Chapter 2 - Part 13: Simple Machines

Morand had almost finished his painting, a reflection of death and timelessness, when the paintbrush dropped from his hand and a strange feeling came over him.


A tingly feeling started creeping up his body as he started seeing stars.  What is happening to me?, he thought, when he realized that if something was wrong, no one was home to help him.  It wasn't necessarily pain he felt throughout his body, but nevertheless it was a cause for concern.


It's when he felt his feet lift off the ground that he realized something was terribly wrong.

The words were out of his mouth before he realized he'd thought them, "I'm dying," he said.


His only regret was that he was unable to say goodbye to his family.  They would come home to find his grave lying coldly on the floor.  

However, he didn't go to the afterlife a sad man.  Yes, he'd had his fair share of tragedy and loneliness, but the love he felt for his family, his children and grandchildren, made him the happiest man in the world.


Morand's urn was placed in the study among his other trophies and accolades.  He had lived to be 120 days old, far longer than anyone expected.  The house didn't seem the same without him, hobbling about, helping the kids with their school work or standing at his easel working on the next great masterpiece painting.


Faith took the loss of her father especially hard.  She stayed strong in front of her family, but at night when she was unable to sleep she would find herself standing in his room, unable to cope.


She was an orphan now.  Her whole life she'd been without a mother, now she was without her father as well.  Never did she think he'd live forever, but imagining of a day far off in the future when he'd be gone was so much easier than having it be now, in the present.

Now there were all the details to take care of.


Flora had been simply going through the motions the last few days.  She, too, was hit hard by the loss of her grandfather.  He had been the one she could talk to about anything when her mom was too busy with work and gardening or her dad was down in the basement, or mysteriously not down in the basement.


She was snapped back to reality by her brother's voice.  

"You know that mom and dad are away for a few days, visiting with grandpa's family in Sunset Brook or Twin Valley or wherever it was he moved here from," Vincent told her the morning after their parents left.


She tried not to let her brother's attitude bring her down even further, "Yeah, what about it?" she responded.

"Well..." he started.  "Why don't we have ourselves a little party?" he asked.  "Let's invite some people over after school, have some music, some dancing, it would be just what grandpa would have wanted," he finished.


"That's a terrible idea," Julius said from the kitchen as he grabbed himself a bowl of cereal.  "You want to honor grandpa's memory by defiling the house with a bunch of rowdy teenagers?  Terrible."


"Are you kidding?" Vincent challenged, "I think it's exactly what grandpa would have wanted.  Life is for the living, Jules!" his brother argued.

Julius concentrated on his bowl of cereal for a moment.  "I just don't know," he finally replied, "I don't think mom and dad would be too happy about it."


"I'll handle Mom and Dad," Flora spoke up.  "You guys won't have to worry about anything."


Julius's cereal got caught in his throat as he choked out, "What?  You think this is a good idea?"


"While I don't think Vincent's motives were to throw a party specifically in remembrance of grandpa, I do think it's something that he would have liked.  You know how he loved parties and dancing.  I think he'd have had a lot of fun," she replied.

"Fine," Julius said.  "Have your party, but I'm not getting in trouble."


Flora already had her invitation list made out, it only consisted of one name.


When they got home from school that afternoon, Flora was in for a bit of a shock.

"Vincent!  What did you do?!" she asked her brother in disbelief.


Wondering how they were going to explain the new decor to their parents, Flora just shook her head.

"Just remember," Julius said, "I had nothing to do with this."


However, once the others arrived, it took all of two minutes for Julius to get into the idea.  The music was pumping, the effects machines were effecting and everyone was having a great time.


Vincent was getting some quality face time in with Julianne Ash, one of the prettiest girls in school.  He generally didn't have any trouble getting girls to talk to him, but for some reason she made him a bit nervous.  

It wasn't until after he'd spent some time talking to her that he found out her father was a Vampire, which only intrigued him more.

"Why aren't you a Vampire, then?" he asked the girl.

