This is an update to the previous Now Hiring post. Within the narrative construction on the ranch has started, and it should be open in the spring. Thanks to community contributions, I’ve got staff and characters ready to roll for it. Here I present the whole thing with more detail, including story hook ideas.
I want to reiterate this as a community setting for everybody to use and enjoy. While I would like to create a mostly coherent overall narrative, I don’t want that to stop anybody from using it to tell the stories they want to tell, or from straight up copying the idea outright if they want to go nuts with it. Generally speaking, I’ll encourage doing whatever a creator wants on the setting of the ranch with the follow… rules? Guidelines? Polite requests?
1. Don’t destroy the ranch itself. Damage, sure. But don’t go full apocalyptic annihilation. We want to preserve the setting to tell stories going forward.
2. Don’t kill off or permanently change shared characters without consulting the owner of the characters. Like the above, things can happen to and with these characters, but try to keep it limited to things that can be resolved ‘offscreen between episodes’.
3. Fluffies for these stories will be generally recognized as pony-like creatures, roughly the size of a house cat, up to the size of a small dog, that come in a variety of colors and have a limited capacity to learn and speak. Variant fluffies are welcome, though extreme variants would be kept to the research lab. Xenofluffs would likely be on the extreme end of what would be permitted by the ranch to roam The Wilds, so long as they can control themselves.
The Fluffy Ranch
An upcoming facility, currently under construction. Set north of a fictionalized version of Quincy, IL. Quincy is a rural city right on the Mississippi river, across from northern Missouri. The ranch will encompass 750 acres of repurposed farm land, and will have a number of facilities on its grounds.
Fluffy Gates
The fluffy gates are a series of entryways around the secure perimeter of the ranch. Gateways lead in to a staging area where fluffies are screened before being directed to holding pens for a human staff member to interview and assess them. As fluffies may arrive at any time, day or night, the gates are kept illuminated, and there are signs along the whole perimeter pointing to the nearest gate.
Upon entering a gate, a camera will alert central command that a new arrival is in the staging area. Command will address the herd from a monitor and PA system. This also acts as a pre-screening, as particularly uppity smarties will generally declare their intent to seize the land at this point. A staff member is then deployed to help the fluffies to a holding pen and perform a review, being provided with any information gathered by command. Smarties are identified, and if need be, removed from feral herds to be replaced with one of the on-staff good smarties instead. When the medical center is ready for them, the herd brought there for routine checks, health screenings, and any medical attention that may be needed. At this stage, abused members of the herd are also removed to be placed in new herds that will accept them.
Once clear of the screening, the herd is then given options for what they want to do next. They may live in The Wilds, individuals may join training programs to become farm worker fluffies, or they may request immediate adoption assistance to find a human home. Each family unit (or lone fluffy in a herd) is interviewed separately to avoid influence from the herd and let the families make their own decisions.
The Wilds
The paddock that serves as homes for the feral fluffies that arrive at, or are brought to the ranch. 300 acres of the property are devoted to open spaces for the fluffies to roam, graze, and nest. Dotted across the expanse are concrete nesting bunkers, each with artificial lighting and heating, along with fresh water supplies. The Wilds can comfortably accommodate over a thousand fluffies, but for sustainability reasons, the general population is intended to not exceed around 700 at a time.
The Farm
Of the total space, 400 acres will be devoted to actual farmland. This land will be used to grow soy, barley, and oats, with the intention of the ranch using this as fluffy feed to create healthier fluffies. This will also be a source of funding for the ranch, as a percentage of this feed will be sold to other organizations. Especially well behaved toughies are given jobs on the farm. They specialize in scaring away birds, and scouring for pest burrows so they can be removed and avoid damaging the crops. These toughies are rewarded for their hard work with better homes, better food, and daily care. The general population of fluffies is not allowed on the farm to prevent them from damaging or destroying crops.
The Dairy
A major building on the ranch, it is composed of two wings. The first wing is for fluffy mares that wish to work on the ranch by helping babies. They go in each day for a shift and and hooked to milking machines. They are kept on a diet of hormone enriched Milky Kibble that forces their bodies to create milk without pregnancy. The milking process generally leaves the mares a little sore, but they are kept fed, entertained, and have each other for company while they work. Because of their direct contributions to the farm, they are rewarded with better homes, better food, and daily care like the Farm toughies. Many pillowed mares can be found here. They are regularly shown the ranch’s foals feeding on their milk, and they are able to regain a sense of self worth knowing that they are helping babies grow up big and strong. The general population of fluffies is allowed in the voluntary dairy to visit the milk mares and keep them company. Any fluffies that try to harm or upset the milk mares are handled quickly.
