Donk Co

History

Donk Co’s early history is shrouded in mystery, almost certainly by design. The year of its official founding, or even what business it originally engaged in is unknown. As a result, many theories abound about Donk Co’s origins. One leading theory suggests that the word DONK is an acronym - although there are too many competing guesses at what the acronym might stand for for the idea to catch on. The Donk Corporation itself denies all rumors of previous company names and rigorously suppresses many rumors about its early history.

• One such rumor, backed up by questionable evidence, claims Donk once stood for Dugiev and Oletov Nuclear Kinetics. The theorist who first began popularizing this rumor via exonet video streaming was found dead in an alleged home invasion days after his original post. The documents backing his claim were found to be missing during the following investigation.
• To this day, fellow theorists believe this was an assassination carried out by Donk Co; even after the theorist’s murderer was apprehended and convicted thanks to a bevy of evidence. Ultimately, the evidence showed that the death of the theorist resulted from several overdue accounts with local loan sharks, rather than any dispute with Donk Co. However, the alleged evidence the theorist had to prove Donk Co’s dark past remains missing - if it existed at all - and the murderer claims that no such evidence was found during the robbery.

Despite its mysterious beginnings, the history of Donk Co. is otherwise well-known. Following the Bluespace Flicker of 2354, Donk Co emerged as a Frontier home goods and entertainment company. One of its first products: the Donk Pocket, remains one its most recognizable, and is near ubiquitous across civilized space. Donk Co’s Donk Pocket was, and still is, a marvel of culinary engineering. Improving on earlier recipes for microwavable food pockets, Donk Co revolutionized the industry by creating a pocket capable of keeping for years and surviving exposure to extreme conditions. Furthermore, when microwaved, microscopic capsules within the pocket would activate, synthesizing the (at the time) novel drug Tricordazine. This allowed the Donk Pocket to transform into both a literal health food and a tasty snack.

The Donk pocket was an instant hit, and they were so cheap to manufacture that Donk Co’s margins reached an all-time high. Indeed, this health food provided Donk Co with an instant marketing opportunity across both Frontier and OriCon space. Donk Co began providing the pockets to hospitals around human space with a special focus on Children’s hospitals, where doctors found it easy to convince children to take their tricord when it was baked in a Donk Pocket. It was from this relationship with children’s hospitals that Donk Co’s other products naturally developed. Toys for kids of all ages were donated to hospitals, and then made available on the public market. The DONKsoft line of foam dart guns became so popular that a spin-off line imitating real world weapons for adult consumers. Donk Co. then branched out into entertainment, forming DONK Media. This production studio began releasing cartoon shows, and then gradually, well received adult entertainment. Leading into the later half of the 25th century, Donk Co was an A tier Corporation pushing into AA status, with a reputation second to none in the corporate world. Orion Citizens had more positive feelings about Donk Co. then they did about Vey-Med. However, all of this would change with the advent of the Phoron War.

The Phoron War

To this day, no one is entirely sure why Donk Co., a beloved toy and home goods company joined forces with the likes of its rival Waffle Co and the war profiteering Gorlex Manufacturing company in founding the infamous Syndicated Corporations. Theories abound, with most suggesting that there was some manner of serious grudge at play beneath the surface between Donk and Nanotrasen. Were the companies rivals back in the earliest days of their existence? Was it all nothing more than a strategic move to curtail Nanotrasen’s power? No explanation seems to provide a sufficient answer. To the Syndicate Donk Co’s membership was vital, as Donk Co had something none of the other’s members possessed: a dynamite PR department.

While Gorlex waged their war with guns, Waffle with brainwashed infiltrators, Donk Co would wage it with a perhaps more insidious weapon: television. Space Station 31 was in development long before Donk Co helped form the Syndicate, but upon the Syndicate’s formation the project kicked into high gear. When it finally appeared on televisions across the Frontier and Orion space, Donk Co discovered that they had created one of the greatest comedies of the modern age. Space Station 31 was an over the top satire of life working on a Nanotrasen Space Station, featuring randomly violent assistants, abusive security officers, psychotic Heads of Security, careless engineers, drug dealer chemists, revolutionary cargo techs, ‘Condom’ Captains, genocidal AIs barely contained by their laws, mad scientists, and of course a unnatural amount of Clowns and Mimes. If you know a stereotype about Nanotrasen, chances are that this show told you about it. Due to this, public incidents where NT staff acted like their Space Station 31 counterparts became all the more hilarious for the media to consume. The show produced countless seasons and spin offs, ending only recently due to falling ratings and the stated desire of Donk Media to pursue other projects following the end of the Phoron War.

