Fic: Fluff About Town
Title: Fluff About Town
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Nosy, Ianto, OCs.
Rating: G
Word Count: 1625
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Nosy the Fluff leads a very busy life, there are always so many things to do and places to go.
Written For: Challenge 278: Street at fan_flashworks.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
Earth had changed a great deal over the last century and a half. Everything ran on renewable power nowadays, generated by the sun, the wind, the waves, and even the electricity produced by plants. All vehicles were electric, and the air mostly smelled clean and fresh, except down on the docks where freshly caught fish were still gutted and filleted before being sold, while seabirds squabbled over the choicest scraps.
Climate change had been halted, water reclamation had allowed for crops to be grown in what once were deserts, and trees had been planted wherever a space could be found. Indeed, there was at least one fruit tree in every garden of sufficient size, while mature maples, sycamores, and similar species lined the majority of streets, and majestic oaks, birches, and horse chestnuts adorned parks and open spaces. They oxygenated the air while providing shade from the sun for those who wanted it, and shelter from the rain, as well as homes for birds and insects, squirrels and chipmunks. Everywhere was green and beautiful.
The sun was shining as the last of the rain clouds scattered on the early autumn breeze. The puddles on the pavements were already starting to dry, and it looked like it would be a lovely day.
Nosy the Fluff slithered along the street, pushing its modified shopping trolley. It didn’t mind the dampness of the ground these days, not now it had figured out how to make its fluff waterproof. Gone were the days of getting waterlogged in the rain, and after many years of trial and error, it had even learned to swim, provided it stayed where the water was shallow enough to be safe, an activity it found quite enjoyable on hot days.
“Morning, Nosy,” people called as it slithered past, and it hummed a friendly greeting in reply. The locals were all used to seeing Nosy and its fellow Fluffs, although tourists and other strangers still tended to stop and stare when confronted by one. The entire world knew about Fluffs, there were well over a hundred on earth now, but knowing about them and seeing pictures was not the same as meeting one face-to-face. As most still lived in and around Cardiff, people travelled there from all over the world just in the hope of meeting one of the famous aliens.
There were plenty of other aliens now living on earth, at least twenty different species, and there were humans living on many other planets. Exchange programmes allowed humans and aliens alike to learn about each other’s planet and culture, and all the major races had ambassadors living in Cardiff, liasing with Torchwood to promote understanding and trade between their far-flung worlds and earth. Humanity was finally settling into its place in the Galactic Federation, although earth still had a way to go before it would be on an equal footing with the other members.
Reaching the bus stop, Nosy joined the queue, where several young people came over to pet it, chattering cheerfully. Nosy listened intently, humming encouragement. It always enjoyed interacting with youngsters, and along with several of its offspring, ran a pre-school day-care centre. Other Fluffs had part-time jobs in care homes and hospitals, arranging their schedules so there was always a Fluff on hand to soothe or cheer up residents and patients.
As the bus arrived, gliding silently to a halt, Nosy slithered aboard in its turn and showed its pass. Not that it needed to, because nothing else could be mistaken for a Fluff, but Nosy felt it was polite to do so anyway since everybody else with a travel pass had to show it. All Fluffs travelled for free, it was considered that just by being somewhere they were providing a public service, making people feel happier, dispensing hugs and letting themselves be petted; it would have been wrong to charge them.
Leaving its trolley in the luggage area, it took a seat, coiling itself tidily beside an elderly woman who was staring sadly out the window.
“Hummm?” it said, laying its head on her lap.
“It’s silly really,” she replied, running her fingers through Nosy’s fur. “My husband’s been gone for nearly two years, but I can’t seem to get used to being alone in the house. It’s so quiet with no one to talk to, so I come out almost every day, just looking for a bit of company, but somehow I feel even lonelier surrounded by so many people because they all have their lives, their families and their friends. Who has time for a stranger?”
