There were suddenly three death notifications. Theo and Geoff had both drowned within seconds of each other. I didn’t catch them walking off of the pier and I didn’t find them in time to save them. Rachael died of old age amongst a small group of 3 other norns: Nami, Cheddar and Mary.
I was sad to see all three of them go, but I was glad that at least two of them had lived to old age. Theo, on the other hand… I was really hoping to give him a better life than he had previously but I feel like I’ve failed utterly. Drowning seems like such a horrible way to go and it hurts me to think that he was just chasing after his friend. Good bye, you three. I’ll miss all of you.
It took watching Sylvia walk off of the pier to realize what happened to Theo and Geoff. She walked into the water looking for seeds, likely the coconuts on the other side. To prevent this happening again, I built a (terrible) bridge across and had Sylvia test it for me. Success. I even went ahead and built another on the opposite side.
Before I could celebrate, Hannah passed away. I’ll always remember that crazy walk of hers, the walk that got me seriously thinking about a norn’s gait. Thankfully, she wasn’t badly affected and she’ll live on in my memories. Farewell, Hannah.
Now I was down to 10 norns and half of them were ancient. They were also approaching the life expectancy and soon, Chase was dead as well.
When he died, I was busying myself by making sure that the world was just the way I wanted, playing around with Room Edits and Garden Box (visit Naturing :: Nuturing). He was always a quirky norn and I don’t think his instincts ever took. He was especially violent and I’m happy to say he didn’t have too many children. It sounds mean, but I don’t want more violent norns.
It was quiet again for a long time. I was free to fix the CA Links in Veridia, properly connect the archways between the Shee Ark and Albia and even install Elevines where I felt they were needed.
I found Tiara resting in the hallway. She hadn’t moved in a long time and she said that she was hungry for starch. I tried to feed her a seed and she just wouldn’t eat it. I slapped her once to let her know I meant it and she ate it right away. I was relieved.
It was hard to say who might be next. With bacteria running loose again, it was anyone’s guess. The only adult I had left was Cheddar, Five Cheese’s son and he was already 4 hours, 32 minutes old. Come to think of it, some of the older norns were Five Cheese’s. Mary was ancient at 5 hours, 32 minutes. It didn’t seem like she’d inherited Cheese’s age genes.
Sadly, Cheddar, the youngest was actually the next to go. There was no warning. I was looking at the other norns to check their ages and then I got a death notification. I fear he may have starved. I’ve tried to get norns to eat when they’re hungry but there was no food in the swamp that he was in. I hope Silicon Heaven treats you well, Cheddar. I always thought you were a great looking and well behaved norn.
Now, I was busy checking everyone’s needs. Bored norns were given toys, hungry norns were given food, EE norns were moved, etc. Sylvia had a problem where she just wouldn’t eat seeds, dispite my pleading and discipline. Eventually, I put her in a field of mushrooms and she ate those instead to sate her need for starch. As I was tending to Sylvia’s needs, Mary passed away.
She was very close to her sisters and didn’t have much of a violent streak. She got sick often and her name is the one that comes to my mind most often when I visit the medical bay. I hope she is happier wherever she is now than couped up in the medical chamber. Thankfully, she died of old age as opposed to injury or illness.
Timber, sadly, passed away in much the same way. As soon as I finished writing about Mary and returned to the game, Timber passed away, eating mushrooms. I hate to say that a weed grew in his place, though he wasn’t eating those. Good bye, Timber. I’ll always remember you as one of the gentler boys. You did get into a tiff with Geoff, but boys will be boys.
Now, Tiara was my only Old norn and the others seemed like they were ready to pass the torch. They continued to complain and give each other bad advice, but they were at least safe. They paired off into groups. Tiara stayed with Sylvia, Nami with Rave and Belle with Grant. I don’t know if they were afraid of dying alone but I knew they had each other.
Eggs
Mother |
Hannah |
Mary |
Nami |
Belle |
Rachael |
Tiara |
Sylvia |
Eggs |
4* |
4 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
2* |