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In glass chambers, free from evolution's ruthless razor. Beings that never would survive on their own. Spindles of protein meters long that siphon energy from light as they refract it. Geometric drifting aquatic nonsense, who glow when water is 38 degrees Celsius, the only condition in which they can mate. A blind deaf scaly thing, that spouts molten wax which hardens into nearly random fortresses. Trees that grow in spiral funnels, balancing ever so delicately and humming all then while. Mammaloids (they are likened to Earth's mammals) who sit on their petrified, useless limbs and wait for fate to provide for them.

Fate, automated and monitored. The planet spanning phenomenon of a facility is kept tidy, functioning, by a further exquisite species. They are humanoid, likened to Earth's humans for their dexterous appendages, lending easy manipulation of their glass enclaves.

To call them glass is a misnomer, they can be likened to Earth's glass only so far. The glass is permeable, manipulatable through the pulses of living things. A unit of it surrounds it's occupancy, protecting them from the innumerable things that would disrupt their delicate privacy. It also regularly excretes any outside nutrition needed by any creature, knowing what is needed and when by chemical analysis of its contents. It retrieves the necessary components via extract from the other cells, and the sun. The entire construct is not unlike an lifeform itself, with how incredibly organic it's structure and design is. The humanoid overseers took great care crafting it, so it relays information and choices to them regarding the other species. The facility, minimally relatable to a human zoo, is the pride and joy of these overseers, and maintaining it is what defines their lives. To ensure the survival of these fragile beings, and to not let them fall prey to strategic evolution, they must take care to nourish and provide for every mutation. The lab grows over the eons, as genetic diversity becomes more and more manifold, but the overseers have nothing but time and space, and maintaining the enclosures is their inherited duty, from thousands of generations past. While it is near completely automated, there are tales of ancient times when, amidst the purely random evolution, survival traits like hunting and trickery arrived, along with, very rarely the ability to come in to contact with other life. Swaths of such poor luck ruined millennia of species before the creatures vulnerabilities eventually cancelled out. These are the reasons the overseers must continue to oversee, so they can prevent such chance insubordination, somehow. The ecosystem of many private animals may not be able to withstand such dangerous deviances as the shudder raising 'intelligence'. While the faith in the bubbles of 'glass' is strong, the overseers suspect that were they to allow sentience, something terrible could occur, such as the smart mutations taking over the entire facility, or perhaps even taking control of the glass itself. Thankfully, the top scientists among the overseer community-bubble declare that the system has been discovered to contain a defense mechanism for that situation. Were a species to gain knowledge of its surroundings, and a dreadful yearning to have command and mastery over them, the system will supply placebo-power, giving them illusion of control while truly maintaining automatic power. Ego will keep them contained and safe. That way, the 100% reflective ring creatures can continue to vibrate, the speeding, jagged vapor-sacs can continue to leak fluorine, the aviary, living asymmetry of calcium and flesh can continue to pivot, the overseers can continue to be pleased with their work, and the permeable glass infrastructure can continue to channel nutrients and intake light energy. All of them smugly in charge of the natural process.

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The story came first, though I spent more time on the picture. More time than anything else on this account maybe, though I don't think it really shows.