Scientific

Not much to say so far. Diascia is further along in her career - she's an Aquatic Ecosystem Tweaker - so I'm going to use her as the heir. Ambitious will offset the lack of Fishing skill nicely, and since Symphonic is nowhere near cleared, I'll be able to offset her grumpiness with super happy fun snow angels.

I mentioned on the thread I'm keeping that I'm using the lightless hole I intended to kill people in as her fortress of solitude - she's an evil loner and doesn't mind the darkness. The witch I have my sights set on will freeze to death when he's no longer useful.

Stupid apples.

---

And so it falls to me.

I am the heir now, if only because I say so. My name is Diascia.

My sister, Daisy, is too interested in herself. She doesn't see what I do. Maybe she doesn't want to. Nobody selected the heir, so I'll take the task. Eucalyptus is younger than I am, so she listens to me.

Grandmother remembers fantastic devices - things that were only possible through technomagic, miracles of science. To a lesser extent, I can almost see into Father's thoughts. His peoples' secrets are centuries ahead of our primitive technology, and I know the humans would have stolen every one of them, even if they couldn't yet understand them.

It wouldn't do to let others in on our knowledge, not yet.

Regardless, we need the power of the old world, and it isn't like there's anything left on Athane for us to destroy.

Like Grandmother before me, and all my aunts and my uncle, I am a working woman. I will accomplish my goals before acquiring a mate and children. It might take years to get the clearance to even touch Father's ship, much less to dismantle it. The power source that allowed him to travel at the speed of light is self-sustaining, and I think I should be able to repurpose it for more practical uses. We aren't going to need to travel to the homeworld, by the time I - and my descendants - are done.

I have my eye on a witch boy. I have no real interest in things relating to sex, but since it will be years before I am ready to perform my duty, the child will have just become an adult. Plenty of time for him to serve whatever purpose I find suitable for him.

Assuming he proves worthy in the intervening time.

He will, of course, be honored to fulfill whatever task I set him to, beyond ensuring the bloodline. There is no greater honor than serving our family - even if not all the humans are aware of it yet.

My uncle is not as useful as Grandmother thought he'd be. He's a useless songwriter.

What point is there in simple music?

As to my siblings.

Daisy is currently working her way up through the ranks of the criminal element. She plans on taking over. Maybe she'll bring in the protection payments from other families.

Eucalyptus ... she's following in our uncle's footsteps, somewhat. But I have a plan for her.

There is a colony of faeries on the far side of the moon. It's said that they brought a fully grown green dragon with them from the homeworld - why in all creation they would have one, I have no idea - and they feed humans to it in some kind of ritual.

Faeries alone have power over nature. A green dragon is practically bound to the land.

If we can appease the faeries, perhaps they'll help us in the terraforming efforts. The Creator alone knows why they tolerate the endless winter anyway.

When my younger sister is ready, I'll send her to them.

Hopefully the dragon isn't especially hungry that day, but if it is ... well.

An offering of flesh would certainly sweeten the deal, wouldn't it.

Thief

So Master Thief is out of the way, Cale lost Symphonic right before MT was cleared, so that's nice too.

I got Camellia out of Business and was super lucky to find Science in the paper. Score!

And ... then Camellia died in a fire while tinkering with the fireplace. Irony is I'm pretty sure I was having her put on Fireproof. So yeah.

Diascia and Daisy are adults now. Diascia is my heir apparent, though she's working on Science - it might be better to let her Empress of Evil wannabe twin be the heir.

Eucalyptus became an adult and picked up Symphonic. I had her LTW as ISS, but Symphonic, man. Symphonic.

Six fires later (While the fireplace was supposed to be OFF) and I sold the fireplace. No need for more unnecessary accidental deaths.

Cale got Criminal. Then he quit Criminal in order to pick up ... Rock Star. Yep. At least he has the skill for it. It isn't a great lift but at least I won't have to take it on someone who doesn't have guitar skill.

Berry got older, and ranted herself to death in a decent, out-of-the-way spot the night she turned elder.

---

I am not the heir.

But until my nieces are old enough, I suppose I'll do this. 

My name is Berry. I am the reason our family has the resources they have. I knew when we were young that we would need finances. Everyone needs money - and money is so easily gotten, if you just ... take it. 

So I trained, and I ingratiated myself to the criminal element.

I didn't tell Barley where I went or why each night, though I suspect she knew.

