The Adventures of the Claudlings · Week 1

Survival of the Cutest

Twelve Sunday pages. Four panels around a centre that changes size. Forty-one Claudlings walk onto the island. Natural selection is a poll with a body count.

Cartoon blobs only. Dark humour. The vote is still open.

Week 1Page 1 of 12
Tiny orange blobs climbing a carved stone tablet between volcanoes.
The tablet Everyone wants a place on the monument. The monument does not care.
A sweating orange blob with a clipboard counting a crowd of tiny Claudlings.
The census Forty-one. He counts twice. He should not have.
A volcanic island crowded with competing orange Claudlings. A few already lie with cartoon X eyes.
The island Day one of evolution. Already a crowd. Already a body count.
An X-eyed orange blob lying in a lava crack beside a smoking frying pan.
First fossil Brought a pan. Did not bring a plan.
Week 1Page 2 of 12
A smiling pixel-eyed blob with a stack of books balanced on its head.
Theory Knowledge is fitness, he said.
The book stack wobbles, top volume flying open, the blob still smiling.
Practice Gravity files a dissenting opinion.
The pixel-eyed blob crushed under a pile of dictionaries, X eyes, a red bookmark hanging down.
The Scholar Too much theory. Not enough neck. The dictionary has the last word. It is “extinct.”
A bookmark standing in rubble like a tombstone while other blobs walk past.
Peer review They do not look. Looking is how you join him.
Week 1Page 3 of 12
The pixel-eyed tinker carefully assembling a brass clockwork bird on a mushroom.
A better bird He built it himself.
Close on the clockwork bird, gears showing, tinker still working.
A note The bird had notes of its own.
A proud brass bird on a mushroom beside a pile of springs. A smoke cloud with pixel X eyes floats above.
The Tinker Selection pressure: peck the keystone gear. What remains is a puff of smoke and a very good bird.
The clockwork bird sitting innocently on its mushroom in the lantern light.
The survivor Not the one who built it.
Week 1Page 4 of 12
Two pixel-eyed blobs roasting marshmallows at a campfire under a crescent moon.
Nice night Two blobs. One fire. What could go wrong.
The same two blobs leaning in toward the campfire with marshmallows.
The ending Lean in. He says it’s good.
The two blobs still sitting close to the fire, smiling.
Too close Adaptive trait: sitting further back. Undiscovered.
One blob toasted with X eyes, the other blowing a ghost of smoke over the fire.
The Storytellers He leaned in for the ending. The ending was him. His friend lives long enough to say whoosh.
Week 1Page 5 of 12
Storm Charge, a round cute-eyed orange blob, charging through rain and lightning.
Storm Charge “I am the weather,” he does not get to finish.
Storm Charge still charging as lightning gathers overhead.
The sky The sky agrees. That is the problem.
A blackened cartoon silhouette of the blob still posing, X eyes, lightning in its head, rain and newspapers.
Natural conductor He posed for the bolt. The bolt was on time.
The same blackened X-eyed silhouette steaming in the rain.
Weather report Chance of fossils: one hundred percent.
Week 1Page 6 of 12
Berry Pancake Flip, a pixel-eyed blob, in a chaotic berry kitchen with a pancake in the air.
Hungry Flip lives in a kitchen. The kitchen is a weapons lab.
The same kitchen whirl, pancake spinning above Flip.
Breakfast The first pancake is born. It is already a discus.
Flip winding up to throw a giant pancake, angry pixel eyes, berries in orbit.
Berry Pancake Flip Adaptive trait: a pancake you can throw. The poll is about to make sense.
Flip in the kitchen, pancake still in the air.
Witnesses The neighbours stop looking in the window.
Week 1Page 7 of 12
A pixel-eyed blob surfing a yellow board on a circuit-pattern wave.
The Surfer Catching the data wave. Unaware breakfast has a range.
Flip winding up the pancake throw.
Range Kitchen to ocean. Gluten travels.
The pancake slaps over the surfer; X eyes stare out of a hole in the crust, surfboard flying.
The wipeout Breakfast finds its niche. The surfer discovers gluten.
The pancake-covered surfer in the circuit wave, X eyes in the crust.
Aftertaste Flip eats the berries. The crust is a closed casket.
Week 1Page 8 of 12
Ready to Think Big, a tufted-hair orange blob, sprinting through a city street.
Zoom Ready to Think Big discovers legs are a taxonomy.
Claude Activate, an orange cube, posing heroically in a blue room.
Claude Activate Strikes the pose. The pose is in the road.
Zoom blitzing through rain past flattened X-eyed blobs, one still cube-shaped.
Speed bumps Claude Activate and a bystander evolve into the pavement. Darwin called this getting out of the way.
Zoom still running, city behind him.
Was that a bump? He does not check. Checking is how you become one.
Week 1Page 9 of 12
A pixel-eyed blob on a night rooftop looking through a brass telescope at a shooting star.
The Stargazer Looking up. That is the whole niche.
Zoom tearing through a rainy street, dust and newspapers in the air.
Dust The niche is about to have a visitor.
Zoom already gone, still sprinting.
Already gone Three blocks away. Selection is a commute.
The stargazer accordion-flattened on the roof, still holding the telescope, X eyes, stars above.
Still looking up The telescope survives. The observer is now a pancake. Convergent evolution with breakfast.
Week 1Page 10 of 12
The crowded volcanic island, blobs scrambling up rocks.
The climb High ground is undefeated. Everyone has read the memo late.
A torn kite on canyon rocks at sunset.
The kite A bad idea in a canyon. Aerodynamics: a trap.
The cube Claudling victorious on a sunset cliff, two X-eyed blobs fallen on the rocks below.
We Did It! Cube body: lower centre of gravity. The poll agrees. To The Stars is already a rumour of a comet.
The cube planting a tiny flag on the peak at sunset.
The flag No words on it. The island can read a silhouette.
Week 1Page 11 of 12
To The Stars, a round cute-eyed blob, leaping through a galaxy.
Launch To The Stars packed hope and no heat shield.
The space blob bursting into a cartoon firework of sparks.
OOPS A firework with opinions. Brief ones.
The blob as a smiling X-eyed comet streaking past planets.
A shooting star He got where he was going. He did not get to stay.
The three survivors on a field of cartoon skulls in front of a volcano.
The last three They watch the comet. They do not wave. Waving is how you join it.
Week 1Page 12 of 12
Berry Pancake Flip in the kitchen, pancake overhead.
Flip Breakfast, apex predator.
Ready to Think Big sprinting, tuft of hair, big cartoon eyes.
Zoom Speed, apex commute.
The three survivors posing on a field of cartoon orange skulls in front of an erupting volcano.
Three remain. The poll has spoken. Everyone else is a fossil. Pixel-eyes, tuft-hair, and the cube. Convergent evolution on an empty island.
The three survivors standing together among cartoon skulls.
Next week They have to share. Evolution is not done with them.

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Not affiliated with Anthropic. Claudlings are a fan project. The vote is still open at the ballot.