The Tragedy of Cupcake, part 1
You’re Pink Babbeh! Daddeh took you… well, not home, you understand that much, but you’re not really sure where you are. Somewhere boring… Daddeh put you in what he called your ‘magic safety box,’ but after the hurty burny-wawas that came out of nowhere you definitely don’t feel safe in it anymore. Still, Daddeh told you to be a QUIET and GOOD fluffy, but especially a QUIET fluffy, so you’re trying to do that. You don’t like this wet sticky stuff he put all over your rump and back leggies, but as far as you can tell it DOES make the burny-hurties stop…
But mostly you’re bored, and lonely. You have a stuffy-friend, and he’s great for huggies, but he doesn’t talk much and doesn’t play with you very well. Still, it’s better than being all alone…
It takes forEVER, but finally you see Daddeh’s face on the other side of the black wires keeping you inside your magic safety box. “Still alive in there? Good,” he says, but you hear him say “I guess,” more quietly as he disappears again. Suddenly you feel yourself swinging all around again and you let out a little ‘Eep!’ of surprise, but Daddeh doesn’t seem to notice. Suddenly everything is cold again and you whimper and huddle up against your stuffy-friend with your blanket. Then you’re back in the place where you heard the loud munstah followed by another SLAM, then Daddeh sits down in front of your magic safety box and there’s another SLAM and the a big scary growl from the munstah. You try to be a brave fluffy for Daddeh and not cry, but everything has been so scary and strange today! You don’t know what’s going on! But Daddeh doesn’t seem to hear you, and the cold starts going away, and you can still see Daddeh, and he’s clearly not scared, so maybe things will be okay…
After another forever the growling stops and Daddeh gets up. You waddle up to the black wires of your box and sit up, lifting up your front leggies in the ‘give huggies’ pose as you start to speak, but there’s another SLAM and Daddeh’s gone… You start to cry, but then your box is being swung all around again and you’re somewhere else!
“Daddeh?” you ask, not sure if you’re still supposed to be quiet. He doesn’t answer… instead you hear a voice you’re not familiar with.
“There you are. You got the pink one, right?” It sounds like a lady-human’s voice.
“Yeah, the pink one, with the blue mane and tail,” Daddeh says, and suddenly there’s a clunk as your box is set down somewhere. After a second you see a lady-human’s face through the black lines keeping you inside the box.
“Aww, she’s adorable!” the lady-human says, and you smile. But…
“Pink Babbeh nu am-”
The lady-human’s face disappears. “Thank you Robert, I know you didn’t want a fluffy, but I really think this will teach Lilly some responsibility. I think a fluffy is a good starter pet for her.”
You hear Daddeh make a sound that makes you think he’s angry. "Yeah, yeah. Just make sure WE don’t wind up being the ones who take care of it all the time, okay? he says. “I don’t mind helping out, and of course we’ll be paying the vet bills, but feeding and cleaning up and playing with her should be Lily’s responsiblity, right?”
“Of course,” the lady-human says.
Your box is being swung around again and then being set down somewhere else, and suddenly everything goes dark! You’re TERRIFIED of the dark! You know you’re supposed to be GOOD and QUIET, but you can’t help yourself! You throw yourself against the black wires as you scream as loud as your little fluffy lungs allow! “DADDEH! PWEASE NU DAWKIES! FWUFFY AM GUD FWUFFY! NU WEAVE IN DAWK PWACE DADDEH PWEASE COME BACKIES HUUHUUHUU!”
You can vaguely hear Daddeh saying “Jesus Christ, again with this shit…”
Then the lady-human’s voice. “Robert, for God’s sake, you can’t just shut it up in the closet! These things are basically toddlers, of COURSE they’re scared to death of the dark!”
Light comes back and you see the lady-human’s face. She seems nicer than Daddeh, but you only just met her so you don’t really know yet. “PWEASE NU WEAVE FWUFFY AWONE IN DARKIES-PWACE NICE WADY! DARKIES AM TU SCAWIEEEEES! FWUFFY AM GUD FWUFFY! NU WIKE DAWKIES!” you howl.
“It’s just making shit up for attention,” Daddeh says. He sounds angry. You don’t know what he means, but you don’t like the sound of it. “You can tell because she’s calling herself ‘fluffy’ instead of using her name, that’s how you know they’re lying.”
“Robert, how can she use her name when she doesn’t HAVE a name yet!? God, think for two seconds!” the lady says.
