2033: Plague

-The year is 2033 in New York City, the Big Apple, the melting pot of America. People are walking around the streets trying to get to where they need to get to and some people are staring at others that have their bodies looking different from their limbs. Some are obvious changes and have the most eyes on them while some are more discreet and have few to no eyes on them. In an apartment on West 8th Street is a young individual that just graduated from college with hopes of being a software programmer and graphic designer. The room when it had light had grey wallpaper. One side of the wall had a poster for a game about a group of soldiers in sci-fi power armor trying to save a planet from an invading , the ceiling had a working ceiling fan with 3 light bulbs in it. This individual was fast asleep in their bed with the covers fully over their body until a door on the far side of the apartment room opened and an Asian female walked in. She sighed to herself as she carried two reusable bags with various food and placed them on the counter. She then looked at the clock then walked over to the room and opened the door to see the lump in the bed slightly moving.-

"Wake the hell up. You are late already. Weren't you supposed to be in at 10 am? It's 9:30."

-The body shot up from the bed with the covers revealing a young light brown male with an androgynous appearance making others believe that he is a young female. He looked over at his clock and saw that the time was 9:31 and flailed out of the bed, tumbling on the floor. His roommate rolled her eyes and waited for him to get back up, which he did and rushed over to the door, making her stand aside and watch him run to the bathroom to get his day ready.-

"Do you know what you are wearing at least? A skirt or pants?"

"Either is fine, really."

"When they find out that you don't look like a male, it's a whole 'nother ball-park, you know that right?"

"I said 'either is fine,' I don't care if they look at me weird or not, I'm still trying to get used to that."

-The Asian woman walked over to the counter to take out the products from the bags before talking to herself,-

"I wish people would be a little understanding to him, at least. I'll see if I can make him something for lunch."

-A few minutes later, the male came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his body and he made his way to his room where he started to get dressed.-

"Linda?"

"Yeah?"

"I want to wear stockings, but the ones I have are in the wash-"

"Yes, you can borrow one of mine, just make sure not to rip them, ok?"

"I don't rip mine..."

"I know, but accidents happen."

"Can't help it if they get ripped out of my control, you know? I can only help if it's me or someone else doing it."

"Yeah, yeah. Just remember you are late. Also, Ash..."

"Yeah?"

"You should get some augmentations. At least the neural ones."

"I'm not getting augments. We had this talk before."

"I know, but some jobs are now asking folks to get augmentations, even security jobs have more augs than not."

"I'll think about it. For now, I'm almost done dressing."

"Good. I just finished preparing your lunch."

-Ash walked out of the room wearing a blue shirt with black pants and black shoes. The pants really showed off his legs and thighs, but he was having trouble getting comfortable in them.-

"Damn these pants..."

"I told you to wear pants at least once or twice in a while so your body can get used to it. You've been wearing skirts, shorts and leggings for some time."

"You know I look good in them."

"That I won't deny, but when others find out you are male and wearing a skirt, things will get weird quickly. What did you tell them you were?"

"I chose other."

-Linda looked at Ash with her hands on her hips,-

"Oh, so you could have walked out wearing that shirt and a skirt and your employers wouldn't mind?"

"I mean I'm a programmer, not an engineer, so I think I would be fine wearing a skirt."

-Linda shrugged her shoulders and sighed,-

"Next time then, Ash. For now, here is your lunch and get going. I'll see you later, ok?"

"Ok, don't be too lonely here."

-Ash giggled while Linda rolled her eyes and handed him his lunch. Just as Ash left after making sure he had everything, one of his neighbor's doors opened as well, revealing an elderly man. Ash walked around the man and looked back at him to see what he was doing or carrying. The old man was carrying a black bag, believed to be trash, so Ash turned back towards him and offered to help carry it to the dumpster since he was going outside. The old man nodded and smiled at Ash before handing the bag to him and waiting for Ash to get down the stairs before walking back into the room. When Ash reached outside, he put the bag in the dumpster and walked along the streets of NY. Living in the city had some advantages, but sometimes they would be dwarfed by the disadvantages which most New Yorkers have learned to live with. Ash stood at the bus stop, alone and waited for the bus to arrive. When he took out his phone to check the time, Ash groaned.-

"I'm so fucked... This is a big day for me and I already fucked it up. I'll have to send an email or something to them."

-As he started thinking about what to put on the email, he noticed a bus in the distance and smiled.-

"Nice looks like the email will have to wait a bit. The place isn't too far anyway by bus so I should be able to get there with a few minutes to spare."

-Ash looked around and saw that none of the people walking by were going to stand near him, so he opened up his bag, moved the lunch that Linda made for him aside and pulled out a piece of clothing.-

"I want to make a big impression and if that means I have to wear a skirt as a male, so be it. They are more comfortable anyway."

-Ash looked back towards the approaching bus and tried to determine how much time he would have to change his pants into a skirt with so many people passing by. Knowing that he would be in more trouble than he thought, Ash decided to wait either until the bus was empty enough for people to not notice a thing or until he was at the job site's bathroom, which brought up another problem for him: should he enter the males' or females' bathroom. Putting away the skirt and closing the bag, he pondered on this dilemma until the bus was close enough for him to react and get on. To his surprise, the bus was empty in the back but had a lot of folks in the front. He managed to make his way to the back, but due to his size, he was fairly close to having his face smashed between someone's ass, and checked to see if anyone would be looking at him. When he figured that the coast was clear, he gulped hard and started to unbuckle his pants while not taking his eyes off the passengers in front of him. He managed to pull his pants below the knee before the bus stopped at a red light. Ash froze and looked out the windows to see if anyone would have a view of him, luckily no one was the wiser or bothered to look at the windows, prompting Ash to continue taking his pants off. He finally managed to take his pants completely off, showing his light blue briefs that showed off his thighs, his clean-shaven legs and his ass if he wasn't crouching down trying to hide his embarrassment. He quickly opened his bag and took out the skirt, moved in the open a little and started to put on the skirt before the bus started to move on the green light. Ash nearly stumbled but caught himself before he could bring any unwanted attention to himself and quickly finished putting on the skirt, folded the pants small enough to fit in the bag and sat back down with his face in his hands. About thirty minutes later, the bus arrived at his stop and when he started to move to the exit, he noticed a few people that were on the bus when he got on started to wonder when did he have a skirt on or if he came in with a skirt. Before things got any weirder, Ash quickly got off the bus and walked down the road until he arrived at a four-story building named 'Projekt Tonkatsu.'-

"This is it. Hope I do well..."

-Ash took a deep breath, fixed his clothes to make sure they didn't look too weird, opened the door and went inside.-