Chapter 18
Talikin’s hour swaddled became one of the most relaxing periods in the fox’s life. While he never quite slept, the snugness and intense, luxurious warmth had a strange, intoxicating effect on him. He seemed to drift inward to himself, as though nothing of importance were going on outside his little shared cocoon. Kwai, the panda he was sharing it with, drifted off shortly after their philosophical deliberations, leaving Tali nothing to do but dwell on how amazingly soft and cozy he was, and use him as a giant pillow or teddy bear. He didn’t bother to try and direct his thoughts, only letting them flow from topic to topic as they chose, and never bothered to pin them down on any one subject. Tali would later liken it to meditation, but, right then, the most important thing on his mind was how to cuddle closer to the fluffy ball of poof beneath him.
The fox was jotted back to consciousness as the white noise from outside returned after such a long period of silence, and his wiggling caused Kwai to stir beneath him. “Uh, is naptime over?” The panda asked, wiggling a bit, as immobile as Talikin, but more used to being swaddled than him. “Yup,” he continued, nuzzling the top of the fox’s head as the belts or whatever had been wrapped around them to keep the cocoon from unfolding were removed, and then he felt it slowly unraveled until he was looking up at a smiling mare.
“Well hello there, cutie. How was your first time swaddled?” May asked, watching Tali wiggle and squirm like a newborn with his newly increased range of motion and babble something incoherent.
“I… I liked it,” Tali admitted, blushing a bit.
May grinned wider, “That’s good to hear! I’ll be sure to wrap you up with Kwai for every nap time from here on out.” The panda’s groaning at this statement, though it was probably just a way to toy with him on May’s part, was gargantuan. He even pouted a bit, and Tali was taken aback by just how juvenile he looked, sitting there in a soggy diaper, all fluffed up from their cuddling while swaddled, and now giving her the full, pouty toddler routine, lip out, arms crossed and all. 
Talikin pounced the panda while he was distracted, May insisting on teasing him more, and caught him fully off guard. “H-hey! What the heck?” Kwai exclaimed, Tali pinning him to the ground in a heartbeat.
“This is for earlier!” Tali said, grinning mischievously and giving the panda a wink, then blew raspberries on his belly and sent Kwai into absolute convulsions of hysteric laughter, totally taken aback by how sensitive to touch that part of him must have become after years of tickling, and decided to take his hands for a spin. The panda squirmed madly, thrashing back and forth to escape Talikin’s agile, dancing fingers over his exposed belly, but it was fruitless, and, by the smell of things, the fox had actually, though unintentionally, made him wet himself.
“Hey, that wasn’t cool,” Kwai said, curling into a defensive ball as soon as Talikin let him up and giving the fox cautious eyes, “I’m much more ticklish than you.”
“And that’s why it’s so much fun!” Tali said, giggling tremendously and rolling back onto his padded rear, then tried to stand up in his thick and admittedly soggy padding while still near the edge of the giant bowl. 
“Come on, you two. We’re going out to the pool soon,” May said, nodding her head toward the door, and Tali’s mouth dropped open, remembering the splashing sounds from earlier.
“You have a pool?!” The fox said, eyes wide, jaw hanging. Kwai poked him in the side.
“It’s even heated,” The panda said, grinning, “Let’s go.”
“This place is a dream come true,” Tali said, amazed, and worked his cramped muscles for a few more minutes before being led through the gate and out into the main room, where the two assistants were working hurriedly to get all their two dozen charges out of their normal clothes and into swimming diapers and a uniform blue or pink spandex swimsuit. The whole playroom was lined up at the changing table, being outfitted in a surprisingly organized manner for a group of cubs. Kwai and Tali joined the line. Upon getting to the front, Tali was hoisted up onto the changing table, and was dismayed to find that he had, in fact, wet himself again, but couldn’t remember when. Kwai, who was watching him closely, seemed to pick up on his anxiety and pat him on the shoulder.
