Fic: Fluff Life
Title: Fluff Life
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Nosy, Jack, Tosh, Team.
Rating: G
Word Count: 1359
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: The effects of alien tech on humans aren’t always unpleasant. Sometimes they result in quite enjoyable, not to mention educational, experiences.
Written For: Challenge 350: Change at fan_flashworks.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
On reflection, once he’d recovered from the initial shock, Ianto supposed it wasn’t an entirely terrible thing, and certainly far from the worst that had ever befallen him. A bit of a nuisance, yes, especially considering the backlog of filing he should be getting on with, but nonetheless quite educational.
“Huh. Well, at least now we know what that device does,” Jack was saying. “It turns people into an identical copy of whatever living thing they’re physically closest to.” He seemed a bit confused, but not unduly worried, certain that Tosh would be able to undo what the device had done. Ianto was confident of that too; Tosh had never failed him yet.
“But how do we tell which is which?” Tosh wanted to know. “They’re completely identical!”
Jack looked from one to the other. “Will the real Nosy the Fluff please stand up?”
Nosy obligingly raised the front metre of its body off the concrete, and Jack gave a satisfied smile. “There, you see? Easy.” He petted Nosy, then turned to the other Fluff. “Ianto?”
“Hum?”
“Don’t worry about a thing; Tosh will fix this.”
Ianto wanted to say, “I’m not worried, I know she will, and anyway this is interesting,” but all he could say was “Hummm.” He tried to say it in as reassuring a tone as he could manage though.
Turning to Nosy, he hummed some more, flexing his long body in various ways. The movements would have been meaningless to a human, but to a Fluff the meaning was clear. “It’s nice to be able to talk to you Fluff to Fluff.”
“You make a very good Fluff,” Nosy replied, in the same manner. “We’re confusing our friends though. Perhaps you should change your colour so they can tell us apart. You do it this way,” and it explained, not in words as such, more as a sort of empathic projection.
Ianto absorbed the information in a matter of moments; it really was a remarkable way of communicating complex ideas. “Clever!” While understanding was simple, knowing how to do something wasn’t the same as actually doing it, so it took Ianto a few minutes, but gradually his fur changed from grass green to jet black with red stripes. “How’s that?”
“Very good,” Nosy replied. “You learn quickly. I thought you would.”
“Nice!” Jack approved. “Now we can tell the two of you apart.”
“Hum,” Ianto agreed. After all, that was the idea. “Unfortunately,” he added to Nosy in Fluff speech, “being a Fluff means I can’t make coffee.”
Nosy gave the Fluff equivalent of a shrug. “Yes, that’s a shame, but it can’t be helped. Would you like to play?”
To Ianto that sounded like an excellent idea. Usually, at a time like this he’d be fretting over the work he should be doing, but apparently that was something Fluffs didn’t waste energy on. He couldn’t do the filing so there was no point worrying about it, especially when there was fun to be had.
“I’ve always wanted to try out your ball pit.”
“You’re very welcome to, anytime you want,” Nosy told him. “Though I suspect the experience would be rather different as a human.”
“I imagine so. Humans can’t slink, slither, wiggle, or squiggle.”
“It’s very sad, but they don’t seem to mind.”
“That’s because they have no way of knowing how much fun it is.” Ianto was following behind Nosy, slithering quickly across the concrete, which didn’t feel at all cold through his thick under-fluff. He was beginning to realise that a great deal of Fluff communication was on an almost telepathic level, although expressed less in words than in emotions. It was an incredibly nuanced language, and once again Ianto was impressed by how intelligent Fluffs were.
Playing in the ball pit was so much fun! It reminded Ianto a bit of swimming underwater, only easier, with a lot less resistance, and a delicious tingle of static electricity that seemed to vibrate through every hair on his long body. He hummed with delight, popping up to the surface only to dive deep again among the hundreds of balls, trying to catch Nosy in a sort of tag game that had no rules whatsoever.
When the two Fluffs tired of their game, they slithered out again, their fur standing on end, and shook themselves vigorously.
“What shall we do now?” Ianto asked.
“Let’s build something with my blocks.”
“Why not?” It would give Ianto a chance to learn more about Fluff dexterity, what was possible when you only had a mouth to work with instead of a pair of hands.
There was a wonderful simplicity to being a Fluff. Human stresses just seemed to melt away as they played, although Ianto found that he was constantly aware of exactly how each member of the team was feeling. Most of the time it was sort of like music playing in the background, but if he focused on it, he could separate out each thread of the melody and identify which of his friends it belonged to. No wonder Nosy was always so keenly aware of everyone’s moods. Ianto could even feel Myfanwy up in her aerie, and Janet and the other residents down in the cells. More distantly, he could dimly sense people up on the Plas, and the many minds, both human and alien, who inhabited Cardiff. He felt connected to every living thing, to varying degrees.
