While Kat mostly relented, Molly kept asking me questions I refused to answer.
“Well, I should probably get back to work.” Kat admitted while glancing at the clock. “Otherwise Peter will probably start poking things without understanding what the consequences are.”
“Well, I am going to go home and scream into my pillow.” I declared while standing up with my tray. “Maybe I can forget today existed.”
“Aw, you don’t want to train with meee?” Molly asked leaping up to wrap an arm around my shoulders before I could get very far. “It’ll be fun!”
I gave her the side-eye while she leaned down to have her head parallel to mine. “After what you subjected me to for my entire meal? What kind of a monster are you?”
“Ah but you get to take out your aggression on something! Namely, me!” She countered with an exaggerated grin while pointing at herself with her free hand.
I sighed. “Fine. I’m already here anyway.”
“Hooray!” She shouted while continuing to exaggerate her expression and throwing her hands up, drawing amused glances from the others in the caf. Taking the opportunity on offer, I snapped a hand up to grab the front of her beanie and yanked it down over her eyes, prompting a yelp of surprise before I continued towards the front as Kat passed me while shaking her head.
I may have tossed Molly a touch harder than usual as part of my revenge once we got to her makeshift dojo, she seemed to find this hilarious so maybe it wasn’t particularly effective as a method of dissuading her.
I spent the time after work browsing cosplay supply shops while asking Anna about tools or materials as I came across them. I was building up a planned order list for my own workshop, having already gotten permission from my roommates to take over part of the basement. It was a pretty good space for it as it was dry and mostly undisturbed since it was past the laundry machines and wasn’t particularly useful for parties or anything as it was a weirdly shaped room that was only half furnished. There was a workbench I could stick the messier things on, but I would need something else for fabric. If nothing else I would have needed to get a disturbingly tall chair to sit at the workbench, and those things scared me when I didn’t weigh a lot.
I am increasingly glad Anna got me into cosplay about the same time as I got my CRD job, as my wallet would be weeping at what the list I had built up so far would cost. Like a lot of hobbies I looked into over the years, most of the tools and supplies were individually cheap but once you were trying to get all the things you need it piles up fast. I guess even before the time investment that’s a reason for people to buy ready-made stuff, just less commitment. I had the advantage that I could work in Anna’s space so far, so this was more to give me more options really.
While I was already looking around, I took the opportunity to check that the webbing we had ordered to go over my dress had shipped. It was a nod to our time constraints that we weren’t making it ourselves, we had talked about doing it, but Anna pointed out we didn’t have that much time given we still had the cannon to make.
I spent a while the next morning considering what to pair with the swishy skirt, the thigh highs were a no-brainer as I had already teased her with the idea when I wore it last time. After that it was tricky, we were going to be at the games night and I had class all day so I didn’t want to be too risqué. I ended up selecting a grey turtle-necked sleeveless shirt that was fairly form-fitting but also obscuring, deciding that the contrast of that and absolute territory should get a good reaction from her.
When I was packing my backpack for the day it occurred to me that it was looking more like I was going on a mini-vacation or something from everything I was putting in it. I had packed extra food with me, as while Jake had said he would bring some snacks with him I was expecting a long day. I have a feeling Anna was hoping for a long night too, but I knew she had stuff just in case.
I decided to pack some cleaning rags, as it had felt a bit weird not getting to address my joints right after waking up yesterday. The question of whether Anna might find seeing me address my hygiene exciting floated through my mind for a moment before I quashed it. I needed to get through the day before I got too distracted, the idea any of this was something I could think about was still exciting though.
I may not have been the most attentive student that day I will admit, but I didn’t have any math so hopefully it wasn’t too obvious. I wasn’t sure if Anna was around on campus or if she decided to head home for the two hours between her last class and the start of games night but I had said I would help Jake with setting up so I wouldn’t have had time to meet her anyway.
----------------------------------------
I wasn’t really sure what the official role of the room we normally used was, probably tutorials or something, but it usually worked pretty well for us. Each of the dozen something round island tables spread around the room was big enough for a TV and one or more old consoles, they even had the power outlets for them, so we didn’t have to have a rats nest for them to plug into. We usually left a few clear for people to place their laptops down on, as it wasn’t uncommon for people to play stuff other than what the student union provided. I still found it weird that people would want to play a version of counterstrike that came out before some of the people here were born, but I guess these things are immortal.
Jake and Tom, one of the other student union people who often helped, were already there when I arrived. They seemed to be in the middle of finishing some bit of paperwork at the central table and hadn’t yet started setting up, besides having brought a few random boxes of stuff in on a cart parked nearby. We would probably have to do another couple of trips to the storage room in the union building, particularly if we need that stupid CRT one of the old consoles always gets hooked up to.
