SpringRain is Back

Hi everyone, Springrain here!

I am so, so sorry I've been away for so long! I only meant to took a short break but then I got whisked off somewhere and things have been so busy! I finally got my driver's license in the time I was away, though, so that's one good thing.

Anyway, I feel terrible for being absent so long. I never meant to stop doing this Creatures blog or to drop off the face of the Creatures Community. All my Norns for this blog are still saved on my hard drive, safe and sound and my plans are all still there. I still have all Jessica's creatures and all my worlds and games and downloads. I fully intend to come back and keep posting. I know it's nearly the end of another year and my last posts were in November so I can't and don't blame anyone if they've forgotten about me or lost interest.

But I just wanted to post and apologize for my slackness and to let people know I still love and care about the games and the Creatures Community very much.

Please look forward to more of my creatures stories and posts. I'll be adding them over the next couple of weeks...oh, and don't be afraid to drop me a line. I'm more than happy to chat to people. I'll be poking into Creatures Caves soon to catch up with everything I've missed over there too. :)

SpringRain.

Bring in the Females

With only Twinkie and Cabbage left (what a weird combination. Lol.) I chose to import all the females early. The world was a bit too quiet with only two living souls to occupy it.

The remaining girls of gen four certainly livened things up again.

Well, not straight away. Good things take time. Here is Rosie snoozing in the kitchen.

 

 Notice the amount of pink milkshakes on that shelf there? ^ My Norns seem to love pushing the dispensors! I ended up with an endless supply of milkshakes and cheese. After moving most of them onto the side table, I stopped counting and gave up trying to tidy the place. It was pointless. I now hand out milkshakes to anyone and everyone.

 

***

 

It had not taken long for the Norns to spread out once I imported them. Strawberry and Honey could be found up near the bee hives. Strawberry is the one on the far right with the pretty red coat and Honey is the one...well, eating her namesake. I took a large picture to capture the beautiful scene. Albia always looks so idyllic.

 

Now, as I imported my females, I had come across something that made me feel a little bit guilty. I noticed that I seemed to have a few girls missing and that was when I realised must have forgotten some of their names. Checking through my notes, I found sure enough that I had overlooked miss Eclaire. I imported her along with the others but it was no surprise to see she was still an adolescent/youth stage from being left on the hard drive most of the time. Something confusing though, was that despite her small size, she was not the youngest.

 

I went to see what Strawberry and Honey were up to after taking a screenshot of Eclaire. Honey had discovered the slideshow toy (called 'fun' oddly enough), while Strawberry had wandered into the music room. I tried to show her how to play the harp and drum but the lesson didn't go as I planned. She complained of being hungry then watched me play the instruments and promptly fell asleep.

 

 Twinkie was a practised Nornish musician, at least, he was good at playing with the radio. Even though it only had one tune. ;) He had escaped to the tropical island away from most of the others to enjoy his senior years in peace.

 

He was later joined by Harper, the sister of Clause and Stilts. Twinkie was happy to see the third of the siblings and joyfully joined Harper in playing in the lift. Harper sometimes announced her desire to run, probably because whenever the lift did stop, Twinkie loved to push the buttons again.

 

Twinkie eventually left the island, travelling across to the lighthouse area in the cart that runs in the underwater tunnel. He continued his journey until he was stopped by a beauty of nature, reaching out to trail his paws in the water. Honey was too busy having fun with the Fun. But Strawberry developed a super power to see through walls and looked at the new arrival with great curiosity. (I don't know why but she was able to see Twinkie and the waterfall from the music room). 

 

I floated down to say hello and give teaching music another go. My pupil was awake and willing, her eyes on me and her paws outstretched! I would teach her how wonderful music could be. She strummed the harp and her boredom levels went down almost instantly. Strawberry is a fast learner.

