About Sigrid's Daughter

Submitted by PorkWithBones on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 11:45.

Were the events in Sigrid Hears a Call a case of Vanishing Twin Syndrome?

I've been wondering this for a while, but I couldn't seem to find a post where it would be both relevant and non-spoileriffic.

Random Questions

Huhhh.... well it wasn't my

Submitted by Lothere on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 13:19.

Huhhh.... well it wasn't my intention but it's an interesting idea. What I wanted to get out of that chapter is (1) Sigi has miscarried several times before, and she thinks the fetuses have always been girls, (2) Cucu knows the truth, and (3) Murchad is a special guy, and when he prays for you you feel it. But I hadn't really put any research into the reasons for Sigi's gestational problems.

A vanishing twin would be more interesting for the story if there was some way for the characters to know about it. Even if she has a girl who mysteriously feels like half of herself is missing, that isn't enough evidence. Unless a fetus papyraceus shows up when she's born. (Thanks, Wikipedia!)

OOOH! Another case of two ladies at Murchad's house, maybe?

I've known or known of

Submitted by PorkWithBones on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 15:36.

I've known or known of several women who had the experience. Including my grandmother, well before ultrasounds were invented (and indeed, before that term was even in use): she had all the symptoms of a miscarriage, including expelling a fetus, but my aunt was born at the expected time five or six months later.

A similar process can lead to chimerism or mosaic syndrome. Perhaps in story, we could see a little girl with different-colored eyes, if that can be achieved in Sims 2. (Later, she might somehow prove to have two souls. Two Ladies, indeed!) Even if the cause was never addressed or known in-story, it would be interesting.

Wow, I wouldn't have thought

Submitted by Lothere on Mon, 07/11/2011 - 04:32.

Wow, I wouldn't have thought it was even possible to expel one fetus and keep the other. Obviously they were in different sacs, but even so your aunt must have been hanging on tight! *makes note for future storylines*

I know it's possible to have Sims with different-colored eyes -- there's a single-eye contact lens out there that you can paint to match (or not match) the opposite real eye. It's something I've thought of doing, but never got around to. It would be neat if Eirik and Sigrid's beautiful (of course!) daughter had eyes of different colors to make her even more exotic and desirable.

Unfortunately everyone in Eirik's and Sigi's family has blue eyes! I guess she could have eyes of subtly different blues... the light blue of Eirk's and the sea green of Estrid's maybe. That could be fun: she hypnotizes people with her stare, as they look at her, knowing something is slightly odd but unable to figure out what. And meanwhile she captures them with her prehensile tongue and eats them.

The child with two souls is an interesting idea too. Some people in this time period believed that dead children could come back to life in the next born sibling (like young Malcolm's two sisters Maire, or Young Aed and The Late Young Aed), so why wait? One baby died, but its soul was so determined to come to earth that it moved in with its twin sister. In this story someone could notice that at some point. Liadan maybe? Or Paul? Or one of the angels?

"And meanwhile she captures

Submitted by PorkWithBones on Mon, 07/11/2011 - 21:20.

"And meanwhile she captures them with her prehensile tongue and eats them."

I keep rereading that paragraph, just so I can laugh again when I get to that line. (Makes a nice break from studying myelin production in the central vs. the peripheral nervous system.)

"One baby died, but its soul was so determined to come to earth that it moved in with its twin sister."

Almost the reverse of a tale Acorn once told me. He went through a phase of being desperate to have a sibling, but one was not forthcoming. So he decided that he and my sister's son -- who is almost exactly ten months younger than Acorn -- were originally going to be twins, but that Rocket decided to wait and be born the next year to a different mommy instead. "So that's why we're cousins," he concluded, "but we're really sort of brothers too."

Acorn is a goldmine of the

Submitted by Lothere on Tue, 07/12/2011 - 03:42.

Acorn is a goldmine of the darndest things! *files this idea away as well*

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