I decided to swing back by the burrow to drop some ballast before shipping out again. Can't really be on one's best game with a round in the chamber and the safety off, if you catch my meaning. And there's no place like home.

While exiting the toilets, Chrysoll poked her head down through the hole in the courtyard ceiling. "Hey. Rav. Someone was poking around in your cell, I think. They were in a dark hoodie and I only saw them leaving. Also, there's a new housemate. Troll. He keyed one of the cells and hasn't come out since."

"'Kay. Thanks Chry. Guess I'd better check out my cell."

I went in, guns blazing. Finger guns, anyway. Anyone in there could get a faceful of raw ether, and suffer all the mild sunburn I could deliver with my current level of pyrotics ability. Look, I've always been better with guns, all right? Most people my age are relying on system skills, anyway. I'm doing it all with no guardrails.

No one was waiting in ambush. But there was an envelope propped up with a clever paper fold on my study desk. How mysterious.

I picked it up and tore it open. Inside was a note on thick card stock: "Ravenna Asterian is invited to a gathering of the Silver Torus Society, this Sepjer, at a secret location. Invitees will be guided from the kissing gates, starting at the last hour of Sunwane."

Boom. Score one invite. I guess the shady hoodie guy was a courier. But whoever it was still shouldn't have been able to break in to my cell. That's kind of not cool. I checked the locking bar. No signs of damage or tampering.  So these fancy etherlocks can still be picked, or bypassed. And if Joe Rando college student can do it, those flagfucker spies can probably do it.

I'm goblin enough to fix that. A little spring catch here, a pull cable there.  Disguise the outside lever with a bit of rock, and nobody's getting in without a chit and a little press on the correct spot of the door frame.

By the time I was finished, the troll was also exiting their cell. I caught a glimpse inside of several instruments arranged on the desk, and a whiff of iron and copper. She quickly closed her door.

"Hey there, new housemate. I'm Ravenna Asterian. Welcome to the Roundhouse.  So far, it's just you, me, and a dwarf girl named Chrysoll Malachitas. Have you met her yet?"

"No, I went straight in to my cell to get myself... arranged."

"Hey, Chry! You still around?"

Chrysoll poked her head out again. "Up here. I like it on the moss. We need to figure a way up in case they take the ladder away. Hi there. I thought you were a boy went you came in, but you look like a girl now."

"You saw me come in?"

"I was just up on the moss thinking about convoluted manifolds in higher dimensional space. Rav gave me some drugs the other day, and the shapes tried to teach me better math, but then I forgot, and I really want to remember now.  When I came in the first time, I accidentally saw Rav's penis, but now she has seen me naked, too, so I think we're probably even on the clothing rule."

"Ahhhh. Suuure. I'm Nellis Spann. I'm a troll, hoping to study for medicine and surgery. I don't imagine there are many trolls wanting to be doctors, but I'd like to give it a shot."

"Really? What made you decide on that?"

"Kind of a personal issue. Let's just say regeneration isn't always a blessing for everyone. I want to figure out a way to guide it in other directions."

"Well, I'm general studies, for now, and Chry is mathematics. Did the Residency say anything about who else might show up? I don't even know how many of these cells are supposed to be usable right now. You might not have noticed, but half of them don't have furniture."

"No, they didn't. It took a while to get my assignment, though. The R.A. said it takes a little longer for people who refuse the government housing survey questions."

"I should probably let you know about some other students who might show up from time to time. There's a catgirl, black hair, black fur, named Janis. Her ratboy boyfriend with big glasses, Fess. And I just found out my goblin cousin Peralya is taking classes here this term, so she might show up too. There are fash spies in town, so keep an eye out for anyone suspicious. And I just found out that the ether locks aren't quite as secure as they appear to be, so maybe add your own security, if you can."

Nellis looked alarmed at that.

"You girls been to the student union yet? They have sign-up sheets out for various student clubs and teams and whatnot. I signed up for Junior Adventurers, and already got a date out of it. It'll be in like two weeks, but my calendar is open."

"Did Chrysoll say she saw your penis? You look like a girl, though."

