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Tina looked out the window of her friend's car as they drove up to the asylum. She'd heard about this place before and seen the building, but hadn't given it much thought until today... It just wasn't a place that affected her. Well, not until now, anyway. But with her best friend's cousin newly moved into the place, it's been on her mind a lot more.

“Hey Carrie, is it fair to ask why your cousin is in here?” Tina questioned, glancing over to her friend.

“Well, I guess as long as it's not in front of him... he's sort of... started seeing and hearing things. Nothing dangerous yet, but we, including him, thought it would be best for everyone if we get him into some help before there was an incident.” The canine girl responded as she got out of the car.

Tina nodded and followed Carrie into the asylum. She wasn't too comfortable with the whole situation, but what sort of a friend would she be if she wasn't there to support Carrie? Besides, it's not like the guy they're visiting was a total psycho or anything. Well, at least not violent horror movie psycho.

After checking in with the front desk, a nurse lead the two girls down a long hall and into a room that looked similar to a doctor's office, where 4 other nurses stood waiting for them. “Welcome! Tina and Carrie right? We've been waiting for you.” A kangaroo nurse greeted them as the nurse from the front office left to attend to other arrivals and visitors.

“Yeah, sorry if we took a while. It was close to lunch time and I just had to stop by a fast food joint to fill my belly before we got here. This isn't the kind of thing I want to come into with an empty stomach, you know?” Carrie said.

“Perfectly understandable. So since your voice sounds familiar from the call I should assume that the cute catgirl here is Tina?” The roo nurse said as she turned to Tina, smiling.

Tina blushed a bit at being called cute, even though she assumed it was simply a polite compliment rather than a pass at her. “That's my name, I'm mostly here to backup Carrie though, can't say I know the guy too well.”

Giggling, the roo girl kept smiling and said “Well, I'd like to welcome you to Sunrise City asylum. I'm Nurse Ginger and I'll be responsible for your physical and mental health during your stay here!”

“My stay here?” The cat girl asked before she turned to Carrie, her eyes wide with surprise. “What does she mean by that, Carrie? Are you locking me up here?!”

The other three nurses stood ready to grab Tina in case she made any sudden moves as her friend tried to calmly explain. “I'm sorry, Tina, but we didn't think you'd come here willingly. I had to make up that stuff about my cousin being here so we could get you here and get you some help after your... episodes.”

“Just because... I tried hurting myself doesn't mean I have to be put away, does it? Come on Carrie, we're roomies! Best friends!” The cat girl pleaded, half knowing she probably did need help but not wanting it to be going this far. Troubled though she was, she wasn't keen on the idea of being contained against her will.

“And as your best friend, I'm the last one that wants to give you another chance to do bad things to yourself. I don't want to worry I might not see you the next day. Plus, it's not like you won't get out of here. A couple of sessions and who knows? I know you can beat this thing if you'll just give this place a chance, Tina.”

Looking into her friend's eyes and seeing the sincerity in them, the cat girl nodded with a sigh. “Well, I guess arguing won't get me out of it at this point. I'm glad you care about me, Carrie.” The two of them moved closer together and hugged each other. “You're going to visit, right?”

The canine girl smiled. “Are you kidding? Of course I will, and so will your family. I'm going to drive out and tell them that I got you in here, then we're all going to visit you later this afternoon after you're all set up in this place, okay? See you then, Tina.” She hugged her again before heading out the door.

Now that her friend was gone, Nurse Ginger politely asked Tina to disrobe for a medical examination. Standard procedure for all new arrivals. It was a weird mood change for the cat girl after her friend just left, but it seemed like the logical thing to do. When she was undressing, she couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed that the other 3 nurses were there there along with her and Ginger. It was the most people that she'd remembered ever having been naked in front of at the same time, and the cold paper surface of the examination table did little to calm her nervousness.

Ginger did her best during the examination to make Tina feel safe and comfortable, while one of the other nurses, a wolf, secretively gathered up her clothes and slipped them into a chute at the back of the room. “Well now, everything checks out physical health wise! So now we just need to get you into your new clothes for your stay here. Don't worry, you can still wear some of your old clothes later if your family brings them in for you.” Ginger spoke kindly to the cat as the imposing wolf walked closer to her, holding a canvas straitjacket in her hands.

Tina's first instinct at seeing a straitjacket brought out for her was to run the hell away, but here she was naked and surrounded by four larger women, so she just nervously whimpered a bit and sat still, allowing her arms to be slipped into the jacket. She really didn't care for the idea of being bound like this, but she had to try for her friend. Besides, when her tight new sleeves were being locked into place, the feline noticed that the snugness felt a bit good actually, and it wasn't nearly as tight as she'd worried it was, allowing her arms a bit of space to squirm or fidget though still being secure and seemingly inescapable.

Next, a thick collar was locked onto Tina's neck. “This is just a precaution, we don't worry about you trying to escape, but we need some way to track patients in case they do get out. There's a GPS in the collar that we can trace wherever you are, as long as you're somewhere on this planet.” The outside of the collar looked like thick leather, and Tina couldn't see where the GPS device even was, or even the clasp where you could take it off. The inside of the collar felt soft and padded, which helped her adapt to the odd sensation that came from the fact she wasn't used to wearing a collar.

