Chapter 25: Two Birthdays

Josie's toddler birthday has arrived! Ida invites over Marlin and Rain for a small celebration and cake.

(Rain's in the bathroom during this pic).

Josie looks quite a lot like her mother did at this age.

She enjoys the privileges that come with getting bigger, one of which is the ability to eat mashed-up Stu Surprise.

"So, Marlin," Alex says conversationally. He and Marlin are good friends. "How's your love life recently?"

Marlin nearly chokes on his cake. "Uh, it's-- I mean, I don't-- it's not-- I'm single," he says finally, getting up to clear his plate.

"Growing up fast, that's my girl."

Now that Josie is old enough to learn toddler skills like walking and talking, Ida practically has to fight her parents for time with her daughter. 

Alexander is obsessed with tossing Josie in the air and tickling her, while Shanti seems determined to be the only one to teach her to walk.

Josie learns to walk and talk from her grandparents in one day, leaving Ida with the unsavory task of potty training. 

You're doing great, kid.

Ida does a lot of thinking about how she was able to change the future so drastically in such a short time. She's not even a fully mature adult yet! Part of her is proud of herself for all she's managed to accomplish, but part of her is a little disturbed by how easy it was. She decides to visit the junkyard one more time and deactivate the time portal.

She also calls her two old shop club friends, Everett Morris and Morris Alto, to help her drag it back home with her. She doesn't want anyone else stumbling across the thing and accidentally changing the future she worked so hard to make a utopia.

After Josie learns all her toddler skills, she has plenty of time to play with toys. Finally, there's a use for all those little robots Ida made on the inventing workbench as a teenager.

But the toy Josie has the most fun with is the xylophone. Her grandpa is good at playing music and teaches her how to make little tunes on the toy instrument, and Josie spends hours sitting banging away at the thing.

One afternoon, Alexander wakes up from his nap feeling rather... light. 

No!!! He's only 94 days old!

Alex smiles serenely at the Grim, hoping the flower in his pocket will be enough to save him. He only needs another week or so to complete the perfect bottle of nectar.

Ida is feeling less than peaceful about the whole thing. She heard Grim's harsh shouts from the basement and came running upstairs.

Alex: "Look at this flower! You like the flower, right?"

Grim: "Oh, how lovely! I have to go home right away and put it in water. All right, in exchange you can have your life back."

Ida: "...Whoa..."

"Ida, you can stop crying now, I'm all better," Alex says.

"Thanks, man, I really owe you one. Care for a glass of nectar?"

But the Reaper has other business to take care of, today: Morgana Wolff passes away a few hours later.

Alex can't help but feel a little guilty. He knows she probably would have died no matter what, but it feels a little like she was taken in his stead. He wonders how he'll break the news to his wife.

Speak of the devil, Shanti comes home a little while later. She immediately plops down next to Alex on the couch, and starts up her favorite fighting game. Turns out Shanti already knows about Morgana's passing; she died during her shift and Shanti was there to witness it.

When Alex is finished telling the whole story about his encounter with death, Shanti can only be glad that she didn't have to lose her husband as well as her best friend today. And now she knows what the flower can do... she thinks about the one she held in her pocket ever since Alex gave it to her, and decides to get rid of it. She doesn't need to live longer than her body wants her to, she decides. Besides, it will be easier to go first; she doesn't know if she'll be able to deal with losing Alex. And she's accomplished so much, lived to see her children grow up and even have a grandchild. It's more than enough for her.

After his little brush with Death, Alex returns to his nectar-making with renewed vigor. He doesn't sell any of it, preferring to keep it stored and ready for future generations to enjoy.

Josie's toddlerhood passes by peacefully. Ida makes level nine of her career, and spends a lot of time chatting on the phone with her brother-in-law Aubrey, while Rain plays for the local sports team, so the two of them are rarely at home at the same time. One day, Aubrey calls Ida from work telling her to expect Rain over sometime today, because she has some good news.

Yep, she's pregnant! Shanti and Alexander are ecstatic.

Shanti offers to determine the gender of the baby, but Rain prefers to be surprised. 

Alex is more interested in names. 

"I've always liked the name 'Barley' for a boy..."

"Dad, I'm not naming my kids after plants. Especially not barley."

A few days later, Rain gives birth to a baby boy named Harvey. "Close enough," Alex says happily.

And before long, it's time for Josie's child birthday. Ida can't believe how quickly her daughter is growing up; she's also concerned about Marlin, who hasn't been answering his phone lately. He only came around once after Josie's first birthday, and even Rain says she hasn't been able to get ahold of him. "He's always saying how busy he is," she tells Ida, who can't help but feel a little resentment. Too busy to visit his own daughter? Too busy to call her, even if just to give his excuses?

She is ticked off enough to consider not inviting him to Josie's birthday, but not ticked off enough to actually go through with it. Luckily for him, Marlin shows up, an hour before the party starts.

"Where have you been?" Ida demands. But up close, she can tell that Marlin has indeed been busy. His face shows lines that weren't there before, and he definitely has a distinctly stressed and tired look about the eyes. 

Marlin apologizes profusely and explains himself. His family has been having money problems lately, with his mother retired and his father dead, and the city pension is just not enough to support her. His youngest brother, Junior, has only just graduated high school and hasn't got a job yet, so Marlin is staying at home as well, trying to support his parents. He wants to focus on his music and his art, it's his passion, but his income isn't enough to support one person, let alone four. So he works all the shifts he can get, and extras at the day spa where he worked as a teen, and barely has time to catch even a few hours of sleep at night.

