The End

Arcturus’s alien friend, Ahilac Vajjevoo, came running through the front door and simply stated the facts: “Arcturus, I’m dying.” The visit from space was both unexpected, unnecessary and largely unwelcomed but Arcturus accepted this truth all the same. He hugged her and asked, "Don't you have a phone?"

Arcturus had been thinking a lot about dying too lately but Betty had convinced him to at least spin around and get white hair first. Arcturus agreed that he had put in a lot of work recently to resurrect his corpse so the least he could do was enter the “old age” phase of a Sim’s life. This could only mean one thing: IT WAS PARTY TIME!

With only a few hours until he turned into an old man, Arcturus skipped the email invite and went straight to the telephone calls. The phone calls brought Arcturus a lot of sad news though. Most of his friends couldn’t make it because he was inviting them two hours before the event. Fair enough. (Thankfully, Ahilac was already there so she didn’t have to come from the other side of the galaxy.) But the even sadder news was that a few of his friends couldn’t make it because they were dead. Adaeze Min (his friend from the China vacation) and Akiko Hauler (Joshua Hauler’s wife) were both worm food. R.I.P. I was under the impression that these women were pretty young. Maybe they had health issues or something. If he ever got a chance, maybe Arcturus could pass Joshua Hauler some of his leftover magic “life juice” to bring his wife back.

The cake was bought, the friends were invited and now all that was left was blowing out the candles as everyone got uncomfortably excited.

Reliable party-attendee, Gordon Leavitt, galloped up to the house on all fours a few minutes after Arcturus called him. Very excited. He was followed by some other classics: Joshua Hauler (I guess he needed to get out of the house after his wife died) and Federico Walker (Shouldn't he be running the store?) The Mengsk family maid, Stefan Sledge, was there too only because he wouldn’t leave after “cleaning the house” earlier. He had taken one piece of trash to the trashcan and declared “I’m all done here. That’ll be $125” (that message literally popped up). But, despite saying he was done there, he didn’t actually go home. Maybe he had already seen the cake.

Gordon sees Ahilac for the first time and thinks about marriage. Oooooo!

Joshua is here with a creepy cane. He's old now.

Federico came in the side door. Odd approach for an odd man.

Stefan. Go home.

People were having a lot of fun at this party. Joshua got on Arcturus's computer for hours. Gordon ran around on all fours like a moron. Arcturus went to wake Emily up for the party but Stefan came in and they got into a pillow fight.

Running laps around the living room.

"...Dad? ...What are you doing in here?"

 And then, all of a sudden, as promised, Ahilac died. Right at the party. She could not wait any longer. Federico's insanity was too much for her to handle.

"Check out this silly face!"
"No. Absolutely not. I'm gonna die now."

Way to ruin the birthday boy's party, Ahilac.

The Reaper was also invited to the party but only attended for business purposes.

The Reaper took Ahilac's spirit into the Underworld and that was the end of it. Arcturus started to have a mental breakdown and everyone else just made sad faces for a bit. It was a short mourning because nobody really knew that alien and Arcturus was so goddamn excited about the party.

"NOOOOOO!"

 Arcturus made one mystery call about Ahilac's death. "SHE'S DEAD!" We'll never know who he called but my guess is that it was to tell her family in space. Nobody else on Earth even knew her.

Look at what everyone else is thinking about. Stefan is in love with someone?
Can't see what Federico is thinking about but it's probably sandwiches.

Seconds later,... the party is back on! Wooo! Blow out those candles!

It was the main event. The anticipation was killing everyone. "What is Arcturus gonna look like when he's old," Gordon whispered to himself. "I can't believe blowing out candles will make his hair go instantly white and his posture go to hell," Stefan told Emily. 

OH...

...MY...

...GOD!!!!! *heads explode*

Blow them out, sir!

And with a little turn on his heels, Arcturus enters the final phase of his life.
(Ha. Remember when he literally died?)

"No big deal."

And there it is.

Time keeps moving on.

Emily grew up too.

And graduated from college with a degree in Chemistry.

Betty also got old eventually.

Emily started dating Clyde, or "Meatball" as Betty likes to call him.
(Emily still works on making her doll into a real boy.
But she can't marry him when she does. It's just TOO weird.)

