29 ~ Not My Lobster
by Meadowlark Branch
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We all sort of muddled through the days after Heron’s death. Arthur deals with everything by dancing, so of course that’s what he did. Sometimes I envy his ability to process his emotions in a healthy way.
Even after the mourning moodlets went away, though, we all felt like it was time to bring some new life into the family. (And I’m not talking about me and Arthur having a baby because we are still teens and I am terrified and I don’t want to think about it yet.)
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So Granny Starling decided to bring in the next generation a little early. Meet Wesley. And dwell on this picture for as long as you can, because things go right back to being sad in a second.
My parents hadn’t been speaking to each other for a while, after Mom found out that Dad was cheating on her with Granny Starling. Starling had been locked away in her flat, only leaving to perform essential duties (like cloning). We were all hoping that things would start to get better between my parents, and me more than anyone. It’s been really stressful having my parents in a fight for most of my life.
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But I guess my mom had other plans. One evening, after she got home from work, she stomped up to my dad out of the blue and told him that their relationship was over.
“I’m done,” she said. “I’m glad there’s now a locked door between you and your paramour, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re a cheater. I’m not interested in fixing this relationship. It’s over.”
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“W-What?” said Dad. “You’re divorcing me?”
“That's right. The odds are extremely small that we’ll ever be able to recover from this now that our relationship bar is in the red,” said Mom, lapsing into logic mode. “I’ve been thinking about this systematically and this is clearly the sensible choice. This marriage just isn’t going to work after what you’ve done.”
“But--”
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“No buts, Conrad. You cheated on me, and therefore, this marriage is over.”
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No one was expecting that. Arthur just kept on dancing through the horror of it all.
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I know
I never expected that of my mom. She’s the smartest woman in Hidden Springs, and probably the strongest too, so...I mean, she knows what she’s doing. But I think she still loves my dad underneath her cool-as-a-cucumber all-knowing-doctor exterior. Maybe I’ll never know why she decided to divorce him.
Although, as much as I hate it...maybe it was for the best. I overheard my dad implying that my mom’s mother is a llama. And like...that’s not very nice.
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“You’re calling my mother a llama?!” my mom yelled. “My mother is a goldfinch, you idiot! How much more obvious can it be?!”
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I just tried to focus on my schoolwork, on my magic, and on little baby Wesley, whose quiet coos made me feel all squishy inside. Maybe having a baby one day won’t be so bad.
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Dad went off to work the next day, and he didn’t come back for a couple days.
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We later found out that he was sleeping at the barracks. Utterly alone, with no coworkers around or anything. I think it was probably good that he stayed away from the house for a little while.
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He lived on conjured apples and just took some time for himself. Maybe he was starting to regret everything he'd done to ruin his marriage. We may never know.
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It was almost time for my birthday, and Arthur’s too. And probably Shanta’s. The three of us spent quite a lot of time together. Personally, I felt pretty awkward whenever I walked into a room with just the two of them, since they were romantic interests with each other and I wasn’t a romantic interest with anyone yet. Arthur and I had flirted a lot, but we weren’t official or anything. When we’d talked before, Arthur had seemed excited about the three of us kind of all being together...but I just kept thinking about jealousy and getting really nervous.
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A couple days before our birthday, Arthur took me out on a date to Starlight Picnic Park. (We’d both been wanting to go on a date with each other for a while even though we hadn’t talked about it.)
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He held my hands for the first time and talked about how we were going to be young adults soon, and eventually, we would have to start a family together--when we were ready.
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I was really nervous about all of this, so I quickly conjured an apple to calm myself down.
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Once he saw that I was calm, Arthur kissed me for the first time ever. And wow, is he a Great Kisser! I felt less nervous after that. I just had the happy kind of butterflies. At least I know that I’ll always have Arthur, even if I can’t have Shanta in the same way.
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Wesley’s birthday came around. Nobody except Granny Starling knew what he was going to look like.
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But before Wesley could age up, the cake burst into flames! Dad and I both came to the rescue with our ice blast spells, which was pretty cool. We both had the same idea at the same time, and together, we put out the fire! Dad and I still aren’t friends, but it was nice to do something together for once.
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The firefighter got here just as Goldfinch set up the second cake. He was very confused.
“You managed to put out the fire without a fire extinguisher? How’d you do that, magic??”
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Well, here’s little Wesley. He’s quite adorable, I have to say! Wesley has a Good Sense of Humor and he Loves the Outdoors, and he likes Latin music, fruit parfait, and the color green.
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In the last couple of days before my birthday, I spent a lot of time practicing my magic. The birthday cake fire incident made me nervous, but also made me proud because I helped solve a scary problem. I decided I wanted to be a better witch in general, and for that, I needed practice. So I practiced my conversion ritual over and over and over again, under the supervising eye of my mother. My favorite conversion was when I turned a special seed into a lobster named Pamela (she now lives in a fish bowl in the living room).
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After a while, I leveled up in witchitude, and I was able to challenge my father to a duel! I defeated him every single time. It could have been the Good Luck Charm I placed on myself beforehand...or maybe I’m just a better witch than I thought I was? I hope it’s the latter.
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On the night of the full moon, one of the zombies that spawned on our lot died of old age. I didn’t even know zombies
could die.
For some reason this was so interesting to me that I actually felt brave enough to talk to the Grim Reaper. I wondered if maybe talking to death would make me less afraid of it.
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“Hi, Mr. Reaper. My name is Meadowlark Branch, and I am not afraid of you!”
“Great, another little birdie to evade my capture. Aren’t you going to spend the next few centuries strung out on ambrosia? Why would you be afraid of me?”
“Um...oh yeah.”
Well, he’s still creepy. And not very nice. But at least I don’t pass out every time I see him like my grandmother does.
Notes from a shell-shocked watcher- I had no idea that playable Sims could autonomously break up with their partners! Especially spouses. So when Chickadee up and divorced Conrad out of nowhere...well, just imagine me shrieking “Wait, WHAT?!?” a few dozen times as I watched it all unfold. I wonder if it had something to do with the “Betrayed” moodlet that Chickadee had had for a few days by this point. When she broke up with Conrad, she only had a couple hours left on the moodlet. *shrug* Otherwise I have no idea why this happened.
- Fun fact: Chickadee’s autonomous breakup actually happened twice. My game crashed shortly after the breakup, and when I loaded up the game again to a few hours earlier, I was curious to see if she would do it again. She did. Right around the same time. So I guess she really did mean it.
- After the breakup, Conrad had the “Heart Broken” moodlet. Chickadee had no negative moodlets. However, they both rolled the wish to befriend each other soon after, so I hope there’s some room for reconciliation in the future. In the meantime, I’m caught between being proud of Chickadee for taking matters into her own hands, and being very very sad that this happened at all. I really thought the drama for this generation was over but I GUESS NOT LOL
- I love that whenever a witch does the conversion ritual and turns something into a fish, the fish always has a name. Meadowlark also encountered a shark named Brandy and a fairy damsel named Helen. But Pamela the Lobster won the privilege of being kept in a fish bowl until she inevitably dies of starvation. Sorry in advance, Pamela.
- I am very upset that the zombie that died on our lot did not retain her zombie form after death. I mean, a ghost zombie? Can you think of anything cooler? I can’t.
Okay maybe a fire fairy ghost.
