I have lost the battle.

By 8 later today, I will be dead. I can no longer be rescued.

To tell the truth, I had the story for this planned all the way to the end; however, due to me dying today, I won’t be able to tell it… so I’m handing the torch over to whoever wants to write about these characters.

The outlines I’ll give of the chapters will not be complete because I want whoever people decide to pick this up to write their own creativity into it. How the story was originally going to end will die with me.

Thank you—thank you to everyone for following my account.

I will miss you all dearly as I go into my eternal sleep. This community has made some of my darkest moments so much brighter; but like all things, it must come to an end, someday.

To put the image above into context, these are my redesigns of the Greeny family to fit into my style; they were revamped from here:

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/50913923/

And some of them now have new names:

Grant’s last name is no longer “Heeler,” it is now “Greene;” Barbie Greene is the one at the top right, and she is Grant’s wife; Goldie Greene is the one at the middle right, and she is the youngest daughter at 6 years old; and Greeny Greene is the one at the bottom right, being the eldest daughter at 9 years old.

***

Trixie (Stripe’s Wife) and Grant (Greeny’s Father) Cheating Story (Story Name: Running from Responsibility? You Can Change the Name) - The Plot So Far

NOTE: This story takes place in an alternate universe from the one you’ve seen in my other artworks (in the previous universe, Stripe is a stay-at-home dad, Trixie is a popular influencer, Muffin is more manipulative, etc.) that takes place in 2027; this new universe starts in mid-2029, and is one where Greeny’s family exists, and Stripe, like he is on the actual show, is a FIFO worker, namely working in the mines, but not just as a miner but as the leader of a large team, hence the high pay, while Trixie is a stay-at-home mother. Muffin (real name Marie, often called “Muffy” in the story) was still highly manipulative in her childhood and often abused her Dad, but in recent years (she’s 11 now), she has grown nicer to him, and has formed a genuine, close bond with her sister, 9-year-old Sol (renamed from Socks; her family still calls her “Socks” in the story, but it is only a nickname rather than her actual name; Sol wouldn’t be caught dead using her nickname at school, as she was bullied severely in first grade for it), willing to divulge very personal secrets with each other. Even though Muffin is a gifted student, she is definitely a fighter (literally and figuratively), sometimes to a fault. These changes were made to shift the family dynamic and create a story that is orders of magnitude more compelling than the previous universe.

———

Basic Synopsis

Trixie begins to cheat on Stripe with Grant while gradually starting to neglect her kids over a period of several months… it takes place from 2029~2030, so Socks (renamed Sol but still called “Socks” as a nickname in her home; when she was in first grade, she was bullied harshly when she introduced herself as “Socks,“ so she no longer goes by it in school/in public) is 9 and Muffin (renamed Marie but still called “Muffin“ as a nickname at home; nowadays she goes more by “Muffy,” especially at school; at home, “Muffy” and “Muffin” are interchangeable) is 11. Honestly I had to rename them because even in the Bluey world those names—especially as their REAL names—are awful (especially SOCKS, WHAT), and they would definitely get bullied for them.

During the course of her cheating, Trixie goes from being a bored, unfulfilled yet decent mother that gets the job done but—in spite of really trying—struggles to accommodate and understand the ever-more nuanced emotional needs of her two daughters, to being a hedonistic, dopamine-chasing, selfish and neglectful mother. In all of this, Sol and Muffy must learn to survive on their own, with their father Stripe as their only true ally—though, he is rarely home due to his job.

———

NOTE FOR LATER IN THE STORY: In Australia, family law matters, including divorce and child custody, are primarily governed by the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth). Under this Act, the best interests of the child are the paramount consideration in any decision relating to child custody.
When it comes to the situation where one child wants to go with the mother and the other child wants to go with the father, it is possible for the mother to win custody over one child, while the father wins custody over the other child. However, it will depend on the specific circumstances of the case and what is in the best interests of each child.
The Family Law Act sets out a number of factors that the court must take into account when determining what is in the best interests of the child, including:
* The benefit to the child of having a meaningful relationship with both parents;
* The need to protect the child from physical or psychological harm;
* The views of the child, and the extent to which those views should be taken into account, having regard to the child's age and maturity.
If it is determined that it is in the best interests of each child to live with a different parent, then the court can make an order for split custody or shared care. This means that each parent has custody of one or more children, and the children split their time between the parents' homes.

