Tethered to Carter

"Oh, before we do, just one moment," said the female Re-Vital staffer, as she adjusted Sonja's hair a bit. "Just so you look less like you've got bedhead." Unbeknownst to Sonja, her hair had been slightly styled differently than how her body had previously looked. This was done purposefully, to remove any indication that the body Sonja was in was styled by the former mind that day. Once done, Sonja looked in the mirror again, tapping her chin lightly. She actually felt like the hairstyle reminded her of how she would have styled her original self, namely sweeping her bangs across the forehead.

The staff helped her to her feet, as she rose up, unsteady for a moment. They held her arms as she took a couple cautious steps. She was walking in someone else's body! Sonja was still plenty aware of that fact regardless of how hard they tried to hide it at the facility. It wasn't exactly alien to walk in a new form, but things did move a little differently. She was like a car whose throttle and wheel felt a little tighter in the curves, if she were to put it back into the vehicular metaphors that she used to understand her situation better.

After a few more steps, the staff were confident that Sonja wasn't just going to fall over, and let her walk on her own, barefoot into the hall. When she arrived outside the door to room 4, she immediately found herself confronted by another person in a white shirt and blue pajama pants.

This man was vaguely familiar. It was the hair, formerly Sonja's dirty blond coloration, that felt most familiar, though it was slicked back in a way very different than how she would have done things. Was this man taller than she had been before? No, that must be an illusion, in that she's shorter than she had been before... but she knew this person before her was supposed to be her in her old body. It was incredible just how she wouldn't have known, because it was no longer like she was looking in a mirror! Her new perspective altered her perception of her former body.

In addition, the face was completely different, as was to be expected with these Ascend headsets. There were still strong, masculine features on the face, but nothing like how she had once looked. The nose was different, maybe sloping up a bit in the end, and it was thinner. The man's brows were different too, gone was the little bump that had been present at the top of her nose to the forehead, now it was smoother.

"Hey there, I'm Carter," the man said with a wave. For all intents and purposes, he was indeed Carter. It was incredible, even his voice was nothing like what Sonja's had been! Even if Sonja's body was the frame of the man standing before her, she wouldn't have known it. There's little about her body that stood out as unique--maybe a bump on Carter's upper arm would have clued her in, but it was covered in the shirt. There were no tattoos or markings that really stood out.

Sonja waved back. "I'm Sonja," she said, unable to stop from grinning rather stupidly in the moment, thrilled to be able to say something like that in a suitable body! She still didn't sound quite the part, her affect was too flat still. Carter had the opposite problem, if it was a problem at all, where there was a clear feminine lilt in his speech patterns. They were going to need some work, for sure.

"You two are gonna get along great," said one of the staffers next to Carter. "Let's get you two over to Conference Room 2, so you can chat more, okay?"

Both nodded, and were escorted down the hall. They both sort of shuffled their feet as they went along, still not sure about all the movements. Carter seemed to be rather aware of something in his pants, while Sonja clearly detected a light jiggling in her shirt if she took too big a step. Despite being contained in a bra, and even though they weren't massive, that chest did occasionally remind her of its presence.

Both Carter and Sonja sat down, opposite each other, as two folders were set down in front of them. They each opened them up, taking a quick look, as one of the staff members sat down to explain their little 'tether booklet', as the header of the page seemed to indicate. "These are to get you up to speed on everything you need to know about the bodies you're in," he said. "First pages are medical information, so things like allergies, medications, and the like. No real concern, just be careful around eggs, Sonja."

Sonja smiled as she turned the page to her 'profile' page. Her full name was listed out as Sonja Song, it just had this perfect ring to the name when she chose it. Her partner was Carter Fischer, which had its own pleasant ring to things. Both of them smiled at each other pleasantly as they glanced up, then turned away, embarrassed about the eye contact. It was a simultaneous response--likely the effect of their tethered emotions, not just the fact that they found one another quite attractive in their own particular ways.

"Carter, care to give us a little blurb about your life? Just things like career, hobbies, useful info." the staff member asked. Carter nodded.

It took Carter a moment to gather his thoughts, but then he started to pour everything out. "I'm Carter, I'm 29, I've worked as a librarian for most of my life, books are a passion. I'd been getting lost in stories since I was a little kid, had a lot of dreams about being in those books, being someone else. Seems like I'm in a dream now..." He flashed a smile, before clearing his throat and continuing. "I'm a big coffee drinker, I like to travel to find new coffee shops and sit in the corner and watch the city life. I'm a cat person, and always wanted to go on long hikes in the nearby forests but most of my friends prefer the city life. I guess that's me," he said, folding his arms on the table.

Sonja glances around. "Guess I'll go next... I'm Sonja. I spend most of my day behind a computer screen, working on code for a tech firm. I'd like to, uh, write, actually. So, good that you like books! Uhh, hmm. My other big hobbies are probably sailing or kayaking, I used do that quite a bit, I really like being able to escape things on the water. But, I probably spend too much time in front of a screen lately, haven't really been able to get out and about, instead I stay in and work on things with my dog while I've got a movie on in the background. I'll take a good burger and fries any day. And... uh, anything else?" Sonja shrugged at the other two. "That wraps it up, I think."

"Good, good," the staff member said, as he flipped a page in both portfolios before them. The last parts here are things like social media information, emergency contacts for here, just other useful info. We already built you both profiles on the usual social sites, got you some unique phone and a number, all of that. We try to be really thorough, so it will seem like you two are living as closely to how you picture your ideal lives as possible. The only thing we don't have is identification cards, for legal reasons. After you two have spent some time together, if you want to be able to do things like go to bars or travel on airlines or anything that requires a photo ID in your current bodies, you'll have to use the body's original ID and information. For legal purposes, we can't get around that. But, we recommend at least two weeks before any of that, so you have time to get acclimated to your current selves. Again, we don't want to introduce any bias or anything that changes how you view yourselves, and it can be a bit jarring to see your partner using a different face."

Sonja raises her hand, and then realizes how silly that is, and just asks her question. "Isn't that going to be kind of tricky to avoid? If we're only doing this for a couple hours a day, and we have to be close to each other..."

"Staff will help you with the first week, then we'll up the limit but still initiate the headset connections from here for the second. After that... the decision is really up to you two, if you're comfortable enough to keep going, you want new partners, you want to drop it altogether. We'll work on a plan. But for the first week, we'll just keep going over simple things. Sound good?"

Both bodies nod.

"Great, let's get to work!"