"Ugh! Every door out of here is locked now," said Static, as he and Vikja came back into the lobby. "That's not good at all..."
"If they've got the doors," said the ice dragon cautiously, "Then I guess they've got all the staff, too."

"Not all of them," said a high voice that neither of the two recognised. Turning back to see who it was, they were both surprised by the sight - a patchwork doe wearing Vulpine's namebadge, all dressed up in her new maid outfit. Plush feet pressed against the floor as she clasped her hoofies together. "Well, okay, maybe all of them. Good to see you again!"

"Errr... mister Vulpine?"
"I think just Vulpine for now. Ah, you see, about the doors... you'll be unable to leave for a short time. I'm told we're still a few toys short, and we're simply running low on guests now. You understand, don't you?"

Vikja grabbed Static and steered him towards another door out of the lobby. "I think I understand... that we should be going to another room now. Yes. We'll see you later." He steered the two down a corridor, and Vulpine the doe nodded happily. Not like they were going to get out of here untouched, anyway...

-o-

"Maybe we can just break a window and climb out that way?" wondered the ferret, his wings twitching nervously. "They can't watch every door at once."
"Well, the only windows we can get to are in the ballroom, I think. I've not been in there since I got here," considered Vikja. "It might not be open yet, but worth a try."

"Hey, guys! I need a bit of help here... um..."
Forest appeared from a nearby corridor. Or at least, they thought it was Forest. The wolf was a bit difficult to see under the dozens of plush toys that were busily clinging onto him. There was a purple bunny with a forehead horn, and a warm coloured bear with a striped skunk's tail. A big fuzzy dragon had her paws around Forest, holding on and acting like a soft cloak. There was also a silly badger with a top hat, a little yappy cocker spaniel, and a giant grey werewolf with blue and red highlights.
"Forest? What did you do?"
"I was tired out, right? I thought, I'll sit and rest a bit, by the fire. And then I rested my eyes, since they're just as important to rest as everything else. And I fell asleep, and woke up about an hour later, and they were just clinging on! And I thought, that's cute..."

Forest heard the full story as the trio wandered through staff corridors towards the ballroom. This was starting to get a bit scary now. All these plushies used to be people! And now here they were, so silly and helpless and not exactly like themselves any more.
"I've seen groups of plushies all with the same name on their tag. I've seen plushie boxes and decorations and beanbag chairs. Maybe... this could still be part of the show?" wondered Forest.
"I think we're a bit past that," said Static, stopping at the door to the ballroom and listening in. "Seems quiet from here. Gonna open up, be ready."

The door opened to show a gigantic room, partly in darkness. What could be seen was quite splendid, with tall arches leading the way into a big open space, a high-hanging chandelier reflecting what little light there was. Murals of woodland creatures surrounded the large room, from door around to door they told a cute story. White was the dominant colour, though it faded to black as the room grew darker. Curtains were pulled closed, tall red drapes with a few chinks to let the light through, big windows that meant freedom!

"Oooh! Howdy!"

Some lights clicked on overhead, with dramatic pauses before each came on, one by one. They showed more of the room, and at the far end, a familiar plushie; the wolpertinger called Jellybean which Static and Vikja had seen a few times before. He sat atop some sort of giant machine made of plush, with patterns and colours much brighter than any serious machine should have had. A tall base kept the device elevated above the hard, wooden floor of the ballroom, and it clearly had a controlling end and a business end - the latter pointed at the door. It seemed to be a gigantic plushie ray gun, slim and long and tapering to a point in the direction of the trio, and around the tip a ball of cotton bubbled and span, fizzing and buzzing as though something was charging up. As they watched, it got slowly larger, too.

"Nilla and I have just been working on something special! It seemed really well suited to this place. Are you our new test subjects?"

Over by a row of cages, a few plush animals sat and peeked out. One of the cage doors slid slowly open, and the occupant - a small white rat - pulled it closed once more.
"Huh, the cages aren't locked?" asked a small white ferret plush toy, sounding quite young and innocent, looking up at the rat above.
"Shhh. Don't tell Nilla. She's been working all night to make this look authentic," whispered the rat plush, peeking at the ferret with his mismatched eyes.

