🦠 The History of the Entire World, I Guess

Year ??
In her infancy, Susie is about 1/3 the size of Earth's moon. She is but a molten core made of an undefined material, glowing red except for her very center, which is slightly orange. Her edges are slightly fiery, but she is majorly self-contained. She is totally immobile in space - the stars move past her

Year ??
Susie's core has grown to 1/2 of her full size. Most of this growth has been a slow accumulation, but she's recently experienced a "growth spurt". Her core has heated, burning orange with a large, yellow center. She's more fiery than before and occasionally spits up molten material. She's learned how to move through space and now navigates the void at a meandering pace

Year ??
Susie's core is very near her full size, but is experiencing a period of very slow growth. Though the passage of time, she's grown much faster. She hasn't found a place to orbit that she likes, but she's had a few options to consider. Her temperature has risen slightly, but there is no noticeable difference

🦠Life Emerges 🦠

Year Pre0
Susie creates her first life: an incredibly simply microorganism. This little beastie, called a Ghostis, is little more than a thin cell membrane that contains a gel-like cytosol used to keep the small nucleus moist. Without cytosol, made up of water and some rudimentary proteins and minerals, the nucleus would desiccate, which would cause the cell to die. The nucleus itself is a solid object (as opposed to being full of nucleoplasm), but is still incredibly pliable and squishy with a sponge-like inside. It contains the entire cell's genome in form of chromosomes, which are essentially DNA "recipes" that allow the cell to repair and recreate itself in the form of asexual reproduction via mitosis. DNA also creates proteins that, in reaction to their environment, tell the cell what to do

The Ghostis bubbles up from within Susie's core as she places it atop her molten surface. The cell is pre-adapted to these incredible temperatures and highly sensitive to changes within them. Going just one cell layer above the core will freeze the cytosol, killing the cell, while going one layer below into the core will melt the whole creature. They are unable to move, subject to the currents in the magma. In fact, they can do little more than exist and replicate themselves. They have an incredibly short lifespan, existing for only a minute before dying naturally. Within this time, they must reproduce as many times as possible to ensure their own survival. Of course, the Ghostis doesn't know this. It has no way to process information. It just is

With no predators of any kind, Ghostis thrive atop Susie's surface, budding away into oblivion. Their utopia is only interrupted by running out of space to put new cells after completely covering the core in a thin layer. The introduction of any more Ghostis would push another Ghostis somewhere else on top of the microorganism later where it would perish soon after. Regardless, the cells continued budding for some time, as they had nothing else to do. That is, until one of them was created with a mutation - life's first evolution

🔬 In Greater Depth...

Year ~Pre700
✨ Ghostis > Pointy Ghostis
The mutation, wild and free as it is, consists of a single, bean-shaped organelle in addition to the nucleus. This organelle is sort of a rudimentary double of the nucleus, - sort of a detached parasitic twin - but contains vastly less information within. In fact, the only thing it can communicate to the cell is how to make the cell membrane, but something's off... The membrane generated using the neo-organelle is just a touch too hard, manifesting as a tiny protrusion on the tip of the cell. Don't get the wrong idea. This "spike" is not sharp in any way, but when jammed up against a Ghostis with absolutely nowhere to go, it's enough to puncture their cell membrane, killing them and leaving room for this new Pointy Ghostis to live without fear of freezing or melting.

Due to having added material in their genetic code, Pointies reproduce slightly slower than their regular counterpart. This seems them much more uncommon than the all-encompassing Ghostis, but it's enough for them to gain a small foothold on the core's surface. They begin to grow their numbers one by one, spilling cytosol across the surface in their wake.

Year ~Pre750
✨ Ghostis > Fleshy Ghostis
After fifty years or so of this one-sided battle, another mutation surfaces from the base Ghostis. The Fleshy Ghostis too has a membrane-based mutation, but not in the form of cool spikes. Instead, the membrane is slightly thicker. This sacrifices some of the cell's cytosol and was, in fact, the reason that this mutation took so long to stabilize. In many, many cases of membrane thickening, too much cytosol was compromised and the cell desiccated upon creation, therefore not duplicating its genetic information. After evolving presumably hundreds of times, one of these cells managed to get the ratio just right and survive the growing population of Pointies long enough to spread its genes. Somewhere atop the core, very near where the Pointy Ghostis is making its stand, the Fleshy Ghostis begin to hold their own, being too thick for their rivals to puncture - at least, not without significant pressure. Pressue of that magnitude is much more likely to squeeze a cell on top of the core-wide cell layer rather than popping a Fleshy Ghostis.

