Fashion Plate: Chapter Four
Nov. 2nd, 2025 01:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_siobhanAt least one more gin & tonic went into this chapter.
Everybody else hsa buggered off to bed and I really want to be done so I can do that too.
Thiungs went downhill from there.
Our first all-hands meeting was... an experience. One of the interns had a beauty patch that glowed red and randomly hissed “DOOOM” at a frequency that made the room shake. A woman from a department I didn’t know well had an eye that stared unblinking from the middle of her forehead. The Director looked increasingly uncomfortable as it glared at him throughout the entire meeting.
The manager of our Communications department sat a few seats away from me and I could see that she was grey and heavy-lidded. When we broke for coffee one of the interns brought her a cup and whispered “How are you holding up? Are you going to be OK?”
“I’m fine,” the woman whispered back. “I just... haven’t slept well lately. I’ll be fine. Thank you for the coffee.”
She got up when it was her turn to present and a trio of tentacles dropped out of the back of her skirt to drag along the floor. They writhed non-stop while she spoke. I raised an eyebrow at the intern who leaned in and whispered “She got a tramp stamp.” I winced in sympathy.
Our annual Town Hall at the end of the year went even worse. There was a near-riot when a dozen beauty patches started brawling with each other. The manager of Communications got thrown out when another manager accuesed her beauty patch of sexual assault.
The rumour mill was full of stories about HR meetings and conferences. People were going to get fired. People couldn’t be fired because tey couldn’t be removed and so they were going to be treated as a medical accomodation. They were gong to bring in a rule that new hires couldn’t get one. They couldn’t make a rule that descriminated against new hires. They were going to fire people. They couldn’t fire people. They couldn’t do anything.
I updated Tara at one of our coffee meets. “So we’re finally all back to work from home like we wanted to be,” I told her. “Productivity numbers made no difference, employee satisfaction, envirionmental impact, nothing make a difference, we all had to be back in the office to swap germs. Until somebody got a body-mod that gave the CEO the icks.”
“So it’s a happy ending,” said Tara.
“Well it is for me. I wouldn’t want to be somebody who got one and now I can’t get rid of it. Speaking of which, how are things at home?”
“Oh she’s over it,” Tara waved a hand. “She’s got a boy who can do no wrong right now and he doesn’t like them. Normally I’d be cautious about letting a guy make her fashion choices for her, but I’m gong to let this one go for now.”
“Well last I heard they were talking about legislatin to make them 18 pluys only anyway.”
We glanced around the room. Every single employee was sporting a beauty patch, including the waitress who had dropped off her coffees. She had two clawed hands that jutted out of the sides of her neck. As we watched her clear the tables she slapped some cutlery into one of them and it closed into a tight grip. Her phone was tucked into the opposite side.
“They don’t seem to be fading in populariy,” I said. “I guess we’ll get use to them,”
“Sure,” said Tara. “I mean they’re weird, but they’re harmless. As long as it doesn’t turn out @JenXc1te is an alien taking over the human race or something.”
I could feel my eyebrows hit my forehead. “That’s a very specific worry,”
Tara laughed, self-concious. “Too many horror novels I guess. And maybe too much time on @JenXc1te’s site – she’s a weird one.”
“Oh yeah, she does have that plastic sheen, doesn’t she.” I took a sip of my coffee adn tried to think of a way to change the subject. “So what else is going on in your life? Any plans for hte holidays?
We moved on and eventually the whole beauty patch episode faded into the normal background of weird things that young people do and old people don’t approve of. Knockoffs appeared for lower prices. Aftermarket mods if you dind’t like what you got the first time around. Specialized markets grew up for things like gender modifiers and anime features. Elf ears became as common as blue eyes.
All perfectly nomral shit.
Everybody else hsa buggered off to bed and I really want to be done so I can do that too.
Thiungs went downhill from there.
Our first all-hands meeting was... an experience. One of the interns had a beauty patch that glowed red and randomly hissed “DOOOM” at a frequency that made the room shake. A woman from a department I didn’t know well had an eye that stared unblinking from the middle of her forehead. The Director looked increasingly uncomfortable as it glared at him throughout the entire meeting.
The manager of our Communications department sat a few seats away from me and I could see that she was grey and heavy-lidded. When we broke for coffee one of the interns brought her a cup and whispered “How are you holding up? Are you going to be OK?”
“I’m fine,” the woman whispered back. “I just... haven’t slept well lately. I’ll be fine. Thank you for the coffee.”
She got up when it was her turn to present and a trio of tentacles dropped out of the back of her skirt to drag along the floor. They writhed non-stop while she spoke. I raised an eyebrow at the intern who leaned in and whispered “She got a tramp stamp.” I winced in sympathy.
Our annual Town Hall at the end of the year went even worse. There was a near-riot when a dozen beauty patches started brawling with each other. The manager of Communications got thrown out when another manager accuesed her beauty patch of sexual assault.
The rumour mill was full of stories about HR meetings and conferences. People were going to get fired. People couldn’t be fired because tey couldn’t be removed and so they were going to be treated as a medical accomodation. They were gong to bring in a rule that new hires couldn’t get one. They couldn’t make a rule that descriminated against new hires. They were going to fire people. They couldn’t fire people. They couldn’t do anything.
I updated Tara at one of our coffee meets. “So we’re finally all back to work from home like we wanted to be,” I told her. “Productivity numbers made no difference, employee satisfaction, envirionmental impact, nothing make a difference, we all had to be back in the office to swap germs. Until somebody got a body-mod that gave the CEO the icks.”
“So it’s a happy ending,” said Tara.
“Well it is for me. I wouldn’t want to be somebody who got one and now I can’t get rid of it. Speaking of which, how are things at home?”
“Oh she’s over it,” Tara waved a hand. “She’s got a boy who can do no wrong right now and he doesn’t like them. Normally I’d be cautious about letting a guy make her fashion choices for her, but I’m gong to let this one go for now.”
“Well last I heard they were talking about legislatin to make them 18 pluys only anyway.”
We glanced around the room. Every single employee was sporting a beauty patch, including the waitress who had dropped off her coffees. She had two clawed hands that jutted out of the sides of her neck. As we watched her clear the tables she slapped some cutlery into one of them and it closed into a tight grip. Her phone was tucked into the opposite side.
“They don’t seem to be fading in populariy,” I said. “I guess we’ll get use to them,”
“Sure,” said Tara. “I mean they’re weird, but they’re harmless. As long as it doesn’t turn out @JenXc1te is an alien taking over the human race or something.”
I could feel my eyebrows hit my forehead. “That’s a very specific worry,”
Tara laughed, self-concious. “Too many horror novels I guess. And maybe too much time on @JenXc1te’s site – she’s a weird one.”
“Oh yeah, she does have that plastic sheen, doesn’t she.” I took a sip of my coffee adn tried to think of a way to change the subject. “So what else is going on in your life? Any plans for hte holidays?
We moved on and eventually the whole beauty patch episode faded into the normal background of weird things that young people do and old people don’t approve of. Knockoffs appeared for lower prices. Aftermarket mods if you dind’t like what you got the first time around. Specialized markets grew up for things like gender modifiers and anime features. Elf ears became as common as blue eyes.
All perfectly nomral shit.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-11-02 02:35 pm (UTC)