Turn 47

--- Maya ---

(Okay, so what exactly can our LCMs eat?) Her inner passion asked. (Because if I’m being honest I wasn’t paying attention the last time we set their food out.)

“They’re omnivores.” She reminded herself, gritting her teeth at the reminder that even the voices in her head tended to ignore her. “Thanks to their rat DNA they’re pretty much omnivorous, so they’ll eat just about anything.”

(Though it should be noted that due to domestication and base inheritance they will likely prefer an herbivorous diet if we removed their opportunistic tendencies.) Her inner reason added as an extra layer to her explanation.

“Huh.” She blinked, stopping as she stumbled into a small forest clearing. A clearing filled with plants nearly thrice the size of the rest of the forest, as well as giant slash marks across several of the nearby trees.

(What the hell happened here?)

(Looks like a Deviant was playing around with their powers.) Her inner logic reasoned out.

“Wonder what kind it was?” She mumbled, before spotting a berry bush with a number of overgrown berries in it. “And there’s the LCMs’ lunch. I mean I doubt whoever’s responsible for this clearing will care if we swipe some of these.”

(This seems like an ill advised choice of action…)

(Yes! Steal the magical berries from the unknown Deviant!) Her inner madness encouraged. (Maybe we can figure out something about magic by dissecting them alive!)

“Hmm,” She raised her hands in front of her before staring at her left. “Possibly angering an unknown Deviant.” She turned to her right. “Possibly learning more about the science behind an unknown Deviancy.”

She weighed the two options for a moment, before taking every visible berry on the plant.

---

“It’s good to see you too DM-1!” She greeted her little drone as he rushed out of his hiding spot and ran happy little circles around her legs. “Now let’s gather up what scrap you’ve managed to collect, I’ve got a surprise for you once we get back to the lab!”

DM-1 did his excited little drone dance before skittering off, knowing she’d be able to follow him.

---

(You know, you’d think we’d want to stay away from the hell hospital.) Her inner madness commented drily. (But I guess Ms. Survival Instincts is slacking on the job!)

(You’re being overdramatic.) Said instincts pointed out even drier. (In all likelihood we’re under no real threat given how we’ve been here weeks without trouble, save when we wander into the other wings.)

(So what, we’re just going to sit around until the pinche demon ghosts attack?)

“No, we’ll deal with it eventually, it’s just that there’s nothing we can really do about it without abandoning all of our work.” She explained as much to herself as… to herself.

She shook her head, as she stepped into her lab and slung her backpack off her back. “We’re home DM-1.”

The little drone peeked out of her backpack before climbing out and looking around the lab. Upon spotting the LCMs raised a mechanical leg to wave at the two before getting a wave back in return.

She couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her minions getting along, but at the same time she also couldn’t help but notice someone missing from the scene. (Where’d DM-2 get to?)

Her gaze drifted around the lab before noticing a camera peeking out of a cabinet on the other side of the room. (Ah, she’s being shy!)

“Come on little one, no need to be shy.” She told the shy drone as she opened the cabinet.

DM-2 shook her head as the shy drone creeped further into the back of the cabinet.

“Ay pobrecita!” She cooed picking the drone up. “There’s nothing to be scared of, we’re just introducing you to your big hermano.”

This did very little to calm the shaking drone as Maya walked back to DM-1 who was watching her curiously.

“DM-1 this is your little sister, DM-2.” She introduced her older drone to his younger sibling. “It’s your job to teach her all the ins and outs of being a proper drone minion okay?”

The moment she set DM-2 on the ground the shy little drone froze staring at her older counterpart who was staring right back at her with an equal intensity. The two drones spent nearly a solid minute like this before eventually DM-1 reached one of his legs out and patted DM-2 on the head.

---

While DM-1 helped DM-2 adjust to life as a drone minion, she gathered the LCMs and took them to her lab table where she handed each of them one of the berries she’d collected earlier.

(Is it really wise to be feeding our minions an unknown mutated plant?)

(Meh, they’re super blueberries and the LCMs are immune to most organic poisons.) Her inner madness dismissed, while bringing up a detail she hadn’t even known about the LCMs.

(Guess I don’t have to be quite as stingy about what I feed these little guys.)

“Actually, since we’re on the topic of feeding our minions… We really should think about building something to keep them fed even when we aren’t here.” She told herself, noting how the LCMs seemed to tear into their food. “I mean I think they finished that stuff I left them yesterday, which is why they’re so hungry.”

(Pretty sure I’m the one who brought that up like a week ago.) Her inner passion pointed out.

“Yeah, well… you’re me so I can claim your ideas as my own.” She told herself, before getting out a few bits of electronics and metal. “So… setting up a simple feeder actually seems kind of boring, now that I think about it.”

(Because this is your first time thinking about it!)

“What if we rigged a simple bio-pod to feed them a flavored vitamin slush?” She asked herself, listening to the various ideas the whispers were offering her. “That way this won’t just be limited to feeding just the LCMs, but any little critters we make.”

(We may even be able to… modify their food intact with some of our experiments.) Her inner reason added, taking their bio-experimentation to its logical conclusion.

(Oi, I’m the sociopathic one here chica!) Her inner madness shouted. (You don’t see me trying to steal your schtick, so don’t go messing with mine!)

“Yeah, what the f-” She coughed, noticing her little critters watching her. “-rack?”

(That’s not an experiment for tomorrow.) Her inner reason replied with a roll of their mind’s eye. (Just something to consider once we have a good enough understanding of genetics to offer them an… upgrade of sorts.)

(Still sounding ominously amoral there.)

(Mm, morality is subjective.)

(Come on, that’s even worse!)