3.5: The Kids Are Alright

Zosma’s ambitious nature was standing her in good stead at work; she was promoted almost immediately to mess hall server, due to her ability to keep her head when things went wrong. An unexpected explosion in the latrine had her coworkers all in confusion, but Zosma carried away the wounded and started first aid procedures without any instruction. Her superior promoted her on the spot and told her to report to the mess hall on the following day.

Outside of work, she’d been given an opportunity to test out a new exercise tracking machine – when she completed the hour of jogging time and returned the device to Mr. Goth, she met not only Walter who she remembered from when she was a teen, but his brother Kenyon as well. She lingered in their driveway, talking with him until quite late. They didn’t share any traits in common that she could tell, but he seemed to be quite the virtuoso, and they got pretty fired up talking about military politics. It was the kind of argument that stimulated rather than frustrated, and she hoped she’d have a chance to talk to him again soon.

Her other siblings were also doing well. Talitha’s new favorite pastime was fishing in the park across the road. She wasn’t allowed to go by herself, but her father was happy to take her on the weekends and sometimes even after school. He even bought her some books about fishing so she could learn what baits to use for the kinds of fish available in the pond. Someday she thought she’d even like to try ocean fishing.

Wazn’s book had received a modest amount of success; perhaps not as much as he’d hoped, but he was already buried in his next book, about the realities of peer pressure and cliques in the high school and their effects on the learning environment. As a rather nerdy boy, he had some direct experience in this area, but he spent some time interviewing classmates to get a variety of perspectives and stories. This was how he met Marta Xiong, who even came home from school with him one day! True, she had agreed to come over because he had offered to help her with homework in return for an interview, but she stayed to chat and even seemed pretty impressed by his painting skills. Wazn had not neglected his painting in his efforts to write, instead finding that it was a great way to relax and let his ideas percolate. Some of his more recent paintings might even be considered brilliant.

I love this painting – it is definitely going up in the house somewhere! Perhaps over Wazn’s desk.

3.4: Jane’s Erratic Behavior

Eventually, the family began to notice that Jane was behaving oddly – her conversation was frequently veering onto odd and even alarming tangents, and she seemed prey to fits of unexplained nausea. Her old friend Beid even called Sadr to talk about it, though he couldn’t articulate exactly what he thought was wrong, only that Jane seemed less stable than normal. “She even asked me for money, but I didn’t give her any” he confessed. “I know you guys are well off and don’t need it. When I asked questions about it, she seemed to change her mind and told me to forget she’d asked. But it was odd, and I just thought you should know.”

Jane brushed off all their efforts to talk about what was going on, and told them she was just stressed from work, and that there was nothing the matter.

Unfortunately, they decided to take her at her word, and her anxiety increased.

Not sure why Jane is throwing up – maybe she ate some spoiled food while I wasn’t watching? I was a little worried she Sadr might have had some autonomous woohoo, but no babies have been forthcoming.

I have pretty much been letting her go and do whatever she likes via free will – so of course she’s not sleeping or eating enough, and spends all her time working out or playing computer games.

Not Dead Yet

Hi guys! Sorry about the lack of updates. I promise the Astarum family are alive and well… they’ve just been in stasis for a few weeks. I’ve started a new job (and, um, joined a new knitting group) which are eating up almost all my time and energy. Hopefully things will stabilize a bit soon and I will resume my regular updates – though they will probably be a bit slower in coming, for which I apologize. That silly life thing is getting in my way. Thanks for coming back to check on us – more soon!

3.3: Budding Author

Wazn smirked as he typed out the final paragraph of his first novel. He’d been getting advances as he turned in the finished chapters, and his editor had told him it was a very promising book for someone of his age. Wazn already had some ideas for the next installment… he was sure the publisher would be interested.

He’d spent some time talking with his father about the publishing business. Wazn was starting to think that writing might be what he wanted to do for a career, but his father was a little dubious that it would support the family mission.

Naturally, after a bit of reflection, Wazn was able to come up with a solution to the problem; he proposed to his father that at least half of the books he would write would be non-fiction. Wazn would do research into a topic for a reference work, or write about things in his own experience; the resulting books could be sent in electronic format to the Star People alongside the normal reports. Sadr smiled at his son, and put an approving hand on the skinny boy’s shoulder. “An excellent plan. I think that will be very helpful to the Star People – a more in-depth study than they’d get from our regular reports. Good work, Wazn.”

Wazn flushed with pleasure at his father’s approval, and rushed off to the computer to start brainstorming for his first nonfiction project.

3.2: Curious Child

Talitha was endlessly curious, and always getting into something new, whether it was a book or a game or some random cable channel tv show. Rather than being neglected for being so much younger than her siblings, Talitha seemed to get more attention from them than they had given to one another while they were growing up. Wazn helped her with her homework, while Zosma preferred to play catch together.

