1.07 Back and Forth

One last hour of stargazing before they have to leave that morning. It's not going too well, the sun rises behind a cover of clouds that is lovely, but useless for her purposes. Then again, she's not overcome by it's alluring sway at the moment and that's a very good thing: science can happen more clearly instead.

...Did that bench just move? No, she's just being paranoid? Well maybe today's a good day to move after all, when she feels a little more like herself. Weird that she's glad to have a pointless worry for once.

Often now she wonders, could anyone tell how far she was from her usual self?

Edvin's girlfriend Candace Ubers them out of town on the way to the airport. The look she gives them both says she doesn't understand why anyone would ever move away from Aurora Skies, but who is she to judge when they're paying for her to drive them?

“Have a good trip.” She says in her best, most professionally robotic voice.

The leaves haven't even turned yet even though it's cold out. A great time to move to somewhere semi-tropical!

(nice zoomed out view)

I give them a starting fund and add what they made traveling to it (I think I gave them 17,500 plus what they had earned abroad, which was 1569 so they have 19069 to start). Not bad, let's see what I can do with this...

Hmm...

I don't have a bank of great empty houses and didn't want one from the town so I picked a nice 40x40 lot and started building roughshod all over the place. Getting the feel of the tools, the shapes, the vacant backyard and completely unnecessary deck underneath it all.

The roof is custom, you can't get this sort of cutting edge design just anywhere, and they are VERY HAPPY to have it. So happy that it doesn't matter that they can't afford a garage door and all the windows were 5 simoleons at the auctioning of a greenhouse. And some face in the wrong direction. Dustin is handy, so he figures, why not?

Ground paint is free, but they don't have the time to go pick it up at city hall. I mean, the home and garden store. What/where ever.

What a great view this is! Do we have any money for appliances left over? Maybe if we sell the interior walls...

Mmmm, sort of. Looks like it's bedrolls for the first several months!

They head out to meet the neighbors first thing. They seem REALLY nice.

Is Wylie Luck trying to flirt with her right now? Maybe he just does this for every pretty face. He's showing her that he too has an inner plant (sim).

“I don't eat the dirt, I AM the dirt!” He screams in a heavy metal voice from his punk rock facade.

Usually Meghan is the weirdest person in the room. She has no idea what to do with this. She awkwardly slaps him on the back. “Great ...job?”

“So you've seen someone like me before?” She finally manages to ask him.

He nods, calming down slightly. “Oh yeah, one of my best friends growing up was one of those. I think the 'cure' or whatever is pretty effective, she managed to get treatment and has a family now and everything.”

“A...family?” She questions.

He seems surprised until a flicker of awareness dawns over his face. “Is this a new thing for you? Did it recently happen?”

“Uhh... sort of. But some days are really good...” She's not sure where he's going with this.

“You know you won't be able to have kids with your boyfriend if you don't fix it. Unless you want to basically clone yourself.”

“I know that!” She snaps at him, surprised. She didn't know that at all. But why was she getting so worked up about it? She didn't want kids anyways!

Wylie's dad is a local composer (not an orator if you can tell by the looks on their faces) they live a bit up the hill from Dustin & Meghan.

He's explaining the song he once wrote for a horror movie about children living in disheveled groups in cornfields. Most of the music sounded like an ape was given only the far right side of a piano to play and cookies whenever it slammed the ivories in anger. But who were they to judge? They weren't 'industry professionals'.

Meghan decides to introduce herself as Meghan now, much to Dustin's surprise. It does not escape his notice that this means she'll be using the name he so badly wanted to give her, before he actually did give it to her. He has mixed feelings about that but doesn't want to bring it up right away so he keeps his mouth shut.

She tells him later that she'll use Andrea's name for publishing her research, which will also protect her lab and allow her to control access to anything she discovers without having to reveal her real identity. He decides to go along with it for now while they settle in. He doesn't want any more drama for a while, seriously. But something about it give him a cautious hope, laced with a stirring anger. It wasn't right.

