FSE

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Nick and Bart led their friend Potkin down the row of seats at the open air theatre. The skunk and cat stayed flanking their opossum friend, noting how nervous he still looked. "There's nothing to worry about." The mephit reassured as they neared three empty seats.

The marsupial wrung his hairless tail between his fingers anxiously. "I know, I know, you've told me..." He looked around at many of the much larger guests they were passing.

"You can sit between us if you want." Turning sideways to get past a giraffe's knees, the feline finally got to the trio of open seats.

Shimmying after him, Potkin nodded. "Okay."

Nick nodded up at the giraffe as they passed, before turning his attention to his friends. "It's my first time seeing the stunt show too. Bart usually drags me onto the more interactive attractions here." The skunk twisted and sat down so that his fluffy tail draped around the opossum's back protectively. "Have you seen the show before, Bart?"

The cat chuckled. "Yeah, but they change it up pretty often." He leaned back in his seat and mirrored his friend's motion by easing an arm around Potkin's shoulders. "So I don't know if it'll be new stuff or not."

Despite the comforting contact, the possum still jumped slightly when the PA system came to life with dramatic music.

The open stage was too large for curtains to cover, flanked by two jumbotrons. There were visible lines of where trap doors and rails were relieved into the surface, but no indication of what they were for.

A crew of actors in plain black outfits walked out from the wings, the giant screens coming to life to get a closer look of the varying species of anthro walking along. One of them looked confused for a moment, looking around, before pointing over the audience's heads.

A mink woman wearing a sort of safari-lite outfit rushed into view with a yell, zip-lining above the crowd. She let go of the handles of the pulley as she arrived over the stage and landed with a roll. The spot she landed on yielded unlike the rest of the stage, a very cleverly hidden mat amongst all the other lines there.

When she stood up, the camera view on the jumbotrons changed to a torso-up close-up of her. She spun around on her boots with a flourish of her tail, grinning at the audience. She had on a mic headset and when she spoke, it came through the loudspeakers. "Good morning!"

The crowd cheered loudly, including Bart.

Nick gave Potkin a bit of a squeeze with his tail.

"Thank you, everyone for coming to the stunt show! I'm sure you noticed this nice soft matt I came down on." She pushed one boot down on it, showing the material yield. "Film and stage performers have perfected the art of hiding the safety measures for the illusion of danger." The announcer walked off to one side. "But those don't matter if you don't have well trained stunt performers in the first place!" She gestured at the group of actors, some of whom waved.

Another cheer rang out from the crowd.

"So for our first spectacular, we'd like to show how much choreography can change up a scene... for this..." She seemed to ponder, looking over at the stunt team. "Bar brawl?"

The team all nodded, playing along that this wasn't staged as well.

Behind the group, trap doors opened up and set pieces started to rise up to stage level. From the designs, it was period; from the 1800s.

"Old West." The announcer clarified. She looked back to the audience. "Choreography can be utilized to greatly change up a fight scene's tone. Do you want it to be tense and dramatic? Do you want it to be comedic? Do you want a heroic power fantasy? Well, that all comes down to the fight choreography!"

As she spoke, an elephant wearing the same costume as the stunt team came in carrying a stack of round tables, while downstage from him a slender leopard carried chairs to go with them. The rest of the stunt team moved to help them set up the furnishings.

"Today, we'll be showing you two fight scenes with the same performers. You'll see how much relies on the balance of power between the 'hero' and the 'villain'." The mink continued, gesturing to a white cowboy hat and a black cowboy hat that had been sitting on the bar when it arose with the set.

After setting up the chairs and tables, the stunt team took seats around the makeshift saloon, except for the leopard and elephant. They both approached the hats. From the audience's perspective, no one could tell which performer got which hat until they turned around. The leopard held the white hat in front of his chest, while the elephant held the brim of the black hat with his trunk.

With a dexterous twist of the nasal appendage, the pachyderm got his hat set atop of his head. He nodded to his fellow performer and headed over to a seat at the bar.

The leopard nodded in return and put his hat on as he walked to the other end of the set, walking around the free-standing saloon doors.

