Luthor Pigglewiggle
- Generation 8, third child of Harley & Darin Pigglewiggle
- Mean – Genius – Geek – Quick Learner – (Socially & Physically Gifted)
- Aspiration: Nerd Brain
I knew early on that there was only one way to survive in this family. In this family you have to be fast. You have to be smart. You have to be ready first. Otherwise they’ll get you. When Bane comes up to you early in the morning it’s best to have at least twelve comebacks for the breakfast conversation. The more esoteric the better.
Some may think we are being mean and petty to each other. That we actually intend to hurt each other, that we dislike each other. And I’m not saying that we don’t get hurt. But it’s more of a game. If you can stay on top, get the last word in, and not get hurt – you win.
I quickly moved beyond the infantile jeering and llama insults. To be honest, harsh words are habit now. I’m not one of those wiz kids, but I read a lot. Mathematics, physics, biology, fiction. Anything I can get my hands on.
But reading required stillness. So after a couple chapters I’m ready to jump out of my chair and run around a bit. I took up woodworking. That requires a creative genius of it’s own. To see a piece of wood as a whole and then carefully chip away just enough to reveal what you saw inside. Plus no one bothers me out here.
Uncle Michel was one of those wiz kids and when he decided to quit his culinary job to work as an astronaut and we played many games of chess to help improve his logic. As an opponent, he was a challenge. Half the time I wasn’t sure if he had a strategy or not.
He move his pieces carelessly and without effort or (apparently) much though. Often placing pieces in bizarre locations that seemed to make no sense at all. But he won as often as he lost and I’m quite a good player.
Although Uncle Michel was planning to go the “legit” route space, visiting the stars via the government run SASA (Sims Aeronautics Space Agency), I wanted to be there sooner. Why wait when we have two perfectly good rockets siting in the backyard?
Sure if you’re not trained, you have to be a genius to run those ship and not kill yourself. Lucky I’m a genius, right?
Uncle Michel says that my great grandmother Dylan was an astronaut, well-know for reuniting several lost sims colonies with our own world as well as for being a genuine heroine. And although she was gifted with a fine ship at the end of her career, all her own explorations were all done with a tiny rust bucket. Although a rust bucket was tuned up and upgraded fully. I’ve named it The Zimmerman.
Soon after Bane created his cowplant mastery, I took my first flight.
Most days I can get to space twice in a single day. Nothing major, visiting small planets, helping out stranded communities. Watching the stars. Space is filled with mystery. More mystery than this world does – as strange and wonderful it is. But space, space has billions of worlds just as complex and strange and wonderful as this one.
I find cool stuff out there too to go in our mini-museum. So far I’ve brought back a small pink space rock and a weird plant. Bane seemed pretty happy to see that – said it completed his collection, or something.
In space I am alone, I don’t have to juggle the expectations of my family or deal with the tension of figuring out how to deal with people. When you meet folks in space, they don’t care if you are or aren’t part of a legacy or if you’re a little rude. They’re just happy to see someone who they haven’t seen everyday for the last six months.
Previous | Next: Escaping the Madhouse Pt3
Legacy Update: A Post on Friday
Raerei's Fortress 
This was so fun to read–what a unique Sim! I love his thinking approach to life. I was intrigued by the discussion of the banter between him and Bane–made me flash on growing up with cousins and brother. As one who is “good” and not intentionally mean ever, I was continually baffled by my cousin’s and brother’s gleeful meanness. I knew they loved me–but where did this meanness come from? I felt the same way playing Poplar, who really loved her sisters and nieces but was continually mean to them. Thinking about the way you portrayed it here–as a game–really fits. That’s exactly how it was for my cousin and brother–a game to see who could say what without getting hurt. I always got hurt at the first cutting comment, so I always defaulted out of the game before it even started. But they could go on forever and were always looking for worthy opponents. They were both also physically daring, enjoying physical wrestling or punching (or pinching or poking) matches until someone “got hurt” and also testing themselves against the environment with daredevil activities–they very seldom got hurt, for they were “winners.”