Soon Jane’s research paid off, and she was promoted to Gene Therapist – that meant no more late hours for her, and she could resume a schedule that matched the rest of the family.

She hoped it would help her put to rest Talitha’s sudden interest in ghosts – ever since one of her schoolmates had told about seeing his grandfather’s ghost late one night, she had taken to prowling around the house late looking for one. Jane assumed that the girl only wanted to make sure her mother was home, but now that she’d be around nights, hopefully she could dispel this ghost nonsense.

Or maybe she couldn’t… her feelings of unworthiness had not subsided. Talitha’s siblings seemed to take the most care of her, and Jane herself was starting to feel almost superfluous. They all got on so well without her while she was off being a doctor. Sure, she was doing good work as a surgeon, but her heart wasn’t really in it anymore. The only thing she could do when she started to feel invisible was hop back on the treadmill for more exercise, to calm down her anxious thoughts.

Talitha Astarum – Child

Talitha Astarum, child
Brave, Excitable, Workaholic
Music: Kids
Food: Lobster Thermidor
Color: Blue

LTW: Creature-Robot Cross Breeder

Fastest LTW roll ever – her second day as child she rolled 2 in quick succession. When I wouldn’t let her become a World Renowned Surgeon, she wanted to become a Creature-Robot Cross Breeder.

(I’m trying for no repeat LTWs – could get complicated as I get farther into the legacy, but we’ll see how it goes! I can’t control spouses, obviously (Jane’s and Sadr’s are the same, for example) but all the kids will have unique LTWs, even if they have to wait until young adulthood to manually have them selected.)

3.1: Another Missed Moment

Jane’s schedule unfortunately meant that she had to work nights, meaning she was able to stay home with her daughter during the day, but was away in the evening when everyone else was home. Because of this, she had to miss Talitha blowing out her birthday candles.

She felt awful about this; she’d almost missed Zosma’s adult birthday and now she was missing Talitha’s. She felt like a horrible mother. Her children seemed to get on well without her, but in some ways that made her feel even worse.

The rest of the family was oblivious to Jane’s worries, and they happily cheered as the toddler blew out her candles with her father’s assistance.

Zosma Astarum – Young Adult

Zosma Astarum, Young Adult
Workaholic, Slob, Athletic, Party Animal, Ambitious
Music: indie
Food: grilled salmon
Color: spiceberry

LTW: Become an Astronaut

And with that, we kick off generation 3! (Regardless of who will be heir, I am counting the generation change from when the eldest child becomes a young adult.) Zosma has added ambition to her list of traits, which should actually help her get to her lifetime want! I am pleased about that, especially if I end up choosing Talitha as heir and moving Zosma out.

Beid’s adult trait seems to be Can’t Stand Art, which is somewhat ironic considering his mother’s lifetime wish. Maybe she spent TOO much time painting when he was a kid? He seems to be fond of gemstones, however.

2.32: Zosma’s Birthday

It was finally time for Zosma to graduate from high school. She planned a big party to celebrate – the first party in the new house! She’d been looking forward to it for ages, it seemed.

They stalled for over an hour on blowing out the candles, while waiting for Jane to get home from work – she turned out to be late because she’d just been promoted to Trauma Surgeon. Everyone agreed this was fabulous news – she was getting closer to her goal of being a well known surgeon. But somehow, Jane wasn’t feeling excited about it, just agitated about the change, and about being late to her daughter’s big party. She thought maybe she should work out – but she couldn’t while there were so many people over. She just put on a pleasant expression, smiled, and declined the slice of cake that her husband brought her.

Zosma was an adult at last! She couldn’t wait to apply for a job at the military – she definitely still wanted to pursue her goal of getting to the stars someday. She’d spent so much of her childhood gazing up at the stars and wondering what was out there. At last, she was old enough to get started on the path to finding out.

Jane’s anxiety storyline is coming largely from actual events – she really seems to be dreading Zosma’s aging up, doesn’t she?

2.31: Life in the New House

Everyone enjoyed the new house – each bedroom had its own bathroom, which made things much easier in the morning before school and work.

Talitha had to be left home with a babysitter during the day now that her mom was working again, but they seemed to have found some reliable young men to stay with her while the others were gone. Izar got home from work around the same time that Zosma and Wasn got out of school. He would dismiss the sitter and then spend some quality time with his daughter before working on his research or preparing dinner.

Wazn frequently wanted to play with his little sister – to tickle her or toss her in the air. Zosma preferred to chat with the toddler; she was highly amused by Talitha’s attempts to pronounce long words. The two older siblings became closer, too, now that they were the same age. They did homework together, and sometimes played chess – Zosma had more experience, but Wazn’s brilliant mind sometimes enabled him to beat her anyway.

The change of house didn’t seem to make any difference on Jane’s obsessive need to work out.