FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I woke up bleary eyed, looking up at small white circles of light on the ceiling. Everything was silver and white, even in my periphery. The last thing I remembered was walking home from work, and stepping through a patch of shadow where one of the street lights had gone out. I wasn't home, so where was I?

I looked around the room as everything started to come into focus. I was lying on something like a hospital bed, with a soft pillow under my head. A monitor was off to one side, but turned off, and there were empty counters in the corner behind me. At first, I thought that maybe I was in the hospital, but then I caught sight of the rest of the room- a very nice couch and a chair with footrests, and an entertainment center with a television. There was even a rug on that side of the floor. Off to my right side was an open door that seemed to lead into a restroom, and directly in front of me was a long, gray wall with an electronically locked door in the middle.

This seemed too nice for a hospital.

Before I could move, the door opened, and I caught a glimpse outside- where there was another door, also electronically locked, and already shut. Double doors?

The person entering walked up to me, a tablet in one hand. They smiled, offering out a hand to shake. "Good to see you're awake. I'm Doctor Glasman. Our catcher must have got you a bit hard with the dart; you were out for awhile. Don't worry, we've had you in observation, so you've never been in any danger."

"Catcher?" I questioned.

"Mm." Doctor Glasman answered, messing around with the cabinet behind me. I realized, after a quick flash of their wrist, that the cabinets were locked. He returned, pulling the monitor over to me and wrapping a blood pressure cuff around my arm. "Yes. You were an ideal candidate, living alone, no obvious connections that would miss you if you disappeared. We had someone forge a note to your work to resign, so you don't have to worry about anything there. We're going to take good care of you."

"What do you mean?" I asked, and darkness started to swirl in my stomach. I took in my surroundings quickly again, and realized that despite its comforts, I was trapped in here.

Wait. There was a window. Off to the left, covered in blinds. I would check it out as soon as I was alone.

He typed my vitals on the tablet as the monitor beeped away, and unhooked me from the cuff, pushing the monitor back into the corner. "You've been selected for a research opportunity. We're going to be performing a few small experiments once we have your baseline vitals. We're all very experienced here, so there's no need to fret about your safety. Right now you're placed in an intake room- still very comfortable- but once we have a course of action we'll move you into a suite more suited to your life here."

"You can't keep me here. This- this is kidnapping, this is illegal-" I started to sputter, and swung my legs down, ready to run for the door.

"Oh, dear," he sighed, and grabbed my arm, producing a needle from his pocket. I only saw the flash of silver before it went into my arm, and I struggled while he pushed the plunger. "I was hoping you weren't the type to fight. Oh well. I'll be back soon to check on you, Ela."

And then it was blackness again.

The next time I woke up, the lights were dimmed, and there wasn't any light coming through the window. I felt groggy, and slow, but the memories came rushing back. I looked around again, and saw that I'd been laid back onto the bed like the first time.

I stood up and made my way over to the window, pushing up the blinds. The glass was perfectly fitted into the wall, and I'd bet unbreakable. The window was slightly tinted, throwing the lights outside into a strange hue. I could see the dark outlines of cars and trees, and a parking lot. I appeared to be on ground level, and could even watch as someone in a hood walked to one of the cars.

I moved away from the window and to the door, examining the lock. It was something fancy, with no obvious keyhole or pin pad, and a red light.

I was trapped.

I stepped back from the door and stared at the small room again. Questions raced through my mind. What experiments were they going to do on me? Were they going to keep me here forever, or would I eventually be let back out into the world? If I was, there was nothing stopping me from reporting this place...Except, I realized, I didn't know where it was.

And besides that, no one would believe me. I'd just sound crazy.

I sat down on the couch and tucked my feet up under me, reaching for the remote on the footrest. I clicked on the tv, and the light glow of it was familiar and comforting. The guide informed me that it was almost midnight, and that it had been two days since I'd been picked up.

"Feeling better?" I looked over at the door opening again, and it was a new person- a woman in scrubs. She closed the door and came over to me, holding a tray. "I saw you were awake and thought you might be starving. You haven't had anything to eat or drink since we picked you up, after all."

I realized she was right, and I took the water off the tray, downing it in nearly one gulp. She smiled and moved a folding table out from the wall, placing the rest of my meal onto it.

She smiled, and sat down on the chair across from me, turning on her tablet and typing away at it for a few moments. "Is there anything you want to ask me before I go through some intake questions with you? The faster we get that done, the faster we can get you moved into a nicer room."

"Yeah, how did you see I was awake? Also, who are you?" I asked, starting in on the food.

She gestured at the gray wall. "One way glass. There's always at least one of us passing by out there, just in case. One of the other nurses paged me that you were awake, so I came right away. I'm one of the team assigned to you; I'm your night nurse, Jewel."

"Is that your real name?"

"No. None of us use our real names here, since we don't want you finding us after you're released." She answered with a sly smile.

"When will I be released?"

"When we're done with your experiments. It will take some time, but there's no estimate I can give you. It all depends on how fast your body takes to everything. For some it can take years, but that's not the usual case. You won't be in this room for long, though. You'll be moved to a suite hopefully by the end of the week."

"What are the suites like?"

"Like a one bedroom apartment, really, minus the kitchen. You also get a small glassed-in porch where you can see the courtyard, and grow some plants if you want. We find that gardening tends to keep your mood a bit more positive, as does the exposure to sunlight." She smiled again, resting her tablet on her lap. "At first, we take you for walks twice a day in our exercise room, but after you've settled in you'll be able to socialize with other experiments in the rec yard and still get personal time for treadmills or such. It's not so bad once you get used to it."

"It sounds like prison." I answered, bluntly.

"Prison doesn't give you a suite, a private bathroom, good food, your own television with every program we can get, and your own garden- maybe even a pet, if you're good." She fired back, still with that serene smile. "It's a cage, yes, but it's one that's designed to keep you a healthy and happy little bird."

A pet- my cat! My eyes widened and I blurted out,"What about my cat? What happened to her after I got here?"

At that, she looked uncertain. "I...I'm not sure. I'll ask for you."

I sighed. I wasn't going to get her help in anything, it seemed. "Right. So what are the intake questions?"

