Samuel Adams Gaiden IV - Aquafluffies
by Oculus
Featuring Art by PeppermintParchment, Squeakyfriend and Gal-With-Pastels
continued from Part 11, the Mutagen special and The Archive
~
It has been almost a full year since the disappearance of Samuel Adams. Despite the best efforts of ABAP, the Fluffy Hugbox League and the Dark horse company, there has been no leads on the current whereabouts of Mr. Adams. The disappearance of Mr Adams seems especially dire, considering the massive changes that had been ongoing in the real world. Just within the span of the past year, the Dark Horse Company now has a new owner, and is currently undergoing restructuring.
As an employee of Sam Adams’s estate, you have been looking after Sam’s properties, namely his main residence at Nerry Road. There has been concerns that Mr Adams may truly be gone forever, but you have done your best to reassure the concerns of such anxious people. After all, you yourself remember the two times that you had been lost to the Void, and you feel that Mr Adams himself has gotten involved in a caper similar to the ones you had been through. You only wish that he had told you of his departure but, he did inform you that one of his children had recently purchase a hotel in Dubai. It seems likely that Mr Adams may have been unintentionally whisked away, much like the events that landed you in the world of the Postfluff.
Regardless, Mr Adams’s disappearance has necessitated changes within the management of his estate. You have found yourself quite busy, having to alias with the various domestic workers who function at the various residences that Sam owns around the globe. Even though travel through the doors makes management of these properties easier, the vast network of contacts that Sam had made as the head and founder of ABAP means that you have to alias with these different people. In addition, you have been looking after Sam’s various fluffies, especially Prince, Maurice, Joseph, Velvet, Rex, Goldie, Mauve, Nero, Blanc, John and Bull. You have become quite the busy person, to such an extent that you have not spent as much time researching fluffies over the past year.
One of the features of the Penthouse at 35 Nerry Road is a magnificent grotto. The grotto used to be location of many an exuberant (and sometimes scandalous) party at the estate. (Of course, you’re usually not invited to them.) With the disappearance of Mr Adams, the grotto has been relatively unused. Still, it is a fairly tranquil place to head to once in a while, after a busy day of work.
“Buona sera signore!” Both Blanc and Noir greet you.
“Good afternoon, Blanc and Noir!” you say, as you proceed to recline on a sunlounger. You observe Blanc and Noir, who are both carefully using a net to skim out the occasional leaves and twigs that have fallen into the pool. As Pinkyfluffies, the two are a lot more intelligent and capable compared to Sam’s other fluffies. Observing how deftly they work, and noticing that they are wearing the same garb that the other maids at the mansion wear, you wonder if Sam purchased Blanc and Noir not as pets but rather as unique domestic servants.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Turning around, you find a blonde woman dressed in a cotton shirt with suspenders. It’s Jacqueline, one of the shelter workers who you’ve been aliasing with lately. The recent disappearance of Mr Adams has concerned her, and you’ve been working with her to settle the routine payments that Mr Adams provides to the various shelters that are funded by the efforts of ABAP.
“It is.”
“I can’t remember how many wild parties I’ve had with Sam here.”
With a slightly snarky tone, you mutter, “I can imagine.”
“You know, I find it rather unusual that Sam never owned a seafluffy.”
“Is that so? Did he ever say why?”
“He never told me. And I know a lot of his secrets.
It’s a shame. With a grotto like this, one could raise a seafluffy here.”
~
Owning a fluffy. That was the reason why you got involved with Samuel Adams in the first place. At the very beginning, you wanted to get yourself a new fluffy, since the Buwwito you had as a youth had died of old age. But with so many different breeds, you had wondered what was the ideal fluffy breed to get. In the past year, you have been helping to look after Sam’s fluffies, but it has made you think about owning a fluffy of your own. All of Sam’s fluffies do miss Sam, but all of them, especially Joseph, know that Sam will come back, even though he’s taking quite the while. This fierce loyalty to their “father” means that they will see you as a friend, but not as a “nyu daddeh”.
You think to yourself – why not just check out the Dark Horse marts by yourself? You don’t really need Sam. And with all the fluffy breeds that you have met, you feel like you know what kind of fluffy you’d like to get yourself.
And you decide to take that plunge. It was a very opportune day. There were no scheduled meetings. Jacqueline was taking most of Sam’s fluffies on a trip to visit Hilda in Berlin. And both Nero and Blanc were fumigating the Penthouse that day. With no other potential disturbances, or existential threats to your reality on the horizon, now seemed like the best day to head to a random mart owned by The Dark Horse Company.
And, you’re overwhelmed.
Yes, there’s a lot of new fluffy breeds now. In fact, there’s a lot more breeds than before. A lot of newer breeds, many of which are different from the ones you had encountered from ABAP and the fluffmarts owned by Hasbio. Your mouth agape at the variety, you softly remind yourself that there’s still a lot more to fluffies that you may not know just yet.
