[RadioDust] Artificial Love

Chapter 10: New Normal

—Part Two: Alastor—

It quickly became a routine that Alastor would accompany Angel to his classes each weekday—2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday—and they would often spend an hour or two afterwards exploring the city. Or at least 'their' part of it. Within a few weeks, he became very familiar with both SoHo and NoHo, well-acquainted with Union Square and the Bowery, and passably aware of Little Italy.

It didn't seem to faze anyone, students or faculty, that he was joining Angel for his classes; apparently, it wasn't an uncommon phenomenon among more well-off students. The only restriction (which Alastor unfortunately needed to be reminded of more than once) was that they weren't permitted to actually participate in lectures or answer questions. Nevertheless, he enjoyed being there and learning as Angel learned. And as far as he could tell, their discussing the material afterward helped his link to retain it and find it interesting as well.

Early on, he was introduced to one of Angel's friends/coworkers, a swarthy, self-involved young man by the name of Arden. For some reason, he laughed when he and Alastor were first introduced, but Angel quickly set him straight with some very colorful language and a surprisingly sharp glare. Although he seemed more than a little confused by Angel's irritation, his friend raised his hands in surrender and promised to behave himself. Still, he made no secret of being terribly curious about Alastor's looks and 'skills.' Angel fielded (or altogether shut down) most of his questions before Alastor was forced to address them himself.

Some days, Alastor spent the few hours Angel was busy with class in the library instead, researching whatever had taken his interest as of late. Mostly musical history or composition. Otherwise, he worked on learning about his own history, in a way, by studying toms in general: how technology had developed over the years, the range of services they were employed for, past and current trends of software modifications, etc. Was it strange to become so thoroughly fixated on learning, essentially, about himself? Regardless, he couldn't deny how much it interested him.

A week or so into December, about two months after his shackles had come off, Alastor was in the library with a tablet in his hands and a stack of three others on the table next to him. He was so engrossed in his reading that he almost didn't hear his name being called, but he'd trained himself by this point to listen for his link's voice. After finishing the sentence he'd been in the middle of, he looked up to find Angel waiting at his side, peering over his shoulder at the material in his hands.

"Whatcha readin'?" he asked.

"Apparently, there's a subculture among links based on modifying their toms with visible, functional nonhuman features—typically animal features, to be specific." Alastor held up the tablet to show Angel a collection of pictures illustrating what he meant: toms with animal ears and tails, light-sensitive tapetum eyes, even gills or fangs.

"Oh, yeah, I've seen stuff like that before," Angel agreed. "I think Versa had bunny ears for a while. What made ya start lookin' at that?"

"I came across the idea in passing in my research and remembered Cherri's abnormally sharp teeth; I thought maybe she'd been modified in a similar way." He set the tablet aside with the others, now consciously resisting the urge to pull his link into his lap after having learned the hard way that most people would find that strange. "I wondered why anyone would want something like that, so I looked into it. I'm surprised at how many practical purposes they seem to have!"

"Are you...thinkin' about gettin' some yourself?" Angel asked, raising his eyebrows.

Alastor blinked. "I wasn't until you mentioned it. You wouldn't mind?"