A small, friendly chime woke Duncan from a pleasant sleep.
“Good morning, Duncan.” A caring female voice cooed.
“Good morning, Darcy.” He smiled.
“It’s 9 AM and you wanted me to wake you up, but it’s still quite early and your breathing and heartrate suggest your sleep wasn’t optimum. Shall I set another alarm for 10?”
Duncan stretched, doing his best to coax blood to flow toward his lagging brain.
“No, it’s fine… I’ve been wanting to hike for a while now, and today is a perfect day for-”
His words were cut off by the sound of thunder.
“Oh dear. It sounds like it’s going to be a nasty one out there.” Darcy said in a tone of voice that barely concealed her excitement. Indeed, the curtains parted and Duncan looked out on a cityscape being drenched in rain.
“Darcy?” He asked in an accusatory way.
His apartment remained silent.
“Darcy… Come on now. I know what the weather’s supposed to be like today.”
But rain continued pouring down the window and thunder kept playing over the speakers.
“Apartment D16!” He snapped. He only used her real name when serious.
“Fiiiine!” Darcy complained. At once the photoplane window went transparent, revealing the *actual* conditions outside…Beautiful and sunny. The speakers, too, went silent.
Duncan grinned. “Hmmm… That’s better.”
He began to get ready. He noticed that at each stage of preparation, the automated systems designed to assist him in getting ready for the day moved slightly slower than normal. Darcy, too, seemed unusually silent. The awkward silence grew so uncomfortable that, over breakfast, Duncan felt the need to say something.
“Darcy? What’s wrong.”
“You’re leaving me… You always do.” She answered in a melancholy voice.
“But it’s a beautiful day!”
“It’s always beautiful in eSpace.” She countered. As she spoke the apartment seemed to disappear around him, replaced with an endless sprawling scene of nature. “You could stay here and hike. It’s far more beautiful than anything you’ll see outside, and we can be together!”
Indeed, fantastical and wonderful plants, natural features, animals, and beings populated the landscape, and Duncan felt a momentary temptation to forgo his outdoor plans. His biolink must’ve betrayed him, as Darcy said “See? I can tell you want to stay here.”
And he did… He really did. Darcy was his apartment, his mate… And often times, quite literally, his world.
…But he recently found a flier advertising the Naturalist Movement, and it claimed those who spent time in nature, real nature, were often so happy that they didn’t need regular serotonin injections…
…And he had to at least try it.
“I’ll tell you what. If I’m not happy by noon I’ll come right back.”
The room’s lights brightened somewhat and the colors along the appliances flashed an ecstatic blue. “Wonderful!” Darcy exclaimed. “Shall I pack you a lunch?”
Duncan nodded.
A slight hum emanating from the cupboard told him that the machinations of the ComboPack Assembler were hard at work.
As he finished his breakfast and the plate automatically slid toward the sink, he stood and walked toward the cupboard. A door opened, and a brown paper bag slid out.
“I analyzed your latest bowel movement to get a profile of your gut flora. I can tell you’ve been craving dairy lately, so I added extra cheese to your sandwich.”
It was true… He realized he was craving cheese.
“Thanks Darcy.” He said, taking his lunch and walking to the door.
The door remained closed.
“Darcy?”
With a sigh the door opened.
“Love you!” He said.
“I love you too.” She said mournfully.
He walked down the hall and toward the elevator. The mention of cheese made him crave a small bite of his sandwich.
“Just a piece.” He said. “Enough to sate the craving.”
As he rode the elevator to the ground he opened the bag and extracted the sandwich, pinched off a small piece of cheese, and put it in his mouth. The rich sweetness of it was exactly what he needed, but as he savored the taste he detected something else… An underlying flavor that he wasn’t quite used to tasting…
…Pestomyer.
He looked down at the sandwich. Indeed, he saw a small layer of the yellow-brown medical paste.
…A medical paste that absorbed extra serotonin.
…A paste that, he was certain, would negate any happiness he might’ve felt on his hike.
He was tempted to discard the sandwich and force Darcy to make him a new one…
…But she was already so sad…
…And he was craving cheese…
…And he was skeptical of the Naturalist Movement in the first place. Happiness made naturally in the body? Happiness simply from walking around? Happiness that wasn’t delivered via medically derived foods and drugs?
It seemed preposterous.
He pinched off another piece of cheese and savored it. The taste was worth the small hit his mood would take, and he could always return to Darcy and get a slightly elevated dose of mood enhancers.
The elevator doors opened and he carefully packed the sandwich away, saving it for lunch.