“Believe it or not, we’ve had some trouble procuring new applicants.”

She took her left hand within her right, made a wide smile, and peered up at the ceiling. Derek twiddled the cheap pen in his hand as he eyed her stance. Her smile was short-lived and seemed superficial. Derek offered some words as he finished filling out the registration form,”

“Guess I’m lucky then. With these benefits, it’s just a matter of time.”

Her glance found him. She lifted a genuine smirk from his statement and chuckled,

“We’re trying to be competitive. Market’s fierce these days! All done?”

“Mhm.”

Derek responded gently. The scribbles of his pen halted, and he handed her his application. After a lengthy questionnaire, Derek was finally finished. Derek awkwardly backed away from the booth and rubbed his head. With her fingers, she quickly flicked through the contents of his application. He titled his head and watched her swiftly scan each page. He softly questioned her,

“I guess you’ll call me?”

She was already reviewing the last page of his application. Derek noticed, with each item, she would nod and mutter words such as excellent, great, and wonderful. A few seconds passed, and she excitedly closed his application. Her face was glowing and she projected to him,

“You’re EXACTLY what we’re looking for, Derek.”

Derek was shocked, “Really?”

She smiled and nodded. She glanced down at his application packet on the table, and surreptitiously pushed it into her binder,

“You know, normally, we have some formalities for the hiring process, but you’re an exception. How about starting first thing tomorrow? Could you do that?”

He was stunned. Derek felt lighter than before. After catching his tongue, he replied,

“Oh-uh, yeah! Of course, I- actually need to check something real quick.”

Scrambling for his smartphone, he opened his calendar. His schedule was open. He knew this before filling out his application. Derek responded hastily,

“Tomorrow’s great!”

She closed her eyes and sighed in relief,

“Wonderful! So happy to have you on board.”

They shook hands, and she reached into a blue bag resting near the table. She pulled out a wristwatch and offered it to him,

“Oh, before you go, you’ll need this to wear for your shift tomorrow. Company policy.”

Derek accepted the watch. He was perplexed by its design. The branding “SRS” along with some mysterious runic symbols were etched into the triangular watch face. Rather than a singular strap, it held multiple retractable metal bindings which appeared to latch dynamically to each other. Derek snickered nervously as he examined it,

“How do you- turn it on?”

The polite lady laughed. She inched closer to him and seized his hand. She positioned the mysterious device over his wrist and pressed some mechanical switch on its side. The device beeped, unfurled, and began moving like a snake. It danced downwards and locked onto his wrist. Derek was mildly terrified. She caressed his hand and comforted him,

“It’s simply attaching itself to your genetic structure. SRS is cutting edge, Derek. It’s proven safe. You’ll need this for your position.”

"As long as it's safe, I'm for it."

The first thing Derek thought about was removing this weird device once he got home later. He raised his eyebrows in astonishment as the SRS device continued to wrap tighter around his wrist. He could feel the inner compartment of the device grind and reverberate as it furled on his skin. And then suddenly, a sharp and piercing pain. Derek let out an audible gasp and some nearby attendees of the job fair noticed his cry. The polite SRS recruiter moved forward fast to console him. She let out a sigh and admitted her error,

"Oh! Should've warned you about that nasty bit. On the bright side, it shouldn't leave any scarring."

As he twisted his arm back and forth, Derek groaned in annoyance. He couldn't see any sign of the puncture from earlier. The device concealed the damage. Derek raised a question to the recruiter,

"Should I expect any more stabbing going forward?"

She laughed. Derek wasn't amused. She replied to his question,

"Hard part's done! Smooth sailing from here on out. The device will need about 24-hours to finish altering your genome, but the transmogrification itself will happen when you're sleeping tonight. Sweet dreams!"

Her persistent positivity about the situation mildly disturbed Derek, but he guessed that she was probably very familiar with the processes behind this futuristic technology. It was all company standard to her. She even wore one of the SRS devices herself.

"I guess we're all done here! Be sure to rest up tonight." She said excitedly.

"Right," Derek replied softly. He eyed the device on his wrist.

As dozens of job fair attendees gradually exited the meeting hall, the SRS recruiter deconstructed her booth and packed up her equipment. Derek tried to act normal, but the device that clung to his wrist gave him some anxiety. As they walked down the hall together towards parking, he interjected,

"Am I going to have to wear this- all the time?"

Once through a revolving door to the parking deck, the recruiter smiled and reassured him.

"Just a preliminary, Derek. It should unlock after your shift tomorrow."