Chapter 21: To the Sims, to make much of TimeMom came into my room last night, when she thought I was asleep; something about her glowed, sending shimmering auroras on the walls. Everything was pearlescant, opalescent, in the light of her. Like a moon.
She thought I was asleep, and she sat on the edge of my bed. I wanted to move, but something about her face, pale and drawn as it looked through the bars of my eyelashes, made me want to say still.
Something must have shaken her up pretty bad, and her and Uriel whispered for a little while -- and I couldn't tell if they were happy or sad. I think something unseen, something hidden, may have hurt her. That's exactly why they should be hidden things, not one bit. I want to show them that light -- I want them to be seen in that immortal light.
Anyway, she sat there for a while, and patted the edge of my foot, and eventually smiled again. I closed my eyes for a moment, and when I opened them again, she was gone. And it was morning.
In the morning, she cheerfully informed us that she had achieved her objective. Hooray!
Oh, but she wasn't the only one celebrating. Because it was graduation day for all of us Seraphim/Joys.
So we all piled together in the motive mobile to head to city hall.
Reed was voted most Artistic (hey, I wanted that one!)
I did, however, get to be Valedictorian and “most likely to offend others.” What exactly do they mean by that? I don't go around offending people willy-nilly! They just can't handle my brilliant and creative insight. I mean, maybe I made paintings of my teachers with something red coating their hands and body and all those knives... But it's not my fault if everyone gets hot and bothered when I'm just trying to teach the dangers of cutting the crusts off a pomegranate jelly sammich!
Poor Evanthe -- being seen as a loser all through high school means she just graduates without any sort of award.
"But no more school! No more society, pulling the free-thinker down with their bad vibe merchant indoctrination!"
"But Aster... Don't you still have jobs to do? With clients?" Reed points out.
"...And they will accept my far-out stylings. SURE AS THIS DIPLOMA LANDS BACK IN MY HAND, ALL THE TOWN SHALL SUBMIT TO THE ARCHITECTURE OF ASTER!"
"Now, see," Daddy says to the air (and probably Uriel, unless maybe he's talking to the invisible pink unicorn),
"Is *your* influence.""Feh.""... Is there a reason nothing involving my daughter can be because of me? Well, dears?"Mom pipes up, chuckling.
"You know...The first step.... I'm going to add another floor to the house!"
"...Oh my. Uriel?" Mom asks, her hand at her mouth.
"I'll keep things restrained."
Uriel recomends against neon-purple spires to the sky for some reason, possibly involving physics.
But he does let me add a third floor with some new balconies. We need a place for Evanthe's fishing, and little pets are the newest fad, and I personally want to see a descendant in a lab one day!
I may talk Mom into maybe reducing the number of ponds and moving her garden -- there's just a need for new yardspace, you know?
But later. I think as happy as Mom is for her immortality, the fact of the matter is is... Everyone else is still enduring time, and Daddy and Aunt Elaine won't live forever. Mom's friends are starting to die, too.
Even the plants die, leaving her crying. My poor Momma.
I don't know if it's just to comfort Elaine or Mom or what -- but Reed's started painting our new Sim Gnubb set in everyone's favorite colors. Two Whites and Two Blacks, for Mom and him and Daddy and I. One Grey, for Evanthe. One pink, for Aunt Elaine. And one last white one...
"Is that one for Norman, kiddo?""Even if I didn't know him really, growing up and all... He's my grandfather. He's part of this family."That man. <3
”That reminds me of somebody…Thinking of someone?”“Maaaaaybe….”
”Aww. Why don’t we keep that one in your bedroom?...And maybe one day you can make a real portrait of him?”“You really think we can get the king of the martians here?”
”What?”“Wait, what are you talking about?”
”Nevermind, Princess…”"...Maybe I should paint a portrait of Reed. He's been so sweet, lately. And the king of the martians does have his hair color."
Anyway, Mom's been soothing her worries by her and Dad, as Mom likes to say, 'gathering their rosebuds while they may.'
Silly parents! Ice Cream, even at midnight, are not rosebuds. The ice cream truck only passes by our house at midnight -- is it a ghost ice cream truck? Does the ice cream taste of ectoplasm?
...Oh. Ooooh.
Apparently 'rosebuds' is code for other, less family-friendly, things. Who knew?
Well, there are plenty of rosebuds for them to gather, then.
"That's not what that phrase means, honey! It's from a poem about seizing the day! The times you enjoy the most...Can be so short if you don't act on them.""Oh. Well, I guess I better gather my own rosebuds, then!"
...
"...Ariel, did you just unleash a force of pure chaos again?""Well, at least it's not my responsibility anymore."
And I get to work on my own flowers-of-choice (maybe Asters? Wait. I have gathered all the Asters that I know of. Mission accomplished?)! By painting my favorite man. And hitting level 4 of my career. Architectural design = world's easiest job.
"Arrrriiiieeeel! The madness is spreading! He's made pancakes, but he's not holding any pancakes!""And this is my problem? I've done my part, Uriel. I'm going to go play in the sprinklers.""Retirement agrees with you a little too well there, Sugarlips."In-between my busy painting, I find time for dinner with my favorite people in the worlds.
"So, it looks like I got promoted again! Do you think my paintbrush contains a tiny spy camera, so they know what I'm doing? ...Like a spy... I wonder what sort of drink a paintbrush-wielding spy drinks; do you think they do cherry nectar, stirred, not shaken, with giant red plumes of flames?"
"Eh, it seems unlikely... I mean, do you think either of us could have the attention span to be spies?" Reed points out.
