Arc1 Ch 1: An automatic choice (that calls for no deeper analysis)

Lex Frost-Moore, third year Comp Sci student and intern software engineer for EE: Electronic Entertainments, privately he called them Evil fucking cunts that couldn’t be bothered to pay their interns well Enterprises. It was the last year of college and his course required them to obtain work experience. He’d been so excited to work for a videogame company for his internship. Video games were his life, they’d been there when his dad died, that last holdover of the family having the money to splurge on expensive machines. He’d kept that thing alive for the years while they were struggling on just his mom’s income. It would not be a stretch to say that he maybe played them a touch too much. Though they’d resulted in him pursuing a degree in computer science so it was not all waste. Even if it meant that he stayed up far later than he ever should, which led him to the here and now, fast asleep on his desk for his lunch break. He should have been eating at this time but he’d stayed up to three in the morning playing video games.

A ding woke Lex abruptly. The sound had sounded like it had reverberated through the inside of his skull. Not painfully, just very weird.

Sitting up he blearily gazed at the text box floating in front of him.

Select Gender:

[ ] Male

[ ] Female

[ ] Other

He poked female without even thinking about it, he always picked female when playing a game and had moved on autopilot. Lex froze when the box disappeared, but relaxed slightly when nothing happened.

The fuck was that?

He looked around for some explanation, but nothing else seemed out of place. He was still in the cubicle of his crappy internship job. A look at the clock told him that he still had twenty minutes left of his break. He rubbed his face, it was always a bit sore after napping at work. Oddly enough, not only was his face not that sore, it felt different. He gave a few more tentative rubs to identify what was different here.

It was the hair he'd shaved yesterday, so by today it should be coarse on his face. Instead it was oddly soft, still there just fuzzy instead of scratchy.

What?

Another ding.

New Questline: Getting your bearings

You’re a smart (if unwise) girl, figure out what’s happening

Questline Rewards: 100XP, Book: [???], Clothing: [???], [???]

[ ] Accept Quest

[/] Deny Quest

Following the ding was another box, the deny selection was greyed out. He gave it a poke anyways just to check but nothing happened. With no other option he selected ‘Accept’. It disappeared, quickly replaced by another.

[ ] Getting your bearings 1: Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Figure out what’s changed and why (I’d recommend the bathroom but you can try inferior methods if you feel like you know better than Gaia

Rewards: 25XP

He frowned at the hint/flavour text, Gaia, the ancestral mother of all life. She cropped up a lot in video games. Did that imply that she was the one writing these? It seemed doubtful.

Lex checked the time again, fifteen minutes left of his break; he’d have to be quick. He got out of his desk and walked over to the bathroom, it was a good suggestion. Or at least a good place to start, especially if his face was changed. He got a raised eyebrow from one of his coworkers for walking around the office patting his face like a moron. Lex didn’t notice it at all.

The bathroom was thankfully empty, he walked up to the mirrors and leaned in, squinting at his face.

It seemed the same. He leant in, focusing on the facial hair. Up close he could make out the change. His facial hair, normally coming out in patches of different colours, from blond to black, was now uniformly pale fuzz. He rubbed his hand along it, it felt a lot nicer than its normal scratchy feel. This close he could also make out some very subtle changes to the rest of his face. His nose was just that little bit smaller and rounder, and his jaw and chin were similarly affected. It was not a lot, maybe a few millimetres at most. He’d barely spotted the difference with this close examination. Other stuff was completely unchanged, like the smattering of pimples that had cropped up in his teen years and never truly left. At least they were lessened now, but he was always jealous of the guys that just seemed to have smooth skin without even trying.

He blinked when he noticed a major change. His eyes had swapped places. Lex had heterochromia, his eyes were mismatched colours, it was the only interesting feature he had. His left eye was a light Hazel, almost yellow, and his right was a deep blue, almost purple in the right light. Today they were swapped around, hazel in the right and blue in the left.

“You good there Lex?”

He jumped in surprise, spinning around to face Chris, one of his coworkers. He wasn’t a friend, but they did occasionally talk about games and the like. Most people working here did, it was the one saving grace of an otherwise annoying internship. Lex looked away just as quickly, in case Chris noticed the eye difference.

“Uh, yea sure, thought I saw a new pimple. It’s fine though.”

“If you say so.” Chris said, already moving to one of the empty stalls.

“I do.” Lex called to his back.

Internally though his mind was racing.

That first textbox, the one he’d selected automatically.

He’d picked ‘female’.

What if, his mind supplied. What if he’d been turned into a girl.

Lex rushed into another one of the empty stalls, almost slamming the door behind himself. With shaking hands he started taking his clothes off. There was a squirming feeling in his gut, and he was hyper-aware of the beating of his heart.

This was the moment of truth.