The Lab

Her tail, thick and fluffy, swished around as she sat on an uncomfortable plastic chair inside a large, white waiting room. A single TV on the wall to her right played music and occasionally ads for the labs research and services.
Anya didn’t know what to expect of this trial, but she needed the extra Credits to work towards a new pair of Hedgeclippers after the previous one had finally given up on her.
Just then a high, almost chirpy, voice ripped her from her thoughts and called for her attention. “Anya?”
She looked up. A short woman with a round face stood in the door, a clipboard in her small hands.
“Please follow me to the examination room. The professor will join us in just a bit.”
Anya gave a quick hesitant smile and stood up. Her thighs and back ached slightly from the hard plastic she had sat on for the last twenty minutes.
With large steps she crossed the waiting room area rather quickly and soon had to hold herself back to not outrun the smaller woman and her tiny steps.

They arrived at a short corridor and the assistant pointed towards the first door to the left. 

“We’ll be in here for the Examination. Could you please head inside already while I grab some of the documents for Professor Blackthorn ?” And without waiting for an answer, the lady speed walked off, back into the direction they had come from.
She wrapped her pawpads around the handle and slowly opened the door to the room.
Inside were a few cabinets, filled to the brim with medical books, glass jars and models of different human skeletal parts. The room seemed more comfortable than Anya had expected and the soft spring sun shone through the two windows on the other side of the room, warming up a small couch that stood right below them. It was buried inbetween the wooden cabinets. Simple patterns were carved into it’s armrests.
Obviously the Professor wasn’t one to waste Space as most parts of the wall were covered by cabinets and if they weren’t, medical posters and screens took up their place.
A lonely spiderplant decorated the wooden windowsills and livened up the room a little further.
Anya slowly walked across and took a seat on the couch, close to said spiderplant and inspected it.
It was very well cared for, tiny spiderplants hanging off of it in great numbers.
As she studied the plant, she could hear the knob on the door turn.
“Good afternoon!”
The Professor and close behind him the lady from before, entered the room.
“Thank you for agreeing to help us in this study. We still have so much to learn about Nera and how it interacts with humans. Any little piece of information we could get from the examination might bring us a big step closer to discovering it’s mysteries.”

“Ah- It’s no problem” Anya replied. Her Fusion wasn’t particularly special anyways…
At least in her mind.

A very fuzzy tail, some pawlike hands and paws for feet, along with her slightly elongated legs. The legs made fast paces easier and the Nera had somehow allowed her to build a little more Muscle than she had before, but the hands on the other hand had become a large issue in day to day life.
Anya started to stand up when Professor Blackthorn motioned her to stay seated.
“It’s alright, we can do the Examination over there as well. Unless of course you want to stand to display your Fusion” and when Anya shook her head he smiled and pulled a rolling chair from the corner and sat across from her. The assistant positioned herself in one of the corners of the office and had already opened to a page on her clipboard, pen in hand. A little click and she started taking down notes.
“So I take it you’ve been fused for a while now?”
“Around 3 or 4 years I think ? I can’t pinpoint the exact moment anymore though”

Blackthorn hummed while nodding his head slightly. Anya could hear the scritching of the pen as it raced across the paper in the assistant’s hands.
“Your fusion is only of the physical type, am I right? I think you had stated so in your application.”
Anya nodded.
“Could you describe to me how exactly your physiology changed? If you could be as detailed as possible, that’d be much appreciated”
“Uh- sure. The most obvious is probably my tail” Anya flicked her tail a little to demonstrate. ”Along with my Ears, Legs and Hands of course. I was just out doing my job, caring for an elderly couple’s Thuja hedges if I remember correctly, when a strange ghost like … thing … had floated towards me. And as soon as it touched me this white light blinded me and the next thing I knew I sat there in the grass, Tail, Legs and all.”
“Hm hm. Yeah most Trainers I have spoken with so far described a similar experience… The white light seems to happen whenever there is physical changes after the Fusion”

“There’s some other changes I have noticed over the years, but they aren’t as obvious as my physical appearance…”
“Oh please do go on” The Professor encouraged. “As I mentioned, every little ounce of information could help us come closer to figuring out how Nera work.”

A quick nod. “In the weeks after I noticed a subtle growth in my strength. Just a little at a time, but suddenly carrying mulch or fertilizer around for my job wasn’t as exhausting and I could even carry more than before… I’ve also noticed I seem to get slightly charged more often than I had before and end up accidentally zapping myself or others regularly…”
“Interesting…” Blackthorn mumbled under his breath… “Is there any other things you have noticed ?”
“No, none that I can think of”

“Alright thank you very much then! Would you be alright if I took a quick look at your Fused Aspects? It’s fine if not, the Information you have given us so far already brings us a little further in our research!”
“Oh no, it’s fine” Anya moved her Hands forwards and the Professor took them into his own. He turned them and prodded with his finger at her pawpads and nails.
Anya’s attention drifted off towards the Assistant in the back and she could clearly hear the tip of the pen scritch against the paper. It was incredibly fast…

A sudden pain in her hands called her back and suddenly the Professor had a pair of tweezers in his hand, a few short white hairs pinched between the metal. He proceeded to dump it into a tiny glass vile.
“Could I take a look at your tail next ?”
“Uh-sure” Anya hesitated a bit, but took her hands towards her body and shifted slightly on the couch to be able to move the tail towards Blackthorn easier.

He slightly brushed the fur and when it shed a little, he immediately bagged the blue hairs too.
“Do you feel any sensation in your tail?” he asked, as he continued to brush along it’s tip.
“Yeah, it’s like a normal extremity…”
“Hm hm.” he nodded. He continued to inspect her ears too and after a while he smiled and moved his chair away towards the assistant. She quickly handed the notes she had taken all afternoon to the Professor and he skimmed them quickly, flipping from one page to another.
Another quick nod and hum and he turned back to Anya.

“Alright that concludes the Examination. Again, I want to thank you in the name of the Lab for your Cooperation and I hope we didn’t take up too much of your time. We will contact you if we have any follow up questions.
You can go talk to my colleague at the reception regarding the participation rewards and I would ask you to leave some contact details for us too.
I wish you a great rest of the afternoon and get home safe!”
“Oh, you too” Anya quickly replied.
As she stood up, her legs slightly stung from sitting this long, but the couch had definitely been more comfortable than the waiting room chairs.
She gave a quick smile towards the Assistant too as she took the handle into her hand and left both the Professor and the Assistant behind in the small office.

Time to head back home and prepare dinner for her and her small team…