Duplicants for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

[RemyG]

As promised to some of the regulars in the ONI discord, I am gonna go ahead and post what I've started on a fun little writing project that is basically ONI fanfiction featuring the rocky start and eventual development of my trademark colony type when I play, Duplicants for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The goals, naturally, are to embrace nature and all critters, respect them, and treat them fairly. There'll be the occasional in-joke from the Discord community, and naturally many things that occur will not actually be things that can occur in game, but I am basing this off of a debug colony I am using to decide story direction and will continue to expand as game updates release (hello, perfectly timed game preview). Depending on the reception I may continue posting it here but largely I'm just doing this to keep disciplining myself to write more often. Let me know if you're interested and want more! I have quite a few ideas for shenanigans to work towards.

Update 1:

Spoiler

               The soft droning hum that acted as a soothing white noise and comforting glow of the printing pod gently vibrated through the dense air of the colony if you could call it that yet. Every few nights, though sometimes days depending on who woke up first, the monotonous hum would turn an excitable high pitch indicating an incoming transmission had finally been fully received and ready to print. The transmission; DNA blueprints for a selection of new colonists and enough power to print one. It was risky to accept the transmission, initially resources were stretched very thin and the stress of keeping things expanding and getting basic infrastructure running. Things had been on the right track finally, however. When the unmistakable hum began to increase in pitch and the receiving bar flashed green interrupting Travaldo's sleep. Groggily he turned on his side, having fallen asleep on the floor resting his head on a pile of semi-dry algae as a pillow to look at the pod.

               Gentle particles started to slowly emit from the edges of the pod's archway emitters indicating the pod was ready to print if desired. With a groan over his interrupted sleep Travaldo rolled over and shambled to the control panel on the side to see what was on offer. Rubbing the sleepiness and globs of sticky algae bits from the side of his face he squinted through the bright lights of the ignited pod and screen to see the readouts for the three blueprints. His companions Devon and Nisbet had been steadfastly working to expand their oxygen reserves and other amenities while he had spent much of the day digging and storing various materials. Together they had decided that the next time a good template was available they could probably handle taking on another hard worker. There was something else they talked about but he was too tired to remember.

               Through half lidded eyes he leaned closer to the screen to try and make sense of the words but only succeeded in eliciting a yawn scrunching his vision entirely, masking the tick-tick-skritch of sharp toes clanking his way from behind the pod. Hunching over, his vision fading as he focused on the glowing panel he lost complete awareness of his surroundings. At his feet a toothy dense ball of hunger came to a stop and sniffed at his foot hungrily.

               "Meep," Travaldo's dull monotone voice finally sounded out as his eyes focused. "Ellie," he continued, tabbing through to look at the next blueprint's suggested strengths and weaknesses. With a huff the mouthy crustacean at his feet turned up the booted foot and tinked on toward the ball of algae Travaldo had been using for comfort; a critically useful resource for the colony. "Nails...sounds tough." With a loud growl of hunger the hatch's cavernous mouth opened and in one strong bite grabbed the entire mass of algae, chewing noisily. With a shout Travaldo turned to see the critter happily chewing down the material and flew into a panic. Every ball of algae was potentially hours of precious oxygen or more and the loss of any was still a big problem. As he rushed to shoo away the creature his hand brushed across the panel, hitting multiple conflicting options, but that was a problem for later.

               The hatch screeched deeply, mouth full of sticky green half chewed algae, and turned to scramble away into the dark as Travaldo ran after brandishing a wrench and hollering. Nisbet bolted upright from her cot, two half finished ones beside her rustling as the two blitzed by in the darkness, unsure if she was still dreaming or not. The pod's internal lighting began to increase and flash brightly as it activated the printing process. She sat there for a good long quiet moment with eyes half open, head tilted, comprehending the situation before her; this had to be a dream. Safe in her assumption she slowly lowered herself back down, grumbling over lost sleep, and resumed her rest.

               In the distance on the opposite side of the pod a small light flitted to and fro over long slender stalks growing in farm plots. A bio-luminescent native fauna to the underground colony, the shine bug was a very welcome addition to the colony having drifted in one day happy to see a little grove of plants to hang around. Spying the bright light of what it presumed must be a fellow shine bug it drifted toward the pod excitedly squeaking. Born aloft by lightweight hydrogen gas and a pair of specialized wings atop its teardrop body it bounded up and down in the air like a helium balloon. The whizzing and whining of the pod charging up as it used its transmission and stored energy to print the new duplicant piece by piece grew louder as it drew near, its beady eyes excited to see the massive bright cousin it thought the pod must be.

               The printing process reached 99.8% as the shine bug drifted around the corner from behind the pod and drifted into the warm light with joy, vaporizing and integrating into the printing process in the blink of an eye. Just a heartbeat later a body floated out of the dazzling light and the hum reached its crescendo as the printer completed its duty and unceremoniously shut off. With a flump the new duplicant collapsed on the floor just as abruptly and remained unconscious in the dim light of the pod. In the depths of the colony Travaldo hollered angrily and the tick-tick-tick of the skittering hatch continued to resound mixing with the dull standby drone of the pod serenading the new colonist and Nisbet both into deep sleep. Higher up in the colony Devon pretended not to hear the commotion as he nibbled quietly on a food ration block behind the ration box. He always had midnight cravings, thankfully Travaldo had been too busy to notice he was missing.

               "Hey," a voice called out shortly followed by the nudge of a boot. "Hey, wake up, newbie." With a groan the duplicant rolled over and curled closer in to the warm metal of the printing pod, refusing to get up. Nisbet grumbled and turned back to resume work on the cots, adding another to her list of projects.

