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Just in way of warning, there are diapers and the changing thereof in this work. If that's not your bag, I wouldn't advise that you read it.", "writing": " ``Thanks again!''\n\nThe convenience store door swung open with a rattling jingle. Emerging from behind it was a teenage boy, about fifteen years of age. He was a fisher, a stout weasel-like creature covered from head to toe in deep brown fur. He was short and stocky, with a belly he struggled to keep concealed under his blue tennis shirt. He didn't miss too many meals, but his small, round-rimmed glasses suggested a boy who just as hungrily devoured information.\n\nFollowing close behind him was a liger, slightly older at sixteen. Faint grey stripes splashed across his cheeks and forehead, and a tangled reddish gold mane framed his face, illustrating his mixed heritage. However, the regal splendor of his lion and tiger parents clearly skipped a generation... he was lanky and awkward, ducking slightly to clear the doorway as he exited the store. He was dressed in a jean jacket, a red T-shirt emblazoned with the image of his favorite racing team, and grey shorts which left his knobby knees and wiry runner's legs exposed. \n\n``So Gary, what'd you get?,'' the fisher asked, more loudly than was necessary or appropriate. He had no shortage of book smarts, but his social skills desperately needed work.\n\nGary winced slightly from embarrassment, and turned to his friend. ``Eh, the usual.'' He held up the store bag and shook it. ``An iced tea, some meat sticks... gotta keep my taurine level up. What'd you get, Edgar? You didn't load up on candy again, did you?''\n\n``Er, no...'' Edgar grimaced, recalling the sugar rush from last week that left him climbing the walls and making a fool of himself in public. ``I figured I'd play it safe this time.'' He pulled a bottle of grapefruit juice from his bag, then a brightly colored cylinder adorned with a mustached mascot.\n\n``Oh. Shinglez.'' Gary could barely contain his excitement.\n\n``Sour cream and onion flavored! You want some?'' Edgar tipped the can toward his friend, nearly sticking it in his muzzle.\n\nGary pushed the can away from his face, revealing a nonplussed smirk. ``I'm not into ground up potato flakes smashed into something that looks like a chip. Feels like too much work, yanno? They had a perfectly good way to make potato chips already, and they had to go and overcomplicate it.''\n\nEdgar rolled his eyes, then let a smug grin dance on the edge of his lips. ``Sorry! Didn't mean to come between you and those Scrawny Johnnies you love. How much beef do you think is really in those things, anyway?''\n\nGary's face drooped. ``Oh, come on!,'' he growled, feeling a touch of fury from his big cat ancestors. ``They're not `Scrawny Johnnies,' okay? That's stupid. It sounds like a fake brand name they'd put in a bad comic. They're `Trim Tims,' and they're a lot better than that flavorless crap you're eating.''\n\nEdgar reached one hand into the can of Shinglez and shoveled a handful of chips into his mouth. ``Hey, they've got flavor!,'' he protested as chip fragments shot from his mouth. ``Salt is a flavor!''\n\nGary shrugged, his anger having mostly abated. ``Sure, whatever. Hey, you wanna go to the arcade? The guy from school says they got something new in.''\n\nEdgar put one hand on his forehead and let out an exasperated sigh. ``Yeah, well I would like to go, but we'd have to walk past the park to get there, and you know what happened the last time.''\n\nGary bit his lip to stifle a chuckle. ``Oh yeah, that whole deal. Look, those springy animal rides are old. That could have happened to anyone.''\n\nThe fisher shot his friend a severe look. ``Those rides are for little kids! You're what, sixteen? Of course the spring was gonna break! What did you think was gonna happen?''\n\nGary shrugged. ``Eh, it's not like I'm that heavy...'' He glanced at his friend, and quickly turned his head in the opposite direction.\n\n``Like me?'' Edgar hotly interjected.\n\nThe liger gritted his teeth, instantly regretting his choice of words. ``I didn't say that. I wasn't going to say that.''\n\nEdgar rolled his eyes and took a sip of his grapefruit juice. ``Good. Look, you're impulsive. You do things without thinking about them first, and I usually get dragged into the messes you make. I just don't want that to happen again for the...'' Edgar started counting on one hand, then the other, before running out of fingers.\n\n``Well, it's been a lot. Point is, I don't want it happening again. The day's been pretty good so far... I'd kinda like to keep it that way.''\n\nGary put up one hand in a solemn oath. ``Okay, look. I promise I'm not going to wreck any more playground equipment. We'll just head straight to the arcade, and once we're there, you'll be so glad we went.''\n\nThe fisher drew in a deep breath. ``Famous last words. Fine, fine, let's just go.''\n\nThe two friends walked through the heavily wooded suburbs at the edge of town, climbing a steep hill, traveling past a well-worn apartment building, and reaching a classy two story house with a single tall oak tree in the yard. Gary snapped into his spicy meat sticks, and Edgar nervously chewed through his supply of potato chips, occasionally washing them down with a gulp of juice. He drew a deep breath as the park came within view.