1.37 A Time to Live

So many insects, so little time in life to irradiate them all.

((The little pink glowbugs are my favorite))

Yet another peaceful day in Starlight Shores.

Jyoti stops by the lab before school to feed subject #261 (the rat that looks like a cow)...

And Megan is reminded that failure is still an option at any level of proficiency. The little beetle she was working on shatters, and it's life force becomes intertwined with hers. It will live on through Meghan and the lifestream, only the tiny crystal shards that are left will be able to power weapons with a magical effect that some have come to call Materia... no wait... that's a video game.

This is real life. So presumably the bug as it dies infests everything with a cheese-and-toenail-like stench. Meghan takes a big whiff of it accidentally, then proceeds to switch personalities for the next few hours as a coping mechanism.

(Oh sh*t is it spring right now? I think that was the Spring festival we just went to last time. Don't judge too harshly, there were fall leaves still on the ground out there)

<3 Leila <3

When the weather warms up a bit the cousins are invited over for a cookout. Lize is well past retirement age but still works diligently at the local hospital. She's come long way from her harsh schedule as an EMT responder back in Aurora Skies.

She's actually a great cook, and Dustin gets to share recipes with her. It was at Eugene and Lize's house after all that he started learning to cook so well, and learning that he really liked it.

...and then she gets lost in telling him a bunch of jokes she found in jokebooks. Pun-y.

Eugene's still one of the most trusted Meteorologists in the starlight news cycle, although it's rare that he gets to report on actual meteor sightings. Those are top secret.

Meghan is curious, can the spirit of a sim be sampled and cloned? Will the clone gain the original's ability to forecast the weather, or just be be born at an unfortunately old DNA-age?

Eugene hugs her gingerly. He's much older now, but still proud of her. “I never had a daughter, but when you were living with us it truly felt as if I did.”

Meghan smiles, but feels the fragility of his frame and holds on a little longer. “You are more a father to me than anyone, I love you and I hope you know that.”

Everyone sits for a picnic lunch that Dustin threw together. He wanted to plan some kind of family vacation with the extended Sparrows, but Lize isn't sure her husband can travel. “We've seen plenty of the world and we're happy to be here at home.” She tells him.

Jet tries to capture the old man's likeness, but he ends up focusing on getting the shadows to be dramatic enough instead. Still, someone his parents both look up to seems a worthwhile subject.

Jyo and Lize discover they have some things in common and there is a spark in the older woman's eye. She's normally too busy to visit when Eugene does, so it's nice to have everyone together for once, even if her sons couldn't make it.

Until the niceness is broken by an unfortunate event.

It's hard to say if there was something in the mirror that called him, or the soap was simply too strong and lemony, whatever the case may be, Eugene alone knows what he saw in those final moments in the bathroom upstairs.

Without saying proper goodbyes, without knowing the end was near, without being presumably peacefully asleep, Eugene was suddenly gone.

The family heard the sound of his body falling to the ground and rush upstairs.

No one can see what the old man sees, or know if there is anything of him left to see. He has already been called.

And this was not how it was supposed to go. Dustin sobs like a small child, his own children don't know what to do with him for the rest of the night. They've never seen him not be able to pick himself up right away. Mortality has been something they were sheltered from, after all.

Meghan spends the evening alone in her lab, and possibly the next several days, and gets nothing done. It's all a blur for a long time. Several specimens wither away in her care for the first time.

Dustin makes sure the boys are alright, even though they aren't. Leon has a new baby and rest has been impossible. His daughter won't get to know grandad.

Everet's calm facade slips in the presence of family. And in the absence of them.

Jet makes the most of what's he witnessed and begins reading more biographies. Maybe he can tell the old man's story, someday. Or discover what the old man had been investigating in secret before his unfortunate incident with the soap. His health may have been declining, but that doesn't mean that there was no mystery to discover about the suddenness of Eugene's death.

Parental intrusion into his musings.

“The door was open.” Dustin excuses.

Jet sits in silence for a moment.

“I just wanted to see if you've decided what to do with the painting. It would be great to have his portrait in the house, even if it came out a bit...”

“Artistic license, dad. And I told you I'm selling it to the station for their memorial special. I need the money for the future- writers don't make money easily so I have to start somewhere.”

“You've only been not a child for about a week and a half. And you do not need money- your mother and I have worked very hard to give you a head start in life, and you will have more than you need when you move out, which is a very long way away.”

Jet scoffs. “There's no way I'm taking money from you and mom when I move out.”

“There's no way you aren't!” His dad childishly raises his voice. “I'm sorry, I just- let us take care of you sometimes, okay?”

