From The Primordial Soup

[X] Utilize and focus on the "watery glue" chemical candy. Let's get our population up.
 
[X] Focus on the "rotten peanut butter" sludge. Size matters, plus there's specialization potential here.
I would say we should work on our photosynthesis and energy storage too soon. Get to where we have near infinite stamina.
 
[X] Recreate the Bacteriophages, this time as biological mines, going inactive when without a target and then reactivating. They will have DNA and evolve alongside their chosen target species. (Essentially, Bacteriophages in irl)

Time to make things right
 
800k
Posting a little early, since the majority landslided. Attempt 2, since the discord bot didn't pick it up.

Our Evolving Creature...
The bacterium in question is now 11 micrometers long. Dull gray in color, both ends have a trumpet-shaped needle that "breathes" out waste heat while taking in oxygen and nutrients. On what might be considered the head, there is a small node that detects electricity and is a natural compass.

On its rear are several structures for electrical energy generation, communication, and utilization, enough that the cell's stamina is extremely high. Six spider-like legs (two sticky for pulling, two strong for pushing and two wide for stability) allow it to move from place to place. It is coated in a glassy shield almost inpenetrable to other bacteria.
BenefitsWeaknessesSpecials

Multiple Legs (Speed, Sticky Grip, Strong Push)
Silica Crystalline Shell Casing (Tank-like defense)
Improved UV Shielding (Radiation Resistance)
Bacteriophage Minefields (Chemical Defense)
Well-Devloped Electroreceptors (Communication, Stamina)

Soglik Toxicaii's Antimicrobial Agent
Great Heat or Cold
Greater Hunger
Multilayered Capacitors (High Speed)
Electrical Node at the "head" (Genetic Marker: Natural Compass)
Color-changing Chromatophores (Genetic Marker: Improved Photosynthesis)
Enhanced Electroreceptors (Genetic Marker: Enhanced Communication)
Predators and Prey
NEUTRAL: Kratholith Microshockii: A rod-shaped bacterium which has a rigid, rust red cell wall that is effectively made of iron atoms. Short hair-like appendages extend from each end that actively convert silica in mountain rock to glass. Its entire body pulses with brief electrical activity that melts sand, leaves trails, stuns prey and deters predators. Its pulsing includes micro-magnetics, allowing it to course along iron-rich rock in order to gain energy from it via acidification of the iron and consuming the resulting mess. It measures 12 micrometers long by 7 micrometers wide.

THREAT: Baldoro Fluvenii: This bacterium is an all-but-invisible ambush predator, mimicing the chemical makeup of the area in which it infests. Slow to move until it senses food, it lashes out with a massive (for bacteria) spine coated in intensely-adhesive chemicals. The spine pierces the cell wall, sticks to food, and pulls it back into itself. Can pierce our cell wall. It's now using this spine as a means of locomotion, like a piston. On one end of its cell, there's a structure that pulls in and intensifies oxygen to lethal levels, farting it out when threatened.

PREY: Ferroflem Snyii: As the first word in its name may suggest, this is a bacteria which is consuming trace elements of bacteria that cover iron, "purifying" it, leaving little nodes of pure metal wherever it goes. Where it passes, Kratholith can't follow. It follows in Kratholith's wake, but is also hunted by Kratholith as a source of protein. It's super fast, tough to catch by anything including you.

PREY: Nitrospora Sylenii: Nitrospora is a tiny bacterium that is sucking up chemicals like nitrates, ammonia and methane, locking them into the rock of the mountains. Plants adapted to this unusual mix of chemicals are beginning to sprout up, covering the land in a bold new spray of color (and rather toxic pollen). It has no defenses to speak of -- its claim to fame is its massive population. You won't kill it all.
Chances of Survival
I'm tallying the rolls and using an average. When we hit 3.5 million years (because I ain't doing evolution through billions of years, no) I'll roll on Random.org and see what we get.

448+19 = 467 / 8 = 58% of Survival, +20 for two Criticals, -15 for a Critical Failure = 63%
(Banked Criticals: Genetic Symbiosis)



800,000 years. Just a little bit more...

An earthquake has rumbled through the mountains, bringing several down and forming a massive fissure between the remaining mountains and what used to be the oasis and desert/savanna. The collapse brought down the mountain that both of the chemical "springs" were present in, and only one of the two managed to survive by eventually merging with a river and cutting a swath of erosion down to the fissure, forming a waterfall to its depths. We've colonized one side of this river and are extending backward and outward along the rocky ruins of what used to be the mountains.

Temperatures have warmed, we've expanded, and both Lasho (who thrived in the caves) and Lithovorax (killed by its own gravity) couldn't compete, becoming extinct. Another predator and prey will take its place next post. The current environment is mostly "cold steppe" -- a series of mesas and plateaus left over from when the mountains came down -- and the chill that still exists at a higher altitude.

