Alkali was practically bouncing in his seat as he approached the convention hotel. This was his year. Every year he went to these conventions, saw the fursuits, and told himself that someday that would be him. They all looked so bouncy and happy and entertaining. He wanted that.

And this year he’d finally made it happen. The suit maker had posted several WIP pictures earlier that month of a kangaroo suit with grey and white fur. Alkali’s suit was finished and waiting inside the hotel. All he had to do was find the suit maker and put it on for the time of his life.

But first he needed to find his friends. It wasn’t enough that he’d gotten a suit for himself, he reaaaaally wanted to share it with others too. What better place to do that than at a convention? He’d planned it out with the other furries so that each of them would be sure to bring their suits. Group suiting would be much more entertaining than just alone after all.

It only took a half hour to get registered and drop his luggage off in the room. By that time he’d already been texted several times by friends wanting to come around and hang out. One in particular though jumped out at him. Kit was hanging around the convention hotel lobby. “Ready for our suits?” the text asked. He couldn’t help but grin as he rushed down to meet up. “Definitely. Meet you downstairs in a second,” Alkali replied.

After a quick hug and exchanging ‘how are you’ the two were off to the suitmaker’s booth in the Dealer’s Den. “Wait, so you’re coming with me to get the suit? Why?” Alkali asked, a spring to his step.

“Oh. Well you know my suit’s paws? They needed some extra work done; started to see the fur come loose,” Kit replied. He had a partial fox suit based on his character, supplemented with a blue, flaming Hawaiian shirt. That meant he couldn’t let any of the small fox parts of his suit get out of whack.

The con hummed with energy, the con-goers excited for the first day. Every foot of the Dealer’s Den was absolutely packed with people making it especially difficult for Alkali and Kit to find the dealer they were looking for. It wasn’t a very well-known suit maker. In fact, as far as they could tell, this was the only suit work this artist had ever done on commission before. Which was a little worrisome, but the example suits on her page were top notch, and the prices were absurdly low. So maybe it was worth it to go out on a limb.

Every booth around the convention floor was busy with customers except for one in the far back corner. The middle-aged woman behind the table, draped with black cloth and a sparse set of signs advertising “Cheap Fursuits”, waved Alkali over. She gave a Cheshire grin and pulled a large box out from under the booth. Only once they got closer did they notice the pungent scent of incense.

“You’re Alkali, right? I’d notice that kangaroo aura anywhere. It’s the hopping you know, easiest to tell when someone is happy,” she said. Alkali paused, confused by what the suit maker had said. Kangaroo aura? Uhh. Okay. She didn’t wait for a response though. “This one was a lot of fun to put together, but I’ve gotta ask you to be careful about where you put it on. It’s meant for outdoors use. Specially made for it in fact.”

“Oh,” Alkali replied. “Wait, so I can’t wear this inside? But that’s… kinda the whole reason I bought it. The fursuit parade and walking around the convention. Is there something wrong with it?”

She shook her head, the wide smirk never leaving her face. “No, nothing like that. Feel free to wear it wherever you please. It will function exactly the same indoors as out.” Well that was good to know at least. Whoever heard of a suit you could only wear outside? This lady reminded Alkali a bit of the more spiritual type of furry. Which was all well and good, but he didn’t particularly want any lectures about the Wonders Of Nature or how to Commune With Your Fursuit.

Kit snuck up behind Alkali while he was picking up the fursuit box. “Do you have my repairs here too?”

“Absolutely Kit,” she hummed. This time she didn’t bring up a box at all, just the set of footpaws. “I hope you don’t mind that I did a little more than just repair the fur. It needed a little extra TLC to really bring out the foxy side.”

Kit just nodded and picked up the footpaws while awkwardly mumbling a ‘thanks.’ The two didn’t spend any extra time, getting away as fast as they could. Partly due to the strange behavior of that middle aged woman, and partly because they couldn’t wait to get their suits on. Back in Alkali’s hotel room they started to unbox the kangaroo. A set of blue eyes stared back at them along with a perpetual smile.