“Accidents happen, puppy. Don’t pay it too much mind,” Kwai said, smiling at him, and made him feel a whole lot better. His diaper was removed and discarded, then replaced with a velcro, padded fabric and spandex diaper of much more reasonable bulk, ultramarine blue in coloration, and then he was given a skintight swimming onesie and patted off to join the line that was forming at the front of the room, by the door. Apparently they followed kindergarten procedure regarding cub-trains, but that made an odd sort of sense given the subject matter…
Talikin pulled on his spandex onesie, buttoning it up himself, and was surprised to find himself waddling instinctively even though the swimming diaper was scarcely an eighth as thick as his previous undergarments, and perfectly reasonable by the standards of what he had grown accustomed to. Kwai joined him, dressed in the same swim diaper and onesie combo, and they waited for the line to start moving. Another five minutes passed as May and the other caretakers geared up the rest of the cubs, some of them fussing a great deal, and the little owl from earlier seemed to fight particularly hard, but, eventually, May led the line outside and down the lacquered wooden hallway towards the sounds of splashing. 
To think, thousands of people visit this resort every year, but none of them know what’s going on inside! Talikin thought to himself, looking back on the train of two dozen cubs as they were led down the hall towards the pool, then turned off to the right some distance down and out into the afternoon sunlight. He must have napped longer than he’d expected, because it seemed very nearly five in the afternoon by the looks of the sun, which Tali was growing increasingly apt at reading. Talikin had prepared himself mentally to be impressed by the pool, which even Kwai seemed excited about, but it didn’t help. When he finally saw the waterworks complex, which was more than fit for a large theme park, he stared, wide eyed, and simply tried to take it all in. 
The full pool was about twenty fifty across, and shaped like a massive square with the center cut out, forming an independent island connected by wooden bridges at the center of either side. On the island was a wooden enclosure, like a giant gazebo, and from it Talikin could smell roasting hot dogs. A smile crept across his face, and he shook his head, blown away. “Wow,” Tali said, not really sure he could think of anything else that would really sum up the situation so nicely, “This is… impressive.”
“Yeah, it has that effect on people,” Kwai said with a chuckle and a wink, then patted Talikin on the shoulder, and nodded at the pool, where their entire playroom had run down to join… Tali’s jaw fell open again… another eighty or more initiates, all of them in the same blue or pink spandex swimsuits. He couldn’t believe his eyes…
“How many are there?” Talikin said, amazed, gently shaking his head in awe, then amended himself, “err, initiates, I mean.”
“At any one time?” Kwai said, chuckling and tossing his arms up, “We’re by far the largest chapter, and there’s generally three or four hundred here at any one time, we just never risk gathering them all in one place.”
“Still, wow…” Tali said, chuckling nervously. This facility… it had to have run into the tens of millions of dollars, and that was a very liberal estimate, and didn’t count the entire subdivision that was apparently owned and controlled by these people, either. “How do they afford all this crap?” He continued, and watched Kwai go stiff, looking around.
“You can’t say that in here, Talikin… No swearing, unless you want to die of boredom in another time out…”
“You seemed fine with it back when we were wrapped up,” Talikin said, letting Kwai lead him down to the water once they were sure he hadn’t been overheard.
“Well, yeah, because nobody could hear! And I didn’t think you’d rat me out afterward, so I made an exception… Still, don’t swear where people can hear you, it’s not worth it.”
Tali grumbled a bit at being further reduced to a child, in the caretaker’s eyes and his own, and slowly walked down the rubberized steps towards the pool. These people might make a baby out of him, but he wasn’t going to go gently.
“Oh, quit yer’ grumbling, puppy,” The panda said with a chuckle, patting him on the arm, “Let’s go have fun!” Tali perked up at the idea of fun, and it took his mind off the new restrictions with surprising ease, so, tail wagging slightly, the fox followed him over one of the bridges and onto the island. Looking down over the side, he could see totally other cubs, these totally unknown to him, splashing around in the pool. “Just think,” Kwai said, seeming reminiscent, “In a few years, you’ll be personal friends for life with pretty well everyone here and more.”
