Another Time || Day 14: A Bug In the Garden

 

Well, now that the holidays are over and I'm back to my regular work schedule... we're back to taking another look at my Albia! Updates may be a little bit on-and-off, and after the CCSF is officially over, I'll probably slow down a bit and just return to Creatures 1 occasionally.

It feels like now that all of my Norns are mostly grown and doing well, not a whole lot has been happening! No news is good news, I suppose. But after guiding Benji and Darla for their circumnavigation of Albia while simultaneously trying to settle a disease outbreak back in the garden, I think I'm okay with a little peace and quiet! Hand-raising Norns is a fun and unique experience, but when it comes to Creatures as a whole, I really enjoy being more of an observer.

A phenomenon I've been noticing that I've started to wonder about more is what I'd like to call "sleepstanding". It's not exactly sleepwalking, see, as these Norns aren't walking... but every once in a while, I've noticed a Norn will stand up, sit down, or turn around while they're still asleep. Ernest here is showing it off pretty well. He even turned to follow my hand, while he was still asleep! 

What is this, a psychic ability? I'll have to see if I can find any common threads between Ernest and other Norns I see doing this...

Unlike the other Norns, though, Ernest seemed to be sleeping for a really long time. I went to check his drives, and curiously, his "sleepiness" drive wasn't going down at all. A bit concerned, I decided I'd try and wake him up. The "wake-up pill" did little good, but a smack on the rear snapped him out of it, and I was then able to convince him to eat a few carrots before he settled back down to sleep.

Meanwhile, Darla finally, at nine hours and fourteen minutes old, reached old age - or I guess in Creatures 1, the life stage is technically called "Pensioner". She looks kind of refined with her gray hair, doesn't she? I have to admit, though, that the gait of a Pensioner looks pretty funny compared to how I'm used to older Norns walking. I'm really glad that I was able to have a Norn survive to old age, despite my inexperience with C1 as a whole.

Not too long later, another illness swept through the garden, and I found myself going between different Norns to give them cough medicine. While in the garden, I heard the wistful sigh of a dying Norn from somewhere (which is so much less common to hear in this game than in Docking Station), and I scrolled over only to find poor Potroast at 3% life force. I ended up pausing the game for a moment to collect my thoughts and decide what to do, as I knew I needed to act quickly, and once I resumed I gave him another dose of cough medicine and brought him some food.

Showing much better listening skills than many of his fellow Norns, Potroast ate several pieces of food that I gave him and quickly went on the rebound.

Unfortunately, Anna was not so lucky, and despite my best efforts succumbed to her illness. By this point, nearly everyone was sick, and it's wild to me how quickly illnesses seem to spread and have an impact on populations of creatures! 

After quietly making Anna's headstone, I set about trying to make sure everyone else would eat and get better...

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