Battle Vixens! - 142

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Episode 142: The Future

No sooner had the news crew packed up and left than a line began to form outside the door. Maybe it was more accurate to call it a crowd instead. Ning leaned back in her seat, sighed, then stood up. The kids had the day off from school, and there was no risk of an attack interrupting things...so there was no better time to take care of this. Still, it was going to be a long day, if every single one of them was here to apply for the job. But delaying any more would only make it all take even longer, so she hopped to her feet and went to let the first person in.

"C'mon in! One at a time, please. Form a line out there, if you don't mind!'

"Uh hi!" The first to enter was short, thin young woman in casual dress. She seemed nervous, excited, and very fidgety.

"Morning. You have a resume?"
"N-no. I just. Tobehonest myfriendskinda pushedmetocome."

"That's fine. Take a seat, and a deep breath, if you don't mind. We'll just do a short interview for now. To begin with...why don't you introduce yourself?"

The fifth was an average-height guy, slightly overweight, wearing glasses. "Do you have any experience working retail?" Ning asked.

"Yeah. I've stocked shelves at a big grocery in my hometown before."
"You have their number? Or location? For a reference, I mean."
"Uh, not on me...honestly, we didn't really part on theee, best of terms..."

Applicant number ten actually brought a resume...although it more closely resembled a kindergartener's art project. Ning couldn't read what much of what she'd handwritten in glittery ink on that pink piece of paper.

"And how are you with kids?"
"Oh, I'm great~. I worked as a babysitter for my mom's friends~," she said.

"Why do you want to work here?"

"Are you kidding? You must meet all kinds of amazing people! Hey, does Light hang out here often?"
Ning said, a little wearily: "Not really..." Number fifteen wasn't looking too promising.

---

April looked over a table covered in fox-masks, eventually picking a couple of them up to inspect more closely. "Impressive work..so many variations. I certainly couldn't have imagined all this from our first couple of phone calls." Setting them down again, she turned to the two men who'd hired her. "Are you certain you're academics and not artists?"

"We didn't directly make these designs," Dr. Bridges said. "There are several artists in our department. But they needed your original ideas to go off of before these started actually working."

"Strange. You couldn't simply mass-produce the same appearance, either?"
"We obviously could. But only the first copy of any specific design is functional," Dr. Brand said. "As if the blasted masks themselves know they're not 'original enough'."

Dr. Bridges adjusted his glasses. "Thankfully, only a slight change is usually needed to fix that...but eventually we run out of working variations for the paint, and have to come up with a different shape."

"This is bound to become a fundamental limit to our output at some point. Unless someone like you can do something about it."

"Goodness. I never expected the limits of creativity to have such a practical consequence," she said.

"Hmmmh." For a moment April closed her eyes, tapping her cheek with her index finger. "Surely we could move on to other sorts of accessories...and we haven't exhausted the potential of hats with just the one, have we?"

"Probably not, but that one was difficult enough to produce," Dr. Brand said. "It would be preferable to use rings, bracelets, watches—something which is not supposed to hide one's original appearance. We received a hint from the Giver to the effect that something like that may allow powers without the need for a change in one's overall appearance."
"It sounds as if you want a jeweler," April said. "I work largely in thread, you know; the masks were already a stretch for me. I suppose it would be impractical to use the likes of shirts or dresses—they'd take too long to put on when needed."

"What about gloves?" Dr. Bridges suggested.

"That, at least, I could produce. Although there is still something of an aspect of covering one's true appearance with those."

Dr. Brand sighed, "We tried gloves before, with no success. I wouldn't be opposed to another attempt, if we weren't in the middle of a crisis."

"Ah—what about..?" Thinking of her conversation with Emma earlier that day, April took off the headband she still had on, presenting it to the researchers. "This is hardly the direction you're asking for, but in the interest of having more variations to pick from..."

They looked at each other as if something terribly obvious had been pointed out to them. "Right..." Dr. Bridges said. "Probably because of the Giver's actions, there is a certain preference for 'animal ears', let's say. We've received a little bit of evidence lately that it's moving away from exclusively foxes..."

