A bell chimed as Megan stepped through the door into the clean, brightly lit reception area that the sign outside proclaimed as belonging to the True Beauty Salon. She’d walked in more out of curiosity than because she actually wanted to try it out; when she’d come down this street, she’d been expecting to find her favorite tea shop, but this shiny white storefront had been in its place. The padded benches along the walls were empty; the only people in there were her and the smiling receptionist.

“Hi, Megan!” The receptionist called, and Megan gave a start at the woman knowing her name, but now that she was paying attention, the receptionist did look… kind of familiar.

“Hi,” she replied uncertainly, taking a step toward the counter. She was sure she’d heard the woman’s voice before, but couldn’t remember where. The woman’s black coat stretched tight over her considerable chest, with the salon name embroidered on one side and under that, her nametag named her Ally.

Megan’s eyes snapped back to the receptionist’s face. The beaming smile and flawless skin were completely at odds with the perpetually tired, acne-prone saleswoman who’d worked at the tea shop, but there was no doubt this was the same person.

Ally giggled, probably at the look on Megan’s face, then giggled harder as Megan’s jaw dropped hearing Ally giggle.

“So, did you want to try one of our treatments?”

“Fucking Christ, Ally, what happened?!” She finally got out, and immediately tried to stammer an apology, but Ally’s smile just somehow widened even further.

“I started working here, Megan! The True Beauty Corporation is just the best company ever! They gave me a free treatment when I started and it was the best thing that ever happened to me!” Ally took one of Megan’s hands in both of hers and all of Megan’s wonder at the changes in Ally’s demeanor were overtaken by surprise at the sensation; Ally’s hands felt like they were encased in latex gloves like a doctor or dentist, but she wasn’t wearing anything on them. Her hands were bare, but when Megan’s attention was drawn to them, they looked slightly off. Synthetic, almost. With a bit of uncertainty, she looked at Ally’s face again and saw it had the same plasticky sheen to it as her hands.

“Ally,” she asked, suddenly feeling slightly uncomfortable with the situation, “are you feeling alright?”

Ally giggled again, and just like her smile, it was vibrant, happy and started to strike Megan as fake. “Of course, Megan! I’m feeling better than I ever have, and I promise that you will too after your treatment.”

Goosebumps rising on the back of her neck, Megan gently extricated her hand from Ally’s and started backing towards the door. Whatever was going on here felt creepy and she was getting the distinct feeling that she didn’t want to find out what this ‘treatment’ entailed.

“Ah,” she laughed, hoping her nervousness wasn’t showing, “well, I guess I’ll have to come back some time. Got an appointment to get to right now, sorry, so I guess I’ll just…”

She reached the door and tried to push it open. It didn’t budge.

“I’ve scheduled you an appointment for right now. Please head through to the back.” It was said with the same perky tone Ally had been using the whole time she’d been there, with no regard for Megan’s obvious attempt to leave.

Not wanting to take her eyes off Ally, Megan didn’t turn as she threw her weight against the door a couple of times to no avail.

“Open the door,” she demanded, her voice shaking slightly.

Unfazed, Ally picked up a phone on her desk and hit a button.

“Security, we have a difficult customer.”

Immediately, three women in black pants, white shirts and sunglasses walked out from a back room. All had large breasts, slicked-back hair, and the same synthetic quality to their skin that Ally had. One pulled out a futuristic-looking pistol, sleek and chrome and covered in glowing lights.

Megan gave up on the door at that point and tried to run, not having anywhere in mind beyond away, but the guard took aim and fired an energy pulse at her. There was a sensation like being kicked and her whole body turned limp and unresponsive a second before her mind followed suit and everything went black.

When she woke up, she was tied down in a padded chair with a helmet-shaped hair dryer attached at the top, one of many in a row along one wall. The four chairs to her left each contained another woman in a different stage of transformation; the one furthest from her had the large breasts and rubbery sheen to her skin that marked her as a victim of whatever this place was doing, while the woman closest to her still looked perfectly normal. Each had the hair dryer attachment pulled down onto her head, each had a medical drip of some clear liquid feeding into her arm, each was staring raptly at a screen in front of their faces showing a woman in a True Beauty uniform speaking to them, and each was mindlessly repeating mantras, seemingly unaware of their surroundings.

“The True Beauty Corporation is the greatest corporation in existence.”

“I serve the True Beauty Corporation.”

“I am a Beauty, a product of the True Beauty Corporation.”

Megan started screaming. It had no effect on any of the other women, but she still screamed. Swiftly, a black-coated True Beauty technician appeared beside her and pulled the helmet down onto her head. Megan’s head was immediately filled with white noise that drove everything else out. She stopped screaming, forgetting why she was doing it. She was vaguely aware of a woman in a black coat standing next to her, inserting a drip into her arm, and she had the general sense that there was some significance to this fact, but she couldn’t bring up what it was. The woman left, leaving her sitting there alone, not sure what was going on and not able to figure out how she should feel or what she should think.

Her concept of time disappeared, so she wasn’t sure how long had passed, but eventually the noise in her head changed from a single whining tone to a rhythmic pulsing. Eventually, she started to make out words in the noise, whispered softly in time with the rhythm.

“Relax.”

“Relax.”

“Calm.”

“Peace.”

“Relax.”

“Hello.”

Megan blinked, confused.

“Hello,” the noise repeated, still matching that pulsing rhythm, but now a clear and definite voice instead of half-heard whispers.

“He- hello,” Megan tried to say back. She wasn’t sure if she actually made any noise.

