"YOUCH!" Jon exclaimed from the sharp pain in her ear; one of the half dozen or so design staff that had been assigned to her had just pulled the trigger on his ear piercing gun, putting a fresh whole in the lobe of one of Jon's dainty new ears. Glancing at one of the many, many mirrors around her, Jon leaned in to see with wonder as the lobe swelled up momentarily red before rapidly healing, almost like she was watching a time-lapse. They'd explained the nanites that had caused her dramatic transformation were still present in her system, but it was seriously freaky to see them working. Still, that had hurt, so she asked, "couldn't you have just had the nanites make the piercings in the first place?"
A short woman with dark rimmed glasses and a brunette bob, who Jon had quickly surmised was in charge of the crew swarming around her, shook her head and said, "it wouldn't look quite right, some minor imperfection in the technology. And I don't do imperfections." The woman smirked, "besides, that bit of pain is a rite of passage for women. Now when your younger daughter gets hers done, you can hold her hand and honestly tell her you know how she feels."
Right, I'm supposed to be a 'mother' now Jon reminded herself, to my own parents no less. The past hour had been an absolute blur as the newly minted Richmond family had quickly been hurried out of the Gibson house and into a fleet of waiting vans that had then whisked them somewhere across town. There hadn't been a moment for her to make a break for the stone, and honestly she'd been unsure of how to get out of this insane wish-created reality show even if she had. Wishes were hard to directly reverse and she might only end up making things worse; trying to wish that everything was normal could just turn their new bodies to the default!
Besides, Jon thought as the production team dashed about, Karyn and Zoe seemed upset, but everyone else really wants that prize money. She'd been pretty quickly separated from the rest of the group as every contestant was rushed over to a different room in the large warehouse they'd been taken to, but for the moment it seemed like the majority was willing to go along with this. So far they'd just pierced her ears and held up a few different fabric swatches against her skin, but she gathered more was incoming, and presumably the rest were going through something similar.
Jon twisted to examine herself more fully in the mirror and couldn't help blushing at the absolute MILF looking back at her, wearing nothing more than the simple white cotton bra and panty set the staff had given her for her modesty. She'd found herself thankful for the bra in particular, which helped to tame the prodigious chest she'd been graced with.
There was no denying 'Luna' was a knockout, and frankly Jon felt the nanites had strained the edge of credibility for how good she looked for supposedly being 36. I mean, I'm hardly an expert, but I feel like after four kids, including twins, you'd expect some stretch marks, she mused as she poked at the flawless skin on her tummy. Maybe Helen is supposed to be the one who carried?
Jon was brought back to attention by the woman with glasses clapping loudly and declaring "Now! We're short on time and lots to do. My team needs to fill a whole wardrobe for you, pick out appropriate accessories, figure out your best palette, plan your beauty regime etc." Jon winced a bit at how it sounded like she was basically going to be used like a human barbie, but the woman continued, oblivious or uncaring, "but, like I said, we're short on time, so while we're trying styles, intern girl is going to fill you in a bit on your backstory." The woman jabbed her thumb at a mousy looking girl in a gray hoodie, holding a clipboard.
"Um, it's Sally," the girl muttered, before turning to Jon, "I'm going to give you a very brief overview of your history and then lay out some of your initial goals. Luna Richmond is supposed to be the ultimate housewife, mother and homemaker, so a lot of your opportunities to scoop up points will be domestically oriented compared to some of the others. Still, don't worry, there will be a lot of point-scoring opportunities for you out in town as well, as you make your mark on the social scene." The girl rushed her words out in a way that made it a bit hard for Jon to follow, clearly being a bit nervous. Instinctively, she reached a hand out to pat the girl on the arm.
The intern smiled shyly, "uh, thanks. So, anyway, you're Luna Nguyen Richmond, originally from the valley, but you moved away for college, where you met Helen, and you're just now moving back near home. Your family are well to do established vinters-"
"Vintner?" Jon asked, while out of the corner of her eye she saw another member of production approaching her with a red cocktail dress in one hand and matching slingback heels in the other.
"It means they own vineyards and bottle their own wine," Sally quickly explained, "so, right, happy childhood, two siblings, an older brother and a younger sister. You left for the east coast for college, and met Helen during your undergrad. It says here you studied botany, but it doesn't really matter since you didn't pursue it. So anyway, you two meet, whirlwind romance, yada yada yada. By sophmore year your living together, and your engaged before too long. Early senior year you get pregnant with the twins so the wedding is a bit rushed. You have the twins and move into a lovely New England house outside Boston where your family lived all through Helen's MBA, before moving to a larger place after she graduated and you were planning on some more kids."
"Wait, hold on!" Jon interjected while she was being guided into the short red dress. "You make it sound like we got pregnant by accident, but we're both women? Also, how did we afford to do this if I wasn't working?"
The intern flipped through her notes quickly, "Uh, hold on, I know there were some rewrites at some point. Ah, got it! Right, after they decided to have you be lesbians, they swapped accidental pregnancy for earlier marriage and IVF. Don't worry, the final version will be all typed up for you to review, hopefully. Anyways, like I said you came from a rich family, and the Richmond's are old, OLD money so Helen's always been perfectly able to support you even before her own career took off. So, you're living in Boston and after a few years..." The girl continued to give an abridged version of Luna's life story, but Jon quickly found she was only half listening as her attention was instead drawn to the dozens of dresses, blouses, shorts, shoes, lingere, and more the wardrobe team wanted her to try on.
