Life has this nasty habit of preventing me from playing the Sims sometimes, and that's incredibly frustrating. But here is a nice lengthy update for you all. Originally it was two seperate chapters, but to make up for the lack of an update in a while, I made it one big update. Some parts get wordy because I can only manipulate Sims but so much, even with the pose player, and it's difficult to mimick the emotions I'm describing within the game itself.
We have since found that Bobby prevents Maxime from having nightmares and Camille can cast magic, as her great great great (some number of greats) Grandmother Isabelle is able to. Moreover, Isla Paradiso was destroyed, so the Delacours are stranded in Riverview at the Riverblossom Resort.
And that's what you missed on GLEE!2.5 -- The Puppet MasterThe only one who really seemed to have a problem with the staying in Riverview was Camille, no surprise. And even though she had a tendency to be so frustrating and rebellious, I still felt sorry: Riverview was not what I promised her. I'd let her down, and I let mom down in being unable to get us to Isla Paradiso. And that was going to stick with me for a while. Unfortunately, finding a place to live in Riverview ended up being more difficult than I'd anticipated, and we were forced to extend our stay at the
glamorous Riverblossom Resort by a few days. I encouraged everyone to seek employment and keep an eye out for 'For Sale' signs and...well...we sorta just lived for two weeks.
Camille picked up a job as a Playground Monitor at the school. Her hours were the shortest of all of us and all she really had to do was make sure no kids jumped off the swings or pushed each other off the top of the jungle gym. I was surprised to see her come home with a smile on her face and a dozen stories about the kids doing this and that, so I took it for some amount contentment and and let her be. Allete went to the business office and immediately showed off her spotless resume and got herself a job at the newspaper that operated out of there. Initially, she just delivered coffee and chatted at the water cooler , but within a couple days, she was telling me about how her boss was considering moving her up in the ranks so as to allow her writing prowess to show. Antoine went to the stadium and joined the local team and practice started immediately, with the coach raving about his athleticism. Marcel remained comfortably unemployed like the bum he was and dedicated himself to rummaging through scrap piles while rambling on about making Time Machines and Plumbots and how he was stifled due to not having a workbench to invent on.
After piecing together a slightly make-shift portfolio (my original had been impecable, but it was lost when the plane holding our things landed in Isla Paradiso and was promptly destroyed by the Hurricane), I picked up a job at the town's local salon. Riverview wasn't exactly the center of fashion and trends, so telling the manager of the salon that I could cut hair and pick clothes off a rack was more than enough for her, albeit a bit sad. She didn't even look at my resume. By the end of the week, I'd given out roughly 12 makeovers and earned myself two promotions. At first, I was peeved that I wouldn't have my own salon overlooking the beach in Isla Paradiso, but after working a while with the same people and recognizing some faces, I found myself perfectly content with my job and the little life it could provide for me.
Old age finally caught up with Shep. I felt bad that he had to die in an unfamiliar place rather than comfortably in front of a fireplace in a house or at my mother's feet, and moreover, I was horribly sad that the dog I'd grown up knowing and petting had left us. But Shep had always been a trouper: a hardworking dog who protected us and provided for us since the days long before anyone knew I'd even be born. And regardless of where he met his end, it was his time. After all he'd done for us, he was earned a spectacular place in the After World. And he would get to see Dad again, and stay beside him as his companion forever. However, it did remind me of one thing, Shep's death: It wouldn't be to long before Dad would was joined by his wife.
With the closeness of Mom's death at the forefront of my brain, I was reminded that I was supposed to be reproducing and all that jazz. Find a husband, make babies and money, chose an heir and die happy. I couldn't let Mom die without her seeing her own grandchildren. Simple enough idea, but not easy to execute. For one, most of the males in Riverview were already spoken for. Except for Bobby who said he was waiting for someone.
Not to mention our relationship was completely platonic. Second, falling in love was not very high up on my list of lifelong desires. Become a famous designer? Yes. Living my life happily? Yes. But I didn't need love to be happy. I realized that a very long time ago. All I really needed was my family and my friends, however cheesy that sounds. And at that time in my life, my only friends were Allete and Bobby, neither of whom would be of any help in the legacy department.
