Day 8
Okay, so. I did not really have the energy to write anything yesterday. Maybe I jinxed it the day before or something.
Either way, good news and bad news.
The bad news is that I got a chimera out of the pool. She is hard to describe in a few words. Think a fish that grew teeth and legs as well as a dozen tentacles across her back. Quadrupedal, with scales of stone and wood. I think her teeth are stone, too. The tentacles looked and felt more like roots from up close, completely dry instead of slimy like one would expect.
The good news is that she behaves. The Abyss went 'wtf' at me and still has no idea what to make of her, but so far she was a good girl. She can not speak, but she understands me at least to an extent. I do not think she is sapient? So far her responses made me think of a reasonably smart dog, really. A scaly, two and a half metres tall, six metres long dog. Yes.
Maybe there is room for growth in her head, but only time will tell on that end. She is docile and follows orders. So at least I do not need to train her or anything, I have no idea how I would go about that. Silver linings. She is also pretty good at fishing; those root-tacles can sharpen into speartips and elongate at will. I have no idea how to actually prepare fish though, so I just fed them all to her. I tried baiting one of the drones with food too, but it was not interested.
Curiously, she, I named her Hydra after the lovecraftian deity, seems to act as some sort of focal point for the drones. They make room for her whenever she passes by, she always has the right of way, and all the stuff they excavate is delivered to her instead of me now. She brings the collected resources to me afterward.
I may have accidentally created a super drone or something like that. Hydra does not really act like a queen or even just a superior to them, though. I saw her try to play with one of them, only to get disappointed when it just kept working.
Considering it like this, maybe I should try throwing only drones into the pool next to figure out what I get from them?
On the other hand, I kind of like the batch I have now. I need to make more and order them in there. But that would be a drain on resources. Do I actually need some sort of improved drone?
What happens if I throw a shipgirl in there?
Abyss says I get a full Abyssal for free. Neat, but not helpful; neither do I have any shipgirls, nor do I have the capacities to sink one and survive. Even if I put aside the pragmatic concerns, I do not like being the aggressor. I will leave them alone as long as they leave me alone. Now if only I could communicate that and be actually believed, I would be golden.
Enough useless wishes now. Hydra seems fine doing her own thing, mostly exploring the island, swimming below the surface, or lying by my feet like she does right now. I meant it when I said she reminds me of a dog. I just need to be careful not to turn into some sort of squealing dog parent constantly calling her a good girl.
Everything turned out better than expected, but now I am back at the drawing board in terms of my actual goal. Do I make my scout, or not?
Day 9
I looked through blueprints for hours today. There are a number of different improvements, but Stealth is in the cards if I give it another two days. The Abyss says it takes a few hours for new Abyssals to gestate, the proper ones I mean. Mindless stuff like those drones can be built in droves, but sapience takes time to do right. Makes sense to me, the human mind is a complicated mess after all.
Now I wonder how Abyssal minds are structured. Are they like humans or is there some significant difference? What do they use as a base? The Abyss itself is silent on it.
Anyway, I fast-tracked some research to push me toward the better stealth package. Improved speed lies on the way too, so I know what my little scout's specialty will be.
I also noticed that Hydra has some spacious compartments, though little weapons in terms of cannons. It would be funny to mount some huge fuck-off gun on her back, at least if I had one of those. It will be a while until then. But she will be fine unless she runs into shipgirls exactly, her armour belt is hardier than any regular sealife can pierce. And she does have two guns; I have no idea about calibres and do not really care to know, but those should be good enough in a pinch.
Maybe I should learn about naval weaponry, considering how important it is. Not like I have much else to do. But it is boring, so maybe later.
Anyway, the beginnings of a plan are forming: with Hydra being able to transport resources and my drones to excavate them, I really only need that scout to find more deposits. With just a little luck she will pay for herself in a matter of days. I will only make the one, though; Hydra reminded me that every unit requires upkeep in terms of steel and oil to keep them running.
But... maybe that super drone would be useful here, too?
Day 11
Did not write a log yesterday. At first I thought about it, but nothing really interesting happened. I will probably keep skipping these slow days in the future.
Hydra continues to do her thing; I did not notice her getting smarter yet, either. Stealth is getting close and I dumped a bunch of newly fabricated drones into the pool until it was filled to capacity. The Abyss churns and seems more intrigued than appalled this time, at least from what little I get in terms of impressions.
