The Envoy of Death Ch. 02

Trigger Warnings: Suicide (averted)

***

As my reality shifted, the first thing that I noticed was the new weight on my chest as it tugged me forward and I almost toppled over the edge of the roof of the skyscraper I was standing on. Right before I fell, I felt a pair of arms tug me back, and instead of falling forward, I fell back onto the floor of the roof. "Are you that eager to see my true form again?" a voice asked.

I looked up and I saw what appeared to be Death standing over me. She was less surreal looking, but she had the same hair, though cut much shorter, the same well-proportioned bust, and the same pert ass. "Death?" I asked.

"In the flesh. Although my name in this body is Adrienne. People tend to give you weird looks if you go around with the name Death."

"Thank you for pulling me back. You forgot to mention I was coming back as a woman."

"Oh, I suppose I did. Does it really matter that much?"

"Yes! My equipment is all different! And I don't know how to live as a woman!"

"You humans and your gender identities. Several of my agents are men, and it's really not that different. You'll have a few new skills to learn, but that's it."

"You don't get it," I said, as I got up, brushing myself off while adjusting to my new center of gravity. I also seemed to be shorter than I used to be. "My gender is part of who I am, or was I should say. It's not that easy to let that go. Besides, it's strange not having little Pete down there. I already miss it!"

"Even if I had sent you back as a man, your dick wouldn't be the one you remember. It'd be a different length, and different thickness, a different curve. All my envoys of the past have felt a little disoriented in their new bodies. You'll get over it. Now let's get out of here."

Adrienne led me through the inside of the skyscraper, which seemed to be filled with offices. "We're in the offices of Pearsoft, Inc. where you, or rather your new body's previous inhabitant, worked as a software engineer," she explained as we walked, "You were working on a project that was in conjunction with my team at the university. It was cutting-edge microbiology simulation technology that we hope will allow us to better understand diseases leading to cures."

"What do I do? I don't know a thing about microbiology or programming!"

"That's fine. The previous inhabitant already took care of that. She didn't dislike working here and didn't want to inconvenience the company with her suicide, so she handed in her two weeks' notice a couple of weeks ago. Today was her last day. I was here to thank her for all the hard work she did. Lucky for you. I didn't expect you to almost fall off the building yourself as soon as you arrived!"

"Isn't this all a bit too convenient? A woman in a company you were working with on the team you were working with just happened to commit suicide at the exact time I needed a body? And you just happened to be in the office at the same time?"

"Coincidental, maybe. But coincidences happen all the time. And I knew to be here today at this time because I knew she was going to commit suicide, and I knew you were going to be coming here. I am the one who selected her body and sent you back, after all. As Death, I can know the exact time and place anyone and everyone will die. I've had this planned out for a while now. Although I will admit, I did get a bit carried away back in my plane. Almost missed the deadline, then I would have had to send you back as someone else a little less convenient."

"But didn't you say back then that you had just located a suitable candidate?"

"I suppose I did. I can be a bit dramatic at times, and that plays better than 'I'll send you back to the body I've known for years that you're going to inhabit.'" Adrienne led me to the women's bathroom. "I suppose you'll want to look in the mirror, see what you're working with." She held the door open for me, and I stepped in.

"Why is there a couch in here?" I asked.

"Really? That's your first question? It comes from an archaic belief that women were more likely to pass out at work or in public, so they needed a private place to rest. Hence the term restroom. Somehow the tradition survived into today. It's really useful when you're waiting on a friend who's using the facilities, or you need to touch up your makeup, or if you're breastfeeding a baby. Now hurry up and look in the mirror."

I did so and gasped. Looking back at me was a beautiful redhead, and I don't mean one with bright orange hair, but rather actual rich red. Her face was freckled, as was to be expected of someone with this hair color. She was about average height, though Adrienne's reflection was a bit taller. I would estimate her breasts to be about a B-cup, though I was no expert. It was also a bit hard to tell in the baggy clothes she was wearing.

"What's her name?" I asked.

"Your name," Adrienne corrected.

"Right. What's... my name?" That felt weird to say.