Nosy hummed sympathetically, and when it got off the bus a few stops later, the old lady got off with it.
They went to the supermarket, where they brought fruit and vegetables for Nosy, sandwiches, cookies, cakes, and juice to drink, then crossed the street and took another bus to the Botanical Gardens, where Nosy introduced its new friend to a lady it had met there the day before. Lonely people, it knew, stopped being lonely when they made friends with other lonely people. Leaving the two ladies with an assortment of food for a picnic, it slithered off to continue its errands.
First it went to the local pet shop to buy some treats, and then it caught a bus to the pet re-homing centre and spent an hour there playing with the cats and dogs and other creatures that hadn’t found new homes yet. From there it made its way to the school to have lunch with Jack and Ianto’s adopted daughter Amy.
When she’d first been taken in by Nosy’s family, she’d been a shy child who’d had trouble making friends, but she had lots of friends now that Nosy had helped her to feel more confident. Everyone wanted to be friends with someone who had a Fluff in the family. Amy was Jack and Ianto’s only child right now, so Nosy was as much hers at it had once been Meriel’s so very long ago. One day, when she was grown up and ready to leave home, perhaps to start a family of her own, she would be gifted with a Flufflet, but for now Nosy wasn’t ready to share her with another Fluff. It still had so much to teach her.
Lunchtime ended, Amy hugged Nosy, and ran back inside the school with her friends, without sparing so much as a backward glance for the Fluff. Nosy hummed approval. She didn’t need her fluffy friend as much as she once had, and that was a good thing.
From the school Nosy headed across Cardiff towards its next appointment. It knew its way around the whole city; every street and building was familiar, every bus route and timetable memorised. It hummed a greeting to a smaller Fluff that was on its way to the Fluff-run pre-school for the afternoon shift, then crossed the street at the next pedestrian crossing, waiting for the traffic to stop and looking both ways before slithering quickly across.
Soon it would be too cold out, the weather too unpredictable, but for the moment the street theatre group was still putting on open-air performances. Today they were performing one of their own plays in a plaza outside the old Cardiff International Arena. There was already a large audience assembled and Nosy hurriedly slunk backstage to get ready.
It was a very important play about how humans used to fear and distrust anyone who was different. Nosy had been cast, unsurprisingly, in the role of the lost and stranded alien that was threatened, chased, and even attacked, until it saved the life of one of its attackers and proved it wasn’t the fearsome monster everyone believed it to be. People learned from the play not to judge beings from other worlds by their strange appearances. The incidences of attacks on aliens had fallen by more than three quarters in the past three years since groups like this one had started putting on plays to educate people by entertaining them.
It was early evening before Nosy arrived home after another very well received performance, where people from all over the world had lined up afterwards to meet a genuine alien. Nosy had signed a lot of autographs with its name and the squiggle and dot that had become the universal symbol representing a Fluff.
Ianto was cooking dinner when Nosy slithered in. Amy, home from school, was playing with her best human friend, who would be staying for dinner. Jack wasn’t home from work yet.
“Hum!” the Fluff greeted everybody cheerfully.
“Hi, Nosy!” Amy and her friend waved, knowing Nosy would join them shortly.
Ianto came out of the kitchen, drying his hands. “Hello, Nosy. Did you have a good day?”
“HUMM!”
“You’ll have to tell us all about it later.”
“Hummm,” Nosy agreed, heading for its bathroom to take a quick shower and wash off the dust from the streets. Being waterproof certainly made getting clean a lot simpler; a quick rinse, followed by a few minutes rolling around under the dryer and it was ready to play with Amy and her friend until dinnertime.
A much as it had loved its life back when it had first arrived in Cardiff, living at the Hub and helping out wherever it could, everything was so much better now it had the freedom to go wherever it wanted at any time. There was no shortage of things to keep it busy, so many people and creatures to play with and teach now that it was a streetwise Fluff about town, but it was always good to come home after its adventures and spend time with its family, the people it loved best in all the world.
