Chapter 8 of An Apocalypse of Ice: birthdays, a lift, and more birthdays.

1. Previously on An Apocalypse of Ice:
Mal started off his 4me in charge of the family well. He had two adorable sons, Will and Arthur, who happen to be clones—but
who cares when you’re as cute as they are? Brandon wrote a code of laws that would govern the North and humiliated Walder
Frey. Despite the fact that having a code of laws doesn’t mean much if people don’t obey it and the fact that the Freys are s4ll
running the mob, anything that humiliates them is good. Mal also became Chief of Staff at the local hospital, which means that
the Starks can have showers. Chris took a job in Culinary, and Julian is trying to work his way up the Educa4on track.
Oddly, Brandon seemed to have an easier 4me finding someone to fall in love with than Julian, but Joule seems to have found a
connec4on with the mysterious Jan Tellerman, who won’t tell anyone what she does for a living.
And as Will’s teen birthday approached, he appeared extremely reluctant to follow family tradi4on and choose Fortune.

2. Will had told Julian that he was almost posi4ve he wanted to choose the Romance aspira4on on his birthday.
“I really want to make things beUer around here,” Will said. “Uncle Brandon told me how bad it was before. I want to help. I’m
not scared of hard work, but that can’t be the only reason for living. And you’re the only one here who understands that. So I
want to choose Romance—but I want everyone to take me seriously, too.”
Julian had wanted them to take him seriously for years.
“So should I tell them when I grow up that I’ve picked Romance? Or should I tell them something that they might think is beUer?”

3. “If you’re not comfortable with telling them what you really want, then you could tell everyone that you’re Popularity,” Julian said,
watching Will to see how he would react.
“Really? They’d be okay with that?”
“Okay with it? Your saintly great‐grandmother was a Popularity Sim. They’d be over the moon if you really were Popularity. Not
as over the moon as if you were Fortune, but they’d s4ll love you for it. It’d be beUer if they loved you for yourself, though.”

4. “And then it would just look like I want to make friends,” Will mused.
Julian couldn’t keep quiet. “I don’t think you should lie about your aspira4on,” he said. “It’s only going to make you unhappy, and
your parents are going to find out. They’re preUy logical, even though appearances suggest otherwise some4mes, and they know
what a Romancer looks like from living with me. They’ve probably guessed already, seeing as you’re running around in your
underwear. Once they find out you lied about your aspira4on, they might not trust you as much. You don’t want that at all.”

5. “Huh.” Will examined the chess pieces and tried to think about the game and his aspira4on at the same 4me. “Yeah, I don’t want
Mom and Dad to stop trus4ng me.”
“In that case, as I’m going to tell my students today, Polonius probably has the best advice for you: ‘To thine own self be true,’”
Julian told Will. “They’ll probably be happier because you were honest.”
Will considered asking what “thine” meant, but figured it wasn’t that important. “Go kick buU at work today so this doesn’t have
to be my last day of school, okay?”

6. “I’ll try.”
That was the best he could do. While his brothers had leaped to the tops of their careers, Julian found himself stuck in the school
system without any prospect of ge]ng promoted. He didn’t understand what was wrong. Without realizing it, Julian had been
preparing to become Educa4on Minister since he was a child. He thought he was a good public speaker, and it seemed like his
students liked him. How was he messing this up?

7. A_er their chess game, Will headed for the second floor bed to catch some sleep before school, but he didn’t get very much sleep
before Arthur woke up and started crying. He made his bed, but didn’t have much 4me to think about what to do next when his
other uncle walked into the room.
“Good morning,” Brandon said, handing Will a gi_ he had boxed up. “Happy birthday!”
“A present? For me? Oh, thank you!” Will cheered, pu]ng the gi_ into his inventory. “What is it?”
“Why don’t you find out?” Brandon smiled and watched Will head into the other room to open his present. It was just a poUed
plant that Chris had brought to the house with her, but Brandon liked giving his family members presents when he could.

