Gack walked down the busy city street, to say he was down on his luck right now was quite an accurate description. He had just walked away from an ATM, having checked his balance to find out he was in the red by a few pokédollars, Opening his wallet, he hoped that he’d come across some spare change that he could pay the rent with, but he saw what he saw last time he opened it, a few loose pennies, and a bit of lint.

This was great, he had a few days left until he needed to pay his landlord, or else he’d be on the streets. The best thing he could do now was hope he won the lottery, or find a well-paying job, the latter being the more sensible choice, seeing how much luck had been on his side already. 

He didn’t have much in the way of skills, but it didn’t mean he was inept. He could get a job at a pokémart, selling goods for trainers going in and out of the town, grocery and other shops would be possible too, depending on what was hiring. He could also see if there were any internships open at the Pokémon centre, though he didn’t have much in the way of medical skills, he had a great share of experience with Pokémon, and he could help with the fuss of patients in the ward, whilst gaining viable skills if he ever dares to walk down the path of becoming a Pokémon medical specialist.

While pondering to himself, the purple-haired human almost walked into an a-frame. He was about to walk past it, yet he saw what the standing sign was advertising…

‘Poké-Servante Café; now hiring’ 

Gack had heard about this business, it recently opened up. It was a Kalosian style café where Pokémon, dressed in butler and maid attire serve customers luxurious meals. It was a fairly niche concept for an establishment, but it did bring in the money. While Gack never worked in a café or any catering business, he knew general cooking skills from home economics class, plus the salary of 50,000 pokédollars a day sounded great. With the pros greatly outweighing the single con (being lack of experience) Gack bit the bullet and headed inside.

The café was rather large, with over ten tables for people to eat and socialize at, few were taken by customers, some waiting for their orders, whilst others savouring the finely crafted food and hot drinks. Around the establishment, several pokémon hung about, few waited to serve customers, whilst others spent time with customers, like a Gardevoir in a butler getup, using their psychic skills to pour cream into a woman’s coffee, or a Snivy, dressed as a maid, using her vines to deliver an order to a table that towered above her. The only member of staff Gack could see that wasn’t a pokémon, was a man in an apron. Right now, they were busy handing a paper cup of coffee and a bag with a delicious sweet or savoury treat to a customer. Once they walked away, Gack went up to the counter, catching the attention of the cashier.

“Hello there,” The cashier greeted Gack with a wave. “Welcome to Poké-Servante. How may I help you today?”

“Yeah, I saw the sign outside, was wondering if you’re still hiring?” Gack asked, hoping he didn’t miss out on their chance at a job.

“Actually, you’re the first person to ask about it” The cashier explained,  much to his relief. “We’ve been understaffed for a while now, not too bad, but still good for us to have a few more,” He added, seeing someone enter, waiting behind Gack. “Tell you what, why don’t you head through that door, I’ll let the manager know you’re interested in the job,” The man pointed to a door located behind the counter.  Gack nodded in response to the cashier, thanking him for their help, before walking to the door, opening it and entering the room.

The room was a rather regal-looking lounge. on the right side, there were two leather sofas, one black and the other a fine white, as if it had never been used or tainted by dust, in between of the sofas was a glass coffee table with a stack of coasters and several high-end magazines on its surface, a horizontal, rectangular mirror was on the wall. The left side reminded Gack of a kitchenette behind the café, with a mini fridge beneath a counter with a microwave on it, and next to that was a sink. beside the counter was a smaller version of the coffee machine they were using out front. His best guess was that he had entered the staff, he also theorized this to be the place where his interview would happen. 

Whilst looking around the area, he heard the sound of a door opening on the other side of the room. From behind the door, came a female in semi-formal attire. She wore a long-sleeved, white shirt with black trousers and leather shoes, perfect attire for an office worker, but the fact she wore a clean, olive green apron on top of it, made it clear she worked at the café. Her long, lilac locks were tied into an elegant ponytail, and her silver eyes were seen behind thin-rimmed glasses. She walked towards the black sofa, accompanied by a Cinccino, in a Kalosian-maid getup, finely tailored like the rest of the clothes he had seen in the café.

