Job

Alice can't believe it, “Umm, what?”

The woman smiles kindly and tilts her head, looking down and to the left for a moment before resuming eye contact, “Okay, so… there's three people in this room: You, me, and the person who actually owns this body… and she is currently ‘in the back seat’ with her consent, so I can talk to you for a bit. Based on what you're carrying and buying, it's clear that you're recently homeless. I have a limited ability to see people's life ****… and that tells me you're no longer a baseline human. Folks who don't have a legitimate income eventually get ****, and **** people do **** things. When it's a powered person who gets ****, very bad things happen. I don't want that. So: I have a bit of money squirreled away. I want to hire you for a super team, doing legitimate super work.”

The shapeshifter blinks, “That's… very direct. Umm. How do you know I'm a good person?”

“I have good reason to suspect,” the other woman answers easily, chuckling, “morally bankrupt powered people generally start by abusing their power to get what they want… you politely walked in to buy and sell.”

“You don't even know my name….” Alice frowns, “...nor I yours.”

“That's easily solved,” the possessed lady shrugs, “My name is,” she gives a word that's completely unpronounceable, “...but you can just call me Guest if you like. My host's name is Jasmine,” she holds out her hand, “pleased to meet you.”

The customer shakes the offered hand, scanning and confirming it is flesh and blood, “Alice. Pleasure to meet… the both of you? I'm afraid you do weird things to pronouns. Umm… how do I know you're…” Alice trails off, unsure how to phrase her concerns.

Guest isn't particularly sensitive about it, however, “That's I'm not evil? That I have powers myself?” She chuckles, “For the former… well, you can use the same logic I did earlier: I'm talking to you, open and honestly, rather than forcing anything… and if you ever do decide I'm evil… well, this isn't slavery of any sort: You can simply quit and leave if you don't like being in my employ. For the latter…” the woman says a few unpronounceable things while waving her hands around, and a blue line snakes out, wrapping around one of the guitars on the shelves, pulling it over to the front desk, where Guest catches it, “...a demonstration is easy enough.”

“...ah. Umm… I don't have valid ID anymore…” Alice blinks at the demonstration.

“That's fixable,” the kind possessor shrugs, “if nothing else, I can set you up with a place under Jasmine's name and pay cash. What can you do?”

‘I can't believe I'm trying this…’ Alice thinks to herself, “I reshape flesh, which can also heal. Here…” she takes a moment to change the color of her arm, then put it back.

Guest nods, “A shapeshifter, huh? What kind of range can you do?”

“I don't shapeshift, I reshape flesh: It's not just my own.” Alice pauses, “Give me your hand?”

Guest's posture shifts, and the woman behind the desk asks, “Umm… I like me as I am…”

Alice frowns a bit, “Jasmine, I take it?” The woman behind the desk nods, and the flesh sculptor continues, “It will be minor, and I will put it straight back.”

Jasmine holds out her hand, shaking slightly as she does. Alice taps the hand with a single finger, changing a spot of skin to from mocha-colored to white.

The dark-skinned woman pulls her hand back like it was burned, and then stares at the spot… then rubs it a bit… then gives her hand back to Alice, who restores her color, “Okay, that's… umm…” she pauses, “...all right, my guest built a bracelet that does that for my entire body…” Jasmine pauses and tilts her head, “...run that by me again?” Another pause, “...so that change would have been forever?” Again, silence, “...so that's double edged.”

“Care to let me in on the conversation?” Alice frowns.

“Oh, sorry,” Jasmine chuckles, “it's easy to forget nobody else can hear him. He was just telling me that your power doesn't ‘stick around’: This makes it harder to detect the tampering and makes it last until something else changes things again, but also limits the power to things that could exist… or something like that. He's wordy.”

Alice raises an eyebrow, “You're possessed by a man?”

“He's nice,” the dark desk clerk shrugs.

“...and he can analyze super powers?” Alice's jaw drops.

Jasmine tilts her head, listening to something only she can hear, then relays, “Kind of? Something about all super powers being magic… or maybe magic being a super power? Anyway… he can detect them, and analyze them given some time, but the ‘not sticking around’ thing always comes with certain good and bad points, so it is easy to call out when he watches it happen.”

“Why are you two so…?” Alice frowns.

“You want to take the philosophy question?” Jasmine looks to the side, then her manner changes again, and Guest answers, “Deception, lies, and secrets are corrosive,” he shrugs, “The idea is to work with you long-term. If we lie to you, materially deceive you, or knowingly leave out something important… you'll feel hurt and betrayed: You won't want to work with us, and will either leave or worse: End up working against us. The long term gain is worth the short-term risk of you telling someone.”

Alice nods slowly, “All right… so you have my attention… what kind of paycheck are we talking?”

Guest grins and the two bargain for a time, eventually agreeing to a salary and benefits, and Jasmine agrees to let Alice couch surf until Guest can make good on the house.