Day 2 - Points: 1/9
“Wake up, dimwits!”
Every drone’s mind gets forcibly dragged out of the peaceful, for most, realm of sleep by 387’s annoyed mental voice. 10013 yawns and softly swings its forelegs, enjoying the movement of the hammock. However, when it sees 387 slam the door open and shove the three worried-looking newbies inside, any even remotely good feelings vanish. When everyone’s inside a single cabin, 387 closes the door again.
“Now, who’s going to be the first one to tell me why Smiley here has been sitting in front of my door and spamming crying faces in my head the whole morning?!”
“Maybe it just wanted a shower-” grumbles 36658, glaring daggers non-stop at 99111.
“Test me one more time, I dare you!” snarls 387, and one simple glance from him is enough to shut 36658 up. This is a pre-new rules kind of glance, an extremely bad glance.
He knows what’s going on, or at least part of it.
10013 grits its teeth for a second before speaking out:
“It’s my fault-”
“Obviously - I left you in charge. Get to the point!”
For some reason, 10013 feels as if 387’s aggressive tone doesn’t match his overall demeanor for that particular statement. Something just doesn’t fit, but the drone doesn’t have the experience to decipher what’s really happening.
“I might be wrong, but I think Smiley is sad because we argued yesterday and split up in bad blood.”
“You argue all the time,” 387 weakly smacks the back of the head of Smiley who’s standing next to him.
*Sad face.*
“You are right, but this was different,” 10013 keeps talking slowly and carefully, “When we argue we usually don’t mean anything bad by it and we have a common goal. Let’s say two drones argue about how many good sticks to trade for a particularly round rock-”
“Let’s not,” 387 interrupts it, “Use your intelligence, be concise, be accurate.”
“99111 badmouthed High Score!” 36658 blurts out, “It said we just made everything up and that we’re responsible for dead drones! I said it deserves to get properly smacked, and it does!”
“9999 existed. It died during our battle against the Tantabus in the dreamscape. Anything else?” 387 looks down and scowls at 99111.
The drone is visibly trembling under the threatening gaze.
“N- T- That wasn’t- wasn’t the pro- problem,” it stutters out, “I- I said that the stories they say about it were made up because they are goop and that if drones believe that they have some magical protection with them then they will be less careful and they might die and it will be because of the Potatoes’ stories!”
To everyone’s surprise, 387 hums thoughtfully.
“That isn’t a terrible line of thought, actually-”
“HA!” 99111 vigorously points at 36658 who would love to reply but, unlike the newbies, possesses the deeply ingrained habit stating that interrupting a high rank is a terrible idea.
*Crack!*
387’s blow to the back of the head sends 99111 to the floor. It clearly wasn’t meant to wound but still be painful enough to convey a message. The warrior narrows his eyes, waiting for shaken 99111 to get back up.
“You have no idea how much effort and sheer luck it took to have Chrysalis agree to the new rules. I waited a millennium for the chance that came by complete coincidence four years ago, and you will not screw this up,” he growls, “You are allowed to disagree on anything as long as it doesn’t hinder the hive but there will be no dangerous violence. High rank on drone as well as drone on drone. I don’t care if you shove each other down the stairs, you are tough enough and easy to heal, but if anyone else sees that they’ll assume we’re just stupid bugs useful only as whorses or to be exploited. I’ll tell you the same thing I told Chrysalis - I don’t care about you, I care about the hive. So, let me repeat - how you act here will reflect on everyone back home. That doesn’t only mean drones in the depths, that also means changelings on assignments among ponies and even those living with them. You are free to disagree, but you will not let it be harmful to the hive or I will be harmful to you.”
“Umm,” 20100 raises its foreleg.
“Yes?” 387 sharply.
“Does that mean we have to move back to one cabin?”
387 rolls his eyes and sighs.
“No. I understand that distance and space are sometimes the best things to heal wounds. However, you still obey 10013 and work for the good of the hive. If that requires 36658 and 99111 to hug each other or watch each other’s back, you will do that to the best of your ability, no questions or complaints, understood?”
*Nod nod nod!*
“But-” 99111 peeps, earning another sharp look from 387, “h- how do we f-figure out who- who’s right? I think 36658’s stories are harming drones and I would like it to stop.”
“My stories are helping! It doesn’t matter if the stories are true or not, or that some are and some aren’t. They motivate us to be better. Without them, we’d be alone most of the time in the tunnels, talking to ourselves! This way we can at least share a common goal to become better drones like High Score was, not just… just Silents who can talk! Sorry, Smiley.”
*Wibble...*
“Can I say something?” asks 10013.
“Go on,” again, something is amiss in 387’s stern tone.
“It’s clear we all just want to be better drones, but… but since we’re not in this only for ourselves then we can’t just live by what we think is better. 99111’s question was valid - how do we know which way is correct… or more so?”
