Substantial Mutual Harm

This is the twenty-sixth episode of SAYER, and the fourteenth episode of Season Two.

## Synopsis

Your transfer to Minos Tower is the newest data point in a string of anomalies that simply cannot be ignored.

## Further Information

Following their transfer to Minos Tower, Resident Sas, a tier 2 maintenance worker, is contacted by SAYER for orientation. Before beginning this process, SAYER comments on the unheard-of nature of transfer between towers for employees of this nature and asks if Resident Sas might know why this has occurred. They do not manage an answer, but SAYER expresses confidence that their training for Argos Tower's new hydroponics lab will translate into their new job at the Purification Center--and adds that they are in no danger of being sent back, as the transfer was signed off on by Doctor John Caulfield and seems completely legitimate.

The Purification Center, it explains, is a wastewater treatment facility that serves not only Minos, but also Halcyon and Aegis Towers. It was so named after much debate within the Ærolith marketing department, and the discarding of other names such as the "water reclamation lab." SAYER describes its layout, with the central office at the center, and various, color-coded stations radiating out like spokes on a wheel. Teams rotate zones regularly, so that each employee knows all of the steps to maintain the entire system.

While it is explaining, Resident Sas receives a message on their datapad. Before allowing them to open it, SAYER touches briefly on the hedgehog's dilemma, that they want to be close to one another but cannot do so without harming each other with their spines. The message is from Dr. Caulfield, welcoming Resident Sas to Minos Tower, and insisting that he or his assistant will be happy to help with anything. After hearing it, SAYER invokes the concepts of the Parthian shot and zugzwang to describe the situation unfolding between Dr. Caulfield and Cassandra Morris. It explains that it seems Resident Morris has used some of her influence with Dr. Caulfield to arrange for Resident Sas's transfer to Minos, and that this has caused something of a stalemate between them although it may still have repercussions for Resident Sas.

At this point, a high-level maintenance alert summons all available employees to the red zone because manual assistance is needed. As this includes Resident Sas, SAYER directs them around the corner to the red hallway leading to the filters. As they approach, other employees can be heard and SAYER explains that "junk diving" in the filters is a celebrated position and that some of the more unusual items found there decorate the central office. The filters get progressively finer as the line continues, so many of the large items can be retrieved with minimal risk of injury; the smaller filters further in do not need to be cleaned as often. Indeed, there have been no maintenance deaths in Minos in over a year--which SAYER uses to note that the kind of danger Resident Sas will face in Minos is different than the kind they faced in Argos.

## Alerts

Several low-level alerts are issued:

* Annual cleaning week is upcoming.
* The screens on all vents should be locked in the downward position for the duration of the day.
* The annual recreational paintball tournament (started in the previous episode) has been won by team zeta, and there are no remaining targets. At four days, this was the longest-running tournament to date.
* Drains are separate from garbage chutes, and drain screens should not be removed.

Additionally, several maintenance-only alerts are issued:

* All senior maintenance workers in the Purification Center are to return to the central office for a scheduling meeting.
* Repair service is needed in Biohazard Lab A, as the new, thicker holding bars have again proven insufficient.
* The lone survivor of the paintball tournament has been convinced to seek medical attention, and the tournament has come to an end. Floor 8 is in need of cleanup crews, who should not forget their blood buckets.

## Trivia

* SAYER speaks about hedgehogs in the past tense, which may imply that they have gone extinct following the cataclysm.

## Plot Inconsistencies

* While discussing the name of the Purification Center, SAYER claims that there is no "raw water" on Typhon because it has no atmosphere, and so there is no rain. However, on a later occasion, a resident finds himself on the surface of Typhon, with no apparent protection. SAYER says at that point that the surface of Typhon is "only passingly habitable, intended only to support life long enough to get it back inside a tower."

## Credits

SAYER is voiced and produced by Adam Bash.

This episode was written by Ashleigh Shadowbrook.

Intro and outro music composed by Jesse “Main Finger” Gregory.

Additional music by Kai Engel.

Listen to the episode here.