ORIGIN - Market Research

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// come get your dontas! cheesy flavored chips that give you warm fuzzy feelings inside! if after eating a few you decide don't like them, you don't have to continue... but the chips make you feel all happy and welcomed :))

In the relative darkness just before the overhead orbs' next light cycle was set to begin, a hunched figure crept into Polaris, holding the bunched fabric of its long, colorful robe in its arms. It looked this way and that, the glowing crystals here and there casting its blank face in eerie shadows, and began to set up.

The figure was, of course, Jinyi. It had dutifully watched over production in the new Dontas factory for the past few days, and now, after many delicious taste tests, it was ready to unveil this new product to the world. Ever the conscientious worker, it had decided to oversee this first distribution strategy itself: and so here it was, bent over a patch of rock in the center of Polaris, carefully arranging the paper bags it had carried over using its robe.

When morning came, the Drone could be found sitting cris-cross-applesauce next to a perfectly organized layout of sample-sized bags of Dontas. The bags were arranged in a square, and all were equally spaced from one another. A singing clearstone crystal set in the middle played a jaunty jingle. The chromatophores on its face had clumsily formed what Jinyi probably thought was a cheerful, welcoming expression, based on its rushed studies of the mammalian Hosts in Ursa, but looked rather off on its humanoid face.

Here it waited, calling out to passing Gembound: "Hey there! Want to try some Dontas? Crispy, cheesy snacks! Leave a favorable review or suggestions to improve our product!"

(whoops, that roll was meant to be a Reassure!)

Shrike came into Polaris in a clumsy glide, each flap of her wings near-dropping her from the air as she struggled to concentrate on both flight and looking for something.

Initially, she'd come trying to find the siren call sort of lore she'd felt--that there was some sort of stone, here in Polaris, that'd grant her wishes. Thing was: she'd gotten lost. So now she was here late, but--it looked like someone was here, at least.

She dropped down lower, and taloned feet shot out as she hit the rock before Jinyi. Her head tilted sharply this way and that, birdlike, as she folded her wings, slithering closer. For a moment, her attention was on the bags--she was trying to figure out how these somewhat shiny paper packets made for decent food--and then she looked to the manager himself.

And blinked.

Its face looked-... off, somehow. Featureless--too smooth; the expression on it almost painted on. She tried to sense whether it was even alive, or some sort of... magic being? But her own magic flickered and told her nothing. Shrike hesitated, trying to puzzle this out, before mentally shrugging it away. Attention darted back to the bags, the movement of her head constant and quick, like a chicken's. "What are you asking for them?" she asked, a faint rasp to her voice. Then her gaze was lifting again, studying the flashes of crimson and yellow across Jinyi's body, and--Oh!

"You have a head-thing, too!" she blurted, in abrupt surprise--she'd never met anyone with a halo like hers, before.

@Jinyi

Jinyi's face brightened--literally--at Shrike's approach. In his excitement, his grasp on Gembound facial expressions seemed to have loosened even more; the chromatophores upped their 'contrast', so to speak, creating white patterns that practically glowed in the vague shape of a warm smile.

"Hello, stranger, and welcome to the Donta stand! My name's Jinyi, and I'll be your customer service agent today!" he began cheerfully. "These samples are totally free--take as many as you like! All we ask is that you stay for a while, and tell us what you think--alternative flavor ideas? More cheesy powder? Less? Is the degree of crispiness not enough or just right?" As he spoke, Jinyi snagged two Donta bags from opposite corners of the square arrangement, holding one out for Shrike to take and ripping one open for himself.

He plucked a silvery pretzel-chip from this bag, holding it up to the morning orb-light. "As you can--oh!" He cut himself off as Shrike commented on his halo, expression repainting itself into a surprised grin. "Yes, I do! This coincidence has to mean something, don't you think? Maybe," and he dropped his voice to an almost conspiratorial tone, "we were meant to meet each other! Tell you what--I'll promise to do you a favor sometime, since this wonderful coincidence has brought us together! If you want something, tell me whenever." Jinyi smiled again and pushed his robe aside to pop the chip into his mouth, crunching away cheerfully.

@Shrike I have no idea what's wrong with this guy. dude just hatched like this I guess

Shrike stared, the strange curves on Jinyi's face slipping from uncanny valley to wholly alien. It was like the smile had slid away, replaced by lights and colors she had no name for. A human smile was lost on her. But she wasn't one to judge, not really; so she shook the thought away and pulled a bag to her with the claws of one foot.

"Maybe we were meant to meet each other. Maybe we're related?" she suggested--for although she saw no other similarity between the two of them bar perhaps the prominent white coloration, she did know that she had a largish family and that she hadn't met most of them. The offer of help she neatly dodged, because to acknowledge it would be to offer something in kind, and she wasn't willing to do that just yet.

