4.08 The Power To Change Reality

John had taken to frequenting all of the other nightclubs, discos, bars and dance halls in Bridgeport. 'KnightGarden' had random nights of success, with the rest being almost total failures. John was searching for the key to make his club more successful, and this evening he was checking out 'Bridgeport Sports Zone'.

When John had reopened the old 'Nightcrawlers' bar as a nightclub, 'The Bridgeport Weekly Review' had headlined it, going more into detail about John's heritage as a descendant of both Venice Jettstar, 'The Rock Legend', and The Fae King's royal advisor sister. This made John an instant celebrity of note in the Bridgeport system.

This became evident when he approached the bouncer at the door to the 'Sports Zone'. Armstrong Diesel, the bouncer greeted John like an old friend. "Good to see you Mr. Jettstar, have a pleasant visit.", Armstrong quickly unlatched the rope, allowing John to walk straight in ahead of the small queue, "Thank you.. Armstrong.", John replied with a nod, quickly reading Armstrong's venue security name tag.

Although this was a sports bar and not a night club, John scanned the place while ordering all the different drinks that Daniel the barman was most frequently asked for. 'There is a lot more color in this place.', John made mental notes. 'But then, bar versus nightclub.', John thought.

"What's in this Melted Snowman, it's not half bad, can I get another?", John asked, watching intently as Daniel mixed him another.

Emily worked away at her chemical formulas, she had most of what she needed now, except patience, the last concoction needed to be chilled for the rest of the day, it had to be just the right temperature when added to the main ingredients, or 'Boom!'. Emily had already had a few of those, and Tamara had nearly banned her from using the chemistry equipment after the last explosion had singed Em's eyebrows, the one time Em had forgotten her safety glasses.

Emily looked for a good hiding spot at the back of the workshop fridge, and checked her watch, it was nearly time for the bus to arrive, so she hid her secret formula at the very back of the fridge, and packed up her gear.

 Emily's birthday was on the weekend, and so far her birthday plans were coming together as she had planned them. Tamara was waiting at the mailbox when the school bus arrived, so Emily quickly kissed her Mama, and jumped on the bus. Emily sat in her usual spot and pulled Dolly out of her schoolbag, placing Dolly on the window seat side. Em, was itching to tell Dolly her plans, but to distract herself from ruining the surprise, she whispered to Dolly about horse riding.

John rocked Edward back to sleep, "Aww little man, why does 'Mama Bear' call you 'Grumble Bum', you're not so bad.". John put the baby boy back in his cot, and went to make coffee. John handed Tamara a coffee in her favorite pink coffee cup. "I have to be at Knightgarden to teach the bar staff some new mixes, and I have to drop by the 'Prosper Room' after that, I'm trying to poach one of their bouncers.", John grinned as he discussed his evening schedule with Tam.

"Oh my maker, is that John Jettstar?", Olive Kipling asked her fellow door guard, Enyo Strong. Enyo nodded affirmation from the other side of the entryway. Olive struggled to keep a professional face on.
"Welcome to the 'Prosper Room', Mr. Jettstar, enjoy your visit.", Olive greeted. Olive's outward voice had stayed calm and professional , but her inner voiced screamed like a teenager at a rock concert, 'He is not walking towards the door, he is walking towards me!' 

"I'm not here to visit the prosper room, I'm here to see you, Olive, and to see if you would be interested in working security at my club?", John asked. Olive realized she was going to have to strangle her inner teen and bury it in an undisclosed location somewhere, when her answer was "Oh my maker, my Mum raised me on Venice's music, she has every vinyl Venice ever released!".

John pulled her in close and snapped off a shot. "Here!", John grinned, sending her a copy of the photo,"Tell your Mum that you met her grandson, and that he offered you a job as head of security." 

Emily finished the days homework, and asked Dolly to follow her out to the barn, she had created the final component and mixed the formula earlier, then hidden it behind the recycle bin between the house and barn to settle.It was time to test it.

"Drink this Dolly!", Emily urged her friend, "What is it?", asked Dolly, more out of curiosity than distrust. Emily wanted this to be a surprise, but she wasn't going to lie or hide anything from her best friend. "If it works like I think it is supposed to, it will turn you into a real girl, like me.", Emily replied.

