strangetomato | Strangetown: What if?

Strangetown: What if?

Every now and then, I get to thinking about alternative ways of approaching the Strangetown story, like that version where Ophelia follows in Olive's black widow footsteps, and I've recently been thinking about a good one: what if alien pregnancies were fatal for the men who carried them to term? That would really change the story, wouldn't it? I think I'm going to toy with the idea, and maybe it will develop into a short stand-alone story at some point. I think it could play out into something interesting.

Pretty awful, right? It would raise questions of why the Curious Brothers were allowing themselves to get pregnant, and they probably wouldn't be willing participants in this breeding experiment (though with Glarn's involvement, you'd have to wonder... and why they'd be willing to do it despite the consequences). The whole connection with PT would be a lot more grim too, but that could also be interesting.

I'm really not sure how I would attempt to answer these questions, but I'm enjoying this darker "what if?" scenario.

I got to thinking about this after reading an article by Katura Reynolds called "Birthing the Monster: What if a Bug-Eyed Alien Was Your Baby Daddy?" in the Genesis Issue of Bitch magazine. It was a great read. The Sims 2 wasn't mentioned as a pop culture example of this alien birthing trend in science fiction, but it's definitely following in this tradition.

So, what do you think of the idea? I'll bet there are also plenty of other ways to approach it, if one was well-versed in sci-fi.

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Oh, that's interesting. It's not exactly the same idea, but an interesting variation on it.

I think it could work in the current set-up of Strangetown, with some reworking of a number of facts. The whole Curious family tree is difficult to figure out on the best of days, so that could be used to the storytellers advantage here.

Also, Glabe isn't necessarily Glarn's wife, right? It's left pretty open. We know she has the same last name, but she could have been his sister. I tend to buy this version more than them being married. This pic supports that idea for me:

It looks like Glarn arriving on his sister's doorstep to give birth to the twins (or maybe he was crashing on the couch), but he's in his everyday clothes, while she obvious just got out of bed. The neat sheets on the other side of her bed indicate that Glarn wasn't in that bed.

Maybe Glarn was trying to hide his pregnancy form Kitty. This would explain why the twins have memories of Glabe raising them. Maybe she kept them, for a time. I figure that Kitty eventually found out what happened, and this eventually resulted in her leaving Glarn (for some reason, I see Kitty leaving, which isn't detailed at all in the Maxis backstory, but the opposite isn't indicated either).

I've assumed for some time that she was his sister, too -- never thought it'd make much sense with her as his wife, unless he was the one who freaked out about it, or unless they broke up for reasons having nothing to do with alien babies and she ended up with the kids even though they're not even hers.

Yeah, I agree. There had to be a good reason for him to leave them with her, and the failing marriage angle doesn't really work, since you'd assume the alien children were the key issue there (unless he didn't want them, which could be another way to take it, but he's later shown at the telescope again, so that's sketchy).

I think that's why I always get back to thinking that Kitty had a problem with it. It seems like he made an effort to please her by having his sister take them, or he tried to cover it up entirely. And Kitty doesn't have to leave him. The twins could be completely off on their own and then they come back to get to know the family at a later time (which explains why they're back in town with roomates).

For some reason, though, I'm more drawn to the idea that the family embraces the twins and whole alien thing (supported by Jenny's marriage to PT and the activities of the brothers and alien children) and they come back, and then Kitty tries to accept it, but is unable to. Kitty could accept them, over time, but having her leave him works better with all the Strangetown drama for me.

I had been thinking much the same thing re: Glabe, mainly because the timeline makes little to no sense if Glabe was indeed Glarn's wife (either the twins would have to be older than Jenny or Glarn would have to have been involved with Kitty sometime before the twins were born). Making Glabe Glarn's sister allows for a more natural timeline IMO.

The twins are supposed to be older than Jenny, I believe. They aren't in the game, but I think that's because they are bin sims, and they all come set at the beginning of their adult stage.

Or am I wrong about that? I should double check the memories, I guess.

A lot of the details don't match up in the game, especially between the photos (made from early versions of the characters, so there are inconsistencies all over the place) and the memories. The relationships are not marked correctly in all cases either, such as the way the Curious brothers don't recognize the Singles twins as relatives.

The way it's set up, it really gives you the freedom to put your own spin on it, since the "official" version is pretty unclear.

