[Genome] Humble Beginnings

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Hello. Welcome to Genome. Before we can begin, we need to determine something very, very important. Namely, what sense will our… Protagonist, start with? Oh, apologies. Getting ahead of myself there. You see, right now our protagonist is an incredibly simple organism, having no senses of its own. No sight, no hearing, no feeling, absolutely no senses to perceive the outside world. Now, although we *could* attempt to experience an adventure through the, well… Hang on..
Eyes? No, it has no eyes. Also no ears. Or taste or smell or… Hmm.
Nevermind, such an adventure would likely consist of posting the same blank icon up there followed by dot dot dot. And repeating for the duration of the adventure. So to avoid a joke that wore out its presence before it even stepped on stage, please choose a sense. This first sense is very important, and will form a major part of who our protagonist becomes, and what form this adventure takes.

>The sense of sight.
The creature will be able to react to things from farther away than they could if they only had the sense of touch, though they wouldn't know if their rear end was bitten off and eaten, which would be bad. Yay, pros and cons!

Failing that,
>Touch

> Proprioception
"the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement."

The 6th sense, particularly, being able to see ghosts, if they're around, but nothing else.

Chemical senses, 'smell' and 'taste' although in a liquid element they are pretty much the same damn thing and primitive photoreception (which we could call a primitive 'vision' if we don't mind doing a gorss aproximation, although it'll really be of the level of 'bright over there, less bright over here)). it's pretty much the first senses ever and those that make the most 'sense' for a simple organism.

> Proprioception
"the sense of the relative position of neighboring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement."

Proprioception only really amke sense if the body is develloped enough to have 'parts' , or at least limbs. Which nfrom the OP seems not tbe the case, I think we're talking 'unicellular blob' level of complexity here.
(I guess flagelae and tendrils are a thing but still not exactly rpoprioception per se...)

> Nociception. Gotta instil that feeling of pain.

> Nociception. Gotta instil that feeling of pain.

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SpoilerNew Trait Unlocked: Sight L1!
-Sight L1 You can see! Well, you can make out blobs of light/dark, but you can see!

Good choice. Now that our protagonist has eyes, let's see what's going on, shall we?

If it could think in more abstract terms, this might be an expression of Joy. Hang on…

“Wowee, I can SEE. And I just found how out what Sight is! And what thinking is! And what advanced…”

Oh who am I trying to fool. Right now, although it has sight, it still has the brain of a rock. Well, it would if it had a brain, but you get the point. As such, until it starts learning, say, through telling it things to do, it will do absolutely nothing regardless of whatever approaches the little fellow. Speaking of, although floating in place has its merits, it's not terribly productive at all. With that in mind, what is the first thing the little fellow should do?

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SpoilerTraits discovered. Traits obtained in bold.

-Sight L1 You can see! Well, you can make out blobs of light/dark, but you can see!
Traits have to be at least L1 to appear on the list.

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SpoilerThings learned.
-Nothing, so far.

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Spoiler Nociception. Why do you want the very first, and so far only thing the critter would ever have known to be pain.

> Scan your surroundings using your new found sight. Take in everything you can and maybe even try to come up with some names for this new wonderful world and the things in it.

I personally wanted something that was only useful for observing the self, rather than observing the world. Nociception is a similar idea.

woops i misunderstood what we were supposed to be doing!
>Search the environment for some source of nutrition

I imagine we have no form of locomotion for now. Nor do we really have any concept of what would and would not be a threat just yet. Really all it can do is see and learn from what it sees...

>Use your Sight L1 to locate nearby blobs. Collect knowledge through observation.

I personally wanted something that was only useful for observing the self, rather than observing the world. Nociception is a similar idea.

(I'm sorry but I really don't get your logic

At the basics Nociception is mostly just pain receptors saying 'I'm being cut/crushed/burned' to the brain. it's really close to the sense of touch (though it can be also triggered by wome chemical, which is why capsicine for example cause pain because it activate receptor to heat. and why menthol feel fresh. Also protons sensing for acid.) And while the treatement of pain after that depends of many physiological and emotional facto, the sense is still very much tied to exterior simuli..)

I imagine we have no form of locomotion for now. Nor do we really have any concept of what would and would not be a threat just yet. Really all it can do is see and learn from what it sees...

>We could develop some flagellae. Movement and being able to reach thing, yay !