Body-Boutique Flash Sale - Prologue

Walking down the long streets of the industrial district an unusual noise reaches me over the sound of the heavy machine and alarm bells ringing out from the numerous warehouses and factories. Voices and numerous footfalls echo down the long road, all of which are converging on one location. People struggle in their cars, growing frustrated as they vie for a parking space in the usually empty side streets. Pedestrians chatter on their phones, discussing what they were hoping to find at the sale or planning what they were to purchase for some unlucky person who couldn't make it.

The flow of random people all move in the same direction, eventually pushing and shoving to make their way through the large wrought iron gateway leading to the immense non-descript warehouse. Over the large garage door, the shutter having been rolled up to allow entrance to the building proper sits a large banner.

BODY-BOUTIQUE FLASH SALE

The Body-Boutique had been around for years at this point, a business that almost exclusively serviced the uber-wealthy or those with certain connections from all around the world. They were in the business of custom-built bodies, using lab-grown material and genetic augmentation to build their client's new bodies from the ground up.

This process was, of course, exceedingly and prohibitively expensive even for the most mundane of procedures. The price however would only increase with the complexity of the operation required. Merely building a new body wasn't too difficult, so long as they could procure the necessary base genetic sequences to blend to the customer's desire. However, the price could quickly add up when modifications were to be included, such as enhanced strength or flexibility. All manner of requests could be made for these bodies, from drastically increasing their mental capacity to curing all manner of chronic illnesses to granting them perfect pitch and a marvelous singing voice. These however could also be less desirable traits such as enhanced libidos, forced accents and speech patterns, or being particularly dull-minded with these being more common among the more nefarious clients.

This genetic component could also be augmented with their patented 'Mental Programming Assistance'. By using the same technology allowing their clients to place their minds into these newly created bodies the Body-Boutique could also implant permanent mental additions into the body. This was always advertised as helping the client by teaching them a new language or skill, however, it could be used for more underhanded means such as lowering inhibitions or enhancing a person's skills in the bedroom.

While most customer's utilized this service in a manner that was entirely above board, creating new bodies for themselves or loved ones, others would attempt to use the service in a more surreptitious manner. These individuals would request the building of new a new body, intending to place someone else in it through any manner of untoward techniques. Husbands creating a new slutty body for their frigid spouse, wives creating a punishment for a cheating husband in their divorce proceedings, business people hoping to get rid of the competition, and many many more. When these cruel people would eventually be found out they would, of course, refuse to finalize the process and the body would merely be left to fill space in the Body-Boutique's warehouse.

Other folks would merely become delinquent in their payments, either missing an agreed-upon installment as the body was being created or failing to process the final payment before the transfer could be effected. Some merely vanished before the process could be completed, no longer answering calls after the body had been finished.

For quite a while these delinquent bodies would merely sit and gather dust, eventually needing to be disposed of as they started to atrophy despite the top-of-the-line preserving technology used by the Body-Boutique. This hit the company's bottom line rather hard, causing them to try to recoup the loss on these abandoned creations one way or another.

And so the half-yearly 'Flash Sale' began, one part showroom floor for bartering and one part auction house for more competitive buyers. Twice per year the bodies are swapped with a pre-programmed mental state, similar to those found in the 'Mental Assistance', causing them to pose and walk around at the command of the salespeople. No real information is given by the salespeople nor does the body respond to any question about itself either, its mental capability being limited to following commands and parroting what is said to it as to show off its voice. In the buyer beware nature of the transaction the prospective purchaser is only told the body's age, sexuality, and nationality while the rest is left up to the customer's discerning eye.

On the 'Main Stage', the name given to the large metal platform which overlooks the warehouse floor, bodies are auctioned off one by one. While the salespeople are open to fairly low prices the auction could result in some intense bargains based on what those in the crowd were looking for as well, with older or less traditionally beautiful or even mundane bodies potentially going for rock bottom prices.

One, strange element of this whole event involved what happens to the customer's bodies after they had successfully made their purchase. While the Body-Boutique would begin transferring all the requisite assets and documentation to be associated with the client's new form they would then inspect the old discarded body. If the customer's previous body was respectable, no obvious defects and not too old, it would be quickly added to the auction in the hopes of making back a little more money from the potential loss they suffered from the sale of their meticulously created body.

This sale would continue all weekend, starting late Friday afternoon and running until the wee hours of Sunday evening. Eventually, once all was said and done, the gates would close on the Body-Boutique once again as they returned to their servicing of customers who could properly pay off their services.