End of an Era

[Originally written August 1 2020]

I reopened the world after putting Creatures down for a while in favor of Neverwinter Nights 2, and swiftly remembered why I hadn’t been playing: the Shee Ark continues to be a hot mess. I was greeted with a storm of sneezes, and yet another Grendel egg to add to the one I already had in my inventory. Helena at least gave me a second egg – the first also still in my inventory while I tried to get the dumpster fire under control.

I packed up all the Grendels and moved them to the Meso, taking full advantage of the fact that adult Grendels, for whatever reason, can’t ride the Meso elevator, to separate the sexes. Despite my hopeful ambitions, it’s become abundantly clear: you can’t raise populations of Norns and Grendels together. Individuals, yes. But not whole populations. Even if the Grendels don’t kill all the Norns, they swiftly take over. I’m not even playing the game at this point as much as just trying to keep afloat in a sea of Grendels. Not to mention, I was fighting a losing war with the sickness. Lemons and panatreea potions were not enough, and bacteria just kept popping up. One pandemic is enough, thank you; I’d rather not have to hand out COVID masks to my Norns!

So it seemed that the best course of action would be to start over. No Grendel breeding, just a few individuals among a population of Norns. A new naming scheme, because the rapid births and deaths had already used up the best names. It was a question of details at this point. Let nature take its course and rebuild on the ashes, risking the return of the omnipresent bacteria, or start a new world? Import a handful of creatures, only the ones in the currently-unhatched eggs, or leave them all behind? Single-sex population of Grendels, or sterilized ones?

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[Originally written August 2 2020]

Having given it plenty of thought, I decided on a course of action. I set up a new world, Midgard, which would be home to a population of Norns and two Grendels, both male, one Jungle and one Banshee. I exported all three Norns, hatched the Norn eggs and exported them too, and finally exported Caliban – I’m taking him with me, dangit! The already named creatures would retain their names, but everyone else would follow a Norse naming scheme. The Ettins would be Huginn and Munin, the Grendels would be Skoll and Hati.

Meanwhile, I decided to let the old world have closure, letting the Grendels live out their lives, including the eggs – even the backup eggs that had remained in the Aquarium. I moved the four females to the Woodland and left the remaining three males in the Meso, and welcomed the last four hatchlings. The two inventory eggs were females: Maria, the daughter of Ursula and Sebastian, and Katherine, the daughter of Cordelia and Caliban. 

The backup eggs were Paris, a first generation Jungle Grendel from the start of the world, and Richard, the son of Viola and Sebastian. Unfortunately, Cordelia and Beatrice never got to meet the newcomers as Cordelia passed on from old age and Beatrice died of unknown causes, possibly sickness. Ursula, however, was pleased to meet the younglings, doing her signature dance – I had forgotten to mention previously, but she walks like a woodcock!

Meanwhile, I did a double take – I suddenly had two blue hatchlings, where Maria had definitely been green at birth!

I cracked open her genetics, and sure enough, all three of the initial pigment bleed genes had mutated to turn on in childhood instead of at the embryo stage, so while she had inherited all of her mom’s signature Gentle Grendel Blue coloration, they didn’t kick in until childhood – which she reached quite quickly! But the analysis revealed some other mutations too.

Receptor

Gene 0382

Organ: “Current Organ”, Tissue: “<no tissue>”, Locus: “Injury”. Chemical: “Lactate”.
Analogue: Output = 0 + ((signal - 0) * 0.133).

Organ: “Current Organ”, Tissue: “<no tissue>”, Locus: “Injury”. Chemical: “Lactate”.
Analogue: Output = 0 - ((signal - 0) * 0.133).

This one scared me at first but it may actually be a good thing if it ever comes into play at all. If I understand correctly, normal functionality is that when a creature is struggling to breathe, the lactate that is produced causes the creature to feel pain and slightly injure their muscles – in theory, this should drive the creature to get out of the water or whatever is causing their struggle. The receptor doesn’t seem to be linked to pain, only injury, so I would guess that the inversion of the signal means that lactate would heal Maria while still causing her pain to urge her to not stand in the pond.

Reaction

Gene 0043

3 Fatty Acid → 1 Triglyceride

2 Fatty Acid → 1 Triglyceride

Fatty Acid and Triglyceride are stages in the breakdown of fat during digestion. I suppose this means she’s slightly more efficient in digesting fats.

Richard had a handful of mutations, most of which did nothing, but had a couple alterations of note.

Receptor

Gene 0349

Organ: “Current Reaction”, Tissue: “<no tissue>”, Locus: “Reaction Rate”. Chemical: “Vitamin C”.
Digital: Output = 0.839 + 0.251 if signal > 0. 

Organ: “Current Reaction”, Tissue: “<no tissue>”, Locus: “Reaction Rate”. Chemical: “Vitamin E”.
Digital: Output = 0.839 + 0.251 if signal > 0.

Reaction

Gene 0246

1 Hunger for Carb backup → 1 Hunger for Carb

1 Hunger for Protein backup → 1 Hunger for Carb

Truth be told I don’t really know how either of these will affect him, but I don’t expect them to be major. Katherine had several mutations, all extremely trivial, and Paris is, of course, an unmutated standard Jungle Grendel.

In the process of looking through their mutations I finally dove into the pose and gait genes, and I think I understand them now. So I naturally went off on a tangent trying to figure out why Ursula walks the way she does. But I think that should be split into a new post!