She picked up her tablet. "They let us know your interests, both so we can tailor your suite to you- like painting the walls in your favorite colors and avoiding your least favorites- but also help us determine what your medical history is and the best experiment track to put you on. If you're ready, we can begin with the first question- what are your top three favorite colors, including specific shade?"

And on the questions went, boring me to death...until, finally, one gave me pause.

"If you could have a choice, which one of the below things would you become: a dragon, a kobold, a furry, a neko, a feral animal, or other?"

I blinked. "Do I get to specify what kind of furry or neko or animal?"

"That's the very next question."

"Um... Okay, I guess... I've always wanted to be a furry."

"What kind of furry?"

"My fursona's a husky..."

This made her pause. She looked up from the tablet with a smile on her face. "Did you have her commissioned?"

"Yeah. If you all know everything about me, you can probably find my online handle. I posted her images there. Pink and white husky, purple eyes." I yawned. I was getting tired again.

Noticing that, she moved on, and soon left with my empty tray. I moved back over to the bed and laid down, tucking the blanket around my feet. After a few minutes, the lights turned off completely, and I dozed off into restless sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, it was to the doctor moving the monitor close to my bed again. He smiled when he saw my eyes open, hooking up the blood pressure cuff to my arm. I noticed a different nurse than the one from last night, a man, placing a tray on the table by the couch, and sunlight streaming through the window.

"Good morning, Ela. Just here to get your vitals, drop off breakfast, and see how you're doing. Are you in a better mood than yesterday, dear?" Doctor Glasman asked, with his fingers moving rapidly across his tablet.

I sighed. They acted like I'd been throwing a temper tantrum, not being informed I was kidnapped for the purpose of some weird experiments. I decided to play along, for now. "Somewhat."

"Good!" If he noticed I wasn't being entirely truthful, he ignored it. After the cuff deflated, he unwrapped it from my arm, and put it back in the cabinet. "Looks like you're doing just fine in the medical department, too. Why don't you eat some breakfast and I'll have someone come by for your first exercise break soon, hmm?"

"Sounds okay, I guess."

"That's the spirit! If you stay positive, this whole thing will go a lot smoother. There will be a nurse coming by in a little bit to collect some blood, and we'll continue making sure you're healthy enough to start the experiments. We've already started working on your suite, so things are moving forward!" He headed back towards the door with the nurse that had come in, flashing his watch at it, and it clicked open. "Your nurses will check back periodically through the day, and I'll see you tomorrow."

Once alone I stood up and moved over to the couch, checking out the tray I'd been given. I was surprised to see my breakfast actually came with pancakes; I figured they'd be focused on health and wouldn't give me anything too good. True, there was only a single container of syrup, two pancakes, and no butter, but it was still something.

I distracted myself by the tv until the next person came by- two people, actually. One of them didn't talk to me, just took my tray and left. The second was dressed in a track suit and had cat ears sticking up on her head.

"Ready to get your sweat on?" She asked, a huge grin spreading across her face. Her teeth were slightly pointier than I expected, and the closer I looked, the more I realized that her pupils weren't perfectly round either. "I'm Nikki, and I'll be keeping you company while you work out for the rest of your stay here."

"How long have you been working for them after they experimented on you against your will?" I asked, standing up from the couch and stretching while I watched her face.

There wasn't even a flicker in her smile. "I worked for them before they experimented on me. When I saw some of the results, I wanted a piece, so they opened up a room for me and let me stay. Are you ready to go, or do you have more questions?"

"No, I'm ready. Let's go." It was slowly dawning on me that I wasn't going to find any allies here. Everyone who worked for them was going to try to convince me how great it was, and how I was so lucky to be chosen. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I'd been a little bit hopeful.

She opened up the door and beckoned to me, and I quickly followed after her. She flashed her wrist at the second door, and then I was in a hallway lined with glass- and I could see other rooms identical to mine, some empty, some with other people lying down or pacing or watching television. There was no privacy for anyone in this wing, and I decided I'd be changing clothes in the bathroom from now on.

We passed through another locked door into another hallway, though this one appeared to be offices. I could see messy desks inside of tiny windows, and some of them actually contained the doctors they belonged to.

I memorized the directions we took, paid attention to every door. Perhaps there was a way to escape. Then again, even if I got outside, I had no idea where I was. Finding civilization again would be like the world's worst game of Mapcrunch.

Finally, we passed through one more locked door into a large room with a track on the upper floor. "Here you are, Ela. You've got forty-five minutes to do as you like in here. If you want some company on the track or some guidance, I'll be here," Nikki said, and leaned against the wall by the door, pulling a phone from her pocket and a pair of headphones.

I turned away from her and made my way to the upstairs track. If nothing else, I appreciated the chance to stretch my legs. I never used to work out, but on the rare opportunity I did, it was with music; I wondered idly to myself if I'd ever get perks like a music player here.

I positioned myself at the start of the track, looking over the wall and down into the exercise room. I doubted anyone else would be allowed in here with me while it was my turn; they'd said themselves that I wouldn't be permitted social interaction until I'd proven myself a "good girl". I took off running, circling the track, trying to ignore the pain in my chest. It helped me to think, and I needed ideas. There had to be something I could do besides just accepting my new fate as a lab rat.

I didn't get very far with running, and I soon slowed to a stop, with my hands on my knees and heaving breaths. I couldn't have spent more than fifteen minutes, so I still had a half hour on my hands.

"You're breathing with your mouth when you run. You're supposed to breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. It helps." I jumped when I heard Nikki behind me, staring at me still with that infuriating smile.

I tried and failed not to huff at her, and she laughed. "Also you're supposed to warm up before you just run like that. Stretch, maybe walk a lap. I'm here to help you not royally fuck up your body, okay? And it's not just for the experiments or whatever other damning thing you're thinking right now. I don't want you to hurt yourself."

I paused. Okay, she was way too cheery, but she was trying. Maybe I'd written her off too quickly. "You have headphones, so you must have music, right?"

She nodded.

"Can I get some too?"

She handed over her phone and earbuds without a moment's hesitation. "Here. You can use mine and I'll see if I can get you your own when I come back later today."