“Hey guys.” I called. The contrast in their expressions when they looked up was kinda hilarious, Tom was looking at me like I had just hopped off a UFO from mars while Jake was completely used to seeing me and gave a slight smile to acknowledge me.
“Hey Sam.” Jake said causing Tom to whip his head around to look at him confused. “Give me a sec and I’ll go with you for the next round of stuff, Jack is already packing stuff on a cart there.”
“Wait, is it a different Sam?”
“Nope, same Sam.” I interjected before Jake could answer while walking over to drop my bag off behind the lectern that was near the door with theirs. “How’s it going, Tom?”
“Uh fine?” He blinked owlishly at me a few times. “You’re a girl. And a robot. And short.”
“Yep. Busy month.” Technically a bit more, but whatever.
“Um, nice clothes?” He still looked confused but seemed to be making an effort to normalize his expression, which mostly seemed to make him look constipated or something.
“Thanks.”
He was saved from having to attempt to continue the conversation by Jake closing the binder with a snap. “Ready to get some more stuff Sam?” He asked while looking a little annoyed.
“Sure, back in a few Tom.” I said with a wave he nodded before stiffly turning toward the cart and starting to unpack the box of controllers, still occasionally glancing at me. Once Jake reached the door, I followed him out and let it quietly shut behind me.
He didn’t say anything for a bit but started speaking once we were out of the building. “You didn’t have to help tonight you know; Tom has his first aid cert now too.” His voice was a bit harsh when saying Tom’s name.
“Eh I already asked Anna to come, and I‘m not going to flake out on her.” I answered with a shrug before continuing. “Besides I think this is probably going to be the first time I actually interact with a crowd of people other than at the CRD where it would all be people that are used to the unusual, seems worth it for that.”
He harrumphed at that. “Are you actually going to play any games though? You don’t really at home anymore.”
“There will definitely be some stuff I can play like Mario kart or whatever. It’s not like I can’t play games at all, I just don’t find it worth the effort for what I mainly used to enjoy.” I countered.
“But-“
“Jake it’s fine, Tom wasn’t being that bad and I need to be able to handle far worse than that. Like I’ve said, most people aren’t actually that bad since I’m too weird for prejudice to kick in remember?”
“You’re not weird.” He snapped back.
I giggled at that, causing him to blink at me. We were coming up on the union building with its odd curvy wooden exterior paneling at this point, and I pulled ahead of him to grab a door.
“The only way I won’t be weird is if people are used to me, right?” I point out as he went through before I followed. “It’s not like there’s a bunch of other people like me around to acclimatize to first.”
“I guess…”
“Statistically speaking even people with ‘common’ changes like in the early clashes are probably going to still be unique wherever they are, I know Toronto has little communities that have popped up but some of that will be people moving to be near others like them.” I said remembering a few of the CBC articles I had been reading off and on. “Summers has basically entirely ruled out there being anyone like me, maybe in some disconnected community or something. But nothing in any of the back channels he has, and those seem to be to anywhere.”
As we walked through the building, I saw that the sliding door of the storage room was open beyond it there was someone loading a cart from a shelf within it. “Anyway, there’s Jack so time for meeting two today.” I commented before calling loudly. “Hey, Jack! Wazzup?”
Jack nearly dropped the plastic bin of consoles in surprise but got it on the cart, before turning towards me. “Hello?” He asked looking at me curiously. “Do I know you?”
“Yep, it’s Sam Woodward.” I answered cheerfully, I couldn’t see Jake’s expression but he tensed in front of me.
“Oh, really? Did you get caught in a clash?” Jack asked not missing a beat.
“Yeah, last month, like the week after the last games night.” Jake seemed to relax a bit and went for one of the boxes of chips and snacks at the back of the room while I talked to Jack.
“Huh, you getting on, ok?” He asked while turning for one of the smaller boxes full of games.
“Pretty good actually, there’s still some weird stuff but I am getting quite used to this form.” I answered while test lifting the CRT. Hell yeah, it’s not heavy at all maybe that will get us out of doing another trip.
“That’s good to hear, it took my mom a while to get used to having cat ears.” He commented. “Well, we call em that, but they are in the normal human ear spot and are a bit differently shaped.”
“I’ve heard sometimes the less substantial changes can be harder to get used to. Apparently, it’s less of an obvious break for your mind, so it’s easier to forget about until it comes up.” I mentioned, dredging a random detail out of my memories.
