He could still remember the time he'd thought it was gross throwing up, especially in the toilet. It was, after all, the place where sims took a dump and pissed. By now he was so used to it, he almost got a bit worried when he didn't feel sick. Ian hadn't been well since he'd ended up in the hospital all that time ago, suffering from poisoning.
Turned out it wasn't difficult getting poisoned by that crap either. All it took was to get some of it in the mouth, like touching the plant and putting the fingers in the mouth afterwards. And since he'd been intimate with his wife up against a cupboard that was filled with potions and components, it wasn't that strange. Doctor Odin hadn't even batted an eye, but calmly told it would explain it. Ian was pretty sure the brother-in-law had thrown a bit up in his own mouth at the knowledge though.
Since then he hadn't touched anyting but the winebottles in the cellar. But he still felt like shit, and this wasn't the first time. It was almost a constat state of reality, and more often than not, he had to just swallow his own discomfort to keep going.
He'd been to so many specialists by now that it was embarassing and they kept hinting at it beeing psychological. It wasn't psychological, his brain worked fine. He was ill for crying out loud, but the doctors tests kept coming back just fine.
Aino had gotten a new "friend" whom she'd named Ratatosk, or atleast that's what Ian had deciphered the name as. Not that he had any idea where he'd gotten a name like that from at all, or even where that thing came from. None the less she was adorable when she tried saying it.
They were inseparable, and often played together. This time they were reading a book of colours. Well, technically it was letters but Aino and Ratatosk still named the colouring with big enthusiasme: Geen!!! She pointed at the pink letter, then pretended the doll repeated it with a highpitched voice.
Upon flipping the page, Ratatosk yelled: "moe geen!!". Ian found it to be the cutest thing ever, and the way she interacted with the doll was even cuter. It seemed like it was her rascal- part; that way she could blame it whenever she acted out. Like when she tried to hang around his leg; it wasn't her, it was the doll. Or when she tried climbing into the toiled, that was the doll to. That way Ian also could reprimande the doll instead of his daughter, and sometimes even ground it. To Ainos big despair, and he didn't have to feel guilty about reprimanding her.
Ian picked up another book, pulling Aino close. She smelled so sweet as only a clean toddler can, her short hair soft against his arm. This one was about animals. Pointing at a cat, he asked: What's that Aino, do you know that?
Geen!! The answer was swift, eager and very wrong.
Close enough... Do you know what colour it is?
Not surprisingly she answered: Geen, with as great enthusiasm as ever. He doubted she knew what even the word "colour" meant. But she'd learn eventually, there wasn't any need to rush it.
Seeing something in the corner of his eye, Ian took a short look. Hadn't that doll been further away? Maybe it wasn't a physical illness he had after all, maybe it really was a mental issue. Sometimes he swore he could hear a woman humming in Ainos room at night, and now he imagined a doll moving around. Nice. He hadn't mentioned it to the doctor obviously, he didn't want anti- psychotic meds or anything.
Showing the book to Ratatosk, halfway expecting it to answer on it's own, Ian asked: You know what animal this is? Luckily for his sanity, Aino promptly made the highpitched voice and screamed: Geen!
As cute as it was, it was still a bit annoying to listen to. Mainly because the two of them often talked a lot: Put a sock in it Ratatosk. Aino hissed at him in return.
Hey! No hissing!
Aino looked up at him, reading the excuse: Wa Tatatos!! Having a doll to blame was probably almost as good as a sibling.
Kissing his daughter on the forehead, Ian answered: I know it was Ratatosk hissing. I was just telling it to your dollie not to hiss. So cute, he just couldn't reprimande her for that. She was going to be such an obnoxious kid, if he kept letting her get away with everything.
You know Ratatosk is a squirrel right? Ian laughed at her. It was probably something Skuld had told her, how else would she have known.
NO! Tatatos dowwie! Dads didn't know the first about dolls. Maybe he hadn't had any dolls when he was a child?
