App R&D

Maybelline, or May, to the coworkers she actually liked (And Maggie before she got swept up in all this craziness), approached the front desk of Research and did her best to look imposing. She was familiar with the character of the division and how willing they were to play hardball. While she’d technically been assigned to work with them on her newest project, at a company that specialized in altering the rules of reality itself, something as petty interdepartmental guidelines could be easily swept aside. And given that such alterations typically revolved around twisting individuals in previously impossible ways, that put her in real danger.

Looking imposing was no small feat. A mishap involved with that project had left her with ponderously large, impossibly perky breasts, each the size of her head. They strained against the white fabric of the suit shirt she wore beneath her blue blazer, making it obvious to anyone that said mishap had also rendered her incapable of wearing underwear. They were a comic mismatch on the redhead’s otherwise petite frame.

Still, ever the trooper, May walked past the division’s pretty blonde secretary, forcing a gait and straightforward look that she hoped projected a sense of belonging.

May scanned her ID badge and was relieved when the machine flashed a green light and the frosted glass doors parted to grant her access. She strode through and did her best to look confident and scan the office signs at the same time. After a while, and with only a few potentially embarrassing side eyes, she did eventually find the man she was looking for.

She found him standing over a large set of monitors. Occasionally he’d stop to shout commands at the other Research employees or bark into a phone. He was a bit short, but had broad shoulders and a stocky frame. His curly dark hair and a beard, along with his suit and sweater vest, made him look a bit like a college professor; if not one of the young, cool, handsome type that one generally found only in movies.

He eyed May as she approached.

“You’ve got that sort of look in your eyes that says you need to speak to me, and I can already tell you that I’m way too busy.”

“Are you Abrams?” She asked, ignoring him. All of the Research employees had codenames based on military equipment.

“That depends on who’s asking. If you’re my new assistant, then maybe. If you’re one of the greedy assholes from Operations, needy assholes from Development or stingy assholes from Finance, I’m going to have to invite you to piss off.”

Well, this was off to a grand start.

“What if I told you I was the new assistant you were being assigned?” She said.

“Would you be lying?”

“That kind of depends on your perspective. I am the new assistant you were assigned, but the assignment may or may not be legitimate.” She said, extending her hand. “I’m Maybelline. It’s nice to meet you.”

Abrams eyed it warily, but didn’t shake it.

“Maybelline, huh? Rock song designations are Frankenstein’s thing, so that must make you...”

“One of the needy bastards from Development” She said.

“How are you my new assistant _and _from Development?”

“I may or may not have urged my manager to fake a transfer order when you posted an opening for an assistant. And he may or may not have done it for me.”

“Which means he wanted you here,” Abrams groaned, “Which probably also means…”

“That I’m here to supervise the rollout on my project. Yeah.”

He turned fully to her now, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Ah, c’mon, I thought we put an end to this kind of crap! Look, I know all you Development guys think your latest project is your baby, and it’s special and it’ll change the company forever, but…”

“My new project is my baby, is special and will change the company forever.” Maybelline interrupted. “Anyway, we faked a transfer because we suspected you’d override a supervision request.”

“Well, you suspected correctly,” His eyes went to her chest. “Your little project seems like it already has changed you forever. Run into a little occupational hazard, there? What have you been working on anyway?”

She tried to adjust her blazer to cover her expanded breasts, a habit that was as reflexive as it was Quixotic given the jacket had been tailored for a pair a fifth the size they were now. She resolved to ignore the gibe.

“I’ve been working on the app suite. I oversaw the whole project and developed Hot Potato, Couple Connection and Genie Gems myself.”

His demeanor shifted at that.

“Hmmm...those things are damn good. Which one did that to you?”

“The Really Magic 8 Ball.” She admitted with a blush. “I asked for bigger boobs and got ‘It is decidedly so’, then ‘Quite the Opposite’ both when I asked it for some underwear that fit and to undo the changes. As concept tests go, I suppose you could call it a great success.”

