“Teehee. Wub wawa. Wan pway, sissy?” A tan & white sea fluffy named Prince wobbled over to a small puddle of water in their Fluffmart exhibit. These sea fluffies had rather clumsy looking flippers and instead of being fully aquatic, merely plopped into the water to have fun every now and again. His sissy, with the wholly unoriginal name of Ariel, plopped into the water after being asked to play. Their mummah was snoozing on a big rock that got nice and warm, and they’d both start goofing off together.
“Gun get’chu!” Prince slapped his flippers around to lazily propel himself through the water. The pink-furred Ariel gave a giggling squeal and paddled around in order to avoid him!
“Nuh! Yew neba am get Awiel!” Of course, an outside factor would prevent this from even having a chance of happening. A big net attached to a stick suddenly swept into their little habitat! Snugging up under Prince as he carelessly against the water, he was lifted dripping out from the water. Flippers pathetically stuck against the netting, he looked down to his sissy and mummah.
“Nuu-huu! Hewp babbeh! Babbeh scawed!” Eyes fluttering open sleepily, his mummah looked in shocked horror as her child seemed to be lifted straight into the air as if by a munstah. Flopping off the rock, she wobbled around.
“Babbeh! BABBEH!” Sadly trying to reach for him brought no clear results. Her little Prince was deposited in a plastic container with holes in the lid, and she could hear him crying against the material.
Ariel shored herself and dug into some dirty sand, curling her body in protectively. “S-SCAWY!”
++++
That was the last time Prince ever got to see his family ever again. Sliding around the plastic container he was in, he was so scared and sad. Why wasn’t mummah and sissy here? The meanie thing had taken him away and now they were gone. Lots of stuff was happening that he didn’t truly understand. Beeps and flashes of light, areas of the store he had never seen before. Even the big mummahs and daddehs were scary to him. In his habitat before, they had never really been a point of interest. Now they seemed too close and way too big!
Peeping and cheeping helplessly, Prince got passed to a new human once all the beeping and flashing lights were over. This daddeh was little but still scared him. Especially since he kept shaking the plastic container around. Pingponging around the transport container, the sea fluffy felt himself being battered from all angles.
“H-Huwties!” He cried out, and the big mummah put a hand down to stop him from shaking it around.
“Jeffrey, be gentle with it. I’m not coming back for a new one.” The big mummah told the little daddeh with scorn in her voice and the shaking stopped. Prince sniffled and shivered against a corner of the plastic container as they walked out of the store.
Outside was too bright. He’d never seen the sun before and it hurt his eyes. Squeaking and slapping his flippers against the container, he pleadingly tried to speak with the little daddeh.
“Hewwo. Pwince wan be wif mummah ‘an sissy pwease. Nu wike.” They were already getting into the vroomy though, and once it started up and going away from the store the fluffy felt like he would never get the chance again.
++++
“You’re my new sea fluffy, Prince. My old one died. I don’t really know why.” Jeffrey, a snot-nosed little brat who was apparently quite into sea fluffies. The reason why his last fluffy died might be explained quickly once Prince found himself dumped unceremoniously out of the plastic container and into a habitat set up in the kid’s room.
To call the habitat filthy would be an understatement. The tank was littered with old food, algae streaked water, and poopies. In fact there were poopie marks on the sides of the plastic wall that looked like flippers which had been dragged against it. There were decorations in it but they brought no cheer. A stone castle was placed in the water but what once had been bright pink was a slimy, moldy chunk now. What had once been cute little beach chairs were reduced to splinters of plastic and vinyl, and a heating rock much like the once his mummah had been resting on was covered in splatters of heated & stinking vomit.
“W-Wha…” Prince found himself immediately mortified by how dirty it was. This wasn’t a good place for fluffies. It was bad, and stinky. Whoever lived here hadn’t even bothered using a littertray. Wait. Eyes darted around. There wasn’t a littertray.
Jeffrey reached into the exhibit with a net and dangled it into something curled up into a corner. “Oh, gross.” He made fake retching sounds as whatever was in the corner got lifted up with the net. It was white, whatever it was. Stinky just like everything else but somehow explosively so. The sea fluffy screamed as the white fell away, wriggled in the filthy sand below. It was a sea fluffy or what was left of one. Covered in a cluster of maggots which fell through the gaps of the netting, scraps of many blue fur shown. The corpse seemed to smile at Prince as he stared ahead at it but that’s because it’s lips had been eaten away.
“NUU-HUUU! EEEEE!” Where was there to hide? There was a fake cave festooned in poopies, but he didn’t care. He needed to get away! Flopping on his belly as quickly as he could, he entered the plastic dome and shrieked with raw emotion. That was the first time he’d ever seen something dead. This was the first time, even, he’d experienced something so dirty.
“Mummah! Mummahhhhh!” Slapping his flippers against the sand under him, he wept and flailed around with a fearful tantrum. He didn’t like daddeh! Not at all! This was not a good place! NO!