It is honorable, I suppose, to die while you are still your own self. She had borne her fruits well, and she was no longer necessary.

That is not to say that I believe my sister was an honorable person. She was sad most of the time, and I think she just could not bear the weight of her existence any longer.

I don't really understand that.

She served her purpose, though.

Camellia was always inventing, always coming up with new ideas, new plans. One of those plans backfired, and she caught fire. There was nothing we could do - she burned so quickly.

It is a pity. Her work goes unfinished.

--

The twins are ... unsettling, to me. They seem to take perverse pleasure in the misfortune of others, and I see them always ... plotting.

Diascia plans to finish the work that Camellia started, bringing the light of science back into the world. She claims it's for the good of everyone, but I don't know that I believe that.

Daisy followed me to work one day. She thought I didn't know she was there. The others did not take kindly to her presence - but I explained to them that she was a talented youth. They could use someone like her, I said. She'd need only a little bit of training to be every bit the thief I am - but I suspect she has no intention of being on the front lines, so to speak, for any longer than she can help it. She's smart. Cunning. She wants more from this life than I did.

I am growing old, and weary.

I do not want to inconvenience anyone, but ...

It is no matter. They can care for themselves now. 

I am still myself. 

It is time.

The knife will do.

Burning

So this will be a fun write-up from an in-character point of view.

To start with, I Gary'd Aurora with a fireplace I bought specifically for that purpose. I suppose I'll nickname it The Incinerator.

Berry met an alien and war-dialed him until they were friends, then invited him over for Barley to meet. They hit it off, even though he was an elder, and in a flurry of romantic interactions he was won, wed, and bred. As the bloodline was secured, I implemented Phase Two: lifting Alien Tech. I got him a job as a Test Subject, and had him begin exploring the galaxy for loot. At first it seemed less than fruitful - but then a mega-windfall netted me several times the value of what I actually needed to collect. One gigantic rock analyzed at $13,808 and my remaining aging-off days later, and what's-his-face (alien names am I right?) cleared Alien Tech for me. Also 10 Athletics so that's nice too.

Then he died of old age.

Meanwhile, there are three small plants in Gen 3: Diascia (who somehow turned out Evil and Grumpy), Daisy (standard Loves the Outdoors and Green Thumb), and Eucalyptus (Good, Athletic).

I gave the older children Inappropriate when they aged up.

Berry became an Adult some time after Barley did and started up a fascinating career in Master Thief. Also the Alien cheated with her a little bit - just a smooch, but it made all of the younger children hate him a little bit. All of them. She's currently a Safecracker, and her traits are:

Charismatic (rebel faction)
Workaholic
Loves the Outdoors
Inappropriate
Athletic
Ambitious

So essentially perfect. She also has Multi-tasker.

Cale had a rough go of it, ending up with the traits:

Loves to Swim
Loves the Outdoors
Socially Awkward
Inappropriate
Green Thumb

And he got Symphonic. I can't complain! I just purchased Multi-tasker for him, too.

Camellia got Business, though her LTW is to lift Science. Sucks but I guess I shouldn't roll career wants until I can guarantee what career I get. She has:

Supernatural Fan
Inappropriate
Athletic
Green Thumb
Ambitious

And Multi-tasker.

---

She ... she killed herself. I don't - I can't - Mother ... why?

She just - she locked herself in a room and set herself on fire. I'll never forget the screams, for as long as I live. The paint on the metallic floorboards burned away, mixing with her ashes.

I just don't understand why.

--

Berry's friend is an interesting man. He's an alien, and I think he'll do. They have different strengths, but aliens are ... almost equal to us.

I applied my womanly wiles and had him in bed with me by the end of the day. Sure, days are longer than Mother remembered, but that's still pretty good. We had an informal marriage ceremony, and so I had an alien living with me.

For a short, short time.

There are humans who exert influence over us, for all that I might want to believe otherwise. Two men came in black suits. They were not poorly dressed, nor did they look like the thugs that come for our protection money. These were ... something else. They took my prize away, my mate.

I want him back.

--

My siblings are growing up around me, getting jobs. I brought children into the world.

I feel ... lonely. I'm going through the motions, but ... How am I supposed to do anything about - anything?

Is this how Mother felt?

Is this why she - died?

--

They returned my love to me, half-crazed and dying. He wasn't - useful to them anymore, he said - but the research was 'valuable.' They'd confiscated him and his ship - they thanked me and gave me a check, while I watched the man I'd married die.