The day drifted past at a leisurely pace; there was need to rush. Ianto and Nosy enjoyed a shared lunch of fresh fruits, nuts, and rice cakes, washed down with coffee from the shop across the Plas.
“Not as good as the coffee you make when you’re a human, but still very pleasant,” Nosy commented.
To his surprise, Ianto realised that even after several hours he still wasn’t bothered that he couldn’t get on with his work. Fluffs, it seemed, were a lot more laid back than humans. He knew all the things he couldn’t do while he was a Fluff would still be there waiting for him when he was eventually changed back, and if that meant he was behind in the tasks he’d set himself, what did it really matter? An extra fifteen minutes or so of work each day and in a week or two he’d be caught up. He probably pushed himself too hard anyway. It wouldn’t hurt him to ease up and take the time to enjoy life; Jack had been telling him that for years.
‘I must try to hold on to what I’m learning and keep on thinking like a Fluff when I’m back to being myself again,’ he decided. ‘All of us could learn from Nosy’s example.’
Perhaps once he was human again, everyone on the team could use the clever device to be a Fluff for a few hours. Not all at once, of course, just one at a time… Yes, he’d have to suggest that to Jack. If having a Fluff on the team was therapeutic, being one, even just for a while, was even more so.
For now though, he just intended to make the most of his ‘vacation’ and enjoy the experience of being a Fluff to the full.
Up in his office, Ianto was aware that Jack was just hanging up the phone after a call from one of UNIT’s bigwigs, and as always, it had left him in a seriously bad mood. Something would have to be done about that, and Ianto knew the perfect antidote for UNIT’s unique brand of idiocy.
“We’ve had a busy day,” he told Nosy. “I think that we could both do with a thorough grooming.”
Nosy hummed agreement: nothing soothed a human better than grooming a Fluff, and surely two would be even better than one. Ruffling their fur so they’d look appropriately messy, together they slithered up to Jack’s office, taking a grooming brush with them. Ianto squiggled happily as he slithered along the catwalk; he was in no mad rush to be changed back into a human again, not when there was still so much to discover about the life of Fluffs.
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Nosy, Jack, Tosh, Team.
Rating: G
Word Count: 1359
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: The effects of alien tech on humans aren’t always unpleasant. Sometimes they result in quite enjoyable, not to mention educational, experiences.
Written For: Challenge 350: Change at fan_flashworks.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
On reflection, once he’d recovered from the initial shock, Ianto supposed it wasn’t an entirely terrible thing, and certainly far from the worst that had ever befallen him. A bit of a nuisance, yes, especially considering the backlog of filing he should be getting on with, but nonetheless quite educational.
“Huh. Well, at least now we know what that device does,” Jack was saying. “It turns people into an identical copy of whatever living thing they’re physically closest to.” He seemed a bit confused, but not unduly worried, certain that Tosh would be able to undo what the device had done. Ianto was confident of that too; Tosh had never failed him yet.
“But how do we tell which is which?” Tosh wanted to know. “They’re completely identical!”
Jack looked from one to the other. “Will the real Nosy the Fluff please stand up?”
Nosy obligingly raised the front metre of its body off the concrete, and Jack gave a satisfied smile. “There, you see? Easy.” He petted Nosy, then turned to the other Fluff. “Ianto?”
“Hum?”
“Don’t worry about a thing; Tosh will fix this.”
Ianto wanted to say, “I’m not worried, I know she will, and anyway this is interesting,” but all he could say was “Hummm.” He tried to say it in as reassuring a tone as he could manage though.
Turning to Nosy, he hummed some more, flexing his long body in various ways. The movements would have been meaningless to a human, but to a Fluff the meaning was clear. “It’s nice to be able to talk to you Fluff to Fluff.”
“You make a very good Fluff,” Nosy replied, in the same manner. “We’re confusing our friends though. Perhaps you should change your colour so they can tell us apart. You do it this way,” and it explained, not in words as such, more as a sort of empathic projection.
Ianto absorbed the information in a matter of moments; it really was a remarkable way of communicating complex ideas. “Clever!” While understanding was simple, knowing how to do something wasn’t the same as actually doing it, so it took Ianto a few minutes, but gradually his fur changed from grass green to jet black with red stripes. “How’s that?”
“Very good,” Nosy replied. “You learn quickly. I thought you would.”
“Nice!” Jack approved. “Now we can tell the two of you apart.”
