I’d only paid a bit of attention to Kryser Portals for the first couple years. I was aware of them — they were amazing things after all — but it seemed too… I couldn’t say. Too expensive. Too extravagant. Celebrities would use them. They were for pop stars and actresses, not for folks like me.

I was just another unemployed 25 year old girl with a masters degree. Overeducated, overqualified, under-experienced. The one who kept almost getting the job.

Well, there’s bills to pay. And it’s nice to be able to go out for a beer sometimes. So when I saw a job opening up at a new retail outlet called BodyWorx, I figured, what the heck. I needed the money.

The interview was about five minutes long. The woman, who was named Mary and looked to be in her late 30s, looked over my resume.

“So, Miss Kacie Mayes… Quite a lot of education,” she remarked.

“Yea,” I said. “I’ve always wanted to do statistical research. Sociology. Those kind of big-picture ideas.”

“So why apply here?”

“I need a job.”

She nodded. “Well, I can’t argue with that. You seem like you have your life together. When could you start?”

“Today I guess.”

“Perfect. You’re aware of what we do here, right?”

“I know … a little bit.”

“We’re a retail store focused on custom body enhancement. We use Kryser portals, which I’m sure you must have seen a little bit about.”

“I mean, yea. On youtube and stuff.”

“Ever seen a live demo?”

“Oh, a couple times. I remember a concert I went to, what was her name… Alea Krusoe? She used them in part of the dance routine. She would throw her head up in the air and catch it. And you know, every once in a while I see someone who’s used them to … I don’t know, like robot arms or something.”

“Well, our approach is a little different, mainly that it’s more consumer focused.”

“What sort of consumers do you cater to anyway?”

“Oh, you’d be surprised. Some of them are just looking for a way to be different — typical ‘alternative’ tastes and such. Others actually use them for…”

She paused and looked to the side.

“Well, I guess you could say there’s a sexual component.”

I giggled.

“Anyway, if you want the job, it’s yours. We just had an employee quit, and I have a hole in the schedule right now.”

“Yea, I guess I’ll take it.”

“Excellent. Take this paperwork, and go get some lunch, and come back and we’ll get started with the training.”

So that was it. I was employed. At least, sorta. I couldn’t imagine the pay would be any good, but at least there were benefits. And who knows, it sounded like an interesting experience. I had a feeling it could be… well… I actually liked the idea of getting to play with the portals. They were expensive and showy, but at the same time… actually fascinating. Completely fantastical things. Maybe it would be fun.

I ate a chicken wrap and filled out the tax forms, read a bland corporate manual about dress codes and customer service, then headed back to meet Mary for training.

I really had no idea what I was in for next.

To begin with, it was my first time in BodyWorx. But to be blunt, they sold — um… — body ‘enhancements’. Meaning, replacement body parts. So you could really be like “Hey, I don’t like my arms, why don’t I go buy some new ones.”

I suppose the parts themselves were … cloned? Robotic? But they looked, well, real. I started to wonder how many people I knew who might use them.

I tried to take it in stride. After all, if I was going to work there, I’d have to get used to it, right? So I looked around a bit while I waited for Mary.

The other thing that was almost too much was the head section. That’s right. Heads. You could just go buy a different head. I had no idea how much, but they had to be expensive. This wasn’t the sort of store with things like price tags. But there, sitting in plexiglass boxes, were real-looking and apparently somewhat functional heads. They smiled vacantly, and looked around, but didn’t seem to really be ‘thinking.’

I started reading the text next to one of them, a very pretty red-head with bright curls.

‘Ginger’ is our deluxe red-head model. She comes with the standard package of fully-customizable eyes and facial features. She has a vocal synthesizer that can be used to play your own voice, or one of many other thousands of pitch-perfect voices. Her eyes can see in just 10% of the normal light required by most ordinary persons, and a patented micropore skin keeps her looking fresh and gorgeous even at the end of the night…

“Are you ready to begin?” asked Mary, startling me a bit.

“Ah… yea,” I said. “Let’s get started.”

As she led me to the back, I was trying to process just what — would I actually replace my own head? I knew it was temporary. It could be fun. But shouldn’t I be uneasy about something like that? I couldn’t say. Really, it just made me curious more than anything else. What would a different head feel like? How would people react?

We passed a few other items, that were much more artificial-looking. In fact, it seemed like those were specifically the point.

“We’ll start by showing you the KPG-100. This is the employee model, and you’ll use it when you first get to work.”

“It’s a portal generator?”

“That’s correct. The floor models use a KPG-202, which is a more flexible type of machine, but the essence of them is pretty simple. You, or the customer will put on the appropriate portal shell, you use the generator to open the portal. Then you can collapse one side or the other and apply the relevant device. For you, this will be the base model Sensa.

