Seriously Worried, Longday 29

Midquarter, Longday 11th 29 A.G.S.
Claire zan-Avira (54), Joe zan-Avira (52), Daniel zan-Avira (12)

Daniel's Journal
Keep Out
This Means You Alexa

...but Alexa's not here any more, is she? Not that I mind about that. She just sees "Keep Out" as an invitation to snoop. I pity all the other single girls in the Women's Lodge. Bet they get no privacy at all.

I should be in the Men's Lodge now myself. Me and Armando... but he's not here any more either. It's been about a year and a half since we lost him, and I still feel like it was this morning. It's still hard to believe it happened at all. He was always the life of the party, with a wisecrack for every occasion and a barrel full of tall tales about his life in SimCity, before we adopted him.

I still want to know what a "TV" is. He never finished telling me.

We still have his book collection - I sort of inherited them. I've been reading through them all - most of it's about spaceships and aliens and machines that do all sorts of incredible things. I'd love to have stuff like that. I know most of the tribe prefers not to rely on technology for everything, but if you ask me, a laser cannon would be way more useful than our slings and spears if that new dimension invasion everyone's been babbling on about since the time of the dinosaurs ever actually happens.

I think I'd like to work with machines myself. I've talked to Dad about finding me a mentor that knows about that sort of thing, now they've changed the coming of age rites so I need one. He just thinks I'm crazy, though.

Ha. I'm crazy? That's like the ocean calling a raindrop wet. What does he call cuddling an old sack, then?

He's been like that ever since Armando died, and I think he's getting worse. Talking to the flour sacks is definitely a new one. Mum and I are really starting to worry about him.

At least he retained enough of his sanity to remember her birthday was today. She's officially one of our elders now, so she's retired from the fields - and guess who gets to take over the bulk of the farm work? Anyway, Dad got her some sort of thing full of flowers that you make, er, bunches of flowers with. It would have been much easier to just get one bunch of flowers, but hey, he talks to flour now.

It's given me an idea - but I'll have to make sure I don't tell anyone. (Score one for Alexa not being here! If she was, it'd be all over the village by tomorrow noon.) I am going to try building one of those things myself. Not for flowers, mind. I'm going to get myself some gadget parts - don't ask me how - and learn how to make super-machine-things like the ones in those space books. Oh, they'll all call me crazy, but when the tayzi do invade and I save everyone with my giant fighting robot, we'll see who's crazy then!

Question: How do I hide a giant fighting robot while I wait for us to need one?

*****

VT says: I'm experimenting with a new style, trying to figure out what works best for me and also to get inside my Sims' heads a little more. I think I might have a mix of first- and third-person perspectives in the updates.

I'm not sure where Daniel gets his interest in technology from. It's certainly not Nuidya, but I do plan to run with it and see what happens.

Tayzi, by the way, means "Sim from the new dimension" in Maltiazi, my Universal Sim Language. The Nuidya have never trusted the new dimension - to this day, the number 3 is very unlucky over there.

Stranger Things Happen, Bluesky 29

Skyday, Bluesky 24th 29 A.G.S.

Rommy zan-Ace (55), Zareb zan-Ace (6)

One year had passed since the Nuidya tribe had settled in Kulo Seeri; one year, for former chief Rommy zan-Ace, without the responsibilities of leading the tribe. For nearly thirty years, ever since the Great Storm, the Nuidya had looked to Rommy to get them through the difficult times that followed. Now that he had retired, those duties belonged to young Sena Seerijata zan-Avira, in whose honour the new settlement had been named.

Rommy had never seen himself as a leader before the Great Storm. He had always been the quiet, bookish type, preferring to keep to himself rather than socialising and chasing girls like his brothers had. Remy, his twin, used to call him... what was that funny city word he used to use? A dirk, or a dark, something like that. But the storm had changed all that, forcing the survivors - all seven of them -  to take on new responsibilities. Still, that was twenty-nine years ago. A new generation was growing up, and Rommy could enjoy his retirement... and there was one aspect of his new life in Kulo Seeri that he was particularly enjoying.

She had arrived at the village gates late last spring, saying she "wanted to meet her new neighbours", as if this was a suburban neighbourhood in SimNation and they had just moved in next door. She introduced herself as Jill Taylor, and spoke of strange, mystical things, great power and how to use it for good. Rommy's niece Soleil had even begun to learn some of these skills from the elderly woman, and more recently, so had Rommy himself.

He had to admit, he did look quite good in the hat and coat.

Mostly, though, he wore the fancy outfit to impress Jill. It was almost as if he was under a spell himself. Neither of them were young any more, but he was beginning to feel like a lovesick teenager again. The more they saw of each other, the stronger the feeling became, and over the next year, the sense of loss that had been with him since his ex-wife Manewa left began to fade.

Rommy now spent every spare moment studying, as he had done in his younger years - this time, though, knowledge itself was only half the motivation. This time, he mostly wanted to show off in front of a woman. Remy would have been proud.

Zareb, Rommy's young alien son, was equally fascinated by the newcomer. Whenever she visited, he would rush to meet her and immediately let loose a stream of questions ranging from "how do you make the brush fly?" to "where can I get one of those hats?"

She seemed to have infinite patience with the small child, although she couldn't always explain things in a way his six-year-old mind could easily grasp.

It was easily the most excited Rommy had ever seen his son, too - mostly Zareb, the only child in the village, was alone with his toys and books. Maybe he would develop similar powers when he grew older. Stranger things have happened, after all - Rommy still remembered his parents howling at the moon.

He had known what he needed to do for a long time, but was only just beginning to gather the courage to put his plans into action.

On Jill's next visit, the twenty-fourth of Bluesky by the new calendar, Rommy invited her to his home for the evening. Nothing unusual about that, he thought, she was around often enough. Nothing unusual about the visit, either, at least as far as there can be nothing unusual about a witch, a warlock and a half-alien child sharing sandwiches. As she was about to leave, however, Rommy prepared to take things to the next level.

"Wait - before you go, there's something I need to ask you."

(Zareb crouched in the vegetable patch behind them, under the pretence of pulling weeds)

As Jill turned around, Rommy made his move - city-style, with a ring and everything.

"I know this is a little sudden, but... but I love you, and I want us to be together... will you marry me?"

The words came out much more easily than they had thirty years earlier, when he asked Manewa the same question. There was a greater fear of rejection this time, but he couldn't put it off any longer. Trying to keep calm, he waited for the answer.

"Rommy, you are crazy..."

Oh, no... is there a rock I can go crawl under?

"But you are the sweetest crazy man I ever met. Of course I will."

Rommy leapt up to embrace his new fiancée.

Did that tomato plant just say "eww"?

*****

VT says: I actually wasn't planning on having any NPCs in the hood at all. I just forgot to tell the Visitor Controller to block them, and when Jill showed up, I thought I might as well have a couple of my Sims learn a little magic... and I certainly wasn't planning on her having two bolts of chemistry with Rommy, but what can I say? I'm a hopeless romantic, and (IMO) they are the cutest elder couple I have ever seen in four and a half years of playing the Nuidya.