Some Fluffy Among Us Logic One-shots

Chilopodophobia

[Synopsis: It's a little-known fact that Player has a morbid fear of centipedes. Veteran knows about this, but Player doesn't know that he knows, and thinks he'll make fun of him if he does. But it's a little hard to hide a phobia from your friend when you're both in the same room...with a centipede.]

[Location: Veteran's house]

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"Well, Player's gonna be here any minute, little guy," Veteran said as he picked up the terrarium situated on the small table in his room. "You know the drill. Gotta go in the closet until he's gone."

Jeff tilted his head, as though trying to comprehend what his owner was saying to him...All the millipede knew was that when his tank got picked up, he was usually given a treat and then put in the dark closet for a while. He didn't mind the darkness, though; it was peaceful, and he usually took a nap while waiting to be taken back out.

Veteran knew way more about the situation than his millipede did; a year or so ago, Player's parents had informed him that he had something called "chilopodophobia" which was an overly long term for an extreme fear of centipedes, mainly because Veteran's house was a favorite target for the creepy-crawlers for some reason. They just wanted him to understand if Player ever encountered one while there, and had politely asked him not to poke fun at him for something like that...Of course, Veteran had willingly obliged; who did they think he was? Bro?

His parents had also asked that he not bring the matter up in conversation with him, since he already had enough on his plate to worry about and they didn't want to embarrass him. He'd also agreed to that, stating that he'd probably forget to bring anything like that up in a conversation, anyways, considering his horrible memory. But he did remember(through written reminders and mental repetition) to quickly check for centipedes lurking around his home before Player ever came to visit. And while Player's parents didn't know about his pet millipede, he made sure he got put away when his best friend came over, too; both species were myriapods, and millipedes bore a lot of physical similarities to centipedes, so it was plausible that Player might be afraid of them, as well.

...Do I feel a draft? he said to himself, looking around curiously. Huh...Whatever, it's probably just me. I've been imagining a lot o' weird stuff happening recently.

"I'll see ya later, Jeff..." the crewmate told him as he stuck his tank on the floor against the left wall of the closet. "You want some cucumber real quick?"

Veteran could have SWORN he saw him nod, so he swiftly left his room and headed out into the kitchen, grabbed half of a cucumber from the fridge and cut a slice off. Just as he was putting the cucumber back in the fridge, he heard a knock at the door.

That's gotta be Player, he said to himself.

"I'll be there in a minute!" he called out. "Just lemme do something real quick!"

He rushed back into his room with the cucumber slice in hand, stuck it in Jeff's tank right in front of him, hid the tank behind some of his hanging shirts, snapped the closet light off, shut its door then ran back out into the living room, coming to a screeching halt right at the front door.

Veteran took a second to catch his breath from all the running around, then finally answered the door.

"Hey, Veteran!" Player greeted chipperly, a smile on his face.

"'Sup, dude? Come on in."

He let Player into his home and shut the door behind them.

"You ready to get crackin'?"