"The idea of living in a resort for the rest of my life is extremely unappealing." I said to Bobby at the end of my family's third week in Riverview. When I wasn't at the salon, I was helping lighten his workload, save for this particular day in which I was more interested in laying on the freshly washed sheets than helping him put new ones on Alette's bed.
He laughed at me, as he often did when I expressed some newly concocted fate for myself. The day before, I had predicted I was going to become pregnant by mistake and give birth in the lobby, and the father be Lucky Perkins, the strange old man who lived alone in the southernmost corner of town and had a thing for women young enough to be his granddaughter, "You're not gonna live in a resort for the rest of your life. Riverview real estate has always been a little tricky, but something will open up soon."
I scoffed, "Unless you work part time as a real estate agent, I don't know how you can be so sure of that. You don't even have a house yourself."
"Technically, I live with my parents. But I sleep here because I didn't want to be a burden on them, especially since they're expecting another baby. I work for room and board and get to use my money how I want. How do you think I've been able to take you to dinner every night?"
As a relief from my hours at the salon and a chance to evade dining with my mother and sister, who Bobby knew I had rough relationships with, he took me to dinner at Flying V's almost every night. They already knew him there, but they'd only heard whispers of my family and I. And several eyes were trained on me for the first few days we visited regularly. But by this point in my stay in Riverview, they greeted me boisterously and had my order memorized. Bobby disappeared into the bathroom to wipe down the sink and replace the tiny toiletries. When I followed him in, I saw the counter coated in make up and hair products from when Camille was getting ready for work that morning.
"And here I thought you were just blowing a bonus on me." I said with a small smirk and leaned against the frame of the bathroom door, crossed my arms over my chest and watched him clean, "But what if I'm not supposed to be here? What if I was supposed to put down roots somewhere else, but I didn't get the memo? What if we're supposed to be somewhere else and I just haven't realized it and if we don't move right now then we're going to be stuck in a rut and living in a resort for forever."
The bellhop shook his head in disbelief, "You think to hard about things. Try this on for size: live in the now, not in the maybe and not in the future, not in the past. The right now. And right now, you're in Riverview helping a bellhop clean up." Next I knew, Bobby had shoved a washcloth into my face and moved past me in the door frame and back over towards the beds.
"Is this dirty?!" I panicked for a brief moment, then let out an annoyed sigh, "You---jerk!"
He laughed. And he blocked the washcloth when I chucked it at him, "Maxime Renee Delacour, you can trust me." He said to me quietly when I approached him, "You're supposed to be here. I know it."
I sucked my teeth lightly, "Yeah, and how do you know?"
"I just do."
Cryptic. I rolled my eyes. I didn't like cryptic. There were enough difficult things in life to figure out without Bobby feeling the need to answer in such a way. I opened my mouth to respond, only to be cut off when the door opened and Camille walked in.
"Hey, Cam." I said offhandedly and redirected my gaze to Bobby, "Except that's not what I asked. HOW do you know? Solid proof is what I demand from you, Mr. Bellhop."
"Let's call it a good feeling and leave it at that." He said
Camille kicked her shoes into the corner, then dropped her bag on the chair and a few of it's contents spilled off onto the floor and she quietly cursed, then proceeded to ignore it, "Hey, Mr. Good Feeling, could you leave me alone with Maxi? I need to talk to her."
"Anything you say to me, you can say in front of him, Camille." I said firmly, not to keen on the idea of staying alone in any room with Camille. As of late, she'd left a sour taste in my mouth and a strange feeling in my gut. My general M.O. was to trust my own siblings, but one sibling was giving off severely distrustful vibes and the result was my lack of a desire to be alone with her at any given time.
"Not this. Strictly sisterly stuff. I need to confide in you, not him. My job sort of depends on this."
I gave Bobby a look and motioned towards the door, indicating that he had to go. My trust in my sister wasn't exactly displaced, but it was wrong of me to feel any kind of danger if left alone in her care. I would apologize for it, but first Bobby had to leave me with my sister.
Wrong move on my part.
"
Grandma Isabelle is very frustrated with you, Maxime."
