Hunger, part II

Ratna is a sweetheart, but not all that bright. He needed five or six more skill points to reach the top of his career, and it took him three weeks to get them.



First thing I had to do when he moved in was empty his inventory. The Portachugs were easy enough to dispose of - just drink them! Uhhh, Ratna, Saga, aren't you taking the whole "becoming one" thing a little too literally? I'm not even sure whether that was a part of your vows, since you held your own little ceremony on the sidewalk.

Two pianos and an aquarium had to remain in his inventory. The fish went up on the walls. Some pointless little items were given to Saga to hold. And the two champagne bottles are on the counters behind them.



Wasn't that a brilliant way to mess up my second Tuesday morning in a row?

They invited lots of people over to socialize with, and of course everybody gathered around the champagne bottles to toast the newlyweds. It's not easy to interact with a sim who's standing frozen to the spot with a champagne glass in their hand...



Especially not when the new bride is also dealing with morning sickness. Stupid of me not to have held off on the try for baby until that night! Oh well, live and learn.



Next mistake: I got Saga a job in Adventure while she was pregnant. I figured she could earn a Jumbok, which could then be sent to college once someone else lifted Adventurer. Sheesh, as if I couldn't have anyone do that at any time. Instead, she literally ran off to work minutes after giving birth to twins.



And poor Ratna, who was supposed to have been at work at 2 pm, had to wait until she returned home - after dark - to go. Fortunately he had built up a solid enough standing with his employer that they didn't mind, especially since he was also in platinum from the birth of the twins.

I had Saga quit her job after that. The twins needed her, Ratna needed more time for skilling, and she'd earned the Jumbok anyway.



They're good parents for the most part, if you're willing to overlook the occasional lecture for dirtied diapers.



By the time the third Tuesday rolled around, I managed not to mess things up for once. All visitors were locked into playing with the toddlers - with the added bonus of getting on their contact lists - while Saga built up relationship points with them one at a time.



One of them took a special interest in Ask, it seems... Hmm, she's high in medical, pretty, and has a recessive hair color to boot... *Takes notes.* If only her name wasn't Felicia. It's gotta be weird to put a sim with your own name through the apocalypse.



"Is nobody going to watch me grow up?"



Ahem. What Ratna doesn't know about won't hurt him. Actually, this was completely unplanned. Ramin here fell out of love with Saga when he caught her cheating back in college, but she still has feelings for him. When he came wandering by the lot, I figured she could clean out her inventory by giving him the odds and ends she was carrying around. Then, before I could react, they decided to flirt with each other. Stupid free will!



Ratna suspects nothing, of course. He's very happy to be married to Saga.



As for those kids, Ratna might think they're gorgeous, and they really don't look too bad from the front. It's the profile, though. They definitely have their father's mouth!



Ask is an Aquarius, with 7 neat points, 3 outgoing, 6 active, 8 playful, and 6 nice. He was always whining about being bored, even after his parents did their best to encourage him to be a little more serious. Embla grew sick of playing red hands with him all the time, and he had to build a lot of snowmen.

He's the heir, mostly because all the best potential spouses for this generation are females. I made him knowledge, since most of them are knowledge or family, and because the careers I want next are all possible knowledge LTWs. Ask's LTW is to be a doctor, but I don't want to wait that long, so he'll have to settle for marrying one.



Embla is a Virgo with 10 neat points, so she's always scrubbing something. She's also the most outgoing sim in the family, with 7 points, so it seems fitting she wants to be a Gamer. Then there are 6 active points, 0 playful like her mother, and 5 nice. She got to be knowledge, too. They both spend all their time skilling, skilling, and skilling some more.

You'll get to meet the baby of the family in the next update... ;)

Hunger

It's strange, how much your dreams can change during a lifetime.



I mean, when you're a kid, all you think about is school and toys and playing cops and robbers. That's normal. Then you become a teenager and you start to figure out what really matters the most to you. Some people then change their minds again in college, or even later on in life. That's normal, too.

I decided early on that all I wanted was a big happy family. A happy marriage, half a dozen kids, who'd grow up to have happy marriages of their own and give me lots of grandchildren to spoil... That was my dream, and I saw no reason why that should ever change. I didn't bother going to college; instead I started working at a restaurant, so that when that big family came along, I'd be able to cook wonderful Sunday dinners where we'd all sit around a big table and talk about anything under the sun.

I still want that. But it's never going to happen. You gotta deal with what's real, and what's real is this world we live in after disaster struck.



Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to complain about what I do have. I'm married to the most wonderful woman ever, and our children are the best. I'm just saying, it's not the way I pictured it. My dreams now are on a much smaller scale - like being able to keep the kids from starving. I run a restaurant, after all, which isn't an easy task with food rationed the way it is these days. But if anyone can find a way around the inability to grow things, and think of some other way to feed everybody, it should be someone who works with food every day, right?



It's just hard to find the time to devote to research when you're trying to take care of twins at the same time. We wanted children right away, Saga and I, but we weren't quite prepared for two of them at the same time. And since she was so involved in trying to find out more about what, exactly, had happened to our world, most of the day-to-day care was left to me at first.



Then she came home one day to find me passed out at the dinner table. (Which is nothing like the dinner table I used to dream of gathering my family around...) She woke me up gently, and asked why I hadn't told her how worn out I was. I didn't know what to say to that. I mean, raising twins and trying to invent a new food source? Of course I was worn out! So I stammered something that probably made no sense at all, but she just wiped jello from my face and told me she'd be staying home to take care of the children from now on, so I could focus on my work. I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn't budge.



And when Saga decides to do something, she does it. She's a great mother.



I just realized I didn't even tell you our children's names! The boy is Ask, and the girl Embla. They were the names of the very first man and woman the gods created, Saga says, so it seemed appropriate, since the world is pretty much starting over from the beginning again. (I don't really know anything about the gods, but I'm sure Saga knows what she's talking about.) They look so much alike, I couldn't even tell them apart when they were babies without peeking into their diapers.



That got easier and easier as they grew, though. For one thing, Ask had almost no hair as a toddler...



... while Embla had more than enough for both of them.



They grew up to be very good friends, although you wouldn't have expected it when they were toddlers fighting over a bottle. They play well together, which is a good thing since there's practically nobody else around for them to play with.



But with childhood came other problems, such as feeding all of us on the same amount of food Saga and I had been eating between the two of us until then. She took to meditating a lot, saying it made her need less food or rest, but there were still days when we all went hungry.



There is nothing worse in the world than having to tell your children there's no food for them to eat.



I think I've done it, though. I think I've figured out a way to grow food hydroponically without exhausting our limited resources! I won't bore you with the details, and I haven't even tested it yet, but the next time I go to work.... Aw, shoot. I have a couple days off until then, and the restaurant owners don't like us to come in on our days off. Waiting is going to be nerve-racking. This has to work!



Saga is pregnant again, you see...



We meditate together, now, so that the kids will have more food to eat. They're about to turn teenagers. Imagine that, my babies are almost teenagers!



Ask is one handsome boy, if I say so myself.



And Embla is just adorable.



Yes! Yes, yes, yes - it worked! We can eat our fill now, and not just jello anymore. If I never taste jello again, it'll be too soon.



And as Saga's dead gods are my witnesses, my children will never go hungry again.

Fimbulwinter, part II

That was Saga's story, the way she wants it told. I'm here to tell you a thing or two about how things really happened.

First of all, it wasn't that cold all the time. When she first moved in, there wasn't even any snow on the ground for two or three days, and she'd go outside without putting on outerwear. She didn't get heavy snow until Friday of that first week - that's when she made her first snowangels and snowmen.



My top three job choices for her would've been adventurer, show biz, or natural science. Each of them would provide some way of keeping all needs up. But education was on the rung just under those three - along with gamer, among others - so when it appeared in the paper the very first day, I grabbed it. She kept looking every day, but nothing better came along. (Not until after she'd already lifted her restriction. Grrr.)



Permaplatness and maxed skills meant that Saga pretty much just had to show her face at work to get promoted - except when there were chance cards. She got promoted to high school teacher on Monday, got a bad chance card on Tuesday and was demoted, immediately returned to work and came back home re-promoted. Then on Thursday she got a good chance card and was promoted, went back to work right away and got a second promotion the same day... So I guess those chance cards cancelled each other out.



That first Monday afternoon she snagged walk-by Marisa Bendett and invited her in for jello, then told this complete stranger all about being in love with two men. Right. But what was worse, I got so caught up in getting them to friends that I neglected Saga's needs, and then had to fix them all quick. Which meant that it wasn't until she'd gone to work Tuesday morning that I realized I'd completely missed her weekly chance at using the phone... Baaaad move. Well, fortunately she had really good relationships with all her important friends (the potential future spouses) when she graduated, so they should last another week.



Ratna wasn't the only one who stopped by. One of her earlier lovers, George, came by one afternoon as well, and the two of them are now very good friends again. Well, Saga is still in love with him, but she wouldn't want me to tell you that.