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Nosy, Ianto, OCs.
Rating: G
Word Count: 1625
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Nosy the Fluff leads a very busy life, there are always so many things to do and places to go.
Written For: Challenge 278: Street at fan_flashworks.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
Earth had changed a great deal over the last century and a half. Everything ran on renewable power nowadays, generated by the sun, the wind, the waves, and even the electricity produced by plants. All vehicles were electric, and the air mostly smelled clean and fresh, except down on the docks where freshly caught fish were still gutted and filleted before being sold, while seabirds squabbled over the choicest scraps.
Climate change had been halted, water reclamation had allowed for crops to be grown in what once were deserts, and trees had been planted wherever a space could be found. Indeed, there was at least one fruit tree in every garden of sufficient size, while mature maples, sycamores, and similar species lined the majority of streets, and majestic oaks, birches, and horse chestnuts adorned parks and open spaces. They oxygenated the air while providing shade from the sun for those who wanted it, and shelter from the rain, as well as homes for birds and insects, squirrels and chipmunks. Everywhere was green and beautiful.
The sun was shining as the last of the rain clouds scattered on the early autumn breeze. The puddles on the pavements were already starting to dry, and it looked like it would be a lovely day.
Nosy the Fluff slithered along the street, pushing its modified shopping trolley. It didn’t mind the dampness of the ground these days, not now it had figured out how to make its fluff waterproof. Gone were the days of getting waterlogged in the rain, and after many years of trial and error, it had even learned to swim, provided it stayed where the water was shallow enough to be safe, an activity it found quite enjoyable on hot days.
“Morning, Nosy,” people called as it slithered past, and it hummed a friendly greeting in reply. The locals were all used to seeing Nosy and its fellow Fluffs, although tourists and other strangers still tended to stop and stare when confronted by one. The entire world knew about Fluffs, there were well over a hundred on earth now, but knowing about them and seeing pictures was not the same as meeting one face-to-face. As most still lived in and around Cardiff, people travelled there from all over the world just in the hope of meeting one of the famous aliens.
There were plenty of other aliens now living on earth, at least twenty different species, and there were humans living on many other planets. Exchange programmes allowed humans and aliens alike to learn about each other’s planet and culture, and all the major races had ambassadors living in Cardiff, liasing with Torchwood to promote understanding and trade between their far-flung worlds and earth. Humanity was finally settling into its place in the Galactic Federation, although earth still had a way to go before it would be on an equal footing with the other members.
Reaching the bus stop, Nosy joined the queue, where several young people came over to pet it, chattering cheerfully. Nosy listened intently, humming encouragement. It always enjoyed interacting with youngsters, and along with several of its offspring, ran a pre-school day-care centre. Other Fluffs had part-time jobs in care homes and hospitals, arranging their schedules so there was always a Fluff on hand to soothe or cheer up residents and patients.
As the bus arrived, gliding silently to a halt, Nosy slithered aboard in its turn and showed its pass. Not that it needed to, because nothing else could be mistaken for a Fluff, but Nosy felt it was polite to do so anyway since everybody else with a travel pass had to show it. All Fluffs travelled for free, it was considered that just by being somewhere they were providing a public service, making people feel happier, dispensing hugs and letting themselves be petted; it would have been wrong to charge them.
Leaving its trolley in the luggage area, it took a seat, coiling itself tidily beside an elderly woman who was staring sadly out the window.
“Hummm?” it said, laying its head on her lap.
“It’s silly really,” she replied, running her fingers through Nosy’s fur. “My husband’s been gone for nearly two years, but I can’t seem to get used to being alone in the house. It’s so quiet with no one to talk to, so I come out almost every day, just looking for a bit of company, but somehow I feel even lonelier surrounded by so many people because they all have their lives, their families and their friends. Who has time for a stranger?”
Nosy hummed sympathetically, and when it got off the bus a few stops later, the old lady got off with it.
