New and Old, Old and New

I have been gently watching over my cluster of Norns in the fair springtime land of Albia. Things are progressing well and I have some news to share, plus a fresh face to show!

Everybody, it will be your pleasure to meet this tiny girl; Bellis! She was a submission from Jessica at Discover Albia.(Once I figured out how to extract her from her .rar file. Lol.) Many, many thanks for her! She's a good girl who always eats and plays without much help from me, even when in a crowd of other creatures.

Later on, she had a strange obsession with one of my other Norns, despite the fact that she really didn't seem to like him. It was the oddest relationship I have witnessed so far. =^w^=

Oh dear, she seems to have mistaken me for a Norn. Lol. (Not really, I was teaching her some words and she happened to say it right then. Other Norns were further along near the greenhouse).

In the meantime, I checked through my list of Creatures to see how everyone was doing and what do I find Dawn up to? That coffee addiction must have started something, because she was down in the cellars having a merry old time with the hooch! She had turned on the shower herself and was standing under there for a while, before stumbling off to grab another cupful of the alcoholic beverage.

She was eating honey and bananas and she appeared to be happy, despite her drunken state, so I let her consume what she wanted. It did not look like it was harming her, though I'm not sure this is something to be encouraged either. Silly Dawn~! <3

As I play with my creatures, I am constantly checking the observation kit, which I keep open near the top right hand corner of the screen. It's a super handy tool that lets one do a quick scan of all the Norns in the world at one glance and sometimes it can show some very interesting statistics.

Previously when playing this game, I supposed that the juicy apples CoB was responsible for the high life forces of my Norns, because the ones who had high life force at the time also happened to be the ones hanging around the Grendel tree where the fruits grow.

However, I have observed since that although my other Norns' life forces hover mostly around the 65 - 77 mark, two of them hover around the 88 - 98 percent! This sometimes suddenly jumps to 100% before it goes back down to around 95-ish or so, just as suddenly. The two with this odd life force are Aurn and Marlika, (who is Aurn's daughter).

Oh, yes, also, Arrianne isn't being neglected here; she's just recovering from laying an egg. =^__^= Hehe. Becoming a Mama is tough work. She's one of my best eaters and quite independant so it didn't take her too long to perk up afterwards.

I didn't get many photos of Arri's egg, because it was laid in the same place on the bridge as the one that Pommes hatched from and by chance, is exactly the same spotted purple design, so I took a screenshot right before it started to hatch instead.

It’s unmistakeable - he’s got his mother’s Banana Norn legs. This is definitely Arrianne’s son and apart from little Pommes, this is one of the many boys born since my creatures decided having eggs was the new ‘in’ thing to do. I think his name is Sam.

Now the next pic I thought was quite a scenic shot. Bellis is growing up and out of all the Norns she can socialise with, she’s been spending most of her time with Aurn, whom, not surprisingly, she doesn’t like and can’t stand as he loves hitting and slapping her whenever he gets the chance. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be enough to deter her from coming back time and time again for more punishment and following Aurn around wherever he goes. There is the occasional tickle and smooch yet for the most part they seem to be a slap-happy pair.

Romantic soap of the year? It’s difficult to say. XD It does look very dramatic!

When they aren’t doing their mini reality TV soap, Bellis finds the time to slurp down copious amounts of cup noodles. They may not be the healthiest food in the world but this young pony gal loved pushing the vendor and scoffing cup after cup.

I think it was simply the novelty of being able to play with the vendor that had her so enthralled.

***

You know, I don’t know whether it’s because she’s always getting into mischief or whether I’ve just got an attachment to her, but Dawn never fails to bring a smile to my face. Lol. She’s hiding the world’s worst kept secret and Arri looks a bit worried about it. I think it might be concern over how many cans full of hooch Dawn sucked down but hopefully it will have left her system by now.

A healthy snack of rhubarb is much better than any hooch!

Because she’s preggers again, as displayed clearly in the observation kit window:

I forget who the father is. We have one or two options: Aurn…or…Chocolate. XD Time will soon tell. It’s probably a bad idea to have the only available males the father and son from one family, although we have a variety of females who aren’t related so I am hoping that will make things less risky. 

Speaking of those two, Chocolate is being his usual cheeky self.

Peek-a-boo!

Perhaps this is why! Arrianne didn’t waste time finding herself a mate after Dawn showed off her tummy. :D Or, well, it’s fun to think of them getting competitive. Lol. This is pretty much how it happened though. One minute my boy was on the island with some ladies. He and Arri wore themselves out and fell asleep in the lift - the next thing I knew, he was giggling next to the Morning Glory plant on the other side of the ocean. Nice work, Mister ‘kiss and run’. :D 

His work was done and we are having another baby soon. Yay! So far we have Pommes, Crimson, Sam and two more one the way.

