“River?” Dr Kathryn stepped out into the gleaming reception area of Thorne Biotech, addressing the sole candidate left waiting to be interviewed. As Director of Research, she was in desperate need of a personal assistant. Someone who could handle all the tedious tasks that came with the job and take a few blows in the name of scientific progress. The successful candidate wouldn’t be her first-ever assistant, of course... Kathryn had a rather poor track record of assistants lasting no more than a few months. What could she say? It was a dangerous profession. Still, she had high hopes for her new assistant. Or, rather, she’d had high hopes until she’d gone through dozens of highly capable candidates, none of whom had met her totally reasonable standards.
Perhaps the last would fare better?
“Yes?” The young woman hopped up quickly. A little shy though eager to please, Kathryn thought. She studied River briefly, trying not to make it too obvious, but yes… she had potential.
“Welcome to Thorne Biotech,” Kathryn said, smiling warmly, “if you could just follow me?” Not waiting for a reply, Kathryn stepped back into the corridor, turning smartly to head for her office. River briskly made to follow, quickly falling into place behind Kathryn. The scientist smiled slightly to herself, hearing the footsteps slow to match her own, glancing in a reflection to see River just behind and to the side. The perfect place for an assistant.
River, naturally, had other things on her mind. Rehearsing a few common interview questions over in her head, for one. She was having trouble finding jobs in her field, so a position like this was too good to pass up. However, it wasn’t long before her thoughts started to wander, distracted by the various laboratories branching off from the corridor. Each lab had some new scientific wonders or engineering marvels inside, jostling for River’s attention. One was filled with verdant plants, more exotic than any River had seen before, threatening to burst out of the room. Another full of gleaming chrome instruments, all carefully aimed at a swirling array of plasma. Of course, these were just the public laboratories, the sorts of things Thorne Biotech wanted visitors (not to mention prospective staff) to see.
The pair arrived at Kathryn’s office, a circular room flanked by windows offering a panopticon of the laboratories around it. In the centre was a round desk, though perhaps ‘command centre’ was more appropriate, given the number of displays surrounding Kathryn’s chair. She sat down, gesturing for River to take the more modest seat opposite. The nervous River dutifully sat, trying to hide her flinch of pain as something sharp dug into her side, before discreetly brushing whatever it was away…
“So,” Kathryn began, pretending to take a moment to look through River’s resume. Her eyes flicked back and forth between River, her resume, and one of her many monitors. It was currently tasked with tracking the level of nanites working their way through River’s bloodstream. They were smart little things, programmed to work with the raw material of River’s body, and reshape her body and mind into something that would be a bit more… robust against the rigours of science.
So Kathryn started the interview. She began with a few basic questions, partly to let River relax a little more, and partly to let those nanites get used to the way her mind worked. A good baseline was important for any scientific process, after all. Besides, she needed to give them a bit of time to spread evenly through River’s body. Once the pleasantries were out of the way, and the nanites had settled in, Kathryn turned to more direct questions.
“So, do you have any experience in this position?”
“Yes, I’ve actually been your assistant for a few years now,” River replied. She blinked a few times, not quite sure why she’d said it. It was obviously nonsense, the kind of lie that should get her thrown out of the interview. Yet she’d said it as if on autopilot, speaking almost on instinct. Stranger still, Kathryn seemed perfectly happy with the answer, just smiling to herself as she jotted something down.
Good, Kathryn thought, the nanites are working perfectly, already. Side note, she looks quite cute when she’s flustered.
“That’s good,” Kathryn continued, acting completely unfazed. “And what kind of duties have you performed?”
River braced herself, trying to mentally prepare the correct answer to the question, which would have been something along the lines of “I’m sorry, that was just a joke, I haven’t actually worked here yet.”
“As you know, my duties are quite varied, covering all aspects of laboratory management and supporting your day-to-day activities…” River’s mouth said, defying her mind, rattling off a laundry list of tasks a lab assistant would do, from the mundane to the bizarre. Weirdly, the more she said, the more… familiar they seemed to feel? Maybe she had been a lab assistant before? “... and, of course, being available to perform any other menial tasks you’ve asked of me.”
Kathryn sat, unflinching, jotting down some more notes. Each task River had listed, Kathryn knew, was just one of many duties gradually being programmed into her mind. What skills modern universities couldn’t offer River, the fruits of Kathryn’s science would provide in less than an hour.
Of course, there was something else Kathryn was keeping an eye on: River herself. Already, her skin was beginning to change. It was pretty subtle, and certainly River hadn’t seemed to notice, but her skin was taking on a peculiar shine in the bright lights of Kathryn’s office. Imperfections and blemishes fading away, the fuzz and roughness of her skin flattening into unnatural smoothness. Her new, artificial skin was designed to be corrosion-resistant and impervious to most of the chemical damage or physical trauma she might face in a… laboratory mishap. Officially, the aesthetic changes were simply a happy bonus.