She laughed at him, "Because you aren't born a Vampire, dolt.  You have to be turned by one."


"You came!" squealed Flora as Drake walked into the house.

"Ta-da," he said, smiling at her.


She could barely contain her nerves as she talked to him, "I wasn't sure you'd come.  I know you don't do anything school related, not that this is a school event, but you know..."

"I have been to so many proms and field trips I stopped counting, and then stopped attending," he said with a heavy sigh, "I am forced to go the school every day because it is required by law for someone my age.  I wish my kind would be exempt, but then again, sometimes some good comes from it," he smiled at her.


The party raged on, everyone having an amazing time.


Flora and Drake were also having fun, as she rolled her eyes and pointed out her brother Julius's attempt at dancing.


To which he was completely oblivious of.


"I'm really glad you came," Flora said to the Vampire.

He smiled and nodded to her, "I am glad I came as well."


As she excused herself for a moment, Vincent jumped into action and asked to speak to the Vampire outside.

"I wanted to talk to you for a minute, if you don't mind," Vincent asked the man.

Drake looked at the boy for what seemed a very long time, "Alright," was his only response.


"I'm curious," Vincent started, "I know that you have to be turned into a Vampire, but how does something like that happen?  How does one become immortal, like you?" he asked eagerly.


He could tell that the Vampire was put off by the question.

"Why do you ask me this?" Drake replied.  "If you have any ideas or curiosities about what it is to live this curse, put them out of your head right now.  I would not wish this life on my worst enemy," the Vampire replied coldly.


Vincent wasn't to be dissuaded though, "But you see, I don't think it would be a curse!  Imagine all the incredible things you could do without the constraint of a mortal lifespan!  Tell me, how does one become a Vampire?" he asked again, a tinge of desperation in his voice, when they were interrupted.


"I'm not sure what you guys are doing out here," Flora said as she turned to Drake, "but you've got to go.  I just got a call from a neighbor who told me they're calling the police because of the noise.  I don't want you to get in trouble."

Drake nodded, "Thank you," he said as he looked at Vincent, "remember what I said.  It is not for you."


Everyone took off in different directions, luckily before the cops arrived.  Since no law breaking was found, only a warning was issued...


...and a mess to clean up.





OUTTAKES
Julius and his Donkey Ears
The Reaper was too menacing for this chapter, but I thought this picture was cool.
Even in death Morand wanted to sleep in his own bed.


Title / Jim Thompson

14 comments:

  1. CHALLENGE NOTES:

    SO SAD about Morand, it really is odd playing the house without him there. I've been playing him since mid-JUNE. =(

    The party was fun though and took my mind off it. however, I'm going to be putting up his remembrance page next, so keep an eye out for that. *sob*

    The twins are just TOO CUTE for their own good...

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  2. I love the whole chapter and I will miss poor geeky Morand. =(

    The house looks incredible. Yeesh. I love how the ceiling looks with that green wallpaper.

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  3. Oh no, poor Morand... Although he apparently was reaaally old (you wrote something about 120 years/days?)
    Using his death as an "excuse" for the party is a nice idea :D and the party itself seems to have been a blast,too. I am a little worried about Vincent being that interested in vampirism and how to become a vampire. At the same time I somehow want Flora and Drake to get closer - he is still a teen, right? So that could happen...technically...(Sometimes I am incredibly dumb,sorry about that, but I can't remember - are vampires really stuck in the same age? Or do they age up after a longer time? I really don't remember that..) And IF both of them age up eventually, they could have reaally cute babies... I'll stop thinking here and see where the next chapters take us.

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  4. aww, poor Morand. He was such a great character.
    And yeah, really looking forward to seeing what happens with Flora and Drake. And Vincent's desire to be a vampire.

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  5. Thanks for the comments guys!

