We arrived at the hotel and packed our things. The driver helped to get them in the car and then we travelled back. Brett moved himself to the front for the journey back. He apologised but said he needed time to think. I don't think either of us blamed him.
Katie was a lot more cheerful when we returned. I think her natural personality might be quite bubbly, but, her life experiences had dampened it. Now she had a reason to hope, her spirits were raised. The worry, of course, was if it didn't work, but none of us wanted to think that. We had a relatively early night. The jet lag was still affecting us.
The next morning we did our usual checking each other for changes. Today at least we were going to see a professional to start the monitoring properly. I couldn't swear to it, but I got the impression that Vee was a bit taller. Her curves were more pronounced and her eyes were a much more vivid green. We needed measuring tape and other things. I still didn't think I had changed much. My eyes were completely lavender, no hints of any other colour now. Other than that, I couldn't see any further changes. Clothing was becoming a bit of a problem for Vee. With the changes that she was going through, none of her clothes fit well. After the medical, we may have to go shopping again.
We got a call from Roni, Bretts PA, who told us when to expect the driver and a call from Henry, the doorman when the driver had arrived. Roni was also going to be our go-to girl. If we had any questions, direct them at her and she would point us in the right direction.
I don't know why, but I was expecting the driver to take us to the office building where we had our meeting previously. Instead, we were taken to a private hospital. We were introduced to an elderly doctor who didn't give me a great first impression. I felt that he had a very high opinion of himself and that we were wasting his time. Not that he said anything wrong. We had to explain about having a different body image without explaining how it happened, and the changes that we had noticed. He asked if we had a picture of the different body image and of course we didn't.
It did make me think as to how we would be able to do that. The best idea I could come up with was to log on with an artist who could have a good look at us and then try and draw us after returning to real life. I wasn't sure if it was worth it or not, but, he was examining Vee first, so I phoned Roni and asked her. She told me she would look into it.
Initially, he was very perfunctory, taking tape measurements of different locations and marking them on a chart. He took photos and signed everything that he had marked. He got a bit more excited when he looked into Vee's eyes. I know from looking myself this morning, that there is nothing obvious unless you look closely then you can see large spots of green in a background of blue. But the green is such a vivid green, that the more of it you see, the more it stands out. He tried to take a photo. He frowned a bit and then made a phone call and led us to another area of the hospital.
That was fine in some respects, he was just taking us to more appropriate equipment, but Vee was in a hospital gown that doesn't do up very well and nothing else. I tried to stay behind her and hold some of it together to preserve her modesty. If he tried the same thing with me, I wasn't bloody going. He had her place her head in this machine and it took photos of her iris. I think because he was there and it was all set up for eye exams he asked her to read as far down as possible. She could read them all.
“Extraordinary,” he muttered. He kept making it harder but quickly stripped what was possible to test officially. He ended up printing a sheet with very small writing and getting Vee to read it from as far away as possible. And she still could. I think it was at that point he started taking it seriously. Since I was there, and this test did not require me to be undressed, he tested me for my eyesight. It was quite exhilarating reading text from a distance I knew, I could never have before.
He quizzed us much more thoroughly on our story and the differences between humans and elves. This led to hearing tests for both of us. He needed an expert to help him with those and we couldn't tell the results. You pressed a button when you heard a noise and didn't if you didn't. Since the noises come randomly you have no way of knowing whether you have missed any. He muttered, mainly to himself, about strength and reaction testing that would need to be set up.
He then made some phone calls. I think we were far enough away that if we had normal hearing we wouldn't have been able to hear anything. Of course, that was not the case so we could hear him arguing for full body MRI scans. He convinced whoever he was talking to. While we were waiting for that to set up, not that he told us anything, he did a full set of measurements on me and took blood from both of us, DNA swabs and then left us for half an hour until the MRI was free for him to use.
We were in the MRI for quite a while staying as still as possible. Thank goodness neither of us was claustrophobic. Throughout the entire experience, I didn't feel like he was treating us as anything other than an object. It made me very uncomfortable, especially with the idea of seeing him every day, as had been suggested. Nor did he tell us of the results. He muttered extraordinary a few times and some things we could infer, like our eyesight, so we found it quite frustrating. I decided whilst I was lying still in the MRI machine that we needed to talk to Brett. This was not acceptable.
Chapter 19
By the time we left the hospital, it was two pm. We had been there for almost four hours and were starving. The driver took us to the company building and we went straight to the cafeteria. Vegetarian selection was not that good, so we had to make do with a salad. I had phoned Roni in the car and requested a meeting with Brett. She asked what it was about and I told her it was about the doctor and his treatment of us.
