Recruitment 1.6
"Hello everyone," Professor Moshe Darwin began, looking over the veritable sea of fellow men, women, and others of science, both in person and on screens. "We have something of an oddity to discuss."
"You're referring to Slut Life's new contestant, yes?" one of the other scientists asked.
Darwin nodded in his direction. "That is correct. Taylor Hebert has already proven to be quite the interesting specimen. As I am sure most of you are aware, she is from a section of the multiverse we have not previously examined. This, in and of itself, is nothing new. For those who have not been following recent developments as closely as others, she has an extradimensional probe implanted in her brain, leading back to a parallel world. This probe is only a minuscule fraction of what we have determined to be an organic supercomputer the size of a continent." He paused for a moment to let the excited muttering subside.
"Is it causing any undue influence on the subject?" called out one of the scientists, who was fingering her Trilobite pendant.
"We suspect so," Darwin confirmed, "though we are unsure to what extent. So far, all we have observed is that the subject is capable of directing every arthropod within her radius and receives sensory data in return. However, based on the preliminary reports concerning her world, it seems likely that the connection promotes violence to some unknown end."
Clearing his throat, Darwin continued. "Now, this selection process is going to be slightly different than usual. I know we usually all submit our ideas to a panel and have them select what they think would be most useful for the show or what would get the best ratings. This time, however, they want us to be more focused on analyzing this anomaly than testing any new procedures."
"Do we know where she's going to be based?" a scientist with floating lightning bolt epaulets asked over one of the video screens. "It would be a shame if she were based in the Xaglerth sector. We wouldn't be able to learn anything there."
"No," Darwin replied. "We have no plans of sending her to Xaglerth or any of the other more restrictive sectors. We might not even be able to get her off of Earth, actually," he admitted. "That is going to be the first challenge for whoever takes this assignment, along with anyone else who would like to add their expertise to the attempt."
"Is the issue with Miss Hebert or with the organic supercomputer?" another scientist asked, tipping his green and white striped hat back.
"If it's with the computer," the scientist with the epaulets commented, "I may be able to help with the transport, though I am, unfortunately, unable to devote myself to a long term research project at this time."
"Ah, thank you, Captain Andreyasn," Darwin replied. "That would be much appreciated. Now that transportation has been taken care of, we'll still need to make sure transporting the computer won't cause any major errors. It'd be horrible to get it moved and then have it stop working because it has an equivalent to DRM."
"I might know a someone," a wrinkled old man announced. "He's a bit of a whippersnapper, but he should be able to do the job."
"And he's not here?" another scientist called out mockingly. "What good could he be?"
"He's the best hacker I've ever met," the wrinkly man insisted. "He's also even lazier than my damn great grand uncle. But he'll help us, if we pose it as a challenge."
"Good, now that that's been settled," Darwin began, stopping anyone else from posing any objections, "who here is interested in a long term research project? Please indicate if you are."
About ten hands went up. "Alright, the lot of you, work out who'll be the lead scientist and contact point for Miss Hebert. The rest of you can either follow their lead or wait until we get another project."
One of the ten held up a hand again and called out, "How are we going to ensure we will have access to the subject?"
"Oh, that part will be simple," Darwin replied. "We're going to bribe her."
Once Taylor and Cindy were seated comfortably in the main room again, they got right down to business. "Now, I don't have any say in who is worth how much," Cindy began, "but I have to admit I find it strange that we only have two owners worth ten credits each, and I don't think you'd be interested in either of them. First we have the Pet Owner. They are very into pet play and will treat you like a dog or a cat or something. Sure, you'd get lots of attention and affection, but they also tend to take their pets for walks in the park… naked and on all fours, leash included."
"I'm definitely not interested in that," Taylor agreed.
Cindy nodded, moving on. "And the other ten credit owner is a yandere."
"What is a yandere?"
"I'm not sure the best way to describe it," Cindy replied. After a few moments of thought, she tried, "Basically, a yandere is one of those creepy stalker types. If you pay attention to them, they'll be all sweet and pleasant, but they do not like it if you have any other owners. Or friends. Or a job that takes you away from them. And when they're unhappy, they tend to get violent."
Taylor blinked. "Why is that even an option?"
Cindy shrugged. "Like I said, they're rather sweet so long as you don't push any of their buttons. Some people like that kind of thing and it can be good for ratings."
"But… why?" Taylor asked. Even with how lonely she was she wouldn't want someone like that as a best friend. Probably. Not if she had warning before hand and other choices, at least. "Don't answer that. Let's just move on. What's next?"
Scrolling down the screen, Cindy said, "We've got five owners worth fifteen credits. First we've got a horny old man, whose primary concern would be to fuck you as much as possible. They tend to be a bit dirty and smelly, and generally unpleasant. If you want a thorough dicking, they're not the worst choice, but there's still better choices. Next we have a former empress. I'm not sure why we have so many of them floating around, but they're all bossy and feel superior to everyone else. They've… also left a note saying that if you select one of them, someone would be provided but they ask that you look elsewhere if at all possible. Huh. Odd."