Camille moved so fast and so forcefully that simple shock was enough to keep me pinned against that wall. But when I opened my mouth to speak, my voice refused to come out. I couldn't even move my arm up to make her release her grasp on me. It was as if her touch was enough to suppress every single one of my functions--I could feel the horror stricken look on my face at both that realization and the name that left Camille's lips. Isabelle: An ancestor of ours who'd, according to mom, laid waste to Sunset Valley and was a force who need not be reckoned with. Someone you never join an alliance with or who's rules you never abide by, as anything you do for her or with her only brings her closer to her own goals. Working with her would seem beneficial, but it was not. It didn't look like Camille believed any of those words that.
"Your dreams, your doubts, that pressing weight on your shoulders, that was me. I'm not even going to deny it. Isabelle woke up the power that was already inside me, Maxi. And it's in you too. Mom was careful not to mention it or nurture it, but we're witches you and me. And magic has come a long way since Grandma Izzy was young. Each witch has their own unique magic that they specialize in, and can you guess what mine is?"
Camille smirked and released me and I crumpled to the floor in a heap of heavy breaths and shock. Every doubt I'd ever had of her was completely justified. How long had she been in league with Isabelle? What else had she done? How else had my innocent sister wrecked havoc on our lives? As I looked up to Camille, she smirked.
"I can tap into your brain cells and force your brain to transmit messages to your body. Why do you think you haven't screamed for help or even spoken yet? Because I'm forcing your brain to make your mouth believe it can't form words anymore. I'll let you go in a minute, but not before I tell you something. And listen closely because it's kind of important that you pay attention."
I stood to my feet, feeling completely defenseless against my sister's supernatural onslaught. I could barely process my own thoughts. I could feel her inside my brain, forcing me to stay focused on her rather than escape into my own mind.
"Isabelle has plans for the family. Really, really great plans. And she gave me the very simple task of recruiting you to the cause. So I tricked your brain into thinking things and dreaming about things that aren't true. Mom really does love you and all that boring, emotional nonsense. All the dreams were altered memories so that when Isabelle approached you, you'd be more than willing to abandon this stupid heirship. But someone has the ability to suppress my powers whenever they're around. And that's why Isabelle is so annoyed, not only with me, but with you as well."
As if it were her queue in this act, Bobby walked in, seemingly unphased by the sight of Camille looking particularly sinister. Though, with her apparent power, I didn't know if what I saw and what he saw were even the same. I didn't know if she'd been tricking me to believe this was all happening and in reality I'm writhing around in the middle of the lobby looking psychotic to everyone. What if weren't even IN Riverview? What if everything I'd come to know was a complete lie and I was laid out somewhere in Appaloosa Plains dead or dying and my brain hadn't caught on because Camille was controlling it. What if Bobby wasn't...
real?
"You. You're the problem." Camille said to Bobby who had a look of resolve on his face, "You have to be gotten rid of in order for all of this to come about."
"All the more reason for me to not go anywhere." Bobby said confidently.
"More like all the more reason to go away. These are family matters that have nothing to do with you. You and your Dad just got to nosy and now you think you're useful, but Isabelle will get her way, regardless of what you try."
"Let her try an' get past me. Just let her try. If she's as strong as you, she won't be much of a problem. Any minute now, you'll lose your grip on your sister's brain cells..."
A scream louder than anything I could've imagined my body was capable of releasing escaped from my lips. High-pitched and holding every ounce of terror I'd felt in the past few minutes with my sister. It felt as though someone had reached down into my throat and pressed the scream down into my stomach and was holding it there, then all at once they ripped their hand out and the scream broke loose. I covered my mouth, my eyes wide and I felt completely vulnerable. Camille jumped, then sucked her teeth in frustration as I felt Bobby's arms around me.
"You're alright. You're fine..." He murmured, cradling me in his arms. It was nice to be held, but I didn't want to be babied. I felt weak and defenseless in Camille's presence, and that was more than a little messed up. That wasn't me. I wasn't one to back down or get scared. And yet I was terrified. I wanted to shove Bobby away and smack Camille with as much strength as I could muster, but I couldn't bring any strength to any part of my body.
"Do what you want with the information, Maxi." Camille spat this out with such venom that I was fully convinced I was, and never had been, in the presence of my little sister, "But also know this. Unless Isabelle had something in store, she wouldn'tve had me to tell you all this. So absolutely anything could happen now. Things that not even Bobby the Brave here can protect you from."
