#all 8 of us in the house are adults but 2 are elderly.

[transmasc-rose]

Man. Fever is gone for me and the Horrible Aches are too, but the coongestion and watery eyes are still here, and I can Feel the illness settling in my lungs and have a worse cough. There are 8 people in this house, and at least 5 + a friend have gotten covid from this bout, with 2 more in the household currently at a maybe (neither have taken a test).

At least I've gotten a full nights rest this time. My sleep is still broken, but this is the first time since Sunday I've slept for more than 3 hours at a time.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Bernie Sanders: America Must Confront Its Long COVID Crisis - Published Aug 15, 2024

As the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP Committee), I have heard from Americans of all ages about their struggles with Long COVID and the challenges they face are absolutely heartbreaking.

In America today, far too many patients suffering from Long COVID have struggled to get their symptoms taken seriously. Far too many doctors and medical professionals have either dismissed or misdiagnosed those who have contracted Long COVID. Far too many people with Long COVID have found themselves stuck at home, unable to socialize, unable to work, unable to spend quality time with their families, unable to get out of bed and desperate for help.

That is unacceptable and that has got to change.

Long COVID is real. It is negatively impacting tens of millions of people throughout the United States and the world. We can no longer ignore it or sweep it under the rug.

Earlier this year, I chaired a hearing on the Long COVID crisis. It made me more determined than ever to address this ongoing public health emergency. This is what we heard:

A former athlete from Los Angeles told us that her chronic Long COVID symptoms of insomnia, brain fog, confusion, sleep apnea, heart palpitations, fever and severe migraines prevent her from socializing with friends and leaving her house on most days. Adding insult to injury, her initial symptoms of blood clots, mini strokes, brain swelling, seizures, severe shortness of breath, and numbness in her face, hands, and legs were brushed off by her doctors as just a case of anxiety.

A human resources director at a community college in Southeastern Virginia told us that Long COVID forced her to leave the job she loved three years ago and that she continues to experience extreme fatigue, chronic pain, headaches, and dizziness. These debilitating symptoms have made it difficult for her to just get out of bed and she is no longer able to lead an active life with her children.

A mother in rural Virginia told us that before her 16-year old daughter came down with Long COVID she received straight A’s and was an active member of the school’s marching band. Today, she struggles with extreme fatigue, low blood pressure, an increased heart rate, severe joint pain, nausea, vomiting, a severe inability to concentrate, and depression. Her daughter is now isolated, struggles to do her schoolwork and is slowly working on her GED from home.

Sadly, they are not alone. In America today, nearly 18 million adults suffer from Long COVID. And, despite what you may have heard, Long COVID does not just impact adults and the elderly. It impacts people from all ages and all backgrounds. In fact, nearly 6 million children in our country have been affected by Long COVID.

Further, recent studies have found that only 8 percent of people who have Long COVID have been able to recover from this debilitating disease after 2 years.

What is deeply concerning to me is that Long COVID can affect anyone who has tested positive for COVID—from those who experienced mild symptoms to those who were severely ill. Furthermore, although you may not have Long COVID after your first COVID infection, each reinfection can substantially increase the risk of developing it.

This escalating danger, particularly for those who have suffered repeated infections, poses a severe threat to public health that demands our immediate and focused attention.

Let’s be clear. The impact of long COVID-19 is not just a health issue. It’s an economic one as well. It’s estimated that as many as 4 million Americans are out of work due to long COVID-19. The annual cost of those lost wages alone is about $170 billion a year.

In my view, the time has come to start treating the Long COVID crisis as the public health emergency that it is.

Read the rest of the article at either link!

[evita-shelby]

They didn't know we were seeds

chapter 25

cw: mentions of death, executions, trauma

@justrainandcoffee @mischievouslittlecreature @call-sign-shark @peakyswritings @hoodeddreams13

Things return to normal after Campbell’s death.

Well, as normal things could ever be in this hell.

Shelby’s men are tasked with cleaning up the mess and Eva doesn’t look away when the men they framed for the Major's murder beg for clemency as they are led to the gallows.

Executions were mandatory things, attendance included children as young as 12 to the elderly carried out in old kitchen chairs because even the townies could barely afford a wheelchair here. Eva stands there pretending she is elsewhere as she has always done as a child.

But it’s hard to when the cries form the once unfeeling peacekeepers remind her the announcement for the Quarter Quell is only a week away now.

Why bother punishing them when he’s already got it planned anyways?

Eva remains as still as a statue and tried to think of anything else as the scene unfolds before her eyes. It isn’t so different than watching the games as a mentor, only this time it’s adults instead of innocent children.

Life appears to return to normal after, so normal the announcement of the quarter quell hits her like a blow to the stomach.

Laurie had been playing with Pancho in his room to keep him from hearing what would happen to his parents because they had known what would come.

“On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes will be reaped from their existing pool of victors.”

Even if she thought she’d resigned herself to her fate, knowing it was exactly what she’d imagined made it all the worse.

Eva doesn’t finish the broadcast, instead she tries her best to turn it off only for the mandatory program to override her controls. She doesn’t give up; she only stops when the screen is unplugged and torn from its place on the wall.

Her aunt grieves with her, begs her to run just like her sons did the moment Jack was able to get them the badges.

Her cousins, Andres and Ignacio, had taken a leap of faith and had only gotten to 13 a week ago, the chaos in 10 had allowed for them to escape with the riot gear uniforms Jack and his mother had gotten their hands on months ago. 8 was putting up a fight, as were the other districts, even the career ones like 3 and 2.

Fire had caught when they bent the rules for Katniss and Peeta, and now it had begun to grow out of Snow’s control.

The Peacekeepers native to 2 had tried to unionize and the officers leading it had been turned to Avoxes, or so Jack had told her on his last visit. Brilliant Chang, a victor from District 1, had mentioned to him a strike where the ringleader was blown to bits on a live broadcast.

Just because the other districts didn’t see it, didn’t mean Snow wasn’t doing his worst to keep his most loyal districts in line. But he didn’t count on the Victors being the network the rebels were using to keep each other connected.

“I need you to take Laurie to the farm when the games begin, promise me you will stay there and not let anyone except Atia inside the house.” Eva steels herself and gives her aunt a last request knowing she will not have time to do so after today “You will do everything she asks you or else you and Laurie will be killed here.”

Her aunt doesn’t hesitate to agree to it. “I will do all you ask of me, what things will 13 need from us?”

Jack does not stop until the television is broken to smithereens.

He couldn’t go back there.

No, he just cannot.

He has a child, a wife, the life the Games denied his twin and his little niece.

“I can’t go back in there.” The strong man who can handle anything life throws at him breaks down in his mother’s arms like a child. “I should’ve taken them and run. I should’ve taken us all to 13 before they killed Gina too.”

He is seventeen again and waking up from the first night terror after the games.

Only this time he doesn’t leave the nightmare; the nightmare is his life.

“It will be alright, sweetheart, I’ll get them to 13. They’ll be plenty of volunteers and your Evie won her games once and she’ll find a way to win them again.” His mother assures him, Brutus had said he’d volunteer when Enobaria broached the topic back when they met up before the announcement. “Beetee says they planned for this, just as Brutus and Baria have.”

Brutus owed all of them this. Baria would volunteer because if anyone gets to kill Brutus it’s her.

They promised to take Eva into the career pack and keep her safe for him, and yet Jack knows they don’t want to die either.

Eva had no one to take her place, Abilene had died years ago of old age under the care of a kindly nurse Eva and her aunt had hired for her. She and Matty would be the only ones in that bowl.

They had an agreement all tributes have with their counterparts: whoever lives will take care of the other’s family.

But he cannot let Eva die, not when she is the only parent Laurie truly has. No one save them and Cecelia have children, someone will surely volunteer for Cece to spare her three kids. Most Victors look out for each other that way, hopefully they won’t fold when the chips are down.

“It has to be me, no one else will die for her and Laurie. It had to be me.”

Even if he has to kill Plutarch’s precious symbol, even if he dies in the process, Eva has to be the one to win.

Fuck the rebellion, fuck Snow and his freak show. If Eva’s not there nothing else matters.

[its-suanneschafer-author]

Continuing my review and summarization of Project 2025, Chapter 10 covers the Department of Agriculture.

1)  “The USDA should recognize what should be self-evident: Agricultural production should first and foremost be focused on efficiently producing safe food by identifying and addressing “concrete threats to public health and safety arising directly from food and agriculture.” NB: While suggesting that American food be safe, Project 2025, the GOP, and the Supreme Court are in the process of gutting safety and environment regulations that would keep food, water, and air clean and safe for all.

2) “One of the important lessons learned during the COVID- 19 pandemic was how critical it is to remove barriers in the food supply chain—not to increase them.” NB: The mass deportation of immigrants will lead to a major barrier in the food supply chain: no one to pick crops.

3) Remove the U.S. from any association with U.N. and other efforts to push sustainable-development schemes connected to food production.

4) In 2020, the Market Facilitation Program was used for $20.5 billion in food purchases and income subsidies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. NB: Some of these subsidies went to farmers who didn’t even own the cattle they claimed produced the milk that had to be discarded when schools and restaurants halted their orders for milk products. A proposed House bill which which allows farmers and ranchers to double- and triple-dip into government programs for compensation for the same loss. The largest and wealthiest farms, the top 10%, got 74% of the subsidies, so small farmers are being cut out of government aid.

5) Move food and nutrition programs such as SNAP, WIC, the National School Lunch Program, Child and Adult Care Food Program, NutritionProgram for the Elderly, etc, to the Dept of Health and Human Services.

6) Reimplement work requirements to receive food stamps and other benefits.

7) Reverse the Biden administration’s increased food stamp benefits and convert to a simple cost-of-living raise every five years.

8) Return the National School Lunch Program benefit to only needy children, no more schools providing free lunches for alls students.

9) Counter scare tactics regarding agricultural biotechnology and adopt policies to remove unnecessary barriers to approvals and the adoption of biotechnology. NB: This means genetically-modified foods

10) Repeal the federal labeling law, while maintaining federal preemption, and stress that voluntary labeling is allowed.

11) Stop proactive burning of forests to avoid forest fires, instead, do “vegetation management” by thinning trees, etc. and increase sales of wood. NB: Remember when Trump said we needed to rake the forests?

12) Repeal dietary guidelines

[seancamerons]

20 Descriptions of childhood preschool shows in the 90s. I posted these on a nostalgic page on fb. See if you remember some of these?

1. A group of animated baby versions of puppets based on a short, like maybe 2 minute musical segment in a film from the 1980s. They sang a lot and never left the room their sitters face never was seen.

2. Reading books with epic theme

3. A city vibe with puppets on a street, a enormous bird a giant shag carpet looking elephant a literal trash man in a bad mood, a little red dude who is super happy, blue dude, purple monster, random cast of humans, who never get recast or leave and we watch grow up and older, random shorts with letters and numbers of the day bc its educational. Been around literally since the '70s at the least.

4. A dude who writes his ordiniary maginative life in a journal with a blue food named dog his overdramatic thespian older sister, his blue neighbor, stuck up jock and mayor's daughter classmates and Principal who hates him and i vaguely remember perminant records mentioned as a scare tactic. Has a crush on his neighbor who has a name of a condiment. Super hero persona in his dreams. Antagonist of main character of series for a bully who has a feline sidekick. Loves burgers and also he stans a band who is named after a variant of vegetable akin to radish used for salads.

5. Babies and a mean 3 year old cousin. A dog, screw driver escapees from a playpen, twins a redhead afraid of every thing, adults who leave their kids unsupervised bc their elderly babysitting grandpa falls asleep and the kids destroy the house and have a vivid imagination.

6. A giant dog, a girl with two names, a series of books, films, and animated shows.

7. An arrdvark with animal friends and a library card to make life easier.

8. A show set in a train station about trains and random people. I believe the woman who Frenchy from grease (1978) was in the cast and ringo from the beatles? I haven't seen it since I was a youngin'.

9. Fruit twins in striped sleepwear.

10. Children singing and dancing to kiddie nursery rhymes because they somehow convince a network to greenlight their project. They had 2 pink and blue mascot friends. I don't recall their names.

11. A limber clown couch potato with a shy doll best friend have some cozy adventures.

12. A spooky show with a spooky opening theme, always starting at a campfire club story.

13. A man who lives in two worlds. The first is a house, and he feeds his fish, switches his attire and footwear, and sings with his friends who live in close proximity. Then he takes a trolly to a creepy castle of puppets. One is nightmare fuel. There's people there sometimes. I believe there was a king.

14. A blue dude who is manifested when kids of the world with rings join forces with their own strengths.

15. Seemingly ordinary teens turned super aided by an anxiety ridden robot friend and a powerful wall dude. They fight big bads and bosses with their secret personas and identity. Sometimes, they join forces like a transformer, and all their powers combine, and they become giant robot thing and defeat said people.

16. Bill Bill Bill at school.

17. A family living on an island and a giant yellow, inverted voiced, weird named frog hybrid creature.

18. Animated ponies from the 80s.

19. A purple dinosaur who loves you and goes from a doll to full sized. He likes pumpernickel bread. He sings songs. He has elementary school friends and dinosaur friends. One of the dinosaur friends' names is an abbreviation for oral sex. 😉.

20. A rraspy voiced woman with puppet friends who happen to be animals, that can sing songs that are like the energizer bunny. annoying children everywhere since the '80s.

[toptenthing]

Top Ten Animated Movies That Delight All Ages 2023

Animated movies have an extraordinary knack for capturing the hearts of people from every generation. From the classic stories that have stood the test of time to the contemporary gems that redefine animation, these films possess a magical quality that transcends age barriers. In this exploration, we embark on a journey through the realm of animated cinema to uncover the top ten films that have earned the affection of audiences spanning all ages. 1. "The Lion King": A Tale of Majesty and Courage  

Top Ten Highest-Grossing Films in History The Lion King "The Lion King" stands tall as a timeless classic that resonates with both the young and the young at heart. The story of Simba's courageous journey to reclaim his rightful place as king is enriched with unforgettable characters like Mufasa, Timon, and Pumbaa. This heartwarming epic blends humor, music, and life lessons in a way that leaves an indelible mark on every generation.   2. "Toy Story": A Technological Triumph of Friendship  

Top Ten Animated Movies That Delight All Ages Toy Story "Toy Story" redefined the animation landscape by introducing the concept of toys having their own lives. With each installment, the franchise grew alongside its audience, weaving themes of friendship, loyalty, and the nostalgia of childhood memories. Through its groundbreaking animation techniques, "Toy Story" has successfully engaged audiences young and old.   3. "Spirited Away": Miyazaki's Enchanting Odyssey  

Top Ten Animated Movies That Delight All Ages Spirited Away Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away" transports us into a mesmerizing world where young Chihiro navigates a realm of spirits and enchantment. The film's depth, creativity, and themes of growth and self-discovery captivate not only children but also adults who find themselves entranced by its magical storytelling.   4. "Finding Nemo": A Journey of Oceanic Discovery  

Top Ten Animated Movies That Delight All Ages Finding Nemo "Finding Nemo" invites us to dive into the wonders of the ocean alongside Marlin and Dory in their quest to find Marlin's lost son, Nemo. This heartening tale of parental love, resilience, and unlikely friendships is brought to life through vibrant animation, making it a beloved choice for families to enjoy together.   5. "Up": A Balloon-Powered Adventure of Emotions  

Top Ten Animated Movies That Delight All Ages Up "Up" tugs at our heartstrings with its poignant storytelling and unique concept. The film takes us on an emotional journey with Carl Fredricksen, an elderly man who embarks on a grand adventure in his flying house. Amidst humor and heartache, "Up" captures the essence of human emotions, captivating audiences of all ages.   6. "Inside Out": Navigating Emotions with Pixar Magic  

Top Ten Animated Movies That Delight All Ages Inside Out "Inside Out" provides a glimpse into the inner workings of our emotions, as personified characters guide us through the complexities of the human mind. This imaginative film appeals to both children and adults by offering insights into the human experience, sparking conversations on feelings and memories.   7. "Zootopia": Breaking Stereotypes in an Animal Metropolis  

Top Ten Animated Movies That Delight All Ages Zootopia "Zootopia" tackles important themes like prejudice and diversity within a city inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. The film's engaging storyline, relatable characters, and social commentary resonate with audiences across generations, making it a thought-provoking choice for family viewing.   8. "Shrek": An Irreverent Fairytale for All Ages  

Top Ten Animated Movies That Delight All Ages Shrek "Shrek" playfully subverts fairy tale conventions while celebrating individuality and embracing imperfections. This clever blend of humor and heart speaks to both children and adults, as it underscores the importance of self-acceptance and challenges traditional notions of happily ever after.   9. "How to Train Your Dragon": A Tale of Friendship and Discovery  

Top Ten Animated Movies That Delight All Ages How to Train Your Dragon "How to Train Your Dragon" takes flight with a heartwarming story of a young Viking named Hiccup and his bond with a dragon named Toothless. Through their adventures, the film explores themes of friendship, understanding, and embracing differences, captivating audiences with its imaginative world-building.   10. "Moana": Empowerment and Exploration of Identity  

Top Ten Animated Movies That Delight All Ages Moana "Moana" embarks on a journey of cultural discovery and self-empowerment as the titular character sets sail to save her island. The film's vibrant animation, catchy music, and strong heroine resonate with viewers of all ages, offering a captivating narrative of courage and determination.  