“Bonjour. You must be the person interested in a job here,” She said, to which Gack nodded in response. The lady sat down on the sofa, gesturing to the one parallel to her. “Take a seat,” She requested, and Gack did as she asked of him. “May I ask your name?”

“Err…Mattea Gack,” He replied nervously, he didn’t usually share his first name.

“Mattea, that’s usually a female name, is it not?” She queried, watching the man chuckle quietly.

“I-It is. My parents thought I was going to be a girl until I was born, the name just stuck though. They say it does suit a boy as well, but I just prefer Gack,” Gack explained, stroking his nape in slight embarrassment.

“I see, well, I think it suits you wonderfully,” The lady praised his name, watching his face light up with a blush. “My name’s Régine,” She let Gack know her name, seeing they could be working together soon. Régine was ready to commence the interview, but soon realized something.“Oh! How forgetful of me,” She stood back up, her pokémon companion patting and cleaning where she sat, the manager walked over to the kitchenette, getting two cups out. “Might I offer you some refreshments, like one of our speciality roasts?”

“Um… No thanks, I’m good,” Gack replied, hoping he didn’t anger her by turning down that offer.

“But I insist,” Régine placed a cup beneath the machine. “It only seems fair that you get to taste what you’ll be helping us sell,” She persuaded Gack, his reaction could determine if he’d get the job. “It’s on the house as well,

“Hmm, sure then. Just with milk please,” Gack gave in and watched the manager do her magic, as she brewed up two cups of coffee, and bought them over to the table, the Cinccino placed two of the coasters, for her trainer to put the cups on.

Gack picked up the cup and eagerly sipped the refreshment to please Régine. It was an amazing blend, with perfect acidity and strength, the creamy milk pacified the natural bitterness the coffee had.

“This is delicious!” He praised the hot drink the manager made, alongside her skills as a barista.

“Excellente,” Régine smiled at his compliment, sipping her own. “Shall we begin then?”

“Sure,” Gack replied as he took another long sip of his coffee, he couldn’t explain why, but despite not being huge on coffee, he loved this excellent blend.

“Parfaite. Firstly, what experience do you have working in coffeehouses or similar establishments?”

“Well… None. I haven’t worked in a place like this before, but I do have skills from when I did home economics in school,” Gack’s answer made her frown, but it wasn’t one of disappointment, or so he hoped.

“I see… Might I ask about your personal experience with cooking and coffee then?” Régine hoped Gack has some good experience at home, she could tell he had good taste in coffee, having almost finished his cup.

“I’d say I’m pretty good at cooking, most of the time I just cook for myself, but sometimes I try my hand at baking if I’m in the mood” Gack cut his answer in two to drink more of that coffee. “As for coffee, I like it, it’s a good pick-me-up in the morning, but I don’t make coffee as good as this, just the dried variety,” The response seemed to please her, a slight smile on their face. The rest of her questions seemed to fly by, Gack having a good answer to each, the two socialising in the process, soon finishing their cups.

“Now, one last question: How are you with pokémon?” Régine’s answer was incredibly easy for Gack to answer.

“I love pokémon, I’m pretty good around them, but guessing everyone would say the same thing,” The answer was common, but it was a good answer.

“Hmm, well seeing you have some experience in cooking, and you’re good around both pokémon and customers. I’d say the job is yours” Her final answer had Gack celebrating mentally, over the moon that the job was his.

“That’s great!” He smiled wide, he finally had a stable source of income. “So, when do I start?”

“Today,” Régine replied, placing her cup down on the table. Gack was confused by her response, he wasn’t exactly dressed for working today, plus he expected an initiation day. He scratched his head in confusion, an odd feeling on top of his head. 
“I hope that isn’t impossible for you, Mattea. It’ll take a bit of time for the effects to wear off,” A new voice entered the room, Gack looked around to see where it came from and how it knew their name. 

“Ah, seems the effects are kicking in already,” Their ears picked up that voice and where it came from. Gack looked down, at the Cinccino. “Might I add, they look pretty,”

“P-Pretty?” That was when he felt two soft things bump against his arms. When he felt them, odd jolts coursed through his body. There was one thing these could’ve been, and so he looked in the mirror.

