That is a lot of food, holy shit.

There were four full-size drums each with a different fuel in them, each with a small hand pump to get the contents out. Taking a quick survey of them revealed fuel oil, high octane gas, jet A-1 fuel, and pure kerosene.

Along with the liquid fuels, there were several solid fuels. The first was a huge sack like you might order bulk dirt in, filled with what the label on the side declared was Anthracite coal. There were also a few sacks stacked on a pallet that seemed to vary in contents, I could see woodchips from a restaurant supply store as well as charcoal and coke from a blacksmithing supplier, amongst other things.

“Was this all dropped off at the same time?” I asked curiously.

“Yeah, it was by a city truck too,” Jake answered. “I dunno where they found all this stuff, but it was a quick turnaround.”

“Oh yeah, they stuck in a ventilation and fire suppression system at the same time.” He said while pointing first at a large tank with pipes running out from it and across the ceiling and then a duct down the middle of the room going through a hole in the wall.

“Woah,” I said goggling at it. “Do you think the landlady knows?”

“Yep, she was there and fuming a bit herself initially.” He said with a chuckle. “Apparently the city pulled some obscure law out that let them do that.”

“Uh, are we in trouble with her?” I asked wide-eyed.

It’s all well and good to have this done if she kicks us out as a result!

“Nope, she calmed down once she knew it was for supporting a changee.” He said with a shrug. “Hopefully it should be fine, I wouldn’t be big on trying to find a new place for fourth year.”

“Yeah…” I mumbled while staring at the food.

“So, is it the good stuff?” Asked Mike from the doorway.

“Sure seems like it,” I said while trying a small piece of coal from the sack. “Mm, that’s good. To be honest, I haven’t tried half of this stuff. Looks like I am set for a while if anything it seems like too much, Gas goes bad you know?”

“Well, worst case I am sure you could sell some of it to people at school.“ Jake said wryly.

“I guess yeah.” I paused. “I doubt there’s a grey market for jet fuel though.”

Mike’s phone went off, and he excused himself saying it was his parents

“Hey, what were you going to have tonight?” Jake asked with a bit of hesitation a few moments later

“Probably the stuff in my backpack, we weren’t sure if I would be able to get into this stuff tonight, so I brought some coal and wood chips.” I said while thinking. “Although I might try the A-1 after the main, Gas is already like a desert, and kerosene is fruity, so I am curious what the blend and additives taste like.”

“…are you ok with that?” Jake asked a bit hesitantly.

“Hmm?” I questioned while sticking my nose in a sack of charcoal, which turns out to have had a deep-fried sort of smell.

“With eating, well fuel.” He was fidgeting, clearly unsure how I would respond. “When we are having like…I dunno, food with effort put into it? Mike was planning on doing a shepherd’s pie tonight, and your dinner is coal and wood chips!”

I put the sack down and started to brush my hands together to get the dust off while I considered the question.

“So, this is gonna sound weird, but there is a disconnect between my memories of food like that and thinking of eating it now.” I paused to collect my thoughts.

“Like I remember enjoying it and I am using memories to describe this stuff –“ I gestured aimlessly at the fuel beside us. “Tastes like, but when I think of eating it now, I just picture tasteless texture less nothing.”

“I like the look of human food still because it looks pretty, but it does nothing for me.” I continued with a shrug. “You wouldn’t eat fancy paper or a flower display or something, not because it’s harmful but because it’s just not worth eating, right? So, I can appreciate the effort put in, but this stuff tastes way better to me.”

I paused for a beat. “Although, that example might not be the best as I could totally eat paper.”

“But it feels rude to spend hours on food for us but then pour out some coal, like kibble for a fucking cat!” He shouted in frustration with a hint of tears in his eyes.

“Oh…” I said, a feeling a bit shocked at the outburst. “I would be lying if that thought hadn’t come up a few times.”

I sighed and tried to formulate a response.