"What if it doesn't work like it is supposed to?", asked Dolly, who was already putting the formula to her lips. "Well, if it doesn't work, I am going to have to put you in the washing machine to get rid of the smell.", Emily said, knowing how Dolly hated being put in the 'Dizzy-Thing' as she used to call it. Dolly poured the formula into her mouth, tapping the bottom of the beaker with a finger to make sure she had taken every last drop.

Dolly's view of the world went fuzzy, it went purple and pink, it went swirly. Dolly felt like a peg box when you tried to put the star shape peg in the round whole, Dolly felt like a sliding puzzle, with all her squares wriggling and jiggling to move into the right spots. Dolly felt weird.

 "MAMA, Mama, it worked, I did it, I made Dolly real", Emily squealed in excitement. Tamara, who had been busy mentally going over the measurements and calculations of her most recent scientific research, watched as her train of thought plummeted over the edge of distraction and burst into flames.

"You know you are not supposed to have friends over without checking first with your father and I.", Tamara began explaining. "But Mama. It's Dolly, she lives here.", Emily attempted to explain. "Please don't interrupt, that's rude!", Tam snapped, sounding more like her own mother than she wanted to. "But Mama, it really is Dolly!", Emily persisted. "You will go to your room, we will discuss this later!", Tamara fumed, both at Emily's interruptions and at Tamara's own transformation in to her own mother. Emily stormed off to the house to find her father, he would understand, Emily hoped.

 "I'm sorry if Emily did something naughty by making me a real girl, please don't make me go away, if I can concentrate real hard, maybe I can become a dolly again, and nobody has to be angry, Mama, please don't make me go away, I don't know anybody else, Emily is my best and only friend.", Dolly pleaded.

Tamara was torn, the chances that Emily had magically or scientifically found a way to turn her doll into a real person where about as likely as the chances that Emily was pulling some elaborate Sims Fool Day joke. Tamara asked a few questions about events that Em couldn't possibly have the answers to, to make sure her daughter hadn't coached this little girl with the answers.    

"I.. Uh.. I could never send you away, Dolly", Tamara eventually stammered. She was in shock, not only was Dolly the dolly, now Dolly the real life flesh and blood little girl, but her little Emily had worked out how to do this all on her own. Emily had changed reality, without grown up help. Tamara immediately went and apologized to Emily for her own behavior.

Tamara got on to the internet to order a new bunk bed for the girls, and spent the next few hours researching every she could on imaginary friends. All she found were walls and walls of text on psychiatry.

When John got home from his business evening, Tamara made John a cup of coffee, while he snuggled Edward, and broke the news. John put down the coffee, and went to see for himself. "Hello Papa", said Dolly shyly. John grinned like he had won the lottery.

 

"See, I told you he would like you!", Em stated cheerfully.

Emily went to say goodnight to her little brother, 'He didn't grump and fuss half as much as he normally does', Emily considered. 'Maybe Edward wasn't such a grumble butt after all'.

"Three kids and a horse, we are definitely going to have to expand the garden.", John suggested. "Yeah, and find other ways to cut costs until Edward is old enough for me to start work.", Tamara added."We should also contact the lawyers and get them to make some fake paper trail saying that we adopted Dolly, so we can enroll her in school.", John suggested.

 "What! Is that?", Tamara asked tersely, she had gotten up to put her coffee cup on the sink and noticed a dilapidated wreck dumped in the driveway. "Don't tell me you wasted simoleons on it!", Tamara growled.
"Nope, it was sitting behind Knightgarden, so I brought it home as a project. The engine is stuffed, but the body is reasonable, I want to restore the body, but convert it to electric.", John explained. "As much as brooms are the best mode of transport, there are times when we will need a car, like having babies, or full family outings.", John added, trying to build up brownie points in case he was in trouble.

 As Tamara headed out to the workshop to finish her research, she wasn't sure if John had hoodwinked her, 'Yes the idea of a family sized electric car is a good one, that fixer upper was a pile of crap.', Tam thought, 'One Tick: Pro's, One Tick: Cons'. 

John whizzed down to the store to but two birthday cakes, he carefully strapped the two cake boxes down between the Zoomsweeper's rear wings, and kicked off for home at quarter speed. As much as John really enjoyed the speed, efficiency, maneuverability and economy of a flying broom, this was one of those times a car might be more useful.

