Great, I am nervous to go to class.
What am I, a little kid?
Ok, admittedly I had a pretty good excuse with everything but come on!
I double-checked everything while waiting for the others to get their shoes on.
Wood chips and kerosene for lunch. Check. Big ass water bottle. Check. Phone in backpack because pockets too small. Check. Laptop. Check. Math notebook and pens. Check. Wallet and keys. Check. Skirt and sleeveless shirt don’t look weird. Probably, a glance at the hallway mirror said.
Well, I think that’s everything I could need.
Hopefully.
I wasn’t going to bother with a coat as the early spring weather didn’t feel that cool to me anymore, so it was a bit funny seeing everyone else bundled up. Jake even had a knit hat on!
As we walked to the bus stop, we speculated on if I could smell flowers now after seeing the little green shoots dotting our garden, and if I could, would they smell similar. We had good timing as the bus turned up a couple of minutes early, and I was glad to see it was all but empty. The bus driver got the startled look I was seeing more of lately as I tapped my pass, but they didn’t make any comments.
I still have to consciously sit differently in a skirt, but I chose a longer one just in case. So, I wasn’t too worried that something awkward would happen.
What followed was an average bus ride, just eighteen minutes of the bus driving for a while and then stopping a couple of times to pick up a few more students. Most of whom barely seemed aware we existed, let alone that I was anything out of the ordinary. When it stopped at the campus, we shuffled into the masses of students walking to their various classes. Soft Eng was in the Brick, so referred to by students because it was just a big grey rectangular brutalist building with ridges on it. Fortunately, it had been redone inside a few years ago so it was mostly modern and clean inside.
I got a stark reminder of how short I was once we got into the Brick, where the denser packing of students meant that I couldn’t see ahead or behind our group. It wasn’t an issue given I knew where we were going, and I was with the others but it was intimidating and not something I had dealt with since being a kid.
We debated where to sit this time as we entered the room, we decided to just go about the mid-height of the hall as usual. It could sometimes be pretty empty up at the top and I might stick out more if anything. There were a few hitches in the conversations as we found our spot, but I tried to ignore them as we settled in.
“Hey.” I heard from behind me, I didn’t turn immediately because it might be for someone else. “Is your hair real?”
Nope, it’s for me.
Turning in the swivel chair I looked up into the row above ours to meet the eyes of a mousey girl with dyed light blue hair, who seemed to get excited rather than shocked upon seeing my face and eyes.
Huh, that’s new.
“Yeah, it is.” I said not quite sure how to react.
“Oh, your voice is beautiful.” She said excitedly almost bouncing in her seat.
“Uh, thank you.” I said taken aback.
“Anna.” She said thrusting out a hand.
“Sam.” I said hesitantly taking it. She seemed delighted by the feel as her fingers touched some of my exposed joints.
Uh ok, that’s very new.
“Is this recent? I mean it’s pretty far into the semester and I think I would have noticed before…” She asked, before trailing off as I grimaced a bit.
“Yeah, last week.” I said while trying to pull my face back into order.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t be bugging you then…” She apologized looking remorseful and released my hand.
“Don’t worry about it.” I said, then noticed the prof arriving and so started to turn back.
I stopped to think for a second.
Fuck it, what’s the worst that could happen?
“Do you do discord? I am not active on other social media these days.” I asked. Shit, I hadn’t even updated any of it for that matter.
“Fuck yeah, I do.” She said practically glowing.
I pulled my phone off the desk, and we exchanged info as the projectors dropped from the ceiling. I had to turn back to my laptop as the prof started the lecture. Discord has some notifications already, one of which was Anna saying hi and confirming it was her to which I responded with similar greetings, the other was from our group chat.
supJim (Mike): gots you a fan I see
IndustrialCat (Sam): Apparently
IndustrialCat (Sam): Not quite sure what to think of that
BellingMouse (River): You ok with the way it went?
IndustrialCat (Sam): They seemed nice enough
supJim (Mike): feeling proactive with the contact info I saw
supJim (Mike): u lookin for rooooomance
supJim (Mike): from the first person with a robot fetish
There was a smack and ‘Ow’ from my left, and I felt my face heat up.
IndustrialCat (Sam): Uh
IndustrialCat (Sam): This might be the saddest thing I ever write
IndustrialCat (Sam): But like, that’s the most straightforward interested in me a cute girl has been in a while
IndustrialCat (Sam): If it’s for a robot fetish I will take it
supJim (Mike): lmao
supJim (Mike): I wasnt knocking it lol
TheOneMoose (Jake): Psure he is talking about the midterm
Oops, shouldn’t get distracted.
The lecture ended up otherwise going pretty normal, and I just settled back into the mundanity of higher education.
