1.40 Poolside Pyromania

The heat of summer. Maybe. We all know I can't keep track.

Jet thought he'd evaded the law by quickly sitting down to sketch the scene of the crime after egging his neighbor's house.

He was informed that the law may be blind, but people inside the house are not. He is escorted home by police.

But dad's busy making money or whatever,

So mom is the one who gets to explain to him (again) that doing illegal things is bad.

“I was just having fun.”

“Your kind of fun is bad! And illegal, so knock it off!”

He doesn't it get it, so he's grounded, grounded, grounded. No bringing his girlfriend over for a month. He protests, then lets it go, sure he can sneak her in easily enough.

The summer setup at the coffee nook.

Meghan gets back to the basics and names more unfortunate specks of the galaxy.

...”Can I light the next one?”

Meghan steps in the help Jet sort out his homework. There's been enough fire and smoke for one night. He sucks at math, and she's a high enough level that she should be able to explain it well, but it's unclear which of the many, many basic concepts he gives no shits about.

Someone drowns in an alternate test save and I remake the pool. Also nobody used the loop around in the first place. The 'swim here' interaction sucks and sims need to figure out what laps are!

(I use a jogging track mod so they loop around the house to jog sometimes, a similar thing would be great for pools so that swimming and snorkeling is less boring af)

It was Jet, he is always tripping and requires 33% more ladders to be in reach at any given time than any other person.

*ahem* Anyways, back to the story....

More things light on fire. This one confuses me, as nobody is at all around but it could have been a stray firework. I'm just going to pretend that there is more gang involvement, and this is general harassment.

Which happens during a pool party. Some doofus was supposed to set the house on fire and missed the whole house.

Jyo rolls her eyes and gets to work. Usually fires happen in the lab.

Dustin is inside making hamburgers...

So she fights the fire alone. This is why she didn't want to date so many of her classmates, thank you very much. Jyoti is not a brave person, yes she is somehow able to step up and all these other idiots cringe around her and scream at her.

Kevin watches and is once again, merely entertained by all the human antics.

And somehow she is able to save the family ghost, who floated through it all amiably enough...

This is all Meghan's fault, apparently.

Oh, I see now that it was Key Lime pie.

Well I hope you're proud of yourself, mister only-brave-sim-on-the-lot!

Looking closer I stand corrected, as that's Malcolm in the center bottom of the picture. Guess he was too shy to show his strength to everyone around him. This will be sort of ironic later on.

Then I go back once again because I don't believe that Malcolm is the kind of sim who would leave his girlfriend completely alone during a crisis. Zooming in I see he was actually on the other side of the fire, and right in the thick of it, flames seem to be licking his back. He has redeemed not only himself, but all of simmanity in my eyes.

His only failing is that he never tells her or let her see him help, and so receives no merit badge for putting his life on the line. He probably is the type that would be embarrassed to have everyone know about it.

You're a good guy, Malcolm. You don't deserve your place in this legacy.

Howard, buddy, when I stop laughing at your spraytan... tell us what your athletic skill is actually good for here.

Kevin could have put this out with magic, right?!

His face makes me think he can.

Christian boos Cue right to his face. The SSO isn't popular with the literary club, apparently.

Dustin offers a piece of pie to the fairy. “You're not dating my daughter, are you?” Kevin smiles but says no. The things humans cared about when their house nearly burnt down... “Don't you have to call your insurance company about the fire?”

Dustin blinks. Insurance? Whatever for? His daughter hasn't told him she's going to be alone forever for a while, and he feels like it's got to be someone she invited today that's she's been quietly dating.

But Meghan was right next to Malcolm and saw everything that happened. This kid helped without panicking or drawing attention to himself, then proceeded to watch her daughter for a while as if to see that she was alright.

In a rare moment of nosiness, Meghan decides to corner Malcolm about he and Jyo's relationship.

He is respectful but doesn't say a whole lot. He says they are going to date, but haven't really had time to go anywhere yet.

“So you're taking things slowly?”

