Chapter 1: The Seeds of Change

Once upon a time there was a toddler. He was not very cute. We don't know much more about him. Who were his parents? Who took care of him when he was little? We just don't know. This picture is all that has survived from when he was small. On the back of the photo is scribbled in an unknown handwriting: "Magnus, 3."

Little Magnus grew and became a child who loved multi-colored clothes. This seems to indicate that he was already aware of his family name, Reinboe. His looks had not improved much, though. The big cheeks and the weak chin show us that this boy would never become Captain Hero, no matter how many comics he collected.

Here Magnus is in front of his home in Rainbow Hills. From the same time are the records from Banque Monique, showing that one Magnus Reinboe had a mortgage of §30 000 on this house. He was paying his bills on time, most of which was interest. Evidently the laws on the Greater Layman Islands did not prohibit lending to teenagers.

Records from Sim City Times explain how the young man was able to pay his bills. Evidently he was a prolific writer on a wide range of topics, and his articles fetched a gradually higher price over the years. The topics were as diverse as cooking, sports and electronic gizmos. Clearly he was already at this time somewhat of a universal genius.

Magnus seems to have done everything in the house himself, including making his own food, keeping the place clean, and paying his bills. With all this, and schoolwork and writing too, there was not much time to go out. For most of these years, people barely saw him except going to school. Some have speculated that he may have been a very shy and introverted person. If that is so, it makes the rest of his life so much more remarkable.

We know for a fact that the rug in this picture was a gift from a man who would later be a close friend of the house. Brandon Lillard (the first) had met Magnus during an outing downtown and became so impressed that he left this rug as a present. This was shortly before Magnus left for college, and in earnest became known to the world. No doubt this was to be the greatest change in his life, well except for his Enlightenment. But all in its own good time.

At first, Magnus was still very much a loner. After having lived all those years in solitude, it felt natural to him. And as is often the case, other students sensed this and stayed away too.

An exception was a girl named Opal. She was the kind of girl who just says anything without a second thought, indeed without a first though many times.
"What, you're in college and haven't even had your fist kiss yet? That's just so tragic! I mean, most people here are doing, you know, this and that. I'll talk to my friend Margaret. She's a cheerleader!"
"You say that as if it were a good thing."
"Seriously! She's looking for a boyfriend with serious income potential, is what she said. You two will fit together just great. She's cute, you're smart. How could that go wrong?"

Magnus returned home, more grown-up and with a stylish moustache. At first he took up the same lifestyle as before.

Magnus Reinboe
Knowledge
LTW: Max 7 skills
Neat 4
Outgoing 0
Active 6
Playful 5
Nice 10

Soon however there showed up a guest: A cheerleader named Margaret! They had met at college, and gotten to know each other despite his initial reservations.
"That's a pretty big house you've got here for a family of one."
"It certainly suffices."

"You know, if you had someone else living here too... someone who would earn a lot of money, so you could concentrate on your research and perhaps make some groundbreaking invention..."
"Why don't you ask me straight out? Yes, you're welcome to live here... as long as you pay the bills."

Margaret
Fortune
LTW: Hall of Famer
Neat 10
Outgoing 3
Active 2
Playful 4
Nice 6

Margaret, being a neatfreak, set about eradicating the memory of dust from the house. Besides her avid interest in money, she was also the perfect housekeeper. And best of all, she enjoyed it.

Magnus did not interfere. He was happy to have someone else do most of the housework, while he concentrated on his precious research from graduation, when he had studied the alien organism known colloquially as "the cowplant". At some point, he would definitely get his hands on one of those, and analyze the peculiar liquid it secreted. If he could syntesize it...

Their arrangement was one of opportunism rather than love, each of them being free to pursue their own interest. Even so, it could not be avoided that from time to time, they noticed each other as a member of the opposite sex. Not that any of them said anything about it or let it show in any way.

Magnus was the first to realize his growing feelings for his "roomie". Margaret was still convinced that this was all for the money. After all, she was advancing fairly quickly in her own sports career, thanks to her many contacts from the cheerleader years, and pulling home plenty of cash.
'Why does he keep looking at me like that? Have I forgotten to pay one of the bills?'

Time passed, and as Margaret went from active sports to more administrative work, she started to put on some weight here and there. She was aware of it, but at home she wasn't particularly self-conscious about it. After all, most of the time there was nobody here except Magnus. That was until one day she suddenly heard him say: "Say, is it just me, or have you become more feminine lately?"
Turning around, she saw Magnus rather frankly admiring her backside. Blushing, she exclaimed: "How long have you been looking at me like that?"
"Oh, I'd say four or five years..."

"I didn't know you had that kind of interests at all."
"Kinda hard not to when I'm living with the sexiest girl I have ever met."
"Are you flirting with me??"
"I'm a scientist. I stick to facts."
There. It was out in the open finally. How strange it felt.

A new time began in the lives of Magnus and Margaret. Sure, she kept working and he kept researching and writing. But they made sure to make time for each other. Magnus in particular was constantly looking for opportunities to convince Margaret of his love for her.

And convinced she was. Both of his love and her own. Their wedding was the simplest that the law allowed, but it was a heartfelt one, with their guardian angel as witness.

The next weeks were spent in an ongoing enjoyment of each other's body and soul. So many wasted years to make up for... it was a miracle they managed to get anything else done.

Actually, to get other things done, they decided to hire a butler. Something like that anyway. An all-round servant to keep the house in shape, make some food when none of them had the time, accept deliveries, take the phone and check the mail. Based on the advertisement, they had expected an elderly black man to show up. Instead they got Elise Boyle, a young redhead with a somewhat crude sense of humor and a keen knowledge of workers' rights. She was a very competent cook, but she frankly sucked at repairing electric equipment. How she survived all the electrocutions, not even the guardian angel can say.
[The guardian angel can however inform you that this is the All in One NPC by Christianlov, MTS2. Highly recommended. Be sure to turn on salary and partial free will for realism.]

Elise started work very early, before sunrise. In theory this was a good idea, but in practice it made it hard to tell the breakfast from the soap. Don't try this at home, kids!!

"Magnus! The baby! It is KICKING!"
"At this hour? Are we going to be the parents of a night club hostess?"
"That's not funny..."
"It wasn't?"

Nobody said it would be this hard. Must be twins at least. Perhaps trilobites. No, that's not it. I miss my brain, the gila monster ate it three months ago. Now all I can do is eat, pee, sleep and eat again. Never again, gila monster baby! I am going to name you "Solo"...

But in the end he was named Marius, after the both of them. Though his father tended to refer to him as 2.1, then and for the rest of their life together.