After it finished, I was half expecting Anna to start asking questions or something again. A glance over my shoulder saw her dashing away though, I might have been disappointed at this. Not sure what to make of that realization, maybe I was just that desperate. Well, I guess this lecture had the side effect of confirming I was still into girls even without any biological imperatives to help with it.
Neat.
River had a tutorial they had to rush off for, so they weren’t able to join us for lunch. The other two got stuff from the weeks’ selection of food trucks hanging around near the Brick and then we sat in the lobby to eat. I guess I used more fuel than I thought while thinking because I didn’t quite bring enough food, but my bunkers were still mostly filled so I thought it would be fine if I had a snack when I got back from the Math lecture.
I was pleasantly surprised to get a discord notification from Anna as we were finishing up.
AceW0mbat: Hey Sam!
AceW0mbat: Sorry I had to run off to office hours!
AceW0mbat: It was really really cool to meet you
IndustrialCat: Nice to meet you too
IndustrialCat: We usually sit somewhere around there and I am easy to spot, feel free to join us again
AceW0mbat: Hell yeah, see you next time!
Rad.
Not quite sure what to make of her still but she seems nice enough.
After the three of us had an aimless conversation speculating on whether a game Jake liked would get a sequel, we headed our separate ways as my math lecture was on the side of the campus next to the forest. That building didn’t have a popular name that I was aware of besides just being referred to as the East building, it was really named after someone but their name was longer than students could be bothered with. Besides, it was just some local politician who was still alive, not someone interesting.
When I swung past the washroom, I was glad that the school had changed them to be gender-neutral as I am not sure I would have remembered to go in the ‘right’ one first try. I got a triple-check as I left a stall but while the guy mumbled a question as to what a robot needed to go to the washroom for as he passed, he didn’t stop. It more seemed to be a speculative question than one he wanted to be answered anyway.
The lecture hall was one of the weird ones semi-submerged into the basement, so the ground floor entrance was at the midpoint of the hall, I was early enough that I could just grab a central spot. This prof was an older guy big on writing everything out in chalk even when he had slides, so being close enough to see was important. My visual acuity didn’t seem much different from before, but I wasn’t going to try going further away just in case. I got some curious glances or stares as other people filtered in, but no one struck up a conversation, so I mostly just waited and doodled in my notebook. I had checked my handwriting the night before, but it didn’t seem like the change did anything that would affect being able to take notes. It might have been a bit more consistent, but that just meant it would be consistently mediocre.
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For some reason, this class was scheduled as one three-hour lecture once a week and we would be starting a new unit today, so I expected like half an hour of history. Despite it not being part of the course Professor Bagshaw was always big on including context for the material.
I guess it was sometimes interesting.
Emphasis on sometimes.
Sure enough, half an hour in and it looked like we are getting to the actual math.
Something feels odd in my brain though, he had interspersed some proofs with the history, and every time I felt something engage in my brain waiting for… something.
Hopefully, it’s ok, whatever it is.
Ah-ha, he is writing a name for something with section numbers from the textbook ahead of it. Time for an equation we are going to use!
As he wrote out the equation, whatever bit of my brain was waiting for input is fully engaged suddenly. I could hear a different set of uncomfortably loud whirs and clicking noises in addition to the normal sounds of my thoughts.
Uh oh, I guess I have a distinct math unit or something, wait have I actually done any math since I changed.
Uh, nope.
I hope that isn’t as loud for other people as it is for me.
Bagshaw started writing out an example question.
Clack, Clack, Clack…
I heard a sound like someone banging away at a typewriter in a movie with each number he wrote. With growing horror, I realized that was my brain loading the values he was writing into memory registers. I tried to focus on writing out my notes, hoping that it wasn’t actually as loud as I thought. The sounds stopped while he explained the usage of the equation, then he started into applying it to the example.
Cha-chunk, Veeeeeeeeeeeeeee, Clunk
I heard a similar set of sounds repeating in different pitches, speeds, and composition, but they accompanied followed each step Bagshaw did without relent. With nothing but the sound of chalk on the board and the occasional explanation by Bagshaw in an otherwise silent hall, there’s no way everyone couldn’t hear that. It didn’t feel any different from just listening to an explanation before. I was just trying to follow the steps and keep my notes up to date, but now my brain is providing audible commentary as it works.
He reached the end of the current example, and I heard a light ding in my math unit as it agreed with the answer, then my registers cleared with a clatter.
I winced.
Bagshaw paused and then turned around and scanned the crowded hall.
Oh shit.
His gaze landed on me, and I felt my face heat up.
“I take it that was you, given I don’t see a typewriter around?” He asked flatly.
“Ye-yes, sir.” I squeaked out.
“Is it something you can control?” He asked.
“I-I don’t think so.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“I haven’t be-been this way long.” I said sheepishly.
“Huh, well at least I know you’re following along.” He said then turned back to the board and flipped a page in his notes.
“Now moving on…”
Uh. Well.
