“Ms Benson, come on in and have a seat!” The middle-aged clerk of the housing association motioned for Allie to come on. “I’m Ron Gerber, and I’ll be your contact regarding housing while you live here.

“Nice to meet you, Mr Gerber”, Allie said while taking a seat.

“Ms Benson, we have covered pretty much everything we need to discuss on the phone already. You’ll rent a room in one of our on-campus units. We agreed on the finances, in which utilities are included. You will share the unit with three other students. Each of you has their own room, but you share a bathroom, a livingroom and a kitchen. Does that sound about right?”

“Yeah, that sounds correct.” Allie nodded.

“Great. Then all that’s left for us to do is for you to sign the contract. Once that is done, I will hand you your keys and introduce you to your new roommates.” Mr Gerber turned his attention to a stack of paper on his desk. He had to search for a little while before finding what he was looking for. “Ah, yes! Alison Benson, here it is.” He handed her the contract. “Just as discussed. Take your time reading it once again before you sign your name.

Allie was excited. Finally she was going to enter a new chapter in her life. She was nervous about moving out from home, but she had been looking forward to this for years. She’d be independent, meet new people, study law, make new experiences, make friends, and just live her life. She just hoped her roommates were nice.

“Here we are”, Mr Gerber said. Building 4, flat 18 B. Here are your keys, Ms Benson.”

“Thank you.” Allie smiled nervously. She took a deep breath, stuck the key in the lock, pressed the doorbell just in case and opened the door.

“Hello hello?” Mr Gerber said. “Anybody home?”

“Hey Mr Gerber”, a friendly looking girl said. She looked about Allie’s age and had beautiful dark, curly hair. Allie couldn’t quite place her heritage. Turkish? Somewhere in the Arabic world, Allie was sure.

“Hello Sanya”, Mr Gerber greeted the girl, who had just now noticed Allie. Her expression brightened up even further.

“Hi there! You must be our new roommate!” Sanya smiled warmly. “I’m Sanya, welcome!”

“Yeah, hi! I’m Allie”, Allie introduced herself.

“Now that that’s done, I should be getting on my way. If there are any problems, don’t hesitate to contact me, Allie. And welcome”, Mr Gerber said.

“Thank you for dropping me off”, Allie replied. They said their goodbyes and Mr Gerber left.

“So, I guess I should show you to your room”, Sanya said, but was interrupted by an alarm clock going off in the kitchen. Only now did Allie notice the smell of warm cookies. “Dammit, I should get that first. Okay, your room is down the hallway on the left. Go on, I’ll be right there.” She sent Allie on her way and left for the kitchen.

Allie pulled her suitcase down the hallway and opened her room. ‘Not too shabby’, she thought to herself as she opened the door. Her room was quite a lot smaller than her room at home, but it had a desk, a decently sized closet and a comfy looking bed. One wall was basically all window, which flooded the room with sunlight and looked out over the campus. ‘This is it’, she thought to herself. ‘Nice!’

She opened her closet and was greeted with a box of gummy bears, a couple of beers, a bag of chips and an envelope that said “Welcome”.

She opened the envelope and found a note:

“Hey roomie, we’re all really looking forward to meeting you. To make you feel welcome, we made you a little house-warming package. Hold off the gummy bears for now – we’ll show you why -, but the rest is fair game. We’re glad you’re here, enjoy!

Your roomies

John, Sanya and Dan.”

Allie smiled at the warm welcome. Then she frowned. What was so special about the gummy bears? Eh, she’d find out later. She put the welcoming gifts on her desk and began unpacking in her new home.

There was a knock on her door.

“It’s open, come in!” Allie shouted.

“How are you doing?” Sanya poked her head in. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, it’s great, thanks”, Allie responded. “I found your welcoming present. Thank you so much for that.”

“Dammit”, said Sanya for the second time since Allie had first met her. “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice until I was done with the cookies, so I could add those as well. That reminds me: Cookies?” She handed Allie bowl filled with warm cookies.

“Wow, you’re nice! Thank you so much.” Allie took the bowl. “I was really nervous about moving into a flat with four strangers, but you’re so friendly…thank you! I really appreciate it.”

“No worries.” Sanya grinned.

“John and Dan should be home any minute. Can I give you a hand unpacking?”

“That’s awfully nice of you! I mean…if I don’t keep you from anything else..”

“No, you don’t. Let’s do it.”

The two girls unpacked Allie’s things. When they were done, Allie called her parents for a quick update, letting them know she had arrived well at a good room in a nice flat with seemingly great roommates.

After she hung up, there was another knock on her door and two new faces peeped in.

