Lynx notices his daughters behaving differently. Growing up. They don't play with most of their toys anymore. They don't tell him everything about their day anymore. They stress about their teen romances, or lack thereof. They join after school clubs. When they find their allowance isn't enough for them, Laurel and Lydia take part time jobs, without being told to.
Solana doesn't have time for a job. Even after everyone else in shop club has gone home, she obtains special permission from her teachers to stay behind, working on various projects.
Her goal is to be accepted into a prestigious and competitive program at Sim University after she graduates from high school, so she needs to get to work being impressive now.
The resources Aurora Skies dedicates to public education is impressive. Not every city allows students to play with nanite design. However, those resources aren't infinite. Only very promising students are allowed access to this expensive equipment, and they are only allocated a small amount of materials to work with.
"Nanites are behind lots of our medical tech these days," Solana explains to Lydia, "but they're also used in plumbot brains. A network of them can create..."
Blah, blah, blah. Lydia doodles on the whiteboard, paying attention but not understanding most of what her sister says.
Lynx doesn't get the appeal, but he can see Solana is very passionate about this project of hers... so he "donates" to the school, convincing them to give Solana more lab time and more materials.
Lynx worried the twins would see him shoveling money into Solana's projects as favoritism, but they really don't seem to care.
"Well, she's not exactly doing fun things, Dad. She's working a lot harder than I am, just to get into some fancy university. What would you do if I wanted to go to university? Would you pay for it?"
"Of course. But you'd have to be accepted into a program first..."
"I'd probably pick some really stupid one that has like no vetting process, because I'm just a loser. But Lana is going to get a full scholarship, you know she is. So it's like you're just paying for her college now."
"You are not a loser, Lydia. Why would you say that?"
"I don't know what I want to do with my life and all I like is books and I'm scared of everything and I can't even get a boyfriend, mostly because I'm scared of getting a boyfriend. It's just... you've always been such a great dad, it's weird to think you've done things I think are morally wrong. If you could do that kind of thing, couldn't anyone?"
"You just have to be a better judge of character than your mother was," Lynx says.
By this point they have had 'the talk' about the past, and it really wasn't eventful. It wasn't even one single talk. Over time Lynx answered a question here, a question there. Mostly the girls put it all together themselves. And now that boys are all they think about, the twins really needed to know they were related to about five of their classmates.
Brooke's grandfather, Lief Helgason, had children with four different women, resulting in a tangled web of town families that have little to do with each other apart from genetics. Aside from Brooke's sisters, Mae and Julia, none of them really even know Laurel and Lydia are part of that web.
"That is just not reassuring," Lydia whines, after thinking about it a while.
Laurel doesn't know what she wants to do with her life either, but it's not a source of angst like it is with Lydia. Laurel has a few possibilities she's tossing around. Maybe she could go into professional sports? Or be a movie star? Mainly she wants to be admired. Lynx doesn't care about sports at all, but he does understand being competitive and wanting recognition.
"If you're serious about being movie star, I can get you into some acting classes," he says. "You can't just dream about obtaining your goals. You have to reach for them."
Laurel frowns. She is not that serious about being a movie star.
The house is burglarized again.
The thief is already in cuffs by the time Lydia runs downstairs, but she's still so terrified she faints.
Lynx spends a while calming her down.
The policeman does a thorough check of the area, but it seems the would-be thief was working alone.
"He said he didn't like all the blue in the latest expansion," the cop says, with a shrug.
Lynx's takeover as Studio Head has made him the primary target of fan rage. There's no escaping it.
That night experiences the first heavy snowfall of winter. In the morning, Solana and Arne are out playing in it.
Arne is there when Solana completes and activates her first plumbot.
His designation is Uno.
Technically, he belongs to the school, but that's okay. He's a proof of concept, a testament to Solana's ability, and he'll look good on her university application no matter what the school ultimately does with him.
They end up selling Uno to a restaurant.
Solana sees none of the money from the sale, but that's okay, right?
The profits from this convince them to allow Solana to make more plumbots.
This one's designation is Dau. He's of more robust construction than Uno, with different programming. Every new bot is its own experiment in engineering and artificial intelligence.
Solana is one of only a handful of nanite brain engineers in the world, and most of those people are content to run tech support on mass produced bots that were first built generations ago. Only a fraction have any interest in trying to improve the technology.
