As babies, their lives were pretty uneventful, and they were quite healthy, so there's not much to say about that. But shortly after reaching childhood, things sort of went sideways for a bit- for Alita in particular. I noticed her shivering often, and asked her what was wrong. Still shivering, she told me 'Alita very ill'. Taking her answer at face value, I picked her up and took her straight to the medical bay.
Placing her in the containment chamber, I started up the medical monitors and right away, I found the cause of her ailments: 1 bacteria detected, and a disconcertingly high level of injury and Antigen 3 in her system. For anyone not familiar with C3's chemicals, the primary physical effect of of Antigen 3 is coldness, which explains her shivering. More concerning though, was the physiological effects of Antigen 3, which attacks the creature's central nervous system's drive support lobe, fearly drive overwhelmsion, fight or flight, gonad, and regulatory functions.
Essentially, if left untreated, it renders the creature incapable of: caring for itself, mating, and unable to maintain homeostasis. Those first and last effects can lead to a slow, painful death.
Paging through the chemicals available to me, I loaded up a full syringe of Antibody 3, which specifically targets Antigen 3, and pushed it into her system. I always feel a little guilty when a norn yelps from the needle jab and I see their injury level go up, but mild short-term pain is better than long-term suffering.
I watched closely over the next little while to make sure the Antibody 3 injection was starting to do its job, and sure enough, Alita's Antigen 3 levels slowly started going down. Feeling like she needed a bit of a safeguard against future infection, I decided to vaccinate her against all the other antigens, as well. Seeing on the monitor that the bacterial infection and its effects were gone, I pulled her out of the tank and returned her to the Norn Terrarium. Unfortunately, her illness seems to have left her with a permanent limp in her right leg. Nothing serious, but still a life-long reminder of what was narrowly avoided.
And of course, I got back from the ER with Alita only to find Alessio had apparently tried to drown himself in the Norn Terrarium's pond... the doofus. So, dropping Alita off, I pulled Alessio out of the water and hauled him off the the medical bay to make sure his respiratory system was still working right. Thankfully, it was, and I quickly returned him to his future mate, no intervention needed.
Other than that, I've just been gunning down Grendels when they enter the Norn Terrarium every so often, and wondering what broke to make it so that there are no Ettins in the world yet.
And with that, stay tuned for future updates on Alessio, Alita, and any future offspring they might have!
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