Top Ten Animated Movies That Delight All Ages 2023

film recommendations, timeless classics, storytelling, cinematic magic In conclusion, these top ten animated movies stand as testaments to the enduring magic of storytelling through animation. Across generations, they've managed to weave narratives that inspire, entertain, and touch the hearts of both young and old. As we revel in their enchantment, we're reminded of the unique ability of animated films to bridge age gaps and leave an indelible mark on our collective cinematic experiences. Read the full article

[sofiadragon]

In order of weirdness for me as a certified American:

7. Ranch isn't... it isn't unlike tzatziki, but it is different. Creamy sauce/dressing but spiced different. I dislike both because I dislike most dairy, so I asked my partner. Ranch is more intense with sour cream as a base, very in your face, while tzatziki is much more mellow with greek yogurt as a base.

4. A garbage disposal is a machine that grinds up food scraps into a slurry to flush down the drain. No house with a septic system should have this, so my rural born self didn't see one until we got a house in town. In areas where they are legal (century old pipes in your town? Water shortage? Probably illegal to have) the waste treatment plants are likely to make fertilizer out of the, uh, "processed solids." Yeah, that sounds polite. So the pureed food scraps help with that. The city I live in now sends out info about the water services once a year reminding people not to put cooking oil, feminine products, or baby whipes down the drain because that disrupts the compost and causes clogs. You can do stupid stuff and clog the sink mostly by trying to put things in while it is off, but the main thing that will annoy your housemates is not cleaning it. Some citrus peel does the job, like from a squeezed lime or grapefruit, but if you don't do it it stinks so bad.

5. The red solo cup thing is a meme. It's a very cheap plastic cup sold in bulk so the solo cup brand just was what half of the house parties used when I was a kid in the 90's. We had paper cups, also, and solo cups come in every color of the rainbow. Red was just popular, so stores that only carried one color of the bulk packs carried red.

8. Lean staffing made this so uncommon, but there used to be one in most grocers when I was a kid. It would be some 15 year old or special needs adult bagging groceries for one lane (usually the one on the far side of the 10 items or less or the one close to the pharmacy if the store had one attached) and it's for mothers with small kids, the elderly, and so on. The USA might suck for supporting the disabled financially, but we have all the ramps and paying customer accommodation you can shake a stick at. Able bodied people in a rush were expected to tip this person a very small amount, usually the change from the bill. This person's other job was collecting carts, but that was 15 minutes out of every 2 hours or so. These days stores have so few employees that this is a luxury thing; the person collecting carts is likely stocking shelves, uloading trucks, or even working the deli or bakery counter. We don't often have a second person who bags groceries outside of luxury places like "Whole Paycheck Foods" stores anymore.

6. Cheerleaders are like gymnastics or dance, and I don't get it. I took dance classes for 13 years. I was in the color guard of my high school band. It seems like just a way to hold the attention of people who don't like football who are attending the game for some social reason.

2. This is just beating traffic. You get to the venue of a big event early and have snacks in the car while you wait. This evolved to bringing a big cooler and a portable grill and making a whole day of it. Everyone there has a shared interest (the game, concert, or whatever that is filling a stadium with 50,000 people,) public transit is an afterthought and 30,000 cars have to be parked, so why not just hang out in the parking lot having a pre-game party?

3. Sororities and Fraternities are just dorm rooms that are also social clubs. Makes perfect sense to me, and they tend to have stricter standards than the university or college. GPA and conduct requirements keep the crazy under a limit, supposedly, though this obviously has some issues with hazing and not every one keeps to their charter.

1. Summer camp is the American self-sufficient individualism at work. Kids at an age that people think they need to break off the last of that separation anxiety get to spend spend several days without their parents. Most I've heard of have the kids go home on the weekends, keeping the kids for 4 or 5 nights max per week. It's expensive, but can be a lot of fun for the kids. Many have religious ties, so you send your kid to a Jewish or Protistant or Catholic camp and part of how they put their activities together is at least tangentially related to those values if not explicitly about that religion.

[wytfut]

Got Danes?? part 1

Just in.....

We have always had Great Danes as long as we have been married. I suspect it has to do with me in the beginning and a “manly” image. We have had all of them neutered but our first, as we don’t breed for them.

After our first one, we just couldn’t even look at another breed. They are so loyal, fairly intelligent, and their size keeps strangers honest.

I do own guns. Not a lot, but my favorites. Patti will not handle a gun, even if her life depended on it. This may sound possibly more “gun” ambitious than the norm, But you need to realize, we live in a rural area not 200 yards from I80 (a main drug trafficking avenue across America)

Great Danes fit the bill, several times for her. People off the interstate, do not wait for me to come home...... so Danes.

Our first one was Thunder (about 1977). We didn’t have kids yet. He was a Merle (gray based with black spots). Being he was our first we had his ears cropped.

Cropping.... is an ugly thing to do to these wonderful dogs. It took us 2 Danes before we quit. Thunder had his done, and when I picked him up, that vet didn’t even clean him up, and pretty much just tossed him out the door at us. All bloody, weeping and gross. I got to admit though once they healed, they were beautiful.

Thunder being raised with no kids initially, was huge. I pumped him full of vitamins. And extremely smart... lots of time to train with no kids early in his life. I can’t prove it, but pumping him full of vitamins as a pup, he was our largest muscular Dane.... he stood over 36 inches at the shoulder, and weighed in at 225 as an adult. He was a monster to see. He could drag me (at 190 pounds) around the yard, and not breath hard.

I’d go outside to get fire wood, and he’d insist on coming along to bring in his piece of wood too. He always insisted on fire wood missions, helping get cut pieces to the truck. Couldn’t get the chainsaw out without him being a pest.

He was an unsung hero too. One warm winter evening, I took the garbage out, and of course he was with me. Our street (in town Waverly) was dark, one street lamp. Thunder stood at the property line, and kept looking down the street. I ignored him, until it was time to go back in.

I turned and he wasn’t there, but trotting down the street to my neighbors front porch.  WTH??

I kept calling him back, to no response. I ended up going down to my neighbors porch where he was... and there was the lady of house laying on the porch. She was elderly, and had taken her garbage out, and had fallen. Thunder had heard her, and came to her aid.... giving her big licks up her face.

Of course I picked her up, got a couple bandages, for scrapes. Thunder came in, also attending to her. She was so grateful, and for ever after loved Thunder. She loved to tell the story of him coming to her aid. Especially reenacting him slurping her face.... i highly suspect before this incident, she probably was terrified of large dogs.

Once we had kids...  There was no way, no stranger could get ever close to them .

There are other cool stories about him. He lived the ripe age for a great Dane of 11. Life expectancy on average for a Dane is 8.

With our 7th one now, if you were to average the ages out, 8 is pretty close to factual.

Second one we got when we moved out to the acreage. Gretchen. She adored Josh (my youngest son). She was a bit moody compared to our previous Male Thunder. But good natured. And she was our last for the cropped ears.

She was a Mantle (almost all black except for white chest and toes).

One of my favorite memories of Gretchen was she loved to pull on Josh’s pointed top of his overcoat. Once she pulled on it, she’d back up fast and hard, with Josh’s feet swinging straight out, as she pulled in circles. Josh would just giggle and giggle all the while.

Shortly afterwards we got Gretchen,  we got Brutus as a freebie, a mixed Dane. He was the size of a tall Labrador.

Gretchen died while we were on vacation in Colorado. Of a twisted bowel. Our house sitters felt horrible. It was a very sad situation when we got home, as we buried her that same day. House sitters (Bill and Michelle Cita) helped bury her, and crying the whole time. “Dogs die Bill, it wasn’t your fault” Gretchen died so suddenly with that twisted bowel, at less than 4 years old.

Twisted bowels are a possibility with Danes, more so than most dogs. Rule of thumb, larger the animal the greater the chance (cows, horses, etc... included) We found this out the hard way.

Brutus, who was still young, took Gretchens death very hard. Went into mourning hard... something we hadn’t seen before. And became completely out of control.

Once we figured it out what was going on, he became another great dog for us. Lived to 8 or 9. He was brown with long haired tail and a black mask. We just had to figure him out.

Next was Norton. Norton was a Merle and Mantle mix. We got him from a very poorly ran “rescue”. Place was a mess, but we just couldn’t leave him there.

Norton was the best attitude Dane we owned. He was afflicted with  every allergy a dog could get. Human dander, cedar trees, beef, corn, you name it he was allergic to it. His paws would turn bright red and swell, his ears would swell up like water balloons. ....  

Vet got him on Prednisone, and all his issues went away for some time. BUT he also put on over 50 pounds.... And which was just plain fat. Weighed in also at 225.

Now with a dog in such dire circumstances of health issues, you’d think he just be mean or give up. That dog didn’t have a mean bone in him. Always polite, and distinguished. Easy to train, and handle. Until he passed, you could always count on him being a good dog, no matter what was up.

We also shortly after got Gertie. We had 2 Danes again. Gertie came from a web site, advertising all sorts of noble quotes and accomplishments. The lady wouldn’t let us come down to the “great Dane farm” and insisted on delivering her. At the time we took her, all seemed very good. Gertie was also a Mantle.

Although Gertie turned out to be a pretty good dog, we suspect she had been abused, and was a “runt” of sorts (around 125 pounds as an adult). She couldn’t stand human feet near her, or brooms, which she snapped at.

She also had some sort of Irritable bowel syndrome. Anytime she’d get all worked up over something, you’d have to be prepared.

Another issue she had, that we found out when she died was that she had a hip issue. To this day we aren’t sure if it was hip dysplasia. While she was alive, she hated walking on any slick surfaces. She’d go into a full roaring panic, and you’d have to drag her across the floor.

When we had her put down, her hips were limited movement by I’d guess at least 50%. When she was alive, you really couldn’t tell, as shed run thru the yard like any other dog and fast.

Gertie also got the “twisted bowel” event. But this time we knew what was going on, and she was saved via emergency surgery.

Gertie made it about 5 - 6 years.

These were some great Great Danes. But there is more.... look for Part 2

[cheri-cheri]

Analysis: Charlie’s Personality

The recent Trajectory stories have given us an insight into Charlie’s nature and nurture, both of which shaped him into the walking contradiction he is today. 

(1) Nature: Pure and Selfless

In Trajectory [23 Years Ago], Baby Charlie offered to do the household chores so that his mother could have time to go out. Sure, he hid the fact that he tripped up a poor boy, but at least he knew that it was wrong and didn't gloat about it openly.

In Trajectory [10 Years Ago], Teenage Charlie defied Mark’s commands to leave the burning house in order to search for potential victims. All he had was a conjecture based on an extra set of utensils in the dining room. Even so, this imperceptible clue was enough to push him to almost giving up his own life.

In Chance Encounter, Adult Charlie specially requested for space in a single room ward for an elderly man.

In Trajectory [8 Years Ago], Patient Charlie bought a game card for Paul, Dr Alan’s son. It’s unusual for therapists to mention their personal lives to patients, so Charlie probably noticed something in Dr Alan’s office or showed genuine interest in his life, resulting in Dr Alan broaching the topic.

In Trajectory [2 Years Ago], Student Charlie wasn’t afraid of receiving flak from the public by associating himself with Dr Elsie, and even shielded her from an antagonistic crowd.

In Impression [Hero in White], the “Monster Doctor” bothered to take note of Xiao Yu’s liking of Hero in White, and attempted to cheer him up with a clumsy drawing of it.

In Chapter 7, Uncle Ji revealed that Young Master Zha had planned to let MC go right from the start.

In Chapter 10, Dr Zha requested to take on the granny’s case, worked overtime to craft a new treatment method, and was willing to shoulder all the medical costs potentially incurred by her family.

TLDR: In any capacity Charlie is in, he’s a sweet and pure bean. The Clown Charlie we’ve come to know and love - it isn’t simply an act.

I realised afterwards that coffee beans are bitter but I’m too lazy to make another edit

(2) Nurture: Narcissism as a Coping Mechanism

As a child, Charlie didn’t have a strong attachment to his family, aside from his mother.

In Trajectory [23 Years Ago], he casually left out his father from his amusement park plans. In Trajectory [8 Years Ago], he described his father as “not a good man”, and his siblings as “unreliable”.

At the age of 6, it’s hinted that Charlie’s mother abandoned him in the amusement park. It’s also hinted in Chapter 10 that she suffered from an illness which brought her immense pain.

At the age of 18, he saw a corpse during his first rescue mission as a volunteer firefighter. He also learnt about Mark’s tragic love story.

At the age of 19, he lost a senior whom he deeply respected.

At the age of 26, he witnessed his mentor leaving the medical profession in disgrace.

At the age of 28, the fiancée he was arranged to marry fled from the engagement ceremony.

Basically, his family wasn't there for him during his maturing years (he even had his finances cut when he was a volunteer firefighter), he saw the fragility of life, and saw the unfairness of society.

On a broader level, he keenly felt just how powerless he was to prevent or change any of these things.

And this sense of powerlessness ended up manifesting itself into medical issues. In Trajectory [8 Years Ago], the counselling report indicated that Charlie suffers from primary insomnia and mood disorders such as anxiety, grief and depression.

To cope with this, Charlie overcompensates by flaunting his perfection in an outlandish manner.

He isn’t obsessed with perfection itself. If that were the case, he’d have demanded perfection from those around him, including MC. Instead, he never makes MC feel unworthy of him, never forces her to move out of her dingy apartment or criticise her for being less than perfect.

He doesn’t thrive on others acknowledging that he’s perfect. If that were the case, Charlie would have lost interest in MC a long time ago. In fact, MC’s flattery in Chapter 7 left him so shocked that he spit out his drink.

Instead, Charlie’s fixation on his perfection is a self-consolation that he isn’t powerless, that he doesn’t have to rely on anyone, and that everything that happens proceeds according to his plan.

This fixation reaches the point of extreme denial whenever his flaws are exposed. A notable instance would be in Daylight and Doubtful Spirits, where he rationalised collapsing on the floor from fatigue with this nonsense:

Charlie: I deliberately slept on the floor. When you’ve finished using all the superior quality sleeping products in the world, you’d realise that a blanket is simply a substandard sleeping tool. It’s only by sticking close to nature and returning back to natural simplicity can you obtain the best quality of sleep. The floor is closest to the ground.