These flowers were a gift from the new neighbors and Meghan puts them on the only viable surface in the house. She also takes the first few days to go back over old course material and see what else she can glean about working freelance.

Not surprisingly, the articles aren't too helpful.

After the end of the first year they've still put nearly nothing into furnishings, as Dustin insists that she needs equipment for her studies to get her research going as soon as possible.

They're feeling hopeful about things, even though there was some terror about bills at the end of each week in the beginning.

They even find a mirror at the local dump, it'll have to do for now.

Ceiling glitches... x/ (I figured it out later but we might see this mess from time to time first)

Meghan wears outfits made out of leaves nearly every day now, and Dustin senses that she's getting mentally further away from herself. But she's happier and worries about things less, so he's not sure what to do about it. He loves it when she smiles like this, but there's a flame of intelligence that usually burns below the surface of her eyes and some days now she seems... simpler, almost empty, even though there's a feeling of calm associated with it.

He thinks it's almost as if she managed to pass her worry onto him. One day she tells him “You know something Dustin? Your voice is louder than the others.” and he feigns a smile.

But she elaborates.

She tells him the last few months have been especially amazing, even if they don't have a lot. He goes out every day in any weather and works, she's making contacts at the local research center and making a name for herself researching and connecting with other scientists online. She still has good and bad days as a plantsim, but makes up for the sun's hold on her by focusing working hours in the evenings.

There are still plenty of things she's not willing to tell Dustin, like the fact that she can actually photosynthesize. She wonders if there will be a day when she is able to say anything she wants to him, but she doubts it. He would think she was insane.

He saved up for something else again too. Even though she was wary about it before and it wasn't about the type of ring, she had recently discovered that her name meant Pearl in Sanskrit and he had found a beautiful blush pink one and had it set. It was meant for her.

He knows she might reject him again, and that they still don't even have proper furniture, but the moment feels right and he needs her to know he's still committed to their future.

He's sure this time he'll be accepted. Everything is and will be perfect.

But it's not. It's not right again.

A wave of cold anger washes over him for a second as her slender fingertips close the box, still heavy on his palm.

His hand replaces hers and he pulls it closer to him as if he could take back the offer. There are no words for what he is feeling now.

And to makes things worse for him, she laughs this time. “It has nothing to do with the kind of ring!”

He doesn't hear anything else she says after that. His heartbeat thunders in his ears and he's taken back to a moment so long ago when she had told him she asked Loki out on a whim. Do I mean anything to her at all? He thinks in maddening honesty, before taking a few deep breaths to calm down.

“Even If I had something big and blinding I'd never be able to work around it once my lab is built- that one's really cute but I'm sorry you thought you could buy me off so easily!”

He groans audibly and gets up from his kneeling position. He'd like to see her do this just once. She has no idea how it impacts his self esteem. Maybe she's never been able to put herself into other people's shoes in the first place. Maybe she does have a disorder. Maybe he should get out while he still can.

Before he can even process what sort of feeling it was, the anger is gone.

It's impossible to know what's going on inside her head at any given time. Still he can't be overly surprised: it's not as if he had no warning. “Do I make you unhappy?” He asks in a quiet voice. He's not about to let her laugh it off this time, trying to distract him.

“No...” She seems surprised that he would ask.

“Then why? What are you waiting for? Are you scared that if you say yes something is going to change for the worse?”

She blinks. He knows her so well. Her mind takes her back to things she'd rather not think about again, let alone tell to anyone else. When she stops being able to count the things she tunes them out. It's just the past. It doesn't have to be anything more than that.

“There are some things I'd rather not talk about.” She reminds him.

“I know that, but if this is in some way about trust, tell me what I've done, give me a chance to fix it. And... you can share your worries with me, I won't think anything less of you.”

She swallows back her argument: once again he gets it, she must be becoming easier for him to read. She feels her throat convulse a bit, as if it's physically impossible for her to go into detail about it. “This isn't... it's not about you Dustin, it's about me.” She lies.

He frowns, knowingly. “Okay, then give me a chance to fix you.” He says with a slightly sour smile in his eyes. “Seriously, if it's about something I can't help with, let's go to couples therapy, or do something. Find out why our goals are so different. You still don't hate the idea of marriage- right?”

