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HelpRe: Year Game
in reply to a message by PrincessLeia
DH: Vincent Theodore Nyström [33]
hair: Black, wavy
eyes: Amber
occupation: Doctor
DW: Ivy Clementine Nyström (nee Romilly) [27]
hair: Auburn, curly
eyes: Grey
occupation: Professor
Location: Canada
---
Year #1: Introducing the newlyweds, Vincent and Ivy Nyström. Thirty-three year old Vincent is a recently appointed resident consultant at the city hospital, and twenty-seven year old Ivy is a professor of classical philology. Despite the age difference, their differing fields of profession and the fact that Ivy is Vincent's second wife, the two are very happy together. Ivy's parents are happy she's finally found someone - her mother in particular. Ivy's never understood why her parents don't understand that her studies and academia always come first - in fact, her love life has never been thriving but she tells herself it's because she's never made it her priority. Her friends are less forgiving of Vincent's flaws and history, but she's not going to let that get between her relationships with either party. It's just that sometimes it feels that they think that she got married so that she wasn't the last single friend left. She knows that isn't the case. In any case, this year the couple decide to go on holiday - take a break from the stress of home, friends, family and work. They go to Italy for two weeks, Vincent never having visited there and Ivy being a sucker for all things Latin, Roman, and, for that reason, Italian. They spend a few days in Rome before heading to Florence and Verona for a week respectively. They return refreshed and, in Ivy's case, sunburnt and resolve to return again one day.
Year #2: Yet more travelling for the Nyströms! This time to China. It was a bit of a spur of the moment decision, really. They weren't going to go on holiday this year, but Ivy was getting bogged down in the stresses of life, and they both thought a break would do them some good. Of course, neither seems to do things by half, and bustling China is neither near nor the picture of relaxation one might desire. Nonetheless, they got it into their heads and off they went. Vincent in particular found it interesting, but Ivy found some elements a little bewildering.
Year #3: Ivy turns thirty, and she wants a baby. How clichéd. It's true, though. Thirty is daunting. There's that clichéd body clock nonsense. Vincent isn't too sure - in fact, he's secretly worried about the idea of children. How old is too old to be a dad? They get a pet instead, a kind of mid-way point. If you call a salamander 'half-way'. They name him Benedict.
Year #4: Misfortune strikes the Nyströms. Ivy has an injury - or rather, she slips on some winter ice, breaks her arm and badly bruises her collarbone. There is a rather frosty, no pun intended, interlude in the household as Ivy scorns her husband for sniggering when she slipped, and rolls her eyes at his common sense medical advice. Although they argue, Ivy recovers and all is forgiven and forgotten.
Year #5: Vincent's ex-wife dies in a car crash, leaving behind young identical twins. The Nyströms become guardians. The two boys are only two years old, but the father wants nothing to do with them and their family is remote and unfamiliar. Vincent's feelings towards his ex-wife were never exactly friendly, but he hasn't got a heart of stone. They welcome wavy black-haired, brown eyed Edward Dorian and Oliver Nathanael Blackburn into their lives. Ivy is troubled by their arrival, initially unhappy and unsure, but soon delights in the new additions to their family.
Year #6: There's a birth! It's not the best timing, with the young boys just being brought in such tragic circumstances into their family, but Ivy's over the moon. It's not that she doesn't like the boys, but she's also happy to be a mother. She has a daughter, with her mother's curly auburn hair and her father's amber eyes. They name her Octavia Columbine and she's soon one of the family.
Year #7: The family accomplish a goal! Or rather, a series of small ones. Ivy manages to get a paper published, Vincent is praised at work, and young Edward and Oliver get into the much competed for school Ivy and Vincent oh-so-wanted them to.
