Chapter 38: Strangers in Close Quarters

Josie is becoming increasingly worried about little Tony, especially when he seeks her out to tell her about his plans to find the secret to immortality and introduce radiation into the water supply so that all mortals become brainless mutants who do his bidding.

She's not sure she can dismiss it as a kid's overactive imagination anymore. His plans are becoming increasingly specific and terrifying.

Mostly, he seems obsessed with death and conquering it. He also really likes the concept of having slaves or minions. He reads anything he can find about immortal beings and the living dead, and thinks vampires are especially cool.

Zoe's first day of school is on a Friday. Tony barks at her to shut up when she tries to make conversation with him, so she pretends not to know him and makes her own friends during class.

"He keeps telling everyone how he's going to conquer them and rule the world, but he gets straight D's in all his tests," Zoe tells her mother. "I'm, like, embarrassed for him."

Although much younger than Tony, Blaze seems to have already developed a knack for logic that his brother so obviously lacks.

Everyone says he's practically a genius.

The weekend passes quietly and soon it's time for Blaze and Zinnia's birthdays.

It's also summer again. Outfit changes! I forgot to take a picture of the carpets, but they should be visible in some pictures eventually.

Blaze ages up first, since he's older.

The two Rocket brothers are now the same age. You can hardly believe they're related, though.

Blaze's third trait is adventurous, making him an eccentric adventurous genius. A great combination of traits, in my opinion.

Zinnia gets her own cake too. Her traits are Clumsy, Loves the Outdoors, and Shy.

She's very quiet, rarely cracks a smile, and finds socializing difficult. She inherited some of her mother's insecurity, but it manifests differently; in Josie, it makes her need constant attention, regardless of who she gets it from. Zinnia longs for close friendship and security, but meeting new people terrifies her. She never knows quite what to say.

The Brown-And-Purple Hair Club.

Sister hugs!

The kids' rooms get an update. Blaze immediately attaches himself to the telescope.

Tony thinks his kid brother is a total dweeb. He sneaks up behind him...

"I'M GOING TO EAT YOUR BRAINS!"

Blaze whirls around angrily. "Yeah, try it, but don't go crying to Mom when you contract an seizure disorder and drop dead!"

Tony scoffs. "You're such a nerd, you know what? I don't even want to eat your brains, I'll probably get some sort of nerd disease."

"That's literally what I just said, idiot."

With a roar, Tony launches himself at Blaze.

"I'm - not - an - idiot - you - are," Tony grunts with each punch.

Blaze gets his butt kicked. Instead of letting it get him down, he is inspired. His first fight! How exciting! Next time, he decides, he's going to be strong enough to win.

For now, though, he gets put in time-out.

Tony's only punishment is that he has to sleep on the bottom bunk. Racquel wanted to reward him for winning the fight, but Josie wouldn't let her. Still, Blaze feels that his brother should have gotten into more trouble for beating him up.

Meanwhile, oblivious to the drama (either willfully or not), Zoe invites a friend over.

And Zinnia escapes her weird household to spend a few peaceful hours at the beach.

Disappointment. She was hoping for a shark or a nice big tuna.

It's at this moment that I realize she has the same hair as Tony and, deeming this unacceptable, send her home to fix it.

I really need some more kids' hairs, or I'll start not being able to tell them apart.

Also, Blaze gets glasses.

Zinnia watches as her sister and her housemates play and chat together with ease. If it were just her sister, it'd be okay to play too, but the evil Tony and the quirky, genius Blaze terrify her, so she can only watch and wish she had the courage to join in.

(Psst, notice the rug. Butterflies!)

When the boys start inevitably arguing again, they are set to their room and Zinnia finally gets to play.

"They're not going to bite, you know," Zoe tells her sister. "I mean. Tony might, if you make him mad, but," she thinks about it. "Actually, Blaze might bite you too. He bit me. For science."

Zinnia thinks she wouldn't mind being bitten or picked on by Blaze and Tony, if only they would notice her. But boys are clueless, and Zinnia is too shy to make the first move, so they remain strangers living in close quarters.

There's no argument between the girls about who sleeps where. Zoe is too lazy to climb up to the top bunk, and Zinnia has no preference, so the decision is made easily.

Zinnia's first day of school is uneventful. She joins the scouting club, because she loves the outdoors, and follows her sister around for most of the day. She meets a few new people, but makes no friends.

At home, she and Blaze continue not to acknowledge each other. For the most part, Tony does the same, aside from the occasional sneer.

At least she's always got Mom. Josie assures her daughter that she'll find her niche. She's still young, after all.

Tony has a birthday that no one remembers, but he doesn't care. His new trait is Supernatural Fan.

Remembering the magic bean bush he encountered as a child, he steals his mom's motorcycle and rides to the elixir shop. He's convinced magic exists, and he is determined to find out how to use it to his advantage.

He puts more effort into researching magic than he's ever put into schoolwork, but he doesn't see results right away. He learns how to make elixirs that make sims happy, and one that makes them tired, but nothing to do with mind control or immortality.

Tony heads home, frustrated but determined to continue his research.

In the morning, Zinnia goes out and collects spiders. She keeps them hidden in little glass jars, because she doesn't want anyone to see and think she's weird for liking bugs and nature and wanting to see how they work.

It's a shame, really. Blaze and his science-oriented brain would probably love to have a conversation with her, if he only knew about her hobby.

Instead, he bakes himself a cupcake for breakfast.

Cooking is just a series of chemical reactions, and Blaze finds that fascinating. And tasty!

Zoe fakes sick, and watches TV all day. Tony is less clever, and simply skips school to look at more magic. "Alchemy," it's called.

Josie comes home from bartending to see only three children home.

"Where's your brother?" she asks Blaze. She's worried less about bad things happening to Tony, and more about Tony doing bad things to other people.

Blaze cheerfully rats Tony out.

"Oh, he wasn't at school today," he says. "But I think he's at his job right now."

"Job?" Josie can't imagine Tony working a cash register in her wildest dreams.

"He got a job at the mausoleum. He was saying that he thought he could use alchemy to raise the dead and make them his minions. He's so stupid, alchemy isn't real..." Blaze falls silent at Josie's look.

When he gets home, Tony gets the lecture of a liftetime.

Josie wonders how she ended up acting as stand-in mom for Racquel's kids, too, but she decides to just roll with it. Someone has to do it, right?

She just hopes they don't drive her completely crazy one day.

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Notes -

Fun kids! I had no idea kids could fight each other, I was taking pictures of Blaze and Tony arguing and moved off them for a second to see what the others were up to, and the next second I heard fighting sounds! I was extremely surprised... and pleased. My sims never seem to do interesting things autonomously, so this was very welcome. Lol. I'm not used to juggling so many kids and teens at once - I don't play big families very often, usually just one or two kids. It's a lot of fun, though.

I like Zinnia, she's my favorite, no surprises there. Although Tony is a lot of fun, honestly. I'd never played an evil child sim before, and was pleasantly surprised by a lot of things, like the fighting and stealing candy and stuff like that. And his child expressions were so fun! He had the option to "read something maniacal" and chose "Adventures of Raymundo," which I thought was hilarious.

Feel free to comment on which kid is your favorite! I'd love to know :+)