\n\n``We're just gonna walk right past it,'' he whispered to himself. ``It's not going to be a big deal, really,'' the fisher continued. He desperately wanted to believe what he was telling himself, but past experience and his sweaty palms suggested otherwise. He tossed the empty can of Shinglez into a trash can helpfully set on the edge of the park grounds and took a long swig of his drink. \n\n``Just a couple more blocks `till we reach the arcade,'' Gary announced. ``See? Nothing happened. You worry too much.'' Edgar managed a weak smile as he continued walking. ``Yeah, I guess.'' Just fifty more yards and the park would be behind them. What could possibly go wrong?\n\nTwo toddlers stood next to a merry go round.''Hey, you wanna get on?,'' squeaked a grey raccoon, dressed in a purple T-shirt, a pink diaper, and a pair of red sneakers. Her friend, a black skunk in a deep forest green jumper, wrinkled her nose in disgust and vigorously shook her head. ``Nuh uh. Hey, look at him!'' She shot a chubby hand accusingly in Gary's direction. ``'Zat a lion? A tiger?'' The raccoon turned around and studied the lanky feline in the distance. ``Bet he doesn't even know!'' The babies burst out in high-pitched laughter that rubbed on Gary's nerves like sandpaper.\n\nEdgar let out a weary, knowing sigh. ``Well, we almost made it.'' He wasn't looking forward to how this would play out in the school lunchroom. Maybe he could convince his parents to move to another district.\n\nThe liger shot an icy glare at the two small children. He had heard taunts like these before, and he certainly wasn't going to take those remarks from some snot-nosed, pants-pooping, thumb-sucking little brats. ``Who asked you, stinky?,'' he growled, taking a few threatening steps toward the skunk kit.\n\nThe little raccoon glanced nervously at her friend. ``We should call our mommies,'' she offered. ``Nah, I got a better idea.'' The skunk motioned over to her friend and whispered in her ear, and a mischievous grin spreading across her face. The grin soon spread to the raccoon, who narrowed her eyes and crouched down, ready to pounce. ``That's a real good idea.''\n\nThe cubs sprang forth and shot toward Gary and Edgar with a speed that would have impressed a high school track star, and certainly shouldn't have been possible for children of such a tender age. Gary's eyes widened as the raccoon charged toward him, barely stammering out a ``What the-?'' before getting tackled by the grey and purple blur. Edgar didn't even get a chance to respond, getting knocked head over heels by a tiny, jet black locomotive.\n\nThe liger slowly pulled himself from the floor, then watched astonished as he and his friend bolted off in the opposite direction. He shouted, ``Ed! Eddie, are you okay?'' The fisher spit out a clump of dirt and gazed at the two familiar figures racing off into the distance. ``Yeah, we're both fine! See, that's us right over there!''\n\n``Uh, that's not right.'' Gary crushed his eyes in a squint and rubbed his forehead with his hand. His black hand, connected to a grey arm. ``That's definitely not right.'' The liger shook his head and looked down at his body. The jean jacket and shorts were gone, replaced with a long plum shirt that barely covered a bright pink diaper. ``What just happened?''\n\nEdgar looked down at his hands. His deep brown fur was now as black as the night sky. He glanced behind him to find a striped tail much longer and bushier than the one he had before. ``I think we're them, and they're us,'' he murmured. He was too stunned from the collision to be stunned by this unlikely turn of events.\n\nA look of utter horror washed over Gary's now masked face. ``I used to be the king AND queen of the beasts! Now you're telling me I'm that trash panda?!''\n\nEdgar looked at his friend... or what his friend became. ``They find that offensive, you know.''\n\nGary gripped his head with both hands and let out a scream. It might have passed for a roar in his previous body, but here it was more of a pained, high-pitched squeal. ``That's not important right now! And look at you... you're some kind of skunk!''\n\nEdgar clumsily stood up, slowly adjusting to his new, even chubbier frame. He set an ebony hand in front of his face and examined it closely. ``Well, she ran into me, so that would make sense. As much sense as any of this can make, anyway.''\n\nThe former liger, stripped of his big cat bigness and toeing the edge of a nervous breakdown, gestured wildly at his friend. ``Of course YOU wouldn't care! Fishers and skunks are related! At least you're still in the same family!''\n\n``That's a common misconception,'' Edgar interrupted, one hand on his padded hip. ``They did some genetic testing, and discovered that mustelids, like what I was, and mephitids, like what I am now, are in two different families. However, they're-``\n\nGary growled as best he could in his tiny new frame. ``Again, totally not important! We got our bodies hijacked by babies. They're out there doing who knows what, and we're here stranded in the park. Nobody's gonna believe us when we tell them what happened... they might not even understand us! I know how this stuff works... I've seen Rugrats!''\n\nEdgar let out a chirpy skunk laugh. Clearly this predicament didn't bother him as much as it did his friend. ``I told you something bad was going to happen if we walked by the park, didn't I? The way I see it, this could have been a whole lot worse.''\n\nGary narrowed his masked eyes and flashed his needle-like milk teeth. ``Sure, if we got hit by a bus!''\n\n``See?'' Edgar toddled over to the sandbox and motioned for his friend to follow. ``Look, I've seen enough cartoons to know that this doesn't last forever. They'll get bored, they'll want their bodies back. Or maybe the magic they used will run out and everything goes back to the way it was. Or we wake up in our beds wondering why we ate that whole anchovy pizza.''