“I can’t believe it’s finally… it’s mine. Quick, help me get it on!” Alkali said, pulling parts of the suit out one by one. The grey and white fur was so soft to the touch. He couldn’t help but run his fingers through it for a moment.

“Well hang on, we need someone else to help. I can’t help you with yours and then get mine on,” Kit said. “Anyone else around that could help us that you can think of?”

Alkali rubbed his chin in thought. “There’s one I can think of. He might already be in suit though. Let me see if he’s around.”

A quick call later and his boyfriend Bomba arrived at the room, suit in tow. It was a good thing he wasn’t in suit though; he wouldn’t have been able to work his phone with the usual paw fingers on. It did take a bit for the three of them to actually get to the point of suiting up. It had been close to a year since any of them had met, since the last con in fact. There was plenty of catching up to do.

“Okay,” Bomba said. “Now I love you hun, and I know you’re excited for your suit but… you’re gonna want to see the changes I got done to mine first.” Alkali and Kit looked at each other.

“Wait, what did you get done? You never told me about this,” Alkali asked.

Rather than explain, Bomba just pulled the suit out of his tote. There wasn’t much that was majorly different about it. The head still looked the same, the spots along his partial’s arms and legs, but the last part that he took out was distinctly different. A long body suit came out of the box, white furred with black spots all over. A husky/Dalmatian hybrid character: a dusky. And it looked absolutely perfect. He’d gotten a body suit for himself months ago but it didn’t fit at the time. As Bomba carefully pulled the suit on though it was clear this time it would actually work.

“What gives hun, this looks like it’s a bit bigger. Did you get this refitted?” Alkali asked, working with the zipper in back.

“Yeah, there was this great lady down in the Dealer’s Den who offered to make some quick adjustments to it when I told her that it didn’t fit me. Only took her a night’s work too! Gave it to her yesterday, today it was ready to go,” Bomba replied, pulling on his foot paws.

“That’s crazy, no one is that fast at working,” Kit scoffed.

“All I know is it got finished and- hey pass me the head, Kit. It got finished and it fits like a glove. Now just let me put this on,” Bomba said as the fursuit head pulled down over his face. He struck a pose, flexing his arms like a bodybuilder. “Looks good right?”

A small ‘clink’ from behind him made Bomba turn around. “Hey could someone tell me what just fell down back there? I don’t want to lose something off my suit now that I’m finally in full dusky mode.” Kit obliged, picking up a small zipper from the ground. He quirked an eye at it. That was funny. Where the heck did this come from? He looked up to see Bomba’s tongue gently panting out of his muzzle.

Wait, muzzle? Panting?

Meanwhile Alkali was looking over Bomba’s back to find where the zipper had gone. He dug through the white fur trying to pick it out so he could be sure it was pulled up all the way. But through the thick fur he couldn’t see it anywhere. All he got to was the skin beneath. Not even the outline of it remained and-

“Hey hun, could you be more careful with your tail? It keeps wagging into me,” he said, batting away the swaying appendage. It felt so warm to the touch, the fur much realer than any fabric.

“Sorry, I’ll keep it under control. It just has a bit of a mind of its own,” Bomba barked. His ears perked in surprise, flicking awkwardly. Did he just bark? He clamped his paws across his muzzle suddenly. The quick movement accidentally brought his sharpened teeth down on top of his lolling tongue.

“Ack!” Bomba yelped, falling backward. As he landed wrong on his tail he yelped once again, whimpering as he rubbed at his backside. How was it he could feel his tail? Kit and Alkali were staring at him so strangely. “Hey guys, something’s wrong.”

Alkali chuckled. Kit ran to the bathroom to get a mirror. Bomba still wasn’t sure what on Earth they were so freaked out by; he looked down at his feet and his toes wiggled. Wait. Those weren’t his toes. That was just supposed to be a set of foam feet.

