Mike got up extra early not able to sleep much as he worried about tomorrow and the promotion he almost ruined his chances of.
As he got to work he stopped getting some coffee figuring he could make up for bumping into Mr. Abbot yesterday by getting him coffee this morning.
As he got to the front door and got in the short line to check in he noticed something odd. Everyone who was changing into their passes looked a little different. He could still tell if their base was the same as Michelle's or one of the other pass bases, but it seemed like they were all tweaked. They looked like a mix of the pass and the real person's features. What was most exciting about this is a few men who he knew also had the same base as him he had spotted yesterday checked in and instead looked like different versions of a male Michelle.
"They must have fixed the kinks." he thought as he checked in expecting to change in the same way before suddenly hearing the clicking of her black heels. Today she was wearing a grey and black checkered patterned dress. Michelle looked around seeing the various people in the elevators. Some customized versions of her own form and other customized version of other forms. Unlike before she didn't really feel any connection to any of these now customized version of her. The elevator got to their floor and everyone seemed to go off, and start their day as well as Michelle. The very first thing she did was fill out a form and print it out to go turn in her self made write up for being late the other day. Even though Mr. Abbot was generous and forgiving she still messed up and felt she owed it to the company. The HR clerk who accepted the paper seemed a bit surprised by it but simply shrugged. Finally then Michelle checked her make up one last time before grabbing the coffees she set down at her desk when she first got in and then started to head over to Mr. Abbot's office. She would knock on his door before being called in.
"I got you a coffee to make up for the other morning Mr. Abbot" She said giving him a big smile and moving over to hand it to you. He smiled taking it.
"Oh thanks Michelle, but you didn't need to." he said before taking a sip.
"So about that-" he then paused looking her over a moment as if realizing something.
"Oh wait. You still need to see HR." he said picking up his phone before Michelle shook her head.
"Oh don't worry sir. I went first thing this morning and had it all taken care of." She smiled feeling like she had saved him a hassle thing it was about being laid when it actually wasn't. He stopped setting down the phone looking her over kind of surprised as he looked her up and down causing some blush to burn on Michelle's face.
"You... did?" he asked surprised she'd keep her pass as is. Yesterday after Michelle had left HR went around and fixed the mental settings on nearly everyone's passes to still get the desired efficiency effects, but without people being stuck trapped in their own bodies like it had been the first two days. They then allowed people to make some tweaks to their bases. Most people had changed them to look like a mix of their base and former self and most people had gone back to their original genders. It was only the lowest level employees who were stuck with the standard bases now, so it seemed like Michelle was telling Mr. Abbot she had choose to stay in that form. He also assumed her mental settings had been corrected.
"Well... okay then, so about the promotion?" he asked raising a brow before Michelle shook her head.
"I'm sorry sir, but I still believe I'm not good enough for the promotion." she said bowing her head some as she admitted it. Mr. Abbot nodded and said.
"Well... if that's how you feel you can go back to your desk and ask Lisa to stop by my office. Maybe next year we can have this conversation again." he said sitting down seeming just a slight bit disappointed in her.
Michelle nodded and then did as she was told heading out to go find Lisa and tell her Mr. Abbot needed to see her.
