Samuel stayed where he was as he looked out at the toddler sized anthro raccoon holding what looked like a toy phone. He privately wondered how a toy phone could even work the way a normal phone would. He had liked Jessica, and privately he had actually hoped there could be something more between them. But now that was impossible. Jessica had been infected and looked like she was between two and four years old again. If he touched her, he'd find himself that young again and covered in fur besides. Not to mention that he figured he'd lose much of what made him him, given that these baby furs seemed to act like children after their transformation. It wasn't as if they were adults in the bodies of children. He didn't want to be infected or lose who he was.
However, he did like Jessica and she did look like she was about to cry at the prospect of him not coming out to be changed. It made him wonder how much they had all changed and how aware they were of it. He also wondered on whether or not Jessica was truly like the way she was acting now when she was that young. And while he didn't want to be changed, he didn't necessarily want Jessica to be upset. So, he decided to try talking with her. She seemed more than willing to talk with him, and he figured it might learn more about how these baby furs thought and functioned, what they knew and understood, and perhaps even find out how all of their odd abilities worked. That'd then allow him to figure out a way to turn her back to the woman he knew.
"I do like you, Jess," Samuel said carefully, "but don't you know who you are? Who you're supposed to be..."
"I'm Jessy," came the response, "You like me?"
"Yes, I know you're Jessica," Samuel answered, "but I'm talking about you being human."
"Human? They're no fun," Jessica answered.
"Why?" Samuel asked.
He watched as the raccoon baby fur blinked and then scratched her head for a moment.
"Dunno," was her eventual answer, "mean, I guess."
"Am I mean?" Samuel asked back.
Again there was a pause. Eventually Jessica did answer.
"No," Jessica answered, "but we're friends. Friends play with each other."
"They can also respect the wishes of their friends," Samuel reminded her.
"We do! We care for everyone!" Jessica answered.
Samuel watched as she then gestured with the hand that held the toy phone and shook it in a circular fashion. It was a gesture to the ones that were comforting the baby furs that had seemed to be more aware of what had happened to them. Samuel did notice it and figured that this infection didn't necessarily make the baby furs uncaring for others or violently aggressive, but they still seemed to have the mentality of children.
"Even me?" Samuel asked carefully.
"Of course!" Jessica answered excitedly, "Come out and play. We'll have lots of fun. Please... I'm super duper lonely without you."
Samuel wondered if that was some measure of their old friendship still on Jessica's mind coming through in a more childlike manner, as there were several baby furs out there with Jessica. And Samuel had figured that all the baby furs once they transformed would simply congregate with each other. They wouldn't necessarily need to be with someone specific so long as they were with other baby furs.
"And what if I wish to stay as I am?" Samuel asked.
"You'll always be Sammy, silly," Jessica actually laughed.
"That's not what I meant," Samuel sighed.
"What didya mean?" Jessica asked, lowering her left ear in confusion and as if she'd been an anthropomorphic raccoon all her life.
"That I'd wish to remain human... remain as I am now," Samuel answered.
"Why?" Jessica asked, her voice sounding puzzled.
"Because it is who and what I am," Samuel answered, "It's how I was born, as it was how you were."
"I was?" Jessica asked.
"Yes," Samuel answered.
"Was I mean?" Jessica asked.
Samuel wanted to say, "only once a month" but figured that right now that joke wouldn't be appropriate, and so his answer was simply, "No. You were the sweetest and most caring woman I'd ever met."
"And ya don't wanna have fun?" Jessica asked, Samuel watched as her eyes began to tear up again.
"I didn't say that," Samuel said after a moment, "I just said that I don't want to lose who I am or be in diapers again."
He was trying to avoid being infected and changed. One couldn't really call these baby furs invaders. Yes they were transforming people, but at times that seemed to be unintentional and the way the baby furs went about what they did was not conducive to any sort of invasion. It was too random, too childlike, and didn't carry any of the sort of action one considered a military or even a police action. If these baby furs were really invading the world, they would have brought a far more organized attack, especially when it became obvious that direct physical attacks did nothing to them.
Much of the behavior was more closely related to what was figured would happen as the result of a virus, but Samuel couldn't think of any virus that would be able to do to people what all these baby furs had done. It half made Samuel believe that magic was real, as that was the only explanation for how the woman he was friends with... who he secretly loved... was now a fur covered child talking to him over a toy phone as if it were real and it functioning as if it were real. It'd also explain how his use of recordings of lullabies had been the only thing that stopped them from coming in and forcing the change on him in some way. In this, Samuel was trying to think of some other way to deal with the issue. Lullabies only put the baby furs to sleep, or made them drowsy making them wander away to take a nap. It didn't restore their minds or reverse the transformation, meaning that when they woke up, they were still as they were when they first became baby furs. Some had even come within range of the players playing the lullabies a few times before figuring out they couldn't go any further.
"But... but..." he heard Jessica actually blubber, "but you'll always be Sammy."
"But would I be human?" Samuel asked back, "Would I still have a choice? The Jessica I know would never force anything on anyone if they didn't want it."
"But... I want to play with you... you are my friend, right?" Jessica asked, sounding both puzzled and hurt.
"Yes, I am your friend, Jessica," Samuel answered, "and I will do whatever I can to help you... but will you respect my wishes to stay human? Will you respect the wishes of others to remain human? Even if it isn't what you want right now?"
"We're not hurting anyone," Jessica answered.
"Maybe not physically, Jess... but did they give you a choice to become a baby fur... have you given others the choice to become baby furs?" Samuel asked back.
"I dunno," Jessica answered honestly, and weakly, "I'd just left my apartment... I was... I was walking somewhere... this little squirrel boy came around a corner and jumped into my arms... and then I was having fun... but super lonely without you. So I went and got my phone and came looking for you. Didn't see anyone else."
That reinforced Samuel's magic theory though it also raised the distinct possibility that the baby furs were unaware that close contact with humans was causing the transformation in others.
"Please, Sammy... you're my best friend..." Jessica spoke in a pleading voice, "please... come play with me."