“Yep, that’s what the doc said to her too.” I wonder if it was Summers. “Once she did get used to them, it made it impossible to sneak anything by her, she’d complain if I opened a coke in my room when she was in the basement.” He said with a chuckle. “Hey Jake, you been hiding- wait what pronouns?” He interrupted himself to address me.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Her is fine.”
“Cool. Jake, you’ve been hiding her from us!” He said teasing Jake, before turning to me a bit more serious. “While you aren’t required to tell us or anything, it’s nice for the union to hear so we can stand up for you or bully the university into addressing any unique needs you have.”
“Oh, yeah, I guess. I didn’t really think of that.” I admitted while placing a small TV on the bottom level of the cart. “I don’t really have anything I normally need other than food I guess, and I can just bring that.”
“You eat then? Hey, Jake, do we have anything for her?”
“Yeah, it’s in with the chips and stuff.” Jake responded while stuffing another small TV on beside the one I had put on it, getting a grunt of acknowledgment in return from Jack.
“What about emergency procedures? We maintain special notes with the first aid staff for a few other students.” Jack asked while surveying the cart and then the shelves for anything else we needed.
“Oh, I can email you the notes we have on restarting me if I run out of fuel or something. We haven’t had to try them, but hopefully it works.” I answered.
“That would be great, thanks.” He then addressed Jake. “If you carry the box of cables then we can do this in just one more trip for the CRT.”
“I can take that.” I piped up.
“Are you sure?” He asked with a raised eyebrow. “We aren’t even supposed to lift it alone.”
“Yep.” I said lifting it up with just my arms before jiggling it a little to see how it balanced. “Probably could have one-handed if not for the size.” I could just barely peek over the top of it at his incredulous expression.
“You get used to this stuff.” Jake commented wryly while grabbing the cable box. We walked out of the storage room and Jack locked it behind us.
I let jack pull ahead of us a bit so I could whisper at Jake. “Told you, most people are fine.”
“Alright, alright.” He said with a sigh.
Once we were crossing the campus again, I looked up at the newly threatening clouds. “Better not be fucking raining when we have to bring this stuff back.” I groused.
“Is rain a problem for you?” Jack asked with concern entering his voice.
“Not really, but water dripping in my brain feels absolutely revolting.”
He laughed. “I don’t even want to imagine that… wait, what about a pool or something are those safe too?”
“I am waterproof to some degree, but I will one hundred percent be choked unconscious almost instantly once my head goes underwater.” I said shuddering with many tiny clanking sounds. “I can’t hold my breath or anything, between the water dousing my burners and pulling all the heat out of my steam lines I would just be a chunk of metal at the bottom of the pool in moments.”
“Right, makes sense. What about corrosion or something?”
“Uh, regular water I am probably fine for a bit. Salt water not so much, I think probably the most scared I’ve been since the change was when I watched a video on a news site where they dived into the ocean with the camera.” I was clanking with shivers at this point. “I’m pretty sure I would have permanent corrosion damage in minutes. Not to mention sinking to the ocean floor.”
“Ah, yeah.” Jack acknowledged uneasily. “That does sound pretty terrifying.”
“Well, that’s enough discussion of my phobias for today, if you don’t mind. How have you been since I last saw you?”
“Eh not bad, midterms and assignments mostly. Built a few Gundams, that’s about it.” He answered while we waited for the doors to the Brick to open after Jake hit the button.
The rest of the time before people were expected to show up was mostly occupied by untangling cables and unloading the piles of stuff from boxes. Tom managed not to stick his foot in his mouth too much so Jake relaxed a little. Without having to do multiple trips to the storage room we ended up with a bit of spare time. Jake had brought one of the fighting games from home with him, so he and I did a few rounds with it projected up on the board while we waited for people to turn up.
The first arrivals were Varol and Tyler, a couple of rather loud fourth years that I never was quite sure if they were a couple, I’d only ever seen them arriving together and they never seemed to separate over the nights. I’d never actually seen any PDA so I have no idea for sure, they were pretty nice though so it’s not like it really matters. They were deeply involved in some esoteric argument about some magic cards or something and didn’t really seem to be aware we were there as they settled in at one of the old consoles conversation uninterrupted.
A few minutes later a person I thought I recognized as a first-year came in, they blinked at me for a few moments then scooted off to set up their laptop at one of the empty desks where Tom joined him with his own almost instantly. After that the group that usually sat in front of us in soft eng came in and immediately went to secure a table that had a console with smash bros loaded, a couple of them waved at me which I returned with a smile.
Leah and Jason arrived at about ten after, I ceded my controller to Leah after I finished another round with Jake electing to give him the chance to play a real game. I went to lean against one of the support pillars to people watch for a bit, they filed in individually or in little groups before dispersing amongst the consoles or to spectate the impromptu fighting game tournament that seemed to be forming.
