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Sputnick Legacy - Gen 1.4 - NLC 3 Challenge
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The late-night burglary left the entire house shook up for the next few weeks. I kept hearing Clover wake up in the night to cry. Maybe she kept seeing the man's dastardly striped shirt and black ski cap whenever she closed her eyes. I know I did. What bothered me the most was how friendly he looked in my mind's eye. Of all the nerve!
Instead of crying about it, Juniper was furious. I think she was especially angry when she discovered that the kitchen rug was missing. Later, she told me that she wished we would have put a security alarm on the door.
She laughed later, though, when I pointed out to her that an alarm on the door wouldn't matter much, since the windows of our shack were hardly secure.
The robbery left Paulette a lot more absent minded than usual, and she increased our run of bad luck by nearly burning the house down. I didn't have the heart to give her a hard time about it, though, since I'd made a lot of mistakes of my own.
"And that's what's been going on with me..." Jesse finished. He and Farr were having a few drinks at the Card Shack, and it had only taken one beer to make Jesse spill his guts. "What can I say?" he added, shrugging helplessly. "When it rains, it pours, I guess."
"Nah, don't look at your life as a weather forecast," Farr advised. "Think of your life as a long road with lots of sharp curves. You never know what's going to come around the bend next. It could be a big garbage dump full of crappy diapers, or it could be a majestic waterfall with naked ladies bathing in the mist. Either way, you've got to keep driving because it's the anticipation that makes things interesting!"
"I guess you have a point," Jesse admitted, a little surprised at the depth of Farr's hidden wisdom. "I've been meaning to ask you...do you remember what planet you came from?"
"Sure I do! I was only three hundred and three years old, but that was plenty old enough to remember my formative years."
"So what was it like? Was everyone on your planet just like you?"
"We were a traveling people," Farr explained, his purple eyes wide. "Nomads of the universe, drifting from one system to the next in search of better wine, women, and song."
"So you were...party animals?"
"Don't make us sound so shallow, Sputters! The Cortho are a people of deep and abundant passions. Look, I'll prove it to you..."
Farr stood up and waved at someone on the other side of the Card Shack. "Thayla! Get your blue butt over here!"
Jesse stood up, startled to see that a female version of Farr was walking over to them.
"What do you want, Farr?" she asked. "I was totally cleaning up at poker!"
"Meet my mate, Jesse - you can call him Sputters, though. Sputters, this is my sister, Thayla."
"Pleased to meet you," Jesse said, ever polite.
"Thayla was just a baby when she came over," Farr explained to him. "Just like you were."
Jesse lifted his eyebrows in interest. How fascinating that she came to this planet as a baby, yet clearly embodied the same appearance and lifestyle as her brother. Was this behavior a part of her genetics, or was it something she had learned by emulation?
"So do you share your brothers fondness for kissing people in public?" He asked.
"Haha, no way!" she exclaimed. "I'd much rather grope them."
And with a wink and a smile, she was heading back to the poker tables.
"Interesting," Jesse murmured.
"Look Sputters, our species are clearly different, but that doesn't mean that I don't admire you. You're following your heart with this legacy thing, with the marriage and the kids, and that's what matters."
"I think I follow my head more than my heart, actually," Jesse admitted.
"Whatever." Farr shrugged. "Who knows, maybe your heart IS in your head. Ever had a MRI?"
Jesse laughed weakly. "That's not what I meant...it's more that sometimes I wonder if I'm doing the right thing with this legacy. Is it wrong that I'm dictating the lives of the next ten generations of my family? And even if I am, how can I even be sure that they'll follow and fulfill the tasks I've set out for them?"
"Well, you could always look into spellwork," Farr said, his voice uncharacteristically serious. "Compulsion spells, in particular. Maybe even curses. I know a few E.T.s with a knack for them, if you're interested. But if you're already in a moral quandary over the tasks then I'm not sure bringing magic into the picture will ease your conscience."
"Magic?" Jesse laughed. "Are you serious?"
Naturally, there was no such thing.
Still, Farr had given Jesse a lot to think about.
One thing was for certain: the Cortho-born E.T. was sharper than Jesse had given him credit for.
Jesse was met with a reassuring sight we he returned home. His daughters working in the garden. It wasn't an assigned chore, but something that they had developed an interest in after watching their parents turn compost and harvest vegetables. Like Thayla, who had adopted her brother's ways, Juniper and Clover were following in their parents footsteps.
Perhaps they would welcome the legacy tasks with open arms?
"Pssst, Juniper, you know what this garden would really be good for?"
"No what?"
Clover looked around quickly to make sure no-one was listening. "It would be a good place to bury that stupid burglar's body, that's what!" she announced, and her sister collapsed into giggles.
Juniper and Clover liked working in the garden, but mostly because it gave them a chance to share jokes and secrets that their parents might not approve of. The house was awfully small, after all!
And until the garden was ready to harvest again, groceries would have to be acquired from the store. They were going through them fast these days. Paulette wasn't sure why, but she was hungry almost all of the time. Especially for pancakes.