That’s because Dawn …

…Isn’t too far off laying her wee gem. I followed her across the underground swamp on the raft-with-wheels and - Ta Da! She got to dry land just in time. Phew. It’s a cute pic with her muzzle pressed close to her tiny green pearl like that. <3

Not to be outdone, Arri’s egg was laid around the same time under the blue beach umbrella. It makes a pretty theme with the colouring of the shell and the matching spotty weed, which I forget the name of. Arrianne had an extremely fast pregnancy with this egg, though I am not sure why this would be. When she first fell pregnant, the counter showed a 1, which briefly skipped to a 3 a couple of seconds later…then went back to a 1 again. It could be related to what’s going on with Aurn and Marlika’s life forces when they suddenly jump to 100%, but I don’t think it is.

Here we have an appropriately placed choo choo train toy to show we are full steam ahead on the growth of Dawn’s egg.

And here we hope Bellis is careful not to spill those pot noodles while standing so close to Arri’s equally thriving egg. XD

When not slurping down two minute noodles, Bellis resumes her other hobby of hanging out with Aurn, much to both of their displeasures. Or, to Aurn’s anyway – who has no trouble voicing his true feelings.

Marlika is staying safely up the top near the apples with her bouncy ball, finding her dad’s predicament very entertaining.

As you can see though, the lovely Bellis is now all grown up! She eventually did manage to get away from her rough and ready pal for some fun with the tamagotchi toy down in the jungle.

Until a tempting ride up the lift to the Grendel tree reunited them again.

Slap slap slap! I don’t know if this kind of relationship is normal. It looks kinda dysfunctional from where I’m floating (nearby, up in the leaves. I’m a stalker! Hee hee >w<) Maybe Bellis is secretly a masochist since no matter how many times she gets slapped she simply won’t leave Aurn alone. She follows him when he walks away and sticks to his side like glue.

There were very few kisses and even fewer pops, so I’m not sure whether he even likes her back. Perhaps this whole thing is a bit one sided.  Then again, it could be because of Bellis’ strange condition where she receives a sort of punishment whenever she is rewarded (via tickling or telling her ‘yes’/’good’ and so on, which I try never to do. It would be very confusing for her). I wonder if she actually enjoys being slapped because it’s some form of interaction…

***

On a happier note, though, please make your acquaintance with…Wiff! Ahaha. Does anyone know of an anime called D.N. Angel? My brother bought it on a recent trip to Brisbane and we’ve been watching it together. I haven’t seen the whole thing yet but it’s high on my top favourites list already. I love it! So it should come as no surprise that I named one cute, fluffy thing after another, ne? Lol. You’ll see what I mean if you watch this anime/read the manga/Google it. XD Not sure if I spelled it right, but there you have him: Isn’t he adorable?

And to continue the sudden trend of naming my Norns after things that I like, this is Frodo! Hehehe. I’m pretty sure the original owner of this name in a certain very popular series did not start his adventures from a tropical island in the middle of the ocean; if he had, it would have been a vastly different story indeed.

Yet this little guy won’t have nearly so much responsibility as saving the world (gosh, I hope not!) Rather, the first goal of Chocolate and Arri’s son in life is to seek out some honey. J

Bellis has taken a holiday from annoying Aurn at last and instead decides to hang out with her female friends. She’s setting a fab example for Marlika, who has unexpectedly become fussy and sulky, refusing to eat while constantly complaining of hunger. Bellis shows her the right way to deal with sour lemons. :D (She also went along and ate both of the good plants under the bridge before going back for extras on the lemon vine).

If you don’t recognise her, this is Arrianne.

All the stress of that competitive pregnancy for her last egg might have caused some premature aging. ^_^ She’s around 6 or 7 hours old so I didn’t expect her hair to turn silver nearly so soon but she seems pretty relaxed down in the cellar enjoying some peace and quiet. Even though I exported all the creatures that have hatched this time, the world can feel a bit crowded sometimes. Her peace is well earned. I keep her company while she’s down here to keep her from getting lonely, yet she seems thoroughly content with a few sips of manky and a nice banana or two.

The other Norn who I was surprised to find with a new hair colour is Marlika. Her younger half-brother, Chocolate, may follow suit since his big sis is elder now, though their dad (Aurn) has not shown one strand of grey and Dawn is still spry as a foal. So, we’ll wait and see!  My Norns are beginning to age now, though I don’t know if they would die of natural causes or not. I have the C1 genetics kit so I’ll try and follow Discover Albia’s suggestion to check whether we have a ‘die of old age’ gene somewhere in there. It’s apparently called ‘die of old age’. So hopefully I’ll be able to find it.

