New Opportunity (Bimbo/Secretary TF)

It was a rainy, cold, and altogether miserable evening by the standards of most people. The mist was thick in the early morning air, and visibility was at it’s lowest. That was all just as well for a detective engaged in some debatably legal investigative work.

Others had often figured that Blanche would be an ineffective and purely by the book sort of private investigator. She was a woman of discipline and logic, and overall a bit of a perfectionist. All qualities that would lead one to believe she followed all the rules. But ti was that same logical mind that had her tracking a person of interest without a warrant.

If the woman had been dressed sensibly, she might not have been quite so easy to follow. But a bright red coat stood out in the misty pre-dawn as sharply as a lantern, and all Blanche had to do to tail her quarry was walk just a couple blocks behind, her pale colored clothes letting the mist swallow up her profile so she may as well be invisible.

The target of the investigation was one Janessa Sulla, CEO of the cosmetics company Illusion. It was a wildly successful brand, a success story that came out of nowhere to challenge former household names. More than one of Blanche’s acquaintances swore by it, and wouldn’t use another brand anymore. The sudden rise to prominence made Janessa seem like your standard rags-to-riches story.

But there was something distinctly rotten about it, of that Blanche was certain. Nothing that could be proven, or the police would be on them by now. But Blanche had done some digging.

There was a history of employees vanishing from the records - not fired or reassigned, just disappearing. In their places were new people with no record of being hired. There was absolutely no trace of the ex-employees; they seemed to just vanish into thin air, and the company never reported anything. But people noticed, and when she got several calls in a week, Blanche had connected some dots. Illusion Cosmetics had some skeletons in the closet, and the Private Investigator would be the one to drag them into the light.

Blanche had been on a stakeout, sitting in a coffee shop across the street from Miss Sulla’s townhouse, when the woman had suddenly left far earlier than anticipated. An early start to work, or something more sinister? There was nothing to do but follow, and so Blanche had done so, trailing the CEO to an industrial park where the Illusion Cosmetics Factories were located. It seemed odd that she’d go there, rather than their main office building downtown, so Blanche thought she was onto something.

She watched the woman enter a discreet, unmarked warehouse hidden in the shadow of one of the large factories, and waited a couple minutes. Once it was obvious that Janessa wasn’t leaving anytime soon, Blanche crept up to the entrance.

It was time to add “trespassing” and possibly “breaking and entering” to the list of probably-illegal actions of the private investigator. She tried the door, and found it unlocked - evidently Janessa hadn’t been expecting anyone to tail her. Blanche listened at the door for a few moments, and hearing nobody, slipped inside…

And found herself staring at a wall of corrugated iron, the inside of a shipping container. She whirled around, but the door slammed shut behind her and a second set of shutters made certain she wouldn’t be leaving.

“Good job, investigator. You must be a smart one, getting this far,” a voice that Blanche recognized as belonging to her target said, “Unfortunately for you, we don’t like having little nosy rats poking around our operation.”

Blanche looked around, trying to find a way out, as the woman kept talking. “Although, if you walked into a trap like this, are you really that smart?” she mused, “Perhaps you’re really quite dumb. But don’t worry, we have plenty of opportunities for a woman like you at Illusion Cosmetics…”

Whatever speakers the voice was coming from went silent, the words replaced by a low hiss as a strange pink smoke started to fill the top of the container, before dropping towards the trapped detective slowly but steadily. “If I turn up dead, people will come looking, you know! Let me out, and this might not go as bad for you!” Blanche tried to keep looking for an escape route, and as the gas fell around her she took a deep breath and tried to hold it.

She looked and looked, but the container seemed completely sealed, and her lungs screamed for air. The voice had returned, laughing. “Ha! You think we want to kill you? That really is dumb. No, no - the gas won’t do anything so crude as that. We have an image to maintain.” The CEO said. Blanche was forced to let out her breath, and thus to let the gas in.

For a few moments, she thought that it wasn’t doing anything. She sighed with relief, trying to keep going - where was the gas coming in from? Could she use it as an exit? “I’ll get out of here, and the police will hear about this!” She was so focused on trying to escape that she didn’t notice the changes beginning.