Year #8: Another birth? Yes indeed. Destined to have curly black hair and amber eyes, almost the spitting image of his father, Morgan Lysander Nyström is born in the height of summer. The twins, growing ever older, are immediately fond of him and Ivy gets the suspicious feeling that little Octavia is growing to grow up a tomboy, or the only girly one in a crowd of boys. Still, it was the same for her, and she turned out alright, so she doesn't think it's much of a worry at all.
Year #9: The family decide to adopt. A year after Morgan's birth, it all comes a little out of left field, actually. Even more, it's the normally far from emotionally articulate man of the house championing the cause. Vincent's hospital has been forging links with charities, doctors and volunteer doctors in Africa, helping to help victims of disease in impoverished parts of the world. Unfortunately sometimes helping isn't good enough, or too little too late, and people are still dying, sometimes leaving orphans behind. They end up adopting a young girl from East Africa - Ethiopia, to be precise. Five year old Sosina Kelelaye (ሶስና ከለላዬ) had lost her mother to disease not long ago, and her father when she was a baby. She herself was not ill, but upon returning to Canada, the family make sure that she is probably immunized and medically cared for. They toy with renaming her before deciding it would be unfair. They keep the name Sosina, nicknaming her Sina, and the name Kelelaye because, as per the naming traditions in Ethiopia this was her birth father's name and it just felt wrong to remove it. They add the name Rosalie, as a little Western twist, based on the translation of the name Sosina - "Rose". It's suddenly difficult juggling so many new children, especially for Vincent, but they make it through somehow. Ivy in particular enjoys teaching Sina new words, and learning words in Amharic herself. Even Vincent and the boys learn some. While initially sorrowful, shy and nervous, Sina begins to warm to Canada and the family.
Year #10: The Nyström family are on the go. With their growing family, they decide to move to a bigger house on a nicer street. It means a bigger commute, but they think they can deal with it. The kids are growing up fast. Sosina is adapting well. She's still lost her family and been through so much, but she's working hard at school, and likes playing with the other children. She also likes helping Ivy in the kitchen, with is something new. The older boys are more interested in eating than helping. Eddie has emerged as the class clown, resulting in several meetings with teachers, while Ollie is quieter and more academic, more like Vincent. Octavia has emerged as the tomboy Ivy knew she'd be, but she's warmed the quickest to Sosina and the two are quickly becoming sisterly. Benedict is becoming an old bones lizard, Vincent is becoming a disgruntled dad and Ivy? Ivy hardly has time to breathe these days. Such is life, and a bigger house means that they're in each other's hair less of the time, she supposes.
Year #11: Oh, no... another birth. It isn't like they've got a huge family or anything, but Ivy suspects Vincent's a bit flabbergasted by their growing family, and she is too. Is that a grey hair she sees in the mirror? Child number six (and, as it transpires, seven's along for the ride too) is an accident, but Ivy supposes that she and Vincent would have ended up winding each other insane if it weren't for kids and life. She knows how grumpy her husband can be when he's bored and she's just as bad, so at least the kids mean that they never have time to be bored. Nonetheless, at 38 she feels a little bit old, achey and busy to be pregnant, let alone twins! Evander Matthias, with his black, wavy hair and amber eyes, again inheriting his father's genes, and his sister, curly black-haired, blue eyed (inheriting a throw back gene from her mother) Vivienne Beatrice, enter the family this cold winter, being induced two weeks premature but not massively worse off for it. There is some concern given Ivy's age and the fact she's carrying twins, and she spends a good amount of time in hospital before hand so that they can keep an eye on her and occasionally shoo away a worrying doctor-husband, and the babies spend a little time in the hospital, but there are no real disasters.
Year #12: Time for some travel. The family head off on their first real vacation, visiting family and trips around the country exempt. They just haven't had time in the last few years, and while it almost seems tempting to drop the kids off at granny and grandad's and spend some time together, it seems important to spend holiday memories with the children. The family go to the Netherlands which gives Vincent the opportunity to visit an old friend. Ivy sulks when she thinks her husband and his friend's wife are flirting, Ollie befriends a suspect homeless man, Eddie nearly falls into a canal, Ever and Viva leave dirty nappies all over the Netherlands and Morgan is sick. A typical holiday with children.
