At Least Her Face is Familiar

How easy food was to come by in this world. It baffled Gask to no end, the luxuries that these people took for granted. His first day in this place they called a cafeteria, he had eaten so much food it had made him feel ill afterward.
He had learned to pace himself since.

Today was another day. More classes, more being given strange looks by some students, reading in the library. And now lunch.
He was standing around, trying to decide where to sit when he heard it.

Hey Chloe!

It shouldn't have made him turn. There were surely plenty of people with that name in this world. But turn he did, and Gask found himself looking at an all too familiar face. There were differences, of course. The horns, the tail, the legs. But the face he was looking at was undoubtedly the cannibal queen's pet.

Despite himself, Gask approached. The lure of a familiar face was too strong, after feeling so isolated from things that he had known before.
He suddenly felt awkward however as he drew closer, his usual confidence drained by the knowledge that Chloe, like everyone else who had entered his world, would remember the events of their lives their as detached memories. Like watching a movie.

He was upon her before he knew it though, and had to think of something or else look strange just standing there and staring at her.
"Ah... Hello. I don't suppose you recognize me, do you? Not without the mask, I mean. Or the burns... or..."
He was rambling. He needed to ground himself. A deep breath.

"I'm Gask. From the si-" another breath. He could say it. He had resolved to not let it bother him more than necessary. "-the simulation."

"Ah... well that's because..." She thought he was a real person, someone who had gone into the simulation with them. He shuffled his feet, awkwardly trying to figure out how he should say it.

"I wasn't someone who went into the simulation. I'm, ah... someone who came out."

It was so easy to say, but it left his mouth dry. He gave a faint, halfhearted smile and shrugged. This was more awkward than he anticipated. It was easy to talk to Chloe in the simulation. He knew her history, he had an established relationship and rapport with her. But out here, where she clearly wasn't human and he knew nothing about her, Gask had nothing to go on.

Did she hate him for all the times he tried to buy her from Pandora? Did she even care? Had it all been, he hated the word so much, a game to her?

She was talking this quite well. "Ah... the second, actually. This body I was given was apparently made to simulate the human experience rather closely. So it has all the normal functions, I guess you could say."

Well, other than the fact that he only slept four hours a week. Among other things. Gask shook the thoughts away.
"But that is beside the point. How are you? I have only met a small handful who participated in the simulation. It is still a novel experience for me."

Gask watched Chloe the whole time, unsure of how he should react to her. It was good that she wasn't addicted to drugs and wasn't a slave in this world. But something in her laugh made Gask feel like she wasn't totally convinced.

"Lunch sounds wonderful, actually. I'm still getting used to the variety of food you have here."
Gask kind of led the way, used to such things. But as he looked around, he realized he was out of his element.

"I, uh, is there anything you'd recommend? I've tried a few things, but they were all things that were kind of familiar. Simple foods, I guess you might call them."

Gask heard the word spicy and immediately went for the pizza. He had tried a jalapeno a few days before. It had been awful. Sitting down with his food he poked it with his fork, unsure of how to proceed.

"So you are not a slave in this world. You're here at the school, which means you're a student as well?"
Gask alternated between looking at Chloe and glancing around at students to see what they were doing.

He noticed one picking up their pizza with their hands and eating it. Gask quickly followed suit. He spoke between bites, talking with his mouth half full, apparently unaware of normal etiquette.
"What level are you in? Er... grade, I mean. Are you studying anything in particular?"