 

Pan on the other hand, was a cheeky one. She smiled sweetly as she bit into her apple, while Cabbage looked on in concern and told her 'drop norn'. Maybe he thought the apple was poisoned. But there are no wicked step mothers here! Only evil deathcap mushrooms. Silly Pan.

 

Twinkie was still roaming the land. He found a mysterious banana bearing tree near the old wishing well. Those bananas hadn't been there before. It was so odd how whenever hand was around, things seemed to appear out of nowhere.

 

Meanwhile Rosie showed me her new trick. "Look Mummy, I can play the recorder", she beamed, playing a spritely tune. Now it didn't seem to matter that I just handed it to her a second ago, she learned in two seconds flat!

 

Strawberry loves her new banjo. Musical instruments were popping up everywhere. It was like the world had been deprived before they showed up. Now everynorn had plenty of toys too, which relieved the cries of "name bored" across Albia.  

 

Strawberry, Rosie and Pan met up together in the (Storage room? Cellar?) under the temple where they proceeded to play a game of hide n' seek behind the pillars. I had a tricky time guessing who was who. In fact I can't tell Rosie and Pan apart, Strawberry is the one on the far left. 

 

Oh no, drama was happening in another part of Albia. Twinkie's worried looked and clasped paws said it all. Oh, don't do it, Harper! You're far too young to go cliff diving for thrills off Lover's Leap. D:

 

I have been monitoring Twinkie's aging for a while now and came across something that made me curious about him. I never really noticed it before. Here you can clearly see the green line showing crowdedness. I think this is from the Hand being around him. I will have to check this with other Norns.

 

Honey and Harper were having a secret conversation outside the banana tree. Maybe they were whispering about Harper's daring deeds. Then again, they could be speculating about where the bananas came from or what would happen in gen five.

 

Now the final image of Strawberry and Honey in the garden, enjoying some classical guitar amid the butterflies. Is it not so lovely? Surely there is nothing out of place, floating unheeded over their heads? Beware the flying lemons!

The Last Stallions of Generation Four

Last time I shared what my C1 Horse Norns had been up to, I'd opted to export all the females in order to prevent drowning in a sea of eggs. Actually, I suppose it would be more like a ball pool with very odd balls.

 

In any case, this smaller population of just four males was a nice break from the usual herd of kisspopping creatures. Not that I don't enjoy all of my creatures, boys and girls alike. I just didn't think my supply of ugly tomatoes was going to do the trick and we have 11 or 12 generation 5 Norns waiting on the hard drive. ^_^ Hee hee.

 

Of the four, those remaining are Clause and Stilts (brothers with red Santa legs), and Goku who is sporting a new touch of grey in his mane of wild spikes. He is the best eater out of all four of the boys and has been for most of his life. In his elder stage he seems to have become even better at it than usual and also sleeps pretty well. Clause and Stilts, sadly are not as good eaters. Add to that fact that both of them sick in this picture with colds, (antigens), and it isn't looking great.

 

 

Stilts wouldn't eat no matter how much I coaxed him to 'push food'. He went into a sad spinning dance whenever he picked up a piece of food and looked like he would eat it, only to be caught up in another sneezing (or coughing) fit. His health soon dropped into exceedingly low numbers and I realised there wasn't much else I could do for him aside from try to keep him comfortable. Plenty of tickles and last ditch attempts at repeating 'push food' summed up his last moments. Unfortunately Goku also contracted the antigens but he was such a good eater I wasn't too worried. He eats even with other Norns around! He's just that good. Lol.

 

When Stilts finally closed his eyes for the last time, he was at least watched over by a friend and of course, a Hand that was missing him already. Goku did choose a strange moment to have a lick of honey but he stood by his pal's side nonetheless.

 

Things settled down again and I breathed a sigh of relief. Only to find a short time later that both Clause and Goku were sick again. Augh! Was this a different antigen or the same one as before? Either way, it was looking as grim for Clause as for his brother. Even Goku was suffering from a low health score despite the fact he still picked up bits of cheese and ate them here and there.