"It's an idea, at least," Dr. Brand said, not looking particularly happy (but April was rapidly forming a suspicion that he almost never did). "While there is still an emergency to respond to, we can't afford to be too picky. We will need to hammer out a functional prototype today."

April nodded, putting the headband back on. "I hope it shall not be a surprise to you gentlemen that I have little experience in making these, too. But I am always looking for new challenges, especially now that they're in fashion..."

---

After the conversation with all of the other "Reborn" was over, Simon followed Cynthia out of the room. She turned a couple of random corners to confirm that he was actually trying to stick with her and not just coincidentally going the same direction, and then turned and glared. "You want somethin'?!"

"Oh, well, since you asked—I have a short break, and I thought we could resume our conversation from last night for a minute or two," he said.

"Last night...what, you mean about the colleges? I thought you were done with that stuff once you started talkin' to other folks."

"I gave you some opinions, sure, but then I just got distracted. My main point was: Considering all of the options, where do you think you'd like to go?"

"'To go'?"

"You know, starting mmmh, possibly next fall? I don't think it's quite too late to get some applications in," he said, "especially not for a celebrity."
"Wha—?! I d—! Back up like five steps, would ya?"
"Oookay?" He started literally taking steps backward.
"I don't mean it like that! What're you talkin' about applications in the first place for?!"

"Oh." Simon stopped. "Well, you're obviously an extremely talented artist, so it only seems right to me to find you somewhere you can actually develop those talents. Ideally with the option of making a career out of it, but obviously it's not up to me which way you want to ultimately steer your life."

"You think I, should go to some college somewhere? Me?"
"Sure. You're, what, eighteen or nineteen? That's about the right age for college."
She crossed her arms, glaring. "I can't afford jack."
"There are these wonderful things called scholarships and student loans. The latter are less pleasant, but if you get to be rolling in cash the way I am, they can be dispensed with pretty quickly."

"I ain't got enough schooling. Neither me nor Donny ever graduated, y'know?"

Simon shrugged. "A minor obstruction. A GED isn't that tough to earn."

"You think I'm'onna get a scholarship, with a GED?"

"It could happen! But, really, success is often in large part to do with who you know. And you know me," he said, giving a grand gesture toward his own chest, "And I am good friends with plenty of people in the art world, including the academic side. A couple of phone calls, maybe a visit to show off some of your sketches, and I'm sure I could work something out with..at least most of the less-picky colleges. Besides, that's not even counting the other advantages you have."

"Like what? 'Celebrity'!? You think I oughta use how I'm sorta famous to get accepted over somebody else?"

"Well, obviously. Anyone who aims to get ahead in life should leverage every advantage at their disposal, especially if you think you're at a disadvantage to start with. I don't mean hurting other people, obviously, but the fact that you are miss came-back-from-the-dead Phoenix will carry some weight no matter what. If nothing else, your powers could literally protect campus—if those monsters keep attacking the world for that long, anyway. But, hey, even if not, who knows what else we vixens might be called on to help out with?"

"You...I just don't get how you think."

"It's pretty straightforward," he said with a shrug. "I'm always looking out for number one."
"Then what you wanna help me out for?"
"You're very talented, remember? So if you turn that talent into a career as a famous artist, then I get to be the man who 'discovered' you!" he said, pointing to his own chest proudly with his right thumb. "You mention how very much I helped you in aaaallll your big award speeches. Introduce me to all the movers and shakers you happen to meet. And as a result, my fame and influence grows all the more!" he concluded, spreading his arms out dramatically.

"You think I'd do all that, knowing you only helped me so I would?"

"I don't see any reason to be coy about it, at least. People like you better if they think you're honest, after all. So, what do you say? How about applying to some places for next school year?"

He had an irritating grin on that was probably supposed to be charismatic and winning...no, on second thought, Cynthia decided that this grin was an intentionally annoying one because that would make her respond faster. She just sighed. "I guess I'll think about it."
"Perfect! Think about which college too, while you're at it!" he said. "Maybe do some of your own research on them. Well, I've got to run now, so we'll talk again later!" With that, Simon about-faced and practically sprinted out of sight.