It's all a bit controversial. The goal is to make them as intelligent as possible without granting them any degree of sentience... since sentient bots have successfully lobbied to be recognized as people in the past, and needing to pay them and let them make choices about what to do with their time completely destroys their purpose and value as efficient laborers.
Plumbot 3, designation Trois.
Number four. Designation Fyra.
Fyra is advanced enough to assist in the construction of Viisi (#5), before they are both sold.
Solana spends so much time working on her bot project that other life events kind of sneak up on her. Snowflake Day feels like a random surprise.
Solana has been getting along a lot better with her mother, now that she sees her less often and in places other than the house. Mariposa has been semi-steadily employed, and now lives with a roommate down on on Edgewood Avenue. Rather than bothering the roommate, Mariposa hangs out with her daughter in public places, their visits often centered around some fun activity.
Prom happened too. Prom was a mess. Arne and Solana were indisputably adorable... but Lydia is freaking out (with glee and anxiety) because Vern Vinter (the kid she was playing with in 2.9) asked her out... and poor Laurel was rejected by her crush, Brent Wrede, because he had his eye on Allyson Thompson, and then Laurel got in a fight with Janette Elliot.
Laurel is angry-sad and in need of comforting, while Lydia is hyperventilating and in need of calming down.
And yes, Lydia and Laurel are wearing very similar dresses.
Laurel is annoyed that her twin did the whole twin copying thing tonight of all nights.
The next day, Lydia is supposed to meet Vern at her favorite coffee shop for a date, but she loses her nerve and texts him to cancel. She lies about having a headache, and reschedules for later in the week.
"You're psyching yourself out and making it worse," Laurel warns her. "The longer you wait, the more you'll have it blown up in your head as some huge deal, when all it is is hanging out with some lame teenage boy next to the book store."
"Shut up Laurel. You don't have a boyfriend, how would you know anything?"
Laurel is in sports club, and her part time job is at the grocery store.
Lydia is in study club, and her part time job is the book store.
But today, the book shop has her delivering a set of books to another shop.
Lydia had heard rumors about the place on Rock Ridge road. It sells scented candles, plastic "crystals", supposedly charmed trinkets, and colored water in fancy jars... marketed as "potions" that are supposed to bring luck or confidence or happiness or fertility.
It employs a "psychic" who claims to see the future and can tell one's fortune.
It's all a bunch of nonsense, of course, but it must be fun to pretend.
Lydia shivers as she makes her way up the walkway. Yes, it's cold... but it's also spooky.
The shop is warm. It smells like old wood and dust. Solana's mother is here, dressed questionably and staring intensely at a painting of a stag-headed being. Mariposa does not acknowledge Lydia, and Lydia does her best to ignore Mariposa as she explains why she is here to the man at the cash register.
He seems to stare through her, as if she weren't even standing there. "Leon Zhong, alchemist," he identifies himself. "What can I do for you?"
Lydia's face scrunches up in confusion. "I just said... never-mind, sorry, you didn't hear me I guess... um... I'm from Manuscripts? Down the block on Livingstone Street. I have the order..."
"Of course. Take the books upstairs, to Madame Ruth."
Lydia glances apprehensively at the staircase. It looks like it might collapse if she put any weight on it. "Uhhhh... can't I just... leave them here with you?"
Leon falls silent, but keeps staring, perhaps watching the snow fall outside through the window.
Lydia creeps towards the stairs.
They're very narrow stairs, and they lead to a cramped series of rooms.
"Madame Ruth?" Lydia calls out.
No answer.
One room seems more open. There's a glass sphere sitting prominently on a small round table. Two chairs around the table face each other. This must be the room where futures are told and palms are read, she decides. It looks shadowy to her, uninviting, secretive, but she doesn't know where else to look for the person she is supposed to find, so she sets foot into this room anyway...
There's a woman in there. She's already absorbed in the pages of a book.
"You must be cold in that dress and sandals," Lydia says, so softly she thought she wouldn't be heard, but the woman's eyes snap up to meet her gaze immediately.
She has a gold tattoo on her arm. It's a turtle.
"I see you have the order. Thank you dear. Put them in the pile." Madame Ruth, presumably, motions to the scattering of books near her feet.
She watches as Lydia performs the action requested, then leans forward, eyes gleaming with sudden interest. "What an aura you have. May I take a closer look?"
Lydia laughs nervously. "I guess you do the fortune telling and stuff?"
"A consultation normally costs money, but in your case I'll make an exception."
"No thanks. I'm kind of creeped out by all this." Lydia laughs again, even more nervous this time.