Charlie doesn’t mean any harm when he’s being narcissistic. Also, he genuinely believes in his own perfection, because we get scenes of him behaving like this when no one’s watching:

Charlie: Even though I collapsed on the ground, my posture was still so dashing. Ahhhhh perfection, your name is Charlie.

However, he does have his moments of lucidity, such as in Chance Encounter:

Charlie: What I hate most is watching a life being eroded bit by bit by an unknown illness. As compared to those invisible, inexhaustible illnesses that torment people, I prefer dealing with things that can be seen clearly.

While this could be used to describe what happened to his mother, it could also describe himself.

Instead of dealing with the invisible, inexhaustible emotions eating him up alive, he’d rather bury himself in flamboyant sea silk and pretend that everything’s okay.

And this works for him most of the time, and it has worked so well that even we were fooled for a while that Charlie’s just comic relief.

So what happens when you mix a naturally kind and selfless person with a narcissist? The answer’s in Charlie’s segment of the official PV:

A paradox.

You get Charlie, an insufferable egomaniac who prioritises having more time to perform surgeries than writing dissertations to obtain a title in the hospital.

You get Charlie, a dutiful and revered doctor who whines about a small cut.

The tiny extracts in the screenshot above are from the final stanza of “Mutability”, a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley:

“For, be it joy or sorrow,

The path of its departure still is free:

Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;  

Nought may endure but Mutability.”

To put it simply, the message of this poem is that no matter how you choose to live your life, you will inevitably experience change that is out of your control.

As mentioned above, this is what Charlie struggles with - the reality that he can’t control everything.

The moment he acknowledges this, his shield of narcissism will likely crack and we’d get served a truckload of delectable angst and vulnerability.

To wrap this mess of a post up:

[inwintersolitude]

- November 17th 2022 -

What's your favourite place to get pizza? Oooh, definitely Lou Malnati's... they make the best Chicago deep dish pizza on the planet. But sadly I don't live near any of their restaurants. My favorite pizza place near here is the NY-style pizzeria on the town square.

Did you ever get detention in school? What for? Nope. I was too quiet as a kid to ever get into that much trouble haha.

Do you believe in horoscopes? Not one bit.

When you were growing up, did you share a bedroom with anyone? No.

Have you ever worn a wig? Just once, when I was 8 years old and I dressed up as a little old lady for Halloween. We had a school Halloween costume parade that everyone's families came to, and I remember seeing someone's elderly grandmother there and at the time I felt really bad and embarrassed that I was dressed up in a costume to look like her hahaha. But looking back from an adult perspective I'm sure she thought it was funny/cute.

Do you have any trips coming up? Maybe to Delaware next month or in January.

If you could take lessons/classes for anything, what would you do? Nature photography. We did a nature photography unit in my film photo II class in high school and I loved it. I'd definitely want to do a whole class in that, just with digital photography this time.

When was the last time you had an eye exam? Back in March or April.

Have you ever eaten Indonesian food? Just once. One of the days that my husband and I were exploring London, we stumbled upon an Indonesian festival at the park by Tower Bridge, and decided to try some of the food there.

Do you have any spaces to park a car at your home? Yes, we have a driveway and a 2-car garage.

What accents do you really struggle to understand? I'm terrible at understanding heavy French accents.

Do you have a Bachelor's degree? Yep.

What's the first thing you see when you look to your left? The curtains and the sliding glass door out to the patio and back yard.

Do you have a big sweet tooth? Only occasionally.

Have you ever been mistaken for a celebrity? Nope.

Do you plan to do much or go anywhere for the upcoming weekend? Probably not. My husband is going to be on-call for work so we'll probably just chill at home like we usually do when he has an on-call schedule.

Right now, are you hot, cold or just right? Just right.

What's your regional term for swimwear? I'm Aussie so I call them swimmers :) Swimsuit or bathing suit.

Have you had caffeine today? Yep, I had a matcha latte this morning.

Do you own any textbooks? Are you currently studying from them? Yes but they're all from my college days, 10+ years ago.

What were the last earrings you wore? Where did you get them? I don't remember. I haven't worn earrings in... I don't even remember how long.

Are you waiting for anything right now? I'm waiting for the towels in the washer to be done.

Do you know how to drive a stick-shift/manual transmission car? Yep, I used to own a manual Ford Fiesta. Not for very long, though. I ended up really hating how tiny and cheap it was.

What sort of music have you been listening to lately? Classical.

Where is your crush/lover right now? Make a guess if you don't know. He's upstairs in bed.

When was the last time you had blood taken? I think it was when I was in the ER last May?

Have you ever watched the original Japanese version of Iron Chef? Nope.

Do you hate it when taxis and ride share drivers ask you a lot of questions? Yep.

What scent is your body wash or soap? Sort of a nutty vanilla scent, but it's pretty faint. It's a body wash for sensitive skin so it's not heavily fragranced.

When did you move into the house you currently live in? September 2021.

[alexplayssimsnstuff]

Bella Goth Disappearance FINALLY Solved!

Back in the day, I had originally subscribed to the theory that Bella was abducted by aliens that were set on her by the Caliente’s who then murdered her when she returned, and so I went in the game to do a walkthrough as to how I came to that theory. That’s when I found that I WAS WAYYYY OFF, there is a whole ass rabbit-hole here, and like a total Alice, I fell in it.

And, after 16 years of wondering and imagining different scenarios, I finally found out the truth. Turns out, we were ALL wrong, and the truth has been staring at us in the face the whole time.

Just as a warning, this is VERY dark and bleak and depressing. Bella wasn’t dealt a good hand, guys. What happened to her was all sorts of MESSED up.

Just for clarity, I do base this off of events that happen in the official sims storyline, because while the game is ultimately up to us to live life as we like, go ahead and do whatever with your game, there IS a story being told here, but in a way that doesn’t conflict with our own free will. It’s ingenious, really. This goes with the main Sims games released for PC and Mac. However, the console versions do provide a lot of insight to further details and situations. Specifically the Sims 2 for PSP, and the Sims 3 for the Nintendo DS.

 So, first off, it has been verified what happened to her: In 2014, Twitter held an AMA for the SimGurus just before the release of the Sims 4. Someone asked the following question, and SimGuru Sarah responded.

It was later confirmed that Bella Goth of Lunar Lakes IS the Bella Goth of Pleasantview. She does look like the rest of the ghosts there with pale skin and yellow hair and eyes, and with that in mind, you can see for yourself…

That’s her, alright.

Okay, if she died on Lunar Lakes, there are still questions that need answers:

1.       Did she ever go home?

2.       Does her family know what happened to her?

3.       How did she die on Lunar Lakes?

Well, she died of old age, that can be found out easily enough, but I found the answers to the other two: Kinda and no.

 So, just to recap, I’m gonna review Bella’s life as we know it canonically.

Bella was born to Simis and Jocasta Bachelor of Sunset Valley. She grew up the road from her childhood best friend, and later, husband, Mortimer Goth, with her older brother Michael. She always had a sense of the macabre and dark and was known as “the best dressed girl in town.” Even then she wore a red dress. A more child appropriate red dress, but a red dress. She just came from an average suburban family who had a fascination for the not average. She’s still a child, and not a Goth yet. She still goes by the surname Bachelor.

Twenty-five years later, she shows up in the Sims 1 with her childhood best friend and now husband, Mortimer Goth, and they have moved into their own home, and have a daughter, Cassandra. Her in-laws moved out of their home in Sunset Valley and moved into what would later become the Goth House of the Sims 2 in the beginnings of what would be known as Pleasantview. Unless you got her a job, she was a housewife, and she was known to be athletic, elegant, and friendly towards her neighbors. I remember her often being the first to come and say hello to any new Sims I’d move into the neighborhood. Her brother, Michael, is also in town, however, there is no acknowledgement of them being siblings. A family tree system didn’t really exist in the Sims 1, and I’m sure they didn’t even think to make them siblings back then, but the fact remains that they have no relationship at this point in time. The only reason why it’s known that Cornelia and Gunther Goth are Mortimer’s parents is because it straight up says so in the bio. That and their names are the same, but anyway.

So far, things are simple.

That’s because in the 25 years between the Sims 1 and 2, a series of events occurs that really makes things interesting.

Michael joins the science career track. One can assume the reason why he settled into domestic living years after Bella had done so was because he was at grad school. Because he was graduated from grad school, he gets a jumpstart in the career and climbs the latter a lot faster than Mortimer does.

1.       Scientist Sims contribute an invention into the Sims world. Michael’s invention was cloning technology. He cloned himself, and a test subject: Skip Broke.

         a.       Even though he died before it happened, arrangements were made so Brandi could be the next test subject and the first female subject, and when you start Pleasantview for the first time, she is pregnant with her own clone. The baby is always born a boy.

       b.       Michael’s clones have a 100% rate of being male, genetic identicals to those they were cloned from (Brandi’s just being a boy rather than a girl) and so far, a 100% rate of dying at the same time as the original. They are genetically identical, but wear different clothes.

2.       Michael and Bella don’t really have a relationship in their adult lives because Michael leaves Pleasantview early on while Cassandra is still a child and moves to the city.

3.       Mortimer follows after Michael, and invents the age reversal serum. Bella is the first test subject, and, the day of her abduction, she takes the serum until she reverts back to being a brand-new adult. Probably to allow herself to fit in her red dress as strikingly as she does, I don’t think an elderly woman could pull that off.

4.       Cassandra enters private school.

5.       Around this time, Gunther Goth dies. Bella, Mortimer, and Cassandra move out of their home and in with Cornelia to be with her in her last stages of life.

6.       Michael marries Dina Caliente. It is speculated that, because of the age gap, they only marry for Michael’s money. But it is worth noting that Michael was Dina’s first serious relationship and she didn’t begin to cheat on Michael with Don until years later just before Michael died.

7.       Alexander is born.

8.       Shortly after Alexander’s birth, Cornelia dies at the same time Michael does.

9.       Dina inherits Michael’s estate and moves in with Nina. They then move to Pleasantview.

10.   Don follows them and moves the next day.

11.   Bella goes to introduce herself to her new neighbor, Don. They get along, and Don gets the wrong idea and puts the move on Bella. Bella rejects him. He then runs off to go be with Kaylynn and is not there when Bella is abducted by aliens.

12.   Bella is never seen again, but shortly after her abduction, a UFO crashlands in Strangetown, and reports that Bella is in Strangetown start rolling in. But, spoiler alert, that’s not the real Bella.

Then, after Bella’s abduction and before you start Pleasantview for the first time, the following happens:

1.       Mortimer and Dina hit it off rather fast, and marriage is definitely in the picture when the game first starts.

2.       Cassandra, Mortimer, and Alexander all age up on the same day 2 days after Bella disappears.

3.       Cassandra goes to Don’s house to find out what he knows about what happened to Bella (jack squat since he wasn’t there) and that’s where they meet for the first time. Don tries to seduce her, probably not knowing who she is, and Cassandra, as much as you gotta love the girl, is naïve as all hell and thinks she won the jackpot and falls for Don quickly.

4.       Alexander goes to private school

5.       Mortimer retires

6.       Cassandra gets engaged the VERY day the game starts.

That is an important thing to note because people like to speculate that Don had something to do with Bella’s disappearance because he made the moves on her mother and they were engaged and he didn’t want to jeopardize that by Bella opening her yap. This is NOT the case because Cassandra was still a teenager when Bella vanished. Don may be a hoe, but he isn’t a pedo. Chris Hansen doesn’t need to be called for this one.

Another important thing to point out is that it’s not known if Dina and Nina knew Bella. At least, not well, since it can’t be established if Michael and Bella had a relationship at all. Despite the fact that they were friends when they were younger, Mortimer has no memories of Michael, and neither do Cassandra or Alexander. They never met their uncle.

ALSO, yes Dina and Nina do have alien ancestry. Their father was a result of an alien abduction pregnancy. But he was born human, so they’re not part alien. Which means they didn’t order ANY aliens to go and kidnap anybody. Why would they? They don’t know her. Not even normal alien sims do that, y’all are just racist.

It’s also worth noting that Mortimer is COMPLETELY fine with Bella being gone. He’s not heartbroken and he isn’t desperately trying to find her like the game tries to suggest. He’s strangely cool about it.

Why is Mortimer fine with Bella being gone?

Because they are no longer married and haven’t been since around the time Alexander was born.

And THAT, guys, gals, and nonbinary pals, is the BIGGEST part that y’all need to just remember. If you can only take one thing away from this part, take away the fact that they’re divorced. It’s S U P E R important.

 Now, it is possible to bring Bella back with the Tombstone of Life and Death. She’ll only stick around for a short while because she has a death token that activates when you save the lot, go into Pleasantview, and reload the Goth House. She’ll disappear. Interesting to note that if she’s in the middle of doing something, like talking with a sim or cooking food, she doesn’t disappear completely until she’s done. She does turn see-through and it kinda glitches out…it’s really creepy. Give it a try, you’ll see what I mean. But when she’s done, she’ll disappear, and you’ll get a notification saying she died somewhere else and her spirit has returned to where she was buried.

However, if she dies this way, you cannot resurrect her with the resurrect-o-nomitron. It doesn’t matter who tries it, where they are, or anything. Grim acts like he doesn’t know anything about Bella being dead and even if the Sim COULD resurrect a sim, Bella is not listed.

Since we know Bella is buried in Lunar Lakes, this means she died sometime between the week of her abduction and Cassandra’s wedding where the game starts.

However, while you have Bella in your household, you’ll find she’s brought back with no personality points. She has no memories besides what happened to her children after the first load of Pleasantview. So let’s say that between loading the game and bringing back Bella with the Tombstone, Cassandra gives birth to twin boys. Bella will come back with memories that Cassandra had twins, and she will even know who her grandchildren are. (I use this example because in my most recent Pleasantview playthrough, Cassandra had twin boys named Hendrick and Caspian with Don Lothario.)

Bella will have NO relationship at all whatsoever with Mortimer. You can see before you bring her back on the Goth family tree that they are not married at that point, and Mortimer and Bella start their relationship over as acquaintances. If you let them progress their relationship naturally with no cheats, they actually fight a lot and do not get along at all.

Now, any townie and NPC created before Nightlife will have their turn-on and turn-offs randomized. But it seems to constantly make it so that Bella is never attracted to Mortimer and Mortimer is RARELY attracted to Bella. This is a consistent thing. Interesting to take into consideration.

It’s clear to me, at least, that there were some problems boiling up for some time before Bella vanished.

--they get divorced at around the same time Alexander is born

--they do not get along at all

--Mortimer is completely fine after Bella’s disappearance and isn’t the frantic husband he’s marketed to be at this point in time.

--Mortimer gets into a relationship with Dina Caliente extremely soon after Bella vanishes.

--If Bella does come back and Mortimer is still alive, they naturally do not get along at all.

Which is weird, right? They were always shown to be this desperately in love couple who couldn’t live without eachother. I remember them having a good relationship in the Sims 1.

Also worth noting, Bella is a romance aspiration sim. In the Sims 2, they tend to hoe around a lot. There are a few other adult sims in Pleasantview who are also romance aspiration sims.

1.       Don Lothario (the epitome of the romance aspiration)

2.       Nina Caliente

3.       Daniel Pleasant

4.       Skip Broke was also a romance aspiration sim when he was alive.

What is interesting is that while for the most part, romance aspiration sims like to hoe around, there is one exception to this rule so far: Nina Caliente. Nina Caliente’s only romantically involved with Don Lothario. Unless you have another sim start putting the moves on her, then it’s a whole other story. If it were a thing back then, Nina would have been a soulmate romance aspiration while the others would have been serial romantic aspirations.

Bella COULD have been the same way, but that wouldn’t make any sense with the myriad of problems with her relationship with Mortimer.