I love the insight that this chapter has given me into their motivations. Such diversity in who we are as individuals, and sometimes, trying to understand others from the basis of our own preferences and style, really just leads to confusion. Literature is wonderful for giving us insights into others–and Simming is, too, and combining the both is golden!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Aw thanks. I’m glad it came through as realistic. These sims continue to challenge me. I know they love each other but… My sister and I (that’s all I have) never had that kind of punchy relationship. But it seemed to me that’s the kind this family must have – they just poke at each other because they can’t help it and yes they get hurt (the -friend icons and lowered friendship score prove it), but none of them wish to be enemies with each other. It’s like when I was young and called my sister “your majesty” because it drove her nuts to be thought of as someone who was demanding that way. I would do it on purpose knowing it annoyed her.
I thought long and hard (yesterday for about 30 minutes) about how Luthor fit into this family. He’s a geek and a genius but he was mean as a child. Why would he be mean? I’m really liking this generation. The extra mental effort of figuring them out really makes them come alive in a way no one else has for.
I must thank everyone who has shared their sims stories online, each one I find shows me another way to interpret the same traits. For some insane is a major handicap, others use it as a way of showing someone who doesn’t fit in. Evil could be someone who delights in tormenting everyone, or someone who is just really focused on themselves to the exclusion of others. I was worried at first playing this game that there were so few traits (3 per sim) compared to the last game and that it would make them all feel and react the same way. I’m glad to be wrong.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, it’s amazing me how deeply these Sims have encouraged so many of us to think and explore. For me, it reminds me of poetry: fixed form, with its limits, engenders such deep and creative results sometimes (as in Elizabeth Bishop’s work)–we get pushed to think long and deep. It was evident reading this how that you had thought long about it. I was happy that it gave me appreciation for my brother and cousin. And for Poplar, too. I even feel I began to get a bit of insight into the why of it: It’s like emotional dare-devilism. How far can they go?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Emotional dare-devilism! That’s so perfect. That is exactly how I see it like. Like a game of chicken only with words.
I’m starting to think of a legacy a bit like a series of character studies with a loose plot. Very much poetry – you have to know the rule (limits of the game) and then you break them (interpret the actions). The more you read of other’s ‘poetry’ the better you can write your own.
LikeLiked by 2 people
🙂 Yes, for sure! It’s chicken-with-words! I’d always crumble at the first “dingle-berry” and the first hint of sarcasm, so even though I knew that they loved me and were actually trying to get me to play with them, it *felt* like abuse to me. Oh, wow! This gives me new insight into Salix! Maybe she understood this already from her aunt Poplar, and so she was attracted to those evil and mean Sims who would play word-chicken with her, and maybe she wasn’t as vulnerable as me, so maybe she liked the emotional risk-taking! I always wondered with her if it was my own issues that were getting in the way of her emotional/sexual experiences… At the same time, if we hadn’t found Chandler (who is too kind to play emotional word-chicken) we would never have been given onezero! So, maybe respecting my own limits and capacities brought gifts of their own!
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s never just one person for anyone. She might have been happy and content with one of those evil or mena sims, but I don’t doubt she’s not just as content with Chandler. Yes, she would have had challenges and worries and perhaps some negative experiences, but Salix still has her challenges, worries and less than pleasant experiences with Chandler. I don’t think you took anything away from her, just provided an alternative life style. I doubt she’d give up zeroone or any part of her current life to try out one of those other lives she might had led.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yup. I think you’re right! And I’m happier not having someone there yelling at her during every intimate conversation! LOL!
LikeLiked by 1 person
They’re usually safe during intimate conversations…it’s the breakfasts you have to watch out for. 😛
LikeLiked by 2 people
LOL! Yeah… that cerebral cereal will getcha every time!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Getting insulted (or invited to “play” a verbal joust) at breakfast is just too early in the day 🙂
Only one of my daughters prefers to interact in a confrontational way, and since my husband and I are both more gentle-hearted, we have a family norm of not pushing or being critical of each other. But my daughter’s boyfriend and her love to interact that way. I can see it is a game with them, also she shows her love by letting people know what she really thinks, she just does it in a way that seems harsh to the rest of us.
LikeLike
[…] The PiggleWiggle Legacy Ch 8.4 […]
LikeLike