\n\nGary trundled along after his friend, noticing that walking had become a lot harder with two short legs and an inch of paper pulp squeezed between his thighs. ``So what are we supposed to do in the meantime? Just wait it out? Run around in the park like little idiots, leaving trails of pee behind us wherever we go?''\n\n``More or less,'' the fisher-turned-skunk responded, increasingly weary of his friend's cynicism. ``But while we're like this, we could try to enjoy it.''\n\n``Enjoy it, heh.'' Gary defiantly dropped his diapered bottom into the sandbox. ``Great, you're going native on me.''\n\nEdgar eased into the sandbox and went right to work, pressing the surrounding sand into a hill. ``Or maybe I had more fun being a baby than you did. You never talk about your cub years, Gary. What happened to you, anyway?''\n\nGary's eyes bulged, and he frantically waved his hands in front of his face to dispel any dark notions. ``No no, it wasn't anything like that!,'' he insisted. ``It's just... well, Mom and Dad worked a lot. They'd stick me with sitters, and I don't think any of them liked me all that much.''\n\nEdgar took a stick with a leaf on the end and stuck it into the top of the sand hill, a fitting flag for his crude castle. ``I see. Anything else?''\n\nGary looked away, slightly embarrassed. ``Well, my dad is a lion; a real strict, orderly kind of guy. He started potty training me early, told me that's what big boys are supposed to do, and...'' Gary's embarrassment quickly faded, replaced with annoyance. ``Why am I even telling you this? If you mention this to ANYONE, I'm gonna...''\n\nEdgar slowly shook his head. ``No way. That'd break doctor-client confidentiality.'' He planned to study psychology after high school, not that high school was a pressing concern in his current condition. ``It wasn't convenient for your parents to let you have a childhood, so you never did. But look on the bright side! You're getting a second chance! You might as well make the most of it, because we've got no idea how long it'll last.''\n\nThe liger-turned-raccoon let out a groan and fell backward into the sandbox, narrowly missing his friend's sandcastle. ``I mean, it's not like we've got a choice. Hey, do you have sand in your diapers too? Sand and... other stuff.''\n\nEdgar stood up on his knees and set a hand on the back of his sagging pants. He inhaled deeply, and nearly gagged from the sickeningly sweet mingling of baby lotion and diarrhea. ``I wasn't thinking about it, but now that you mention it, I guess I'm carrying some extra weight back there.'' A frown crossed his face, until he was hit with a spark of inspiration. ``I know how to handle this! Watch!''\n\nThe former fisher inhaled a deep breath, then let it out as a high-pitched wail. ``Ed, what the heck are you doing?!,'' Gary shouted, surprised and a little embarrassed by the sudden outburst. Edgar shielded his muzzle with one hand and whispered to his friend. ``Solving our problem. Any minute their parents will come running to take care of us.'' He clutched the edge of the sandbox and continued to howl and scream as loudly as his little lungs could manage. Soon enough, two smartly dressed young women- a skunk and a raccoon, just like the cubs- came running to check on their daughters.\n\n``What's wrong, honey?,'' the skunk inquired. Edgar stammered between sobs, ``My bottom! It- it's all poopy!'' Gary folded his arms and turned away in disgust. Clearly, somebody was enjoying this a little too much. He felt a hand rest on his shoulder. ``You too, Sunny?,'' the mother raccoon gently asked. Gary shot the woman an icy look. ``Yeah yeah... I'm wet, he crapped all over himself, we're both a mess. I know what's coming, so could we just get this over with?''\n\nThe skunk and raccoon stood upright and exchanged knowing glances. ``They did it again, didn't they?,'' one parent muttered. ``Those naughty girls!,'' the other lamented. Edgar was enjoying himself too much to care, but Gary was dumbfounded by the revelation, and demanded answers. ``They've done this before?!,'' he squealed. His voice no longer carried the weight it did when he was a liger, but his anger and disbelief nevertheless came through loud and clear.\n\nThe mother skunk averted her eyes from Gary's baleful gaze. ``Kind of, yeah.'' She cleared her throat and continued. ``They have a talent for, uh, body swapping.'' Her raccoon friend let out a deep sigh and offered an explanation. ``When they get tired of being babies, they'll find a couple of older kids and take their bodies on a joyride.'' She continued, trying to sweeten the situation. ``It lasts an hour, maybe two. Before you know it, you'll be back where you belong!''\n\nThe skunk nervously interjected, ``If they cause any trouble, we'll take care of it. You'll be fine, it'll be fine. Everything will be fine, really!'' The flop sweat trickling down her cheeks suggested otherwise.\n\nGary clapped a hand on his forehead and let out an exasperated scream. ``HOW IS ANY OF THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?!'' Edgar wasn't interested in an explanation, or in any great rush to return to his original body... he just wanted a fresh didey. He stared off into space sucking his thumb, while wiping tears from his eyes with his free hand.\n\n``I don't know... I just don't know.'' The raccoon shook her head wearily. All she did know is that the swap would mean big headaches and possible property damage for her later. ``As long as you're, um, here, we'll take good care of you. Starting with those icky diapers of yours...''She reached into a bright blue shoulder bag for some supplies, and set a plastic mat on the top of a nearby picnic table.