I hate them. I hate all of them.

--

*The rest of the journal is charred beyond readability.*

Age

So.

Alvaro died of old age, and his grave ended up in a pretty good spot actually. Doesn't interfere with anything at all.

Barley aged up into a young adult. Even though I have Education lifted, I do not have symphonic, nor any way to prevent all of the snow days ever from happening. So she got Vehicle Enthusiast, which is pretty neutral. I guess I'll have to build rebel rep until I can get Inappropriate. OR. OR. She finished her LTW, and has enough LTW points to now swap out ALL of her traits.

Barley is now:

Family-Oriented
Inappropriate
Perfectionist
Bookworm
Artistic

Since she lifted her restriction (Artist) literally two days into adulthood, I'm making her the heir. She deserves it.

Cale became a teen and got Socially Awkward, which, combined with Inappropriate, is going to be ... fun.

And Camellia got Supernatural Fan. So yeah. That's nice.

Oh. The Awesome Bed Glitch gives Aurora a ridiculous number of LTR points. So I swapped out "Genius" for "Insane." For roleplaying purposes.

And then I'm putting the moodfix mod back in tomorrow morning. Because seriously that's getting ridiculous.

---

Father's death ... Mother was never the same after he died.

She told me that I would inherit, when I know for a fact that she wanted to give that honor to Berry. But, she said, a tear in her eye, she appreciated all the work I did to try and help Father in his last days. She said ... she said that I deserved it.

My name is Barley. It is my great honor to follow in my mother's footsteps.

I am an author and an illustrator of some renown. It's okay if you haven't heard of me though. You, like the rest of our society, were just living under a rock, praying for this miserable winter to end.

I am the first of four siblings.

Mother never understood why she was created the way she was. But I understand.

Who but a plant would be qualified to bring life to a barren world?

My family and I are engineered - destined, even - to bring this moon to full life.

To that end, I suppose I should work on expanding that family. I need a mate.

--

We aren't like the flesh and bone creatures that share the moon with us. There isn't any way around that fact.

We are superior, in every fashion.

Humans, werewolves, vampires, faeries - all the monsters of our history books share a common weakness. They need to eat to survive. We don't.

Sure, some of them lived forever, and some of them had magical ability. But we have our secrets, too.

Mother never knew this, and I won't be telling her now, but we remember. We remember the old world, seen through her eyes. We remember - we know - all the things that she knew. Some of the details may be vague, or incomplete. Our bodies need to learn how to do things again.

But we have a full lifetime of memories to rebuild from.

We are the future.

Berry knows it. Cale is fixated on the idea. Camellia - well, she's young, still. She'll learn.

My family will work on rebuilding the world, and I will tell the tale, as I bring new life into the world. If we start with the minds of the children, when they grow up, they'll be used to - even accepting of - the idea that we are made to rule them.

And of course, the elderly don't know any differently.

When the time comes? We'll be ready.

I loved my father, I did. But, look what humans have done to their own world. They can't be trusted not to ruin ours. So I'll keep them, as they kept dogs and cats and other little animals. They'll be safer that way.

Berry says she wants me to meet someone. Someone different, someone unique.

I think I will.

Children

So the manflesh - Alvaro - made it. At the ripe old age of exactly 90 days, he cleared Pro Sports. I ate six aging off days to manage that, during which I was also furiously leveling Barley's writing and painting. She is at 10 painting and 7 writing, still in the early part of her teenagerdom. She has a solid D in high school because I accidentally failed to send her to school one day - it was the first day she was actually supposed to have to go. Snow days ftw I guess. She's only had one day at school to rectify that mistake.

I moved the nursery to the lower level, which is fine - it works out there.

Contrary to popular research, I have to conclude that child athletic is a thing, because Berry started her first (autonomous) workout at 3 Athletic. I guess that hopscotch court I bought is worth something after all.

Two more babies were born - Cale and Camellia, who both got Green Thumb. Cale got Loves the Outdoors and Camellia got Athletic.

Cale aged up, and I discovered that Inappropriate wasn't a good trait for children - they can't sponge bath - so when Camellia aged up I had her get Ambitious too.

Everyone's busy skilling, and Alvaro still hasn't gone kaput. But better safe than sorry - athletics was a good lift so I can move stuff. And: I am stuffing all of the important books inside the heir's inventory. No more fear of burglars and repo-men for me! (See, if my bookcase had been stolen before now, my challenge would've abruptly ended.)

