You couldn't see a thing in the pitch blackness that surrounded you, but you could tell that you were being carried forward by the mysterious machinery like a toy on a production line.
Every so often it would stop you in place and you would be subjected to a strange sensation carried out with mechanical precision.
First your clothes were stripped from your body, leaving you naked and shivering.
Next, you were sprayed from head to toe with some kind of warm liquid with a sweet yet noxious chemical smell that burned your sinuses and left you feeling numb.
The final step was the strangest of all. Your entire body was wrapped in a warm, soft and fluffy material. It hung on you loosely at first, until a large metal coffin-like device clamped shut around you and you felt the material begin to constrict around your frame like shrink-wrap. As this was happening, you felt your body being uncomfortably squeezed and contorted until you seemed to perfectly fit the humanoid internal cavity of the coffin-like device, which you now recognized as some kind of mold.
Finally the mold split open with a hiss and the mechanical arms gently dropped you onto a conveyor belt, which carried you through a curtain into a well-lit but rather cramped room.
As your eyes adjusted to the uncomfortably bright fluorescent light, you quickly appraised your surroundings.
Blinking gizmos lined the walls of the chamber, stacked all the way up to the ceiling. A full size mirror was mounted on one wall, and there was a large mechanical door marked "EXIT TO PARK".
Unfortunately, the same rabbit who had gotten you into this mess was now standing between you and the exit.
"Hey, what's-", is all you managed to say before you froze in shock at the high-pitched, cutesy voice that had just emerged.
"W-what's wrong with my voice?" you squeaked.
The white rabbit simply gestured towards the mirror, smiling his toothy smile.
You turned to face your reflection and were greeted by a slender yellow chicken mascot with a cute, feminine design.
Starting from her feet, which were bright orange and resembled a cartoonish blend between a human's foot and a bird's talons, your eyes moved up to her legs, which were extremely thick and curvy for someone of her build. Her thighs were especially impressive.
She wore nothing on her lower body, leaving her feathered butt and crotch exposed, of course as she was a mascot there didn't appear to be anything objectionable or inappropriate down there, at least as far as you could tell from your current perspective.
Her upper body was slender and clad in a sporty little white t-shirt decorated with thin rainbow-colored stripes. She didn't have breasts but her chest had a distinct feminine curve to it that almost gave her the illusion of having them. Her feathery arms looked somewhere between a regular humanoid arm and a bird's wing.
Finally you reached the face. She had a small, cute orange beak, and the large round eyes that stared back at you were framed by perfect black eyelashes. She didn't have hair, but a small cluster of feathers on her forehead mimicked bangs, and at the top of her head towards the back, more feathers had been tied into a bunch which stood straight up.
It was almost too surreal to believe that this was your reflection. You blinked and the mascot's eyes blinked. You raised a feathery arm and touched the soft, downy fluff that now covered your cheek, and the doppelganger in the mirror mimicked you exactly. That's when you noticed the tag tied around your wrist, resembling the kind you might see on a new toy.
Ripping it off the flimsy string, you brought it up to your face for a closer look.
"ANIMAL FRIENDS SERIES 5 - DIXIE DRUMSTICK" It read, with a winking cartoon depiction of the mascot character you now found yourself trapped inside. What the hell was going on here?
In a daze, you stared at the mascot in the mirror some more, experimentally touching your face and opening and closing your beak, running your hands down your thinner body and your wider hips and feeling every sensation as if it were your own skin. Turning yourself around and peeking over your shoulder, you saw that you were able to wiggle the short, feathery nubbin of a tail that stuck out just above your feminine rear. It felt almost natural.
You were snapped out of your stupor by a tap on your shoulder. The white rabbit mascot was presenting you with some kind of mechanical keypad marked with a small logo of a blue wolf in sunglasses. A voice crackled out from a tiny speaker mounted to the device. "THANK YOU FOR AGREEING TO TAKE PART IN WHIMSY WORLD'S ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME MASCOT EXPERIENCE. YOU MAY NOW CHOOSE THE LENGTH OF YOUR STAY. YOU WILL BE COMPENSATED FAIRLY AT THE END OF YOUR SERVICE AND YOUR ABSENCE WILL GO UNNOTICED.
CONTRACT WILL BE TERMINATED AT END OF DURATION - UNLESS YOU CHOOSE TO TAKE ON A PERMANENT POSITION.
PLEASE SELECT DURATION NOW."
"Wait what? I didn't agree to this!" you squawked, flinching again at your squeaky new voice.
The rabbit just shook his head and pointed at the device.
There was a keypad with numbers from 0 to 9, a green button labeled OK and a red button labeled NO.
It was unclear what these numbers even meant. Days? Months?
"How do I cancel?" you demanded, but the rabbit just shook his head again.
Feeling frustrated, you mashed the NO key, hoping it would register as a cancellation.
The device beeped in acknowledgement and the rabbit quickly snatched it back from your feathered hands.
"YOU HAVE SELECTED: NO TERMINATION DATE.
CONTRACT HAS BEEN ADJUSTED TO: PERMANENT.
THANK YOU AND WELCOME TO THE FAMILY." it buzzed in a detached, emotionless tone of voice.
Your mouth - or rather your beak - dropped open in shock.
As you began to protest, the rabbit mascot pressed a button on the wall and a soothing, somewhat distorted song began to play from speakers mounted close to the ceiling. The music, sounding like a crackly cross between elevator muzak and a child's lullaby, seemed to instantly sap away your energy and you felt your mind clouding over, your senses becoming dull.
Your vision became increasingly blurry and you could just barely make out the shape of the white rabbit mascot, who now appeared to be gleefully waltzing around you in circles to the tune of the mysterious jingle. Soon your vision and your consciousness faded entirely.
...
...
"SAY CHEESE!"
The flash of the camera snapped you back to reality.
Echoes of the hypnotic melody bounced around in your skull and continued to cloud your mind, but your senses had mostly returned and you were now aware of your surroundings.
You found yourself in the middle of the park's main plaza, posing with a pair of twin girls no older than 8 as their proud father took photo after photo.
Yes of course, that was your job. You remembered them approaching you, and the adorable glee in the children's faces as they asked for a picture. How could you possibly refuse?
After your little photo session concluded and you waved goodbye to the girls, you found yourself compelled to roam the park in search of more kids in need of a little cheer. There was something else though, in the back of your mind. You still felt groggy, but you were certain that something else had been bothering you.
You managed to recall something through the hypnotic fog. Your... family? You wanted to find them for... some reason?
Perhaps it would come to you later when this weird cloudy sensation wore off. For now you were content to roam the park and fulfill your mascot duties.