She handed me a flexible strip of metal. In the middle of it was a white oval with a speaker, and there seemed to be…

“What does this do?”

“It’s capable of replacing all of our senses and communicating those into your nervous system that will be in the collapsed portal. Or to use plain english, it does everything your head can do.”

“So wait… this is going to become my head?”

Mary nodded. “Essentially yes. Although, to be technical about it, once we collapse the portal, your head will remain effectively attached to you, but it will be in the negative space of the portal.”

“All right. I just … This is how the employees here work?”

“It was part of the dress code section of the manual.”

“Okay, yea, I was just kind of skimming. Can you tell me why?”

“Well, number one is that it showcases the technology as safe. If the customer can see that a salesperson is using it with no ill effects, it will help assuage any doubts they have about trying it out themselves. But there are some other reasons — it allows you to test products more easily, and it’s a unique branding point for the company.”

“Okay,” I nodded. “Well, let’s try it.”

I let out some nervous and excited laughter, just thinking about what I’d just agreed to.

“Great,” said Mary. “So first, you put on the Sensa collar right around your neck.”

“Up at the top or at the bottom.”

“Whatever you like. We’re not that strict about it really. Some employees like to ‘show a bit of stump’. I know that sounds silly, but you kind of have to keep a sense of humor about this.”

“Sure. Well, I’ll just… in the middle to start.”

I clasped the ‘Sensa’ around the middle of my neck.

“Now we press the ready button,” said Mary, showing me the obvious button on the machine. The display will show the power spooling up and it’ll beep when it’s ready to go. While you’re waiting, you can put this on.

She picked up a large white … well, it looked like a motorcycle helmet a bit, except without a visor that flipped up. It totally encased my head, but the glass on the inside was one-way and I was able to see through it.

The machine made a pinging noise.

“There we go. When you’re ready, you can now push the ‘Activate’ button.”

I pushed it. There was a noise of something electric sounding right next to my ears.

“Good. Not the Kryser portal has been established. You can remove the helmet.”

I did that hesitantly.

“I still have a head,” I remarked.

“Yes. On the Sensa, there are three buttons, can you see them in the mirror?”

“Yep.”

“The blue button, labeled with the R, is the release button. Push that one now.”

I pushed it. Suddenly I felt my head … well, it released.

A moment later I was holding my own head in my hands.

“Oh my god!” I said. “This is so … never thought I’d say this, but this is actually really cool.”

“That’s good that you think so. Some people still get a bit anxious that way.”

“It’s a bit dizzying,” I said.

“To put your head back on, just replace it where it was and the Sensa will automatically re-affix itself.”

I did this, then tested and it seemed like my head was attached again.

“Wow,” I said.

“The red button with the X is the cancel button. You’ll push this when you’re ready to remove the Sensa.”

“Okay.”

“And the yellow button with the C is the collapse button. But before you push that, I want to show you one more thing. And that is that this is actually a two-way portal, and you can collapse either side of it. Do you see the switch right next to it with the arrow?”

“The one pointing up?”

“Correct. That switch controls the direction of the collapse. Flip it so that it points down, just to show you what will happen.”

I did that. And then pushed the button.

I only had time to glimpse everything for a second in the mirror. I watched my shoulders and arms kind of … bend and stretch as they got sucked into my neck. But in less than half a second, I was just sitting on the floor.

Mary picked me up so I could see myself in the mirror. “It’s an easy mistake to make, but one you won’t be able to get out of yourself, as you can see.”

“Yea… I’m… pretty much helpless like this. Is there any use for this function?”

“Oh, why yes! We have all kinds of substitute bodies available, and it’s only when a person’s body is collapsed that they’ll be able to easily control one. Trying to pilot two bodies at once is possible but takes quite a bit of practice.”

“All right then.”

“To reverse the collapse, just push the button again,” said Mary. “It’s much easier if I set you down again.” She set me back on the floor and pushed the button. In another instant, I was complete again.

“Okay then. Am I ready to disappear my head?”

“Go for it,” said Mary.

I watched the mirror, flipped the switch back up, and pushed the yellow button. I didn’t even really get to see what happened. Everything kind of went white and fuzzy for a second, before … well, it came back, only everything seemed much sharper. I could hear things more clearly. And there in the mirror, well, I didn’t have a head.

I waved my hand in front of my ‘face’ which was now just a pair of cameras on the Sensa.

“Can I still talk?” I asked, “Oh wait, I guess I just answered that.”

“You’ll find it’s more or less like a regular head,” said Mary.

“Only, there’s no head here!” I said, waving my hand through the empty space. “Man, this is strange. I like it though!”

“That’s good. Also, while the Sensa is technically still our property, you’re welcome to take them home. We issue one to every employee.”

“Yea, guess it’s like ‘free advertising’ or something.”

