Not cold, not warm. Factually. “I'd like it if you were to call him Casimir.”
Jyoti shivers in her sleep. She had imagined that part after he left, she must have.
There's a veiled power in his voice that excites her. It not a dream- not like the old ones, anyway. More like, his voice echoed in her head for a few seconds and she only now remembers it.
Leila shared a birthday with Dustin and Meghan, apparently. Jyoti tries not to feel sad, but she also is starting to get used to reality. Nothing in life is permanent.
Everet tries to cheer her up- Leila's still spry, she still hunts. See?
SEE?!
Something's wrong. Dustin jerks out of bed halfway into his weekend getaway with Meghan in a cold sweat. He can't place the feeling that he has.
He's hungry. Getting old means you have to get up in the middle of the night and run to the buffet, sometimes.
Meghan gets there first. Typically competitive.
Turns out it was the afternoon. Same thing, if you're retired.
“Meg, do you think the kids are alright at home?” He asks after they've eaten something.
She grins. “You're just used to worrying about them now. They'll survive a weekend on their own.”
“Yeah... yeah you're right.” He agrees finally.
I couldn't leave him to mere gray hair and gave him pink tips. :/
Lazi's little outdoor band setup.
Dinner with Baked Alaska
After dinner special.
Meghan becomes someone else again after swimming all weekend at the resort. She doesn't know why she wanted to do it in the first place, something about not admitting that age will limit her in any way. She is back to making animal noises all the way home because it all caused some sort of mental break.
“Andrea... DREA.” Dustin tries.
“Meghan, Mung-bean-” Dustin finally sighs deeply, feeling his age for once. “I'm not doing this.” He mutters.
“...Meg?”
“Better.” She breathes.
Jyoti has been sleeping better than ever, for some reason. Everet and Wiggles have left and it's kind of nice to have her old room back and more time to herself. If she dreams, she doesn't remember much of it.
Time passes, and life coasts for awhile. Dustin relaxes his work schedule but remains in shape, concerned about Meghan's handling of her age up, and Jyoti's condition after her cousin had left. Jet passes his finals by the skin of his teeth, and will be allowed to attend graduation in a few weeks.
By which time it becomes evident that Jyoti's condition has definitely changed, but not at all in a way that was expected by anyone in the household. It's been nearly two years since Malcolm's incident, and Jyoti only leaves the house to work, go jogging or to the gym. She's not seeing anyone, and she's not talking about it, nor is she trying to hide it.
One day she sits down with her dad, and if he was hoping for a solid explanation he's going to very disappointed. She tries to dissuade him from asking too much about the father of the baby she is carrying.
Dustin tries, he really tries to be understanding but he's been under a lot of strain lately. When she spends a whole lot of time telling him a whole lot of nothing, he begins to categorize this pregnancy as being the result of some new destructive behavior. “Jyo,” He begins with as loving a tone as he can muster, “Is it someone famous, someone we know, or that we would disapprove of? If someone is in your life now, if you are happy, we would want to share with you.”
“There's nothing, I mean, no one dad. I just want this baby to be born healthy, and... at home.”
Dustin works hard not to scowl at this answer. “You're an adult...” He says slowly, “So please don't be upset about this, but I've seen many people react to stress by falling hard for someone who is not a good influence, or going out and partying, or even overworking themselves. This town is a place where many people try to make it, so there are many people here coping with various failures. If you are involved in something, and you don't know how to get out of it, let your family help you.” He pleads. “You have not failed, but there must be a healthy way to process your grief.”
She sighs like a teenager. “You said it yourself dad, I'm an adult. This pregnancy may not have been planned, and the father not in my life, but I'm going to have this baby and whatever family I can with him.”
Her dad's expression softens. “Is it a boy, then?
She freezes, caught, then gets up quickly from her seat. She only knows it's a boy because Loki told her it would be, in some fleeting dream or another. “Uhh... maybe. Look, I'm not sure how much I'm ready to share. It's true that I want to have this baby.”
He doesn't argue, but something in him wants to scream. There is now a place in his little girls heart that is immune to his advice and comfort.
“Maybe you and mom can help me plan a small baby shower.”
He wisely keeps his thoughts to himself about that.
Feeling somehow that she is immune to electric shock, Jyoti fixes the dishwasher by herself while the old man naps. There's not much she can help with at the moment, so maybe this will alleviate something he worries over.
And Meghan sends another poor bug to the recycling bin.
