Growing Pains, part II

Poor Embla was just not very happy teen or adult. (And that downward-turned mouth made her look like she was constantly sulking.) She was always at least one step behind Ask, often two or three. She skilled more slowly than he did; she wasn't chosen as heir; she didn't have a significant other; her aspiration was always lower; her job required creativity while his didn't, so when they became adults he got insta-promoted to level six, she got a measly promotion to level two.



They both had the fear of being uneducated, and the want to grow up well. For Ask, who was platinum when growing up, that evened out to low green. Embla only reached gold, so she ended up in the red.

Despite this, the twins were very close - and even though Embla was too busy having a breakdown to notice, Ask did worry about her even as he was falling in love with Fifi.



Well, sort of.

(Notice they took a stab at color coordinating their clothes? Yeah, not exactly a success, but they did try.)



Ask did slow down shortly after that, though, mainly because after the first couple of days, he never rolled any of those easily fulfilled wants for his wife or child. Teach Thor to walk, talk, and go potty? Nope. That frequent knowledge sim want to woohoo in bed? Nope. Talk to or flirt with his two-bolt wife? Nope. He'd maxed all skills except creativity as a teen, and either Embla or Fifi was always writing a novel, since they both needed creativity for their jobs, which meant it was very hard to get his aspiration up. (I'd put Fifi into Music after she topped Medical - this was before Pinstar ruled that only the sim who actually lifted Music could suppress Artist.) For a while, it looked like Embla was going to catch up with him... but then I managed to get him platinum, and it was just a matter of having him meditate between promotions. Embla couldn't afford to do that, since she still had lots of creativity points to earn for her job.



Poor little Thor got the worst features from both parents - Fifi's nose and Ask's mouth.Let's just say it's not a very good combination... He's also a Scorpio, and my first mean Ragnarok. Very mean.


Randomness:



Did you know Goopy offers classes in how to melt in with your surroundings?



Uhh, what? I have no idea what's going on here, but I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that glare...

Growing Pains

Have you ever had a dream that grew so strong, it just about took over your whole life? Maybe it wasn't realistic, maybe you knew it was all but impossible, but you couldn't stop thinking about it. If only you could get what you wanted, you felt sure that everything else in your life would work itself out. You'd think about it all the time, you'd lie awake at night trying to figure out a way to make it happen, and if you did manage to fall asleep you'd dream about it. Have you ever felt that way about something?

I did. I wanted to go to college.

Believe me, I know how that sounds. I mean, we're living in a world where nothing grows and the "sun" doesn't shine, where you can't leave your home without risking your life, where the mob demands weekly payments or they'll hurt your loved ones, where nothing works like my parents say it used to. And I obsess about college? Well, I wanted to go. I wanted to learn. I wanted to have intellectually stimulating debates with people outside my own family, I wanted to meet new people, I wanted to learn!



When I finally had to face the fact that it wasn't going to happen, I fell apart. I literally collapsed into a blubbering heap on the floor. Not that anyone really noticed; my brother, my own twin, was too busy drooling over the wife-to-be our mother picked for him.



I really, really don't get what he sees in her. She's completely self-centered, always going on and on about herself. Bragging to my mother about how she purified the water - my mother, who single-handedly restored the school system! What's a shower compared to an education?



And she has no sense of tact, either.



Ask doesn't seem to realize it, though. In his eyes, she's perfect. He was barely of legal age before they were married and she got herself knocked up. And this woman brags about having reinvented contraceptives? She sure didn't use them herself! Doing anything to hold on to my brother, don't think I can't see that.



Having a nephew is kinda neat, though. (If only he'd had anyone else for a mother...) Ask adores him, that's for sure. The kid has red hair, like mom did before hers turned grey, and Ask said with red hair there was only one possible name for the boy - Thor.

He's been listening to too many of Mom's stories.



I don't get how someone as smart as Ask is - well, he's book smart, if not people smart - can take every word Mom says at face value. And he's supposed to be a scientist! Seriously, the world is the way it is because some gods died? That's not a very scientific approach. Especially since none of Mom's stories ever mention a god in charge of things like phones and computers; yet those stopped working when everything else did. Why is that, huh? If that wasn't because of the gods, why should the rest be? I figure it's more likely to have been some kind of tangible disaster that set it all off. Maybe a huge volcano erupted, or one of those "meteor" things crashed into the earth.



Either way, I'm determined to find a way to make them work again. I spend just about every waking minute at our old computer, trying to discover the secret to unlock it. There must be one!



The older Thor gets, the more I like that kid. He doesn't buy into his mother's supposed wonderfulness. Out of the mouths of babes... Or rather, it's what won't come out of his mouth! Ha!



I guess I should say something about my other brother, Tyr, but I can't really think of anything. He's just so easy-going, everybody loves him. The only time he ever complains is when he wants to call one of his many friends, and the phone's not working. Don't worry, kid, I'm on it.



He doesn't always know his own strength, though. He doesn't seem to realize Dad's not as young as he used to be. That, and Tyr's been building up a lot of strength lately. It's hard to picture my kid brother in the military - that little dreamer! - but he says he likes it.

We're all getting older. Dad's an elder now, Tyr is old enough to hold down a part time job, and little Thor is about to start school.



On Thor's birthday, Ask came home from work with this incredibly proud look on his face. He had some news, he said, a birthday present for his son. First he ran us all out of the living room, so he could do something in there in secret, and then we all gathered there when he asked us to. He struck a dramatic pose, said: "Let there be light!" and flipped a switch.



And there was light.

(Show-off.)