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

[Sam B]

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CEJLM have the most votes unless I am terribly mistaken (if I am, too late now) and that leaves you with 1 point which I have graciously stored.

Evolve:

Millions of years have passed once again, and the Eletus have continued to evolve rapidly as a species. They have become much more mobile, having grown a flexible tail at their rear end, enabling them to swim through the cold ocean waters once again, an activity which their repositioned Dorsal-Blades also helps with. The sharp keratin growths now serve a function not unlike the dorsal fins of many vertebrates, making the Eletus more aquadynamic and aiding in sharp, sudden turns while still continuing to deter many would-be predators.

The Eletus have also gained much more sturdy bodies in recent years, growing considerably larger than their ancestors and possessing a much thicker C-Plate around their segmented bodies. Much more notable, however, are the many displays of heightened intelligence among the species, as they continuously display signs of increased brainpower compared to previous generations.

Also worth noting is the fact that over the recent years, Eletus have taken to living closer to the shore of the Arosian Sea. This change has had little effect on the overall behavior of the species, but they do seem to have taken to the colder temperature in the water near the icy crust. Many old predators still prey on them in spite of this slight habitat change, though, as well as a few new ones.

One particular Eletus colony is currently even farther out of the reef than usual. Its members have traveled into especially shallow waters after fleeing from a dangerous predator attack. The colony is seven members strong, and one of these members is now you. You are feeling a little tired after swimming out so far, but you feel like you have still have the energy to escape if that dangerous predator follows you out here, which it probably won't.

It is day time on this side of the planet, but the sea is dark as ever as some unknown obstruction blocks the distant sun somewhere above the icy crust. The edge of the reef where you make your home is still relatively close by, but you have never been this far out or this close the ice-ceiling before, and the new environment excites and scares you a little.

You have 1 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Go search for something to eat.
B) Explore up near the mysterious ice-crust.
C) Head back to the familiar reef with your colony.
D) Other: ___________________

Stats:

Homeworld: Aros.
Name: Eletus.
Traits: Annelid, Bilateral Symmetry.
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, curious, and defensive. Typically stays within the safety of a colony.
Diet: Geovore.
Belly: 50%
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.

[Mithanu]

D, Fill your belly with sand and then explore the ice-crust.

[dragonpaul99]

B Ice crust.

[Kíeros]

> Be a good exploring Eletus.

[Shrump]

Voting for B.

[Aabcehmu]

I vote for B, as well. It remains of interest, and finding a way to breach it safely will probably be critical to landing.

[volnrok]

B, we should explore with our newfound intelligence.

[Knight_of_Hide]

I'm a bit disappointed we didn't upgrade our Sense at all. Welp, nothing doing.

I'll vote for A, seeing as our belly is a bit low.

[Sam B]

Act:

The frozen ceiling above catches your interest, and you find yourself swimming up to it as your curious nature takes over. As you close the distance between the ice and you the water's temperature drops dramatically, enough to make you slow down a bit as your tired body struggles to resist the extreme cold.

You are mere inches (say, what's an 'inch'?) away from the chilly wall that stretches as far as you can sense now, and as harsh as the cold is right here you are strangely attracted to an area of the ice not far from where you are, as you detect something that can only be described as 'delicious'. The mysterious chemical signature is so alluring you almost swim after it before you stop yourself and consider the risks associated with distancing yourself from the colony, which is milling about closer to the seafloor. Still, you are feeling very hungry, and whatever that thing is seems to be VERY edible as far as you can tell.

You have 1 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Investigate the incredibly delicious er... thing.
B) Go back to the colony and eat some sand with them.
C) Other: ___________________

Stats:

Homeworld: Aros.
Name: Eletus.
Traits: Annelid, Bilateral Symmetry.
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, curious, and defensive. Typically stays within the safety of a colony.
Diet: Geovore.
Belly: 30%
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. (-.5)
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]

> C: Go back, eat some sand to sustain yourself, but not all the way, and then head back and investigate it.

[Aabcehmu]

I agree with Kíeros and vote for C, eat some sand before before going back and following the mysterious chemical trail.

[Shrump]

Yeah, C. Who knows, maybe some friends will tag along and share in our discovery.

[volnrok]

C, but not too much sand. We need to save room for this tasty thing!

[Wessolf27]

Let's go with C, just to be on the careful side.

[Sam B]

Act:

Electing to play it safe, you swim back to the safety of your colony and sate your hunger on some nice, reliable blue sand, gaining 4 DNA Pts. Your fellow Eletus do the same and seem ready to move on after calming down from the recent dangerous predator attack. You're no longer starved for food, but you are still very curious about the appealing chemical trail you sensed up at the ice. You decide to go back and investigate further, now with the Eletus colony following you into the freezing waters.