The door opened, and then it slammed. And right then, I knew I never wanted to see my sister again. And I also knew why Bobby was so certain as to where I was supposed to be and that everything was going to somehow work out properly. He knew so much more than he let on. There was more to the portrait of the Morae family than I could see with my own eyes, secrets laced into every brush stroke. Secrets that I needed to find out.
--------
Camille disappeared from the resort. Absolutely no surprise there. One does not just divulge your master's entire plan and then stick around spits and giggles. No, Camille had vanished into thin air and left me with a chance to completely re-evaluate my life, thoughts, beliefs, and most importantly, game plan. But first there was damage control: regardless of whether Camille and Isabelle believed in the legacy or not, I did. And with more resolve than ever. And I had to keep the family in a state of sanity and instill trust in them that the legacy was going to continue no matter what. First was mom, whom I told everything. About the dreams, about my encounter with Camille, about Isabelle, and about the magic that was apparently surging inside me, and how Camille herself said that Bobby was the key to combating Camille's powers.
Mom looked at me with a tired expression when my spiel was done. The entire time she'd looked at me with no surprise in her expression. As if she knew already, or at the very least saw it coming. But the tiredness that I saw when I was done, could only show that she couldn't handle it. That'd this entire ordeal with the family, it's past secrets and the twisted family members coming back to bite us, was something she believed had been put behind her. Honestly, I didn't think she had the strength to move on in what little she had left of her life, let alone combat her psychotic grandmother.
"I can't believe this happened." My mother said bitterly.
The real question at hand, one that Bobby had yet to answer for me, was how exactly did this he know
anything about my family? How did he know that Camille's grip on me was going to break? How did Camille know to identify him as the ultimate reason why Isabelle hadn't gotten to me too?
"But I don't understand." I said, "I don't understand this...at all. I don't understand anything, and I do not like not understanding things. I hate not being in control of a situation I'm SUPPOSED to be controlling."
Giselle looked to Bobby, "I'm not sure. I...I just can't think about this anymore. I did what I could to protect you all, which wasn't much more than running away from Sunset Valley where this nonsense all started, but running from Isabelle never works. Somewhere inside I knew that, but I didn't want to embrace my own magic so I was defenseless. I couldn't save Camille---If anyone was going to be influenced of course it'd be her."
Her voice cracked and she bowed her head low, a few tears rolling down her pale cheeks, "She's always been so impressionable and sensitive. You and Ally...The two of you are my strong ones. You can fight your own battles, you can resist things that are obviously wrong. Same with your brothers, but Camille has always been so easily swayed! I had to watch her. I had to keep a close eye on her so that she wouldn't fall victim to the evil I knew was coming, but I still failed. And not only did I fail I...I made my own daughter believe I hated her."
Bobby stood quietly off to the side, and all I could do was stare at my mother as she lay out her insecurities and motives on the table; every last one of them was different than what I'd expected. And immediately I felt a level of loathing for myself that couldn't have been healthy. What...what was WRONG with me? How could I let some convoluted concoctions of my brain convince me that my own mother, who dedicated her life to caring for us, could hate me? How could I stoop so low as to think that and
smear her title as a mother?
"I get it..." I said quietly, holding my mother in a tight hug, "I...I understand. I just was really confused before and being manipulated. I know now that you couldn't hate anyone. Watcher, it's not even in your hard wiring to dislike anyone. For me to think you hated your own daughter was wrong of me."
Mom didn't say anything for a long while. We just stood there and hugged, and I thanked Watcher that Bobby was such a patient guy, to willing stand there and watch two women hug for somewhere close to five minutes. After we'd squeezed so hard that my arms began to hurt, I pulled away and smiled at my mother. 'I love you' I mouthed to her, then turned to Bobby.
"Let's keep this confession train going. What the heck do you know about my family and about Camille and Isabelle? Clearly you're some sort of...catalyst or something."
Bobby laughed a little, "Not a catalyst. Just one of many people who, over the generations, have been conditioned to know that their purpose is to protect this very delicate family line."