"Why don't you check your driver's license?" I reached around to my back pocket, and couldn't find anything. "Try checking your purse," Adrienne laughed.

"Right." I hadn't even noticed I had been carrying a purse! I took it off my shoulder and was able to pull her... my wallet out easily. I noticed a bunch of other items in the purse and made a mental note to go through it later. The driver's license was right in front:

Tamsin Townsend

SEX: F EYES: GRY

HGT: 5'-2" WGT: 110 lb

"Tamsin?" I asked.

"Right. Though everyone calls you Tammi. Now, let's get you home."

"Where do I live? I don't know where this is," I said pointing at the address on the license.

"Starting today, you live with me. But we will have to make sure any belongings we want to keep get moved and cancel your lease."

***

"And this is it, welcome to mi casa, now also su casa," Adrienne said as she unlocked the door to her house. It was a fairly modern home with large windows and two stories. Living in the Greater Seattle Area wasn't cheap, and this house must have cost a small fortune!

"How can you afford this?" I asked.

"Not with my salary, that's for sure," laughed Adrienne. "When you have been around for as long as us agents have, you can make a lot of money by investing in mutual funds. We have also held a few very lucrative patents over the years. We try to not flaunt our wealth, but it does mean we can live comfortably."

"Kitchen, dining room, living room," she said pointing as she led me through the very open-design house. "Bathroom is over there," she pointed to one of the few rooms downstairs. "Upstairs is a sitting room, the bedrooms, and my home office. You are welcome to the guestroom if you'd like, or you can share my bed. I promise I don't bite... unless you're into that sort of thing," she grinned at me.

I blushed, "No, not really. But I've never turned down an offer to sleep with a beautiful woman, and I'm not about to stop now."

"Good." She led me over to the living room. "Let's talk." I took a seat on the couch.

"First off, we need to discuss your assignments. When you complete an assignment, come speak to me, and I'll give you the next one. There are so many people who die with unfinished business, that you should never be in want of an assignment."

"So I'll be working all the time?"

"I'll make sure you have plenty of downtime," she smiled, "You're an envoy, not a slave. Besides, there are some days I'll want you all to myself. If you ever need more time, just let me know. The envoy benefits package is pretty flexible when it comes to vacation days. There might sometimes be assignments Death flags as high priority though. Those take precedence over everything."

"Understood. So do I just visit these people and help them with what they need help with?"

"Every case is different, and sometimes there are multiple ways you could help with the problem. This isn't like some videogame where you have to take one of a few pre-determined routes. There are also no real consequences if you fail, although I might be a little peeved with you."

"And if I need money?"

"We'll visit the bank today and open a joint account. I'll make sure there's always enough money in there to cover most expenses. If you need to make a really expensive purchase for some reason or another just contact me, and I'll make it happen."

"Okay. Where do these assignments come from anyway? While you know who is going to die when, I assume you don't know about the unfinished business they have. That seems a little outside your scope."

"You're right, of course. Death does not know via her power. Instead, us agents have a vast intelligence network that tries to gather information about people who are about to die. It's not the most efficient way of doing things, but since we only have one envoy, it's good enough."

"You keep speaking as if Death is a different entity. But you are Death, aren't you? Just in a human body?"

"Sort of. Our bodies and actions are indeed controlled by Death, but her... mind, I guess you could call it, is so compartmentalized that we often feel and act as if we are our own person. We have access to all of Death's knowledge and thoughts, of course, and she can focus all her attention on one of us if she feels the need, like when you first arrived, but overall we have a great amount of autonomy. So while I'm technically Death, as is every other agent, it's often useful to think of her as a separate entity. Does that make sense?"

"I guess so. So when I'm talking to you, I should think of you as Adrienne and not Death, right?"

"I think that would be best, yes," she smiled. "Now I won't give you an assignment until tomorrow. Today we have other items to take care of."

"Oh?"

"First, we need to stop by your apartment, as I mentioned earlier. Then the bank, then shopping."

"Shopping? Oh please, no. I may look like a woman now, but I'm still a man inside. Please don't drag me around town with you!"