8. A_er the sun came up and Will and Julian le_ for school and work respec4vely, Mal headed up to the nursery that morning. He
ran his hands through Arthur’s long hair and watched his son smile. “I love you, Arthur,” Mal said, giving him a snuggle. He
couldn’t stop worrying that everything was going to fall to pieces, though, even as he held Arthur. Everything had been going so
well, and nothing had gone well for his mom. Was the other shoe about to drop?

9. The night before, Chris had told Mal that she wanted to have another baby.
“It’s just—I wouldn’t mind having another child. Arthur’s growing up way too fast. But we’d have seven people living here, and
we only get enough food for six people to eat every day,” Mal pointed out as he reached for Chris’s hand. “I know you’re working
on that, but going on maternity leave again would set you back a few more months.” He kissed her hand.
“But if I wait that long, then I might be too old to have another child,” Chris countered. “I hate to think of a future child this way,
but another set of hands means someone else who can make things beUer around here.”

10. He couldn’t help but wonder if this was because Chris wanted a daughter. She was right that another set of hands would be
useful, but was it worth the cost if Chris couldn’t do something about the lack of food?
“She—the new baby would just eat milk and formula for the first few years,” Chris con4nued. “It can’t take me that long to find
more food. I’m sure it’ll all work out.”
Mal wasn’t so sure, but Chris wanted another child enough that he didn’t want to keep saying no. Besides, it had never been that
easy for him to say no to her.

11. But Mal couldn’t stop thinking that he had made a big mistake giving in to Chris. He didn’t want to ask Brandon to meditate his
life away so that a new child would be able to survive.

12. Resolving to put it aside, because Arthur didn’t need to know why he was worried, Mal set him down on the carpet to teach him a
few words.
“Daddy?” Arthur asked.
“Daddy,” Mal repeated, placing his hand over his heart. “I’m your daddy, Arthur. Do you want to play the flying game?”

13. Unfortunately, Arthur spat up his last boUle all over Mal in the middle of a toss in the air. No maUer how much he loved his son, it
was nice to be able to take a shower when things like this happened.
Besides, Mal would have to leave for work as soon as he could change and get ready.

14. Mal had quit his job at the hospital. Even though he could help a lot of people there, he had always dreamed of going on
adventures. Unfortunately, Mal could never go very far from home, because it took such a long 4me to go anywhere. The old
books on the shelf claimed that it was possible to fly, but nothing indicated that it was possible, and it would probably be
impossible to see through any snowstorms.
Mal could s4ll have adventures close to home and take care of his family, flight or no flight. Because so few people ac4vely and
fairly enforced Brandon’s law code, life in Winterfell was never very tranquil.
“Daddy!” Will ran out to hug Mal. “How was work?”

15. “Boring,” Mal told him. “Mostly pushing paper around and trying to learn about the outlying towns and villages. I don’t think it’s
going to get fun for a while. But when it does, it’ll be amazing.”
“If you’re bored, can we play red hands?” Will asked.
“You bet! Is everyone here to celebrate your birthday?”
“Yep, there are a lot of people here! It’s nice that we could use the phone to reach them. I’m glad they’re here.”
“Great! Why don’t we go inside? It looks like it’s about to snow.”

16. Will went inside and listened to Lily Azure talk about how nice it was to get to know him now that he wasn’t a baby anymore. She
kept making strange gestures with her hands, like his dad did some4mes.
“I should invite you over to my house some4me,” she mused. “It’s hard to reach anyone, and I always have a lot of work to do,
but that shouldn’t be an excuse.”
“Why do you work all the 4me?”
“I’m helping your uncle enforce and apply the laws of Winterfell.” She planned to take over as the law when Brandon died, but
Will didn’t need to know that now.

17. “Anyway, enough about me,” Lily said. “You’re the birthday boy! What do you want to do when you grow up?”
“I don’t know,” Will said automa4cally. “I haven’t even become a teenager yet. I know I’m about to get a beUer idea, so why
don’t I tell you later?”

18. “Well, you’ll probably be the heir, unless you don’t want it,” Lily pointed out. “You are the firstborn son, a_er all.”
“If my dad wants me to be the heir,” Will said. He knew what he was going to do, but he s4ll didn’t expect Mal to choose him
when Arthur or the new baby might turn out to be beUer at the job.
“I think he probably will.” Lily smiled. “You’ll see.”

