Saturday, August 1, 2020

3.11 Dialogue




Though Tatum has insisted that all the things related to raising Azuma is her responsibility, Lu sometimes chips in on the clean up involved. 




"Thanks for getting the laundry..." Tatum feels bad that he's been doing so much around the house lately. 

"You can thank me by playing co-op on my new video game," Lucky's smile turns playful. 




How could she say no to that? 

"I got this game on sale!" Lu brags about his discount skills, "Half price!" 




"Hey, haven't we been this way before?" their characters have to solve a complex maze to get to the first boss. 

"Probably." 



"No, Lucky, you can't talk it out of killing us-" 

Lucky's character is incinerated. Game over. 

Tatum looks at him, waiting for an answer. "...I thought negotiation is always a good tactic?" 

"Not in this kind of video game, there isn't even a dialogue option!" 

Lucky looks away sheepishly. "I've never played a video game before, I didn't realize it worked like that..." 

"Aw...I can teach you later. And kick your ass." 



But not now. 




Her son needs her now. 


While waiting for the milk formula to heat up, Tatum answers a call from her mother. 



"Sure, I'd love to visit!"



Tatum makes sure Azuma uses the potty before they leave. 



Then it's off to her mother's house. 





Tatum's surprised to see her mother look so much...older. It never feels like that much time has passed since her last visit. 



They let the toddlers play together. 



Francine doesn't seem too interested in her nephew. She's still a little shy. 

"Play with Ba-ba?" Azuma offers, holding out his toy. She just giggles and chews on her fingers. 


"It takes her a while to warm up to strangers," Dot explains. 

"That's alright, Azuma plays by himself a lot anyways..." it sounds sad, now that she says it out loud. 

"Come, I'll make us some tea." Dot makes her way to the kitchen. Tatum follows. 



Meanwhile, at the tattoo parlor... 

It's a busy day. 



Some fool has brought their antsy dog! 

Luckily for them, Lu loves dogs. He speaks to the canine in happy, soothing tones and rubs his belly. He goes from antsy to relaxed in minutes. 




It's only after the dog fully calms down that Lucky gets his tattoo. 

"Hold still," Tiffanie commands. 

"Sorry, it's my first tattoo..." 

"First time's always the hardest," she says with a small smile. 



The dog follows the nice human to the basement. He wants more belly rubs! 



Tiffanie wipes Lucky's upper arm. "It's finished." 

He peers down. Not bad... 



He got an anchor. He doesn't tell Tiffanie this, but it represents his tether to this world. The one he didn't know he had, before... 





Before it was taken from him. 



"It looks great. I can tell you put a lot of care into your work. Thank you."



Tiffanie smiles brightly at him. "No problem. And if you ever want to call...for any reason...please do so." She gives him her business card. It's not every day she sees a cute guy from out of town. 



By the time he gets home, it's too cold for him to wear sleeves that show off his tattoo to Tatum. 




"You sift through garbage for work?" Lucky is surprised to find out the reason Tatum has band-aids on her hands. 

"It's a necessity. I could buy the scrap, but it would cost much more than I can afford." 

Dumpster diving to save money? Lucky will keep that in mind. 


While Tatum is working, Lu offers to babysit. 

"There, there," he comforts unconvincingly. He's great with adult sims...but toddlers don't have the same kinds of personality traits adults do. He finds them a bit hard to read. 




Tatum's work is interrupted by a whiny call from Elias. 

"You get Azuma this weekend!" she puts an end to his ranting, "Good bye." 



When she isn't working or dealing with her annoying ex, Tatum is usually with her son. She tries to impart the importance of science to him, but he always stares at her curiously and uncomprehendingly when she uses big words. 




The night before Azuma's due to stay at Elias's, Lu and Tatum get an unexpected invitation. Kaira wants to have a dinner party. 

"Uncle Quartz didn't have any pets the last time I came here," she murmurs once they come inside. 



Kaira swears. As some sort of "lesson", Quartz has left her with Carmen and Marcus to babysit tonight. 



She's not able to handle babysitting and making the elaborate dinner she planned. Two hours later, Tatum is more than ready to leave. 

"Should we just go?" Lu asks her in a whisper. 

She nods tiredly. She needs to sleep. 



"Wait! Don't go! I'll hurry up!" Kaira pleads. She's desperate for adult interaction. 

The pair can't stay. "It's late and I have to bring Azuma over to Elias's early in the morning... maybe next time?" 

"Lucky, you could stay-" 

They're already out the door. 
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AN: Aaaand all caught up! Phew. Kaira invited the household over for a party. No one else showed up and she took care of Carmen all night, then suddenly started making dinner. Weird. 

Kaira lives with Quartz and his family. Their house is tiny so I'm not sure where any of them sleep. 


3.10 Could be Better



With Lucky back, Kaira's old room is once again inhabited. 

Lu likes the room well enough, he's just unhappy about the smelly laundry. 

He also thinks this place is too...blue. 


Fixed? 

His favourite colour is some shade of grey. Bleh. 




He would also like to use the car... but as Tatum points out, they don't own a car and it's better for the environment, Lu! 

If he just had the money to buy his own vehicle... 