With the turning of the seasons and the onset of silver hairs, it was definitely very nice to have a breath of fresh air in the form of one more egg from Dawn. :D I believe she has taken a liking to the colour green and started her own fashion trend here.

The baby hasn’t hatched out yet, but when he (it will probably be a boy), does, I may take suggestions for names. It’s fun to name them myself but I thought it would be entertaining to let my readers have a go at picking some names.

If at this point I still have any readers. Lol.

Until next time,

May your supply of cheese and carrots never run out.

SpringRain.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Christmas in July...What?!

Welcome back to SpringRain's Blog. :)

We last left off with a series of awful events. Things are back on track and running along nice and smooth since my previous post documenting the disasters.

I've re-injected CoBs with no hazardous happenings and even added two new ones so my Grendel, Fig (he named himself that - must have a liking for them), can now interact with my Creatures however he likes and so that I can keep an eye on him too. Both of these things are courtesy of the Grendel Selector Button and Grendel Friendly CoBs, which Discover Albia has kindly posted links to in the past few comments she posted under my previous entries.

Ah, now I'm blabbering on too much. Sorry...On with the story!

Right, this is what the Observation kit looked like to start with. Aurn was an adult, and roaming about with the other full grown Norns, having fathered two offspring with a different mother each. It looks really straightforward, with everynorn's age in the correct time and place, more or less. :) And, as you'll notice, no pregnancies.

This is the photo I managed to take after importing multiple copies of Marlika, when things were completely haywire. The one lying down is the Marlika that fast-aged to adult then died instantly. The smaller one walking away is the younger child/teen Marlika, following Chrissie the dark choco Norn off to find carrots. This was after she spent some time trying to tickle, touch and understand what was going on with her...other self. :< It was really sad.

Something I forgot to mention in my older post was that this older version of her also refused to vanish after the event of her death as well as the fact that I could still tickle her nose...I wasn't sure what to do! It was a little bit eerie. So off was whisked into the export folder once again...

After restarting, refreshing and having to begin all over with their 'clones', this is what the new Observation kit looked like:

Bwahaha! Imagine having to meet your father as a baby again. Boy that would be so weird. I'm super glad Marlika and Chocolate will have no idea. I'd be worried about what kind of psychological damage such strange events might have caused them through all this otherwise.

In came the first Norn to test out their new world with her first tentative steps...Dawn. I've noticed she is the one I always choose whenever I want to venture into an unstable world, since Aurn disappeared on me that time. Lol. Maybe it's because their names rhyme or something but I'm really very fond of her. She's one of the most independant and intelligent Norns out of the herd.

But bacteria and illnesses aren't picky about whom they choose to inhabit and she was no exception. Certainly we had a fresh new world to play in, with a choo choo train and tasty healthy apples, and we also had all new antigens to face to match along with the theme. >.>

Dawn was lucky this time again, though. She munched down copious amounts of food as though she knew she had to somehow, thus her antibody 4 kicked into gear a bit faster than when she had antigen 2. Or maybe the various antigens are weaker and stronger in different Norns. I'm not really sure. I just know she hogged down a ton of food and... 

...beat that bug into the ground! Yay, Dawn! She had triumphed once more. Such a good girl.

Meanwhile, have a wee guess who this is? He had me really confused for a couple of minutes when I first saw him up on the bridge by the chuggy cable car but this is actually Chocolate all grown up. Isn't he handsome? XD Kinda reminds me of somenorn else I know. Not sure if he's got his Daddy's weird obsession with plants or no, though he's a pretty good eater so it's a bit hard to tell. Foods of all kinds seem to do him just fine.

*Gasp!* Can it be? My wish came true at last! There must have been something in the water at that island, or maybe in the strawberry patch under the viewing window, because after some hours of playing and letting my Norns explore while they grew into healthy young adults, Arrianne was found to be pregnant. I can't remember who the father is but it is either Aurn or Chocolate since they were the only males capable of breeding in the world at the time.


I had to keep peeking at her progress in the fertility kit just to make sure it was really happening. Such good news was warmly welcomed after all the madness. It was so exciting to watch the little eggy timer counting towards 8! I tried to move Arrianne away from the other Norns to give her a chance to rest and eat something, but she would not have it. So, without wishing to stress her out with too many commands or too much travelling, I let her stay with the others on the bridge under the Grendel tree, where she complained of hunger although her life force was stable enough for me not to worry too much. I think the juicy apples must add a wee bit of a boost to Norns' life force when they eat them.

Not long after this, she settled down and laid one teeny-weeny purple spotted polda-dot bikini  egg!