387 looks 10013 directly in the eyes, and from that brief exchange the drone suddenly feels the tiniest fraction of the weight of responsibility and difficult decisions, both ending up right and wrong, over the ages on 387’s shoulders. Like before, of course, it has nowhere close enough experience to understand what that infectiously exhausted look truly means.
“Sometimes, you can’t. You just have to act on your convictions, and I think I have an idea how to give all of you some agency over this. 1988 told me about how High Score kept you drones focused on the greater goal when you were in the lumber camp, that you earned a reward for gaining love throughout the day and improving the hive’s reputation. We’ll do a similar thing here.”
Everyone suddenly feels a shift in their mind, and a table accessible to everyone appears, reading:
10013: 0
20100: 0
36658: 0
99111: 0
99380: 0
99526: 0
Smiley: 0
“You’re going to get points for deeds that reflect positively on us, further the hive’s goals, or in the least spare us the need to feed you,” explains 387, “What constitutes such deeds will be judged by me, 93, or the Queen. In order to motivate you better, you will be able to trade points for requests from us. I’m sure I’ll be able to persuade 93 and the Queen to agree. The point cost of requests will vary based on our judgement, and the only limit to them will be your imagination,” 387 raises an eyebrow at 36658, “For example, someone with enough points might just ask the Queen to officially say that High Score wasn’t just a drone, but a super drone first class, or whatever they want,” next he looks at 99111, “Or perhaps they might ask the Queen to take a look at which particular stories about High Score will be allowable to tell others, and root out the particularly problematic ones,” he shrugs, “Or maybe something entirely different and simple like a love refill beyond standard feeding.”
“Hey, that way you can compete while still doing good things and being on the same side,” 10013 forces a smile, looking from 36658 to 99111 and back.
“Sounds good to me,” 99111 nods.
36658 looks away, mumbling:
“...I didn’t really mean it when I said I wanted to smack you…”
“That means yes!” beams 20100 in relief.
“Good,” 387 turns away and opens the door, “I hope I can finally get to enjoy myself after yesterday.”
When he leaves, 99111 stands up and points its foreleg at 36658 stuck in the hammock.
“I’m going to stop you, fanatic! In a good way.”
36658 smirks, puffing out its chest.
“Give it your best shot, heretic! High Score will guide our steps. Right, 20100?”
“Yeah!” 20100 agrees.
“Gasp, that’s two on one! That’s cheating!” complains 99111.
“Nu-uh!” 36658 shakes its head.
“Really?” 99111 looks at 10013.
“I didn’t hear anything against that,” it shrugs.
“Goop!” 99111 huffs, “99526, 99380, are you with me?”
“Yeah!” 99526 nods.
“I like all of you and I’m happy we’re friends again,” 99380 hugs Smiley who licks its face, “I’ll stay in the heretics’ cabin so that we can have a hug pile, but if you want a bigger one here just call me.”
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Reward points for actions?
One of the drones is going to end up being nicknamed Clippy?
I feel like if Changelings were introduced to this game, they would either dominate it... or they would avoid it like the plague out of fear of what the Queen would do to them.
I am not sure by what you mean by "make more sense" in the author notes are suppose to refer to. Or who you are referring to.
The drones seems like they are coming to terms with free time and might not have needed a higher rank to step in to settle their difference. 10013 got to experience the mediator role and could have calmed the situation in the morning. Or fail and make it blow up spectacularly
I suspect that's going to take way more points than any one drone is ever going to have for the foreseeable future...but never say never, I suppose.
Why, what happened yesterday? We were so focused on the drones yesterday that we never found out what happened to 387 yesterday! Everybody's always asking things of 387, but nobody ever thinks to ask how is 387!
11204533
"It looks like you're trying to goop something. Would you like help?"
11205114
It looks like youre trying to turn everything into goop. Would you like any help?
Im reminded of a story about how god's are created... Imagine what the faith of acouple thousand drones would do. Are we going to get high score returning as a god? XD
Ah yes, we got the classic first dislike without any comment or insightful point regarding improvement in this chapter. As always, less useful than a condom in Vatican.
Seiously, though, there are a bunch of stories where the concept of faith eithr creates gods or empowers beings. Discworld stories are among those, American Gods used DW as inspiration as well, especially when NG worked with TP on a few books, WH40k Chaos works in a similar fashion, but only faith isn't enough. So far, I think 40k described the mechanics of this process the best, so there might be a little bit of it at play here.
11204533
A drone that randomly pops out of nowhere, asking "Would you like any help?". You try giving Chrysalis advice once and it's the crusher for you.
11204572
There will be a board game involved. Not this one, though.
11204620
It's the latter part that 387 definitely don't want to happen.
11205114
- TEAMS!
- Poor 387, always busy thwarting Chrysalis' plans, no matter what they are or aren't. It's the thwarting that's the goal in itself.
11205155
Goop this! I'm taking my shiny and going home!
11205367
NO SPOILERS!
11205155
Or, alternatively...
"It looks like you're trying to wibble. Would you like some help?"