 

I seperated the two so I could look after each individually and hopefully get some food into them. Goku was no problem since he went straight to the cheese vendor and started munching bits down.

 

Clause on the other hand, ignored whatever food I brought to him and promptly fell into a feverish sleep.

 

Knowing it was probably a futile request, I prompted Clause to eat some of the food surrounding him multiple times. He just coughed, sneezed, did spinning dances and gave me the most heartbreaking sad face. Sometimes I felt like typing in Caps Lock. :( 'PUSH FOOD!' And crying...and pulling my nails out...you know, the usual.

 

Yup, still trying... I'm sure that's the last word Clause ever heard as he slipped away under the quiet sea globe, looked upon by a single sea horse. Goodbye Clause, you and your brother will be heartfully missed. I hope you two are together now wherever you may be.

 

 Goku was the singular occupant of the island with both red legs brothers gone.This was too sad and lonely to watch, so I helped him navigate around Albia to find some more company - in the form of Cabbage the Grendel. Cabbage turned to the camera with a cute toothy smile, looking like he was happy to see his old friend. This was the first Norn Cabbage had ever met, after he hatched in the tree house, although back then, Goku was in a drunken snooze. Lol.

 

Goku held out a carrot, looking like he wanted to share. ^_^

 

Cabbage had not been alone in the garden though. Twinkie joined the two a short time later and everyone had a good time playing with the bouncy ball in the peaceful sunshine. Goku didn't seem to noticed those grey hairs...he acted as fit as the younger ones.

 

As you can see, Goku has lived to a nice age of 9 hours and 59 minutes. I was happy to see him doing so well, eating, playing and getting along beautifully. He flashed a big happy smile towards me and I had to take a pic! Cabbage meanwhile, curled up in a nearby lift and fell asleep. It was funny to watch, almost like their roles were reversed from when they first met.

 

At exactly 10:00 hours old, while I was tickling him and not one moment later...my eldest Norn took a few steps then suddenly fell to the ground with a whimper, never to rise again. He had worn that bright smile right to the end. Cabbage held his pot of honey and looked on. He seemed a bit confused but stayed for a while, perhaps saying his goodbye.

 

With only one Norn left in the world, it was nearly time to bring in the females who were patiently waiting to be brought back. Twinkie looked happy as a lark, though, with his good pal Cabbage to play with. He started up a game of 'tag', playfully running away from the Grendel only to turn around and come back...then repeat. Cabbage stood and didn't know what to say. Maybe he'd never played 'tag' before. XD

 

Hey Cabbage, the world has been getting a bit empty lately. What are you going to do when I bring all the female Norns back in?

 

 

Ha ha! I don't know if I can blame him. Perhaps I should consider bringing in some female Grendels instead, now that I found the multiple Grendel button COB. :P

 

***

 

Twinkie gave me another scare by falling sick. What is it with the stupid antigens around here? They all decide to attack the weak. :( I laid out some cheese, hot chocolate and a few milkshakes, then proceeded to go through the process of nursing him back to health. Unfortunately, he somehow un-learned how to eat while he was ill and it was quite a battle to get him to put anything in his mouth.

 

 

Thankfully a good sleep and two pieces of cheese seemed to be enough for him to pull through. Twinkie made a full recovery so I let him back in the garden with Cabbage, who was overjoyed that he had his pal back, along with the Hand. ^_^

 

Soon they would have something new to worry about - the females were coming! Enjoy having Albia to yourselves while you can, guys. <3

A Fairyfloss World

This is another diversion from my usual Creatures 1 documentations, but after the cute purple breed known as Fairyfloss Norns were released during CCSF 2012, along with some other breeds, I had to try them out.

Apparently the sprites are the only thing that's different about them - but they're so pretty that's all I needed to know. So I started a whole world just for them and here's a little about what happened in that world.

