The Simulations

With new Simulations being churned out every second, one of us will end up actually alive at some point right? Might as well be me. I'm hardly a contentious figure around here. Bright, of course, but also cheerful and always willing to lend a hand. Along with my more common party planning, decorating, homemaking, hosting, fundraising, and organizing skills; I can also change a flat. I can deal with the fraud department at the bank when someone tries to use my credit card number. I can even cook, well, a few simple things at least. Don’t believe me? Check my skill points. Those babies don't lie.

I'm lovely if not stunning, tall, thin, but not too thin, with richly brown, beautifully rendered, thickly waving hair. Those are of course attributes and not skills. I’m pretty sure attributes are a different menu, with shaders instead of points, but out here I can hardly tell the difference.

I'm also proud to say I can admit my faults, a skill I’ve never needed much practice at. Sure I'm stubborn when I think I’m right, but who’s not these days? I’m a disaster at cleaning, never mastered the art of fixing a drink, and am frankly incapable of parallel parking in any spot not at least twice the size of my car. I may gossip but never maliciously, keeping my speech bubbles PG, and I certainly never perpetuate anything I know to be a lie. That’s just tacky.

Thankfully I have a way with people because animals find me something of a bother. I have been snapped at by the most well trained of dogs, scratched by the most dossil of cats, and urinated on by the cutest of rabbits. I even lost the hem of a beautifully white party dress to the unflagging hunger of the baby goat at the school petting zoo event I’d helped arrange. If I had to hazard a guess I’d say it’s some random roll for interesting character quirk but I’d sooner turn it off completely. Me and animals? Not compatible.

But people? Yes I can handle my people. You needn't take my word for it. Others too think highly of me. Our neighbors have often called me generous, and why shouldn't they? I donate to charity, pour an ample quantity of time into my son’s school, and have even signed up to be an organ donor in the unlikely event of my early death by too many fireplaces or pool ladder disappearance. I may have a lovely home, and my son in private school, and myriad other little luxuries but no one could say to I don’t do my part. Fortune does not smile on everyone equally after all, so I smile for it. So much can hardly be said for many of our neighbors.

Mirriam, Simulation #1523846, my dearest friend, would even tell you I'm loyal if you were to walk over and ask her yourself. Recently her husband lost his position on the Internet Celebrity career track when he was one level from the top. It was all very scandalous, but true friend that I'm I still had them over for dinner, was still seen with them at various functions, and continued to take their daughter Mira along in our carpool (We are helping save the environment you know).

My husband? Oh why would you want to talk about that silly old bat. He is a dear I tell you, though so few understand why I married him. Yes, yes I have been accused of gold digging many times. Move on will you? Besides my William is far too smart and far too stubborn to simply be dug. His logic meter is full to the top.

Sure he is not the most handsome of men, or sociable, or even active. He is many years my senior, and quite the Eeyore at times but I simply would not have it to do over again. You must understand me, I love him. The stiff, robust bodies of men in their prime have never been altogether tantalizing. So my husband, in his softly rounded state is something of a relief from the angularity and the brimming athletic meters found outside my doors. And anyway, I’m a brunette and while trophy wives come in many shades, all the pros are blonde.

Besides he gave me what my really wanted without my even having to ask. He gave me Asher, a better son a mother never had. I know that can’t really be true of any child but its fun to say. I was pregnant for 72 hours, had my labor pains animations then spun around in a cloud of multi-colored sparks until he appeared in my arms. It was wonderful. He even had his fathers coloring. Thankfully, the baby stage only lasts three days so taking care of him was a breeze, just check his stats for whatever’s running low and top him up. I highly recommend it.

Anyhow thats me, until the next expansion pack at least. I hear their are adding plastic surgery and addiction mechanics, but my fingers are crossed for natural selection. Its a whole wide world in here after all.

Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/...

Sneak peek: new illustrated short story

I have been suck on bed rest lately, and while good for my back injury it can be infuriating. So I've been spending my time writing and now illustrating a short story that will get its very own page on here once its done. (I'm about half way). I am trying out a visual hyperlinking thing. Heres your sneak peak.