The one other thing that'd caught her about all this was Jinyi's discussion of "we." They definitely looked like only one person--so were there more? Was it one of those groups that kept to themselves, like in Cetus and Canis-? "So-... who are you? And who are you doing this, uh--with?" she asked. It wasn't a suspicious question; any answer was likely to satisfy her curiosity, judging by the way she appeared wholly distracted now with trying to get the bag open. "It's a very nice setup. Pretty bags."

At first, not realizing, she tried to eat the corner. And it was edible, though it didn't taste like much, but as soon as she'd punctured it she could scent, if faintly, the real food inside. So she tore at the bag, a little.

Disaster: it tore open violently, far too small for Shrike's attempts. Chips popped out in all directions. Shrike swore softly, under her breath, and glanced apologetically at Jinyi. "Sorry about that," she said. And Shrike picked up a chip in her beak, and took a bite.

Now, although it probably wasn't immediately obvious, Shrike wasn't a Gembound who could even feel all that much emotion, on a normal day. A lot of her polite friendliness, even the apology, was a facade. Being half brain-empty worm would do that to you. But the moment she took a bite of Dontas™, she felt a strange flood of warmth rush through her.

Shrike blinked, paused in her eating--then ate faster, chomping a couple chips down. Her eyes widened, and she peered at Jinyi. "These are amazing!" she exclaimed, and then tilted her head, birdlike, sharply to one side. "-Do you have meat flavor?!"

Enthused, she scooted slightly closer, eyes widening even more, and lowered her voice. The bristles and feathers along her neck and back stood up with sheer excitement. "You should make meat flavor!"

Well-... if Jinyi had wanted feedback, there they had it.

@Jinyi

"Oh," said Jinyi in a decisive air, "maybe we can all consider ourselves one big family here. I mean, we share the world we live in, our language, and all of us have magic and a rock somewhere... we're all more similar than different. At least, that's how I see it."

He continued on smoothly, in a manner that somehow would have been more fitting for some deep philosophical inquiry instead of mundane conversation, and that conveniently failed to mention any names or specifics other than his own: "I am Jinyi. I don't believe in exclusive groups, really--I think everyone should be able to take some role in helping to develop these snacks. I mean, the end goal is really to give everyone a snack they'll enjoy! --Thank you, I did my best to arrange them prettily."

Jinyi folded his hands delicately in his lap, the brightly-colored folds of his robes doing their part to very helpfully conceal the way his fingers pressed tightly into the exoskeleton of his hands as Shrike tore open a bag and sent cheesy pretzels spilling everywhere. With difficulty, he would deny himself the urge to pick them up, instead keeping a soft smile on his face. "Happens to everyone," he reassured Shrike, feeling a little empty inside. Not everyone in the world was used to neatness and Order, but... with luck, the warmth of Mother and the rest of the family would be able to guide them on the right path. Shrike could certainly be worse--actually, she was rather pleasant to be around. He was being unfair.

Perhaps a smaller, prey animal would have been mildly disturbed by Shrike's wide-eyed enthusiasm for meat flavor. Jinyi, having neither much meat on his bones nor thousands of years of evolutionary history to hammer in a fear instinct, just laughed at Shrike's enthusiasm. It was not a mean laugh, but genuine joy that she liked the chips; and the sound was oddly reminiscent of a quiet pipe organ keysmash. "Not yet--but your feedback is noted! I'm glad you've enjoyed these ones, too." He paused then, searching through the mental hive-link for possible meat-flavors. Dragonbats ripping at deer meat, a juvenile redfang darting through Cetus, hunting; Cleaners returning with someone's next meal...

"Do you have a preference," continued the Drone after a moment, "for what kind of meat?" And his 'head' tilted slightly as he took in Shrike's serpentine form and bird-like face, wondering what kind of prey she might prefer.

@Shrike

Man, these little curiosities were good. Shrike sat back, upright, balanced on her wings; now and then her head dipped down, beak snapping up more cheesy chips. The philosophical bent of the conversation didn't much grab her; she'd meant by magic, or stone, in particular. Like-... maybe Jinyi was her long-lost cousin or something.

But she didn't comment, because she was lost in the warm happiness that the food provided. She chalked it up to their just tasting amazing, and struggled, even, to focus on Jinyi's question.

What kind of meat-?

She thought about this, humming briefly to herself. And she tried to remember, as she crunched down another chip, what meat exactly she had eaten. "Well-... not rat, they're stringy," she began, then realized that texture wouldn't matter, since they'd be in these weird pretzel-chips. Hurriedly, she moved on. "Maybe... deer? Fish are good," she went on, accidentally following a bit of Jinyi's own train of thought, "but I don't think they'd go well with crunchy? Maybe," she admitted. Then--"Hey, how hard are these to make? Maybe you could make a few flavors and let people pick!"

At the very least, she'd scooped the stray chips to herself now, in a neat little pile.

"But deer are good," she repeated, expression content and lost as she stared off over Jinyi's shoulder, her eyes glazed with this foreign feeling of warmth.

