Day 113: Lots of exploding progress

Day 113:

Once upon a time a woman on the planet of Serendipity followed a vein of ore until it came out in a big cavernous area right near the surface. She mined all the ore, and then realized as the night fell that there were not one, but two different gaping holes in the ceiling of her cavern where the monsters could come through. 

There was no way to reach safety immediately. If there were any horrible creatures lurking above, they would have immediate access to her, and likely tear her to pieces.

She braced herself for the spiders, but the spider did not come.

She braced herself for the zombies, but the zombies did not come.

She hoped beyond hope that the horror squids that walk through walls would not come, and lo, they did not. And she was grateful.

But the exploding giraffe corgis, they came.

Not one, not two, but three giraffe corgis, in succession, as if there were some giraffe corgi queue in the ceiling and a giraffe corgi traffic cop was ensuring that they each gave enough time for the exploder in front of them to clear the way before they exploded.

Three times our hero fended off the horrible beasts.

Three times the flockers blew up anyway.

But three times our hero stayed out of the blast radius and had only broken glass and destroyed fragments of torches and a few shattered blocks of stone to clear.

The moral of the story is “build a watch so you can clear out before night time” but I have nothing to build with. If I had more gold I might manage – it’s soft enough for me to shape and carve.

It’s one more project for the list, and one more in a succession of interesting bruises I should probably start sketching for posterity.

line sketch of the author curled up in a ball on the floor to the left, with one exploding giraffe corgi in the chamber with them, and two more on the roof of the chamber. A crescent moon is out and there's a hole in the chamber roof.
duck and cover!

Day 112: re-do

Day 112:

It’s the kind of day where I tried to wave some dust out of my face and instead poked myself in the eye with my thumb.

I’m going to bed.

horrible line sketch of a human hand with only the thumb sticking up, as if viewing a thumbs-up from the owner of the hand. It's bad.
In keeping with the theme of the day I can’t draw a thumb either.

Day 111: Metals and monsters

Day 111:

Some days I swear all I have to do is cross a threshold underground and there’s a horror squid waiting for me. Today’s bruised me up pretty badly, and wrecked some of my stuff, but I eventually beat him.

I think I need to build better weapons, but out of what? I have found exactly two metals out here, and that’s iron and gold. (The chunk of gold I found today. It’s a pretty sizable nugget, but has a lot of other crap rock mixed into it, so it’s not exactly a high quality. And for all I’ve been digging, it’s an indication of the scarcity of gold that it’s taken me this long to find some.)

It’s not much of a surprise that this little planet isn’t metal-rich. If it was loaded with heavy metals it probably would’ve drawn more debris in during its formation and the planet would’ve been bigger. The benefits of the planet’s size and lack of heavy metals is that gravity isn’t nearly as strong as it would be on, say, earth, where most of these explosions would’ve been a lot more deadly as they threw me into their.

Either way I’d like to get rid of the squid. And maybe make a mirror somehow. I’m sure this is a hell of a shiner on my left eye but I’ve got no way to take a look at it.

A sketch of the center of a planet - a circle representing the outer crust, a very wide circle representing the mantle, and a very tiny circle in the center representing a very small iron core.
I do remember a little of the planetary briefing before everything went pear-shaped

Day 110: More singing

Day 110: More singing

Here’s an old one I’ve been singing.

Some blues are just blues, mine are the miner’s blues.
Some blues are just blues, mine are the miner’s blues.
My troubles are coming by threes and by twos.

Blues and more blues, it’s that coal black blues.
Blues and more blues, it’s that coal black blues.
Got coal in my hair, got coal in my shoes.

These blues are so blue, they are the coal black blues.
These blues are so blue, they are the coal black blues.
For my place will cave in, and my life I will lose.

You say they are blues, these old miner’s blues.
You say they are blues, these old miner’s blues.
Now I must have sharpened these picks that I use.

I’m out with these blues, dirty coal black blues.
I’m out with these blues, dirty coal black blues.
We’ll get attacked by squid tomorrow with the coal miner’s blues.

***

Not everything I’ve been mining has been coal, obviously, but it still seems fitting. It’s dated way back, to before the last calendar change, probably a few hundred years ago.

Black shapes representing coal on a dark blue background, labeled "coal mining"
Miners have been around a long time

Day 109: Songs

Day 109:

Here is what I’m singing right now…

As a poor Earther I was born
Pick away, haul away
And for my birth home I now mourn
We’re bound to make our fortune

I found a job in outer space
Pick away, haul away
But now I’m stranded in disgrace
We’re bound to make our fortune

I’m digging in a crooked line
Pick away, haul away
But keeping everything I mine
We’re bound to make our fortune

It goes on from there, but I’ll spare you. I didn’t say I was good at it.

A watercolor sketch of a water skin hanging from a wall. It's brown and looks somewhat like a stomach.
A sketch of my water skin to make up for my horrible singing.