"Amen," Isabel sighs. "I can get a certain amount of work done in my room, but for some stuff I really need aqua regia and a fume hood, you know?"

"I've heard some mentions of independent study projects; does anybody know how those work or who I'd talk to to register one?"

"You'd want to talk with your workshop supervisor for that," Isabel says thoughtfully. "You thinking of registering your bodybuilding so you can get extra lab time?"

"Yeah, I'd really like to get the new chassis done this semester and without cutting corners either. I'll ask the workshop supervisor; thanks for the tip!" 

"Hey, maybe you can get it before combat finals, give somebody a nasty surprise," Reba says with a smirk. "Maybe give yourself laser eyes or something."

She giggles. "Maybe! What are the rules for what sort of thing you can bring in, anyway?"

"As long as you carry it day-to-day you're good," Reba says. "This obviously inspires a lot of people to start carrying things around day-to-day in November but that doesn't really work, they know what you're actually comfortable with."

"Well, if I bolt it all on maybe they'll decide taking it off me is too much bother."

Lucy laughs. "Maybe I should get some grafts."

Isabel shakes her head. "It's not a 'they confiscate your shit' situation, it's a 'they give you a D because you came loaded for bear' situation. Anyway, you're fine if you integrate stuff with your chassis as long as you actually intend to keep it."

"Yeah, I'm just joking, I wouldn't want to make room in the chassis for anything I don't want long term. I'll probably just go for lots of armor and the best motors I can get and four arms, and I want all of those for other reasons anyway."

Isabel makes a face. "Man, I'd totally go for four arms, but my stupid GSD makes it impossible for me to meaningfully change my body."

"Ah, sorry to hear that. Does the same problem apply to prosthetics, or do you just mean you can't graft them on?"

She shrugs. "I guess I could wear something? I just can't modify my actual body plan or it reverts in three days. And with my specialty I've got no comparative advantage on prosthetics, just shapechanging potions that I can't use."

She nods. "Okay. I ask because I'm thinking of going into business selling, among other things, strap-on extra arms, but by the time I get that off the ground you'll probably have a workaround that lets you make your own."

"Probably not," Isabel says. "GSD is a bitch, but it's not as much of a bitch as fixing GSD. I'm not Jobe Wilkins; I'm gonna stick with therapy over experimental potions."

"You'd know best. Who's Jobe Wilkins?" 

Isabel frowns. "Right, engineering gadgeteer. He was this really brilliant biodevisor/biogadgeteer back in the aughts, the son of Gizmatic, crown prince of Karedonia, et cetera. Impossibly smart, even before he manifested - he was publishing papers at the age of ten, he manifested at thirteen. He invented this serum that could turn someone into a 'Drow' - basically a mid-tier Exemplar/Regenerator, but looking like Blackface Barbie because he was a teenage nerd asshole. This was already impressive, but it worked on GSD cases. Pretty much universally. Not a lot of them took him up on it, because again, Blackface Barbie, but the ones who did? Completely cured. Then, in a tragic but hilarious lab accident, he ended up injecting himself with it. Anyway, a lot of that story was irrelevant, but I'm not Jobe, is what I'm getting at, I'm not brilliant enough to cure GSD and I'm not enough of an idiot to try."

Lucy stabs her fork into a broccoli floret with possibly excessive force.

"I'm glad I'm already in Mutants in World History, I feel like public high school did not cover enough of this stuff."

"You're right about that," Isabel snorts. "But MWH and miscellaneous gossip should have you up to speed within a couple of semesters as long as you gossip with the right miscellaneous folks."

"Yup! Anyway, I'm done eating because I never actually started; I'm going to go see if I can track down the workshop supervisor. Later, folks!"

They wave goodbye.

Where is the workshop supervisor? Perhaps they are in the workshop!

There does not appear to be a supervisor in the workshop at the moment! There is, however, a pretty blonde girl with her hair in a high ponytail swearing under her breath at a robot head she's got disassembled across her workstation.

She looks up with obvious irritation, which transforms into confused irritation as she takes in the sight of Margaret's chassis. "Who or what are you?"

"Margaret, codename Upload, looking for a supervisor. Looks like you're busy; I'll leave you alone."

"Yeah, the supervisors leave after hours, that's why it's called after hours. Upload? That would explain why you've got a psychic signature... You're a roboticist, then?"