Kelly was at her computer when the buzzer rang, notifying her a package was waiting in the mailroom. She hadn't expected anything and decided to finish what she was doing before seeing to it. Work wasn't entirely terrible, she'd practiced law for a year at this point and while tracking company compliance with federal regulations was far from the most stimulating subject it was easy and paid well enough to make up for the extra years in school.
Finishing up her last email, she grabbed her phone and headed down the hall to the elevator. when the doors closed her reflection waited for her. She tried to avoid it but it was always in the corner of her eye, almost six foot tall and fairly broad shouldered with a prominent brow bone and a thicker beard so that no one would suspect who she really was despite her hair that fell past her shoulder blades. The elevator doors opened and she exited, dragging the lump in her stomach to the mail room. The small box sitting on her shelf didn't appear special at all, smaller than a shoe box she shrugged it off as the new work phone she had hounded her supervisors for.
Speaking of, her work phone chimed to her as she entered the elevator and headed back up. Alyssa's message felt like a personal attack when she opened it, "Hi! Do you have the Cignis files ready?" She was everything Kelly wanted to be, intelligent, successful, confident, gorgeous, and above all accepted by the rest of the team. It should be the greatest opportunity around, working in a top firm, doing fairly easy work, with a team of women and supervised by another woman. But she always felt the separation in the back of her mind. The knowledge that no matter what none of those women would ever accept her. Because no matter how she felt, she could never say it to them, and she would always be the disgusting guy that they all saw.
She tossed the box on the counter and sat back at her desk to finish the day. Half thinking as she sent the reports to Alyssa she went to her old routine of spiraling in her self loathing. She'd moved to California for this job, and figured it would be a fresh start. Away from anyone she knew, she thought she could finally do something about her gender, get more into therapy, and be accepted by people as herself. But she couldn't. Every time she tried she always saw a guy staring back at her, no matter the clothes or the hair or the padding she put on herself. She kept spiraling, why didn't she actually do something about it, now her coworkers know her as a guy, no one will accept her. Why hadn't she transition in college like she planned, then her contacts wouldn't know, why hadn't she transitioned in high school, she'll never pass now. Finishing her day and turning the computer off she tried to stop, filling a glass of water and centering herself, there's nothing she could do now, she could only accept who she was.
Placing the glass down on the counter, she noted the small box from before next to it, that would take her mind off the issue. The exterior packaging was loudly branded with "Chronivac" and inside sat a small device, slightly larger than a telephone, and an instruction book that had a single instruction "Please Plug into Computer". Seems like a bad idea but what did she have to lose at this point, she grabbed her personal computer and plugged the device's cord in.
Immediately the device seemed to wake up, emitting a wide laser from the front and running from the top of her body to the ground. Once finished the screen of her computer opened showing an informational tab
Name: Kelly Elisabeth O'Connell
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 190 lbs
Age: 28
Gender: Male
How did this thing know the name she'd never shared? She didn't know but continued to stare as a dialog box opened, "make adjustments?". Intrigued, she clicked yes and was met with a list of options that included "gender". This had to be a prank, someone somehow had figured out who she was and was obviously trying to hurt her. Still, the curiosity inside her won out. She clicked gender. "Are you sure?" the box read, Yes. "Please disrobe for affect, press begin when ready".
Trembling, she went to her bedroom and removed her clothes, returning in her purple terry bathrobe. The screen had the same message "press begin when ready"