“Would it be better if you thought of it as me just eating a lot of fresh vegetables? That’s basically what I am doing.” I suggested with a shrug, then continued. “Although some of these vegetables would have been fresh a few hundred million years ago.”

“I have ideas for cooking, but it’s going to have to be a bunch of experimentation and that’s mostly going to be on me. Although, in the short term I could probably step up the presentation a bit with all this stuff. Maybe I could do like a sampler plate…”

“Are you sure it’s ok? I hate the idea of leaving you out…” He said quietly while trying to hide wiping away tears by cleaning his glasses on his shirt.

“Yep! It’s nice having people enjoying their food around me even if I don’t partake.” I said cheerfully.

“Really.” He stared at me disbelievingly.

“I noticed it at my last couple of meals when they were less… tense.“ I confirmed a little hesitantly. “I dunno but it tastes better and generally feels good when everyone else is enjoying their food.”

He sighed and ran a hand through his short spiky black hair.

“Ok, fine, but let me know if there’s anything I can do to help with your cooking experiments.” He still looked dissatisfied.

“Sure! Now I need to wash my hands before I get black dust on my new clothes or worse, my hair.” I said showing my dusty hands to him while making my way towards the door to the kitchen.

I found River was in the kitchen looking a bit concerned.

“Is everythi...” Their thought was interrupted by a groan of anguish from behind me, causing us to both jump and turn to the source.

“Nope nope, definitely did not think that nopenopenpe…” Jake was mumbling and rubbing his eyes.

“Uh, what’s wrong now?” I asked confused.

A gargling noise came unbidden from his throat.

“I am sorry, just not… uh… used… to uh yog-your clothes yet!” He finished shrilly.

Huh?

What about them?

Whiiiiiiiiiiir Caa CLUNK Veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Ok, dying of embarrassment time.

My face is boiling, and I think something in my brain is free-spinning at max RPM.

“IuhthinkIgottaohmyhands” I babbled while I grabbed a towel off the stove and started rubbing my hands on it.

“Imasitdownforabitithink” I continued while going to sit on one of the dining room chairs

Ok so I knew intellectually that someone was bound to overlook the automaton bit when looking at me, Kat had even pointed out some people would like that.

I was very much not ready for the first comment to be from a roommate.

Veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

He seemed apologetic, and it would be hypocritical of me to suggest I hadn’t ever looked at a girl that way before.

Caa CLUNK

Look it’s a university campus, there are a lot of hot people there. That was always going to be the case when they are full of people about the same age as me.

Whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir

But like, I always thought of myself as average, maybe below because of being an out-of-shape nerd, I would have scoffed at the idea of someone looking at me before.

Calm down, deep breaths.

Whiiiiiiiiiiir

Damn you comfy leggings.

Whiiiiiiiiiiir

“Sorry, Sam…” Jake said trailing off with a red face.

“I uh don’t think… um… I can judge you… for it!” I said as my babbling switched itself out for stuttering.

“I uh wore the leggings um… cause they are comfy!” I squeaked out before burying my face in the towel in my hands

“Sam, it’s ok.” River said with a hand on my shoulder. “It’s on them to not make idiots of themselves.”

“Yeah, it’s uh not like anything you are wearing is wrong,” Jake said after a moment of hesitation, then continued with discomfort in his voice. “Sorry, not used to you being a girl yet I guess.”

“Uh yeah me neither.” I mumbled while peaking out of the towel at him.

That provoked a laugh out of River.

“You only decided you were yesterday, so I can’t say I am surprised!” They said with mirth in their voice.

I pulled my face out of the towel to smile back at them, then remembered why I had been going to the kitchen in the first place.

“Ah, I should put this back and wash my hands properly.” I said while standing up.

After returning the towel I glanced at the time on the stove.

“Oh, I need to get my stuff put away before it gets too late.” I said as I washed my hands, trying to ignore the embarrassment I still felt.

“Do you need a hand with that?” Jake asked tentatively.

“Sure, if nothing else I need to get all my old stuff out of the way.” I said while drying my hands.

“I’ll give a hand too.” River declared.