“No, I don't hate it-” She sighs, giving up that one truth. “But before it's too late, let's just go get some work done.”

“Smooth transition.” He grumbles before walking away to change and head out. The door slams after him.

Once Dustin is gone she starts her evening's research at the lab station they'd been able to buy. Within minutes the sickly feeling of regret fades and she is once again able to focus. She was so close to telling him everything, but narrowly escaped having to do it. She knew things wouldn't be the same with him, she knew she could trust him, so it was all irrational fear.

The evenings are so much better than the mornings for this work! There is a small garden outside now and she consistently uses the fruits and veggies for sampling with some mixed results. Maybe she can isolate a useful gene or promote the growth of one of the healthier seeds. If she finds something useful, the scientific center in town has agreed to pay for first crack at her results.

Dustin works himself to exhaustion tonight at the cafe, one of his busiest locations in the right weather. After a lot of practice he still manages to fail one out of every three tricks, so the proprietor here is nowhere near giving the go-ahead for him to perform a live show. But he'll crack into the industry eventually, he has no doubt about that.

He's off today, he's upset, but he tells himself sternly to work through it.

Eventually even the proprietor heads home for the night and he's left doing tricks for no one. What is the point of this?

He collects his cup with a heavy sigh and trudges to another location. He should go home tonight, he really should.

But he's not ready yet.

He makes it home eventually, hours later with only seventeen simoleans in his pocket. He tries to hide the heaviness he feels from her, but he can't look her in the face. He had hoped by some miracle she would already be asleep. “Not a lot of people out today,” he mumbles, even though in his heart he is seething.

Meghan doesn't know what to say. It's in these moments of clarity that she's able to see what's actually going on. The voices plague her in the evening more loudly, the sharpness of her intelligence returns, she can see what her mid day self could not.

She was being stupid. She needs help, therapy, something. There was a lot to worry about and she had been so happy not to think about things that she was ostracizing the one person who had always stood by her, thick and thin.

She has nothing positive to say and so mumbles, “We'll try again tomorrow.”

But inwardly she makes a promise; I am never going to have to see you like this again.

Even though she's been so happy lately, it's not good enough for only her to feel it. It was time for a drastic change.

Dustin sleeps outside that night. There are no walls inside their house still, he doesn't want to be around Meghan. It would be great if he could sleep for a week.

Starting the next day Meghan begins making a subtle effort to get his attention, but her normal behavior is so erratic that it all fails to provoke a response. Dustin is polite, but otherwise ignores her.

He'd better not be peeping at the neighbors right now when she actually wore something revealing on purpose!

But the neighbors are amusing and she can't really blame him if he is. She makes a mental note to change the location of the telescope.

Many days pass.

They probably shouldn't have packed this table from their rental dorm in college but it's a nice way to pretend they aren't at odds with each other lately and blow off some steam.

If Dustin notices that she's been making more of an effort to spend time with him lately he doesn't make an issue of it. He too is glad to pretend that his second proposal never happened.

So they grind, and more time passes.

Nobody is perfect: they both make mistakes.

Dustin begins to perfect his low level tricks, and starts earning more steady simoleans from tips. It's already spring. The dull ache of the rejection gnaws, growing more intense the more he tries to ignore it. He needs to know why.

Meghan continues to work by night, her research hasn't earned anything near what she made as a teenager finding stars, but it's so much more satisfying to get something right. She has a plan and she's hoping to save up for it. But when will the big discovery come?

Meghan is careful not to say anything much to Dustin during the day now because she has no idea what's going to come out of her mouth. In the evenings they share stories of how their day went, but they barely touch each other.

At least there's money for bills.

And Meghan doesn't eat a lot, so it's not expensive for her to live making sinnies (tiny simoleans) for samples.

Dustin still doesn't know she can do this, and a part of her desperately hopes he's going to find out. She begins being more obvious about her new ability, hoping he knows how changed she is. She wants to talk about it, but she doesn't trust herself to say too much.

