Stuffed With Love | The Orb.

Zenki had originally stopped by in order to get some of his clothes fixed up properly, he would be able to go to a regular tailor for such a thing, but Peter was the only one he trusted for such a task. Plus, he had the carats to pay, so it wasn't a huge issue to stop by.  However, while the bun was working on fixing the stitches on his suit, Zenki's eyes wandered to a small section of the shop. Stuffing, clearly not used for any kind of clothes. And next to it was a small plushie. Now, Zenki had heard others talking about getting lessons from Peter involving stuffed animals... but all those times he had just imagined that those buns were getting their memories mixed up. It did make sense when he thought about it... someone who could make clothes could absolutely make a stuffed plush as well. 

Peter noticed Zenki's eyes moving towards the corner of the room, and gave a nervous little laugh. "Oh, I see you've found my little stuffed critter station- I don't really use the stuff there that often unless I get asked to nowadays, but if you end up being curious..." That was enough for Zenki to walk over and start collecting material. Peter smiled gently. He had been doing this a lot lately, hadn't he? Not like he minded. Especially since most of the buns that he had taught planned on giving the plush creations to someone they cared about. And Zenki was no different. He hadn't said anything, but it was the way that he looked through the pile of supplies that gave himself away. He rubbed his hand on the fabric much longer than anyone would if they were trying to find how comfortable it was for themself, but Zenki knew he needed something softer- for his beloved secret admiration was a softer man than he was. Peter had seen the song and dance a few times before at this point, but he always found it a bit charming. In a way, he was glad that some buns in burrowgatory still cared for people outside of themselves...

Once Zenki had found the supplies he wanted to use, Peter carefully cleared off a table so the two of them could work on it together. Zenki sat down and immediately had questions. "Have you ever made a stuffed imp? I know that might be kind of specific..." Peter nodded. "Well of course I have! But it's not all you can make you know, you could make anything your heart desires! As long as it has a visual form, it can be represented in plushie format!" Zenki chuckled a little, scratching the back of his head. "Yeah, well... I'm a bit worried about making something too out of the ordinary and scaring him. He's... really easily frightened, actually." That was...curious, but Peter took that into consideration with his next suggestion. "Well, if you want to make an imp, you could always make a phloof, nobody could be scared of those little guys!"  The other male shook his head. "Nope, the horns would be too unnerving, and the little points that I'd have to make to represent the fluffy fur would be too upsetting." 

That was... even more curious. Why would horns be scary to his loved one? Everyone had horns. "Okay... something without horns then, how about an Sceil?" Zenki shook his head yet again. "Too many spikes on their bellies, not to mention that they don't have any limbs and have those big tongues, if I tried to do that in plushie form it might look scary." Peter nodded, moving for a moment to pull out a book of plush imp patterns, flipping through to try and find something else to offer as an option. "An Inkap! They don't have any spikes at all, and they have limbs! Zenki made a small noise of discomfort. "No way, they're too attracted to decomposition, the sight of one might make him think of death or disease. Trust me, I tried to gift him something related to Inkap before and I think he wouldn't stop crying for a week."

They shared a slight silence for a moment... Zenki looking away from Peter before his eyes turns back towards him. "He still kept the thing, but I'd prefer a gift that he both keeps around and doesn't cry over for such a long time."  Wow, this was actually quite difficult. And it didn't get any easier as Peter continued giving suggestions. Lunells were cute, but they implied the existence of a crescent rock hanging in the roof of the caves that could fall on burrowgatory at any point and injure someone terribly. Ribbows were too close to ribbons, with no center section of ribbon and too many legs- ribbons shouldn't have legs, and that was terrifying. Rabebe were apparently something that this love interest would have never seen before in the wild, which gave the knowledge both that this love interest was an envy bun, as well as the idea that he was afraid of almost everything.

After a few more overthought options, Peter decided to cave a little bit. "Okay! So how about we make a plush imp, choose a base, and remove anything that you think would upset your love interest? That's the joy of making something with your bare hands after all, you can bend it to your will!" Zenki perked up at that- "Oh! Yeah, I could do that! I already know most of the things he's afraid of, so it won't be too difficult to make something that won't scare him!"