The voice giggled. “I’m Megan,” it told her. “What’s your name?”

“Uh… Megan,” she told it.

“No way,” Megan giggled, “that’s my name!”

Megan was confused. Where was she? What was happening?

“Relax,” Megan told her, and the pulsing in the background, almost musical now, made it so nice to listen to her. “You don’t need to think. Breathe in, and breathe out, and relax.”

Megan breathed in time with the instructions, and it felt like exhaling all the tension she’d ever built up throughout her life. She sank into the chair.

“That feels so nice,” Megan thought. Or said. Which Megan? She wasn’t sure. “I should do that again. Breathe in, and breathe out, and relax.”

The second time was even better than the first. Megan’s muscles felt like they were made of jelly, and her mind started to drift off on a wave of bliss.

“The True Beauty Corporation is the best corporation ever,” Megan thought, though she wasn’t sure why. What was the True Beauty Corporation? It sounded familiar. Was that where she was? If it was making her feel this good, then it probably was the best corporation ever.

“The True Beauty Corporation is the best corporation ever,” she thought again, and she was more confident it was true this time.

“Hey, Megan, isn’t the True Beauty Corporation just the greatest?” Megan asked, and Megan grinned.

“Yeah, the True Beauty Corporation is the best corporation ever,” Megan responded sleepily.

“I want to learn more about the True Beauty Corporation,” she thought, and, conveniently, a mechanical arm held up a screen in front of her face. The screen showed a gorgeous, perfectly made-up blonde woman with large breasts visible thanks to the number of buttons undone on her blouse.

“Hi there,” the woman greeted her. Her voice didn’t meld with the nice music in Megan’s head like the other Megan’s did, but it was still nice to listen to. “I’m Laura, a Beauty and brand representative for the True Beauty Corporation.”

“She’s so pretty. I want to be like her,” Megan thought.

“Our purpose as a company is to take bland, boring women like you and apply our proprietary treatments to turn them into Beauties. Like me.”

“She’s perfect,” Megan thought. “I hate being a dull, ugly woman. I want to be a Beauty instead.”

Megan glanced down at her unappealing body, a shudder of revulsion going through her. She hated how she looked. Blinking away sudden tears, she tried to put her own inadequacy out of her head and focused on Laura.

“Right now, the True Beauty Corporation is working to improve you and make you into the best version of yourself - a Beauty. Our rubberisation serum is steadily penetrating all of your cells, transforming your body from icky, gross flesh into smooth, springy rubber.” Laura squeezed her breasts together for emphasis, showing how they jiggled and bounced.

Megan’s brow furrowed for a second. Rubber?

“Rubber is so beautiful and sexy,” she thought. “I wish I was made of rubber like her.”

She shook her head. Rubber wasn’t sexy, why was she thinking that? What was going on?

The music in her head grew louder, drowning out her confusion, making it hard to think anything except-

“I love rubber, it’s the best!”

“Isn’t rubber just the sexiest?” Laura asked.

“I want to be a sexy rubber Beauty like Laura and Ally. I want to be bouncy and jiggly and flexible and smooth, a perfect rubber Beauty.”

Megan realised she was babbling something, “sexy… rubber… Beauty.”

Laura clapped her hands together on screen and Megan sighed at the sight of her perfect rubber cleavage bouncing with the motion.

“I’m so glad you agree! And once you’re all nice and rubberised, we can use our patented Sculpting Box to reshape your body to be as flawless and gorgeous as any other Beauty! But you know, there’s more to being a Beauty than just that. Beauties are loyal and obedient and thankful to the True Beauty Corporation for everything they’ve done for us. If you really want to be a Beauty, you need to give yourself to the True Beauty Corporation heart and soul. Your entire life needs to revolve around giving back to the corporation that made you what you are. Can you do that? Can you dedicate every moment of your life to serving this wonderful company? Do you want to be a Beauty?”

“Yes,” Megan answered. She didn’t even need to think, it was so obvious. “Yes, I’ll serve the True Beauty Corporation! I love the True Beauty Corporation! I want to be a Beauty!”

The screen shut off, leaving Megan alone to think about her newfound purpose.

“The True Beauty Corporation is the greatest corporation in existence.”

“I serve the True Beauty Corporation.”

“I am a Beauty, a product of the True Beauty Corporation.”

She had all of these thoughts, and others, and repeated them out loud as mantras for… hours? Days? It didn’t matter. She luxuriated in the truth of her existence: she belonged to the True Beauty Corporation and there was no higher calling than to serve them.

Eventually, the helmet was lifted off her head and a technician Beauty untied her and motioned for her to follow. Her first few steps were wobbly, but she quickly adjusted to her new rubber body and was moving more gracefully than she ever had before by the time they reached a clear glass box. At the other Beauty’s prompting, she stood inside the box like a doll and the technician started tapping on a control panel. Blue light filled the chamber and, as the technician continued hitting buttons, Megan’s breasts started to fill out to appropriate Beauty proportions, each one ending up slightly larger than her head. Her hips widened next, followed by her butt inflating to rival her chest. Then her waist pulled in to complete the hourglass figure before the changes started on her face. These were more subtle; getting rid of wrinkles, shrinking her nose down a bit, straightening her teeth. The one change that gave an obviously synthetic result was her lips plumping up well beyond what would ever occur naturally. The end result was a rubber sex doll that bore only a vague resemblance to the woman who had walked into the salon however long ago, and Megan smiled. She belonged to the Corporation and it was well within its rights to mold her to better serve its needs.

As she was led out of the chamber and deeper into the building to start her new life, she never looked back.