Vikja looked at the scene, and it took a few moments before the blue dragon smiled really widely, making big strides into the room.
"Okay okay, I see what's going on here. Doors all locked, and a giant plushie ray gun in the room where we might be able to escape. I think this one's a bluff... I mean, that just looks like a toy, right? There's no way it could actually work."

"I heard that!" A little plushie peeked her head up from behind the gun's control array. Wrapped up in a cream and light brown fuzz, blue and green eyes shone in the ballroom light as the little critter called Nilla shook her head. "I figured, why let being a plushie get in the way of good science! Wanna see?"

Vikja had no time to dive either way before Nilla banged on one of the soft, felt buttons. The giant ball of cotton shot from the end of the gun with a flash of light, and surrounded the ice dragon entirely in plush stuffing. The force was enough to carry him back against the wall, where the sheer weight of soft material cushioned the impact, and all went still for a while. Forest and Static looked on, not quite able to urge themselves to move.
"I-I'm okay! See, it was just a silly trick..."
Famous last words, as a strange shiver rippled through Vikja's body. Surely he'd swallowed some of the stuff, as his mouth seemed dry and empty. Something was clearly building inside, a warmth that grew to be slightly unpleasant, before it flooded his senses all at once. His head lurched forwards, powerful muzzle forming with a large jaw, perked ears and colourful black spotted patterns; a giant hyena's head. The change was so fluid, and so relentless, a shiver and a twitch that he tried to shake out. Each paw swelled as they fidgeted, both hands and feet; wide hyena jaws clamped and chomped down on more and more stuffing as though on auto-pilot, which prompted his body to grow rapidly and shred his clothes!

A loud, taunting giggle rocked and echoed from each of the walls, as heavy plushie paws slapped down on the hard floor. Cheerful, sturdy, delightfully playful; the tall dragon had been rendered into a large hyena, about as tall as he had been except that now he was that same height on all fours. Munching down on the stuffing did little to contain the slightly fierce edge that he had, and Nilla giggled so much she slipped off her seat.
"Ha! Oh, that's a new one, aren't you brilliant... we don't have any cages that big. Max? What do we do?"
Max's plushie cage door swang open, and he pulled it closed again. "Ah. I'm not sure!"

"We don't cage me," said the new hyena. "That's what I think. Oh hey, Static, Forest. This is actually pretty fun! Come here, let's play!"
Vikja took off at a gallop, surprisingly loud leather-tipped paws bore down on the pair; the ferret and the wolf, slightly hypnotised by the sight they had just seen, but now very quickly reaching that point of panic.
"RUN!"

Static ran back out of the door, and Forest shook himself free of his plushie companions - with a few mumbled words; "Sorry!" "Oops!" "Careful~" He backpedalled and just about made it back through the door, as the hyena and the plushie pile collided with such softness! Tumbling, plushies were scattered and all woke with yelps, screeches and squeaks; Vikja tumbled and bounced against the doors. Didn't hurt! But he wasn't able to squeeze through the door to follow.

"Hey- hey Nilla, is it? Quick, after them!"

"Oh no no, I think we're fine here," said Nilla. "Only two of them left, I think Quin and Nall can finish this themselves. I got science to do. Hey- hyena? Vikja? You ever seen inside of an electron microscope?"

-o-

Stumbling around a corner, Forest bounced off the far wall and staggered back into the middle of the hall. He could hear the hyena laughing behind him so he kept running! It was all happening so fast he wasn't sure which way to turn.

He was halfway toward the next junction, when a huge siberian tiger sauntered out of the side hall. He was big and padded along steadily on all four paws. His legs rustled gently with the shifting of plushie beads and stuffing, and his head came around to watch Forest with interest. Barking and panicking, the wolf turned and slammed into the door on his left. The handle rattled, the door refused to budge, and the large cat was turning toward him. At the last second the wolf tried pulling the door and it jerked open, smooshing the tigers muzzle. Forest leapt through and slammed it shut behind him.

