A More Permanent Position Ch. 02

"Look, lie on the bed or it's fifty red dots. Then you'll get two augments, and you'll still end up lying on the bed. Go!" Mae commanded.

Maddie nervously got on the bed, lying on her back and raising her hands up. Quick as lightning, straps shot out of the bed, pinning her wrists and ankles down! Maddie struggled a little, only to feel cold iron holding her in position.

"Calm down, Maddie. You're going to be asleep. There's a lot that can go wrong here, and we can't have you screwing around."

Maddie struggled until she felt a pinprick in her neck. All of a sudden, she got very sleepy. The last thing she saw was a mechanical tube approaching her mouth, as the bed tilted up to a standing position.

***

Maddie remembered being in high school but it was different. This time, she was walking around nervously as Amanda sat with Raaina and Zoya. She knew that they were the most popular girls in school, and she would give anything to sit with them! Her heart skipped a beat as Amanda called her over to the table.

"Hey Maddie. I was wondering - I have a date with your boyfriend this weekend. Can you wash my car today so it's clean?" Amanda asked, sweetly.

Maddie nodded her head. THE Amanda Mathis was allowing her to wash her car?? Raaina and Zoya laughed, but Maddie didn't mind.

"Great! Make sure to bring a toothbrush so you can really get in there."

Maddie could have died from happiness. If she did a good job here, maybe Amanda would let her sit at their table! Or beneath it...

Maddie remembered taking notes for Amanda during class. Only Amanda wasn't sitting in a normal desk. She was sitting on a plush throne in the center of the room. And Maddie wasn't writing class notes. She was writing all the things that make Amanda Mathis amazing: her hair, her humor, her grace. When it was her turn to present her notes, she was choked up with anxiety. And Amanda reached for the whip...

She remembered the first time Amanda let her eat her pussy (what?) and how she tasted better than anything (no!) and she looked out the window of her room and saw herself banging on it. "You have to stop before it's too late!"

Then the room flooded with light and Maddie thought she was falling down.

***

Maddie woke up, only remembering that she had weird dreams. Where was she? Why were her arms and legs pinned down?

Clink!

The restraints released her and Maddie fell forward, groping in the darkness for some way to stop her fall. She failed to catch anything, and landed on her knees painfully.

"Ow!" she cried out, fighting back tears. The door to the room opened, and Maddie hurried to the exit. But something felt wrong.

It felt like her stride was different. Shorter. It took too many steps to get to the door, and her balance was messed up. She felt like her muscle memory was failing her, but what could explain that?

Her first clue was when she got to the door and the handle was much closer to her eye level than she remembered. She put her hand against it and gasped. Her fingers were much shorter than they should be, and her palm was half its normal size!

She looked in the changing room mirror and screamed. She looked like a different person!

Maddie was less than five feet tall, from being 5' 10" before. As she touched her body to see if it was real, she remembered how much she enjoyed her model height. Now she looked like she did in freshman year of high school, before her growth spurt. The rest of her body had changed in proportion to her new height: her arms and legs were shorter, her hands and feet were much smaller. She guessed she was a size 5 shoe now.

Her head matched the proportions of her new body now, except her eyes seemed much bigger, giving her face a more jeuvenile appearance. When she looked at her waist, she knew it was a size 0, maybe even 00. The clothes she wore into the room looked like they fit a giantess compared to her new body.

Maddie almost overlooked the spray tan she had gotten.

It didn't seem like Mae had chosen a very good color for her. It was somewhere between bronze and orange: it looked natural at first, but anyone who studied it for more than a moment would quickly see it was a cheap spray tan. The kind she used to mock people for getting in high school.

For some reason, there were tan lines along her neck, wrists, and ankles where she still had her original skin tone, calling more attention to the spray tan.

The door opened, causing Maddie to yelp and cover herself with her old white shirt, which now covered more than half of her body. She glared at Mae, who was bowled over with laughter. Maddie noticed bitterly that she used to be the same height as Mae, and now she had to look up at the other woman. In fact, Mae towered over Maddie now that she had her high heels on.

"Oh my gosh Maddie, you look adorable!" Mae teased. Maddie blushed, unable to think of a smart reply.

"What the hell happened?!" she finally managed.

