kirabug's idea files

Day 614:

I’m getting more and more crowds of exploding giraffe-corgis when I’m outdoors and I have to say I’m not a fan.

But I’m also not willing to just give up my ability to go outside to them.

The problem appears to be the high grass — which is good for the animals, and was good for my safety when I was trying to hide per The Company’s orders. But hey, it’s been over 600 days now, I’ve proven there’s other life on this planet that could have built the buildings I now inhabit… I think it’s safe to mow the lawn.

Or at least, it would be if the lawn was already mowed. It will be safer once the lawn is mowed? That’s what I’m going for here.

Day 613:

Spent the day weeding and cleaning up the garden. I’ve got about as many potatoes as I can stomach (a few more than that actually) an a good collection of carrots, so I’m working on growing out more wheat… the sheep and cows both seem to like them, and the duckens are fans of the seeds.

There have been a lot of exploding giraffe-corgis while I was away, which somehow has resulted in me patching a lot of holes, and the rails between my buildings.

The more I think about it the more I believe all my rails should probably just be and stay underground.

In the meantime, I’ve repaired the damages and brought in the veggies, so a good day.

I’m pretty sure I’ve never been to market, to market, to buy a fat pig, but now I’m home again home again jiggidy jig.

Which is to say after all this drama, I’m glad to be in my tiny furnished cave with my growing collection of cows and sheep and duckens and pigs.

They seemed to be glad to see me too, or as glad as any animal that immediately mates can be when it sees someone carrying food.

Yes, I’m still cynical. But that doesn’t keep me from getting homesick. I contain multitudes.

Day 611:

I hiked from the stairwell mountain to the big mountain today. It was pretty peaceful, to be honest. There’s not a lot up there. It’s very cold. Even the skeletons are wearing leather armor to keep warm.

There’s snow on the big mountain, which, I mean, of course there is. We’re higher than anything I can see in any direction.

And what I see, mostly, is trees. Lots and lots of trees between where I’m living and the mountain range. It’s no wonder I had to climb a different mountain just to find this one.

But to the east of the big mountain is something that looks more like swampland. And to to the south, some kind of plains maybe?  To the north, there was a whole lot of nothing interesting.

I sat down in the snow in my wet diamond armor and my still-not-wool socks and I had a good cry.  As far as I can tell when I stand on the big mountain there’s no life anywhere near by.

But as the haze cleared and the sun came out I noticed something a little odd…. one area to the north where the haze didn’t clear even though it should have… and I realized I was seeing smoke. Like from a cooking fire or eight.

So I climbed down off the summit of the big mountain to the north just a bit, and discovered what looks to be a village or a town north of it.

An actual village! With actual people! Or at least actual houses and some cooking fires and possibly zombies that will eat me.

But it means there may be people there who’ve seen offworlders.

(Or said group of zombies, hard to tell)

It’s hope. It’s hope I’m treating with severe caution, but it’s hope.

I clearly can’t walk there in a day from any of my current ground-level cavern entrances. So this means more tunneling or certain death via the local fauna.

But I have it on my map now and I have some idea what I want to do. And I know I need to finish those socks.

It’s been a good day.

Tomorrow I go home and start making plans. Those plans will probably start with “get this place in shape so I can go away again for days at a time” but that’s OK. I’ll have a plan.

And maybe someday I’ll have a way home.

Day 610:

I reached the top of a mountain today.

Turns out I’m south of the mountain I was aiming for — that one’s within hiking distance from this stairwell I dug. Where “hiking distance” means “I’m going to ruin a lot of boots climbing these rocks”.

Anyway, it was a very cold rain and wind on top of the mountain I was on. (I feel like I should name it. Stairwell Mountain maybe?) And the snow line is just a few feet from where I stood, above the trees.

There’s no sign of life in any direction I look.

I’m going to set up camp here for the night and then in the morning go hike the other mountain, the actual Big Mountain, and see if I find anything there.

Cold, rainy, and deserted definitely isn’t what I was hoping for, though, I have to say.