“Essentially, yes. Also, kind of a perk for those who enjoy its effects.”

“Interesting. What if it comes off like this?”

“Good question. You cannot cancel the portal while one side is collapsed. But you can actually remove the Sensa. Doing that will result in the loss of the senses which it provides.”

“So it’d be like actually, really being headless.”

“Pretty much.”

“Can I try it?”

“If you want to,” said Mary, but I was already undoing the clasp. As soon as I removed it, everything … went away. I couldn’t see, hear, talk. It felt very … what was the word? Like being underwater, or far away from myself. I reached up and felt the smooth … it was like skin … across my neck. It was strangely relaxing. I could imagine taking the best bubble bath in the world like this. Or having some really interesting sex.

I kind of became self-conscious at that point and started fumbling to put the Sensa back on. Without having any sight, it was actually a bit harder than I thought to get the clasp on correctly. I felt Mary’s hands on my back, and the she clicked it shut. In a flash, everything was back.

“Wow,” I said. “That’s very different.”

“It definitely takes some getting used to.”

“I guess you’ve also tried all this stuff.”

“Oh, of course. I started as floor employee just like you did. First I just stuck around for the discount, and then when the management job opened up, I thought, ‘Why not?’”

“Are there perks?”

“I get to go to the trade shows and try out new stuff,” Mary smiled warmly for the first time since meeting me.

“Oh wow, I bet that’s wild.”

“I … I’ll have to tell you all about it sometime. But we should continue. If you’re ready, I’ll show you the floor model and how it’s a bit different.”

“Sure!”

We went back onto the sales floor. Mary introduced me to Sandy, one of the other employees there, also missing her head just as I was and then we went over to the other machine.

It was very similar to the one we’d just used, in that it was a big white box. This one however, had a structure next to it that Mary called a ‘rack.’

“The rack allows you to easily change body parts of a customer without them losing balance,” she said.

It was essentially a chair with high armrests that led out to the side. There were some supports that could be raised to secure arms and legs, and another pair that could go under the arms.

“The main difference is these are standard portal shells, and they’re just used to make a connection with a new item. We keep a set here with each of the three machines. The customers can buy their own if they want to use them at home, but they’ll still need to use the machines to charge the portals.”

“All right,” I said.

She showed me how to adjust them. There were several different sizes, but all were essentially a flexible metal strip with the same three buttons as the Sensa.

“We’ll start with your arms,” said Mary. “Why don’t you go pick out a pair to try on.”

I went to browse, giggling to myself at the absurdity of what I was doing. But then it also struck me that I was currently missing my head, so really, this should just be par for the course right?

I wasn’t even sure how to pick out a pair of arms. Did I want muscular arms? Sleek slender arms? There were all sorts of options to choose from. I paused at a pair of huge arms, clearly male in appearance, and was tempted to try them just for the picture of it. Or maybe those ones with the impossibly smooth skin?

Then I saw the bear arms. They were big and furry and next to them was a sign that said “Everyone has the right to bear arms!” Gimmicky, silly, and perfect.

I came back with those and Mary laughed a bit.

“You may not think so, but those are the most frequently tried on arms in the store.”

“I’m actually not surprised!”

“Okay, are you ready?”

Mary helped me up onto the changing rack, and showed me how to secure the struts across my torso.

“You’ll want to be sure the customer feels secure, but not constrained,” she explained.

She wrapped two of the portal shells around my shoulders, showing me the line where the arms would attach.

“Those helmets help protect things in case a head falls off unexpectedly, but for the other parts you can just plug them in,” she explained. “After that, it’s the same steps as before.”

She activated the portals. I could feel my arms tingle for a second.

“Again, you could use the portals to separate your arms from your body,” said Mary, pushing the release button and showing me my detached arm for a second, before sticking it back on. “And just like before, you can collapse the portal on one side.”

She did so, and I saw my arm quickly get sucked up into the portal. She pressed the button on the other one too. Now I understood the need for the supports on the rack. Without arms, my balance was a bit shakier.

“You can just stick on the new arm and it’ll stay in place,” said Mary, doing just that. I flexed my new furry arms. They certainly felt … furry.

“Cool!” I said. “They’re… well, definitely bear arms.”

“Now, there’s one more thing,” said Mary. “Your customer, they like their new arms, they want to buy them. Great. But, you still need to get back their old ones, which are still in our portal shells. So, you’ll remove those…”

She unclasped both of the shells, and let me out of the rack.

“And then re-apply them here,” she said, attaching each to a ring on the side of the machine. “After that you’ll press this button, labeled ‘Disconnect.’”

She did this, and both of my arms appeared there in an instant, dangling limply.

“This does two things. It restores the object contained in the portal, and also disconnects the link. It will also give the arms something called a ‘Stasis Charge’ so that they can be stored without needing a blood supply and such like that.”