“Hey there, you must be Allie, welcome”, one of them said. He had brown hair and looked a little out of shape, but he seemed very open and friendly. “I’m Dan, and it’s great to have you.”

The other guy was athletic, dark skinned and, for a lack of another expression, fit. He too smiled warmly at her. “And I’m John.”

“I’m Allie”, Allie said. “Great to meet you, and thank you for your welcoming gift. That’s awfully nice of you.”

“Honestly, Sanya’s idea, especially the gummy bears. But I’m glad you liked it”, Dan said.

“Yeah, what is it with the gummy bears?” Allie asked.

“Sanya hasn’t told you yet? Ooh, this will be fun, but she will want to tell you herself.” John smirked. “Let’s go and fix something quick for dinner, before we go over some organisational stuff, and then we can show you.”

Dan and John showed Allie around the flat. The living room was bigger than the other rooms, and had a round table with six seats in it, as well as an old television with a DVD player, a couch and some shelves with board games and whatnot.

They settled on pasta for dinner and ate together. Afterwards Allie joined Dan for a clean-up in the kitchen, before returning to the others in the living room.

“So, Allie, should we quickly do some of the boring organising?” John asked.

“Sure, sounds good!”

“Quickly about us, John and I have been in this flat since last year”, Sanya said. “We’re in our second year now. Dan moved in three days ago, and you complete the ensemble.”

“That’s cool!”, Allie commented and smiled.

“We have a dishwasher, so plates and cutlery can be cleaned there. The kitchen came with plates, cups, bowls, pots and whatnot, so these are here. I know you have your own stuff as well. There is some space in the kitchen, and you can put it in there if you like. We won’t use it without your permission.”

Allie nodded.

“As for cleaning, we always stuck with “whoever uses things in the kitchen cleans them as well” and it has worked great for us. Just..clean them soon after using them, nobody likes a dirty kitchen.”

“Sure!”

“We have a cleaning plan for the shared areas of the flat and will work you into it. Your room is your responsibility.”

“Sounds fair.”

“There is a washing machine in the kitchen, and a drying rack in the cleaning closet. As for supplies, you have your own section of the fridge, the supply closet in the kitchen, and of the freezer. There is a second small fridge which we share. We buy supplies like toilet paper and cleaning utensils with money from a flat-register. We’d ask you to put in like €20 a month. We all do.”

“I can do that, yeah”, Allie said.

“Last but not least, you are welcome to receive guests, but if they stay longer or overnight, or if they spend more time here than anywhere else, check with your roommates first. However, usually that shouldn’t be a problem.” Sanya winked. “Have you got any questions?”

Allie thought for a second. “Not right now, no.”

“Well, if any more come up, feel free to just ask.”

“I will, thanks.”

“Now, let’s get to know each other. Where are you from?”

Allie introduced herself again properly, told the others about her family, her time in high school, her siblings, her pets at home. The others did the same, and gradually, they grew more comfortable around each other.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot”, Allie said after a while. “What is it with these gummy bears?”

The other three looked at each other.

“Do you think she’s ready?” Sanya asked.

“I was”, Dan said.

“I know, but you were quick for whatever reason. Allie seemed nervous, so.. maybe we should wait?” John said.

“Wait with what?” Allie asked. “Guys, I’ve met you. You all are nicer than I could’ve hoped for. I swear, whatever it is, I can handle it.”

“Okay…” Sanya hesitated. “But just so you know, this is a bit weird. I don’t want to put you off or freak you out.”

“That’s very nice of you, but now I’ve been warned”, Allie insisted and grinned. “Go on, hit me!”

“Okay then”, Sanya said.

“Maybe we should let her know about our plans first, so we can get that started…”, John said.

“Good idea”, said Dan.

“Yeah, okay”, Sanya agreed. “Okay, Allie, I have a device that can temporarily remove parts of your body. And the gummy bears can do the same.”

“What do you mean?” Allie asked. “Like…help you hide it? On camera, with sfx? But how would gummy bears do that?”

“No, I mean like really! The gummy bears and my device can both remove – amputate, if you will – a limb temporarily.”

“I…I don’t know what to make of this”, Allie said. “Why would anyone…”

“Because when you do it recreationally and to challenge yourself, it can be really fun”, Sanya said.

“Last year our roommate had one of these, and we all had a blast with it. So I decided to get one for myself. We developed a sort of “penal catalogue” for not fulfilling ones duties in the flat last year, and just had fun nights with friends and stuff.”

“I spent two weeks without hands”, said John and grinned.

“We were thinking of doing some kind of experiment this year, but that’s a bit premature for now…” Sanya trailed off.

“Can…can you show me?” Allie cautiously inquired.

“Sure. How about I just get the device?” Sanya said and got up. “Hang on.”

