Tune in next time for the biannual adults-take-kids-out-of-school-just-to-tell-them-off-for-skipping-day.
Nevermind, that's this time and day...
It's spring, anyways. The adults takes the next day off to visit the park, Caz gets a day off of school for this because his grades are good so he's ahead of the class. Meghan and Dustin have always maintained that too much time indoors is not good for children, which is why their home right now has more space indoors than out. Nothing beats the feeling of taking everyone out of doors for spring and the festival, so what started as a way for Meghan to have the kids see their dad at work has developed into a Sparrow family tradition.
Meghan, what-are-you-doing?
Why is there confetti and celebration? Your husband is literally right-over-there! Shameless.
Now it's Dustin's turn.
Not. Dustin leans far away from the puckered lips of the tart on the other side of the kissing booth. “Can't you do something better for employment?” He asks her in a concerned, grandfatherly way.
I hope this one glitches me out and sends me across the city for no reason.
...Not sure what mod conflict has been doing that...
Soggy hugs with grandpa.
Dustin makes Casimir feel at home no matter where he is at. It's hard not to like him, when his gramps is always cracking jokes about everything and teasing him.
Caz doesn't particularly enjoy the wet, but if someone gives him money for his goods it'll be worth it.
No, you're not allowed to marry an IF. One in town is plenty...
After he makes almost nothing, his mom tells him she has a surprise he'll like more than the fair.
Normally, he goes everywhere on his bike or with his grandparents. So getting time with her alone will be fun. Assuming, of course, that there's an indoor activity...
They drive by the new arcade, still being furnished and decorated. His heart rate gets up there. Games~!
She didn't stop there... and they're still outside, but this place look neat too.
She lets him buy several toys...
“Mom, I think I don't want to be on this actually...”
“We're already on it, Cazzie. Sorry.”
He's too worried about what's ahead to complain about the nickname.
Smiling is for the weak.
wheeee.
Roller coasters. Huh. Casimir thinks he can build a better one in a video game somewhere.
His mom then drags him off to take photos.
And the sunset is in his eyes.
“Can we go home, yet?”
Spending time with his mom is rare, but it's getting dark and she's going to start ordering drinks soon if they stay. But he doesn't give a voice to this concern.
She gently shakes the paper to dry the photos. “Uhm... maybe in a bit.”
Jyo can't help but think that she still feels alone. Operation family fun, when her dad was in charge of it, was always thrilling. Is she failing as a mother, that Caz just doesn't care about all of this? How is she supposed to play with him, if he doesn't like the same things she does?
Oh well, one more photo while we're here.
If he were in charge, this place would be soooo much better.
They head home and grandpa understands him. Sitting on butts, bonding over games.
Meanwhile, Jiraya, who had come straight home after school...
Learned that grilling out is harder than it looks.
Meghan comes over to try and figure out why this is happening. “Get your face out of it!”
“Feels warm...”
“Of course it does! Did you call for help, or anything!?”
So he calls again. “Actively burning. Yup, yes it's hot. Should I keep watching it closely? You said closely, right. I smell singed hair I think...”
Dustin knows that this boy is his son. But what was he thinking, handling it this way?
It's hard to be old and see the kids being so lazy.
But maybe Jiraya... just wanted to watch something burn?
Guess that's one way to draw your father's attention.
Eventually, he feels the heat from his father's gaze to be a bit hotter than the actual fire, and begins to take action. Dustin knows he had shared how to operate one of those with the boy.
Dustin waits. Until the kid begins to feel responsible. It's worth a few more floor tiles for the boy to learn his lesson from this. Meghan is not used to Dustin not simply jumping in to save everyone. She screams his name shrilly.
Jyo lets out a confused yelp- “Dad?!” When he waves for her not to do anything.
Finally Jiraya steps up. “Like this...?”
pfft
Dustin eventually gives in and helps him. “Lean into the base of the fire.” He instructs.
Malcolm would've gotten it. But he's at work, and the family has been down one fireman for this long anyway...
We'll probably keep surviving just fine without him, Jyo thinks irritably.
Dustin knows the time is short to teach this boy anything much. “That was a start.” He tells him. “Even if you make a mistake son, you be the first one trying to fix it, do you understand?”
A thrill runs up Jiraya's spine at the tone in the older man's voice. “Yes ...sir.”
Casimir looks over the scene, his time with grandpa forgotten. This house is chaos ever since this kid came here.
Dustin wraps up the lesson while guests for the party filter in. “If it's about things, we can buy another one if they break. We can't ever replace each other. So, don't forget that others sims are more important than stuff.”
Jiraya nods, quickly. Its embarrassing to be called out like this, but maybe it was something he needed.
They finish up decorating.
The firefighters come and go, giving a warning, the guests arrive, and Casimir steps up to the cake. It's finally his turn to get all the attention.
He decides it feels good to get everyone's attention.
...and promptly grows up to be dramatic.
The most boring hair in the game actually looks quite good on him, so I leave it.
There's that displeased expression I was waiting for!
GREEN.
Favorite color :>
Haha. There's his dad's impossibly sad face. I'm supposed to be giving this guy some character development here in this panel, but I'm too busy grinning at him.