***Also, when a piece of text is surrounded by “???” on both sides vertically, it means that I was questioning on whether or not I want that piece of text to influence the story***

Chapter 1 (All of these Chapters are OUTLINES, Not Finished Products)

The story begins with Grant. We see him to be very kind, and he is a freelance artist stay-at-home Dad of two little girls (9 and 6 respectively) named Greeny and Goldie, and the husband of Barbie. While Barbie is in the house (they live in a two-story top floor penthouse in central Brisbane), everything seems fine, but when she leaves to go to work, behavioral issues ensue as the highly manipulative Greeny plays abusive, painful, and humiliating games with her father. Goldie is more sympathetic, but due to her sister’s behavior, she often joins in, although in a less painful way than Greeny.

This goes on for a bit. As much as Grant feels pained by his treatment, he believes that his kids are having fun, so he puts up with it; after all, they are little kids, they couldn’t do anything too bad to him, right…?

What’s more, his wife often isn’t home, and often comes back late at night around 7~9 PM (sometimes even later), and is only truly there for the whole day on Sundays. But even with that, Barbie is a woman who is very focused on her work and going up the corporate ladder, working as a top-notch Quality Assurance Specialist for a defense contractor, often working on top-secret projects of the Australian Government, allowing her to make six figures. Much like she is meticulous to the max in her job, she is also very meticulous in her home life; everything is tightly controlled.

From household finances to when the kids wake up, when they eat, what extracurriculars they do, who they can be friends with, what they’re allowed to watch/hear, what emotions the kids are “allowed” to express (especially in public), what instrument(s) they can play, what hobbies they should have, where they can be, and even what jobs they can work toward in the future.

It’s not much better for Grant, either: he is made to go along with all this, and she firmly has him within her grip—especially when he is to go outside. She is picky about his appearance, making sure he is always prim and proper when they go out so she doesn’t look bad. She constantly scrutinizes his appearance and is critical of his weight, and even plucks his dark-colored chest hairs so he doesn’t look too “beastly,” to his dismay and pain. Barbie is all about responsibility, all about face; she has little patience for those she deems “lazy” or “not pulling their own weight.”

Day in and day out, Grant has to constantly go through the cycle: being woken up by his wife at 4 AM, working out with his wife for 2 hours (in spite of his weight, he is actually very fit, beefy, and strong) cooking for her and the whole family, playing “fun” (abusive) games with his kids, sending them off to their extracurriculars, making dinner, getting chewed out by Barbie because he—of course—did something wrong, and then finally going to sleep.

At this point, Grant was reaching a breaking point. At one point, he used to enjoy the games with Greeny and Goldie, but now they’ve just become about hurting him physically and emotionally as much as possible. He has become so weighted by having to play games with them that he can barely even pretend to smile.

There used to be more love in the relationship between him and Barbie, but now, she always criticizes him for being “too lax” and how he “let himself go.” Her focus has become almost singularly on her job, to the point where she goes to bed at night without saying anything to him—not even a kiss or a hug.

Eventually, Grant went out drinking at a bar. He had hit rock bottom. He just couldn’t take it anymore.

The bar he went to was packed to the brim with people, unable to contain their excitement over the rugby game that was showing on all the TVs.

Usually, Grant would leap at the chance to watch some good old rugby, especially as his wife didn’t usually let him have the chance to fully express his rowdy, boisterous, loud infatuation with the game.

But today, he didn’t even take note of the fact that it was on the TV—he was just that sad, that broken, that crushed.

Incidentally, another person was similarly dissatisfied with her life: Trixie Heeler.

With her husband being a FIFO worker, gone for weeks at a the time, and her kids spending a good chunk of their time in school, she was facing an extreme, mind-numbing boredom. Yes, she loved Stripe, and he was absolutely her type, but she was getting tired of him never being there. While sexually, he was the hottest man alive and turned her on in ways almost no one could, in the romantic and emotional sense, she was straight up checking out of the relationship.

How long had it been since she had had fun with him and only him? Kissed him? Had a date together? Done it with him?

Sure, he was always the burly, playful, fun Stripe whenever he came home, but he spent most of his time with the kids and the whole family, leaving close to 0 time just with her; she just didn’t feel special anymore.

Flooded with these emotions, she sits next to Grant—someone she notices almost immediately. Having a near-identical face and body type to her husband—only green rather than purple—she couldn’t help but strike up a conversation with him—especially since he had such a depressed look on his face.