Lifting her up from the floor, he took another inhale to keep from throwing up and stroked her soft hair. She was going to be another redhead alright: Screw this. Let's go and get some new furniture, some paint and fix your room up. This is a room for old sims, not little toddlers and shrieking dolls.
SKU DIS!!!
Nervously looking around, Ian whispered: No, no. Don't say that. And don't tell mum, okay? He wasn't sure if he meant the room or the words. He had to start thinking about the language he used.
Turned out that under the hideous wallpaper, it had been a pretty decent wallpanel. It had been a small hell getting it all off but it was done eventually. He'd filled the room with furniture he'd fixed up himself and toys that were enviromental friendly. Maybe he'd gone a bit overboard with the dinosaurhead, but atleast Aino liked it. For a while Ian hadn't thought he'd be able to finish, but after a nap he'd felt a bit better. He still hoped his healthproblems wasn't psychological.
Skuld hadn't been thrilled about him fixing the room up, but after she'd realized that it increased the value of their house she'd stopped nagging about it. The best part was that he'd actually gotten her to spent some time with their daughter. It was so sweet that they were finally bonding.
He couldn't help but wondering what they did together though. Maybe they just spent the time at the grandfathers? Aino didn't say anything special about anything, so they were probably having a good time.
Skuld had no intetion of letting that little brat stop her from working. Besides the kid just talked to that creepy doll of hers anyway. Wonder where it came from? It was probably some crap that Ian had pulled out of the junk somewhere. Girl could lick garbagecans for all she cared.
She'd figured out a very nice little potion for the next one, but she needed some pulverized gems for it. And yet sims wondered why potions were so expensive! She was excitet either way. It was going to be something completely different from pimplelard. Failure was never an option, but she'd be sure to keep herself saft with this one. Maybe she should try it on Ian first? Just to be sure? No. It contained gems, he just wasn't worth spending all those riches on.
Ian had been running to the junkshop trying to find a musicbox with a dinosaur in it for Aino. But they didn't have any. What a terrible junkshop... Okay, fine. She wasn't really that interested in dinos, it was him that had wanted it. A little music for his daughter was just nice right?
He still bought one ofcourse, but the figuring wasn't that interesting. And he ran into Maya, who was still dating his father- in- law. They talked about how great it was growing their own vegetables, the impact it had on the enviroment and how much better it tasted. He wasn't surprised about her wanting to talk about plants though, atleast not with the ammount of meat her boyfriend chowed down. Wondered why that guy hadn't just bought a slaughterhouse yet.
Maybe he shouldn't have redecorated the room? Ian once again woke up during the night feeling sick. He just couldn't seem to get a break from anything the last days. He hated waking up from feeling sick, and hated throwing up even more. The bathrooms smelled like vomit all the time. Or maybe it was just his imagination.
Atleast it seemed like the toddler liked the room and spent all her time in there. Not that she hadn't done it anyway, but she still seemed to like it a lot better this way. It had been so empty before, and just so much more suited for elderly sims. Fine, he knew it probably wasn't the ideal little toddlers room, but kids furniture and toys just contained so many chemicals. He wanted it to be good for the enviroment, and he wanted it to be healthy for his daughter. And now it was.
Ian wasn't exactely sneaking up at her, but the kid seemed deep in conversation. He was used to her talking to that doll, but when she held the doll up to the chair and went: Ju wike? he wasn't sure if she was talking to him, the doll or the chair.
It's a very nice toy Aino. I like it. He did like most parents and interrupted her playtime.
No! Waydi in cheeeeeeer. She ended the sentence with a sulkyface and he could've sworn she rolled her eyes at him.
You were asking the lady in the chair- taking another look he waited to see a doll or something.
...okay.... Kids and their imagination was unbeliavable. Though, from her perspective the ornament on the back could probably be interpreted as a face of sort: Did she like the crocodile?
DAGON!!! Dad's didn't even recognize a dragon when they saw one. Especially the really awesome ones with ribbons.
Yes, yes: Did she like the dragon then? He still wasn't sure if he should keep pretending with her, or tell her that it was just imagine. Personally he thought she was a bit young to be corrected yet.