But something catches your eye. In the distance, you can vaguely see a large area filled with swimming pools and aquariums. Here, children can play with the various seafluffies on sale, and get to know them. Remembering what Jacqueline said about the grotto, you have a storng idea of what you’d like to buy.
A lot of the seafluffies are similar to the Caprdime’s seafluffy, with the chief characteristic being the seal-like flippers in the place of legs. This particular nature of seafluffies make them entirely reliant on living an aquatic life, a reason why they are generally not as popular as land-based fluffies. You remember the PeppermintParchment seafluffies, which had normal fluffy legs that were finned and thus were amphibious, but the disappearance of the genetic engineer tied to the program resulted in the decline of that unique type of seafluffy.
“Haha! Nu can catch fwuffy!”
“Nu faiw! Fwen hab weggies an’ can hab wawkies!”
You turn around, and you see a young fluffy walking on the land. She’s of a deep blue colour, with a hint of turquoise around her hoof areas. But you realize something that’s unique about her. Instead of the typical fluffy tail, she has a longer fish-like tail, resembling that of a mudskipper’s. She has wing-shaped fins that take the place of Pegasus wings. While not exactly similar in design to PeppermintParchment’s seafluffies, the spirit seemed somewhat there.
“Hewwo mistah!” the fluffy says as she greets you. Judging from her size, when compared to the other members of her pod, she seemed like a weanling, roughly about six months of age.
“Hello, little one” you smile, as you proceed to crouch down and maintain eye contact with her. You touch her head. You can feel the rubbery texture of her fin, as your fingers slowly make your way down to her fluff. You proceed to stroke her in a slow but soothing fashion, much like how one does with a cat. The weanling instinctively closes her eyes and smiles, enjoying the little affection that you give her.
“She’s a beauty, isn’t she?”
You look up. The woman who says this is wearing a lab coat, with the Dark Horse emblem visible on it. Just below the emblem is a tag that reads “Pastel”, indicating that this is the name she goes by as a genetic engineer for the company. She is wearing large tinted glasses, each in the shape of an opaque D. Her hair is a light cyan, and she has approached you with a smile.
“This a really unique take on an aquatic fluffy! I haven’t seen that many amphibious fluffies.”
“I was inspired by the mudskipper,” explains Pastel, as she continued, “I felt that most aquatic fluffies were at a disadvantage on land. So I wanted to make an aquatic based fluffy that could walk on land at times.”
“They remind me a lot of the PeppermintParchment seafluffy.”
The colour of Pastel’s hair changes to a slight tint of orange as she looks at you with a slightly confused expression.
“Who is PeppermintParchment?”
Looking at her expression, you sense that Pastel may have conceived these unique aquatic fluffies on her own. Seeking to change the subject you ask a question that you never really did ask of the genetic engineers of Hasbio of the Dark Horse company.
“How do you make these fluffies?”
“Oh, just like how any genetic engineer at Dark Horse would,” she beams, as she explains, “fluffies like aquafluffies are as genetic chimera. We take the base template of a fluffy, and from the embryo we augment their genetic makeup and their template. In this case of this chimera, we worked with specific fish and amphibian traits to make an amphibious fluffy that can function on land and water.”
“You say fish, do they lay eggs?’
“Oh of course not – they still give birth to live young. But, and since fluffies were based to some extent on capybara, I worked on an unactive gene within the fluffy DNA that required them to mate in water.”
“So, these fluffies still need to be in water if they want to reproduce!”
“Oh yes! But the fluffies we have on sale are neutered of course.”
The weanling had been playing with your hand while this conversation had been going on. You’ve been waving your hand up and down, and she tries to catch it. Suddenly, and perhaps feeling a sense of dryness, she runs back into the pool that she came from earlier. Though she only manages to waddle on land, in the water she swims much faster, comparable to how a turtle is quicker in water. Like a ballerina in the water, you are amazed at her intricate movements, as she tries to impress you.
“I love developing new types of fluffies. There seems to be so much potential in fluffies.”
“You did a really great job on her, Pastel.”
Pastel’s hair changes to a slight tint of red as she hears that.
You feel a little moved. You’re not sure if you want to name her Aqua. Or Rain. Or Skipper. But there’s something about the weanling that draws you to her.
You sense a buzzing on your phone. Reaching into your pocket, and you take it out, and noticed that there was a message from one of the staff at Nerry Road. Apparently, another visitor was coming by to the mansion. You better make a purchase quick.
~
You are back at home, with the Pastel aquatic fluffy now in your possession. Out of the names you were thinking of, Pastel suggested Rain as it was the cutest. The pet carrier holding Rain is a special one designed for her needs, as it has a small pool of water for her to be in. Upon reaching the penthouse, you find that Jacqueline has returned with the fluffies from their quick trip to Germany.
“Well, hello there”, she greets, as she notices that you have a new fluffy. “I see finally got a fluffy for yourself?”
“Indeed, I have.”