Speaking of Loki, where is that cad?!
Well, Caz learned to take care of plenty of things without him, after all. His grandparents have filled in any gaps and he's learning well.
He is artistic, so he was given a drawing table to focus his energy at.
Meg appreciates her husband more after that rough event. “You handled Jiraya so well. Thanks for being so good to the boys.”
She always knows how to build him up when he's feeling overwhelmed.
They talk about their long journey and how they've gotten this far.
This is a town they've come to love. Dustin paints it.
Jiraya dreams of what happened on Casimir's birthday. Somehow... the memory is a hopeful one. His childhood would have been very different, if his parents were in his life then. Having a place where he can rest easy, still seems fleeting, but so very precious.
He also feels much closer to his dad after the incident. After getting up a small bit of courage, he shares some of the photos he's been taking with the camera from Christmas. “None of them are very good yet, but going outside to find the right shot to take is great. Sometimes I see things that are too pretty, that I don't want to film because it feels like the moment's only there for me, right then. Have you ever had a ...feeling like that?”
Dustin thinks back to when he was playing his first few shows, the moments on stage when he knows he'd not made a single mistake. “I think I have, but it was different for me. I only wanted to perform, to see if I had done well, you can see that in the faces of other people. But what you're describing son, sounds a bit more like wanderlust.”
He has to have it explained, then takes a while to ponder. “That... sounds right. I wonder if it means I want to 'wander'?”
“Let's find out what it is... I want to help you to unlock your true potential.”
“This is like something my nephew might do...”
“Caz? Did I teach him this?”
“No... nevermind.”
Dustin's tone becomes soft. “Are you talking about Emir?”
“I know you don't believe me...”
“I believe you. Now hold still. I want to try something.”
“Yep. Seems like you've got the rizz.”
“Uhh...”
That's one way to kill a trend. Dustin's finally figured out how to embarrass his youngest.
“Why don't you ever want to talk about it?”
“Is talking going to bring him home? Or make Malcolm come and visit with him?”
“It could. You could just ask my sister right?”
Dustin frowns thoughtfully. “Malcolm must have his reasons.” He resolves. “I don't want to force anybody to be here who is not ready to be.”
Jiraya thinks back to the day he met his sister. “But what if they just don't know if they're welcome here? I was unsure too, but she said you'd been waiting to meet me, so I came. It's not like I knew what I wanted, at that age.”
“I can see this has really been bothering you.”
Jiraya shrugs, tries to play it off casually. “It was my job, to bring everyone safely back home.”
Dustin ruffles his boy's puffy hair. “No it wasn't, your job was just to find your way out. And you did that. Leave everything else up to the adults for once, okay? You still get to be a kid here.”
Jiraya looks away so his dad doesn't see him cry, but Dustin ignores the attempt and pulls him into a tight hug. Not for too long, just until he complains that he can't breathe.
“Here's Casimir...”
“And you... told you you'd be in here, didn't I?”
“D-dad?”
“Yes?”
“Is it really okay if I want to travel, when I get older? I want to spend as much time with you and mom as possible, but I've already spent so much time not really seeing much of anything, you know?”
Dustin smiles wistfully. “We'll miss you of course, and I'd rather know that you're home safe, but you can still take a while to decide something like that, Jiraya.”
Dustin makes a promise to show his son some things from the family memorial chest after this. Eventually he will see Meghan's first scientific papers under her pen name Andrea, newspaper clippings from what happened to her dad back in Twinbrook, cousin Eugene's stories from Aurora Skies to Starlight Shores and now here where they call the Heights home. The scrapbook he made after he survived his actually fatal mistake on stage, and the advertising work he'd done as Element the Suspicious, as well as pictures from the old lab that Meg had at their last place.
“You don't have to be like any of us, son, but I want you to know who we are.”
Jiraya will grow into his own one day, and he will travel, but he will not forget these fleeting moments with his dad as time flows by them all.
“Now.” He cracks his knuckles. “You seem a bit mopey, so forget it all. Do you want to know what the rizz was back in my day?” Jiraya has no idea what the rizz is either, but apparently his dad likes it, so...
“We used to call that having the Element... of something magical.”
“What do you think, did you feel it?”
“How did you do that?” Jiraya's ears pop from the pressure of an energy he can't account for, and an echoing noise fades slowly that he could swore he actually heard...
Dustin laughs a dramatic stage laugh in response. “I'll never tell.”
“Now go skill up on something. Just because it's the weekend doesn't mean you can be lazy.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jiraya's not going to become a villain on my watch! He just wanted to make the cheeseburgers for his dad... He also cried after the fire was out, because everything became dirty, and as a neurotic, he couldn't take it. He was fine when the flames were caressing his eyebrows.
Caz really must hate the outside that it extends to the amusement park and the actual roller coasters. Someday Jyo will figure him out. She could have turned at the arcade.
Just to be dramatic for Caz's age up I gave his décor more fire. I was tempted to make him fake pass out at his own celebration, but I couldn't bring myself to do that to him. I figured he'll eventually do that sort of thing on his own.
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