so i was in the ice worm stables when the klaxons started going off. i kept working during the sick out because i needed the money, but the collective worker's action had the whole rest of the lodge in chaos--angry guests not getting checked in, angrier guests finding their rooms unmade and no food in the dining room--but i didn't figure it would end up in a wholesale evacuation!

the lights went off and the emergency lights went on, and there was a path of blinking little green lights i was supposed to follow to the escape pod. but what about the ice worms? i felt like we developed a relationship during my time with them, and i couldn't just leave them locked up. so i rounded them up and herded them to the airlock and was about to let them enjoy the freedom of their native land when who do i find but @Lois Andrada in a space suit right outside, standing next to a giant tusked giraffe with @Nald's face! tucked under one arm looked like the severed head of some kind of insect space alien.

the more the merrier! after shooing the ice worms out i was taking lois and nald back to the escape pods when she mentioned something about "the labs" and "the others" and told me to find the biggest escape pod i could and wait for them.

so now i'm hanging in the stable's shuttle bay, warming up a big old boat called The Space Ark, waiting for them to return. which is great because it gives me a little time to read the manual.

@Nald was supposed to introduce me to the stablemaster about getting a job shoveling worm poo, so when @Nald disappeared it kind of left me in the lurch.

but good news! i went down to talk to the stablemaster myself and guess what they said i could have @Nald's old job. which i mean, is kind of weird. but i'd do literally anything to get out of housekeeping. loretta lyons got attacked by a swarm of xeno-invasive bed bugs that somehow got past the bio screens. the Nurses of Iapetus said they can grow her legs back no problem but i just want to avoid that route completely.

i got stuck with housekeeping, @Nald, and it doesn't sound much better. you wouldn't believe what kind of mess we find in the rooms, but at least we have hazmat suits. i think a lot of the guests are molting, or eat in their rooms. and it seems like nobody understands how to properly use multi-planetary environment bathrooms.