More of the Same on a Spooky Day

After Dawn’s wedding, things continued rather happily for her younger siblings who were still living with their parents at home.

The twins worked to finish their university studies while Dysis worked to show her chops in the business world as an investor. She studied the market, read books on logic, and tried to improve her mental prowess through chess. She’d also been practicing to defeat her slightly older sister, Deli (losing literally 100% of the time was unpleasant). This morning she thought the odds should be in her favor because she’d prepared and the statistical chances of losing so many times in a row had to be miniscule, right?

But the feat was still beyond Dysis. Defeating the family’s reigning overachiever in anything remotely academic was not going to happen without massive work. A grandmaster could take out a novice (not that Dysis was a novice!) 40,000 times in a row without breaking a sweat because of the skill difference. gg ez.

Still, it was hard not to feel disheartened. Dysis had spent many late nights and early mornings pondering chess moves only to lose again.

Maybe chess just wasn’t Dysis’ thing. It didn’t have a direct relationship to business, so… she decided to get over her latest defeat and try again later. Deli inadvertently helped her overcome any lingering insecurities by randomly expressing admiration for Dysis that evening, explaining that she was impressed by her sister’s already considerable achievements in the business world and by her unflagging ambition despite those achievements (not to mention Dysis’ seemingly magical ability to get along with almost everyone). ♡

Life wasn’t all work! Elmire loved music and dancing (and was slightly obsessed with sound) so the Fiers spent a lot of time dancing creatively to entertain her and themselves.

Asher and Elmire had previously come to a mutual understanding, and now they seemed to operate on a similar wavelength. He was her favorite storyteller and she was his favorite (and biggest) hype person.

Elmire was almost always willing to hear her father’s riveting action-packed tales about vampire-cats, vampire-frogs, and human daughters of vampire kings who had inherited their fathers’ big brains and defeated bad vampires in battle.

Asher had spent time telling all his children stories when they were little, but only Aster, his first, had been similarly engaged. Elmire listened almost as if she were taking notes, which made him momentarily consider telling “nicer” stories to give her a more comprehensive education. But as far as he was concerned, being nice wasn’t a top priority. It would be better if she turned out strong with an iron backbone…

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The Fiers, minus Dawn, went on a brief vacation to a cabin in Granite Falls to celebrate the twins’ upcoming graduation. Dawn was busy enjoying newlywed life and opted not to join, so they invited Dysis’ fiancé, Rashad, instead.

They celebrated Spooky Day while there. Elmire’s experience with holidays was minimal, but Winterfest sounded great to her, so she dressed as a Winterfest Tree for Spooky Day.

But was this offensive to Spooky Day? Asher may not have cared if Elmire were “nice” or not, but her mother asked her to have empathy for others, and she seriously considered her costume choices for the holiday.

After being reassured that her tree costume was fine, she enjoyed Spooky Day and her father’s stories with the rest of the family.

Bonus (reposting a test video):

I shared this a while ago, and it’s only a video I used to test settings in the Sims (so the quality is wanting), but here’s Dysis’ dance.