"Now, we want you to watch and see what is different between a tense fight and a power fantasy fight." The announcer headed into the set herself, undoing her explorer coat. She opened up the gate of the bar and walked through, before dropping it back down. The mink removed her outer layer to reveal a dress shirt and vest, complete with an old-fashioned tie. Her lower half was no longer visible, apart from where her tail flitted about behind her. "Ready guys?"

The stunt crew all nodded and gave thumbs up.

"And are all you ready?" She addressed the crowd.

The amphitheater erupted in cheering once again.

Potkin had mostly calmed down, growing accustomed to the energy level of the other park-goers. More importantly, he was engaged with the action on stage. His dish-shaped ears pivoted slightly as the loudspeakers began to play an old-timey piano.

"Need opera glasses?" Bart quipped idly, before looking back towards a jumbotron.

"Shut." The opossum muttered. "I wanna see the whole stage at once."

On the stage, the leopard performer pushed through the saloon doors. The soundtrack abruptly stopped, as if a piano player had frozen. The feline walked over to the bar and sat on a stool near the doorway. He cheated his hips so the audience could still mostly see him as he spoke towards the announcer turned bartender. "Shot of whiskey."

The elephant at the other end of the set thumped his fist on the bar, before standing up quickly. The pachyderm performer worked without a mic, but the size of his lungs gave him the volume he needed to be heard all the way to the top of the amphitheater. "Get him, boys!"

From each of the card tables, the rest of the stunt team stood up, starting to form a circle around the white-hatted hero.

The leopard in question stood from the stool and carefully stepped back towards the door.

A pair of weasels suddenly grasped onto the leopard's arms, preventing him from making his escape.

With a dramatic saunter, the elephant made his way through the stunt team, slapping the side of his belly with one of his blunt palms.

"What's that about?" Potkin muttered.

Nick shrugged. "Broad acting for the cheap seats."

The leopard struggled with the two weasels until the pachyderm was nearly upon him, before twisting and swinging one of the other performers between himself and the much larger male.

At that very moment, the elephant had been lunging forward with his mouth open. Due to the choreography, the weasel was in the path of the black hat's jaws at that moment instead of the leopard. Curling his trunk around the mustelid, the pachyderm swallowed powerfully, standing upright and lifting kicking legs over his head.

"What." Potkin said at full speaking volume.

Bart nudged his shoulder into the opossum's own. "I told you, this is a predation park! Lots of getting eaten."

On his other side, the skunk shrugged. "I mean, I wasn't expecting the stunt men to be eating each other as part of fight choreography."

The marsupial squinted at the cat and pointed without looking towards Nick.

This just got Bart cackling.

A nearby giraffe cleared his considerable throat, glaring daggers down at the trio.

Potkin winced, leaning back into Nick a bit.

Meanwhile, the feline just lightly slapped the back of his palm into the possum's chest. "Watch, this is my favorite part."

The elephant had finished swallowing the weasel and did a very broad take at lowering his head to see the leopard still outside of him.

The white-hat spun around again, kicking a spotted hyena at his opponent's big belly before turning to run.

Without dropping a beat, the pachyderm's trunk wrapped around its second man and he reared back, the smaller stunt performer flailing in his grip.

The mink behind the bar pointed. "Look out!"

As the leopard whipped back around to look, the elephant twisted his head and extended his trunk in one forceful motion, sending the stuntman flying over the open space between the antagonist and hero.

Rather than let himself merely get hit by the thrown hyena, the leopard gaped his jaws wide and caught him. The impact sent the spotted performer to the hips down the feline's throat, in fact.

The crowd burst into outrageous cheers at the stunt.

Bart whooped, throwing his arms over his head, before cupping his paws around his mouth. "GET'IM!"

Nick leaned around Potkin to look at his friend. "And how many times have you seen the stunt show since that got added?"

The cat shrugged. "Five I guess."

All the while, the opossum was rendered dumbstruck, blushing deeply as the second of the performers got swallowed for entertainment.

Bellowing, the elephant swung a fist, followed by a goring motion with his tusks. Looking at the jumbotron, everyone could clearly see they were blunted and capped, but this was about the choreography, not any verisimilitude.

