Rimworld Transmutation Headcanon
So I was playing Rimworld on zero sleep and just had a amazing new headcanon: Vanila Expanded Psycasts' transmutation is just the ability to tap into the archotech trading network, and archotechs think it's funny to yeet random shit back of similar ish value rather than take requests from the squishies for stuff they actually want.
This explains why, if you're using Vanilla Expanded Trading, the items you transmute actually obey the laws of supply and demand--buying up all the gold I can get my paws on has tripled the value of gold, and with it, the random goodies the Archotechs give me.
This means that when my colonists transmute statues they've carved from silver and get massive piles of meat in exchange(thanks ogrestack), it's the equivalent of a colony of rats showing up with warhammer minifigs and you decide to pay them by cutting open a pack of hotdogs and dropping them off in front of their little rat village.
Meanwhile, Horax is very upset about Greg giving us hot dogs, which is why he sends his rats to my rat colony to take them out.