Ida chews her lip; she doesn't know what to say. Here the Hands are, with more money than they know what to do with, and the father of her child is struggling to make ends meet. "If there's anything we can do, Marlin, you're practically family, if you need-" 

He sighs and cuts her off with a tight hug. "Your support alone is means more than anything, Ida," he murmurs, and Ida can't help the rush of warmth that fills her as she remembers all the times he hugged her like this in the past. It shouldn't still hurt, she shouldn't still miss him. It's been a long time now, but she can't help it.

"Marlin, do you-" she starts to say, but the doorbell rings, and Marlin becomes distracted with Josie, and she doesn't get to finish her thought because the party is finally underway!

"Now THAT is a cake!"

Ida prepares her daughter's favorite peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while her guests come in. 

She's only invited her closest friends and family.

There's Aubrey, and Morris Alto and Everett Morris from shop club:

And Rain, of course, and Rosalind's husband, Dana Andrews (they don't get along).

Rosalind is around here too but I didn't get a shot of her, oops. 

After a lot of mingling and loud music and everyone taking turns cuddling the birthday girl, it's time to blow out the candles.

Ida helps Josie with the actual blowing while the guests cheer them on.

Woo-hoo! Josie gains the Party Animal trait; she is a party animal, friendly, and a virtuoso. 

She eats cake in the side yard with her Dad and Auntie Rain.

"Dad, you play guitar, right? Can you teach me?"

She hardly ever sees her dad, but they have a trait in common so she's very excited to talk to him about all things music-related.

After cake and a quick wardrobe change, Josie hits the dance floor. Well, the living room, because they don't have a dance floor. Not yet, she thinks to herself.

Josie believes one should always be dressed for a party. Just in case. 

Meanwhile, Ida and Marlin have a chat. Ida talked it over with her parents, and she thinks she has a solution for Marlin's problem, as well as a way to allow Marlin to spend more time with Josie. It's actually a great plan, if she does say so herself.

"We want you to stay here," says Ida, fidgeting a little. "At least until you can get back on your feet." Marlin starts to protest, but she talks over him. "Just hear me out on this! You don't have to move all your stuff in, and in fact you can even pay rent if you want. And my mother is going to give your brother an interview at the hospital. If he does well, he can get admitted on a nurse's training program; they pay nurses really well there. If he doesn't do well... well, they always need bed pan cleaners there, he can clean bed pans can't he? So, and you can focus on painting and guitar and send money home to your parents, and along with, you know, whatever Junior will be making, plus Pauline's pension, it'll be alright! And you can start saving again, and, you know, composing, like you've always wanted to. Please consider it."

Marlin sighs. He really is struggling a lot, and this would certainly help. He's nervous about spending so much time in close proximity to his ex-girlfriend, who also happens to be the mother of his child.

"You'll be able to see Josie whenever you want," says Ida, and this cinches it for Marlin.

"Okay," he says. "I'm in, if Josie is okay with it."

"Hey, pipsqueak," Marlin greets his daughter. "Nice moves!"

"I'm not a pipsqueak!" 

"You are so a pipsqueak, pipsqueak," laughs Marlin.

"So," he says, joining her. "What would you say to me staying over here for a little while? Would you mind?"

Josie is ecstatic. "Would I mind!? Dad! It'll be so much fun! You can play me all sorts of songs, and we'll dance all day and all night with Mom and listen to music all the time! It'll be so great! Mom is really good at partying, even if she doesn't know anything about music."

Outside, Ida gets hit by lightning.

And gets excited about it.

"Everything okay in here? Are you getting along? Did she say okay?" Ida is a little wired up.

"Ida," says Marlin, horrified. "What happened to you?"

"Mom!" Josie squeaks, paying no mind to her mother's singed state. She's seen her mom like this before, many times. "Dad is coming to live with us!"

Marlin grins at her. "Glad I have your approval, pipsqueak. Ida, can you get your Morrises to help me move some of my stuff?"

"I'm not a pipsqueak!" Josie calls after her parents, laughing.

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Notes -

I sort of rushed through Josie's toddlerhood, no one was doing anything interesting and she learned all her skills in one day, it was really boring. Shanti and Alex are old and sleep/play games all day, and plumbot building is not the most exciting career now that Ida's pretty much done everything. It's crazy how fast she went through it! I think it's probably due to her Bot Lover and eccentric traits. Anyway, note to self: make toddler life stage shorter next time (and childhood longer! It's my favorite).

The Hands are absolutely rolling in dough now. Shanti makes well over a thousand simoleans an hour (!!), and I've stopped selling nectar and fruit completely, instead stocking the nectar racks and fridge for future generations. I can't wait to start playing Josie in earnest, I can already tell she's going to be a lot of fun. 

Also, yes, I made Marlin a roommate. I hope that's okay by the rules. I just wanted him nearby so I could keep an eye on him, and so he could keep an eye on Josie. :P

Before we go, some minor house updates...

Small (new) spare room for Marlin, with an easel because Marlin is Artistic. Also the bunkbed is in there for safekeeping (I don't like using house inventory, too many things get stuck in there for me to trust it at all).

Josie's room! I really like it. On the other side is Rain's old desk, with her trophies and things. The room itself used to be the laundry room, I added a bigger hallway area next to the stairs and set up laundry there. I'm actually pretty proud of the way the house is looking, right now. :D

Bonus pic of Josie being adorable and partied out: