The Truth - Chapter 20

As they arrived a loud squeal escaped from Tabitha, “Oh that's so cool. Hey, isn't that the woman you came here with Debra that last time? Are we going to be mannequins?”

“Slow down. I'm Jon. This is Sarah and the stiff is Sandra. Please introduce yourself.”

“I'm Tabitha and--” Tabitha stopped as Jon held up his hand and turned to face Rachel.

“I'm Rachel,” Rachel answered. “Can she hear us?”

“None of her senses are affected by being a mannequin.”

“That's not completely true,” Sarah interrupted. “Some people say the sense of touch his heightened.”

“Oh, really?” Jon said. “So you're saying this feels awesome to Sandra?” He asked as his rubbed his hands over Sandra's immobile breasts.

“Most definitely,” Sarah replied matter-of-factly.

Tabitha was obviously turned on by this display. “When do we get to be mannequins?”

“Tabitha!” Rachel whispered. As Jon turned to look at her, “How would we be turn back to normal and stuff?”

“A fair question. From now on sales staff called rovers will spend the day as mannequins standing around store. You will be dressed in store merchandise. The cool part is when a customer has a question or wishes to get some help, the nearest rover will animate and as you animate several potential solutions to the customer's issue will appear in your mind. So you'll be able to help the customer immediately. Not only will you know what kind of look the customer is looking for, and in what colors, fit, style, etc, you will also know whether the customer is really ready to buy. If the customer is just window shopping, you will know and you'll be able to use that knowledge to whatever advantage you can.

“Once you’re finished with a customer you’ll only have a moment to step out of the aisle before you return to mannequin form. You can also force the transformation by saying, 'If you need anything else, I'll be right here.'”

Rachel laughed but then asked, “Won't people want to know how we do this? What do we say?”

“No, part of the magic is to make anyone in the store feel as though the help being mannequins is some kind of stunt or gimmick. Now, I need to finish the deal with Dorothy and Mira. Do you want to become mannequins while I talk to them.”

Rachel nodded while Tabitha said, “I can't wait.”

Sarah handed them both a form to fill in their names and sign on the both. Tabitha signed it straightaway. Rachel asked, “What does this mean? 'While the store is open, work commands take precedence over harem commands.'”

“Sarah and Sandra are part of my harem. They are subject to the magic at all times. If they were working here, the magic of the shop overrides my magic when they overlap. You two are not in my harem so that would not apply to you.”

Tabitha jumped in, “Wait, harem, you mean like having sex as mannequins?”

“Not exactly,” Jon said. “It means having sex and doing anything I please. I'm a benevolent dictator but still members of my harem can be interrupted at anytime to serve me.”

“That's so hot,” Tabitha purred, licking her lips.

“Yes, let's stick to business at the moment. Grab an outfit and put them on in the changing rooms. When you are ready come out here and find a good place to station yourselves.”

Jon and Sarah followed the girls into the back area of the store. Sarah took out a spell.

“Right here looks good,” Jon said and Sarah modified the spell. Jon signed it and a time clock appeared on the wall.

Rachel stepped out of the changing room in a little black dress. “I need heels to go with this.”

“Are there heels in the store?” He asked.

She nodded and with a tip of his head she went to get the shoes.

Jon opened the door to Dorothy's office. “Come here, ladies.”

Dorothy and Mira were suddenly able to move.

Mira ran her hands over her body. “That could have been so much more fun.”

Jon raised an eyebrow. “I have paperwork for you two to sign to seal the deal. Then I have some employment paperwork to go over with you so we can make this store a rather unique place to visit.” He handed each of them a copy of the preliminary contract to add him to the company that owned the boutique. While he waited until they signed it Rachel returned to the room. Mira signed her copy immediately. Dorothy took the time to read it over but found nothing she did not agree with and she signed it. Tabitha exited the changing room about the same time.

