As most nurture-style worlds tend to be with me, this one hit quite a lull. There were a few points where I had to intervene and offer toys and various foods to norns but, otherwise, everyone was getting bigger without incident.
I did have to keep a very close eye on Percy, though. He seemed to have a harder time learning how to help himself.
At 20 minutes old, as of posting this, Susan is the youngest and still a child. As for the others, they were all Adolescents and would soon start breeding. It got me thinking about their genetics and I just couldn’t resist taking a peek anymore. I paused the game and set to work.
Jane
I skipped our little Generation 1 girl because her genome is no different from a CFE Chichi norn’s. Just a few exceptions were that her digestive needs and aging genes all had mutation turned off. 🙂
William
Next, I moved on to William. Seeing as this group is a few generations along, I sat down and read through each of the differences from the CFE Chichi genome. I’ll spare you the part about their brains and the minor changes, but I’ll definitely share the changes that I find interesting.
Receptors
202 file 1 68 0 You F MutDupCut 128 0 Organ# = 11, Creature, Sensorimotor, Involuntary action 1, chem=Progesterone, thresh=223, nom=0, gain=255, features=Digital (0)
202 file 2 68 0 You F MutDupCut 128 0 Organ# = 11, Creature, Sensorimotor, Involuntary action 1, chem=Progesterone, thresh=245, nom=0, gain=255, features=Digital (0)
This is part of a ‘family’ of genes that I like to consider the ‘egg laying’ group. These control whether a female can get pregnant, when she can get pregnant, how much progesterone she produces and how much is required to lay an egg. The change here means that a female creature would have to produce more progesterone before she can go into labor and lay her eggs. As William is a male, this won’t affect him directly, but any girls he has might carry this gene and will have longer pregnancies as a result, assuming they can produce enough progesterone. However, if they can’t, they’ll have stuck pregnancies.
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236 file 2 131 0 Emb B MutDupCutDor 128 0 Organ# = 13, Current Reaction, No Tissue, Reaction Rate, chem=CA smell 12 (Norn), thresh=214, nom=209, gain=56, features=Analogue (0)
This (and other genes related to smells, stress, and some of the hunger receptors) are all dormant, so he cannot experience stress from sleepiness, hunger from protein or hunger from carbs.
Emitters
203 file 1 13 0 You F MutDupCut 128 0 Organ# = 11, Creature, Reproductive, I am pregnant, chem=Progesterone, thresh=128, samp=1, gain=3, features=Digital (0)
203 file 2 13 0 You F MutDupCut 128 0 Organ# = 11, Creature, Reproductive, I am pregnant, chem=Progesterone, thresh=128, samp=3, gain=4, features=Digital (0)
This belongs to that family of egg laying genes I was talking about. Here, the changes make it so that a female creature would produce 1 unit more progesterone than normal, but at a much slower rate. I’m not 100% on the math involved, but I’m pessimistic that a female with this and the described gene above would be able to lay an egg if she were to become pregnant.
Neuro Emitters
536 Different in file 2 1 0 Emb B MutDupCutDor 128 0 [03: stim] [Cell 37 (Grendel)] + [Brain Lobe 255] [Cell 0] + [Brain Lobe 255] [Cell 0] => 8*Adrenalin + 13*Fear + 6*Crowded + 0*<NONE>; Rate = 4.
The Fear produced is normally 5, so this guy gets much more scared when he senses a Grendel. Poor guy.
Reactions
262 Different in file 1 20 0 Emb B MutDupCut 128 0 Organ# = 15, 1*Hunger for protein + 1*<NONE> => 1*Hunger for protein backup + 1*<NONE>; half-life = 18
262 Different in file 2 20 0 Emb B MutDupCut 128 0 Organ# = 15, 1*Pain + 1*<NONE> => 1*Hunger for protein backup + 1*<NONE>; half-life = 18
This gene is called the “Painly hunger for protein overwhelmsion” gene. That means that when he experiences too much pain, his genes should convert Hunger for Protein into Hunger for Protein Backup. That’s not the case, however, and instead, Pain gets converted to H4P backup. This could mean that when he experiences too much pain, his pain could be converted more quickly but into a state that you wouldn’t expect, and he’d come out of his frightful event hungrier for fruit than he was before he got scared.
Half Lives
Progesterone
CFE ChiChi – 50
William – 57
This is good news for any daughters he might have. Despite the changes above, a slower decay for Progesterone means that the girls have a good chance to lay their eggs.
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Life
CFE ChiChi – 99
William – 101
More good news! This means that he should have a slightly longer life-span.
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Up, Down, Exit, Enter, Wait
CFE ChiChi – 38 (all)
William – 0 (all)
I don’t know a lot about the navigation chemicals, but in William, they vanish from his system instantly.
Stimuli
389 file 1 2 0 Emb B MutDupCut 128 0 Creature slaps me (4) causes sig=116 GS neu=0 int=0, ,,,240 => 2*Anger + 6*Fear + 3*Pain + 3*90
389 file 2 2 0 Emb B MutDupCut 128 0 Creature slaps me (4) causes sig=116 GS neu=0 int=0, ,,,240 => 10*Crowded + 8*Fear + 7*Pain + 4*90
Good news about his temper, William doesn’t get angry when he’s slapped by other creatures. However, he does get very crowded, experiences slightly more fear and gets more pain and woundedness from getting slapped. Similarly, in the next stimuli gene, he gets more fear and woundedness from the hand slapping him as well.
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396 file 1 10 0 Emb B MutDupCut 128 0 I have rested (21) causes sig=116 GS neu=9 int=78, ,,,112 => 1*Boredom + 1*Hunger for carbohydrate + 3*Sleepiness + -6*Tiredness
396 file 2 10 0 Emb B MutDupCut 128 0 I have rested (21) causes sig=116 GS neu=9 int=78, ,,,112 => 5*Coldness + 1*Hunger for carbohydrate + 3*Sleepiness + -6*Tiredness
Rather than get a little bored from resting, he actually gets very cold! Poor thing. It does help to explain why he always complains of feeling cold.
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409 New in file 1 23 0 You F MutDupCut 128 0 Involuntary 1 (29) causes sig=0 GS neu=9 int=34, ,,,240 => 9*Pain + 23*Sleepiness + -13*Progesterone + -124*Comfort
This gene is absent in William. This gene makes it so that pregnant females experience pain and sleepiness once they’ve laid an egg. His daughters might lack this gene which would make for comfortable, painless birth, but they wouldn’t get the same reduction in home sickness.
I did have the idea to use a heater in the Norn Terrarium, though! The boys seemed a lot happier since they stopped complaining of being cold. Instead, they started saying they felt quite cozy! How lovely.
I installed Grendel Man’s Offline Warp Portals and before long the little ones were starting to explore the rest of the world. Percy and Jane meanwhile were becoming close friends. I wondered if they would become mates when they got older but I hoped their little ones wouldn’t need a heater like Geoffrey and William. All three of the boys share the coldness gene.
She laid this tiny egg and it was automatically submerged to prevent it from hatching. Curious, I wondered if I could encourage the other girls to become mothers.