Space Station 31 was not the only way Donk Co spread the Syndicate’s propaganda; there were several less noticeable TV shows it produced during the war, along with the still in production line of Donksoft foam dart guns based on Syndicate weapons. Despite Donk Co’s success in marketing the Syndicate to the wider population, the Phoron War proved to be a losing battle. Following the buyout of Gorlex Manufacturing by Cybersun Industries, Donk Co quietly left the rapidly disintegrating Syndicate. This consequently lead to a new age of peace between Donk Co. and Nanotrasen. One that begrudgingly persists to this day.

Modern Day

Despite its association with the Syndicate (and much to the chagrin of NT), Donk Co was hardly hurt at all in the PR department by the Phoron War. Its reputation remains strong as ever in the public market. Indeed, even during the Phoron War, NanoTrasen found it impossible to not use Donk Co products. Every fiscal year, NanoTrasen spends millions to keep its stations stocked with Donk Pockets - to say nothing of the cargo points used on Donksoft products.

There were some attempts to charge high ranking Donk Co personnel for crimes related to their connection to the Syndicate. Unfortunately for NanoTrasen, the Galactic Corporate Commission laughed the suit out of court. Footage of the GOC judge’s verbal takedown of the suit - and NT’s prosecuting attorney - was leaked to Oculum, where it quickly became a viral video on the Exonet. To this day NanoTrasen publicly maintains that Donk Co. should be shuttered due to its Syndicate connections. However, with Donk Co. no longer taking action against NT, both sides are willing to accept the status quo. Some speculate that both NanoTrasen and Donk are simply waiting for a time where their unresolved issues may be resolved in a more profitable way.

Ethos

Donk Co. has one simple mission statement: “Make Them Smile”. Whether they’re a customer or not, “Make them Smile”. They may be future customers. Your enemies? “Make them smile.” They’ll go easy on you if they win, and there’ll be no hard feelings if you come out on top. Indeed, Donk Co’s entire strategy revolves around PR, and it has been nothing but successful. Everyone loves Donk Co and Donk Co loves everyone. Donk Co patronizes charities across the galaxy and donates a larger percentage of their wealth to those charities than any other Megacorporation. Their products are used across the galaxy with only the Hegemony stubbornly holding out on imports.

Quirks/Questionable Activities

The full extent of Donk Co’s activities within the Syndicate remain unknown. However, some of their alleged actions paint a dark picture of the company. They have been accused of helping Waffle Co develop its brainwashing technology, helping Cybersun develop its infamous Fungal Tuberculosis bioweapon, and creating a pizza box that can protect a bomb within from scanners, alongside a bevy of other crimes. Most of these claims are simply false, but chances are at least some are true. Although by now, if any evidence of Donk’s crimes against humanity during the Phoron War did remain, it has been expertly hidden away.

Influence

Donk Co’s Influence remains subtle. Though they hardly have the power of larger Megacorps, they are present in some way almost everywhere humanity is. In the court of public opinion they are second to none. Donk Co is everyone’s friend, and they use this to their advantage. NanoTrasen, despite its past beef with the company, still engages in beneficial trade with them. What could even they do against such a beloved company? Joining the Syndicate hardly affected Donk Co’s reputation, even after all of the hideous things the Syndicate did during the war. NanoTrasen is forced to play nice with Donk Co., and the same is true for the rest of the galaxy. Space Station 31, as much as it made NanoTrasen a laughing stock, is almost good natured fun compared to the damage Donk Co. could have done to NanoTrasen. Nanotrasen is just one example however. All corporations, even if fiscally larger, are beneath Donk Co in terms of public relations. No one wants to start a fight that they can’t win, so it’s better to be friends. Donk Co. wants to be everyone's “friend”, and it would be unwise to turn that offer down.

Lore
Corporations	NanoTrasen, Frontier Megacorporations, Minor Corporations, The Syndicate
NanoTrasen Specific	NDV Marksman, Paracausal Monitoring Division
Other Organizations	ITV Talon, System Defense Force, The Orion Confederation
Worldbuilding	Extradimensional Mechanics, FTL Travel, Galactic Landmarks, Legends, Mysteries, and Rumors, Metaphysics and Paracausality, Technology of the 2500's, The Timeline
Contribution Data	Lore Submission Templates, Roadmap for Lore Development

Author: Wedge