When Kit came back everything made sense. The mirror he showed to Bomba was of his character. Or, himself. With a dumbfounded look on his face. His face. He put a paw against his cheek to feel his muzzle then flicked at his floppy ear. It was true. This was all part of his body now. Running a palm against his neck revealed there was no flap where the head met the body suit anymore. Everything part of him. All he could feel was the tingling sensation of his fur moving against his skin beneath.

“This is so weird,” Bomba mumbled to himself. Above him Alkali and Kit couldn’t believe it either. But for a totally different reason. Right before their eyes Bomba was shrinking.

“Uhhh. Hun,” Alkali said, getting down on one knee. The dusky was already down to three feet tall, barely waist height.

“What? I- oh,” he replied, looking up at the now looming two figures. He didn’t have any clothes on so thankfully he wasn’t getting covered with fabric. But it was still strange to see the familiar faces so much larger. And still getting larger too. Bomba stood up and noticed he could only reach up to just above Kit’s knees. The ground beneath him gently rubbed against his feet as his stance dwindled against the carpet. Now he was a little shorter than Kit’s knees.

Kit put a hand on Alkali’s shoulder. “I think he’s turning into his fursona. Not just with the fur and muzzle and tail. Height too. How large is your character normally Bomba?”

“About six inches tall. Perfect size to fit in a pocket, or on someone’s head, or under someone’s butt,” he said. His curled tail wagged behind him despite the weird situation. At least that hadn’t changed, thank goodness. Still the same butt lover. The shrinking still hadn’t slowed with about a half foot lost in just that short time.

“What should we do Kit?” Alkali asked.

Kit wasn’t really sure. On one hand this could be lots of fun for Bomba but what if it wasn’t reversible? And they didn’t even know why it was happening for that matter. There was one person who might know more, and he was dwindling away before their eyes.

“Where did you say you got the suit worked on again, Bomba?” Kit asked. He carefully bent down to pick up the dusky. Bomba sat in the hand, arms draped around Kit’s fingers and his leg crossed over his knee. It looked like he was actually enjoying the ride. Kit’s hand worked as a nice lounge seat for Bomba at his size as though he didn’t actually mind the turn of events that had taken place.

“Oh her? She looked like some oldish lady. Had a real plain booth down in the Dealer’s Den with a ‘Cheap Fursuits’ sign. Talked about making me more whole, and really bringing my inner self to life. Mumbo jumbo stuff,” he said dismissively. “Would you mind giving me over to Alkali? He knows just where I’ll want to be right now.” The dusky looked to his boyfriend and winked seductively.

“Thaaat’s enough out of you!” Alkali said as he snatched Bomba from Kit’s grip. Depositing his boyfriend into his side pocket (and certainly not any other place he’d enjoy more), he sighed and rubbed the back of his head. “So now what?”

“It sounds like Bomba went to the same person that worked on our suits,” Kit said, holding up one of the hands of his fox suit. “You don’t think…”

“Well there’s really only one way to find out. I’ll help you put it on.”

The suit fit smelled fresher than it ever had as Kit carefully laid the foam and fabric head on his own of flesh and blood. No sweat stains or terrible scent, just like the first time he’d gotten it. Each part didn’t feel any different than normal as it was put on though; maybe the whole thing needed to be on at once? Kit marched over to the full body mirror at the room’s closet to get a better look. He didn’t want to miss a single bit if any changes did end up happening.

Staring at himself in the mirror, with the Hawaiian shirt buttoned up and tail bouncing between his legs, Kit couldn’t help but feel a little silly. Who was to say this would even work anyway? It could be any number of things that happened to Bomba.

Kit barely noticed it at first, but soon the tail stopped bouncing and looked a bit more like it was swishing back and forth. It felt totally natural as though the new appendage had always been there at his backside, sneaking out of the top of his khakis. The transforming fox’s mouth gaped, as he felt his mouth extending to fill out the muzzle of his head. Soon the foam head itself was gaping. The weirdest feeling had to be the fur spreading from his arms and head down through his torso and legs though. Since Kit was only wearing a partial suit not all of his body was covered with the fabric fur. The suit slowly expanded across his skin tickling him gently.