The conversation began slow at first, but with both of them feeling extreme dissatisfaction with their lives, the conversation quickly became very personal, both of them essentially pouring their life stories out to each other, with all the smiles, tears, and frustration that brought. Subconsciously, they kept on getting closer and closer together, until there was only an inch of physical space between them.

Both of them realizing how close they were, they quickly backed off, but their eyes still rested on each other with a held gaze. Their faces were starting to heat up, and they noticed hints of pink on each other’s faces, making both of them chuckle in earnestness, lightening the tone.

Suddenly, a cheer from the people at the bar erupted.

It was then that Grant and Trixie noticed that the rugby game was playing: Australia vs England; the Australian team had scored a big win just before Halftime, heightening further the active, chaotic mood of the bar. With the game being on hold, music began to fill every corner of the bar.

The music was very nostalgic to Grant’s ears; he hadn’t heard this song since the 90s when he was a boy! Something about 90s R&B made him instinctively start to dance...

The smooth way he danced and the flow that seemed to wash over him made Trixie blush hard.

After a bit of being in the zone, he noticed Trixie staring at him and walked over, half-lidded.

He then told her, in a sincere voice, that he really understood the depth of their problems; that they’re depressed. But he brightened and said that just because their lives are drags doesn’t mean that that night had to be one.

At this, Trixie’s head lifted with a dorky, blushy smile on her face as she joined him in dance.

She certainly wasn’t normally as smooth as Grant seemed to be in dancing—but for some reason, it was like his energy was rubbing off on her, and she was able to get into that flow, that groove, with a natural speed that surprised even herself.

Eventually, he started to sing along to the song. Even though a woman sang the original song, through the vocal folds of Grant’s incredibly deep voice, a beautiful sound with a wide range came out of his mouth, surprising Trixie with how good he was at singing! She was the total opposite; her singing voice always sounded like a croaking, dying frog…

But she didn’t care about that right now. She just wanted to sing and dance with him.

Once again, without knowing it, they came closer and closer to each other.

She then grabbed his hands, and him in the groove, not thinking about the consequences of this, grabbed hers.

They danced together, seemingly with every move in step with each other—so much so that other people in the bar started to watch them.

Eventually, the DJ took notice of them, and shone a white light over Grant and Trixie’s impassioned impromptu duet.

Being inches from each other’s faces once again, almost getting done with their little duet, they opened their eyes and looked longingly at each other, seeing so much potential and dreams in the other.

Seeming to signal the end of their “duet,” the crowd cheered in loud applause for the two, the two of them only then noticing the attention they had drawn.

They were shocked at first, but quickly relaxed as they gazed at each other with a deep appreciation for the other.

Being so close to Grant, and in such an emotional state, her senses elevated to an extreme; her sensitive canine nose got tickled by Grant’s sexy scent, which was only more intense from his sweat that was dripping with the odor of testosterone, down from his neck to his chest hairs that sparkled with sweat. The smell of his musky armpits mixed with deodorant that was reminiscent of the ocean, the damp dark sweat patches that were showing up on his gray and white patterned shirt…

She didn’t notice it, but she was even starting to drool as she became enraptured staring at the tempting moves of his beefy yet soft and fat dad bod.

She wanted to go further—deeper!

This was what she was looking for! This is what she wanted—no, needed! She had to explore him more, to open those closed doors and make his floodgates break open.

She couldn’t wait any longer as she went in full-dive for a ki—

BZZZZZZZZ!!!

Unfortunately, their time was cut short; Grant’s phone had buzzed.

His wife had texted him, asking why he hadn’t come back home yet—he was supposed to be out to get groceries, after all, not at some bar. As he grimaced and turned to go back home, Trixie said, “Wait,” after which she looked deeply into his eyes, and he did hers, only for her to look down and start touching the little chest hair that could be seen from his collared shirt; even though Grant wasn’t trying to get too flirty with her, his heart regardless lurched in his chest—something that didn’t go unnoticed by Trixie. Grant wasn’t used to someone appreciating him for his looks...

As both of them blushed at each other, she said she wanted to see him again, to which they exchanged numbers as they said goodbye with sad looks on their faces.

Trixie knew this was wrong.

But that excitement, that pull, that attraction, that connection—what she had felt—was something she hadn’t felt in such a long time.

With Trixie, when she falls for someone, she falls hard.

No matter how much her logical self told her this was wrong, her emotions ultimately overpowered all of that—she was going to be with him no matter what.