This type of Ghostis is the slowest of all three types to reproduce, getting out much fewer clones before they naturally expire. This sees them spread very slowly, overwhelmed by the base Ghostis and the Pointies. With no offense of their own, the Fleshies are still at risk of freezing if they are separated from the core. This makes one of the only places they can survive near their enemies themselves, as the the Pointies create extra space for the Fleshies to move into. The arms race to outcompete each other begins... if only we had more genetic material to work with, that is

Year ~Pre775
✨ Pointy Ghostis > Lancer
After taking some time to think on it, the Pointy line develops a new adaptation: their nucleus and neo-organelle semi-fuse together, leaving them with slightly more genetic material to work with thanks to not having to generate 100% of the neo-organelle in the places where it fuses. They rapidly use this available space to make their spike longer. These organisms, now Lancers, become able to pierce the Fleshy Ghostis' thick skin if they get the angle just right. If not enough pressure is applied via the masses, the Lancer will not succeed in its "hunt".

Evolution now enters a sort of stalemate, as nobody has enough DNA pieces to make anything much different than what we already have. During the hundreds of years that follow, Pointy Ghostis and Lancers propagate with a ferocity while the overwhelming Ghostis population declines and Fleshies struggle to clone themselves faster than they can be destroyed. However, global supremacy isn't all fun and games for those with sharp bits of membrane. As their populations grow, Pointies and Lancers begin to take collateral damage from each other on top of the problems they were already dealing with. More cytosol flows atop Susie's molten core than ever, undecaying. If this process continues indefinitely, there will eventually be so much extra liquid atop the surface that the cells are separated from the core and life as Susie currently knows it will die out

🦠 Dinner Bell 🦠

Year ~Pre900
✨ Ghostis > Suckermouth
In the end, it's the base Ghostis that will first evolve the means to overcome the paralyzing roadblock that approaches them. On the brink of extinction to sharper and thicker-skinned relatives, the little cell utilizes its speck of unallocated genetic material to mutate a vacuole - a small hole in the cell membrane that can be opened and closed. This opening allows this cell, the Suckermouth, to do something that no life on Susie has ever done: eat. Kind of. The abundance of cytosol on the core's surface can be drawn into the cell, where it then holds onto it until it dies under a minute later. It has no way to process this goop into energy, but it can use the meager genetic material within for its own gains, absorbing a microscopic portion of it in the process. This also allows Suckermouths to reproduce just a hair faster than the base Ghostis. The offspring of the Suckermouth will be wild and diverse, but until that happens, they quietly clean up the viscera atop Susie. Eating, budding, eating, budding...

Cytosol is not the only thing on the core's surface. There's also the discarded cell membranes and nuclei of dead cells. Pushed by the currents of the still-living cells themselves, these corpses form mountains that tower over the tiny population. In reality, these structures are lucky to reach an eighth of a centimeter in height, but to a cell, they're massive and daunting. Climbing up their sloped sides will be enough temperature difference to kill

🦠 The Suckermouth Spread 🦠

Year ~Pre900 (later)
✨ Suckermouth > Thickskin Suckermouth
Thanks to its faster reproduction, the Suckermouth sees more mutations much sooner than other types of Ghostis. The Thickskin Suckermouth develops rapidly, being a cell with a broader membrane than the base model, but not as impressive as those of the Fleshy Ghostis. This ensures the Thickskin spends much less time fiddling with the correct ratio of cytosol. Their protection is not as significant as in some other cells, but they have the advantage of time. Up against the Lancers, the Thickskin is likely doomed, but it can hold its own against Pointy Ghostis for the most part. And, more importantly, they reproduce quickly. Numbers alone gives these little cells a leg-up as they join the efforts to consume the excess slime atop the core.

