Part 1 Here
Part 2 can be found Here
Part 3
2 years post Feeding Frenzy
Despite having been in operation for two months, this was the official ribbon-cutting of the Torgl-Tech Mark 2 power plant. It was an old logistics warehouse bought for pennies on the dollar due to foreclosure. It was slated to be used by a multitude of freight companies before the fluffies fucked with the economy. It was an ideal site; it had spaciously high ceilings, an expansive footprint, and best of all a blank slate to build inside.
There was a little noise, and a slight smell. The city had started hauling organic waste to the facility once their government subsidies were secured. Anything to prove they were committed to better environmental policy. The private stores no longer needed to have their own system once the city government took over; they still managed to get their own tax credits for their part in establishing the plan. A secondary silo had to be built to keep the food stored, but the buildup was a problem for another day.
Brennan strolled out of the front entryway wearing his newly pressed suit; it was given to him as a congratulatory gift from Everett Brooks himself. He waved to the members of the press, smiling graciously at the light applause. He strolled up to the podium standing next to the ceremonial ribbon, taking a firm hold of it as he looked out on the crowd. Next to the podium was something concealed under a red, velvet drape.
“Ladies and gentleman……” he spoke, “Today we mark the official opening of the Torgl-Tech Mark 2 Power Plant!” He paused for the obligatory applause. He hated these games, but it was a necessary evil. “What stands before you is but only the beginning in a long line of renewable energy solutions. Plants such as these shall lead the way into an era where we can start abandoning the non-renewable, climate altering dependence on fossil fuels. While I would like to take full credit, I must acknowledge that I would not be standing here if not for the financial assistance of Everett Brooks. Now, he’s a busy man and can’t be here today, but I would be remiss if I were to proceed without crediting his involvement. He knew that he was taking a risk with me. He knew this may not work in the end, but he was willing to help me out. He helped to make this a reality. So for that, we should give him thanks!”
He waited again for the obligatory applause. This was really, really getting tedious. Still, he had an image to maintain. “I must also give thanks to another partner. Without this partner’s involvement, I never would have gotten Torgl-tech off the ground….” Brennan walked over to the velvet cloth holding his microphone and took hold. “The partner, of course…. Is Toots!” He pulled the cloth off, revealing the brown fluffy that appeared with him on Feeding Frenzy. The audience in attendance laughed as Toots waved to the crowd with one of his legs, beaming his vacant smile.
Brennan held the microphone near Toots. “Toots good fwuffy? Get sketties nao?” He asked. Brennan feigned a guffaw of laughter along with the audience in attendance. In reality, he had been wanting to punt the little shit for years. If only he didn’t need to hold on to him for appearances.
“Yes, Toots, you’ll get your sketties….” Brennan laughed, grabbing the ceremonial pair of oversized scissors. He walked over to the ribbon, looking toward the press to give his obligatory pose with the scissors wide open. He was ready to cut…
“ASSHOLE!”
A silence fell among the attendees. Everyone looked around for where the outburst had originated. The group slowly parted as the source of the profanity was revealed. A lone woman in her early twenties, clad in a pair of jeans and “Fluffy Rights Now!” t-shirt stared defiantly at Brennan. In the deep silence some of the hired security started moving towards her until Brennan held his hand up.
He waved her over. “Let her speak…. Come here….” he invited. “This lovely woman has something to say. I think it’s only fair to let her speak her piece…” He again motioned for her to approach.
She tilted her head, appearing to be very weary of Brennan’s intentions. At his beckoning, she made her way through the parted crowd to Brennan. The whole time she stared daggers at him, not trusting him. He held the microphone out to her, graciously giving her a soapbox to stand on. She reluctantly took it from him, turning to face the crowd.
“What you see behind me is nothing but exploitation!” she proclaimed. “Fluffies may have been designed as toys, but they are alive! They have feelings! Behind me… fluffies are confined! They are given sad, meaningless lives as they are exploited for our benefit! The only things these creatures have to look forward to is death! Whether or not you like them, they were made by us, and we have a right to treat them with dignity and respect! For the respect of loving, sentient beings everywhere, this power plant must be shut down!” The audience stood in silence as Brennan stood behind her, silently nodding his head as he looked at the ground. She turned to him, holding his microphone with an outstretched arm as the press silently watched.
