Chapter 8 - The Beginning of the Age of Birthdays

As Jarred cuddles the shrieking baby that night at 3am, he realizes that he has absolutely no idea what he wants to do with his life.

He has talents, yes. He can play a mean guitar (though this isn't seen very often in my legacy due to my own lack of good storytelling sometimes), nearly to the point of mastering it. But he feels a truer passion for visual art.

The house, small as it is, is already decorated all over with his paintings and drawings from when he was a child, though he spends very little time with his easel these days.

Regardless, he is going to age up tomorrow, into a young adult, and he knows that his parents need the space that he would be taking up if he stayed. His decision will come sooner than he thinks.

Thus, Jarred turns to his easel, even as Kyle shrieks behind him. No time to stop. He's gotta figure out if this could work as a career, not just a hobby.

An hour or so later, he's finished something inspired by recent circumstances.

Jarred is notably pleased. He knows now that this is what he has to do for the rest of his life. There's no question in his mind.

Freya, on the other side of the house, is beating up more people.

This one happens to be a very crazy vampire child whose name I can't recall, but that is her best friend regardless.

"Noooo! I am defeated!"

"Weenie," Freya jeers teasingly, adjusting her glasses when she catches up to him again.

"You're so good at this, Freya! How do you manage it?"

"What?"

"No, for realsies, you're like epic at this game!"

Freya wonders if he is always so easily impressed.

CONGRATULATIONS, LEDA, YOU'VE JUST COMPLETED YOUR LIFETIME WISH. HOW DO YOU FEEL?!

No comment, I see.

On the morning of his birthday, Jarred has a few choice words for Kyle.

"Y'know, I'm glad I'm leaving. I'm very very glad...because for once I'll actually be able to get a full night's sleep. So screw you, kid."

A gnome is discovered across the basement, in the laundry machine. Jarred is even more pleased to be leaving.

 

 There is a party that night, but as per usual in the tradition of birthdays in the Randall house everyone is late.

Freya manages to drag herself away from the telescope to come in after Jarred has already blown out his candles.

Her vampire friend arrives just after Jarred ages up, and someone stranger materializes randomly in the basement for some cake. Jarred is frighteningly emo enough in appearance that no one really seems to notice.

Well. Except for Freya.

Everyone vanishes quickly, running to do errands here and there. Jarred goes to check out houses and to become a self-employed painter, Leda goes to collect profits of the buildings that her family has a partnership in, and Joey vanishes to combat wormholes down at the science facility.

The only one who sticks around is Freya's vampire friend, and he's completely inept.

"...did...did you really just-"

"No." He looks around shiftily. "No, I didn't. That was the gnomes."

 

 Leda gets distracted on her way to become a partner in another building by someone she didn't even know dying.

...and by this horror story, that too.

Luckily she is so distracted that she doesn't notice her son's girlfriend beside her, who was so evil that she didn't even go to his birthday party just a few hours beforehand.

Jarred returns, looking far less emo and with a bone to pick with his father. "Dad...I wanna move out."

"What?"

"Today. I just...bought a house with a little money from selling some paintings, actually."

"Hell yes, took you long enough!"

Jarred isn't sure what to think of this enthusiastic response and stares.

"What I mean to say, son, is...this is what's best for you. Really. I know how we haven't really been the best parents to you or anything, but-"

"Shut up, you've been awesome!" Jarred assures him. Joey is rather pleased by the fact that the new laundry machines are doing precisely what they're supposed to do.

Leda's response is equally pleased, though as family-oriented as she is she finds it incredibly difficult to hold her smile when her eldest child is leaving the house, possibly for the last time. Have they even sufficiently prepared him for the world?

Jarred corners Freya in the bathroom. He's never had the closest relationship with his half-sister, but at the same time he cares about her enough to know he can't just...leave and not say a word.

"You're like...freakishly smart, you know that?"

Freya nods. She's used to this by now.

"Then while I'm gone, you've gotta do whatever you can to get even better, all right?"

Freya accepts his challenge to improve her skills. She goes outside to the chess board and puts her mind to work.

Jarred doesn't even say goodbye to Kyle. In the hot-headed recesses of his mind, he hopes that kid screams his head off enough to keep his parents awake from now to kingdom come as a punishment for all those days he fell asleep in school.

And so he goes to his new home. It's decidedly creepy and possibly not a house at all, but instead a barn. It's rather doubtful he'll be having any house parties any time soon. At the same time, he'll no doubt redecorate it with painting after painting until its outward appearance doesn't even matter anymore.

"Well, the first one's gone," Joey murmurs that night, letting Leda snuggle up to him.

She doesn't speak. She merely nuzzles against him with a soft sigh.

"I think we did well by him, don't you?"

Leda nods. "As well as we could. Though I can't help but feel that I could have given him so much more."

"Shh," Joey soothes. He kisses the top of her head gently. "You're the finest mother I've ever seen, all right?"

Leda smiles in acknowledgement and sinks into him further, closing her eyes. "You're too kind."

There's a moment of hesitation before Joey speaks again, his voice barely above a whisper. "I...know that anything that went wrong with Jarred, it was all my fault. I put my career, my friendships, everything in the world before him. Hell, I put them before YOU."

Leda doesn't bother to disagree. They both know it's true. But as she looks up at him, she smiles anyway. "We've both made mistakes, Joey. But we can try to move forward anyway."

"Yeah?"

Obligatory sex for the end of the chapter.

------

Jarred's final trait is Hopeless Romantic, which was randomized in. A hotheaded hopeless romantic makes me grin, so I left it.

As of several days after he moved out and Carrie aged up as well, the two haven't seen fit to make their relationship more serious.

And I'm really bad at remembering people's names, ugaiz. xD I think the vampire kid's name is...Luke? Something like that? Watch me be completely wrong when I load the game up tomorrow to play again. I should really make notes of these things.

PS: Property Mogul has now been achieved. So have both Joey and Leda's lifetime wishes. The half-children requirement, obviously, is done as well. All that's left for Kyle to do is age into a YA.

Generation 2's rolls are Single Parent With "Help," 2 children, Primary Income as Ghosthunter, Secondary Income as Author, Goal as Expansionist, and Misc. Fun as Tattoo Addict. The heir shall be the first child.