Jake started ahead of us towards my stuff by the stairs and paused while he looked at it for a moment.

“Did you do multiple trips when I didn’t notice, because this seems like a lot to carry at once?” He asked as we caught up to him.

“Nope, just the one. it’s not that much I don’t think.” I responded a bit curious.

He experimentally lifted the suitcase, it was a spare old metal one that had been lurking in the attic.

“that’s heavy man!” He cleared his throat and then corrected himself while putting it down again. “uh Sam.”

“Is it?” I asked in confusion, letting the faux pas slip by.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

I didn’t remember it being heavy, so I grabbed it by the handle and tested it myself.

Nope, still fairly light.

“Your kidding, right? It doesn’t seem heavy to me.” I said while giving him the eyeball.

“Sam, that’s a full-size metal suitcase and you said you were bringing a full wardrobe yesterday, it should be heavy.” River pointed out.

“Well, she was telling us how fast she could sprint the other day.” Jake said thoughtfully with his hands on his hips and looking at the suitcase in my hand. “So, it’s not unbelievable that the same kind of strength is in the rest of you too. Those big old trains had a shit ton torque to them too and they ran on steam too.”

“That’s neat, I guess whoever designed me didn’t want fixed performance to be an issue,” I said speculatively.

“What do you mean?” River asked.

“Oh, like exercise doesn’t build muscles for me, I don’t have those after all. I need to do it so I don’t seize up or have fluids go bad.” I responded with a shrug. “That also means that whatever strength or speed I have now is where I am at until… I break down or wear out I guess.”

“Not like there’s spare parts around here.” I chuckled ruefully.

“Oh, Sam…” River said while tearing up and Jake looked aghast.

“Are you sure you should be here, and not like… doing stuff you want to do?” Asked Jake in horror.

I waved him off with my unoccupied hand. “I can do some degree of self-repair so it’s not like I am gonna fall apart tomorrow or something,”

“Besides I want to be here, at least for now!” I said trying to be cheerful, although it looked like it fell a bit flat given their expressions didn’t change.

I sighed.

“Look, I am not used to being like this yet, so I am trying not to add a crippling fear of my mortality on to it as well.” I paused in thought before continuing. “Plus, I am mostly mechanical so I imagine given sufficient time someone can figure out how to make new parts for me. it’s not like one of those people with completely different organs or biological processes where doctors might not even get time to figure out what’s wrong.”

River looked like they were going to say something, but I interrupted while starting to take the suitcase up the stairs.

“Enough depressing talk, otherwise we might not be done in time for dinner!”

They still seemed subdued, but River grabbed my backpack and followed anyway, Jake hesitated a little longer before grabbing the Canadian Tire bags. As I reached the top of the stairs the sounds from his room implied Mike’s parents were on a tirade about something again if his shouted responses were any indication. Chuckling I opened the door to my room and brought the suitcase in behind me.

Well, there’s another thing that hadn’t changed. My room seems to be exactly as I left it, even the bedding was still where I had tossed it off. Leaving the suitcase on the floor at the head of the bed to leave as much space as possible in the small room, I opened the closet to see what remained in it finding that the contents seemed to be mostly untouched.

“I did say my closet was fair game, I know we both wore the same size shirts, Jake.” I mentioned as the other two arrived and Jake dropped what he was carrying on the bed.

“I felt a bit uncomfortable with just having a go at it when you weren’t here.” he said a bit looking a bit sheepish. “I think Mike took like half your pants and socks though.”

“My pants? Won’t the legs be way too long for him though?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I would assume so, but his mom sews a lot though so maybe she will rehem them or something like that.” He answered with a shrug, then I turned back to my closet.

“Ah man, I was going to do laundry too.” I groaned looking in the full hamper, pulling it out of the way.

I grabbed the laundry basket leaning against the wall and started taking shirts off their hangers and folding them into it. It ended up taking a surprisingly long time just to get my existing stuff out of the way and organized into good enough to give away piles and probably just trash/rags piles. Jake decided to excuse himself to help with making dinner after I opened the suitcase full of, well, feminine clothes and undergarments.

