Anna wasn’t entirely comfortable when she arrived as dinner was being set out, the boisterous conversation about some game tournament Mike and Jake had been watching filling the air was a bit foreign to her. I had previously coordinated between Anna and Mike for dietary restrictions, which ended up being pretty simple as besides being allergic to peanuts she didn’t have anything else she was particularly strongly against eating.
Apparently, Mike had taken this openness to go a little wild having decided to do beef wellington, some couscous and vegetable side, whipped potatoes, and a cranberry tart for dessert. A subtle inquiry of River revealed that the kitchen had been a disaster zone up until about ten minutes before I got home. I admittedly would be having something a bit simpler, as I wasn’t really feeling like heating up any of the ‘wings’ I had, and most of the recent experiments had been a bit disappointing.
Anna started to settle in as the meal went on although she was being awfully quiet, mostly just answering direct questions and otherwise just listening. The conversation drifted across what we had been doing over the weekend, the others mostly just got up to fairly mundane stuff and while I wasn’t going to talk about going to the range, I did give an abbreviated version of my day focused on the three buildings Molly had taken me to.
“There was this bit where we had to shuffle sideways on an I-beam above this murky pool of water, admittedly the fall would have been like a foot into a few inches of water but hey it was neat how much like out of an apocalypse move it was.” I was saying. “It ended up being that the most dangerous encounter in the place was when we were splashed with a bunch of rusty water though when we opened a door that had trapped an old bucket or something.” I stood up to indicate the brown stain on my pants. “You shoulda seen Molly though, it was like her entire left side!” I finished while laughing and sat down again.
“Wait, I thought you were going to work today?” Mike accused. “Where did that fit in if you spent most of the day galivanting around abandoned buildings with Molly.”
“Ah, you see that’s the best bit!” I said with a widening grin. “That was work! Or technically training I guess.”
“How does that figure?” He groused back.
“It was pretty common that she has to go and check someone hasn’t gone hiding away in those sorts of places after a change, and she was training me in how to handle being in them.” I explained while scooping a wood chip full of ‘dip’.
“Huh, ok.” He said with a nod. “That’s more legit than I was expecting.”
“I know of people who do cosplay shots in abandoned like those.” Anna quietly commented before the topic could change then continued in a rush when our curious expressions were directed toward her. “Some of them look awesome as it can really sell the character they are trying to depict, it can drag you out of it if they are just in a normal room or something. I’ve thought about it a few times but I don’t know anyone I would be willing to ask and it’s really expensive to hire someone.”
“I've helped my brother with his photography business a lot as a teenager and still do in the summers.” River said with a bit of hesitation. “I could borrow one of the older frames and lenses if you want me to give it a try sometime.”
“Really?” Anna asked, then quickly added. “I don’t want to impose if it’s any trouble.”
“It’s fine.” They said with a smile. “I worked with him because I enjoyed it.”
“The Alita costume I’m working on could work, say it’s her going back to Mars ruins or something.” Anna said getting excited. “I would be aiming to get it done for the con at the end of the month so I wouldn’t ask for any sooner than that, I don’t know when you are free but any time around then.”
“Sure, as long as it’s not interfering with finals.” River pointed out with a smile.
“Oh yeah, I have early exams, so it probably not going to work for me either.” Anna admitted sheepishly. “Er, are you around for any time after exams are done?”
“Yeah, I will be here for most of the summer, but my mom is living in California right now so I might visit her for a few weeks.”
Anna nodded. “Cool, we can figure it out sometime then, I will be around all summer basically too.”
“I think my brother is going to that convention you mention.” Jake piped up as Anna finished. “He was telling me he has a new costume and is excited to show it off, I kinda got an earful after I mentioned you.“
“I knew he was going, but I didn’t know it was in something new!” Anna said bouncing in her chair a bit. “Wait, no spoilers if he said anything!”
“Nah I didn’t get specifics out of him.” Jake said with a grin before he paused thoughtfully. “Maybe we could go with you two to check it out? My brother’s been bugging me to go with him to one of these things for years.”
“Oh, it’s absolutely worth it!” Anna said the topic was right in her wheelhouse. “I might be biased but even if you aren’t into the cosplay part there’s always something interesting since it’s not just like author panels or artist signings.”
