On December 27, at long last, we completed the challenge. By now, the den is mostly back to normal. But the real question is, out of 107 moms and 156 cubs, who are we keeping?

More lions, more problems; but as a casual player, it’s my prerogative to keep random neat lions for fun. We’ve winnowed it down to 3 moms and 4 cubs. 

Moms: (3)

• cryptbloom (albino): The eldest, and our first albino mom. A leader, a visionary, and a L20 hunter. Of course we’re keeping her. She’s enjoying a well-deserved rest at our dwarf fortress.
• brown sugar ginger boba (eggshell): Also chilling at the dwarf fortress. Somehow I found her more appealing than all our blurples. It’s rare for me to like a natural design, so I rolled with it.
• mad world (eggshell) [maybe]: I originally kept her for heir breeding since she has good marks (white merle, cimm merle x2, slot 10 hexaplex spangles). But now we have a potential heir (cimm zebra + scoundrel pelage, and we’re planning slot 10 to be rose gold spangles instead) so we don’t actually need her. Maybe keep her long enough to breed to casino night zone for fun?

Cubs: (4)

• spicy soup for you (mom: dungeon dice): Snowpard base, jelly + haliotis marks, 664 starting stats…couldn’t ask for more. She’ll be successor to starshine oreo in the Empire of Steel.
• suckerpunch (mom: orbital resonance): Surprise AMP! We crb’d orbital resonance so her heat would line up with the start of the challenge, and this was the result. Hoping for a nice mane mut. (Not a fan of OG claws/teeth, and if she’s a double uterus we get a weird situation of “technically valuable but who even wants an inbred g10+ DU”)
• necrohol of nabudis (mom: murond death city): ehhh we really shouldn’t keep this one. She’s visually redundant of spicy soup + suckerpunch, and not as good as either. But I feel like keeping her anyway. She’s inbred, so no one will keep her if I don’t. New cubsitter?
• john nerevarine (mom: airplane mode (NCL)): Our lucky third albino, and the only albino we got from 85 NCL nests. Rub for luck. She’s a potato, but booting her feels bad. Maybe we’ll keep her for next year’s challenge, as silly as that is.

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Pictured: (1) cryptbloom, albino mom; (2) brown sugar ginger boba; (3) spicy soup for you; and (4) john nerevarine, our third albino cub