\n\nThe mother skunk held out one hand while clutching the other to her chest. ``Could you get them both, Madge?,'' she asked between labored breaths. ``I'm... kind of having a moment right now.''\n\n``You're always having a moment,'' the elder raccoon impatiently grumbled. ``Fine... just let me just take care of my kid first. I'll get Sophie in a minute.'' She set two hands under Gary's shoulders and lifted him from the ground, setting him on the center of the mat with his striped tail facing outward. She rolled up the purple shirt and pulled the tapes from the waistband of the diaper, with each one making a large ripping noise as it released. Gary shuddered from the sound and pressed his hands to his face. If his cheeks weren't already covered in thick grey fur, they would have been a fiery red from the embarrassment.\n\nMadge folded open the diaper, revealing the thoroughly soaked and yellowed padding inside. She gripped Gary's ankles with one hand, and briskly cleaned his bottom with the other, running soft, wet wipes between his cheeks and over a plump, dark grey vulva. Curious, Gary reached down to inspect his new genitalia, only to have his hand pulled away.\n\n``She's still my daughter, you know,'' Madge muttered, a disapproving frown on her face.\n\n``Sorry, sorry. I miss Frankie and the beans, you know?'' Gary tucked his hands behind his head and drew in a breath, waiting for Madge to finish her work. The raccoon dabbed some ointment onto her finger and spread it over the diaper area, painting the dark grey vulva a bright white. Gary bit his lip from the tingling sensation. He probably shouldn't be enjoying this, but who knows what that silly baby was doing in his body right now?\n\nMadge slid a fresh diaper under Gary's bottom and taped it in place, threading his ringed tail through the hole in the back. She lifted the former liger off the table and set him back on his feet, giving his head a reassuring pat. ``That takes care of Sunny... or, whoever Sunny is now. Now for you...'' Madge set the skunk kit on the picnic table, the filled diaper making an audible squish, and lifted the hem of the forest green dress.\n\nEdgar looked up at the raccoon with hopeful eyes. ``My name is Sophie now?,'' he asked, a smile on the edge of his face.\n\n``Heh.'' Madge pulled his tail outward and unfastened his diaper. ``I wouldn't get too comfortable in there... this won't last forever.'' The mother raccoon used the front of the baby pants to wipe some of the mess from Edgar, then wadded them into a ball and tossed the soiled sphere in a nearby garbage can. ``Probably not,'' he sighed as his legs were lifted upward. ``But I can always make the most of the time I've got.''\n\n``You sound like you weren't happy with your old life,'' Madge observed as she pulled a wipe over the skunklet's bottom and thighs. Edgar looked away, a little ashamed. ``I guess not. At least high school's not gonna last forever...'' \n\n``You've got doody all over you,'' Madge reminded the cub. ``Just to warn you, I'm going to have to go places with the next wipe.'' Edgar nodded... there was no telling how that was going to feel with a new set of private parts, but he was prepared for the experience. The raccoon swiped a moist wipe through his bottom, then another between the plump lips of his vulva. It was cold and tingly, but at the same time, refreshing.\n\n``Are you doing okay?,'' the raccoon asked. ``Yeah,'' Edgar assured her. Getting cleaned down there was a strange new sensation, but it wasn't necessarily a bad one. ``I just kind of lost track of what I was saying, is all.'' He winced slightly as a finger covered with ointment was rubbed on his sensitive areas. ``You were talking about high school, I think,'' Madge remarked after some contemplation. ``You said you'd be glad to get out of there.''\n\n``Well, yeah, but I don't think it's gonna get any easier from there.'' Madge nodded sadly as she reached for a fresh diaper. ``I wish I could tell you that, but no, not really. The older you get, the more complicated life gets.'' \n\n``Exactly!,'' Edgar continued excitedly, coming to an epiphany. ``And when you're this young, you don't have to worry about anything. Life is great all the time!''\n\n``I wish they felt the same way,'' Madge looked upward wistfully. She unfolded the diaper and set it under Edgar's bottom. ``Sunny and Sophie Ann are so eager to grow up, but someday they won't need to swap bodies with older kids. They'll just be older, and they'll wish they hadn't wasted so much of their childhoods.'' Madge snugly taped the baby pants onto Edgar and pulled down his dress to cover them.\n\nEdgar shook his head sadly. ``Everyone seems to want what they can't have. And even when they do have it, it never lasts for long.'' He looked over at his friend, who was sleeping soundly in the mother skunk's arms. Gary was always so angry... angry with his father, angry at school, angry for being the puzzle piece that never quite fit. It was comforting to see him at peace, however fleeting.\n\n``Listen, um...'' Madge awkwardly trailed off, not sure how to end the sentence.\n\n``Edgar.'' He didn't feel like Edgar right now, but he knew he'd be back in that dumpy weasel body soon enough. Hopefully it'll still have clean underwear, considering its current occupant.\n\n``You said you wanted to make the most of this. Before things go back to normal, would you like me to hold you for a while, maybe give you a bottle?''\n\nEdgar looked up, a broad smile on his face and tears welling in his eyes. ``Yeah. I'd like that.''\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": " ``Thanks again!''