"Relax. We're not shopping for fun, though it probably will be fun. No, you need some new clothes. Tammi always dressed in baggy clothes, and I doubt she even owned a dress. As my envoy, you'll need clothes for every possible occasion. There is no telling what kind of situations you'll be in on your assignments, and you may not have the time to shop on the spot."

"Dresses?" I said, horrified.

"Knock it off, it's not even that bad. In some parts of the world, men wear clothing very similar to dresses and skirts. Just look at what the Pope wears. We can, however, make your wardrobe consist mainly of pants if you'd like, but at the very least you're going to need to own some formal gowns. And some nightwear."

"I usually sleep in the buff," I said.

"Not in my bed, you don't. Then there's sexy underwear-"

"Isn't that more for you? I don't really care."

"I suppose it is. But we are buying some for you either way. Then, of course, we'll need shoes for all your new outfits. And jewelry. And while we are out, might as well get a mani-pedi. I don't think Tammi has ever had one," she said, looking at my nails.

"Why do I need a manicure?"

"Listen, I know guys don't care about nail care, but you're also going to be dealing with women. Having bad nails will shoot your credibility with any woman worth her salt. My envoy is not going to be shot down by something as simple as not having their nails done."

"Fine," I conceded.

***

Adrienne had been right about the state of Tammi's wardrobe. Tammi had been a very conservative dresser, and while I was fine with that, Adrienne was not. Almost everything was thrown out. There also hadn't been much else worth keeping. Most of the items were of sentimental value or knick-knacks that, while I'm sure they had meant something to Tammi, didn't have any meaning to me. We did keep her kick-ass custom-built PC and equally impressive laptop though. Adrienne had some male coworkers from the university help us haul all the garbage and big items, such as furniture, to the junkyard (or Habitat for Humanity for the pieces of furniture and appliances that were in decent condition). With the help, it only took us a few hours to empty the apartment. Adrienne had scheduled an appointment with a cleaning service a few days ago to take care of cleaning the apartment for us. The property manager had been kind of peeved about us breaking Tammi's lease early, but we paid the early termination fee, so there was nothing she could do about it. I gave her Adrienne's address to send the security deposit refund to, but I doubted I'd see a dime of it. Security deposits were a scam for the best tenants, and Tammi hadn't been the cleanest person in the world. Our only saving grace was she seemed to not spend much time in the apartment. She seemed to have been married to her job.

After lunch, our appointment at the bank went much more smoothly. Adrienne had already filled out all the paperwork, so all I needed to do was produce some forms of I.D. I felt like a criminal, representing myself as Tammi to something official like a bank. However, as Adrienne told me, I was, for all intents and purposes, Tammi now. I walked out of the bank with a checkbook of temporary checks. My actual checks and debit cards would be mailed to us in "the next 5-7 business days."

Finally was the dreaded shopping. We went to downtown Seattle for this, it's where all the "trendiest" clothing stores were.

"We're doing a full wardrobe makeover," Adrienne told the girl behind the counter, "we need everything from bras to dresses, shoes to coats."

You could practically see the dollar signs behind the store clerk's eyes. I got fitted properly for bras, 34-B, it turns out, though I was close to being a C-cup and should be able to wear one in a pinch. She also took and noted my other body measurements.

Afterward, we walked through what seemed like the entire store, collecting a decent-sized pile of clothes. "Are you sure we can afford all this?" I asked Adrienne.

"We could, but we're not going to buy everything we picked out. After we get done picking out outfits, you have to try them on. We need to see what accentuates your natural curves and what colors look good on you. That sort of thing."

"But this will take hours!" I complained.

"No one ever said looking good was easy."

And it did take hours. I felt like a life-sized barbie as Adrienne and the clerk chatted about how a specific outfit made me look, or how the pants didn't go well with the shirt (or blouse as they called it), but maybe a different pair would. Slowly we worked the pile down to about half. The store didn't have a great shoe selection though and Adrienne preferred to get the formal dresses done at a tailor, so I wasn't out of the woods yet. Adrienne paid the bill while I changed into one of the outfits we were purchasing, and we bid the smiling clerk farewell. "She's going to get quite the commission," Adrienne commented to me as we left.