Peter was pleased with the development of the conversation, finally knowing that Zenki could work and make something nice without having to be hovered over. He left him with a few sheets of paper detailing various methods of stitching together plush creatures before going back to fixing his suit. Peter was confident that he would be able to handle himself while he finished up the stitches on the suit... but maybe he shouldn't be.

The sloth bun heard small snips of scissors as he finished up with Zenki's outfit. There weren't any noises of despair or any big unidentifiable sounds, so certainly the other succubun was doing fine on the other side of the room. He was confident in that idea up until he walked back there with the fixed-up clothing draped over his shoulder. "Zenki, I'm done with your suit-" He started to speak, but paused as he looked at the greed bun's creation. "Zenki... did you... need some help?" Peter looked absolutely puzzled, but Zenki seemed to look even more confused by his reaction. "What do you mean? It's done, don't you see?" 

With that, he held up his creation. A black stuffed orb with eyes. It had no defining features outside of that. "An... orb?" Peter questioned. Zenki let out a dramatic little laugh, putting a hand to his chest as he continued to hold out the squishy stuffed... thing towards Peter. "It's not just an orb, Peter! It's a heavily modified stuffed Thulu!" No way he could believe that. "Elaborate?" Was all that he could manage to say, his voice going high with his ever-increasing levels of confusion and distress. 

"Well, I started with the general idea of the thulu, because I thought their eyes were cute! But then I thought the tentacles were too scary, so I got rid of them, and then I thought that the placement of the wings looked too much like they could cause a headache, which is a scary concept, so I took those off as well, and then the shape was similar to the cartoony depictions of a ghost after that, so I had to round it out! Which leads you to see the little creature in my hands right now!" 

Zenki had explained it, but Peter was still unsure about it. Despite his better judgment, he let himself ask a question. "But... isn't there something kind of terrifying about a floating orb with eyes?" That downright shattered Zenki, visible by the sight of his pupils shrinking and his body tensing up. One moment he was up, and the next he was down, collapsing on the table and crying into it. "Oh, I fucked up so bad! I can't give him this, he'll hate me!" Damnit, Peter knew that he shouldn't have said anything. "Hey! Don't worry, Zenki! I'm sure he won't think that far into it! Besides, the eyes are really sad looking, I'm sure that it'll just look like the orb is sad instead of being anything scary!" That only made Zenki cry harder. "But then he'll think about how much it's suffering and project himself on it and get scared of the potential of becoming a floating orb!" 

Sometimes Velveteen was a bit picky with things, and Peter found buying gifts for them hard... but at least they weren't this hard to make a gift for. As much as he genuinely cared for Zenki and his situation, he couldn't let the succubun stay here to try and fix the plushie on their own accord. It would take hours if now entire days, and he had to close up eventually. The sloth dipped down under the table to pick something up from a small drawer placed underneath it, returning up with a portable sewing kit. He placed it in front of Zenki's crying form, the small 'tink' of plastic on wood being enough for him to lift his head up. "Listen, I'd love to help you... but I'll be entirely honest Zenki... I have no idea how. So just... take this home with you, take some of the guides, and try your best. I'm sure you'll figure something out but... you just can't do it here." 

Zenki grabbed the sewing kit and gave out a little whine. It was clear that he was still distraught. Peter carefully handed over the suit as well, which Zenki took from him with the hand that held the plush orb. "I'm sure it'll work out fine, Zenki. Try to keep your head up, okay?" Peter gave a nervous little smile with a thumbs up to accompany it. Zenki reflected the action back at him before he stumbled his way out of the store, walking out to the street with his suit and his attempt at making a stuffed imp. 

Once he was gone, Peter let out a large sigh and almost seemed to melt to the floor at the door. He put a hand to his face and rubbed gently at his own skin. Maybe he shouldn't agree to giving these plushie sewing lessons anymore. He didn't think that he could handle something like that again...

But knowing himself, and knowing the population of burrowgatory, he knew that it was just a matter of time before he did, in fact, do something similar to this again.