That could have gone worse.
The rest of the lecture mostly slid by without too much fuss, although not without a continuous feeling of embarrassment from my noisy brain chattering away.
I was writing down an example about thirty minutes from the end of class when something felt off about what I was writing. I couldn’t figure out what it was, but the conclusion seemed wro-
Erch-cha
OK, that was a different sound.
I looked up again to see if I had copied something wrong.
Nope.
Wait maybe this is right still I shou-
Erch-cha
My math unit is not happy, why?
I worked back through the steps we had taken so far, and I noticed a five became a six across a step. Just a minor thing.
I propagated the change through the later steps and checked if it seemed right.
Ding.
Cool.
I looked up to copy down what was next and realized Bagshaw was looking at me.
“Is something wrong?” He asked.
“Uh sorry, just there’s an error where a number changed there, uh line seven to eight on the left board.”
He looked between the lines.
“Sure enough, thank you. I will leave that for you all to correct on your own, the method is otherwise correct.”
He then continued like nothing had happened.
Well, it seems like I am good at catching petty math errors.
----------------------------------------
Ok, let’s try this again.
23,516 * 54,731
Clack, Clack…
Now, what’s 2+2?
Cha-chunk, Veeeeeee….
Hmmm. Got nothing for you.
Ding
1,287,054,196
Well fuck.
My ability to do math is really weird now, I have the dedicated unit which seems happy to do pretty much any series of operations I pass to it or verify something I see written down. It does seem to have a pretty high run time floor as I have to load registers and then wait for values to propagate through, as a result, it’s pretty slow in comparison to a calculator. It’s insanely good at handling complex or large value operations for being in my head but...
I literally can’t do math outside of it.
Like at all.
I can set operations that take minutes going and the only options I have if I need to do something else is to cancel the current task or wait. It also has no idea if the series of operations I give it is valid, as when I tried to recall some of the stuff from the lecture it happily ran but the result was wrong because I didn’t remember that well.
Neat, a perfectly wrong calculator.
I think this actually might make me slower on tests since big operations aren’t a thing or they let you bring a calculator. My memory for the material doesn’t seem to be any better either.
I guess this part of the changes is a neat party trick though.
Oh, there’s my stop.
After hopping off the bus, I stuffed my math notebook and pen back into my bag. For as fun(?) as it is to play around with a calculator in my brain, I have had more than enough math for today. The walk back was uneventful, I did see a cat I hadn’t seen before, but it didn’t seem to have any interest in meeting me.
In theory, there should be other people home, but I didn’t see any evidence of it. Oh well, updating them on my day can wait.
I was feeling peckish what with not having brought enough lunch, so I decided to try the A-1 jet fuel since I hadn’t gotten around to it last night. It ended up being fruity and sweet, but with a complex almost spiced flavor on top. I guess that’s all the additives they add to the stuff, I should look into seeing if I can get them as flavorings to other fuels.
Satisfied my bunkers weren’t going to get low on the planned run, I decided to kill some time by browsing some news sites. There were the usual roundups of notable building replacements caused by the change, another article on impending climate doom, and hey look there’s an opinion piece on why trans people are an indicator of the degradation of our society.
Gross.
Hmm, do I count as trans? I was a guy before, so probably? On the other hand, I wasn’t before the change so maybe not?
Shits complex yo.
Out of curiosity, I decided to take a look at the changee focus page on CBC, I had been vaguely aware that they added it a while ago, but it never felt quite so… relevant. Mostly it just seemed to be international stories collected in one place, but there was an interesting one discussing the lag the Canadian government was showing in enforcing rights. I hadn’t even realized how adhoc the creation of laws seemed to be, but it made sense when I thought back to being told the city had to use an obscure law to do the changes to the garage instead of referring to some changee rights law.
I should probably start to pay attention to this stuff, particularly with how… visibly changed I am.
Oh, yikes. Someone is going around murdering changees in Southern California with some horrible new method, people are turning up having died of dehydration or starvation despite sometimes having been seen looking normal a few hours previously. The death toll is currently sitting at five, and it’s currently assumed some ‘super’ changee is behind it.
Well, that’s enough depressing news, so I changed into my exercise clothes and headed for Kat’s apartment. I took a circuitous route sticking to the neighborhoods as I appreciated the quiet and there were fewer people about. I checked the time on my phone when I arrived and decided I was early enough that I would prefer to see if she was in rather than wait around outside.
Buzzing the unit number, a different voice came on, I presumed her roommate although I am not sure how much I have talked to them before, so I didn’t really recognize the voice.
“Yo, what’s up?” She asked.
“Hi, it’s Sam. I was dropping by to meet my sister for a run.”
“Mmph, come up then.”
Well, she didn’t try to confirm who I was.