Cynthia paused a long moment, then started off in the direction she'd been going before noticing Simon following her. She realized slowly that he'd done all of that specifically to make her start thinking about it, and now she was, so as far as he was concerned, he'd "won" the conversation. The way he thought was a little less opaque now, but still just as much of a headache for her.

---

After the nineteenth semi-disastrous interview, Ning took a short break to get up, stretch, check on Nadia, and drink some water. Glancing out the window before she let the next one in, it seemed like the crowd had thinned considerably. She could almost make out a coherent line now, and a few of them were even dressed up instead of just wearing casual clothes or worse. Probably a lot of people had just come around to gawk, or (optimistically) to cheer their friends on, and/or egg them into coming in to apply.

Number twenty was already looking better: He had an actual resume, had experience...

"What hours do you think you'll be able to work in a typical week?"
"Uh...let's see..classes are out right now, but with my usual schedule...I guess I'd be free most afternoons? Just not Wednesday, I've got a lab class."
"Weekends?"

"Uhhhmmostly?" he said.

"'Kay then," Ning noted that down. "And—how are you with kids?"
"Prretty bad. I honestly just kinda find it tough to relate to anyone under, like, fifteen."

She nodded. "Got it. Thank you for being honest. I'll call you if I wanna hire you."

Applicant twenty-five came in wearing a proper dress..and a fox-ear headband. "Why don't you introduce yourself?"

"Oh, sure. I'm Maria Faye, senior year but I'm probably gonna need a fifth one at this rate. It's how things go when you switch majors."

No experience..but she expressly wanted to learn how to handle a store, for her future career. So at least she was serious...
"My schedule's pretty rough this semester...I've gotta go to class all day Thursday and Friday. Mornings are open otherwise?"

And she'd never been around any kids...being the youngest of a few siblings. But she was sure it couldn't be 'that hard'...Ning had to restrain herself from shaking her head and/or saying something like 'oh you sweet child, bless your heart'.

The end of the line was visible out the window by number thirty-one. Ning felt like she might be able to get in a lunch by maybe 2:00, and then open the store normally for the rest of the afternoon. This one came wearing a suit, and he was...tall. Huge, broad-shouldered, fit. He had to duck to get into the door, and made the interviewee chair look like it was designed for someone a third his age.

"Mmh, sorry about the chair," Ning said. "You can stand if you want?"
"Nah, I'm used to it," he said, offering her a proper-looking resume.

"Thank you. Now, why don't you introduce yourself?"

"Uh, sure. Gustav Cooper. Lot of people just call me Gus. I'm majoring in theater...kinda. I work in the props department, but I'm actually hoping to be a modern-day blacksmith. Make real swords and stuff, like for ren fairs. Pretty niche, I know."

"Interesting. And—do you have any experience working retail?"
"I'm..not sure it counts, exactly. But I've done a lot of booths at cons and fairs, that kind of thing. Not..you know, a normal store or anything," he shrugged.

"That's fine, if you're open to learning a thing or two. Why do you want to work here?"

"I just thought..you know, some extra money and experience might help. Seems like you're pretty good at managing your own business, financially speaking, so..thought maybe I could pick up a few tips? If you don't mind."

"We'll see. What hours do you think you'll be available to work?"
"It's..a little up in the air. If they need me doing props, I've gotta be at the theater department all day, whether it's the weekend or not. But when I'm done, I get a lot of time free. No classes on Wednesday, not much on Tuesday or Thursday. It's all squeezed into the edges of the week."

"Oo-kay. And: How are you with kids, Gustav?"
"Oh, I'm great! Got some younger cousins who're always begging for piggyback rides. Or they wanna play Lilliput and Gulliver, try to 'knock the giant down' and stuff."

"That sounds nice." Ning stood up and offered him a hand to shake. "Thanks for your time; I'll call you if I wanna hire you."

"Sure. Thank you." While he was walking out (and carefully ducking through the doorway again), she made a quick note that this one was a definite keeper.