"Yeah, she should maybe stop telling everyone we meet, out of nowhere. I'm an amphisbaen. A dual. Technically, its a clitoropenis. And I also have a vagina and uterus."

"And that doesn't bother you at all? It doesn't feel wrong to you?"

"Nope. Feels pretty damned good, sometimes."

"She had sex with Janis and Fess yesterday. They were really loud."

"Chry, you don't have to tell everyone about all that."

"I was just letting her know, in case she wants to change cells. I don't mind it, because I knew it was my friends having a good time."

"No, I think I'll keep the cell I'm in."

"I've been slutting around all morning trying to get invited to a weekend party, so now that I've got one, I'm heading over to grab lunch.  Anyone else in?"

Chry scrambled down the ladder and exited the burrow. I guess that's a yes, for her.

"I still have some stuff I need to put away. I'll meet you there."

So I made my egress and took the tunnel towards the dining hall. It was barely a minute before I realized I left my shoulder bag and suncheater in my cell.  I made a quick reverse, and popped back in to the burrow.

As I entered, Nellis's door was hanging open, and the water was running in the toilet room. My curiosity piqued, I peeped in. The smell of copper and iron spiked as I approached, and the floor was stained with a dark purple fluid, which had been crudely toweled up. The desk was covered with surgical knives, and a large mirror on an articulated arm. What the fuck?

I quested into the toilet room. Nellis was washing a towel out in the sinks, that purple fluid washing down the drain.

"Nellis? What's going on?"

"Fuck! Damnit! It's nothing! I'm fine!"

"Nellis? That doesn't sound like fine. Is that your blood? Why is it purple?"

"Yes. But it's fine. I'm a troll, remember. Heals up in minutes. It's purple because the hemoglobin makes it red, and the hemocyanin makes it blue.  Red, blue, purple. Troll blood."

"And why was it all over your floor?"

"I practice surgery. On myself."

She had brought her wastebasket in to the toilets, bloody purple gore was in the bottom.

"And what's in the garbage there?"

"When I'm done, I flush it."

"But what is it?"

"My testicles."

"I... don't know what to say about that."

"They keep growing back. They always grow back. So I keep cutting them out.  I don't want them. I never wanted them. And if I weren't a fucking troll, I could get rid of them for good. But they keep. Growing. Back."

"Nellis..."

"That's why I want to do surgery. I have been fixing myself, twice a week, since I was 9 years old. I learned all kinds of tricks to make it hurt less, and heal better. But this fucking body has to fight me. I think I've become rather good at it. Do you want to see?"

Nellis dropped her skirt, and showed me a perfect female vulva.

"That's a pussy."

"Yeah, I make it look like that. Practice makes perfect. A few cuts, and a little creative rearrangement, a few minutes of trollish regeneration, and it will stay like that for hours. Longer, if I use some special tools."

"But you have boobs, too."

She lifted her shirt. Once again, perfect.

"These are part herbs and part implant. It takes longer for the body to push those out. I only need to fix them once a week."

"Isn't all that painful?"

"Excruciating. It took a few years to build up enough tolerance to get through it all without passing out. So, now you know. What now? You going to tell everyone? Call me a boy? Get me kicked out of the burrow?"

"No. No! No one deserves to suffer so much just to be who they are!" One of those etherwaves rippled out. I got so dizzy, I passed out for a second. I awakened on the floor, Nellis's face hovering over mine.

"What did you do? Were you attacking me? It didn't work."

"No. I don't know what that was. But they're getting worse. I've never passed out before."

"I'm sorry. For assuming. Most people don't react very well when they find out. My own mother kicked me out from the bridge. I have been on my own for a long time. Makes it difficult to trust anyone. Let me finish cleaning up my mess, and I'll find you at the dining hall."

"It's really good. Your work. I think you'll be a great surgeon. See you over there."

I didn't forget my stuff this time. But in comparison, my bag seemed awfully light.

paperback_fungus

Make sure to be extra kind to your trans friends today.  Assuming you don't run at 100% kindness for the entire year.