Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Chapter 1.3: Every mile is two in winter



That night, Silvia and Irwin both stayed up late into early morning just talking about things.

"I've heard rumours and stories about vampires before, but I never believed in those kind of things." Silvia calmed down a bit, but she was still having a hard time believing all that has happened.

"It's actually quite well-known in the scientific realm. Off the top of my head I know of several researches being done about vampires. Did you know that vampires now can eat something called plasma fruit instead of feeding on humans?" 

Irwin always gets more talkative when he's talking about science. It takes him a while to realize that Silvia suddenly stopped talking. 

"I would never want to feed on other people." Irwin senses that Silvia is frightened. 


As a result of staying up late talking Silvia is almost late for work. It seems ironic that her new found vampire powers are what enables her to make it to work in time. 


Silvia feels pain. It takes a couple minutes for her to realize she's burning in the sun. For a moment she had forgotten that she's a vampire now and no longer able to stand in the sun. The realization crushes her. Her job as a journalist usually takes place from early morning till 2pm, and after work, she usually interviews people in the park. 


Meanwhile, Irwin meets up with Isaac Clark. Isaac Clark is an old man. He's spent his whole life to scientific research. Currently he works as a Genetic Resequencer at the Science Center. If there is anyone who might possibly know of a way to help Silvia, it's Isaac Clark. Irwin had met Isaac Clark a couple of times, as he had built various widgets and gizmos for the Science Center.

"Hi Dr. Clark, do you remember me? My name is Irwin Kirkwood, I'm a freelance inventor, and I've met you when I was working for the Science Center a couple of times."

Issac recognizes Irwin. It's rare to meet a young person with such passion for science. The two easily form a nice rapport, talking about the newest scientific discoveries and their areas of interests. After a while, Irwin brings up the reason he came to see Isaac.

"Isaac, do you know anything regarding vampirism? I remember some of the guys at the science lab were talking about the possibility of finding a cure?"

"What you're talking about is top secret research. You shouldn't know about this. I'll definitely warn my boys not to be so chatty about these things. Young kids these days-"

"Isaac, I really need to know more about this."


It turns out that the Science Center has been researching for a cure for vampirism for a long time. Currently they're very close to finishing the cure. At the current stage, the product is unstable, and hadn't been approved to be used yet. Moreover, the estimated cost of the potion was around §60,000. 

§60,000 is an impossible amount for Irwin and Silvia.

"Is there anyway I can get just one of these products? I don't have §60,000 right now. But my career as an Inventor has been really going well. I'll pay you back. You know I will. I just need one vial, as soon as possible"

Isaac looks at Irwin curiously. During the short time since he's gotten to know Irwin, he's been able to tell that the boy was shy, and normally kept to himself. After Irwin's incessant begging, Isaac relents. He offers Irwin a deal. He will give Irwin the untested potion. According to their research, the potion is almost ready. However, they hadn't been able to test it yet. Isaac agrees to give Irwin the untested prototype of the potion at the price of  §3,000. §3,000 is still a high price for Irwin and Silvia, however, it's much better than §60,000.



Irwin tells Silvia about his deal with Isaac. There is definitely a risk, since the potion is untested. Irwin has looked over the lab's research notes on the potion. Irwin is pretty positive that it will work. However, a risk is a risk, and they don't have even §3,000. Silvia decides it's well worth the risk. She absolutely hates being a vampire.


The next morning, Silvia calls in work and asks to take some time off. As a vampire, it's just too dangerous to be out and about in plain daylight. The commute to work is just too dangerous. Just yesterday, Silvia had passed out on her way back home because of prolonged exposure to the sun. She was unsure about this decision, until she got an offer to write 3 books for the local children's library. She figured, she could somehow save §3,000 by writing books, and then when she's cured of vampirism, she could go back to work.

Her boss, Eva Rouge, turns out to be Basil's personal maid. She knows exactly why Silvia is sick and needs time off from work. She accepts Silvia's request, and assures her that everything will be fine, that it will take some time to get used to and she may take as long as she needs, but ultimately it will be fine.


However, Silvia knows that it's not going to be fine. She hates every aspect of being a vampire. She hates how she must be afraid of the sun. She hates how she's become a predator. She hates plasma juice. She hates how she loves the taste of plasma juice. She hates how her eyes naturally look at Irwin's neck when he's around.


"Work, let's work. These thoughts will go away if I get to work"

And with that Silvia boots up her computer and starts typing away. Her first book is titled "First Impressions of Grey Meadows". As any workaholic would do, Silvia drowns herself in work in order to forget about her worries.


