The glossary contains spoilers for Days 1-12.

The glossary will be one behind the current chapter, with the intention that you can refer back and catch up, if you’re reading, or about to read, the current chapter.

Disclosure:  Unlike the story itself, the glossary content is AI-assisted.

Lauren Carter is Scott's wife, who has been supporting him ever since he was turned into a woman following a laboratory accident.

While Scott lay unconscious at the hospital, Lauren broke down, thinking she was losing her husband. After pulling herself together, she vowed to be strong for Scott.

Lauren has brown hair and is 5'6" tall, making her now an inch taller than her female husband. She is slender and keeps herself fit by running, going to the gym and practicing yoga.

Lauren works as a marketing and branding consultant, usually working out of her home office. She is the main earner in the relationship, and with Scott now dismissed from Axis, her work has become their sole income. She is currently preparing a pitch for Riverside, a significant client opportunity, with the presentation scheduled in the city in just a couple of days. They live comfortably at their dream home overlooking a lake.

Since Scott now has a similar female body size to her own, she has been clothes sharing with him and helping him to navigate day-to-day life. She's helped with practicalities like washing his hair, moisturising, and even his movement and posture. More recently, she has been quietly equipping Scott for the world — purses, sunglasses, sandals, a pack of tissues — anticipating what he'll need before he knows to ask.

Lauren is outwardly very calm and practical, even in the face of something as destabilising to their relationship as this. She remembers all too well a prior time when Scott lost his job and spiralled, becoming withdrawn and "lost" to her. She is determined not to let that happen again. She wants to keep Scott grounded and moving.

Lauren has a caring personality, often checking in on Scott. Their strong relationship means she is comfortable with playful banter and the occasional tease of her husband, but she generally knows when she's crossed a line.

Following the visit from the Axis attorney Elliott Shaw, the couple were told that the cure had been deprioritised, seeming to cut them off. Lauren finally broke down, spending the next day withdrawn and alone with her thoughts. On a hilltop overlooking the Axis facility, she admitted to Scott her guilt at having pushed him too readily into a feminine register during his first week — fearing she had made things too comfortable, and that this had contributed to Axis deprioritising the cure. Scott refused the framing. Together, they committed to fighting back.  Lauren has since brought in her best friend Emma, whose cousin Rachel, a lawyer in the city, can help them begin building their case.

Lauren remains wary of any further contact with Axis or anyone connected to it. When Doctor Philippa Hartwell — the former Axis scientist behind Scott's transformation — approached them in the park offering her help, Lauren chased her off. She has since reluctantly agreed to accompany Scott to Hartwell's clinic, but only to be present and watchful. The legal route, in her view, has to be the priority.

Key Appearances

Day 1: The Woman in the Mirror (first appearance)

Description:

Emma Brookes is Lauren's best friend and confidante. She stands around 5'4", with a curvier body than either Lauren or Scott. She has long light brown hair that reaches to the middle of her back. She often wears colourful prints compared to the softer flat pastels that Lauren prefers.

Emma was the first person Lauren called when Scott was admitted to the hospital. She is one of the few people that knows that Scott has been turned into a woman. She also knows the emotional burden that Lauren is carrying, as she tries to remain calm and steady for Scott.

With Scott's agreement, Lauren invited Emma to the lake-house. Initially shocked to see Scott as a woman, Emma's warm and bubbly personality enabled Scott to open up a little more about how he was feeling. Emma talks openly and is a straight shooter, sometimes bluntly saying the things that Scott and Lauren have felt too awkward to mention.

Emma has since become an active part of Scott and Lauren's fight against Axis. Her cousin Rachel works in legal in the city, and after meeting Scott and Lauren at Gabriella's, Emma has gone away to speak with Rachel about taking on the case. When the three of them met at the café, Emma also took it upon herself to nudge Lauren and Scott toward the conversation about intimacy that neither of them had managed to start. As ever, she said what they wouldn't.

Key Appearances:

Day 3: The Strong One (first mentioned)

Day 8: Emma (first appearance)

Day 12: Axis and Allies

Description:

Gabriella runs the small rustic café in the local town that Lauren and Emma have been frequenting for years. The café — Gabriella’s — is decorated in a warm hodgepodge style, with hand-written chalkboards, mismatched furniture, and homemade cakes displayed under glass domes.

Gabriella herself is middle-aged, short and stocky, with black hair worn in a bun. She dresses in a black blouse and skirt under a white apron. She is Italian, speaks with a warm accent, and greets her regulars with a Buongiorno. She pronounces Lauren’s name as “Lor-en.” She is kind, warm, and quick to smile, though Scott has glimpsed flashes of weariness beneath the cheerful surface — running the café on her own is wearing on her as she gets older.

It was at Gabriella’s that Lauren first introduced Scott as “Susie,” improvising on the spot when Gabriella asked who the lovely signorina was. Gabriella has since taken the name into casual use without questioning it, treating Susie as a familiar regular alongside Lauren and Emma.

Key Appearances:

Day 6: The Mailbox (first mention of Gabriella's)

Day 8: Emma (first appearance)

Day 12: Axis and Allies

Description:

Doctor Philippa Hartwell formerly worked for Axis Laboratories, where she led research into Female Reproductive Biology, Genetic Therapy and Tissue Regeneration. Her life's work has been reproductive regenerative medicine using gene therapy — restoring reproductive function in women who have lost, or never had, the capability. The compound that transformed Scott, B-579H, was her creation.

In person, Hartwell is petite and small-framed, with greying-auburn hair tied back in a bun. She wears oversized black-rimmed glasses and prefers loose pants and blouses, rather than the lab coat of her website photo. Her cadence is even and slightly raspy, her expression typically unreadable.