I started out by hatching two eggs from Muco, a male and female. The first to pop out was a little girl...who upon closer inspection actually turned out to be a little boy. He was so pretty I couldn't tell at first. I settled on the name Fai, while his equally cute companion appeared to join him not long after.

The world they're in is Veridia by the way. Another new place for me as I haven't played with this room before. It seemed a fitting environment for such a breed.

 

The female Norn ended up being called Freya, since I wanted them both to have F names and it was the first one that popped into my head. The raindrops you can see around them are from the DS Weather Generator agent, and the room is also full of toys and plants I placed there myself. I wasn't sure what types of plants to fill it with, though I knew I wanted it to have a magical fairytale feel. The weather generator is also to be used in accordance with each season, which I can tell by using Vampess' calendar, another very useful agent that shows season and time of day, year and a few other things I don't understand.

 

Oh, that black thing beside Freya is a kiwifruit vendor, in case you were wondering. The fungi are Munchrooms, which have a different type depending what environment they grow in. 

 

The size of the metaroom felt too big for two little Norns and I wanted to expand the population quickly, so the first pair of Norns were soon joined by two more. Yurei and Mary. I believe Yurei was born first but my memory is foggy on that. They both hatched where I placed their eggs on one of the wooden platforms, next to an ice cream vendor. Being named after something sugary, it seemed appropriate that this should be one of their first foods in life.

 

Naturally Fai and Freya were the first out of the group to grow. Somehow everyone ended up on the ground level too.

 

A while later, I found something a little bit sad. While the other Norns were all up one end of Veridia happily staying together, Yurei wandered off to the farthest right corner to play all on his own. He stayed there for a long time, with only toys and those little hoppy critters for company.

 

Some time after Yurei and Mary grew, we were surprised by our first pregnancy. Apparently these Norns didn't want to wait around! Or maybe they heard my wishes for a larger population and wanted to oblige. They weren't moving up and down the different platforms so to help them explore I'd been moving them around manually and making sure they had food on the platforms. Those two purple things Yurei's aiming for aren't tiny berries. They're coloured pumperspikel seeds from a pretty seed jar agent.

 

Freya's belly looked promising and sure enough there was more than one little egg in there. The first new additions to the group are twins!

 

The eldest is obviously the blue one. ;)

 

Out they came - a brother and sister. The girl went immediately to play with the windchimes toy that I had strung in the tree. One thing about my Norns that I noticed right from the start is that all of them are exceptionally playful, despite not being very adventurous or showing much willingness to travel.

 

Blissy and Floss were graced with better names than that [nameless] tag they'd had before. Later when more Norns were born and everyone became mixed up together I would forget they were twins. I probably should have picked similar names to remind myself.

 

Not too much later another pregnancy icon appeared and I saw it was Mary's turn to blessed with an egg. Couldn't let Freya have all the attention.

 

Mary was moved to a quiet spot on the top level of the tree house where she would be able to lay it in peace, which she did with a smile. I also wanted to see whether her child would try to travel to another level when it was hatched here. Maybe in search of food. I took out the original lifts and placed elevines in the hopes this would make it easier or more tempting somehow.

 

Although I wanted to stay and watch over the egg Mary had left me, I was distracted by another pregnancy icon. It seemed Freya was the mother to be this time.

 

When I did spot the icon and go to see the new Norn that was born from Mary's egg, I was quite glad I hadn't been watching for her birth, as that would have made the event even sadder. Mary's first child was a stillborn.

 

We didn't have time to mourn long over the lost little life however, because Freaya had given me her egg to watch over. Not that there's any Grendels or anything, but I did make the eggs interactive with an injected agent (I think it's one by Amaikokonut) and besides, I just like watching them grow and waiting in anticipation. :)

 

It was kind of hard to believe how young Freya was to have had three children already (twins and now this egg). I had been searching through my agents folder to check for a population control one that I knew I'd downloaded but in the meantime, numbers were increasing.

 

The yet to be named female happily took to playing with some toys, of which I had plenty scattered about. Tails the Fox helped her learn how to play with them.