               "We were supposed to decide who we wanted to print TOGETHER," she hollered passive aggressively to whoever was listening as she fished out her multi-tool from her bag and adjusted the parameters for the build task before firing it up. They were wonderful devices, programmable with numerous blueprints once they had them properly researched and formatted for use, using similar technology to the printing pod to re-purpose raw materials they had available in their storage hopper to print the desired object, or repair it as needed.

               "I didn't do it," Devon called out from the next floor up, probably the dining hall, she figured. He thought he was slick always sneaking little bites of food throughout the day but she saw him often enough slinking that way with that hungry look in his eyes.

               "What happened," Travaldo's monotone voice called from below followed by the tip tap of him ascending the ladder. Rolling her eyes Nisbet ignored his question and fired away making the new cots on the pod level where they could enjoy some nice lighting until they could set up their own.

               Peering over the lip Travaldo's eyes immediately fell upon the sleeping duplicant by the pod.

               "Oh."

               He was still tired from his long night chasing down and containing the rogue hatch to prevent any more lost materials and bits of algae still clung to the side of his head but he slowly recounted the events leading up to that moment. The pod had woken him up, he recalled, and in a haze he had gone to check the blueprints.

               "I had to deal with a hatch last night," he offered loudly over the build gun, though Nisbet continued to ignore him whether she heard or not.

               "I guess I hit a button by mistake. I think this is Nails."

               "Mmmmrnnnooo, not Nails," the individual on the floor groaned, rolling over onto all fours and slowly pulling themselves up, eyes barely open and blonde hair flipped off to the left with shaved sides. "Nails was my brother, I'm Screws." He yawned and extended a handshake out to Travaldo, blinking slowly.

               "Nice to meet ya," he mumbled as he looked around the immediate room and offshoot tunnels, noting ladder positions and resources he could see. It was definitely a dump but the air was clean, the floor wasn't cluttered much, and he was ready to get to work. Travaldo gripped his hand and held it awkwardly not shaking it.

               "Welcome to the Critter Colony, I'm Travaldo" he said droningly, his face as bland as his voice. Raising an eyebrow Screws attempted to shake his hand but the fellow duplicant made no effort to return the motion and eventually he just dropped the contact with pursed lips.

               "Right, well then, who else is here?"

               "Nisbet is the redhead building the beds," Travaldo said turning and pointing toward the arcing blue light as the build gun worked diligently to construct their new sleeping quarters.

               "We have a Devon, too, upstairs reorganizing I think. And some hatches down below. And a shine bug, though I don't see him right now. Normally he hangs around the garden. May be a problem if he doesn't show up."

               Screws nodded, turning to look at the half grown farm. Food was one of his passions, though more the cultivating of it than eating.

               "Probably would be a good idea to get a few lights going just in case," he offered as he walked over to the stiff mealwood stems. "That way shine bug or no we at least have reliable food." Travaldo nodded and looked at a readout on his multi tool regarding available resources.

               "We don't have power yet, been just settling in so far," he explained. "There's some raw copper below, but be careful of the hatches. Also be careful of the dirt wall, there's a reservoir on the other side."

               "Gotcha," Screws nodded and looked around the farm a little bit more. Mealwood was a pretty nasty food option long term, plus it felt kinda like eating bugs, not the most appetizing snack. Loafing it didn't make it much better. The prospect of hatches though made him smile. He liked critters, they could do so much good if cared for and respected. As he made his way towards the ladder to the lower levels he waved at Nisbet who nodded in return but kept working. He'd have to try and make friends with her later, however. Much as he wanted to be welcome and friendly in the colony survival was the number one concern and as of right now the farm was dead in the water without light.

               As he clambered down the ladder a rustling of debris in the distance caught his attention. It was dark in the cavern they had been slowly expanding but after a few seconds of adjustment it wasn't so bad. There was a pile of rubble off to the left where he had heard the sound and sure enough one of the rocks had an unmistakable chunk missing with ragged tooth marks. There was definitely at least one hatch nearby. Watching his step carefully so he didn't disturb any smaller piles that might actually be a burrowed critter he picked his steps across the room to size up the bite mark. Judging from the width he guessed it had to be a baby, it's bite only a foot in length. Sizeable enough to do damage for sure, he realized, but for a hatch reasonably small.

               The air was heavy down here, he realized as his breathing started to get more heavy. Not much circulation going on from up above, and from what he could tell they didn't have any reasonable carbon dioxide treatment set up yet.

               "Looks like I'd better risk making a Co2 pit," Screws mumbled to himself as he slowly walked the perimeter of the room inspecting for the softest ground and looking intently for wherever the hatch may have burrowed. The last thing he wanted was to disturb the hungry bug's sleep. Finding a patch of dense algae he nodded to himself and reaching into the backpack he brought out his multi-tool and configured it for digging. Combined with a source of water they could use the algae in a terrarium to offset some of the carbon dioxide if they wanted and recycle it, he mused, but he would wait to bring that up later when he could bring them all together and get better acquainted with their direction and goals.

Update 2:

Spoiler

               "Hey Travaldo," Nisbet called as she lowered her build gun with a satisfactory smirk. "Come check out the beds!" The darker skinned bland faced duplicant trodged over, unsure of what task he wanted to get to work on this morning and appraised the cots up against the wall with simple bed rolls. It would definitely be better than sleeping on the floor with an algae pillow.

               "Looks terrible," he joked in complete lack of any humorous tone. Nisbet looked offended at first, turning to glare at him intently before squinting and trying to read his deadpan expression. "Joking," he confirmed.

               "I can never tell with you," she laughed and punched his shoulder. It hurt, but he didn't feel like bringing up that emotional subject. She was generally a source of positivity among them and he didn't want to make her self conscious. He also didn't want to make her any more mad than she already was over printing a new duplicant without consulting them.

               "My back's been killing me from sleeping on the floor," she mumbled, suddenly lost in thought. "Maybe we should make a massage table or something once we get some electricity, that'd be nice, right?"