Dustin is doing better, occasionally being recognized around town and making friends. Some people bring their children by during the day when they know he's out. Kids love magicians and he finds kids to be adorable, so it's a win-win situation to see them smile or clap enthusiastically after a simple trick.

He's still not good enough to get a show at the coffee shop.

There are still occasional failures...

But he follows up now with a joke and acts as if he failed on purpose. He has become much better at hiding his embarrassment.

He works at the festival sometimes, Meghan never goes out with him. He tries to pretend he doesn't miss her lately.

One day during research Meghan stumbles upon a back door key to an important social networking site. It's interesting how nobody knows where all that ad revenue goes. Well some of it is hers, now!

Research is awesome as always, but she's behind on her plans and needs quick cash. She and Dustin have grown further apart in the time they've lived out here, not closer. She needs to take care of her biggest problem and that will require a fast influx of capitol.

There's a sort of agreement between them not to bother each other during the day, but they don't really go on dates or do anything special even in the evenings. Dustin does what he always does when he's feeling acutely lonely, and fixes things that he can understand.

One day he just decides that nothing matters and marches around completely natural as he does the chores. One with nature or whatever Meghan's always going on about. She's outside gardening, half naked herself. Well, two can play at that game!

It'll be hilarious when she comes inside and notices.

Annny minute now...

Better make sure this will actually self clean! Or did he make it unbreakable? Who cares, it's all for show anyways. Until it breaks or becomes dirty. He should have known she wouldn't care. Does she really run around half naked for fun, it wasn't to impress him or anything?

Meghan has no idea what's going on. Yeah she walked around the house for weeks trying to get his attention but it never worked and she quickly gave up on doing that. She wanted to be with him, but he wanted to wait. She couldn't afford to get married right now, emotionally, or otherwise... not that it was impossible. She tries to focus on this complicated logical problem instead of looking behind her.

And she gives up.

He says he just wanted to tell her a joke about ancient technology.

Seriously?!

At least she finds it amusing.

He has to leave for work anyways, but the experiment of 'act like Meghan for a day' had some merit. She really doesn't find her behavior to be unusual at all, she acted like what he was doing was par for the course.

That means she must not want anything more, doesn't it?

Then again it's an important day. First show ever! He has to use the local venue setup because they're saving money right now. But someday soon he'll have shining lights and everything!

The one attendee heckles him.

But he draws a crowd and begins to win them over. They laugh at his jokes, and just at the right time he pulls off his most well-rehearsed tricks. It can be cautiously called a success.

Meghan didn't make it to the show because she was up late hacking, and had a bit of money set aside to buy a new scanner that can analyze rocks. She'd found this small meteor when it hit the ground by the beach and brought it home. Finally she collapses in bed, exhausted after a long 16 hour day of research and running around town.

Dustin does little things to show her that he still very much cares. When he comes home from his show and finds her sleeping like a baby on the new bed they were able to buy this year he smiles a little. She gets so engrossed in her work, and he loves how passionate she is about it. He upgrades her research station without telling her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It seems she is gaining some self awareness, but whether or not he'll just get tired of all the back and forth one day remains something of a mystery. He rolled a wish to buy a kiss after Meghan rejected his proposal. And then he decided to sleep outside on his own! They didn't sleep in the house together for a few days after that actually.

Meghan runs around the house half naked as she pleases and whenever Dustin “takes a shower with flair” he walks around the house naked afterwards (this is the first time he did that). I'm pretty sure it's tied into the 'star quality' trait, but he just looks like a creeper haha. The timing was too perfect, she runs around half naked after telling him no again, he one ups her by going full frontal. These two are perfect for each other, even when they're not getting along. And nobody cared about what the other was doing.

Dustin also has a glitch where shows don't pay him, but he ends up taking all the props home for free afterwards so I have no idea what to do about that... :/

((Oh yeah and I play online sometimes so if you people want gifties I send them [I'm Frogsnack in the Sims community online too] just let me know you're from the random legacy thread at MTS and I'll pay you special attention :> ))