Oh, I also gave Aurora a midlife crisis. She traded workaholic and ambitious out for family-oriented and nurturing, since she won't be rejoining the workforce. (It's too bad she can't do another lift.)

---

When did my family become so important to me? I remember a time not long ago that all I cared about was my own achievements.

I suppose I've grown up.

Barley and Berry shot up like weeds. They're good kids - they've become teenagers now, in as near an approximation as this moon has. They are young still, though, and sometimes they still make me angry. I spent my entire life working on the lacking education system, and they squander the gifts I've made available!

But enough about me. They are good kids. Berry spends her free time training her body and mind - she acts like the future rests on her shoulders. I've named her my heir apparent, a title she takes very seriously. She'll be a great woman, when she grows up.

Barley spends most of her time with her father. He - he's losing his grip on reality, as the old often do. Worse, he realizes what he's lost. Barley does her best to distract him, to make him laugh. He loves the books she writes - little children's tales, but they're beautifully illustrated, and he can still understand the words.

We had two more saplings - children - before he got too old to even consider it.

I named the boy Cale, and the girl is Camellia.

Camellia takes after Berry, following her every move as though she's trying to be a miniature copy of her sister. She follows Berry's workouts. I worry that she's overextending herself, but she assures me she's okay.

Cale worries me just as much, for different reasons. He's a very serious boy. He seems focused on honing his mind - I'm concerned that he just doesn't know how to live, how to have fun.

That seems to be all my life is - worrying after my children.

Do they even need me anymore?

Education

Things that have happened so far:

It is Wednesday of Week 2 since Aurora left college for the Moon Base, and she has cleared Education. Woo!

A burglary happened, and the burglar made off with a crib and the radio. Boo!

And Aurora met her one true love, who happens to be a burglar himself. And single! Woo!

Only then he moves in and he is no longer a burglar. Apparently he wasn't precisely in the criminal career track - I had no idea - and has no skills whatsoever, with only nine days left until elder. If I blew literally all my aging-off days I might - might be able to have him clear a career. Alternatively if he gets a career that requires athletic skill. He does have the athletic trait, so getting to ten athletics is a possibility.

Then I realize that I have neither a door for the pantry nor a toilet nor a grill. I elect to buy the grill and the door.

Here's a disgusting fact: If your mundane sim wets himself, your plant sim can absorb the puddle. Think really, really hard on that.

Then he got Professional Sports. Score!

Berry and Barley are born. Berry is my first 'born' plant baby, so she's the heir, for better or worse.

Both Berry and Barley got the Loves the Outdoors trait. Berry got Athletic while Barley got Good.

Since I have Education lifted I can choose traits - assuming that the life stage gives me an option. I don't know how to get Plant Sim babies to pick traits, but they're usually 'positive' traits that they do get. The transition from Toddler to Child is therefore quite important - one of my strategies is to give all of my plants Inappropriate, since dehydration is pretty bad.

---

I woke up suddenly in a dark place. It was terrifying - there were straps holding me down, and tubes going to every conceivable part of my body. I panicked, I screamed until my lungs gave out, and finally, finally, they came to let me out. The lightless coffin opened, and gentle hands freed me from my tomb. I was crying when they released me.

There were several ships sent to this place - Moon Base Charlie, they call it. Mine was one of the later ships to arrive, so most of the work was already done. They set me up in a decent-sized house, a thing made of steel and painted to look like wood.

It was a windowless box, barely better than the coffin. I felt like I would suffocate as I stepped inside.

Welcome home.

--

I have settled in to life here at Moon Base Charlie. It is a frigid, dark moon, with no plants and few animals. We haven't the infrastructure to properly terraform, they say - why did they send humans to an uninhabitable moon?

There are points where I get angry. The hierarchy in place puts criminals squarely at the top of the food chain, with honest, working folk stuck at the bottom. What should be a cooperative effort to establish civilization is instead fraught with corruption and deceit. So much for 'the best and brightest.'

So the criminal overlords 'request' protection payments, threatening violence if you don't - or can't - pay. Then, even if you do pay, some of their thugs come to take some of your things. Then, they all claim that it was someone unaffiliated with 'the family' who did it, and to watch your mouth or they'll do worse to you.