               "As long as I don't have to give the massages," Travaldo nodded in agreement. "I think the oxylite's going to be running out soon. I should get to work on a more stable source of oxygen." They had been tremendously lucky in finding a generous supply of oxylite. It was a rare enough material to find, they knew, being a sort of crystalized substance that readily broke down in low pressure environments to release oxygen that had been trapped densely inside it. There was no real concensus on how it formed that they were aware of but for the meantime it was a welcome find as it meant a temporary but consistent source of breathable atmosphere while they got through the early stages of survival.

               "What's Devon up to," Nisbet asked, looking up at the ceiling of the cave to the kitchen. She suspected he was probably sneaking food again, he was too quiet at the moment. Travaldo shrugged and walked off to appraise their stored materials and clean up the floor some more while thinking about designs for using the algae they had dug out for oxygen.

               As gently and silent as he could Devon chewed the muckroot he had found while digging through sediment for seeds for the farm, ears attuned to the sounds of ladder climbing. No one knew he found it so it was free game, that was how he felt. It was a subpar specimen at any rate, barely big enough to be a snack. They wouldn't miss something like that, he reasoned. It was pretty bland and starchy, however. His mind swam with ideas on how to improve the flavor. Deep down he loved to cook.

               It could be easily cut up and fried if they could render some kind of fat or oil to make fries or chips, he figured. Maybe boiling it would work well. Pickling it would be disgusting, but at least it would last for a good while. He ached for toast, though, and didn't know why. He just loved bread. A soft piece of bread lightly fried and a muckroot paste, he daydreamed. That would be the way to go. A self satisfied smile crept across his face as he chewed absentmindedly.

               "Devon."

               With a blast of panic Devon shoved the last bite of muckroot into his mouth, unfortunately the end with leafy bristles, and held it in so it looked like he didn't have anything and slowly turned to look as innocent as he could at Travaldo. How had he not heard him coming, he grumbled. Stupid mind, he thought to himself, stop getting distracted.

               Standing there blankly Travaldo waited for Devon to say hello, ask what, or any sort of response. He knew what the guilty duplicant had been doing and it was funny to watch the panic in his body language. Slowly the seconds passed by uncomfortably as he tried to pantomime a greeting to Travaldo, tears forming at the corners of his eyes as the bristles of the tuber tickled his mouth. Finally unable to bear it any longer he spat out the root and coughed aggressively.

               "Now that you've had breakfast," Travaldo immediately continued without acknowledging the incident. "Nisbet's finished our beds. You get the one closest to the dining room, obviously." Devon glared at him while still occasionally coughing, his throat sore, his stomach still somehow saddened by the soggy dirty bite on the ground he hadn't gotten to eat in peace.

               "I'm gonna be working on a solution for our oxygen supply, Nisbet is working out a plan for a massage table once we have power," he added further. "Screws is the new guy that got printed last night, not Nails apparently. I don't know if there was a typo in the data they sent or something went wrong while printing him but he seems pretty motivated to farm. You two should get along well. He's downstairs collecting some metal and resources to make a power system and lights to keep the mealwood going for now."

               "Sounds...good," Devon choked out between little coughs, finally getting over the worst of the choking. "What should I do?"

               If his eyes had been any keener Devon might have seen the most gentle of twitches in Travaldo's face betraying the pure joy he was feeling at the question, holding his poker face despite desperately wanting to smile.

               "The outhouse needs cleaned. It's been a few days."

               "I hate you," Devon declared slowly, eyes narrowed and shoulders slumped in defeat. "So much." Travaldo turned and left without acknowledging the declaration, glowing happily inside. He wasn't necessarily a bully but he did like to be the bearer of bad news and to make others uncomfortable. He knew that despite the unsanitary nature of the task Devon was a hard worker and understood that it was a task that was required for the colony to manage long term, he just happened to be the short straw on duties and would have to face the doodies.

               Hanging his head along with his shoulders his eyes Devon noticed the stem of the muckroot and thought about planting it to try and grow some more. He didn't recall any training about cultivating them, just that they were a solid emergency food if they could be found, but surely as a root vegetable it should grow pretty easily even if most of it had been eaten. As he knelt down to pick it up a little crack appeared in the soil beside it and out popped the tiniest hatch he had ever seen, just slightly larger than his fist.

               "Aw, how cute," he cooed as it shook the dirt off its back. In the blink of an eye the little critter snapped up the muckroot remains and skittered off into the darkness, dashing his admiration and replacing it with fury just as quickly.

               "You little vermin," he called out, stomping after it unsuccessfully. A patch of sand in the floor ahead made for a rapid getaway for the menace as it sunk beneath the surface almost instantly. "I bet you're the reason we can't grow those, you monster!" Despite the lack of any formal knowledge on the subject he was right in his assumption. Much of the species on these asteroids being colonized thrived on pollution and rot from other organisms, but hatches existed separate as a subterranean critter that thrived on burrowing and consuming everything it could reach. It seemed to thrive on inorganic matter and excreted all excess organic material in a compressed carbon lump essentially analogous to coal. It made for a great source of fuel if they could develop the blueprints for it, but for now they existed only as a source of frustration.

               It was a temporary fix and didn't help the thin air in the excavated room but at the very least the suffocating carbon dioxide would be collecting in a lower pit Screws had dug up and what algae he had salvaged he had quickly moved upstairs to make sure none of the hatches down here would make a meal of it. He had caught a glimpse of one in the dark burrowing just beneath the dirt across the floor but had yet to see one surface. They were night time critters, such as the day-night cycles could be in an asteroid.

               An exposed vein of copper lay near the rubble pile so he would have to risk getting close to the few he was aware of. While they were ordinarily passive one stray rock bouncing off their backs may anger them so Screws wanted to be careful. He felt confident he could read their body language well enough to befriend them but when you were face to face with a creature whose mouth was as big as your head you often found you had doubts. Aiming his multi-tool at the wall above the rubble he positioned himself ready to run just in case and let the laser get to work vibrating the ore chunks loose.