Purpose? How could anyone's purpose be to watch a single family? It made my stomach lurch to think that someone could actually be so brainwashed into thinking that one line of people trumped the whole of SimNation, including themselves.
"I find that hard to believe. Surely you have something else you could be doing right now? And you couldn'tve possibly known that my family was going to plop down here out of nowhere."
"No, I didn't. But certain families around town are aware that should any of the Moraes, any branch of the family, come into town there's a protocol to be followed depending on who it is. We predicted it to be some offshoot of the family line, but not a direct descendant. After Sunset Valley..." Bobby shook his head, "Point being, my dad and mom and I are the leaders of a sort of...secret service group specifically for your family. My dad and I especially because of what we are."
"What are you exactly? And why are you supposed to be protecting me?" I said, my tone wrought with frustration. I didn't like being protected when I could protect myself. I didn't want to be treated like some national treasure when I was just a random brunette with a thing for clothing and make up.
Bobby moved closer to me and took my hands, and suddenly I was calmed. Quieted. My mind and heart at ease and a level of trust in this man that was unnatural. Bobby and I, by this point my life, were very close. But where was that sense of contentment coming from? So immediate and sudden. It wasn't normal or natural, it couldn't be.
My voice came out quiet, "....what are you?"
He smiled, "Your protector. That's my title. And I hold it with pride."
I shook my head, "I can't let you be that. I'm not
going to. This is my family and my responsibility. I'm supposed to be their protector."
"Then let someone keep an eye on you so that you're around long enough to keep an eye on them."
"But who says YOU are that person? Who has the authority to command someone else to be someone's protector?! Who can just steal your freedom like that?! Who is it? Please, let me punch them in the face."
Bobby just smiled at me with an expression of amusement, "An organization that cares very much about the well-being of your family line. Isabelle is no joke, Max. But history has shown us that it takes a Morae to beat a Morae, and without someone watching out over you there won't be anymore Moraes."
I let out a small sigh of defeat, leaning in close to him and letting our foreheads rest together. It was clear there was no fighting this. But all things considered, Bobby would be my first choice as a 'protector' "My name is Delacour."
"But you're every bit a Morae. Don't worry about it. When it becomes necessary for you to know more, I'll tell you more. But right now, let's just call it a day and get you focused on finding you and your family a place to live."
-----
Fast forward to a week later. The house hunt was entirely miserable. With Bobby's connections we were able to get a discounted rate to continue to stay at Riverblossom, for which I was appreciative because it was beginning to look like we were going to be there for a while. The extent of my protector's duties really was restricted to within the resort, as the only other place I went to was the salon which was less than a mile from the resort. And his duties? Well...
Nothing seemed to change. When he used the term 'protector', the image of a knight in silver armor astride a white horse with a polearm sitting at my window and confessing his undying devotion to me came to mind. Thankfully it wasn't anything so dramatic, but nothing between us seemed to change. It was as though just being around me was how he was doing his job. And I began to wonder what was meant by the term 'protector'. Not that I asked.
I was more concerned with why his mere presence kept me completely at ease. With Camille gone and no longer manipulating my brain to dream up such horrible things, my fear of sleep lessened significantly. But when it came time to curl up in the bed and shut off the lights, I found myself tossing and turning because that familiar calming presence was not in my room, but rather, was downstairs closing down the pool area for the night. I was restless. But, without fail, whenever he and I spent the night outside and passing out in deck chairs, I slept like a baby. I did not understand it. At all.
"Watcher above, you're slow. You're in love with Bobby."
Allete got the full explanation of what had happened and the position the family was in, and after she went off about betrayal on Camille's part, she'd narrowed in on my inability to sleep without Bobby nearby. And rather than a logical, sound explanation, she threw the 'L' word at me.
"I am not." I snapped back at her, "I am not, I am not. I am not."
"You sound like a five year old." Allete took a sip of her pineapple juice and made a face before sitting it back down on the table and pushing it away, "There's nothing wrong with being in love, Maxime. In fact, that's what you are supposed to do as the heir. Fall in love, get married, produce an heir. And quite frankly, you're already significantly behind. You're half of the way to adulthood. If you continue to postpone this, you'll be taking care of a teenage child as an elder."