“Hey, Sam?” River asked while I was in the middle of organizing socks in my drawer.

“What’s up?” I responded distractedly.

“What specifically were you objecting to when Jake, er, ‘checked you out’ earlier.” They asked. “You’ve talked about being fine in your new clothes, but is that actually true?”

I sighed.

“Yeah, I was talking about this sort of thing with Kat, I have those question chains that reinforce that I am fine with wearing this stuff, so it’s not the clothing per se but the attention.” I paused to collect my thoughts and turned to face them. “Like you know I have never had a girlfriend or whatever, right?”

They nodded a bit sheepishly as I leaned against the dresser.

“Well, this probably doesn’t say much for my self-confidence, but the idea of anyone even wanting to check me out is alien. I just don’t even have the framework for how I should feel, like should I be angry, amused, complemented, whatever.”

“I am not going to judge him for it, but I don’t really want that to be a thing I am even considering when I am here though.” I shrugged. “If it gets to be a persistent thing, I will have to talk to them because like, my options for clothes that are comfortable are limited and generally aren’t much different one way or another so far as uh not appearing feminine go.”

“I can’t tell you how you are supposed to react.” River said after a nod to my explanation. “That is something you will need to figure out for yourself, but something tells me those two will get used to it fine.”

Those two had gotten used to River pretty quickly after all.

“Actually, on the topic of relationships.” I started trying to avoid an awkward silence forming. “Does your girlfriend know about me, or will that be a surprise?”

“She doesn’t know specifics, I mentioned you were affected by the clash, but I wasn’t sure how much you would be comfortable with me telling.” They said hesitantly. “She was probably going to drop by tomorrow evening if that’s ok.”

“Yeah, of course!” I said waving a hand, then sighed. “I honestly don’t know how rapidly I want my… changes to be known about, it’s hardly going to be a secret but like I don’t want people crowing from the rooftops either.”

They nodded.

“I will leave it at that and try not to give them any preconceptions then.”

I got a sheepish grin knowing my next question would be a bit weird.

“Do you know if Mike is in a relationship right now? There was a dude he was talking about last week, David or something, but I didn’t know if it was another speed dating thing or what.”

“He was out with a Rebecca yesterday, so I have no idea.” River said while raising their hands and shaking their head.

“Wait I think I have heard that name before too, maybe it’s both of them?” I suggested.

They giggled. “Well, it wouldn’t be the first time.”

Interrupting our gossip came Mike’s shouted voice coming up the stairs.

“Yo, dinner in thirty minutes you two! Sam, we have something for you so don’t worry about coming down yet!”

I raised an eyebrow while looking at River.

“Any clue what he is up to?” I asked.

“First I have heard of it. I am curious, but we may as well finish unpacking and leave it a surprise.” They said dipping to pick up a skirt from my suitcase and begin to clip it to one of my hangers that had clothes pegs attached to it.

----------------------------------------

“Hey!” Mike said as we arrived in the kitchen. “I will warn you we don’t have anything fancy for you, Sam. We don’t know what everything tastes like or how much you specifically need to eat, but I tried to set stuff out looking nice.”

He then pulled a large ceramic dish of shepherd’s pie out of the oven and went bustling off to the table. Jake was in the middle of distributing small salads in three of the spots at the dining room table as we entered the room.

“Hey, unpacking go well?” He asked.

“Yeah, it’s all away now. Gonna have to run some laundry after dinner if no one else needs the washer though.” I answered.

“I am good.” he said as Mike placed the pie down, beginning to sit himself down as Mike ran off to get some condiment or other.

Looking at what they had out for me I saw that they had run with the idea of a sampler plate I had mentioned before. A quarter of the plate had rows of differently colored wood chips laid out in a fan, then the rest was occupied with small mounds of coal, charcoal, or coke, and then in the center in a small dip container was some oil.