There were stairs leading down, dimly lit by naked light bulbs. Forest really didn't stop to look and just plunged down into the darkness, leaping the steps two or three at a time. The corridor at the bottom quickly opened up into a larger room, and he screamed in terror as he stumbled head first into a massive web of plush grey fibres! It collapsed around him like a net and Forest howled in terror as he thrashed and rolled about in the spider web! Sure it was soft and snuggly, but it was a web - and experience had taught him that if there were webs, there were usually spiders! Tugging his head free of the strands of heavy plush material, the wolf froze as something moved out of the darkness.

He sagged in relief as he recognized the white t-shirt with the black sleeves as the clothing that his friend Jay had been wearing at breakfast. The cuddly warm otter moved closer and Forest smiled at him, "You got away too, Jay?"

"Nope!" he said, bringing a paw down and pressing something smooth and sleek against the wolf's face. It had eye-holes which allowed him to see the otter's retreating hand, and seemed like a face mask of some kind. Forest fell sideways with a yelp, as the mask suddenly stretched around his head and engulfed it! He wiggled to get his hands free of the web, but was unable to remove the mask from his face; it was stuck! The smooth shiny surface squished against his fur before making his whole body go limp.

Twitching slightly he felt himself starting to shift and change. Colour surrounded his body, flowing down from the thing now stuck to his head. His torso was stretching too, growing from the hips down. New legs sprouted from either side, and two pairs of legs wiggled clumsily under him. Forest struggled upright, squealing and squirming his way out of the net of plush fibres as two more arms pushed out beneath his regular arms, as well.

"No! Oh no, eight arms and legs, no no I can't be turning into a spider, anything but that!"
His panic stopped abruptly as the adorably cute plush Jay otter turned up the lights, allowing Forest to see himself in the mirror being held up by a white stoat plush.
"Oh! okay, that isn't so bad."
His body was still growing longer, his fur was becoming a wild mix of psychedelic colour, with different shades clashing and overlapping as he gained a third set of legs, new paws and legs pushing out into the world and making him gasp in surprise. So many limbs!

He was still a wolf, though now a very large wolf-taur. Forest had seven tails and extra arms, and each set was a different colour of the rainbow. His head was red, his shoulders orange, his first set of arms yellow, then green for the lower arms and his stomach. Blue, Indigo, Violet bands claimed his new tauric lower half with each of his three sets of legs the corresponding colour. Barking happily and wagging his tails, Forest managed to tangle them all in a big mess and fall over sideways with a thump as he lost his balance. He landed right atop Jay, and his otter friend squeaked in delight as he was smooshed into the warm beanbag goodness that was now Forest's body.

"Well that was fun," chirped Quin, putting down the mirror he’d been holding up. He then jumped from the top of a nearby machine and landed atop Forest's head. "Let's get you back upstairs then, it's not as fun being snuggled down here in the basement! Much more fun up in the hotel."

A small part of Forest's mind wanted to question all the talking plush toys, and he wanted to know more about the strange mask that had just turned him from a regular wuff to this rainbow plushie beanbag wuff. Mainly he was just relieved he wasn't a spider now! In his new shape he felt really warm and snuggly, and he was all too happy at the idea of sharing that with everyone else!

-o-

Static realised that Forest was no longer behind him, but it was too late to worry about that now. The ferret flew down corridors, paying not so much attention to where he was going as he tried to think of what the next plan would be. Suddenly his feet were no longer on solid ground, and he fell into the swimming pool with a mighty splash!

A few minutes later, Static had dragged himself up and flopped out at the side of the pool, panting and shivering a bit. Now he was all wet, his wings were soaked, and he felt like he had to get out of his sodden clothes. Nobody was around, so that's what he did. The cool air didn't feel so bad against his wet fur, and he breathed and panted as he began to calm down. Well, it appeared as though he hadn't been followed, so at least for now he was quite safe.

Actually, come to think of it, the water didn't feel quite right. It wasn't dripping off him, like he might have expected, but instead it seemed to be gathering in his fur. Running his paws down it, he felt how smooth and slick it was, and thought that quite unusual. Indeed, it was also a little slippy, and this meant his paws didn't have a very good grip on the floor; it didn't take much testing of this lack of friction before he fell back into the pool again, feeling quite silly all of a sudden!

