Hypnovember 2023
Prompts: 11.Chemical
For Jakey
By Limewah

“Erm… hello?”
The deer-antlered orange fox was well and truly lost, now. He thought it would be a quick and easy walk back to the pool after he stepped out for a moment. The journey hadn’t seemed that labyrinthine, and yet, somehow, he managed to find himself in a back-room, some sort of storage space that was packed to the gills with pooltoys. Most of them were still inflated, too, which seemed counter-intuitive. They ranged in size from small rings with smiling, long-necked dragon heads growing out of them, right up to whales and seals and cats that were large enough to sit on.
The aroma coming off of them was so thick, Jakey could practically see it. The chemical stench of the treatment of the phalanx of pooltoys was making his nose itch and sting. It was impossible to focus or think of anything else; it was overpowering him…

He cleared his throat as the scent tickled it, and he turned back to the door he’d came through. It had slid closed with a click a moment ago, and when he turned and gave it a try, it rattled but did not budge.
“Ah bollocks,” he said under his breath before banging on the door a few times, calling out for help. He pressed his ear to the door and listened closely for a little while, until he was certain that there was no one outside. He remained leant against it with a sigh, keeping his ear on a swivel in case some employee at the pool - or some other poor lost idiot like him - walked by.

He didn’t feel much in the way of panic; just annoyance that gradually faded into a serene relaxation. It was strange; the longer he was stuck in that warehouse, the more suffused he was in the scent, the more he began to pick out other scents, more delicious notes within it. Maybe it was his mind trying to make the experience more pleasurable? 
It didn’t matter. As he slid down and sat on the floor with his back to the door, he found himself luxuriating in the aroma. His body sagged and relaxed, his muscles getting heavier as the scent pushed out the oxygen and took up more space in his head.
His muzzle curled into a smile, his eyes sort of drooping as he cast his eyes along the many shining, smiling faces of the myriad pooltoys.
It was almost like they were calling out to be played with; not much point without any water, though… it was a shame.
Finally, at long last, he heard the distant sound of footsteps (he hoped). 
As he leapt to his feet, he caught a glimpse of something he hadn’t noticed in the room before. The orange pooltoy was hanging up from a hook, draped like a uniform, but looked to be made of that same pooltoy flesh as the rest of them. But there was a slit at the back was open wide,  wide enough for him to climb into. Some sort of mascot suit, maybe… it was further in, too, surrounded by various squeaky inflated things.
It could have been simple curiosity, or something more, but Jakey felt the desire to take a closer look.
He leaned towards it, still uncertain as to why, and began to slowly shuffle in its direction. Deeper into the synthetic fug, letting it cake into his fur and into his head. He giggled drunkenly, head swimming and spinning as he stumbled closer. The scent was even more thought-pausing than ever once he was wading through the individual toys. They squeaked and rubbed against him as he moved. Now and again he tripped and fell into one of them, paws and face buried in squeaky, sharp-scented vinyl. It took him a little while to pull himself back up onto his feet, and he could still feel the scent cling to his face and make him giggle like a schoolgirl with a crush.

There was something familiar about the suit, too. The closer Jakey got, the more the orange flesh reminded him of his own fur. And the white markings on the face… and the eyes…
When he finally reached it and took it down off that hook, he turned it over his paws.
Iit looked like the spitting image of him. 
Like it was made for him to climb inside.
There was nothing stopping him, not even his own sense of confusion. The slit was wide open, and the insides looked tight and snug like the inside of a pair of water wings. It would hold him very snugly. More of that delicious synthetic aroma was inside it, like it had never been used since it’d gone off the factory line.
The scent beckoned to him.
He put one leg in, feeling the insides hew firmly to every inch of his flesh and his paws. It squeaked and squished as he did so, and the sound made his heart flutter with strange excitement. He pushed his handpaws in next, the tightness forcing them into balled fists. As he ducked his head inside, his smile got wider, tighter, matching the piano-key grin of the pooltoy fox with squeaky antlers. 

As soon as he was inside, he felt something tickle along his tail, pulling it into place as the slit sealed behind him. He was surrounded by darkness, and the tight constriction of the soft squeaky innards of the toy.
It was only then, now that he was inside, that he realised the pooltoy was decidedly more quadrupedal.
He fell over onto his side, his arms and legs sticking straight out from his torso. The perfect sort of form factor for bobbing on a chlorinated pool.
When the door opened only a few seconds later, he didn’t really feel like screaming for help. He didn’t need it. Not when the nice smell and the snug hug of his pooltoy skin felt so comfortable, and made his head so swimmy…
“Which ones’ll we take out?”
“Grab me a couple orcas, one of those recliners… oh, and that one at the back, the new one. The fox.”

That was him…! 
Jakey fluttered with excitement; the only concern he had was whether or not the employee, whoever they were, could lift him. 
That was dispelled when one hand grasped him under the stomach and hoisted him up easily.
He was as light as a feather, a soft, buoyant pooltoy inside and out. 
He couldn’t wait to float on the pool… what fun that would be! 
He would have grinned even more widely, if he could have.