I let out a groan, not wanting to admit to her or to myself that she was absolutely right. About what I was supposed to be doing and how I'd yet to do any of it. I hadn't even been on date! My last date was prom which was 3 days before my Young Adult birthday.
"Yeah but..." I let out a sigh, "....Bobby? Really?"
Alette shook her head as I gazed off in another direction, listening but not at the same time"What's obvious to others may not be to you. But if it's any consolidation at all, the man is nuts about you. He has been ever since we got here."
I leaned forward in my seat, "He's protecting me."
"He is. But it also happens to be a convenient excuse to be around you."
"He's not like that! If he's feeling something or wants something, he just...says it. Or does something about it." I slid down in my seat a bit, letting my mind cycle through all the things it had logged away about my friend, "Bobby's a firm believer in taking action and doing things well. If he wanted something, he'd go for it. The only way he'd refrain from something is if he...didn't feel it was his place to do so."
Alette placed her cheek in her hand and gazed at me, amusement glimmering in her eyes, "Oh how oblivious you are. Think of all the fairytales we read as children, Maxi. When the guard was in love with the beautiful princess, he couldn't just go into her chamber and tell her. Because it wasn't his place. Don't you see Bobby's in the exact same situation? He's your guard, your knight in shining armor and he's putting his duties before his own feelings as he believes he should because you're...the ultimate thing worth guarding in his mind. And that trumps everything."
I felt my stomach flipping and flopping all around my insides. I'd considered myself to be such a smart and intuitive girl, when in reality, there were a few things that just flew over my head completely: matters of the heart being one of them. The more my sister explained, the more obvious it became. But at the same time, I was terrified at the idea: what if she was wrong? What if she was reading to hard into the situation and I was being dragged along with the idea of it? If Alette was wrong, what disastrous results would come from my saying anything to Bobby? Bobby was NOT by any means below me. I was no unapproachable Princess in a grande castle who couldn't be told a person's true feelings. The idea that he could ever believe that was so...it made me mad. So mad to think that somehow I had put that idea in his head or given off that vibe...or that whoever it was who tasked him with watching over me made it so clear that it wasn't his place, and if I had just not existed at all, that person who commanded him would have left him alone and he could have lived a happy life and married some pretty girl and had kids like any person as decent and wonderful as Bobby should have!
He was making coffee for the lobby when he noticed me and set the tray down with a small smile. It faded soon after he saw what I could only assume was a disconcerting look on my face, "You...alright, Max? Did something happen?"
I wasn't sure how. I wasn't sure when. But somewhere in my flurry of thoughts and doubts and feelings, I'd left the table and sought out the man who cluttered up a very large portion of my brain. Why? I can't even begin to say. My body did the walking, not my brain. And when my brain caught up, it didn't know what to do with the situation.
"I uh...Um...I--" I just looked at him. I noted the concern in his eyes and the patience he had to wait there for me to string a few words together. But I couldn't manage it.
He smiled then, and laughed a little before taking my hands, "Did you forget to turn your brain on this morning, Ms. Delacour?"
His touch. His voice. That accent and the dumb question he asked in that accent all seemed to send a rush of life back into my body and I smiled a bit at him, almost laughed. I didn't tell him what I talked to Alette about. I just asked him one very simple question.
"Bobby, will you marry me?"
For the first time since I'd met him, he looked completely and utterly shocked. Clueless and perplexed and having no clue how he was supposed to react. I knew his insides had to be raging. His job of 'protecting' vs. his desire to actually be with me went to arms when I asked that question. And the war was raging on for way to long.
"That's the part where you say yes." I urged him, holding his hands tighter.
He choked out a laugh, "Yeah but---That's generally my job. You know...the whole proposal bit. I'm supposed to be the one who drops down on one knee and asks that question."
"Forget traditional. Say yes and let's go ring shopping." I said, leaning in close to him with an excited smile and a strong urge to press my lips to his. But I wouldn't unless he said yes.
"Yeah. What the hey. I'll marry you." He snatched a kiss of my lips.
And just like that, I was engaged and taking the next step towards the rest of my life....our life, I guess, since Bobby is now officially a part of the picture.
=====
If it wasn't obvious, Camille is the 'Puppet Master'
I always worry if my titles make sense.
