Drawn In

Visiting a friend is always nice. That's just what you were doing on this fine Thursday! Her island isn't necessarily the most well-decorated or painstakingly terraformed, but what it did have for you was some very high turnip prices. Always good to turn out a profit. And what a profit indeed! In exchange for your inventory of turnips, you are provided an almost equally large inventory of bells. It's almost too much to carry around, so you'll have to head home pretty much immediately.

That said, you always like to visit your friend's neighbors as a courtesy. They're a nice group of animals, some you might even want to move to your island one day! They're all glad to see you, as ever, and one of them even gives you a sign they plan to move! You'll have to visit tomorrow as they're doing so, assuming your friend agrees with their plans.

You set out for the airport while your friend's off doing something else. But before you enter, you're distracted by an animal walking around in the distance. Someone you don't recognize. It can't be someone new, you think… Your friend has a full island and nobody's left since you last visited. You turn and walk a bit towards them, recognizing them now as a white cat. Still unfamiliar. Hmm…

Your bells can wait. You head over to the cat quickly now, getting more details as you go on: They're completely white with no other patterns, though at the same time they seem to be wearing a rather bright red and yellow striped outfit with a neck frill, much like a jester. You come up to them with a friendly greeting and they turn around with nothing. Not a blank expression, but a completely blank face! You don't know how you can tell, but they seem amused by your expression and say, "Oh hey, you're a visitor here, right? I'm Blanca."

Their voice comes from their face somehow, barely more muffled, as if they were wearing a mask. Yet… you can tell it's not a mask at all. In fact, the blank face is rather inviting to you! Blanca notes your curiosity and raising hand and says, "Whoa! A little touchy, are we?" You put your hand down, a little embarrassed. Blanca chuckles, "Ah, don't worry! You can touch my face if you want. Actually, I was going to ask if you'd like to draw me a new face?"

You're taken aback by the idea. Drawing a face? Sure you've made some patterns before, but this seems like a bigger responsibility. Noting your worry, they continue, "Don't stress too hard about it! In the past I'd be more sensitive, but I've grown thicker fur after some experience in pranking other towns," they say, posing confidently. "Ah, not to say this is a prank! I really would like you to draw me a face. Just do your best!" Affirmed, you nod and get to work!

*/^\*

"All done?" You nod, putting away your drawing utensil. Drawing on their face was surprisingly easy; it was like a perfect canvas, despite also being rather nicely fuzzy to the touch. Taking a step back now, you can see… a good attempt. If you're being generous. It's recognizable as a face, at least. "So? How do I look?" You're honest: It's okay. "Well, at least I can tell it's pretty normal!" They pull out a smartphone and look at themselves using the front-facing camera. "Yeah, all the normal facial features are there, if a little… sketchy."

It is at that moment that you realize they are able to animate the features on their face, despite the lack of realism to them. That's interesting. They glance up from their phone and notice your interest, gaining a mischievous look. "Something catch your eye? Heheh." You again feel embarrassed for staring so blatantly, but you also feel the desire to inquire as to just how they can move their facial features. Which you do, shortly after.

"Oh, yes! It's something of an ability of mine, I suppose you could say. Just as I don't naturally have a face, I can adapt pretty well to just about anything drawn on my face. Take this for example," pointing at their scribbly-colored mouth, "if you look inside, you can see that it has depth as if it were a natural mouth!" Blanca leaves it hanging open, waiting for you to take a peek for yourself. Bending over slightly, you examine their mouth closely. It really does have a strange sense of depth to it. It gets darker in the back too and it makes you wonder just how far it's implemented, so to speak.

While you're examining, you suddenly feel two paws on the back of your head. Then with a shove, you're plunged into that sketchy maw. A very real-feeling tongue tastes over your face, leaving a slather of saliva wherever it goes. Before you can react further, a resounding gulp brings you into a much tighter tube-- their throat! It's hard for you to understand how this is happening, but that doesn't stop you from trying to struggle! Unfortunately, Blanca seems to have a firm grip as you feel them fit more of yourself inside.

Shortly, you plunge into an open sac which quickly becomes full as the rest of yourself is crammed into it. It's squishy, slimy, and steamy, yet you can see that it has the same poorly drawn look as the mouth you drew. You can even see some white in the gaps, as if this sac was just floating inside of Blanca with nothing else to support it. Well, this stomach, you should say. That's where you're pretty sure you are. As you try to squirm around some, you can hear a loud, satisfied belch from outside.

"Oops, excuse me! You were just so filling I couldn't help but swallow you all down at once!" You feel their belly bounce as they laugh, then sit down. "Ahh… Being able to eat is such a treat! Of course I don't really need to, but it's fun when I can. And eating the, aheh, artist who gave me that ability seems like a pretty funny prank to me!" You can feel paws rubbing on your back through a layer of flesh.

While they relax, very pleased with themselves, you know you have to get out. Despite being a 'prank' and your very low quality surroundings, you have a feeling that there will be rather realistic consequences if you stick around. The stomach isn't exactly strong in a traditional way and you find yourself able to fairly easily open up the throat and start trying to climb on out. As you start to do so, Blanca emits a rather muffled questioning noise.

Cats in particular aren't very tall, so in short notice you find yourself back in Blanca's mouth while the rest of your body remains stuck inside them. As they open their mouth you can see back out into the island, even see an islander in the distance! If only you could get their attention… You start trying to pull your arm up all the way, to start pulling yourself out further when you see Blanca pull out something. Is that… an eraser? Blanca tries to talk, though you seem to be preventing them from managing to say anything coherent. The eraser moves up to Blanca's mouth and for a moment you thought they're going to eat it, but instead their mouth starts to simply close.

Well, not simply. The way it's happening… You can tell that something is off. They're not closing their mouth… They're erasing it! You can hardly believe what you're seeing as the light starts to disappear, but you renew your efforts after you get over the shock. You barely manage to pull your hand out of their throat when the last bit of mouth is erased from Blanca's face, leaving you in an entirely dark maw.

Suddenly, they seem able to speak clearly, as if blocking their 'airway' no longer matters. "Oh, nice try! Fortunately, my body-- or face, mostly-- is pretty malleable. I don't really need a mouth when you're already inside!" They don't seem to make any attempt to swallow you at this point, since there's no possible other direction for you to take. And after pushing around on Blanca's cheeks and previous opening, you relent, letting the tongue and throat direct you back down.

Once again, you land in the cat's belly and now that you're back with the rest of your body, you realize your pants have taken quite the damage. Socks too. Your shoes seem to be holding out, though you wonder for how long. Fluids seem to be filling the chamber, even if it doesn't seem to be making any real effort to squeeze you into mush. You hear Blanca laugh, "You know, it's funny how my insides work. It's really just imagination! Kinda. I have a mouth, so it makes sense I have at least some food and breathing stuff extra! I don't usually though, which is why I bet my insides look so sketchy to you."

You're following along, but it seems odd for Blanca to tell you about this. Why does it matter? Looking up, you note that the way you came down must've disappeared too, since there's no visible entrance anymore. You're just sitting in a disembodied stomach inside a silly cat. One that seems to be digesting you all the same, though. "Normally I can survive just fine without food, you know! At least, not like the rest of you need to eat. So really, all of this," they say, patting you from the outside, "is just made up by your imagination! A lot of you all seem to believe pretty heavily that digestion is what has to happen, so that's probably why you all end up melted. I know it's hard to believe in a different option, but why don't you give it a try? Or don't, I don't really mind."