Long, black ears, with purple tufts, the same shade of purple as his hair. They protruded from his head, replacing his original ears, which seemed to have vanished.

“W-What’s going on!” Gack said in shock at not only what was happening to his body, but the sound of his voice, it had gotten higher than it normally was. Gack’s clothes became baggy on his body, their body type shifting from a skinny masculine form to a more lithe and feminine one, suitable of the Pokémon he was taking the form of.

“I have to apologize, you see we are hiring, but not for humans,” Régine explained to the transforming male, his fair skin being overtaken by black fur, “While it’s nice to find people wanting to work, we do need a few more pokémon to help us in the café and kitchen” Gack felt anger as he realized what the manager was doing, he was going to charge at her but fell onto the floor as his feet underwent changes next, becoming several shoe sizes smaller, causing them to slip out of them, launching them towards the table. Before they could smash into the glass surface, the Cinccino jumped up to smash them away with her tail. “So we…” Régine was at a loss for words once, the thing she had been doing was quite the renegade approach and couldn’t find a way to explain it without sounding like a villain.

“So Régine’s been using her knowledge of alchemy to transform humans!” The Cinccino answered for Régine, the woman blushing in embarrassment. All Gack could do was squint, their eyes changing shape and colour, going from the normal human shape and purple, to a more slanted shape, with black sclera and red irises. His head soon followed, bones shifting and tha same black fur, accompanied by a pristine white coated his almost-completely altered face. Their nose twitched and shifted to that of a lagomorph’s, pink in colour.

“As Chelle said, I used my skill to…Change you into a pokémon, but I didn’t decide on you being a Lopunny, you did,” This revealed a bit to the almost-Lopunny: Régine could understand pokémon, and it was Gack’s subconscious which decided why he’d become the Rabbit Pokémon, and also a little more… When Gack’s voice rose several octaves it made him realize that the potion and just changed his species, but his sex as well, making this new form be more alien. All she could do was sit down in their pile of loose-fitting clothes and look at her new paws, missing their hands; her eyebrows grew outwards and dyed themselves purple. The only thing that reminded Gack of herself was the purple highlights of her fur,  and the glasses and green/blue scarf that still fit them.

“I’m sorry, Mattea, I thought you read the sign,” Régine apologised, walking over to the Loppuny, lending them a hand with stand up, whilst watching their clothes drop off her body.

“I-I did, it said nothing about this,” Gack replied with, too  mentally weak and out of it to feel angry.

“Even the fine print?” Chelle added, the Lopunny’s eyes going wide before back down to form an annoyed look on their face.

“Of course, there’s always a fine print…” Gack sighed, at least it explained why no others have taken job offer yet. “I was so focused on the salary that I didn’t realize that it would involve me becoming a pokemon,” she wanted to cry at this moment, her life as a man was lost.

“Well, you’re still getting paid” The manager let Gack know, watching her expression become one of confusion.

“B-But I’m a pokémon,”

“For now you are, that is,” Régine’s concern began to vanish, slowly returning back to her normal, proper self. “The potion, or well the coffee I gave you isn’t permanent, the effects only last for eight and a quarter hours, the same amount of time as your work shift, with just enough time for you to relax and change back to your normal self,” She explained whilst helping reassure Gack this wasn’t permanent. “But if you aren’t up for the job, I could always make you a coffee to end the effects of the first now?” 

Gack’s thoughts about her new form started to change slightly. Firstly, she had to get used to walking differently, learning how to write in with her new paws, and the whole being female. Secondly, the fact she was getting paid to be a pokémon did sound a bit enticing, she could start to like it. With a deep breath, Gack answered. “I’ll do it,”

“Excellente,” Régine put her hands together, happy to see the unwilling transformed interviewee become a new staff member. “Chelle, would you be able to help Gack get ready for their first day?” She asked their pokémon companion, who nodded in response.

“Sure thing, Reginé” Chelle chippered, walking over to the door the two entered from. “Come on, Mattea, is it okay I call you that?”

“S-Sure” Mattea said with a faint blush on their new furry face, it would take a lot to get used to, but at least she was getting paid.