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

[dragonpaul99]

Disgorge

[Sam B]

Act:

You decide to put looking for other Eletus off for now and focus on the more pressing matter of getting this terrible Starbud out of your body. You Disgorge with all your might in an attempt to expel the flower out of your belly, but its roots hold fast and the plant remains firmly attached to your soft innards as you spew soft sand into the water. You do manage to detach a single petal from the bud, though, and it slowly descends to the seafloor after it is ejected from your mouth.

Spurred by the hunger brought on by your failed attempt, or maybe because of the plant's parasitic influence, you quickly refill on some recycled sand to bring your belly back to its not-quite-full state. You gain the usual 4 DNA Pts from the sand and feel very dissatisfied at being unable to fully sate your hunger or get rid of the parasite so easily. Maybe if you ate something with a little more weight to it, it might knock the plant loose when you Disgorge it? Some nice rocks would be ideal, you think. But you're pretty sure there weren't too many of those back in the reef, and it's unlikely you will find any Eletus to join up with if you went searching these unfamiliar waters, though there may be some hope that your former colony is still around.

Another solution to your current vulnerable solitariness would be to start an entirely new colony by Budding Off, but there's no telling what sort of effect the Starbud might have on your offspring...

You have 33 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Go look for a more solid food source. (Maybe your colony as well?)
B) Ignore your affliction for now and find some new Eletus in the reef.
C) Bud Off and evolve, in spite of the risks of doing so while infected.
D) Other: ___________________

Stats:

Homeworld: Aros.
Name: Eletus.
Traits: Annelid, Bilateral Symmetry, Starbud Infection.
Appearance: Faded blue; Long, slender, segmented body with a pair of thin keratin blades on your back; Pair of red stigma on sides of head and a mouth between them.
Environment: Shallow ocean waters (primarily coastlines, close to the ice-crust)
Behavior: Cautious, defensive, curious; signs of cunning. Typically stays within the safety of a colony.
Diet: Geovore, capable of eating meat in small quantities.
Belly: 80% (-20% max capacity)
Size: 4.5; Less than 5 centimeters long.
SNS: 1.2; Able to sense light from a slight distance; Cannot hear; Able to sense chemicals around you.
MOB: 4.5; You move normally for your size, and can swim at a moderate pace.
INT: 5; You have a basic brain and nervous system.
ATK: 2.5; You have a well-developed mouth and dangerous Dorsal-Blades on your back.
DEF: 2.5; You have a thick C-Plate and a pair of Dorsal-Blades, deterring predators.
HP: 25/25

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)

--Passive--
-Segmented: Receive a DNA discount when increasing your size.
-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.

[Knight_of_Hide]

I'll vote for A, avoiding any creatures along the way.

We should wait for some more points before evolving, as well.

[Kíeros]

> Around the area, you must go, to try and find more solid food.

[Aabcehmu]

I agree, and vote for A. It seems like a bit of stretch, but it doesn't seem likely that it would make us unable to take another option, should we fail anyway.

[Wessolf27]

A might be the best option.

[Mithanu]

C, even though this vote will never come to pass, my curiosity demands that I vote for this.

[Aabcehmu]

I hope this thread hasn't died. To further explain my vote, going and looking for food wasn't likely to cut us off from the other options. We're not going to be prevented from searching for other eletus or budding off if we do or don't find food, as long as we don't run into a predator and die.

[Sam B]

Thread is not dead. I was just pretty busy this weekend, helping some family move, etc. It was just one day without posts, jeez.

Act:

Leaving the many inactive Starbuds in this field behind, you set about searching for something hard and edible to help you with this parasite problem. You swim for quite a while, and start to feel a little less terrified at being without a colony as you spend more time traveling alone. Eventually you come across a great wall of solid stone rising out of the seafloor and far into the water above. You try, and fail miserably, to eat the giant rock wall.

It's a bit disheartening, but you've still got plenty of energy to continue your quest for edible rocks. This wall is problematic, though. It ominously stretches out as far as you can sense, impeding your progress. You detect a few small lifeforms of some kind on the side of the huge rock not too far above you, but they are very unfamiliar and you're still more than a little anxious about approaching strange creatures alone.