“This one isn’t as focused as ComicCon or Fan Expo as it grew out of a smaller video game one, so it’s got a mix of stuff going on. Usually, there are some game tournaments, both with public parts and invitationals. There are game demos going on too, although I don’t know if they’ve announced them yet.”
River raised a hand to interrupt. “Leah, my girlfriend, is participating in the streetfighter invitational tournament I believe, she would probably like it if I came.”
“Hell yeah, it’s a plan.” Mike declared. “I don’t have anything planned that far out anyway, so it’s easy for me to fit that in too. Besides we need to go for Sam’s debut anyway.” He said with a grin at me, causing me to steam up a bit.
“I’m sure it will be great!” Anna said happily. “She’s making great progress; I’m hoping that we can get into the props later this week…”
It was good to see Anna get into the conversation; I love hearing her talk about things she’s excited about, which admittedly is mostly cosplay or cons, but hey I find it fun to listen to. Seeing an opportunity but not wanting to interrupt her, I carefully moved my chair a little closer to hers then leaned over to rest my head against her torso while she was gesturing about the size of some prop robot she had seen at some previous con. She jumped a bit but dropped an arm around me a moment later, without interrupting what she had been saying.
Ah, this is nice.
I don’t think I managed to contribute anything to the conversation which flowed around me, but it seemed to be going well and I had more important things going on. Sadly, like all good things it had to come to an end eventually, as it had started to get late, and River reminded us that we had intended to study for the midterm. My only vaguely conscious state seemed to be a source of mirth while clean up happened around me, I managed to remain upright on my chair, but it took a while to be able to do anything else.
The study session went well too, like most of these CS courses, this prof usually structured their tests around the content we had been doing practical work on. As a result, most of our time involved reviewing what did and didn’t go well with them, doing previous midterms we had downloaded from the university library site. We made cheat sheets of what we thought was important but those were mostly for practice, while a lot of the profs in the program allowed them, this guy was one of the few that didn’t.
Eventually, Anna had to take off before the bus schedule got too brutal, but she seemed to have enjoyed the night if the enthusiasm of her goodbye kiss was any measure. The others gave me some cheerful ribbing once she was gone, but there wasn’t any malice, and I went to bed feeling content and confident.
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“Hey Sam! How’d the midterm go?” Molly asked as I arrived then paused while looking at me. “Wait is there steam coming off you?”
“Good but I hate rain.” I declared as I sat down grumpily.
“This isn’t the first time it’s rained since your change and I haven’t heard complaints before.“ She asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I’ve had a raincoat or it was light enough for my umbrella previously.” I responded while tugging at my wet clothes, glad that I had worn some of the denser and colored stuff that didn’t go transparent when damp. “I forgot to check the weather this morning, what with thinking about the test.”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Ah, well it’s just getting a bit wet I guess.” She said with a shrug. “It happens.”
“Molly, I can feel water dripping in my brain.” I countered while unpacking my bag.
“Uh that doesn’t sound good, do we need to-“ She started with a worried expression.
“Nah, anything important is waterproofed, and Lilly isn’t concerned at all. It just feels gross.” I interrupted while waving off her concern with a free hand.
“OK, phew.” She said relaxing, then chuckled at something before explaining at my look of confusion. “I saw your sister this morning, she was meeting Summers and Peter while looking pretty confused.”
While she said this Bagshaw had arrived, he seemed to notice the steam coming off me, and gave me the hint of a smile before getting his notes out and beginning the lecture. I had to take a moment to shake enough water out of my arm to write without getting the paper wet.
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“Kat! How’s it going!” I said cheerfully as we arrived in the Artifact Engineering area, she had been reading through the contents of a folder in one of the chairs at the side of the room with an expression of rapt attention.
My voice caused her to look up in surprise. “Holy shit you are here.”
“I said I was!” I said indignity while Molly chuckled before heading off in the direction where I had seen Peter a moment before.
“Yeah, but you hadn’t said you worked in a secret underground base!” She said incredulously.
“it’s technically not secret, it’s listed on the front signage and everything.” I corrected and got a flat look back in return. “OK yeah it is an underground base, but hey it’s cool right?”
