Rae gently poked the fin that she had GLOO'd onto the rat's back seventy-one and a half hours ago. The rat reacted only slightly. She tested the rat's sensitivity every five minutes until 71:55.

71:56... Poke... Nothing

71:57... Poke... Nothing

71:58... Poke... Nothing

71:59... Poke... Nothing

71:59:30... Poke... Nothing

71:59:40... Poke... Nothing

71:59:50... Poke... Nothing

71:59:55... Poke... Nothing

At 71:59:58, she started gently tickling the rat's fin with a feather. At precisely 72:00:00 since the fin was pressed firmly to the rat's back, it flinched and ran away. Rae tickled the rat's fin again, and it flinched and ran away, giving her an annoyed look.

Smiling, she tapped out some notes on her laptop, then logged off and went to lunch.

On the way out, she stopped to chat with Lori and Kelli, two of her friends that work in the admin offices up on the main floor.

"I'm just saying that you need to be careful with that stuff," she overheard Kelli saying to Lori. "I fully support your lifestyle choices. You gotta know that by now. But this GLOO stuff can't be undone."

Lori sighed. "I know, I know... It's just that I would feel like a poser. It has to be part of me forever or it isn't real."

Rae walked over. "I'm going to lunch. You guys wanna come along?"

Lori logged off and stood up, but Kelli begged off, saying that she had some work to catch up on.

As they were heading out the door, Rae asked, "Is she still trying to talk you out of it?"

Lori sighed. "Not really. She just wants me to be careful. But I can't wait. I just can't!"

Rae gave her a hug. "I know, I know. You are missing a part of yourself, and it's high time you became complete."

Rae lifted her tail and brushed Lori in the cheek with it. Lori giggled and playfully grabbed it. "I still don't know how you can waft that thing around."

"It's all the magic of Fur-Tech. The headband for my ears picks up my brain waves. It took me forever to learn to control everything, but now it's second nature. I think mister Arthur wants to try to lure some of their head engineers over to the light side."

"Oh, are we going to be going into the furry business, too?"

"We already deal with biomedical prostheses," Rae replied. "It never hurts to have more brain power on our side."

"You mean you aren't enough?" Lori teased.

Rae stuck her nose in the air and said, "Of course I am, but I have to give the muggles a chance to shine."

Her ears twitched, then she giggled. Her tail danced with her mirth.

Lori rolled her eyes.

"I noticed that you lost the hat that mister Smith made you wear."

"After mister Arthur made him back off, I finally got tired of using that damn hat to hide my ears and told him to kiss my tail."

Rae waved her tail around for emphasis.

"I still don't know how that tail can be so active. I mean, plugging it in where the sun don't shine can't be that comfortable, especially when you wave it around.

Rae nodded. "It took some getting used to, and it's annoying to have to remove it every time I go to the necessary room, but it's worth it." She hugged her tail. "Anyhow, it won't be too long before it is all stuck to me for good."

"GLOO?" Lori asked.

"GLOO!" Rae replied.

Mary walked in to the bar and looked around. She spotted her old college roommate Marnie sitting at a corner table, looking rather upset.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked as she sat down.

Marnie nodded. "I heard a rumor that some of your researchers are trying to find a way to unstick GLOO.

"I can neither confirm nor deny..."

"I know. But please hear me out. It's our last hope! We've been searching for months. Carrie is getting really desperate."

"What happened?" Mary asked.

"You remember Carrie's old boyfriend? The one she dated just to see if she was maybe straight?"

"Yeah. She was way too concerned about the haters."

"She was concerned about her family," Marnie said. "She had to try to be happy following the 'established rules.'" You could hear the quotation marks.

"I hope they have finally accepted her. They have to know that she tried to please them."

Marnie's face darkened. "They are laughing their asses off. They say that Carrie got what she deserved. In fact, I think they helped."

"Helped what?"

"It seems that Mike figured that if men just weren't good enough for her, she shouldn't have anyone."

"What?"

"He kidnapped her. Have you ever heard of the Chasti-Permalock?"

"But that's fictional," Mary exclaimed.

"He used a huge dildo, some rubber sheeting to cover her nipples and vulva area, a buttplug, and GLOO."

Mary gasped. "He didn't!"

"He did. He shoved the dildo in her front and the buttplug in her back. He also applied nipple shields. She was tied up for three days while the GLOO set."

"That's horrible! But how does she go to the bathroom? How does she pass her menses?"

"There are holes in the dildo. Everything comes out when it needs to. But the buttplug hole is way too small. The doctors had to use a kind of combination hand blender and enema tube because she was so constipated. They filled her with water and blenderized it. Carrie got so horny, but couldn't finish!"