On Sunday when she got her final promotion to Education Minister, her friend Alicia was waiting for her outside the house. They spent most of the afternoon having a snowball fight. (Then Alicia went inside and broke the sink.)



And later that night, Ratna came by. I thought he was going to ring her doorbell again, and was very happy because I figured I could move him in without having to wait for Tuesday... but no, he was dropping off a stupid statue as a thank you for a date looooong ago. Because a statue is exactly what you need to survive the apocalypse, you know. With the artist restriction still in place, I had to put it in Saga's inventory.



I'm pretty good at keeping my sims from going off to do stupid things, but she got away from me one time. I had lined up eight handwashes in a row, then hit speed three, and wasn't quick enough to slow it down again before she went to make herself some cereal. And of course this happened on her one day off the whole week... She had to spend most of that day meditating. All for a bowl of cereal.



Where did she get these gym clothes? Have I downloaded those? I must have, I guess... I mean, the top is fine, the pants are okay, but... Would you meditate in those boots? And the outfit comes complete with tattoos, which of course disappear when she changes into other clothes.

Her everyday outfit is perfectly fine, but then I hardly ever see it. It's always PJs, work clothes, or gym clothes.



As soon as midnight on Tuesday rolled around, she called Ratna and invited him over. They had a quickie wedding in the snow, in their outerwear, at 1 am, then went inside and celebrated with their first woohoo. (Yes, their first. Her first, his first, and their first.) I heard a lullaby...

Fimbulwinter

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Who expects the end of the world to come during their lifetime? I certainly didn't. I was looking forward to a fulfilling life with a family, a nice house, a good job... I thought the biggest problem I'd face would be who to marry, since I'm in love with two men. Instead...



Instead, I'm dealing with Fimbulwinter. And it isn't the way the stories described it. In the stories, it was a sign that Ragnarok was coming; three winters in a row with no summer in between. Then the final war between the gods and the giants would take place, the world as we knew it would come to an end, but some of the gods would rise again to create a new world. A better world, where crops would grow without having to be planted, where the halls of the gods would be made entirely of gold, and there would be everlasting peace.

If only the stories had been right.



This winter has already lasted much more than three years, and there's no end in sight. It's cold, always so cold and dark. And lonely. Gangsters and thugs roam the streets. People are too frightened to leave their homes most of the time. The phones and computers aren't working. Nothing grows anymore. There are no plants, no grass, no sun, no stars. The sky is always covered by thick, dark clouds. There's barely any food, or water, or electricity. There's only enough schooling to teach the youngest children how to read and write. Who would want to bring children into a world like this? But if we don't, simkind will die out.

Where are the gods? Are they all dead?



If the gods cannot put a stop to this, we must do it ourselves. I don't know how much I can do, but I will try. It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness, as they say.

I'm helping a group of people who are trying to put the schools back together. The children are our future. If we can't bring the world back to what it used to be, perhaps we can help them do it. I started out teaching the youngest children, but was then recruited to help with an attempt to start up a new high school.



It was hard, frustrating work, and sometimes it seemed nothing we did made a difference. And coming home after a long day's hard work to my empty, cold, dark little house... It wasn't easy to keep my spirits up.



Thank the gods - even though they are dead - for Ratna. Sometimes at night he would stop by just to see how I was doing. He could never stay very long, because he's struggling, too. (He's trying to find ways to conserve food better, because the current rations are taking a hard toll on everybody. It's not easy to do a good job when you're always hungry.) But even a quick visit cheers me up more than I can say. To know that somebody cares makes all the difference in the world.



At other times, I resort to childish pleasures like playing in the snow. Since the snow is apparently here to stay, there's no use complaining about it. You make the best of your situation.

And okay, yes, it's fun.



There was a strange creature that showed up outside my house one night. It spent a lot of time near my snowmen, and I could swear it even spoke to them about my job! I must've been hallucinating. I've heard about sims feeling so lonely, they invent imaginary friends to talk to. I never expected it to happen to me. But then, I never expected Ragnarok to happen to me, either.



It just felt so real when I touched it. I could have sworn it was really there...



We did it! We did it, we did it, we did it! The high school is up and running, and we've reestablished contact with my old college! They say they're willing to accept any promising students we send them - but they can't guarantee a safe journey. I guess someone will have to deal with that problem here at the home front. But the schools are back!



There is hope for the future, after all. My children will get a good education, and if Ratna's plans succeed, they will be able to eat their fill. With those advantages, perhaps they can find ways to make things grow again, bring back clean water, clear the streets of criminals, give us back phones and computers and decent houses... Maybe, just maybe, they can even put a stop to this endless winter. It would be nice to see the sun again.

If there's a way, we will find it.