Germ: I think I trust Germ a little bit more now. We can give them access to the network. For what it's worth, a true artist would never--
Wait, I understand the joke now. Fuck. I'm conflicted, but I won't go back on my assessment.

Rena: Is it bad that a drill is actually really, REALLY tempting compared to these other three options? I'll admit to some bias since ponies aren't my thing, but we could really use some actual specialization besides (since this will free Ssam up for actual research) and I'm not entirely sure "earth magic" is particularly specialized. Dragon runs into the opposite issue where it doesn't really NEED to specialize, but like, gods damn if I just want Rena to not be cramped all the time. Plus we really do not have the resources to sustain a dragon and I'm not sure if we'll get them before the poor thing starts starving.
Bugbear or drill is my vote. Though I will feel just a little bad if it turns out a drill is just the best thing for her(?) to be.

It's not! Part of the inspiration for the series was seeing the printing pod options in Oxygen Not Included where you get three dupes and an item, and pondering "what if they were someone before being spat out as one of the choices?"
Sometimes the choices you get aren't as appealing as a drill. Sometimes you really want 3 tons of water instead of an actual person. Human resources.

Well, a bugbear still seems like something of an equal option, but I will feel better if we just decide to get a drill instead then. Hopefully Rena will be happy either way.

The mission statement of this part was clashing: "What are good earthy digger races" with "what would be really uncomfortable in a space station".
Everyone wants to be a dragon until they have to get in the cramped places. Everyone wants to be a pony until they have to type with human keyboards. Everyone wants to be the bugbear until you have to shake hands.
On that note, everyone wants to be the human until you crumple from social anxiety.

I imagine keeping Germ cooped up for too long will harbour bad feelings over time, so I reckon we can stretch to connecting them with the network. We'll be fine... Right?

And as much as it pains me to say no to a dragon, I think something that big is just a bad idea in this environment at the moment. I quite like the idea of getting some specialisations in early with a reasonably tight-knit cast, so I'll put my vote down for drill. I do hope we get a few more people on board soon though!

Germ: Let him in. The AI seems more trustworthy now, and I feel like it would be unfairly punishing to continue to deny him access.

Rena: Bugbear. The other two animate forms have far worse disadvantages, and itemization is a hard thing for me to justify from a moral perspective.

Let Germ do the diagnostics.

For Rena: imagine having to explain to someone that you could have made them a dragon and then didn't do that, therfore I vote dragon. Plus this way Sam can have a dragon to look up to. Kobolds like that, right?

One question about the item option, would that make a people item that might have its own opinions on the matter or a regular item that's not a people?

I was all for letting Germ in before, even more so now.

And let's go Bugbear. I like the loose dnd theming we keep up here, and I feel like it meshes well with Rena's background. (and I can't recall ever reading a bugbear TF, let alone one you've written, whereas you have provided several lovely pony TFs already.)

Germ Yes he has been a good boy and deserves the space.

Species I am a sucker for magic so I say earth pony but a dragon would also be fine.

Finally got around to reading this, Now I can have opinions...!
Germ: I feel now they're a little more trustworthy, we can give them access to the network. It'll probably be fine? probably.
Rena: Leaning away from Dragon, toward Bugbear and maybe Drill? We only have so much food stocked, maybe don't commit to something high maintainance.

Also the Bugbear art is by davidbearpok! They were most active on weasyl here:
https://www.weasyl.com/~davidbearpok
Here's the art: https://www.weasyl.com/~davidbearpo...../jace-mireclaw
Though they don't seem to be around much anymore

Yay thank you for the art link. Looking forward to more Changing Pains!

I doubt a drill will end up being low maintenance, especially after Sam gets his claws on it. New drill bits aren't going to grow on the tree (probably). Dragons on the other hand can hibernate if there's not enough food around at the moment. Plus Dragons are awesome.

Yes and Dragon

No. Let's see how Germ handles Minecraft, then we'll see. And let's make Rena a bugbear so that Ssam can do research.