'Yes, ma'am.”

“That was the right thing to say.” He seems serious and direct. Meghan doesn't not like him, but it's too early to tell how things will go in the future. For the moment she is reassured.

Meanwhile Jet makes out with his girlfriend right behind his parent's backs in the middle of the party. This is not a double standard on their part, he simply knows exactly when they are paying him attention and when they are not. Plus he's reasonably thirsty after watching her jump up and down in panic in a low cut swimsuit for the last fifteen minutes.

Dustin then tries to salvage the party with a production line of paper flowers.

But he quickly discovers that the majority of his daughter's generation thinks magic is dumb now.

Jyo knows her mom well enough to rush over and make sure she didn't say anything weird. “Everything okay?” She asks.

He nods, unsure of what to say at first.

“What did she say?”

“She asked if we were dating.”

Jyo cringes. “Ugh. I'm sorry.”

“It's fine.” He assures her.

“It's not like we're all over each other like my brother and his girlfriend, I wonder how my mom figured it out. I didn't tell them yet.”

He doesn't know what sort of response that requires, so he says nothing.

“So we're still dating then, my mom didn't just ruin everything?”

“Nothing is ruined. I still like you.” He says with a shy smile.

“Even though we haven't had a single date yet, not even the when we met at the gym like, two months ago?”

He thinks the gym counts, but he nods anyways.

“Since we never even got to work out together, you want to?”

“Sure.”

She's not trying to make him into her dream boyfriend- that guy isn't real- but she is big on fitness, it would mean a lot to her if he was willing to try. He is, so she's happy with that.

Jet didn't set the fire, but he wishes he had. What a great opener for a party!

They seem to be getting along well. Malcolm is nowhere near as attentive as the guy she dreams about, but she doesn't have unrealistic expectations about dating him. He's trying which is more than she can say for most people.

He seems to be enjoying himself, despite not being used to this sort of thing.

He doesn't mind embarrassing himself either, apparently.

Eugene is pulling for them.

((get back up!)) He echoes.

Probably.

Jet and Noemi apparently like the looks of each other. Which doesn't matter as they will never speak to each other again, I just wanted you to see what she looks like.

Jet interviews Gaston about his role in the Organization. As Eugene is there for this, Gaston talks openly. A lot of it is logistics, after all. Turns out the gang runs more juice to underage parties than what could be many worse substances. The older members are security for the larger arms of the gang, the ones who bribe people that require bribing and source odd objects (always called 'high art') for private buyers. There is a plentiful supply of young labor at the moment, but Jet has an eye for art. Gaston thinks Jet would be an asset, and able to keep his mouth shut.

Jet keeps his thoughts to himself.

Eugene listens with some unease. He didn't really want Jet involved, but there were things that he does need tracked to figure out how far the organization is able to reach. His father's long ago investigation is largely obsolete information now, trails are cooling off and it's taking too long to rise through the ranks. He's worried that this all goes higher than the mayor's office and occasional dirty cop.

With all the big names in entertainment that are used to being on the take of people like old man Cupp, nothing should be off the table.

This counts as a pretty good time for Jyo.

Malcolm doesn't have much to say about it.

Jet's not going to join the gang (at least not now), but he's keeping an open mind about it. They don't seem like a bad (or more accurately, an unmanageably) bad way to get good story ideas. Or help the family stay safe. Whatever. It was all hot to Christian, and she was starting to mean the world to him.

Jyoti heads up to bed early after the party, exhausted from the events of the day.

And the dreams begin again.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I love the picture of Eugene smiling while the world burns around him.

They all invited each other to prom at the party. I think that party actually happens next update, but I don't remember. Looking at all these teens crammed in together around a pool in summer I can sort of see where all those '60s and '70s teen summer movies came from. Gidget was my secret favorite when I was a teenager myself, partially because I knew it was all so absurd. I think someone in it was nicknamed the 'Big Kahuna'. Also none of the teens got in the water this update, so pardon my rambling and pair this comment with the next one. Or something.