Wednesday 28 June 2017

2.11 Button-Eyes


Tula's "bestest friend" is beginning to get on her nerves. She can't spend any time by herself without him spewing angry nonsense. Most of it isn't even directed at anything, it's just angry sounds. 

"I'm trying to read," she hisses at him. Predictably, he only continues to rant as if she never spoke. Tula sighs, and wonders if she can convince her parents to give her enough money for ear plugs... 




When she finishes a whole chapter of her book and he still hasn't stopped, Tula decides to resort to drastic measures. 

"I will punch you so hard if you don't shut up." 

"But-," 

"Do you want to keep your buttons on your face or not!?



Persis came out here to paint, but instead hears her granddaughter violently threatening...thin air. She wonders if this is some kind of innocuous behaviour, caused by a lack of peers at home, or if this is something more serious... 



One of her threats seems to have worked, but now Guy is giving her a strangely terrified look. As terrified as button-eyes can seem, anyways. 

She looks behind her, and seeing that Persis has disappeared back into her bedroom, she switches gears. "Aw, I'm sorry Guy. I didn't mean it..." being invisible, and seemingly anchored to her, Guy could be quite useful. She can't have him so uneasy around her. 




Guy seems to easily forgive Tula, and the two chat about music. 

You see what I mean? Persis's eyes seem to say as she glances at Tula. She went to get Marko, the closest thing the town probably has to a child pyschology expert. 

Marko glances behind Persis, then gives a small shrug. It's probably not a big deal. 



At Persis's arched eyebrow, he sighs and rolls his eyes. Fine, fine, I'll talk to her. 

Persis smiles, satisfied with their non-verbal conversation. 



"You know, I think being a businessman could be cool," Tula does not yet realize that 'businessman' is not a general occupation title, "Like a CEO..." all those workers, at her beck and call... nice. 

"Tula, isn't it time for bed?" Marko says from the other side of the room, quickly approaching. 

Tula glances at Guy, hoping he can see the implicit shut up in her eyes. "Yeah, I just need to take a shower. Will you read me a bedtime story?" she asks sweetly. 

"Of course," Marko promises. Well, that was easy... 



Tula showers and changes into her pjs, then makes a show of racing to her room. 

"What story are we going to read?" 




"Well, actually, I wanted to talk to you about something first..." 

Tula does not like the sound of that. "But I'm tired. Can't we talk about it tomorrow?" 





"Tula, me and your grandma are a bit worried that you don't have anyone at home to talk to," he tries to phrase this sensitively, "And I want you to know it's ok if you feel a bit...lonely. You can always talk to us." 

Tula represses the urge to roll her eyes, "I'm fine, grandpa..." she tries to think of a way to get out of this conversation; she can't have her parents and grandparents worried about her. They're going to be hovering around her all the time. Just like Guy. Ugh. 

She comes up with an idea. "But I'm not lonely, I have a friend! I can prove it! Just give me a minute." 

Marko looks at the floor uncomfortably as Tula dashes out of the room. It pains him to see Tula go through this kind of phase. It reminds him so much of her father. Maybe I could start inviting my friends who have kids to come over for the holiday parties... 




Tula rushes back with a beaker of orange liquid. Marko narrows his eyes at it. It seems familiar... 

Just as Tula hands it to thin air, he remembers. "Isn't that from my chemistry set? Tula, it doesn't do anyth-" 



"See, grandpa? He is real!" Tula is a bit disappointed that she couldn't keep Guy invisible, but playing the "lonely shy kid" facade would only work for so long. Eventually she would get caught talking to herself again, and again, and again... that just wouldn't do. Kids only have imaginary friends for so long before it becomes unsettling. 




Marko....has no idea what is happening. 



Guy's real, that's what's happening! 

"So...how do I look?" 




"Not so imaginary..." Tula anticipates many, many more questions. 


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AN: I would have kept Guy as an IF for longer but he was starting to get on my nerves. His face is game-generated, but I gave him his hair colour. You can only have so many IFs turned real before the same 4 hair colours stop looking nice. 

8 comments:

  1. Poor Marko, probably thinks he has seen everything at his wise age, and then his elementary school daughter proves him wrong like this.
    But hey, at least Guy's unconventional eye and hair color fits in nicely with the Winterlys!

    Confession: I never turned an IF real! Even though I really want it, but haven't had a good story opportunity to do so hmm...

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    1. Haha, exactly. Poor Marko. After all these years, he probably thought he had people all figured out- surprise!

      And it does! He has blue highlights in his hair that are nearly the same colour as the base for Persis's. I think the same goes for his eye colour.

      I will be honest, IFs annoy me so when I do play with them, I turn them real as soon as possible so that the kid(s) can have some privacy at home. I was lucky with this generation because Marko had discovered the IF potion ages ago, and Paolo will probably discover it soon. Even with the required logic skill point of 8, it can take forever to discover it.

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  2. Haha, I love that your reasoning of him being too annoying was also Tula's reason. I wonder what Marko thinks he just saw.

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    1. Probably thinks he hallucinated initially, but it will be a mystery for a long time for him.

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  3. I've never had a real IF either in game. They creep me out and don't fit a lot of the challenges I've played (you can delete them if the kid hasn't played with them yet, drag them onto the floor and use the cheat 'delete it' with testincheatsenabled set to true). I tried recently getting relationship up with one of my sims kids and the second it came to life it started arguing with her, they were enemies by the second day. Pretty sure it was mean spirited, so I'm guessing they can have any traits?

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    1. I have deleted them in the past, but Tula had no siblings to play with so I just let her keep this one.

      Tula and Guy didn't argue (amazingly) but his constant in game rants and the fact that his toy doll form would block routing in the house sometimes made me make him real. They can have any traits, it's just that it seems like the IFs often have "negative" traits.

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  4. IFs are the worst. Granted, there are some fun ideas there, but when your kid has to shoo the IF out of the bathroom every.single.time. it gets annoying. I always delete the dolls as soon as they appear.

    It sounds like you have an interesting story planned here though! Can't blame you for turning him real earlier than you planned.

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    1. I normally also delete the toys, but writing Tula as an only child felt...wrong. And since the house has only adults, I figured I'd have someone her age around in story.

      I'm happy I turned him when I did. Aside from the annoyances that come with having an IF constantly following Tula around, it was nice having another child in the house :)

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