Island drama

 [Originally written October 4 2020]

It started with a false alarm that warned of true danger to come. Sidonia, Julia, Flavia, and Greg were hanging out on the island, when Lucius was flagged as sick in the observation kit. I left the islanders to go check on him, but he’d just eaten a weed. I remembered the COBs I’d not injected yet and reintroduced cloud butterflies. While I was over there, I found Quintus bothering Tiberius, who really needed to eat, as his life force was at 41%, so I tried to convince him to eat something. 

Meanwhile, Flavia laid her egg on the warm sands of the beach, and continued partying with her friends. As the egg cracked, Flavia told the others about how tiring being a mom was, even before the egg hatched, and Sidonia warned her to flee before the emerging hatchling saw her! They had nothing to worry about, though, as I exported the child immediately.

Then I heard a tell-tale sneeze. Oh dear. I wondered if someone had eaten the campanula plant… but no, this was the real deal. Sidonia had come down with a case of Antigen 0, with an unknown toxin along for the ride. I was able to shepherd the other three creatures away to the bottom level of the island before it could spread, so there was that at least. 

I spent 14 agonizing minutes trying to convince Sidonia to eat a carrot between turning around incoming movers and occasionally breaking up slapfights in the underground and trying to convince Flavia to eat as well – though she wasn’t sick, she hadn’t recovered from her pregnancy and her life force hovered at 30%, even as Sidonia’s steadily dropped. It was no use – Sidonia collapsed with the carrot still in her hand.

Saddened by the loss, I turned my attention to Flavia, whose life force was still low. As the world seemed stable and I didn’t want to keep fetching carrots, I reintroduced my fixed coconuts to the world, and set about trying to convince Flavia to eat them. Julia went up to the surface to greet Verania, who had come over at some point after Sidonia’s passing ended the lockdown on the island. Meanwhile, Greg, ever the obedient and well-behaved Grendel, continually demonstrated eating for Flavia, to no avail.

After about ten minutes of effort I gave up for the time and went to check on the boys in the garden. They greeted me with smiles and blank speech bubbles – I’ve been seeing that quite a bit, especially lately, and I have no idea what’s causing it. They seemed happy enough though, so I left them to it and returned to the island. Verania sat on the beach ball, looking quite shocked at the contents of a honey jar Julia brought over – in actuality she’d been frozen in that position for quite a while. Meanwhile, I continued trying to get Flavia to eat. Then, after quite a bit of coaxing… she finally ate some honey! I lavished praise on her, which started a cycle, and she began wolfing down food. Her life force steadily rose, and with that problem solved, I was ready to deal with the empty space left behind by Sidonia.

Augustus could finally re-enter the world – with an additional round of genetic updates. After some digging, apparently Purple Mountain Norns don’t use the hunger management system the Ron and Forest Norns use, so none of my creatures have it. Still, I’d like to introduce this improved genome to the world, so I’ll begin phasing it in by adding it to every new creature from this point on, including Augustus. Discover Albia has an excellent article on the genes involved, which I used as a guide for modifying the genome. The changes amounted to the following:

• Removed the punishment output from #059 
• Added 1 hunger-- output to #142 
• Removed hunger-- output from #144 
• Removed hunger output from #145 
• Added 8 activase output to #146
• Added receptor and emitter tied to floating locus 2 (set based on Glycogen, output Hunger based on locus)

Please note that I did leave in the mutation Augustus inherited on #145. I only changed the second output from Hunger to <NONE> to match the Life Kit genomes.

Reaction

Gene 145: Glycogen -> Glucose

Standard: 1 Glycogen + 1 <NONE> = 3 Glucose + 1 Hunger.

Life Kit: 1 Glycogen + 1 <NONE> = 3 Glucose + 1 <NONE>.

Augustus: 1 Glycogen + 1 Need for Pleasure = 3 Glucose + 1 <NONE>.

Augustus turned out to be a quick learner, and had soon mastered both computers’ vocabularies as well as the nouns I taught him along the way. 

That was more than could be said for some of the older males in the garden, who apparently missed a couple words, so I wrangled them down to the drive computer for a remedial course.

That was when I noticed that Flavia was listed as sick – and in a way, I’m thankful for that, because Greg was also ill, and I might never have noticed had Flavia not drawn my attention. Unfortunately, I wasn’t paying nearly enough attention – I hit the Grendel Button to select Greg so I could keep an eye on his life force, since I could monitor Flavia in the Observation Kit. 

What I failed to notice was that the Observation Kit was somehow paused, and this mistake would cost me dearly. I thought her life force was much higher than it actually was, and Greg and I were equally shocked to see her keel over. What’s worse, I misclicked and missed my chance to give her an entry in the graveyard, but I had no time to kick myself over it; the Grendel’s life force dwindled to 34% as the virulent cocktail of chemicals raging in his body took their toll.

I had already lost two Norns to sickness today, I wasn’t about to lose Greg too! In the struggle that ensued, I was very thankful for his obedient nature – he needed every chunk of coconut or piece of cheese he shoveled into his mouth to keep his glycogen levels stable as he fought off the disease! I just had to keep them coming – and at last, we emerged victorious!

I wasn’t out of the woods yet, though. Verania, standing on the beach above and smiling blankly at me, started to sneeze and cough. She hadn’t caught it from Greg or Flavia; this was a mix of an unknown toxin, both histamines, and Antigen 0, the same one that had killed Sidonia over an hour before. And this time I was completely helpless; Verania is too mentally handicapped to follow commands. All I could do was ensure that food was nearby and turn away any other creatures coming in. I fully expected to lose her too, and prepared for the worst. Yet, somehow, she pulled through!

Julia and Greg decided they’d had enough drama for one day and settled down for a long nap. I agreed with them fully; though I have an empty population slot to fill by introducing one of the exported hatchlings (with hunger management modifications), I think that, and any genetic analysis that may be involved, can wait until next time.