NOTE: Yesterday was my last actual day with the computer. Everything from here on is back-log. Please feel free to leave comments anyway and I’ll reply to them as soon as I can. I should still have internet (and at least my iPad) until we move and would be happy to reply!
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Well, we’re back. It seems like there’s bad news every time I start to write lately. The three norns are all resting and the three grendels are up to their usual shenanigans. Tuatara is bored and running around, hitting seeds and Gifted Waves and Bethany are flirting below the Terrarium door. Suddenly, though, Gifted Waves passed away. I felt awful for Bethany, having lost the love of her life right in front of her. He disappeared in a green cloud and Bethany left the spot to sulk in the grass.
I started to fetch seeds for Sour Drink since she said she wanted them. She and the other norns have stopped moving altogether at this point and I thought they were getting very old. I brought her a seed from the top level of the terrarium, left to get more and then she died while I was away. Apparently, she’d decided to take the lift down while I was gone and I found her like this.
Next was Uptight Kettle, who passed away while I was saving the photo of Sour Drink above. He was surrounded by apples when he passed away and one of his last phrases was “uptight kettle love mom”. It was the first time I’d heard him say it and I’m sad to say that it was also the last.
Five Cheese is still surviving while she was napping, I decided to carry her to the Aquarium Terrarium to live out the last of her days. I gave her a beach ball and a chili pepper pot to enjoy and I returned the ball to her every time she pushed it. I didn’t want her to die alone and she was easily my favorite norn out of the 6.
I love you too, sweetheart, and darn it, I want to make sure you know it before you die. Speaking of love, though, I think Bethany may have been depressed. I was worried that she wasn’t feeding herself because of the death of Gifted Waves so I showered her with a banquet… which she started to wolf down like she had nothing else to live for. I started to think that my worried were unfounded, but she still chose to stay in the spot that she and Gifted Waves had spent so much time in. She’d taken to only eating the Awkwood Creeper seeds and spoke very rarely now.
Five Cheese took to pushing the garden gnome now and she took increasingly frequent naps. By now, I was spending all of my time tending to her needs or sketching while I watched her play and eat on the beach. She told me that she was lonely and I quickly cured it with lots of petting.
I did eventually get tired of Bethany feeling sorry for herself, so I took her up to Tuatara who was complaining of boredom. I encouraged them to push and play and they did. They ultimately decided that watching seeds fall from the Awkwood plant was more exciting than playing and running away from the mosquitos, but I’m glad they were bonding anyway. Tuatara was old now, but he still had some kick to him at least.
I rushed back to Five Cheese, and made sure that she still had plenty of food. She spent all of her time now playing with the gnome and eating cheese and seemed very happy.
I took a short break to make sure the ecosystems were well. I added more bramboo to the norn terrarium, gave some to Five Cheese and added piranhas back to the jungle pond. Why? Well, the mosquitos were seriously getting out of hand. In the end, I decided to start a new world for the next generation and stopped mid-replanting.
Scandalous Laborer was next and she died in pain. Lowly Adjustment was walking away from her when I found them and I was ready to drown him I was so angry. More likely than not, he didn’t kill her and it was just bad timing. I sent him to the hill for a while after a swift spank.
Next was Lowly Adjustment. He was the most violent in the end though I don’t think he genuinely killed anything in his life. I’m sad to see him go, too and always thought that he was the most eccentric of the bunch. I’m not even sure why.
They spend most of their time napping and kissing. It seems the spark hasn’t left since they first had their 2 eggs together.
Life is slowing down more and more as the creatures move on to their digital afterlives and it’s giving me time to plan my next moves. I was thinking about moving on to Grendel Generation 3 but I’d rather not show favoritism towards my Grendels. It looked like Norn Generation 2 would be next and I’d already prepared the ship to allow them to explore.
Next to die was Impartial Relation. He passed away at 4 hours, 25 minutes old and was easily the most long lived of the Generation 2 norns. Hopefully, his daughter (spoilers?) will carry on his genes.
The first Norn to go was Loving Wren, the oldest of them all. He is survived by four eggs. He got a little slap happy and started to seclude himself by the door in his old age but I’ll always remember him as one of my happy-go lucky first gen norns. Five Cheese was nearby when he passed away and I heard her cry shortly after he passed away.
By now, all the norns but Five Cheese were Old and Impartial Relation and Flawless Color were as well. All the other Grendels were adults and Bethany was on her way to adulthood herself and she’s shaping up to be a very happy grendel. At 32 minutes she’s a youth. While I’m excited about any eggs she has, I’m also nervous about the imminent deaths of my norns and the remaining Generation 2 Grendels.
I felt sad for Wide-Eyed Payment since she wouldn’t be able to lay her eggs. Her pregnancy didn’t seem to cause her any discomfort, however. The problems didn’t stop, though. Lowly Adjustment, my old Civet norn, was caught slapping Five Cheese. They’ve all taken to slapping each other but they don’t seem to be slapping back to defend themselves. Naturally, this meant I had to take Lowly Adjustment to the rehab area that I set aside. I set him in the room and was almost instantly met with two pregnancy notifications. It looked like Gifted Waves was going to be a daddy! Bethany laid both of her eggs very quickly and I scooped them up for storage.
I dreaded another slew of deaths was coming soon and I was right. As of writing, Flawless Color has just died. She felt a lot of pain from the slaps of other grendels in her last hour alive. She was one of the more interesting looking Grendels of the bunch and she very quickly became a mother of four when she reached adulthood. I’ll miss you, Color. At least you had Bethany nearby to keep you company.
These two old norns were still kiss-popping by the elevators. I’m lucky to have such happy and loving norns. Everyone loves each other! There were a few long-lasting friendships, as well. The closest was probably Sour Drink and Five Cheese. Just after this photo was taken, Sour Drink suggested Five Cheese eat a seed and they headed down the elevator together to push toys and eat seeds.
I can’t say I was expecting the change to happen while she was on screen but I was expecting this to happen soon all the same. I didn’t mean to get into the shot this time but I think it fits anyway. I love you, too, Cheese.