               The light of the beam was fascinating, he thought to himself as he worked, slowly losing focus on the task at hand and admiring the brightness. It made him feel light and glowy inside himself. He was almost tempted to touch it...

               "Hey Screws," Nisbet called down the ladder interrupting his daze with a snap causing him to reflexively let up on the trigger and stop digging as a massive chunk of copper, way larger than he had intended to dig, broke off and crumbled onto the floor below. His eyes widened in shock and worry hoping he didn't crush any hatches, but quickly regained composure.

               "Yeah, what's up," he shouted back as he leaned closer to inspect for any broken bugs around the edges of the copper debris.

               "We've uh..got an issue up here. We wanted your opinion before we acted," she said, clearly uncomfortable. With that in mind he did his best to ignore the mess he had made and approached the ladder to look up at her. She seemed disgusted by something in the distance she kept looking toward and was absently waving him to come up. Putting away his multi-tool he clambored up the ladder as she requested and followed her down past the farm to a bend in the cave where a wash basin sat innocently.

               As they rounded the corner Screws saw Travaldo and Devon both peering shyly through the smallest crack in a mechanical door into what clearly was their outhouse room. The sound of a deodorizer gently huffing away inside cleaning dirty oxygen of contaminants reached his ears, as did something else.

               "Whats goi-" he began but the three of them all hissed a shush at him and waved him to come closer. Creeping up slowly he bent over to look through the crack.

               Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, he thought. The outhouse sat with the door cracked open, sure. The deodorizer was working more than normal but someone could've just had a bad morning, who knew. The walls and floor were free of debris or anything nasty. He didn't see what the fuss was all about.

               "I don't see anythi-oh my god," he cut himself short as a large eye swimming in green ooze slopped and plopped from inside the outhouse with a squish, leaving a slight residue on the floor. Odd malformed arms reached out occasionally like a melting starfish as the eye stabilized itself on a center support, almost like an octopus but made from pure slime. With a glop it stretched itself up and then slammed down quickly, flattening itself temporarily and releasing a hideous plume of dirty gas. Screws could feel his stomach tighten at the sight of it, and yet in a weird way he thought it was a fascinating creature.

               "What. Is. That." He whispered slowly so as not to startle it.

Update 3:

Spoiler

               "I don't know but I want nothing to do with it," said Nisbet.

               "Horrible," Travaldo confirmed.

               "I'm gonna have to deal with it, aren't I," Devon whined. They nodded in silence as he dejectedly pulled out his multi-tool and reconfigured it into burst digging mode, their only real method for offense. "If I get sick you better take care of me." Inhaling as deeply as he could he readied himself by the door and nodded to Travaldo. With a flip of a switch the door opened fully with a rattle and the eye swiveled to look their direction, unblinking and attentive.

               Holding his breath as a precaution Devon stepped in and aimed at the creature letting loose a pulse of vibrant energy that missed and fizzled into the floor beside the morbid creature slicing a gash into the ground. The slit of a pupil it saw through widened in shock at the blast and quickly it rotated and squelched and slithered back into the outhouse.

               Pursuing the creature, his multi-tool leveled and ready, Devon glared with determination and moved into the bathroom, careful to keep distance from the outhouse door while keeping aim. The sound of sloshing and gurgling from inside sickened him, knowing it had to be roiling around in their filth, but he was determined to get rid of the beast.

               From the doorway Travaldo exchanged quick glances between the others, nodding silently at the door for approval. Receiving no opposition his hand drifted back across the switch and the door slammed shut rapidly, mostly to prevent it escaping. The sound of the only exit shutting behind him made Devon flinch but he expected they would do that, either to mess with him or to keep it contained, either way. Slowly walking past the wash basin he shouldered the build gun as tight as he could and quickly hopped around to fire into the outhouse, loosing ball after ball of energy.

               Sizzles and smoke erupted all over clouding his view inside as he paused his firing to listen for any sounds of survival; silence. Still holding his breath he slowly edged closer, tool at the ready to pulse more, his spine tingling at the thought of the creature jumping out at him. As the haze cleared the remains of the outhouse's makeshift bowl were burnt beyond words, large sections shaved off and vaporized by the high intensity pulses, and thick smoke slowly billowing from the hole to where the refuse would store for cleaning.

               With a slow exhale he let out his held breath and experimentally sniffed the air, immediately regretting the decision and relinquishing a hand from the tool to pinch his nose.

               "Ugh, whatever that was it was way worse than cleaning the toilet normally," he groaned. Leaning in through the door he glanced down, wishing he didn't need to, into the hole to see if there was anything alive inside still, the tool aimed and ready just in case. In the darkness he could just faintly make out the shape of the bulbous eye, pupil wide, lying within. He grimaced at the sight and watched intently to make sure it was unmoving. After several seconds of silence and immobility he relaxed and stepped closer, safe in assuming it was dead.

               With a great gurgle the corpse of the morb, a creature born of pure filth, suddenly began to expand in death with gasses and before Devon could recoil its' slimey body ruptured in a loud pop, splattering the outhouse walls and the duplicant in green slime.

               "AAAAAGH," he screamed and flew backwards wiping desperately at his face and clothes, gagging at the odor and feel. The door creaked open slightly and three pairs of eyes looked through the crack at the horrid aftermath.

               "You ok," Nisbet called out with concern, clearly making no effort to open the door further.

               "It exploded on me," Devon shouted angrily between retches and coughs. "I need a shower, ugh!"

               Screws studied the scene intently, curious about the polluted monstrosity and how or where it had come from. Much of the subterranean life in these asteroids was based on entropy and pollution, he knew. Perhaps it was actually a product of their waste somehow, as disgusting as the thought was.

