✅ Unusual Vacancy

Part 6 - The Uniform

Here's a chapter dedicated to twilight. Everyone should say thank you to her for letting you read this a little earlier.

Amy Peltier took a deep breath, and pushed open the door in front of her. When she woke up that morning, she'd been hoping that a job interview would go well even though she knew it was incredibly unlikely. Then she'd gotten to the Yoyos Nursery, been met by an incredibly friendly (if somewhat enigmatic) human secretary who gave her name only as Cass, and pretty much been accepted on the spot. The only thing to worry about was that they needed consent to access employees' implants, which she'd eventually decided wasn't the massive worry she'd built it up to in her head. Cass had assured her that they wouldn't want to change her sex or species, and those were the only things she was really worried about.

"Oh," Cass's voice came from behind her just before the changing room door swung closed. Amy turned back, and saw that the secretary was thumbing through messages on her phone. An old style one, with an actual screen on the device body. Maybe Cass had some religious objection, or some medical issue that prevented her getting any implants at all. "I just got a message about the rota, it seems Miss Ridge won't be able to come in today, so we have an open slot. Would you be willing to start immediately, if we can reach an agreement?"

Amy stopped, frozen in thought. After everything else she'd looked at, this seemed like a dream job. But she still worried, she still wasn't sure if there was something big she was missing here. But she couldn't stand another six months working in the coffee shop, always expecting to be laid off in favour of someone who better fitted the boss's desires.

"Sure. Like a final test, I guess."

"Well, if you'd be willing to register your implant?" Cass held out a sleek black rod, a chip reader. "Consent to all changes specified in vacancy listing. Including: Consent to physical changes, but not to change of sex, gender, or species, no change of skin, coat, or hair colouration without explicit permission. Consent to mental changes only where necessary to ensure age-appropriate behaviour and a safe environment, subject to limitations in masking form only. All imposed changes to be reversed on or before twenty-two days."

Twenty-two days. Like it had said in the job listing, if she took on this job she would be on-site for most of a month. It was a long time, but could still compare favourably to working in a coffee shop where the drudgery made every day seem like an eternity.

Again, Amy hesitated. Mental changes sounded scary, but she immediately realised the intention there. She was going to be looking after kids, pretty much 24/7. She might get woken up by some kid needing emotional support or something, or be expected to sleep with them. So to make sure all their bases were covered, they'd use the implant to put blocks in her mind. She'd heard plenty of protests a few years ago when a major fast food chain made all their staff incapable of cursing while in uniform, but she had been on the side that argued it was a good idea if they were going to be serving kids who might cause trouble and might not know those words yet.

If she was going to be so close to all these kids, it entirely made sense for them to remove the capability for sexual thoughts for a few weeks, and to be honest that would probably be a welcome break. It was a wholesome, innocent environment where nothing inappropriate for kids could be found. And masking meant she was safe. All her explicit thoughts, urges, and memories would still be in her brain; she just wouldn't be able to access them until the end of this first assignment.

"That's a pretty neat idea, I guess," she gave a nervous smile, then touched the scanner with her thumb and repeated the words. Formally giving her verbal consent, she could feel the faint tugging of her implant's neurochemical impulses at the base of her skull. Maybe the sensation was all in her mind, but she knew that it was analysing her brain, building a fuzzy boolean model of exactly what permissions she was giving the nursery based on her own understanding. Now, once that scanner was plugged back into the building's main computer, they would be able to reprogram her body and mind to make any change that she'd agreed to.

"Okay, I've got the job then? Just this probation period, I guess. Will I be allowed to call my family and friends once I'm on the clock, or should I drop a message to let them know I'm going off-grid?"

"We prefer to keep our networks internal only. Wouldn't want bad news from the real world getting in to contaminate our little ones' safe haven. Would you like to get changed, and show us what you think would be a good appearance to encourage the little tykes out there to be your friends?"

Amy nodded and smiled, and went back into the changing room. She quickly shrugged out of her interview clothes and put them in a locker. It registered her implant's code as well, and she knew right away that nobody else would be able to get at her stuff. She kept her phone out for now, though. Then she pulled on the staff uniform, a simple tunic top and shorts that looks almost like a bigger version of what the kids were wearing. On her left breast pocket was a name badge. As she was adjusting the cord belt, letters grew on the badge to spell out 'Amy' in childish script capitals, with a pink paw print before the letters and a little heart after. Smart clothes, then, that made things easier.

She got out her phone and fired up the Morph app. As she'd expected, it was displaying the serial numbers of the shirt, shorts, and canvas shoes under her name in the top corner of the screen. First she reduced her bust size slightly, figuring that it would be better for her to be able to run around if she had to keep up with the kids for any reason. She stretched her arms out a little, making sure the top was still comfortable. It had adjusted perfectly to her new figure, and was just tight enough for comfort. She thought for a moment and then took an inch or two off her height, figuring that it would be easier to relate to the older kids if she was closer to their size. The big change was going to be her colouring, though. At present it was almost natural, a gradient between pale cream and rich golden brown. She was happy with that, and wouldn't want to change it, but maybe she could make her purple spots a little more obvious.

She pulled her hair out of its bun, and shook her head to spread it out a little. She could have done that quicker just by tapping a button on her phone, but it always felt more enjoyable to let it down the old-fashioned way. She presumed she wouldn't need to stick to food preparation hygiene guidelines here, so it didn't need to be so tightly controlled. A single tap of the screen, and waves of pure lavender rolled down from her crown to the tip of her hair. Another tap and the colour got deeper and richer. She looked at it in the mirror, and hesitated for a while. The next adjustment took a little more than one tap, coding for quite a complex pattern. When she'd finished she pressed 'execute' and watched the colour spread down. Now she had a pastel pink on one side of her face and lavender on the other, connected by a smooth gradient round the back. Almost like a certain trio of pastel-coloured tigers in a popular movie franchise, though not close enough for anyone to claim identity infringement.

That done, she adjusted her spots again. They were still the same rich, dark purple they'd been before, but with a pepper-shaker dappling of paler fur, including all the colours from her mane. Black from a distance, purple up close, and a whole range of different colours if you looked at the detail. She hoped she'd judged right, making herself a mix of cute, interesting, and playful. This appearance would surely get the kids' attention, and she was sure that once they were talking to her she'd be able to keep them entertained.

Her hair was still a bit lacking, though. There was something missing that the waves of colourisation didn't quite make up for. Waves, that was it. A slight detour into a sub-sub-menu and she found a preset saved several years before, when she'd hung around with some psi-punk kids in high school. She didn't want the colours of that style, nanoblack really wouldn't fit in too well here. But she could grab the style and thickness, adjust it to be a bit longer. A long bob, extended so that it spilled over her shoulders, and gentle waves so that it didn't look flat. The reason she'd gone back to that old style, though, was the increased elasticity. When she turned her head, her hair swished out super dramatically, and she knew that if any of the kids decided to pull it, it would stretch rather than hurting her.

She looked at herself in the mirror again, and declared the new style perfect. Still, maybe she should adjust her height a little more. Closer to the kids' size, though that kind of adjustment was slow. She punched in another six inch reduction, expecting it would take maybe two minutes for her to settle down at a child-friendly height. That done, her phone went into the locker with everything else, and she headed out to see if this was acceptable.