Mate Race

“Just wait Da, I’ll be married before you, and then I’ll be head of household.” Daiki growled at his sister as she prepared to leave for work.

Da, didn’t respond, but she could feel the heat of her brothers malice on the back of her neck and she felt her hair stand on end a little. What had their mom been thinking, she, Chihiro, knew that although friendly Daiki was evil, and would have no problems doing whatever he could to block Da’s attempts of meeting people.

Da stared after Nolan, and momentarily considered calling him back. Despite her diagnosed mental insanity he actively sought her out to talk everyday. Shaking her head she let the moment slide by, the chance to be romantic with him had been when they first met, and she’d been to nervous about proving she could be a good militia member to take his flirting seriously. Now he was married to one of her cousins which one she wasn’t sure, which meant per her mom’s instructions he was off limits.

Da, watched Nolan drive off before crossing the street to the park, maybe her odds would be better there.

At the park the only people Da saw, besides her brother were cousins, and Mary Rapp.

Well Da thought maybe Daiki would be the lucky one after all, Mary Rapp was considered local because her parents, Galen and Jeanette Rapp, had arrived to the valley before she was born and she had grown up here. Maybe it was growing up here in the valley under the old council’s stringent rules that had also caused Mary’s insanity, or maybe it was the toxins in the snow and water, either way the outcome was the same Mary was more insane than Da if that was possible.

A stranger showed up, but as Da started to turn from the game of darts to greet him her cousin Ignacio warned her not to bother, and mouthed ‘spy’ at her. Da sighed the way the man was running off it seemed it didn’t matter one way or another.

Daiki joined their small group, and after several minutes of small talk and speculation about the thunder and lightening that had not stopped yet, just varied in strength and intensity, pointed in the direction of home. Da nodded her head in agreement, with so few people at the park there wasn’t much point of staying.

Once home Daiki headed for the treadmill, his clumsiness got in his way frequently which was hampering his fitness progress. Da tossed darts at the dart board and wondered out loud if there was anyplace else they might go besides the park to meet people.

“There’s always city hall” Daiki commented as he pulled himself back upright, he was forever tripping over his feet.

“Always deserted” Da pointed out.

“What about the big building next to the park” Daiki paused mumbling under his breath “the library, that’s what the writing over the door says.”

Da shook her head “it’s stripped bare on the inside, and crumbling on the back side away from the park.”

“Well you could always convince your boss to open the roads, and public spaces” Daiki said.

“I wish” Da replied, her tone wistful.

Upstairs Chihiro and Calvin were discussing a range of topics from his position as hit composer, to sports, and who they thought would be the one to marry and have children, Chihiro’s frustration that she was losing coworkers, and her further frustration with having to earn the respect of the newest hires.

“They act as if I don’t know what I’m doing in the kitchen, because of both my age and the fact that I’m female, it’s so frustrating” she complained.

The following night Daiki brought home another book from his boss, which left him feeling like he’d made a good impression and would go far with the rovers. Out of boredom Da, finally cracked open the book on cooking her mom wanted them to read.

With a weekend upon them both Da and Daiki found themselves once again at the park. Once again Da found herself making small talk with cousins, although now in addition to talk of the never ending thunder, there was chatter about how some days seemed a little warmer than others, and how the snow seemed to melt easier when brought in; while her brother once again found someone not related to them to talk to.

Despite, the luck of meeting someone unrelated Daiki had declared the weekend at the park a bust, and Da silently agreed with him.

On the first day of the new work week they celebrated Calvin’s transition to elder. Once everyone was done congratulating Calvin on his big day, Cahal cleared his throat loudly.

“I have news of my own.” He paused chuckling news news to himself. Seeing the concern on everyone’s face Cahal quickly focused. “We officially have the paper up and running again.” He turned to Chihiro “Thanks to your information on the old councils collapse, we were able to take advantage of the confusion in city hall. The paper is now a separate entity and business from the council. Starting tomorrow the flyers will be more than one sheet, will carry three job listings for residents to pick from, and will carry local news of events around the valley.” Cahal now turned to Calvin “Thanks to your information tomorrow’s leading article will be about the device incident at the theater, hopefully that will quell some of the more outlandish rumors.”

Now Cahal turned to Da “I and the other lead at the paper spoke in length to your boss Mr. O’Reilly- Mith … no Lawless, no …” he paused “Kao! We have to many cousins, it’s hard to keep all the names straight!” Cahal furled his brow before continuing “Anyway I spoke to your boss about the recently discovered catch of books and furnishings that one of the night patrols found, he’s loaning the council a small group of builders from one of the patrol units and the library is going to be restored and reopened to the public.”

Cahal watched as everyone took in his news, disbelief and excitement in their eyes. Finally he said “I know it’s a lot to take in but trust me, come morning you’ll see.”