The convenience store door swung open with a rattling jingle. Emerging from behind it was a teenage boy, about fifteen years of age. He was a fisher, a stout weasel-like creature covered from head to toe in deep brown fur. He was short and stocky, with a belly he struggled to keep concealed under his blue tennis shirt. He didn't miss too many meals, but his small, round-rimmed glasses suggested a boy who just as hungrily devoured information.

Following close behind him was a liger, slightly older at sixteen. Faint grey stripes splashed across his cheeks and forehead, and a tangled reddish gold mane framed his face, illustrating his mixed heritage. However, the regal splendor of his lion and tiger parents clearly skipped a generation... he was lanky and awkward, ducking slightly to clear the doorway as he exited the store. He was dressed in a jean jacket, a red T-shirt emblazoned with the image of his favorite racing team, and grey shorts which left his knobby knees and wiry runner's legs exposed.

``So Gary, what'd you get?,'' the fisher asked, more loudly than was necessary or appropriate. He had no shortage of book smarts, but his social skills desperately needed work.

Gary winced slightly from embarrassment, and turned to his friend. ``Eh, the usual.'' He held up the store bag and shook it. ``An iced tea, some meat sticks... gotta keep my taurine level up. What'd you get, Edgar? You didn't load up on candy again, did you?''

``Er, no...'' Edgar grimaced, recalling the sugar rush from last week that left him climbing the walls and making a fool of himself in public. ``I figured I'd play it safe this time.'' He pulled a bottle of grapefruit juice from his bag, then a brightly colored cylinder adorned with a mustached mascot.

``Oh. Shinglez.'' Gary could barely contain his excitement.

``Sour cream and onion flavored! You want some?'' Edgar tipped the can toward his friend, nearly sticking it in his muzzle.

Gary pushed the can away from his face, revealing a nonplussed smirk. ``I'm not into ground up potato flakes smashed into something that looks like a chip. Feels like too much work, yanno? They had a perfectly good way to make potato chips already, and they had to go and overcomplicate it.''

Edgar rolled his eyes, then let a smug grin dance on the edge of his lips. ``Sorry! Didn't mean to come between you and those Scrawny Johnnies you love. How much beef do you think is really in those things, anyway?''

Gary's face drooped. ``Oh, come on!,'' he growled, feeling a touch of fury from his big cat ancestors. ``They're not `Scrawny Johnnies,' okay? That's stupid. It sounds like a fake brand name they'd put in a bad comic. They're `Trim Tims,' and they're a lot better than that flavorless crap you're eating.''

Edgar reached one hand into the can of Shinglez and shoveled a handful of chips into his mouth. ``Hey, they've got flavor!,'' he protested as chip fragments shot from his mouth. ``Salt is a flavor!''

Gary shrugged, his anger having mostly abated. ``Sure, whatever. Hey, you wanna go to the arcade? The guy from school says they got something new in.''

Edgar put one hand on his forehead and let out an exasperated sigh. ``Yeah, well I would like to go, but we'd have to walk past the park to get there, and you know what happened the last time.''

Gary bit his lip to stifle a chuckle. ``Oh yeah, that whole deal. Look, those springy animal rides are old. That could have happened to anyone.''

The fisher shot his friend a severe look. ``Those rides are for little kids! You're what, sixteen? Of course the spring was gonna break! What did you think was gonna happen?''

Gary shrugged. ``Eh, it's not like I'm that heavy...'' He glanced at his friend, and quickly turned his head in the opposite direction.

``Like me?'' Edgar hotly interjected.

The liger gritted his teeth, instantly regretting his choice of words. ``I didn't say that. I wasn't going to say that.''

Edgar rolled his eyes and took a sip of his grapefruit juice. ``Good. Look, you're impulsive. You do things without thinking about them first, and I usually get dragged into the messes you make. I just don't want that to happen again for the...'' Edgar started counting on one hand, then the other, before running out of fingers.

``Well, it's been a lot. Point is, I don't want it happening again. The day's been pretty good so far... I'd kinda like to keep it that way.''

Gary put up one hand in a solemn oath. ``Okay, look. I promise I'm not going to wreck any more playground equipment. We'll just head straight to the arcade, and once we're there, you'll be so glad we went.''

The fisher drew in a deep breath. ``Famous last words. Fine, fine, let's just go.''

The two friends walked through the heavily wooded suburbs at the edge of town, climbing a steep hill, traveling past a well-worn apartment building, and reaching a classy two story house with a single tall oak tree in the yard. Gary snapped into his spicy meat sticks, and Edgar nervously chewed through his supply of potato chips, occasionally washing them down with a gulp of juice. He drew a deep breath as the park came within view.