So, in conclusion, Bella had an affair. Mortimer found out about it, which caused them to, at the least, separate for a while. Then, Bella became pregnant with Alexander, which would have brought up an important question—who is Alexander’s father? Once Alexander was born, and as he got a little older, it becomes clear that he resembles Cornelia, therefore verifying that Mortimer is indeed his father. This would have caused them to try their relationship again, and Bella would have turned down Don in good faith to Mortimer.

Who did Bella have an affair with?

Don wasn’t in town yet, and they hadn’t met. Neither did she meet the Caliente’s yet. Which leaves two possible contenders for Bella’s secret lover: Daniel Pleasant and Skip Broke.

On one hand, Daniel was Bella’s neighbor. She knew the Pleasants, and was friends with Mary-Sue. Daniel had an affair with Kaylynn going on, so he definitely could have some action on the side with Bella, too. My only reservation on that would be that I couldn’t imagine her doing that to her best friend. But then again, she did have an affair on her husband, so who’s to say what her morals are.

Then, there’s Skip Broke. This one makes the most sense to me, personally. While she wasn’t close with Michael, that doesn’t mean she completely avoided him altogether. She would have heard about Michael’s cloning experiments and could have met Skip that way, or she came to say hello and that was how they met. There is a theory going around that Brandi found out Skip was cheating on her, and that’s why she killed him and took his insurance money.

Maybe I’ll do another thing on that because the Skip Broke incident happens to be another rabbit hole altogether.

 So, we know that Bella had an affair with Mortimer and things weren’t going so well between them at the time of her disappearance. We know that the Calientes and Don are completely innocent, at least as far as her disappearance goes. (And Nina is innocent altogether, she just loves Don and is completely oblivious to the fact that he’s doing her sister and two other women. She is ALSO a victim here, you guys. Give some love to Nina Caliente, she needs it.)

She dies sometime in the week between her abduction and the first time the Goth household is booted up from old age on Lunar Lakes despite the fact that she was a brand new adult again thanks to Mortimer’s reverse age serum.

Then a UFO crashlands in Strangetown and shortly thereafter reports of Bella Goth being in Strangetown start swarming around.

And yes, this Bella is a clone—there are subtle facial similarities, she is not in the family tree at all for the Goth house, but other than that, she’s structured exactly like the Real Bella goes as far as her outfit, her personality, and her aspiration.

(The Wiki says it’s her despite the fact that it’s been verified she’s not, and it also has MANY discrepencies, saying she’s related to the Curious Family and they appear on her family tree, which is incorrect because Strangetown Bella’s family tree is COMPLETELY EMPTY.)

So, clearly, when Bella was abducted, something went wrong. But what?

Well, why would the aliens even abduct her in the first place?

They tend to go after sims who are wealthy, high-skilled, good-looking, popular, anything like that. Bella was ALL of those things. She was the epitome of the perfect sim to the aliens. They practically worshipped her and their queen took her name and appearance. (This is referenced several times, specifically in the Sims 3.)

So, if something were to go wrong, why would the aliens worship her unless she had been being watched for some time before her abduction?

And what went wrong that caused her to lose her memories, her skills, her personality, her youth, everything?

Aliens also do not abduct children, the elderly, and pregnant sims because their experimentation could go drastically wrong.

She wasn’t a child, and reversed her age so she wouldn’t be an elder for quite some time—

So the only thing that’s left is that she was pregnant when she was abducted and that was why things went wrong.

She wouldn’t have known this, and neither would the aliens—it’s possible that the baby was conceived that day, which helped Bella in the case where Don was hitting on her—she wouldn’t go cheating on Mortimer if she were trying to rekindle their relationship and they had made it to woo-hoo that day.

Also worth noting is that there IS another Goth on Lunar Lakes who happens to look exactly like Bella.

Anyone recognize her?

This is Mathilde Goth.

She is the long-lost third child of Mortimer and Bella Goth.

No, they don’t appear on eachother’s family tree, but they wouldn’t if Bella died shortly after giving birth to her and Mathilde was put in the orphanage.

Mathilde looks almost identical to Bella with the exception of her blue eyes. She also has a preference for blue where Bella preferred red.

Mathilde has no idea where her mother came from and the fact that she has a family on Earth who is just as oblivious to her existence as she is to theirs.

 What happens to Cassandra and Alexander after they find out about Bella’s death?

Remember how I said scientist sims end up inventing something?

Cassandra’s invention is time travel. She makes a time machine and the first use is to send Don to the future after her, Dina, Nina, and Kaylynn find out that he was playing all of them. She then goes on to live her life. We don’t know how that looks yet, but she never finds out what happened to her mother and that she has a younger sister.

Alexander is greatly affected by his mother’s death. He has no memories of her being abducted by aliens. Normally toddlers remember things like that so it’s odd that he doesn’t when the rest of his family does. What he does remember is her disappearing, Mortimer being okay with it and getting together with Dina really fast after she vanished, and then finding out that his mother was dead.

Alexander is a child prodigee. He’s a smart kid. So, he would go with any other conclusion someone would go with that limited information: he believed Mortimer killed her.

Well, Cassandra still has her time machine after she uses it to get rid of Don. And as we all know, Alexander’s name shows up in the Sims 3 a few times despite the fact that he doesn’t exist yet. And, according to the Goth family tree, it’s not a family name of an ancestor of his, he is the only Alexander Goth.

Once again, we’re going to reference a console game. This time is the Sims 3 for the Nintendo DS. Alexander actually makes an appearance, and this time, he’s not alone: he’s married to a woman named Cecelia. The family bio says that their gloominess is BECAUSE of Mortimer. Alexander dyed his hair orange. Probably he was trying to bleach it and didn’t know what toner was.  He doesn’t have that great of a relationship with Cecelia, as a matter of fact, she has a better relationship with Don Alto than she does her own husband.

Back in the realm of the PC games, Alexander wrote two books when he went back in time to the continuity of the Sims 3:

Baron Graff Van Gold, which comes with Supernatural,

And then there’s the one that appears in the base game.

Murder in Pleasantview.

To string it altogether, Alexander remembers her being gone, then learning she died. He suspects Mortimer was the one to do it but he never actually talks to his father about it. He doesn’t know anything about the abduction, if anything thinking it a ridiculous rumor. He grows up, gets married, and decides at some point in time to go back in time to try and prevent his mother’s death. So he and his wife go into the time machine and try to go back to when it happened, but instead get sent back wayyyy too far to when his parents are still children. What happens to the time machine? It breaks. He’s stuck in a period of time where Time travel wasn’t a thing and no one really knows how to help him and he sure as hell doesn’t know himself. Effectively, he’s stuck there.

So, he writes A Murder in Pleasantview to tell the story of what he thinks happens to his mother. He doesn’t know it’s really all for nothing, but at the same time, it is because of what ends up happening as a result. A result he probably didn’t even know would happen.

See, A Murder in Pleasantview is a best-seller. It blows up the world of 50 years before his time. Every bookshelf has a copy of this book, standard-load. Sims would have read this, and would be influenced accordingly. They would have made better decisions, not wanting this tragic thing to happen to them.

And yes, it does literally take the world by storm. Better decisions in the past truly make for a better future.

This is where the Sims 4 comes in. It is a different continuity, but it is different because they are aware of what Alexander believes to have happened to Bella. This would be why their personalities are so completely different, why the age gap between Cassandra and Alexander aren’t so extreme, why the Goths are so much more reclusive.

Alexander did something that inadvertently changed the future, eliminating himself and his circumstances entirely. He vanished suddenly, probably in a series of events identical to Back to the Future, where he is then allowed to live his life as a child with his mother in the picture, having no idea what he believed happened to her, nor knowing the truth. He erases his little sister altogether, but he can’t be blamed for that since he didn’t know she even existed.

What happened to his wife? Did she get erased like Alexander did?

No, actually she died. She tried repairing the time machine, failed, and was electrocuted to death as a result. She died young and is buried in the Goth mansion’s graveyard, confusing future generations because no one knows where she comes from because she has the surname Goth but they can’t find her on their family tree.

Lolita Goth was the wife of Alexander Goth.

Yes, it says she’s single, which means one of two things happened:

Either she tried repairing the time machine one last time after Alexander vanished and died,

OR

Like Alexander’s marriage to Cecelia, they didn’t have the best relationship and they ended up getting a divorce, then, possibly with Alexander still around, did the same and died.

She clearly wanted to go back home to her time and wasn’t happy with Alexander for being stuck there.

And it makes sense that she would have been electrocuted with the time machine because there are no other objects in the Goth Mansion that would result in her electrocution.

Which would ALSO explain why the Goths of the Sims 3 can’t figure out who she is. You can’t list a descendent and their wife on your family tree if they don’t exist yet, can you?

 Tragedy is just par for the course in the Goth Family, it matches their dark and dreary macabre air. But Bella’s story is just really extra sad. Imagine trying to repair your failed marriage, going to meet a new neighbor only for him to put the moves on you without invitation, then get abducted by aliens where their experiments go wrong, causing you to lose your memories, your personality, your youth, and then you find out that it went wrong because you’re pregnant, which you didn’t know about that either, and your kidnappers take a tissue sample from you, and then drop you on a strange planet far from home where you have no way to communicate to them that you’re there, but you don’t remember anyone but your children anyway, leaving you to have a baby you didn’t even know existed when you were abducted and live just long enough to name her?

The truth has been staring at us in the face since 2014, but we all missed it. Me included for the longest time. It’s been 16 years since Bella went missing, and we all had theories and ideas, but THIS is the truth, and it’s really. Messed up. Yeah, I found out what happened to Bella, but do I like it? No, not at all. Bella deserved better, and so do her children. Mathilde especially. She grew up in an orphanage never knowing she had a family who would have loved her so very much, only to become a mailcarrier on her home planet. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a mailcarrier, don’t get me wrong.

Dina Caliente is innocent, but seriously? Bye.

Nina Caliente is innocent, and really deserves better.

Don Lothario is innocent, but yet he sucks.

Mortimer Goth used to be my favorite out of the Goth family, yes, even over Bella. But after learning everything about him I have mixed feelings about the guy. I don’t blame him for not trusting Bella, and I don’t blame him for wanting to move on, but jeez, at least show a little genuine emotion, Morty, she was your childhood best friend, and, if nothing else, the mother of your children.

There was no plot to get rid of her and swipe the Goth fortune.

It was just poor timing on the alien’s end, and bad luck altogether.

So, yeah.

That’s what happened to Bella Goth.

[guessimate]

I built a “noble” house worth 89,227$ and gave my first noble family 20,000$. I moved in the other noble family as well, but I’ll talk about them in the next post, as I feel like this one is already long enough.

I decided to roll for the Noble families, because I really need sims to populate the monastery (and nunnery someday, too). I also quite like it that the noble families have slightly more generations in their family trees. That is to signify they care about the family traditions and the lineage is slightly more documented. The family this post is about, the Avesnes, consists of 6 sims: an elderly lady, her 2 adult sons, and their children.

Both of the adults and their teen offspring managed to land jobs this round, and they all started at level 1. I don’t want to divide this family into separate households for now, because the teen son is going off to the monastery anyway… Ignatius and his daughter got jobs in the Law career, while Enrique and his son started their journeys to became Architects (they are supposed to be building the monastery).

~*~

The female elder is a gray-eyed blonde. She’s a Romance sim. Euphrosina is: Unlucky, Adventurous, Star Quality, Vehicle Enthusiast, with Good Sense of Humour. Tinkering is her one true hobby. In terms of personality she’s a Cancer – 4 Sloppy, 0 Shy, 7 Active, 7 Playful, 7 Nice.

Both her sons are red heads, but one of them has green eyes, the other one – dark-blue-eyes. One of them is Pleasure, the other – Fortune.

Ignatius is: a Flirty Loner who Loves the Heat. He’s a Savvy Sculptor, and a Vehicle Enthusiast. His hobby is tinkering [like his mother’s]. In terms of personality he’s a Virgo – 8 Neat, 0 Shy, 9 Active, 0 Serious, 8 Nice.

Enrique is: a Schmoozer, Great Kisser, and a Coward, with Good Sense of Humour, who Can’t stand Art [I guess that’s why he would prefer rather simple forms and not too much art inside, even if he’s to be an architect]. Nature is his one true hobby. In terms of personality he’s an Aquarius – 0 Sloppy, 5 Outgoing, 6 Active, 7 Playful, 7 Nice.

The male teen that is going off to the monastery at the end of the round is a light blue-eyed blonde, with Knowledge aspiration. Jacob is: an Excitable, Handy and Clumsy Vehicle Enthusiast. His one true hobby is Cuisine. He’s a Capricorn – 4 Sloppy, 5 Outgoing, 0 Lazy, 8 Playful, 8 Nice.

The female Popularity teen is a gray-eyed blonde, just like her granny and her sister. Cayetana is: an Irresistible, Ambitious, and Excitable Coward. Arts&Crafts is her one true hobby. She’s a Pisces – 0 Sloppy, 7 Outgoing, 9 Active, 0 Serious, 9 Nice.

Cordula (created as toddler) is: a Rebellious and Brooding Slob. Her one true hobby is Music&Dance. She’s a Leo – 3 Sloppy, 8 Outgoing, 4 Lazy, 5 Playful, 5 Nice.

~*~

Perhaps I didn’t roll perfect traits for them, but I think it makes sense that Euphrosina is unlucky and one of her sons and her granddaughter are Cowards. The granny is also adventurous, so I think it’s natural they would flee, especially during a war, and choose to stay in a faraway land.

Ignatius and Enrique rolled to buy cars, so I might get them a carriage or a horse as a promotion item.

Granny Euphrosina taught Cordula all todd skills and Cayetana taught her sister the Nursery Rhyme. Granny also taught her teen grandchildren to “read” [do homework]. Most of the family members got on well from the beginning.

~*~

Around the weekend – as this is a newly moved-in family – I rolled the ROS. Unfortunately, it was simply a death roll. Ignatius dies, apparently of poison. I’m going to say his organism couldn’t stand the water in the new place. He’s a neat sim, so I think it makes sense he could be very particular about tea and other beverages… or maybe the fish were not fresh enough and he was not used to this diet… and fish are the main source of food here. He also Loved the Heat and it was pretty cold in the ‘hood during winter, so it might have contributed to his illness, too. At least he had 2 daughters from CAS, but I guess this family name will die out, if his brother produces no more male heirs, since the son is starting the monastery.

In the end of the rotation the unhealthy Ignatius went to the monastery for some medical advice, since there was an infirmary. He went there with Jacob who was very eager to see the monastery, as he was a curious boy. Unfortunately, his uncle died, but Jacob decided to stay.

I decided to make a placeholder monk family as well so that it would be easier for me to send funds to it. It’s the Abbot family. Jacob will take over the monastery from this old man when the time comes.

~*~

They ended up with 23,251$, so they earned 3451$ this round, because I got them the chess board for 200$. They also got a treasure [430$] so they’re paying a tax on that.

As it’s a noble family they owe:

5000$ – rent

345$ – tax

86$ – treasure tax

~ 5400$ (rounded down) to the treasury.

So the treasury would have earned 81,050$ total by now, but we are withdrawing and “paying” the ~70,000$ for the monastery and we have to earn the other buildings and stuff I skipped. I was really in a rush to build the monastery. So we’re back at 11,050$, let’s say.

345$ – tithe

100$ burial fee… and I feel like they should probably do some donations to the Church anyway, if one of them is staying at the monastery

~ 400$ to the Church [rounded down].

The Church has 16,500$.

They are left with 17,451$. This family really can’t afford such steep rent fees, but we’ll hope Enrique can get promoted. It’s really all up to him. He also might want to get a male heir, maybe with the other noble family. I imagine he might not even consider Jacob an heir now because he joined the monastery so let’s hope he has another son [born in game this time].

~*~

The monastery lot was worth almost exactly 70,000$. Should anything happen, they have 16,500$ in the Church bank. I will not really be playing this lot, but it will be used when someone is there for a ROS event, like men coming from war with PTSD “insanity”.

