Charlotte looked at the vial of purple liquid Gareth had just put in front of her with more than a hint of confusion. She was relieved he wasn't asking her to wear some embarassing costume, but this just seemed odd.
"You want me to drink this?" Charlotte enquired.
"Consider it part of the job" Gareth nodded "It will help you to fit in better, for your own protection more than anything. You will be here on your own more often than not and some of our customers might take advantage of someone with your current appearance"
Charlotte resisted the urge to walk out of the shop in anger. She was tougher than she looked and could certainly hold her own with the oddball patrons of a novelty shop. Besides, what difference would drinking some dyed liquid make? Still, her rent was due that week. She might have to play along for now.
"Would you prefer it if I was some big musclebound guy?" Charlotte asked, sulkily following up on her suspicion of sexism.
"No, not at all" Gareth reassured her "the kind of staff I would ideally hire are practically impossible to recruit. Although..."
The wizard thought for a moment then smiled "This could actually work quite well. You should be much more, shall we say, adaptable than the assistants I have relied on before"
"I like to think I'm very adaptable" Charlotte agreed.
"Marvellous" Gareth smiled wickedly, his mood improving even more "we could try you as something else each day. The customers would enjoy that"
"Erm....okay" Charlotte scratched her head. She was good at relating to most people but this guy was almost too eccentric for his own good.
"Look, drink one of those each day and I'll take you on as a permanent worker now. I'll even raise your wages by 25%" Gareth suddenly seemed to be in hard sell mode "I can promise you the effects of my drinks will never last any longer than your working hours."
"Um, sounds good to me" Charlotte shrugged, amazed by the sudden upturn in her fortunes.
"Good. So do we have a deal? You will work for me for one year at minimum on those terms."
"Deal" Charlotte smiled, figuring verbal contracts weren't worth the paper they were written on "Right, I guess I should celebrate with a drink. Cheers!"
Trusting Gareth at least enough to know he wouldn't try to poison her Charlotte guzzled down the contents of the vial in one. It tasted pretty good actually. Then she started feeling a strange tingling sensation all over her body that quickly went from something light and pleasant to something inexplicable and conpletely overpowering. What had Gareth done to her?!
The wizard simply folded his arms and smiled at the scene playing out in front of him. Why were regular humans always so over dramatic when they encountered the smallest hint of magic? Well, no matter. Soon enough Charlotte would no longer be a regular human, she'd be a...