19. I watched Will go outside to play in the snow. From out of the corner of my eye, I saw Julian and Jan making out on the porch. He
should have someone, I thought before going upstairs to see if there was room for another player at the mahjong table.

20. Will made a snow angel, then decided that he was going to see if the family had any leUers. Before he could get there, though,
the shakes started.

21. Will stood s4ll once they subsided and he had grown up, listening to the music playing from inside the house as he tried to get
used to being so much taller. He looked over his shoulder at Jan dancing the smustle, then looked toward the graves on the edge
of the property and tried to stand up straight.
Suddenly, he wasn’t so scared about telling everyone else what he wanted to do with his life. Besides, it wasn’t anything
embarrassing. He wanted to be a celebrity chef, like his mom would be someday. And if Will was more concerned with ge]ng his
first kiss than making money or building his skills, so be it.

22. Early the next morning, Chris gave birth next to the mahjong table.

23. Luckily, labor wasn’t very difficult, and Chris had spun around with her youngest child before she knew it. The new baby had her
gray eyes with Mal’s black hair and lighter skin.

24. “Hi, swee4e.” Chris smiled, cuddling her daughter and kissing the side of her head. “I’m going to call you Sabriel. It’s nice to have
another liUle lady in the house.”*
* If you’re wondering how to pronounce her name: Honestly, I’ve cycled through about five different ways to pronounce it a?er
reading the book eight and a half years ago. Right now, I favor the one that rhymes with “Gabriel” and “sable,” but if you want to
say it another way, go right ahead. 

25. When Mal woke up, he took Sabriel downstairs to give her a boUle and a bath, then decided to try playing the flying game with
her. Sabriel waved her arms around like wings as he held her up in the air. As nervous as Mal had been about her arrival, he
thought it was nice to have another liUle one to snuggle now that Arthur would be ge]ng old enough to go to school. He was
also happy to have a daughter, since his wife wanted one so much.

26. But Will worried the most about Sabriel. “Do you think she’s all right?” he asked Brandon a_er a session at the surgical dummy.
“You’re not the only one who’s all over her every 4me there’s the slightest peep out of her mouth—which is o_en,” Brandon
reminded Will. “I checked on her before I came up to see you. She’s sleeping.”
“Thank goodness.” Will exhaled. “I just worry. She’s so…she’s so liUle. I know she’s safe with us, but some4mes I s4ll worry that
someone’s going to sneak into the house when we’re all asleep and snatch her from her crib or something. I don’t want anything
bad to ever happen to any of us.”
“You know that there’s always someone awake here, right?”
“Yeah, but…what if?”

27. Brandon decided that now was as good a 4me as any to give another birthday present to Will. “I have something else for you,” he
said, pulling out a box. “It’s tradi4on to give the Stark heir a dollhouse, generally a_er he or she smashes the old one in a fit of
despera4on.”
“You mean I’m going to be heir?” Will grinned. “I can’t believe it!”
“If you want it, I don’t see why not. You’re the oldest, and from what I can tell, you’d be good at it. You should probably make
sure it’s okay with your mom and dad, though.”
“Even though I’m Romance?”

28. “Yeah, you’re Romance, but…” Brandon tried to ar4culate his thoughts. “Look, there’s nothing that says you have to be Fortune to
be heir. You’re just supposed to get married and have kids—”
“But I don’t know about ge]ng married.”
“That’s something to think about later on,” Brandon said. “Besides, you already like babies beUer than my mom ever did, and
that’s a good sign. Think about it, Will. Don’t count yourself out.”

29. Happy to hear what Brandon had told him, Will headed over to tend the plants, which had grown a lot since he last saw them.

30. Later that day, Mal finished teaching Arthur how to walk, and Chris finally got him poUy trained.

31. Now that Arthur had his skills, he was ready to grow up. He stood up and 4lted his head from one side to another as he looked at
his uncle’s legs, then began to shake.

32. “Yay!” Arthur cheered, raising his hands in the air. “I’m a big kid now! And I got cute pajamas!”

33. Brandon also had his birthday that day. He had been working on a set of revisions to his law code when he felt his hands shaking
and knew he was about to get old.