I was a bit antsy that Anna hadn’t turned up yet given it was twenty past already, but there was still a bit before the night would really get going. I was watching Leah curb stomp some foolish contender while trying to ignore the weapons jangling my brain in the backdrop when I was surprised by someone wrapping their arms around me.
“Sorry I’m late, I completely lost track of time!” A breathless Anna said into my hair.
“That’s OK, you got here before the Pizza.” I said trying to brush it off while turning to return the hug, relieved she had come. “It’s a bit random how long it lasts.”
“I can imagine.” she laughed while releasing me giving me a chance to see what she was wearing, she had her denim jacket over a long-sleeved black shirt that stretched past the cuffs of the jacket, along with tan pants and some heavy thick-soled boots that exaggerated the height difference between even more with my thin sneakers. Pretty sure I looked at her a bit too long as she flushed a little. Well, it might have been because of her eyes being stuck at my lower half on second consideration.
“Did you have something in particular you wanted to start with?” I asked to get back into motion. “I have fifteen or twenty before I need to help bring the pizza in, so we could join a table for a bit.”
“Anything’s fine with me, I’m not particularly great at any games.” She admitted with a crooked smile.
“Mario kart it is then!” I declared while heading towards a table with a few unoccupied controllers. Strategically walking just far enough ahead of her that a glace back revealed her gaze remained on my hips. Success.
“Mind if Anna and I join you?” I asked the two people already at the table, getting some surprise but being welcomed anyway.
Anna is definitely not without a competitive streak and she seemed to be getting on the other two people who were playing. I wasn’t too worried when I offered my controller to Maggy, a spectating girl I sort of knew, so I could go for the pizza with Jake when I saw him wave at me.
“Here Maggy, back later.” She seemed a bit surprised to be addressed by name but accepted it anyway.
One advantage of not eating human food was not having to compete for it I realized as I watched the crowd descend onto the pizza a few minutes later. I noticed Anna and Maggy seemed to be excitedly chatting about something while they headed towards it, that seems to be a good sign so far!
I had perched myself up on an otherwise empty table at the side of the room so I could see over the heads of the other people, although glancing down I had to remind myself to be mindful of my rather short skirt. I saw Leah emerge from the crowd a few minutes later with a plate full of pizza and chips, a can of ginger ale, a bottle of water, and a box trapped against her torso with her other arm. She looked around for a moment, then spotted me and started to make her way towards me.
“Hey Sam! How’s it going?” She asked after unloading on the table beside me.
“Not bad, you?” I answered while accepting the box, guessing it was what Jake had intended for me.
“Pretty good, why are you hanging out over here?” She asked flopping into a chair.
“Mostly to give the vultures a chance to fill themselves.” I answered while popping the lid from the box. “I am content to let the others get squished while serving food this time.”
“Ha, down for a round or two soon?” She asked indicating the paused game up on the projector.
“Sure, my girlfriend is here though so I am going to be popping in and out to see how she’s doing.”
“I’ve heard of her from River” She mentioned before starting to survey the crowd excitedly. “Where is she? I want to say hi.”
“Blue hair and denim jacket, with Maggy.”
“Oh yes I see her, back in a moment!” Leah said while diving back into the crowd, food and drink left behind. I chuckled starting into my dinner while watching as Leah ambushed a startled Anna as she was accepting a plate of pizza.
I couldn’t tell what was being said over the other conversations but it seemed to go well as Anna got a few other things from the selections of snacks to heap on the plate. Then they started in my direction, Maggy glancing between Leah and me, presumably that was her learning who I was.
Turns out, unsurprisingly given the room was mostly full of unrepentant nerds, that Maggy and Anna shared enough overlap in things they read to keep a conversation going around me. Maggy definitely seemed more into the shojo side of things, so she lost both Anna and me fairly often, but she was friendly enough and Molly exchanged contact info with her as I ate. She was a second-year, which is why I haven’t seen her other than in the halls or at games night.
Eventually, Leah demanded I face her so I left Anna and Maggy to their discussion after a quick kiss on Anna’s check. After a few resounding defeats Leah declared I was getting better, I think I could probably do better in an actual fight at this point with how much training I have been doing with Molly, but that’s kinda irrelevant I suppose. After that I drifted around to say hi to faces I recognized, avoiding looking at screens so my brain wouldn’t get annoyed by weapons. Most people seemed pretty willing to accept I was who I claimed to be, their reactions to my appearance and voice varied pretty significantly though but it was mostly positive.