She left the living room. Allie turned to John and Dan. “You guys are pulling my leg, right?”

“No, we’re serious”, John insisted.

“Though, if you don’t do your jobs here, we might remove one of yours”, Dan added with a wink. John grinned at that.

“Got it!”, Sanya shouted from the other room. A few moments later she entered the living room, carrying a box under her arm.

“Right, so, this is it.” She opened the box and presented Allie with a device that looked a little like the handheld scanners folks used to use in little corner shops in the last millennium.

“What am I looking at?” Allie asked.

“This is ‘The Atomizer’. Ominous name, I know, but it is what it is. Like I said, it can reduce parts of your bodies out of existence. It used to be just limbs for up to a year or indefinitely, but they updated the system a few times. This is the latest model of the handheld version. It is a lot more precise, can mold your residual body parts to certain shapes to simulate deformities from birth, or certain surgical procedures. It can also add scarring in various degrees to add realism if one wants that. Oh, and it can do more. It can erase genitals and eyes, and the effect can now last not up to one year, but up to ten years or indefinitely. And in earlier versions, the limbs would come back very quickly once the timer was up or the restoring pen was used”, Sanya said and held up a pen-shaped stick. “…but with this version, you can actually have the limb “grow back” over time as well.”

“I…I understood like a quarter of that”, Allie stammered.

“Why don’t I just show you?”, Sanya responded. “Boys? Who wants to do the honours?”

“I’ll do it”, said John. “What should we do?”

“Let’s do my left hand. No time, so we can quickly restore it.”

“You got it”, said John and got to work.

Allie watched as John typed around the small display on the device, then took Sanya’s hand. She couldn’t believe it. Slowly but surely, Sanya’s hand seemed to disappear under the Atomizer’s gaze.

“That…that can’t be!”, Allie said with wide eyes. “Does that not hurt?”

“Actually no”, said Sanya. “On the contrary, it’s rather pleasant.”

“Can I see?” Allie nodded to Sanya’s arm, which now terminated at the wrist. Sanya, who quite clearly enjoyed Allie’s reaction and the attention to her arm, showed Allie her arm. Allie inspected the stump. There was no sign that Sanya has ever had a hand on her left arm. Her stump was warm, mushy, and Allie could feel the bone beneath the skin.

“Wow…”, she just said.

Sanya picked up the pen-like stick she had called the ‘restoring pen’ earlier. She put it on her stump and pressed a button. Suddenly a hand grew out of her stump. Within thirty seconds, her hand was back, and she flexed it demonstratively.

“Would you like to try?”, Sanya asked?

Allie hesitated. Would she like to try it? She thought so. Actually, yes, absolutely. But did she dare? “Um…I think so?” she said. “Yes…please”, she landed on.

“Would you want an arm or a leg?”

“Can we start with a finger?”, Allie asked.

“Sure”, Sanya said. She grabbed Allie’s hand. “Close your eyes”, she instructed.

Allie did as she was told. Suddenly there was a very pleasant and warm feeling on her thumb. It radiated into her entire arm and body, and somehow it relaxed her immensely. Then it was gone, and Allie slowly opened her eyes.

When she saw her hand, she gasped. Her thumb was gone. Nowhere to be seen. Allie flexed her hand and stared at its new shape. “I can’t feel my thumb”, she whispered. Then she had to laugh. This sensation, it was so strange, so foreign. She was terrified of what had just happened, and yet, at the same time, it excited her.

“How do you feel?”, Sanya asked.

“Great!”, Allie said. “This is weird, but…amazing.”

“Right?”

“Ya, it feels weird as heck. Also great, though.”

“Well, I’m glad you enjoy it.” Sanya smiled. She looked relieved.

“I want to try this out for a while”, said Allie.

“Sure thing! Whenever you are ready to restore your hand, let me know.”

The evening progressed, they laughed and got to know each other better, and Allie tried all kinds of tasks without a thumb. Only now did she realise how difficult life would without a thumb. After a few hours, Allie had Sanya restore her hand.

Once she had her thumb back, she eyed the Atomizer again. The evening was coming to a close. It was late, and though they had another four days until classes began, there was a lot to do before the year could start.

“Can you do my left hand?”, Allie asked.

“Sure. What setting do you want?”

“A week please. Make it grow back over one week and have the stump end just above the elbow.”

“I can do that”, Sanya grinned and got to work. Allie closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensations coming from her left arm.

Later that night, after she had struggled into her pyjamas with her one hand, and had to improvise in the bathroom when putting toothpaste on her tooth brush, she laid in bed with the lights out, feeling around her stump and thought excitedly about the new chapter in her life that lay ahead of her.