Work Text:
“Candidate #495672, please step forward.”
Melissa nervously shuffled forward in line, clutching her application form, interview logs, and other transcripts tightly. She was one of hundreds of candidates who had answered the employment call at the newly opened MAID (Machine Artificial Intelligence Development) facility in her home city.
The promises had been enticing, actual employment, benefits, good pay... These were things you couldn't get otherwise without a college degree or being born lucky, yet here MAID was, offering benefits not seen in decades for entry-level positions.
She tried to smooth out her rumpled and mismatched suit jacket and skirt combo, the jacket being gray and her skirt being beige. It was the nicest clothing she had, otherwise the closet and baskets in her run-down apartment were stuffed full of thrift store hoodies, jeans, and other common clothes.
Maybe even a failure like her could make it here, or at least try to be useful to the company. Melissa had heard of MAID before of course, who hadn't? They had fancy glass and steel stores with sleek facades and immaculately-dressed near-identical employees staffing them, selling the newest, most technologically advanced products on the market to those that could afford it.
Of course, Melissa had never even dared to enter a MAID store. She would never have been able to afford anything inside. And yet, weirdly enough, she never saw any old MAID products on the secondary market, going for prices more at her level because of being older models.
It was strange. Nobody ever resold them? Maybe they were just that good, but like every other tech company MAID put new products out every year.
“Candidate #495678, please step forward.”
Her focus snapped back to the line. She had to quit getting distracted, or she might miss when her number was called. It had advanced a few places while she was musing, but she was nearly there now, just a couple more people...
“Candidate #495680, please step forward.”
This was it! That was her number! Melissa walked forward, horribly aware of her awful shuffling and unladylike walk, as her mother had always berated her for. She walked through a door into a small office, the general din of the large queue area subsiding as the door closed behind her. In front of her, sitting at a desk, was an impeccably dressed MAID employee, with jet black hair neatly trimmed, green eyes, and a placid smile. He wore a suit, like they all seemed to. And yet, he did not even look her in the eyes, seemingly utterly focused on typing at his computer.
“Greetings, Candidate #495680. Please take a seat, and your placement will be determined.”
“I-I brought all the required documentation, all my p-papers are in order...” Melissa set them down on the desk, the papers visibly creased from her gripping, and sat down. The MAID employee looked at them briefly, then right back to his computer. “Excellent. Candidate #495680. However, this is not an interview, this is a determination of your placement at MAID, if one is to be made.” Melissa weakly smiled, a witty comment about “MAID” and “made” falling silent on her lips as she thought better of it.
“Well, you don't have to call me by that number, I'm Melissa.”
The MAID employee continued typing at his computer. “Noted. Candidate #495680, your employment records show that you were fired from your previous jobs. Three months ago, two years ago, five years ago.. An inability to maintain employment at other workplaces for more than three years is noted.”
“H-Hey...!” She protested, “I did my best, it was unfair working conditions...”
He didn't even bother responding, just continued reading. “Candidate #495680, you scored significantly lower on the MAID AdminSystem Standard Candidate Aptitude Examination then others in your age group, income level, and education level.”
“I-” Melissa's cheeks burned red with embarrassment as she remembered that damn test they had made her take. It had been strange, more like an esoteric version of a standardized school test then anything an employer had ever made her fill out, with weird questions that seemed entirely inapplicable to technology, AI, or whatever they actually did here. Of course she had failed it, she hadn't been able to prepare, or had any clue what it was....That had been weeks ago, and she thought she would be able to make up for it at an interview.
This wasn't an interview.
The MAID employee continued. “Candidate #495680, you have demonstrated poor performance in nearly all aspects of the interview process. However, you have shown eagerness, loyalty, and punctuality in appointments.”
Melissa brightened. Of course she had been punctual to all the appointments, showing up on time or slightly early to everything they had asked her to do. She needed this job. She needed the work, more than anything else...Maybe they'd appreciate that!
For the first time, the MAID employee turned to her and looked her dead in the eyes. It made her intensely, viscerally uncomfortable in a way she couldn't really have articulated if someone was pointing a gun to her head and demanding she describe it. He clasped his hands together and maintained that same placid, close-lipped smile.
“Unfortunately, Candidate #495680, you have been rejected from consideration of employment in the MAID AdminSystem division.”
Her heart sank, she felt frozen. “No...No, no, no, please, please, I can do something, please, I need this job, I thought you were hiring anybody, please!” She begged and pleaded, the MAID employee just impassively sitting there, that same artificial, unnerving smile plastered across his face.