Year ~Pre901
✨ Suckermouth > Pushmouth
Only a year after the Suckermouth's development, the Pushmouth emerges. Using its newly obtained genetic material, this cell crafts itself a tiny new organelle, which contains the information to create a single, short tentacle. It's an incredibly rudimentary system that has terrible range of motion and control, but it's also unlike anything Susie has seen. Not only can the Pushmouth shove away incoming Pointies or Lancers, it can move, heaving itself across Susie's liquid surface. However, moving costs energy. The Pushmouth has no way of making energy other than to hope it finds some lying around in the cytosol it consumes. As such, they are quite stationary unless of emergency

The Pushmouth does not need swift reproduction to cram itself into a niche - not while it does something that no one else can. As such, the clone themselves only at the rate of the base Ghostis. They are quite rare across the battle site where Lancers and Ghostis duke it out, but their population will slowly increase with time.

Year ~Pre901 (later)
✨ Thickskin Suckermouth > Giant Thickskin
A freak mutation sees some Thickskin Suckermouths develop a slight increase in size. This makes them more difficult to puncture and thusly causes a runaway effect where the cells get larger and larger to protect themselves. The Giant Thickskin has learned something of interest: if you're big enough and you have a mouth, you can put small things into that mouth! Life as it stands is not smart enough to actually "hunt" things, but Giants do sometimes accidentally consume other microorganisms despite being totally unable to digest them. These sessile cells take a while to reproduce due to the larger size of their clones, but also have a bigger, slightly more efficient nucleus that somewhat cancels out this effect. Giants see no overall reproduction slowness, budding at the same rate as Suckermouths. This in itself causes a slight problem.

The Pointies and the Lancers have done a ton of work to clean up the core's surface, making a sort of open field atop the magma where new life can spread. However, Giants are giant. They eat up a lot of this space. While they do occasionally consume a cell, freeing up a tiny bit of room, it doesn't account for their comparitivley massive size. They're prevented from getting indefinitely bigger, as reaching towering sizes will see them too far from the core where they'll freeze. However, they still put a new pressure on the ecosystem as it stands

Year ~Pre901 (later x2)
✨ Suckermouth > Separationist
Things are pretty dicey on Susie's molten surface. Perhaps an obvious answer to this is to adapt to the comparatively arctic temperatures one cell layer up. As long as a cell can stay atop the others in Susie's currents, they're totally unreachable by others. The Separationist attempts this mammoth feat, developing a teardrop-shaped organelle that absorbs and retains heat from the layer below. The organelle is much more sensitive to temperature than the rest of the cell itself, so it could very quickly have the opposite effect, rapidly freezing the whole of the cell if it got any further away from the core. Thankfully, aside from clambering atop a Giant Thickskin, this is unlikely in the current climate. The overall cell population is decreasing, not increasing.

Despite having a vacuole, Separationists are almost totally unable to feed. They can't reach the cytosol on the core's surface, so they go hungry as Susie's original cells did, simply existing and reproducing. Because of this, they bud slower than most of Susie's current life, but it doesn't matter much since they're unreachable

Year ~Pre902
✨ Pushmouth > Twister
With the success of the Pushmouth comes the Twister. By increasing the size of their secondary organelle, Twisters gain a slightly longer, larger tentacle with just the tiniest bit more control. Not only can this newfound mutation be used to better turn Lancers and Pointy Ghostises away, but it also allows them to flip around and use their tentacle as a flagellum. This is about the worst, crappiest flagellum you can imagine, but it grants the Twister what looks like neck-break speed compared to the almost entirely sedimentary life of other cells.

With their ability to turn their enemies, Twisters become a huge danger to be around. A cell that could have been fine might now be in grave danger, a Lancer pointed right at them! No one has the ability to process this information and learn from it yet, unfortunately

🦠Advent of Multicellularism 🦠

Year ~Pre902 (later)
✨ Giant Thickskin > Lumbergiant
A Giant Thickskin swallows a Ghostis. This is nothing abnormal - it happens hundreds of thousands of times in a day. However, this time, something is different. The Ghostis has a mutation that makes its nucleus squishier than usual. Parts of it ooze out of the cell's membrane while it's inside the Giant. This free-floating material eventually comes to land on the Giant's nucleus itself, fusing with it. When the cell clones itself, its offspring, the Lumbergiant, is not one cell, but two. The Ghostis' fragmentary DNA creates an internal vacuole not unlike a rudimentary stomach, which benefits its host in that it allows it consume more cytosol and therefore gain more genetic information than its peers. The first multicellular organism is born, paving the way for more complex life