You easily locate the appetizing anomaly once again and swim straight towards it as fast as your tail can propel you. You can almost taste whatever is producing this strange chemical, and it tastes amazing. Your primitive thoughts start to become clouded as you near the source of the... the thing... Was something just moving around over there? ... Nah, couldn't be. The only thing you sense up here is ice. Ice and something delicious, of course.

Huh. You can only sense four other Eletus besides yourself now, for some odd reason. They probably just went back down to get out of the cold. More awesome miracle rocks for you, you guess. Though, you should be at the source of that delicious chemical right now. You detect it all around you, in fact. But... There's nothing here but more ice. Maybe... It's buried in the ice! If you just... sort of... touched it, some... maybe dig a little... Eh? Another Eletus drops off your metaphorical radar, and you start to feel a bit uneasy. Wow, it's really cold here. Why did you come out here, again? Oh, right, the food... Some... thing, is moving around on the underside of the ice pretty quickly now. But, you're so close!

You have 5 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Dig into the ice and get that food! Before the source of that movement gets here!
B) Maybe you should just go, actually... It IS pretty cold.
C) Wait and see what happens.
D) Other: ___________________

Stats:

Homeworld: Aros.
Name: Eletus.
Traits: Annelid, Bilateral Symmetry.
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, curious, and defensive. Typically stays within the safety of a colony.
Diet: Geovore.
Belly: 80%
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. (-1)
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.

[Mithanu]

A, WITH RECKLESS ABANDON!
Seeing as everyone else is being cautious I am changing my vote to B

[Knight_of_Hide]

D

First, Disgorge right near the ice to hide ourselves, then go follow that tasty taste.

[Aabcehmu]

I vote for B, Charging out if necessary. The cold and some unseen malevolent creature are apparently picking off our colony-mates, which seems enough reason to book it out of there, to me.

An evolutionary motive I have for this, hyperactive pattern detection is surprisingly useful, as can be evidenced by nearly every mammal, bird, and reptile on our planet can be observed naturally developing superstitions. While our senses may not be able to detect anything, and we turn out to overreacting, we've only lost 30% Belly, where as if this reaction turns out to be right, we've avoided an untimely death.

[Shrump]

Definitly B. I suspect a predator (possibly more) is releasing chemicals to lure us into an ambush of sorts.

[Wessolf27]

I vote for B, Charging out if necessary. The cold and some unseen malevolent creature are apparently picking off our colony-mates, which seems enough reason to book it out of there, to me.

An evolutionary motive I have for this, hyperactive pattern detection is surprisingly useful, as can be evidenced by nearly every mammal, bird, and reptile on our planet can be observed naturally developing superstitions. While our senses may not be able to detect anything, and we turn out to overreacting, we've only lost 30% Belly, where as if this reaction turns out to be right, we've avoided an untimely death.

I'll support Aabcehmu on this one.

[volnrok]

Definitly B. I suspect a predator (possibly more) is releasing chemicals to lure us into an ambush of sorts.

My thoughts exactly. B.

[dragonpaul99]

Goddammit you guys, I can barely leave you alone for 5 minutes before you decide to start being careful and slaughter the entire colony.

B

[Sam B]

Act:

You reluctantly pull yourself away from the ice, and as you distance yourself from the strange chemical your thoughts and senses start to regain clarity. You suddenly come to the realization that some unknown species of predator is assaulting your colony! From the frozen crust above, a long, pointed tentacle of some sort whips out and reaches for one of the slower Eletus as you start to flee! Thankfully they react quick enough to Charge out of the way before getting snatched up, and the unknown creature doesn't seem to pursue you once you get far enough from the ice.

As you settle into more comfortable waters you start to feel the lasting effects of the cold wearing off. You can't imagine what caused you to get so careless up there, but you no longer feel any desire to approach the mysterious ice in your future. The colony is down to four members including yourself, still enough to fight off the competing geovores and hopefully few enough to stop attracting the attention of all these dangerous predators.

There is nothing especially interesting in the immediate area. The usual reef-dwellers; starfish, urchins, small fish, hermit crabs, etc... There are, however, some unusual plants sticking out of the sand not too far away, but as a rock-eater you don't particularly care about plants at all.

You have 5 DNA Pt(s)

What do you do?

A) Explore in some deeper waters.
B) Search for something good to eat.
C) Go examine the unusual plants anyway.
D) Other: ___________________

Stats:

Homeworld: Aros.
Name: Eletus.
Traits: Annelid, Bilateral Symmetry.
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, curious, and defensive. Typically stays within the safety of a colony.
Diet: Geovore.
Belly: 60%
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. (-.5)
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]

C Go examine them anyway, the best kinds of soil are always near plants

[volnrok]

C for the same reasons. Plants are the most devious geovores of them all.