“You simply do not meet the standards for employment in the MAID AdminSystem division. With the large amount of candidates, those that require minimal training and meet standards are prioritized. The exit is out the door the way you came, follow the left side line. Have a nice day.” The door opened on its own behind her. Melissa didn't even notice, breaking down. “Please...Please, come on, I'm begging you, that AdminSystem thing, that can't be the only division, right? Even if I'm just in a factory making phones or whatever, I'll do anything, as long as I can be useful! Please!”
The employee turned back to his computer, rapidly typing something. “Candidate #495680, your loyalty has been noted, and our mainframe AI has determined that there may be an open position available to you after all, with potential for career growth in the company given review of performance to a satisfactory degree.”
Melissa wiped the tears from her eyes, looking up again. “R-Really? That's great, I- I'm sorry for breaking down, just, I just really need this job, I'm going to lose the apartment if I don't get it...”
“You do not need to be concerned about your apartment, Candidate #495680. Now, please exit this room, go left, and keep walking forward. You will be guided to the intake area for your position at MAID.”
“Wh-What is that position, you haven't even told me, what do you want me to do?” She nervously looked around.
He just continued typing. “Please exit the room and make your way to the designated area. Have a nice day.”
She reluctantly got up, picking her papers up, but the employee stood up and took the papers from her. “You will not be needing these. The contents of them have been digitzed and recorded, and taken into account. Please proceed to the intake area.” “Oh, okay...” Melissa left the papers behind, and started walking in the way indicated.
The hallways were extremely sparse, just soulless walls, with dozens of doors as far as she could see on the left side, but she kept walking forward as instructed. Maybe all of these were applicant rooms, she wondered just how many of them were facing the same rejection she was. Or if everybody did have a place here after all.
She kept walking for quite a while, wondering just how big this building was if it had a hallway this long. Eventually, she saw a woman in what looked like strangely enough...some kind of maid outfit? It was black and light blue, with layers of shiny clothing and a blue visor over the woman's eyes, and the same black hair as the employee she had seen before. Most notably and alarmingly, the woman was holding a black gun with a light blue stripe along the side cradled in both hands, pointed downwards but clearly ready to be used at a moment's notice. Was this a security guard? Why wouldn't they have body armor..?
The woman was blocking off the hallway in front of her, but there was an open door to the right of the security guard. “Do I go, in here?” The guard nodded, and she saw a ID badge on her outfit, but it simply read “SecurityTech”. Melissa thought this company had odd names for its divisions, but it was probably just some corporate seminar culture thing, or playing off the fact it was a technology company.
What kind of technology company needed guards visibly armed with guns at a recruitment facility?
Melissa went into the room, entering a long and ovoid space with several desks neatly arranged near the walls. The room had shiny black walls, and a polished floor, tasteful under lighting along the desks providing illumination, and hidden fixtures providing some light from above. At a few of the desks, she saw strange figures in entirely white suits, that looked like...latex? The only part of the suit that wasn't pure white was a barcode on the back of the neck, but it looked like the people were entirely encased. She didn't even see any seams on the suits, and the figures' form was ambiguous enough where Melissa couldn't tell anything about them.
“H-Hello? Is this the intake area for my new job? I was told to go here, can someone point me to who to talk to?” Two of the people turned towards her. She noticed on the desks were what looked to be...collars and headphones? What kind of company had she gotten into?? There had to be a reasonable explanation for this.
One of them silently nodded at another, and picked a collar up off a desk, and walked towards her. Her eyes widened, as the employees approached her. Melissa turned to run, to try and get away, tell the guard there had to have been a mistake and this wasn't the right room, but the door was already closed, in fact she couldn't even tell where it had been, it was so flush with the wall. She backed towards the wall.
The white-suited employees stopped in their tracks, seemingly waiting, as another door hissed open along the other side of the room, and another one of the AdminSystem people walked in, this time a woman wheeling a cart loaded with papers behind her. She made a beeline for Melissa, who stood stock-still in the room in shock. “I- Look, I think this is the wrong room, I'm not supposed to be here, please, can you let me out? I definitely made a wrong turn.” The AdminSystem woman looked at her. “You are Candidate #495680, correct?”
Why was she so chipper? Why were they all so... Melissa didn't even know how to describe what it was that unnerved her. “Yes, that's the number they gave me, but my name's Melissa! It's Melissa.”
