Been wanting to write about Raf and laughing gas, but ended up with a kind of laugh gas pastry instead! Story involves a fat hyena blimping up and cackling non-stop.

Raf falls victim to a prank pastry that not only puffs him up, but makes him cackle uncontrollably...

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Raf and the Laugh Gas Pastry
By: Indi

Food was—above all else—Raf’s greatest weakness. The blubbery spotted hyena would eat practically anything left within reach on instinct.

That day during class was no different.

Raf was scribbling the last of his notes when the faint scent of pastry drifted into his nostrils. The pastry that’d suddenly appeared on his desk was grabbed and gulped in one swift motion. Only after the final swallow did Raf even begin to comprehend he’d just eaten something.

Frowning more than usual, Raf cursed himself for having zero restraint before wondering where the pastry could’ve possibly come from. Class had been dismissed, and students were passing by in both directions as they hurried off either back home or to their next courses. No one seemed like an obvious culprit.

Frustrated, Raf shrugged the pastry off as another dumb joke. His heft—and gluttony—hadn’t gone unnoticed by his peers, and an obnoxious number had started trying to sneak him fattening snacks for fun.

Notes were put away and backpack put on, Raf one of the last few students left in class once he wiggled free of his chair. He swore it hadn’t been such a tight fit before. Had it?

The longer he wondered the more aware he became of something else. He felt bloated. Raf gave his gut a few discreet pokes when he was certain no one was watching. Sure enough, it felt slightly tauter than usual, puffier. The hyena was undoubtedly inflating.

When his peers weren’t trying to fatten Raf they were trying to turn him into a blimp. He’d been the target of inflation pranks so often he’d actually picked out a handful of places on campus to “safely” swell at. They were all relatively private and rarely trafficked. Free of anything too sharp.

Already huffing and grumping towards the nearest location, Raf shot off a quick text to one of the few friends he could count on to actually help deflate him once he was there.

Getting anywhere in a hurry wasn’t so easy for a hyena of Raf’s size. He waddled as fast as he could, his wrecking ball of a belly threatening to knock over bystanders left and right. Most got out of the way. The rest yelped as hyena blubber bounced them away.

Unfortunately for Raf it seemed like everyone else in the building was leaving at the same time, and the crowds leading to the exit were far thicker than normal. He was also starting to take up more room himself, his belly having rounded out and lost most of its sag.

It was impossible for Raf to tell just how massive the pastry would make him. From past experiences he guessed the expansion wouldn’t stop until he was a creaking sphere. Or worse. At the very least he was wearing a full expandex outfit designed to stretch to a ridiculous degree; his hide would rip long before it ever did.

Suddenly the tiniest bit of a cackle escaped Raf’s lips.

With impressive speed Raf clamped a thick paw over his mouth. The hyena was blushing deep red, eyes darting around to see if anyone had heard his brief outburst. It didn’t seem like it.

Raf despised the sound of his own cackling with a passion. While many hyenas embraced it, he pretended it didn’t exist. He’d never willingly cackle, and on the rare occasions he slipped up he was embarrassed beyond belief. At least this time it hadn’t been a full one.

Barely a minute later Raf was forced to muffle a cackle again, though.

It was a worrying development, and Raf couldn’t help but suspect it was related to his current swelling. While his button-up shirt still fit perfectly, his middle was too big and round and to escape the attention of others. Students were stopping in the hall to catch a glimpse of Raf’s balloon belly, which bounced as he waddled.

Raf breathed a sigh of relief when he finally exited the building, no longer surrounded by people accidentally—and sometimes intentionally—pressing against his blimping gut.

The cackles were becoming more frequent, and Raf wasn’t able to muffle all of them. They were also getting longer and louder. He was blushing harder from them than the inflation, even if it was the more visible of his afflictions.

Raf’s pace was slowing. His limbs were puffing up as well, growing rigid and more difficult to use. He looked rather comical as he waddled along, with his futile attempts to act casual as he turned more and more into a living balloon by the minute.

The attention on the hyena was constant, some drawn in by the steady cackling and others by Raf’s sheer size. He fumed under his breath just to distract himself.

With dismay Raf realized it was unlikely he’d be able to reach the nearest safe spot in time. Worse yet, he seemed doomed to end up stuck on one of the busiest pathways on campus. Fun.

Raf’s body had taken on a fairly spherical shape. He looked more ball than hyena. His arms and legs were sinking in, and his waddle turned into an awkward, wobbling shuffle that was getting him nowhere fast.

Clamping his mouth shut with a paw was no longer possible. Instead Raf just bit his lip and tried to hold the cackles in.

It was a losing effort.

Inevitably the unlucky hyena blimp stumbled, rolling onto his immense and round belly. The small spike in pressure forced out a roaring cackle, and once it’d begun it couldn’t be stopped.

Raf’s cackles echoed out across campus, shaking his ballooning body as he inflated more and more. His blushing was permanent, eyes expressing nervousness even as his cackling gave the false impression of joy. A crowd was forming around him.

Cameras were out in droves, taking pictures and recording footage, spreading the embarrassing spectacle like a wildfire across social media. Raf knew there were already collections of his past inflation escapades online, but none had caught his cackling. His unstoppable, seemingly endless cackling!

It was the prank pastry, there was no question about it! Not only had it caused him to inflate, but it compelled him to laugh for no reason—and all of Raf’s laughter came in the form of cackles.

Some onlookers were bold enough to poke and prod the now spherical hyena. They drummed on his taut sides, took selfies, posed with friends. Raf was even rolled from one side of the crowd to another like a giant ball.

Still cackling, the pressure of being a massive balloon had Raf drifting in and out of a daze, shifting between confused and grumpy. Concentrating was difficult thanks to the cackles and pressure.

He knew it might be a long, long while before someone bothered deflating him, though. He could very well be stuck as a blimp for days, rolled and bounced from one party to the next until someone grew bored of him or he leaked enough air to wobble away.

Hopefully the cackling wouldn’t persist so long.

Doomed to be the center of attention for the foreseeable future, Raf grumped and cackled, wondering what he’d done to deserve such an embarrassing fate...