I had to leave early to handle some small family issues when I last posted but I’m back with bad news. While I was away two of my creatures died. Garth and Carrie. They were both Ancient when they died so I can only assume that they died of old age. That left me with only 5 grendels left. Lisa, now my oldest, was Old at 3 hours, 39 minutes. Biologically, Tiffany was older. At 3 hours, 37 minutes, she was Ancient. At this point, things always got very slow and very sad. I knew my creatures would all start dying soon. I knew Celeste would be around for a while because of my tampering. I hadn’t limited their breeding past adulthood so, though Celeste was the only Adult left, she might still get pregnant with Revenant, now my only male. Only a few minutes later, at 3 hours, 42 minutes, Lisa entered her Ancient life stage. It wasn’t long til she passed away.
At 3 hours, 58 minutes she was dead in a corner of the desert. Trisha was nearby and I actually had to move both her and a boulder to get a picture of Lisa. As I wrote Lisa’s obituary, Tiffany died over the piranha pond in the jungle. At 3 hours, 48 minutes, she died of old age. There were no other creatures around but a Roamer seemed to hang out with her for her last few moments.
Now I was in an unusual situation. Revenant and Trisha were now my two youngest creatures in their Old stage. Celeste was older but was still in the Adult stage because I injected her with life chemical. Because she would take longer to pass away, I considered hatching the eggs while she was alive so that I could export them for later. Then I’d be able to record all the babies while Celeste lived out her life. For now, I still had Trisha and Revenant. I tried to get them to mate again and some kissing later, I really had my hopes up. They never kisspopped.
Revenant slowed down and slept a lot more. He still ate berries and seeds like he did when he was young but he was also less interested in kissing the ladies. His testosterone was high but his energy really wasn’t. I took some time to check on the world’s ecology. My plants were still thriving and I could still use some parts of the Garden Box, particularly the decorations. For some reason, patch plants would crash the game. Until I got internet again, I wouldn’t be able to find a fix for it so I was content to plant things by hand again.
I checked on all three of the Grendels. Trisha and Revenant were content in the desert hitting rocks and eating berries and seeds. Celeste got stuck in the halls of the shee ark saying ‘drop’. I asked what she was doing and that was all she said “drop”. I asked her how she felt and she told me about how angry she was so I took her to the Norn Terrarium up to the calm balm and asked her to drink. She eventually fell asleep.
Revenant took to taking frequent naps and playing in the elevator. I rarely saw him outside the desert now. At 3 hours, 35 minutes, he was definitely getting up there.
Nothing happened for a long time. The three grendels seemed to have gone their separate ways. Celeste stook to the Norn Terrarium, Revenant to the Desert and Trisha to the Jungle. They never expressed loneliness so I’m sure they were all happy. Revenant needed some calm balm since he was so angry now in his later years.
Eventually, Revenant made his way to the Jungle Terrarium and spent time with Trisha. He still preferred to nap over anything else. Trisha was now 4 hours old and entered the Ancient stage of her life and Revenant wasn’t far behind, becoming an Ancient at 3 hours, 49 minutes. Trisha was still up wand running around . She actually slapped Revenant awake to kiss him. That was an unusual surprise. They rested together and rarely wandered away from each other now. They even kisspopped but since Trisha’s had her two eggs, there was no pregnancy. At this stage of her life, I don’t think her egg would have been laid anyway. The two of them really stuck by each other.
I found Celeste near the medical bay again. She always seems to freeze when she gets angry. When she freezes, she tries to eat things she normally can’t, like dispensers. She doesn’t actually move toward them and if I punish her, she changes the action but not the noun. Once she’s been fed some calm balm, she seems to get back on track, though. It’s an odd quirk that I’ve only noticed in her. Is it EE? I don’t know!
What happened next was tragic. Trisha died at 4 hours, 25 minutes next to Revenant. He didn’t move from her side after she passed away despite the nagging bugs. Eventually, hunger drove him to move and he ate some seeds. He didn’t venture far from the the spot where the spent so much time and continued to eat the seeds and mushrooms there. Whether he liked it or not, I picked him up and put him in the Norn Terrarium. The bugs weren’t doing any favors for him and I at least wanted him to be comfortable.
For a long while, he rested amongst the popping pappus. He didn’t seem to want to move anymore. He had a herd of grazers nearby to keep him company and he didn’t seem to mind them.
I switched my focus to Celeste who was busying herself by hitting the door to the jungle at the top of the norn terrarium. I was worried there might be some bad connections in her brain or… something. Whatever it was, it made her seem really off. She wasn’t a bad grendel, just a confused one. I debated putting her down. She didn’t seem very happy but I’m not comfortable euthanizing my creatures outside of my experimental groups. When she said “eat door” I made the decision to put her down when Revenant passed away. She’s laid one egg already and I’m not comfortable encouraging bad genes to continue through the pool. As I’ve said before, I’d love to check her genes but I can’t with GeneCompare on the fritz.
Then, at 4 hours, 38 minutes old, Revenant passed away with his grazer friends nearby. Unfortunately, this meant that Celeste was next. I wasn’t sure what the most humane route would be so I decided to click through the toxins in the medical bay. Cyanide and ATP Decoupler both work very quickly but I was sure Cyanide caused pain. In the end, ATP Decoupler seemed the way to go. Jettisoning her into space seemed like it would be terrifying, after all. At 5 hours, 2 minutes, she was put down. It was so quick that my medical monitor didn’t have a chance to alert me to the toxins before she died. Goodbye both of you. Revenant, you have fun macking on the ladies in Silicon Heaven and you, Celeste, can finally eat that door.
After sorting the eggs and exporting the babies, it was time to move on. I’m sad to report that Garth is, in fact, not a daddy.
Eggs
Carrie 2 – Trisha 3* – Tiffany 2 – Lisa 2 – Celeste 1
- Population Options has hiccups, apparently.