"It's one of Loloth's new technologies. Like plastic surgery but on steroids. Anyway, throw this on. We still have to do your makeup," Mae said, tossing some clothes onto the bench.

Maddie realized anyone could look into the changing room and see her, so she quickly put on the outfit that Mae had set down for her. When she saw herself in it, Maddie groaned.

Her new outfit consisted of a white sleveless dress shirt, a modest green skirt, and brown leather loafers. She looked like a schoolgirl! Although Mae didn't give her socks, there was a black skinny tie that went with her shirt, loosened to give it that 'relaxed' look.

Maddie joined Mae in the salon, taking a seat where Mae indicated. She still couldn't put on her eyeglasses, since two pretty estheticians were about to give her a makeover. Maddie held still as the makeup artists worked on her face. Mae stood watch, giving occasional directions to the girls.

"Let's use pink apricot shimmer for the lips," Mae said, picking out a tube of lip gloss and handing it to blonde esthetician. Maddie had to make a kissy face while the girl applied it to her lips.

"For the eyeshadow, let's use this charcoal shade of grey."

Maddie kind of enjoyed the sensation of having someone do her makeup - it was a throwback to her old life when she went to salons and spas. She had even done some modeling on the side, more for the enjoyment of being beautiful than for the money.

"About that tanning room," Mae started to explain, as the estheticians applied Maddie's makeup.

"You've guessed it was obviously more than a tanning room. It's a lot more. It's actually an experimental tool that allows people to completely change their appearance. I won't go into much detail - you wouldn't appreciate the finer parts anyway. But it can make you look like anything: Asian, six foot four, heck it could even give you blue skin and make you look like an elf. But we're still perfecting major changes like that. The best part is that those changes last forever! Shape her eyebrows a little more."

Maddie felt lightheaded as she realized she was stuck looking like this. Mae traced her fingers over the girl's eyebrows in a posessive way.

"It's part of a government contract - they want to use it for the witness protection program. It can even change your fingerprints!" Mae bragged.

Maddie looked in the mirror they brought after they finished her makeover. Looking back at her was a small, unnaturally tan girl that she could hardly recognize.

The makeup was attractively styled but heavy-handed: she looked like a teeny bopper who just allowed to use makeup and went overboard. She had on shimmering pink lip-liner with tiny white sparkles in it, a smoldering charcoal eyeshadow, and elaborate winged eyeliner. They shaped her eyebrows to have a higher arch, giving her a disarming, girlish appearance. It felt like her face was asking, "Am I in trouble?"

She noticed that they put a heart-shaped beauty mark on her cheek, beneath her right eye. She sighed, and put her NAMI eyeglasses back on. They didn't help her appearance much. If anything, they made her look like a teenage girl pretending to be older than she actually was. NAMI initalized, and Maddie found it reassuring to have the eyeglasses on again.

"New Augments added!" NAMI announced cheerfully. There were three: "Blink+", "Fetishist" and "Past Under Wraps." She swallowed, and left the salon as quickly as she could. For some reason, she looked down at Mae's feet on her way out, noticing the girl's royal purple nail polish. She wondered what size her feet were...

"Maddie," Amanda announced, causing her heart to flutter. She stopped where she was.

"Meow?" Maddie responded, rolling her eyes at her Augment. She heard Amanda laugh.

"I need three iced coffees up here for an interview I'm doing. Step on it!"

Before Maddie could leave, Mae sprayed her several times with a perfume from a neon green bottle. Maddie found the smell sickly sweet and overpowering, but tried her best to ignore it.

NAMI showed Maddie's new task, explaining how each of the iced coffees was to be made. Maddie hustled back up to the main courtyard, to the coffee shop. She didn't even need to talk to the pretty Latina barista working the espresso bar - it seemd like NAMI or someone had already called in the order. Unfortunately for Maddie, the iced coffees came in delicate thin crystal glasses which she had to carry on a circular silver tray. As Maddie carried the coffees up to Amanda's office, she remembered how much she used to love the stuff. But girls of her rank weren't allowed to have coffee.

When Maddie saw who Amanda was interviewing, she nearly dropped the tray.

Amanda was talking to Maddie's old friends Raaina and Zoya! The two Persian girls were seated on comfortable chairs facing Amanda, who was seated on a pink sofa. They were dressed professionally for the job interview, in business suits and expensive high heels. As they looked at Maddie's outfit, they snickered. Maddie blushed, thankful that her former friends hadn't recognized her.

