Wednesday 24 May 2006

Pic of the day: "Uh, Mom, can I call you back later? I have some... group study coming up."

Tiber Atarna: A Sims2 fate

"Hello there. My name is Tiber Atarna. I want to tell you about my life, because my life is not quite like other Sim lives. Of course, you may say, no Sim life is. We are all unique and precious like a snowflake, and just as easily forgotten when spring comes. Some say there are higher Beings up there, who created our ancestors and who guide our lives with an invisible hand. But can these so-called Humans give our life meaning? Or is it perhaps we who give their life meaning, if they even exist? If they exist, the one thing we can know about them is that they have a weird sense of humor.

"But enough with the Humanology. I promised to tell you about a life that stands out from the others. You see, there are only two types of Sims in this world: Us and them. And I am the only one who is both. Yes, I know that there are white Sims and brown Sims and black Sims, and even green Sims with big black eyes who are born of males. I guess they feel pretty unique too. But they are still mortals trying to give life meaning in the same way as everybody else. Not like my father and my aunt, the coral-red immortals, the Incarnations of Mercy.

"Yes, not only do they look slightly different from everyone else. That's the least of it, really. They just plain have a different reason for living. Oh, and speaking of living: They are ageless. My mom is old and sagging, her hair is white and she has a hard time learning new things even though she tries. In a few more years, the Reaper will stop by her house, and only a grave will be left to sum up all her hopes and her fears and her love and her work for perhaps 80 years in this world. Meanwhile, my father looks perhaps a few years older than I do, if that. He has looked that way since long before I was born. From what we know, he will look like this ten generations from now. And quite likely so will I. We don't really know that, though. I'm not really part of their Humane plan to make the world a better place. I am ... not quite an accident, but perhaps more of an experiment. A sudden idea.

"My father is Chron Atarna, the male Incarnation of Mercy. He and aunt Gae are twins, or so they claim. This makes totally no sense when they also claim to have been created directly by the Creator of this pocket universe and sent here on a mission. Their mission is to seek out those Sims who have failed to live well... not particularly in this world, but in countless worlds which we cannot even see, much less visit. Supposedly there were thousands of Ivy Copurs scattered all over the multiverse, and they had the same problem as my mother: When they liked someone, they showed it by pelting them with water balloons. They made enemies even with the people they liked, and many of them ended up meeting an untimely demise due to accidents arranged by the Humans. My father – and aunt Gae – exist to find these people and bring them into a happy, loving family where they can live the lives they were meant to, and die happy and content with their fate.

"The life my mother was meant to live included a child. This child ended up being me.

"I guess I have indeed made my mother happy. Her hopes and dreams are those of an ordinary Sim, and this includes things like 'Tiber gets A+', 'Tiber is an over-achiever', 'Tiber gets scholarship', 'Tiber goes to college'. So here I am, in college, and my mother is happy. That's why we corallines exist, isn't it? To make other Sims happy so they can die with a smile. If we can have a good time meanwhile, so much the better, but it's not really a requirement. Then again we don't require much, being already gifted beyond ordinary mortals.

"Like most toddlers these days, I was given supplemental 'Smart Milk' formula to kickstart my little brain. The effect is supposed to fade after a few hours. In me, it persisted throughout my childhood and my teen years as well. Getting good grades wasn't really something I thought about... it just happened. Caryl, our 'butler', had the job of seeing that I did my homework on the days we had that. It didn't take long. I was never sick, I never overslept for the school bus. Whatever I set my mind to learning, just slid in. The lifetime goal of a knowledge Sim, to become an expert in seven different skills, I accomplished while in high school. Because of this I am what we call 'perma-plat'... my mood is always the best possible, and I always operate at peak efficiency even if conditions are less than ideal, as long as I can even stay conscious. If I decide to write a novel, it will be a bestseller. If I paint, it will most likely be a masterpiece. I have that golden touch – or platinum, rather – that others can only hope to achieve after a long life of sacrifice. And then they die. I wonder, will I die too? Or will I become an immortal like my father, only without his supposed hotline to the Creator?

"I never seemed lonely. I had a loving family where everyone cared for each other. I brought friends with me home from school. Well, actually it is more like they followed me home, like some hungry stray. It was like there was some glamor, so they did not see the freak with the coral skin and the burnished copper eyes, the too smart brain and the ageless father. Evidently I came across as likable, even lovable. I just talked to someone, and they wanted to be my friend for life.

"I wonder if it is related to this weird thing with Dad and Gae, they seem to attract the grouchy people like sweet flowers attract stingy bees. It's not just my parents, you see. Aunt Gae had Komei Tellerman – the legendary trash can kicker – fall head over heels in love with her. He moved in with us and was like a lamb. I was little then and we became really good friends. Hard to believe that he used to be hated and feared as a troublemaker. For some reason aunt Gae did not marry him, and I don't even think they shared a bed. Eventually he fell in love with a girl named Camryn from downtown, and he moved there and they started their own family. Their son, Premium, is my best friend here at college, even though he is a little younger than me of course. He always sleeps in my bed so I have to sleep in his instead. Not at the same time, of course, though Humans know what the other students are thinking. Funny guy. And there is some small amount of fellowship in this, knowing that he too is the result of an incarnation messing in a mortal life.

"Komei never stopped loving my aunt, even after he was happily married to Camryn. When he felt that the end was near, he called for us – aunt Gae, Dad and me – to be with him and wait for the Reaper. He had bought pizza, I remember; I was still a kid back then, although a smart kid. I cried a little when he faded away. So did Dad and Gae, but I wonder ... they know this secret Humane plan, don't they? They had to know that it would end like that. A few days after, Gae called another of her countless best friends, Kennedy Cox, an ugly and violent troublemaker. I did not see exactly what she did, but that day he moved in and was crazy in love with her, and has been ever since. They both look so happy together, and yet in 40-50 years she will be crying while the Reaper leads him away to the Gates of Nirvana... and then she'll court some other bully and he'll become silly putty in her hands. I have no doubt that Dad will do the same after mom is passed away. How can they? How can they pretend to love someone so fully when a part of them is already standing by the gravestone?

"I have decided to never mess with mortals that way. Friends, yes. It seems unavoidable. If I'm even polite, they will attach themselves to me. But love? Or even foisting more small corallines on the world? I couldn't make myself do it even if I wanted to. And I would not want to even if I could. Mortal or immortal, this particular experiment ends with me. I won't allow an ordinary person to live out their life in my shadow. Not even if it means being alone for an eternity."