River, as expected, was oblivious. She was far too busy being flustered by her own answers. Her first reply could have been dismissed as nerves, but her second was… something else. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, though there was a growing thought at the back of her mind that it was probably fine, she shouldn’t worry about it. After all, Kathryn looked happy, and wasn’t that the point of an interview? She wasn’t going to blow it just because she got nervous.
River shifted on her seat a little, oblivious to the subtle squeak from under her skirt. She adjusted the neckline of her shirt a little. It was probably just her nerves, but something about her clothes was starting to feel oddly… uncomfortable? She’d dressed smartly for the occasion, eager to make a good impression. A red ascot carefully tied around her neck, a white shirt smartly tucked into her simple black skirt, with gleaming black high-heels. They’d made sense in the morning, something to make a good impression, though now part of her thought - no, realised - they weren’t exactly practical lab wear. River made a mental note to get herself some proper attire as soon as possible. If she got the job, that is.
River was so wrapped up thinking about her clothes, tugging the ascot loose around her neck, she’d missed Kathryn asking her the next question. Worse, River had missed that she was already answering it, rattling off something about lab safety protocol as if it was second nature. For a brief moment, River was wracked with perfect awareness that something very strange was happening. The next moment, her subconscious and conscious thoughts folded together into one, and she was happily detailing the benefits of inert, wipe-clean surfaces.
Kathryn kept nodding along, annotating the nanite’s readouts with more notes. Never mind the job interview, this was great data on their performance. Still, further R&D could wait. She looked back over at River, smiling patiently in anticipation of the next question. Her skin gleamed, reflecting the myriad lights and displays dotted around Kathryn’s office. It was totally latex, artificial and perfect, yet River hadn’t seemed to have noticed at all. The nanites were programmed to make her effectively oblivious to her changes, but just how far could Kathryn push that? She stood, tugging her lab coat down and tucking a tablet under one arm. As Kathryn paced around her desk, River’s gaze followed.
“I’d like to ask a few more direct questions,” Kathryn said. “Just give me the first answer that comes to mind, as quickly as you can.”
River nodded.
“How are you feeling?” Kathryn began.
“Pretty good, thanks,” River replied, “why do you ask?”
“How do you feel about latex?” Kathryn replied quickly, ignoring River’s own question.
“Well, like I was saying, that would be an ideal material for many lab applications. I imagine we will be working wi–”
“Have you looked at your reflection lately?”
“No? Sorry, is something wrong?”
“Your skin is shining.”
“Well, I did moisturise this mor–”
“Your skin is latex.”
River didn’t reply, her expression frozen mid-thought. Kathryn allowed herself a slight smile, imagining the turmoil in River’s subconscious.
“Sorry, could you repeat the question?” River replied, her mind blank of whatever Kathryn said before.
“I was asking how you’d feel about wearing latex,” Kathryn replied, smiling warmly, “the uniform comes with the job, naturally.”
“Oh, of course, I’d be happy to,” River said, smiling through gleaming lips. She reached up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her eye. In reality, her fingers brushed against the inflated shape of her latex hair. It crumpled a little, bulging as the air inside protested, then snapped back.
Kathryn suppressed a giggle. Of course, it wasn’t just River’s skin that had been changing. Oh, no, the nanites had much more work to do. With her body transforming, a rippling tide of latex had flowed over her hair. Wrapping individual strands together, shaping them into neater curves, buoyed by air from within. By now, they’d almost finished their work, black fading to pink as the latex ran down to the tips of her hair. With her head enveloped, though, the nanites were making another change… purely for functional reasons, of course. With a pair of fwomp sounds, two long and pointed shapes sprang upwards from River’s head, the perfectly shaped rabbit’s ears vibrating from side to side as they settled.
“How’s your hearing?” Kathryn asked the oblivious River.
“Perfect, why?” River replied, new ears twitching slightly.
“Oh, just checking,” Kathryn said, jotting another note down.
The interview continued, for a while, returning to more mundane questions about her skills, both clerical and scientific. Each time River dutifully responded as if she’d been in the role for years, the knowledge bubbling up in her mind mere moments after each question was asked. The turmoil from before had died down, her mind adjusting more and more. Of course, she really had been working at Apex Laboratories for years, hadn’t she? This was just a placement interview…
River shifted her feet under her chair. Though she was fully focused on answering Kathryn’s questions, of course, something was distracting her. A growing feeling of pressure in her shoes, like her feet were pressing out against them. Which they were, of course. Just like the rest of her body, air was rapidly filling them, expanding outwards against her rubbery skin. She still had the same mass, of course, but the nanites were dutifully pushing it all to her skin, filling her with air. Turning her whole body into a living airbag, of sorts, should a wayward experiment detonate beside her.
From just above her knees, her latex skin had started to toughen, turning jet black. A creeping, tightening feeling as the thicker latex spread down past her ankles, running under her shoes. Her feet swelled slightly, straining against the leather of her heels. Toes grew outwards, pressing together, merging into a single smooth shape that now pressed against the narrow point of her shoes. Underneath, the soles of her feet thickened, turning into dense rubber. Her shoes started to stretch under the strain as River’s heels grew thicker and thicker. Stitching started to snap, the soles of her shoes tearing free, revealing the sturdier (though still stylish) boots within. She brushed her feet against each other, kicking the tatters of her old shoes onto the floor before her.