34. Figuring that he couldn’t put it off any longer, Brandon leaped into old age with almost all of his customary vigor.

35. “Nice,” he commented as he watched the confe] fall around him, trying to stay op4mis4c. “I get to keep this track suit.”

36. “Here’s how it works,” Mal instructed Arthur before school the next morning. “Put your hands on top of mine. I’ll try to grab
them, and you’ll try to pull your hands away so I can’t grab them.”
Like Will, Arthur definitely enjoyed the game.

37. A_er Mal went to prac4ce his charisma on the podium, Will also came downstairs to play a game with Arthur. “You can’t catch
me!” Will said as he jerked his right hand away.
“Oh yeah? I’ll catch you next 4me!” Arthur declared. “Do the kids play this at school, Will?”
Will tried to remember. “Some4mes during our lunch break,” he told Arthur. He didn’t want to tell his liUle brother just how
boring school had been. Will had goUen good grades, but he had never cared about his subjects, and the teachers were always
yelling at him for passing notes to break up the boredom. Hopefully, Arthur would enjoy it more.

38. Unfortunately, being too old for school didn’t mean that Will didn’t have a rou4ne. He needed to build up his skills so that he
could get a good job. Since Will didn’t know what he wanted to do for the family yet, he decided to work on each skill evenly.
So a_er Arthur got on the bus, Will turned on the stereo and started to work out in the kitchen area. He hated doing his exercises,
but he didn’t have a choice if he ever wanted to have a life outside the house. His dad and uncles liked to talk about how he was
going to go to college someday, but there were a lot of dangerous folks on the road from Winterfell, and they wanted him to be
able to fight them.
On the plus side, at least Will looked beUer now—if he ever met a girl who was going to appreciate his new physique, that is.
People his age didn’t just walk by his house every day.

39. Well, there was that 4me with Amy Jones, but she had just paUed him on the shoulder when he tried striking up a conversa4on
with her. In retrospect, maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to start talking about the environment in an aUempt to sound smarter
than he was.
“Listen, kid—I’ve got a 4ght schedule on this paper route, and if I don’t make it, I’m going to get fired. I need this money.”

40. “Will I see you tomorrow?” Will asked, flashing the biggest smile he could. Amy was preUy, and she was the only girl who ever
came by the house. He wished that he hadn’t messed this up.
She put her hands on her hips. “Yeah, but—listen, don’t count on it, okay? I’m not looking for anything right now.”
What had he done wrong?

41. Next came cooking. Will hadn’t forgoUen about his dream to be a celebrity chef a_er he did something for the family. He found a
book of recipes and discovered that his mom had been scribbling in the margins so much that the text was barely recognizable
anymore.
“You can put things on salad so it doesn’t taste so bad?” Will asked himself as he read. “And that’s called—dressing? Why would
anybody call that dressing? Did Mom come up with this when she was coming out of the shower one morning, or what?”

42. In the middle of this, he also had a liUle sister to take care of.
“Here’s your dinner,” Will told Sabriel. He liked telling his sister everything that he did during the day, even though she was too
young to respond for now. “The rest of us have got to wait un4l midnight for dinner, but you can have your boUles whenever you
want. No one wants to ra4on boUles.”

43. And he meant to get back to his studies, but the phone interrupted him all the 4me.
“Good a_ernoon, Ms. Azure—Lily.” What did she want to speak with him about today?

44. “You mean I’m going to grow up?” Will joked. “No, I know I’m going to grow up, but there’s s4ll a lot that needs fixing, and I can’t
just find new things to cook un4l I find something else to fix. Did you know that my mom decided to call the stuff she puts on
salad to make it taste beUer dressing?”
“What was I going to call it?” Chris asked as she took out a pen and started marking up the cookbook that she was studying.
“Sansa’s Yellow Wallpaper?”

45. And when his liUle brother came home from school looking like he’d never be happy again, Will cheered him up by sugges4ng a
snowball fight.
“You ready for this?” Will asked as he gathered a snowball and prepared to throw it.

46. Arthur proved that he was, leaning to the side to avoid a hit.

47. “Let’s see if I can hit you now!”