 

And Mary tried for another child, this time laying a dark teal egg in the shrubbery. Her son soon entered the world, alive and healthy.

 

Almost like these two are in a competition, Freya was sporting that bulging belly again! So far Mary had only one child and this would be Freya's fourth.

 

 

A nice pale blue egg with blotchy patterns. I moved it just at the last moment up to another platform, wanting to test and see if the new norn would be compelled to travel around or up and down levels with the elevines.

 

So Spice was welcomed into the world with the ice cream vendor for company.

 

Meanwhile, Fai had finally grown to adulthood and was taking some time out on the top level. He must have been tired out from that big growth spurt. ^.^

 

A couple more Norns were born into the group, and after I installed an agent called the retractable tub, the names started to be very amusing. This is the first one to be named by it. Fai looks rather surprised! (Sugarpie and Papillon are names I chose myself. If you see names that mostly make sense, that's me, not the autonamer).

 

 

Now that a good population was established it was someone else's turn to have an egg. Blissy welcomed her light blue C1 style gem into Veridia.

 

And out came Futuristic Face a short time later. Perhaps her name could mean look forward and face the future? In any case it gave me a light giggle.

 

Alright, now I was starting to grow a little bit desperate to find that population control agent and paste it into my agents folder. Norns were being born faster than I could keep track of them. Fairy had just borne twins, which though delightful for certain, almost meant things were getting out of control.

 

Clearly my creatures in this group are a loving caring bunch, for not only did they start to express their like for one another quite often, they also started to verbalise what they thought about me. A few tickles began the repetitive chatter, which although very touching, nearly deafened me after ten seconds so I had to turn the creature voices off. XD

 

Blissy ended up with buns in the oven again. Hard to tell who was the father by this point with all the Norns running around.

 

Sugarpie and Futuristic Face were right there to help her welcome a new egg into the world. If these are a large-ish group, they are more like a large family than most of my groups of Norns in other worlds. I'm sure that's just random chance or maybe something to do with their habitat more than anything.

 

Oh yes, Norns aren't the only creatures inhabiting Fairyfloss World. I wasn't quick enough to stop two grendel eggs being laid in the jungle, so I took the first two male jungle Grendels and placed them in the splicer to make a female. This resulted in a strange creature named Boselcha, after the two who gave their lives to create her (Bogan and Squelch. I always try to give my Grendels monster-y sounding names). Sudden Look was hatched not long after, because I forgot that the game always places two Grendels in the world.

 

I went back to Veridia to tickle a few Norns only to find myself extremely loved by every one. It was nice. But I almost preferred the silence of the Grendels after a while, as, even with the sound of their voices switched off, they seemed to be in some sort of competition as to who could prove their love more by saying it the most. When one started, that would get all of them going. For resons I don't understand, Boselcha ended up with a Norn head, and she's always angry. She never had any children so I think she was also infertile.

 

I do believe this picture is out of sequence as I originally labelled all the photos wrong (with the numbers at the end of my captions), and they all got mixed up. But in case you wondered what happened to Fairy's twins - here they are! Tasteful Squirrel and Parched Geese. They're both named after some sort of animal which makes it easy to pick them out of the crowd.

 

Last but not least, I'll leave you with this picture of Sugarpie and Mary sharing a moment in the Autumn rain. Two of my Creatures from Discover Albia's CreatureLink exchange have showed this odd yet sweet behaviour on occasion before these two. It's almost like they get infatuated with each other. They stay there, staring into each other's eyes and trying to hold hands. Aww, isn't it good to finish on a happy note? ^///^

I have about 83 of these pictures in total so I'll share more about my tribe of Fairyflosses the next time I post about them, most likely after a few more C1 Horse Norn posts.

I've got a few new breeds added to their world - the Black Dragon Grendels and the Colortrue Ettins. Thankfully, each type has their own terrarium. But you'll just have to wait and see what everyone is doing. ;)