Beach Day

A gift I wrote for a friend! :>

It was a clear, sunny summer day – and, as far as Cai was concerned, perfect weather for a nice day out in the surf and sun after a long, long winter!

The rabbit whistled to themself as they unbundled their beach supplies, spreading a little towel out on the sand and carefully driving the umbrella’s pole into the ground, shading their little secluded corner of the beach just enough to cool it off beneath the warm May sky. Further down the beach, a few beachgoers and out-of-towners were enjoying the surf, the wind carrying the sounds of distant music and laughter their way as the rabbit sprawled out in their chair, intent on spending a few hours relaxing.

That was, at least, until something rolled up to their chair – bouncing off of it with a soft “thoomp” and plopping to the sand unceremoniously, shaking the bunny out of their reverie and drawing their gaze downwards.

A… toy?

A small, lime green pooltoy ring, about bunny-size, with little hold-on handles around the edges.

Lifting their sunglasses, the bunny glances back up the beach – but doesn’t see anyone chasing after it. Maybe it’d just been rolling for… miles? It was a windy day, after all.

Shrugging to themself, Cai slid out of their chair, giving the ring a quick visual once-over to make sure it hadn’t damaged itself in its long tumble, before planting their paws on their hips and gazing out at the ocean.

Blue, calm, and awfully inviting – it was starting to get a bit warm on the sand, anyway. Why not take a quick dip? Couldn’t hurt, could it?

Already imagining the cool water against their fur, the bunny eagerly plucked the ring up from the sand, pulling it over their head…

…and immediately being struck by the most intense sense of dizziness they’d ever felt, the poolring sliding down their body until it unceremoniously wedged itself around their tummy – which, promptly, expanded out around it.

Their vision sprung upwards, causing the rabbit to wobble – before, after a moment, it all cleared up, leaving Cai confused and… frankly, bewildered.

For one, their vision was a few good feet higher than it had been before they’d tugged the ring on – something revealed to be symptomatic of a much bigger change a moment later when they glanced downwards, new painted-on eyes and grin meeting their new rounded, flat-bottomed inflatable dinosaur hands and huge pear-shaped tummy, valve sticking out just over the top of the ring as if to hammer home that it, in fact, had been responsible.

“Mmph?!” Cai exclaimed – though it was more of an extended squeak than anything more substantial.

Down the beach, Mole skidded to a stop – suddenly stricken by the strangest sense of dizziness.

“Ugh…”

Instantly, he froze – hands flying to his face, brand new soft rabbit paws prodding at the unfamiliar snout and hair, then the long ears.

“Uh-oh.”

Everything below his waistling remained unchanged, for the most part; huge dinosaur stompy paws and his big, inflatable tail – but who knew how long that would last? He had to find that ring, quick!

Back up the beach, Cai was trying their best to tug the ring back up over the valve – bracing it against the chair, grabbing it as best they could without fingers, even considering, for a moment, trying to gesture to the closest beachgoers that they needed help – but it seemed the spot they’d picked for being secluded had, in fact, succeeded in that front.

Finally, as they gave the ring one last enormous tug, a loud SQUIRK reached their ears – and, unceremoniously, the pooltoy ring dropped to the sand.

Cai’s trunks vanished as it passed by – a huge, inflatable dinosaur tail springing forth like a flood of green vinyl, slapping the sand and knocking the chair over. Their paws swelled into big toy dinosaur feet, dainty rabbit toes replaced by chunky plastic and painted-on decals – and, as Cai wobbled, the wind tripped them up…

…sending the big inflatable dinosaur tumbling to the sand, grumbling internally.

Before their very eyes, the wind picked up again – and the ring began to wobble, before with one great gust, it took off, bouncing across the sand into the distance!

“Hey! Stop that ring!”

Cai blinked in surprise as a short yellow rabbit skidded to a stop just next to their chair, panting – though it wasn’t the similarity of his outfit that surprised them.

It was… well. It was Cai!

“You, uh, put the ring on, huh?” The rabbit asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of their head. “Sorry about that! I’ll… uh, go get it!”

With that, he darted off – leaving a very confused inflatable sprawled out on the sand, watching the ring – and rabbit – disappear into the distance.

…Some beach day this was.

New Merchandise Wanted (commission)

A commission for @snouttalk on twitter!

“Help Wanted.”

…What kind of pool supply store hired in January, anyway? Was there a demand for pool stuff in the off season?

Arno frowned, crossing their arms. Heated pools, maybe. Who knew.