"That's horrible!" Mary repeated.

"And she stopped wanting to have sex with me because she couldn't be pleased. It's so unfair! I even tried wiggling around the plugs, but she says that she can't feel any pleasure. It's like her clit and other nerve endings never existed."

"OK. I'll let the researchers know. But I don't think they are planning on unsticking GLOO.

Rae was inspecting the area where a fin was GLOO'd to the back of a regular furry rat. The boundary between the smooth fin and the furry rat was straight and clean. Scans of the rat had shown that the fur and follicles under the fin was gone. Somehow, the nanites in the Gloo knew that they don't need to be there.

She wasn't particularly concerned about it. She had gone to the same hair removal place that Lori had, and didn't have a single active hair follicle below the neck. And her facial hair was gone. There was nothing left but her lashes, brows, and head hair. After all, girls shouldn't be hairy. Furry is OK, but not hairy.

But one of the high muckity-mucks wanted to know about hair and GLOO, and she likes to keep them happy so that they will let her get away with doing her own projects when she feels like it.

After sending the results of her experiment to the big cheese, she carefully went over a design she was working on. She once again scanned the part of her body that it would be covering, compared it to the design, made sure that the colors were just right, and sent it to the 3D printer. Soon, the carefully designed prosthesis was being rendered in high quality medical grade silicone.

Every week or two, some of Rae's co-workers go to the local bar after work. While Rae isn't a big fan of bars or heavy drinking, she goes along with the crowd just for the sake of keeping the company together. Team building. Everything works better when there is some esprit de corps.

Besides, she enjoys it.

"There's another of those fur fags!" came a slurred voice from a few tables over.

Rae's ears twitched with annoyance, but she held her peace.

Her companion tried to shush her. She just complained all the louder. "Damn fur fags! 'I identify as a unicorn!' 'Look at me! I'm a dragon!'" She looked at Rae. "You give us legitimate trans girls a bad name! The next thing you know, someone is going to identify as a microwave oven!"

"Haters gonna hate!" grumbled Rae.

"What do you know about hate? Do you know what it's like to be marginalized and hated? Do you know what it's like to fear for your life every time you walk the streets at night? All you fur fags need to yiff in Hell!"

"Shut up you idiot!" her companion said. "I'm sorry. I have to apologize for my friend here. She's drunk."

"You mean 'he!'" came from across the room.

"See? Even the gays hate us! You would think they would understand what it's like and join forces with us."

"You mean like you're doing right now?" Rae grumbled.

"That's IT! We are leaving NOW!"

Her companion slammed a twenty down on the table, grabbed her by the wrist, and dragged her out the door, glancing apologetically at Rae as she left.

Kelli observed, "Even if she apologizes later, we know what's in her heart. Drunks and kids are the most brutally honest people in the world."

"Maybe, maybe not," Rae said. It depends on how attached she is to her mistaken opinions. Maybe her friend will convince her of what a hypocrite she's being."

Kelli snorted. "Maybe. Stranger things have happened."

"First she has to change her mind, then she has to change her heart," Rae said.

Lori just looked kinda sad.

"Are you really going to GLOO that thing to yourself?" Rae's colleague Sara asked.

Rae finished removing the prosthesis from the printer and dropped it into a bath of solvent to remove the support structures.

"It's not like I haven't tested everything to the ends of the earth. The only thing to do is try it live on a real live person."

Sara laughed. "You realize that experimenting on yourself qualifies you as a genuine mad scientist?"

"Experiment, nothing. I already did the experimenting, and now I am reaping the benefits. You'll see. It'll work perfectly. I'll show them! I'll show them ALL!" she cackled.

Sara shook her head and walked off. Rae, meanwhile, finished cleaning and sterilizing the prosthesis. She took it to her changing room, along with a kit containing GLOO! binary adhesive and solvent. Ten minutes later, she came out wearing her brand new silicone vulva prosthesis. The timer on her tablet read 71:57:23 and continued to count down.

"So, how goes it on the fishy front?"

Lori looked at Rae and smiled. "We're almost ready to finalize our order. You know how Greg is. He must have measured me a dozen times."

"Good for him!" Rae said. "'Measure twice, cut once,' My grandpa used to say. 'Oops! I cut it twice and it's still too short!'"

"There'll be no cutting here," Lori said. "But you're right. It has to fit perfectly because I'm going to be living in it for a long time."

"The rest of your life, and maybe beyond," Rae agreed.

"But it's going to take so long!" Lori pouted. "First they have to make it, then they have to ship it all the way from Wuppertal, Germany!"

"I hope that Faberge does as good of a job as Fur-Tech did with my ears and tail."

"They're the best!" Lori gushed. "It's going to take such a long time because it'll be hand built. I just know it'll be beautiful!" She hugged herself, obviously looking forward to living the aquatic life.

Rae pulled a fluffy tail from the printer and prepped it. It looked like it belonged to an over sized dormouse. Rae put a drop of GLOO activator on the root end and set it aside.

She pulled the rat from its cage and applied a bit of GLOO adhesive base to its butt, right at the base of its tail. She pressed the tail onto the spot just north of the rat's real tail while simultaneously pressing the [Start] icon on the timer app. She held the tail for a little over two minutes, then released it.

The rat seemed a bit confused by his new addition, but didn't try to do anything about it.

At the eight hour mark, the rat's new fluffy tail started to show some sensitivity. Rae had noted the same result in her own prosthesis.

Rae put the finishing touches on a circuit design that Sky-Tech had commissioned for its latest series of satellites. The highly redundant circuit would automatically bypass any damage done by cosmic rays.

The design, should it work as specified, promised to be a big money maker for the company. It would give the powers that be yet another reason to pay her lots of money and let her play to her heart's content.

She sent the design to the QA department and retreated to her changing room. After locking the door, she tested the sensitivity of her new prosthesis. It was marginally better than at the eight hour mark.

As the 72 hour mark hit, she gasped. She was more sensitive than she expected.

After testing the sensitivity for a while, then again, then yet again, she finally slumped on to her cot and rested a bit. Then, she showered, dressed in her street clothes, and went home to celebrate.

As the 72 hour mark approached for her two tailed rat, Rae captured the critter and stroked its tail. She was gently tugging the hairs at the tip of its tail when it suddenly flinched and pulled its tail out of her hand.

She tried again, much to the annoyance of the rat. It had a little trouble controlling its new tail, but it had no trouble expressing its annoyance.

Rae put the rat back into its cage and turned to another project -- one that she had initially proposed, but mostly farmed out to her underlings.

She had gotten the idea when she saw a YouTube video about a prototype wheelchair based on the Segway. It had multiple articulated wheels, so it could go up and down stairs and navigate other rough terrain.

Surfing around, she found another video. It seems that a man got really tired of always sitting. He was below everyone but the shortest person, and couldn't come up close to anything. It showed footage of wheelchair bound people trying to do simple things like use a water faucet or belly up to the bar.

His solution was to make an upright wheeled support that he strapped himself into in a standing position. He was gleefully happy to finally be able to wash his hands without getting his lap wet.

Rae decided to combine them all.

The initial design was complicated, and it only became worse. The user would be able to sit in the chair and press a button. The articulated frame would then unfold and move the person to a standing position. Or the person could remain seated while the wheel supports unfolded like a scissor lift, raising the user.

Inspector Gadget would be proud.

To top things off, she designed it to still be usable as a manual wheelchair if it lost power. It was cumbersome, but usable.

She decided to make it usable for people up to eight feet tall, just in case some of the webizens of Mer-Mania decided to permanently attach a full sized tail.

Rae looked over the finalized plans, along with the results of the tests of partial prototypes. She signed off on the authorization to build two completely functional prototypes.

Mary went into her apartment, bursting with curiosity. She set the mysterious package labeled "Don't open until you get home!" on her kitchen table and pulled a knife out of the drawer.

She was about to slit the paper covering it when she had a thought. She went to her door and locked it. Then, she proceeded to open the package. On the top was a note.

To whom it may concern (and you know who you are!):
(And if it doesn't concern you, throw this package away and forget you ever saw it. I'm serious. You wouldn't want it to blow up in your face or anything.)

Mary smiled. She has known Rae long enough to recognize her sense of humor.

There is a rumor that some dastardly miscreant decided to make his own Chasti-Permalock and install it on to his ex girlfriend. Such nasty pranks must not be allowed to stand.

Enclosed, please find four prostheses that, when attached with GLOO to the appropriate areas, will attain full function and sensitivity in three days.

I have tested something similar on myself, so I can guarantee that it will work.

But make sure to throw out the custom made male chastity appliance. Also throw out the phallus that was designed to be attached to the end of his nose.

Mary grinned and called her old college roommate.

Rae inspected the rat with the extra furry tail. The hairs that she had plucked were starting to grow back. In fact, they seemed to be growing at an accelerated rate.

"Egg-cellent!" she cackled, dry washing her hands.

Sara shook her head. "You scare me sometimes."