"...Next, please!"

---

April took command of a small temporary office—mostly just needing the desk and the chair—and got to work sketching out some designs. After making a few reasonable attempts at animal-ear headbands, she also tried her hand with a few hats, pairs of gloves, and a choker. The numerous back-and-forth exchanges while designing Magus's hat had taught her the sort of designs that were likely to "work" and the sort that definitely wouldn't, but she would struggle terribly if asked to put that comprehension into words.

While she was coincidentally taking a brief stretch break, there was a knock on the door, so she went to answer it. "Ah, Dr. Brand. Something I can help you with?"
"Perhaps. If you wouldn't mind speaking in confidence for a moment?"
"Oh, no trouble at all," she said, heading deeper into the little office again to get out of his way. The aged physicist carefully closed the door behind him, clearly trying to minimize the noise it made, and paused to glance at the desk, and the half-finished sketches upon it.
"I suppose that's going well enough?"
"Yes..I believe I should have something adequate soon," she said. "Although—some of these designs are rather obvious. If they do work, it'd be rather surprising that nobody else has already stumbled upon them."
"That is true, but constructing the object is only the first step of the process. It must be the right kind of object for the rest of the process, which is classified for the moment, to work."

"I see—that does make a bit more sense," she said, nodding.

"Well then...there was something else you wished to discuss?"

"I have a strange question," Dr. Brand said. "Have you had any contact with persons...especially women, whose names sound like some kind of gemstone?"

"I can think of several, off the top of my head," she said with quick nod. "Names like 'Ruby', 'Diamanda', 'Sapphire'...are all fairly common among fashionistas and models, you know. Although I can't say for certain whether those are their legal names."

"Yes, of course," he nodded just slightly. "Have any of these people..said or done something notably strange? I'm not sure how to put it—have they, seemed to demonstrate extraordinary knowledge? Or refused to lie when it clearly would have been beneficial to do so?"

"Hmmn." April tilted her head slightly, thinking. She wasn't really built for intrigue. "I have the feeling...one of us knows something they shouldn't, and I'm not certain which one it is. Oh, well, I'm certain I can trust you to keep something quiet either way. My younger sister Emma—I'm sure you're somewhat acquainted?" Dr. Brand nodded. "She had a roommate by the name of Beryl. I can't say that I ever saw anything unusual from her, but Emma evidently worked out that she was really that person they call 'the Giver'. It was something of a game for Beryl, to see how long it would take her to work it out, and once she did, the game was 'over' and she left for good. Perhaps that is the sort of thing you wanted to know?"

"...It is. Thank you." Maybe April just wasn't used to how he displayed his mood, but Dr. Brand seemed slightly more irritated than usual.
"Is something the matter?"
"Not exactly. I don't really enjoy being led by the nose, but it's only been to our benefit so far." He shook his head. "Thank you; I'll leave you to work."

---

"Mrrr~rrh..."

There was no telling exactly how long "a while" was turning out to be. Emma was entirely too focused on cuddling with and petting the other fox-girl with her on her couch to really keep track of time. And, rather than either of them breaking it off, a sudden noise interrupted this process. Emma yipped loudly, pulling herself partly upright and off of Amp, looking around in a brief panic before fully making sense of what the sound even was.

"..Oh. That's my phone."
"Pffheheh," the blond fox-girl giggled softly.

"Whaat?"
"Cuu~ute."
"Hmph..." Emma pouted a little. "You're one to talk."

They reluctantly and a little slowly disengaged enough for Emma to go retrieve the source of the noise, but unfortunately still quickly enough that she could answer it. "Uh..hello?"

"Hiii! This is Felicity Brown," the woman on the phone said in a chipper tone of voice. "Do I have miss Emma Hayes on the other end there?"
"Uh..yeah?"

"Well! I'm with the Vixen Initiative's research department—or, more specifically, hiring and allocation. As far as I know, you spoke with our psych lead—Dr. Bridges—some time a couple of days ago, about possibly working with us at some point?"
"Uhm...I think I remember a conversation like that." That whole visit to the VI was kind of a blur for Emma, except for meeting the various former-puppet people.

