I haven't been feeling well unfortunately, body getting up to no good again But today I finally feel fit to post another update, and it really is long over-due. We haven't seen Siri and Isamu since 2019
Chapter 16 - Siri & Isamu Kim-Sjöström & the Sjöströms
When we left them, Siri had recently had a visit from her mother. Tom would never have agreed, due to the risk of bringing attention to the cottage and Siri being discovered, but as you may recall from this episode, it turns out that sending Siri away broke Tom's mind. These days he doesn't seem to know where he is, he constantly escapes Sigrids watchful eyes turning up in kids stores or the homes of families with children. He never used to show up as a walk by, or in the background on community lots, but now he somehow manages to defy the coding, inviting himself into houses of people who does not know, to sit in their nursery.
One of their neighbours in the elderly home has a bunch of dogs, and one of the dogs asked Tom to play fetch with him. Which Tom agreed to, but the facial expressions he made as he was tossing the branch were quite interesting. Ever since Siri went to the cottage, he has not been acting himself. He has fully lost his marbles.
Because of his deterioration and descent into confusion, Sigrid has taken over as the decision maker of the family, choosing to sell the house and move to an elderly home so there are more people to keep an eye on Tom. Not that it really helped, he still shows up in other homes constantly. He's so lost in his own bubble of confusion, drawn to pregnant women or children without understanding why. Here he is walking into the bedroom of Pernilla Löfgren, the roomie of Elna Sernman and Max Flex, who got whoopsie pregnant by Max. Tom barged right in one morning with Pernilla still in her underwear, he has no boundaries or notions of social etiquette these days.
He'll walk up to the pregnant person or child, and then just stand there staring at them with a smile on his face.
At this point the whole hood is familiar with the story of the poor old couple who lost their adopted daughter in a fire. They all know of Tom, the father who lost his mind to the grief, and now wonders the town in search of his dead daughter. Everyone feels quite sorry for them, and while it's a nuisance to have Tom showing up in their homes, they all treat him kindly when it happens. Elna caught a glimpse of him walk into Pernillas bedroom, and called out his name to get him out of Pernilla's hair so she could at least get dressed in peace.
He wouldn't go on his own, so Pernilla walked him out to where Elna waited.
Elna would like to see how he is, but he won't quite meet her eye. But she used her business know-how, perking him up like she would one of the customers at her business.
Then she picks up the phone to call Sigrid and let her know Tom is there, which is what everyone does when Tom shows up unannounced. You'll notice the moment Elna stopped interacting with Tom, he makes a beeline back for Pernilla who returned to her bedroom to get clothed.
It doesn't take long for Sigrid to show up to pick up Tom. Elna comes down to greet her, to my surprise choosing the kiss cheek greeting. I really do get the vibe that my Sims feel bad for them, and that they sort of are considered friends or family to everyone even though nobody really knows them. They know the story, and that's enough it seems.
Elna brings Sigrid upstairs to their apartment, where Pernilla has managed to lure Tom out to the living room. He would not stop following her around, his obsession with pregnant Sim ladies is impressive.
Sigrid always tells him off for running off behind her back, and for barging into peoples homes, but Tom doesn't really care.
Too busy still looking at Pernilla with that smile on his face
But he agrees to go with Sigrid back to the retirement home. Sigrid thanks Elna for calling her and gives her a hug.
Then they head out to go back to their home. Tom making me laugh as he's walking out, what with his choice to do the finger point thing at the two women before he leaves.
That's pretty much how Tom and Sigrid pass their days, he'll escape her watch and show up somewhere with young kids or pregnancies, until the home owners call Sigrid and she comes and picks him up. Over time it became clear to me that Tom truly believes that Siri is dead. It stopped being an act he put on, and it became real to him in his grief-induced psychosis. On some level there's a seed of him that knows she is out there, which is why he searches, but he doesn't understand what he is searching for because in his conscious mind, she is dead and gone.