He waved at himself in the mirror, fingers wiggling as he would just as naturally with his old hand. “Oh man, this is awesome Alkali…” Kit said. Alkali wasn’t responding though, so the foxified con-goer turned away from the mirror to see what was going on.

Alkali already had most of his suit on now. Bomba was sitting on the edge of the bed watching his boyfriend pull the grey and white synthetic fur pieces onto his body with interest, and maybe a little too much interest on the boxer-brief clad rump. Kit couldn’t believe his eyes. He’d just transformed into a fox, a literal dream come true, and Alkali hadn’t even cared enough to wait and see if it would work?

“Alkali! What are you doing?” Kit exclaimed. His sharp teeth struggled to avoid chomping down on the rough, canine tongue. His mouth didn’t even feel like his own anymore. This muzzle would take getting used to. Assuming he could ever return to normal; as if to test it, Kit pulled at the spot his fursuit head would normally meet his body and found nothing. Nope. Looks permanent.

It didn’t seem Alkali expected the angry reaction from his friend. He jumped in surprise, turning to say, “What? I’m putting on my suit of course! My brand new suit. You two have already gotten your chance and this was supposed to be my day. So just help me get this on already.”

The handpaws he was wearing shimmered as tiny claws popped out of the tips of his fingers. Flexing and testing them, it seemed these didn’t even require the whole suit to be on for it to start. Which sure made his task of putting on his body suit much, much easier. His head wasn’t on yet, but the bodysuit was as he carefully zipped up the front. Alkali figured he’d have trouble doing this himself but it was surprisingly easy. Almost like it desperately wanted to be put on.

Inside his footpaws the slipper base that was supposed to hold his human sized feet slowly vanished from existence, instead replaced with his own foot expanding to fill out the rest of the way. Toes wiggling he lifted his leg to see just how it felt. And it felt perfectly natural. Even as his legs slowly morphed to look a little more animalistic, thicker, more rounded, it didn’t feel strange or out of place at all. And once the fur had finished melding to his skin Alkali looked just like his kangaroo character from the neck down.

“So, are you gonna help me put on this head or not?” he asked Kit. The roo’s thick tail swayed behind, brushing the top of the hotel room’s carpet. It had changed so seamlessly Alkali hadn’t even noticed it going from fabric and stuffing to flesh and bone.

“We should go outside,” Kit said, wringing his paws. That ominous warning from earlier was still weighing on his mind. The fox had watched his friend’s changes silently enjoying the chance. Watching it happen like magic was nice… but it definitely didn’t feel right. His enhanced vulpine senses were picking up some strange smells. More than what he could guess a kangaroo would have. Something was going to happen. “I just have a bad feeling about this.”

Alkali rolled his eyes. What a worry wart. Fine, if Kit wouldn’t help he’d just do it himself. The blank, vague smile of the kangaroo head soon morphed into something resembling a genuine grin once it was atop Alkali’s old face. “Nothing to worry about at all,” the seven foot tall kangaroo said.

Wait. Seven feet tall? That wasn’t right. Something changed the instant the fursuit head was on; he couldn’t explain how but he’d gotten taller. Even now he could look down on Kit now. They used to be the same height but now he had a head and a half’s advantage on him. With an almost cartoonish surge from his feet to his head, that advantage widened further.

“Shoot. I feel weird Kit.”

Kit already wasn’t wasting any time. He’d grabbed Bomba and stuffed him in his khakis pocket. Bomba could only squeak in minor irritation before he was out of view. The fox had grabbed his zapper in one hand and was dragging Alkali along in the other. “Nope, no time to talk, we need to get outside. I knew something like this would happen,” Kit said, practically running out the door.