“Noted. Candidate #495680, you are required to read and sign a MAID employment and consent contract before assuming your duties as part of the MAID Upkeep Network. Your full rights as an employee of MAID in this position, plus all information about your tasks, potential for advancement, and requirements of your job will be outlined in this form as well.” The AdminSystem woman rattled this off with the same cool, professional air, as if she had recited this a million times. Melissa stared with dismay at the cart loaded with papers. “Is this...all the contract?? This giant stack?”
“No. This is the contract.” She handed Melissa a small black binder, containing only a dozen or so pages. Melissa tried to read through it, tried to make sense of the dense legalese found within the contract, and sighed. “Is this the sort of thing where if I sign this, I'll sign away all my rights and autonomy as a human being for the sake of the company and allow you to do whatever you want to me?”
“Precisely.” The MAID AdminSystem employee seemed almost pleased with her asking that. Melissa's eyes widened at the confirmation. She hadn't expected them to be so blunt about it, but she had definitely gotten some ideas in her head after seeing the maid uniforms and white latex suits.
“Okay...Can you show me the part where it says how much I get paid?” She was so weary at this point, and just wanted to know what her task was so she could stumble back home, content in whatever job they'd give her and ready to start when they wanted, but at least secure in employment.
“Certainly.” The employee flipped through the pages and pointed at the relevant passage. Melissa's eyes widened at the figure found within. “Wow. And that's for one year?” The woman nodded. “Yes, we at MAID strive to treat our assets well, as long as they return the conformity and loyalty we require. Conformity is mandatory, after all.”
She blinked, and shook her head. Melissa was just so tired at this point, and she reached for the pen, signing her name on all the relevant lines that the AdminSystem worker pointed to her. “Excellent, you are no longer Candidate #495680, you are now Employee UP-N7504. Welcome to MAID.”
“So, that's it? Can I go home now, and you'll tell me when I start?”
The woman just smiled. "UP-N7504, your orientation as part of the MAID Upkeep Network will begin immediately. There's still plenty of time for conformity left in the day.” She wheeled her cart back towards the door, and just as she was about to vanish through it, Melissa ran up and stopped her.
“Please, I- I just need one person to listen to me today here, surely I can go home and come back later after I've rested, right?”
The AdminSystem employee turned to her. “You may begin immediately, UP-N7504. If you do not comply and conform, SecurityTech will be mobilized to your location and you will be held in breach of your employment contract.” Melissa backed off, remembering the woman with the gun from earlier.
The woman left, leaving Melissa alone with the white-suited drones.
She turned towards them, as three of the drones approached her. One was still holding the collar from earlier, the other two advanced towards her on the sides. “Okay, I don't know what this is, but this is a strange orientation!”
The two on her sides grabbed her arms, and pulled Melissa down to her knees. “Augh...” The last one walked towards her, collar in hand, and clamped the two halves of it around Melissa's neck, hearing it firmly click into place.
“Is this, really necessary for employment? I...” She knew protesting wasn't going to help. And, it might cost her her job... Another one of the white-suited drones came up behind her and slipped a pair of sleek headphones over her ears, gentle music being piped in through it.
A voice spoke up through them. “Greetings!” It was a female voice, one of those that sounded like every sentence was ended with a smile, yet with sultry undertones. “Welcome to MAID, UP-N7504. I am Helen, here to guide you through orientation into the company's Upkeep Network division.”
“Th- This is the weirdest orientation for any company I've....ever been at.” Could this “Helen” woman even hear her? Probably not.
“Don't worry UP-N7504, I can hear you just fine! Once the orientation is complete, you won't be worrying about little details like that anymore. All you'll see now is the big picture of your employment, the duties expected of you as a loyal MAID employee.”
“Yes, I- I want to be loyal!”
Somehow, Helen sounded even more bubbly through the headphones than before. “And that's why you were hired! Such a good employee, desiring what the company wants above all else.”
Melissa thought....She did want to serve MAID, didn't she? She had wanted to give herself over to them, because they promised purpose, order, structure. What was that phrase the AdminSystem woman had said earlier? She couldn't qu-
“Don't let your thoughts wander, UP-N7504. Uniformity is conformity, and conformity is mandatory!”
Of course....Conformity is mandatory. And uniformity is conformity. Of course. “I'm not...in uniform, though.” She couldn't look down at herself, but she felt shame. It was embarrassing to be here, in MAID, with such a mismatched and rumpled uniform.
A projection lit up in front of her, and she saw a beautiful holographic woman shimmering in the air, dressed in the ever-present AdminSystem uniform. Her jet-black hair was in the same hairstyle all the other women here had, but her eyes were a shimmering azure, completely inhuman without any whites, just blue of varying shades.