The storms that ravaged most of this area have since died down and everything has stabilized for the moment, however the area is warming up quite a bit because it's become much more open to direct sunlight. It's unlikely that it will get hot enough up here to turn the steppe to savanna or harm us in any great way, but further down, the savanna is spreading like wildfire.

The "rotten peanut butter sludge" spring has been completely sealed by the earthquake. However, not all was lost, as we've begun linking together to form more specialized structures -- because of your decision to focus on the sludge, at the million year mark we'll not only get a genetic marker but a "specialized organ" as well.

Meanwhile the watery glue spring has been ripped asunder into a billowing stream, running into the fissure and intermixing with the waters below by means of a watery glue-fall. If we managed to expand along the fissure's walls down to the bottom, we'd expand and pretty much own the place, ensuring our species doesn't die off.

Mimicking Kratholith got us through the earthquake just fine, though we didn't get any mutation that helps our species out of it. The bigger problem is that Baldoro's spine-attack has evolved enough to pierce through our cell wall and its adhesive proteins have gotten *much* more potent. In response to this greater threat, we intensified our electricity generation by using the power of the sludge, evolving to the point we could break off pieces of ourself and utilizing something from past experiences back at the oasis.

We break off a piece of ourselves filled with explosive chemicals a la Rorjak's meaty center, surround the chemical mix with a weaker copy of our cell wall, and bait Baldoro into striking. From a distance, we're able to use our new Enhanced Electroreceptors to both communicate with "spotters" sensing Baldoro, and remote-detonate the "mine", slaughtering Baldoro in the process. What comes out of the "mine" are bacteriophages tuned to kill anything nearby that is not our bacterium.

Kratholith has been able to tank this, but can't fight back well because its offense dropped. It won't remain dropped for much longer though now that we're a potential threat and have a means to pierce their tank-ish armor. The iron is getting thin and stale, so its defense isn't going to go up fast either.

Kratholith is beginning to struggle. Ferroflem and Nitrospora are beginning to falter, the former because it's running out of iron areas Kratholith has traversed, while the latter may have population but the local plants are beginning to evolve lye and alkaline chemicals that destroy them in a series of extinction waves. It doesn't seem able to adapt, and is likely to collapse by the time we hit the million year mark.

200,000 years (2 posts) to another genetic marker, and the markers we do have will evolve further.


 
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[X] Search for another source of the rotten peanut butter sludge, trying to evolve more specialized structures FAST.
 
[x] Search for another source of the rotten peanut butter sludge, trying to evolve more specialized structures FAST.
 
[x] Search for another source of the rotten peanut butter sludge, trying to evolve more specialized structures FAST.
 
*finishes writing a post since it's obviously landsliding again* I was expecting you to head for the chemical candy.

*screams as computer flips out before he can save it, randomly rebooting*

Probably for the better. I'd rolled a 7 on the post roll, and had written quite a descriptive extinction event (though we survive due to our energy stores). I'll roll/write another one late tonight for posting in the morning.
 
4 hours later: Huh. Looks like it did save after all. I went to open my notepad file with all the episodes in it so I could go rewrite the episode and apparently it DID save just in the nick of time, staring at me from the bottom of the file. I'm completely surprised.

I'm gonna keep the post despite spoiling the post roll, so get ready to struggle for the next few episodes. I'll put it up tomorrow morning so as to give more people time to vote in the meantime.
 
900k
Another landslide so it's up earlyish, and I managed to save the doomspiraling post, so here we go.

Our Evolving Creature...
The bacterium in question is now thumbnail sized. Dull gray in color. In the center next to the nucleus there is a small node that detects electricity and is a natural compass. On its underside are several structures for electrical energy generation / utilization. Two legs, one at either end of the bacteria (one sticky for pulling, one strong for pushing) allow it to move slowly from place to place. It is coated in an acidic skin to devour and utilize anything we can find.
BenefitsWeaknessesSpecials

Multiple Legs (Speed, Sticky Grip, Strong Push)
Acidic Skin (Acid Immunity, Dissolve Bio-Matter on touch)
Improved UV Shielding (Radiation Resistance)
Bacteriophage Minefields (Chemical Defense)

Magnetic Distortions
Low Defense
High Hunger
Multilayered Capacitors (High Speed)
Electrical Node at the "head" (Genetic Marker: Natural Compass)
Color-changing Chromatophores (Genetic Marker: Improved Photosynthesis)
Enhanced Electroreceptors (Genetic Marker: Enhanced Communication)
Predators and Prey
NEUTRAL: Kratholith Microshockii: A rod-shaped bacterium which has a rigid, rust red cell wall that is effectively made of iron atoms. Short hair-like appendages extend from each end that actively convert silica in mountain rock to glass. Its entire body pulses with brief electrical activity that melts sand, leaves trails, stuns prey and deters predators. Its pulsing includes micro-magnetics, allowing it to course along iron-rich rock in order to gain energy from it via acidification of the iron and consuming the resulting mess. It measures 12 micrometers long by 7 micrometers wide.

