Chapter 75: Psychometry

"There's a thing called the Mummy's Curse," Cayenne informs her twin. "It could cause hallucinations."

He stares vacantly at the horizon. "Yeah?"

She furrows her brow seriously. "It's caused by mummies. So you can't have that."

"Snow," he says suddenly.

"Hm?"

"It snowed here, before the Perfect Weather Grids." He acts as if he's watching this happen; eyes wide, amazed, all smiles. "It's so... so..." Cayenne thinks he'll say it's pretty, or something, but Loki just grins wider and says: "Cold. Nobody lived here then."

"That's because of hurricanes," Cayenne says, after a pause, eager to show off any scrap of knowledge she's accumulated. "Islands weren't safe before PWG."

"I'd like to be someplace no one ever was," Loki tells her. "Then I could hear myself think."

Issues. Percival knew his kids would have issues, what with the absence of one parent in their lives.

He had issues himself, after all.

He just didn't think the problems would come from his kids' schoolmates, who are for some reason quite fascinated with his personal life. There's a rumor he had something with the very married actress Vivian Fleet. And poor little Parsley resembles the woman.

Parsley doesn't know why her father won't just tell her who her mother is.

At least Percival's father had a solid excuse for not being around. Creating an excuse for Parsley's mother, without lying, proves impossible.

"It wasn't your fault," he assures his daughter. "She just wasn't prepared to take care of a child."

Parsley glares sulkily at him. "Loki told me you were in love with Vivian Fleet so you made me with magic elf dust."

"I think you know very well that's not scientifically sound."

"That's your way of telling me I know where babies come from," she growls. "But I don't know where I came from."

"Well you certainly aren't one of your grandmother's sculptures brought to life. Nor were you sent by aliens to destroy the leader of the free world." Another of Loki's wild theories.

"Then why am I here?"

"Because you are. And I'm glad you are."

"Did you and my Mom break up because of me?" she persists.

"We were never a couple," Percy says uneasily.

Seeing his older sister is troubled, Loki attacks her with a pillow.

"I just tell you that stuff because I don't want you to be sad about the truth," he says, without having to ask why she's upset. He stares distractedly at the kitchen. Vivian is there now, telling Tiberius to put a shirt on. Telling Percy why they can't possibly keep the child. Leaving. "Vivian already had three kids, and a husband, and you were a secret."

"You're always making up crap!" Parsley laughs. She lands a vicious blow on his shoulder. "You could be a writer someday. Then you could just make up crap all day."

"Do you think he's right about my mother?" Parsley asks Basil. "Sometimes he's right about things."

"Because he was totally right about Chervil's mom being our dad?"

"That was obviously a joke."

"I don't know why you CARE," Basil scoffs. "We don't need a mother."

"I might need a mother to tell me how to be a lady," Parsley says mournfully.

"Since when do you want to be a lady?"

"Since now?"

Tiberius acquires another tattoo.

"You ever think of how much stuff has been in this bowl?" Loki mumbles, barely able to force the mac'n'cheese into his mouth. "Years and years and years of food..."



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Etc.: Why is the weather always the same? EXPLAINED.

Mittens has completed a sculpture of every child. I'll tack that on as "awesome." I'll have to remember to get her to sculpt Tiberius next. Her age bar is max, though, so she could go at any time. So could Kay, the cat. Kay's parents were dead within a day or two of filling their bars, so I'm surprised Kay is getting as old as he is. Remember, Kay was born when Percival was still a toddler.

I haven't actually loaded my game for some time now. The kids just hit teens in my last play session, and I'm still playing catch up with the blog entries.

Anyway Loki has psychometric abilities, which will surely be explained at some point as he gets older. I don't think it's an original idea. I'm sure it's been done. And here it is, done again! Fun!

Chapter 74: He's on TV

The Archer children all look up to their dad.

He's on TV you know.

Being the child of someone everyone knows just makes things weird in school, though.

Loki doesn't help.

Loki is always saying something weird.

Like that time he figured out the meaning behind the words "menstruation cycle".

Parsley kicked him in the shins for that one.

Parsley was voted "most likely to beat up the leader of the free world" in kindergarten class.

She's made it her goal to still hold the title when she graduates high school.

The children have given Mittens a new favorite subject for sculptures.

Basil hates the ice sculptures. They're creepy.

"Hey Tiberius."

"What?"

"Should I go with one button undone... or two?"

"..."

"...?"

"..."

Typical roughhousing from Parsley and Chervil while Cayenne and Basil are working hard on a book report.

Cayenne is interested in her book, and doesn't take kindly to being interrupted.

"This house is huge!" Cayenne complains. "You could play anywhere, but you HAVE to come here and bother me!"

"Does the wah-wah princess want her bottle?" Parsley mocks.

Percy's schedule is tight, but he always makes time for the children.

If there's one thing that can get Cayenne away from her books, it's games night with the grown-ups.