“Got it,” I said. “What if, on the way out of the store, I decide I want to wear my old arms again?”

“Well,” said Mary. “We’ll just go through the same steps. Assuming they want to be able to swap arms at home though, they’ll need their own portal shells.”

“I see,” I said.

Mary went through the steps again to replace my original arms.

“Now then,” she said. “Legs are pretty similar. But it gets a little more tricky if someone wants to replace say, their chest.”

“You could just take them all apart,” I said.

“Yes, you could, but that takes a while. I’m going to show you a couple tricks.”

Mary strapped two portal shells to one of my arms, one at my shoulder, and the other at my wrist.

“You can collapse the space between two shells like this,” she said. “Just set the arrows towards one another.”

She pushed a button and next thing I knew my hand was attached directly to my shoulder.

“Or,” she continued, restoring my arm, “You can flip the switch and collapse it into only one, which makes keeping track of things a bit easier.”

She did just that, this time my arm vanished into my shoulder while my hand stayed disconnected.

“All right,” I said. “I think I understand.”

“Good,” she said. “Now, let’s say we want to give you a new pair of hips.”

If I’d had a head, I would have made a surprised face. The thought of a new set of hips hadn’t quite occurred to me yet. How had I missed that section of the store?

“Well,” I said, “You’d put a shell around my waist, and two more around my legs, switched the opposite way. Then you could collapse it into the portal on my waist and stick in the other one.”

“Good start, lets do that.”

Mary helped me back into the rack, showing me the supports that went under my arms to keep me from falling down when she disappeared my ass. She wrapped the portals on like I’d mentioned, and activated them, leaving me, well, without any hips.

“Now,” she said, bringing over a very ‘round’ pair of hips. “We can also take the same shell we just used…”

She pulled that off and stuck it on the waist of the other pair.

“…And flip it around to use the other side.” She showed me how to add another charge to the portal, and then collapse those into the same portal.

“After that’s done, you can just apply the same shell the other way, and then…”

She pushed the button and I was… well, I had a new pair of hips. I couldn’t help but run my hands over my now much more bootylicious ass.

“Feels sexy,” I said, trying not to giggle.

“Good,” said Mary. “Was hoping you’d enjoy those. But you see how it’s easy to replace things in the middle too.”

“Yea, I got it.”

“One final thing,” said Mary, “And then I think that’ll be enough for the first day.”

“All right,” I said.

“Sometimes a customer will come in, and they want a completely new body,” said Mary.

“Ooh, interesting.” I said.

“So. It’s actually pretty easy,” she said, getting out a small… well, it looked like a red can.

“This is called an Essentia. It can compress a whole person. But you can see, it’s basically a can. All you’ll need to do is compress both sides of a portal around their neck. Then you fit the shell onto the end of the can, and push this red button on the other side. They’ll be transferred entirely into the can. You can then assemble the body they want, plug the can into a it, and hold down the button for 5 seconds to release. It’ll be hard to show you since you’ll be inside the can, so I’m going to have you do it to me.”

“Really?”

“Yep! Let’s pick out a body.”

I half expected Mary to lead to one of the ‘models’ standing in various places, but instead she went right for… well, it was almost like a toy aisle. Most of them were just a few feet tall. Robots, dolls, even a dragon.

“What do you think of this,” said Mary, picking up a … well, it was a colorful caterpillar with a soft plushy fur.

“I think it’s kind of awesome? What’s it like to be that thing?”

“Don’t know, never done it.” said Mary. “But I’d sure like to try it out. C’mon.”

She led me back to the machine and I charged up a portal shell around her neck.

“All right,” I said. “Here it goes.”

I activated it, and then pushed the collapse button, watching Mary’s head vanish into the portal. After that, I toggled the switch, pushed the other button and she was gone.

I picked up the shell, flipping it over in my hands, trying to imagine if she felt anything. Guess I would have to try it myself sometime. I connected the shell to the Essentia can like she’d showed me and pushed the button. Nothing apparently happened for a second, but then the button lit up. I breathed a sigh of relief, or well, I virtually did, since I didn’t really have a head to sigh from.

I connected the can to the caterpillar body and held down the button. It made a beep noise that I assumed to be good, and then…

“Very well done,” said Mary, beginning to move again. “And this is… well, this is very different.”

“What’s it like?”

“Oh, it’s … I don’t even know what to compare it to. In one sense it’s constraining not to have arms, but in the other, I’m so flexible… And soft. I though it might be like being a snake, but it’s not very much like that at all.”

“Do you want me to put you back?”

“No, I might stay like this a while, takes some time to really get the feel for it. But you did a good job today. If you’d like to try on anything while you’re here, you’re more than welcome.”

“I think I might just go home and take a bath with no head,” I said.

“Very good. I’ll call you tomorrow with you schedule!”