They went to the supermarket, where they brought fruit and vegetables for Nosy, sandwiches, cookies, cakes, and juice to drink, then crossed the street and took another bus to the Botanical Gardens, where Nosy introduced its new friend to a lady it had met there the day before. Lonely people, it knew, stopped being lonely when they made friends with other lonely people. Leaving the two ladies with an assortment of food for a picnic, it slithered off to continue its errands.
First it went to the local pet shop to buy some treats, and then it caught a bus to the pet re-homing centre and spent an hour there playing with the cats and dogs and other creatures that hadn’t found new homes yet. From there it made its way to the school to have lunch with Jack and Ianto’s adopted daughter Amy.
When she’d first been taken in by Nosy’s family, she’d been a shy child who’d had trouble making friends, but she had lots of friends now that Nosy had helped her to feel more confident. Everyone wanted to be friends with someone who had a Fluff in the family. Amy was Jack and Ianto’s only child right now, so Nosy was as much hers at it had once been Meriel’s so very long ago. One day, when she was grown up and ready to leave home, perhaps to start a family of her own, she would be gifted with a Flufflet, but for now Nosy wasn’t ready to share her with another Fluff. It still had so much to teach her.
Lunchtime ended, Amy hugged Nosy, and ran back inside the school with her friends, without sparing so much as a backward glance for the Fluff. Nosy hummed approval. She didn’t need her fluffy friend as much as she once had, and that was a good thing.
From the school Nosy headed across Cardiff towards its next appointment. It knew its way around the whole city; every street and building was familiar, every bus route and timetable memorised. It hummed a greeting to a smaller Fluff that was on its way to the Fluff-run pre-school for the afternoon shift, then crossed the street at the next pedestrian crossing, waiting for the traffic to stop and looking both ways before slithering quickly across.
Soon it would be too cold out, the weather too unpredictable, but for the moment the street theatre group was still putting on open-air performances. Today they were performing one of their own plays in a plaza outside the old Cardiff International Arena. There was already a large audience assembled and Nosy hurriedly slunk backstage to get ready.
It was a very important play about how humans used to fear and distrust anyone who was different. Nosy had been cast, unsurprisingly, in the role of the lost and stranded alien that was threatened, chased, and even attacked, until it saved the life of one of its attackers and proved it wasn’t the fearsome monster everyone believed it to be. People learned from the play not to judge beings from other worlds by their strange appearances. The incidences of attacks on aliens had fallen by more than three quarters in the past three years since groups like this one had started putting on plays to educate people by entertaining them.
It was early evening before Nosy arrived home after another very well received performance, where people from all over the world had lined up afterwards to meet a genuine alien. Nosy had signed a lot of autographs with its name and the squiggle and dot that had become the universal symbol representing a Fluff.
Ianto was cooking dinner when Nosy slithered in. Amy, home from school, was playing with her best human friend, who would be staying for dinner. Jack wasn’t home from work yet.
“Hum!” the Fluff greeted everybody cheerfully.
“Hi, Nosy!” Amy and her friend waved, knowing Nosy would join them shortly.
Ianto came out of the kitchen, drying his hands. “Hello, Nosy. Did you have a good day?”
“HUMM!”
“You’ll have to tell us all about it later.”
“Hummm,” Nosy agreed, heading for its bathroom to take a quick shower and wash off the dust from the streets. Being waterproof certainly made getting clean a lot simpler; a quick rinse, followed by a few minutes rolling around under the dryer and it was ready to play with Amy and her friend until dinnertime.
A much as it had loved its life back when it had first arrived in Cardiff, living at the Hub and helping out wherever it could, everything was so much better now it had the freedom to go wherever it wanted at any time. There was no shortage of things to keep it busy, so many people and creatures to play with and teach now that it was a streetwise Fluff about town, but it was always good to come home after its adventures and spend time with its family, the people it loved best in all the world.
The End