I grabbed it and started going through it, ignoring the music app completely- until I realized that there wasn't a way to send text messages on here. I sighed. Of course they would have thought of that. I went back to the music app and signed into my own account; at least I had access to all my own music.

"I saw you looking. We can't text or call outside a specific list of numbers, all within the office, all pre-programmed in the phone. The apps we're allowed are things where we can't contact anyone, like music, or certain games. One of my favorite mobile games had a chat function, so I don't get to play it anymore." It was the first time I'd seen her stop smiling. Her eyes seemed distant suddenly, staring off at something I couldn't see. "There's small towns where the people who have been experimented on can live. I tried integrating into the one close by and commuting to work, but it's just as limited there, too. I figured I might as well be where I'm comfortable, and I like chatting with you newbies."

I was interested in the small towns, but I decided it was a bad time to ask. "What about the people who don't have obvious experiments? Do they get to live in normal society?"

"The doctors and higher up scientists do. The nurses don't; they all live here or in the close by town. The ones who can leave are all required to sign NDAs- not that it matters, since no one would believe us anyway. This whole thing is a hush-hush project being run by the government, I think. It's the only way we can get away with what we're doing here." She answered. She checked her watch and looked back up at me. "You've got about twenty minutes before I have to take you back. If you want, we can walk or run together. You can keep using the phone for music for now."

I popped one headphone in and gestured toward the track. She smiled again, and to my surprise, I welcomed it this time. She started jogging, and I kept up with her, focusing on breathing like she'd instructed.

The music also helped, and the last twenty minutes flew by. We walked back to my room, and she left me, promising to look into getting me a phone of my own.

As soon as she was gone, I stripped down and showered. When I got out, I wrapped a towel around myself and went back into the main room, realizing too late that I didn't know where to get a spare set of clothes. I looked back at the bathroom, where the clothes I'd been wearing were on the floor. I didn't want to put those sweaty things back on- plus, I'd been wearing them for a few days.

Thankfully, I didn't have to wonder for long. Nikki walked in, carrying a stack of clothes. "I saw in your file you'd need these. There's some track pants and a tank top for future exercise breaks in here, some t-shirts, and sweatpants." She stopped to look at me, and was I imagining it, or was she checking me out?

She rested the stack of clothes on the couch. "I put in the request for your phone, too; we'll see how that goes. See you this afternoon." She collected my dirty things and disappeared back out the door, leaving me to dress in the new clothes.

I had no idea how they'd guessed my size so well, but they fit perfectly. I collapsed onto the couch, content to just rest after the experience in the gym.

Eventually, a nurse came back to check my vitals and bring me lunch, and then again to collect the tray. Nikki returned in the afternoon and took me for another forty-five minute break in the gym, chatting about her day and the other people that she was taking to the break room before and after me. After she left me, the last interaction was a nurse in the evening that brought me dinner.

The days continued like that, and it almost started to feel normal by day three of that routine. I'd almost forgotten about their intention to move me, until Dr. Glasman mentioned it.

"So, shortly after I leave one of the assistants will be coming by to move you into your new room. It was just finished yesterday, and the paint smell should be aired out enough to not cause you any distress," he said, looking up from his tablet to fix me in a warm smile. "Plus, your vitals have stayed consistent, so we'll be able to start with your first injections next week. Our team is very excited to be working with you."

"Sweet." I was a little bit excited to move into the suite, but I still felt like a caged animal. "Oh, Nikki put in a request for me to get a phone I can use. Is there any word on that?"

He nodded. "Yes, actually, you were approved to get one. Nikki is going to be bringing it to you during the exercise break after you've settled into the new room. We modified your old phone, actually, so all of your previous games and music are already on there."

I'd wondered what happened to my phone. "What about headphones?"

"The wireless ones you were wearing are being given back to you." He replied, and started towards the door. "What an exciting day! I hope you enjoy the suite. I'll be in tomorrow to see you, like usual."

There wasn't anything for me to do except eat breakfast and wait, and so I took my time eating, keeping one eye on the door the whole time. When it opened and I saw it wasn't a nurse, I sprang up, eager to see what awaited me in the new suite. Seeing I was ready, he laughed and beckoned to me, and I followed after.

He led me deeper into the building, leading me into a new hallway that was also covered in one-way glass. The doors had numbers next to them, and inside some of them I could see people in various stages of their experiments. Some were still fully human, like me, but at least one seemed to be done- at least, the scales covering their body and the wings sprouting from their back certainly seemed done.

We stopped at a door leading into an empty room, and I barely had time to process what I was seeing before I was inside and could see it all myself. There was a sliding door to the back of the room that went out into a screened-in porch, and I could see sunlight streaming in. The room I stood in had a couch, a television, a reclining chair, a table with chairs, and a small section of counters with sink. The walls were lavender- my favorite color- and the floor was carpeted, another preference I'd made clear.

Through another door was my bedroom, painted a nice shade of forest green, and a door to a nice bathroom. I was amazed that I had a real bed, unlike the hospital bed I'd been sleeping in up until now. I also had a dresser, which I was informed contained clothes in my size that would be laundered once a week.

I was left alone, and I went out onto the porch, looking at the courtyard ahead of me. There were bushes, trees, real sunlight; I could feel the warmth of it on my face. A panel with buttons by the sliding door could pull back the ceiling so that I could look directly up at the sky. I sat down on the singular plastic chair, basking in just being as close to outside as I'd been in awhile.

I could see other porches like mine to my right and left, and then all the way across the yard. One of the porches across from me contained a person, who looked exactly like what I'd always imagined a mid-transformation werewolf would. Whoever they were, they waved at me, and I waved back.

My apartment outside this place had a big kitchen, but it was the only way that this place didn't outshine it.

I wondered how to get the plants that they'd said I could have. I wanted something to take care of, since I missed my pet cat. I'd spent all the days here wondering what happened to her; she was my baby, and she'd been with me for years. I kept meaning to ask about her, but it always slipped my mind whenever someone who might know was around.

It turned out, I didn't have to wonder for long. When Nikki showed up a few hours later, she was holding a carrier, and a box. "Hey there sunshine. I brought you some presents!" She was grinning as she said it, placing the carrier on the couch. I heard a familiar meow from within.

