Chapter 91: Filling my Time

Just a couple of geniuses.

When Yasu's father shows up to talk about conspiracies, she realizes she's been absorbed in her work for an entire night and half the morning. Fischer is doing his best to distract her.

"Do you want some breakfast, by the way?" he says finally.

Most of the child care is falling to Kirk. But he doesn't have a real job, so he can't complain.

Former scientist Hawk helps educate Wren when no one is looking.

"B sharp, kid."

Starving vampire is embarrassed to be bursting in on his wife in the shower to ask for blood donations.

Yasu worries about Kirk sometimes. She spares a few hours to read some of the things he's been reading, hoping to gain insight on what he's going through.

McCoy grows into a toddler. He has his father's eyes and hair and everything else except vampirism.

"So this is what my toddler pictures would look like if I weren't a pale freak," Kirk observes.

When artsy-pants Fischer begins taking an interest in Kirk's music, Kirk knows he's getting good.

Yasu poses the question, "do you ever feel like a lab rat in the maze of life, a lab rat that has escaped its would-be groundbreaking, purposeful experiments and run off into an alley somewhere, hissing and spitting, never to be noticed again? Do you ever feel like you also have wings?"

"No," everyone responds.

It's a radiation nation, and you gotta be prepared.

"You look so old!" Fischer complains, visiting Luke since Luke is back from Egypt.

"Good to see you too, blondie!"

"I'm so old, I'm going to be grey-haired myself soon," Fischer frets.

"Oh shut up and come in. You can meet my kid, Mario."

Checking the sinks in Luke's house. It was impossible to resist.

 Mario, Luke's only child, is only a toddler and so not that interesting. Fischer quickly moves on and gives his brother a birthday gift.

Luke is touched, having actually forgotten it was his birthday.

"I thought it was last month or something. Ha!"

Luke dies a few days later. Fischer is glad he went to visit.

Yasu adds thousands and thousands to the family fortune via a line of robot toys.

Though she sometimes takes assignments from the government. They need miners for a new sewage system.

Raaar attacking robots.

Sim children are so unrealistically sweet to each other.

Though they frighten Kirk by calling out "Dad! Dad! Daaad!" in unison.

A new tattoo just because. A calm moon to go along with the crazy sun.

What horrible fiend keeps knocking these over? =(

Wren becomes a child.

So does the doll.

The unstable life fruit extract inside of it latched on to Wren's essence, of sorts, and has inextricably linked these two beings together.

"My favorite toy!" Wren squeals. "Mama sure is the best toy maker."

"I am... a toy," the being says, more of a question.

"You are my favorite!"

"And you are my Wren," it says.

Seeing his daughter carry on such an animated one-sided conversation, Kirk doesn't know what to think. He will think about it some more before he makes any comments.

Kirk's collection of failed experiments grows. Gems he cut for Yasu that are not usable... potions he tested on himself to little effect...

Seeing his children age while he doesn't even develop a wrinkle pains Kirk, propelling his research further.

Fischer begins to feel old.

Daytime collecting. Such a self-hating masochist...

"It's almost like the others can't see you," Wren observes. She loves her doll. He's always willing to play with her.

"They can't, Wren. I'm only powerful enough to manifest this form in your mind. And they wouldn't understand me..."

"Wait! You're just in my head?"

"I can influence objects, too."

"That's a relief," she says. She knew she wasn't just imagining the weight on the other side of the teeter-totter.

"Do I have a name?"

"Ooh! Sorry. I'll think of one. Uhm..."

"I had a name before this. I had a life before this. I was a gnome. But I grew dormant... as if I was ill."

Wren tilts her head. "A gnome?"

He twists his head to look behind them. "Yes. The one with sunglasses, on that man's grave. That was me. But somehow I am now caught in this doll, and my brothers ignore me." He motions to the gnomes around them.

Wren frowns.

"You couldn't pronounce my old name though," her friend continues. "Please. Give me a new one."

"Umm..." Wren finds herself limited to the names she can think up on the spot. "How 'bout Nero?"

Since Nero came to life, Wren has decided she loves all things doll-related. Teddy bears count.

Wren decides to name all of her teddies. This one is Mario, named after the cousin she hasn't met.

Mario had best get to rescuing.

Holly gives Arthur a sound beating in some video game. Martin finds this amusing.

Fischer and Yasu bring McCoy to the playground.

Fischer brought his camera and is hoping for some good pictures.

"I loved this when I was a kid," Yasu says encouragingly.

Little McCoy is a sullen toddler, unwilling to become excited about things so easily.

Kellie Khan speeds by, a blast of wind no one notices. She pauses at the edge of the park to look back at Yasu playing with her grandchild. Her grandchild who should have been a vampire, would have been a vampire, if she hadn't failed as a mother and caused her own son to turn against his nature.

Whatever pang of guilt she feels just as quickly melts into disgust for the small child.

He is weak prey. He is no grandson of hers.

Fischer runs into Xue at the park.

"It's Spencer's," she tells him, motioning to the man busking pathetically behind them. Spencer rejects his wife and father's way of doing business, and instead of following Rio into the music industry like Javier and Felicia, Spencer has a part time job at the grocery store and, in spare time, plays his soul on the sidewalk.

McCoy doesn't trust the sand. He sticks close to his mother's legs.

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Etc.: So if you were reading the forum thread at the time, you know I had this horrible glitch after Wren was born, and Yasu had the pregnant belly bump forever. It didn't go away after McCoy was born, so I was forced to destroy Yasu and replace her with a clone. The clone was a near-perfect approximation, having all the same skills as Yasu, the same job level and experience, and the same relationships with the rest of the family (excepting the eternally faithful moodlet). Unfortunately there was nowhere to set what inventions she had already unlocked, so I had to waste time inventing them all over again. I also forgot to reset her age, so she's younger than she should be and I don't even care. The day after replacing Yasu, I found out my mods had been updated with a way to get rid of the belly glitch. D'oh!

At least I will never have to suffer through the glitch again.

It bothered me a lot that she wasn't the "real" Yasu, but I got over it...

Hi Christopher, I'm Nero.

Luke seemed to die really early. I think his age got glitched somehow. Poor guy.