@Jinyi

Jinyi noted down Shrike's brainstorming ideas one by one, sending them along the hivemind link to Mother along with his own comments. We should definitely experiment with meat options, for the carnivores in the caves... would it be feasible to make several trial flavors in smaller batches? Deer, and maybe fish... I wonder if blood would be a good option for some of the fiercer ones? We could... collect the blood and dry it, then sprinkle it on; or maybe mix the blood into the dough? Would blood keep its flavor--well, I guess we could find out, if we do end up making trial flavors?

To keep up appearances with Shrike and hide the fact that he was having a mental conversation with a servant of the Order god, the Drone had stuffed a large handful of chips into his mouth and was happily crunching away to excuse his verbal silence. "I'll do my best to procure some," he assured Shrike once he was finished chewing and relaying his message to Mother.

He continued, wondering at the logistics of a possible meat flavor: "Meat powder sprinkled on like the cheesy powder, do you think? Or pieces of meat on the chip?" One of those was much easier than the other, but Jinyi was already brainstorming ideas for how to make the meat closer to the cheese-powder's texture.

But, of course, the customer's flavor preference was king, and he awaited Shrike's opinion with that ever-present smile.

@Shrike

The buzzing at the back of her mind--like something inscrutable and ancient--was nonetheless pleasantly warm. Shrike basked in it, and wouldn't have likely noticed Jinyi's silence at this point even if the other's face hadn't been stuffed full of magically questionable chips.

Their question snapped her back to reality, and she blinked black eyes at Jinyi as she refocused. "Um," she started, and then blinked again, actually focusing, this time. "Whichever one tastes better?" The suggestion was tentative, at first, but the genius of it hit her at once, and the new enthusiastic happiness the chips had quite literally infected her with had her shuffling toward Jinyi excitedly once again. "Like--you could put both on two batches! And then try them both! You could do another of these--um--taste tests, with Gembounds, like me--definitely me, these are really good--and then see what they like more, and then use that-..."

Shrike cut herself off, blinking yet again, this time in surprise as she realized how much she was babbling. She finally cottoned on, too, that it was a little out of character for her, though of course she didn't hold any suspicion about that. Instead, she felt faintly ashamed; here she was crowding Jinyi's personal space and ranting in long and nearly incoherent sentences about the food they'd made.

She backed off a bit and cleared her throat, glancing down at the chips apologetically. "Not that these aren't good!" she added, hastily.

Man, she'd really let the flavor get to her head.

this is just me with any form of pringle

@Jinyi

"Oh, yes," Jinyi agreed, patting a patch of rock beside him as Shrike shuffled closer as if to invite her to sit there. The Drone didn't seem to show any reaction to Shrike's embarrassment, but only exuded the welcoming, reassuring air he always strove to have. Don't worry, his body language and tone seemed to say. You're perfectly fine. "Kind of like... a scientific experiment! I'll definitely try that. Both try making them and try eating them!" He laughed a little, a sound that, though oddly reminiscent of pipe organs, nevertheless sounded warm and exactly like the kind of person you'd want to befriend.

"I'd love to have you be the first one to try the new flavors when they're ready--how should I find you again?" Jinyi tilted his head a little, emitting a pipe-organ hum. "I could leave some kind of message here? Maybe put a piece of this," he held up a pinch of red-and-gold fabric, "under a rock somewhere? We could decide on a meeting place now, and if you see the fabric, you can go there. Or--" Jinyi leaned forward, taking on a light-hearted conspiratorial tone--"I know some magic that helps people stay in contact--but only people in my family have learned it. You know those kinds of spells?" If the information fed to him by his fellow Hive members was accurate, magic specific to a group shouldn't be uncommon or raise suspicion.

"But you're so enthusiastic about these snacks! I love your ideas--maybe you'll consider joining the chip team sometime? Then we could share the magic and try all the scientific experiment snacks together!"

He didn't mind too much either way, though he liked having Shrike's company. As long as she kept enjoying the Dontas, she could be a part of their family--there was no need to rush. A life making chips wasn't for everyone, after all.

@Shrike

Shrike was silent throughout Jinyi's speaking, though she seemed more and more at ease. It wasn't that she was ignoring them; she was just thinking over what they were saying, formulating responses.

It was just-... well, her beak was full of chips, that was all.

The mention of 'joining the chip team,' however, had Shrike's eyes pop wide and half a Donta fall out of her mouth. "The chip team-?" she sputtered, everything else Jinyi had said forgotten. "How does that work? What do you do? How would I join?"

She wouldn't have been able to explain it later, or to even fathom it before, but suddenly 'joining the chip team' sounded like the best thing that could have ever happened to her. A stroke of luck, a door of opportunity opening wide, a future gleaming bright.

Shrike didn't even think to second-guess it. Dontas were just that good.

@Jinyi

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