I know I rushed the monastery a bit, but I did earn the required money total in the royal treasury, so I think it’s OK. The monastery also has a sort of “charity hospice” attached to it [they would historically have infirmaries]. I think monks would usually be pretty self-sufficient and they would have something like their own mini villages with peasants working for them. I decided to give them just a small garden for now and I’m thinking of letting them do some bee keeping. I know they would for sure have “medicinal” gardens.

I will do my best to earn money for all the other community lots I haven’t built yet, because I didn’t really need them. The next thing I might want to build is a nunnery with a “foundling wheel” (baby window/life cradle), where mothers could put unwanted children.

[fatehbaz]

“These people were responsible for Labrador but they never cared about Labrador, they never took care of Labrador. They thought of Labrador as a place you go to fish in the summertime and otherwise they didn’t think about it at all.” There’s a chapter in the book titled ‘Let them die,’ which Budgell said references a remark allegedly made when the Newfoundland government was given word of the pandemic in Labrador. [...] The government of the day was asked to send help by way of a message out of Sandwich Bay on the last vessel that left to go back to Newfoundland. No help was sent. The man who brought the message to the government was Ralph Parsons, Budgell said, the brother of the manager of the Hudson’s Bay store in Cartwright at that time. “He knew that was excuses and he told a newspaper editor in St. John’s that a man attending that meeting when he asked for help said, ‘Let them die, it’ll save us the trouble of feeding them.’”

Text from: Evan Careen. “New book about Spanish influenza in Labrador sheds light on what happened.” The Telegram. 2 December 2018. [Describing a book by Anne Budgel.]

-------

It first appeared in Newfoundland and Labrador in September 1918 [...]. Death rates were particularly high in the Inuit villages of Okak and Hebron. [...] Unaware of the situation at Hebron, the Harmony's captain continued south to Okak, where he arrived on November 4. Within hours of the ship's departure on November 8, many people in the village began showing signs of illness. Two weeks later, 70 Okak residents were dead and the disease had spread to nearby hunting camps. At Sillutalik (Cutthroat), the flu killed 40 of 45 residents, while 13 of 18 people died at Orlik. Seven-year-old Martha Joshua survived alone for five weeks in Uivaq before a search party from Okak found her in early January. After the influenza killed her entire family, Joshua survived alone by eating hard bread and melting snow for drinking water. By the end of December, the virus had decimated Okak, killing 204 of its 263 residents. It was a nightmarish situation. [...] As the virus disappeared from Labrador in late December and early January, survivors began to bury their dead. Residents at Hebron cut holes in the ice, weighted the bodies with rocks, and placed the dead in the water. At Okak, residents poured petroleum into the ground and made a large fire to thaw the soil. By January 7, all of the dead had been lowered into a mass grave measuring 32 feet long and 8 feet deep.

Survivors then dismantled the community entirely, burning all houses and furniture before moving to Nain, Hopedale, or Hebron. Before the pandemic, Okak was the largest Inuit settlement on Labrador's coast and one of its most prosperous. By January, the influenza had killed every Inuit adult male at Okak and forced the community out of existence.

Former Okak resident Kitora Boas, who was 20 years old in 1918, described a lingering depression that followed the pandemic: “For a long time after there was this sense of decline as far as yearly activities were concerned among the Inuit and in all northern Labrador communities. A sense of let down was in the air for a long time.” (Them Days 11.3 (1986): 49-52).

Photos, captions, and text from: Jenny Higgins. Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Website. 2007.

-------

There are new reports every day. [...] Inuit across Canada’s Arctic fear  COVID-19. We have learned what pandemics can do to communities not  prepared for such events. The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 taught us that. Today’s novel coronavirus is every bit as scary, as it could repeat history. [...]

My late grandfather, Isaac Suarak, was four years old when Spanish Flu hit Okak. Like many survivors, he didn’t talk about the event. Maybe he just didn’t want to.

All told, the Spanish Flu had killed a third of the Inuit in Northern Labrador.  

People seem to assume that isolated Inuit communities will not be affected, compared to people living in  urban settings like Ottawa, Montreal or Toronto (where many Inuit live  now, too). [...] The Nunatsiavut Government has taken precautions by discouraging non-essential travel between Labrador Inuit communities and telling us to avoid social events. [...] For faraway communities throughout Inuit  lands, living in isolation also comes at a cost. Food must be flown in, and prices can be very expensive at the local grocery stores.

I am very concerned for elderly citizens  and people with health issues in Northern Labrador. In a typical Inuk community, unity is strength. Helping others, especially the handicapped  and the elderly, is a daily routine. Since fear of illness, these visits have been reduced drastically to keep our elders safe.

Getting medical assistance is already difficult for isolated communities. Small health clinics have opened in Nain, Hopedale, Makkovik, Postville and Rigolet, but there are no doctors on site. They’re each run by a single nurse and would not be sufficient for isolating someone with the novel coronavirus. For serious illnesses, we have to travel to Happy Valley-Goose Bay by plane, or even further to St. John’s for life-threatening medical conditions. We can only follow protocol and pray that it can be contained to a minimum.

Photo, caption, and text from: Angus Anderson. “Spanish Flu Shook Labrador Inuit For Generations. I’m Not Sure We’re Ready for Covid-19.” Huffington Post. 30 March 2020.

[suestoscribbles]

Founding February, Week 2: Government, Population and Infrastructure

36 questions about my WIP's world, with thanks to @pheita for compiling this list and creating Founding February!

The tremendously long list is below the cut :)

1. Are there non-human sentient species? Describe them.

Legend holds that sentient dragons exist, but no one believes in them.

2. Did the people evolve on this planet or come from elsewhere? Do they still know they come from some different planet/realm?

The people evolved from this planet.

3. What is the relationship between the different species? Are there any myths/legends about where they come from?

The islands of the world exist in a vast ocean. They are clustered together and are surrounded by extreme biodiversity, but the people are bound to the lands. Legends tell of the price for people’s gift of habitable soil is stewardship of the relentlessly growing herds of ungulates. After the collapse, art and literature are still valued, but consolidation of power is viewed fearfully by most, and clandestinely done by few.

4. Where and when did civilization begin? Are there historical records?

Civilization began at the ancient city where the wide fresh river runs from mountain to sea and the plains give way to the foothills. Records of clay tablets baked in fires and carved inscriptions resemble the glyphs still in use today, though not all of the words in the inscriptions continue to bear meaning.

5. What is the total population (of the planet / the country / the city, etc.) How is it made up?

Homesteads are multigenerational and often range from 15-30 people at any time. These tend to be ¼ children and young teens, ¼ young unpartnered adults, ¼ mature adults, and ¼ elderly adults. About 2/5 of people are men, 2/5 women, and 1/5 are other gendered. Towns serve as regional hubs and tend to have 200-300 full time residents. Across all of the islands, the total population of people is not more than 5 million.

6. What is the level of technology (stone age, hi tech)? Is there any forbidden technology?

Technology for producing iron is well known. Wind power is used for simple machines including sail boats. Water wheels are also used where possible. The people are able to manage some refined pyrotechnology, making stoneware pottery, lime kilns, and some frits and glazing. Wood is extremely rare and too precious for most construction, though ships and carts are an exception. Structural basketry woven from river reeds and canes is common for furniture, architecture, and small vehicles like wheelchairs and wheelbarrows. Magic eases the way to accomplishing many things that technology might otherwise. Taboo technology relates most to the consolidation of power. Advanced weaponry beyond that needed for hunting is regarded with extreme revulsion.

7. Is there any formal education? At what age do children start school? And how long?

Formal education is largely absent. Instead, those who wish and have aptitude can learn a trade via an apprenticeship, where they join the trade house at 14 or 15 to live and learn. Mastery of that trade takes 10-15 years. All children learn to read and write basic glyphs, which is necessary in a world where trade is the norm and people often switch homesteads as they form partnerships. All children are taught the hunting language as well, a silent communication with the hands. As children learn to control their magical aptitude, their elders teach them the knowledge they need.

8. Is education available to all or only certain groups? Are different groups of people educated separately?

There aren’t systemic or bias-based barriers to education for the most part, though apprenticeships are granted entirely at the discretion of the trade house elders. As a result, personalities, preferences, and actual biases can be factors. Education is not offered separately based on universal distinctions, as it is almost entirely ad-hoc.

9. Is there a written language? Or more than one? Are most people literate or illiterate?

Nearly everyone is literate to a basic level. The glyphs are used fairly universally and are generally intelligible regardless of dialect of the speaker. Rather than many languages with widely divergent roots, difference in language is mostly as dialects, which are regionally based.

10. What are schools like? What are the different types of school for?

Formal schooling is largely absent. Childhood lasts until 14 or 15 and then youth begins. Play learning is set by a child’s elders and they are also given household tasks to master and complete.

11. What languages to people speak? Or do they speak more than one language? Is there a common language? For trade?

People have their mother dialect, the trade tongue, and then their use dialect, learned if they form a partnership in a different dialectical region or complete an apprenticeship and settle in a different dialectical region.

12. How do people greet each other? What is a gesture of respect (bowing, saluting)?

The words “Well come” and “well met” are included within other phrases in greeting. In interactions, one tilts the head forward and slightly to the right, a sort of bowed head of deference.

13. What is considered a rude gesture?

Spitting at someone’s feet is disrespectful, rude, and confrontational.

14. How do they curse? Gods? Body parts?

Curses relate to the availability of ambient magic.

15. What titles / formalities are used? Are there any in use? When are they used?

Rigid titles are not used in general, as part of a power-seeking taboo. Within groups, like homesteads, trade houses, and so forth, honorifics are used relating to the person’s place within the group’s functional hierarchy.

16. How long has the system of government been in place?

The administration has existed in some form since the early rebuilding following the collapse.

17. Is there a class system? Different levels of citizenship? What is the privilege of each?

Society is fairly egalitarian, with each ‘house’, whether a trade house, homestead, ship, or mine gang selecting a ‘voice’ who is entrusted with pursuing the house’s needs and desires in administrative matters. The voice is held in high esteem, but there are no universal or expected characteristics which are requisite for nomination as voice.

18. Is there a neutral person who leaders got to for guiding? How does this person come into place?

Most matters are dealt with within a house. If there is a conflict between houses, then a third house will often be consulted, an equal rather than a ‘leader’. Guidance tends to be sought from people occupying comparable positions, and this type of consultations builds strong and lasting trust networks.

19. Is there a form of police? Is there a formal army? Who can join? At what age?

No, justice is left to mediation between parties. There is no formal army.

20. How are wrongdoers tried and punished?

Wrongdoers are judged by the trade of mediators, who provide rotating mediators to communities.

21. How does the legal court look like? Does the death penalty exist?

Mediation is done in private but records are kept for 5 years and reviewed by subsequent mediators periodically to ensure their fairness in judgement at the time, and fairness of repercussions afterward.

22. Does the government provide social assistance? In which form? Does it vary from country to country?

Struggling homesteaders are granted guidance and mentorship. New trade houses are given easy access to needed raw materials and favorable initial trade conditions, and so forth. When they are habitually struggling, then their peers may advocate for drastic action such as forced reorganization, though.

23. Is there any centralized healthcare? Free doctors? Public baths? How does the medicine look like? (Magic/herbs/modern chemical medicine)

One of principal foci of the high mages is training for healing. The high mages are supported by the community, and in exchange medical care is freely available. Everyday health, preventative care, palliative care, and reproductive care are often sought from younger or newer health magic apprentices, or within the community from folk knowledge of magic practice.

24. What is the average age at which people die? How old do people can become?

Infant mortality is very low thanks to the high level of preventative care. Once a child lives to young adulthood they can expect to live to their eighties or nineties.

25. Is there public transport? Who uses what typically? How does it look?

There are no beasts of burden and no combustion/steam engines. Carts and sail/row boats are the main long distance transport means, especially for heavy or bulky goods. Foot travel is the standard means of transport, however. Disabled people with mobility issues might use wheelchairs.

26. Are there publicly run communications systems? Postal service? Pigeons? Other ways?

Fast communication between towns is done with pigeons, but this is usually for emergencies. There are postal packets which travel with itinerant crafters as well, which are delivered to the town hearth.

27. Do public parks exist? Can anyone enjoy them?

Aside from the walled compounds of individual homesteads, land is held in common and can be visited and enjoyed by most anyone.

28. Do community centers exist? Who cares for them? What do they offer/do?

Each town has a hearth, a small compound of buildings and shelters where post is received/sent, council/trade meetings are held, judicial matters and mediation are conducted, and other meetings are held.

29. How do they get clean water? Aqueducts? Sewer systems?

Towns are universally established on (at least seasonal) riverbanks to take advantage of the water source as well as to allow for transportation for at least part of the year. Homesteads are only viable if they are able to establish wells, which are aided by water finding magic.

30. Do people trust the government? If not, why? If yes, why? Did it change recently?

People are generally extremely busy with balancing survival and subsistence. The priorities of the administration are viewed very skeptically.

31. Do the majority of people approve of or disapprove of the government?

With such small scale localized government, most people have cautious approval of its administrative decisions and capabilities. Existence for most people is full of small, community interconnections, but changes and innovation are not driving social forces.

32. Does the government spy on its enemies? Its people? Through which measures?

The high mages make use of collectors to capture and retrieve ambient magic from the herds. The collectors serve as eyes and ears for the high mages.

33. What is the monetary system? Are there multiple currencies?

The monetary system is generally based upon bartering and trade. Counters are used, the first vertebra of a mature ungulate. These are only robust enough to survive 5 or so years of use, especially if they change hands many times.

34. Is there widespread trade? What do each of the areas are known for to export? What are the most cherished export/import goods?

There is extensive trade throughout the islands, and a fair amount between them. Interaction between islands is largely driven by craft contact, with craft guilds maintaining rich communication links through teaching exchanges.

35. What are common warfare weapons? Are there any rules of war everyone follows?

Warfare is virtually unknown between people. Common tactics for hunting include game driving, slingshots, and blunt weapons. Projectiles are not used as wood is too rare and precious, though paintings on the walls of the ancient cities show such weapons. Killing other people is one of the strongest taboos, as every person is expected to contribute to the Duty.

36. What was the longest time of peace? What caused it?

Peace has been enjoyed for generations, and war is as legendary as dragons. Everyday existence is composed of day to day struggle for subsistence and the Duty.

[flowercrown-bard]

A new us will begin (12/ ?)

AO3

part 1   / part 2 / part 3  / part 4  / part 5 / part 6  / part 7 / part 8 / part 9 / part 10 / part 11 / part 13

word count: ~10k

content warnings: panic attack (caused by crowds), vague references to past character death, references to blood and injury

Three coppers.

Lark picked up the coins someone had tossed him from the cobblestones. Or maybe they had just dropped them accidentally and didn’t care enough to pick them back up. He wouldn’t be surprised, but he wasn’t about to complain. Coin was coin and the gods knew he needed it.

Three coppers.

They weighed barely anything and yet they sat heavy on his palm. Heavy and dull and not enough.

Just a couple of years ago, people had loved when he sung in the streets. They had been the one calling him the Lark of White Orchard and back then, they had been happy to toss him enough coins for his songs that he was able to get by, not exactly living a good life, but he had been doing fine all things considered. On days where coin had been sparse, when it had rained or Lark’s stomach had growled so loudly that even the passers-by could hear it over his singing, there had always been a kind elderly woman who missed her son enough, or a man who had always wanted a little brother, that they were willing to take in the starving eight-year-old that lived in the streets for a couple of days.

It hadn’t been good, but it had been good enough.

But pity had dwindled when Lark had gotten older. He had been prepared for that. Adults were expected to earn their own coin by doing more than just sing all day. He had known and he had tried making plans for how he might ask around if anyone needed a stable hand or help on a farm.