Year #13: The Nyström family is hit by a death. Granddad Nyström dies in his sleep at a ripe old age. The children are devastated, Vincent, whose relationship with his father may have been turbulent, guilt-ridden, angry and ever changing, but not without affection, even more so. He wallows in guilt and grief while the family quietly wonder what they should do about Granny Nyström now. Ivy knows its evil, but with them both working stressful, time-consuming, life-engulfing jobs and with so many children, and with Granny Nyström's tendency to spoil grandchildren until they're almost sick while nitpicking at the adults - like all stereotypical grandmothers - housing Vincent's widowed mother is more than any of them can handle right now.
Year #14: Another death. Granny Nyström slips off this mortal coil just over a year after her husband. Ivy could see it coming and knows Vincent must see this all the time in his profession - first one falls ill and dies, and then the other - but there's nothing she can think to say to him. She knows that Vincent has to deal with it in his own way, at his on pace. He's just one of those people. She busies herself with helping the children instead, and wondering if she should have talked more to her mother in law when she was alive.
Year #15: And things go full circle. Vincent is promoted at work. It goes to show, maybe, that sometimes life is good, sometimes life is bad, but it's hard to tell what's just around the corner. With the future looking bright, Vincent and Ivy look forward to tomorrow and a long, successful life together.
DH: Vincent Theodore Nyström [48]
DW: Ivy Clementine [Romilly] Nyström [42]
AS/AS: Edward Dorian Blackburn "Eddie" / Oliver Nathanael Blackburn "Ollie" [12]
AD: Sosina Kelelaye Rosalie Nyström "Sina" [11]
DD: Octavia Columbine Nyström "Tavia" [9]
DS: Morgan Lysander Nyström [7]
DS/DD: Evander Matthias Nyström "Ever" / Vivienne Beatrice Nyström "Viva" [4]
Salamander: Benedict
hair: Black, wavy
eyes: Amber
occupation: Doctor
DW: Ivy Clementine Nyström (nee Romilly) [27]
hair: Auburn, curly
eyes: Grey
occupation: Professor
Location: Canada
---
Year #1: Introducing the newlyweds, Vincent and Ivy Nyström. Thirty-three year old Vincent is a recently appointed resident consultant at the city hospital, and twenty-seven year old Ivy is a professor of classical philology. Despite the age difference, their differing fields of profession and the fact that Ivy is Vincent's second wife, the two are very happy together. Ivy's parents are happy she's finally found someone - her mother in particular. Ivy's never understood why her parents don't understand that her studies and academia always come first - in fact, her love life has never been thriving but she tells herself it's because she's never made it her priority. Her friends are less forgiving of Vincent's flaws and history, but she's not going to let that get between her relationships with either party. It's just that sometimes it feels that they think that she got married so that she wasn't the last single friend left. She knows that isn't the case. In any case, this year the couple decide to go on holiday - take a break from the stress of home, friends, family and work. They go to Italy for two weeks, Vincent never having visited there and Ivy being a sucker for all things Latin, Roman, and, for that reason, Italian. They spend a few days in Rome before heading to Florence and Verona for a week respectively. They return refreshed and, in Ivy's case, sunburnt and resolve to return again one day.
Year #2: Yet more travelling for the Nyströms! This time to China. It was a bit of a spur of the moment decision, really. They weren't going to go on holiday this year, but Ivy was getting bogged down in the stresses of life, and they both thought a break would do them some good. Of course, neither seems to do things by half, and bustling China is neither near nor the picture of relaxation one might desire. Nonetheless, they got it into their heads and off they went. Vincent in particular found it interesting, but Ivy found some elements a little bewildering.
