Michael & Edith's household

Where to start with these guys? They are not necesarily the same ones you know from the story. These are alternate reality Edith and Michael.

They live with the Old Man. He has a name, but Michael started calling him that before he even took them in and it pretty much just stuck. He used to roll his eyes and repeat his name which would make Edith laugh, and a laugh from her in those early days was a rare thing. It became a game after a while that Old Man and Michael both secretly enjoyed just to hear Edith laughing.

When they came to town, they had nothing. The city leader set them up on the site of a failed construction project. They were just thankful for anything at the time. Michael has nothing but complaints about it. Meanwhile Edy sees all the possible good that can come out of it. She wants to grow a beautiful garden and use the fresh fruits for her cooking.

New to their little group is Selene Toma. She doesn't say anything about her past, and that makes Michael highly suspicious. He was very against letting her stay with them, but Edy made a plea so convincing that the old man couldn't refuse her. (It's not easy to refuse a girl who rarely makes requests and then asks for something for someone else the first time she does.)

But rest assured that Michael sleeps with one eye open as the three teens share a room.



On this night, the teens are working on their homework after school.

Michael and Edith sit at the kitchen table together pouring over their work. It's no trouble for Michael. She knows he'd be done already if it wasn't for her slowing him down, but he never complains about it. (The one thing he doesn't seem to complain about.)

What she doesn't know is what is actually slowing him down. It's not stopping to help her that's the problem. It's that she has a habit of drawing attention to her lips when she thinks by nibbling on her pencil.


Dirty thoughts in her presense always make him feel a little guilty even if they're caused by her. He scratches the back of his head and looks away towards the ceiling, trying to banish the thoughts and focus on his work, but you just try thinking about formulas with her sitting so close poking at her sweet lips with the tip of her eraser.

By the time they actually do finish, it's about time for bed. Everyone in the house is really exhausted. Her from all the cooking, cleaning, and homework she did, and him from work and the exertion of trying to keep his thoughts distracted from distraction.

They fold up their notebooks and put them in their backpacks which they leave by the door so they can run off and catch the bus tomorrow at the last minute like usual.

And that's the moment when Michael slides something out of his backpack and turns to her. "I got you something."

It's a book on gardening that makes her smile. Not a cheap book, he probably had to use a day's wages to get it for her. She'd been ready to just spend a lot of time at the library after school.


Before she even takes the book from his hands, she throws her arms around him unexpectedly. "Thank you." It's the nicest thing he's done for her-- or anyone really.

That's when Selene comes out from hiding to head to bed. "Oh get a room, you two." She rolls her eyes. She did her homework in the Old Man's room because she can't stand to watch Edy and Michael working (or not working) while together. Sure, she's here only because of Edy's moving plea, but it doesn't make things better. In some ways, it makes it worse.



Michael glares after Selene, but Edy manages to catch his attention. She thanks him again, slightly leaning towards him, the corner of her mouth turned up in a very shy and yet welcoming smile, like she knows what he'd most like from her as a thank you.

And that's when Old Man stomps in, kicking the dirt from the build site off his boots. Michael catches his suspicious glare. "It's time for bed, you two. School in the morning."


I know you must be wondering. The only reason Michael and Edy can share a room is because you know Selene would rat on them in a second if there was any funny business. Besides, while Michael probably would have no shame, Edy has more than enough for both of them, and so nothing would ever happen. At least not there where people can see it.

***********

And so there was a scene from one of my first proper play sessions where I actually focused on a family instead of bouncing around checking things out. Also, sorry about the lack of Selene's picture here. I thought I'd taken a shot of her somewhere. Guess not. Oops, poor kid.

Selene and Edy jostled for a place at the dinner table to do their homework, and Selene finally settled for hiding out in the other room. When Michael got the want to kiss Edy for the first time while they were working on homework, I knew why. Awkward!


So I'm going to play with the life span on long though I keep bouncing between that and epic. But I figure that on epic, I might as well turn off aging. On long, they get like 100 some sim days per age group.