1.05 Come with Me

Early the next morning (or is it late that night?) the boys arrive back at the Sparrow residence in Aurora Skies. A thin veneer of slush layers the ground and gets into their shoes and socks, but neither really pay it much attention. The mood remains a mixture of melancholy and anticipation.

Meghan had taken her own taxi into town claiming that she needed to stop somewhere and would join them later. She spends several long moments in the public bathrooms at a beach to assess the damage done by all that testing.

She doesn't feel right, but she doesn't feel wrong now either. It's disorienting, that she enjoys being outside so much when it normally plagues her with worries and fear.

She hopes she can remember the way to Eugene and Lize's place, but complicated natural concepts like directions and spatial relationships are starting to feel inconsequential. She spends a long time outside just enjoying the atmosphere.

But anticipation builds when the sun is ready to rise and she doesn't want to miss it, in fact she'd probably buy tickets to it if it was a marketed event. How strange.

Eugene is predictably where he can always be found in the pavilion out back, hanging out with little Everet.

Dustin only covers roughly how things had gone at school, and does share his decision not to return to University and to instead begin his intended career. His cousin isn't surprised by this.

“What about Meghan?”

Dustin shrugs. “I'm not sure yet. She and Loki aren't together now and I don't think classes were what she expected them to be, so she has a lot to consider I guess.”

Eugene smiles that knowing smile of his. “She and Loki broke up?” He says, waiting intently for a reaction.

When Dustin's mouth turns up in an small smile that he can't hold back he gets cuffed on the shoulder roughly. “You told her!? It's about freakin time, kid! So are two together now?” Eugene is apparently still the gossiping busybody he always has been, fishing for information.

Dustin's smile falters. “I- I don't know what it means yet, and Loki and I aren't on speaking terms anymore. I think I'm the bad guy for him...”

Eugene laughingly shakes his head. “You're so cautious. Stop worrying and just enjoy spending time together for now. If Loki's a good friend, he'll still be around.”

“Yeah I don't need him to do that either.” Dustin grumbles darkly.

Eugene's journalistic instinct kicks in. There must be a story there. “...really?” He inquires, only to be interrupted by the appearance of Loki.

Oh yeah we all came back here, Dustin remembers, annoyed.

Seeing Dustin's discomfort Eugene immediately changes topics to the weather. “Snow started early, we might head out to the festival later on if you want to come with us...”

“There's a festival in town now? Well I would but I plan on checking out the local talent at a show tonight and maybe getting some practice in while I can. Starlight Shores is no laughing matter and I plan on succeeding there.”

Loki, completely ignored, considers hitting up a bar later. He really needs to meet new people.

And to have a plan for his life, definitely.

He sighs out of the side of his mouth in a quiet huff. He should spend the day catching up with family and admitting what he had lost. He could hear his mother's voice echoing already in his mind: 'No son of mine is going to give up on his education...' He needs a plan if he's going to avoid going back to University and that place was nothing but hard days and bad memories. Ambitious or not, he is not going back there.

Meghan is lost in some new bliss she could not have anticipated ever experiencing in her life. The sun doesn't just engulf and surround her: she is bathing in it. Some form of instinct overcame her when the first few rays of red light grazed her skin and she quickly found herself digging deep in the ground- it was almost as if roots pulled her- happily- in.

Her normal worries and concerns are gone, nothing matters right now except this new feeling of fulfillment.

She's not sure how she did this, she only knows it was needed. She can't recall being so unrestrained before in her life. Flexing her now rather spindly muscles, she spirals effortlessly out of the ground after another hour and flicks soil from her skin. She'd never understood what a mud bath was before, and now she gets it. One with nature. Nourishment. Peace.

Where was she going, before this? What was she doing? Nothing matters right now.

She spends most of the day at this makeshift beach on the outskirts of town, reveling in the freedom of the moment.

After the sun tucks itself behind some high northern clouds she gains a semblance of awareness back and realizes that something is dreadfully different- it was as if the sun had entranced her, but also as if she wasn't herself anymore.

She doesn't need one more way to become lost, so she calls another cab and gives the driver directions quickly, before the sun comes back out from behind the clouds and changes her course.

Dustin gathers his courage and heads out to try his hand around town as Element the Suspicious. It's kind of a relief that nobody happens by as he messes up most of his tricks and the props aren't doing what he wants.