Hartwell approached Scott in the park, revealing that she had left Axis after they ordered her to stop work on a cure — directly contradicting the assurances Doctor Rourke had given. Unlike Rourke or the Axis attorney Elliott Shaw, she looked on Scott with sympathy rather than appraisal, and she has made no false promises. She extended an open invitation to see Scott at her private clinic.  Against Lauren's objection, Scott has chosen to accept.

Key Appearances:

Day 3: The Strong One (first mentioned)

Day 12: Axis and Allies (first appearance)

Description:

Vic is Scott and Lauren's elderly neighbour, living in the big old house across the road. He has wispy white hair and a matching beard, and dresses in chequered shirts and patched jeans, often dirty from yard work. His paunch tends to peek out where his shirt has come untucked. He owns a German Shepherd called Toby — a dog that used to bark relentlessly at Scott as a man.

Before the accident, Scott had always found Vic standoffish, exchanging little more than a passing nod across the road. That changed when Scott took the SUV out alone for the first time and promptly crashed it into the mailbox at the foot of the driveway. Vic was the first to come over, kind and unhurried, even offering to cover for Scott by claiming kids had taken the car for a joyride.

Caught off guard, Scott introduced himself as "Susie" — and, panicking when asked if she was staying with the Carters, blurted out that he was Lauren's cousin. Vic accepted the story without question, leaving Scott and Lauren now committed to maintaining the cover whenever Vic is around.

Key Appearances:

Day 6: The Mailbox (seen briefly)

Day 11: A Perfect Place to Cry (first full appearance)

Description:

Doctor Rourke is the lead scientist at Axis Laboratories, following the accident that transformed Scott Carter into a woman. Rourke is in his sixties, with grey, unkempt hair. He wears glasses and a tweed jacket, and speaks with a British accent. He is fascinated by Scott, observing him like a medical marvel.

Rourke visited Scott and his wife Lauren at their home. He assured the couple that his team, led by Doctor Hartwell, were working around the clock to replicate the effect in controlled conditions, and to then reverse engineer the mechanism — something he rather clinically calls a genetic reversion pathway. He remained confident that they were close, and that they would have something within days. He told them to hold tight for a week, when he would then return with an update.

Rourke's promised return never came. In his place, Axis sent their attorney Elliott Shaw to inform the Carters that work on the cure had been deprioritised, and to terminate Scott's employment. It has since been revealed by Doctor Hartwell that work on the cure was not merely deprioritised but actively halted — leaving Rourke's earlier assurances looking, at best, naive, and at worst, deliberately misleading.

Key Appearances:

Day 5: Under a Microscope (first appearance)

Description:

Elliott Shaw is the attorney representing Axis Laboratories. He is tall and broad-shouldered, with neatly styled brown hair and trimmed stubble. He dresses sharply in designer suits — charcoal three-piece, crisp white shirt — and carries a black leather briefcase. He drives an expensive car and has a habit of casually appraising the value of any property he visits.

Shaw arrived at the Carters' home in place of Doctor Rourke, delivering the news that Axis had deprioritised work on Scott's cure, that the incident would be folded into broader research, and that Scott's employment was being terminated. He read from a prepared statement that praised Scott's "remarkable resilience and adaptation" while sweeping his gaze over Scott's body — lingering briefly on his chest. He left them with a reminder of the perpetual NDA: Scott could not legally discuss what had happened to him.

His delivery was practiced and unhurried, his manner pleasant enough, but he checked his phone the moment he stepped out the door, already moving on to whatever came next.

Key Appearances:

Day 9: Effective Immediately (first appearance)

Description:

Henry Walsh was Scott's immediate supervisor at Axis Laboratories.  He was the first on the scene when Scott was exposed to compound B-579H, which at the time only rendered Scott unconscious.  The last Henry saw of Scott was him being rushed away in an ambulance.

Axis appears to be restricting all employees from talking about the incident.  Despite this, Henry left Scott a text message asking how he was.  He knows that Scott has been turned into a woman, though he hasn't seen the effects for himself.

Key Appearances:

Day 5: Under a Microscope (first mentioned)

Description:

Rachel is Emma's cousin, a lawyer working at a firm in the city. Emma has described her as someone with genuine principles — the kind of lawyer who relishes the chance to take on big business on behalf of a wronged woman.

Rachel has not yet met Scott or Lauren. Emma has gone away to speak with her about taking on the case against Axis Laboratories.

Key Appearances:

Day 8: Emma (first mentioned)

Scott and Lauren live in their dream home - a modern, luxurious house that overlooks a lake.  They are surrounded by trees, hills and valleys - and on a clear day, mountains can be seen in the distance.

The majority of the downstairs space is open plan, meaning Scott and Lauren can walk freely between the lounge, kitchen and dining areas.  There are high ceilings and tall windows all across the rear of the house, and a rear wooden decked porch, offering a stunning view of the lake, especially at sunrise.

A couple of side hallways lead off from the main living area to the front door, and to Lauren's office.  

Upstairs there is the main bedroom, the bathroom and a spare bedroom.  The main staircase opens out directly into the middle of the open plan living space.

They have a garage where they keep their cars - a black SUV, and a red convertible that Lauren usually drives.

Just off of the garage is the utility room for washing clothes and storage.

Tucked away in a valley, like a 'vast spider made of concrete and metal, lying at the centre of a web' is Axis Labs, a big pharma facility with multiple specialisms, including genetics research.

Scott Carter was working there as a lab technician, when he became exposed to compound B-579H resulting in "a systemic shift in genetic expression resulting in what appears to be a complete female phenotype."

Axis Laboratories employees include:

• Doctor Thomas Rourke - Lead Scientist
• Henry Walsh - Supervising Technician

Former employees:

• Scott Carter - Laboratory Technician
• Doctor Philippa Hartwell - Project Lead