He whistled.

“Rough luck. Look...this is the first time we’ve ever rolled anything like this out on mobile. Normally we just circulate trinkets to shady shops, which limits how fast they can spread. There’s a lot that can go wrong here and we need to be taking notes and ready to do damage control if things get out of hand.”

“All the more reason to have someone who developed the apps and can reprogram them on the fly around.”

“I’m saying I don’t have time to be babysat by someone who just wants to see their toys in action.” He said, turning away from her. “But I’ll tell you what, I will extend you one invitation.”

“Is it to piss off?” Maybelline asked, staring at the floor. Or at least that’s what she would have stared at if she could see past her tits.

“Let no man say you aren’t clever.”

May’d been prepared for this. Reaching down between her breasts, she withdrew a USB drive on a nylon neck cord. Moving as swiftly as her high heels and altered form would allow, she lunged to place herself in between his path and the monitors.

“No, damn you!” She said. “We’re breaking new ground here and I’m absolutely going to be part of it whether you like it or not!”

She lifted the drive.

“Besides, I happen to have a new app right here that you don’t even know about. And the perfect focus group to use it on.” She said, wagging it back and forth. “And I happen to know that it’s exactly the kind of thing you’d take a personal interest in.”

“How could you possibly know what kind of thing I’d take a personal interest in?”

May grinned.

“Because I looked up your company psychological profile.”

“Those are classified!”

“I’ve programmed cell phone apps that can change reality. You don’t think I’m capable of pulling a report from the archives?”

“Point,” Abrams said with a sigh. “Look, tell me what this mystery app is and I’ll let you stay. But you better impress me. You’ve taken up an annoying amount of my time and I’m dangerously close to calling over a security officer to toss you in Testing or something.”

“Yes!” She said, straightening. “Okay, so have you ever heard of that game Among Us? Or Mafia? It’s kinda like that, but with dangerous transformative technology.”

Abrams stroked his chin.

“That _is _my kind of project. So you, what? Release the app into a group?”

May nodded.

“80% of our focus group gets an alert to be on the lookout for weird things happening because any of them can be changed at any moment. The other 20% gets an app to make changes.” She explained. “I’ve got a whole system to them all to change each other and punish the people they think are doing it.”

He studied her, and then sighed.

“Alright, alright. I’m impressed. I’ll let you stay. Just don’t piss me off or…”

“Yeah yeah. You’ll throw me to one of the shows or make me a test subject or whatever. I get the gist.” She said. “What’s our status on the rollouts?”

“Well, Couple Connection has been in the field since April.” He said. “We’re launching Hot Potato, Genie Gems and 8 Ball throughout the week. And we cancelled Mad Libs so we can put your new mystery game into the field whenever you want.”

“Awww….Mad Libs got cut?” May pouted. She’d like that one.

“Oh c’mon. You know it was buggy as all get out.”

Abrams motioned to a chair. It was one of a few that sat in front of the big monitors. They were all blank at the moment, but May knew they could be trained on any of their test subjects at any time using the unique gifts their company had developed over the years.

“Listen, I really, badly need to get to work on one of these damn things.” He said. “Pick your poison and let’s go.”

May took a seat, crossing her legs to try to hide the fact that she could no longer wear panties.

“Why’d you wait so long to roll them out?” She asked.. “We got most of those apps to you months ago.”

“The pandemic really gave us a good chance to test these things in isolation.” He said. “What we don’t want is the streets exploding into an orgy of transformations and chaos if the app goes viral or something. We launched Couple Connection on a limited basis in April to watch how couples used it in lockdown, but by the time you got us the others, most of the restrictions had been lifted.”

“But with the virus making a comeback and everyone going to ground again, you think it’s a good time to roll the new ones out?” May guessed.

“Yeah. Now quit stalling and tell me what we’re pushing out. I’m already an hour behind the launch time I promised Executive.”

May nodded, and made her choice.