“Sam, have you told mom and dad yet?” She asked the flat look not leaving
“Uhhh, noooo. Not yet.” I admitted guiltily. “They were coming by next weekend-“
“Hey Sam! We think we have the spare arm working do you want to try it on?” Alica called while running up.
Nice a distraction.
“Sure! Did you want see too, Kat?” I asked, she gave me a ‘this isn’t over’ look but sighed and stood up anyway.
“Of course, I do.” She said tucking the folder under her arm.
It was missing the skin, but otherwise, it was a complete duplicate of my arm so far as my brain could tell. It’s really freaky to see, particularly with it hooked up to a bunch of hoses and wires so she could demonstrate it working.
“You know this looks like some Frankenstein shit to me, right?” I commented recoiling a bit as the hand turned on its wrist before the fingers went through a series of motions.
“Oh, right sorry.” Alica said sheepishly. “Actually, do you know if it’s something we can try on you without difficulty, or is this something we are just holding onto just in case? I know you have valves and connections for the wires at various points through your limbs, but we don’t know if those are just for damage control or something.”
I thought about the idea of taking my arm off, and it felt weird but not strictly scary or something. I fired off an inquiry down the repair bus to find out if that was something I could hot-swap, or if it needed me to be unconscious. There was a couple of seconds where they conversed, then Lilly gave me a confirmation that it was something we could do in a reasonable period of time and without risk.
“Let’s give it a try, it will take Clover and Rose a few minutes to disconnect it.” I said grabbing a chair so I could sit so I could rest my arm while they worked.
Sitting there patiently while you feel parts of your arm turn off or get detached is a weird experience, Not painful or anything, even when the arm flopped off free. I noticed that my sense of touch and even the presence of the limb just winked out almost instantly as it fell free.
“Well, that is horrific,” Kat said with a blanched face watching oil drip from my stump along with a few wisps of steam.
“Kinda weird feeling to be honest.” I said while waggling it about. “Now let me try the spare.”
Five minutes later and I was stretching the spare arm, just like when my normal arm was removed the feeling of touch had returned almost immediately as it had been connected. It took a bit more time to get the control and power stuff connected but once they were I could move it fine, I went through some motions with it, and nothing seemed out of place about its behavior.
Molly had joined us and was watching fascinated.
“How is it?” Alica asked excitedly.
“Seems good, a little bit foreign but nothing too bad.” Rose was sitting on my shoulder not interested in actually taking up residence in the temporary limb.
“Hell yeah.” She said offering a high five which I carefully returned, the idea of potentially breaking something in her hand floating in the back of my mind.
“I’m going to reattach my normal one if that’s OK though, I don’t like having a skinless arm.” I commented while grimacing at how weird it looked.
“Makes sense, is that something you could restore?” Alica ask curious while looking up from looking down into my normal arm.
“Yeah, but it would take all of the supply of spare skin I have which would then take a week or two to recharge.” I explained while my repair buddies got back at it.
“Cool, do you have a recipe for it? Maybe we could replicate it.”
I thought about it then gave a one-sided shrug. “I don’t know it, do you Rose?” I asked, they looked up from a connection they were undoing and shock their body in a no.
“Doesn’t look like it, sorry about that.” I said apologetically.
“No worries, maybe if you can give us a sample of it before it’s cured, we could probably send it off for analysis though.”
A quick glance at Rose who nodded. “That we can do.”
After I had my left arm on again and it felt back to normal, Alica started fussing over the spare capping open connections and cleaning off any oil drips. “Are you fine with us keeping it down here?” She asked after a bit. “It’s good as a reference.”
“Yeah, for sure, it’s not like I want a collection of skinless limbs in the office or under my bed.” I said with a shudder getting a laugh in return. “It’s fine Kat, nothing wrong at all.” I said when she was checking my arm closely.
“Sounds good!” Alica said then glanced at her smartwatch. “I’m gonna take off early, I was gonna watch the kid tonight. Let me just put this someplace safe.” She said while cradling the spare arm up like it was a baby. “Later! Nice meeting you Kat!”
We chorused our byes, as she ran off towards the storage room.
“I think it’s finally your turn to give tossing me a try today Sam!” Molly said cheerfully. “Ready to get back to it?”
“Yeah sure.” I said reaching down to grab my bag off the floor.
“Hey, can I borrow my sister for a bit first?” Kat asked.