“B-but what about my old friends?” Tali said, suddenly legitimately concerned. And YEARS? He couldn’t stay here for years! He had a job, rent to pay, relationships to keep up… What would he come back to if he did?
“Don’t worry about your commitments back home,” Kwai said, smiling, “The caretakers don’t move on a new subject until they’re sure there’ll be no loose ends. Your rent’s covered, you still have a job, and you’re probably even being given paid leave,” he chuckled and winked, “So you’re actually being paid right now.”
“That’s… not how it works,” Talikin said, raising an eyebrow, “I work for the military, they don’t just take a doctor’s note when something goes wrong… they send someone to go and make sure that they’re actually sick, especially when leave is requested.”
Kwai chuckled, “You underestimate this organization,” he padded along, coming to the other side of the bridge, “It’s been around for a long time, and it tends to be generous to its graduates…”
“Go on?” Talikin said with interest, actually curious to see where this was going.
“Well,” the panda said, nodding over to the snack tables, and going to grab a hot-dog, apparently hungry considering he’d only had baby food for lunch, “Look at it this way.” He picked up a sausage wrapped in a bun and took a bite, “Troubled teen runs in with the law, right? Police forces are looking to pick them up, but the caretakers have sources and beat them to the punch. They undergo the initiate program, then, when they’re done, choose to stay with their caretaker for a few years and get themselves together. When they finally decide to leave, the caretakers offer to put them through post-secondary, or an apprenticeship program, and give them somewhere to live while they do.”
“So where’s all the money come from?” Tali asked, amazed that anything, let alone an underground organization like this, could afford such an expense.
“Well, the modern organization holds commanding stocks in a lot of large companies. That’s also how they get all this special equipment,” Kwai winked at him, “All the crazy stuff you can have made when you own five or six small medical supply factories. A little tweaking of the machinery, and boom. Adult sized baby diapers.” 
Talikin was totally blown away by the level of solidity and organization shown by this sect. It’s efficiency, he’d wager, was as good as any cooperation, and better than many government offices. And just the sheer size… Five hundred initiates, just in this city alone… Talikin knew from statistics that the capital had three million people or so, and got bigger every year. Five hundred was a lot, but, judging by this level of craft, the organization was careful to only pick initiates from pools where they were sure they could cover their tracks…
“Alright, you silly butt,” Kwai said, chuckling, and finished the last of his hot-dog, “enough questions! If you want a day-by-day history of the caretakers, go talk to Psudo over there,” he nodded behind him, and Tali turned to see the little owlet from earlier, clearly trying to avoid the pool, “He’ll talk your ear off on some subjects if you let him. But not now, let’s play!” Talikin perked up, seeing the panda run off towards the diving board on one of the corners, and climbed up onto it. The eight or nine cubs below him saw the incoming dive, and hurried to swim out of the way as Kwai leapt off the end and did a cannonball into the water, leaving a gargantuan splash in his wake. Tali grinned ear to ear, running up after him, and climbed up onto the diving board when he was sure the water had cleared, and the panda had gotten out of the way. 
“Watch me!” Tali said, getting caught up in the moment, and, ambitious as usual, decided to take a running start from the back of the board. He saw Kwai give him an odd look as he got down into sprinting position on the far back of the board, then turn to one of shock as he stood and ran.
“Wait, STOP!” Kwai shouted, waving his arms, and Tali heard a whistle blow from behind him, but it was too late. About half way down the eight foot board, Talikin saw the soaked plastic ahead of him and panicked, digging his hind claws into to try and arrest his forward motion, but couldn’t find grip. The slick plastic under foot gave him no purchase, and, as he veered to one side, the fox was sent reeling, head over heels, over the side, but not far enough to avoid the laminated wood tile pier on the side of the pool, which the side of his head struck with all the force of his fall. Tali went limp before he even hit the water as what felt like an electrical shock surged through his body, and was vaguely conscious of forms moving above him, floating halfway to the bottom of the pool, and then, ominously, velvety soft blackness enveloped him, staring blankly upward as the shapes descended towards him.