From Luke's diary
Cassy: Full speed, the destination is 50 parsecs away!
Venus: That far?
The kids just can't get Sixam out of their heads, now their favourite game is "space exploration". Who knows, maybe I should start to tell them some of the crazy stories uncle Orion used to tell me and Lyra when we were their age...
Nonetheless, the more they grow the more their differences in character become evident. Venus is more and more sociable, she seems to be friends with all the other kids around the playground by now.
Cassy, on the other hand, prefers mixing reactants at her little chemistry table or playing chess.
And she's also quite good at it, she's beaten me a couple of times already.
They both are also working very hard at school, and the results are evident!
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Venus: Mom, did you make that call?
Misty: Of course I did, he will arrive soon!
Luke: What are you talking about over there?
As I had feared, after seeing Sammy the three of them had the idea of getting a dog. Apparently, they surfed the website of the local shelter, and felt for the blue eyes of this little guy.
Everyone else at home already adores him, of course, and completely ignores the destructive potential of the little furball. He keeps rolling in the mud in the garden and leaving footprints all over the house, it's such a mess...
Luke: (disconsolately) How did you manage to get this dirty in just half an hour?
The name of the little troublemaker is Taz, by the way.
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A short time later, Misty's birthday also arrived. To celebrate, we invited some of our friends and relatives.
I admit that both me and Misty were quite shocked when we discovered that both my cousins, Ariana and Camille, are pregnant. We didn't even know they were dating!
*§HermioneSims§ note: This was more or less when added the MCCC mod to my game and enabled story progression in the save. So it's not my fault, I swear :P *
"Well, two more reasons to celebrate!", this was Misty's comment just before blowing out the candles on her cake.
She doesn't even remotely look as old as she is, and I'm not the only one saying it.
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Venus: But how can a knight eat a rook?
Cassy: It just needs to land on the right square. Checkmate!
Venus: What? It is not fair!
Venus and Cassy seem to have fun at the library, and bringing them here with me gives me a very good chance to spend some more time there.
Look at how much dust is piling up at every corner, this place would need a full-time cleaner much more so than a librarian...
The other novelty is the publication of my second book, which is being sold since a couple of weeks ago in all the bookstores. Everyone talks about it, especially in a books house like this one, but no one knows yet that I'm the writer. And I keep enjoying this arrangement a lot.
I must also admit to being surprised by the number of requests we always get here in the library for that book, we don't have time to get back a copy that another client immediately asks for it on loan again.
???: Hey, librarian, did you hear about the public book readings they organised in the other town, just north of here?
Luke: If you are referring to that place inviting random people to read chapters of books that have just been released then yeah, I've heard of it.
???: So why don't you organize something like this also here, in this library? You could read a few pieces of that new book that everyone is talking about, I'm sure a lot of people would be coming!
Maybe the lady didn't realize it, but that kind of event required a lot of work. Not to mention that he was asking me to talk about a book I secretly wrote, would it have been correct to do so?
I couldn't decide on the spot, so I ended up replying with a laconic:
Luke: ... I'll think about it.
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Meanwhile, Misty continued to put all her effort into her career in the army. She had gone to the training camp at dawn for years, first as a recruit and then as a trainer but now, out of the blue, she has started going to work in the middle of the night. It was very unusual, and I was starting to worry.
Misty: Hey, why are you still awake?
Luke: Curiosity, you know.
Misty: ...
Luke: Were you assigned some new tasks again? You never got back from your work at 2 am before...
Misty: My employers probably wouldn't want me to tell you about it, but knowing you I think you've already figured it out for yourself, so...
Luke: So the rumours were true, is the military really setting up an espionage group?
Misty: Exactly.
I sort of expected it, or I would better say that I feared it. Working for the secret service seemed a lot more dangerous than training recruits, what could have happened now?
But I also knew that in the army it was practically impossible to contest the assignment of a task or a mission, as well as that Misty would have never quitted her job. The last question that remained for me to ask was, therefore:
Luke: Who do you have to spy on?
Misty: It seems that some other nations have sent spies to gather as much information as possible around New Sixam. We just have to identify all the people involved. For now, I don't know anything else.
Luke: But ...
Misty: ... I know you're worried, but I can't tell you anything more, really. We should just go to sleep, I'm so tired...
Luke: Okay, I see...
Yes, I'm worried, a lot. But what can I do, other than hope that nothing bad happens?
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§HermioneSims§ corner
This part about Venus and Cassy's childhood seems to be proceeding so quickly because I tried to complete both their "kid aspirations", and this took a lot of time from the plot advancement. Lo level-up twins in parallel is quite challenging, I have to admit it...
About the little and lovely Taz instead, Luke is not completely wrong at being worried about his destructive potential. To begin with, the little canine exhibits a quite remarkable set of traits:
^ translation of the traits: Active, Stubborn, Troublemaker. As you could have noticed, I'm also changing some of the characters' names.
And then Nacho doesn't like him! This is unacceptable, simply unacceptable...
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