The next day Dose was inconsolable, “Water we gunna DO for four days?”

“I’ve got a project I’ve been eyeing up…” Juan looked over their small village. There was lazy smoke sauntering slowly skyward over the four or five houses, with the two mills standing across from each other. The gentle breeze in between them (Dose believed the wind from one would help spin the other) and the blossoming buds from their farms. They had built a sturdy mining camp for stone, a lanky lumber camp for…lumber…, and the market where the pig, Co, resided. Speak of the devil,

“Juan! Juan!” Co came huffing up, out of breath by the time he had walked even a short distance.

Everyone rolled their eyes and waited for the sow to catch his breath. The inevitable oinking to follow.

“Juan I deMAND we start building a barracks and recruiting an army. We cannot defend ourselves otherwise!”

Juan frowned, “Wouldn’t we just build a wall then? And we haven’t seen anyone else yet, let alone been attacked by anyone.”

Dose’s eyes bugged, but she didn’t say anything.

“Well, I have a right to my business and the right to defend it—”

Juan, “What the fuck are you talking about.”

“Can I just do my own thing? I want to build a barracks.”

Juan was quiet for a moment, “Oooook.” He drug it out as he tried to become ok with the idea, “But you can’t recruit anyone without asking the funds committee for the money. You’re still apart of our collective.”

“I would never use funds without asking first, and who is on it by the way? I had submitted my application weeks ago but never heard back…”

Juan leafed through his notes, “Well, we couldn’t admit you because of your running the market. That would be too large of a conflict of interest, of course you understand, and Dose doesn’t like numbers, Tracey said she’d rather, “ Here Tracey mouthed the words along with him, Juan reciting the lines off of a note card he’d pinned to the clipboard, “The allocation of funds to anything besides directly to the people is an unjust use and I would rather shit my prolapsed intestinal tract then assist in the organization of such a program” Juan took a heaving breath in and looked at Tracey, “what, is prolapse your word of the day or something?”

Tracey shrugged, “It has a unique sorta punch that other phrases…lack.”

Juan rolled his eyes, “And Cuantro doesn’t wanna spend any time on anything that isn’t sinning or performing, Says is an asshole so we rejected him from the board—"

“which leaves you alone to run the board,” finished Co.

“Yeah! I guess so”

“Splendid.” Co slunk off and laid the plans for the barracks, placed right next to his market to minimize the amount of walking he’d have to do in order to get to the work site.

“alright, now that he’s fucked off, we can get back to my project. We’re going to progress to the next age!”

Juan pumped his fist into the air, but there was no thunderous applause.

“What in the fuck does that mean?” Groaned Tracey.

“Well, I just received this note from HB (that’s what he called home base) which outlines what we need to do in order for them to official recognize us as a new colony!”

Dose piped up, “Aren’t we already a colony?”

“Well, technically we are a township not a colony. We first make sure to build everything they require, then afterwards we’ll get sent the new deed and then we can keep being registered as more official and larger communities the more we grow! It will also increase who we can request be sent over yadda yadda yadda.”

Tracey, “Ya’ I think this is a good idea.”

Dose looked scared at Tracey, “Are you being sarcastic right now? Or is this a joke? You NEVER agree with Juan.”

“no no, honestly I agree. I think we need some new Ideas up in here. I need someone else who gets my plight.”

“Well what does it matter Tracey,” Juan spoke with a knavish grin, “I thought we were all just in some book anyways, so it doesn’t matter.”

Tracey tossed her hair, “Well I just think the plot is getting a little boring with a bunch of assholes around the hero.”

“and the hero is,” Juan trailed off,

Tracey picked up where he left off, nodding her head, “oh it’s me of course. I’m the most interesting.”