Evanthe changes the subject.
"Ok, I'm going to use this baseball I've always had even just once before I die...Or I will go completely fruit loops.""I guess that's why people have kids; to further dynasties or play baseball."
Those things are probably of about equal importance.
Reed and I spend our after-dinner time cuddling outside on the grass, under the stars. No matter what happens, we'll always have time for each-other...
I wonder if he's thinking about marrying me soon.
If he's not, maybe I should just get a puppy! The Coulters called me to say that they have some for adoption. I'll go check it out!
"Umm...Maybe if you...I mean, maybe tomorrow we...""She's gone, kiddo. If you want to say something, you may want say it when she's...you know. On the lot.""I know..."Ok, so newsflash -- those puppies were terrible. They were all really aggressive. But hey -- Ann's my friend, so I can at least hang around and talk to her, right?
...Orrrr not. I mean, when it's too awkward for me, that's a special sort of awkward. Better just let her take care of business.
When I get home, Evanthe's apparently finished her 25th ice sculpture. Which means something we've been waiting for is ready to happen.
"I'm sooo happy your dad let me do this for you. I really...wanted to add something to this project.""You have, silly! You're my best friend... Don't think that any sculptures or fish will ever matter more than that."
"Hey, Ariel...I had a question. You're such a reader; does this city of angels have books?""Of course! The silver city is home to a good many poets and writers who would come to write of us, though they'd already done it from their perspective...
And from our perspective those books hadn't been written and the poets hadn't been born...
But somehow, all the same, they're in the city because spacetime...""Ariel, I'm not sure I needed an explanation that involves physics.""But everyone needs an explanation that involves temporal physics!""...Is this why Reed's homework always had comments on it like 'theoretical physics is not in the curriculum'? Ariel.""Heh-heh-heh...Learning is fun? Well, anyway, we had a lot of books, some of which will never be written. But books that have been written and actually exist -- those are much more exciting!"And they say I'm the crazy one.
A new Arcade opened up in town, and Reed and I decided to go out and see it.
"Don't worry. I checked them rose-dwelling tragedy parasites for you.""Did you look for the moment where roses wilt and it makes you worry about your relationship, so you toss them away?"
"Yeah, Aster... I looked. It's not there.""Yaaaay!"
And Evanthe and Ross decide to head out on a trip to the diner, too. It was meant to be a date, but for some reason...
It just ended up as them hanging out.
Maybe it's because he talked about benches. Benches = unromantic topic.
And Mom drops off some fruit for Ms. Shelley and reminisces at length about her days as a desk jockey. I hope I don't have her bad luck with skill opportunities.
Now, Reed and I have some interest in furniture...But it's not that sort of thing.
It's much better, sitting there in his arms, feeling his hands like gold sunbeams on my neck, my shoulder, wrapping around my waist. The couch's barrier is liquid and for a moment there I am alive in a sea of his kisses, his whispers in my ear, crowding out all the noises --
the never-were sounds and the cries of broken machinery and the soft sounds that light and pigment make --
And I realize that I don't know how to make this never stop, as it all blurs together in my head.
I pull myself aside and have a talk.
"How do I do that? How do I do it? Maybe if I painted a portrait -- I mean, another portrait -- only this one contained his soul and then I built a cage around the portrait and then his soul would stay in this moment and I'd be real for him and our bodies could just keep going and it wouldn't matter at all!...Or is it the other way around, and the paintings would..."
"Princess, sweetie...Little logistics question: if you're trying to preserve the feeling of a moment, why did you interrupt it by going to do this?" "Ahh! You're right! Stupid-Stupid-Stupid! Ree-eed!"
But...It's not like Evanthe's date is going any better. In fact, it's going worse. For whatever reason, Ross refuses to kiss her.
So instead she goes off to fish, and I can't blame her. I can't imagine what it's like, to have the person you care about most refuse to kiss you, for no good reason.
... Actually I can, and it's scary.
Reed and I end up going to the roof for a while -- they have a deck there, and we can watch the stars like we did as teenagers. The stars still seem so close, next to him, glittering like diamonds...
Like diamonds...
An idea dawns, and I push aside the six other ideas buzzing in my head.
"Reed. Reed. There's something...I had an idea."
"An idea?"I find something in my pocket -- I guess there are unseen things that want to help, too.
"An idea. I love you, Reed...And...I want us to be happy like this for as long as we can..."
"Aster...Are you saying..."The perfect solution; all of time crystallized so I could know it.
"Reed Joy...Will you marry me?"
"I was going to ask...I mean, eventually...I..." He gives up and lets the excitement take him.
"Yesyesyesyesyes! Yes!"
"Good. I don't know what I'd have done if you would have said no."
"I'm sure you would have thought of something, my lovely bride-to-be. You always do."After all, there are only so many stars I can watch with Reed. But I'll want to, even long after the stars have lost their glow.
Gather your stardust while ye may.
Aster Seraphim's RequirementsLifetime Wish: Living in the Lap of LuxuryCareer: Architect
Supermax Skill: Painting
Building, Property: Hogan's Deep-Fried Diner, Romper Recreational Park
LTR: Observant, Attractive, Extra CreativeBest Friends: Ariel Seraphim, Reed Joy, Evanthe Seraphim, Ann Coulter
Black Ops: When Dream Come True, Scavenger Hunt: Rare Elements, A fishy science project, Outside Reading
Portraits: Toddler, Child, Teenager, YA
Sculptures/Photos: Child (sculp), Teen (sculp), YA (sculpt)
