Facility- Chapter 6
#6 of Facility
Finding the shower wasn't so much the problem as figuring out how to use the shower. As with everything around this place, there is a shower, just that anything you'd need is hidden in secret compartments. And trying to find the compartments for soap and shampoo or whatnot takes a while, especially in trying to figure out how to even turn the shower on. But I do eventually manage to figure it out. And man does a shower feel good at the moment. If nothing else I'm sure all I'm really managing to do is to wash away all the loose hairs that have fallen out but are currently being trapped by my fur so it doesn't just fall off, but it is still a welcome change nonetheless. And to help facilitate this I use the soap and shampoo, which I'm guessing based on everything else around this place, designed to work with my new body far more than it would my old body. Thus probably the shampoo and conditioner are more designed to help maintain a healthy fur coat more than it is to just strip away everything on the outside.
I do make more careful note of the bumps on my torso, noting that they are definitely somewhat protruding but beyond that don't seem to be causing all that much need of a concern. I have also noticed that my junk seems to be forming into some sort of sheath, which is just as well considering it isn't exactly all that human looking at the moment. Finally after spending probably far too much time in the shower I finally turn it off and approach the concept of drying myself. I strongly resist the urge to simply try and shake myself off like a dog. I have to maintain at least some level of humanity in what I do, especially with it becoming increasingly difficult to keep my heels on the ground. Before long I may have to just give up and walk like Bob does, never having my heels even touch the ground unless I'm sitting or something.
Though I did certainly leave a lot of my former hair on the ground. I have to wonder how much of my old hair is even left at this point. Heck even most of my pubes have fallen out by this point. In order to check I go over to the mirror and wipe off the condensation to get a good look at me and give half a laugh at the appearance. I look almost like a dog that got caught in the rain, all the fur on my body dropping down in an almost comical fashion. As for my question I don't really see anymore what would be considered actual hair. At this point, with the amount of hair having fallen off, it looks more like there's a dark gray pattern of fur where my hair had resided rather than actual hair being there with fur covering the rest of things.
I move over to the towel with the intent of just towel drying myself as much as possible then maybe ask where to put the used towel later. I really don't think it'd be a good idea to go around smelling like wet dog. But when I get to the towel I see a button at a height Bob could easily reach labelled 'drying/grooming station.' Curious, I push the button and a small alcove opens up with a pressure plate in the center of the new small room. Figuring might as well I move forward and step onto it, wondering what all it'll do. I cry out in shock when the first thing it does when I've stepped onto the plate is a couple of wires come out of the floor and hook onto my feet, securing them in place, though at an angle that is far higher than I find comfortable, forcing me to sort of crouch down to avoid falling forward. A few more things come up and secure me where I am and I'm about to call out for help when I feel the air come.
It's not an unpleasant sensation and when I look I can see all the little vents they're coming from, vents that are adjusting to my height. So the things securing me in place are more so that I'm not moving when these vents are blowing hot air at me, like a full body hair dryer. And that thing is definitely thorough in where all it's blowing, some nozzles moving to even blow at the area between my legs, the grips on my legs pulling apart a bit to make that step easier. And then once that's done a second set of things come out of the walls and ceiling of this tiny little location and blanket me in a bunch of tiny little things that takes me a while to realize what they are. They're brushes. Dozens of little soft brushes that are pushing against me and brushing my fur in place. Thankfully I'm guessing there are cameras in that it's not brushing in a way that is entirely uncomfortable. It doesn't feel like it's doing anything harmful. It almost feels a bit pleasant if more than a bit claustrophobic. But it eventually ends and the grips release and I step out immediately.
Definitely not something I'd want to use very often, but feeling my arm and the soft, luxuriant fur on top of it I can't exactly complain for the result. Even if not completely dry, I am probably far dryer than I would have been in twice the time using a simple towel or hair dryer, and don't have to deal with an overly fluffy look for the time being. I hear the long beep from the intercom and guess that the experiment has finished. I go into the lab and find Bob already pouring over the data. He sniffs the air a bit as I enter and stares at me, his ears folding back in what I'm guessing is a blush as he also adopts a somewhat embarrassed expression.