———

Eventually, Grant came home with the groceries, as ordered. However, as soon as he walked through the door, he only saw his wife’s face grimacing, his eyes widening in shock as she held her phone up which showed where he had been, to which he immediately got a slap and the chewing out of his life.

When they got into bed, Barbie noticed Grant’s sad face—she actually felt sorry for him. She then told him that she’s only so hard on him because she only wants the best for him, hugging him with tender arms after saying this as she went to sleep, facing the opposite direction of Grant.

After speaking to Trixie that night, he couldn’t truly feel anything within his wife’s words, even though he could tell her words were indeed genuine. As he laid in bed, he couldn’t help thinking about Trixie.

Although he’d have to try his best to hide it, his feelings—the lurching and throbbing of his heart—couldn’t be stopped now.

He wanted love! Not the “tough love” to “do what was best for him” that his wife gave, nor the selfish abusive “fun games” of his kids—he wanted appreciation, he wanted respect, he wanted to be listened to, to be understood—he wanted true love!

Hence began the escalating cheating saga of the smitten Grant and the dorky Trixie.

Chapter 2 (Once Again, Not Final: An Outline)

Grant woke up the next day and went through the routine, exercising with Barbie, cooking breakfast, playing with the kids in the early morning before school…

He played with them as normal, but today, he could not even fake a smile. Even through the sheer torture of playing with Greeny and Goldie, Grant’s mind simply was not there; it was somewhere else entirely, in the place where Trixie would be.

Much like his kids, Grant’s life was tightly controlled by Barbie. Grant just wanted to go out and be wherever he wanted like any normal adult, but with Barbie holding so much power over him, that wouldn’t be the best course of action.

While he played with the kids, Grant devised a strategy to where he could meet the beautiful gray heeler dog Trixie: he would tell Barbie that he’d go run some extra errands today to “make up” for yesterday, but in reality, he would be meeting Trixie on all those errands; therefore, even if Barbie was checking up on his location 24/7, she’d have no idea he was with Trixie; it’d just look like he was doing what Barbie wanted him to do.

He smiled to himself as he thought of this while the kids were playing with him, which they noticed; however, Barbie was about to walk out the door, to which he quickly said the kids had to get off him and ran over to her, saying he’d go run some extra errands today that he hadn’t taken care of/would have to take care of in the future to make up for yesterday.

Barbie agreed to this, kissing him on the cheek as she walked out the door, saying “you’d better do it right!” in a playful tone that covertly masked the firm, commanding nature of it; in a way, it almost sounded like a veiled threat. What she said next, with no sense of playfulness or happiness at all, “Oh, and also, get the kids ready. Don’t make them late because you got distracted with trying to make it up to me,” this time sounded like a straight command.

Grant obliged, trying his hardest to not smile and raise his fists and cheer as she approved his plan, in spite of the tone she had which suggested that something bad would happen if he messed this up.

When the door finally shut, he raised his arms and quietly cheered, not being able to fully suppress his happiness at his ability to experience something new from his unfulfilling, abusive life—a person who actually seemed to understand and care about him.

Grant’s quiet cheer did not go unnoticed by Greeny and Goldie, especially Greeny, who was immediately suspicious of his cheer.

He’s such a weirdo.

Why would he look so happy over doing extra chores?

However, the sensitive Goldie was more perceptive when it came to his emotional state.

Daddy has looked so numb lately, but this makes him happy? Actually happy? Does he… want to get away from us…?

Grant interrupted the girls’ thoughts as he told them they had to get ready. Before the girls could even go back to their rooms to grab their clothes, Grant had already come out and grabbed their clothes, getting them to rush to change. Grant quickly took out some sushi and a bento box he’d bought from the Asian market Mizuha and placed it inside a bag for the girls’ lunches as he got them out the door.

Goldie took notice of all this—how he seemed to be rushing to get them to go to school. It was almost as if her suspicions were true.

In truth, Goldie had noticed for a while that Grant seemed to enjoy their games less and less, letting out more and more pained and sad expressions, as much as he tried to look like he was enjoying it; in spite of this, Goldie continued to play those painful, humiliating games to her Dad because Greeny did it with no remorse, and her dad seemed to tolerate it—or at least pretended to.

But in recent weeks, and especially today, it was hard not to notice his increasing numbness—like, he wasn’t even living, just… existing. Just taking it.

Today, it seemed to come to a head; he had no emotions on his face at all, like he was subconsciously making himself invisible.