"Well, we would be just as interested as ever to have your help with some things—paid help, I should emphasize, maybe part time? I was asked to call you because, err. While it is for very unfortunate reasons, I'm sure, one of the major obstructions to a normal hiring process at the time has since been uuhh, removed! Yes."

Emma looked over at Amp with a very confused expression, knowing that her giant fox-ears could hear the other end of the conversation. So she explained: "She means, since your identity is publicly known now, it's way easier to legally hire you."

"Oh! Uhhh. You want to hire me? I don't really know how much help I'd actually be with, researching magic, though."

"I've got the wrong area of expertise to argue with you about that, but I can say our research leads at least think you'd be a lot of help. If you find some time to come over, when you're not busy with your studies, or with the giant black monsters. Aaaalso, not all of what our department's engaged in really takes much expertise. I can think of at least one job you'd do twice as fast just from having two bodies to do it with."

"I guess...uhm.." Emma was briefly distracted by trying really hard to read Amp's lips, until she finally discerned the words 'how much'. "How uh..what kind of 'paid' do you mean, exactly?"
"Oh, we're willing to negotiate a pretty generous hourly rate—the VI's doing really well financially, you know, with plenty of donations and other sources of bankrolling. I admit the numbers haven't fully been crunched yet, but I've got some of the paperwork around my office here if you'll give me juust a moment."

"You need to know the actual job description, too," Amp pointed out while they both heard some papers shuffling on the other end of the phone. "They probably wanna meet in person for the paper-signing anyway."
"Uh, y-yeah," Emma said with a small nod after pulling the phone slightly away from her face.

Felicity quoted a 'lowball' estimate of the hourly rate that made Emma's eyes pop. When looked to for advice, Amp said "Up to you, but I'd take it." She eventually agreed to head over and meet with someone to talk about it in the late afternoon, which (she finally looked at her phone to check) would be a couple of hours later. After all, everyone was going to be too busy for this kind of thing tomorrow.

---

After a lunch with Nadia, Ning went shuffling through all of her notes and the fairly small number of resumes that she'd acquired from the forty-something applicants of the day. Most of them were instant rejections, but she was fairly sure there were decent applicants whose available hours could be combined to fill most of the day on most days of the week. Her granddaughter took one of the rejected resumes and started drawing something on it in crayon, which she probably should've stopped—after all, even if she wasn't going to hire that particular person, this was maybe a bit disrespectful. But she'd already started by the time Ning noticed, and this really didn't qualify as misbehavior worth scolding her for, so she just let it go.

After a few minutes, Nadia presented her with the results of her work: A few stick figures with fox-like ears and tails, standing under a smiling sun. "Oh, that's sweet~," she said, patting her granddaughter's head. "Who all is this, dear?"

"That's you, an' Gemma, an' Amp, an' Light." The tails were more or less the right colors for each, and she probably should've guessed Gemma was the one with two tails.

Ning nodded. "Thank you! Now, if you'd like to draw some more, use this paper, hmm?" she said, offering some blank pages.

"A'kay!"

Not everyone Ning intended to hire had said they were good with kids, but babysitting wasn't really going to be their job in the first place. Ideally, Nadia would be in school most of the time they were working anyway. She consolidated her decisions into a short list, with the names and numbers and the weekly hours she expected to get out of them, and then wrote some back-ups on a second piece of paper. Then she gathered everything together—including the resume Nadia had drawn over—with those papers on top, and set them aside. The time to hire would be another day, after she'd had time to really mull it over, and had someone draft out the legal paperwork, come up with a way to train the new hires and possibly introduce them to each other...

But at least she had a plan now.

---

I've had this part mostly written for so long, and then entirely written for a little while, but kept putting off publishing it until I had "more done". Well, no more of that. And I'll publish the next part I've finished, too. This story has been stuck on this day for too long, time to move on, but I admit the next day is going to involve writing a lot of action. Writing action is fun but also uniquely hard; I have to be in the right mood...well, hopefully I can manage it.