“…oh that’s why you haven’t been playing lately?” Alex, someone I had occasionally played shooters with, asked.
“Yep, well I better get moving on.” I said standing up, at which point one of his friends piped up. “So what do you do in your free time these days?”
A bit random dude I don’t know but whatever. “I’ve been busy but working on cosplay mostly, why?”
“I was curious if you had an interest in getting a drink or something.” He continued barely giving me time to finish, I’m not even sure he has heard anything I have said for far. I stared at him for a second, I guess I was being blatantly hit on. Maybe number two for robot fetish people I have encountered, can’t say this guy rates for me though.
“Probably not, I appreciate the offer though.” I said trying to brush him off, then decided to go for the kill when he started opening his mouth again. “Well nice talking to you Alex, gonna go and see how my girlfriend is doing.”
“Later man, uh Sam.” He said as I got up, his friend was giving me a weird expression but went back to his game.
Anna seemed to be doing maybe a bit too well in the party game she was playing, so I decided to strategically distract her. Walking up behind her chair I draped my arms over her shoulders, I am short enough that this didn’t even need me to lean over much.
“How’s it going Anna? Enjoying things so far?” I asked softly in her ear while resting my head next to her ear on my arm, being careful not to touch her face with mine as I wanted my mind together enough to talk. Technically my resting on her was a bit of production on my part as I never actually let her take anything but enough of a hint of my weight for it to feel right.
“Hello Sam.” She said a bit of blush to what I could see of her cheek. “Yeah, it’s been fun… shit I missed that.” She evidently made some mistake in her game while I was distracting her, heh my strategy appeared to be working. although perhaps not enough given the lead she still had from a quick glance up.
Time for a secret weapon, one that will probably really make her lose concentration. “I was going to hang around for another thirty minutes, but Jake gave me the go-ahead to skip out on clean-up as he got a few volunteers.” Or possibly voluntolds from my conversation with Tyler. “After that we can head over to your place…” I moved as close to her ear and whispered the last bit right in her ear as quietly as I could. “Master.”
Oh, now that got her attention, she almost hit me with her head it swung around so fast, I gave her a disarming smile before starting to undrape myself from her. I paused to give a quick peck on her cheek then ambled off in a path carefully chosen so that she could watch for a few moments before the giant CRT a table over obscured me.
I chuckled to myself while walking away, maybe it was a bit mean but hey, I needed to give her opponents a chance. It occurred to me that somehow I had violated my own rule for keeping that word in the bedroom only like a day later, not sure what to make of that but I guess I will let it slide as it was a whisper.
I did a few more circuits of the room to check on how things were going, occasionally acting as tech support where needed. When I had bits of free time, I would watch bits of the impromptu tournament Leah was shout casting having gotten bored of wiping the floor with all comers. The players seemed to have a wildly variable degree of skill, which meant one round would see genuinely impressive stuff and the next mindless button mashing. Leah was commentating both with an equal level of glee, making the whole experience a surprisingly wholesome thing.
A hyper Anna nabbed me exactly thirty minutes later, giving me enough time to grab my stuff on the way out the door with a wave to the people who were still around but otherwise hurrying me along.
We were about halfway to the bus stop when she paused and glanced around. “Something wrong?” I asked while looking for whatever she was concerned about, I couldn’t see anyone really, maybe one other student heading away from us towards the carpark.
I was surprised when she suddenly pulled herself into me before hissing into my ear. “You can’t just turn me on like that and walk away.” Then she gave me a very rough kiss while a hand went between us to go up under my shirt for a moment before she paused and pulled away reluctantly.
“Let’s get back…” she ground out; I could only vaguely nod back a little loopy from the contact.
She held me very close on the ride back to her place, the ride was quiet, other than my internal sounds and thrum of the bus. It didn’t seem like either of us could trust ourselves to speak in public despite how empty the bus was, there was something incredibly appealing about how tightly she held me.
She slammed the door to the basement shut behind us as I descended the staircase ahead of her. Once I reached the main space, I sort of froze there in indecision as I had no clue as to if I should just head to her bed or what. I don’t really know anything about foreplay, I guess my maid improve counts to some degree given her reaction to it before. Fortunately for my naïve self, It seemed Anna knew exactly what she wanted as she wrapped around me from behind, one hand diving down the front of my skirt and the other landing just under my breasts while she started kissing my neck.
I might not have anything down there but the feel of her skin on mine was nice, I wasn’t quite sure why she enjoyed it as much as it seemed like she did, but I was hardly going to deny her. Oh wait, she found something I do have, the feel of her fingers tracing across my actuators was wonderful.
I may have made sounds at that.