The plan is to test if I can get a better drone out of this and prepare my scout tomorrow. Thinking about it, I should stop talking about a drone when she will probably be intelligent; Hydra is no drone either, a
Oh boy, she came out just now! I had to stop writing for a bit because I got the ping! By the time I finished jogging over to the spawn pool (no more running until I stop stumbling because the tits unbalance me), she was already out and looking around. A bit chubby, perhaps more like stocky, and clad in midnight black. I checked, she does not have an ounce of fat on her; it is all pure muscle. Her skin is the same deathly pale tone as mine, though she is more than two heads smaller.
She looked at me the moment I walked in, too. It was a little eerie, really. At least until she started talking in one of these high-pitched, cutesy anime girl voices.
I am still not sure what to make of her first few words. They told me a lot yet so little at all.
"Mi-Class Drone Commander at your service, Princess."
Anyone who knows the reality I was dropped into will know how important that last word is. Abyssal Princesses are the big movers and shakers. Why the Abyss decided not to tell me I am one is up in the air; that new girl immediately called me one, though. I asked for confirmation just to make sure.
That aside, she is exactly what I hoped she would be, a commander type for my drones; excavation and mining are her expertise, but she also has a mind for logistics. Meaning that I can leave directing the drones for maximum efficiency to her.
It was a tiny bit weird talking to her at first. She seems a little too demure for my liking; I double-checked with the Abyss that it does not impact free will and that she has it. Maybe her being made out of those mining drones is the reason, or it is just a coincidence. Whatever the case, she mostly just went along with whatever I said.
Also, I checked: there was no Mi-Class before this one emerged. The 'Mi' stands for Mining and now declares a type of Abyssal focussed on excavation. It seems the Abyss somehow never thought about giving the non-fighting types much in the form of sapience before. This taught me that it still evolves; perhaps my purpose is actually to help the Abyss advance further than it could on its own?
Whatever, it is getting late now and speculation is for later. My new commander wanted to get right to work; she is full of energy, what with being newly born. I considered sending her to bed, but decided to let her do as she wants. I did tell her not to overdo it, though.
Tomorrow I need to pick a name for her. Really should have thought that through beforehand.
Day 12
Now that I think about it, I doubt 'making friends' is supposed to be this literal. Not that there is much choice in the matter here.
Do underlings count as friends? Whatever, some stuff happened.
First of all, I barely stopped myself from naming the Mi-Class something silly; she is now called Orion for no particular reason. I just like the name.
Secondly, Orion was up all night and doubled drone efficiency. I was directing them on my own before, but I am not purpose-built to understand how to use them best. I was also doing like ten other things in-between, so that makes sense. Unfortunately, there is not much use for the drones right now; we mostly finished excavating below this island, at least as far as I wanted to go. Orion mostly went through the entire complex and improved the masonry.
She also got to meet Hydra once I woke up. That was... kind of disappointing. I guess I hoped that my adopted eldritch horror would make her panic, but she just beamed and complimented me on making such a formidable creature. Hydra preened throughout.
I am not entirely sure how to feel about the fact she almost started devouring the fish Hydra caught raw. Orion seemed so happy about it, the food that is. As if she never... ah. Newborn, now that makes sense. I need to be careful there. How much does the Abyss actually give its own in terms of racial memories?
Orion knows her job, she can speak and walk and do all the things a human learns growing up. I need to see tomorrow what else she knows.
But that is for tomorrow. After that exciting morning, I forced myself to finally commit and throw all those juicy resources into a Ka-Class submarine. Like I said, I want a scout. Specifically one that can find me things on the ocean floor. She came out in the evening, peering at me from the sludge without really surfacing at first.
Where Orion was matter-of-fact and calm, this one seemed to vibrate with energy. "Ka-Class ready for duty," she said. "What's my job? Who do I stalk?"
I tried to coax her out of the spawn pool first, but she was hesitant. Maybe submarines do not like the surface? If so, I should probably add some sort of bay; assuming I can add a floodgate so I do not accidentally submerge everything.
Bays are a good thought, actually. They have repair baths for shipgirls, do I need something like that? The Abyss says yes, but only once someone gets damaged. Just great, another thing I need to divert resources into; and I probably want this one sooner rather than later.