It hadn’t been a bad plan and it might have worked, if Lark hadn’t been dead wrong about one thing: People stopped being charitable long before he had reached adulthood and no one was stupid enough to hire a boy who was practically still a child and wouldn’t be able to do any sort of heavy lifting or other physical labour.

He had thought, he’d have at least another ten years to figure out how to get by, but life had given him only half of that before it had thrown him aside to fend for himself. Five years had been enough that he had gone from an adorable and somewhat beloved child who sang pretty songs and smiled brightly to a thirteen-year-old with cheekbones that prodded forth unbecomingly from lack of food and with a voice that was cracking just enough to ruin his songs.

People didn’t call him Lark anymore. Mostly, they didn’t refer to him at all, insignificant as he was to them. If they did however, they would mutter to themselves about the pest of the streets. They avoided eye contact and hastened past him before he could even open his mouth to ask for a little pity or sing for his supper. One time, a pretty handheld mirror had fallen out of a nice looking woman’s bag and Lark had picked it up to give it back to her. He didn’t have more time than it took to catch a glimpse at his sunken blue eyes in the mirror, before she had called him a thief, a magpie, and had yelled at him loudly enough that other people had come out to see what all the fuss was about. Lark had fled before they could decide that it was time to get rid of the boy who no one cared about anyway.

Still, he had to come back to his corner of the street to sing the next day and the day after that, until another year had passed. It was all he could do to earn coin, however little it was these days, and it was all he could do not to succumb to the desperation and hunger gnawing at him like a dog gnawed on bones.

While he sung, he could close his eyes and pretend he was somewhere else, someone else. He could dream that he was a viscount, rich and never lacking food or shelter. Or he could pretend that he was still a small child with chubby cheeks, singing lullabies with his mother. He could imagine what it would be like to make a friend that was more important to him than anything in the world and sing to them or that he had someone who’d teach him a song for once.

Most often, he let himself indulge in the most beautiful fantasy of them all: That he could be a bard, celebrated and always welcome. Then, inn keepers would be happy to accommodate him instead of bark at him to get out of their inns. People would ask him to sing for them, instead of throwing him dirty looks when his singing interrupted their conversations.  They would throw flowers and coins at his feet and he’d never have to go hungry again. People would smile at him. They would notice him and maybe if he were lucky, he could be important to someone. He could have someone who would take him in their arms, press a kiss on the crown of his head and tell him that they wanted him to stay with them forever. He wouldn’t have to worry about being alone, starving and cold from being outside for so long.

Not like he would today. His fist clenched around the three copper pieces and he shoved them in his pockets. Maybe if he was lucky, he’d get more tomorrow.

--

He didn’t. Of course he didn’t. By now, he should have known better than to get his hopes up about such things, but the small sliver of cruel hope never truly left him, even if he rarely ever got what he was hoping for.

But while coin was sparse, he did find out the reason why he had earned even less than normal: There was bigger and better entertainment coming to White Orchard. Lark watched from the shadows of an alley, as a woman with a hint of wrinkles around her eyes and faint streaks of grey weaving through her flaming red hair, hung up a poster announcing that a troupe of travelling actors was going to perform their best known plays in the weeks to come.

Lark’s stomach clenched, and not only from the hunger that was his constant and only companion. Dread and bitter disappointment grabbed his heart like an iron fist. No one was going to waste any time or coin on some boy singing pitifully when they could watch an actual play, done by professionals who were better at what they were doing than Lark ever could be. No matter how much of his soul he put in his signing, he was no competition to the players that had arrived.

His hands began to tremble as he clenched them into his stomach. It the near certainty that he would go hungry for however long those players would stay here.

It was a mixture of spite and curiosity that drove Lark to follow the redhead, always staying in the shadows or doing his best to blend in with other people milling about. If he wasn’t going to make any coin with his singing, then at least he should get to see the players perform and suss out if they were really good enough to warrant him being tossed to the side like that. He knew they would be. He wasn’t nearly good or important enough to think otherwise.

The red-haired woman led him to a marketplace, where a colourful wagon stood and a stage was being set up. Lark lingered there until the evening came and a crowd started to form.

He joined in the line of people buying tickets, his bitterness and fear making way for excitement with every moment he waited. He had never watched a play before, never been part of a crowd of people who just enjoyed themselves. His fingers fiddled with the hem of his shirt and he shifted from one foot to the other as his excitement built up, already imaging the wonders he was about to see.

He knew he shouldn’t spend his three coppers for something so trivial, but he couldn’t bring himself to turn around. Just this once he wanted to feel like someone normal, someone who could allow themselves an evening of fun and togetherness, even if he’d always know in the back of his mind, that he would pay dearly for his carelessness the next day when he’d have no coin left at all.

Still, he was sure it would be worth it. He knew it with all his heart.

His excitement was snuffed out like a candle in the wind, when he got closer to the woman selling the tickets and he heard how much they would cost.

One silver.

Lark’s heart dropped and his hand clenched around the three he was holding as the bitter realisation swept over him.

It wasn’t enough. He would get turned away and even this small moment of reprieve would be taken away from him.

Without thinking, Lark left the line, melting back into the shadow of the houses lining the marketplace and watching the woman selling the tickets with hawk’s eyes.

His heart was hammering in his chest and he knew even thinking about sneaking in without paying the entrance fee was wrong. It wasn’t fair to the performers – he of all people should know how important it was to pay entertainers - but he had to watch the play. He didn’t know why, but in this moment, it was more important than anything else.

A bigger group of people - a family with five children that he had seen pass by him and scoffing at him far too often – was permitted entrance and before Lark could think twice about what he was doing or start having doubts, he joined the group, pointedly casually, as if he belonged to them. It wasn’t hard to blend in. The parents were too distracted by the prospect of watching the play to count their children and Lark was small and frail enough to disappear between them and pretend to be one of them.

His blood was rushing in his ears and his mind was whirling with the panicked thought of They’re going to know. They will notice you and kick you out or throw you to the city guards for not paying the fee.

But nobody paid him any mind. Getting in unnoticed was as easy as it was wrong.

Once inside, Lark released a shaky breath and became one with the crowd, moving through it was if it was the most natural thing in the world.

A rush of excitement and pride swept over him and made him giddy, almost overshadowing the excitement he felt for the play.

When the red-haired actress finally came on stage, Lark’s breath caught in his throat and his heart began racing. His eyes were glued to the stage, unable to look away for even a second. This was it!

There was something about the story the actors played that spoke to him. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but as he watched the play, enraptured by the fast-paced fighting choreographies and the touching lines of dialogue that he felt he would be able to speak in time with the players if he had been able to open his mouth, he felt as if he belonged. There was something about the players, how easily they moved between scenes.

If one character was having a hard time, it was a near-certainty that they would make it out and find better times.

A strange sense of kinship and admiration welled up inside Lark, especially fir the pirate; charming, confident and criminal. Not caring about what anyone else thought of him and not needing anyone else’s help. Lark’s heart jumped in his throat as he watched the pirate weave his way in and out of danger like it was nothing, taking what he needed without having to feel bad for it. This pirate had no place in the world, so he made his own. The world was his home. That’s what he said and for him, saying made it so.

A yearning burst to life in Lark’s chest, his heart fluttering like a bird desperate to escape its cage. Lark had been in a cage his entire life. He sang and stayed in the same town, dwindling with every passing day until one day his wings would be too tired to fly.

But by the gods, he wanted to fly. He wanted to get out of here, wanted to build his own life, wanted to be free of the dependency on strangers’ goodwill and generosity that he knew he couldn’t count on anyway.

He wanted to be like that pirate.

He knew the story or the characters put on stage weren’t real, that he shouldn’t take life lessons from them, but for just a moment, he let himself believe that it could be real. It was that moment, that brief and fleeting second in which he dreamed about what his life could be, that changed the course of his destiny. He didn’t know how, yet, but he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that when the performance would end, he would be a different person.

The longer he watched, the stronger his certainty got. He watched the pirate with starry eyes, though something felt a little off about him. The actor portraying him wasn’t bad. In fact, when they pulled out their sword and spun around, making their long dark hair whip around their face, Lark couldn’t help but think that they knew exactly what they were doing. The fighting was impressive and the acting compelling, but there was this deep-rooted certainty in Lark that he would have been able to do it better.

And so he did.

That is, he didn’t join the troupe to become a better actor, naturally, neither did he become a better pirate – he lived nowhere near enough to the sea for that - but what he did instead was close enough. It started out small, just a little pickpocketing during the performance, while the audience was distracted.

Every coin he grabbed out of a purse with swift fingers, made his heartbeat spike up, but it also filled him with a never before known sense of pride. He was finally taking his life in his own hands! No longer would he rely on others to get by or have to endure their scoffs and insults.

With every coin he stole, he broke a bar of that cage entrapping him. He was going to fly like he had always been meant to do!

The play was not quite over yet, when he set his eyes on the wagon containing the props.

It was risky and probably not worth it, but Lark was filled with a euphoric recklessness. Quick as a flash, he darted into the wagon that was thankfully unoccupied at the moment and grabbed the first thing he could find. It was a prop dagger. Not the most valuable thing, but it felt right in Lark’s hand. A reminder for the day he decided to live. A promise that his life would be better than it had been until this point. A vow to never give up on his dreams.

His fingers tightened around the hilt and a grin spread across his lips.

Like a shadow, he left the marketplace, not knowing what the pirate’s fate would be. It didn’t matter, because for the first time, Lark’s own life was full of possibilities.

Maybe that woman had been right by calling him a thief. Perhaps he was a magpie, filling his pockets with other people’s possessions. Or maybe he was a lark that had been kept in a cage, going unheard for far too long until his voice was broken and his wings nearly clipped.

Either way, he was a bird ready to spread his wings and finally fly.

That night, he packed his meagre belongings, bought enough food to last him a couple of days and left White Orchard. His life was about to begin.

--

Leaving the town to be on his own was not as glamorous as Lark had imagined in his moment of foolish grandeur.

The next town was three day’s travel away for a strong man who was able to walk for a prolonged time. A boy with barely enough strength to carry his bag and walk for a mere couple of hours, would take much longer.

During the first two days, Lark learned what it meant to be outside a city’s safety. He had always thought that sleeping on the ground beneath bridges or in stables when innkeepers were kind enough to let him stay there for a night or two, was hard, but it was nothing compared to sleeping on the edge of the woods, never knowing whether the snapping of a twig came from bandits or a monster that would see him as easy prey.

Had he been a bard or a poet, he would have called it ironic that the first person he met after he decided to lead a life of lawlessness, was a bandit. As it was, he didn’t have the mind to find such words. He was terrified.

A rustling of leaves was all the warning Lark got, before a shadow leaped at him from behind a tree, giving him just enough time to let out a surprised yip and clutch the strap of his bag to his chest as if that could protect him. Before he knew what was happening, the hooded figure pressed their knife against his throat and bared their teeth.

“Your money,” the female voice hissed in his ear, pressing the blade closer to his throat. Lark blinked. She didn’t sound any older than him, certainly not like an adult or anyone Lark would have expected to attack travellers. “Give it to me and I’ll let you leave with your life.”

Lark didn’t know what possessed him, but he let out a barking laugh. “Really? Do I look like I have a anything of value? You flatter me.”

The girl’s eyes darted over his body, lingering on the shirt that hadn’t been washed in years and that was littered with holes.

She wavered, clearly not knowing how to proceed.

Lark cocked his head to the side. “You’re new to this, aren’t you?”

Even as the words left his lips, he knew they were about the stupidest thing he could say, but something about the girl didn’t sit right with him. Maybe it was the way she clutched the weapon a little too tightly or the way she looked just as bony and lost as Lark did.

The girl’s eyes flared up. “What’s it to you? I can still cut your throat.”

“I’d rather you wouldn’t do that.” He gave her a crooked smile and prayed that he was right about this. “And I don’t think you want to either.”

“Oh no? I wouldn’t be so sure that I wouldn’t hurt you if I were you.” Her voice went up in pitch and there was something in her eyes that didn’t sit right with Lark. A haunted look flashed through her eyes and the hand holding the knife trembled.

Carefully, Lark lifted his own hand and enclosed the girl’s wrist, gently. “Are you alright?”

“What kind of question is that? I’m threatening your life! You should be afraid of me!”

Her voice broke with the last word and something cracked in Lark’s chest.

“I’m not,” he said, though he had the distinct feeling that he very much should be afraid of people pointing weapons at him. Tentatively, he let go of her wrist again and held his hands up. “I don’t think you’ll hurt me and I’m not going to hurt you either.”

For a heartbeat she just stared at him, emotions battling in her face and Lark began to doubt he had made the right decision. If he had messed this up, then he hoped he would at least live to regret it.

Her eyes narrowed. Then, ever so slowly, she pulled the knife away, her hands falling to her sides and her shoulders slumping as if she had all energy had been drained from her. A puppet whose strings had been cut.

“Go,” she said quietly.

Lark hesitated. He was absolutely going to regret this. “How about we go together?”

She stiffened. “I’m not coming with you. I’m dangerous.”

“To me you look more scared than dangerous.” He gave her a tiny smile. “We don’t have to travel together, if you don’t want, but I’ve never had a friend before and I’ve never camped out in the woods on my own. I could really use someone who knows what they’re doing.”

She drew her brows together, but let out a wet laugh. “I don’t know what I’m doing either.”

“Perfect!” Lark’s hesitant smile turned into a beam. “Two clueless people are better than one. And like this, neither of us has to be embarrassed about not knowing how to do things.”

“You’re strange,” the girl said, but after another moment of hesitation, she nodded. “Fine. We can stay together. Just until morning. Then we go our separate ways.” Her face became hard, though somehow to Lark it looked like a poorly constructed mask. “And you won’t tell anyone you saw me.”

“I promise,” Lark said, his heart speeding up. A couple of hours wasn’t enough to form a friendship, he was sure, and yet this was the closest he had come to having a friend ever since he had been forced out on the streets and he was going to make the most of it. “Just until tomorrow.”

--

“I thought you didn’t know how to set up camp,” the girl said, pointing an accusatory finger at Lark and squinting her eyes suspiciously.

By now, she had pulled back her hood, revealing a face that made her appear a couple of years younger than Lark and blond hair that looked as if it had been hastily cut by someone who hadn’t known what they were doing. Not that Lark had much room to judge. But there was something about that haircut that almost stirred a memory in him. For some reason, a strange thought shot through his mind. He should have really asked me before chopping her hair short.

He shook his head to get rid of that nonsensical thought. Who even was he supposed to be? And he was pretty sure he had never met this girl in his life, so there was no reason why anyone should have asked him to help with her hair.

“I don’t.” Lark shrugged with pointed nonchalance, but his own skin crawled with unease as he let his eyes glide over the shelter he had somehow build out of branches without knowing what he was doing, as if he had done this a hundred times before to a point that his body just knew what to do without him thinking about it. “I swear I’ve never even been outside White Orchard.”

The girl narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously, but then she mirrored Lark’s shrug. “I’m not complaining.” With a strained smile, she added quietly, “There are worse things to find out about your companion.”

Her tone made Lark shift with unease, but he nudged her in the ribs playfully, praying he wasn’t overstepping. “I absolutely agree. I could still find out that you’re snoring loudly.”

“Hey!” A twinkle entered the girl’s eyes. “Who says you’re not the one who will snore?”

Lark lifted his chin in defiance and spread his arms wide, not unlike he had seen one of the actors do. “I say so. Because I’ve been told that I have the most beautiful singing voice.” The most preposterous exaggeration he had ever made. “Everyone knows people who sing don’t snore.”

The girl snorted. “Sure. That’s definitely common knowledge and absolutely true.” The sarcasm was dripping from her voice and made Lark grin.

“How about a bet? I say you’ll be the one who will snore.”

Her lips twitched up. “You’re on.”

