Jet has been researching close
encounters of the verdant kind.
His work has not gone unnoticed.
Still, he manages to keep his writings objective and practical, so people are beginning to look forward to
his published articles on the subject. He'll find out later that the
huge meteor pieces 'Drea Sparrow' keeps in the backyard in open air
are largely responsible for his up close and personal understandings
of it all.
Meanwhile...
Food keeps disappearing.
Rude.
But life always marches on, no matter
which direction one's life is headed.
The flying bug collection.
The 'To be irradiated' collection.
In a household where everyone seems to
have their own clear vision and goals for the future, there is a
youngest child, who steadies herself with mere consistency. The
distant sight of the mountains, the smell of the sea, a fantastical
oddity casually flaunted so as to be overlooked by a snooty and
self-involved population.
Jyoti searches for the presence of
self-awareness. Not in herself so much as in others. There must be
something genuine in this plastic paradise by the seaside.
Spring is in full swing when Malcolm
Meir sends her a message.
She was going to work out at home
tonight, but the gym with a classmate sounds like an improvement on
her routine. She sends an affirmative, fully expecting him to flake
out last second.
He's been in her class forever. He's
watched her for years, idly, in the periphery, there where her easy
going laugh and natural charisma were on full display. It was hard to
understand at first. And as a boy, hard to deal with. He never had
that kind of confidence, to just, walk up to someone and become their
friend. Demand to know how they were doing, or what they were doing,
or to ever learn why.
Malcolm could never imagine it.
And now he's waiting for her. Someone
who he was bold enough to message. He can't keep the earnest grin off
of his face. Knowing her, she won't stand him up, even though she has
no idea why he asked to meet her at the gym.
The gym is packed with people. He tries
to keep his mind off the stress of the day and wait patiently. He
wears second hand clothes, his dad's house was robbed yesterday when
he was staying over, there are things to get done for school. Calm
down, you look fine. If you feel fine, you'll look fine. It was
in a self help book. Confidence is key.
Not that he has any. Jyoti Sparrow
shows up and his mind goes blank for a few seconds. WtF was my
opening going to be? I helped restrain a thief last night? She'll
never buy that!
So he shakes her hand. “Hi.”
“Formal.” She comments. “We're in
biology together, right?”
“Uh- right.”
“So is this about homework?”
“Um. No?”
“Awesome.” Then she helpfully
launches into a subject she'd rather talk about. The stars are
amazing when she's out for a run. Sometimes she has to sneak after
dusk, but she's pretty sure her dad always knows she's out and lets
her be. If she never going to use biology later in life, it should be
an elective. She wants to know more about astronomy instead.
“They say Planet Beeboz is hidden by
the dark side of our moon. You'd have to be an astronaut, to know for
sure, I'd bet.” He tries to be helpful (or really, like he wants to have this as a conversation).
“This town is full of conspiracies.”
She complains. “Besides, don't you have to go through like, all the
ranks of the army to somehow make it into space? That sounds like a
massive headache, if you don't die in a war along the way.”
Apparently that thought has never
occurred to him. “Die in war? But think of all the lives you'd
probably save first.”
Turns out he has the brave trait. “That
sounds like something my dad would say.”
Outside of school, without her close
friends there to impede, it really is easy to talk to her. Thirty
minutes fly by, talking about nothing by the bathroom of the gym. He
totally forgets what his excuse was to ask her here in the first
place.
He has a nice smile, she thinks. She's
never noticed it before. Probably because he never emotes in class or
calls attention to himself, so she's not used to noticing him, at
all.
“So if this isn't about homework or
school, is it supposed to be some kind of a ...romantic outing?”
Wow that was a freebie. Okay. He's
going to ask her out.
He has to. She's right there!
He takes a deep breath to gather his
courage and try to calm down.
She's so pretty. Okay okay okay...
Don't overthink it-
And then Jyo starts to roll her eyes.
She looks disinterested now, what did he say? Can he make it right
again if he doesn't know what he did wrong in the first place? He might've waited too long.
Malcolm shakes his head. Forget it- go
for broke-ask her now! “About that...” He begins.
“Do you think you'd-”
A towering, unhappy redhead appears in
the periphery. He clams up immediately, recognizing her mom. “H-hi
Mrs Sparrow...” He starts to mumble.
Meghan turns and looks him over. He
feels his face heating up, like a frog in a pot.
“Jyoti Sparrow, it is after curfew
AGAIN. I built an entire work out room for you to use when it's too
late to be out and here I find you gallivanting around.”
“Gallivanting? What am I, on
crusade?”
“Lucky thing I had a last minute
specimen order from the hospital or I might've missed seeing that
your car was parked here- why do you insist on worrying us like this?
Better yet, grab your keys now. You can follow me home.”