It's very lonely for Sigrid, her daughter is locked away in the forest and her life companion has lost his mind. She's not used to being the one with the responsibility, having to make the decisions. She was raised traditionally, to be the homemaker, leaving the responsibility to the man of the house. It has worked well for her and Tom in their long marriage, she's never had a reason to doubt his judgement. That is, until their beloved daughter fell pregnant and he cooked up a mad scheme to hide her away. It's been eating at Sigrid, she wonders constantly if she really was right to trust him on this.
That is why she finally decided to break her promise and visit Siri last spring. She had to at least see for herself that Siri was doing alright. She can't visit often, because Tom does have a point that it risks discovery, but she figured nobody would find it odd if she went there once to check in on the power plant after the winter. That Tom did not come with her would not surprise anyone, given his current mental status that everyone knows about since he keeps showing up uninvited. Nor would anyone mention it to him, because why would they? Clearly he's no longer in any state to be involved with the business, it makes sense that Sigrid now handles it on her own.
Siri is unaware of any of this, she did not ask about her father on her mother's visit and Sigrid did not tell her. Nor did she tell her about her doubts, because it would be cruel to get Siri's hopes up of being able to leave. She needs to figure that out for herself, and let Siri tackle her own problems. So after her mothers brief visit, Siri returned to her normal which means doing her best to prepare for the next winter.
Last we saw of her, it was time for Isamu to grow up. I wish I hadn't cut the episode there given it took me so long to continue, but here we are finally, you get to see what Isamu grew up to look like
No surprise, he's still adorable! The hair was a little surprising to me, but I went and looked and the PT he got his genes from is a redhead, so the alien genes are strong it seems!
Siri gets started on potty training right away, she only has a limited supply of diapers so the sooner Isamu learns the better.
Then Isamu gets to go down for his midday nap, testing out the toddler bed for the first time.
Siri eats a slice of his cake while he sleeps. It's a very depressing scene, her kid is grown up and almost nobody even knows he exists. She celebrates all by herself, staring at the wall as she eats the cake to the sound of his snoozing.
Over the next few days Isamu got to explore the various toys his grandparents had stashed away in the cottage for him to enjoy when he got old enough. He loooooves the pop up clown box.
The dolls are strange, but he's figuring them out.
Before long he wants to know what's on the other side of the door, taking his chance to crawl out while Siri is hugging Sessan.
A concerned Siri chases after him immediately, concerned he might fall in to the pond or try to crawl off into the woods.
But he just wanted to check out the bumblebee rider. It's funny, I always felt like him and Siri somehow managed to communicate even though he was just a baby, like they could speak with their minds. And in this picture it really looks like he's asking her what she's worried about because he's fine, he's just having fun, relax mom!
Either way it seems Siri agrees that he's okay, so she heads over to harvest the last of the summer crops.
Isamu moves on to try his hand at some drawing. I love the toddler drawings, they are so cute! It'll be a nice addition to the walls inside.
Siri starts teaching Isamu to speak human language with words out loud, instead of the perceived telepathic communication I see them as having sometimes. She's so adorably happy every time he manages to say a word. I guess it's nice to hear another human's voice for a change.
They practice walking too, with Sessan running around them chasing imaginary flies after consuming cat nip. Sessan isn't quite sure what to think of Isamu yet, this whole crawling around thing is overrated in her book, she much preferred when he'd stay put in one spot wriggling.
Siri can encourage him to try walking all she wants, Isamu would rather look at the silly cat that is running around than try to walk.
As autumn drags on, the days enter a new sort of routine, with Isamu the toddler rather than Isamu the baby They bathe, they play, they cuddle. Isamu learns to master the potty
And that's about it for this time. Life for Siri is repetitive, with preparing food for the winter and taking care of herself, Isamu and Sessan. But now you have finally gotten to see Isamu as a toddler, starting to explore the world There's a lot more to cover with the other two, so this is the last we'll see of Siri and Isamu for a bit.
No idea when the next post might come given health stuff getting worse again, but I will try my best
19th Sep 2023 at 8:47 PM
But today I finally feel fit to post another update, and it really is long over-due. We haven't seen Siri and Isamu since 2019 
But today I finally feel fit to post another update, and it really is long over-due. We haven't seen Siri and Isamu since 2019 