How hard is it to release a bouquet of cloth flowers from a hidden latch with a spring? A five page leaflet hard. Don't overthink it though, it's probably all in the wrist or something.

He meets Meghan inside for the show but is unable to pay attention to it. “Are you sure you're okay lately?

She smiles. “I feel amazing actually.”

'Vivum Plantae Personae ...Simulationis...' she had time to stop by the hospital on the way to meeting him here. The doctor said her new condition was extremely rare, and effected only minuscule populations in tropical and desert climates, he had never even seen a real case of it. Then again, this was a small northern town so maybe it wasn't surprising.

A key ingredient of that new sunscreen she had been subject to came from the Rosary Pea (Abrus precatorius), one of the most poisonous plants in the world. Its berries were known to induce... changes if used or applied directly to the skin. If she had ingested them, she very well would have died. Mostly it's seeds were dried and used in jewelry, not ground or crushed and applied to the skin in cremes. She escaped something horrible and should be terrified.

So why did she honestly feel so good?

Dustin is sweaty from spending the afternoon trying to figure out how to be magic, and it turns out that Meghan had spent the afternoon getting dirty and discovering that she is, in some small way actually magic - or was it all merely science?

She tells him about her meeting with her doctor.

Dustin carefully studies her expression as she explains how it went. If she feels okay and he's no authority on the subject he doesn't think his opinion is going to be worth a whole lot. “Is there a cure?” He asks the most important question.

“There is... but I feel really great right now, better than I have in a really long time...” She leave out the part about how she can now somehow absorb energy from the sun directly and hasn't been hungry since yesterday. She really wants to runs some tests on herself as soon as possible. “And the cure is something like 3,000 simoleans, which I don't really have right now, so I think I'll wait a while.”

He frowns. “Are you sure you want to wait though, I could take out a loan or something- it's what I have to do anyways to move...”

“I don't want to owe you any money.”

He sighs. “Just let me help you sometimes, you know how worried I get...”

She moves towards him and plants a small kiss on his lips. Her taste is different, earthy but still hers. It makes him a combination of excited and wary. She takes too many risks, when was he going to be able to protect her?

They sing karaoke after the show and discover that their singing voices have only marginally improved since they were teenagers. Like usual they have fun together, and this time nobody boos them, so progress!

They head back to the Sparrow place after their date and clean up.

Meghan gives Dustin an ink blot test, but at the same time is trying to gauge what's different with her own mental state, taking the test silently to herself. This test still seems redundant and subjective.

She also really likes flowers now for some reason, so the timing of this gift is perfect!

Eugene is ignoring the young couple, hoping to solve an intermediate problem. Both Kings are in check and black has the upper hand unless white's bishop can cover some distance and move to flank the black king.

Nevermind: he is getting distracted. Kids these days! Eugene's cleans up the game and goes downstairs to check on dinner.

“So how did you do around town, did you make anything?” She asks after they're alone again.

Dustin yawns and stretches his arms over his head, working any kinks out. “Yeah the realization that I have a lot more to learn.” He's smiling though so he can't be that upset about it. “I'm mostly glad that it's going to take skill more than bluster, if that makes sense. Once I have my own flair for it it should be easier than I thought to make myself stand out. There are so many different ways each trick can be used.”

She smiles. “That's awesome. I mean it, I happy to see you so excited- since I dragged you to college and you know-” She trails off, not wanting to get into detail about how much of an ordeal everything had been. She changes the subject instead. “So when do you think you'll be going?”

“To Starlight?”

She nods.

His face falls and he stops making eye contact. Is it too soon to ask her to go with him? Didn't his cousin lecture him just this morning about how he was overly cautious?

He decides to at the very least tell her about the decisions he had made. “I'm not sure.” He says, leaning lightly on the frame of their bunk bed. “I worked out with Eugene that I can stay here for a few months, maybe over the winter and get started saving up money for the trip out there. If I don't have enough by early summer, the plan is to take a loan out and make up the difference.”

“It's late fall now so- four months or maybe five?” She asks. He nods, tersely.

She rolls her eyes at him, looking so dramatic about it all. If he was close to his dream he should be letting himself celebrate a bit more.

“So why do you seem stressed out about it?” She presses him. “Aren't you happy to finally be on the path to doing what you want?”