"I seem to be getting that reaction a lot, too," Taylor griped sourly.
"Moving on," Cindy said, "we've got two monster-types. First is a slime girl. They're all fairly interchangeable and are kind, cheerful, and playful. The only problem is that their idea of play usually involves engulfing you and filling any orifice they can find. Not unpleasant, necessarily, but it's definitely a different experience. Still, they're fairly easy to deal with. The other monster type is a tentacle monster. They're very much plant like, and have vine-like tentacles that seek out moisture, which, in practice, means they'll fill every hole and try to milk any dicks you might have and will go after your tits if you're lactating. Of the two, I'd pick the slime girl. She'd be much more gentle and can kind of be considered a form of massage."
"I could probably put up with the slime girl," Taylor decided after a few moments of consideration. "I'm not sure I'd enjoy the others you've mentioned so far from this batch. What are the other two options?"
"First we have a witch," Cindy continued. "For some reason, a lot of them end up cursed, enchanted, or something, with an extremely overactive libido during the early years of their training. They tend to be sexually demanding and can tire most people out. It also doesn't help that they still like to practice their magic whenever they can. It can get pretty surreal at times. It's lot of fun for someone who's fairly adventurous, but keeping up with a witch is definitely a chore."
"I'll pass for now," Taylor dryly said. "What's the last option?"
"Siblings," Cindy said bluntly before elaborating. "If you want, our scientists can take some of your DNA, modify it a little, and grow you two new siblings. We'll also implant them with information based off of your memories so that it'll be like they actually grew up with you. If you've ever wanted a little sister or brother, it's a pretty good deal, and with the setup we're using for you, they shouldn't have any difficulty in going back home with you, if that's what you and they want."
"That… I'm not really sure I like the sound of that," Taylor hedged. "Is it really alright to make people just for the show?"
"If it were just for the show, I'd say no," Cindy replied, "but you've already decided to keep your apartment when your year is up, so you can just as easily have your new siblings stay on. Besides, even if a contestant decided to not keep their siblings, it' not like we kill them or anything. They're still people. We train them up and get them jobs."
"I did always want a sister," Taylor admitted. "I mean, growing up there was always..." she trailed off sadly. "Still, having siblings could be neat. Can you add them to my maybe list?"
"Sure, no problem," Cindy said, making a note. "That also finishes off the fifteen credit owners. Do you want to take a break or push through the five twenty credit owners?"
Taylor shifted a bit in her seat, testing how stiff she was. "I'm good to go on. What's up for the next batch?"
"Well," Cindy began, looking over the screen. "The first one is a tentacle monster… because I misread the form earlier. Maybe we should take a break after this set, because I don't want to be misreading things and giving you bad information."
Taylor shrugged. "I guess we could take a break, if it'll help. If you want to finish up these ones first, that's fine."
"Let's get through this section and see how we both feel," Cindy decided. "First up we have a supervillain… who is worth no credits. Really? Why is he even in this section? So, I guess covering him in bees or something could be amusing, but I don't think it's worth any consideration, especially if they aren't even going to bother giving you anything for putting up with that nonsense." She scrolled the screen up and down for a moment before saying, "And next up we have a brand new sexbot, straight off the production lines. They're part of our generic production model, so they all have a fairly basic AI and need to train on actual people to refine their code. It's not too bad of a gig, though it may be a bit on the rough side starting out."
"They can't just fix the bugs on one and copy that programming to the others?" Taylor asked.
"Most people prefer a more natural sexbot," Cindy explained, "which you can only really get by having them learn organically."
"I guess that makes sense. So, who else is in this set?" Taylor asked.
"Next up, we have four different flavors of dominatrices, including one in the twenty-five credit bracket," Cindy replied. "And they left a note. Apparently, they don't think they'd be able to work with you appropriately, though the Engineer Dominatrices are interested in having you stress test some of their equipment at some point. Apparently they've had trouble with ants causing shorts in the past and think you'd be able to help them improve their products."
Taylor blinked in confusion. "How often do entire groups of people decide they don't want to deal with someone?"
"Not terribly often," Cindy admitted. "It's usually only when they think they'd cause more harm than good, or when they think the contestant could be dangerous to them. Even then, you're a special case. No amount of tying you up or restraining you in exotic materials is going to stop you from being able to retaliate if they push you the wrong way and don't notice in time." She smirked and continued, "That's why only the engineer is at all interested in working with you. They can conduct their work from a mile away without any issue, while the others would need to be in the same room as you. And half of what the engineers want you for is making their equipment more robust." After a moment of thought, she added, "I'm sure some of the other groups will still nominate somebody, just in case you want them as your owners."