"I can see that. Are you often frightened, Lydia?"
"Do I know you? How do you know my name?"
"That would be a trade secret," Ruth says.
"Maybe you know my dad, or... umm... I go to school with one of your kids, or..."
"Do I look that old?" Ruth seems hurt.
"Huh? No! No, I'm sorry..."
"Sit." Ruth gestures towards the table with the crystal ball prop. "I insist."
Ruth doesn't actually touch the glass ball on the table, but it begins to rise, levitated in the air by some trick Lydia doesn't understand.
"You are often nervous. It doesn't have to be that way, you know. You could have the courage to speak your mind, and stop comparing yourself to your sisters, and stop fainting, and go on that date with Vern Vinter."
"I am very upset that you seem to know about my failures..." Lydia nervous-laughs, again.
"Do you want to see your future?" The glass ball glows. "It's not very interesting. You're held back by fear and you die alone, of old age, full of regrets."
"That's an awful thing to say to someone," Lydia complains.
"Well, it's not a fate set in stone. Witchcraft and alchemy can be pathways to changing the trajectory of one's life towards the better."
"But your sales pitch is terrible..."
"The orb sees what it sees, child."
"Fine. What does the orb want to sell me?"
Madame Ruth's smile grows uncomfortably wide. "Potion number nine."
Lydia protests, but Madame Ruth declares that the "first batch is on the house" and busies herself mixing chemicals in the sink. A horrible smell assaults Lydia's nose.
Madame Ruth gives her a bottle of glowing liquid, and urges her to be on her way.
"You must drink it all in one gulp for the magic to be strong enough. Have courage!"
"I thought it was supposed to give me courage..."
"And you must help it along. Go now! My four o'clock is waiting."
When Lydia gets home, she places the "potion" on her bookcase. Its glass bottle is undeniably fancy, but a pretty trinket is all it is... at best.
"That lady must think I'm an absolute fool," Lydia says to herself. "Why would I take a mystery drug given to me by some random person in a shady snake oil shop?"
Maddeningly, she is still tempted. Her anxiety grows as time passes and the next date with Vern nears. Every time her crush texts her, her stomach churns.
So much that she vomits.
Eventually, Lydia has had enough... so she holds her nose, closes her eyes, and takes a drink.
Lydia meets up with Vern at one of her favorite places, a tea shop above the library.
She feels no fear. The potion she drank has destroyed her inhibitions, allowing her to chatter endlessly at this boy about their favorite books... and as the afternoon turns into evening, to just smile and listen. Or try to listen. Her excitement buzzes in her ears, and she can barely hear him.
She thinks he's so cute. She stares right at his gray-blue eyes, not breaking contact.
He blushes.
She surprises him, and herself, with a sudden and passionate kiss.
When she pulls away from that, just slightly, it really hits her how calm she feels.
She hasn't felt this secure in a long, long time.
"I didn't know you were this into me," Vern says.
"Did I overstep?" she asks.
He responds with a kiss of his own, trying to answer her passion in kind.
The low-calorie life is now for losers. Lydia orders a triple chocolate espresso with strawberry whipped cream, like she's always wanted to do.
Then she blows off work so she and Vern can head over to The Grind and rent a karaoke room.
Is it day, or is it night?
Lydia doesn't know. She just wants to dance.
She eats a pile of greasy onion rings...
...and messes around with the DJ equipment, even as she's yelled at to not touch it.
Lydia's actions eventually get her kicked out of the club. Vern follows, watching her flop over in the fresh snow and make shapes in it with her body. She laughs, freely. Not even the cold can touch her.
"This was the best date ever," Vern says, as he kisses her goodnight. "I hope we can do it again soon."
Lydia gets home late, almost past curfew, thinking she has had the most amazing night.
And then, as she's getting ready for bed, it hits her.
She won't have the courage to even look at Vern again unless she can get her hands on more of that potion.
_____________________________________________
Etc.: I know, I know. It's "gold capped tooth" not "gold tattoo".
The plumbots are being created and then moved out of the household with MasterController, and then given jobs via Register (another Twallan mod). I have them all working as cashiers or bartenders, where otherwise sims born in town would be filling these roles. Those sims tend to not get much of a social life, so I always end up feeling bad for them. Now that robots have taken their jobs, maybe I'll see them around town a little more.
They are high quality bots, with beneficial trait chips installed, so it was a bit of a grind to create them. You may be wondering why I had Solana do this. Well. More on that later.
