CELLQUEST: RIP in Piece [DEAD due to inactive host]

[meteorMirror]

C hunt the crabs, and help your Eletus ally, by only eat one RHC and then taking the second one you find in your mouth and drag him all the way to your Eletus buddy.

[Aabcehmu]

I vote for C, destroy the remaining light-bulbs. These things are dangerous, and if we can discourage their growth wherever we may be, we can hopefully push them out of our ecosystem, and possibly to extinction.

[Knight_of_Hide]

C

Slice through the stem of the Light-Bulb with our Dorsal-Blades. Once the plant is dead, we can go eat the RHCs.

[Kíeros]

> And away we go!

[Woodledude]

Before doing anything, bro-nuzzle the other Eletus apologetically for the bad idea. You've got to keep up good relations betwixt your species.

[Wessolf27]

Before doing anything, bro-nuzzle the other Eletus apologetically for the bad idea. You've got to keep up good relations betwixt your species.

C

Slice through the stem of the Light-Bulb with our Dorsal-Blades. Once the plant is dead, we can go eat the RHCs.

These two for the moment. So yeah, C

[darkdramon]

C yes with wood and knight

[Sifright]

I vote for C, destroy the remaining light-bulbs. These things are dangerous, and if we can discourage their growth wherever we may be, we can hopefully push them out of our ecosystem, and possibly to extinction.

C this^

[Shrump]

I personally vote A, but since destroying the plants seems to be the majority here, how about we dig into the sand and attack the roots? Being in the sand might help protect us from whatever happened to our buddy.

[Sam B]

Act:

You decide that the Light-bulbs are too dangerous to be left alone and that their population must be expunged from this reef. But first, you've got to apologize to your companion for getting them hurt. They're intelligent enough to have feelings too, after all! You swim close and nuzzle the other Eletus with what could be considered your snout, if you had a proper skull to give it shape. In response, they gently shrug off your nuzzling and take on a slightly more relaxed posture. It is a simple conversation, but if it were put into words it might look something like this:

"Hey, sorry I couldn't help you out back there. Are you alright?"

"I'll be okay. Can we get back to business now, please?"

It seems like they aren't in the mood to cuddle, but that suits you just fine. Those damn Light-bulbs are going to pay for... whatever it is they did! After a bit of consideration, you determine that the safest way to destroy these things is to attack their fat stems with your Dorsal-Blades, hopefully killing them by removing their upper half. It's definitely going to take some flexibility to get this done without touching the apparently dangerous bulbs, considering how small these things are, but you're confident in your swimming abilities.

First, you go for the plant right in front of you, with one of the remaining Rockshell Hermit Crabs clutching onto its bulb for dear life. You perform a sort of half-twirl and slice right through the weak stem with your sharp keratin blades, just barely managing to avoid the plant's glowing cap as it falls to the seafloor! Success! The tiny crab is too terrified to move, and you could easily eat it if the Light-bulb has died. But you aren't so sure that it has died yet, since the severed cap is still glowing as brightly as ever. Also, your belly probably isn't ready for another helping of meat so soon. (Not like that fact has stopped you before, though...)

The other Eletus does not mimic your behavior for once, as they are too busy resting just above the seafloor and have no interest in messing with Light-bulbs again. It looks like you'll have to destroy the plants all by yourself, if you want them gone so badly. But doing so could take hours since there are just so many of them. You wonder if cutting them all down is even worth the time and effort; as a rock-eater you really aren't suited to removing plants en masse anyway, and there are so many more productive things you could be doing instead...

You have 74 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Eat the crab from the severed Light-bulb cap.
B) Continue your dangerous gardening for now.
C) Give up on removing all the Light-bulbs and leave the area.
D) Other: ___________________

Stats:

Homeworld: Aros.
Name: Eletus.
Traits: Chordate, Diurnal; Starbud Infection.
Appearance: Faded blue; Slender body with a pair of fin-shaped keratin blades on back; long tail with barbs and caudal fin at the tip; head possesses a red ocellus on either side and a circular mouth with tiny teeth at the front end. [Glowing flower on underside]
Environment: Shallow ocean waters.
Behavior: Defensive, curious, cunning; will actively seek out Starbuds if not infected; travels in pairs.
Symbiosis: Starbud Flower [M]
Diet: Geovore, capable of eating meat in small quantities.
Belly: 40%
Size: 8; Over 10 centimeters long.
SNS: 8; Capable of blurry, short-ranged vision; Cannot hear; Able to sense light and chemicals from a distance; Basic sense of smell.
MOB: 8.5; You slither at a slow pace on land, and can swim well.
INT: 10; Sentient; Capable of basic social interaction with your own kind.
ATK: 7.5; You have a strong mouth with teeth, sharp barbs on your tail and dangerous Dorsal-Blades on your back.
DEF: 3.5 (5.5); You have a thick C-Plate and a pair of Dorsal-Blades, deterring weaker predators. [+2]
HP: 51/51

Abilities:

--Active--
-Bud Off: Split your body into multiple organisms. Divides Belly by number of organisms. Temporarily reduces stats to a fraction of what they really are.
-Disgorge: Vomit some of the contents of your belly with mild force. Effectiveness increases with a larger Belly %. Divides current Belly by half.
-Charge: A short burst of speed in any direction, can be used offensively. (-30% Belly)
-Suction: Pull small objects into your mouth from a short distance or affix yourself to larger surfaces. (-10% Belly when used on non-food objects)

--Passive--
-Cephalize: Evolve sensory organs at reduced cost on your "head".
-Geophagy: Gain extra DNA from soil and similar materials.
-Regen: Recover HP at a constant rate. Belly drops faster than normal when more than a third of your HP is gone.

