Dave woke up in his room at the center. He sat up and stretched his aching muscles. Holy shit, playing a hardcore game of manhunt can really pack a punch the next day. He sighed and smiled, recalling the events of sneaking out with his close friend, Jade, and meeting up with a few others to play while the nurses and Miss Radke were fast asleep. And boy, was it worth it.
He glanced at his alarm clock as he slid his glasses upon his face. Huh, it was only 9:45? Breakfast would still be served for another 15 minutes... Better catch on that fun train before it leaves, thought Dave, climbing out of bed. He slipped on some pants and pulled his hoodie over his head before exiting his room.
Dave walked down the hallway and took a left to make it to the elevator and go to his breakfast joy. He punched the one and watched as he descended from floor 4 to the lobby. The elevator stopped at floor three to let on a rather odd boy who liked to wear this hideous red sweater and still wanted people to take him seriously. Dave glanced at him. "'Sup Vantas."
"Hello David. Did you enjoy yourself as much as I didn't last night?"
"It was all hells of fun, bro. You need to loosen up. And maybe get those ridiculous pants out of your ass a little bit."
The boy glared at him. "I'll have you know I like the confinements of my room and have no desire to sneak out at obscene hours just to elope with the same people I see every day. Furthermore, I would enjoy it if you'd stop harassing me about my choice of what to wear. I will not stand for such mockery and as long as my name is Kankri Isaac Van-"
"And as long as my name is David Loraine Strider, I will not listen to your bullshittery." Dave scoffed as he left the feisty boy shouting behind him.
When he got in the lobby, he found the servers, Lance and Michelle, cleaning up the breakfast mess the other people had caused. Dave ran in, shouting "Stop the party! I have arrived and my stomach will fight you both if you throw away anything!"
Lance rolled his eyes. "You're usually down here by 7:30, Dave. What held you this long?"
Taking a bagel in one hand and a cup of butter in the other, Dave nonchalantly responded. "Jerking off. Early morning wood won't take care of itself."
A bubbly giggle graced through Dave's ears. "Davey! You can't say dirty things like that like it's nothing!"
"Ah hello, Jade. Have a good sleep?" he walked over to the table she had been sitting at.
Jade was a cute girl, in a nerdy way. Her circular glasses fit perfectly on her nose. She had jet black hair that reached past her shoulder blades. She was about 5 foot 3, loved puppies, and collected any and everything that had the name Squiddles on it. Dave found her to be the most sane and cool person in the whole center. He was just glad the original Jade hasn't needed his Jade so far...
Jade got him out of his thoughts with a thump to his forehead. "Hey! Eridan and Sollux wanted to know if we're gonna do...y'know...anytime soon!" she whispered excitedly to him.
"Huhwhat? Oh. Yea sure maybe we will. Depends on everyone's schedule."
"Oh ok!" she said happily while she finished her bowl of Trix cereal. "After first class, wanna go meet by the tree for rec? I have some really fun ideas we can do! You know we're visiting the city soon so we need to plan out disguises!"
"Oh all right. I still don't know why we need to hide ourselves so goddamn much. I doubt our real selves are really that popular that the entire city of Seattle knows them."
"You never know! And I bet your real self is pretty popular, you cool kid!" she said enthusiastically.
He grinned at her. "Whatever you say, Harley. Welp, class one is in ten minutes and I lack shoes. Have fun chilling with sassy pants over there." he said as he got up, gesturing at Kankri.
Jade giggled and waved for Kankri to come over so he wouldn't have to be alone. Dave went back up the elevator and got his shoes. First class. Third hall, second classroom. Ancient techniques of being a total chick magnet. AKA, culinary class. Dave thought this class was totally necessary. Cause when he got out of this fucking center, he was sure he would never survive very long depending on food already made for him. It'd take time for him to find a permanent girlfriend, and having cooking skills was a huge plus. So why not take the class?
He eventually got to his class. He knew everyone at the center, so he waved as he walked in. Feferi and Nepeta were sitting next to each other, they both grinned at him and said in unison: "Shello Dave! Did you have a lovely slumpurr?"
"I sure did. And how about you two?"
"Oh we slept like babies! Are we going to have another night just as...whale...awesome?"
"Mhmm, maybe after the trip to the city."
The two girls squealed at the plans and Dave couldn't help but smirk a bit. Beside from being a mutant and the knowledge that he wasn't even supposed to be alive, Dave always felt like the badass cool guy at this facility.
He took his spot in the back of the class, right next to two boys who were similar to Nepeta and Feferi. They turned their heads at him, grimaced, and said together "Don't push your luck with them, Dave. You know they're a freak a nature like uth, not you."
"Whatever Erisol. I wouldn't cram my dick in their weird conjoined body for anything. That's ya'll's kink, not mine."