"Oh… that's nice." Taylor looked over the images still on the screen before asking, "So, since none of them are interested, what's next?"
"Right," Cindy said, scrolling the screen down. "Next up we have the agents. I'm reasonably sure most of them are not actually working for the government, but you never know for sure. They'd act as your handler, sending you out into the city to conduct missions, that are basically excuses for some exhibitionist behavior. They tend to get more and more extreme as time goes on, but, with just a year, they probably wouldn't have time to get too far… or they'd speed up their timeline. All in all, it can be a lot of fun, but you definitely need to be into that kind of thing to get the most out of it."
"That doesn't sound particularly fun," Taylor decided. "I think I'll pass."
"Right. Well, next up is… come on, really?" Cindy demanded. "Who drew up this contract, anyway? This is what I get for grabbing the current standard contract."
"What's wrong?" Taylor asked.
"The next one up is an amazon, who also isn't worth any credits," Cindy spat. "Seriously, why didn't they put all of the zero-credit choices together? Anyway, the amazons are into dominance play, so they'll tend to pin you down and force you to get off. On the bright side, they'd probably consider the bugs a challenge."
Taylor blanched. "Why aren't they worth some amount of credits?" she asked. "That sounds a lot more intensive than some of the others you mentioned."
Cindy shrugged. "I don't know. It could be a typo or programming error, but, unfortunately, I don't see that changing anything in your contract. I will definitely be bringing it up later to see what is going on with it, though."
"That's good," Taylor said. "Where were we again? We're part way through the twenty-five credit owners, now, right?"
"Yes," Cindy confirmed. "We have three more listed, but one of them is grayed out, which is unprecedented, as far as I know. Let's see why." She clicked on the grayed out option and a popup flashed across the screen.
"Option restricted due to safety concerns?" Taylor asked incredulously. "It's because I control bugs, isn't it?"
"Well, yes," Cindy agreed, "though this time it wasn't the owners making the choice. That's an Executive Lockout." She looked at the option again before adding, "I think it's because you might be able to, how did you put it, Master an Insect Queen, and we have no idea what effect that would have on either of you."
"Insect Queens are literal insects, aren't they?" Taylor asked.
"Yes, yes they are."
"Probably for the best, then," Taylor decided. "What's next?"
"Next up is a zookeeper," Cindy continued, moving to the next graphic on the screen. "It's definitely a good choice if your into beasti… and you're obviously not," she trailed off noticing Taylor's sickened expression. "Moving on, we have a collection of mad scientists."
"They're looking for an experimental subject, aren't they?" Taylor asked.
"Usually," Cindy agreed. "If it helps, they're contractually required to return you to normal. Eventually. If you want them to." Looking at the screen, she noticed a flashing icon. "Hang on for a moment, it looks like they have a message for you." She clicked on the icon, causing video to start.
"Good day, Miss Hebert. My name is Professor Moshe Darwin, and I am the Dean of Mad Science, for lack of a better word," the man began. "Typically, this message would include some of the more interesting experiments and procedures we would like to test on you and rely on your sense of scientific or morbid curiosity to have you select one of our number. If you were a normal candidate, the scientist who had the most interesting ideas would be here suggesting them." He paused for effect before continuing. "Frankly, my dear, you are not a typical candidate. No, you represent something very unusual and much more interesting. You, young lady, are an oddity."
"Wonderful," Taylor muttered to herself in the pause Professor Darwin had left.
"To that end, we have decided that you represent a much better opportunity for research than for experimentation," Darwin continued. "As such, if you deign to select this option for your owner, Dr. Patience Warner will head a team of ten scientists to conduct the research." He paused for a moment and continued, "We've already learned some fascinating things about the source of your abilities, and we are very much interested in learning more. We would, of course, share any findings with you. And, to sweeten the deal, we've come to an arrangement with the Slut Life executives."
"Due to some potential… issues…" the scientist began, "revolving around the source of your powers and their intention to continue having candidates from your corner of the multiverse, we'll be able to supply you an additional twenty credits if you sign on with us. Additionally, if you agree to test a few of our more… risky… theories, we will increase your reward by another twenty credits. If you need any more details while making your decision, don't hesitate to contact me. We look forward to working with you in the future. Thank you for your contribution to Multiversal Science."
Taylor stared at the screen as the video stopped. "That's not normal, is it?" she asked.
"No, it really isn't," Cindy agreed. "I can't remember it ever happening before." Standing, she continued, "I need to check with my boss to see if this is legit. I'll be back shortly, alright?"
"Yeah, alright," Taylor agreed. "And see if you can find out what they'd want to test, alright? I'd rather have a decent idea of what I'd be getting into before I make any decisions about that."
"Will do," Cindy asserted, quickly packing up her equipment and making her way to the door. "I'll be back as soon as I can with some answers for you."
