Headcanon: "Defective" Fluffies (By: SqueakyFriend)

So this is something I originally mentioned in a list of other headcanons in a post that got lost during that whole christmas breakdown thing. Since this is the most interesting one (the only other one I recall is that I imagine pregnant dams float), I figure I’ll restate it. Why it took me nearly a year to do so is just because, y’know, eh I had other stuff to do.

So.

Fluffies love a few specific things. Sketties, hugs, babies, that kind of thing. But sometimes you can get a “Defective” fluffy, which is a rare … I suppose you’d call it glitch?.. That can happen in certain foals. Instead of the universally-accepted likes, a Defective fluffy will instead imprint on something else entirely. Airplanes, Sonic the Hedgehog, donuts, whatever.

For example, my Dr. Crazystein is a Defective, having imprinted on the concept of mad science. It’s all he seems to care about - he doesn’t really care about sketties or playing, babies have never crossed his mind, and he outright dislikes hugs.

Another example (though more weirdbox) is Sweet Tooth, who’s utterly obsessed with candy to the point that her insides have turned into sweets. Unless her sketties are topped with chocolate sauce and gummy worms, she’s going to reject them - and if they are, she’s eating only the toppings. It’s that bad.

Nobody really knows what causes this or how to control what a fluffy will imprint on. Sometimes a foal just ends up not acting quite right, you turn on Fluff-TV to see if fluffy shows help it adjust, and suddenly it declares its new life goal is to be a newscaster. It’s fully possible to get a Defective foal and try to imprint it on video games, only for it to fall in love with fire because Mario’s fireballs are cool and solve all problems.

Of course, not all fluffies that like non-sketti things are Defectives, either. Creep would prefer drugs to sketti but that’s not defectiveness, he’s just addicted after too much animal testing. Similarly, Sonic likes to play videogames because his owner encourages him and he’s naturally competitive - give him a plate of sketti and all focus is lost, that game will be paused or lost within seconds.

But if a fluffy shuns all the stuff fluffies normally love in favor of one specific thing and nothing else… Then yeah, you might have a Defective on your hands.

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I don’t know that I would call this ‘headcanon’, I would consider it to be canon, insofar as such a thing exists. There have always been fluffies that either didn’t fixate on skettis or fixated on something else.

I wonder if this would be more common in ferals who wouldn’t have access to sketti?

I think whether something is defective might also depend on how fluffies are made. @SqueakyFriend was Crazystein born or “made”? If he’s the former, I feel like a term like Defective may not be accurate, unless Crazystein was sold as a product

Everything in fluffies is headcanon, generally speaking. Nothing is really defined in fluffies imho, the most we have is hivecanon, where an diea is very popular that tis common in many stories.

Also could depend on the ‘biotoy’ status.

Yes, definitely agreed

Mutagen’s Ragequit comes to mind as well.
A foal so obsessed with winning that she becomes outright un-fluff like when she loses.

Not to mention her addiction to energy drinks.

Are you saying the fluffies have to be fixated on sketti?

I’m saying they don’t have to be. Unless that was the actual question you were asking. I’ve been writing fluffies liking spaghetti because its the accepted “norm”, but I know at least one person who thought was overplayed. The concept itself had an origin in a meme. Its why I think fluffies can be explored without having to rely on a sketti obsession

Oh the headcanon part is more that this is my explanation for such drastic changes being possible. There’s a weird mix of “all fluffies are programmed to love sketties and hugs and babies” and “… except this one” in the canon, so if I can explain that then why not?

It’s unclear what circumstances Crazystein was born into. What we know about his pre-science life, from his stories, is this:

  1. When he was small, his mother continuously told their owner that something was wrong with him because he wouldn’t chirp. He was even taken to the vet to see if he was braindamaged or mute, but got a clean bill of health.
  2. At some point when he was a baby, his mother thought he was dying and hugged him so tight she almost suffocated him. (Possibly due to him not chirping like healthy babies would?)
  3. Even before he got into mad science, he never considered his toys much fun, and so presumably didn’t play much with them.
  4. These issues were so prominent that when his new owner Candi received him, she was told about them.

So from these facts, we can safely say that Crazystein was different from the rest of his litter or birth family, and not in a good way.

Though, his specific case doesn’t affect the name. “Defective” isn’t a Crazystein nickname, just the catch-all term for fluffies with that specific “glitch”.

And I am now imagining a detective-obsessed fluff overhearing someone ask if he’s a Defective and proudly declaring “yus! am defective!” because he thinks they meant “detective”.

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This is totally besides the point but you should so draw that.
If you won’t, I will.

Rambo doesn’t care about sketties
His food obsession of choice is apples.
So much so he is named after an apple cultivar.

So while I hate to pat my own back but fluffies not liking sketties has been done and keeps happening.
Maybe Rambo glitched out maybe the skettie obsession was bred out of UK kitsune fluffies, I couldnt say.
But he prefers apples over sketties

( i do know why he prefers apples over sketties but its a boring out of universe explanation)

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Less defective and more “an unfinished portion of marketing friendly programming was unlocked without a clear directive.” Granted, I had a semi-random idea of fluffies getting firmware updates via TV subliminal messages.

Martini liked cakes as a reward for covering a mare? I remember well?

If fluffies are the Colonel’s secret recipe of eleven secret messed up genetic herbs and spices, filial imprinting might be one of them. Fluffies could potentially narrow their preferences and behavior to fixate on a thing that they’ve been exposed to in their youth. Programming be damned.

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I’d say either the sketti like got bred out of the species (gotta keep that fancy floof safe from pasta sauce) or he just likes apples without any glitches involved. Rambo’s definitely not a defective since he also likes non-apple things.

Fluffies still have personal tastes and favorites! So just having a different favorite food or being uninterested in babies just means your fluff’s got a personality.

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I would say Crimson is definitely defective. He doesn’t care for sketti, doesn’t care for hugs, treats Josef more like a pal than an owner. But he was made, his psychosis was brought about through severe trauma and seems to have overwritten the Fluffy part of his brain.

Conversely, his daughter Scarlett was born with Crimson like tendencies - not an exact copy, I have plans for her - but hadn’t faced the same traumatic experiences as her father

Every time there was defective I read it as detective, was confused but it made the whole post funnier
Now I want Detective Fluffy to be imprinted on some crime show

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