[Aabcehmu]

I vote for D, disect the bulb we cut off. I rather overestimated our ability to cut down all of these light-bulbs, so we'll have to get back to that either once were omnivores or have significantly larger numbers, preferably both.

Favor used, vote changed to A.

[Kíeros]

> Continue past that location.

[Sifright]

Eat the crab then go to the other eletus that was injured and slowly disgorge the eaten crab so we can share our bounty with him. strengthening our social ties.

[Woodledude]

I'm not sure what we should do as an alternative, but I think messing with the light-bulbs any further would generally be a bad idea, especially considering that they don't die. If we continue and something happens, our friend might lose all faith in us. They seem to be handling the whole meat-shield role pretty well so far, but I don't think we should push our luck, and getting successful social interaction would push us on an evolutionary path that will set us towards faster advancement in the areas of science, through collaboration. In fact, I would go so far as to propose the removal of the star-buds entirely, if only to re-facilitate large colonies. Of course, if we could move them onto land, they might still be an advantage without the risk they've introduced into large groups, but only if there are no predators hunting Eletus up there. Anyone else have any thoughts as to this?

[meteorMirror]

Aab... I don't think the Eletus has the intelligence to do that.
My D is going to be, Bring that RHC to our Eletus friend, she/he needs to eat. And then proceed to cut down a few more Light Bulbs.

[Knight_of_Hide]

A

See all this work we did? We sure as hell didn't do that for nothing.

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AABC STRIKE ACTIVATE

[Woodledude]

Yeah, Meteor's D seems like a good idea. Tail-whip it so that it lets go, since the light-bulb isn't within the safety of the other light-bulbs.

[Sifright]

I'm not sure what we should do as an alternative, but I think messing with the light-bulbs any further would generally be a bad idea, especially considering that they don't die. If we continue and something happens, our friend might lose all faith in us. They seem to be handling the whole meat-shield role pretty well so far, but I don't think we should push our luck, and getting successful social interaction would push us on an evolutionary path that will set us towards faster advancement in the areas of science, through collaboration. In fact, I would go so far as to propose the removal of the star-buds entirely, if only to re-facilitate large colonies. Of course, if we could move them onto land, they might still be an advantage without the risk they've introduced into large groups, but only if there are no predators hunting Eletus up there. Anyone else have any thoughts as to this?

In principal i don't disagree. We suffer from a few glaring problems that need to be solved before we leave the ocean entirely though, Mainly that Eletus don't have the ability to communicate effectively yet, we have no way of being able to hear and our eye sight is still very rudimentry. We could also do with improving our 'brain'

Next time we hit the evolution scene we need to focus on amping up our senses and brain so that we can function as a cohesive social unit, we are being held back socially by our poor senses.

[Sam B]

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I'd like to remind everyone that you CAN evolve at pretty much any time, even if it isn't there as a default option. While grinding tons of DNA and then buying out half the evolution menu is certainly a valid strategy, you are also capable of undergoing more frequent (but less drastic) evolutions to patch up holes in your stats. Just throwing that out there.

[Aabcehmu]

It seems like small evolutions still take a fairly long, though maybe still slightly shorter time, but would also happen more frequently, and thus possible consume more time in total. Not to mention, options whose prices exceed our total DNA points would have to be excluded, meaning we might potentially never attain them.

In addition, I'm going to agree with the idea that increasing SNS, especially in ways which facilitate communication, like hearing, would be exceedingly helpful in developing more complicated social structures. I don't how ever, understand what problem there is with starbuds. Large colonies continue to exist, and starbuds help keep them safe, we just happen to not have any, unless I've been missing something significant for a while. The problem with them isn't starbuds, but that their close to schools of fish, simply following the instinct to gather together, and maybe some instincts about how to appropriately move as a group, but are not generating thought to apply to the idea of actual teamwork.

[Woodledude]

Aabc, At this point, I tend to agree with him as well. Though I'll insist that we also upgrade our thinking capacity, since, as you said, we initially started with sensory processing, which includes both the senses and the faculties to process the input. And of course, you're right about the starbuds; if we had an actual sense of teamwork, we might be able to turn them into an advantage fairly easily. I still think that we should at least not err towards anti-socialism, just to keep it open as a possibility for later.

[Sifright]

It seems like small evolutions still take a fairly long, though maybe still slightly shorter time, but would also happen more frequently, and thus possible consume more time in total. Not to mention, options whose prices exceed our total DNA points would have to be excluded, meaning we might potentially never attain them.

In addition, I'm going to agree with the idea that increasing SNS, especially in ways which facilitate communication, like hearing, would be exceedingly helpful in developing more complicated social structures. I don't how ever, understand what problem there is with starbuds. Large colonies continue to exist, and starbuds help keep them safe, we just happen to not have any, unless I've been missing something significant for a while. The problem with them isn't starbuds, but that their close to schools of fish, simply following the instinct to gather together, and maybe some instincts about how to appropriately move as a group, but are not generating thought to apply to the idea of actual teamwork.

Starbuds have directly limited our elutus colony sizes, if we end up with too many Eletus gathered together our starbuds produce a large amount of light gathering predators that our increased numbers can't ward off. Is my understanding of it.


So i'd like to continue with my suggestion for feeding the other eletus the RHC, with the proviso that we mate with them afterwards. I think 70 odd DNA points is enough to let us get some more sensory and brain related evolutions.

[Aabcehmu]

I thought just the presence of large numbers of Eletus was enough, not that it was derived from the starbud.

The idea to share is good, though I am honorbound to vote for A.

[Woodledude]

I'll maintain my vote, I suppose. I love all the discussions we're having, they're quite interesting. :D

[Aabcehmu]

Indeed. It makes us marginally less likely to set ourselves on a pathway to destruction, as well.