It was fun to watch it grow, waiting with anticipation while my other Norns frolicked with the ball and munched apples. I couldn't wait to see who came out.

As all this is happening, I am pleasantly surprised by being alerted of yet another pregnancy in the Observation kit. This time it's Chrissie. It's going to be her second baby. Mind you, she won't even know it, so probably, this is going to feel like her first pregnancy all over again, unless she had some before I downloaded her into my world.

She laid her egg in the underwater viewing cave with a marked look of worry upon her sweet face, (or maybe that's pain), while her pal Arriannne stood there grinning as though she was the proud mother of this new egg instead. Arri, it's not nice to steal the limelight like that, you know? XD

..

Um, Arrianne, I also don't think good friends should eye off their friends eggs as food.

Maybe Chrissie's look of worry was well founded. Now that I see this, I really can't blame her!

Meanwhile, how is Dawn faring since her recovery? Why, happy and full of energyyyyy~! As you can see:

Yup! I imagine this is the effect that drinking tons of coffee in the morning has on most people. Anyone who drinks coffee or energy drinks will definitely understand. She's been glugging down the contents of that coffee pot like it's going out of fashion.

And there's another in Albia with a big happy smile plastered across their face as well - meet Fig, my adorable Grendel who, incidentally, loves bananas also. He has a wee Norn doll to keep him company for the time being. I'm sure he'll get the chance to play with some furry pals when they encroach on his peaceful existence eventually.

Alright, enough suspense, you say? Then, I'll show off our newest baby: Can you spot where she is?

Alright, alright, I'll be nice.

This is Pommes, which means 'apples' in French, (I think). I thought the name fittted the tiny girl perfectly, seeing as she was surrounded by the sweet crunchy fruits that horses usually love. Isn't she sweet? >w<

Dawn thinks so! Or maybe thats the ten billion gallons of coffee talking. After finally dropping the coffee pot she headed up the lift to eat everything in sight before playing with the ball and I managed to catch her in this pose.

Marlika is also doing well amongst her fellow Norns. Guess which one she is in this line-up? Ahaha. The Norn to the left is Blondini. I exported Pommes shortly after she was born in order to keep a better eye on the others as well as make a back-up copy of her, just in case.

Marlika close up. She's a pretty Norn with that reddish colouring, only I have had lots of trouble trying to get her to fall pregnant with any of the males roaming about. She doesn't seem to mind however, quite amused nomming apples and viewing the pretty scenery around the ocean.

Zipping around taking care of everyone, I finally notice that Chrissie's egg has hatched due to a little BIRTH notice bar at the bottom right of my screen and promptly zoom over to goo and gaa over our fourth addition to the world. A cutesy, adorable, sweet little teeny tiny - Gaaaahhhhhhhh!! D: Wh-what? What on Albia is that?

O_O! It's a fully grown Santa Norn crawling around. And no matter where I look, I cannot see a tiny baby anywhere. The registration kit shows this is indeed the fellow that had been cramped up inside Chrissie's egg the whole time - must have been pretty squashy in there for him. :O

With some humming and hawing, I finally settle on the name 'Crimson' and exported him to safety, wondering what has gone wrong. It has given me a very amusing idea for some Creatures 1 fan art which I hope to release at the CCSF 2012. *grins*

Not to worry, I still intend on letting him join the others to live a full and happy life with his family. I probably won't let him breed though. I think Santa Norns are said to be infertile in any case. Don't get me wrong - I love the colours and I think he's super cute but this is a Horse Norns, not a Santa Norns Blog...I might do that some other day. Lol.

Once again, just to compare, this is the size of a normal Norn baby...

But who decides what's normal and what's not, right? ^_^ They're both new to Albia so I'll treat them the same.

Chocolate poop? Lol. I had blinked at the screen a few times before realising that 'p' was a 'b'. They do sound slightly similar, don't they? I don't even know if Norns and Grendels in Creatures 1 CAN do that sort of thing. XD It never really occurred to me to wonder before now. Thank you, Chocolate, for that wonderful revelation. <3

On second look, Notice the look on Dawn's face. While I think Marlika is pretending not to hear.

One final pic before I end it here. This is a very funny happening with Dawn whilst she was sleeping. Her pain levels were rising yet she wasn't holding onto a bee, was not sick, had not been bumping into walls....They would rise a bit, then go back down, then rise again a bit, and so on. I'm not sure what would cause this kind of reaction. Would it be a mutation? I was watching over her the whole time and I am fairly sure she didn't eat any weeds.

Alright, let me know what you think of the newest additions and I'll have more news again soon.

Take care,

SpringRain. :D