The shoe store was almost as bad. It seemed like there was a different pair of shoes to go with every single outfit we had bought earlier. We also got running shoes. As Thomas, I had run quite a lot. The Navy had a physical fitness requirement that had required us to be able to run, and my command had been quite fond of command-wide 5Ks. However, I would be damned if Tammi had ever run a day in her life. But Adrienne was quite adamant that we would go running together. It was going to suck getting this body into shape. We also got a single pair of high-heels, although Adrienne held off on getting any more dress shoes. "We need to see your dresses first," she said, "and those won't be ready for at least a week after the measuring today." Apparently, the pair of high-heels we bought was just so I could practice walking in them. "They are quite tricky to walk in, and we don't want you breaking your ankle the first time you dress up."

Next was the tailor for formal dresses. I had thought the clerk at the clothing store had taken a lot of measurements, but these guys made her seem like a downright amateur. Every dimension of my body I could imagine was measured, and even some I couldn't imagine. The tailor and Adrienne discussed various cloths and even held a few up to me to see how they looked. The tailor then started draping the cloth over me, inserted some pins, and made some marks. "I'll call you when the dresses are ready for fitting," the tailor assured us.

Adrienne looked at her watch as we dropped our purchases off at the car. "We'd better hurry if we want to make the mani-pedi appointment on time," she commented. I followed her as she sped walked downtown Seattle until she turned into a little hole-in-the-wall shop that I didn't even realize was there until she opened the door.

"Adrienne!" called out the man behind the counter, "What can I do for you, dear?"

"Just shaping and polishing for me, Gale. My friend here is the one who needs the real treatment."

Gale looked at me, then grabbed one of my hands, inspecting them. "Oh, honey, what have you done to these poor, poor, things?" he asked. "Mary, can you take my 6:30? I don't think I'll be done in time."

"Sure Gale. Adrienne, I'll take you. Right this way." She led Adrienne away to one of the stations. Gale took me to his station. What followed was what I could only describe as an assault on my finger and toenails, as they were ground, filed, and coated.

During the treatment, Gale started asking me about myself, but Adrienne had quickly shut him down. "Tammi is a very private person, Gale. You're going to embarrass her asking her to talk about herself like that. So Mary mentioned you had a new boyfriend?"

For the rest of the appointment, Gale regaled us with stories about his partner. From what I could gather, they had met in a local gay bar and the relationship was starting to get serious. Before we left, Gale made sure that I had purchased hydration products for my nails. "I don't ever want to see your nails looking that abused again!" he said.

"Don't worry Gale," Adrienne said, "I'll make sure she takes good care of them." With that we left the shop.

"I think it's time for dinner," Adrienne said, "what would you like to eat."

"I could go for a burger," I said.

"Such a guy. Okay, we'll eat at a burger joint tonight, but we're eating salad tomorrow."

I had never enjoyed a burger as much as I did that night. This had been a long day. Since the last time I slept, I had died, met Death, gotten a job offer from Death, been reborn (in a sense) as a girl, met Adrienne, moved out of an apartment, and gone clothes shopping. That was a lot to have gotten done in around 24 hours.

"You have something on the side of your mouth," Adrienne said, as she leaned over with a napkin and wiped some mayonnaise off my face.

"Thanks," I said.

"You looked lost in thought there for a moment."

"I'm just trying to take it all in. You know, what's happened to me. It's kinda crazy. And it doesn't feel totally real, you know..."

"I get it. Envoys always have a hard time adjusting. You'll get used to it eventually. All you can do right now is to keep on keeping on."

***

We were in the sitting room right outside the bedroom relaxing on the love seat. I was resting my head against Adrienne's shoulder while wearing my new negligée. Adrienne was lightly stroking my hair. Then slowly her hand made their way down to my breasts. I looked at her inquisitively. "Just enjoy it," she whispered in my ear as she lifted me onto her lap.

Her fingers circled around my nipples. I could feel them stiffening. I also felt a weird sensation around my pussy. It felt almost like I was slowly urinating, but I knew that wasn't it. It dawned on me, that I must be getting wet. I could feel the excitement building up in me. As Adrienne was starting to pinch my nipples, I looked back at her and she captured my lips and we kissed deeply.