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Teefs knows he is no one's favorite. His experiments were all mobility based, how to enhance his brain, make him faster. It was found to be hard to do with something that lacked lower legs or even 'proper arms' as Sire had said during the experiments. His cumbersome body kept heavy with extra food and extra enforcements. The earlier modes of transportation had broken or warped beneath his girth. He is a disappointment. He's nobody's favorite, they all treat him cold and discard him afterwards.
He knows they forget him most days – the humans, not his friends.
His friends are the only ones who remember him without fail. Even when they can barely remember themselves while panicked or sick, they know Teefs.
Humans do not look at him how they look at the other animals. They behold Lylla and even Rocket with an almost fondness but still fearful expression, but Teefs? Teefs is a monster. His eyes are almost always unblinking, his teeth are huge, and he moves like a slug on wheels.
The walrus is extremely aware that whatever he is, he's not a pretty animal. He has no paws, no hands, no fur. His flippers flop and cannot touch Lylla the same as her mechanical arms. He can not pick things up either. He is unable to do anything when he drops stuff but stare down.
He loves his friends, but he is slow, and as much as they dream of seeing the sky, Teefs dreams of the water. In the water, he will be fast. The humans even say he's “a marine animal” and that means in the water. He belongs there, like some of the other animals with flippers. Batch 89 has many animals like him, even birds with flippers and no feathers.
But he knows they are liked more. Smaller hims with white fur are often talked to while the cages are cleaned of their feces and shed. They are cooed at or told it will get better as their bodies are twisted and enhanced, their imperfections perfected. But Teefs is always at gunpoint and intensely watched when it is his turn. He has seen many times that they point more guns at animals the bigger they are, or when they are aggressive and mean.
They fear him most.
They never smile at him.
He is not aggressive.
He is not mean.
They never give him treats or pet him. Even if pets are rare for the others, Teefs has never known a hand to pet him that was not his friend's. He is always aware of how these humans see him, Sire has made certain his mind is sharp, even if his tongue is a bit slow.
No human will ever love Teefs, only animals will.
Rocket sells them on the sky, but Teefs wants most to be free. But he is not foolish, he is large and slow, he will be the one. His job is to protect them somehow. Being slow means being caught soonest. Even as they plan to maybe get out or go somewhere, he lays on his back, knowing it's not serious, but thinking about if it was serious.
Floor, Llya, and even Rocket need someone to protect them. If that means Teefs has to be brave and stay behind, he will. A distraction, like all the pieces of shiny metal in their cages. Teefs can do this. If he ever has to, he will.
He lays upon the cold unyielding metal, his mind working like a computer. The chances of them surviving is low. Not without one dying at least.
His heart is large, overflowing, and he loves them so.
Enough to die for them when the time comes.
If it comes.
Nobody else would ever love him after all, and no one would miss him besides his friends.
“You're quiet, Teefs.” Floor says, a metal leg touching his flipper through the bars. “Saaad?”
“No. Jus' thinkin' about the sky.”
“Me too,” Llya says beside him.
Teefs touches her faux arm and smiles, repeating exactly what she's always said after each day. “It's good to have friends.”
She smiles. “Hey, that's my line.”
All four start to giggle and laugh. He finds warmth in the metal parts of his friends touching him, in their exoskeletons linked together in a square. “I love you guys.” Teefs says softly in the fading laughter. He gazes lovingly at their hands, at how connected they are. Enough if it has to be me, I won't mind. Just stay alive. They will be the only ones to remember him.
Teefs can live with that.
Teefs can die with that.