Waydi in cheer owny sing.... nite... No talk.
The lady in the char only sang at night then. But didn't talk. Nice, that was nice: Well, why do you ask her then? No wonder imaginarylady didn't talk, not with that doll shrieking about. And Aino talked more than enough on her own.
Did she roll her eyes at him again? She was a toddler, wasn't she a bit young to think her dad was anything but awesome: Waydi nooods... and that irritated voice at the ending there, like he was supposed to know that her imaginary friend only sang and nodded.
She nods now, does she? Well, Ian swooped his daughter up in his arms and said: How about you, me, Ratatosk, DragonBow and the lady in the chair goes to the playpark? She could use some air, and frankly so could he. And it was best taking it whilst it was still early. That way they had all day to look around.
Dadda... she sounded like a grown up: Waydi not weave house.... Dwagon eat babbi. So the lady didn't leave the house, and the dragon ate either babies or barbies?
Well, we can't have the dragon eating anybody can we? Aino laughed at him: Or maybe we can, maybe we can take it with us and it'll bite old sims bums?! Kids were easily entertained, but seriously, with the way he was going she would end up like an obnoxious kid with no manners: So just the two of us, and dollie then?
Aino hesitated:...no....
They have a dinosaur you can ride there.
It sealed the deal, and he finally got her and the doll out. He hoped they'd meet some other parents with toddlers, but they probably wouldn't be that lucky. They seemed to be hiding whenever he had her with him for some reason.
The only thing making the illusion of heat, was the sun that still warmed on his back. That was also the only thing that made sims believe it was still okay to just wear a jumper outside. Ian had been sure to dress Aino more then properly, but he might have exaggerated a bit. She didn't feel warm atleast. He had to admit it wasn't the only thing he worried about at the moment: Tatatos!!! Then she squeeled, pretending to be the doll wanting to get out of the stroller. Ofcourse it meant he had to grab the doll and put it on the ground: Ratatosk can't go with you on the dinosaur okay? You know how dollie is, it'll just eat the dinosaur or something... That made her gurgle and spit out a laughter.
It wasn't the doll that bothered him either, other than it was a bit annoying that she wanted it to go everywhere she went. It was her language, it just didn't seem to get any better. He hadn't talked babytalk to her, neither had Skuld. So why didn't she articulate better? Everything else seemed to be in order, other than what was to be expected; like calling a green horse a dinosaur for instance, though that was partially his own fault.
Tatatos wookin ta dadda buuuuutt..... She laughed when the "dinosaur" started playing music, and she threw herself around on it. Keeping making something that was supposed to be dinosaur roars, it became a horendous cacaphony of sounds, making Ians poor eardrums nearly cracked. He had a headache as usual.
Ian gave it two thumbs up: Ratatosk is looking at daddys butt?! Well, then I'll kick Ratatosks butt!! She laughed louder, sounding more like a shriek than anything. Aino had all her teeth and the doctors said her speech was nothing to worry about. But that's what they always said wasn't it? And then when they finally listened, it was usually to late to do anything with anything. She pretended she was the doll, and screamed a long, highpitched "NOOOOO" in return.
Skuld had this idea in her head, that since he took Aino out pretty much every day, he was exaggerating how tired he felt all the time. He'd take her out if both his legs were broken, but that didn't seem to sink in with his wife. Was it bad of him to be this annoyed at her? As soon as Aino got older he was going to get her to go to couples therapy with him. He didn't want to loose his wife or marriage. He wanted to have the type of marriage that his parents had, he didn't want to be a quitter.
Wuw dadda, She snuggled close to him as soon as he picked her up.
Aaww... daddy loves you to...
Wuw Tatatos...
You love Ratatosk to? Dollie loves you to Aino, everyone loves you. She hugged him a bit harder with those fat arms then. That was so cute.
They stayed at the playground until she was bored, then they went down to the beach. There, her and dollie proceeded to chase eachother. Which mainly consisted of either her, or him throwing it around and her toddling past it. It was remarkably good handcraft on that doll, even it it was ugly as sin. Strong wood, and the joints were flexible and easy to move, but also stayed in place. It was brilliant.