"Lady Wiggles!" I yelled, running over and unzipping it in disbelief. The gray tabby poked her head out, and headbutted me as soon as she saw me. Tears welled up in my eyes and I pulled her out, hugging her tightly to my chest while she purred.

Nikki laughed. "You named your cat Lady Wiggles?"

"When she was a kitten she used to do the butt wiggle a lot to pounce on literally everything," I explained through my sobs. "Oh my god I'm so happy to have her. Thank you. When you all said I could have a pet one day I didn't think I'd get my pet back as soon as I moved in."

Nikki opened up the box she was carrying, placing a phone and headphones on the coffee table, along with the cat's bowls and a bag of her food. "Well, normally we wouldn't let you have a pet so quickly, but they didn't realize you had a cat. When you asked about her, they went by your apartment and picked her up.They felt so bad about missing that in your canvas they made an exception."

"What about her cat tree? And a litter box?" I asked. Lady was squirming in my arms, so I placed her gently on the floor. She started stalking along the floor, exploring the room.

"I couldn't carry everything. I'm gonna go back out and get them now. Do you want to get out for your morning session? I understand if you don't, since you're still settling in. I can stay and chat with you instead just this once." She replied, watching the cat with a look of amusement.

"I want to stay here!" I said, wiping my eyes from the last of the tears. For the first time since I'd been here, I was truly happy. I could almost ignore the fact that I was being kept against my will.

"Alright. I'll be right back." She disappeared, and when she returned, it was with the five foot tall cat tree. A nurse was with her, carrying a litter box and bag of the litter I used at home. After that was dropped off, the nurse disappeared, but Nikki stayed. She helped me place the cat tree on the porch, cautioning me about keeping the ceiling closed when I wasn't watching so that Lady couldn't escape.

"I don't think she'd climb the screen to get out, but I'll keep that in mind," I promised. Lady had disappeared somewhere in the apartment, probably hiding in the cabinets. She loved to open them and hide inside for a nap.

I sat down on the couch and picked up my phone, going through all of the apps left on it. It had been pretty thoroughly sanitized, but I noticed two new apps that I hadn't had before. "What are these two?" I asked, showing the phone to Nikki.

"One of them is a messaging app that lets you talk to anyone within the network but not outside of it. It's set up so that you can message people you meet inside here or later in the experiment towns. I took the liberty of putting in my name, so you can text me anytime. The other app is the same thing but for calling. Your doctor's number is in there, as is your three nurses'." She sat down in the chair across from me, pulling some cat toys out of the original box and tossing them around.

"Cool. So they said my experiments are going to start next week. What is it like?" I'd resigned myself to the inevitable, so now I was curious what was in store.

"At first it's just a lot of shots that don't seem to do anything. I wasn't getting a drastic change, though, just growing some ears and a tail." She gave a flicker of her tail for emphasis. "After that, you'll feel some tingling in the parts that are changing, maybe a little bit of an ache. When my tail first sprouted I had some wicked lower back pain for a few days. For you, you'll probably get really itchy from all the fur sprouting."

"Huh. Okay, that sounds unpleasant but not awful. I thought it was going to be surgeries and stuff."

"Nope. Ideally they just want to stimulate your body to grow everything naturally; surgeries run the risk of things getting rejected. I think they tried things like implants in the first round of experiments, but some people didn't take to them very well." She shuddered. "Honestly, some of the first experiment cases still look kind of messed up. You won't see any of them here, but I saw a couple in Nukin."

"Nukin?"

"The closest experiment town."

"Guess I wouldn't have seen it on a map anywhere," I muttered, and she smiled kindly at me. "So how long have these experiments been going on? I feel like I'd have seen something about people going missing."

"Oh, these experiments have been going on since before you were born. They know what they're doing now and are very selective with the general public. They need people who don't have many, if any, community ties, that are relatively healthy. They don't want anyone to go looking too hard when someone goes missing. Maybe a report gets put out, but there's no viral internet campaign to find them." Nikki shrugged. "Some of the people here are former workaholics who are grateful to get a break. No worrying about paying for food or a roof over your head."

I thought about my own job, working at a gas station. My boss certainly wouldn't look too hard for me; he'd work harder replacing me than caring about where I'd gone to. None of my coworkers knew me very well. I didn't have any real life friends; my internet friends would probably just think I ghosted.

Nikki was right. This was a break from the monotony of my life.

"What's it like after they're done experimenting on you? Is there, like, college or do you just go to work in the towns doing what you did previously?" I dreaded that idea. I didn't want to be working such a menial job for the rest of my life.

She shook her head. "No, we'd have a lot of big box store employees and barely any college graduates if we did that. Some people are content working those jobs, but for those that don't want to, there's education for specific roles that each town needs. I voluntarily cut myself off from my old life to start working here; I used to be a pole dancing instructor."

"You were a stripper?" I looked over her in a new light, taking in the body I'd only given a passing glance. She had lightly defined muscles on her arms that I could see, and I imagined similarly toned legs under her sweatpants.

She laughed at that, a genuine, full laugh. It warmed something in my heart, and I smiled back at her. "No, not all pole dancing is stripping. You don't have a pole in here or I'd show you, but it's actually a very challenging and athletic form of dance. It requires a lot of strength in different areas of the body. I have a pole in my room here, actually, and still keep up with my training."

"I wish I could see," I said, truthfully. Her tail twitched, and she might have blushed.

She looked at her watch and then stood up. "It's time for me to get going. I'll be back this afternoon for your break, which you'll need to take so you don't stay cooped up all day. Enjoy your day, and your time with Lady Wiggles!"

She left, and I went back out to the porch, still not quite done with basking in the sunlight. Soon, Lady came out and joined me, perching on the very top of her cat tree. The sun must have been warming her fur perfectly, because she started purring. I idly wondered if Nikki could purr, and what would inspire such an action in her.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully; even the workout session was just Nikki and I jogging in silence, both listening to music. I found myself looking at her out of the corners of my eyes during it, watching the way her body moved. She was so much more graceful than I was; I wondered if working out with her twice a day would get me looking nearly so good.