48. “You can’t,” Will said, pu]ng his fingers in his ears and making a face as funny as he could. “There is no way you can catch me,
Arthur.”

49. Mal came home from a long and fulfilling journey into a nearby cave, happy to be above ground once again despite the fact that
snow was falling once again. Even though going underground made him nervous some4mes, he wouldn’t go back to his job at the
hospital, no maUer how much money they paid him. He would have liked to bring back a souvenir to show the kids, but he s4ll
couldn’t carry very many things around.

50. He quickly switched gears to teaching Arthur how to study.
“Yes—two plus three is five! You’re doing so well, Arthur!”

51. Arthur scribbled the correct answer on his homework. The teacher had told him that no one could read his handwri4ng, but he
didn’t care. He knew the answer, and that should be all that maUered.

52. “Maybe you’ll want to be an adventurer too,” Mal told Sabriel the next morning as he held her up to his face. “It’s fun. I guess
right now I’d be a mul4regional Sim of…not a lot of mystery, because everybody knows I’m Mal Stark! But at least some
ques4on.”

53. Of course, Arthur’s studying paid off with an A+ report card, which Julian applauded.

54. A_er taking Sabriel downstairs for another boUle that night, Will gave his liUle sister her birthday toss.

55. Sabriel is a Taurus with the extreme personality of 9/9/2/10/1, ensuring that no one will ever ignore her.

56. Will promptly sat her down to try teaching her a few words, but Sabriel turned her head away and refused to say anything to him.
How did you teach someone how to talk, anyway? Will didn’t have much of an idea how to do it besides just telling her things and
hoping she answered someday.

57. Having helped two children learn to talk already, Mal’s aUempts were more successful. It s4ll touched him every 4me one of his
kids opened his mouth and said “Daddy” for the first 4me.

58. Will also helped Sabriel with her steps as a break from skilling. He smiled and gestured to her to keep walking. “Just a few more
steps! You can do it!”

59. “There! You did it!” Will li_ed Sabriel up un4l she was above his head. “You’re flying!”
“Wheee!” Sabriel flapped her arms.

60. “You’ve been doing so well with Sabriel,” Mal complimented Will one night a_er he came outside to find Will building a snowman.
“Just don’t forget about your scholarships, okay?”
“What scholarships?”
“Julian is trying to set up a scholarship fund for when the college finally opens,” Mal explained. “If your skills are good enough,
you’ll get some grants that you can use there. I know we have a lot of money here, but there’s only so much you can take with
you.” He hugged Will. “I don’t want you to go, but I know it’ll be a great experience for you.”
Will wasn’t so sure, but he hugged his dad back anyway.

61. It never took very long before Sabriel started demanding aUen4on again. Mal wondered some4mes if it was his imagina4on, or if
she was just fussier than Will and Arthur had been. His daughter seemed to shriek twice as loudly as the boys had at the same
age.

62. Luckily, she liked snuggles. But Mal’s fear was about to be realized. Sabriel would be old enough that she would need to eat with
the family soon and would have to take ra4ons away from someone, and Chris wasn’t ge]ng promoted quickly enough. What
would happen then?

63. Sabriel had no idea what was going on, of course. “Unca Juwian!” she demanded, waving her arms to help her make her point.
“What?” he asked.
“I can talk now!” Sabriel smiled.

64. Arthur tried to take advantage of the fact that his sister was finally old enough to have a conversa4on with. “Isn’t that bunny fun
to play with?” Arthur asked Sabriel.
“Not do what I want!” his liUle sister exclaimed, banging her toy against the carpet. “Not fun if it not do what I want.”
“Sure it is,” Arthur said. “I can’t hit Will with a snowball nine 4mes out of ten, but it’s just fun to throw them at him.”
“Snowball?”
“You’ll see.”

65. Chris watched that night’s meal cook on the grill above the glowing coals. She thought she’d finally perfected this recipe. Chris
liked to add whatever she could to the hamburger meat. This 4me, it was a mixture of barbecue sauce, mustard, and soy sauce.
Anything to liven up the ra4ons—well, not anything. When Chris had just started out cooking, she had been able to tell that the
family was just ea4ng her earlier aUempts out of politeness and lack of any other op4ons.