``We're just gonna walk right past it,'' he whispered to himself. ``It's not going to be a big deal, really,'' the fisher continued. He desperately wanted to believe what he was telling himself, but past experience and his sweaty palms suggested otherwise. He tossed the empty can of Shinglez into a trash can helpfully set on the edge of the park grounds and took a long swig of his drink.

``Just a couple more blocks `till we reach the arcade,'' Gary announced. ``See? Nothing happened. You worry too much.'' Edgar managed a weak smile as he continued walking. ``Yeah, I guess.'' Just fifty more yards and the park would be behind them. What could possibly go wrong?

Two toddlers stood next to a merry go round.''Hey, you wanna get on?,'' squeaked a grey raccoon, dressed in a purple T-shirt, a pink diaper, and a pair of red sneakers. Her friend, a black skunk in a deep forest green jumper, wrinkled her nose in disgust and vigorously shook her head. ``Nuh uh. Hey, look at him!'' She shot a chubby hand accusingly in Gary's direction. ``'Zat a lion? A tiger?'' The raccoon turned around and studied the lanky feline in the distance. ``Bet he doesn't even know!'' The babies burst out in high-pitched laughter that rubbed on Gary's nerves like sandpaper.

Edgar let out a weary, knowing sigh. ``Well, we almost made it.'' He wasn't looking forward to how this would play out in the school lunchroom. Maybe he could convince his parents to move to another district.

The liger shot an icy glare at the two small children. He had heard taunts like these before, and he certainly wasn't going to take those remarks from some snot-nosed, pants-pooping, thumb-sucking little brats. ``Who asked you, stinky?,'' he growled, taking a few threatening steps toward the skunk kit.

The little raccoon glanced nervously at her friend. ``We should call our mommies,'' she offered. ``Nah, I got a better idea.'' The skunk motioned over to her friend and whispered in her ear, and a mischievous grin spreading across her face. The grin soon spread to the raccoon, who narrowed her eyes and crouched down, ready to pounce. ``That's a real good idea.''

The cubs sprang forth and shot toward Gary and Edgar with a speed that would have impressed a high school track star, and certainly shouldn't have been possible for children of such a tender age. Gary's eyes widened as the raccoon charged toward him, barely stammering out a ``What the-?'' before getting tackled by the grey and purple blur. Edgar didn't even get a chance to respond, getting knocked head over heels by a tiny, jet black locomotive.

The liger slowly pulled himself from the floor, then watched astonished as he and his friend bolted off in the opposite direction. He shouted, ``Ed! Eddie, are you okay?'' The fisher spit out a clump of dirt and gazed at the two familiar figures racing off into the distance. ``Yeah, we're both fine! See, that's us right over there!''

``Uh, that's not right.'' Gary crushed his eyes in a squint and rubbed his forehead with his hand. His black hand, connected to a grey arm. ``That's definitely not right.'' The liger shook his head and looked down at his body. The jean jacket and shorts were gone, replaced with a long plum shirt that barely covered a bright pink diaper. ``What just happened?''

Edgar looked down at his hands. His deep brown fur was now as black as the night sky. He glanced behind him to find a striped tail much longer and bushier than the one he had before. ``I think we're them, and they're us,'' he murmured. He was too stunned from the collision to be stunned by this unlikely turn of events.

A look of utter horror washed over Gary's now masked face. ``I used to be the king AND queen of the beasts! Now you're telling me I'm that trash panda?!''

Edgar looked at his friend... or what his friend became. ``They find that offensive, you know.''

Gary gripped his head with both hands and let out a scream. It might have passed for a roar in his previous body, but here it was more of a pained, high-pitched squeal. ``That's not important right now! And look at you... you're some kind of skunk!''

Edgar clumsily stood up, slowly adjusting to his new, even chubbier frame. He set an ebony hand in front of his face and examined it closely. ``Well, she ran into me, so that would make sense. As much sense as any of this can make, anyway.''

The former liger, stripped of his big cat bigness and toeing the edge of a nervous breakdown, gestured wildly at his friend. ``Of course YOU wouldn't care! Fishers and skunks are related! At least you're still in the same family!''

``That's a common misconception,'' Edgar interrupted, one hand on his padded hip. ``They did some genetic testing, and discovered that mustelids, like what I was, and mephitids, like what I am now, are in two different families. However, they're-``

Gary growled as best he could in his tiny new frame. ``Again, totally not important! We got our bodies hijacked by babies. They're out there doing who knows what, and we're here stranded in the park. Nobody's gonna believe us when we tell them what happened... they might not even understand us! I know how this stuff works... I've seen Rugrats!''

Edgar let out a chirpy skunk laugh. Clearly this predicament didn't bother him as much as it did his friend. ``I told you something bad was going to happen if we walked by the park, didn't I? The way I see it, this could have been a whole lot worse.''

Gary narrowed his masked eyes and flashed his needle-like milk teeth. ``Sure, if we got hit by a bus!''

``See?'' Edgar toddled over to the sandbox and motioned for his friend to follow. ``Look, I've seen enough cartoons to know that this doesn't last forever. They'll get bored, they'll want their bodies back. Or maybe the magic they used will run out and everything goes back to the way it was. Or we wake up in our beds wondering why we ate that whole anchovy pizza.''

