Amelia was incredibly excited, and I couldn't even blame her for it. She was rushing all over the place, eying up the furniture and making the slightest adjustments. Then she would dramatically hum and dash over to the next item she wanted moved just-so.

It was painfully obvious that this was the first time she had a space of her own, that she could do with as she pleased. I felt tempted to ask, just to confirm that, but kept my mouth shut. I might have been slightly off my rocker, but it wasn't like I'd lost all social grace along with most of my sanity.

Instead, I just focused on trying to make sense of my body again.

It wasn't as bad as when I first woke up from the installation of my cybernetics. You'd be forgiven for missing it entirely when I was just walking around, but the second I wasn't actively engaged in doing something, my body defaulted to stillness.

Unnatural, absolute stillness.

There was no urge to fidget. No need to at least keep my fingers moving. Once upon a time (read 'several days ago'), I couldn't sit for longer than ten seconds without compulsively shaking my leg like a neurotic puppy on steroids.

Now, there was just… nothing. In fact, it took conscious effort to force my body to keep moving, and even then it was kind of awkward and wooden. Not quite the spasms I'd defaulted to the first time I tried to 'act natural,' but not something that looked comfortable, either.

The only parts of me that had no trouble with constant movement were my eyes, but that mostly came down to my need to keep track of Amelia as she bustled about.

However, even she apparently had a limit, because she finally collapsed on one of the comfy-looking couches with a massive smile.

"Well? Don't just stand there! Come over and sit. Ohhh, are you still feeling peckish? You are, I bet. I'll order us some pizza. You're going to love it! There's this one place…"

I sighed and sat down on the same couch. It was the only one mostly shaded from the sun pouring through the large windows on the opposite side of the room, which is why I picked it. I did not expect Amelia to immediately scoot up to me, using her shadow-infested scroll to show off a pizza menu.

I froze, warring instincts all churning inside of me.

What was left of my old self was a bit flustered to have a girl suddenly glue herself to my side, especially with the tighter clothing Amelia was now wearing.

My shadow bits were indifferent, if a little tempted to gaze into her eyes and whisper sweet eldritch nothings in her ear.

The Stalker hands twitched, claws threatening to come out. A deep sense of wrongness shuddered through me at the fact that someone was pressing themselves against me, that they could see me, that they were aware of a predator meant to be silent and invisible —

I squashed all the instincts real quick. Then, realizing Amelia was waiting for me, I blinked and randomly pointed at a pizza that seemed kind of appealing.

"Great! They'll be here in a bit. Usually doesn't take longer than twenty minutes. Except… that's my old location, I guess. I dunno how it'll affect delivery times, now that we're in this section of the city…"

Slowly, ever so slowly, I found myself relaxing. Not completely, but… it was better than I'd started to fear.

Out there, it was easy for me to keep moving. The escape from the lab? Child's play! There had been so many worries and practical matters occupying my mind, like how best to stab my next victim with my claws.

The same applied to our shopping trip and journey to the apartment. I'd been focused on the fear that Amelia's father would show up to reclaim us at any second. That meant I hadn't needed to worry about things like self-reflection, or the new state of my being, or the fact that I'd be living with Amelia now.

Amelia, prone to quips and kind of pretty. Amelia, whom I knew absolutely nothing about when it came to anything that mattered.

Well. She liked pizza, I guess. That was a start.

"You know what? Why don't you go check out the rooms? There's several to choose from. I set up in the furthest room to the left, but I'm sure one of the others will work for you," Amelia suddenly offered.

When I turned to her, I froze again.

The look in her eyes was full of concern and surprisingly tender. She looked like she was tempted to say more, too, but I stood up in a hurry and mumbled something about how that sounded great before beating a hasty retreat.

I didn't need pretty green eyes looking at me that way, thank you very much. Especially not when half-hidden behind glasses. I'd never known I had a thing for those, but there we were…

I'd like to say I did some deep inspection of each room to make sure I found the one I liked, but I really just threw open the first door in the hallway Amelia had indicated and trooped inside.

It was a pretty room. As large as my old apartment, really, with a bed that took up about sixty percent of the available space. There were a few shelves and a work desk. There was also a rather unfortunate feature: more very large windows to the outside world, letting in that blasted sunlight.

I tapped into my eyes, then into the blinds, and quickly hacked them when they told me I wasn't on the registered user list. A second later, unbroken darkness descended upon my little world, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

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I could see perfectly well in the darkness, of course. My eyes were more than up to that task. What I hadn't quite expected was the rush of tension leaving me as the sunlight stopped piercing into my skin like needles.

I took a second to really register how I was feeling, then frowned down at my new arms. Even covered up as they were, they were the most potent source of the fading tension. I had a sudden hunch that I should try to avoid going outside uncovered during the day, for more reasons that just the chance of someone seeing and reporting the weirdness of my arms.

Still, now that the discomfort was gone, I took another look around the room, noting the soft mix of beige and blue that dominated it. I liked the colors, really. What I liked even better, though, was the door in the wall immediately to my left, which opened to reveal an actual bathroom.

The bathroom was downright luxurious compared to what I was used to, even if Amelia might see it as a downgrade. I mean, when she was stuck with her father, her stomping grounds had been a couple floors of a megabuilding. I seriously doubted she'd have been content with anything short of the best apartment available.