They continued to glare at him until the doctor and teacher came into the class. The teacher was a lovely lady with short black hair who went by the name Miss Crocker. Her sparkling blue eyes waltzed across the room as she cheerfully glanced at each child. She couldn't be anymore than 25 years old, and she was already one of the best teachers in the building. She did have to carry a red spoon-knife-thing wherever she went after one of the students tried to attack her after class two years ago. Dave was only three at the time, so he didn't remember.
The doctor, on the other hand, wasn't sweet and bubbly and happy to see the students. He wore an eyepatch and a black science coat. Dr. Noir had been nearly murdered in his sleep by a specimen who had gotten out of the lab late one night, and he had never been the same. Dr. Noir only stayed in the class in case one of the kids had something wrong happen to him or her. This happened at least once a week to someone in the class, and Dave had grown used to it. Dr. Noir sat in the corner and glared at the floor, silently counting down the seconds until the bell would ring.
"Good morning everybody!" said Miss Crocker. "Today we are going to learn how to cook a piece of meat correctly! Now boys, I know you want to be able to impress..."
Dave zoned her bubbly voice out and stared out the window. Soon we'll all go to Seattle and it'll be really great and I'll ask Jade that...one...thing and she is gonna say yes and I'm gonna get laid that night. He thought to himself, grinning as his thoughts went deeper and deeper into the hormone hole. The only thing that disrupted him was a boy across the room, Equius, started beeping. Miss Crocker immediately stopped talking about medium and medium rare and stared at him in horror. Equius looked up, confused out of his mind. "What is happening-?!"
Dr. Noir shot up and grabbed Equius by the shoulder, grinning like a homicidal maniac as he pushed him toward the door. "Time's up. Seems like yer heart region is spiking up. Guess the real horse-loving sweat master needs it now. Hope ya had fun living while it lasted."
When the two left, the whole room was filled with a silent terror. It had been weeks...no. It had been months since the last death at the facility. Dave gulped and dared a glance at the clock. Two minutes until the bell. He then looked up at Nepeta, who was staring at the door with tears running down her face. Her closest friend, besides Feferi, was going to be dead before the day was over.
After what seemed like forever and a day, the bell rang. The class quickly shuffled out the class, talking nervously of what happened in 1st class. Dave went to go find Jade.
He ran to the tree where they had planned to meet up at and waited for the girl to show up. Dave caught her skipping towards the tree ten minutes later, humming a sweet sounding tune. She looked at Dave and ran at him. "Oh thank goodness you're ok! Did you hear what happened to-"
"Yea, it was in my class. Equius was always the bro to have during dodgeball day. I'm gonna miss him, but it's all gonna happen to us sooner or later."
Jade sat down and pouted. "I don't want to die for some sick girl I don't even know..."
"You do know her, but ya don't. Get it?" Dave said as he sat down beside her, picking at the grass. "I don't want to die either, so that's why I send good vibes towards legit Dave so he'll stay healthy and not need me."
"But what happens if they die in a car crash and they can't be brought back by us?" asked Jade curiously.
"Hmm... Y'know Jade, I don't have an answer for that. I don't think they'd replace their real kid for us. That would be insane."
"Hehe, yea. But... Dave?"
"Yea?"
"Do you... Do you think that when we go to Seattle, we could find our real selves?"
"I guess when we're looking around we can take a look here and there, but don't cha think they'd flip all kinds of shit if they saw...clones?"
Jade winced at the word. Dave hated saying it, but it was true. Everyone at the facility was a clone. Erisol and Fefeta being fucked up tests of cloning. "Y-you're probably right Dave... Always are.." she giggled a little bit.
"But we can look. I'm not making any promises we could find them. Honestly, I don't know why you would want to find them in the first place. The real Jade and Dave's parents only payed assloads of money to make us just to use us for our organs and blood and shit. Not because they actually want us to live and thrive and have little babies."
"You know we can't.."
"Yea yea yea I know we can't fuck and have little clone kids! It'd cause shit to start up and BOOM! New apocalypse."
Jade sighed and smoother out Dave's hair. Every now and then Dave would get especially angry about their twisted lives and it was up to her to calm him down. It always worked, and Jade could already feel his body become less tense. "Sorry Jade for exploding again... I just think it's so Goddamn selfish of them sometimes."
"They're just going at all lengths to save their child from death... And that might mean to create a clone and maybe even kill it to keep their true child alive for another day... We just have to put up with it because there's nothing we can do about it."
"I want to do something about it."
"Well if you start a revolution of the clones, I'll support you!" Jade smiled.
Dave smiled a little. "Hey... Let's go inside and plan out our plans for the trip... It's cold out here."
And with that, the two clones made their way inside the facility.