The few days after that passed in much the same way, though I started texting her as well when she wasn't around. I told myself that it was because I was lonely and couldn't talk to my nurses or doctor as easily, but the truth was that I actually just enjoyed talking to her.

She was much more responsive at night, when she wasn't taking her other patients for runs. I imagined she must be exhausted if she had to work out with all of us for eight hours every day, but then again, she was used to it. Did she have the same kind of friendship with the others?

I didn't want to ask.

It was scary how quickly I was used to living at the labs, though most of that was from having Lady Wiggles around. She'd adapted quickly and loved the front porch; when she wasn't sleeping on top of me, she was usually out sunning herself. I hadn't had a way for her to go outside in my old apartment, and she seemed to appreciate the access to fresh air and bird watching.

By the time Monday rolled around, I found myself anticipating the start of my experiments. Becoming a furry was the dream for a lot of people, and I was getting to do it for free. Sure, I'd been kidnapped, but after I got used to that, it wasn't so bad.

So when Doctor Glasman came in holding a needle, I was ready. He smiled at my apparent enthusiasm, and placed it on the counter. I had been expecting them; they came at the same time every morning, so I was waiting at the kitchen table. The breakfast tray this morning had an impressively sized omelet, and a full glass of orange juice.

"It's the big day, and you seem in a good mood about it!" He greeted while my nurse busied himself getting the blood pressure cuff down from the single locked cabinet in my room.

"I guess I am," I responded, offering out my arm automatically. The nurse wrapped the cuff around my arm, and the doctor sat down across from me at the table with some document up on his tablet that I couldn't read from where I was.

"Today is the first injection. From other transformations we've done before, the fur is the first thing that will start to grow, since the body is already prepped with hair follicles all over. You'll be getting these injections every day this week until we see the growth, and then we'll start with the ones to encourage the forming of new parts like upright ears and tail." Doctor Glasman informed me, scrolling through the document. "Up until now we've had fairly normal furry experiments; no crazy colors or patterns. However, you're approved to be our first experiment in encouraging unnatural colors to grow naturally."

That was a bit of a surprise to me. No one had talked to me, obviously, so I had no idea what they were even transforming me into. "Can I ask what I'm supposed to look like at the end of all this?"

"Oh, of course. My apologies; I forgot we hadn't discussed that yet." He tapped his screen a few times and then slid it towards me. A 3D model of what I assumed would be my eventual self was visible, and I could spin it with my finger. It was an incredibly realistic version of the fursona I'd described to them in the beginning- pink markings and all. "Standard husky pattern and anthropomorphic body type; we've done that quite a few times now. It's the colors that make this one different from the others, but that shouldn't be too hard."

I nodded and handed back the tablet. "Alright then. How much will the injection site hurt?"

"It'll be a little sore, but not too much." He picked up the needle and approached me, lifting up the short sleeve of my shirt and rubbing an alcohol wipe over my arm. The scent of it was strong, and I tried to brace myself for the pain- not that there was much. He did it much faster than I'd anticipated, and by the time I thought to look at what he was doing he was already done.

He put a bandage over the tiny little pinprick and grinned. "There you go; you did great. I'll see you tomorrow. You shouldn't notice any side effects today, but if you start having any pain, swelling, or fever, send me a message on your phone and I'll come by immediately."

I nodded, and both he and my nurse left me alone to my slightly cooled omelet. It was still very good, even without my ability to warm it up a little more. My arm ached from the injection, and I tried not to think about it too much. They said it would take some time before it started to work anyway.

So, when it didn't work for a few days, I didn't think anything of it. It wasn't until my doctor came back on the fifth day that he seemed concerned there hadn't been any progress.

"Normally by now we'd at least have seen the points of fur starting to grow in, if not significant growth. This is highly abnormal. Have you felt any different? Any itching, any irritation of the skin?" He had my arm extended and was running his fingers over the skin, examining it closely.

"No, nothing has felt different at all. Well...Actually, that's not quite true. I've felt a lot warmer than usual and I've been sweating a lot more." I paused, and then looked sheepish. "Also my sweat seems a little bit pink?"

"You've been sweating more than usual and it's pink." He sighed and grabbed a thermometer out of the locked cabinet, running it over my forehead in one quick motion. "You say you've been hotter than usual, but your temperature reads that you're actually cooler than you should be." He put the device away and sat back in his chair, staring at the ceiling with a considering expression. The needle for my next injection was laying on the table in front of him.

"Clearly it's in your system if your sweat is pink. A weird side effect, but nothing too serious. What we're going to have to do is up the strength of this drug for you. You might just be a tougher case and need the extra; if we still don't see progress, we might consider changing up the formula for it. We've never run into resistance like this before. Is it trying to manipulate the color that's doing this...?" He looked down, and I kept quiet. It was clear he wasn't actually asking me. "I'd like to run some tests. We haven't collected blood in awhile; let's do that and I'll see what's going on."

He left, and I'd barely had time to dig into my breakfast before a person came in with a blood cart- or whatever those things were called. She collected a few vials from me and disappeared without much fuss, though something was odd about it. She commented that it seemed to be thicker than it should be, and even I could see that my blood was a vibrant pink.

When Nikki came around, I explained what had happened, and her calm demeanor was comforting. "Sometimes we get some weird side effects once the injections start, though this is certainly a first. Don't worry about it, pup." She'd started calling me pup after the injections started, despite my protests.

To be fair, my protests weren't sincere.

I didn't have to wait long. Doctor Glasman returned at lunch, and looked perplexed. He sat down without greeting me, and I noticed he carried a needle with him, but he seemed hesitant. "We did some examination on your blood, and aside from the viscosity and hue being off, none of the readings indicate something is wrong. After discussing your situation with the lead scientist, we've decided to just up your dose to three injections a day. It's extreme, but we're positive we'll get results with it."

I nodded. I wasn't looking forward to getting poked even more often, but I didn't get much of a choice about it, and he seemed sure that it was the way to go. He injected me and left me to my lunch.

I started noticing something strange about how I felt, almost like a shivering in my body- but when I held my hand out, it was completely steady. I didn't feel any pain, and I wasn't cold, so it couldn't have been anything to worry about. I must have been imagining it.