He's annoyed to find the consignment store closed again, but has fun chatting up Nadine over here. Unfortunately for Lucky, she's not at all interested in fish or potions. She wants to know if this skirt makes her butt look big. 




"...you'd need a microscope to see it," he mumbles. 



He wonders if she'll get mad for implying she has no ass, but she crushes him with a hug instead. 

"You're my new bestie!" she declares. 

Lu can only feel a sense of dread. 



After being released from Nadine's clutches, Lucky almost runs straight into the Drudge-Bayless family. 



Oh boy...





He quickly finds himself toe-to-toe with Elias. 


"Fine. I'll bite. What do you want with me?" Lucky bravely confronts his friend's ex. 



Lu can only be bemused when Elias looks away, grumbles something about "just being here to look around" followed by, "I'll look something up on the internet so...bye..." and him pulling out a computer and shuffling away. 



Joni here would like to sell this old guitar. She hates the cheetah print on it- so artsy. Now that she can afford better instruments, she wants this thing out of her sight. 



Lu promptly just gets the hell outta there and goes fishing. 




This poor fish looks like it's being impaled by a skylight. 


It's the first time Lu's caught a trout. Soon enough, this will be a common experience, not worth noting. For now, he's impressed, and decides to keep it in the fish tank at home. 



Tatum's called a sitter to go out scrap collecting. She stops by the bookstore to get an inventor's handbook when she runs into Elias. The man is just running into everyone today! 



They are both drawn into an uncomfortable conversation out of politeness. 

"How's the book coming along?" is the only thing Tatum can think of to ask. 



"Ugh, let's not...let's not talk about that. That book is like my entire life. Underwhelming...ha ha." 

His attempt at self-deprecating humor just makes everything 10 times more uncomfortable. 

Tatum coughs. "Well...nice seeing you... I'm going inside. Maybe I'll see you at the party later on?" Tatum would've much rather not invited him, but at her mother's urging, extended a reluctant invitation. Dot doesn't want it to seem like Tatum is shutting off Azuma's access to his father. Tatum wishes her mom didn't make so much sense sometimes. 

"Sure..." 


Later in the day, guests start arriving. 

"Why'd you invite that scumbag?" Kaira is unhappy to see Elias here. 

Tatum sighs. "Let's not fight. He wants to see Azuma." 



Elias scowls. "I'm right here, you know." 

They both ignore him. 



Elias goes into the nursery to play with his son. Tatum stays outside to talk to her mother.



"What's wrong with uncle Pancho over there?" Tatum asks, concerned. 

"I don't know..." 



"It's not spooky day, is it?" 



Elias is eventually called home to do more chores by his mother, leaving Kaira with her nephew. 

"Why, hello..." 



"..." 

Though she babysits her cousins Carmen and Marcus occasionally, Kaira finds herself at a loss for words around kids. They can't understand or communicate about any of the things she enjoys- travel, extreme sports, haute cuisine... what is she supposed to say?



Naturally, her sassy uncle Aloiso comes in at this moment. 

"What? Going to make fun of my ineptitude with babies?" 

"No...should I be?" 

She glares at him, "You should be doing something about your hair. What the hell? Is that a midlife crisis?" 





Azuma's cries for his mother break the stare-down. Aloiso runs off to get Tatum. 



Outside, Tatum congratulates Jeremie Hong-Sykes on his recent engagement. It's a bit awkward, since it's to her brother's ex-wife, Marcie, but mehhhh. In a small town, you either move on from the tangled relationships or drown in the gossip and resentment. Dot would like to think she does the former. 

"A wedding in Champs Les Sims? That's so romantic." 



Jeremie excitedly shares all the details with Dot. He's over the moon about his marriage, and it shows. 



Dot can only nod along to endless minutiae for so long. The flavour of the cake, the colour of the flower arrangements, the wedding dress Marcie picked out... Dot herself eloped with Erich, then had a honeymoon on a cruise from Twinbrook to Sunset Valley and back. 

"I'm glad you're happy." 

"I'm so excited, I haven't been able to eat or sleep in days!" That would explain why he looks like he's on the verge of passing out. 

Dot forces the man to eat some macaroni. 



"Kaira! Hey, how's it going?" 

Kaira looks down at her nephew. "The little snot tried to eat my hair!

"So things are going well, I take it," Lu cannot hide his amusement and snickers. 



Instead of a barb like he expected, Kaira's expression turns distant. 

"Things are..." 



Her mind goes back to earlier that afternoon. She was on what she thought would be a nice date to the beach with her new boyfriend, Felipe Bayless. Instead, he went on a tirade about how "high maintenance and bitchy" she is. 



She yelling was so loud that her uncle Quartz passed by and tried to break it up. 



By break it up, she means insulting his fashion sense. 

"Your hair makes you look like a wanna be Jetson. Leave my niece alone!" 

Felipe was not happy about this insult, and then called Quartz "a shadow of his famous singer parents", and one thing led to another and now Quartz wants a restraining order against the young man.


"Things could be better," she manages. 
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AN: Wow. By chapter 9 in generation 1, Dot was nearly a young adult. Chapter 10 in generation 3- Azuma's still a toddler. I'm almost caught up to where I'm at in-game! Azuma in my save is almost a child.