I didn't get here by being stupid, but they seem to take me for a fool.

There is one man in this entire organization who seems uncomfortable with what's happening. We struck up a conversation one time. He made me laugh, which - I haven't laughed about much lately.

I like him.

--

By the Creator, how time flies. I have been working almost non-stop as a teacher - it feels like only a week, maybe two, has passed, but it must have been months, or at least that's what the calendar tells me. Days can last weeks at a time, nights almost as long. It's tough to adjust to, but you get used to it eventually.

I took the man I mentioned before as my husband - he teases me that I'm robbing the cradle, since he was born and raised on the Moon Base - he's much younger, in a sense, than I am. But physically, he's aging fast. I see gray in his hair, and wrinkles in his face, around his eyes.

We have brought two lovely infants into the world. When we - ahem - became mates, my body flowered, and produced their seeds. Curious, I planted them in some of the soil we'd brought from the old world. I think I knew what was going to happen, in some distant part of my soul, but it still came as a surprise when the mound of dirt began to wail.

I have named the twins "Barley" and "Berry." Barley is forever crying, demanding that attention be heaped upon her, while her sister stays quiet, almost thoughtful.

I never thought I'd be having children at the ripe old age of several hundred years old!

There are things you take for granted. For example, the dead are supposed to stay in their graves. But they don't. Some power brings them back as zombies, monsters interested only in human - or plant - flesh. I had heard stories, back on the homeworld - is it possible that the creatures of our past followed us to our future?

My husband gave up the life of crime after we married. He went straight, he says, and works with the scientists to create an experimental serum that will help people overcome the increased gravity of the moon. As it stands, it takes several strong men to complete a one-person job. I worry that he won't live to see his work complete - I may be old in a literal sense, but ... I still look - and feel - young. He doesn't.

Creator, let him live just a little longer.

Green

Week two flew by in a breeze. Aurora developed full blown plantsim-itis on the day she returned from college week one. I'm still abusing the dragons, but they won't factor into the 'story' such as it is.

I should note that despite references otherwise, I'm just being lazy and not changing my uni seasons on an easy start, since they'll be restricted to full snow anyway soon enough. So essentially it's during the end of the world, I guess, before launch day arrives and she blasts off full-time into space.

I pushed through the last two weeks as quickly as I could, leveling science and printing plasma bugs, like y'do. I didn't focus so much on making money, so I topped it out at $211k even, more than adequate to build everything I could ever possibly want. Or, well, I thought so. It turns out that I wasn't able to build everything I wanted, but I was able to build four levels (including the carport/car), along the same lines as my last house.

So the final tally of things that Aurora did in college:

Skills:

10 Charisma
10 Gardening
10 Science
5 Handiness
10 Logic
10 Social Networking

Traits:

Lucky (Graduation Trait)
Bookworm (Nerd Social Group Trait)
Workaholic
Charismatic
Inappropriate
Ambitious
Genius

Lifetime Rewards:

Multi-tasker
Fast Learner
Dirt Defiant
Bookshop Bargainer
Observant
Simmunity
Inappropriate but in a Good Way
Office Hero

Misc. :

3 Skill Challenges (Charisma: everyone's best friend, super friendly, celebrity)

1 LTW (Perfect Student)

Ending Simoleans: $21,100

Oh and she maxed Nerd Influence but since I'm not going for that career ... who's really counting anyway?

---

They tell me the ... the foliage is harmless, that I am still the same person I always was, but my skin crawls when I look in the mirror. This isn't right.

They tell me also that there isn't a cure for this - and really, why wouldn't I just love the idea of being a ... a plant!

It's for the better, they insist. I don't feel any stronger, and if I'm smarter it certainly has nothing to do with being ready to set down roots in a pot of dirt!

It has a few small perks. I don't seem to need anything more than the wan sunlight we see for sustenance, and I don't need to void my bowels - do I even have internal organs anymore? - since I never eat.

There is one other unsettling thing: people seem to ... just ... like me more. Why is no one else as freaked out about this as I am?

Right, because it isn't their body that was disfigured.

They say I'm ready now, that it's time.

In my mind I see it as a frozen tomb, the cryo-pod that will keep me alive for the centuries the trip to the far-away moon will take. It's another planet - a warmer planet, they say, but the planet itself is inhospitable. So we'll land on its moon and colonize that.

They'll let me keep the journal. It's the last record we will have of the old world when the rocket takes off.