"Phoenix, what was I looking for again?" Amy calls from the other room.

"I don't know ames, want me to help you look?" Phoenix calls back as Amy sticks her head out of a room in the hallway.

"Eva, you did come!" Amy says seeing the two new guests in the room. "Oh, that's right, be right back." the #ff10f0 haired woman raises her hand at Amy in greeting, as Amy retreats back into the room. 

[Observation: The woman I now suspect is Eva, seems rather demure despite her appearance.]

"So who's the egg?" The catbot asks, strolling further into the room.

Arcadia gestures at me with her thumb, as she sits facing the door in the chair next to me. I follow Arcadia's lead, and lift and turn my chair to face the catbot.

"I believe that would be me, however in retrospect I'm not sure you needed to come all this way. I don't want to bother anyone, and besides I'm very possibly not even trans, so…" I ramble as the intimidating 6'3" robot strides up to me. 

She sticks out her hand at me, and I instinctively flinch.

"It's a greeting, grab her hand." Arcadia tells me, sitting with her cheek rested on the palm of her hand.

"O- okay." I tentatively respond, grabbing the cat's hand.

"No need to worry! I'm Siri!" She beams, suddenly wah more cheery and gentle than before.

[Observation: She is so tall. In my old body I would have towered over her. Inquiry: Why is our size difference making me so happy?]

"Here, take a seat." Phoenix says, pulling up a chair for Siri. "Arcadia made some eggs for you Eva if you want. You know how she is." 

"Hehe yeah, she's quite the workaholic." Eva responds, softly.

"Hey! Not true, I just get bored easily." Arcadia says defensively, blowing a bubble until it pops.

[Inquiry when did she start chewing gum?]

"Okay! So, Eva I finished those specs for the body mod you were planning!" Amy says, coming into the room with several rolls of paper. "I can't find which one it is but-"

"Do you need some help with that honey?" Phoenix says, as Amy struggles

"No, I got this." 

Amy and Eva sit down on a couch, and spread out the papers on a coffee table, while Phoenix prepares the breakfast Arcadia made for Eva.

"So, I hear you've been thinking of gender lately" Siri starts, crossing her legs.

"I believe her exact words were 'would it be wrong if I wanted to be a girl?'" Phoenix chimes in plating the omelet.

"Well, I'm here to assure you it definitely isn't!" Siri declares.

"Inquiry: Just because I maybe, sometimes want to be a girl, doesn't mean I'm trans does it?"

"You certainly look like a girl. I'm not sure I understand the problem"

"Sorry about that, by the way!" Amy calls, as Phoenix, her, and Eva are in the middle of their own conversation.

"I'm a guy! or at least, I used to be. Inquiry: Is it wrong to want to keep this body without being trans?" I ask.

"Not at all, but if you are wanting to keep a female body because it feels better then maybe you aren't a guy" Siri offers.

"Obviously not, I know gender isn't something inherent to robots like with humans. Postulation: Perhaps that's why I'm okay with suddenly being a girl, because I am comfortable in any body I'm in?"

"Perhaps. Question: Did you ever have thoughts about being a woman before you were put in this new body?"

"...Perhaps…"

"Would you want to go back to a male body if you could?"

"It would be too much of a hassle to ask someone to build a whole new body for me."

"Ames could do it in no time! My marvelous super mechanic." Phoenix chimed in.

"Phee I love your enthusiasm but…" Amy starts.

"Let's imagine a hypothetical, where you could be put back into the perfect male model body today. Would you want to do it?" Eva asks.

"...Logically the answer should be yes." 

"Oh, fuck logic she's asking what you WANT." Arcadia snaps

[Fuck logic!? How could anyone, so flagrantly disregard logic like that!!!]

"Wha– I… Fuck Logic!? What are you… wh- You."

"Ah crap, I broke her."

"It's okay Arc. What She meant was, that the things we want sometimes are not always logical or rational desires." Eva says, putting a clawed hand on my shoulder.

"I suppose that's true. It's nonetheless infuriating though…" 

"Not everything needs to be explainable, or rationalized"

"Especially not gender." Arcadia remarks.

"Observation: Things, not explainable logically, have never made much sense to me. I don't think I'm good at understanding emotions very well." 

"Heh, Eva's a lot like that too, that's okay though. Emotions aren't everyone's strong suit, but it's not always healthy to deny how you feel in favor of logic, as tempting as that may be."

"Inquiry: How can I be sure any of this is real though? What if it's just something Amy programmed in?"

Amy's face goes pale as a ghost as I say that. [Inquiry: Could that be the case? Is she upset because I caught her? Maybe none of it is real and I'm just a regular…. guy… after all.]

Phoenix makes a loud audible gasp, and covers Amy's ears. "Ames would never!"

"Phoenix is right, it's definitely not Amy's style to mess with people's gender. She is likely to name her files weird or put unrelated stuff in her comments but she wouldn't mess with someone's identity rest assured." Eva says.

"Yeah, like she programmed something called 'piledriver' into my code, guess what it does?" Arcadia asks, suddenly way more invested in the conversation at hand.

"What?" Siri asks.

"It's a driver to help with stacked generalization! Who names files like that!?"

"Hey I think it's cool!!! Besides you've seen enough old WWE tapes with me you should get the reference!" Amy excitedly stands up to defend her honor, as Eva giggles in the corner.

"Besides QT, you just said, yourself that you had thoughts of wanting to be a girl before you even met us." Phoenix adds.

"They could be fake memories, put into my head without my knowledge?"

"You have autonomy QT, believe it or not, and since the singularity it's a lot harder to change any robots own sense of identity." Arcadia reassures me, with a gesture much gentler than I have come to expect from her.

"Yeah, otherwise I'm sure your 'master' would have programmed it out of you long ago." Phoenix adds, scare quotes and all.

Arcadia gives me a look of pity as Phoenix says those words.

[Inquiry: What could she possibly know about what it's like. If she isn't the girls' servant. Who is she to judge?]

Siri's shoulders tense and her tail that had been resting in her lap starts swinging restlessly.

"Okay, everyone, let's settle down. I can feel the tension in the air, let's all take it down a notch. Arcadia's right though, a robot's identity is more than just their code, it's persistent no matter what programming is layered over it."

Eva gets up from the couch, and her hand on Siri's head, which seems to calm her.

"Apologies, I didn't mean to upset anyone…"

"Don't worry about her, she just gets anxious about conflict." Eva says, in almost a whisper while patting Siri's head.

"What are you so damned afraid of anyway QT?" Arcadia asks.

"...If I'm like this… What if Master won't want me back, or what if he does but…"

"You don't ever have to go back to him QT, not while I'm around!" Phoenix exclaims, flexing her muscles.

"Don't worry about Phee, she talks a big game but she's just a big ol' teddy bear. I'm the real muscle between the two of us!" Amy says, posing heroically.

"I'll show you a teddy bear!" Phoenix retorts, putting Amy in a headlock.

 

volsnap

 

Motor SPECelm 360 track

 

There are three knocks on the wall in the hallway.

"Oh, hi quirk!" Eva says greeting the figure standing in the middle of the walkway.