Year ~Pre902 (later)
✨ Pushmouth > Twinswimmer
Thanks to the evolution of the Twister, Pushmouths are in danger of being outcompeted (maybe not right now, but some day). With their smaller, less controllable tentacle, they're sort of a worse version of the Twister. However, they have a trick up their sleeves - the same trick the Lumbergiant used - multicellularism. In order to improve their locomotion and thusly increase their chances of escaping danger twofold, a pair of Pushmouths will press up against each other, using their tentacles to help the both of them escape. While they may not stay together permanently, this collectivley-assured survival mechanism benefits both parties. As such, the Twinswimmer evolves. They're very similar to their ancestors, but with one new feature: one of their frontal sides will be sticky. They can use this like a glue to attach themselves to another Twinswimmer or even Pushmouth, fusing the two cells and ensuring they have a faster rate of locomotion. The Twinswimmer's secondary organelle elongates into a bean-shape to store the information for their adhesive. While not as agile as the Twister, the Twinswimmer is a bit faster and can actually evade Lancers and Pointies

Shenbie Secret / Note to self: The vacuole is depicted on the wrong side of the organism

❌ Year ~Pre903: The Ghostis goes extinct. The planet is now predominantly covered in Fleshy Ghostis, Lancers, and cells from the Suckermouth line. The core is still covered in a layer of cytosol, but the rampant spilling of the genetic material has come to a close. Once the remaining cytosol has been consumed, cells will have to seek the means to evolve in other ways... Pointy Ghostis, Suckermouths, and Pushmouths are now the primary prey of the Lancer

Year ~Pre903 (later)
✨ Fleshy Ghostis > Thikkin
The humble Fleshy Ghostis is pretty safe from attack at this point in history. With all that spare time, they've got the hours to put in to work on that nucleus desiccation issue they were having hundreds of years ago. The cell membrane gradually evolves to become denser and more rubbery until the result is the Thikkin. Their nucleus is surrounded by a thin envelope of cytosol, the rest of it having been directly exchanged for more membrane. They don't have the genetic material to evolve further from here, but they're at least almost invincible as far as other cells are concerned. Lancers will, in 99% of cases, just slide right off their thick hides.

With that all said and done, the Thikkin returns to quietly reproducing, ever so slowly mounting in number. Due to the amount of membrane they have to clone, their budding rate has been badly set back, but they've got nothing but time

Year ~Pre903 (later)
✨ Lumbergiant > Cytophage
Using the extra genetic material it's able to obtain with its new vacuole-friend, the Cytophage develops a tiny, rudimentary organelle with the ability to create enzymes to digest food. In order to keep the nucleus safe, this new material fills the inner vacuole where food is pushed once ingested. The cell now has something new to play with: energy. It now also creates waste after eating that must be expelled through the external vacuole. This will join the detritus clutter on the surface of the core until somebody evolves to clean it up. Despite its new abilities, the Cytophage is still sessile. It depends on magma currents to carry it towards sources of food and thusly is not the most effective forager of the bunch. It's a good thing it doesn't yet need to eat because then it would be rapidly outcompeted by Twinswimmers and Twisters

🦠 Predatory Behaviors 🦠

Year ~Pre904
✨ Twister > Twistnibbler
Lancers are great and all, but they depend on chance and pressure to kill their "prey". With the world as empty as it's been in hundreds of years, kills for them are less and less likely. It's time for a new niche to be taken up: active predator. As they possess the ability to move, Twisters are a prime subject for this new advancement. Enter the Twistnibbler. This cell has developed a small, pointed tooth on the lower side of its vacuole. While very small, this allows it to "bite" others of its choosing, whittling away their walls. Now, a lot of current life has quite thick membranes. Rather than wasting precious time (we only have one minute, remember), the Nibbler chooses to go after thinner-skinned prey such as Pointy Ghostis, Lancers, and Suckermouths, as they're all unable to flee. Suckermouths are the prime target, as they're also unarmed. Behind them follows the less armed Pointies and then the more dangerous Lancers. With plenty of Suckermouths to choose from as well as the retained ability to consume cytosol, the Nibbler thrives

The Nibbler's tooth is the hardest material that cells have generated thus far and takes its own tiny organelle to generate. Despite its small size, it takes substantial time to clone, which is the only thing that keeps the Twistnibbler from sweeping the magma plains, consuming all in its path

Year ~Pre904 (later)
✨ Twinswimmer > Smilecell
To ensure they're the first to arrive when the dinner bell rings, Twinswimmers develop longer and longer flagella. While this does increase their speed, it takes energy to effectively utilize such a tool; energy the Smilecell does not have. They reach an upper ceiling on how lengthy they can become and also continue to operate on the level of life function they're born with. Still, they're the fastest cells on the core and feed ravenously because of it. 