Basil opts to play alone most game nights. There are only so many players the video game system can handle, and he'd rather not be shown up by his siblings anyway.

Especially not by his brother. There's always that one kid who takes losing as an insult to their intelligence and gets all obnoxious and indignant if they lose, and in this family it's Loki. Just look at that intense expression. It's just a silly game, but he plays like he has something to prove.

Despite their surface differences, when time constraints dictate that each sibling can't be equally close, Basil and Parsley end up best friends. You'd think it might be Cayenne and Basil, for their seriousness, or Loki and Parsley, for their harsh competitive streaks, but no...

 ...it's Parsley and Basil who think they are the cool kids™.

Meanwhile, Cayenne and Loki share the weird twin closeness™. They are both introspective, they are both prone to sullen brooding, and they both like to play with dolls.

"You know all those people on the wall?" Loki asks, breaking out of the planned double doll date scene.

Cayenne glances at the photos behind her. "Those?"

"Yeah. I've met some of them. Not ghosts, but alive. They just go about their day and I can't talk to them or stop them or anything. They talk to each other but they don't see me."

"Ghosts usually haunt at night," Cayenne says.

"But they're not ghosts. I even see you sometimes. And me. Younger versions. Walking around. I know no one else sees because no one talks about it."

Cayenne the genius frowns seriously. "Do you take drugs?"

"Uh."

"I won't tell Dad if you tell me."

"I don't take drugs!"

She reaches for him. "Maybe it's a fever then..."

He hisses at her. Like the cat.

"Okay!" She throws her hands up in the air, annoyed. "I'll check the medical dictionary for other causes of hallucinations."

Chervil tries to be a peacekeeper and be everyone's friend equally. 

Chapter 73: Remade in Blue

Cayenne looks so much like her mother. This is the first thing Percy thinks of, every time he sees this toddler. She may have his own upturned nose, those spotty freckles, reddish blond hair like Mittens, and those piercing green eyes Cliff had... ...but she looks so much like her mother. The rest of her face, and the pinkish tint to her soft baby skin.

Percy worries about Cayenne's mother, Abbie. He knew her for such a short time. It's a foolish trick of mind, he tells himself, to want something one cannot have. And he doesn't want her in the romantic sense, he only wants her back. Awake, alive.

Of course, then she'd take their children away. Wouldn't she? He doesn't know.

It's complicated.

But he knows Abbie was cheerful and sweet, and that's been taken from the world.

Most film stars hold fancy parties at their houses.

Tiberius tries to imagine the chaos that would ensue, with five overactive toddlers loose at a party.

Instead of having a house party, Percy adds onto the house.

 The Archer place now has a balcony in front, and in back.

 A perfect place for practicing one's sim-fu moves.

Actors need to stay in shape, so rigorous daily exercise is a must as Percival ages.

Parsley was the first to walk, the first to talk, the first out of diapers... and now, the first to attend school.

And the first of the five to notice she's the only one with pointed ears.

Soon enough, Parsley is joined in childhood by her siblings. (And Chervil.)

From left to right: Cayenne, Basil, Loki, Chervil, Parsley.

They each have their own personality.

Short-tempered and full of himself, Basil spends as much time avoiding other people as he does trying to impress them. He thinks he's going to be actor like his father.

When pressed about his own aspirations, Chervil decides he'll grow up to be a sports star, because boys are supposed to enjoy sports, trucks, robots, explosions, and that sort of thing. Also, apathy towards everything else. The television has taught him this.

Loki, the youngest, doesn't care for theatrics or sports heroes.

He's neurotic, and—from the other boys' perspectives—he's reacting to innocuous objects in peculiar ways. He stares at an ordinary green block like it's done something to him, and when Basil calls his name, he just doesn't answer.

Basil is the first to accept there is something wrong with his little brother, and he's going to have to put in some effort to protect him from bullies once he starts school.

Parsley loves the outdoors. She is in love with the trees and the water and the clouds in the sky. She chooses athletic type activities, and even fishing, just to spend more time out here.

Those people at the school, the ones with all the tests, say cautious little Cayenne is a genius.

Cayenne accepts this as her identity, and sets out to learn all she can.

Close-up pic of Chervil and his eye color.

Percy finds the children easier to look after now that they're older, because they tend to group up and do stationary activities rather than crawl all over the house in five different directions.

What. A. Mess.

Tiberius is obsessive about cleanliness. Borderline psychotic about it. His mother and step-father let the Annan mansion fall apart; Tiberius thought that once he escaped, he would not be living in filth nor clutter. But this isn't really his house, and the mess is really just kids' toys, so he manages to keep his mouth shut.

The boys take over Percy's childhood bedroom. It's remade in blue.

Chervil's blankets have cartoon cats on them.

 

The girls are given a brand new bedroom upstairs.

It's nice being rich. But seriously, sometimes they wish they each had their own bedrooms.





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Etc.: Why is the one with the "different" name the odd one? That's cliche. That's what you should be saying to yourself, or to me, the author, right now.