Take Me to the Moon 4.6: An Old Soul

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(Reader, please humor me as we take an eventful side-trip to the in-laws, the Goth household, and venture further into the Game Aware Sims subplot while there.  Although some of these characters are now revealed to be more game aware, we will return to our regularly scheduled programming with more oblivious sims, next week.)

Alexander, intrigued, followed Mortimer Goth to the roof.

While playing chess, Alexander had described to his dad how he and Delaney had started wondering about whether other places where even "out there" or not.  He told him that even some of their memories, seemed gone.   Cacey's departure from everywhere had opened their eyes.  Now they realized they knew so little. 

Mortimer held up his hand to stop Alexander.  "This discussion warrants a  more epic backdrop.  And better lighting.   To the roof!"

"I knew you would wonder one day," Mortimer told Alexander.

"What do you mean, dad?"

"Alexander, there's no easy way to say this, and you'll have to figure it out for yourself, for the most part.  But it wouldn't be right for me to leave without letting you in on some things I've learned.  It's up to you to believe it or not.  It's up to you to see if you can find it in yourself to remember or even discover."

"Dad, what in the world are you talking about?!"  Alexander was aggravated and concerned.  Had his dad gone mad, or worse, was he part of a horrible conspiracy?

"Where to start, what to say?" Mortimer muttered to himself.

"Well, I'm what you might call an Old Soul.  And even when I was your age, I was old.  Of course, I was never your age, not in this existence...  Well... "

"Dad, you are not making any sense at all.  What do you mean, this existence?!"

"Be patient.  I'm just struggling with which part to tell you first.  But I have to figure out how to say this, find the words."

"From my experiences, I have become convinced that there is a personal force that determines much of what happens in this reality.  The long and short of it is, I've come to believe that this entity is experimenting to find his or her own way of running things, and to solidify connections with other beings  in another layer of reality, and that is part of the reason that some things happen the way they do, in our reality. 

"Are you telling me that you think we live at the whim of some mad scientist entity who bases life and death decisions on  finding friends?!"  Alexander couldn't even begin to deduce how his dad would think he was privy to this kind of information about the nature of reality.

"The most salient part for you right now is, continuity of the Maddi Tesla's line seems essential to all of our survival.  Although as you've seen, not even those who are descended from her are safe.  What a tragedy, losing Maddi, especially the second time... and now the triplets."

"Dad, you are not making any sense again.  How could you have known Delaney's great grandmother?  And what do you mean, losing her, the second time?" 

"Like I said, this isn't my first time around the block.   I did what I did for love."

"Alexander, when you became a Tech Guru, I was very pleased.  Your programming and hacking skill is one way to get at these questions, I am confident.  Delaney explores space; Hacking is the way to explore a different kind of space.

But now, son, I am feeling Dangerously Tired, and I'm not ready to leave you all yet.  So this will have to wait for another day."

Alexander could see that his dad needed rest, so he put his questions on hold, for now.  But how was he even going to begin to describe this conversation to Delaney?!

Just as Mortimer was getting ready to lay down and sleep off his Dangerously Tired moodlet, Bella came into the room, in her latest Valentine's underwear.

Mortimer was worried that she might be having another of her endless woohoo whims, but it was more momentous than that.   She was Sharing the Big News.

 Mortimer was too exhausted to be happy for her, in this moment.  How many times, in how many existences, had he lived this moment.  It felt meaningless, at the moment; would he even live to see this child's birth?

Mortimer knew that once he had some rest, he would be able to look at the bright side, and as Bella tried to cheer him, he tried to give her a smile. 

 For her part, Bella was one of the pluckiest Family Oriented, Good, and Romantic sims around.  That night, while Mortimer slept, she extinguished a grilled-cheese induced fire without missing a beat. 

The next morning, Mortimer announced that he had a whim to see Granite Falls, and he thought they should go today, before Bella's pregnancy progressed too far, and before he died.  Bella did not like Granite Falls, but she loved her grandchildren and she loved Mortimer, so she agreed to go.   They invited Alexander and their grandkids, Ewan and Elise, and booked a cabin for a couple of days. 

