Enlightening first week

For the rest of the first day, Carter and Sonja found themselves back in their individual rooms, working with Re-Vital staff on behaviors and speaking in their new bodies. While the staff made sure to clarify that it wasn't necessary to follow their instructions after the week was over, they considered this training useful for those who wanted to try and reach a certain level of femininity or masculinity to align with societal expectations. Nothing was mandatory, but Re-Vital has seen plenty of clients find that it was hard to fit in when they wanted to, without up-front guidance.

Sonja had been so familiar with hiding her true nature within a mask of masculinity that it felt ironic that under this new Ascend mask, she had to work so hard to unravel it! But Sonja's dream was to blend in--to go out in public and avoid eyes staring at her like she didn't belong. The staff worked on absolute basics with her for the first day. Sonja found it difficult to focus at first, still in awe of her new body where every little difference with every little movement screamed in her mind to pay attention to it. The softest bounce of her chest in the bra, or shifting her legs and realizing the altered anatomy, were louder than the staff's words.

Still, Sonja--and Carter, as well--absorbed the knowledge they were given. And then the two hours were up, and they were disconnected.

Back in her biologically male body, Sonja didn't even remember how she made it home that night, or what she had for dinner, or really anything. Her sleep was dreamless, done in an instant. She only seemed to recall moments throughout the morning where she found her way back to the clinic, back on the bed in her observation room, before putting on the Ascend headset again.

The connection this time was faster, nearly instant, once she put the mask on. Blinking her eyes open, she sat up, smiling as she hugged her smaller arms around her torso. She was back!

Day two and through four were her lessons in anatomy, hygiene, movement, and conversations. Of course, her partner for all of this was Carter, at least when clothed. Every participant in the tethering program knew their bodies would be viewed naked by whoever was in them, but few had any reservations about it. When someone felt so disconnected from their original body, why would it matter? Still, Sonja thought it was strange, as she stood in front of a full-length mirror fully disrobed to examine every part of herself, particularly with her digitally developed face affixed to someone else's form, that in another room was someone using her old body in precisely the same way.

...But she tried to push that thought from her mind. Her focus needed to be on the here and now!

Sonja was able to get a great look at her form like this. Her new body was indeed smaller and slimmer than she had been, with B-cup breasts that curved in a pleasant teardrop shape without being overwhelming. Honestly, this is what Sonja had hoped for--her interest larger breasts had typically been fueled by her male anatomy, but for a body to own, this felt precisely right. The smile on her face only grew wider as she put her hands on her hips, confidently staring at herself. She would've never done anything like this before, avoiding mirrors as much as possible when undressed. Now, however, she was proud--and excited--to be her new self.

The staff had carefully coordinated how Sonja and Carter performed these activities, as Carter was seeing his new body in the mirror at the same time. Re-Vital knew that arousal was common when in a body for the first time, at least for one side or the other. Given that the bodily sensations and urges were shared across the tether, however, if one side was turned on by the sight of themselves naked, both sides would feel it. Despite those feelings, both Sonja and Carter were discouraged from acting upon them regardless of how strong they were. They could feel their body, move it how they liked, to understand everything about their present form and eliminate as much surprise from the equation as possible, but at least in the clinic, that was as far as they could go. At least the Re-Vital staff had thought carefully about this, so one person's urges didn't suddenly strike both bodies while they were doing some other lesson!

For learning more about how to move in their new form, the Re-Vital staff organized a sort of gym class for them, where they were given a chance to run, jump, tumble, lift weights, and so on, just to get an accurate understanding of the physical capabilities of their bodies. Sonja and Carter both seemed to enjoy being able to jog, but it seemed that Sonja wore out quicker than she normally would have expected. If she was going to go kayaking like this, she was going to need to build up some more endurance...

Each day, they endured a two hour lesson that felt somehow much longer with all the activities planned. Each night, Sonja and Carter endured a blur of moments that passed by quickly, waiting for the next chance to be back in the bodies they were growing more accustomed to.

Days five through seven were done with both bodies together, to talk and joke and laugh as they started to form their identities in their new forms. Re-Vital insisted on not just assuming the interests and attire of the original body occupant, so they provided an opportunity for the two to work through building up their new personas together, where each side could see their old selves continue to morph away from what they had been, to further disassociate from their original bodies. Sonja didn't know what her old body dressed like, but she found jeans and a tee comfortable. The smile on Carter's face gave it away--she looked good, and probably hadn't looked like that before. Carter, for his part, seemed to like dressing up a bit, picking out slacks and a sportcoat that certainly looked sharp--and nothing like how Sonja used to dress. Rather, Carter looked like he belonged in a bookstore, while Sonja trended more toward things that might be more fitting for getting back on a sailboat, the more they built up a 'virtual wardrobe' of clothes they could borrow from Re-Vital.