The black bars swing away and you scramble towards the nice lady-human. “Pwease nu dawkies nice wady! Fwuffy am be gud gud fwuffy fow nice wady, pwomise pwomise pwomise be gud!” you say. She scoops you up, and the huggies along with the look she’s giving you makes you feel better.
“Shh-sh-shhh, there there sweetie,” the lady says gently, rocking you a bit and stroking your fluff. You decide you like her a lot better than Daddeh… “Robert look at her! She’s wet herself in terror already, just from being in the closet for five seconds! You really think she’s trying to manipulate us?”
“That?” Daddeh says. “That’s just some burn cream I put on her after my dumbass coworker spilled hot coffee in her carrier. She didn’t wet herself, she’s fine.”
The lady just sighs and looks at you a little closer. You don’t know what she’s doing, but you spread your front leggies out and hug her as much as you can, which really just means you kind of lean against her. “Be nyu mummah?” you ask as you smile up at her.
“Ahh… not quite, sweetie,” the lady says. Your stomach feels funny and tight again. You know it’s bad for fluffies to not love their mummahs and daddehs, but Daddeh doesn’t seem to like you very much… “No, I’m not going to be your mommy, my daughter Lilly is. I’m going to be, ah… your aunt. You can call me Miss Mary, okay?” she says, carrying you into another room.
“Otay Miss Mawy, tank you fow be nice wady to Pink Babbeh…” you say, snuggling into her. It feels like it’s been FOREVER since you had huggies! Miss Mary is rubbing over your rump and back leggies with some paper towels, which feels funny, but at least they don’t hurt anymore.
“Of course, such a sweet baby,” Miss Mary says, rocking you a little. “Why don’t we put you in your safe room for a little while while we wait for Lilly to get home?” she says. You don’t know who Lilly is, but the idea of a safe room is exciting!
“Yus Miss Mawy, Pink Babbeh wuv Miss Mawy and safewoom!” you say, squirming excitedly. Maybe this whole ‘getting addopted’ thing won’t be so bad after all!
Miss Mary carries you to somewhere else and then sets you down in the most WONDERFUL place you’ve ever seen! There are toys and blocks and places to explore and things to climb on! You’re so happy and there’s so much to see that you wind up running around, spinning in circles right were you are, your little wingies fluttering, too happy to decide what to do first! “Tank yu fow safewoom nice Miss Mawy! Dis am bestest safewoom ebeh!” you say, pausing your spinning to look up at her, before hurrying over to a ball and nudging it with your nose! It rolls away and then comes back to you! You bump it with your head and it rolls away again, and giggle as you chase it!
“Look at how cute and happy she is,” Mary said to Robert. “Come on, how can you hate a fluffy like that sweet baby?”
“Animals aren’t supposed to talk, Mary,” he replied. “These things just creep me out. They’re like… freaky guinea-pig-horses. The fact that they talk makes it even worse. It’s SUPER uncanny valley… How the fuck did Hasbio manage to make them talk?”
Mary sighed. “Alright, fine… Robert, you don’t have to like her, or spend a lot of time with her, but can you PLEASE remember that she’s basically a toddler, and be a little more considerate towards her? You know Lilly’s going going to pick up on you disliking her, and that’ll just break her heart.”
“I’ll try, but god these things are freaky,” Robert replied, shuddering as he left. The less he had to look at that THING, the better. He’d managed to keep it together until he got that little bastard home, but now he was happy to let Mary and Lilly take care of it.
You’re too excited exploring the saferoom and all the toys and things to climb on to notice Daddeh and Miss Mary leaving, but after a while you yawn and find yourself sleepy. “Pink Babbeh am sweepy,” you say to nobody. The fact that you haven’t eaten all day doesn’t help. Now that you think about it, and the excitement from the day is wearing off, your tummy hurts…
Well, usually when you go sleepies, there’s food in your bowl when you wake up. It didn’t work in your magic safety box, but then you didn’t have a food bowl there, just a blanky and a stuffy-friend. now that you think about it, you don’t know where your stuffy-friend is! You spin around a few times looking for him, but you can’t find him! You hurry to where you last saw Daddeh and Miss Mary, but there’s some white lines, kind of like the black lines in your magic safety box, that block you from leaving the saferoom! You can’t see either of them anymore!
“DADDEH! MISS MAWY! PINK BABBEH NEE’ STUFFY-FWEND PWEASE!” you shout at the top of your tiny lungs. From somewhere else you hear them talking.
“God. Fucking. Dammit. I KNEW these things were bad news, it’s already asking for a mate,” you hear Daddeh say from somewhere.
“What on Earth makes you say that?” you hear Miss Mary say.