When Nikki came around for my afternoon run, she was just as chipper as she usually was. She told me she was going to show me a few pole dancing moves that day, provided that I could manage them. She warned me repeatedly not to expect much; I hadn't had the strength training I'd need to do the really cool tricks. "Plus," she started sheepishly," with how much you've been sweating lately, I'm not sure you'll be able to keep a good grip."

I still hadn't been allowed to see other people, aside from the occasional waves to my courtyard neighbors, and so Nikki and I were completely alone in the gym. She led me over to the poles, and I tried to pay attention while she showed me some basic moves.

"Okay, now you try," she encouraged, and hopped off her pole, taking a few steps back. She watched me as I positioned my body carefully, but shook her head and was quick to move my arms and legs into the right position. "Alright, now use all your strength and just lift up. Cross your legs at the thigh like I showed you, and then let go with your hands."

I did what she said, and my muscles screamed at me the minute I crossed my thighs. It was the only thing holding me off the ground, and I was trembling at the effort of maintaining it. I started to slip from my own sweat, and soon found my ass on the ground.

She laughed, and I burned from embarrassment. She walked over and helped me up, shaking her head. "I told you we should have started with strength training, but you swore you would be just fine. Falling on your ass is 'fine', huh?"

"Shut up," I groaned, and then realized how close I was to her. I'd noticed that her eyes were different before, but up close, I realized that they were truly cat's eyes. She was staring at me with pupils wider than should be possible, and her tail was twitching; she was feeling playful.

"Do you purr?" I blurted before I could stop myself, finally voicing the question I'd wondered before.

She let go of me and cocked her head to one side. "What a strange moment to ask. Yes, I can purr. I don't do it very much because I don't have a reason to, but I can if I desire."

"Can I hear it?" I asked, curiosity piqued.

She sighed and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me close to her and resting my head against her chest. A few heartbeats passed before I heard the low, rumbling noises of purring emitting from her, but I was too distracted to enjoy them. She was warm, and her body was softer than I expected even with the obvious muscles. I wanted to hug her just to see how soft she really was.

So I wrapped my arms around her. There was a firmness There was a hitch in her purring, and then it continued, slightly louder than before. At the same time, she pulled away, and I dropped my arms.

"There, you got to hear it. It's not something a lot of people get to do, so I hope you enjoyed your treat." She gestured back at the gym. "Now, let's go do a little bit of strength training before I take you back to your room. Eventually I'd like you to be able to do the moves you were trying today."

I sighed. "I didn't think it would be so difficult. I feel weaker than usual, too."

"Sounds like you're trying to cover up your bruised ego." She grinned, and led me over to the weights. "Go on, get to work on this. We need to build up your upper body strength and we're going to start here."

I rolled my shoulders, and did as she said.

By the time I got back to my room, I knew something was up. I was weaker than normal, but I didn't know how to bring it up to anyone. It just felt like I was struggling to lift up things that I would have been able to do much easier before. Plus, my workout clothes were almost dyed pink from how much I'd sweat into them.

When I showed that to Dr. Glasman later, he seemed to brush it off. "Your body is doing a lot right now trying to grow that fur. It makes sense that you'd feel a loss of strength, but I promise that it's temporary. You'll be back to normal once we don't have to dose you so hard." And he injected me with the next dose, leaving me to my dinner and my thoughts.

It was the next morning, on my way to the gym, that I was proven right.

I was following behind Nikki, thinking ahead to how I wanted to spend my exercise time, when I tripped. She'd been turning back to talk to me at the same time, and I caught her on the way down, landing directly on top of her. The proximity to her and her face, the way that our bodies felt pressed together, the embarrassment- who was to say which it was.

But I felt my body start to shiver, and suddenly start sweating more than it ever had. In moments, there was a light pink film of liquid over her...but something was odd about it. I quickly moved off of her, reaching out to touch the pink substance clinging to her skin- and noticed my hand.

It was opaque, and pink. I could see her through it.

I yelped and quickly examined my other arm. It wasn't fully changed yet, but the substance was crawling up my arm as fast as the feeling of panic. With every place it touched, my body turned transparent. I felt sticky, and like I was losing control over the precision of my limbs.

Nikki was staring at me, wide-eyed, and I tried to think of anything to say. "What is going on? Help me!" I tried, even though they seemed woefully inadequate to whatever was happening to me now.

I looked down at myself; my clothes had been absorbed into my body, which was the same vibrant pink as my sweat had been up until that point. They were visible, just inside of me, unmoving. My legs had seemed to form into one solid lump, along with the rest of my body, leaving only my arms sticking out in front of me. I could still move them, it was just difficult.

I couldn't move my legs at all, though I suspected it was only because they stopped being solid. If I wasn't concentrating on my arms, I imagined they would deform, too.

Nikki was on the phone, and soon, a small team of people were in the hallway with us. Doctor Glasman was one of them, and he was quick to kneel next to me, gently prodding at my body. I was surprised that I could feel it, and that it wasn't painful when the tip of his gloved finger sunk to the knuckle into my body. I was too freaked out to consider how it felt beyond that.

"Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear," he murmured, staring at me in some combination of fascination and horror. "What are we going to do about this?"

"Fix it!" I wailed. This wasn't what I'd had in mind for the worst consequences of my experiments going wrong; this was worse. I had become some kind of slime creature, my body formed entirely out of this pink goop that had been steadily increasing over the last week without my understanding.

"Can you move at all?" He asked me, stepping back. "I don't know if we can carry you. It'll be a lot easier if you can...reform your legs."

"Reform my legs?" I looked down at my body and tried to imagine what they used to feel like. The sensation of walking came to mind, and I tried to force it through my body, will it to listen to what I said. It budged; I wiggled forward, and I realized that my body would listen to what I commanded.

I focused on, instead, willing my body as it was to move forward. I slid along the ground, much like a snail, leaving a small trail of my slime behind me. This was going to ruin my carpet.

"Good enough. We're not taking you back to your room; we're taking you to an intake room." Doctor Glasman informed me, walking beside me as I moved. "There's no carpet in there and we'll be able to examine you easier with the equipment on hand."

"What about Lady Wiggles?" I asked, tearfully.