Jet doesn't pry, but he can imagine several possibilities. His money is on Kevin coming back into her life, but he doesn't ask. If the baby comes out with wings, he will know for sure. Meanwhile he busies himself with the book he is compiling about Starlit Shores' many cover-ups. He has a meeting with someone in the Mayor's office who wants to remain anonymous.
He paints one of my favorite paintings in the meantime (one more for the road!).
Inspired by the fact that Jet was able to propose to Christian and be accepted even though they are teens, I throw them a wedding party.
It's a failure for various reasons but they tried. I'm still not sure if it's possible to have teens get married as they did go through most of the animations before some script reset them. Which is too bad, I think it would have suited these two to know what they wanted after dating happily for so long.
Kevin makes a pretty nice adult. His features are slightly different than his father Dannigan's.
He also always looks over it. He and Jyo seemed to have no chemistry for ever, but he was a contender for baby daddy for Jyo's kid at one point.
Also in attendance is Maria Best, who marries Leon. Turns out her boobs are innies, which I have never seen before.
Weirds me out.
At least people get to blow off some steam with a nice party.
The dead stares are a bit misleading, I am sure.
Jet runs off to rant about love after that.
Dustin is proud of his son's commitment, despite his lazy approach to school. He wants to do the right thing by Christian and that's commendable.
The house is going to be so quiet, when he moves out, He thinks.
That night, he ages up as a hopeless romantic, which I did not choose for him.
Here he is with Dustin's hair so we can see the similarities and differences.
This is the look I settle on.
Jyo immediately goes into labor after that, regretting that her fresh clean clothes may get ruined. It's a reasonable concern!
Jet is this helpful. “Shouldn't we do something?!”
She sings in soprano as one of her eyes cross. “No thanks, I am fine! Having the baby here this time!”
Dustin waits to be of help. The new nursery is downstairs where everyone can be near the baby and make sure it's safe.
It takes much longer than he expects, so he uses percussive maintenance to make the fireplace fireproof. At least, this way, he is helping.
After a very long night, Casimir is born healthy.
Jet's room before he moves out. He's collected artwork, awards, and several tchotchkes.
Dustin worries over what his son is going to make of himself, although it's pretty clear that he will be a prolific writer eventually. His obsession with the topic of the town's corrupted leadership may knock his rising star out of the sky, or help him rise to a fame of his own. It's far too soon to tell.
I couldn't figure out how to use this picture for the title of the blog for Jyoti's generation, but it nearly won. Playing hardcore catch with her dad in her lace formal dress has got to be some kind of a mood.
Dustin remains unphased by the power behind her throw.
Maniacally unphased.
No hard feelings.
I don't remember if Jet was voted most likely to burn down the house, or mostly likely to write a bestselling novel.
Does anybody remember what the pink one is for?! We lost it in game, so I'm sad to forget it. I wanted to save them all.
And he had to clean up some of his messes when he was packing up to move out.
Dustin prepares to play a show at the park as a farewell gesture to the town that he loves so much. Mayor Huanna and his ilk shouldn't have reason to suspect that he and his tax simoleans are leaving any time soon.
“Hey you there, the crying baby? You're gonna love this show!”
“Yes, YOU!”
Apparently he's a mime now because none of his props showed up.
It takes me a long time to learn why Starlit Shores has become so glitchy.
Leaving Starlit Shores...
And going to France.
With Christian, this is her and Jet's wedding present, but they'll wait to get a place of their own until she is of age. Her parents have given her permission to join the family now.
While the first thing that Christian wants to do there is ask Mrs Andrea Sparrow if she can marry her son (although everyone's already signed the paperwork),
And she is of course approved...
Dustin is busy.
And Jet is busy.
Lovers in France.
This is how Jet expresses his happy feelings.
And we get to see one of these creepy owls. The kind that one expects to be a mascot for some kind of crunchy, cheesy junk food or a breakfast cereal that no healthy ingredients whatsoever. But hey, lokkit this cool owl! Buy our products!
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This blog is now about old people kissing.
Wiggles gave Jyoti a parting mean high-five and Everet still thinks she's hot. Just so we know nothing much is going to change with them while they're gone.
I'm always amazed that Jet can tag the sidewalk literally in front of the police station and never get caught. I wonder if it's because he's doing it during daylight, or graduation events?
This one is pretty lovely though. We leave it there to inspire City Hall to clean up this town.