“Didn’t you hear that?! ‘Need special friend!’ That’s what they call their mates, Mary! Fucking Christ, it’s barely out of infancy itself and already it wants to breed!”
“Robert, calm down, I don’t think that’s what she meant…” you hear Miss Mary say. A moment later she and Daddeh reappear, and Miss Mary leans down to bring her face closer to you. “What was that you said, sweetie?”
“Can Pink Babbeh hab stuffy-fwend backies now pwease?!” you ask, sitting back on your rump and holding your front leggies up in the ‘give huggies’ pose. “Pink Babbeh nu wike be awone!”
“See?!” Daddeh says, but Miss Mary shushes him.
“Sweetie, can you explain what it is you’re asking for in different words, please?” she asked. Miss Mary is SO nice. Not like Daddeh…
“Stuffy-fwend am Pink Babbeh fwend! Nee’ stuffy-fwend so Pink Babbeh nu be awone!” you say. How could they not understand?!
Miss Mary gives you a funny look for a moment. You’re not sure if she’s upset or angry or something else… After a long time she speaks slowly. “Fluffy, are you saying SPECIAL, or STUFFY?”
“Nu spechew! Stuffy! Pink Babbeh hab stuffy-fwend in magic boxie!” you say.
“See, Robert?” Miss Mary says as she looks at Daddeh. “She just wants her toy back. I told you, she’s basically a toddler, PLEASE ease up on her a little?” she says before turning back to you. “Of course you can have your friend back, you wait right here,” she says.
You sit down on your rump as you wait for Miss Mary to come back. Daddeh gives you a funny look, and you smile up at him and lift your front leggies in the ‘give huggies’ pose, but he just gives you another funny look and turns away. You don’t understand why Daddeh doesn’t like you…
After a little bit Miss Mary returns, and she has your stuffy-friend! You hop up onto all fours and make tippytaps with your front leggies as she leans over and sets it next to you, and you give your stuffy-friend the biggest huggies ever! “Tank you nice Miss Mawy wady!”
Miss Mary laughs rubs your hear-places. “Gosh, aren’t you just the sweetest thing? And such a pretty girl too, just like my little girl Lilly when she was young. She’s going to just love you,” she says.
“Pink Babbeh nu am-” you begin, but Miss Mary looks away again as there’s some noise somewhere off to the side. You try to look where she’s looking, but you can’t see out of your saferoom much because of the white bars block you in.
“Oh, Lilly, welcome home! How was your party at the skating rink?” Miss Mary asks as she goes away. You try to push yourself up against the bars of the baby gate, but it doesn’t really work, and you can’t see anything.
“It was great, Mom!” you hear someone new say. “We had pizza and ice cream and cupcakes, and me and Emily tied in the limbo skate contest!”
“That sounds like fun! Did you remember to thank Emily’s parents for chaperoning?”
“Yeah! There were some cupcakes left over, I brought them home for you and Dad! And this is the stuff my friends gave me!” the new voice says. It’s different from Miss Mary’s and Daddeh’s.
“Oh, thank you sweetie! Why don’t you go put all that away in your room, okay?” Miss Mary says. You hear thumping coming closer, which is kind of scary, but then you see a new human coming down the hall. She ignores you though, and opens the dooor across the hall from your saferoom and goes inside. You can see her doing things, setting down stuff she was carrying, but you don’t really understand what she’s doing. Strange human stuff, which humans seem to do a lot of, you’re starting to learn.
“Hewwo nice wady! Be Pink Ba-” you start, but the new human suddenly looks at you, her eyes going wide with a big smile as she suddenly rushes over to you, climbing over the baby gate and sweeping you up for huggies!
“OHMYGOD A FLUFFY! MOM, DAD, YOU GOT ME A FLUFFY?! OH SHE IS JUST THE CUTEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN, SHE’S ADORABLE, AND SHE’S PINK AND BLUE AND SHE’S SO CUTE, OH I JUST LOVE HER!” the new human says. How loud she is hurts your ears, but the huggies are SO nice and she’s so happy it’s hard not to feel happy too! You hug her as tight as you can, which still isn’t very tight and is still just kind of holding up your front leggies and leaning against her, but she’s hugging and kissing and petting you all over and it’s just the best thing ever!
“Pink Babbeh wub mummah!” you say! Clearly this is your new human-mummah! She’s not like your fluffy-mummah but she’s just as pretty and nice!