66. This 4me, the meal seemed to go over well. “Delicious,” Mal said as he finished his bite. “These are great, Chris. I don’t
understand why no one’s had the good sense to make you a Celebrity Chef yet.”
“Because news travels slowly when you can’t get a line out and the newspaper doesn’t have anything in it,” Chris asked. “They’ll
all catch on to my delicious recipes soon enough.”
“I hope so. Sabriel won’t be a liUle one for much longer.”
“Why don’t you ask them, Will?” Julian interrupted them.
“Ask us what?” Mal said.

67. “Um. I think I want to be the heir,” Will said. “I think I could be good at it. But—I’m not sure about ge]ng married and having
kids.”
“Well, I know I worried about having kids when I was your age,” Mal told him. “But I did preUy well raising you, I think. And
you’re being such a good big brother with Arthur and Sabriel that I don’t think it’ll be a problem with you.”
“Yeah, but…” Ge]ng married was the bigger problem right now. Will hadn’t met anyone who he could see himself falling in love
with yet. How was he supposed to choose someone.

68. “Will, we believe in you,” Chris told him. “If you want to be heir, you’re going to do a great job running the house. It’s preUy easy
right now, as far as I can tell—”
“It is,” Mal assured him. “Of course, I’ve had everyone here to help me out, but it really is preUy easy to lead a great family like
this. Just find something to do for the community, and pursue your dream of being a celebrity chef once you’ve done that.
College is really going to help you out there, because you’ll have the chance to learn so much. And you’ve helped so much with
Sabriel that I bet you’ll be a wonderful father.”

69. So Will went about his morning rou4ne, proud but s4ll a liUle anxious as he headed into the second floor bathroom to prac4ce
romance. His parents were accep4ng him for who he was, and there wasn’t anything that could make him more happy right now.
But were they only accep4ng him because he spent so much 4me working on his skills and keeping an eye on his siblings? Would
they feel the same way if he actually acted like Romance Sims were usually supposed to act?

70. Julian wasn’t feeling that secure about his place in the family, either. He kept dreaming about his ancestors being upset with him.
“WHY AREN’T YOU GETTING PROMOTED?” Sansa screamed at Julian, wiggling her fingers at him.
“I DON’T KNOW!”

71. A_er all, Mal was ge]ng promoted. He had already topped one career, and now he was well on his way to topping his second.
Why couldn’t Julian even top the one that everyone was depending on him for? He didn’t even want to think about how upset
Mal would be if his oldest son couldn’t go to college because Julian hadn’t acted quickly enough.

72. At least it wasn’t a walk down Easy Street for Chris, either. She had been promoted to head chef, but she s4ll wasn’t ge]ng her
promo4ons very quickly.

73. “Dad tells me to apply for scholarships,” Will said over a game of chess. “But it doesn’t feel real. I don’t know if I’m ever going to
be able to go to school again, and I’m not sure if I want to.”
“It is real,” Julian told him. If he could dispel his doubts when talking to Will, then they wouldn’t maUer to the current Educa4on
Minister. “You will be able to go to college.”

74. “Are you ready to get old?” Mal asked Chris.
“No,” she said. “I’ve been this age for such a long 4me that it’s hard to think about what it would be like any other way. But I
think growing old with you isn’t so bad.”
“I’m glad to hear it, dear,” Mal said. He placed his hand on her cheek and kissed her tenderly. “I think growing old with you isn’t
so bad either. Want to invite some people over? The phone lines should be up.”
“Sounds good.” Chris caressed his shoulder. “I love you.”

75. She s4ll wasn’t ready. Chris had a life4me want that she would never achieve, because she would never be able to learn science
once she got old. No one outside the family would take her seriously. But her hands were shaking, and there was no stopping
4me now that she had le_ her old life behind.

76. Even though Chris had a whole host of aches and pains, she tried to stand up straight. Everything was going to be fine, she told
herself. Her life had changed for the beUer in ways she could never have imagined before the fire. Everything was fine.

