CREATURE DISCOMFORTS

by Tony Delgado, Dan Katz, and Mike Selinker

Solution: TRAGEDIENNE

The diagramless is a standard 17x22 crossword, with the extra gimmick that twelve squares contain the word IMP (the tiny demons described in the flavortext). The completed grid is below:

A K A
E R T L
L B A R F A R E A S T
IMP E D E M U G S H O T
A D O B E D E S A R I O
IMP R O V I S E IMP L Y
L E X I C O N B E G
H E D L O X J E D I
T S E F L A I R
W IMP Y C O L O N E L B L IMP
A S L M O F O E E E
O O P IMP A R T IMP H A L
N O R L E N L I D
S K IMP O N E M A P
D A L E K S O N
E D I N A IMP O T
E P S A Z T L E S
G A L W E D
S T IMP Y A H L
A P P T A Z L IMP I N
G IMP O O L E D E F Y
O S T N E D O R E M

Second, based on the description of the "dark organisms" in the Petri dish and the hint in the clue for 55-Down (SIMPLE LIFE), you need to run the simulation Life on the grid, using the black squares as "live" cells and the 17x22 rectangle as a bounded domain (since the flavortext says the organisms don't grow outside the dish). If you iterate the simulation until it stabilizes, you get a group of six (including two black squares), a group of three which oscillates between two positions containing the same letters, and a group of four. The letters in those positions, red in the above grid, spell TRAGEDIENNE, the puzzle's answer.