"I'm glad someone made it over here," said a smooth, soft voice. "Most people are getting carried away over in the hotel, but I prefer it here."
It was coming from the lifeguard's chair. A smooth, shiny black cormorant plushie looked over into the water. The black gull had a long neck and soft wings that he could tuck close. "It's quiet, and the water's nice and magical... you spend too long in there, you might never want to leave it."

"Wh-wha... don't be silly, of course I might want to leave it. I can't stay in here forever. I- I need to eat and sleep and things like that."
"No, as a plushie you don't need to worry about any of that. You'll be small, and huggable, and helpless and silly, and because you're a special plush toy you'll even be able to swim! Isn't that fun?"

"But I'm not a..." Static trailed off, as the water had covered him over in a light blue slickness that was now fusing his paw-digits together. Wings felt heavy against his back, and his fur was smoothed down, getting shinier and softer. A very fine velvet that really did catch the light, tipped with a soft plastic that kept the water from getting in; that seemed to be the secret behind swimming plushies, and the ferret could see this change happening up close. At first it was really weird, quite unsettling and even scary as he squeaked and thrashed about in the water.
"Hey, s-stop that... I mean it's quite p-pretty and all but, but stop that!"
"Why? Isn't everyone else having more fun than you right now?"

That was a sudden question, and it stopped the ferret cold. Why indeed? Whyever didn't he want to be a plushie? Thinking back, everyone else seemed to be having tons of fun whenever he'd seen them. Some were small, and some were big, and about the only common thing he could find is that they were all pretty happy.
"B-but that's just because they've been changed and they're not themselves any more."
"Silly ferret. No, it's because they're having fun! Being a soft, squishy plush-brain does make that much easier to have fun, that is true. And everyone's finding something they enjoy. Oooh, aren't you so shiny now! Look how shiny you are."

Static couldn't take his eyes away from his own shiny fur, as ferret-shock began to sneak up on him; the gull was right, his fur was ever so shiny, and that was wonderful in and of itself. If he could find a sofa to hide himself behind, he'd be all set! But he rubbed those mittened paws up at his ears -- now his headfuzz was smoothed. The blue was deepening and coating him, changing his body to be a whole smooth shiny purple, with mittened paws and rounded ferret-face and such slinkiness. Teehee, it was definitely starting to grow on him...

"I-I can be shiny like this? All the time?" he found himself saying. Eagerness swelled in his voice, as slinky shiny velvet covered him down from head to tail, giving his body a deep, fun purple shine. Paws and head and tail darkened towards a shiny black as well.

"Yes, you can," said the water-bird, leaning over his seat, before plummeting to the pool with a big splash. The bird swam along, capable wings and powerful body pushing him on through the water. Wings wrapped Static, squeezing and kneading at the ferret, feeling his soft squishiness and confirming that the change was more than skin deep; warm, soft cushiony stuffing was blossoming through his body, from paws to head and from body to nose, shaping and plumping him out.

The new shinier Static was grinning all over, as the back of his throat sealed up with shiny softness, and a wriggly warmth deep inside took away his unnecessary organic parts. Now he was just squish and shine through and through, and the thought was quickly addictive; he knew that he could never go back. On his tail, a tag formed that bore his name. He'd been the last one left to change, but now the whole hotel was full of many kinds of plushie goodness.

"Now, all that running you've been doing," said the cormorant, resting his beaked head on Static's fuzzy belly. An internal buoyancy kept them both afloat. "Feels silly, doesn't it?"
"Y-yes... yes it does... I don't even know what I was afraid of! This is actually quite fun," admitted the ferret, turning and splashing and kicking velvet shiny paws against the side of the pool. "Come on, I'll race you!"

"Oh, alright. But let's not swim for too long, it's almost time for our new owners to arrive," said the cormorant, heading to the side of the pool to line up with Static.
"O-owners? Who're they?"
"Why, they're the people who set up this party, of course. Although they didn't plan for any of this plushie madness at all. Wow, aren't they in for a big surprise..."

-o-