Year #3: Ivy turns thirty, and she wants a baby. How clichéd. It's true, though. Thirty is daunting. There's that clichéd body clock nonsense. Vincent isn't too sure - in fact, he's secretly worried about the idea of children. How old is too old to be a dad? They get a pet instead, a kind of mid-way point. If you call a salamander 'half-way'. They name him Benedict.
Year #4: Misfortune strikes the Nyströms. Ivy has an injury - or rather, she slips on some winter ice, breaks her arm and badly bruises her collarbone. There is a rather frosty, no pun intended, interlude in the household as Ivy scorns her husband for sniggering when she slipped, and rolls her eyes at his common sense medical advice. Although they argue, Ivy recovers and all is forgiven and forgotten.
Year #5: Vincent's ex-wife dies in a car crash, leaving behind young identical twins. The Nyströms become guardians. The two boys are only two years old, but the father wants nothing to do with them and their family is remote and unfamiliar. Vincent's feelings towards his ex-wife were never exactly friendly, but he hasn't got a heart of stone. They welcome wavy black-haired, brown eyed Edward Dorian and Oliver Nathanael Blackburn into their lives. Ivy is troubled by their arrival, initially unhappy and unsure, but soon delights in the new additions to their family.
Year #6: There's a birth! It's not the best timing, with the young boys just being brought in such tragic circumstances into their family, but Ivy's over the moon. It's not that she doesn't like the boys, but she's also happy to be a mother. She has a daughter, with her mother's curly auburn hair and her father's amber eyes. They name her Octavia Columbine and she's soon one of the family.
Year #7: The family accomplish a goal! Or rather, a series of small ones. Ivy manages to get a paper published, Vincent is praised at work, and young Edward and Oliver get into the much competed for school Ivy and Vincent oh-so-wanted them to.
Year #8: Another birth? Yes indeed. Destined to have curly black hair and amber eyes, almost the spitting image of his father, Morgan Lysander Nyström is born in the height of summer. The twins, growing ever older, are immediately fond of him and Ivy gets the suspicious feeling that little Octavia is growing to grow up a tomboy, or the only girly one in a crowd of boys. Still, it was the same for her, and she turned out alright, so she doesn't think it's much of a worry at all.
Year #9: The family decide to adopt. A year after Morgan's birth, it all comes a little out of left field, actually. Even more, it's the normally far from emotionally articulate man of the house championing the cause. Vincent's hospital has been forging links with charities, doctors and volunteer doctors in Africa, helping to help victims of disease in impoverished parts of the world. Unfortunately sometimes helping isn't good enough, or too little too late, and people are still dying, sometimes leaving orphans behind. They end up adopting a young girl from East Africa - Ethiopia, to be precise. Five year old Sosina Kelelaye (ሶስና ከለላዬ) had lost her mother to disease not long ago, and her father when she was a baby. She herself was not ill, but upon returning to Canada, the family make sure that she is probably immunized and medically cared for. They toy with renaming her before deciding it would be unfair. They keep the name Sosina, nicknaming her Sina, and the name Kelelaye because, as per the naming traditions in Ethiopia this was her birth father's name and it just felt wrong to remove it. They add the name Rosalie, as a little Western twist, based on the translation of the name Sosina - "Rose". It's suddenly difficult juggling so many new children, especially for Vincent, but they make it through somehow. Ivy in particular enjoys teaching Sina new words, and learning words in Amharic herself. Even Vincent and the boys learn some. While initially sorrowful, shy and nervous, Sina begins to warm to Canada and the family.
Year #10: The Nyström family are on the go. With their growing family, they decide to move to a bigger house on a nicer street. It means a bigger commute, but they think they can deal with it. The kids are growing up fast. Sosina is adapting well. She's still lost her family and been through so much, but she's working hard at school, and likes playing with the other children. She also likes helping Ivy in the kitchen, with is something new. The older boys are more interested in eating than helping. Eddie has emerged as the class clown, resulting in several meetings with teachers, while Ollie is quieter and more academic, more like Vincent. Octavia has emerged as the tomboy Ivy knew she'd be, but she's warmed the quickest to Sosina and the two are quickly becoming sisterly. Benedict is becoming an old bones lizard, Vincent is becoming a disgruntled dad and Ivy? Ivy hardly has time to breathe these days. Such is life, and a bigger house means that they're in each other's hair less of the time, she supposes.