PREY: Ferroflem Snyii: As the first word in its name may suggest, this is a bacteria which is consuming trace elements of bacteria that cover iron, "purifying" it, leaving little nodes of pure metal wherever it goes. Where it passes, Kratholith can't follow. It follows in Kratholith's wake, but is also hunted by Kratholith as a source of protein.
Chances of Survival
467+7 = 474 / 9 = 52% of Survival, +20 for two Criticals, -15 for a Critical Failure = 57%
(Banked Criticals: Genetic Symbiosis)



900,000 years. One More Step and We Ball Evolve. The dice of course had other ideas...

Because of course the universe can't seem to not kick our planet when it's down, more tectonic shifting has gone on that has caused us no end of significant difficulties.

The mountains have been completely leveled, wiping out Nitrospora completely and turning the land into a boulder-strewn graveyard for thousands of miles. A mega-volcano sprung up where two plates collided, turning the skies dark with disasterous ash. The seas grew cold and then toxic from the fallout, further complicating things. The final insult on this bowl of injury was a planetoid or meteor slamming into the backside of the planet, altering the orbit into what would be today called a 15-month year but at the same time it will (eventually) give us seasons.

Our genetic markers and strengths seem built for this, as our enhanced photosynthesis enables us to take everything we can from what light does get through where most other bacteria are smothered. Our enhanced communications allow for coordination into places of safety from the temper tantrum the Mother Nature of this planet seems to be having, and we're beginning to mass together to form larger structures as a result as it's more power-efficient to group together and link than function as individual bacteria.

The downside to all of this that the magnetic powers we've gained are a double edged sword -- with such rapid changes in the planet's geological makeup our magnetic field compass is having a roller coaster of a ride. If bacteria could vomit, we'd fill an ocean. Or at least the river of watery glue... which was buried by the geological upheaval and sealed away if not simply destroyed in the destruction.

And yet, Kratholith endures through this extinction event while Baldoro is crushed. Ferroflem has adapted to consume the pure iron it used to cover when Kratholith passed by, and the two are now in a stronger symbiosis. Kratholith exposes the iron and makes it viable to consume and Ferroflem devours it, slowing down as it does so and giving you a source of food. They may in fact merge to form a super-bug shortly.

The plan was to evolve as much as possible to outrun everything else, using another source of the rotten peanut butter sludge. Unfortunately, there isn't one. The worse news is that the current climate upheval wouldn't allow it to exist in the current environment, so there won't be one to be even found in the future. This means we have to use some other form of energy to change ourselves over time, and with much of the bacteria of the world dying off in this event, there's only one source we have: us.

Our enhanced photosynthesis allows us to survive through this in the end, though it does not come without its cost. Instead of evolving for advantage, we evolve just to survive.

Our massive stores of energy have slowly over time been worn down; we're able to power through this but at an expense of our energy reserves. We do not lose our enhanced electric "powers", but our stamina is no longer superhuman. In order to conserve energy, we have both lost our heat emitters at the ends of our cell, and lost four of our six legs (both middle ones, one sticky and one pushy). Finally, in order to retrieve all food possible, our crystalline defense has fallen sharply in favor of an acidic "skin" of hungry proteins covering it which corrodes any biological matter that we come into contact with; we have no bacterial predators due to the extinctions so we don't need a crystal shell.

We're now a larger organism, visible to the naked eye due to conserving energy by banding together. We've become a slimy amoeba the size of a thumbnail with our nucleus plainly visible in the center (as are our electric structures). Gone are the holes for shooting electricity out, replaced by the acidic skin. When we're hit by what sunlight can reach us, the area around us bubbles from acidic chemical reactions. A good spear point would pierce and pop us but fortunately most bacteria perished in the die-off so we have no predators for the moment.

The world will recover from this event, and plants will bloom once more... eventually... but it will take a while.


 
[X} Move to another biome looking for opportunities - Ash Lake
 
[X] Beat the symbiosis of Kratholith and Ferroflem to the punch, finding a bacteria to merge and work with

Mitochondria are, after all, the powerhouse of the cell, and it's thought they originated as separate bacteria that were symbiotically absorbed into eukaryotes billions of years in the past.
 
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