“Oh, I love you too, pink baby!” she coos, hugging you and rocking you and tickling your tummy. You giggle and squirm in her arms in response. “But I can’t just call you pink baby, that’s no name for a fluffy, especially one as pretty as you! Umm…” she’s silent for a second before saying “Oh I know! You’re pink and blue like the cupcakes I had at the skating rink, so I’ll call you Cupcake! That’s a pretty name for a pretty little girl like you!”
“Cupcake WUV nyu name!” you burble, giggling again. “But Cupcake nu a-”
“Oh, we should celebrate! Mom, is it okay if I give her one of the leftover cupcakes from my birthday party?” Mummah asks Miss Mary, who is standing behind her.
“Well… normally, Lilly, I’d say no, but it IS a special occasion, so just this once, alright? But tomorrow she goes on a fluffy kibble diet, okay?”
“Sure thing, Mom!” Mummah says, and you suddenly tumble out of her arms as she darts away. You’re too confused by what just happened to be upset yet, but Mummah is back a second later and sits down next to you, setting down something in front of you and stroking your fluff. “Have a cupcake! I don’t know when you were born, but we can say today is your birthday too, okay?”
You don’t know what a cupcake is… Didn’t Mummah say YOU were Cupcake? But the pretty thing she set down in front of you is SO pretty and it smells SO good! You sniff at it for a second, circling around it a little bit before leaning in and sticking your tongue out a little, your eyes going wide as you taste the bestest thing you’ve EVER tasted! You never knew anything could taste this good! You lean in and take a big bite and it’s SO soft and yummy, you almost forget to say “Tank yu Mummah!” as you practically dive into the cupcake, which squishes out to the sides underneath you. You scarf it down, trying to eat as much as you can before it can all escape! You didn’t realize how hungry you were, but you haven’t had anything to eat since this morning and you were STARVING! No matter how much you eat, there seems to be more, and after a long while you find your tummy is full, even though there’s more of the cupcake left. You lick at your fluff, since the blue and pink stuff that made up the cupcake is sticking to it. But your tummy feels funny now. Not hungry, like you were, but now it hurts in a different way.
“Wow, you ate almost the whole thing!” Mummah says. “That was like half the size you are, that’s kinda cool you ate so much! I’m gonna get some paper towels and clean you up, okay?” she says as she gets up.
You eagerly say “Otay Mummah!” as she disappears. You look at the cupcake and even though your tummy feels funny, it’s SO pretty and it smells and tastes SO good! You’re so happy you can’t help yourself, you get up and run around your saferoom as fast as you can, so happy you can’t believe it! You’ve completely forgotten about everything else that’s happened today, the mean scary monster, the funny coldness from being stuck in your magic safety box, sheer boredom of Daddeh sticking you in the box for so long, the pain of getting scalded, the terror you felt when Daddeh put all that funny cold water all over you, and the sheer overwhelming amount of utter bafflement that you’ve felt today! Everything is amazing and wonderful, you’re so happy you feel like you’re flying, your little wingies fluttering as you charge around your saferoom at your blistering top speed of nearly four miles per hour!
Mummah comes back soon and sits down on the floor again and calls you over, but you’re so excited and happy that you can barely sit still! Mummah’s trying to rub you all over with some wet white thing but you’re too wound up to bother to be scared of the water at the moment. “Cupcake WUV Mummah SO muchies!” you babble excitedly.
“Aww, I love you too, Cupcake!” Mummah says. “But you really need to hold still, now…” she reaches out her not-hoofsies and suddenly pushes you to the floor! “There we go, caught ya!” she says, rubbing all over your face and front leggies with the wet white thingy, which is kind of rough and hurts, and you try to squirm away as you protest but she doesn’t listen.
After what feels like forever she lets you go and you instantly pop back up on your feet, running around your saferoom some more! Mummah giggles as she watches you, but soon you start feeling funny… A moment later you stop running, panting hard, your heart pounding in your chest, before your tummy starts feeling all wobbly. You open your mouth to start to tell Mummah you don’t feel so good, but before you can actually say anything your tummy suddenly clenches and a whole bunch of purpley stuff comes out of your mouth! It tastes awful! Mummah gasps and lets out an “EEEWW!” before turning around. “Mom, Cupcake threw up all over the floor!”
You burst into tears at Mummah’s reaction, backing away. “Cupcake am sowwy Mummah! Cupcake nu mean tu be bad fwuffy an’ make sickies!” you try say through your sobs, but it mostly just comes out as blubbering. A moment later Miss Mary comes in and looks at you with a look that makes you feel even WORSE!