Still working on swallowing the hyena, the white hat twisted and dodged the oncoming attacks as best as he could. As the pachyderm wound up a big grabbing motion with both arms, the leopard spun around the second weasel, putting the mustelid between himself and the black hat.

The elephant's hands clasped down on the weasel's waist and he blindly began stuffing yet another stunt performer down his throat.

At the same time, the leopard had enough time to finish swallowing the hyena, over-acting how winded he had gotten from the task. He groaned dramatically as his white-furred stomach strained and stretched about with struggling bulges.

As the black hat continued eating the second weasel, a burly dog wound up a big punch.

Twisting, the leopard blocked the punch with his struggling belly, with the choreography making the illusion that the dog had inadvertently stunned his fellow stuntman with a blow to the head-bulge.

Selling the illusion further, the struggling ceased momentarily. However, the weight was too much for the feline to counter the momentum and he lost balance in the spin.

The elephant finished swallowing the weasel in time to watch the white-hat collapse on his back. Once again he performed surprise and annoyance with his mannerisms.

A couple seconds after the leopard hit bottom, his stomach bulge thrashed 'awake'. The leopard's throat bulged out from within as his stomach visibly contracted. The hyena forced his head and one arm out of the cat's jaws, snarling and swinging his fist.

Grasping the punching arm, the white hat shoved the hyenid back into his gullet, the mass of bulges sloshing back to his big belly. The leopard rolled onto his knees and stood up as fast as he could, grabbing the arm of the dog.

The upset elephant lowered his head, backing up dramatically.

The white hat shoved the stuntman onto the floor between himself and the pachyderm right as he began to charge and leapt over the bar, falling down the hidden side gut-down.

The black hat tripped on the dog on the floor and toppled forward, his gut hitting the stage floor first. A massive bulge surged up his throat as his weight continued to carry him forward and his jaws were forced open.

The pair of weasels were shot out, a messy sight to be sure. With the coating of stomach juices they slid quite a way away from their inadvertent predator.

The Leopard stood back up behind the bar and put back on his white hat. "I'll just be goin' ma'am." He stifled a belch and raised the bar's gate. As he walked through, the audience could see his gut was clearly too small to carry a whole hyena inside. Plus, the big gut was sloshing back and forth with his every step.

"Holy shit he digested him..." Potkin muttered.

"Yeah, I get digested like three times a day when I come here." Bart chuckled.

The stunt team lying out on the floor gave a pained groan in unison from where they lied.

The 'hero' tipped his hat towards the barkeeper and sloshed his way out the saloon doors as the imaginary piano player began to play once more.

Placing her paws on the bar, the mink smiled. "Now, we saw a quite capable hero in over his head, using quick wits and reflexes to stay out of an elephant's gut."

The stunt team were all very professionally standing up with no sign of injury, only an issue of the two weasels being quite slippery still coated in chyme. The mustelids walked offstage together as a crew member came out with a mop to deal with the mess.

"A hero kept on the back foot adds a lot of tension to a fight scene, or can be a source of humor. If you're wondering how the hero could prevail rather than being sure he can from the outset, that tends to draw attention quite well." The announcer gestured playfully at the crowd, who cheered.

"Now, we need to reset for our demonstration of the opposite end of the spectrum: The power fantasy hero." The mink explained. "In the meantime..."

The leopard returned to the stage, belly still sloshing. He dramatically rubbed his chin, and then held up a finger as if he'd only just had an idea.

Rapidly, his gut contracted, the sound of his innards working on the liquefied hyena audible enough even where Nick, Bart and Potkin were seated. As the volume vanished from the leopard's waistline, it reappeared all over his body. The quite lithe feline rapidly built up muscle on his arms and legs, his chest straining the black shirt the stunt team all wore as the fabric dropped back down over the shrinking belly. He dramatically posed and flexed like a bodybuilder, clearly standing taller than he had before.

Potkin and Nick both sank into their seats; their whole faces flushed pink from snout to ear from the display.

