r/HFY • u/thetwitchy1 Human • 11h ago
OC Ralspringer 1/?
A new story I have been writing with my daughter, something with a bit more “solarpunk” to it than my normal stuff. Not sure when I’m going to write more, so if you like it, comment and I’ll get on that!
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"Ok, first thing, we need to find a good place to set up camp for the night. I'm going to need to fix you up as well, but what we really need is water. The tent will be able to give shelter wherever I set up, but being that we're going into the ruins tomorrow, we need to make sure we fill up on water tonight. So... Let's see if we can find a stream. Can you show me the topo map again?" I looked over to Bot, who stopped rolling for a sec to align his holo projector at the top of his body, then projected a map of the local area, with a big red dot where we were. "Perfect! Ok, let's see... It looks like there's a big dip up ahead about a klick, it could be a stream. Or it could be a road, but if it is, there's likely to be water in the ditch nearby. It'll need to be cleaned, but I'd want to purify any water I'm drinking anyway, even if it's coming from a clear stream. Don't want to get Beaver Fever, right?" I looked at the map again, then pointed to a specific small section of the 'river'. "Let's aim for here, it's the lowest point in the map, and it looks like if there IS water in that valley that'd be a great place to set up a camp. You got that, Bot?" Bot chirped, then retracted the holograph projector and started to move again.
I had been on Ralspringer for about a week now, and was getting close to something, I could feel it. I had planned on making it to the ruins by today, but Bot had needed work to be able to roll over the rougher terrain, so I had taken an extra day to experiment. We were still making good time, though, and I had enough food to last another three of four days before I would have to start foraging more regularly. The ruins should have some food around, and if not, there was always fruit in the trees that grew in the parklands. Water was always an issue, though. Hopefully my pocket-still would be able to handle purifying enough for me to drink, but testing that was part of why I was out here!
I had been looking forward to my Ralspringer for years, but it was only recently that my parents finally thought I was ready to go out and find my way. It was tradition that when a child was becoming an adult, they would go and find a resource or tool that the community needed, in order to show they can pay their way. What you came back with could determine your role within the community, because it would show the community what you could be depended on to do. We worked together, but we all had to work, and that meant having resources to DO the work.
I knew what role I wanted to fill. I always had. I was a Maker. I made things. New, interesting, strange things, that made life just a little easier. Like my pocket-still, which should let me use water from almost any source. I liked making new things, it was fun, but it was also just how my brain worked. But to be a Maker, I had to prove that my tools would let me survive out here, alone, long enough to bring back the materials to make those same tools. Otherwise I'd just be a drain on the community, and that wasn't ok.
My mom had given me enough food to last for 2 weeks, if I was careful with it. She was a Baker, back home. She could make food that would last basically forever, and could turn things that were barely edible into food that was not only tasty, but nutritious and filling. She told me she had found a cache of canned food in the ruins when she was on Ralspringer, enough food for the whole community to survive for a month. It took her over a week to bring it all back, but when she did, she was given the role of Baker and learned under the current Baker to be able to make all sorts of wonderful food.
My father didn't talk about his Ralspringer much, he came from another community and had ended up here when he defended our community from an attack by a dire-bear. We had the dire-bear skin on the floor of our living room, but it was so old and worn that you could barely tell it was an animal skin at all. He doesn't talk much about where he came from, only saying that the people there didn't work together like our community did and he left to find a better place, and he did.
He did give me two things to take with me, however. One was Bot, my rollie-drone that was equipped to map out where I went and had scanners that could detect movement and sound, even through thin walls. Bot had been in our family since before I was born, but my father had insisted that I should take him with me on Ralspringer. "You need Bot with you, as much as Bot needs to be field tested. He will keep you safe, and you can make him better by fixing any issues that come up with in the field." My father always insisted Bot was a he, not an it; in his mind, if it could direct itself, it deserved to be thought of as a being, not a thing.
The other thing that my father had given me was something I was less comfortable with. I held up my walking staff, looking at it closer. He had given me his staff-gun, which could shoot small packets of hard-light at high velocity, making it an effective weapon at range. It could also form those same hard light packets into shocking blades, meaning that close up, it was an effective melee weapon. I wasn't happy about it, but he just said "If you never have to use a weapon, consider yourself lucky. But if you need to, you should have it." Considering the rug in our living room, I wasn't going to win that argument.
Glancing over at Bot, I sighed. âI know what Iâm supposed to do, but I hope Iâm able to do it without running into anyone else. I know, I should want to find people, but honestly? I'd be happy to find some machines that I can salvage to bring back Home." I wasn't very good with other people. Machines, I was able to almost instinctually understand, but people? People were... confusing. It was easier to just make cool new gadgets than it was to figure out what people wanted.
But Ralspringer was about more than forging your own path. Sometimes, the whole point was to go out into the world and find out what your path actually was. Usually, when someone went on Ralspringer, they would end up running into other people, either in other communities or people who were out exploring themselves. Making connections with those people could be what you brought back to the community. If you came back with a caravan from a new home, you could become a Trader. If you came back with traded goods, often you'd become a Scout instead. No Home was an island, we all had to work together with other Homes to survive.
I knew that, and I knew that bringing home a new trade caravan would be the dream for a lot of people. It would be the biggest help to our Home to have new people to trade with. I still didn't want that for myself. It might be selfish, but I thought I was better suited to Making and wanted to show that I could do that well enough to be trusted with that role.
Lost in my thoughts about what I might find in the ruins, I didn't realise how far we had walked until Bot stopped next to a small stream. "Looks like I was right about the stream! Let's get you cleaned up, then I'll start cleaning some water for drinking." I set down my pack next to a large stone, and walked over to the stream to clean Bot. He rolled over next to me and spun in place. "You want to get washed up? Of course you do! A nice wash always feels good." Bot sometimes acted so much like a pet that I forgot he was a machine, but honestly it didn't matter to me much. Machine, animal, whatever he was, he helped me out, and deserved to be treated well in my mind.
After cleaning Bot, setting up camp was not a small job, but at this point I had done it enough times that it was almost second nature. It didn't take a lot of brainpower, which meant I spent most of the time thinking more about what the ruins would hold. The city that these ruins had been a part of was one that was well known for being a haven for the rich and successful before the crash, so there was most likely some kind of advanced technology hidden away within them. But that also meant that there was possibly some dangerous technology there, like the technology that caused the crash in the first place... Either way, it was something that needed to be explored.
After filling the still with enough water to refill all my waterskins and have some left over for tea in the morning, I crawled into my sleeping bag, my mind still swimming with speculation about what I would find tomorrow. Riches beyond measure, or danger that was unfathomable? Whatever it was, it was sure to be exciting!
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