Her short, black hair started to grow, expanding down her back as she tried to follow where the gas was coming in from. As it did, it seemed to brighten, starting from the tips and working it’s way up to her roots as it went from black to brown to blonde. “Are you sure you want to go?” Janessa asked. “You have the sort of looks that are just begging for some makeup - you could be gorgeous!” As Blanche bent down to see if the gas was escaping somewhere, her bottom seemed to grow as well, followed by her bust as she stood again, both straining against her clothes.

The gas grew thicker, and as it did it’s effects grew more intense. Blanche wiped some sweat from her brow, still not noticing her physical transformation beyond the tightness of her clothes. “I… makeup? You’re trying to sell me something during this?” she asked, confused. That didn’t make sense. She shook her head - Janessa wouldn’t be selling much of anything after this, not makeup or anything else! Not once she was brought in for the crime of… of… Blanche tried to grasp at the knowledge, but it seemed to slip through her fingers as her mind turned back to the makeup.

“Oh, not sell, it’s a free sample. We have a new type we’re trying out…” Janessa said. “Do you wanna try?”

Blanche blinked, her head filled with a thick fog. What was she doing? Why was she here? She… she did kinda want to try out that makeup, but that seemed wrong, didn’t it? She couldn’t begin to figure out why though. The… the smokey stuff was doing something to her. It must be a neuro- a brain- a something bad! But it didn’t feel bad. And why would the CEO want to do something bad to her, anyway? “I… uh…” Blanche said, swaying in place as bit by bit, all those useless little facts that she wouldn’t need anymore dripped out of her mind. “I… shouldn’t?” she managed after a while.

The gas dissipated rapidly now that it’s work was done, and the end of the container swung open to let Blanche walk out. Waiting for her was Janessa, holding a small pink bag. “Well then, Miss Detective, I think I’ll give you two choices now.”

“Oh, is it a game?” Blanche asked, the significance of the question lost on her rather reduced mind.

“Sort of. Your first choice is that you can leave here. Go to the police, or just home, whichever.” Janessa shrugged. “If you still have the capacity to make that choice, well, that’s on us.”

Blanche blinked. It became clear she wasn’t going to ask, so Janessa continued unprompted. “The other choice is that you can take this bag of Illusion’s latest cosmetics, pretty yourself up, and join us.”

Janessa wondered if somewhere inside the vapid airhead she’d created, there was still some part of the woman that wanted to leave. If there was, it didn’t show a sign of itself as she snatched the bag from Janessa’s hands and rooted through it like a castaway given a bag of food.

Blanche pulled out the first thing she grabbed, a bit of lipstick, which she quickly and skillfully applied. She’d never been one to wear it before, but now she felt naked without and knew how to do it perfectly. A bit of eyeliner came on next, followed by some nice blue eyeshadow which accentuated it.

She hardly noticed Janessa watching with ill disguised amusement as she found their newest development, an instant-curling iron. Blanche gleefully set it to work. From the gas, her hair had gained a surprising amount of volume, and that only increased as she used the curling iron. She deftly curled it to perfection, using a small hand mirror from the pouch to guide her curls into a textbook perfect bouffant style.

“I can’t believe you’re letting me use these things… Illusion just has to be the best brand, nothing else compares!” Blanche said as she worked herself over, unknowingly cementing her own transformation. “I think it’s ruined all the others for me, honestly! Do you have any hairspray so I can make sure it stays like this?”

“That’s delightful to hear.” Janessa said, offering her a can. “You know, employees get this stuff for free. I’ve been looking to hire a new secretary… do you think you could fill the role?”

“Oh, are you sure? I’d love to, but-”

“You’re not too smart, right?” The CEO finished for her. “Don’t worry about that - all you have to do is look pretty and do what I tell you, and you can do that, right?”

“Of course I can, boss!” Blanche said, taking the offered spray and setting it to work on her hair, sealing her fate.

Janessa smiled. “Alright then… Bianca, why don’t you get dressed for work? I was just checking on the storage, so you can walk with me to the office.”

Bianca nodded vigorously as she could without messing up her hair, already forgetting that fussy little know it all Blanche entirely, and practically skipped off to the bathroom with the provided dress. It wasn’t long before she returned, now wearing a flower-patterned blue one piece dress that flattered her hourglass figure. “Ready to go, boss!”

The two women left the warehouse nattering on about fashion and cosmetics, the inquisitive detective gone without a trace.