Yes, soooo many inconsistencies! O_O

I've thought about Glabe being his sister too... although the picture doesn't really seal that for me. Glarn could have been sleeping on the couch due to a failing marriage. :P Glabe could have been infertile and jealous of her husband's offspring, hence the crying. Besides, if you look reaaaaaaly close you can just barely see a glint of a wedding ring on Glabe's left hand. Not that it means she's married to Glarn, but her name might not be Curious if she was married...

The story I've settled on was Glabe was Glarn's first wife, and they had marriage troubles, likely centered around Glarn's obsession with aliens. Whether Glabe was infertile or not I'm not sure (she could have just been crying because OH CRAP I CAN'T BELIEVE YOUR OBSESSION WENT THIS FAR!!!!) ;) but I think she loved the girls and took them with her when she finally left Glarn... either because she wanted babies of her own or because she felt Glarn would neglect the girls due to his obsessions (He's still on that darn telescope in the family picture with Kitty and the other Curious kids later, lol!)

There's another photo of Glabe lecuring the girls as they sit on the couch and listen, and it has a thought bubble of Glarn in it. I'm thinking she's telling them what a no good, unfit father he was, and that's why they're with her and not him. Perhaps they'd expressed some interest in finding their Earth father... and Glabe was saying, YOU SHOULD BE GRATEFUL I TOOK YOU WITH ME. YOUR FATHER DOES NOTHING BUT STARGAZE ALL NIGHT AND SLEEP ALL DAY!!!111!!!

I have always felt Kitty was more forgiving of Glarn's hobbies, but you're right... her story is vague as well. We know she's still around when Jenny is a teenager, since she's serving dinner in one of the pictures while Jenny's yakking on the phone and the boys are playing. But after that we just don't know. We know she and Glarn didn't ever get divorced, but that doesn't mean she didn't leave him at some point.

I love thinking about what the backstory for these characters could be and trying to fit it all together (as you can tell, lol!) Sometimes I wish we could corner the Maxis Strangetown developer and threaten him or her with a hot poker until we get the REAL story. :D :D

But you're right... the ambiguity does leave it open for lots of different interpretations!

The twins are not at the beginning of their adult stage (at least Lola isn't) but they don't have the memories either way (older or younger).

From what I can gather, the real evidence regarding the twins' age comes not from the Curious household but the Beaker one. Erin is around the same age as at least Chloe and Loki's memories clearly state that he is older than Erin.

Hmmm, that is true, but I don't give much weight to the ages of the Singles girls, even if they aren't at the beginning of the adult stage (they seem to be fairly neglected by the game designers, what with the lack of family ties, etc.). The fact that the photo of Glarn giving birth to the twins come before the rest of the children in the Maxis story is what I go by, since those are always in chronological order.

Then again, the next photo shows the other children as children, so they could have been born at around the same time, really. Either way, I think it's a minor detail, and one of those things that people are free to spin it either way. I'm stuck with them as older in my story now, since I've already said that, but I don't imagine them as being a whole lot older than Jenny.

I always thought that Glabe was Glarn's sister, and it just wasn't indicated properly in the family ties. I very much agree with this interpretation that you've given here, and that he wanted to hide his pregnancy from Kitty.

I'm thinking about using that in my story, and that the other Curious relatives don't know about their relation to the Singles girls, but I'm a little undecided as to the direction it would go from there...

You know something I just noticed about that picture -- and forgive me if it's already been pointed out -- He's given birth to twins there but he's still pregnant. Still in manternity wear and still big-bellied. Was there a third baby??!! If so where is it? Could it be Stella?

Heh. I know it's just more Maxian weirdness but really, the picture raises more questions than it answers.

I know. It's such an odd picture. I've heard people point out the "still pregnant" thing before.

I choose to go with Maxian weirdness, and the fact that the meaning would be difficult if he wasn't in maternity wear. People might assume it was Glabe's baby instead. I also think a lot of the story pics are from real early beta versions of the game, since some characters look completely different, so we might even suspect that pregnant sims kept the shape for a while after the birth in an early version of the game.

Very true, and I was just throwing out speculation for fun. I'm sure its purpose is to convey that Glarn was the carrier of the twins, not Glabe. I just like the idea of him popping out baby after minty green baby, like a Pez dispenser. xD

Heehee! Pez dispenser.

I'm sure the Stella idea could make for a good story. She's described as a full alien in her bio (or was it the sim story from the neighborhood view?), saying she's a LONG way from home (XD), but I'll be the last to protest some creative jazzing around with the facts. People are always writing her as a half-alien, anyway.

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Strangetown: What if?

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