“A part of me hoped, you know?” Sveta asked, almost plaintive. “And that part of me is really disappointed. It’s even more disappointed because there’s no way I could ask. Because it’s creepy, concerning, and weird to ask an eleven-year-old to search through videos to make a complete body.

She stuck a leg out, hiking up her skirt. The projection ended mid-thigh.

“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go talk where we won’t be overheard.”

She nodded, gathering her things to get fully dressed again. We went to the cash, and Sveta bought next to everything we had picked out, the coats excepted.

Burdened with bags, we headed to the front door. The snow was keeping most people indoors, but in the space between the two sets of doors, it was warm and quiet. The air circulation was a steady thrum.

“Can I talk to you, without the thing?” Sveta asked. “Talking about personal stuff to a stranger’s face feels weird.”

I reached up, found the pin, and double-tapped it.

Taking off the mask.

Sveta, bags in one hand, kept one hand at her shirt collar, prosthetic fingers near the projected collarbone. She didn’t switch to her old self.

“Feeling incomplete?” I asked.

“My boyfriend is coming home as soon as things wrap up at the front lines. Crystal should be too.”

“Yeah. It sounds like it wrapped up, but they’re doing cleanup, which is ominous.”

“Ominous, yeah. But they’re coming back and… I like him, I love him. I want to make him happy, and whether it’s cooking or, um, other things, I can’t seem to ever make it happen. He doesn’t taste because everything’s muted. He only really likes music, but I can’t sing. I can’t do the other things because I don’t have a body.”

“There are things you can do for him that aren’t sensory.”

“I try, but there’s something about making food for someone I love and seeing them go for seconds that would make me feel like I have something to give. And I want to give myself to him and have him go for seconds for that, too.”

“Does he feel?”

“Dulled feelings. But even if I got past that, Vicky, I don’t know guys. I can use my tendrils and squeeze hard enough to bite into the metal and deform it, but I don’t think he’d like that.”

“I wouldn’t do that. Not without communicating a lot beforehand, and during. Probably after.”

“He’s a red-blooded guy, Vicky. He likes women. With the relationship he and I have now, I feel like his kid sister sometimes.”

“I don’t think you’re his kid sister, Sveta.”