Next came the padded slippers. A thick pair of soft, restrictive footwear that slipped comfortably over Tina's feet, before being secured tightly at the ankles. "These are both for protecting your feet, and to keep you from using them to manipulate any objects you might want to hurt yourself with." Ginger explained. The cat thought them a bit unnecessary at first, but considering her tendency for self harm, accepted that they might be a good idea. After all, at least they were super comfy, even if they made any use of her toes impossible.

But then, Tina blushed as she saw the wolf nurse reach into another drawer and pull out a big puffy diaper. “W-what's that for? I'm not incontinent or anything! I-I can go to the bathroom by myself!” A strong husky nurse grabbed Tina by the shoulders as she tried to back away, and held her still so the wolf could put it on her. “Well yes, I know you can, Tina, but unfortunately, you'll have to stay in that jacket for at least the first few months so we can make sure you're safe from yourself. And a side effect of you not having access to your arms is that you can't go to the bathroom alone.” The kangaroo nurse explained to her and Tina calmed down a bit, figuring that made sense.

It was still embarrassing, especially since it crinkled softly with every movement of her thighs, reminding her of her baby cousin's pull-ups. The blushing feline would have gladly accepted some pants or even a skirt to cover it, but it seemed that her new uniform was now complete.

“There, now that you're all dressed up, we can show you to your room. We're happy to have you staying here with us.” Ginger smiled as the nurses got ready to escort Tina to her new padded cell.

“J-just a temporary stay, right? I mean, I'm not that messed up in the head.”

The kangaroo nurse's smile faded a bit, looking to the cat girl seriously. “I know your friend might have gotten you a little hopeful that you could get released, but she simply doesn't understand the mental rehabilitation process like us professionals do. Yes, it would be nice to let you go back to your regular life one day, but most likely you're going to be living here from now on.” As she said that last line, Nurse Ginger, practiced though she was, was yet unable to hide a slight glimmer in her eye that, if she was paying more attention to, Tina would have been able to tell that the nurse secretly wanted to keep her locked up here longer than needed.

Tina's eyes widened as she began struggling against her secured straitjacket. “B-but I know I can get better! I don't even need this level of care, really! J-just a therapist or something...” Tina started to panic, feeling the full weight of being stuck in an asylum forever flood her mind with fear.

Glancing at each other, the nurses could tell they had to do something before this crazy catgirl got out of control. With a nod from Ginger, the wolf and husky grabbed Tina and held her down while the German shepherd calmly injected her with a tranquilizer shot. Against her will, Tina's body started to calm down as the drugs spreading through her her bloodstream started to take effect, and the fight from her brain stopped reaching her muscles.

“We're sorry we had to do that, Tina, but we can't have you doing anything rash, that would be counter to your treatment. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll come to love it here if you give it enough time. You can still be an artist like you were planning to do in your pas- regular life. You just might have to learn to paint with your tail if we can't get you out of that jacket. The drugs will wear off by the time your family comes to visit, so don't worry about that either.” Ginger returned to her smile, trying to be as comforting as she could to Tina as the wolf and husky held her up by either armpit and walked her out into the hall and toward her padded prison.

A million frantic thoughts were going through her helpless mind as she unwillingly walked along with the four nurses. Some of her thoughts were yelling at her body to obey her commands to run, to fight, to scream, push them away, wiggle, kick, mumble, anything that showed she wasn't going to just obediently cooperate with this final and permanent abolishment of her freedom. Other thoughts were about what her future life at the asylum might be like, if there was truly any chance of her getting back to her normal home, and if not, the hope that being locked up here might turn out to be not so bad after all.

Tina's thoughts were distracted, if only for a second or two, when they finally reached her room and opened the heavy steel door. With the entrance opened, they gave Tina a gentle push to allow her drugged body to stumble slowly into the room on her own. Inside, she could see that entire space was thickly padded on all four walls, the floor and even the ceiling. It was like walking on a giant marshmallow, her thick padded slippers making it hard to balance on the soft, smooth surface. There was a bed of some sort at the right side the room, but it seemed built in to the wall, and was as padded as everything else with no underside to hide under.

“We'll let you get comfortable and used to your new room until your family comes to visit, then you get dinner. I'll go over your schedule of psychiatric meetings, meals, and other events tomorrow. We all try our best to make sure new patients enjoy their time here.” Ginger waved softly as she spoke, not saying goodbye as much as see you later as the three other nurses gently led her to the side of the room and laid her out on her new bed. As they walked away, Tina turned her head to face them and opened her mouth. Perhaps to scream at her captors, perhaps to beg, perhaps to shout a plea for freedom, but whatever her intent, only a slow trickling of drool escaped her mouth as she watched for the first time the door of her padded cell slam shut, the door's soft inner surface standing flush with the wall as if no exit had ever been there.

Carrie and Tina's family did indeed come to visit later that day, and they would visit her many times more for all the rest of her days lived within these soft walls. It may not have seemed like it to her at the time, while she was struggling to even move and fight the drugs, but one day Tina eventually would come to enjoy her new life safe at the asylum. Her new home.

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See the messy version here, if you're into that: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/29073045/