Elongating to support the growth of their tails, their secondary organelle develops into a long "smile", but growing flagella isn't the only thing it can do. In a process akin to digestion, this secondary organelle contains the information on how to break down consumed cytosol inside the cell membrane. Doing this gives the Smilecell additional nutrients that it can use to evolve and reproduce more rapidly. However, cells must be sure not to burn too much of this resource when swimming around lest they start to digest their own cytosol, rapidly killing themselves off. The life of a Smilecell is short and volatile, lasting only about 45 seconds, provided they don't do anything to shorten it further

Note to self: The vacuole is depicted on the wrong side of the organism

Year ~Pre905
✨ Separationist > Shiv Sepa
Compared to other organisms, the Separationist has experienced a period of non-evolution, which is not likely to be beneficial for the continuation of their species. They're fine for now, but the inability to access a food source from atop the surface of other cells has hampered their growth. It also leaves them with comparatively little genetic material to work with, impeding their ability to develop larger, more significant upgrades to their form. As such, they must be incredibly selective in what they evolve. One Sepa, later successful in cloning itself and spreading its genes, mutates a thin layer of membrane that cradles its teardrop organelle. Using this "musculature", it can project the organelle outside its body in a rapid motion to keep the organelle from desiccating. Using this adaptation, they're able to puncture the cell membranes of the organisms they sit atop, causing cytosol to bleed up and towards them where it can be consumed. In this way, Shiv Sepas are akin to the first parasites, putting them back in the arms race

Year ~Pre905 (later)
✨ Cytophage > Featherphage
The Cytophage's skin is thick, so it doesn't necessarily need to develop a form of locomotion in order to escape predators. For now, it's safe enough floating on the whims of the magma. However, it could stand to have a more effective way to scrounge up food and, by extension, the means with which to evolve more rapidly. It develops two, thin flagella near its "head" which are far too thin to heave its bulky body across the ground. Instead, these limbs are each tipped with eight tiny setae - hollow, hair-like bristles. While the flagella wave about, they'll collect cytosol and other edible material in their setae, which can then be inserted into the external vacuole for digestion.

Despite their benefits, these flagella put the Featherphage at an increased risk. Twistnibblers see the extensions on the sessile organism as a nice snack, nipping them off when they come across a Featherphage. However, due to their ability to create energy, the Phages are able to heal and reproduce at an increased rate. Losing a flagella does not necessarily mean the death of an organism, though it does temporarily decrease its production. They continue to reproduce without danger of extinction, beginning to form small, waving "forest" clusters where the current bunches them together in islands

Year ~Pre905 (later)
✨ Twistnibbler > Frilled Twistnibbler
To further its agility and up its speed, the Frilled Twistnibber adds four flagella to its design. These are all aligned to allow the Nibbler to move side-to-side as, with no liquid medium to suspend them, Susie life is currently restricted to a 2D plane for the most part. Despite their slow overall reproduction, Frilled Twistnibblers and the original Twistnibblers are taking the world by storm thanks to the rapid timescale on which they live. Thin-skinned organisms are in grave danger as well as life as a whole if it doesn't up its defensive capabilities to deal with this budding superpredator... one that can't even eat right, mind you. The Nibbler isn't doing this for global supremacy. It's simply completing the simple functions that are built into it: defend, consume, reproduce

❌ Year ~Pre906: Unable to defend itself in any way, the Suckermouth goes extinct, consumed by swarming predators. They did not nearly have the global coverage that Ghostis did to protect them. In their absence, the Pointy Ghostis becomes the most appealing source of cytosol that isn't the floor.