Arcturus continued to profit off of Aleister's Elixers and Sundries shop.
Federico passed away and, once again, a new store manager was hired.

And Arcturus and Betty will love each other forever.
Until one of them dies permanently with no take-backs.

Beautiful family. What a weird Sims 3 life, Arcturus. Good job.

What Are The Mengsks Up To These Days?

It's been a while since checking in with the Mengsk family (over 18 months!) and they haven't aged a minute, let me tell you. Frozen in time while I didn't play the game. Go figure.

...

Emily woke up and laid in bed. "I'm nearly 20 and my best friend is a doll come to life," she thought. The realization was crippling and she laid in bed for another two days. On the morning of the third day, she decided that would make a real friend. All she had to do was lure a kid from school to her house and then throw a water balloon in their face. That's one way to get someone to like you. It helps if they too are a "prankster" because they understand.

First signs of depression: Laying in bed, thinking about bed.

Sims read books for breakfast. Hey, that sounds like what a robot would do!

After going to school, a message popped up on the screen asking me if Clyde Foreman could come over to hang out. I'm not Clyde's dad so I don't care what he does after school but Emily was bringing a boy home so I was "geeking out." Then the kid walked onto the property and I thought, "Who is this little dork dude?"

Homework confuses him. Classic meathead.

*door crashes open*, Emily smiles a bit and mumbles, "Oh boy. Here we go."

Clyde struggled with his homework and Emily just flew through it. When her imaginary friend came home from... wherever he was, he asked Emily how she was progressing in her quest to make him a real boy. He was jealous of Clyde who had the clear advantage of not being 100% cotton. Clyde stared at Emily as she held a conversation with thin air. When she snapped back to reality, she told Clyde to join her in the other room because he was taking too long with his homework and she had better things to do.

"Is there a desk in here or..." / "Just sit on the floor, meatball."

Hours rolled by as Emily experimented. Clyde finished his work and thought it wise to leave Emily as she suffered through what seemed to be a psychotic break. Clyde ran straight into Betty as soon as he left the lab.

Betty: "Who are you?!"
Clyde: "Hi, Mrs. Mengsk. I'm Cly-"
Emily: *yelling from lab* "Clive, would you get back in here?"
B: "Can I try out some magic on you, Clive?"
C: "...what?"

"Get cold, ya little shithead!"

"Is there more to this spell?" / "Are you cold? / "Yes." / "No."

Clyde complained that he was too cold and Betty was pleased. It was getting late and he was clearly tired. "Can I get a bite to eat for the road, Mrs. Mengsk?" Betty ignored the request and pushed the front door open, "Ya gotta go home, bud." Emily smiled in the other room. This is no way to make real friends, Emily.

As Clyde walked down the path from the house, he passed Arcturus coming home from work. 

Arcturus saw Betty at the front door and asked, "Was that Clyde I just walked by?" Betty grabbed the dishtowel off the counter nearby and slung it over her shoulder. "That was just some little meatball. I dunno."

Arcturus sat at the kitchen table and listened to Betty talk about her day as she washed the dishes. Her day was all about spells. Once everything was clean, Emily crashed out of the lab. "I need to get some stuff at our store." (Remember, Arcturus owns a magic store? You may not because I wrote that post in 2013.) Arcturus asked to tag along because he needed to collect his weekly $10,000 from the current manager. Aleister's Elixers and Sundries has a new manager almost every month. The employee turnover rate is incredible.

Emily and Arcturus hailed a cab. Arcturus squirmed in his seat the entire ride. He's never been one for cars, y'know. Green as grass, he is.

"Is this an... Uber?" "No." (ed. note: I'll leave it up to you to decide who's saying what.)

"Right where I left it. Time for a shake down."

Once inside, Arcturus and Emily gathered the items she needed for her lab work which was mostly just magic dust. Arcturus told Emily to head home cause he was going to hang out with "the new guy". Emily walked out the door with her goods without paying. The man at the cash register started to speak up about the robbery but Arcturus went over to him and said that he shouldn't interfere in company business. The cashier was very confused.