Uh oh.
“Of course!” Molly acknowledged, then said to me. “I’ll meet you there then!”
Kat glanced around and spotted the small meeting rooms along one wall, and after grabbing her folder off the table gestured for me to follow. Once she had closed the door, she sighed and flopped into one of the two chairs, while I leaned against the wall. “You’re an adult so I’m not exactly going to force you to do anything, but do you mind explaining why you don’t want to tell them?”
I hesitated for a long moment, before explaining my thoughts. “I think they’ll probably flip out and they might be right to. I went straight from being kidnapped to joining a government organization that works out of a ‘secret’ underground base where I am learning to fight and go to dangerous places to help people.”
“Not really a great look.” I admitted while running a hand across my face. “It’s not like I am doing it solely for altruistic reasons either, I just thought it was too interesting an opportunity to pass up. Like, look at this place, it’s fucking wild seeing the stuff here and just randomly chatting with people is like a glimpse into another world.” I looked down at my shoes guiltily.
“Are they intentionally putting you in harm’s way or telling you to hurt people?” Kat asked after a pause.
“Far from it, Mary-er, Colonel Brant is intentionally telling me she doesn’t want me to act like I’m in the military or the police. And Molly loves to tell stories about helping people and she’s asked me to join her on one of her check-ins with people she’s encountered in the past.” I said defensively after looking back up, expecting an argument back once I finished. “It genuinely seems like the focus is on helping people, it’s just that there are dangerous circumstances associated with that.”
“Why don’t you just explain that to mom and dad?” She asked gently. “I know they probably will still flip out, but it is your choice and if you think you can do good without unnecessary risk I expect they will understand.”
I deflated a bit. “You’re not mad?” I asked quietly.
“I would have preferred you tell me sooner, and not hide it. But no, I’m not mad.” She said. “I would suggest talking to them before it drags out though.”
I sighed. “I was going to call them tonight about the midterm anyway, I can tell them then. Probably should tell them more about Anna too.”
“Anna?” She asked with a frown.
I blinked. “Wait I haven’t talked about her?” I asked trying to remember. “Uh well, I have a girlfriend.”
“Holding out on me, are you?” She asked mischievously. “When did that happen?”
“Sorry, that’s not a secret! I thought I had told you already!” I said raising my hands defensively. “We had our first date last Saturday, not the day before yesterday the previous one.”
“Congrats!” She said with a grin that drooped a bit a moment later “How’s she handling the current you? Has it been an issue?”
“Ehehehe, kind of the opposite.” I admitted my face heating up and a nervous grin forming, she blinked then doubled over with laughter.
“No way! You…” She interrupted herself with more laughter. “You actually found someone into that?”
“I like her a lot, she’s nice.” I said trying not to dissolve with embarrassment. “Also extremely cute. we’ve been working on cosplay a few times too, and my roommates and I are going to a con with her at the end of the month.”
The extra information seemed to just serve to renew her laughter.
“Sam, did you manage to find a bigger nerd than yourself?” She finally got out around giggles. “That’s adorable.”
“Maybe, but I am really enjoying being with her.” I countered.
“Nothing wrong with that!” She said waving me off. “I do kinda want to meet her at some point though.”
“Uh, sure I guess? I don’t really know how to arrange that but I’m sure it will happen at some point.”
“Good enough, now get outta here I don’t want to hold up Molly for too long and I have too many exciting things to get into here.”
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The call with my parents didn’t end up going as badly as I worried it would be, they got pretty wound up as I expected but never actually lost it. I managed to convince them that yes, I was learning how to fight more to protect the other person than myself and that the overwhelming majority of what Molly had done was help people without violence ever getting involved. I promised to send them a pile of articles about what the CRD’s public impact was, I fortunately still had the list I had sent River before I will admit that I left the one where Molly was armed out.
They honestly got almost as worked up about how it would affect my schoolwork as about the danger bit weirdly, parents are strange creatures.
Anna on the other hand went over really well, though they didn’t ask as many questions about that, seemingly content to let me tell them more in time. They seemed happy to hear that I was in a relationship, and mom seemed interested in hearing about the idea of me making cosplay although dad didn’t really know what it was. It made it a bit awkward to explain, but it didn’t turn out to be an issue.