Then again… this was the good doctor. For all I knew, he could have kept her sleeping in a cubicle just to prove a point.

I'd have to find out, once I got to know her a bit better.

Regardless, I returned my attention to the bathroom. It had a full-on bathtub that looked capable of fitting at least three people, a separate shower with a true cabin, a toilet bowl, and a sink/cabinet/mirror combo. Literally more stuff than I knew what to do with. Even the few memories I had of my life before the slums never featured a bathtub.

A shower didn't sound like a bad idea, though. A light sniff at myself only confirmed that suspicion.

I quickly went back to the bedroom area to put down my shopping bags, which I was still lugging around for some reason, and dig out a change of clothes. Then I booked it back to where hot water beckoned.

The experience was almost orgasmic. I might be selling it short, actually. The feel of hot water hitting my tender skin, especially on my cybernetics, was downright sinful.

It was odd how highly sensitive the eldritch flesh was, really. Especially since prodding my new 'skin' revealed it had a consistency that most resembled rubber. I could touch what felt like metallic synth muscles underneath.

That was, of course, on top of all the blackened veins that stood out on my skin when I really paid attention.

They weren't that noticeable. Normal veins were already a deep enough blue that the color-change wouldn't pop out unless someone was on the lookout for it. Still, I didn't know how I felt about the absolutely certainty that if I was cut, I would bleed tar.

The good doctor had proven as much when he'd sawed off my old arms, after all.

What even am I anymore?

I pressed my forehead against the shower cabin wall, not worried about hot water in the least. There was a small display showing how much of it I had left. I'd been in the shower for fifteen minutes already, just running the hot water over myself, and the hot water supply wasn't even five percent down.

Living in the inner city districts was nice.

Without really thinking about it, I tapped into my status screen, focusing on the package sections.

Shadow Runner Package:

Clairvoyance 2 (74/100)

Programming 1 (0/100)

Movement 2 (0/100)

Quickhacks 1 (8/100)

Assault 2 (6/100)

Tongue of The Ravening Observer

Unseen Stalker Package:

Stealth 0 (0/100)

Tracking 1 (0/100)

Focus 0 (3/100)

Grace 1 (0/100)

Faultline 0 (17/100)

The Shadow Runner and the Unseen Stalker.

Designations I now knew stood for the creatures that had made the creation of the packages possible in the first place. I remembered all the data I'd stolen from the good doctor, suddenly wishing I'd taken the time to download at least some of it to my eye's limited storage memory.

It wasn't the best use of that. Apps were. But it would have let me indulge in some light research in the shower.

The water really does feel so blissfully nice, though…

The sudden knock on the bathroom door made me jerk upright, looking around wildly as fear thrummed through my veins. Images of guards preparing to shoot at me flashed through my mind, along with the doctor's twisted grin as he hacked away at my limbs. My claws popped free, ready to rend, and slash, and stab, and —

"Adrian? Everything okay? You've been gone for a while, and the food is starting to get cold."

Amelia's voice snapped me out of it, leaving bone-deep embarrassment in place of fear and adrenaline.

"Y-Yeah, I'm just fine. Was enjoying the hot water. Been a, heh, hot minute since I've had a nice shower. I'll be out in a minute, okay?"

A snicker was my answer. "Sure, sure. Take your time, hot stuff. Just don't take too long. I'd hate to find myself munching on your pizza just to spare the poor thing the fate of going all gross and cold."

"Don't you dare!"

"Then come out and stop me!"

The banter felt nice, as did her laughter that quickly grew faint as she vacated my claimed room. Still, that didn't quite erase the undertone of genuine worry I'd heard in her voice when she came to check in on me. Worry that had bordered on panic.

Nor did it erase the memory of my reaction to being startled.

I resolved myself then and there never to let Amelia catch me off guard, if I could help it. The chance of that making me introduce her to my claws was a bit too high for my liking.

I lightly thumped my head against the wall a couple times, just to shake loose all the worry building in there. Then I finally turned the shower off and stepped out of it.

I hadn't thought to look for soap beforehand, but some heavy scrubbing and the hot water itself had done a good job cleaning me up. Unfortunately, I also hadn't considered the fact that I would need a towel afterwards. After a few seconds of awkwardly standing there, I just shook myself off as well as I could, and then put on fresh clothes.

I could have toweled myself off with my old clothes, but just the thought of that filled me with one hell of a yuck factor. While I'd done my best to clean off a little in the dressing room at the store, using the hospital gown the doctor had stuck me in, I'd still been pretty gross when I put on that sweater. Just now, in the shower, I had just washed stuff out of my hair I'd really rather not think about.

We must have made for a fucking sight walking down the street together, Amelia and I. I just had to hope we hadn't been memorable enough after our clothing change to really stick in anyone's memory.

At long last, clean and slightly drippy, I emerged back into the living room.

"There you are! I thought you were — eeep!"

Amelia turned her face away from me, making me eye her with some confusion.

The confusion was replaced by a somewhat malicious grin when I realized that what I could see of her face and neck had gone red. That same grin doubled when I glanced down and realized my clothes were practically glued to me, damp as they were.

I made a point of planting my ass right next to hers on the couch, pressing lightly into her side as I did my best impression of a 'sexy purr.'

"So, what's the pizza like?"

Somewhat predictably, this made Amelia turn and glare at me.

Her face was still red though, so… I figured I could count that as my win.

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