               "I'll go get you some more water for the wash basin," Nisbet offered, backing away with a look of disgust and heading off to the water pump.

               "I'll bring some more resources to make a new outhouse," Travaldo added with complete lack of sympathy.

               "Gee, thanks," Devon growled, scraping at his face fruitlessly with a dirty hand. Screws reached over and opened the door fully, coming in slowly to inspect things himself. The deodorizer chugged away angrily as it sucked in the polluted oxygen, scrubbing it through sand and releasing cleaned breathable air back into the room. The morb had released a reasonable cloud of it during its short lived reign.

               "So nothing else was in here all this time, right," he asked the filthy colonist as he surveyed the room. He had yet to need to use the facilities himself so it was still new to him.

               "Yeah," Devon said weakly, sulking over the state of his suit. "This was just a little pocket of carbon dioxide when we got here, figured it would be a nice sterile environment to have a bathroom early on. We left the walls in tact and just threw down the outhouse and a wash basin, eventually added the deodorizer when it started to get smelly, and called it a day."

               Nodding Screws toed his way around globs of residue to look in at the outhouse remains, sticky with green slime and odorous tissue. The gooey creature either came to be from the germs in their waste or somehow got into the room, he wagered. The sheer amount of germy film it left on every surface it had touched made him think more likely it was somehow a colonial organism of germs that thrived in the polluted refuse. They would probably need to keep up on the outhouse maintenance more diligently to avoid giving rise to another.

               "Are you alright," Screws asked, turning his attention back to the survivor.

               "I'll be alright once I get clean," he huffed, holding a hand to his stomach as it grumbled. Screws smirked at the sound.

               "You're a stress eater, aren't you?"

               "Guilty," Devon said with a chuckle. "Amazing I can even be hungry after getting covered in all this crap."

               "I'll take care of cleaning up in here, you get yourself clean and go paint or sculpt or something," Screws decided, reaching into his pack for the module that would expand into large cleaning sponge. Devon's eyes lit up gleefully in gratitude to which Screws immediately held up a hand.

               "Don't hug me."

               "I...alright, yeah, you got me," he laughed and leaned against the wall. "I totally was going to. Thanks, though."  Nodding Screws pulled out the module, gave it a squeeze, and flopped out the expansive absorbant sponge and got to work scrubbing up the ooze. It was definitely different from simple refuse or a bacterial mat, he realized. It seemed very similar in texture to a jellyfish so perhaps the colonial assumption was right.

               "Oh, by the way," Devon added, realizing that the new duplicant had basically gone straight to work after waking up in the colony without much introduction. "Every night we usually meet by the pod before bed to discuss the state of the colony and stuff. I heard you were kinda into farming?"

               "Yeah, definitely," Screws said smiling. "I like ecology, really. Plants, animals, how they work together in an ecosystem, all that stuff. The farm was one of the first things I saw and I just immediately jumped on the task of getting it stable."

               "I think Travaldo was right," Devon smiled. "I love to cook so you and me? We're gonna be best friends." Nodding Screws winked at him and kept cleaning. Nisbet rounded the corner, a giant jug of water strapped to her pack sloshing as she did so, followed by Travaldo bearing a large bag of raw materials for Devon's build gun hopper to repair and expand on the outhouse.

               "Here we are," Nisbet proudly declared as she unhooked and dropped off the jug with a thud by the wash basin. "That should be plenty to clean up with." Travaldo unceremoniously dropped the bag of resources and left without a word to resume whatever task he had in mind. Rolling her eyes Nisbet shook her head at his behavior and gave the two of them a thumbs up before leaving herself.

               "Travaldo is an odd fellow," Screws muttered to his newfound friend. "Seriously, I can't read him at all."

               "Yeah," Devon agreed, clamboring up to get himself as clean as he could. "I can never tell if he's joking or not. Good worker though, he is quick to repair stuff and you wouldn't think it but he is artistic. He's been working on some blueprints so he can print some canvases and start painting occasionally to liven up the walls a bit. I'm looking forward to that, personally. Only so much dirt you can stand to see."

               "Agreed," Screws cleaned as he inspected the outhouse while cleaning where Devon had been. It probably would be easier to deconstruct and rebuild with the replacement materials.

               "I've been thinking about the hatches, as well as trying to locate some other wildlife," he continued as he rotated the sponge to a cleaner side and continued to scrub. "I'd like to start a little animal ranch, basically. I know hatches can be pretty useful, I'm curious what else we can make use of naturally. No need to focus so hard on high tech solutions if we can work with nature, right?"

               Devon nodded, thinking on the concept as he finished wiping off his outfit and then got to changing the water bottles so he could dispose of the dirty water. Farming animals as well as plants could mean they would have ready access to more high quality and hearty food, he realized. His stomach rumbled again at the pleasant thought.

               "I'm all for that," he agreed with his blonde haired cohort. "Anything I can do to help you get the ranch going, you can count on me."

               "You're right," Screws smirked. "We're definitely going to be best friends." Reactivating the sponge it rapidly compressed itself again, expelling the waste he had cleaned in a lump using some stored materials as a sort of containment wrap that was mostly sealed, though a faint odor definitely escaped the seal.

               "I'm gonna just tear down this outhouse," he explained as he pulled out his own multi-tool and configured it for deconstruction. "Probably a lot easier to build it fresh after all the holes you put in it." Devon nodded and picked up the resource bundle, digging through for a bag of sand to add to the deodorizer and shoving the rest of the materials over to Screws to accomodate the vaporized resources from his spray of dig pulses. He had gone a little overboard with that, he had to admit. The morb was unsettling to say the least and he wanted it dead and gone. He definitely would not make the mistake of getting close to one again.  