Eventually Jeffrey came back and flicked the fake cave off of his new fluffy. Looking up tearfully, Prince begged him.
“Pwease nyu daddeh! Gib cweanies! Nu wan scawdies ‘o stinkeh!” This just caused Jeffrey to roll his eyes. You know, for toys these things sure complained a lot. Reaching down and cinching two fingers against Prince’s side, he went to drop him into the murky water at one end of the tank.
The water felt…wrong. That was the only way to put it. Thick, syrupy. Plopping down into it kicked up the methane trapped underneath and a gaseous stench boiled up from underneath him. Gagging, trying to keep himself above the green sludge, Prince mewled in disgust and desperation. No matter what he didn’t want any of that to get into his mouth.
“Do tricks, stupid!” Leaning over the water, Jeffrey took a shaker of sea fluffy food and shook it furiously above Prince’s head. He wasn’t hungry and made no attempt to catch the red flakes that wafted down, though some got into his eyes which began to burn furiously from irritation. Sloshing through the water while attempting to avoid trailing coils of poopies and decayed food particles, he finally got onto the beach and gasped for breath.
“Why yew be meanie nyu daddeh?” The fluffy asked but his owner was already leaving the little habitat area. No answers, no wub, just meanies.
++++
Climbing onto the heating rock covered with sickies, he couldn’t believe what was happening. Didn’t nyu daddeh know that fluffies were for wub and huggies? This place was not pretty, it smelled bad, and he missed mummah and sissy. “Wan wun way…” Whimpering to himself.
The filthiness of the water which had soaked his thin fluff began to harden against him. Flippers moving stiffly, he felt as if something was holding onto him even though there was obviously nothing. Also, the heat of the rock and the exertion of getting himself out of the water made him feel parched.
“Nyu daddeh? Nyu daddeh! Pwince nee’ wawas!” Jeffrey was nowhere to be found though. Mouth dried out to the point where his tongue felt as dry as the food sprinkled onto him earlier, he knew he had to do something bad. Looking over to the pit of ickiest wawas, he began giving several ‘huu-huus’ and knew that it was his only option.
Dragging himself across the sand and over to the water, he stared down into the murkiness. This wasn’t good to drink: Even a fluffy knew that the foul, rotten smelling stuff had to be harmful in some way. Yet it was all he had. Dipping his mouth into the water, he forced himself a mouthful of it. A taste of pure decay washed through his mouth and curdled against his throat and a terrible, dizzying retching occurred before all the contents of his belly were spewed right back into the water.
“Nu wike! NU WIKE!” Slapping his flippers against the sand. Still he needed to drink the wawa. Gulping down quickly, he took as much of it into his mouth as he could stand. It didn’t taste any better this time around but he was (just) barely able to keep it in his tummy.
For awhile, anyways. See, he’d came to understand why the heating rock was covered in sicky wawa. While lounging on top of it miserably several hours into his time at the house, he began feeling a gurgling within his guts. Curling up on himself, all the fetid water he’d forced himself to drink earlier expelled right back out. Not only that, the most painful poopies he’d ever experienced ripped itself out of his backside.
“Hewp…” Cough, sputter, more trickles of stomach acid and water erupting out of his mouth. His backend was in no way better. The rock which was his only outlet for comfort in the entire habitat was quickly becoming even more befouled. It’s not like he could help it. Sickies gripped him in it’s iron fist and all he could do was look up to maybe be allowed some help.
++++
Jeffrey came back to the room but he didn’t help Prince out. Looking over the side of the habitat, the kid scrunched his nose up and gave Prince a disgusted flick off his rock.
“That’s really gross. Moooooooom! The fluffy is sick!” He called out of the room. A rather terse response from his mother a moment later:
“Well, I already told you we’re not getting a new one!” Jeffrey sighed, took the canister of sea fluffy food down from a shelf and gave several shakes over Prince who was curled up and sick. Dehydrated. Flakes fell down and stuck in his fur.
“You’d better feel better or I’ll flush you. Stupid fluffy.” Another flick sent Prince back into the water, half submerged and gasping.
Watching Jeffrey leave and pricking up a flipper as if to beg for help, he was left alone once more. The process repeated itself. More of the water into his mouth, no matter if it made him sick or not. What else could he do? More he drank it, the more he needed it. A cruel cycle that would repeat itself.
++++
A week into his stay. By some miracle (or cruel whim over what God, if any, had sway over a fluffy) he hadn’t died. Had even gotten somewhat accustomed to drinking the water.
Not that his body was feeling any better. By now, Prince was throwing up but for different reasons. Sometimes after eating the flakes of red food that constantly got sprinkled on him he’d throw up. Not regular sickies, either. There were squirmy, crawling things in it. It disgusted him horribly to think that they were in his tummy. Each time the crawly things were brought up he’d kick poopies encrusted sand over them. If they were hidden, maybe he could believe they weren’t real.
“Huuhuu…su scwatchy…” Skin under his fur felt like it constantly had things crawling under it. A maddeningly constantly itch which caused him to press against the random plastic accessories in the habitat to rub himself raw. Bloodied patches of fur were left behind as a result but he still had itchies.
