Becoming a Slime Girl

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.