It was still too early to go to sleep just yet. Lark’s hands were constantly moving with nervousness, tapping out rhythms or twirling smaller sticks he tore off bushes.

He really didn’t want to mess this up. When he had decided to take his life in his own hand, the thought that he might not have to stay alone all the time, hadn’t even crossed his mind, and yet, as soon as this girl had shown even the smallest hint of interest in spending time with him, he had latched onto the hope of not being alone. He had wanted to be like that pirate, confident and independent, but even the pirate in the play had wanted friendship, hadn’t he? That had been the last piece of the play that Lark had caught before he had left the marketplace: The pirate begging the knight to be his friend.

Lark knew it was stupid, but already his mind was conjuring up images of having a travel companion, of sitting around a campfire laughing together or walking next to a horse, while his companion kept glancing down at him fondly.

It was an impossible fantasy, of course. But it was nice to let himself dream. It had been a dream, after all, that had gotten him the courage to get out of that miserable life he had been leading.

“What’s that song?”

He blinked, when the girl’s unexpected question interrupted his stray thoughts.

“Hm?” he asked intelligently.

“That song you’re humming,” she explained, gesturing vaguely at him. “It’s nice.”

“Oh.” Lark felt heat rise in his cheeks. “Ah, sorry. I didn’t notice I was singing.”

“No, no, don’t apologize,” she said hastily. “I really liked it. It’s been a while since anyone’s sung to me. My mother used to sing me lullabies, before – Nevermind. Your singing just reminded me of that.” She paused, her eyes going wide. “Not that you were singing to me. But. It sounded beautiful.”

Lark’s chest glowed and he couldn’t keep his smile off his chest, despite the no doubt heavy topic that the girl clearly didn’t want to talk about. “Thank you. I love singing, but most people don’t appreciate it. One time someone even threw some bread at me.”

The girl’s lips twitched. “That’s one way to get to food.”

“I sure thought about just singing as badly as I could, after that.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “It didn’t work out.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I like listening to you.”

Lark lowered his head, carefully avoiding eye contact. “It’s worth a lot, actually.” He cleared his throat. “But speaking of food. I still got some. It was supposed to last me until I get to the next town, but we could share if you want?”

“I – really?” The girl’s eyes widened. “You barely know me. I held a bloody knife at your throat! Why would you share your food with me?”

Lark shrugged. “I guess I would like to get to know you. Maybe we could become friends?”

He knew he sounded pathetically desperate and he told himself his heart didn’t sink, when the girl shook her head.

“We can’t. I’m not good company.”

“Yes you are.” His smile turned lopsided. “At least that’s what I choose to believe until I find out if your snoring will rob me of my beauty sleep.”

She snorted. “We wouldn’t want that. Clearly you need it.”

He narrowed his eyes at her, tore out a handful of grass and attempted to throw it at her. She only laughed and in return tossed some leaves at him, equally unsuccessfully.

They continued this strange but not uncomfortable back and forth. Lark wasn’t sure how to talk to her, but it still felt good to have someone to talk to for once, even if she avoided speaking about herself to a point that she even refused to give as much as her name.

It didn’t matter. Lark didn’t know his real name either, after all, only the moniker he had been given by some strangers.

He felt an unexpected kinship to this girl with no name that had chosen to steal the coin she evidently needed but that had given up on that plan as soon as she had found something else she needed far more desperately. Company. The comfort of knowing she wasn’t alone.

Lark and the girl might have both needed to grow up to soon and were willing to steal if that was what kept them alive, but now, sitting on the forest floor, sharing bread and tentative stories, it became painfully obvious that they really just were children. Children who weren’t allowed to be such.

When they went to sleep beneath the shelter Lark had built, he made sure to keep enough distance between them, but the girl smiled at him as she whispered a “Goodnight.”

He returned it with a trembling voice. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had bid him goodnight.

“Our bet still stands, right?” The girl said with a sleepy grin, just before her eyelids dropped.

“It sure does. But we both know I’m going to win.”

--

Neither of them won. They both snored, waking each other up more than once.

Somehow neither of them minded, but when they got up in the morning, they both complained loudly about the other’s snoring, their teasing ending in laughter. It was possibly the first time in years since Lark truly laughed and judging from the way the girl brightened and seemed to carry herself lighter afterwards, it had been a long time since she had had reason to laugh too.

--

“So…” Lark said, after they had eaten a small breakfast, emptying nearly all of his provisions. “I guess it’s tomorrow, huh? We’ll split now.”

“Yeah,” the girl agreed, but made no move to turn away. “I guess so.”

They stood there for a moment in awkward silence, both avoiding the other’s eyes.

“Unless you want to –“ She said at the same time that Lark spoke up.

“If we went the same direction, we could –“

They gave each other shy looks that turned into grins. Neither of them finished their sentence, but they didn’t need to anyway. After they packed their few belongings, they took the same path, neither mentioning that they were going to stay together for a little while longer.

--

It didn't take long for Lark's stomach to start rumbling. He had learned to ignore hunger enough to go through the motions of what needed to be done, years ago, but after indulging the day before and this morning with breakfast, his body seemed to remember that it did, in fact, need food and shouldn't go ignored.

The only problem was that there was little to no food left. Rationally, he knew that he shouldn't have shared his provisions, but he had been so excited about having something to share for once, and even more importantly, having someone to share things with. When it came down to it, he wouldn't do it any differently if he got the chance to do it again.

Still Lark’s stomach protested and he fisted his hand in his shirt and pressed against his stomach, hoping it would distract him from the gnawing hunger.

It didn't work.

Next to him, the girl grew more agitated as well, throwing worried glances at him every time his stomach spoke up, even though she must be hungry as well.

Eventually, she tugged at his sleeves, making him stop.

"What's wrong?" he asked alarmed and half-turning to see if he had been too distracted to miss a monster or an actual bandit approaching.

"Nothing." she bit her lip, averting her eyes. "I just...Wait here. I'll be back."

Lark's brows furrowed. "What? Where are you going?"

His pulse spiked up, sudden fear seizing him. He didn't want to be alone again. He knew he couldn't call this girl he barely knew his friend, but he had hoped she would stay a little while longer.

"I'm going to get us some food."

His racing heart slowed down a little. "Oh. Good. I can come with -"

"No!" she cut him off so harshly that Lark nearly flinched back. "Don't follow me. I promise I'll be back. If you promise that you stay here."

Lark nodded dumbly and watched her disappear between the trees until he could neither see nor hear her anymore.

He waited for what felt like forever, tapping his foot nervously and humming a line of a lullaby to calm himself, always repeating in his mind that she had promised to come back, despite how it seemed she had just left him in the woods.

When he finally heard branches snap, he perked up, half expecting having to run away and half giddy with anticipation. He held his breath when the branches blocking his view were pushed to the side –

- and revealed the girl.

Involuntarily, he broke into a grin.

"I almost thought you had gotten lost," he said in greeting which she answered with an eye roll.

"Oh please, if one of us is going to get lost, it's going to be you, city boy."

Lark snorted. "You didn't think I was so useless out here when I made sure we wouldn't sleep without shelter yesterday," he teased.

"Well, I'm the one who knows how to hunt." She lifted her hand, drawing Lark's attention to the bloody rabbit he held in it.

His brows shot up. "How did you-"

"My mother taught me," she said in a strange tone that made it clear she wasn’t about to say any more about that.

Lark knew, it was rude to keep asking, but his curiosity won out.

"She was a hunter?"

An unreadable smile flickered across her face. "Something like that."

"Well," Lark said, putting as much cheer in his voice as he could, finally catching the hint that this was going to lead nowhere, "I'm glad she taught you. It's always nice having a companion who can hunt for food."

She hesitated, then her smile turned soft. "It's also nice to have a companion who sings."

--

After that, Lark made a point of singing for her, especially whenever she would come back from hunting looking tense and strangely nervous.

He knew it wasn't much he was giving her in return for the food, but his singing never failed to make her smile.

"You really are a nightingale," she said when he finished his song.

He grinned at her. "Not quite. I prefer Lark, actually. That's my name. In case you were wondering."

She titled her head to the side and assessed him. He didn't know what she was looking for but she must have found it, for she returned his smile.

"I'm Desanka."

She offered him her hand, a bit redundantly and far too formal or mature for either of them, but Lark took it eagerly, excitement bubbling up in him.

"So... Does that mean we're friends now?" he tried not to sound too hopeful, but failed miserably.

"I guess it does."

--

Lark never thought he'd be able to miss the suffocating narrowness of alleyways or the feeling of being trapped that city walls provided, but after only a couple of days making his way through the woods, he longed to feel something other than dirt and twigs beneath his feet. Uneven cobblestones weren't exactly a delight, but at this point he would have preferred anything to the tiny rocks that kept getting stuck in his shoes or the twigs that would snap in his face when Desanka brushed them aside carelessly - or perhaps she let them hit him fully consciously. Judging from the way her shoulders shook with laughter every time Lark cursed when he got hit, made him think the latter was true. He vowed to return the favour the next opportunity he got.

For now though, he kept complaining about the woods in any way he could.

So it was no wonder that when the trees finally parted and they stepped out of their shadows, Lark felt like he was escaping anew. Camping in the woods hadn't been half bad - in fact, it had felt strangely familiar in a way he couldn't explain - but he was ready to try and get enough coin together to afford sleeping in an actual bed for once.

He closed his eyes, tilting his head back to enjoy the rays of the sun warming his face and hummed a happy little melody.

He didn't exactly expect praise for the silly little tune he composed on the spot, but he hoped to at least find Desanka smiling at him when he opened his eyes again.

Instead, he found her twisting her hands together in agitation, her eyes darting between the city in the not so far distance and the trees behind them.

When their eyes met, she startled, but caught herself quickly, squaring her shoulders.

"I don’t think going there is a good idea," she said with a look that was more confident than her voice would have you believe. "We should stay away from cities."

Lark's brows shot up. "Why? Isn't this where we wanted to go this whole time?"

"I don't know. Yes?" She shifted her weight. "But now that we're here, I think we should just stay away."

"But... When we met you literally tried to steal my non-existent coin. What were you going to do with that if you didn't plan on going into town?"

"I don't know." She sounded more frustrated with every word. "It's not like I planned to run away from home."

Lark became quiet, studying her with knitted brows. His face softened and gently, he took one of her trembling hands in his, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"You didn't?"

"No. I had to go." Her lip started quivering. "I never wanted to leave. But I don't think I can go back. Not just to my town," she added when Lark opened his mouth to speak. "But towns in general. I should stay away from people."

"You didn't stay away from me," Lark said gently.

She snorted. "I sure tried but you wouldn't stop trying to talk me into staying." A shaky grin stretched her lips. "And you were stupid enough not to be afraid of me pointing a knife at you, so I guess you'd not be afraid of - I guess you're safe to be around. It was nice having a friend."

Lark gave her hand a tiny squeeze which she returned shyly. He hesitated.

"You make it sound as if we're not friends anymore."

She winced. "I'm not going back to where people are. I can't. I won't."

She sounded determined, yet Lark couldn’t help but latch onto the fact that she had neither confirmed nor denied what he had said. The small flicker of hope in his chest was all he had, but maybe it was enough. Dreaming a little had never hurt anyone.

"I understand," he said slowly. "But we still need to buy some things. Not that I don't appreciate the rabbits you’re hunting, but we need more food. Better equipment too, if we want to make it out there."

Her head snapped up. "If we... You would stay with me in the wild?” Her wonder turned into an incredulous frown. “Are you stupid?"

He gave her a crooked grin. "I think we already agreed that I am." his tone became more serious. "But yes. Of course I want to stay with you. You're my friend."

"But I wont-"

"You don't have to," Lark reassured her. "I'll go into town alone, get everything we need and go straight back to you."

"What about sleeping in a real bed? You complained about the forest floor for days."

"I also complained about your snoring, but you weren't worried about that. It's alright. It’s just like when you go hunting, right? I promise to come back to you, if you promise to wait for me." 

After a second in which she only stared at him dumbfounded, she nodded. Before he could pull away, she tugged him closer and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug that Lark returned just as fiercely.

--

The town was big, bright and loud. After days in the wilderness and the excitement to get back to civilisation, Lark should have been happy to be here, but in actuality it was disorienting and overwhelming.

He made sure to stick too smaller alleys and places that weren’t bustling with noise. The problem with that was that there was nothing to be gained from that. Sooner or later, he’d have to go to where more people were. The little coin he had with him – his own and Desanka’s – wouldn’t be enough to buy half of the supplies they needed. He had to get more.

For a brief moment, he thought about singing again. His heart yearned to do it, but reality had been cruel and unforgiving. He was well aware that looking like he did, he could earn no more than a handful of coppers at the most, and that wouldn’t be enough and it would take him forever to get any coin at all like that.

Desanka was waiting for him. She was counting on him to come back with enough provisions that they wouldn’t have to worry too much about when they had to go back into town the next time.

Taking a deep breath, Lark steeled himself, before leaving the shadows and entering the marketplace. Immediately, the noise and colours hit him like a ship crashing into a cliff.

A small part of him told him that he should love this, should thrive in a place like this. The feeling that he belonged with people, that this should feel like coming home, grew with every second. But home had never been a good place for him and the only person he had ever felt true belonging with was his new friend.

A friend he needed to take care of now.

His heart was racing, but he made a point of looking as casual and harmless as he could. It wasn’t hard slipping his hand into other people’s pockets and transferring their coins to his own pockets. People kept bumping into him all on their own and didn’t care to even look at him.

Ugly guilt rose in him, but he had little choice in what he was doing. He did it to survive and for the girl waiting for him in the woods. A girl who had never wanted to be on her own but who was too scared to meet other people. A girl who was Lark’s first and only friend. He might not have known her for long, but he would protect her and make sure she was cared for as good as he could. If that meant swallowing his guilt and the unreasonable panic that dragged him under in this crowd, then so be it.

The first thing he bought in this new life he now led, was food that wouldn’t go bad any time soon, two cheap bedrolls and soap.

That should have been enough. He should take it and head out of there as fast as he could.

And yet he lingered, despite the unease making his hackles stand on end.

Right next to the stall with the soap, there was a display of toys, dolls and wooden animals. Before the stall, a bunch of children were gathered, some tugging at their parents’ sleeves, some trying out the toys or looking at them with shining eyes.

A strange longing drew Lark nearer. The only times he had ever had toys to play with, had been when he had been allowed to stay with a family for a couple of days, but as soon as he had become too much and he had to go back on the streets, he had been left with nothing.

That must be the reason why he was now looking at the toys with that strange sensation of needing to be there prickling at the back of his mind. And yet, he got the feeling that there was something else about this. He let his eyes sweep over the toys, ignoring the strange looks he got from the adults and searching for…he knew not what.

At least he hadn’t known, until he found it. His whole body jolted, when his eyes fell on the wooden wolf figure standing at the edge of the stall. The wood was light, nearly white and it jogged something in his memory that he couldn’t explain. He had never seen a wolf in his life – thank the gods for that! – but something told him unmistakably that he needed to have his white wolf.

Subconsciously, his hand went to the pocket in which he carried his coin. Even without looking at the price, he could tell he wouldn’t be able to afford the figure.

It didn’t matter. He shouldn’t waste coin on something trivial like this anyway. And yet his feet wouldn’t move. His whole body was frozen to the spot, all of his thoughts focussing on the white wolf.

“Mama,” a little girl next to him piped up, “I want that one! The wolf!”

Lark’s heart skipped a beat. He didn’t think about what he was doing. He couldn’t. In a flash, his hand shot out, grabbing the figure with little subtlety or finesse. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that this was foolish, that he should put the figure back, that he was risking everything for a strange whim he couldn’t even explain.

“Boy!” The gruff voice of the vendor made his head snap back up. “I hope you can pay for that.”

Lark stiffened. “I- Well, I – “

The vendor’s eyes narrowed. He rounded his stall and came closer to Lark, towering above him even from a few feet apart.