After the door clicked unlocked, I walked through the empty lobby to the row of elevators and groaned internally when I noticed another person waiting for them. It was an old guy who at least didn’t seem to notice when I arrived, after a few moments the doors opened with a ding, and he walked in as I followed.
“What floor?” He asked, I guess he did notice me.
“Eleventh, please.” He whipped his head around to look at me upon hearing my voice, frowning a bit but pressed the button anyway, and then hit seventeen for himself. I tried leaning against the wall and focusing on the floor indicator rather than making awkward eye contact with the guy.
“You recent?” He asked suddenly.
“Huh?” I responded while switching to looking at him
“Changed.” He grunted.
“Uh yeah.”
“You don’t look used to people’s reactions, don’t worry my son was the same way and he got used to it.” He said gruffly.
“Oh…” I fidgeted a bit.
“Your floor. Have a good day.” He said when the door dinged open suddenly.
“You too.” I said nodding to him as I left.
Well, that was interesting. Not what I was expecting, but hey he turned out to be sorta nice.
I headed down the hall, turning around the bend in the corridor and then continuing until I recognized the number for Kat’s unit and knocked on the door.
“Come in”
As I opened the door they started speaking again.
“She will be back in like ten, feel free to h- Oh my.”
Holy fuck she’s huge. I knew she was tall before but having lost like twenty percent of my height since then she looked like a giant, I think she’s more swole too.
“Kat said you got changed by the clash, but you are completely different. No wonder I didn’t recognize your voice.”
“Uh yeah.” Nonthreatening movements only, she could probably break me in half despite being metal.
“I am surprised you let me in.” I said while I admitted to myself that I am probably not a threat even if I wasn’t supposed to be here.
“I thought I could take you, worst case” She grinned at me.
Fuck, yikes.
“Ha, don’t worry I am not gonna eat you. Your sis said you would probably be by around this time.” She said after seeing my expression. “Hell, if you don’t mind I will join you two.”
“I am not sure I have introduced myself to you before, I’m Serena.” She said while sticking out a hand.
“Sam, I think you have before, but it’s been a while.” I said tentatively taking it.
She had a surprisingly gentle grip.
“Can I offer you anything? You don’t look like you have conventional needs, so I am not sure what I have you might want.”
“Just some water would be ok, I filled my bunkers before I came.”
She cocked an eyebrow.
“I am assuming you mean you’re full, but before a run?”
“Yeah, it’s different from having a stomach, and running out could have more substantial consequences than getting hungry would.” I explained while sitting on a chair at their table.
“Like what?” They asked while filling a glass.
“Uh well, we don’t exactly know. All we have are my instincts to go off, and I don’t feel like I will die or something. My brain is some kind of electromechanical mechanism that would probably just freeze in place, but we aren’t sure how I could be refueled besides when I eat.” She offered the glass to me, and I accepted it with a ‘thanks’.
“Oof, that’s heavy buddy.”
“Sorta? I was told to trust my instincts and it doesn’t feel like talking about death, I know that one.”
“I am not sure I want to know but hit me.” She said while flopping onto the couch
“Spare parts.”
“Oh, fuck.” She said with a grimace.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “It’s a worry, and while I have repair buddies and material on board but I dunno how much that covers.”
“Repair buddies?” She asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah, these friends.” I said laying out my palm and asking the one in my right arm to say hi.
I have been thinking of her as Lilly since I figured out I could sort of talk to them over the repair data bus they linked into. She scuttled out of my wrist onto my palm before turning to Serena and waving a little three-fingered hand.
“Hell yeah, she is cute.” Serena said leaning over to see and offering a wave back.
“Yeah.” I said with a smile stopping to pet her with a finger. After accepting pets, she bowed to me and then disappeared into my arm again. “Kat isn’t big on spiders though; they freak her out.”
“Yeah, she’s flipped a couple of times at little ones before, and those are big.” She said while chuckling.
She suddenly smacked her forehead.
“I forgot to ask, what were your preferred pronouns? I know you were different before but…” She asked trailing off
“Oh um, I was going with she and her, it felt more… natural?” I responded awkwardly.
Fortunately, I was saved from needing further explanation when the door to the apartment opened and Kat came in looking frustrated. She flung her bag off onto the floor, before tossing her jacket atop it and kicking off her shoes.
“Did you see that those- Oh hey Sam, give me a bit and we can go.” She said, deciding to drop the complaints she was going to utter.
“Scope change again Kat?” Serena asked having heard the topic before.
“Yep. We can chat later on that.” She said while heading into her room and closing the door.
I evidently looked curious at the interchange because Serena gave another chuckle.
“Don’t worry about it, her supervisor keeps suggesting changes that waste time.”
“Oh. OK.”
I don’t actually know anymore from that answer, but every time Kat has talked about some of the stuff she was up to it melted my brain so I let it slide by.
“I should get ready too, back in a sec.” Serena said standing and stretching, then wandering to her room.