Year #11: Oh, no... another birth. It isn't like they've got a huge family or anything, but Ivy suspects Vincent's a bit flabbergasted by their growing family, and she is too. Is that a grey hair she sees in the mirror? Child number six (and, as it transpires, seven's along for the ride too) is an accident, but Ivy supposes that she and Vincent would have ended up winding each other insane if it weren't for kids and life. She knows how grumpy her husband can be when he's bored and she's just as bad, so at least the kids mean that they never have time to be bored. Nonetheless, at 38 she feels a little bit old, achey and busy to be pregnant, let alone twins! Evander Matthias, with his black, wavy hair and amber eyes, again inheriting his father's genes, and his sister, curly black-haired, blue eyed (inheriting a throw back gene from her mother) Vivienne Beatrice, enter the family this cold winter, being induced two weeks premature but not massively worse off for it. There is some concern given Ivy's age and the fact she's carrying twins, and she spends a good amount of time in hospital before hand so that they can keep an eye on her and occasionally shoo away a worrying doctor-husband, and the babies spend a little time in the hospital, but there are no real disasters.
Year #12: Time for some travel. The family head off on their first real vacation, visiting family and trips around the country exempt. They just haven't had time in the last few years, and while it almost seems tempting to drop the kids off at granny and grandad's and spend some time together, it seems important to spend holiday memories with the children. The family go to the Netherlands which gives Vincent the opportunity to visit an old friend. Ivy sulks when she thinks her husband and his friend's wife are flirting, Ollie befriends a suspect homeless man, Eddie nearly falls into a canal, Ever and Viva leave dirty nappies all over the Netherlands and Morgan is sick. A typical holiday with children.
Year #13: The Nyström family is hit by a death. Granddad Nyström dies in his sleep at a ripe old age. The children are devastated, Vincent, whose relationship with his father may have been turbulent, guilt-ridden, angry and ever changing, but not without affection, even more so. He wallows in guilt and grief while the family quietly wonder what they should do about Granny Nyström now. Ivy knows its evil, but with them both working stressful, time-consuming, life-engulfing jobs and with so many children, and with Granny Nyström's tendency to spoil grandchildren until they're almost sick while nitpicking at the adults - like all stereotypical grandmothers - housing Vincent's widowed mother is more than any of them can handle right now.
Year #14: Another death. Granny Nyström slips off this mortal coil just over a year after her husband. Ivy could see it coming and knows Vincent must see this all the time in his profession - first one falls ill and dies, and then the other - but there's nothing she can think to say to him. She knows that Vincent has to deal with it in his own way, at his on pace. He's just one of those people. She busies herself with helping the children instead, and wondering if she should have talked more to her mother in law when she was alive.
Year #15: And things go full circle. Vincent is promoted at work. It goes to show, maybe, that sometimes life is good, sometimes life is bad, but it's hard to tell what's just around the corner. With the future looking bright, Vincent and Ivy look forward to tomorrow and a long, successful life together.
DH: Vincent Theodore Nyström [48]
DW: Ivy Clementine [Romilly] Nyström [42]
AS/AS: Edward Dorian Blackburn "Eddie" / Oliver Nathanael Blackburn "Ollie" [12]
AD: Sosina Kelelaye Rosalie Nyström "Sina" [11]
DD: Octavia Columbine Nyström "Tavia" [9]
DS: Morgan Lysander Nyström [7]
DS/DD: Evander Matthias Nyström "Ever" / Vivienne Beatrice Nyström "Viva" [4]
Salamander: Benedict
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