Waydi in wawa. He had to ask her again when she tried whispering in his ear, causing most of his neck and ear to become wet with spit: There's a lady in the water? He asked her.
Waydi in wawa. Biiiiiiiiiig fowe..., Ian had talked to much to her, that it wasn't difficult for him to understand, even if it sounded like gibberish to other sims: There's a lady in the water on a big flower? This time he had to have understood it wrong: nooooo..... waydi haaave big fowe heeeeeweee, then she put her hand on her chest.
Oh, there's a lady in the water with a big flower on her chest? Aino nodded slowly: Tatatos see to.... Ratatosk saw it to: Fowe wed wike daddas hay.... It's red like daddys hay? She actually sighed at him before picking in his hair: haaayyyyy.....
The flower is red like daddys hair?!!! Damn it, she knew how to pronounce "hair".
It was a bit to cold to swim now, but for some reason he'd still believed he'd see a woman swimming around with red flowers on a swimsuit. But it was to cold for normal sims to swim, and to warm for the polar bear club: It's to cold to swim now Aino. She had very vivid imagination, but that was very common to. And he'd found more than one article on all the creepy things children said. Which he was never going to read before bedtime again.
No wimwim, wun. Not swimming, running then.
Dad wants to be able to run on the water to, Ian smiled at her: Is she jogging like mum does?
She looked at the water a long time, before setting two serious eyes in him: Wunn away fwom pai bi boj
She's running from the pai? I mean pale big boy? You mean like a man, like dad? She nodded again
Pawe mam...mam...maaan she almost got it atleast: dwess back....ugwi
Either the pale man wore a dress on his back, or he was dressed in black. Though the first part would be a lot funnier: he wears black? And had she said ugly? He'd dreaded the day when he would have to explain about how calling sims ugly and fat was wrong. It was so difficult to explain when simnation told her that it was only a certain way of looking that was accepted.
Wife go WHAM WHAM WHAM!!! She made a stabbing motion against his chest, and he was confident she meant knife, not wife: Waydi wawa biiiiiig fower taaa.... She rubbed her little hand all over his chest, and said: Waydi dwess ha, she coverered her face: The lady in the water has a big flower on her chest, and her dress is covering her face?
This was bad, she must have picked that up from the tv, or him and her mother talking about something. That was such an easy mistake to make, thinking children were deep in their play and then really overheard anything that was said. He had to be more careful, this was shocking! Good thing she didn't understand what it really meant, but still: he had to start thinking before talking a lot more.
The only big, pale man here is daddy! That was no lie, to this day he'd never had a tan. He'd been sunburned a bit. He blew raspberries on her stomach, failing miserably before hoisting her up in the chilling air: But daddy is a greeeat swimmer, and when Aino gets older dad will teach you how to swim to! She didn't seem overjoyed by it. Maybe whatever she had picked up on had made her wary of water. Or maybe she was wary of it to begin with? It didn't matter, she had to have picked it up somewhere.
He got so busy trying to get his daughter to talk about something else, he completely forgot something important behind.
Ugh.. Ian, you smell like a rotting fish! Skuld had to admit he didn't really smell that bad, she mainly did it to make him feel bad about himself. But there was something that smelled a bit strange around the place.
I don't smell Skuld. It's impossible for me to smell like a fish... Patience Ian, patience.... He took a deep breath. How could she not notice it before now, when she'd sat right next to him sharing a meal a few minutes ago.
It's probably just the fried banana, he explained, knowing well it was nothing that smelled at all: unless you're pregnant again ofcourse.... No way was she pregnant, they didn't sleep together often enough in his mind atleast. He didn't want to be that guy, but it was a bit difficult having someone with that much lower sexdrive. But that was just how it was, and even if it did sting a bit; he did his best to accept it. He had to admit her tight outfits didn't help a lot. Even he was well aware that her body didn't exist for him to look at.