Jon took the paperwork and pointed to the time clock. “Welcome to the new Bede's employee time clock. This clock is very special. Each employee will have a time card, like these two cards we've made for Tabitha and Rachel here. When an employee places her card is in one of these slots, they are on window duty. That means they turn into a mannequin when standing in the window and remain that way until someone moves the card out of the slot or their body is physically removed from the display floor. No one else can put the card into the slot but anyone can move the card out.

“These slots are for roving help. When an employee is on roving help and there are customers in the store, they are mannequins. When the store detects that a customer needs help, the nearest rover will return to flesh to assist that customer.” He placed Tabitha and Rachel's employment cards in the slots. “I've already explained this the them. Go in the other room so we can try it out.”

The girls left the back area.

“Let's give them a second. Mira, I want you to go in there and look around the merchandise. Then decide you want to ask for help finding something specific. Dorothy, we'll watch from the doorway.”

Mira stepped into the room. She immediately stopped in front of Tabitha. When the mannequin did not react, she turned to the nearest merchandise display and noticed a pantsuit in gold and wondered if it came in silver.

“Would you be interested in a silver pantsuit instead?” Tabitha stepped up to the merchandise rack so Mira could see her.

Mira was shocked for just a second but recovered quickly, “Is it available in silver?”

“Certainly,” Tabitha replied walking around the rack to the other side and picked up a size 4 silver pantsuit in the same style as the gold one. “Would you like to try this on?”

Mira took the pantsuit and noticed it was her size. “Yes, I would.” When she looked up from the size tag Tabitha had already turned back into a mannequin, her body turned away from Mira and her pose unrelated to the rack she was standing next to.

Mira took the pantsuit to the backroom where Jon said, “Go into the changing room. Try on the pantsuit leaving your cloths in the changing room. Then come out wearing the pantsuit and decide you want to see the gold one on. Get it and change outfits.” Mira did as instructed and when she left the back area to get the gold suit. Jon opened the door and pointed. “Notice the room is empty. Only when Mira opens the door will her clothes be inside. In fact....” Jon entered the room and closed the door.

Dorothy watched Mira come back in and enter the changing room. A moment later, Jon stepped out of the changing room and Mira was not inside with him.

After another moment, Mira stepped out in the silver pantsuit. Seeing Jon, she asked, “How did Tabitha know I wanted the pantsuit in silver?”

“That's the real magic,” Jon began, explaining how the rover worked as he had explained it to Tabitha and Rachel.

“That's unreal,” Dorothy said. “Sales should skyrocket. What will happen when someone comes in who's not ready to buy?”

“Well, the sales staff still has to perform their duties as a sales force. Whatever you do now when you suspect someone isn't ready to buy is probably the best tactic. Sometimes you go high pressure and when it works they become ready to buy and when it fails they leave and never return. Sometimes you go low pressure and accept its consequences. You still have to contend with that.” He reached up and moved the girl's employment cards to the off duty column.

“Shoot,” Tabitha could be heard saying and shortly the two girls returned to the back room. “I was enjoying the feeling,” Tabitha complained as she spotted Jon.

“You'll have plenty of time to enjoy that feeling.” He pointed toward the storeroom behind the backroom. “In here, I've made this row of hangers special. Each hanger has a name clip on it specific to each salesperson. Dorothy will take some merchandise and attach the salesgirls' clips to their hangers. The salesgirls wear the clothes on the hanger. The fun part is the clothes will swap magically when you touch the clip with your name on it. Rachel, hand me the hanger with your street clothes on it.” As she did so he added, “The clips go here when not in use.” She handed him the hanger. “Thanks. Now, I'll attach your clip to the hanger. Okay now touch the clip.”

As Rachel touched the clip her clothing swapped places. She was now dressed in the clothes she was wearing when she arrived and the merchandise she had put on earlier was now on the hanger. “That will save a lot of time.”

“A few other things,” Jon said. “Managers can animate rovers to perform work related activities at any time by calling her name. The top rover slot is for the cashier. She transforms just like a rover but will also animate when someone puts merchandise on the counter. She should not walk away from the register if she can help it.”

