kirabug's idea files

Day 640: I accidentally dug into the bottom of a pond again. But this time I didn’t have any glass with me to seal it up, so I tried to just keep mining around the gushing water.

I’m now huddled around a shelf a few dozen feet deeper than I started, trying to keep warm through the night. It’s too dark to escape – I’ll be eaten by zombies. But I can’t tread water all night or I’ll freeze to death. So I’m wet and grouchy and really glad I put my notebook in a oil sealed waterproof pouch this morning.

I brought it because I thought I might hit one of my chambers and sleep on the far eastern side of the places I’ve dug out. Instead I’m on a ledge in the dark with a torch and a hell of a lot of rushing.

I may never hear again after tonight.

Day 639:

Biggest falling livestock threat today was sheep. There was even a black one. They seemed intent on falling down the giant hole. I don’t know if that’s typical for Earth sheep or if it’s something peculiar to these sheep. I do know that even in lower G I don’t really want a sheep falling on my head. The cow was traumatic enough.

So grading the area outside the hole is making more and more sense because it lowers the chances of sheep crashing through my makeshift fences and falling into the hole and rotting in the rainwater pond at the bottom.

In this place, that would probably cause some other murderous creature to evolve.

Day 638:

The area with the river cave had another cave behind it. I found that out chasing a seam of ore (of course).

That second cave opened up into a deep cavern with no roof. Which I guess makes it a hole? Anyway, it’s loaded with ore and has a pond of what appears to be rainwater at the bottom. No fish or anything, it’s too shallow.

I’m considering filling the whole thing in since it seems quite fond of housing monsters. But first I’m getting the ore out and checking for sand.

And then I’m considering. What do you do with a giant hole in the ground? If it had bats in it, I’d leave it alone, but it appears to be lifeless (except for aforementioned monsters). It’s a health hazard to just have a giant hole in the ground. I could put a fence around it I suppose, or work on grading it so it’s not so deadly. Or fill it in.

I suppose this is less like mining and more like landscaping. On the other hand, if the hole didn’t have a ton of ore in it I wouldn’t be exploring it, and if I wasn’t exploring it, I’d just cap it with some dirt and move on.

Ethics is hard, especially now that I know there are real people living on this rock. Murderers, yes, but real murderers that don’t deserve to lose a leg to a giant hole.

Day 637:

You’re not going to believe this, but I’m bored of digging underground.

I tried going back underground today to dig and it was dark and cold and I was so lonely. So after a while I came aboveground again and hugged my cows.

Tomorrow I’m going back to the place where I was digging out the sand and working there in the sun and the trees with the zombies and the skeletons. It’s an odd choice, but I’m comfortable with it.

Day 636: still looking for sand in this lake/river combination I’m mining. I’ve found some good diorite while I’m out here. And one of those frogging murderers has found me. So I got shot at a bit.

Glad to say my diamond armor held up okay and his leather armor didn’t.

Not glad to say that it was probably my ranting and raving at the walls of the cave that drew his attention, and I’m thinking it’s time for me to go back to quiet or underground work.