The person in the chair was Amber Levine. "Oh, god, no...Not him," Amber said.
"You've already signed the paperwork, Ms. Levine."
"Tell me, what do you hope to learn from this?" Jay said.
"I'm afraid I can't reveal that fully until after the experiment is complete. I can tell you that we chose each pairing based on the forms you filled out, for a specific purpose. It isn't random, even though it may seem so."
Jay nodded, observing everything with curiosity as the machine activated, his hair standing on end from the energy passing through him. This is just so embarrassing, he suddenly thought, to be paired with Amber of all people. What will my friends think when they find out?
He didn't realize that wasn't his thought. Or rather, if possession was nine-tenths of the law, it was his now. "I didn't feel anything," he could hear Amber saying.
"Well, as promised, completely harmless," the Doctor said. "You're free to go."
"Can I stay and observe for a bit?" Amber asked.
Jay shook his head. Why would she want to stay in this place any longer than normal? As soon as he was unstrapped, he made a beeline for the door. He didn't want anyone in the waiting room to see he'd been paired with Amber.
The Doctor looked after him curiously. The team wasn't sure how this would pan out. It was the first transgender adjustment they'd done. There was much curiosity about how the body would act.
In early tests, they'd discovered that people who hated peanut butter, but had been paired with those who loved it, would now love it themselves. However, in one case, someone who now loved spicy food couldn't tolerate it anymore, and thus changed their preferences based on their body's reaction.
They weren't sure how that would work in this case. They were reasonably, but not 100% certain that the two would keep their gender orientations intact, but how it would play it was part of the point of the experiment.