A little taste of whats to come!

Blink's new page

BlinkPopShift is moving to its very own page. That way readers can get the whole novel with out interruptions of the other stories and images I post here. Oh and a very exciting project is coming up soon! Check back for announcements!

Baking Bricks

Momma wasn't too happy, the buscuits’d come out bricks again and I wasn’t helping the whole operation, what with my hysterical laughter. This always happened when my mother, smart as she might be, and plenty good at medicines and booby traps and even mothering for that matter, tried her way with magic. It just never came naturally. I think you missed a step I said trying to quell my giggles. The cookie sheet was piled high with grapey purple bricks. “I'll take ‘um out back” I smiled. If she kept at this we could have that new retaining wall built in no time.

Eating lagana in bed with a fork

“Can one bite of that lasagna be mine?” I asked with an altogether unconvincing coy smile. He was just sitting down on the bed to eat his dinner while we watched some supernatural thriller series I’d never heard of. We would normally have sat on the couch of course, watched on the big screen instead of a tablet, but bed rest was just that, in bed.

“Sure.” He replied easily.

“Really?! I was sure you’d say no.”

“Who could say no to that?” He laughed indicating my perfectly arranged pile of pillows. Flat on my back knee up and slightly off to the left, that was the only way. It gave me a slightly dizzy upside down feeling but it was the only way. It would have been nice to say I was getting a baby out of the deal, laying there with a big ol’ belly waiting to get my uterus back but it was just surgery. I’d lost the right leg to cancer in the femur, but a person could do a lot with one leg I figured.

“Here comes the airplane,” He sang flying the fork toward my mouth.

“I can feed myself you know,” I sulked, tugging the plate and fork out of his hand. I held the plate up to my chin and tried to get the right angle on a bite with spilling. Pushing it this way and that with the fork, repositioning my shoulders to sit up a bit more, cutting off a slice and finally raised it to my lips only to have it fall off the fork with an unceremonious plop. He broke up laughing.

“Excellent work dear,” He prodded, “Thats some top notch forking you’re doing.”

Making up memories

(Italics are what I made up because I can remember)

My brother died when I was young, I just can't remember exactly when, after 10 but before 14. I can still remember the house we lived in when it happened, a two bedroom condo in a cul de sac of identical beige boxes. My sister and her son lived in one room and my mother, my little brother and I slept in the other. They shared the bed and I had a mattress that slid out from underneath. It was fun sleeping on the floor, like an adventure every night. My older brother was already in the army by that point so he didn't need a room.

I got my first period in that place. Hunched over and screaming as blood poured out of me, rupturing an ovarian cyst my first day out. I still swear the transvaginal ultrasound wand they tried to use on me in the hospital was at least twice the size of my vagina, its not going to fit lady maybe you should stop pushing.

He was my older brother by eight years and my moms first born. I remember when they knocked on our door. Two men, both white and tall with those broad shoulders the army gives you. They were in formal uniforms with flat topped hats all that strange color of green the army has taken as its emblem. I just stood there holding the door open of them, waiting to get robbed by imposters mostly, as they asked if my mother was home. I called her down from upstairs. I’m sure they had a whole system for how to tell us, this was their job after all. Going to peoples homes and ruining their lives. I’m sure they had a system. But I can’t remember them ever saying a word. She was halfway down the stairs when she saw them, still filling up the doorway. I thought they must be vampires, couldn't come in without an invite. It was when she sat down right there on the stairs without coming one step closer that I knew what had happened.

The next thing I remember I was pumping my legs as hard as I could, swinging back and forth and back and forth getting higher and higher and letting the motion sooth me. The playground was only a few doors down from our house and I’d snuck out the backdoor when everyone started crying and calling everyone we knew. That part wasnt for me. The people everywhere, the friends cooking and talking and sitting with my mother and taking care of my little brother. My sister freaking out. None of that was for me. I needed the swing.

They found me eventually though and made me come inside. Your mother has lost a son they said you have only lost a brother. Now come inside. She needs you.