1.1 Just So

Sage smiled as she stepped out onto her new lawn. The trip from home to here was long and tiring and she was glad it was over.

 She took a look around her new house, a small single bedroom home. It cost her nearly everything she had saved, but it was more than enough for her.

 And although she looked at her new furnishings with disdain, she felt at ease knowing she would one day have enough money to replace everything. Her home- and soon her whole life- would be exactly as she wanted it to be: orderly and serene.

 But that would take work. Sage didn’t mind- she was used to difficult tasks- but it would take a long while to get everything just so. The first step to that would be getting her work affairs in order. While she wasn’t expected at the theatre until the next day, she still set to at least answering all of her work-related emails.

 Getting a job in this small town’s theatre hadn’t been easy. First she had to find it which was no small task. Then she had to show why they should take in an outsider from some far off town they’d never heard of before when they had the locals they had known for years. She had to show them how she was reliable, efficient, and most of all, talented. Her last semester in high school was filled with videoed auditions and constant guitar practice, to say nothing of the anxiety Sage felt every time she sent off one of her tapes.
Most people didn’t understand why she would work so hard to go to Riverview, of all places, where she would toil away in obscurity. A lot of the same people didn’t understand why she wanted to leave home at all; their theatre was just as good as Riverview’s and as a local herself, she would have far less difficulty getting a job there.
Then again, most people didn’t understand Sage at all.

And Sage had a hard time understanding others as well.
“What do you mean it’ll be sorted once I get to the office!?” she muttered under her breath. Her new co-workers seemed just as inefficient as most people she knew. If they could do it now, why wait?

It’s probably just procedure, she tried to assure herself. There is a special way to do things, and most procedures are in place for a good reason. So if she had to wait a bit longer to get everything settled…then she could bide her time.

As she got up from her chair, she nearly collided with a man.
“Oh, I’m sorry, sir. Would you like to use the computer?” she apologized, moving to get out of the way.

 He waved away her attempts at mollification with his hand.
“Say, are you new here? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around before,” he said, squinting as he looked at her face. He definitely would have remembered seeing this woman around.
She nodded with a polite smile, “I just moved here for work. I’m a musician.”
“Wow,” he was clearly impressed, “Don’t get a lot of people interested in the arts here. Well, there is this one painter who lives here, but we hardly see him. The rest of us, like me, do the boring jobs- law enforcement, military…”

 “Such jobs may not be ‘exciting’, as you say, but they are necessary,” Sage responded. In her opinion, military and law enforcement positions were very respectable. One must be commended for such discipline and bravery.
He chuckled, “You said it. Oh, my name’s George, by the way. George Dean,” he reached out and shook her hand. She shook it back, feeling as though her dainty wrist was about to be crushed in his iron grip.
“Well, I’ve gotta go, but it was nice meeting you,” George excused himself. Sage returned the sentiment and he left the computer room.

Not having anything left to do in the library, Sage herself was about to leave. On the way out, she spotted a couple shamelessly- and very publicly- flirting.
“Oh Hunter, I can’t wait until we’re alone,” the woman purred. Sage made a face of disgust. There is a time and a place for such things, and in the public library was not one of them!

 She didn’t catch the part where Hunter began spewing expletives at his female companion. As Sage would later find out, he was the local end-of-days guy who lived in a military bunker, always preparing for “the end”. Whether or not the end would come, it was certain that the end of his relationship had arrived.

Sage took a detour on her way home and wound up at this place- Mick’s Master Karaoke. She hoped there would be some kind of live entertainment, or at the very least, a lounge inside.
Out of the corner of her eye, she recognized one of her new co-workers, Nadine Ivanov. She’d corresponded with her for a few weeks before coming here, making sure their responsibilities and schedules were in synch. Sage pretended she didn’t see her- she wanted to keep her work and personal life as separate as possible.

 As soon as Sage walked in, disappointment hit her. No musicians, no professional bar… just a karaoke machine and a gaudy stage. She turned on her heel and called a taxi home. What kind of place was that!?

By the time she made it home, her gurgling stomach announced that it was dinner time.

 She hadn’t had time to stop at the grocery store for real food, so some cheap macaroni would have to suffice. If she had a larger budget, she would definitely get something better.

Still, just because it’s cheap doesn’t mean it can’t be prepared well. She followed the instructions to the letter.

Maybe it’s because she was tired, maybe it’s because she overestimated how long the macaroni could boil, but she burned it. Her face falls at the sight of her charred dinner. How could this have happened?

After cleaning that mess and making a quick salad, Sage falls into a deep and dreamless sleep, ready for her first shift tomorrow.

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AN: so this is my 3rd (technically 4th) blog. There's some "early installment weirdness" to put up with for the first dozen or so chapters; I wrote them all out long ago when I still wanted to use past tense and have 1 sim day = 1 chapter. This will definitely change, possibly midway through this first generation.

For those of you who read my other random legacy blog, the Winterlys, there are some important clarifications:

1. This is an alternate universe. There might be some overlap now and then and maybe even shared characters at some points, but the continuity this blog follows is largely separate.

2. The Silverlys and Winterlys are not in any way related, I just like surnames that end in "ly" for some reason. 

Sage was some pre-made toddler from CAS. All I really changed was her nose and eye colour. Her traits are:
-Proper
-Night Owl
-Virtuoso
-Perfectionist
-Workaholic
 Her job is Music (classical) [no surprises there], and her generation goal is perfect career (also no surprise). Her misc fun is luxury.
So! That just leaves her marital structure and number of kids. That will be revealed in due time…