Brennan took the microphone back. He looked back at the press and spoke, “She’s not entirely wrong…. You are?” He held the microphone out to her.
“Margot,” she spat, not relenting in her malicious glare.
“Margot is not entirely wrong. Biotoys or not, fluffies are alive. They react with feeling because of emotions that humankind has given them. They bleed, they feel fear. They have an ingrained desire to love unconditionally. It is because of this I designed the Mark 2 plant to make sure that the source of our fuel is treated with care. Just because they lack the ability to perceive what proper treatment is does not mean they are undeserving of it.”
He turned to Margot. “Now…. I am willing to invite Margot in with a few members of the press… Yes, bring your cameras! No NDAs today!” he proclaimed, pointing his finger up as he scanned the crowd. “I will personally bring this group to meet our fluffies…….” he paused, puckering his lips. “And if Margot is not convinced that these fluffies are happy… there will be no ribbon cutting today!” Collective gasps ensued through the crowd as he made his proclamation. He turned to Margot. “Deal?”
Margot looked at Brennan dumbstruck with a deer in the headlights look. In front of all these people he was willing to put his entire business on the line at the will of an activist. The crowd shared this sense of incredulity; could this be real? She looked at Brennan, a look of confusion on her face. She nodded her head slowly; barely more than mouthing the word “Deal.”
“Very well!” he announced. He turned to a member of the hired security, instructing him to select four members of the media to accompany them. They were chosen at random and they all gathered at the entrance to the plant. “Follow me….” he instructed as he unlocked front door with his keycard and led the group to the lobby. He lead them through the entryway; a sterile looking atrium with the original prototype at its center.
The man at the front desk stood up until Brennan waved him to sit down and led them into a narrow hallway. “Now, I need to warn you…. When we entire the hive, you’re going to be hit by a blast of air. The hive is kept at a positive pressure so all potential greenhouse gasses are collected by our vapor reclamation system. Without it, many of the greenhouse gasses would be released into the air and we would lose fuel.” He turned to his group. “Ready?”
They all nodded in agreement. Brennan opened the door to what he called the hive and the group indeed get hit by a wall of air escaping. The group pressed through the light gale, collectively gasping when the saw what was in the hive.
Before them stood two large circular columns of 10 pens stacked one on top of the other. Each pen looked to be about four feet in height; cramped to a human but plenty of breathing room for a fluffy. Each column was about twenty-two feet in diameter, containing 10 fluffies each. Brennan waved them forward, approaching the pens to see fluffies engaged in fluffy play. Each pen had blocks, blankets, and other toys. In the center of each column was pipe that had an opening in each pen. A service elevator gave access to each column along a small spiral walkway encircling the height of each one. Of course, it was hard to not see the projected FluffTV on the opposite wall.
Brennan stood in front of one of the columns, motioning behind him. “We have consulted with several ethical breeding operations to design our waste collectors. As you can see… these fluffies enjoy a much more spacious environment and higher quality of life that most fluffies enjoy in breeding mills. You don’t have to take my word for it, though….” He waved the group to approach the column as he kneeled down to talk into one of the pens. “Hello, fluffies!” he called.
“Daddeh!” Many fluffies came over to see him.
“Have you all been good fluffies?” Brennan asked to a response of a unimamous “Yes, daddeh!” He smiled. “Could one of you please demonstrate how you make good poopies for daddy?” Immediately several fluffies raced to the chute in the center. The first one to make it backed up to chute, lifting her tail as she sprayed her excrement into the chute. It was immediately sucked up. “Very good!” Brennan praised, “Now, go play! Good fluffies get to play!” The group beamed with pride as they dispersed into their toys.
He turned to the group. “I’ll admit… my prototype was very… shortsighted.” He said, looking to the ground. He then turned to Margot. “I let my love of science cloud my judgement. The prototype’s design was no way for a fluffy to live…” He then turned to the group of the media. “Over time, I only saw Toots fall into despair. I realized that it couldn’t be sustainable. Instead, I went back to the drawing board. I managed to convince my investors that the only way to keep things running was to make sure our producers were happy. As you can see…. Happy fluffies make good poopies….”
His speech was cut short by the blare of an alarm. “INCIDENT IN PEN 1-2!” an announcement proclaimed. Brennan turned and ran to the other column as his group followed him. He stopped at the pen, which was at waist level.