John delivered the undamaged cakes, and grabbing a handful of tools from the workshop, began dismantling the old fuel engine in his fixer upper, while working out some sort of electric, magic, or hybrid powered system as a replacement. Tamara spied from the kitchen window. She was elated that John had finally regained an interest in tinkering, and decided that John could keep the old crapper, without argument from her, for as long as he remained interested in it.  

"Dolly? Dolly? did you paint this?". Dolly poked her head out of Emily room. "Yes Mama, its okay to paint there, isn't it?", asked Dolly nervously. "Yes Dolly, that's why we put the blank canvas on the stand, so we can paint something if we want too. It's a very good painting, this is you, isn't it?", Tamara pushed the shy former imaginary friend. "It is Mama, it's how happy I was when Emily made me real!", Dolly enthused. 

Emily got home from school to find, Mama, Papa, Dolly, Edward, and two birthday cakes waiting for her.

AND BECAUSE MY GAME FREAKIN HATES IT WHEN THINGS GO RIGHT

AND HAS A MORE TWISTED SENSE OF HUMOR THAN EVEN ME

--- MAKER SUPER POWER OVERRIDE ACTIVATED ---

-- MAKER EMERGENCY MAKEOVER INTERVENTION ACTIVATED -- 

 And Emily and Dolly age up into teenagers without a single problem.

Authors Note:
Emily chose Genius for her age up, because well, she is. Dolly got given Easily Impressed as I didn't have time to get her grades up, it is the prefect trait for her I think.

That hair... I can't even...

4.07 Nightcrawlers

John and Tamara had been arguing a lot about simoleons recently, well, not arguing a lot. It was more like an increased frequency of discussions, and a differing of opinions as to the status of their account outgoings and complete lack of income. John had calculated that his 'early inheritance' from the Jettstar Family Trust would be able to support Tamara and himself well into middle age. By middle age, Both he and his wife would be well respected members of the science community and earning a good income.

There where many factors that John hadn't considered. The rising cost of penthouse rentals was the first, the fact that Tamara had a daughter, the legal fees had put a huge dent into the account, not that he regretted that decision for a moment. While John had enjoyed the view from the penthouse, there was very little else he liked about cramped penthouse living, and he had moved his family to a houseboat.

Tamara had always gotten seasick at the slightest sign of bumpy weather, and John had sold the houseboat at a great loss to move them here, and bought a horse for Emily as well. Despite having a bill reduction due to solar power, and an environmentally friendly house design, city living was costlier than he had anticipated. With Tamara pregnant, there was going to be another child to provide for.

John's father Eric had always told him, 'It takes money to make money'. Rather than dive in and go ahead like he normally would, he had run through his plans with Tam. Tam was worried it would leave them dangerously short on simoleons, but approved his plan, because she could see how passionate he was about it, because he had thought it through, and because he had actually checked with her first.

John reopened the old Bridgeport vampire dive bar 'Nightcrawlers', as a slightly more upmarket dance club with the name of  -KnightGarden-

John hired enough staff to cover the bars, with himself on call as an emergency barman, this left him free to moonlight at other venues, and look after the kid or kids while Tam was at work.

As John reshuffled the tables for the third time before opening night, it occurred to John, that this was the future that he had always wanted, he had just never realized it.

John crept home after midnight. He lightened the refrigerator by one plateful of leftover cookies, rather than cook and risk waking everyone up. He poked his head Emily's room for a moment, confirmed that she was sleeping, then tip toed to the main bedroom. John had expected to Find Tamara sleeping soundly on the new hover bed that they had bought. Instead, it was empty.

John wandered out to the barn, expecting to find Tam in the workshop, instead he found her standing in a trance at the washing line. John slipped his arms around Tam, and gently rubbed her slightly expanded tummy. "A § for your thoughts?", John whispered into her ear. "I was just thinking how different this pregnancy will be from Em's", Tam replied, as she slowly turned around to snuggle John.

"With Em, I was locked in a private hospital room, not allowed to do anything but watch approved TV. This feels more normal, more natural.", Tam explained, "Despite the aches and pains, I think I prefer this. And having you with me.", Tamara continued, lifting her head to kiss John.

Time marched on, as it always does, Tam's tummy grew larger, the garden grew larger, and Knightgarden made enough money to support itself and its employees. It wasn't the get rich quick plan that John had secretly hoped for it, and it hadn't paid for itself yet, but week to week, it wasn't costing them anything.