Jet senses his dad isn't doing too well with the idea of separation at the moment. “I don't really want to leave the painting here, but-”

Dustin perks up too quickly. “But?”

“Let's play for it. You win, and it stays.”

Jet feels no better for winning. “Maybe I can sell them a high quality print, or something...” He waivers.

The painting goes up immediately.

Eugene will now forever grace the kitchen with an artsy scowl. Jet sort of feels bad that he chose the last likeness of the man to use the smear blend technique with, if it wasn't so ironically amusing, and exhausting being around a bunch of sad people.

Leila is there to make sure Jyoti wakes up on time for school these days.

Her person fails to muster any appreciation for this new development.

Meghan distracts herself with a new hobby. There are plenty of stones around to collect, cut and polish.

Unlike her insect collection, she will not be making any money off of them for research. But for now they are something cold and exact and distant that she can focus on without caring about the outcomes. It helps the time pass a little bit more

As the adults have become increasingly useless over the recent weeks, the kids have taken on many chores without complaint. They miss Uncle Eugene too, but not in the same way. He was old. It happens.

Jet glances at an imposing lineup of seeds their mother has had set aside in careful storage for as long as he can remember. “Mom used to talk about growing people out of seeds.” He says conversationally, pushing that weird feeling back down as he looks the specimens over. They're just so huge for normal garden variety seeds. Probably irradiated.

“The easy thing to say is that your future girlfriend is in one of those seeds...” Jyo begins.

“Won't know until you grow a boyfriend for yourself first.” Jet answers back.

She sighs. That would be easier, wouldn't it? “Men are useless.” She concludes, not wanting to admit that whoever she's looking for, they are nowhere in this town.

“You won't know that for sure until you stop being so useless yourself.”

She laughs. What if that was true? Who knows anything until they're out in the world on their own, living how they want?

And he interrupts her thoughts with stories from school. Her brother is becoming less antisocial and is actually enjoying afterschool activities now. She can't bring herself to tease him, it's enough to be glad that he stays away from the local gang elements.

Satisfied with the condition of the house, Jyo heads out to meet Howard at the gym. Neither one of them have worked out together before even though they share the athletic trait. Could be fun.

Jet, despite having more friends than ever, heads off to the park to eat snowcones in the rain. Don't judge him, he loves the rain. It's great melancholic fodder for writing.

I remade the lab with the most recent selfies. They don't last the grayness glitch forever, but made me feel a bit better.

Howard's snobby butt never showed up.

And the person who did did not help Jyo get her mind off of the gloomy atmosphere at home.

A nice greeting...

Followed by incoherent screeching. Lize has been at the library for days reading books because home is lonely, and has forgotten how to tone down her voice despite the peaceful environment there.

Jyoti reminds her of some of the funny things Eugene used to say and manages to cheer her up a little bit.

...until I notice the option to 'Confess'. Confess to what? So of course I initiate the interaction...

and ruin the rest of the evening for everyone.

They say that hurt people hurt people.

Dustin plays his heart out for an audience of one.

I mean, two.

He heads out to the graveyard to mourn after the performance. It's not like him to be this unable to focus. He thinks he can come to terms with things once and for all.

He finds a lot of gravestones, but in the dark decides not to stay too long. Eugene just doesn't feel like he's here yet. Maybe his spirit is somehow still with Lize, trying to comfort and instead making her a little more mad? Starlight Shores has never been so dark.

And Meghan seems to be the only sim at the end of the week who has found her zen.

At Jyo's request a gym is built. Meghan could always use another distraction, and adds this medical testing center off of the main lab underground.

Not quite what her daughter had in mind, but the equipment functions well enough. Weird that somebody converted the MRI machine into a shower.

Dustin finds time to relax at last. By running miles at a time on a human hamster wheel. If it works, who cares?

Ironically, Jyo rarely uses it because it's too clean down there and she feels boxed in. Jogging outdoors is better for her after all.

The family begins to gather together more than usual, which means joining mom underground for breakfast. The lab turns out to be one of the places that helps bring the family back together. The closeness, the chores that need doing, the main house has been so expanded that it's lost some of it's charm over time, and here is as good a place as any to discuss alien replacement theories and meteor strikes.

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

Randomly the site that Meghan's lab items came from (it's in German): http://sims3s.ru/objects-bf-lab.php

Sorry for the sadness in this update. Eugene messed everyone up for a while in game. But I've gotta come to terms with these things if we're going to play generations of the family. Usually my simmies live forever :/

The current lab situation.

Gene is staying at the house with them for a while.