It's too soon for this, Jyoti thinks. There's no way it's been another year and a half since... everything.
Dustin is stoked. “Hurry up and blow them out! I want to hear some first words already!”
Her dad is way more excited than she is. But, who could blame him? They got to keep this kid, it feels like a miracle to have a little baby growing older right in front of them, and too soon all at once.
Jet has been living down the road nearly a year already, and now Christian is expecting their first child.
“Do you think he's going to look like me at all? Maybe get my eyes?” She doesn't respond immediately. Something feels off.
“Dad- do you smell that?”
“Jyo get back!” He cautions suddenly, leaping around the counters like a man half his age.
You can't make cake fireproof.
“Why do we light these, again?” She asks vacantly to the refrigerator. She knows her dad has got this one, so all she bothers to do is turn her body to shield her young son from the heat of the flames.
This isn't how anything was supposed to go. It's not the little one's fault of course, but Dustin had looked up the meaning of his grandson's name a while back and he can't help but think of it now. Casimir. 'Destroyer of peace.'
“Try not to live up to your name, kid.” Dustin mutters under his breath.
It takes too long to make another cake, but she does anyways. Jyo had been so determined to make it herself, that her little guy looks like he's not going to stay awake for his own birthday. “It's essential for the baby to be placed on the floor to encourage their metabolism to speed up the sudden growth process. The colder and harder the floor is, the better for the process to... germinate the toddler stage.” Meghan tells her helpfully. “It's okay for him to be there a while longer, he'll grow up stronger. That's what the Werewolves say about their children.”
Jyo is hangry and doesn't bother to respond.
Casimir grows up without waiting for the cake. “You see?!” Says Meghan, delighted. “He's going to be so strong now!” Jyo tunes out her mother's gushing and sits down tiredly with her piece of cake.
And the little guy wonders off to see what he can get into. At least he went the opposite direction from the dog food dispenser.
Dustin loves all children, and normally he would be scooping the boy up and admiring him right away, but finds himself oddly pensive. That really is Loki's child. A large part of him had hoped that it wasn't actually true.
Jyoti knows her father better than she knows most people, she can sense his disappointment. “You don't like him.” She says, after finally eating.
“He's my grandson and I love him.” Dustin defends. “It's just... I've never seen eyes like that before.”
“He really looks like him, doesn't he?” She says.
“Kids are supposed to look like their parents. He can't help it if his dad... well, you know.”
Her dad is sensitive to her feelings and she appreciates it. Casimir can't talk yet, but nobody should be badmouthing his father around him. But... where was his father? There had been nothing, since she retreated from him in France last year. Her dad had been angrier than she'd ever seen him. But Jyo... can't bring herself to feel angry anymore. She's not sorry that her son exists, or that she took a chance on Loki, even though he never really looked at her how she thought he had. “Caz is beautiful.” She says absently.
She can't let him down despite her complicated feelings. “You're with me, kid. Everything's going to be alright.” she coos, but her own mind is miles away.
Dustin comes over and gives them both a quick hug. “Your mom and I will help as much as we can, you know that. Congratulations, Casimir.” He says, ruffling the boy's hair. He's trying not to feel disgusted by what Loki did, when he sees the boy, but it's going to take time.
“Yeah dad, thanks.”
Dustin sighs. When the boy was a baby, nobody wanted to leave the house with him. He needs more life experiences. “We should all go to the park together, for a change.”
I used to think that broken umbrellas were a glitch. That was before I knew you could upgrade them to be unbreakable. This umbrella can't break worse than this, and it can be fixed, so we're going to use it forever.
Toddler toy den.
Failed experiments. One wonders what the success rate is on this thing? She's burnt to a crisp every other week at the highest skill level, with the most upgraded machine. Every scientist should have their own handyman, Meghan muses. This thing still works great when samples explode in it.
“I probably won't be burned twice in a day.” She hedges, risking her life for another plasma bug.
Let's see... at six grand per bug that's... hmm a lotta simoleaons on her cart. Just onnnne more outta round out the day.
She survives to make the whole amount.
Casimir sleeps in Jet's old room, and Jyoti often sleeps with him, still. She doesn't fear many things, but disappearing children are now one of them.
If you've seen one spacey anomaly you've seen them all, really. Yet, still, you go outside.
This would be a great effect to use on stage.
But he's not sure how to harness it.
He didn't learn anything new, after all... Dustin is sure that's a performer in a costume, in that thing. Maybe when Jyo levels up in the army she will learn all the military secrets that pertain to these sightings. That, or he can blame the crazy town he's been living in.
Occasionally Meghan watches over Caz so that Jyoti can sleep in her own bed.
And Leila watches over Jyoti.
And Jyoti watches over the washer and dryer. Or this random relic does? Apparently it doesn't hold a high value to the family to be lord of laundry.
Nobody feels comfortable if they haven't seen Casimir in a while, so he's used to visitors at all hours.
The boy really likes the creepy painting someone was audacious enough to give Dustin and Drea for a wedding present.
Caz is artistic, which explains some of his obsessive behavior about things like this later on.
The boy is also very agreeable and quiet, thankfully the cake incident was not an indicator of his personality. But, Dustin is a bit out of his depth sometimes as the boy seems way too obsertvant for his age. “That's it, we going out.”
So instead of hovering and trying to protect the kid from the world, they all decide to leave the house one day.
“Thanks for suggesting this,” Jyo says slowly, not wanting to admit that she just hasn't felt as safe as she used to. She doesn't want to go out with her son to the park alone.
So this crew goes with her. Leila's always thinking about trash, but I've never seen her eat any or anything, maybe she struggles with the craving?
Dustin can admit that things are different now too. It's just not the same anymore. Starlight used to be a place that loved him, that he loved. Now... he sees it in a different light. He's pulled out of most of his investments here in the last few years, and he has a potential buyer for Lazi his pet project resort.
