You entered the office a bit earlier than usual to make sure you had everything in order. Namely, removing your old chair, laying out your cushion, and making sure HR had everything lined up. Sally did a great job remaining professional verbally, but her eyes betrayed just how nervous she really was.
It was a lot more awkward as various coworkers filed in. Many of them thought you were a new hire and that your previous self had been moved. The few that managed the courage to reintroduce themselves departed quickly. You knew the office was going to be abuzz with your sudden shift to being a fur. And a taur. And technically female.
Your gut reaction was fear that the rumors would get out of hand. However, you’d never been the center of rumors before, and there was always something new to talk about with each day.
“Ha ha ha, holy shit! He actually went and did it!” You felt a heavy thump on your rear as Ace used you as a makeshift bench. “Or is it ‘she,’ now?”
Kris approached not far behind. “Man, did you know HR put an intern at the front to inform people specifically about you?”
You blush, but thankfully the fur covered that up. “Uh, thanks for telling me. I still think of myself as a guy, since I didn’t do this for the gender.”
Ace spoke up first. “Huh? You’re telling me they done forced you to become a lady with that kinda voice?”
“Well, no, but-”
He fake-yawns to interrupt you. “Yeah, what-fuckin-ever. I can more or less guess why you picked a cow.” He accentuated his sentence with a heavy pat on your barding, directly over your udder. It causes you to flinch and kick a hind leg, though it wasn’t painful. “Oh-uh-sorry about that I don’t know how, uh, tender that might be.” He quickly gets up and begins acting more professional, before just-as-quickly reverting back to his normal self. Through a smile better suited to a fox than a man, he leans in and half-whispers, “But it’s the udder, right?”
You roll your eyes. “Yes, the udder is part of it. I also like the feeling of being the biggest thing in the room, but most of all, I like-” A sudden realization snaps to your mind. The New You parlor had the ability to simulate this form, and could simulate a milking session. “Actually, I just had an idea. Instead of telling, why don’t I show you?”
This caused both of your coworkers’ eyes to widen and quickly back away. “Uh, no weird stuff in the office, man! Keep it at your house or whatever!”
“No, I-” You just realized how that previous statement could be interpreted. “Ugh, what I meant is that the New You parlor has something programmed into their VR, so you can directly experience the reason I picked it too. We can go during our lunch break.”
“You’re gonna try selling us on becoming cow-butts, too?”
“Oh, shut up. I think it’ll be funny watching you do it. I’ll laugh my ass off if you actually buy it, and I’ve got a lot of ass to laugh off at this point.”
Ace leans against your cubicle entrance. “Eh, sure. Sounds like a good enough excuse to get into that VR again. See you at lunch.”
Kris smiled as Ace left before entering your cubicle. “Hey, it seems like you’re happier than before. Usually, you’re a lot faster to shut down when Ace does his thing around you. I was getting a bit concerned about how you were acting a few weeks back, but I guess it had to do with being so close to your gene session?”
You hadn’t thought about it, but he was right. You’d always been a bit of a doormat around Ace, and you’d been really paranoid about someone discovering your appointment before it happened. You give him a smile in return. “I think part of it is weighing a ton while still being able to run. Or, gallop? Anyways, I’m no longer as afraid of getting pushed around.”
“Hah, I bet. Anyways, good for you, see you at lunch.”