“Dis is smawty’s baww!” A blue unicorn fluffy proclaimed as it was stomping a motionless stallion in the skull. “Smawty get what smawty wants!” The other fluffies in the pen huddled against the outer fence as an employee hunched down to get inside and grab the newly discovered smarty. It SKREEEE’d as it was pulled out as another employee went to collect the dead stallion’s corpse. Brennan turned around, sulking.
“I’m sorry you witnessed that. That is only the second time something like this has happened in the two months of our beginning operations.” He explained, looking somewhat defeated. He pointed to the other column where a fluffy was walking up the outer spiral walkway. She approached a hatch that opened as she got near it. “We’ve instituted a program similar to the Carter method. We have nurse fluffies that go to other pens to help with the foals as they mature. They are given guidance and care in order to reduce smarty syndrome. However….” He turned to look at the pen that just had an incident in violence. “It’s not something that can be completely avoided. When we find a smarty we know we can’t keep it in the pen; we instead send it to a no-kill rehabilitative shelter where it will be cared for.”
He turned to Margot. “You see… we try to give them everything they need. However, we can’t prevent the odd fluffy from falling through the cracks….” She kept her eyes on the pool of blood that was being swept away.
“So what do you think?” he asked her point blank. “Do you find this unethical? There are “ethical” farms that don’t give them this much space or freedom. If you can look past my prototype…… Can you not see that I take these fluffies’ feelings into account? Do they not have a happy home?”
Margot looked up at him. Her face contorted in a mixture of emotions as she tried to form her words. A tear ran from her eye as she looked back at the pen. She took several deep breaths, before looking down and giving a reluctant “Yeah. I couldn’t give them this.”
….
After a long wait, Brennan and his impromptu entourage emerged from the front of the building. He came back to the podium with Margot at his side. “My friends…. “he said, “I apologize for the wait. Despite an incident which will no doubt be forthcoming in future news releases, I have shown that my Torgl-Tech Mark 2 Power Plant is indeed made with the utmost care of our fluffies in mind. I feel humbled that I was able to show Miss Margot here that her concerns were most valid and heard. So, with her permission……” He went to take up the ceremonial scissors once again. He moved to cut but stopped just before closing them. He turned to Margot, looking her in the eye. He opened the scissors once again, turning them around to hand them to her.
Once again, the silence in the crowd was deafening. She looked at him incredulously. This woman who had introduced herself through profanity was now being handed the center of the ceremony. She slowly reached out and took them. Turning to the press to she gave a surprised smile and cut the ribbon. No one looked more surprised than Margot that Brennan applauded her.
…
Once the press and the gathering had dispersed he went into his office. He fell into his couch, letting out a big sigh. “Jesus Christ……” he proclaimed.
“That. Was. Fucking. Brilliant.” He heard the voice from his office chair as it turned around. Everett Brooks sat at Brennan’s desk, looking at him with admiration. “You pulled it off and they ate it up.”
Brennan just laid there on his couch, the heel of his hands pressed into his eyes. He took several deep breaths. “So many things could have gone wrong……” he admitted. “But I gave you exactly what you asked for. The fluffies look happy. That’s what the press will likely show.”
“You’re damn right. I knew you were lying through your teeth. Too much of your process relied on your prototype. Instead, I got you to think like a businessman.” Everett smiled. He produced a bottle of amber liquid and set it on Brennan’s desk along with two glasses. “This whiskey costs more than most people make in a month……” Everett told him. “Have a drink with me. As partners!”
As Brennan was about to refuse due to his nausea his phone buzzed in his pocket. He picked it up, silently answering. “Yeah?”
“Was I good or what?”
“Babe……” Brennan said. “You deserve an Oscar. Meryl Streep has nothing on you……”
“No shit.” Margot replied. “Can I stop it with the hugbox bullshit yet?”
“Not yet, babe, I’m sorry……” Brennan told her. “If you pull out of the organization now it will look suspicious as fuck. I’m sorry… but you need to at least pretend to care. We all do, for a while longer. At least until they decide to take their eyes off us….”
“Yeah. A girl can dream though, right?”
“I don’t blame you. I’d like to stick some of the hugboxers on our wall, but their shit won’t work. I’m in a little meeting with my partner, can I talk later?”
“Sure thing. Love you.”
“Love you, too.” and he hung up.
Brennan sighed. He got up and walked to his desk. “Fuck it…” he said. “I’ll take that drink….”