The last day, there was no plans--just time for Carter and Sonja to sit in their lounge, grab a coffee, and chat about their plans.

Silence ate up a significant amount of their time, as they looked at one another for a bit. Sonja enjoyed Carter's presence, only ever momentarily remembering that she was looking at her old body when she glanced at him. But, it didn't matter--what she saw before her was Carter, not her reflection. That realization was such a relief!

"So, uh," Carter began, leaning forward onto the table between the two. "I don't know about you, but I like this. A lot."

Sonja nodded vigorously, sipping at her coffee. She took a deep breath, looking down at herself before back up at Carter. "Me too. These couple hours each day have been the only thing I'd been able to think of. I'm surprised I'm able to get any sleep..."

Carter laughed. "I know, right? I'm already seeing me like this in my dreams, when I was just like a formless blob before. And when I think to myself, the voice in my head sounds like this too now. It's... a big departure."

Both nodded, struggling to make eye contact for too long. Something was still weird about looking into those eyes, because vision was one of the few signals that the Hideki unit couldn't reliably intercept from the host body yet, so they still used small cameras in the tear ducts of the mask. It meant when Sonja was looking into Carter's eyes, she was looking at one of the last remnants from herself.

Eventually, Sonja looked back up, and simply said what both were thinking. "I want to keep doing this, and for longer periods of time."

Relief washed over her when Carter nodded in agreement.

"I'm all in. It sounds like if we do that, we'll still have to spend some time together outside of this place to keep the tether intact. We're going to have to navigate real-world scenarios together for a bit, before we go our separate ways." Carter rubbed the back of his head. "Err, I should say, if we go our separate ways. I like being around you, Sonja. Re-Vital picked a good match for us, I was worried you and I would have nothing in common, but honestly, if we go long enough to increase the tether range, I wouldn't mind sticking close."

Sonja blushed furiously, hiding behind the coffee cup as she took another sip. The way Carter spoke, it sounded like they were dating! ...that actually wasn't a terrible thought. Sonja's hangups about herself had led to hangups with dating, as relationships in her former body felt strange. She liked women when in a male body, but she had been scared of dating someone who would inevitably learn the truth about who she really was on the inside, and then what? How awkward would that be? What made it more surprising was that she could feel an attraction to Carter, or was she simply feeling his attraction to her? Did it matter, so long as the attraction was there? The two shared their embarrassment via the tether, and sat in silence for a while longer.

"I'm happy with close," Sonja finally said. "If we spend a lot of time together, we won't have to practice that whole 'psychic communication' thing that the docs were talking about. That feels like it might be the strange part, though I get that we might need to coordinate actions, or at least prep each other when something's going to happen. Like when you got that papercut earlier today..."

Carter blinked. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry, you were able to feel that? I thought it was just me." He looked down at the bandage on his hand, wiggling his finger. "I'll have to be more careful. All the more reason for us to stick close, right? So we can keep an eye on each other. There's a lot of logistics, to work out, though."

Carter and Sonja talked for a while longer, trying to decide what their next step would be. Staying connected at the moment was a given, and Re-Vital would give them each a neighboring unique space the size of a studio apartment for them to act as if they lived there when tethered like this. The apartment portion was particularly interesting because it meant there would be opportunities to meet others who were also experiencing new bodies via the Ascend! Each of those had a 'front' and 'back' door, where they could enter from one side as their old selves and then exit the other side into 'Re-Vital Park', a domed enclosure that operated as a sort of isolated, utopian mini-city where the Ascend wearers could socialize amongst one another before they were comfortable enough to head into the larger city. It all sounded perfect, like Carter and Sonja could spend time in this carefully-crafted dream world, building up their wardrobe and decorating the apartment in the way they wanted and making their new bodies and experiences truly their own.

The only question was... how much time per day, and would it even be every day? They could still stick to just two hours, if either side still had lots of commitments such as work to deal with. They could set the time to encompass all their free time in a day outside of work--six hours. Or, perhaps, there would be some arrangement that would allow them to stay in these bodies for the entire waking day--maybe even twenty four hours a day! The only thing that might hold them back is what complications might arise from spending too much time as their new selves, if they aren't careful they could end up in tricky situations with work and family...