You have 33 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Try to go around the wall.
B) Try to go over the wall by swimming up.
C) Investigate the strange lifeforms.
D) Give up and head back towards the reef.
E) Other: ___________________

Stats:

Homeworld: Aros.
Name: Eletus.
Traits: Annelid, Bilateral Symmetry, Starbud Infection.
Appearance: Faded blue; Long, slender, segmented body with a pair of thin keratin blades on your back; Pair of red stigma on sides of head and a mouth between them.
Environment: Shallow ocean waters (primarily coastlines, close to the ice-crust)
Behavior: Cautious, defensive, curious; signs of cunning. Typically stays within the safety of a colony.
Diet: Geovore, capable of eating meat in small quantities.
Belly: 60% (-20% max capacity)
Size: 4.5; Less than 5 centimeters long.
SNS: 1.2; Able to sense light from a slight distance; Cannot hear; Able to sense chemicals around you.
MOB: 4.5; You move normally for your size, and can swim at a moderate pace.
INT: 5; You have a basic brain and nervous system.
ATK: 2.5; You have a well-developed mouth and dangerous Dorsal-Blades on your back.
DEF: 2.5; You have a thick C-Plate and a pair of Dorsal-Blades, deterring predators.
HP: 25/25

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)

--Passive--
-Segmented: Receive a DNA discount when increasing your size.
-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.

[Kíeros]

> Brave your fears and swim upwards.

[Aabcehmu]

I vote for B as well. Also, I suppose I had just become acclimated to the ordinarily extremely rapid rate at which updates were made in this thread.

[Wessolf27]

Let's go with B

[Sam B]

Act:

You swim upwards along the edge of the great stone wall, passing by the unknown lifeforms as you try to not draw attention to yourself. You continue your ascent and notice that the water is starting to feel... different, somehow, as the blue sand below fades from your senses due to your distance from it. The ice-ceiling that you are used to sensing this far from the seafloor is nowhere to be found, and the wall seems to go on forever along with the open water. How far did you follow that Sea-strider, anyway?

An opening in the wall catches your attention, and you stop for a moment to examine it. The hole is quite large, easily big enough for any creature you've encountered to fit in, and as far as you can tell it leads pretty far into the thick rock. Maybe this dark tunnel leads to some nice, bite-sized rocks you could eat? Or it could be the lair of some terrible colossal beast just waiting for a small, dumb worm to swim inside. You'd feel a lot more comfortable about investigating it with some other Eletus to back you up.

You're starting to get a bit tired from all this swimming around, and you're very uncomfortable being in an area without any food readily available, satisfying or not. Adding to your fatigue, the flower inside you leeches off your energy painfully as your belly empties over time. If you keep up with this ascent you may not be able to make it back to the seafloor in time to save yourself from starving up here. Boy, this parasite sure is annoying!

You have 33 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Enter the mysterious tunnel in search of food.
B) Retreat back to the familiar seafloor.
C) Continue your ascent along the wall.
D) Try going around the rock wall instead.
E) Other: ___________________


Stats:

Homeworld: Aros.
Name: Eletus.
Traits: Annelid, Bilateral Symmetry, Starbud Infection.
Appearance: Faded blue; Long, slender, segmented body with a pair of thin keratin blades on your back; Pair of red stigma on sides of head and a mouth between them.
Environment: Shallow ocean waters (primarily coastlines, close to the ice-crust)
Behavior: Cautious, defensive, curious; signs of cunning. Typically stays within the safety of a colony.
Diet: Geovore, capable of eating meat in small quantities.
Belly: 40% (-20% max capacity)
Size: 4.5; Less than 5 centimeters long.
SNS: 1.2; Able to sense light from a slight distance; Cannot hear; Able to sense chemicals around you.
MOB: 4.5; You move normally for your size, and can swim at a moderate pace.
INT: 5; You have a basic brain and nervous system.
ATK: 2.5; You have a well-developed mouth and dangerous Dorsal-Blades on your back.
DEF: 2.5; You have a thick C-Plate and a pair of Dorsal-Blades, deterring predators.
HP: 25/25

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)

--Passive--
-Segmented: Receive a DNA discount when increasing your size.
-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.