77. At the same 4me, Mal grew up in a corner in the middle of a conversa4on with Kenya about what he felt like he had
accomplished. He felt like he had actually accomplished a lot. Mal had three great children and had brought clean water back to
Winterfell. Even though the family had hit some rough patches, they were finally star4ng to do more than just survive.

78. Even though being old didn’t make him happy, at least he was on his way to accomplishing his life4me want.

79. Meanwhile, Julian was having more fun than his brother the old fogey now that he was ge]ng to know Jan.
“You gonna tell me where you work now?” he asked Jan a_er.
When she finally told him, he wished that he had been willing to let her ini4al refusal go.

80. The 4me finally came for Sabriel to grow up not long a_er Mal and Chris did. Unfortunately, Chris s4ll hadn’t fixed the ra4oning
system, leading to much hand‐wringing from Mal and assurances from everyone else that it would all work out. But Sabriel was
s4ll too young to know that.

81. “Yay! I’m a big girl!” Sabriel clapped her hands. “Everybody look at me now! Uncle Joule! Why are you walking away?”

82. “Hello?” she con4nued, waving around. But the adults weren’t paying enough aUen4on to her, so she decided to try to find
someone who would.

83. “Miss Suzy had a tugboat, the tugboat had a belt,” Sabriel and Arthur sang, clapping their hands to the rhythm. “Miss Suzy went
to heaven, the tugboat went to—”
“HELL!” Sabriel screamed.
“That’s not how it goes!” Arthur protested. “It’s ‘hello operator!’”
“Yeah, but that’s not what it means,” she said.
“Where did you learn that word?”
“Will said it while he was trying to teach me to talk,” Sabriel revealed. “I pretended like I didn’t know it.”

84. Unfortunately, Brandon came to get her and said the kids had to go to bed before school the next morning. “Good night, Sable,”
Brandon told his niece as he tucked her in. “Sleep 4ght. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
“There are no bedbugs, and even if they were, they wouldn’t dare bite me,” Sabriel mumbled.
“That’s the spirit.” He kissed her forehead. “Get a good night’s sleep before your first day of school tomorrow, kiddo.”

85. “Good morning, sweetheart,” Mal said, brushing Sabriel’s hair out of her face. “It’s 4me to start your day.”
“Do I have to wake up?”
“Yes. It’s 4me for school.”
“But Will doesn’t have to go to school.”
“Will’s too old for school, but you need to learn how to read and write. Get up, honey.”

86. “Now, you need to stand up straight so everyone realizes how smart you are once you get to school,” Brandon instructed Sabriel
once she got out of bed. “Look at my finger up here. Now, try to reach it—but don’t jump.”
It was too late. Sabriel had already jumped.

87. “I don’t get it.”
“Don’t worry, Sable. You will.” Brandon had no interest in watching anyone else slouch around the house.

88. The consensus was that school was s4ll boring, so the kids seUled down for a game of mahjong.
“It’s my birthday today,” Arthur informed Sabriel. “So I won’t have to go to school anymore.”
“So you’re about to be bigger than me again?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s not fair. I hate being the liUlest one.”

89. A_er finishing his game of mahjong with Sabriel, Arthur went upstairs to take a short nap. He woke up promptly at five forty‐five
and looked around the room.
“Guys!” he called. “I’m about to grow up!”

90. He held his arms out and started jumping, ge]ng ready for the big jump when he would become a teenager.

91. “So, what’s your aspira4on?” Will asked. He had arrived in 4me to watch Arthur age up.
“You know how Mom and Grandma used to go to par4es all the 4me?” Arthur asked. “I think it’d be fun if I could make a living
out of that. I guess I’ll have to do something serious at some point to make things beUer around here, but I’d really just rather
have a good 4me. Maybe I can even help other people have a good 4me. It doesn’t have to be something serious.”
Have a good Fme, Will thought. Wow. Why didn’t I think of that when I chose my aspiraFon?

92. “Yep,” Arthur con4nued. “Why be serious if you don’t have to be?”
“Because things might be a lot beUer around here, but there’s s4ll a lot that’s wrong,” Will answered, more harshly than he would
like. “We need to fix those things.”
“Yeah, I get that,” Arthur said. “But one of the things that’s wrong around here is that no one has any fun. We don’t have par4es
or go on dates. Wouldn’t you like to go on a date with someone?”
“You have no idea.”

