Butterfly Affect

First Waves Day +11

    Climbing the stairs to their apartment gave him some time to internalize what he’d seen from his newest tour outside.

    Now that it had been more than ten days, people were starting to believe this might be permanent — especially as it was discovered more people than first estimated had been turned into animal hybrids in what were now being called the ‘Changeling Waves’ (among many other attempted names, but this one had ended up sticking). And, to his biggest surprise, the finality of his change didn’t bother him as much as he expected, considering how tragically he’d reacted to his new body. He just… grew into it, perhaps? His thoughts were even clearer than before the change, in fact… But maybe it simply was the chaos of the Waves giving him something worthwhile to focus on, that made him feel less uncomfortable than usual.

    He’d finally gone back to work. His change had simply been added to the list of things to accommodate for, and one female employee outfit later, nobody had batted an eye. This was relieving. No explanations demanded by anyone, with everybody so focused on their own situations already.

    And speaking of accomodation, the quantity of construction work going on in the streets was crazy. Building fronts, stairs and doors being ripped out and replaced by all kinds of temporary entrances, to take into account all the new shapes and sizes people now came in. Things were finally, truly getting accessible for everyone… He mentally chuckled at the thought, realizing the irony that it took such a change for accessibility to finally be taken seriously.

    Arriving at his floor, he turned the keys in and opened the door, only to be greeted by a joyous “You’re back! Come here!” from the living room.

    He looked up from his computer as she walked into the room. “Huh, forgot to remove your work clothes again?” he pointed out, which caused her to pause for a second and look down at herself.

    “Oh… Oops.” She lifted her arm to rub her neck, making him notice another detail.

    “Are you wearing a bra underneath?” he asked without thinking.

    She rushed to pull her arm back down. “...Yeah. Part of the outfit,” she said, muttering. “It’s not as comfortable as I expected, but it beats not wearing one, I guess…”

    He smiled awkwardly, feeling out of his depth. “Anywaaaay,” he started, eager to change the subject back to his discovery, “You won’t believe this! You’re not the only one!”

    “Others got their sex changed too!?” she asked, dashing to the computer.

    He nodded. “Yep! Heard it from the last doc I tried! We weren’t the only one who had asked!”

    “Gosh…” She sighed in relief. “When do I see them?”

    It was his turn to rub his neck. “Nah, he doesn’t have the time to take you.” She started to pout, and he quickly continued. “But he told me there’s a meeting getting organised by other… How should we call it… ‘gender-swapped’ folks? Like, low pressure, support group style, if I got it right…” He pushed against his backrest, crossing his arms. “Sorry, I’m probably describing it wrong, I’ve never been in that kind of meeting.” 

    He glanced away from his roommate again, unsure how much he was willing to trust strangers with his situation. “I see…”

    “Scared of going…?” his friend asked perceptively.

    “Heh. When am I ever not scared, I guess…” he grumbled out.

    “Oh, wow, that’s new of you. Never heard you joke about your situation before.” He didn’t know what to respond to that, so his roommate continued. “You’ve really been coming out of your shell lately.”

    He preferred not to acknowledge this comment. “I don’t really wanna go to the meeting… But it would beat not going, wouldn’t it?”

    His roommate shrugged. “That’s about the best shot we have at understanding your situation, yeah.”

    “When is it?” he asked.

    “Tomorrow evening…” His roommate turned around and picked up a scrap of paper on the table, handing it to him. “This address.”

    It was in the middle of the city. He’d need to take the bus. “...Okay.”