Oh shit!! You think?!!! Skuld grabbed her stomach, desperately trying to figure out if there was something in there! She didn't want more kids! She didn't even like the one she had now!
Skuld wasn't pregnant, if she had been it would've been showing by now, that's how long it had been. But he still went outside to air off a bit. Maybe he did smell a bit bad? And since he was going out he might as well take the laundry with him, hanging it up to dry in the socalled fresh air. It wasn't to bad at this place though, it wasn't the most heavily trafficed road around. Ian never got far enough to even start: Damnit! He had forgotten that blasted doll on the beach! Aino would be horrified and probably never sleep again! She'd never forgive him! He was such an idiot!
Rushing down to the beach he had to realize it; the doll was gone. It didn't matter where he looked, or how much he dug through the sand; it was gone. It had been so many sims at the beach to catch the last rays from the sun, and now it was gone! There had been so many kids, either one of them could have taken it with them. He was the worst dad ever to have existed!
Most of all he wanted to sit down and cry, but instead he had to rush into the stall and throw up. It was nearly becoming a habit by now. Maybe it was something that just happened when he was under stress? No, that didn't explain why he woke up in the middle of the night to call for the almighty moose.
He couldn't even look at his daughter as he went to tell her, but he could hear her talking to that empty chair as usual. It was nice she had such a great imagination, but this would be difficult: Aino, sweetheart, dad has some bad news for you... The thought of her disappointment was to much even to think about. With all those lovely toys she had, her and that doll was the best of friends. Maybe he should try to find a real toddler she could play with, or those clubs for sims with small children? But there was always so many women there. Not that he had a problem spending time with women, but he always ended up feeling like some novelty.
Dadda ba nunu? Aino looked at him for a second, before continuing playing with the blocks, sometimes showing a block to the chair. He hadn't forgotten it? Wow, he must have been completely gone. He was so sure he'd forgotten it, and couldn't remember Aino holding on to iteither. Maybe Skuld had done it? It would explain why he couldn't find it when he'd been looking in the stroller earlier...
...No... No dad doesn't have any bad news for you at all..... That was just, wow. He'd really messed up the day hadn't he? To think he'd spent all that time on the beach, when the doll had been here all along. Idiot.
Clear, crisp air was covering the cemetary, the frost had started taken hold of the dirt thus clenching it's smell. It wouldn't be long before the first snow started falling, unless the weather was to be unnaturally warm ofcourse.
Nice weather didn't help at all, as the dreaded stone said: Here lies Rikard Bergstrom, beloved husband, father and brother. It was so typical-
-why did he do this to her? He was supposed to be next on her list! And he went ahead and just died like that? Didn't he have any manners?! He should have known that she wanted to kill him, but instead that arse had gone ahead and died on his own! How dared he?! She'd had such a grand plan, so many dreams of revenge and then he'd just fallen over and died of old age like that? How rude. As soon as she'd learned she needed to kill off some supernaturals, she'd known that those filthy bastards that had insulted her like that as a child was going to be the lucky ones. And he just .... died... Skuld was mortified for herself. She'd never get revenge over him. Never. Never ever even the slightlest...
Even if the dead for some reason could come out of their graves, and stand amongst them, she couldn't have done anything to him. His essence was gone, and she wasn't a necromancer either way. What a fucking arsehat!! If Ian hadn't been such a fucking nag about spending time with that kid, she might have actually managed to take the fucker down before he went and fucking died on his own!
Atleast she had gotten two of the ones she wanted, Skuld went to look at her work. The one that almost made everything end, before she had even started. Just seeing Bashirs tombstone made her boil with anger. She hated that guy, but in the end he just hadn't been a match for her. It sure had been close though, as much as she hated thinking about it. Acidly thinking about the irony of how him and his wife barely spending life together, they now rested side by side, cold, dead and rotten deep down in the ground. How fucking romantic, she nearly hurled at the thought. But it didn't change how dead he was, or how dead fucking Rikard was. What was she supposed to do now? She had to find another target.
