The Trouble with Lab Maintenance By Fern Distribution: This is a gift. Please do not use or distribute this story in any way, both as the original or an altered copy, without the permission of the commissioner. Charlotte was down in Sammy's lab, making sure that all the equipment was spotless. Recently a new addition was added, so she was ordered to clean the mess the workers left behind with their mud-covered boots. As the pink and frilly dragon follows the path of dirt and grime up to the new machine, one of the motion sensors goes off. Before she can realize where the sudden beeping is coming from, Charlotte is slammed between two huge pieces of metal. The careless maid is stuck in what appears to be a large mold, and it's getting rather hot too! She pounds on the reinforced steel, making soft squeaking noises. Of course, there's almost no room to move at all, and there's no way her rubbery texture can make any sort of noticeable sound. "Hey, hey! Turn off the machine! Maid in service here! Mistress!? Anyone!?" *Splorch.* Charlotte can't really look down, but she knows that sound anywhere. It's the noise of melting rubber hitting a hard surface that she hears whenever her Mistress is molding some poor sap that ended up in her crosshairs. "Mistress! Mistress!! I'm meltgrgl..." Her body becomes a mix of pink, black and white as she refills the mold. The machine the mold is against moves its crane-like limb to add extra liquid rubber at the top of the hole. Once the mold is filled to the brim, Charlotte can feel a sudden temperature drop as the metal rapidly cools. "!!!" *FSSSSSSSSSSH!* Lots of steam pours out as Charlotte finds her body hardening once again. She tries to move, but she now almost completely fits the hollow space. There's only enough room to shiver, and she'll see why there's that sliver amount of room left. The crane arm returns once again, but this time it's pouring a rather large supply of orange coloring into the hole. Charlotte shivers over the cool feeling of paint going all over her reshaped body. Once she feels the coloring against the top of her head, the metal warms up to dry the paint. *Fsssssssssh...* The mold does a lighter temperature drop before letting out more steam and opening up. What stands is a bipedal feline-shaped toy of sorts. The only thing that is off is that she is completely orange all over. The former dragon tries to walk forward, but she discovers that bending any limb drastically fights against her elasticity. She can feel her parts forcing themselves to go back to a neutral position every time she tries. "!?!?" "mmnmn..." She faintly muffles as that's all she's able to do. No one would be able to hear her unless they were face-to-face. To everyone else, she might as well be silent. It doesn't help that the only sense she currently has is touch. She's both blind and deaf! Before Charlotte can figure out a way to even walk, several shackles clamp themselves on various parts of her body. "mnnn...!" The crane arm comes down once more, now equipped with a large spray painter. The tiger feels another tingling sensation as a few uniform colors are painted all over her. A couple of shackles open up now and then to allow the arm to do its job, but not enough open up to allow Charlotte to escape. White was the first color to go all over her. Her abdomen, paws, underarms, and face are covered in the secondary base. Even the tips of her fingers have little white dots. The painter makes a click as it switches nozzles and paint. A thinner spray of black is next as it makes various stripes all over her body including her tail. A simplified outline of ab muscles are painted on her stomach along with various sharp lines that start at the sides. Finally, her face is the last to be worked on as various patterns are painted all over her. Her ears get two black triangles. To her surprise, this causes her hearing to return just in time to hear the painter do another click. Two more colors get to work on finishing the rest of her face. The tiger gets a small base of pink for her nose and two yellow spots for her eyes. Finally, the blank paint returns to make the final touches to her nose and eyes. She's once again able to smell and, most importantly, see! Her metal bindings all open up as she's left on the floor. On the monitor of the machine, it reads "TOY MANUFACTURING 100% COMPLETE" along with a full progress bar. "mnnn," muffles the new tiger toy while it figures out how to walk. Eventually, it manages to do a rather awkward shuffle where it pivots on one paw before stepping on the other. Her Mistress, she has to find her in order to fix-- "Tsktsktsk, did you seriously waste the resources of my new machine?" "!?!?!?" The tiger awkwardly turns toward the source of the voice to see her Mistress Sammy standing there. Her arms are crossed, and she's tapping her foot. Uh oh. "Well if you're going to be so clumsy, then I see no better punishment than leaving you as a graceless tiger toy!" "mmmmnnmnmnnmnn," Charlotte quietly begs to her Mistress. Of course, Sammy doesn't hear a thing. "No complaints? Good! You can start by making your way up to my bedroom somehow. Hopefully, you don't get stiff on the way there. That is one of the effects of that machine you know. If you don't make it there, then I'll be sure someone will store you in some random closet somewhere." If Charlotte could blush, her cheeks would be redder than a tomato. As humiliating as this is, she can't help but feel extremely turned on by the whole affair. Going through her Mistress's punishments is part of the fun. Although, she worries about how long this particular one is going to last. Sammy gives her new plaything a slow stroke through her chin before turning around to walk away. "Get going, toy. I'm not going to carry you there. You'll have to pay for those used paints and rubber one way or another." "nnnn..." Charlotte resumes her wobbling, even trying to add a small step here and there. She can already feel herself stiffening however. Can she really make it to her bedroom before she ends up nothing more than a shuddering and muffling toy on the floor?" Meanwhile, Sammy is grinning as she sets up a new Charlotte contract in her hands. No way she's going to give up her new plaything when getting a tiger toy is the reason why she got that machine in the first place. Little did Charlotte know, her "debt" is already paid!