Gary trundled along after his friend, noticing that walking had become a lot harder with two short legs and an inch of paper pulp squeezed between his thighs. ``So what are we supposed to do in the meantime? Just wait it out? Run around in the park like little idiots, leaving trails of pee behind us wherever we go?''

``More or less,'' the fisher-turned-skunk responded, increasingly weary of his friend's cynicism. ``But while we're like this, we could try to enjoy it.''

``Enjoy it, heh.'' Gary defiantly dropped his diapered bottom into the sandbox. ``Great, you're going native on me.''

Edgar eased into the sandbox and went right to work, pressing the surrounding sand into a hill. ``Or maybe I had more fun being a baby than you did. You never talk about your cub years, Gary. What happened to you, anyway?''

Gary's eyes bulged, and he frantically waved his hands in front of his face to dispel any dark notions. ``No no, it wasn't anything like that!,'' he insisted. ``It's just... well, Mom and Dad worked a lot. They'd stick me with sitters, and I don't think any of them liked me all that much.''

Edgar took a stick with a leaf on the end and stuck it into the top of the sand hill, a fitting flag for his crude castle. ``I see. Anything else?''

Gary looked away, slightly embarrassed. ``Well, my dad is a lion; a real strict, orderly kind of guy. He started potty training me early, told me that's what big boys are supposed to do, and...'' Gary's embarrassment quickly faded, replaced with annoyance. ``Why am I even telling you this? If you mention this to ANYONE, I'm gonna...''

Edgar slowly shook his head. ``No way. That'd break doctor-client confidentiality.'' He planned to study psychology after high school, not that high school was a pressing concern in his current condition. ``It wasn't convenient for your parents to let you have a childhood, so you never did. But look on the bright side! You're getting a second chance! You might as well make the most of it, because we've got no idea how long it'll last.''

The liger-turned-raccoon let out a groan and fell backward into the sandbox, narrowly missing his friend's sandcastle. ``I mean, it's not like we've got a choice. Hey, do you have sand in your diapers too? Sand and... other stuff.''

Edgar stood up on his knees and set a hand on the back of his sagging pants. He inhaled deeply, and nearly gagged from the sickeningly sweet mingling of baby lotion and diarrhea. ``I wasn't thinking about it, but now that you mention it, I guess I'm carrying some extra weight back there.'' A frown crossed his face, until he was hit with a spark of inspiration. ``I know how to handle this! Watch!''

The former fisher inhaled a deep breath, then let it out as a high-pitched wail. ``Ed, what the heck are you doing?!,'' Gary shouted, surprised and a little embarrassed by the sudden outburst. Edgar shielded his muzzle with one hand and whispered to his friend. ``Solving our problem. Any minute their parents will come running to take care of us.'' He clutched the edge of the sandbox and continued to howl and scream as loudly as his little lungs could manage. Soon enough, two smartly dressed young women- a skunk and a raccoon, just like the cubs- came running to check on their daughters.

``What's wrong, honey?,'' the skunk inquired. Edgar stammered between sobs, ``My bottom! It- it's all poopy!'' Gary folded his arms and turned away in disgust. Clearly, somebody was enjoying this a little too much. He felt a hand rest on his shoulder. ``You too, Sunny?,'' the mother raccoon gently asked. Gary shot the woman an icy look. ``Yeah yeah... I'm wet, he crapped all over himself, we're both a mess. I know what's coming, so could we just get this over with?''

The skunk and raccoon stood upright and exchanged knowing glances. ``They did it again, didn't they?,'' one parent muttered. ``Those naughty girls!,'' the other lamented. Edgar was enjoying himself too much to care, but Gary was dumbfounded by the revelation, and demanded answers. ``They've done this before?!,'' he squealed. His voice no longer carried the weight it did when he was a liger, but his anger and disbelief nevertheless came through loud and clear.

The mother skunk averted her eyes from Gary's baleful gaze. ``Kind of, yeah.'' She cleared her throat and continued. ``They have a talent for, uh, body swapping.'' Her raccoon friend let out a deep sigh and offered an explanation. ``When they get tired of being babies, they'll find a couple of older kids and take their bodies on a joyride.'' She continued, trying to sweeten the situation. ``It lasts an hour, maybe two. Before you know it, you'll be back where you belong!''

The skunk nervously interjected, ``If they cause any trouble, we'll take care of it. You'll be fine, it'll be fine. Everything will be fine, really!'' The flop sweat trickling down her cheeks suggested otherwise.

Gary clapped a hand on his forehead and let out an exasperated scream. ``HOW IS ANY OF THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?!'' Edgar wasn't interested in an explanation, or in any great rush to return to his original body... he just wanted a fresh didey. He stared off into space sucking his thumb, while wiping tears from his eyes with his free hand.

``I don't know... I just don't know.'' The raccoon shook her head wearily. All she did know is that the swap would mean big headaches and possible property damage for her later. ``As long as you're, um, here, we'll take good care of you. Starting with those icky diapers of yours...''She reached into a bright blue shoulder bag for some supplies, and set a plastic mat on the top of a nearby picnic table.