"I'll take care of her," Nikki promised. "I can't bring her to see you until we get this situation figured out, but I'll keep her happy until you're back to normal and can take care of her yourself again."

Nikki's confidence I would eventually be back to myself reassured me, and though it took me a longer time than normal, I made the journey to the closest exam room. Getting up onto the bed was a bigger challenge, but easy once I figured out how. It appeared that my body could slide in any direction that I willed it to- including directly up a surface. I wondered, idly, if I could hang out on the ceiling.

I wouldn't get the opportunity to try it out at that moment. It felt like every doctor in the place was inside my room, poking and prodding me. Some of them took samples of my slime and left; others stood around examining their tablets, musing out loud on what could have caused it and what could fix it. Doctor Glasman was at the center of it all, looking exhausted.

And it didn't take long before I was, too. No one seemed to have any idea how this had happened, and all of the ideas to fix me seemed far fetched at best.

Around dinner, a nurse brought by what was supposed to be my normal meal, but seemed hesitant to set it down. Doctor Glasman was watching me carefully, like I was under a microscope. It took me a few moments to catch up: everything inside me was visible. I had no obvious ways of absorbing nutrients into my body. My organs had turned into slime like everything else.

I had learned over the course of the day that I could touch things without them sinking into my body if I just concentrated on how to hold them, but it left a slimy residue on whatever I touched. I didn't look forward to what that tasted like.

I picked up the burger they'd given me and moved it towards my mouth, or at least, where my mouth had been. Unlike my hands, however, my mouth didn't stay solid. It sunk into me with barely a push; whatever my body was made of, it was eager to be fed. I wished I could taste still. The only way that I knew the food was in my mouth was by the feeling of something inside of my body.

And a tingling around it, like individual parts of me picking away at it.

"I'll be damned; you're absorbing it," Doctor Glasman murmured. I couldn't see, but I believed him; I could feel the mass growing smaller and a rising satisfaction from the cells of my body.

Eventually it was gone, and as it grew later, the number of people in my room dwindled. I was finally alone for the first time since my body had malfunctioned and turned me into this. I slid off of the bed and onto the floor with a wet plop, and moved around in circles, trying to figure out how this worked. Perhaps I could just reform on my own, with enough command and mastery of how this stuff worked.

I could feel parts of me move when I focused on them, concentrating, becoming denser in areas that I forced them to. They separated and came together as I commanded, like moving wet sand with one's hands. It took more finesse than I had, but I soon found myself standing on two leg-like things as opposed to the solid lump that I had been before.

I moved to the mirror in the bathroom and examined myself. I was still the same vibrant pink as I was before, but my body was completely see through. There were tiny pockets of air floating around inside me, though if I concentrated enough I could move them, too.

In focusing on feeling normal, I had forced myself to look like someone had sculpted a human out of gel. I ran my hands over my body, though I didn't feel it. My sense of touch was different. I could feel the floor as a thousand different little pinpricks of sensation, and when I moved, the sensation shifted along like beads rolling along the floor. I likened it to hundreds of suction cups, sticking and unsticking with every movement I made.

The door opened, and I poked my head out of the bathroom to see Nikki. She smiled softly when she saw me, but it looked more concerned than anything else.

"How are you feeling?" She asked.

"I'm less freaked out. I feel like I'm getting more control over this. Maybe if I just focus hard enough, I can go back to normal?" I theorized out loud. I walked towards her, though it was a little wobbly. After all, my feet stuck to the floor with every step. Sliding had been more graceful. "I can safely say I'm going to skip my exercise break. Plus, it's too late for that. Why are you here?"

"I was worried about you," she confessed. "I just finished taking care of Lady and wanted to check on you. It really scared me, how you fell apart like that. Does it hurt?"

"No, it doesn't." I moved closer to her. Something about her drew me in now; was it the sweat glistening on her neck? The way her hair was pulled up in a ponytail, showing off the angles of her face I'd never fully noticed before? "Mainly I just feel this...ache for something. I can't explain it. Like I'm missing an important part of me."

"Yeah, you're kinda missing everything," she joked, and I laughed. She moved closer, and her hand reached out like she wanted to touch me. She pulled it back, thinking better of it.

"You can touch me. A lot of people have been today." I corrected her thoughts without hesitation. I still remembered her letting me hear her purring.

She rested her hand on my arm, and it slowly sunk in. She seemed interested in how it felt, though hesitant to move. I didn't feel like I was picking it apart like I had with my food; perhaps it was only if I took something in around my mouth area, or if I desired to consume it.

Something was different about how her touch felt to everyone else's. A different tingling spread through me from where she touched, a warm feeling. She looked amazed, and a smile curved up her lips. "It feels like... a thousand little warm kisses all over my hand. I thought it would feel slimy or gross, but the way you're moving around it is so...warm."

I laughed. "Why'd you want to touch me if you thought it would be gross?"

"I was curious!"

I laughed again, my entire body trembling with the mirth. "Well, I'm glad it's not, at least." I didn't want her to pull away. That ache had increased the moment she'd touched me, and I wondered if I was just hungry for contact. She was the closest thing I had to a friend here.

I reached out to touch her, and she didn't sink into the hand that I rested on her bare arm. I didn't want to risk ruining her shirt. She seemed surprised. "You can just touch me without...?" She wiggled the hand still stuck inside me for emphasis.

I nodded. "I have to concentrate, but I can stay solid if I want to. It took me all day to figure that out."

She grinned and threw her arms around me in a hug, heedless of her clothes. I quickly focused on keeping her from sinking into me, though the warmth of her body radiating into me was intoxicating. I hugged her back, and she stayed safely outside of my form.

And the ache had turned into a hunger.

I didn't think. I kissed her, seeking out her mouth with what had once been mine. I felt my entire body reaching out for her, and my lips slid over hers, lightly tugging them into me and then pushing them back out. She let it happen for a few moments, then pulled back in amazement. "The thousand little kisses is an understatement there," she murmured.

