The hard drive made a sound like grinding gravel as Elias plugged it in. It was a dusty, beige external unit he’d found in the back of a drawer at his new job—a boutique indie studio that had taken over the office of a defunct educational software company from the late 90s.

Elias chuckled. "Classic dev humor," he muttered. He hit to run the application.

"We fused more than just media back then," the figure typed. "We fused ourselves into the work."

On the drive, nestled between folders of clip-art and MIDI files, was a single shortcut titled:

"The 'Developer' version wasn't for making games, Elias. It was for making sure we never had to leave."