Not even searching for bugs made her mood any better. And it wasn't just that either, she'd had a list of who to kill and in what order. From what she could remember, Rikard was the biggest guy and a werewolf, so he should've been the physically hardest target. That's why she wanted to start with him first, to have time to think about what to do with the others. Werewolves couldn't really do anything as far as she knew, other than transform into some ugly, hairy shit. It was different with fairies and the like. This was just.... she drew a deep breath again.
She walked into some big, run down, dirty abandoned farmhouse. Whatever this place had been once, it was long since lost. Atleast no one was here, and it was covered in dust. She was sure she saw rats and cocroaches running around in the corners. Who was going to take the place of Rikard was another thing she had to considere. The only werewolf she knew was Biorn, but that might be a bit obvious, and he was the mayors son so that might be another problem. But what other choice did she have? Fuck!! Not to mention she hated his guts to, and it would probably make Lucky unhappy...
Luckily for her she got her thoughts ruined by a couple of voices: Dad, I'm scared.... It belonged to a child.
Don't worry sweetheart, you wanted to see fireflies didn't you? This is the best place in town. That belonged to a man, a very old guy by the sound of it.
No I didn't. You said we should we should go and see them, she sulked and crossed her arms over her chest.
The old man seemed to ignore her: Aren't they beautiful? When I was your age, I caught them in a jars. I just never got over how shortlived they were.
That's because you're so old, you didn't have real toys.
The man laughed warmly at the girl: We had toys, I was just really fond of nature.... He seemed to get lost in thoughts, as old sims often did.
Did you bring the jar?
I don't want to catch some gross insects! The girl nearly cried, clearly thinking bugs were scary. Skuld thought she was a spoiled little girl, that was probably how her own daughter would end up. And the boring old man was a lot like Ian. It was so funny that they hadn't noticed her yet. Kind of thrilling really. She'd never actually seen how an old sim, or a child looked on the inside. She usually liked it when they fought her to, an elderly and a child could almost be a bit simple. But how else would she learn, right?
Fireflies still flew around them, barely caring that sims were present as Skuld pulled her trusted knife and slit the old mans throat. It went surprisingly simple, she'd thought the blade would get stuck in the wrinkles. But she made sure to keep it nice and sharp, it was her workknife after all. An even bigger surprise was that the little girl didn't even start screaming, or running. Good for Skuld, but not so good for the little girl. She didn't need these to fight or beg, this was just for science, yes, science.
Though, for some reason it still felt a bit like an anti climax when the old guy just fell to his knees, gurgling and taking his damned time dying. And the girl just sat and stared at him with big eyes, nearly hyperventilating. What a bummer, but that didn't mean she couldn't get anything out of it. The little girl didn't need all of those things in her hair though, and the old man had a nice watch he had no use for.
That had been an interesting experience, and so stressreleaving not to have any purpose other than... scientific, yes, scientific. And she had learned a lot, like the old mans heart probably wasn't the best. The little girl had been in excellent shape though. But more importantly she'd learned something new, or more likely; rediscovered something she already knew about.
It was a bog. The river might be a river in the rest of the city, but this far away from town it was a bog. Things sank in bogs, few were likely to come here as there wasn't any interesting birds or anything. And it was unlikely difficult to search a bog. That was good to know for later purposes.
Ian wasn't one to complain when having a luxuryproblem as beeing intercepted by a newlyshowered woman in underwear in the garden. Whatever she spent her days with, he was sure it had something to do with her job. And for once it was nice that she was home a bit earlier than usual.
First, no worries: Skuld isn't pregnant.
Second: Maya appeared on her own, it was just funny that they kept talking about vegetables.
Third: The ghosts appeared on their own, so I just had to put them up. They are both from generation one.
Fourth: Skuld had her heart set on the supernaturals from chapter 2.25: Nidreisingr.
Fifth: Stupid Rikard went and died on his own, so it's not Skuld that has to change plans, it's me. So she killed a couple of innocent sims instead. Mainly because I'm cleaning out a lot of sims to add some new blood.
Thanks for reading
