Necessities

The desk clerk talks as he leads Alice through a short hallway, “So… we take everything to a thrift store and donate it once a year. So if you lost something prior to June, it's gone at this point… but frankly, few items that are turned in are ever claimed, so if you see something you want… well, officially I can't encourage taking things that aren't yours. But I can keep an eye out for the juicier items if you give me your number…”

“Not interested,” the woman shuts the man down hard, “but thank you for confirming that nobody cares.”

“Fine, fine…” the man shakes his head as they arrive, “in here….” he opens a door to a small storage room, with several bins of miscellaneous items.

“Thank you,” Alice smiles, and starts digging through the bins as the clerk heads back to the front desk.

The woman quickly starts sorting the piles: sweatshirts, coats, shirts, pants, skirts, socks, shoes, underwear, backpacks, books, thermoses, pens, purses, wallets (none with cash or current credit cards), phones, laptops, chargers, and such.

Thinking, ‘Okay, so… what do I need…’ the woman selects two full changes of clothes (wondering just how so many women's panties ended up in lost and found) including a coat and two t-shirts, but no shoes (no matching pairs), a backpack, a purse (containing a woman's student ID… how did they NOT return that?), and shoves the rest back.

Stripping down out the men's clothing (and suppressing her revulsion at dealing with someone else's unwashed clothes) she's gets to work, first matching her face, skin, and hair to the student ID (a very dark skinned woman with an unpronounceable name), then conforming the rest of her body to the clothes.

Taking a moment, she takes a selfie in the new outfit (and new body…) texting it to her roommate Brian with a message, “Ran into some complications; still plan to make our date, see you soon.”

She then packs the rest (including her old clothes) into the backpack, hooks it over her shoulders, and walks out with a temporary identity.

The man who let her in frowns a little, but doesn't stop her.

Whistling merrily, Alice heads to the dining hall, flashing her stolen card as she actually scans her real one, and walks through to have a solid meal… because she is HUNGRY. As she loads up on sausage and ham for right now, juices, breads, and other dry goods for later, she figures out why: TANSTFL: There Ain't No Such Thing as a Free Lunch. Everything she makes her biology do comes with a biological cost: Dense muscles need more power to bend the less flexible skin from the ‘armor’ built into it and producing sedatives requires materials… she can be something like Sergeant Mega, but she's going to need to eat like a horse to feed that body… or maybe more like a polar bear: High fat content.

Once her stomach and backpack are both full, Alice checks the time… Brian should be getting out of his last class soon. So she heads to the park….