"What?" I ask, before realizing that I had ended up deciding to wear the towel as a sort of bath robe and carried my shirt and pants with me instead. Bob smiles meekly before going over to the dry erase board and writing out 'you smell really nice,' I give Bob a look before sniffing at my own arm. I smell of violets, which is a bit flowery I suppose. But I hadn't been able to find any sort of masculine smelling shampoo while I was there and violets aren't too girly a scent. That or he just thought the clean smell was much an improvement over my old scent. I suppose one big drawback to showering is that I would have washed away any residual human scent that was on me. Though I'm not quite all the way transformed, I'm sure my scent would smell much more like his than it would a human.
Either way I shake my head, erase his words and go about looking at the information provided. The results definitely are looking promising, though still not what all we'd really need. The result is that I can achieve a result of a reduction of the serum by twenty percent without any cell degradation, but that's only a small delay. That small a result would probably only give me an extra hour or two. Though I had one thought while I was running earlier that I don't know why Bob hasn't even been trying yet. All of his experiments so far has been aimed at trying to remove the active component in the serum from the bloodstream, which would halt the transformation. But it wouldn't have any real affect at reversing the process.
What I need to do is to think more in line of what the notebook was talking about, that I shouldn't be trying to eliminate the serum so much as try to see if I can get it reprogrammed into doing what it was originally supposed to. When I bring this up with Bob he seems sort of noncommittal. He's okay with me trying and writes on the dry erase board the steps that would be needed to try and reprogram it instead but it takes him a good long while to do so. He constantly looks like his mind is somewhere else and he's trying to think through a fog or something. But he seems supportive as he can be and isn't trying to turn me away which I guess is a good enough sign.
But like always the start of the next experiment has to start with me once again standing on that pedestal. Thankfully not too much has changed more than last time, though I wonder how much of that is that I don't really have many new changes but that all of the changes are progressive and have gotten just a bit further along. I do notice I'm down to only a little over five feet tall now and I wonder what's going to happen once I get small enough like Bob and thus can't trigger the plate anymore. Would theoretically we be able to have the both of us use our combined weight to try and trigger the collection. Between the fur on my tail and its actual length it is about a foot long and definitely seems to be actively moving, not really staying still all that much.
One thing I notice is that while before Bob had absolutely no problem looking at me while naked and was even helping the instruments take readings, this time Bob can even so much as look in my general direction. If only he'd tell me what was wrong. It's not like we have too much of a barrier of communication anymore. Sure we still can't talk to each other but we have the black board. Having had enough practice I do still take out my little cheat sheets but I'm able to do the vast majority of the setup of the next experiment without needing to rely on the papers underneath the equipment. Which is just as well because Bob seems to be mainly going through the motions more than anything.
I'm tempted to try and confront Bob about it but once the experiment is started Bob immediately leaves me to my own devices and rushes off, as if he can't stand to be anywhere around me at the moment. Concerned I head after him. At first I think he might have gone outside again but when I look at the outside area he showed me last night not only is it currently raining but he isn't there. Knowing there really isn't many locations to check my next destination is the rec room and there I do find him. He's already running on the treadmill but he's running at such a speed on the thing it's almost like he's trying to run away from something. At the very least he's running himself ragged.
I call out to him but his ears don't even swerve in my direction, as if he's either completely ignoring me or perhaps there's a pair of headphones somewhere that he was able to find and he's blasting music into his ears. Given the size of those ears I highly doubt I'd have any chance of being able to see the headphones on him if he was. In either event it's not like he's going to be talking to me any time soon and if he made such an effort to get away from me then it's probably best that I leave him to his own devices for now. So long as he doesn't end up doing anything to hurt himself at least, I guess.
Not feeling hungry I decide to spend my time just wandering the facility as best I can and find out as much about this place as I can. I imagine there must be a lot of secrets to this place that I haven't noticed yet. It's not like it'd be the first time this place has hidden things from view. Heck, regarding this place it seems more likely to find something hidden than visible. I suppose the first course of action is to see if I can find where that medical table again. The best place to start would be to start looking at all of the various labs in the building.
I find the first vacant lab and look into it and actually find one big issue is that the lights don't really seem to work in this location. Either they've been unplugged completely or have simply burned out long ago and were never replaced. There is no sign, after all, on how long this facility has been up and running, how long people have been trying to find the cure. For all I know they bring someone in, inject them and then once they've fully transformed or died of old age they bring someone else in to be injected. For that matter I don't really know what age Bob actually is. His appearance looks almost like that of a child, but I have no way of knowing how old he was when he was brought in and no way of really knowing how his kind looks as they age.