She remembered how mean the three of them used to be to waiters whenever they'd go out. She tried to say something, but her throat wouldn't cooperate. Instead, she just gave a vacant smile.

"Oh, here's my assistant now. Please take your coffees, ladies," Amanda said politely. Maddie approached her friends to serve them, but they didn't seem to recognize her! She wanted to talk to them, to warn them, but all she could seem to do was smile politely.

They took the drinks without even thanking her, and Maddie gave the last one to Amanda. She stood there awkwardly while the three women continued their conversation, looking at their feet. Zoya had on a pink pair of high heels with a peep toe, and Raaina wore black suede ankle boots.

"So listen, I'm really over high school. I'm talking to you because I think you both have talents that Loloth could use," Amanda continued, after sipping her coffee. Raaina and Zoya seemed pleased - they always loved flattery.

"Would either of you like a foot massage? My assistant Maddie here is a natural masseuse," Amanda added. Maddie couldn't believe her!

"Yeah, I'll take one," Zoya said, smiling. "These ankle boots make my feet hurt!" She had a vocal fry, which made her sound like a spoiled Kardashian whenever she spoke. That wasn't the only similarity - with her prominent cheekbones and little nose, she was often being mistaken for one of them. But she was a cruel sort of beauty, her thick eyebrows furrowed in contempt at people she considered 'beneath' her. Maddie never thought she would be one of those people, and hoped Zoya would change her mind.

Amanda nodded to Maddie, and she obediently went to get some massage oil. She knelt before her former friend's feet, frowning as Zoya rested her ankle boots painfully in her lap. Obviously, she expected Maddie to remove her shoes for her.

She delicately unzipped the boots, and eased Zoya's shoes off. The girl wasn't wearing socks underneath her shoes, and Maddie noticed a distinct, leathery smell as Zoya wiggled her toes and stretched her feet absentmindedly. Maddie put some oil on her hands and began Zoya's foot massage. She noticed that Zoya's white pedicure was a little chipped, and there were small specks of dirt and leather on her clammy soles. Zoya was smilling, and Maddie admired her plump lips for the hundredth time.

"So do we get our own assistants?" Zoya asked, leaning back in her chair. Her entire body was thick and soft, reminding Maddie of a spoiled princess.

"If you get a purple card," Amanda responded, smiling as she watched Maddie work.

"What if we don't?" said Raaina in her slight accent.

"Then you either get a light blue card, and you'll be the personal assistant of another girl, or you get a yellow card and you'll be a... general worker," Amanda explained.

Maddie started using her knuckles to put deeper pressure on Zoya's soles, which she seemed to like. She noticed that her smaller hands helped her give better massages somehow. She had a strange curiosity about the anatomy of Zoya's feet, and naturally sought out the sore points.

"How do you decide which card we get?" Zoya asked, ignoring Maddie as she worked beneath her. Maddie didn't really notice the mistreatment - she found herself profoundly interested in Zoya's feet, applying herself fully to give the best massage possible. She never appreciated how soft Zoya's feet were - she was clearly a girl who had never done any physical labor. She guessed that Zoya was probably a size 5.

"I can't tell you unless you agree to take a position here - company policy. But I promise you'll both have a fair chance to get purple cards," Amanda said.

Raaina and Zoya looked at each other, debating on whether they should take the challenge. Maddie admired their Persian beauty - raven hair and deep green eyes. Raaina was more lean than Zoya, more like a skinny ballerina or fashion model.

"Can we both get a purple card, or just one of us?" Zoya asked.

"You can both get one. Or just one of you, or neither. You'll have to compete with your old friend Madison though," Amanda told them. Maddie turned her head slightly when she heard her old name, but neither of the girls seemed to care.

"That fucking bitch? She still works here?" Raaina spat out. Maddie bowed her head because she knew exactly why they were mad at her.

**

When Maddie first logged into Onestia, it downloaded all the data from her social networks along with all the texts and e-mails she had ever sent. She didn't know how, but it had some way of organizing the information and finding every bad thing she ever said. And she had said some pretty messed up stuff, even about the people closest to her.

About Zoya:

Zoya had always been a bigger girl, and Maddie made a lot of jokes about it in private.