Irwin is constantly at his workbench cranking out gizmos after gizmos. Ideally, he'd like to have the leisure to invent. However, since they are trying to come up with quick money, he sticks to mass producing his old inventions.


When he runs out of scraps, he heads to the junkyard. Detonation is good for stress relief.


But also quite dangerous.


Some days are just horrible. After coming home from another detonation disaster, Irwin fails at making waffles. Today is just a miserable day.


After few stressful weeks of working nonstop in order to procure the money,  They were now merely couple hundred simoleons away from their goal. Silvia and Isaac decide to take a break.

They've gotten much closer during the last few weeks. As Silvia stayed home most of the time, writing her book, she got to see how much work Irwin did. She realized that Irwin wasn't a lazy bum as she thought he was. Rather, on many days, Irwin earns more money than Silvia does. 

They decided to take a short walk to the Main Park. It's night time, and Silvia doesn't have to worry about going out. Rather, she feels full of energy during this time. The park is mostly empty, since it's past midnight already. It feels like they have the whole place to themselves.


They spend some time just watching the stars together. Having dabbled a little in astronomy, Irwin points out constellations and cool facts about stars to Silvia.


As they get ready to go Irwin shyly kisses Silvia. Since Silvia became a vampire, both Irwin and Silvia were busy. Too busy to properly discuss what happened at the dance club several weeks back. That incident may have been a fluke.  They didn't really know each other, and both of them were pretty drunk that time. But now, they may be tired from working nonstop, but their brains weren't intoxicated. They've practically been spending 24 hours together everyday, and have gotten to know each other much better. 

Simply put, Irwin really liked Silvia, and he was pretty sure Silvia liked him a bit too.


Silvia reciprocates. She's been waiting for Irwin to make a move. He was so shy and uncertain of himself, but that's a part of him that Silvia finds really cute. She's also learned how responsible and dependable Irwin is during the last few weeks. He's been always there for her, giving her a wide shoulder to lean on. 

"Silvia.... I, I... Iloveyou." Irwin stammers. He's so proud of himself for finally saying it out loud. He's also very grateful that it's night-time and the darkness will hide his bright red blush. Unfortunately, Silvia is a vampire, and she has a clear vision during the night. 

"Finally. I was getting worried you'd never do anything!" Silvia playfully responds.

"Ummm, so, Silvia? How about you? Doyoulikemetoo?"

"I love you, stupid"


They hurriedly head back home. 


And finally put their big bed to use.


The next morning, Silvia is in a great mood. Her miseries seem to be coming to an end. They have almost §3000, and Irwin, finally, FINALLY kissed her. and lots more. All in all, it seemed like life was getting back on track. She heads down to get mail for today. In the mailbox is their housing bill. §2,973. The bill is due tomorrow. Luckily, Irwin and Silvia have saved up enough money. They'll be able to pay the bills on time, but that would mean they won't have anything left to buy the vampirism cure.




______________________--
Chapter notes:
In some of the pictures, Silvia has normal vampire skin, and in some pictures she doesn't. Even in the pictures where she doesn't have the shiny vampire skin, she's still a vampire. In some pics you can see her vampire tattoo. I had installed a mod that gets rids of vampire skin and eyes, but then later encountered some incompatibility issues with other vampire mods. So I got rid of the mod later. 

I'm trying to turn Silvia back to human as soon as I can.... BUT, I'm running into a couple issues with my mods. I have several mods installed that are meant to make the game harder/more realistic. One of the mods makes the vampire cure potion §60,000 instead of §3,000..... Normally, since it's a vampire with long life, I would play it until I accumulate that money and then change back, but I kind of want to move things along and get to my next generation. So i'm thinking of maybe just accumulating §3000 and then familyfund it out, and master controller Silvia back into a human.


Irwin and Silvia have been literally working, working, working to earn money. I decided to make Silvia take some time off from work in order to have more socialization time with Irwin. 

I was so happy that I accumulated $3000, and then I got a notice that bills were due tomorrow. The bill amount is irrationally large. I do have another mod tweaking bills..... but I've played with that  mod for awhile now, and I know that the bill shouldn't be so large. My suspicion is that the apartment isn't set up properly and I'm probably paying for more than just my one room studio. 

Title: George Hurbert


2 comments:

  1. I've heard about issues with the bills in apartments before. =( Buckley's legacy had those issues I think.

    Anyway I really like the cute love story between Sylvia and Irwin. <3

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    Replies
    1. I'm glad you're liking it!

      I found out what was wrong with the apartment after I moved them out. Turns out the hallway and the public first floor area wasn't properly set up at public areas and I was paying for those places too-.

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