The second wing of the dairy is the Involuntary wing. This is a place for the worse mares. Baby stompers, bestest-worshippers, and the rest. While not specifically abused, the mares here are kept normal Milky Kibble, instead of the especially tasty variety fed to the volunteers. They are allowed to watch TV, but are otherwise strapped in place and kept attached to the milk machines, running 24x7. Their waste is washed away with a continuous water stream in a trough behind them. Mares here are universally pillowed, having show themselves to be too much of a danger around foals. The mares kept in the involuntary dairy will not leave it until they expires, and they are never shown babies except as a reminder of their crimes to get them back in to line.
The Research Lab
The research lab combines a variety of fluffy-related sciences in to one complete facility. Genetic research, dietary research, physical fitness, intelligence, social interaction, psychology, and the just plain weird; it all gets researched here. This lab is staffed largely by a rotating team in each department. Members come from universities and private businesses to contribute to the common understanding of fluffies. All results from the lab are published in the open in the spirit of giving all interested parties a chance to improve the lives of fluffies and their owners.
Maintenance
The Maintenance shop is the home of all the farm equipment. Here it is maintained, repaired, and stored. Fluffies are strictly forbidden from maintenance due to the danger it presents to them. The only exception are specially trained good smarties. The minimum requirement is a grade three reading level, as the smarties need to be able to understand the danger around them. These smarties are used as helpers, fetching tools and running messages and parts throughout the shop. Especially clever smarties can get inside the working compartments of machines to help with inspections, looking for drips or cracks where they shouldn’t be. These smarties are warned that the work is potentially dangerous. The fluffies choses for this role are very commonly ‘splorin’ babies who have grown up. They receive the best food, housing, and care as they are putting their lives on the line to help their humans.
Administration
The administrative building is home to the day-to-day workings and operations of the ranch. Dispatching, business functions, scheduling, all the stuff to keep the facility running happen here. Fluffies that aren’t quite smart enough for maintenance may be given jobs in Administration. They are used to fetch copies and deliver messages. They also provide companionship during a stressful work day, and make great sounding boards for ideas. While they won’t really understand what their being told, having somebody to smile and not while an office worker talks through an idea has been found to be extremely helpful for productivity. Office fluffies receive the same benefits as field toughies and voluntary milk mares.
Adoption Center
The adoption center is home for all the fluffies who want to find homes outside The Wilds. Fluffies are always allowed to come in from the wilds if they want to find a forever home. This is most common with pregnant mares and their special-friend stallions that want their babies to have more comfortable lives. They may not mind foraging for themselves, but fluffies are engineered as house pets. Eventually they want something better than the day-to-day of the paddock for their future babies. The adoption center provides high quality living conditions for the adoptees. Before a fluffy is made available for adoption, it must complete a full course on proper domestic behavior, taught by a human-smarty team. Once the course is complete the fluffy is listed for adoption, and housed in one of the streamed safe rooms either at the ranch itself, or they are brought north to the Little Miracles office to reside there and be adopted from the major metropolitan area that is Chicago. The adoption center also features a high end fluffy healthcare facility, where vets treat everything from day to day hurties to de-wormings, to major surgeries.
The adoption center is also where fluffies can be dropped off if abandoned, unwanted, or removed (alive) as pests.
The Smarty Jail
The smarty jail is a facility strictly off-limits to the fluffy population entirely. The Smarty Jail is used to house the worst fluffies. Foal-enf’ers, cannibals, particularly cruel and irredeemable smarties, they end up here. The fluffies in the Smarty Jail are kept caged at all times, and connected to both urinary and fecal catheters. Their waste is pumped away to be turned in to fertilizer. This facility is also where dead fluffies are disposed of. They are ground in to a fine paste along with the waste. The bad fluffies here are forced to watch this as a reminder to them as to what their fate may be. This is the one facility where potential abusers are allowed to work, and regular mental health screenings are required. Every month the government will send trucks to take away all the caged smarties to destinations unknown. The rumors are that the smarties are being used for military purposes, being beaten and brainwashed in to becoming soldiers. Or derps and being used for explosives disposal. Regardless, the ranch does its best not to dwell on this dark part of its workings. The smarty jail is a cruel necessity.
The Windmills
Being in the flatlands adjacent to a river valley, the ranch enjoys reliable winds. The ranch is powered by five electricity generating windmills. This is notably more power than the ranch should need, and excess is sold to the local grid. As the ranch is able to purchase more local property, more windmills will be installed.
Drone Port
The ranch is patrolled by both human teams, and a few drones. The droneport is attached to the administration building, and the drones perform regular flyovers to look for any problems on the ranch. The drone fleet operates on preprogrammed routes, but the individual drones can be taken over by a human operator to get a closer look or handle a problem. The drones are equipped with tranquilizers to immediately take out any dangerous fluffies that put others on the ranch at risk.