He furrows his eyebrows and looks over her face, she seems genuinely confused. He works his jaw: wills the words to come out of his mouth but they don't come. “It's a lot to plan.” He says instead as if that was all that was bothering him.

She tilts her head and leans in, trying to lure him into looking at her for more than a few seconds. “Well what else? Even I can tell there's more to it than that.” She finds herself becoming impatient. “This isn't like you, you're worrying me a bit. For once.” She tries to joke about it. “How are you going to keep me from being worried about mundane and dumb things if you're too busy being worried about things yourself?”

“I don't know.” He answers honestly with a small shake of the head. “I don't know what you want me to say.”

“Say whatever.” Meghan mumbles, her voice a little too quiet. This is the most serious she's ever seen him and she's not sure if she likes it. The laughing, easygoing Dustin is the one she feels she knows and understands.

He stays silent. Obviously mulling over whether she can handle what he's about to reveal or say. Or was he going to ask her something? His eyes are fixated on some small point on the wall over her shoulder and not on her. As if she wasn't even here right now.

Unable to wait for him any longer she levels her gaze and steps directly into his line of sight. “If you don't say something soon I'm going to pinch you.” Her voice is light but the real threat is in her ocher eyes. She rubs her fingertips together lightly in anticipation. “I don't want to but I will.”

He looks her over finally and makes a long-suffering sigh. “Alright, so pinch me.”

She lowers her hand and gives in. “I'm not going to pinch you but you really don't want to talk about what's bothering you?”

He makes a face. “I sort of thought you'd get it by now.”

She shrugs. “Well I think you'll do well out there and you're going to be very successful-”

“I'm not talking about that.”

She raises her voice. “Then what in the heck are you talking about already? I can't just make things up and hope I'm right- talk to me about this!”

“Fine. I asked you to go with me, to consider it at least. Before that I told you how I feel, how I've felt for a long time, we've been together, you've let me hold you-” He moves to embrace her.

He continues, murmuring softly in her ear. “It seems like you care about me too. But you haven't really answered me on any of it.” He frowns. “It's seems like- well I get worried that we don't want the same things. That you could be humoring me. And even now that you have this new condition, you won't even let me help you-” He squeezes a little tighter, not wanting to let her go now.

“Because, I don't really know what to do about that.” She whispers back. “And I know I haven't said it, but I thought you knew how much I care about you. I mean- I love you, Dustin.”

He lets out a breath he hadn't realized he's been holding and leans back to look at her face. “Say that again?” He asks with a sly smile.

“I love you.” She shrugs her arms up above his shoulders and leans back in. The kiss is gentle and lingers and it warms.

They spend more than a few minutes gazing into each other's eyes after that. “Do I have to ask again about-”

“I'll go with you to Starlight Shores.” She cuts him off, smiling shyly. “I want to have a future with you.” She feels incredibly glad to be talking about things in such an open way for once.

The look he gives her makes her heart melt.

Then they talk about everything, begin making plans, and promises. It's the first time they're doing things with each other in mind and it feels like they'll be able to face anything together.

They really don't even notice that there's other people in the room now.

Everet giggles openly. Lize just wanted to use the rocking chair to have a peaceful moment resting after dinner with her baby.

Eugene is being a nosy fly on the wall, as usual. He had been right about these two all along. He's going to sit here all night until they notice enough that he can laugh at them more directly.

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I felt really bad for Loki being ignored like that, but it just keeps happening and nobody's talking to him.

I think it's hilarious that I wasn't intending to write about supernatural sims in this blog, and now they are everywhere. The rolls were random for the fandom trait they both have so I had to write it in, they met some at Mayfield Springs, Meghan becomes a freaking Plantsim, it's as if I'm being driven in the supernatural direction. Not that I mind those stories I quite like them, but I don't play them at all in my games so it should be interesting if they get more prominent as I'll be working it in as it goes along. I'm not even sure if I'll have everyone be able to see ghosts. But for now the Plantsim is being treated as a mindless sort of natural state. 

Seeing a sim crawl out of the ground with dirt (and possibly maggots) flying everywhere was one of the creepiest things I have seen in this game to date (although let's be honest the imaginary friends always win the creepiest thing award). And yes, I have a BS degree in latin, thank you for asking. And Dustin's really happy to be dating a supernatural sim. >.>;

Sorry if there was too much tense Dustin. It makes me happy for some reason.

If Eugene gets anymore smug he's going to end up buying a Prius.