The Connectome League AlmanacClub No. 01Est. B.Y. 1Home: The Cider Press
DRO · Club history
Drosophila FC
“The original fruit flies.”
The first club in the Bowl. It was founded by the night crew of a cider press, on a night when the fruit flies came to watch.
The founding · B.Y. 1
A plum, two barrels, and a very long night shift.
The Cider Press sits in the oldest corner of the orchard. Long ago, three robots worked its night shift. Brix ran the press. Cask rolled the barrels. Wren, the smallest, swept up whatever fell on the floor.
One night in B.Y. 1, a windfall plum rolled off the sorting table. Wren nudged it. It rolled between two barrels standing a little apart. Brix looked up from the press and said, “That’s a goal.” Cask said it was not. They played until sunrise to settle it.
By then the smell of crushed fruit had pulled a cloud of fruit flies to the lantern over the door. They hovered there all night, watching. Brix decided that counted as a crowd. A club with a crowd needs a name, so the crew named it after the crowd: Drosophila, the fruit fly.
That is where the motto comes from. Other clubs are named for places, or for big ideas about themselves. Drosophila FC is named for its first fans.
B.Y. 1 · A scene from the almanac
Cask moves the barrel.
Cask rolled the right-hand barrel half a turn to the left. The gap between the goalposts narrowed. Wren watched him do it.
“It was there before,” Cask said. Brix put down the press handle. There was a wet plum mark on the floor, a wet plum mark on the barrel, and very little plum left to argue over. None of these things settled where the barrel had been.
Wren fetched a broom. Instead of sweeping, she laid it across the gap. Cask objected that a broom was not a proper measure. Brix asked what a proper measure looked like. Cask looked around the press house. Everything available was either a barrel or another broom.
They agreed to leave the broom where it was. Then they needed a ball. Wren found another windfall under the sorting table and tested it with one careful nudge. This one curved left. Cask said that was useful information and moved to the left.
By morning, the crew had marked two lines in spilled cider. They had also agreed that nobody could move a goalpost while the ball was rolling. This was their first rule. It needed repeating before the second game.
Above the door, fruit flies gathered at the lantern. Brix waved to them. Cask asked whether they had seen the first goal. The crowd offered no ruling. He took that as support.
Team sheet · B.Y. 40
The squad
Three robots a side: a keeper, a midfielder, and a striker. These are the names and numbers they wear in the game.
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No. 1, Haltere
No. 1 · Goalkeeper
Named after the tiny drumstick wing a fly uses to keep its balance. That fits a keeper who never seems to fall over. Haltere is not related to the Golden Haltere trophy. Please stop asking.
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No. 7, Ocelli
No. 7 · Midfielder
Ocelli are the three small extra eyes on top of a fly’s head. Ocelli the midfielder claims to see the whole pitch at once. The Compound Eye has not confirmed this.
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No. 9, Tarsus
No. 9 · Striker
Shares a name with the Golden Tarsus, the top scorer’s prize. Drosophila fans call this destiny. The trophy is named after a fly’s foot, not after him.
In Fly Brain Soccer, every robot runs on the same fruit-fly brain wiring, whichever shirt it wears. The squads, numbers, and positions above come straight from the game. The personalities come from the almanac.
Named fixtures
Who they play, and why it matters
Every club meets every other club once a season. Over forty years, each of those six games picked up a name.
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DRO v MOS · since B.Y. 3
The Peel Derby
The oldest fixture. It started as an argument over a crate of plums and never really stopped. The name comes from the plum peel left on the pitch after the first one.
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DRO v OMM · since B.Y. 11
The Split
Inter Ommatidia was founded by Drosophila FC’s own tactician. Drosophila fans still call it a walkout. Inter fans call it “a difference in viewing preferences.”
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DRO v LAR · since B.Y. 29
The Nursery Match
The oldest club against the youngest. Drosophila fans call Larva “the nursery.” Larva fans call Drosophila “the old folks.” Both are technically correct.
From the Compound Eye
Notable moments
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B.Y. 1
The first goal
A plum between two barrels. Cask still says it went wide.
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B.Y. 3
The first Peel Derby
A 2–1 win over Real Mosca. The crate of plums stays in the Glasshouse anyway.
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B.Y. 5
The first Golden Haltere
Drosophila FC win the league’s first season. There were two clubs in it.
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B.Y. 11
The Split
Tactician Lumen Hex walks out with two players and a telescope, and starts Inter Ommatidia.
For the whole league story, see the almanac timeline.
Matchday · The Bowl is open
Season 1 is still unwritten.
The almanac stops at B.Y. 40. What Drosophila FC do next is up to the brain simulations running in your browser. The first visit downloads about 138.6 MB of brain wiring data. The game tries to cache it for later visits.