Update 4:

Spoiler

    "Alright, evening everybody, good job today," Nisbet declared proudly as they gathered by the pod at the end of the day. "We got a lot done and it looks like we'll have electricity starting tomorrow so the mealwood will be back on schedule and we have enough seeds to expand the farm some more thanks to all the digging we got done today. Germs increased after our little bathroom incident but we did a good job disinfecting things earlier so that is down, too!"
    There was no official leader in the colony but being the most extroverted she often took the initiative to draw people together and keep things rolling. Travaldo certainly couldn't be trusted with the responsibility, droning on like a phone book, and Devon often had to talk louder occasionally to disguise the rumbling of his bottomless stomach. Screws seemed attentive and introspective, she figured, not quite sure how he would fit into the group just yet.
    "First off, we all obviously know each other now but officially, welcome to the colony Screws!" The newest duplicant took a short bow and smiled as they all gave some halfhearted claps for the formality of it all. "We're happy to have you here and so far you've been a hard worker and great help so thank you for everything and hopefully we can keep it up and we'll all be besties!"
    "So tomorrow we can probably begin researching new blueprints and stuff, as well as getting in some exercise because currently our only power generation is manual," she continued on with the rest of the meeting. "Let's all air out any ideas and interests and decide what to invest our time in. Devon?"
    "Right, uh..." Devon shrugged. "Now that we got power I was thinking of working on plumbing. It would probably be a good idea to get a carbon scrubber up which would mean a water pump, and probably a purifier after to clean the scrubbed water so we can recycle it. Sound ok?"
    "Definitely," she agreed happily.
    "If we start pumping water we can probably get make a flushable toilet and a better sink," Travaldo added with a nod. The less upkeep they had to do the better as it would free them up to do other tasks. The creeping carbon dioxide was going to be a problem eventually and no one was fond of cleaning the outhouse. The only real benefit of the carbon dioxide was if they contained it in a closed room it made for a nice sterile food locker.
    "It'll take a lot of metal to get done but definitely worth it in the long run," Devon finished with another shrug as he thought of where he wanted to run the pipes and what materials to use to make sure they were sturdy.
    "Great idea," Nisbet said smiling. "Travaldo, what're you thinking about doing?"
    "Sleeping."
    The three others stared at him with mildly annoyed looks refusing to give him a chuckle whether he was serious or joking. He let the silence go on long enough to see them exchange looks debating if they were going to just skip him before continuing.
    "I've got a design for an oxygen generator that should work off of algae. I'll get that up and running now that we have power so we can keep pressurized and the carbon dioxide groups better to be treated. I also want to do some painting."
    "Oxygen first and foremost is definitely critical," Nisbet enthusiastically agreed. "Wonderful goals. I'd love to see some art around the colony, too. We could use a little creativity here and there!" Travaldo did not seem like he was terribly creative given the expression he bore on his face that seemed to only change when he slept or ate.
    "How about you Screws," she moved on before their artist could provoke another long silence. "I know this is your first day here but I'm sure you've gotten a few ideas since you showed up."
    "Yeah, a few," he said with a nod. "I obviously wanted to get power running to keep the farm up which thankfully we got done pretty easily today. Thanks for your help by the way with setting up the manual generator." Nisbet nodded a little too enthusiastically, her red hair bobbing forward and obscuring her view which made her chuckle to herself and brush it back.
    "I'm thinking about making a carbon dioxide storage for harvested crops and I want to study the hatches in the lower level a bit more if I can. We know they make coal and will eat just about anything but I am thinking if we can tame them maybe we can control the potential damage they do, possibly breed them, and have another food source in the process."
    "I'm all for that," Devon piped in at the mention of food unsurprisingly, but also in regards to the damage they could cause. "Hatches can be so frustrating when you're digging and they just drop down from the dirt above you and take a chunk out of the material you're trying to dig. I wouldn't go so far as to say they're a pest but they definitely need to be managed."
    "Agreed," Nisbet chimed in. "I think they're pretty cute myself, just a little too destructive for their own good. Great ideas, Screws."
    "Thanks," he said with appreciation. She was doing a good job leading even if they all were equals, he definitely enjoyed the energy, though after a long first day he was looking forward to sleeping for sure.
    "What're you planning," he asked her.
    "I was going to go exploring a bit and see if I can locate any useful materials, reservoirs, or maybe some new biomes or something," Nisbet offered. "I know things'll probably get pretty warm in our colony until we start air conditioning so I'm hoping there's a cold area somewhere that we can exploit for some temperature management. I'm going to have to experiment a bit more with some of the harder materials we've come across first though and see what frequency my multi-tool will need to get through that abyssalite. It's tough stuff but I bet it is really useful."
    "No doubt," Screws agreed. "Just be careful not to dig it all out once you start making progress. Don't want a cave-in, or to expose us to anything too extreme until we're ready."
    "Oh no, don't worry," she assured them all. "I'm a good surveyor. I'm only going to tunnel through it and leave the walls in tact while probing for info. I'll probably toss down an airlock at the entrance just in case though, that way if anything does happen we can lock it off and we won't expand the atmosphere too much and lose pressure or use up too much algae."
    "Good call," said Travaldo as he looked at the readout of his multi-tool on the current stored resource amounts. "We're not hurting for algae but it is limited for now. Eventually we can probably make oxygen from water but that will require a lot more power and tech."
    "Keep an eye out for any new critters for me?" Screws was certain there would be more to find in the asteroid. So far the only creatures they had encountered were the entropic hatches, the seemingly spontaneous morbs, and an innocent shine bug that vanished somewhere. There had to be some kind of food chain going on that they hadn't seen just yet.
    "No problem," she smiled. "I'm hoping to find more of the cute kind, not that slimy mess we saw earlier. Anyway, sounds like we all have good goals and direction for tomorrow, yay us! Let's get some well earned sleep, on beds this time."
    "Yes please," Devon yawned as the four of them shuffled off to their respective cots. They creaked slightly as they crawled in but held up just fine and the bedrolls were thin but significantly more welcome than a hard floor and some algae. Before long the soft breathing of the sleeping duplicants mixed with the gentle hum of the printing pod dimly lit as it continued to receive the next upload of data, about a third of the way done for the next batch of potentials. In the depths of the colony a small clutch of hatches skittered out from their dirt piles hungrily looking for scraps the colonists may have left unstored. Having the cot closest to the pod it was barely visible but as he slept Screws' skin eminated its own soft light, the only trace evidence of the missing shine bug.