Roni met us in the cafeteria whilst we were finishing our salad. She looked to be a very professional lady in her early 40's, dressed in a dark grey skirt and white blouse. Now I don't know if it was my improved elven eyesight, changes in brain wiring that makes you notice details, or that she just didn't pass that well. A combination of slightly masculine facial features, a hint of Adam's apple, a deeper voice than usual for women albeit with a feminine accent, and larger than normal hands, made me realise that Roni had been born with a male body. Not that I was going to say anything. My first thought was, I bet she would love to be next on our list.
She got herself a cup of coffee while waiting for us to finish and sipped it patiently. “How are you finding the food here? I see you have both gone for the healthy option.”
“Err..we are both vegetarian, so we didn't have much choice. Not that I mind, this salad is lovely.” I said.
She frowned and took out a pad and wrote in it. “I'll see what I can do. I'm sure you are not the only vegetarians that work here. I have to admit I could never give up bacon.”
“Never say never,” I muttered, thinking of her possible future.
“I have spoken to Mr Winslow and scheduled a meeting for 4pm. Normally I am his gatekeeper and very few get past me, but you two are a special case and he has informed me, to treat you like his daughter. I don't get to decide whether he should be bothered, he does. I am mentioning this because he is the head of this company and his time is precious. Please don't abuse this privilege. Most of the time I should be able to direct you to who you need to see. For example, in this case, he did not choose your doctor. I did. He asked me to organise the best doctor I could find who could legally sign off on any changes and document everything carefully. If you tell Mr Winslow that he is not acceptable, he will ask me to find someone else so it might be better talking to me.”
“We're sorry if we have ruffled your feathers, Roni,” Vee said.
She smiled at us. “I am not upset. Well, maybe a little.” She squeezed her finger and thumb together. “But not at you girls. I should have researched him more thoroughly. I judged him entirely on his qualifications. If you don't mind discussing it with me, I will see if I can find someone more suitable. At the moment you are still due for a return visit tomorrow.”
“What do you think Andi, could you put up wit
h him for one more time?” Vee asked me.
“I suppose so. OK, Roni, we will go again tomorrow, but if you could find someone else that would be great.”
“If you want to grab your drinks and follow me, we can go to my office and hopefully sort this out.”
We followed her to her office. We then went through our experience that morning and what we had felt. I think what bothered me the most was the lack of communication, not knowing what his results were and his seeming to disregard us as people. Vee expressed similar feelings. She was a bit more used to the male doctor attitude and had come across it before, but didn't like it. I suggested we find a female doctor.
“OK. I know what I am looking for now. And thank you for agreeing to see him one more time, that gives me more time to find someone suitable. I would suggest you still see Mr Winslow at the meeting we have arranged. I will brief him on what you have told me and what we are going to do. I suspect that he will want to apologise personally. That is just who he is.”
“That's fine with me.” I looked at Vee who nodded her head as well.
“We have about half an hour before then. There were a couple of other things. The artist idea was a good one. We think we have someone suitable who is quite eager to go into VDR with you. Kevin did suggest going into a different game might make it easier. We have a game called Celebrity, where you choose model, movie star, rock star, whatever and get to live that life. If you both chose model, they would do measurements and things like what clothing and bras would fit you. He also suggested that you take someone with a very good memory to mentally record those things and then confirm his drawing is a true likeness. We can set that up for after the meeting if you like? I think you will have to go separately though.”
“Why do we have to go separately?” I asked. I didn't fancy the idea of spending a whole day without Vee.
“Whoever takes lead becomes the model, and you can only have one lead.”
“So why don't we go in together, once where I lead and once where Vee leads.”
She considered. “That should work. There needs to be a gap of about half an hour before you re-enter VDR but Kevin is going to need that anyway.”
Vee turned to me with a concerned expression. “I am worried about you entering too often, you know how upset it makes you. How about I go with you and if you can log off without crying then you can come with me. If you can't, I will manage a day game time on my own. OK.”
“OK,” I said with a sad smile. I didn't want to be upset, but I couldn't seem to help it. I was going to try really hard to not cry so that I could be there for her.
“Alright. That is sorted.” Roni said. “We still have a little time left. Would you like to meet with Trish, the game designer for Lagbit's world?”
“Yes, please.”
Roni called Trish up to a meeting room. Since we had that medical, I had been practising using my enhanced hearing. I didn't really notice any difference in my hearing, but I found, if I concentrated, then I could hear things I should not be able to. In this instance, I concentrated on the phone call and found I could hear Trish's side of the conversation. Not that she said anything wrong. I was just trying it out.