The core is at about only half cell-coverage and fighting to decline further. While portions of the core are vast, empty fields dotted with occasional cell "colonies", other locations are still jam-packed. It's only in the latter where the Lancer and Pointy Ghostis can do any real damage. If they're in the open, they're subject to the magma's currents. The Fleshy Ghostis is the most abundant cell, immediately followed by Lancers. Thikkins have begun to form small "islands" where they pack together for further defense.

🦠 Three's a Crowd 🦠

Year ~906 (later)
✨ Shiv Sepa > Fuzzy Sepa
Using their newfound bounty of stolen cytosol, the Sepas begin to develop setae bristles on their undersides. While this doesn't help them move around, it does help them stop. Whenever it desires, a Fuzzy Sepa can extend its setae, loosely anchoring it to the membrane of the cell below. Typically, this is done during feeding, but it may also be used to hitch a ride on a larger organism for protection or a faster organism for travel purposes

Otherwise of note is the Sepa's reproduction rates. They've skyrocketed now that they're able to consume fresh genetic material. In areas with high cell content, they thrive. If things get too utopia-like, though, they're going to start falling off the top of the cells they rest on. This has already been happening to a degree for years now, but there's a chance of it becoming widespread with Sepas reproducing only to throw their offspring to the wolves below

Year ~Pre906 (later)
✨ Twistnibbler > Huskfeeder
Nature abhors an unfilled niche. Right now, there's a very large, glaring niche waiting for someone to take up residency: the hundreds of millions of dead cells that form looming mountains - the largest structures on the core to date. Instead of spending its time swimming around and looking for vulnerable cells to eat, some Twistnibblers instead become Huskfeeders, chewing on the bases of these gigantic piles. This source of food is less nutritious than cytosol or even a living cell, but it matters little to the Feeder, which currently does not generate its own energy or even digest things properly. They simply fill up on the squishy membranes, absorbing tiny amounts of usable material, and then die themselves. Using this inefficient method, it would take hundreds if not thousands of years for Huskfeeders to fully finish off these mass graves. That is to say, they're pretty set for the moment

The only thing that differentiates Huskfeeders from their Twistnibbler ancestors is the reduction of the vacuole tooth into a series of three itty-bitty interlocking plates armed with the tiniest of hook-like "teeth". This allows them to cut through tougher material such as the spongy nuclei of long-dead cells. It also slows their reproduction down a hair since this is three elements instead of one

Year ~Pre907
✨ Featherphage > Featherchain
Featherphages have already been clumping together into small "forests" adrift on the magma currents, but these do not benefit every organism involved. Phages at the center will get significantly less cytosol - possibly even none at all. Thankfully for them, the ones on the outside are developing new mutations to make this situation actually beneficial. The Featherchain develops small cilia on its sides. This allows them to manipulate their environment, clinging to situations that gain them food and shoving away situations that do not. And, true to their name, the most productive way to clump together across the magma sea is to form an interlocking chain. This way, the collection of Feathers act like a net, scooping up ample cytosol with their bodies that can then be consumed at their leisure. Feathers leave the Phages behind en masse, setting out over the boiling planes to seek their fortune

Year ~908
✨ Fuzzy Sepa > Waiting Sepa + Triocell
One of the best places for somebody with the ability to cling to go is on top of a Smilecell. While the Fuzzy Sepa atop the pair can't reach the cytosol that they shoot around to collect, they can probe into the Smilecells themselves for a bite to eat. They're also basically immune to danger with the Smiles being able to evade most any attacker that comes their way. This tiny conglomerate becomes fairly popular among Sepas, both intentionally and accidentally. However, in order to become a triple-celled organism, the Sepa needs a way to ensure its offspring will be riding atop its own chariot when born. To accomplish this, one Sepa has to come up with a specific mutation that gives them an edge. This takes much longer to develop than their cell-riding capabilities, which begin to occur almost immediately after the Fuzzy Sepa becomes its own species.

One day, it happens. A Sepa develops a wrinkle in its nucleus that grants it a new ability. This Waiting Sepa can postpone its reproductive cycle, something which, thus far, has been a compulsatory process beyond the cell's control. This newfound power puts the Sepa at risk. It could wait too long to clone itself, resulting in death coming first. But, in this first instance, that's not what happens. The Sepa actually syncs up its cycle with that of the Smilecell. When the Smile buds, so does the Sepa, placing its offspring atop its new mount. The little collection is now a Triocell