“Poor thing. Probably shouldn’t have given her that cupcake, I don’t think fluffies are supposed to have that much sugar,” Miss Mary says, stepping over the baby gate to your saferoom. “Come on Lilly, let’s give her a bath and then we can put her to bed, okay? Cupcake has had a big day and I think she should probably get some rest, you can play with her some more tomorrow, okay?”
“Aww, okay…” Mummah says, looking sad, and that somehow makes you feel even WORSE! You didn’t know it was even POSSIBLE to feel this bad! Despite how much you love Mummah and your saferoom and your name, this is turning out to be a horrible day after all!
Mummah makes a funny face as she starts to come over to you, reaching for you, but you back away again and protest. “NUUUU! NU BAFFIES! WAWAS BAD FOW FWUFFY, WAWAS BAD FOW FWUFFYYYYYYY!” you cry, but you’re too exhausted to put up any real resistance.
“Oh come on, stop being a baby, Cupcake. Only babies don’t want to take baths. Besides, you’re all covered in puke…” Mummah says, and even though you’re miserable and your tummy still feels bad you try to be a good fluffy for Mummah and you try to stop protesting, but you still wind up huuhuuing quietly as Mummah kind of scoops you up and holds out at arms’ length as she carries you to the bathroom. Mummah sets you down in some big white place, and then pulls some yellow thing over, blocking her out of your view!
“Mummah nu weave Cupcake! CUPCAKE AM GUD FWUFFY MUMMAH PWEASE NU WEAVE MUMMAH!” you cry, but you hear her voice like she’s right there.
“Gosh you’re loud… Calm down Cupcake, I’m right here, okay?” she says, pulling the yellow thng over again so you can see her face.
“Cupcake nee’ huggies Mummah!” You wail as you sit on your rump and lift your front half up, raising your front leggies.
Mummah gives you a look you don’t like, like you’re an ugly fluffy, and sighs. “Yes, Cupcake, you are a good fluffy, and of course I’ll give you hugs, but you’re all gross right now and you need a shower first. This’ll only take a minute, okay?” she says before her face disappears again.
“O-otay MuSCREEE!” you say as cold wawas suddenly come from everywhere! You panic and try to run away as fast as you can, managing to escape for a second, but suddenly you bump into a meanie slippery white wall and you can’t go anywhere else as the meanie cold wawas catch up and cover you again! You scream and cry, but after a little while the cold wawas stop and you huddle away from where they came from (you can’t really tell where they came from, so you just press yourself up against the slippery meanie wall that won’t let you climb over it and escape,) bawling miserably to yourself.
After a moment the yellow thing separating you from Mummah is pulled back again and she drops a towel over you, rubbing you all over with it, which hurts your back leggies and rump because they’re still tender from the scalding they got this afternoon. A while later Mummah takes the towel away and points some funny black thing at you. There’s a click and suddenly a LOUD ‘WhiRRRRRRRRRR’ noise as the black munstah blows air at you! You try to run away but Mummah catches you and holds you still as the munstah’s breath gets hotter, singing your tender skin through your thin wispy fluff, but after forever the munstah seems to decide you’re not good to eat and stops yelling at you before it goes away.
Mummah then scoops you up, and you give her the BIGGEST huggies EVER as you sob miserably into her. She pets and rocks you, and after a little bit you feel like things are going to be okay.
“See? Was that really so bad?” Mummah asks as she carries you back to your saferoom.
“Cupcake nu wike wawas!” you protest. Yes, it really WAS that bad!
Mummah just gives you another funny look that makes you feel like an ugly fluffy again. “Okay, fine, be a baby about it,” she says in a way that makes you start to feel bad again, before she sets you down in a bed a lot like the one you had at your old home. It reminds you of your fluffy Mummah and your brothers and sisters… “But I still love you, okay?” Mummah says as she strokes you with her not-hoofsie. “It’s getting late anyway, Cupcake. You need to get some sleep. Tomorrow’s Saturday, so we can spend all day together, okay? We can play some more and I’ll take you out in the yard, and maybe you can meet some of my friends if they can come over. Maybe we can even teach you some tricks,” she says.
“Otay Mummah…” you say, snuggling up with your stuffy-friend. He hasn’t said or done anything all day, so he’s not a great friend to play with, but he IS nice and soft and warm, so he’s a good friend for huggies and naptime at least.
Mummah pets you for a little while, humming softly to you. Your soft bed and your stuffy-friend and Mummah’s pets make you feel a lot better, even if the pets do hurt your scalded and sensitive skin a little bit, and with as exhausting as today has been you wind up quickly falling asleep.