Lark’s heart jumped to his throat and without meaning to, he took a step back.

The man’s face contorted to a grimace of disgust and fury.

“Pay for that or I’ll make you pay,” he snarled. When Lark didn’t reply, he took a menacing step closer. “Give it back and get the hell away, you filthy thief! We don’t want your kind here!”

We don’t want your kind here. We don’t want your kind here. We don’t want your kind here.

The sentence kept repeating in his mind, growing louder and louder until it roared like thunder in his head. He snapped his head around, looking for sympathy he knew he wouldn’t find.

The man was still a couple of steps away, but his shouting had attracted the attention of others. Some were turning away, leaving the scene with distrust in their eyes, but most of them turned towards Lark with disdain on their faces.

There were so many of them and they were coming closer, threatening and crushing him. The suffocating guilt and blinding panic turned into a searing pain in his stomach. He pressed his hand against it, almost expecting it to come away bloody despite no one having so much as touched him.

But they would. If he stayed here, they would hurt him. They would shout and throw rocks and get their pitchforks and they would kill him. He needed to get away! He needed –

Without hesitating a second longer, he turned and bolted. The angry shouts of the vendor and his thundering steps followed him, but Lark was running for his life, nothing on his mind but the need to get away.

He pushed through the crowd, skittered around corners, darted through streets, not even stopping to throw a look over his shoulder to see if he was still being followed. All he knew was that if he stopped, if he let himself get caught, he would die. He didn’t want to die! He didn’t want to be alone. He had to get back to his friend!

His breath came in pants. In his hand, he clutched the wolf so tightly that his knuckles turned white, as if the wolf could protect him.

He didn’t slow, until he passed the city gates and entered the protective shadow of the woods.

With a racing heart and burning lungs, he slumped against a tree. In his trembling hand, he held the wolf figure that had nearly cost him everything.

And yet, for some reason, he couldn’t find it in him to regret stealing it. He knew he shouldn’t have. It had been reckless and wrong, but having the wolf with him now soothed an ache in his chest he hadn’t been aware he had carried with him before. But why? What was so important about the wolf that he had been willing to risk his life and his freedom for it? Nothing could possibly be worth so much. Least of all some wolf.

He stayed like that, slumped over, trying to find reason to what he had done, until his heartbeat had calmed. He still was none the wiser. The urge that had overtaken his body at the sight of the white wolf was gone, having left him with no explanation for his actions.

It was only when a light drizzle started to fall from the sky that Lark found the strength to go further into the woods to where he had left Desanka. He rubbed his hands over his face, not sure if he was getting rid of the rain or if somehow unbeknownst to him tears had mixed with it.

It didn’t matter. He shouldn’t think about the panic that had seized him when those people had crowded him. He shouldn’t lose his mind trying to find reason for what he had done in an unthinking moment. Who was to say there even was a reason?

If there was, he shouldn’t care. He had gotten away with it and come tomorrow, they would leave this area to search for a better place to stay a while. For now, all that mattered was that he was safe and so was Desanka.

He found her sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree. Her head snapped up to him when he got closer, though Lark was sure he hadn’t made a sound she could have heard. Worry faded into relief on her face when she saw him and she sprang to her feet almost immediately.

“You’re alright!” In an uncharacteristically enthusiastic and affectionate manner, she ran towards Lark and threw her arms around him.

The way she held him tightly made Lark wonder if she had expected him to change his mind and not come back. He returned the hug with equal fervour.

“Of course I’m alright,” he lied, patting her head. When she didn’t reply, he pulled back a little. “I even got something for you.”

Her brows rose, but Lark was more surprised by his own words than she could have been. He hadn’t stolen the wolf for her. Everything in him screamed to keep the figure close, to not be parted from his wolf, but with a smile, he held it up for her.

Desanka’s eager eyes turned apprehensive when they darted from the figure to him. If Lark hadn’t known any better, he would have said she looked almost scared.

“Why would you give this to me?” She asked in a thick voice, something close to an accusation tinging her tone.

Lark’s fingers closed around the wolf instinctively and he drew back a little. “I-I’m sorry?” he stammered, unsure what exactly he was apologising for. “I just thought you might like it. We… don’t friends give each other gifts?”

Desanka’s throat bobbed nervously. “I… yes, I think they do.”

“You don’t have to take it if you don’t want to.” Lark’s free hand rubbed the back of his neck. “You just looked worried and I thought the wolf could be a protector for you? For when I’m away in town, I mean.”

A strange smile tilted the corners of her mouth upwards when she slowly reached out to take the figure. Lark already missed the weight of it in his hand, but his chest felt lighter when Desanka ran a finger over the smooth wood and her face brightened.

When she looked back up, her eyes were unexpectedly glassy.

“Thank you, Lark,” she said with a quivering voice. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”

Having seldom received gifts himself and having seen how desperate Desanka had been for a friend, Lark thought that he had a pretty good idea what the simple gift meant for her.

It was about as important to her, as her smile was to Lark when she later put the wolf figure between both of their bedrolls that night so it could watch over them both.

Lark still lay awake staring at the figure when Desanka had already fallen into a deep sleep. The wolf was right there. If he wanted to, he could just reach out and touch it. Yet somehow, the feeling that he needed to find his white wolf lingered.

--

Life was… it was hard to tell what it was. It wasn’t great exactly. Lark still didn’t have a roof over his head most nights and sometimes, when hunger gnawed at him and Desanka, he felt like he had never left the streets, despite months having passed since he had last been in that town he had called his home.

But it wasn’t bad either. Though Desanka refused to teach him how to hunt, she was able to find them something to eat on most days. If Lark was being honest with himself, he wouldn’t have wanted to know how to hunt anyway. The idea of using a knife to actually hurt a living being made his skin crawl and besides, with every time Desanka proved that she could provide for them and Lark praised her for it, she seemed to relax more and more until she was barely recognizable anymore as the girl who had tried to scare Lark away by saying she wasn’t good company and who was afraid that he would leave her without second thought.

Lark still went into towns, whenever he needed too. As much as he hated the shouting and shoving of crowds, it was a necessity. Meat and the few edible plants they found in the woods wouldn’t keep them alive.

Though it still sent a twinge of guilt through him, Lark continued picking pockets. He tried to stick to stealing from people he saw sneering at those they thought below them or vendors who raised their prices when they saw that the hungry costumers had no other choice but to buy from them.

Occasionally, though, when Lark was feeling especially brave or foolish, he still sang on street corners.

It was no surprise that no one paid him any mind. With his ragged clothes, the dirt smeared on his skin and his unkempt hair, he knew he wasn’t someone people wanted to listen to, even though months and years passed and the broken voice of the thirteen-year-old turned into the soft singing voice of a young man who put all of his passion and emotions into his songs.

He knew he was good. He – he hoped he was. Maybe he could have been in another life. A life in which he had been able to afford clothes that didn’t make people sneer at his appearance and stride past without giving him a chance to prove himself worthy of being listened to. In this other life – the one he still sometimes dreamed about, waking or not - he might have even become a real bard. He held onto this thought that should only belong to the dead of night, when he dreamed he were someone else, someone people welcomed in their midst, someone who could put his feelings into song and change the world with it.

But when he woke, the world would be the same as it always had been and so would Lark.

Still, with a yearning he didn’t understand, he looked at instruments in shop windows that were too expensive to buy and too noticeable to steal, even though his fingers itched to run over the smooth wood of a lute and pluck at its strings.

Just looking at the instruments or listening to real bards play them, made his heart clench and his fingers flex, as if mimicking the motions needed to elicit music from a lute.

It was a dream he knew he would never reach. Still, he sang, poured his whole heart into his songs, even though it gained him little more than an occasional coin flung his way, but even the people who granted him that much, didn’t stop to listen to him. He was invisible. Unimportant. A shadow not worth stopping for.

Lark tried to let the dirty looks and snide remarks he received slide off him, but it didn’t take long for Desanka to figure out just how much it hurt Lark that people reacted to his singing this badly.

In comfort, she carded her fingers through his hair while he sang to her. She let him talk about how he had the hint of a melody at the back of his mind that he wasn’t able to get to leave his mouth. Sometimes, she even tried to harmonise with him, though her voice was rough, reminding him more of barking at times, and broke when she sang to high or low.

Still it was better than anything Lark had had in years.

Desanka never left the woods. Even during the winter, she insisted on staying as far away from other people as she could. Lark knew that no matter how many gifts he recklessly got for her – small trinkets, unnecessarily fluffy pillows, a pasty that she had mentioned her father used to make for her – she wouldn’t be able to give him anything the like back. Lark didn’t expect her to, nor did he want her to go to places that she felt unsafe in just to get him gifts.

She didn’t need to do that, anyway. She was giving him something far more precious than any trinket or treat.

She listened to him. She saw him. She got to know him and still decided that he was worth liking.

Lark knew that objectively, his life wasn’t great. But he couldn’t bring himself to think that it was bad either.

The thing he knew for certain was, that it was unexpected.

He wasn’t like the pirate he had dreamed of becoming. Neither was he anywhere close to being that charming, nor did he possess the easy confidence that character had had.

But there was one thing that made Lark like the pirate he had admired: He had taken his life in his own hand and more than that, he had found the one thing the pirate had longed for. He had found a friend that he was willing to risk his life for.

[kitkat99]

Disney legacy challenge Post Hey everyone I decided to go ahead and upload another challenge that I plan on doing in the future rules today and right now I am doing back stories pictures for snow white's family and her dating relationship stories but I plan on up loading photos of all the house holds involved in this future challenge but I also plan on uploading the actual challenge gameplays videos to my personal youtube channel in the near future. I also will be adding a video of their backstories on my you tube channel as well.

Disney Legacy Challenge rules

All rules apply, except it is okay to pick an aspiration for all sims, as well as a secondary aspirations. Also, if needed, you can add sims that you create to the household. your sims may go on vacation at any time and go to University, unless noted otherwise. Generations are listed below.

Generation 1: Snow White

She was the first princess, so of course she has to be the founder! If you choose, you can create her as a teen and make her evil stepmother, but that’s not necessary. To start, create Snow as an Adult (or Young Adult if you wanted to go to University, but that is not recommended for this generation).

.Find love with someone of high authority and/or wealth

.Must have 7 children (dwarves) with the same baby daddy

.May not marry until the 7th child is a toddler, has learned to walk, talk and use the potty, and has maxed out 1 toddler skill at least, or until that child is a child

.Don’t open the door to strangers or talk to elderly women (this includes the matchmaker from Nightlife and Freetime!)

Generation 2: Cinderella

Although you grew up with six brothers and sisters, you somehow always ended up doing the cooking and cleaning. Your mother says you’re a natural, but is that really what you want to do with your life? This generation starts when Cinderella becomes a teenager.

.Must be a neat sim

.Must clean something every day and cook every meal

.Must reach at least level 8 of the cooking and cleaning skill before you become an adult

.May not marry until your mother dies

.May stop cooking all the meals and cleaning after your mother dies

.Marry, have children

Generation 3: Tiana

What has your family accomplished? Nothing! But you’re here to do something about it. You want to work, and work hard. This generation starts when Tiana becomes a teenager.

.Must be an active sim

.Must have the fortune aspiration

.Must get a teen job

.Must go to University (if you have the expansion pack)

.Father must die before she goes to University or becomes an adult

.Must own a pet (if you have Pets, otherwise just get a fish)

.Must marry a sim with green (hair, eyes, skin, etc.)

.Have children

.Reach the top of career choice and may never retire

Generation 4: Aurora

Because of your mother’s hard work, everything just came to you, except for love. Your father rarely let you in the outside world for fear of something happening to you. This generation starts when Aurora becomes an Adult (may not go to University this generation)

.Must be a lazy sim

.Can only know three people outside her family

.Mother must die before Adulthood

.Must meet future spouse at night while her parents are sleeping

.Have a private wedding

.Only have 2 children (having 3 children by having accidental twins is fine)

Generation 5: Elsa (Requires Apartment Life, if not, see generation 5.5)

Where exactly did your powers come from? How exactly did you get it? Well, let’s just say, a certain friend gave you a curse… but that doesn’t matter. You spent all your time thinking about it, so much time, you became secluded from your entire family. You even missed your own parents’ funeral because you were too scared to show yourself! This generation starts when Elsa is a teenager.

.Must become a witch by the end of her teenage years (can not be cheated, can be good or bad)

.Have parents die as a teenager (can be cheated)

.Never marry, have one child (it was an accident)

Generation 5.5: Anna (If you have Apartment Life, you can do Anna and Elsa together)

After your sister was a child, she secluded herself from you, leaving you lonely and depressed. What did you do to deserve this? And after your parents’ death, she didn’t even show up to the funeral! What exactly is going on? When Anna is a teenager, this generation begins

.Don’t talk to sister until adulthood

.Have parents die as a teenager

.Find love with someone in the criminal career and/or a grouchy sim

.Have lover cheat on her, get engaged with loved

.Find someone new after breaking up with lover

.Marry, have one child

Generation 6: Rapunzel

You were never allowed outside your little house. So, to pass the time, you chose to do a lot of painting. But, why exactly did your mother never trust you out there? This generation begins when Rapunzel becomes a teenager.

.Must be a shy sim

.Must reach at least level 8 of the creativity skill before adulthood

.Must paint for an hour each day

.May only leave the house for school

.If you go to University, you may only talk to boys (if you don’t have University, just move in a handsome adult sim)

.Lover must be in the criminal career

.Lover must quit job before getting married (can get another one if they want)

.Marry, have kids

Generation 7: Belle

You have always found a love for books. It has transported you away to another universe. They taught you not to judge by appearance, but by character and personality. But, your father had different ideas. He set you up with the most handsome men, but none of them fit your standards. This generation begins when Belle becomes an adult.

.Must have Pleasure or Romance aspiration

.Date at least 5 men

.Find the man of your dreams- a werewolf (this may be cheated if necessary). If you don’t have Pets, just make an ugly sim

.Marry, have kids

.Werewolf is cured after marriage (if you don’t have Pets just try to make him less ugly or use hacks and cheats to change his appearance)

Generation 8: Ariel

You loved the water and everything about it. It just transported you away to another dimension, with mermaids and fish that talk to you. You always dreamed about being a mermaid, and you hope to one day make this dream a reality. This generation begins when Ariel becomes a teenager.

.Must be an active sim

.Must own a pool and swim in it for an hour or more each day

.Must marry a beautiful sim with at least two attraction bolts (if you have Nightlife)

.Have kids (no limit)

Generation 9: Jasmine

Living the rich life has its ups and downs. To you, it seems like mostly downs. The only thing you find comfort in is Raja. All your father wants from you is to marry rich, but you’re willing to give it all up just to be normal. This generation starts when Jasmine is a teenager.

.May only leave the house for school

.Must meet future spouse on a community lot dressed as a “poor person”

.Must marry a poor sim

.Lover must have a pet (if you have Pets)

.Go on vacation to all three vacation areas at least once

.Make use of the genie! (May not be cheated, can wish for anything besides hidden Give Me Youth)

.Have 4 children

Generation 10: Merida

You always wanted to know why your mother gave up her riches for a poor boy. Who in their right mind would do that?! Trying to learn more about this and your other “adventures” has landed you in lots of trouble over the years. When Merida becomes an adult, this story beings.

.Must be an active sim

.Lose siblings and mother in an “accident” (may be cheated)

.Resurrect them as zombies (use the resurrect-o-nomitron)

.Never marry or have kids

Generation 10.5: Mulan (for those who want a happier ending)

After your mother married her lover, she realized she wanted her children to live the life she did. She wanted all her children to marry rich, and succeed at life. But you wanted nothing but glory. When Mulan becomes an adult, this generation begins.

.Must be an active sim

.Must be in the military career

.Fall in love with a co-worker once you reach the top of the career

.Marry if you wish, but never have children

.Never retire