93. Meanwhile, Mal helped Sabriel with her homework.
“Maybe I should be the one teaching Sabriel to study,” Julian said from the chess table. “I am a professor. I should be able to do
this.”
“Don’t worry about it. You need to max your logic.”

94. It was 4me for fun and games once she finished, which meant jumping on the bed.
“Sabriel, I’m trying to meditate,” Brandon grumbled from the reading nook.
“Wheee ha ha ha ha ha!” she exclaimed as she bounced.
“Are you just doing this to annoy me because I had my birthday?” Arthur asked.
“Maybe. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!” Sabriel shouted a liUle louder.

95. There were also more important lessons that only Mal and Chris could teach Sabriel.
“It’s important to be nice,” Mal told her. “People will like you beUer if you’re kind to people and consider what they might be
feeling. And one of the rudest things you can possibly do is cheat at chess. That’s not going to help you become any more
logical.”
Sabriel wasn’t sure if she believed her dad about that, but she nodded.
“How about a hug, sweetheart?” Mal bent down, and Sabriel reached up to return the hug.

96. But the studying paid off, as Sabriel ran all the way up the stairs to the mahjong table with her first A+ report card. “Daddy!
Daddy! Look!”
“I’m ge]ng up, swee4e—”

97. “LOOK!” Sabriel jumped higher in the air as she determined that her dad wasn’t ge]ng out of his chair quickly enough.

98. “Great job!” Mal cheered. “Go, Sable!”
“Thank you. I’m going to find somewhere to put this homework now.”

99. As a reward for her good grades, Will taught Sabriel how to dance the smustle. He didn’t quite know the smustle himself, but
neither one of them cared.

100. Meanwhile, Chris worked on her crea4vity, hoping it would pay off soon. She had her own restaurant now, so her goal couldn’t be
very far away.

101. As she got out of her car the next night with her new friend Marylena in tow, a smile broke across Chris’s face.
“Who’s hungry?”

102. “I am! I am!” Sabriel shouted as she finished her evil snowman and ran to give Chris a hug. “Did you do it? Can we actually eat
some of your experiments now?”
“We can eat as many of my experiments as you like, as many 4mes a day as we want,” Chris told her. “Do you want to try some
cake?”
“What’s cake? That sounds icky.”
“It’s not, swee4e,” Chris assured her. “You’ll see.”

103. So you just met Sabriel Stark. If I’m managing to write her the same way that she sounds in my head, then you will not forget her
any 4me soon. She’s named a_er the 4tle character of Garth Nix’s book Sabriel. I would have her li_ Paranormal to go with her
role in the book as figh4ng the Dead, but the ghosts aren’t a big concern right now.
The new decora4ng scheme for the third floor rooms is brought to you by Arthur. In case you couldn’t tell, he rolled Pleasure with
the Professional Party Guest LTW. This genera4on, everyone has an LTW that someone else in the family has already done.
Title credit: “Idlewild Blue” ‐ Outkast

104. Restric4ons‐wise, I know now that maternity leave shouldn’t have been available to Chris. I’ll get back to complying with the
Slacker restric4on when genera4on 4 grows up, but what’s done is done. In the mean4me, Culinary is li_ed! Yay!
I have a special request: Could anyone with SimPE please send me a copy of the Chris/Jane downtownie? I’d like to have a copy of
her who I can plop into my Fantasyland neighborhood, and I can also recreate Will and Arthur once I have her face template. I like
having copies around, just in case. Thank you!

105. Next 4me on An Apocalypse of Ice:
+ A day of partying to celebrate Chris li_ing Culinary and no one having to meditate anymore.
+ Will begins to realize just how hard the Apocalypse really is and how much would be expected of him as heir. He starts looking
for advice…in both good and bad places.
+ Plot. A_er genera4on 4 li_s their restric4ons, the Apocalypse will be more than halfway over, so I’m livening things up with the
first big plot of this story.

106. I just totally love this picture. My heir’s preUy.
Happy Simming! 