The mink cleared her throat with a knowing smirk. "Like I was saying... we need to reset for the next demonstration. In the meantime, for an act later in the show, we'll need some brave volunteers from the audience!"

Near the back of the stage an enormous toad hopped from out of the wings, before settling facing the audience.

As soon as the amphibian came into view, hands shot up, including those of Bart and Nick.

Potkin, still recovering from the display of muscle assimilation, looked between them incredulously. "You d-don't even know what it'll be."

Bart chuckled. "Sure as sugar gonna involve frog guts. I've never been got by one of them."

Nick, on the other hand, cleared his throat with a bit of a blush. "Uh... the big ferals they have at this park are... uh... a draw, to say the least."

"I know, I know. You told me about fifteen times in the car." The opossum stuck his tongue out. "At least it probably won't involve fight choreography for you to learn in five minutes."

As they spoke, people were getting chosen. If one were particularly observant, they could have traced each person called upon to where the toad's eyes settled as he looked out over the crowd. Finally, the amphibian's gaze locked onto Nick and Bart.

"And you two, you'll fill out our brunch-brave volunteers!" The minkess playfully faked a Freudian slip.

"I'll just wait here then..." Potkin frowned slightly.

Nick put a paw on the opossum's shoulder as he stood from his seat. "We'll be at one of the reformation rooms hear the theater after the show lets out. You'll find us there."

Bart stretched a bit before looking down to Potkin. "You're sure you're fine by yourself?"

"Yeah, yeah. Go." His earlier anxiety was mostly gone now, though he didn't seem exactly happy with being left alone either.

"We'll get ice cream after, okay? Enjoy the rest of the show." The skunk smiled, before he and the cat followed an usher away.

The usher, a monkey in black clothes like the stunt team but wearing a vintage cap, walked the pair down to a door at the front of the seating area, leading underneath the venue. He opened the door and looked over the two. "Remember, you can bow out at any time."

Bart grinned. "Yeah, but we're not gonna." The cat smugly strutted through the door. "Isn't that right, Nick?"

The skunk chuckled. "Don't mind him. We left our friend alone up there, could you make sure he finds us after the show?"

The monkey looked back the way they came. "Oh, the possum? Sure."

"Thank you." Nick descended into the hallway under the stage, following Nick and half a dozen other volunteers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Potkin fidgeted with his tail. The toad had vacated the stage shortly after his friends had vanished into the bowels of the arena. Then, the 'power fantasy' demonstration of fighting had nearly made him faint, as the leopard had eaten and converted several more performers into muscle mass mid-fight until he was the same size as the elephant!

The opossum was starting to grow anxious again, though, especially since the demonstration of how stage firearms and explosive special effects work was especially jarring after the almost cartoon nature of the bar fight scenes.

Up on the stage, the toad hopped back into view, their broad pale underside swelling with a croak. The amphibian settled into place as a light turned on, pointed into the rigging above the stage.

A platform lowered into view from the rafters, with several people on it. It only took the opossum a moment to recognize Nick and Bart at the front of the group of volunteers.

The announcer spoke again, ringing out from the loudspeakers around the arena. "Everybody, let's give a hand for our brave volunteers! Today we'll be demonstrating high fall work into a soft padded landing." She winked obviously to the audience, getting a laugh from the crowd.

Watching on, Potkin swallowed.

A stunt performer was clearly speaking to the group of lucky guests on the platform, before pulling on a bar and opening a sliding gate on the safety rail.

Bart stepped to the edge of the platform, grinning broadly. The feline spread his arms, and then pivoted to face the other way. He began to lean backwards, eliciting a gasp from the assembled crowd.

Below this drama, the toad lazily opened their mouth until their jaws were an open cauldron awaiting anything falling from above.

Most didn't notice, but the stuntman nodded firmly to the cat up on the board once the 'pad' had been prepared. Potkin let out a relieved sigh... it wasn't just Bart being a show-off like normal. That didn't prepare him for the rush in his chest when the cat actually toppled, however.