River, naturally, noticed nothing except a moment’s discomfort. Something had just been stuck on her boots, and she’d kicked it free. That was all.
Kathryn noticed everything, though she was careful not to let it show. She was sure her new assistant would tidy the mess away, just as soon as they were finished.
“Now, can you give an example of how you mediated a workplace conflict?” Kathryn asked, and River dutifully answered.
River fidgeted in her seat again. The squeaks from her ass were getting louder, though she still didn’t seem to notice. There was a new, growing pressure, this time at the base of her spine. Something pushing outwards under her skirt, her ass swelling outwards to strain against the fabric. River shifted again, towards the edge of her seat, slipping her skirt down somewhat discreetly. With a fwump and a squeak, a bunny-like tail sprang out, curling behind her. Black and pink to match her hair, it hissed as it expanded outwards in a rush of air, latex skin pulled taut as it settled against the tips of her equally inflated hair.
Relieved, River continued to tug and smooth out her skirt, though instead of fabric her fingers were pulling against smooth latex. The new skirt was part of her, emerging from around her waist, flowing almost like liquid down around her legs. Her old skirt was pushed ahead of it, slipping down her legs and boots, unceremoniously kicked away to join the tattered remains of her shoes. Freed from her old skirt, her ass swelled out more, River’s thickening thighs pulling the new material of her skirt taut around them.
River just smiled, setting her hands down in her lap, “Sorry, you were saying?”
The interview continued. To an observer, there wasn’t much of the old River left. Only the rumpled ascot and shirt to show the person who’d walked into Kathryn’s office not so long ago. The new person sitting there was still River, of course, just… remoulded, and repurposed. Though there was still some work to do.
“I was asking how you think we should manage our nanite projects,” Kathryn asked, her questions shifting far more into weekly minutiae.
“Well, I believe the latest prototypes have almost finished testing,” Kathryn’s would-be personal assistant replied, unwittingly referring to her own transformation. Part of her assistant’s new duties would be reviewing experiment logs. What would happen, Kathryn idly wondered, when she came across her own?
Kathryn’s interviewee was fidgeting at her neck again. Still just as cute, Kathryn thought, this will be an assistant worth keeping. This time her fingers moved past the fabric of her shirt, finding the latex collar emerging from her skin. It matched that of Kathryn’s lab coat, if much tighter. A high collar of white, fastened by a band of silver at the front. It was just the tip of the iceberg, really. The smooth white latex was covering the interviewee’s torso, broken up by a fine line of red running above her breasts and around the tops of her arms. The white flowed down, the ends of her “sleeves” flaring out against the fabric of her shirt. Her breasts swelled, straining against her bra, though with a sharp snap it soon fell to the floor beside her. They squeezed together, flattening slightly into smooth curves as if shaped by some unseen mould, matching the profile of breasts wrapped tightly in latex. Which they were, in a way.
Not pausing her reply, the interviewee’s hands worked to unbutton her shirt, revealing the lab coat her torso had become. Though shorter (and much shinier), it was a mirror of Kathryn’s. A collar rose around the interviewee’s neck, tight against her skin. A gleaming, silvery clasp at the front emerged and fastened across her neck, as if sealing her in. As the director had said, the uniform came with the job, and it was only sensible that her assistant’s matched her own. Across the assistant’s body, latex skin pinched and tightened, forming thick seams around her joints, and any other part of her that bulged out. Aesthetically, they were designed to mimic the seams of real clothes, though a helpful bonus was making sure the newly-inflated assistant kept her body shape… no matter how much she creased and crumpled.
“Right, well, thank you,” Kathryn said, keying in the kill command on the nanites. In sequence, they powered down inside her, though a few still had one final task to perform. “I think that will be all. I’m sure you have duties to attend to.”
“Of course, Director,” her assistant smiled, standing to leave, quickly bundling a few items of trash at her feet. I must have a word with the custodial staff later.
“Wait, you forgot this,” Kathryn said sharply, holding out her assistant’s ID badge. “I hope I don’t have to remind you again.” It was strange to think her new assistant had been that shy woman she’d found in the waiting room, but Kathryn had high hopes she’d do well in the role. This was just one final test to be sure.
“Sorry, Director,” the assistant took the badge — her face, her position, and no name at all — and affixed it to her body, “I’ll be more careful in future.” All thoughts of a job interview had vanished, replaced with the memory of a routine meeting and a slight reprimand. Still, at least she got the job.
The assistant turned to leave, taking a few squeaking steps towards the door. Kathryn admired the shape of her. Latex thighs squeaked together, her ass swaying under her skirt, each cheek bulging a little as air was squeezed from side to side. Above, her rabbit’s tail twitched about, something bulging at the tip. With a slight squeak and pop, a nozzle emerged. A dark metallic pearl, the same as you’d find on an ordinary pool toy, and the final touch that completed the assistant’s new form.