With that he turned and headed for the ladder he like everyone else was tired, it had been a long day.

Da had had to leave for work early, so hadn’t been home to check out the paper. During her shift the newly reopened library was all anyone could talk about, so once she was released for the day she made her way across the road to the newly restored building. Once inside she was amazed by the hard work of the engineers group. It was to bad that no one took them seriously about restoring other structures around town.

At first she felt overwhelmed by all the books, but soon realized that there were many duplicates. Scanning the books she spied one on engines and rockets, grabbing it she sat to read.

The following day was one of Da’s regular days off, and Daiki unexpectedly found himself with the day free as well. Together they agreed to take their mom, Chihiro, and any of their uncles that wanted to go to the library.

Daiki made it clear he was only going in the hopes of meeting new people, and quickly evaded questions about the slip of paper his carpool driver had handed him. Calvin had also received a note, but he made no efforts at hiding his displeasure upon learning that he’d been released from his position as a music composer, and had reluctantly returned the guitar the theater had loaned him ever so long ago.

Calvin declined the offer and stomped off to the lowest level to throw darts. Cahal indicated it would be better if he stayed home with Calvin.

Once at the library Daiki ignored the books and made straight for one of their cousins to chat with. Chihiro was thrilled to discover an advanced culinary book that showed and explained in detail terms like brunoise, béchamel, and mise en place. At some of it she chuckled because it was just fancy foreign words for stuff she already did, her real triumph came from discovering some advanced recipes that she knew no one else at the soup kitchen knew. She was confident that they could use the protein rations to simulate the stuffed turkey but with no fish available she didn’t think they would be able to recreate the lobster dish.

Eventually Da, got tired of reading the same information over, it was clear to her that she had learned all she could from that book, and wandered off to speak to a cousin.

When he attempted to flirt with him, she confided that her mom had made her and Daiki promises to marry an outsider. He chuckled a little “I think your mom started something when she filed the DNA samples at city hall, my parents went digging through the hospitals DNA records too. I’m also supposed to find an outsider to marry as well. Hope you don’t mind some harmless flirting.”

Da laughed, noting that Daiki had either moved upstairs or left, before she agreed noting that it just might help each of them when they did finally meet someone new.

Daiki had in fact gone home, after noting that his uncles were absorbed in their game of chess he went downstairs and sat on his bed. There he pulled out the crumbled note and stared at the words wondering what he had done wrong, he had it on good authority that his boss with the rovers really liked him, so why had they done this to him?

     From hereon forward you have been reassigned to Mithrilen’s Madmen Hideaway. Your first shift as decoy begins Friday at 10 am.

Finally out of frustration he shredded the note and threw it in the pool. Watching the slips of paper sink, he decided his mom’s ban on the pool was insane, stripping his clothes and dumping them on the floor he jumped into the clear water with a splash.

As Daiki treaded the water he let his mind drift over the choices he had for possible mates. There were several older women available, but he was concerned that they might be to old to bear several healthy children, let alone one. Then there was Mary she was his age, but completely insane. Which he was willing to overlook, but the fact that she had already born a child to one cousin and was now dating yet another could be a problem. He found himself wondering if the unwillingness to commit was one of Mary’s flaws or an issue that the cousins had because of her insanity, and how one minute she would be sweet and nice, but the next she would be yelling at them and accusing them of things they couldn’t have done.

Tired he finally pulled himself out of the water, dried off, and crawled into bed for the night.

After work Da once again found herself escorting her mom to the library. Chihiro wanted to review the advanced recipes some more before her next work shift. This time instead of staying downstairs DA wandered upstairs, where she was very pleased to meet a new man. Da, was less pleased though with her cousin Mandi who would deliberately speak over both Da and the man ruining their attempts at conversation. Da, wasn’t sure, but if she was reading the signs right he was interested in her.

Daiki on the other hand, had already decided that the library wasn’t going to be the place for him to meet anyone, and had headed for the park. He spent a little time chatting with a cousin, but once Mary arrived spent the rest of his afternoon chatting with her.

He quickly learned that she didn’t have much sense of humor or just didn’t like the few jokes he knew. So he quickly returned to safe topics like the warmer weather, the fact that the thunder had finally stopped if not the lightening, but that had diminished greatly. Daiki wondered how long he could talk about the weather before he to would go insane.

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Note: Every so often my game has a weird glitch where if my sims are inside on the upper level when their carpool vehicles show up or get cued for something like graduation, which apparently teens with failing grades don’t get invited to, they get frozen in place while the game tries to decide which outfit to change them into. So far on account of the glitch gen 2 never got to go to city hall for graduation, Liam lost his job, and now both Calvin and Daiki ended up loosing their jobs.