Nothing Exciting, Part 24

I'm glad Doreen and Adam seem to be enjoying each other's company, but wow it is taking a long time for Doreen to reach a fertile age! I guess I am just unfamiliar with C2's aging mechanics, but she's over an hour and a half old! In DS, norns are fertile in under an hour, so this is taking some used to. Maybe I need to dig out my old 'annotated' guidebook from the basement and re-familiarize myself with some core game mechanics.

As Doreen innocently chases a cloud, my heart freezes for a second as I notice a death notice in the corner.

It's Bambi. This probably could have been prevented if I had been paying closer attention since it was probably a starvation death, but I put too many of my proverbial eggs into the basket of matching up Doreen and Adam. I really need to set up some alerts or something for when a creature falls unconscious. Maybe when we move to the next world I'll try injecting The Eye of All-Seeing.

I'm actually kind of in trouble right now! This leaves me with only four norns left in the world. I think it's time we stop milling around-- this population has to start picking up or this world is pretty much doomed. 

If I'm pairing off Adam with Doreen, Amber's got to get busy with Baxter. As I send her (mid-nap) up the lift, Baxter reaches upwards, already interested in his potential companion.

He offers her a tomato, but she seems to think it would be more interesting to consider jumping down the lift shaft.

Baxter approaches Amber for a tickle, but she alerts him to the nearby grendel who is just minding his own business, reaching for a cloud.

Amber expresses... loneliness. A little bit odd, considering she is far from alone. Perhaps she is still mourning the loss of Bambi, or perhaps the companionship she is looking for lies on the other side of the bridge.

She pauses to rest, lamenting her loneliness still.

Baxter manages to not only chase after, but get ahead of Amber. As he attempts to reason with her, they are interrupted by voices up ahead.

So here, the four norns remaining in this world are united. What's more-- Doreen seems to have finally come of age...

And she's expecting!

Nothing Exciting, Part 23

It turned out that Doreen just wanted to eat a bat. I feel like that might end bat-ly, but hey, it's her choice.

Sadly, Abby has finally managed to wallbonk herself to death. I feel like I should be sadder than I am, but I spent such a great deal of time trying and failing to help her earlier that I guess I had already resigned myself to this happening. It is a shame though. With the population down to five norns now, I'm wondering if this would be a good time to hatch that egg Bambi laid a while ago. 

But I've still got a lot to keep track of. I remain increasingly paranoid that Doreen is going to just mysteriously drop dead before she has a chance to pass on her genes. But no, she's just hanging out on the bridge, munching on the local fruit. According to the Creatures Wiki, these aren't even actually coconuts, but a lookalike fruit called a Masham Berry. That's a pretty huge berry, if  you ask me.

Doreen hasn't shown much of an affinity for nature, other than stuffing as many ants in her mouth as she can. Adam seems troubled by this, but he has a plan. 

"Come," he invites her, as she digs around in the bushes for more things to eat.

"Come", he reminds her as, she gets distracted again.

He leads her back to his favorite spot and shows her the anthill again. This time she pays attention. Adam tells her the stories of the ants and how they built that anthill, how important the ants are in cleaning up the rotting matter that might otherwise make us sick. This time, Doreen listens. She is enchanted.

...She also seems to have caught a bit of a fever.

Probably from eating something she shouldn't have, or maybe an ant bite? Either way, it seems to be fading out of her system quickly enough.

Sigh, this world has been such a struggle so far, but I have to say I am definitely more immersed than I have been in a while. It's really too soon to tell how much of my intrigue is just that I don't know the game well enough to understand why norns are doing the things they do, and how much is just that these norns are genuinely more quirky and unscripted. Either way, their actions feel, to me, a lot more open to personal interpretation than DS norns. I'm really enjoying it!

Nothing Exciting, Part 22

Despite all the death and illness going on, at least someone is keeping a positive attitude. Baxter admires the wonder of a cloud floating without a care through the sky. He aspires to be like that cloud, going with the flow of the wind.

I am trying really, really hard to cheer Bambi up, but she's really just not having any of it. Toys seem like such shallow, meaningless things in a time like this, I guess.

Amber tries to help her feel better too, or at least feel less alone.

Up above, the grendel and ettin are still milling around the desert, chasing doozers.

Abby's getting worse. Now she's bashing herself repeatedly into the water fountain, completely ignoring my pleas and nudges. I guess I'll just keep hoping she snaps out of it somehow.

Doreen seems to be doing okay, enjoying her youth with a top I dropped in the incubator tunnel. She now remains as the only member of the fourth generation and she'll be of breeding age soon. Despite the many problems inherent in this stock genome population, I don't know that I want it to die out just yet.