“Wait,” Mira interrupted. “What if someone doesn't want help and just grabs a dress and runs? How will the mannequins stop this?”

“They won't,” Jon answered. “The store will. Anyone doing anything to the detriment of the store will find themselves as a naked mannequin in the storeroom, a written confession of what they attempted to do in their hand, facing them. What we do with them from there depends on the nature of their crime.

“Similarly, there is a store-wide spell that prevents people from discussing the roving mannequin helpers or any other magic customers might see. The customers will think the rover transformations are a gimmick or trick. And they will find they only vaguely recall the details of their store experience after they leave. Likewise, none of you can talk about being a mannequin at work. Are there any questions regarding the roving mannequins?”

Dorothy stated, “If you limited the mannequin transformations so they could only happen while wearing store merchandise, you would not really need to the time card thing.”

“I prefer the time card thing. It is a way to force someone back to normal if they are somehow stuck in mannequin form. When the day ends, the cards will move back to off duty automatically, except for cards in the window display position.”

“Will we get bonus pay for spending the night in the window?” Tabitha asked. “I wanted to try that as soon as I saw Debra doing it yesterday.”

“We haven't figured that out yet.” Jon said. “For now, Debra is the window mannequin.” After an awkward pause he said, “Okay, if there is nothing else, Tabitha, change your clothes and you and Rachel can leave.”

Tabitha got her clothes and reached for her clip. As he saw this, Jon interrupted, “Oh, one more thing, anyone have some lipstick?” Rachel handed him a stick of lip gloss from her purse. “Tabitha, before you change clothes,” he waved her over. When she arrived, he drew a line of pink gloss across a white section of her outfit. As they all freaked out around his he said, “Calm down. Now, Tabitha, switch outfits with the clip.”

Tabitha did so and then gasped, “The coloring is gone.” She picked up the dress and showed it to everyone else. The spot he had stained was perfectly clean. “To save on dry cleaning, whenever the clips are used to swap clothing, the clothing is cleaned. If you come in here dripping wet, when you swap clothes, the wet clothes you were wearing will be clean on the hanger. And several people can wear the same merchandise continuously for weeks and each time it switches hangers, it will be freshly cleaned.”

“At this rate, the store won't have any expenses,” Dorothy joked. “Let me escort the girls out and lock up again so we can finish our merger talks.”

“Excellent, Mira, let's return to the office,” Jon added.

As soon as they entered the office, Mira begged, “You can do more than just turn us into mannequins, it appears?” She walked over to where they had left Sandra standing. “I enjoyed being a mannequin but that was only part of the fantasy.”

“Oh?” Jon asked. “What else to want to turn into?”

“Clothing.” Mira replied. “But not just any clothing, I call it a Textilemorph. I would be a set of clothing someone wears and while I was being worn, I could change my texture, fit, style, color, accessories, etc.”

“So you would design clothes from the inside, so to speak?” Sarah asked.

“Yes, exactly. People wear fashionable clothes incorrectly all the time. It's the wrong color for their skin or it's the wrong length for the season.”

“So how would it work?”

“I would be a mannequin showcasing a special design. When I was rented out, my mind would transfer into the clothes leaving the mannequin of my body inert. As the clothing, my sense of touch would be enhanced so I could feel anything touching the clothing, on either side. My eyes would be around chest high but not visible. My sense of smell and taste would be in the wearer's crotch.”

“Charming,” Sarah commented.

“I hate to interrupt as this is truly fascinating but what happened to Dorothy?”

Sarah looked out the door. Curious she got up. Sarah called from the doorway and waving them over. As they arrived she pointed at the time card slots. A card was in the window display position. Without touching it, she read aloud, “Dorothy Bede.”

Jon laughed looking out into the store. Dorothy was standing in the window display as a mannequin.

“Mira, do you have your own place?”

“My apartment overlooking the park is far more comfortable than this backroom.”

“I suspect it is. Shall we go there?”

“Can we get a cab to move mannequins at this hour?”

“I'll take that as a yes. Store teleport everyone Mira's apartment store teleport.”