A successful IQ test for Chess Medley

Since the inhabitants of Chess Medley are fairly young, I've decided to run them through an IQ test. Normally, you do this with creatures sent through the Warp, but seeing as the server has been down since apparently June 2011, possibly earlier, this is the closest I can get.

An IQ test for Creatures is, basically, putting the creature(s) in the Workroom and letting them find their way to the Meso (which is on the other side of the Capillata) without any help from you. They pass if they end up in the Meso, they fail if it takes them a considerable amount of time to do it, or if they just can't.

In the case of Chess Medley, this is more of a little challenge for the Norn, rather than a course they must complete or I'll export them for the sake of the gene pool. If they're still stuck after 10 minutes, I'll cancel the test.

So, we begin the test...River's a bit tired and fell asleep soon after this picture was taken.

After only a minute or two, Keith started hitting the Norn dummy, with River following suit. A slap and some advice later, and they learned that's a bad thing to do. At least they've learned something!

After a quick nap, Keith announced he was tired, and hopped right into the elevator, heading for the Meso. What a fast learner!

River noticed her companion was missing, and quickly called the elevator back for herself, while Keith waited at the top. Once they met again, River led the way, Keith following behind. 

...okay, so much for that grand adventure. Justified, as she is only 11 minutes old, but River fell asleep as soon as she crossed through the doorway. Keith still walked on, leaving his friend to her nap. 

Keith quickly found himself in the Meso again, where he immediately called the elevator so he could get to the bottom floor of the room, to feast upon a buffet of nutritious plants which had grown there in his absence. We applaud your speedy navigation, Keith!

Back to River, who has...um...decided to stare listlessly at the door.

When I went to check on her with the HoverDoc, she uttered, "eat door." River, dear, the door is part of the Capillata and cannot be consumed.

It probably counts as cheating, but I had to carry her to the Meso, where I served her an array of foods. She snapped out of it, and started running about, snacking away happily. We celebrate your efforts, River.

While River settled down for another nap, Keith ran around like a crazed jackrabbit, eating every single carrot he could find. Carrots can be eaten in one bite, and what remains quickly turns into another carrot. It's like watching a lawnmower, the way he eats!

River, a bit lonely, all on her own, found the elevator and came to join Keith, who was beginning to tire after his latest carrot run. He soon settled down for a nap, with River, happy with finding another of her kind, joining him.

Checking on the Norns...

River the Deep Norn (facing the camera) and Keith the Fallow Norn.

In Chess Medley, things are going well. River's currently living in a separate room, until I flood the bottom half of the Meso so she can swim about once she's old enough to do so. Poor River is a very bored Norn.

Keith, however, seems perfectly content to just stick around, playing with the Portal stuff. 
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In Room-And-Agent-Tests (originally made for just this purpose, until I got a couple of Norns to test things out!), things also go well. The population, consisting of Guppy the Deep Norn and Chip the ChiChi Norn, are currently living in Devil's Reef. (side note: Devil's Reef, made by Ghosthande, is best meta room.) Guppy is a quiet, solitary Norn, who listens to the Hand. Chip is your ordinary Norn, with a taste for muffins. 

Being a child, Guppy also sleeps often.

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And now it's time to leave the calm of the two-Norn-population worlds and dive into the frenzy that is...Wolfing Run!
(actually now just a Feral run because I interfere too much. Wolfing Run=no human interaction whatsoever, Feral run=add whatever agents and so on you like, teach the Norns a few words, help them to distinguish good plants from bad plants, and so on, then leave them by themselves and interfere whenever)

Currently up to generation 5 with a population of 25, 7 females and 18 males, with over 40 Norns having inhabited this corner of the Capillata, Wolfing Run is truly chaotic! 


I suspect that there's a sort of illness going around; it's taken 8 of them already. D: I'm keeping 9 Norns in their own room, and so far, they are all doing wonderfully. Maybe it has something to do with the temperature? Or the amount of Norns one keeps in one area? From another blog, I have learned that I am not the only one to have this problem...The population size or some really weird genes may be to blame.

Several of them have become fascinated with one of the doors and have been running between the two rooms for in-game hours on end, as is being demonstrated by Dwight and Eberta below.


Here, let me see if I can cram the population into one picture...you can tell what generation each Norn is in by the first letter of their name. (And yes, those are My Little Ponies they're playing with.) 

From left to right: Denise and Erena; Denbe and Constantin; Dwight and Eberta; Engeline; Akifumi and Delfine; Eibo; Danyal; Delores; Dowaito; Bairei; Chisaburou; Darian and Enrico; Ellis; Eziaburou, Eichi, and Erland; Eginbert; Betty, Ewald, and Bjarne.
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Back to a much calmer world, and my first DS world, Zoidberg (need a world name? Why not Zoidberg?).

Starling reminds me that I need to raise the population cap so more eggs can hatch...

Everyone in this world has an astronomy-related name. There's
Andromeda, Deoxys, Adhara, Altair, Constellation, Stardust, Little Star, Starling, Galaxy, and Sunbeam. 
Yeah, I'm starting to run out of names. ^ ^; Adhara and Altair are twins.

Poor Constellation has Chronic Homesickness Disorder.

The Norns in this world are always quick to spout advice to others. This makes them different from the Norns of the other worlds because the Zoidberg Norns all know the same language, so they understand what the other speaks of.



I'll update occasionally if something of interest happens in one of the worlds.