I was still shocked at what I'd done, and almost pulled back- but realized she was still hugging me tightly. "You didn't pull away," I said, slowly. "I'm sorry, I probably just crossed about a dozen lines-"

"No, you didn't." Nikki was smiling, and she ran her hand over my head. Tingles and warmth spread through me everywhere that her fingertips touched. "I've been thinking about doing that myself. I know it's fast and that you haven't been here long, but I've felt such a connection to you from the beginning."

"So you don't kiss all your clients then?" I teased, and she laughed.

"No, I don't. And I certainly don't do this with them, either." She kissed me again, hugging tight to my body, and it was everything that I possessed to keep control of myself. I didn't want her sinking into me; I didn't want to accidentally start absorbing her or something.

I loved the feeling of kissing her. I loved how smooth her body felt, though her clothes were in my way. My body was tugging at them, and a few tiny holes had appeared. I pulled back once I realized, embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I thought about undressing you and I-"

"It's okay." She kissed me briefly again, and then hesitated. "There's something you should know. Becoming a catgirl wasn't the only way I changed. I'm a trans woman, and I requested that they not perform any kind of genital experiments on me-"

I smiled and kissed her, hushing whatever words she had left to say. "You're beautiful, and I'm only okay with whatever you want to do. If you want me to leave your bottom half alone, I will."

"I don't want you to leave it alone," she said, and her lips were back on mine. With all of the emotions of the day, I was eager to feel something as comforting as she was to me. My form continued picking apart her clothes, though neither of us paid much attention. She unclasped her bra and tossed it aside, I believed to save it- but it was the only thing she did to stop it.

I let the front part of her body sink just slightly into me, and noticed that I could touch her and feel the same sensations as if it was my fingertips. The slime rolled over her breasts, caressing and massaging at them. I had been right; she was impeccably muscled, and her abs were heaven to feel on me. I could feel her pressing hard against me through her underwear, and my body was working fast, tearing away more and more of the fabric every moment.

I started moving with her back to the bed, and she followed, leaving the scraps of fabric on the floor behind us. Her lips never left mine, and I continued hungrily feeling what her lips were like. She was so soft everywhere that it mattered, and I could feel the kiss burning through me at an intensity ten thousand times stronger than anything I'd felt with ordinary skin.

She laid back onto the bed, and I crawled on top of her. I didn't want to smother her, and I was careful to leave her enough room to breathe- but it turned out I didn't need to bother. She pulled back from the kiss, gasping for air, with her hands gripping my hips. "You're so light," she whispered in amazement. "I feel like I could have you on top of me like this for hours."

"I guess that's one good thing to come out of this," I joked, and she laughed. Her palms massaged over my thighs, kneading my body as she did.

I let my legs lose their shape, encasing her hips with my body. Every bit of her naked skin pressed against me, and I was careful not to let her in- yet. It felt good to slide across her cock; the slickness of my body lent itself well to the teasing gesture. She groaned, laying her head back and bucking up against me, trying to get in.

"If it felt so good for me to kiss you, imagine how good you're going to feel buried inside of me," I whispered to her, resting my hands on her breasts once more. I let them sink just barely into my palms, and felt the minuscule parts of my body slide and tug on her nipples.

She gasped, and I relished the look on her face. She seemed to be experiencing an earth-shattering moment, and I had only just begun to please her.

I relinquished some control of my body, and her shaft slid inside with one slick motion. A groan slipped out of her throat, and I didn't have to move; my slime contracted around her and released, rhythmically. I felt the tingling sensation spreading through me that she'd described as a thousand tiny kisses, and she seemed to be lost in the feeling. She stared at me without seeing me, her lips forming a perfect little 'o'.

I started out slowly, my body moving around her cock like an ocean wave, intensely tight around her at one moment and pulling away the next. My hands continued their massage of her tits, caressing the nipples through a strange sensation like many tiny suction cups. Her body radiated warmth into mine, and I imagined it was reflected back at her from how much of me lightly coated her body.

"God, you feel so fucking good," she moaned, her hands trembling while they gripped what had once been my hips.

"So do you," I gasped in return. The ache that had led me to start this had only grown, building up inside of my stomach to a peak I could not ignore. I needed her.

I sped up the waves of sensation, rocking my body against her. Her shaft stayed fully encased, never needing to pull out of me, while still getting the sensation of my body shifting around it. She felt incredible; she was a good size, though I doubted it mattered with how my body was composed. It felt as if my entire form was being pleasured by her; the completion of her being inside of me was everywhere.

She was panting, holding tightly to my body as her hips automatically thrust upward beyond her control. Her body arched against me, seeking me out as much as I sought her. No sound was escaping her; her eyes were closed, and she was biting her lip, trying to find a reprieve from the overwhelming bliss.

The pleasure was building inside of me, and I wanted to know what it would feel like for her to finish in this body. I was desperate for it, and so I clamped down around her; my cells vibrated around her, massaging in tight, unrelenting waves. She bucked hard into me in shorter and more erratic movements, losing the fight to maintain control. She was close; I just needed to push her over the edge.

"Please cum inside me!" I begged, and that was enough. With a few final thrusts, I felt the hot rush of fluids shoot into my body. It was welcomed, and the sensation of absorption started immediately. My body was ravenous for it, and it felt so good to consume her seed that I found my own climax, shuddering around her cock and crying out from the pure ecstasy of it. The ache that I'd been feeling had subsided, replaced with a glow of satisfaction that rivaled the warmth of sunlight.

I slowly became aware of my surroundings, and of both of us gasping for air. I moved off of her and rested beside her, trying to keep my trembling body solid so that I didn't continue coating her in my pink goo. She turned to look at me, her trademark smile a beam on her face.

She caressed my cheek, giving a soft laugh. "That was, without a doubt, the most amazing thing I've ever felt," she informed me.

"Same here. It's almost a shame they're going to try and fix me." I joked, but felt my heart sink when I saw a considering look cross Nikki's face.

"Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea," She suggested. "They don't even know how to fix it, from what I was hearing. They have some ideas but none of them are guaranteed to work. Maybe it's better that we just try to learn how to live with this body as it is now, maybe how to control it better. Who knows? Maybe you can form it into different shapes than just your normal one."

"I guess we'll have to see." I pressed a soft kiss to her lips, waiting for my breathing to return to normal. "Whatever happens, I hope we'll tackle it together."