As soon as they arrived, Bella began to Share the Big News with Alexander, and Elise.  Mortimer watched, amused, to see what his reaction would be.

Alexander was perplexed. 

Then he started listing off reasons this was a Bad Idea.  What about dad being so tired all the time?!  What about Bella being almost old enough to retire?!  Was this child going to be an orphan?!  Were Alexander or Cassandra going to end up raising this child?!  Alexander knew it wasn't his place to tell his mom what to do, but he couldn't help himself.

Bella wished that Alexander could share her happiness.

When she got inside, Elise asked her, "Grandma, why is daddy so mad?"

"Your Daddy just wants what's best for everyone, and he's already unhappy because of your cousins leaving.  He'll come around."

"Do you want to feel your aunt or uncle kick?"

Elise couldn't believe her aunt or uncle was growing, right now, in there.  And she was going to be older than her aunt or uncle, which was just too cool.  More precisely, she would get to boss around her aunt or uncle.

 Alexander took the children and went home after the argument with Bella, but the rest of the holiday turned out to be a happy time for Bella, Mortimer, and Cassandra.  

Cassandra played the guitar many hours

Bella talked to Mortimer when he got up from his long afternoon nap, and she tried to make up with him.

 

As it had been in thousands of other lifetimes, in hundreds of worlds, Mortimer and Bella couldn't be parted by an unexpected baby, or poor chemistry, or bad moodlets.

 And so it was, back home in Willow Creek, that Mortimer ended up cleaning the toilet while Bella gave birth.  It's the little things that matter, after all.

The newest Goth was named Desmond. 

Cassandra sent a text to Delaney and Alexander to let them know their new brother had been born.  

Mortimer welcomed Desmond with mixed feelings, not knowing how long he would be part of his life, but knowing he was part of something greater than themselves.  Of course, without a toddler stage in this reality, he had a good chance of seeing Desmond at least age to teen.

Delaney came to help Bella, and met little Desmond, her new brother-in-law. 

After an afternoon of being on more equal terms with her mother-in-law, Delaney felt closer to Bella than she had before. 

The next day, Mortimer made a cheeseburger cake for Cassandra's Young Adult birthday, and Bella threw a party for Cassandra and Desmond to grow up.  After all, not being the legacy household, the most had to be made of this play session while it lasted!

So Cassandra furiously worked on her music skills.

Which made Mortimer very happy.

Ewan arrived for Cassandra and Desmond's party wearing a hat, in the tradition of Micah, but aggravated to be attending yet another party.

Why did his grandparents have to be so weird, and live in such a weird old house, and have a baby at such a weird old age?!

 Alexander was not too pleased that his mother had invited that gym rat womanizer, Don Lothario, to his sister's party; he was sure than Don saw it as an invitation to seduce his sister.   Another indication that his mother's apparent lack of judgement continued.  Or did it have anything to do with the entity that his dad believed was the driving force behind events?

Bella, being a Party Animal in this life, enjoyed the event to the fullest.

 

Ryleigh and Elise played cards with Cassandra and Don. 

Ewan was worried someone would notice his parents making googly eyes at each other, acting ridiculous.

Meanwhile, Desmond grew up and became a child in record time, and rolled "Gloomy," like his sister, and his cousin, Ewan.

When he came downstairs, Elise made some kind of jeer at her uncle, just because she could.

But Desmond retreated to the kitchen, where he quickly found a friend in Ewan, who was happy to commiserate about the plight of being in this family, and having such a mean sister.

Notes:

So that happened.  I was at the Goth's, getting pictures of Alexander and Mortimer for the Game-Aware discussion, when Bella had a whim to try for baby, and I thought, why not?!  And it was a riot seeing everyone's reactions to Bella's Big News, which she was so eager to share.  She wasn't fazed by their lack of enthusiasm, though!

Plus, Cassandra's been needing to age up for a while, but I've been playing Sims 2 aging, so I have to play a house to age those sims.

I promise the Goths will not take over the story... for next week, I am so excited, I have a school update planned so you all can meet all the new kids, after Woohoo Weekend's baby boom!  I'm pleased with the school's look; we'll see how the play session goes!

Here's an extra of Ewan, playing with his clay.