It had been ten years since that fateful day in the park
Ten years ago, a tiny pink puffling laid in the grass, her life prospects looking grim. She had lost everything in one selfish act. The love and warmth of her family ripped from her for profit.
Yet her savior had appeared...offering her a warm home and love.
The time had surely passed quickly...
~~~
Puffball had really blossomed into a beautiful little puffling...well, if she could even be considered a puffling anymore. Her thin puffling coat had been completely replaced with luxurious fur, and she was nearly full size. She was an apt flier, and had already mastered language and object culture.
But as much as she had improved, there was still one thing that bothered her: she was completely dependent due to her lack of limbs.
Sure, she had full autonomy of her mind, and no longer needed Fries to make decisions for her, but she couldn't physically act out many of her desires. Hell, she couldn't even brush her teeth or pour a glass of water for herself.
It was humiliating.
"Why can't I do this on my own?" Puffball complained out loud as Fries got a toothbrush ready for her, approaching her face. "I know, but you can't! You don't have any arms, and last time you tried just using your teeth, you shredded the entire thing!" He then began to clean her teeth for her, being careful around those sharp fangs, causing the ball of fluff to groan in frustration. "Mmmfp- mmmnffmmgh" Fries pulled out the brush, letting her spit into the sink and finish her sentence. "Yeah, but it's embarrassing! All the other objects can do it on their own! Even Ruby, and she's dumber than a box of Rockies!" "Oh come on, be nice to her! She's a sweet kid...but I'm sorry, there's nothing you can do about your arms..."
Fries thought to himself as he rinsed off the toothbrush, letting Puffball go to her room for the night. He had heard of an object who was a sort of tinkerer, and also was missing limbs...
Too bad she was so bossy all the time.
~~~
"Ok- I think this is the place-" Fries checked the printed-out instructions as he pulled up in front of a small, abandoned-looking garage. He had done some research on that object- turns out she was a bit of a local scientist- a young prodigy with a knack for tinkering up all sorts of gadgets.
In the passenger seat, Puffball huffed and grabbed her seat belt in her teeth, struggling to get it unclipped for a bit before Fries helped release the clasp. She mumbled out a half-hearted "thanks", before grabbing the car door handle with her tongue. The potato box cringed a bit at this- she was always grabbing things with her tongue, which was honestly kinda gross for the both of them.
But hey, that's what they were there to fix, right?
Well, Fries was skeptical of this so-called genius tinkerer.
The two friends approached the door, ringing a small buzzer, and waiting. What they didn't expect, however, was the object that answered the door. The scientist they had been looking for was a small object- a golf ball- yet in front of them stood a quite large figure: a fuzzy tennis ball.
"Could I...help you two?" The tennis ball looked down at them concernedly, eyeing Puffball before his jaw dropped in surprise. "Yeah- we were actually hoping to see a-" Fries was cut off as the large sports ball's eyes lit up, and he launched into a frantic monologue. "Puffiscus! The critically endangered puffball species! I had no idea we had one living here! Is she from a conservation group? I can tell she's a female because she's lacking the characteristic facial tufts of a male- but oh that's great! She'd be excellent for saving her species-"
"My what?" Puffball floated back a bit, weirded out by the information that this random object knew about her, despite literally meeting 5 seconds ago.
"Oh! You're a civilian puffball- my bad. I just get excited about your species- did you know I used to work for a conservation group for a project? We helped-" "TB!"
Yet again, the tennis ball was cut off, this time from a shrill cry behind him, followed by frantic, tiny, and somewhat angry footsteps. Out from behind the green ball, a smaller, grey one emerged: the golf ball they had come for.
"Who are these buffoons? What do they want? Can't they see I'm busy working on my inventions?" The golf ball berated Fries and Puffball, seemingly annoyed at their existence. "Well- we actually came to see you- I heard you could maybe help out with-" "My limbs! I want to have limbs!" Puffball cried out approaching the tiny scientist. "I see you don't have arms either! So maybe you can build me some! So I can be a normal object!"
The golf ball looked at the two of them, thinking to herself before sighing.
"Alright. The puffball can come inside."
Fries stepped forward as well, yet was quickly stopped in his tracks. "Not you- only her. I don't want anyone else inside MY lab." Puffball turned and gave Fries a nervous look, yet he simply shrugged and rolled his eyes. "Alright then- go- but you better not be using her as a lab rat! I swear if she comes back with even a hair out of place-" "I'm not going to hurt her. I just prefer to work in private." And with that, the door was shut in Fries's face, the only consolation being a sorry look from Tennis Ball on his way in.
"Now where do we begin?"
~~~
~Author's Notes~
It's been 84 years
Nah sorry I just haven't really had the inspiration to write recently- with work n all that
I was gonna write about puff n gb but like idk what to write for the lab scene n this chapter is pretty long so
Idk I might put it in the next part, maybe not
puff
-Fire