Having feelings was a curious business, he decided, once again, as he walked through the hospital's double set of automatic doors. The air conditioning hit his body, which he now realized had been overheating as the surface temperature began to drop, in a buffered wave and he defined the resulting feeling as something like 'satisfaction.' He paused for a moment in the automatic action of cleaning his hands upon entering the building, rubbing in sanitizer from the dispenser on the wall, before continuing his measured, unvarying strides. Destination: Cafeteria, he realized, after a quick scan of the state of his organ systems, explaining the automatic, cruise-control actions of his body. Uncomfortable, Rudy rolled up the sleeves of his flannel workshirt to his elbows, facilitating the cooling-off process-- and thoughtlessly dirtying his hands again.

He reached the cafeteria in Replicant-good time and slipped into line neutral-faced as usual, ignored by and ignoring the handful of human employees present. He picked up a tray and slid it idly down the metal lip as he walked, serving himself from the containers of food that his brain relayed would be most beneficial to his energy regeneration, muscle recuperation, overall health, and the actions he would be performing during his work later that day. The scientific, dispassionate way of choosing food inspired a thought inside him-- the distance he had always had from the senses. Before he had... Before the errant thoughts had begun, Rudy could remember viewing food as merely a means to an end. It was merely the process necessary to continue doing work. He'd had no awareness that there were different kinds, flavors, textures of foods because consumption of it was regulated, autmoatic, emotionless. Now, he was beginning to intuit the correlation of senses and emotions. Different tastes elicited different bodily responses-- once one paid attention to notice-- and thus inspired opinions and emotions. "Favorite" was an emotional word; if various foods differed not in one's mind, there could not one be "better" than the rest. When consuming a certain food inspires one to be pleased or satisfied, that food gains esteem. And thus, the sense of taste becoming known to Rudy was a difficult experience. He needed to choose the most efficient foods for himself at any given time, and yet the eating of some such choices evoked more or less satisfaction or dissatisfaction. It was a curious occurrence, one of many that moved Rudy to pensive introspection.