Good night, sweet prince

 [Originally written September 18 2020]

It seems Creatures 3 is insistent on being a dumpster fire for me. First, Willow came down with something, which I dealt with quickly. Continuing my rounds, I checked in on Aspen in the Jungle – he, too, was sick, so I brought out the pink fog, but in an eerie repeat of Tamora’s death, he collapsed almost instantly. Just as with Tamora, his Injury level was maxed out and I’d failed to notice.  Cursing myself and the antigens alike, I pulled out the Grendel egg I’d stashed away at the start of the world, the second one produced by the egg layer in the Jungle. 

What came out of that shell gave me quite a surprise – this was no Jungle Grendel! When I was updating the genomes I placed the new ones in all the genetics folders to be sure they’d be used. I know the standard Grendel genome usually resides in the Creatures 3 folder while the Banshee Grendel genome is kept in the Docking Station folder, so I figure the egg layer must just pick a random Grendel genome from the Creatures 3 folder. I’ve deleted the Banshee genome from there, so it’s only in the Docking Station folder. Hopefully that will prevent this mixup from happening again. 

The random element might be nice in some cases but I’d like to have one of each breed, and randomness gets in the way of that. Anyway, Banshee or not, Oak is welcome in my world. While I was training him with the dummy, Lilac even came to pay him a visit! Here’s to hoping it was a good first impression. Evidently a field trip for the scaly little student was in order, because they teleported out to the desert, where Lilac instructed him in the ancient martial art of Hit Gadget.

Yew was taking good care of himself on the bramboo terrace, and all seemed well… little did I know there was trouble brewing just off-screen! If only I’d just scrolled over a bit, I might have been able to intervene and prevent a tragedy, but it was something I could not have seen coming.

The death notification came as a nasty shock, and I found poor Daffodil with all the signs of a violent death. The only creatures in the immediate vicinity were Ash and Caliban. I suspected, sadly, that the latter was responsible. I know it’s a rather unfair assumption, given that I can prove nothing and his genetic engineering should reduce his violent tendencies. In my defense, it’s not entirely because he’s a Grendel that I suspect him – he was also physically closer to the scene of the crime.

Still, I couldn’t stay mad at the old boy so close to the end of his own life. I brought him to the Workshop for a quick training session, where he was joined by Ash via teleporter, then sent him home to continue my rounds. Ash decided to head to the Desert, where Yew was also enjoying himself in the cavern next to the pond. Right up until he got into a fight with Oak. 

I promptly dragged the Grendel off to the Workshop, but Lilac had other ideas, and staged a little rescue mission! She teleported in from who-knows-where, and in the blink of an eye had stolen him away to the Terrarium.

Since the other Grendel, Willow, seemed perfectly content to stay in the Desert, Yew had decided to vacate the premises and visit the Jungle instead. I caught an Ettin coughing on him, and promptly doused the area in pink fog, but thankfully he hadn’t picked anything up. 

I left him to enjoy the chili peppers and checked in on Ash, who had also decided the Desert was not for him, and teleported into the Meso. Meanwhile, apparently satisfied that they’d lost me, Lilac and Oak returned to the Workshop, where Oak took charge and led his Norn friend out into the hallway… and straight into the Meso. Hello, again!

All this movement through the world meant old Caliban had the Terrarium to himself, which seemed to suit him just fine. I kept glancing at his vitals graph, as his Life slowly drained away. As if seeking to cheer me up, the reunited adult Norns produced a new egg, which went straight into my inventory to wait until after Caliban’s passing.

I did not, however, neglect the rest of the creatures, and kept making my rounds. A good thing I did, too, because I was just in time to break up a fight. 

Don’t let the picture fool you; Yew was no innocent victim! The little Magma Norn is the one who started it, then ran off crying when he got his rear rightly whooped. Still, I intervened to pull Willow off of him, as justified or not, the Grendel could easily kill him.

This makes me wonder how many of the unseen fights that claimed lives were started by the Norns – I’ve witnessed them throw the first punch on multiple occasions. While they lack the sense to not bully things that can eat them for breakfast, part of the problem is that their size makes them difficult to properly discipline – when a Norn hits a Grendel, the Grendel’s larger body makes it hard for me to get in there to administer a smack to the offender without accidentally striking the victim. 

At any rate, both of the involved parties were dragged off to the Workshop. Yew needed to be taught not to pick fights, and though Willow hadn’t started the fight, I had to remind him that striking Norns was not acceptable. I brought them both with me to the Woodland so I could keep an eye on them while I cared for Caliban, and they seemed to settle down a bit. I chose to use a picture of Yew curled up with the old Grendel for a nap, as it’s a better memorial for him, but Yew and Willow were also by his side when he passed away.

But I don’t intend to end this entry on such a sad note; Caliban’s death was followed shortly by the birth of Rose, the Norn whose egg I’d stashed earlier. She has no notable mutations as far as I can tell – she had one genetic error corrected automatically when I opened her genome in the Genetics Kit, and one of the genes flagged by my script as a mutation didn’t appear to be different than the CFE Chichi genome, so it’s possible that she has an unknown mutation. Regardless, here’s to hoping she fares better than her unfortunate sister!