Shrugging to themselves, the poodle pushed open the door – intent on, at the very least, asking. Couldn’t hurt, right?

The problem was, the store appeared… closed. Completely closed, as if it had been abandoned over the past year entirely – empty shelves aside from a few dusty boxes, a cobweb here and there. It definitely didn’t fit with the “We’re Open!” sign cheerfully plastered to the front door, which had, apparently, been much dustier on the inside than out.

“Uh. Hello?”

There’s no reply, beyond the jingling of the bells as the door shut behind them.

This store clearly had been closed for months, at least – half-packed boxes of pool supplies and various cleaning chemicals scattered about in haphazard piles, various toys and floats neatly packed in plastic and stacked for boxes they’d never been placed inside of.

A fine layer of dust coated everything they could see, meaning… there was almost certainly nobody here to stop them from taking a look around, right?

There were aisle after aisle of empty or mostly empty shelves as the poodle wandered around, hoping maybe to find something worth keeping – after all, the place had clearly been left unlocked for a reason. Maybe they were hoping someone would take the stock they couldn’t?

Finally, after almost an hour of exploring, Arno was bored, and they had plenty of other things to get done before the day was over.

They crossed the store for the last time, stepping over a few discarded yellow pieces of folded-up vinyl, before pressing a paw to the door’s handle and pushing.

It… didn’t budge.

Arno tried again, giving it a little more force – but, despite the added elbow grease, the door was… locked?

How could it have locked?!

Grumbling, the poodle turned to look for a rear entrance in the back, stomping back across the store’s floor towards the employees only door – only to almost immediately trip over a discarded box.

Down the poodle went, falling to the floor with a loud, shelf-shaking thud – where they lay for a moment, dazed.

When Arno finally sat back up, they noticed two things almost immediately. The first being that the lights, somehow, had come on – and the second being that something soft and plastic was under their shirt on their tummy, tenting it slightly.

Confused, the poodle lifted their shirt to peek – spotting, to their immense surprise, a small, plastic valve sprouting from where their belly button was just a few moments earlier – fur around it matted down and… shiny?

A cautious poke yielded a shocking sqrrk of poodle pawpad against vinyl plastic, which, before their very eyes, began to spread!

“U-Uh, what? Hello?”

Arno’s first instinct was to try and tug the valve off – but all that did was introduce them to the strange sensation of their newly plasticized skin tugging along with it, stretching and protesting as the skin around it began to change even faster! It swept down below their waistline in just moments, the cool, creeping sensation of vinyl crawling up their chest and around to their back as the poodle scrambled to their feet!

Immediately their balance was thrown off as one of their paws practically exploded outwards into a puffy inflatable poodle footpaw, the legs of their shorts starting to tighten as seams worked their way down the poodle’s legs, the hissing of air filling the dog’s ears as they swelled outwards uniformly, becoming more toyishly proportioned!

The other footpaw followed suit quickly after, along with Arno’s tail – swelling from base to tip like a balloon as, unseen, Arno’s thigh gained a brand new safety warning label.

Every toy has to be safety compliant, after all.

With a loud ripping sound the poodle’s shorts finally gave up the ghost, Arno’s chest soon putting their shirt to the test soon after as seams began to crawl down the poodle’s arms as they waddled about, trying their best to find some way of stopping the changes or to remove the valve behind it all – in vain, much to their chagrin.

Pushing open the door to the employee area, Arno stumbled about as their neck began to swell, fingers mitting together into large pooltoy paws as they finished changing. Maybe if they got out of the store they’d stop changing?

They picked the first exit-looking door they saw as their ears began to swell, hissing loudly as they filled with air – only to discover it was a bathroom.

Grabbing the sink, they stared into the mirror just in time to watch their muzzle plastic over, the corners of their mouth tugging themselves first into a smirk – and then a wide, cartoony grin, which immediately froze into place!

It was over in an instant – and soon enough an inflatable poodle was staring at themselves in an old dusty mirror, a grinning, static face staring back.

“MMph?!”

They tried one last time to tug the valve free, a last-ditch effort to maybe, just maybe, change back – but only managed to uncap it, the worrying hiss of escaping air reaching their ears just as one of their footpaws began to crumple.

Uh-oh.

Shuffling out into the hallway, the inflatable poodle managed to make it back out into the store, going flatter with each step…

…only to collapse completely just by the other discarded toys, a flat pile of black and gold plastic, grinning up at the ceiling.