeh hab huggies, huggies make ebewyfing better.”
In his colossal arms, Scarlett couldn’t do much to escape from the gentle giant, but then again… she did have to admit that his warm, all encompassing hug did feel kinda nice.
“Ok, yu git dis wun fow fwee. Bu yu ask fow huggies neks time ow Scawwett wip yuw fukin huggie weggies off.”
The only answer she got was a contented sigh.
Inside the house, Jonathan found Artemis talking to Mrs Nesbit, the old woman clearly now having calmed down after a good cup of tea. Jonathan waved over to Artemis and motioned for her to come over.
“Hey, what’s up, did you talk to the Fluffy?”
Jonathan nodded. “Yeah, it is a Fluffalo, name’s Stroopwaffle. Guy’s had it rough, had an owner who raised him, let him have a wife and kids, then made him dance on the newborns until he stomped them all to death.”
“Fuck, really?”
“Yep, he’s perked up a little now that he’s got it off his chest but Fluffalo’s are emotionally driven creatures, even by Fluffy standards. Chances are he’s going to have another episode down the line, can’t exactly send him to the shelter in that state, he’d be stuck there until he died.”
“So what are you suggesting?”
Jonathan paused for a moment, knowing this was a big ask. “I see we take him back to the office, look after him for a little bit, at least until he’s in better mental shape.”
“Christ John, you do know our job is to capture and/or kill, I thought that was the whole reason you joined with us in the first place.”
“I know, I Know it’s just… well fuck Art I’m dealing with a severe change in my attitude towards Fluffies lately and I’m still trying to work out where I stand. Guy’s story just got to me is all.”
To Jonathan’s surprise, Artemis let out a soft laugh, not mocking but more good-natured ribbing.
“You Mongolas try to act tough but I bet you’re all a buncha softies. Alright fine, we’ll take him back with us and find a place for him. Just for a few days mind, can’t make a happy of helping every sob story we come across.”
Jonathan smiled at her. “Understood, thank you.”
As Jonathan rushed back outside, Artemis heard a small giggle coming from Mrs Nesbit.
“What?”
“Oh nothing dear, just been a while since I saw you smile like that.”
“You needs your eyes checked Dorethy, I smile all the time.”
“Not the way you smiled at him, I haven’t seen you smile like that since your mother…”
“Let’s not talk about my mother, please.”
Dorethy nodded, understanding that she’d touched a nerve.
“Will you ever forgive her? For what she did?”
“You mean like how she forgave herself?”
“Artemis you…. Eris’ suicide was not….”
“I know why my mother killed herself Dorethy, I’ve come to terms with that. And as for forgiving her, well she’s the entire reason I’m where I am now so I think once I’ve finally cleaned up her mess, then I can forgive her for what she’s done.”
Stroopwaffle is a gifted Fluffy given to me by @emotionalsupportfluffy . Only took me a year and a half but I finally got his place settled within the canon, and don’t worry, I do have plans for him. Good ones… mostly good ones.
if its a feral and dumb decisions is ok but for his owner…I guess he didn’t gave the dumb owner the foals he wanted.