All around Albia

After double checking that I'd already taught Aurelia all her vocabulary, I injected my better bees and beelacanth updates into the world, and set about planting the flowers in the jungle and near the lighthouse. Then, as usual, I looked over the Observation Kit and went to tend to whoever had the lowest life force - in this case, Julia, at 30%. She was in a small cluster of Norns on the island, so I broke the group up and shuttled them over to the mainland, but scattering Norns is easier said than done. Making matters worse, at around 20% life force, she got pregnant! Thankfully, I was finally able to get her to eat something, and once she started, she scarfed down several more pieces of cheese.

Meanwhile, Verania was also pregnant and hovering at low life force, but there was nothing I could do about that, so I instead turned my attention to Eudocia, the one Norn still on the island, whose life force was now the lowest on my list. She, thankfully, didn't put up much resistance when I asked her to eat. It's amazing how some creatures are so difficult and others so easy to work with. After that, I made my rounds. Verania laid her egg in the treehouse, then took the cable car over to the windmill. Julia laid her egg in the temple at almost the same time, while Augustus looked on. Cassius played in the garden, and Secundus rode the raft back and forth underneath.

Then I noticed that Eudocia was sick. Thankfully she was still on the island, by herself, so I maintained a quarantine zone as I focused on helping her fight off the sickness. It was agonizingly slow going, and at one point I left to refill her honey pot only to find that she'd grown into old age while I was gone! Finally, after 20 long minutes, she started to recover, but there was no time for celebration: Julia passed away at almost exactly the same time Eudocia finally recovered.

But that meant it was time to bring in a new Norn, so I headed back to the incubator. Meanwhile, Secundus (I just typed Greg; it's gonna take a while to get used to the new Grendel) had found his way over to the beehives, where he was happily eating honey. While I waited for Julia's body to be deleted from the game and the incubator to open, I checked in on the scaly fellow. He was doing quite well, and after eating his fill, rode the lift down to the theater for a nap.

Then, after the standard genome updates, I hatched little Oriana and began teaching her the verbs, where Cassius unexpectedly joined in. I eventually was able to wrangle him over to the teleporter and beam him out, so I could finish teaching the newcomer in peace! I particularly welcome Oriana because she is one of the few Norns left who has something other than Pixie arms.

Oriana is Verania's daughter, but didn't inherit the crippling lobe mutation. Instead, she has a harmless state rule mutation. One of her receptors has switched from analogue to digital, but since the nominal value is zero and the gain is 255, there's no functional difference. And she has an instinct mutation that causes her to think the appropriate response to being told to get something is to drop it. Considering how rarely I use that command, I don't expect this to mean anything in practice.

Reaction

Gene 231: 040 Immune response

2 Antigen 5 + 1 Glucose = 1 Antibody 5 + 1 Hotness.
Rate: 80 (Max to 0 in about 5 mins)

2 Antigen 5 + 1 Glucose = 1 Antibody 4 + 1 Hotness.
Rate: 80 (Max to 0 in about 5 mins)

This could potentially be problematic, as she doesn't produce the correct type of antibody for antigen 5. I'm still not sure exactly how the mechanism for fighting off sickness works, but it's definitely more up to the Norn in C1 than in C3 (where I can solve the problem with antibacterial spray). Here's to hoping she avoids that particular antigen.

After teaching Oriana, I went to check on Secundus, who was underground. I decided that it was time I got him out of there, so I led him up the lift to the beehives to take the cable car over to the treehouse. Imagine our surprise to find the cable car occupied... by a corpse! Verania had passed away riding it back and forth. I imagine riding next to a dead body was rather uncomfortable for the poor Grendel! 

To be honest, Verania's passing was something of a relief. I'm impressed that such a handicapped creature lasted so long and traveled so far, but it will be good to no longer have a feral wildcard Norn in the world. Her successor, Septimus, by contrast, had no mutations to speak of - so I introduced one! As I mentioned, Pixie arms are taking over, so I altered Septimus to give him Horse Norn arms instead. He learned his words fairly quickly, and Secundus took up Greg's torch by appointing himself as a tutor for the adjective lessons. This perfectly timed screenshot looks like he's giving the young Norn a kiss on the forehead!