Caz doesn't love the outside, in fact he's kind of miserable but as he doesn't cry a lot nobody notices. He loves sitting on his butt, so it evens out.
This thing makes noises and he can still sit on his butt! Now we're in the positive. “Hey Meg, I found something this kid likes! Jyo!”
“That's great, dad.” Intones Jyoti, day-drinking. “Great.”
“Then she feels bad for allowing her kid to be so lazy and tries to teach him how his feet work. He hangs off of her wrists for a long while before trying to step down. He thought it was uppies.
“Good work.” She enthuses.
“Now come here!” But he just decides to sit there for a while, thank you very much.
Meghan, having been afraid of getting skin cancer her entire life when in the sun, is finally starting to embrace the fact that it hasn't happened yet. She wants to relive the past a little bit, appreciating how far the family has come. She has a moment of peace, and nobody dares to wake her.
Dustin ran off to perform, which he is doing less and less these days. He still survives the human statue trick.
Twilight is Meghan's favorite time. She enjoys feeling like the earth is coming alive when the sun starts to set.
Jyoti needed this peaceful day. Perhaps she has less to fear than she supposed. Nobody even tried to talk to her outside of her family members, let alone bother her kid.
She gets back into some of her favorite activities.
And some new ones.
Everet makes his way up as the predetermined volunteer for the evening.
“The Piper went to Roaring Heights.” He says on the way into Dustin's stabby box. “We estimate that another researcher and most of the operation went with her. Including, by witness account, the missing kids. It's the best place to look for Jiraya.”
Dustin grits his teeth. “When can we leave?”
“You, Jet and myself are going Tuesday night. Send your things piecemeal, like you're on extended tour.”
“Done.” Dustin replies. He's been packed for three months, waiting for Everet to extract information from the last source. Waiting to confirm that the nurse and her ring of crooks from Holy Cow Memorial had really moved operations. She had been code named The Piper, as it had become increasingly likely that the nurse who signed Jiraya's paperwork was the ringleader in the cases of several missing children. As she was so like the cunning pied piper leading children away from their homes and into the dark and evil unknown in fairy tales, the name had stuck to her.
“Now get in the box.”
“See you on Tues.”
That was the last show Element the Suspicious would play in Starlight Shores.
The next night, Jet's series of publications and even some video interviews regarding the corruption of Starlight Shores' oldest establishments and town officials, police, and hospital is published across the board on several platforms, arranged in advance. Wherever Jet could not get his foot in the door for publishing, Dustin had bribed his way in. Wherever a bribe would not be accepted, Everet had blackmailed and strong-armed. In the end the news got out. Not just about the missing children, the homeless people disappearing and winding up in the city morgue, the mayor's love affairs and bribe-taking and the unvetted scientists and nurses, but about the pay-to-play nature of the Starlight itself. The corruption was everywhere. There were contractors that built roads who led people into the mountains only to find dead ends and billboards advertising services that were not for sale, there seemed to be no end to it.
Ultimately, many famous people will leave, taking their money, families, work (and their good faith in fair government) along with them. Enough is enough.
Summarily, the Sparrows move, bringing most of their belongings with them, although parts of the underground lab are buried and filled in instead. They file in, Dustin first and later the rest, to a sleepy little old money town called Roaring Heights. Here they hope to find the Piper and their young one who is lost, but there will also be a fresh start.
There is a back porch next to an in ground pool (aren't they all, though?) where 'Andrea' puts her lab equipment.
Jet and Christian help everyone to get settled in.
The only koi that 'survived' the lab has been stuffed and hung on the wall in the kitchen.
Jet's artwork graces the dining hall along with some classical antiquity replicas. (ie blurry nekkid people)
A sizable hallway upstairs is useful for several family activities. At least, for now.
The room Jyoti chooses is modest and calm in its furnishings, she could use a little bit of calm for a while.
Dustin and Meghan's master suite is pink.
And somewhat sciency. As there is no basement here.
The neighbors are generally quiet and kind, but this must be an interesting site from across the street.
Relics from some nonsense adventure or another. A surviving plasma bug, some lavender.
Meghan has some reservations. She feels a bit exposed, with all the outward facing bay windows and the lack of an underground hideaway.
“Is it that it's all too pink?”
It all feels more hopeful somehow. There is for now, room to breathe.
Jet and Christian have their first child, a son, soonafter.
And life moves on. No more being afraid of the creatures of the night.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'I've loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night'- Galileo
I hadn't meant for this to be a commentary on IRL San Francisco, especially as I've never lived there, but it's kind of crazy how many people have left in the last few years. I knew things were going downhill there years ago whenever an actual real-time poop map was published.
I do find it ironic that Starlit Shores, a town built on some very similar city, has glitches and 'corruption', albeit, in a not-so-serious tone that make it unplayable so quickly. I was really looking forward to spending ten generations there, but as it would turn out, you need to start with a 'fixed' world first, then port the town families over to it, and being the perfectionist that I am, I would then have to play said town up to this point in Dustin's life to age everyone exactly, or something, I don't know. But apparently the reason I couldn't really teach any teens to drive is that there is a major road that is not connected to the grid properly and kicks everyone out of their cars on the hill coming down from the upper city. This is original reason Jyoti started just jogging everywhere, as it fit her roles anyways.
I know it probably would have been easier to fix it than I think, but nuke and move on is how I've played this game forever, so thanks in no small part to NRAAS Mover and Packer and all of that, most of the town of Starlight Shores will now be moving to Roaring Heights.
Other things that occurred off screen the last few updates;
NRAAS Overwatch saved Emir from an untimely demise.
And what Malcolm has been up to in town.
And what Loki has been up to in town.
