Disassembly Drone headcanons part 2: Behaviour and culture
Part 1
-Basic culture and behaviour-
-Your basic squad usually has three members, the leader, the pilot and the hunter. However, since the Solver is only interested in micromanaging J's team, it isn't rare for other squads to be more varied.
-Territories are usually based on the landmarks. For example, J's squad has the whole capital city as their territory while another might have a forest as theirs.
Because their prey can run for a good while, there are neutral lands between territories to allow for catching prey without disrupting another squad's lands.
-In cases where the prey does run into another's territory, it is customary to ping or DM the squad leader for permission to enter. If permission is granted, the ruling squad takes their fill and then the interloper can have the carcass.
-In cases where one cannot wait for permission (read: The Solver had earmarked this WD in particular), the chasing drone must just grin and bear it and hope they don't get caught or that the ruling squad doesn't catch the target first.
Sharing important news between squads is usually done through DMs, but some DDs go to the edge of their territory and ping the news to nearby squads.
Because of the hilarity of a DD yelling at the borders, it isn't uncommon for DDs to tell someone rambling to "go and yell that at the borders. Maybe (insert squad name) will hear you."
Squad names tend to be self-appointed but require the squad to have good rapport with nearby squads to get it respected. Technically J's squad is Alpha 003, but everyone else calls them the Goldengirls.
Nests and sleeping areas vary a lot. Some create spires with sleeping areas. Some use human structures as homes. Some have even dug themselves caves to live in.
-Due to the push for quotas and the leaderboards, J's squad rarely communicates with the other squads. Things aren't as frosty between non-JVN squads and there is even a bit of trading of members going on.
-In general, J's squad is seen as the one that matters by the Solver. While other squads mainly exist to be meat to the grinder. The Solver does not see these squads as sapient and so they are left to their own devices.
-Technically, eating anything biological is forbidden by 'JCJenson.' However, most DDs in Copper 9 have stores of frozen meat products and human corpses in case of bad hunts.
Though (again) J's squad does not partake in them, there are gatherings between other squads to share news and potential threats. J's squad gets the cliffs notes by pings.
Touching another's tail without permission is considered extremely rude. Akin to a human putting their hand over another's face. Mates can twine their tails and squadmates often clean each other, but it is all with permission.
Because the DDs are left to their own devices with very little to no oversight, communal grooming and repairing are a must. Everyone must stay in good shape, otherwise hunting as a group becomes nearly impossible. To be excluded from grooming/maintenance is to be considered an outsider to the squad.
Like in any species, there are those DDs who find the life of a loner easier. Some get chased from their squads but some just leave and start scavenging on their own. These DDs are, naturally, kill on sight to most squads who aren't in need of a new member. It isn't rare for these loners to ally with Outposts as protectors.
Outside Outpost 3 and its DD team, the relationship between DDs squads and Outposts varies. While some have a simple prey vs predator situation, others are more complex. One Outpost is feeding their local squad human remains to placate them, while another Outpost has managed to 'tame' some DD as guards.
The dynamics of each squad vary a lot. J's squad resembles a spotted hyena clan, where the females are higher and the sole male is the punching bag. Others resemble wolf packs, with mated pairs leading the rest, and so on.
-Slang-
