6.50 Time without Love

“Hmmm,” Gamora said. “This is more dramatic than I was expecting on a first test.”

 

“I’m getting some kind of feedback,” Sawyer said. “We’re in some kind of tachyon loop.”

“I see something!” Gamora.

“Gamora!” Sawyer shouted. “Step away from the prototype!”

Gamora jumped back, just as something burst from the time field and dropped to the floor.

“Heeey….” the something said.

“Who are you?” Gamora demanded. “WHAT are you?”

“Me?” he asked. “I’m Emit Relevart, time traveler extraordinare!”

“How did you get into our time machine?” Gamora asked. “This was our first prototype test.”

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Emit said. “But don’t bother. Time traveling is like that. You’d think that time loops would create some kind of paradox, but they actually happen all the time. This thing is probably your time machine and mine.”

“If you’re new to temporal travel, you should read up on the rules,” Emit said. “We try to help the newbies to the hobby avoid the worst mistakes.”

“Huh,” Gamora said. “I don’t know what to say. This isn’t the way I expected to discover time travel. I expected it would be more… pioneering.”

“Everyone does, squirt,” Emit said. “Everyone does.”

“I’ll let you in on a secret,” he continued, beckoning Gamora to lean close. “Everyone who ‘invents’ time travel thinks they’re the first one. Welcome to the club.”

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to head out to some place less crowded with other travelers.”

He pulled out a device and pressed a few buttons. The time travel prototype shuddered and spiked in response. Then he was gone.

Sawyer and Gamora were left alone in the lab.

“Well, that was unsettling,” Sawyer said.

“I wondered whether I wanted to go to future or the past when we got this thing working,” Gamora mused. “Now I know where I’m going.”

Inside, romance was in the air.

“Hey, Cortney?” Winston said. “Dance class is out this week, and I was wondering if you’d like to–”

“Oh, sorry. Maybe some other time.”

Winston put his phone back in his pocket and stared at the floor for a while. There had been a time when Cortney Pierce-Hodgins had wanted to spend all her time with him. Now… what?

At almost the same time, Victoria was also fielding a phone call.

 

“Kain McWilliams? Of course I remember you from prom! A date? Uh, OK. When?”

Kain insisted that she pick a location. That’s how they ended up at the beach in the snow.

“Vickie!” Kain exclaimed. “It’s so good to see you. I have to say I’m kind of surprised by the venue, though. It’s it a little bit cold for the water?”

“It’s actually not that bad!” Victoria said. “The jetstream brings up a lot of warmer water from tropical seas. It’s just fine with a wetsuit.” At his horrified expression, she amended lamely, “I didn’t really think we’d swim. The view from the clubhouse is gorgeous.”

“I’ve never been inside the clubhouse,” Kain said, looking around appraisingly. “This is really nice. Thank you for showing it to me.”

“This is my favorite place in Avalon,” Victoria admitted, “even when it’s cold. You can still hear the waves and feel the ocean breeze.”

“It’s also deserted this time of year,” Kain said, “which is great for us. What a find!”

Victoria blanched. “And it has a great karyoke machine,” she said quickly. “Why don’t we play for a while?”

“Uh sure, if that’s what you like,” Kain said. “How do you set this thing up?”

Victoria was an old hat at the Morgana Beach karaoke machine. She and Judith had logged hours on it all through high school.

Kain wasn’t a bad singer, which was impressive, since Victoria knew the set list by heart, and he didn’t.

But Victoria had to admit that he was just weird about the whole thing. And there was something about the way he looked at her that made her uncomfortable.

 

What was he even doing with his head there?

At least the sound attracted in some other folks, so they weren’t alone. That helped Victoria relax a little bit.

After a few songs, Kain put his microphone away. He was watching her with that intensity that made her want to cringe away.

“That was a lot of fun,”  he said. “What would you think about continuing our date someplace more private?”

“Uh….” Victoria said. “I think I really should go home now. My, uh, parents expect my home for dinner.”

Kain’s face fell. “I see. I guess if you want to go out again, you should give me a call.”

Victoria escaped as fast as she could, feeling horrible. She’d hurt his feelings, and she knew it. He’d been so nice to her at the prom. They’d danced and laughed together. But on their own, without the flashing lights and shouting over the music, all she felt around him was uncomfortable.