"If I didn't, I'd be losing my edge."

Sara rolled her eyes and walked off.

Rae pulled the large fluffy fox tail from the 3D printer. Her own tail waved back and forth excitedly as she prepped the new tail.

She took the new tail into her changing room and set it on a clean towel. She extracted her old tail one last time. As she expected, she felt a sudden need to use the facilities. After months of only removing the tail to take a dump, her brain was well conditioned to feel the need every time she removed the tail.

"Pavlov's fox" she murmured.

After taking a good shower, she used GLOO to attach her new tail right over the end of her coccyx.

She felt empty as she walked out without her old tail. Also, she was unaccountably sad that her new tail just hung loosely. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't move it. She had to wrap it around her waist to keep it from dragging on the floor.

"Seventy-two hours," she grumbled.

She went back to her workstation. Several new projects had come in, so she had decided to spend the weekend getting everything analyzed, written up, and sent to the various teams.

The powers that be assumed that she was being dedicated. They didn't know that she had the ulterior motive of not wanting to be seen walking around with a limp paralyzed tail.

"You're walking funny," Lori greeted Rae.

"You mean like I don't have a stick up my ass?" she replied.

They looked at each other for a few seconds. "GLOO!" they said together.

Rae floofed Lori on the nose.

"That means that I can do this without pulling it out," Lori said as she gave it a gentle tug.

"Ouch!" Rae said as she grabbed it back.

"Sorry!"

"Psyche!" Rae said with a snicker.

"Brat!" grumbled Lori. "Just for that..." She grabbed Rae's tail and cuddled it, stroking it gently. Rae stood there with her eyes half lidded, enjoying the sensation.

"All right you two, get a room!" Kelli snickered. "Some of us have work to do."

"I was here all weekend," Rae sniffed.

"That means you need to come to the lounge with us tonight," Lori said.

"On a Monday?"

"Why be conventional?" Lori giggled.

Rae, Sara, Mary, Kelli, and Lori were just about to be seated when Carrie ran over and gave Mary a tight hug. "Oh, thank you! thank you! thank you! I thought I was going to go crazy!"

Everyone looked confused, except for Rae, who had a slight smile on her face.

"She did go crazy," Marnie said with a smile. "And I enjoyed every minute of it!"

"Until you passed out," smirked Carrie.

"Fucking dykes!" came a slurred comment from near the middle of the room.

Almost instantly, a large gentleman wearing a black t-shirt laid a big hand on his shoulder. "You're out of here! We don't tolerate that behavior."

He tried to shake the bouncer loose. "Fuck off! I don't need to listen to you!"

The bouncer took a deep breath to calm himself. "Leave, or I will remove you," he said calmly.

The bouncer intercepted the punch that was thrown at him, twisted his attacker's arm behind his back, and duck walked him to the door.

After much cussing, the drunk slammed his car door and started his engine.

Rae picked up her cell phone and talked softly into it. A little later, a siren was heard, and red and blue flashing lights flickered in the window from about a mile away.

"He could have killed someone in that condition," Rae said.

Once the excitement settled down, the seven of them started chatting amicably. Carrie and Marnie were happily holding hands.

Carrie looked up as a man walked in. She started to snicker. The man's face turned red and he approached. "You think it's fucking funny, don't you BITCH?"

"You always were a dickhead," she giggled.

"Didn't anyone tell you that you ought to keep your nose out of other people's business?" asked Marnie. She looked like she was about to crack up.

"Why did you GLOO a dildo to your nose?" Rae asked innocently. "Is that what they do nowadays?"

"Shut up, fur fag!" he growled in a low voice. "Go yiff in Hell!"

"Yiffing? That's something you'll never do again," giggled Carrie.

"Oh yeah?" he said. "And how's your cooch?"

"Better than ever!" she said brightly. "Not that it will ever matter to you. You are the best thing to ever get out of my life. I'm so glad you are gone."

"Go away, dickface," Marnie said.

Rae pulled a rat sized rat suit out of the printer. It was very thin, but not particularly delicate because it was reinforced with diamond nanothreads. She smeared the inside with with a thin layer of GLOO activator.

She pulled a very aged rat out of its cage and carefully applied the GLOO adhesive base.

Installing the wrinkled rat into the skin was a delicate task, but not at all difficult for Rae. When she was done, the rat's skin was as smooth as it was when it had first arrived. After eight hours, the rat seemed a little more energetic. After three days, it was as healthy as any young rat in the lab.

---

Like I said, it's all Laika's fault. Read all about Rae's buddy Lori here:
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/74835/72-hours-merman...