“That looks really good actually!” I said while fighting the temptation to just dig in as soon as I sat down.

“Really?” Mike said with a grin as he sat down. “Good to know!”

Once everyone was serving themselves, I started trying to decide what to start with.

“Hey, Sam give me just a sec.” Mike said, and I looked up curiously.

He pulled a notepad and a pen out of his backpack that had been sitting in the corner of the room behind his chair.

“Ok, ready!” He declared once he had flipped to a blank page. “Please let me know what your thoughts are as you try stuff.”

I gave him a thumbs up and then decided to try starting with something new, in this case, a piece of charcoal.

“Hey, this is just like… deep-fried,” I said between bites. “You know when you get tempura sweet potato at a sushi place, it’s basically that.”

“Just flavor-wise or texture too?” Mike asked as he wrote notes.

“So, it’s got the crispy part but there isn’t a soft part, it’s odd but not bad.”

“Ok, cool.” He stopped writing to have a bite of pie, then asked. “What about the coke? I know it’s a manipulation of coal with not unrelated usage in metalworking.”

“It’s kinda got a fried feel to it too.” I said having grabbed a piece and taken a moderate bite out of it, noting that they weren’t flinching at the sound as much. “But I dunno like its… meaty? Pork cutlet maybe? I don’t have an exact match.”

The rest of the meal passed similarly, with Mike asking detailed questions as I worked my way through the plate. I ended up only being able to get about halfway through the plate before feeling full, and we weren’t quite sure what to do with my leftovers. It’s not like it would go bad at room temperature or attract pests, so we elected to just leave it at my spot for breakfast.

I tried to help with clean-up, but they refused to let me get involved with washing pans out of fear of some bits of food getting stuck inside my hands or something. we didn’t have a set of rubber gloves to cover them either, so I mostly hung around on the sidelines chatting.

“Hey Sam, have you played any games or anything since you changed?” Jake asked after a conversation on the merits of our different profs wound down.

“Nope, I just had the laptop with me and no mouse or anything.” I responded while kicking my legs back and forth while sitting on a dining room chair.

“Want to play after we finish up here? Mike and I were going to continue from earlier after dinner anyway, you can join us too if you want River.” He asked.

“Sure, I am almost certainly still crap at it but why not.” I said with a thumbs up.

“I will pass on playing but I might hang around for a bit, maybe do my readings.” River said while attempting to remove a particularly stuck on morsel from a pan.

“It’s probably a good idea for her to try games with us around anyway.” Mike started before pausing to tie the compost bag.

“Oh?” I asked.

“Yeah, what if you have epilepsy or something weird like that from the different hardware your mind runs on now.” He continued after standing up with the bag.

I hadn’t thought of that!

“That’s a really good point.” River commented.

“Oh, great now I am nervous, I call dibs on being in the first game as there is no way I am gonna wait to find out.” I said with exasperation.

“You got it!” Mike said with a grin.

----------------------------------------

“Any preferences as to what you want me to play as a warmup?” Asked Mike having won rock paper scissors for first vs me.

“Nope, I still have no idea how to play really.” I said while scrolling across the characters, I couldn’t have even told you what game this was as they seem to cycle through a huge collection of similarly confusingly named Japanese fighting games. I think they have been on this one for like two or three weeks at most.

I settled on the excessively well-endowed catgirl with a pair of pistols the size of her torso just because I had randomed them a handful of times before and might remember a combo or two.

“Righto, hammer time it is then!” He declared cheerfully while selecting a dude wielding what may as well have been a small car on a stick.

The timer ticked down and the game started going to a random level styled after a generic cyberpunk metropolitan city with crowded streets and neon signs, Mike decided to give me a bit to check I still remembered the controls.

Cat with a knife on barrel. Person wielding hammer, midfield left. Person armed with pistol, midfield right

I did, fortunately, but something felt weird when moving and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it yet.

Person in alley, flicking blade, behind neon sign.

“OK, I am ready.” I said.

He started to launch in my direction which I attempted to dodge, unsuccessfully, and the screen scrolled a bit from my character being knocked back.