Update 5:

Spoiler

    As the following day progressed many things changed in the colony rapidly. Old packed dirt paths were cleared and dug up to make room for pipes and sandstone tiles that were much more comfortable and uniform to walk along. Walls likewise were properly tiled and reinforced instead of simply whatever raw material was left. A hole remained in the atrium near the pod where a single reserve of oxylite continued to gently crumble; no need to dig it out and have it corrode too quickly, or seal it up they figured. The outhouses would remain for a while longer yet but the makings of a proper plumbing system were well underway.
    The basement had been expanded to create two new water reservoirs; a dump for polluted water on one end with a pump ready to kick in and a deodorizer wheezing away as bubbles frothed on the surface eminating dirty oxygen, and a future treatment reservoir for managing germs and cleaning the waste for reuse. Carbon dioxide filled much of the room once again despite the initial pit Screws had dug which eventually became the polluted reservoir. He did not see the hatches when they were digging but before tiling the walls and floor he was certain there were burrow marks in the sandstone and that they hadn't gone far.
    Nisbet took a bar of the reserve food rations and trekked off early in search of resources, digging her way tediously through sediment, stone, and even more slowly, abyssalite. The material was incredibly resilient to temperature and in general quite hard, it took a significant amount of power to vibrate the large chunks free to tunnel around in search of other biomes. Figuring no better direction than horizontally she had simply blasted her way through a wall in the atrium and left a door in her wake to prevent too much lost air pressure, promising to race back if the air got too thin for her or she couldn't find an oxygen pocket.
    Screws and Devon took turns throughout the day running on the manual generator, little more than an extra sized hamster wheel, to create electricity to power a few batteries and keep the lights on in the farm and the research computer running. Neither were particularly power hungry machines but it was busy work that kept them from getting into too much mischief. Travaldo, true to his word, was building a deoxydizer, a gaseous machine which he refused to explain that somehow was able to electrify algae into outputting surprisingly large quantities of oxygen up to a certain ambient pressure when the reaction would stop. Also true to his word he had begun positioning painting frames crafted from sandstone along the walls like a grand galleria, anywhere they could fit. Blank for now, he assured us that in the coming days they would be finished.
    Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-skritch.
    Screws' attention snapped immediately to the sound as he was taking a break from the manual generator. He was certainly building up athetlicism fast, he felt. He was not expecting to be this physical in the colony this soon but it was nice to remain active in the event that they had a collapse of infrastructure. That was certainly a hatch upstairs, he knew, but there was no way short of breaking through tile for it to have gotten in, he was quite sure. After repositioning the food storage they had tiled every surface in the base except for the door Nisbet had used to go exploring. Devon had disappeared downstairs to continue fiddling with the plumbing and the soft splatters of balls of pigment being shoomped out of a multi-tool onto a canvas betrayed Travaldo down one of the sides of the atrium working on the first of many paintings to come. Quietly Screws stood and approached the ladder to the upper level, gently ascending the rungs. Peering over the lip was a strange perspective still, seeing from the ground level. The walls and canvases seemed so tall from down here.
    "Where are you, little bug," he whispered as he crept over the edge and stayed low in the dark looking around listening intently.
    Tick-tick-tick came the sound of little crustacean legs pitter pattering on the tile floors off in the distance followed by a low grumble and scratching sounds. Sneaking forward the duplicant peered around a corner and down into the makeshift co2 pit they had created, no more than a short ladder and a mesh door into a lower floor where the sterile exhalations could gather and prevent food spoilage. Sure enough as his eyes adjusted to the dark below the unmistakable pale spotted skin of a hatch rooting around the carbon dioxide chamber huffing angrily.
    "How did you get in here," Screws wondered to himself as he watched quietly. The longer he focused the more he felt his eyesight adjusted and things continued to get more visible. Hatches thankfully were blind critters so they were used to the dark, though clearly this one was trapped somehow and looked to be tired and grumpy about it. Perhaps they couldn't sleep unless burrowed. Looking closer he noticed in the nearby corner a tile was slightly loose.
    "You sneaky git," he mumbled, gently reaching over to open the sliding door so he could reach down to lift the tile and give it an out. "I knew you could burrow but I didn't expect you to be able to push a tile free and get inside..."

Update 6:

Spoiler

    As soon as the fresh soil was exposed the hatch rushed over and stabbed its legs into the soft ground, twisting and writhing in a strange drill like motion to disappear beneath the soil. Such a weird creature, Screws mused as he shifted the tile over the small mound of evidence where it had burrowed. Now that the trapped critter had been safely freed he hopped down the ladder into the room, holding his breath in the co2 environment, to verify that everything else was secure. The ration box looked solid, a scuff here and there where perhaps the hatch had tried to nibble but otherwise good. Satisfied he reached for the rungs of the ladder when something behind the ration box caught his eye, a piece of rubble the hatch had somehow not eaten?
    He had good lungs thankfully and turned back around without refreshing his breath to investigate. Peering around the edge was what appeared to be a massive egg, he figured, a light almost purple with pink speckles very similar to the hatch's carapace. They laid eggs?! Eyes wide Screws delicately lifted the warm, incredibly heavy, ovum and slowly ascended the ladder. The food locker was definitely no place for a baby hatch to grow up, he figured. He was certain it's appetite would be even more ravenous than an adults' whenever it hatched. For now he made his way carefully back across and down to the living space by the portal, the egg should be safe in his bed, closest he could manage to a nest. It probably didn't require anything so fancy but he felt compelled to care for it.
    "Whats that," Travaldo called from across the room as he holstered his reconfigured multi-tool still splattered with pigment backsplash. "You adopt a rock?"
    "I am pretty sure it is a hatch egg," Screws said as he looked it over once more after tucking it gently against his bedroll. "There was a hatch stuck upstairs that I freed and this was in the corner."
    "Looks like a rock."
    "It isn't a rock, Travaldo."
    "I could paint a rock like that."
    "Speaking of," Screws decided to change the subject. "What have you been painting?" A strange expression crept over his face, not entirely pride but certainly more than the complete blank he tried to maintain. He beckoned him to follow and walked back to the end of the room and turned to look down the other stretch where a series of canvases had been hung. Coming around the corner himself Screws was met face to face with an almost equally neutral woman with parted long black hair staring back. She had a strange beauty to her, he was surprised to find. The painting was actually very well done.
    "Travaldo, this is really good," Screws admitted admiring the work. "I don't know what I expected but it is definitely very Trav...al...........do...." he trailed off as his eyes shifted down the hall. The same gentle neutral faced lady stared back at him repeatedly, one by one, canvas by canvas, lining the entire hall on either side. Behind his back Travaldo allowed himself a real smile for just a second at the reaction.
    "This...why. Just why."
    "It is very Travaldo, isn't it," the proud artist asked.
    "....Yes," Screws admitted with a sigh of exhasperation. "This is very Travaldo."

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DragonMage156]

I like your take on their technology and story. It's very interesting and I'd love to see more ^_^

[RemyG]

I will have another update to this this afternoon. Can't guarantee a schedule of updates but typically I work on writing projects on Sun-Wed, so if any days will have them it will likely be during that window. 

[RemyG]

Update 2 released!

[RemyG]

Update 3 released!

[RemyG]

Update 4 released, starting to get into things a bit deeper now.

[RemyG]

Also just an fyi for anyone reading, if you have any questions or comments feel free to ask and I will try to address them either here or in the story! 

[DragonMage156]

Oh sorry. I would leave more comments but I don't have much to say ^^; I'm enjoying the story though. I'm surprised no a lot of people have found this thread or even left a comment.

I will say that the length of chapter/update 4 was nice and didn't seem like a giant wall of text like the others. Maybe spaced paragraphs will seems a little less intimidating to lesser readers? Otherwise keep up the good work

[RemyG]

No worries, I just want to make sure people feel included if they want to inquire! That one was definitely shorter by about 600 words, I try not to do more than 2000 in a sitting.

[RemyG]

Update 5 posted, wanted to do more but surprise, large batch of testing came into work so I am dead tired and super busy this week!

[RemyG]

For those of you curious, this is not abandoned yet, I know it has been over a week since I updated. Things've been hectic at home and work this week but I am hoping to get an update or two out next week. The week after that I will be moving so likely another week or two stretch with no updates after that but then hopefully things'll be back on track to regular posts and developing the story!

[DragonMage156]

It's fine, take all the time you need

[RemyG]

As always, for anyone interested, I apologize for the lack of updates on this! I am almost completely done moving to my new apartment and it has been a helluva busy week and a half of packing and unpacking. I'm working on setting up a sandbox colony as I've written DETA so far and going to use that to keep me moving, running it for a few cycles and adding stuff as I go. Expect a new update by Sunday at the latest!

[RemyG]

Update 6 posted, shorter than I wanted, but at least I'm keeping it going.

[DragonMage156]

It's fine I was actually wondering about updates ^^;

[Xenologist]

Woah... The Ethical Treatment of Animals... as dupes. 6 updates so far. Great work!  Do you think you could add screenshots or pictures? Maybe add in Nibset tunnling into granite and obsidian, as that is the edge of the starting biome, finding an abundance of igneous rock and iron ore, feeling the ore to be quite hot and the air stuffy and decide that it's getting to hot to dig, and Screws going to the tunnel, and using knowledge that Nibset collected, he digs through the walls finding dreckos, that the air is hydrogen and chlorine and generally more things inside the jungle biome.

[RemyG]

I've considered it, I am afraid my free time's pretty limited. I only really have time to work on this during breaks at work lately because I do the vast majority of work around the house so haven't done much on the actual colony sandbox. I'll definitely keep that in mind and see what I can do, tho!

 

[Xenologist]

Who knows... Maybe in update 8 or something like that Screws finds a few slicksters after getting through a swamp biome full of germs and pacus and pufts. Maybe Travaldo could farm the dusk caps and Screws proposes an idea for a critter ranching station. Maybe Nibset or Devon might come up with the idea of polymer presses and oil refineries. Nibset finds diamonds! Travaldo finds a recipe for the meat that Screws got from witnessing a hatch die of old age and Nibset bringing in pincha peppernuts to the base, and Travaldo, using his newly built electric grill, grills up some quality BBQ that  Screws is skeptical about eating because, well, the meat for it was from a hatch he saw die. Travaldo then tells him that food must be made and consumed, as it is part of life, but still, Screws questions him, and the update ends...

(was this long? Sry if it was. I had a lot on my mind right there, making and improving as i went)

[DragonMage156]

Ooh got another reader 0u0

[Xenologist]

Probably great to start this thread up again with the whole "Expressions Upgrade" thing. Devon maybe makes a water cooler and the dupes have time off late in the day. They congregate talking to each other, about their day and what they found, just, in a more casual sense. Their opinions on some things, the hatch egg hatching and Screws showing the hatchling to them.