“Hum,” Ianto agreed. After all, that was the idea. “Unfortunately,” he added to Nosy in Fluff speech, “being a Fluff means I can’t make coffee.”
Nosy gave the Fluff equivalent of a shrug. “Yes, that’s a shame, but it can’t be helped. Would you like to play?”
To Ianto that sounded like an excellent idea. Usually, at a time like this he’d be fretting over the work he should be doing, but apparently that was something Fluffs didn’t waste energy on. He couldn’t do the filing so there was no point worrying about it, especially when there was fun to be had.
“I’ve always wanted to try out your ball pit.”
“You’re very welcome to, anytime you want,” Nosy told him. “Though I suspect the experience would be rather different as a human.”
“I imagine so. Humans can’t slink, slither, wiggle, or squiggle.”
“It’s very sad, but they don’t seem to mind.”
“That’s because they have no way of knowing how much fun it is.” Ianto was following behind Nosy, slithering quickly across the concrete, which didn’t feel at all cold through his thick under-fluff. He was beginning to realise that a great deal of Fluff communication was on an almost telepathic level, although expressed less in words than in emotions. It was an incredibly nuanced language, and once again Ianto was impressed by how intelligent Fluffs were.
Playing in the ball pit was so much fun! It reminded Ianto a bit of swimming underwater, only easier, with a lot less resistance, and a delicious tingle of static electricity that seemed to vibrate through every hair on his long body. He hummed with delight, popping up to the surface only to dive deep again among the hundreds of balls, trying to catch Nosy in a sort of tag game that had no rules whatsoever.
When the two Fluffs tired of their game, they slithered out again, their fur standing on end, and shook themselves vigorously.
“What shall we do now?” Ianto asked.
“Let’s build something with my blocks.”
“Why not?” It would give Ianto a chance to learn more about Fluff dexterity, what was possible when you only had a mouth to work with instead of a pair of hands.
There was a wonderful simplicity to being a Fluff. Human stresses just seemed to melt away as they played, although Ianto found that he was constantly aware of exactly how each member of the team was feeling. Most of the time it was sort of like music playing in the background, but if he focused on it, he could separate out each thread of the melody and identify which of his friends it belonged to. No wonder Nosy was always so keenly aware of everyone’s moods. Ianto could even feel Myfanwy up in her aerie, and Janet and the other residents down in the cells. More distantly, he could dimly sense people up on the Plas, and the many minds, both human and alien, who inhabited Cardiff. He felt connected to every living thing, to varying degrees.
The day drifted past at a leisurely pace; there was need to rush. Ianto and Nosy enjoyed a shared lunch of fresh fruits, nuts, and rice cakes, washed down with coffee from the shop across the Plas.
“Not as good as the coffee you make when you’re a human, but still very pleasant,” Nosy commented.
To his surprise, Ianto realised that even after several hours he still wasn’t bothered that he couldn’t get on with his work. Fluffs, it seemed, were a lot more laid back than humans. He knew all the things he couldn’t do while he was a Fluff would still be there waiting for him when he was eventually changed back, and if that meant he was behind in the tasks he’d set himself, what did it really matter? An extra fifteen minutes or so of work each day and in a week or two he’d be caught up. He probably pushed himself too hard anyway. It wouldn’t hurt him to ease up and take the time to enjoy life; Jack had been telling him that for years.
‘I must try to hold on to what I’m learning and keep on thinking like a Fluff when I’m back to being myself again,’ he decided. ‘All of us could learn from Nosy’s example.’
Perhaps once he was human again, everyone on the team could use the clever device to be a Fluff for a few hours. Not all at once, of course, just one at a time… Yes, he’d have to suggest that to Jack. If having a Fluff on the team was therapeutic, being one, even just for a while, was even more so.
For now though, he just intended to make the most of his ‘vacation’ and enjoy the experience of being a Fluff to the full.
Up in his office, Ianto was aware that Jack was just hanging up the phone after a call from one of UNIT’s bigwigs, and as always, it had left him in a seriously bad mood. Something would have to be done about that, and Ianto knew the perfect antidote for UNIT’s unique brand of idiocy.
“We’ve had a busy day,” he told Nosy. “I think that we could both do with a thorough grooming.”
Nosy hummed agreement: nothing soothed a human better than grooming a Fluff, and surely two would be even better than one. Ruffling their fur so they’d look appropriately messy, together they slithered up to Jack’s office, taking a grooming brush with them. Ianto squiggled happily as he slithered along the catwalk; he was in no mad rush to be changed back into a human again, not when there was still so much to discover about the life of Fluffs.
The End