Cat with a knife is off to the left. Person behind neon sign unmoved. New person, concealed gun in shoulder holster leaning on wall.

I start trying to pepper Mike with range attacks, but I don’t remember this character’s ranged combos at all.

Person with a concealed gun is reaching in their coat.

I dodge the potential shot and then move to keep Mike out of range.

Person pulled out cigarettes, no shot taken. Person behind neon sign out of vision presumed still same location.

Mike landed a hit on me with a range pull and I get yanked back to where we started.

Cat with knife same location, person behind neon sign same location.

Shit, I know what feels weird now.

“Hey Mike, I gotta pause.” I put action to words and then put the controller down on the couch between us.

Fuck that felt weird.

Oh, wait they are looking concerned, I should elaborate.

“I’m OK.” I started to try and stave off their worry. “Just uh my brain is definitely processing stuff differently and seems to have new priorities.”

“Like what?” Asked Jake with concern.

“I am aware of everyone with a weapon, where they are, and what potential actions might happen based on what they are doing.” I said feeling confused. “It’s not actually directly interfering besides when it seems like they are gonna attack but it feels fucking weird.”

“Like I dodged because that guy with the concealed gun went for a draw, and I was in line with his eyes.” I said as an example.

“What guy with a gun?” Mike asked confused.

“Unpause and move right a bit” I suggested.

He started moving so the view on the screen slid over.

“That guy.” I said once he came into view.

“Who?” He asked increasingly confused.

I sighed, stood up, and went to the screen pointing directly with a shiny fingernail.

“Him!” I said with exasperation.

“That’s like one guy out of a two dozen in the background! And he doesn’t even have a gun out.” He said incredulously.

“See this lump under his shoulder and where his hand is?” I asked surprised he hadn’t noticed.

The character cycled through another animation and this time he drew a gun and winked at the screen before putting it back.

“See?” I declared triumphantly.

“What. The. Fuck.” Mike said. “I have played this level maybe a thousand times and I have never even seen that guy.”

“How long did it take you to notice him?” he asked.

“Uh I dunno, almost immediately when he came into view the first time I guess.” I said with a shrug. “Also, there’s the cat with a knife to the left of what’s on the screen and the guy behind that neon sign who’s flicking a switchblade too.”

River and Jake were staring at me, and Mike chuckled a bit.

“Everyone knows about the cat but it’s like you are a weapons detector or something!” He declared.

“I guess?” I answered. “It’s mostly distracting.”

“Is it similar to the instincts that say what you can do?” Asked River, having broken themselves out of the stare.

“Yeah!” I said bobbing my head in agreement.

“Any idea why you have those instincts?” Mike asked with curiosity. “Cause I can’t really think of many reasons to know if you aren’t like a bodyguard or something.”

“I have no idea, I expect this body was made for some specific purpose and not just for the sake of it. But I don’t have a manual or anything to know for sure.” I answered with a shrug. “It’s believable someone would want an anime robot as a guard or something.”

“Huh. Well, do you feel like playing still?” Jake asked from his chair.

I stopped to think about it.

“Is there a level without anyone with weapons in the background?” I asked looking between Jake and Mike.

“For sure! The one with penguins is literally just ice and water after all!” Mike said with a grin.

After we found a more serene level, I was able to play pretty much the same as before. In other words, I got my ass handed to me. I think I was more consistent at movements like trying to do half or quarter circle turns of the stick, but it didn’t matter if I couldn’t remember the move sets or combos.

While the other two were playing, I planned a run with Kat after classes ended her place wasn’t that close to ours, but she would be free later than me anyway. So it wasn’t a big deal for me to just meet her there.

Probably.

I hadn’t gone on a run alone before, but her apartment was only like 20 minutes or so away at the pace we had been doing previously so hopefully I can handle that much.

We managed to fritter away a few more hours on games and nonsense conversations, then I decided to call it early so I would have extra time in the morning to get ready to go to class in case I needed it.