Still, she eventually came out of the pool and let me look at her. Smaller than Orion and lithe, not to mention as pale as the rest of us. I can probably leave that out from now on; all Abyssals look like corpses, skin-wise. This time I thought of a name beforehand, but figured it did not really fit this little bundle of energy. After some scrambling, she is now Sapphire. Not very creative, but I did not want to leave her hanging too long.
I just realised I am pack-bonding again. At least this time the lot actually makes a social group and not just a herd of drones.
Once named, Sapphire came along on a tour without much fuss. She was definitely more timid on land, though. Maybe I should submerge some of the lower areas? Not like I have trouble breathing underwater, I just do not like it. My self-imposed practice helped with that, but I stopped doing it a few days ago.
Which brings me to another thing to consider: how much of my human self and sensibilities should I try to keep? I can definitely get used to this, even if I will never enjoy it; especially the body, but we already had that covered before. But the change in diet, being underwater, being opposed to humanity? Where is the line?
Sapphire actually asked me something that brought me to this. Maybe the one question I was not prepared for: "What's your name, Princess?"
Orion was too business-like to ask about that. Or maybe she just did not care. Hydra probably never even considered the question, even if she could speak. Sapphire wanted to know, though. And I had no answer for her. My old name does not really work here, does it? But do I want to give it up? How far can I push this before I start forgetting who I am. More importantly, do I want to hold onto being someone I used to be? Should I embrace who I become now instead?
Why can these things not be easy?
I told Sapphire that I will get back to her once she completes her first mission; that is to map out the area surrounding our base. I told her explicitly that this is a scouting mission and to not attack anyone, even if she gets the opportunity. I also told her to watch out specifically for ore of any kind, or oil, whatever resources she could find.
She seemed happy enough about the task. Orion was across the island, restless because she had no real work to do. I really hope Sapphire will find something.
Now to think about who and what I want to remain or become.
Day 15
Some slow days. Orion took to riding around on Hydra's back because she is bored. I had to wrack my brain for children's games to teach her, but most of them were not much fun. Tag or hide and seek do not really work with two people, and Hydra is not smart enough to play either. Orion got a little interested in hopscotch, though. She took to it with an innocent curiousity you would not expect.
Thankfully, Sapphire returned today with a well-filled map of our surroundings. She found some nice resource deposits, too. I topped off her fuel and gave her some extra fish as a reward for a job well done, then I sent Orion out with all but one of our drones to start excavating.
The good thing is that I had enough time to think. Sapphire was only the first to ask for my name, but keeping the old one in this form feels kind of weird. I am different now than I was then, there is no changing that ever. So I might as well take a different name now, if nothing else to signify it. The Abyss is not forcing me, I made doubly sure of that. It seems indifferent to whatever I decide in that regard.
So once we settled at the beach, with Sapphire relaxing submerged up to her head, I told her.
"Dagon. That's my name. Tech Administrator Princess Dagon."
Her response almost had me laugh, had it not been so earnest and peppy: "It sounds kind of weird, but okay. I'm at your service, Princess Dagon!"
I think I like how easygoing she is. It sets a nice juxtaposition with Orion's down-to-earth behaviour. And yes, I went back to Lovecraft for my own name; Dagon was the first of his pantheon I ever read about and somehow stayed in my mind the easiest. It feels kind of fitting to name myself after another terror of the depths.
The 'Tech Administrator Princess' stuff is bogus I made up, too. The Abyss had nothing to do with it beside telling me that all princesses have some sort of title. I tried to hit what I do without immediately giving everything away. Also no mention of my resource generation ability, that would immediately turn me into public enemy number one if any humans heard it.
Either way, I delivered my first headpat that afternoon. Sapphire was pretty confused about the gesture, but I think she liked it. Then she went swimming with Hydra; I have the feeling those two get along better than either of them with Orion. Then again, I guess I make the second taciturn person on the island, so she should be fine.
Things are pretty relaxed right now and I can expect an influx of resources soon. Immediate shortages are no longer a concern in any way, shape, or form. Now I need to get a better idea of the area, tech into stealth for Sapphire's safety, and maybe research that doom cannon for Hydra.
Here is to hoping everything stays calm until I can find a better location for my main base.