Imagine being grounded in front of some
guy who has a nice smile that you've never even noticed before
despite him somehow attending your own teen birthday party. Well that
just happened. She now has fifteen minutes to get back to the house.
Malcolm watches her grovel, and get
forgiven. He gets the feeling that her parents have a soft spot for
her. His dad would've raked him over the sea glass-littered beach.
“Just- give me another hour, I know
you'll still be up then- I'll check in with you when I get back! I'm
safe at the gym, not outside!”
Malcom waves. Was the the right place
to wave? “Hey- it's okay...”
Finally for some reason or other,
Meghan is appeased. Jyoti promises chores or something that she was
going to have to do anyways as her mom was likely to forget. Probably
feeding the specimens for the rest of the week.
“Fine, I'll see you in an hour.
Exactly. One hour.”
“Thanks mom, see you later.”
“I'll see you in an hour.”
“Right, I'll see you in an hour.”
She jokes about her mom's interruption
and he's already walked up as if the interruption never occurred. “I
admire you.” He comments quietly. “You stay cheerful no matter
what's going on. It takes a lot of strength to live like that.”
She does a bit of a double take. The
conversation before this was so light and the tone was friendly. This
sort of confession takes her off guard.
“Uh- thanks, I try I guess?”
But he's unable to laugh it off with
her. “No, I'm serious. Whenever there's a disagreement in class or
someone's upset, you work harder than anyone to cheer them up or fix
their problem. I don't know if you have someone you like, but I'm
sure you've never noticed someone like- me. But I've always
noticed you. I just, didn't know how to talk to you before now.
Thanks for letting me tell you that.”
She surprises herself by asking him
out. Maybe just to see where things go? He smiles and can't look her
in the eye. “If you're sure you want to.” He says. “I wasn't
expecting-”
“It's fine. I'd like to- let's take a
chance. If you don't mind.”
And doesn't he ever not mind.
They talk about family for awhile. He knows her
dad is Element the Suspicious, who doesn't? School is littered with
the children of famous people after all. Malcolm himself doesn't have
a very close family, so it's nice to hear her talk about hers so
warmly.
And she's surprised to learn that he's
known Jet for years. “He always out tagging the sidewalk behind the
school when I'm waiting for the late bus.” He clarifies.
Before long enough, the hour Jyoti was
promised is almost up.
“I know it's late and all and you
probably have to get back home. Do you mind if- can I give you a hug?
Before you go.”
“If you have to make it awkward by
asking.” She teases.
“Sorry, sorry! We don't have to- it
just sounded nice...”
She lets him trail off a little.
And they share a quick hug.
Then it's back to looking down at his
feet.
That's adorable.
They say there are those who prowl like
lions seeking whom they may devour. Well, one someone in particular.
Not this someone, not tonight. Tonight
this guy is out with his family. That kid is definitely his. I forget
their names- one of them is called Artemis, another's insane.
Moira apparently babysits as Circe is
most likely a shitty mom.
I found them out and about in the middle of the night, I'd love to know what activity was appropriate for so many young children after curfew.
Jet writes letters to Christian when
she can't come over to study.
Life is good at the moment.
Leila has recently decided to be the
alarm clock for the entire household, even when she doesn't need
anything and it's 3 in the morning.
This does not go over well. Meghan
wakes up as one of the more angry personalities. The hungry one. Either that or she stepped on the squeaky dog toy on her way out of bed.
Dustin gestures warily. “I'll handle
it. Leila- bad dog, out.”
Leila: My life is awesome.
The dog decides it's actually Meghan
who is being bad and growls at her. She reverts back to herself.
Leila thought she was possessed. Well,
she's not exactly wrong. You scared me, human.
Makeup doggy kisses.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(They're laboratory mice, their genes are cut 'n' spliced, they're Artemis and insane sane sane sane sane...)
Just when I thought I was going to have
to intervene (and still am, the consequences of which will derail this entire legacy in the future) Jyoti meets someone. I probably had her message him, as
she's been asking everyone to workout lately just to get her to be
more social. I don't remember.
Brave and shy turns out to be a really
interesting combination, I'm surprised he can be both.
(He looks really scrawny, Jyoti can
take him if things get out of hand)
I freaking love Malcolm's pure-hearted
smile. (also I probably will misspell his name all the time)
I've never played with a shy sim
before, I really had never seen this idle!
It's all in the perception.
Also fun fact; I named Meghan's male teen alter after Malcolm when I saw him at one of the house parties, thinking I'd never encounter him again in game, lol. I just liked the name and it seemed to fit. Her mental character is obviously more of the 'brave, righteously angry' archetype that she needed in her life and probably closer in actuality to Dustin in behavior, who had influence over her as a child.