Would she ever learn to turn someone down gracefully?

VickieKainUnattractive

VickieDateDisaster

———-

I’ve played ahead at least eight posts worth of material, but I’ve been wrestling with writer’s block. Hopefully getting this out will help me power through it. In my game, Victoria has taken over the legacy, and I’m on the hunt for a spouse for her. (She, honestly, couldn’t care less so long as she can swim, sail, and build things.) It’s hard to figure out how to help her choose from her collection of admirers — being Irresistible, she doesn’t lack for romantic interests. Kain, the RI she picked up from prom, was easy to eliminate though.

Vickie gets a lot of wishes about that karaoke machine. You’re going to see it again.

9 thoughts on “6.50 Time without Love

  1. YAAAY!!! Brave is back!!! Poor Gamora, such a let-down that she’s not a time-travelling pioneer. That was really funny, though. And she met a real hunky guy there… maybe seeing as they’re sharing a time machine, they’ll bump into each other again?

    I share Victoria’s love for the beach, so I understand wanting to go there in the winter, just to feel the sea air and hear the waves. As long as I wasn’t cold in a wetsuit, that’d be great too. And the karaoke machine is always fun, in my opinion. It was funny how that guy creeped her out– what WAS he doing with his head, anyway?!

    • Ha! You found my post immediately! I crossposted it to tumblr too, though the WordPress Publicize plugin didn’t handle the hashtags how I was expecting at all. Need to keep tweaking.

      Gamora and Emit Relevart seemed to be pretty into each other. She sprouted a whole bunch of wishes for spending time with him. However, I’m pretty sure the Time Traveler can’t engage in romance. I’m not sure why. I’ll have to look into it.

      The way Into the Future works is that a time machine sprouts on your property, and when you investigate it, the Time Traveler pops out, gives you a Time Almanac, and gives you some time travel related Opportunities. It’s always the same guy. I don’t know if he always has the same traits.

  2. I found your updates! I can’t believe I didn’t realize you were back from hiatus. I’m such a dingus.

    Great chapter! I really like how you introduced time travel into the legacy. It’s very intriguing, especially with all of the rules. Of course everyone who discovers time travel thinks they’re the first to discover it! Looks like Gamora has an interesting future in front of her. (I’m so sorry for the unintentional pun.)

    Poor Vickie, though. Kain is such a creepy dude. Good for her for putting an end to it. You just can’t trust a guy who would dislocate his neck to sneak a glimpse of your butt.

    • Squee! Thank you for coming over to read and comment! I’ve been so bummed out the last couple of days (big guess why — the state of the world sucks). Sharing Sims really just makes everything better.

      I love Gamora right now. She is just making trouble as fast as she can. It’s great. Vickie has two more suitors that I need to decide about at current gameplay. It’s actually kind of challenging to have an Irresistible heiress.

  3. Iiik! What a cool introduction of Emit and I really, really do not like that Kain dude. Maybe it is something in his name dunno. *Shrug* Glad she ended the date quickly!
    Writers block is horrible! I solved mine by skipping text all together and let the images speak for themselves.

    • Hi hi!

      Kain didn’t last long as a romantic interest AT ALL. Though he still floats around in the story because he’s the same age as the Gen 7 kids.

      I’m staring at pictures for another post right now and wondering what I’m going to write. Perhaps I should take your lead and just post mostly pictures. It worked well for your posts!

  4. Aww, poor Vickie. It was fun to watch her date with Kain and the karaoke machine, even though it didn’t end well for them. I can sense more interesting dates coming along our way, and I can’t wait for them to arrive 😀 Who knows when she’ll meet “the one”……

    • Squee! It’s so great to see your comments!

      I have played a decent amount ahead, and Vickie is still not paired off. She’s not turning to be the easiest sim to make the next generation! It will happen, though I promise.

  5. I think it would be more fun if you could really invent a time machine that actually works. I remember the steampunk time machine that came with the Ambitions EP and that I was disappointed when all that you could do was read about what was going on – like in the catacombs at the graveyard… I’m really happy the EA released Into the Future EP. At least you can travel to the future. How cool would it be if you could go back in time and change things 🙂 Great chapter!

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