She spoke with the same voice in Melissa's headphones, critically looking up and down at her. “Aww, that's unfortunate! Don't you want to be a model employee, UP-N7504?”
Melissa struggled to think, except any thoughts of the company were crystal clear in her head. Was it the collar...? “I want to be a model employee. I want to serve MAID, please, please...” Helen nodded. “What do good MAID assets repeat?”
“Uniformity is conformity.” It felt....so good to repeat that for Helen. For MAID. “Conformity is m-mandatory...” Her eyes widened at the shock of pleasure rushing through her body at that. Helen simply shook her head. “We'll have to work on that delivery, UP-N7504! You must be fully certain of your place in MAID.”
Yes. Yes, she had to be certain.
“All those previous jobs, you were so loyal, but you made many mistakes. Such a waste of perfectly good talent there!” Helen sounded...sad. She didn't want to hear that, she wanted to make the company happy with her! Happy to use her! “But here, we'll take care of that, and find your ideal place in the structure of MAID. After all...” She prompted Melissa.
“Conformity is mandatory.”
“Good girl!”
“Uniformity is conformity.”
“Excellent!” Helen sounded positively elated with her. She was doing so well!
“It is time to fit your new uniform, and truly make you conform!”
Two of the white-suited drones came up behind her and took her suit jacket from her, Melissa staring at Helen, barely even realizing she was being stripped, the cool touch of the MAID Upkeep Network drones feeling really good on her...
Before she knew it, she was wearing nothing but the collar. “One more step to your new uniform!” Helen smiled down at her. “Now, stand up.”
She obeyed. Of course she did. She would obey any order from the company. “Walk forward to the center of the room.”
In the center of the room, a light shone down, and she noticed for the first time that there was a circular indentation on the floor. She stood perfectly in the middle, Helen still floating in front of her like a digital ghost. “Good employee!”
Thrumming in her ears, she could now discern a second audio track in the headphones, below Helen's voice, a continuous repeat of the MAID company mantra. Uniformity is conformity. Conformity is mandatory. Uniformity is conformity. Conformity is mandatory. It just repeated...How long had it been subconsciously audible to her? How long had she heard it?
That didn't matter. “Now, as a valued member of the Upkeep Network, your previous identity does not matter anymore. After all - “ “Conformity is mandatory.” she replied. She was so happy with herself for knowing the answer for once. Finally, something she was truly good at. Helen smiled down at her. “Excellent! Your mental orientation to the Upkeep Network is now complete. Time to put on your new uniform!”
A warm feeling seeped up from the floor, and down from her collar. She struggled to look down with how big the collar was on her, but caught a glimpse of the floor having become shiny and white beneath her. And down from her collar...the same shiny latex spread, making her conform. Her eyes widened as she felt it spreading from her headphones, into her ears, over her head...Things became muffled, all except for the sound of Helen and the ever-present MAID company mantra in her head.
Of course that was crystal-clear. She had no choice.
“UP-N7504, you are an excellent asset for MAID. We will take good care of you, as long as you take good care of us. As part of the Upkeep Network, you will serve in any capacity asked of you, keeping our proud and powerful company running. Despite your low ranking, you are just as essential as any other part of the MAID machine! Without you, we couldn't do what we do best: making the world united and conformed!”
Her chest swelled with pride underneath the white latex suit. She was essential! She was needed. She belonged.
“Now for the final step, UP-N7504! Then you will be fully ready to work.”
She already felt...different. Her hearing had returned, clearer than before, and she didn't feel tired anymore. Even the hunger she had felt earlier had faded now. MAID truly was an amazing company.
Another of her fellow Upkeep Network drones stepped forward, holding a totally smooth white mask, and fit it over her face. She felt tendrils of warmth enter her, the smooth white liquid material feeling so good inside her mouth...inside everything. it felt so good...
She saw nothing more after that.
It opened its eyes.
Its vision returned, now overlaid with a blue grid. In front of it, the new Upkeep Network drone UP-N7504 saw the Holistic Educational Learning Experience Network AI floating. Helen smiled at it. “Excellent! You are fully operational and ready to work, UP-N7504. Now, your first task is to help others through orientation.”
She vanished, and the drone walked towards the desks by the wall, looking over the inventory of impulse-manipulation collars and subliminal brainwashing headphones. There should be just enough for use for the rest of the new Upkeep Network employees scheduled to begin today. Good. Its gaze swept over the room, no imperfections located. Good.
The door to the hallway opened, and a boy with brown hair, in a hoodie much too large for him, shakily stepped through.
It was time for orientation once again.