"We're both half-aliens, yet we don't look much alike," Clover said, moving her pawn after a quick study of the board. "We must be different halves."
"Except for our eyes," Juniper added.
"What planet was Dad born on, I wonder?" Juniper continued. "Did it have rings, like Simturn? Or a whole bunch of moons?"
"He doesn't remember," Clover said. "So I guess we'll never know."
After overhearing his daughters conversations while playing chess, Jesse knew he had to offer them something in the way of a family history. That was where Jimmy and Talbot came in.
"Poppers, do you like the theater? Do you think the puppet show counts as epic drama?" Clover asked.
At the same time, Juniper rambled at Talbot. "I like school, Grampers. What was it like when you went? Did the have desks in the olden days?"
It was safe to say that Jimmy and Talbot loved being grandparents, even if their visits were far and few between. Jesse hoped it would leave the girls with a strong sense of identity, so that they wouldn't try to create their own identity later by doing something silly, like shaving their skulls or piercing their appendages.
Or by creating a ten-generation legacy...a little voice whispered.
But it was so quiet, Jesse really never heard it.
"No, you can't have a video game system, Juniper," Paulette explained patiently. "We don't even have a television to play video games on, anyway."
"But Mom," Clover said, sitting down for supper. "Video games can be very educational. They have complicated, non-linear narratives that teach..."
"Excuse me, girls!" Paulette said, bolting from her chair. "I think the salad's a little off." And with that, she rushed to the toilet.
"She does that every time we try to bring up video games," Juniper sighed, bringing up another fork-full of chef salad to her mouth.
Paulette wasn't getting sick on purpose, she was just feeling a little off lately. Her boss hadn't really bought that excuse when she made some mistakes fact-checking, though.
Maybe it was for the best. Paulette wouldn't be able to do much work for a while, anyway, as she was most definitely knocked up.
That didn't make the pain of the demotion any easier to bear, though, especially with so many crazy hormones coursing through her.
In contrast, Jesse was definitely back on track with his career. Knowing that he had a little one on the way seemed to improve his job performance.
"Guess what, sweetie? You're going to have a little brother or sister soon!"
Juniper smiled and congratulated her mother, but secretly, both she and Clover wondered what their parents were thinking - the house could barely hold the four of them as it was!
Too late to do anything about it now, because the baby was on it's way.
Paulette gave birth at home alone. It was a lot easier this time around.
She thought it was interesting, though, that she had gone into labor right in front of the legacy scroll. Was this third child destined to be heir?
Her name was Posey, a little girl with her mother's brown hair and skin, and her daddy's eyes.
Her arrival seemed to put Jesse on a lucky streak at work.
But he knew he was really moving up in the world when the girl from the bowling alley kept calling him up to congratulate him. Who would have thought that being a high school teacher could make a person popular?
Perhaps the bowling alley girl just wanted a chance to try out the bookcase that had been given to him for his "Best Teacher Award." It was a pretty wondrous thing, the bookcase. It featured books on every subject imaginable, and they were so well written that they made learning about any subject seem easier.
Reading from the bookcase seemed to help Paulette finally advance at work. She wasn't really satisfied, though - she was a knowledge Sim! She should be doing better than this. Birthing out three kids in a week was no excuse!
In time, Jesse discovered that if he read from the special bookcase while wearing a "thinking cap," an invention designed to stimulate new brain cells, he could learn new skills at break-neck speed. At this rate, he might max out all of his skills before he reached the top of the education career ladder.
It made him feel better to know that the task for Generation 9 wouldn't be [i]completely[/i] impossible.
In fact, it would probably only serve to make them wildly wealthy and successful! What would be wrong with that?
Posey's birthday came up in no time at all. Her sisters were excited for her to be more than a drooling, wailing ball of stink.
She had her Father's ears and facial markings.
"Are they already making another one?" Clover wondered aloud, watching her parents closely.
"What's that, sweetie? Mommy and Daddy were just...wrestling," Paulette said, still breathless.
"Posey pooped," Clover announced. She liked being helpful.
Posey was a unique toddler.
Perhaps it was because she was born outdoors, but she was exhibiting signs of having a special bond with wild creatures.
Before anyone even realized it, it was time for the twins to transition into teenagers. In fact, Paulette and Jesse were so busy reading that they almost missed the transition entirely.
Feeling a little guilty, Paulette made a point to go out and watch Clover's metamorphosis. Generation 2 was well on its way to growing up!
Juniper Sputnik
Popularity
5-0-4-10-9
+ vamps/custom hair
- grey hair
LTW: Own 5 top businesses
Clover Sputnik
Family
9-0-4-4-8
+ fitness/undies
- red hair
LTW: Graduate 3 kids from college
***END***
That's it for now. Writing gets kind of lazy mid-way through, but I was in a hurry to get this posted. :)
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And Jesse looks handsome wearing the thinking cap, hehe!
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