    Amhranai: The default for vampires is that they age very slowly, however in my game I have them set to never age (as is the lore in most vampire worlds). And that has been the struggle with the teen Drake... =)

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  6. Aw Morand :[

    Julius and his donkey ears are just too cute. Everyone in this family is so likable :]

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  7. So sad to lose Morand. I'm glad his last thoughts were of how happy his life turned out. I still have trouble NOT thinking of him as a tragic guy, but it doesn't really fit with his great relationship with his children and grandchildren.

    And 120 days! I know you were messing around with the lifespan, but that's a dang long time. My current legacy patron is pushing 100, and he and his wife are both vegetarians, and apparently vegetarians can live *15* days longer than normal Sims. That's rough on a legacy household. My house is stuffed with three generations, and it's starting to look likely that he'll see a great-grandchild!

    I think setting vampires not to age at all is exactly the way I would want my vampires in most stories. It does seem surprisingly problematical for a teen vampires in a Sims game because SO MUCH of the flow is based on making babies. But that just underscores what Drake loses by being frozen as a teen. I'm intrigued. It looks like Drake may be around for many generations to come.


    I'm considering dipping my toe into Late Night, but I have read a lot of legacy blogs where almost literally half the populace has been turned by the end of the founder's life. That seems like it would wreck the whole idea. I hope Twallan's mods have good options to fix this, since I'm running them too.

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  8. Hi Susan!! I'm not sure if you check back for replies, but I'll give it a shot anyway. =)

    I, also, wondered if Morand lasted 20 days over my lifespan because of all the fiddling I did with it. But he was also a MAJOR exerciser, he would autonomously work-out until he was fatigued (on the "Pacing Yourself" setting), so I wonder if it had to do with that as well.

    The non-aging thing is certainly an issue, plot wise. I'm trying to think of ways of making it work without resorting to teen-pregnancy or Adult/Teen relationships. =) (Which worked for Interview /w A Vampire, but not-so-much here). We'll just have to see!

    As far as vamps overrunning your town, Twallan definitely has measures in place so that it doesn't happen, plus, you can always change people back to human very easily if you see too many. I like that a lot.

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  9. I do check back for replies!

    Hmmm. It wouldn't be unreasonable for exercise to affect lifespan, though if that's true my athletic vegetarian patron may NEVER DIE....

    Since Drake is an ancient soul trapped in a teen body, a teen/adult relationship wouldn't be too hard to justify, but I admit that I've been reluctant to enable teen woohoo or adult/teen relationships myself. I enjoy some of the innocence built into the base game.

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  10. Haha, sounds like you are in for the long-haul with your elder!

    I agree about the innocence. I'll go canon for some "lore", but still like to keep general stuff within typical gameplay. We'll see how it all plays out. You never know what can happen! hehe

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  11. Okay, thanks for explaining that to me! So that means they will never have babies together? That's so sad... :(

    By the way, reading great legacies like this one made me start a story myself. I wanted to do a legacy, but couldn't decide between my two founders. So right now it is more of a story. Check it out, if you want - that would be great! (Just started)
    http://amhranais-sunset-valley.blogspot.com/

    (Oh, and as soon as I found out how to put links on my blog, I will link your legacy ;) )

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  12. Awwww... RIP Morand! He had quite a life, though.

    I can see Vincent going the vampire route, though he should learn from Drake's experience and at least wait until he's a young adult!

    I love the picture of the reaper. Very creepy!

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  13. *Cries* RIP Morand! I will certainly miss his touching scenes with his children and grandchildren.

    Flora and Drake...*sigh* I love it so much but I know it's doomed. Crap, Crap, Crap.

    Vincent's conversation with Drake was VERY intriguing. I can only imagine where that is going.

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  14. Oh I'm going to miss Morand, he was such a great founder. But at least he led a good, long life. Still makes me sad that he isn't going to be around, though. :(

    I can see Vincent is meant to be the hot twin, but Julius is WAY too cute, bless him. :D And I'm loving the Flora/Drake scenes, but I'm bracing myself for the inevitable.

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