To Save or Not to Save the Life of a Norn
As the young males from Creatures Docking Station frolicked in the Norn Terrarium, I noticed one in particular who seemed to be suffering: Wesid. He had fallen into a deep slumber long ago, and seemed unable to wake up. Most of the males had a bit of histamine A in their systems, yet Wesid had a nasty bacteria attached to him. He also was infected with an antigen: No wonder he looked so terribly miserable! This bacteria appeared to be a mild one, although I had sudden memories of Norns dying from bacterial infections. Those were not pleasant times.
I continued to monitor Wesid with the Hover Doc: His antibodies fought off the antigen, and the bacteria was soon banished from his body. Yet he still would not wake up. Even after sleeping for so long, his tiredness drive was very high. Even though his hunger drives seemed low, poor Wesid had not eaten in a long time. According to the C1toDS toolbar, his life force was at a deathly 2%. So entered the question of whether or not to step in and help Wesid. I decided to take a look at his genes to get a better idea of what was going on.
Emitters
Chemical emitters define specific conditions within a Creature in order to affect chemicals. Some examples include experiencing stress from excessive drives, becoming cold due to environmental conditions, and more.
103 Emb B MutDupCut Organ # = 5, Brain, 04: Unknown, Cell 0 – state 0, chem=Sleepiness, thresh=0, samp=35, gain=4, features=Digital
I knew I was looking for something that had to do with sleepiness, and I found a pretty major mutation right off the bat. In a standard C3/DS Norn, this chemical emitter is tied to a permanently active sensorimotor that is tied in with sleepiness. The underlined section should read “Creature, Sensorimotor, Permanently active.” The second portion is associated with “Tissue 4: ffsc” according to the Genetics Kit. I have absolutely no idea what it stands for, although the names of the surrounding tissues look very familiar, such as noun, verb, stim (stimulus), and driv (drive). This gene probably made Wesid’s body notice sleepiness in an odd or wrong way.
Stimuli
Stimuli genes define the chemicals that a Creature expects to receive in response to an action. These actions can range from interactions with the hand to involuntary actions like coughing or sneezing.
401 Emb B MutDupCut I am sleeping (periodic) (22) causes sig=26 GS neu=0 int=0, 160 => -2*Boredom + 2*Tiredness + -1*Coldness + 1*Hunger for carbohydrate
This gene is supposed to be associated with the stimulus “I am travelling,” yet this mutation causes the resulting chemicals to be associated with sleep. The chemicals make sense for a Norn who is traveling about: A slight decrease in boredom, increase in tiredness, decrease in coldness, and increase in hunger. Yet for Wesid, he experiences this reaction whenever he sleeps. The major problem is with the fact that sleeping actually makes him more tired! Fortunately, tiredness can be alleviated by sleeping or laying still.
My best guess is that Wesid fell asleep due to his illness, which may have contained sleep toxin at one point. Since his body does not properly recognize sleepiness, he probably fell into a slumber that was impossible to come out of. I was most confused by his coldness, though, since sleeping should have reduced this: Notice how it was very high in the above image. Wesid had a few other genetic mutations, but these seemed the most relevant, and were already stumping me! Could I leave him there to fall asleep and die?
Feel free to call me a terrible Norn observer, for I woke Wesid up with two gentle slaps! He gobbled up many apples and seeds, and was soon running away from the hands of death. I knew that if I had wanted to let nature take its course, Wesid would have died. Was there really a “right” choice in this instance? Many of us have been playing for years, and the question of nature vs. nurture often comes up in instances like this. I did not interfere purely for the sake of keeping Wesid around for the alpha male succession test: I intervened to give him life. At this point, I know there will be times when I’ll want to save a life, but simply can’t. There are other Norns who will die because nothing can save them. Wesid lived.
Wesid definitely suffered from a sleeping disorder: He often fell asleep for a few seconds at a time before jumping back up again! I had to catch him in an unflattering position to show some proof that he slept. Better yet, though, and randomly, I snapped the perfect shot of a little Hoppity crawling out of the dirt near the right side of the picture. Its cute factor certainly made up for Wesid’s pose! Silly, silly Norn. Or maybe he planned this!
Wow, a Norn who gets tired from sleeping. Quite the conundrum. What’s even more interesting is that he seemed to have basically slipped into a coma, although a coma that he could be forced to waken from. A very interesting Norn disorder if there ever was one.
I hadn’t expected such an odd mutation, but Wesid proved me wrong! It might have been for the best to let him slip away, since passing along the gene could be problematic. Still, that just opens up a little more suspense! We’ll have to see if he turns out the be the alpha male… Could be very interesting! A video should be out over the weekend documenting this next alpha couple. Hopefully Wesid doesn’t fall asleep too much!
I’ve seen this sort of thing before now that you mention it.. creatures that will fall asleep and stay asleep infinitely unless woken by outside means. Funny thing is, I don’t actually remember creatures like that actually dying while asleep, even when sleeping for hours. I wonder if they conserve energy while asleep and thus stay alive despite lack of food, or if all the creatures I’ve had with sleeping disorders just had other mutations that kept them alive through it.
Are you planning on making him ineligible for Alpha, so he doesn’t risk passing the faulty genes on, or do you think he deserves as fair a chance as any of the others?
Perhaps Wesid was conserving some energy while he slept, although I felt guilty about sitting by and watching to see if he would survive. His hunger needs were not terribly high: It might have been his illness that sapped his life force.
I plan on giving him a chance at becoming the next alpha male, even if that’s a bit risky! There’s a certain amount of luck involved, and from the start of this world concept, I figured that the alpha male could turn out to have some bad genetic mutations. I know that aiming for strong, healthy Norns should be a goal, yet I’m kind of interested to see how this progresses! We’ll see if this decision helps or hurts the next generation… And then we can blame me. Ha!
In that case, I think I’ll be secretly cheering for Wesid when the succession rolls around :P
Same here! There’s a chance that he wouldn’t necessarily pass along his mutations to his offspring… If he turns out to be the alpha male. Might as well give him a bit of a chance!
Wesid’s experience brings to mind eeither a coma (can’t wake up unless forced) or an out of body experience (close to death, “I am traveling”). ‘Least, to me, anyway. Congrats on saving his life, Jessica.
That… looks like Wheatley. And I’m sure I saw my beloved Companion Cube in another C3 screenshot…
I certainly hope Wesid didn’t make Alpha… If anything, he should have been exported when the Hand saved him. *sage nod*
(And, yes, I’m planning to comment on most of these as I go. Though I’m not sure if I’ll get any notification of any other comments.)
He was a wild card. I won’t spoil anything, though! If you would like to receive notifications of new comments, you can either click on the “Subscribe by email” link for an individual post, which should be located near the bottom right in the white area. You can also subscribe via an RSS feed by clicking on “Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)” near the bottom left of the page.