The flippant feline gave himself a twist at the last moment. Bart kept his arms spread for the first few meters, then curled them to his chest like a figure skater. His angular momentum sent him spinning more rapidly, altering his other axis of rotation. Then, when it seemed that he had entirely lost control, he spread his arms.

His back made contact with the extended tongue of the waiting amphibian. The large oral appendage curled to accept the cat's trajectory and redirected him safely past their jaws. A moment later, the pale underside visibly swelled out from the impact within, rippling and wobbling.

Potkin stared at the toad's gut, a shiver running from the nape of his neck to the tip of his bare tail. The opossum felt a heat radiating off his pointed face, all the way up to his ears. It took him a moment to realize that he was blushing. How had his body gone from frightened to flustered so quickly?

Before he could think too much more about that, the changing view on the jumbotron alerted him that Nick was toeing up to the edge of the platform.

The skunk was more noticeably nervous about the prospect than Bart had been. Nick flicked his tail, looking to the stuntman there to assist, and then toppled forward. On the big screen it could just be made out that he screwed his eyes shut first. Slowly the mephit rotated head down, his large tail acting like a sail behind him. His legs were bent slightly at the hip, and he must have been holding that fifth limb close to his rump because he continued to flip over until his back was facing the hungry amphibian below.

Just before impact, the jumbotron view changed to one from above, showing the skunk landing on the fleshy tongue like an airbag, the whole thing squishing and curling around him to absorb his momentum.

This time, the toad swallowed separately, allowing the lump in his throat to be readable to the audience, if only for a moment, before Nick had joined Bart in the pale belly.

Potkin breathed shallowly, his head swimming as he became overwhelmed with conflicting emotions.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At the end of the show, the simian usher, as he had agreed to, waved Potkin over.

The still quite flustered opossum followed the flow of the crowd to the employee. "Uh... where do I meet my friends?"

The usher chuckled. "They asked me to show you the way at the end of the show. Follow me." As he turned around, his tail made a tidy loop around the marsupial's waist.

"I-Is that strictly necessary?" Potkin stammered a bit.

"Well, I don't want to lose you in the crowd, and you're looking a bit faint, I must say." The monkey peeked over his shoulder at his charge. At the same time, he gave a light squeeze with his tail.

"Oh, okay..." The opossum muttered with a blush, following the usher through the crowd of much larger park-goers.

After they exited the amphitheater, the simian guided the guest out to the gift shop associated with the stunt show. "Now, all the reformation rooms for the stunt show exit through the gift shop. Need any more help?"

Potkin took a moment, looking around at all the toys and merch on display, before realizing he'd been asked something. "What? Oh, no... I'm fine."

"Alright. Hope you and your friends have a wonderful rest of the day at the park!" The monkey tipped his hat lightly and walked back the way they'd come, his tail trailing off of the guest's waist.

The opossum fidgeted a bit, before looking to see if anyone was watching him. Once confirmed that he was less than observed, he eased his own tail around his waist, replacing the pressure that the usher had provided.

Bart had his arm around Nick's shoulders as they both came out of the reformation rooms. The cat was actively looking around.

Nick, however, was looking at the floor in front of him, speaking, but Potkin couldn't hear.

He could, however, wave. Which he did.

The cat perked and pointed with his free arm. His other arm scooped down Nick's back and started rushing the skunk to keep up with him as he rushed to meet up with their friend.

The skunk was first to speak. "Sorry for leaving you alone that long. Did the usher bring you here?"

Potkin perked and smiled. "Yeah, yeah he did. Thanks for thinking to ask him to do that, Nick."

Bart grinned toothily. "See Nick? Told you he'd be fine!" He turned his attention to the opossum. "Now, are you ready to take a dive too?"

Even beneath the light grey fur on his face, Potkin's blanche was obvious. "I... I couldn't... I... uh... Heights." He blushed at how childish that sounded to himself.

To his surprise, it was Nick who grinned next, almost mirroring the cat. "You know..." The skunk planted a hand on Potkin's shoulder. "There's plenty of preds in this park that don't require you base jumping just to get into."

The opossum squeaked lightly, squeezing himself a bit tighter with his own tail. "L-let's just start with that ice cr-cream, okay?"