Arcturus spent the night getting to know his new employee. Like, really getting to know him. His name was Federico Walker and he was a "consignment specialist". Self-proclaimed, perhaps. He had one day wandered into this empty store and just started running it. The last guy, who I'm pretty sure was a werewolf, must have run away.

They danced,

they laughed,

they cried,

and then Federico lost his mind.

Eventually Arcturus got tired of Federico and sat down in his throne, watching the fire. Federico continued to ham it up and Arcturus was beginning to suspect that he was kind of a dope. Around 11:45pm, Arcturus went home. Federico was happy with life, in general.

"I think I love him."

"Pssst! Hey, Arcturus! Look at me!"

A Night of Wonders 

The first night back from China, there was a full moon. The zombies started to pull themselves out of the ground around the house. The family was walking up the path to the house when the concrete under Arcturus's feet began to shift with the emergence of a monster. "Oop," he said as he did a little sidestep to avoid it. A hand popped out of the ground, Emily casually kicked it and it rolled out into the yard. "Next time, try not buying a house built on a cemetery?," Betty said, raising her eyebrows.

*I am still not a fan of the zombies and the green light the full moon casts on the game, so I tried to speed through the night. I feel like I disable the full moon every time I play this game but it never takes.*

There were two consequences to fast-forwarding through the night

First, I noticed a crunching sound once I went back to regular speed. The garden had a few zombies in it, crouched over. I zoomed in and they were eating the plants. They had basically eaten everything by the time I noticed, including all the life fruit that I had used to make Arcturus come back to life. They had eaten the entire money tree too. There was no evidence of it left. They ate the stump and roots and then, I guess, planted grass in an act of kindness.

This dead dude got stuck on some weeds.

"Haha. What a dope!"

Arcturus had to personally ask each zombie to leave the property because there was no mass "stop eating my garden" option. By the time the sun rose, there was only one "monster" left. He stood up and turned to Arcturus. It was Chris Schafer, an adult human man. He had taken advantage of the zombie invasion to get a free dinner! "Oh, gimme a break, buddy!", Arcturus complained.  Chris wiped his mouth and walked away. "Tree eater!" Arcturus shouted after him. He turned back to the garden with his hands on his hips, stared at the mess for a bit, and then shouted again down the street, "You owe me big time for this, Chris!"

The other consequence to fast forwarding through the night was that Emily came out of her bedroom the next morning as a teenager. She hadn't even told anyone she was ready to grow up. Arcturus was like, "Are you the new babysitter?" but when he looked into those crossed eyes, he knew. The jig was up. Nice try, Emily. 

Emily's imaginary doll friend had also grown up. When exactly does this imaginary friend go away? Well, never, I don't think. In fact, I looked it up and he can, as I had once hoped, be turned into a real person. This is certainly the direction I will be heading with this character. 

"Emily. Emily. Emily! Stop eating. We have things to do."

Getting to work on this immediately after breakfast, Emily went into Arcturus's secret lab and started making potions. It will take her a while to find the right one but she will get there. She will eventually fall in love with this imaginary doll man and have a baby with it. I can promise you that.

"You better be making that potion right, Emily!"

After some of the chemicals she was mixing exploded, Emily went down to her dad's former place of employment (Doo Peas Corporate Tower!) to take some chemistry classes and maybe apply for an internship as a scientist. She was so committed to this potion she was trying to make that she didn't bother to straighten her hair, clean her face or put on new clothes after the explosion blew them off of her.

Emily: "I'm here for some classes."
Secretary: "Ok, I can help you." *dials 9-1-1*

Meanwhile, back at home, Betty had set a fire by leaving some food in the oven. Arcturus ran into the room and pulled at his hair a bit. Classic. The fire alarm was blaring. Betty crouched down and screamed. When all was nearly lost, the doll walked in to put it out. What did Betty and Arcturus see when this was happening? Is the doll willing himself into existence without Emily's help?

A floating fire extinguisher?
The house had chosen to save itself this time.

The doll walks away proud.
"Hi, Sarah."
"Another fire?"
"Yeah, it just went out."

"ARCTURUS!!!"

Arcturus is getting old but he still doesn't seem to be changing as a person.