Upon opening the carrier, Rain leaps out. Maurice, who is by Jacuqeline’s side, notices the fish influence on her genetic makeup.
“Fishie fwen!!”
And Maurice, as he usually does, runs up to Rain and proceeds to give the weanling a hug. Rain is a little taken aback by this gesture but she accepts it. Fluffies are known to be very receptive of good hugs from fellow gentle fluffies.
“Hewwo!”
Prince is the next to meet Rain. Unlike Maurice, Prince is a little bit more cordial, as he extends a hoof up to the aquafluffy. Rain, in turn, brings her own hoof up, and Both fluffies bump each other hoods, the equivalent of a human handshake. She then proceeds to do this with the other fluffies.
And then suddenly, Rain blurts out, “Fwuffy nee’ wawa!”
And after a quick run, she dives into the water. After a good half a minute of minute of swimming, she springs out of the water, and does a backflip in the air, before diving back into the water. Maurice, Price and the others are all in awe, as they lout a large, “Woah!”
“That’s a really impressive specimen,” remarks Jacquline, as she asks, “where did you get her?”
“From the Dark Horse fluffmart. You mentioned the grotto here, and thought of getting a seafluffy for the grotto here.”
But there was something else in your mind, as you remark “I thought you and the gang were going to be away for another day.”
“That was the plan, yes, but I got a message that someone significant was coming by the mansion to day. It’s Pep.”
“Pep.”
“You know. PeppermintParchment.”
Your eyes grow larger as you hear that name. It felt like a forever since Sam had exposed you to the world of the PeppermintParchment fluffies.
“THE PeppermintParchment? She’s coming here?!!”
“Indeed she is! And in fact,” says Jacqueline, noticing an update from her smartphone, “…in fact, she’s here right now!”
~
The genetic engineer who goes by the name of PeppermintParchment (or Pep, for short) is a young woman with curly red hair and blue eyes. She was dressed rather casually today, wearing a purple shirt and jeans. In any other circumstance she would look like an ordinary person. But to you, you’re amazed at the fact that another ex-engineer from Hasbio had recently returned to try and reconnect with their past.
“I can’t believe it. You’re Pep!”
“Yes, I am,” acknowledges Pep. A little quizzical by your enthusiasm, she asks, “Is there something special about me?”
“Quite! You’re the creator of the seafluffies I saw at the Marianas Trench Aquarium!”
“Oh yes. Yes I am….” Says Pep, trailing off a bit. After a good ten seconds, she adds, “….their numbers are a bit small at the moment, but I may restart the programme soon.”
Upon hearing, Jacqueline chimes in. “I’m happy to hear that! I was kind of sad to see that their numbers were dwindling. Breeders aren’t as interested in your unique seafluffies, from the looks of it.”
“Indeed. That said, I noticed see you have one of the seafluffy of my design around here.”
Wondering what Pep is referring to, you turn around. It’s the weanling, come straight up to you, and calling you by your name. You bend down and proceed to stroke her, as you note “whose my little girl?”
But Pep realizes something.
“I don’t remember my seafluffies having a tail like that. Or such fins!”
You smile, as you explain, “this isn’t a Pep seafluffy. This is actually a Pastel aquatic fluffy. They are amphibious like yours, but their design is somewhat different.”
“Oh, that’s interesting.”
Pep proceeds to crouch down. Though stroking Rain’s back, she starts to slowly examine her fins, as well as her unique tail. Rain is a little confused, as she humbly asks “dewe am something wong, nice whady?”
“No, ther’s nothing wrong,” Pep admits, as she adds, “you’re very pretty.”
Rain blushes as she says, “thankies nice whady.”
“So, I take it that you’re here on a business matter?”
“Indeed. And actually, I wanted to see Samuel Adams.”
“But Sam is currently available?”
“I heard about that, but he did send me a gift recently, so I thought he had made an unnaounced return.”
“Gift?”
“You didn’t know?”
Both Jacqueline and you shake your head, much to Pep’s surprise.
“That’s weird. I thought Sam would tell you.”
Pep proceeds to take out her smartphone. After pressing a few buttons, a video feed shows up on the screen. The feed is that of a pool of water, and something quite familiar seems to be swimming it.
“That’s a seafluffy!” you exclaim, as you add, “It look like one of yours!”
“Yes, but its not actually mine. About a week ago, I received a gift from Cutebox Labs, the creators of the Squeakyfriend breed of fluffies. They had a received a custom order to make a seafluffy based on my template, and they sent the fluffy as a gift to me. She’s become a fast friend.”
“That’s quite nice of Squeakyfriend’s company.”
“It is. But according to their lead genetic engineer, the commission was ordered by Samuel Adams.”
For a good half a minute, both Jacqueline and you are speechless.
“S-Sam,” you stutter, struggling to complete your sentence. “Sam ordered this for you?”
“Indeed, he did.”
Now, more than ever, a question keeps ringing out in your mind.
Just where the hell are you, Sam?