Tam waddled out to the garden and picked a fresh apple.

Tam waddled to the letterbox, and recycled the newspaper after quickly scanning the headlines.

When she had been pregnant with Em, her parents wouldn't allow her to waddle.

Tam enjoyed the freedom to waddle whenever she felt inclined to do so.

Emily was excited, soon she would have a birthday, Princess would be old enough to ride, and she had read something on the internet that might be the solution for something that she had planned for Dolly.

"I'm sorry Dolly, I know you really want to play eight now, but this research is really very important, you'll see!", Emily told Dolly. Dolly was a little sad that Emily didn't want to play, but Dolly understood that when Emily was being all sciency, it was an important edumacation thing. Everybody in the family spent time reading books. It was important. Dolly wished she could read real wordy books instead of just picture books.

John brought Tamara a fresh coffee, and they sat silently reading for a while. John eventually broke the silence. "Considering we all do more reading out here, than inside, we probably should invest in some porch lights here". Tam leaned over and kissed John on the cheek, without taking her eyes from her science journal.

Time marched on.

John emailed his siblings, with attachments of images of Tam's increased bump.

Tam settled in on the ugly milk crate couch that had been in the house since they had bought the place. Tamara had replaced it three times so far, and each time by the end of the day, she had returned the new couch, and had John reassemble the old hobo special. It was just so impossibly comfortable!

Emily looked over her shoulder, before pulling a collection of small bottles from her school bag.

"No, Mrs. Jettstar, the school is certainly not accusing Emily of theft, but she was seen near the senior's chemistry lab yesterday, and we hope she might have seen something.", said the nervous voice on the phone.

John watched Emily stride to the school bus, she wasn't acting suspicious, she wasn't acting like a sneaky thief, besides, Em had everything she wanted didn't she? Tam and John gave her everything she asked for, not that Em was a demanding child, and why would Emily steal chemicals anyway, she had access to a fully equipped chem lab in the workshop.

John's thoughts were interrupted by a cry of pain. "The baby is coming", Tam cried. "I'll get the brooms!", John yelled back across the yard. "I am not flying to the bloody hospital dumb ass, call a bloody taxi!", Tamara yelled back at him. "I suppose that is kinda logical', John mumbled to himself as he reached for his mobile phone.

"Look, I'm really sorry!", John explained to the taxi driver, "In all the rush, I forgot to grab my wallet, but you know where we live, drop by in a few days and I'll pay double, I swear!"

John and Tamara left the hospital the next day with baby Edward, John looked around nervously, hopefully it wasn't the same taxi driver that took them home.

Tamara had rocked Edward all the way home in the taxi to keep him from grizzling. 'Like his father, obviously doesn't like taxis' thought Tamara. Princess came trotting across the yard to investigate the newest member of the family, but Tamara went into the house without introducing the baby. Tam was more focused on a real coffee.

"I have a new baby brother!", Emily gushed, "And I have something new for you too Princess!".

John helped fit the halter, and supervised as Emily lead Princess around the yard. Not that John knew a whole lot more than Emily about horses, but he kept one eye on Princess while he rang his mother with the good news anyway.

While Tam and Edward were sleeping, John placed a call, hoping to chat with Lil, Lil however was in a conference with King Jasper, so Angel relayed the information. "So the kids got pointy ears, but no Vamp mark, no Fae wings, and his eyes have no Wolf glow?", Angel clarified. "Yeah", said John.

"Considering the powerful magic that brought you and your siblings into the world, it wouldn't surprise me if he was some kind of hybrid, but I'll pass the details to Lil for you and see what she knows.", Angel reassured John.

As John disconnected the video call, he heard Edward wake up, John had concluded that the sound reminded him of the sound a kitten might make if you stood on its tail.

"Hello Evil Grumble-Bum!", Tamara cooed as she scooped Edward from his cot,

and attempted to settle him.

Authors Note:

Knightgarden is a money sink.
Tamara has achieved her LTW of Tinkerer
John has achieved his LTW of Master Mixologist
Emily is not a Klepto: The theft was required for an upcoming chapter.
Edward is not Evil: He is a grumble bum however.
Princess is, and has always been a Princess
Dolly is Dolly, for now :)