"LOL Zoya's ass looked so fat today!" Maddie texted one of her friends back in high school. "We have to talk to her about wearing yoga pants!"

"What's up with her arm hair?" Maddie wrote, a few months later. "Girl's gotta wax!"

The most damning thing she did was put a caption of "My Big Fat Greek Ass," on a photo of Zoya's butt, which got circulated around the school. This was back when they weren't very close, and Maddie thought Zoya was Greek. Although Maddie denounced the photo (and pretended to look for whoever was responsible), she still thought it was kind of funny.

About Raaina:

"Raaina can't find out about this," wrote her high school boyfriend in a FB message.

"Don't worry, I won't tell her," Maddie wrote back. "But we can still have fun, right? ;)"

Maddie had actually slept with a lot of Raaina's boyfriends, even through college. She couldn't even explain why she liked it, just that it was easy and fun. According to her exes, Raaina was beautiful but very frigid sexually. She didn't seem to like sex very much, and didn't want to have it very often. As a result, her boyfriends were pretty frustrated, and all Maddie had to do was flirt a little bit.

All that information got published, and people saw how mean Maddie had been. Raaina and Zoya were livid, and they stopped speaking with her. What made it so bad was that Maddie had been talking trash about them even up until the present day. She justified it by saying they probably did the same thing behind her back.

**

"Of course she still works here! But I can only tell you more if you agree to the competition. Otherwise, this interview is over and you'll have to leave." Amanda stated.

"I want to compete," Zoya answered, leaning forward.

"Me too!" Raaina agreed.

"Great! Maddie, you are dismissed. NAMI will tell you where to meet us next. Raaina, Zoya, I'll explain the competition to you."

**

This had to be a joke.

Maddie was wearing a skintight black leather bodysuit that melded perfectly to her body. Part of the outfit was the 5-inch high heeled shoes, giving her a cruel reminder of her former height. She would normally have been excited to wear high heels, but this was the worst possible time to have them on. Maddie was about to compete in a paintball game while wearing a fetishy parody of a superhero costume.

She was still wearing Amanda's bra and panties beneath the bodysuit, along with a harsh corset that restricted her breathing. The whole outfit was made of a non-breathable material, and she was quickly becoming overheated.

Between the loud click-clack of her high heels and the way the bodysuit creaked loudly whenever she moved, Maddie couldn't depend on sneaking around. She could breathe in small, sharp gasps, and the bodysuit reflected light, making her an obvious target. She doubted that she could even crouch down for cover without getting onto all fours, and running would be nearly impossible.

In spite of all that, Maddie was hopeful. This was her chance to win a purple card!

She stepped out of the locker room, and joined Amanda, Raaina and Zoya. When they saw her, they all laughed uncontrollably. She saw that Raaina and Zoya had on reasonable combat fatigues and boots - like someone would actually wear during a game.

When the laughter died down, Zoya was the one who made the connection.

"Wait a minute, THIS is Madison?"

Maddie blushed.

"Yes, Raaina, this is Madison Baumgarten. The old queen bee is now my obedient little slave girl," Amanda said.

Maddie blinked - she had never heard Amanda refer to her as a slave before. Raaina and Zoya looked at eachother, frowning a little.

"Madison, what the heck happened?" Raaina finally managed.

"It's her fault!" Maddie exploded, pointing at Amanda. "She forced me to take the job! I didn't do ANYthing to her, and she's still mad over some high school bullcrap!"

Amanda shook her head.

"Was it bullcrap when you made that photoshop of my butt?" Zoya cried out, surprising Maddie. "I developed an eating disorder because of that little "joke"! People made fun of my ass every day for the rest of the year!"

Maddie blinked. Couldn't Zoya take a joke? She looked at Raaina, expecting sympathy.

"Don't look at me, Maddie!" Raaina shouted, surprising her by using that diminutive name. "You fucked every one of my boyfriends! Even after I told you how hard it was for me to keep getting dumped! Sure, the guys were jerks for cheating on me, but you were still a bad friend for doing it with them!"

Maddie rolled her eyes - her friends could be SO overdramatic. But when the girls saw her do that, they got even angier.

"Whatever. It's not my fault if you take things too personally," Maddie said in response. She was lucky they didn't have their paintball guns at that point.

"Well, here are the rules," Amanda cut in, after an uncomfortable silence.