"I'm not terribly secretive, no," Devin agrees. Being open about his race is not the same as liking what he is. "There's not much point here. I will, in all likelihood, have to make a network announcement, much as I'd prefer not to advertise that I need to use others to survive. I suppose we'll see how upset people get."

He makes a thoughtful sort of noise at Fai's explanation of Outo, intrigued albeit faintly unsettled by the idea. "That must have been a bit of a shock. How long were you in the virtual reality before you woke up in the real one?"