Samuel Hunter was having a pretty decent day so far. It was a Tuesday morning and the sun was shining. A productive day of unemployment beckoned for him. He was out doing errands; walking to the dry cleaners and the grocery store to pick up dry cleaning and groceries before hailing an Uber back to his apartment.
The thirty three year old man, brown hair somewhat thinning with a small hint of a beer belly, stopped outside the store next to the dry cleaning place. He wasn't an especially handsome man, but he was far from ugly. Losing thirty pounds would do him some good, though it's clear that he's been going in the opposite direction. He looked curiously at the store. It wasn't there last week when he dropped his suit off.
There was a sign in dark wood and brass, plain and unornamented, "Spells R' Us", atop a a red brick storefront occupying a small chunk of block. The place fit in perfectly, seeming to have been there for years, even though Sam was, again, 90% sure there wasn't a store between the Korean place and the drycleaners.
The storefront had a large wooden door taking up a third of the width of the narrow building; a solid dark brown color with dignified brass door handles. They were inviting, in the shape of hands holding rings to pull, bidding entrance into the shop through the grand portals. The shop itself had tinted windows, two of them, small and flanking the door with hints of curiosities behind the glass. Certain angles revealed mysteries that tantalized such as the shadow of a giant spider on a wall to shrunken heads that seemed to be visible for moments to hints of rows of ancient books of forbidden lore.
Sam opened the door. As a nerd this place called to his very soul. It opened easily despite the obvious weight. "Huh, well oiled hinges." muttering as he took in the shop. Or what little of the shop he could see. He was in an antechamber, his eyes darting around the room. It was filled with dark wood paneling that gave way to red velvet walls halfway up. There were two plush chairs made of the same wood as the walls, with plush velvet cushions and backs. A coffee table made of the same wood between the chairs with a leather bound book stood atop a floor made of a slightly darker black wood topped with a comfortable and plush carpet colored the same red as the velvet. Finally, there was a desk on the far side of the room, away from the door, made of that dark wood, and behind it a young woman. She was dressed smartly in a dark red sweater and white button down shirt, skin lightly tanned. She was rather slight with a slightly crooked nose, a face that looked best smiling, and sparkling green eyes framed by a long mop of red hair. Those eyes were her most recognizable feature, other than her long pointy ears which stuck out proudly into long points, sloping back a good six inches and emerging from her hair.
"Heya!" She chirps out, voice extremely happy to see someone else. "Welcome to Spells R' Us! Let me guess, you're..." She thinks for a moment, putting her hand to her hand, making a little show of it. She makes little woo woo sound effects for a moment before grinning and saying. "Sam!"
Sam gives a start at the greeting, transfixed by the pointy ears and then the guessing of his name. "H-How...how'd you know that?!" His eyes widen in some obvious confusion.
A musical giggle from the girl. "Maaaaagic~" She waves her fingers. Before grinning. "Actual magic." She clears her throat and in a voice that sounds like she's far too pleased with herself; "Your name is Samuel Ian Hunter. You're 33. You're looking for a new job. You're going to get laundry and groceries. You're going to apply for jobs today afterwards." She stands up, leaning forward over her desk, smirking at Sam. And then another moment. "The pointy ears are because I'm an elf." She clarifies. "And I can go into what I know about your hobbies, but I don't think we need to go into that~". She finishes off those assertions with a giggle as she falls back into her chair looking like the cat that got the cream.
"I...I..." Sam blinks a few times, obviously somewhat dazed by the entire revelation of what he just saw and experienced. The woman's face sours a little as she rolls her eyes, darting over to Sam quicker than he's in any position to do anything about, and pokes him on the nose. And then it's as if his mind seems to restart. He knows that magic was performed in front of him and he accepts it.
Sam breathes in, suddenly realizing how close he is to the much shorter elf woman. He's 5'9 and not light, and towers over her by what seems like a foot. She's in a cute skirt as well, he notices, as he looks down at her. His face reddens a little as he steps back slightly from her. "Uh...okay. Um...what uh, what do you want with me magic elf lady?" He's uncertain, and quite frankly, a little hopeful. Who knows what could happen here!
"Wellllll~" She smirks. "You're actually *perfect* for some job openings we have. See, you're special~" She explains as glasses suddenly are on her face. Where did they come from? No one knows! It's probably the same place as the blackboard, the chalk, and the pointer that appeared behind her. Sam, still standing, looks at the board and at her, rapt, eyes widening as his face settles into a smile.
"Well, not you you! Don't get your head too big!" She laughs, giving Sam a big smile as his face falls a bit. "Any person from a world like yours would do!" She points at the board and suddenly a chalk drawing of Sam appears. It looks a bit like him, if simplified. There's a blue center that's quite bright. There's another person as well, this person has a blue center that's flecked with other colors.
"Uh, what?" Sam is obviously confused about this entire thing, both by the chalk and what she's talking about. "What do you mean any person from a world like mine? What's with those drawings? What do those colors mean?"
"Well, I'm glad you asked!" She beams, clearly having rehearsed this. "To put it simply, you're from a world that's special. The people of your world have virtually no, lets call it magical radiation, in your souls. " The points and the board and a chalk drawing of Earth forms, a little chalk sun around it like a medal. A moment later it erases itself and the drawings of Sam and the other person are back. "Now! This matters because for a number of soul transmutation projects, what determines potency is how pure the base product is rather than experience or any sort of affinity~" She points at the board again and and the Sam figure equals 99 and the other figure equals 13. And then the numbers morph into a small money bag for the 13 and a mountain of gold for the 99.
Sam nods a little though he coughs and raises his hand. "Er....soul transmutation projects?" Cutting in once she finishes. "What are..."
And then she cuts Sam off, nodding. "Mmmhmmm! You becoming something else!~ Leaving your old life behind! We'll pay you in up to three wishes! It's a bit more radical than you're probably expecting, but I promise you'd love it!" She leans in, her green eyes fixed on Sam. "Haven't you always wanted to be something or someone special? Having an awesome destiny and cool magic powers? Changing the course of nations and consorting with great heroes and terrible villains?"
"I uh...er...I mean yes!" Sam's a bit tongue tied and somewhat taken aback by the suddenness of this. "But that was play! Not real!"
"But you've wanted it to be real! Wished it!" She's leaning in now, close. "Haven't you!"
"I...yes! But that's different!" He's protesting, a little lamely. "I didn't think it would actually ever happen..."
"But it has~" She leans in, close enough to kiss if Sam didn't stumble back over a chair and onto the floor, causing him to yelp out. She looks down at him, laughing slowly. "We've got contracts with a number of firms that place mortals like you into perfect roles. I'm happy to set you up with any of them.~"
Sam groans faintly as he looks up to see that he's been handed the leather bound book. Acting on instinct he takes it and opens it up, seeing a wide selection of what look like classified ads looking for job seekers below. One agency in particular catches his eye as he looks up to the elf to ask her about...