The mother skunk held out one hand while clutching the other to her chest. ``Could you get them both, Madge?,'' she asked between labored breaths. ``I'm... kind of having a moment right now.''

``You're always having a moment,'' the elder raccoon impatiently grumbled. ``Fine... just let me just take care of my kid first. I'll get Sophie in a minute.'' She set two hands under Gary's shoulders and lifted him from the ground, setting him on the center of the mat with his striped tail facing outward. She rolled up the purple shirt and pulled the tapes from the waistband of the diaper, with each one making a large ripping noise as it released. Gary shuddered from the sound and pressed his hands to his face. If his cheeks weren't already covered in thick grey fur, they would have been a fiery red from the embarrassment.

Madge folded open the diaper, revealing the thoroughly soaked and yellowed padding inside. She gripped Gary's ankles with one hand, and briskly cleaned his bottom with the other, running soft, wet wipes between his cheeks and over a plump, dark grey vulva. Curious, Gary reached down to inspect his new genitalia, only to have his hand pulled away.

``She's still my daughter, you know,'' Madge muttered, a disapproving frown on her face.

``Sorry, sorry. I miss Frankie and the beans, you know?'' Gary tucked his hands behind his head and drew in a breath, waiting for Madge to finish her work. The raccoon dabbed some ointment onto her finger and spread it over the diaper area, painting the dark grey vulva a bright white. Gary bit his lip from the tingling sensation. He probably shouldn't be enjoying this, but who knows what that silly baby was doing in his body right now?

Madge slid a fresh diaper under Gary's bottom and taped it in place, threading his ringed tail through the hole in the back. She lifted the former liger off the table and set him back on his feet, giving his head a reassuring pat. ``That takes care of Sunny... or, whoever Sunny is now. Now for you...'' Madge set the skunk kit on the picnic table, the filled diaper making an audible squish, and lifted the hem of the forest green dress.

Edgar looked up at the raccoon with hopeful eyes. ``My name is Sophie now?,'' he asked, a smile on the edge of his face.

``Heh.'' Madge pulled his tail outward and unfastened his diaper. ``I wouldn't get too comfortable in there... this won't last forever.'' The mother raccoon used the front of the baby pants to wipe some of the mess from Edgar, then wadded them into a ball and tossed the soiled sphere in a nearby garbage can. ``Probably not,'' he sighed as his legs were lifted upward. ``But I can always make the most of the time I've got.''

``You sound like you weren't happy with your old life,'' Madge observed as she pulled a wipe over the skunklet's bottom and thighs. Edgar looked away, a little ashamed. ``I guess not. At least high school's not gonna last forever...''

``You've got doody all over you,'' Madge reminded the cub. ``Just to warn you, I'm going to have to go places with the next wipe.'' Edgar nodded... there was no telling how that was going to feel with a new set of private parts, but he was prepared for the experience. The raccoon swiped a moist wipe through his bottom, then another between the plump lips of his vulva. It was cold and tingly, but at the same time, refreshing.

``Are you doing okay?,'' the raccoon asked. ``Yeah,'' Edgar assured her. Getting cleaned down there was a strange new sensation, but it wasn't necessarily a bad one. ``I just kind of lost track of what I was saying, is all.'' He winced slightly as a finger covered with ointment was rubbed on his sensitive areas. ``You were talking about high school, I think,'' Madge remarked after some contemplation. ``You said you'd be glad to get out of there.''

``Well, yeah, but I don't think it's gonna get any easier from there.'' Madge nodded sadly as she reached for a fresh diaper. ``I wish I could tell you that, but no, not really. The older you get, the more complicated life gets.''

``Exactly!,'' Edgar continued excitedly, coming to an epiphany. ``And when you're this young, you don't have to worry about anything. Life is great all the time!''

``I wish they felt the same way,'' Madge looked upward wistfully. She unfolded the diaper and set it under Edgar's bottom. ``Sunny and Sophie Ann are so eager to grow up, but someday they won't need to swap bodies with older kids. They'll just be older, and they'll wish they hadn't wasted so much of their childhoods.'' Madge snugly taped the baby pants onto Edgar and pulled down his dress to cover them.

Edgar shook his head sadly. ``Everyone seems to want what they can't have. And even when they do have it, it never lasts for long.'' He looked over at his friend, who was sleeping soundly in the mother skunk's arms. Gary was always so angry... angry with his father, angry at school, angry for being the puzzle piece that never quite fit. It was comforting to see him at peace, however fleeting.

``Listen, um...'' Madge awkwardly trailed off, not sure how to end the sentence.

``Edgar.'' He didn't feel like Edgar right now, but he knew he'd be back in that dumpy weasel body soon enough. Hopefully it'll still have clean underwear, considering its current occupant.

``You said you wanted to make the most of this. Before things go back to normal, would you like me to hold you for a while, maybe give you a bottle?''

Edgar looked up, a broad smile on his face and tears welling in his eyes. ``Yeah. I'd like that.''

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