The elevators were thankfully already arriving at their floor. That made it easier for Kit to force his slowly growing friend inside so they could get to the ground as soon as possible. 5 floors up was not where Kit wanted to be when Alkali got huge; the hotel wouldn’t really appreciate it. The doors closed on the odd pair of living furries on the fifth floor.

When the doors opened again on the ground floor, the elevator had been filled with white and grey fur. As soon as the door was open wide enough, Kit was ejected forward by the bulk of the kangaroo from behind. Alkali pushed and pulled at the sides of the door, trying with all his might to get out. He finally flopped forward with a ‘pop’ and stood up to his full height, 15 feet tall. He could easily wave at the people gawking on the second floor of the hotel now.

People screamed as the roo appeared. Even though it was a furry convention, no one expected something quite like this. A living, breathing fur was more than most people had ever dreamed would happen. Kit and Alkali soon found themselves mobbed with people running to ask him questions, or touch his leg, or generally get in the way. Alkali knew he still needed to escape… 20 feet tall now… but with these people in the way it was hard.

There was no time to waste though. The double doors at the front of the hotel were looking mighty small now. 25 feet tall. He hopped forward and furniture was knocked to the ground all across the lobby. Other convention goers held onto any railings or tables they could manage to find. Glasses and bottles at the bar shattered on the floor. Generally, things were a mess with the tons of kangaroo moving around. But it would only get worse if he waited. He was already three stories tall by the time he got to the front doors.

Bending down on his hands and knees, Alkali tried to scoot through them. All he was able to manage though was getting stuck partway through; his rounded kangaroo middle was just a little too wide to actually fit. Kit ran full speed at Alkali’s rump to try and push him through, the roo grasping at the pavement in front to pull forward. It took all their efforts and a little bit of structural damage to the doors for him to eventually escape.

Alkali hopped across the street, getting more distance away from the hotel to be sure nothing else would get broken. As he did he could watch people standing on the balconies of their hotel rooms. They were all staring, pointing, taking pictures. He could even watch them slowly lower out of sight and see new floors come into view. All things considered, it was pretty nice overall. As if fulfilling one dream today wasn’t enough. Now he’d get to be a roo, and a giant too! Once he started passing the fifth floor he did get a little concerned. His hat and clothes were long gone by now, an enormous anthro kangaroo starting to shadow the hotel.

“Alkali, are you okay?” Kit yelled up at his enormous friend.

Alkali rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, looking down with a blush on his cheeks. “Think so. The growing… does feel pretty good. Like goosebumps all over my body good.”

“Well, don’t worry. We’ll figure a way to get you back down here once you stop growing. Sound good?”

“Oh. Right. Stop growing,” Alkali mumbled.

“Yeah, how large is your character anyway? It shouldn’t take too much longer,” Kit said, as Alkali crested the top of the hotel. Triple digits in height and still not slowing. Each instant brought another couple feet, so much that Alkali had to carefully back away from the hotel to make sure his roo belly didn’t accidentally bonk the hotel’s top floors.

“That’s going to be… a bit of a problem Kit.” Alkali was blushing heavily now, shuffling his feet. He mumbled a quick apology as that shuffling moved several cars in the parking lot out of the way. People were slowly fileing out of the convention center now to see just what was going on. Many of the folks down there tried to latch onto Alkali’s feet for a hug, totally disregarding the danger of being around a kangaroo that large. For Alkali’s part, all he could do was just shuffle awkwardly and try to not hurt anyone. Each little burst of size was starting to become more pronounced, exponentially increasing in size. Closing in on 150 feet tall now, each growth spurt would push the people off him.

Bomba popped out of Kit’s pocket. “What’s going on- Oh. Dang it Alkali, this is just perfect. Of course this would happen,” Bomba sighed with a facepalm. “He never specified a height on his reference sheet. It just says ‘growing’ there.”

The fox’s eyes widened, looking skyward as the steadily expanding mass of grey fur. “That sure is a bit of a problem.”