Category Archives: Ref Ccsf 2014 Nurture World

Gracious me, Synergy is 2 hours old. According to previous experience, and this convenient wiki entry here, that means she only has three and a half hours to live. I might not have enough time to introduce all the other babies before she passes away! Before I get caught up in that, though, let’s bring in our next little one. That said, we have 15 eggs now and about half are hers.

Ahh, Dark Cat! I was wondering when we’d see one of the stranger looking creatures. I have to admit, he was one of my favorites when the run was on. I guess I just like unusual things.

Almost immediately, he made his way into the Medical bay, then into the Shee Ark’s main corridor then into the Grendel Jungle.

Unfortunately, my vigil wavered and an egg hatched before the timer set up I had could catch it. It might be time to shorten the wait, I think. I named the little thing “1” and set it aside for later. No spoilers, not even its gender!

After more of the usual (slapping, kissing, more eggs) it was time to introduce another baby. Lin would be our newest addition. I’d actually forgotten about this little lady, but I decided not to dwell on it. A few of the norns were finally starting to explore, including agoraphobic Synergy. To my knowledge, she hadn’t left the Meco since her lonesome experience. Til now, anyway.

Beside her, Dark Cat was exploring the Norn Terrarium. When I spotted him, he was taking the lifts up to the top and Synergy came in the bottom door. Perhaps she was ready to stretch her legs.

Meanwhile, the other norns stayed in the Meso. Chang didn’t seem to like Daedalus and Drake wasn’t doing a great job of making friends. He’d started slapping Chang and Daedalus but Chang was stubborn enough to defend himself. They got into something of a slapping fight but since they weren’t doing serious damage, I didn’t put too much effort into stopping them.

I’d made my rounds and fed everyone and found that, besides the fight with Drake, the other norns were healthy and generally pretty happy.

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Olga quickly became pregnant again with one of Adelphos’ babies. It was clear that Adelphos was going to be one of the most successful fathers in the run, especially given his head-start.

Young Drake was more interested in finding neat places to nap. He visited every place reachable by an Offline Portal and before long, he found his way back to the Meso, where he ate carrots and rested.

Synergy and Adelphos were kisspopping above, at the top level of the Meso. Olga and Chang tried to join the pair but perhaps Olga had too recently become pregnant and was still recovering from laying her egg.

Drake managed to get away from the others again and this time, when he’d traveled, he complained of loneliness. I tried to encourage him to push the portal but we didn’t get back to the Meso. I decided to see if he could make his way back on his own, since my interference didn’t seem to be helping.

Eventually, he did and just as he did, Synergy became pregnant again. This time, Chang was the father! It’s good to see the gene pool getting some diversity already. Next, before Synergy had the opportunity to lay her own egg, Olga was pregnant with another of Chang’s.

Next, Andromeda was brought in. Thank goodness it’s a girl! I was starting to worry that we’d only have boys for a while then only Synergy and Olga would get to breed til the end. Speaking of, Synergy became pregnant with Adelphos again.

Olga wasn’t especially kind to the new lady but a quick smack on the butt and “push norn” was enough to encourage her to play nice. Soon enough, though, Olga played nice with Adelphos and another egg was on the way. Goodness! These girls are in a rush to get all their genes well established for the second Generation. When Synergy got pregnant again, I opted to take the honorable way out and stop reporting on pregnancies here.

About four more eggs later, it was finally time to introduce the next norn. Meet Daedalus, another male, and quite a handsome one at that!

While he got acquainted with some of the others, I decided to make my rounds and found Andromeda exploring the medical bay and Drake eating apples in the Norn Terrarium. I was a little puzzled to see just him in there, especially given how hospitable that particular area was. Then again, Chang, Adelphos, Spike, Olga and Synergy were all probably perfectly content to eat Bouncing Plums and mingle with each other. Maybe, with any luck, they’d start to spread out a little?

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At 53 minutes old, Synergy was our oldest norn, and 30 minutes ahead of Adelphos, our oldest male. This meant no babies yet, but yes, we might have babies soon.

I took a quick look around to see how everyone was doing and found that everyone was in good health. Chang was by the Empathic vendor with Olga, who wouldn’t stop kissing him. Adelphos in the meantime was relaxing by the Heater that I’d installed in the lowest level of the Meso. That extra dose of coldness didn’t do him any harm, but he was pretty uncomfortable for a little while.

Just a short while after making my rounds, it was time to introduce another little one. Amazing how the time just flies by, isn’t it?

This is Spike, another male who didn’t get to be a father during the live event. I do love that pretty blue shade on him, though.

By now, everyone was able to take care of themself and were even happy to offer good advice to little Spike. He didn’t often listen to it, but at least their hearts were in the right place. After some help from me and some gentle nudging from the other norns, Spike was set to go.

About 57 minutes into her life, Olga became pregnant! Good for her! The father is Adelphos, the only male old enough to be the father so far. Soon enough, an egg was waiting for us in the ocean. Then, as that egg was laid, Synergy became pregnant! Again, the father was Adelphos. He’s certainly getting a head start on things! With two eggs in our clutch, the second Generation was starting to get a foothold.

With all that eggy nonsense out of the way, it was time to introduce the next baby. This time, Drake, one of the winners of the run! This little guy has the same genetics as all the others though – the updated genomes for the winners won’t be a part of this little run.

There was such a large group huddle around the elevator on the middle level of the Meso that Drake had no trouble finding food, company or advice so I let the others raise him for me. Already, he was making friends with our oldest girl, Synergy and was learning to rest like a survival champ. Hopefully, he’d have the same success here as he did in the run.

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Synergy was starting to get a better understanding of what she needed to do when she was feeling lonely and Olga was still getting some very important napping done when it was nearly time to introduce the next baby.

The two girls were very safe and started to give each other advice on how to care for themselves and I was starting to feel confident that they’d help me raise future babies. It’s always nice to have older creatures around that can help out the younger ones.

When it did finally come time to introduce the next baby, Adelphos was picked and he would be our first boy. I showed him to the girls and the three quietly ate for a while and advised each other to rest when sleepy.

It was kind of cute to see them learn from their actions but it was especially cute to see them share what they’d learned.

Adelphos did do a little exploring on his own, though. His first destination was the Grendel jungle and we travelled through the Offline Portals for a bit before ending up in the Meso again. While here, he ate some food that made him feel cold and I installed a heater to try to help. It did help a little, but there wasn’t much helping poor Adelphos with this problem. With any luck, it was a temporary problem caused by a little too much water.

Once Adelpho’s coldness subsided, it was about time to introduce a fourth baby. Who would the game pick this time? Chang, of course.

Unfortunately, like all the other males except Flame, Chang didn’t get to be a father in the run either. You might notice he’s very much an ordinary looking Bengal except for the slightly yellow color.

By now, I was trusting the other creatures to be able to educate him and I thought I’d be able to interject with corrections only sometimes.

It was about then that I’d realized that Synergy would be old enough to breed soon and when the next baby was introduced, she’d be a full hour old! Before I could ponder for long, Chang disappeared into an Offline Portal.

I wouldn’t call any area of the Shee Ark especially dangerous, but if I had to pick one, I’d say the Jungle is the most dangerous. I only have one Roamer on the ship and the Jungle’s pretty bad about harboring bacteria. Chang joined the others before long, though. I guess he wasn’t feeling too confident just yet, though he did wander back into the Norn Terrarium and back into the Meso again on his own. He’s basically dipping a toe to test the waters.

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