[Wessolf27]

D, might be best to search for rocks around this area, at least to avoid risk of predation? Not sure.

[Mithanu]

Seeing as we are two updates away from starvation, I'm voting E, return to the seafloor and feast on some sand to stave off the hunger.

[Aabcehmu]

I agree with Mithanu and vote for E, Return to the sea-floor and fill up on sand, with the addition that I suggest we go back up towards the hole afterwards.

[Knight_of_Hide]

Boy, that hole sure looks interesting! A

[Kíeros]

> Be cautious and return to the see floor.

[Aleisha]

Also going with E, go eat some sand and come back to the hole.

[Sam B]

Act:

Fearing for your health, you return to the seafloor with the intent of filling your belly with some trusty sand (well, as much as you are capable of filling it, anyway) while again trying to avoid detection by the unknown creatures sitting on the rock wall. Despite your best efforts to be the stealthy, the creatures do seem to notice you this time as you pass, and by the time you've finished your descent they have started to move up the wall and away from you.

You dig into the nourishing blue sand, almost literally, as you try to beat the life-sucking plant inside you and obtain some sense of fullness. You fail to do so, but you do manage to eat as much as you possibly could and stave off your amplified hunger pangs for now, netting yourself another 4 DNA Pts. The unknown creatures above are moving very slowly, and still easily detectable at their current distance. You also sense a duo of very large fish swimming towards your general direction now, but they don't seem to be coming directly at you, or anything, in particular.

You have 37 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Go back up the wall and investigate the dark tunnel.
B) Swim up to the fleeing creatures and examine them more closely.
C) Leave the area and any possible rewards in it before those huge fish get too close.
D) Rest here for a bit, remaining cautious of the approaching fish.
E) Other: ___________________


Stats:

Homeworld: Aros.
Name: Eletus.
Traits: Annelid, Bilateral Symmetry, Starbud Infection.
Appearance: Faded blue; Long, slender, segmented body with a pair of thin keratin blades on your back; Pair of red stigma on sides of head and a mouth between them.
Environment: Shallow ocean waters (primarily coastlines, close to the ice-crust)
Behavior: Cautious, defensive, curious; signs of cunning. Typically stays within the safety of a colony.
Diet: Geovore, capable of eating meat in small quantities.
Belly: 80% (-20% max capacity)
Size: 4.5; Less than 5 centimeters long.
SNS: 1.2; Able to sense light from a slight distance; Cannot hear; Able to sense chemicals around you.
MOB: 4.5; You move normally for your size, and can swim at a moderate pace.
INT: 5; You have a basic brain and nervous system.
ATK: 2.5; You have a well-developed mouth and dangerous Dorsal-Blades on your back.
DEF: 2.5; You have a thick C-Plate and a pair of Dorsal-Blades, deterring predators.
HP: 25/25

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)

--Passive--
-Segmented: Receive a DNA discount when increasing your size.
-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.


Edit:

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Bluh, I'd given up on receiving any more votes for this action and had typed it out completely before Aleisha made Aabcehmu's addendum the majority. The option to go back to the tunnel is still there of course, as well as the option to do pretty much anything else you can think of, so hopefully it's not a problem if I don't re-do this one action. Because it'd be kind of a waste of time to do so and I won't. Sorry! (I am not really sorry but it seemed to fit)

[Kíeros]

> Explore back up the wall; ignoring the hole.

[Mithanu]

E, move yourself away from other creatures and bud off into 3 creatures, because I'm still curious about what will happen with the parasite inside of us, I hope it will be awesome.

(I don't know why but I feel compelled to do this, it seems like both a great and horrible idea at once. Each time I vote for this it makes me laugh, and I'm not quite sure why.)

[Knight_of_Hide]

Always time enough to explore!

[Wessolf27]

I say that we go back up there.

[Aabcehmu]

I also vote for A. Given the otherwise smoothness of the wall, a hole so large has piqued my interest.