Roni took us through to a small meeting room and left us there with a glass of water each. Trish knocked and then entered and introduced herself. I would guess that she was in her mid 30's and looked like a stereotype of a butch lesbian. Short hair, lots of piercings and dressed mannishly. She seemed nice though. What we wanted to know was the rules of the game and how they might have influenced my story.
She told us it was easier for me to explain my story and she then would tell us how her rules might have influenced things. The reason for that is that, although they call them rules, they aren't really rules at all. The programming causes the mind to steer away from where it doesn't want you to go. Trusting her judgement, that is what we did.
Obviously, any heterosexual relationships were steered away from which only leaves the opposite and explained my initial situation. The aim of the game is always to give us a good experience which might explain Myra coming up with a solution, but the solution came from my mind, not the game. The backstory fits their steering. When you are single, you are steered towards one-day flings. The reason, if you ever think about it, is that it is made up by your mind, which probably explained the bonding. As in, if you were an elf, you couldn't stay with a partner for more than one day.
Now it all changes if someone comes with you, you couldn't be steered away then. Instead, you are steered towards a princess fairytale togetherness. By becoming elven, to some extent, we went off-piste. We started carving new snow with no guidance from the programming at all. If you like the rules would mean that you would set up a situation where your relationship would be celebrated, your mind had to work out why. What happens now, is mostly without rules. The basic no heterosexual relationships would still exist and if you introduced any other characters, they would have to stick to the rules which also means only one night stands, or more accurately, one day stands.
The question of where any additional characters would turn up, she thought would be whatever my mind decided and the same with the Royal couple. There were no rules to stop anything. So, as they say. Game on.
We said our goodbyes and then waited for Roni to come and get us for our meeting with Brett. The meeting with Brett was short. He apologised as Roni had thought he would. He didn't make any excuses and didn't suggest it was anyone's fault but his own. His attitude did make me trust his character. This was not someone that passed the buck. Since it was all under control there wasn't much to add and we left shortly after.
This tall gangly guy with red hair, probably in his early 20's and very casual clothes led us to a set of reclining chairs. It was the same place we had been previously when we went to 'Holiday'. He introduced himself as Kevin and we were met there by a short Asian lady. I would guess Japanese, but I wasn't sure. Her age was much more difficult to guess. By looks, I would have said around 20, but she dressed as a mature woman would. Her name was Lee and she had a photographic memory.
We set the VDR for one day and I selected the option of model. I then had the choice of supermodel, lingerie model or catwalk model. I chose lingerie model since the whole purpose was to have a good look at my body and to be honest, when I was in the game, I was proud of my body. The problem was out of the game.
In VDR I was directed with my friends to a spa and had the works. No hair to remove, fortunately, so I was able to relax and enjoy. Then I was taken to a studio where I was introduced to various styles of ladies underwear. Measurements were taken, but most of my time was spent posing and being photographed. Kevin spent a lot of the time looking at me from different angles. I stood next to him to help us gage height. He was 6 feet 1 inch and I was just a bit under, so probably 6 feet. In the middle of the shoot there was food to snack on and once it was over we all went out to dinner. We then went to separate hotel rooms where I could spend some quality time with Vee. We managed to find something to do until we passed out and woke up back in the real world.
I felt this wave of sadness hit me in its now familiar way. I tried desperately to hold it in, suck it up. I may have succeeded for a couple of seconds, then I felt Vee's hands on me and I just couldn't stop the tears. It was almost worse because I had tried to stop them. She stroked me and comforted me until I could get myself back together.
Kevin was ignoring us. He had out a pad and pencil and was working furiously. Lee came over initially, wondering what was wrong. There was nothing she could do to help, so left us to it. She came back shortly with a pad and started writing measurements. I pulled up my phone app program that I was working on and we used the measurements to create a faceless model on my screen that pretty well matched me in VDR.
Kevin apologised but didn't think he could go back in until he had gotten the images from the day of VDR out of his mind. He would try and work as quickly as he could and should be able to go again tomor
row. He wanted my app on his phone and since I wasn't selling it yet, I had to borrow his to connect to my laptop. He said he didn't want to be disturbed anyway and passed it across.
Our first day over, a driver took us back to the penthouse apartment.
Chapter 20
Back at the apartment, Katie was cheerfully awaiting us. She had prepared, and considering the mess on the lowered island bench, I really think it was her, a vegetarian lasagne. She put the garlic bread in soon after greeting us and the lasagne to brown off at the same time. We helped her clear up, make a small salad and set the table while we were waiting. We didn't see much of her helper. I think a large part of that was Katie trying to be as independent as possible.
She was presenting herself a lot better as well. She was wearing makeup, had tried to do something with her hair and her top looked more stylish. If you looked closely there was still a bit of a haunted look, but her smiles were reaching her eyes and felt genuine.
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