#either manufactured by crabs or trash scavenged

[thehandwixard]

Hi! I really like your worldbuilding and was wondering if you had any ideas for how their equivalents of a printing press would be considering that Firth mentions getting the paper and I imagine they have some type of reading material like books or scrolls. 

Like if they use ink of some sort, the most obvious answer being from squids on some level or if they have a different form of manufacturing it as since squids are sapient here, they probably wouldn’t be too enthused about being mined for ink. Or it’s something like old thrown out paints, inks, and writing material from humans, though either way the question of how they would get certain materials to adhere underwater is questionable in itself. There are such things as waterproof paper and underwater writing utensils but I don’t imagine those would be common to come by nor do I think they would have that great of a ability really have much of the ability to manufacture them themselves on a large scale.

Or they just cut out the letters and symbols from stuff already printed by humans serial killer style, sort of like what the Bottom Feeders sign does

Hi, I wrote this one out in a doc to format it because i was thinking about so much information. This is going to be typed more formally than it would be otherwise because my program autocapitalizes lest i go insane. Its gonna be a little disjointed regardless. <3 giant wall of text under the cut im not subjecting anyones dash to this unprompted

As a preface: gonna assume paper, fabric, and other organic and/or delicate goods have a longer shelf life in this society, taking the same stance as for in-game props made of these materials. The cigarettes do not really dissolve and some paper can exist indefinitely, though it and cardboard are understood to be soggy. Whether this is due to sapient creature activity/preservation, or just due to the more cartoon logic of the setting and game design needs.

like this is just a good statement for my analysis and reads on this game's worldbuilding in general: there are a lot of things in crabgame that are not scientifically accurate and that is literally the most ok thing in the universe because of the needs of the gameplay, the story, just like ETC there is a lot of love for the real ocean in crabgame and thats what matters, and ill work around that. i, however, am also insane.

Also keep in mind that humans dont really do manufacturing and crafts underwater so while i’ve tried to keep water stuff in mind there is just not the info for how making oil based inks or individual batches of paper would work underwater yknow? Educated guesses. Wikipedia educated guesses.

Further assumption: Definitely agree with what u said about crabs not really having an ability to manufacture stuff on a large scale. I’m gonna assume factory work could definitely be a thing, but maybe not widespread like… industrialization. Industry is certainly a big and well-known thing in new-carcinia, and i don’t doubt that shellfish co. probably has some machine-powered factories, but most industry is probbbably going to be supplied through scavenging either way, even if it also includes craft and such. 

Third assumption: easy answer is that due to the trash economy yeah a lot of paints and inks used in theoretical printing, writing, and art would probably be, and have been scavenged from trash for a long time, probably superceding any of the previously implied small factories or home production joints. This isnt to say that these production methods could not be adopted for the trash economy though. Ill get into it. 

(clears throat) with all that said, through my basic research id have to say i think much manual writing and art, if made either through wholly original production or a mix of scavenging and refining, would be done through an equivalent to Grease Pencils, a wax writing tool which can make marks on hard and glossy surfaces, such as (relevant to crabs or other water critters) rock, ceramic, glass, metal, etc. there are many sources pigments for these writing implements could be derived from, like iron oxides (for use in reddish dyes), tyrian purple (there is actually a snail in the pacific that can be farmed for this dye without execution, Plicopurpura pansa iirc, who knew!) and carbon (ill return to this). 

You mention the ethical concerns of farming sapient squids for their ink and I do agree with those, no matter how much ink cephalopods produce its still like… a resource made from a person and production cant exactly rise to demand without the horrors occurring. However, i’m mostly just skeptical of how useful squid ink would be for writing underwater. This ink is almost entirely melanin particles bound together with mucus, which does eventually disperse in water. Not to say it couldnt be collected, but i feel like underwater application would be kind of a fruitless task. 

As an aside, with the general (really frightening (in a good way) to me) lack of molluscs we see in another crab’s treasure, tyrian purple or anything derived from molluscs would likely be largely out of the question. Some sea hares can also eject ink colored from the pigments they ingest from seaweed but also, this ink is toxic and… same mollusc problem. I guess people irl can eat sea hares so maybe with prep crabs could… who knows . Oh fuck pigments could be derived from seaweed and algae. Keep that in mind. 

I don’t… reject the possibility that crab society could have agricultural or dye farms but we only hear tell of like… One sardine farm and it is not sounding good for them. I don’t think these guys would really have any incentive to farm as little guys who can eat most things, one soldier in slacktide mentions scavenging heartkelp with their own claws. Probably some very small operations if any. 

ASIDE OVER THAT WAS JUST PIGMENTS MOSTLY, to me the tricky part is what IS the waxy part. The grease. The thing that does not dissolve in water. Again, these component parts can probably be scavenged (and probably Have been scavenged since even before the trash economy, canisters of wax definitely fall overboard whaling ships and such) but i honestly can’t think of many ways a crab could make such a substance wholecloth. Perhaps creation of a quasi-inkstick with agar-agar or animal glue (fish glue/isinglass) and pigment? Which would naturally be a bit wet and wouldnt need an inkstone to gather the substance onto the printing apparatus.

For the stuff crabs actually write or print on, assuming a form of this is possible underwater i think pressed homemade paper would be a perfectly reasonable option for small-scale applications, though honestly imo “the paper” (newspaper) that firth mentions is probably printed on either re-used scavenged coated paper or scavenged/manually flattened thin plastic sheets. With access to machinery, shellfish co. would likely be able to manufacture thin plastic sheets, the npc LaTuna mentions her dress being created somehow by Shellfish co. and so i dont doubt that type of simple production is possible. We also see a lot of writing on cardboard so im gonna assume scavenged paints or these like. Agar inks and paint stamps will work on those? Maybe with some kind of sealant…

And of course as u mention bottomfeeders and shellfish desires both have signs that are made out of english letters that were pre-made, so thats probably a good option when applicable.