Adam is still hanging out near the tree, tending to the flowers. He's really the best possible candidate for a mate, despite his age. I'd rather not have any more pure goldie babies, you know?

I decided to start the process of trying to coax Doreen over to that side of the world. In the meantime, I hoped to get Bambi out of that miserable cave, but she hopped the lift right back down again.

Getting a C2 norn to go where you want it to go is such a challenge! Sometimes I can get her to 'come hand' but other times I end up grabbing the object of her attention and using it to lure her in the direction I want her to go. I think she felt a little betrayed when I dropped her toy only to suddenly hit the lift button. 

In perhaps defiance, Doreen ignore my pleas to go left and instead takes a right into the preferred hangout spot of the grendel. I'm a little concerned about them interacting since Dulcinea's mysterious demise coinciding with the grendel's suspicious presence, but I keep a close eye on them.

Eventually they are joined by the ettin, who tries to make some small talk about the weather, much to the grendel's annoyance.

Finally I manage to get Doreen's attention again with a toy car, and she begrudgingly follows.

Finally she meets up with Adam, who is carefully poking at an ant hill. Doreen shows no mind and steps right over it and past him.

 She strolls over the ocean bridge, headed towards the volcano. Hmm, maybe I went a little overkill with those 'left' commands.

Nothing Exciting, Part 21

I spoke too soon. Way too soon.

Not a few moments after I started to feel hopeful for the future of this population, I got a notice that Cain had died. Of what, I don't know. When I last checked, everyone's health was over 75%.

Baxter seems a bit troubled by this development, but at least I won't have to guess who's who anymore.

But it gets worse. Another notice alerted me to the death of Dulcinea. This one hit me a lot harder! I had really become attached to her and her feisty attitude. I don't know what killed her either, but with the grendel lurking around her body, I can only imagine she finally tried to pick a fight with someone she really couldn't handle.

I'm really worried about Abby too. She's taken to bonking herself indefinitely into the corner, despite my better efforts to teach her otherwise.

She's really not all that healthy either, considering her number of starvation collapses in early childhood. I'm not entirely sure what 'drives support' does but I fear it's going to impact her ability to care for herself whatever remains of her future.

Still hiding in the underground, Amber and Bambi surround themselves with food and toys, quietly consoling each other. It seems they too are aware of the tragedies and concerns of their world, the uncertainty of their future.

Adam, whom we haven't checked in on in a while, copes with the stress by talking a walk halfway across the world, seeking isolation in an ancient tree.

From there he vents aloud his feelings about this mysterious force called Nature and how it mercilessly controls our lives.

Let's hope better times are ahead.

Nothing Exciting, Part 20

With vicious threats despite her younger age, Dulcinea does her best to intimidate.

When that fails, she insults him, telling him what she really thinks about him.

Baxter uncertainly tries to calm her down with a pat on the head.

That... that was a mistake. Glaring, frozen with red-eyed rage over the condescending act, she isn't sure whether to kill him quickly or draw it out.

Exhausted and apologetic, Baxter promises not to do it ever again. This seems to appease Dulcinea a little.

Meanwhile, to the east, Bambi has fallen asleep leaning against the horn. The ettin follows her, giving her a surprise kiss as she dozes. 

Dulcinea begrudgingly calls off the fight, but orders Baxter to get out.

Baxter does, in fact, get out. He gets out about seven steps to the right, where he immediately kisspops Bambi. The ettin continues to hang around pushing and pulling, doing his best to get in on this interaction.

But when the egg comes, the ettin reconsiders his involvement with this impromptu couple. Bambi wonders about that doozer that seems to be constantly following them, too.

Then surprisingly, when no one is paying attention, the ettin grabs the egg and runs.

While all that nonsense goes on upstairs, Abby and Doreen spend some quality time bonding in the incubator cave, chasing a bat around. 

Who should show up to say hello but the grendel! I forget how dangerous these are in Creatures 2, but I don't remember them really being something to fear. It appears he is attempting to learn the local language here. He's at least got the 'u' down.

Even deeper underground, Amber finds some peace and quiet. While she was alone, I tried to teach her to eat, but found she lacked the vocabulary. A click of a button in Albian Command, and she was fully educated. I'm not sure I plan on using this feature too often, but with so much going on already, shortcuts like this can cut through the tedious bits and let me get back to enjoying the game. Meanwhile, once educated, Amber decides the doozer is no longer of value to her and considers making it a snack.

Bambi soon joins her in the quiet chamber. I tried to get her to eat too, but she passed out before getting anything into her mouth. As I injected her with the liquid food and defibrillant, I realized this is the first time since restarting this world that I've had to do that. Maybe the population is learning after all.