‘Rough’ was the only way to describe his condition. Barely clinging to life though he still tried to live as a fluffy would. Sometimes he even had enough energy to go espowin’ in the habitat.
“Pwince am see nyu pwace today.” He guaranteed himself. By this point he’d only ever really gone to the coast of the water or plopped himself on top of the heating rock. There was a big fake cave in the corner of the habitat that he’d yet to explore. Maybe…maybe there was a way to get out in there? Or clean wawas. Bravely collecting himself and giving flaps of his flippers, he tummy-crawled his way over to it.
It was a big cave, one of mottled brown plastic with pirate skeletons molded onto it. Vinyl vines trailed down one side and to a fluffy it must have seemed quite intimidating. Puffing out his cheeks, Prince pushed his way on past the entrance.
First, he wanted to crawl right back out of there. It was dark. Sooooo dark! Still, could it be any worse than out there? The possibility of there being something to help was a strong motivator too. Slumping into the cave he whimpered.
“Hewwo? Munstahs? Am omwy widdew Pwince. Pwease nu num fwuffy.” See, you had to tell the munstahs not to do it. That meant you’d be safe. Maybe. There didn’t seem to be anything in here anyways. Of course, his eyes were adjusting and…there was something. If he focused his eyes, it appeared to be white.
“H-Hewwo? Nyu fwend?” Getting close to the pile of white stuff, he nudged it with a flipper. It felt dry and hard. Made rattling noises. Hmm. Something shifted in the darkness. A scuttle, rapidly moving to one side and then to the other. There was wawa in this part of cave and Prince curiously got to the edge.
A flipper splished down into the murky, dark water. Rot was stirred up as he did. “Hewwo? Fwuffy fwend? Pwince am hewe. Nee’ hewpsies.” No response. Well, if it was a munstah it would likely make scary noises. That’s what mummah had told him once. Counting this experience as a loss, he made to turn and leave the cave. That’s when it shot out of the water.
This creature was not a fluffy. In fact, it wasn’t something a fluffy would be able to easily explain other than ‘as a munstah’. Brown with beady little eyes, strange things coming off of it’s head, many legs. Claws, too. A crayfish which had been living in the habitat with him this entire time, perfectly in it’s own isolation. Up to this point having gorged itself on rotting scraps of food or fluffies which had wandered into the cave. Prince’s eyes rolled back with fear and pain as a claw seized one of his back flippers and began dragging him back into the water.
“HEWP! HEWP PWINCE! SCAWIES!” It hurt so bad. The past week had been one of great pain, a constant torture session where the only tool had been neglect but this was something else. Bleed spilled out across the sand and for a moment he’d gotten away. One of his flippers had been mangled but there he was, attempting to tummy flop to the entrance of the cave. Light seemed so close. Munstahs hated light. They lived in the darkies. Just as safety seemed assured he was grabbed from behind once more by vicious claws that ripped him away from safety.
“NUUHUUHUU! BABBEH SCAWDIES! NUUUUUUU! EEEEEE!” Back to the water, more of the rotten liquid filling his mouth now. The creature’s many legs spindled against him and he did his best to keep above the water but it was getting harder and harder. That’s because he couldn’t feel his back half now. Why not? The answer came as he watched his severed body resurface next to him, bobbing up and down. No longer able to keep up anymore all Prince had left was to meet his fate at the bottom.
++++
“Teehee! Wook mummah!” Ariel flapped her flippers around for her mummah’s keen approval. It had been difficult since her bwuddah left…well, for a day anyways. They’d both actually forgotten about him for the most part? What was his name again?
“Babbeh suuuu spechaw! Bestest babbeh ebah!” Clapping her flippers together stupidly and giving an equally empty-smile, the mummah was having her best life. Swimming all day, being with her babbeh, eating lots of good nummies. Life as a sea fluffy in Fluffmart was actually one of the better positions in the place. They actually needed good care to be kept alive.
Just then, as it had before, a net swept down and scooped Ariel up just as it had with her other babbeh. Ariel screeched and flopped around the net.
“Mummah! MUMMAAHHH!” Crying hysterically. Why was this meanie thing taking her away? Didn’t it know that she needed to be with her mummah for wub and huggies?
Deposited into a plastic container, Ariel looked with teary eyes to her mother who was getting further and further away. Beeps, boops, flashes of lights. It was all disorienting and only worsened the situation, though she eventually got passed down to a little daddeh. He shook the container she was in and sent her bashing against the walls.
“Jeffrey! I’m really not getting you another one next time.” The little daddeh was scolded, and the shaking stopped. Ariel gave a small sniffle. Well. Mummah said all fluffies should want big mummahs and big daddehs. You got to have huggies, wub, skettis, FluffTV, toysies. Yes! All those things. That didn’t sound too bad. In fact? Maybe even really nice!
This could be a good thing after all, even if she missed mummah!
