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Devon sipped their singular sip of Pincha espresso in celebration. The colony had done it. Not escaping, but adapting. Devon didn’t know much about the world. They’d been printed fairly late, into the at-the-time struggling settlement of Swagum Novum, and was fairly bad at certain things; cooking, painting, and something else called “science”. They’d never witnessed it in their 50 cycles in Swagum Novum, but Otto said that they were the original scientist, and that they had to do a lot of complicated stuff to find out about all the things that Swagum Novum had now. Devon thought that was silly; how hard is it to come up with auto-sweepers, or polymer presses, or gas ovens? But Otto said that they had to do all the “science” just to find out about coal generators!
But that was all in the past. Devon was printed, instantly given a flashy pink outfit, and sent to start digging holes. They were good at it. Otto said that it was because of a chip in their head that made them born really good at digging. Otto sometimes made Devon’s head hurt. Being one of the first dupes seemed to make them a bit on edge; Otto kept on insulting everyone, but they never seemed to know they did it, and they were such an expert that nobody got mad much anymore. Usually. Devon remembered a time that Gossman got stranded in the… cooling thingy, and didn’t get out until the next cycle. Otto accidentally made a rude joke, and Gossman snapped. Devon was scared for a few cycles after that, made worse by how Gossman was usually all cheer.
When Otto made Devon’s head hurt, they always went straight to Ada, their fellow newbie. Ada had been printed only three cycles earlier, and yet they acted like they’d been there when Broussard first picked out the first three dupes. Devon had a suspicion about the little rectangle near Ada’s cot, which Otto said was a book that Ada could write in. They said Ada had a brain chip that made them smart, too, like Otto. Devon liked Ada’s smartness more than they liked Otto’s.
Devon went over to the soda station and poured themself a cup. They were happy, obviously, but something was bugging them. Something… warm, and odd, but in a good way? Devon didn’t know warmth could be good. While maybe it helped in the cooling thingies, warmth killed the berries, it overheated machinery, and at worst it could burn. Oh, and it made the dupes all hot and bothered. It seemingly wasn’t the only thing, though, because Devon felt a bit buzzy right now, and not from the espresso. No, this was different. This felt nice, like the one time the Mother printed spicy tofu, and Devon got a bite, but not exactly. More… torso. Devon was usually glad they weren’t all that smart, but right now they wished they had more words, and maybe some way to figure out all this. Devon hoped this wouldn’t affect their digging. It felt like that time they met the weird guy, Jorge, and he was so nice they just felt so good they started working super fast. Yeah, that was it. But Ada wasn’t usually that. She was amazing, of course, and Devon really liked hanging out with them during downtime, but she didn’t always make everyone super happy. Just Devon.
Ada walked into the room, wearing the snazzier violet suit Devon made. It made Devon feel good, knowing that the suit went to Ada. Devon shook their head and went to the Jukebot with Ada and turned it on, dancing to the same music as the past 50 cycles. It never got old. The lyrics were incomprensible, and the synths were out of key, but Devon had their senses focused on one thing only. Ada. She was beautiful. Devon wondered if it was related to the chip in her head, but Otto wasn’t that good at dancing. Just Ada, and her violet suit reflecting light like Shine Bugs, and her hair bouncing everywhere like the Pip-themed balloons Ada would hand out sometimes. One time she gave one to Devon, and they cherished it for ten whole cycles.
“So, how was the digging?” Devon’s breath hitched at the sound of Ada’s voice. “I hear you broke the surface.” Ada grinned at Devon, still grooving.
“Oh, uh, good, good. I did, um, yeah. I broke the surface. It was weird. I could see all the gasses vanishing, and, like, I got kinda scared about what if all our air disappeared like that. But in, like, a cool, smart way, like you. ‘Cause you’re smart.” Devon felt dumber than usual. They couldn’t think of words, but Ada either didn’t notice or didn’t care.
“Yeah I am.” Ada’s grin widened. “And don’t worry, Devon, our air is too far down and we have too much. Plus-” And then Ada said some things that Devon couldn’t comprehend, about “liquid locks” and “package temperature mechanics” and “industrial bricks”, but Devon was lost looking at her pretty face. Really pretty. They felt even dumber now, as they snapped back to reality just as Ada finished saying “-can’t escape, not unless someone made a hole in the shell and Mother didn’t do anything for a while.”
“Mhm, yeah, okay…” Devon muttered, not following along in the slightest. “So our air won’t all go away?”
“Not without some big mistakes, no. By the way, are you sure you don’t want to try out being smart? You can make that blog about pictures of toast like you always wanted!” Ada’s smirk became a more sincere smile at that. “I know you really want to make it.”
Devon was a little flushed, which was weird, because the room was only around 23 degrees. “You, um remembered that? About POT.com? I don’t even know how I thought of that, computers are really hard to use, right? It’s like I remembered something from someone else that was also me.” Devon pondered out loud. “You, um, probably know exactly what I mean, ‘cause you’re so smart and stuff.”
“Yeah, it’s the Somnium Synthesizer. You wear the fluffy suit to bed and dream better, and then the big machine reads it.” Ada explained. “Then me and Otto and that little goober Josh tell you guys.”
Devon felt a weird thing in their insides at the tone of voice Ada used for talking about Josh. They wanted to be called that! Not a goober, but maybe something else, really sweet and all. “Josh isn’t that smart, though. Right?”
“Yeah, but he’s really fast. That’s why he’s always cleaning.”
“Oh.” Devon felt dumb again. They didn’t like it. To take their mind off it, they kept dancing, their arms swinging side to side, like they had every lunch break since they were made.