And yet, it was only when he got the chance to have time away from them—from his family—that he looked happy…

As Grant walked his children out into the hall and rode down the glass elevator with them to the parking garage, Goldie couldn’t help looking at her father with a deep sadness. Had she—had they really wronged him that badly?

Eventually, Grant dropped the two girls off at school after a car ride that would have been silent had Greeny not been talking her head off about how she was going to show all the other kids how awesome her arts and crafts project was, her dad being an artist and all. They waved goodbye to him.

But as Grant pulled away in his 2028 Red Porsche Cayenne, Goldie noticed that he immediately started talking on the phone—and even stranger, he had a genuine smile on his face! Not the nervous, scared smile he had when playing with Greeny, not his neutral smile, not his fake “everything is alright” smile—a genuine smile, his eyes squinted and everything! In fact, she’d even say he seemed giddy!

Did her Dad have some kind of new friend or some new opportunity? There’s no way errands could be that fun!

But as she thought this, her sister Greeny pulled her out of her thoughts and told her to go in to school.

Goldie followed, and attempted to not think too deeply about why her father was acting the way he was today—it would only make her sad and confused. After all, as her mother always said: “Don’t think about frivolous things. Only concern yourself with what will get you ahead.”

———

Grant called Trixie in the car and they agreed to meet at the supermarket in the mall.

In most countries, for daily necessities, the mall is not necessarily a place one would go to first; however, in Australia, it was very common for services like the Post Office, Grocery Stores, clinics, and other essential businesses to take residence in malls; it was a perfect place to make it look like he was only doing errands, but yet he could do a bunch of other things too!

Grant was so excited to get there that he didn’t notice he was speeding; it was only when he had to slam on the brakes, making his whole body jerk forwards, to avoid hitting a purple old heeler lady walking across the street that he realized how fast he was going. The old woman recoiled in shock as she held up her indigo handbag to brace for the impact that thankfully never came—unfortunately, her bracing was enough for her to take a slight fall, as Grant’s car was less than a meter away from her.

After getting up, she yelled at Grant to watch where he was going and walked away quickly in a huff, but with a newly acquired limp from the fall. Grant could only smile nervously during the whole ordeal, but his face soured when he saw the old woman’s new limp, nearly bringing tears to his eyes. Given that the mall was only a block away, Grant parked on the street and ran out to see if she was okay and if she needed help, panting—as much as he wanted to meet with Trixie, this was more important.

The old woman initially was going to snap at him, but her face changed when she got a closer look at him and saw his glassy, watery eyes, and the fact that he looked eerily similar to her son Stripe—in fact, almost identical aside from his green fur and longer snout.

She didn’t recognize it consciously, but his appearance made her soften a lot more than if he didn’t look the way he did.

Although she would never tell her other sons or Stripe himself, Stripe was actually her favorite child—always had been.

After a bit of silence, the old heeler dog graced him with a soft smile, and responded that she would like a little help getting to the mall—specifically the supermarket. Grant obliged, holding her hand and guiding her with careful slowness to the mall, making sure that she was okay every step of the way.

As they walked into the mall, they began to converse a bit more. The old lady thanked him for his help, and Grant puffed up and said, “No problem, mate.” This made her chuckle and mention that he looked just like her son—and he kind of acted like him, too! Grant seemed a bit surprised, but he was happy that she’d lightened up. They then introduced themselves: him as Grant Green, her as Chris Heeler.

As Grant walked with her in the grocery store, helping her buy items while also buying items for himself, they continued to speak with each other, until eventually they came to area near the WhackDonald’s, where the bathroom was—Grant hadn’t noticed Trixie sitting at the WhackDonald’s and she hadn’t noticed him. Chris excused herself for a bit to go to the bathroom. At that, Grant waited and sat on the short railing that separated the WhackDonald’s from the supermarket, his back facing the WhackDonald’s.

It was at that moment that Trixie, hearing Grant’s bum plop on the steel railing, noticed Grant. Her ears perked up in excitement, and her tail slightly wagged, but she suppressed this as she tried to think of how to greet him.

It was then that she thought up of it: to hug him from behind to surprise him!

Following through with her plan, she slowly crept behind him, and then—BAM! She leaped forward and hugged him, slightly squeezing his built yet soft chest.

Grant whipped his head behind to see who had suddenly grabbed him, and smiled with a wagging tail when he saw who it was.

They mention that each other’s tails are wagging; the attraction that they experienced last night was clearly mutual!

(The chapter doesn’t end actually here, but I don’t have much time so I’m just going to post this)