Strangetown, Season 2 (Autumn) - Curious

Vidcund was always an early riser, and getting up early meant some quality time with his plants. It was a time he savored- no social interaction, a chance to collect his thoughts, and a quiet sense of peace.

He would always feed Tycho in the mornings to spare Pascal the trouble, too. He sometimes wished the aliens would abduct him, too, so he could have a baby of his own. But that was a ridiculous thing to wish for, of course.

“I hope you don’t mind me bringing my daughter, Penny, along! She’s got all sorts of questions.”

“No problem, Mr Weiss. A lot of this alien stuff is still a mystery to us, too, but we might be able to clear up a thing or two.”

“Are you a genie, baby? Because I think my dreams are comin’ true!”
“Haha! I like your pickup line, but I’m afraid not. You might be able to make my dream come true, though!”
“Oh?”
“I’ve got a few questions about why we’re all here. Us alien hybrids, I mean.”
“Oh, right. That’s a pretty big question!”

“So according to their culture, giving birth is the highest honor. They call them birth kings, or queens. I don’t think it really occurs to them that human men might not be so gung-ho about pregnancy.”
“Fascinating. And so they perceive pollination as a gift, of sorts?”
“That’s right. Our father was heavily traumatized, though. Which lead to P.T. -that’s Jenny’s husband- quitting his pollination work.”
“I can understand that. Papa was pretty freaked out too, I’ll bet!”
“Not that I regret my pollination,” Skye cut in, “Penny and Woody have absolutely been a blessing.”

Goopy was learning so much tonight.

“Thing is, the aliens don’t really look at cases individually, as a rule. They see that most of the people they abduct are happier in the long run, and they see it as a good deed. They think they’re fostering a good relationship with humanity. Who knows, maybe they are. We’re certainly receptive to them in our family!”

“I see! I like your dancing, by the way.”

“Thanks. Want to talk about this more over dinner?”

“Sure!”

“But what’s the purpose of it all? Are they simply trying to make an ally of sims? Why?”

“Okay, this is top secret stuff, but they’re working on something.”

“What kind of a something?”

“The elixir of life.”

“That exists?”

“Not yet, but there are plans. You’ve noticed you guys live longer than us? Aliens and sims have about the same lifespan, but when you combine our DNA, the resulting hybrids live, like, twice as long. My older sisters, Chloe and Lola, who I was telling you about earlier? They’re in their fourties, but they still look and act… younger.”

“Interesting. So I have this, too? What about my offspring?”

“We’re not that sure, yet. It’s something my brothers and I are looking into. But yeah, you guys are the result of some experiments, which will hopefully lead to the two species working together to create eternal youth.”

“This is a lot to take in.”

“But enough about that!” Penny seemed like she wanted to think about things, rather than discuss the subject further. He could respect that. “Did you know you can earn a living as a ‘gamer’ now? It sounds like so much fun, although I’m not sure I’m cut out for it, myself.”

“Aw, man. You can play video games as a job? I wish somebody had told me that before I wasted my life away on science.”

“You don’t like science?”

“I don’t know. It’s okay, but I’m not as into it as Pascal and Vidcund. Sometimes I just wanna kick back and do something more relaxing, you know?”

(An out-take, because I thought Widespot fans would be amused to see even when on a date, Penny’s mostly concerned with playing chess.

They have two bolts but the date wasn’t actually too hot, both of them seemed to have other stuff on their mind & stopped rolling wants for each other pretty quick. Which makes sense in context!

I feel like this gift went to the wrong Curious brother. Vidcund would have been perfect, but Lazlo? Maybe Penny saw the greenhouse and just assumed it was Lazlo’s thing. At least it’s a succulent so he won’t be able to kill it easily!)

“Oh man, Chloe. She was hot! The green skin is a real turn on… What do you mean that’s creepy? I’m not talking about you, god! Not that you’re not hot… Quit it, you know what I meant… No, I won’t give you her number!”

Kent Capp! I’ve always thought he’d fit in well with the Curious gang, and sort of hoped maybe he and Pascal would hit it off. (They’re both gay.) No bolts, though.

It was little Tycho’s birthday, and they celebrated with several friends from work. Scientists were always interested to see an alien baby.

Here’s Tycho all grown up! He looks very much like a mini-Pascal, haha. It’s only thanks to those weird ears you can tell he’s an alien. (And the skin, obviously.)

This was the first time I noticed a toddler dancing to music! Rock on, Tycho, my new favorite toddler.

Goopy, no!

Erin drops by, bringing her friend Kristen with her, and romance blooms in the Curious house!

Autonomous first kiss! They immediately fall in love, which is fairly normal for Erin but fairly unusual for Lazlo.

I was wanting to do crossover ships since this is a megahood, but these two really like each other, their chemistry is high, and I’ve never actually had the chance to play it before. So we’ll see how it goes.

Erin, you rolled a want to marry Nervous last round, and I’m pretty sure you rolled a want to marry Darren at one point. Chill!

Another autonomous first kiss, which I completely missed! Maybe I should have made either Nervous or Pascal straight if I wanted to avoid them getting together behind my back, haha. (But let’s be honest, I ship it like crazy.)

Meanwhile, Kristen and Vidcund are really hitting it off! I like the idea of them together a lot, I gotta admit. They’ve got an opposites attract jock/nerd thing going on.

Lazlo is by far the least qualified of the Curious brothers. Fewer skill points, and his degree is in psychology (I figured that was as close to “Phrenology” as we’d get), but the man is a chance card savant and always seems to be several rungs higher up the career ladder than Pascal and Vidcund.

Darren Dreamer asks Lazlo on a group outing, apparently as a friend of Erin’s?

Lazlo doesn’t really understand, but he’s always up for a friendly outing so why not. Plus turns out Jenny and Erin are both friends with Darren, so it’s not as if he’s surrounded by strangers.

“Wise men say:
only fools rush in.
But I can’t help
falling in love with you.”

“It’s not unusual to be loved by anyone
It’s not unusual to have fun with anyone
but when I see you hanging about with anyone
It’s not unusual to see me cry,
oh I wanna’ die!”

“Hey, old man, you can sing!”

“Of course. Back in my day, I was quite the lady killer!”

Lazlo was starting to twig that maybe something wasn’t totally groovy with Darren.

But hey, not Lazlo’s problem. It was up to Erin who she dated. Still, he asked her about it.

“So, uh. Did you and Darren ever have a thing?”
“Sort of. You’re not the only guy I’m seeing at the moment, is that okay?”
“Fine by me, To be honest, you’re not the only girl I’ve been dating, either. I really like you, though. If you ever want to get more serious, let me know.”
“Sure thing.”

All in all, it as a pretty fun night out. Darren, Cassandra and Herb were all pretty cool people. Darren and him seemed to have bonded, despite a possible shared interest in Erin.

(I didn’t manage to get a picture of it, but Darren and Cassandra kissed at one point on this outing. I’ll decide how I wanna play that later, I think. It was just a chaste peck, so maybe it was nothing to Cassie?)

“Hey, Crystal. Long time no see! How’ve you been? Want to go on a date?”

“Well, uh, okay?”

“Hey, what’s your problem?”

“I’m sorry, okay?! I don’t like you like that. I tried to give you a chance, you seemed nice enough, but I just find your whole hippie thing too much of a turn-off!”

“Damn, why didn’t you say so? We could have just been buddies instead of me awkwardly trying to get in your pants.”

“Or you could have just taken my constant lack of enthusiasm as a soft no instead of pushing your luck?”

“Yeah, okay.”